Quick note. . .
Colin and Kent are from a series of my stories found Here. Also, I'll be using four "movements", so to speak, in the form of Frank Tichelli's Simple Gifts.
With that said, Enjoy the story!

Earthbound: Simple Gifts



In Yonder Valley







   "Sleep. . .good. . ." Kent murmered as he trudged down the hall into his room. It was nearly 2:00 AM in the morning, and he'd been essentially recoding his entire computer.
    His brother, Brandon, had messed it up pretty hardcore. He'd tried, as a joke, to install a Mac operating system on it, completely messing up his Linux system. There was a swift beating over the head, then Kent went to work.
    That was sixteen hours ago. He thought that simply reinstalling his operating system would do it.
    Well, it didn't. In fact, it messed his comptuer up even more. Rather than spending five hundred dollars on another custom made motherboard, he decided to recode the entire computer, bit by bit. So far, so good.
    Kent opened the door to his room he shared with Colin. Colin had stayed up, doing some work on his computer.
    "Sleep. . .good. . ." Kent repeated. Colin simply nodded.
    "Just let me check my E-mail. . ." Colin opened up his E-mail server.
    From the edges of his senses, he heard a soft baboom. He couldn't quite place it, but he knew that it had do be pretty far off.
    "You hear that?"
    Kent was fast asleep, clad in only his boxers and his favorite Cavaliers shirt.
    Colin sighed. The summer of his junior year was almost over, the last thing he needed, especially after the battle at finals, was another fight. It seemed it never ended. First, his girlfriend gets the crap shot out of her, and almost killed, then Kent almost finds a new level of existance, then Alyssa almost gets killed, and instead just gets a broken arm.
    It had been one interesting summer, to say the least. And he'd be condemned if he had to save the world again. Of course, Kent had helped, too. . .and so had Alyssa and Corrie. . .Stacy a little bit, too. . . maybe. . .
    No. Na-ah. Not this time around. No friggin' way.
    Of course, what if he had to? For the fate of the world? Maybe. But still, there was band camp to consider. . .maybe.
    If it came down to it, he knew he'd do it. Right now, though, his destiny commanded him to do but one thing - get some freakin' sleep.

    "Colin. . ."
    The blonde haired, green eyed, and now livid eighteen year old cracked his eyes open.
    "Not now, Kent. . .it's. . ." Colin checked the clock on his computer. "Four in the morning. . ."
    With that, Colin turned back over and closed his eyes.
    "Wait. . .didn't I turn it off?"
    He rolled back over and saw his computer on, the monitor casting a blue glow over the room. "Why'd  leave the monitor on. . .well, there's one easy way to remedy this."
    Colin reached over and pushed the power button on his computer off, letting it go into its shutdown sequence. He then pushed the power on the monitor, leaving the room in darkness once again.
    Until the computer booted up again on its own.
    Slowly, Colin turned over and saw the computer on, monitor on, and sitting in MS Dos mode.
    This was interesting. Sure, his power button might have gotten stuck. But going into MS Dos mode, that was a feat, seeing as anyone who wanted to get into MS Dos first had to log into a workspace, then restart it in MS Dos mode, after first deciphering a password.
    This was not right. Colin quickly got up and sat in the chair before the computer. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't even MS Dos mode. It was just a black screen.
    That suddenly had typing on it.
    "Colin. . ."
    Colin shook his head. this wasn't right. . .this wasn't right at all. But he might as well give it a try. . .
    "Yeah, that's me." He typed.
    "Good. I've been trying to reach you all night."
    Colin raised his eyebrow. "Reach me? How?"
    "I have telepathic powers."
    "What?" Colin asked aloud, nearly waking Kent up from a dead sleep.
    "I said I have telepathic powers. For example, I know you just almost woke up your cousin, Kent."
    Colin shook his head. "Okay, I'll bite. Why did you want to get into contact with me?"
    "We need your help. A boy's adventure is about to begin in a far off place."
    "How far off?" Colin asked.
    "Oregon City, Oregon."
    "Fair enough."
     "I need you to go and help him. His name is Ness, and he lives on a house on a hill. . .oh, no. . .they've found me. . .go! Quickly!"
    "Wait, who's found you?" Colin typed, but it was left unanswered. He sighed, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Okay, let's look at the situation. My computer has just told me to go to Oregon City. Band camp is in two days. I barely have any energy left. It's four ten in the morning. Casey is fresh out of the hospital. However, there's the insanely miniscule possibility that there actually was somebody talking to me via my computer, and that somebody actually does need my help, and somebody has probably been kidnapped."
    Colin mulled on this a second or two, and sighed. He stood up, put on a pair of jeans, his shoes, grabbed his letterman's jacket, wrote a note for his aunt and uncle, grabbed his cell phone, then stepped out the door. Summoning all the energy he could muster, he launched himself into the air. Facing south, he launched himself towards somewhere he'd never been, to help someone he'd never met before.

