Biking down the road, Jimmy finds his time to be easy now. Moving fast, not getting tired easily, and his inner mind has become more enjoyable to chat with.

[“how much longer do you think it will be, before we reach Yellowstone?”]

[“According to the map, we were about 250 miles away by now, but at this pace it could be some weeks still”]

[“How long has it even been since we have left home?”]

[“ I stopped counting my sleep cycles long ago”]

[“so did I…”]

[“Does time even have any meaning anymore? There is nothing to count the minutes, and the sun doesn’t even go down ever”]

Pouring some extra mana into his legs, Jimmy picks up the pace.

[“Racers in the Tour de France must be jealous. We are easily going as fast as a professional cyclist- and I am not even going as hard as I could top out at”]

[“wasn’t our stay worth it? I told you”]

[“Yup, you were definitely right, and I know for sure that other people are alive out there- but where?”]

[“Maybe somewhere near Yellowstone too?”]

[“Or maybe it’s a trap?”]

[“What, the people left around here are just fighting? For what, dominance? Just wait till you see it, or you may cause some accidents later”]

[“You think we will just attack the first person we see?”]

[“Have you even thought about what we will say, HOW we will say anything? Listen around. There is not a lick of sound to exist, and you aren’t even talking to anyone right now. You are me and I am you. I am just a voice you made in your head”]

[“yeah, I get you. I still have my pen and paper. As they say, ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’. “]

[“That may be true. But what if they have some way of communicating, that you don’t know.”]

[“What, some minds talking to each other?”]

[“Maybe. Or maybe American Sign Language. We never learned that in school- Don’t you feel bad already?”]

[“yeah…. Definitely maybe. But maybe they use some alien like thing, touching each other and sending feelings into the minds of others”]

[“Or maybe, sending computer-like signals to each other with mana wave. Bop bop boop bop bop bop boop”]

[“You said that, and I don’t even know what that means”]

[“We have been talking for a while. Can you think, independently from me?”]

[“I don’t know. You say something, and then you respond back. Thinking we might be like a computer?”]

[“yeah, maybe. In those mangas, the MC could get an ability called thought acceleration or such- like having a second person in your mind but it was based off you”]

[“ don’t know. How about I count up by 2’s while you multiply by 2’s? At the same time”]

[‘Alright- Go!”]

[“2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24”

“2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024”]

[“Wow, we practically are our own mind”]

[“That’s pretty cool. So, we can pretty much double ourselves. One focuses on the body and other thinks overtime”]

[“I guess? But it feels like I am always controlling our body”]

[“Same… It also always feels like I am always in control’]

[“So no real changes?”]

[“Agreed”]

Talking to himself for hours, Jimmy continues biking at amazing speeds, for a longtime. Taking a sip from his water bladder here and there, and a couple bites from a bag Jerky.

Taking a pit stop to check where on the map he is, Jimmy could not believe his eyes.

[“Just, just how long were we biking for non-stop? I am not even tired, and according to the map, we are not even 50 miles away!”]

[“With a talking partner as great as you, time just disappears”]

[“Right back at me”]

[“Lets just take some time to sleep for now. Just in case”]

Pulling out some paper from his backpack, strapping his bike onto his backpack, he starts using Steal Life to make a set of stairs into the sky a bit- taking old steps out as they are not needed with Return to Life.

Deciding that he was high enough, already reaching past the trees, he setups a little home in the sky with floor, walls ceiling and even a small window. His bike and backpack now sit just outside of his little paper house, floating Steal Life. If anything bad could happen, then he will be out of harms way.

With just a sleeping bag to sleep in, and a moderately uneven floor, it should not have been a food sleep- but Jimmy felt refreshed after waking up.

[“Let’s blow the roof off this place!”]

[“Yeah yeah. Daily exercise can’t be done up here very easily”]

Having gotten used to his abilities, just waving his hands across the roof and walls, the paper just seamed to stack back up easily and quickly.

Slowly descending a new set of paper stairs, it was not as easy going up. After some time, Jimmy got used to the actions repeating themselves, making it safely back to the ground, with bike and bag.

[“That was quite an experience. Think we were the first to ever sleep floating in the air?”]

[“Maybe. Just maybe. Though it was surprisingly nice”]

Beginning his usual morning exercises, he feels, nothing. It was not doing anything. Not a droplet of sweat.

Pulling his sword out, a few swings at the pole, he can feel stronger without a doubt. Pushing enough mana into the pole to hit, in a single swing, chunks blast out of the pole. With a second swing, taking what little of the pole chunk out with ease, it floats in the sky.

[“Nice, I hope we never really need to use this. But it is fun”]

[“Right? Now I really feel like a transcendent hero come to save the world!”]

