Lightning FingersKaila Frazer

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“ He who fights will be fought. He who hurts will be injured.

But he who nourishes will be gifted with intelligence.Let us remember each other and cherish peace for all

eternity.Let our nation be a nation without war, for war will be

our undoingLet this be a land where young men grow unscarred

from battles and children grow up with fathers and mothers!

Let us forever look upon a blue sky, never a gray!Let this be Blue Skania! ”

—Argus VanSicklen

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Prologue

January 28, 1986

Argus VanSicklen sat at his office desk, still and quiet. Around him, his old

documents were strewn: Prototype after prototype, blueprint after blueprint, sketch after

sketch for his legendary creation: the Challenger. The crumpled papers had strewn

themselves miscellaneously, blanketing the desk in a layer of paper. Only one stood out to

the eyes of Argus, however, another prototype, one designed by Nicholas VanSicklen,

Argus’s criminal brother. This one was not torn—crumpled thoroughly, as if Argus wanted

it destroyed; yet something had held him back; even as hate for his brother had crept into

the corners, then gradually into the rest of Argus’s heart, love still lingered; Argus could not

bring himself to destroy the last piece of his brother still in his possession.

But, for once, Argus’s thoughts weren’t lingering close to the prototype. His posture

was straighter than the posture should ever allowed it to be, his lips curled inward and

eyes lowered slightly, staring intently at a miniature black speaker phone sitting innocently

in front of him.

Thousands of miles away, at that very moment, The Challenger exploded.

Red glow exploded through the crisp night air. Dust. Metal flew. Fire. Fire reflected

in the eyes of the thousand open-mouthed spectators. It was over. . . but only for them; for

those unsuspecting humans, it was the end. For Argus, it was the beginning. Argus watched

as the orbiter emerged, intact, from the orangish cloud of rubble; Flawless. And, tucked

away in a crowded compartment full of supposedly dead astronauts, Anne VanSicklen was

thinking exactly the same thing.

***

When Argus was a child, his father fought in World War II. Argus loved his father

and was furious at how his people had created such cursed wars that separated so many

families, causing devastating amounts of destruction. It didn’t help that his mother was

often away all day long at the factory, and even though he knew that she had to earn money

for the family somehow, he hated the long hours after school when he was the oldest and

most powerful out of his six brothers. He hated being the one who held the lofty position of

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‘in charge’. Even though he knew that this responsibility would be eagerly accepted by any

one of his brothers, he also knew that it would be abused. He took the pressure on himself

as he did not know better a shoulder to place it on, well, that is, until Nicholas was old

enough.

Argus never aspired for any kind of power, or wanted it in the least; he disliked

having the responsibility, the influence over any lives but his own, thinking that it put him

in a sort of “caricature dictator” position.

The one thing that kept Argus going was Nicholas. Born only a year after Argus,

Nicholas was the second oldest of the six brothers and was often willing to take up the

position of power for Argus. Though much more teasing of his younger siblings than Argus,

Nicholas mostly handled his power well. He was fairly kind to his brothers and never took

the position of caricature older sibling, or caricature dictator. Nicholas didn’t believe in

that. He always thought for himself.

Over the years, the two brothers bonded so closely that most people thought, at

first, that they were twins. Nicholas, though younger than Argus, eventually began to take

up Argus’s unwanted administrative responsibilities on a regular basis.

The years went on and the brothers’ father died tragically in the war, his wife

passing away only months later. Nicolas, infuriated, went after the man who had

supposedly killed his father, but in vain. The man had fled— “coward!” Nicolas said—to

some foreign country where he couldn’t be found. Argus, even though he was just as hurt as

Nicolas, persuaded Nicolas to drop the matter.

“He who hurts will be wounded, Nicolas. Dad died after injuring his better half of

soldiers in the war. If that was what he did, he had it coming to him.”

“I thought you loved him!”

“I do. . . but what’s done is done. That man will get his, eventually. And you would

have gotten the same punishment if you’d hurt him. What goes around comes around—try

to understand.”

As more years passed, and with the onset of the Cold War, Nicholas became more

detached, often acting mysteriously. What used to be a strong bond between the brothers

now began to sever. Argus suffered, with no doubt, but did nothing; If this was the path

Nicholas chose, then that was his decision, and his life. If this was destiny, if such a thing

ever existed, it was not Argus’s duty to interfere.

Argus married a woman named Anne and had a son, naming him James. Argus

finished his second college degree in engineering (his first had been in astronomy), and

became a science professor at a university. However, he was soon after offered a well

paying job as a rocket designer and he took it in place of his old job as a teacher,

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discovering a new love for this specialized engineering.

In 1965, Nicholas was discovered spying on Argus as an agent from the Soviets, and

suddenly his disappearance and detached behavior made sense. He was imprisoned, taking

the happiness and confidence in Argus with him.

Argus VanSicklen sent the last of his family and friends away to a lone asteroid

orbiting Earth in a small compartment of Challenger’s orbiter in 1985 to start over. To give

humans a new chance, a chance for peace. But he stayed behind, for them. In case they

needed any additional supplies or resources, he would be there—even if it meant giving up

his heart for them. Argus VanSicklen was a hero.

***

Finally, and with sweet relief, a voice came over the speaker. Argus rummaged for a

couple of seconds through his piles of documents then pulled out a headset.

“My love! Are you alright?”

“Argus!” a voice from the other end of the speaker exclaimed, “Yes. We’re fine. . . ”

she trailed off and Argus sensed that she held something back.

“What happened?”

“I’m not. . . entirely sure. I think we might have passed through some sort of

electrical field.”

“What?” Argus bit his lip, hoping that he had heard wrong. . . but she was talking to

him, after all, she must be mostly all right.

“An electrical field. . . maybe.” she trailed off, and then suddenly started again, “No!

No, everyone is entirely all right. Do you know what this might mean for us?”

“No. I didn’t think about that—but the rocket is designed to avoid many other types

of space’s obstacles. . . I’m sure you’ll be alright.”

***

The family and friends that Argus VanSicklen had helped to reach a new land

prospered and lived almost as they had on Earth, and their descendants multiplied; Yet

there was something different about them. The electrical field impacted those initial

voyagers more than they realized, and, a few years later, a group of people realized they

had a power beyond their wildest dreams.

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Part 1VanSicklen’s Plot

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Chapter 1

June 8th, 2058

My big brother, Pete, is a construction worker and a pest; Though mostly just a pest.

He had pushed my buttons for years, and, being the respectable sister I am, I hadn’t

tortured him nearly as much as I would have liked yet, so it seemed like a good

opportunity: I would sneak out to the park, where he was working, while he was on his

lunch break munching away at some probably inedible homemade sandwich with his buff

pals and sneak the whoopee cushion under his seat in the tractor. Trim it with thumbtacks

and chewing gum and I would have my brother screaming. I collected the materials and ran

off to Cata and Kuro’s house to pick them up—I would never let them miss out on this.

Kuro answered the door, singing under his breath awkwardly and probably out of

tune to some rap song, one earbud dangling out of position so he could communicate with

whomever was at the door. Seeing it was indeed me, he called his twin, Cata, to the door.

From afar it would have been hard to tell the two were twins, judging by their polar styles;

Cata’s slender form had been fitted in a variety of pinks and whites, trimmed with modest

lace. My eyes skimmed the tight mini-skirt and thin tee, halfway up meeting the obstacle of

her long, wavy blond hair that fell almost to her waist. It was pulled into some sort of fancy

plait that had been thrown over a shoulder, the loose hair at the top framing her delicate

face and pink-hued cheeks.

Turning to her twin, I surveyed long shorts and an orange tee. The biggest difference

between the two was the hair. Though both twins were blondies, Cata was careful about

her hair (and her appearance in general) and was always sure to have it in some elaborate

doo, whereas Kuro never really did his hair at all; From the looks of it today he might have

tried to fluff it or something judging by the wacky disarray of purple and blond. He must

have spent some time on it, since it was dyed. I made a face as I tried to conceal my laughter

and waved them toward the park where my big bro was working.

“Sumi, maybe this isn’t a good idea, what if someone sees us. . . ” Cata frowned. Even

now, after all we’ve been through, Cata still worries about breaking the rules, though Kuro

and I are stubborn and either really brave or really stupid, so we always do it anyway.

“Come on,” I put my hand on her shoulder, “I know even you can’t wait to see

Raggy’s face when he sits down on that tractor seat.”

We called Pete 'Raggy’ because of all his baggie and, well, raggy clothing. Dad offered

him better, but after mom left, he was always sort of down. He didn’t care what he wore;

usually it’s just anything within easy reach.

I peered beyond the fence marking the construction site to the picnic table where,

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sure enough, Raggy was patting some other muscle-y probably-on-the-football-team type

guy on the shoulder saying something along the lines of, “Man! Your hair-dye is, like, totally

sucky compared to the last color. You gotta turn it neon orange again!”

Kuro instinctively made a face and touched his matching purple hair. I wasn’t sure if

he felt he was being insulted because he wore the same color as the teenage gangster or

because of my brother’s opinion on purple hair-dye.

I snorted and looked over at Cata. She was sighing that telltale, slow sigh that always

means that she’s given up.

“Okay, you’re right,” she said, “let’s try it.”

Our first problem was the fence. It was one of those trashy wire ones that felt like it

might fall over if you put your weight on it. We punched and kicked in attempt to do so, but

eventually ended up sitting on our sore butts on the grass, Cata sucking her reddening cuts.

After a couple of minutes, I was led to the idea to climb it, because even though it

was very likely to collapse under our full weights moments after we began climbing, it was

the only way we came up with. Miraculously, the fence did not fall when I hoisted myself up

onto it, and really the only obstacle came when I got to the top of the fence where I had to

hoist myself over onto the other side without being punctured in the butt by the poky

triangles spiking out from the top. I got over this one fairly soundlessly, the twins in tow,

though by fairly I mean quietly enough for an extremely loud gang of laughing and snarling

boys not to hear.

It wasn’t really hard to tell which machine Raggy was running judging by the

overwhelming amount of bent soda cans and moldy junk food littering the floor of his

tractor. I tucked the whoopee cushion safely out of sight while Cata applied thumbtacks

and Kuro “softened” the gum.

Once the tractor seat was ready, we ran ten feet away from the construction site and

hide behind a tree. We watched the picnic tables from behind the trunk and waited. . . and

waited. . . and waited.

The workers seemed to be taking a long time eating and gossiping and were

showing no signs of stopping, so we wandered a little farther into the park where we could

talk out of earshot. But as the minutes dragged their feet along, I became a bit restless and

convinced the twins to play a game of tag with me.

I wasn’t worried about loosing sight of those huge tractors and placed the

boundaries for tag a good half-mile away from the site. We laughed and as we ran I could

feel the heat in my cheeks.

We ran back to the construction site every now and then, but the teenage slobs

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seemed content and still munched down on their enormous lunches with great gusto.

Perhaps fifteen minutes passed, but to us it felt like one minute—a hot, childish,

laughing minute that might have lasted forever if not for me. I was having so much fun that

I chased Kuro as far as a mile away from the construction site. As we stopped to rest,

panting, we realized that we couldn’t see the tractors anymore. We called for Cata and she

came, but even she couldn’t see farther than the meadow. We ventured in the direction that

might have been the construction site, but still found nothing.

Nothing much worth writing about transpired in those wandering minutes until we

sat down to rest our tired legs; It was mostly silent except for the humming of my heart in

my ears, and I think everyone got sort of lost in their own thoughts, because when Cata

shouted out it took me a few moments to get back in reality and figure it out. When I did,

though, I regretted it; Cata was sitting back down again with her eyes wide and glassy,

staring at what, in my mind was just a regular field as though there was something. . . that I

couldn’t see.

I began to feel scared and turned around only to discover. . . I think I saw it.

At first, I only saw visions—mirages—of things that I’ve had nightmares about ever

since, but naturally those were only illusions of fear.

It might have taken me a few moments to understand, but eventually I came to the

conclusion that about a quarter mile away the meadow seemed to. . . drop? Disappear?

Disintegrate? For a second I was confused and really quite unaware of Cata and Kuro, who

had started to run down to the spot in question, Cata moving reluctantly. I followed.

We reached the edge and realized that indeed a cliff hung down from the meadow. I

was curious to find what lay at the bottom and so were the twins and we peered over the

edge.

The drop was amazing—terrorizing—we could see thousands of miles down, and

further. Not one single cloud blocked our view, or any crisp white snowcaps. All I could see

was. . . nothing. Not black, not really. But yet it wasn’t the sky, either—that, I was sure of.

Was our planet really round? If it wasn’t, then this was surely the end of it—the edge of the

earth.

It never occurred to me that this was an ordinary cliff. It just wasn’t—too clear, too

high, too simple. There should have been clouds. Or treetops—or mountain peaks. . . but

there weren’t. I reached to touch it, but felt nothing but air.

I heard the humming again. It was louder this time, and I figured that “my heart’s

vigorous pounding” was a result of either my fear or confusion.

Cata shrieked and Kuro and I turned around just in time to see her stumble on a root

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and begin to fall face first down into the abyss. I instinctively grabbed her arm and pulled

her upright again.

“Are you alright?” Kuro asked her, relief in his eyes. Cata seemed a bit stunned but

regained her composure fairly quickly and nodded, though her face was still a ghastly, pale

white. I could see that her fists were clenched tight at her sides, the knuckles drained of

their color.

***

Somehow, I don’t remember having trouble finding the way back to the construction

site and we must have forgotten Pete because I don’t remember stopping to see the

progress of our prank; we walked all the way home, going our separate ways.

My dad greeted me at the door and asked if I had had a good time with my friends. I

said yes without even stopping to look at him; I missed my mom.

That night—even under the protective hug of my blankets around me—I felt scared.

I tossed and turned late into the night, thinking about Cata. I understood that an unmapped

‘cliff’ hanging off the border of Winkston Park ought to have caused all of us a lot of

confusion, and maybe a little fear, but not this much. I didn’t understand why Cata didn’t

say anything the rest of that day (we never dared to ask her in case she broke out crying),

why she kept her head down and her fists clenched. That scared me, too.

But I didn’t know that I had enough reasons to be afraid that I could have easily

stayed up all night long. All night and an eternity, tossing and turning in fear.

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Chapter 2

I was back at the park, sitting on the edge of the cliff. I was alone, and the breezes of

early morning kept whisking my hair in my face, making it hard to think. I rested my

elbows on my knees and closed my eyes. Behind my lids, I could see the etched shape of the

sun darting through a fuzzy orange. Shapes took to wavering in and out of visibility. . .

Cata’s face. . . Raggy. . . Kuro. . . Cata. . .

“Sumi!”

Startled, I tried to turn, but my body wouldn’t come. The stranger behind me was

breathing on my neck, she was so close.

“Sumi! Help me!”

It was Cata.

Her face, swimming in front of me. . . scared. . . turning on me. . . begging me for

help. . .

“Sumi, please!”

I managed to turn.

Cata was pale and looked so terrible. . . she was the most weak-looking. . . pathetic,

frightened of something I didn’t even know.

The ground split.

Cata was falling. I had to save her! It was going to be impossible. . . but I had to! It

was impossible.

“NO!”

She was looking at me one more time. . . no more fear. . . anger. . . at me. . . . I had let

her down. . . no. . . It was worse than nightmares. I had failed. . . I had had a chance. I should have

launched myself after her, dying with her, dying trying to save her.

Sitting on the cliffside once more.

I was stiff, wearing nothing.

The buzzing was loud in my ears. I had figured it was my heart, yesterday, but now

realized that it was more than that.

Kuro was next to me. . . furious. . . his eyes red. . . fire. . . yelling,

“You didn’t protect her! I trusted you! My sister, that was her! She should have

lived!”

I wanted to feel the salt sting on my wounds. . . but I had no wounds. . . I hadn’t even

fought for her. . . and there weren’t any tears, anyway, not even now. . . Why?

Kuro raised a lightning-bolt and thrust it at me. I fell.

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It was dark. I was going to die. I couldn’t breath—

I gasped and sat up quickly, my head crashing into something on the way. I fell back

down again.

No. . . was this death? But then what was that glow? And there was something wet

around me. . . my blankets. . . and my nightlight! It had only been a dream. I threw off the

dampened covers and rushed so quickly over to my light switch that I didn’t even pause

when I bumped my head on my lamp for the second time.

I turned on the lights and heard myself sigh; just a dream.

***

It was a long day. The sun seemed to have decided to start August early, and it’s

white glare turned everything pale and wavy. Some of the decorations that had been up for

the Fourth of July were still there, and an array of little limp flags that slumped outside my

house blanketed the mood in a veil of fatigue. I could feel the sun’s heat on my shoulders,

thick with humidity.

I walked to Kuro and Cata’s house, feeling the new pressure on my feet as I strode at

such a different pace than usual, but it was too hot to run.

I stuck to the dappled shade where I could find trees, sometimes stopping under one

of them. I walked in silence, too sleepy to even say the simple “Hi!” that I usually treated my

passer-byes to. They didn’t say anything, either.

After an hour of long, low, lingering strides, I was finally at their doorstep. My hands

on my knees, I panted like a dog. The cloudy air was hard to breath in, and filled my lungs

to their bursting point once it was finally inside me. Finally, the door burst open and I

looked up to see Kuro, hands on hips. I got the feeling that he was contemplating me.

“Heyo.” He nodded and disappeared into his house before I could even answer,

leaving the door open. Did he want me to follow him? Probably, so I followed.

“Sis!” He yelled, “Sumi wants you!”

“Yes? No need to yell, I’m right here. Hi, Sumi!” Cata smiled at me and I was relieved

to see that the fear I’d seen in her eyes the day before had vanished. Then, seeing my

serious expression, her grin sobered.

“It’s about the yesterday, isn’t it.”

I nodded; I guess it was. Originally, it had been about the dream; I had wanted to

come check on the twins. . . to see if they were, really, okay. But Cata had triggered

something. I had wanted to tell the twins something about the cliff. . . Arg! What had it

been? Then it hit me.

“Yes. It is.” I was smiling, now.

“It’s nothing to smile about.” Cata frowned to demonstrate, “I think this is serious.”

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“Well, I think we’re making a big deal over nothing,” said Kuro gloomily from a

corner, “But then again, nobody ever listens to me.”

“We have a good reason, you know!” Cata snapped.

Kuro rolled his head back and groaned, “I thought I was supposed to be part of the

group, too.”

He looked back up and, seeing our annoyed expressions, he said, “I’ll just go and play

Nintendo, ” and slinked off, looking about a foot shorter than usual.

“Kuro,” I rolled my eyes, “Get back here, please. No matter how utterly annoying you

can be, please spare us the trouble and stay.”

“Sumi!” Cata declared sternly, rather like a strict teacher scolding a student,

apparently not appreciating my inclusiveness (he was her brother, after all).

Sighing, I tried to explain as quickly as possible (couldn’t we just talk?), “He’s right.

He’s part of the group, too. And he deserves to have his own opinions,” Cata’s lips thinned

and I panicked, “Look! We have more important things to worry about! Don’t you want to

know my theory about the cliff?”

Silence.

I supposed that I hadn’t told them that it had specifically been a theory, but they’d

have to listen, now, and Cata wasn’t contradicting me, so I took the advantage to continue,

“You remember when my mom used to tell us those stories about how we came

from another land? How. . . how we didn’t really live on earth. . . rather, an asteroid? The

multiple earth myths? Come on! Don’t you remember?”

“Yes,” said Kuro quietly. He hadn’t spoken since we had decided to let him stay, and

his tone was so small sounding and unimportant that it made me pity him. . . a little. He

took a long, deep breath and continued, “Sumi, I know what you’re thinking. But. . . they

can’t be real. There’s no way.” He looked up at me and then Cata, then me again.

“They can’t. There’s just no way.”

“I know.” I said quietly. And then silence again.

What I said wasn’t lying; I knew that he was right—even if the cliff seemed to lead to

nowhere, that didn’t necessarily mean that it was the edge of our planet. . . or asteroid. The

commodities that we would have needed—the oxygen, the food, shelter, water—he was

right. But then why had there been an unmarked, seemingly endless cliff hanging off the

edge of one of the most populated parks in Blue Skania, our city? Sure, people don’t usually

venture that far away into the park. . . there was sometimes a construction site, a few times

there had been some sort of criminal caught in that area—probably trying to jump off the

cliff and commit suicide. Maybe we just hadn’t known about the cliff. That was the most

reasonable answer. . . but why not? Why was I still looking for other answers? Because I

knew that it was more than a cliff. My gut was telling me that this was different.

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“I’m sorry,” I said, “I shouldn’t have brought it up. Just my instinct told me to.”

“Well, you’re ‘instinct’ isn’t the boss of you, is it? You’re pretty smart, Sumi, you

know that.” Cata looked up at me, she wasn’t crying, like I had thought she had been. . . her

tone of voice had sounded on the verge of tears, somehow with a rough quality that didn’t

suit her.

There was a sort of long silence.

Why was Cata acting so snappy about the whole creepy cliff thing? Usually she’s really

calm.

“I didn’t see anything until right before I shouted. It was a plane.” As usual, she had

read my thoughts and answered them accordingly.

“It crashed straight into the cliffside.”

I stood, confused for a moment, trying to grasp what Cata had said. A plane. . . the

cliffeside. . . a crash—my thoughts halted.

“What. . . what do you mean?” Kuro asked, unsure, not having figured it out yet.

“I mean what I said.” repeated Cata. She might be good at reading feelings, but not

sharing them! I thought.

“But—” Kuro retorted after a long pause.

“Kuro, just listen,” I said, finally having an idea, “Yesterday, before Cata, er, saw the

plane, I heard a buzzing. And then after we ran over and saw the cliff, I heard it again. . . it

could have been the plane’s engines. So if we were able to hear the engines, then why didn’t

we hear the crash?”

“There wasn’t a crash.” Cata lowered her eyes.

“But I thought you said—” Kuro interrupted. The poor guy was getting really mixed

up, then again, I was just as lost for the moment being.

“Oh, it crashed all right, but it didn’t make sound. . . come to think of it, I didn’t see

any sort of flying rubble, either. It just. . . glided into the cliffside. I—honestly, I didn’t even

see anything sticking out when I looked over the cliffside. . . not even a tail; and there

wasn’t any cave or anything, either. It was really just rock all the way down! I’m not making

it sound as tragic as it truly was, am I?” Cata did her usual sigh, sounding like a maiden in

distress.

“I don’t know, Cata,” I replied frankly, “I think I need to understand how this

happened first.”

“I know, I know! That’s why it’s so weird!”

Chapter 3

I didn’t believe it. Cata’s story was scary, and I did understand it, but it was just. . .

more different, than I would have expected, I guess. But all the same, it had been meant to

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be this way all along ever since Cata saw the plane; I had to find out eventually.

But this was not time to contemplate my situation—if I knew anything, I had a deep

gut instinct that this was serious. We needed to take action—and fast! Cata had waited long

enough to tell us as it was, but who knew what sort of damage something like this could do.

There were probably families wondering where their relatives had gone, unable to contact

them—not to mention the endless cliff that we had recently discovered. The time to think

was over, I was taking charge.

“Kuro, Cata. I think I have an idea. . . stupid, childlike and probably not the best

option, but an idea.”

They looked up at me. Cata, I now saw, was finally tearstained and Kuro was

beaming at me from ear to ear. I smiled back.

I took a deep breath, “I think we should go to the police station and tell them what

you saw, Cata. They’ll ask why we hadn’t told them before, but we’ll say we didn’t know

what to do until now. We could tell our parents, but then I’ll get in trouble about Pete. . .

and you’ll get in trouble for leaving the house without permission—you’re grounded, Kuro,

aren’t you?”

He smirked sheepishly.

It was ridiculous that we weren’t telling our parents, but somehow my gut instinct

was telling me not to do that. It had been telling me not to do a lot of things lately, and

usually they worked out. So this time I was playing it by ear.

“I feel really stupid doing this and can’t believe I can’t think of anything else, but I

just—”

“I think it’s a great idea!” Kuro exclaimed, suddenly seeming to have decided on

such. His grin widened, if that was possible. I felt my cheeks reddening and wished, slightly,

that they wouldn’t do that.

“I don’t know,” Cata thought aloud, “What would we say? I don’t want to feel stupid.”

“We’ve already been stupid plenty of times, Cata! And it’s always paid off,” Kuro

persisted, still on my side.

An argument sprung up and I was forced to barge in.

“Hello?! Kuro? Cata? If we want to do this, it happens now!”

They quieted down and harrumphed at each other a couple of times, but gradually

my turn to speak came again.

“I know that we all have mixed feelings about this idea, and if Cata doesn’t want to

come, she doesn’t have to, but if we’re doing it, we’re doing it now—ASAP.”

They both sighed in unison. Cata using her tell-tale I-give-in sigh and Kuro using

more of an acceptive grunt.

***

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As we neared the area of the police office, I began to wonder what we would even

say. Before, I had been imagining a dramatic entrance, perhaps we would kick down the

door and tie the policemen up niftily with their very own handcuffs before truly stating our

business. I now saw that the situation would be much more subtle—we would walk in

and. . . what would we say? I hadn’t really taken Cata seriously when she suggested this

being an issue, but suddenly I was realizing how much more difficult this was really going

to be. A cold sweat began down my back, courtesy of imagining us walking into the office

and presenting ourselves with a prompt, “Hi! We’re some random kids and we just sorta

discovered the cliff that goes off Winkstone park. Oh, and this plane crashed into the cliff. . .

well, it didn’t really. She,” we would point to Cata, “saw it. No noise. . . she just saw it. . . .

and we’re not crazy! It wasn’t a hallucination!” Yeah right, like that would make them think

we were serious; The one thing we were sure to accomplish was getting in big trouble with

our parents for leaving the house without permission. Kuro especially, because he was

grounded—and Cata’s parents might just start thinking she was going nuts and pamper her

and watch her every step. Oh, and we might just get in a bit of trouble with the police for

disturbing them when it wasn’t necessary and they probably didn’t need it.

All too soon, we arrived at the office. There wasn’t much special about it; just a

modern looking building with classic deep blue-striped-silver Blue Skanian police cars

edging the sidewalk. Looking at it, at first I thought we had come to the wrong location. But,

craning up at the superbly shiney ‘Blue Skania Police’ lettering protruding massively from

the third floor, I quickly relinquished those doubts. At the top of the sky scraping building

stood a gold statue of a man. He stood not proudly or too graciously, but kindly. It’s strange

how someone can stand ‘kindly’.

In his left hand, the man held a red flag that hung slightly limp at his side. It was not

so limp, however, that I couldn’t make out the golden lettering on it. I didn’t need to be able

to read the whole thing, though, because I already knew the entire thing by heart. It was a

famous quote from Argus VanSicklen. It said:

“He who fights will be fought. He who hurts will be injured.

But he who nourishes will be gifted with intelligence.

Let us remember each other and cherish peace for all eternity.

Let this be a nation without war, because war is fighting and blood.

Let this be a land where young men grow unscared from battles and children grow

up with fathers and mothers!

Let this place forever look upon a blue sky, never a gray!

Let this be Blue Skania!”

In his right hand, the man held a silver plated rocket, pointed at the tip and

inscripted with the famous name: Challenger. I figured that this must be the legendary

16

Argus VanSicklen—also a wonderful engineer and the creator of the rocket disaster.

I looked over the words again sourly. VanSicklen was known to be a wonderful man,

and I believed he was. But the quote on the flag that I saw so often always bothered me.

Looking over the fifth line, I always became angry with VanSicklen. I lived without a

mother. My mother had disappeared five years ago. . . or was captured, as I still believed.

Even if I had been the only one to see it, that didn’t make me doubt myself. My mom had

been hauled away, screaming, by the police. The very people meant to keep VanSicklen’s

precious peace and order aligned in place; their forces founded by VanSicklen himself. Why

did he even need a stinking saluting enforcement crew of uniformed pins if he expected so

much of us already? VanSicklen’s heart was truly in the right place, I believed, but his

methods were far from my ideal.

I shook my head jerkily to clear my thoughts. I would give the police a try—I had to.

I nodded to Cata and Kuro and we entered.

***

The inside of the police office looked and felt like a match set. The room was framed

with silvery benches mounted on deep blue walls. There were a few obviously fake potted

plants scattered here and there that I guess that they were supposed to give the place a

homey feel, but they really just blended with the walls and large glass windows to create

the idea of a very artificial aquarium. The floor was tiled neatly with some sort of probably

fancy and impressively expensive stained glass that reached weedy blades up the wall.

Across the room were a couple of desks coated thickly in blue tinted glass. Only one desk

was occupied, though, and by a gruff looking officer wearing a clean cut blue suit with silver

stripes down the sides that glinted in the light whenever he moved that I thought to be a bit

too glamorous and show-offy.

We approached him cautiously, since we still weren’t entirely sure what we would

say. But before we could start worrying about introducing ourselves, as well, the policeman

looked up at us and said in a froggy voice,

“And how can I help you?” He sat up a little as he said it, and I could see that his

silver name tag said “John.”

I smiled, trying not to look as nervous and fidgety as the other two, “I’m Sumi. And

these two are Cata and Kuro.” I gestured to the twins, both of whom made an attempt at a

weak nod or smile.

“Hmph.” said John blankly.

I took a deep breath. It was now, or never.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Winkston park. . . have you?” I was stalling.

What would I say? Sooner or later, I had to say something. . . I wanted myself to sound

confident, sure of the what's, the why’s. I wanted my dialogue to look neat, if it was ever

17

printed. I wanted my words to express our problem well and convince him of it. I felt like I

do when I’m preparing a speech for a class, maybe an essay. The words have to look right,

sound right, express right. . . I needed something that someone in a book would say,

because they always got right to the point and kept the reader interested. They were

understandable. The author had as much time as they wanted to come up with the words,

the sentences. They could edit and delete—they could take it back and place new words on

the page until it looked just right. I couldn’t do that. So I was stalling.

“Yes,” said John, staring at me inquisitively, “a trifle of times, actually.”

Great. So I couldn’t go on and on about Winkston Park. Then, struck by a wave of

daring, I said, “We were there. . . all three of us, just the other day, sir. . . and we, er, noticed

a cliff around that area that we hadn’t, um, known about, before.”

John said nothing. He actually looked quite pale—had we gone into a restricted area

of the park, accidentally? I hadn’t seen any signs.

“It was actually quite steep—”

“Thank you.” he announced shortly, cutting me off. The color in his cheeks was back

and I wondered whether he really had been pale or if it was just the light. He contemplated

me for a moment, looked me up and down, and then abruptly got up, nodded to us, said

briefly, “I’ll be back in a moment,” and exited the room.

After what seemed like an eternity, John arrived back in his booth with a nervous

smile tinging his lips.

“Your issue,” he explained, “involves a different officer. I’m going to hand you over to

her, now.” He stepped aside, making way for a young, kind-looking officer who sat down

too quickly for me to read her name tag. I didn’t need to, though, as she soon introduced

herself to us.

“Hi,” she smiled meekly, “I’m Emma. And you are. . . ?”

“Sumi,” I smiled, “And Cata, and Kuro. Nice to meet you.”

“You too. . . ” she trailed off and her lips sobered, “so I hear that you stumbled upon,”

she paused, sighing, “the cliff.”

We nodded, she slowly drew a deep breath, seeming to say “why does this have to

be happening to me?”. I looked over at Cata to see if she had caught the signal that we were

just being annoying to these poor officers, but she seemed to have picked up another

emotion from Emma and was cocking her head to the side, seemingly deep in thought.

“Okay,” Emma took another deep breath, “I’ll tell you the truth. Even though no one

else would.” She was talking to herself now, more than us, but it didn’t matter—I had the

feeling that she was about to tell us something big.

She opened her mouth, and then closed it again.

18

“Right,” she steadied herself, “We live on an asteroid.”

19

Chapter 4

The nights, all those nights, my mother used to tell me stories. “The multiple earth

myths”, she called them. I had loved them, they had always been my favorite time of the

day, listening to her lulling voice. Sometimes she would make my favorite songs, such as

‘Universe all over again’ into one of the myths by changing the words. She had been very

good at it. Even now I sometimes sing her verses to myself, and it always makes me feel

close to her, wherever she is.

