“Is this a private party or can anyone join?” asked Gray.
I frowned, clenching my fist in anger. “What are you doing here, Gray?”
“That’s all I get – ‘Gray’?” he asked, walking into the room in his trademark gray suit. He stopped at the foot of my bed. “No ‘Mister’? Youth today really have no respect.”
I repeated my question. “What are you doing here?”
“I just came to check up on you. After all, you know how interested I am in your welfare.”
“All I know is that you sent that maniac Schaefer to the Academy with an agenda to kill us all.”
“Mr. Schaefer was attached to a humanitarian mission that went to the Academy to help battle the outbreak of a deadly pathogen.”
“No, he went there to spread that pathogen, because he hated supers. I heard him admit as much. He said they killed his family.”
Gray hesitated a moment. “When he was young, Schaefer was with his family on a boat that capsized. He spent six hours in the water and was being circled by sharks when a super rescued him. They never found his parents, and over time he came to blame supers for not saving them. However, that’s a long way from wanting to kill them all.”
Gray’s statement explained a lot about Schaefer, but not enough to excuse his actions.
“Look, you can’t sugarcoat this,” I said. “Schaefer went to the Academy to deliberately infect students, and he was happy to kill people in the process, including my friend Adam.”
“It’s my understanding that your friend Adam Atom went crazy. He killed another student, then broke out of his nullifier containment unit and destroyed a bunch of school property – including the vortex gate – before blowing himself up. He was a maniac and a menace.”
“Uh-uh,” I said, shaking my head. “Schaefer used the virus to amp up Adam’s power. As far as I’m concerned, what he did to Adam was the same as cutting the brake line in someone’s car so that they have an accident that kills somebody. Adam didn’t kill that student; Schaefer did.
“As to breaking out of that cell he was in, someone turned the nullifier off. Adam blew the locks on his cell door and left because he could feel himself losing control. He was about to go nuclear and he knew it, so he was trying to get as far from the Academy as possible. He saved everyone in that school. He’s a hero.”
“And how do you know all this?”
“Because I looked into his mind at the end and he told me. He also didn’t blow up the vortex gate. That was Schaefer, too.”
“My, my, you seem to blame a lot on Mr. Schaefer.”
“I blame him a lot because he did a lot. He killed Adam on a whim, not because Adam had ever done anything to him, but because he was my friend. That’s your lapdog Schaefer. So believe me when I say that he’s dead, I’m glad he’s dead, and I’m happier that he’s dead because of me!”
That last wasn’t exactly true, but I didn’t mind taking credit for it. However, Mouse, Electra, and Smokey all went bug-eyed at the statement.
Gray just clucked his tongue and came around to my bedside, smiling. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. He slapped one cuff on my wrist and the other to one of the side rails of my hospital bed.
“What’s that about?” asked Mouse.
“Your friend here just admitted to killing a federal agent. I already had a warrant to take him into custody, but now I get to arrest him for murder. I need to make sure he stays put until the doctor says he can leave.” He turned and started to leave, whistling.
“Hey, Gray,” I said. He turned back towards me. I teleported the cuffs off my wrist and the handrail, then flung them at him telekinetically. He flinched a little as they hit him in the chest, but he caught them as they dropped.
“You won’t need the cuffs,” I said. “I’ll be where you can find me.”
He frowned a little at that, then turned and left the room, closing the door behind him. Almost immediately Mouse turned to Electra and Smokey.
“Guys, can you give me and Jim a moment?” he asked.
Smokey and Electra nodded and left the room, whispering in hushed tones about what had transpired between me and Gray.
“Is there some special school where they teach you how to make any given situation worse?” Mouse asked when we were alone. “Because the flair you have for it goes far beyond any natural ability.”
“Sorry,” I said, “but that guy just rubs me the wrong way.”
“Is it true about Schaefer? Did you kill him?”
“Not exactly.” I explained what happened.
“Well,” Mouse said when I finished, “let’s make sure you tell it that way when you make your official statement – if it comes to that.” That last part made me feel that he had something in mind, but I asked another question instead.
“How’d I get back through the vortex?” I asked. “The last thing I remember is trying to get to it, but I know I didn’t make it.”
“Alpha Prime,” he said plainly. “That place started coming apart even faster than I predicted. We couldn’t wait for you on that side any longer, but we kept the vortex tunnel open, hoping you’d come through. We were getting ready to shut it down - it would have sucked the entire Earth through - when Alpha Prime came bursting in.”
“I guess it can’t be an amazing rescue unless the world’s greatest superhero is involved,” I said with derision.
“No, that’s not it at all. Once he heard you were on the other side, we couldn’t stop him. I even told him not to go, that he’d probably be killed if he did.”
I sat up. “What? I didn’t think anything could kill Alpha Prime.”
“I didn’t know if it could or couldn’t, but you have to understand something. From what you told me, it sounded like Estrella was going through the life cycle of a star in record time. Red giant, white dwarf…”
Red giant!
He trailed off in confusion as I started laughing, so I had to tell him about Estrella literally becoming a red giant.
