Without waiting for a response, the tall lady sprinted for their Chi’karda launching point, Tick bouncing up and down on her shoulder, the other Realitants right behind her.
It took Paul a second to break his stare from the impossible sight of two identical men coming toward them—one limping, the other moving at full speed. Both seemed oblivious of the other, each wanting to reach the Realitants and unaware of his twin.
“Come on!” Sofia yelled, grabbing Paul by the arm and pulling him as they ran after Mothball. “I think I know—”
An ear-piercing noise cut her off just as a surge of blinding light flashed behind them. A terribly loud boom rattled the air, the sound of a million amplified horns going off at once. Paul had heard that sound before.
He’d barely had the thought when a rush of tornado-force wind hit them, knocking him and Sofia flat on the ground. The wind passed over them, a solid wave of air that was almost visible as it tore at trees and bushes and benches, traveling outward in a wide arc. It knocked over the other fleeing Realitants and kept moving along its destructive path.
All was still for a single moment. Then the ground started violently shaking, far worse than before. Trees crashed to the ground. Sounds of breaking glass and bending metal filled the air as the mountainous palace of Chu started collapsing all over again.
“Tick!” Paul yelled over the deafening noise. “He must’ve woke up!”
“No!” Sofia shouted back. “I think it has something to do with Chu meeting his Alterant.”
Paul risked a glance over his shoulder and saw that only one Chu remained—the injured one. He limped toward them, struggling all the worse because of the earthquake.
Sally suddenly bolted past Paul and Sofia, running for the man. Like picking up a bag of sticks, Sally grabbed Chu and flopped him over his shoulder just like Mothball had done with Tick. He ran back toward them, stumbling left and right as the ground shook.
“Get up! Get up!” Sofia shouted, pulling on Paul’s good arm.
He obeyed and ran after her, his mind twisting in a million different directions.
The earthquake worsened, throwing Sofia to the ground. Paul helped her up and they kept running, losing one step for every two they made forward. Sally caught up with them, moving as if Chu weighed only ten pounds.
Eventually, the Realitants gathered in the designated spot, every last one of them staring back toward Chu Industries in awe and fear. Mothball still held Tick, and she was shouting something over and over.
“Wink us out, George! Wink us out! Ruddy wink us out!”
Sounds of splitting and cracking and shattering glass rocked the air. A thunderous roar ripped across the ground, and Paul felt his heart wedge itself in his throat.
Chu’s palace collapsed toward the ground, the whole thing at once. Paul threw his hands over his ears. The sounds of destruction were louder than anything he’d ever heard before as an entire building of metal and glass exploded nearby. He watched as a massive cloud of black dust rolled out of the falling ruins, billowing out and rushing toward them at an alarming speed.
“Now, Master George!” Mothball roared, barely audible over the sounds of the mountain collapsing. “Now!”
Like a fleet of starships zipping into hyperspace, the Realitants winked away in quick succession. Paul actually tasted the choking dust and saw the suffocating darkness before he felt the familiar tingle and was winked to safety.
Chapter
50
~
Much to Discuss
No one did any celebrating.
After getting safely back to headquarters and undergoing full debriefings, most of the Realitants said their good-byes and winked back to their home Realities. Paul and Sofia stuck to Tick’s side; except for the rise and fall of his chest, he seemed as dead as a corpse. Paul couldn’t think of much to say as they followed Mothball to the infirmary, where Doctor Hillenstat hooked Tick up to several monitoring machines; an IV dripped a clear liquid into his veins. Rutger watched from the side, scrutinizing the doctor’s every move as if waiting for him to make a mistake.
“How long will he be out?” Sofia asked. “Is he gonna be okay?”
Hillenstat frowned. “An hour. A day. A week. No telling.”
“But will he be okay?” Paul said.
The doctor felt Tick’s forehead. “Yes, he’s fine for now. But in the long run?” He shrugged. “I think I’ll let Master George be the judge of that.”
