Chapter Eleven - Just Breath
Kyle jolts awake in his bed. He curses at himself for not thinking of this idea before. He jumps out of bed and throws on a pair of jeans from the floor. He rushes out of his room and knocks on Tom’s door.
Tom opens the door after several minutes and knocks later, “Can I help you?”
“You can see sound!” Kyle bursts out, pushing his way past Tom and walking into the small apartment.
“Yes and nothing has changed since yesterday, I can’t control it. Now if you don’t mind, I want to go back to sleep.”
“You can find her!” Kyle says, turning to face Tom.
“Huh?”
“That girl isn’t Jen and I need your help to find the real one,” Kyle pleas.
“You’re saying that girl is a clone or something?”
“Yep, now can you help me?”
“I told you, I can’t control it.”
“Please, just try, I think I might have a way that you can control it. Just follow me to the library and if it doesn’t work, you can come back here and sleep all you want,” Kyle says walking to the door.
Sighing, Tom agrees, “Fine, it’s not like me to not at least try. But if this doesn’t work, what’s your next plan?”
“Don’t know, this is pretty much it, so no pressure,” Kyle smiles. “I need to get Miles before we go. The two of you are the only ones that I trust here.”
Miles, who is sharing a room with Joe, is already awake and reading a book on a black couch, he hears a quiet knock at the door and walks over to answer it, “Ummm, hi?”
“We’re going to the library to test something and we need you to come with us,” Kyle says.
“Sure, what are you guys testing?” Miles asks, closing the door behind him.
“Kyle is going to help with my freaky sound powers. He thinks the library would be a nice quiet place to try it out,” Tom tells Miles as they make their way to the end of the hallway.
“Where are you guys going?” a voice behind the three asks.
Miles spins around to see Jen, “Library, want to come with us?”
Tom and Kyle exchange worried looks.
“Sure, might as well,” she says.
Unfortunately, neither Kyle nor Tom has a choice in the matter. They can’t let on that Kyle suspects that Jen is a clone.
“How do you guys even know how to get to the library?” Jen asks.
“That’s easy,” Miles says, with a grin. “Russell gave Joe the code last night and shared it with me.”
“Neat.”
Once they reach the end of the hallway, Miles punches in the code that will allow the portal to instantly take them to the library. Once they arrive, Tom and Kyle walk towards the tables near the back as Miles checks out some books and Jen walks to a nearby phone on one of the counters.
She picks up the receiver to call Ozma, “I think I found the person you’re looking for. He’s in the west library, slightly long brown hair, at a table near the back.” She hangs up the phone and waits near the entrance.
Ozma receives the message and sends for Zar-Q, “I need you to get Josh and bring him here.” She hands the young blue man a photograph from the security feed of Kyle. “Have him change into this person and remind him that if he decides to try anything heroic, the girl dies.”
Zar-Q walks to Josh’s room, followed by two guards who are carrying a gag and rope.
“You need to change to look like this guy,” Zar-Q tosses the photo to Josh.
“And…?”
“That’s it. Don’t try anything or Ozma will kill the girl.”
Josh transforms to look exactly like Kyle as the guards forcefully tie his hand behind his back and gag him.
Zar-Q wants nothing more to end all of this madness, but without a proper plan and help, there’s nothing that he can do. His mind tries to race to find an idea, a plan, anything, to make things right.
A glass of cold water is thrown onto my face and I snap out of my dream. I’m not sure how long I was out but now in front of me is Kyle, tied up and on his knees.
I still say nothing.
Ozma presses the side arm against the side of Kyle’s head, “Is this the person who brought you here?”
What do I do? If I say something will she kill him anyway? What does this lady want with Kyle? I’m at the verge of total panic and I have no freaking idea what to do.
“I will kill him over and over again until you answer me. The experience of death isn’t a pleasant one.”
Meanwhile, in the library, the real Kyle is trying to get Tom to concentrate, “Just take a few deep breaths and push aside everything. Clear your mind and at that moment of clarity, open your eyes and tell me what you see.”
Tom does this and the jumble mess he once saw is now gone. “How did you…,” Tom is mystified at how clear he can see sound now. He takes in deep breaths and looks around the area. Instead of seeing the library, he tries to see past everything to try to locate me.
Suddenly he can see Ozma yelling at me for answers and his vision shows him a young man on his knees, a woman with a gun and me stuck to a wall. Tom stands, knocking over the wooden chair, “We need to go, now!”
