Delinquent
Chapter 4: New Kids on the Block
written by Labyrinth1n3 - illustrated by Nhaingen and SoltianCell phone, water, lighter, rope, map, compass - no wait he had an App for that. Collecting things for a mission was a lot easier now that Kyle had a smart phone. Never again would he be caught without a flashlight, map, translator, compass, or notepad. He didn't even know if he needed half of these things tonight, but one thing he learned in his years growing up in this town was that when it came to being prepared? It was better to be safe than sorry.
Sitting on his bed, Kyle changed out of his running shoes into his warmer boots. They could end up anywhere tonight, maybe even up in the mountains or in a cave. The possibilities were endless, and Kyle found himself drifting off into his own head thinking about what could happen to him. Only when heard a couple clanks and muffled curses coming from his window did he snap out of it, seemed like his best friend finally made it over to his window - that or Cartman had picked a terrible night for a romp in the sheets. One look over his windowsill confirmed it; Stan kept his word and got here in record time!
Eagerly sliding open the glass, Kyle extended a hand down to the other boy with an undeniable look of excitement strewn across his face. "This has to be a new record. I literally just called you three minutes ago."
Stan stepped inside and immediately sensed something awry. Kyle's frantic phonecall was more than just a little concerning, but judging by the way his best friend was dressed, he could tell that he was in for one hell of a night. "Well it sounded like you were about to have a heart attack! Why couldn't I just come through the front door?"
"Because I don't want Ike to know you're here." Kyle answered in between shoving his supplies into his backpack.
Well that wasn't something Stan expected to hear. Why would Ike care that he slipped through the window? He did it all the time, unless this was about something else. "Oh, so does that mean you found out more about what he's doing with that goth kid?"
Kyle threw the back pack over his shoulder. "Kind of, and it sounds pretty big."
Now Stan was genuinely perturbed. "Okay, is he in danger?"
There wasn't a clear-cut way Kyle could answer this question without sounding completely paranoid. He knew believing that there was some kind of conspiracy based on a hunch he got from his little brother wasn't the sanest of options that he could take. Then again, this was South Park, so Kyle just hoped his best friend could roll with this. "From the conversation I just had with him, it's sounds like he's gotten himself involved in something comparable to the shit we used to get forced into. That goth kid stole money for him and now he's verbally telling me to stay out of it. He also didn't deny his involvement with the rocket thing. We have to do something."
There was no doubt in Stan's mind that Kyle could be onto something, but he didn't want either one of them to get ahead of themselves. "You know all this for a fact?"
"Dude, why would I be freaking out this much?" Kyle shot back defensively, trying to sound as collected as possible since he could tell his friend still has his doubts. "He basically told all of this to my face. What am I going to do, tell my parents? What if something big IS happening? If don't know whether I should stop him or help him!"
"Well, what do you think we should do about it?"
Kyle looked out the window, raking his mind for a solution that wouldn't cause even more trouble than this situation was already entailing. Everything he could think of involved something even more dangerous, like baiting themselves or getting a third party involved, so he turned to Stan. "What do you think? I mean, what did we used to do when this kind of shit happened?"
Stan too found himself unable to answer his own question. Any time they found themselves wrapped up in something as kids, the opportunity to solve the whole mess usually presented itself. "We just... kind of stood there. I don't know. The answers were kind of handed to us as we went along."
Well that was a new thought - maybe the way around this was still in front of their faces. Kyle was always one to over analyze things, maybe he just needed to assess what he already knew. "Okay, maybe we've already been given the answers but we just don't know how to piece them together yet." He paused, his brain coming to a complete stop as he just fell back onto his bed. "God it's been so long since we've done something like this."
Stan frowned. Though a part of him vied for the chance to take part in another adventure again, especially if it was to save Ike, this was starting to look like another bust. They've already come across several of them, each one leading to a dead end. "I'm still hesitant to believe it. I mean, how do you know it's not Ike just breaking bad?"
"Stan, remember who we're talking about." Kyle replied flatly, getting up off the bed to argue his case. "Ike wouldn't ‘just break bad'! You should have been here when I had the conversation with him. This is real. We need to get started on cracking this thing now."
