“I... I wouldn’t suggest any sudden movements,” an unfamiliar, timid voice says as Tim comes to.

  A bright light shines in his eyes, so he tries to raise his hand to move them, but it's restrained. He’s restrained to a cool, metal table. He goes to snap whatever's holding him down, feels the strain, almost snaps, and then his body seizes as he’s electrocuted.

  “Or,” the voice shakes, “or that... That will... just try and not move please?”

  Male voice, probably older, obviously scared. He’s bumping into something metal, fumbling with and dropping more metal. Tim picks up something weird about him though, the upper right side of his body smells like seafood, shellfish specifically.

  “The technology on your suit is impressive. I tried to remove it... Couldn’t.”

  So he hasn’t seen Tim’s face, good. He’s trying to make conversation, settle those nerves he clearly has. Gotta love talkers.

  “Can you get this light out of my eyes?” Tim says.

  “I... suppose, just a moment.”

  The man’s heart beat rises as he approaches the table, and as he moves the light out of Tim’s face, he nearly gets jump scared. The man’s right side is grotesquely mutated, a plated exoskeleton jutting out of his face, a compound eye on a stalk sitting in his eye socket. His sweatshirt and lab coat bulges with what Tim could only assume is more brownish yellow shell, giving him a hunchbacked posture, and his right arm is too long with equally too long, pointy claws.

  “You look like an Anamalocarus.” Tim notes, an arthropod from around five hundred and forty million years ago.

  “Yes well, you weren’t the only one affected by the explosion.” The man shies away, going back to his metal tray holding several surgical tools.

  The explosion? Tim always figured he wasn’t the only person with super powers in the world, but he didn't consider that someone else got theirs from the same source he did, which he should’ve, but hindsight and oversight go hand in hand.

  “The explosion, what was it? Some sort of machine exploding? Someone trying to give themselves powers and it went wrong?”

  “I...” The crab man pickles up a needle, then finches as it explodes in his mutated hand.

  “Go ahead, you can tell him Larry.” A southern drawl comes from the doorway, Tim looking across the surgical lab and spotting Grant Connors.

  His heart sinks then, as unlikely as it was, he wanted so desperately for Connors to not be after him, to not be behind the Phantasmaraptor. Not only that, but the crab man is apparently Larry Carsus. Arch’s co-lead geneticist, he always stayed out of the lime light, but Tim looked up to him all the same.

  He lets out a long, pained sigh, as more of his heroes fall. Maybe there’s just no such thing as a good adult, or maybe there was, and she’s dead now.

  It isn’t the time to dwell on that though, today continues to be a lore drop sort of day.

  “A few decades ago,” Carsus begins, “one of our paleontologists in Alaska unearthed the most important discovery in history. He…” Carsus shakes his head, “he and his family died in a house fire shortly after, but all the same. It was a Tyrannosaurus Rex, mummified like a mammoth, embedded in stone and ice. Carbon dating put it at dying only ten thousand years ago.”

  “What? How is that possible?” Tim says in disbelief.

  “A funny question, given what you can do.” Connors chuckles. “It was anomalous, dead but somehow still alive. Its cells hadn’t fully decayed, which was valuable enough, but what was really valuable?”

  “My powers.” Tim runs his tongue over his teeth. “You never found a way to synthesize usable DNA from fossils, you had a zombified T’Rex that could turn into every extinct species.”

  Damn it, the most impressive, most exciting part of Arch’s science breakthrough is a lie. Tim thought it was a genuine miracle when Arch announced it, when Connors himself announced it, because it should’ve been impossible.

  Even when taking into account Medullary tissue, soft tissue inside the hips and thighs of dinosaurs that pull calcium from the bone to make eggs. It still exists because of how thick the bones are, the sediment that makes fossils never reach it, but even with that it would’ve been a miracle.

  Fossils are just rocks, and DNA doesn’t last, but still, Tim bought it, why shouldn’t he? It was his heroes saying it, his heroes achieving his dream. He was going to get to see dinosaurs, dinosaurs, why question it?

