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The Children Are Hunted

Asha grinned at him. "Well we know who will never be a ladies man," she quipped good-naturedly. She went over to the bedroom door and knocked. "We good Zora?" she asked and there was a muffled yelp. "Well that's a no. Jeezus Mickey you and your darn-"

"Ash!" Zaria was floating around her, glaring with slight reproach. "It's not his fault the backlash is this way." The older huffed.

"Is his fault he can't keep his cool during it." She looked at Thomas. "Do you want some soup or are you good?"
 
"Whatever, Ash. I'm fine, thanks. What's going on? Is everything alright back there?" he asked. He was willing to bet that even if it wasn't, they weren't going to tell him unless it threatoned him directly. Whatever, he didn't care. If Zoran thought he could handle it, he probably could. Thomas wasn't going to stick his nose where it didn't belong. His thoughts turned to the gym battle this afternoon. He was going to make up for that next time! He was going to win for sure! Marcus looked at him oddly again.
"Why do you keep looking at me like that? You look like you're going to tell me my dog died or something," Thomas said. Marcus gulped.
"Um..." Marcus said. Thomas lost his anger and it was replaced by concern.
"What? Marcus, are you ok? What is it?" he asked.
"Um... What would you say if I told you I wanted to go home?" Marcus asked nervously. Thomas sighed, then he grinned at Marcus.
"That's all? Sheesh dude, you don't have to ask for permission. You're old enough to make your own decisions. Are you sure this is what you want?" Thomas said with a smile. Marcus leaving? Wow, that was unexpected. Well, in hindsight, it was pretty clear he was getting sick of traveling. And it made sense. Not everyone was made for world crossing journeys. Throw in what Marcus had seen and done, and that would be enough to make anyone go home.
"I think so," Marcus said slowly, as though he couldn't believe Thomas's reaction.
"Well, you'll be missed! I'll have to stop by New York again and come visit you! Do you know how you're getting home?" Thomas said.
"Well... Ash said she would take us when she was done here, but I was thinking of going the way we got here. It will gave me and Robby time to get to know each other. And... I don't want to be a burden on anyone," Marcus said.
"Well, that's your choice. And trust me, you never were a burden," Thomas said.
"And you thought he would get mad!" Robby said. Thomas heard someone pawing at the door.
"Let me in!" Vulpix yelled.
"What's the password?" Thomas asked.
"I swear I will burn this thing to the ground!" Vulpix said. Thomas got up and let him in.
"Damn, there was nothing to eat this close to the city that I could catch!" Vulpix said.
"I've seen all kinds of birds flying around," Marcus said.
"I'm not that good at catching birds! That one time I got lucky!" Vulpix said.
 
Ash smiled. "See? Everything's all right."Finally Zoran left the room, leaning against the frame for support. Ash went to catch him, noticing his scar was bleeding. "He bit you on the scar?" she asked.

"He needs blood Ash," Zoran wheezed. "And it's best I give it to him. At least it wasn't my neck."

She scoffed. "Idiot. Honestly, you hold too much sentimentality for my near-vampire of a cousin."

"He is not-"

"He's bitten us and drained you of blood before!"

"Who cares," he hissed weakly, settling in a chair before smiling at Marcus and Robby. "Good luck," he told them kindly, not even knowing the situation.
 
"Thanks Zoran," Marcus said. Marcus wondered if Zoran had heard what was going on from in that room. He stood up and yawned.
"Where are we sleeping again?" Marcus asked. Vulpix yawned and stretched out.
"I know where I'm sleeping! Right here!" Vulpix said sleepily, looking around as if daring anyone to try and move him. Esper lifted him off the coach and dropped him on the floor. Vulpix gave him an angry look, and walked off to sulk in the corner.
"So... Your cousin has powers too? Hmm... Maybe they tend to run in families. It's as good an explaination as any I guess," Robby said thoughtfully. Thomas sighed and stood up.
"If it's all the same to you, I'm sleeping outside! I just don't feel comfortable in a tin can with seven people. Let me get my sleeping bag," Thomas said. Robby threw it to him, and he was out the door as fast as he could be. Esper shook his head.
"Something tells me he's claustro-whatsit," Vulpix said.
"No, he's just gotten used to having space to move around in. He can work fine in inclosed areas, though he likes to spend as much time as possible with room to move in," Esper said.
 
