As far as he knew, Kenny was dead.

But if he was dead... How could he still think?

Maybe he truly was dead, and this was an eternal punishment for something. What that thing was, he had no idea, and figured that he wouldn't find out anytime soon. Kenny couldn't actually think, either - He was just aware. He could sense movement around him, but he couldn't hear. He couldn't see, couldn't feel; The situation felt familiar, but he had no idea where from.
...

He could sense somebody holding him. But he couldn't feel. Kenny was, with lack of any other words, a vegetable.
Great.

Whoever was carrying him let out a quiet huff, their body strength being too weak to carry him for long, but they had to get him away. What they had just seen... It had been incredible.
'Harvey, can you come out and help me with this?' The young boy called loudly as he approached the hut, his mentor poking his head out of the window. The curious expression soon turned to one of wonder, and shock as he recognized the figure. It was one of the humans, one that had shown him kindness, but his clothes were bloodied and torn 'Jason, what the heck happened to him?'
The boy shrugged, propping the unconscious blond against a nearby tree and waiting as the older brunet ran out of view. Jason was, contrary to popular belief, a human, but he was somehow able to survive the "poisonous" air of the Glitched Lands for the past three years. He'd been kicked out of his village for disobeying a strict set of rules, and had found his way into the hybrid's camp undetected before running into Harvey, who'd seen "great potential" in a weak twelve year old such as himself.

'Geez, Harvey, you took your time.' The preteen spoke jokingly as the sorcerer jogged out of the door, stopping a few feet away and nervously glancing at the slightly older teenager who was, indeed, still unconscious. 'Oh my... Did you see what happened to him?'
'He was fighting a hudvandrare, and it took his form while his partner's back was turned. He was already torn up by then, but the fall - He practically exploded. There's no way this kid should even be alive!' Jason exclaimed, wiping some blood onto his trousers as Harvey put two fingers against his forehead. 'Jason, you're a sorcerer in training, and you think this is impossible? But I do agree with you, he seems physically fine apart from all the blood'
'And the fact that he's unconscious' Harvey pointed out, taking a few wary steps forwards - Kenny was as far as he knew a human, but he'd had never been a hostile one. This may well have changed, but after the last... Ahem, "incident", Harvey had made it his job to heal anybody that needed it.
Though it seemed that Kenny had managed to do that all by himself.

~~~
'Harry, it's best to just ignore him. He's just stressed out.'
'I get that, but does he really have to blame me for something he knows I would never do?!' The youngest Council member groaned loudly, falling face-first onto his bed and burying his face into the pillow. He was stressed too, but seriously? Blaming him for losing their "son"? Too far.
He felt somebody sitting down next to him, running a hand through his hair in an attempt to calm him. If anybody could ever get Harry back to normal, it would be either Josh or Tobi - Josh because he was like a father-figure, though there were only two or three years between them, or Tobi with his oddly mature humour and attitude.

Those two were also, rather coincidentally, the only two Sidemen to see him cry other than Vik.
Who wasn't there, because of him.
Ugh, got to love complications.
'I want to go... Go and find him. He's too - I can't lose him. We can't lose him!' Harry wailed pitifully, still breathing in mouthfuls of pillow as Josh and Tobi exchanged knowing glances.
'He's probably fine, Boggo, if the boys were friends with the hybrids before then why would they try to hurt them now?' Tobi offered, and the blond looked up through bleary eyes. 'I don't know; Maybe the fact that we invaded their home, killed their families, and forced them to relocate again. I know what that's like, I couldn't wish that upon anybody'

Yes, Harry knew exactly what that was like. Mostly because he had gone through the exact same thing, with a scarily similar situation - Even with the hybrids. His family had been attacked years ago, and he had come here after being rescued from the ashes.
That's why he and Preston got on well. The exact same thing had happened to both of them, except Harry had different abilities. The reason he could tell when people were lying, his constantly energetic (Well, mostly) personality? Harold Lewis was what's little known as a "Hidden" hybrid.
One that can hide their appendages, yet still keep some of the aspects and traits of their true form. In the blond's case, this was a young golden husky, which would explain why messing with his hair helped him calm down considerably. Also, all of his boisterous energy.
'We know Simon wouldn't have stopped until they were attacked. We should just be glad that we managed to get boys' friends out, or they would never have forgiven us' Josh pointed out, patting hid younger friend who was clutching his cushion like a lifeline. His face was no longer squished into it, but he had it against the side of his head as he lay on his side 'I guess... You're right, as usual.'

'I'm not always - Actually yeah, I'm always right, but that isn't the point.' The bearded male grinned cheekily, ruffling the younger's shaggy mop of hair before standing and nodding at Tobi meaningfully. "We should leave him alone for a bit." He mouthed.
"You sure?"
"He's going to be fine, and we have to make sure Simon and Ethan haven't killed eachother. C'mon, let's go."

