The Pyro

This article contains a story written by Plasmaster. Please do not edit this article.

Part One
I struck the match. It felt good, the miniscule amount of warmth that radiated from the flame. I stuck the match into the small pile of kindling arranged in front of me. The wind blew and snuffed out the match. I grunted as I threw the match down in anger. I lit another one and thrust it into the kindling. I smiled, almost laughed with joy as the wood caught fire. It was a small fire, but it would suffice.

My name is Isaac. It had been two days since I had been separated from my family during the blizzard. Luckily, I had my dad’s backpack full of supplies to help me survive the ice age the world had been thrown into. I should probably explain how that happened.

You see, in the future, we have gained a new control and understanding of our brains and are now able to use our minds to manipulate the world. I have cryokinesis, an ability that allows me to control ice. My ability makes it easier for my body to withstand cold temperatures.

Anyways, the aristocratic government that had taken over was made up of Cryos, the slang term for people with cryokinetic powers. They used their mastery over the cold and ice to freeze the world and show that they are in charge. They make the rules, and no one should ever forget it. My dad had lost his job at the factory recently and now my family was homeless, forced to try to survive in the cold, unforgiving world.

I looked over at my only companion, my dog Louis, and saw him snuggling closer to the fire. I grabbed some of the rabbit he had caught from beside me. I had already skinned it; all I had to do now was cook it. I dug through the backpack for a skewer. No luck. I turned to my right and thrust my hands into the snow. It was cold, but it was necessary for what I was about to do. I felt my mind warp and stretch as I willed the snow to grow colder and freeze into ice crystals. I moved my hands upward and the ice crystals followed, freezing until I had fashioned an ice skewer. I smiled at my success. On a scale of one to ten, my control over my cryokinesis was a four. I could only make small objects out of ice and can only lower temperatures of things about twenty degrees.

I stuck some of the rabbit meat onto the skewer and held it above the fire. After a few moments, I checked it to see how well it was cooking. The bottom side had turned to a golden brown. I turned the skewer in my hands to cook the other side, when the skewer melted and the meat fell into the flames.

“Oh, great! What was I thinking, using an ice skewer to cook in a fire!?” I shouted in exasperation.

Louis looked at me as if to say, 'I tried to tell you'.

“Shut up.” I replied. I fished the meat out of the flames with a knife. It was completely charred, but I had to eat something. I pulled the meat apart and held out a piece to Louis. He took it in his mouth and began chomping it gratefully.

I inspected the insides of the meat. It was still a bit pink, but cooked well enough that I could eat it. I sunk my teeth into the rabbit meat. Not bad, I thought.

After finishing my meal, I rolled out the bedroll on the snowy ground. I pulled a small towel out of the backpack. Not large enough to cover my whole body, but it made me warmer than I was now. I laid down on the bedroll, using the backpack as a pillow. Louis trod over and laid down on me so that his chest was perpendicular to mine. I welcomed the extra warmth that his fur provided to me. I scratched him behind the ears.

“That’s a good dog.” I whispered as I drifted off to sleep.

When I woke, the fire had died down to glowing embers. Louis was gone, but he was probably just out hunting. I knew he would return eventually and would bring some food with him. Maybe a squirrel, or a chipmunk. I decided to try and rebuild the fire. I looked around for any trees to gather wood from, but could see nothing in the white weather that blew all around me. I continued to search, when something caught my eye.

A fire glowed in the distance. Maybe it was my family, or someone who could help me find them. I started towards the campfire, when I remembered about Louis. I can always come back for Louis when he arrives, I thought. I continued walking towards the campfire. As I got closer, I saw a single person, a boy about my age.

He wore a green windbreaker and a pair of jeans. He had hair as black as charcoal.

Sitting next to him, with a dead squirrel in his mouth, was Louis.

“Louis!” I cried.

The boy snapped around. His eyes were unlike anything I had ever seen before. They had a hard intensity to them, as if the fires of a million stars burned within them.

“Who are you?” he demanded.

“I’m—I’m Isaac.” I stammered in reply.

“What are you doing here?” he inquired.

“I got separated from my family in a blizzard. That’s my dog, Louis. He must have confused your camp for mine.” I said, pointing at Louis.

“What are you?” he asked.

“Um…I don’t understand--”

“I mean what is your psychokinetic ability?” he said, annoyed.

“Oh, um…I’m a Cryo.” I said.

“Of course…everyone is a Cryo, including those sick aristocrats that killed Sierra.” he blurted.

“Uh…can I ask a question now? Like who are you? And who is—I mean, was, Sierra?” I questioned.

He glared at me. I felt the temperature rise sharply around me, like I was suddenly standing at the crater of a volcano. I would have liked the extra warmth, but his gaze unsettled me. The campfire behind him burned hotter and brighter, as if it were fueled by his anger.

“Sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have brought that up. But could you at least tell me your name?” I asked, keeping my voice steady as to not enrage him.

He relaxed a bit and the temperature around me returned to normal. When I looked down, I saw that a circle of snow had melted around me and that I was standing on brown grass. The fire died down a bit. I gulped. This guy definitely scared me out of my mind.

“My name is Aiden. I’m a Pyro.” he said.

“A Pyro?” I said. “But, only one Pyro is born every--”

“One hundred years. I know. I’m the only Pyro in the entire world. In a world of ice and snow.” he said. He sighed heavily.

“So…was your mom a Pyro?” I asked.

“Pyros are not born like everyone else. They are birthed from the ashes of a dead Pyro after the one-hundred year cycle has been completed.” Aiden explained.

“Oh…I had learned a little about Pyros in school, but I didn’t know that. It’s kind of like a phoenix, right?”

“Yeah. What else did they tell you about Pyros? They probably told you that all Pyros live to destroy and are not capable of mercy. They probably told you that Pyros exist only to burn and ravage the world. They probably told you, that Pyros are the enemy, and that they must be killed!” he shouted.

“Whoa, whoa, I didn’t learn any of that! I mean, I learned about pyrokinetic abilities, but that’s all!” I said defensively.

He relaxed again.

“Um, so, I’m trying to find my family. Can you help me?” I asked.

He looked me over. Louis came over and dropped the dead squirrel at my feet.

“All right, sure. It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do, out here all alone. Come sit by the fire, and we can begin preparing breakfast.” he said flatly.

I gave a sigh of relief. I was afraid he would burn me to a crisp. The truth was, I had been told all of the things he had just said about Pyros. He didn’t seem evil, just…lonely, and definitely irascible.

He is the only Pyro in a frozen world, I thought. He is scared and alone, and feels like everyone is against him.

I used my cryokinesis to create a knife out of ice crystals and set to skinning the squirrel. I fished some dried fruit out of my backpack. Aiden had a duffel bag and was pulling out some pots and silverware. Louis was digging a hole where Aiden had melted the snow away.

“Have you got any wood?” Aiden asked. I shook my head. “I am going to try and build a spit for us to hang the pot from over the fire. Is there any supplies at all that you can lend?” he asked.

After rummaging through my bag, all I could find was a plastic cane that my dad sometimes used when his arthritis was bothering him. I handed the cane to Aiden.

“Great. Now, I had two sticks here to use as support beams for the spit…where’d they go?” he asked, looking around.

Louis barked. We both looked at Louis and saw that he had dug a small hole. In his mouth was a pair of sticks. He dropped the sticks into the hole.

“No!” Aiden shouted, running over to the hole. He snatched the sticks out. Louis grabbed an end of the sticks in his mouth.

“Let go!” Aiden ordered, pulling on the sticks. Aiden and Louis began a little tug-of-war over the sticks.

“Louis, release!” I commanded.

Louis let the sticks go, and Aiden, still pulling, fell backwards from momentum. He tumbled backwards and landed in the campfire.

I gasped, rising from my seat on my backpack. The two sticks were thrown out of the fire, and Aiden rose, completely fine.

“What—what happened?” I asked.

“I’m a Pyro. I’m immune to fire.” he said. I nodded. We constructed the spit, laying the cane across the two sticks that were sticking up from the ground on either side of the fire.

Once I finished skinning the squirrel, I sliced some meat off of it and dropped it into the pot, which Aiden had filled with water. Aiden threw in some dried vegetables and some oregano.

“Might as well taste good.” he said. After about ten minutes, Aiden took the pot off of the spit. The water must’ve been boiling hot, but he stuck his hand right in and fished some of the meat out. He slapped it onto a small metal tray along with some of the cooked vegetables and dried fruit. He handed me the tray. I took it from him, the aroma of the meal making me hungrier by the second.

Using my cryokinesis, I added tines to my icy knife to create a fork and began to eat. It tasted amazing. The oregano and vegetables really enhanced the flavor of the meal. I was glad Aiden had added them.

Aiden began to eat his as well. He showed no expression about it.

“Um…tastes great, huh? The oregano was a nice touch.” I said, trying to begin a friendly conversation.

He nodded and continued eating.

I looked into the pot. There was no meat left for Louis, so I gave him a portion of mine. It was good to eat a hot meal that was thoroughly cooked. Not only did it satisfy my hunger, but it boosted my morale too.

“So, where do you think your family is? We can’t very well find them if we are headed in the opposite direction.” Aiden said.

“Well, when I last saw my family, my dad had said that we were going to go south and try to get to a hotel. The nearest hotel was in Pittsburg, so that is where we were headed. I don’t have a compass with me so I’m not sure if I have even been going the right way.” I explained.

He nodded. “You were heading southeast. A little off course.” he said.

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“Judging from the direction you came. Also, my heat sense gives me flawless sense of direction.” he replied.

“Wow.” I breathed. “I had learned all about pyrokinetic abilities at school, but—this is just amazing how you can do all of this stuff.”

“Yeah, I guess. But I can’t lower temperatures or freeze stuff or create hailstorms with my mind. I can’t create things out of ice. It’s because I am different from the rest of the world. I’m an outsider, a travesty to the human race. I belong nowhere.” he said.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. I was just saying that, I think all of the pyrokinesis stuff is really cool. If I could trade my cryokinesis for pyrokinesis, I’d do it in a heartbeat.” I said.

He started to laugh.

“What?” I asked.

“Ha, you said pyrokinesis is cool.” he replied, laughing.

I started to laugh along with him.

Once we finished our meals, we cleaned up our things. Aiden willed the fire to die down and it sputtered out.

“We best get moving. I’d like to find your family before three days is through.” Aiden said.

“Why three days?” I asked.

“The sooner the better, right?” he replied.

“Yeah, I suppose.” I replied.

We gathered our things and began our trek southward. Louis padded alongside me.

The snow and wind persisted throughout the whole morning. I had my towel wrapped around my shoulders for extra warmth.

Not that I needed it. The temperature was forty degrees warmer walking along next to Aiden.

He was still so unsettling. He seemed like he was easily angered, but not at all evil or merciless like I had been told. If he wasn’t capable of mercy, why was he helping me find my family? It was just so confusing. Just about everything about this guy went against everything I had learned about Pyros.

He was definitely dangerous though. No doubt about that. If he wanted, he could have incinerated me right on the spot. He could have risen my body temperature until I just dropped dead. He could have created an explosion inside of my body using just his mind.

As I had these thoughts, I started to move away from him, but quickly moved back as the cold returned. I looked at the ground in front of us. Dead grass, killed from sunlight deprivation, was revealed as Aiden burned a path in the snow. I could see no fire though. It was amazing; he just melted snow by willing the temperature to rise.

I meant what I had said about pyrokinesis. I thought it was the coolest—I mean, most awesome thing since sliced bread. I had always dreamed of how great it would be to have pyrokinesis.

Aiden, though, didn’t seem to like it as much. He was hated because of his ability. Everyone discriminated against him because he could control fire with his mind.

I wondered if now was the time to ask him about Sierra. I had earned some degree of trust with him…may it be the smallest sliver of trust that could ever exist, it was still trust.

“So, I’ve been wondering…” I began.

“Stop talking. Stop talking right now. I am not going to talk about Sierra.” he said, his tone ending the conversation.

I fell silent. Louis began panting from the heat that Aiden produced. Other than that, and the wind, things quiet for a long while.

“How did you know I was going to ask about Sierra? Can you also read minds?” I finally asked, breaking the silence.

“Of course not. I could just tell you were thinking about it. From your body language.” he replied.

I nodded. Sometimes having psychokinetic abilities makes you over-think things.

“So…what’s your family like?” Aiden asked.

I was shocked by his question. I didn’t think he really would have cared, but I answered him.

I told him about my parents, how they had met, what they were like, what their views were on the world. I described my younger sister, how she meant the world to me and that I would never let anything happen to her.

“Sounds like a nice family.” he said.

“Yeah, and then there’s Louis, the best friend anyone could ask for.” I said, smiling at my dog. “What is your family like?” I asked.

He looked over at me, that look of anger in his eyes again.

