Ashley Smith's Story

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The same questions he had when he drove away were still going through his head passing the first town away from Paradise. He know he had been followed, he just didn't know if he'd done the right thing in driving away. Even worse, he had left Sam behind. If his followers were Mogs, they might figure out Sam was a way to get to John. Bernie Kosar lay next to John seemingly asleep. For the first few miles he had been tugging at John's clothes as to indicate they should go back, but John still thought leaving had been the right thing to do.

A burning light on his dashboard distracted him from his train of thoughts. He was running out of gas and as luck would have it he did not have any money on him. Wow John, you lasted about 30 miles on you own without fucking up. He saw a sign on the side of the road indicating a gas station was coming up. He parked on the side of the road and got out of the car. For a moment he could see Bernie head coming up, ever vigilant. From the back of the car he grabbed the fake license plates he and Henry had been using for years. He replaced them quickly before getting back in the car.

A few minutes later he pulled up at the gas station and filled up the tank. Getting into the gas market he overheard a conversation between the stock taker and the cash register employee. "I'm telling you, I only count 98 bottles of soda, not the 100 you told me there should be." They seemed more upset than they should be, especially if it only considers some drinks. John quickly put some candy bars in his pocket before walking to the cash register. "Hey, do you have any freshly baked bagels?" The man behind the counter looked at him with confusion in his eyes. "Okay, no worries." He walked out the door leaving the man confused. Strange, the question hadn't been that weird...

John got back in the car and drove off without ever paying. He saw the gas meter rising in the first 2 minutes and was glad he was on his way again. Only a few minutes later his phone started vibrating. Sam's smiling face appeared in the screen. John swiped his finger over the screen accepting the call. "Hey Sam, I thought I said I'd call you tonight. Are you all right?" There was a natural worry in his voice, not strange in this situation. "I'm all right John," he was happy to hear it was Sam's voice speaking, "it wasn't what you thought, or actually it was, but then she came and then it wasn't any more. She fixed it, isn't that awesome." His voice sounded excited, but confusing. What the hell is he talking about...? "Sam, calm down. What exactly happened?".

When Sam spoke again he sounded a bit calmer. "I can't tell you on the phone, John. Meet me as soon as possible at the Paradise welcome sign. I'll see you there. Sam hang up straight after. He left John speechless. He was somehow less worried than before, only he didn't know why. Sam's ranting should have only made him feel worse, but the joy in his voice calmed John down. He turned his car around and sped up. With almost double the speed he raced back to Paradise.

It was just over an hour that he was on the road to the welcome sign. In the distance he saw a car standing that he had not seen before. The figure sitting on the hood however was one of the most familiar faces in his life. He parked next to it and opened his door. "Hey Sam, where did you get the new car from?"[color] The smile on Sam's face surely was the same smile he had when calling John. Sam spoke like a teasing child: [color=blue]"I met another Alien, na, na, na na, na. He continued with a normal voice. "I met number 6, at least I think it is 6. In any case she is one of you."

John knew what he meant. He had the same smile on his face that he'd had when he'd found out John was alien. However, John was not inclined to believe this that easily. "Stay here..." The look on John's face was one of mistrust and vigilance. He walked through the small patch of tall grass and saw a girl standing there. She must have been about his age, and the first thing he noticed was her bare legs with the marks on it. She was tall and she looked like she could handle herself. He wasn't sure what to say, he didn't know if the marks were convincing enough for him. "Not to be rude or anything, but you honestly can't think I believe you right away when you say you're an alien. So why don't you tell me something convincing enough for me not to get in my car with my friend, and drive the hell away from this place?" He didn't know what to expect, it wasn't like he had been in a situation like this before.

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The girl reacted in equal hostility, something he should have expected. Although surprised he was happy she did react the way she did, it was easier to react to this than it was to react to the damsel in distress. The girl was pretty, somehow familiar to him in a way he couldn't describe. If she was who she said she was it would be the first time John met someone from his home planet, except for Henry of course. The idea excited him, but he tried to remain hostile for Sam and his own safety.

How big is the chance she is a Mog-trap? he thought to himself. He heard about their disguises, but this disguise was hard to believe. Before he could think to much about it she walked right up to him, without him moving an inch. If needed he could always blast her away with telekinesis, it was not perfectioned, but it was powerful.
"So you want some form of proof?" She paused a moment for emphasis "Well allright then."
John readied himself for what was coming, but however he tried to do that, it did not prepare him for her dissappearing right in front of him. Before she reappeared he widened his stance and leaned on his right leg as Henry told him to. She came into view again quickly several yards away from him. His surprise changed into combat preparation when she disappeared once again.

