Saving the World

by Katrina Kahler

  Time and Space

  Sitting up in my room that night, I wanted to do something nice and normal. I decided I would work on my history report. We had to write a 500-word report on a person in history who we thought was amazing. I tossed around a lot of names: Einstein, Joan of Arc, Gandhi, Mrs. Gandhi, Madam Curie, Michael Jackson, Babe Ruth, Mother Teresa, Lincoln, Malala…after all, she wasn’t much older than me. But I settled on Leonardo da Vinci. I mean the guy was amazing.

  In fact, I think da Vinci may have been the first superhero! Heck, there’s even a teenage mutant ninja turtle named after him! I mean, come on, the man painted the Mona Lisa!

  He was an amazing artist but it didn’t stop there! He lived almost 500 years ago but he had diagrams and plans for flying machines, a mechanical knight, and parachutes. Plus, he made and played his own musical instruments. He created the first texts on human anatomy. Oh heck, it was even said he could bend horseshoes. Yep, I’d made a great choice here! The guy was amazing! The trick now was to keep from writing too many words. Believe you me that hardly ever happened.

  Who would have thought I could have fun doing a paper for school?

  My thoughts were interrupted by a text from Jason.

  Jason>Hey

  Lia>Hey. What’s up?

  Jason>I’m at BMS Labs

  Lia>Why so late?

  Jason>Kayla is having some issues…

  Lia>Wait, Kayla is still there?

  Jason>Yeah, she decided she feels more comfortable here

  Lia>Ah…ok…

  Sure, that was kind of weird that Kayla felt more comfortable in a cold sterile lab than with her mom and sister. But I guess when you are young and have powers, you might find some comfort in a controlled place like the lab.

  Lia>So, y r u there?

  Jason>Kayla is having some issues…she wants 2 b here but she’s also homesick.

  Lia>Fair enough. But y r u there?

  Jason>Well, I was just talking with Tanya at her home

  Lia>Okay

  Jason>And the next thing we knew we were both here

  Lia>Yikes!!

  Jason>In fact…her entire home is now here ….

  Lia> That’s either cool or creepy

  Jason>It’s a little of both

  Lia>So do you need me?

  Jason>W…

  Lia>Jason?

  Lia>Jason???

  Lia>Jason???

  I turned to MAC. “MAC what’s going on at the lab?”

  No response.

  “Mac?”

  Still none.

  This couldn’t be good. I raced to my window, threw it open and then leaped towards BMS labs. I didn’t know what was wrong but I knew something was. My gut and my brain both told me this was bad! Way bad. Flying through the air, I started thinking, how bad can this be… Kayla is only like 8 years old. I mean how much damage can she do?

  I landed where the lab should be. There was nothing there except a house. It was a nice normal looking red-roofed house with an attic window. It was an average type of house, yet it totally freaked me out.

  “Hello?” I called.

  My voice echoed back to me.

  “Now this is creepy….” I said.

  “It sure is.” I heard from behind me.

  I literally jumped fifty feet in the air. I landed and turned towards the voice. It was Janitor Jan. She stood there with Lorie and Marie by her side.

  Patting my chest I said, “You scared the heck out of me. What the heck are you doing here?”

  Jan looked at me. “I detected a disturbance in the force!”

  “Say what?” I said.

  Jan grinned. “I felt a ripple in time and space. It led here. I brought these two along, because well, you will need backup.”

  “Where’s Jess?” I asked.

  Jan shook her head. “She’s part of that ripple. I can’t find her….”

  Lori looked at the lone house standing in the dark where a massive lab had been. “Please tell me I’m not the only one freaked out by this…”

  “You are so not!” Marie told her. She shivered.

  I looked at Jan. “So you’re the most experienced of us all…”

  “You mean I’m old,” Jan grinned.

  “Have you dealt with anything like this before?” I asked.

  Jan nodded her head. “A displacement in time and space? Sure, every day. Turn somebody into a toad…that’s a displacement in time and space.”