“Oh yeah, you were born from ashes…well, I guess whoever’s ashes you were born from would kind of be like your mom or dad, right?” I said, trying to make him feel better.

“If they were, I would be too ashamed to talk about it. Whoever this person was, they did not do any good things in their life.” he said.

“How could you possibly know what kind of person they were?” I asked.

“I don’t really want to talk about it.” he responded.

“Why not?” I asked.

“I said I don’t want to!” he shouted, his eyes burning with rage. His hands had blazing spheres of fire in them, as if he were ready to cook me alive. The flames went away and his gaze softened.

“Sorry, I just…it’s too scary to even think about.” he said.

“No, it’s all right. Maybe we should stop and make camp for lunch. I’ll send Louis out to catch us something.” I suggested.

“Yeah, good idea. I’m getting kind of hungry. I’ll build us a fire.” he said.

We stopped and began to unpack our things. Louis bound away, sure to return with something for us to eat.

I gathered some wood from a nearby tree. Aiden arranged it in a pile and began to concentrate on it. A small spark of flame appeared in the pile, with absolutely no source at all. The flame grew and soon we had a large campfire shining.

While he did that, I got the cooking supplies out and reconstructed the spit out of the cane and sticks.

I sat on the bedroll, waiting for Louis to return. I ate some dried fruit. Aiden began to boil the water in the pot and cook some of the dried vegetables he had.

“When will your dog get back?” he asked.

“Louis usually takes about half an hour to find something. I think this is him coming now.” I replied, pointing at a figure approaching from the snow.

Aiden squinted his eyes, struggling to see through the blustering snow.

“Um, you had five dogs, right?” he asked.

“Five dogs?” I replied. “What kind of a question is that?”

“That’s not Louis!” he yelled.

My eyes widened at the sudden realization that we were surrounded by wolves.

“Wolves!” I shouted. I frantically looked all around me. There were at least a dozen wolves, all circling the camp.

I backed away from the wild canines, closer to the fire.

If we needed to defend ourselves, the fire would be the safest thing, considering Aiden should be able to control it.

Fireballs danced in Aiden’s hands.

I thrust my hand into the snow and willed it to grow colder and freeze. When I pulled my hand out, I had a two foot long hammer with a studded head. I smiled. I had never been able to conjure anything that big before. I must have been getting better at mastering my cryokinesis. I brandished my frozen weapon, daring the wolves to get close. That wasn’t a very good idea, since it seemed like the wolves accepted my challenge.

I gulped as they drew nearer, snarling and howling.

The campfire became larger and the wolves hesitated, some of them withdrawing slightly. I was glad to have Aiden there to help me.

Suddenly, one of the wolves pounced at me. I swung my hammer, knocking the wolf in the jaw in midair. It rolled along the ground, recovered, and advanced again. I cleaved my hammer downward, knocking the wolf right between the eyes. The wolf’s eyes rolled back into its head and it slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Behind me, Aiden had set two wolves on fire and they were running and barking in anguish. One of the wolves attempted to extinguish the fire by jumping into a snow drift. I used my mind to freeze the snow drift over, solidifying it with the wolf inside.

I turned my attention back to the wolves on my side of the fire to see one flying through the air towards me. It landed on me, pushing me to the ground. It snarled and gnashed its fangs together.

I stuck the shaft of my hammer into its maw, struggling to keep its teeth away from my face. The wolf was suddenly knocked off of me by a blur of black and brown. I rolled to my belly and looked to my left.

Louis and the wolf were rolling around on the ground, barking and growling.

I warded off a few more wolves with my hammer, knocking two unconscious.

The wolves grew hesitant as they realized how dangerous the weapon I held was. Louis and the other wolf were still fighting, biting and tackling each other.

Aiden had burned half a dozen wolves to a crisp and was now creating a barrier of flames to keep the other two wolves on his side at bay.

Unfortunately, the intensity of the heat melted my hammer, and I was left unarmed. I tried to construct another weapon from the snow, but the heat made it impossible.

The wolves pressed forward as they realized I had lost the hammer.

I heard Louis whimpering, but I was too distracted to look right then. I created a ball of slush in my right hand and lobbed it at one of the wolves. As soon as it hit, the slush froze and began to spread to the rest of the animal’s body. Before long there was a frozen wolf-cicle standing in front of me.

The other wolf tried to retreat, but I made the snow around it erupt, burying the wolf in a heap of frost.

The fiery barrier died away, revealing the smoking corpses of wolves lying in the snow. Aiden turned around, surveying my work.

“Nice touch, freezing the wolf in the snow bank.” he commended.

“Thanks. Good idea making the fire bigger. Wolves hate fire.” I said. He nodded. Then, I remembered Louis.

“Louis!” I cried, running to my dog. The wolf he had been fighting got away, leaving Louis lying in the snow. The snow had been stained red with blood. Louis had a large tear in his front left leg. The wolf must have bitten him. I lifted Louis out of the snow and put him on my bedroll by the fire. Louis whimpered in pain.

“Its okay boy, we’re going to fix it.” I said.

“I’ll get some first aid equipment from my bag.” Aiden said.

I nodded. I spoke to Louis in hushed tones, assuring him that everything would be all right.

Aiden returned with a first aid kit. He produced some gauze, rubbing alcohol, and a bottle of water from the kit.

I grabbed my towel out of my backpack and dipped it into the rubbing alcohol. Aiden ran some water over the wound. Louis howled with pain. I dabbed the wound with the towel, sterilizing it with the alcohol. Aiden set to wrapping some gauze around Louis’ leg. He began to growl.

“Don’t growl at him Louis, he is trying to help.” I said.

“That wasn’t Louis.” Aiden said, pointing behind me. I turned. The wolf that had bitten Louis had returned, growling with anger. It was bigger than any of the other wolves, probably the pack leader.

The wolf barreled towards us. Acting quickly, I grabbed the pot of boiling water from the spit and threw it at the wolf. Steam came off of the wolf and it cried out as the water seared into its flesh. It ran, howling in agony.

I breathed heavily, a surge of adrenaline pulsing through me.

“That was close. Well, I think we’ve done all that we can for Louis right now. We might be able to get to a doctor or vet at the nearest town.” Aiden said.

“Good idea. While we are there we can stock up on food and supplies. We might even be able to catch a cab to Pittsburg.” I suggested.

“I like the idea of stocking up, but a cab sounds like a bad idea. You know the kind of sick riffraff they’ve got in the towns…everyone is bad news.” Aiden said.

I nodded my understanding. Back home, there were several gangs that usually fought in the streets, and when they weren’t doing that, they were smoking some kind of illegal synthetic drugs. I shuddered, partly from the cold and partly at how disgusted I was of those people. “We should try to find some shelter somewhere, like a cave or near a grove of trees. Out in the open doesn’t seem to be working too well. Besides, we’ll want to put some distance between us and the unconscious wolves before they come to.” Aiden said.

“All right, that sounds reasonable. Besides, it’ll be warmer in a shelter, and Louis needs heat right now.” I said in agreement. Aiden extinguished the fire and packed up the spit while I put away the rest of our supplies. Louis lay on the bedroll, licking the fur around the wrapped-up wound.

“Louis can’t walk in this condition. What are we going to do?” Aiden asked.

“We’ll let him lay on the bedroll. We can tie some ropes to the corners and pull him along like a sleigh. We can take turns pulling.” I said.

Aiden nodded, and the two of us set to work constructing the makeshift sled.

Eventually we had finished tying the ropes to the bedroll and began pulling Louis along. Being his owner, I got to pull the sled first.

It still felt like I was sitting by a campfire as we walked along through the snow. Aiden radiated heat as if he were a walking sun.

As we walked I found a half-frozen dead rabbit in the snow. Louis must have been bringing it back to us when he saw the wolves. I felt like Louis’ injury was my fault. I could have frozen that wolf he had been fighting and stopped it from ever happening.

“Louis’ leg was not your fault.” Aiden said.

My eyes widened. The guy was uncanny!

“Um, how did you…” I began. “Right, body language.”

“That and you were thinking out loud,” he said.

“I was?” I said. I hadn’t even realized it.

“There was nothing you could do to keep this from happening.”

“Yes, there was so much I could’ve done! I could’ve—could’ve frozen the wolf, or hit it with the hammer, or--”

“No. You were occupied. If you had done any of those things, you probably would have died and Louis would’ve been injured by another wolf. And then you wouldn’t be able to help him.” I sighed. “You’re probably right.”

“I am right. Now, let me have a turn pulling the sled. It’s already been an hour.” Aiden said. An hour already? I guess I had been lost in thought. I tend to that, and when I do, time seems to speed up.

Maybe I have chronokinesis too, I thought jokingly.

I handed the ‘reins’ over to Aiden and we continued walking. I looked back at Louis. He had fallen asleep on the bedroll.

Soon we came to an empty cave. Outside of the cave was a trio of trees.

Aiden created an orb of glowing light in his hand. It wasn’t fire, just pure light. He gently pushed the orb out of his hand and it floated into the cave, illuminating the walls.

I followed him inside, grabbing some fallen tree branches as I went in.

I set them in a pile on the floor. Aiden pulled Louis to the back of the cave.

The cave was small inside, about fifteen feet from the back wall to the entrance. It was about twenty feet wide though, so it wasn’t too bad, definitely roomy enough.

Aiden already had a fire going.

I unpacked our supplies and put together the spit.

In no time we were wolfing down a meal of cooked rabbit and vegetables. I fed some rabbit to Louis, hoping the hot meal would make him feel better. He didn’t seem to improve much.

“Is there anything in the first aid kit that could improve his condition any farther?” I asked. After rummaging through the first aid kit, Aiden shook his head.

“I think we’ve done everything we can do for now. The best thing for Louis to do is rest until we can get him to a veterinarian.” he said.

I nodded. “I just wish there was something I could do.” I confessed.

Aiden sighed.

“In life, I have found that that is a feeling everyone must deal with,” Aiden said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“There are times when you want to help, and you want to do more, even though you know that nothing can be done. That nothing could heal the wound. You understand now, right?” he asked.

“Yes, I suppose. Has there been a time when you felt that way?” I questioned.

“Only just before Sierra…”

I looked down at my empty tray. I should have known it would be a hot topic for him.

“You know, maybe I should tell you what happened. It might help to get it out there in the open, to have someone else who might understand.” he finally said.

I looked back up. I was surprised he had been the one to decide to talk about it. I thought I would just have to bug him about it enough until he finally broke and told me what was going on.

“Sierra was my caretaker. The closest thing I had to a mom. She took care of me since birth, when she found me in the ashes. She was the only one who ever treated me like a person, instead of some accident in nature.” he explained.

“Oh. So, what happened to her?” I asked.

“We were being chased by some drones.” he said.

Drones were the robotic police force that the government funded. Drones were annoying, and had no sense of mercy. Once they were given a task, they would stop at nothing to accomplish it.

“The drones were tasked with arresting me for ‘illegal pyrokinetic practices’. Sierra and I were running, trying to get away. We were so close…but she got shot in the leg and couldn’t walk—it had shattered the bone. I tried to help her get up, but she told me to run instead. The drones were closing in and she told me I needed to escape. She pushed me through the doorway of the store we had been hiding in and sealed the door shut with rock spires. She was a Geo.” he continued.

I nodded. Geo was the slang term for a person with geokinetic abilities, the ability to manipulate rock and earth with the mind.

“I tried to get back in, but it was solid rock. She yelled through the barricade that the rock should be able to hold for four days. She told me that that was how much time I had to put distance between me and the drones. I ran, because I wasn’t sure what else to do.” Aiden said.

“When did all of this happen?” I asked.

“Yesterday.”

I swallowed.

“So, that’s why we need to get to Pittsburg in three days?” I asked.

He nodded.

“And you know what the worst part was? I had never even called her mom.” he said.

I was so shocked by his story. Tears threatened to stream down from my eyes. I held them back best I could.

“Well, I am going to take a short nap. In half an hour, wake me up and I’ll take watch so you can rest.” he said.

“Okay.” I responded.

He laid down on the cave floor and quickly fell asleep.

I looked out the cave entrance, into the whiteness. I couldn’t begin to imagine the emotional turmoil he must have been going through. At least I knew my family was alive…well, I was pretty sure at least. I may have lost my family, but I had hope of being reunited with them. He would never get Sierra back, and she was the only family he had ever had.

I started to wonder again how he knew about the life of the person whose ashes he had been born from, but decided that asking him a question like that on the same day was too much. I would just have to ask him another time.

Sitting there by the fire, I felt so comfortable that I could have just curled up and slept there for days on end. But I had to remain vigilant.

I felt like I had finally figured out what Aiden’s deal was. He couldn’t be anyone’s friend unless he knew he could absolutely trust them. The discrimination and his anti-social personality had shaped him that way. I didn’t want to jeopardize our chance at friendship, so I couldn’t just abandon the job of watch he had assigned me.