I saw what it really meant. What Emma was saying was true. There was just too

much evidence; the cliff, the multiple earth myths, even my favorite song, The Universe All

Over. And, of course, the unmistakable bit: There was a genuine (or at least I thought so)

police officer sitting in front of me confirming that we lived on an asteroid.

Oh, I wished we hadn’t even come here in the first place! Ever since we had begun

walking to the police office, I had known it was a stupid idea. And VanSicklen had been a

bad omen. Wait—VanSicklen? And then it struck me. The last bit. The missing piece. How

we lived on an asteroid.

“Argus VanSicklen!” I blurted, smiling even though I shouldn’t have been. I looked

around to see if anyone had caught on. Kuro—his face looked like a mixture of fright and

utmost confusion; No, he didn’t get it. Cata?—same. Emma?—smiling—weakly, but I could

tell she meant it. She nodded slightly, so I kept going.

“I’ve always wondered why VanSicklen was so famous here in Blue Skania. I mean,

all I knew about him was that he was some guy who said a bunch of famous stuff and

created a huge rocket that exploded and that, for some reason, all the kids in Blue Skania

knew about him. But I still didn’t get why he was so famous! I had always figured that there

was something else that he had done that I just hadn’t heard about. But there wasn’t.

“It all makes sense. I don’t know how, exactly, but somehow Argus must have sent

some people away on the rocket—the orbiter, to be precise, but somehow he knew it would

explode. I mean, he must have, otherwise there’s no way the astronauts could have made it

to the asteroid. They reached the asteroid—the same one as where we live now, and

KABOOM! Argus was famous; he had given us a new Earth.”

Emma flashed me a nervous smile, but it disappeared quickly and she beckoned us

closer.

“Listen,” she whispered after I and the still confused Cata and Kuro had stepped into

a huddle, “You’re right about all that, Sumi, but you’re not supposed to know any of this. I

just told you—and you found out—very valuable information that only highly trusted,

tested and experienced police-officers have ever dreamed of knowing. We need to go

20

somewhere where we can’t be heard.

“I’m going to go tell John that you guys have been dealt with and that you’re gone.

I’m also going to tell him that I don’t feel well and am going home. He’ll let me go—he’s my

boss as well as being a very nice man.

“While I’m doing that, I want you to go out there,” Emma gestured to the street

outside the office, “and act as though you know nothing. I’ll meet you across the street and

then we can talk.”

She took a deep breath and mumbled, more to herself than us, “I just hope this

works.”

Then she said, to us this time, “If you don’t want to hear anymore, then the only

thing I ask is that you don’t tell anyone about this. Rumors spread, and if they get to the

police. . . well, there are cameras in here and they can watch all of this. . . Sumi, you know

I’m telling the truth; please don’t get me in trouble.”

She offered a little wave and then disappeared back behind the booth.

Cata, Kuro and I looked at each other, a silent, “Wow,” on all of our lips. Despite

Emma’s command, we stood there, gaping at each other, for another four minutes until we

heard footsteps down the hall. We all jumped at exactly the same moment, which made us

giggle nervously. As the footsteps drew closer, though, I came to my senses and grabbed

their sleeves.

“Come on!”

We scurried out the door just in time. As we ran across the street, I took a quick

peek back through the glass doors. Another police officer had entered the room and was

looking around, confused. He had seen the door swing shut! As we stepped up onto the

curb, I whispered to Cata and Kuro, “It’s not Emma—and I think he might have seen us!”

They whirled around and we watched, deadly silent, as the officer took one last scan

of the room, backed up slowly, and left. I let out a sigh of relief.

“Do you think he’ll check the camera?” Kuro asked desperately.

“No,” Cata shook her head, “Did you see the way he just walked away? If he were to

have really thought that there had been someone there, he would have called somebody.”

Cata did a weird little sigh that gradually turned into a groan.

“What are we going to do?”

“In my opinion, we’ve gotten ourselves into some real big trouble and there’s not

many ways out of it,” Kuro stated. “We need to leave. We need to go back home right now

and tell our parents exactly what happened.”

“No!” I shouted back at him, “Don’t you see, we can’t do that anymore! The time to

tell our parents was right after we saw the cliff—or the edge of the asteroid. But I flunked

it. I wanted to come here—I don’t even know why.”

21

“Yes you do.” Cata said quietly.

“I—” I stammered, “I’m sorry—I do?”

“I think you know why you didn’t want to tell our parents in the first place. You

wanted it to be some sort of adventure novel. Well, it isn’t, okay? You’ve got us in a huge

load of trouble, now.”

“Wow,” Kuro turned toward me, “Really?”

“I—I don’t—maybe.” I admitted, “But we need to hear what Emma has to say! Don’t

you get it? This is, like. . . ” I turn back to Cata, “It sort of is an adventure. And I, for one, am

going to witness it. If you want to go home to where it’s safe and boring and live a normal

life, that’s okay. But when Emma comes out, I’m going to hear what she has to say. Because

this is what I’ve been waiting for.” My whole life. This is my chance to save my mom.

I don’t say it aloud, but I know, somehow, it’s true. I’m getting the same gut instinct

that I did this morning about not telling our parents.

I look from Kuro to Cata and back to Kuro again. Something in his eyes is daring me,

questioning me. Usually Cata’s the one who can read my feelings, but this time, he was on to

me. He knew that there was something else there—and Kuro being Kuro, he wanted to find

out what it was.

“I’m coming with you. No matter what. We’re friends, right?” He smiled.

I looked to her, but Cata didn’t have time to respond, because at that very moment,

the door to the police office opened, and Emma crossed the street.

“Come on.” she whispered to us.

She lead us down the street, Kuro and I following closely. Cata lingered behind for a

moment, but then ran up to me and hissed angrily in my ear,

“I get the feeling you’re getting us into a lot of trouble.”

I just smiled at her and said, “Maybe so, but it’s the type in an adventure.”

22

Chapter 5

Emma lead us all the way across town to Winkston Park, where we found a secluded

area underneath the dappled shade of a grove of maples. Cata, Kuro and I huddled

instinctually together, all our hearts beating in one steady, pounding drum roll. Emma sat

herself down slowly and gingerly, all the time watching nervously about us. After she had

began speaking for the third time and then stopped, stood up and scanned the landscape

for any sign of intrusion, I cut in.

“Emma, there’s no one here but us—I promise. Take a deep breath and start from

the beginning. What were you saying about VanSicklen, again? Maybe that’ll get you

started.” I had never guessed that someday I would order a fully-fledged police officer to

take a deep breath to calm their nerves, but a lot of weird things had been happening lately,

so I guess it wasn’t that surprising.

Emma gulped once, did her fishy open and then close mouth thing and then began

her speech the at the speed of an overweight slug,

“Yes, Sumi, you were right. Well, not entirely. VanSicklen’s rocket was indeed a

mechanism to send a small amount of select people to this asteroid—and it did

purposefully explode.”

“But why?” Kuro asked, beginning to catch on.

“Because,” said Emma, talking a little faster now, “Our Blue Skanian society was

meant to be a secret from the rest of the world. If people knew that VanSicklen had actually

found out a way to create a living city on another planet, they would have come rushing to

it and crowded this place. And that was exactly what he didn’t want. Actually, the purpose

of sending us here was to let human’s have a new chance at life, a chance for peace and

happiness. See, VanSicklen believed that our Earth world was far shoddier to what we are

capable of making. I, personally, agree with him.”

“How do you know?” Cata asked, apparently still quizzical of Emma.

“How do I know? I know because that lowly planet was where I spent my childhood.

You kids are lucky not to be able to truthfully say so.”

“Well, then how did you get to be a police officer here?” Cata asked.

“Rocket—or plane or whatever. Simple; we police officers have a secret

headquarters underneath the asteroid. It’s quite near here, actually. We’ve built an airfield

that goes all the way directly underneath this place and comes out the other end. After a

plane enters or exits, though, we have a cover exactly matching the rock of the cliff that we

slide over the entrance and exit so that nobody can see—”

Cata gasped, “So that was what I saw the other day! A police rocket entering the

asteroid! It all makes sense: we all heard the engines, but we didn’t hear the “crash”

23

because there wasn’t one. The cover must have been put up before we looked over.”

“Oh, wow! Great! So now I don’t have to worry about having a mental sister who

sees things anymore!” Kuro exclaimed to Cata’s annoyance. He was right, though. I had

been slightly worried about Cata as well. And this proved that at least part of what Emma

was saying was true, so now I wouldn’t have to put up with such a suspicious and inquiring

Cata anymore.

“What?” asked Emma, perplexed.

“We never got around to telling you, but the cliff wasn’t the only thing we discovered

yesterday, I guess we were already caught up in what was happening just having told you

about the cliff. . . we already sort of knew there was something about your rockets.”

“Oh.”

“So someone’s hauling in bucket loads of Earthian police officers to do… what now?”

Kuro asked.

“The ‘someone’ is VanSicklen’s great grandson, George VanSicklen. He’s trying to

keep people like you from knowing things like you do.”

“A great grandson, huh? Sheesh; what’s he up to?”

“Well, a lot, actually. VanSicklen Sr. was a fairly famous person, and he had some

high-ranking friends, and those high-ranking friendships seem to have continued over the

years. So now VanSicklen Jr. can pretty much do anything he wants—it’s sort of scary,

actually. Let’s say he wanted to build a communistic government—if he couldn’t already

make a law allowing him to do so, though he probably could, anyway—then I’m sure he

could influence one of his friends to do so for him.

“He has a way of. . . manipulating people. Giving them a common enemy or just—

well, I don’t know how he does it, but right about now he’s got just about the whole of Blue

Skania under his thumb, not to mention about a fifth of the high-ranking Earthians.”

We all sat in silence for a moment, hoping that Emma wouldn’t suddenly tell us that

he really was trying to create a communistic government, but she didn’t.

“So. . . is he good or bad? Because I’m getting the feeling that it’s an extreme either

way,” Cata said.

“Yeah,” Emma answered, “Maybe I’ll tell you a little more about him and then you

can decide for yourself which one he is. I need to go back a little first, though. Okay?”

We all nodded.

“So, you know that famous quote of VanSicklen Sr.’s?”

Again, all heads bobbed an obedient agreement.

“That quote really was basically everything VanSicklen worked for: creating a

peaceful society. The whole thing was based on that one idea. Peace. And now, VanSicklen

Jr. is obsessed with it, as well.”

24

“Emma! That’s great!” Cata smiled and I noticed that her shoulders relaxed quite a

bit. But if I had been her, I hadn’t been so sure just yet. Kuro’s tensed jaw and shoulders

told me that he agreed.

“Yeah, a ‘great’ sort of great, Cata. I don’t like how much this VanSicklen Jr. guy has

been keeping from us. Why didn’t we know about him?” Kuro narrowed his eyes.

“Kuro’s right,” said Emma, “I haven’t finished. May I continue?”

Cata turned red and mumbled something that sounded like ‘okay’.

“Where were we? Oh, yes. He’s obsessed with this idea of peace and nonviolence—

and that would be great, Cata, except for the fact that, um, some people on this asteroid

have a. . . certain power that he thinks that they will use to be violent and create war on his

great-grandfather’s precious asteroid. So he keeps them from knowing about it by

imprisoning any citizens who discover it. And there’ve been. . . quite a lot of them.”

“How—? That’s just. . . evil. How could he have possibly convinced anybody to do

such a thing? Especially the police! I mean, they’re supposed to be pure good all the way

through—capturing bad guys and all! To be able to convince them to imprison innocent

people. . . impossible!” I crossed my arms, “There’s no way he could have done it, Emma.”

Emma sighed, “I’m afraid there is. See, as well as having so many high-influencing

friends, he also possesses the. . . power. And, you see, only people from Blue Skania are

able to have it, so all the police officers are just regular people. He uses it to threaten them. I

think that’s the reason why all the police officers have to be imported from Earth.”

I stared at my shoes, wishing I had never been rash enough to even come to the

police office in the first place. Looking up at Emma, hoping that, in her eyes, I would be able

to find some sort of reassurance, I found that she was only scanning the horizon nervously

again, her pupils as full of worry as mine.

Cata looked over at me, mouthing the words, ‘Say something!’. I didn’t know what to

say, but I knew she was right; Emma needed to keep going—I could tell she was running

out of steam.

“Sounds like he’s using the power to abuse people, Emma. Isn’t that exactly what

he’s trying to avoid?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know, Sumi. I think maybe he’s gotten so obsessed with

the peace idea because he enjoys his power. . . and he somehow links that to the idea. In my

opinion, he’s noticed that basing his goals on peace has given him a successful career as a

government official, and he’s become power-hungry, so he just keeps getting more and

more obsessed with having peace, even if it means betraying that idea to help it along. It’s

all very confusing and contradictory. And that’s not the worst of it.

“There have been rumors among us police that he’s also looking for an even more

powerful weapon than his power alone—and he intends to use it to destroy Earth.

25

“Whether or not it’s not the best place in the universe, Earth still has living and

breathing people on it—millions of them. And all those people’s lives. . . would end, if we

let him do it.”

“Wha—wha—wait a minute there!” Kuro stuttered, “What do you mean by ‘we’?”

In that moment, I knew what she meant.

“I mean that I wasn’t brought to see you about the cliff for just a random reason. I

asked specifically to be able to deal with any Blue Skanian who began to realize that

something was different.” Emma said, her tone growing louder and louder, “I’ve been

waiting, waiting through every person who’s seen the cliff. . . waiting for someone who can

finally help me take VanSicklen down. And now, finally, I’ve found you.

“There’s no way on Earth that I could do it alone, but there might be a way in Blue

Skania--with you three.”

I stopped breathing. I felt that tingle up my back that people always feel in books, I

thought I knew. So, my speech coming out in slow motion from my mouth, I asked,

“Why?”

“Because,” Emma whispered, “You have the power.”

26

Chapter 6

I had been right. Knowing, all along, that this mysterious ‘power’ must be ours still

didn’t make it any easier for me, finding out that it was true. Emma had been so hesitant to

bring it up, I realized, that there must have been something special about it.

My thoughts swirled excitedly; what was this ‘power’? Could we fly? I hoped so. . . at

first. But thinking about it, I realized that nothing could possibly be better than normal. If I

could fly, or morph, or breath underwater, then I would just suddenly become so different

from the rest of the world that suddenly I wouldn’t fit in. I know, like all other kids, that

supposedly we’re all different, we’re all ourselves and no one else can be the exact same—

and I love that fact; I love that I’m different, and that even Cata or Kuro, my best friends,

each have their own separate qualities than me. That’s what makes life interesting.

The way I like to think of the world (or Blue Skania) is as a huge needlepoint

pattern, and every person is a stitch. We’re all different colors, but we still blend together

perfectly to create a beautiful pattern. Each person is so small on the spectrum of the whole

piece, but we all have an impact on the overall turnout, so if one person is suddenly orange

in a sea of blues and greens, then that person suddenly doesn’t fit anymore. People would

look at the needlepoint and the first thing they would notice would be the orange stitch.

“Why is that there?” they’d say. Or, “How irregular. I wonder what the artist was thinking”.

Or even, “How are we supposed to enjoy the piece?”. So, I thought, I don’t want to be extra-

special! Because then nobody else would be noticed, or I would be gaped at and said to have

messed up the artwork. I would be the little orange dot in the middle of all the other millions

of people out there. And Cata and Kuro would be, too.

So, right then and there, I decided that, if what Emma was saying was true, I would

never use my power to make myself stand out. Or to threaten people, like VanSicklen.

VanSicklen had to be stopped. . . but the only way was to use my supposed power! I would

become a hero, I realized.

It would be just like in the adventure, the adventure that I had wanted to be in for my

whole life!

But that would make me so extra-special. . . wasn’t that what I had just promised

myself not to be? No, I had promised myself not to use my power to stand out. I would instead

be using my power to stop VanSicklen, but not for the purpose of making myself a hero. I

would stop VanSicklen, and maybe I would be the hero, but I wouldn’t stay that way. I wanted

to use my power to help others, though still stay small and blue.

I knew Emma was telling the truth, but I had to ask her something before I could be

sure of anything,

“How do you know we have it?”

27

“Because the police have a secret database. . . files on every person in Blue Skania.

We know who has the power and who doesn’t, who to watch more closely. We scan you

when you’re just born, saying it’s a check to see your heart rate. There are some Earthians

disguised as doctors as well as police officers.”

So that was it—the last piece. . . Emma wasn’t lying, and now there was only one

more question left to ask.

“What is it?” I wasn’t sure Emma would understand, but I needed to get that

sentence out of my mouth before I fainted. Yet I didn’t faint, and she understood me.

We were all silent.

Once more, Emma opened and closed her mouth. Then, with a deep groan, she told

us.

***

“When Argus VanSicklen sent that select group of people away to this asteroid in

1985, they passed through an unexpected obstacle—an electrical field stood in their path.

Though they passed through it supposedly unharmed, and the people felt just the same,

they realized that their bodies had been infused with electricity, and that, if they managed

to get outdoors during an electrical storm, then that electricity inside them would escape

through their fingertips, drawn by all the other electrical activity in the air around them.

They called this sparking, and they called the ability to spark Hyper Electric Syndrome—

and here’s the thing: Hyper Electric Syndrome can be passed down through generations, so

some people still have it today. . . but you can’t only spark when you’re in an electrical

storm.

“Eventually the people learned to control that electricity escaping their fingertips

and, sometimes, toes. . . so suddenly, out of the blue, they could create. . . lightning.

“After VanSicklen’s return in 2000, just before he died, he was able to convince these

people to stay quiet about their power, as he feared they would use it for violence, and so

they did willingly. But what VanSicklen Jr. is doing now is past that. . . and we need to stop

him.

“So, even though you’re just a couple of kids, you’ve been able to spark ever since

you were born—you were always destined to bring VanSicklen down, even if right now

you’re a little young. Please! You have to help me!”

I wanted to say yes, I really did—and I knew that Cata and Kuro felt the same;

Emma, a full grown police officer, pleading with us? No, none of us doubted her anymore,

yet we still doubted ourselves. We didn’t believe that we could actually spark, even if,

logically, we knew we could. Knowing and believing. . . for me, at least, they’ve always been

different. So, even after that one last piece, that one last question, I needed one last

assurance.

28

I walked out a good distance behind Cata and Kuro, just to make sure they were safe.

And, focusing all my mind on the energy within me, I summoned up a quick, perky feeling

that, in a flash, spread to my entire body. I clasped my hands tight to my chest, bent over,

and focused that energy as hard as I could onto my prickly fingers. Nothing happened.

Silence. Quiet. Everything was blank, waiting, waiting.

And then I felt it; like a burst of light tingling my body, like a fire engulfing me in

flame, like a little lightning bolt hitting my chest, I felt it. And there, on my fingertips, was a

dancing spark of electricity.

Emma, Cata, and Kuro stared in awe. . . but the twins weren’t staring at me. They

were gaping at their very own sparks.

29

Part 2VanSicklen’s

Weapon

30

Chapter 1

So it was all true. Now that was not only a fact, but now also a belief. I still don’t

know how, but something within me had just finally given in, and something else had. . .

sparked. The true credence that Emma was right, a mysterious stubbornity within me had

finally given in. Whether or not her words were ridiculous; whether or not my life had just

changed, I now had honest faith in the words that had spilled from her mouth—and,

looking at the twins faces, they did, too.

I didn’t know if I wanted to believe that it was true, but that didn’t matter anymore. I

believed it was true, I knew it was true—and it was true. And, as Emma had said, it was our

job to fix it; Because right now, as we sat in shocked silence, we were rewriting history. So,

no matter anything, anyone, anyhow, we needed to stop VanSicklen.

I looked from Kuro to Cata and then back to Kuro again. I could tell that they both

wanted me to be the next one to say anything.

But I only shook my head, so Kuro decided to take the opportunity to ask a vital

question that I have forgotten.

“Can you. . . you know, spark?” He asked hopefully.

“No,” She reminded him, “Only descendants of VanSicklen Sr.’s astronauts can have

it.”

He groaned. “But we’re just a bunch of kids! We just found out that we can spark—

and are still trying to understand all of this. Plus, we don’t even know what the weapon is!

And now you’re saying that we have to defeat VanSicklen on our own??”

“No,” Emma said, “I’m not. What I’m saying is that I’ve been wanting to do this for

years, and I’ve always needed just a little extra support, because I can’t spark. You guys

aren’t doing this alone. You’re simply helping me because you have something that I don’t.

Kuro, if this puts too much pressure on you, you’re welcome to leave. But I need one of you

—at least—to help.”

I wondered if what Emma was saying was really true—after all, there was only so

much she could do without us; she needed a lot of help. Although, she was right. . . and I

had promised myself that I would defeat VanSicklen—so I would.

“I’m staying, Kuro, whether or not you’re coming.” I told him, though it wasn’t

entirely true. I wasn’t sure what I would or wouldn’t do—but I did know that I wanted

myself to stay, at the least; I knew it would be the right thing to do, whether or not he came.

Thankfully, Cata made the decision for me.

“Yeah, Kuro. I’m with Emma and Sumi.”

Well, I thought she had made the decision for me—by making Kuro come. Normally,

31

he tagged along with us if it was two against one, and Cata tagged along with us. But it

seemed that, finally, Kuro was having second thoughts about joining us. He looked to Cata,

seeming to say “Why?” and then to me. We looked at each other for a long moment, and this

time, through our eyes, we didn’t really communicate anything. We just looked. And we

each thought. I would have bet that he wanted so badly for me to come back with him and

leave Cata to do as she pleased—it almost seemed as if he wanted her gone away with

Emma, leaving us alone. But I would never let that happen—we were all friends, best

friends, and I never wanted us to part. I looked deep into those pleading eyes, shook my

head and gave him an apologetic smile. I knew it wouldn’t make up for my decision to part

with him, but at least it was something—

“I’ll come.” Kuro closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. I couldn’t believe he had done

that! He was—it was... thanks, Kuro. I don’t know why it was such an emotional moment,

but I was so relieved that he had come with me, so relieved that we were still friends.

There was a long silence and Emma looked at all of us, trying, as I was, hard not to

cry.

“Thanks,” she said.

I shrugged in my silly manner, trying to conceal my burning eyes and grinning lips,

because even if this wasn’t a silly situation, I liked being modest greatly—I was just a kid,

after all, and I liked, in a way, having an adult who needed me to do something really

important for once—this is not, like, washing the dishes or doing the laundry or wiping the

windows down with Windex. Because in those circumstances, I was just a kid doing her

chores. And in this circumstance, I’m “just a kid” who’s maybe, just maybe, about to save

the world.

Kuro groaned, bringing me back to the situation at hand, “But you guys, this is just

totally ridiculous! How are we supposed to even find out what this evil weapon thingie is,

anyway? I mean, if VanSicklen plans to use it to destroy Earth, he has to realize that that’s

pretty evil and that someone’s gonna try and stop him.”

“Kuro…,” Cata said suspiciously, “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying that if he know’s we’re gonna try to figure out what the weapon is, then

that information—what the weapon is—is gonna be kept under the most protective guard!

How in Blue Skania are we ever ever going to figure out what the weapon is—let alone how

to defeat it!”

“There’s nothing for it,” said Emma, “There’s only one thing we can do.”

At this, she shuddered.

“We’re just going to have to sneak into his office. I know where it is, but you’re right,

Kuro, it’ll probably be guarded. . . or worse. He’ll be in there.”

"What? But that would be risking our lives!"

32

“I’m sorry,” said Emma, “But if you’re in, it’s the only way.”

A single tear ran down Emma's paled cheek and she turned away, leaving me staring

helplessly at her short, frizzy brown blob of hair.

I shook my head at her… it was true—I would stop VanSicklen—and at any cost. But

this was further, for sure, then I imagined such an innocent women would take three kids.

Chapter 2

33

The following morning I was awoken by a grouchy Raggy—who had still not

recovered from his little. . . embarrassment. Nothing really bad had happened, but I was

sure that his humiliation was complete, even if I didn’t get details. No, I didn’t feel sorry for

him; Not in the least—if anything, the laugh was just what I had needed. But now I had to

deal with him and his little pranks all over again—and I had a sneaking suspicion that he

knew I was behind the thumbtacks. But what goes around comes around, as all reasonable

people know.

I almost forgot the events of the day before in my scramble to get out of the house

and away from Raggy, but not for long, as I suddenly found myself striding away from the

house and along into VanShickion’s park, where most of the wealthier people resided. I had

always walked here when I had something really big to think about; it had always been my

fantasy to own one of these huge library-looking mansions some day and the quiet, well-

kept neighborhood helped me think and day-dream when I needed it.

It was here, also, at the outskirts of the park were Cata and Kuro lived—no, they

didn’t own anything particularly fancy, but their home was well kept, and they did have a

gardener who had been decorating their lawn with beautiful topiary things since, it

seemed, forever. That was another attraction that had often drawn me here.

But today, I noticed, I was not being drawn there. Instead, I found myself walking

through the most absolutely fanciest of all the mansions I had ever known. Something

about the calm, the undisturbed and nicely kept, yet unused feel of the modern houses

contrasting with the old homes, contrasting with the nicely paved streets and sidewalks

made me feel relaxed; I liked it here.

Soon, with thoughts of VanSicklen swirling once more, and the new, hopeful thought

that this might all be a dream, I decided that I should try sparking again—just to make sure

it was all really real. But sure enough, just like before, I easily summoned the brisk energy

as if I had been doing so my whole life and soon my fingers were tingling with excitement. I

passed the little spark back and forth through my fingertips, enjoying the cool, prickly

feeling and then the hot, controlling one as the little lightning bolt flickered from one

emotion to the other. It never seemed to be able to make up it’s mind on how to act; one

moment it would throw one of its burning temper tantrums for no apparent reason and the

next it would feel like a driving, stinging January snowstorm. But either way, it was

stubborn and—as I began to realize—sometimes had a mind entirely of it’s own or even

seemed to take pleasure in disobeying my silent commands. Even though it was inside me,

and seemed to come out whenever I pleased, I found that once it danced in the open air, I

was simply it’s humble guide.

34

After an hour of walking through the park, I remembered to check my watch. 9:15!

My appointment with Cata, Kuro and Emma was five minutes past! I sprinted as fast as I

could out past the outskirts of VanShickion (thankfully the police office wasn’t far away),

but I still arrived ten minutes late.

After a quick glance to make sure nobody was watching, I slipped into the office and

down the hall to the “abandoned lady’s room,” as Emma had called it, where I found Emma,

a worried looking Cata and a disgusted Kuro smushed into a tiny stall.

“Hi, guys. . . ” I smiled and shrugged guiltily. Cata and Emma glared, but Kuro just

continued to close his eyes and scrunch up his mouth.

“Why’d it have to be the girl’s bathroom, Emma? Wasn’t there anywhere else?” He

groaned.

Cata giggled, but Emma replied, “It’s the only place that nobody really uses in this

building—and it’s close to VanSicklen’s office.”

“But then where do the girls go to the bathroom?” He shuddered. “This is so

embarrassing!”

This time I couldn’t resist but stifle a laugh along with Cata and Emma.

“There’s another bathroom, silly!” Emma snorted, “And we have more girls than

boys, so you’re outnumbered.”

“Plus,” Cata put in, “there aren’t any abandoned men’s rooms because no matter

how nasty their bathrooms get, guys will still use them. That’s just how unsanitary they

are.”

We couldn’t help it, we all cracked up at that. After a minute, Kuro joined in, too.

Normally we wouldn’t have laughed, but we were all very nervous about going into

VanSicklen’s office and we needed it so badly.

I was halfway through a final snort when I abruptly stopped.

“Ssh!” I whispered, and everybody immediately fell silent, “I think someone heard

us!”

We froze. Someone was opening the door.

With the creak of the old door hinges covering up the noise, Emma whispered,

“Get up!” It was a quick command, but we all understood it; the door to the stall

didn’t reach the ground entirely—if somebody looked closely, they’d be able to see our feet.

We scrambled up onto the toilet (which, thankfully, had it’s lid closed) and tottered

on the top of it, trying to keep our balance—but there were too many of us! I felt myself

slipping and grabbed the wall, my hands making a distinct clap that echoed throughout the

room. I heard the intruder draw a sharp breath.

I watched through the crack between the wall and the door as she strode quickly

toward the first stall and opened it’s door. She scanned it quickly and moved onto the next

35

—the one just next to us! Kuro looked frantically at me—and then I had an idea. I put a

finger to my lips and nodded.

As quietly as I could, I leaned out and slid the lock on the door shut. Thankfully, it

didn’t make any noise.

The officer left the other stall and moved on to us. Emma, Cata and Kuro turned to

me. I mouthed, “follow me” and, clumsily but quietly made my way over the low divider

and into the recently examined stall.

The officer was at our door now, rattling it and swearing. I beckoned to Kuro. He

followed, but made a small clank as he landed on the toilet. Thankfully, the officer was still

swearing loudly and pounding on the door, so the noise was covered up.

Cata came gracefully next, and Emma followed.

She was halfway over the top when she lost her balance and toppled into the stall. I

watched in slow motion as she fell. . . twisting in mid air. . . and landed on her feet!

We stood, paralyzed, as we watched (through another crack) as the officer finally

gave in and squirmed her way under the stall door. See stood up inside of it, a vein in her

forehead pulsing. She let out a stream of curses, and as she did, Emma, now recovered,

gestured out of the stall. That was all it took.

We ran for our lives away from the bathroom, through two corridors, and then

suddenly stopped. It only took me a moment to realize why, though. Because we were

standing just in front of a door with a large silver plaque on it, and the plaque read

‘VanSicklen’.

As the door to VanSicklen’s office slid smoothly and quietly open, I let out a sigh of

relief; looking around the room, I saw that mounted on the carpeted floor stood a deep

ebony desk, adorned only with a single tablet bordered perfectly with a fountain pen—

whose edge was disturbingly sharp—and a bright yellow highlighter. Seemingly everlasting

shelves reached up on either side of the desk, both of which shelves were coated in

perfectly stacked papers, all of which were tagged with small white sticky-notes, their

labels handwritten in a decisively sharp and bold shape. Across from the desk, as if

VanSicklen needed even more organization space where piles upon piles of filing cabinets.

The far wall of the room was inlaid with a platinum bookshelf, and each shelf was

devoted to a different type of item. The first shelf was lined with books. The second proudly

displayed a number of pens, pencils, note cards and other office supplies. The third: tablets.

Then came a shelf with one and only one item on it; a single, leather-bound book. It had no

title.

Above it was a beautiful painting of the ocean. To me it almost felt like I could

actually see the waves crashing. . . but I would have prefered an actual window rather than

36

a fake of what could be a view of all of our—my—precious Blue Skania.

I pulled my eyes away from the painting and looked up further on the shelves. I

shivered as I thought I saw a shelf housing an array of daggers and pistols, but I couldn’t

have been sure, for the walls of VanSicklen’s office seemed to ascend into eternity—just

like the bookshelves and filing cabinets.

But most importantly? No VanSicklen.

I turned around to make sure Cata, Kuro and Emma were still there, but they were

already rummaging through the piles upon piles of VanSicklen’s papers. I took one last

glance around the room and shook my head—they obviously hadn’t noticed the fact that

there was a single, very important looking book sitting untouched in the center of a bare

shelf right across the room.

“Guys!” I groaned.

“What?” Kuro asked without looking up, “Did you find something?”

“Yes!” I answered expectantly. All three heads swung around from their work, alert

and ready for news. When they saw that my hands were empty, however, their grins faded.

“Where is it?” asked Cata.

I rolled my eyes and gestured at the small book.

“Ooa!” She let out, sounding a bit like a startled mouse.

Emma was the first to get over to the book. She leafed quickly through the pages,

each of which was filled with spidery-like hand written words. She nodded and shrugged,

seeming to say, “good enough” and tucked it in a little satchel she wore at her waist.

