The dawn of a new day slowly rolled upon the trio’s camp in the great outdoors. Beams of sunlight shot into the three tents that were set up around the grounds, and Joel stirred for a while until he fully woke up. He crawled outside and scratched his head, then he approached Lynn’s tent to wake her up. As he tapped on her tent flap he could hear Lynn moving around inside, and she popped her head out with an angry glare. She grumbled at Joel with an evil scowl across her face.

"Sarralyn says let Lynn sleep!" Lynn yelled at Joel, causing him to fall back onto the ground.

Lynn plopped her head back into her tent, and Joel could hear a thump on the ground from Lynn going back to sleep. He stood up and shook his head.

"Sarralyn would say that?" Joel asked himself. He turned away and leaned on a street light pole and said, "Well it was nice, but I wish Ryan could have found us a better place than the street walk on the highway." He looked around at the three tents lined up along the sidewalk, then at the parked cars around them and the people looking at them, "Kind of brought in some unneeded attention, though."

A police car came in and parked by the scene, and two policemen appeared and approached the camp. As the men came near Joel he looked away and put his hand over his face as if he were looking up and shading his eyes from the light, trying to not let himself be seen by the law in case they were still after him.

"Gidday sir. Mind we ask you what yer doin camped here?" The higher ranked officer asked.

"Hmm? Oh, leaving soon, I hope." Joel said, still shading his face.

The lower ranked officer began scribbling on a notepad.

"Well, ah, we’d like ta ask ya to do that A.S.A.P. here, cuz we only allow camps at camp sites, see." The higher ranked officer said.

Joel shook his head and said, "Nope, can’t do that. They aren’t mine."

"Oh. Well, ah, do ya?" The officer asked, "And could ya tell em ta take their stuff home?"

"Home...?" Joel asked in a quiet mumble. He looked slightly down and to the side and pointed at one of the tents and said, "I know it’s one of those over there. I’m not one to wake them up in the early mornings, though."

"Well, ah, I’ll send my partner o’er an see." The officer said.

The lower ranked officer scribbled some more on his notepad and put it away, and he walked up to the nearest tent and began knocking on it.

"I hope I didn’t send him to Miss Lynn’s tent." Joel thought.

The officer kneeled down and looked into the tent and called out, "Hello in there? Are you the owner of these here tents?"

Two enraged eyes could be seen in the dark ends of the tent, and an arm reached out and grabbed the officer, pulling him inside.

"Mind a girl’s privacy, bub!" Lynn’s voice was heard from inside.

The officer cried for help inside, and the whole tent jumped up from commotion. Joel and the officer could hear a rapid beat down coming from inside between the two characters.

"That’s strange. Normally Miss Lynn would mention something about wanting sex in a smug voice this time of the day." Joel said as he watched.

Ryan appeared behind Joel and the officer and said, "Exciting, isn’t it?"

Joel nodded and said, "Maybe without the tent cover so we could see what was happening."

He slowly looked back and noticed Ryan was standing there waving at him, and Joel fell down to the ground on his side in surprise.

"Surprised?" Ryan asked.

Joel jumped up on his feet and said, "Wait! When did you leave your tent?"

Ryan looked around a bit and whispered, "I had to go to the bathroom, man. Where do you do that stuff around here? I had to go a ways out."

Joel twitched and shook for a moment, then bent down with his hands between his knees.

"Uhoh, he’s right! Where do you go to the bathroom around here?" he thought and he looked around quickly.

The police officer looked at Joel and said, "Now wait a minute, sir. Have I seen your face somewhere?"

Joel looked up at the officer and said, "Not for long!" he jetted off down the street, repeating, "Gotta find a bathroom, gotta find a bathroom, gotta find a bathroom...!"

He suddenly felt a sharp pain eating at the back of his lower left leg, and Joel fell to the ground. He gritted his teeth and growled in pain as he reached back and held onto his leg.

"Agh, I feel like my leg’s cramped up!" Joel thought.

Ryan ran up to Joel and looked over him, saying, "Got a leg cramp? Didn’t you do your stretches this morning?" He put his hands over Joel’s leg and said, "Wait a minute, this isn’t an ordinary leg cramp."

