“Do you hear that?” Kevin asked as he stood in place trying to decipher the type of high pitch noise.

Johnny was at the door about to open it when he heard Kevin’s question. He looked back to see Kevin tilt his head trying to hear the sound. He does the same and all he could hear was the music outside entertaining the crowd, the crowd in conversation and the hustle and bustle of people getting ready for the race. Johnny shrugged his shoulder giving up.

“I don’t hear anything but the crowd.” Johnny said annoyed. “Come on.”

Kevin decides to ignore the sound despite it constantly blaring in his ears. He heads to the door but then the sound started getting louder and started hurting his ears.

“Damn, it’s getting louder.” Kevin said as he tried to block out the sound by covering one of his ears to see if that would help, but it didn’t make a difference.

Now the sound was loud and piercing, the constant sound started giving him a headache. It was beginning to become too much for him to handle. He dropped his helmet as he covered his ears to try and block out the sound but it started feeling as though the sound was blaring in his head. He yells in pain as his head is pounding and throbbing. Johnny looked back to see his friend with his ears covered and hunched over in pain. He rushes over to Kevin trying to find out what is going on.

“Yo Kev, what’s wrong?” Johnny asked.

Kevin couldn’t hear him; all sounds were drowned out by the constantly blaring high pitch tone in his ears. Kevin goes down on his knees gritting his teeth in pain; is whole body felt like it was burning up. Confused, Johnny wasn’t sure how to help him. Kevin complained of a noise that he couldn’t hear and know he’s yelling as though he’s being tortured by someone, he looks over Kevin up and down and sees nothing wrong physically.

“Kevin, come on talk to me. Now is not the time to go crazy on me.” Said Johnny as he reaches out to Kevin.

Once he touched Kevin’s hand, he gets shocked. Johnny reacts in pain and brings his hand back shaking it to ease the pain.

"Damn it! What the hell?" Johnny yelled trying to figure out why that happened to him.

As he tries to figure it out the lights in the locker room begin to slowly flicker in and out. Johnny looks around still trying to figure out what is happening right now as he feels as though everything is reacting because of Kevin. He looks back at Kevin and sees Celtic like tribal markings all over his hands and face. They were glowing light blue and flickering in and out in unison with the lights in the locker room. Johnny takes a couple of steps back as he realized this exact moment reminds him of what happened at the school. He notices Kevin’s hands flowing with light blue energy and the light from that energy was slowing building. Kevin feels the intense heat from his body travel to his hands. The energy from his hands were intense that Kevin felt the need to get rid of it. He brings down his hands and sees his hands charged with energy. Knowing that if he doesn’t do anything he may create the same energy blast that Stewart did at the school which would reveal what he is. Seeing that the floor was concrete he decided to send his energy into the floor but he then thought about Johnny. He looks at Johnny.

"Johnny!" Kevin yelled.

Johnny turns to see Kevin looking at him. Kevin’s face covered in the celtic like tattoo patterns and his eye with the odd birthmark was also glowing along with the pattern. Johnny becomes anxious.

"Johnny, take cover!" Kevin warned him as he places his hands on the concrete.

Johnny noticed what Kevin was planning to do and quickly stands on top of the wooden bench just in time as Kevin released his energy onto the concrete floor. Kevin’s energy spread throughout the floor which caused some lockers to topple over. The energy surged up the concrete walls of the locker room which affected the electric wires connected to the lights in the room causing the lights to overload with energy and explode. Johnny covered his head to prevent the shards from the light bulbs to hurt him. Suddenly the high pitched sound began to fade, Kevin’s headache also goes away and Kevin hears the sound of the music and crowds from outside. Exhausted, he sighs in relief as he felt better, no more high-pitched noise, his body didn’t feel like it was overheating; he felt normal again. He then remembers Johnny.

"Johnny, you alright?" Asked Kevin as he catches his breath.

Johnny was shocked to see what just happened, he looked at Kevin. His long time friend since they were kids now had suddenly developed powers like Stewart, like a Seirei Jin. He stepped down from the bench still looking at Kevin and cautiously walked towards him.

"Uh Kev, what just happened now?" Johnny asked. "Did Stewart-

"You didn’t hear that?" Kevin asked interrupting Johnny’s question.

