The decision to leave came as no surprise to either Ana or Julia’s family. The truth was, Julian now had a great deal of questions that needed to be answered, and those answer were neither in Snowman or within the confines of Ana’s Chateau. After the second attack, Julian retreated within himself, and refused to eat or talk to anyone. After two days, he reemerged, packed his things, and walked out the door. No good bye, no farewell, nothing. He just left.
Using the few cash he had to buy himself a ticket on the Paradise Line, Julian picked Podunk as his destination, hoping he could find this ‘Ninten’ character and try to get some answers out of him. However, despite what his mother said, Julian did feel like an abnormal freak; he secretly feared that his powers could go berserk at any time and vaporize some innocent bystander. That was exactly the last thing he needed.
Julian had almost no money; there was no need for any when he lived in Snowman. This setback was the hardest to overcome at present, and, in retrospect, Julian felt like he should have planned his little ‘epiphany’ more than he did. But oh well, if anything he could always call home and ask his mother to wire some over, right? Perhaps if she wasn’t upset over his running away, she might come and help him…wouldn’t she?
A mawkish sensation made itself present in Julian’s stomach. Great, barely gone for two hours and already he was homesick. Just wonderful.
The train stop closest to Podunk was that of Merrysville. There was a bridge that led from Merrysville to the outskirts of Podunk, and Julian planned not to waste time and to head there as soon as he could. This proved impossible when Julian hopped off the train and felt he could barely stand. He was exhausted, both mentally and physically. After all, he had barely slept the night before, and it was already dark…once more, Julian cursed at himself for not planning ahead.
As Julian
lumbered towards the few lights he could see in the distance, he summarized the
event of the last few days in his head: Let’s see…A seemingly alien prism
awakened weird psychic powers within me
after a meteor shower. He began thinking. Now there are
robots after me, and I’m going on an insane search for a person I know nothing about.
I left home without so much as a word…not to mention no money. Now I’m lost and tired. And hungry. Really
hungry.
His stomach made an unpleasant rumbling as he rubbed it. His face was downcast, his eyes dreary and his feet in pain. The only real preemptive measure Julian took was to pack some clothes. That and he learned how to manipulate the Aswer so that he could make it grow and shrink, as well as regulate the power beam it generated. He demonstrated this to himself as he made the Aswer the size of a baseball and cradled it in his hand. He rounded a corner and found himself in downtown Merrysville, playing with the mystical symbol all the while.
A cry coming from his left broke Julian off from his thoughts. Whizzing around, he managed to make out three figures in the dark: apparently two men and a young girl. It was obvious that the girl was being assaulted by the two men, and she seemed to be putting up quite a fight, although not good enough.
The girl wrenched her arm from her first attacker, a tall blonde man, and jammed her knee into his stomach. He howled in pain, but, before she could hit him again, the other mugger, a pudgier man with a baseball cap, grabbed her and slammed her against the alley they were in. “Enough with the fighting!” he growled. “Give up yer money or it’s lights out fer ya, girlie!” The girl squirmed, but didn’t answer. “Fine.” The mugger answered. “Have it yer way…”
“Hey!” came a cry from behind the fat one. He spun his head to see, and found, in the distance, a young boy holding a greenish glowing thing in his right hand. “Let her go!” he commanded. The fat mugger, Larry, chortled, dropping the girl. “Hey Earl.” He called to his taller counterpart. “What say we clobber this kid before we take care o’ the girl?”
Earl chuckled. “Yeah. Sounds like fun.”
Julian looked at the two muggers, who were advancing on him menacingly. He looked at the Aswer, then, sending a mental command to it, made it latch onto the back of his hand so that it resembled a glowing tattoo. Staring at it briefly, Julian clenched his fist and charged towards the smaller one, Larry. His fist began glowing fiercely, and when he was close enough, he sent a power punch to Larry’s gut, sending him flying backwards. Julian skidded to a halt, then turned on Earl and stretched his other hand, focusing his telekinetic energy and lifting the tall man onto thin air. The mugger flailed his arms and legs in despair, while Julian held him up. Then, with one swift motion of Julian’s hand, the mugger went flying and crashed onto his partner. The two quickly scrambled to their feet and ran away. Julian slowly relaxed and dissipated the Aswer, breathing hard.
“Hey, that was some trick!”
It was the girl. She seemed to have fully recovered now, and had dusted herself off. Her shoulder-length auburn hair, while somewhat roughed up, looked fine. Save for a few splotches of dirt on her white long-sleeved shirt, which had the sleeves rolled up, and a bump on her arm, she was fine.
Julian looked quizzically at the girl. “Yeah…it was nothing really.” He looked her over. “You all right?”
The girl was beaming. “Are you kidding?! That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen! You really showed them, didn’t you?!” the girl was advancing on Julian and checking him all over. Julian, feeling slightly awkward, backed off and raised his hands in front of him. “Hey, listen…it was nothing, okay? I just…did what I had to.” The girl stopped. “Oh.” She said. “Well…thank you. That was very nice of you.” She paused, then snapped her fingers and her eyes lit up. “I know! Let me thank you! Will you, please? Come on, I want to show my appreciation!”
Julian’s eyes widened. “Well…I could use a place to eat and sleep.”
The girl beamed again, grabbed his hand, yelled, “Come on!” and led him away.