We quickly skimmed the array of other book titles (for the other books did have

titles) for anything interesting, but only found volumes of war histories—a strange thing

for such a “peacekeeper” to have in his office. We also came upon a couple of Blue Skanian

histories (we didn’t take them; why should we? We all already knew all we felt we needed)

and a couple of novels.

We soon moved on to the papers again, which proved more of a trouble than any of

us could have wished; every paper had to be taken out, read, put back into the pile, and

straightened. Eventually, after around a hundred sheets of bore, we gave up. It was too

much to have to read every single one of VanSicklen’s papers. Mostly, they were laws he

had issued, new rocket designs he had made for the new coming police officers and sheets

of information on new employees. It looked like the police force grew in number every day.

After three filing cabinets, Kuro plopped himself down on the floor and moaned,

showing what we all had been feeling for an hour:

“This is so boring. Are we ever gonna find something interesting here? Can we please

give up?”

Silently, I agreed with him, and I think everybody else did, too.

37

Kuro looked at us and nodded.

“Yeah. We have a book, too.” Kuro nodded, seeing our agreement. “It’s not for

nothing.”

And, in silent agreement, we left.

Chapter 3

38

“It looks so old.”

“I know. But it had an entire shelf all to itself—it must be important.”

“It doesn’t even have a title!”

“Kuro, just let it go. We got what we got. Can’t we just read it?”

“Fine. Here.”

I took the worn book into my hands and cradled it gently. The leather cover was

beginning to come off and the spine was bent in multiple places, but it still had a certain. . .

feel to it. I knew that this book was special. So, without further ado, I carefully opened the

cover and began to read.

“Once upon a time, long long ago, there lived a small girl called Ally. She lived far, far away in a desolate place inhabited by a small village with only a hundred people, at most. She had a mother, and a father, and a brother as well, and even without them she was never alone, for the whole village lived as one family and everybody knew everybody else and their mothers.

Her father’s name was James and he said to have come from the more populous land when he was only a boy along with many of the older adults of the village. The story fascinated Ally, or at least what she knew of it did, and every night before she fell asleep she would ask him,

‘Daddy, why is it your papa sent you here? And how’d he get you all the way?’

For she, like everybody else knew that no land held people for thousands of miles away.

But, every night, her father would just shush her and whisper,‘That is not for you to find out, my sweet. Now sleep in peace.’‘But Daddy!’‘Ssh.’And with that, every time the sun set, he would kiss her gently and slip

away and out of her room, leaving her to wonder and wonder. But even with this everlasting mystery, her life was still close to

perfect. Her young brother, Peter, was kind and playful, occupying her time with babysitting when her parents were away, and helping him with his homework when they weren’t.

I paused for a moment to contemplate the story so far. It certainly wasn’t what I had

39

expected—it was just a kids book! Kuro read my thoughts and pulled a face.

“Are you guys sure that this book is important? This is valuable time! We could be

practicing our sparking—I mean, we’re going to need to face VanSicklen sometime and

some”—Kuro demonstrated some silly facial expressions along with a couple of very wide

sparks that I thought to be a bit dangerous. “See!”

I rolled my eyes.

“Aw! Who’re you kidding? You just want to show off.”

Now it was Kuro who rolled his eyes at me.

“Yeah—but—I mean—NU UH! Dude, I was just being realistic. Duh.”

“Busted!” Cata and I yell together and immediately collapse in a fit of giggles.

Emma put her head in her hands,

“Guys, please. . . spare me.”

Emma sounded exasperated, but I could see that behind a hand she was hiding a

small smile. She noticed me looking at her and gave a little wink.

“But really, let’s read.”

“No!” Kuro rolled his whole head this time along with his eyes.

Cata shrugged, still giggling quietly, “I sort of agree with Kuro. I think we need to use

this time to do something else.”

“Fine.” I said; I’d come back to the book later tonight—that way we wouldn’t have to

argue. And if I found something important, of course I’d share it with them—and I knew

that I would find something. This book was special.

Like I had told myself I would, I came back to the book later that night after a long

day of sparking practice—which, I did admit, wasn’t an entire waste of time. All three of us

could now shoot lightning—and these sparks were really lightning, not just sparks long

distance. We could hold them for five seconds at least, burning down trees, even. I felt bad,

but it had only been three trees, and in the center of Winkston forest, just off of Winkston

park, so there were still plenty left over. So, sitting down in my warm bed, my mint green

covers snuggled up all around me, I once again opened the leather bound cover and

continued to read.

Even with this everlasting mystery, her life was still close to perfect. Her young brother, Peter, was kind and playful, occupying her time with babysitting when her parents were away, and helping him with his homework when they weren’t.

But then, one day, Ally’s life changed. She woke with the smell of ash in her nose, and the sound of screams

40

in her ears. Jumping out of bed as quickly as her stiff feet would allow, she ran in a panic to the window, where she could see out onto the street below.

But she couldn’t see the street.Ally’s heart beat faster and faster and soon she felt she might no

longer be able to breathe. For, below Ally’s soot-stained window, the whole village was encased in fire.

Ally rushed to her brother’s bedroom, the hard wooden floor softening underneath her burnt feet.

‘Peter!’Ally’s brother tumbled out of his room and ran into her arms. ‘Where’s Mommy?’ He asked, trembling.‘I don’t know. But we need to get out of here. Now!’ Indeed they did. Around them, the walls were collapsing in the blazing

red heat of the fire. ‘No!’ Peter yelled, struggling to get free of Ally’s grasp, ‘Mommy!’ Ally looked frantically around. If we don’t get out soon, this whole

house is going to collapse on us!Finally, after a moment of arms and legs and screams and heat, their

mother and father came tumbling out of her bedroom, a small box in their father’s hands.

‘Mommy!’ Peter shrieked. ‘Ally! Peter! Why are you still up here?’‘Mom! He wouldn’t—’ Ally started, but her mother cut her off, pulling

her aside as a large chunk of ceiling came crashing down where Ally had stood a moment ago.

‘Move!’ And they did. Down the crumbling staircase and out onto the crowded

street. But it wasn’t crowded with villagers. This is no house fire. Ally thought, This is war. ‘We’re being invaded!’ A tall villager shouted, ‘Fight!’ And indeed they did. Weapons were found amongst the bomb fire, but the enemy needed

not seek out weapons. In their hands, they held long rifles, shooting down any person or persons who got in their way.

Eventually, Ally’s father found her and her brother and took them deep into a wood a bit east of the village. Ally had come here, sometimes, but

41

when she had, it had been to get away from humanity and into the wild of nature, but now the wood was crowded with villagers.

‘We will hide here until the peak of the invasion passes.’‘So we just. . . surrender?’ Ally asked, astounded.‘No.’ her father said, ‘We’ll wait here until we can be ready to defend

ourselves. Until then, we need to keep everyone safe.’Ally nodded grimly. She understood.

Weeks passed, and the fight continued. Still, no one knew who the enemy was or why they were here, but it didn’t matter. Villagers were dying fighting, and more still from starvation. Person by person were wiped out and soon their parents with them.

It had been a bluish green type of day, a pretty one with fresh dewdrops on the untouched grass and not a cloud in the sky. Her father had died at the hand of the enemy, only minutes after the man who shot him dead to one of Ally’s father’s bullets. It had been simultaneously, they both shot at exactly the same time, and they both died knowing they had killed one of the enemy. That, Ally was sure, was how he would have wanted to die.

Her mother passed away three days later of heartbreak, most said. But only Ally and Peter knew that really she simply couldn’t hold onto the everlasting war any longer. She had poisoned herself so that, she said, she could be with their father in the peaceful world above. Before she left them, she gave Ally a sketchpad of precious paper and Peter a knife that had once been her father’s. It might seem that she was being a bad mother for leaving them in such time of need, war, chaos. But in a way, for Ally, it was the right time; and she knew it. Ally couldn’t explain why, but this war was changing her, deep deep down, and her brother, too. They were ready for independance, ready to move on. This, their mother accepted, but they still heard her crying her eyes out deep into the night when she had died. And Ally didn’t think she was being hurt from the poison.

Not letting her grievances get ahead of her, Ally soon began quickly jotting down every idea in the new notebook. Most of the ideas sprouted from the everlasting war that still raged, more specifically, weapons. She wrote in the smallest of small writing to preserve the paper, but soon had used all of four pages of the precious papyrus. Ally realized that she would have to begin refining her ideas, not just jotting down something on every

42

little whim. She would have to begin the making of the actual weapon. See, all this time, Ally had not only been frantically taking notes on the enemy’s every weakness that they could use, but she had been secretly designing a new weapon. A weapon, she hoped, that would be so new, unique and powerful that, she still hoped, could end this war.

Hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, fight after fight, and Ally’s pencil was still scratching away.

Their forest village was in tatters. Ally no longer fought, she had been wounded so gravely. A horrid thrash mark had been dealt to her left leg, courtesy of an enemy soldier. But her time resting was not spent rashly, instead of fighting, she now used her time to sketch, and sketch more. Soon, she knew, she would have to get out of bed and begin constructing her design, for no one else she knew would, they were all too caught up in the war.

Soon enough, as Ally had expected, she got out of bed, her wounded leg trembling and set to work.

The weapon was fashioned into the shape and form of a sword, with a pure leather hilt and a long, sharp blade made of silver. She hoped it would work, for she had spent long and hard days getting all of that darned expensive metal; the weapon was meant not as a weapon in itself, but as an enhancer of the wielder of the sword.

She called it a Lightning Sword.

Ally went on to create seven of these marvelous weapons, and soon they were finished.

With the help of her brother and the friends there were left to have in their community, they used these Lightning Swords in a final battle against the enemy, and, through tears and pain, through love and sorrow, through the marvel of the Lightning Sword, they won.

Though only one of these marvelous weapons is said to still exist today, it’s power will someday make a revolution, will someday make a difference, for it is, after all, the Lightning Sword.

I was held, for a moment, in silence. There was something about that story. . .

43

something that I couldn’t quite relate, but I was so close. . . no. I set it down bitterly,

disappointedly. It had meant nothing, just a mere child’s tale. Tomorrow, I would find Cata,

Kuro and Emma and we could return the book to it’s lonely shelf in VanSicklen’s office.

So, without second thought, I rolled over in bed and turned out the light.

Chapter 4

We took the book back just the day after. Our trip through police headquarters was

uneventful, and soon we were in VanSicklen’s empty office once more—it seemed that

VanSicklen was away, or traveling, for according to Emma he usually spent most of his time

locked up inside of his office, making plans for who-knows-what.

The book was quietly placed back on the shelf where it had been originally, and we

began to snoop some more. We figured there must be something in here that would reveal

this weapon VanSicklen was questing for.

Almost an hour of snooping passed, still uneventful, when I, stationed at the door to

sound the alert if anyone was coming, heard the faint sound of footsteps down the hall. I

quickly and as quietly as possible closed the door and hissed,

“Police! We need to get out of here!”

Emma looked up, frantic, “No! There’s a folder in here. . . it’s labeled, ‘Lightning

Sword’! I think it means something, but it’s jammed!”

44

I gasped, a little louder than I would have liked. “‘Lightning Sword’?”

“Leave it,” Kuro whispered frantically, “We can come back!”

“No,” said Emma, “You kids go. I need to get this folder. I’ll meet you in Winkston

Park. Go!”

Kuro and Cata frantically slipped out the door and into the hallway, where the

footsteps were getting louder around the corner. I hesitated for a moment, but then

followed,

“Emma—come on!”

“I’ll be just a minute. Run!”

And indeed I ran. Down the hall, through a corridor, out an open window, into a

prickly bush, right onto Cata and Kuro.

We fought our way out of the bush and, sucking the places where the prickles had

gotten to us, we set off once more.

After a couple of minutes at Winkston Park, I began to worry. Where was Emma?

Had she gotten out alright? What would they do if they found her? She was a police officer,

maybe they would let her go. . . but she had been snooping through VanSicklen’s files—and

she would be caught red-handed! I couldn’t think of much worse than that.

Another ten minutes passed.

I stood up and shook my head, “She’s not coming, guys,” I bit my lip, feeling tears of

guilt on the verge of falling, “I shouldn’t have listened to her. We shouldn’t have just left her

there.”

“It’s okay, Sumi,” Cata stood up as well and placed her hand on my shoulder, “She’s

probably going to be put in prison. . . for who knows how long. If we had stayed, we’d be

with her.”

I looked up at her, and for the first time I felt real anger at Cata.

“You’re so selfish. Don’t you understand? I don’t care if we were locked away with

her! I don’t care! She’s gone, and. . . and. . . ”

Cata shrank away at my anger, but Kuro did the opposite.

“And what, Sumi?”

I shook my head.

“Is it your mom?” Cata whispered.

I shrunk into a ball on the ground, bawling like a child. Neither Cata nor Kuro was

exactly sure what to do.

Once I had finished, I sat up a little straighter, and, between small sobs, explained.

“I. . . I thought that she—sob—she might have been, you know, been one of those

sparkers that—sob—that Emma mentioned. . . the ones that had been l-locked up, because

45

they—sob. . . sob, sob—because they knew. I was. . . I was hoping that maybe, maybe Emma

would help me find her after I—sniff—after I helped her. . . you know.”

“Oh.” said Cata. She looked at the grass and fiddled with a bit of her hair.

We sat in silence for a minute, me sniffing every once in a while.

“Wait!” Kuro stood up, then immediately got down again, “Sumi, we can still get your

mom! We’re gonna have to get Emma out of prison, and maybe while we’re there, we can

look for your mom! The prison that Emma will be in will be the place where the police

round up people who seem to be a threat to VanSicklen. . . so your mom and Emma will

most likely be in about the same place!”

A pause.

“Kuro! You’re a genius!” I threw my arms around him and gave him a squeeze, then

quickly drew back again, both of us red in the cheeks. But I didn’t care,

“Yeah! Let’s do that!” I nodded, “Come on. Let’s go to my house; we need to plan.

We’re going to break into the prison.”

And with that, I promptly stood up and walked away, the twins on my tail.

46

Chapter 5

“Sumi, I swear this is a terrible idea!” Cata shook her head violently, as if to fling off

whatever bits of my ‘ridiculous’ plan still clung to her for support.

“Not as bad as any of my others, Cata.” I rolled my eyes, “And, if I may point out,

you’ve cooperated with all of them.”

Cata stuck out her upper lip and crossed her arms, but didn’t seem to be able to

come up with a retort.

Deciding that that was good enough to pass for a “fine, you win”, I left the topic and

carried on to a new, more pressing one.

“Cata, where’s Kuro?”

“I don’t know. He was sort of reluctant to actually do it, and he might just be a no-

show.”

“Geeze, I hope not.” I frowned. I knew we had asked a lot of Kuro. . . but I had

thought that he had agreed that saving Emma was what mattered most. I groaned.

“If he doesn’t show up soon, then we’ll just have to go and get him, and the card.”

Cata looked appalled, “Sumi-”

But she never finished her sentence, for at that moment, there was a break in the

silent air of the prison, and I heard a familiar voice.

“Why hello, Mr.!”

I grinned and gestured to Cata. I whispered,

“He’s here!”

We ducked behind a bush to watch the puzzling sight. Kuro was dressed in his

regular clothing, but he held a baseball bat, glove and ball. On his head he had a red and

white baseball hat. The guard he had approached was tough-looking and had a burly voice

when he spoke,

“Boy? What’re you doin’ out round’ these parts? It ain’t the place for a little one like

yerself.”

Kuro flushed at being called a “little one”, but he continued on.

“Well, sir, I’d like a pass into the prison-”

The guard’s chin drew back and his eyebrows flew up,

“A. . . a pass? Scuse’ me, little Mr., but there ain’t “passes” into the prison here. A

matter of top security, this all is.” He gestured around him and stood up taller, seemingly

proud of how important his job supposedly was. Then his brow furrowed and he cocked his

head at Kuro,

47

“Why’d you be wantin’ a get in anyhow?”

Kuro flushed bright red and stuttered, “I-I, er. . . um, I heard there were quite a lot of

pretty. . . villainous prisoners in there. And I thought, um, I thought it would just be so cool

to see them with my own eyes! Yeah. That’s why. I just wanted to see the, er. . . ” he paused,

giving me and Cata a moment to exchange stunned glances, “What is he doing??”.

“Prisoners.” Kuro finished up unnecessarily.

“Oh yeah?” The guard asked, smug, “And what’s in it fur me?”

Kuro grinned and whipped out his Eddie Plank baseball card from his back jeans

pocket. Finally, Kuro. About time you got to the point.

The guard stared in awe, and he began to drool at the corners of his mouth. Kuro

grinned and winked at us. I drew back for a moment, Were we really that noticeable? I

hadn’t realized that he had noticed us. After I realized that he was looking at me, I gave a

quick nod and he turned away.

The guard stared for a long time at the card, and a couple of times he started to say

something like, “wow” or “sonny! that’s a mighty fine” or “where on earth did ya get. . .” ,

but then he would abruptly stop and bring himself up into his burly, tall position again,

staring suspiciously down at Kuro and the baseball card.

It was after one of these such relapses that Kuro began to see that this might not be

as easy as we had thought.

“Sir, think of the money you could get selling this. . . ”

The guard shook his head, finally seemingly made up.

“Please. . . ” Kuro begged.

The guard turned up his nose.

“Not for all the money in the. . . ” he paused, and his eyes grew big. He whispered a

cuss.

“Well, I can’t believe I never saw it,” his face became dark with shadow as he bent

down to be nose to nose with Kuro. Then, suddenly, he drew back, “You’re the kid who was

in his office yesterday! The one who got away!”

The guard’s nose twitched. Cata gasped. I jumped out from behind my hiding place,

and landed myself right in between the guard and Kuro. Kuro dropped his bat and glove.

We spread out into a small circle. We all had our fists clenched and at the ready, but

know one struck. We circled each other, eyes steady and focused.

“Kuro! Go away! There’s only one way to take him, and you know I’m better than

you!”

Kuro nodded and began to fade out of the circle, though his fists were still poised. It

was true, I had always been better at sparking than he.

We circled. My eyes darted from the Kuro to the guard, and then back to Kuro again.

48

I watched, almost in slow motion, as the guard glanced at me, then raised his balled

fists and lunged for Kuro. I threw myself at Kuro. It seemed that I could only move as if in a

dream. Something flickered on my finger.

“Sumi—no!” Cata’s voice came slow to my ears, washing away the spark that had

been close to hitting the chest of our enemy. But there wasn’t any enemy anymore.

The guard lay, sprawled on the ground, and in his place stood a frightened looking

Cata, baseball bat in hand and a tear sliding down her cheek. She blinked it away and

hopped over the guard to me and Kuro. She took us into a hug and sobbed into my

shoulder,

“Oh, Sumi! Never do that again! Never! Never—do you hear me?”

“Never do. . . what?” I asked.

“That,” she pricked me with a bite of her own, “Now he knows! And soon enough,

VanSicklen will, too.”

“Ssh! Cata, we’re okay, aren’t we?” Kuro squeezed both of us, then let go and pulled

away.

Cata looked up, though she still clung to my arm, “I guess.”

“Yeah,” I consoled, “What we need to focus on now is this.” I reached down and

pulled a ring of keys from the guard’s belt, jingling them in the air.

“But—” Cata stuttered, “But what about. . . him?”

She pointed to the unconscious guard in disgust.

I smiled, “I think I have an idea.”

***

It’s not so easy to lug a huge, burly man through narrow, winding passages.

“You guys!” Kuro said, exasperated, “We’re not going anywhere. This prison is huge.

How are we supposed to find one specific prisoner in a maze of hundreds?”

“I don’t know,” I wiped my brow; carrying such a man as this one was no small feat,

“I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up, either.”

“Me neither.” panted Cata, who was at the back, supporting the man’s feet.

I shook my head, “There must be some way to get around here.”

“Wait a second—” Kuro began rapidly searching through the pockets of the guard’s

uniform, “Here. Got it.”

He proudly held up a wrinkled, folded piece of paper.

“It’s a map!” breathed Cata, “A map of the prison.”

Kuro grinned, “Yup.”

“Nice, Kuro! Which way to Emma?”

Kuro studied the map, then pointed toward a left turn not far up the corridor, “This

way. She’s not far.”

49

Kuro pointed again and began dragging the guard rapidly down the hallway, Cata

and I panting to keep up.

Knowing Emma, I would have expected to find her hauled up in the corner,

shivering under a threadbare blanket, even after just one night in a gloomy prison. Instead,

we found her bright and excited looking, pressing her ear against the grimy prison wall and

tapping furiously with her fist.

Kuro abruptly dropped the guard, causing me and Cata to collapse onto the floor

with the weight of his falling legs.

“Oops!” He shuddered, then pointed suspiciously at Emma, raising his eyebrows.

We shrugged, but no sooner than we had, Emma looked up and briskly stepped to

her feet, “Right then, keys out, open the door. I’m the silver one with the extra two zig zags.”

Kuro, too, was obviously surprised by Emma’s ability to keep it together, but he

obediently unhooked the keys from the guard’s belt and rummaged through to find the key

that Emma had described.

Sure enough, the key clicked in the lock and the creaky door swung open. Emma got

out and stretched, then closed her eyes, as if to contemplate saying something. Finally, just

as we were beginning to haul the guard into Emma’s prison cell, she said,

“Best not put him in mine. There’s someone else who would appreciate it more.”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure,” Kuro nodded, “But we don’t know who it is and it would take a

load of time to go to every prisoner asking them exactly how much they hate this guy then

averaging it out. . . ”

“Actually I think I already have a pretty good guess,” Emma reached out and placed a

hand on my shoulder, “There’s someone you should see, Sumi.”

I let go of the guard and nodded.

Emma led me to the cell next to her’s, the one who’s wall she had been tapping on.

As she slide the door open, I saw that inside, slouched against that same wall and looking as

if she hadn’t been there for ten years, was someone who made my heart leap, someone I

hadn’t seen since I was three years old—

“Mom!”

50

Chapter 6

“I knew it! I knew you were here—all along, I knew it! Oh, mom, I missed you so

much. So, so much.”

“You too, sweetie. You, too.” My mother didn’t release me from our embrace, but I

could still tell that she was smiling from the way her jaw was pressed against my hair, and I

could tell she was crying because of the tears that dripped from my hair to my shoulders,

though she wasn’t the only one for either of these actions.

“Are you okay?” she drew away from me, though her hands still on my shoulders,

and held me at arm’s length. I nodded, then thought to ask her the same question.

“I’m as all ‘okay’ as I’ll ever be, in this mess,” She smiled again, this time grimly,

“Why are you kids here? You shouldn’t be—it isn’t safe. You have no idea what terrible

secrets are hidden from us.”

I shook my head, “No, mom. I do know. That’s why we’re here, after all. I know about

VanSicklen, and about his weapon, and about pretty much everything else. Cata, Kuro and I

can spark. Emma taught us, and she told us everything she knows, too.” I paused, “But how

do you know?”

“I found out the same way you did; I discovered the cliff. And from then on, well, it’s

a long story. But the important thing is I was captured and put in here because I knew. It’s

too dangerous for the same thing to happen to you kids.”

“I’m sorry, but you’re wrong.” Cata said, “We’re already in danger as it is. Who

knows what will happen after VanSicklen gets his hands on that weapon?”

After a moment, my mom heaved a sigh not unlike Emma’s usuals, and said, “Alright.

But in that case, I suppose I’ll have to tell you everything. But Cata, darling—and Kuro, you

too—you can call me Heara.

“It all began the same way it did for you. I was taking a stroll in Winkston park when

I saw the edge of the asteroid.” Mom said this as though it was something normal—to be

taking a stroll in a nice park and then suddenly discover the edge of your “planet”, and she

continued without pause, “I, of course, reported this to the police, who sent Emma to talk to

me, as she had requested to speak with any person or persons wishing to discuss Winkston

park’s “odd drop”. I spoke with her, and she told me everything, just as she did you.”

“What? Emma—Emma had met you before she even saw us? I—that’s impossible.”

Kuro crossed his arms.

“Just keep listening, Kuro,” my mom said. Emma looked vague. Mom continued, “We

investigated and looked around—even in George VanSicklen’s office itself—”

“We did, too!” I blurted. It was nice to finally interact face to face with my mom for

51

the first time in eight years, and still have something we had in common. Mom smiled, then

continued,

“Anyway, we found out some very valuable things, until one day I realized

something that I hadn’t seen before.”

“What was it?” asked Kuro.

Mom shushed him, “Not yet. If I tell you, then that is all we will talk about and we

will never get to the rest of my story. You must be patient, for what came after is important

as well,” Mom drew a deep breath, “See, I found out this information on my own, and when

I went to tell it to Emma at the police office, I was caught telling her about it. You see, I had

been so anxious to tell her that I had not bothered to take her to a more secluded place

before blurting out the information. It was caught on camera, and we were both arrested.

“They took me down to a chamber deep in a mining shaft built into the asteroid. It

was dark, damp, and musty down there—and hard to breathe. For a normal person, it

would have made the brain sleepy with a little supply of oxygen.”

“What about the people who brought you down to the chamber? Weren’t they

turned sleepy-brained?” asked Cata.

“No, they had masks. Anyway, it would have made a normal person feel sleepy-

brained, but I was too excited about finding out this special information, and too scared

that I would never to be able to put it to good use to be able to be calm and sleepy. But it

became apparent that the officers who took me down were suspicious that I was still

entirely wide-awake, so I faked fatigue. I don’t remember anything after that until I woke

up in that same cell you found me in, and I’ve been living here ever since.”

“Why—why is that important?” Cata asked.

“It’s important because when I first saw Emma, I remembered everything that

happened. You see, those memories that I just told you about; they were my clouded

memories. My memories from before I was brainwashed.”

Cata, Kuro and I gasped. Emma remained incognito. All the questions came flooding

out. She had been brainwashed? How had she remembered her memories? Had Emma been

brainwashed, too?

Our questions were met with a shushing.

Mom continued, “I regained my memory only yesterday. You see, When I saw Emma

being taken into the cell next to mine, her face jolted something, and I suddenly I could

remember everything.”

“So that space when you couldn’t remember—from when you were in that chamber

to when you found yourself in your cell, that was the space of time right after they

hypnotized you?” Cata asked.

“Yes.”

52

“Did they hypnotize Emma?” Kuro asked again.

“I don’t know,” Mom shrugged, “Why don’t you ask her.”

Before Kuro could repeat himself, this time to Emma, she said, “They did. They took

away all my memory, then started me off back in the beginner training session again. But

even if they took away my memory, they didn’t take away me. Do you ever think about

something you wish you hadn’t done, ‘I wish I had gone back and done that differently’?”

We all nodded.

“Well, if you ever think that, then just think again; you see, if you had gone back, you

probably would have done just the same thing, because that’s what you would do. Well, it

was the same with me. I think I just did the same thing I did with Heara all over again with

you guys. Then, when I saw Heara, the same thing happened to me that happened to her. I

remembered.

“Remember when you first found me, you saw me tapping on the wall in between

our cells?”

Again, we nodded.

“That was not insanity, it was morse code. It’s a special code that you can use to

communicate then you can’t actually talk to each other. Thankfully, we both knew it, so we

had been communicating with each other for a long time before you all came.”

There was a silence, and Emma shrugged, “That’s it, I guess.”

The word guess echoed off the walls of the prison. Suddenly, I remembered

something Mom had promised to tell us.

“What about what you learned? Remember, you said you’d tell us once you were

done with the brainwashing part.”

Mom nodded, “Yes, I suppose I did. But first, we ought to go to a more private place.

It’s not that I’m worried about our current company, just the company that has yet to show

up.” By this, I assumed she meant guards.

We shoved the unconscious guard into my mom’s cell and locked the door shut, then

released a young man, whom we handed the keys and instructed to unlock all the other

cells and run.

When we were leaving, I asked, “Why didn’t we get them to come with us? They

could have fought.”

Emma and my mom opened their mouths to answer, but Cata beat them to it,

“They’re brainwashed, Sumi. They can’t even remember who they are, let alone VanSicklen.

It would be cruel to take them and tell them to fight for a cause they don’t even know about.

It’s best that they not know—live not in fear, let us take down VanSicklen. And anyways,

they’ve been in there for years—decades, even. They’re weak and sick. They need to rest,

not fight.”

53

I nodded slowly, realizing how much truth there really was in something so complex

that Cata had picked up in a mere moment. She really is quite smart, and even better at

picking up signals from others; something I could never do. Maybe that’s why we’re such

good friends: she has something I don’t: the ability to read signals from other humans such

as emotions, strategies, pet peeves—even thoughts, sometimes. And I have something she

doesn’t: yes, spazziness, but also the love of adventure. Mischievousness, daring. In a way, I

think her gifts are more powerful; though sometimes I can prove myself wrong—and even

if we had the opportunity to switch places, I’m sure neither of us would do it in a million

years.

Once again, Winkston Park proved the “private place” our elders thought of first. I

didn’t blame them, it was beautiful, yet secluded. A good place for business like ours.

54

Chapter 7

“I knew that there was something special about that book!” I gasped.

“The leather one? With no title?” my mom asked. I nodded.

“That’s the same one that I found—the same one that led me to the conclusion. You

see, I knew, at once, that Ally’s father—James was his name, remember?” I did.

“He was Argus VanSicklen’s son. You see, I had recently been doing much research

on the VanSicklens when I found the book so of course I immediately recognized James’

heritage. I then quickly drew the conclusion about the Lightning Sword from there.”

“Wait a minute!” Kuro said, “So Ally’s brother is the current VanSicklen’s father?”

Emma and mom nodded.

“And once you knew who James was, of course you immediately knew that the

Lightning Sword was the weapon VanSicklen is questing for,” I said.

“You know,” said Cata, “VanSicklen sort of has the right to have the Lightning Sword

—I mean, Ally did make it in the first place, and she’s his. . . um. . . his aunt, I guess.”

“Are you saying that you think we should just let him have it?” Kuro looked appalled.

“No, no,” Cata shook her head, “I’m not saying that it’s right for him to have it, I’m

just saying he has the right to have it.”

“You just lost me,” Kuro and I said in unison.

Cata sighed and rolled her eyes, “VanSicklen doesn’t deserve the Lightning Sword,

but if you just go by the law, then he should have it only because it was a possession of a

family member,”

Kuro and I nodded.

And there we stood, for a moment, contemplating the mystery of it all—since really

it was a true mystery, after all there wasn’t much to learn about the Lightning Sword from

the book. All it had said was that Ally built it, it had been called the Lightning Sword, it had

been meant to somehow enhance energy and—

“There were seven!” I exclaimed, “There were, remember? It said so in the book.

There must be more—”

“No,” my mom said, “When I discovered the book in VanSicklen’s office, I also

discovered some important papers. They were documents on something to do with

‘burning the Lightning Swords’ and ‘now there is but one left’ and ‘having a ‘different’ plan

for the seventh.’ Of course, at the time I understood none of this—I had not even read the

book yet, so I didn’t even know what the ‘lightning sword’ was! But now I understand quite

clearly how the “plan” VanSicklen spoke of in the memo was his plan to quest for the

Lightning Sword then use it to destroy Earth.”

55

I shook my head in despair. What now? We don’t even know how the Lightning Sword

works—much less how to defeat it.

“What are we going to do?” asked Kuro, impatient.

“The first thing to do, of course is get you kids home safely. Then, you won’t have to

worry about VanSicklen anymore,” my mom said, “You can continue with your daily lives

like nothing has ever happened.”

“But—”

“No buts,” my mom leant down and put a hand on my chin, “You don’t know what

you’re getting into, and I’d be much happier if you let me and Emma deal with this, ‘kay?”

I jerked away and grabbed her wrist with my hand. She struggled but could get

away.

“No! We are not leaving this mission! Cata, Kuro and I are going to help you whether

or not it’s the last things we do!”

“Wait, Sumi,” Cata said quietly, “You can’t talk for us. It’s safer if you let Heara and

Emma work this all out. They’re a smaller team—less hard to catch, and Heara’s probably

an expert sparker—better than you. I’m sorry, but I have to side with her. I’m going home

tonight and I’m going to try to forget this all happened. You should, too.”

