Who woulda thought?

Ch.4

As I stand there, staring at Cooper for the first time in years, a cacophony of thoughts race through my mind.
What is he doing in this timeline?
Why did he come here?
Will he be able to remain stable here?
How did he get here?
My friends begin to ask me questions yet I don't answer them. My mind is still racing with thoughts and qeustions.
*SMACK!*
Pain shoots through my cheek as I'm pulled back to reality.

"Oww! Why did you slap me, Aiden?"

"Because you spaced out again and wouldn't answer our questions."

"Well still you didn't need to slap me."

"Anyways." Busy says trying to divert the conversation "Who exactly is this guy?"

She points to Cooper and he waves

Well there's no point in trying to fake this one.
I sigh as I begin to explain who he is.

"Well, Cooper here is one of my oldest friends, I've known him since Sencond grade. He posses the same powers as I do and is hunted by The Chasers as well. Him and I hung out all the time and when we discovered our gifts, we would have little sparring sessions every now and then.
Until the day came when The Chasers caught us. Cooper and I were able to get away, but he left 'him' behind."

As I began talking about 'him', I staeyes to get choked up.

"He wasn't strong enough to fight them off and got captured then, as far as we know they-"

I tried to say that he was killed but I couldn't, my emotions took control. I began sobbing as did Cooper. When I finally pulled myself together all I could hear was the chirping of birds and the wind blowing through the pine trees.

"So yea," I say through ragged breaths
"there's the backstory on Cooper and I. Anything you want to add Cooper?"

"Yea, when Paxton said that he had the same powers that wasn't completely true, while our powers do indeed stem from the same source, they are actually quite different. You see, Paxton's powers are mainly used defensively, like generating shields and teleporting to dodge. He can also reflect attacks and generate drones.
While he is still able to attack by firing lasers, he is better suited for and prefers defense.
On the contrary, I am better offensively. I'm able to create swords and use magic missiles. But we make such a good team because our powers match up well together, almost like whoever gave them to us meant for us to be a team."

"Well yea but tomatoe tamatoe."

"In other words, he protec and I attec."

"God damnit" Hailey says as she places her hand across her face.

"Hey the joke was there!" Cooper says through his laughter.

"Anyways, what exactly were we doing before Cooper came?" Busy asks

Oh yea I completely forgot.

"Right, we were going to an old friends place to help you guys discover your powers so we can defeat The Chasers and free everyone!"

"That is WAY easier said than done, and what makes you think that these guys have the capability to posses powers?" Cooper asks

"I dunno, but I just know that they can, I feel it in me bones. TIBIA honest, I'm kinda wingin' it at this point."

"Are you kidding me!?" Hailey yells "You're "wingin' it"?! What if we die?!"

Oh jeez I'm taken aback by Hailey's tone. She almost never talks like that.
Spooked me a bit.

"Look we won't die, I know you guys have potential. I just need you to trust me."

"Fine. But if we die I'll kill you"

"Alright! Well lets continue our journey then"

We continue trekking through the forest. The sounds of birds and the crunching of pine needles underneath our feet fill the forest. The smell of pine fills the area and wafts through the air. While we walk, everyone begins talking about normal stuff like anime which I have no idea what they mean because I'm they only one who doesn't watch anime in our group. I don't even know how many dere's there are, or what a baka is. Then we start talking about games which I know a LOT about. After a couple minutes my head starts racing with thoughts again, I begin trying to form a plan for what we are going to do, but I can't think about anything except dinner.

"Hey guys, do you think we should set up camp at the cave right there?" I point to a little cave not to far from here. "It's getting pretty dark."

Everyone agrees and we begin to unpack and start a fire.

"Hey Paxton, where is the lighter?" Busy asks me.

"I didn't pack one, silly."

"Well then how do you expect to start a fire then?"

"Magic" I say as I flick my finger towards the fire, I tiny fireball shoots out and ignites the wood, not too long afterwards we have a crackling campfire. The smell of fire begins to fill the air.

"Well look at you fancy pants." Busy says in a playful tone

"I guess I'm on FIRE."

Everyone laughs as they gather around the campfire. Cooper then gets some hot dogs out of his bag and we start cooking them on the fire. Once everyone has finished we began making s'mores and we start to tell stories. The sweet smell of marshmallow and the sound of laughter fills the air.

After everyone has finished eating we bein to unpack the sleeping mats and set them inside the cave. Its then that I realize that there is only four mats.

"Oops, guess we didn't acomedate for Cooper."

"That's fine." Busy says "Me and you can just share one."

"Alright cool"

As we begin getting ready to go to sleep Aiden says.

"Hey what about that giant open area right in front of us? A bear could just walk up here and murder us while we sleep."

"Oh yea." I say "Here watch this."

I wave my hand and a soft green aura is cast around the cave.

"There, now no animals can get in."

"Wow! That was so cool!" Hailey exclaims

"Well, I did say he is very good with protection right?" Cooper remarks

Everyone begins to lay down and go to sleep.
But before I do, Busy turns over to face me, I can see the look of worry and anxiety.
She scoots closer and gently grabs my shirt collar. (Don't worry, no lemon)

"Is everything ok?" I quietly ask her

"No! I'm really worried about everyone and about what if we can't stop The Chasers? What if they kidnap us and start killing us? What if they kill you? I can't bear to stand the thought of that. I'm really worried."

I can see and hear that she has started crying a little. I put my arms around her and pull her into a tight embrace. She burrows her face into my chest and I pull her closer.

"You don't need to worry. Don't worry about the what ifs. I promise you that it will all turn out ok. I've gotten away from them before and that was even before I could teleport. I swear to you everything will be ok. I promise."

"Ok, I trust you."

She wraps her arms around me as well and I rest my head on hers. We remain like that for a while. Without even talking we both decided we should go to sleep. She looks up at me and I can see I twinkle in her eyes. I then start to kiss her and I feel the touch of her lips on mine, I see her cheeks turn red, even in the darkness.
She smiles at me and then drifts off to sleep with her arms still around me. After a minute of making sure she was really asleep, I fall asleep too arms still wrapped around her in a warm embrace.

---------------------end of ch.4---------------------