Jake finished weeding with Ty perched like a pirate's parrot on his shoulder.
When the chore was done, Jake went inside to wash off. Ty scrambled down
his arm and sat at the edge of the sink. As Jake got undressed to take a
shower, Ty heard Dustin creeping carefully down the hall outside. Jake was
already under the water and wasn't paying any attention to him, so he jumped
off the sink, using his power to break the fall. Ty scurried out into the hallway
and saw Dustin grabbing a snack from the cupboard.
Ty snickered as he got an idea. Dustin had always been a big eater. He had to
constantly go on short dieting sprees to keep his weight low enough to maintain
his position as quarterback. Ty decided to play some mind games with Dustin.
As Dustin ate the whole bag, which Ty knew he would, each handful of chips
he ate, he would lose some weight. Not enough to make him scrawny, but
enough to be noticeable. Each handful would also make him a better
quarterback. But in reciprocal, each handful would make him feel like doing
something nice for Jake.
As Dustin strolled back through the livingroom up to the steps with a handful of
chips already in his mouth, he saw Ty staring up at him with a weird animal
grin.
"Isn't it bad enough you're in my house?" Dustin asked, miffed. "Don't judge me,
too!"
Dustin stomped upstairs, confused and angry, which only served to make him
down more handfuls of chips. As he sat down on his bed, he noticed that he
wasn't sinking as far as normal. He shrugged it off and continued to eat. But all
the while, he kept thinking of how he could do stuff for Jake.
"Why would I want to do anything for that dweeb?" he wondered. But he
couldn't deny that he wanted to be nice to Jake. "I'll do something small. That
way I'll get this off my chest without really doing anything."
Getting up, Dustin went back downstairs to the kitchen. He was glad to see that
Jake's new pet wasn't there. He went over by the basement door and opened
up a box. He turned off the lawn sprinklers that were running. He knew that the
shower didn't get much water pressure while they were running, Jake should
appreciate getting a proper shower.
'There,' Dustin thought, 'Now I can go back to my room.'
But once up there, he started eating more chips. As he did, the feeling
returned, stronger this time. He grabbed his head in frustration and ran out his
bedroom door.
Ty chuckled from behind Dustin's door as he watched him run over to what was
now Jake's room. He began to clean various things, then ran back, ate another
handful of chips, and ran back to clean more. As Dustin ran back in for another
handful of chips, Jake got out of the shower and headed for his room. He was
blocked by Dustin going back with his old Playstation II and a box of games.
"Here," Dustin huffed, worn out from rushing back and forth, "You wanted this
last year when I got my new one. Take it!"
He handed the video games to Jake, ran back into his room and slammed and
locked the door. Meanwhile, Ty had gone over to Jake's room and waited for
the boy on his bed. Jake walked in muttering to himself about what was wrong
with Dustin. He saw Ty, then looked around at his spotless room and the video
games in his hands.
"You did this?" he asked with suspicion. Ty nodded his little otter head. "What
are you?"
Ty didn't think it was just quite the time to tell Jake, so he shook his head
gently.
"You won't tell me?" Ty gestured again. "Well, I guess you are helping me. You
can stay."
Ty rolled his eyes in an "I was going to anyways" expression and hopped off
the bed.
"Where are you going?" Jake asked him.
Ty made an awkward shrug with his otter shoulders and walked out. Jake was
curious, but wasn't sure if he should follow the strange creature. He decided he
would stay in his room, that way he could avoid blame for anything the creature
did.
Ty went downstairs and looked around. The empty bag of chips Dustin had just
ate was laying in the garbage. He heard Dustin in the bathroom, saying
something about his weight. It was while Ty was thinking of his next move that
Mark and June returned. He heard the car doors slamming and headed for
cover. Ducking behind the fridge, Ty waited to see what he could do to his
former foster parents.
Apparently, Dustin had heard them, too, because he ran into the kitchen with
excitement, cautiously checking all around the kitchen for the mysterious
creature. Ty escaped his notice as he rushed to unlock the door and tell them
about the strange animal. Dustin nearly collided with Mark who was just getting
his keys out.
