The Gravity Keeper (18 page)

I watched from my recliner as the kids left. Simon paused outside my apartment, wondering which was the best way out. Then he led his friends back the way they had come before. As they walked past a certain point, they found themselves back at school.

“Hey, it's Miss Fanstrom's office,” Owen said. “How did that happen?”

Simon looked at the closed office door. “Maybe she left the teleportation device on.” He knocked on her door, but there was no answer. “Guess she went home.”

“Let's get to the hospital,” Alysha said. They made their way through the school halls; by now, most teachers and students had gone home. The kids were so preoccupied with our meeting and their mission that they failed to consider a certain gym teacher.

I watched in horror as inside the gym, Willoughby Wanderby's cell phone rang and woke him. “Ohhh, my head,” he mumbled before answering. “Yes?”

“Are you coming with us to the hospital?” a female voice asked. “It's visiting hours.” Wanderby let out another groan. “What's wrong?” the woman asked.

Wanderby hesitated. “A small problem at the school. Nothing I can't handle.”

Then Simon, Alysha, and Owen walked past the entrance to the gym, and Wanderby spotted them.

“You!” he snarled, dropping his cell phone. “This time you won't get away!” He ran into the hall.

Simon quickly spoke his friction formula, and Wanderby's feet slid out from under him. He landed hard on his butt and groaned.

“Owen, hit him with velocity. Quick!” Simon shouted.

Owen, already dizzy, went pale. “But he's a teacher!”

“It's him or us!” Alysha said. “Just knock him out.”

Wanderby started to speak his rotational formula, but before he could finish, Owen used his velocity formula to hurl him down the hall. Wanderby slammed into a set of lockers and sank to the floor, unmoving.

“I don't think I'm getting a good grade in gym class this year,” Owen said.

Unbeknownst to the kids (but painfully knownst to me), Wanderby's cell phone was lying open in the gym. “Willoughby? Willoughby?” the female voice shouted. “That's it; something's up. Set the Gateway for Wanderby's school!”

Simon, Owen, and Alysha ran out the nearest exit to the playground but stopped as a heavy downpour started suddenly. A handful of kids playing on the jungle gym squealed at the sudden heavy rain and ran off, drenched.

Owen groaned. “Great, it's been sunny all day and now this. I don't even have a jacket or an umbrella…”

Simon and Alysha grabbed Owen's arms and yanked him forward, toward the nearest break in the chain-link fence surrounding the playground.

Alysha noticed a bluish tinge to the puddles forming on the ground. She stopped. “What's with the rain?”

They all turned to look and gasped at the source of the rain's bluish hue. A beautiful, glowing rectangle had risen up in front of the school's outside brick wall. Before the kids could react, a leg stepped out of the blueness. It belonged to the lovely red-haired Loisana Belane of the Order of Physics. She emerged from the Gateway, followed by Myarina Myashah and Robertitus Charlsus.

Myarina frowned. “Stupid automatic rainstorm. This is ruining my hair.”

“There was no time for raincoats,” Loisana said.

Robertitus pointed at Simon and his friends as rain plastered his plaid shirtsleeve to his thick arm. “We've got worse problems than rain: Outsiders! We've been spotted!”

It was true. Although the rain was picking up in intensity, it was not yet hard enough to hide the Gateway and the Order members from sight.

Simon squinted. “Wait a second; I know that redheaded woman. She does the weather on the news. She came to the school last year to talk about meteorology!”

Owen gestured at Robertitus. “And that guy's a bowling instructor at Lawn Lanes on Route Four!”

Alysha studied Myarina. “The shorter woman runs a fashion workshop.” Simon and Owen snickered. “What? Rachelle made me go.” She paused. “Wait, what are they doing here?”

Loisana, Myarina, and Robertitus stood still, horrified at this breach in protocol. Loisana moaned. “This is my fault! I figured Wanderby was under attack, and I didn't wait until the rain got heavy enough.”

The double doors of the school banged open and Wanderby stomped out with one hand clamped to his head. He noticed the Order members and, after a split-second hesitation, pointed at the kids. “Stop them!” he roared.

The kids started to run for the nearest exit, but Loisana spoke her formula and gestured toward them. The water froze; solid sheets of it coated the fence and blocked the three exits. The thin layer of water on the ground solidified, trapping the kids' feet. The falling rain became hail that pelted them.

Myarina cleared her throat. “Loisana, darling, while you're at it…” She gestured to the rain that was still soaking her friends and her.

Loisana spoke a variation on her formula, and the rain around the Order members dissolved into water vapor.

The kids tugged at their feet, trying to break free of the ice, and cried out from the painful hailstones. Loisana frowned and changed the hail back to rain; now the kids were just getting drenched.

“What happened?” Owen squealed.

“She's controlling states of matter,” Simon said, “turning liquid into solid or gas. Freezing, vaporizing, melting.”

“She can turn the rain into boiling-hot steam if she wants!” Alysha said.

Owen groaned. “This-is-bad-very-bad-terrible-bad!”