    Colin let himself touch down softly in front of a house on a hill, the name on the mailbox in front of the house reading "Hert". The sun was barely rising above the hills around the town.
    "This is so stupid!" He whispered to himself, before walking up to the door and knocking on it. Getting no answer, he floated up to the highest window of the house. He saw a girl, no more than thirteen, sleeping cozily in her bed.
    "Can't be her," he thought, floating around to another window. There, he spotted a boy, roughly his age, sleeping on top of his covers, still in his clothes, his mud caked shoes and backpack on the floor next to his bed. "Bingo."
    He slipped open the window and sat himself down on the floor. Finding nothing better to do, and he being as tired as he was, layed down on the floor, rolled up his letterman's jacket under his head, and nearly instantly fell asleep.
   
    One crazy night. One incredibly crazy night. Ness cracked open his eyes to a warm breeze coming in from the window. He stretched and scratched his unruly black hair. Groggily, he thought of the bee that told him of his destiny.
    "Three boys and one girl," he mused, swinging his legs over the edge of his bed. He would have set his feet down on the ground, had there not been some random person laying where he would have stood up.
    "Giygas works fast," He muttered under his breath as he gingerly tiptoed over to his backpack. From it he pulled his baseball bat and walked over to the intruder. He reeled back and prepared to hit the stranger as hard as he could.
    He swung the bat, hitting the man, waking him out of a dead sleep.
    "Ouch! Crap, man, what was that for?" The stranger asked, sitting up and rubbing his arm where he'd been hit.
    Feeling the man hadn't been beaten enough, he took another swing. This time, the stranger blocked with his forearm, stopping the bat from going any farther.
    "Dude! What the crap?" He asked.
    "Okay, pal," Ness said, letting the bat go down to his side. "Why are you in my room?"
    The stranger looked around. "I don't suppose 'no reason' is gonna help in this situation, is it?"
    Ness simply shook his head, and lifted the bat to point directly at the stranger's face.
    "Okay. First off, my name is Colin Strife, and I'm here from exotic Spokane, Washington. For what reason, you might ask? Well, you're never gonna believe this, but somebody's been talking to me through my computer telepathicially. They told me that you were about to embark on some quest and you amy need help."
    Ness looked at Colin, and empty look in his brown eyes. His mouth moved, but no words came out. Finally, he found his voice.
    "Considering the night I've just had, I'll buy your story." He said. "Umm. . .care for some brekfast?"
    "Sure." Colin said, picking his letterman's jacket up off the floor. "I'm starving."
   
    Ness poured himself a bowl of cereal, and offered Colin the box. He declined, perfectly happy with the especially good steak brekfast Ness's mother had made.
    "Naa. This steak's good stuff." Colin said, smiling at Ness's mother. She looked at him and smiled back.
    "So, what's the deal?" Ness asked. "You're here all the way from Spokane, so you obviously had some trekking to do."
    "Mmm-hmm." Colin replied, chewing on a piece of Ms. Hert's mouthwatering steak. He swallowed it with a drink of orange juice. "Didn't take too long, though. I flew."
    "Flew? At four in the morning?" Ness asked as Colin grinned wide. "Wait. . .are you the Colin Strife?" He asked, referring to the now legendary Colin Strife that had fought at Finals and had saved the planet.
    Colin nodded, taking a bite of his hashed browns. Christ almighty, Ness's mom knew how to cook. With that, he extended his hand. "Pleased to meeh you." He said, his mouth full of hash browns.
    Ness shook it. "Sorry 'bout that arm. . .you want something for it?"
    Colin smiled. "Dude, don't worry 'bout it. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not a hero or anything, I'm just an ordinary kid."
    "But you. . ."
    "Yeah, I know I saved the world. Just don't worry about it."
    "So. . .we're peers?" Ness asked.
    Colin nodded, taking a collosal bite of the whole wheat toast Ness's mom had just set on the table.
    "Cool. Man, my friends are gonna freak when they find out I'm friends with the Colin Strife. . ." Ness began. "Hey. . .where's your cousin?"
   
