Fascinated, Kyu walked up and down the alley and didn't take his eyes off Bomby.
"Isn't that the little bomb you used to draw back then?" Steven asked his astonished brother. Steven himself didn't seem very impressed. "What did you call it again? Bomby?"
"Yes," Kyu stopped right in front of him and pointed at Bomby in amazement. "How can you stay so calm, Steven?! How the hell is this possible here?! This defies all logic and who knows what else!!"
"And who exactly are you now..?" asked Bomby, a little shy and confused but less afraid than before. Steven went to the exit of the alley and looked around the corner to check if any police officers were passing by. Kyu stayed with his creation and knelt down in front of it. Slowly, calm returned to him, even though he was still completely beside himself.
It was breathtaking that his own invention was standing in front of him. But it still didn't make sense to the teenager!

"I- I'm Kyu. And this is my brother Steven," he hesitantly held out his hand, Bomby wasn't quite sure whether he should give him his or not. Kyu had to laugh slightly. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you!"
"Are you sure?" Bomby wanted to be sure and gave his creator a suspicious look. When the shape of his eyes changed, he recoiled briefly. Then Kyu shook his head, and although Bomby was still not sure, he shook his hand after all. "It's a pleasure to meet you both..."
While the two shook hands, they both felt a tingling sensation in their hands. Somehow they felt connected, even though they didn't even really know each other.
Kyu got another migraine attack, so he let go of Bomby and held his head, groaning quietly. This headache is killing me...

"I hope I'm not disturbing your date or anything...", Steven immediately came over to the two of them, feeling a little under pressure, he pointed to the street in front of them. "But the cops are coming this way!"
They immediately looked at him and became frantic. That was just what they needed...
"We have to get out of here with Bomby!", said Kyu and looked around for a way to escape, forgetting Steven's previous plan to climb over the garbage can. "If they find him, they'll investigate him!"
"But what are you going to do, take him home with you?! Dude, Mom and Dad will freak out if we bring home a live bomb!", Steven climbed onto the garbage can and prepared to climb over the wall to the other side of the alley. Kyu, however, remained standing next to Bomby with a serious expression and looked rooted to the spot at his brother.

"Bro, I'm not leaving without him!" he protested and crossed his arms. "Bomby is my own creation. And if the police find him, who knows what will happen to him! We can't just let something like that happen! Imagine if YOU had invented him... You wouldn't just abandon him, would you?! Pull yourself together, man!" Steven sighed in annoyance. He realized that Kyu really meant it. And he knew he was right. If Steven's drawing were standing in front of him alive, he would have reacted the same way as Kyu. Besides, he just wanted to get away and so nodded in agreement. 

"That's your responsibility, right?!" Steven finally gave in and then climbed over the wall. Bomby looked up at Kyu helplessly. Since he was only up to the human boy's knees, he was too small to climb over the wall. Even getting onto the garbage can was difficult. "Can you possibly help me up?" Bomby asked his creator in a timid voice. Kyu immediately knelt on the ground and pointed to his back.
"Get on, I'll carry you," Kyu offered, and it didn't take long for Bomby to agree. Then he climbed onto his back and the three of them fled over the wall of the alley, hidden through the city and back to their homes...

*** An hour later... ***

"How can you explain that to anyone...?", still fascinated by the whole thing, Kyu tapped Bomby's round, cold body. It was made of hard and robust steel, but he couldn't really tell with his arms. He tapped him again, this time close to his eye. Annoyed, Bomby slapped the boy's hand away and gave him an angry look.
"Stop that!" he shouted and then cleared his throat. He had the feeling that he was being too rude, which is why he suddenly became embarrassed and pressed the tips of his gloves together. "Um... Please..."
"I'm sorry," Kyu apologized and slid away from him, pulling his legs up to him.
In the meantime, Kyu's migraine had also disappeared. It stopped again very suddenly. And now he could really realize that what was happening in front of him violated all kinds of logic. Bomby was a fictional character, and fictional characters weren't supposed to exist! Dragons, ghosts, angels and demons - none of them were real. And certainly not living bombs! But now he was convinced otherwise..."

