Amped Up (fic)

Chapter 1

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"Does anyone know where Sunny is?"

"My man said he was gonna be late today."

"Lemme guess, construction still gettin' in the way?"

"Bingo."

It was an average day at Westley's school of Performing Arts, and the first year music class had been doing some improv during the expected absence of their teacher Sunny Bridges.

"Ooh, ooh, are we playing bingo!? I can so win this time! Who wants to place bets?" Said Madison, the groups vivacious violinist, hopping up and down on her heels.

"Nah," came the response of the genius-level bassist Philly Phil. "Bingo's more of a Baby Boomer's game. I prefer High Stakes Holographic Laser Bingo."

"That's only cause you invented it." Said the cymbal-rocking Kim with a wry smile.

"So?"

Kim rolled her eyes. "Living with a stuffy, paranoid twin brother, you'd think I'd be used to our group's collective weirdness."

"I am not paranoid!" Came the response of her piano playing brother Kam. "I told you I wasn't imaging those red eyes following me around the school!"

A scoff was heard from Lil'D, the group's self-appointed ringleader.. "Man, l would feel for you, but last time you saw red eyes followin' you, turned out it was just Principle Luna with pink eye."

"Yeah," continued the boisterous harpist Tamika "and you kicked him so hard in the shin he needed a cast for a week."

"I thought he was a fusion! I panicked!"

Kim sighed, "Remember the good old days, back when fusions were the rest of the world's problem?"

The group all nodded in agreement, before a rattling sound brought them out of their banter.

"Did y'all here that?" Eddie asked, before all eyes turned to the rack of unused instruments in the corner of the room, which all fell over onto the floor along with a young man who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere nearby them.

The boy stood up and brushed himself off, giving the class a moment to take in his strange appearence. He was dark skinned with striking blue hair, which looked messier than Lil'D's room. Also present were a white dress shirt, fingerless gloves and a pair of dark grey pants with purple x's scattered about them that looked distinctly like pajamas. In his hand was a metal baseball bat, which he quickly dropped and kicked to the corner of the room.

"Heyyyyyyy...." He drawled awkwardly. "How's it hangin'?"

"And who exactly are you?" Tamika said, breaking the silence amongst her classmates.

"Uh... I dunno. I mean- My name's Amp, hello!" He gestured to the top of his head before looking slightly put off, as if he was expecting something to be there. "I was just hanging out, you know, and I was missing school, so I ended up in a school. This is a school, right?"

"If it wasn't, that would make the desk and chalkboard about misplaced, wouldn't it?" Eddie asked rhetorically.

"Yeah I was gonna say..." Amp trailed off, before waltzing over to the far wall. "Is that a Beatle's poster?! Oh, ohohohoho, tell me you guys can rock out some Fab Four!"

Tamika narrowed her eyes, and as Amp passed by her, quickly grabbing a book off of Sunny's desk and whacking the boy upside the head. The intruder stopped dead in his tracks, a gasp ringing out from the other musicians. The boy Rose a hand to the back of his head and turned to look at Tamika, his face the picture of indignant.

"...OOOOOWW!" He yells, before falling over unconscious on the ground.

"...What?" Tamika directed to the sets of eyes looking skeptically at her. "Don't tell me none of you found him creepy!"

"Meh." Kim said with a shrug. "Like I said, used to it."

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Amp woke up to the sound of arguing.

"One of y'all wanna tell me what the deal is with an unconscious teenager tied up in the middle my classroom?" Questioned Sunny Bridges

"He just sort of...appeared, out of nowhere." Kam said.

"He was just waltzin' around here like he owned the place, who knows what he even wanted to do!? I don't feel bad for knocking him out."

"He did bring up us playing some Beatles tunes, and I'm all for that!"

"Hmm." Sunny said, tapping his chin, "We could do that, but let's first deal with our new, uh, friend."

"I'm awake!" Amp calls, jolting everyone out of their conversation. "Oi, you, in the blue- you have got a nice swing with that book. I'll tell you, it usually takes more to knock me out."

"Ahem, the names Tamika, and I can pull off a mean swing with more than just a book if you try anything!"

"Noted." Amp said, giggling nervously. "The name's Amp. I already said that, right?"

"Ooh, ooh, introductions!" Madison said happily, clapping her hands before pointing to each of the others in turn. "I'm Madison, that's Lil'D, that's Kim, that's Kam, that's Phily Phil, Eddie, and our teacher Sunny Bridges!"

The girl then walked over to Amp and crouched down next to him

"Ooh, I really love your slippers!" Madison said earnestly, referring to the pair of fuzzy bunny slippers on the boy's feet, complete with upright ears. She tapped one of the bunny's noses, making the boy attached to them giggle.

"Haha, aren't they awesome?" Amp said with a smile. "I like your dress; love me a purple-green blend. Also your hat!" He switched his attention to Lil'D. "I want that hat."

"Uh...well you can't have it."

"Figures."

"So what exactly are you here for?" Sunny asked curiously.

"I dunno. I dunno, just kinda, um, hangin' out?" Then, he tilted his head. "Wait a minute. That clock said 2:03 when I came in! I've been out for two hours!? That hardly ever happens."

"Well, it's not like we don't already have a surplus of the bizzare in this place." Sunny said, no one else being sure how to respond to the boy's odd observation. "So long as you don't mean any harm, I don't see why keeping you around is a problem. You want me to untie ya?"

"No no, I got it." Amp said, before he suddenly disappeared into thin air, the rope that had previously been tied around him falling onto the ground. The class gasped in shock, before turning to see Amp sitting cross-legged on the desk.

"Yo man, how the heck did you do that?" Lil'D asked, astonished.

"Do you have some kind of teleporter?" Phily Phil asked, searching around Amp for any bits of technology to rival his own.

"Have one? I'm my own teleporter, dude!" Amp said, warping from the desk to the middle of the room as if it were nothing.

"Well that explains how he got in here." Kim said.

"Ok, now how exactly is he gonna get out?" Tamika demanded.

"Now now," Sunny said, "lately we're not exactly in the position to kick anyone out of the school. Amp here can stay if he wants."

"Yes, please." Amp said satisfactorily, as Sunny's students all looked at him skeptically.

"So, who wants to give him the tour?"

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"And here we have the indoor pool." Sunny said, gesturing next to Amp.

Amp winced involuntarily as a group of synchronized swimmers arose, twisted their bodies into a giant 'WELCOME'.

"Yikes." The boy said. "Doesn't that hurt?"

"Don't even get them started." Sunny answered as they left the room. On their tour, they had already stopped by the indoor circus, the dance class, stage theater, and several others. Amp was a bit confused about that first one, but he shrugged it off.

"Don't feel to bad about the kids getting on your case." Sunny said as they approached another room. "They've been a lot less trusting as of late."

Suddenly, a man around Sunny's age walked out of the room into the hallway, wearing a robe and slippers.

"'Ey Sunny! We got another one?"

"Mornin' Chedderman." Sunny said as the man passed.

"What does he teach?" Amp asked.

"Skating."

"..."

"Cheap-skating!"

"AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaah I get it!" Amp yelled, throwing finger guns at the man.

"Glad to finally meet someone who appreciates that one."

"What did he mean by 'another one' anyway?"

"Well..." Sunny opened the door from which Chedderman had just left to reveal a room full of folks in sleeping bags.

"When I said you could stay at the school, I assumed you were comin' in from the streets like everybody else."

Amp stood, looking over the sleeping people and didn't say anything. For a moment, at least.

"Uh....Um, Um- what?"

"Check it out man." Sunny gestured to one of the windows. Looking outside, Amp saw Atlanta, Georgia in tatters. Half of it was painted a sickly fusion green, with a constant pulsing denoting several infected zones.

"I dunno where you teleported in from, but for months this whole town has been broken down from that Fusion infection Dexter cooked up. People went to town on their own homes. We've been working for months to fix things up, but some places were just too far gone, and folks have been using the school as a sort of shelter. Even some of the kids have been sleeping here. Honestly, no one' seven sure how the infection got to Georgia anyway."

Amp stared on, his face looking as if his heart had dropped into his stomach. Sunny looked down at the young man.

"Uh, you ok man?"

"...Yeah."

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Amp shouted in animal rage, tossing several lunch trays into the wall. Sunny had continued their tour, introducing him to Principle Luna, and asking if he intended to stay at the school. Amp had basically been on autopilot the whole time, and simply nodded in the affirmative. It was now nighttime, and the moment Amp had somehow found himself alone in the lunchroom, he began screaming. And screaming. And panicking. And destroying.

He picked up another tray and slammed it against his face. Then again. Then-

"Ahem."

"GYAH!" Amp yelped, the sudden noise snapping him out of his rage. Throwing his hands up in surprise, the tray flung out of his hands. He spun on his heels to see Lil'D and Madison standing in the doorway, looking at him wide-eyed.

Amp chuckled nervously at being caught in the middle of an outburst.

"Heyyyy." He drawled, before flinching as the tray landed behind him. "I take it you guys are sleeping over. Er, not sleeping right now, er... What-ah, what-what brings you here, huh?"

"Oh, I just wanted to get myself a midnight snack!" Madison tittered, heading over to the food.

"And I was wondering what the deal was with the lunatic makin' noise while I was trying to sleep." Lil'D said.

Amp ran a hand through his hair, before shrugging nervously.

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Once Madison had completed her meal, she and the two boys found they couldn't go back to sleep and began pacing through the hall.

"I ain't gonna lie, I'm fine with livin' in school. Sleepin' in the music room beats my house any day."

"Yeah!" Madison said, before her eyes widened. "Ooh, 'beats', like musical beats! That is so funny, Lil'D!"

"Yeah, sure Madison."

Amp's eye was caught by a closet full of props and costumes, and before he knew what he was doing he was burrowing through it.

Lil'D and Madison were too wrapped up in talking to each other to realize he had even left, before they both turned to see a giant walking peanut with Amp's face.

"...Man, what're you doin'?"

"What, you guys leave a peanut costume lying around and expect me to NOT put it on?"

Lil'D facepalmed, while Madison nodded, stone faced.

"Makes sense, makes sense." She said.

"Hold up." Lil'D said, "Y'all here that?"

"This costume is covering my ears, so I can barely hear anything." Amp said matter-of-factly,

Moving over to a nearby door, Lil'D heard louder and louder a scratching noise. Opening the door, the three looked in to see a large, green, red-eyed version of. Lil'D himself, crouched next to a big green parasitic bulb planted into the floor.

The three kids stared disbelievingly, before Madison waved her hand dismissively.

"Didn't worry," she said, "it's just Lil'D!"

Lil'D and Amp barely had time to exchange bemused glances before the Fusion darted out of the room, tackling Amp to the ground and shattering the peanut costume. Running on all fours, it tore through the hall and into the music room.

Lil'D and Madison both shouted, while Amp struggled to stand up.

"We have t- mmm...is this costume covered in nougat? Whatever-!"

Standing up, he ran a few steps before stopping in his tracks and turning back to the room where the fusion had emerged from.

"We have to...we have to, uh..." He said, turning constantly between the two rooms.

"Man, forget that!" Lil'D said, pulling Amp toward the music room. "The rest of the class is in there with that thing!"

"No!" Amp said, yanking his arm away. "That is, important! It's a terrafuser, that's bad! You two go, make sure everyone gets out, I'll be with you in a second!"

The two younger kids nodded and ran into the music room, while Amp turned to the terrafuser, and reaching into his pant pocket, pulled out a stylized gun that didn't look dissimilar to a toy. Pointing it at the terrafuser, the clear rings at the nozzle of the gun began to glow blue before out of it shot a blast of pure cold. The terrafuser was frozen solid, and Amp grinned, before realizing the problem was only half solved, and he still needed a way to detach it from the ground.

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Madison and Lil'D arrived in the music room to find their classmates already awake and freaking out. Fusion Lil'D was advancing on Kam, who was cowering in the corner. Before it could pounce however, Kim whacked it in the face with one of her cymbals, the fusion reeling back from the hit.

"Stay away from my brother!" The girl yelled.

The fusion stumbled to the point where it was face-to-face with Tamika. With a scowl, Tamika punched the fusion square in the nose. She grinned to herself as the monster recoiled yet again.

"It wasn't the real thing," she said, "but that STILL felt good."

"Gee, thanks." Lil'D said from the doorway. "Now can we ditch this place!?"

Suddenly, Amp appeared in the room. All eyes turned to him as he snapped his fingers several times, looking around the room.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, there we are!" He said, before running to the corner of the room and picking up his baseball bat.

"Be right back." He said, before warping away again.

"Really?" Tamika said, before the Fusion put its attention back on her and lobbed a glob of fusion matter at her. Phily Phil and Eddie both pulled out of the way, and the three of them attempted to leave the room. The fusion was too fast however, and blocked the entrance. They retreated, joining Kim and Kam in the corner of the room. Lil'D and Madison turned to each other, not sure what to do.

Then, Amp reappeared yet again behind the advancing creature. Held high above his head was the frozen terrafuser. Amp yelled before bringing the terrafuser down, breaking it across the fusion's head.

"God, that's heavy." He muttered, before the other kids all rushed past him and ran out of the room. The fusion turned to him with narrowed eyes, kicking Amp in the stomach so hard he was sent flying out of the room.

Amp slid across the hallway floor for a moment, before leaning up on his elbows. The kids had all apparently found somewhere to hide, as he couldn't see hide more hair of any of them.

"I'm ok." He said to the ether, before the fusion grabbed him by the foot and swung him into the nearby lockers.

"AUGH!" Amp yelled, before falling back on the ground with a thud. "Slightly less ok! Ow."

Rolling himself onto his back, Amp looked up at the fusion.

"Alright," He said, as if the green thing was listening to him, "Gimme a second."

*warp*

The Fusion looked around in confusion, before suddenly it's life (if it could be called that) was over. Having warped into the music room, Amp returned directly behind the fusion with one of Kim's cymbals held between his outstretched hands. Amp had warped so that the cymbal appeared directly through the creatures neck. The boy stepped back, gesturing as if he had just performed a magic trick, before the fusion melted into a puddle of goo. The cymbal fell to the ground, spinning on the ground at the boy's feet.

Amp inhaled, staring at the puddle, before scowling to himself. At the sound of approaching footsteps, Amp's eyes widened and he warped away on instinct.

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Amp looked in on the music room from outside the window. The class had brought Sunny and Principle Luna with them, frantically explaining what had happened. While the adults where clearly happy to have the children safe, they also looked visibly put off. None of them had noticed him.

Amp sighed. He knew it was a mistake to do this. To go anywhere where people where. He was such an idiot. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his nanocom. Looking at his list of contacts, he homed in on the word "Fear".

He lightly tapped the nanocom against his head, before putting it away again. He cast one last glance at the music room, before warping away.

That was enjoyable. See the 3000 crew and all on Amp's adventure away from home. I feel a bit bad for him since he longs for home.

The feelz

Chapter 2

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It was times like this when Kaz Harada really wished been something less stressful than manager of a rock band.  Specifically, when his tour bus was being chased through the forests of Canada by a horde of rabid fusions.  Unfortunately for him that only seemed to happen more and more often in recent months.

"I told you girls that we should've quit touring after the fusions wrecked half the world!" The tiny balding man yelled, careening through trees and trying desperately to avoid hitting any.  "We could have taken up jibs somewhere static, quiet, less likely to endanger our lives by being out in the open!"

The aforementioned girls where seated behind their manager, taking glances out the window when they weren't being tossed around by the justifiably reckless driving.

"Shut up and drive faster, Kaz!" Yelled Yumi, the blue-haired punk rocker of the two.

"私はしようとしています!  I'm trying!" Kaz yelled back, visibly wracked with pressure.

As was usual, the sunny pinkette Ami was the most positive on board.  

"I think we're losing them!" She said with a wide smile as the fusions slowly receded, before altogether falling out of sight.

Ami and Yumi gave sighs of relief, slumping into their chairs and meeting each other in a fistbump.  Kaz, however, still seemed stuck in panic mode.

"Good job Kaz," Ami said, "I think you can slow down now-"

Before Kaz could even register what Ami said, a figure appeared amongst the trees from seemingly nowhere, right in the path of the bus.  The three passengers yelled, turns screeched, but it was too late and they had hit the figure so hard not only were they sent flying, but the windshield had cracked.

All three were frozen momentarily in shock, staring out at the dark forest and it's single, now unconscious inhabitant.  

"...We'll bring him in." Yumi said hurriedly, exiting the bus.

"右あなたの後ろに."  Ami said as she followed.

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Amp woke up to the sound of two girls arguing.  He couldn't move, not to start with, so he settled for opening his eyes to their fullest extent.  That still wasn't much.  He made out a blue haired girl in punk attire rolling her eyes at a brightly dressed one with pink.  Scanning the room with his limited vision, he spotted guitars and a drum set in different corners of the room.

Of course, he thought to himself, of course he would end up unconscious AGAIN when musicians were involved.

"We already checked his pulse five times, Ami.  We already know he'd not dead!"

"But what's the harm in double-checking?  What if he's hurt really bad, what if-what if we broke something!?  We should keep him around with us, for a while at least.  Until we get somewhere safe."

"We're not keeping him like some lost puppy, Ami!"

"Aw, but look at him!  He's cute like a lost puppy!"

"Wait," came a new voice, "maybe Ami's right.  If we don't take care of him, this kid could sue us for damages!"

"Shut up, Kaz!"

Unbeknownst to any of them, Amp was shifting his mouth around, making biting motions and wiggling his tongue about.  His jaw still worked, so that was a plus.  With a shout, he rolled himself off the couch he was laced on and fell with a thud to the floor.  This got the others' attention.

"Ow." He groaned, attempting to stand himself up.  "Listen, I-"

Before he could even finish his thought, Amp's leg gave out mid-rise, and he fell flat on his face again.

"Oh gosh," Ami said as she and Yumi helped him back onto the couch, "we're so sorry for hitting you with our bus, mister."

"Blame our manager for bit looking where he was going!" Yumi snapped in Kaz's direction.

"Hey hey, I say he takes responsibility on that one!  I didn't even see him, it's like he appeared out of nowhere!"

"Yeah." Amp said, his voice slightly hoarse.  "I do that."

Inhaling sharply, Amp stood up and, despite being in visible pain, stayed on two feet.  He raised and lowered his legs one at a time, before hopping on the balls of his feet, wincing the whole time.

"Pain." He muttered.  "Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, aaaaaaand... Used to it.  There we go."

The boy then started pacing around the bus as if it were nothing, though a noticeable limp was still present.  Walking over to one of girls drawers, he opened it and started rifling through as if it were his own.