"Hear what?" Johnny replied with a question.

Kevin stood up, sweat rolling down his face. He held his head in exhaustion.

"That ear-splitting sound; that was unbearable. I thought my head was going to explode."

"Well something did." Johnny snapped back.

Kevin looked at Johnny unsure to what he was talking about.

"Kev, look around you, look what you did."

Kevin looked at the locker room and saw the devastation he left. As the room looked like a hurricane and earthquake came and destroyed the room. He looked at his hands trying to process the fact that the energy stored in his hands caused this.

"I-I did this?" Kevin asked unsure.

"Dude, your hands and face were glowing man, you had these weird looking markings and-

"We have to go." Kevin interrupted as he grabs his helmet which was on the ground.

"Wait what?" Johnny reacted in confusion.

He watches his friend grab his helmet and heads for the door acting as though nothing happened. He looked at Kevin puzzled.

"There going to disqualify us if we don’t hurry." Kevin warned him as he heads for the door.

"Time out." Johnny raised his voice. He rushed over to the exit and stood between Kevin and the exit causing Kevin to stop in place.

"You can’t go, not after what happened. Kev, you need to get checked out. What if that kid from the school did this to you?" Johnny replied concerned for his friend.

Kevin knew what would happen if he listened. He would end up like Stewart and be taken away from his family, his friends and his life. He walked up to Johnny and placed his hand on Johnny’s shoulder which startled him at first because he wasn’t sure what would happen. He didn’t get shocked by his Kevin this time, it was if he was normal, but Johnny knew realized what his friend had become or maybe truly is. He looked back at Kevin concerned.

"Johnny, we didn’t get this far to be to stop now." Kevin reminded him. "Dude, we worked hard to get where we are. I even dreamt of this day when I was a kid. I need this."

Johnny fell silent as he wasn’t sure what to do. If he called the advent guard they would take his best friend away. But then he was concerned as he heard that half breeds could become unstable just like what just happened but worse. Johnny was beside himself on what to do. Kevin noticed.

"I’m asking you as my friend Johnny." Kevin continued. "Let me enjoy this. Besides Sara will have our heads if we don’t leave now."

Johnny couldn’t help but chuckle, Kevin chuckled along with him. Even though Kevin caused the locker room explosion, deep down in Johnny’s eyes he was still Kevin.

"There’s no convincing you if I tried." Johnny stated. "Let’s win this."

Kevin hugged Johnny and patted him on the back thanking him. He quickly goes back and grabs Johnny’s helmet and give it to Johnny. Then the two leave for the stadium.

Back at the construction site, the tree that had the stone inside was still intact. Their several chainsaws were not working as each time they tried to cut the tree down, the power to the chainsaws were gone despite them still full with gasoline. Their manager noticed their lack of production, after they explained their problem, the manager suggested they use bulldozers which would also speed up their progress. The field workers went to retrieve their bulldozers so they may continue.

Meanwhile, back at the stadium, the crowds filled the seats anticipating for a very exciting race today. The families, and friends of the racers were sitting comfortably under the tents of their designated areas in full conversation among each other as they were waiting for the race to begin. The racers were on the tracks each to their assigned spots. The announcers arrived t their booth ats it was time for the race to begin.

“Good afternoon racing fans, this is Douglas Katez and welcome to this year’s NMA Pro Road Race being held here at in Madison Virginia. One lucky team will make it to nationals going against pro racers from around the world. This race is going to be intense folks.”

Agent Reynolds was among the crowds in the high risers. Positioning himself in the back corner it gave him the opportunity to observe Kevin from where he sat. He looked at the vendors and security guards around the stadium as they were actual soldiers disguised to help around the stadium. He contacts them via the commlink.

"This is Agent Reynolds, make sure you are in position, stand by for further instructions and whatever you do, do not act without my orders, are we clear." Reynolds ordered. The soldiers replied via the commlink and continued their routine jobs while also keeping an eye on their racetrack for any suspicious activities. Agent Reynolds continued to watch Kevin who was on his bike putting his helmet on and getting ready to begin.

"Alright kid show me what you can do." Reynolds whispered to himself.

