The streets were strangely quiet as they drove out to the highway. There were no cars around and the lots had been strangely empty as well. Not that Ed was really paying attention to all that. It was very hard to concentrate on anything when there was a burning bullet in his calf after all.

“Oh my god, is he bleeding?” Kims mom exclaimed. The system placed her as Marly Torres so he guessed she would be Mrs. Torres. She briefly peeked back at him as she ran them through a stoplight. Ed vaguely wondered if it was a crime with no one there. “And did that lady have a gun?”

“Mooom, I thought I told you. It’s like secret agent, spy movie shi—stuff.”

Mrs. Torres glanced back at them again. Ed had torn off his shirt with his thumbtack glove and was now using some of the strips and commandeered duct tape to wrap up his leg. He’d used his belt to tourniquet up near his thigh almost the instant he’d fallen into the van but while he didn’t know much about first aid, he figured it wouldn’t hurt to try to keep as much of his blood in as he could. He was starting to feel a little woozy.

“Ok.” She said, taking a breath. Her fingers drummed on the wheel “Hospital, I can do that. Easy peasy.”

She adjusted her rearview so she could watch him. Though, she was very quick to stop. She squinted out the front of the windshield. “Is that Mr. Garry?” The car started to slow.

“Nope!” Kim slammed into the back of the shotgun, waving her hands around the sides. She made a buzzer noise. “Nada, turn it around. Not a good guy! Avoid at all costs!”

The car started to turn and Ed hissed as he pulled himself up. It was definitely Mr. Garry. He was waving both arms at them from the side of the road. “Wait! Kim’s mom?”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Mrs. Torres.”

“Sorry. Mrs. Torres. Actually, can you see what he wants? He’s like ninety percent of the reason I’m not riddled with bullets right now.” He peeked over at Kim. “I don’t know about good, but… uh I’m pretty sure if he wanted to nab me or something I just wouldn’t even be here.”

“So I’m getting mixed messages?”

Kim looked at him critically. “So he’s not? Going to like suck my brains out?”

“Probably…” Ed thought back to his interactions with him. “No?” He tried to direct the next bit towards Mrs. Torres. “He also seems to know a lot about the whole… shooters at the mall thing?”

Mrs Torres quickly looked back again. “Yeah, no. You’re going to a hospital buster.” Mr. Garry seemed to throw back his arms in frustration as they zipped past and Ed sunk back into his seat. Well, that made sense. His breath felt shallow and Kim was looking at him a little funny. He’d reclined his seat as much as he could but between the burning hole in his leg and the fact it was starting to even go a bit numb, he was pretty sure he couldn’t pass out even if he wanted to.

The car started to slow and he threw an arm over his eyes. There was no way they were at the hospital already.

There was the familiar whirr of a window coming down as the car jerked to a halt.

“I surrender!" Ed threw his hands back. “Take me to church! Letter law, mortal law, something starts with an n law. Just—”

Ed flopped his head over. Mr. Garry’s badly shaven face stared back at him sideways through the window.

“Hey kid.” He raised a hand.

Ed flopped his head the other way. “Hi Mr. Garry.”

He heard a yelp. Kim was shaking a very frozen Mrs. Torrez by the shoulders. “Mom?” Her voice pitched. “What did you do to her!?”

Ed felt a pat on his shoulder, “Hey, I’m gonna send you back to the school. You should probably lay low there for a bit. They’ll know you’re coming.” He nodded towards Ed’s leg. “Cham’ll fix that up for you too.” Ed was watching him through the other window’s reflection. He did a little jazz hands. “Magic and all that, yeah?”

Ed frowned. Then he flopped his head back yet again so he could actually look Mr. Garry in the face. “Did you just, uh, freeze Mrs. Torres?”

Mr. Garry seemed to scan within the vehicle. “Who?”