Sofia huffed. “Aren’t doctors supposed to make you feel better?”
Hillenstat smiled through his droopy mustache, the first time Paul had ever seen him do it. “Doctors are supposed to be honest. Now, I’ll go and get Master George and you can bother him with your questions. I need a nap.”
He wiped his hands together as if swiping away crumbs from dinner, gave one last look at Tick, then walked out of the infirmary.
Sofia looked at Rutger. “Nice guy you got there. I’m glad I’m not sick.”
Rutger ignored them, looking over at a machine that monitored Tick’s vitals, but Mothball spoke up. “Best doc in the Realities, he is. A bit snippy, though.”
Master George walked in, Sally lumbering along behind him. They both pulled up chairs to the bed and sat down
so the whole group was in a circle, looking solemnly at the comatose Tick.
“So what’s the deal?” Paul asked.
“Yeah, what’s wrong with him?” Sofia added.
Master George cleared his throat, not breaking his gaze from Tick’s face. “Yes, yes, a very good question, my young friends. I certainly didn’t expect things to go in this direction with the lad. Troubling, I tell you. Very troubling indeed.”
He paused, and after a few moments of tense silence, Sofia threw her hands into the air, palms up. “Well?”
“Show some respect,” Rutger growled.
“No, no,” Master George said, throwing a quick glance in Rutger’s direction. “We’ve seen a lot this past day, and answers are deserved. If everyone would give me a moment, I’ll do my best to tell you what we know.”
He took a deep breath, then began. “First of all, Sato is recovering nicely. The lunacy left him as soon as the trouble started with Tick in the Fourth—the antidote obviously found its target during all that chaos. But Sato’s very battered and bruised from the abuse he gave himself while under the control of Dark Infinity. I’d encourage you all to visit him. He’s back in his normal quarters—quite a relief, actually. It was very hard to see him locked up like that.”
Master George pointed at Tick. “As for our young sleeping lad, here . . . goodness gracious me, what a turn of events. I believe I may have found a connection that explains what is happening.”
Paul noticed everyone in the room leaned forward just a little, himself included.
“Entropy,” Master George announced, looking around to see the reaction.
Paul squinted his eyes as if that would make his brain work better. “You used that word in the weird spinner movie you sent us.”
“Quite right. It refers to the rule of nature that all things move toward eventual destruction. Entropy accelerates when a branched Reality begins fragmenting. The nuclear force holding matter together weakens, and things begin to break apart and dissolve—but at a pace millions of times faster than nature’s course. A fragmented Reality can be gone—completely gone—in a matter of weeks or months.”
“What does that have to do with Tick?” Paul asked.
The skin around Master George’s eyes seemed to melt, sinking into a worried frown. “I fear that Master Atticus has no control whatsoever of the inexplicable amounts of Chi’karda stored within him. Where it comes from, and why it’s there, I’ve yet to determine. But I do know what it’s doing. It’s unleashing itself on objects that frighten or threaten Tick. And when it does . . .”
He paused, as if expecting someone to call him crazy if he continued. “Well, it’s fragmenting them. Tick is doing, on a very small scale, exa
ctly what happens to a fragmented Reality. He’s a catalyst—triggering a heightened state of entropy that dissolves the matter around him. But because it’s so out of control, the matter slams back together, the quantum forces regaining their strength and forming the monstrosities you’ve seen along your latest journeys.”
“Whoa,” Paul whispered.
Sofia tried to sort it out. “So basically, if Tick freaks out, he can destroy and reform things, trapping whatever gets in his path.”
Master George nodded. “Yes, and depending on how far along the entropy develops—how much matter is destroyed before it reforms—the objects may retain some of their old qualities and characteristics.”
“We thought it was something Chu had done,” Sofia said. “The trees by Tick’s house, the spiders, the glass tunnel exploding and melting—all of it. We thought it was all part of the test.”
Paul looked down at Tick’s sleeping face. “Remind me not to make him mad.”