    "Hey, Kent, do you know anything about Colin going to Oregon City!?" His mother asked from the doorway.
    "Sleep good. Talk bad. Don't care." Kent murmered before turning over in his bed and falling asleep once more.

    Colin grinned as he finished off his steak. "He's probably still asleep. He's gonna be pulling some long hours recoding his computer."
    Ness shook his head. "Still the computer geek I read about. . ."
    Colin nodded his head. "Yup." With one last bite of his toast and a quick gulp, Colin had finished with his brekfast.
    "Thanks for the brekfast, Ms. Hert."
    "No problem." Ms. Hert replied. "Just come back here anytime you need some homemade food."
    Colin nodded, and rolled up his letterman's jacket. "I wish I would have remembered my backpack. . ."
    "Just throw it in mine." Ness said, finishing his own bowl of cereal.
    "Aight." Colin unzipped the backback on Ness's back, and put his letterman's jacket in the suprisingly roomy backpack.
    "So, you're seventeen, right?" Ness asked.
    "Eighteen last week." Colin replied, smiling. "Well, should we be leaving?"
    Ness sighed. "I suppose."
    He walked up to his mother. "Well, Mom, I guess we gotta get going."
    "Well, you be careful, then." She said. "Make sure you brought a change of clothes. . .and your toiletries. . .and your. . .
    "Mom, I'm fine." He said, giving her a hug. "Don't worry so much. I'll have Colin with me."
    She smiled, and nodded. "Alright, then. You two have fun, then. I'll see you later."
    Ness began walking out of the door, Colin behind him.
    "Thanks for the exceptional brekfast." He said.
    "Anytime." Ness's mother replied, before they walked out the door, into the tiny Oregon town, just outside of Oregon City.
    Or so Colin thought. . .

    "So. . .what first?" Ness asked.
    Colin looked at Ness in disbelief. "You don't know?"
    Ness shook his head.
    "I don't believe this. . ." Colin said, shaking his head.
    "Hey, man," Ness began. "We could be in a worse position."
    "I suppose you're right." Colin replied. "When Kent and I did our cavorting, we always had nice and solid leads. . .'cept that one time when Casey almost bought the farm. . ."
    "I read about that," Ness said, adjusting his backpack on his back. It was getting hot already, and it was barely after nine in the morning. "It was huge down here, man. I tell 'ya, you're a celebrity around here."
    Colin sighed. "To be great is to be misunderstood. . . I just do what comes naturally, and that is defend myself and my friends, which now includes you."
    "I'm touched." Ness replied.
    They walked in silence for a few more seconds.
    "I'll tell 'ya one thing about my experiences." Colin suddenly began. "I never could have done it alone. If you read up on what Kent and I have done, you'll notice it's always Colin and. Never just Colin. Lesson number one. Never, ever get caught alone. If I get injured, run for help, and don't stop for anything. If you get injured, I'll personally drag your skinny self to the nearest hospital."
    "Good to know." Ness said, stretching. "Still, where do we start?"
    Colin moved his head around on his neck to wake himself up. "Well. . .that's pretty simple, really. We walk around town a bit and see what's happening."
    "Sounds like a plan." Ness said. "I heard the library's handing out some maps, so I'll go and grab one."
    Colin nodded as they approached the library, not too far from Ness's house. Ness went into the white washed building, leaving Colin to his own devices.
    Colin sighed. Then, he heard something. Something rustling in the trees. It was coming for him.
    He spun on his heel and brought his fist to bear just as a crow tried to plow into him. The crow hit Colin's fist and fell to the ground, dazed. It looked up at him and took flight once more, pecking madly at him. Colin tried to shield his eyes, while at the same time trying to land a hit on the crow.
    This was great. His first battle, against a crow of all things, and he was loosing. Horribly. This was an embarassment.
    Colin cleared his thoughts. "Okay, Colin. Come on."
    Finally, time seemed to slow down for Colin. Rather than shield himself, he blocked the crow's blows, hit for hit. Finally, Colin gave it a hard roundhouse kick, sending it beak first into a tree.
    Colin cracked his knuckles, and turned around to see Ness.
    "A little out of practice, are we?" He asked.
    Colin scowled. "A little."
    "Okay." Ness said, stuffing the map in his backpack. "I think I've got a plan, but you're not gonna like it much. . ."
   
