The next day came over the Joel, Lynn, and Ryan, and they had found their way to a highway that would take them in the direction of Traquo. The sun was high in the sky, and the clouds were scattered without a sign of rain. Occasionally Lynn would attempt putting her hand up to try calling for a ride, but the traffic was moving at too fast and open of a speed to take notice to anyone on the side of the road.

"I don’t know about you guys, but I burn easily if I don’t have some decent sun block!" Lynn complained as she sweated under the sun.

"I’m tanned enough as it is." Ryan told Lynn.

The both looked over at Joel, who was carelessly walking along with them to the side and minding his own business. After a few moments of silence he looked to his side and saw the two looking at them.

"Err, what?" Joel asked, "I don’t notice anything. It’s a perfectly nice day to me."

Lynn sighed, putting her hand across her face, and asked, "Why am I not surprised?"

"Technically it doesn’t matter to Joel, because the intense heat is only being absorbed into his body like energy." Ryan explained to Lynn.

"Technically I didn’t care." Lynn said with an annoyed look struck over her face.

Ryan shrugged and stopped for a moment, and the others stopped with him. He put his right hand up to his forehead with two fingers up, and his clothes changed out into his blue leather armor with the mantle and cape.

"If you want shade so much out here you can walk under my cape." Ryan offered Lynn.

He stepped up to Lynn and turned around, and he tossed his cape up and over her head. Lynn began swinging around under the cape trying to get out from under it, and she began yelling at Ryan with her voice muffled.

Joel looked around at Ryan, inspecting him closely, and asked, "Hey, what happened to your face guard?"

"My what?" Ryan asked.

"You know, the thing on the front of your mantle." Joel said.

Ryan scratched his head for a moment, then said, "Oh yeah. Zareon busted it off the first chance he got. I just patched the mantle up and left it as it was, even though I’m a bit more vulnerable now to the neck than I used to be."

"Oh. I’m sorry." Joel apologized.

"No problem, man!" Ryan exclaimed, shaking his head, "It’s more stylish this way, and it was bound to get noticed sooner or later."

Lynn threw the cape off from over her and cried out, "Blaaaah!"

He suddenly felt as if his face were being crushed in as an object slammed across his face. Joel and Lynn cringed and stepped back in surprise as the object lifted up and flew backwards. It was a small boomerang that hit Ryan in his now vulnerable area, and he fell back over Lynn before she could make it away far enough from Ryan. Lynn gagged and squirmed while Ryan lay flat over her.

The boomerang returned to its owner soon after it repelled off of Ryan’s face. Joel looked across the sidewalk and saw a small light-skinned child with black hair, brown eyes, and wore glasses. He wore a fine white shirt with buttons vertically along the center and small black suit pants, and over all he appeared to be of around the age of seven to nine. Joel began inching towards the child slowly to catch a better eye of the boy, but the child hissed and fiercely waved his boomerang at Joel threateningly.

"Stay back!" the boy snarled at Joel, "I’ve already taken out two of you!"

Joel stopped suddenly and looked back down at Ryan over the squirming Lynn on the ground and said, "You knocked them out, what are you talking about?"

"No! They’re both dead!" the boy said, shaking his head, "My boomerang is special and magical! My mom told me so! It can beat you demons in one hit, she said!"

Joel looked back at Ryan for another moment and said, "Hmm, you might be right. He’s out rather cold. I wonder when he’ll come to?" he kneeled down and began poking at Ryan, "Hey, wake up!"

Ryan shook his head a few times and began rubbing his face with his hands.

"Ouch! Hey, what’s the big idea!" Ryan said out towards space. He stood up, pushing down on Lynn a bit, and glared with an annoyed look on his face at the child, "That was a free hit, man! That wasn’t nice!"

Lynn began trying to push Ryan off, saying, "Hey, get off me, Ryan!"

The boomerang was sent flying towards the three again, and Joel ducked out of the way from the projectile’s path. It smashed Ryan in the face again, and he fell back down onto Lynn’s body. Her voice became muffled while her face was stuck in the ground.

"No talking! I’m not a boy! I’ll be a renowned demon killer! Starting with you three!" the boy called out as he caught his boomerang again.