Master George sighed. “I’m afraid Tick’s life will have to move in a new direction. He’ll have to stay at home, be monitored, watched over. We’ll need an extraordinary amount of help from his parents—and we’ll have to find ways of ensuring he doesn’t have another . . . episode. At least until we sort things out.”
“What about us?” Paul asked. “We can help. We can stay with him.”
Master George shook his head. “No, no, Master Paul. I need you and Sofia to return to your homes right away and pick up on the rest of the school year. With Dark Infinity destroyed, I believe things will be quiet for awhile, and I need both of you to live your normal lives for a bit.”
Paul felt his stomach squeeze into a knot. Nothing, absolutely nothing, sounded worse than going back home and living a “normal” life.
“But,” he said, searching for arguments, “we’re Realitants. Why do we—”
Master George held up a hand. “All in its appointed time, lad. For now, you must go to school, learn, experience growing up. I promise it won’t be long before we wink you in for further training or to help with whatever obstacle presents itself to deter our mission.”
“What happened to Mistress Jane?” Rutger asked.
Master George looked at him sharply, then glanced away as if trying to hide his alarm at the question. “That, I don’t know. We can only hope she’s . . .” He didn’t need to finish.
“Maybe when Sato’s well enough—” Rutger began, but was cut off by Mothball.
“Pipe it for now, little man. One worry at a time.”
Master George stood up. “Paul and Sofia, I need the two of you to prepare to return home. I’ll send several specially prepared science books with you so that you can study beyond those things you’ll learn in normal schooling. I need a little more time with Tick, and I need him to help me resolve the matter of”—he pointed a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the holding cell—“our captive, Reginald Chu. Tick may be the only one who’ll be able to tell which Chu it is.”
Paul stood as well, trying to ignore the hurt growing inside him. He really didn’t want to say good-bye to everyone. “Yeah, what’s the deal with the Chu thing? What happened back there?”
Master George stared at him, his face serious. “Two Alterants met, lad, face to face. Such a thing is a disaster—a complete disaster, always.”
“Why? What happens?” Paul asked.
“One survives, while the other is thrown into . . .” Master George looked about nervously. “Well, we don’t know for sure. But Reginald himself always called it the Nonex, and it’s something I hope to never encounter. Whenever Alterants meet like that, it causes a terrible disturbance in Chi’karda and the Realities. I wouldn’t be surprised if an entirely new Reality, perhaps even solid enough to be a main branch, was formed from this. Dreadful, really.”
Paul rubbed his eyes and temples. “My head hurts.”
“Yes, yes, off you go,” Master George said, shooing them away from Tick. “It’s time for you to go home. Rutger, please fetch my Barrier Wand.”
Chapter
51
~
Awakening
Tick didn’t know how much time passed between the instant he grew aware of himself and the moment he opened his eyes. An hour maybe. Possibly two.
It was the pain that kept him hiding in his own darkness. Terrible, terrible pain, right in the middle of his skull, as if he’d spent the last week lending his head out as a neighborhood speed bump.
But he finally slid his eyelids open, scared the light would only make it worse but having no choice.
Master George sat in a chair to his left, leaning over him with a huge smile on his ruddy, puffy face. Sato sat to Tick’s right, his face swollen but somehow cheerful—for him, anyway.
Tick started to get up, but only made it an inch before thumps of pain slammed his brain like hard fists.
“Now, now, Tick,” Master George said, placing a hand on Tick’s arm. “Let’s not be hasty. You’ve been through quite an ordeal.”
Tick had squeezed his eyes shut again, but forced them open. “What . . . what happened? Chu was there . . . and Mistress Jane . . . and a huge Barrier Wand—”
Master George patted his arm. “Yes, yes, we know much of what happened, thanks to Sofia. Though I’m quite anxious to debrief you about what happened from the time you left your two friends to the time Sofia knocked you senseless. Quite anxious indeed.”
“Tick,” Sato said, almost a whisper.