Louis had fallen asleep again. I stared at him, feeling hopeless again.

Aiden was right…no one could go through life without feeling like they should be doing more even though they can’t.

Once I was sure a half an hour was up, I went over and gently shook Aiden’s shoulder. He opened his eyes and rolled over.

“Half an hour already? It felt like two minutes.” he said. I lay down on the cave floor. It was hard, but had warmed considerably since the fire had been built.

I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep to the sound of the crackling flames.

“Hey, wake up.” Aiden said, shaking me.

I opened my eyes and sat up.

“Thirty minutes is up? Dang, you weren’t kidding. It felt like I had just put my head down.”

“No, no, time isn’t up yet. You’ve still got like twenty minutes.” he said.

“What? Then why did you--?”

“Shut up. Look outside.” he said, pointing to the mouth of the cave.

I rubbed my eyes and looked to where he was pointing. I gasped.

Outside, it had stopped snowing, and the most amazing spectacle ever shone brightly.

The sun had managed to peek through the grey blanket of clouds, and its light reflected off of the snow. Green spots danced before my eyes. I had been so adjusted to the snow’s whiteness that colors flashed in front of me.

“It’s beautiful…” I breathed.

Almost immediately after I said that, the sunlight was stolen by the clouds and the world was once again thrust into darkness.

“Well, that was all I wanted to show you. You can get back to sleeping now.” he said.

“Thanks for waking me to see that.” I said. The sunlight shining through the cloud cover was a rare occasion.

“No problem.” he replied.

I lay back down on the cave floor.

Just as I began to fall asleep again, it seemed, Aiden shook me.

“Time is up.” he said.

I moaned, sitting up.

“I gave you an extra five minutes since I had woken you up once already. We best get moving along. It will be night time in five hours, I’m guessing.”

“What do you mean? It’s always night time.” I said.

He laughed.

“True.” he said.

We packed up all of our gear and departed from the cave. Louis was awake again and it was my turn to pull him along on his little sled.

“How far away is the nearest town?” I asked.

“My heat sense tells me that it is about a half a mile south. We should be there by late morning, tomorrow.” he replied.

“All right. I’d have liked to have spent the night in a real bed, or maybe on a sofa in some sleepy little coffee shop.” I said.

“Yeah, that sounds nice right about now.” Aiden said in agreement.

We continued walking through the snow in silence for what seemed like hours.

“How long has it been?” I asked.

“You ask too many questions.” he said. “I don’t know, two and a half hours?”

“All right. How far do you think we’ve gone?”

He sighed.

“Do you want to play a game?” he asked.

“A game? What kind of game?”

“It’s called the Quiet Game. Whoever can be quiet the longest wins.” he replied.

“Oh, yeah, the Quiet Game. My parents love that game. I always win.” I said.

“Good for you. Let’s start playing.” he said.

“Before we start, it is your turn to pull Louis.” I said.

“Ugh, fine.” he replied, taking the ropes. “Now, let’s begin.”

We walked along for about ten minutes without speaking. I smiled, ready to take out my secret weapon for winning this game. I stopped and put my hands into the snow. Aiden halted, wondering what I was doing.

I produced two rods out of ice and continued walking.

Aiden raised an eyebrow, wondering what I was up to no doubt.

After about five more minutes, I began to bang the ice rods together, making an extremely irritating sound.

Five minutes later, Aiden exploded.

“Would you stop that!?” he shouted.

“Told you I always win.” I said, grinning. He started to laugh.

“Yes you did. Here, it’s your turn to pull Louis.” he said, holding out the reins to me.

“It hasn’t been a half an hour yet.” I replied.

“I know, but you get a five minute penalty for making obnoxious noises.” he responded, smiling.

I laughed. “Fair enough.” I said, taking the ropes.

A few hours later, we decided to finally make camp for the night.

“It has been a crazy day.” I said.

“Sure has. We’d better get some rest; we should be in town by tomorrow.” Aiden replied.

“Should we set up a watch?” I asked.

“Nah, not this time. If anything happens, I’ll fry whatever it is to death. Or maybe you can freeze it to death.” he said.

I laughed. “All right.” I said, agreeing with him.

After building a fire and eating a meal of dried fruit and vegetables, we went to sleep for the night.

When I woke in the morning, Aiden had already made a breakfast of cooked rabbit.

“How did you catch a rabbit?” I asked.

“Stealth and fireballs.” he replied.

I ate breakfast quickly. Once we had packed up the camp, I fed Louis and we began on our way. Aiden took the ropes first and we headed out towards the town.

By the time we made it there it was about noon.

“Should we stop somewhere to eat?” I asked.

“Sure, a burger would be a nice change from cooked rabbit and squirrel.” Aiden replied.

We made our way to a small family-owned restaurant. There were no dogs allowed inside so I stayed out with Louis.

“Wait, do you have any money?” I asked Aiden before he went inside.

“I’ve got three dollars and twenty-six cents. Have you got any?” he inquired.

I dug around through my pockets and backpack.

“I have eleven dollars even. Oh, and a gumball.” I said. I handed the money to Aiden.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“Uh, just get me a chicken tender basket with some barbeque dipping sauce. And, a side of carrot sticks if they have any.” I replied.

He nodded.

“I’ll see what I can do.” he said as he went inside.

I waited for a while for him to return. I popped the gumball in my mouth.

Mmm…cherry flavored… I thought.

When Aiden returned he had a plastic tray full of delicious goodies. I grabbed the chicken tenders and dipping sauce off of the tray.

“They didn’t have carrot sticks so I substituted them with celery sticks.” he said, handing me a basket of celery sticks.

“All right, thanks.” I said through a mouthful of chicken. Funny, I never realized how much squirrel tasted like chicken…

The tray was still full of stuff.

Aiden unwrapped a cheeseburger with pickles, tomato, lettuce, and onions. The aroma made me wish I had gotten a burger instead.

He also had a paper cup full of Mountain Dew, a medium cup of fries, a grilled cheese sandwich, and basket of onion rings.

“Oh, that’s nice; you got a grilled ham-and-cheese for Louis.” I said as he was about to put the sandwich in his mouth.

He paused.

“Uh, right, it’s for—Louis.” he said, putting the sandwich down in front of my dog.

I couldn’t believe how much Aiden had eaten. He wolfed down the entire burger, all of the onion rings (I managed to steal one from him), half the cup of fries and he even downed the entire cup of soda.

“Dang dude, you eat a lot.” I said.

“I know. Out there in the cold I was eating just enough to keep myself alive. If I had the choice, I’d eat two and a half roasted rabbit sandwiches all by myself. Oh, I almost forgot, I bought you a drink too. It is lemonade, since I wasn’t sure what kind of soda you liked.” he said.

I took the cup of lemonade. I was almost too full to even think of drinking it. I put it in a mesh side pocket on the backpack to hold it.

I looked around me, across the street and all over. The town was so quiet. A few hover cars (cars of the future--they hover a few feet off the ground using some sort of ‘clean energy source’; everyone knows it’s really nuclear energy) floated down the street, and two women on bikes rode on the sidewalk, but other than that I could see no sign of people.

Across the street were a Laundromat and another restaurant (which actually had better smelling food) and a few average suburban houses. Mailboxes sat out in front of the houses and the lawns were all covered with snow. The rooftops looked like they were made of paper folded by a giant. Snow covered the streets as well, but it did not hinder the hover cars. They simply floated right over it.

A few bare trees stood in the yards of the houses. Down the road, I could see a Wal-Mart and a Walgreens sitting on the corners of an intersection.

“Now that we’ve eaten, we should probably head to a store to get some groceries and first aid supplies. And a box of matches while we are at it.” I suggested.

“All right, sounds like a plan. We should keep an eye out for a veterinarian too.” Aiden said. We threw our trash into a nearby garbage can and began walking down the sidewalk towards the Walgreens.

Outside the Walgreens, in the parking lot, there were several hover cars parked in the spaces. There was also a group of about seven guys sitting outside on the curb. They were smoking cigarettes and gave us angry looks as we walked into the store. They made me feel uncomfortable. I sneaked Louis inside the store with us. I didn’t want to leave him out there with that gang around and I definitely didn’t want to be out there either.

I hid Louis under a pile of clothes in a shopping cart and pushed him around the store with me. “How much money do you have left?” I asked.

“One dollar and sixteen cents. Only enough to buy bottled water and maybe some Twizzlers-minis.” Aiden replied.

“How are we going to buy the things we need?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” he responded.

I sighed.

“Wait a minute; I think my dad might have left his checkbook in my backpack! If I can just find it…” I said, digging through the backpack.

“Aha! Thank you, dad!” I said, producing the leather checkbook from the pack.

“Won’t your dad be upset when he checks his bank account and finds that a bunch of money is missing?” Aiden asked.

“He’ll understand. If we don’t use this money, we’ll never be able to survive the trip to Pittsburg.” I said.

“All right.” Aiden said in concurrence.

We bought a loaf of Wonder bread, a can of chicken noodle soup, a box of Band-Aids, plastic silverware, some more dried fruit, and several other groceries and first-aid items for our trip. “That will be forty dollars and ninety-two cents.” the cashier clerk said to us as we checked out.

“Do you take a check?” I asked.

“I’m sorry, but cash or credit only.” the clerk replied. “If you can’t pay, I’m afraid you’ll have to leave.”

“But we--” I began.

Aiden interrupted me. “Please, sir! The gang outside stole our wallets as we came in! All we have is the checkbook. And, we need this stuff! Our father is blind sir, and our mother just passed away. Our father can’t work, and we’ve been forced to work jobs at the gas station for minimum wage! How can you expect a blind man and his two uneducated sons to make enough money to feed a family of twelve?” he pleaded.

I hid a smile. He was down on his knees with tears streaming down his eyes. He looked like a little boy who was pleading for his mother and father not to send him to his room for behaving badly.

“Okay, okay, kid! Gosh, just…don’t tell anyone that you paid with the check. I could get fired for this!” the clerk said.

Normally, the story Aiden had come up with would’ve raised a lot of questions. But the way Aiden said it, rushed and begging like a stray dog for scraps made the clerk feel so guilty that he didn’t even have time to think about the many flaws the lie had.

We left the store with our supplies packed into the backpack and Aiden’s duffel bag. I lifted Louis out of the shopping cart and placed him back on the bedroll sled.

The gang had left, thankfully. They might have actually stolen our stuff if they were still there.

After leaving Walgreens, we found a Dick’s Sporting Goods and we bought a bow and a set of arrows to use for hunting.

“Do you still think that it’s a bad idea to take a cab to Pittsburg?” I asked.

Aiden nodded.

“All right, if you say so.” I said.

“Okay, now let’s see if we can find a veterinarian for Louis.” Aiden said.

We walked all around the town but couldn’t find a vet. We did manage to find a doctor though and we got him to take a look at Louis.

“The bite seems to have damaged some of his muscle tissue. Fortunately, it isn’t infected. It was good that you managed to attend to the wound, otherwise your dog would be in a lot of danger. I’d like to keep him over night while I fix him up. Is that okay?” the doctor asked.

“Yeah, I guess that’s fine.” I said. I turned to Aiden.

“That means we have to find somewhere to stay tonight.”

“It also means that we need to get to Pittsburg by tomorrow night, if we can.” Aiden replied. “Oh, yeah.”

We left Louis at the doctor’s office.

“Maybe we should split up and look for a place to stay.” Aiden suggested. “Once you find a place, meet back up at Walgreens and we can compare notes.”

“All right, good idea. What time should we meet back?” I asked.

“Six o’ clock. Is that okay with you?” Aiden said, looking at the watch he had bought at Dick’s Sporting Goods.

“Six o’ clock, got it. Meet you back at Walgreens.” I said. I turned right and he went left and we departed.

After two hours of searching, I still hadn’t found any places to stay.

I guess we’re sleeping in some alley tonight, I thought. Unless, of course, Aiden can find somewhere.

As I walked, the hairs on my neck suddenly stood on end. I turned around quickly. I didn’t see anything, but I heard heavy footsteps, like somebody was running to get out of sight.

I continued walking, more cautious than before.

Something, or someone, was following me. I was sure of it.

Suddenly, I was surrounded by those gang members I had seen at Walgreens.

Where did they come from? I thought.

“Give us your wallet.” one said.

“I don’t have any money.” I replied.

“Don’t try to lie to us! We saw you walk out of Walgreens. You’ve got cash, and we want it.” another said.

There were half a dozen of them, and Aiden was probably on the other side of town. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to escape, or defend myself if I had to.

I crouched down, putting my hands into the snow.

“That’s right, get down and surrender.” one behind me said.

My mind stretched as I tried to make another ice hammer.