"Look," he said, "Kaz, right?  It's no bug deal dude, I'm used to it.  Name's Amp.  Like your sneakers, by the way."

"Oh.  Uuuum, thank you." Kaz said, looking over his shoes whilst Amp pulled a small collectible bunny and a series of trading cards from the drawer.

"Are you for real?  Are these Stu-Pi-Doh cards!?  Wow.  Wooooooowwww, I haven't seen these in decades, I was convinced I made them up."  He placed the cards in his pants pocket, along with the rabbit.

"Hey!" Ami yelled.  "My Huggle Bunny!"

"You can't just take that stuff!" Yumi seethed, stomping up to the young man with a raised fist.  "That's ours, put it back!"

Amp's casual demeanor suddenly soured, and he harshly grasped the rocker's wrist and glared at her.  He stared daggers at her surprised expression, before letting out a mean-spirited chuckle.

"Well you see the thing, about that, is, um.. You hit me with a truck, you stupid bint!"

"...Bint?" Yumi asked incredulously.

"I don't actually know what that word means, but you get my point!  You... You do get my point, right?"

"...No."  Yumi answered hesitantly, unsure if the boy intended to actually do anything to her if she answered wrong.

"We hit you with a bus, actually." Ami interjected sheepishly.

"Truck, bus, what-the-hell-ever, man!" Amp let go of Yumi, who recoiled from him as his volume rose.  "I hope you'll forgive me for not feeling any sympathy cause I took your stupid cards and rabbit.  I came to Canada to get away from people in the first place, so if you'll excuse me I've got other places to be anyhow."

Amp stood there for a second, all eyes on him, before he rose a hand to his head and winced.

"Ow!" He said, searching the drawer yet again.  "Owowowowow! "

Finding what he was looking for, he pulled out a mirror and pulled back his hair to see a large bump on his noggin.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me..." He muttered, before wincing again.  "You're not kidding!?  I can't warp because of a stupid bump on the head!?  Yeah, that makes sense!"

Ami and Yumi shared a confused glance, before the former cautiously approached the boy.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

Amp slammed his hands on the drawer, laughing bitterly again.  "Can't believe I have to put up with this.  Honestly don't even know why I bother."

He turns on his heels, heading for the door.  "I wanted to have a little forest jinte anyway..."

He stopped, raising a hand to his head in confusion.

"No, uh... um, jaint-jan-j-g-jaunt, jaunt that's what I meant."

He made to leave, before Kaz stopped him.

"Are you crazy!?  There's tons of fusions out there!"

"...what?" Amp said, as if Kaz had just told him something he dreaded hearing.

Suddenly, the sound of a thump against the bus window made them all jump.  

"They're here!" Kaz yelled, As all eyes turned to the window to see a bunch of Pneumatic Bears outside.

"Oh right, bears.  Should've figured." Amp mutters to himself, before one of the fusions smashed the window open with its chainsaw arm.

"DRIVE!" Ami and Yumi screamed at Kaz, who didn't hesitate to send them riding through the forest again.

Amp looked out the broken window, his hair blowing in the wind as he observed the fusions following after them.  Looking up, he saw one in a tree above them, launching itself down to land on top of the bus.  Amp pulled his ice gun from his pocket and shot the bear, which fell to the ground in a frozen heap before falling out of sight like the others.

"Coooool!" Ami said, looking through one of the other windows.

"HA!" Amp laughed at the pun, before he pulled his head back in and suddenly frowned, as if admonishing himself for having any fun.  He and Ami both joined Yumi in sitting down.  Yumi herself was sitting hunched over, arms folded and staring at the ground.  Amp's eyes flickered from her pensive face to her rapidly tapping foot, then back.  Almost instinctively, he started tapping his own foot as well.

"Why are they so obsessed with us?" Ami asked.  "We've been getting chased by fusions for months now!  It's getting really annoying."

"I've got a theory."  Yumi said grimly, daring the others' attention to her.  "Maybe they're after me."

"Pfft, what?" asked Ami incredulously. "What would make you think that?"

"I'm the one with the infection, duh!"

"Infection..." Amp muttered.  It wasn't so much a question as a reflexive statement.

"Yumi got it a while back, and she went kinda nuts like-" Ami interrupted herself when Yumi stood up and walk to the door that led further into the bus.

"Wh- no!" Ami blathered. "Nononononononono!  I didn't mean that, I- we got rid of it!  You're fine now!  Yumi-!"

The slamming of the door stopped her, and she growled to herself while smacking herself on the head.

"Idiot!  Idiot!"  She yelled, before she spotted Amp staring at her in much the same way he had been staring at Yumi's foot.

"She's just...  I just... Things have been weird between us since then.  She doesn't even want to talk about it, ever."  Ami facepalmed again, slumping into a chair.

"私は私がそれをした信じることができません." She mumbled to herself, hardly noticing as Amp stood up and followed Yumi out of the room.


Amp was greeted with many doors, and after checking several of them found Yumi sitting in what was undoubtedly her room.  

"You're gonna be a really crappy friend if you don't talk to someone about that." He said, his hand staying steadfast on the doorknob.

"They'd never understand."

"Then tell someone who would."

Yumi looked at the boy and remained silent for a long time, before groaning loudly.

"Fine."

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We were in Mumbai, doing a concert.  We'd been hearing on the news all about how 'the infection' was spreading across the whole world; people being hit with this thing that came out of Dexlabs.  If you caught it, first it made you a fusion sympathizer or something.  Not gonna lie, Ami, Kaz and I were mostly just mad that all this stuff was upstaging us and our tours.  Then they showed footage of what happened next.

That stuff didn't just make you Fusion Crazy, it made you an actual Fusion and actually crazy.  People turned into these giant freakish mutants, tore up entire city's, murdered people and left whole towns looking like Infected Zones.  It was-"

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"Evil"

"...Messed up."

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We thought they were exaggerating when they said it was 'everywhere'. So, we did our concert, and it was pretty rad.  Right after the show ended, though, I felt something stab me right in the shoulder.  I pulled it out and it was a needle.  Right after that everything started getting all blurry.  I looked around to see who the joker was, but all I could make was some green monster of a kid.  I blinked and he was gone.  Ami was too busy worrying about me to see where he went, but I heard the crowd freaking out, and before I knew it I was one of those...those things.  I t-... I tossed Ami across the stage like some kinda ragdoll, then I was tearing through the crowd.

Ami and Kaz say they lured me into the bus before I could hurt anyone, but once I was in there I was after them.  I-I remember, slashing Ami across the chest, then the leg, and then Kaz and I-... They said I'd been chasing them for days.  By the time I was normal again they were covered in their own blood, and they didn't look like they'd slept once in all that time.  Ami actually had the nerve to try and hug me when it was all over.  She tried to tell me that it was mind control, that it wasn't my fault.  But I remember it clearly, it didn't feel like mind control- no one was telling me what to do, nothing felt different, I just... wanted to destroy things.  I could still reason, I was still me, but...

I thought now, all these months later, things might finally be normal again, but no.  Fusions have been chasing us down ever since that day, and I think...  I think it may be because they're after me.  After me to destroy more for them, to kill more.  Maybe they just think I'm one of them now.  And maybe I am.  Maybe that's something that can't be cured.

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Yumi sighed, too wrapped up in herself to notice the pallor of Amp's face.

"I heard on the news most people who got infected don't remember what they did.  Aren't they the lucky ones?  And to think that red headed freak child in his laboratory made us like this."

She then looked up.

"You gonna let go of that doorknob, dude?"

Instead of answering, Amp opened the door and left.

Amp couldn't tell if he was breathing really heavily or not at all, he just knew he had to get away from that girl.  

"Figured you wouldn't understand." He could hear from inside.  Looking around, he wasn't sure which way he'd come from either.

"How big is this bus?" He asked himself, before Ami came bursting out of a door.

"Guys!" She yelled, drawing Yumi out from her room. "We have a problem."

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Amp, Ami and Yumi stared out the broken window, seeing fusions surrounding the bus on either side.

"I've never seen any like these before." Ami said.

"These ones have motorcycles."  Amp groaned.  "Where the hell did they get motorcycles?"

"Does it matter?" Kaz asked, trying to speed past the green assailants.  "The point is they have them, and now they're going to kill us!"

"I'm sure they won't kill us, Kaz." Ami said.  "Quit overreacting."

"No seriously." Amp said, "How are they even able to do that?  I'm pretty sure they aren't...they aren't, um...uh...lost the word..."

They all then jumped as the opposite window was broken by a fusion's fist, and one that had been riding on the back of a cycle began to crawl in.

"Nope!" Amp shouted, pulling out his gun and rushing over to the other window. "Nope nope nope nope nope!"

He froze the fusion's head once it had gotten partially in the bus, and pushed it back out onto the road, where due to the bus' great speed it was more of a skid mark than a threat within seconds.

Adjacent to all this, Ami screamed when another fusion tried the same tactic.  Grabbing one of her drumsticks, she stabbed it into the creature's eye.  The fusion let go of the bus to clutch its eye and met a similar fate to the other one.  After this one fell the ground however, it was run over by it's designated driver, who crashed violently into a tree due to the sudden turbulence.

"Haha, nice." Yumi said, before a very loud thud brought her attention upward. Yet again pneumatic bears where jumping from the trees on top of the bus.  

"Cognitive!" Amp said after another thud, finger raised in triumph.  "That's the word I wanted!"

The sound of a chainsaw brought all heads to the roof as the Bears began to tear their way inside.  With a shout, Kaz shifted the bus to the side, knocking one bear off and sending it crashing into the other motorcycle.  Unfortunately there were more bears where that came from, and before anyone could do anything they had torn open the roof and jumped inside.

Sharing a glance, Ami and Yumi grabbed the nearest guitars and wasted no time cracking them over the Bears' heads, Ami then doing the same to another with her drum set.  This only made them recoil so much, though as the bears then began chasing the girl.  Ami ran for the door, closing herself off behind it, only to have a chainsaw arm bust through the wall just next to her waist.  The saw was retracted just as soon as it had appeared, and Ami opened the door to see Yumi grasping the bear by it's back and riding/pulling it away from her.

Amp, in the moment, was staring up at the whole in the roof.  Looking down at him was another fusion, this one the spitting image of Amp himself.  It was slightly larger than him, as was to be expected, and it had on sickly green versions of Amp's clothing, including a coat and hat he had been without for quite some time.  The creature narrowed its eyes at the boy, crouching down as if to get a closer look at him.

Amp blinked and he was gone.  A split second before he could bring himself back into reality, a bear slashed him in the shoulder with its claws.

"AGH!" Amp yelled as he grabbed the shoulder, falling on his butt right in front of the bus' entrance.  Amp glanced over to the side to see Yumi still wrestling her own bear across from the one that was now towering over him.

"Kaz!" Amp yelled, "Sharp left, now!"

Kaz shifted the bus yet again, and Ami and Yumi shouted as they and the bears were flung to their left.  Yumi's bear, while trying to saw the pop star off of itself, had been flung right on top the bear attacking Amp, their saws getting buried within each other thanks to the impact.  Yumi dropped off the screaming creature, while Amp opened the door and sent both impaled fusions toppling out of the vehicle and onto the road.

Not wasting a beat, Yumi rushed over to help Ami as Amp closed the door again.  The bus had at this point driven into an abandoned town, and all the commotion had gathered the attention of even more fusions.  Even as Ami wailed on a pneumatic bear with a cymbal, several other creatures poured in through the roof.

"There's no end to them!" Yumi shouted as she kicked one in the face.

"You know," Amp choked out, kicking his legs as he found himself picked up in a headlock by a bear, "I hear they hate loud noises!"

"Do they...?" Ami and Yumi shared a mischievous grin, the latter grabbing an electric guitar while the former ran to plug it into the gargantuan amplifier nearby.  Yumi played a particularly harsh chord, and the fusions all shuddered and recoiled.

"YEP, THAT'LL DO IT!" Amp shouted over the noise, before he was dropped flat onto the ground.  "Ow!"

Yumi begins shredding out against the fusions, a blood hungry look in her eyes.  A nearby pneumatic bear groans and bring sits chainsaw arm down, slicing the instrument in half before kicking Yumi across the room.  Screaming blood murder, Ami ran over and pounced on the bear, sinking her teeth into it.

Seeing this, Amp groaned, and before anyone could do anything he found himself right in front of the bear, whacking it on its hide with his bat.  Blinking for a moment, he took a second to realize that his warping was working yet again.  Grinning, he began warping all throughout the bus, freezing and bashing fusions left, right, and center.

As much satisfaction as he got, however, they seemed too many to properly deal with.  Ami and Yumi were clearly overwhelmed, and he knew it wouldn't be long before they were either overpowered or crashed.  His attention was suddenly grabbed by something outside the bus.

"Wait wait wait, look look look look look look look!  We just passed a gas station!"  He shouted.

"Yeah, so!?" Ami asked in a panic

Amp grabbed both pop stars and warping them to the entrance.

"Matthew, how much would it cost for you to replace this bus?" He asked casually.

"What?"

"Matthew- no, no, Kaz, sorry, Kaz!  The bus, how much?"

"ロット!" Said Kaz with wide eyes.  

"Eh, you'll be fine.  I'm gonna need you guys to slow down the bus and jump out now-ish!"

"Jump out the bus!?" Ami, Yumi and Kaz all asked in bewilderment.  

"Yup." Amp said, easing Kaz' foot off the gas.  "Just trust me on this."

"But that's coming out of my account!" Kaz said simply.

"Just do it Kaz!" Yumi yelled, grabbing Kaz and sharing a nod with Ami as they all abandoned ship.  The rolled helplessly on the ground for a moment, before they all sat up.

"You two good?" Yumi asked, getting a curt nod from Ami and a dazed mumble from Kaz in return.  The three of them looked over to see the bus, visibly still full to burst with fusion, continue down the road for a moment before it suddenly disappeared in its entirety.  Snapping their heads around, they saw it reappear right in front on the gas station they had passed.

All three knew in that instant what was coming, and sheilded their eyes as the gas station exploded.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amp, with his face toward the fusions and his grip on the bus, warped it back to the fast station he'd spotted before warping himself out of the vehicle.  He crouched as it exploded, having warped himself just a safe enough distance away.  Cradling his head, he allowed himself a moment of satisfaction as he looked up to see a small crater where the station had been, and not a sign of the fusions that had been inside save for some liquified remains.

It was a struggle to stand up, and once he did he found himself using his bat as a makeshift crutch.  He inhaled a couple of breaths and gave a sidelong look to where he had left the others, before turning to limp off in the other direction.  He was stopped, however, when he saw the fusion version of himself standing mere yards away from him.

His eyes met the bright red pair, and he simply stared in resignation at the thing for what felt like a lifetime, before it warped away.

Amp let go of the breath he had been holding, looked to the ground, and warped away.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ami, Yumi and Kaz all jumped when Amp reappeared.  

"I did it." Amp said, digging his bat into the ground.  "I stabbed you with the...the thing, the needle.  And also tons of other people."

All three stared at him as if he hadn't said anything, then Ami marched up to the boy and punched him in the face.  

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" She screeched, as Amp stumbled backward clutching his nose.  "Do you have any idea what you put her through?"

"Yeah." Amp muttered.  "I do.  It's like she said, we know what we're doing the whole time.  We wanted to.  I turned everyone I could into a freak, and the worst part is I'm not sure there isn't something in me that would do it all again if I could."

Yumi looked on, unresponsive, while Kaz hung terrified from behind her.

"See?  I understand." Amp said simply.

"Get away from us." Ami seethed.  "Now."

"Yeah, I figured." Amp said, thoroughly defeated.  "But hey, now you know who to blame, so-"

"LEAVE!"

And he did.  


With the boy gone, Ami's look changed from fury to remorse, and she turned to tackle Yumi in a hug.

"Told you it wasn't your fault." She said softly, as for the first time in a while her hug was reciprocated.

"Now," said Kaz, "how are we gonna get out of Canada?"

Chapter 3: This Is Not Over, BEARS!

Matthew

'Matthew'

That name had been ringing through Amp's head, off and on, for months.  He had talked to Fear about it quite a few times.  He had talked to her about everything.  Neither of them knew what to make of the bizarre voice in his head.  Amp knew he had the occasional bout of certifiable insanity when his many, many traumas became too much for him, but hearing voices was new to him.

It got louder and more frequent whenever he was alone.  And he had been alone for a while.  Right now he was just walking through the woods.  No idea where he was going, honestly.  He was a bit too busy questioning his mental state to care.

That morning he had done what weeks earlier had become a new routine.  Since deciding to stay mostly in forests, Amp had grown accustomed to bathing in rivers.  The plus to that was that rivers made for natural mirrors.  Normally he would have full sized mirrors for grabs in his coat, but with that back at home looking himself over in the water was more convenient than letting himself back into civilization.  He would observe the many, many wounds he'd accumulated over the years, stretching to test how much they still hurt.  The scar across his eye from a crazed ex-girlfriend with a broadsword was NEARLY all gone, but still detectable if one looked closely enough.  Both his shoulders looked a tad mangled from several different injuries, but the most conspicuous of them all were the stitches and pale spots across his torso and back left by many a bullet and stab wound.  Amp almost felt bad for having left his hearing aid at home, having been given it after a stab in the ear, though he had hardly used it to begin with.

Amp had often found himself chuckling, figuring he only had his nearly bizarre level of endurance to thank for the fact that he wasn't dead yet.  That, and a particularly competent and determined doctor for a friend.  At only 18 years old his hair had taken on several grey strands, giving his natural blue a silvery quality.

"What's a seven letter synonym for 'misery'...ends in 'R'...?" Came a sudden voice, jarring Amp out of his thoughts.  Spinning around on his heels, Amp searched for the source of the muttering.  Upon finding it, he had to smack himself to make sure he was awake.

Sitting on a log a few yards away was a Giant Panda texting away on a phone.

"Stupid digital crosswords..." The panda muttered, as Amp cautiously approached it from behind.

"Are you real?" The boy asks, scratching his head nervously.  The panda's reaction was instant, nearly tossing his phone and screaming out in surprise.

"W-what?  What do you mean?" The panda asked.  Amp stepped back slightly, now pulling at either side of his head.

"I mean, am I really seeing this?  Is there really a talking, texting Panda in front of me right now?  Have I finally cracked?"

"Uh..."

"No, no, that'd be silly.  I've met a pink talking dog and aliens.  Duh." He tapped himself lightly on the head with his bat, before rushing up to the point of his face being inches away from the panda's.  

"I must have cracked years ago!   ...Right?"

"Umm...uh..." The panda mumbles, clearly uncomfortable.