  “A little more complicated than that, give us some credit, Prehistoric Kid.” Connors uses his cane, tipped with amber containing a dinosaur tail, to pull a chair over to himself. “We can’t control the cells, they don’t transform when we want. Rather, every single cell contains the DNA of everything you can transform into. The single most complex life form to ever exist, a Tyrannosaurus, and now you.”

  So they had to use genetic sequencers to unravel all that DNA? That’s insane, and now Tim isn’t really willing to buy anything Connors says, there might be more to it, might not, but there’s more important things going on then figuring out the secrets to cloning mesozoic species.

  “What happened? Why was there an explosion?”

  “It was... an unmitigated disaster.” Carsus says, trying to pick up another needle with his mutated hand, then giving up and using his human one. He approaches the table, and tries to poke it into Tim’s arm with no luck. “We always knew there was a massive amount of energy stored within the specimen, but it... was inert, inaccessible, until it wasn’t.”

  “So... it just blew up one day?”

  Carsus nods and sets the needle back on the table.

  “Based on what we know about you, you know your stuff about extinct animals.” Connors says, “you've noticed that there’s gaps in your transformations?”

  “Yeah...”

  “Our... um, the theory is that the energy that was inside the Tyrannosaur, and now you, is a sort of preservative force.” Carsus says, “when a species goes extinct while it has a host, it... Well it's esoteric, but it absorbs it somehow.”

  “Why... are you being so obliging?” Tim looks at the men.

  “You saved my life twice, Prehistoric Kid, I owe you a lot.” Connors says matter o’ factly.

  “But not enough to let me go?”

  “If only things were that simple, I would have just... offered to buy your blood from you in reasonable amounts, would have never sicked one of my dinosaurs on you. If only—”

  “Booo!” Tim calls.

  He’s starting to get annoyed, angry. All these answers mixed with vague hints at something more going on, all from the mouths of leaders of the scientific world, he wants to just punch their teeth in.

  He can do it whenever he wants too, these restraints, sure they shock him when he flexes too hard, but when he transforms? For a genius, it's a huge oversight on Connors part, PK can go big or small whenever and be free.

  But, if he’s learned anything from today, it’s not to lash out when he gets like this. Or at least, to wait for the right moment. There’s more to learn here, Tim’s sure of that.

  Connors chuckles, “I was wondering why someone would choose to name themselves Kid, you’re not all that mature are you?”

  “I like the way the C flows into the K.” Tim shrugs in response. “What happened to Tesla?”

  “Nothing complicated, simply handed him over to the police.”

  “Hm,” Tim rests his head on the table and stares at the ceiling. “So what now Connors?”

  “Now, I continue to repay my debts, and give you a tour of your new home.”

  More people enter the room then, a small woman coming to the table PK’s on and pumping it up, like an uncomfortable medical bed. She begins to push, wheeling Tiim out of the room as Connors and Carsus lead the way, guards armed with stun batons flanking each side of the bed.

  Tim tilts his head at the batons and snorts.

  “The fuck you laughing at kid?” One of the guards glares.

  “Ooo, stun batons, as if I haven’t been struck by lightning over and over the past few weeks.” PK snickers. “Better hope you have better to stop me when I break out.”

  Connors looks back to him, “Don’t worry, our forces are considerable.”

  “They include any... House Burners?” PK asks, testing to see if there’s any connection.

  Connors stops, the woman pushing the bed nearly driving it into him.

  “You’re well informed.”

  “So you work for them?” PK tunes his senses onto Connors, listening to his heart beat.

  “No.”

  “Liar.” PK grins under his mask.

  “I'm affiliated, but there’s a much bigger picture that you’re ignorant to, I'm afraid.” Connors begins to walk again.

  “Wanna clue me in? Clear away part of that debt?”

  “Hah, no, you'll find that, while I repay my debts, I do so in a way of my own choosing.”

  “Sure sure.” PK watches as they reach a huge elevator, and enter.

  They file in, and it begins to rapidly descend, PK being reminded of the bottomless pit that Seymour dropped into on the day he got his powers. It's a quick trip, the elevator slowing to a halt as fast as it began to drop, and the doors open.

