I stood outside my run-down house, stomach twisting up from anxiousness. With a deep breath, I took the few steps to my front door, hearing the familiar TV blaring Mickey Mouse. My hands trembled as I looked through the window from where I stood behind the door. I caught sight of Darry reading his newspaper.

Pursing my lips, I thought about how I should meet them. Should I follow them until they start talking about me, and pop right in like I was always there? I shook my head. No, I should just enter the house. I don't want to wait any longer.

I opened the screen door, flinching at the loud, agonizing screech. There goes the element of surprise. I pushed open the front door, stepping onto the dirty carpet. Attention turned to me from everyone inside. For the longest moment, it was silent; everyone in an awkward standoff. Their jaws were left ajar and their eyes were wide like they were in awe and couldn't register what was happening. I gripped the strap of my backpack and breathed out, "Hey, what did I miss?" A small smile lifted my lips.

Soda was the first to move, throwing down his playing cards on the table, stumbling out of his chair to reach me. He captured me in a hug, tears falling from his eyes like waterfalls. My hands desperately wrapped around him as well. It has been far too long since he had embraced one of his brothers. He started to cry as well, balling Soda's clothes in my hands. My tears got his shoulders wet, but I couldn't care less. I was finally home; finally free.

"Oh, Pony," Soda kept whispering like a metronome.

Darry's muscular arms wrapped around the two of us.

I looked horrible, all puffy-eyed and red-beaten face. I didn't want to pull away, but I knew that I had too. When I stepped back, Soda looked just as stricken as I was. Darry placed a hand on my shoulder.

"You came back," he said.

"I'm home," I murmured.

o-o-o

The house was like I was walking back in a distant memory. It was all so overwhelming. Everything was left untouched like I haven't left. In fact, I would have thought that I've never left if it wasn't for the gang always approaching me.

"Welcome back," Johnny said to me after Darry and Soda let me move around after they finally were sure that I wasn't an illusion. He smiled and was about to talk again, but the others approached me as well.

"Glad you're back," Steve said, shocking me. It was strange to hear those words directed at me from him.

"I'm glad to be back." I was nearly brought back to tears.

"What happened there?" Dally asked.

I think we should leave Ponyboy alone for now. This might be too much for him for now."

"I really want to know what happened to him."

"It's fine Darry," I said.

"Whoo! Story time with the magician," Two-Bit cheered, lounging next to me.

"I'm not a magician."

"You can't convince me otherwise because of what you can do."

I chuckled and gave them a briefing of what it was like. Everyone payed attention to every detail that I gave. I stopped when I was about to describe getting involved in the fight.

"I'm sorry," I apologized, looking at my shoes. "I got involved."

"It's fine. You made it out and got home safely," Soda soothed, petting my head.

"It gets worse. I could have easily saved people, but I let them get killed. I was scared. There's something wrong with me, right?"

"I mean, with what—" Two-Bit started but was shoved by Steve.

"There's nothing wrong with trying to survive. People do all kinds of things when scared. What you did just makes you human," Darry said. I nodded and yawned. "Get some sleep."

My mind drew blanks. I realized that I could finally sleep. The next thing I knew, I was crashing onto my bed, before my lights went out.

It was two days later until I woke up. I jolted away, glancing everywhere, trying to find out where I was and how I got there. Then I remembered that I was home and relaxed as much as I could while my bladder felt like it was going to implode. I scurried to the bathroom, something I've never had actual access to in a while, and left feeling relieved.

As soon as I took a step outside the bathroom doors, Two-Bit woke up, eyes looking at me in shock before he remembered that I had returned. He sheepishly smiled at me. "Was the reason that you came out here was to give me a show?" he asked cheekily. "Come on, show me something!"

"My brothers are sleeping, man," I answered, rolling my eyes, but a grin slipped onto my face.

"It doesn't have to be loud. Show me something!"

"Sometimes, I think that you're a kid trapped into an older body."

"It adds to my charm."

"Alright, don't panic," I formed a ball into my hands, flexing my nimble fingers in an odd way. Two-Bit watched in amazement before I threw it at him, lifting him up in the air. He gasped in surprise and wiggled around, waving his arms like helicopter propellers. I floated him across the room and his shock turned into amusement. He shot his arms out in front of him, imitating Superman and laughing too loudly.

"Look, I'm Superman!"

"Shh! Quiet or I'm putting you back down! I flipped him in the air. I blasted myself to be able to float to the ceiling. My brows furrowed up in concentration. Carrying myself as well as another living being was difficult. I laughed as I sent Two-Bit barreling in the air.

"Not so fast!"

"You're the free-rider. I'll do what I want."

The noise had awoken Darry and Soda from their slumber. They entered the living room with curious eyes.

"What's going on?" Soda asked. I lowered myself to the ground.

"Giving Two-Bit flying lessons," I responded, inevitably lifting Soda in the air who started to laugh along with Two-Bit. I glanced at Darry who cracked a grin at the sight of the two flying in the air. He realized that I was staring at him and he shook his head at the silent question that I asked him. Well, it wasn't really a question, it was a statement. He had no choice, but he didn't know that until I lifted him up in the air as well.

"More proof that Darry's Superman!" Two-Bit exclaimed.