"Hahaaaa,  yeah.  Who knows, maybe it was when I was born?  Maybe this is my first moment of...of, uh.... What's the- what's the word, um...  Lu-lu...lucidity!"

"HEY!" Greeted a new voice.  The panda squealed in surprise again, out this time Amp joined him, turning around with his eyes wide, as if waking from a trance.  Standing behind them was another bear, this one brown with a big goofy smile.

"Sup?" It said simply.

"Uh, hey Grizz." The panda said.  "I'minareallystressfulsituationpleasehelp!"

"Oh, d'you make a new friend?" The brown bear asked, ignoring the other's statement. He stood on his hind legs and raised a law toward Amp in greeting.  "Howdy new friend, my name's Grizz.  I can see you've met Panda."

"Yeah, I have." Amp said quietly, looking up at the forest around them as he took Grizz' hand halfheartedly.  "Uh, hey, question.  Where are we?  Is it China?  Am I in China?  The panda is really throwing me off."

"We're in San Francisco, dude." Grizz said with a laugh.  Releasing his hand, Amp gave the woods another once over before nodding and stumbling in a random direction.

"Hey where ya goin'?"  Grizz asked, rushing after him.  "You look lost."

"Really?"

"Yeah man.  You wanna chill with us in our cave."

Amp responded with a good long while of hesitation, and the bear seemed to take that as a 'yes'.

"Come on, it'll be fun.  We have snacks!"

"I do like snacks..." Amp said wistfully, though not in a way that seemed totally present.

"Grizz, are you really sure we should be taking this person into our home?" Panda said in a whisper.

"Yeah, are you really sure?" Amp whispered in much the same manner.

"You guys worry too much."  Grizz said nonchalantly. "What's your name, anyway?"

-———-————————————————————————————————————————

"Hey Chloe, Ice Bear, meet our new friend Amp!" Yelled Grizz in excitement, entering his cave home with Panda and Amp in tow.  "Amp, you've already met Pan-pan.  This is our brother Ice Bear-"

The stark white bear greeted the newcomer with a raised paw and nothing else.

"-and our best friend Chloe!"

A very small girl with a grey hoodie and mussed hair mumbled something Amp couldn't quite make out.

"What was that?" The boy asked, leaning in slightly.

"I-I said hi." Chloe repeated.

"Oh.  Hey."

"So, you wanna play some video games, have some snacks, watch some YouTube videos, maybe a movie?"  Grizz says with a hearty slap to Amp's back.

Amp hesitated.  Why was he here?  He could leave, he should leave.  What was stopping him?  Something compelled him to stay...

"Yeah."  Amp said.  "Yeah, yeah.  I've been kicking it on my own for a while.  I think-I think I should, umm, uh-relax, with other people, before I go nuts, hahaha..."

"Sweet, I'm gonna go put something on!" Grizz yelled, running to the TV.  Before he could respond or even move Amp's stomach growled wildly.

"Uh-..." He began with a raised finger, before Ice Bear was suddenly beside him with a freshly made plate of calzones.  "Wha-?  How did you-?"  

"Ice Bear has incredible precognitive instincts."

-———-————————————————————————————————————————

The sound of explosions perforated the room as the Bears, Chloe and Amp watched the stream of a recently released action movie.  The Bears glanced at the boy occasionally, taking note of how he seemed to flinch involuntarily at every gunshot in the film.  Amp himself however never took his eyes off the screen, as if taking no notice of his own discomfort.  He stared puzzled at the movie  while taking large bites out of his sixth calzone.

"Hurray!  Another action scene, finally!" Grizz said with satisfaction.

"I know, right?" Panda echoed his sentiments.  "It feels like forever since the last one."

"Ice Bear counts 20 minutes, 21 seconds."

"Are you guys sure we should be pirating this?" Chloe asked.

Before the Bears could ask what she meant, Amp snapped his fingers repeatedly, trying to think of the what about this particular set piece was bothering him.

"Does that bridge bother anyone else?  What's the deal with it?  It looks...weird."

The other four all exchanged glances, before looking back at him.

"That's...the Golden Gate Bridge." Chloe said.

"Ah." Amp replied simply.  He wasn't really sure how that answered his question.  "No but hang on, why is it called that?  I mean, it's not gold, it's red.  It IS red, right, I haven't gone crazy...er.  Right?"

"Too soon!" Panda called, not looking at Amp due to being too engrossed in the sequence.

"Uh, umm...what?"

Chloe narrowed her eyebrows in curiosity, whispering over to Amp, "Do you really not know what happened?"

"Uh, no, what happened- something happened?"

"The bridge got demolished.  Back when everyone went nuts with that fusion infection stuff.  They said it had to be destroyed because it was too infested with fusion matter.  This movie was going to use it to film, but they had to use models and CGI for the whole thing instead.  That's why it looks weird."

"Ah." Amp repeated, sitting back into the couch, satisfied with the answer.  That is, before he sat straight up and looked at the others in bewilderment. "Wait what?!"

Staring next at the screen, Amp saw as the action continued to play out.  Good vs evil causing destruction and chaos throughout the replicant bridge, civilians caught in the crossfire.  His mind's eye filled with green.  The green of fusions, of men, women and children running amok, some crouching in perverse pain as the transformation overtook them, as they themselves became fusion monsters.  

It wasn't an abstract.  No, this was too vivid for that.  These were memories.  He'd been there, hadn't he.  Just like he'd been in Mumbai, spreading the chaos, and death, and-

"I need to use the bathroom."  Amp said, rushing to the room that Grizz had shown him earlier during a tour of the home.

The other four sat in uncomfortable silence, looking first at each other then back at the screen.

"They really should've scrapped this scene."  Grizz said finally.

"Agreed."

"Mhm."

"Ice Bear will put on a different movie."

-———-————————————————————————————————————————

"...Amp's been in the bathroom a long time." Grizz said ponderously.  "Someone should go check on him."

"Not it!" Chloe said.

"Ice Bear is also not it."

"Aw, man!" Panda groaned.  "How am I always so slow to the draw?"

Opening the door slowly (after knocking first of course), Panda leaned his head into the bathroom to see Amp staring silently, intently at his reflection in the mirror.  His breathing was labored, his hands on either side of the mirror.  He looked equal parts frightened and angry.

"Uh...hey!"

Amp's reaction was immediate.  He threw up his hands ands jolted as if snapped out of a dream.

"Who!?  What!?  Huh-  I mean...what's up?"  He asked, calming slightly upon seeing it was just Panda.

"Uh, are you ok in here man?  We're playing a different movie, if that one bothered you."

Amp ran a hand through his hair, gaze shifting from Panda to his own reflection.

"Uh, yeah.  Yeah, that's...that's good, I think I need to focus on something else...."

-———-————————————————————————————————————————

A while later, the group had entered a peaceful quiet.  Grizz and Amp took turns enthusiastically showing each other internet videos, Chloe had taken a moment to study and get some work done.  Panda was scouring through his various social media accounts, and Ice Bear was preoccupied with practicing Tae-Kwon-Do outside the house.


"HEY!" Grizz says with a shout, suddenly having an idea and shutting his laptop.

"Ah, dude, that was the best part-"

"Who wants to go to the amusement park!?"

Amp shut up, instantly, his finger raised as if to give another complaint that had been stopped in its tracks.  "That's still around?  It hasn't gone the way of the bridge?"

"I do, I do!" Chloe shouts enthusiastically, raising her hand in confirmation.

"Yeah, why not?" Panda said with a smile.  

"Last time I was at an amusement park, it got destroyed violently.  Mostly by me."

Grizz simply stared at Amp, not quite seeming to register this information.

"So, is that a yes?"

"Yeah sure, why not?"  

Just then, Ice Bear poked his head back into the house.

"Ice Bear will assist in park destruction, should it become necessary."

-———-————————————————————————————————————————

"Grizz- you guys, for the last time, no!  I don't want to go on the rollercoaster AGAIN.  It's gonna lose its luster!"

The group was currently convened, having spent some time at the park already and now face with the grueling task of deciding which ride to get on next.

"Oh come on, Pan-Pan, it's too fun not to do a fifth time!"

"Ice Bear begs to differ."

"Ok, fine." Amp interjected.  "What about the, uh...*snap**snap* the thing where the put you in the chairs with the chains and the swing you around and stuff?"

He did a twirling motion with his fingers as Grizz gave a firm nod of agreement.

"I'm not even tall enough for that one!"  Chloe said.

"The bloody teacups, then?"

"Oh, I'm down for teacups!"

"So long as I don't get nauseous."

"I guess that'll work."

"Ice Bear is indifferent."

The sound of stomachs growling yet again interrupted their chatting.

"Food first." Amp and Grizz said in unison, leaving and hopping over a nearby failing toward the food stand.

"It's almost like having two Grizz's around." Chloe said, following a period of silence.

A moment later, all were seating and closing down together.  Amp was in significantly higher spirits than he had been in a while.  Something about the innocent fun of a place like this, even in the midst of an interplanetary war, just made him grin.  The endless enthusiasm of the brown bear next to him helped a lot as well.

"Do you think if popular rock music were edible it would explode in your mouth?"  Amp said suddenly, smiling as the others looked at him with curious expressions.

"It's a pun."

Still no response.  Chloe scratched her head before raising a hesitant hand.

"You mean...like Pop Rocks-"

"Like Pop Rocks!  Haha, she gets it! The rest of you guys, really?  No one else used to eat those?"

"You're weird." Panda says bluntly, while Grizz and Chloe give quiet chuckles.

"You better believe it buster!" Amp said with pride.

Grizz gasped, before tugging at Amp's sleeve.

"Check it out man."  He said, pointing toward a nearby Hall of Mirrors.  "I always loved those thing.  Wanna go in?"

"Darn tootin."  The boy said, leaping from his seat.  "See the rest of you guys in a sec."

He then crouched next to Chloe, paring her on the shoulder and stage-whispering into her ear "Make Panda sick for me, would you?" before cackling and rushing off.

"Hey!" Panda yelled as the young girl chuckled.  "You wouldn't actually do that would you?"

-———-————————————————————————————————————————

"That one makes you look like a bloomin' puffball." Amp said, standing in front of a mirror that made them both look rather top heavy.  "Well, more than you already did.  Violet Beauregaurd syndrome indeed."

The two then bust out laughing as yet another one make them look stringy and taller than life.

"Haha!" Grizz chuckled, pointing to another mirror. "That one makes you look like a fusion!"

"What."  

Amp turned to where the bear was pointing standing only a few yards ahead of him was indeed Fusion Amp.  Amp moved hesitantly to approach the creature, but it in turn moved out of sight.  

"Grizz."  Amp said.  "Go se what the others are up to,  I'll be right with ya."

Grizz seemed mighty hesitant, but he acquiesced and left the boy with a nod.  Without hesitation Amp tread over to where he had seen his fusion counterpart.  Turning a corner, he caught a glimpse of it, reflected en masse around itself.  Amp rushed over and, spinning around on his heels, saw the creature running with its back to him.  Amp made to run after it, only to slam face first into a mirror.

"Ow!"  He muttered, turning again and mapping the placement of the mirrors with his index fingers.  "Ok."

He ran again, just barely keeping up with the Fusion.  All around him his visage squashed and stretched and elongated and warped in the various mirrors.  Without stopping, Fusion Amp went into one of its coat pockets and pulled out a gun very familiar to the boy.  Knowing what was coming, Amp ducked just in time to avoid a blast of frigid energy that hit one of the nearby mirrors, shattering it.   Running onward, he leaped over another blast, this one hitting the ground and leaving a large, unwieldy patch of ice in its wake.

The fusion turned another corner, and Amp had to readjust himself yet again.  This time, however, he was stopped in the middle of his action b one of his many reflections.  The boy stood and stared at this one in particular.  In a single instant the fusion doppelgänger was out of his mind.

'Pick one'

"What?"

'Take one.  Don't you see it?  You need it.'

Amp looked around him.  All the mirrors.  But wait, what about the fusion? What was it even doing here?  And what about the...the-the-

"AAAAAAAAMP!"

The Bears!  Grizz' voice snapped Amp back to reality, and he shook his head vigorously.  His voice was coming from outside.  Without a second thought, Amp warped outside, right next to the brown bear.

"WAAGH!"  The bear yelled in shock.  "How'd you do that?"

"You didn't know I did that?  I didn't... I didn't say I did that?  What- not important, come here!"

Amp then grabbed Grizz and dragged him back into the hall of mirrors.

-———-————————————————————————————————————————

"Do you see anything?"  Amp asked, standing side by side with Grizz in front of the mirror that had so fascinated him.

"Uh...I see us.  And we look super skinny." The bear answered with a laugh.

"Nothing else?"  Amp asked with a hint of desperation in his voice, gesturing wildly at the reflection.  "Really?  Come on dude- you don't see...ANYTHING else?  Anything weird?"  Amp stopped when he felt Grizz' paw on his shoulder.

"Are you alright, man?"

Amp sighed.  "No.  No, I'm not.  Where are the others?  I need to go on the spin you ride again."

"Um, Panda and Ice Bear went to take Chloe home a while ago."

"What, already?"  Amp asked, Grizz' face only getting more concerned.

"Buddy, it's been over two hours since you walked in here."

Amp blinked, opening his mouth, looking over to the mirror, then Grizz, then closing his mouth.  Running his hands through his hair, he fell back against another mirror and slid to the ground.  Hours?

"Hours."  He muttered.

Grizz rubbing the back of head of his head.  He sat down beside Amp, not understanding any of the boys behavior.

"You wanna talk about it?" He offered.

"Can I sleep over at your place?"

Grizz was taken aback by the sudden and casual gear shift.  Even so, he gave a gentle nod in the affirmative.

-———-————————————————————————————————————————

"So who's bed do you want?  Grizz asked.  The other bears had returned at this point, and were having a rather one-sided argument with their brother on the conditions of Amp's stay.

"You are not renting out my bed again!" Panda said.

"Fine, fine, he can have mine."

"Um, you know I'm actually fine sleeping on the floor."

"No way, you're our guest.  Nothin' but red carpet treatment.  Oh!  I should probably fix up some of this mess too."  Grizz then went about picking up leftover bowls, crumbs and wrappers from before they'd left.

"You REALLY don't have to worry about that stuff mate, I mean I suppose the bed would be a comfy change-"

"Then it's settled.  You wanna tuck in now or later?"

"Well, I am pretty exhAU-". Before Amp could finish his sentence he was in the bed, covers over him and pillow fluffed under him.

"You good?"  Grizz asked with a smile.  He himself was already curling up next to the bed.

Sitting up and leaning over to better face the bear, Amp gave him a look that begged answers.

"Ok, big man, let me in on the gag.  What's the big deal?"

"No idea what you mean, hehe, there no big deal..." Grizz smiled nervously at Amp, but when the boy silently prodded him again, he sighed and rolled onto his back.  "It's just, uh...well, you know, my brothers and I- we don't get people around all that often.  I mean, we have friends like Chloe, and Lucy, and Charlie, but... I dunno, whenever the three of us are out on the town, sometimes I feel like nobody likes us."

The bear's gaze went up to the window, and Amp followed it outside to a nearby tree.

"You know," Grizz said, drawing the boy's attention back to him, "when we were cubs we were all alone.  It was just the three of us against the world.  I kept us all together, but...you know, being on your own can get sad sometimes..."

"Yeah." Amp agreed.  Thinking for a moment, he threw his legs over the side of the bed. "But sometimes it's better, you know.  Sometimes being alone is what you need.  Even if it's not what you want."

"I dunno.  Maybe.  I mean, it's not just me.  Panda always gets so lonely, and for as cool as he acts I think Ice Bear feels it too.  They're my brothers.  I owe it to them to keep trying, right?  Sometimes I just feel like we'd have more friends, but then one of us does something dumb or weird..."

Amp was silent for a moment, scratching his head vigorously.

"Listen, Grizz, man, I've been where you are.  If you wanna make friends, all you really have to do is keep at it.  No quitsies.  It may take a while, maybe even seven years but it'll be worth it.  I don't think you should have the trouble I do anyway, you seem stable.  Sure of yourself.  Whatever- listen, the point is, why be down about it?  If you screw up, just know that you could make things as weird as I have with my friends. You certainly don't have to worry about making me comfortable."

The boy was now moving his hand over his chest, feeling his scars through his shirt.

"Yeah.  I guess you're right.  I mean hey, we made a new friend today...right?"

Amp smiled, but didn't say anything.

"Goodnight, Amp." The bear said.

"Night Matthew."

Amp seemed to not realize what he said, before Grizz looked over at him with a raised eyebrow.

"I mean- Matthew- crap, ugh.  Grizz.  Grizz.  Goodnight, Grizz."

Grizz smiled again, before curling up and going to sleep.

Laying back again, Amp pulled out his nanocom and messaged Fear.

'Hey Raef.  I'm bunking with talking bears in San Fransisco for the night.  Maybe a few days.  I still have no idea when I'll be back, but I just figured I'd tell you so you don't worry.  

I love you.  Ampere.'

Oh the hype
I was waiting for this for dayz

it's amazing

matthew is illuminati

Matthew is probably amp's real name or someone he was close to is my theory, but so far I like how things are going. Poor Amp with Yumi and Ami, but at least the bears like him.

zerowing21 wrote:Matthew is probably amp's real name

can't be, Amp wouldn't accidentally refer to Grizz as himself.
Most likely someone he was close to.
or illuminati

Chapter Four: I'm About To Blow Up


'For the life of me, I don't understand why you, of all people, would want to make an Old-Person hat for our son.'

'A top hat is not an "Old Person hat", sweetie.  It's classy.'

'But-but you called it that like two months ago!'

'That was in the past, man. Get with the times.'

'I got nothing against it, but do people seriously still wear those?'

'Nope.  All the better to stand out with, don't you think?'

'I suppose that much is true.'

'Besides, these things used to incite bloody riots way back when.'

'They did not.  Seriously?'

'Look it up.'

'....Wow, you're right.'

'Aye, see?  Our kid is gonna be a regular rabble rouser.  Besides, you know he was the one begging for it.  He sees it on TV and suddenly it's "Mommy mommy, look at this guys hat, isn't it cool?"  How was I supposed to NOT make one after that?'

'Point taken.  Add circuit board patterns.'

'What?'

'What?  Circuit boards are cool.'

'...I am not gonna argue that.'

'And make 'em blue.  He loves blue.'

'I wonder why.'

—————————————————————————————————

Daventry Hills was a relatively quiet town, for a while at least.  Until recently many would argue it was almost boring.  That is, before video game characters began spontaneously appearing throughout the real world.

Like the giant black dragon running throughout town, for instance.

