Cragbridge Hall, Volume 2: The Avatar Battle (14 page)

Invisible? Was that how Grandpa knew? Could he turn invisible and spy on Muns? No. That didn’t make sense. That was something out of a fantasy or comic book. Grandpa was a man of science.

Derick looked at the crowd of people, each moving toward their next destination. He could see them, but could they see him? Was he invisible? He waved at a girl as she walked by. She smiled and waved back. Nope, not invisible.

“Hey. Were you flirting with my girlfriend?” A very large boy that Derick hadn’t noticed next to the girl confronted him. Definitely not invisible.

“No.” Derick said quickly. “Just waving.” He waved again. “See. I’m waving at you right now. It’s called being friendly.”

The virtual boy didn’t laugh or smile. “Just don’t be friendly around me—or her. Get it?”

“Got it,” Derick said as the virtual boy walked away. Grandpa’s virtual world wasn’t exactly inviting; apparently even virtual worlds had jerks.

An icon appeared at the top of Derick’s vision, like a message he might see in his contact lenses, a simple outline of a person. Was that the symbol for invisibility? Using his rings, Derick pressed on the outline. Then he looked down—his shoes were gone. And his legs. And . . . everything else. Derick had completely disappeared. He lifted his hand, flipping it over, ready to see either his palm or the veins in the back of his hand, but there was nothing. It was as though he didn’t exist.

He heard a woman gasp. Oh, no. He probably should have looked around before just disappearing. He moved behind a rebooting car. He pressed the outline again and reappeared. He waved at the woman, who blinked, shook her head, and continued walking. Hopefully, she wouldn’t think too much about what she had seen. Then again, she was just a woman in this virtual world. It probably didn’t matter too much.

This could be fun. He could spy on anyone he wanted. He could go to any concert or movie he wanted to for free. He could hang out unseen with groups of girls and listen to what they say when guys aren’t around. He could do all sorts of stuff. As he wondered what to do first, it occurred to him that everything he’d thought of was wrong. It felt wrong. His grandpa and his parents wouldn’t be proud of him invading people’s privacy or cheating. But then, what good would it be to be invisible?

In the crowd, Derick saw someone grab a woman and begin to pull her rings from her fingers. In one swoop he got them all from one hand and began working on the next. He was definitely an experienced thief. If he could hack into her rings, he could drain her bank account, access her credit file—everything.

“Help,” she screamed. “He’s stealing my rings!”

Though it took the man another moment to finish the task, he was soon running through the crowd. A few tried to block his path unsuccessfully, but many either didn’t hear or didn’t know what to do. Or worse, they didn’t care.

Derick moved behind a larger man and pressed the invisibility icon. He soon disappeared. He ran through the crowd, trying to dodge people as best he could. Occasionally he still bumped shoulders or tripped on legs. He hoped there were enough people around that a collision with an invisible boy wouldn’t cause too much panic.

Derick began to catch up to the criminal. He burst through the crowd, the thief just ahead of him, an open shot through the park. Derick slammed into the criminal, sending him sprawling across the grass.

The man looked around, confused, and scrambled up again, trying to regain his speedy getaway.

Derick pushed him back down onto his backside.

“What?” the criminal cried out, his eyes darting around. “Who did that?” He tried to get up again.

Derick pushed the man a third time. This was fun. “You steal from women? What kind of heartless lowlife are you?” Derick said, using a line from a movie he’d seen.

“I . . . I . . . I’m desperate. I . . .”

Another shove.

“Why can’t I see you?” The criminal screeched out, panicked. He scrambled to his feet again.

Derick thought quickly. “Because I’m a guardian angel.” He rounded behind the man and pushed him from another direction. The criminal started swinging wildly in all directions.

“Leave me alone!” he screamed.

“You didn’t leave that lady alone,” Derick answered. He moved quickly to avoid being hit; his voice had given away where he had been. He snuck behind the man and tripped him. “Set the rings down and run away.”

The man, terrified, quickly put the rings in a small stack on the grass. He got up to leave, but Derick knocked him down one more time. “If you ever steal again, I’ll be watching.”

The man mumbled something about never stealing again and then sprinted through the park.

Derick laughed to himself. This was fantastic. And he had done something good. He scooped up the rings, ducked behind a tree, and once again selected the invisibility icon, turning it off. He walked through the crowd, searching face after face. It took him much longer than he’d hoped to find the lady. “Excuse me ma’am,” Derick said. “I got your rings back for you.” He handed them to the woman, who hugged him.

“Thank you so much,” she said. She tried to pay him several times, but Derick wouldn’t take it. What good would virtual money do him anyway?

He turned and began walking again. What should he do next? There—the boy that told him not to look at his girlfriend. He could use a little lesson. Derick became invisible again and snuck up behind him. He was just about to trip the boy when he had second thoughts. This wasn’t the same as stopping someone from stealing. This was just a guy who was being a jerk. Should he really terrify him? Was it right to do it because he’d made Derick feel bad?

Derick paused and watched as the boy walked farther with his girlfriend.

No. It didn’t feel right. Derick stood there for at least half a minute. Still invisible, he was startled when a hand touched his shoulder. He turned to see his grandfather. Strike that—his
virtual
grandfather, who had draped his arm across Derick’s shoulders. “Very good. You noticed that with unusual power comes some very difficult decisions. When do you use it? When do you not? When is it a case that warrants your gifts, and when is it not? Of course, I cannot make you invisible in reality as you are in this virtual world. That is no
direct
answer to your question. Though, in a way, there may be some similarities. If you truly seek your answer, you will need to wrestle with these decisions. You will need to be wise.”

What could be similar to invisibility?