Startled by this, I loosened my grip on my mom’s wrist and she broke free. I turned

to her sharply, then to Cata. I could feel a prickling energy in my fingertips.

Kuro looked like he had been caught with his pants down and he didn’t know where

they were.

I felt the prickle again. I looked down and saw a spark forming on my right pointer

finger. I didn’t stop it.

“Sumi, no!” Kuro yelled, and launched himself in between me and Cata just as my

bolt was about to hit her. Instead, it planted itself straight into his chest, and he fell in a

shaking ball to the ground.

“Kuro!” I gasped. I think I was crying, “Oh, Kuro, I’m so so sorry!”

He didn’t respond, he only shook. I put a hand on his back tentatively, then feeling a

shock go through my fingers, I took my hand away. Cata stood above me, on the other side

of Kuro. She looked as if she was the one who had been shocked. I looked frantically up at

her willing her to do something, but instead I was splashed in the face as she began crying

full-force.

Grasping for hope, I put my hand on his back again, resisting the prickle and shook

him.

“Kuro, please wake up! Answer me!”

I tried with all my might to draw as much of that shock as possible toward my hand.

56

I wanted to feel the pain that he felt. But instead, I felt the shock gliding obediently toward

my fingertips, and a small sting as the last of it reentered, then nothing. Kuro stirred and sat

up slowly. He wasn’t shaking anymore. What had I just done? I think I drew the electricity

out of him—the extra electricity, that is—and he wasn’t hurt anymore.

My mom and Emma, who had been watching dumbstruck from a distance, now ran

up and stumbled over their feet to sit down in the grass next to us.

“What. . . what happened?” asked Kuro.

I didn’t answer.

“What happened, Sumi?” my mom asked.

I shook my head.

“Sumi, answer the question.” said Emma.

“I don’t know,” I said, then turned to Cata with new tears, “I’m so sorry Cata. I didn’t

mean to—”

“Who are you apologizing to? Me, or him?” Cata pointed crudely at a groggy looking

Kuro.

The question startled me and I didn’t answer.

Cata shook her head in disdain and said,

“See you, Sumi.” And with that, she turned on her heel and stomped off.

What? How? Had she really just walked off? Away from her best friend?

I shook myself. I wasn’t Cata’s best friend—not even her friend at all. What type of

friend sparks at their companion? Not the kind I wanted to be. And she had just walked

away—I didn’t blame her. I tore myself away from these thoughts and turned to my mom,

“I’m going.”

We had never been friends in the first place if I had been so cruel to her. I was no

friend and I’d never be if that was who I was—someone who shot bolts of lightning at their

best friends—but she’s not my best friend, I reminded myself. And this was the reason I had

pulled away anyway—

“No you’re not.”

“Yes!” I automatically responded, too fast, “Wait—I mean, no! I am going. . . .”

I felt a pull on my arm. It was Kuro, and he was rolling his eyes pulling

me back to the path, apparently having recovered.

“Wait—” I stuttered, “What are you doing?”

“Taking you home. It’s where you belong, anyway.” He said loudly, speaking over his

shoulder. It was as if he wanted my shame to be known to my mom and Emma. I looked

back to see them huddled together, talking. It looked as if I would have imagined their old

days to look.

Kuro pulled me aside from the trail and behind a bush.

57

“Listen!” He whispered.

I opened my mouth to apologize.

“No, no,” he said, “I know you shot me on accident and I understand that Cata was

being a jerk. But we’ll deal with her later. For now, we need to make them think we’re

taking you home, but instead sneak back over there and behind those trees,” he pointed to

a grove directly behind Emma and my mom, “Quick! We need to know what they’re saying,

then we can figure out where they’re questing to.”

“Why would we need to know that?”

“Because then we can. . . somehow convince Cata to come with us,” I snorted in

protest, but Kuro continued, “then leave and track them like spies for a while until they’re

too far into the mission to go back, then we can reveal ourselves and they won’t be able to

send us back!”

“What?”

“I worked it all out in my head while you guys were arguing,” He grinned and tapped

his forehead, “Now let’s go!”

We tried our best to be quiet as we made our way through thick shrubs and trees to

get to the grove behind where Emma and my mom were still talking in hushed tones.

Finally, we were close enough to make out words, then sentences, then phrases.

Suddenly, I realized that my mom was crying. Kuro stiffened next to me and I could tell he

had realized, too.

“I—I just can’t stand to be finally let out then—sob—just have to leave them again,”

my mom was saying, “It’s hard enough to know that Sumi knows I’m alive, yet make her go

home and forget, it’s just too much to not even see Tom and Pete. I’ve missed them, too. . .

sob sob sob.”

Emma awkwardly patted her back, “I’m sorry, but if they know then they’ll just have

to let go again like Sumi. . . the whole family will go into sorrow for finally having you back,

then having to let go again. You can’t put them through that. And anyway, if you saw them,

then you’d have to explain, and knowing would put them in danger.”

“Couldn’t I say it’s all a secret. . . don’t you think that it might help them to know

that I’m at least alive?”

“I’m sure they don’t think you’re dead.” said Emma.

“But. . . but I only want to see them one last time. . . and they might as well think—

sob sob sob—I’m dead. . . by the time we’re through this I’ll be lucky not to be.” Suddenly,

the tears broke loose and came pouring down my mom’s face. I had never seen her cry

before and it was quite painful.

“How can they still love me after what I’ve done to them? I’m no mother or wife. . . .

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sob. . . I’m only a hypocrite. I’m nothing to them.”

No! I thought harshly, You’re the best mom I could ever have! And it’s not your fault

you were captured, it’s not your fault you found out. . . I still love you . Suddenly, I realized my

mistake. I was still Cata’s friend, just like Heara was still my mother. Suddenly, I brightened,

thinking of how foolish I had been to think I was no friend of Cata’s. I was and I still am—I

always will be! My rays of happiness seemed to spread, as well, for at that moment my

mom’s tears subsided, and she clenched her lids shut for a moment.

Then, she reopened her eyes, and said, “I’m sorry, Emma, I’m being foolish,” she

shook her head, and though her eyes were still red, I could tell she was trying her best to

cheer herself up and somehow I had helped. Then she said, “So, we meet here at seven

tomorrow? I can tell Sumi I’m going grocery shopping. And we must remember to research

those invaders. . . they were the very ones who first faced the Lightning Sword. If we can

find them, perhaps we can reveal some secrets on it’s power.”

And with that, my mother brushed her pants off, nodded to Emma, and took off

down the path. Emma still stood where she had before, not having said something

throughout my mom’s transformation, but she now regained her composure and followed

my mom’s lead.

Sudden realization struck me and Kuro, and we scampered frantically back the way

we had come, trying to secure a place back at home before my mother arrived.

59

Chapter 8

Sure enough, even though my mom stayed away from the family, hiding in the guest

bedroom where Raggy and my dad couldn’t see her, she still made sure to tell me

specifically of her grocery shopping business. But no sooner had she left than I had snuck

out the back door, silent as possible in order to keep up, and followed her.

Soon enough, we arrived at Winkston Park, and I slipped out of sight and onto the

flattened patch of bushes Kuro and I had hacked through yesterday. Though it felt like

slow-going through the pocky bushes, soon I had arrived at my destination; the same clot of

trees Kuro and I had used as concealment when we had spied on Emma and my mom

yesterday.

I shifted uneasily as I watched my mom and Emma unite in front of me. My stomach

twisted and I took in a deep breath of the clean, piney air. Normally this whole spying

business would have gotten me energetic, excited and happy. But spying on my mom only

vibed a sense of some sort of stomach-inhabiting, very active guilt. At the time I related it to

some kind of butterflies who had just realized that they had taken too much nectar, and

now they were doing more harm than good to the flowers. Not being very smart creatures,

their reaction to this was “go fly down Sumi’s throat and see if it’s possible to fly in her

stomach.” In other words, I had guilt-butterflies.

My thoughts were interrupted by the quiet sounds of my mom’s speech, growing

closer as she and Emma strolled up to the meeting spot.

“I don’t understand. Why would they help us? I would think that they’d attack us.

That is, if we’re even able to find them.”

Emma took a moment to respond.

“I know, we’ll just have to research them, to find their location. Once we do find it,

we can go there on one of the police rockets.”

“Still, I’m not sure we’d be welcome visitors.”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter, does it? They’ll know more about the Lightning Sword

than we do, at least, and maybe we can bribe some of that information out of them. They

were first-hand witnesses of the Lightning Swords in action. I’m sure there would be

something we could bring with us to bribe them.”

“First we’d need to bribe them not to kill us.”

“Heara, please. We don’t even know why they came to Blue Skania in the first place.”

“But we do know that they bombed it.”

I shifted uncomfortably. Were they talking about the invaders from Ally’s time? Did

they really want to visit them?

60

Emma sighed and mumbled something like, “I don’t remember you being so direct.”

My mom shook her head, “I’m just. . . I don’t think we should risk our lives with

these people just for some information. We should save ourselves for VanSicklen.”

“But how can we face him if we don’t even know what he has on his side? Or it could

be on our side, if we find it.”

“How do you know they won’t want to kill us?” My mom gave up and countered in a

different way, “How will we even know where to find them?”

“We’ll have to look through some more files. We’ll find something, eventually, I only

wish you didn’t have to keep out of their sight, if you’re going to be staying so much longer.

We could rent you a hotel room so that you don’t have to be constantly sneaking around.”

My mom sighed, “No, I want to be around my family. . . oh, it’s just so messed up.

How much am I even supposed to interact with Sumi? It’s just that I know that when I leave

her this time, it’ll be forever. I feel like such a terrible mother. What am I supposed to do?”

Emma shook her head, as if she didn’t know.

I felt a burning in my throat and slipped away before I could be heard. Once out of

the bushes, I darted away as fast as I could, and on impulse headed for Winkston Park.

Minutes later, Cata and Kuro’s doorbell was ringing.

Kuro answered, and started to say something, then shut his mouth when he saw that

my cheeks were tearstained. I stumbled inside past him, sobbing hard.

“Where’s Cata?” I managed.

Kuro shook his head and looked down.

My eyes widened, “Where is she?” I whispered.

“In her room. She won’t talk, Sumi. . . I’m not even sure she’s in there.”

I stood silent for a moment, silent tears still dripping. Cata was really gone. It didn’t

matter whether or not I was her friend, she wasn’t going with me and Kuro, she had given

up and she was never coming back to that old friendship. Or. . . could I bring her back? No.

Yes. No. What about my mom? Was she really going to die? If so, then that meant that she

hadn’t defeated VanSicklen. No. Yes. No. What was she going to do? Stay. Leave. Go. Die.

Stay. Abandon me forever? No. Yes. No. Did I really want to risk my life along with hers?

Yes. No. Yes. What was I going to do? I don’t know. Was my mom really going to leave me

again? Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. . . No. Yes! No.

There was too much. Too much!

Wailing, I threw myself at Kuro and into his arms.

Caught by surprise, he awkwardly hugged me, then seemed to regain his composure

and gently let me fall into him and cry. He held me tight against him, and didn’t speak until

I was done and had simmered down to an occasional sniff or sob.

“What is it?”

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Everything.

“C'mon, Sumi, please answer me.”

“What did I do, Kuro?”

“Nothing. You didn’t do anything.”

He squeezed me and I let a tear slip onto his shoulder. We stood for a moment, and I

tried to calm myself.

“But—”

He put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me away from him, holding me at

arm’s length in order to get eye contact.

“But nothing. Please, just believe me. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

I shook my head, “It’s all so messed up.” I struggled my shoulders from his hands

and hugged him again. He didn’t object.

“Look, Sumi, it’s really okay about yesterday. I know it was an accident and you

didn’t mean to. Consider yourself forgiven, especially since you cured me. . . however you

did that.” I felt his cheek muscle rise and I knew he was smiling.

I stayed silent for a while, savoring the warmth of his hand on my back.

“Thanks. But, it’s not that.”

“Oh.”

I’m sure he felt stupid for bringing it up, and I wished I hadn’t said anything.

“I spied on Emma and my mom. I think Emma wants to visit the people who invaded

Blue Skania during Ally’s time. She thinks that they’ll know something about the Lightning

Sword. But if they attacked Ally. . . then I don’t know what they’ll do to unexpected Blue

Skanian guests. My mom thinks it could be life threatening. And. . . Kuro, the way she

spoke. . . it was almost as if she was sure that she was going to die, and she said everything

so matter-of-factly.”

A new burst of tears found their way to my eyes as I explained to Kuro what I had

heard.

He stayed silent, though I could tell that he was listening, and I could tell that he was

sorry. He gripped me tighter, subduing some tears, but not vanquishing them.

Once I was done, we stayed silent for a long time, and despite the mood I was setting

about their home, a bird sang outside the window. We did not move from where we stood,

with my hands flung around his neck and my head buried in his shoulder, and with his

hands under my arms and gripping my back.

The footsteps were too quiet and we didn’t notice her until Cata said, “Guys, please

don’t make me ask.”

I opened my eyes without realizing I had closed them, and pulled away from Kuro.

He did the same, quite red in the face.

62

Cata sighed, “Please don’t tell me that now that you two think you’re alone you’ve

decided to finally make out together.”

I burned, and to make things worse I had stopped crying and so had no evidence to

what had really been happening. We still stayed silent.

“You know,” she said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen either of you blush before, never

since kindergarten.” She put her hands on her hips and tilted her head to the side, smiling

cruelly, and though I could tell that her actions were forced, they still hurt me.

I tried to ignore her insults and blurted, “Cata, do you still have that poster you did

in second grade on the Connecticut Invaders?”

Kuro’s eyes widened as he realized what I was getting at.

“Probably. . . but that’s not going to convince me to change subjects.” Cata said.

“Where is it?”

“In my closet, but—” Cata stopped short when both Kuro and I took off like a bolt in

the direction of her room.

Kuro threw open her closet doors and pushed aside some dresses hanging above a

large piece of poster board. The poster was facing backwards, so he had to take it out and

examine the front to see if it was the right one. In doing so, he revealed the poster behind it

which, unlike its neighbor, was facing frontwards.

“Kuro, look!”

Kuro gasped and put down the poster he had been holding to take out the one on the

Connecticut Invaders. He smiled and held the poster for me to see.

“Look! We don’t even need to read the whole thing! It says what we need, right here:

The Connecticut Invaders! So easy! Emma and Heara can’t reject us now that we know what

they’re after.”

“What are they after?” Cata’s voice quivered. Kuro and I turned to see her, hugging

herself, noticeably shaking. There was a tear on her right cheek.

“Oh, Cata!” I reached to hold her hand, but she backed away and gestured for us to

leave the room. I nodded to Kuro and he dropped the poster. We walked slowly out. The

moment Cata’s door closed with a muffled click, we heard Cata begin to wail.

Kuro muttered something that sounded strangely like “girls.”

“Hey!” I pushed him, “We’re in a pretty sticky situation, and you’ve got the good end

of it, so don’t go “girl”--ing us. You don’t get it.”

Kuro managed a surprised, “Hmph.”

After a second of Cata’s wails from inside the room, I decided that she had had

enough time.

“I’m going in.”

“What?”

63

“I said, ‘I’m going in’. I’m going to figure out what’s getting her and try to get her

back.”

Kuro stayed in silence for a minute, then shrugged and said, “If you really want to.

But be careful, she can be vicious.”

I shook my head, “Don’t you understand? We offended her!”

“What? I—what do you mean?”

“I mean she feels left out—she wants to leave us alone together now that she thinks

we’re. . . ”

I blushed and found that my mouth didn’t want to finish the sentence. I knew it was

ridiculous, because I had only needed consolence and normally would have gone to Cata,

not Kuro, but considering the current circumstances, it had made more logical sense for me

to go to Kuro instead.

“Just don’t worry,” I said hurriedly, “She won’t bite.”

I put my hand on the knob and was about to turn it when I felt Kuro’s hand on my

shoulder.

“She’s not entirely wrong, you know. I mean, she shouldn’t be worried about having

to leave us alone, but not. . . about the other stuff.”

I stood still as a statue, my hand clammy on the doorknob. A moment passed, and I

realized that I was supposed to do something. I racked my brain, and when nothing came, I

composed on the spot.

“I don’t think—that’s sweet and all but—um. . . ”

He took his hand off my shoulder, “Okay.”

I took one glance at him, and I could see how much I had hurt him. His cheeks were

burning and he stood slouched, hugging himself.

A loud wail from inside the door shook me to consciousness. I briskly turned the

knob, opened the door and closed it quickly behind me. It slammed. Oops! And now there

were brisk footsteps outside, like someone was running. Another door slammed, further

down the hall, but not soon enough to cover two shaky sobs. Oh great. Now you’ve really

done it, Sumi! What are you trying to do? Smash up your best friends’ confidence? Apparently.

Deep breath. Calm down, Sumi. Deep breath again, steady now. Okay, enough hurt, time to

heal.

Cata was sitting on her bed with her knees drawn up in front of her and her head

buried in them. Deep breath. You know why she’s hurt, and you know she’s wrong. . . about

most of it. And you know why she’s. . . mostly. . . wrong. So this should be easy!

“Cata?” She looked up, and I took that as my cue to continue, “Look, I know that you

think that Kuro and I. . . you know.”

“Well, you are! He’s had a crush on you for years, Sumi. Didn’t you know that?”

64

What?

“I—I—”

“Sumi, don’t you get it?” Cata started tearing up again, “I’ve figured you two out, and

you can’t deny it. You’d like to be together more than you’d like to keep us together… as

friends. And I’m a hinderance—”

That did the trick and snapped me back into reality, “Cata! What on earth are you

going on about? You’re my best friend, how could you even say that we thought that?”

Cata sniffed, “Well, okay, but I know that Emma and Heara don’t want us.”

I held myself back from changing the topic to Kuro again, it was immature to only

want to talk about boys, “I can’t deny that, but when they see your poster, there’s no way

they won’t us join!”

“What do you mean?”

Quickly, I explained to her Emma and my mom’s desire to find the Connecticut

Invaders, and gradually her tears subsided.

“See!” I said, “They can’t reject us now. We have information that may take them

months to find, and we can bribe them with it. Anyway, even if they still don’t want us,

they’ll have to let us join!”

“But then I’d just feel like I’m a hinderance again, if they don’t want me.”

“Well, we know that we’re better. After all, we did find the information before they

did.”

“That’s true.”

65

Chapter 9

Kuro had bet that my mom and Heara were still at the park, and although I didn’t

think so, it turned out he was right. There they were, still in the same place as I had left

them. I tried to ignore the tears on my mom’s face.

When Emma saw us, it was not with pleasure that she reacted; just the opposite.

“What on earth are you doing here? You all know that we want to keep you out of

this! The mission is dangerous and—”

“We know who you’re after,” Cata stepped forward, “And we have information that

may be the key to your finding them.”

My mom stood up, “Cata, darling! I thought you had—”

“Well, I have the right to change my mind, don’t I? Anyhow, it doesn’t matter. We

have information that you need and we’d be willing to give it to you if you let us come with

you. We’re all stronger as a team, together. Heara, please.”

I was stunned, at Cata’s sudden change of mind, in that we were, indeed, stronger as

a team, and didn’t think to add to her little speech before my mom cut in,

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t think you understand. You don’t know who we’re

looking for and I don’t see any reason why you’d have any information on them.”

“You’re looking for the Blue Skania Invaders of Ally’s time, and you’re going to be

looking for months if you don’t let us join you.” Kuro said.

Emma pondered for a moment, then said, “And if we do. . . ?”

“Then we’ll give you the information you need. We promise.”

“I’m sorry, Kuro,” my mom said, “But by past experience, I just can’t trust you!”

“Wait, Mom!” I finally found myself able to speak, “I’ll vouch for him.”

At this, Kuro shot me a hopeful look and I felt my cheeks burn. I had hurt him badly

and I doubted that he would ever forgive me. Unless I. . .

“Please, Heara, we know where they are, the invaders, I promise, ma’am.” Cata said.

Finally, I spoke up, “Mom, please, we’ve all given you our words. I don’t know what

else we can do. Look, how about this, we’ll tell you the information and you’ll let us come

with you, but if the information is incorrect, then we leave. Deal?”

My mom and Emma sighed in unison.

Finally, after exchanging a couple of glances with my mom, Emma spoke up, “All

right. We’ll take the deal.”

I looked at Kuro and Cata and I could see how happy they both were. Well, Cata

looked downright happy, Kuro still just looked hurt and downcast. I wanted to offer a smile

but I was afraid that he might start thinking I liked him again. . . and I just liked it much

66

better when we were secret. I wasn’t sure I wanted what he wanted yet. If Cata was right,

after all, he had liked me for years. I was only 13, after all. . . Cata and Kuro were 14.

“Thank you so much, Heara! I—we, really appreciate it.” Cata said, grinning.

“Yes, ma’am, thank you.” Kuro nodded shyly.

Despite my drama, I still found myself ecstatic—we were going to Earth. . . well, at

least, I thought we were, “Mom?”

“Yes?” she looked at me, and for the first time today I saw how tired she looked, as if

she hadn’t slept at all last night.

“What. . . where is Connecticut?”

This time, Emma spoke up, “It’s on Earth, Sumi. I grew up near it—it’s in the United

States of America.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s. . . all you need to know that it’s a place on Earth,” Emma paused for a moment,

“I think I could sneak you on to the rocket on my weekend break.”

“You go to earth every weekend? Why didn’t I notice that before?” I asked.

Emma laughed, “I don’t go every weekend, in fact, a barely go much at all! But it’s

always an option for police officers, to catch a rocket going to Earth for their weekends.

There are rockets departing from both Earth and Blue Skania twice daily! There are a lot of

rockets. And here’s the creepy thing,” Emma leaned into our little group huddle and

whispered, “About two police officers are recruited every week! VanSicklen is increasing

security—and I think I know why.”

“Why?”

“I think he might be onto us.”

I gasped. Kuro turned pale. My mom’s eyebrows shot up. Cata let out a small shriek.

Emma drew back in defense. “Well, after all, Heara and I escaped prison, and that

guard must have seen you three letting us out, so they suspect us, but they don’t know who

any of you are, and they don’t know where to find any of us. For all they know, we’re

working in a huge group of VanSicklen-conspirers, living deep in some Earthian forest.”

We let out bated breaths, and I found myself feeling quite refreshed and mysterious,

being a wanted girl chasing after a bad guy who was trying to destroy the world. Quite nice,

and very Sumi.

Abruptly, Cata seemed to realize something; she swore quietly, something I would

never suspected out of Cata, then said, “But, Emma, like you said, you were captured for

snooping in VanSicklen’s office just the day before yesterday, what makes you think you

can still get the rocket to Earth? I would assume that you aren’t exactly a well-regarded

weekend-off type police officer anymore.”

My mom looked appalled, “Cata! Sometimes, I marvel. . . how could you have—”

67

Emma cut in, waving off the issue, “I can dye my hair and tie it up nicely. Some

makeup and I should be fine. Like I said, VanSicklen has so many officers these days that

they don’t even keep track of them all anymore. All you need to get on a plane is a

nametag!”

“But how exactly do you plan to smuggle us onto the plane?” Kuro frowned.

I shrugged, “What if we spark the flight attendants?”

There was silence as we all considered this risky idea.

“But,” said Kuro, “If we zapped the flight attendants, then wouldn’t we have to do the

same thing to all the police officers on the rocket?”

Emma shrugged and nodded, seeming to begin to understand my idea.

Kuro groaned, “Couldn’t we, like, get in a ginormous suitcase or something, and you

could say that you were going to some really fancy event on Earth and you need a bunch of

clothing or. . . something?”

Cata raised her eyebrows, “That would have to be a really big suitcase.”

Kuro reddened, and was quiet. After a couple of moments of silence, my thoughts

returned to the issue on hand, and I realized I needed to voice my thoughts on the issue.

“You know, guys, if we really want to do this, we need to be able to spark to defend

ourselves from large groups of people—after all, who knows what will happen with the

invaders. If we’re too afraid to try to defend ourselves with sparking against a couple of

non-sparking flight attendants and Earthians, I’m not sure we can face VanSicklen. If we can

do this, we should be able to get onto the rocket easy peasy.”

Kuro’s reaction was immediate. “I agree with Sumi! To be able to face VanSicklen,

we need to be able to stand our ground and fight together.” He sounded determined and

strong, but I could see when he looked at me afterwards, that there was more meaning

behind them than I had originally thought. I smiled at him; I had to give him credit, he was

trying hard. He just didn’t understand that the thing that needed to come first was stopping

VanSicklen.

My mom and Cata hesitated, but eventually seemed to mutually come to a decision.

My mom spoke up, “I agree, Sumi and Kuro are right. And after all, there is nothing more

valuable than practice—and there’s only so much you kids can do without actually fighting

in order to practice.”

Emma took a moment, then finally said, “I suppose that it would be good, but I’d just

feel. . . look, you all can spark all well, but I can’t! I’m from Earth and. . . ”

“Emma, you can spark just as well as the rest of us.” said Cata.

“No,” Emma said, “I can’t.”

Cata shrugged, “I don’t see why not. She’s never been informed that she can spark,

because, after all, she’s a police officer and VanSicklen doesn’t want her to know that she

68

can, but—”

Emma shook her head, “I know what you’re thinking, Cata, and I wish it were true,

but VanSicklen’s thought of that already.”

“But—”

“We don’t go through the electrical field when we come and go from Earth.

VanSicklen has programmed the rockets to go a longer route.”

Cata looked down, “Oh. Well, could you at least try?”

Kuro looks confused. “Wait, so you mean that anybody who passes through that field

can spark?”

Emma nodded, “Yes, that was the reason, after all, for VanSicklen’s descendants

being able to spark in the first place—I’m sure that if you traveled back through the

electrical field, the same thing would happen. It has never been attempted, though;

VanSicklen Jr.’s police officers are the only people nowadays who go from Earth to Blue

Skania—and our route, as I said, is modified so that we do not pass through that area.”

Kuro nodded, and Cata repeated her question, “Can you at least try to spark?”

My mom was shaking her head at Emma, as if worried that she would somehow hurt

herself in the process, but Emma only sighed and nodded, “Very well. But to be honest with

you, I’ve never really seen how you kids and you, Heara, do it. All the motions go so fast that

all I can see is a blur.”

To be honest, I had never really paid much attention to the motions, either; they just

sort of. . . came to me. The way I moved my fingertips, my arms, and the way I concentrated

my energy, I now realized didn’t really feel like a conscious act. I realized that I wasn’t

really controlling those motions, it almost felt as though someone else was controlling

them. . . . with shocking realization, I realized that it was not I who sent the signal to my

fingertips to let out a spark, but the electricity inside me had been hypnotizing me to let it

out. It was sending the messages to my brain. Really, there was more to sparking than I had

thought before. The energy of electricity inside me was real. . . almost alive.

I shook my head at Emma, she really couldn’t spark. But she might as well try …

“Emma, I’m sorry to tell you this, but I’m not sure any of us know how we know the

motions. I think we know to do them because the electricity inside of us is manipulating us

to do them. If you really are a sparker, then you should be able to make a spark come out of

your fingertips without really. . . thinking about it.”

Emma just looked confused, but I could see realization coming on to the faces of my

fellow sparkers; they had felt this, too.

“I don’t understand,” said Emma, “How can that even be possible?”

“I don’t know,” my mom said, “But Sumi’s right—why don’t you just try to find a

spark within you and listen to it.”

69

Emma shook her head, “I keep telling you, there’s no way that I can possibly spark,

and I just don’t have that spark that you keep telling me about. . . inside me. . . look, I just

don’t think I can spark. There’s no way.”

Cata heaved a sigh, “Okay. I guess you don’t have to. . . I just—look, Emma,how

about this: you can go on dressed as a police officer, then we’ll jump out of the. . . bushes or

something. . . and we’ll attack. It won’t have to be linked to you. Does that sound better?”

Emma shifted uncomfortably, but gave her consent with a nod. I smiled at her and

put a hand on her shoulder.

“I really appreciate this, Emma. I know it makes you uncomfortable, but we’re going

to need you on Earth and this may the only way to get you there with us.”

Emma nodded again and smiled nervously back, “Thanks, Sumi.”

For the first time I had seen since we were excluded from the group, my mom

smiled. At me. I could tell that I had finally made her proud. And about time—her little girl

wasn’t so little anymore, she was thirteen, now. She walked over to me, gave me a hug, then

held me out at arm’s length and said,

“I love you, my little Sumi-bug, but are you sure you want to come with us? This is

something that could be dangerous and—”

“Mom,” I said, “everybody’s gonna have to do something ‘dangerous’ in their

lifetime, and now that I know about VanSicklen, there’s no way anyone can stop me from

going after him. I’ll bet that there’ll be a lot of ‘dangerous’ things I do in my life, but I don’t

see why not start now. VanSicklen’s rule needs to be ended, once and for all, and I think

that we’re the perfect people to do it.”

My mom smiled and nodded slightly, but a tear still made it’s way down her cheek,

“You’re just so young. I wish it could have been later.”

I smiled and looked at her, “Aw, come on. It’s just like when I was a little kid,

remember, and every time you’d read me a story, at the end of the book I would point to

the hero’s name and say that I wanted it to be me?”

She nodded, eyes sparkling in the light.

“Well, that’s kind of like this. I’m finally getting a chance at that heroism, and that’s

all there is too it.”

She kept nodding. “Okay.”

We hugged and I thought that I might actually cry, just for having a mom again. And

she was proud of me.

“I hate to break you two up, but there are some people coming. We’d better get

moving if we don’t want to be spotted—remember, we’re practically wanted criminals at

this point and who knows how many people are on the lookout for us,” Emma said,

pointing to a couple strolling toward us; it was a public park, after all, but people didn’t

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usually come into this area.

I nodded and we scurried down the path to hide behind a clump of bushes. After a

moment of silence, Kuro stuck his head out of our hiding place, only to immediately draw

back again, “They’re coming this way!”

My mom quickly sprung into action, “We need to get out of here, so why don’t we

just say meet here tomorrow morning at eight A.M. Emma, you come wearing your police

officer disguise, and Cata and Kuro, you try your best to look different than normal. I’ll take

care of myself and Sumi. We need to stay undercover to stay safe.”

And with a that and an extra nod, we quietly spread apart and tried to head in the

general direction of our houses without getting too harassed by the angry bushes. Who

knew what would happen the next morning, but at the moment I was just trying to keep

myself from getting too scratched up.

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Chapter 10

“Um, Mom, I feel. . . ”

“Hush, Sumi. I’m almost done.”

I stared hopelessly the lady standing in front of me; so much for ‘go light on the

makeup.’ But then again, I had asked that question to my mom, and the lady currently

slathering my face in various things did not appear to be that same person. Where Heara

had long, layered brown hair that was always tied back in a ponytail, this women boasted

an unnaturally blond bun, perched high on the top of her head. Where Heara has an

imperfect, scarred face, this woman has perfect skin and rosy red cheeks. Of course, even

though I know this is all courtesy of my mom’s intense trip to the drug store yesterday, it

still slightly freaks me out how much a little makeup, hair dye and hair gel can do. I don’t

even dare look at myself in the mirror yet, but I’m sure there’ll be a nasty surprise looking

back at me when I do.

“There. Done,” The woman said.

I clenched my eyes shut and turned around to the mirror, and when I opened them

it was not Sumi I was looking at. My reddish brown hair was gone—replaced by a black so

deep it was almost blue. That alone was weird, but on top of my new hair color, my mom

had managed to curl it into perfect little ringlets that revealed themselves at the end of a

messy braid thrown over my shoulder. My usual jeans and sweatshirt were gone, and in

their place I was hugged tight by a pink tank top and a deep blue mini skirt to match my

hair. I couldn’t even figure out what the things on my feet were, but judging by the tight,

wobbly feeling I got when I walked around, they were heels. It looked like my mom had

finally gotten her wish to dress me up. . . at least she left my green eyes and freckles,

though there was some weird shimmery pink stuff on my lips that tasted like the artificial

bubble gum toothpaste that they give you at the dentist. I shook my head and put my hands

on my hips,

“Oh, you went way too overboard, Mom.”