~~~

Preston was quite sure that he was dying. I mean, what else you would think if you randomly started puking lava everywhere?
He'd managed to get out of the rather flammable hut, making his way undetected (Well...) out of the village. The boys had left a few minutes before this had all started, going to get Harvey, but he was beginning to wish they hadn't.
He didn't want to be alone when he died; That was probably the thing that scared him the most. The fact that he'd made it so far away from his home that none of the Texan's friend would be able to find his body. His life had been - How could he explain it - pretty good, apart from the times he was traumatized in multiple angst-like ways and had been taken away from his family for years, but he had only just been reunited with a few of them.

Preston hadn't even seen Choco yet. The golden bird might even be dead right now and he wouldn't know - Heck, his friends might be under attack from an Orespawn right now, and all he could do was hopelessly cough up magma? The liquid felt like it should have burnt him but didn't, instead crippling and singing any plant life it landed on.
"This is absolute torture." He thought sullenly, "I can't even defend myself in this state, so if I get jumped I'm screwed, and if somebody finds me they're gonna freak out! Ugh, this is gonna kill me..."
"Preston?"
"Oh - Uh, hey Vik." Glancing around in alarm, no more magma coming out for the time being, the brunet deduced that Vik was close enough to read his thoughts. "Are you okay? You sound alarmed."
"Me? Oh no, I'm alright, how about you; We've been looking for you for ages."
"Yeah, sorry 'bout that. Where are you, anyway? Lachlan's wondering."
"How mad would Lachlan be if I said that I had no idea whatsoever?"

A moment of silence followed, being quickly broken by an loud groan of annoyance coming from somewhere up ahead. Preston saw a slight flash of white and gold through the trees, and he quietly backed up so that he was against a tree trunk '-did he do to get lost in the first place?'
"Tell him that I have no idea."
'He doesn't actually know, but he can't be too far away if he heard your question... Yo, Preston, you here?!' Vik called, cupping his hands for extra volume as Salt continued to stare down the hudvandrare. Lachlan, almost feeling that something was wrong with his slightly older friend, slowly began making his way towards one tree in particular...
A tree that's on the complete opposite side to where Preston was currently hiding "Oh my Notch Lachlan, you fudgin' - OH NOTCH WHAT THE NETHER."

A sudden shockwave of both pain and heat (Which was weird; He hadn't felt heat in, like, years) erupted from his chest, a familiar orange light spiralling under his skin, yet the glow was still apparent "No no no, what the Nether is going on, this hurts and I'm scared and-"
The amber glow started travelling along his arms, neck, and undoubtedly the lower half of his body. He reeled back both in shock and pain, his vision partially darkening as he attempted to scratch the abnormalities away, digging so deep that his skin almost bled yet it still wouldn't budge "Preston, mate, what's going on?"
It was nearing his hands now, and he could practically feel it crawling up his neck "I-I don't want this! I don't - No, I can't - What's happening?!"
'Preston!' Somebody shouted worriedly as he stumbled away, eyes transfixed as it broke out and began to swirl around him. Plants were being singed, and he soon found that he couldn't see anything...

Just the bright orange blurs, before he was swarmed in darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh no, more angst ft. Preston.

Whatever shall we do :/

If Kenny was a vegetable what would we call him? Hypothetically speaking, totally not gonna make a pun later on or something.

Heh.

Kerrot?

Brokenny? (Bro? Bro.)

Tell me your thoughts, sweeties :3

See you all in the next chapter, and have a great Morning - Afternoon - Evening - Dawn - Dusk - Midnight - Paranormal Timezone!