Secret Origins

by James Riley

  “Things are good,” Bethany said finally. “I’m going to spend the night here at Owen’s, if that’s okay. His mom already said yes.”

  “Oh, sure,” her mom told her. “I’m in the middle of a few things anyway.”

  “Okay, then,” Bethany said after a pause. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Okay, love you!”

  “. . . Love you too.”

  She pushed to end the call, then just stared at the phone for a moment, only to almost jump out of her skin as Owen clapped a hand on her shoulder. “Ready?”

  “Don’t do that,” Bethany shouted, whirling around.

  Owen’s eyes widened in surprise, and he put up his hands in surrender. “Sorry, really. I know you’re on edge with all of this. But it’ll help if we come up with a plan to rescue Doc Twilight. That way—”

  “We don’t have time,” Bethany said, moving off into the stacks.

  “We need a plan, Bethany,” Owen said, following behind her. “We can’t just jump back in with no idea what we’re doing. That’s what almost got us captured!”

  Bethany shook her head, heading straight for the children’s section. “The longer we wait, the more chance my father ends up like that old woman. No, we get some help, then jump back in and hit the Dark hard.”

  “We don’t even know who the Dark is,” Owen said as Bethany grabbed a copy of Kiel Gnomenfoot and the Source of Magic, the final volume in the Kiel Gnomenfoot series, then put it down on a nearby table and started flipping to the end.

  “He’s a supervillain, who cares,” Bethany said. “Kiel’s magic will take care of it.”

  Owen put his hand on the pages, and she looked up at him in annoyance. “You said you agreed that we needed to think things through.”

  “And we did. We thought that we needed help, now we’re getting it. It’s a comic book world, Owen. They’re not exactly hard to figure out, right? Good versus evil, with people wearing their underpants on the outside. I get it. Now let’s go find Kiel.”

  Owen sighed. “I looked up Doc Twilight comics while I was on the phone with my mom. They’re apparently so rare that the Internet didn’t even have pictures. But I did see that a new series by the same writer is coming out in a month. Remember how Doc Twilight mentioned a guy named Mason Black?”

  Bethany scrunched her eyes closed. “So?”

  “He’s the writer,” Owen told her. “And guess what the comic is called.”

  “I’m not going to guess.”

  “The Dark,” Owen told her. “He’s the hero. Or the main character, or whatever. I have no idea if he’s supposed to be the good guy—”

  Bethany slammed her hand down. “He took my father. You think he’s a good guy?”

  “Who knows, in the comic story,” Owen said. “There are plenty of bad guys who get their own comic books. The Joker even had his own title for a while. So we have to be careful—”

  “No,” Bethany told him. “We don’t. I don’t care who sees us. I don’t care if the entire world knows what I can do. We’re going in, getting my dad back, and getting out. Hopefully without being seen, but if we are, then so be it. I don’t care anymore, Owen. This is too important.”

  Owen paused, then pointed at the Kiel Gnomenfoot book. “Do you know how we find Kiel?” he asked. “Didn’t he say he’d get back in touch with us when he was done finding out who he was without magic?”

  Bethany nodded. “He told me to give him a year, in the book time, and to meet him there afterward if I needed help, or just to say . . .” She trailed off, then shook her head. “And we do need help.”

  “Help, and his magic,” Owen said, staring off into space. “I just hope he’s got spells that’ll give us . . .” Then he trailed off as if realizing just now he’d been talking out loud, and coughed to cover it.

  She looked up at him suspiciously. “You’re planning something, aren’t you? This is what messes things up, Owen, every time. We need to just do something, and not come up with clever twists for everything.”

  He threw his hands up. “It’s nothing crazy! Just . . . let’s wait and see if it’s possible, first. If the magic won’t work, there’s no reason to freak out.”

  Great. That sounded exactly like a reason to freak out. But now wasn’t the time. She held out her hand to him, her other hand holding the book open. “Ready?”

  “Not really,” he said, but she grabbed his hand anyway and pulled them both straight into the book.

