Noah ran up to us, holding a ball of fire in his hands. His jaw dropped when he saw me.
‘Bro, we thought you were the Reaper!’ he said. ‘Wait, I hit you with everything I had. It should’ve killed you.’
‘Don’t tell them about me!’ Nix said in my head.
‘Right,’ I said to Noah, ‘maybe next time wait to see who you’re fighting before going for the kill shot.’
Penny’s glow disappeared as she fell to her knees, hugging me tightly. Her eyes were swollen and red. ‘But you’re okay! After you disappeared, I wanted to get help from Headmaster Archer, but this fool wouldn’t let me!’ she said, pointing at Noah.
‘Because we can’t mess up this timeline!’ Noah said like he was in charge. ‘Small changes mean big consequences! After the Abandoned Children attack and our old selves go back in time, we can do whatever we want, but until then, we have to stay hidden.’
‘Who died and made you boss?’ I joked.
‘You did,’ Noah said. ‘At least we thought you did.’
Penny sniffled but nodded with a smile.
That’s why her eyes were so swollen.
She’d been crying all day.
‘Awww!’ I said to her.
‘Shut up,’ she said, pinching her fingers together.
Donnie plopped down next to me. ‘We figured you died or got taken over by the Reaper.’
They had no idea how close to the truth they were.
‘Where’ve you been?’ Penny asked.
‘Portland,’ I said honestly.
They stared blankly at me.
‘Sooo, after I dropped you,’ Noah said, ‘you landed in Portland?’
‘Nooo,’ I said. ‘I landed on the moon.’
‘Riiight,’ Penny said, putting her hand on mine. ‘And are you on the moon right now? If you are, it’s time to come back to Earth, okay, buddy?’
‘I’m not crazy!’ I said.
‘I never said that,’ Penny said in that tone of voice people use when they talk to someone they think is crazy.
‘Can I just tell them?’ I asked Nix. ‘… But they’re my friends. It’ll be fine … No, seriously, it’ll be okay. They’re not gonna hurt you … Whatever, yes, the log thing hurt, but they’re not gonna do that again!’
‘You’re losing your grip, dude,’ Noah said.
‘I’m fine!’ I said to Noah, and then went back to Nix. ‘So you’re cool with it? … Good … Yes, I promise! Just introduce yourself.’
‘Dude, what …?’ Penny said, suspicious.
I held my hands up, surrendering. ‘You guys, don’t freak out, but …’
Nix unsuctioned himself off my head with a gross SPLORTCH!, and then became visible again.
Donnie freaked, punching me in the nose.
‘Augh! Come on, man!’ I said, stars swirling around my head.
‘You’re the Reaper!’ he said.
Penny’s skin radiated energy as she stumbled backwards. Noah flinched as fire blazed up his arm. He pointed his fists at me.
Noah’s chest heaved as the flames died down. ‘He got you!’
‘No!’ I said. ‘I mean, kind of, but I let him! He’s not the bad guy we thought he was!’
‘Yeah, I’m not the bad guy!’ Nix said.
‘He’s making you say that!’ Penny said. Her arms beaded with tiny drops of energy that fell, fizzling out in midair. ‘That’s what he does! He latches on and takes control!’
‘But that’s not what’s happening!’ I said. ‘We’re working together!’
‘Obviously you’d think that!’ Noah said. ‘Because that’s what he’s making you think! You’re under his control!’
But … I wasn’t.
Was I?
‘Everybody be cool,’ Nix said, trying to calm everyone down.
Donnie punched me in the face again.
‘That’s not helping anything!’ I said, clutching my poor nose.
Just then, thunder cracked in the sky. The wind went from zero to sixty almost instantly. Dead leaves and pine needles ripped through the forest towards the school. Trees weren’t getting blown around; they were getting sucked up.
The earth shook as we ran.
When we got to the edge of the forest, nobody said a word.
We didn’t have to.
We all knew what was going on.
It was the Abandoned Children.