"I thought you were Superman."

"I was actually imitating Darry."

Darry chuckled, ignoring the whole "Superman" conversation.

I staggered a bit, letting all of them drop a few inches. I bit my tongue lightly. I was only able to carry two items at a time and I was holding three. I let them all down before I could bring harm to them, since it only took one off-count to hurt them.

"We should prank the Socs," Two-Bit, all of a sudden, brought up.

"How?" Soda asked.

"Two words: flying car."

That's what brought us outside. Two-Bit entered his beat-up car, giving me a nod. I lifted it up with a grunt.

Two-Bit rolled down the windows as he told me to not look suspicious and to stand a ways back. Darry and Soda were to make sure that me trailing behind Two-Bit would look out of place.

Before we could leave, Johnny and Dally strolled over. They both raised their eyebrows at the sight, though they couldn't hide the look of bewilderment. They haven't seen me use my powers before.

"That's tuff," Dally said.

"Come on in, man. We're going to fly over some Socs," Two-Bit said.

"Is that okay?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah, hold on," I said, and removed one of my hands, causing the car to lower slightly. I picked Johnny up and lifted him to the car. Johnny opened the door and climbed in. I looked at Dally.

"Sure," he agreed. I lifted him as well. Johnny moved to the back seats.

At that point, Steve came and was quickly filled in on what was happening. He looked stunned, and as much as I enjoyed that look on his face, I liked his annoyed one better.

"I'll get on as well," he declared.

"No," I said simply.

"What?"

"No. Do I need to say it in Spanish too?" He looked at Soda incredulously who was laughing, catching onto my joke. "You can walk."

"Come on! Let's go!" Two-Bit whined.

I moved my hand so that the car would be pushed forward ahead of me and stalked nearby. As we passed the streets, everyone stopped what they were doing, jaws dropping. Two-Bit and turned on the radio and was bobbing his head to the song that was playing. He acted cool, like nothing was wrong. We got to the Socs section soon enough and were currently passing a group of them, leaning over the newest car on the market.

"Hey, that's a nice car. Check out mine!" Two-Bit called out, lowering his music. Beads of sweat formulated on my forehead and my arms shook a bit.

"What the hell!" one of the screamed.

"Holy shit," another muttered.

The car lowered a bit.

"That's a nice car, where'd you get it?" another asked. "Actually… give it to us." He flipped out his blade and his friends did the same.

Two-Bit laughed and hollered, "How do you plan on getting to me? Can you fly like this car?"

My arm gave out and the car dropped to the ground, springing on its tires. I clutched my cramped up arm, shutting my eyes to rid of the headache that had formed.

"It looks like we can get that car now." They started to march forward, but I put up a shield so that they couldn't advance. "Why can't we move?"

Darry, Soda, Steve and I stepped forward, catching up to the vehicle with the others. The Socs turned to us. Realization crossed all of their faces.

"Are one of you one of those mutant freaks? That's how this all happened?" one of the asked. I didn't react. I've heard much worse names for me. The others weren't having it though. They glared at the Socs who leaned back from the intimidation.

One of them turned to me and spat, "It's you, right? You're that monster. Why didn't you die in Russia?"

The gang's agitation levels were through the roof. I didn't react until the Socs started to step forward. Steve took a step, but I stopped him.

"It's not worth it," I said.

"Running away now?"

I shook my head and raised my hand. If I wanted to, I could destroy his body in a clutch of my hands or pull limbs off of him without any struggle. Instead, I threw a small ball of gold at him, and concentrated it on one spot. I slightly closed my hand and twisted it. The Soc closest to me stopped his pursuit forward, twitching. His pants begun to get wet, his own piss dripping down his leg, I let his bladder go and shakily lifted the car again to start walking home.

"Man, you totally pissed yourself!" one of the Soc's friend teased, laughing.

The victim's face was red. "Screw you! I didn't piss my pants! That freak did something to me!"

We were out of hearing range at that point. The gang were all laughing at what just happened.

"That was badass!" Steve chuckled. I dropped the car again, taking a sharp intake of breath. I weakly smiled. I would have been laughing too if I wasn't exhausted.

"Golly, Ponyboy. You alright?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah, I'm good," I replied. I was fine and I was free. It was still hard to believe.

There was a shadowy figure who ducked behind a wall. My smile faltered.

That's right. I was never free. I was just alright with less restraints.

o-o-o

Thank you everyone for reading this from beginning to end. :D I hope that you really enjoyed this story. It was fun writing. I also hope to see more of you in my future stories. Thank you again for all of your support.

Replies:

Cookieswafflesandfanfic: Haha, I know what you mean by too busy for fanfiction. It sucks. Actually, summer homework sucks. But I'm glad you don't have to do that anymore, for now at least. Thank you for reading and reviewing often. Stay gold!

Kaosmagic: That's a shame. My school used to be strict, but now they're like, "Yeah, go ahead and wear short shorts. It's fine now because we aren't going to put a ruler by your crotch." Thank you for reading this fanfiction and reviewing. Stay gold!

Rayray0528: Thank you so much for reading my story since the beginning and reviewing often. You really made my rough days better. Hopefully I'll see you on future works. :D Stay gold!