  • • •

  Quanterium looked different from the first time Owen had seen it (the only other visit being Five-Years-Later Charm’s presidential speech). Then, he’d been disguised as Kiel Gnomenfoot, who was in turn disguised as a Science Soldier robot, trying to find the Source of Magic to use against Dr. Verity. Charm’s ship had just crashed, and Charm herself had almost died. Science Soldiers were everywhere, and the entire world had been gearing for war.

  All in all, it wasn’t the greatest trip.

  Now, though, what was apparently a year later, things seemed to be a lot more peaceful.

  Instead of robotic killing machines, real live actual people strolled around on the bright-blue electricity-filled streets. Most were dressed like Quanterians, wearing futuristic-looking clothes with sharp angles and silver sheens, but here and there Owen saw people wearing robes followed around by hovering spell books.

  “Magisterians here?” he said, pointing. “Things really have changed. Back during the series, they were at war with the Quanterians.”

  “Charm’s going to be elected president in a few years,” Bethany said, glancing around. “Things aren’t perfect yet, but they’re headed there. Kiel and I talked about it a few times when we came in.”

  “Wait . . . you jumped into Kiel’s series without me?”

  Bethany froze, then cringed. “Sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t supposed to mention that. We knew who you’d want to see, and I thought we’d caused enough damage to the books already.”

  Owen just stared at her. Bethany was the one who hired a fictional detective, looking for her father. She was the one who’d just gotten her maybe-father kidnapped by a crazy supervillain because they’d broken into his maybe-house. And she thought Owen had caused too much trouble?

  Whatever. Now wasn’t the time, surrounded on all sides by fictional people. “Fine. So where’s Kiel, then?” he said, realizing his voice sounded a bit pouty, but not caring.

  “He said he’d meet me on the spot where he surrendered to the Science Police,” she said, and led the way through the crowds as if she’d been here a hundred times.

  Owen followed along, glaring at the back of her head. How often had Kiel and Bethany jumped into books without him? Was it just the Kiel Gnomenfoot series, or were there others? And what did that even mean? That they wanted to spend time alone, without him?

  The city grew more and more elaborate as they approached the Presidential Palace, where Owen had been captured by Dr. Verity, and then Kiel had jumped in and switched places with him. As memories flooded back, Owen put a hand over his heart, just to feel it beating. It seemed so normal that he often forgot that he had a fictional robotic heart, thanks to Charm.

  When Owen had last seen the palace, it’d been surrounded by Science Soldier armies from an infinite amount of dimensions, so he hadn’t quite noticed how beautiful it was. Now, with Quanterians both real and holographic walking its steps, he could appreciate the enormousness of the building and how stunning the transparent walls were, filled with crackling electricity.

  All in all, it reminded him of how much he missed Charm, and his robotic heart ached.

  They quickly climbed the steps and stopped at the palace’s entrance, the spot where a year earlier Kiel Gnomenfoot had surrendered Charm’s unconscious body to the Science Police, turning himself in to save her life. Escaping hadn’t been too hard, of course. Not when your half-fictional friend could pull you out of a Science Police jail cell and into the real world, but still, it’d been a heroic thi
ng for Kiel to have done.

  “Where is he?” Bethany whispered, turning around in a circle. “He promised he’d be here!”

  “You sure you got the right place?” Owen asked, bitterness creeping back into his voice. “I mean, the right page?”

  “Of course,” she snapped, and Owen realized she wasn’t just concerned about her father anymore. “He wanted to meet here because they’re going to be putting up a statue of him in a year or two, so he loves sitting here and imagining what it’ll look like.”

  Owen nodded. That sounded like Kiel. “Maybe he’s just late. Should we jump out and try again at a different time or something?”

  “He wouldn’t be late, he promised,” Bethany said, still searching the crowd. “Something must have happened to him. Something’s wrong.”

  “We don’t know that for sure. He didn’t have his magic when he left, so maybe he still doesn’t. It could just take him a while to get places.”

  Bethany started to reply, then yanked Owen behind a column, her eyes wide.

  “What?” Owen said, but she covered his mouth with her hand. He tried to push past her to look, but she slammed her arm into him.

  Two Science Police robots walked past the column, not seeing them. The sight of their robotic walk and laser weapons filled Owen with a kind of dread, but he reminded himself that they weren’t trying to kill him anymore. “They’re the good guys now, aren’t they?” he whispered to Bethany.

