True Love!

by Katrina Kahler

  Abby shook her head. “No, it feels different. It feels dark and damp, and I have no idea why.” She looked around, “Where are Luna and Zeke?”

  “Luna is showing Zeke around,” Nitivia replied.

  Abby shook her head and cleared out her ears. “What did you say?”

  “Luna is showing Zeke around!” Nitivia repeated.

  “Why would Luna be interested in Zeke? Especially during times of trouble?” Abby asked.

  “No idea!” Nitivia said.

  The rest of us nodded in agreement.

  Dear Diary: Okay, I really don’t know what is going on here. I don’t like feeling so confused. Of course, I am in the North Pole in a different dimension. So I guess some confusion is to be expected.

  I don’t know Luna at all, but the fact that Nitivia seems weirded out by Luna being so calm worries me a bit. The fact that Luna seems attracted to Zeke also doesn’t seem right. I mean, Zeke is nice enough once you get used to him, but yuck. I know that's mean to say or think, but man, I would have thought Luna could do better. Then again, they say opposites attract. Man, oh man, you can't get much more opposite than Zeke and Luna. It doesn’t make sense. But does love ever make sense?

  Speaking of opposites, I always considered Paula to be more my opposite than my arch rival. It also feels weird having her agree with me so much. Of course, if we’re going to solve this, it will take Paula and I and somehow Zeke, all working together. After all, working towards a common goal is the best way to get something done. Okay, maybe not the best way, but a darn good way!

  Can you tell I’m confused? I hope my extra confusion is from being in a different dimension. Heck, I’m hanging out with Santa and his elves. Something tells me though that this confusion is more than a natural fog from being in a strange place. I mean, come on, I’ve been in a slime realm and didn’t seem this confused. I have a sinking feeling that somebody is trying to play with my mind. Somebody wants me off my game. But why? I’m just here to help!

  Teamwork

  Nitivia gave Paula and I a room to sleep, relax, and unwind for a bit. She said she felt bad that they didn’t have any extra rooms, but they really didn’t get a lot of guests. As it was, two of the elves had to give up their rooms, one for Paula and I and one for Zeke. We hadn’t seen Zeke as Luna had really taken a strange interest in him.

  Paula and I sat down on our beds. Paula laughed. “This should be fun, fun, fun. You and I as roomies for the night. I hope you don’t super snore me out of bed!”

  “I won’t!” I told her.

  “I hope you don’t fart in your sleep!” she added. “I’m not sure my bio protection suit would activate in time.”

  “I won’t,” I promised, even though I couldn’t be as sure of that one.

  “I guess I can take this opportunity to learn something about you,” Paula said. “It’s good to know your enemies.”

  “Paula, we’re not enemies!” I insisted. “Sure, we clash at times. But we’ve also fought for the same causes. We share a planet we both want to protect!”

  She nodded. “For now. I just can’t help thinking that Earth would be better off with me as it’s leader someday.”

  “If you get elected leader, then I will support you,” I told Paula. “But of course there is NO world leader.”

  “Not yet!” Paula said with a wry smile. “Give me time!” She laid down on her bed and put her arms behind her head. “I love a lot of evil plans.”

  “You know you could use your brain and wealth for good!’ I suggested.

  “Oh, I could! But where’s the fun in that?” she replied. “Man, if I had your powers, I’d make the world kiss my feet. Well, not literally but figuratively. I would already be ruler of the world.”

  “One, I wouldn’t want to do it. And two, it would be hard to take on the entire world. Tanya, Marie, and Lori would all try to stop me. And so would Jason and Ms. Nancy and Jessica. No one person is an army.”

  “Good point,” Paula said. “You’re not ready yet. You need to let your powers grow more. But they will…”

  “Still, I don’t want to take over the world!” I maintained. “I want to help the world be a better place.”

  “I do too!” Paula said. “I just happen to think that the best way for the world to be better is for me to run it. Man, if I could combine your power with Tanya’s and Marie’s powers, then I’d be unstoppable!”

