Pa.s.sing out usually meant the end of pain, but in Laz's case, even in that darkness, he could feel it. The constant churning of his internal energy ball with the explosive bits of power it kept shooting off kept hitting him, even when he couldn't open his eyes. In the darkened dream realm, he felt like he was floating while constantly being pelted by fiery rocks.

And to top it all off, he kept seeing memories of Kat floating by.

The time they spent together.

The time they trained together.

Her cooking.

Her smile.

Her laugh.

Compared to the pain in his body, the pain in his heart was much worse.

But he endured it, he had to. He had no other choice. And he wasn't about to give up here. Especially now that there was someone he had to kill. So no matter what kind of pain came his way, Laz endured.

Had he not been so focused on what was going on around him, Laz might had noticed a particularly small green light off in the distant of his subconscious, one that was actively monitoring him. Of course the light knew that he would never notice it hence why it didn't bother to hide. If it did, there would be no way he would ever notice it. At least not at the level he was at right now.

In the outer reaches of Laz's internal darkness, the light hovered and watched, but didn't move. Nor did it make any sort of attempt to communicate. That small green light was nothing more than a wisp of a very powerful being's spiritual sense. Feeling the pain that Laz was enduring on multiple levels, it had made it's way over through the connection that they share. Although it was a bit surprised at first at the growth of the young man, it was still within the realm of normal for the being. Laz's growth was, after all, nothing special among her people.

It's was Laz's nameless master that had enslaved him, checking in on him. The reasons she was doing this were things only she knew and things that Laz might never know. He didn't know that he was slightly important to her. At least, he might be. Laz was marked with her symbol after all, the blood moon behind the black leafless tree, and because of this, he had to perform to her expectations. Currently, her expectations were incredibly low for him and she was looking for others to carry her banner as well. Strangely though, she couldn't find others to suit her taste, so to speak. This somewhat puzzled her.

'I wonder why he stood out? And why I can't find another like him? These humans are far too weird to understand in a short amount of time. And the time we have is running a bit short..'

'Sigh."

The blue hair princess couldn't help but feel a bit sorry. She was getting pressure from her elders for her lack of personal. Her sister's had already found many candidates that suited them, but she wasn't able to do the same.

'Whatever. It isn't as though there is no time... He's growing well though, for his people. And it looks as though he will get through this too. Did he think that power would just come without pain? Jumping a level like that and moving around like there was nothing to it. He's just lucky he didn't die. Still, I probably should have told him a bit more so he would be ready. Ah well, the pain will do this little monkey good. It will teach him a bit about life...'

The s.e.xy princess' internal dialog finished up as she notice his body stabilize. It was time for her to go and for him to wake up.

...

The room was a bit different and yet a bit familiar. As Laz moved a bit, he felt the weirdly smooth silk sheets against his back while the soft velvet blanket was keeping him warm. There was no light on in the room.

'Where the h.e.l.l am I? Some sort of hotel?' The first thought that entered Laz's head was that this wasn't a room he was familiar with. As he started to move though, he felt something a bit heavy on him start to move. Letting his eyes adjust for a minute, Laz was able to see a pair of eyes staring at him while the soft, black snout rubbed against his face.

"Vivi..." Of course Laz was able to recognize her right away.

"Arf..." Vivi gave a normal, animal like response before raising her paw up and patting Laz on the head. Then the patting became a bit slower while Vivi looked straight at Laz. Although he wasn't totally sure, Laz felt Vivi said, 'It's good that your ok. But don't you ever scare me like that again...'

"Yes mam," Laz just blurted out without thinking. Getting up, he stretched his legs a little only to find that his clothes had been changed. Looking down, Laz saw a pile of stuff at the end of the bed including his knapsack, helmet and jacket along with his thermoses filled with both the nectar and pond water he had stored in his place.

"Ok Vivi, what the h.e.l.l is all this and more importantly, where is this? It kind of reminds me of somewhere but I can't quite remember..." Since Vivi was the only one in the room, Laz naturally asked her. Vivi just shook her head like Laz was a fool and pointed at the door. Laz, taking the hint, walked over and opened it while Vivi laid back down.