  “They have my picture on file,” she whispered back. “Kiel and I may have gotten into some trouble once.”

  “How many times did you come here?” he shouted.

  Bethany glanced fearfully at the robots, who stopped at the shout. She quickly pulled Owen around to the other side of the column. Unfortunately, she wasn’t looking where she was going and succeeded in shoving Owen directly into a Quanterian. They both crashed to the ground, and Owen sheepishly looked up to apologize, but all the thoughts in his head immediately leaked out his brain.

  A fully human-looking Charm Quantum stared up at him from the ground with an annoyed expression. “Nice going,” she said. “Walk much?”

  CHAPTER 14

  Owen froze, still right on top of Charm, so Bethany reached down and helped pull him up. “Sorry about my friend,” she told the future president of Quanterium. “It’s been a while since we’ve visited, so he was looking at the buildings, not where he was going.”

  Charm pushed to her feet, staring at Owen’s face. “You look familiar, somehow,” she said, a red grid passing over her eyes briefly. “But I’ve got no memory of you. Neither does the Nalwork.”

  “Owen!” Owen shouted too loudly. “I’m him! That’s me, I mean! My name’s Owen.”

  Bethany and Charm both stared at him as his face began to glow bright red, and he finally turned to Bethany with a pleading look. Clearly he was having some trouble. “We’re friends of Kiel Gnomenfoot,” Bethany explained.

  Charm looked even more irritated at the name. “Where is he? I just got alerted that the robotic heart I gave him finally showed up on Quanterium right around here, but I can’t pin it down. I haven’t seen him for a year now, and I have a lot of things I want to say to him.”

  Bethany exchanged horrified glances with Owen, who clapped his hands over his own heart before turning to Charm. “You could . . . tell those things to me, maybe,” he said quietly, and Bethany rolled her eyes.

  “Sorry,” Charm said, the grid falling back over her eyes as she glanced around. “They’re a bit impolite, and very specifically for Kiel.”

  “Wait. You’re angry with him?” Owen asked.

  “He left me in a hospital without even a note,” Charm said. “And now I hear all these stories about him off in strange places, specifically not in jail, by the way, where he’s supposed to be. He’s got thirteen thousand and five spells in his spell book, and he can’t send me one magical message, one telepathic note to say he’s okay and he’ll stop by when he’s done wasting time?”

  “He gave us a message for you!” Owen said quickly. “That’s why we’re here. To find you.”

  “No, it’s not,” Bethany hissed in his ear.

  “This better be good,” Charm said, narrowing her eyes.

  “First, he wanted to say how much he . . . he misses you,” Owen said, blushing again. “It’s been so long since he’s seen you, and he thinks about you. A lot. A lot a lot.”

  For a moment Bethany could have sworn she saw Charm’s look soften just a bit, but in a blink it was gone. “So why isn’t he here to tell me in person?”

  “Great question,” Bethany said, glancing around again. “Don’t you have another, non-heart-related way of tracking him down? Like what if he magicked his heart back to normal? Isn’t there some kind of science radar or something that can find him?”

  Charm gave her an annoyed look. “If I had a better way of locating him, do you think I’d be sharing my innermost annoyances with you right now? I’d have sent hordes of Science Police out after him, then thrown him in jail for a few more years, just so he’d learn his lesson about skipping out on friends. And anyway, his heart is still beating, and hasn’t ever been removed. It’s sending out a clear signal, so he’s got to be here somewhere.”

  “Maybe he is,” Owen said to her nervously. “Maybe he’s closer than you think.”

  “Who are you again?” Charm asked, and Bethany pushed Owen out of the way.

  “He doesn’t matter right now,” she said. “If you can’t help us find Kiel, then we need to be on our way. Kiel might be in danger. He promised he’d meet us here, and since I don’t see him anywhere—”

  “Kiel Gnomenfoot makes a lot of promises,” Charm said, shaking her head. “A few he might even bother keeping, if  he remembers them. I thought he’d changed a bit, there at the end, but no. Same old Kiel, same old disappearing act. Just like a Magisterian to turn invisible.”

