Xao:

The three of us ran out of that house faster than I reckon I've run in a very long time without activating my powers. I was afraid to use my powers since I didn't want to electrocute Thomas. However, unfortunately, as pharaohs, we age slowly and thus our body strength doesn't grow very fast either. After running just one kilometer with no one following us, my legs and shoulders started to give out and I finally had to demand we take cover and try to get Thomas walking on his own.

We took cover in a small abandoned building. "You can't run with him for just a few more minutes?" Kyle demanded. Looking around, the building was full of dust with blackened-out windows. It was great visual cover if any of us were being quiet. I set Thomas on a chair- which he quickly jumped off of and just sat on the floor. Probably had enough of chairs for a while.

"He weighs like a hundred pounds!" I shouted.

"I do not!" the boy shouted back at me. "I'm like half that."

"So you can carry yourself if you're so light," I reasoned.

"You weren't strapped to a chair for a day," the boy pointed out. "Sides, you're big, so I should be lite to you."

"You are," I said back, "But you know how metrics work? Try holding up eight pounds for five minutes with an extended arm." I looked at the boy. "Your legs aren't broken so get up."

"You sure about that? They do hurt," said the boy.

"If they were broken a piggyback ride would have hurt like heck," I said giving him a cocked-eyed look.

"They do hurt," the boy said.

"Get up," I finally demanded. Thomas slowly pushed himself up, resting his body against a stone building support. He staggered away from it, holding out his arms like he was tight rope walking. "Wow, he walks, I must be a miracle worker," I said with just a hint of sarcasm. Thomas smiled, shaking his head as he slowly straightened up.

Jessica appeared beside him, which apparently startled him, not knowing about our powers yet. "Well you can walk now," she started, "But what if I do this?" She quickly pushed Thomas in the chest and he fell down on his butt. Thomas glared at her. "Yep, he's ticked, my work is done." She disappeared again, appearing behind me.

"Jessica!" the boy shouted at her.

"He knows my name!" the girl said excitedly, still hiding behind me.

"Yeah you're not exactly hard to remember Jess," I commented back.

Thomas pointed at her, stomping his feet back under himself. "Okay I don't care how you're doing that, you're still dead!" He staggered a little but quickly got up and began awkwardly running after Jessica.

Jessica ran away from behind my back and started shouting, "Welp, looks like we're moving again!"

We moved on from there, running for a while, but in time, we lost any motivation to rush. I estimated we had actually gone a full mile before we finally started walking again. The sub only a few minutes away, Kyle, Jessica, and myself began to feel confident this would all just be a walk in the park from here on out.

Slowing to a walk it seemed everyone just wanted to get to know each other now. "So what are you guys doing here anyway... where are you from?" asked Thomas.

I chuckled. "These two come from a planet outside the solar system and me, the town in Britain where I was born, doesn't exist anymore. It was called Imber if you want to know. People were forced out for the construction of a military training area back in the forties in preparation for the big war."

"Which big war?" asked Thomas.

"Which one do you think? The famous "war to end all wars", World War Two." I replied.

"Hold up..." He held up a hand. We kept walking, it was just a gesture."You don't look old enough to have been born in the forties, that would make you... hold on where did you say these two came from again?" The boy pointed at Kyle and Jessica.

"We're from a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri," Kyle replied.

"Okay, which one?" the boy asked.

"Which what?" Kyle asked back, raising an eyebrow. 

"Which star?" the boy explained.

"There's only one," Kyle replied.

"No, there's three." the boy argued back. "I love astronomy, don't think you're pulling a fast one on me. Sides I wasn't asking to play, I really want to know where you guys are from."

"What the heck is he talking about "three stars" for?" Kyle asked almost ignoring him.

"Think you would know," Jessica said, "A good friend of your father is a head in the Triad government and helped bankroll the idea to do it."

"Do what?" I asked, becoming curious myself.

"Kyle's dad had the military put up a distortion grid making our solar system look like two stars in close orbit. You'd need some pretty sensitive equipment to see around it. There's another star pretty close to us in reality as well." Jessica explained. She then plastered a smile on her face. "And I am officially back to talking nonsense for the rest of the day after that on account of the fact that I'm boring myself."

"Not boring me, I love science fiction," Thomas said. "But still, where are you from?"

Jessica put up her hand, electric bolts flying around it and shooting into the air above it. "I think we were making it pretty clear," she said. "We're from beyond the sky." She paused. "That sounded cool actually, I gotta write that one down!"

"You're aliens?" Thomas asked.

"Mutants really," I commented. "Our race was altered cybernetically in ancient Egypt. Now we have extended lifetimes and powers. Our ancestors left earth three hundred years after they were created."

"Still you guys are from another planet and you have superpowers right?" Thomas asked. "So you guys are superheroes."

"What are superheroes??" asked Jessica of Kyle. Kyle looked at her for a minute. "Well?"

"You're asking ME about earth culture?" Kyle asked in return. "I mean- a really good hero I guess..."