Seconds later he felt a jerk at his left ankle when she tried to trip him. Although not entirely successful he still had to keep himself steady by landing his left knee on the grass. Her teasing words would have at one moment angered him, but not now. He was impressed, and even more important, he was convinced. Invisibility was not a power of the Mogs, and certainly not of humans. "Your reaction time was kind of slow there, maybe you're the one who should be showing me proof, hmm?"
Happy as John was to meet one of his kind, he was not reay to put all his card on the tabe. His telekinesis, his ace in the hole, he would keep to himself for now. He held out his hands with the palms facing the girl. Without words and without warning he activated his Lumen power as quickly an as bright as he possibly could. His own eyes hurt from the excessive light coming from his hand. "Consider it proven..." he said with a smirk on his face.

The girl sighed and spoke again with what seemed annoyance. "Where's your guardian? And if you're leaving Paradise, what exactly is your plan, or are you acting on emotion without really thinking anything through?"
The question regaring his guardian threw up a feeling of sadness. If Henry had lived just a bit longer he would have met her. "Henry, my guardian, died last week after we were ambushed by Mogs. And I was leaving Paradise because someone followed me, so no real plan there, but a certain sense of urgency. He paused for a moment before he continued. "Your guardian dead too? Henry always said it was too dangerous for us to be together, but I guess we should now our legacies are manifesting. How exactly did you find me though?" He was wondering what mistakes he had made that had made it so easy for her to find him.

John walked back to his car and gestured for the girl to follow him. "Follow me to my house, I'll make us something to eat." Almost forgetting Sam he suddenly noticed the now much more quiet boy leaning against the hood. Without words he gestured for him to get in the car, and John himself took place behind the wheel. John once again noticed how silent Sam had become, he thought the boy was maybe shocked at the display between the two aliens. As a comforting sign he placed his hand on Sam's shoulder while he was driving and gave him an approving look. Honestly he didn't really know what to say. He never met an alien before...

Not long after there were two cars in the drive way where John and Henry had only moved in a few weeks earlier. He took the hastily packed away groceries out of the fridge and stored them properly. While the others said around the kitchen table he started preparing dough for the pan fried pizza. It didn't take long and on high fire the pizza's were done in about 30 minutes. After cutting them John put the two pizza's on the table and took the first slice for himself. "So..., it's nice to meet you and all..., but what do you suggest we do from here?By the way, just to formally announce I'm 4, but you can call me John."

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John was happy to see the pizza fell in good taste with his fellow alien. As he was taking a slice of pizza he watched 'Teen Titans, go' from the corner of his eye. Even though he wasn't concentrating on the storyline he was still terribly annoyed by Robin, like he always had been before. He felt strange for a number of reasons, first of all Henry had never enjoyed his pizza as much as the two new guests seemed to. Secondly, this was the very first time there was a girl in his house. Sam had been allowed by Henry before, but never had he allowed any girl on the premises. Although coming to think of it, none of the girls they met before were Loric.

John was thinking of the attack from the Mogs earlier. He was wondering if it was still save in Paradise. He knew the answer, and he knew what to do about it. Fleeing was something he had done for years, not just second nature, but more first default. And now more than ever he wasn't looking forward to the next move. He hadn't been in one town for this long in years. He'd gotten used to the people, he teachers, and most of all the take away meals from Lin-Wah.

Him introducing himself had been the first attempt to a conversation so far. He had thought that Sam would have been the one to ask all sorts of questions, but he was surprisingly quiet. John thought it might be because Sam was scared of what was going to happen. He had the feeling Sam never really had friends before John came along and that he was afraid it would change back when John and Ashley would hit the road.

"Well I'm Ashley, Ashley Smith. Seems both our guardians were 'uniquely' unoriginal." John had had many names before. Smith, Jones, Johnson, all of them just as plain normal as the next. Smith had somehow stuck to the first name John, as if the name had some historical meaning. Henry had kept that up since it was just about the most common name in the United States. John guessed he could choose any name he wanted to, but he had grown so used to John Smith that he did not want to change it.
John seemed to have broken the ice with his introduction. Ashley caught her voice and started laying out the plans for the next day. Listening to the plan John realized this was not her first rodeo.

He actually got excited when Ashley mentioned NY and DC. Henry never took him to the big cities. It had been an endless list of small-towns and forgetful hamlets. His initial excitement was gone quickly after Ashley admitted it was just a rouse to keep the Mogs off their tail. He didn't like the sound of North, it meant it was going to be colder, and he hated colder. He wanted to interject and maybe offer a counter proposal like Florida, but before he could, Ashley mentioned going into Canada. John was startled: "Don't you think Canada is overdoing it a bit...?" It took a few seconds before he realized that she said finding number 7. "unless you have a better plan?"