"Dad!" Dustin yelled in a rushed panic, "Jake found this animal in the garden
and it wouldn't get off his glove so he called me to move it and it didn't want to
move and it put pictures in my head and Jake brought it in and it made me do
nice things for Jake and—"
"Whoa! Whoa! Hold it!" Mark stopped him, "What the hell are you talking about?
Let me get in the door and slow down!"
Dustin anxiously waited for his parents to get inside and take off their shoes.
June went in to the bathroom while Mark sat down in his recliner.
"Alright, now slowly tell me what happened."
So Dustin told him how Jake had found Ty and gotten Dustin to come move
him. He told Mark that Ty had put images of fear and pain into his head and
made him let him in. Then he said how he was eating chips and suddenly he
lost weight and felt like being nice to Jake, giving him his old Playstation and
cleaning his room.
"Jake brought an animal into the house!" Mark asked angrily.
"You're missing the point!" Dustin whined.
"I'll teach that boy to bring vermin into my house!"
Ty gave a mental sigh. Mark had always been a bit slow and never understood
big pictures. If he heard one thing he didn't like, he picked up on that and didn't
listen to anything else. Ty figured he'd better go make sure Jake was alright.
As he followed a confused Dustin to Jake's room, he heard Mark interrogating
him. Ty rushed in front of Dustin who jumped back with a yelp when he saw the
creature. Just as Mark raised his hand, Ty jumped up his pant leg and crawled
up. It wasn't exactly where Ty wanted to be, but it definitely stopped Mark from
hitting Jake. He jumped around swatting at the moving critter in his pants,
hooping and hollering in disgust and fright. As Mark backed away from Jake, Ty
scampered back out of his pantleg and jumped up onto Jake's bed.
"So you did bring an animal into the house!" Mark yelled, obviously disturbed by
the recent incident when his voice cracked.
"No, sir, he followed me in."
Mark went to hit Jake again, but Ty changed himself so that he had the large
jaws of a dobhar-chu again and growled at him.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Mark yelped, jerking his hand back.
"I don't know!" Jake tried to defend himself.
"That's it, I'm taking care of this thing, now!" Mark roared. He stomped back
downstairs and returned with a broom. "Move, boy!"
Jake jumped off the bed as Mark swung the broom in a wide arc over his
shoulder like a sledge-hammer. Ty jumped forward and transformed himself
back to his seven foot, upright dobhar-chu form and caught the broom between
his two hands. Mark fell back in fright and Ty snapped the broom over his knee.
Jake and Dustin stood in awe in a corner of the room. June came to see what
all the noise was about and fainted on seeing Ty's monstrous form hulking in
her foster son's bedroom. Mark cowered on the floor, his mouth agape at the
creature in front of him. Ty altered his voice to sound dark and commanding.
"You will not harm this boy further," he said, trying to make himself sound as
godly as possible. "I have watched you abuse this child for the past four years.
He has done nothing wrong, but still you mistreat him and spoil your son. There
are many punishments that I could give you that would be rightly deserved."
Mark collapsed at Ty's feet and began to beg.
"Do not grovel at me! You know you have wronged the boy. However, I will
show you mercy on one condition: you will treat this child as if he were your
own. If you would not do it to Dustin, do not do it to Jacob. If I should see you
mistreat him again, I will seek a vengeance against you so great that armies
would crumble before it."
"And as for you," Ty said, turning to Dustin, "You will treat your foster brother
with respect. Do not bully him again. Instead help him and guide him; that is
what older brothers are for."
"Jacob, if you ever have more trouble with them, simply say my name, Tykü,
and I will aid you. I do not want to have to return, am I understood?" Ty asked
Dustin and Mark, who nodded vigorously.
"Then do as I have told you!" Ty ordered while willing himself back to the Order
Space.
From the portal, he watched Dustin faint as June had, Mark sit there in shock,
and Jake sit down on his bed, completely baffled. Ty didn't think they would
cause any more trouble, but just in case, he would check back later.
Now that he had gotten his feet wet, Ty wanted to help more people. He moved
around the Earth searching for someone to help. He stopped when he saw...