Bugged Out!

by Matthew Porter

  “I don’t think I’m understanding you,” said Kelly, who had a look of both confusion and intrigue on her face. “It sounds like you’re talking about superpowers or something.”

  Kristiana nodded. “I am referring to superhuman abilities, such as controlling fire or wind, manipulating weather, being able to—”

  “Woah, woah, woah!” Nick interrupted, holding his hand out. “Sounds like you’ve been watching too much X-Men.”

  “What you are saying is an empirical improbability that borders being absurd,” I said, trying with great difficulty not to laugh.

  “No offense, but maybe you need to get your mental health processed,” Abby said, crossing her arms.

  Kelly remained silent, still looking intently at Kristiana.

  “Come on, guys,” Nick said, turning toward the door. “Let’s go before we catch her crazy.”

  Kristiana looked at Nick as he made his way toward the door. “It seems as though I need to prove my claims, Nicklaus. Allow me to demonstrate exactly what I’m talking about.”

  She raised her hands high above her head and a bright white ring of light as big as a hula hoop surrounded them. She separated her hands and knelt on the floor, and the ring of light split in half and followed either hand as they went down, like twin falcons diving for their prey. She struck the floor with her hands, and the light formed an arch around her body. The arch filled out into a dome that surrounded her and expanded, quickly drawing close to us like a blinding wall of sunlight.

  I closed my eyes, awaiting some sharp pain or electrocution or total disintegration, but all I felt as the wall of light zipped through me was warmth. I opened my eyes and saw the light shoot through Nick as he opened the door to leave, and it stopped right at the room’s entrance.

  Nick turned around. His face had lost all color. “What…was that?” he asked weakly.

  “That, Nicklaus, was a Segol,” said Kristiana proudly. “My Segol. It’s called the Edanian Wall, and is the strongest defensive Segol in existence. Try to walk through the doorway and you’ll see what I mean.”

  Nick hesitantly tried to put his hand through the wall of light, which had dimmed and was now semitransparent. He hit it, but it didn’t break. He hit it harder. Nothing but a loud thud. No matter how hard he hit the barrier, it just would not break. He banged on it as hard as he could, but it was as if he were hitting semitransparent steel.

  Kristiana closed her eyes and grinned. “As you can see, this barrier is quite fortified. In fact, it’s stronger than any known substance. It’s even able to withstand a hydrogen bomb explosion if I apply enough power. It’s made of a special substance called Edaniite. If you had a Dark-Segol, you would have been disintegrated by merely touching it.”

  “Dark-Segol?” I repeated.

  She nodded. “Yes, the Corrupted all have abilities, too. However, theirs is a tainted form, hence the name.”

  Nick walked back to the rest of us, his gait a little wobbly. “Okay. So, if you’ve got such a powerful whatchamacallit, why do you need us?” he asked, and all sarcasm seemed to have vanished from his voice.

  She sighed. “Well, the matter is very complicated, to say the least. Suffice it to say that high-ranking members of the organization aren’t supposed to use their Segols if they can help it.”

  “Why is that?” I asked, becoming increasingly curious about these Segols and the Edania Organization, as well as these mysterious enemies called the Corrupted. “You used your ability just now, didn’t you?”

  She studied me for a moment before answering. “This was a special case. I had to show you that I was telling the truth. As for why we’re not to use our Segols, that’s something I cannot answer at the moment... I’m sorry.”

  “So, like, what do you want us to do about these jerks?” asked Abby. “We can’t shoot force fields out of our hands or anything. We’d totally get murdered.”

  “You said that these fiends have lost their humanity as well,” I said. “So I assume that they are a ruthless bunch, with no sense of mercy or remorse. What can four high school students do against such a foe?”

  She walked toward us. “The answer is simple, James. You’ll be given your own Segols.”

  Kelly interjected. “Now, wait. I thought you said only certain people could have these abilities?”

  Kristiana nodded. “So I did. In truth, every human being has the potential of possessing a Segol.”

