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Chapter Six: Finn Harris’s Desert Ops

Maybe the first bad idea of the day was that Finn decided to come to school today, had the news not been focused on the strange alien race that was invading the town, it would surely have been of how strangely Finn walked as he navigated the highways of the class. Like he said no one would notice, Isaac however had decided to make it a skip day for himself and Finn was beginning to regret going.

His overheard people snicker at him as he passed by, cautiously holding his books to his chest like a catholic girl who was attempting to convince the school that her morals were in check. His were not, maybe Isaac should have make him more like a water slide but the sly shark convinced him it was more natural that way, and now he was beginning to regret that.

Sliding into class, he carefully took his actions. His undercarriage was feeling less than comfortable compared to how it was going last night. He walked into class, and realized Erick was on to him the second he sat down in fact he saw Erick’s face turn into smile and Erick realized he had done the dirty deed, the beast with two backs, well three in his case, he was found. Sitting down, he placed his books on the ground and tried the best not to show his discomfort as he stretched.

Finn tried to ignore Erick as he grabbed his books and placed them on his desk, opening them up to the day’s page and grabbing his pencil he heard Erick snickering behind him. He was glad that Iren, nor Ross were in this class as well, god forbid they had caught wind of this or else they would be over him like blood sucking bats.

And then just as the teacher was about to start, Finn grabbing his pencil and getting ready to take notes, there was instead an interruption. Above them all the students stopped as above them the sound of the loud speaker activated, in the milliseconds before, as the layers of static interrupted them, the students quieted down and looked up waiting for their instruction.

“Pardon the interruption, may Finn Harris and Earl Owen please come to the main office. May Finn Harris and Earl Owen please come to the main office?”

Finn looked around they wanted him, for some reason, why did they want him what did he do and why was he wanted. He placed his book back into the bag and stood up. And now he realized that everyone would notice him as he walked out of the room. Nodding to the teacher, he walked forward, trying to keep a normal gait.

“Oh wait, it was Earl; Finn I think Isaac’s going to be mad.” Erick said as Finn blushed, he quickly darted for the exit figuring no one could tell he was walking strangely if they couldn’t see him. He ran out of the class and stood embarrassed as he left the class room behind him.

Walki8ng towards the front of the building, luckily with nearly all of the classes beginning they didn’t have to worry about being spotted by anyone else, maybe he would just skip English for the rest of time, he was good at English writing and really he didn’t need it that much.

The shark walked into the office, walking past the glass windows and into the office. The secretary; pointed him towards an open room and was currently busy taking what seemed to be a mass of phone calls from students probably including Isaac, Iren and Ross. Finn waved to her and walked by and walked into the room.

“Howdy Finn!”

Finn was taken back for that moment as he felt like he was talking to someone from Dollywood. Instead the black lizard known as Earl sat down in the room and with him was someone else; Finn took a look to be sure. It was Lorraine, standing there with her low cut dress and horribly applied eyeliner.

“Glad you could make it, it looks like you managed to have a good night; at least someone did.” Loraine said as Finn walked in and put his bookbag on the ground as he took a seat on the large wooden seats and instead tried to pull himself to the table. He looked at her and wondered what she wanted with him.

For a moment, Finn had a mini-heart attack as he realized that Loraine might have figured him out and that she might have known he was an Outsider. What if this was some stupidly planned attack, what if they wanted to take him out first, he was the most powerful of all the Outsiders, and he didn’t know what else it meant. He stood still for a second; allowing tiny currents to form between his fingers.

“Now then unless you live under a rock, which I seriously contend that he might, you might have seen my brief elevation to public figure and those five moments were the best of my life and I need that back.” Loraine said and with that Finn let the electricity flow back into his body, he wasn’t in danger unless, he was going to be fighting Loraine’s foul fashion.

“Now ma’am I live in an RV, they’re those big things and you can move them around, that way you never have the same sunset twice.” Earl said as he embarrassed Finn just by pure association. Finn liked Earl, he really did he was just so nice and he never looked like he could hurt a fly but just sometimes there was so much on his plate he couldn’t handle it.

“Oh dear, well I need you two; you see you two are the only who signed up for this school’s tiny veiled attempt at course diversity, Desert Exploration and with that I figure you two are big enough desert nerds that you might help me in my exploration.” Loraine said as she held up a sign up sheet for the class with Earl’s name first and Finn’s name below, Finn night have realized that he could have pushed away the line of people behind him.