  “Phew,” I said. Then how do we deal with this?”

  Jan shrugged. No idea at all.” She pointed at the house. Turning a person into a toad is a small, tiny displacement in time and space. Removing a huge complex and replacing it with a house, now that’s a big freaky displacement. I have no idea, none at all, zilch.” She leaned towards the house. “Never in my almost 50 years have I seen anything like this! The power…. the pure raw power…” She collected herself. “Why are you here?”

  “I am Super Teen,” I said.

  Jan rolled her eyes. “Yeah I know that, but how did you know to show up here?”

  Oh, I was on the phone texting with Jason and he just stopped texting. I knew he was here with Tanya. They were trying to calm down Kayla….”

  “Wait, Kayla is still here?” Marie asked. “Why?”

  “Apparently, she likes it here,” I said.

  “Well she likes the spot…. but not the lab,” Lori said.

  Jan walked past me up to the front door.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  She looked back over her shoulder at me and said, “Knocking on the door, of course!”

  Jan knocked on the door three times.

  She waited.

  No answer.

  Jan put her ear to the door. “Hmm, I hear breathing…”

  “From inside?” I asked.

  “Nope, from the door, the door is breathing.”

  “Say what?” Marie said.

  Jan pointed to the door. “This door has a person inside of it…” She put her hands on her hips. “I thought I was pretty clear.” She tapped on the door. “There is a person inside this door.”

  “How could that be?” Lori asked.

  “I’m guessing that Kayla didn’t like this person so she put them in a door. Kind of makes sense in its own weird way.”

  “Can you get them out of there?” I asked.

  Jan ran her hand up and down the door slowly. “Nice oak,” she said. “And nope. They are part of the door. This isn’t magic, this is manipulating time and space at a greater scale.”

  “Then how do we free them?” I asked.

  Jan pushed the door open. “Easy, we convince whoever did this to let the person out and put everything back the way it should be.”

  “How do we do that?” I asked.

  Jan walked into the house. “How the heck should I know?”

  We followed Jan inside and entered a big living room area. There, on the fairly modern looking couch, sat Tanya and Kayla. They had their eyes locked on each other. And they were surrounded by a shimmering transparent bubble.

  “Took you guys long enough to get here,” Tanya said. “Not sure how much longer I can hold her. I may have more power than Kayla, but she’s not afraid to use the full force of her power. I’m keeping her from ripping time apart.”

  I was not really sure what Tanya meant by ripping time apart, but I felt pretty confident it couldn’t be good.

  “How can we help?” I asked.

  “Kayla, here, has let the power get to her little head. We have to stop her!” Tanya said.

  “How?” I repeated.

  Tanya turned towards me. “She’s a kid…knock her out!”

  “Right.” Taking a step forward, I touched the glowing sphere. I was abruptly shot back and bounced off a wall.

  “But don’t touch the sphere,” Tanya warned me, a second too late.

  “Right, got that,” I stammered, stumbling to my feet.

  “I’m trying to keep her from increasi
ng the size of the sphere… if she does, time will be changed all around us,” Tanya said. “But it’s way hard. Like I said before, she doesn’t care about consequences. Just results.”

  Jan raised a finger. “We can help keep that sphere from growing. Between my magic, the energy from Lori’s bio-bionics and Marie’s molecular rearrangement ability, we can hold it steady!”

  “You sure?” Lori asked.

  Jan laughed. “No of course not, but it’s all we can do.”

  Jan, Lori, and Marie outstretched their arms and concentrated on the sphere. The sphere condensed then expanded, condensed then expanded, kind of like a bouncing ball hitting the ground.

  “We can hold her for now!” Jan said. She looked at me. “You gotta get in there and knock her out!”

  “How? I can’t touch that sphere.” Then it hit me. “I can teleport in!” I shouted.

  “Ah, you can’t teleport,” Lori told me.

