Return to Zero

by Pittacus Lore

  John shook his head. “No, that’s not what I do. It’s true that I can copy any Legacy that I’ve seen, but I’ve never met any Garde with your powers before.”

  Kopano puffed up a bit. “So you can’t do what we do?”

  “Nope,” John replied. “Not yet, at least. And anyway, just because I can copy a Legacy doesn’t mean I can use it well. Not to mention, it’s always better to work with a team.” John rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s something I need to be reminded about sometimes, but I really believe it.”

  Kopano clapped his hands. “Yes! So once our team is in the warship’s core, what do you need us to do to get the force field generator free?”

  “Well, I won’t be going in with you,” John said. “I’ve got to keep an eye on Earth Garde and the Mogadorians, make sure nothing happens during the surrender. You two will be sneaking in while that’s happening.”

  Kopano and Miki exchanged a look. Neither of them had ever been on a Mogadorian warship before, much less taken one apart. The thought thrilled Kopano, but Miki looked uncertain.

  “Don’t worry,” John said. “I’ll show you the way.”

  John clicked around on the blueprint, zooming in on a refrigerator-size object amid all the Mogadorian tech.

  “That’s the generator there,” John explained. “Obviously, the Mogs don’t want these damaged, so it’s surrounded by three layers of armor—carbon steel, titanium and a mineral native to Mogadore.” He glanced at Kopano. “You might’ve seen it on Vontezza’s weapon. The obsidian-looking stuff?”

  Kopano nodded, touching his chest. “Yeah. It hurt when she whacked me.”

  “So you can imagine what a pain in the ass it is to strip that armor away, even with my Legacies,” John replied. He looked at Kopano. “What I want you to do is phase through the armor, grab the generator and pull it free.”

  Kopano stifled a wince. Vontezza’s weapon had caused him pain when it passed through him. He wasn’t excited about coming in contact with that metal again.

  John noticed his hesitation. “Will that not work? You can do objects, right?”

  Kopano forced a smile. He couldn’t let John down; couldn’t squander this chance to do something heroic on behalf of the Academy. It was exactly the kind of opportunity he’d been waiting for.

  “Yes,” Kopano said. “I can do objects.”

  As a demonstration, Kopano picked up the laptop, then loosened his molecules. He waved his arm around, passing the computer harmlessly through the top of the desk. Then, he set the laptop back down where it’d been, restoring its density. The screen flickered, but otherwise everything was normal.

  “That’s good,” John said. “But the generator is a lot bigger than that. Do you think you could try the desk?”

  Kopano looked down at the desk, cracking his knuckles. It was bulky and metal with drawers filled with teaching supplies. Kopano considered the size. Yes, he was strong, and he could tip over this desk no problem, but it was awfully big for him to lift up. He put his hand on top of the desk and loosened its molecules. The laptop started to fall to the floor, but Miki caught it with his telekinesis.

  “I don’t see how I’ll be able to lift something like this,” Kopano said, frowning.

  “Why not?” John replied. “If I’m understanding your Legacy correctly, you’ve just changed the density of the desk’s molecules. You’ve altered them enough that the laptop fell through, but not so much that the desk is ghosting through the floor. That’s your instinct kicking in. You’re making sure that you don’t completely trash the room by altering the physics. But, if you tried, couldn’t you make it completely weightless?”

  Kopano considered this. Mostly, he’d used his Legacy to pass through things, or harden his own molecules to become impervious to damage. He’d never considered messing with the weight of objects to move them around.

  “I’ve never done anything like that,” he mused.

  “I’m sure Nine was working up to that,” John said. “Want to give it a shot?”

  “Hell yes, I do,” Kopano replied.

  He crouched down to grab hold of the desk—back straight, lift from the knees, proper form. As Kopano focused, he became aware of the desk’s particles and how he was separating them, how they fought to keep their shape against the manipulation of his Legacy. His brain said that the desk should have weight, it should be too unwieldly for him to simply pick it up. But Kopano didn’t listen to the logical part of his brain.

  Kopano would show John Smith that he could help. That he was worthy of being a Garde.