  Tim is wheeled out and into what looks like an enormous cell block in a sci-fi prison. Cells of all sizes line the walls, huge metal pillars embedded into them after every dozen units. Each has huge mechanical arms that move up and down them, occasionally plucking a cell from its space and repositioning it somewhere else.

  Each cellblock seems to be organized by size, the smallest closest to the elevator. appropriate for humans, further down though? They’re ludicrous, bigger than sauropod sizes. There’s no mechanical arms there, the cells likely too large for them to handle.

  The cell doors seemed to be made of some sort of orange glass, each buzzing with a static sound, a static look, as the inside of each cell is slightly obscured. They almost look like a version of Becca’s holopads, but obviously can’t be passed through.

  Tim’s vision can pierce each unit with ease despite the obscurity, and it makes his heart sink. While most are empty, plenty are filled with animals throughout time. Dinosaurs lie down or pace back and forth, Pterosaurs preen themselves bald, Mammoths let out sad, low rumbles that only Tim and their kind can hear.

  “Not much for animal welfare huh Carsus?” Tim spots Seymour in one of the large cells, scratching at the walls, and then narrows his eyes at the timid man.

  Carsus flinches away. “They’re... prototypes, or anomalous. They’re not meant to be show animals at the parks, they're meant for medical research.”

  “Or weapons development?” Tim guesses as familiar anxiety hits him, a guardsmen leading the Phantasmaraptor over to join them.

  The guard in question is different from the others, he wears armor that matches the Phantasmaraptor’s tech, and it is decked out with weapons. Aside from more standard looking gear, he also has wrist mounted guns and a sword on his back that resembled the Phantasmaraptor’s Xenomorph-like tail.

  “Weeb.” Tim tries to taunt him, but the man chuckles.

  “Swords are cool, what can I say?”

  “I... guess.” He reluctantly agrees.

  They move past more armed guards, stationed in the cat walks and in booths, the weaponry getting bigger and deadlier looking as they move into, what Tim guesses, is where the anomalies are kept.

  Species of dinosaurs Tim’s never imagined, one all black and staring at him. There’s a shark made of rock swimming in a magma pool, another unknown dinosaur spreading a grey, veiny goo all over its cell. A huge, hunched over, humanoid isopod stares at him as they pass, it reaching out with one of its claws fingers and touching the glass, in another cell there’s a small, metallic cylinder floating in the air, the air around it shimmering, humming.

  “They’re all clones?” Tim asks.

  “Not all, no.” Connors answers, “some have been engineered, others collected, yet more… delivered.” He gestures to the other side of the prison, a glowing person sitting on a couch and watching tv.

  “You have people down here?” PK grimaces.

  “Not by choice, like I said, there’s a bigger picture at play, grander forces at work.”

  “Not by choice?”

  “Debts to repay.”

  “What happened to picking how you repay them?”

  Connors ignores the jab and moves on, “Besides, I’m sure you’re wondering how we can power all of this? It's all thanks to that man, Raymond Parker. His body is composed of, and produces, massive amounts of energy.”

  “So you, what, drain him of his energy? Use him like a battery? Feels like a war crime.”

  “So it does.”

  “Eh,” The decked out guardsmen cuts in, “gotta do what you gotta do? Besides, you ever eat chocolate PK? You should see what those companies get up to down in South America, makes our basement full of human and animal rights violations look tame.” He chuckles and pats PK’s shoulder.

  Well, look like there’s some side objectives to complete when PK decides it's time to bust out. He probably won’t be able to use the elevator itself, but climbing up it shouldn’t be a problem even with one Raymond Parker in tow. As for the rest of what’s down here, as bad as Tim feels about it, he’ll have to leave them behind. Putting aside that plenty of them seem to have powers, who knows how dangerous they could be? Invasive species decimate ecosystems all the time, and even if Tim and Lance can find a safe place to put the animals, there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to provide the care they’ll need.