"It’s not? Then what is it?" Joel asked him and he leaned onto his back to sit up.

The officer jogged up steadily to catch up with Ryan and Joel and called out, "Hey, ah, now I remember. Yer that kid on the wanted posters from the Traquo happening, weren’t ya?"

Ryan stood up and shook his head, saying, "Seems like a hexascorp larvae crawled into your leg some time at night so it could grow into an adult."

"Are those bad?" Joel asked, ignoring the policeman.

Ryan shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well it depends. The babies are little work-like creatures, and when they grow into an adult they sprout six heads, wings, and a long scorpion-like stinger tail."

"Eww, where do the brains go anyway..." Joel said.

"Well the bad thing is the host is eaten by the hexascorp when it hatches from its cocoon." Ryan told Joel.

Joel fell back in shock, and said, "Eat me? It can’t eat me, though! I’d be like an ultimate buffet!" He sat up and asked, "What advice do you have, Ryan?"

"Well..." Ryan began, trailing off.

From the background the three could hear a loud thump from the tents. The younger officer had been booted outside from Lynn’s tent, and he was slumped down head-first on the ground in a tight daze.

"No sex for you!" Lynn roared at him.

Joel scratched his head as he looked back, then said, "I was wondering when she’d finally say something about sex."

"Err, well..." Ryan continued as he turned away from the camp, "We could go and cut your leg off..."

Joel grabbed his leg and cried, "No, I don’t want to loose my leg!"

The officer stepped up again and said, "Uh, sirs. I’m gonna have to take ya both in fer questionings."

Ryan grinned at Joel and said, "Ah, don’t be a dimwit. Not like you’d loose it forever!" He threw his hands up in the air and said, "I really like the hexascorp species anyway. I’d say we find a hospital or something to get it removed just like that."

Joel sat up with his legs crossed and thought for a moment, then said, "But where’s one of those at?"

"Good question." Ryan said as he began looking high around.

"Uh, hey, ah." The officer began.

Ryan turned quickly around and leaned down on his side towards the officer and asked, "Hey man, how about some directions?"

"Uh, questions?" The officer said.

Ryan shook his head and said, "Hospital."

"Um, court?" The officer said.

"Doctors?" Ryan said, squinting his eyes at the man.

"...Jail...?" The officer mumbled nervously.

"Nurses?" Ryan said. There was a long pause between them, and Ryan continued, "With gorgeous breasts and large womanly thighs?"

Joel dropped back onto the ground with a sudden look of astonishment over his face. After a few more moments of silence, Ryan rolled his eyes and reached out for the officer’s head, and he began searching for local hospital areas within the area inside the man’s memory. As ten seconds passed, Ryan removed his hand from the officer’s head and tapped him backwards slightly, causing him to wobble back several steps.

Ryan turned around and started walking down the road and said, "Come on man, let’s go."

Joel stood up and began limping slightly along behind Ryan. Ryan put his hand up and snapped his fingers, and his bag of items appeared in his hands. He tossed the bag over his shoulder, then brought his other hand up and waved his finger, and his three tents began folding together and putting themselves away, then disappeared.

"Well we’re going to have to double time it if we’re going to make it there in time." Ryan told Joel.

"Double time? You mean run?" Joel asked.

Ryan nodded with a grin, and his eyes gleamed for a moment at Joel. He grabbed Joel’s arm and began running down the road in the direction of the closest hospital he could find from the policeman’s mind. He began achieving a fast enough running speed along the road that he was slowly passing up the different cars driving down the super highway.

"Wooo! Check me out, man! I’m my own speed cruiser!" Ryan cheered as he ran with Joel dangling off from behind.

Lynn slowly noticed that her tent and bed were missing, and the big crowd that was looking into the camp before was still there looking over Lynn in her bra and panties. Camera flashes began firing off from various angles around Lynn as she lay down on the ground. She sat up and looked around the area, then at herself, and all around the crowd. Her face began turning abnormally fiery red with anger, and she jumped up and began assaulting the crowd by herself.