Please, please work, I thought.

I stood up again. In my hands were two short clubs made of ice crystals.

“He’s a Cryo! Stop him!” one yelled, obviously the leader of the group.

I turned and hurled one of the clubs at him, knocking him off of his feet. He tried to recover, but I sent snow heaping on top of him until he all that could be seen of him were his feet. The other gang members advanced. Some had weapons of ice in their hands as well, and others held stone clubs.

Cryos and Geos, I thought. This is not going to be easy.

One of the Geos made the sidewalk erupt around me, showering me with concrete shrapnel. I shielded my head with my arms. The stones bruised and scraped my arms and back.

I formed a slush ball in my left hand and lobbed it at the Geo. He was almost instantaneously encased in a sheet of ice.

The other gang members attacked me simultaneously. I was pushed to the ground and beaten with their weapons. I curled into a ball.

Where is Aiden? I thought.

Suddenly, I heard one of the gang members shout in alarm. The beating stopped. I looked up to see two of the gang members being levitated in the air, while the other two were pelted with a barrage of stones.

The two being levitated were spun in circles before being slammed into the ground. As soon as they hit the ground, rock formations spurted from the ground, hurling them back into the air. I stood and threw slush balls at the other two, freezing them. The remaining gang members ran, scared out of their minds. I turned to see two people standing on the sidewalk.

A girl my age with flowing blonde hair and ancient blue eyes stood next to a younger boy with brown hair.

“Hey, thanks for helping me.” I said.

“Don’t mention it. My brother and I end up dealing with these stupid gangs just about every day around here.” she replied.

“Cassidy, let’s go. I don’t want any drones to see us and think we’re causing trouble.” the younger boy said.

“Its fine, Walter. Drones are stupid anyway. I’m Cassidy, and this is my brother Walter.” the girl said, holding her hand out to me. I went to shake it, but found that I couldn’t move my arm. I looked down at my right arm and saw that it was frozen, probably by one of the gang members.

“Here, let me help.” she said.

She looked at the ice encasing my arm and it shattered into a million pieces.

“Thanks. How did you do that?” I asked.

“I’m a Tele, so I can use telekinesis. In fact, back when I was in school, I measured a Level 10 on the Psychometer Test. Not to brag, or anything.” she replied.

I nodded. In schools, they had a special test that measured the levels of strength your psychokinetic abilities worked at. I had always been a Level 4 on the Psychometer, the instrument used to measure it. Being a Level 10 was a rare occurrence, and anyone who was a Level 10 was usually exalted in the school ‘social classes’.

You know how those are, the cool kids, the nerds, the geeks, the jocks, the band players. Yep, those still apply in the future.

“What do you mean ‘when you were in school’?” I asked.

“Our parents lost their jobs, and we got kicked out of school. This is so stupid; the government’s decisions have put so many people out of work.” Walter said.

I nodded in agreement.

“So, I take it you’re not from around here?” Cassidy asked. I shook my head.

“I got separated from my family in a blizzard. My friend Aiden and I are going to Pittsburg to find them.” I said. I explained how Aiden was a Pyro, and that he wasn’t anything like what the schools taught us. I even told them about Sierra, but asked them not to say anything to Aiden if they were ever to meet him.

“You need a place to stay tonight?” Cassidy inquired. “I’m sure my grandparents wouldn’t mind if you spent the night. My folks and I have been living with them for a while now.”

“Wow, you’d let us stay with you? Thanks! Though I should probably go and meet back up with Aiden at Walgreens and tell him what is going on.” I replied.

“We’ll come with you. You know, in case you run into any more trouble.” Cassidy offered.

“Sure, thanks.” I responded.

“Cassidy, you know that mom and dad will want us home before dinner! We shouldn’t keep them waiting.” Walter protested.

“We’ll be back long before dinner. Besides, we can cut the time in half by flying.” she replied.

“Flying?” I asked.

“Yeah, I can fly us to Walgreens with my telekinesis.” she said.

“Um, okay--” I began. Before I could finish talking, I was suddenly lifted up in the air by an invisible force.

“Whoa!” I shouted.

“Don’t freak out, its fine.” Cassidy said. I looked over to see that she and Walter were floating off the ground as well.

We took off into the air towards Walgreens.

The feeling of flying was exhilarating. The wind rushed past me as we flew. I was just getting used to it when we began to descend. There was Aiden, waiting in the parking lot.

We touched down. My legs felt a little wobbly, and I had some trouble walking over to Aiden.

“Isaac, there you are! I’ve been waiting here for ten minutes. Who are these two?” he asked as we approached.

I explained what had happened with the gang and how Cassidy and Walter had helped me.

“So we will be staying at their grandparents’ house tonight?” Aiden inquired.

“Yeah, my grandparents will be fine with it. They put up poor homeless folks all the time.” Cassidy replied.

“Um…thanks?” Aiden said.

“Cassidy, come on! We’re going to be late.” Walter complained.

“All right, all right. Aiden, I’m going to fly us there with my telekinesis, okay?” Cassidy said.

“I can fly myself there.” Aiden replied.

“You can fly too?” I asked. “Dude, you’re like a human Swiss Army knife!”

He laughed.

“Wait…how do you fly? Do you have wings or something?” Cassidy asked.

“I can make heat around me rise and lift me into the air.” Aiden replied.

“Is it hot enough out for you to do that?” she asked.

“One thing I’ve learned is that there is always heat, you just have to know how to control it.” he responded.

“Yeah, c’mon Cassidy! We learned all about that in school! Even took a test on it.” Walter said.

“Okay, then we’d better get going.” Cassidy said. Suddenly, I was being lifted into the air again. I looked to my right to see that Aiden was hovering a few feet off of the ground. I could make out heat waves dancing beneath his feet and arms, keeping him afloat in the air.

Aiden followed behind the rest of us as we were propelled through the air by Cassidy’s telekinesis.

In no time we had reached Cassidy’s grandparents’ house. It was a small two-story house with a red front door and green shutters by each of the three windows.

“Okay, before we go inside I should probably explain something. My grandfather is very old and, well; his telekinesis has gotten a bit…unpredictable…” Cassidy explained.

“What do you mean by--” Aiden began.

“It shouldn’t be a problem…hopefully.” Walter said.

“Um, okay…” Aiden said.

Cassidy knocked on the door.

A woman in her forties answered the door. She had blonde hair like Cassidy’s, but her eyes had more of a stony glare to them, more like Walter’s.

“Cassidy, Walter, where have you been? Dinner started fifteen minutes ago!” the woman said. “Told you.” Walter said. Cassidy pushed him away.

“Sorry, mom. We found these two boys and they need a place to stay for the night. They are both homeless and hungry. Can they stay?” Cassidy asked.

“Well, I’m sure that would be fine. You should consider yourselves lucky, I happened to make extra food tonight because we were told that the mailman would be dining with us tonight, but he had an emergency and couldn’t come.” Cassidy’s mom replied.

We filed inside the house. It was very nice, with a dining room to the right and a living room on the left. Down the hall was the kitchen.

Several people were gathered all around the table. An old man, who I guessed was Cassidy’s grandfather, was lounging in a recliner watching football. The TV screen had frozen, but the man sat and continued staring at the screen as if it were still playing.

We took our seats at the table. An elderly woman, Cassidy’s grandmother, sat across the table from me. Cassidy’s father sat at the head of the table. He had brown hair like Walter’s, yet those same ancient eyes that Cassidy had.

Cassidy’s mother served us white rice and stir fry with pork tenderloin in it. Aiden doused his with hot sauce, though I guess being a Pyro, he didn’t mind the extra heat and spiciness. A can of Diet Pepsi floated over to me and knocked into my head.

“Thirsty?” Cassidy asked.

I nodded and snatched the can from the air.

“Thanks.” I said.

“Everything is delicious, Mrs…” I said.

“Higgins.” Cassidy’s mom supplied.

“Mrs. Higgins.” I said.

“Thank you very much.” Mrs. Higgins replied.

“Yes, thank you so much for letting us stay, Mrs. Higgins. You see, Isaac and I are trying to get to Pittsburg to find his family. They got separated in a blizzard and the last he had heard of them they were on their way to Pittsburg.” Aiden explained.

“Well, it’s really no problem. I’m sure Cassidy and Walter would be glad to walk you to the edge of town and see you on your way safely.” Mrs. Higgins said.

“Sure, sounds great.” Cassidy said. “Um, I have, uh…stuff, to do, so…” Walter said. “I know you have stuff to do. You have to walk Aiden and Isaac to the edge of town.” Mrs. Higgins said.

“But mom!” Walter protested.

“But nothing! They are our guests and we will treat them like family while they are here. Do you understand?” Mrs. Higgins said.

“Fine…” Walter said.

Suddenly, Cassidy’s grandfather began to shout indecipherable words. Items around the table began to float around. Even my chair began to levitate underneath me. Cassidy and her father stood up and tried to keep everything down on the table. Mrs. Higgins and Cassidy’s grandmother ran to the living room and began to talk to the old man in soothing tones.

After a few moments, he calmed down and became quiet again, and all of the objects settled back into place.

“What was that?” I whispered to Walter.

“It’s the thing Cassidy told you about. His telekinesis is pretty unstable; sometimes when he has fits like that it makes stuff float around randomly. Mom usually ends up buying a new lamp every three weeks because they are always getting broken.” Walter explained.

I nodded.

“Oh, but, uh, don’t say anything about it. It breaks grandma’s heart to see him that way.” he added.

“All right.” I replied.

After helping wash the dishes, we were shown to our rooms.

“You and Walter will be sharing a room, Aiden.” Mrs. Higgins said.

“But mom!” Walter objected.

She glared at him with those stony eyes.

“I mean…” Walter said. He sighed. “Would you like the top bunk or the bottom bunk?”

“I’ll take bottom.” Aiden said.

Walter smiled. I guessed that he preferred the top bunk.

“And Isaac, you will be sleeping in the guest room. Cassidy is right next door if you need anything, okay?” Mrs. Higgins said.

“All right, thanks Mrs. Higgins.” I said.

I settled into the room, placing my dad’s backpack behind the door.

An alarm clock sat on a nightstand next to the bed. White satin sheets and a flower-pattern quilt were spread on the bed. I lay down on the bed, ready to turn off the lamp that was set next to the clock on the side table, when someone knocked on the door.

“Come in.” I called.

The door opened, and the person I least expected to see came in.

“How are you, dear?” Cassidy’s grandmother asked as she entered the room.

“I’m fine, thank you. Very comfortable room.” I replied.

Her grandmother had white hair and happy blue eyes. She reminded me of a woman named Betty White that my mom used to watch on TV.

“You know, Cassidy has asked her mother if she could go with you and that other young man to Pittsburg.” she said.

“Really?” I replied. That was surprising.

“Yes, and surprisingly enough, her mother agreed.”

“She did?” I said.

The old woman smiled. “Yes, she did. Her mother says that you seem like nice and smart boys and she thinks that Cassidy can take care of herself now. Is that all right if Cassidy goes with you?”

“Yes, I guess that would be all right. I would have to tell Aiden though.” I responded.

“Already done. I asked him first.” she said, smiling.

She was a very nice lady, and she smelled like gingerbread.

She got up and went to the door.

“Oh, and be sure to expect the unexpected Isaac.” she said before finally leaving.

I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I was too tired to think of it then. I shut off the lamp and dozed off to sleep.

That night, I had a dream.

I was standing in front of a store on a deserted street. In the doorway, the door was missing, replaced by a solid wall of gray and black stone.

I gasped. It was where Aiden had left Sierra. I heard pounding coming from the other side of the stone wall. The rock began to crumble in a few places, but was stubborn and held in place. The dream shifted scenes.

Suddenly, I was inside the store. The corpse of a woman with brown hair and dressed in a jean jacket and plaid flannel shirt was partly buried under stone and wood. A quartet of drones stood in front of the stone wall, repeatedly slamming it with their metal fists.

The drones were metal and barrel-shaped. They hovered a few feet off the ground (using the same technology as the hover cars). They had a cylindrical head protruding from the top of their gray bodies. The head had a single red eye on the front and a sniper scope was attached to the left side of the head.

They all had two arms. On the end of each arm was a metal hand with four fingers and a thumb. Several appliances were on each arm. On the left arm was a mini-fire extinguisher, a shield calibrator (a device that could create a shield out of nuclear energy) and, strangely, an mp3 player. On the right arm was a sword calibrator (same kind of device only it makes a blade out of the ‘clean energy’), two machine guns, and a flamethrower. Basically, left arm for defense (and musical purposes, apparently) and right arm for offense.

Several hack marks and bullet holes riddled the stone wall, but it seemed that the robot police force’s technology had no effect on the wall of rock.

Sierra must have been a pretty powerful Geo.

A splitting buzzing noise suddenly woke me up.