  “No, but he told me he’d be here,” Bethany said, getting annoyed with the formerly half-robotic girl. “If he said he would, he’ll be here. We’re really close.”

  “I saved two entire worlds with him,” Charm said, her voice rising. “And trust me, he’s lied more to me than to anyone.”

  “Not all the time,” Owen said, and Charm glanced in his direction.

  “Okay, I definitely know you from somewhere,” she said.

  “Kiel didn’t lie,” Bethany said, her voice rising too. “If he’s not here, that means something’s keeping him away.”

  “Oh really?” Charm turned back to her. “Dr. Verity couldn’t beat Kiel. Neither could a bomb that was going to destroy his entire world, as well as anyone who’d ever used magic. So what, you think he tripped and twisted his ankle? Grow up, kid.”

  “Kid?” Bethany said, her eyebrows rising.

  “Maybe you can help us,” Owen said, stepping between them.

  “I don’t know you,” Charm told him. “So why would I help you again?”

  “I’m Owen, like I said,” Owen told her. “This is Bethany—”

  Bethany slapped her forehead with her palm.

  “And we’re looking for Kiel because we need his help,” Owen finished. “He’s helped us in the past, and we’re in some bad trouble now.”

  “Knowing Kiel, he probably caused it,” Charm said.

  “No, actually,” Bethany said, glaring at Owen. “My father’s been captured by a . . . powerful magician, who can manipulate darkness. He’s taken over an entire city, and we need Kiel’s help to fight him.”

  Charm paused. “Magic, huh? I guess I see why you’d go to Kiel. Did you try the Magister?”

  Bethany looked at Owen with wide eyes. Owen just coughed, hiding his blush. “Um, we did, yes,” Bethany told her. “He . . . wasn’t a big help.”

  Charm shrugged. “Not surprising. I never liked him much. Everything was always so mystical and obnoxious. Half the time I thought he was hiding something.”

  Owen coughed again, harder this time, and Bethany shrugged. �
�You might be right.”

  “Nothing new about that,” Charm said matter-of-factly. She turned and gave Owen a careful look, her eye grid blinking. “So . . . listen. It sounds like you’ve been left in the lurch by Kiel. I have too. Since he disappeared, now everyone’s looking to me to unite these two stupid worlds, and right now, all I want to do is some nice, quiet ray-gunning of robots or something.” She stepped closer to Owen, staring even more intently at him. “You know, maybe I will come along with you two for a bit and take care of your problem. It’ll be fun to take down some magic-users. Been a while.”

  “YES!” Owen said, so loudly that both Bethany and Charm turned to stare. “I mean, that’d be really sweet of you,” he finished.

  “Sorry, we can’t accept your help,” Bethany said. “Kiel’s the only one who knows what’s happening here.”

  “You know why he’s hiding, don’t you,” Charm said quietly.

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You do know. Fine. I’m definitely coming with you now. And you’re going to take me to Kiel,” she gave Owen a long look, “when we’re done.”

  “If I knew where Kiel was, don’t you think I’d go get him right now?”

  “C’mon, let’s go, then,” Charm said, grabbing Owen’s hand and trudging off a few feet before stopping and pulling him back to Bethany. “Okay, I don’t actually know where your ship is. But I’m coming with you, and we’re going to take care of this magician, and then we’re going to have a long talk about where Kiel Gnomenfoot actually is.” She gave Owen a long, suspicious look.

  “I’d like that,” Owen said quietly.

  Charm sighed, deeply annoyed.

  “You want to come?” Bethany shouted in frustration, then grabbed both their hands. “I’m tired of arguing. If you’re coming, then you’re coming! And you can just deal with this !” And then she jumped all three of them out of the book and back into the library. “There you go. Happy now?!”

  “More than I can even say,” Owen said.

  CHAPTER 15

  Charm pushed Bethany away and opened up her completely human-looking arm, revealing circuitry beneath it. A small radar dish pushed up out of Charm’s forearm, and she glanced up in confusion as it twisted around. “Where is this place?” she said. “We’re nowhere in the known universe. Is this another dimension?”