Creation: Book 3: Strandbinder Complete!

Summary of Pt. 1: Walker is in a trance within his own mind. Echidna has placed a form of her power inside of Walker's soul, which is causing him to relive memories from his past. He doesn't know what is happening, and he can have no interaction with the screens before him. All he can do is watch, and re-experience these moments of his life.

This time, Walker sees himself as an early teenager, trying to talk to a girl in class. She was pretty, in that high school acne kind of way, but he remembered liking her for her laugh. So he told as many jokes as he could, good and bad. The young never know when to stop with that kind of thing, beating a horse so dead it may as well be dog food. She laughed and one of the girls sitting nearby turned in her desk and said, "Why are you talking to him? He's ugly." She gave him a glare, as if blaming him for his own acne and general dumpiness.

"I think he's funny." She said, backing him up, then gave him a bright smile. He returned it and went back to the overembellished jokes, while the girl whose name was Allison, turned back to the front of the class with a flick of her dirty blonde hair. Walker never did go on any dates with the girl and her laugh, but funnily enough, he did date the girl who called him ugly. They dated for over a year, which in high school terms, was a lifetime. She had been cruel in a sort of way, like yelling at fast food workers who were just doing their best for a buck, but beggars couldn't be choosers and Walker was no Adonis. The real reason they had broken up wasn't, in fact, how cruel she could sometimes be, at least with other people, but that she cheated on him with a friend of his, and had tried to somehow make it his fault. He watched the end of their relationship and felt better that he hadn't fallen for her any deeper than he had. Walker had never cheated on a girl, and never would.

The screen flickered and Valerie appeared. He felt his heart freeze up. He didn't know how he was having a physical feeling inside of his own mind, but it was there, and it was quite painful. He watched as they had their first conversation, at a pizza hut of all places. She smiled, her green eyes lighting up with something..special. Something only she had. The memories flashed by, and he couldn't do anything but watch as they went out on dates, to movies, and danced a few times although that was never Walker's strength. She was a phenomenal dancer. They moved in together and got out of the military together. It all lined up like it was perfect. Walker went to college, and that's when he saw things turn downward. He came home each day, tired, burned out mentally, and just didn't make time for her. It was a dark mirror to his thoughts from not too long ago. He hadn't prioritized her enough. He watched the last few weeks before he quit his job and came here. Watched as she tried to make overtures, but they fell on ears that didn't want to listen. It was a cold burn deep in his chest. It ended on their last night together, with him begging, holding a ring, and her closing a door.

The screen changed again and Walker watched, deep in a depression already, as he saw a girl he hadn't thought of for a long time. Jessica. She had Down syndrome and was a neighbor of his before his father's promotion and subsequent move. She had always been very kind to him, and they would play, laughing all the way, with different toys throughout her house. She lived in a manor while Walker had to share a room with his aunt. It just made sense to always go to her house. He hadn't seen her since he was around eight and had always remembered her as the kindest person he'd ever met.

In this moment, she was explaining why the Colorado Rockies were her favorite baseball team, "They're the best, you just don't know."

"But why?" Walker asked. His dad had taken him to a few L.A. Dodger games, and he'd picked them as his favorite team out of strict loyalty to the family.

"Try on my hat." She said, grabbing it from where it was hanging on the wall. Walker put it on and didn't notice anything special, but didn't say that as he knew she was sensitive about her hats.

"Okay, now what?" He asked her.

"You don't feel it?" She asked. "That hat was given to me by my father. My mom says he's away on a business trip, and I haven't seen him for a while. It's the best hat I have though. You can feel him throught it."

Walker didn't understand, but he agreed it was a very nice hat with her.

"You're nice." She said, smiling.

As he and his mother were walking away, he asked his mom about it. "Mom, where's Jessica's dad?"

They got into their new car, a blue Dodge Durango his mother loved, before she said, "Oh honey, he left when she was born. Some men just can't....deal with it....when their children don't turn out the way they want them to. It's no fault of the child's though, and Jessica is such a sweet girl." She turned the key in the ignition and they were headed home as Walker thought it over. He came to a decision that burned in his chest.

"When I have kids, I'll always take care of them."

"That's why you're my favorite." His mother said without looking at him, a smile on her face.

The screen flickered and his oldest friend Matt appeared. They had met their sophomore year in high school English, striking up a friendship over how stupid the class seemed to be. In hindsight, that was one of the best English classes he'd ever taken, as Mr. Lenner had let them focus on their own writing and not what the state prescribed. He had started to love writing and the breakdown of words from that class.

Matt was not a tall man, but had always worked out consistently, even in his early teen years, and his blue eyes always seemed to win over the girls. There were more than a few times that one of Walker's suitors had grown close to him, only for him to find out they were just trying to get closer to Matt. Matt always rejected them though. He was a good friend and stand-up guy who he never truly felt he deserved.