I sat up in bed. The alarm clock had gone off and was blaring noise. I switched it off.

“Ever hear of waking up to music, people?” I asked of no one in particular.

I went downstairs. Breakfast had already been made, and it smelled amazing.

“Go ahead and start eating, Isaac. You have a big day ahead of you. I’m going to go and wake the others.” Mrs. Higgins said.

I sat down at the table and began to eat. I piled my plate high with French toast, bacon, egg patties, and mashed potatoes. I mixed the mashed potatoes in with the eggs and put some sliced cheese on top of it. Once the cheese had melted, I broke bacon bits over it and made myself a mashed potato omelet.

Everything was very good. It was nice to have a regular meal instead of cooked chipmunk.

Suddenly, I heard someone moaning. I looked over to see that Cassidy’s grandfather was sitting in the recliner, staring at the frozen TV screen again. This time the TV had frozen while playing reruns of some show called SpongeBob Square Pants that had gone off the air like thirty years ago. I always thought it was dumb.

I walked over to the recliner and looked at the old man. I waved my hand in front of his face. He showed absolutely no reaction. I shrugged and turned to return to the table. Out of nowhere, he grabbed my right arm. I jumped, startled by his sudden movement.

“You…I know who you are…” he said. He wasn’t making eye contact with me, so at first I thought he had been talking to Squidward on the TV.

“You are going to change the Pyro’s life.” he continued.

“Um…me?” I asked, unsure if this guy was sane. He nodded slowly.

“You and the Pyro will be like family.” he said.

I still wasn’t sure if he knew what he was talking about. I tugged my arm free.

“Um, okay. Sounds good.” I mumbled.

He didn’t seem to hear me. The TV unfroze and SpongeBob began to laugh annoyingly.

I walked back to the table just as Cassidy and Aiden came down.

“Hey.” Cassidy said, taking a seat at the table.

“What goes on?” Aiden said, heaping bacon onto his plate.

I decided not to say anything about what Cassidy’s grandfather had said. I was afraid she would think I was trying to make fun of him or something. I sat down at the table and finished eating breakfast.

Cassidy had already packed for the trip. I got my backpack and Aiden’s duffel bag from upstairs. Walter wasn’t in his room. I wondered where he had gone.

“Hey, where is Walter?” I asked Cassidy when I got back downstairs.

“Sometimes he goes out for jogs in the mornings.” she replied.

I nodded.

“Thank you for letting us stay the night, Mrs. Higgins.” Aiden said as we went out the door.

“Yes, thank you very much.” I said.

“Oh, it was our pleasure. Be safe out there!” she replied.

“Bye mom! See you when I get back!” Cassidy called. We walked down the driveway and turned down the street.

“Hey, Cassidy, why don’t we just fly to Pittsburg with your telekinesis?” I asked.

“It’s too hard to fly when it’s windy and snowing. It’s best that I only fly in clearer weather like we had yesterday.” she explained.

“Oh.”

“I could melt the snow.” Aiden offered.

“What about the wind?” Cassidy reminded.

“Oh yeah…last I checked I wasn’t a master of aerokinesis.” he said.

Soon we reached the edge of town.

“It’s too bad we didn’t get to say good-bye to Walter.” I said.

“Yeah, he’s going to miss me. He’s a nuisance most of the time, but I really do care for him and I know that he cares about me too.” Cassidy said.

“You know Cassidy; your family is really cool. Definitely the kind of family I would want.” Aiden said.

“You don’t have parents? I mean, I know Sierra was like a mother to you, but--” Cassidy began. “Wait…how did you know about Sierra?” Aiden asked.

“Oh, well, I can read minds.” she said. She winked at me in a not-so-secretive way.

“Why would you do that? My thoughts are my own business!” Aiden shouted.

“Sorry, Aiden. I just wanted to get to know you. I’m actually kind of shy.” Cassidy said.

“Oh.” Aiden replied, blushing.

“Don’t worry; I’ll stay out of your head from now on.”

“Thanks.”

“Yeah, well, you see Cassidy, Aiden isn’t born the same way we are.” I said. I explained how Pyros were born from the ashes of dead Pyros.

“Oh, all right. We hadn’t learned about that in school.” she said.

“Yeah, well--” Aiden started.

Suddenly, the ground began to quake.

“Whoa! What’s going on?!” I shouted over the rumbling.

A cylindrical rock formation sprouted from the ground. The quaking stopped. On one side of the rock formation, the rock split apart and moved aside, kind of like doors on an elevator.

Walter stepped out of the rock formation, grinning.

“Walter!” we cried in unison.

“The one and only.” he replied.

“What are you doing here? Mom is going to be worried sick!” Cassidy shouted.

“Nah, I left a note for mom on my bunk. She’ll find it and know that I’m safe and sound, hanging with you guys. Besides, I already told grandma.” he said.

“Wait…so that’s what she meant when she said to expect the unexpected! She was talking about you showing up!” I said.

He nodded. “I want to go with you guys to Pittsburg.” he said.

“No. You are going to get back in your little rock elevator and tunnel your way back home.” Cassidy said.

Walter turned and looked at the rock formation. He thrust his hand out and the rock formation sunk back into the ground.

“What rock elevator?” he said, grinning.

Cassidy groaned.

“You know, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to have Walter along. The more supplies and hands we have the better chance we’ll have of making it to Pittsburg safely, right?” Aiden suggested. Cassidy seemed to consider this.

“And if you do turn me around on my merry way home, I guess I’ll just have to tell mom about the time you forgot to pick me up from school and I got jumped by a gang.” he said.

“You wouldn’t--”

“Forget to mention the time you forgot that I was floating in midair next to you and you dropped me ten feet to the ground? Don’t worry, I won’t.” he said, grinning.

“You little blackmailing weasel.” she said. She sighed heavily. “Fine, I guess you can come.”

“Yes!” he cheered.

“But you’d better not slow us down. Also, no campfire ditties.” she said.

“One hundred gallons of milk on the wall--” Walter began.

She glared at him. He laughed.

“Just kidding.” he said.

We walked along a roadside for a while in silence.

“My heat sense tells me that Pittsburg is still about a mile and a quarter south.” Aiden confirmed.

“How do you know it’s Pittsburg?” Walter asked.

“Are you kidding? What else would have a heat signature that big? A land whale?” Aiden replied. Walter laughed.

After a while, Walter began to complain about how hungry he was.

“You should have eaten breakfast before you left.” Cassidy said.

“I was too busy hiding underground so that I could follow you guys.” he complained.

“Here, I’ve got a slice of Wonder bread and some cinnamon.” I offered.

“How am I supposed to make toast with that?” Walter asked.

“Toss it here.” Aiden said. I tossed him the slice of bread. As soon as he caught it in his hand, I heard the sound of sizzling. After a few moments, Aiden handed the bread to Walter. The bread had been toasted to a dark brown. Steam curled off of it.

“Careful, its hot.” he warned.

Walter sprinkled some cinnamon on it and started eating it.

“Thanks dude. Hey, for dinner, do you think you could fry up some chicken?” Walter asked through a mouthful of toast. Cassidy smacked him upside the head. He grinned.

“Actually, I think we should think of making camp for lunch soon.” Aiden said.

“Aw man, but I’m not hungry anymore!” Walter joked.

“Fine. You can catch the rabbit, we’ll cook and eat it and tell you how good it tastes.” Cassidy said.

Realization dawned on me.

“Oh, crap! We forgot Louis!” I shouted.

“Oh man, how could we have forgotten?” Aiden said.

“Your dog Louis is still at the doctor’s office?” Cassidy asked.

I nodded.

“All right, don’t worry. I brought my cell phone. I’ll call my mom and ask her if she can pick up Louis and take her back to my grandparents’ house.” Cassidy said, fishing her phone out of her pocket.

After chatting with her mom on the phone, she told us that her mom would pick him up and keep him at the house.

I sighed relief.

“Don’t worry Isaac; Mrs. Higgins will take care of Louis. Besides, we couldn’t very well take him all of the way to Pittsburg in his condition. There he can rest and get healed up.” Aiden said reassuringly.

“Thanks Aiden.” I said, smiling.

“So, lunch?” Walter said.

Cassidy and I hunted for food while Aiden and Walter set up camp and built a fire.

I decided now might be the time to talk to Cassidy about what her grandfather had said. It had been unnerving and was bothering me a lot.

“Hey, there’s a rabbit there.” she said, pointing at the small animal. I aimed the bow with an arrow loaded.

I lowered the bow. “Hey, Cassidy, before you came down for breakfast, I went over to check on your grandfather. He said…he said something about me and Aiden would be like family.” I said to her.

She raised an eyebrow.

“How would he know something like that would happen?” I asked.

“My grandfather is a Tele, so he can read minds and move objects with his mind, but he had a little something extra. He can supposedly see the future.” she explained.

“So, what he told me what will happen…will happen?” I asked. She nodded.

“How is that possible? Aiden and I aren’t related at all! I just want to find my family.” I said.

“Who’s to say this will happen now? Maybe…maybe this is destined to happen in the very distant future…” she said.

I nodded. I guess it kind of made sense when I thought of it that way.

We returned to the camp with two rabbits and a squirrel. Cassidy had caught the squirrel and snapped its neck with her telekinesis, which kind of freaked me out a bit. I definitely didn’t want to be on her bad side.

Aiden had built a large fire and Walter had gotten out all of the supplies.

We cooked the rabbit and squirrel with some vegetables.

Aiden made a rabbit and carrot sandwich, which I found quite ironic considering that rabbits ate carrots.

“I brought along some microwavable Mac-n-cheese cups and a box of Pop Tarts for us to eat too.” Walter said.

“Walter, we don’t have any microwaves.” Cassidy reminded.

“Are you kidding? We’ve got a walking microwave right here.” Walter said, gesturing to Aiden. Aiden glared at him.

“I will incinerate you.” Aiden said.

Walter suddenly became interested in his roasted squirrel.

“Did you bring anything else of use?” Cassidy asked.

“Of course! I brought two extra blankets, a Bible, a lighter, a trowel, some rope, a compass, and a king-size Hershey’s bar.” he replied.

“Well, I guess some of that will be useful.” I said.

“Yeah. The Hershey’s Bar is mine.” Aiden said.

“Um, I brought it for myself.” Walter protested.

“If you want me to keep cooking food for you, you brought it for me.” Aiden said.

Walter shrugged. “Fair enough.” he said.

After lunch we packed up camp and extinguished the fire.

“We won’t really need the compass, Walter.” I said as we continued walking. “Aiden also has heat sense which gives him a good sense of direction.” I said.

“All men have a good sense of direction.” Cassidy said.

“Who said that?” I asked.

“Men.” she replied.

I laughed at her joke. It was good to be able to laugh in hard times.

I still couldn’t stop thinking about what Cassidy’s grandfather had told me…or the dream I had had last night.

I probably should have said something to Cassidy about that, but I didn’t think it would even matter. Dreams were weird; they showed people stuff that didn’t make sense.

Instead I decided to ask Aiden how he knew so much about the Pyro before him.

He glowered at me. The temperature rose so suddenly, I thought I might evaporate right then and there.

“What is he talking about Aiden?” Cassidy asked.

“Nothing.” Aiden said fiercely, turning his hot gaze on her.

She gulped and started to sweat, from the heat, not nervousness.

“Sorry I brought it up, Aiden. I just thought you might be more comfortable talking about it now.” I said.

He seemed to calm a bit.

“So, uh, how about we play the animal game? I think of an animal, and you guys try to guess it by asking yes or no questions?” Walter suggested.

“That sounds like fun.” I said, trying to calm the situation further.

“All right, I’ve got an animal, so start guessing and asking.” Walter said.

“Armadillo.” I guessed.

“Nope.” he replied.

“Is it a mammal?” Cassidy asked.

“Nope.” he answered.

“Um, is it a kind of fish?” I asked.

“Not even close!” he responded.

“Bear!” Aiden shouted.

“No, it is not a—holy guacamole! A bear!” Walter cried.

Towering in front of us was a six-foot-nine brown bear. It roared ferociously, baring its fangs.

We all screamed, scattering. The bear dropped to all fours and began to chase Walter.

“We must have walked too close to its territory!” Cassidy said as she ran alongside me.

Walter yelled, frantically trying to escape the bear.

“We have to help Walter!” I replied.

“Right.” she responded.

We stopped and turned towards the bear. It was running to the right, only mere feet behind Walter.

“Walter! Go underside!” Cassidy shouted.

Walter seemed to have heard her because he suddenly sunk straight into the ground.

“He is going to be okay, right?” I asked, forming a slush ball in my right hand.

“He’ll be fine, he’s a Geo.” she reminded me.

I lobbed the slush ball at the bear. Unfortunately, I aimed too far to the right as the bear halted, confused as to where Walter had disappeared to.

