"Dad? What is he doing here?" Kevin asks concerned as the last person he wanted to see was Agent Reynolds who looked back at him with a smile.

"Nice to see you too kid." Reynolds says sarcastically.

"You two have met before?" Ben asked curious to how Reynolds has met his son earlier when he has never introduced them.

"I happened to see him as he and his friends escaped when that half breed was in the school. Isn’t that right kid?" Reynolds asks Kevin with a quick wink at him hoping that he would understand what he was doing.

Kevin thought for a second then remember he never told his father the truth to what happened at the school. Playing along he softly nodded.

"Kevin it’s alright this is my friend Mr. Reynolds." Ben answered

Kevin looked at his father with wide eyes as he couldn’t believe what he just heard.

"Wait, you know this psycho?!" Kevin exclaims. "He’s with the Advant guard."

And the Advant Guard paid for your hospital bill thanks to me. Reynolds added.

Kevin was going to snap back but then remained silent and honestly surprised to hear Reynolds good deed even though he capture a Seirei Jin half breed like himself the other day.

"I also happened to find out that your Doc will be discharging you, so you get to go home." Replied Reynolds.

"I am?" Kevin looked at Reynolds puzzled.

Before Reynolds could answer, a nurse comes in the room with Kevin’s discharge paperwork.

"Hello, young man. I’m here to give you your discharge papers." She stated with a cheerful tone.

Agent Reynolds heads for the door.

"I’ll wait at the nurse’s station." He replied as he left the room and closed the door behind him for their privacy.

As Agent Reynolds patiently waited by the nurse’s station, it didn’t take long till the door to Kevin’s room opened. Both Kevin and his father and the nurse one by one left the room as she escorted them to the nurse’s station where Reynolds was waiting for them. As they walked, Kevin looked around the area unsure as to where he was as he has never seen a hospital that looked so much like a prison ward with their heavy metal doors and guards at every door.

"Dad," Kevin whispered. "Where exactly are we? I’ve never seen this place before."

"Don’t worry about it son." Ben whispered back. "Let’s just go home."

Reynolds presses the button for the elevator to arrive and open its doors. They step in and Reynolds pressed the Lobby button to head to the main floor. When the doors opened, the three stepped out, what they saw was normal activity as people were back to normal. Nurses and doctors were walking up and down the halls seeing their patients and gathering items and supplies. As they were heading to the exit some noticed Kevin and started whispering among themselves with smiles as though they were seeing someone famous. Both Kevin and his Father were puzzled as they were unsure as to what was going on. As they arrived to the exit, a security was passing by; he then noticed Kevin.

"Hey, you’re that kid that won that motocross race this evening. Glad you’re ok, and congrats." He said as he tipped his hat to him and proceeded to patrolling the rest of the hospital.

Both Kevin and his Father were shocked to hear what the security guard said, as they knew what really happened.

"Wait, I didn’t-

Kevin was going to explain to the security guard but his Father stopped him and encouraged him to step outside.

"Come now, Kevin, your mother and brother are worried sick, let’s go." His Father replied.

Ben himself couldn’t believe what he witnessed too, as earlier everyone were mindless zombies staring at their screens and now they are acting normal, or as normal as they can be.

“I get it now.” Ben thought to himself. “The Advant Guard planted the idea of Kevin winning the race and then getting into a bike accident; amazing.”

They left the hospital and got into Reynolds car who then drove them home.