"Raaa! All right! Nothing to see here! Go back home!" Lynn yelled as she threw punches into every man and woman, "Good bye! Not in your playboy magazine, buddy! Screw off, ass!"

The higher ranked police officer watched Lynn assault the crowd, and he ran up to the scene to restrain her and take her away. Lynn only struggled as she was held down by the man, trying to get more hits in.

"Alright, missy, let’s go." The police officer told her as she walked her to his car.

"Hey! I’m not done yet!" Lynn yelled, "Rape! Rape! I’m calling rape! Rape, I tell you!"

Handcuffs were placed on her hands, preventing her from making any sudden arm movements or reaches, and the officer drove her away to the police station as soon as he could pull his partner up into the car with them. All the way in the car Lynn kicked and screamed in a ranting anger, trying to get loose. When they arrived at the police station and entered in towards the back she ducked and hid herself from the whistling, screaming crowd from all around looking over her almost-naked body like wild perverts. Lynn grumbled all the way through, and she put on the jail clothes handed to her for decency.

"I can’t believe this is happening to me." Lynn thought with a disgruntled look over her face as her pictures were taken for record.

"Hey, I just remembered something!" Joel called out behind Ryan as he was being carried along behind.

Ryan slowed down and stopped from his high-speed sprint in front of the hospital, and Joel lost Ryan’s grip and flung out far in front of him. He crashed into the nearest wall and fell back, leaving a body mark in the wall. Joel’s eyes spun around in circles as he lay there in a daze with an odd moan.

Ryan stepped up to him and lifted him to his feet and said, "What’s that?"

"Miss Lynn. She was still at the camp when you brought our things back." Joel said as he shook his head.

"Oh her. She’ll be fine, man. She knows how to take care of herself as a grown human." Ryan told Joel with a grin.

Lynn was set down in the middle of a large and open area by the prison guards, and they handed her a hammer to start smashing rocks with. She looked at the hammer in her hand and grunted, and she sat down and began smashing the rocks stacked up around her.

Joel and Ryan entered the hospital and stepped up towards the receptionist. The lady at the front desk was talking on the phone with what seemed to be a close friend or relative and did not notice the two standing in front of her right away. Ryan stood his ground and coughed slightly while the lady looked away while talking on the phone, but he was still ignored and unheard by the receptionist.

Ryan took a step back, breathed in deeply, then shouted "Hey lady!"

The entire room rumbled slightly, and the lady paused for a moment, looked up at Ryan, then looked away.

"Hey, uh, one moment..." the lady mumbled through the phone. She looked back and said, "Hi, how can I help you?"

"Can you?" Ryan asked, thinking for a moment, "Mmm, yes you can!" he lifted Joel’s infected leg up onto the counter and said, "My friend here has a hexascorp in his leg, and he’s going to need it removed here. How soon can that be done?"

Joel’s face began turning red with the burning pain from his leg, and he did his best to keep from cringing and crying in pain.

The receptionist looked at Ryan blankly for a moment, then asked, "I don’t know. How long until it hatches?"

"Umm, how long?" Ryan said, looking at Joel. He nudged him in his side and said, "Good question..."

A light bulb appeared over Joel’s head for a moment, and he dropped to the ground, holding his leg, and yelling in pain.

"My leg! It feels like it’s tearing apart! Oh, the agony!" Joel acted the best he could.

"Oh the agony?" Ryan thought. He shook his head quickly and said, "Quick! We need to help my friend right away!"

The lady’s eyes widened and switched to a free line, dialing in an emergency number.

"Hello? Emergency? We need monster isolation and recovery here quick!" the receptionist said into the phone. She hung up the phone and looked at Ryan, saying, "We’ll have help for you right away, sir! Hold on!"

"Okay! Thank you!" Ryan told her. He looked away slightly, snickering in his mind, thinking, "That went all too well. I didn’t even have to use my powers that time."

Joel dropped back to the ground and began shaking his leg around, and soon enough two men came running out with a carrier mat and nets. They picked him up, removed his belt strap and sword, and placed him on the mat to carry him away to the operation room. Along the way they brought out a bottle of drugs, poked into it with a needle, and shot Joel in the leg with it. He could feel his leg numbing up and slowly was unable to move his leg at all.