The way Kyle said "This is real" sent a shiver up Stan's spine. This Ike situation felt different than their previous failed attempts, and Stan was starting to think that it was because this was no false alarm. He wasn't about to go all out on this case just yet, but if Kyle was already there, he might as well join him. "You're feeling it again, aren't you? You want this to be something big."
Kyle winced. Half of him hated thinking that Ike got pulled into something so terrible that he needed to intervene, but a part of him loved knowing that he was the only person qualified to save him. Facing Stan, he laughed nervously for a second or two before asking, sheepishly, "Don't you?"
Standing in the middle of the room, Stan couldn't help but smile back at his best friend before giving him an reassuring pat on the back. "Yeah. Let's just try to solve this before Ike gets hurt. We should be the ones to handle it, no one else should be burdened."
"Exactly."
The night was clear, but their mission wasn't. Kyle only knew of a couple details which he hoped to weave into something more tangible, but they've worked off of less. He needed to connect what happened New Years Night, Cartman's story, and what took place in Ike's room. What he did know, is that there was one element that connected all three of those together. Their first assignment? To find the goth kid.
"So where are we going exactly?"
Kyle bought himself some time by taking in a deep breath. Sure, he could have told Stan back at the house who they were meeting and why this person had the information he did, but Kyle didn't want to start World War Three right off the bat. He needed to pick his battles wisely tonight, and they haven't even gotten into the thicket of it yet.
"We're meeting someone. He might be able to point us in the right direction."
Stan seemed to lighten up, too bad Kyle knew his enthusiasm would only be temporary. "Oh cool! You've already done your own investigating?"
"Um, yeah. Sorta." Kyle shuffled around nervously, approaching the corner he was instructed to turn into.
These back alleys in the center of town weren't the nicest places to visit in South Park. Kyle wouldn't go so far as to call them dangerous, but he always felt an eerie feeling creep up his spine when he'd have to cut through them late at night. Crime wasn't so much an issue in recent years, but he'd seen his fair share of suspicious activity around the area. Especially back here, there was a reason he knew precisely where to find this alley - he and Cartman supplied the suspicious activity once in a while.
They were approaching the end when something suddenly caught the redhead's eye, the top of a broken beer bottle.
Kyle stopped in his tracks and grabbed a hold of Stan's shoulder. "This is-"
"What's he doing here."
Cartman was glaring at Stan, hands in his pockets and feet firmly planted on the ground. To say that he wasn't pleased to see him would be an understatement, they couldn't stand within 20 feet of one another without setting the other off. The last time Kenny tried to bring everyone together again resulted in a broken wrist and a dislocated jaw. After that fight, civil conversations between the two were non-existent. Kyle could already tell he made a huge mistake by bringing them both out here, his best friend has just started sizing Cartman up.
Stan kept his eyes locked in on the fat boy, but directed his speech towards Kyle, "You can't be serious."
A countdown started somewhere in the back of Kyle's head and he knew that when it reached zero, a brawl would break out in this very alley. "Stan, just trust me ok-"
00:59
"No, don't you remember anything?" Stan cut off, turning his back to the encroaching brunet to shield him away from their private conversation. "What makes you think Cartman won't double cross us during the middle of this?"
00:50
But Cartman heard, and intentionally elbowed Stan out of the way to saddle up next to Kyle. "There won't even BE a 'middle of this' if I don't come along, asshole. Just how have you helped so far?"
00:43
Kyle in turn pushed himself away from Cartman, setting himself equidistant between the two. "This isn't a god damn contest, let's just get going."
00:39
"Listen to you! Do you not remember everything that asshole pulled when we were kids?" Stan took a step closer, speaking directly to Kyle with a voice as grave as the situation itself. "This is your little brother we're helping here, Kyle. Why would you trust him of all people with something like this?"
00:28
"Oh yeah?" Cartman loomed over the redhead into Stan's face. "Do you even know what the fuck's going on? I'm the only one here besides Kyle who's gotten a good look at this kid!"
Ducking his head down, Cartman growled into Kyle ear while keeping his eyes locked in on Stan's. "Honestly? Kenny would have been more useful tonight. Why didn't you go fetch him?"