And their attack on Kepler Academy had begun.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The five of us watched William tear apart the front of the academy using his vortex of doom. He controlled it perfectly, twisting and bending it, waving his arms like he was the maestro of a hard-core orchestra.
Delilah and Matthew stood back, letting William do his thing. I could even see Victoria behind all of them now that I was outside.
Penny’s arms glowed brightly as tiny beads of energy formed on her skin. It was definitely one way of wearing her emotions on her sleeve.
She flinched when I took her hand. She inhaled deeply and then smiled at me. ‘Sorry,’ she said.
I don’t know if she noticed her glow disappear when she smiled, but I sure did.
‘Here’s the plan,’ Noah said. ‘We don’t move a muscle until our past selves are gone, then we surprise-attack William and his buddies from behind.’
‘But the lizard-dude won’t be with them,’ I said. ‘Remember? He chased us into the lab.’
‘You guys got a lab?’ Nix said out loud from the top of my noggin. ‘What do you need a lab for?’
‘Dude, shut him up,’ Noah said, upset.
‘It doesn’t work like that,’ I said.
Nix made a face and plopped himself back on my head, turning invisible again.
‘I hate the idea of doing nothing while they attack,’ Penny said.
‘But we can’t interfere,’ Noah said. ‘That could mess up what’s supposed to happen.’
‘So we don’t go to the lobby,’ Penny said. ‘We can do other things, like get ready to fight instead of waiting to fight.’
Noah looked at Penny. ‘Are you even gonna do anything? You don’t have your powers anymore.’
‘I still have them,’ Penny snipped. ‘I’m just not using them. But you don’t need powers to punch someone in the face.’
‘Wait,’ I said, feeling the juices in my brain bubble up an idea. Noah’s comment about not having powers … ‘You guys! We need the Power Dampener!’
‘My dad’s crossbow?’ Donnie said. ‘But that’s back in 1963. I guess I could go get it and—’
‘NO!’ Noah said. ‘No more time travel!’
‘We don’t need to time-travel for it!’ I said. ‘I bet it’s still somewhere in the school! There’s no way he would’ve thrown something like that away.’
‘If it’s here then why haven’t we seen it in the past two years?’ Noah asked. ‘Why didn’t someone use it on Abigail? Or Angel?’
‘I don’t know,’ I said, ‘but you saw Duncan’s lab last year – it was a hot mess. This school doesn’t do a great job of keeping things like that organised. And if anyone would know where it is, it’d be Duncan. We gotta find him.’
‘Who’s Duncan?’ Donnie asked.
‘He’s a ghost teacher,’ Penny said. ‘Ben killed him last year.’
‘He was already dead!’ I said.
‘Cooool,’ Donnie said.
The five of us looked down at the lobby from the edge of the forest. William was just wrapping things up, closing his fists and making his tornado thing disappear. He and the other Abandoned Children made their way inside the broken lobby, leaving Victoria out front to keep watch.
Duncan was hiding in the coffee shop with our past selves. We needed to get down there and get his attention.
Noah took the lead as we followed, keeping low to the ground. When we got to the side of the building, we hid behind some rubble. I peeked over the edge to watch what I’d seen earlier that day.
Headmaster Archer was in the lobby, con
fronting William and his goons.
Archer said nothing.
‘Really? The silent treatment is gonna get you nowhere.’
We crawled along the edge of the school and ducked under one of the shattered windows on the side of the building.
The back of the coffee shop was in perfect view. I saw myself and my friends hiding behind the counter with Totes and Dexter. Duncan was floating beside them.
‘How do we get his attention?’ Penny asked.
‘We could throw some rocks at him,’ I said, already chucking a handful of pebbles through the window.
Noah grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. ‘Are you an idiot? Throwing rocks is gonna get everybody’s attention! We only want Duncan’s.’
Noah was right.
I needed to think before acting.
We looked inside, hoping I didn’t mess things up.