  There’s a thump against one of the cell walls as they pass by, the noise getting Tim’s attention. He raises an eyebrow as he sees a yellow Red Panda. It stands on its hind legs and stares at him, slowly blinky, before lifting up it paws and bringing them down on the glass again.

  “That one seems especially dangerous.” PK snorts as the little creature sticks out its tongue, blepping at him.

  “Part of our exotic pet engineering initiative.” Connors explains, “it was caught in the same explosion you and Carsus were, but it also went through the silver and purple flash phenomena. What abilities it gained, we’re still studying.”

  “Interesting.” Tim smiles, and winks at it as they move out of view.

  “Well, we’re coming up to your new home now, feel free to take off that suit of yours after you get comfortable. It’ll feel ridiculous if I keep having to talk to you in a costume Mister... Andrews? Chapman? Robinson?”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Oh believe you me Doc, it's a none issue.” PK rolls his neck, grins, and transforms.

  He goes small, then pops back up into human. He flips behind the table and kicks at the Phantasmaraptor, slamming it against the door of a cell. The fancy guardsmen goes to draw his sword, but Tim flies at him as a Bambiraptor. The man’s faster than PK expects, and nearly bats him out of the air, but PK shifts back into human, his fist finding the guard’s chest. As he falls on his ass, PK lands on his chest, forcing him down onto his back.

  “Heh.” PK snickers as he places a foot on the ground and kicks, using the man like a skateboard, sending sparks flying up from the catwalk.

  He barrels through guards, then flips off the armored man and sends him into the Phantasmaraptor. He lands in front of another, and snorts as a stun baton comes down at him in, basically, slow motion. He smacks it out of the guard's hand and watches it twirl up into the, then feels another guard trying to catch him unaware.

  He backflips onto his would-be ambusher's head, grabs the disarmed man, and brings their noggins together. Their helmets crack and their bodies start to fall, then PK jumps off them. He goes straight up, right in front of the spinning baton, then kicks it, the tip finding purchase in between the plates of the Phantasmaraptor’s armor.

  PK lands on the walkway's guardrail and snickers as the raptor panics, snapping at the weapon stuck in its place, then turns to Connors and Carsus.

  “Gotta admit Docs, I needed this, been a stressful day. Hey, my gameboy needs a new set of double As so,” PK points his thumb behind him, “gonna need to take your battery.”

  He jumps to the other side of the prison and fakes a yawn as guards rush him, then transforms into a Pachycephalosaurus. They don’t stand a single chance, PK downing them before they even have the chance to react.

  PK shifts human and waltzes to Raymond Parker’s cell, a sniper round dinging harmlessly off his head. He plucks the flattened bullet from the air and, without looking, flicks it at the sniper, smiling in satisfaction as he hears the gun shatter.

  “Hi! I’m Prehistoric Kid, PK for short. Wanna get out of here, fellow anomaly?” Tim presses his face to the cell.

  “Hell yeah kid.” Raymond says in a Boston accent and springs up from his bunk. “You can calls me Ray.”

  Tim waves as he slides over to the cell’s control panel, tapping his chin as he watches more guards descend to fight him.

  “Beep boop beep.” He says as he presses its screen a few times, and then punches it, and tears it out of the wall. “Hackerman.” .

  “Haha! Nice,” Raymond says, stepping out his cell. His body glows yellow, and black spots, Kirby Dots, begin to flow out of his hands. “Now let's kill these motherfuckers!”

  “Wait wha—”

  Ray’s hand rises to meet the oncoming guards and PK jumps in front, bringing his arms up to block an energy beam.

  “The fuck are you doing?” Ray stops the beam, and then raises his other hand.

  “Dude.” PK looks behind him to the now cowering guards and dashes for Ray, forcing him arm up as another beam comes out. “Stop!”

  “The fuck is wrong with you?” Ray rips himself out of PK’s grip, easily, and squares up to him. “You some sort of f—”

  “You want my help getting out of here? No killing, and no... slurs either.”

  “Fuck you, they deserve to have their guts—”

  Ray’s cut off again as an alarm starts to blare, PK trolling his eyes, before realizing it's not for them. The beam he redirected, it cut through the catwalk, walls, and control panels. So much for Tim having fun, as he hears multiple containment doors open, and the thud of heavy footprints hitting metal.