Not far ahead of the creature was a boy on a skateboard, trying to avoid both the everyday obstacles on the street and the perilous fire breath of the dragon.  The boy had to put out the flames that caught on his hair before pulling out his nanocom.

"Come on, come on," he muttered,fiddling with the device, "how the heck am I supposed to use this thing!?"

Meanwhile, in that very moment, the dragon was being followed from afar by three other young people; two boys wielding a staff and a cannon of some kind, and a girl with an enlarged metal fist.

"How the heck does he not know how to work these things!?" One boy groaned, the three of them hiding behind a nearby car to stay out of the dragon's view.  Grabbing his own nanocom, he whispered in frustration.  "Dante, this is Wyatt.  Dante, pick up!"

"...Uh..." Came a voice eventually.  "This is the on button, right."

"Dante! Quit goofing around!"

"Hey, it's not my fault!  We've only had these things for a couple of months.  I can't be the only one still having trouble with it, right?  Lyle, Angie, back me up?"

The girl and staff-wielding boy shook their heads and frowned.

"Nuh-uh."

"Pretty sure it's just you."

"Of course it is.  Hey Lyle, now that Daventry Hills is catching up with the rest of the world tech-wise, can you ask your dad to get the town hover boards?"

Lyle groaned and leaned against his staff.  "How many times do I have to tell you Dante, there's nothing in the town budget for that stuff."

"If you two are done," Wyatt said, "We need to get rid of this Midnight Dragon before the sun rises and the whole town see it.  Dante, you keep it following you, drive it out to  the woods.   It's gonna take all four of us to bring it down and I want to avoid property damage.  Lyle, Angie and I will stay out of its radius so it isn't distracted.  That means no going in to help him until after it's out of town limits, Angie."

"Yeah, I know." Angie sighed with a roll of her eyes.  "Just because I still don't play your stupid nerd game doesn't mean I don't remember what happened last time."

"You've only got two blocks to go Dante, we're right behind you."

"Got it." Dante said with a nod, fiddling for a moment to shut his com off, before rolling on ahead of the dragon, making sure to stay into radius as it flew after him.  Not moments later he was beyond the town limits, the dragon close behind.

As concrete turned to soil Dante hopped off his board and lead the dragon further along on foot.  He started growing nervous as the creature now had no trouble keeping up with him, but a shout of "TULTA MUNILLE" from behind him alleviated this.  Out from behind he and the dragon emerged Wyatt, Lyle and Angie.  

Firing up his Blast-a-Ton cannon, Wyatt prayed that the weapon's randomly generated ammo wouldn't leave him wanting for something cool or useful.  Of course, for his trouble he ended up launching a small water balloon at the dragon.  Lowering his head, Wyatt was granted a pat on the back by Lyle.

"Easy man," he said, "let the Thunderpole get this."

Raising his staff, Lyle yelled out an incantation that caused a series of explosions around the dragon.  The creature cried out raised itself into the air again.

"Maybe not your best idea."  Wyatt said.  "Ground it!"

Shouting another spell, a chain was shot out from the tip of the Thunderpole, catching the Dragon around the tail.  Wyatt grabbed onto Lyle, struggling to keep themselves on the ground.  

"Angie!" They both yelled, and in a moment the girl was at their side.  With her Fist of Schoolage equipped, she grappled the chain and used the gauntlets increased strength to yank the dragon onto the ground.  

"You two hold it."  Wyatt said, before turning to Dante.  "Dante, stun it!"

Nodding, Dante raised his SkullCracker club and bashed it onto the ground, sending a shockwave throughout it that shook the Dragon into paralytic stillness.  Wyatt raised his Blast-a-Ton again and fired.  This time, the weapon generated a series of firecrackers that pelted the dragon over and over before it eventually dissipated in a flash of light and smoke.

Wyatt smiled tiredly, the team gathering around each other just as the sun came up around them.

"That's six leaks in one day." Angie said in exasperation.  "What is it with these things lately?"

"It's almost like the game is trying to tucker us out." Lyle said.

"Yeah, maybe it's not as stupid as some people think." Wyatt sniped.  Pulling out his nanocom, Wyatt checked the time as the others gathered around him.  "Seven in the morning.  School time."

"Boo!" Dante yelled as they walked their way back into town.  "I'd rather sleep time."

"Remind me again why we're still doing this alone, still?" Angie said as they all trudged back toward town.  "Why bother keeping it a secret anymore?  With all the weird crap going on in the world you think people aren't willing to help out a couple of teenagers deal with living video games?  Lyle, you could get the whole football team in on this."

Lyle scoffed.  "Personally, I think the world has enough problems without us bringing them onto our issues."

"He's right." Wyatt said. "I mean, we don't even know if it's possible to stop leaks permanently.  Why make anybody panic?"

"But we can't just keep these things at bay by ourselves anymore!"

The group was then startled by a familiar beeping, and Wyatt raised his com again.  The signal was off.

"Another leak." He grumbled, the other three groaning in unison around him.  "We should be able to wrap this one up quick.  Angie, we'll talk about this later.  For now, the leaks are Never Fail's problem."

Angie sighed as the boys brandished their weapons and followed Wyatt toward the source of the leak.  She followed after quickly.

—————————————————————————————————

The four of them arrived at the local pawn shop, Wyatt's com beeping with more frequency.  

"This is it." he said, looking more at said com than the others.

"What's up?" Lyle asked, sensing that something was up.

"Don't know.  Something about this leak is different...  I don't think it's something we've seen before."

The group peeked into the shop, seeing a figure that was definitely unfamiliar to all of them.  Inside the store was a crazed, oddly dressed blue-haired boy climbing throughout the store and inspecting all of its many mirrors.

"Too small." They could here him say about one, before tossing it to the far wall.  He stood in front of another one and posed in front of it.  "Too thin."  He rushed to another one.  "How bout this, this look good Matty?  Yeah, yeah, this is major beeswax."

"What is he doing?" Angie asked.

"Who cares." Dante said.  "Let's take him out before he wrecks everything."

"We need a plan." Wyatt said.

"What good's a plan against something we've never seen?" Lyle asked.

"Thank you Lyle, thank you." Dante says, patting Lyle on the shoulder before rushing into the store like a madman.  "LEEROYYYYYYYYYY JEEENKIIIIIIIIIINS!"

"No!" Wyatt yelled.  "Damnit Leroy!"  

Dante ran over to the "leak", raising his SkullCracker and bringing it down on his head.  Or rather, he would have, had he not suddenly disappeared.  Turning around in a sudden panic, Dante was suddenly struck right in the face with a metal bat.

Dante fell backwards, before shaking his head and squinting at his opponent.  The boy was poised to strike him with the bat again, and Dante just barely managed to block the blunt instrument with the SkullCracker.  Getting back up to his feet, the club and the bat traded blows before Dante kicked the other boy in the stomach, driving him a few feet back.  Reaching behind him however, the boy swiped up some dust that had accumulated in the shop over the years and held it in front of him, blowing it into Dante's face and obscuring his vision.

Groaning at the pain in his eyes, Dante swung wildly to where the boy had been, only to find that he had disappeared again as he was hitting nothing but air.  Had he cleared his eyes and turned around, he would've seen the boy behind him before he was whacked in the back of the head with a sickening crack.

Dante fell to his knees, then to the ground as he lost consciousness.  Outside, the other three members of NeverFail watched as the boy grabbed the mirror he had been eyeing and rushed out of the shop.  Lyle ran after him, shouting a spell that sent a stream of flames after the runner.  The boy teleported out of the Flames' path, stopped, and placed the mirror down before pulling a small gun out of his pants pocket.  Firing it at Lyle, he froze the Wizards feet to the ground in solid ice, before firing again at the Thunderpole and likewise encasing it.  Lyle shouted another spell, but the staff was unresponsive.

"Wyatt, that plan of yours would be great any time now!" He yelled.

"Right." Wyatt said, aiming his Blast-a-Ton at their adversary and firing.  Out popped a tipped missile, which just barely missed the boy and exploded next to him, sending him flying and landing on top of a nearby car.  Sitting up, the boy looked at Wyatt and placed his hands on the car, before disappearing yet again and taking the vehicle with him.  For the tiniest of moments, Wyatt wondered where the boy had gone, before the presence of a shadow over him made him look up to see the boy and the car in the air above him, plummeting downward.

Wyatt threw himself flat on the ground just as the car fell on top of him, narrowly avoiding being crushed by it.  From under the vehicle he could only make out the boy's slippers as he hopped to the ground, rushed back to his mirror and snatched it up.

Just as he made to run again, he was thrown to the ground by a punch to the face from Angie's Fist of Schoolage.  The boy fell, as did the mirror, which shattered on the impact.  Sitting up and observing the broken glass around him, Angie noticed the boy's whole demeanor shift.  He blinked as if being brought out of some trance, his face the very definition of confused.  Before she could ask any questions, he was gone.

For a moment there was silence, outside of the car alarm blaring.  Wyatt dragged himself out from under it, just as Dante stumbled out of the pawn shop, barely able to stand.  Lyle, meanwhile, was bashing the blunt end of the Thunderpole against the ice on his feet in an attempt to free himself.

"Guys." Wyatt said, "I think we need to talk to Max about this."

—————————————————————————————————

It was after school that day that NeverFail all arrives at their headquarters to speak with their fifth and final member, Max Ross.  Max was the famed designer of Conquerer of All Worlds, the MMO game from which the leaks had spread.  If anyone could explain the teams bizarre encounter that day, it'd be him.

"I'd ask what's got you all looking so down," he began as the entered looking tired and dejected, "but I don't care."

"It was this crazy leak, man." Dante said, flopping onto a chair.  "He totally clobbered us."

"We didn't even get to finish him off." Lyle continued.

"Not to mention the lack of sleep." Angie finished.

Max looked somewhat curious.  "What was the leak?"

"Ugh, it might not even be from the game." Wyatt said, cupping his face in his hands and rubbing his eyes.  "It was this kid, dark skin, blue hair, weird rabbit slippers.  He was a teleporter, too.  You didn't program anything like that for Conquerer of All Worlds, did you?"

Max's face went from mild interest to wide-eyed shock as the description went on.  Not used to seeing him display such extreme emotion, the whole group, sat up in attention.

"What, does it ring a bell?" Lyle asked.

"Oh, it rings a bell alright." Max said, moving to a nearby filing cabinet.  "But not from the game."

Pulling out a file, he tossed it into the middle of the group, Wyatt picked it up and read it allowed.

"Max Ross' Watchlist...?"  Inside was a picture of the boy they had fought, looking somewhat younger and with a crazed, happy look on his face.  "This-...this is him.  I mean, minus the coat and the hat he looks exactly the same."

"Ampere Miller." Max sighed.  "Truly one of the most aggravating presences I've ever had the displeasure of meeting.  He just popped into my home one day five or so years back.  He never shut up, kept asking stupid questions about game development, what it was like to be me.  And he kept touching me.  The worst part was the teleporting meant I couldn't get him kicked out.  It took three days of him running around the place before he couldn't do it anymore.  He's been on the keep out list ever since."

"So...not a leak?" Dante asked.

"Nope.  Far too uncontrollable, unpredictable, to be created by yours truly."

"But that doesn't make any sense, the leak detector went off, and it led us right to him."

"Wait a minute." Wyatt said, standing up and moving to one of Max's many computers. "The pawn shop's got security cameras, inside and out..."

"Yeah, so?" Dante asked as he and the others crowded behind Wyatt.

"Look." Wyatt said, pointing to the security feed he had hacked in practically no time at all.  "While we were fighting Ampere inside the shop, and out in front, out in the back of the store was..."

"The leak!" They all said, observing a tall, ethereal, dark-clad figure emerge from a portal of code behind the pawn shop, before walking away.

"So all day this thing has been out free doing who knows what," Angie groaned, "and we were wasting our time on some random weirdo."

"Seems like it." Max said nonchalantly.  "Bummer."

"Come on guys." Lyle said after shaking his head.  "We gotta stop this thing pronto."

The other three nodded and they raced out of the building.

—————————————————————————————————

"Come on, Amp."  The blue haired boy muttered to himself, pacing back and forth around the forest floor, using his bat as a walking stick of sorts.  "Think!  Thinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthink.  What're you even doing here?  One second you're asleep, next thing you know you're here...here in....uh."

Realizing he didn't even know the name of the town he was in, Amp visualized a sign of some kind in his head and found himself warping just outside the Daventry Hills High School.

"Daventry Hills.  Ok.  Why did you come here?  We must've wanted something.  But what?"

Suddenly, Amp felt a vibrating in his pocket and pulled out his nanocom.  His eyes darted to the name of the sender first, and they widened slightly at seeing the words 'Roxie Leeblossom'.

"Hey, dude.' The message read.  Reading it in her voice wasn't difficult.  'I miss you. I hope you're safe doing whatever you're doing now. You're always on my mind. I love you."

Amp read the message over and over again.  He hadn't talked to Roxie in so long, despite is only being the latest in a long line of texts sent from her.  He had never known what to say, how to approach things, so he ended up never responding (much like the occasional summons he would get from Finn or Fionna on behalf of Princess Bubblegum).  

She wasn't like Fear.  Dealing with Fear was easy, and always, always made him feel better.  She made him happy, and in that way things were simple.  Roxie?  She made him happy, and sad, and angry, and guilty, and confused.

As he struggled to think of what to say, if anything, his train of thought was derailed by the tall black figure that rounded the corner of the school building, into his line of sight.  

"Uh..." he stated, finger still poised over the nanocom, but his attention firmly on the figure.  He looked from his hand to the figure, before giving a small wave.  "Hi.  Who're you?"

The figure made a noise not unlike a hiss, before it was directly in front of Amp in less than a second.  Amp took a step back, and gripped his bat tightly.  The figure was undoubtedly a thing.  Not a he, or a she, but an it.  He could tell just by its presence.

"Look, I've never been a big believer in personal space, but you wanna back up there buddy?" He asked, putting his nanocom in his pocket.  Before he could do anything else, the creature raised its own hand and clutched Amp's face.  The boy's eyes widened in surprise and distress, but these feeling were quickly replaced by...well, something he hadn't really felt before.  Exhaustion was a close approximation, but a more accurate description would be slowly dying.  He tried to wrestle himself out of its grip, and when that failed warped as far as he could.

Feeling incredibly drained, "as far as he could" ended up translating to a few yards, falling on his back on the school staircase.  Once he was a good distance from the creature he started to feel his strength return gradually.  He was still barely standing before the thing was on him again, however, and it just managed to grab some air as he warped further away, leaning on a lamppost to gather himself.  Pulling out his ice gun, he turned to the dark thing and fired on it.  With a sound not unlike a cold drink being opened in reverse, the being seemed to just absurd the frigid energy and move closer to Amp yet again.

Amp, in return, raised his bat above his head and brought it down, whereupon the creature promptly disappeared in a puff of smoke.  Amp turned in a panic, as the thing went solid again just behind him.  Amp blinked, scrolling through ideas of what to do in his mind, all of them thin and futile.

He was going to die.  Somehow, he knew.  Right then, he was going to die.  Wow.

"Not how I called it...." He muttered, before he was grabbed yet again.

His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and his feet gave out from under him.  He fell to the ground.

"TULTA MUNILLE!"  Rang the shout.  The creature turned to see a quartet of armed youngsters racing toward it.  

Wyatt stopped ahead of the others and raised the Blast-a-Ton.  This time, out came a series of pencils that pierced the creature, though to very little visible effect.

"KILAUEA!" Lyle shouted, blasting their adversary with a ball of lava.  The creature recoiled, though it still did not look any worse for wear.  It hissed again, before zipping away, clear out of sight before anyone else could do anything.  

"That didn't look like anything from the game either..." Dante muttered to the others, before their eyes all fell on the pale boy who lay motionless on the ground.
 
—————————————————————————————————

Markus Miller struggled not to pull his head away as the 2-year-old next to him as he fiddled aimlessly with his hair.    Looking over to the child, Markus smiles warmly at the infant's own hair, which shared his shade.  Suddenly, the shifting of weight next to him alerted him of his wife's presence, twirling a lock around her own finger.

'Is there a reason you two are doing this while I'm working on formulas?'

'I speak for myself and the baby when I say it's cause your hair is just fab.' The woman asked, twirling her husbands hair into a strand of her own chocolate brown.  'It's like...like a cobalt star frozen in the peak of its bliss and placed atop that brilliant noggin of yours.'

Markus didn't attempt to hide his profuse blush.  'I didn't know you felt so poetically about it, Trish.'

'Haven't found the proper words til now.' She responded wistfully.  'I'm so glad he took after you that way.'

Markus crept a hand up to Trisha's own and clasped it gently, grinning a bit.  'I hope he picks up your accent.'

'Ha.  Here's hoping no one makes fun of him for it if that's the case.'

Markus turned his attention back to the baby in question and picked him up tenderly.  'Like either of us would let that happen.'  

'Sweet sassafras, he is cute.'

'I know, right?  He's got your chipmunk cheeks.'

'Dude, I do not-'

'Wait a minute.' Markus said, raising the baby above his head to get a better look at his screen filled with equations and blueprints.  'Wait.  A.  Minute.  That's it!  That's the thing we've been missing to make the generator work.  Look!'

He pointed enthusiastically at the screen, Trisha tilting her head and blinking.

'Holy crap, you're right.  I can't believe we didn't see it before!'

'It's genius!'

'Damn skippy.  This could be what we needed for the Infinite Magnet Gun.  *gasp* Or the Anti-Magnet Gun!'

The duo stood at the same time, before rushing to their lab.

'Ow, ow!' Markus yelled as Trisha ran slightly ahead, dragging him along by their still entwined hair.  'Careful, I'm still holding the baby!!!'

—————————————————————————————————

Thankfully, Amp wasn't motionless for very long.  His leg twitched when Lyle poked him experimentally, and hardly a moment later his eyes snapped open.  He jumped to his feet as color slowly came back into his face.

"Ooh.  Ow.  Headache."  He grumbled, leaning on Dante's shoulder, patting his chest in camaraderie.  "Hey guys, hehehe.  How's it goin', eh?"

"Um..."  Dante said, looking uncomfortably from Amp to his friends.  "You ok, dude?"

"Nope!" The blunette boy said, somewhere between chipper and drained.  "Not even a little bit.  Mostly hungry though.  Anyone else hungry?  Cause I'm really hungry."

He raised a hand, looking more at the open space than at any one of them in particular.

"I'm Amp by the...oi."

The others looked uncomfortably amongst themselves.

"So, who's gonna tell Max?"

—————————————————————————————————

"No!"