[“Calm down Hercules, we don’t even know if we can fix this in the first place. We are pretty much running without our heads at this point”]

[“At least let us enjoy this. It is something in this frozen hellscape”]

[“Lets get a move on and finish this trip”]

Packing up and heading out, Jimmy wonders if he will ever be able to be with his family again, or what will even happen when he meets another living person again. Will he have to fight, are things going to be happy go lucky perfect, is it just going to be a passing glance and just be on our marry way?

‘Yellowstone Nat’l Park. 1-1/2 MILES’ a bright green sign states.

[“Look at that, we finally made it- probably record time too”]

[“I have been here before?”]

[“No… But I did expect it to take faaar longer than this”]

The grounds are covered in a fuzzy dark green to light tan grasses and bushes. Hills surrounding in nearly every direction. Jimmy awes in the unseen beauty of Yellowstone. It is nothing compared to his small Watertown, where bright greens and tall round trees can be found everywhere.

[“Sooo… What now?”]

[“I, don’t know. We are lookin for that spot on tv where they blasted that machine”]

[“You do know, we don’t have any recollection of exactly where it is right?”]

[“We could… Grid search the entire park like the movies”]

[“Duuude, this place is, like states big- that would take years”]

[“You’re right. What if we go around the park, maybe there will be a sign.”]

[“Maybe, let’s put that on the list as a highly likely”]

[“Oh. The news was there, maybe a local news station has some info on paper- probably means the site is also along one of the many roads”]

[“That sounds easier- and we can pack up some extra essentials just in case”]

Reversing back, Jimmy heads into Billings, some town he has not heard of- but seams to be of good size. Down the main street, back and forth between every other street, a said news building could not be found. There are not even many people around, they must have been smart and escaped ahead of time in case Yellowstone popped its top.

Stopping at the next gas station to grab some more food and water, Jimmy finds some news papers stacked up at the front of the door

[“Wow. Look at these ancient things, do people even read these anymore?”]

[“Maybe, it’s a lot of paper- but they must be making some good money”]

[“Probably. Hey! Look at this. Article on the bottom of the first page”]

’Scientists to use new Science to STOP Yellowstone’

‘Today at 1PM, several scientists will be attempting to stop Yellowstone’s eruption, that could easily take out at least 400 miles in all directions. A small hole was drilled deep into the ground, exposing flowing magma. They will shoot the machine down into the magma, and hopefully save so many lives. The scientists have opened up the scene to show off their new “m-wave” technology…’

[“That’s not a very creative title”]

[“Who cares about a title? They have a map right to the stop- let’s go”]

Following the map, Jimmy heads off to his final destination

[“Are you serious?”]

[“What?”]

[“We rode past this road is just one before what we took last time- and look at all the cars…”]

[“I. I don’t know how we missed it, I blame you”]

[“I am you”]

[“Fair point. Anyways, a lot of people were surprisingly interested”]

Riding down the road, a line of cars some mile long sits right before the entrance to the site.

A crowd of people stand frozen, mixed expressions and actions going on all over the place. Happy faces, worried faces, someone clearly pickpocketing another person. The crowd is thick, too much to just walk through- but taking out some paper, Jimmy makes a set of floating stairs and just walks over them.

Sitting in the middle of the crowed, surrounded by a set of clothe rails, there the machine sits. Some skinny tall guy stands in a lab coat, stuck in an upward flowing motion, maybe a breeze from the hole just came before the incident. Several security guards stand to keep the crowd in check, but doesn’t look like the are doing a good enough job- as Jimmy descends from the sky and right next to the machine.

Getting a closer look, the scientist’s face is scrunched up and eyes shut tight- he clearly did not know what will happen, what did happen. A finger switch leading by a thin wire to the machine, stuck in space falling just below his hand, the guy must have been much more surprised.

[“So. What now? He clearly won’t be of any help to us”]

[“Return to Life the machine?”]

[“Got an instruction manual?”]

[“Noo… but it does have a switch right there. Maybe pressing it again will turn it off”]

[“And if it already is off?”]

[“…Press it a million times more”]

[“Fine, lets just try and see what happens”]

Putting both hands on the machine, Jimmy focuses his mana filling the entire space around and inside the machine, all the way up to the switch.

[“It’s not enough. Pour in magic from the surrounding area!”]

Pushing harder, massive amounts of mana comes into his hands and right into the machine- more so than he has ever felt before. The area seams to be far richer in mana, something Jimmy didn’t even know was possible.

The switch slowly begins to fall again, and then quickly comes back to life. Catching the switch before it hits the ground, Jimmy wipes his sweat drenched forehead.

[“It is back. The problem and answer to our solution, is in our hand”]