by Mark Young
Theremin laughed. “Poor Percival. But that was kind of funny.”
“It’s an example of why you should never ask Mimi for help, Newton,” Shelly said, and then she looked around. “Newton?”
But Newton had left midway through Shelly’s story and had run to catch up with Mimi. He caught up with her in the hallway and tapped her on the shoulder. She spun around and raised her eyebrows.
“What is it, Newton?” she asked.
“I need your help, Mimi,” he began, and her eyebrows raised even higher. “I need something special—makeup that will make Higgy look human for the school trip. You’re so good with inventing stuff like that, so I thought I’d ask.”
“Hmmm,” Mimi said, frowning thoughtfully. “You came to the right person. That might be something I can do.”
“Really?” Newton asked hopefully.
“Really,” Mimi replied. “But if I do this for you, then I want you to do something for me.”
That sounded fair to Newton. “Sure. What do you need?”
Mimi stepped closer to Newton. “Ever since you came to this school, I’ve been trying to find out who you are,” she said. “I’m still convinced you’ve been sent to spy on me, to get information about my family’s company. We’ve hired the best private detectives to give us information on Newton Warp, and they’ve come up with nothing. Nothing. So if you want my help, then come clean, Newton. Who are you? Where did you come from?”
Newton stared into Mimi’s blue eyes, which seemed to bore right into his mind.
“I—I don’t know, Mimi,” he stuttered. “Honestly. I’ve had amnesia ever since I first came here.”
“I don’t believe you, Newton,” Mimi said. “You and your friends are always sneaking around. You’re hiding something. And now there’s this whole thing that you and Odifin are brothers.”
“Half brothers,” Newton said. “And Odifin was adopted, so he doesn’t know where he’s from either. I swear, I still don’t know.”
“You must know something,” Mimi prodded him.
Newton did know some things—like how he had superhuman abilities and how he was somehow important to the future of the school. But his skin started to tingle like it did when danger was near, and he got the feeling that he shouldn’t tell Mimi—especially Mimi—any of this.
“Nothing,” Newton repeated.
Mimi stepped back from him. “Well, then, I can’t help you,” she snapped at Newton, and she continued down the hall.
Newton felt a sense of relief as she left. Shelly and Theremin approached him.
“Let me guess,” Shelly said.
“You were right. She won’t help,” Newton said.
“Come on. We need to get to our next class,” Theremin urged.
He zipped off on his rocket robot legs, and Newton and Shelly jogged to follow him. Newton kept thinking about his conversation with Mimi. He still wanted to help Higgy, but something else was weighing on his mind.
After everything that had happened, he still didn’t know who he was. And he wanted to know. Until he knew, there’d be an emptiness inside him, one he could never fill.
It’s finally time I got some answers, Newton thought. And I know who can give them to me!
CHAPTER 4 Ten Fingers!
At lunchtime Newton didn’t head to the cafeteria. Instead he went to the office of Headmistress Mumtaz.
He’d been practicing a speech inside his head all morning.
I’m not asking you to tell me who I am. I’m demanding it! It’s my right as a living being!
Then he remembered that Theremin hated the term “living” because technically he was a machine and not alive. Newton tried to remember the word Theremin had said robots preferred.
“Sentient” popped into his head. That meant you were capable of thoughts and feelings. Theremin had plenty of those, and so did Newton!
He found Ms. Mumtaz’s door cracked open and knocked on it.
“Come in, Newton,” she said.
Newton stepped inside.
“Ms. Mumtaz, I am a sentient being, and so I’m, um, well, I’d like to know, if um…”
He quickly lost confidence in the face of the headmistress’s piercing gaze.
“Is this about your identity again, Newton?” she asked. “You know I can’t tell you more than you already know. The future of the school is at stake.”