Finn took a breath of relief as he realized that he wasn’t in danger and in retrospect that made sense. Loraine probably was far too dim witted in order to place the sometimes obvious clues he let out into the public unless the Riftwalkers had personally taken it among themselves to give her a puzzle that showed it.

And then in that second as he had another thought, the Rifts pushed her away the second that Ignatius had started to speak. And Finn had another thought; she loved the limelight based on how many local newspapers showed her on the front page, usually drunk and walking out of some sort of club. And then he realized she was a scorned woman.

“So what do you want revenge on the Rifts?” Finn said as he put his hands up and started to crack them, she smiled at him and he figured he did a good thing and just then he was going to let the beans spill and shock his fingers.

“No you dumbass, they’ll kill you what do you think you are some kind of an Outsider?” Loraine said slamming her hands down and showing a file of papers that looked neatly put together. Finn looked at it and it seemed to be gathered information with charts and energy graphs that seemed to show the energy ripple from the Riftwalkers passing through.

“These are a massive collection of energy gathered from two nights ago around the Riftwalkers entrance point collected by a Professor David Pavlock, now if anyone enters in the city I can go and be their ambassador, but if the Kagens enter in the desert someone else could and we can’t have that possibility.” Loraine said, Finn looked at it and it seemed to be collected gladly and put together. Finn was amazed at how it far it looked to be that she went.

“Now then, I need you two clowns to go out into the desert and set up these pingers, they will detect energy and in our case with us an emergency warning, so then I can get to them early enough. Now then I just need you to place about twenty or so of these in a twenty square mile in seven squares around the city, that should cover all bases and I think you can do it.” Loraine said as she placed down a bag of the pingers and what looked to be two sick forms. Finn smiled as he looked at it.

“Good luck toddles and be sure to be on lookout for the Kagens in case they arrive early and be sure to put in a good word for me and well you two should know what to do.” Loraine said as she left the room and left Finn and Earl alone.

“I like her she’s nice.”

…

Iren and Ross walked into the garage base, when they heard he wasn’t going to school that either meant that Isaac was on the fritz or Finn was losing it, and based on the amount of grunting that Finn was doing, he wasn’t loosing anything, last night he definitely gained something. Ross opened the door to the garage base, the neighbor this time looking into the garage trying to see why their seemed to be an equilibrium of children in the garage.

Suddenly as they passed into the range of perception filter, both of them were knocked against the door. Isaac was listening to deafening music. Ross looked forward and tried to see what he was listening to it was a definite rock type mix and he had no idea what was going on. Backing away from the wall, he looked and saw Isaac standing on a pillar; he was playing some sort of game.

Neon lights shined over the area and Isaac’s fingers seemed to be twirling on a guitar as notes appeared on the screen. Walking forward Ross looked at Iren who seemed to walk out of the building, getting sick at the music. Ross walked forward and tried to do his best to announce his presence to Isaac.

Isaac had tears in his eyes and seemed to be playing a resentful song, he seemed sad and happy as he strummed away at the guitar that seemed to be hooked up to electric equipment and was in some sort of flux as electrical signals on optic wires ran from the guitar into the screen.

“Hey Isaac why don’t you come down and talk to us we just want to speak, well I just want to, I think Iren is blowing chunks!” Ross yelled as he tried to grab Isaac’s attention. Instead he knocked his hand into the platform and let it shook as Isaac stopped playing and suddenly the crowd started to boo.

“Oh I’m sorry Ross, I was just playing with my custom guitar, the shocks from my shitty electrical skills always remind me of Finn, he always tickles me with shocks on my body, just the tiniest of them and they always relax me.” Isaac said a she put the steampunk-ish guitar down and instead sat down on the platform about a few inches higher than Ross.

Meanwhile Ross was in full on emergency mode, this wasn’t asshole Isaac or science Isaac this was serious Isaac when Isaac was serious something horrible was happening to the world or something horrible was happening to Isaac. Either way someone always ended up on the ceiling.

“Are you okay buddy, we figured that something happened last night and are you alright?” Ross said as internally all his alarms were going off, he didn’t know how to handle sad Isaac, Iren didn’t know how to handle him, only Isaac could play an instrument as complicated as an Isaac and right now he was in front of everybody on the battle of the bands and he had no idea what he was doing.