Tick tilted his head to the right, raised his eyebrows. “Yeah?”
“You’ve made me very unhappy. As soon as you’re better, I’m going to punch you in the ear.”
“Huh?”
Tick could only remember Sato smiling once during the few times they’d been together, but something close to a grin broke across the boy’s face.
“Twice, now, you have saved me,” Sato said. “You’re making me look bad.”
“I saved you?” Tick asked, then looked at Master George. “The antidote hit the thing? It worked? Last I remember, the whole place was about to fall down.”
“Atticus,” Master George said. “You’re in no condition right now to learn the things you need to about what happened in Chu’s black mountain. Just know that you’re safe and Dark Infinity is destroyed, as are the nanoplague bugs it was controlling. Though things did get a bit hairy, it’s all worked out in the end.”
“Well, what about—”
Master George shushed him, then held up a thick, messy binder stuffed with papers, some folded, others ripped. “It’s all been documented here for you to read while you recover. I’ll also be sending you home with a big stack of Realitant textbooks and manuals. Now that you’re a Realitant First Class, you can begin further study.”
“First Class?”
“That’s right, old chap.” Master George held out a card, similar to the one Tick had been given in May, but dark red this time. Tick saw the words printed on it:
Atticus Higginbottom
Realitant First Class
“I’ve already sent Rutger and Mothball ahead to have a very long discussion with your parents,” Master George said after he placed the card in Tick’s left hand. “I’m afraid you’ll need to be schooled at home now, and watched very closely—”
“What?” Tick tried to sit up again, but this time Sato pushed him back, gently. Pain throbbed through Tick’s head.
Master George continued speaking. “No need to worry, good man, no need to worry. As you’re well aware, you have an uncanny link to Chi’karda, and it appears capable of spinning completely out of control. But we’ll all keep a close eye on you, and if anything troubling happens again, we’ll wink you straight in and take care of it. It’ll be quite simple, really, considering you’ll have plenty of Chi’karda surrounding you wherever you go.”
Tick groaned, so confused at the swirl of emotions inside him he didn’t know if he felt sad, angry, hopeless, or happy. But suddenly, all he wanted in the world was to go
home and see his family.
“Just wink me back,” he said. “Please. We can figure it out later. Just send me home.”
“An extraordinary idea, Master Tick! Exactly what I had in mind. Paul and Sofia have long since gone, and it’s your turn. Don’t worry”—Tick’s mouth had opened at the mention of his friends—“they said they’d have e-mails waiting for you by the time you arrived in Deer Park. Muffintops, Sato, and I will miss you greatly, but I’m sure our next reunion will happen very soon.”
Tick nodded, the pain in his head making him feel nauseated. “Where’s your Barrier Wand? Can you wink me from here?”
Master George bit his lip. “Well . . . yes, yes, we can, but I need you to do one thing for me first.”
“What?”
Master George looked across the bed. “Sato?”
Sato stood and walked out of the room, slightly limping. His arms were severely bruised, especially around his wrists.
A long minute passed. Muffintops wandered into the room and jumped up onto Tick’s chest, purring as she settled into a comfy position, staring at him with her glowing eyes.
“You be good, cat,” Tick said, wincing at how stupid it sounded. “Take care of the old man.”
A sound at the door took Tick’s attention away. Sato had returned and right behind him, looking even more disheveled and bruised than Sato or Tick, was Reginald Chu.
Tick sucked in a gasp of air, bolted into a sitting position, and squirmed backward until he hit the wall. Muffintops shrieked and jumped to the floor; Master George stood, trying to grab Tick’s arm.
“Calm yourself!” the old man said. “Master Atticus, calm yourself!”
Tick ignored the pain that exploded inside him. He noticed handcuffs on Chu’s wrists, but that meant nothing. Nothing! The man had more tricks up his sleeve than—
“Tick.” Chu said it, softly, calmly.
Tick ignored him, glaring back and forth between Master George and Sato. “How could you just let him walk around here?”