    "Some plan." Colin replied, hiding behind the side of a building. "You know my power's aren't quite what they used to be after this summer. . .I'm gonna get smacked down."
    "No, you're not! You're gonna do just fine!"
    Around the corner, the entire gang of what was called The Sharks. There must have been thirty or fourty of them, and they all carried weapons of some sort, be it a pogo stick, a skateboard, or a. . .hula hoop.
    Colin shook his head. "Okay. . .okay. . .look, I'll do it. But you've gotta help. I'll head in, and probably get taken down in a blaze of glory. That's your cue to go in, bat a swingin'."
    Ness nodded.
    "Okay. . ." Colin stepped a bit around the corner. "Now!"
    Colin dug his foot into the ground and rushed into the group of Sharks. They looked at him, bemuddled for a second, then realized he was attacking.
    One of them with a skateboard stepped in his way. Colin gave him a swift kick in the side, sending him into another shark. That fairly effectively got the attention of every other shark.
    "You're goin' down, punk!" One of them shouted.
    Colin took a fighting stance, his left leg outstretched all the way, halfway squatting with his right. "Well, then. Bring it."
    One of them charged him, meeting his fist. From there, the entire group of thirty-seven decended upon him, nearly dogpiling on him.
    Time slowed down again as Colin found his center. He kicked one in the leg, knocking him down. One from behind him swung his skateboard for Colin's head. Colin ducked just in time, the skateboard hitting another unlucky member of the sharks.
    Just to his left side, one with a pogo stick tried to jab him. Colin kneeled and posted with his hands and kicked two out simultaneously, then spun around, staying above the ground with his left hand and right foot, allowing him to clear his standing path.
    He leapt to his feet, clotheslining two into another three behind them. Several of the sharks behind him swung at him with their hula hoops. Colin ducked and performed a backwards handspring from a crouching position, kicking both of them in the face. Landing with another handspring, he backflipped himself into a standing position once more, and looked around. There were a good ten left, and they all toted pogo sticks.
    Colin sprinted full speed for them. His time slowed down even further. Every step seemed to take a good five seconds. Finally, he swung, hitting the one in the middle hard in the face, sending him sprawling. The ones to his side attempted to jab at him with their pogo sticks, but with a quick leap, only managed to stun eachother before getting knocked out cold by Colin's devistating roundhouse kick.
    With three swift jabs with his foot still in the air, he took out three to his left, leaving the three to his right.
    He took his stance, but only for a second. He sprung from his position, grabbed one by the torso, slammed him into the one behind him, and the last one he kicked hard in the side of the head.
    He took his stance once more, the only things still standing in the area was Ness, a lightpost, and Colin. He dropped his stance and cracked his knuckles.
    "You missed your cue." Colin simply said, cracking his neck with a series of painful sounding cracks. With that, Ness came back around the corner, still entranced in awe.
    "That. . .was. . .amazing!"
    "That's nothing. C'mon, we've still got work to do. Let's go."
    With that, Colin walked to the building marked arcade.
    There were only two sharks left in the arcade, who had somehow completely missed the battle becuase they were so engrossed in their games. That didn't last long after Colin kicked down the door.
    The two sharks looked at the two intruders, one in an awfully uncomfortable looking stance, the other brandishing a baseball bat.
    "Ness," Colin said, "You take one. I'll take the other."
    With that, the two ran kamakaze style towards the two remaining sharks. Colin gave his a swift kick in the stomach before sending him hard to the ground. Ness slammed one in the stomach, sending him sprawing into a wall before he, too, hit the ground hard.
    Colin looked at Ness. "See, it's not that hard."
    "Easy for you to say." Ness replied, his cracked bat nearly ready to shatter into a million pieces.
    "Hence where fist fighting has its advantaged." Colin said. "But to each his own. Whenever Kent can get his hands on one, he uses a sword."
    "What I wouldn't give," Ness mused. "Anyway, there's still the leader. Let's kick it."
    Ness nodded, and opened the door to the empty lot in the back. Empty, that is, save for the suavely dressed leader of the sharks, Frank Fly, playing about with his two kinves.
    Colin walked towards the man, clearing his throat as he did. He caught Frank's attention as he did. Frank looked up at Colin and scowled.
    "Who're you?" he asked.
    "Colin Strife." Colin replied, crossing his arms. "Or, the guy who just nuked your best group of Sharks."
    "Ahh," Frank said, walking up to Colin. "So that's the ruckus I heard a second ago. . .so, what're you here for? Maybe give me the what for?"
    Colin put one foot forward. Frank hadn't seen Colin's fighting style, so he hoped against hope he could pull a suprise attack. But those knives could be a problem.