She smiled and laughed at me, “Sweetie, I’ve been waiting to dress you up for years.

You know, when I was a little girl, I always wanted to be a fashion designer. I just enjoy

dressing you up.” She hugged me, and I decided I liked the feel of her itchy sweaters better

than whatever this smooth stuff she was wearing was.

“It’s okay, Mom.”

She shook her head and said, “Well, I guess we’re as ready as we’ll ever be, and it’s

getting toward eight. Let’s go.”

72

The moment that Cata and Kuro arrived was probably the funniest one in my life.

Cata was looking slightly awkward and trying to hide her hair behind her hoodie, and Kuro

was looking. . . well. . .

“Cata, what have you done to your hair?” My mom gasped.

Cata shrugged and gave up trying to hide herself, letting her bright pink hood fall

onto her equally bright pink hoodie. But the reason my mom gasped wasn’t just because of

her ridiculous ‘Girls just want to eat cupcakes’ hoodie, neon green skirt, and fishnet tights;

but because of her curly fuchsia hair. It looked like somebody had gotten into her brother’s

hair dye—and somebody else had reapplied. Even though Cata using hair products and

wearing totally drama queen clothing was shocking, Kuro’s bright orange hair streaks were

even more so. Though he hadn’t changed his clothes from the usual jeans and t-shirt, he

still looked very different with orange colored hair. Where he usually had fuchsia streaks,

he now had neon orange. And something else was different. . . he had combed it! That must

be a first.

I shook my head at him, but he just shrugged and pointed to Cata, as if to say ‘she

made me!’ then pointed to me and made a cuckoo gesture with his other hand. Apparently

he was returning the ‘compliment.’

We all stood in silence, taking each other in, but it couldn’t last for long and soon we

were all rolling on the ground, shaking with laughter. Even my mom couldn’t help but a few

giggles.

The party didn’t last long, though, as soon a slightly altered brown-haired Emma

was pulling us to our feet and saying,

“Come on, guys, we’d better get going. The rocket leaves in twenty minutes.”

Startled by this, we abruptly stopped laughing and got up. Emma gestured for us to

follow her down the path, and so we did.

We walked through town for a bit, but then, right as we were about to reach the

police office, Emma led us down an alley and out into a sort of clearing—a square, except

there were walls all around it except for directly across from us, where a huge iron gate

towered. Emma beckoned us to duck behind a dumpster where she whispered,

“This is where you should wait. I’ll go in, then a couple minutes later you guys can

approach. They’ll come down to check that you are police officers from up there,” Emma

pointed to two tall guard towers on either side of the gate, “That’s when you need to attack.

Mind you, they’ll be on the other side of the gate, so you’ll need to fight them in a bit of an

odd position—and make sure you knock them out near the gate so you can grab a remote

from one of them. Then press the red button—that opens the gate. Then you’re in and from

there it’s smooth sailing. You’ll have to spark all the officers getting on the rocket, and all

73

the flight attendants, but that’s the easy part. Got it?”

“That sounds awfully complicated.” I frowned.

My mom put a hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay, Sumi. We can do it.”

I took a deep breath and nodded, my weird black curls bouncing around.

“Okay.” Emma smiled at us. “I’m going now. Good luck!” And with that, Emma

stepped out into the alley and strode toward the gate. Sure enough, when she reached the

gate, two officers came down from the two towers on either side, looked at her uniform

through the bars, then opened the gates and returned to their posts.

“I don’t see why we can’t just go in now!” Kuro whispered.

My mom shook her head, “If we fought them now, then Emma would have to fight

us, too. If she didn’t, they’d suspect something.”

Kuro sighed and nodded.

Two long minutes passed, and finally my mom stuck her head out, looked around,

then beckoned us to come. “It’s time.”

We ducked out from behind the dumpster and stode, as confidently as was possible,

to the gate. Just as Emma had predicted, the two guards came down, almost robotically,

from the tower. They both studied us closely, then exchanged puzzled glances once they

saw that we bore no police badges, name tags, or even uniforms.

“I’m sorry,” said the first guard, “But this is strictly a private

property. We cannot allow your entrance.”

My mom nodded quietly, then looked at us with mild interest, as if we were about to

tell him that indeed we were officers—only in disguise. Instead, when she turned around,

she lunged her hand through the bars and unleashed a lightning bolt sized spark, knocking

out the first guard. The other officer jumped back, and Kuro, Cata, my mom and I stood still,

waiting for the guard to come closer. We needed to be able to reach him through the bars

once he was knocked out, so that we could get the keys to the gate off his belt. . .

I jumped, “Mom! They both have remotes! We don’t need to be able to reach both of

them.”

My mom smiled and nodded to me, and I took the cue to knock the other guard out. I

summoned the electricity, let it guide me, and shot a bolt out of my fingertips. It wasn’t

quite as large as my mom’s, but it still did the job cleanly and quickly. The second guard fell

to the ground, shook for a moment, then was still.

My mom nodded and Kuro reached through the bars to the first guard’s belt, where

he managed to unhook a small brown remote, which he handed to my mom. She pressed

the red button as Emma had told us to, and with a small click, the gate swung smoothly

open.

“Remember,” my mom said, “It’s not over yet. We still need to knock out the flight

74

attendants and passengers.”

“Except for Emma.” Cata pointed out and Kuro rolled his eyes.

“Yes, Cata, except for Emma.”

I couldn’t help but let go a little laugh. “Okay, guys, let’s go!”

My mom slipped through the gate, and Cata, Kuro and I followed. Beyond the gate, a

rocket stood on a launchpad, door wide open. Really, it was less of a rocket, more of a

luxury plane. . . it was quite large, with tinted windows covering the steel surface. There

was an erie, overly clean and perfected air about it, like VanSicklen’s office. Next to the

door, three flight attendants were lined up, and behind them was a short line of three

officers, seemingly waiting to board the rocket. Emma stood at the end of the line, sweat

dripping noticeably down the side of her face. I gasped. We had thought that when we

fought off the flight attendants and passengers while they were getting on the rocket, not

while they were still standing outside. Emma wasn’t on the plane yet! I only hoped that no

one would notice when she didn’t fight us back.

Taking a deep breath, and hoping that this would work, I leaped out from the

shadows of the gate and threw my electric energy at the first flight attendant. She stood,

frozen with an expression of surprise on her face for a moment, then toppled over onto her

back, into a heap on the ground, shaking.

Kuro was behind me, taking out the two enemy officers with unison sparks coming

from each hand. Then they, too, were quivering heaps.

The left over flight attendants finally sprung into action, dodging my mom’s

vigorous attacks. I tried shooting at them, but they defended with agile dodges. Kuro joined

in, but his attacks did little to stop their advances. They were getting closer! I didn’t know

what would happen if they got within punching distance, but I was guessing it wouldn’t be

good.

One of the flight attendants shrunk back, leaving the other dodging attacks and,

though I didn’t realize it at the time, distracting us from the second flight attendant, who

was now speaking vigorously into her walkie-talkie.

Emma was still standing, frozen, where we had left her.

The first flight attendant was getting closer—we couldn’t hold her off long. . . Cata

sprung out of her hiding place and shot a spark at the second flight attendant. It was small,

but enough to do the job, and she fell. This got the first flight attendant’s attention and she

turned around long enough for me to shoot her—yes! There; I had done it.

Emma immediately rushed over, a relieved look on her face.

“Yes! You did it. I’m so glad.”

Kuro and I grinned, Cata smiled shyly, my mom nodded at us.

“We’d better get on—who knows how long these people will be knocked out for,”

75

my mom said.

Emma nodded. “And the rocket leaves soon.”

“Wait,” I wondered aloud, “What about the pilot?”

“There is none,” said Emma.

“What?” said Kuro, “How does that work?”

Emma rolled her eyes, but still managed to keep her professional air, “It’s called

autopilot. It’s where the rocket is programmed ahead of time to depart at a certain time and

take a certain route. Unfortunately, the route VanSicklen has programmed in goes around

the electrical field, so police officers can’t get Hyper Electric Syndrome, so it’s much longer

than it would normally be.”

I shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter. I’ve always wanted to go on a plane—er, a

rocket!”

“And I brought cards!” said Kuro.

I smiled at him. “Nice.”

He blushed. I think it was the only outright compliment I had given him since. . .

since yesterday.

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Chapter 11

Soon we were situated on the plane, which had four main compartments: The living

room, a room adorned with lightweight couches and small coffee tables; the card room

which had some comfy chairs and card tables, and the bathrooms—the men’s and the

women’s.

Kuro, Cata and I plopped ourselves down on some comfy love seats in the card room

and Kuro took out his cards. Emma and my mom meandered into the living room, where

they got themselves wine from a mini-bar (we got some Earthian soda that tasted like

berries) and sat down to relax and talk about who-knows-what.

Once we were situated and the roar of the rocket engines was full underway, Kuro

pulled out a box of cards from his jeans pocket and put them on the card table.

“Anybody want to play?”

Cata shrugged and pointed to her bracelet loom she had brought (it seemed that the

twins had thought ahead of time about activities while we were aboard). Cata seemed to

say, “I’m already occupied”, so I shrugged and smiled.

“I’ll play! But beware—prepare to be crushed!”

At the word, “crushed”, Kuro turned bright red, but never the less grinned back and

said,

“Oh, you’d be surprised—I’ve been practicing. But no better way to determine a

winner than to play, right?”

I smiled and gestured for him to deal out the cards.

An hour later, I was suffering my second loss. Kuro beat me, fair and square, but I

didn’t really mind. I liked seeing him accell at something, I like seeing him grin at me as I

admitted his win. There was something about the thin air in the rocket compartment that

made my feel a bit light-headed. . . well, at least I thought it was the air, and I made that my

excuse to grin back every time he won. Soon, we were both becoming giddy with all of the

laughter that was seemingly coming from no where. Cata paid us no attention and moved

on to reading a book she found in the living room.

Another half hour passed and Kuro won again.

I shook my head at him, “You have been practicing.”

He shrugged and tilted his head to the side. “You know, I think I’ve proven myself.

I’m better than you and that’s that. I’m going to do something else now.”

I shrugged, not really caring if he thought he was better than me, just caring about

staring into those blue eyes and sighing to myself. There must have been something about

77

the air—

“Sumi, why don’t you try reading one of these books. They’re about Earth—quite

interesting.”

I tore my eyes away from Kuro, embarrassed, and he did the same.

“What—Cata? Oh, um—okay!” I stuttered and quickly stumbled over to Cata, feeling

slightly disoriented.

“Here you go. Try this one.” Cata handed me a huge book with the title Politics of the

United States of America.

“What? Um, yeah—sure.” I said, and dropped down in a loveseat to read the monster

book.

Kuro wandered over to Cata and started playing with her loom as I read, but soon I

wasn’t paying any attention to him anymore, I was too wrapped up in supposed “United

States of America” and their strange “democracy” system.

The next thing I knew, Kuro’s hand was on my shoulder, and he was saying, in a

hushed tone,

“Sumi! Sumi! Earth to—”

“Oh!” I snapped out of my book zone. “Yeah?”

“Cata’s in the bathroom. She just left. I wanted to give this to you.” He held out a

bundle of pink and blue fabric. I stood up to get a better look at what I now saw was a pink

and blue bracelet that he must have made on Cata’s loom. It was actually very pretty, and

with a nice floral pattern, too. He had remembered that I loved pink and blue together, and

though floral was not usually my type, this bracelet had a different type of flower. . . more

of a leaf. I liked it, despite it’s messiness.

“Thank you,” I said, and reached out to take it from him. As my hand reached out to

hold it, he brought it into his palm and put his hand into a fist, leaving my hand resting

gently on top of his. Normally, I would have pulled away, but this time I didn’t. Instead, he

slowly dropped the bracelet on the floor of the rocket and turned his hand upwards to hold

mine. We stood that way for a moment, holding hands, just staring into each others eyes.

He tilted his head to the side, as if contemplating me. Then, finally he shook his head

and whispered, “What on Earth did your mom do to you? Sumi. . . you were so pretty

before, but now. . . ”

He reached his free hand up and placed it on my cheek, and I closed my eyes and

smiled, feeling the warmth of his palm. I didn’t pay any attention to the fact that he had just

said something he normally would have stuttered over, and hidden beneath other topics.

When I opened my eyes again, he was closer, and slowly moving towards me, as if in

a dream. Mimicking him, I reached up and put a hand on his cheek, lost from resistance,

78

now totally under his control. The arm he had on my shoulder snaked around to my back,

so that he was hugging me close. Closer. And closer. He was leaning down, now, and I

remember closing my eyes to anticipate his lips against mine.

“What is going on here?” asked Cata, hands on hips.

We drew apart. I didn’t dare look at him to see if he was the same, but I was sure he

was.

Cata shook her head. “You two. You’re killing me! If I ever see you together like that

again—for heaven’s sake, keep yourselves to yourselves and do whatever you do in

private! I don’t care for God’s sake, but don’t make me watch you do that over and over

again! It’s disgusting.”

I felt like the appropriate response would be, “yes, ma’am”, but I knew that would

give away my crush on him.

“Do what?” I ask, playing dumb.

Cata rolled her eyes, then pointed at Kuro, then me, then made a fish face, as if to

say, “be little pucker-mouthed fishy friends”, though I knew what she actually meant, and I

immediately wished I hadn’t asked the question.

Cata sighed and said, “Sumi, you done with that book?”

I nodded robotically.

“I think we’ll be landing soon,” said Emma, coming in from the living room.

I nodded and bowed my head so she wouldn’t see my still burning face. Really, I

didn’t understand it—it wasn’t at all like tough, untouchable Sumi to blush so easily.

“Oh,” said Cata, getting up from where she had just settled back in on the loveseat

with the big book on politics. “I better put this away, then.”

She strode across the room and placed the book back on the little bookshelf where it

had come from just as my mom came in.

“Hello, kids! How was the ride—” she was interrupted by the sound of a voice over a

speaker somewhere in the rocket. The voice was robotic, so I could tell it was a

programmed announcement. Still, it made me jump.“Hello, to all officers currently on this vessel. This is the fifteen minute

call. Repeat, this is the fifteen minute call. We will be landing in fifteen minutes. Please assemble your belongings.”

“Oh, well, I guess that was it. We are almost there,” said Emma, then, to Heara this

time she said, “Let’s go get our things. We can come in here once it’s time for landing.”

Heara nodded then said to us and said, “You kids get your stuff together and wait for

us to come in when it’s time to land. Okay?”

Kuro and I nodded and Cata said, “Okay.”

After Emma and Heara left, Cata began to rush around, picking up various things she

79

had left on the floor, and Kuro moved to pick up the cards. They left me standing

awkwardly in the middle of the room.

I stooped to snatch up the bracelet Kuro had given me and stuffed it in my pocket for

later. I wanted to treasure it, to remember the look on Kuro’s face. To remember the tender

warmth that had sprung up between us. . . “Hello, to all officers currently on this vessel. This is the ten minute

call. Repeat, this is the ten minute call; we will be landing in ten minutes. Please take a seat.”

My mom and Emma came rushing into the room, and sat down in two different

loveseats. Looking around, I realized that for all of us to sit down in here, we would have to

seat two people in two of the loveseats—there were only three and five of us. Cata strode

over to sit with my mom, and they abruptly began talking about Earthian politics. That left

one chair left. I headed for it, and sat down and bumped into Kuro.

“Oh—um, sorry! I’ll. . . ” I gestured to Emma’s chair, and started to back away

towards it.

“Wait!” Kuro grabbed my hand.

“Come on. Kuro, Sumi, sit down!” Emma said.

I nodded and sat down next to Kuro, noticing not vaguely his arm brushing mine. “Hello, to all officers currently on this vessel. This is the five minute

call. Repeat, this is the five minute call; we will be landing in five minutes. Please buckle your seatbelts.”

At this last word, smooth, strange, plasticy seatbelts snaked out of the seat cushions

on either side. Kuro and I fumbled to clip them together, and when we did, they drew us

closer. I tried to relax into him so that I wasn’t tense for the landing.

Minutes passed, and I tried to focus my attention on Cata and my mom’s

conversation. I understood some of what they were saying, as I had read quite a bit of the

book—but Cata was a much faster reader than I and had managed to finish it. Who knew

where my mom had learned about it. I knew she hadn’t gone to college. . . there were none

in Blue Skania. According to VanSicklen, a child’s schooling needed only be nine years.

Kuro, Cata and I would soon reach the end of our’s—once the summer ended, we’d go into

eighth grade, then find jobs somewhere in the neighborhood, like Raggy had done, and

though we’d still live with our parents for a couple of years, we’d gradually start to split

from them. . . and eventually we’d find homes and families of our own.

The roar of the rocket engines peaked, tearing me away from my thoughts. The

rocket shook a little, but the bookshelves, card table and loveseats didn’t sway—they must

have been bolted down. The sound of the engines increased, increased, then there was a

subtle ploood and the rocket was still.

80

Emma unclipped herself and stood up to stretch. “Come on, time to go.”

Kuro and I fumbled with the clip a little before we got it undone and burst apart, but

soon we too were standing and stretching, along with my mom and Cata, who were still

talking about politics.

“Follow me,” said Emma, and walked over to the far corner of the room, where she

unfastened something and a door swung open out of the wall. Kuro, Cata, my mom and I

walked over to the door and walked out into a long, carpeted passageway whose walls

were covered in ads and posters.

“What is this place?” I asked Emma in wonder, “Is this Earth?”

Emma laughed. “No, no! I mean, yes, but this isn’t what Earth is like. This is just the

taxi passage. It’s where you dismount from your plane or rocket. It leads to the airport—

let’s see, I think we’re almost here.”

Sure enough, soon we were standing in a huge, marble room. As soon as we stepped

out of the passage, a door slid closed behind us and an automatic woman’s voice said, “Thank you for riding with [beep] VanSicklen Rocketways [beep]. It was

a pleasure having you and we hope you enjoyed the ride. Please prepare to be scanned for weapons as this has been an international flight and the United States does not allow the bringing of weapons into our country. Please hold still while you are scanned. Thank you.”

Kuro, Cata, my mom and I all looked around frantically, trying to figure out what

was going to happen to us. Emma was standing straight upright, very still.

“What was that voice?” Kuro asked.

“Why are we being scanned?” Cata shouted frantically, looking around to see if

someone was going to jump out and attack her.

“This place is weird,” I said, turning around in circles, looking at all the different

strange machines around us, and the huge sculpture of a rocket in the middle of the room.

“Stop moving,” said Emma, “If you don’t they can’t scan y—”

“Please stop moving and prepare to be scanned,” said the lady’s voice

again. Now that I thought about, I realized that that same voice could be heard echoing all

around the room, dictating instructions to various people in various places. It’s a robot! A

pre programmed voice! I let out my breath, relieved that there was not really a invisible lady

hiding behind me whispering in my ear.

“Guys, stand still!” Emma hissed.

Oh! Right. I held still and tried to imitate Emma’s good posture while a strange red

beam passed over me.

“Thank you,” said the robot voice. “Have a nice day.”And with that, Emma set off, with the rest of us in tow.

81

82

Chapter 12

Emma led us into another room, this one with strangely shaped cars parked all

around. Each car had a sign flashing in red letters on the windshield, and each sign read a

different last name; ‘Brown’, one said, ‘Electronel’ another said. The one that Emma led us

to had a flashing blue sign, which read ‘VanSicklen Rocketways’. Emma fished around in her

pocket for a second, then pulled out an ID card. She waved it in front of the blue flashing

sign, and the sign disappeared into the windshield. . . or at least what I thought was the

windshield; it was more of a curved dome over the top of the strange vehicle.

“Come on in.” Emma said, opening a previously nonexistent door in the side of the

car, and gesturing for us to get in. I did, along with the others, and it was quite an

interesting sight to see; the inside was cushioned all over in greyish pillows that were stuck

to the wall. I slid over the top of the front seat and into the back seat, where I found ten

luxury beds all laid out in a row. How could a car so small possibly fit all these? I wondered.

Once Emma slid in, hopped over the front, and came into the back with us, an

automatic voice not unlike the one in the airport said,

“Welcome aboard the [beep] VanSicklen Rocketways [beep] taxi. Please make

yourself comfortable, as the drive will be [beep] twenty minutes [beep]. Our destination

today is [beep] the Four Seasons Hotel, DC [beep]. Enjoy the ride!”

And with that, there was a small lurch, and we were in motion. I watched the roof of

the garage (I now realized that was what this room must be) through the glass ceiling of the

car. A minute later, I was instead watching green canopy go by as we rode along.

“Emma?” I asked, “I thought Earth was all polluted and stuff. . . no green trees and

vegetation everywhere. According to that book on politics, environmental policies are a big

deal for the. . . um. . . government and stuff.”

Emma shrugged, “Well, a lot has changed since that book was put aboard that

rocket. People became over worried about the environment, and now everywhere is green.

Even if most of the trees and things we see around here are usually genetically modified for

a neater, nicer looking turn out, it’s still better than it was before—in my opinion. Some

people would disagree.”

We sat in silence for a while, all of us trying to relax on the beds, but failing.

Finally, Cata broke the silence and asked, “I thought airports were only planes. Not

rockets.”

“Like I said, a lot has changed. Airports now host rockets and planes—rockets tend

to be more luxurious, and they get you where you’re going faster but much more

expensive.” Emma said.

83

There was another silence. Then Kuro said,

“Why is Earth so much more advanced in technology than Blue Skania? All those

robots in the airport. . . and this car. . . ?”

“Well,” said Emma, “I suppose that when VanSicklen sent the first people to Blue

Skania, he gave them the materials they needed to survive, and they did. Around that time

was when technology started getting more advanced on Earth, and the people he sent knew

a little about it, but not enough to actually make the devices, and anyway, they didn’t have

the materials. So a while passed before more supplies started being imported, as well as

technological experts, and soon Blue Skania had caught up with technology. But the last

couple VanSicklens have been more focused on the technology of their rockets and Blue

Skania hasn’t really been getting the materials from Earth needed to advance. So the

technology that we have from Earth is actually very outdated.”

“I think I see. . . ” said Kuro, “So, because VanSicklen has neglected to keep importing

new technology, we’re stuck with old stuff.”

“To put it bluntly, yes.” said Emma.

“What about the signs we saw flashing on the. . . uh, cars in the garage back there?

What were those? And why was our sign blue when all the others were red?”

“Oh!” said Emma, “Those were—I mean, this is a taxi. It’s designed with an automatic

voice that tells you where you’re going and how long the drive will take. It’s autopilot, just

like the rocket—pre programmed. These have microscopic light bulbs embedded in the

dashboards, so when they’re parked in the garage they get programmed to flash a certain

word in a certain color. All the little light bulbs work together to make the message.”

“I’m confused,” I said, “Why were they flashing those words and what did they

mean?”

“If you pay extra money, then you can tell the airport ahead of time where you’re

going after your flight and what you last name is. They put that information in a huge

database, and when a taxi comes back from delivering someone, it automatically takes one

person’s set of information off the database—where they’re going and what their name is,

and they flash that name on the dashboard in red. When people come from their flight, they

find the taxi with their name, wave their ID to prove that they’re the right person, and the

taxi will take you where you want to go!

“If you don’t pay extra money, you can either walk, get your own car from a garage

where you might have parked it before, or pay a little less money to get a taxi. If you pay the

money for the taxi on the spot, though, you have to get your taxi from a different garage

with less quality cars.”

I nodded slowly, “But what about our car? It didn’t say your name, it said

‘VanSicklen Rocketways’, which I assume is the name of our. . . um. . . airline, and it flashed

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in blue. What does that mean?”

“It means,” Emma said, “That it’s a permanent. It’s a taxi that some airline has paid

money to have it be there for any of their customers. It still reads IDs to make sure you’ve

ridden on that airline, but anybody from that airline can come along and claim it. It flashes

blue just to distinguish it from the rest of the taxis.”

“Oh. I see.” I said, quite blown away by all the differences here on Earth. I thought it

would be mostly the same as Blue Skania.

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Chapter 13

At least the hotel was similar to those of Blue Skania; though there was no

receptionist, no waiter, only robots, but the set up of our rooms and the food was mostly

similar.

Dinner had been a success, and I think I did alright giving my order to the waiter-

bot. Now Cata, Kuro and I sat on our three twin sized beds in our hotel room, which was

adjoined to the one Mom and Emma were sharing. After we had eaten all of the twelve

chocolates left for us on our beds, and with our stomachs already full from dinner, we

collapsed on our beds. Cata and I were trying to explain human politics to Kuro, who did

not think it was necessary to learn about the government of the place where he was

currently residing, and instead was insisting on playing around with Cata’s loom again. Still,

Cata and I persisted in telling him about it, since we had nothing else interesting to do.

“Kuro, you see, they have these people called presidents, and they kind of rule the

world—”

“No, Cata, that’s not at all right. They help govern the United States.”

“Yeah but from the message I’m getting, they’re pretty much the ruler of the

government of the US, which is the basically most powerful place in the world, so really it’s

the same thing.”

I shook my head. I knew that I couldn’t convince Cata of anything—not when she

was fully determined on one point. I would let it go and instead flopped back on my bed,

“Cata, I think maybe it’s time we start to get ready for bed. Kuro’s not paying

attention anyway.”

“Of course he is! Kuro, what did I just say?”

Kuro looked up at the sound of his name, confused, “What did you say? Sorry, I

wasn’t paying attention.”

“See!” I said, rolling my eyes at Cata and grinned.

Cata made a funny noise that sounded something like ‘harumph’, and said, “Okay,

fine,” she yawned. “I guess it is getting late. I’m going to brush my teeth and stuff.”

And with that, she stood up, stretched, and walked off to the bathroom, leaving Kuro

and me alone yet again. We sat in awkward silence for a moment, then I stood up and

pretended to stretch and yawn,

“I should probably go too.”

I started to walk toward the bathroom, but felt an arm on my shoulder. My heart

rose in my throat in anticipation for what was coming next.

“I wanted to give you this, in case you lost the other one.” He held out a bracelet

almost identical to the one he had given me on the plane. When he saw that I looked

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worried, he leaned in to my ear and whispered,

“Cata will take forever.”

He tried to kiss me again, but this time I got my hands underneath his and pushed

him back. I kept my head low, because I knew if I looked into his eyes, I wouldn’t be able to

resist.

“Kuro, we have other things to worry about. Now is not the time.”

I heard him draw in his breath, “What does that mean?”

“I think it means. . . ”

“It means you don’t like me.” The hurt in his voice when he said that reached to

deep. I couldn’t help it. I turned around to look at him, to tell him face to face I was sorry.

And, in that moment that our eyes met, I opened my mouth to speak, then closed it again. I

could feel the tears on my cheeks and I could see them on his. That was my mistake.

“No, Kuro,” I shook my head, smiling, “It means nothing of the sort.”

He smiled, and leaned towards me, placing a hand on my back, and pulling me

towards him. A thousand thoughts raced through my mind, but I pushed them aside,

focusing solely on him. Our lips met, and for one, joyful moment, we embraced. I forgot

everything; my duty, my mission, I even forgot Cata. For that one sweet moment it was just

me and Kuro. I reached up to his cheek and caressed it with my fingers. I pulled my lips

from his and buried my face into his shoulder. We stood there for a long moment, a long

moment that I thought would last forever.

“What does it mean?”

I let myself stay quiet for a moment. I had forgotten myself, my mission, and now I

needed to explain to Kuro why.

I sighed, but didn’t disentangle myself from him, instead I stayed where I was,

wrapped up in his arms, pressed close to him. “It means that we have a mission to the

world. We have taken on a duty, and all of our minds need to be focused on that mission.

We can’t be together, Kuro, don’t you see?”

He was quiet, and I could feel the rise and fall of his heavy breathing.

“I understand.”

We stood silent for another moment, and though we had just agreed that we would

not be together, we still embraced tightly.

“What if. . . if we do defeat him? Then what?”

“Then. . . Kuro, I don’t want to think about that. If I do, then it’ll just make dying

worse, knowing that I could’ve been with you.”

“You sound like you’re sure we’ll lose.”

I decided I wasn’t going to answer that one. The truth was, I really didn’t see how we

couldn’t lose. What I had said to Kuro had been completely true. I didn’t want to die still

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with things to do, hopes to finish. I would pour every last drop of Sumi into defeating

VanSicklen, but not one drop of me would be allowed hope. It was grim, but it would only

make defeat less defeating.

“You know, there’s another reason.”

“What?”

“Cata. She doesn’t show that it hurts her that we’re. . . you know, but I know that it

does. She feels excluded.”

Kuro tightened his grip around my back, but I pulled away. I knew I was crying, and

I really didn’t want him to see me cry, but it hurt too much to know that it would be over so

soon.

“I understand.”

I looked into his eyes and nodded.

We kissed again, for one last time. I knew that Kuro would always be around, after

all, we were in this together, and he was one of my best friends, but he would never be

anything more. I knew what would happen: We would probably make it very far, and I was

sure there would be a final battle like there always was in books. But the future after that I

had no idea, but I told myself that I should not hope. Honestly, no matter how much of me

told myself not to get my hopes high, part of me still couldn’t help but hope, hope for the

best. After all, if I didn’t, I couldn’t really keep going, keep trying. Deep down, I knew that.

But I couldn’t make a promise to Kuro that I couldn’t keep. It was bad enough that

he had had to wait this long to know that I loved him back. Whatever happened, at least he

had kissed me, at least he knew. Now that I really thought about it, Cata had been right; he

had liked me for years. My mind flashed back through the last years, and the more

memories that came, the more I realized how much Cata was right.

Memories flashed by, year after year, time after time. I had been naive—there were

too many clues. But I was glad now, to cherish them and realize just how much he loved me

as he held me tight. Because this was the last memory.

Soft footsteps came from near the door. The tears increasing, I squeezed Kuro for

one last time, then let go and pushed away.

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Chapter 14

Despite the melancholy end to last night, the morning began on a rather comical

note, thanks to Kuro.

“Turn on! Turn on, stupid thingie!” Kuro pounded the said ‘on’ button on the said

‘septop’.

“You know,” said Emma, trying to hold back a snort, “The on button is over here.”

Emma reached around the side of the septop and waved her hand in front of a small

round button. A little ‘beep’ rung throughout the septop and the it unfolded into a flat,

circular shape. After a moment, an image appeared on the screen of ten small circles, each

covered in some kind of logo.

“Open Serosearch.” Emma said, sounding bored.

One of the circle thingies flashed red, the one with the weird curly ‘S’ logo on it.

“What the heck is Serosearch? And what the heck is this thing?” Kuro asked, pointing

at the septop.

Emma dismissively waved her hand, “It’s like. . . an Earthian, futuristic computer.

Voice activated, expandable, all touch screen, and with the newest cerebration activation

feature. Very modern and very useful—cerebration activation works a bit better with ITs,

but it’s pretty much top-of-the line technology wise. The academician cords are a bit glitchy

with transfer, but that’s being worked on. It shows how fancy this hotel is that they pre-

provide septops. Looks like we’ve got a pretty good cosmic signal from here, as well. . . ”

Emma paused in her thoughts and said to the septop, “Connecticut peoples

resources.”

“Okay,” I interrupted her, “I did not understand a bit of what you just said about the,

uh, septop. What does ‘expandable’ mean, what’s ‘cerebration activation’, what’s an ‘IT’,

what are ‘academician cords’, and lastly what is a ‘cosmic signal’?”

Emma sighed, “A septop is like a laptop, except it is voice activated, it has the new

cerebration activation feature, and it’s expandable. Cerebration activation is just a fancy

way of saying thought activation, and the academician cords are the cords that you clip

onto the backs of your ears that have a small device at the end that reads brain signals sent

to it. The septop obeys these signals—it’s a bit glitchy, though, as I said. An IT is better—an

IT is a device especially designed for brain activation; IT stands for iThought. Like an iPod,

or iPhone—it’s made by apple.

“I also said that a septop was expandable. That means that when it’s turned off it

folds into a small, thin rectangle, and when it’s turned on it turns into a circular tablet.