The other Ben was cupping his hands over his face. Everyone else was looking up, afraid the building was about to crumble apart. Then I remembered getting pelted by pebbles earlier and how much it hurt.
I did it to myself.
Maybe I am an idiot.
All I needed to do was get Duncan to look at us one time. If he saw two versions of us, then he’d connect the dots and come over.
But he just wasn’t looking. He was too concerned with what was going on in the lobby.
I had to do something fast because we were running out of time. In just a few seconds, Dexter was gonna wake up and start freaking out. All heck was about to break loose.
I stood up straight, trying to get into Duncan’s line of sight, but hoping Victoria and the Abandoned Children couldn’t see me, and then I started waving my arms in the air.
Duncan was in the middle of giving our past selves instructions about sneaking down to the lab. He was totally oblivious to me.
So Noah, Penny and Donnie joined in with the waving, and finally Duncan turned slightly, like something had caught his eye.
It worked.
He said one last thing to our past selves and then flew into the floor, disappearing. The past version of Penny in the coffee shop started panicking, taking quick breaths and squeezing her hands with her fingers.
Duncan reappeared in front of us with a scalding look on his face. Then he sighed. ‘I’d ask how this is possible, but I see that Donnie is with you. If this were any other circumstance, I’d be upset, but … I’m just glad to know you’ll make it out of that coffee shop alive.’
‘Oh, okay,’ Penny said. ‘I get why you left us back there now.’
We took off around the building until we were completely out of sight of the lobby, and without any time to explain, I just dived right in. ‘We need Richard Kepler’s Power Dampener! Do you know where it is?’
‘The what?’ Duncan said.
‘It’s like a weird-looking crossbow that shoots a glowing net,’ Penny said.
‘My dad made it,’ Donnie said proudly.
‘What’s it do?’ Duncan asked.
‘The net takes away someone’s power,’ I said.
‘Yep, that’d be pretty nice to have right about now,’ Duncan said as he flew down the side of the school. ‘I’ve never seen anything like that, but follow me!’
I groaned, trying to keep up with the fast-flying ghost as Penny, Noah and Donnie trailed behind us.
Duncan went on as we rushed through the backyard of Kepler Academy. ‘That doesn’t mean it’s not here somewhere,’ he said, hopeful. ‘If I’ve got it, then it would be in storage.’
‘In the lab?’ I said.
‘No,’ Duncan said. ‘It would’ve been on the rooftop shed with all my other stuff.’
‘But the shed’s not on the roof anymore,’ I said.
‘Right,’ Duncan said, slowing as we approached a small wooden building pushed up against the back of the school. ‘But everything from that shed’s been moved into this shed.’
We shielded our eyes as Noah blasted the doors open with a fiery explosion.
Duncan sighed. ‘The doors weren’t locked, buddy.’
‘Oh, sorry,’ Noah said, embarrassed. ‘It’s just, we’re in a hurry, and uh …’
‘Yeah, I get it,’ Duncan said.
We tore through every box in that shed, leaving nothing untouched, but the Power Dampener wasn’t there.
It was gone.
‘I’m not surprised,’ Duncan said. ‘I don’t think there’s anything here from the first year. Everything’s been tossed out or replaced.’
The building trembled again as another explosion came from the front of the school.
William and his goons had started their second attack.
And we still didn’t know what to do.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The past versions of me, Penny and Noah were getting chased by Matthew through the school. In just a few minutes, they’d escape to the past, and we’d be caught up with the timeline.
Richard’s bomb-diggity Power Dampener would’ve been supes helpful – actually, it would’ve completely saved the day – but we didn’t have it.
I looked at Penny as the sounds of battle shook the school. This was the real deal. We could get hurt out there. We could even die. And I couldn’t let that happen to her.
I mean, her and Noah.
Obviously, I didn’t want Noah to die, either, but Penny’s Penny. She’s … you know what I mean.
Luckily, we had something better than the Power Dampener.
We had me.
