by James Riley
Kara grabbed his arm. “We should get out of here,” she said, and slowly pulled him away. As she did, though, a thought occurred to him. If those are Kiel Gnomenfoot books, then how could this place be fictional? Kiel Gnomenfoot books would only exist in the nonfictional world.
Owen’s entire body went cold, and he stopped in place, in spite of Kara’s insistence. This had to be the nonfictional world! But that meant everything here was actually happening. He looked around in horror at the soldiers, the book bonfire, the cheering people, and wished he were wrong. This was real ? This was the future he had to look forward to, just a few years away? But how? What could possibly have happened to turn these people into a mob?
“We really need to go,” Kara whispered to him. “I think they’re watching us.” She nodded subtly toward the black helmets, and Owen followed her gaze. Two of the uniformed soldiers were staring in their general direction, though it was impossible to know exactly what they were looking at, since the helmets covered their faces completely.
“We haven’t done anything wrong,” Owen told her, but he had to admit he could feel their eyes on him too, and a slow chill went down his spine. “Let’s get back home. I don’t want to stay here a minute longer than we have to.”
“You need to talk to your future self still, but it wouldn’t hurt to have things ready to go, just in case,” she said, reaching for his arm with the bracelet while watching the black helmets. She pulled his arm closer, then gently touched the time machine.
Sparks exploded off of the bracelet at her touch, and people nearby yelped and shouted out in surprise. Instantly, three of the black helmets started moving toward them in unison, almost robotic in their strides.
“Uh-oh,” Kara said, yanking Owen harder toward the sidewalk leading away from the library parking lot. “We need to go.”
“You two, stop,” said a weirdly monotone yet human voice from behind them. “What is that device on your wrist, citizen?”
“Just a bracelet, um, sir?” Kara said, not looking back as she sped up their pace to just short of a run.
Two more black helmets cut them off from the sides, blocking their escape. “That looks like something from a science fiction book,” one of them said, her voice also weirdly emotionless.
“Oh, it’s nothing like that,” Kara said quickly. “Completely normal. But we really do need to be getting home—”
“Let me see the bracelet, citizen,” said the first black helmet, reaching his hand out for Owen’s wrist.
“Get us out of here,” Kara whispered to him. “Use your time powers!”
Time powers? Owen’s eyes widened in shock, having completely forgotten about his powers in the months since Nobody had separated the worlds. There were so many moments he could have used them, too! He would have never been late to school or the library even once. Not to mention he could have had all kinds of fun adventures with them, walking across lakes without falling in, or watching movies on fast-forward. So many possibilities!
Kara stepped on his foot, jolting him back to attention. Right, his powers! As the soldier’s hand grew closer, Owen concentrated, speeding time up for himself and Kara, who still held on to him. His heart began to beat faster and faster, and the black helmet reaching for him slowed almost to a stop, as did the others. Letting out a deep breath, Owen nodded at Kara, and they quickly passed beyond the soldiers, being careful not to touch any of them so Owen’s power wouldn’t kick-start their time too.
But as they reached the street, a strange pressure started growing on Owen’s chest, and it grew harder and more painful with every step. He gasped and almost buckled at the knees, the pain was so intense.
“Are you okay?” Kara said, staring at him. “You just went completely pale.”
“It feels like there’s an anvil sitting on my chest,” Owen said, gritting his teeth. Sweat broke out on his forehead, and for some reason, his left arm hurt. Then another sharp pain struck him like a lightning bolt in his chest, and he collapsed toward the ground as Kara struggled to hold him up.
“Owen!” she shouted as he hit the ground. Lights exploded in front of his eyes and the pain grew, radiating out through his body. “You have to stop using your powers!”
Through a cloud of agony, Owen realized she was right and immediately released his hold on time. As he did, the pressure on his chest slowly eased, letting him breathe again, while the sharp, lightning pains seemed less intense too, though they didn’t stop completely.