"Can you perhaps tell us more about how you got here...?" Steven asked, leaning back on the sofa. His first guess was that this was a very advanced artificial intelligence. But Bomby showed too many emotions for that... Maybe he was an alien?
"Well," Bomby began, sitting cross-legged on the sofa, playing with the thumbs of his gloves. His gaze dropped to the floor for two seconds, then he raised it again uncertainly to the faces of the two brothers. "I can't remember. But there was a machine... And two men. One in a smock. And the other was wearing pants and had a bald head... Because I was scared, my defense mechanism was triggered and I exploded. The machine is now broken..."
"That explains the explosion," Kyu stated, but he was still unhappy with the information given. Somehow he was missing more details. "And we know that there was a bald man with pants. Great... But it's still unclear where exactly you're from."
"I'd say it has something to do with the machine..." Steven said rudely and swung himself off the sofa to stretch properly. "Be that as it may. If I don't finally get some sleep, I'm going to be very unpleasant!!"
Kyu had to suppress a laugh at the thoughts that arose. Then you've never slept enough in your life...

Without saying another word, Steven headed towards the stairs to go up to his room. Kyu held out his hand to the little bombshell and yawned.
"Steven's right, it's really late. Come, I'll show you where you can sleep-" the moment Bomby grabbed Kyu's hand, a yellow spark appeared between their hands.
Shocked, Steven turned to the two of them and watched as Bomby's limbs disappeared and yellow stripes appeared on Kyu's arm, making their way under his clothes like water flowing the wrong way.
"What's happening here?!" Kyu screamed in panic and tried to tear his hand away from Bomby's, but failed. "I can't let go!!"
"Me neither!" the yellow spread over his entire body. It even took over his other arm. It surrounded his entire body, while Bomby had completely disappeared. This yellow light glowed like hot metal all over his body. And when it went out, Kyu's body was covered in metal. It was as if they were now just one person.
Kyu's normally cocoa-brown hair now had a two-finger-wide white streak on his forehead. strand. His brown eyes had a slight reddish tinge. And his clothes now consisted of armor, as robust as steel, but still light as a feather for him. It covered his legs, arms, back and chest, but allowed him to move freely. With a sly voice he looked at his body. The gloves that the armor gave him were red like Bomby's gloves, and his arms and legs were just as yellow. To be sure, he lifted up his shirt. Underneath he also had parts of the armor, only these were black like Bomby's body.
"What the hell happened...?" Kyu muttered to himself and looked around for the little bomb. "Where's Bomby?"
"I'm here, Kyu!" his voice called, but it only echoed from Kyu's head. "I'm somehow... in your head."
"I don't know, he was suddenly gone..." Steven said suddenly and cast a confused glance behind his brother. Apparently he couldn't hear Bomby...

"Didn't you hear what he said?" asked Kyu and gave his brother a surprised look. He shook his head and thought his brother was crazy. Now Kyu is talking to imaginary friends, I can't believe it.
"No, how is he supposed to say anything when he's not even here anymore!?" asked Steven, even more pissed off than before. Kyu slowly had the feeling that he was actually serious about the sleep... How could he be even more unpleasant than before?
"He's merged with me! So... We're sharing my body now or something..." Kyu summed up and thought about how this was possible. They were suddenly one. He could feel Bomby's feelings. The fear and shock that marked him.
And it was the same the other way around.
Bomby felt the confusion that was spreading in Kyu's head. And he could see through his eyes. Suddenly the world was so much bigger. It was fascinating that he could look Steven straight in the eyes. But that was all he could do... Bomby would rather go back to his own body. Into the body of a bomb. Kyu agreed with him mentally. Wait, he can even read my thoughts?

"Yes, I can! Get out of me!" Kyu shouted with a little desperation in his voice and tried to somehow get rid of the armor that was stuck to him. No matter how hard he pulled, he couldn't get it off. Instead, he heard Bomby whining inside himself.
"Hey, don't pull like that! That hurts!" the ball argued with him and tried to free itself.
The whole drama of the two of them caused them to stumble through the entire living room and knock over a chair. This was a godsend for Steven. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and filmed the two warring friends laughing loudly. This is going to go viral!
"It won't do us any good to fidget around like this!" Bomby tried to calm himself down. "Let's calm down first, okay? And then we'll see..."
"... Okay..." Kyu paused for a moment and closed his eyes. He breathed in and out deeply to find his inner peace. Three... Four... Five... Counting was a trick that Jessy had once suggested to him. It always helped her. But not him. He still wanted to freak out.
It was all becoming more and more illogical. How could he merge with Bomby? What was he anyway? And why Bomby of all people - or drawings?

