Patrick kept his quick pace, leading Gin-us and Flupotia out of the woods and back the way he had come, following Tom from school. The memory felt a lifetime away. With each step Patrick took, his pace quickened, and soon the trio was running through the streets. They turned onto his street, sprinted the final distance to his house, and cleared the four porch steps in one giant leap. The blinds in the front window were open, and Patrick made a beeline to see if anyone was home. Inside, he saw Mark first. He was sitting on the couch playing video games. Typical, thought Patrick. He was furiously mashing buttons on his controller, battling someone just hidden from view. Whoever it was, they were beating Mark badly. But then, with a move Patrick had seen all too often, Mark ducked under his opponent and attacked from behind. It was quick, but Mark made his comeback and finished the fight.
Mark jumped from the couch to do his little victory dance. And that’s when Patrick saw him, saw himself. There was Patrick, with hair way longer than he ever would have grown it, wearing his favorite sweatshirt from a Yankees game his dad had taken him to last year. Patrick was taken aback, he thought the alien would have retreated by now, lost his power. But there he was, still pretending to be Patrick, still living his life. A pang of jealousy struck Patrick, upset that this alien had been able to live his carefree life while Patrick was battling to save the planet. He could not believe the alien was just living his life, sitting on his parents' couch, sleeping in his bed and spending time with his best friend. The alien was a fool though, thinking he was safe where he was. Patrick had the element of surprise on his side still, and planned to take full advantage of it. Channeling his jealousy into determination, he turned to Gin-us and Flupotia to come up with a plan.
Gin-us transformed into Mr. Rev, knowing that he had been one of the captives taken by the aliens. His parents might question his teacher stopping by, but it could be explained away. It was also likely that Patrick's imposter would believe Mr. Rev to be an alien, just stopping by to check in. As Gin-us transformed from one human to another, he still could not control the fire in his eyes. He kept the glasses on, despite the fact that it was dark out and he looked ridiculous in them.
Gin-us made his way to the front door and rang the doorbell. As Patrick hid at the side of the house, he heard his mother answer the door. The sound of her voice made his heart ache as he realized just how much he missed her. From his position, he couldn’t catch more than a glimpse of her. He took this and used it to fuel his inner fire further. As Gin-us distracted Bonnie, Patrick made his way to the backyard. He found the spare key exactly where it had always been kept, and slowly opened the door. As he made his way through the kitchen, he heard his mother dismiss Gin-us and close the door. He then heard the familiar sound of his mother shuffling into her study to work on her latest art project.
Patrick moved slowly through the kitchen, avoiding all the creaky spots he knew of. He was in the living room, crouched just behind the couch. He stood up and saw Mark and the imposter alone in the room, now flipping through the channels for something to watch. Patrick silently slid his gun out, raised it above his head and swung it down in a swift motion intending to knock the imposter out.
In his haste, Patrick had forgotten about his father. It was in this moment Hugo saw his son being attacked from behind and jumped into the room from the kitchen. As he tackled Patrick, the two fell to the floor in a twisted heap. Patrick tried to resist, but Hugo soon had the best of him. With all the commotion, Bonnie came running back into the room, letting out a loud gasp as she saw two versions of her son in the room.
“Who are you?” The words left her mouth before she could even register the situation. “Why do you look like my son?”
“Mom, Dad, it’s me!” Patrick was in a panic, the whole situation clearly not going the way he had planned. I’m their son, they have to believe me! “I’m Patrick, he’s the one who has been lying to you!” Patrick yanked his arm free and pointed his finger forcefully at the alien.
“Honey, please just go back to your work,” Patrick's father was firm with his mother. “I’ll sort this out.”
“Okay,” his mother replied, although she did not yet move. “Should I call the police?”
“I’ll call them if they’re needed. Just go.”
Bonnie slowly stepped back from the room and began up the stairs. She appeared to be in a daze, continually glancing back at the scene in the living room. Like she knew something was wrong, but couldn’t figure it out. Looking up to his father, Patrick realized for the first time that something was off with him too.
Hugo had never been able to grow a beard, definitely nothing close to the length of the one he now sported. He hardly ever had to shave as all he could ever grow was spotty stubble. It had never before amounted to anything of significance. It was at that moment that Patrick realized not only was an alien taking his place but his fathers as well. The situation was far worse than he had originally thought. Where is Gin-us?
“So dad, I have a question for you,” Patrick laced his words with sarcasm, “how is your King Flaca? Or should I say that idiot who thinks he can control the Earth and the galaxy?”
“Don’t talk about our King like that!” the alien spoke before he could think, and his face quickly went pale.
Regaining his composure, the alien tightened his hold on Patrick. “We have been posing as you and your father for quite some time now, and have yet to be discovered. And we’ll continue doing so once we get rid of you.”
“Someone will figure you out. I did.”
“That won’t be a problem much longer. We’ll just take care of you right here and now. I have no idea how you managed to get here, but this is where your journey ends.”
The hand on Patrick’s throat began to tighten as a voice piped up, “What is going on here?”