Walker knew this moment with full clarity. It was the last time they'd spoken in person and was an old argument at that. Matt had moved to San Diego and he and his wife were trying to have a kid. They were going to have a baby whether Matt wanted to or not, at least that's what his wife said.

"Just quit." Matt said for the second time. "You're not actually happy there, and I spoke to Valerie last week. She's not happy either."

"You know I can't just quit, a Reed-"

"Finishes what they start, yah, I know genius." Matt interrupted. "But, if it's killing you, why the fuck would you stay."

"Think of the children Matthew!" Walker joked.

"It's not a joking matter man. You're all fucked up. Valerie said you're hardly sleeping anymore and you have no time for yourself, always working every weekend. It's not good dude." Matt ran a hand through his thin and further thining blonde hair. They were at a coffee shop in Santa Barbara, near where the Borders used to be. "Look, I'm going to be a dad one day, which means you're going to have a pseudo-nephew one day as well, you need to be alive to be that uncle. I think this honestly may be killing you."

"I'm fine Matt, really. Valerie and I can figure it out and what am I going to do otherwise? California's not cheap and we barely make rent even with Val's higher salary."

"I don't know, but you're smart enough to figure it out, as long as you have the right people around you." He said, taking a sip of too-hot coffee.

"I have no idea why you drink it when it's that hot. Cold coffee or nothing."

"Stop changing the subject. You do that, you know. When you're uncomfortable with something."

Walker sighed. "I know. Wanna see something?"

"As long as it's not your dick, sure." Matt said with a smile.

Walker pulled out his phone and showed a picture of a ring. The stone matched the color of Valerie's eyes, as he never much liked diamonds or the inflated pricetag that came with them. "Whatcha think."

"Oh man! I had no idea, although it's about time. Where are you gonna get the money for this? It's too nice for the likes of you and your shitty teacher paycheck."

"I've been tutoring after school for the last few weeks to save up. That's why I haven't been home as much, and I have to make lesson plans for them just like I do my main job. Sure, I'm exhausted a lot, but it'll be worth it in the end. I figure it'll take me a few years."

"Dude, that's great man. I'm happy for you."

"Thank you." Walker said with a smile. Matt roughly patted his shoulder and they kept talking through the day as they walked down State Street and toward the beach.

"When are you coming to San Diego?" Matt asked as they were both getting ready to part ways. "I can't always be driving up here, at some point it's your turn."

"I'll get there after I propose to Valerie, promise."

"You better. You're one of the best guys I know, if not the best, but you're entirely too focused on your work at times." He said with a small shake of his head.

"True. But as the wise say, Work worth doing, is work done right." He replied with two thumbs up.

"You're an asshole." Matt said as he turned and walked away.

"True!" Walker yelled at his back.

The last screen flickered as the current one died away, along with a piece of Walker's heart. That was the last time he'd talked to Matt and he missed him dearly. It was rare to find a friend like that in any world. He wasn't disparaging Virgil, but his bond with Matt was powerful. He hoped he and his family were okay.

The final screen popped up and it wasn't like the previous ones. It showed Walker just sitting and drawing. Before his Dysgraphia had really reared its head, he remembered drawing all the time, fantastical creatures abounding on the page, and his mother's friendly encouragement. Now, as he watched his young self sit in his room and draw, he realized just how shit of an artist he had been. It's unfair, he understood, to judge a child's artwork, but that was still terrible. What was he drawing? His young self got up and ran to the kitchen to show his mother. She took it and ooh'd and ah'd like any mother would for their child, then put it on the refrigerator.

"You didn't name it?" His mother asked.

"It's just a squirrel." Young Walker replied, and ran back to his room to draw some more artwork for his mother. He created art the world had never, and probably should never, see. Fifty-foot tall spiders with acid dripping from their fangs running at a city with their army of children. A small family holding hands beside a great big tree as a squirrel overlord pointed at them with a sword. A man in a cape with a W on the back flying in and saving people.

The flicker moved forward to a time when Walker, at the age of seventeen, pulled someone out of a car accident and got them away to safety, only moments before a small explosion occurred in a formerly quiet intersection. The man thanked him once before passing out, and he stayed by their side while waiting for the ambulance he had called after checking on him.

Flicker. Walker in an elevator at a hospital, waiting on test results for his knees. He had grown a full foot in a year and it was causing him a lot of pain. A man starts to choke in the elevator on a part of a sandwich he had been eating when Walker entered. He performed the Heimlich maneuver his dad said could save somebody's life someday, and got the man's airway clear. Two weeks later the man found Walker and gave him a walking stick he had made in Scotland called a Shaleighleigh. Walker thought it was a pretty funny story and would sometimes tell it to his students.