"Oh? You're awake? Guess I win this bet."

"Shut up old man, no one wants to hear you gloat."

"Good Morning... well, evening anyway. How are you feeling?"

The three people who greeted Laz were natural Grandpa Crowe, Bill and Grandpa Chu. The three old men were sitting around on large, fluffy black couches that all three seemed to find very comfortable while playing cards. As Laz glanced around the room some more, something came back to him.

"Is this...?"

"Tony's place? Yeah. We brought you in here when we found you outside a few days ago." Grandpa Crowe informed him.

"A few days?"

"Yep. Four days to be exact. Didn't realize we were playing bible bingo here but whatever," Bill grumbled, somewhat unhappy about losing the bet. The old men seemed to be their normal selves, but Laz got the feeling that something was wrong. Standing there and looking at them, they all seemed to be a bit stiff, even while relaxing.

"Is there something up?"

"Told you this wasn't going to work," Bill said, sitting back. Grandpa Crowe also sat back and started rubbing the bridge of his nose while Grandpa Chu walked over.

"Mmm, about that. You see, some old friends of your grandpa and Bill came to visit and we've been ignoring them... But... We get the feeling they might try to force their way in shortly."

"What? What the h.e.l.l does that mean?"

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Instead of answering Laz, Grandpa Chu just pointed at the front window and Laz walked over to open the curtains.

"Careful, they don't know you're in here and we want to keep it that way," Grandpa Chu advised. Pulling back the curtains just a bit, Laz looked out to see several police cars along with a dozen unmarked cars parked in a circle around the parking lot behind the building. Although there were no lights or anything on, Laz could tell that they weren't just 'visiting.'

"Wait, isn't that Jesse from my school? And that a.s.s hat Tommy is here too?" Laz noticed several people he recognized standing outside. They looked as though they had been waiting there for a while while a few of the armed men had guns trained on the apartment door. Without knowing why, Laz knew there were more men spread all around the building.

"What the h.e.l.l is going on?" Laz asked in amazement. His head started to run a mile a minute as thoughts about what happened with the bug man and his police puppets flashed by. He wondered if he had caused this whole mess and how was he going to explain what happened? How did they even know?

"Long story. You should actually be more concerned about yourself right now," Bill answered.

"Myself?" Laz asked while looking down at himself. he didn't see anything strange until he noticed his hands. Since it was dark before, it wasn't really apparent, but in the light from the living room, he couldn't miss it. The skin on his hands had turned remarkable pale and white colored. Although he wasn't really tanned to begin with, Laz had a bit of color on his skin before. But not now. On top of that, he noticed his fingers hand gotten longer and looked far more delicate and even a bit more feminine that before. More so, the tips of his fingers were now a bit more pointed and less round than before, causing him to look even less male like.

"DA f.u.c.k?" Laz quickly undid his belt and stuck his hand in his pants, only feeling relieved when he noticed his little solder was still there and still the same. For a moment there, Laz felt like he might have turned into a girl.

"Well now, this might be a bit late, but, normally kids your age go through certain changes that affect them. Hair in funny places, your start to smell, thinking about girls, blah blah blah..." Bill just finished by saying blah while starting to rummage through the cupboards, finally pulling out a few bottles of Scotch from one of them.

"This... THIS... THIS ISN'T p.u.b.eRTY," Laz couldn't help but shout out.

"YEAH... I was a bit shocked the first time I got an erection too... and wet the bed. It's ok though, it pa.s.ses." The old guys all laughed at the same time while seemingly unconcerned.

"Laz, sit down for a moment," Grandpa Crowe patted the area next to himself while taking the bottle Bill handed to him and taking a few deep swallows. Laz walked over in a bit of a daze and sat down.

"Honestly, there is a lot to tell you and to talk about, but we don't have time. They've actually been waiting out there for a few days now and I'm sure they are tired of waiting. All I can say is this, even when we go with them, we will be fine. They won't hurt or kill us, we just won't be going anywhere else for a while," Grandpa Crowe explained.

'You're... leaving with them?" Laz started to really get that whatever was wrong, it had to do with the three seniors in front of him.