“Oh well, I don’t know last night was amazing everything felt real, everything felt amazing nothing felt fake and I felt like neither me nor him were hiding from each other, we showed each other our true colors last night.” Isaac said as he reflected, this only set off more alarms and raised Ross from mode red into mode delta, this was immediate destruction of the planet.

“Well that is how it goes, was Finn secretly a top did you have to experiment last night, I don’t know what’s wrong with you and I need know what’s bothering you in order to help you.” Ross said as he looked at Isaac hoping that channeling Iren might help him with what he needed to know.

“Oh it’s always the same with you people, always trying to barge in and always trying to know every single detail like it’s your business.” Isaac said as he wobbled on the platform and then fell off. He barely caught himself with his powers and landed safely. Ross looked at him and could only wonder what it meant for them and what he was thinking.

“Please you’re going to tell me any way you are far too much of a blabbermouth not to.” Ross said as he nervously closed his month and hoped that he didn’t go too far. Isaac floated himself back up onto the platform and attempted what looked like a stern look, Ross couldn’t help but crack a smile and Isaac knew he was failing at showing superiority.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I don’t know what me and Finn mean any more it’s like we’ve paradoxically pushed each other apart by relieving some of the sexual tension and now I am just there, there is no suspense, I know what I am in for and I don’t know how to react to that.” Isaac said as he leaned back and Ross quickly put his foot on the platform making sure that the shark wouldn’t fall over again.

“Ok listen.” Ross grabbed Isaac’s jacket and fixed the collar and fixed his hair with a through rubbing. “There are points like this where nothing seems right and sometimes in life it doesn’t make sense why they are their but it always gets better no matter how often or long these periods last.” Ross said as he tried to encourage Isaac, Isaac suddenly got a smirk look on his face and smiled at Ross, Ross said the right thing.

“Well I hear these periods only happen once a month for about seven days so I think that I can work with that.” Isaac said telling a joke that surely sounded better without three seconds of silence between them and another awkward pause.

“Well you are back to your normal sense, sinking down further the food chain then I even though it possible but you still need to take a breather, slow down with Finn you guys skipped like five levels, go out on dates you two are always around us and you never are alone and you two need to work on your alone relationship.” Ross said as he smiled and Isaac put his hands out, Ross was surprised as Isaac pulled him into a hug.

“Thank you.” Isaac whispered into Ross’s ear. Ross was pretty sure that might have been the first time that he heard Isaac ever sound grateful. Ross backed up and he felt glad that he defused that bomb from Isaac. He looked over and saw Isaac typing on his phone and then he had that worried look on his face.

“Did Finn not text your back yet?” Ross asked as he looked back at Isaac who was currently now frantically typing on his phone, he then looked even more worried than before and Ross once again realized there was another bomb.

…

“So then Earl, what do you want to do when you get older, because now I’m not sure about this, which college are you going to go to? Would you like to go to Columbia, Nevada U, Cali U, any college?” Finn asked as he walked through the desert, it currently looked like there was no trace of the Kagens to follow. Finn wasn’t sure if that was a bad thing or a good thing.

“Oh well I don’t want to go to college, really I’d like to skip every day and go out in to the desert if I could, why should school be taken seriously if it wouldn’t help me out here. I mean really, I feel happy and best out here, living off the gird with solar panels I built with information from Starbucks internet and an RV I bought on a minimum wage.” Earl said as he climbed over a rock formation and looked around, Finn looked at Earl he wasn’t sure why he wanted to know this but now the lizard seemed interesting.

“I mean, how is calculus going to help me explore the desert where I’m happiest and where I love to explore, someone has to explore these irritated lands and someone has to find the treasure so if I contribute through that why should I have to learn things that keep me from being happy?” Earl said as he reached the top of the hill and read the map, once again something they didn’t teach in school. He signaled to Finn and reached for a pinger.

“Well I guess you are right, if you feel that is your responsibly to explore these deserts then I think you should do that, it’s is your government given ability to do so and I trust that you might find something good.” Finn said as he placed the tiny spherical device down and turned it on. He looked around and looked through the desert.