Flicker. It showed a woman on a motorcycle being run over by a bus Walker was sitting on. Eighteen people sat on that bus, but he was the only one to get off of it and help the woman. She had broken both her arms and legs, and her chest was caved in. He was in the military and had gone through just enough training to know she wasn't going to make it, so he instead held her hand and spoke softly to her as she died only a few moments later. A few minutes after her expiration, the rest of the people on the bus got off. They tried to give Walker an award and a ceremony, but he rejected both. He told them they should be ashamed of those eighteen people on the bus, as they'd had the same training he did. There was no further talk of awards.

Flicker. Walker is in Afghanistan and one of his sergeants took a round to the outside of his leg. The man was completely lucid and carrying a Pepsi soda for some reason, as Walker carried him to the helicopter under gunfire and mortar rounds impacting the ground around him. The moment he gets the Sergeant into the helicopter, he drops the can, and subsequently passes out. Walker calls it a magical can and keeps it. He never sees the Sergeant again.

Flicker. Walker jumps out of the way of a mortar strike in his last few weeks in the military and falls into a ditch. He tears all the ligaments in one of his ankles and has to crawl to his barracks through a garbage-filled latrine. He doesn't tell anyone about how bad the injury is, and tries to pretend he just twisted his ankle. If they find out, they'll keep him there longer, and he was ready to leave. He'd done his duty. He'd finished what he'd started.

Flicker. Walker is at the laundromat and sees a child put a Tidepod in its mouth. He rushes over and rips it out of the small boy's mouth while his mother screams at him. He tells her they need to go to the hospital and they rush off, leaving their clothes forgotten in the machines. Two hours later the doctor says the child is going to be fine, and Walker breathes a sigh of relief. Luckily, no one took his clothes.

There were other moments, but those were the ones that stuck out the most to him. That time he put out a fire in the school bathroom, twice, in one day. That time he got between a kid and his parents, who he knew were abusive. All the school fights he stopped and the soft conversations that followed. When you're living in the present, you don't really analyze what you're doing and how you're doing it. You....just....do. When Walker was speaking with people, he had a tendency to tell jokes and take the solemnity of whatever was happening away. But, when action called, he was always ready. He knew what to do, how to do it, and what the best course was to take. It's who he was.

The screens all flickered away and the yellow coloring began to bleed into black again. Walker thought over what he'd seen and what he was supposed to get from this. It was like those times when people say they can see their whole life flash before their eyes, right before they die. What had he learned from this?

He had a strict family, but one who cared about him and wanted him to always do his best. They taught him to always finish what he'd started.

He was a fuckup with relationships, but he always tried to make things better and he loved hard. His relationships taught him that you couldn't ignore the smallest things as they can become larger problems later on.

He was an okay friend, but they always knew he cared about them and he hoped they still cared about him even now. His friends taught him that it was okay to self-care and that being a good person wasn't anything to look down upon.

He was great in moments of crisis, and wouldn't hesitate to help someone in need, even if they didn't know they needed that same help. He learned from his own experiences that he wasn't a superhero, but no one was, and all you do is your best in any given situation. Often, just trying to do your best was enough to succeed.

The yellow receded further, and in its place, a deep forest green grew. The more Walker thought over what he had seen, the more the Green color grew, soon overtaking the black and only leaving the yellow in its place. In the end, he knew who he was, and who he wasn't. He was Walker Reed, and while he certainly wouldn't call himself a hero, he did find in himself heroic-like tendencies. He would always strive to be better. He would always grow to build a better future for himself and those around him. And, he would always help those in need. That was Walker Reed.

The last of the yellow shattered, and the green took over. He was still within his mind, so he mentally pushed and found himself back on his tiny planet with the pseudo-gods and squirrels. Immediately, Walker felt a sense of change in himself. His mind felt more clear than he'd ever experienced before, like his thoughts had been damp and had finally dried out. He stretched his arms out to his sides and felt his body move differently. It was as if heavy weights had been holding him down all of his life, and they were finally lifted. and his body felt and moved as if weights had been lifted off of him. He opened his eyes, and a green wave pushed itself away from his body, buffeting those around him. It didn't have a physical presence, just a forest green color spreading out from him as a central point. Echidna tracked the wave with her yellow eyes and nodded once.

"Twenty-five feet, or thereabouts."

"Twenty-five and 4 inches." Virgil corrected.

"Indeed. How far did your first breakthrough go Z?" She asked the bearded man.

"Around fifteen feet, but remember, I was there for your own. Six feet was it?" He asked with a bit of cheekiness. Echidna blushed.

"Well, congratulations Walker."

Walker was still catching up to the changes in his body and just picked up on what they were saying, "Congratulations on what?' He asked.

"You have the makings of a Titan." She said without a smile. "Let's see just how far you can go."