Tom rushes to the exit, with Kyle right behind, who calls Miles to follow. They all stop short at the exit because the clone is currently standing in their way, “What’s the hurry?”
Miles looks completely puzzled.
Kyle says, “We know you’re a clone. Now get out of our way.”
“Aw, what gave me away?” The clone smiles, “And where do you think you’re going anyway? It’s not like you can get around this facility without the proper codes.”
The three guys all look at each other as the clone laughs. She had a point, after all. How would they get to the real me?
All of a sudden, the clone falls to the ground and behind her stands Zar-Q, he has hit her over the head with a small hand held device.
“This will allow you to get to your friend,” he tosses the device to Kyle, who catches it. “You need to hurry and once you have her, you need to get—-“
“I have a way out; I just need you to block Earth and Crystlatina from the database. Can you do that?” Kyle asks.
“Of course, but how—-“
“Let me handle the exit plan. I just need you to block those planets once we’re gone.”
“Alright,” Zar-Q says, nervously. “You’ll have fifteen minutes before I put up the blockers. Is that enough time?”
“I hope so. Are you sure you can get those blockers up that fast?”
“Yep.”
“Wait, wait, why help us?” Tom asks.
“I’m tired of what Ozma is doing here. My friend is with her, just make sure he gets out of here safe,” Zar-Q turns to head back into the portal.
“Thanks,’ Kyle says, right before Zar-Q vanishes through the portal.
“Can we trust that guy?” Tom asks.
“We don’t have a choice right now,” Kyle says, using the device to activate the correct path to get to me.
As soon as they enter the portal, the three are instantly taken to the hallway where my prison is. Unfortunately, so is a group of guards who instantly fire as Kyle, Tom and Miles appear.
The bullets seem to disappear into nothing. Kyle and Tom both look at each other before looking over to Miles. The young boy has one hand raised, that has created a bubble to surround them to protect them from the bullets.
“Wow, bubbles,” Tom says, amazed.
As soon as the bubble drops, Tom slams his hands together causing a booming effect that makes the guards fall back and stumble. Kyle takes this chance to attack the stunned guards. His fists light up with electricity as he runs towards the guards, taking each and every one of them out with a series of kicks and punches all infused with electricity.
“…..” Tom shakes his head.
“I’ll explain later,” Kyle says as they make their way down the hallway.
At the same time, I am currently in my biggest bind in my life. Either way, Ozma might kill Kyle and me. So what if Kyle brought me here, why is that so important?
“Why do you care who rescued me?” I finally ask aloud.
“Excuse me but I’m the one asking the questions here.”
“No. You’re so adamant about who saved me; I think I have the right to know why.”
“Because I need to know why,” Ozma says.
“Why what?” What sort of answer is that?”
Ozma walks up to me and says inches from my face, “Why you.”
My eye twitches as I look straight into her gray eyes. I swear that I know this lady from somewhere. My fingers on my right hand begin to twitch as well.
I close my eyes for an instant and random images from my dream begin to flood my mind like a campy montage. I can feel warmth within me as I pull free from my chains melt away and fall to the ground. My entire body instantly bursts into flames and I channel that power towards Ozma, which causes an explosion within the room.
I can see the flames slowly diminish and Ozma is nowhere to be seen. However there are guards and robots aiming their weapons at me.
I rush to Kyle, in a painic, to untie him before the bullets start to fly.
Instead of hitting the two of us, the bullets disappear inches from our bodies.
“There’s a protect shield around you both,” the healer calls out. “You guys better do your thing before it breaks.”
As soon as I pull the gag out of Kyle’s mouth, he says, “I’m not him.”
“What?”
“Ozma used me to try to trick you.” Kyle’s features disappear and morph into a young man with gray hair and eyes. “Now get my hands free and hopefully we can get out of here alive.”
Still in a state of shock, I untie him and as soon as the ropes hit the floor he grabs me, pulls me to the side, and fires off a stream of silver fire towards one of the robots.
He helps me to my feet, “I’m Josh, by the way.”
Surrounding us on all sides are a few guards and five robots.
“You okay to fight?”
“What? I don’t even know how I just did that fire thing!” I cry out. This guy can’t be serious.
“Shit, that was your first time?”
“First time for what?”
“Running out of time!” the healer calls out.