  “True, but Ellie Mae Opal can, and she’s just one town over in Moon Town. Be back in a flash.” I darted out of the room at super speed. I jumped into the air and headed towards Moon Town. I smiled. That name always makes me laugh. I guess it’s nice to know I can still laugh in the face of little eight-year-old Kayla rewriting time.

  I was standing at Ellie Mae’s front door in less than three minutes. Man, I was getting fast. Okay, it wasn’t the best time to be congratulating myself. I knew it was late and Ellie Mae was probably getting ready for bed, but when you are protecting time, sleep can wait.

  I knocked on the door.

  Ellie’s mom, Jeanie opened the door. “Lia, what’s wrong?” she asked.

  “I need Ellie to teleport me into a temporal sphere to stop a little kid from rewriting time!” I said.

  Jeanie put her hands on her hips and grinned. “Is that all?”

  She turned towards the staircase. “Ellie, come downstairs. Lia is here to see you.”

  In a poof, Ellie Mae stood next to me. She had pink PJs on. “What’s up, Lia? I was just brushing my teeth for bed.”

  “Ah, I need you to teleport me into a temporal sphere so I can stop Tanya’s little sister from changing time!”

  “Oh, that would be bad.” She turned to her mom. “Can I go, Mom?”

  Jan nodded. “Yes, of course!”

  Taking Ellie by the hand I said, “Come on, I’ll fly us there.”

  Ellie laughed. “Too slow. Where do we need to go?”

  “BMS Labs!” I told her.

  The next thing I knew we were standing outside of the red-roofed house that stood where BMS once did.

  “Oh, how freaky!” Ellie said.

  We rushed into the house. Jan, Lori, and Marie still had their arms outstretched, they were each covered with sweat. The sphere pulsated faster and faster.

  Ellie Mae pointed to the inside of the sphere. “So you want to go in there?”

  “Yes.”

  Ellie licked her thumb and held it up. “Hmm, I have to take into account temporal drift.” She took my hand. We blinked forward.

  I found myself standing right on top of Kayla. “Hey!” she said.

  I pinched her on the side of her neck. She dropped to the floor. The house flashed once, then twice. I noticed Jason fall out of the door. Well, that explained who was in the door. We were standing in a bedroom in BMS labs. Kayla laid on the floor. Dad, Hana and a bunch of scientists and security personnel looked on, confused.

  “What happened?” Hana asked.

  “My little sis made you all go bye-bye,” Tanya said.

  Dad scratched his head. “Amazing…”

  “Hard to compute,” Hana said.

  “Scary,” Marie said. We all nodded in agreement. Well, all of us, except for Dad.

  Dad went into full mad scientist mode. “Truly amazing.” He concentrated on Tanya. “She has your power without your control, and without the limitations you place on yourself. So amazing.”

  “You keep saying that,” I said to Dad. “It’s not amazing, it’s scary.”

  Dad shook his head. “It is amazingly scary but the potential has so much potential.” Dad pointed to a couple of scientists in white lab coats who were standing nearby.

  “Put her on her bed and keep her under sedation,” Dad instructed the scientists.

  “I’m not sure I like that!” Tanya protested. “She’s just a kid, a dumb, scared kid.”

  Dad looked Tanya in the eyes. He turned away just a little. “Would you prefer her changing time again?” he asked. “Making poor Jason a part of a door.”

  “No, of course not,” Tanya said.

  “Yeah, what was that all about?” Lori asked.

  Tanya sighed. “Apparently, my little sis thought Jason might come between us. So….”

  “Wow, holy symbolic time change,” Jason said.

  “Do you remember anything?” I asked Jason.

  “Just Kayla glaring at me…”

  “We’ll keep her in her room, sedated. It’s lucky she is here because we can teach her to control her powers. Once we control her control, we will ease up on the sedation. All will be well,” Dad said.

  “I believe that is a wise course of action,” Hana said.

  Yep, it wasn’t a surprise that Hana agreed with Dad. After all, he did create her to be his personal “yes women”. But I kind of agree too. I feel bad for Kayla, but uncontrolled power like hers has to be kept restrained.