Aiden was soaring above the bear, trying to blast it with fire. The bear roared up at him as if to say, C’mon, fight fair! You know I can’t fly!

Cassidy, using her telekinesis, was throwing tree branches at the bear like they were javelins. The tree branches bothered the bear, but they only served to attract its attention to us.

Soon she ran out of tree branches.

“What now?” I asked.

“Now we run!” she replied, dashing off. I scrambled behind her. The bear started to pursue us, slowed down by Aiden’s fiery projectiles.

As the bear closed the gap between us, I quickly snapped around and threw slush balls at it. I managed to freeze its front legs and neck over, but it was too big of a target for me to freeze over completely. The bear growled and began to move forward slowly, shattering the ice that encased its legs.

It reared up, looming over me.

As it was about to slam down on top of me, a rock structure sprung forth from the ground and knocked the bear onto its back.

Walter rose from the ground next to me, as if the earth grew him like a plant.

The bear rolled to its legs and turned on us. As it was about to unleash another mighty roar, it was lifted into the air, unable to move.

Cassidy kept it afloat while Aiden barraged it with flames. Cassidy dropped the bear to the ground with a thud. Some of its fur was burnt away in patches. The bear lumbered away, having learned to leave us alone.

“Do you think that was a bit too cruel? I mean, we were the ones who walked onto the bear’s turf.” Walter said.

“Perhaps it was a bit overdone. But we were just defending ourselves.” I reasoned.

“Yeah, but my guess is that that was just momma bear. We’d best get out of here before poppa bear comes home from hunting.” Aiden said.

We all murmured in agreement and ran south for the next ten minutes until we were sure we were a safe distance from the bear cave.

We were all panting from exhaustion.

“All right Aiden,” I said, “how far are we from Pittsburg now?”

Aiden thought for a moment.

“Well, unless the massive heat signature I am picking up is Walter’s land whale, I’d say we are about three-quarters of a mile from Pittsburg. At this rate, I’d put us there at maybe noon tomorrow.” he said.

“But today is the last day. Sierra told you that you had four days at best until those drones escaped and that was three days ago.” I reminded him.

“Yeah, well, I guess I’m too far gone for those drones to care anymore.” he replied. I nodded my understanding.

We continued walking the next couple hours in silence, except for Walter who kept whistling (poorly, I might add), ‘Walking in a Winter Wonderland’.

Soon we began to hear Walter’s complaints about how if he didn’t get food, he would die of starvation.

Eventually we submitted to his whining and made camp to cook some dinner. Walter ate leftover rabbit meat in one of the Mac-n-cheese cups (which couldn’t have tasted very good) while the rest of us had a meal of rabbit-and-squirrel sandwiches and Pop Tarts. Aiden ate Walter’s king-size Hershey’s bar, which actually looked pretty good to me.

Cassidy had brought a thermos of hot chocolate which, after heating it, she shared with everybody.

It tasted very good. I couldn’t remember the last time I had enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate. It had to be the last time I had had Christmas back at home.

I began to tear up at the thought of Christmas. It was hard for people to remember when Christmas was these days since it snowed all the time. Unless you had a watch or a calendar, there was no way for you to tell what time it was or what month it was or whether or not you had a dental appointment today.

That night I ended up taking third watch. The sky was clearer than normal; I could make out a few stars in the sky. I thought I saw Venus. I couldn’t see the moon anywhere.

When it was Walter’s turn for watch, I shook him to wake him up.

He groaned and turned over, ignoring me.

“C’mon, it’s your turn to take watch.” I said, shaking him again.

“Huh? What?” he asked, sitting up. I shook him once more just to be sure.

“It’s your turn to watch now, okay? Wake everyone up in two hours, all right?” I said, lying down on my bedroll.

He nodded.

I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

It seemed like only minutes later, Cassidy was shaking my shoulder. I looked over at Aiden. He was cooking breakfast in a fire.

After eating breakfast, we packed all of our things up and turned south.

“Now, let’s hit the road and get to Pittsburg!” she said.

After walking a little while, I didn’t bother asking Aiden how far we were; I could see Pittsburg ahead of us by then.

In no time we were walking through the streets of Pittsburg.

The city was dark. Hover cars congested the roads. Pedestrians were confined to the sidewalks, going along and minding their own business. A homeless man sat against a brick wall on a street corner. Walter dropped fifty cents into his tin can.

The city looked like the remains of a zombie apocalypse. Trash blew through the streets. Snow filled every nook and cranny you could find. Everything was gray and dreary.

“So where did your dad say your family would be going?” Aiden asked.

“A hotel in Pittsburg.” I replied.

We looked all around us. There were half a dozen different hotels on that street alone.

“Well, that narrows it down.” Cassidy said.

“Maybe we should split up?” Walter suggested.

We all agreed that that was a good idea. We all split up at the intersection, going down different streets.

Six hours later, we still hadn’t had any luck.

“I don’t know where they could be!” I cried when we met back up at the intersection.

“Maybe they haven’t gotten here yet?” Walter suggested, ever the optimist.

“Maybe they decided to skip town?” Cassidy offered.

“Maybe they got lost in the storm and—uh, went the wrong way?” Aiden said. I knew what he was about to say. But there was no way that my family was dead. As long as they were together, they’d survive.

“You know Isaac, maybe Walter is right. They just haven’t shown up yet. We should check into a hotel for the night and look for them tomorrow.” Cassidy recommended. I nodded in agreement. We walked inside the nearest hotel, the Snow Bank Hotel.

The lobby was decorated with a soft red carpet. The windows were glazed with frost. Running along the left wall was a desk with several managers and clerks standing behind it, chatting on phones or checking people in. The lobby was brilliantly lit with fluorescent light bulbs inside overhanging lamps. Golden furniture with red velvet cushions were arranged around mahogany coffee tables all around the room. Some of the chairs and couches were occupied by people in heavy coats and jackets. We walked to the front desk where a woman stood, talking on the phone.

“Excuse me.” I said.

The woman held up a finger, signaling that she needed a moment.

We stood there waiting, but the woman didn’t seem to be interested in ending her conversation any time soon. We decided to sit and wait in some of the chairs. As we made our way over, I suddenly heard a familiar voice.

“Excuse me, we’d like a room.” the man’s voice said.

“For how many?” the manager replied.

“Four-oh, I mean, three.” the man replied.

I turned around. Standing there amongst a pile of bags and packs was my dad.

“Dad?” I asked.

He whipped around, his eyes wide.

“Isaac!” he cried, running to me. My mom and my younger sister joined the group hug.

“I was right; they just didn’t get here yet!” Walter bragged.

“Mom, dad, this is Cassidy, Walter, and Aiden. They helped me get here so I could find you!” I said.

“Thank you all very much. I don’t know what I would’ve done with myself if we hadn’t gotten Isaac back.” my dad said to them.

“It was no trouble, really.” Cassidy said.

“Are you kidding? You fought off a bear!” I replied.

“A bear?” my mom asked.

We all explained what had happened over the past few days. After telling them the story, my dad thanked my new friends maybe a hundred times for helping me get to Pittsburg safely.

“It was our pleasure.” Cassidy said.

“No problem.” Walter said.

“Yeah, well, see you around.” Aiden said, heading towards the door.

“Aiden hang on.” I said suddenly. I realized then and there what Cassidy’s grandfather had meant.

I quickly told dad about Aiden, how he was a Pyro so he didn’t have a real family.

The next thing my dad said was, “Aiden…how would you like to be a part of the family?”

Aiden’s eyes were wide, obviously surprised by the question.

“Y-you really mean it?” he mumbled, almost inaudibly.

My dad nodded confirmation.

Aiden ran to my dad and hugged him in answer.

“Room for five.” My dad called over to the manager.

I smiled. Aiden finally had a family. Suddenly, I found myself wondering once again how Aiden knew so much about the person whose ashes he had been born from. But as I watched Aiden smile and talk happily with his new family, my family, I realized that it didn’t matter. Aiden was safe now and happy now.

We all decided to walk to a diner and eat out for the night. And as we walked along the sidewalk, the clouds opened up again and allowed the sunlight to pour forth onto our dreary world.

I thought about everything that was wrong in the world: people losing their jobs left and right, the world stuck in an ice age with people living on the streets, an aristocratic government not caring about the rest of us.

Yet in that moment, with my family and my new brother, and with my great new friends, with the sun shining down on us, I couldn’t have felt happier.

Part Two

 * Note: This is sort of like Book Two, so there may be some things recapped or reexplained in this part.

Chapter One
The sensation of my feet leaving the ground was…scary. It was also quite exciting, but I was a bit too concentrated on keeping myself aloft at that point to give the excitement too much thought.

“Come on, just close your eyes, and concentrate.” Aiden, my adopted brother, said gently.

He was really starting to soften up. When I had first met him, he had been aggressive, irascible, and even a bit paranoid. I could understand his emotions at the time; being the only Pyro in existence, in a world stuck in an ice age, and with his caretaker Sierra having been killed protecting him from a robotic militant force, he had all the rights to feel that way.

He assisted me in getting back to my family; we’d been separated during a blinding blizzard. After explaining Aiden’s situation to my dad, he was officially welcomed into the family.

Oh right, you’re probably wondering what the heck I’m talking about. Allow me to explain in greater detail. Here in the future, us humans have evolved and developed psychokinetic abilities to control certain elements with our minds. Me? I’m a Cryo, the slang term for a person with cryokinesis, or in other words, the ability to control ice. Aiden is a Pyro, the only one in the whole world in fact. He can control heat and fire. Considering that the aristocratic government composed of Cryos that rules over our nation, the Council of the United Territories of New America, or CUTNA for short has turned the nation into a frozen wasteland, it’s no mystery why Aiden’s ability is frowned upon in our society.

CUTNA’s decisions are extremely selfish; the cold conditions were thought to be a good way to remind everyone who was in charge. In reality, it just made life worse for the middle class and everyone lower than that. My family used to be part of the middle class, but a few years after the government froze the nation, my father lost his job and soon after our house. We were forced to become nomadic, trekking through the snow and travelling from town to town looking for a place to stay for a while, and if we were lucky, my dad would be hired for some temporary petty jobs, that would soon expire, leaving us scrounging for money once again.

My family isn’t even the only one to be affected by this either; hundreds of families, thousands of individuals have lost homes, jobs, education, luxury, and loved ones to the arctic conditions.

“Ouch!” I exclaimed as I thudded to the ground, losing my concentration.

“Concentrate harder.” Aiden said.

“Ugh, I’m trying!” I said, getting up and rubbing my chest.

“Look, concentration is key. You need to control the air to go where you want it. Try again?” he said.

“Maybe later, I’m hungry.” I said.

“Me too. Let’s go to the banquet hall.” he said. I laughed.

“Right, like we’d ever get in there.”

“Well why not?” he said.

I raised an eyebrow. The banquet hall was a large building next door to the mayor’s headquarters. Here in Pittsburgh, it was a place where the higher class people, who were little effected by the eternal winter, would go and throw huge parties and gorge themselves with food. The idea of them made me feel both jealous and disgusted. How could they practice such gluttony when there is so much starvation around them?

“I don’t mean rooting through the dumpsters out back this time. I mean actually going inside and eating the food there. We could pocket some for mom, dad, and Riley, and even spit into the punch bowl. What do you say?” Aiden asked.

I sighed. “It wouldn’t be the craziest thing we’ve done. All right, let’s sneak in.” I said.

“Okay, but we’re going to need some help.” he said.

“From who?”

“Gee, who do we know around here that can use telekinesis?”

I smiled. He was referring to our good friend Cassidy. She had helped the two of us get to Pittsburgh three weeks ago. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to get back home to her small town due to a raging blizzard that had been going on for a few weeks now. She and her brother Walter had rented out a small motel room, but they quickly ran out of money and now bunked in an alleyway behind the motel. I had offered for them to come and stay with us for a while, but Cassidy didn’t want us to get in trouble with the manager of the hotel we were staying in. Aiden and I rushed to the motel, ducking into an alley on the left of it.

Aiden held a hand out, stopping me in my path.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. He held a hand up to indicate that I needed to stay quiet. He peeked around the corner.

“What is it you want?” I heard Cassidy’s voice come from around the corner.

“Food, drink, something to clear my senses if you have it.” another voice said. I didn’t recognize the voice.

“I have none of those things. Now release my brother.” Cassidy replied, her voice steady and diplomatic.

“You’ve got something, and I want it. Give it to me, or my knife may just slip--”

“Cassidy!” Walter’s panicked voice. Something was wrong.

“Don’t even try anything fancy with whatever psychokinesis you have, I guarantee my knife hand will be quicker than anything you can dish out.”

Suddenly, I saw a wooden plank in the corner slowly float up into the air. It drifted into Aiden’s hand. He grinned, understanding what Cassidy wanted him to do. Stealthily he crept around the corner, raising the makeshift weapon.