“A cosmic signal is like a. . . cell signal or wifi signal or something, it’s just it comes

from cell towers we’ve put on mars and the moon and even Blue Skania—as well as some

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other asteroids orbiting Earth.”

“Ah.” I said, nodding slowly.

Meanwhile, Emma was furiously talking commands to the septop, telling it to ‘go

backwards one page’ or ‘search: connecticut history museum’—

“Oh!” said Emma, “Here’s something,” then she said to the septop, “Open.”

The link that Emma had activated opened, showing a website on some old history

museum in Connecticut.

“Let’s see here. . . 45th Cherry. . . right. Turn off.”

The septop closed and Emma said, “I think I’ve found something. It’s a museum—

about historical peoples of Connecticut. There might be some information on the invaders.

We need to go there!”

“How?” Cata asked, skeptical.

Emma shrugged, “I’m sure we could talk to the hotel and get a rental car. Most high-

end hotels have a stash of rentals in a garage that you can take for two or three day trips.

We could borrow one.”

I nodded, “Okay. But let’s go ask now! There’s no time to spare—who knows how far

into the quest VanSicklen already is, and all we want is to find some people who will tell us

about the Lightning Sword. And we haven’t even found them yet! He’s got a big advantage,

so we should move fast. Come on, let’s go!”

“Wait, a second, Sumi,” my mom pulled me back before I reached the door, “Don’t

you kids want to clean off all that hair dye and things? Take a shower? Change into some

nice clothes?”

“Okay about the shower, but we don’t have any clean clothes.”

“You do now!” said Emma, holding up three shopping bags, “We went shopping this

morning. We all have a couple of outfits, now. Now take a shower and change. We’ll do the

same—and come get us once you’re done; Once we’re all freshened up, we can get going.”

Emma handed us each a bag, and Cata eagerly peered inside hers.

"Oh!” said Cata, “Wow, thanks! Hey, you really know what I like.”

My mom nodded, “Well, I think I’ve seen what you wear enough, Cata. You too, Sumi,

Kuro. Emma and I picked out our own. They’re all adjustable in various places if they don’t

fit you—one of the benefits of modern Earthian clothes.”

“Nice!” I said.

“Okay, see you in a bit.” said Emma, and she and my mom left the room.

“I’m just going to take a look at what I’ve got in here first. . . who’s with me?” Cata

asked.

“Sure.” I said, and Kuro nodded.

We all quieted and dug around in our bags. Mine contained all the necessities, my

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mom had even remembered to get me some underwear! There were various pairs of

elasticated, high tech socks, some stretchy, fitted sports tees with various company logos

on them, some long sleeve shirts with a similar style, two pairs of jeans, some ridiculously

short running shorts, and a soft blue hoodie. Also there were some hairbands and a

headband—gee, thanks mom! As I reached the bottom of the bag, my hand hitting

something hard. What was it? Plastic? I reached underneath the clothes and pulled out a

plastic box. What? I turned it over a couple of times, and on the back was a strange

lightning bolt logo. Across the lightning bolt the words ‘speed balance’ were written. I

assumed that ‘speed balance’ was the company who had made whatever was in this box.

“Hey!” I heard Kuro shout, excitedly, “Shoes!”

He had reached the bottom of his bag, as well and was pulling out his plastic box.

Somehow he had managed to take some sort of lid off the top and now the contents were

revealed; shoes! I should have known. I grappled around my box for a lid, but couldn’t find

one. Just then, Cata pulled out her box and smoothly took the lid off.

“Wow,” she said, “Emma and Heara really did get us everything.”

Kuro started to walk over to Cata to see what type of footwear she had received, but

I intercepted.

“Um, excuse me,” I put my hands on my hips and pointed to my box, which I had still

not managed to open, “A little help?”

“Oh! Right. Sorry, Sumi.” Cata came over, felt around for a bit, then grasped on to

something and took the lid off.

“Thanks.”

“No problem—hey, nice sneaks!”

And indeed they were. All cool, orange mesh… rainbow laces; long, like I like them. I

picked up my shoes and bent them back and forth—wow! Bendy and flexible, yet there was

still a stiff air about them which I assumed was supposed to keep me from breaking my

ankle with all the flex; they were top of the notch for Blue Skania! I reached inside to feel

around for arch support, but instead found my hand molding into weird squishy foam that

covered the insides of my shoes. Cool!

“What did you guys get?” I asked them.

“I got a toothbrush, some hair dye, a couple pairs of jeans… a hoodie, some short

sleeve shirts, some socks and stuff…” Kuro dug around in his bag.

“No, I mean what shoes did you get?”

“Basketball shoes. They’re awesome! Great ankle support… but still really flexible,

they have this weird molding foam on the inside, though.”

“I know—mine too! What did you get, Cata?”

“Some flats—I actually really like them. They don’t have straps or anything, but

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there’s some sort of elastic around the edges that keeps them on my feet really nicely.”

“Nice! Can I see them?”

“I already put them on, see?”

I looked. They were nice, and very Cata-like. They seemed to fit her feet perfectly,

and her movements were mimicked by them exactly and without fail. They were light pink

at the tip, and were white at the back and around the sides. There was some type of pink

and blue striped trim around the edges. They did look awfully nice on her. My mom had

picked our clothing well.

“Okay, well I think it’s time we shower and get dressed,” Cata said, “Do people mind

if I go first? It takes me a long time to dry my hair and stuff, so if I went first that would give

me more time. Is that okay?”

“Sure.” Kuro and I chimed.

“Great!” said Cata, and picked up her bag to go into the bathroom, once again leaving

Kuro and I alone.

“I—um—I’m gonna go brush my teeth.” I said hastily, in a rush to get away from

another awkward situation.

“I’ll come with you.” Kuro started to pick up his bag before I stopped him.

“Oh no, you don’t. Until Cata and I are done, the bathroom is a girls only zone.”

“Oh, right.” Kuro blushed hard. I shook my head and picked up my bag.

***

45 minutes later, we were all showered, dressed, and cleaned up for the day. I had

chosen to wear a cool green tee apparently made by ‘Sports Wear International (SWI)’, the

blue hoodie, and a pair of boot cut, yellow tinted jeans—and, obviously, my awesome

sneakers. They were a bit strange, but also very comfy, as it turned out. I almost wanted to

wear them sockless, just to feel that awesome foam directly on my feet, but I didn’t want to

stink them up on their first day. I had combed my hair back into a ponytail, and had kept

loose strands in with a blue headband.

Kuro had re-dyed his hair with purple streaks again, though it was still just as messy

as before. He had kept the same outfit (except for his shoes), apparently not wanting to go

to all the effort to pick out a new one.

Cata looked her usual, pretty, self, with her hair plaited in some fancy braid she

called a ‘fishtail’ tied at the end with some pink ribbon she had found who-knows-where.

Apparently my mom had really bought us everything, as Cata also wore some beautiful pink

rose earrings that dangled just a little below small white studs. As for clothing, she was

wearing a light, light blue colored knit sweater over a soft pink shirt that hugged her small

waist and chest to create a very figure flattering look. On her legs she was wearing thin

white tights and a fuchsia skirt with small blue flowers and a baby blue ruffle. With the

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effect of the pink and blue shoes, she was really very pretty—not to mention very color

coordinated.

“Alright!” an upbeat Emma bounded into the room, leaving the door swinging

unceremoniously into the face of my mom.

Kuro and I jumped, but Cata seemed untouched.

“Oh, hi! We just finished. Cata tilted her head to the side, then smiled, “Looks like

you’re feeling… good.”

Emma shrugged, embarrassed as my mom stumbled in, “Sorry we took so long—we

thought you guys might need a little longer than us to check out what you’ve got in there,”

she pointed to my bag, “And so we reserved a rental car—and that’s not the end of the good

news. This type of car is much faster than most, and it has a special permit to drive on some

sorts of ‘fast lanes’ on the road, so we’ll be in Connecticut by noon.”

Kuro gaped, “Oh my God! That is fast! And we get our whole own lane?”

“Oh no!” Emma laughed, “There’s other cars with the fast permit, for sure. It just

means we get where we’re going much faster.”

“I mean really!” Kuro started rambling on about some sort of mile per hour

philosophy about cars and how some certain engine technology must be a certain velocity

or something and old cars don’t tend to have that type of engine because of wait no because

cars on Blue Skania have electric motors and so therefore…

“That’s great, Kuro—now let’s go! I’m ready, who’s with me?” Cata hoisted her bag

onto her shoulder, which gave her a very posh look; the bag was quite nice and purse-like

therefore serving to make her appear as though she was some sort of fashion queen, an

effect added to with the clothes, her hair, her earrings, and all the color coordination.

“I think we’re all ready!” I said, grinning and ready for adventure.

“Alright let’s go.” My mom smiled, picked up her bag, and we filed out of the room

with Kuro last, still babbling about car engines and speed limits and who knows what other

boyish car speak.

He calmed down when we reached the parking lot, though, apparently blown away

by all the different cars. Hello, we saw pretty much all cars like this in the airport. They’re not

that amazing.

“Here we are.” Said Emma, waving our hotel card in front of the windshield. The

doors emitted a satisfying ‘click’ and swung cleanly open.

“You know, you really shouldn’t be able to use your hotel card to activate it… I mean,

once the card deactivates—you know, after our time at the hotel is over and it deactivates,

then won’t that mean that we can’t access the car anymore? Not even to drive it back?”

“Oh, don’t worry, Sumi,” Emma smiled as we crawled into the back seat, “The card

won’t allow us to access our hotel room anymore, but it will still activate the car. And the

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car will drive itself back to the hotel once we’re done with it, so don’t worry about that. We

can keep it for up to three days.”

“Will that be long enough?”

“Sure! One day would be long enough. Once we’re in Connecticut, we can take buses

and we probably won’t be going anywhere long distance until we return to Blue Skania—

but don’t you worry about that. There’s lots of rockets VanSicklen has set up all over the

place. Actually, ‘VanSicklen Rocketways’ is one of the most well known—and mysterious

rocketway. No one really knows about it, all anybody knows is that it only services certain

people. I bet a lot of folks think it’s just an airline for the very wealthy and can only be

booked five years ahead of time and a ticket costs a billion dollars—heck, I don’t know

what they’ve been told, or what they’ve made up.”

“Mmm.” I mumbled, trying to sound interested—she had just been answering my

question—but gee whiz she did know a lot of stuff about Earth… she had been born here, I

guess.

“Emma, where did you grow up?”

Within seconds of my asking the question, her face turned from mild interest to a

grave, sour expression, as though I had asked her about something she most certainly did

not want to talk about.

“Arlington, Virginia. Very near DC—the capital of the United States,” She said

robotically and turned away, “My childhood wasn’t ideal, but it showed me exactly what I

needed to see of the world—according to VanSicklen. It showed me exactly what I needed

to see of the world in order to side with him. But I know now that what he’s doing is cruel

and inhumane, and I hope I’ve seen some of the world that’s not so… I’ve seen parts of it I

didn’t see when I was a child, and I’ve grown to love those parts,” Emma turned over again

in her seat to face me, and she looked me straight in the eye, “Blue Skania is all of Earth’s

ideals put together, but you must understand that Earth is not something that should be

destroyed because of a couple of… a couple of flaws. There are people living here the same

as you and me. That’s all you need to know.”

With that, Emma turned around in her seat again so that her back was to me, leaving

Cata, Kuro and I staring sadly at each other. Poor Emma.

The rest of the drive passed quickly, with help of one or two refreshing naps, and

soon we were pulling up at the ‘Connecticut People’s Museum’.

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Chapter 15 The car was parked, tickets were bought, and a door was opened to let us

into the Museum.

The first room we entered was upbeat and slightly overwhelming. Its walls

were hung with tribal Native American draperies decorated with pictures of people,

animals and plants. Each seemed to tell its own vibrantly colorful story. Around the room

also were glass cases covering various objects that looked like different types of weapons,

tools, jewelry, and even some little models of native American villages.

“Wow!” Cata pointed at a poster, “Did you know that the Pequot tribe—“

“Cata,” Emma sighed, “Please. We’re not here to learn about Connecticut’s

ancient peoples. We’re here to find the people who invaded Blue Skania—and, like I said,

they were probably from about 2015 or around that era. I don’t know exactly when these

Native Americans were from, but I don’t think they’re the people we’re looking for.”

Cata nodded, “Alright.”

The next room was filled with clothes, weapons and such that were

apparently from the Dutch traders that originally bought the land from the Pequot tribe

Cata had mentioned in the Native American room before.

After the Dutch came the English settlers with their strange clothing and

bonnets and such hung all about the walls like twenty-first century designer items in a

museum of fashion. Either way, we had to tear Cata away from them and into the next

room. Then the next. Then the next.

I watched as we strolled through centuries of Connecticut’s people. Room

after room flashed by. Occasionally, we would pass through a red room whose walls flashed

orange flame and red sparks. These rooms also projected a rushing sound, a chanting, like a

hundred troops marching toward the enemy. These rooms represented wars. I found it

amazing how many rooms had been applied to create such a huge museum—until I found

myself walking downhill. Every floor was slightly slanted—the museum went

underground! This was something truly amazing about modern Earth. An architectural

wonder.

About five more rooms passed, and I found them becoming more and more

modernized, more and more like today’s Blue Skania. And, finally, amidst bands and hippies

and strangely dressed teenagers, I found a small plaque stationed below a figurine of a man

—a man so much in likeness to the statue that stood on top of the police office back in Blue

Skania. I looked down at the plaque and gasped

“What is it?” Kuro asked me and wandered over.”

“It’s a—a civil rights group.”

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“A what now? You know, Sumi, we’re looking for ferocious invaders, not—“ Kuro

looked up at the figurine and gasped.

“I know,” I whispered, “Something tells me that they weren’t really a civil rights

group. And something tells me that that ‘world tour’ they took was more than—Kuro, I

think we’ve found him.”

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Part 3Stephan

97

Chapter 1

“One: No way. Two: No way. Three: No way!” Kuro shook his head back and forth

like a dog shaking off water.

“Why not?” I grinned, “VanSicklen had so many brothers, and I’m sure each and

every one of them had lives of their own—it’s entirely possible that they married and had

children. The leader of the invaders isn’t necessarily our VanSicklen, but I think he was a

VanSicklen. Here; there’s some writing. Let’s see. . . ”

I moved my finger across the plaque about the “civil rights group”. Sure enough, the

“leader” of the group was named Falen VanSicklen.

“Kuro, look! I was right. Cata, Mom, Emma, come over here!”

The others came over and after standing for a moment in confused silence reading

the plaque, understanding dawned on Emma and my mom when they looked at the

figurine.

“What in Blue Skania?” my mom shook her head.

“How strange.” Emma said, tilting her head and contemplating the figurine.

Cata put her hands on her hips, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. It’s some guy.”

“Did you read the plaque?” I asked her.

“Uh. . . ” Cat bent down and read it, then stood up, still confused, “It’s a civil rights

group. It has a little about them after that that I didn’t read, but really, Sumi, I don’t think

these are the people we’re looking for.”

“No, no, Cata! You have to read the whole thing.” Kuro crossed his arms.

Cata rolled her eyes, “Fine, whatever.”

I watched as her eyes skimmed the plaque, then stopped at the part about their

leader, Falen VanSicklen. She backtracked and read it again.

“Who—what?”

“I don’t know, Cata. It’s weird, but I think there’s some connection.” I said.

“You mean between this Falen guy and Argus—the Argus?”

“Argus VanSicklen, the rocket designer—yeah. I don’t know what it means, but. . . ” I

trailed off. Really, I didn’t know anything more than Cata did. I was just as puzzled as she

was. But I did know that the figurine standing above the plaque definitely bore an unusual

resemblance to the statue of Argus VanSicklen that stood on the top of the police office.

“Girls, really—did you read this whole thing?” Emma pointed to the plaque which

she had just finished reading.

“Yeah—Well, I read pretty much all of—oh!” I started; There was a small sentence at

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the bottom of the plaque that said:

“Descendants of these peoples: Michael VanSicklen.”

“Look, I don’t know where this guy lives, but if we can find him. . . this is our best

bet at finding the invaders. These people,” Emma gestured to the figurine, “May not have

been the invaders, but they were still VanSicklens. I think we’ve seen everything this room

has to offer and the next will be too far ahead of the time of the invaders—this is the only

lead we’re going to get.”

“You know,” I said, “It’s also possible that they really were the invaders. It says here

that they took a ‘world tour’. Sounds a bit high and mighty for a group of modest do-

gooders. I think it’s possible that they were really somehow related the invasion—I just. . . ”

I trailed off, trying to find how to put into words the feeling I had been getting about Falen,

“my gut is telling me that there might be more behind the invasion of Blue Skania than we

had originally realized.”

We stood in silence for a moment, the others probably contemplating how strange I

was when it came to “gut instincts”. . . and what if they were wrong? What if this Micheal

guy knew nothing about the Lightning Sword? What if our lead on Connecticut was all

wrong. . . what if Cata’s little elementary presentation didn’t really have accurate

information—or worse: it hadn’t even really been about the people we were looking for in

the first place. I shook my head to clear out the terrible thoughts of my mom pushing me

back into my room and shutting the door on me, saying, ‘You’ve disappointed me, Sumi. I

thought that you were going to get us to the invaders.’ Inwardly, I persuaded myself to

believe that my ‘gut instincts’ had always been right before, so they might as well be good

to me now.

“Come on, guys, let’s go.” I said, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible.

***

We rushed through the few rooms left and came out in the gift shop, though it was a

gift shop unlike any I’d ever seen; there were books on people of Connecticut, and native

american stuffed animals and other various gadgets and gizmos. . . but there were also all

different electronics. I was stunned to find that the gift shop not only carried the usual junk,

but also strange little iphone-like devices, tablets, small laptops, things half the size of a

smartphone with seemingly no buttons. . .

“Emma, what is all this stuff?” I asked. It was helpful to have at first hand an Earthian

dictionary / question-answerer on my first visit to this odd, futuristic planet.

“Oh, just little gadgets. iStupis, some people call them.”

“Excuse me?”

Emma groaned, “Like an iPod, or iPad, or iPhone, but instead it’s like iStupid. . .

except without the ‘d’. It means they’re not-so-high-tech portable electronics. Most people

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keep a couple on them all the time. . . one for checking email—those are the meMails,”

Emma paused, seeing that we didn’t understand what a ‘meMail’ was, “iStupis are

represented by having a lowercase ‘me’ in front of their names. . . instead of an ‘i’. They’re

very inexpensive and everybody’s always losing them, so gift shops and pretty much any

store tends to carry them. there are meMails, meNews, meGames, meMusics, meSearches—

hey! MeSearches! We could actually use one of those. . . Heara, do you have any money

left?”

“Yes,” my mom said, digging through her pockets, “About fifteen dollars.” She

handed the money to Emma, who abruptly picked up a light shiny blue tablet with the

words emblazoned in silver script on the back, ‘meSearch’. She put it down on a counter

across the room, waved it under a robot, which beeped, and stuck some money in a slot in

the counter that abruptly made a ‘blurp’ noise and ate it.

“Wait—” my mom protested, “That was the last of our money! And why, may I ask,

do we need a meSearch or whatever it is? What is it, anyway?”

Emma gestured us to come out the door, which we did and as we stepped inside our

car she said, “It’s a type of iStupi. All it does is search the internet—but that’s all we need.

It’s a bit of a crappy—pardon my language—device, because it’s quite slow searching and

it’s not voice activated or anything; just the old fashioned keyboard.”

“I don’t see a keyboard.” I pointed to the slick surface of the meSearch.

Emma shrugged and waved her hand across the bottom of the meSearch, where a

little green light beeped and the screen lit up to reveal a well-organized simple looking

search engine and a small keyboard popped out.

“Let’s see here. . . ” Emma started typing vigorously on the keyboard. You would

have thought that current day Earthians couldn’t type at all, because apparently all devices

containing a keyboard—even a motions-sensor pop-out keyboard were ‘crappy’, but no. In

fact, Emma typed faster than I had ever seen any Blue Skanian type. Her fingers were

literally a blur—

“There.”

“May I ask what exactly you’re doing and why exactly we spent all our money on this

‘crappy’ thing?”

“Just wait and watch the screen, Kuro. Wait and watch.” Emma smiled and tapped

the surface of the screen.”

After a moment and an accusation that the poor little meSearch was ‘slower than a

slug’ (can you guess which one of us it came from? Hint: All people from Blue Skania were

dumb struck with the speed of this thing), the meSearch finished loading and a page of

internet search results popped up. Emma tapped a link before any of us could see what it

was. Another ‘long’ second, and another accusation and a new page popped up, but this one

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instead of holding links held various pictures of people’s faces. Below the faces were

names, ages, locations and other random information.

Emma scrolled down the list, making occasional frustrated growling noises at the

meSearch. Geeze! Earthians really are spoiled when it comes to technology.

“So. . . I’ve watched the screen, Emma,” Kuro tapped her shoulder, “What is this. . .

um, exactly?”

Emma didn’t even look up but continued scrolling down the list, “Web profiles of all

the guys with names starting with ‘Michael VanSick’ out there. Stupid meSearch won’t let

me type in more than fourteen letters in the appellation exploration searcher for some

absurd reason, so this is what I get. You have to admit, that is really cheap. Thankfully, it’s

alphabetical, and I can choose the sex I’m looking for, so all I have to do now is keep

scrolling until I get to the ‘Michael VanSickl’ es, and whatever girls who might be called

Michael are off the list. . . hmm. . . here we are.”

I was about to ask Emma what ‘appellation exploration searcher’s were, but though

better of it. Emma stopped at the list of five ‘Michael VanSickl’ es. Sure enough, there was a

‘Michael VanSicklen’, and sure enough, he was no stranger. The long, crooked face, the thin

cheeks and the refined, sad, chestnut eyes all told me that this man was, at the very least, a

relative of the VanSicklen. Emma poked the man’s face with her finger, and another profile

came up.

‘Name: Michael Argus VanSicklenSex: MaleEthnicity: WhiteLocation: 4545 89th ave. NE, Westport, CT—’Emma abruptly waved her hand over the keyboard, and it popped in, leaving a black

screen,

“There,” Emma said, “That’s why I bought it. Now we know where Michael lives, and

even though only Blue Skania knows what we’ll say to him, there’s no time to waste.”

She leaned into the front seat of the car, pressed some buttons, and we were off. We

all scrambled about for some time longer than it might have taken us to get situated if the

car hadn’t been moving, but eventually found recliner beds to our suiting and sat down for

the ride.

No sooner than we had settled ourselves in and relaxed, it seemed we arrived. The

car pulled up in front of a grand blue house. Though I found it a bit boxy and, well, modern,

it did have a certain charm to it, hiding amongst two tall willows that shaded the windows

from the blazing sun. There was a metal fence around the house and after that a stone

walkway up to it that should have given it a forbidding look, but somehow still held a cheer

that all the other modern fashion homes on the block lacked to emit.

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Emma seemed nonplussed by the suddenness of our arrival at Michael’s home, and

the probably rude and unexpected questions we needed to ask him. Shouldn’t we plan what

we’re going to say or something? I wanted to scream after her, but she was already inside

the fence and ringing the bell.

“Hello?” a bemused looking Michael answered the door. Apparently it wasn’t

everyday that a group of random kids came knocking at your door. Yeah, no kidding, Emma!

Kuro and Cata rushed up to stand beside me in my spot I had secured next to my

mom a moment ago.

“Hi!” Kuro waved, “We’re, um, just looking for information on Falen VanSicklen for

an. . . um, school project. We hear he was a great leader of a civil rights group in the early

twenty-first century!”

Michael looked surprised at first, then smiled and laughed, “A school project on my

ol’ grandpops, huh? In the summer—during school break?”

Kuro’s eyes bulged at his mistake, “It’s summer school!” he quickly retorted.

“Alright,” Michael smiled, “I’ll tell you what I know about Falen.”

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Chapter 2

“Falen was my grandfather, like I told you. I grew up with him in Seattle,

Washington. We lived in a nice home, and though it was a bit cramped with my parents and

my grandparents and I all living in the same little house, it was modern and, like I said, nice.

Falen was always a kind man, but he was always a bit. . . ”

“What? It’s okay if you feed us. . . bad information about him. We’re doing a report

for summer school, not a profile for the world. We want accurate information, and not

sugar coated, either.” Cata said boldly; she, like the rest of us, wanted in earnest to know

the truth about the invaders.

“Well, you could say that he started to go a bit,” Michael twirled his finger around in

a circle next to his ear, “at the end. He died in Seattle shortly after I moved here to start

college. My brother still lives there, though. If you really want information on Falen, you

should ask them. They’ll help you.” Something about the way he said that last sentence

confused me. Something about his tone, the way his eyes glinted in excitement, made me

suspect that he knew. . . something.

“Why did you think he was. . . crazy?” Emma asked.

“Let’s just say that he started talking about other human civilizations on other

planets and weird powers that they possessed and some sword—”

We all gasped, then turned red and pretended that nothing had happened. Michael

smiled,

“To be honest with you kids, I don’t really remember anything about him being a

civil rights group leader. Maybe you should do your report on someone else.”

“Oh,” I gave a sort of half smile, “Uh, thanks. Well, we’ll use that information, thanks

for your time!”

“You’re welcome. Good luck with summer school.”

We nodded to him and made our way back to the car, and as I glanced over my

shoulder, I saw him give me a little nod, a little smile, then closed the door.

***

“I am really confused,” Kuro flopped down on his car-bed, “So now we are going

where exactly and for who exactly and for what exactly and. . . yeah. I’m really confused.”

“I’m not sure I understand it entirely, either,” I said, “but I can give it a shot: we’re

going to the airport, and then we’re going to apparently catch a flight to Seattle from

VanSicklen Rocketways which go all over the US for police officer’s leisure, so we can get on

for free using Emma’s name tag ID. And we’re going to Seattle because we know that

Michael's family will help us, wherever they are. There’s actually a pretty good chance that

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they’ll know about it because when Falen was in his old age he came out with a bunch of

stuff about the Lightning Sword and Blue Skania, and so they might know what he said.”

“So we’re going to look for some guys who are somehow descendants of VanSicklen

and might know stuff about the Lightning Sword, and we want to know about the Lightning

Sword before we start making a big deal out of it and try to get it before VanSicklen.” Kuro

made a face.

“In other words, we want to know what we’re up against. That’s just as important as

getting the Lightning Sword in itself, And we think we might have a lead with these people,”

Emma put in, “Because somehow Falen knew about the Lightning Sword and Blue Skania.

Which leads me to think he really was somehow involved in the invaders.”

“Speaking of which,” I said, “What ever happened to them, anyway? Weren’t we here

in the first place to find the invaders?”

My mom smiled, “Sumi, the point of finding the invaders was to learn about the

Lightning Sword. We thought that they would know more about it because they were

literally the ones who saw it being used—and felt it being used—first hand. Now that we’ve

found another lead on someone who might know something about the Lightning Sword,

and that lead is more promising, we’ve chosen to follow it, instead.”

“So. . . ” I thought aloud, scared to ask the question that had been on my mind so

much lately, “Do we get to stay with you guys? The deal was that if the Connecticut lead

turned out to go somewhere then we could stay and quest for the Lightning Sword so that

we can stop VanSicklen before he. . . uses it to destroy the world of whatever he’s going to

do with it.”

“Actually,” my mom corrected, “the deal was that if we found the invaders in

Connecticut then you could stay with us.”

Oh gosh, then we really are out. But we’re still riding in this car. . . aren’t we?

“So. . . ?”

My mom sighed, “It’s not really what the deal said, but I think it’s only fair that you

stay. We found a lead, if not the lead we were looking for. I think you can at least stay with

us till Seattle. Who knows what will happen there. . . maybe we’ll just forget that you were

going to stay behind in the first place,” she smiled at me, “maybe we’ll forget ‘sorta on

accident on purpose’.”

I smiled. She had quoted me, and we could stay.

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Chapter 3

The Connecticut airport was nothing like the one we had been in before. First off,

there were fewer robots. In their places were real people—and don’t get me wrong; there

were still more robots than I could have ever imagined before we arrived in Earth, but it

was still a refreshing break from all the clipped automatic voices. . . the voices that were

too perfect to be real. Maybe they shouldn’t have been real. At least, in my opinion, people

were much more kinder and more helpful.

With a little help of Emma’s Earthian knowledge, we sent the car back to the hotel

and soon were strolling through the airport food court in search of a decent place to eat.

Eventually we settled on an upbeat-looking place that Emma called ‘Italian’. I had no clue

what that meant, but it looked decent and clean and there were some appealing cheese-like

smells wafting from the counter.

And so I was confronted with a choice. Pizza? Pasta?

Settling on what I knew, I ordered cheese pizza. A couple of minutes and a couple of

tables later we were seated comfortably, backpacks on the ground chowing down on all our

cheesy carbohydrates. Not the healthiest meal of my life, but a decent energy boost for our

flight, which, according to Emma, left in about three hours, so we had ‘time to kill’,

whatever that meant. (It turns out that it meant that we had to follow Emma around for a

while so she could poke around in different stores. Boring!).

So, a long meal, about fifteen different fancy jewelry stores, five junky this-stuff-

we-sell-is-totally-not-useless-its-just-kinda-(useless)-so-whatever-just-give-us-money-

now stores and a couple hours of boring airport land later, we were headed toward the

‘VanSicklen Airways’ terminal.

“Emma?”

“Yes, Cata?”

“Er, we don’t have tickets. . . ?”

“No problem. We’re taking VanSicklen rocketways, so we can just use my police

name tag to get in. You know, our name-tags are quite high-tech. They contain chips inside

them so that any police officer can be recognized as such—it’s a ticket to any VanSicklen

Rocketways rocket or plane. We’re riding a plane, though. . . less comfy, but safer and less

expensive. ”

Kuro stopped in his tracks, “But then. . . couldn’t they recognize you? And then come

and get you here? After all, we’re all wanted criminals.”

Emma laughed, “No, no. Nothing like that. To be honest, I think VanSicklen is too

valient to really believe that any of his police officers would betray him—the chips contain

105

no personal information and the only way to get them deactivated is by having them taken

away. And ah. . . here we are.”

We passed through the small terminal, with Emma flashing her badge to various

machines, and soon we had entered a small plane. It was true, the plane was much less

luxurious than the rocket, and instead of having multiple living rooms it had two long isles

of side-by-side seats.

Cata and I plopped ourselves down next to each other while Emma and Heara took

the row across from us. Kuro shrugged and sunk into a chair a couple of rows back. In

almost an instant, he was snoring. Silly kid! I thought, and looked at him. But I must have

looked too long for once again I found myself wanting to walk over to him and shake him

awake. Leave Cata and sit next to him, my head on his shoulder. . . stop it, Sumi! You’re

being ridiculous again. You have a mission and nothing more.

Cata nudged me and pointed to a button on my arm rest. I lifted my eyebrows and

pushed it, inwardly thanking her from drawing my lovesick attention away from Kuro. I

was jolted back into reality as suddenly I found my seat sliding backwards underneath me.

Folding out, and out. . . oh gosh!

“It’s a bed!” I exclaimed, “Wow, Earthians really do live in style!”

“Yup,” Cata sighed, and settled back into her seat.

As the plane took off—and it was a much smoother take off than the rocket had done

—I struggled to find a comfortable position in my seat. I knew I ought to get some rest

before we landed, but I simply couldn’t get comfortable. Cata, too was tossing and turning,

staring out her window like there was something out there she couldn’t quite reach,

something she wanted to push away, but she wasn’t strong enough to.

Unable to resist myself, I asked her, “Penny for your thoughts, Cata?”

She sighed, “I just. . . I don’t know.”

“What is it? Really, now I have to know.”

She rolled over so that her back was to me and stared out the window a little longer,

then rolled back over so that I could see her face. Her eyes looked a little puffy, though she

surely wasn’t crying.

“You want to know the honest truth?”

“Well, maybe not, but now that I know there is something, I can’t help but resist.” I

giggled. She didn’t.

“Promise you won’t get angry?”