“But I don’t understand how me knowing who I am affects the future of the school,” Newton countered. “I really need to know who I am. I feel empty all the time. Like something’s wrong with me. And when I asked Mimi for help today with a makeup invention, she wanted to know who I was, and I couldn’t tell her. And now she won’t help, and Higgy won’t be able to go on the trip, and everything… everything just stinks!”
He sank down into the chair in front of Ms. Mumtaz’s desk. Her gaze softened. “What’s that about Higgy? Why can’t he go on the trip?”
“Because he doesn’t look human enough,” Newton replied. “Neither does Odifin. And it’s not fair that they have to miss it.”
“Well, who says they have to miss it? That’s one thing I can help you with, Newton,” Mumtaz said. “I’ve been working with some of the other professors on a device that will allow Higgy and Odifin to travel freely in the world outside the island. We’ve been putting the finishing touches on it, which is why I hadn’t mentioned it yet.”
“Really? That’s good news,” Newton said. “Can you let them know soon? Then Odifin can stop online shopping for clothes at the Tall and Skinny Guy store. And Higgy will be happy, even though he says that he doesn’t really want to go.”
“I can call them in right now,” Ms. Mumtaz said.
She opened the top drawer of her desk and pulled out two tiny robot flies.
“Higgy Vollington,” she told one, and to the other she said, “Odifin Pinkwad.”
The two bugs flew off.
“Are you really not going to tell me who I am?” Newton asked.
“No, and as I’ve told you, it’s—” But she was interrupted by a ringing sound. The lenses in her eyeglasses flickered, then brightened, and then transformed into translucent screens. Words began scrolling on the screens, and she sighed.
“It’s Professor Yuptuka, of course,” she said as she read the screens. “It seems that while teleporting her senior class to the San Diego Zoo, she miscalculated and they have landed in the lion habitat.”
Mumtaz blinked and started speaking again. “Edith, can’t you teleport right out of there?”
There was silence as Mumtaz read the response. “Oh, I see. Well, then, I would suggest learning how to communicate with lions very quickly. We’ve recently updated the translators so it should work quite well. Give it a try, and good luck!”
The glasses flickered again and returned to normal as Higgy and Odifin entered the room.
“I swear those industrial-size cans of pudding were right out in the open! I thought they were up for grabs!” Higgy said to Ms. Mumtaz.
“Don’t worry, Higgy. You boys aren’t here because you’re in trouble,” she said. “I have something to show you.”
She stood up, walked over to a shelf, and opened up a metal case. She took out two small domes, each about the size of half a tennis ball.
“Newton here tells me that you two have been concerned about going on the field trip,” she began. “Well, some of the professors and I have been working on a solution to that. Making sure all our students look like typical humans is a key safety measure for this school. So we’ve created these umbrella hologram devices.”
She lifted up Higgy’s beanie and placed one of the devices underneath it. Then she balanced the other on top of Odifin’s jar.
“When the holograms activate, each of you will be surrounded by a hyper-realistic hologram that completely changes your appearance,” she said. “Higgy, we’ve based your look on a compendium of boys from London who are your age. Odifin, we took the liberty of using some of your DNA to determin
e what your appearance will be.”
“How do we activate them?” Higgy asked.
“We’ve calibrated each one to your own specific voice,” Ms. Mumtaz answered. “To activate it, you can just say the word ‘incognito.’ ”
Higgy spoke up first. “Incognito!”
Instantaneously his appearance changed. He looked a lot like the chubby boy he had transformed himself into the night before, except 100 percent human.
“I don’t feel anything,” Higgy said. “How do I look?”
“Oh dear. I don’t have a mirror in here,” Ms. Mumtaz said. “But here, let me take a picture.”
Her eyeglasses flashed, and a photo of Higgy popped up on her computer screen.
“Wow!” Higgy said. “This is amazing. I look totally human!” He looked down at himself. “Wow, five fingers!” He flexed them on both hands. “Five more fingers! Ten fingers!”
“This umbrella hologram technology also contains physio-sensory enhancement,” Ms. Mumtaz explained. “You can touch and feel things with those fingers. Odifin, you’ll be able to do that too.”
