Kevin:

I shivered, sitting back in that smelly old chair. My hands were cuffed tightly behind my back and my ankles were taped together. The only thing I had been able to do for what felt like hours was chew on the knotted cloth in my mouth.

I had struggled before, but my swollen right eye was my only reward for that. I looked around the small "safe house" I was in. I didn't know why the men hurting me called this place "safe", it smelled, it was dark and it was cold. Across from me was the ugliest green couch I had ever seen in my ten years of life. One of my kidnappers, Fred, sat on it watching a small television.

The show was some nature program which I watched off and on. It was boring, but it was the only thing I had to keep my mind occupied.

The room I was in was big enough to have far more furniture in it than that couch and the plush chair I was in, but it was empty.

I tried to talk through my gag. "Cnn mnn chnngm phhm chnnnmm?" I tried but failed to ask Fred to change the channel.

"You're keeping quiet," said the man on the couch.

"Hnph N nnphph mmnnph..." I tried to clarify I just wanted to watch something else, but the man snapped his fingers at me.

"Don't test me, kid!" He sat back, looking satisfied that he felt tough. "I'll hit you so hard whatever you last ate will come right out."

The other kidnapper, Wilfred, walked into the room. "He giving you any trouble?"

"Hmm?" The overweight Fred asked his rather muscular companion. Both men towered over me. Fred was definitely the one with the shorter temper, but just looking at him I was far more afraid of Will. I shrank into the chair as I looked up at him. "Not really. Not sure what he wants actually. I would take off the gag but the last time I tried he started screaming. It was annoying."

"You realize the gag doesn't exactly stop sound right? It only makes him hard to understand." Fred just shrugged at that. "I point this out to say, you can't leave that thing in forever, he'll get dry mouth. I already don't like that shiner you gave him."

"What was I supposed to do? He was putting up a fight."

"I don't know, not everything leaves a mark, just tie him in a more restrictive fashion till he behaves," Will said.

"He's behaving now."

Will rolled his eyes. "I-" I heard a loud "CRACK" above my head as Will fell to the floor at my side.

I noted a large oblong red mark on the side of Will's head as a young boy's voice came behind me. "Keep a secure perimeter, they could have backup."

Fred pulled out a handgun and- had it ripped right out of his hand as he was picked up and thrown with one hand across the room, slamming into a wall, his head cracking the sheetrock.

The young man who threw him jumped over the sofa and stood over Fred, pulling his fist back to pummel him. The new man held his pose when the young boy's voice came over again. "We want them both alive Simon." I watched as a kid who looked about five walked past my field of view... this had to be a joke. That little kid was the one giving orders?

Simon pulled Fredrick up and pushed the now unconscious man against the wall. "I think I can keep him alive, Raymie. He beat up a tied-up kid, I wanna make him feel his sins a little when he wakes up is all."

"Simon we're search and rescue not a group of lesser thugs. Let the banshee interrogators decide what to do with that one." With a grunt, Simon threw the body of Fred to the ground. "You kinda worry me, Simon."

"I just heard that creep talk about-" Simon started, but he quickly turned his head as he heard the hammer go back on Wilfred's gun.

"I don't know what you two are about but-" Wilfred began, but he was interrupted.

"Imma stop you right there," said the small boy. "We're a team of about sixteen or so people, all of us carrying weapons and we just took out your friend without effort. You could pull the trigger and kill my colleague but... I mean after that... what?" the boy shrugged.

Will fired his gun at Simon. I screamed into my gag, not wanting to see the people I hoped were saving me get hurt.

I blinked... was I seeing this right? Simon was fine and somehow Wilfred had missed with the young man only six or so feet away from him. Will fired again, but again- somehow- he missed.

Simon slung a rifle into the crook of his shoulder. "We would prefer to have more than one informant here but we will settle," he said.

Will simply fired again, two shots going off, the second from Simon, Wilfred falling to the ground. I closed my eyes, looking away as I heard Simon remove the body from my field of view.

I felt the cloth in my mouth loosen as it fell out. "Thank you I... who... where," I looked around, not seeing anyone close enough to me to have taken off the gag. I felt someone mess up my hair and closed my eyes with a grunt. "For the record, I don't like people doing that," I said. "Where are you?"