  “Man.”

  “Pffft, just let em go, they’re probably hungry anyways.”

  “No! Like I said, if you want—”

  The Phantasmaraptor collides with them both, forcing them into Raymond’s cell. Tim digs his heels into the ground as Ray brings his hands together and hammerfists the dinosaur into the floor. The Phantosaur’s gun unfurls and begins to charge, but Raymond fires laser from his eyes that carve through its hinge and sends it clattering to the ground.

  “Don’t need your help to get out now!” Raymond exclaims as he grabs hold of the Phantosaur’s shield head pulls it up, but its tail whips forwards, its blaze cutting off Raymond's arm. As it flies away it fades away into dots and yellow particles, and Ray instantly grows a new one.

  “Good Phantasmaaptor! Keep him from killing anyone, I’ll be right back!” PK busts through the sound barrier, destroying the furniture in the cell.

  “Hey! Get back here and help me you stupid motherfucker!”

  “Thought you didn’t need my help?” PK calls back as he jumps up and lands in front of Connors and Carsus, the armored guard defending them from the humanoid isopod.

  “Open all the empty cells.” PK says as he shoulder checks the arthropod. “I’ll get them contained, you focus on keeping people alive.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me!” The guardsmen agrees.

  “But we need to—”

  “Quiet Larry.” Connors says as he presses an earpiece and gives the order.

  PK hears all the doors slide open, gets behind the isopod, and kicks it down the walkway. He chases it after it, but it plants itself on the floor, twists, and grabs ahold of him. It slams PK against the wall, creating a Tim sized crater, and then the tips of its claws start to vibrate. PK feels his bones ache, his organs tense, and the vibrations make their way through his body.

  Anything else probably would’ve liquified instantly under whatever power this is, but PK figures he’s just too durable, and is able to fight through the pain and force the claw off him. He lands on the floor and shakes his head, when there’s a thud behind him. PK pivots, loading a punch, only to find the Red Panda staring at him.

  “Uh, hey lil Creature, busy right now.” PK rubs its head and then turns to the Isopod looming over him. “Shoot.”

  He scoops the panda into his arms and rolls out of the way of a downward claw strike, tosses up the fluff, then transforms into a Saichania, the anylosaur’s club tail finding purchase on the monster's shoulder and nearly sending it into a cell. As the red panda reaches the apex of its ascent, PK and the Isopod dash at each other, colliding with a shockwave that rocks the prison.

  PK goes to punch it, but its claw slams down on his head and buzzes, then, its other claw wraps around his side and starts to vibrate as well. PK feels his skin about to split, both claws together enough to cause real damage to him. He tastes blood in his mouth, smells it, as blood vessels burst, and is about to transform to break the grip, when the Red Panda lands on the Isopod’s head.

  It stands up on its hind legs and raises its paws up, a threat display to make itself look bigger, then brings them down, sending out a shockwave. The Isopod doesn't budge, so the panda does it again, but this time its paws become as big as Tim, and this time the bug buckles.

  It drops PK, and he tilts his head at the red panda, who mirrors the motion from atop its chitin throne. The Isopod swipes at it, the claw finding its purchase, only for the panda to wrap around the claw like playdough. The red panda, now a blob, blinks, unphased from the vibrations, and reaches out its paws like tentacles and wraps them around the bug’s head.

  PK holds back a laugh as it forces the Ispd to punch itself over and over, and then he slides between its legs. Gets up, and punches it in the leg joint. It falls to a knee, and PK sees the yellow red panda wrap its tail around the guardrail.

  PK nods, transforms, and bats the Isopod with an Allosaurus tail. It flies off, the stretchy panda going taught, then rubberbanding it back, letting it go and watching it fly into a cell. The door automatically shuts, and PK holds his hand out for a hi five, only for a paw to stretch past his hand and gently touch his forehead.

  “Well, what do you say uh... Creature, wanna help with the rest?”

