Upbeats 2: Crime After Crime

  Chapter Nine

  I had an idea. It came to me just as I entered that deep, far away sleep where time speeds up, the world melts away and you are no longer aware of the world around you.

  I woke up in the middle of the night, my heart pounding, my mind racing and my fringe sticking to my forehead, but I had an idea!

  I glanced at the glowing numbers on my alarm clock. 3:24 a.m. I hadn't slept much but there was no way I was going to fall asleep now.

  Once I had woken up, I remained awake, staring blindly up at my ceiling, formulating my idea.

  It was brilliant. It was fantastic!

  And I couldn't wait to tell the others after school when we met up at the cave, as we did every day once school let out.

  ♫

  I ran through the woods, heavy rain drenching my jeans, my jacket, my hair, my everything.

  I was pumped, adrenaline flowed through my whole body and I, for once, forgot to think about how much I hated the rain. My muscles were killing me from the previous day, but I loved my new idea so much and I was so positive that the others would agree... I couldn't focus on much else.

  It was such a groundbreaking, Earth-shattering, space-invading idea, there was no way on this planet or any other that the others could argue with this brilliant brainwave!

  It was after school, Monday, the day after the bus incident. It had become routine for the Upbeats to meet at the cave every day after school.

  It had started out as a way for us to check up on System, practise our powers, and just feel as if we were being useful. For all our powers and what-not, we weren't of much use until we found Gemini.

  System was a master of signals and communications. Creating, detecting and disguising alien radio stations were his little hobby. Every day, when we hung out around the cave, System worked hard at building radar detectors. He wouldn't sleep until he detected a signal from Gemini.

  A month ago, when we first met System, he explained how he had found out about Gemini's evil plans. He had intercepted some transmissions and discovered that Earth, a planet that is galaxies away from his home world, was in danger. System wasted no time: he leapt straight into action. His people would do nothing to help us, and they didn't like System, a young Systematic, telling them what to do. So he set out to build a team of superheroes to save the planet, on his own.

  We hadn't heard a word from Gemini since he ran away from the Intergalactic Police a month before, but we couldn't give up. My idea was proof of that.

  Gemini was close to success the first time around. There was no telling how prepared he would be the next chance he got.

  Soggy leaf litter sloshed under my soaking wet sneakers; my hair hung in little rat-tail like strands, pelting my face; and my un-gloved hands had grown numb.

  Nevertheless, it was a blessing that there were no branches mercilessly whacking me in the face.

  I made it to the cave: System's temporary home.

  With the heavy rain clouds, it was rather dark outside. But since Friday, the last time I saw the cave, some new bright and colourful lava lamps had appeared in System's cave, illuminating the craggy walls with splashes of red, orange, pink, purple, blue, green, yellow, indigo... you name the colour and System had it.

  System loved colour, as illustrated by the new supplies he had acquired around the cave.

  I climbed up into the cave. The others were already there.

  "Hey, Brooke," Luke said as I hauled myself over the little ledge that acted like a balcony: the entrance to the cave.

  "What's up?" I replied. I was itching to tell everyone my idea, but I didn't want to let it just burst out. I wanted to wait a few minutes, act normal and then lay it on them.

  Robyn was sitting cross-legged on the floor, reading a book; Ned was lazing about in a beanbag, reading a newspaper; Luke was sitting, on the couch, doing his homework and Smithy was leaning against the cave wall, his head down.

  "I was simply asking System if I should expect to see a report on flying hippos anytime soon," Ned answered me.

  I rolled my eyes. Ned was the most annoying kid I had ever met.

  Don't get me wrong: Ned and I were not enemies. I mean, we were the good guys, on the same team, even. We just... agreed to disagree. I think that's the best way to put it.

  "Ugh, Ned, do you even know how to be serious?"

  "I was being highly serious, thank you very much," Ned replied, indignantly. "You remember a month back when we jumped into that artificial hippo lake?"

  "No, I forgot," I said, sarcastically.

  Ned blinked. "Well, we were at the zoo and—"

  "Oh, just carry on, I know what you mean."

  I knew Ned was pulling my leg when he laughed. "Anyway, all that outer space chemical... what-evers... poured out into the water. And I was reading in this newspaper—" Ned flapped a page of his newspaper in indication, "—that the zoo has been completed and all the animals have been introduced to their respective habitats, enclosures, whatever. So, that means the hippos are swimming around in that lake. So... my question stands: will the hippos get powers?"

  If I had to be honest, I would have admitted: it was a good question.

  But I tried not to be honest when I actually agreed with Ned.

  System's little skunk legs were flying up in the air, his top half stuffed into a toy box that held anything but dolls, cars and whistles, as he searched for some piece of technology I couldn't exactly put a name to. He tipped himself out, a little device that looked like a solar-charged calculator in his little skunk paws.

  "No, allow me to explain," System said. I had to resist the urge to let out a high-pitched "Aww!" Seeing a skunk talk is so cute!

  "The Amepips are specifically designed so that when their containment vial is opened, and as soon as any element from the outside seeps in, for example: oxygen or H2O, they will react immediately, which means they will become active. Then you will need a Transfigglerater, or a Pipanalizer, to—"

  "English, System, English." Ned had a terrible time concentrating in human science, there was no way he could stay on track with Systematic science.

  "You can then get the powers," System said, sounding like a rocket scientist using small words to explain a complicated concept to a first grader: a concept he himself knew very well but the first grader would never comprehend. "But the Amepips are designed to only be active for a period of forty-eight hours so that there is no harm or risk of mutations later."

  "So you guys factored in hippos when coming up with your chemical concoctions," Ned nodded, approvingly.

  "No, actually, we didn't," System said, a little perplexed. "But if the Amepips were active for longer than that, or if they never became dormant, there could be a build up of chemical waste over a long period of time and that can cause—"

  "Okay, okay, I get it: you guys are very environmentally inclined," Ned interrupted.

  I was enjoying this exchange but I didn't really have anything worthwhile to add to it. I played my idea around in my head a couple of times, trying to think of a sensible way to express my thoughts.

  I strode around the cave and examined a pink and purple lava lamp, placed in the centre of a round, polished wood coffee table.

  System's cave didn't hold much when he first moved in: just a whole lot of computer bits and pieces. Now, though, it housed an old, soft, floral three-seater couch; an assortment of coffee tables, some broken and barely holding up, some looking almost brand new; a mini fridge; a blender and two microwaves. I found five new laptop computers, three stripped down to the bare components, two used for detecting alien signals in space and on Earth; a coffee machine; fifty odd lava lamps; an array of bean bags and a stack of books in one corner, courtesy of Robyn.

  Most of the stuff System had around his cave had been found on the side of the road in the junk piles people made up, ready for the garbage trucks to take away.

  I fell backwards into a beanbag and picked up a comic book lying on the ground next to it.


  I was reading the words and examining the pictures but all I was thinking about was my new idea. How would the others take it? Could it work? There was only one way to find out...