"Geez, that was kind of rude." Joel mumbled quietly as he looked back at Ryan again. He crossed his arms along his chest and began thinking deeply into the matter at hands and said, "Wait a minute, Miss Lynn isn’t even a Guardian." He looked back towards the child and asked, "Who are you anyway?"

"The last name you’ll hear in your life time!" the boy said with a childish smile, "My name is Anthony!"

He stood up as tall and proud as he could be as if stars and lights were flashing out from behind him.

"But don’t you know we don’t have just one life? We keep coming back." Joel told him.

"Nuh uh!" Anthony said, "Just watch!"

Joel watched Anthony curiously as the boomerang was thrown towards his direction again. Joel tilted his head to the side with a blank face over him, and he put out his right hand and flicked the boomerang away. The projectile was sent flying out into space, far from anyone’s reach. Anthony’s looks turned from confidant to fearful from Joel’s sudden moves.

"Oh no! I’m sorry mister demon! Don’t eat me! I’ll leave you alone now!" Anthony cried as he inched away from the group.

The child began running away quietly, breathing deeply for air while he made his sprint. Joel shook his head in confusion and pulled Ryan aside so Lynn could get up from under him. Ryan twitched several times on his side before he came back to his senses and stood up again. Lynn and Ryan both patted themselves off from the dirty ground’s filth.

"Well now that he’s gone, let’s go on." Joel said.

The three began moving along the sidewalk again down the long highway. Lynn’s shoulders were slumped down in exhaustion from Ryan’s weight, and Ryan was swerving about left and right from his dizzy state of surprise.

"So how long is walking to Traquo going to take?" Lynn moaned.

Ryan shook his dizzy head for a moment, then said, "Err, a couple more days, I think, man. That is, if we aren’t held up by anything."

"Kind of like how we just were, right?" Lynn asked.

Ryan nodded down at Lynn, and a projectile smashed into the backside of his head, causing him to fall over onto the ground on his face. It was Anthony’s boomerang that had flown by and repelled off of Ryan’s hard head, and Anthony was behind them to catch it as it came back to him.

"There you are, monsters! I’ve got you now!" Anthony called out.

Joel thought for a moment, then pointed at the boy and dumbfoundedly asked, "Hey... Didn’t you just...?"

"What? What was I just doing? I was walking along the street and my head was hit with some flying object from one of the passing cars, and I remembered that I was going the wrong way if I was going to find you guys!" Anthony exclaimed.

Lynn leaned over to Joel and asked, "What’s with the kid?"

Joel shrugged at Lynn and said, "I dunno, but he thinks you’re a Guardian, too."

"Psh, in my dreams." Lynn said, rolling her eyes.

"Quiet demon girl!" Anthony called out to Lynn, "You can’t fool the soon-to-be great demon monster killer!"

"What? Girl!?" Lynn exclaimed, clenching her fists in annoyance.

She stuck her shoulders up high with an angry face struck over her, and she began stomping her feet forward towards the boy, stepping over Ryan’s twitching body. She stood up tall about a foot taller than the child with her hands on her hips.

"I may be short and I may be flat, but I must be almost three times your age! I’m no girl!" Lynn growled at him.

There was a short moment of silence, then Anthony pointed up at her and said, "Old hag!"

Lynn stopped suddenly, beginning to stutter continuously to herself. Her face paled and her eyes widened in shock, and Lynn dropped to the ground feeling her world begin to gray out around her.

"Old... hag...?" Lynn thought, "Well I am... twenty years old now... and I am feeling a bit wrinkly... Oh no! My hair is turning gray!"

Joel looked at Lynn curiously, and he drew his Masamune as he stepped up to Anthony. He held the sword in a fashion where the light reflected straight off of it into Anthony’s eyes, causing him to back off blindly with his hands to his face.

"Aah! Oww! No fair! I can’t do that like a monster can!" Anthony cried.

As Anthony rubbed his eyes from the bright light, Joel put his sword away and approached the child while he was blind. He kneeled down next to Anthony and glanced at him closely face to face. As his vision came back he saw Joel’s face up close and scrambled far back with loud whimpers.