  “That’s not what you said a moment ago,” I said, feeling quite overwhelmed at this point.

  “It’s a matter of awakening the Segol that lies dormant within you,” she answered.

  “How do you do that?” asked Kelly, who seemed even more intrigued about this than I was.

  “I’ll explain later,” she said, her face becoming sterner. “Now I must speak about the problem at hand. Have any of you noticed anything out of the ordinary around the city lately, around your school, particularly?”

  Well, there’s you stalking us for starters, I thought. Then there’s the matter of the— “Wait, are you referring to that insect?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Did that insect seem natural to you? It looked as though it was thrown together by some madman, did it not? Its sheer size, unnatural anatomy, and the grotesque way it attacks people… It certainly isn’t something found in nature.”

  “Are you saying somebody made that insect?” I said, my jaw dropping.

  “That is my suspicion,” she answered. “And there are probably more where that came from. Our Dark-Segol detection program has picked up dozens of similar energy signatures around the school, most of them belonging to organisms much smaller than people. One signature, however, is several times larger than the others...but we cannot tell exactly what these things are.”

  Abby shivered. “Who could have made something so terrible?”

  Kristiana walked to the computer in the room and started typing something. The screen showed a map of the four islands of the Force-Pointe archipelago, which was located a few hundred miles south of the Hawaiian Islands. It zoomed in on the west side of Tolles island, and again onto Deathborne Cliffs. “We’ve recently detected some activity near Deathborne Cave, a place connected to a particularly nasty Corrupted from long ago.”

  That place had always given me an unnerved feeling whenever we passed it as we got on the bridge to Force-Pointe Island... Its rocky shore and jagged cliffs made it look like the perfect hideout for a supervillain, but the fact that we were having such a conversation made me feel like I was going insane.

  “About forty years ago,” Kristiana continued, “it was the headquarters of a powerful Corrupted named Doren. He was a master robotics engineer, and the machines he made were horrifying beyond compare. He would create terrible mechanical monstrosities and use them to wreak unspeakable havoc on the Force-Pointe Islands and beyond. Worse than that, his Dark-Segol allowed him to seize control of any machine, from the Force-Pointe Defense Satellite to a simple calculator. However, his dominion over technology ultimately led to his own undoing.”

  “How?” I inquired, wondering how such an impressive-sounding ability could possibly cause the defeat of its own user.

  “The fool jumped inside of his master computer in a last-ditch effort to save himself from the organization,” she said, almost sounding amused.

  “He jumped inside his computer?” asked Nick, looking dumbstruck.

  She nodded. “The team that pursued him had no idea he could do such a thing, of course. However…” Her mouth twisted upward in what looked like the shadow of a smirk. “It was a grave mistake on his end. Our team of agents were able to trap him in his own computer, unable to flee, where he remains to this day. But we fear he may have found a way to escape his virtual prison after all these years.”

  “How?” the four of us asked in unison.

  “Though the team of agents were able to imprison Doren,” Kristiana explained, “it came at a steep price. The battle greatly weakened the agents, almost to the brink of
death. The trial was so tedious that it destroyed the weapons they possessed as well.

  “What remained of the weapons were forged into seven objects that contained the weapons’ original power. These objects came to be known as the Arks, and they were sealed away until the day we needed to use their power...but something happened about thirteen years ago that caused the Arks to vanish from the vault.”

  “Did Doren manage to steal them somehow?” I inquired.

  “Someone did attempt to steal them, but we don’t know who,” she answered. “We didn’t have the time to identify them before they—well, before they disintegrated.”

  “As in... turned to dust?” said Kelly, wide-eyed.

  Kristiana simply nodded. “Unbeknownst to us at the time, each of the Arks had a defense mechanism to protect them from harm: a barrier that was quite similar to the Edanian Wall, which is why the thief became a pile of ash before they could get their hands on one.”

  “What does this have to do with this Doren guy?” Abby asked.