“Interesting,” he said. “That’s exactly what happens to a star – it becomes massively huge and red. Hence the name red giant. But at the time I arrived, I think she was in the white dwarf stage of the life cycle…”
As Mouse explained it, the gravity of a white dwarf is about 100,000 times that of Earth. After that, the star explodes, going supernova.
“And at some juncture after that,” Mouse said, “a black hole forms, with gravity so strong that not even light can escape.”
“And if we’d been stuck on the other side,” I said, “we would have had to go through all that.”
“Now you see why I say he might not have survived. In all honesty, I didn’t think he’d even be able to escape the gravitational pull of the white dwarf, and I told him as much.”
“But he came anyway.” I suddenly had a newfound respect for my father.
“As I said, once he heard you were still over there, there was no stopping him. And somehow – against all odds – he found you and brought you back. He saved your life.”
At that point, a nurse came and announced that visiting hours were over. Everyone came around once more to say their goodbyes, and then I was alone with my thoughts.
Chapter 41
I slept fitfully that night, awakening a few times with the temptation to just teleport home. If I left without a green light from the doctors, though, Mom would worry, and she’d had enough on her mind lately.
When I woke up the next morning, I felt almost like my old self – despite a restless night. Electra came by shortly after I finished breakfast. We chatted amiably for a while, holding hands, but I could sense a tension building up in her, a need for something. Finally, she asked her question.
“When you got back,” she said, “from being with Adam, I mean, why didn’t you come see me?”
“You mean to let you know I was alive?” I asked.
“No,” she said, shaking her head, “I knew you were alive. I could sense your b
ioelectric field – at least once you were back at the school.”
I was a little surprised. “I didn’t know you could extend it that far. I always had the impression that the person had to be in close proximity to you - something like the same room.”
“Doesn’t have to be that close. Still, I never tried reaching out that far before, but I needed to know. Anyway, maybe I just pushed myself or maybe it was the virus, but I knew when you were back on campus. But you didn’t come see me.”
I explained Li’s theory about how seeing me might trigger the virus, so I had kept my distance. She nodded, seeming to understand.
“Plus,” I added, “you were under quarantine.”
She laughed, giving me a playful punch. “You know what the worst part of quarantine was?”
“Missing me?”
“The food!” she exclaimed, ignoring me. “They issued us seven days’ worth of meals-ready-to-eat!”
“MREs?”
“Yes, and they were awful! I’d rather eat a pot full of dirt. Too bad your friend Li didn’t have a theory on how to get us some real food, but at least we didn’t have to eat the entire week’s supply of them.”
The mention of Li put me in mind of my other friends, so I asked about Kane and Gossamer.
“Oh, no one told you,” Electra said. “They’re here. They even checked in on you a few times.”
With a little bit of coaxing, one of the nurses told us what rooms Kane and Gossamer were in. Both were in the same wing, one floor up.
We took the stairs and tried Kane’s room first. It was empty. We decided to try Gossamer’s next, but long before we reached her door we heard arguing drifting out from the room. I grinned, suddenly having a very good notion of where Kane was.
Sure enough, he was in Gossamer’s room. She had her bed in an upright position and he was sitting on the edge of it, next to her. Gossamer had an impressive amount of gauze wrapped around her head, all intended to keep a bandage in place over her right eye. Kane had bandages wrapped around his wrists. (It turned out that Estrella had given him third-degree burns.) The two of them were currently engaged in heated debate, but that stopped abruptly when I knocked.
“Hey,” Gossamer said, “I heard you were up.”
I went inside and gave her a hug, then gently shook Kane’s hand before taking a seat in a nearby chair. I started to introduce Electra, who stood next to my chair, but the three of them already knew each other.
“How’s the eye?” I asked Gossamer.
“Pretty much blind at the moment,” she said, in better spirits than I would have imagined. “Hopefully it won’t stay that way.”
“I feel so bad,” Electra said. “The things you guys had to do to save the rest of us.”
Kane gave her a mockingly smug grin. “All in a day’s work, my dear.”
We chatted about everything that had happened for another half hour, at which point Electra and I made to leave. As we were walking out, I heard Gossamer and Kane go right back to arguing about apparently the same subject they were discussing when we arrived.
I turned back to them. “Hey, Kane. Why don’t you just kiss her?”
“W-What?” Kane sputtered, almost in shock. “Kiss her? I’d rather kiss a dead–”
His words were cut off when Gossamer, taking the initiative, grabbed him by his shirt and pulled his lips to hers. I couldn’t help but notice that, despite the protest he was just making, he didn’t pull away. Electra and I closed the door behind us as we left.
*****
Walking back to my hospital room, I couldn’t help smiling again as I thought of Gossamer and Kane finally being a couple. Theirs had been an odd courtship, but who was I to talk? My first date with Electra had ended up with her blasting me with a bolt of electricity.
As we got closer to the room, I could hear voices raised in argument. Unlike the banter between Gossamer and Kane, however, there was real anger behind the words being spoken.
The door to my room was partly open. Electra and I crept up and peeked through the crack where the hinges of the door were located, her bending down below me.
