Upbeats

  Chapter Eleven

  System pulled the Game-Boy device out of nowhere and started pressing buttons. "You see, that’s really the same problem I’ve been having since I came here. Back when I was in my ship, I could pick up alien transmissions, track them and decipher them. But here on Earth, I haven’t the tools to do so."

  "But you do know that Gemini is up to something, right?" I asked.

  System nodded his little head. "Yes. Minutes before I crashed I got a signal that he was sending information to a cloaked ship in orbit. Problem being, I had an abrupt introduction to planet Earth before I could take it to pieces and discern what was happening."

  Silence fell. We were at a dead end and we hadn’t even begun yet!

  We’d have to start this whole thing without even knowing where we were at or if we’d make it out.

  Options flashed through my mind. What we could do, what we should do and what we would end up doing were entirely different matters. Could: anything that was plausible. Should: what was paramount. Would: what we ended up actually doing.

  "What should we do?" I asked after minutes of thinking it over in my own head.

  "We should stop Gemini," Ned answered.

  "We should find out what he’s doing," Smithy said, quietly.

  I considered both replies: both were important and needed to be done.

  "What could we do?" I put the question to them.

  Everyone frowned, deep in thought. As deep in their thoughts as they were when Ned asked if there was a fish with "bear" in the name or description.

  Brooke snapped her fingers. A brilliant idea had just struck her. "Gemini’s an alien, right? Well, he’s on Earth, so he has to blend in somehow. So he must be staying somewhere, like in an apartment or a house. I say we—"

  She was interrupted by a sudden country violin solo breaking the conversation.

  We all turned to Robyn, who went bright red. She fished out her cell phone from her pockets. "I better take this," she said as she flipped open the phone, checked the caller ID, pressed the answer button and put the phone to her ear.

  "Hi, Mom," she said, pulling her face in a look of apology. "Yeah, I’m fine . . . no, I’m near home . . . with some friends . . . no . . . yeah . . . no . . . uh huh . . . Downtown? . . . When did it start? . . . Yes, I promise . . . no . . . okay . . . bye."

  Robyn shut her phone and thrust it back in her pocket. "Guys; that was my Mom on the phone. She says there’s a fire Downtown by some cheaply built apartments: an entire building is in flames. She was checking where I was. She says the fire fighters are on their way but she doesn’t know if it’s any use: the building’s structural integrity has been in question for decades. It only needs a nudge to topple. She says there are still people inside and they don’t know if they’ll get them all out in time . . ."

  I wonder if Robyn knew she had just spelled out our next steps in big red, flashing lights.

  I took only a moment to look at my team and decide that this was going to be big.

  "Gang, I know what we’re going to do: we’re going to go there and we are going to do what every superhero does..."

  "We’re going to save someone," Smithy finished for me, a grin spreading on his face.

  "Let’s rock and roll," I said, thinking it’d never stick.