I followed along behind him. I could make out the man now. He was tall, wearing a ripped-up leather jacket. His back was turned to us, but I could see Walter’s smaller figure being held in front of him.

Aiden was about to bring the plank down on the man, when suddenly the man spun around.

Reacting instinctively, I conjured a sphere of icy slush into my hand and hurled at the man’s knife hand. His hand instantly froze, the knife becoming encased in ice.

“Walter, run!” Cassidy called. Walter threw his elbow into the man’s gut and spun out of his grasp. Aiden hammered the man over the head with the wooden plank. He stumbled, but quickly regained his footing and tackled Aiden, pinning him against the brick wall.

“Aiden, let go!” Cassidy called. Aiden released the plank, allowing Cassidy’s telekinetic grip to take it from him. The wood impacted with the back of the man’s head. He reeled around on Cassidy and charge towards her. Aiden lobbed a fireball at the man, but he nimbly leapt out of its path and continued towards Cassidy. She lifted her hands, prepared to attack, when suddenly two bricks collided on each of the man’s temples. He fell, unconscious. I turned to Walter.

“Good job, Walter.” I said.

“Thanks.” he replied.

I was referring to his ability to manipulate stone and earth, known as geokinesis, which he used to throw the bricks.

“I’m glad you guys showed up when you did.” Cassidy said. “I wasn’t quite sure what to do in that position.”

“No problem. We were actually on our way here to recruit you for something.” I explained.

“Oh? What would that be, Isaac?” she asked.

“We’re going to go to the banquet hall.”

“Why do you guys need me to root through the trash?”

“We’re not dumpster diving today; today we’re going inside.” I explained.

“Oh, so it’s a real mission, is it? All right, I’m in. I want to spit in the punch bowl.”

“That’s what I said!” Aiden exclaimed. The two of them high-fived.

“All right then, let’s go.” I said.

“Wait! What about me! I want to come!” Walter said.

“Sorry Walter, but it’ll be easier if there are less of us.” Aiden said.

“Well then why is Cassidy getting to go?”

“She’ll be able to pick the locks with her telekinesis. Don’t worry; we’ll bring something good back for you.” I explained.

Walter sighed. “I never get to join in on any of the fun.”

“Want us to leave something behind for those snobby jerks?” Aiden asked.

Walter smiled. “Well, now that you mention it…”

…

“This is a masterpiece.” I said.

“Needs one last touch.” Cassidy said. She sprayed the statue down with a bit more blue paint. “There, now it’s perfect.”

“Hopefully Walter will get a good smile out of this. Now, let’s head to that banquet hall.” Aiden said.

After leaving the now defaced statue of the mayor of Pittsburgh, we strode down the street towards the banquet hall. Once we got there, we went around back.

“All right, just give me a second.” Cassidy said. She focused on the latch on the window. It flicked open right away. Aiden pushed the window open.

“Thanks, unlocking it from the inside was a lot stealthier than my initial plan.” he said, snapping a flame to life on the tip of his index finger.

“Come on, let’s get inside.” I said. Aiden boosted Cassidy up and she crawled through the window. I went next, and he followed soon after. We now stood in a hallway with soft, fancily patterned carpet.

“This place is nice.” I said. “It disgusts me.”

Aiden laughed quietly.

“Follow me, guys. The party is just down here.” Aiden said, starting down the hallway.

I smiled, eager to not only get some decent food, but to show these hoity-toity, gluttonous pigs what’s what.

Cassidy and I followed after Aiden. He peeked around a corner and then turned to us.

“It’s just in this room. Let’s get started.” he said.

Cassidy stepped forward. Her eyes narrowed as she focused on the banquet hall. Food began to levitate off of the tables. Party guests recoiled from the tables, confused.

Cassidy smiled as the food drifted our way.

“Isaac, your turn.” Aiden said. I stepped around the corner and reached for anything I could grab.

“That filthy peasant is stealing our food! Security!” I heard a man yell. I looked across the room to see two burly men barreling across the room towards me. Reacting on instinct, I reached into the nearby wine cooler to gain access to a cold source. When my hand came out, I held a large slushy orb in my left hand. I tossed it on the ground and ice began to creep along the floor until the banquet hall had become an ice rink. The two guards slipped and fell on their backs. Several of the guests started slipping too, which I found to be quite funny. I even heard Aiden laugh as he came around the corner and started grabbing some food himself.

One of the guests reached a hand out and I was suddenly pulled off of my feet, levitating in the air. It seemed that this guy actually knew how to use his abilities properly, unlike most of the guests. He slammed me against a wall and I felt an invisible force crush down on my chest. I struggled to breathe.

“Hey, put him down!” Aiden shouted, lobbing a fireball at the man. The fireball landed about two feet from the man’s head. The man screamed and rose off the floor, leaping away from the fire. His toupee fell off his head. I collapsed to the ground, sucking in generous amounts of oxygen.

Suddenly I heard a robotic voice come from the other side of the room. A duo of robotic drones floated towards Aiden.

“Aiden, drones!” I called. He looked up.

“Run!” he shouted. The three of us ran out the way we came. Cassidy and I went right while Aiden broke left.

“This way!” he called. I started after him but my path was suddenly barred by a drone.

“Halt!” the drone said in a monotone voice. It turned towards us. Cassidy took my hand and dragged me along behind her. Once I regained my footing I ran with her towards the exit.

Once we were outside, Cassidy bent the doorknob into a misshapen mess of metal.

“That should keep him stuck in there for a bit, but we should really get out of here while we can.”

“What about Aiden?” I asked.

“I’ll establish a telepathic link with him so that we can find him. Now come on, let’s go.” she said, pulling me along behind her.

I soon felt the telepathy become established in my mind. It was weird…it felt like having a part of your mind rearranged into other areas to make room for someone else’s thoughts. For a moment, my mind went blank, and suddenly, I heard Aiden’s thoughts in my head.

Got to keep running, I can’t let them catch me, his thoughts echoed in my head.

“Aiden is still being chased. Can you locate him?” I asked Cassidy.

“He’s on the roof of the banquet hall. Let’s go up to him.” she replied. We were suddenly levitated off the ground, floating towards the roof.

Cassidy was a Level 10 on the Psychometer, which was an instrument used to measure the strength of one’s psychokinetic abilities. Level 10 was the highest. There were still some things I’m sure she could do that I just didn’t know about. Her Level 10 status allows her to use several of her powers at once, so the telepathic link remained in tact. I wasn’t sure if Aiden could hear our thoughts though.

I’m a Level 4 on the Psychometer. That’s about the average for someone my age; Cassidy was a step above the rest on this stuff.

We looked around the roof for Aiden once we’d landed.

“I don’t see him.” I said.

“There he is!” Cassidy cried, pointing. I looked over.

There was Aiden, surrounded by two drones.

No…no this can’t be happening! Aiden thought.

I didn’t understand what he meant; couldn’t he just burn the robots, or make them explode, or just fly off the roof?

He looked a bit fatigued, as if he was about to pass out. I could also tell that he still had some strength in him, but it seemed that strength was being used to simply keep him standing.

Two more drones came forth, surrounding him. One of them aimed their robotic arm at his head and fired a little device that clamped onto his forehead. It unfolded to wrap completely around from his forehead to the back of his head, like a metal headband.

“They’ve got a Psycho Cuff on him!” Cassidy said. We both started forwards.

Psycho Cuffs are devices used by drones and government military forces to prevent prisoners from using their psychokinetic abilities. If we didn’t get to Aiden in time, he’d be helpless against those drones.

Aiden collapsed on the ground, but propped himself up on his elbows. He looked like he was just fighting to keep from fainting.

''No! No, not now! Anytime but now!'' He thought.

What could he possibly mean?

Cassidy crushed two of the drones into metal pancakes and then tossed them like Frisbees at the other two. I piled a snowdrift on top of the drones and then encased it in ice to keep them down.

“Aiden!” Cassidy said, running to him.

“Augh…” Aiden replied.

I knelt down beside him.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“I can’t…its happening again…I can’t now…” he replied.

“Something’s wrong. We need to get him home.” I said.

“Okay.” Cassidy said.

Suddenly, I heard sirens sounding.

“Oh no, more drones.” I said.

Cassidy was bent over Aiden shaking his shoulder.

“Isaac, Aiden isn’t responding!” she cried worriedly.

“What!? No, he can’t be dead…” I said.

“He isn’t dead, he still has a pulse…he just blacked out. I’m going to carry him with my telekinesis.”

“Okay, let’s go, sounds like those drones are getting closer.” I said.

The sensation of leaving the ground came back to me again, but this time there was no concentration on my part; it was all Cassidy.

We floated down to the ground and continued on foot.

We were halfway there when I heard several drones behind us, calling for us to stop and occasionally firing a laser.

I turned around and stopped. “Get Aiden back to the house, I’ll catch up.” I said.

“Isaac--”

“Go!” I shouted. She continued running.

I lowered down to the ground.

“Put your hands up.” a drone said as the half dozen of them stopped in front of me. I did as they said, lifting my hands out of the snow to reveal two icy swords in my hands.

“Release your weapon!” a second drone said.

“Sure thing.” I replied. I hurled one sword at the drone that had spoken, impaling them in the chest. I whirled around and stabbed the first one with my right sword while withdrawing my left sword from the other drone. The drones closed in on me, trying to grab me with metal hands. I stabbed two on each side of me, allowing them to fall. It seemed that once I killed one, two more took its place.

I shouted in rage and willed the snow around me to erupt.

Instead, the snow behind the drones flew towards me, slamming the drones from behind. Then, the snow near me blasted outwards, tossing the drones away.

I was in disbelief. How did I do that?

I shook the feeling away and continued fighting, throwing mounds of snow, freezing drones, and hammering them with icy weapons.

Soon, metal carnage lay all around me. I ran off, eager to catch up with the others.

…

“I don’t know how I did it, but…I did. I thought the school nurse I’d seen a few months ago had said my mind wouldn’t get to Level 5 for another couple years.” I said.

My mom withdrew the Psychometer from my forehead. It was a little metal box with a screen on the front. Small buttons were on the side of it.

“Well, it seems you are earlier than expected. The Psychometer reads Level 5.” my mom said.

“That’s great!” I cheered.

“Yeah, but Aiden is still out cold. I don’t know what’s wrong with him…” my dad said, pressing a wet cloth on Aiden’s forehead. Cassidy stood at his side, looking quite worried.

“It’s getting late, you should stay the night, Cassidy.” my mom offered.

“Thank you, but I don’t want to get you into trouble.” Cassidy replied. “Besides, I shouldn’t leave Walter alone out there. Not after what happened this afternoon…”

“Speaking of which,” my dad began. I sighed. Here it comes. “What were you guys thinking? Rooting through trash and begging for food is fine, but breaking and entering a building to steal food? That’s just crossing the line.” he said.

“I’m sorry, dad. You’re right. Aiden and I shouldn’t have done that, and we surely shouldn’t have pulled Cassidy into it.” I said.

“I expect you’ll never do that again.” he said.

I nodded. “Yes sir.”

“Well, I’m going to bed. You should too, Isaac.” my mom suggested.

“I’ll look after Aiden for a while. You and dad go to bed.” I said.

“All right, but don’t stay up too late.” my dad said, rising from beside Aiden. My parents left the room.

“Isaac, come here.” Cassidy said. I went over and knelt beside her.

“There’s something I want to try, but I couldn’t do it until your parents left. Take my hand.” she said.

I put my hand into hers.

“Ready to go on a trip?” she asked.

“Where?” I asked.

“We’re going to see what is going on in Aiden’s head right now.”

“You promised you wouldn’t read his mind again!” I said.

“I know, but I want to find out what’s going on with him. I think this’ll be our way to find some answers and maybe wake him up. Will you join me?”

“I don’t know…”

“Please. Going into people’s minds can be scary sometimes. I don’t want to be alone.” she said.

I thought for a moment. “Okay, let’s do it.”

Cassidy placed her hand on Aiden’s forehead.

“Ready?” she asked. I nodded.

Suddenly, I blacked out, and when I opened my eyes, I couldn’t believe what I saw.

Chapter Two
The city was engulfed in flames. Smoke and ash rose into the red sky and screams echoed through the streets. A group of people pushed past me and Cassidy as they fled in terror.

“What’s going on…is Aiden doing this?” I asked.

“We’ll have to find him and ask him ourselves. Come on.” Cassidy said, running ahead. I followed after her.

As we ran deeper into the city the heat got more intense. People ran by us, screaming and covered in soot and blood. Some of them gave us puzzled looks as we ran by, probably wondering why we were going towards danger.

“Look out!” Cassidy screamed, stopping in her tracks and grabbing me. She dove on the ground, pulling me down with her.