"Wait, wait, hold on... Finding number 7? Why are we looking specifically for 7? Do you have any idea where he is, is he in Canada?" He just was getting used to the fact that he met number 6, and now he was going to chase after another one. He felt blinded by 6's knowledge, her dedication and the fact she seemed to do it with ease. John was impressed, but not nearly as much as Sam was. His eyes had only grown bigger as the conversation went on. Ashley apparently didn't notice it as she gave him the quick and short. "You're a liability, if a Mog got a hold of you they'd make you crack in five minutes. I suppose it would be better to keep you in sight than have you stay here, but I don't know." Sam just stared her in the face, not finding the words to reply. John interjected: "Sam, snap out of it. Go home, get two bags of clothes and come back. If you want to tell your stepfather and mother anything, just tell them you're going camping for a few days. Here...," John grabbed the keys from the counter and threw them at Sam, who caught them without thinking,"use my car, and call me if something's wrong. We'll come to you as soon as we're done. We really need to go."

Without being told to, or not to, Ashley started packing the computer stuff. John sprinted upstairs to pack his own stuff. Thankfully there wasn't much for him to pack. He had been here for a while, but after learning from previous experiences he had never unpacked. He just grabbed the things that were left in the laundry and put them in a plastic bag. He would wash them in Ashtabula, or Canada, wherever they would have the time for it. In 5 minutes he had his stuff in the back of Ashley's car, while she simultaneously put in the silver suitcases that had belonged to Henry before. It made him realize there was a room he had not yet packed, Henry's old room.

Standing in the middle of it he realized now more than before that Henry was gone. He was a bit scared he was clinging onto Ashley a bit faster than he should. It was just so damn easy to not be in charge. On the other hand he did feel guilty. He was the man, he had powers, shouldn't he be the one leading?
The two suitcases belonging to Henry were under the bed. He almost panicked about the Loric box, until he suddenly realized it was at Sam's house. The box could only be opened by a Cepan together with one of the Loric children. The only way around this was for the Cepan to be dead, and come to think of it, he was. John would be able to open it by himself, but he felt no need to. In fact it scared him a bit. With the suitcases he walked down the stairs.

Down the stairs Ashley was waiting for him. "Are you ready to go? You can lead the way if that's okay, since you probably know this backwards state better than me." John looked around to see what else they might need. "Well, except for the groceries this is it. I'll just grab the power bars and drinks, I think we can leave the rest. Unless you like meats roasting in the back seat?" When they walked out of the door with the last things Bernie walked out with them. John had only met the dog in Paradise, but he wouldn't dare leaving him behind. Holding open the door the dog jumped in.

"Okay, I'll drive to Sam's for now. I thought we could maybe sell one of the cars when we pass through Cleveland. Maybe to someone on the way to NY? The Mogs could fall for it, don't you think?" He waited for her to respond. "I don't think we need two cars, especially when we will be taking things to Canada." He started the car and quickly drove to Sam's place. "You know, it might be better to use my pick up instead of this car. It has more space and is just the tiniest bit less conspicuous than this thing."

Sam was waiting for them with the bags already in the car. John got out of the car with Bernie following him. "Sam, you can get in the car with Ashley. Ah, don't look so nervous, 1 hour ago you had more questions for her than you ever asked me." He looked in the back of the pick up to make sure the small Loric box was there. After that he got in the car and drove past the Chevelle slowly to indicate Sam could follow him. Well Canada, apparently, here we come.

The next two hours or so were quite boring. Bernie had seemingly fallen asleep on John's lap and he could feel the dog's soft breathing. They were about 10 miles out of Cleveland when John felt he needed to take a leak. He put on his indicator to the next gas station. Counting on Sam not sleeping behind the wheel he took the turn and waiting for his companions to follow him. He parked the car in the parking lot and waited for them to pull up next to him. He stepped out of the car leaving Bernie to sleep inside. Maybe they would be able to sell one of the cars in this place, although they'd need to be lucky enough to have a buyer at hand.

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When John saw Ashley pulling up net to him he indicated to her that he needed to use the facilities. "Maybe we should get something to eat as well, unless your still full from the pizza's of course." He looked in Ashley's car to see if he could catch a glimpse of Sam, but the guy must have been sleeping as John didn't see him sitting up. He walked to the bathrooms and saw it wasn't needed to get a key from the shop, as was the case with many other gas stations. The moment he got inside he could also see why no key was needed, it didn't seem to be more than a few holes in the ground separated by small pieces of wood. Like I have any interest in watching another guy pee...