Nix gave me powers. Big powers. Superstrength and superspeed. I just needed to fly in fast, bust some heads, tie ’em up, and the day would be saved, right?
My friends wouldn’t get hurt.
William, Delilah and Matthew would be caught. Heck, I bet they’d even fess up and tell us where the rest of the Abandoned Children were! It was such a simple solution that I couldn’t believe I was even questioning it.
I needed to be a lone wolf.
I took a deep breath and floated off the ground.
Duncan’s jaw dropped.
‘Ben, wait!’ Noah said. ‘We need a plan!’
‘There’s no time for plans,’ I said, feeling Nix’s power flow through my body.
‘Yesss!’ Nix said in my head. ‘It’s showtime!’
‘You guys need to take cover in the forest,’ I said to my friends. ‘Keep Donnie hidden, and don’t come out until it’s safe!’
Noah and Duncan tried to stop me, but their words faded as I flew into the school.
I headed to the secret tunnel under the academy. At that point in the battle, Matthew was for sure trying to break into the lab.
I zigged and zagged through the halls and swooped down flights of stairs until I was finally staring at the lab at the other end of the tunnel.
It was only seconds after our past selves had escaped.
Matthew tore through the laboratory, trying to find the kids who were just in there. His grunts echoed down the empty hall.
‘This is it,’ Nix said. ‘Don’t get scared. Don’t freeze up. You got this.’
‘I got this,’ I said, and then I shouted, ‘Hey, you, dragon-butt!’
From six metres away, the lizard peered out the door at me. He snapped his jaw, snarling as he crawled out on all fours, cautiously, keeping his eyes glued to mine. He was slowly closing the gap between us.
My heart raced like crazy.
Matthew continued to stare me down. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking, but it was probably something along the lines of ‘Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill …’
I needed to say something.
Superheroes always say cool things before a battle.
Something smart. Clever. Quippy.
‘Yum, yum, gimme some!’ I shouted, then cringed at myself. ‘Great, thanks a lot, Totes.’
Matthew shot forward at lightning speed. He was so fast that I didn’t even have time to think. I acted on instinct, bringing my hands up to protect my face.
Good thing, too, because he
was trying to bite it off.
‘You have superstrength, but you’re not invincible!’ Nix reminded me.
In other words – I couldn’t mess around.
I struggled under the lizard, imagining Nix’s camouflaged tentacles wrapping around the monster.
The lizard panicked as all eight invisible, wormy limbs slithered over his green scaly skin. He tried to fight back, but he was no match. Within seconds, I had him wrapped up like a McDonald’s breakfast burrito.
I won!
My first battle was a success.
Not that I had any doubts, but y’know …
With Matthew as my prisoner, I flew back to the front of the school, where the bigger battle was still raging.
Archer and Totes were defending themselves inside the school as William and Delilah pressed forward.
William was a pro with his power, opening and closing perfectly placed vortexes to hurl large chunks of broken concrete exactly where he wanted them to go.
Bolts of electricity streamed from Delilah’s fingertips like she was the Emperor from Star Wars.
Surprisingly, Vic and Dexter weren’t in the fight. They were hiding behind the rubble.
Archer was on the defensive, doing everything he could to keep himself and Totes from getting crushed or electrocuted, but they were backed into a corner. They were about to lose.
Ben Braver to the rescue.
I hovered over the battle, dangling the lizard down in front of everyone with Nix’s invisible tentacles.
The look on Vic’s face was priceless. It looked like we had the same power of levitation since Matthew was basically floating under me.
The chaos screeched to a halt when William used a vortex to seal Archer and Totes in the corner with a chunk of broken concrete.
I hoped they were okay.
‘Wait, wait, wait!’ William shouted, making a T shape with his hands. ‘Time-out!’
All eyes were on me when I landed in the middle of the lobby.
‘Well, look at you! Ben Braver, in the flesh!’ William said, applauding. He glanced back at Delilah like she should clap, too, but she didn’t.
William knew me?
Ben Braver and the Vortex of Doom Page 9