Down at the racetrack Kevin and his friends Sara and Johnny were in separate designated spots. He looked across to see johnny was watching him making sure he was alright. Kevin gave him a thumbs up for reassurance. There were other fellow riders from different schools, and of course Mike and his friends from school were also participating in the race. The referee stands over head the racers on his podium that stretches to the front lines. He activated the traffic light that would signal racers to movie. The first red light came on signaling the racers to get ready. The second red light comes on the get them ready. All the racers started their engines and began revving up their bikes getting excited and pumped to begin. The last light was green which signaled the racers to begin and without any hesitation the racers were off. The racers were zooming down the tracks taking tight turns each time. Those who made too low a turn ended up crashing and being pulled out of the race. Kevin in the middle of the racers was conserving his gas waiting for the right opportunity to speed up and gain the lead. He sees they were heading to another turn around the track and decides to take the risk of gaining the lead. He presses the gas and made a sharp turn around the corner gaining the moment he needed to make his way towards the lead. That maneuver puts him in fifth place but unknown to him, Mike was trailing behind. Mike takes this moment to gain enough speed to be neck and neck with Kevin. He then inches closer to Kevin's bike in hopes of either causing him to slow down or steer off the track and get disqualified. Kevin noticed Mike's tactics and tries to avoid from steering off, but he noticed they are about to head for another to turn. If Mike timed it right, he could cause Kevin to fall and crash making him lose the race.

Mike made his move but before he could make contact, another bike came between him and Kevin which caused Mike to back off which made him slow down a bit and lose momentum. Kevin quickly glances at his hero and sees that it was Sara that came and intervened. She saluted Kevin and reassuring him that she had his back and continued to focus on the race. “I owe you one Sara.” Kevin thought to himself as he used another opportunity to gain speed by making another risky sharp turn around the track which then puts him in third place. The crowd begins to cheer even louder as they see Kevin is closed to being in the lead.

"Wow!" The announcer shouted overhead. "Number eighteen, Kevin Riley is on fire today! This risk taker is pulling towards the lead. With the race halfway done this could be it folks and we’ll have a winner shortly."

The two field workers returned with their bulldozers to finish the job. Each went to plow their area. One happened to make their way towards the tree with the white gemstone inside. The dozer made contact and slowly begins to rip the tree up from its roots. The white gemstone reacts to the tree being torn down and started to send out that high pitch sound. Once again no one in the area could hear the high-pitch tone of the stone and so the stone’s sound resounded stretching far across the county hoping once again it would reach someone that will heed its call.

***********************************

It wasn’t long till Kevin was in second place and they were almost coming to an end. The crowd cheered on as the race was getting intense. Agent Reynolds continued to remain calm and watched the race, patiently waiting for the moment to make his move.

This is incredible folks!" The announcer exclaimed. "We’re down to the final lap and number eighteen is gaining in the lead. Will he take first place and go to the nationals?"

Just like before the high-pitched sound made its way back to the stadium. As the sound traveled in that area. Kevin begins to hear that high pitch tone. It came out soft just like before and slowly beginning to build up in volume.

"No, not again. Not now." Kevin thought to himself nervous to what will soon happen next.

Not taking any chances, Kevin speeds up going neck and neck with the other racer hoping to surpass him before the high-pitch sound begins to pierce his ears causing him to be in pain once more.

"It's neck and neck folks. the announcer proclaimed. Will it be number twenty-two Kirk Braff or number eighteen Kevin Riley?"

Kevin started gaining the lead but not in time as the sound began to build in his ears. With the helmet on the sound felt as though it amplified its volume drowning out the other sounds. Instinctively, Kevin reacted by trying to cover one of his ears but remembered that he had a helmet on and couldn't block the noise. Kevin was helpless, the sound was so distracting that it caused him to swerve around the track. The other rider noticed sped up to avoid crashing into Kevin putting Kevin back in second. The crowd noticed and grew concerned over Kevin's performance, especially his Family.

"Something is wrong folks. It seems number eighteen has lost control of his bike. What will he do now?" The announcer asked.

Kevin continued to try and ignore the sound. As he focused on that, unknown to him the celtic like markings returned and his hands were once again building up energy.