***

The Knight along with General De Grandis and his troops arrived to what was left of the Taisen tribe village. Smoke rose from the fire damaged homes, there was no one in sight as the village was destroyed and abandoned. The all came out of their ships and looked around accessing the area. There was no sign of monsters, no floating fortress in the sky, there was nothing but the smoldering black ashes from the homes. Vinnie goes down on one knee to take a closer look at the ground. Despite the excessive amount of ash from the remains of a nearby home, Vinnie saw what looked like large footprints, and where the toes were indicated something with talons. Vinnie put his right gloved hand over the footprint, the palm down part of Vinnie’s hand glowed and sent out a small beam of light which then scanned the footprint. Once it was complete the light vanished, and Vinnie stood back up. He put his gloved hands in front of himself and small round green glowing lights appeared on the tip of his thumb first and middle finger of his hands. He quickly put the fingers together to imitate a frame in his hands. He then pulled them apart and a holographic computer appeared in front of him. He placed his right hand on the screen of the holographic computer transferring the scanned image of the footprint. The computer began to analyze the footprint trying to look for what creature could match these almost human like footprints. But the computer came up with “unknown”. With his hands he shut off the holographic computer and turned to his comrades who waited for him patiently with an answer.

"I’m unable to detect what type of creature this is." Vinnie reported. "There is no animal or creature that match these prints."

"Alright, let’s explore the village and look for any more survivors." The Princess ordered. She looks to General De Grandis and his men. "General, I believe we’ll cover more ground if our teams split up. Contact us if you find anything."

"Yes my Princess." The general replied as he bowed to his Princess. He turned to his troops and signaled them to turn around as they were to head the opposite direction from the Knights. His troops obeyed and they set out to explore one side of the village.

The Princess and the other Knights set out to explore the other side of the village. What they were not aware of was that they were being watched by the Alpha Lurker who was still in possession of Toby. He hid behind some large rubble so not to be seen, as it heard their conversation, he contacted his master.

"Master, more humans have arrived to the village." The alpha Lurker reported. "Shall I capture them master?"

"No, we must send an example to those who try to interfere with my plans." The master replied. "Now go and have fun."

"Yes, my master." The Alpha replied.

The Alpha Lurker sinks into its own shadow waiting for the right time to strike.

***

Kevin steps out of the shower, wrapping one towel around his waist and drying his hair with another. He puts down the towel next to the sink and wipes the condensation from the mirror. He looked at himself, he still looked exhausted and he felt it, but he couldn’t sleep. His mind was spinning with questions, questions like why he wasn’t taken by the advent guard? Why the town was acting weird like nothing happened, and especially the voice he heard earlier, a girl wishing for help. He needed answers, but he knew his parents wouldn’t tell him anything as he tried and they avoided. He needed to leave the house, but he remembered his bike exploded during the race. He could take the car, but his parents would find out. He needed a ride, he needed Johnny. He tapped on his phone to see it was nine at night, he then called his friend hoping he would answer. Johnny was sitting on his couch in the living room and sees his phone ringing. Seeing that it was Kevin he answered.

"Hey Johnny, it’s Kevin."

"Duude!" Johnny exclaims. "I thought I would be paying a visit to your headstone man, you alright?"

"Yea." Kevin quickly replied. "Listen, can you do me a solid and pick me up? I need some air."

"Sure brah, I’ll come get you." Johnny replied.

"Thanks, I’ll see you in fifteen." Kevin said and hung up.

Johnny hangs up and puts his phone on the couch. He leaned forward looking down on the ground feeling guilty for what was taking place. Across from him was Agent Reynolds calmly sitting on an armchair with Johnny’s parents standing behind him who looked at their son nervous.

Johnny sighed as he sat up and looked at Agent Reynolds.

"He wants me to pick him up in fifteen minutes." Johnny reluctantly replied.

"Thank you Johnny, I’m sure this must be very hard for you." Reynolds replied. "We paired you with him since the first grade. If his powers would’ve surfaced earlier, you wouldn’t have gotten so attached to him."

"Agent Reynolds, he saved those people at the stadium, he can’t be all bad." Johnny replied.

"Have you forgotten what happened down in the locker room?" Agent Reynolds asked. "You saw first hand what he’s capable of doing."

Johnny froze in place as he remembered that was the first-time seeing Kevin’s seirei jin powers revealed and the damage he caused.

"He may have saved those people now, but what if he turns on you? Half breeds are unpredictable, and they need our help to control their abilities." Said Reynolds.

