Pick the Plot

by James Riley

  As they drew closer, vendors appeared selling balloons covered in superhero symbols, Captain Sunshine ice cream bars, and even some kind of fried fruit pies that promised to stop any hungry supervillain in their tracks. Owen bought one of the pies (while generously tipping the vendor) and bit into it. A rush of goodwill and lawful thoughts filled him, and he loudly mmmed.

  Kara giggled at that, then covered her mouth like she was embarrassed. “Whoa, I didn’t mean to let that out!” She gave him an apologetic look. “It’s hard not to get caught up in the mood here.”

  “Maybe we can get you superpowers while you’re in town?” Owen asked her. “It’s not too hard. I got them by accident, and you know how useful they’ve been.”

  She laughed again, but this time didn’t seem embarrassed by it. “I’m okay for now, but let me know if you think of some cool ones.”

  “You could be Time Woman. Or the Clock Queen!”

  A cloud passed over her face, and she nodded but turned away. Ugh, why had he reminded her of what she’d left behind? Still, that was the past now. Things here in Jupiter City would be much better for everyone, just as soon as he found Bethany. He weirdly felt so optimistic, what with a fruit pie in his stomach and happy people all around him. What couldn’t he do right now?

  They joined the throngs of people in front of the Lawful Legion’s beautiful headquarters. The domed building practically glowed in the sunlight, with white marble rising from a deep green park in front. A pavilion had been set up in the park, but there was only one person onstage.

  Owen looked closer, and all of the optimism and joy he felt slowly evaporated. The man onstage was wearing a yellow banana suit.

  That was him. The Rotten Banana. The one who’d supposedly been going to take Bethany to the Dark. And apparently had, since the last Owen had seen, the Dark had Bethany in his clutches with the banana nowhere around. Had he turned Owen’s friends over to the Dark, or just abandoned them when things got bad? Neither answer was okay.

  “Who wants the Top Banana’s autograph?” the banana shouted out into the crowd. “I know, I’m very a-peeling, but there’s enough banana in this bunch to go around. Form a line, only twenty bucks a signature!”

  Turn to page 335.

  Please send us home, readers. I don’t know if Adelaine really did take your power away, but if not, the Magister is pure evil, and he’s probably going to kill us for revenge. Or maybe it’s prevenge, since he hasn’t met me yet. I think?

  Readers? Please?

  “Come with us, Adelaine,” the Magister instructed, then returned to stand before the council. The other members all stood now too and formed a circle with their staffs held high in the air. Adelaine led Owen and Kara off to the side so they wouldn’t be in the way, which at least put him farther from the Magister.

  The council members began to chant, and their staffs lit up with the same shimmering light as the floor and chairs. From outside, rivers of light began to flow into the center of the room from every conceivable direction, forming a large, swirling ball of energy that hurt Owen’s eyes to look at.

  More magic-users floated up into the council room from below, while outside the windows, Owen could see another group surrounding the building, all with their staffs raised as well. More explosions filled the air, and the tower shook again, hard enough to almost knock him to his knees.

  “YOU HAVE WARPED THE NATURAL LAWS OF OUR WORLD FOR TOO LONG,” said a voice over a loudspeaker from outside. “OUR WAR ENDS TODAY. SURRENDER AND FACE YOUR PROPER JUDGMENT.”

  Adelaine raised her staff, but her glow covered only herself, Owen, and Kara. “I will keep you safe for as long as I am able,” she told them. “If I fall, run as far and fast as you can. The Naturalists will know you’re not one of them, and will not hesitate to destroy you along with us.”

  “Who are they?” Kara asked. “And why do they hate you so much?”

  “Magic is pure possibility,” Adelaine told her, “whereas the Naturalists worship science and control, facts and numbers. As if a human life could ever be encompassed by data. The Naturalists insisted we renounce our ‘heathen’ spells and use only science. When we refused, they first drove us to the sea, where we formed our own city, Atlantis. But even that wasn’t enough for them. Now they insist that we must be wiped from this planet in order to protect themselves.” She kneaded her forehead with two fingers. “Fear of the unknown will drive even the bravest to terrible deeds, children.”

