Legend of the Forbidden (22 page)

“Excuses Alanmendiquixanimackle?”

“If you wish to see it that way, yes an excuse, but I thought I would provide you with some helpful insight on how the teenagers in this area function. I've found my results are a lot more positive when I stop forcing our culture onto them.” Hopefully he hadn't bit off more than he could chew. He'd been doing a great job of holding his tongue until then.

“Cocky are you?”

“No, sir, and I don't do it to simply cater to their ways. However their ability to blend in gives them more areas to investigate than having them ask a lot of questions and sticking out.”

Sir Oriol nodded. “You're learning. Since your way seems to work so well for you, I'll continue to let you try it. Perhaps you can convince me. You will be my contingency plan. We were able to explore multiple methods last time instead of just one. Wouldn't you agree?”

“Yes sir.” Alan wouldn't point out how he'd been left in the dark, written off as worthless, thought of as a traitor to his people, and had to do everything on his own in order to provide anything of use for his team. Sir Oriol hadn't given him the orders. He'd taken everything upon himself, but of course he wasn't going to get the credit.

“Whatever you did last time, do it again. We can keep it our secret, but don't expect me to bail you out if you get into trouble. And you must report everything to me personally. Find the other eleven test subjects, Junior. I don't think I need to explain why this is important.”

“Sir?” This was a genuine surprise. A deal between them?

“Yes?”

“So long as you're sure, I will, yes.”

“I am sure, because our war is constantly changing and becoming more complex. There's a phrase the humans of Earth use: I like to have an ace up my sleeve.”

“I'm not sure I know what that means.”

“Have one of your charges tell you then.” Sir Oriol gave him a salute. “I'm going now.”

He returned the gesture. “Thank you for your time Sir.”

The man left and Alan could only scratch his chin. Perhaps things were finally starting to look up for him on the ship after all. Now he had to get back to Earth. There was a lot of work to be done.

 

Chapter One

 

A rectangle is four times as long as it is wide. If the length is increased by four inches and the width is decreased by one inch, the area will be sixty square inches. What were the dimensions of the original rectangle?

Angela tapped her pencil on the top of her desk as she tried to remember everything she'd ever learned about geometry. Math was not her strong suit, and it was even harder when she couldn't focus. The most she could think about was counting down the days until Thanksgiving break—which were two, if she didn't include today. Normally she was a decent student. As of late, her grades were starting to slip. Her thoughts were consumed by the party that changed her life forever.

Going out wasn't anything new for her. She enjoyed letting loose and having a good time, making sure to be responsible and smart with her fun. This party was pretty typical. No parents were around, and whatever mischief the other teens wanted to get into, they got into. While others were off no doubt getting drunk or making out in a back room, she spent her time chatting with her friends. Everything was normal.

Except for the teens in the black masks. The ones who offered her a chance to be more than ordinary.

“Shh!”

She shook her head, but ceased her tapping and decided to chew on her eraser instead.
What a nerd. There are other students talking louder than I'm tapping. Okay, so if...

Her body started getting hot then, and not in the good way. The pencil in her fingers began to smoke and the paint melted onto her skin.

Why is my pencil starting on fire? My pencil is on fire!
Or it almost was, until she dropped it quickly onto her desk top.
Stay calm.

Casually she stood up from her desk and walked towards the teacher. “Mr. Palm? Can I have the pass? I need to use the bathroom.”

He nodded at her and gestured for her to take it. She did so, switching it from hand to hand in an effort not to start it on fire as well. Her body still felt hot all over. There was no other way to describe it. Her skin glistened with sweat, and her whole body was baking like she was in an oven. Everything appeared to be normal though. Maybe her skin was a little red, but nothing drastically out of the ordinary. She hurried to the bathroom all the same.

Once there, she shut herself into a stall, sat down and took slow, deep breaths. She was getting overexcited, but could anyone blame her? Things were starting on fire just from touching them. Was this it? Was she getting a power? Or was she going to die?

At the party, the teenagers in the black masks took her into the underground tunnels littering the city and injected her with, well, she didn't know what it was. Supposedly it would give her superpowers, or kill her. She was still alive, but she was also freaking out. It was all she could think about even though it happened over two weeks ago. What had she been thinking? If her brother JD hadn't come for her, she didn't know what would have happened.

There was a lot Angela didn't understand about what was going on. JD was being annoyingly discreet. What she did gather was somehow he had gotten himself mixed up with aliens from Altura, or rather one alien. He went by Alan. He had a longer name she heard once, but it was far too complex for her to remember.

Some war was happening on Altura. The nations there were fighting one another, but rather than fight on their homelands like the people of Earth, they did it on other planets, other peoples' homes. They got the teens involved and were hoping to utilize them for the fight. The injection she received was to help with that, but for the wrong side. That's what Alan told her at least, but she knew so little about the goings-on of Altura it was hard to say what was right or wrong. But she trusted her brother not to lead her astray, and the other members of their obscure team to do the same for him. Cadence Sinclair was his best friend, and she was the brains of the four teens working with Alan. If she suspected trouble, she'd have said something. Angela was sure of it. And Orlando Holmes never did anything he didn't think was a good idea. Granted, she didn't know him too well, but she'd always gotten that kind of an impression from him all the same.

Cadence had told her she should be safe. Anyone who'd died from the injection did so within a handful of days. Angela wanted to trust her, but given her current situation, that was easier said than done. What if she had been given a different formula that took longer to process? Or maybe she was getting superpowers after all. Physically everything seemed okay beyond the heat. No upset stomach, dizziness, or anything suggesting she was sick.