"Oh no! Don’t eat me, please! I promise I won’t try fighting you!" Anthony cried. He turned and ran the other way, crying, "Mommy, Daddy, help!"

The child began running away in a similar fashion as the time before in the opposite direction. Joel scratched his head in confusion once again, and he moved over beside Lynn and Ryan, poking them until they each stood up again. Ryan shook his head briefly and rubbed the back of his head, and the three began walking down the street once again.

"God... damn... When we get to Traquo I’m completely redesigning my mantle to have both a face guard and a back-of-the-head guard." Ryan complained with irritation, "Are you guys seeing who’s doing that?"

"Hair... gray... old..." Lynn whimpered out loud.

Ryan looked down at Lynn strangely and asked, "What’s with her? Did she get hit by the Guardian of old age?"

"Is there really such a thing?" Joel asked. He shook his head at Ryan and said, "There’s a young child following us around thinking he’s going to kill us with his boomerang."

"Hopped up on sugar, too!" Lynn told them with a jump.

"A kid, huh." Ryan said, beginning to think deeply as they walked along the path.

Joel nodded and said, "Yeah, his name is Anthony. You mean you didn’t see him or hear him while you were down?"

"No way, dude!" Ryan exclaimed, "That stuff hurt like hell."

Lynn lifted her shoulders and perked up for a moment and said, "Wait! Did Ryan just learn a new word?"

Ryan frowned and squinted his eyes at Lynn and said, "Hey, not funny."

"I wonder why he thinks Lynn is a Guardian, too." Joel said, wondering about the child.

Ryan put out his hands and summoned a large scroll with a diagram image over it, and he began looking over it away from the others.

"Why’d he call me an old hag then? Guardians are supposed to look so young, beefy, and gorgeous, though!" Lynn exclaimed.

Joel and Ryan paused what they were doing at the time and briefly looked down at Lynn with blank faces.

"Well, maybe it’s my outfit. Umm." Lynn mumbled as she looked between the two Guardians, "I wouldn’t mind being a Guardian, too." She began dreaming off into space, thinking, "Just think of all the hot guys I’d meet! And all the cool moves I could do by myself! And since I’d live forever, just think of all the hot guys I’d meet!"

Ryan reached down and hit Lynn slightly over her head and said, "Hey now! Remember that Guardians aren’t always liked all over the world. You didn’t like us one time either."

Joel looked at them both blankly and asked, "What? What was she thinking?"

"But what if we could all get along?" Lynn asked, "Amplify your powers or something with a happy brain beam, Ryan!"

Ryan shook his head and grinned, saying, "That’d be way too scary, man." He put his hands up and shrugged, saying, "Aside from world peace you’d also have to deal with the fact that when you’re immortal and live long lives without aging at all you have to watch the ones you really do love and care about decay with their own age."

Lynn cringed at both of them and said, "Eww. Well, so that’ll happen to me, too, after travelling long enough with you guys, but I’d take being a Guardian over a normal human anyway!"

Ryan levitated the scroll with the diagram out in front of the group as they walked along to show them the picture on it.

"Technically if you could kill a Guardian, or saw one die, and catch the core before it faded away back into the heavens you might. It’s just a theory, but if you could catch one and embed it into your body it would probably reactivate slightly like an premature core would, thus granting you the powers of immortality as well as some basic fighting and survival techniques." Ryan explained.

"That’s like what I went through when I was born." Joel said.

Ryan nodded at Joel, and he began explaining to Lynn how his first day had gone. As Sarralyn was guiding him around he lost her and was engulfed into the massive crowd of people in Traquo. As he wandered around alone and confused back then he kept an open ear out for her voice and had begun studying the different various methods of speech used by all the people around him. He watched the TVs on display in some of the stores, and he was able to construct the English language from paying attention to the people all around him. Joel then explained how he came across Sarralyn trapped in an alley being attacked by three thugs and how he came to his friend’s rescue. He told them about the gun wound in his leg and all the confusion that came afterwards since he did not know how to explain it himself.

"And that’s what happens when a Guardian is awakened prematurely." Ryan said, finishing up Joel’s story, "Of course, like we’ve seen from Joel already, it’s dangerous to have a premature core inside you. The original Guardian inside it could wake up at any time temporarily and do what they want. It depends on their mood." Suddenly Ryan stopped and held his friends back and whispered, "Wait..."

