by Sybil Nelson
My dad turned his head toward the kitchen and called, "Josh!"
Josh poked his head out of the door and said, "It's not mine. Don't even go there," before retreating again.
My dad shook his head. "It's not Josh's...it's not yours...who -”
"I was going to tell you tonight," my mother said as she came into the living room.
"Quin?" My dad looked at her. She nodded. He crossed the living room in two steps and swept her up into his arms.
My mom was having another baby? That's why she had been so sick lately. It was baby hormones and stuff. I had to admit, I was kind of relieved. Though it might get annoying to have another sibling around, it was comforting to know that her crankiness and headaches were due to her pregnancy and not to her returning super powers as Josh thought.
And having another sibling might not be that bad, especially if it turned out to be a girl. Oh, now that would be kind of cool. What wouldn't be cool is another brother. I already had too many of those.
"I love you so much, Quin," my dad said, hugging her so tightly I was kind of afraid he might squeeze the baby right out of her. "I can't believe you're giving me another baby."
"I love you too, Greg."
When the crying and old people kisses stopped I tapped them on the shoulders and said, "Excuse me, since you two are spawning, I'd like to put in an order for a girl."
Chapter 31: Wishful Thinking
I spent the very next day making signs welcoming my new baby sister. Even though my mother was only nine weeks pregnant and her belly didn't even show any signs of a baby, I figured I better start early to ensure she was born a girl. I knew I really had no say in the matter. The sex of the baby was already decided, but hey, wishful thinking has got to account for something, right? Maybe if I wished for a little sister badly enough, my wish would come true. And if by some evil twist of fate this baby came out and it was another boy, I was still planning on dressing it in pink and calling it Patricia Marlene for the first two years of its life.
I posted my signs all around the house. I even thought about making a subliminal message tape to play for my mom while she slept saying: You will give birth to a girl. You will give birth to a girl. That could be considered overkill. But then I thought about the chicken-salad-bra-sling-shot incident. I better find that tape recorder.
"What are you doing?" Josh asked when he saw me sprawled out on the living room floor in a pile of posters and construction paper.
"What does it look like? I'm making sure the baby turns out to be a girl. I'm tired of stinky brothers."
"You know you have no control over that, right?"
"Of course I know that. But a few positive thoughts can't hurt can they?"
Josh shrugged. "I guess not." He took a seat on the couch and laid his head back staring up at the ceiling.
"So how does it feel to be wrong...again?" I asked him. I never missed an opportunity to tease Josh. I was just sorry he no longer sang Christina Aguilera songs all the time. I would've figured out a way to sing it in a song.
"What do you mean wrong?"
I put down my marker and looked at him. "Well, you said Tai was going to kill me and you were wrong about that. And you said that Mom was getting her powers back and you were wrong about that too. She's been acting weird because she's pregnant, not because her powers are returning."
Josh leaned forward and stared at me intensely. "First of all, was I really wrong about Tai? I said she was going to shoot you and she did."
I thought about this for a second. He was right. Tai did shoot me. And I did black out after the shooting. I'm sure it looked like I died or something. Maybe Josh just couldn't tell the difference in his vision.
"And as far as Mom goes," he paused, looked around, and dropped his voice to a whisper before saying, "maybe the hormones produced by the pregnancy triggered the regeneration of her genetic mutations. Did you ever consider that?"
I sat in silence. I hadn't considered that. I guess it was possible. Hey, what did I know about DNA and hormones and all that stuff? Looking at it from that angle definitely put a new spin on things.
"Don't doubt me, Priss. I'm never wrong." Then he stood up and went to his room.
I sat in the living room for over an hour thinking about what Josh had said. What did it all mean? Given the fact that Josh was never wrong in his visions, something was definitely going on with Mom. She was getting her powers back. That was a good thing right? She could go back to trying to defeat Colonel Selliwood and Dr. Witherall. But why hadn't she come out and told us?
I shook my head. It just didn't make sense. Unless...she didn't know. Maybe she thought all the headaches and stuff were caused by the pregnancy. Maybe she didn't know about her powers returning. But then again, how could she not know?
My brain started hurting from too much thinking. I needed a snack and a nap.
When I entered the kitchen, I saw my mother standing next to the refrigerator with her eyes closed. On the counter to her left, there was a tomato on a cutting board. The knife, though, was levitating next to her head. She was levitating the knife!
"Mom!" I called. "You have your telekinesis!"
She must have not heard me. She didn't move. She didn't even open her eyes.
"Mom? Can you hear me?"
She opened her eyes, but she still didn't see me. It was like she was looking through me.
"Mom? Are you okay?"
She cocked her head to the side as if I was speaking a different language and she couldn't understand me. Suddenly, the knife crashed to the floor. My mother clutched her head. Her knees gave way. I caught her right before she hit the floor.
"Mom? Can you hear me? Are you okay?" I asked while leading her to a chair at the breakfast table.
I set her down and she looked at me for the first time. "What happened?"
"You have your powers back! You were levitating a knife. I saw it."