First she had to calm down. It would do her no good to freak out in the middle of school. She'd only draw attention to herself that way, or do something worse than cause her pencil to start smoking.

Her hands held on to the cold ceramic of the toilet seat in an attempt to cool herself down. It helped a little, but she needed more release from the heat.
Calm down.
Now her clothes were starting to smoke. She closed her eyes and cried softly, trying to keep as quiet as possible in case any students or faculty were passing by.

Something hot burned through her shirt and she shrieked in pain. When Angela opened her eyes, she saw a small hole in her blue T-shirt about the size of a dime. There were no burn marks on her skin though. Confused, she wiped at her eyes, and scowled when she felt heat in her hands too. Glowing orange liquid faded into her skin where her tears should have been. All she could do was stare.

“What?”

Reaching into her purse, she pulled out her makeup compact, desperate for a mirror. Upon opening it and seeing her reflection, she nearly dropped it into the toilet. Her eyes were filled with the same glowing liquid that had been on her hands. It was as if her tears were made of magma. Funny how she didn't feel any burning on her face.

She reached into her jeans pocket, looking for her cell phone. She had to get hold of her brother. He'd know what to do. Whether or not he'd answer in the middle of class was another story.

“
Code Green.”

That's what he'd told her to tell him if anything strange started to happen. This definitely qualified. Then flames started to shoot out of her clothes, and soon after the fire alarm went off. She had about three seconds to send one more text before her phone would start to melt in her hands too.

“
Meet @ grove.”

She shoved her phone into her purse, and bolted out of the bathroom right before the students started to pour out from their classrooms.

Morningtide High School was enormous. Each graduating class had at least seven hundred students in it. No one paid attention as she ran through the halls to the nearest door. Angela ran so fast how could anyone register who she was anyway? Hopefully they wouldn't notice the flames.

“Are you okay?” one girl shouted after her as she rounded a corner to the nearest exit.

She pushed through two teachers on her way out.

“Wait!” one called out. Whatever distracted them from coming after her, she was grateful because she had no idea how she was going to explain this one.

The nice thing about Morningtide's campus was a small forest of trees about one hundred feet away—the grove. School security did its best to keep the students from going out there, especially in the middle of the day. Anyone caught entering the grove automatically got detention for the week, and that was only for the first offense. Repeat violators or troublemakers got it a lot worse. Even after school anyone caught in there was immediately escorted out by the police who often patrolled it. It was a risk she was willing to take.

For a brief moment, she worried someone would follow her in, but something about the speed she was running at seemed faster than usual—inhuman even. All she left behind was a trail of smoke from her clothing that was still ablaze.

As the cool air touched her skin, she felt her body begin to chill. The flames started to die off, and soon she found herself in the middle of the forest, cold, with her shirt practically falling off of her. Thankfully, her bra was fully intact and the damage to her jeans was minimal.

She opened up her singed purse and grabbed her phone again to see if JD had replied.

“
b there soon.
”

Eyes closed, she thanked whatever powers that be who were looking out for her. Her relationship with her brother wasn't always the best, but he was dependable when she needed him. He'd saved her from a number of pinches in the past. He was good at looking out for the whole family.

While she waited, she rubbed at her arms, shivering, and tried to keep from freezing. She could hear the students through the trees. There was a good twenty foot distance between them and her, so nobody noticed her hiding behind a tree trunk.

“
where r u?”
JD texted.

“
in the grove.”

“yes, but where? i cant c u.”

Angela risked a glance and saw JD in the distance slinking his way from tree to tree. He wore his mask, so at least nobody else would recognize him, but she did. The power of the mask would only fade if the wearer revealed himself by removing it in front of another person. Some kind of weird Altura thing.

“
about ten feet in front of u.”

He paused to look at his phone, then up, waved slightly when he noticed her, and ran the rest of the way.

“Why are you wearing that?” she asked.

“Because I didn't want someone freaking out if they saw me go into the grove?” He gave her a pointed look, as if she was supposed to understand his crazy boy logic. His eyes roamed over her and he scowled. “What happened? Where are your clothes? You're not going back to school looking like that.”

She took a deep breath. “I started on fire while I was in class. I don't know why, but all my clothes started burning up. I went to the bathroom to try and cool down, didn't work, and that's why the fire alarms went off.”

“My baby sister has turned into a delinquent. First time for everything right?” He shook his head.

“I'm not being bad. It's not like I fake pulled it or something, or did this on purpose. It just happened. I was stressing over homework and boom, fire,” she said.

“Math melts my brain too.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “You're freezing.” He paused, then proceeded to pull off his T-shirt and hand it to her. “Put this on. You'll at least be decent.”

“And what about you?” She threw the shirt on, grateful for the cover. At least she was until she noticed how disgusting and sweaty it was. It smelled rank too. “Ugh, you're in gym class, aren't you?”

“Yup. At least wear it until you can get something from your locker.”

“I'm gonna have to,” she said, gagging. “Haven't you ever heard of deodorant? This is foul.”

“I may have not taken it home to be washed for about a month. Are you okay? You're not hurt are you?”

“No, it doesn't hurt. Not unless I touch it a certain way. It's complicated. I don't even know what happened. It all was so fast, you know?”

JD nodded slowly, rubbing at the back of his hair awkwardly. The truth was, he didn't know, because she knew he still didn't have any powers. She felt bad for him. He'd been waiting a lot longer than two weeks for his to form. When she didn't get hers right away, he'd been so happy saying it was some kind of a genetic fluke.