“Okay, okay, stand against my back and cover me,” Josh says.
“But—“
“There’s no time, listen to me very carefully. Close your eyes and take deep breaths. Clear your mind and raise your arm. As you inhale pull your arm back and as soon as you exhale, push it forward.”
Josh pulls back his own arm to demonstrate and a blast of silver fire shoots from his hand.
I know if I don’t at least try, we’ll all end up dead in a few moments. I do as he says, my body shaking in fear.
Nothing happens.
“Stop thinking about it!” Josh yells at me, as he is now using both arms to attack.
“Shields are down!” The healer yells, “You’ve got two minutes before I can get them back up again.”
The healer.
The boy with brown hair.
The mother with long black hair.
And the princess with brown hair that can manipulate and control fire.
Holy crap it all makes sense now. As absurd as it is, it actually makes sense. I pretty much have an idea on what’s going on but I need answers. The hell I’m going to die before I get them.
With my arms at my side, my fists ignite with bright yellow and red flames.
“Shields are back up!” Celestria calls out.
Back to back, Josh and I fire off our respective fire spells towards each and every guard and robot in the room. After a couple of minutes, the room is covered with fallen robots. The guards ran off, most likely to get reinforcements.
“I doubt we have a lot of time. We need to find my friend, Z and get out of here,” Josh says.
“You mean Zar-Q?”
“Yea, nice guy, just afraid of something like this happening,” he says. “He’s always thought it would be impossible with just the two of us, but now we’re four, this is awesome!”
“I think we should get moving,” Celestria says, walking over to us. “Do you know where to go from here?”
I stare at the healer, as I get the feeling that I know her, “Do I know you?”
“What part of we need to leave, don’t you understand?” she says.
There’s a bang at the door.
“Here we go again,” Celestria says.
“The cameras, if we—“Josh spins in circles, taking out each and every camera in the room. He then transforms into one of the guards that had retrieved him earlier. “This way, we’ll have the upper hand. If you see a camera on the way out, destroy it.”
“But the portals, we can’t leave this floor without a proper code. Unless you know a few, we’re trapped,” Celestria informs us.
“That I do,” Josh answers.
“Oh, well then by all means let’s get out of here.”
The doors fly open and head straight for us. It’s like a massive force pushed them straight off their hinges. Josh uses his fire to push them away from hitting us and the doors land on the floor with a loud bang.
“I have orders to take the prisoners to a new location,” Josh calls out, hoping the disguise will work.
“Not going to happen,” a familiar voice.
“Wait,” I say as I spot Tom, Kyle and Miles.
“Jen!” Miles says, running up to me and giving me a hug.
“Looks like that blue guy was right,” Tom says. “Now what?”
“Wait, you mean Zar-Q? Where is he?” Josh asks, changing back to his original look.
“Wait…ho—you know what, never mind,” Tom says, shaking his head.
“Running out of time,” Celestria repeats.
“Your friend is helping us to get out of here, and he needs to hurry,” Kyle pulls out a small clear bottle from his pocket. The liquid inside is red and glows.
“Oh sweet, is that a man-made portal potion?” Josh asks.
“This will take us back to the planet that we were on a few days ago. Your friend is going to block that planet and Earth from the database. It should give us enough time to vanish from their radar.”
“Neat, good luck,” Josh waves and starts walking towards the door.
“Wait, you’re not coming with us?” I ask.
“Nope, need to help Z out. Don’t worry, we’ll meet again. And it’s always good to have someone on the inside.” He transforms back into the guard and pauses before walking out into the hallway. “You know what; do me a favor before you leave.”
“I swear, if this is how it’s going to be every time, we’re going to get killed,” Celestria sighs.
“Knock me out; it will look more convincing instead of me just walking out of this room. There’s has to be a dozen cameras out in that hallway,” Josh tells the group.
With three minutes left, Kyle throws down the potion and it shatters into several pieces. A portal begins to form on the ground.
“Everyone, jump in, I’ll be right behind you. And no stalling, we’ve got minutes before we lose our window,” Kyle says, walking over to Josh.
We all do as he says, leaving just Kyle and Josh in the room. Kyle tries to give Josh the device that Zar-Q had given him.
“Nope, keep it, we can get another here and we can find a way to communicate without Ozma or anyone tracing it,” Josh says. “Now make this quick, you’re running out of time.”
“Thank you,” Kyle says, using the device to knock Josh out.