"But Max, he almost fell out on us on the way here, this is the best place to keep him."

"That's great to know, but not my problem."

"He might actually have something to do with the leak!"

Max groaned, but eventually acquiesced.  "Fine.  But only cause this leak is pretty bad."

"So you recognize it?" Lyle asked hopefully.

"Not at all." Max said, walking across the room and leaving them all confused.  "Which is particularly odd, considering I performed a once over on it, and spotted quite a few design elements ripped right out of Conquerer of All Worlds."

"Max...?" came Amp's voice, drawing the other's attention toward him.  Last they checked he had still been only half-conscious in the chair they set him in.  Now however, it seemed as though all the color had flooded back into his cheeks and the light into his eyes.  He hopped from the chair and grinned.  "Max Ross?  I...wow.  It's-it's been years.  You look good!"

"Five to be exact." Max said with barely hidden contempt.

"Yeah."  Amp nodded slowly.  "I usually have trouble remembering that far back.  And it was only three days.  Ooh and in an August too.  I have particular trouble with those.  Weird.  Oh, oh, oooooh wait!"

The boy snapped his fingers, giggling in a frenzy.  "I remember where the food is, too!"

The boy disappeared, Max glaring at the kids around him expectantly.  "Wow, I sure am glad I let you guys convince me to stay."

"I like him." Dante said simply.

"He knocked you unconscious with a blunt metal instrument."

"So?  I do that to tons of stuff."

"So!" came Amp's voice as he suddenly reappeared behind Wyatt and Angie, making them both shriek in surprise.  In his hand was an exquisite looking sandwich, and he carried it over to the nearest seat before flopping down into it.  "Max.  Maxie.  Maximu-um!  How goes the game making business?"

"Well..." Max began, exchanging a glance with the rest of NeverFail.  "My game became popular worldwide, and now it's characters are coming to life and terrorizing the town."

Amp nodded.  "Hmm.  Nice."  He then raised a finger, pointing to the rest of the guild.  "And who're these guys?"

"The help." Max said.

"We've met." Wyatt said, shrugging off Max' comment and glaring at Amp.

"We have?  That must've been even further back..."

"It was this morning."

"...oh."  

"Name's Wyatt." The game geek said, extending a hand that Amp eagerly took.  "That's Dante, Lyle, and Angie."

"Sorry for attacking you man."  Dante said.  "We thought you were the leak."

"Flattered." Amp said.  He then made a 'timeout' sign with his hands, before waving back a bit.  "Rewind a tic.  Is this whole leak thing the reason for tall dark and murderous?"  Before he could get an answer, the boy warped away again and returned with more food for himself.

Max sighed, walking over to his computer.  "In a sense.  Observe.  The creature's source code originated from Conquerer of All Worlds, there's no question.  But the thing is I never created it."

"Ok," Lyle said questioningly, "but how is that possible?"

Wyatt scratched his head. "The game must have...I dunno, created its own enemy from scratch, without human input."

"But that makes no sense."  Angie said.  "It can't do that on its own.  Stuff may be coming out of it, but it's still just a game, right?"

"Wrong."  Max said.  "The game's been a living entity since the leak's started.  It's only now showing signs of a singular intelligence, though.  It's why it's been sending out as many leaks at it can.  They're not just random anymore, they're deliberately trying to tucker the four of you out."

"Gee," Ange said, rolling her eyes in Wyatt's direction, "almost makes you wish we weren't doing all this ourselves."

"Why bother making a brand new enemy when it knows we can kick its butt?" Dante asks.

"Did you?  You made it retreat, sure, but you weren't able to kill it, were you?"

"It's a monster from the game, so it has to have set health right?" Lyle said as the there's looked away embarrassed.  "Next time we catch it we'll take it out easy."

"Will you now?"  Amp said suddenly, bringing attention back to himself as he finished eating and stood.  "That's great, cause I was thinking this was more of a 'you' problem anyway.  Thanks for the meal, but I'm getting the sense that I'm not wanted, or needed, which is great for me cause I'm on a bit of an isolation..."

Amp stopped talking when Max turned the television on.  Specifically, the news.  Top story was of corpses.  Lifeless husks throughout Daventry Hills.  Everyone in the room eyed the bodies, almost blue in their wake, yet not physically harmed at all.

"Authorities are unable to pinpoint any cause of death." The reporter said solemnly.  "A few eyewitnesses, however, report a mysterious dark figure in the vicinity of each victim..."

"That's what our friend has been up to while you all were out."  Max said, the others looking on in silence.  Rarely, if ever, did the leaks they fought seriously hurt anyone, let alone kill them.  They never gave them the chance.  When the broadcast was turned off it was quiet enough to easily here their fists tighten around their weapons.

"...kick." Amp finished, still staring at the blank screen.  He then sighed and turned to the others, shrugging exaggeratedly.  "Fine.  Fine.  This thing is a big deal, need all the manpower you can get to stop it."

"We can fix this ourselves." Wyatt said, though it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself.  "I can-"

"The time for taking chances was before there were cold bodies on the ground, Wy." Lyle said.

"But, like, what is it even doing?" Dante asked bewildered. "Those dead guys weren't impaled, or shredded, or incinerated, or melted or anything.  If we're gonna stop this thing we should know how it fights...right?"

Max opened his mouth to answer, before Amp's voice interrupted him.  "It sucks out life force."

The others all looked at him with raised eyebrows.  He was sitting again, absentmindedly scratching at his chest with one hand and harshly gripping the arm of his chair with the other.

"Don't ask me how I know, it's just...that's what it felt like, when it was attacking me.  Like getting hit with a drain Nano times a thousand, like...like my life was some physical thing it could rip out of my body...."

"You seem remarkably well off for it." Max said skeptically.

"I'm durable." It was curt, matter-of-fact.

"Why, though?" Wyatt muttered. "The leaks are plenty deadly when we're not on the case anyway, why would the game make a new creature from nothing,many go through all that trouble."

"The same reason it's able to do it in the first place." Amp said, realization dawning on his face as he looked at Max.  "Cause it's intelligent."

He paused, before leaping up from the chair and pacing wildily, running his hands through his hair and muttering to himself.

"But is that...no.  Yes...nah...couldn't be- but what if?  Yes!"

He spun around on his heels, the four others jumping a bit at the sudden move.

"Max said it'd started scheduling it's leaks to tucker you out.  Probably, anyway.  So that means the game, as a single intelligence, knows about you guys, yeah?"

"Yeah...makes sense?"

"So the game knows about your little group and its trying to get you out of the way, so obviously it's little Frankenstein experiment was made to deal with you guys- somehow, someway, eliminate you as a threat.  And what does it do?  It sucks life force out of people, right?  Well, what even is that?  What even IS 'life force'.  I'd IMAGINE it's the thing that makes living beings, well...ALIVE.  What makes them flesh and blood, and that thing takes it for itself."

The boy was in a frenzy now, gesticulating wildly and hopping up and down as his speech grew faster and faster.  Something clicked in Wyatt, and he raised a hesitant hand.

"You're not saying-"

"That the reason you weren't able to kill it earlier was because your uh, your-your weapons were less effective, and your weapons were less effective because-"

"Because it's not just code from the game anymore..."

"I mean, that makes sense right?  Your special fancy weapons are good for killing digital code, and when the...that thing, when it takes away people's essence it de-uh..da-duh-dum-d...dilutes that code!  I can't kill it cause it's not real, but YOU can't kill it cause it's close enough!"

"You were not this astute when last we met."  Max said, and if the others didn't know any better they might have sworn he was impressed.  Amp met him with a look no one knew how to describe.

"Don't make the mistake of assuming you know me, Max."

"Ok, but then how do we kill it?" Dante asked.

"Max."  Wyatt said.  "Do you think you could program something like a...a draining device?  Something to siphon the life energy away from it, make it nothing but code again?"

"Sounds like an interesting challenge." Max said, before getting right onto it with no further prompting.  

Amp turned on his heel again before something caught his eye.

"...you have a mirror in here?" He asked airily.  Max was beyond paying attention to him at this point, but it only figured the extravagant game designer would have a full length mirror just lounging around anywhere.

Amp stared headlong into his own reflection.  Just him, in a room, NeverFail discussing plans of attack behind him.  For a while, at least.  Suddenly, the image before Amp was engulfed in flames. He was looking around the room of his own home.  A home of many years ago, but his.  The infrastructure collapsed and burned around, and he could just make out the shadows of two adults searching for him.  His parents.  Suddenly and without warning the image shifted to right outside the house.  Amp watched from a distance as the whole structure caved in on itself.

"Done!" Max shouted, and like that Amp was ripped violently back into the moment.  He blinked, several times, before readjusting his focus.

"Sweet!" Lyle shouted as he and the others gathered around Wyatt on his laptop.  Pressing a few keys, Wyatt open a fluctuating leak portal right into the center of the room.  Out of it flew Max's creation, something that looked like a bizarre mix of trumpet, ray gun and vacuum cleaner.

"Let's find this thing and take it down now." Wyatt said, picking the weapon up.

"Ooh!" Amp cried, snapping his fingers.  "I can handle that bit."

He gestured for the others to grab him, and when they did he warped them all out of the room.

"...You're welcome!" Max shouted to the empty space, his hands raised in indignation.

—————————————————————————————————

Amp looked around as they all arrived at their destination, the other four looking rather worse for wear.  "Huh, school again.  Cool.  Ooh, and a locker room this time!  I love me a locker room."

"I think I'm gonna blow chunks!" Said a very green Dante as he ran off to the nearest garbage can.  

"I think I'm gonna blow with him!" Angie yelled, running after him.  Turning a corner, both forgot all about their motion sickness when they made sight of the dark figure.  It had its hand outstretched, clasped on the face of some poor, writhing gym student.  Turning to the group, they could now make out its visage; it didn't so much have a face as a lump of twisted and mangled flesh were one should be.  As they all recoiled, Amp noticed that it's hand too barely qualified as such, it's fingers largely stuck together.  What at first seemed like clothes and shoes were actually featureless limbs and torso, alongside toeless clumps of feet.

"It's barely a body." Amp muttered.

"Who cares!?" Angie snapped urgently.  "Tulta Munille!"

"TULTA MUNILLE!" The boys yelled, raisins their weapons.  Wyatt aimed their new weapon at the leak and fired.  A stream of energy jetted out of it, hitting the leak.  The creature froze and released its victim, who feel helplessly to the floor.  

"Wait, is that your battlecry?" Amp asked.  "...Gross.  How do I even know that?"

The effect of the weapon on the leak was short however, as within a second the creature was on Wyatt and grasped his face instead.

As the boy groaned in agony, Dante ran up to the leak and swung his SkullCracker at it with full force.  The creature flew back into the nearest row of lockers, hissing before exiting the locker room.

"You good, Wy?" Lyle asked, kneeling down next to Wyatt.  Wyatt nodded, despite looking quiet pale and breathing heavily.

"Where's it going?" Dante asked.

"For an easier meal, no doubt." Angie replied, rushing after the leak.  Lyle and Dante ran after her, as Wyatt struggled to stand.

"Whoa, whoa," Amp said, appearing in front of the others, "hey hey hey hey hey, what're you doing?"

"Going after it!"

"Forget it." The blunette gestured to Wyatt. "Didn't you notice?  The weapon doesn't work!  It went back to siphoning life force out of Wyatt no problem.  We couldn't even keep it still.  We need a better plan."

"And just leave that thing running around to suck out whoever's life it wants!?"

"Oh.  Ok, good point." The teleporter snapped his fingers and pointed between the others.  "Lyle, Angie, tail Quasimodo.  Keep a safe distance but don't let it touch anyone!  Dante, Wyatt, you and me are gonna chat with Max."

"...Quasimodo?"  the other four asked in unison.  Amp shrugged.

"The half-formed man. Now let's go."


—————————————————————————————————

Amp watched Dante curiously, sitting cross-legged on Max' desk, as the designer looked over his weapon for faults.

"GEEZ, Barbara!  Could you lay off already?" Dante groaned, speaking into his nanocom.  "I've told you I'm fine.  Yeah, I know, dead bodies everywhere.  No, I can't come back to the house.  Because I just can't, woman! I don't wanna.  Sure, ground me, whatever!  I'm just gonna sneak out the window.  Hanging up now."

Dante shut the com off, looking at Amp to see him glaring.

"...what?" Dante asked.

"Barbara's your mom?"

"Hehe, yeah.  She's a total pain-"

"Don't be such an ungrateful little ponce." Was the quick response.  An uncomfortable silence followed.

"Well?" Wyatt asked, glaring his own set of daggers at Max.  "Anything, Oh Infallible Webmaster?"

Max sat back in his chair, nonplussed.  "What's with the attitude?"

"People are dying, Max.  We had one option, and you made it shoddy!"

"Shoddy?  Shoddy?  I'm sorry, mister genius, let's see you try to make a machine that effectively saps the living essence out of a program.  You said it yourself, I can't program people."

"You should've made sure it was airtight!"

"Why don't you relax, already-"

"This thing is our fault!  You said it yourself, the game programmed it to counter us." Wyatt's eyes were desperate.  "It's our responsibility.  It tried to suck out my soul, Max.  I still feel half-dead.  I wouldn't wish that on anyone.  And now Lyle and Angie are with it, alone."

He stepped back as if the last part had just weighed in on him, then turned to Amp.

"We shouldn't have listened to you. Either of you.  Come on Dante, we gotta get to the others.  The four of us can handle this ourselves."

"Um, how?" Dante asks, following him out.

"Hit it til it dies."

"Haha, now you're talkin' my language!"

Their voices faded, leaving Amp and Max alone in the silence.

"...He's wrong, you know." Amp said after a moment.

"Save it." Max grumbled.

"Max." The boy said seriously, standing to his feet.  "You know he's wrong.  That wasn't our only option."

Max sighed, turning to face Amp.  "You want us to give it more life force as opposed to less.  Bring it so close to human it can be killed with normal weaponry."

The boy snapped his fingers, before pointing at Max. "Bingo!  It already has a flesh body, how hard would we really have to work to make it vulnerable?"

Max shook his head as Amp jumped off the desk and onto the floor.  "How do you know it'll work?"

"Gut feeling.  There's six of us, it wouldn't have to take all the force from just one."

"Six?  You assume I'm willing to put myself at risk like that?"

"Nice try, Maxie, but you can't fool me.  You may hate me, but I know you care about them.  And I know you know this could very well work."

Max was silent for a while, and Amp made an exasperated motion.

"Come oooon, Max!  Your thingy over there failed, are you really not gonna have a hand in stopping it?  Are you gonna give the others- give me the satisfaction of succeeding where you failed?"

Max thought for a moment, and Amp found himself unable to read his face.  Eventually, he extended a hand, not looking the boy in the eye as he grinned and grabbed it.

"Ooh, hang on a tic." Amp suddenly said.  "I saw a steak knife in the kitchen."

—————————————————————————————————

NeverFail were currently hidden in one of the many classrooms of their school.  The building had long been evacuated, and as the only sources of life in the vicinity, Quasimodo attempted desperately to break down the classroom door and reach them.

"Looks like the 'hit it til it dies' plan fell through." Dante said as he and Lyle held the door shut.

"Yeah, looks like." Wyatt admitted.

"I've rolled my eyes so many times today, I think they're gonna fall out of my sockets." Angie said, before the sudden presence of Amp and Max behind her made her jump again.

"Don't be gross, Angie.  Jesus."  The teleporter said.  "I can see the 'hit it til it dies' plan fell through."

"That's what I said!"

"Quit rubbing it in!"

"Lucky us, we have a marginally better one!" Amp said, moving Dante and Lyle away from the door and throwing it open.

"Hiiiii~" Amp greeted Quasimodo with a wave, before the leak began sucking the life from him.  The others all recoiled, the guild looking to Max for answers.  In a matter of seconds Amp was on his knees, seemingly about to keel over.

"Time to tag in." Max said, before pushing Dante over to the creature.  

Presented with a new source to siphon from, this one poised to ask a question of some kind of question, Quasimodo raised its hand away from Amp and grasped Dante.

"Max!" Lyle yelled.  "What're you doing!?"  

"Over stuffing it." Was the simple response.  "Let's all take turns!"

Lyle was the next to go.  Then Angie, then Wyatt.  All were grabbed and siphoned in turn by the beast, which was presented with each so quickly that it had no time to finish the job on any one of them.  Looking at it, Max thought he could see eyes and a mouth begin to appear on its lump of a face.  It's fingers separated, the leak flexing its hand in testing as it held Wyatt firmer.

Narrowing his eyes, Max launched himself at Quasimodo, who released Wyatt and placed both its hands on the game designer.  

Max shouted in...pain?  Pain wasn't the right word.  This was too all-encompassing to be pain.  Legs giving out.  Eyes as well.  Where was he?  Heart rate slowing.  Mouth drying up.  Blood cooling.  Senses numbing.  The man whimpered.  

We're he able to think,made chastise himself for going out like a pansy.

"Don't wast any time..." Amp groaned, looking up from the floor to see Quasimodo and Max.  With a grunt and a bout of tired laughter, Amp rose to his feet, reaching into his pocket and whistling loudly.

Quasimodo turned to the blue haired child and dropped the game creator to the floor.  The rest of NeverFail stared up with barely held consciousness as Amp shook his head.

"You're so distractible." Amp said, looking over the creatures body.  Blood pumping, visible under vaguely translucent skin.  It's new eyes and mouth blinking and breathing.  "Oxygen?  So you've got organs now?  A heart maybe?"

The creature raised its hand over the boys face, only to suddenly stop. Having pulled his hand out of his pocket, Amp had pulled out Max' steak knife and stabbed it into Quasimodo's chest.

"Here's hoping."  Amp said, grinning.  The two figures were still for a moment, before both shifted, then fell with the others to the floor.

—————————————————————————————————

'Ampere?' Trisha asked with more than a hint of skepticism.  'Really? After the physicist?  I swear, you are such a nerd.'

'You're the one who married the nerd.' Markus said with a grin.

'Yeah.' She said, before miming inspiration.  'Let's invent a time machine and make 14 year old me rethink that whole idea!"

'Ouch.  You wound me.  Right in the heart, too.  That's important, I need that!'

The young couple erupted into a fit of giggles as Markus yanked Trisha down into his lap and held her tight.  Throughout the room, 'I'm Not In Love' sounded from a record player; an old family heirloom that the two had suped up for the hell of it.

'Wow.' Trisha said after a comfortable silence had passed. 'Married and pregnant at 19.  What would my rents think?"

'What would they think?' Markus asked with a snort.  'They will teleport in here and kick my ass as soon as they find out.  Why can't you do that, by the way?  Very inconvenient.'