"Suppose I shouldn't tell him there was a large back room with a screen should I?" Asha mumbled, carefully assisting Zoran in getting into the small space above the car part of the vehicle. "You know Zora, you could consider a growth spurt." The boy mumbled something that sounded distinctly like cursing. Alyss blinked innocently at this before curling up on the couch. Asha shrugged and climbed up after him. "Pick a space in the back. I'm going to assume that room is locked for a while. Don't worry, he won't suck your blood in your sleep... probably."

"He likes mine too much," Zoran mumbled sleepily as Ash wrinkled her nose.

"Ew."
 
"I doubt it would matter much if he knew about the room," Vulpix said as he hopped into the chair Zoran just vacated. Robby grinned at Ash.
"Well, if he tries anything with me or Marcus, He's getting thrown out the window. And that's not an idle threat either! Good night you guys!" Robby said, following Marcus to the back room. Esper leapt to the arm of the coach so that Alyss would have more room to sleep. He shook his head. Vulpix had a point. Humans were very odd creatures. The only one he understood was Thomas, who was becoming more feral everyday, and not even realizing it. That suited Esper just fine, for Thomas held true to his core beliefs no matter what, and that was what Esper cared most about. Thomas could change all he wanted, but his inside would remain the same.

Thomas shook his head. What was wrong with him? He had never cared about a lack of space before now. Well, he guessed he would get over it. He set his Sleeping bag on the ground, and lay on it. He lay staring at the stars until he fell asleep.
 
Ash merely chuckled sadly as she curled up next to Zoran to whisper in his ear. The boy was dozing but not sleeping. All of them were changing but these weren't always good. She buried her face quietly in the younger boy's hair. It was always nice when he took it out of the ponytail. She could see the faint clenched way he was laying there.

"Does it hurt?" He shook his head no but still remained quiet and still. Not for the first time, she realized she was jealous of Thomas. He was used to being free; they were used to being caged. It hurt her sometimes, to think about it.

"He forgot who I was," the boy said simply, faint and sad. "He forgot I was me. He thought I was..." She gave Zoran a lonely look. He thought I was my sister. The words were left unsaid. They both knew that, childish love though it was, Mickey had cared deeply for Zaria.

"Does he remember now?"

"I don't know." There was the edge of a sob in Zoran's words now. She hugged him close. Only when he was tired did he ever get this emotional.

"Shh. Sleep. You'll need it." He did comply but it would be a while before she did the same.
 
Thomas woke up all at once. It was morning. He crawled out of his sleeping bag and stood up. Esper walked over to him and meowed. Thomas looked down at him.
"What?" Thomas said. Esper rubbed against his leg, and Thomas sat down. He pulled out his brush and started working on Esper. He smiled. He loved grooming his pokemon. Within minutes, he had Amber and Volt out and was grooming them too. Amber loved the attention, but Volt didn't really care. Esper walked back into the RV and came out with his bag. Thomas dug through it and pulled out a wash cloth. He turned to his other three pokemon. They were all going to look good today. About an hour and a half later, all six of his pokwmon were looking great. Razor trilled happily. Her silvery body was shining. Draco was gleaming, and looked very proud of it. Thomas was still trying to brush out Deluge's ears and tail. They had tough bristly fur all over them, an absolute pain to brush. He sat, patiently brushing, hoping the others got up soon. Not that he would wake them up. They were all very tired from the events of the past few weeks. So, he sat there, taking care of his pokemon, making them look very good, and be very happy. Soon, he would get back to training.
 
A boy wandered out of the RV, yawning quietly. He didn't even seem to notice Thomas was there, carefully yanking knots from his windswept auburn hair. At his side walked a Sneasel, looking up at him with her curious eyes. His clothes were slightly bloody but he didn't seem to care, rubbing his eyes. He sat down on the stairs and simply stared at Thomas with a vague curiosity, having put the comb away and having nothing else to do. He didn't make a sound.
 
Thomas glanced at the strange boy and gave him a friendly smile before returning to his work. Volt was being a real pain to brush. Twice Thomas had been shocked by accident. Finally he was done. His pokemon were very pleased, even Volt, though he pretended he hadn't enjoyed the brushing. He looked at the boy again.
"I'm Thomas. And you are?" he asked politely.
 