  He lifted the desk perpendicular to his body. It came easily, putting no more strain on Kopano’s muscles than an empty cardboard box. Miki hopped backwards, but John stayed put, letting the desk pass harmlessly through him as Kopano maneuvered it.

  “Very good,” John said.

  Kopano turned the desk the long way and hefted it all the way over his head, part of it disappearing into the ceiling. As it tilted, some of the drawers came open and papers fluttered free, these regaining their mass as they left the desk and wafted to the floor.

  “This is fun.” Kopano grinned, balancing the weightless and incorporeal desk on one hand now. “Do you think there’s a car I could try on?”

  Showing off now, Kopano tossed the desk from one hand to the other. He imagined himself juggling furniture later in the student union, not realizing his mistake until the desk crashed to the floor on its side between him and John. Drawers went flying, the floor tiles cracked and a good-size dent spread across the desktop. The second he’d lost contact with the desk, it had turned solid.

  “Oops,” Kopano said.

  “Nice one,” Miki said dryly.

  John patted him on the back. “When it’s the generator, maybe don’t let it go until it’s clear, okay?”

  Kopano nodded. “Got it. Lesson learned.”

  Miki peered around the upended desk to look at John. “So what am I supposed to do?”

  “Transport,” John replied. “There’s going to be a lot of attention on the warship and we’ll need to get the generator moved before Earth Garde has a chance to secure the area. They won’t let us just carry the thing away. So once Kopano’s got the equipment loose, I want you to transform it into wind until we clear the area. Then, we’ll teleport it back to New Lorien.”

  “We get to go to New Lorien?” Kopano asked, trying not to shout the question in his excitement.

  “Yeah, we’ll make a stop, drop it off,” John said casually. He revealed a Loralite pendant on his neck, exactly the same as the one Nine had been wearing at the meeting in his office. “This will let us teleport there. The stone is keyed specifically to the Loralite in New Lorien.”

  “Sweet,” Kopano said.

  “And then we’ll head back here as quickly as possible,” John replied. His expression darkened. Kopano had heard about what happened when he and Taylor visited the Earth Garde encampment. “I have a feeling things might take a turn for the worse soon.”

  “One problem,” Miki said, patting the side of the desk. “I’ve never moved anything larger than a person in my wind form. I’m not sure I can do it.”

  “Well, we’ve got the rest of the day to work—”

  The classroom door clattered open, interrupting John and causing Kopano to flinch. Vontezza stalked into the room, the Mogadorian girl still clad in her dented armor. Kopano took a step back, remembering their fight the day before, and Miki simply stared at her. She didn’t pay attention to either of them, though, her imperious gaze instead boring right into John.

  “I have been looking for you,” she stated, annoyed.

  “Vontezza, I thought we agreed you would stay out of sight,” John said diplomatically. “Some of the students here might not be ready for someone like you.”

  “I cannot sit in that box and twiddle my thumbs while the fate of my crew hangs in the balance,” she replied. For the first time, she noticed Kopano and Miki. “Hello, large one and small child I do no
t know.”

  Kopano could tell that Miki was trying not to stare or shy away from Vontezza. “Um, hey,” Miki said. “I’m—”

  Vontezza ignored him, instead focusing on the laptop John held, the blueprint of her warship still displayed there. “You are planning. Without me.”

  “Because you aren’t going,” John answered, pinching the bridge of his nose. “We can’t risk Earth Garde finding out you exist.”

  “I am the captain of the Osiris,” Vontezza replied. “My crew may have agreed to surrender themselves, but I cannot let them do that alone. I must be there to ensure their safety.”

  “Vontezza—”

  “You will need me,” she said. “What is your plan? To send these two unbloodied Garde in while you pose for pictures? They will need a guide.”

  Kopano made a face. “I’m not—I’ve got plenty of blood. And I think we can find our way around a warship.”

  “Really?” Vontezza snatched the laptop away from John and thrust it towards Kopano. “There is the map. Show me what route you will take, thick one.”