'I used to ask myself that same thing every day.  Apparently the "magic" gene skips a generation.' Trisha couldn't help but laugh as her husband involuntarily snorted at the "m" word.  'Suppose it just wasn't meant to work with some brains.'

'Hmm.' Markus grumbled, unsure how to respond.  He'd known since he'd first met Trisha's parents how much she longed to be able to go anywhere on a whim like they did.

'You know,' she said, looking up at him with a glint in her eye and slinking an arm up his chest, 'if you really wanna work out the details for yourself, you could always give me a poke and do some science of your own.  Or you know...give me a different type of poke.  Again.'

Markus nearly burst out laughing, albeit nervously.  'Don't be gross, Trish.  Jesus.'

'Also gonna need you to cut down on the JC's after the kid comes out.  Don't want to have to break it to him that that's not a real thing.'

Nodding obediently, Markus drew her close to his chest and breathed deeply, content.

'Ampere's a nice name.' She muttered, snuggling into him.

—————————————————————————————————

Amp bolted upright in the middle of the classroom, breathing heavily and raising a hand to his forehead.

"Looks like the sleepy-head is awake."  Max said.  He and the others had woken up long ago, and had been sitting around the classroom in relative quiet since then.  Quasimodo's body lay unmoving in the middle of the room, laying in the afternoon sunlight that passed through the window.

"We should move it out of here."  Angie said.

"Why hasn't he blinked out, or whatever?"  Dante asked softly.

"Amp was right."  Max said. "Quasimodo was more living being than leak.  By the end he had blood, guts...Conquerer of All Worlds may be alive and thinking, but it's no me.  It's still got design flaws.  Didn't take into account that making a 'NeverFail proof' leak meant it'd have other weaknesses.  It's not going to disappear.  It's not a leak, anymore.  It's a corpse."

"How fitting." Wyatt muttered.

Amp hadn't turned to look at any of them.  His parents.  That...memory.  These memories had been following him all day...

He stood to his feet in a panic, and warped away.

The others all looked at where the boy used to be.  If they had anything to say about his sudden departure, they were too worn and spent to vocalize it.

"Wy," Lyle started, "I know you wanna keep this between just us and all...but we wouldn't have been able to stop this thing without help."

"You're right." Wyatt said.  "You've all been right.  The leaks are our responsibility, but we're not enough on our own anymore.  Especially if the game decides to make more from scratch..."

The five of them locked their eyes on the deformed cadaver in the middle of the room. It cast a big shadow.

"We may need to bring some people in."

woop, im loving this story. I Feel bad for Amp since he's going through some bad memories on his road trip.

Also I kinda liked that you did one based on Level Up, I thought the show was pretty fun when I watched it in my youth.

Livin' it, lovin' it

Chapter 5: Where Nobody Goes
_________________________________________________________

Nathan May was in the middle of a nap, falling half way off the bed. Startled by the sound of his com ringing, he jumps and falls out of bed, answering, "He-Hello?"

"Nate!  How's the leg?"

Nate didn't bother looking at the com to see who it was so he was surprised to hear from Amp so suddenly. Not had been months since he'd seen hide or hair of his childhood friend. "Oh, hey Amp. Jeez its been too long! How've ya been? And my leg has been a-okay"

"I got a question!  Why or how exactly do I know how to say 'Fire at their balls' in Finnish?"

"...um."

"No!  Sorry, wrong question.  Lemme think of how to phrase this."  Amp paced excitedly, snapping his fingers repeatedly.  "Do you remember a get together our parents had, 2036- NO, 7.  I think it was a Friday...in March.  Yeah.  We were...uh *snap**snap* 7, 8 years old?  Remember?  We tried bowling for the first time."

"I remember it like it was yesterday." Nate said.  That wasn't entirely true but he remembered it well enough.  What was surprising was that his friend had remembered with such clarity, right down to the day of the week.

"I didn't!  Not until yesterday!  You know my memory is balls, but now-now-now it's like, freakin'...things are just flooding into my head like mad.  And they're FRESH, and- ok, whatever, losing track.  But maybe you can helps with this.  Ok, listen, one of us got like, three strikes by the end.  The other only ever managed to get a spare.  Which one of us was that?"

"I was the one with a spare." Nate said, before giggling a bit to himself as he recalled what happened. "That round was really close but I ended up slipping with my footing and my aim was a tad off."

"Ok...ooooookay and when everything was done, you went to your place and, uh...did I sleep over with you or something?"

"Um, nope?"

"Oh.  Ooh oh geez.  Ok, ok, ok...this is bad.  This is weird.  I think I'm going insanerer!" The boy almost sounded like he was about to hyperventilate.  "Ok, this is gonna sound...bizarre, but here me out.  I remember...uh.  I remember, getting the strike.  AND the spare.  I remember staying at my place that night....AND your place!  I remember that, from like...both of our perspectives.  And-and-and-and-and-and- I remember-I remember...conversations, between my parents, before they died, that I wasn't there for!  How...how is that possible?"

Nate sighed.  He and Amp had spent nearly a decade apart after the unfortunate accident that left him an orphan, and this conversation only served to remind him just how stressed and broken his friend seemed to have become in that time.  He certainly didn't remember the stuttering or snapping from when they were younger.

"First off," he said, "you're not insane. Second off, maybe it's my memory that's foggy too, maybe you did spend the night. Either way, you said it yourself; things are flooding back into your mind and maybe you're just mixing things up.  What were your parents talking about, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Ugh.  My hat, my grandparents, stuff like that.  Hehehehe...not gonna lie, they're even cooler than I remembered."

"Yeah..." Nate said.  "Even today my parents like to bring them up fondly."

"And it's not even just us, it's-it's-it's other stuff.  I was just living with bears for a bit and I dunno I...I remember...Hahahahahahahha- BEING one of them, as a cub stuck in a tree.  I remember the date and the year it happened, too.  And I know things, things about people I've only just met, where they grew up who their parents are, what they're afraid of what they want and what they regret it's....I dunno what it is but I...I don't think I'm well."

"You're forgetting why you left, aren't you?"

"Um...yes?  Yes.  No, I...I don't think I ever really knew to be honest."

"This is a time for you to recover of all things that have happened over these past few years. From all that you told me, it was really, really rough at times. Physically and mentally.  If it takes you a year or two to... I dunno, find yourself, I wouldn't have a problem with that. And if it does come to be that long, Fear, Roxie and all the others would support you all the way. I think ..?"

"It's- see that's the thing.  I don't think it's working.  Everywhere I go it feels like I'm reminded of what I did.  People all over the place, in far off countries even, that were only ever infected because of me.  People that have died, people who despise folks like Dexter just cause he's The Face.  And this...this name that won't get out of my head I don't...The point is, there's so much wrong with me.  I can't come back because I'm still nuts, and I can't be out and about because it only makes whatever this is worse..."

Nate listened as his friend sighed deeply.

"So I'm on an island now.  Just some island.  Pretty sure it's deserted.  It's nice though.  Warm, breezy, smells like gumballs for whatever reason.  The candy, not the cat.  Speaking of Fear and Roxie though, maybe keep an eye on them.  Just...make sure they're, good and stuff.  And you know...that YOU'RE good."

"You see!" Nate snapped his fingers which could probably be heard through the com, "You just said it yourself basically. It just needs to be you and only you. Get away from the mischief. Clear your mind of the crazy. I'm not saying forget what happened during those months but that's the past and we, including you must move on and accept what happened. It may not be easy but nothing is impossible."

"I'll be sure to keep an eye on Fear. Roxie on the other hand?" Nate laughed, faintly fading, fearing the spider lady.

"Yeah...maybe don't deal with her personally." Amp said, before trailing off as something caught his attention.  "Oh what the hell?"

"Huh? Everything okay on your end?"

"What the hell!?  Didn't I just say-?  I just said this place was supposed to be bloody deserted!!  What even is that?  I'll call you back Matthew!"

With that, Amp hung up and ran over to the dense jungle that made up most of the island.

"What're you doing!?"  He asked, moving a stray tree branch as he spotted a smal, erratic figure moving in the foliage.  As an answer, Amp was greeted with a large wooden club thrown at his face.

"...OOOOOW!" Amp yelled, clutching his face after the club bounced off it with a CRACK!  Before he could recover the small figure leaped at him and tackled him to the ground.  Looking up at the weight on his chest, Amp saw it was a tanned young boy with a leafy skirt and a shaggy mop of dark red hair, growling territorially at him.  His bat already in hand, Amp jabbed the child between the eyes with it, and it fell off him with a grunt.

"Yeah, how do you like it?" Amp asked, sitting up before yet another boy bolted out of the jungle and collided with him. Falling on his back again, Amp warped out of the child's grip and onto his feet a good distance away.

"He disappeared!" One boy said, his voice scratchy and high pitched.

"No like disappearing man!" Said the other, reaching for his club. "Disappearing man no good!"

"Oh, I'm no good?" Amp said indignantly.  "I'm not the one who randomly goes around assaulting people!"

"Haggis!"  Rang a nearby voice, catching all three of the boys' attention.  "Baggis!  Where have you two gone off to!?"

"Haggis and Baggis?  Guessing that's you two- AUGH!" Amo exclaimed, his observation interrupted by the two children lunging at him again, biting at him and clubbing him haphazardly.

The calls grew closer and closer, until a tall bikini-clad girl found herself on the sand, observing the scuffle.

"OW! Disappearing man mean!"

"Well at least I'm not named after fried sheep stomach, Haggis!"

"Me Baggis!"

"I don't care!"

The bickering was interrupted when the girl let out a shrill whistle, the feral youngsters immediately getting off Amp and rushing toward her.  Sitting up, Amp brushed the sand out of his hair before looking at this newcomer.

"You're not gonna club me in the face too, are you?  Cause lemme tell you I came here to relax-!"

"No no, certainly not." The girl said, her posh accent making Amp tilt his head.  "These two here are my brothers.  I do very much apologize for their uncouth behavior.  See, we were just out gathering food, when I suppose the boys spotted something that made them rather irritable."

"Yeah, well, tell them to keep it to themselves next time!"  Amp said, moving away hopefully to peace and quiet.  As he did, Haggis and Baggis jumped up and down around their sister, gibbering nonsense.

"Don't be so ridiculous." The girl said, just as Amp was nearly out of hearing range.  "There are no big green men on thus island."

In an instant, Amp was at the girls' side.  She yelped as Amp shoved her aside, before crouching down in front of her brothers.  

"Big green man?" Amp said seriously.  "Did you see a big green man?"

The two brothers glanced at each other, then back at Amp before nodding vigorously.

"Green as in green skinned or dressed in green?"

"Green skinned!  Green skinned!"

Amp stood up straight, looking between the three island natives.  "We're?  We're did you see it?"

"Don't take too much stock in my the fables of my kin, sir." The girl said, "they're not to be trusted with much in the way of intelligent faith."

"Yeah, I believe that...." Amp muttered.  "But shut up, what if they're right?  Show me where you saw this thing.  NOW!"

The brothers flinched slightly, before rushing into the jungle, Amp and their sister close behind.

"I must admit it's intriguing to meet a non-native so eagerly invested in my brothers' shenanigans." The girl said as they trekked through the wilderness.  "My name's Hermione Cuzzlewitz by the way.  Who's acquaintance might I be making?"

"That's nice." Was all he said, his eyes, darting around for any sign of a Fusion.  He should've known something was wrong.  He should've felt it, like he had every other time he'd been near Fusions.  But he was too caught up in his new memories and Matthew and-

His train of thought was suddenly derailed as he, Hermione, Haggis and Baggis were swept up from the ground be a net trap.

"What the hell?"  Amp asked, wringing his fingers through the netting and looking for who might have set it as they swung back and forth lethargically.

"This must be one of Mike Lu and Og's ludicrous little games." Hermione theorized, Amp glaring at her in bemusement.

"What's a miclewandog?  Did you just make that up?"  

The sound of heavy footsteps deterred any further conversation they might've had.  All four looked around for what was making the noise, but as it got closer they all turned in the direction of a looming shadow.  What they saw was a towering beast, like an oversized gorilla. Oozing out from different parts of its body however (including its glowing red eyes) was a green slime that was unmistakably Fusion Matter.

"Green man!" Haggis and Baggis growled.  "Green man!"

Amp warped himself and the others out of the net and flat onto the ground without a word, all four quickly getting up.

"You were right..." Hermione muttered in fear of this unfamiliar creature.  "Good heavens."

With that, the three natives took off, leaving Amp to face the Fusion ape.  The creature threw a fist at Amp, who ducked and swung his bat at the things torso.  As was to be expected, its effect was negligible.  Amp shrugged as the ape turned angrily toward him.

"Worth a shot." He muttered, before being punched square in the chest and sent flying into a nearby tree.  Clinging to the tree, he decided to ignore the fact that his heart had stopped beating for a good couple of seconds and instead think of a plan to deal with his adversary.  Taking out his trusty ice gun, he fired on the ape and left one of its fists encased in a block of ice.  Amp climbed further up the tree, and with a birds eye view of his immediate area, looked around while muttering to himself.

"Come on come on come on come on- there!" He said, spotting what looked like a drop off.  Jumping down from the tree and onto the ape, Amp warped them both to the cliff side, quickly warping a few feet away from the creature before it could crush him with its bare hands.  The fusion stood with a roar and charged Amp, the boy teleporting out of the way of his blow just in time.  Observing the ape after its seeing, Amp noted with satisfaction how off-balance it seemed thanks to the ice.  Moving himself closer to the cliff's edge, Amp fired another shot at the thing, hitting its opposite leg.  

The ape slipped onto its knee momentarily, before getting up and grabbing at Amp.

"Nope." Amp said, warping a few feet to the left.  The ape tried to bring its frozen fist down on him, but met only air yet again.

"Close, but still no." Amp mocked, dancing on the balls of his feet as the ape roared and tossed a glob of Fusion Matter at him.  With every move, Amp avoided it with ease and the fusion grew visibly frustrated.

Finally, Amp tapped the apes shoulder and it narrowed its eyes before swinging at him.  Amp warped futon just in front of e alien to just behind it, and it was only then that the ape realized it had been lured to the very tip of the cliff.  The sound of three shots signaled the rest of its body being frozen in ice, and with a mocking salute Amp used his bat to tip the creature off the cliff.  As it fell, Amp let out a whistle not unlike what one would hear in a Warner Brothers cartoon, before the ape landed with a satisfying crash.

Twirling his bat in his hand, Amp turned back to the trees.  Of course he just had to run into people and fusions both within minutes of each other.   The island folk didn't seem to have any wariness of the fusions prior to this point, so perhaps there weren't any others to be found on the island.  A more naive person would probably assume that was the case.  Amp, however, decided to comb the island;  Just one fusion on the whole island would be laughable.

Moving some obstructive foliage, Amp jumped in surprise when he was suddenly met with three more new (and equally shocked) faces.   There was yet another short tan pair; one long haired girl with rather large earrings, and one boy with a small ring through his nose and nothing but a grass skirt on.  Looking closer, he was a bit green compared to the other.  Next to them was a pale red headed girl with a red ensemble, and all three jumped back slightly at seeming him.

"Who's this guy?" The redhead asked in a scratchy New York accent, eyeing Amp curiously.  "You know him Lu?"

"No!" Said the other girl indignantly, "What the heck are you doing on our island, mister!?"

"Hello." the native boy said, raising a hand to shake. "My names Og.  What's yours?"

"Careful Og!" Lu said.  "He could be a tourist."

"Oi!" Amp said, "I am NOT a tourist, I- ...well, I guess I kinda am actually.  Listen, I don't wanna get in anyone's way! I just want to find out how many fusions are on this island so I can go back to my alone time!"

"Fusions?" Lu asked as Amp pushed passed them.  "What're fusions?"

That stopped the boy in his tracks.  He turned around on the heels of his feet to face the children and snorted.

"You serious?"

"Dead serious."

"HA!  The giant green alien monsters with red eyes that came pouring down from the sky-" he gestured to the ever present Planet Fuse up in the atmosphere. "From that thing!"

"...so that explains what that is." Og said.  He looked about to say more, but he broke out into a cough then and there.

"How- what- who am I talking to right now?"  Amp asked, incredulous.

"Well, that's Lu, and that's Og, and I'm Mike-"

"This guys' obviously been drinking the same tainted water as he Cuzzlewitz's." Lu interjected.  "Everyone knows they made up those things to spook us."

"Well, we don't know that for a fact." Og said, coughing again.  "But all empirical evidence does seem to be pointing toward a conspiracy of some kind."

Amp continued to look gobsmacked, before signing and rubbing his eyes.  

"Ok, ok.  You're isolated.  I get that, that's why I came to this island.  I wasn't even expecting any people here.  Either way, you're obviously cut off.  Plus, let's assume maybe this island is small enough and really, really lucky, so the Fusions totally missed you guys on the way down from orbit.  Fine, I buy it.  And maybe they just haven't found a way here til now.  But they ARE here now, and you have to leave, while I deal with it!"

"Leave?" Mike asked.

"Yes, leave, with boats."

"We don't have boats."

Amp facepalmed.  "Of course they don't have boats, Amp, duh.  Who else is on this island, I'll take you all off myself."

"Like heck you will!" Lu said with narrowed eyes. "I'm the princess of this island, and I don't leave unless I wanna!"

"Our tribe is just this way." Og said, with another cough.  "We were on our way back."

"Og!  Quit helping him!"

"Fine," Amp said.  "Let's go, chop chop!"

And so they went, with Mike leading the way, Lu complaining to an unresponsive Amp the whole time and Og trailing slightly behind.

_________________________________________________________

They had been walking for who knows how long, when Mike tripped and fell flat on her face.  

"Whoa!" Amp said, helping her up.  "You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."  She said with a grin as the boy helped her up.  For someone who'd left a bit of a nasty first impression, talking about fakey aliens and being generally offputting, it was nice to know he at least felt concern.  "I swear no matter how long I'm here, walking around the jungle never stops being hazardous."

"Why are you here, anyway?" Amp asked as Mike pulled out a compact mirror and began checking her face for cuts and bruises.  "No offense, but you're the only one I've met here who doesn't seem...native."

"Foreign exchange student." The girl replied casually.

"Ah."  Amp probably would've said more, but something in Mike's mirror caught his eye.  Or rather, someone.

"Fear."  He muttered.

"What?"  Mike asked, before Amp snatched the mirror from out of her hand.  "Hey!"