“Really I see it as a non-issue, if anyone disagrees with me while I might look like a hippie or a hick, this is where I would like to put my personal freedom into and this is where I want to go.” Earl said as they walked over the next sand dune and they had the whole of the desert to look over. From this point the entire desert looked massive compared to Carson City, and in realty Carson City was just a point of a map it was nothing compared to the massive Nevada territory.

“That’s nice I support your endeavors in that.” Finn said as he slid down the dune intending on completing this task for Loraine before anyone else could do so. Earl followed him down the hill and both of them laughed as they both took a tumbled down.

“So then what do you want to do, are you a chemist, or a engineer or maybe an artist?” Earl asked him and Finn had to think about that, what was he going to do when he grew up. What was his plan B, and then he realized he didn’t have a plan B. The Outsiders were everything he knew how to do and he wondered what would happen when he grew up.

…

“Well look at this.” Isaac said as he leaned against the wall and showed Ross his phone, Ross bent down a little and too a look at the tiny screen. His eyes scrolled alone what seemed to be a news headline.

“Nanobot swarm forms in ocean, force field deployed.” Ross said as he realized what Isaac was getting emotional about. He stood up and looked at the shark; Isaac still wasn’t acting like his normal self. Usually he just deflects such bad news and focus on something else, but it seemed like he was taking everything as if the world had a personal vendetta against him.

“Look at this, I did this. There is this massive swarm of nano-fish swimming in the sea and now people aren’t going to get food and it might spread out into other parts of the sea and right now I feel horrible.” Isaac said as he leaned against the wall and put his hands against his head. He looked blushed and he was sweating profusely, Ross approached Isaac and put his hand out.

“Isaac listen you are going to screw up every now and them but you need to move on and attempt to improve the future, or else you are just going to stay stuck in the past with everyone else so just take a breath and let your anger out.” Ross said as he tried to make Isaac think that it wasn’t as big a deal as he thought, Isaac had tears in his eyes and he attempted to wipe them away to no avail.

“I feel like all I attempt to do for this world is nothing and the world just turns it back on me, no matter how hard I try to fight.” Isaac said he backed himself into the wall. At this point Iren came into the room seeing what Ross’s and Isaac’s talk had devolved into and it was now time for mama bear to take the stage.

“Ok Isaac what do you feel like shit about because, it’s going to take an awful lot of shit in order to breach your skin.” Iren said complementing Isaac on his thick skin or insulting him on his thick skin, either way she walked forward and looked at Ross. Ross handed her the phone and she looked at it and smiled, this was in her range she could deal with this.

“Ok Isaac, teachable moment here if you don’t want this to happen you need to be more precise, you need to know what you are doing, you need to have a plan for what you are doing or else more of this will happen.” Iren said as she handed Isaac back her phone, for a second Isaac seemed to go only go deeper into the hole of darkness but then he started to think about what Iren said.

“Your right next time we meet Owlman it will be our last time and I will make sure that he does not go bravely into that dark night, he will be in pain and I will make sure he will feel everything he did to us in revenge.” Isaac said seemingly inspired as he took his phone and walked forward, with a smile on his face.

…

As Finn walked through the desert, he suddenly looked down and saw some sand shifting as he did; he looked closer and it was a line of shifting sand. Something was moving the sand along as it passed through it. Looking forward, Earl seemed to be focusing on a rusted piece of metal and now it was his chance.

Finn looked in and saw it was spiders, but not normal spiders; as he looked closer they seemed to have elongated abdomens and strange and long legs and then he realized he was looking at a nanobot infected spider. While normally he might crush the spider between his feet, looking back towards where they were coming from he realized they might not have been practically squishable or countable.

Looking forward at Earl he tumbled down the side dune and into what seemed to be a pit surrounded by sand dunes. The spiders had been crawling into what appeared to be a tiny rock hole. Finn crawled forward towards the hole as he looked inside of it but couldn’t make anything out. As the spiders crawled in a tiny light activated on them and lit up their path through the tunnel.

And then looking at the tunnel of rock, he saw a tiny lump on the rock and it seemed to be pushable. Reaching forward, Finn clicked on the lump and it disappeared. Instead next to him, a sand shifted as behind it, a rock wall pulled away and it opened up access to him. Finn was swallowed up by the tunnel and he disappeared into darkness.

Landing quietly, Finn looked around. Below him he felt a steel girder and looking forward he saw a line of lights, it was the spiders. They seemed to be crawling down the tunnel to the bottom and looking down there, Finn saw to figures, their two bodies barely illuminated by the spider’s light.

