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Just as soon as they had finally caught up to him, Pokey had gotten away.
In their helicopter, no less.
Stranded atop the Montoli Building, the background noise of the town and his friends fell deaf on Ness’ ears. With all he could register being the helicopter’s propeller blades fading out from his hearing, he stewed in his own emotions. At that moment, everything Pokey had been taunting him with for most of his life hit harder now than it ever had before.
He had caused this. This was all Ness’ fault.
More importantly, his eyebrows would never be permanent.
“…Ness?” Paula’s concerned voice dragged Ness back to reality. The fresh breeze attacked his hair, threatening to toss his cap off. His lack of response earned him a telepathic ‘fist’ to the shoulder. “Ness. If you think not having any eyebrows is gonna stop us bein’ friends, then you’ve got another thing comi-”
“No. It’s my fault he’s done this. And not because of my…” Ness’ voice trailed off. “I need to-“
“Ness.” Jeff’s voice chimed in, tired yet carrying some sense of understanding. “Fake eyebrows or not, he’d still have been a right twat to you. If we get back to ground level, we can work something out. Even if we don’t have a helicopter, we-“
Ness held a hand in the air, for some reason not able to look back at his teammates.
With what felt like an eternity to bond with both Paula and Jeff, he wouldn’t have traded them for the world. However, even they weren’t privy to his deepest secret. His shame. Oh, not being Pokey’s neighbour or former friend. No, it was the very last insult Pokey yelled from his comfy helicopter seat. The only one that was true.
He was a ‘lowbrow no-brow’. The hair adorning his brows were, truly, velcros.
Ever since he could remember, his eyebrows were almost doomed to fall off for as long as he could remember. Perhaps it was hereditary from his father (not that he’d know, considering the memories of four-year-old Ness). Maybe Ness’ awakened psychic powers disagreed with him wanting his eyebrows to remain intact. Whatever the case, this was who he was and nothing was going to change that.
In this case, ‘who he was’ was exactly the fix to their predicament. Pokey had flown off in that helicopter, right? If they had any chance of catching up with him, they needed a helicopter of their own…
Ness’ raised hand moved to rest its palm on his forehead. Almost as quickly as it laid there, it tore itself from Ness’ face, the action accompanied by a tiny yelp from Ness.
“Guys.” It may have been the lighting, but Paula and Jeff swore they caught the shine of fresh tears threatening to escape the sides of Ness’ eyes. “Hold onto my ankles.”
Paula and Jeff threw questioning glances at each other, then to the back of Ness’ head. Naturally, Jeff was the first to chime in against this ridiculous request.
“…How is this ever going to-“
“Watch closely,” Ness lifted a leg, with his hand holding what looked like two black furry sticks. Stray hexagons of PSI sparked through them, threatening to twitch and squirm. “And whatever you do, don’t look at my face.”
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Inside his newly-earned helicopter, Pokey’s chubby hands struggled to keep a steady grip on the cyclic stick. Even with his obviously superior knowledge compared to everyone else’s, the vehicle swerved left to right in chaotic movements. No, it couldn’t be him steering it wrong. It was this helicopter that was the problem!
Despite this setback, Pokey couldn’t help but laugh to himself, his earlier speech to Ness still fresh in his mind. Especially with that cataclysmic truth-bomb he laid on all of his stupid friends… why, he’d give anything to see the looks on all of their faces!
Ness’ eyebrowless fate was a disturbing truth that only Pokey was privy too. One that he had only happened upon by chance when both of them were eight years old, frolicking in the mud as rambunctious children tended to. The memory of Ness’ snivelling, mud-faced look as he had tripped and lost his velcro eyebrow replacements was burned into his mind…
“Y-Ya have to promise not ta tell anyone, Pokey! Everyone already thinks I’m weird…”
“Alright alright, ya silly pig’s butt! Cross my heart-“
“No, that’s what ya do with strangers! Ya gotta pinky swear! That’s a friend’s promise!”
“F-Friends…?”
That’s right, not as if he and Ness were friends anymore. Ness broke that bridge back in Happy-Happy Village. And after Pokey had the patience to look past that horrible, blank-browed face…! If other people were anything to Pokey, they were rude, conceited, arrogant, horrid…
To Pokey, the conclusion was obvious. It’s not as though any of those judgemental freaks would be friends with Ness if they knew that ugly secret. If he couldn’t have Ness as a friend anymore, nobody could. Why, he could hear those two other dumb voices bickering with Ness right now as music to his ears…
In fact, he can hear them a little too close.
Staring behind him out of the window, Pokey threw an incredulous look. Against all odds, a helicopter was tailing him.
Even more incredible was the fact that this technically wasn’t a helicopter. Well, how would Pokey define a helicopter? Something with a rotor? Is the fuselage optional? The engine? Okay, then does a human helicopter count if it’s more than one person…?
Oh who cares, they’re a helicopter!
Ness was the base, holding what looked like some sort of spinning rotor in his hand. Both his hand and the ‘rotor’ crackled with raw psychic energy, the power of Ness’ PSI spinning the velcro eyebrows in his hand through sheer force of will.
Paula rode piggyback, brandishing flames atop her finger and leaning her head past Ness’ to stare violent daggers at Pokey whenever she could get a look at him.
While Jeff, poor Jeff, hung gracelessly like an old rag from Ness’ ankle which had lost an accompanying shoe and sock in the struggle.
“Right, Ness! Lean right!”
“I can’t! Jeff’s pulling me too much to the left!”
“Sure, make it my fault! If you got your foot out of my face, I could judge better!”
To give Pokey’s piloting some credit, the mess of bodies wasn’t doing a much better job of flying in a straight line. Nevertheless, they were making up a good distance at their current speed. Closing in fast, Ness tilted his head up slightly, the brim of his cap no longer blocking Pokey’s view of his face.
Seeing the features on Ness’ face… no, seeing the distinct lack of a specific feature on Ness’ face, Pokey had realised the exact secret behind Ness’ helicopter trick.
Their eyes met.
Pokey’s pupils dilated in fear at the absolutely murderous look Ness managed to shoot at him.
They were both misfits in some sort of way. They weren’t fit to be part of society as a whole. Yet, in the end, Ness had used his own freakish quirk to help himself. Something Pokey knew he’d never be able to do himself.
With that, whatever happened afterwards was irrelevant. It didn’t matter if he had managed to escape, they had got into some ridiculous dogfight or if Ness and his friends went tumbling down into the cityscape below.
No matter what façade he put up, Pokey knew he was beat.