Cyrus Stout and The Wonders About

~Eight~

"What?" I cried.

Stephanie shot Eileen a glance.

"I'll show you," Eileen offered cryptically, stepping up towards me.

She led me off into a dark, blank hallway and held out her hand, which began to glow.

"A long time ago," Eileen began. On the wall appeared a scene of a galaxy. "There was a big star, just outside your dimension, Esrevinu, and he was very lonely."

The picture zoomed in on a big, bright star that caused something to heat up in my chest.

"He had spent all his life admiring a young woman on Earth."

It zoomed in on Earth to show a young, blonde woman smiling for a photo.

"Celia Stout."

My mom?!

The picture zoomed back out to the star.

"So, one day, the star decided that he would go down to Earth to pursue her."

The picture showed the star exploding into the form of a human man. The photo zoomed in on the man's chest, turning into a silhouette to show the very same star that the man had previously been beating inside his chest. This made my heart beat even faster.

"And so, he went down to Earth, and very soon, his beloved returned his feelings."

The picture showed the man and my mom kissing, but it cut off to show a silhouette of my mother's stomach to show.... well.... a baby (me) with, well...... the heart that had been inside the star man inside of the baby's chest.

"And the star knew that once Celia had the baby, his essence inside of the child would stay and he would be gone forever."

"D-does that mean I've got that... star heart thing, too?"

"It's rude to interrupt," Eileen snapped.

The image of the baby boy silhouette began to grow up, the star still pulsing and growing inside of him (me?).

"And the star's essence continued to grow and thrive inside of the boy. It lived on top of his heart, sucking all the life out of it so that it could continue to live."

Then, Eileen snapped her fingers and the walls went red.

"And then it was high time that the essence was removed from the boy and put back in its rightful place," she growled, her teammates appearing ominously from the darkness behind her.

"B-but wouldn't that kill him?" I stuttered.

"Precisely," Stephanie cackled from the back of the crowd. She then glanced around at her 'S.T.O.R.M.ies'. "Get him. I want him dead or I don't want him."

"Ah, damn, I am definitely getting tired of all these fake rescues," I complained, backing up as far as I dared from the approaching troupe of super disasters.

"Think fast!" Came an unfamiliar voice from the ceiling, and an arrow hit Tyler right in the neck. Tyler shrunk to the ground and the figure jumped from the ceiling. He was clothed in a mixture of brown leather and green leaves, and he wore a quiver on his back and held a bow in his hand. "What's up?" He said cooly before summersalting across the room and shooting another arrow, causing Harry to fall to the floor.

More people began to drop from the ceiling : a tall guy with a rifle, a scrawny guy with a fistful of fishing net, a young girl holding a large stick, a young, shorter boy with a larger stick, and a tall girl wearing metal wings.

Rifle Guy immediately sent a few shots, taking down Emma, Harry, and Stephanie. Fishing Net scooped up the pint-sized Dayna and Eileen and slung them, defenseless, over his shoulder. Archer guy shot several arrows, hitting only a still-standing and quickly healing Stephanie. The boy and the girl immediately began hitting Tyler and Emma, both still standing, mercilessly. And the winged girl flew - yes, actually flew - above us all, surveying her teammates' damage.

Finally, when they seemed to decide that they were finally done mauling them, they all turned to me.

"Please, please, please tell me you don't want to kill me," I begged.

The boy laughed. "Why would we do that? We're here to save you, Cyrus."

"I know I've heard that before."

The girl stepped in front of her friend, a bold look on her face. "He's not kidding. We're not going to kill you, Cyrus, we promise."

I took in a breath. "Fine. I trust you."

Then Metal Wings swooped down and scooped me up, ready to take me to their portal on the ceiling, but she glanced at Net Boy, who still had an unconscious Dayna and Eileen in his net, and exclaimed, "Mosquito! You're not seriously considering taking them with us, are you?"

The guy, Mosquito, shrugged. "What? They'd roast up real nice. And this little one with some tartar sauce-"

"Mosquito!" The guy with the rifle cried. "Leave the S.T.O.R.M.ies."

Mosquito huffed and said, "You guys are no fun." He then reluctantly dumped the two girls out of his net.

As we all got in the portal, Stephanie stood up, blood waterfalling from her chest and her face gross and distorted from the fight (she seemed to have some kind of healing power), looked up at us, and pointed an angry finger. I could hear her saying, in my head, "We're coming to get you, Cyrus Stout. All of us."

Then the portal closed.

Here we go again.