He looked around quickly and put his hands up in the air to guard his head. He could hear the boomerang flying around again through the loud traffic noise, and he was determined to evade the attack this time around. Ryan continued to look around for the boomerang, but he could not see it. Suddenly Ryan felt pain wracking against his back along his spine, and he fell down forward crying.

"Aah! My... back...!" Ryan cried. When he hit the ground and began twitching he muttered, "Why... me... God...?"

Joel and Lynn jumped up to their toes in shock as they saw Ryan collapse again, and the boomerang once again returned to its owner, the child Anthony.

"Man, my aim was off!" Anthony sighed.

Lynn groaned and called out, "You? What are you doing here again?"

"It’s amazing how forgetful a child can be." Joel said.

Anthony shook his hand at Joel and yelled, "Forgetful? I was going home to my mom for a mid-day snack when I slipped and fell into a big puddle of water! Then I remembered that I wasn’t going home until I beat one of you monsters!"

"Here we go again." Joel mumbled to the side. He rolled his eyes and noticed Lynn was preparing her hoops for combat and said, "Hey, don’t hurt him! He’s just a kid and all."

Joel quickly moved behind Lynn and picked her up, locking her arms, and Lynn began struggling, yelling, "Hey, let me go! We’re going to get to Traquo on time, and this squirt’s not going to keep us back any longer!"

"Yeah, I know, but there’s other ways to go..." Joel started saying, but he was cut off as Lynn reached up and hit Joel in the face with one of her hoops.

Lynn was released and jumped back down to the ground. She breathed deeply in frustration with the child as she brought her arms back, preparing for a special attack.

Anthony pointed at Lynn again and called out, "Hey, it’s the old hag again!"

"Stop that! I’m not listening to you anymore, kid!" Lynn roared, "You want me to act like a Guardian? Well here we go!"

Joel stood up and scratched his head and said, "Oh boy, here we go."

Lynn began swinging her hoops around her, and she twirled around with a complete fluid motion. The air around them began to grow wild with activity with Lynn’s motion. Cars began stopping near them, and people began setting up stands to watch Lynn’s performance while they ate popcorn, hot dogs, and drank sodas.

"And here’s one I learned from the great martial artists Koichi!" Lynn said, "Go Whirl Spiral!"

She threw her hoops forward as they swung around on their cords, and they crossed each other’s path, creating a large tornado vortex in the air. Anthony glared at the attack with his child’s eye, getting ready to defend against it however he could. The tornado moved slowly with its rapid wind power towards the child, and Anthony began to feel himself getting pulled in. Before the tornado could blow Anthony away it disappeared in the air, and the winds calmed down again. Lynn gasped at the scene and looked away with a sigh, and Joel slapped himself in the face in embarrassment.

Joel looked down at the child and put his hands up in the air and called out, "Well, it’s my turn again, I suppose."

"But... but... but..." Lynn stuttered repeatedly, "That’s never happened before when Koichi was teaching me!"

Joel shook his head and called out, ‘Prepare to feel the heat! Fire Volt!"

As he chanted the words a large wave of flames appeared in the air above them and as he threw his hands down they flew out and rolled down through the air, hitting the ground between Lynn and Anthony. Lynn and Anthony both jumped back in surprise, and Anthony once again began to whimper and whine at the situation.

"What now?" Joel sighed, "I didn’t even aim to hit you."

"But I can’t do that either! You meanie! I’m telling my mom!" Anthony cried.

The child turned around and ran away again with his boomerang as he did before. The crowd that formed around them began applauding at their performance, and they all returned to their vehicles and drove off across the road again. Joel shook his head in disbelief, and Lynn began poking at Ryan until he got up again. When Ryan stood up he leaned back and creaked his back from the boomerang hit. The three began walking along quietly down the street, continuing their way to Traquo again.

"Have you ever noticed that most of the time we’ve traveled like this Lynn’s been the first to come up with a complaint or something?" Joel asked the other two.

"What? I like talking and keeping a lively mood." Lynn told them. She looked away and said, "Otherwise all this walking around would be really boring."