"Mickey," the boy answered, blowing his hair out of his eyes. "And this is my Sneasel." Sneasel went into his arms and curled up there, looking sleepy and comfy. "No," he told the Pokemon. "No eggs." The boy seemed very subdued and tired. There was an odd, slightly hungry gleam in his eyes but he didn't move. Mickey carefully ran his fingers down Sneasel's fur and the Pokemon cooed. Something squirmed in the back of his shirt. Out popped a Dratini's head with a squeak. It nuzzled his ear, still squeaking and squirming.

Cold, it seemed to be saying. Mickey is cold. It's Sneasel's fault. Make Mickey warm. The Sneasel rolled its eyes and raised a claw at the Pokemon semi-threateningly. Dratini yelped and dove back into his shirt. Mickey watched this with a detached sort of amusement.
 
"So you're the infamous Mickey I've heard about! Nice to finally meet you! As you can probably tell, these are all my pokemon," Thomas said with a smile. He wondered when the rest of them would wake up. Thomas turned to Amber. She was laying in the sun, absorbing its power. Thomas shook his head. He wanted to go train, but leaving everyone would be rude. He sat and watched the sky. He began excercising his power a little, knowing that Mickey wouldn't freak out about it. He had to practice that as well, or he would lose his edge. So he lay back, creating multiple wisps at once and having them all dance around him. They were a pleasant shade of green.
 
Mickey nodded. "Yeah..." Seeing him using his power made the by blink. "Have you considered a new shape?" he asked curiously. "It's easier to use if you try turning it into a shape you're familiar with. He didn't demonstrate, preferring to hum at Sneasel. Unconsciously, Mickey was still staring dully at Thomas, trying to find something by the looks of things. Dratini popped up from hi shirt collar and ducked down again, looking adorable.
 
Thomas didn't even know he could make a new shape with the light. He had always just made orbs. Those were what came naturally to him. Thomas concentrated hard, but when that got him no where, he started to try and relax. He sculpted the light into another shape, carefully. Slowly, the eight green spheres turned into little cubes. Thomas smiled. He couldn't control the color, but he could control the shape. It was surprisingly harder to perform fine movements with the little wisps than it was to blast into a power draining room. Not more taxing on his power, just more difficult to control. Vulpix started pawing at the door to the RV.
"Hey, you on the other side of the door. Would you open it up for me? I'm not housebroken," Vulpix said quietly. He sounded embaressed. Thomas laughed and turned the cubes back to spheres, and back again. The process was tough, but he could manage it. This may be a handy skill to have in the future, though Thomas couldn't see how it would be.
 
Mickey turned and carefully opened it. "Don't be embarrassed," the boy said softly. "You're not expected to be cooped up all the time." His voice never left the distant nature as he scooted for Vulpix to get by. Looking back at Thomas, he nodded. "This is a practice exercise, to help sharpen your control and mind. I have another question: why are you focusing so much? It seems like you're narrowing your ability down. If you have a lot of those wisps out, shouldn't you not behave as though you only have one? Doing that makes it harder to control, especially when you try to shape each one into something different." He knew this from watching Zoran when he was younger and from when he had awoken his own power, when the boy had helped him. The fine details weren't the same but the main focus of control and power were. "A good goal is if you can shift one into anything as casually as breathing. That's when you can use it on yourself and it more options appear."
 
"Thanks," Vulpix mumbled as he walked out the door and towards the forest. Thomas sighed. He knew he had to relax, but it was tough.
"Yeah, I know. It's very tough for me to relax though. What happens if my power goes out of control? I've already seen what I can do when I have no control over myself. I don't want to level half the city..." Thomas said. He knew that he would have to trust himself sooner or later, but it was just so hard. How could he let his guard down when he couldn't make the light listen to him half the time? He sighed and shook his head. It wasn't as though he could just relax on command. He tried though, and was rewarded by it becoming a fraction easier to mold the wisps. He turned them into triangular prisms. It was much easier to think of all the wisps as one wisp. Soon, he hoped he could make all of them into different shapes.
 
Mickey observed him emotionlessly. "Kid, you are some stupid kind of leader. Why should people trust you if you don't? And the stiffer you are, the worst you're going to end up when you lose control. Besides, using your power requires you to accept it as a part of you. I don't exactly like my power, but I can't get rid of it, so I might as well work with it. Accepting it and not fearing it helps you control it."