“I can’t promise anything—”

“You have to.”

“I’ll try.”

She looked up at the ceiling, then back down at me, “I guess that’s good enough.”

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“So. . . ?”

She opened her mouth as if to speak, then closed it again. It reminded me of Emma

the time she told us about VanSicklen. Finally, she squinted her eyes shut, opened them

again, took a deep breath and said all very quickly, “I don’t think we should be trying to

stop VanSicklen.”

I shot up in my bed-seat, “What?”

What?

“Cata, you are just ridiculous! Do you realize that billions of lives are at stake? Then

of course, you wouldn’t care,” I allowed myself a snort, “You’re just the most selfish little. . .

little. . . little brute ever! I mean, what is going on with you? No, wait, I don’t need to know.

It’s just who you are—you know, basically backing out on—”

She shrunk back in her seat, “But the only reason you ever wanted to do this was to

get your mom—”

I drew back, speechless. How had she known. . . ? Yet I was still here. . . wasn’t I? I

had fought hard against that same mother to stay with the group, to help fight VanSicklen.

Maybe I did really want to defeat VanSicklen. . . maybe something had kept me attached to

the mission through all this.

“No, Cata,” I hissed, “I’m here because I know what it means to help, I know what it

means to do what I can for all those people who are living their lives. There are children,

just like you and me on Earth right now, living their lives, dreaming their dreams. There are

babies yet to be born, just waiting in the dark for their lives to begin. And all those lives will

be ruined—who knows what VanSicklen will do, if we don’t use our chance to stop him.

Don’t you see? We’re the only ones who can do it? We’re the only ones who know, who

have the chance.”

Now I did see the tears welling in Cata’s eyes. And this time she did nothing to stop

them.

“But—but—I just—But this mission is impossible, Sumi. Don’t you realize that?

There’s just no way we could win—Don’t we all realize that?”

I felt my blood turn ice cold. I had dreaded Cata’s come-to-reality. I knew—of course

I knew that it was impossible. I had expressed myself to Kuro thoroughly, and I was sure he

cursed that stupid fact as much as I did. I took a deep breath to calm myself. Correction: he

cursed that stupid assumption as much as I did.

“I’m sorry, Cata, but I’m not going to say I believe that. I won’t say anything on the

matter, I’ve promised myself not to.”

Quickly I mentally promised myself that I wouldn’t say anything on the matter, as I

didn’t really think I wanted to lie to Cata. A wave of sympathy spread over me. Poor thing!

She really did look quite pitiful, cowering away from me, scrunched up in a little ball with

107

tears welling then streaming down her cheeks. I sighed and gave into asking her,

“Cata, what’s been going on with you lately? You’ve been so negative and so. . .

against what we’re doing. And, I’m sorry, but you’ve really being kind of selfish. Come on,

I’ll admit I’m angry that you’re putting yourself before all the billions of Earthia—” I

stopped myself and took a deep breath, “I’m sorry. Please, Cata, just tell me what’s wrong.”

She looked up at me with those big eyes, “Don’t you see Sumi? I’m scared.” She burst

into tears again, “You’re just so tough—you’re so resilient and you’re just. . . you’re not

afraid of risking our lives for other people’s—but Sumi, I’m just. . . I’m just a regular girl

and I can’t help it if my needs seem more important to me than other’s. I’m so scared.”

I was stunned, “Cata—I. . . who in Blue Skania said I was ‘Miss Resilient’? I’m just as

afraid as you are! How could I not be? With our lives like this—who knows, maybe right

now VanSicklen is about to blow us all up.”

Cata’s eyes bulged and I knew I had said something wrong.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just—look, what I’m trying to say is that we’re all afraid, afraid

enough that we could all just back out on this, but it’s just that we can’t. Really, you’re the

strongest because you had the strength to say you wanted to back out. We all know that the

right thing to do is go along with it, but we all want to do what you just did—say we want to

back out. Admit. But the thing is, we can’t. Not anymore—we’re already too deep into this

to go back. We’re here now and whatever happens, we’ll all know that we were doing the

right thing. No matter what.”

Cata’s tears slowed and we both sat in silence, staring at each other.

“No matter what.” I repeated.

She gave a weak smile, “No matter what.”

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Chapter 4

My conversation with Cata ended pretty soon after that, because we both abruptly

got very tired and fell asleep, but soon she was shaking me awake again, and in quite better

spirits.

“Sumi! Sumi, wake up!”

“Mummph,” I rolled over and opened my eyes a crack, “What is it?”

“I dunno. Just that now that we’re BFFs again, I thought that when I wake up it is

appropriate for you to do the same.”

“What?”

She rolled her eyes, “Plus I feel better now and I want to lighten the mood by talking

about something I’ve been wanting to talk about for a while.”

I rolled my eyes back and we both giggled. Groggily, I pressed the button on my

armrest again and this time I wasn’t startled when my seat started to move position.

Once I was all situated and facing Cata, she asked me her question,

“Got any juice on my bro’s love life?”

I sat bolt upright, “No.”

“Oh, right, of course you don’t. Like, because I kind of recall a couple of occasions

where there was this girl, and he was hugging her, then he was kind of gonna kiss her. . .

and I’m getting this weird feeling that she might have told you about it?”

I sighed, but didn’t laugh at Cata’s jokes, “Cata, please. That’s personal stuff and

it’s. . . it’s not really what you imagine.”

“Oh really?” she grinned, “Then that just makes me want to hear about it even more.

Come on, your ‘personal’ business is my ‘personal’ business. Lips sealed cross my heart

hope to die stick a needle in my eye.” Cata recited, sounding bored, “Now tell me!”

“Arg! Okay, let me just verify that the time you thought I was hugging him, well I was

hugging him, but just because he’s my friend and I was. . . emotionally down.”

“Oh, yeah. Okay. Well that part’s less important because then I remember it looked

like you were going to kiss him.”

“Well, look, it wasn’t—”

“Hey, I don’t care, you were going to kiss him. Officially.”

I felt myself blush, “That’s not even something you can make official.”

“So what?”

A silence.

“Fine! We were going to kiss!”

“Ooh! And then. . . ?”

109

“You came along.”

“Oh right. So then what?”

“Nothing.”

“Nuh huh. I’ve been leaving you guys on your own a lot lately, in case you haven’t

noticed, so just so you know I know that something has probably happened.”

Arg! Sometimes, I feel like I’m friend with a psychopath. A really annoying psychopath.

“Okay, so maybe something did happen, but who says I’m gonna tell you?”

“I dunno.”

There was a pause.

“Okay fine!” I groaned, “We kissed. On the lips and everything. . . twice.”

Cata looked at me searchingly, “Why sound so glum about it?”

Okay, forget it; Fact: I am friends with a mind-reader.

“I broke us up. For-for real. I told him that we couldn’t be together, that we couldn’t

at least until we were done with the mission. Because I thought it would be a distraction,

and we needed to stay focused.”

All of a sudden, I felt tears welling in my eyes. Why was everybody crying so much

lately?

“Oh, Sumi!” Cata reached over and put a hand around my shoulder, “I’m really sorry

I brought it up. I thought it would cheer you up. I didn’t know. . . ”

I sniffed, “It’s okay, Cata. It’s really not your fault. It’s just me—I can’t bear to be off

in fantasy land with Kuro and at the same time working on a life threatening mission. It’s

sad, but I feel like I just can’t handle it. . . . I’m sorry.”

Cata smiled and hugged her skinny arms around me, “It’s okay, you have nothing to

apologize for. Maybe we should get some more sleep and start over again when we wake

up. Except this time when I wake you up I’ll have to think of a really cheery topic after all

we need to make up for.” Cata smiled, “Maybe you’ll have good dreams and that will cheer

you up.”

I smiled and put my chair back into bed mode to sleep, hoping when I woke up I

would have forgotten Kuro entirely.

***

But I couldn’t sleep. Tossing and turning, thinking of Kuro, thinking of fear, thinking

of the invaders.

Really, I thought, This is quite silly. What if our lead on Seattle leads nowhere? Then

what? What if these people don’t know anything about the Lightning Sword? What if we

spend years chasing some silly information and by the time we actually find out how the

Lightning Sword works, we’ll return to Earth to quest for it and VanSicklen will have already

done away with Earth under our noses?

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Ugh! Sleep, Sumi!

Sleep now. . . Kuro. . . Cata. . . Fear. . . VanSicklen. . . Doubt. . . Too bad!. . . Sleep. . .

***

Kuro and I stood in a small room, our arms entangled with one another’s.

Slam. Crash.

“Well, well, what do we have here?”

“Kuro—look out—it’s him!”

“Aha! Two little lovebirds! Well, too bad you’re about to come to an end.”

Fizzle. . . Crackle. . .

“Sumi—duck! He has the sword!”

“Prepare to meet your doom!”

“Sumi, nooo!”

Slash! Crackle!

“No! Sumi. . . Aaah!”

“Ha ha! Now for you, my darling. . . ”

My eyes flew open and I breathed a sigh of relief. Just a dream. I rolled over and

looked at Kuro to make sure he was alright. Sure enough, he was sleeping soundly in his

chair, most definitely not struck with lightning.

I closed my eyes in relief. My mom and Emma were talking. I strained to hear their

conversation:

“I don’t know, I guess he’s right, in some regards. Earth does bear lots of evil—

probably more than it’s share, but really there are kind people. . . maybe VanSicklen just

didn’t see it’s beauty. My childhood wasn’t perfect, for sure. . . my parents were alcoholic,

and they divorced when I was three. I had eight step-siblings and when I was six they

became my family as a whole.”

“Why?”

“My mother died.”

Silence.

“But the thing is, even if my siblings weren’t ideal, they were kind to me and, though

they left me alone for a couple of days without a sitter on occasion to go off and party with

friends, I liked it. I would play princesses with my stuffed animals. The princesses were

always stuck inside a tower, though, since I wasn’t allowed to go outside when they were

gone. Eventually, my oldest sister Lisa settled into the house with me, bringing her

boyfriend, which was just fine with me. After that, even though she went through several

boyfriends, she always stayed with me. She was good to me.”

“Er, if you don’t mind my asking, how did you earn money to keep up your house?”

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“Lisa was a writer. It paid little, but she always said that if your creativity is about to

blow up inside your head and you need somewhere to deposit it, then you really had no

choice than to be a writer. To be honest, I never understood why she didn’t earn more; she

wove the words into beautiful braids, she took her plots to the limits. They were beautiful

stories, stories that I would hear again and again when I fell asleep. I didn’t really give her

any feedback, but I think it helped her to read them aloud.”

“She sounds like a wonderful person.”

I rolled over to look at Emma. She smiled and looked out her window, “She was.”

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Chapter 5

The plane landed just as smoothly as it had taken off. The ride had felt like forever,

but I supposed planes were much slower than rockets—or at least according to Emma they

were.

We made our way sleepily through the airport, found a VanSicklen Rocketways car

and had it drive us to the downtown Seattle Four Seasons hotel. Apparently VanSicklen had

some attraction to sending his police officers to the Four Seasons, but if he did, I had no

objection—the rooms were very nice, there were places for the car to park, the hotel was

right in the middle of the city so it was easy to go anywhere we wanted. . . I couldn’t have

picked a better place to stay.

I slept restlessly, tossing and turning as I had on the plane. . . sure, we had found a

lead, sure we were here now, but we had no way of knowing where to go in the morning. I

supposed that we could look up more internet profiles of Falen VanSicklen, and maybe we

could find those relatives he had told us about. . .

A wave of nausea passed over me as I thought of how long we had already spent

looking for information on the Lightning Sword. When Emma first told us about VanSicklen,

I had thought that we were only a couple steps behind him. Now I realized how far from the

truth the reality stood.

***

“Sumi! Sumi! Wake up, sista’!” Cata shook my side.

I rolled over, “Cata, please don’t tell me that this is that ‘if you’re awake then I have

to be awake’ BFFs thing again!” I stuck my tongue out at her and planted my face back into

my pillow, “Juwst wet me sweep, pweeeese!”

“Translation please.”

“Just let me sleep, please.”

“Ah. Well, too bad get up because we are going to breakfast!”

“So?”

“It’s at the space needle! Emma gets a free breakfast at the space needle for a party

of up to ten because she’s a police officer and VanSicklen apparently likes to give them

discounts and stuff like that.”

“What the heck is the space needle, Cata?”

“Dunno, but it sounds fun so you have to get up or I’ll start jumping on you!”

“No.”

“Well, you brought this on yourself.”

Cata jumped up on the bed and began plopping herself up and down on top of me

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quite unceremoniously and slightly un-Cata-like.

“Okay, okay,” I laughed, “I’ll get up. . . ”

I pushed her skinny body off the bed and threw off the covers.

“Here,” Cata bounded back up to me from her side of the room, holding up a pair of

jeans, a tee and my shoes, “Now dress!”

I dressed quickly and hurried into my mom’s suite.

“Here you are!” Emma motioned for me to come with her out the door of the suite,

where my mom and Kuro were waiting for me. We took the elevator down to the garage

and directed the car to the space needle. The drive was short and soon we stood

underneath a short building, about 550 feet tall and quite old architecture, yet still it was a

sight. The inner workings of the bars going up the three legs were so complex that I could

barely see the other side through them. It was far from the closed, glass, boxy modern

architecture I had seen other places in modern Earth. This monument was more like the

types of buildings we had back home in Blue Skania, so it somehow made me feel more at

home, more cozy.

“Come on, guys, girls.” Emma beckoned us inside the lobby stationed at the bottom

of the structure. We entered into the lobby and found ourselves among a similar store to

that at the Connecticut People’s Museum; all different types of iStupis covered racks on the

walls, along with little snow globes with the space needle inside them, even stuffed animal

space needles with faces on them. I found that a little creepy.

Emma showed her police badge to the robot guarding the elevators going up, and

we were admitted into a totally glass elevator-room. A automatized voice came on and

echoed around the room, telling us some various facts about when the space needle was

built, about how tall it was. . . and then the glass doors slide open and we were there.

We were seated by a waiter-bot, as Emma called it, at a table that revolved around in

circles to give us a good view out the huge glass windows over Seattle.

“Wow. . . it’s so. . . watery.” Cata said, pointing out over the city.

“Yeah,” Emma said, “You know, the water you guys get in Blue Skania is all imported

from Earth. Here, we have what we call lakes and oceans and, er, puddles.”

“Wow!” Cata leaned over her chair and pressed her nose against the glass, “Well, this

place has a lot of giant puddles.”

Emma smiled and chuckled to herself, I have no clue why.

The waiter-bot came over and took our orders, which were soon delivered along

with our drinks. We all gobbled up our food as if we hadn’t eaten anything in forever,

probably hungry because of the long flight from yesterday.

We sat for a couple of minutes after we were done eating, waiting for the waiter-bot

to come and take our food away so that Emma could ‘pay’ with her name tag. I turned away

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from looking out the window to watch the waiter-bot usher different people into the

restaurant. I watched as a group of men dressed in black stepped out of the elevator and

watched as the waiter-bot directed them toward their table. As they walked by, I heard the

first man whisper to his companion,

“They’re here. Michael has sent them. The time has come—what do you want to do,

Stephan?”

The second man smiled at the first, “I don’t think we need to do anything. She’s

listening—she’ll follow us once she hears ‘VanSicklen’.”

I straightened my posture. These men clearly knew who we were, and they clearly

wanted to speak with us. And they clearly knew what we were up to. My head buzzing, I

turned to Cata who was sitting to my left and poked her shoulder,

“Cata! Cata!” I hissed.

“What?”

“Those men,” I pointed to the men who were now sitting down at a table only a

couple of yards away, “They know. I overheard them, and they know. . . something about

us. They mentioned VanSicklen, and Michael, and I think they want us to seek them out.

They knew I was listening in.”

“What?”

“We have to tell Emma.”

Cata nodded and poked Emma in the shoulder. Emma turned to her and Cata

explained what I had seen. The message was quickly relayed around the table, and soon we

were huddled over our dirty plates, communicating what to do next. We decided that we

would stay here until the strange men got up, at which point we would confront them and

ask them what they wanted to tell us.

“Remember,” Emma said as we pulled apart from our group huddle, “Be on your

guard. Be ready to spark at any motion you suspect is not normal. For all we know, they

could be sent by VanSicklen to take us back to Blue Skania and arrest us.”

“But we can’t help but ask,” said Kuro, “They obviously have something to tell us.”

Emma nodded, “Exactly. I’m just saying, be careful.”

We all nodded and sat in silence, waiting for the men to finish their meal. Thankfully,

when their ‘meals’ arrived, it turned out that they had just ordered coffee. They sipped it,

paid the waiter-bot, and got up from their seats.

My mom beckoned for us to get up as well, and so we did without a sound. But the

men didn’t leave through the elevator like we thought they would. Instead, they began

ascending the flight of stairs that led up to the observation deck. With a shrug, Emma led us

up after them.

We followed them out and around the deck to a more secluded area looking down

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over the giant puddle thing that Emma called ‘Lake Washington’. The men stopped and I

saw the second one turn to the first and whisper something to him. The first man nodded

and they turned around to face us.

We held our breath as the second man lowered his glasses to reveal his face. I was

surprised to see that although he bore the long nose and face of VanSicklen, the shallow

cheeks as well, there was still air of kindness to him—real kindness, not the artificial tys. pe

that George had used to cover himself up, but the real type that you find in in a friend. His

hair was blond, his eyes were a stunning blue, and his face was speckled with freckles. He

was actually quite good looking, and, taking a better look at him, I realized that he couldn’t

have been much older than Kuro and Cata. He was tall, for sure, but there was a certain

youngness to his face that I could tell meant that he was much younger than I had first

thought. However, he had chiseled cheekbones and the hulking shoulders of a boy around

the age of 16. Cata was standing next to me, and immediately dug her nails into my arm,

drawing in her breath. He smiled at me,

“Hi, guys. We had a hunch you’d come—we’ve been waiting for you. We knew that

someone would find the lead on Falen, then come here. We have so much to tell you! But

not here—here, we’re exposed. Anyone could hear us. Meet us at Momiji today at twelve for

lunch. We’ll tell you what you want to know about the Lightning Sword, if you come. If you

don’t, we’ll have no choice but to seek you out. The reservation will be under Stephan—

that’s me,” He gave us a little smile and a wink, “See you there!”

And with that wink and a smooth turn on his heel, we were left alone on the

observation deck, staring at where just a moment ago, Stephan had stood.

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Chapter 6

“Really, we don’t have a choice. I mean, come on, did you hear the way he was

talking to us?”

“Yeah, we did.”

“It was just. . . ” Cata trailed off, “Just the way he was talking. . . I just don’t get any

vibe that he’s the type of person who would help VanSicklen. He seems like the type of

person who know right and wrong and isn’t afraid to go after what he thinks is right. I think

we should go.”

I shrugged, “And, you think he’s cute!” I teased, glad that now the tables were

turned. “But, I agree with you. He has information that we need, and remember, he said that

if we didn’t come to him, he’d come to us.”

My mom nodded, “That’s true. . . I guess.”

Cata nodded vigorously, “Please, Heara, please can we go? I mean, where are we

going to go if we don’t take the lead? Go wander off somewhere in the city, asking every

random stranger we pass on the street if the same ‘Lightning Sword’ rings any bells?”

Emma laughed, “Oh, I’m sure that’s not what we would do. But I still think we should

take the lead and go. We’re going to have to meet up with him again some time soon! At

least, if we don’t , he will. Really we don’t have a choice.”

My mom nodded, apparently still contemplating options. At long last, she opened

her mouth and said, “Alright. You really have me cornered—you know I can’t say no.”

Something lit up in Cata’s eyes and I saw her trying to conceal a small smile.

Honestly, Cata? Sure, we all were desperate to know the information he supposedly had to

offer, but Cata’s infatuation with this guy she had only just met was a little. . . weird. I had

never seen Cata openly crushing on someone before, and it was actually kind of sweet.

“Well,” Emma beckoned us to follow her into her suite, “I suppose we’ll have to be

leaving soon, even if it feels like we just got back, and we have to all lot the time to look up

directions.”

We made our way down to the garage, where we got into the car and put in our

directions using the handy little meDirection on the dashboard. In a few minutes, we were

speeding out of town and into a more rugged area where we pulled up at a said ‘Momiji’.

Emma disembarked from the car and stepped with her bold air into the restaurant,

where we politely told the waiter-bot Stephan’s name and were escorted to a small,

secluded table in a room buzzing with activity.

I stared—I couldn’t help myself!—at the ‘sushi chefs’ as they chopped shiny pieces

of some sort of meat into small slivered pieces. Emma nudged me,

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“I guess since you don’t have water in Blue Skania, you’ve never had fish, huh?”

“No. . . ” I stared some more at the weird pinkish meat.

Emma smiled, “It’s a special type of animal that lives in water. You’ll like it—it’s

good!”

“That is,” I mumbled, “If we’re not blown to smithereens or something by this

Stephan guy before we even get the food.”

“Hey!” Cata chimed in, apparently having been listening in on our conversation, “I

don’t think he would do th—”

Cata stopped short in her sentence when she saw that we had reached the table, and

Stephan was waiting for us, and he wasn’t alone; Next to him sat two other people I

recognized from that morning. The morning I had thought they were men, judging by their

short hair and straight-cut outfits, but now that they had taken off their shades I saw that

they were really girls, or women, really. I could tell they were sisters, and their identical

outfits and haircuts made them look like twins, yet there was something about their eyes

that I thought distinguished the first lady from the second.

“Hello!” said Stephan cheerily, “Nice to see you’ve all made it. Like I said, I’m Stephan

and these are my, er, companions, Lixia and Nixia. They’re twins.”

Lixia nodded at us politely and Nixia muttered a quiet ‘Hi’.

My mom nodded at Emma and introduced us, then slid into a chair across from

Nixia. Emma, with her usual air of strength, confidence and whereabouts seated herself

across from Stephan, motioned for the rest of us to follow in suite and opened her mouth to

get to the subject, but was cut off by Stephan, who raised his hand to stop her,

“Emma, you’ve only just arrived. I’d love to tell you what you want to know as soon

as possible, and I’m quite excited to do so, but I think first we ought to take a look at these

beautiful menus. Even after that breakfast, I’m still famished! We can talk after we order,

deal?”

Emma started to protest, but my mom held up a hand and nodded to Stephan. There

was a strange silenced veil drawn over us as we read our menus. Kuro, Emma and I were

continuously looking up at Stephan, Lixia and Nixia to check that they weren’t doing

anything out-of-the-ordinary, and we hadn’t so much as taken in the information on our

menus when the waiter-bot arrived and asked us to place our orders.

Stephan went first, ordering seaweed salad (a special type of Earthian greens), miso

soup and lots of something he called ‘sashimi’. Then Lixia and Nixia ordered something I

couldn’t possibly know how to spell on paper, then my mom went forth, ordering

something called ‘ramon’ that I doubted she had any clue about. Emma, although she hadn’t

really looked at the menu still ordered boldly as if she knew exactly what the restaurant

hosted. Really, I bet she just knew about different types of ‘sushi’ and was guessing that this

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restaurant had some of her favorite.

“I’ll have one shrimp tempura, two orders of white king salmon sashimi, and one

miso soup. These three,” Emma gestured to me, Cata and Kuro, “would like the same

please.”

I let out my breath; Emma had ordered for us. Whew! That saved us a lot of trouble.

The waiter bot nodded stiffly and wheeled away squeakily.

“Thanks!” I whispered to Emma.

She smiled, “No prob. I knew you might have had a little trouble. Let’s just see if you

like what I ordered you.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” I trusted Emma’s taste.

Emma winked at me, then turned again to Stephan, “You promised us.”

He nodded and began without even our prompt, “I suppose you want to know how I

knew you’d be coming?”

We nodded; He had already given some explanation, yet it was still little and vague.

He smiled a warm smile, “Really, I’ve already told you. But I suppose if you’d like to

hear it again. . . ? Yes, I thought so. You see, my little group and I have actually been waiting

for you for years—don’t get me wrong, we weren’t really waiting for you, just, er, someone.

We knew about the VanSicklen family since before Argus knew about Blue Skania, and we

knew when George’s actions started getting out of hand. Since we don’t have Hyper Electric

Syndrome, there wasn’t much we could do to stop him, but we knew that some sparker

would figure it out. We were sure they’d find the false evidence VanSicklen had put in the

books, and find the false lead on Connecticut, where we had sent a VanSicklen named

Michael.”

“Wait,” Kuro stuttered, “Michael was there on purpose?”

“Yes. With a whole made-up story about grandpa Falen and how he started going

nuts at the end talking about Blue Skania. We were sure that with that lead you’d come

here for sure, where we’d be waiting for you. We also figured that to get all this way you

would have been accompanied by a police officer, who would probably want to take to

opportunity to go up the space needle and eat breakfast there. We’ve been spending the

last of three years eating breakfast at the space needle every morning, just waiting for you.”

What?

Our surprise must have showed because Stephan laughed and Lixia punched Nixia,

who said, “Well, our money hasn’t been wasted, has it?”

We smiled, and Stephan, Lixia and Nixia allowed each other another laugh. I noticed

that though Lixia appeared to be laughing, it was as if someone had pressed ‘mute’ on a TV

remote—her giggles were utterly silent. My wandered to when Nixia had ordered for both

herself and Lixia.

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“She’s mute!” I cried, unable to help myself, then realized what I had said, “Oh, I’m

sorry!”

Lixia laughed that weird, silent laugh a little more and made some funny hand

gestures that Nixia translated for me,

“She says it’s okay, she’s not offended. And she apologizes, we should have told you

earlier.”

“Oh!” I shrugged, “Great, then. Sorry I’m acting all weird about it. . . I’ve just never

met someone before who’s. . . like you.”

Lixia nodded and mouthed something, then made a ‘ta-dah’ gesture and pointed to

herself. I laughed. Funny, I was starting to find myself liking these strange Earthians.

My mom reached from under the table and squeezed my hand, then said,

“I understand why you knew we were coming, but why did you want to speak with

us today?”

Stephan’s mood abruptly deepened, his grin retracting into a frown, and though it

was a concentrated, serious frown—a frown of thought, he still seemed to emit a vibe of

mischief and excitement, “I can tell you what you want to know. I can tell you about the

Lightning Sword.”

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Chapter 7

Our food arrived just as Stephan opened his mouth to tell us. But instead of spilling

the beans, he shoved a mouthful of green slime into his mouth from the bowl that had been

placed in front of him,

“Mmm mm!” He exclaimed, chewing frantically. He swallowed and apologized.

“Sorry,” he said, “I’m practically famished. I couldn’t help myself.”

He wiped his mouth on his napkin, “While I talk, why don’t you dig in?”

Emma nodded and gestured for us to begin our first courses. I looked down at the

bowl of strange tan colored soup that sat in front of me. Kuro did the same and poked a bit

at the slimy green and white stuff that was floating around at the top of the soup. Cata,

however, took her spoon and fished out a bit of white, a bit of green, and a bit of broth. She

swallowed it with a curious look on her face, and immediately began table-snorkeling,

waving her hand outside her mouth over and over again.

Emma, Stephan, Lixia and Nixia laughed. Emma warned Cata that it was indeed

supposed to be hot and we continued on with our meal, Cata a bit red in the face and

giggling profoundly.

Stephan began to speak just as I took my first sip of the ‘miso soup’. It was warm and

soothing, and I liked it very much, though it was different than any soup I had had on Blue

Skania. . . but soon all my thoughts were drowned away when Stephan began.

“Alright, I’ll begin by asking you what you know. To tell you what I know, I need to

know where to start.”

Emma nodded, “What we know is this: The Lightning Sword was invented by Ally

VanSicklen, the granddaughter of Argus VanSicklen, in order to stop a war that was started

when visitors with an unknown cause from Earth came and invaded Blue Skania. The

physical appearance of the Lightning Sword is in likeness to an actual silver sword, and

there were actually once seven of them. That is all we know.”

Stepha nodded and frowned, “Nixia, where do you think I should start? They know

less than I had expected.”

“Why don’t you just start at the beginning? Tell them how it was used, then we can

continue.”

“Okay, well, the Lightning Sword was actually designed not only for the purpose of

an unbreakable, perfected sword, but also designed to. . . how should I explain it to you? It

takes energy from one source and transports it into the body of the wielder of the sword so

that the energy can enhance the wielder’s, er, power.”

“The Lightning Sword,” Nixia explained while Lixia nodded along, “Was designed to

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suck electricity out of on place, transport it into the body of the sparker who held it, and

emit a spark with the combined energy of the Lightning Sword and HPS that is great

enough, large enough, to kill.”

There was silence for a moment as the Blue Skanian party took this in, then

absorbed it. Emma shook her head,

“But I don’t understand. VanSicklen plans to use it to destroy Earth. I understand

that the lightning possible to create with the Lightning Sword is great enough to kill, but

not possibly great enough to destroy an entire planet.”

Stephan shrugged, “I guess if you absorb enough electricity, the spark could be large

enough.”

I shuddered, “So the power. . . it’s unlimited?”

Stephan’s cheeks hollowed again, this time with no air of mischief, no air of

playfulness, “Yes. It is unlimited.”

We needed no further explanation. The power of the Lightning Sword was now clear

to us. It was unnatural—inhuman. Now more than ever we could not allow this power into

the hands of someone so greedy. We now knew we could not allow VanSicklen to get his

dirty little hands on this weapon.

I was just starting to sip my soup again when our main courses arrived. The waiter-

bot handed out dishes here and there, announcing them as it went. I received my ‘shrimp

tempura’ and my ‘white king salmon sashimi’ with a smile the best I could muster staring at

the weird glossy ‘fish’ and the deep-fried whatever-it-was in the tempura. I saw Cata and

Kuro doing the same out of the corner of my eye.

There was a strange silence at our table as we tentatively dug in. I first tried the

tempura, biting bravely into the end of a long pinkish ‘shrimp’. It was crunchy! And it didn’t

taste. . . right.

“Oh!” Nixia looked at me in surprise, “Sumi, you’re. . . eating the tail.”

Oh? Was I not supposed to be eating this? Oh! I promptly spit out my bit into my

napkin.

Lixia did her silent laugh thing and Nixia smiled and said, “Sumi, you’re not

supposed to eat the tail of a shrimp. It’s crunchy.”

I blushed, “Oh, okay. Oops!”

I laughed nervously, and the rest of our party joined in wholeheartedly. Lixia, Nixia

and Stephan, I realized, really were quite good natured people. I think I decided about then

that I trusted them.

I continued to eat the non-shrimp tempura pieces in hopes that I wouldn’t have to

risk eating something I wasn’t supposed to eat again. The food was quite good, actually, and

though it was all strange and different than any Blue Skanian food I still enjoyed it

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wholeheartedly, chomping down each bite with new curiosity, excitement and enthusiasm.

Ten, twenty minutes passed and it occurred to me that though Stephan had told us

they were ‘close’ with the VanSicklens and ‘had been since Argus discovered Blue Skania’, I

still didn’t know why. I voiced my question to Stephan, and it looked as though I had

covered him in a metal blanket. His shoulders tensed to keep up an invisible weight, and his

face hollowed again. I immediately regretted the question.

“I’m sorry,” I said, “If you didn’t want to say, you don’t have to—”

“No, I owe you who I truly am.”

Cata looked sympathetic, “What do you mean?”

Stephan rubbed his temple, “I suppose I haven’t properly introduced myself yet. My

name is Stephan VanSicklen,” he looked up at us, hate in his eyes, “great grandson of

Nicholas VanSicklen.”

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Chapter 8

“My grandfather, Toren VanSicklen, son of Nicholas VanSicklen was the reason for

the invaders. He dictated a small island country just off the shore of Washington State in

puget sound. It was called Nicoio VanShickion, or NV. It was a sort of communist country,

and all the jobs provided for people were based off of his desires and needs, most of which

evolved around conquering Blue Skania. After Nicholas found out about the asteroid, he

made it his goal to conquer Blue Skania to use as an army base. After he had that, he

planned to use it as a secret weapon to lead an invasion all around Earth. When his goals

were not achieved, they were passed down to Toren.