  “I’m getting to that,” Kristiana answered. “Unfortunately, the Arks did something else unexpected after that incident. They teleported themselves out of the vault, scattered to various locations, and deactivated, making them impossible to find. But recently, we’ve detected energy readings from one of the Arks. We don’t know why this happened after all this time, but we think the other side has been made aware of it as well. I believe Doren’s underlings are attempting to acquire it in an effort to free him from his prison.”

  “But they can’t go near the Ark because of the barrier,” I said. “You said so yourself. So, it shouldn’t be a problem, correct?”

  Kristiana looked down at the floor. “It seems...they may have found a way to weaken the Ark’s defenses. The barrier’s signal is weakening at a slow but steady rate. We believe that they are using the life energy of people to do so. It would explain why the insect you saw bit your teacher. It did not take his blood, but rather his energy. You see, the barriers of the Arks can withstand all types of attack, from fire to bombs to radiation, but organic energy from human beings can apparently weaken the barrier, albeit slowly. If the barrier is destroyed, the Corrupted will be able to take possession of the Ark and start the process of freeing Doren.

  “The good news is that, while one Ark is indeed powerful by itself, it will require the collective power of all seven of the missing Arks to free him, because that’s how much energy was used to imprison him. We must get the Arks before they do. That is why I’ve called you here. You must thwart Doren’s attempt to escape and collect each Ark as they awaken.”

  Abby held her hand up like she was stopping traffic. “Wait a second. This is a lot to process, and it sounds totally crazy!”

  “I understand how it sounds,” Kristiana said, looking at Abby with a neutral expression.

  “Do you?” said Abby, tilting her head.

  Nick was silent, which seemed uncharacteristic. He simply leaned against the desk with a thoughtful expression on his face. Finally, he spoke. “So you want us to fight these bad guys...and give us superpowers to do it?”

  Kristiana nodded. “But this is rather sudden, isn’t it?” She walked to the desk, opened a drawer, grabbed a booklet from it, and handed it to Nick. It was entitled The Edania Guide: Vol. 1. “Of course, this is a major decision. I will grant you some time to think it through. However, I’m afraid I haven’t the luxury of giving you much of it. Exactly three days from now, you must return here and give your answer. This is a booklet describing our organization, rules, and mechanics. I want each of you to read it to become familiar with how things work around here. I cannot expect you to accept such a heavy responsibility without the knowledge of what you’re getting yourselves into. Take three days to think it over, and remember, the fate of the Force-Pointe archipelago—possibly even the whole world—may very well rest on this choice.”

  “But no pressure,” said Abby. She rubbed her forehead anxiously.

  “You are dismissed,” she said, guiding us out of the room. “I will see you in three days for your final answer. Farewell.”

  ***

  The ride home was silent, each of us left to our own thoughts. It was madness. Every part of it. The Corrupted, the Edania Organization’s secret purpose, Kristiana’s outlandish claim about special abilities—and yet I had seen the evidence. If everything she said were true, how could the four of us stop some madman from escaping from a computer and wreaking havoc, even if we were given superhuman abilities? What impact would it have on our lives? More importantly, how would it affect us academically?

  We reached my house after what seemed like forever.

  “’Night, J-Man,” said Nick as he put out his fist to fist-bump me. I reciprocated.

  “Goodbye. We’ll make sense of this tomorrow,” I said.

  “I hope so. This is all crazy,” said Abby.

  “We should all just sleep on it,” said Kelly. “Hopefully our minds will be clearer in the morning.”

  “Wait,” Nick said, handing me the booklet Kristiana gave him. “Somethin’ tells me you should read this first.”

  “God knows Nick won’t read the thing,” said Abby.

  “Hey, I would so read it,” he said defensively. “Eventually.”

  I grabbed the booklet. “I’ll start reading tonight,” I said, and part of me was quite excited about the idea while the rest of me wanted nothing to do with it.

