Secret Origins

by James Riley

  “Do you think he’s okay?” she asked quietly, not looking at the others.

  “Nothing in that machine could have hurt him,” Charm said, then paused. “Unless it somehow aged him into dust, I guess. That might have hurt—”

  “So you’re saying he’s fine, then,” Gwen interrupted. She put a hand on Bethany’s shoulder as Bethany’s eyes widened in horror. “How do we get him back?”

  “Right now?” Charm said. “We don’t. I’d need a lot more time to find him. Ironically.”

  “Just do it,” Bethany said, taking slow, deep breaths to calm herself down. “We’re not leaving until he’s safe. I don’t care how long it takes.”

  “What about your father?” Gwen asked her quietly. “There has to be a way we can save both of them.”

  Bethany shook her head. “It doesn’t matter how it happened, or whose fault it was. Owen’s only lost now because he was trying to help me. We’re staying here, all of us, until Charm finds him.”

  That’s a bad idea, Bethany thought. You should go find your father right now.

  What? And leave Owen trapped wherever he is? That’s crazy! What if they did find her father, but Charm couldn’t locate Owen after too much time had passed? Or what if Owen was in danger, wherever he was? They couldn’t just leave him there.

  Owen’s fine, she thought. Trust me, he’s okay. Just go, get out of there. It’s too dangerous to stay!

  Where was this coming from? Why was she thinking such terrible things? She almost wanted to slap herself. Was she really that self-absorbed that she’d leave her best friend behind because she herself might be in danger? And how would she know if Owen was fine or not?

  “I just don’t get why he doesn’t use his magic,” Charm said, fiddling with a different machine, this one with a multitude of clocks all over it. “Can we all just admit who he is? He’s got the same heart, and I know it hasn’t left his body. Why do we have to go through with this whole charade that he’s not really Kiel?”

  Bethany groaned as a headache threatened to rip her brain apart. Couldn’t Charm just look for Owen without asking questions Bethany couldn’t answer? Couldn’t Owen have skipped all this dumb superpower stuff?

  Couldn’t her father have just told her he was alive and living in the same city?

  “Are you okay?” Gwen asked her quietly. “I’ve seen that expression before. My friend Jayna has it whenever she’s about to set another robot loose on our hometown.”

  “Right, I forgot, EarthGirl’s worst enemy is your best friend,” Bethany said quietly, opening her eyes to look at Gwen. “That must be fun, huh?”

  “That made it into the history books?” Gwen said, her eyebrows shooting up. “Wow. I’m shocked you know anything about me at all, honestly!”

  “Owen’s gone, Gwen. And I keep doing this to him. Well, half the time it’s his fault, but still. He doesn’t have any powers—”

  “He’s fine,” Gwen said, looking Bethany straight in the face. “Charm’s not exactly one to be polite, and she said he’s okay.”

  “Okay or a pile of dust!”

  “Ignore that part,” Gwen said, smiling slightly. “He’s lost in time, but we’ll find him. Or he’ll find us. That’s how it works, I’ve noticed. Whenever you really need someone, they’ll be there.”

  “He does tend to come through in the end,” Bethany said, frowning. “But it doesn’t matter, I won’t leave him. Not until I know.”

  ARGH, stop being so nice! she thought. Just leave Owen behind—he deserves it!

  Bethany’s eyes shot open in shock and horror, and she clamped her hands over her mouth, not sure if she’d just said that out loud. Who even thought that kind of thing?! What was wrong with her?

  Something whizzed by Bethany’s head, and she ducked, already too late. Gwen grabbed it, though, her reflexes still almost inhumanly quick. “Um, is this yours, Charm?” she said, holding out what looked like a computer chip.

  “No, it’s garbage,” Charm said, throwing another machine piece across the room. “No wonder this didn’t work right. These machines don’t even have quantum processors! This is going to take me hours to build anything that will find him. You sure you don’t want to just leave him there to suffer for a bit as punishment?”

  Yes, I am sure, Bethany said in her mind, almost daring her rogue brain to disagree. She paused, waiting for one of those awful, horrible thoughts to say something, but nothing came.