"Should probably turn off my cloak huh?" I heard the voice of a teenage girl. The face of a dark-haired girl appeared next to my head. I jumped letting out a small yelp. "Hey, I'm one of the good guys."

"Oh gee yeah, why ever would he be afraid when you just materialize next to him out of the ether?" asked the boy. He sighed and walked over to me. "I'm Raymie. I would shake your hand but..." I tugged on my cuffs. "Yeah that. Don't worry we got a lock picker in the group he's just outside making sure those two don't have back up." He looked at the tape on my ankles. He reached for what looked like the handle of a toy sword on his belt. "That won't be an issue, however. Just-"

"Okay no!" I heard a young female's rather tired and angry voice. A girl who looked around seven, with freckles somehow on only one side of her face, walked into the room. "For the last time, we do not cut a kid's bonds with a freaking sword Ray," She pulled a pair of scissors out of a blue backpack.

"Why do you pack scissors?" Raymie asked. "We have swords and knives."

"You freaked out the last hundred or so kids you freed that way, Raymie. It's not comforting after being tied up and surrounded by bad people." She walked over to my legs with the scissors.

Raymie folded his arms and looked away. "Fine whatever- a sword is faster, figured he would like out of those things ASAP- I would."

"Um..." I said as she started cutting the tape. "I mean to be fair, kinda would prefer the faster way out." The girl bit her lip giving me a bemused look as she severed the last of the tape binding my legs together. She then pinched one of my knees making me jump and giggle a little.

The girl jumped up beside me in the chair. "I- wow..." she waved her hand in front of her face. "Okay never mind I can see why you wanted your legs working so fast." With that, the girl and I both got out of that smelly chair. She looked over her shoulder. "The couch any better?"

"That chair was my home for the last several hours, I don't know," I said with an awkward shrug. We both sat on the couch- which didn't smell amazing but nowhere near as bad.

"My name is Karen, we're probably gonna be here for a while and I don't know when Xao- I mean Randy- is coming in so- you're kinda stuck in those for the moment," she motioned to my handcuffs. "Sorry... I can read you a book while we wait."

I blinked and smiled at her. "Hey, it's an improvement," I said.

"You're probably gonna need stitches on that," she said pointing at my right eye. I gave a bit of a perturbed growl.

Simon sat beside me. "I'll check him for any wounds- you know of any besides that shiner?" I shook my head, which made me wince.

"Welp- head ace, head ace..." I said. Karen rested a hand gently on my forehead.

"Raymie, can you go check for ice in the freezer?" Karen asked. A bag of ice was dropped in my lap from thin air basically that second.

"Got it," the teenager from earlier said- audibly- I still couldn't see her, but I held the ice to my head anyway.

"Jay we got things in here, go outside and make sure no one gets shot," Raymie said. I watched as the door to the small house opened by itself and then closed... by itself.

I stared at the door. "That's Jay. She has this projector that lets her cloak herself and project images all over the place. She spams using it a lot and-" Karen started.

"It's creepy," I noted interrupting.

"Really, really, really, creepy," Karen confirmed. "It is the BEST for pulling pranks though." I grinned on that one. I looked over at Karen and Raymie. The two looked like kids, but on second glance, they were also prepared for... something.

Both were carrying backpacks that looked moderately stuffed, Raymie's, in particular, sounding like there was metal clanking around inside of it every time he moved. Raymie wore two sheathed swords. They were probably toys, but worth noting. Both rode in blue sheaths on his hips. On Raymie's left hip the handle of his weapon looked fancy, with a large hand-guard and round handle. The other handle was long and decorated with a sheath on the end for what would have been a secondary blade- was this thing real... it wasn't real, right? Weighing down Raymie's belt were several black leather pouches. Finally on his right wrist was a strange device with a large screen on top. It was attached to a band around his wrist with a half-sphere on the bottom. His clothes were nowhere near as interesting, just a red shirt, blue jeans, and a blue sleeveless vest.

Karen had far less equipment. Just her clothes and a pair of sheathed toy swords. She wore a backpack, but it didn't give a metal clank whenever she moved. Her swords had more simple-looking straight handles, one with a hole on the top and the other a blue and gold with nothing too notable about it. Her clothes were a green shirt and bright red pants- I liked both articles really, they just looked ridiculous together.