Grandpa continued, “If you feel that you have learned your lesson, then put your sphere back in the box and make the most of what happens to it.”

• • •

“I was in this incredible world,” Abby said from inside one of the booths. They had all crammed in for some privacy. “And I could see through walls. But the weirdest part was that Grandpa said that the answer was similar to my ability.”

“I could turn invisible. And Grandpa said the answer was similar to that too.”

“I knew tons of information,” Carol said. “It was just instantly available to me—I would see someone, and their entire history would begin scrolling across my vision. I’d know so much about them. But I had to figure out what was important, when to use it, and I had to keep it a secret. I had to be more discretionary than I usually am. I think your grandpa has been conferring with my geography teacher.”

Derick laughed. “So the question was how does Grandpa know
when
in time Muns attacked, and the answer is something similar to being able to turn invisible, see through everything, and know everything about everyone?”

“That seems a little over the top.” Carol mimicked going over something with her hand.

“How could he do that?” Abby asked. “I mean, he has keys to see the past, but this is like stuff out of a comic book.”

“Let’s put the spheres back in the box and see what happens,” Derick suggested.

Abby agreed and pulled the black box from her bag. Once again, she pressed the sensor on her belt, removed her key, and unlocked the box. The three of them placed their spheres in the open compartment, each within its indentation. At first nothing happened, but then each sphere began to glow, a bit brighter than before. Then one by one they dimmed to lightlessness.

“What just happened?” Abby asked.

“A little light show,” Carol added.

“Whatever it was, let’s make the most of it.” Derick retrieved his sphere. Still synced up to the booth, he triggered its mechanical arm. He placed the sphere in its place and it slid back into the machine. “All right, ladies. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go into another virtual world.”

Abby and Carol stepped out of the booth while Derick put his sensors and visor back on.

“I guess we should give it a shot too,” Carol said. “What do you think the chances are that mine’s turned into a world made of jelly beans and frosting?”

“Not good. That doesn’t seem like Grandpa’s style.”

Just as they were about to enter their booths, Derick emerged from his.

“It’s blank,” he said. “It’s been completely erased.”

“
What?
” Abby gasped.

“Are you sure you didn’t like drop it?” Carol stepped closer to look at the sphere Derick held in his hand.

“No. There’s just nothing there.”

Abby and Carol each stepped into their booths and discovered their spheres were blank as well.

“So what do we do when the spheres that are supposed to teach us have nothing on them?” Derick asked.

“I have no idea,” Abby replied.

• • •

Abby thought she could feel bags under her eyes. The first classes of a new semester, bad grades from the previous one, a threat from Muns, the Council of the Keys, and trying to find out the answer to her question in a virtual world—it had been a very long day. With Carol by her side, she walked slowly toward their room.

“Decorations!” Carol squealed and ran down the hall to their door.

Sure enough, as Abby approached, she saw an array of paper and colors. “What’s all this?”

Carol looked back, her eyebrows dipped toward her nose. “You know, I was absolutely sure that it was one of those cute ninth-grade boys breaking the rules to ask me to the dance . . . but it’s Jacqueline. That girl must have swallowed some expired cottage cheese or some really sour lemonade . . . the kind that someone forgot the sugar—the lemon had no aid. She’s made up another nasty rumor. It’s not even that creative. I mean, she could have said that you still wet the bed, or you snore, or you have like a third arm you hide in the back of your shirt, or a tail. I guess that last one would be really hard to cover up, but you’d have to give her creative points if she made
that
up. But she didn’t. So, no creative points for her. This was just mean.” Carol motioned to the posters on the door.

Abby read bright glittery letters on posterboard:
It’s been nice knowing you, Abby
. It wasn’t the only one. The posters covered her entire door and some of the wall around it.

A poster just left of the door showed a girl with Abby’s face wearing sunglasses and viewing a tourism guide screen with the caption:
Hope you enjoyed your short tour of where the smart kids learn
.

Another:
Bad Grades = Good-bye
.

Another showed a girl with Abby’s head running from a pair of scissors:
Couldn’t make the cut
.

Another was a calendar with pages you could rip off.
Days until Abby Cragbridge is kicked out of school for bad grades
.

“These could have been here most of the day.” Abby realized how many people might have seen them.

“Yeah,” Carol agreed. “But don’t worry—people aren’t going to just believe anything they read on a poster.”

Abby bowed her head. “But it’s true.”

15

First Strike

Abby walked quickly down the hall. Carol was fast asleep and Abby didn’t want to wake her. She didn’t want to talk about her grades anymore. She didn’t want to hear Carol say that she would totally get them back up where they belong. In fact, right then she didn’t even want to worry about her homework. She wanted to figure out the mystery, to be like Sherlock. She wanted to try her virtual sphere again and see if she had missed something. There had to be another clue.

She slowed as she passed through the English hall. She spotted Ms. Entrese’s classroom. The last time, it was Ms. Entrese who had played a huge role in helping her unravel the mystery. Abby realized that Ms. Entrese wasn’t a member of the Council of the Keys and didn’t know about Muns’s threat. And that Muns would want revenge against her. Maybe Abby should step in and warn her if she was there. The light was on—maybe she was.

Abby opened the door to the English class. “Morning.”

No one answered. Ms. Entrese probably just left the light on. She could still be in her apartment getting ready for the day.

Out of the corner of her eye, Abby saw something black on the floor behind the desk. She circled around to get a better look.

Her heart stopped.

She raced to Ms. Entrese, who was sprawled on the ground, motionless. “Ms. Entrese, are you okay? Can you hear me?” Abby grabbed her teacher’s face, pulling it toward her. Her eyes were closed, her body limp. She shook her. No response.