00:15
Kyle shut his eyes in aggravation. "He didn't pick up, but list-"
00:13
He couldn't finish in time, Stan has pushed Cartman's face away from his ear and was now standing nose to nose with him. "What are you talking about?! If we're speaking on terms of 'usefulness' then I know for a fact I'm more useful than you, Fatass! Don't think we'll bail your lazy ass out when things get ugly!"
00:03
Cartman smirked into Stan's face, "Oh you mean like right now?"
00:00
BOOM Stan went ass-first into the nearest trashcan.
"STOP!" Kyle clung onto Cartman's jacket and threw him away from his best friend, desperately trying to get in the middle of them. "Can you guys get through ONE NIGHT without fighting? Jesus Christ! Stop being so selfish!"
Cartman allowed Kyle to toss him away, but once Stan was back on his feet he barreled over to the fucker again. "He fucking st-"
CRACK Stan didn't let him get too close, landing a punch in his gut before kicking him to the wall.
Kyle threw his hands up in the air. It was hopeless. The only place they'd get sent to tonight was the police station or the emergency room.This was the kind of action he was subject to now. The explosions weren't made of fire anymore, they were made of juvenile threats and bruised limbs. No more compelling plots or intriguing mysteries. His life had turned into nothing more than a high school drama. He stormed away from the alley to let Cartman and Stan duke it out. There was no way he was going to let their shit get in the way of helping his brother. It would have been nice to have help on this one, but Kyle knew he could do this on his own. In fact, it would probably be preferable to do this on his own. The best revenge would be to solve this by himself and shove it in their busted up faces. He couldn't wait.
The sound of Cartman and Stan's fight began to slowly fade into the background the further Kyle walked away from the alley, but now he was picking up on something else. Pausing, he perked his ears up in an attempt to sense where this new sound was coming from. There were two voices, both males, and it sounded like they were in the middle of a conversation.
Kyle backed up against a wall. He wasn't scared, but he didn't want to be out in the open in case these fuckers wanted to mess with him. The chatting was getting louder anyway, and Kyle could tell that they were coming out from the corner to his right. Bracing himself, he kept his breathing low until he saw two familiar looking guys come out of the adjacent alley. They were dressed head to toe in goth clothing, and they were definitely worth interrogating.
"Hey!" Kyle dared to call out, revealing himself from out of the shadows.
Startled, they two boys jumped back a feet or two and one of them actually dropped his cigarette to the ground. They obviously weren't expecting any confrontation tonight, but once they got a glimpse of where the voice came from, they seemed to be at ease.
The boy with the red highlights spoke out first. "Woah, the last time I saw you back here, you were face first in that fat kid's crotch. What do you want?"
In a normal situation, Kyle would have pummeled that kid headfirst into the nearest brick wall. However, he was more shocked that this guy actually recognized him than the fact that he saw him out here with Cartman. Apparently everyone was catching on anyway, so he decided to stick to the task. In fact, this kid was starting to look a little familiar himself, his friend too. "You're those goth kids, the ones Stan used to hang out with."
"Used to?" The taller one replied, "He still comes around once in awhile, usually bitching about you being with that Porkfucker."
"We're not talking about that God damn it." Kyle screeched, nearly losing his temper and punching this dickface as hard as he could. Taking a deep breath, he ran a hand through his hair before getting back on track. "Okay. Okay, so you know who I am, but do you even know my name?"
"Kyle, right?" the kid with the red fringe asked.
"Yeah," He confirmed, eyeing the goth boy warily. "The reason I'm out here is because Stan and I are looking for this goth kid."
Lighting up a new cigarette, the taller one looked to his friend once before turning his attention back to Kyle. "Uh huh. Why?"
"Because he's getting my brother into a lot of trouble."
"Hm. I wonder if Georgie knows him," the other goth mentioned.
Kyle snapped out of his rage induced daze. "Georgie? Who's that?"
"Oh, you don't know Georgie?" the taller one added, exhaling a line of smoke. "She hangs around your brother all the time."
"That's weird." The other boy commented, flipping his hair out of his face before shooting Kyle an an unimpressed look. "I thought you loved getting yourself wrapped up in other people's business. I thought you'd know her by now."