  The building shook again, and the council members began chanting louder. Outside, one of the magic-users screamed, instantly dropping from sight. Owen stepped closer to Kara and grabbed her hand, not even sure why, but somehow feeling better for it.

  “It is time!” the Magister shouted. “We need more power, and so turn to those who would be our enemies to provide it. We must take the magic that is their birthright, and use it to build a new reality for all who believe in the infinite!”

  One by one, the council members slammed their staffs to the floor, which began to disappear, feeding the ever-growing ball of power in the middle of the room. Owen tapped at Adelaine’s bubble frantically. “Um, we’re not going to fall when the floor disappears, right? Just want to make sure.”

  Adelaine shook her head. “I will keep you aloft,” she said. “But please, stay quiet. I must lend my power to this endeavor as well.”

  She tapped her staff on the ground, and now her magic joined the others’.

  The conglomerated magic began to fill the room, spreading over and around Owen and Kara, even pushing at the edges of the tower. Another explosion vibrated the walls, which began to crack and crumble.

  Then, with one last hit, the tower collapsed around them.

  For a moment Owen couldn’t see or hear anything beyond the tower’s destruction, with rubble tumbling down all around them. But the ball of magic in front of them pushed farther out, sending the remains of the tower flying off in all directions and leaving them all floating in midair.

  Strangely, many of those pieces of the former tower changed course as they flew and crashed into large metal tanks that now filled the city streets. Apparently someone guided them as a last-ditch attack. Owen looked closer at the tanks and realized they were the boats he’d seen before, but transformed somehow. Technology here was so much more advanced than in his world! Maybe the TSA’s time bracelets had it beat, but he’d never seen anything like these war machines. Each one had a variety of different weapons and seemed to be using them all at once. The magic-users still defending the city were hopelessly overmatched, and now the tanks were releasing soldiers encased in some kind of metal suits into the fray.

  “Take their magic!” the Magister shouted, and a powerful wave of force swept out of the council members in every direction. At first nothing happened, but then a few stray trickles of light began to feed into the magic filling the air, coming from the soldiers in the metal suits. More and more streams joined together, forming large rivers of magic that flowed into the room from all directions. Larger rivers began to flow out of the war machines, and great floods came crashing in from the horizon in all directions.

  The magic surrounding them now grew even bigger, and it wasn’t just shimmering light anymore. Inside the magical sphere Owen could see what looked like stars, galaxies, nebulas—all the things he’d seen in pictures of space but had never really understood.

  The magicians really were creating a new universe, a reality built from pure possibility. It was truly awesome to stand in the middle of it all, and for a moment all of Owen’s worries fell away, and he just marveled at the sight.

  A strike from a war machine yanked his attention back to reality as a blast exploded into the side of the magic, sending sizzles throughout the entire newly forming universe. A few sparks of magic burst out, and one passed through Owen, making his hair rise on end and filling his head with strange thoughts about flying elephant donkeys making popcorn.

  Apparently pure possibility led to some odd ideas. />
  “We will build a new world, just like our home,” the Magister said, and a new planet began to form in the vastness of space in the middle of the magic. “But we will not stop there. Every possibility will exist in this universe, an infinite reality unlike anything that has ever existed. We twelve will build thousands upon thousands of new worlds, and our descendants will do the same, adding to our universe until it becomes truly never-ending.”

  The planet that the council had just built began to shimmer, and in its place there were now two, then four, then sixteen planets, some exactly alike, others vastly different. Soon there were more planets than Owen could count, with more shimmering into view with every passing second.

  “The time has come!” the Magister shouted as magic-users defending them began to fall left and right, and the war machines started rising in the air like hovercrafts, floating up to their height. “Choose your new existence, and leave this one behind!”