"Honey please, do this for us." Asked the mother. "He is promising us a chance to leave this place and actually live normal lives. Don’t you want that?"

Johnny remained silent thinking about what he should do. Kevin has been his friend, they’ve looked out for each other. The thought of betraying him made him feel sick to his stomach. He then thought about his parents, he remembered back when he was little how they encouraged him to make friends with Kevin and how they would ask if he saw anything strange or odd about him whenever they would hang out and play. Johnny didn’t understand why then, and as they grew older, he realized they would still ask him but never explained why. He looked at his parents who looked back concerned, and anxious waiting to hear his answer. This was an opportunity to leave this place and live among humans, never having to worry about a half breed seirei jin’s powers awakening and causing panic. Wanting to see his parents happy, Johnny sadly made the decision.

"What do you want me to do?" Johnny sadly asked.

Put this address on your GPS. Agent Reynolds ordered as he wrote the address on a piece of paper and gave it to Johnny who started typing it in. Once he was done, Reynolds takes out a device the size and look of a portable cylinder battery charger only it had a red button on top and gave it to Johnny

"If he starts to question or resist, press this button and we’ll come save you, Is that understood?" Reynolds asks.

"Yea, I got it." Johnny snapped back at Reynolds.

He carefully put the device in his jacket pocket and heads to the garage to get ready to leave.

Reynolds stood up and the three adults all looked at Johnny.

"You’re doing your country proud son." Reynolds announced. "We thank you."

Johnny didn’t react, he opened the garage door, got on his bike and rode off to Kevin’s house. Meanwhile Kevin was dressed and ready to leave. Knowing his Mother and Brother were upstairs asleep, he quietly went downstairs so not to wake them. Unfortunately for him Kevin had to walk past his father’s office which he knew he would be up at this time. He had hoped that his door would be closed but it happened to be cracked open. The lights were on and he can see his Father’s shadow walking back and forth as he was documenting about what had happened today but this time through a digital tape recorder. Kevin thought about leaving but was curious to what his Father was talking about. He quietly stood behind the door and listened.

"Journal Entry: 21:13pm, I almost lost my son today to the Advant Guard. It appears that his seirei jin abilities are manifesting despite the protection seal placed on him since the night his powers were awaken. I wish I still had that stone, so I could strengthen the seal. I had it in my office and since then I may have misplaced it, I’m unsure of its whereabouts. If I’m unable to find it, I may have to consider Peter’s offer and let him look after my son. It may be the only way."

Kevin couldn’t believe what he had just heard. Stewart warned him not to trust anyone, but he honestly couldn’t imagine his parents. Hearing him mention Peter, he connected the dots that he was referring to Agent Reynolds. Just the thought of what his own father said started to make his blood boil. He had to get out of this town and fast. He then remembered about his father mentioning the stone. He thought back to when he was little.

***

"Come on hurry I think I hear your Dad coming." A ten year old Johnny whispered harshly as he stood guard beside the office door keeping an eye out for Mr. Riley.

Kevin was looking all around the office to what would be the perfect treasure since his Dad liked to collect stuff.

"Hang on, I think I know where it is." He softly said to Johnny.

Kevin looked at his father’s bookshelf and saw a black leather box in the middle of some books on the second row of a very tall shelf, at least for his ten-year-old self. He smiled as he knew there might be something in their that would be perfect for their game. He goes for his Father’s stepping stool placing it up against the bookshelf. With its help, he was able to reach the black box and bring it down to his level. He opened it to find a white shimmering gemstone, that looked as though it was softly glowing in a pattern that looked a lot like breathing.

"I got it." Kevin exclaimed as he held it in his hands.

"Then come on let’s go." Johnny says rushing him.

Kevin carefully puts the gemstone in his pocket, puts the box back into the middle of the books on the shelf and put the stepping stool back where it belonged so it looked like no one was in the office. The two darted out of the room and outside where their bicycles were waiting for them. Hoot and hollered all the way to their favorite place in the woods where they like to play.