"Yeah, well, it’s a necessary evil at times." Ryan said, "I’d fly you guys, but that takes a lot out of me when I carry people, to tell the truth."

"Oh, well, what about when you carried me all the way from the Shroud Forest to the mountains?" Lynn asked.

"Sudden burst of desperate energy." Ryan told her with a wide grin, "We all get it when we really need it. It doesn’t matter what race we are."

"I guess so." Lynn said, "Like when moms go lifting large trucks to save their babies."

Ryan laughed and said, "Weight’s just a figment of the human imagination! You think you can’t lift something because of how big it looks."

"But what about smaller things like our weapons that weigh a lot?" Joel asked.

Ryan dropped his shoulders and thought for a moment, stuttering, "Umm..."

Lynn nudged Ryan on his side and said with a sly grin, "Looks like the Guardian of the mind can’t explain everything, can he?"

Ryan summoned a yellow book to his hands labeled ‘Know-it-alls for Dummies’ and began searching through it frantically, saying, "I know there’s got to be an explanation for it somewhere in here!" He sighed and tossed the book away after going through it and said, "Ah, maybe you’re right, man. They are heavy."

Joel poked Ryan’s shoulder and said, "What about gravity?"

Ryan crashed to the ground in humility behind Joel and Lynn.

"Did he say there’s no such thing as gravity, too?" Lynn asked.

Joel nodded at her and said, "When he tried teaching me what it’s like to fly."

"Really? How did he describe that?" Lynn asked, looking back at Ryan.

"Free X-Y-Z axis, that gravity’s part of our imagination, too." Joel told her.

Lynn looked back at Ryan, who was still down on the ground, and she ran up to him and began jumping on top of him, yelling, "I have gravity!" She jumped again, "I’m imagining things!" She jumped one more time, "I’m stuck to the ground!"

She jumped off, and the world began spinning around Ryan in the daze he has gone into. Joel shook his head and picked Ryan up, carrying him over his shoulder as the three continued along the road. Once again they could hear the sound of a boomerang flying their way, and Joel ducked, bringing Lynn down with him, as the boomerang inched close to them. He stood up and looked back after the boomerang flew over their heads and saw Anthony standing there once again behind them.

"Again?" Joel asked.

"Is he ever going to give up?" Lynn mumbled, crossing her arms together along her chest.

"Mom wasn’t home, and my friends said they wanted to meet me to play catch at the park!" Anthony called out, "But since I saw you monsters here along the way I thought I’d take a swing at beating you!"

Joel put Ryan down on the ground and walked towards the child and said, "Look, we’ve scared you off three times already. You know, three strikes and you’re out?" Anthony looked blankly at Joel as he spoke, and Joel continued, "He have a long way to go to the place we want to be, and we can’t keep having you follow us around and stopping us like this. You’re going to get hurt eventually."

Anthony shook his head rapidly and said, "Nuh-uh! My boomerang’s the best!"

Joel shook his head and drew his sword, showing it to the boy, and said, "Do you really think that wooden stick is going to beat this thing here?" He dropped it to the ground near them, causing a loud crash and boom to sound off, "Try lifting it up and tell me what you think."

As Joel finished talking, Anthony’s boomerang returned from the back and hit Joel blindly on the back of his head, causing Joel to cringe and topple forward from one foot to another. Anthony stepped to the side and watched Joel fall to the ground. He picked up his boomerang from next to Joel and laughed at him.

"I told you my boomerang’s the best!" the child laughed.

Joel shook his head as he lay on the ground, thinking, "Man, Ryan was right about that boomerang."

"Aww man, this is embarrassing!" Lynn moaned, "Getting beat by an eight year old!" She walked up to Anthony, who began taking a defensive position as he inched off, and Lynn told him, "Go home to your family and leave us alone!"

Lynn slapped the child in the face, and as soon as Anthony bounced back from the hit he hit Lynn back with his boomerang in his hand. Lynn jolted back, face to the side, and began thinking what she would do next to try getting the child to leave the three alone. She noticed that Ryan had disappeared from where Joel left him to lie before he approached Anthony for the fourth time. As Joel stood up from the ground, Lynn jumped back and pulled him away for a talk.