  “Maybe the universe has a reason for making sure we all have limitations to our powers,” I suggested.

  “Maybe.” Paula nodded. “I guess the universe needs to protect itself since that kind of power can be dangerous.”

  “Like Kayla,” I said. “It’s necessary to keep power suppression devices on her. Her power is too great for her mind.”

  “Man, I’d love to have her power. Her power with my mind. Wow!” Paula smiled. “I’ll work on that.”

  “Let’s put your mind to good use right now,” I suggested.

  “Sure, I’m bored. So why not? First of all, that Luna worries me. She seems too sweet and wholesome, even for an elf. It creeps me out. I want to step on her foot or punch her in the nose just to see how she’d react.”

  “Actually, that would not be cool,” I said. The weird thing was, though, I certainly felt the same way. Luna seemed too sweet, too agreeable. She made me feel like I used to feel when I was a kid, and I ate too much candy. I’d get light headed, and stomach aches and I’d understand that you can get too much of a good thing. But was it possible for a person to be too good? Well, not a person, a magical elf. It seemed like elves were built for goodness and kindness. It didn’t seem too absurd that one would turn out as sweet as Luna, except for the fact that Nitivia thought she was acting out of character. Yeah, something weird or way off was going on here.

  An icicle appeared on the ceiling.

  “Now that’s different,” Paula said.

  The icicle dropped to the ground, and by the time it touched the floor, it had transformed into Luna. She now wore a green elf outfit. I thought the skirt seemed extra short for an elf, but she made the look work.

  “Hey, guys!” she said. “You up for a little high stakes action? You know, the kind that helps save the world as we know it?”

  “Always!” I replied.

  “I’m in!” Paula said, sitting up in bed.

  “Where’s Zeke?” I asked.

  An empty look scrolled across Luna’s face. “You mean your little green pal. Right?”

  “Yeah the one you seem so attached to,” Paula said.

  “I just feel sorry for him,” Luna replied with a wave of her hand. “The little dud, I mean dude, is so useless, I have no idea why my sis brought him here. I threw him a bone and gave him some of my time. Lucky boy! Lucky, lucky, boy!”

  “Where is he now?” I asked.

  “Outside munching on icicles. He says they are ‘cool tasting,’” Luna told us.

  Paula nodded. “That does sound like Zeke.”

  “Yeah!” I agreed.

  “What’s the problem?” I asked.

  “Our scientist team at the South Pole are being attacked by walruses! Mean big ones, with big sharp pointy tusks!”

  “Why would walruses attack scientists?” I asked.

  “Because they find them tasty!” Luna said.

  “Come again?” Paula said.

  “Our world is like your world in structure, but different in population. We have no humans. Our scientists in the South Pole are penguins.”

  I smiled. “Aw, penguins are so cute!”

  “And apparently quite tasty to walruses!” Luna replied.

  “Being a scientist, I don’t like the idea of scientists being attacked!” Paula frowned.

  “Great, I will send us there with some of my cool magic!” Luna replied.

  “Shouldn’t we at least invite Nitivia?” I asked. “She might want to send backup to help us.”

  Luna rolled her eyes at me. “Like the three of us need back up to take down some
mean walruses!”

  “Yeah, we can handle this!” Paula agreed.

  “Then shouldn’t Nitivia at least know what we are doing?”

  “No time!” Luna said. “Scientists are in trouble. I sense it! The walruses are closing in on their igloo base!”

  I jumped to my feet. “Let’s go, then!”

  Luna snapped her fingers. Next thing I knew we were standing outside a large igloo. Storming towards the igloo, we saw about a dozen very large walruses with very large tusks. Several penguins in lab coats waddled away, running for their lives.

  “Help, help!” the penguins screamed.

  Leaping into the air, I landed between the penguins and the walruses. Holding out my hand, I ordered, “Stop!” Turning to the penguins, I said, “Do these creatures talk?”

  “Of course we do!” the biggest walrus said. “We have brains! Just because we’re not scientists, doesn’t mean we can’t talk!”