    Without any further thought, Colin thrust himself towards Frank. Before Frank had any time to pull his weapons, Colin went for a swift kick to Frank's head. Frank brought his arm up to block, knocking Colin's leg down.
    "Ooh, a decent fight. This should be fun," Colin mused, moving into a more lanky, more liquid style. He made an advance towards Frank, trying to get several hits in. One landed, and Colin barely escaped an attack from Frank's knives.
    This could prove to be harder than he'd originally thought. A decent fight. This was good. very, very good. This time, Frank too the offensive, making a mad dash towards Colin.
    Colin sidestepped and went to clothesline Frank. As he did, Frank took a decent slice at his arm, putting a deep gash in his arm.
    "G'aah!" Colin shouted, the pain drawing him out of his trance. He looked at his arm, which was nearly pouring blood.
    This was not good. He'd pass out in a second, and then Frank would probably kill him, or leave him to bleed to death. Typical.
    Colin dropped to his knees, looking at his arm. He focused on his arm, and found some deep, welled up energy. He could use that to transform, and in the process, heal himself.
    It would have to do.
    Colin took a deep breath, and let the pain exit him, leaving him with nothing but himself and the grey ball of energy residing in his stomach. He took several deep breaths, and let them out.
    With a primal shout, he let the ball of energy course through his body. His wound was instantly healed, and his short, spikey hair shot to nearly a foot and a half in length. His whole body glowed with an unearthly golden glow, accompanied with a high pitched pulsing noise.
    Ness and Frank had just witnessed Colin's movement from his normal form to his alpha form.
    Frank swore. "It's pretty obvious I can't defeat you."
    Colin grinned, but mentally swore. He was looking forward to getting an actual decent fight.
    "But you can take my Frankystein Mark II!"
    With that, a tank looking thing rumbled up in front of Colin and began taking swings at him with its robotic arm, all of which Colin easily dodged, being powered up and now focused.
    He dodged a series of attacks and made one attack of his own, succeding only in denting the creatured iron hide. This was going to take a lot of ingenuity. The machine produced a puff of steam and made a clanking noise. With that, it moved madly towards Colin, attacking faster than either Ness or Frank could comprehend.
    "I need to get me one of these!" Colin said as he weaved in and out of the machine's wildly flailing appendages. He sent another kick into the machine, causing another dent. At this rate, it would take forever to take the Frankystein down. It had to have a weakness. It just had to!
    Just then, Colin saw it - it's water boiler. It was steam driven, so no water, no steam.
    He ran towards the Frankystein and leapt over it. Just as he did, the machine let loose a cloud of steam, momentarily blinding him. He hit the ground hard and rolled into the fence.
    He was still powered up, that was good, but he was dazed. Not good. He may have been able to manage a blast at it, but it would be pretty far off. He stood up, shook the cobwebs off, and cleared his thoughts.
    This was it. He ran for it, and leapt. Rather than leap over it, he planted his foot on its torso, launched off it, and sent himself flying into the wall. Before he hit the wall, he sent a blast into the large water tank on the back of the Frankystein. The grey glob of energy hit the tank, rupturing it. Hot water spilled everywhere, including over the robot.
    With one final plume of steam, the machine sputtered to a stop.
    At the same time, however, Frank and Ness were going at it. And Ness was not in good shape by any stretch of the imagination.
    Long story short - he was getting smacked down, but he was holding his own.
    Ness blocked another one of Frank's vicious knife attacks with his now battered bat. He wished dearly that he could pull off some of the stunts that Colin had managed, but right now, all he wanted was to beat Frank and get this whole thing over with.
    Finally, Ness had enough. Frank took a swing at Ness with his knife. Using his bat, Ness shoved the broad side of it into the knife, firmly embedding it in the aged wood. He drew the bat back and took a wild, hard swing, hitting Frank hard in the side, and sending him flying off to the side, and sprawling onto the wreckage of the Frankystein.
    Frank smiled, and got up. "Not bad, you two. Not bad at all."
    Colin shook his head and stood up. His hair slowly shrunk back down to it's normal length and the glow about him slowly subsided. Nothing was left of his wound except for a patch of skin with no hair on it.
    Frank stepped up to Colin and extended his hand. "You really are the real Colin Strife."
    Colin took his hand and shook it."Frank Fly, I presume?"
    Frank nodded his head. "The one and only." He then turned to Ness, who had just taken the knife out of his bat. "And you are. . ."
    "Ness." He said. "Ness Hert."
    "Well, then, Ness. You've become much stronger than I. I believe it's time that you started out on your adventure. You see, I've been having dreams. Of the chosen four. And I think that you are two of them."
    Ness nodded. Colin looked over at his cohort and noticed the look in his eyes.