Everyone had forgotten that Mark was still in the room. While the alien posing as Patrick turned to deal with Mark, the one posing as Hugo momentarily loosened his grip. Patrick used the distraction to his advantage, pushing upwards and driving his knee into the aliens gut. He watched his father stumble backward, clearly surprised.
“You know he’s going to ask questions,” Patrick said it quickly as he rolled back and got on his feet. “And so is my mother. You’ll never be safe here now.”
“Your mother is under control. A little bit of magic, courtesy of our King.” The alien posing as his father was smug. “If I so choose, she won’t even remember tonight. And we can handle Marks memories. An easy fix.”
“You put a spell on my mother?! I am going to kill you!” Patrick's anger boiled over as he spit the words out. Patrick thought of transforming but didn’t want to risk Mark or his Mother’s safety. There was no real plan.
“Funny,” the alien laughed, “coming from the puny human up against two aliens. Your time is over.”
The alien posing as Hugo grabbed a knife off the kitchen counter and lunged forward. He swung it wildly at Patrick, missing by mere inches. Too late to transform now, Patrick thought as he dodged the knife. With no real plan or way out of this, it was Gin-us’ turn to come to the rescue. The glass of the backdoor seemed to implode inward as he came crashing through. Without wasting a second, Gin-us landed a killing blow on the nearest alien and pounced on the second with a similar blow. As their bodies crumpled to the floor, they quickly began morphing back to their normal selves. Flupotia came rushing in through the broken door and ran to Patrick to make sure he was okay.
With all the commotion, nobody noticed Bonnie coming back down the stairs and entering the room. With a quick shriek, she fell to the floor.
In the time that Bonnie and Mark slept, they tried to come up with some way to explain the events of that evening. Neither Gin-us, Flupotia nor Patrick could come up with anything. After much discussion, it was decided that Gin-us and Flupotia should head back to the alien base to find Patrick’s real father and bring him home. Patrick also sent them with a camera to capture pictures of any other humans that were h
eld captive. This was the best way anyone could think to hunt the aliens down.
It was Bonnie who woke first, dazed and confused. Patrick had managed to change into some normal looking clothes and fashioned a makeshift sling for his arm while he had waited.
“Oh, Patrick. What a strange dream I just had.”
Patrick sat in silence as his mother awoke. He gave her time to come to, and realize that it wasn’t a dream. It was Mark sitting next to her on the couch, still passed out, that first snapped her out of it. A look of confusion crept across her face as she looked to Patrick and saw his arm in the sling. Confusion quickly turned to dread as the color drained again. Patrick rushed to her side to catch her if she was to fall.
“Patrick, what happened to your arm?! Where is your father?! What is Mark doing here?! What is going on here?!” The questions flew from her mouth in a single breath, leaving her gasping for air.
“Deep breaths Mom. It’s a long story, why don’t we just sit and wait for Dad to get back before we start.”
“Don’t talk to me like that!” her voice was stern. “You tell me right now what is wrong with your arm.” The color quickly returned to Bonnie’s face as she began to take control of the situation, despite having no idea what was going on. “I always tell you to be careful, but you never listen!” She threw her hands up in the air, exasperated.
“It’s just a broken bone, Mom. It’s already started to heal.”
“Just a broken bone?” She almost laughed. “And how did you break it? Fall out of a tree, or off your bike again? We just talked about this!” Patrick was hit with a wrench of sadness, it hadn’t been me that you just talked to about that. “Is your bike hiding in the garage again, bent out of shape? You know I see everything, dear. Now, explain yourself.” She sat, arms crossed and eyebrows raised.
“Mom, I…” Patrick's voice faltered as he spoke, deciding the truth was the only option at this point “I broke my arm fighting a group of aliens from the capital of Pluto, Arapholanx. They had this magical power to transform into any creature they wanted to. In fact, there have been two aliens posing as me and Dad for a while now. They had to put you under a spell to keep their cover.” Why not throw it all out there, Patrick thought. “Oh, and I stole the aliens powers from them.”
Bonnie rolled her eyes and waved her son off with one hand. “You’ve been playing too many video games and reading too many comics. You’re being ridiculous. You know how much your sarcasm gets on my nerves.”
Patrick wished he could let her think it was all a joke, that he really had just fallen off his bike and broken his arm. But she needed the truth, and it was on him to pull her into this new reality. “No, Mom. I’m being honest. No sarcasm this time.”
“Seriously, Patrick. That’s enough.” She stood up and placed her hands on her hips, looking around the room. “Where is your father. Maybe he can talk some sense into you!”
As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. Opening it, Gin-us came in first, followed by Flupotia and Hugo. Bonnie saw Gin-us and Flupotia in their true forms and came close to losing her composure entirely. Patrick again put his hands on her shoulders to steady her and observed his father for the first time. He didn’t look great. His cheeks had sunken and his clothes hung loosely, covered in dirt. But despite all of that, he carried the brightest smile Patrick had ever seen. Hugo released himself from Flupotia’s support and stumbled over to Bonnie, embracing her as if it had been years since they’d last seen one another.