Gritting his teeth, Kyle ignored the red haired goth and instead turned his attention to the taller one. "You said 'she', so Georgie's a girl? How do you know her?"
"Georgie lives with us, we've known her since Kindergarten." He exhaled a line of smoke, nodding towards the opposite side of town. "Stan should know her too."
Kyle glanced back to the other end of the alley where the fight was still taking place, wondering if his best friend knew something important and didn't even realize it. Directing his attention back to the goths, he took a step closer, letting his guard down enough to get the information he needed out of them. These goths were the best help he had so far. "Where is she? Can I talk to her?" he pleaded.
Both of the goths knew Kyle meant no harm, so after giving one another a confirming glance the taller one informed, "We just dropped her off somewhere, she goes off on her own a lot. We don't ask her questions when it comes to these things."
It turned out Kyle didn't need Stan or Cartman after all. "Where."
After asking a few more questions and receiving a sketchy address, Kyle was on his way to uncovering the first part of this case - who was Georgie and what did she know about the goth kid? One of the things Kyle hated most about these kinds of missions was the chain of people he usually had to sift through before finding the right guy, but he was running out of options and had little to go on in the first place.
First of all, Kyle only recently discovered that Ike hung out with girls. Secondly, there was a good possibility that Georgie was the goth kid. If this was the case, it would explain the girl's voice in Ike's room and why Stan didn't think that he knew her. This entire time, Kyle was thinking this kid was another boy.
But he couldn't jump to conclusions just yet; the worst thing he could do at this point was to get his hopes up and then come to a dead end. The signs were looking good though. There was a sense of urgency in his step which made it difficult for the other two fuckers to catch up.
"Would you stop your groaning and catch up already?" Kyle yelled back to Stan and Cartman, not daring to look at either one of them as he made his way past the center of town. "I don't know why I even bothered bringing you guys along. It's obvious that you'd rather beat the shit out of each other than help me out anyway."
Stan sighed, "Kyle you know it's not like that..."
"Yeah he started it!" Cartman bumped into his shoulder.
That's the last thing Kyle wanted to hear. Before another fight could break out, he whipped his head around and hurled himself into the fat boy's chest, grabbing a hold of his shirt and spitting into this face. "I could care less about who the fuck started it! So shut the fuck up and stay focused!"
Shoving him aside, he gave both Cartman and Stan the most venomous look he could muster before fixing his coat collar. The last person anyone would want to mess with was a pissed off Kyle Broflovski, and while Stan was well aware of this fact, Cartman seemed a little slow on the intake. That was okay though, because Kyle secretly loved reminding him once in awhile.
-Nhaingen-
The night took a turn for the better once Kyle exerted himself. The only sound he could hear was the of treading their own footsteps - no more pointless banter, no more disagreements. Kyle was in no mood for any further interruptions, whether it be from his two friends or anyone else out here tonight. There was only one person he really wanted to talk to and it was this Georgie character.
Finding themselves at the edge of town, Kyle repeated the address to himself before realizing that he knew what this place was all along. All three of them had been here before.
Glancing up at the building, Kyle stood in front of it with a dumbfounded look across his face. Nevertheless, he signalled back to the two other boys and confirmed their arrival, "This is it."
Cartman too seemed off-put by this sudden turn of events. "Carl's Warehouse? I haven't been here in ages, figures some weird goth girl would use a condemned building as her spooky ass hide out."
"This is where those two goth guys said they dropped her off." Kyle shrugged, precariously taking a step closer. The whole place was fenced off now and there were numerous "No Trespassing" and "Keep Out - Building Scheduled for Demolition" tacked onto the wire barbing. Notably, however, was a person-sized hole torn open in between two posts.
"Who off?" Stan asked before Kyle could get a closer look.
"A girl named Georgie," He replied, gazing back at his best friend with a raised brow. "They said you'd know her?"
Stan did a double take. "Georgie? She's involved in this too? I didn't know she had anything to do with this! I hardly see her around as it is!"
Coming up from behind, Cartman eyed Stan accusingly before rushing to Kyle and tugging him in closer. "Wait, so Stan knew the goth kid all along?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself Cartman," Kyle yanked his hand away, gaging the size of the hole in the fence before stepping in. "I don't know if Georgie is this goth kid or not."