“Where the hell is that light switch?” One of the voices cried as it stumbled around the bottom of the cavern. Finn laughed, but then he realized that these had to be people like Owlman, people who were nanobot infectors. Finn backed up against the hole, hoping to block the sunlight pushing against his body as he looked forward trying to get the tiniest of details from the dark area.

“I don’t know maybe if Owlman uploaded the plan designs to this area I wouldn’t have to light it up on my own!”

Finn backed up as a massive plume of fire shot up from the ground and into the sky. It seemed solely to frighten him about what he was facing; he backed up behind him and climbed quickly up the hole as he realized that the nanobots might not be as small as he thought they were. He climbed up the hole and quickly realized that he might not have much time to run away if they figured out where he was and started to come after him.

Finn backed up as the tunnel hole closed behind him and he stood up, he mentally marked this location on his internal map. Instead standing up Finn stood up and quickly climbed up the sand dune and managed to find Earl again.

“Hey there you ok, did you fall down into that hole?” Earl asked as he held up the map and looked for their next mile to travel to. Finn was worried; they were still only a few miles away from their car and a few miles away from the city. He looked and saw that they might be able to make it to the roadway and escape.

“Yeah, I’m okay. I’m just really worried now, I don’t think we can do this in time, and I don’t want to disappoint Loraine.” Finn said as he and Earl walked forward, carefully sliding down the sand dune and towards their next target. Finn looked back but if by now if the nanobots didn’t attack them, then they were probably safe. He looked back half expecting a massive plume of fire to rise over the sand dune but for now it seems they were safe.

“Well I believe in you and I think we can do it if we work together, you always go out with your friends and you guys always do some amazing things.” Earl said, Finn looked back at him as he realized that Earl wasn’t talking about them going out to a restaurant. Finn realized that Earl knew who he was; Earl knew that he was an Outsider.

“What you can see pas the perception filter how can you do this, tell me do you see anything when I do this?” Finn said as he reached over his shoulder and clicked the button on his jacket’s collar. Earl gave him a weird look as if nothing had happened, but to Finn his perception filter activated.

“No, there was just some sparkles but you still look like Finn, and you fought against the nanobots and you and Iren and Isaac are the protectors of Carson City, Lighting Bolt, Graviton and White Mage. I figured at some point that you didn’t want people to see that form so I shut my mouth about it.” Earl said as he sat down next to Finn, looked at Earl, his eyes looked normal, they were a deep blue and seemed completely normal.

“Well that’s interesting; I’ve never seen anyone able to pass through the perception filter before. But you do know the danger of this information that you hold, you can’t let anyone know about it and if anyone even peers into your mind…”

“Sans Erick.” Earl added in, as if he knew that Erick too was another Outsider, Finn wasn’t even sure how he knew that. Erick never even went on fights with them.

“Sans Erick, if anyone attempts to find out who we are or asks you, you make sure that no one knows that information, that is dangerous for you to know and makes you a bit of a danger to be around, just be careful. Want to come and visit the base?” Finn asked as he decided to leave Loraine’s prideful task and instead have more fun, he left the backs of pingers in the desert.

…

“Interesting, your eyes they don’t even show any demonization of the perception filter, just by your eyes completely ignoring them, you managed to best what is years and years of Outsider research, good job.” Isaac said as he looked into Earl’s eyes, Finn looked at Isaac and he looked sad and he wasn’t sure how Isaac was handling the day.

“Is Isaac okay?” Finn said as he asked Ross, next to him Iren seemed to have some green face. Finn tried to avoid the tiger and instead focus on other people. Ross smiled at him and put his scaled hand on Finn’s shoulder.

“Good job, you did your job as his boyfriend. Isaac wants more tension, take him on a date but don’t tell him where you are going, good luck.” Ross said surprising Finn by coming completely out of left corner. Finn raised an eyebrow but Ross nodded at him and instead pushed him at Isaac.

“Hey Isaac, how is it going today?” Finn asked, like a nervous girl right before her first time, but then he realized Isaac loved him and he loved Isaac and he shouldn’t have to be afraid. Isaac would always be there for him and he would always be there for Isaac.