“It feels so good to be home,” he said as he pulled back to look into Bonnie’s eyes. “Wow, I’ve missed you. And Patrick!” He turned and extended his left arm to Patrick, “I can’t believe all you’ve done! I thought my life was over, that I was never going to see you two again.” Hugo pulled Patrick in tightly between him and Bonnie.
Patrick didn’t fight the embrace. He welcomed the smell and feel of them. It was a comfort he hadn’t realized was so missed. But quickly, he became self-conscious, remembering Flupotia and Gin-us watching the whole scene play out. With that, Patrick wrestled free from the hug and stepped back.
“Honey, have you been drinking?” Bonnie was confused and worried about their sanity.
“No!” Hugo almost looked offended. “Those two over there, they saved me! Told me all about the aliens and how Patrick is saving the world!” Turning again to Patrick he continued. “Honestly, way to go kid. I always knew you were going to do something incredible with your life. Never would have dreamt it was this!”
“I’m just happy to see you alive, Dad. You have no idea how good it is to see both of you.”
“Alright, enough with the jokes!” Bonnie jumped in, breaking up the sentimental moment shared between father and son. “Look, the body paint on these actors is great, but who are they really? And is Mark in on this too?” She turned to Mark, still slumped over in a chair, groggy and half asleep.
“No, this isn’t a joke. And no, Mark had nothing to do with this. That is Gin-us, he’s a Martian, from Mars. And that’s Flupotia, she’s from Pluto.” The two waved sheepishly. “Both of them, and many others have been helping me save this planet. We’re in the middle of a war now, to fight and free the galaxy from some crazy king on Pluto who thinks he can take over it all. With most of the planets already under his control, Earth was just his next target.”
“Okay, it’s time to wake you guys up. This is all too much.” Bonnie looked around the room, trying to find someone who was sane.
“Mom, this isn’t a dream.” Patrick stepped forward, placing a hand on her arm. He could feel her shaking uncontrollably. “The sooner you’re able to accept all of this, the sooner you can move on and help us. Dad, tell her where you’ve been the past few weeks.”
Hugo looked to Bonnie with pleading eyes. “I was locked in some secret underground alien base in the woods. Come on, didn’t you miss me?”
“How could I miss you? You were here!”
“Mom, no. I told you, they had aliens posing as Dad and I.” Patrick sighed, not knowing how else to get through to his mother. “Look, I’ll give them this much, it was a convincing transformation. The only thing that gave it away was that beard. Dad couldn’t grow one if he wanted to,” he looked to his father, “no offense. But I found the alien base and have been fighting giant snakes, outwitting Martians, answering crazy riddles, building alliances and a whole bunch of other stuff. And you know what, we won. We stole their power source, and now I can transform into any creature I want.” Patrick suddenly had an idea. “Want to see?”
“Sure,” his mother laughed, clearly still not believing a word they said. “Let’s see a Zebra in the living room. That’ll be something.”
“Okay.” Patrick had a wide smirk on his face.
He took a second to clear his mind and transformed himself into a zebra, but even that wasn’t enough to convince his mother. She kept pinching herself as if she was living in a dream and just had to wake up. Patrick tried a second and even a third animal, but she simply wouldn’t accept it. After much back and forth, Hugo took her out to the back porch and talked with her privately. Gin-us, Flupotia, and Patrick watched as Hugo spoke animatedly, his hands flying every direction. It took a while, but when they came back inside, she had finally come around.
The conversation flowed easier then, with her asking questions instead of fighting the truth. At some point during it all, Mark woke up and they had to start over from the beginning. It was easy with Mark though, who bought into the whole thing right away, barely able to contain his excitement. He was ready to join the fight and wanted to use the orb to transform. Patrick was still wary of letting anyone take the power, and decided to hold back for now.
The group spent hours in the living room, figuring out just how to shoulder all this new knowledge and responsibility. When the clock struck midnight, Bonnie went into ‘mom mode’ and sent everyone to bed. She was running around, checking if everyone was comfortable, if they had enough blankets and pillows, if anyone wante
d tea or something to eat. Patrick found these interactions with Gin-us, who was a king, the most amusing. With Flupotia settled in his brother's bed and Gin-us on the couch, Patrick made his way to his bedroom. It felt strange, lying down in his own bed in his own bedroom.
Mark was sleeping, or rather asking a million questions, from the floor where he had slept numerous times before. Patrick, however, didn’t have the energy to answer any of his questions. As soon as his head hit the pillow his body fell into a deep sleep.
◆◆◆
The next morning Patrick woke up to Mark sitting straight up, staring at Patrick. He didn’t have to say anything; you could see the anticipation in his eyes. Patrick was still hesitant to share the power after what had happened to Flee, but he trusted Mark and wanted him by his side. Beyond that, there was no immediate fight on the horizon, and he would have time to practice with the powers. Patrick dug the orb from his bag and passed it to Mark. Mark eagerly took the orb into his hands, eyes wide and full of disbelief.
The Birth of a Rebellion Page 18