"Oh- well you're super too!" Jess replied patting Thomas on the head. 

"You were expecting me to answer?" Kyle asked.

"No, I'm expecting someone else to answer eventually, I'm just annoying you," she said with a growing smile.

Thomas grinned. "You really must not be from around here if you don't know that stuff. I got all kinds of comics at home. One guy has got super strength, speed, he can fly and he protects anyone who needs him."

"Sheesh... I feel unnecessary," Jessica commented with big eyes and a flat expression. 

"Well he doesn't exist, he's just a comic book," Thomas amended. "But again, why are you guys here?"

"We're here to save you," I answered.

"That's it?" he asked back.

"Yep!" Kyle said.

"So you're just here to save me?" he asked again. "But why, why am I so important?"

"You're missing," Kyle explained. "The whole city is looking for you practically. They got your pictures in the police station and everything."

"Really?" Thomas asked. Kyle nodded. "How long have I been gone?"

"Two weeks almost," Kyle replied.

"Has it really been that long?" he asked. He paused for a moment before continuing. "Still, you guys are weird. So you're mutants, what can you do?"

"Well that's Kyle, he's one hundred years old, he can do..." I pointed at Kyle, "Well... not much really."

"Thanks," Kyle commented back with lowered eyebrows.

"Me," I pointed at myself. "I'm two hundred sixty-four and I can shoot concussion blasts out of an invention on my wrist and move really fast."

"I can do the fast thing," Kyle commented.

"And then Jessica," I pointed at Jess, "one hundred forty, she has so much raw electric power in her she could probably set off an electrical storm in her sleep."

"I did burn down a house one time when I had a nightmare," Jessica said, eyes wandering away for a few seconds.

"I'll keep that in mind as we sleep on the top floor of a large tower in the same room when we get back." Kyle inserted. "One made of wood with only a slow elevator that we can use to get out."

"How come I've never heard about guys like you before?" asked Thomas.

"We're secret," I answered.

"So why tell me?"

"Who's going to listen to you anyway?" I asked back. "What are you gonna do, tell your friends a group of superheroes rescued you from halfway across the world on a whim? It's true but, who's gonna listen?"

The boy grunted at this. He started talking again as he put his hands at his sides. "You're really that old? You seem a little... what in the-" Quickly looking down at one of the pockets of his blue jeans he patted the pocket and then took something out. It was a piece of paper. He unfolded it and looked at it.

Looking at the paper myself I couldn't help it. I whistled. "You've got some talent there for your age." The paper had a colored pencil image on it. The image was of a young boy and a woman. The woman had brown hair and brown eyes with pale skin. The boy had subtly darker skin with green eyes and brown hair. "Is that you and your mother?" I asked.

"No... I don't know who that woman is. And- I didn't draw this. I don't even know why I have it." He stopped in his tracks looking at the image. "The boy does look like me, doesn't he?"

Kyle and I both looked at it. "Yeah, that's definitely you," Kyle agreed. "Right down to the arrangement of your freckles. You don't know who drew this?" Thomas shook his head. "That's not comforting."

"So it's a drawing," said Jessica with a shrug. "You've got a fan," she said, patting Thomas on the head. She then looked at the group, "A fan or four I suppose."

I took the picture. "This is good... really good. This is not something someone could do on a whim." Every line was perfect as though someone had taken pencils and somehow used them to make a color photograph of our young friend. "Someone had to spend a long time on this I'll bet, and they had to know the subject like the back of their own hand... better even."

"What does this mean?" the boy asked. I pursed my lips.

"Get rid of it... we're a half kilometer from the sub," I pointed ahead, "That way, RUN!" I demanded.

"We're not going anywhere till someone tells me why we're panicking," Jessica demanded.

"I'll bet you anything the person keeping Thomas prisoner drew that. That man has an obsession with the boy, maybe even a chronic one. I don't know how this got started but we've got to get Thomas out of here." I replied.

An object crashed behind me. I spun around looking into the eyes of a large darkly dressed man. The man carried a Great Sword with a two-handed grip in one hand, holding it like it weighed almost nothing. Next to me Kyle and Jessica both drew out their weapons, Thomas just standing frozen, his eyes wide staring at the monstrous man.

"Tommy, get to cover," Jessica commanded.

Thomas seemed ready to take off running. "Stay." commanded the deep voice of the man. I felt a chill, the same I'm sure everyone else was feeling. "Once again I have to go to find my child, and once again I find him with your contemptible kind." He looked straight at me. He then looked at Kyle and Jessica. "I should have known to strike you both down when I had the chance." The man looked back at Thomas. "Fear not Joshua, I will protect you this time."

Thomas glared at him and shouted stomping his foot. "My name is not Josh!" He froze again. "You... you're the one who was holding me there..." Jessica and Kyle shot away from me, disappearing into blurs of color and appearing several meters away on either side of the man. "What the?" the boy said.