He saw he was not the only one, and by smell he could tell the other people in there were not cleaners. According to male unspoken custom he chose the hole furthest away from any of the other occupants. While doing his business he noticed the other people were finishing up. He was engrossed when they didn't wash their hands, but a minute later when he saw the water that came out of the taps he decided to skip them as well. John looked up and walked to the door where he found his way blocked by a big burly guy. "Excuse me.." he said as he sidestepped to get past the man. The man stood as a rock. "I'll get out of your way when you give me your cash. If not your not gonna leave for a while." John wasn't feeling up to this. It had been an eventful day, and an even more eventful week. He knew anything he would say now would be met with the same reaction. John was considerably smaller than the overgrown bully and the fact that John had inhuman powers was not written on his forehead. John was a sure chance, a done deal.

John didn't want to waste any time on him, it was time to move on to their destination. Before the man realized John's fist was going upwards towards the square jaw. With a force greater than that of a normal 20 year old he knocked the man out. Half falling down John grabbed him by his collar and swung him to the side so he wouldn't block the door. Although he didn't move, the man's chest was going up and down signing he was alive and well. He opened the door and walked out of the bathroom. A next person was ready to enter, but John put his hand on the man's chest. "Trust me, I would give it a few minutes." Without waiting for a reply he walked back to the car, silently hoping Ashey got him a soda.

When he was back at the cars Six walked towards him with an unhappy grimace on her face. "So, I was going to argue with you about the selling my car thing, since lets be honest - yours looks like crap and mine is pretty awesome, but with mine being so awesome it kinda attracts too much attention so...." John started to smile at her poor attempt to admit he was right. "Well, thank you for calling my car crap, that's a very nice thing to do..." She didn't hear him, or at least didn't acknowledge his statement and continued herself. "....I'm going to go see how much they'll give me for this baby. Meet you back in this area? Just stay close so I can find you and this hunk of junk when I'm done." John replied that he wouldn't move an inch until she got back.

He started helping unpacking the trunk of Ashley's car onto the pavement. He got confused when she started talking about Sam. Where was he in any case? He learned quickly where Sam was as Six opened the truck and Sam was shown laying there asleep, probably cold as ice. With a look of absolute disgust John had to look as a still half asleep and struggling Sam was exiting the truck. "That wasn't necessary, Ashley." he said resolute, although she didn't take any notice of it. John handed Sam the keys to the truck. "Can you help out with Bernie? Don't go too far, we might need to leave quickly." Six signed for John to help out with the equipment again. He handed it to her and she placed it carefully in the truck. As she covered the back with the leather cover she said she would be right back.

It only took about 5 minutes for Sam to come back still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. John tried to laugh it off, "Just go and continue your sleep in the front. And Sam, next time somebody tries to mess you around, just don't let them, especially if it's me. Sam half nodded and took a seat in the passengers seat. Bernie came and laid down at John's feet. He bent down a bit and rubbed the dog's head for a bit, waiting for Ashley to come back.

When she did come back she did so on a motorcycle, looking quite pleased with herself. "Cold hard cash and this bike, I call that a nice trade!" John had to admit there wouldn't hve been a lot of people that could pull off what she just did. Just as John wanted to speak Ashley took the words out of his mouth. "Ashtabula is only an hour away, once there we can relax under the guise of tourism." As he saw her sitting back on her motorcycle he opened the door to the drivers seat. Bernie jumped in and laid its head on Sam, who had also fallen asleep again. He leaned over the roof of his truck in order to address Ashley before they continued. "Mind if I lead the way again. I'm afraid that if you go in front I'll lose you within 10 minutes." He entered a pause, still doubting if he should say what he was about to say. Would it even have any effect on her? "One more thing, don't be so hard on Sam. He has more to bring to this than you realize at this moment. Finding Sam's father would give the answers to many of my, and possibly your, questions... I'll see you in Ashtabula." With that he got in the car and closed the door.

He started the car and as he did Bernie looked up for one moment. John looked at his dog and suddenly had the idea that his dog knew exactly what was going on. Shaking it off he turned on his indicator and drove back to the highway. For the time of the day it was very busy on the road. Every now and than John checked his mirror to see if Ashley was still following, which seemed to be the case. As she had said before it only took them about an hour before they arrived in the small town that was their destination for the day. He continued driving until he saw a sign for a motel somewhere near the town centre. John knocked Sam in the shoulder. "Wake up, we're here." He parked again next to the motel and got out of the car. Both John and Sam got out of the car and waited for Ashley to show up. "So, John, what is our guise as tourists? Two brothers and their sister?" John laughed and turned towards his travel partner. "Haha, it would work, if it were not that we don't look anything alike, none of us." Maybe Ashley has a nice idea, she seems to have more experience in this.