The larger boy shot Stan a pointed look, clenching his firsts and staring into him as though he was saying ‘I knew you weren't good for anything'.
But he didn't want to waste any more time or energy on the fucker, so he followed Kyle into the lot. "Yeah. To be honest, I couldn't really tell if the fucker was a boy or girl or what- god damn it this hole is small!"
"Well we're about to find out," Kyle sounded out, reluctantly offering Cartman a hand before the fat boy intentionally fell on top of him.
"Gah! Jesus Cartman, would it kill you to lose 50 pounds?"
"Ugh, sorry Jewface. It's probably due to all my bruises and swelling from the fight and well..." Cartman smirked down, grinding into him once as he wiggled his eyebrows.
Kyle just whacked him upside the face, throwing Stan an apologetic look before squirming out from the larger boy's weight. "Georgie's in here somewhere..." he immediately changed the subject, brushing himself off as he continued toward the rusted entrance. "Something tells me she definitely knows something."
Stan welcomed the digression and shown his flashlight on the door, the lock had already been broken off. "I guess we can start here."
Something shimmered next to the sidewalk. Upon picking it up, Kyle noticed that it was the broken padlock. The loop was cut in half and the judging by the roughness of the grooves, it looked like someone hacked it off in a hurry. "Someone's inside, we better be careful. She might not be alone."
"Psh, guys. Seriously?" Cartman stepped past Stan and Kyle. "We're talking about a little skanky goth girl who stays out late and gets her older boyfriends to drop her off at random places. She's probably here with her preteen friends for a poetry reading or a séance at best, you're acting like this is some high risk thing. What are you afraid of, her casting a spell on you? Sheesh."
Not giving a single fuck, he threw open the doors and watched as they ricocheted off the peeling walls behind, a cloud of dust forming around him as he yelled into the seemingly empty warehouse. "Hey Georgie! Stop sucking on Edgar Allen Poe's ghost dick and get over here!"
"Cartman!" Kyle bolted in, grabbing a hold of the the idiot and swinging him around. "What do you think you're doing!?"
But the larger boy just laughed at Kyle's angered whisper, releasing himself before strolling into the middle of the barren space. "See, I knew you guys were over reacti-" WHAM!!
Something happened. All Kyle heard was a loud metallic pang and a wheezing sound before something or someone landed on the floor. He couldn't see where Cartman went or who or what interrupted him. The warehouse was pitch black, and the light of the moon only cracked through a small portion of the open door.
"Eric?" Kyle called out in terror, anxious to see if the other boy was okay.
"Wait, hold on!" Stan opened the door all the way and ran inside. With the space more illuminated, they could spot Cartman sprawled out on the ground, out like a light.
"Oh my-" Kyle gasped, his hands reaching for his gaping mouth before he attempted to run forward.
"No! Wait her-"
The door slammed closed, and now the both of them were left standing alone in the center of the darkened room.
"What the fuck is going on?" Stan yelled out into the warehouse expecting a reply, his voice echoed off the barren walls instead.
Kyle threw his backpack to the ground and started searching through it. "Stan, here take this." He nervously handed him a flashlight, "Cartman? Are you ok-"
"ERGH!" Stan groaned from overhead, the flashlight falling to the ground as he overheard his friend getting attacked from behind. This was no goth girl. Whoever had a hold of Stan had the strength to not only knock out Cartman, but apparently put up a good fight.
This was all wrong. There wasn't actually supposed to be a real threat to this mission, this was supposed to be some dumb thing that Ike got himself into that they were supposed to solve in one night. The last thing Kyle expected was an actual fucking element of danger. Would they make it home tonight?
"Hey, HEY! Get the fuck off him asshole!" Kyle cried out, springing off the floor and latching himself onto the first person he could find. Thankfully it was Stan, and he pulled as hard as he could to hopefully dislodge his best friend from their assailant. His fists clung onto Stan's arm as he continued to yank him forward, but try as he might, the attacker still had a better hold of him. What was more concerning was that Stan wasn't saying anything, Kyle could only hear muffled screams and curses.
Overtaken by a rush of adrenaline, Kyle realized that the fucker must have been trying to suffocate him with something. Not letting the gravity of the situation slow him down, he pounced forward and now gripped onto the attacker's arm, prying it off Stan's face before he felt an increasing, unmovable weight slump onto him.
