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.