Ryan stood back in the waiting room where the receptionist sat, and he turned around, tossing his hands up, and grinned. The lady at the desk looked over at Ryan with fear and shock over her face, worrying about the patient.

"Aren’t you going with him?" the lady asked Ryan

Ryan shook his head and grinned, saying, "Nah, Joel’s fine by himself. He can take them."

Joel looked around slightly as he was put onto a table under a bright light. The doctors were standing around him, talking between each other about the operation. He was suddenly grabbed from his back and flipped over onto his front, and the doctors threw a small lead blanket over Joel. They placed a small X-Ray device over both his legs to find out where the monster was residing at, and then revealed several carving utensils for the operation.

"But wait! I don’t have my sword right now!" Joel cried, putting his arms up over his head.

Lynn sat down on a bench in a jail cell she was directed to and grumbled for a moment. She looked around at the different men and women standing around the shades of the cell with her as well as the people standing in other jail cells. A much larger and obese woman walked over to her and sat down next to Lynn on the bench, causing it to slant down and slide Lynn down her way. Lynn opened her eyes wide in surprise and cringed at the sight of the large woman.

"Hi baby. I ain’t seen a gal like yous round here befo in mah sixteen years." The lady told her with an odd smile over her face, "How’s bout I’s give yous a tour uh mah place?"

Lynn began leaning back up against the bending bench and started to climb up it, trying to get away from the large lady.

"I need a pad…" Lynn thought to herself.

A doctor inserted a surgical knife into Joel’s left leg and began cutting down in a straight vertical line down the center. Joel looked around and began whistling a tune to himself to pass the time as the surgeon doctors worked on him. A pair of tweezers were pushed down into Joel’s leg, pushing aside some of the muscles slightly, and gripped onto a small worm-like cocoon. As the doctor pulled out the cocoon it tugged and grasped onto Joel’s muscle tighter until it was torn off. The creature began emitting a high pitched squealing scream as it was carried out of Joel’s leg and placed into a bag. Another doctor came up with a thread and needle and began stitching Joel’s leg up and wrapped a bandage around it several times.

"Well that’s strange." The doctor with the bag said, "I thought you said it was ready to come out. This is just a baby."

Joel began laughing sarcastically, sweating at the moment as the doctors stared him down, and said, "Umm, I guess I overreacted the moment." He threw his hands up in the air and said, "But who wants to get eaten anyway? It’s better to have something like that out now rather than later…" He trailed off as the doctors still looked at him silently, "Right?"

The doctors shook their head, and one of them placed the bag onto a counter top and hit the small monster with a hammer, instantly destroying it. Ryan heard a snapping from inside his head and began running into the hospital yelling out loud. He burst into the room where Joel and the doctors resided at and dropped to his knees with tears running down his face.

"No!" Ryan cried, "The perfect specimen! It was all mine, and now it’s gone!" he jumped up to the man with the hammer and grabbed him by his coat and said, "Do you know how hard it is to catch one of these things without one burrowing into you?"

Joel looked at Ryan with a dumbfounded look over his face and said, "Gotta catch em all?"

Ryan tossed the man away and said, "Just one. I’ve always wanted to catch one and train it as a pet!"

The doctors began leaving, and one of them told Joel, "Your bill will be waiting for you at the front desk, sir."

"Okay." Joel slowly said.

Ryan waved his hands to the side and said, "No way, man! You got pay enough from smashing that hexascorp!" he turned around and began mourning the stain on the counter, mumbling, "My poor baby…"

Joel turned around and sat up. He lifted up his pant leg and tore off the bandage and stitches on his leg where the incision was made by the knife, revealing a clean and flawless limb. He dropped down to the floor and landed on his feet, but he wobbled for a moment, not able to feel his footing, and fell onto his side. Ryan looked back towards Joel as he heard a loud crash from a head hitting the side of the table, and he stepped over to Joel and lifted him up by the arm. Joel’s eyes began swirling around in a wild daze from the impact.