  Kopano flippantly traced his finger from one side of the warship straight into its center. “I can pass through walls, remember? I don’t need a route. I can just—”

  Vontezza made a noise like an explosion, apparently the Mogadorian version of the wrong answer buzzer.

  “What about the radiation?” Vontezza asked. “Can you pass through that, too? Or will it melt your molecules like it did so many of my people?”

  Kopano’s forehead scrunched up. He’d never considered what might happen to him if he phased through something toxic. His first instinct was that opening his atoms to some kind of poisonous cloud was probably a bad idea. However, John spoke up before he could voice that concern.

  “What radiation?” John asked Vontezza. “You didn’t mention that.”

  “Entire sections of the Osiris were damaged during the mutinies,” Vontezza replied. “There are areas of the ship that are inhospitable even to the vatborn. Mere humans stumbling around the halls unguided will never make it to the core alive. You see? I am needed.”

  “You could just tell us how to get there,” Miki muttered.

  “No,” Vontezza snapped. She stared at John. “I have already traded too much to come to this school that is falling apart. I will be there tomorrow to make sure that my crew are treated with dignity.”

  John’s nostrils flared. Kopano could tell that he was struggling to keep his cool. Vontezza was arrogant, kind of mean and made Kopano uneasy. But he could see where she was coming from. It was, as usual, Kopano’s tendency to try to smooth things over.

  “I mean, I guess she is a good fighter,” Kopano spoke up. “Couldn’t hurt to have someone watching our backs in there.”

  Vontezza didn’t say anything else, simply raising her sculpted black eyebrows at John.

  “Fine,” he said gruffly. “I don’t want to spend any more time arguing about this. If you’re going to come, though, you need to be a hell of a lot more incognito.”

  Vontezza glanced down at herself—the armor, the long black braid, the mace on her hip. “Incognito. Of course.”

  John breathed out through his nose and turned back to Miki. “All right. You want to show me how this wind stuff works? We can figure out how big of an object you can carry.”

  “Right now?” Miki asked.

  “Right now,” John replied, and extended a hand.

  Miki grasped on to the Loric and the two of them transformed into a swirl of particles, breezing from one end of the classroom to another. When they reappeared, John put the back of his hand to his mouth and coughed.

  “That’s a weird sensation,” he said.

  “You get used to it,” Miki replied.

  John motioned to one of the smaller desks where the students once sat. “Okay, try carrying that with you. I’ll do my best to help. We can figure this out together.”

  They transformed again—this time John didn’t need to take Miki’s hand—and the desk vanished with them. Kopano tried to track the swirl of their particles, but soon they’d blown open a window and were gone, moving their training session to a less confined area.

  Kopano realized then that he was alone with Vontezza. And she was staring at him.

  “Thank you,” she said. “For acknowledging my rightness.”

  “No problem,” Kopano said with a shrug. They stood there awkwardly for a moment. “Well, see you later.”

  As Kopano headed for the exit, Vontezza followed.

  “What does this word mean?” she asked. “Incognito?”

  “It means he wants you to look less like a Mogadorian and more like one of us,” Kopano said. “A human.”

  Vontezza looked down at her gear. Kopano glanced at her as well—the ashen skin, inky-black hair, slightly sharpened teeth. She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth.

  “Yes, I am willing to do that,” she said, then paused. “But how?”

  Kopano itched his earlobe in thought. “Maybe try getting a suntan or . . .”

  He trailed off as they exited the classroom and ran into a handful of students. Kopano figured they had a class scheduled for the room and started to walk by them but found his path blocked by Nicolas Lambert.

  “Son of a bitch, Maiken wasn’t lying,” Nic said. “There really is a Mog here.”

  It took Kopano a moment to recognize the tension in the air. Vontezza, behind him, identified it much more quickly. She paused in the classroom doorway, one hand straying down to the mace by her hip.

  Kopano looked at the students assembled behind Nicolas. There was Anika Jindal, who could manipulate metals; that dude Ben from Brooklyn, who had sticky skin that let him cling to walls; and a couple of tweebs who Kopano had seen around but not really gotten to know. Kopano wouldn’t have considered any of them his friends, exactly, but he knew them all and thought they were generally a good bunch. He’d never seen them look like they did now—angry and cold, all of them glaring past Kopano at Vontezza.