Amp walked a few paces forward, looking into the mirror.  Just like the mirror at Max Ross' abode, this one was no longer displaying a reflection, but something else entirely.  And indeed, in the glass was none other than Amp's girlfriend.  Scaled down to match the size of the mirror but undoubtedly her.  She was just there.  Standing there, and it just now occurred to Amp how long it'd been since he'd seen her; gorgeous, smiling, just looking at her made Amp's heart thud in his chest.  Then the image shifted.

Suddenly he was there with her.  The two were laying together, cuddled up as they so often were.  They were content and inseparable.  Then the image shifted again, and if Amp's heart was beating hard before, now he was absolutely palpitating.

Now they were both naked.  Amp stared, so caught up in the girl's beauty that he almost didn't notice that his own exposed body was free of the blemishes, scars and mangling that had marked him over the years. They were the two of them kissing passionately, before moving even farther than that.  Making love, unmistakably.  Amp felt like he might literally explode at any moment.  What was wrong with him?  Why was he like this, and why was he seeing these things?

"Hey!" Mike said, poking him.  "You gonna gimme back my mirror, pal?"

"What do you see!?!" Amp yelled, holding the mirror up for Mike to look into.  "Right now, what do you see in this thing?"

"I see that Mike has a zit." Lu joked, Mike miming a spiteful laugh as she took the mirror away from Amp.

Amp flinched at the sudden physical contact, and stepped back, turning away from both of the girls.  His breathing was labored, and he was pulling at his hair.  Suddenly, he was distracted by the sound of even more labored breathing that wasn't his.  He, Mike, and Lu turned their heads to see Og coughing up a storm several paces behind.

"Og?" Mike asked.  "You ok?"

Og couldn't answer, as he was to busy trying and failing to breathe, before he fell out right in front of them.

The girls and Amp blinked, before rushing over to Og.  

"Og!" Lu yelled in a panic.

"What happened?"

Amp grabbed the unconscious boy and hefted him upon his arms.  He still looked fairly shaken, even as he turned to the girls with a look of intent on his eyes.

"We're going.  Now!"

_________________________________________________________

"Leave the island!?" Margery and Alfred asked as they leaned over Og.  Their son was laying down on a bed, sweating and panting heavily as the boy who had brought him home paced around the room.

"Yes!" Amp said, "Leave the island!  Get somewhere safe, and get your boy to a proper hospital.  Make sense?"

"But...but we've never left home before." Margery said.

"Yeah, kinda gathered that you were all a mite sheltered."  Amp grumbled, before Lu entered the room, having left earlier to get her father.

"Oh, hello." The portly man said, sharing Margery and Alfred's lofty British accent.  "I'm Wendell, the Chief of this village.  I've been hearing something about a newcomer from my daughter-"

"He's telling us we should leave the island, Daddy!"  

"Oh no, I'm afraid we can't do that." Wendell said, shaking his head.

"Why on Earth not?" Amp yelled.  "You're being invaded by aliens!"

"You're making that up." Lu said, plugging her ears as Mike nodded reluctantly

"It does sound kind of farfeteched."

"Did I ask you!?" Amp said with a glare.  He gestured as if he'd like to strangle someone before pointing at Og.  "Look at him!  Look at hi me, he's green, he's sick, he's suffering from FM poisoning!"

"F What now?"

"Fusion Matter Poisoning!  If he's this far along then the fusions have been on the island longer than I thought.  The rest of you probably have it too, just not as bad!"

"I'm sure it's just the flu..." Wendell said, without a hint of confidence.

"I'm sure there's got to be some way on the island we could treat him." Alfred said.  "Og keeps medical supplies in his room."

"Yeah, 'medical supplies'." Mike said with finger-quotes.  She and everyone else in the room jumped as Amp warped from that room to Og's.

The boy turns about the room before spotting what looked like a mescal kit made of...stone?  He opened it and out popped a bunch of pebbles, berries, nuts and leaves.

"This is ridiculous." Amp said, before something in the room caught his eye.  Something big.  How had he missed that?

"ARE YOU MAD!?!?"  Amp screamed, warped back into the main and seething at everyone around him.

"Now what's the problem?" Mike asked, startled and annoyed.

Amp shrugged before running over to the door to Og's room and threw it open, before gesturing inside. Inside was a giant green bulbous structure.

"That's a terrafuser!"  Amp yelled.  "A big one!  How many of you knew that was in there?"

"Oh, Og found that thing months ago." Alfred said, laying a concerned hand on his son's shoulder.  "It was absolutely tiny when he brought it in.  No bigger than an acorn.  When it started growing and rooting itself in his room we grew slightly concerned, but Og was intent on studying it.  He only recently started acting sick recently.  I-I never put the two together..."

Og himself had begun to stir, sitting up however weakly and cling into the conversation around him.  

"Don't touch my specimen." He grumbled

"Oh, well that's brilliant Alf, truly brilliant.  You've all been out of the world too long.  I'm gonna warp you all back into it, and somewhere safe."

After a long pause, Alfred and Margery turned to each other, nodding before the later spoke up to the rest.  

"I think we should listen to him."

Wendell stammered a bit in response.  This was all too much too soon for him to make a decision.

"Excuse me!" Lu asserted.  "We're just gonna listen to this guy that nobody knows?  We don't even have any proof beyond his word that this green thing is what's hurting Og!"

"Well, yes, that is very true honey-"

"What reason would he have to lie?" Mike asked with a shrug, Amp gesticulating toward her.

"Thank you!"

"Hmm, yes, that's a good point as well."

"No it isn't!  We've never ran into a sickness we couldn't fix right here.  What if we take him and they don't know what to do with him?"

Amp gave an exasperated sigh.  "Why is it so hard for you to believe that I know what I'm talking about?"

"Cause I don't know you and you've been ranting about made up green aliens all day!"

"They aren't made up, you stupid kid!"

"Even if they are real, we can fight them.  Why, I'll knock their block off!"  Amp snorted at that.

"Of course you can fight them.  But they'll never go away.  They'll just keep coming, and coming, until they own you and this island in death!  You need to leave this place, now!  You don't know how dangerous these things are!  I do, I've been one of them."

"What?"

"Long story, just listen to me!"  The boys voice was raised so much that one could here it echo over the quiet island.  The others sat uncomfortably as he moved toward them, gesturing at his head.

"They're intelligent creatures.  They have unique thought, but-but do you know, what's in the back of their heads?  All of them, always?"

He was now leaning face to face with Lu, eyes boring into her as he grinned desperately.

"Kill.  Kill. Kill.  Destroy.  Corrupt.  Consume.  Dominate.  Always, alwa-" Amp cut himself off and inhaled sharply, turning away from the islanders.

"Why am I even talking?  I can actually make you, you know.  I can, actually, FORCE you to leave.  Put you somewhere with people who know what they're doing."

At this, Lu narrowed her eyes.

"But you won't." She said.

"Says who?" Amp asked with a shrug.

"We won't let you."

"And how're you gonna stop me?"

Mike, Og and the others watched the exchange apprehensively, glancing at each other nervously as Lu didn't say anything.  Suddenly, she stood up, and sprinted out of the open door away from them all.  She ran and ran, but was stopped in her tracks as Amp appeared just a few feet in front of her.

"Are you really trying to run away?"  he asked, stepping closer and closer to Lu as she stepped further and further away until she was back in the house.  "Are you really trying to run, from ME?"

With another warp, he was suddenly right next to the girl, grabbing her arm.  Lu screamed, trying to wrestle out if his grip.  Mike was on him in seconds.  The redhead tackled Amp to the ground and he released Lu, who ran into her father's arms.

"You know it's hard to be in your corner when you act like such a creep, man!"  Mike grunted.

"Let go of me, Michellane!"  Amp growled, pushing the surprised girl off.

"....What'd you just call me?"

"Michellane...." Og said curiously, coughing into his arm.  "Your full name."

"How did you know that?" Mike asked warily, backing away from Amp.

"I...dunno." Amp said.  "I just...know things."

"Well what the hell does that mean?"  Mike snapped.  "Who are you?"

"Do you still think trusting this freak is what's best for Og?" Lu muttered to Margery and Alfred from her father's grasp.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Wendell said.

"No."

"No?  I am the chief, young man!  I demand that you leave my home.  If there's an ounce of truth to your words we can handle this situation ourselves.  Without you."

"Do you think I can't?  That I can't just up and leave you all here to rot?  The fusions are here.  Believe it or not, they are here, and I have to stay!"

"You really don't."  Wendell interjected, Amp's rising tone quickly dissolving his burst of confidence and making him step away along with the others until they were all up against the wall.

"I tried to get away~!" Amp breathed, clutching at his hair. "I tried!  Peace and quiet, I tried!  But I can't.  The voice, in my head, I- there's Fusions EVERYWHERE.  Everywhere I go, I can't escape them and it's my own fault."

In his frustration Amp kicked over a potted plant, the others jumping at the sound of it crashing.  "I helped them spread!  Do you think I could live with myself if I did nothing!?  If I didn't take them out everywhere I saw them?  After what I did for them?  I.  HAVE.  TO!"

Amp's eyes darted around all the island dwellers, looks of fear and distrust on them all.  Moments passed without a word spoken, and Amp was about to make another desperate plea before the wall the others were backed up against came crashing down.  All of them screamed and ran from the disturbance as Amp blinked at the sudden brightness.  Growling in the newly made doorway were two more fusion apes.

"...I did tell you didn't I?" Amp said, pointing his bat at the creatures.  The islanders all screamed again as the creatures seemed ready to charge, but before they could get through their own hole, Amp closed it up with several shots of ice, leaving a thick layer between them and the monsters.

"That'll only last a moment!"  Amp said, turning to them.  "Run.  Just run.   Hide until I find you and then I am getting you out of here!"

With each adult carrying a child, they rushed out the front door as Amp turned back to his own ice blockade.  He was met with another reflection in the ice, and at this point he was no longer expecting to see himself.

Instead, what he saw this time was himself several years younger.  Roxie was with him. They were in the junkyard.  He was tied up in webbing, and this was the first time they'd ever met.  Before they'd become family, or even friends.  She looked rightfully put off and disgusted by him and his antics.  At that point in his life, that seemed to be the response of everyone.  Making such a bad first impression with her in particular had grown into quite the regret over time.  What was wrong with him?  Why did he have that effect on people?  He'd gotten better over time, better at making friends, but...

He cast a glance to where the others had run away.  He supposed things always got better before they got worse.

The barrier burst open and Amp snapped into focus immediately.  One ape roared, but before it could do anything Amp grabbed it and warped.

In an instant, the boy and the monster were high in the air above a river.  They fell in and were quickly swept up by the current.  It wasn't long before they'd both fallen off a rather tall waterfall.  Amp ape as they both fell through the air, and warped them back to the house.

The horizontal moment that lingered from the tackle sent the one ape flying into the other, smashing through the opposite wall as the one they'd come in from.  Amp himself landed rather precariously on his feet, before taking advantage of the fact that one ape was still soaking wet and blasting the two-ape-heap with his ice gun yet again.  Whereas they may have likely been able to easily break out otherwise, the abundance of water in this particular instance left them both frozen quite solid in the same ice casing.  Running over to them, Amp patted around the ice block.  Having frozen so many things over the years he was used to doing this as a gauge for how much time they would remain so.

Looking around, he noticed something nearby that would be rather helpful in finishing them off much faster than he could've.

Warping the frozen monsters to the top of a volcano, Amp gave the ice another pat before shoving it into the lava below.

"You guys got a new place." He muttered.  "Heating comes free."

__________________________________________________________

Amp warped back to the natives, only to find them all hiding in the bushes and huddling in concern around Og.  "Well NOW do you believe m-"

"Shut up!" Lu said, everyone leaning in closer to Og.  "Og?  Og, everything's gonna be ok.  Just keep breathing.  We're....we're gonna let Amp take you to get better."

Og muttered something Amp couldn't hear under his breath.  

"He's delirious." Lu said, her voice growing more and more panicked as her friend grew weaker and weaker.  "I don't think he remembers anything!"

"Everyone grab onto him."  Amp said sternly, and they all listened.  As he moved to grab Og himself, Og's eyes locked onto him.  Somehow, someway, in the very instant that he had warped them all off the island, Amp knew that he'd been too late.  That he's wasted too much time arguing.  That he should've taken them all the instant he found them.  Og's eyes had frozen, looking at him.  Frozen in a look of instinctual fear at the crazy one who'd brought the monsters with him.

They were just outside a hospital building, and Amp stood up in shock as the others all took in what had just happened.  Their cries of anguish, Amp could barely make out offer the buzzing in his own mind.  Paramedics came rushing out of the doors seconds later (or maybe it was minutes, or hours) but Amp knew it was too late. The islanders had followed them in, demanding to stay with their loved one, that he not be touched.  They'd forgotten about Amp completely.

Amp himself knew the only thing there was to do was to go back to the island.  Their were still others their after all, ad he wouldn't stop til every fusion in the place had been exterminated.  Til everyone was saved.

That's gonna be quite hard to do...

Chapter 6:  I've Had Worse Mornings

Little Enrique woke up on the morning of November 26th expecting a lot of things.  Dinner with extended family, complete with marshmallows and turkey and peas and the like was one of them.  So to was admonishing comments from said family about how he was already too overweight to be eating quite so much marshmallows and turkey and peas and the like.  

A sudden attack by large Darkpaper Ninjas, however, was not expected.

Everyone was screaming for their lives, and in a panicked frenzy several had been chased out of the house while Enrique and his parents had been backed into a corner as the fusions trashed their home.  Everything was a blur for the boy.  As a few fusion spawns advanced on his cowering form with malicious intent, he pulled out his nanocom and tried with shaky fingers to call someone, anyone, for help.  Before he knew it, however, the com was swiped from his hand.  He looked up to see a blue haired boy fiddling around with his com nonchalantly.

"Just gimme a second." Amp said.  "Just checking if you have any music on this thing.  Normally I have a boom box so I don't really keep any tunes on mines- AHA! 'Love Train' by The O'Jays!  Excellent taste, er...Enrique!  Excellent."

Amp tossed the boy his com back before holding up a hand, the one free of a metal bat.  

"Five minutes." He mouthed, before turning around to come face to face with a Ninja.  "Ah.  Duck."

Surprisingly to Enrique and his parents, the Ninja took Amp's suggestion and ducked it's head.  Amp raised his bat and swung, knocking the head off yet another ninja that was directly behind.  As the foremost Ninja raised its head again, it was met with a point-blank blast that left its face encased in ice.

"Ooh!" Amp said as he picked the mirror up off from the far wall.  Looking into it for a moment, he smiled before adjusting his grip on it and smashing it into another nearby ninja.  By the time the ninja stumbled back Amp was already behind it, pushing it forward.

"Wrong way, Hoss!" he said as he shoved it out the front door and into the street, where it was hit and obliterated by an oncoming RV.

Turning around, Amp saw a ninja aiming it's large paper shuriken at him.

"Really?" Amp asked, tilting his head.  "You know that's paper right-  OW!"  his snark cut off by the shuriken slicing right into his shoulder.  "Never mind."

As the ninja generated another shuriken, Amp warped directly behind it and tapped its shoulder.

"Peekaboo!" He shouted before warping again, this time a few feet to its left.  "Aren't ninjas supposed to be fast?" And again he warped, this time to the kitchen.  Turning on the faucet in the sink, he warped yet again, this time behind the aiming ninja, and directly in front of yet another paper creature.  

"Granted, don't feel the need to over perform on my account.  I'm not grading you."

Finally the first ninja threw its star, only to end up pinning the second to the wall by its midsection as Amp ha ducked just in time.  Grabbing the star, Amp warped it and himself a few inches forward, slicing the trapped ninja through the torso, it's upper half falling to the ground while its lower half remained pinned to the wall.

"Though really someone should be grading-" Amp started, before he was silenced by the remaining ninja kicking him square in the eye.  The boys head flew back, but just as quickly snapped forward.  Amp let out a snort of laughter, before lunging at the ninja.  Grabbing it, he warped it to the kitchen, where he shoved its head into the sink full of water before shooting the water.

The creature struggled in vain, as the moment the water was frozen it stopped moving altogether.

"...Weak." Amp sighed, as all the defeated fusions melted into puddles of goop before altogether evaporating.  The eyes of Enrique and his parents followed Amp to the dinner table, where he took a seat and ran a hand through his head.  He opened his mouth to say something else, before he felt movement behind him.  Knowing he'd missed one ninja, Amp grabbed the carving fork and stood from the chair, stabbing the ninja in its right eye just as it made to grab him.

"Ah, so you do have eye sockets."  Amp noted as he wrenched the fork further into its eye.  The monster writhed in pain, as Amp pulled the fork out and stabbed it again and again and again.

Just as the ninja began to visibly weaken, Amp put it in a 'friendly' headlock and snapped his fingers in front of its face.

"Oi!" He said. "Listen, listen. I know you can hear me, Big F.  I know you can hear through all of your little lackeys.  So hear this; somehow, someway, I'm gonna make the whole world safe, from you.  Every.  Last.  Person."

Slowly, the ninja started to melt like the others.

"Ok, looks like I'm breaking up.  Ciao."

With every fusion finally gone, Amp sat down yet again, smiling innocently at Enrique and his parents, bobbing his head as the song continued.

'People all over the world,
Join in
Start a Love Train, Love Train.'

Then, looking around the wrecked home, Amp raised a curious eyebrow.

"Hang on, is it Thanksgiving?  Never noticed."

The beeping of a car horn alerted all four of the home's occupants to the return of the truck from earlier, the one that had run over the fusion ninja.  Truthfully, it was less of a truck and more of an RV.  In the driver's seat was a portly, oddly dressed man with a distinct mustache and a rather impressive chin.

"Good Morning!" He shouted, waving to the family from the RV.  

"UNCLE GRANDPA!" Enrique shouted alongside his mother and father.

"Yep, that's my name!" The man said, before suddenly he stretched his neck all the way from the RV to inside the house.  "Don't tell anyone, but I think I ran over someone on the way here..."

"Lips are sealed."  Amp said, bringing everyone's attention back to him.  He looked quite bewildered himself, almost unblinking in the face of this bizarre newcomer.

Uncle Grandpa looked from the family, to Amp, then back.  "You guys havin' friends over?"

"Uncle Grandpa, Uncle Grandpa!" Enrique called, running up to the RV, "these fusions came into our house and this weird kid came in and he made me play this song and-"

"Oh hey!"  The man suddenly interrupted, startling Amp into a defensive stance as he suddenly appeared next to him.  "I know you!"

Amp's eyes widened as several arms appeared from behind his back, examining and prodding him with scientific equipment.  The man beamed.