"The stuff they put in my legs must not be out of my system yet!" Joel exclaimed as his head spun around.

Ryan began carrying Joel out of the hospital by his arms and said, "Let’s get out of here, man. This was a big waste of time."

Joel shook his head and asked, "Waste of time? But we got the monster out, and I’m alive, right?"

"Yeah, but humans are too stupid to understand the respect that some creatures should receive!" Ryan exclaimed as they walked through the hall.

Lynn found herself in a completely black room in the jail area. A light came down around her and she began hearing a voice.

"Hello Miss Lynn Claner. We’re glad to see you today." The voice echoed, "How about you?" the voice trailed off, "How are you?"

Lynn grumbled and snarled and said, "Fine once I get to who ever you are and rip your guts out!"

The area lit up around her, revealing a giant television screen with a man’s image on it. He appeared to be in his late thirties. His hair was short and black and his skin was slightly tanned, and he wore green military clothes. A light mustache ran across his face just above his mouth.

"Is this better for you?" The man asked. Through the screen he waved his hand and bowed towards Lynn and said, "I am General Dwayne M. Laft of the Brave Corp. I hope you don’t mind being asked some questions."

"Yeah, yeah, fine. What do you want?" Lynn snapped, looking away angrily.

"Much has been said about you from all around for your shows at Choajoi, Miss Claner." Dwayne said, "Such a miserable town, and now you travel with the demon race. Is this true?"

"Yes I do." Lynn mumbled, trailing off.

"Why submit yourself to such horror?" the man asked.

"You don’t know them like I do." Lynn told him, "They’re nice…"

Dwayne pointed at her and asked, "Nice? Is that where you got that scar on your body from?"

"That’s none of your business!" Lynn suddenly yelled at him with wide open eyes of rage, revealing her teeth.

Dwayne jolted back in surprise, even though he was safe behind a monitor.

He calmed down, cleared his throat, and said, "Very well then. Now for the important question and our reason for bringing you here."

"Besides getting arrested by some jerk off cop?" Lynn mumbled to herself.

"Our mission is to rid the world of these monsters you call Guardians." Dwayne told her, "We would like you to be our inner contact and help us destroy these two in particular. The bigger one you travel with will actually be of great use to us once we are able to get him under control so that we can find the other… Guardians… and put them to an end as well."

Lynn turned to the monitor and blurted out, "Ryan?"

The man shrugged his shoulders and said, "If that’s what you call him, but facts remain that things as sickening as they don’t deserve names." His voice echoed and trailed off for a moment as Lynn gasped at him, "They only try fitting in with our race, but no matter how alike they seem they will never be one of us."

Lynn shook her head violently and asked, "That’s no reason to want to try killing them, though!"

"Well of course everyone knows why we want them gone." Dwayne said, "We don’t want them destroying what we create, and they have had a long history of doing that to us."

"Not all of them are like that, though. I’ve seen it with my own eyes!" Lynn told him, "They helped Choajoi regain freedom." Dwayne stood silent in disbelief at Lynn, and Lynn took a deep breath and relaxed with a sly grin, saying, "Well whatever. You’re stupid and mad for wanting to go after a group like them! They’re unstoppable!"

"This is exactly why the Brave Corp is recruiting you to keep after them for us." Dwayne told her.

Lynn suddenly fell back in her chair, tilting it over and back to the floor, crying out in disbelief in reaction to Dwayne’s demand.

"Now, now, I know you’re excited." Dwayne told her, "There are a great many benefits for working with our military organization, and I’m sure you can’t wait to help us get rid of the criminal known as Joel from Traquo."

Two men approached Lynn from the shadows as she stood up from the chair, and they restrained her from moving or struggling free. Dwayne disappeared from the monitor and appeared through a door to the far right side of the room, and he approached Lynn with a bottle and needle.

"Good job, Marshall David, Captain Carlos." Dwayne thanked the men. He looked down at the small woman as he loaded the needle and said, "Now I know you’re no ‘Guardian’, so I know you won’t be able to resist this."

The men held Lynn down as she wiggled around, and Dwayne inserted the sharp needle into her above her chest and injected the fluids from the bottle into her body.