"You're gonna have to make mistakes sometimes Thomas," Zoran hummed, walking outside and hugging Mickey from behind. "You are a human being. That is allowed. Stop trying to be perfect. That's not a leader, that's just a one-man show. Those are a pain huh Mickey?"

Mickey chuckled softly and let himself be hugged. "I remember that lesson."
 
Thomas laughed and let his guard down even futher. But there was one thing that concerned him.
"I don't recall asking to be leader. And I've made plenty of mistakes, trust me," Thomas said playfully. Yet he knew that was true. He didn't get why, but people seemed to gravitate to him. He relaxed even more, and his power responded in kind. He would never say this, but this was the most relaxed he had ever been while using his power. He laughed again. He hadn't been paying any attention, but now that he looked, half of the wisps were cubes and the other half were spheres. He wasn't trying to be perfect. He just held himself to a higher standard because he knew what he could do. He knew that he couldn't keep locking his power away. He had to use it and let it free. It seemed to listen to him while he was in control of his emotions. Then he grasped how it worked.

"My power works on my emotions. While I'm feeling tranquil and harmless, so it is as well. When I'm stressed or angry, my power lashes out of control. I can't believe I didn't see that before now," Thomas said biting his lip. Right now, the wisps were a light shade of green, meaning he was still safe. He dropped his guard completely, trusting that if he went out of control, Zoran and Mickey could stop him. He was a little surprised, even after what he just figured out, when nothing happened. His light swelled curiously around him, but it didn't go out of control. He didn't know what he should do with it now that it was here. He stood up, and let it swell about him, getting used to how it felt. While it was here, and with Esper sending him support and triumph, he felt complete. It was like he had found something he didn't even know he was missing. It felt good. He set his light to form a shape. He was positively thrilled when his power didn't resist him at all. It was molded into a vaguely human shaped form. Thomas touched it, and his hand went through it. It was light, what was he expecting to feel? Thomas smiled and let the light fade.
"Well, that was informative. Thanks guys!" Thomas said. It was one thing to do this while it was safe and peaceful, quite another to do so under pressure or while angry. But, he was feeling more confident in his own abilities. Vulpix walked back to camp with a rather large rat in his jaws. He spit it out and sat down.
"Where did you get that?" Thomas asked.
"Out of a sewer," Vulpix replied.
"Aren't you worried about getting sick?" Thomas asked. Vulpix sniffed the rat.
"Doesn't smell sick," he said slowly.
"Vulpix, I don't know if I want you to eat that," Thomas said.
"Why not? I've eaten wild animals and you never batted an eye before," Vulpix said. He didn't eat it though. He was curious as to what the objections were.
"Yeah, but not from the sewer! Stuff from the sewer is way more likely to have some kind of horrible disease!" Thomas said urgently.
 
The two of them nodded at him and Zoran smiled indulgently at Vulpix. "Sewers are very disgusting because it's where polluted water goes through before it gets cleaned. The things that live there usually have some sort of germs, even if you can't smell it."

Mickey laughed softly, mumbling something in Zoran's ear. The boy laughed back, the sound different from usual. Mickey spoke louder this time. "It's one of humanity's only good points-"

"Our fear of being sick," Asha finished as she walked out, clutching bows of noodles. Mickey playfully shied back.

"Oh gross, your hands touched food," he said playfully. Ash hit him with the plastic bowl.

"Oy, you don't like it, go drain Zoran's blood again. Not like he cares..." Mickey glared at her.

"Watch out, I'll bite you instead. Or I would, if it wasn't such a stereotype."

"Oh and we just love those," Zoran mumbled, going down the stairs to pick up Vulpix. "We have raw meat in the freezer if you wouldn't mind eating that."
 
"But... That meat will be cold!" Vulpix said, though he allowed himself to be picked up. Thomas laughed. Esper lifted the rat with his mind and dropped it in a trash can far away from the RV.
"You'll have to live with it," Thomas said. Vulpix made a face at him, but said nothing.
"Man, you complain too much," Robby said walking outside. He had cut his hair sometime during the night, as it no longer fell down his back. Instead, it was about shoulder length.
"Bite me! Both of you! I'll take the cold meat," Vulpix said.
 
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