“My turn!” Odifin said. “Incognito!”
In an instant Odifin too was transformed. Newton stared at the boy Odifin had become. Odifin was taller than his height on his rolling table. His hair was sandy blond. And he and Newton had the same button-shaped nose, and the same big ears. Not exactly like looking into a mirror—but Odifin looked more like Newton than anyone else in the school.
Newton slowly walked up to Odifin and held up his right palm. Odifin held up his left palm. Then Newton held up his left palm, and Odifin held up his right. Cautiously Odifin pressed his palm against Newton’s, quickly pulled his hand back, and smiled.
“Cool,” Odifin said. “This is a high five, right?”
“I think those are faster,” Newton responded. “But basically, yeah.”
Ms. Mumtaz snapped a picture of Odifin, and he broke away from Newton and stared at himself on the screen. He didn’t say anything for a minute.
“So that’s what I would look like,” he said in a soft voice. “If I weren’t just a… a brain.”
“That is what your DNA suggests, yes,” Ms. Mumtaz agreed with a quick, birdlike nod of her head.
“Wow,” Odifin said.
Newton felt excited. “This is great! Now you guys can come on the field trip and not worry about anything.”
Ms. Mumtaz reached for Higgy’s device, but he backed up.
“Wait,” he said. “Why can’t I wear this everywhere? Why can’t I look like this all the time?”
“These are still prototype devices,” she answered. “The field trip is sort of a test. We still don’t know the long-term effects of using the umbrella hologram all the time.”
Higgy sighed and took the device off his head. He immediately transformed back into his familiar green and gooey self.
“Here you go,” he said, handing it to Ms. Mumtaz. Odifin handed his over too.
“Well, that was interesting,” Odifin said. “I can’t wait to tell Rotwang.”
“I think this brief test went very well,” Ms. Mumtaz said. “You three may go now. Unless you still had something you needed to say, Newton?”
Newton thought about it. He still hadn’t gotten the answer he wanted. But it was clear that Mumtaz wasn’t going to budge.
“I guess not,” Newton replied. “Come on, guys!”
He left the room with Higgy and Odifin.
“Well, I’m glad we can go on the trip,” Odifin said. “But I have to admit, it was kind of weird to see myself that way. I’ve always been happy being myself. What kind of place is New York City if I have to look like somebody else to fit in there?”
“A city without mad scientists, I guess,” Newton said.
“I hope the test when we’re on the field trip goes well,” Higgy said. “It would be cool to look like that hologram all the time.”
“I don’t know if I could get used to that,” Newton said. “I like you the way you are.”
“You’re just saying that,” Higgy replied.
“No, I mean it,” Newton said sincerely. “So what if you don’t look human? You’re green, my favorite color. And you can do lots of cool things that humans can’t.”
“So can you,” Higgy pointed out.
“Yeah, but—” Newton didn’t know what to say. Higgy was right. But doing superhuman things made Newton feel like a monster—not cool at all.
Is that how Higgy feels too? he wondered. At least Higgy knows why he can do those things. If Mumtaz has her way, I’ll never know!
Odifin interrupted his thoughts. “I’m starting to feel excited about this trip again. I can’t wait to see someplace new!”
“Whoot!” Higgy cheered in agreement. “New York City, here we come!”
CHAPTER 5 Through the Portal
“All right, freshmen, please quiet down and line up!” Ms. Mumtaz said.
Ms. Mumtaz’s voice echoed through the Franken-Sci High gym. She stood in front of the gathered students, flanked by the other chaperones for the trip: Professor Juvinall, a six-year-old girl with red hair in ponytails, and Professor Phlegm. He wore a black sweater and pants instead of his usual black lab coat, and he’d shed his rubber gloves, but his shiny bald head and black eyepatch still gave him a sinister look.
Newton took his place in line between Higgy and Odifin. Both boys had activated their umbrella holograms.