"Yes. It's from a long time ago, long before you were born. But we don't have time for that. You need to leave," Grandpa Crowe said while getting up. Bill and Grandpa Chu set aside their bottles and did the same thing, leading Laz over to the rather plush, red rug in the bedroom area.

"Now how did he say to use this?" Bill fiddled with the front leg of the bed while Vivi ran over and jumped into Laz's arms. She seemed a bit upset about her nap being disturbed but was also interesting in what was happening. The old men just ignored the wolf dog's actions. When Grandpa Crowe had first found Laz, it was because Vivi had noticed his return and that he had pa.s.sed out in the truck. After using a bit of strength while pounding on his door, she managed to get Grandpa Crowe's attention and he quickly called over Bill and Grandpa Chu. Had she not noticed his return, he might have frozen to death in the truck.

After that, Vivi just followed Laz around and slept with him while the old men took care of him. When they noticed the visitors showing up, they moved Laz and the few things of his that they thought he needed and headed over to Tony's place since it was a bit bigger and far more soundproofed. All this led to Laz being able to sleep peacefully and stabilize his body at the same time. Now, it was also going to allow him to escape.

"Upper left, turn once and bend it to the right," Grandpa Chu instructed Bill while Bill was looking for something.

"AH HA." When he finally found it, they head a click and the plush rug swung upwards, revealing a s.p.a.ce large enough for them to climb down into the apartment below.

"Alright Laz, we grabbed what we could although I'm sure there was a lot we missed. But it doesn't matter now. When you leave here and they lead us out, this whole building is going to go up in flames..." Grandpa Chu explained.

"What? Why?" Laz was confused.

"Tony has left a lot of unnecessary s.h.i.+t, including this escape hatch and that thing which he rigged to burn the place down as a last ditch fail safe. I honesty wonder what the h.e.l.l he was thinking but it's actually a benefit to us in the end. After we leave, I don't want anyone else to have it so it's probably better to just level it. None of us are coming back to here. Not even you Laz. Get downstairs and get ready. As soon as you see all of us loaded up and they take us out of here, that's your time to get going as they were probably sweep all of the apartments before they leave. You can't be found, no matter what." Bill finished his explanation before looking at both Grandpa Chu and Grandpa Crowe.

"Here Laz," Grandpa Crowe pa.s.sed Laz a set of keys.

"What are these for?" Laz asked while holding them. One looked like a car key and one was his bike key that he had left at Bill's.

"When you get to Bill's place, go to the brown barn on the far edge of the property, you know, the one that borders the other side of the road? What you will need is in there along with the things we prepared for you. From now on, you'll be on your own Laz, so you need to take care of yourself." Laz wasn't able to hold back and gave his grandpa a hug. He didn't know what was going on and he wasn't about to get answers. On top of that, they were going to separate as soon as Laz had woken up. It was almost too much to take. But Laz was doing his best not to let it show.

"Don't forget to take good care of this and bring it with you. You'll be fine kid, I promise." Bill handed him Last Rites which had been sitting in Laz's room when they went to get his stuff. In return, Bill got a hug as well from Laz.

"No matter what, don't come and try to find us," Grandpa Chu lectured him while getting a hug as well.

"Then what should I do?" Laz felt blank and totally lost at the moment. None of this was really registering with him so he wanted to make sure that he asked for a direction before he left. Otherwise, he was afraid he would just stop at some point and not be able to keep going.

"Look for your parents. Last time I heard from them, they were in Was.h.i.+ngton D.C. Start there, they might need your help," Grandpa Crowe advised.

"Ok, DC. Got it." Laz said while nodding his head. Vivi had been following the conversation the entire time too. She could feel that Laz was out of it and would need her help soon.

Laz quickly picked up his knapsack and the duffel back they had prepared for his helmet and other loose stuff. It was well insulted and therefore very quiet.

"Go on. Wait until you see us go. You'll have 5 minutes from the time we head out the door," Grandpa Crowe reminded Laz.

Turning to take one last look at the three seniors who had been a big part of his last two years, Laz fought back his tears as he went down the ladder into the apartment below.