I looked up to see a skyscraper crumbling down, sending clouds of dust, mortar, brick and ash towards us. There was a flash of blue light and I squinted my eyes shut. I heard the groaning of the building’s foundation and the roar of flames. People screamed and car alarms went off as the building toppled down onto the street. I opened my eyes and saw that Cassidy had erected a force field around us to protect us from the falling building. The force field flickered away and we stood up. A fog of dust and dirt still hung over the street.

I coughed into my arm and squeezed my eyes shut. I was lifted off of the ground and new that Cassidy was flying us over the wreckage. Once we were above the dust cloud I opened my eyes.

From the air I could see more destruction. Buildings around the city collapsed and bonfires growled hungrily as they consumed more of the metropolis. In the distance I could see a figure flying through the air, fire raining down upon the land from it.

“Cassidy, over there, it’s Aiden!” I said, pointing.

We flew off towards him. I didn’t understand why he was destroying this city. Sure, this wasn’t a real city, just his mind but…did he truly have these thoughts? Had the world’s mistreatment of him been so much that he would see it burn?

We neared the source of the fire, and I could see now that it was definitely a human, but it didn’t look like Aiden.

The man turned towards us and his hands blazed orange and yellow.

“Cassidy, that’s not Aiden, get down!” I yelled.

The blast of fire came right at us, and I could feel the levitation drop away from me but it was too late. I grabbed onto Cassidy and turned my back to the fire, hoping I could at least shield her from the worst of it. Was it possible for me to die in someone else’s mind?

Suddenly the heat from the fire blast was gone and I felt Cassidy’s telekinesis hold me up again. I looked over to see Aiden flying between us and the other Pyro, absorbing the last of the fire blast into his hands.

“You again!?” the mysterious Pyro shouted.

“Burn the city all you want, but don’t ever turn on my friends!” Aiden yelled back.

“Ha! Why are you suddenly so careless about my destruction of the city? Finally change your mind?”

“No. I won’t fight you right now though. Not this time.” Aiden replied.

“Fine. Away with you then!”

Aiden turned to us. “Come with me.” he said. He then flew off. Cassidy and I followed him and the other Pyro continued to hurl hellfire upon the city.

Once we were down on the ground, Aiden turned on us.

“What the hell are you doing here!?” he yelled.

“We--” I started.

“I’m sorry Aiden. I know you asked me not to go into your mind anymore but I had to…I wanted to know what was going on with you, and what we can do to help.” Cassidy explained.

Aiden calmed himself.

“Aiden…is that Pyro…the one before you?” I asked.

Aiden looked over at me and clenched his fists. Pyros are not born naturally; instead they are born from the ashes of the Pyro before them. Aiden was always touchy on the subject, but now he needed to tell me what it was that made him so sensitive about the topic.

“Yes. He is. You guys might have learned about this event in your schools.” Aiden said.

I racked my brain to try to remember, but it had been a while since I was forced to leave school and so my memory wasn’t fresh.

“This…this is the Great Furnace isn’t it?” Cassidy asked. Aiden nodded.

It clicked. The Great Furnace was a terrorist attack carried about by a single man—a Pyro. He travelled the nation and burned many cities to the ground. Somehow he was finally killed, ending the ordeal. The APC, Agency for Psychokinetic Control, was formed shortly after to prevent future attacks. Pyrokinesis was declared illegal by the national government and then a few decades later, the heads of the APC formed a new government: CUTNA.

“As I’ve told you before, the Pyro before me was not a nice guy. This is how I know.” Aiden said.

“You…have his memories?” Cassidy asked.

“No, no but…you know how people have an increase in psychokinetic levels every few years…typically, anyway?” Aiden asked.

Cassidy and I nodded.

“Well, whenever mine increases, I black out. This is what I see every time I do. That monster burns this place and I fight back to try and stop him. I lose! I lose every time!”

Cassidy stepped forwards and wrapped Aiden in a hug.

“I’m sorry Aiden. That you have to live through this nightmare.” she said. Aiden was surprised by her hug but embraced her as well.

“That’s what it is, a recurring nightmare. I feel like…if someday I beat him, that it will end, and I won’t black out like this anymore.”

“You don’t have to do it alone. If this happens again, we can come in and help you. Fighting fire with fire only works sometimes, and in this case it’s literal. It’s either loss or stalemate if you fight him on your own.” I said.

“You’re right. I’ve been alone most of my life but now, now I have a family. Thank you.” Aiden replied.

Cassidy stepped back. “You give warm hugs.” she said, giggling.

Aiden laughed along with her. “Don’t worry about me guys. I’ll wake up soon, and if I’m not awake before mom and dad are, tell them what’s going on. I don’t want them to worry. You guys need sleep anyway, I’m sure this was tiring for you guys…mentally that is.”

Suddenly, everything went black again. I opened my eyes and looked to my left to see Cassidy, her hand still on Aiden’s forehead. Her eyes opened and she looked to me.

“I told you, it can be scary. You never know what goes on in a person’s subconscious. Teles can only read so much, even Level 10s like me.” she said.

My head ached badly from the mental journey. Cassidy seemed just fine, but then again she was probably used to it by now.

“Ah, man I’ve got a hell of a headache right now.” I said.

“Here, I can help that.” Cassidy said.

“Its fine, I’ll just dig up some snow outside and press it to my forehead.” I responded.

“That would take the edge off, but what I have in mind is different…or rather, what you have in your mind.”

I gave her an uncertain and slightly nervous look.

She turned in the chair so that she faced me. “Look into my eyes.”

I sighed and looked into her eyes. She looked right back into mine. She was still holding my hand, and I was really hoping that I wasn’t blushing. Her eyes were a sapphire blue, stunning and beautiful, with a sort of ancient wisdom to them…no, it wasn’t just that, they had a sparkle in them, wit even.

I barely even noticed that the pain had gone away. I shook my head.

“What? How did you…what did you do?” I asked.

“I temporarily dulled your brain’s pain receptors. If you don’t get to bed within about thirty minutes though, that headache will come back to bite you.” she warned.

“Thanks. You should get back to your place, after this afternoon, Walter might need some extra eyes on him.” I said.

“Right. It’s late too. I hope he’s all right.” she said as she stood up. She opened the door and the cold air immediately blew in. She shivered.

I grabbed my jacket off of the coat rack. “Here, take this.” I offered. She slipped it on.

“Thanks. You’ll be fine without it tomorrow?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I’m used to cold.” I said. “Good night.”

“Good night.” She stepped outside. I could see her breath out in the cold night air. She looked back at me and smiled before walking down the street.

I closed the door. What the heck was wrong with me? Why did I hold the door open for so long after she walked out? Did I…no, it wasn’t possible.

I went over to check on Aiden again. He was still out cold, but at least now I knew he was going to be okay. I went into my bedroom. After such a crazy day, I was very tired, and I fell asleep almost instantly.

…

I woke up to the doorbell ringing. I rolled out of bed and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I still wasn’t entirely awake so I pressed my hand to the back of my neck and sent a cold chill into my skin, which jolted me right out of my half-asleep state.

I stepped out of my bedroom and the first thing I noticed was that Aiden wasn’t on the table. He must have woken up from his comatose sleep and gone to his actual bed. I went over to the door and looked through the peephole. I leapt back and nearly hit the table when I saw the pair of drones waiting outside my door. They must be looking for me and Aiden…

I ran to my parents’ bedroom and told them. My dad got up and went to Aiden’s room, where Aiden was playing Kirby on a Game Boy Advance.

“Aiden, we need to hide you.” my dad said.

Aiden closed the Game Boy. “Why?”

“There are drones here. If they find out you’re a Pyro, they’ll take us all in.” I said. Aiden nodded his understanding.

“Here, hide in here.” I said, opening Riley’s toy chest. Aiden crammed himself inside.

“Wait, the drones can detect heat signatures, and Aiden’s a walking solar flare.” I pointed out.

“I might have something that can help that. Aiden, I am going to lower your body temperature to be room temperature so that you blend in with your surroundings while hiding in the chest. Now…your pulse will slow down a bit and you may lose the sensation of touch, motor skills, and…well, bottom line it won’t be pleasant.” my dad explained.

“It’s all right. Won’t be the first time I went into a death-like state in the last twenty-four hours.” Aiden said. My dad closed his eyes as he concentrated his cryokinetic abilities. Aiden’s skin became cold to the touch and his pulse slowed considerably. I closed the chest.

“Okay, so now I have to hide. I’ll go out the back and try to find Cassidy so that she can help hide me.” I said. My dad opened the window for me and I started to step out when I heard the drones already in the house. If they came in here and saw me climbing out, it would scream of suspiciousness.

“Scratch that, I’m going to stay in here. Dad, go make up the bed in my room and if the drones ask, tell them it’s a guest room.” I said. I climbed into Aiden’s bed and feigned sleep while my dad left the room.

After a few moments I heard one of the drones enter the room. Through my eyelids there was a red light and I knew that the drone was scanning the room. The red light vanished and the drone beeped, confirming it didn’t sense anything out of the ordinary. It left the room and I let out the breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding.

A few minutes later and the drones left. Dad came into the room and threw open the chest, lifting Aiden out of it.

“Get a fire going!” he called.

An hour later Aiden’s body heat had started to normalize, but he still had himself wrapped in two blankets.

I sat next to him by the fire.

“Sorry guys. If I hadn’t decided to raid the banquet hall yesterday, those drones would have never come here.” Aiden said.

“Nothing that can be done about it now.” Mom said.

A knock came at the door. Riley answered it.

“Hi Walter!” she said.

Walter stepped in the door with an armful of chocolate bars.

“I uh, heard Aiden wasn’t doing so well so I…what happened?” Walter asked.

“Drones came looking for Aiden.” I said.

“Ah, that sucks.” he said, handing a chocolate bar to us both. “How’d you trick their heat sensors?”

“My dad lowered Aiden’s body temperature. He’s still warming up.”

“Well, then a bit of sugar in your blood ought to do you some good.”

Aiden thanked Walter and started munching on the candy.

“So the drones have nothing to report back?”

“No, but you know how it works. If the drones find nothing, they send in an actual person to investigate, and they aren’t tricked as easily. Especially if they’re a Tele.” I said.

“When will they show up?” Walter asked.

Another knock at the door; I hoped it was Cassidy.

My dad answered.

“Hello, Agent Tyler of the APC. I’m here because I received reports of a Pyrokinetic in this area and must search your house. For your own safety of course.” a voice said.

I froze in fear. We didn’t have time to hide Aiden, and he still wasn’t feeling one-hundred percent after the ordeal earlier.

The agent stepped inside. He wore a black coat and black pants with brown boots. His hair was sleek and dark blond and his eyes were a venomous green.

“What happened here?” Agent Tyler asked, gesturing to Aiden and the blankets.

“We were outside playing and I fell in a hole of slush.” Aiden replied. The agent nodded and continued to look around the room.

“The uh…six of you are Cryos?” Agent Tyler asked.

“Oh, I’m not a member of the family. I’m just visiting. I’m a Geo.” Walter answered.

“All right, and the rest of you?”

“Cryos.” Mom answered.

“I see. Would you mind doing a psychokinetic test? Just a demonstration of your abilities.”

“You take us for liars?” Dad asked.

“Not at all, sir. It’s all for your safety, I assure you.”

I stood up and conjured a ball of icy slush into my hand. Agent Tyler nodded and I willed the icy ball to melt away. Riley went next, lowering the temperature in the room. Mom created a fork of ice and dad made an icy screwdriver.

Walter made a stony spoon, which I questioned the actual usefulness of.

The agent turned his attention to Aiden.

I lowered the temperature in the room with my mind, hoping the agent would think Aiden had done it.

Tyler barked a laugh. “Trying to trick a Tele?” he said. I quickly created a sphere of snow to my hand, ready to freeze the agent, when I was suddenly thrown back against the wall by an invisible force.

“Hey!” Dad shouted, throwing the frozen screwdriver at Tyler. Tyler grabbed the screwdriver in midair with his mind and broke it into a million pieces. Walter pulled several bricks from our fireplace and started to whirl them around himself like they’d been picked up by a tornado.

Tyler turned to Walter only to be tackled to the ground by Riley. Tyler yelled and pinned Riley to the ceiling with his telekinesis. Walter managed to hit Tyler with a brick before he threw up a force field that stopped the rest of the rocky barrage. Tyler then threw his arms out to his sides and hurled everyone across the room and away from him.

“You are all under arrest for housing a criminal and assaulting an officer!” Tyler shouted.

“Stop!” Aiden yelled.

Tyler snapped his head over to look at Aiden.

Aiden had been thrown by Tyler’s attack as well, and was now sitting in the middle of the burning fireplace. He rose from it, unscathed by the flames.

“I’ll make you a deal.”