“Where did they go?” one of the black helmets said behind them, and Owen realized they hadn’t gotten far enough away. Right now, they were half-hidden in the darkness between streetlamps, but it wouldn’t be long before the soldiers spotted them.
“I’ve got you,” Kara said, and dug her shoulder in under Owen’s arm, then half carried him behind some parked cars, where she lowered them both to the street.
“Find them,” one of the black helmets said, and Owen heard several pairs of footsteps coming their way, each boot hitting the ground at the exact same time.
Kara moved to cover Owen with her body, hiding him behind the car as the black helmets strode past in unison. Their precise marching seemed as odd as everything else in the future, but Owen couldn’t make his brain work properly to figure out why, not with the pressure on his chest still making it difficult to breathe, too.
What had caused the pain? He’d used his time powers before and hadn’t ever had a problem with his heart. It was robotic, after all, and should have been able to handle this and more. Kara had said his older self was in the hospital for heart problems in the future. Was using his powers what caused his heart to stop working?
Even worse, had he just skipped the breakdown of his heart ahead five years by using his powers now?
As the black helmets moved past them and down the street, Kara moved off of him and wiped his sweating face with concern. “Are you okay?” she asked. “Can you walk? We need to get you to the hospital right now.”
He grimaced. “I’ll be okay. It’s a lot better now that I’m not using the powers. I don’t need to go to the hospital.”
“Uh, you almost just died in the middle of the street, so yes, you do,” she said. “You need a doctor. Maybe they can test your heart now and see what’s going on before it breaks down completely.” The thought seemed to cheer her up a bit. “Maybe this will even help save you in the future! Either way, your future self will know more about this, and everything. Come on.”
She helped Owen to his feet, and put her shoulder back under his. As she did, he looked back at the library parking lot, where the crowd still cheered for the burning books and the black-helmeted guards watched over everyone, searching for anything out of the ordinary.
Kara was right. This wasn’t a future he could let happen. Whatever it took, even if he did end up with a broken heart, Owen had to fix this. If that took reuniting the fictional and nonfictional worlds, then they’d just have to do that, and face Nobody—
Another chill went down Owen’s spine at the thought of the faceless man. Twice Nobody had beaten him, each time without even trying.
After a third time, Nobody might be less forgiving, and not stop at pulling just Bethany in two.
CHAPTER 6
Bethany grimaced as she picked up Captain Sunshine’s cape and communicator from the sidewalk in front of the Tip-Top Toys warehouse, right below a giant jack-in-the-box clown. The clown hung down from the factory sign in an amazingly creepy way. Its eyes seemed to follow her no matter where she went, which wasn’t exactly comforting.
Even weirder, something about this place seemed familiar, like she’d been here before. But that couldn’t be . . . they’d never been to these warehouses during her training, or when she, Charm, and Gwen had explored Jupiter City looking for her father, either.
Still, Captain Sunshine must have come here looking for the source of the ray gun weapons, so she’d need to investigate no matter how creepy the factory looked. After all, every si
gn now pointed to her being Jupiter City’s only superhero, with the Captain gone. She bit her lip to keep from smiling with excitement. Twilights didn’t smile. They grimaced, with a little snark, and that was it. Even when they were about to save the entire city single-handedly.
“You’re going to be proud of me, Dad,” she whispered, touching the Twilight symbol on her chest. “I promise I’ll use all the training you gave me. I’ll be the stealthiest hero ever.”
She shot her Twilight launcher out, then soared up to the second floor of Tip-Top Toys, where she slipped in through a broken window, careful not to disturb anything as she entered. The silence in the warehouse was so complete that even the slightest tinkle of broken glass could potentially give her away, and her father would have been so disappointed at such a rookie mistake.
