“Good work,” A. Gist said somewhere in the confusion that followed. “It looks like everything will go smoothly now.”
I had my eyes squeezed shut, so I groaned and opened them. Bright light stabbed at my eyes. Wires crisscrossed over my head. A set of hands held my arms securely behind my back. Worst of all, A. Gist stood just ten feet away from me, smiling.
“Wh—” I began, looking around me.
This was not good. Because I stood in the Conversion Chamber building all over again.
The computer and the lever waited over on one wall and a holding cell stood on the other. Penny and Ryan stared at me from the other side of the glass, open-mouthed. I looked down. I wore my shirt and jeans instead of a blue jumpsuit. I was human again.
But I had no time to feel any relief. Just twenty feet away towered the Conversion Chamber, manacles ready. We’d gone back to right before I was pushed in. In other words, I wouldn’t stay human for long.
Tera breathed down my back and held my wrists tighter. If she hadn’t, I would’ve collapsed to the floor under my despair and started beating it with my fists. I wanted to scream and throw a tantrum. We didn’t deserve this after going through all that!
“Rita,” A. Gist said slowly, “since you were the first to defy me, you will be the first inside the Conversion Chamber.”
So A. Gist hadn’t come back in time with us. The portal must’ve puked out before he could jump in. But it didn’t matter. Either way, we were screwed big time. Even if we managed to go back in time again, the portal wouldn’t take us back far enough to avoid this.
“Penny and Ryan will get to watch before it’s their turns,” A. Gist added, oblivious to the fact that I’d heard this before. “It’s a shame you didn’t get to watch the two earlier.”
George smiled at me. Monica shifted. Gabe stood there, too, swallowing. His words rang through my head. I know you can do something, Rita.
A. Gist stood there impatiently, waiting for my reaction to his news about Dan and Sean. He finally cleared his throat. “I brought Dan here this morning,” he said. “We took him right out of his own house this morning after his parents left for work.”
I remembered Dan lying there, reading that book, already one of them. He’d probably never be human again, would never go to school again, would never see his family again, would never see his friends again. Same for Sean. This was their reward for helping us. And here A. Gist stood, practically laughing about their fate.
My blood roared in my ears, and I realized something: I was getting angry.
“You should’ve heard how he and his friend begged,” A. Gist continued.
I heaved air in and out of my lungs. My fists closed so hard my fingernails dug into my skin. “Urrrrrrrggggghhhh!” I growled at the top of my lungs. “You…did …this …to …all …these …people …”
A. Gist grinned wider. “That’s right. Everyone like you. Your cause is hopeless, Rita.”
Everything swirled through my head in that moment: Dan and Sean, Gabe Cruz, all those missing people, Josh and Kristina, Jerry, A. Gist’s plot to control humanity, and even that stupid no one under eighteen sign. All of it.
My whole body shook with rage. The flame in my mind grew into a bonfire, then an inferno…and then an explosion… and then an erupting volcano…
An electric thrumming filled my whole body, like a switch inside me came to life.
A. Gist stopped smiling as his jaw dropped in shock. “Oh…”
Tera screamed and let go of me. Electricity pulsed down my arms. George and Monica backed away. Penny and Ryan watched, open-mouthed. The whole room went silent.
Then I saw why.
I lifted my pulsing arms. “Ah!”
An electric green fire blazed to life around my hands. It got brighter and brighter as the pulsing increased. I didn’t try to think about it. Whatever it was, it was good because A. Gist didn’t like it. It could give us a chance.
The green glow got almost blinding. I’m not sure how I knew what to do, but I raised both my hands towards A. Gist. He didn’t move. He stood there and let his arms slap down to his sides.
I couldn’t believe what happened next.
A beam of green light shot from my hands and towards A. Gist. Time seemed to slow as it sailed through the air like a meteor, crackling and spitting.
The beam of light slammed into A. Gist. A green explosion pulsed around him as he threw his arms out and flew back, screaming. A bang echoed through the air as he hit the back wall and the glow vanished. He slid to the floor, hat falling over his face.
The glow around my hands died, taking the electric feeling with it. I let my own arms slap back down as it all sank in.
The Shadow Ones stood there looking at me like, well, like I’d just manifested superpowers. Ted backed away almost knocked Monica over with his huge frame. And my friends stood in the holding cell, eyes huge.
It was nothing compared to how I felt. My mind spun insanely. It was true. I wasn’t normal, and it was why A. Gist was after me all along.