“Pretty good, how is it going on your front?” Isaac asked smiling, as he pulled the measurement device away from Earl’s eyes and instead focused his look at Finn, both of them smiled at each other. Finn put his hand on the back of his head and shifted his feet, and he realized he was still nervous, but he really didn’t have a reason still.

“Well you know, today was a fun day, I found something but I can tell you about it later, still while all of this is letting down maybe you would like to go out on a date with me?” Finn asked smiling at Isaac, the shark smiled back. Isaac laughed a bit and backed up as he grabbed another piece of equipment.

“You know what, I would love to go. We need some alone time, now then speaking of alone time what do you want me to do with Bright eyes right over here?” Isaac asked as he put the equipment away and turned off the secondary computer. Isaac sat down on the table and grabbed the memory eraser, one click of it and Earl would forget everything he learnt. Still with that in the air, Earl still stood their nervously clicking his fingers together and waiting for something to happen to him.

“No we can’t fix his eyes, and the second he sees us again he’ll know the truth again, so I see no point in doing that so instead… Well he knows all our rules; we’ll just add him to the citizens that know our identities. Now we have Billy, Barry, and Earl, Finn’s angels.” Finn said as he let Earl stand up and look at the base in its entire run down glory.

“Well, thank You Finn for letting me keep my memories, they mean the world to me and I assure you that you will never be a bother to you.” Earl said as he smiled, Finn smiled back and Isaac smiled as well. They awkwardly stood silent for a few seconds waiting for someone to speak.

“Ah, well I think you’ve had a fun enough for one day; what do say, I’ll take you back to your RV?” Finn said, quickly shooting a glare over to Isaac who he knew would laugh. Instead Isaac said nothing and instead Finn and Earl were out of the base already.

…

“Well then here you go, I thank you for not telling anyone. But when did you figure out that we were Outsiders, I’m just curious about that.” Finn asked as he stepped off his motorcycle and Earl threw him his spare helmet, he collapsed it with Outsider tech and placed the shrunk helmet in his spare compartment, Earl laughed seeing it.

“Well it was around last year when I saw fighting Homicidal Gator and I realized you were the same kid that barely spoke out in my class, you should trust in yourself more, actually I think I might have something for you…” Earl said mysteriously as he walked in the RV.

Finn smiled as he watched Earl disappear, the RV shook as he seemingly reached through the RV. He heard the engine start, and the RV shake as is motor started, barely. Finn saw it as he the smoke rise out of the RV’s exhaust, there was glass windows, most covered in dust with a few pieces of glass knocked out and replaced with tape and paper. Earl appeared with a massive folder in his hands.

“What is this?” Finn asked as he accepted the folder and opened it. He grabbed it and placed it down into the motorcycle’s storage.

“Don’t look at it until you get home, get a glass of water and a nice light and take a look at it and reflect, let’s just say these are seeds in a garden you might get to see or may not get to see, your legacy.” Earl said as he nodded and with that he went back into his brown stained RV and drove away presumably on some other sand covered road, as the RV’s barely functional motor pushed it away.

…

Finn did as Earl said as and after Isaac had passed into sleep and instead opened his folder. He snuck down stairs and grabbed a glass of water, sitting down at his father’s desk. He grabbed the folder and opened it, and he was amazed at what it had.

“Lightning Bolt shocks Homicidal Gator!” Finn said as he read the headline, below it was a photo of his Outsider self, dressed in his blue gear with lightbolts running down the side of his arms. Someone times he forgets what even he wears, and taking a breath he saw the photo.

He was engulfed in electricity and punching the large alligator. Putting that to the side, he laughed and frowned as he remembered the past year. Everything he did, newspaper clippings from at least once a day were placed in the folder. And he remembered the good and the bad of it all.

Finn smiled, he saw everything he did. Fighting the werewolves and protecting Carson City, it was all in front of him. And he saw it all, he smiled as he took a sip of the water. And then he felt Isaac hugging him.

“What are you looking at?” Isaac asked, he sounded sleepy and was barely reading the newspaper clippings below him. Finn closed it and instead turned around and put his hands around Isaac’s waist, the shark smiled.

“Nothing, just my legacy, what are you doing, I think we should go back to sleep and cuddle.” Finn said as he turned around and walked forward, kissing Isaac as he returned, believing that he could take on the nanobots. He knew the future, and he saw himself defeating the nanobots and now he believes that he and the Outsiders could.