Not willing to risk a light, she slowly moved across metal beams above what looked like an abandoned factory floor. Several assembly lines appeared to be broken down, with headless teddy bears and such lying all over the place. She shivered at the sight, not liking how this entire place just reeked of horror movie. This was one bad thing about being the last superhero . . . it could get a little creepy by yourself at times.
As she drew closer to the far side of the factory floor, she started hearing voices echoing up from the next room. Moving as silently as she could, she slid through a broken air vent, then slowly crept out onto the rafters above a well-lit room. Below her, several men carried boxes full of the same ray guns the Toad Prince had shot at them, but these men all walked on metal stilts and wore long robes with little windows drawn in vertical lines on them. The men were carrying the boxes into the warehouse from a glowing blue portal on one of the walls, and Bethany stared at it oddly. Why did that seem so familiar too?
“So these ray guns will make even the most powerful superhero disappear, just like Captain Sunshine?” asked an extraordinarily tall man in steel girder armor, a villain Bethany recognized from her father’s files as the Skyscraper.
A heavily muscled man wearing a black suit and sunglasses grinned up at him. “Not exactly. The ray is pure possibility, and when you hit someone with it, they end up cycling through anything and everything they ever might have become, depending on each and every choice they made. And in this city especially, let’s just say there are a lot of alternate time lines. Eventually all of those infinite possibilities become too much for them, and they become pure potential, disappearing into—”
“I don’t care where they go,” the Skyscraper said, examining the weapon. “As long as they work, I’m good.” He slowly grinned, then aimed the ray gun at the man in the suit. “Still, it never hurts to have a second test. And your asking price is pretty criminal, after all.”
The man in the sunglasses shook his head. “C’mon, big man. You really think I’m going to let you hit me with my own possibilities?”
The Skyscraper shrugged. “I don’t see what’s going to stop me.”
The man in the sunglasses turned and looked straight up at Bethany. “Hey, Twilight Girl? That’s your cue!”
Bethany quickly flattened herself against the rafter, but it was already too late. “We’ve got company!” one of the henchmen shouted, grabbing a possibility ray gun.
“Get her, whoever she is!” another said.
“He already said I’m Twilight Girl!” Bethany shouted in annoyance, and dove out into the air, shooting her Twilight launcher as she fell, then swinging directly into the steel girders of the Skyscraper.
The impact sent pain radiating through her feet, but she hit hard enough to send the Skyscraper off-balance, windmilling his arms for a moment before toppling to the ground with a crash. “Get her!” he screamed, struggling against the weight of the enormous steel armor covering his body. “And someone help me up!”
The Skyscraper’s minions turned their ray guns on her, and she immediately dodged, remembering how fast the beams had been when they’d struck her father and Kid Twilight. Trying to keep them guessing, she leaped at the first henchman, then abruptly turned in midjump toward the second one and transformed into a locomotive, which struck the ground full steam ahead. She plowed into the second henchman, slamming him into the far wall hard enough to embed his stilts in the mortar.
“Whoa!” the first henchman shouted as she changed back to her regular self. “We’ve got a shape-shifter!”
“No, you’ve got a world of pain, punk,” Bethany growled, and took out his ray gun with some Twilight throwing stars. A possibility beam struck the wall behind her, and it began to warp and change from brick to sand, collapsing the roof above it. Bethany winced, realizing she needed to finish this quickly.
Looking over the last few henchmen, she grabbed her Twilight launcher and shot it toward the Skyscraper, where it thunked hard into his armor.
“Ouch, hey!” he shouted, but she ignored him and used her powers to give herself superstrength again. As the ceiling above them started to creak and groan, she yanked on her launcher’s cable and swung the Skyscraper around in a circle. His steel girder armor plowed into two more of his henchmen, knocking them out and sending their possibility guns flying.
“I’d hoped Doc and his sidekick would be here too, Twilight Girl,” the man in the sunglasses said. “Kinda disappointed I didn’t get to see Doc in action. But I guess we can’t have everything.” He waved at her, then walked over to the portal in the wall.