  “Yes, I’m—”

  NO, Bethany! the thought exploded in her head. You’re going to get captured by the Dark and never find your father. You have to leave right now! I’ve seen it happen. Stop being so nice. This isn’t like you!

  And that’s when she realized it wasn’t her voice in her head, thinking such horrible things.

  “Owen?” she whispered.

  CHAPTER 25

  Owen banged on the panels over and over with his fists, trying to break them open, push his way through, anything. “Let me back in!” he shouted, his hands getting more and more bruised with every hit. Finally he slumped against the glasslike wall of the panel, then slid down it to the ground.

  This wasn’t working. Nothing was working, and his friends were going to get taken over by shadows if he didn’t save them.

  Had he at least made a dent in the panel? Maybe that would be something? Owen slowly pushed away from the wall, then looked closely at it. Nope. Still just as perfectly prisonlike as it had been before he’d started beating on it.

  “Nobody, please, I need your help!” he shouted, hoping someone was listening, or at least Nobody. “I know you don’t like us messing around in books, and you were probably telling me not to write earlier, if that was you in my story. And you were right, I shouldn’t have been doing that, and I shouldn’t be here. I’m sorry. I messed up. Please help us?”

  Owen waited, hoping that the faceless man would show up with a vaguely snarky reply, but nothing happened. Finally, he pushed himself to his feet, having no idea what else he could do.

  “What’s the point of this place if I can’t get back in?” he said, kicking the stupid panel in front of him, then immediately regretting it as his toes exploded in pain. He fell forward against the panel, gritting his teeth to shut out the agony, when he realized something was odd.

  He’d come back to the point where Bethany, Charm, and Gwen were talking about trying to find him, wherever he was. He had to get back and warn them to leave, before the shadows arrived in a few hours. But nothing had worked.

  Except now, one of Bethany’s word balloons was . . . different.

  Before, she’d said something along the lines of Owen’s gone, Gwen. And I keep doing this to him. Well, half the time it’s his fault, but still.

  Now the word balloon said:

  The empty spaces were right in a row, like someone had wiped them away with an eraser.

  Uh, what had happened? Had she lost part of her mind and dropped out a few words? Owen looked closer, then realized the erased words were in a line right where he’d been leaning against the panel.

  Had he erased her words somehow?

  He slowly reached out a trembling finger to touch the last “still” in her word balloon. Then he wiped down, and the word disappeared.

  And just like that, the next panel completely changed. Gwen gave Bethany an odd look, and said, “I’m sorry, what?”

  Bethany herself looked confused. “I . . . I don’t know, I meant to say something, but it’s like I forgot half the words.”

  “No way,” Owen whispered, backing away. How could this be real? He was changing what his friends were saying. That was crazy! This shouldn’t even be possible.

  . . . What else could he do?

  He backed up a few panels to one where Bethany was deciding to stay in the lab until they found him. Bethany and Gwen were talking quietly together as Charm was fiddling with the machine.

  “It doesn’t matter how it happened, or whose fault it was,” Bethany said. “Owen’s only lost n
ow because he was trying to help me. We’re staying here, all of us, until Charm finds him.”

  If he could erase things . . . could he write them too?

  Owen reached out above that Bethany’s head and used his finger to draw a little circle, right on the page. So he could draw on the panel! But would it affect things like his erasing Bethany’s word balloon had? He drew more circles leading up to a bigger one, just like the thought balloons he’d seen her thinking earlier.

  Taking a deep breath, Owen put his finger in the thought balloon he’d just drawn, and wrote:

  THAT’S A BAD IDEA. YOU SHOULD GO FIND YOUR FATHER RIGHT NOW.

  And just like that, the next panel changed. Now Bethany looked confused, and another thought balloon appeared above her head. What? And leave Owen trapped wherever he is? That’s crazy!

  Owen gasped, and stepped away from the wall, his finger shaking. He’d just put a thought into his friend’s head, in real life. Or in a comic book, but still, it was her real life!

  And all it’d taken was a small little doodle.

  But had it changed anything? He glanced over at the next page, but Bethany was still insisting that they stay and look for him. Ugh, why wasn’t she listening to her thoughts? He went to the next panel and drew another thought balloon.