  Each of the council members raised their staffs and floated up into one of the new worlds, leaving many, many more empty. Adelaine nodded down at Kara and Owen, her face looking much more haggard than it had before. She floated their bubble into one of the original four planets, the same one the Magister was approaching. “Don’t worry if this isn’t the reality you know,” she said, sounding exhausted. “We have planned for this. There will be methods to travel between each one, and we will find your home reality for you.”

  “The boy’s home reality?” the Magister said, glancing at Owen as they flew toward a new planet. “But that would be the world we just left.”

  Owen’s eyebrows shot up. He must have misheard that. He had to have misheard that. The planet with the Naturalists and Atlantis and magic and technology beyond anything he’d ever seen . . . that was his world? His Earth? His reality?

  Turn to page 286.

  Owen took a step back in shock, but Kara rushed forward and grabbed his older self by the shirt. “How old are you now?” she demanded, her face a mix of panic and terror. “Owen, tell me! What year is this? How old are you?”

  Owen’s future self put his hands on her shoulders and gave her a sad smile. “Hi, Kara. It’s going to be okay. Just breathe.”

  Kara shook her head over and over. “When is this? I need to know! It might not be too late—”

  “We can’t do this here,” older Owen said, gesturing for Owen to come. He pulled Kara with him, and Owen followed himself past the statue of the Countess and into a nearby alley. His future self opened an unmarked door, then walked them through a kitchen filled with people cooking, washing dishes, and plating orders. No one even looked at them.

  Instead of going out into the restaurant, older Owen led them down some stairs and into a storeroom. There he flipped a light switch off and on three times. After the third time, a pile of boxes silently glided aside, revealing a lit hallway behind it.

  “When the Countess took over, we had to find a way to stay out of sight,” older Owen said, leading Owen and Kara down the hallway. They passed by several doors, behind a few of which Owen could hear people talking. “We rescued who we could, but the Countess was very thorough.” He pointed at a partway open door, through which they could see rows of desks about half-filled with people poring over books. “We’ve got agents documenting every appearance of the Countess throughout history. When we’re ready, we plan on striking each point simultaneously, and—”

  Kara shoved him against the hallway wall. “Tell me when I am, Owen!”

  Owen tried to pull her off of his older self, but future Owen just put a hand up, stopping him. “It’s okay,” he said to Owen. “You . . . you don’t know what’s happening here yet, and if I can help it, you never will. But Kara has questions, and she deserves some answers. Owen, would you mind waiting for a few minutes?” He opened a nearby door and gestured for Owen to go in.

  “What? No way!” Owen shouted. “I’ve got questions too! First of all, why are you here? Did we never get back to Bethany? Did Nobody separate the worlds? And how does Kara know me when I’ve never met her?”

  Older Owen waited for him to finish. “Is that all?”

  “Not even close,” Owen shouted again, then took a deep breath to calm down. “How did the Countess change the entire world? Where did the time prison go? And why are you still here?!”

  “You asked that already,” Kara told him, absently staring at his older self.

  “It’s a really important question,” Owen told her.

  “Fine, Owen first,” future Owen said. Kara started to object, but he shook his head. “Then I tell you everything I can, okay? He’s not going to give us time until he gets some information too.” He gave Owen an intent look. “But before we start, I need to keep you in control here. So we’re going to fix a little, um, let’s call it a problem you’ve been having since you woke up in the prison, okay?”

  “A problem?” Owen asked, but his older self just winked. Oh, great. Apparently he was going to start thinking he was Kiel in the future. Ugh.

  “In here,” older Owen said, and led them into the same room he’d tried to push Owen into earlier. He closed the door behind them, then waved at a cot for Owen and Kara to sit down. Future Owen, meanwhile, grabbed a chair from a small desk and flipped it around before sitting down.

  Wow. Did he think that was cool or something?

  “First of all, this is cool,” Owen’s older self told him. Owen’s eyes widened, and the future version laughed. “Don’t worry, I can’t read your mind. I just know how you think. For example, right now you’re thinking that it’s annoying that I called you on it.”

  Owen glared at his older self, not willing to admit he was right. “So? What’s this problem you’re going to fix?”