  Creature tilts his head at PK, and then hops onto his shoulders, wraps around him, and stretches them both up to another level.

  “Hey Ray! Still don’t need my help!” PK calls out as he sees the Phantasmaraptor’s claws sink into the man’s back.

  “Fuck you!”

  “Still need time to think about it? Got it!”

  PK and Creature land and knock dinosaur after dinosaur, anomaly after anomaly into new cells, eventually coming face to face with Seymour. The mutant emu snatches a man into its jaw, but PK pulls Creature back and snaps him forward, his new partner wrapping around the guard and pulling him away right before misshapen teeth bury into his gut.

  Seymur snarls and charges, PK slingshotting Creature down, then slides under Seymour. He transforms into a Carcharodontosaurus, the mass of the massive theropod popping Seyour into the air. PK goes human and jumps, kicking Seymour above the pit in the middle of the bottomless prison.

  The emu begins to plummet, until a yellow line stretches out, catching him, then bouncing him back up towards PK. Tim spins and transforms into a Saltasaurus, the armored sauropod's tail batting Seymou back on solid ground, and in front of an appropriately sized cell.

  Creature stretches onto PK’s shoulder as he shifts human, and then kicks the air, transforming into an Udanoceratops for extra mass, and hits Seymourr like a missile. PK lands in front of the cell’s control pad and Creature hits the button, shutting it just as Seymur lunges forward, its snout bouncing off the pane.

  Create puts his paw on PK head, and then Tim extends his senses, backflipping off the edge, and landing where the Phantasmaraptor cuts Ray’s arm off again.

  “Wow, you really do need a hand!”

  “Oh I do not fuckin like you kid.”

  “I think he’s funny.” The guardsmen lands on their level, and then the flame from the Phantasmaraptor erupts, and moves into his wrist guns.

  “Uh...”

  The bullets fly, and PK moves to dodge, but they’re faster than he expects, and carve through his calf. Creature makes his paw into a suction cup and pulls himself and PK out of the line of fire, only for the Phantasmaraptor to leap at them. Creature stretches out his mouth and bites the dinosaur out of the air, and then spits him out, through the guardrail, sending it falling into the pit.

  Ray tries to rush the guardsmen, but the ghostly bullets riddle him with holes, forcing him against a wall as he brings his arms up, desperate to stop the barrage.

  “Fine! Fine, I need help! No killing!”

  “I got you Swiss Cheese!” PK tosses creature up and goes small. A sonic boom shakes the block yet again as he passes under the bullets, then pops up as human, digging his fingers into the guns and ripping them to pieces. The guard’s elbow comes up and hits PK in the nose, barely phasing him, but the attack is a feint, as the guard reaches for his sword. He draws it, phantasmal flame erupting from down below, but it doesn’t matter, because the sword is sheathed in yellow.

  Creature blink, and rips the sword from the guards hand, tossing it at the fire. It coats it, but pointlessly, as the blade begins to fall.

  “Oh come on, that’s about the only way I have to hurt you, I always get put up against people way out of my league.” The guardsman sighs.

  “I bet.” PK says and spartan kicks him away.

  “Fuck, I’m going to rip that smarmy bitch’s entrail out then choke—”

  “Shush, get your game face on, the Phantasmaraptor is almost back.”

  “The what?”

  “The roboraptor!”

  “Shit, ok, let's fly out of here while the coast is clear.”

  “What? You can fly?”

  ““You can’t? Turn into one of them Pterodactyls.”

  “No such thing.” Tim grabs the railing and uses it to spin down, catching the Pantosaur mid jump and kicking it into a cell door.

  “The fuck you mean no such thing? I’ve seen the fuckers” Kirby Dots boil over from Ray’s form as he begins to hover int the air.

  “There’s no species called a Pterodactyl, it used to be used as a basket name—” A bullet goes through PK, tearing one of his lungs apart and sending him stumbling forward.

  The guardsmen approaches, wielding another gun that looks like a rifle. Ray tries to fly up, only for another volley to take off his head, it quickly reforming. PK wraps Creature's tail around himself, then jumps onto Ray.