Slowly both of them calmed down again.
"Okay, now let's think about it...", whispered Kyu, suppressing the fear that was already rising again. What if they had to live like this now? "Any ideas how we can separate?"
Bomby and Kyu immediately inspected the armor they were wearing with the same eyes. They carefully started with the palms of their hands, inside and out, and then worked their way to the wrists. On the right wrist was a bracelet with a coat of arms on it, about the size of a watch face. A milky, wafer-thin line pulsated in it, marking a symbol. It represented a small theta, a letter from the Greek alphabet. Why hadn't they noticed it before?
"Uh, what kind of symbol is that?" asked Kyu, running two fingers over the symbol.
Bomby wondered if he had ever seen the symbol. Unfortunately, he never had. What was it supposed to show?
Somehow Kyu's fingers got stuck on the symbol, which was apparently drawn on a small rotating plate. This made it move slightly to the left, and the symbol was tilted. The tingling in Kyu's veins suddenly became noticeable again and the armor was again enveloped in the yellow glow. This time, this strange consistency flowed down from him and collected again on the ground, where it formed Bomby, who then appeared next to Kyu.

"Are you transforming back now?" asked Steven, watching the two in awe.
This would all be much more exciting if he weren't so tired. It took so much of his concentration away. Maybe it was all just a lucid dream...
In front of him stood a boy with brown hair and eyes and a little cartoon bomb.
"Separating them is actually quite easy...", Kyu stated and looked at his body again, somehow glad that he and Bomby were no longer fused together. These foreign emotions mixed with his own... It was just a confusing and horrible feeling... And yet interesting. But in case it happened again, he had to be careful what he thought...
"Wow... We have superpowers!", Bomby's voice was as excited as his little face.
"Now THAT is going to be really interesting!", Steven leaned against the wall, amused, and grinned maliciously, while Kyu tried to process what had just happened...

***

"Ugh," the girl staggered out of the huge clouds of fire and looked around at the destroyed area. The unbearable heat and the sweet, smoky smell were taking their toll on her and her lungs. Where am I?
Uncertain and afraid, she marched through the streets, past the police cars and the fire department, which was busy putting out the fires. There were broken pieces and rubble everywhere from houses that had apparently been affected. Whatever had happened here, it was like she was walking through hell.

"Damn it, what is that?!" screamed one of the policemen in the background and pulled out his gun. A loud, monstrous roar rang out. Shortly afterwards, the policeman screamed and was thrown past the girl by something. Her entire body jerked, causing her to do a quick turn on her heels.
A huge lizard-like creature on two legs stepped out of the smoke. The creature's stomach was beige, while its scales were as black as night. Its squinting yellow eyes and snake tongue adorned its head.
More police officers came to provide backup and fired loud shots at the monster. It screamed in pain as the bullets pierced its scaly skin. A yellow-shimmering dust fell out of each small gunshot wound, which collected in small piles on the ground. Larger and larger pieces crumbled off the beast's body until it disintegrated into a complete pile of sand, which was partially carried away by the wind along with the soot. Her heart was pounding like crazy.

What was that just now?!
Before anyone could see her, she sprinted away from the crime scene and then turned into an alley, where she crouched down behind a mountain of cardboard boxes, crying. She sat down on the ground and pulled her legs up to her body, wrapping her arms around them. What's going on here? Where am I? WHO am I?!
A man's black boots appeared in front of her with a soft squeak that stood out from the crackling fire. Red pants and a black felt coat adorned his skinny body. He looked down at her with his thin, pale face. He had emerald green eyes and no hair.

"Well, hello, little one," he greeted her with a slight grin on his face that screamed trouble for her. "Who are you?"
The girl didn't answer his question. She just looked at him with her tear-filled eyes and said nothing. Then he knelt down in front of her. Now that he was sitting in front of her, she noticed that his face was marked by drugs. Even if he didn't really seem addicted.
"You can trust me, little one," he held out his bony, shaking hand, but he just couldn't get through to her. "Joey Koslowski. And what's your name?"

She still wasn't sure if she could really trust him. She didn't even know where she was or what was going on here. But then again, she didn't even have a home that she could remember. Not even the faintest glimmer existed in her mind.
Only the memory of her own first name.
One more time she thought about whether she should really offer him her hand. But since she had nothing to lose, she decided to take his hand.
"My name is Eleysa."