I couldn’t wonder about it now. The Shadow Ones were distracted and A. Gist lay there, knocked out, which meant now was the time to move. He’d recover in no time with his healing powers.
I raced around the Conversion Chamber, footfalls echoing off the dome, and for the glass holding cell. Ryan and Penny stood inside, pinned against the back wall. I tugged at the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Crap! Oh, wait—there was a lock on the outside. I lifted the little metal bar and tugged the door open. “Come on!”
Ryan bolted out of the holding cell, dragging Penny by the arm. “L…let’s get out of here!”
As if I hadn’t planned on that. I whirled around to run, but too late.
A. Gist stood just feet away, straightening out his cape. He’d recovered already. “I knew it. You’re the one.”
We stopped. He was blocking the way and his minions stood on the other side of the Conversion Chamber. The entrance to the building was locked, too. We still had to try. “The door!”
We thundered for it. Ryan shoved Monica to the side and ran so fast, his hair blew down.
“Block the door!” A. Gist screeched. His voice echoed through the dome. “I won’t let her get away again!”
George, Tera, Monica, Ted, and Gabe Cruz all scrambled to stand in front of the door. I skidded to a stop. There was no way we could push through them. They had on the armor and they outnumbered us. I had to get that green light to appear around my hands again.
Penny’s voice was shrill in my ears as she slid into me. “No!”
“Move!” I yelled, fists clenched. “You know what I’ll do if you don’t!” I didn’t feel too confident about that, but I had to sound like I did.
The Shadow Ones didn’t move, not even Gabe. They couldn’t move. Monica swallowed and Tera took a step back. A. Gist had ordered them into my path when he knew what I was capable of. Nice guy.
Footsteps drew closer behind me as a cape swished.
I whirled around as my legs turned to rubber. A. Gist stopped about twenty feet away. He brushed off his shirt (which had smoke coming off of it) and adjusted his hat. Now the worst grin of all crept onto his face.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment for fourteen years.” he said with relish. “After all that searching. After all those headaches, here you are, doomed to Procedure Number Twenty-Eight, ironically enough.”
Did he have to gloat all the time or what? “You’ve been looking for me my whole life?” I asked. I had to stall him until I could bring that power back, or whatever it was. I had to buy us some time. The longer he talked, the longer we’d have. As if to make that point, Ryan nodded at me.
“Yes, I have,” A. Gist told me as if I had half a brain. “You’re the last of your kind, Rita, and I’m going to make sure of that.”
A cold silence followed. Penny and Ryan
shifted next to me. No electricity raced up my arms. I urged it to come, but it didn’t. Time for more talking—hopefully I could get him to say something to tick me off. “Last of my kind? What are you talking about? And how did you come after me when I was little? My parents never said anything about it. They would’ve known something for sure.”
A. Gist sighed and smacked himself on the forehead. “Oh, come on! Those people you’re living with now aren’t your biological parents.”
I felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach. It couldn’t be. Okay, maybe it could. But I’d have to worry about that later. No tingling or green glow appeared around my hands. Shock wasn’t going to help it along any. Only anger would.
“It looks like you were placed with the two most boring people in the world to hide you from me,” A. Gist went on, “and it worked. For a while. They must have no idea what they’re in the middle of. They’ll just think you ran away or that Josh and Kristina killed you.” He paused and folded his arms. “Your real parents met some…unsavory fates, by the way.” He glanced over at Gabe and George. “What are the names of her adoptive parents, anyway? Might be worth knowing.”
“Morse. I think,” George said.
Uh, oh.
A. Gist’s face lit up. The pieces were coming together in his brain. “Morse? Really?” He stared right at me. “Odd. That’s Jerry’s last name. You know, the guy I had Josh and Kristina threaten? You’re not related to him, are you?”
Double uh, oh. I opened my mouth to lie, but nothing came out.
“Interesting.” A. Gist snapped his fingers, and with a flash of purple light, another portal opened near the computer monitor. Don’t ask me why he didn’t need one of those portal rings. Maybe it was because he was the boss. “I’m afraid we’ll have to subject him to Procedure Number Twenty-Eight, too. He’ll know what happened to you, and I can’t have that.”
His last words swirled through my head, mocking me. A faint thrumming ran through my arms as I grit my teeth. It was coming back. Now I had to make sure it stayed that way. He wasn’t going to pull Jerry into this. Dan and Sean were bad enough.
“No!” I yelled. “Leave him alone!”
