"it's gonna be okay"

~40~

George woke with a start, hitting his head against a wall he was slumped against.

"Ow," he complained, reaching back to feel his head, but found that his hand was covered in metal.

He blinked, vision coming back into focus.

He was in a dim room, only lit by the few streams of light, illuminating a table and chair in the middle of the room, and across from him, a young boy curled up in a ball in the corner of the room.

"Hello?" George asked, trying to stand up, but realizing that his left hand was stuck to the wall, under a mess of scrap metal.

"Kid, where are we?"

The child didn't move from his spot, just rocked back and forth, humming a soft tune that was familiar, but he couldn't quite place.

"Hey, who are you? What's going on-"

It was in that moment that George realized that this kid was probably in as much trouble as he was. So he tried again.

"Um, hey," he said, softer. "I'm George, what's your name?"

He gave no answer, but lifted his head, making eye contact with George.

He had a curly mop of dark brown hair and huge dark eyes that were welled with tears.

The boy replied softly, "Kylie."

"Hi Kylie, do you know where we are?"

He uncurled from his little ball, sitting up slowly.

"They captured you and your friends. He made Harris do that."

The kid pointed at his metal "glove" and the hand stuck to the ground.

"Who's he?" George asked, trying to get closer to the boy, but failing miserably with his arm stuck to the ground.

"He's in charge. Some of the other kids call him the king. He doesn't like me very much, so he makes me wait here. But they ran out of rooms, so they put you in here. He's mean."

George considered his options.

He could wait it out, see what else was going on.

But then again, that'd probably just lead to his death, along with the rest of his friends.

Maybe he could communicate with the rest of them.

"CLAY!" he mentally screamed.

"CLAY CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

"Shit."

There was no answer.

His final option was to get the kid to let him free and somehow rescue the rest of his friends without getting killed, and then kill the "king" guy who captured them. And his little minions.

He decided to go with the latter.

"Kylie," he tested. "Hey kid."

The boy, who had resumed rocking in a ball, looked up.

"What?"

"Okay, listen. My friends are in trouble and if I don't get to them, they're going to get hurt. Will you help me?

The child made a strained face, like he wasn't sure of his decision.

Finally, he said, "Okay."

Tentatively, he got up and walked over to his metal covered hand, tapping it.

At his touch, the metal separated, falling away from his hand.

Kylie turned to his other hand, tapping the metal once again, and it fell away.

Immediately after George had his hands free, Kylie backed away into the corner again.

"Hey, hey," George assured him. "I'm not going to hurt you, okay? I'm gonna get you out of here too."

The kid nodded, then pointed to the door.

"They lock it when the guards are on break. What are you going to do?"

"This."

George took a step back, taking a breath, and kicked the door, right below the doorknob.

Nothing happened.

So he tried it again.

He missed slightly, ramming his toe into the handle.

"Ah, shit!" he cursed, hissing in pain.

"I mean shoot," he corrected himself.

But kicking down the door using brute strength was obviously doing nothing. So George placed a hand on the door, seeing if he could heat it up, hot enough to break. But the doorknob remained as cool as it was before.

"What the hell?" he muttered, confused.

Kylie scuffed his shoe on the concrete floor, making a soft shuffling noise.

George, frustrated, took note of the scraps of metal on the floor. He realized he could probably pick the lock.

He took two straight pieces of metal, one thinner than the other, and stuck the bigger one in the lock, turning it.

He then used the other one to prod around the lock, until finally, it turned.

"Huh. That was simple."

He turned to the kid shuffling around behind him.

"Come on, we gotta go before the guards return from their break."

Kylie didn't look up, still making shuffling noises with his shoes.

"Come on, kid."

George reached out to grab him by the arm, but he jumped back, suddenly looking up at him in fear, arms crossed over his chest.

"Please don't touch me, I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry, are you okay?"

"Don't hurt me, it was an accident."

"No, no, it's fine. You didn't do anything wrong."

"It was an accident."

"I won't hurt you, don't worry. But you didn't do anything wrong, why are you apologizing?"

Kylie looked at his hands like someone who'd never seen them before, turning them over, and examining every little detail of them.

"I can take away people's powers," he finally said. "And when I'm close to someone, they can't use their powers as good as before."

George's expression softened.

"Oh," was all he said.

Kylie held out one of his hands, touching George's outstretched one.

As soon as their skin made contact, George jumped, feeling a sharp jolt where the boy's fingers touched his arm.

"Jesus christ," he muttered, shaking his hand.

"Well regardless, we've gotta go, okay? It's now or never."

Kylie took a moment, before nodding and replying softly, "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay."

"Just let me get my sheepie."

From a little hole in the wall, Kylie retrieved a dusty sheep plush, holding it close in a tight embrace.

And with that, George led the way out of the room, into a long hall, Kylie following him not too far behind.

He was going to save his friends. 

a/n: hehe this chapter took wayyy to long to write, but then again, it is almost a thousand words a lot more than some of my other chapters.

does anyone remember kylie from some of spifey's videos literally that kid needs to be protected at all costs.

thank you all for 20k reads! on a side note, some of your guys' reading list names are hilarious i love them all. ilyyyy!