Tilting backwards, it wasn't until Kyle hit the ground that he discovered the dead weight was actually Stan.
"Stan, STAN!" Kyle instantly rolled up off the floor, hovering over his best friend and giving him a couple hard shakes. Checking his pulse, Kyle breathed a sigh of relief when he felt a steady rhythm twitching from underneath his fingers.
Suddenly, a flash of orange flickered from up above. To his shock, the assailant was still standing next to them, smoking and glaring down at them with an unpredictable glare.
The cigarette's light only barely outlined some of his features, but Kyle had seen that face before. He could also tell that the boy was hesitant to strike him the same way he did the others, his stance defensive and expression tense.
Shaking his head, Kyle found himself asking "Why?" and fully expected a response. The only thing he could think of doing then was to cradle Stan closer into his chest, only briefly glancing back at Cartman before looking up again.
But the boy wasn't looking at him anymore, he was looking behind him.
A sense of dread overtook Kyle once he realized they weren't alone. But before he could even react, he felt something hit the back of his skull and then everything went black.
"What are you guys even doing out here? Did you have a party and not invite me?"
Kyle flashed his eyes open. The first thing he could see was the night sky, so he obviously wasn't inside the warehouse anymore. Bolting up, he checked his surroundings to see if Stan and Cartman made it out of there as well. To his relief, he found that someone had taken the time to drag all three of them to what appeared to be Starks Pond.
The other two boys appeared to still be unconscious, and judging by how clouded his head felt, Kyle couldn't tell whether he was fully awake either. The voice sounded familiar though, but only when he caught someone standing just another five feet away could he identify the caller.
"Kenny?" Kyle perked up, kneeling on the ground to further investigate his surroundings. "What's going on? Don't tell me /you're/ the one who brought us out here."
"No dude, I just got here. Craig and I are supposed to meet up, but he's not here yet."
Kenny took a seat on the nearest rock, eying the three of them suspiciously before giving off a laugh, "Weird to see the three of you together, did you just come from a fight? Maybe that's why you don't remember. You all got knocked out."
Kyle took a deep breath and started gathering his things, checking to see if anything was taken or left behind. "There was a fight alright, and I have to get home right now!"
"Why? What's going on?"
Once all his belongings were accounted for, Kyle suddenly realized that there was a real and disturbing possibility that those guys back at the warehouse could have traced him back to Ike somehow. With his face going white, he shot up off the ground and started rambling off hysterically, "Make sure Stan and Cartman wake up okay! Ike's in danger, Ken. I have to make sure he's still at home and safe!"
"Woah woah, hold on." Kenny got up off the stump, "Why don't you calm down first and tell me what happened."
Kyle took one hard look at the other boy and decided that like Cartman, he too wanted to know why Kenny didn't come out here to help him tonight. "Didn't you get my message? We were trying to figure out what Ike was getting into and then we were ambushed at Carl's Warehouse!"
"Wait, so you went there willingly?" Kenny asked incredulously, appearing to be more shocked that they actually went in the first place.
"Yes! Just think, what if it was Ike who went?" Kyle argued. "He would have been killed!"
"I don't know dude,but he wasn't there right?" Kenny shrugged his shoulders and then gestured towards Stan and Cartman. "Maybe that's why you guys got attacked, because you shouldn't have been there either."
"That's not what's important now! What's important is making sure Ike stays as far away from this as possible!" Kyle stepped past Kenny on his way off the watershed.
Kenny, on the other hand stayed put, fishing his phone out of his pocket before exhaling loudly. "Alright dude, it's your choice..."
"Kenny, don't even." Kyle whipped his head around, jabbing a pointed finger in the other boy's direction. "I know if Karen was in this situation you'd do the same fucking thing."
Kenny nodded, "Sure thing, you should go check up on him."
"Yeah," Kyle dismissed as he hurried off the field, only looking back once to catch Kenny on his phone as the other boys started to wake up.
The pace at which Kyle ran back to his house seemed to double every time he flashed back to the incident in the warehouse. If they were just curious onlookers, what was Ike about to experience if he was actually involved in this thing? Were those guys already there? Kyle couldn't think about it for too long without tripping over himself in absolute fear for his little brother and maybe even his parents.