Gray and some of the MIBs were in the room, as were Mouse, Mom, and Gramps.
“-ibly be real,” Gray said, looking at some papers in his hand. “You manufactured this.”
“Oh, it’s real,” said Mouse. “Prince J’h’dgo is a member of the royal house – the royal family, in fact – and is therefore entitled to everything written in that charter.”
“Who the heck is Prince Jargo?” Electra whispered, mangling the name.
I gulped. “I think it’s me.” I felt more than saw Electra’s face swivel up towards me. I’d heard the pronunciation of my name in my alien grandmother’s language even less often than I’d heard my full name in English. And as for being a prince, I guess it was something I always knew was technically true, but I’d never lived any kind of regal lifestyle. To have the title suddenly applied to me seemed surreal.
“In short,” Mouse said, “he’s a prince, a dignitary and a diplomat, and that charter gives him full immunity. Moreover, it’s retroactive, covering anything he’s done in the past. You can’t touch him.”
Gray grunted angrily and headed towards the door. Electra and I hugged the wall as he stormed out and down the hallway, followed by his subordinates. We then slipped into the room.
Mom, grinning widely, came over and gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“I don’t think we’ll be having any more issues with Gray,” Gramps said. “At least not officially.”
“Why’s that?” I asked. “What happened?”
“Gray seems to have forgotten that when your grandmother came to this planet, it was as the envoy and emissary of a foreign government,” Mouse said. “She was granted full diplomatic status – as was her family – including diplomatic immunity.”
“And the diplomatic charter was never rescinded,” Gramps added. “It was inactive for a while, but never revoked. So we just filed the paperwork establishing the installation of a new ambassador, and that reactivated the charter.”
“So,” I said, working it all out in my mind, “I have diplomatic immunity?”
“Yes!” said Mom excitedly, almost clapping her hands. “They can’t arrest you for any crime you committed!”
“Can we say, ‘Allegedly committed’?” I asked. “But still, that’s pretty cool!”
Mouse got the attention of Mom and Gramps to discuss something else, and Electra took the opportunity to have a whispered conversation with me.
“So,” she said in a low voice, “I’m the girlfriend of a prince?”
“Oh,” I replied in mock indignation, “now that I’m a prince, you’re my girlfriend? Well, no thank you; I see no need to settle or start dating down.”
She gave me a playful punch on the arm, then spent a few seconds tickling me.
“By the way, who’s the new ambassador?” I asked no one in particular after Electra stopped her playful assault on me.
The silence in the room was deafening as all three adults turned to look at me.
Oh no…
Chapter 42
I was dismissed from the hospital the next morning. After letting Mom fuss over me for an hour or so after arriving home, I decided it was time to start getting the answers to some questions I’d been curious about. With that in mind, I called Mouse and asked when would be a good time for me to drop by his lab. He said any time, and I was standing next to him before he could put the phone down.
“How’d I know that was going to happen the second I said those words?” Mouse asked. He was sitting at a worktable, looking at some schematics.
I just smiled, glancing around the lab. There were banks of sophisticated computers and machinery along one wall. A set of bookshelves hid the entrance to a secret chamber. At least a dozen flat screen monitors placed strategically around the lab constantly displayed a steady stream of information. It was just like the last time I’d been here.
“For starters, how is it all the students managed to be okay?” I asked. “Even without the control module Schaefer had, my friend Li said that the virus would unravel their DNA in just a couple of days.”
“We were able to develop a vaccine. We gave it to them once they all came through. In fact, we’re giving it to every meta on the planet.”
“A vaccine? How’d you develop a vaccine? How’d you even know about the virus in the first place?”
“With this,” Mouse said. He opened up a drawer at his worktable and took out a cylindrical item, which he laid in front of him. It was a syringe.
“What’s that? I mean, I know it’s a syringe, but what’s the significance of it?”
“Well, I’m just sitting here minding my own business one day, when all of a sudden this thing pops up next to me. I’m curious, so I go test the liquid inside and find that it’s actually got some of your blood in it. Infected blood.”
Unexpectedly, I had a flashback of Dr. Prasad telling me how they tried to inject me with something and that I teleported the syringe. I also remember the weird dream I had with the mouse and the snake. Somehow, I had managed to teleport something across dimensions! The thought of it was almost enough to completely freak me out.
“Wait,” I said. “How’d you know it was my blood?”
“I didn’t initially, but I had enough clues. There was the fact that it had obviously been teleported here - and teleporters are rare - the strange anomalies in the blood, and a couple of other things. I was sure, but I called BT for confirmation, which she provided.”
That made sense. BT was the closest thing to a medical professional I had ever let come near me – before recently, that is – and she would know my blood at a glance.
“Don’t be mad at BT,” Mouse said. “I know you might feel she betrayed your trust in confirming your blood, but she did what she thought was in your best interest.”
I shook my head. “I’m not mad; it was the right call. She saved a lot of lives.”
“I’m glad you see it that way.”
The Kid Sensation Series Box Set Page 37