  “What’s going on here?” I asked.

  “No idea!” one of the scientists said. “We were taking ice samples, and suddenly the walruses decided they wanted to eat us.”

  “You guys just smell extra tasty!” a walrus replied.

  “Yeah!” the others all agreed.

  “We want bird!”

  “Smart bird!”

  “Bird is the word!!”

  “Yum is the word!!”

  “Let’s eat!”

  I held up my hand in the stop position. “Guys, let’s not let this get out of hand!”

  The walruses started to crawl towards me.

  I heard a pop. I saw Paula hovering above the herd. A net shot off her wrist, dropping down and covering the animals.

  “You heard the girl! Stop there!” Paula said.

  “It takes more than a net to stop us!” one of the walruses shouted.

  Paula pushed a button on her wrist. Currents of electricity shot through the net. The walruses started shivering.

  “Is that enough?” Paula asked.

  “Y y y y e s s s s s s !” they all shouted.

  “Stop it now, Paula!” I ordered.

  Paula pushed the button again. The current stopped flowing. The walruses looked more mellow. Paula pushed another button. The net retracted back into her wrist.

  The lead walrus leaped toward me. He moved faster than I would have thought he could. He snapped at my arm. I let him bite me. His mouth popped open, and he screamed. He opened his mouth, showing his broken teeth.

  “Ouch!” he yelled.

  “Wallie, she is Super Teen!” one of the other walruses remarked. “How did you think that would ever work?”

  Wallie yelled again. “I thought those stories about her were just fairy tales!”

  Moving forward, I lifted him over my head with one arm. “Look, I am very strong! I can lift you like you weigh nothing.”

  “She could throw you into the sun!” Paula added.

  “I would not do that!” I said. “Look, guys, just go back into the water and eat what you usually eat! Please!” I added.

  I put the big walrus down. Pointing at him, I said, “You will back down now. Right? These penguins are under our protection!”

  Wallie pointed at them. “Do they know that?” he asked.

  “Huh?”

  Turning, I saw the penguins had assembled a weird looking laser weapon. The odd thing was that they had the laser pointed at me.

  “Ah, guys, whatcha doing?” I asked the penguins.

  “We just had an urge to test our super cutting laser on something. Something that can finally stand up to it. That something is you!”

  “Yeah, I got that,” I said. “But we’re here to help!”

  “Right! This way you will help us check out our laser. It may not even hurt you. We’re just interested in testing it. We are scientists!” one penguin said.

  All the other penguins behind him nodded their heads.

  “We love science!”

  “We need to learn!”

  “We yearn to learn!”

  “Knowledge is power! Power is cool!”

  The lead penguin pushed a button on the top of the laser. The laser beam fired out at me. The beam hit me in the stomach. Luckily, between my suit and my superpower, the laser bounced harmlessly off me.

  “You guys happy now?” I asked.

  The penguin holding the laser said, “Well since it won’t hurt you, I think we can fry some walruses!”

  “Yummy!” all the penguins yelled. “We might be little, but we have great brains!” They all pointed to their heads. “We have brain power!”

  Okay, this didn’t seem right. These little dudes and dudettes had to be under some sort of spell, since they were all acting together, just like the walruses. I decided to use my command voice to try to turn this around.

  “Stop this now!!” I ordered. “I want both groups to return to normal!”

  The two groups stopped in motion. The lead penguin shook his head. “Why are we trying to take on walruses?”

  The walruses looked just as confused. “Why are we trying to eat penguins? They’re mostly fat, and quite frankly not very tasty!”

  “Hey!” one of the penguins said. “We’re very sensitive!” He or she added, “And of course we’re fatty.”

  The walruses turned and headed back to the water. The penguins pointed to their giant igloo research lab. They waddled towards it like nothing had happened.

  Paula landed next to me. “Ah, that was weird. Right?”

  “Yeah, something really weird is going on here!” Looking around, I realized I couldn’t see Luna anywhere.

  “Have you seen Luna?” I asked Paula.