He couldn't help but feel angry too. Did Ike even think about the repercussions of his actions? Did he think for a second that he and countless others could suffer from his irresponsible decisions? Now that Kyle thought of it, he didn't even see the goth kid there that night. Did they get to her first? Were those goth guys who gave him directions in on it too?
This was going nowhere. Kyle nearly kicked his mailbox on his way up his driveway in frustration. His fingernails were biting into the palms of his hands, but he was forced to release his fists to open the door. His tightened throat was ready to yell into the quiet house, but Kyle stopped himself the moment he realized that the house in fact seemed empty. Silent even, Kyle's skin started to creep before he heard a quiet voice sound from Ike's room. He wanted to sigh, but this wasn't over yet. As happy as he was that he wasn't alone, he was had a million questions that needed to be answered.
Rushing up the stairs, Kyle reached the landing a little louder than he anticipated due to how upset he was over his brother's carelessness. He wanted Ike to know he was home, and he sure as hell wanted him to know that he wasn't fucking pleased at the moment. But Kyle also wanted to know who the fuck he was talking to, and unfortunately he was shit out of luck about that because at the first creek of the floorboards the voice dropped.
Kyle didn't have time for games, so with a troubled exhale he grabbed a hold of the door handle and threw open the door.
Perched there, facing the door as though he'd been waiting like this all night, Ike stared down his brother with an unmistakable, accusatory scowl of "what did you just do".
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kyle responded, reading his brother like a book. He steadily closed the door behind him, prepared for a long discussion as he stood his ground.
Ike didn't say a word, his firmly set frown was the only response he had to offer as he swiveled around and faced his computer.
Kyle was seconds away from shoving the entire content of Ike's desk onto the floor. How could he dismiss his own brother so carelessly? Especially after what he had been through tonight! Stomping over to the desk, Kyle grabbed a hold of Ike's chair and swung him back again, staring down at him with a scolding look on his face. "Start talking! You obviously know what happened, why were we attacked?!"
Ike didn't look phased in the least. He actually looked like he was holding back a laugh because the answer was apparently so simple. "Because you weren't supposed to be there."
"Who WAS supposed to be there? You?" Kyle snapped, ready to loose it over how nonchalant his little brother was taking this whole ordeal. "Thank GOD you weren't, or else YOU'D be attacked!"
Despite Kyle's elevated stress, Ike still seemed entirely unmoved by his brother's anger as he replied with a level voice. "No I wouldn't of, because I'm the one who arranged that meeting. Unfortunately everything got set back because they had to make sure you guys were out of the way..."
Kyle's eyes widened, realizing that Ike actually knew the identity of the people who ambushed them. "How do you know who 'they' are?"
"Because I hired them."
"To do what?!"
Ike closed his eyes, folding his hands across his lap as replied punctually. "That's classified."
"Fuck that!" Kyle combated with a shout. Apparently The name of the game tonight was to infuriate and confuse him to the point of breaking. "You're only eleven! You shouldn't have to do anything remotely 'classified'!"
"False." Ike immediately replied, staring straight up at his older brother. "You were only nine years old when you dealt with top secret missions like Imaginationland and The Peruvian Epidemic. I don't see why this is any different."
Kyle just shook his head, letting go of the chair as he began to mindlessly pace about the room to get his thoughts straight. "Because you're my little brother and these sorts of things should be left to my friends and I! We're the experts!"
"Not anymore." The younger boy spoke up.
"What?"
Ike swiveled back around, ignoring Kyle's exasperated expression in favor of nipping this whole thing in the bud. "You've outgrown your position since, as you're aware, this sort of job shouldn't be left to an adult."
Kyle, in contrast, couldn't ignore the absurdity of that statement, especially coming from someone as smart as his little brother. "That's ridiculous! Where do you get that logic from?!
"Did the adults ever help you when you were kids? No." Ike began his explanation, having prepared this speech for quite some time. "They were always too busy fighting over what to do or how to do it. Our parents couldn't come to a decision quick enough because they were too busy fighting amongst themselves, and even the solutions they came up with were flawed. That happened tonight with you and your friends too, it's been obvious for a while now that you're all too busy with your own personal drama to care about the town."