  Dad kept his attention locked on Tanya. “Has this incident made you inclined to accept more training for yourself and your sister?” he asked.

  “That would be wise,” Hana told her.

  Tanya took a step back. “I’m not a kid who can’t control her urges…” She took a slow breath. “I can control my power.”

  “You sure?” Hana asked.

  Tanya locked her gaze on Hana. Hana shrunk down to the size of a toy. In fact, she became a small wind-up toy. Tanya bent over, picked Hana up and wound her up. She put Hana down on the ground. Hana mechanically walked away. Tanya grinned. Hana became Hana again.

  “Yes, I am sure!” Tanya said.

  “Amazing,” Dad said.

  “Wow,” Jason gushed.

  “Okay, I gotta admit that was impressive,” Jan said.

  “Good control of power,” Marie said.

  “You’re so cool,” Lori told her.

  Jason nudged me. “Isn’t she amazing?” he asked.

  “She sure is…” I sighed.

  Ellie Mae walked over to me and grinned. “It’s past my bedtime. Do you mind if I port myself back home?”

  I returned her grin. I gave her hug. “No of course not, you were great. We couldn’t have done it without you.”

  She hugged me back. “Just glad to be part of the team.” She disappeared in my arms.

  I looked at my phone. A text had popped in.

  Ellie Mae> Home and tucked in. Goodnight.

  Lia>

  Dear Diary: Not sure what bugged me more… Jason hanging out with Tanya, Kayla’s raw power, or Tanya’s control of her power. Or my dad being so fascinated with their power. Or Jason being so impressed with Tanya. Okay, I gotta admit, this is a side of me I don’t like. I don’t enjoy being jealous. But am I being jealous or just cautious? I mean, come on, Kayla pretty much made all of BMS labs just go away. If we hadn’t all teamed up to stop her, who knows what would have happened? And she’s only a kid. Dad says that’s part of the problem…she doesn’t know how to control all that raw power. But really, does anybody know how to control all that power? Maybe Tanya being older and more in control could make her more dangerous?

  I gotta shake these feelings and thoughts out of my head. Tanya is a nice girl, a friend. A friend who likes Jason and who Jason likes back. I can’t let being jealous cloud my judgment. Besides, once I got to her I was able to take Kayla out with a pinch. I could do the same to Tanya if I ever had to. But I would never have to – right? Of course, I wouldn’t!

  Am I a bad person for even thinking like this? I know in the
comics Batman had a plan to take out all the other superheroes if they went bad. He’s Batman, he protects people, and it’s what he does. So, I’m just being protective of my people. Right? I take my role as protector very seriously. (Even if the police and the law don’t want me to.) I’m just doing what I was born to do…making sure everybody is safe. I’m covering all my bases.

  Plus, Jason seems happy and I have to learn to be happy for him. Yes, as a friend I have to support him. That’s what I’ll do. Okay, I’ve got to get some sleep. Tomorrow, I deal with something just as scary as a time controlling kid – the board of education.

  Questions

  Arriving home from a long weird evening, I found Mom in the living room having coffee and cake with Oscar Oranga and Kalie Hanson. Great! Just when I needed to talk to Mom about my super problems, I find the two people who are trying to stop Super Teen in my house! Oscar wasn’t a big surprise, After all, he and my mom are dating. I guess the universe doesn’t want my life to be too easy. But Kalie…now that was somebody I wasn’t expecting. That Oscar, he’ll stop at nothing to get a story.

  “Ah, hi,” I said walking into the room.

  Mom and Oscar smiled at me. Mom pointed at Kalie, “Lia honey, I assume you know the world-famous lawyer, Kalie Hanson.”

  Kalie grinned and looked away. “Oh please, I’m far from World famous. “

  I offered Kalie my hand. She took it with a firm grip. “Well, you are kind of famous,” I said. “After all, you’re trying to stop Super Teen from helping people.”