  “Go! I’ll tank the bullets!” PK says as he shifts into an ankylosaurus, as another bullet is fired, it only making it partway through his body.

  Ray rockets up and PK moves Creature under his armored hide as they blow through the elevator doors. Ray moves so fast that the cables holding the elevator up rip apart, and then they meet concrete, open air, more concrete, and then finally, fresh San Diegan air.

  PK shifts human and drops off of Ray, landing next to what’s left of Arch tower’s lightning rod. He looks up to Ray, narrowing his lenses, half expecting the man to rocket away, but he stays.

  He takes a deep breath and holds his arms out, then laughs, “Ah hell, I wasn’t sure I‘d ever get to breathe fresh air again.”

  “I’m surprised you have to breathe.”

  “Don’t need to, but damn does it feel good.” He laughs. “Fuck, I’ll tell you what kid, you’re annoying but, me and you are ride or die now.”

  “Let's keep any and all die out of it, Ray.”

  Raymond shrugs, “You know just cause you dress like that priss Spider-Man don’t mean you need to follow em’s rules. Besides, they’ve kept me down there for... fuck I don’t know, a long fuckin time, each and everyone of em deserve to be pasted, and then some.”

  “Look just,” PK runs his hand down his face, “just repay me for getting you out by not killing anyone alright?”

  “Sure, s’long they don’t come after me.”

  “You’re strong enough that you don’t need to kill them if they do.”

  “Eh, it’d send da right message though.”

  PK pinches the ridge of his nose, “Look if we’re going to have a problem, lets just—”

  Tim stops, picking up on the approach of Lance’s drone. Ray points his hand at it, but PK puts his hand up and shakes his head.

  “Prehistoric Kid, I’m glad you escaped. I was readying myself to come and break you out.”

  “Didn’t want you to waste your time.” PK wink and gestures up to Raymond. “Ray this is uh...” PK snaps a few times. “Techno.. Digi... Digimon uh... Digitizer!”

  “I do not digitize things.”

  “Shhh Digi.” PK winks.

  “You better not give me any stupid fucking name or I’ll clobber you.” Ray curls his face in disgust.

  “Uh huh, anyways, what’s your plan now.”

  “Dunno, split between recharging and coming back to level this place or flying to cancoon and seeing if I can still fuck.”

  “Ok.” PK rubs a temple, what has he gotten himself into? Creature apparently picks up on his growing annoyance, and pushes his face against Tim’s like a cat looking to get pets. He smiles and scratches under Creature’s chin, then looks back up to Ray.

  “Mind putting a pin in that?” Tim points out into the distance. “Go to the Jones scrapyard that way, we can help each other. There’s a lot going on in the world that makes it not safe for people like us.

  “You’re telling me.” He huffs. “It wasn’t long after I ended up like this some other freaks jumped me and brought me here.”

  “Other freaks huh?”

  “Yeah, one of em could shoot ice out his hands ‘n shit.”

  PK and the drone turn to each other, then back to Ray.

  “Well, once you’re at the scrapyard I will share everything that we’re aware of regarding any immediate dangers. I am more than happy to meet you there.”

  “ ‘Preciate that. May as well head over now, need to start re-juicing anyways.” Ray nods and blasts off into the night sky.

  “I’ll head over there too, besides, I can’t take Creature home.” PK pats his head, Creature leaning into it.

  “I assume its an Arch experiment?”

  “Part of their exotic pet program, but one that went through the silver flash and got hit with my explosion.”

  “Interesting, there’s a lot of heavy implications there. I’ll share the data with Becca.”

  “Yeah, I’ll see you soon, and Digi...”

  “Yes?”

  “Keep a close eye on Ray. Quick summary, Arch used him like a battery and he might want revenge, but... I don’t know, just keep an eye on him.”

  “Of course.”

  Raymond Parker, was setting him free the right decision? Of course it is, he’s a person, he’s a person and Arch has been using him as a battery for God knows how long. For Tim, for a superhero like Prehistoric Kid, there was simply no other option. But what if Ray has killed someone like he wanted to? Kills someone, like he wants to, what then?