The truth in Ike's statement was enough to give Kyle a considerable amount of pause. What terrified him the most was how right he was. Never before did he consider the fact that the reason nothing seemed to happen anymore was because he wasn't playing close enough attention. After puberty, everything seemed to more focused around his own needs instead of the needs of the town, but Kyle didn't see this as a bad thing. He needed to grow up eventually, but what did growing up mean? Turning selfish? That couldn't be right, but the evidence was laid out right before his eyes. Ike was apparently attentive enough to know exactly why Kyle and his group ultimately failed tonight. "Wait, how did you know we were fighting?"
Ike grinned back, seemingly at peace with himself and the situation as he humbly got out of his chair. Before he could answer his brother's question though, he heard his phone vibrate on his desk and promptly checked to see who it was. Nodding at the message, he pocketed it and directed his attention outside the window. "The town's in good hands Kyle. Now if you'll excuse me, my ride's here."
Kyle was almost dumbstruck enough to let Ike past him, but through a fleeting moment of clarity he realized that it was AM hours on a schoolnight."Ride? It's past midnight? Where in the hell are you even going?"
"Benny's has a late night special on weekdays." Ike responded rather matter-of-factly, slipping past his older brother out the door. "and I'm going to need a sufficient amount of coffee to stay up late and clean up the mess you and your friends made. Cover for me."
"You know, I can help if you'd let me." Kyle pursued Ike down the stairs, keeping his voice to a minimum as he tried to convince him of his usefulness. We should work on this together, I have experience! Things might run more smoothly this way. I don't let my emotions get the best of me like the others do!"
Ike shrugged into his coat, grabbing his hat and scarf before opening the door. "I know you care Kyle, I'm not doing this to piss you off. There's a reason you and your friends shouldn't be involved. Eventually I'll have to pass this responsibility down too."
Both boys peered outside at the black Saturn stalling on the other side of their lawn. Henrietta was waiting in the driver's seat with the goth kid waving to him impatiently from the back.
As downtrodden as he felt, Kyle couldn't help but laugh. "So that's Georgie?"
"Yeah. She's kind of a spaz." Ike threw his scarf around his face to hide his bashful grin.
Kyle just shrugged, holding the door open for him as he fumbled with his hat. "As long as she's capable."
"Definitely capable. I'll see you in the morning, Kyle." And with a passing, reassuring glance, Ike was out the door.
Everything seemed calmer then, as though the last storm of the season just passed and Kyle didn't know whether or not he needed to worry about the next one. He didn't know how he felt about living blissfully unaware of the catastrophes Ike and the kids after him would prevent, but he knew that it wasn't his place to be concerned anymore. With a grown up life came grown up problems, but why did grown up problems seem so... juvenile?
"Mystery solved then?"
Kyle nearly screamed in horror at the unexpected voice, but thankfully he shut himself up because that unexpected voice was Cartman's and his parents would not appreciate seeing him lingering outside with someone like him at 2am. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
"Like I'd just go home after that. I woke up at Starks and you were nowhere to be found. Kenny had to take Stan back to his house. He was awake but completely out of it, but I'm sure he'll call you in the morning." Eric exhaled, rolling his eyes before returning his attention back to Kyle. "So! Are you over being a depressed lump of crap?"
"Fuck you, I was never depressed." Kyle shot back, but then took a deep breath before walking back inside, holding the door open for the other boy. "But I guess I'm less stressed now."
"Sweet." The larger boy replied, shifting around for a second before getting to his point. "Wanna fuck?"
Kyle locked the door and sighed exasperatedly, silently understanding that he'd have to be satisfied by these kinds of thrills from now on. Whatever, as long as he got to keep Cartman under his thumb he guessed worked just as well...
"Not really, but I will."
THE END
NOTES
For those of you interested in my Märchen series, Midwest Arc is going to be edited this summer. I'm fitting it into the current canon which means 200 and 201 will be accounted for. The word count will also be reduced significantly, Weinachtsmarchen will be incorporated into it, and this story will be molded into chapter one of the new sequel! Thanks everyone for reading!