"Just get to the top of that building," I shouted at him, pointing at a nearby run-down three-story building. Thomas took to running as fast as he could. I turned to the man, "Gargoyle?" I asked. The man nodded slowly. "I'm warning you, I'm not letting you have him easy. If you give me no choice I will kill you."

"A warning was far more than you gave her," said the creature and raised his sword. I had no idea what that truly meant, but I put up my right hand, lighting up with electric energy. I fired a pulse out of my right hand, the gargoyle being tossed away and rolling when he hit the ground. Jessica swiped her swords in the air, a blast of electric energy flying out at the creature, but actually passing around him, forcing him back nonetheless. Jessica almost screamed in frustration.

I heard Kyle shout, "He has an energy shield of some kind. Since when did that become typical? Jessica, you get to the roof with Thomas and power up, we're doing it right this time." The gargoyle leaped into the air, me firing another pulse at him midair and sending him flying away. Kyle continued. "Jess, see if you can get enough power into one blast to either knock this guy around so hard it gets to him anyway or completely overwhelms his shield." Jessica nodded, "Split!" Jessica vanished in a flash of colors along with Kyle. Jessica's flash shot to the entrance of the building Thomas had just headed for as Kyle's shot towards the monster.

The monster jumped back just as Kyle passed his position. As Kyle reappeared I could see the creature had just narrowly evaded his blade that he was holding out to his right. I quickly shot over to him, putting up my right hand and firing another pulse, the monster being thrown away and crashing head first into the ground. The creature got up. Kyle looked at me. "Ready for this?" he asked with a smile.

(***)

Thomas:

I watched over the side of the building when I got to the third story. Kyle and Xao were firing around the city streets like bullets. The man that had been holding me in his house was pretty much being tossed around like a ping pong ball by whatever Xao's weapon was, but noticeably, neither the boys nor the man seemed to be making any progress, neither one inflicting injury. I looked to my left and Jessica seemed to just appear beside me. I took a step back. "How are you guys doing ANY of this?" I finally sputtered out.

Jessica jumped on top of the railing for the building overlooking the battle. "No time to explain, get clear!" she shouted. I jumped back and stepped back several times just for good measure. I wasn't sure why I was doing this until I saw Jessica light up in electric bolts like fire engulfing a pyre covered in kerosene. I continued to back away to her right, watching as the electricity around her started to build in intensity. Jessica's eyes were shut and the roof around her was starting to rip apart. She shouted to the two boys on the ground. "Get him in position, this ends now!"

I looked over the railing, watching as the monster of a man attacking us was tossed away from Xao like a rag doll, forced to roll on the ground. I looked to my left seeing Jessica raise her swords. Debris started to fly away from her, me starting to back away to avoid it. A piece of rock shot by my head, forcing me to lean to the right, right over the railing of the roof. Another rock flew at me, hitting me in the side and I was forced over the edge, grabbing the edge just before I plummeted to my death.

I held on to the small rock railing, feeling electricity starting to push into my body, making me convulse involuntarily. I screamed, knowing if I let go of that rail, no strange powers would save me.

The electric glow vanished and the debris stopped flying. I felt a hand grab mine. "Hang on!" Jessica shouted. She grabbed my left hand with both of hers. Jessica pushed her foot against the short railing, tears streaming down her face as she started trying with everything in her to pull me up.

Meanwhile, my hands weren't operating at their peak. If it was because all my weight was pulling on them, or because they had been shocked several times, I didn't know, but my fingers were slipping. I kicked my feet into the side of the building trying to get any kind of traction on the side of it so I could climb up. My feet found nothing to push against, my right hand slipping completely off the railing. "Please, just hold on!" Jessica seemed to be begging me. I grabbed her arms, not wanting to fall any more than she wanted me to. I turned to look at the battle below. "Don't look away, just focus, you can do this," Jessica continued to beg.

I watched as the two boys continued shooting around the monster. By this time the monster had actually pulled out some kind of a gun and was firing at the two. Xao kept dodging in and out and hitting the monster with that weapon of his, and Kyle kept trying to hit the creature with his blade, but the fight still wasn't going anywhere. I started to pray that someone would land a lucky shot just somehow. I didn't know what could, if anything, hurt that monster, or what could hurt my friends, but this didn't look good.

Finally, below me, young Kyle hit the ground, crying over a wounded leg. Seeing him like that, I knew that despite the seemed invincibility of our attacker, my friends were not so impervious. One more shot and my former captor could have easily killed Kyle.

Above me Jessica looked down at Kyle too, her eyes wide, mouthing the word "no" over and over. I knew what I had to do.

I spat the words out, "he wants me!" I shouted. "Let me go!" Below me Xao landed another hit, the monster being thrown across the streets, clawing at the concrete to stop. I closed my eyes, "Jessica... I'm not making you choose. I'm sorry, I have to do this."

"NO!" Jessica shouted at me, but my hands were already in motion. I grabbed her left hand with my right and pulled it off my arm and used whatever little traction I could get from the side of the building to push myself away. I ripped my left arm away from Jessica's grip and free fell away from her as she screamed. "THOMAS!"