"What’s wrong, Miss Lynn?" Joel asked as he sat down next to her.

Lynn looked around quickly and said, "Ryan’s gone! Do you think someone snatched his body?"

"Body snatchers? No." Joel told her.

Joel looked up and pointed up into the sky, and Lynn soon looked back at what he was pointing at. Ryan was up on his feet in the air floating above them all.

"Hah! There’s no way he can get me this time!" Ryan laughed, "Now I’ve got him!"

Anthony gazed up at Ryan in astonishment, and at the same time Ryan’s eyes lit up with a gleeful cheer.

"Oh dear lord..." Lynn mumbled.

"Ryan’s gone mad!" Joel cried, quickly running away.

"That’s right!" Ryan cackled. He waved his hands up and down, back and forth, several times, then raised his left arm up and called out, "Distortion!"

Ryan opened his fist up and gleaming lines of light sprayed out from his fingertips. Each stream of light bent down and fell towards the ground all around, and as they each hit the ground around Anthony the child reached for his head and dropped to his knees. The beams emitted energy around the boy that sent him into a hallucinated world. In Anthony’s mind he found himself running away from all his fears. Giant spiders and worms chased after him, and the child panicked and screamed for help. The monsters faded away from behind him, and Anthony stopped to catch his breath. Suddenly a thousand boomerangs came flying wildly out towards him, hitting him repeatedly across his body.

"Yeah! See how it feels!" Ryan called out with a wide grin over his face. He crossed his arms and said, "Anyone stuck within those beams of energy suffers dramatic nightmares! Too bad they aren’t real."

Joel and Lynn cringed at the sight of Anthony on his knees, and Lynn said, "Ouch, that’s harsh!"

Ryan shook his head and called out, "They say the first things can sometimes be the worst, but I’ll try making this as remember able as I can!"

He shot his right arm down and pointed at Anthony, and the Distortion spell faded away, leaving Anthony behind dressed in a girl’s dress. He began singing and dancing strange tunes that Joel seemed to remember from some time in the past.

"Oooh, happy happy sappy... Help me!" Anthony sang and cried at the same time as he danced about on the sidewalk, "Happy as can... someone... be... These monsters are... Happy happy sappy! Oh no...!"

Joel scratched his head for a moment and said, "Didn’t he do that to..."

He paused himself mid-sentence and began thinking about the situation at hand.

"He did what?" Lynn asked, "I’ve never seen an attack like this from anyone before."

Ryan continued to laugh at the child and called out, "This should teach you to toy with the likes of me the way you have!" He flew down to the ground and put his hand over the dancing child in girl’s dressing and said, "Now to reconfigure his mind so he doesn’t try this stuff anymore."

Anthony reverted to his normal self and was stuck in a daze as Ryan cast a spell over him. Long energy waves transferred through Ryan’s hand into the child’s mind, and as Ryan finished his spell he backed away and extended his hands out at Anthony from far away.

"Well, now for the grand finale." Ryan said as his hands lit up.

He shot two energy beams through his Twin Laser attack into the ground below Anthony, and the child was sent flying up and away as the ground exploded beneath him. As he flew away his mind was set free from the trance Ryan put him under, and Anthony began crying as he was catapulted away.

Joel and Lynn hopped back on their toes as the blast shook the ground, and they were both shocked at Ryan’s action. Ryan patted his gloves together and turned around to walk across the path towards Traquo again on the highway.

"But really, Ryan. Don’t you think that was a bit too harsh?" Lynn asked as she followed alongside Ryan.

Ryan shook his head at Lynn and said, "Nope, and beside, he knows who’s the man now!"

Joel came up behind the two, watching their back as they walked along.

"I’m not so sure about that, Ryan." Joel told him as he noticed a young shadow pop up far behind them again.

Their first day of three traveling down the road back to Traquo again moved on and passed. The breeze created from the fast passing cars and trucks along the road kept their bodies cool under the rising temperature. As the day passed they felt fortunate as to not get held up again by more troublesome children or anything else.

"I just wish we’d get a ride with one of these cars... That’d make things way faster!" Lynn moaned.

"If you like being fat and lazy!" Ryan exclaimed with a grin and a wink towards Lynn.

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