  OWEN’S FINE. TRUST ME, HE’S OKAY. JUST GO, GET OUT OF THERE. IT’S TOO DANGEROUS TO STAY!

  And again up popped a thought balloon in response, about how she was a horrible person to be thinking these things.

  “You’re not a horrible person!” Owen shouted at the panel. “I’m trying to help you, you jerk!”

  A small part of him realized how odd this was, writing thoughts into Bethany’s head. Could he change her mind about things? Could he write what she said out loud, too? Was any of this even okay to be doing?

  He shook his head, not ready to think about all of that. Right now he just had to get them to safety. He could worry about what it all meant later.

  Back and forth he went with Bethany, using his finger-written thoughts to argue with her in her mind, while she kept insisting they stay. At one point he even told her to leave him behind because he deserved it, which he did. This was his fault, after all. But that got him the worst reaction of all. She was practically ready to slap herself over even thinking Owen’s thought.

  This did not feel right.

  “You sure you don’t want to just leave him there to suffer for a bit as punishment?” Charm asked her, ready to doom them all by searching for Owen, and pretty rude to boot.

  Yes, I am sure, Bethany thought to herself, as if daring her brain to argue.

  That was it. No more making her think these were her thoughts.

  NO, BETHANY! YOU’RE GOING TO GET CAPTURED BY THE DARK AND NEVER FIND YOUR FATHER. YOU HAVE TO LEAVE RIGHT NOW! I’VE SEEN IT HAPPEN. STOP BEING SO NICE. THIS ISN’T LIKE YOU!

  And finally, finally, Bethany spun around, ironically turning her back to him, and whispered, “Owen?” out loud.

  “YES!” he shouted, stepping away from the panel. “Thank you!” He let out a huge sigh, then moved back closer to the panel.

  YES, IT’S ME, he wrote in a new thought balloon. I’M FINE, BUT YOU’RE NOT. I’VE SEEN WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU. IF YOU STAY, THE DARK WILL FIND YOU, AND HE DEFEATS YOU! GET OUT OF THERE AND GO FIND YOUR FATHER. I’LL HELP YOU WHEREVER I CAN, SO STOP ARGUING WITH YOURSELF AND LISTEN TO YOUR THOUGHTS!

  “Owen?” Bethany said again, now looking off to Owen’s left, while Charm and Gwen gave her confused looks. “I can hear him. I think he’s talking to me in my head, like he’s some kind of telepathic ghost!”

  Owen rolled his eyes, then wrote REALLY? TELEPATHIC GHOST? JUST GO, ALREADY!

  And then, weirdly, she did. She actually listened! They had a few more thought messages back and forth, then he almost crashed to the ground in relief. They were leaving! And that meant that the next issue would change. Wouldn’t it?

  He looked forward a few pages and found his friends outside Apathetic Industries, and not a shadow in sight. Just to make sure, Owen quickly walked back over to the issue’s cover and looked up.

  The cover had changed. And it was still disturbing, but for very different reasons.

  Instead of the Dark standing over his friends in triumph, the cover now showed a man in a much-too-shiny banana suit, saying “The Fruit of the Loons shall rise again!” as Charm fired her ray guns at him, with Bethany and Gwen trying to hold her back.

  . . . Huh.

  Apparently things were going to go off in a very new direction.

  CHAPTER 26

  All right, you two,” Bethany said, her hand on the door leading out of the laboratory. “And, you know, Owen.”

  THANKS, came the thought in her head.

  “This is it,” she said, looking first to Charm, who had her ray guns out, and then to Gwen, who had her goggles on and her jet pack ready . . . and nothing in the way of a weapon. That might not end well.

  SHE’LL BE FINE. SHE’S EARTHGIRL!

  EarthGirl with no powers.

  EARTHGIRL DOESN’T NEED POWERS. SHE’S AMAZING ALL ON HER OWN. PLUS, SHE HATES VIOLENCE.

  Bethany sighed, but he had a point. She took a deep breath, then started again. “We’re about to face a city full of shadow monsters, not to mention anyone who they’ve infected with their hate. It’s not going to be easy, and we still don’t know where the Dark even is, but if we all stick together, hopefully none of us die or anything, and—”

  Charm groaned. “Not that this isn’t inspiring, but can’t we just go?”