"That's not possible, Priss. The machine from the institute. It completely stripped the mutations off my DNA."
"But Mom, I saw it." I sat down next to her and said, "Josh has a theory. He thinks the hormones from the pregnancy are regenerating your genetic mutations. He thinks your powers are coming back."
My mom closed her eyes and shook her head as if trying to get water out of her ears.
"You don't remember levitating the knife?"
She kept shaking her head. "I do not want to talk about this right now, Prissy. I have a headache. I'm going to lie down."
She stayed in bed for the rest of the day.
Chapter 32: Attacked
The silent alarm of our house went off around three in the morning. Even though it was silent, it set off a frequency that I could hear clearly with my super hearing. The alarm set off a light in Josh's room and vibrated the beds in the twin's room to make sure everyone got up.
We had gone through the drill several times. If there was any danger, Dad would trigger the alarm, we'd get up and meet in the old tornado shelter which Dad had converted into a gun room. For practice, Dad would randomly set off the alarm and make us run through the motions. The worst was when he decided to practice during one of my supposedly relaxing baths. Running outside soaking wet and wrapped in a towel was not my idea of fun.
I thought it was just another practice drill until I stepped into the hall. Usually, Dad would be standing in the hallway with a stopwatch timing us. Tonight the hall was empty.
"What's going on?" I whispered to Josh when I saw him step out of his room.
He shrugged. "I don't know. I'll make sure the twins are up. You find Mom and Dad."
Josh sent me a message telepathically before disappearing around the corner. Be careful!
Something had to be wrong. He'd never have us go through a drill without the dreaded stopwatch. I hated that watch so much that sometimes I wanted to strangle him with it for interrupting my sleep...or my bath. Tonight, I longed for Dad to be standing in the hallway with it. Something told me this was not a
drill.
Certain that there had to be some sort of threat or intruder, I slid along the walls of our house toward my parents' room, I strained my ears to see if I could figure out what was going on. There was definitely a noise coming from their room. As I got closer, I heard a crash and then I heard my father say, "Please don't do this."
I bounded the stairs to their room as fast as I could. I burst through the door just in time to see a thin dark figure jump through the window. I ran to the window and sent a blast of fire hoping to catch the intruder, but by the time I got there and leaned out, no one was there.
I turned around and scanned the room. There was no sign of my mother and my father was lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood.
"Dad!" I ran to him and knelt at his side.
"Get the boys. Get out," he gasped.
"No! Daddy, I'm not leaving you!" My father clutched his chest with his left hand while holding his favorite hand gun with his right. My father had guns stashed all over the house. He'd obviously had time to grab one in self-defense. Why hadn't he used it? He was an excellent marksman. Even in the dark he'd be able to hit his target. He might not be able to get a clear enough shot for a kill, but he could have at least wounded the intruder. Unless, of course, the target moved at the speed of sound. That had to be the explanation. How on Earth had a specimen gotten into our house? Oh no, had they taken my mom?
But even if the intruder was a specimen that moved at the speed of sound, why hadn't my father at least tried to shoot? I didn't hear the gun go off at all.
I picked my dad up and cradled him in my arms. I bounded down the stairs quickly but carefully.
"Oh no! What happened?" Josh asked when he saw us. He had a groggy Chester balanced on his left hip and held Charlie's hand.
"Daddy?" Charlie called and lunged for him. Josh pulled him back.
"Let's get to the shelter."
Josh led the way. Once inside we barricaded the door. Josh grabbed a gun off the wall and disengaged the safety. "What are we up against?" he asked. "Is it a Specimen?" Josh checked the clip of the gun to make sure it was loaded.
"I don't know, but I think they took Mom," I said as I laid my dad on the ground and inspected his injuries. I ripped his shirt open and counted six stab wounds. Most of the wounds weren't deep, but there was one on the left side of his chest that was just pouring out blood. “ Josh, I can't fix this! We have to get an ambulance. We have to call the police. I can't fix this." Tears welled in my eyes, but I had to stay strong. My twin brothers were shivering in the corner completely freaked out. Crying would only scare them more.
"No...police," my dad rasped as he grabbed my hands. Even his hands were bloodied. He must have tried to grab the knife in defense. "Stop the bleeding... apply...gentle...pressure. Morphine...cabinet."
I left my father's side for a second and searched the cabinets for the morphine. I returned to his side and gave him a shot.
"Listen to me... very... carefully, Prissy. My right lung... has collapsed."
"Oh, no!"
"Calm down...It's...okay. I can breathe...with one lung. I'm not...going to die. I promise. ...Make sure air does not...get into my chest cavity. Clean all the wounds, bandage them up. Make sure... no air gets...into the hole in my lung."
I slowly and carefully followed my dad's instructions. I didn't want to cause any more damage. Josh continued to point a gun at the door as if he knew something was coming. The twins hugged each other and stared at me and Dad.
Suddenly, something slammed against the door. The twins screamed. Whoever was attacking us knew where we were and was coming after us.
I quickly finished following my dad's instructions in case I needed to fight. As I worked I said, "I don't understand, Dad. Why didn't you just shoot the person? You had your gun."