  Older Owen glanced at Kara, then turned back to Owen. “Remember how you got the exit code in spite of not being able to remember it?” He raised an eyebrow. “And how sometimes things happen that you don’t choose yourself? Well, I’m going to fix that for you.”

  Huh? Was he talking about the readers? He could fix that? But how?

  “I knew you’d end up here,” older Owen said while he fished around in his pocket, looking for something. “You know, since I did too, so many years ago. But when I got here, and the older me tried to teach me something, Kara and I immediately, um, got pulled away.” He winked again at Owen, trying much too hard to make his point without saying it out loud. Owen rolled his eyes. “So I had over a decade to figure out how to fix that. Not to mention a few other things. But first, let’s make sure you don’t disappear suddenly.” His future self took something from his pocket, then rose from his chair and came over to Owen. “Close your eyes. It’s probably better that you don’t see this. You too, Kara.”

  Owen gave himself a suspicious look, but closed his eyes as requested . . . then opened them just a bit. He couldn’t make out much, but from what he could tell, it almost looked like his older self held a piece of paper in his hand.

  “I said close them,” his older self said, and smacked Owen’s head. Owen mumbled some choice words but scrunched his eyes shut. He felt his older self touch his forehead, then heard him mumble something in a different language. “Okay, done.”

  Owen’s eyes flew open. He didn’t feel any different necessarily, but still, somehow he knew things had changed. “What did you do to me?” he demanded.

  “Oh, calm down, it was just a quick magic spell.”

  “A what, now?”

  “It won’t hurt you.”

  “How do I know that?”

  “Because I’m you. If I did it to you, I’d have hurt me too!”

  “Boys, can we get past this?” Kara asked, shaking her head. “I have important things I need to know.”

  Owen’s older self leaned down so his mouth was near Owen’s ear. “A few years ago I went back to the beginning of the fictional universe and saw how it was created. Basically, magic used to exist on our world, but a bunch of people feared it, so the magicians built a new reality to e
scape to. I know, it’s basically the Kiel Gnomenfoot books. There’s a reason for that. But you’ll see when you go back in time yourself.” He seemed to realize he was going on for too long, because he shook his head. “Anyway, one of the magicians used that spell on me, and I made sure to make a copy so I could use it on you when the time came.”

  “And the spell did what?”

  “It’ll keep any outside forces from influencing your decisions,” his older self said carefully, glancing quickly at Kara. “At least until you decide you want them back.”

  WHAT? IS HE SAYING HE TOOK AWAY OUR CHOICE HERE? FORGET THAT! OWEN PUNCHES HIS OLDER SELF IN THE FACE.

  Turn to page XXX.

  Like any magic spell could keep the readers from deciding what happened, but whatever. “We’ll see if it works,” Owen said, needing more answers. “So back to my questions. Are you stuck here? Does that mean I never get back to Bethany either? Does Nobody separate the worlds?”

  Older Owen sighed. “Yes. I could never get back to Jupiter City, and it does appear as if Nobody removed all of the portals.” He paused, then leaned in so Kara couldn’t hear. “Even worse, once he separates the worlds, things here become . . . less anchored. The fictional world falls apart. I’ve seen it in the future . . . it’s just like the space outside of stories, only that’s all that exists anymore.” He stood. “But it’s not too late to fix this.”

  “How?” Owen asked quietly, not looking at his older self. Nobody had found Bethany, all because Owen had never escaped from Kara’s book. He failed Bethany, he failed all of their friends, and he failed two entire worlds.

  Future Owen moved closer. “Because I’ve spent the last decade working on a way for you to fix it for both of us. Something that my older self tried to teach me, but like I said, we left too soon. I can’t fix things, because if I did, that’d cause a paradox, and my Kara’s not here to protect us from it. But you can! You can change everything now, because look what I finally figured out how to do!”

  And with that, Owen’s older self reached into thin air, grabbed nothing, then yanked down, tearing a page in the middle of the room. On the other side of the torn page an enormous dragon frowned at them, then licked its lips.