A. Gist smiled. “Like you can do anything. You’re about to become one of us, and when you do, your kind will be extinct.”
I seethed. It was working. Electricity filled my body and pulsed through my hands. A green glow teased the edge of my vision, but I didn’t have to look to see what was happening.
“I’m prepared for that this time!” A. Gist yelled, raising his own hands. I realized something just then: he wanted me ticked off. He wanted to fight me.
Uh, oh.
A bright blue glow appeared around his hands as the green glow blazed brighter and brighter around mine. The portal kept spinning. Ryan let out a yell and jumped back. Good idea. All I could do was brace myself for whatever came next.
It all happened very fast. A beam of green light shot from my hands. At the same time, A. Gist shot a blue beam of light. The two collided in midair.
A loud crashing sound filled the dome and echoed off the walls. A jolt ran through my body as the ground trembled under me. I nearly came off my feet. But I caught my footing and squinted. Green light still shot from my hands like water from a fire hose. Beams of light pushed against each other in midair. Green and blue sparks shot away from the bright mess in the middle. A force tried to push me back and I fought to stand up straight. No easy feat. I was locked in a magical battle with the Ruler of All Ageism.
“You can’t win, Rita!” A. Gist growled, screwing up his face. He wanted to beat me and humiliate me before the Procedure.
And I wasn’t going to let him. I tensed and willed the electric pulses to increase. I had to win. If I didn’t, we weren’t getting out of here.
Blue light reflected off him as he kept shooting the beam. And slowly, it pushed against my green one. It drew closer and closer. A. Gist started to smile again on the other side of the sparks. Which meant I was losing.
“Make it stronger, Rita!” Ryan yelled in my ear.
The blue beam closed in, ten feet away…nine feet…eight feet…it would knock me over in seconds—or worse. My whole body tensed and shook as the electric pulses raced down my arms. I had to give it all she had or we were hosed.
I gritted my teeth until they hurt. I imagined the green light getting stronger, brighter. Nothing changed. The blue beam closed in and the sparks from the collision rained hot on my skin. A blast of heat hit me in the face. I’d come all this way just to be burned alive. No! I wasn’t going to let it end this way.
“Aaaarrrrr!” I turned my thoughts to Dan and Sean again and gave it all I had.
A. Gist grinned broadly now. The blue beam crackled just a foot away. The heat was overbearing. He was about to win after all we’d gone through.
And the pulsing in my hands grew into a surge. I can’t describe it any other way. The green beam grew brighter. And then the heat went away and coolness wrapped around my skin. It was a major relief.
I was getting the upper hand at last. The green beam of light got longer and slowly pushed back the blue one. The shooting sparks crept away from me.
“No!” A. Gist yelled. “I’m not going to be beaten by some juvenile delinquent!”
Things seemed to happen on their own now. The world felt far away. The green beam kept shooting from my hands and closing in on A. Gist, inch by inch. His face screwed up again. I seized the rage with all my might and the green beam of light grew brighter and stronger by the second. I was winning, actually winning against the Ruler of All Ageism, and hope rose up in me. We might actually escape. We might actually get out of here.
“You’ve almost got him!” Ryan practically jumped up and down now. “Whatever you’re doing—”
Then the unspeakable happened.
A. Gist looked at his minions and ordered, “Go through the portal and bring Jerry back here!”
Footfalls thudded against the floor as the Shadow Ones ran for the portal. No. He was trying to distract me, and it was working. I couldn’t let them go through and bring my cousin into this.
So I did the one thing I could think of.
I turned, barely dodging a stream of blue light, and aimed the green stream at the portal.
It seemed like the whole building blew up.
A deafening boom filled the air. I came off my feet and landed on the floor, which was trembling, by the way. Penny and Ryan landed next to me, covering their heads. The air rippled around me as the green glow died around my hands. Screams pierced the air, followed by a crash and a loud shattering noise.
The air settled and the room quieted down. My ears rang as I sat up.
My hitting the portal with that energy had caused some kind of explosion. The portal was gone and the Shadow Ones were all lying on the floor, A. Gist included. They’d been closer to the portal, so they’d taken the brunt of it. I kind of felt bad for them (except for A. Gist and George.) It wasn’t their fault they were in this situation.
Glass covered the floor in the middle of the room. And—I made sure to record this scene in my mind to cherish forever—the Conversion Chamber was broken, leaving only the frame standing on its bottom half. Even the manacles were on the floor.
“Get up!” Ryan yanked my other arm as Penny stood. “Door’s open now!”