“However, when Toren’s secretive plans continued to fail again and yet again, he

gave in and sent the population of NV to invade Blue Skania. Those were the invaders, and

you know what happens next. They were defeated by the Lightning Sword and retreated

back to Earth.

“After that, the people of NV finally showed their voices and, lead by Enrike

VanSicklen, they overthrew Toren. Enrike was the one good son of Toren’s seven children. I

am proud to call him my father.

“Once NV was free of greedy VanSicklens, Enrike decided to offer up their land to

the United States in order to blend in with the other people in the world and await your

arrival. Even though my father never lived to see you, I have, and I am determined to

uphold his legacy and help you to do whatever we can to stop VanSicklen from destroying

Earth,” Stephan bowed his head and took in a deep breath, “There is nothing else I can say

now except to ask you if we may help you, assuming you still want to go after VanSicklen

now that you know the dangers that await you.”

Cata got up from her chair and walked over to where Stephan sat. She looked us all

in the eyes, as if to say, ‘I’m going to tell him we’re in and if you people disagree with that

decision then you can very well shut your mouths and stay quiet, thank you very much.’ She

put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Of course we’d love your help. And we actually can’t

say no anymore to stopping VanSicklen now that we know how dangerous he really is.”

Stephan looked up at Cata and smiled at her. Then he looked around at us and

grinned,

“I can’t say how glad I am that you’ll let me help.”

“Oh, come on,” Cata took her hand off his shoulder and walked back around to her

seat, “We couldn’t have said no.”

***

Everything went quickly after that. It was decided that the first place to look for the

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Lightning Sword was in Blue Skania, deep in the forests of Winkston Park. According to

Stephan, that was where Ally’s people hid during the invasion, and that was where the

Lightning Sword was created. It was the most reasonable place to look, although.

We hitched a ride on a rocket with a little help from Emma’s handy police name tag,

and I survived a long flight sitting with a newly smitten Cata, who had apparently at last

found a boy fortunate of her attractions. . . guess who? Jeez, I liked the guy—I actually

thought he was a great person—but that’s a different issue than if I wanted to hear about

him for the entirety of our flight. Though even I had to admit that Cata and Stephan would

be cute together, maybe my issue was that I had given up my relationship for our mission,

and here was little miss pretty gabbering away about her crush, not thinking to be at least a

little respectful and keep it to herself if she really needed to occupy herself with these

issues right now. Sometimes, then I wished that I had never refused Kuro and just enjoyed

the last of the time we had together, but maybe something in me just knew that that type of

relationship could cause distractions. . . and I hoped, at least, that I would be disciplined

enough to avoid distractions to our mission. It was still hard to pull away when he tried so

sit next to me and hold my hand when we were landing. To be honest, I knew even then

that there was nothing wrong with holding hands, but it was a temptation, and that was

what I was afraid of. I wished he would get the signals and stop trying to flirt.

***

We arrived in Blue Skania and despite my hopes to stay in our old home for the few

days we would be in town, collecting camping gear for the dense woods of Winkston park,

Emma insisted on staying in a hotel. These were the woods near the place Cata, Kuro and I

first discovered the cliff edge, but still as different a vibe and terrain as I could really

imagine. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but the city of Blue Skania lies on the

side of the asteroid that faces away from Earth, probably because VanSicklen was afraid of

us catching a glimpse of the blue planet. Winkston Park, though it does wrap thinly around

the back of Blue Skania, actually contains its’ massive forests on the side of Blue Skania that

faces Earth. And that’s where we set up camp only a few days later.

Stephan has lead quest after quest, day after day into the density of the inner forest,

but time and time again we come back empty handed. Not a footprint, not a scorch on a

tree, not a trace of either the lightning sword or the ancient forest camp made here during

the invasion of Ally’s time.

Even though my mom and Emma are now becoming better and better yet of friends,

often being the ones who stay behind during our excursions so that warm food will be

ready when we get back, and so that our small camp will be guarded, Stephan is spending

more time with the younger of our party (specifically, with Cata), so we’re seeing more of

him, Cata is constantly drifting off into space and wandering off into the woods either by

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herself to pick daisies or whatever or with Stephan, so we’re seeing less of her (though I

still get the daily reminder of what smiles he shot her and what progress she’s made on his

grass-woven jacket—I have to admit, there is something sweet about Cata finding an

interest of her own other than color coordination, not breaking the rules, and making sure

she’s up to date on my love life), Kuro is still steadily trying to flirt with me, and I’m still

steadily pushing him away, there was something surreal about that time we spent in the

woods.

It was like my body knew that something was coming. . . and even though I didn’t

know what, I still believed that whatever it was could be conquered, because after all, good

always wins, and I had fought to this point in my story, so why couldn’t I be able to keep

going all through to my happy ending? I was supposed to be the hero, after all. . . this was

my life adventure! Yet still, something felt wrong. . . something about what I was telling

myself. And with every passing day, I found myself less and less yet wholehearted on our

missions, coming back empty handed.

The last few paragraphs have told of a time which passed, for me, like a dream. I

couldn’t have been sure of the time it really took up, but all of a sudden I’m here, tossing

and turning in my sleeping bag, waiting for real sleep to come. And here I am when I finally

feel fatigue coming to my body, here I am when I finally lie still and stare at Kuro’s head in

front of me. I feel suddenly tired, as if all of a sudden my body has realized that the day and

it’s events are over, and has decided to make itself comfortable and let sleep come. Sleep

come. . . Sleep. . .

Or not. Dang it, what woke me up? I lie still for a moment, listening to the sound of

my breath, in and out, in and out, when I hear it again—footsteps. The crunch of leaves

underfoot as some unknown thing makes it’s way toward the tent. What is it?

The noise stops. I exhale; Just my overactive imagination. I try to return to that calm,

peaceful blackness of half-asleep again, but can’t; Apparently my body has changed it’s

mind and has decided that today’s events aren’t over yet. Well, too bad because I want to

sleep—Another sound. The zipper of the tent is slowly moving upwards. I’m awake now—

for real.

As the zipper reaches it’s destination at the top of the tent and the flaps fall back, the

first thing I sense isn’t the image of that dark, looming figure now entering the tent, but the

smell; Strong, sharp cologne that smells of yellow. Like lemon air freshener, the fake,

unnatural scent wafts up my nose, and it greets me with it’s deep, calming voice,

“I’m so sorry to wake you. I just thought that it was time we met. I’m George. You

know me as George Vansicklen.”

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Part 4Lightning

127

Chapter 1

I don’t know why, but I don’t call Cata and Kuro. I don’t wake my mom and Emma, I

don’t get Stephan, Lixia or Nixia. I’m not sure why I didn’t, because here, standing in front

of me is most certainly George VanSicklen, and he is most certainly challenging me to a

fight, and he most certainly is holding a sword made of pure, electricity conducting silver.

Maybe it’s because I don’t want them to worry. Maybe it’s because I don’t want them to be

hurt. Maybe it’s because this is what I’ve waited for. Maybe it’s because I want to be the

hero alone. I don’t know why, all I know is that there’s a voice echoing in my head right

now as I follow VanSicklen out into the clearing, and it’s saying, “Anything is possible. Kill

him now. Anything is possible. Kill him now.”

I don’t bother to take my eyes off of George to survey my surroundings. I don’t have

to bother; I know this clearing, maybe better than I know my own home. I’m glad George

chose this spot to let me face him. It feels like home, and there’s something comforting

about it. Through this clearing, I can remember so much; I can remember Cata crying

because she saw one of his rockets disappear underneath the asteroid, I can remember

how I made my first spark here. I can remember how my mom told me that I couldn’t come

with her to look for the invader on Earth. But I remember everything like it was a dream.

“I’ve heard of you from various loyal officers, you seem to have been causing me

some trouble.”

I snap back into reality and answer him, “Yes. How did you know?”

He smiles and shakes his head, “I know everything.”

“Then I suppose I won’t need to introduce myself.”

“Actually, that would be of interest.”

I nod, trying to conceal my anger at his annoyingly calm nature, “I’m Sumi. And

you’re George VanSicklen, great grandson of Argus VanSicklen.”

“Ah, yes,” He smiled, “You’ve done your research.”

I fight harder to conceal my feelings, and force myself to think positively; If he can do

it, you can do it. You can do anything.

“Actually,” I force my lips to part, “I didn’t find my ‘research’ particularly enhancing.

I would probably have preferred to have nothing to do with someone quite as repulsively

ungrateful as yourself.” I smile, hoping to hit a pressure point, but instead, he rolls his eyes

at me in a way that I find rather immature for a grown man.

“Ah, well, aren’t we all.” He says.

I don’t care that I’m no longer in control. I don’t care that the largest spark I’ve ever

seen is launching itself straight at him. It doesn’t matter anymore.

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George moves the Lightning Sword with a twitch of his finger and casually watches

as it absorbs the energy of my spark. What?

I step back. He steps forward and shakes his head,

“I’m sorry, Sumi. I couldn’t help myself. Here, I’ll help you out and call you dearest

friends and family out so that I can use this,” he taps the sharp blade of the Lightning

Sword, “Against them and not you. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? We can just see who goes

after me first.”

Ignoring my shocked expression, he cups his extra hand around his mouth and yells,

“Help! Help! It’s him! He’s here and he has it!”

I slump, defeated, and watch the edge of the woods, desperate that they haven’t

heard. But they have. One by one, my friends and family arrive out of the woods looking

slightly confused, then jump and run over to my side when they see who stands only a few

yards away from me, looking like he just won the lottery.

As they come up to me, I whisper to them in a desperate attempt to keep them safe,

“Don’t attack. The Lightning Sword is. . . charged.”

They understand and I watch as they quietly take defensive positions next to me.

I am about to whisper the message to Lixia and Nixia when VanSicklen speaks,

“Alright. I see before me all of my challengers. Hello, I am George. I wish we could

exchange more pleasantries, but Sumi seems to have decided the opposite. I am ready to

take my first challengers.”

Lixia and Nixia nod to me and take a step forward. They are going to take the bait! I

lunge for them, the only one of us who know the true situation who does not appear to be

frozen in their tracks, but I’m too late. They’re already running toward VanSicklen, much

too close together. He could strike them both with one blow!

I manage to find my voice, “No!” I yell after them, but too late.

I look down at two loyal bodies quivering on the ground. The motion slows and they

are still. They are dead. They are dead!

“You are a man no more, not that you were a decent one in the first place, but still,

you are a monster!” I yell, and run toward him yet again, this time with rage hot enough to

melt the polar ice caps of Earth.

Casually he steps to the side, avoiding my spark.

He shrugs, “They were only Earthians. They can be replaced.”

I look back at Stephan, whose arms are flexing in and out, their muscle visible for the

first time out of his pajama shirt. I pray for him not to attack, at the same time breathing in

and out, trying to ignore the urge to cry and show how much Lixia and Nixia’s death hurt

me and at the same time struggle to keep my cool. Why is it that I’m the only one who has

trouble doing this?

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To keep my calm, I turn my gaze away from George only to have it met with the sight

of a huge, towering rocket that has been landed about 500 yards away. Somehow, though

I’m still boiling with anger, I manage to think. An idea.

“Someone,” I yell over my shoulder, “We need to destroy that rocket. Then he can’t

back out.”

I don’t dare look behind me for fear George will take advantage of me and spark

when I’m not looking, but I still hear a couple sets of footsteps crunching behind me as a

few members of my crew depart from our group and start making their way toward the

rocket. Now that they’re running past me, I see that it’s Emma, my mom and a still quite

angry looking Stephan.

I look into George’s eyes and for the first time this night, I see panic. We’re getting to

him! I almost want to cheer, but stop myself.

George is slowly backing toward the rocket, I realize, and I gesture to Cata and Kuro

to follow me, “We need to stand guard of the rocket while they destroy it.”

Cata and Kuro nod and slightly hesitant leave Lixia and Nixia’s bodies where they

had been guarding them from further abuse just as George bolts in the direction of his

rocket, but we’re faster. We take our stances between George and the rocket, which is

emitting loud banging and sizzling sounds. Every sound is the sound of progress, for us, for

George, it is the sound of defeat. He shudders. Yes! You can win. You can do anything.

George lunges to get past Cata and Kuro, but they threaten him with sparks. His eyes

bulge. He looks around for an opening between us, and tries to make a break through my

territory. Crack! No thanks, buddy. You can do anything.

He tries again. Crack!

You can do anything.

I hear a boom from behind me and George’s chest begins to rise and fall faster yet.

He charges, desperate for one last chance to get through before his precious escape

hatch is closed on his big butt. I nod to Cata and Kuro, telling them that I’ll deal with this

one. Aiming carefully, I shoot a spark directly at his chest. He sidesteps and it misses target

—but he doesn’t sidestep enough!

We watch in amazement as the Lightning Sword dropps from his right arm, the arm

that now hangs limp. Desperately, he scrambles to try to pick it up again with his left, but

Kuro lunges for it and is able to get it first. Kuro and I exchange a meaningful smile, and we

watch and listen as a final bang from behind us turns George’s face ashen. You can do

anything!

Stephan, my mom and Emma run up from behind us.

Now we have formed a complete circle around George, and I watch with pleasure

and sweet revenge as his normally colorless face turns a befitting slate grey. My mom nods

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to me and we we begin close the circle.

Kuro performs some fancy maneuvers with the Lightning Sword that drive George

away from where he and I stand next to each other.

I watch, smiling as George is pushed from one end of our closing circle to the other.

I watch, smiling as Emma performs an especially unceremonious push to our enemy

and he flies back over to where Kuro and I stand.

I watch, smiling as Kuro holds out the Lightning Sword and raises his eyebrows, as if

to say, ‘One step closer and you’ll be impaled.’

I watch as the ashy color drains from George’s face and is replaced by his usual

colorless complexion. I watch as he begins to smile, then raise his arm.

I feel the lightning in my chest before I see it. I feel the soft grass of Winkston Park

on my back one last time before I plummet over the edge.

Everything has turned black.

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Chapter 2

The next thing I remember is nothing.

Then the warm feeling of Kuro’s hands holding my arm.

Then Cata’s.

And then I opened my eyes.

Cata and Kuro each hold one side of my limp body, and though it appears that we

are suspended in the air below the cliff, I realize that we’re moving upwards. I look down

and see that below us, Cata and Kuro are somehow sending levitating sparks out of their

feet. This is propelling us upwards.

I relax—I’m alright. But who knows what George is doing up there right now. The

only sparker available to defend us at the moment is my mom. Oh no! I can’t let her get hurt.

I try to mimic Cata and Kuro and spark out of my feet to move us faster. When I

succeed and our pace quickens, they notice me and both let out sighs of relief.

“I’m so glad you’re alright!” Cata exclaims and hugs me.

I smile back and double my spark power.

I look over at Kuro and he gives me a relieved look, telling me all I need to know.

This is amazing! See, you can do anything.

I pause in my thoughts. Why am I still telling myself that? I know for a fact that I was

just knocked off of a cliff to my doom, and I’m only alive now because of Cata and Kuro. I

owe my life to them.

No, I correct myself and smile, We can do anything. I always though that I was the

one to have to finish this mission, I was the one who would defeat VanSicklen. But amidst

those thoughts, all my friends and family were lost. What would they do? I never though to

wonder. What would they accomplish? Such a thought never crossed my mind. But now I

knew how wrong I had been—there is no ‘I’ when you’re working with a team. It’s all for

one, one for all, and maybe though I used to think that meant that every person was worth

less, only a fraction of the group as a whole, I now see that it really means the opposite;

working together may be harder—because you have to come to understandings and work

in unison, but all that hard work pays off to make the whole bigger, therefore making your

fraction bigger. I’ll never really know which gives you a bigger piece of accomplishment,

but at least now I know that, if anything, working together gives you more happiness.

Especially now, seeing the smiles on my friend’s faces as we, together make our way up and

back into the battle.

***

Our speeds are increased somewhat with my help and soon we’re rising up above

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the cliff to see what is happening below.

Emma is lying on the ground, quivering. I can tell that she’s not dead, although she

appears to be badly hurt. My mom is doing a good job fighting George, though I can see she

has tears on her cheeks probably because she thinks I’m dead—not to mention Cata and

Kuro as well (after all, it probably just looked like they jumped off the cliff). I want so badly

to wave her, but I’m afraid the slightest sign that she sees something will put George on

guard. Stephan is using the Lightning Sword as a sword itself, slashing expertly here and

there, keeping George in position. But he’s still not going anywhere; the fight is standing

still, no one winning, no one losing. Thankfully, that means that with a little extra help, our

side will be able to take the upper hand.

Together, we dive down behind George, and stab him in the back with a couple of

sparks. He whips around, and when he sees the three of us standing together again,

magically survived from our plunge over the edge, his face once again turns that victorious

color: slate grey. But this time, it doesn’t mean that he’s holding back. It means the

opposite.

He lunges a bolt at Cata, and she falls. I don’t dare to look back at her to see if she’s

alright, but my stomach churns and I tell myself that it was a small blow, not enough to do

any real damage.

George, Kuro, my mom and I circle as Stephan rushes over to Cata to stand guard

over her so that no more damage can be done. Inwardly, I allow myself a smile.

Hoping to get an advantage, Kuro and I rise into the air again to get an angle on

George. But instead, he rises with us. So does my mom.

Now we are all floating in the air above Winkston Park, listening, listening,

watching, sensing each other with the greatest vigilance. There isn’t a sound except our

breath, and the slight, steady moans coming from a collapsed Emma.

My eyes dart back and forth, mimicking George’s. He turns and send a spark at my

mom. She shrinks back and sinks a little to the ground, but it is an indirect hit and the

damage on her left arm is not enough to bring her down.

I know she doesn’t want to fall, I know she wants to be there for me. But I also don’t

want to be the last one to fall. I smile and tell her it’s alright, I’m alright; Kuro and I can fight

this together.

Kuro nudges me hard and I spin around to look at VanSicklen, who is just about to

send another spark in my mom’s direction.

“No!” I lunge toward them, for though I was confident, I still did not want her to fall,

but it is too late. Heara has collapsed, and joined Emma, Stephan and Cata on the ground.

Doubt begins to creep in. . . I don’t want any of them hurt! This is not how the story was

supposed to go. Oh, I never should have left the tent! Thanks to me, almost everybody I love

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is hurt or dead. Oh, stop it, Sumi. It’s the least your fault!

Struggling against the annoying voices inside my head, I move my attention back to

the batte. Now it’s just me and Kuro. Me and Kuro and George, that is.

He smiles at me, and I can feel that warmth spread through me. We move closer and

hold hands—if we’re defeated now, we’ll be together. I see now that it’s just us and George,

he’s beginning to become his usual confident self again. But that doesn’t bother me. Funny, I

notice, When he’s got the power, he’s all mister perfect polite cool and collected, but when he’s

just starting to slip, which doesn’t happen very often, he just loses it. He has no practice

dealing with losing!

“Why, look at you two little lovebirds,” He exclaims, apparently hoping to catch us

off guard, “How cute.”

Kuro smiles and squeezes my hand, “Thank you.”

George draws back, apparently surprised at such a characteristic answer.

Apparently he’s used to people getting angry or stuttering over themselves when he acts so

calm. But too bad, because maybe we just gave him a taste of his own medicine.

“Ah, I see, so that’s how it is, is it?” He still seems to keep his cool, but I can see a

twitch in his temple that most definitely was not there before, “Alright, then. We’ll just have

to break up the party.”

Kuro turns pale and steps in front of me, though his hand still grips mine, if not

tighter than before, “To get to her you’ll have to go through me.”

George shakes his head, “Oh, you silly boy. I don’t care who I go through first.”

George lifts his uninjured arm and sends a bolt straight at Kuro’s heart.

“Kuro!” I cry, and wrap my arms around him to pad his chest.

But the bolt seems to simply pass through my hand and into his chest, and he falls

through my arms. This is the end. The last time any VanSicklen is going to get away with

something so cruel.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help it anymore. I’m done playing your game.” I whisper, only

loud enough for George to hear. And that’s when I lunge.

***

George dodges. I spark. He dodges. I spark. I’m not getting tired. I spark. He dodges.

Again and again, and again and again I meet no defense. Finally I see what he’s doing. With

every dodge, he inches his way a little further to where Stephan is still standing, guarding

Cata and wielding the sword. He’s going to knock Stephan down, dive for the Lightning

Sword, then use it to defend himself! Oh, the tricky little worm.

Doing the best I can to remain in range of him in case he decides to make some sort

of sudden move, I make my way over to float in front of Stephan so that George can no

longer reach him. I gesture behind me for Stephan to throw me the sword, still not taking

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my eyes off of George. I catch the Lightning Sword and brandish it in my hands. It’s a soft

leather hilt that meets my fingertips, and it feels good, warm against my palms. Yet I can

still feel the electricity running through it at the speed of light—or the speed of lightning.

I can see that George’s face is turning pale again now that his last opportunity to get

the sword is lost. In a last, defensive effort, he shoots a bolt at me larger than any of his

others. It’s so large I can almost feel the air around me bend in anticipation for it’s mighty

blow.

Thinking fast, I bring the Lightning Sword to meet it and the bolt disappears into the

tip of the silver blade. The force of it entering my body sends me hurtling backwards, the

spark-like jetpacks on my feet disappearing. But Stephan catches me, holds me for a

moment, then pushes me back up into the air again.

George is emitting huge bolts at random, shooting them anywhere they go, hoping

they’ll make contact with an enemy. One bolt is making it’s way toward where Stephan

stands. No! I can’t let him go. It’s too big! He can’t go, not like Kuro.

I try to reach out the Lightning Sword to absorb it, but instead I feel the energy

within me being sucked out the tip. Using the Lightning Sword is like being pulled through

a vacuum cleaner, only to be spit back out again with the interesting part of you missing. All

the spark power inside me is somehow being compounded into this massive lightning bolt,

and it’s headed straight for George. Though my aim to catch the bolt headed for Stephan is

off, something else isn’t.

George VanSicklen is struck directly in the heart with my bolt of lightning. He falls to

the ground, a lump now, barely quivering. But it was his own spark that killed him.

I let myself fall to the ground, the same ground littered with the bodies of my family,

my friends. Most of them are still quivering, and I know most of them will live. But not Lixia

and Nixia. I lost two people in a battle tonight. I collapse, and though I should be filled with

happiness in that I’ve defeated George, I still find myself weak and it’s hard to be happy

right now—I feel like half of me is gone out through that lightning bolt, and I’m never

getting it back.

Wait. . . or could I get it back?

Smiling for real the first time tonight, I make my way over to the now still corpse of

George VanSicklen and lie the sword across his chest. I hold it’s hilt, and press the flat side

of the blade down the best I can onto his chest.

After a few agonizing moments, I begin to feel the same sensation I felt when I drew

the electricity out of Kuro when I sparked him that day so long ago. Only the sensation is

stronger, and, though I just realize it now, it feels a little like absorbing another’s energy

through the Lightning Sword.

A couple more moments pass, and I try to stay still and not relax my body, which is

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beginning to feel whole again. Yes, now I’ve got all of the electricity back that I put in

George. Hold on a second. . . what if I keep going? I smile and press the blade harder against

George’s chest. I’m going to rid him of all his electricity, and he will no longer be able to

spark. I can almost see the energy from George’s body passing out through his heart,

through the Lightning Sword, and in through my fingertips once more.

Arg! How long is this going to take?

I jump back. I think I’m shaking. What’s happening? I think I took too much! All of

George’s electricity is gone now, but suddenly I’m overfull! I feel like I’m going to explode—

I’m right. Blinding light, energy, electricity is jumping out of me, spreading it’s wide

wings and flying. . . I can’t breathe. I think my lungs are going to burn up. I think my eyes

are going to deactivate from all this light. I think I’m going to deactivate—or not.

It’s over.

Tentatively, I open my eyes. Blue Skania looks brighter than when I left it. I feel like

there’s something here that wasn’t here before. I look up, and that’s when I see it.

I think I can see Earth from here, and even though it’s but a speck in the distance, it

still seems closer—bigger—than usual. My eyes travel back to Blue Skania, where I stand,

and I blink. Am I really seeing what I think I’m seeing?

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

For some reason my brain doesn’t question who it is behind me who said that. I’m

too lost staring into the once unfilled gap between Blue Skania and Earth.

“I know. How. . . ?”

“I think it was the Lightning Sword. It just kind of. . . exploded. And all the energy

bundled up inside it all came together into one bolt and made. . . this.”

I shook my head in amazement, staring at the shining bridge of Lightning that was

quavering in it’s path between Blue Skania and Earth.

“You did it, Sumi.”

Wait, I know that voice!

I look up to see him standing above me, grinning.

“Kuro? You’re—you’re okay?”

He nods, “Do you really think those tough hands of yours did nothing? I knew you

could do it—and I knew you wanted to do it alone. I feigned being hurt for you. I wanted

you to have the last blow. And I know what you’ve done, Sumi. To George, I mean. I was

watching. You were amazing.” He kind of plays with his hands a little and blushes.

I laugh, and though it doesn’t have the first smile of the day to accompany it, it’s the

first real laugh. It’s relieved, happy, and sad at the same time.

“Though,” he makes a freaked out face, “I kinda think you might want to turn around

right now.”

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“What?”

George stops dead in his tracks, and, looking desperate, reaches out his hand to

spark at me. Nope, buddy! Sorry bout’ that.

As I predicted, nothing happens. He tries again. And again—it’s actually pretty

comical. I shake my head at him and turn to Kuro, a question on my face.

Kuro shrugs, “Guess the question is now, what do we do with him?”

I smile, “We leave him. I never wanted to take a life. But for now. . . ”

I whack VanSicklen smartly across the forehead with the flat of the blade of the

Lightning Sword. He freezes in place and falls over backwards.

“There. That should do it.”

Kuro grinned and held his arms out to me, “Alright, but you promised me.”

“Okay, okay. You won’t get any protest.”

I take his hands and we kiss.

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Chapter 3

“You know, when you drew the electricity out of George just now, it kind of. . .

roused him. . . kept him from dying. And when you did it to me, it woke me up. Maybe it’ll

do the same for these guys.”

He gestures around at the bodies of our friends and family lying on the burnt, stiff

grass around us.

I nod and pull him with me as I walk first over to Cata to help her. I lay my palm on

her chest and close my eyes. I can feel the extra electricity inside her stirring, and I can feel

it being pulled out through my fingers—there, I think that’s all the extra electricity inside

her—better not take out the rest, like I did for George. Cata’s eyes flutter open.

“Sumi? What are you doing here? You have to keep—” she sits up and flinches.

“Fighting,” She says with horrified awe, looking around.

Kuro smiles at his twin sister, “It’s okay. Sumi defeated VanSicklen and he’s

unconscious right now.”

Cata’s eyes bulge, “You didn’t. . . kill him?”

“No, I did sort of what I did to you right now, but instead of just taking out the extra

electricity, I took out all of it so he can’t spark anymore.”

“He’s still a threat.”

“Not if we keep an eye on him. He’ll be put in his place soon.”

Cata nodes and sighs. She lets herself fall into the grass again, where she suddenly

begins laughing.

“I’m so relieved we finally did it.”

I nod, “I can hardly believe it. It needs a little time to sit.”

She grins, rolls over to face me, but then winces again.

“Does it still hurt?”

“Yeah. . . but just right where he hit me. It feels prickly. But it’s okay. I’ll be fine. You

guys go be together and get everybody else up and running. I’ll be right here, watching.”

We nod to her and leave her to rest in the grass as we go on and wake my mom first,

who we probably should have saved for last as it results in a very long series of tears and

laughter and kisses and hugs and more hugs. Okay, okay, mom!

We then rouse Emma, who upon hearing that VanSicklen is defeated but not dead,

rushes over and stands guard over his motionless body. I guess everybody has different

reactions to everything.

Stephan awakes when just when I touch him, before I actually do anything.

“Sumi!” He exclaims, “What happened?”

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“Er. . . you just woke up.”

“I know. I wasn’t struck too badly.” He flexes his arms and even though I know he’s

just stretching, the muscles expand as if to show themselves off. I frown: he was struck

badly. But I suppose Stephan being Stephan it would have had to have taken a lot more

than a bolt of lightning to bring him down.

He scanns the area in front of him and sees the others standing in various places,

except Cata, Lixia and Nixia. Cata is behind him and he’s out of sight and Lixia and Nixia. . .

well, I think he knows.

“What I meant to say is what happened with. . . ” his eyes stray to VanSicklen lying

on the ground, “I don’t need much explanation, I can see him, just give me the details. I

want to know what happened.”

I tell him and upon hearing the part about my rising him from death, his face lights

up.

“What is it?”

“Do you think you could do the same for Lixia and Nixia? They were good friends

and I’d never want to see them die.”

I nod, “I can try. But it might be too late. The lightning might have already. . . taken

full effect.”

He nods grimly, “It’s still worth a try.”

We stride over to the grim bodies of the twins sprawled on the ground. I place my

hand on first Nixia’s chest. I can, for sure feel the spark stirring inside her, and I summon it

out my fingertips. Sure enough, my spark is soon back inside me, but Nixia doesn’t stir. Her

face is still pale, and her body is still limp against the blackened grass. I stand and look to

Stephan, almost afraid to see his face. But thankfully, it isn’t too bad. It’s grim, sorrowful for

sure—sad to have lost such a friend, but he’s keeping it together, as if he knew something

like this would happen. I guess we all did.

“I’m sorry, Stephan. It’s too late. The lightning has done the damage and it’s too late

to undo what’s been done.”

In honor of Lixia, I also withdraw the lightning from her chest, but she too remains

motionless upon extraction. The twins are gone, never to return.

I’m surprised when Stephan seemed almost untouched by the death of his friends.

Kuro thinks I should ask him why, so I do, hoping against hope he wouldn’t break into

tears. He tells me that he, Lixia and Nixia had all promised each other that if one or two of

the others died in the mission, the other one or two left would try to forget the others and

move on with their lives. The promised each other they wouldn’t live in sorrow.

I smile, “That’s really kind of all of you,” I pause and look over at Cata, who is now

being propped up on some sleeping bags by my mom, “On another subject, though. . . ”

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“Yeah?”

“Would you mind spending some time with Cata? I think she’d. . . enjoy it.”

“Of course!”

I smile at him, glad that he’s willing. He’s a nice guy. I watch as he walks over to

where Cata has just been left by my mom, who is now talking to Emma about something or

other. He sits himself down next to her and takes her hand, his mouth moving silently from

this far away. She blushes and nods, probably telling him that she’s alright.

I turn away to face Kuro and to give them some privacy. He reaches for my hand and

I lean my head on his shoulder. Staring off into the distance at the glistening lightning

bridge, I think of everything we’ve done tonight: we’ve taken down VanSicklen, we’ve

successfully used the Lightning Sword, we’ve accidentally created a bridge made of

lightning between Blue Skania and Earth. Then I pause and think of all the things we still

have to do: go back home and expose everybody’s sparking powers, we need to tell the

story to practically everyone, we need to find a new ruler for Blue Skania, we need to open

up the rocketways between Earth and Blue Skania to the general public, we need to get a

new troupe of police officers, we need to reunite my mom back with my dad and Raggy. . .

I smile. It’ll be a long process, but we’ll do it. We’ll do it together, because after all,

together, we can do anything.

I look up at Kuro and he smiles down at me. We stand in silence like this for a couple

moments, then he turns his gaze back to the lightning bridge and wonders aloud,

“Sumi?”

“Yes?”

“Do you think it actually. . . works? Do you think people can actually walk on this

bridge?”

I grin, “Only one way to find out.”

And with that, I pull him with me as I tentatively at first, then confidently step onto

the lightning bridge. Another step and I’m in open air, Kuro right behind me. I run my

hands along the glistening railings of the bridge, and I wonder if, someday, this bridge will

be used daily by Earthians and Blue Skanians. Maybe. Funny, fancy walking that far, but

who knows.

After all, there’s a legend out there that says that every day the bridge is suspended

between our two civilizations, it brings them a little closer together. And who knows?

Maybe, someday, we will live as one. 140

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