  “Let’s do this!” Gwen shouted, and clapped her hands in excitement.

  Bethany took one more breath, preparing herself for the shadowy onslaught, then threw open the door to the rest of Apathetic Industries.

  But there were no shadows, monsters, or supervillains. In fact, the sun was rising over the city outside, adding a beautiful pink light to everything.

  “The horror,” Charm said, pushing past Bethany and stepping outside, shading her eyes from the light. “Which of the terrors do you want to fight first?”

  Bethany glared at the back of her head, but Gwen just grinned. “See?” she said. “Things are already better than we thought. Now let’s go find this Mr. Dark.”

  “I think it’s just the Dark,” Bethany said, putting her hand up to block the rising sun. “The elevator’s right over there.” She turned and pointed, then realized her mistake.

  “Looks more like a hole,” Charm said, stepping over to the elevator shaft that the shadows had destroyed earlier. She clicked the down button a few times, then turned around. “Do we just jump, or . . .”

  Bethany sighed. “We’re going to have to take the stairs, I guess.” From the three hundred and fiftieth floor. Assuming there even were stairs.

  “No time,” Charm said, and shot a ray gun at the window nearby. The glass shattered and a chilly wind filled the atrium.

  “What are you doing?” Bethany shouted over the wind. “We’re thousands of feet in the air!”

  “Great time to test the jet pack, then!” Charm shouted back, pointing at Gwen.

  Gwen’s eyes lit up, and she clicked the jet pack on, rising a few feet in the air. “It’ll be fast,” she shouted.

  Bethany took a deep breath, then nodded. The stairs would take hours. At least this would get them down faster.

  Gwen grabbed both their hands and slowly walked them out toward the edge. “Have you flown before?” she yelled to Charm.

  The half-robotic girl snorted. “I’ve spent more hours in space than on a planet. I think I’ll be okay.”

  “Perfect!” Gwen shouted, and leaned forward, jamming on the jet pack’s throttle. Before Bethany could even take a breath, they tore out of the building and out over nothingness . . . then began falling.

  “AAH!” she shouted, desperately holding tightly to Gwen with both hands. “We’re going to hit that other building!”

  Though the jet pack didn’t s
eem to be holding them up, it was giving them enough forward momentum to crash them into the next skyscraper over. As they fell, she could make out the sight of various empty cubicles in what looked like an office.

  “Whoops,” Gwen said, and angled the jet pack away from the building, which righted them as they plummeted . . . then sent them back the way they came.

  “Too much!” Bethany yelled as Apathetic Industries came rushing back.

  “I thought you knew how to fly!” Charm shouted from the other side. “If I die here, I’m taking you with me!”

  “Sorry!” Gwen shouted, trying to correct their angles. They slowed their backward momentum, just barely sliding up against Apathetic Industries windows as they fell.

  “I thought you made this thing to carry more weight!” Bethany shouted at Charm, who spun around on Gwen’s arm to give Bethany a dirty look.

  “Don’t blame the machine. This is operator error!”

  “It’s going to be fine,” Gwen said, smiling down at them as the ground neared. “Just hold on tight!”

  She jammed on the throttle again, and Bethany almost slipped right out of Gwen’s hand as the jet pack kicked in, halting their momentum mere feet from the ground. Gwen eased off of it for a moment, and Bethany’s feet gently touched pavement. She quickly let go of Gwen and fell to her knees, trying to breathe.

  “I told you it wasn’t the machine,” Charm said next to her, looking like she might throw up.

  “That was so much fun,” Gwen said as she landed between them, her eyes wide with excitement. “It didn’t feel anything like it usually does when I fly. Want me to fly us around more?”

  “NO!” Bethany and Charm yelled at the same time.

  Gwen just smiled. “You two are getting along now. That’s wonderful!”

  “What were you so worried about?” Bethany muttered to Charm. “You’re half metal. You’d have been fine if you fell.”

  Charm paused, then nodded. “You’re right. I probably would have been.” Then she pushed Bethany over, knocking her to the ground. “See? Who cares if you fall, right?”

  Gwen immediately rushed to her side. “Are you okay?” she asked, giving her a worried look.