I sprang up. The shockwave from the explosion had busted the glass door. Which, by the way, had a huge hole in it.
The Shadow Ones started to stir. Now was the time to go.
I burst through the doorway and out under the dark purple sky, practically pulling Penny and Ryan with me. My feet seemed to fly across the pavement on their own.
A. Gist yelled, “Get them! I can’t let them get away!”
He was awake. Great.
Footfalls echoed behind us. I glan
ced back. A. Gist jumped out of the door, minions running behind him. His eyes were wide like the world would end if he didn’t catch us. Or that his boss would kill him.
“Omigod. Omigod,” Ryan breathed as he ran. “We won’t make it in time.”
The Judicial District looked a mile across now. We tore past the prison and the courthouse. The gate loomed ahead of us, between the guard shacks. And it was closed.
“Great!” I yelled, hoarse. “Now how do we get over?”
We didn’t have time to get over the barbed wire again. It was bad enough with Gabe helping us over. He couldn’t help us now, now that we were human again.
“Keep that gate closed!” A. Gist hollered at the guards, who stood on the other side, clubs ready. He didn’t sound too far back, either. Footfalls got louder behind us.
Penny hit me on the back. “Knock the gate down. Now!”
We drew closer and the gate loomed taller above us. The world tilted as I ran. I forced myself to think about stuff that ticked me off. Mr. Gorfel. Dan and Sean. Mr. Gorfel. Josh and Kristina. Mr. Gorfel. It worked. The electric feeling pulsed through my arms and gathered in my hands. Green light flickered around my hands and grew. I raised both hands at it, and a blast of green sailed for the gate with a whoosh.
A squeal filled the air when it hit. One of the guards jumped to the side. The other stood with his mouth gaping open as the entire gate wobbled and crashed down on him.
“Sorry!” I called.
A. Gist swore behind us. Close behind us. Jackboots pounded the pavement. Any second I expected to get tackled and kicked.
“Go!” I jumped up onto the fallen gate, which rattled under my feet, and bolted for the even ground on the other side. I nearly lost my balance (it wasn’t even with the guard laying under it), but Ryan caught my arm as I started to trip.
“This way,” Penny breathed, jumping to the ground and bolting down the curvy path.
We leapt over the stunned guard and thundered down the path, Penny and Ryan right behind me. A scooter dodged out of the way and people ran to the side as we came through. A whole stampede ran into the Employment Agency and slammed the door, even some of the armored guards. I guessed that was so they conveniently wouldn’t hear A. Gist’s commands to capture us. I wished I could thank them.
And he was yelling, too. “No! Stop them! Block the way!”
The road curved ahead, and the portal waited on its raised platform. We’d have to start it again, set it for home, and jump in all before A. Gist reached us.
“You set the portal and I’ll try to hold him off!” I yelled we ran past Investigations.
“Don’t let them go through!” A. Gist screeched behind us. “No one escapes me!”
No one was left on the street except a woman on a scooter, who whirled it around to come at us. She was too late, though.
I grit my teeth as I bolted up the stairs behind Penny and Ryan.
The ring was once again off. I prayed it had enough power to get us back. Gabe hadn’t charged it yet here in the past.
“I’ll set it,” Penny ran for the monitor, which still glowed with faint blue letters. It was probably set for home since no one had touched it after we came through the first time. We might have a chance.
“You can’t, Rita!” A. Gist howled. “You don’t know what you’ve started!”
I whirled around to see him climbing the stairs, livid. And then I did something that I will treasure the memory of forever.
I raised my foot and kicked him right in the face.
A. Gist let out something like a gasp crossed with a scream as stumbled back down the steps. George and Monica caught him.
“Let’s go!” Ryan yelled. He seized my arm and yanked me back.
A. Gist raised his hands again, and already the bright blue glow gathered around them. Time to move. I was done fighting.
Black and purple spun inside the ring. Ryan waved us over and jumped in just as a blast of blue light whizzed past my face. No time to waste.
I pushed Penny through the portal and faced the control panel. A thought hit me.
I had to make sure A. Gist couldn’t come after us again.
“No!” He bolted up the stairs. “You don’t know what you’ve done!”
I felt for one last burst of electrical energy. It surged up my arm and shot out of my hand. A green explosion enveloped the control panel, and the purple swirls started to waver inside the ring. I had to jump. Without another look at the Shadow Home World, I took a leap into the fading, swirling darkness.
Chapter Twenty