"You have yet to successfully pull a prank on Jay," Raymie commented. "You said you were going to tie and tickle her a long time back and still haven't pulled that one off."

"I WILL prank her one of these days, it's just a matter of time," Karen said. I felt as Simon checked my sides, legs, and arms for any wounds. I looked him over next. He had his shotgun slung over his shoulder, along with a handgun holstered on his left side under his arm. The gun holster was actually slung over his coat rather than hidden under it like in the movies. The man wore black from head to toe and I was pretty sure his boots were steel toe. He also had a backpack but this one wasn't a blue children's backpack like the others. It looked like a large military backpack which he lugged around like it weighed nothing. However, when he set it down, the overstuffed pack sank into the couch, the thing over half my height and way fatter than me. I doubted I would have been able to lift the thing at all.

Simon found nothing and so got up, re-slinging his bag, again, like it was full of feathers. He started looking over the room, his shotgun at a low ready. Raymie jumped up on the couch on my side opposite Karen.

Raymie slugged my shoulder. "Hey, we're a bit of a ragtag group, and I know we're weird, but we got ya. You're safe now."

"You guys mentioned it and- now I got a bit of a tickle bug..." Karen looked at me after saying that. I tugged at my cuffs hearing that one.

"That would be so unfair," I said.

"No one said I'm faaaaairrrr," Karen practically sang, looking up at the ceiling.

I sighed. "Do your worst," I braced myself- hey, this was better than getting beat up. Thus- Karen jumped over me and slammed Raymie into the couch, the boy being forced to giggle and squirm. I just smiled saying, "Ya know, I probably should have seen that coming."

The two continued to wrestle as I suddenly heard a "thump" on the coffee table in front of me. The young man had a paper which he had slammed onto the table to get the attention of the two kids. "So this is Kevin," he pointed at me.

Karen looked up from struggling to wrap some of the leftover tape from my bindings around Raymie's wrists- I just snickered at them. Strange as they acted, they were definitely kids like me. Simon tapped the image. "The next kid on our list is this little guy, Travis."

Karen peered over at the paper as she forced Raymie's captive hands over his head. She looked back at me. "I guess the banshees will take him to a police station?" She then casually licked her finger and gave Raymie a wet willie.

"Seriously?" Raymie yelled half-heartedly.

"I don't get to take kids home to their folks anymore. I miss seeing people reunited." Karen said, keeping his arms up as she talked. "Torturing you is how I cope." Karen chuckled a little but then sighed. "We really just gonna move on? I'm so tired of not getting to know these kids," she looked at me again as she said that.

"The sooner we move on, the quicker we get the next kid, and the quicker we might get more information on where Tyrin is- we save more kids this way anyway, isn't that a good thing?" Simon noted back.

"You want to talk efficiency, we have more people working these cases taking relatively the same amount of time in the end so... but I guess I do appreciate on some level what time we do save... there's just no human element to this anymore..." Karen said. "We somehow made a search and rescue assembly line."

Raymie yelped as I grabbed one of his feet and dug in my fingers. "C'mon you guys- Ihhahaha'm in chararrrggggg here!"

"I already like this one!" Karen said, giving me a grin.

I sat back. "Why don't you just slip out and get her back?" I asked Raymie. "Doubt she's that much stronger than you."

He tugged on his arms. "The tape is kinda effective and she's not ticklish anyway," I grabbed one of Karen's feet and tried scribbling my fingers on her sole, just to have her look at me, blink a few times, and shrug.

"Well, you're no fun," I noted to her. "There are other ways to torture someone of course..."

She rolled her eyes at me in a good-natured fashion but looked back to Simon. "Leaving so fast just feels wrong okay?" she asked. "I like saving more kids but- this kid seems alright but we've handed over a few who were spooked out of their minds and one... little Tasha was crying so hard... she liked me but those women out there are big scary and strong, they throw em' in the car and just drive off- and I'm sure being abruptly dropped outside a station instead of at home is nice to top it all off."