"Aaah! Why… you…" Lynn screamed and gasped out loud as the material was injected into her. She shook her head blindly, beginning to grow tired, blinking her eyes rapidly, mumbling, "Why is… everything… fading…?"

They put her down on the ground for a moment as Lynn fell into a sleeping trance.

"Excellent. We should be able to gain what she knows about the demons now." Dwayne said, "Send her away, men. Jonathan will pleased to hear about this."

"Yes sir!" David and Carlos said together.

Carlos lifted Lynn up over his shoulder and carried her out with David.

Ryan let Joel free, and Joel landed on his feet and wobbled a bit. He had regained his ability to walk freely again as the numbing drugs had left his system. Joel stretched his legs for a moment as he would every morning, then bent his knees down and up so he could regain his feel for constant moving.

"Man, I can’t believe they wouldn’t let us out without paying for that crap." Ryan complained, putting his hands down on his hips in disgust.

"Some people don’t see things the same way, I guess." Joel said.

They began walking out away from the hospital grounds and Ryan said, "Yeah, I know, but I really wanted that hexascorp."

"Just imagine what they would have done if they had suspected we were Guardians." Joel said.

"Heh, yeah, I wish I had used my powers in there. That would have taught them a thing or two!" Ryan laughed with a wide grin on his face.

"It’s good practice not to, nonetheless." Joel said, "You’re really getting the hang of it, though!"

The approached the ramp up to the highway again, and Ryan summoned a map into his hands and began looking over it.

Ryan pointed at a point on the map and said, "We should double time it more often, man. We got a lot farther than I anticipated today from running. Traquo’s pretty close by now!"

Joel looked up ahead, seeing a major city area formation at the end of the highway. The sky was colored strangely a dimmed grey just over Traquo as if there were a dark storm cloud over it. Search light beams were everywhere in the air all around the city limits, not just in the prison area like they were when Joel first was there. City guards roamed the area outside and stood on tall look outs for extra security in case of another attack. They were still rebuilding from the time when Joel lost control over himself as he sought out Sarralyn, but Joel could hardly remember any of it on his own due to the dream he had with Ryan and Lynn.

Joel shook his head and asked, "So… Traquo wasn’t always like this?"

"Not according to your old memory, man." Ryan told him, "In fact I remember myself that this was a pretty happening city back in the day."

"I see." Joel mumbled, "What’re your plans to get us through?"

Ryan slapped himself on the forehead and exclaimed, "That’s right, I did say I had a plan five months ago, didn’t I?" He fixed up his gloves and said, "Just wait and see!"

There was a sound of screeching wheels from behind the two, and a taxi came rushing up from behind them. It stopped next to them suddenly and Lynn jumped out and glared at Joel and Ryan with an enraged face. Joel’s mouth dropped and Ryan waved at Lynn with a sarcastic smile over his face.

"Hi Lynn! Glad you could join us… again." Ryan said, stopping his laughing as Lynn stomped towards the two.

"I want my clothes back now!" Lynn snarled at him.

Ryan jumped back suddenly at Lynn’s attitude and said, "Woah! Okay, okay!"

He put his hands over Lynn and began sending waves of energy over her, and Lynn’s clothes switched from the basic prison clothes into her regular common city clothes.

Ryan scratched his head briefly and mumbled, "Geez, PMS girl today!"

"That’s none of your business!" Lynn yelled at Ryan with large open eyes. She began walking forward towards the city and said, "Let’s just go. I’m mad enough as it is!"

"Fine!" Ryan said, raising his hands up into the air, "I won’t ask where you were or what happened in your day."

He put his hands in his pockets and lowered his eyes to the ground as they walked down the street. They had finally made their way to Traquo after a long detour across the countryside. The reasons behind the grey sky above Traquo were unclear to any of them besides the gloomful mourning of the city’s past, but if there was something else to the gloomy nature the three did not have a clue what to expect. The other half of the day awaited them as their journey to find Joel’s younger brother continued through the now grim city.

"Maybe I should ask what PMS is…" Joel thought, not mentioning a word to the others."

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