"Tyler! Are you alright?" a sobbing woman asked Ren-Shai. Ren-Shai looked in confusion at the woman speaking to him. While he was able to access the boy's neurons and memories, he had no personal attachment, nor concept of emotions for her.

  "My name is Ren-Shai. I've chosen to visit you humans to see if your species breaks the balance or not," he replied. "I am not Tyler."

  "Oh no," Tyler's father said. Ren-Shai vaguely recalled his name as Thomas. Bright side - first name he had ever recalled besides his brothers'.

  "Yes. Your son, Tyler, died just a few moments ago," Ren-Shai said.

  "We have to bring him to a doctor, he might have brain damage," Tyler's mother said, staring at her stoic-faced son in shock. Ren-Shai frowned. He recalled the latter statement meant someone thought he was stupid. An insect was insulting him. With a flick of his hand, she turned to dust from speeding up time. Or, at least, she should have been dust. Instead, he heard her talk faster, like a minute had passed in, but a second.

  "What," he said, more as a statement than a question.

  "Talking a bit fast there, Mary?" Thomas asked.

  "Ha! Mom talked funny!" Tyler's younger sister said.

  "... Don't tell me this little body can't handle my power," Ren-Shai said, staring blankly ahead, as if trying to calculate something. Ren-Shai sent a pulse of his own power through himself evaluating what was happening. For once, Ren-Shai felt slightly helpless. Five minutes? I can only control five minutes? He thought to himself. "... My brothers really made it to where I had to rely on human guardians to grow," he said out loud.

  "You don't have any brothers, Tyler," Mary said, hugging her son. "Thomas, please, let's get him to a doctor."

  "Get him in the truck," Thomas said, sweating in worry over Tyler's new demeanor, confusion, and talks of family members he didn't have. "I can spare a hundred dollars to make sure he's okay."

  "Dollars, that's that currency thing, right?" Ren-Shai asked.

  "... He talks like a grown-up!" Tyler's sister said, giggling.

  "I'm billions of years old, I should be able to speak properly, yes," Ren-Shai told the little girl. "Sasha, right?" he asked.

  "Good. He's starting to remember our names," Thomas said, slightly calming down. Thomas brushed Tyler's brown hair out of his eyes, embracing his son.

  "Be honored I even remember them. I don't talk to ants, normally," Ren-Shai replied.

  "Yeah… we're bringing him to the doctor," Mary said.

  "I require no physicia-put me down!" Ren-Shai said as Thomas lifted him and carried him out of the house toward the family's run-down truck. He's lucky I only have four minutes to waste. I have about one hundred and sixty-seven hours and fifty five minutes until this body can recharge back to five. I should ration what little power this body can hold. Ren-Shai thought to himself. Thus, a trip to the doctor's office began with a lobby waiting room.

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  Ren-Shai was placed into a chair by his father as his mother went to the receptionist to explain the situation. Ren-Shai briefly glanced around at the flower-patterned, white wall-paper. If Ren-Shai could have gotten migraines, he would have had one. Shouting children in the lobby, parents ignoring them, and him not wanting to be there weren't what he expected. Ren-Shai experienced something for the first time - frustration. He didn't have complete control over his situation. Unfortunately, frustration led to the next experience. Anger.

  As one of the children shouted and ran by him, he used his knowledge of how physics worked in the universe. Ren-Shai extended his leg as a young Chinese girl ran in front of him, causing her to go sprawling on the carpet in front of him. When her screaming and shouting stopped, he felt relief. Until his mother slapped him behind the head. The sting was little more than a buzz. Pain tolerance was a matter of will. Generally speaking, a being of his age had will in spades. However, that didn't stop him from pausing to consider what he felt.

  "Apologize to her right now!" his mother exclaimed.

  "You have her apologize to me for causing me… annoyance is your word?" Ren-Shai asked. He got another slap behind the head. "Will you stop that? I healed your child's brain damage and you're seeking to cause more?" he inquired in annoyance.

  Mary stood up and strode out of the room to the bathroom, closing the door behind her and locking it in frustration. Though she didn't want to show it, her heart was breaking. Her bright and bubbly son was completely different. Instead of trying to make friends like he always tried to do, he had become cold and cruel. Though it had been only half an hour, the worries filling her heart caused her to begin crying.

  Outside of the bathroom, the young Chinese girl he had tripped went to get her own mother. At least Ren-Shai would have predicted that outcome as the most likely scenario. When an elderly woman approached, Ren-Shai connected the dots - as the woman likely being the child's grandmother. The woman spoke angrily in Mandarin at him as her daughter did her best to speak what English she knew to try and help her grandmother's point get across.

  {Don't you know you could have seriously hurt my granddaughter?!} the woman shouted.

  "You could have hurt me!" the girl shouted, crossing her arms and grinning like she had won a victory of some kind since her grandmother was there.

  {Don't you know you should watch your offspring to make sure they don't get injured?} the pair heard in perfect Mandarin. Normally, this would have been a cause for concern for the entire lobby. As Thomas came back to investigate who was shouting at his son, he heard Tyler speaking in perfect English to someone shouting in Mandarin at him. Seeing the confusion on the woman's face and the child's face, Thomas looked at Tyler.

  "Son, what did you do?" Thomas asked.

  "I stopped a child from annoying me by causing her to stop running. Mind you, I applied leverage to cause her to fall over my leg," he said. He got slapped behind the head again. "Can you people stop that? Your wife already did that twice," Ren-Shai stated, his right eyebrow twitching.

  "I did that because you hurt someone!" Thomas said.

  {Is that your child?} the woman asked in Mandarin.

  "Is he your's?" the girl asked.

  "Yes," Thomas said. "I'm terribly sorry. He had an accident and hit his head earlier."

  "Where did he learn to speak Mandarin?" the little girl asked, translating for her grandmother.  

  "He didn't," Thomas said, seeming confused. "He was speaking perfect English when I got here."

  The pair seemed to be afraid for a moment and slowly walked away, like they had seen a ghost.

  "Speaking of which, what is hurt?" Ren-Shai asked Thomas.

  "Remember when I slapped your head?" Thomas asked, sighing. He couldn't believe his son had changed so much from a single hit on the head.

  "Yes, it still buzzes," Ren-Shai said.

  "It's like that but much worse," Thomas said, feeling like Tyler was three again and asking the obvious.

  "Ah, so, that is pain," Ren-Shai commented, saying nothing more on the subject. Meanwhile, Mary had come from the bathroom and sat down beside him, saying nothing more. However, she wrapped her arms around Tyler's head, holding him close as she closed her eyes. At the very least, her son hadn't died - even if he would never be the same, she still had him. That was the very least she could ask for.

  "Mr. Ray? The doctor will see your son now," a nurse's voice said from behind a door.