He closed his eyes and said, "I could never shoot...your mother." Then he passed out.
Josh and I stared at each other.
My mother told me she loved me. She loved us all. I knew she did. Even though for much of my life she had been away it was only to save the lives of other people. I knew she was a good person. So why was she currently trying to kill us?
Book Two Study Guide
1. Why did Marco kiss Priscilla?
2. Do you think Priss should tell Kyle the truth about her powers or keep her secret?
3. What do you think is going on with Quin?
4. Why are the eighth graders so mean to Tai?
5. Which specimen do you think has the coolest powers?
6. What is the President’s name?
Priscilla
the Great
Too Little Too Late
Book three
Chapter 1: Marco's Metal Fist
Marco's left fist connected with my right eye. I saw stars. Literally, I saw stars. And they weren’t the kinds of stars I saw a couple of hours ago the last time Marco touched me. That time, he had his lips on mine and I saw the kind of stars that made you ridiculously happy and make all your girlfriends crazy jealous. The kind of stars that say, "That's right, I'm frenching a hot French boy." Nope, definitely not those kinds of stars. These were the "Oh snap! I'm gonna get killed by a human robot" kind of stars.
I did a back flip out of the way trying to buy some time before I would actually have to fight him back. I didn't want to hurt him. I knew he wouldn't try to kill me on purpose. This was all because of Colonel Selliwood. The real Marco cared about me and would do anything for me. He’d told me that himself. I didn't want to do any permanent damage to him. But if he kept bashing my face in I'd have no choice.
I stole a glance at Tai pounding away at the computer, trying to figure out how to undo whatever had been done to Marco.
"How's it going over there, Tai?” I asked, faking calmness as I dodged a roundhouse kick from the super-powered metal maniac who used to be my super-powered crush.
"I'm doing the best I can,” she said in a shaky voice. I sure hoped she didn't start crying. That was so not what we needed right now. I knew Tai could handle this. She had to. I mean, what was the point of having a genius best friend if she couldn’t hack into a few computers and undo a little mind control programming from evil villains?
"I don't know how long I can hold him off, Tai. He's -" I didn't get to finish my thought as Marco landed a right hook to the side of my face. My mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood. This was not usually how I tasted metal when I was around Marco.
I spit a mouthful of blood on the floor. Yes, I spit. I know that's gross but swallowing a mouthful of blood is grosser (is that a word?).
Oh, I was so tired of bleeding. I'd been kicked, punched, and shot. And that was just tonight! That was it. He was going down. I didn't care how cute or how good of a kisser he was. I reared back and landed a punch to his gut.
“OW!” I cried out in pain. Tears instantly welled up in my eyes. "Holy hot chocolate! That hurt!” Marco in metal form was indestructible. I think I might’ve just broke my hand on his stomach.
I looked into his cold blank eyes. He gave no reaction to my pain. If I was fighting Xi, she would at least laugh at me. This was like fighting an emotionless robot. It was kind of scary.
"You okay, Priss?” Tai called over to me.
I threw a blast of fire with my fingers into Robot Marco's face to give myself a second to get away. Now it was his turn to scream in pain. Huh? So even in metal form he could still feel the heat. I'd have to use that.
"I'm fine,” I yelled to Tai after I hid behind a lab table. Well, that was a lie. I totally was not fine. I stared at the bent and bloody fingers of my left hand. So much for that manicure.
Marco's metal feet clanged against the tiles of the huge laboratory we were in. Whatever Colonel Selliwood had done to him, it obviously affected his common sense. He should've found me ten seconds ago since there wasn't much to hide behind in here. There was a glass pentagon-shaped cubicle in the center of the room where Tai worked on the computer. He should have been able
to look straight through it and see me but instead he was still turning around in circles with a determinedly blank, yet slightly confused, expression on his face. His confusion might be my only hope. Fighting him hand-to-hand would be plain stupid, unless I was ready to break every bone in my body.
Leaping out from my hiding place, I jumped on a table and started blasting him with my fire power. His screams of pain brought tears to my eyes. I didn't want to hurt him but I had no choice. He marched blindly toward the source of the fire so I flipped out of the way and started blasting him from another angle. He fell to one knee still crying out in agony. I thought I had him beat so I stopped shooting. A second later, however, he disappeared. He’d used his super speed to get away. Now it was my turn to spin around in confused circles. Where did he go? Well, that question was painfully answered as soon as I felt his metal fingers around my neck.
I gasped as I tried to scratch, hit, and kick my way free. Nothing worked. He was squeezing the life out of me. I started blasting his face with fire, but I had so little oxygen in my lungs I didn’t have the energy. The stream was weak and started to fade.
I saw spots. The room dimmed to black. My life started flashing before me. Don't laugh, it did.
I saw myself at six years old pouring milk in Kyle's hair because a commercial said "It does a body good" and I thought his body could use some good.
I saw myself in third grade, a.k.a. “The Era of Unfortunate Hair,” meeting Tai for the first time right after I punched Kyle in the stomach for picking on said unfortunate hair.