  “Ah, no, she was here when we got here. I heard her laugh. Then I turned, and she was gone. I didn’t have time to worry about that because I had to save your butt from the walruses!”

  “Oh, that’s bad!” I said. Flying up to the big snow door of the giant igloo, I pounded on the door. “Hello!”

  A slit opened in the lower part of the door. “Super Teen, you’re still here!”

  “Yes, I am. I’m looking for Luna.”

  There was a delay from the other side. “You mean Santa’s other daughter. That girl has no interest in us. She’s not a big fan of science. She’s a bit of a complainer. We hope she grows out of it. She’s still young, by elf standards.”

  “Ah, okay,” I said. “Is it safe to assume that she’s not in there with you?”

  “As scientists, we don’t like to assume, but no, she is not in here with us. Now that you mention it, I think that the second we saw her today was the first time we had ever seen her here. She mumbled a few words, and that’s all.” The penguin scratched his head. “Oh, she must have used some sort of spell. I guess she wanted us to fight with you and the walruses.”

  Paula walked up to us. “We got played,” she concluded. “Luna tricked us to make us come here.”

  “So it would seem!” the penguin agreed.

  “Do you have a means of transportation north?” I asked the penguin.

  “Nah, we all live here. We just send our results to the north. But it’s always Nitivia who gets back to us,” the penguin replied.

  He opened the door. “Come in; you must be cold!”

  We walked into the giant room.

  “We can contact Nitivia, and she can come and get you!” the little penguin suggested.

  Another penguin came waddling up to him. “Sir, we can’t contact the North. There is some sort of interference in the air blocking all our signals.”

  The penguin scientist nodded. He turned to us. “It appears that Luna wanted you two out of the way.”

  “Way out of the way!” the other penguin said.

  Turning to Paula, I asked. “Can your armor take the cold?”

  “Up to -40 below,” she replied proudly. “I even have oxygen to breathe if needed. My goal is to get this armor into space.”

  “How fast can it travel?” I asked.

  “About 1,000 miles pe
r hour.”

  The penguin scientists smiled. “At that speed, if the winds are with you, it would take you around seven hours to get back to the North. Not bad at all.”

  “Too slow!” I said. “If Luna wanted us gone, she must be planning something. We don’t have that kind of time to waste.”

  “How fast can you fly?” Paula asked.

  “Last Hana checked, it was about 10,000 miles an hour, but that’s in a lab in safe conditions. Still, I can go fast. Can your armor handle that kind of speed?”

  Paula shook her head. “I hate to admit this. But it can’t…”

  “Okay, I’ll fly back there and tell Nitivia to use her magic to get you,” I said.

  Paula nodded. “Do you fellow scientists mind if I spend some time with you?”

  “No, of course not,” the penguin said. “We love sharing our info with other species.”

  Now I just had one little problem. With MAC not working in this world, I’d have no idea what direction I was actually heading in.

  Paula must have noticed the look of confusion on my face. “Let me guess; you’re not sure how to fly north at that speed?”

  “Exactly,” I replied. “I think I can do it, but a little miscalculation would be terrible. I could lose a lot of time. I won’t be able to see the Pole itself until I’m about 100 miles away.”

  Paula hit a few buttons on her wrist. Her glove popped off. She reached into a pocket inside her armor. “This should work.” She handed me an old-fashioned compass. “Right now, it’s pointing south, so fly in the opposite direction until the arrow switches north then keep going that way. It should work. It’s a strong compass.”

  I took it from her. “Thanks, Paula!”

  “Hey, we’re a team, at least until we get back to our regular dimension.”

  I went outside and took to the air.

  Dear Diary: Well, that explains why Luna has been acting so nice and sweet. It was just a front to get Paula and me out of the North Pole. She wanted to trap us thousands of miles away. Silly her, it will take more than eight thousand miles to stop me. Heck, that would barely slow me down! In fact, Luna has made a big, big mistake. The girl has made me mad! She’s not going to like dealing with an angry super teen.