  This was a mob.

  “Guys,” Kopano said tentatively. “What are you doing?”

  “My older brother, Nathan, was a helicopter pilot for the Belgian Air Component,” Nicolas said, ignoring Kopano and instead speaking directly to Vontezza. “He was evacuating people from Berlin when one of your skimmers shot him down. He died.”

  “You must be proud,” Vontezza replied. “Your brother perished nobly in a victory for your planet. Such sacrifice is a great honor for your bloodline.”

  Kopano winced. “Okay. What I think she’s trying to say is—”

  “I should be proud?” Nic exclaimed. He looked incredulously at his cohorts, all of their expressions hardening further. “My brother is dead because of you animals and you think I should be proud?”

  “Mogs killed my aunt just because she was out in the street,” Ben said. “Should I be proud too, bitch?”

  “You don’t belong here,” Anika added. “You should go back to your own planet.”

  “My planet is dead,” Vontezza said flatly.

  “Exactly,” Anika replied. “That’s where you belong.”

  Kopano held up his hands. He was still in between Vontezza and the others, nearly chest-to-chest with Nicolas in the tight hallway.

  “Guys, this is stupid,” he said. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t be mad about what happened during the invasion, but Vontezza didn’t do any of that. She came here to help us.”

  “Kopano, you’re an idiot. Why would we ever need help from one of them?” Nicolas spat. “It’s insane that she’s even here, as if we didn’t already have enough problems.” He jutted his chin out, staring into Kopano’s eyes. “Why don’t you get out of here, man?”

  “Yeah, whose side are you even on?” one of the tweebs said to Kopano.

  “The war is over; there aren’t sides anymore.” Kopano didn’t back down. “You all aren’t thinking straight. Maybe we should talk this over with Professor Nine and John Smith. They can
explain—”

  “Enough talking,” Vontezza interrupted.

  As Kopano half turned to look at her, Vontezza unsnapped the mace from her hip and extended the weapon, the obsidian spikes shining in the light. The students all flinched backwards, except for Nicolas. The Mogadorian girl was an intimidating sight and none of them had actually seen combat outside the training center. Kopano hardened his molecules, ready to absorb attacks from either direction.

  He was surprised when Vontezza tossed her weapon to Nicolas. The Belgian was taken aback as well, barely managing to catch the mace by its handle.

  “You want to hurt me as retribution for your fallen,” Vontezza said. “I understand and will not stop you.”

  “What?” Nic replied. “Are you nuts?”

  “I should tell you that I cannot be killed,” Vontezza continued blandly, like she was reading off a book report in front of class. “My Legacy is regeneration.”

  Anika looked to Nic. “You said Maiken was exaggerating about that part.”

  “It’s bullshit,” Nic replied, eyeing Vontezza. “There’s no way some Mog would get a Legacy.”

  “It’s the truth,” Kopano inserted. “She heals automatically. I saw it.”

  “This is a good thing for you,” Vontezza said to the students, her gaze sweeping over them. “You can beat me as much as you like and eventually my body will rebuild itself. Each of you can take a turn.”

  Everyone stared at her. Vontezza’s dark eyes were hard and unblinking. She really meant it.

  Ben and the tweebs no longer looked so strong in their convictions. They edged back down the hallway, swallowing and exchanging nervous glances. Anika stared at Vontezza like the Mogadorian had somehow become more alien.

  “You’d seriously just let us like take turns bashing your head in?” Anika asked.

  “Bash my head in, slash my throat, impale me,” Vontezza rattled off these brutalities without inflection. She looked at Nicolas. “Will you be first, then?”

  Nicolas hadn’t moved. He kept adjusting his fingers on the hilt of the mace. Kopano could tell that his hands were sweaty. The others were all watching him—they didn’t want to push this any further, but they were also taking their cues from the Belgian. They wouldn’t back down until he did.