“You know, I wanted to look human so that people wouldn’t stare at me,” Higgy said. “But now everybody is staring at me!”
“I think it’s weird for everybody to see you looking so different,” Newton said.
“I don’t mind the attention,” Odifin said. “It’s kind of fun mixing things up like this. As a brain in a jar, I don’t get to accessorize much. Hats always make my brain look chubby. But now…”
He looked down at his feet. “Red sneakers! They’re so cool! And look, I can kick!” He kicked with his right foot.
Newton glanced down at his own white sneakers. He’d always thought it was weird that he had a bar code on his foot, and that his feet were sticky and extra grippy.
But at least I have feet, Newton thought, suddenly appreciating them.
“NOW I NEED EVERYONE’S COMPLETE ATTENTION!” It was Professor Juvinall. Newton always marveled at how loud she could be, considering how small she was.
Everyone stopped talking.
“Finally,” she said. “Now listen up. We’ve installed a portal in an abandoned warehouse in Queens, a few blocks away from the Museum of the Future. Ms. Mumtaz is going to open a portal here in the gym, and she and Professor Phlegm will go first. The rest of you will enter one by one, and I will go last. When you land, remain in the warehouse until further instructions. Got it?”
The students all responded affirmatively, and Ms. Mumtaz held up a brochure of the school to begin using it to make a portal. She opened it fully, into a big square. Then she folded it into smaller and smaller squares. Finally she folded it diagonally so that the top left and bottom right corners touched.
The tightly folded brochure began to spin, and floated out of her hands. As it spun faster and faster, it created a rotating column of air. The whirling air caused the hair on the students’ heads to whip around their faces. Even Odifin’s physio-sensory holographic hair fell over his eyes.
Then the whirling stopped, and a human-size black hole with a halo of glowing light appeared where the brochure had been.
“Proceed in an orderly fashion!” Ms. Mumtaz instructed, and then she gracefully stepped into the portal and vanished.
“All right, let’s keep it moving!” Professor Juvinall yelled.
Professor Phlegm stepped into the portal without a word. Then Professor Juvinall started calling out last names.
“Atomico! Azerath! Bacon! Conkell! Let’s do this!”
Rotwang waved good-bye to Odifin and the others and stepped through the portal. The students disappeared into the portal alp
habetically, one by one. Soon it was Odifin’s turn. He looked down at his new, real-looking legs.
“Pinkwad, why are you lollygagging?” Professor Juvinall asked him.
“Well, normally Rotwang pushes me into a portal,” he explained. “I’ve never stepped into one before. I’ve never taken any steps at all, actually.”
“There’s no time like the present, Pinkwad,” Juvinall snapped. “Move it.”
Odifin cautiously walked to the portal and jumped in.
“At last!” Juvinall said. “Okay, Ravenholt and Rozika, you’re next.”
Shelly looked at Newton and grinned. “See you in New York City,” she said.
“Yeah,” Newton replied, and he watched his friends disappear. Higgy was his only close friend who remained.
“I’m a little nervous,” Newton admitted. “The last time I used a portal, I went nowhere. What if it doesn’t work this time too?”
When Newton and his friends had won the school’s Mad Science Fair, Newton had won a portal pass that would allow him to go anywhere in the world. Newton had asked it to take him home, but it hadn’t worked. He’d stayed right in the office of Ms. Mumtaz, where he’d started.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Higgy assured him. “It’s working for everyone else. That must have been a funky portal you opened last time.”
Newton nodded, hoping his friend was right.
“Vollington!” Juvinall yelled.
Higgy ran across the room and jumped into the portal.
“Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!” he cheered, and then he vanished inside the black hole.
“You’re next, Warp,” Juvinall said.
Newton nodded and stepped through the hole.
Please work! he thought.
Just as before, the blackness engulfed him. He felt his skin tingle and his hair stand on end.
Brightly colored lights swirled around him as his body, which now felt weightless, somersaulted through space.