"It is you! Little Ampere, all grown up!" he said.  He grabbed Amp in a hug before gesturing to the others in room.  "You're really lucky to be saved by Amp the scamp here.  This little guy knows how to party!"

Amp chuckled nervously, removing the strange man's arm from him.  "Sorry, um, who're you?"

"Don't be silly, Billy!  I'm your Uncle Grandpa!"

"...Nope, not ringin' any bells."

Uncle Grandpa shrugged, before pulling a large diagram from behind his back.  On it was a silhouette of Amp's head, with a visible brain that had a chunk missing.  "I suppose I should've known.  Amps have a notoriously bad memory."

"Oi!" Amp remarked, snatching the diagram and walking off with it.  "I'll have you know I've been getting better at that!  Like, way better.  And I can't remember ever having any stupid-voiced relatives with even stupider clothes!"

"But he's everyone in the world's Uncle and Grandpa." Enrique's mother explained, making Amp pause in his tracks and sigh.

"...Am I high?  Again?"  He asked.  He preemptively raised a hand just before Uncle Grandpa could speak again.  Pointing to Enrique's father, he said "Ok, so, so, so, if you're his Uncle and Grandpa, but you're also his dad's Uncle and Grandpa, then then then, then you're also his great uncle and great grandfather, right?  So does anyone call you that?  How old are you even?"

The boy then put up a "time out" symbol with his hands, before warping away.  A moment later, his head poked out from the upper floor of the building and looking down at the family.  "I'm taking some of your clothes."

"Don't worry about it." Uncle Grandpa said to the concerned family.  "I can handle this. You guys should clean up around here, it looks like a pigsty, even by a Thanksgiving standards."

_____________________________________________

Amp stood in front of the open closet, trying on sweaters and bathrobes and jackets.  He turned to see a full length mirror, and paused, before stepping closer to it.

"Yeah..." He said.  "Perfect.  Yes.  Yes, that'll work."  He reached out to touch it, but suddenly the face of his reflection morphed into that of Uncle Grandpa and the boy flung backwards in surprise.

"Jesus Christ!" He yelled, before pinching the bridge of his nose as the reflection jumped from the mirror.  Uncle Grandpa pulled a zipper down his neck, and threw off the visage of Amp's body as if it were a suit.

"Whatcha doin' up here, stealing stuff?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"That's a lot of layers dude.  Prepping for the cold season?"

"I don't feel cold anymore." Amp said, pulling off his current jacket and trying on another one.  "Not really.  Not like normal people.  I suppose you could say I'm just looking to change things up, but nothing feels right!"

"Well yeah man, you've worn the same things since you were a kid."

Without another word, Amp pulled out his ice gun and pointed it at Uncle Grandpa's nose.  "You don't know me.  How do you know me?  Who are you?"

"I'm your Uncle Grandpa!" He said with a smile.

"Ok, keep in mind I have a potentially lethal weapon pointed at your face and try very hard not to annoy me.  I don't have an Uncle Grandpa!"

"Sure you do," Uncle Grandpa said, suddenly behind Amp, "everyone does!  And since I'm here, I'm guessing you need my help."

Amp snorted, after the shock wore off.  He lowered the gun, realizing its futility and spotting a thick, bright blue hoodie and throwing it on.  "I don't need help, well, unless that help involves killing a butt ton of fusions.  Thanks for hitting that one by the way, that was hilarious."

"Excuse me...?" came the voice of Enrique, drawing the attention of Amp and Uncle Grandpa to the boy standing in the doorway.  "My mom and dad wanted to know if you both wanted to stay for what's left of Thanksgiving dinner."

"Ooh boy!" Uncle Grandpa said, hopping up and down and clapping his hands. "Who could say no to Thanksgiving dinner?"

"I could." Amp said, before his stomach growled loudly.  "But I won't."

_____________________________________________

"So, you're sure I can keep the hoodie?" Amp asked Enrique's Father, who gave a firm nod in response.  They had all been eating in a semi-awkward silence, but everyone seemed relieved and calm enough as the sun began to fall.

"Of course.  My place may be wrecked now but you've saved my family.  That, and Uncle Grandpa seems to like you well enough, so you're more than entitled to a simple bit of clothes."

"...Thanks Matthew." Amp said, trying not flinch at his own voice, or to notice as the man shared an uncomfortable glance with his wife.

"So," the woman said, both parents now eyeing their son, "we're thinking maybe we should pack up what's left intact and move away."

Enrique gasped at the proposition, looking none to happy as Uncle Grandpa raised a finger enthusiastically.  

"Ooh, I know!" He said.  "You guys could move to California." And suddenly the whole table and those seated there were on a palmy beach, by the waves. "Or Taiwan." And again they shifted, as if on a film strip, to the mentioned location.  "Or outer space."

Everyone looked around in a mix of curious its and panic as the table was suddenly floating in outer space, all grabbing at food and wares that started to float away.

"Sorry," Amp said, "how-?"

"But Uncle Grandpa," Enrique interrupted, "I don't want to move away."

"Oh.  Ok then."

And they were suddenly back in the house.

"Mom, Dad, moving away means having to say goodbye to all my friends-!"

"Yes, son, but we don't know when the fusions will be back for us.  Once they start coming into your home the neighborhood just isn't safe."

"Aw, come on you guys," Uncle Grandpa said, "I'm sure you'll be fine.  After the whopping they got today I'm sure the fusions won't bother you again."  He glanced over at Amp to see the boy glaring at him.

"...what?"

"Why would you say that?  Why would you tell him that?  Kid, Enrique, listen, those two?  They're your parents, man.  Don't you think they should have final say over...this rando?"

"Rando?" Uncle Grandpa muttered.

"But-" Enrique began.

"But nothing!  You have to leave friends behind sometimes, it happens.  Deal with it.  If your friends are smart they'll follow suit.  Look, look look look your place is in shambles, the environment around here is probably poisoned, including the sink- my bad by the way- if I hadn't shown up you'd be dead!  Go find a nice padded bunker or something, at the very least go somewhere more densely populated and active."

"Don't be so pessimistic Amp." Uncle Grandpa said.

"It's not pessimism!"  Amp yelled, throwing up his hands.  He glared on, staring right through Uncle Grandpa.  Curiously, the man grew a second face in the back of his head and followed Amp's gaze.  To the mirror directly behind him.

"You know what I see, Unc?  I see a world where Fuse wins.  That's it.  He doesn't need to kill us all, not really.  Just make the world impossible to live in.  And he starts in places like these.  Houses, homes, small populated areas.  He attacks them, poisons them, then everyone migrates to bigger cities, then he poisons those, and we're all driven to the wild where we die anyway!  He's already started and I'm trying, hard, to fix it or think of something, but I just can't do it fast enough and you have to leave Enrique!  If you love them you'll listen to your parents like a good boy before something happens to...one of you."

The room was silent, Enrique looking down at the floor, though his mother mouthed a "thank you" to Amp.

"Is that really what you see?" Uncle Grandpa broke the silence.

"...Sometimes." Amp said, before standing up from the table.  "Anyway!" He clapped his hands together "Nice meeting ya.  Really, really good to...yeah"  With that, he turned and left.

_____________________________________________

Walking down the street and glancing up at rooftops, Amp's concentration was ruined when he heard the honk of an RV right behind him, and turned around to see Uncle Grandpa slowly following him.

"What."  He said, throwing up his hands.  "What do you want?"  

"What do you want?" was the response.

"There's a terrafuser somewhere in this neighborhood.  Imma kill it.  Simple enough.  What I don't want is a poor man's Myxyzpylk following me in an RV all night."

"OK!"  Said Uncle Grandpa, popping out of Amp's hood.  "Can I follow you like this then?"  

"No!" Amp yelled as the man hopped to his feet.  "Assuming you're not just some bizarre, nightmarish fever dream, don't you have a whole planet full of other niece/nephew grandchildren you could be doing stuff with."

"Well they don't need my help like you do."

"I don't need your help!"  Amp growled, stomping ahead angrily.

"So you're happy?" It was a simple question, but not really.  Amp stopped dead in his tracks.  "Cause if you are, I'll leave you alone."

Amp didn't answer, instead warping to a nearby rooftop and snooping there for the terrafuser.  He was past the stage of being surprised when Uncle Grandpa followed him, popping out of the chimney right next to him.

"Cmon bro, I know if you just tell me what's bugging ya, we can turn that frown upside down." He demonstrated his point by literally grabbing Amp's mouth and flipping it, making the boy flinch and paw at his face.

"Blegh, stop that!" He said, running his hands through his hair.  "There is nothing bothering me."

"Really?  Cause you're doing that thing where you run your hands through your hair and pacing back and forth, and you usually only do that when you're thinking hard about something."

Amp blinked, then warped again, this time into the room of yet another child.  The little girl screamed as Amp appeared out of nowhere in her room, searching through it.

"Chill out, I'll be gone in a second." He said, throwing clothes out of her drawer, followed swiftly by Uncle Grandpa.

"Oh hi Uncle Grandpa!" The little girl said, suddenly cheered by the man's presence.

"...Am I the only person on Earth who doesn't know who you are for some reason?"  Amp asked.

"Probably." Uncle Grandpa said, before leaning over to him and whispering.  "You're being really invasive to her personal space right now."

Amp slammed his hands on the drawer and looked with wide eyes at the little man.  "Really?  That must be so inconvenient for her, having someone suddenly show up and get in her business."  He then moved away from the drawer, stepping out of the room and exploring the rest of the house, whilst Uncle Grandpa pulled out a hand sized vacuum cleaner, scooping up the disheveled clothes and popping them neatly back into the happy little girl's drawer.

"Come on, come on, come on, come on!" Amp said, as he warped through the house in search of the terrafuser.  Then the next.  Then the next.  He opened the door to a bathroom of one particular house.  "I know it's here.  I know it's in this neighborhood, I can...I can- I can just feel it!"

"Gotta work on that stammer Amp." Said Uncle Grandpa, sitting on the toilet with a newspaper, before Amp groaned and swiftly shut the door.

"Ooh!" Said Uncle Grandpa, standing on the other side of the door.  "I know one place you haven't checked!"

_____________________________________________

"I'm not looking in your RV." Amp said simply, standing outside of said vehicle with Uncle Grandpa.  "Nuh uh."

"Come on, you've checked everywhere else in the neighborhood."

"I still don't trust that you're not some quasi-dimensional predator.  I don't want to end up on a watchlist."

"Aw, don't be so cynical." The man said, his smile never faltering as he opened the door and stepped in.  "It'll just be a quick peek.  Who knows, you might even have a bit of fun!"

"I haven't got time for-" Amp started as he was pulled into the van, his sentence dying as he noted how astronomically bigger it was on the inside than the out.  It was like a long corridor, with several windows, a rug, a kitchen, clocks, tables, couches, and countless doors to other rooms.  "...d'you steal this place from Kaz?"

"Probably.  Oh hey it's Mister Gus.  Good Morning, Mr. Gus!"

Uncle Grandpa ran up to a large green lizard man sitting at a table and greeted him with a high five.

"It's evening Uncle Grandpa.  Hey, you brought Amp!"

The boy in question facepalmed.  "The dinosaur knows me too, of course he does."

"Amp and I are lookin' for a terrafuser, you seen one?"

"Not in here." Mr Gus said.  "Maybe check Pizza Steve's room."

The dinosaur pointed to a door, and Amp went over to open it, only to find a small pizza with limbs and sunglasses combating a giant blob of Eldritchian horror.

"Nope." Amp said, closing the door before the pizza could get a word out and freezing it shut.  "Haha, nope nope nope nope nope."

Walking to an adjacent door, he opened it only to close it just as quickly.  The room was full of nothing but mirrors.

"Why do you have that?" He asked quietly.

"That's Pizza Steve's other room." Uncle Grandpa answered nonchalantly, seemingly unaware as Amp eyed him suspiciously. "Guy's got vanity issues.  Let's try this room."

"That's not Pizza Steve's-" Mr. Gus began, before Uncle Grandpa slapped some duct tape onto his mouth to silence.

Amp looked between the two, before he began exploring several bizzare rooms with Uncle Grandpa.  

_____________________________________________

It was in a room made entirely out of marshmallows that Amp finally sighed and turned to the man.

"The hell is this?  Why are we here?  Why are you wasting my time-"

"Aw, come on Amp, try to have a little fun!  It's a room made out of marshmallows, and you love those!"

"I don't care!  I'm busy!"

Uncle Grandpa hummed a bit, before pulling out a notepad and taking some notes.  Tapping the pencil to his head, he nodded, before saying "Yep, after lengthy examination, I've diagnosed you with having a Guilt Complex.  My prescription is a dose of relaxation, a bit of fun, and a heaping helping of leaving your cares behind!"

Amp blinked, before laughing a bit.

"Guilt complex...?  Guilt Complex!  Hmm, here's a quandary; you seem to know everything about me, why do you think that might be the case?"

"Well-"

"Shut up that was a rhetorical question!" Amp said, before pinching the bridge of his nose.  He grew more and more tense, smacking away Uncle Grandpa's hand when he tried to comfort him.

"Look." He said. "You think that just because you can go wherever, and do anything you want that you can just be happy all the time!  You think- you think you can make it so your whole world is just you and your friends going on stupid colorful harmless adventures, and everything will just be fine!  But no matter what you do and no matter how silly you act, you can't keep bad things from happening forever, you just can't!  Someday- someday soon, you're gonna hurt someone, and it's gonna wipe that stupid grin, and that stupid "Good Morning" right off your face!  You won't just be able to ignore it- it's gonna sit with you, forever, that guilt.  Let's see you try to shrug it off then."

Uncle Grandpa said nothing, merely opened the door as the two left.  As Amp continued to look around the hallway, Uncle Grandpa finally spoke.

"Let's check out the front maybe." He said, dragging Amp along with him.

"Why would it be in the front-?" Amp's question was cut off when Uncle Grandpa pulled the curtain aside to reveal the Terrafuser chilling in the driver's seat of the RV.

"Well that's weird." Uncle Grandpa said as Amp glared at him.  "How'd he get there?"

A loud screech brought their attention back to the road, as they now suddenly appeared to be careening off a small cliff.  The two grabbed each other and screamed before they smashed into the ground, the impact sending the two of them and the terrafuser flying through the windshield.

_____________________________________________

Amp grunted as was thrown across the ground, rolling to a stop eventually and slowly raising his head.  Looking up, he saw the terrafuser on one side of him, Uncle Grandpa lying unconscious with his tongue hanging out of his mouth on the other, and the wrecked RV farther off to he side.  Behind Uncle Grandpa was a clear, sprawling lake. Amp stood quickly to his feet, wobbling a little from dizziness, before pulling out his ice gun and shooting Uncle Grandpa and coating him up to the neck in ice.

"Huh?" The man uttered as he regained consciousness, looking around curiously.  "Boy, did it get chilly in here?  Oh hey look!  The terrafuser."

"Priorities first." Was all Amp said before grabbing at his side.  He rolled his eyes as he realized he'd left bag at Enrique's home.  As he warped there and back, Uncle Grandpa was left in an uncomfortable silence before Amp reappeared to smash his face in with the blunt object.

"OW!!!  What was the for!?"

"Who are you?" Amp asked, circling the man.  "Who are you and how do you know me, huh?"

"I'm Uncle Grandpa-!" He was hit again, and again he yelled in pain.

"I don't care about your stupid inbred crap, how do you know me?  You know what I do you know how I act...you know about Matthew, and the mirrors, don't you?"

"No, I...sorta?  OW!"

"You know why I see these things!  In the mirrors, that's why you had that room full of them.  That's not 'Pizza Steve's room', you did that on purpose, for me, why!?"

""Ok ok it's true!" Uncle Grandpa said, flinching as Amp drew his arms up again.  He spat out some blood before continuing.  "I know there's something wrong with you, I'm Uncle Grandpa it's my job to know!  I don't know what it is though, that's why I just wanted you to open up about it."

"Oh please, like I buy that.  How could you even know about it unless you were involved?"

"It's just how I am!" The man yelled desperately.

Amp, breathing heavily, almost had to stop himself from chuckling.  Kneeling down, he locked eyes with the man beneath him.

"I see things.  Whenever I look into a reflection I see these things- memories but not just memories; things that haven't happened yet...things that I want to happen and things that never, ever, should. Not just that, I have other people's memories in my head; friends memories, memories of my parents talking when I wasn't even there!  No one else ever sees it.  And every time, I hear the voice, I hear Matthew in my head, saying take the mirrors.  Why would I want to take mirrors...?"

Uncle Grandpa listened quietly as the boy vented.  That is, until he was struck hard in his already bruised face yet again.

"That wasn't a rhetorical question!" He screamed, before lowering his tone.  "You are going to explain this, to me, and you are going to do it, now, or I'll break your leg."

Amp raised his bat above the man's leg and tapped it, tilting his head as Uncle Grandpa whimpered.

"Shouldn't be hard.  They look a bit bony if I'm honest.  Now tell me."

"I don't know!"

"TELL ME!"


"Why didn't you just ask me yourself...?"

Amp stopped, staring up at the nearby lake and letting his bat drop out of his hand.  Reflected in the water, instead of Uncle Grandpa, was his friend Nate.  And instead of himself was the hideous, hateful robot Nana.  In the water, Nate writhed in pain as Nana floated over him, his leg just broken.  On the land, Amp took steps back as Uncle Grandpa shivered in fear.  Nana seemed to be speaking to him, but the voice wasn't the robot's at all.

"This wasn't a great moment for you, was it, huh?"

"You're Matthew."

"Straight up."

Amp, who was already breathing rather heavily, was now on the verge of hyperventilating.  "What do you want with me?"

"I want to help you."

"Help?" Amp said, and this time he couldn't stop the chuckle as he pointed to the beaten Uncle Grandpa beneath him.  "What, like he wants to help?"

"No." The voice was calm.  "I want to make it so you never feel like this again.  Feel the way you did when you saw your friend hurt."

"Get the hell out of my head."  

"Um...no can do.  You've been chosen."

"Stay away from me, both of you!" He turned to Uncle Grandpa, who just looked confused.  "I'll kill you next time, I mean it!"

"No you won't." Came the voice. "That's not how you work."

Amp wanted to scream again.  To yell at the voice that it didn't know him, that it couldn't know him when he barely knew himself anymore.  But he didn't.  Instead he warped.  He warped away and left Uncle Grandpa behind.

_____________________________________________

Amp jolted awake in a tree somewhere.  That's funny.  He didn't remember going to sleep.  He spent the rest of that day calling friends, asking them if they'd ever heard of an "Uncle Grandpa" and being relieved when no one seemed to know what he was talking about.  He didn't leave that tree all day.  He enjoyed the quiet.