"Not like we're professional psychiatrists, you're just a goofball," Simon said. "If they needed help I'm sure they got it when they got home. Also dropping them off a few blocks away from the police keeps everyone from having to answer awkward questions."

Karen looked down. "Yeah, the kids just sound delusional wandering outside a local station- by the way kid, don't talk about us to anyone, it's not gonna help you." She sighed. "There's just no heart in this," she squeezed Raymie's stomach a few times, forcing him to chortle and then let him up.

Simon reached over the table to Karen, making me realize how big he was compared to everyone else in the room. For some reason, noticing that size made me inhale quickly and jump back- it was like that feeling I got watching a horror movie once where a man turned on a light to see the room filled with thousands of spiders. I couldn't explain it, I had been fine with him a moment ago, but at that moment his size seemed unnatural.

Simon looked like he was about to try to put a hand on Karen to force her attention but then they all looked at me. Simon changed his hand, now moving it to me. I gave a weak chuckle and tried to wrap my cuffed hands around myself as best I could, only able to move my shoulders. A part of me knew this man was trying to help me but... he was big and a guy... like the two who had been holding me. It was easy to be off guard with two kids half my size but Simon was a full six feet tall!

Karen let her shoulders down as Simon retracted his hand. "Yeah, that's a thing I think all of us have been noticing. Myself, Raymie, and Randy rarely had that problem because we look like small kids. I mean Randy had problems with kids being a little scared, and if I used my powers there would be a small reaction but... these kids have been through awful things. We've realized over time there's often a mark left by what they've been through, it's just not one that manifests when there's nothing scary in the room."

"I can't help my size, Kar," Simon said, standing up, I involuntarily sucked myself into the couch.

"You could stand up slower," she noted. "But that's not the issue. I've been doing rescue ops for years. I know how to not be scary, those women out there rotate in and out. They're only here to help hunt Tyrin so transporting the kids to them is just a game of taxi." She folded her arms and sat back, gently putting an arm around my shoulders after she did. Part of me felt like protecting Karen. She was right, I felt no fear of her in particular.

I tried to stop myself from shaking, looking up at Simon. "I really don't mean to be scared it's just..."

Karen squeezed me, "It's not something you can help right now. You'll get better kid." She looked up at Simon. "I think you should go for now." She looked disheartened to be saying that, but resolute.

"We need to talk about our next move," Simon replied, folding his arms and standing to his full height as I tried to make myself small so he wouldn't see me- it was like my body wasn't following the commands of my brain. I felt almost terrified but I knew Simon was... probably on my side.

Karen eased out of my grip, pulling Raymie around herself and almost pushing him into my grasp. Raymie just shrugged and put an arm halfway around me, which was about all he could manage at his size. He wasn't scary but- I did notice he wasn't as reassuring. Seeing him try like that was kinda funny though so it had its own calming effect. Karen jumped off the couch and stood on the coffee table, placing herself between me and Simon. She folded her arms. "Simon, we'll have time later. Go." She said this with an air of calm, pointing for him to leave.

"Karie I don't like being the bad guy I-" Simon started but she cut him off.

"Objectively you're not. You're doing the right thing but you're not thinking about the people themselves here. Kevin has been through a nightmare and you're scaring him. He can't be completely alone but you terrify him. You need to leave."

"Karie I care as much as you do I-"

"The way you're acting what you care about is finding Tyrin." She pointed at the photo on the desk, her voice changing to a lecture. "That's why you want to just move on to the next kid. Each kid is just another step to finding the villain- well this job isn't about heroes and villains Simon. You have to actually care about the victims."

"There's more to it than that Karie."

Karen finally glared. "Get. Out."

A part of me practically screamed Karen was doing something wrong, but it felt like... like she was protecting me... it felt good at that moment. "Raymie?" Simon asked, looking past Karen.

"I... I don't know what to say," Raymie said. "I really don't. Simon, maybe you should wait outside. This kid is pretty shook up, we should do things in order right now. Go on out, we'll talk later."

Simon hung his head and walked out of the room, a tinge of guilt yanking on my chest. Then, as I watched, Karen did something... strange. She suddenly looked left, squeezing her eyes shut. In a growl she said something. "Not now Raven." She jumped off the table and smiled warmly at me. "We've got you, Kevin, you'll be okay."