  If only that’s the only thing Tim can think about as he, Creature, and the drone make their way to the junkyard, his head being pulled in a million different directions at once now. Still, he fights to keep Ray the priority, what he might do, and as unsatisfying as it is to Tim, the only solution he can think of is a simple one. Make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone.

  Tim lands in the scrapyard and quickly finds Lance sitting in the back of the van, typing away on a laptop as Ray collects batteries in a pile, his hands distorting into tendrils and pushing their way inside, leeching them dry.

  Kirby Dots leak from the tip of his finger, and he fires out a blast, Tim flinching as he hears a squeal. He glares at Ray as he makes his way over to the tiny screams, finding a rat with a hole in its back, still alive.

  “Damn, that fight took a lot out of me, should’ve splattered the fuckin thing.” Ray shrugs and points the gun at another spot.

  “Stop.” Tim orders clearly, reaching his hand down to the suffering rodent, his life sense trying to pull his hand away from putting it out of its misery.

  “You serious? You a fuckin vegan or something? They’re fuckin rats you fa... fruitcake.”

  “No, I’m not a vegan.” Tim flexes his hand just above the rat, but Creature stretches his paw over, and quickly breaks its neck. PK sighs and pets his new friend, "Not a vegan, bt I don’t like to see any animal suffer.”

  “Sure left a lot of em to suffer in the basement.”

  “Yeah? Maybe I should’ve left you too.” PK snaps.

  “Yeah? Turning on me already huh? You know what? Say that again to my face.” Ray snaps back, tossing another battery to the ground and walking up to PK.

  PK scoffs, “Gonna square up to the kid who just saved you huh?”

  “Say it again.” Ray puffs out his chest.

  “Get out of my face Ray, you don’t stand a chance against me.”

  Ray puts his face inches away from Tim’s, “Say it again.”

  “Ahem.” Lance clears his throat. “Raymond, I’ve found material throughout the yard that will help your stay be more comfortable.”

  “Saved by your boyfriend, kid.” Ray turns, shoving his shoulder into Tim as he passes.

  Tim nearly decks him in the mouth, but restrains himself and takes a seat on a stack of metal, petting Creature as Lance directs Ray to different spots to collect different items.

  After he flies off, Lance approaches Tim and sits by him.

  “I am sorry things have grown even more complicated.”

  “It's not your fault.”

  “Not in full.”

  “Not in full?” Tim tilts his head.

  Lance nods, taking off his mask and looking up into the starless sky, the city lights drowning them out.

  “I am sorry... that I could not do more against Tesla.”

  Tim freezes, how could he be so stupid? Inconsiderate? This day has been a lot for him, so of course it's been a lot for Lance too.

  “You did all you can.”

  “As did you, and yet...”

  Tim shakes his head, “I messed up, I made the ceiling fall, Lance, I threw a punch I shouldn’t have and... And now maybe I’ve let out something I shouldn’t have.”

  “Perhaps...” Lance puts a hand in his pocket, fiddling with something.

  “Sorry, you’re upset, we should be talking about you, I should be helping you feel better.”

  “We are, in a sense. I suspect we’re suffering from the same feeling, Tim. Anything you say to me, applies to you, and vice versa.”

  “Heh, maybe that’s why I’m just... venting back then. I don’t want to feel better.”

  “I the same, not yet at least. But, something I do want to do, is improve.” Lance pulls something from his pocket, and pushes it into Tim’s hand. “Incase no one has said it yet, Tim, it wasn’t your fault.”

  Tim raises an eyebrow, and looks at his palm. Sitting there, gleaming in the flood lights, is an opal earring. Tim feels a choke welling in his throat, but suppresses it, and lets out a sigh.

  “None of it is your fault either.” Tim says, rolling the opal with his thumb.

  “And yet, we both believe that to be up to interpretation.”

  “And yet...” Tim pats Lance on the shoulder.

  “You should be getting home.” Lance puts his mask back on. “II will tend to Raynd and Creature. You, on the other hand, need to attend to yourself.”