“Don’t move!” she shouted, but one of the rafters above her shrieked loudly and fell, and she had to push the henchmen out of the way. Using her superstrength, she picked up the Skyscraper and tossed him through the now-missing wall, followed by his henchmen, making sure they were all safe before the entire building collapsed.
“I actually thought you’d get here a lot earlier,” the man in the sunglasses said, one foot already through the portal. He paused there for a moment and grinned at her. “But maybe I gave you too much credit. After all, you’re only half the girl you used to be, huh?”
The shock of that hit Bethany like a fist, and she almost stopped in midrun, in spite of the collapsing warehouse. “How . . . how did you know that?” she said.
The man just shrugged. “You’ll have to catch me if you want to find out, Bethany.”
And with that, he leaped through the portal.
As he did, the blue fire began to slowly swirl around, growing smaller the faster it went. Bethany screamed in frustration and lunged forward, kicking off with enough force to propel her through the ever-shrinking portal as everything erupted into chaos behind her.
The blue fire was so close that it singed her as she passed, but she made it, hitting the ground hard on the other side, just as the portal winked out behind her. She quickly jumped to her feet and pulled out more Twilight throwing stars, ready to face the man with the sunglasses . . .
Only, the man was nowhere to be seen. He’d completely disappeared.
She swore softly in anger and looked around, trying to find where he could be hiding, but stopped as she realized something odd: She recognized this place. It looked nothing like it had the last time she’d been here, what with the translucent ground below her feet cracked and shattered and the once-beautiful science fiction buildings now half-destroyed, but even through all the destruction, she knew where she was, and it wasn’t Jupiter City.
“Quanterium?” she said softly. “What is going on here?!”
“That’s my question,” said a voice from behind her.
She whirled around to find herself face to eyeless face with a featureless man, his arms crossed over his chest.
“I do believe you’ve left your own story,” Nobody said, slowly growing in size before her. “You’ve broken the one rule I gave you, Bethany. And we can’t have that.”
CHAPTER 7
This isn’t good,” Kara said, fiddling with the time bracelet she’d taken from Owen’s wrist. Owen’s heart seemed to have somewhat recovered, and he was breathing much better now as they hid in some bushes outside of the
massive town hospital. But now that the bracelet was off his wrist, his imagination had disappeared again, and he wondered what the whole point of this was. “I think we might be in trouble.”
“Because of the mobs burning books or the time bracelet?” he asked.
“Both, but right now, this is our bigger problem,” she said, holding up the bracelet. “Whatever’s pulling time travelers to this date seems to be draining its energy somehow. I barely had enough power to leave last time, but it should have recharged by now.” She furrowed her brow as she pushed a few buttons on the bracelet. “Usually it draws on energy from the fourth dimension for power, but for some reason, that seems to be blocked.” She gave him a worried look. “As it is, I’m not sure we’d have the power to get you home.”
Owen’s eyes widened, and his heart began racing from anxiety instead of his time powers. “Are you kidding? There’s got to be a way to fix it, right? Let’s forget about this hospital thing and concentrate on recharging it!”
She just stared at him for a moment, looking confused. “Have you noticed how much more . . . concerned with your own self you get without your imagination?”
Owen paused, having no idea what she was talking about. “No? Isn’t it logical to care about your own safety?”
“Logical, maybe,” Kara said, looking back at the bracelet. “But not really you. Still, I think I might know a way to charge it in the hospital. I might be able to rig something up using those paddles they use to restart people’s hearts. We could probably jolt the battery enough with one of those to power us through whatever’s keeping us here and get you back to your normal time.”
Owen’s panic lessened slightly, but didn’t go away. Finding defibrillator paddles in a hospital would mean breaking all kinds of rules. Yes, that was a lot better than being trapped in the future, but it could still lead to tons of trouble. “You know, that thing would be a lot easier to use if you could just plug it into a wall socket or something.”