  As I lay in bed, I hesitantly opened the booklet and read the introduction before going to sleep.

  CHAPTER 5:

  Make your choice—kelly

  It was hard to sleep that night. Every time I dozed off, I saw that monstrous insect that attacked Mr. Simmons crawl up my leg up to my neck, then plunge its tube-like mouth into my neck and suck the energy right out of me. I woke up at least four times in a cold sweat, each time turning on the light and checking my room for any sign of mutant bugs. Not finding anything out of the ordinary in my room didn’t make me feel better. My mind went back to what Kristiana said about that insect. But could it really be that it was engineered by an evil supervillain…and that there were more of them waiting to attack?

  Before I knew it, it was 5:45 in the morning, and I had only gotten three hours of broken sleep.

  I got up and got ready for school. I had just finished brushing my teeth when I heard a car horn. I grabbed my bag and ran out the door. Before I even got to the car, I could hear what Nick and Abby were talking about. They were so into their conversation that they didn’t even seem to notice me.

  “We’ll be heroes, Abbs!” said Nick, tapping the steering wheel excitedly. “Imagine it: high school students by day, crime-fighting bug squashers by night. It’ll be like we’re in our own comic book or something.”

  Abby was slouched over in the front seat. “Things don’t always end well in those comic books, do they?” She moved uncomfortably, like she had something crawling under her skin. “We’re four high school students, for goodness’ sake! They want us to fight off these bugs, then what? She was talking about taking down a group of superpowered crazies? We’d get murdered! We just moved here. I just want a normal Junior year. Maybe join the gymnastics team, stress out about tests, date a cute guy—”

  “You’re getting way off track, Abbs,” said Nick.

  She sighed loudly and looked out her window. “Why are we even considering this? We shouldn’t be having this conversation. I mean, I understand these are bad people that need to be stopped, but why not choose adults to handle it? I’d rather not die at the hands of some crazy person and his robots or bugs or whatever else, thank you.”

  Nick looked out the window and finally saw me. “Hey, Kelly. What do you think about last night?” he asked.

  I rolled my eyes and jumped in the back seat, slamming my bag on the floor. “‘Good morning, Kelly. How are you this morning?’ Oh, I’m wonderful, Nick. Thanks for asking.”

  Nick snickered. “Sorry, Kelly. Good morning. How are you tod
ay?”

  I looked at him, eyebrow raised. “It’s too late now. Anyway, I don’t know what to think, to answer your question.”

  Nick and Abby argued the whole time we drove to James’s. When we pulled into the driveway, he was sitting on the porch step, flipping through a book. When he saw us, he picked up his bag and got in the car.

  Nick asked James what he thought about this Edania Organization business, and James seemed unsure as well.

  “C’mon, guys,” said Nick. “How can you not love the idea of superpowers and crime-fighting?”

  “I think you are simplifying the issue,” said James, his nose stuck in the book he was reading. Upon closer examination, I saw that it was the booklet from the Edania Organization. “We don’t really know what we’d be getting ourselves into. I don’t have enough data on the subject to make a rational decision, which is why we should at least read the booklet, as Kristiana suggested.”

  “How can we get data on something like this without testing it out?” Nick asked. “I say we should just go for it.”

  James looked up from the booklet. “As fun as that sounds, we must be wise and methodical about it, so we don’t die at an early age.”

  “James is right,” I said. “I don’t want to say yes or no without getting as many facts as we can.”

  “Ugh, you’re all crazy,” said Abby, throwing her hands up. “Fine then…let’s read the stupid book and buy into this crazy story. But if they start talking about biting the heads off chickens or making us drink spiked Kool-Aid, I’m totally out.”

  “I’ll read it over, and then we can discuss it,” James said.

  “Well, I have basketball practice tonight. So, if we do it today, it needs to be right after school,” said Nick.

  “Where would we meet?” I asked. “I don’t think we should meet at the library or Starbucks. People will think we’re crazy talking about mutant bugs and superpowers.”