“Don't panic,” Simon said. “The ice isn't too thick. Just keep tugging at your legs. I'm going to increase the gravity on the ice; it might become more brittle.”

They could barely hear the adults talking over the downpour.

Loisana turned to Wanderby. “Okay, they're stopped. Now explain why you had me freeze three Outsider children.”

“And why now?” Robertitus said in his thick southern drawl. “Loisana, Myarina, and me were just going to visit Ralfagon and Eldonna.”

Wanderby winced at the lump on his head. “It's ‘Myarina and I,'” he said.

Robertitus frowned. “You sure?”

“I
am
a teacher.”

Loisana snorted. “You're a gym teacher, not a grammarian.”

“Who cares?” Myarina snapped. “Let's get to the point here. This humidity is making my hair frizzy.”

Wanderby hesitated. “I just need to talk to those three; you go on ahead.”

Loisana narrowed her eyes. “I don't think so. What is this all about?”

“We haven't done anything wrong!” Simon yelled. “This is all a mistake!”

Wanderby shook his head. “Don't listen to them. They attacked Ralfagon.”

“Three kids hospitalized the Keeper of Physics?” Loisana asked. “Please.”

“They have formulas.” Wanderby paused. “And the
Teacher's Edition
.”

As if on cue, the Gateway closed and the rain stopped, leaving a layer of water on the ice spanning the playground.

Robertitus clenched his fists. “Then what are we waiting for? Let's get 'em!”

Alysha, still straining against the ice, said, “Okay, Owen, now you can panic.”

“Wait,” Simon yelled out, “we didn't hurt anybody!”

“Except for Mr. Wanderby, but he started it,” Owen said.

Alysha nodded. “Totally self-defense.”

“Do you or do you not have the
Teacher's Edition
?” Wanderby hollered.

“Well, when you put it like that…” Owen said.

Wanderby gave an I-told-you-so look to his fellow Order members.

Loisana frowned at Wanderby (like me, she disliked I-told-you-so people), then turned to the kids. “Okay, give it here.”

Simon managed to tug one foot free of the ice and stomped at the other one. “It's not safe!” he shouted. “Not until we can get to the hospital.”

“Why, so you can finish off Ralfagon?” Robertitus roared. “Not on my watch!” He spoke a formula and pointed at them, creating seismic waves that made the iced-over ground rumble and quake.

The seesaws pivoted, the huge concrete tubes quivered, and the tall metal jungle gym shimmied. The ice cracked around the kids' feet, and they fell to the heaving ground.

“You know, I had them trapped in that ice,” Loisana said dryly.

Simon, Alysha, and Owen struggled to their feet and started for the nearest exit again. “Enough!” Wanderby bellowed. He pointed at the jungle gym. “Robertitus, cage them.”

Robertitus redirected his formula, and more seismic waves rocked the metal structure. The ground beneath it bucked and kicked until the jungle gym snapped free and tipped over, imprisoning Simon, Alysha, and Owen between its bars.

“They're not listening,” Alysha whispered. “We have to fight back.”

“Okay, this thing is going zero
g
,” Simon said. “Owen? Like yesterday.”

Owen's voice took on a sudden fierceness. “Ready.”

Simon canceled gravity on the jungle gym, and with great effort, the three heaved the massive metal structure over their heads.

Wanderby's mouth dropped open. “Now what do they think they're doing?”

“Rocket time!” Owen shouted. He spoke his formula and sent the jungle gym streaking through the air toward the school.

Simon returned the jungle gym's gravity so it had its full weight again, and the Order members barely managed to duck before the metal framework slammed into the school's brick wall. It cracked the wall and broke apart.

“Hey, that's school property!” Wanderby shouted.

But Owen wasn't listening; he used his velocity formula on the fractured pieces of jungle gym. The Order members ducked and dove, frantically trying to avoid the flying metal.

Wanderby used his rotational formula on Owen, viciously spinning him away, but Simon countered by increasing Owen's friction. The two formulas competed for control, making Owen wobble, but he was able to focus enough to clonk Wanderby on the head with a piece of jungle gym. It broke Wanderby's concentration, and his formula cut off abruptly.

Loisana glared at the kids and opened her mouth to attack, but Simon spoke his formula first; her frictionless feet slid out from under her and she fell flat on her back. With a quick friction shift, he made her stick to the ground.

“This is getting annoying,” Myarina muttered. She spoke her own formula and Simon, Alysha, and Owen were suddenly surrounded by huge mirrored walls. She was using light reflection to bounce their images back at them.

The kids felt like they were trapped in a giant mirrored box; they could only see their own images surrounding them. But as with a two-way mirror, the Order members could still see the kids perfectly—except for Loisana, who was still stuck to the ground. “Someone get me up,” Loisana said. “This is embarrassing. And muddy.”

Wanderby, unsteady from Owen's attack, leaned over to face her. “We have to take them down first, before they get out of that box. Can you freeze them?”

Loisana frowned. “I'll try, but I have to take water vapor from the atmosphere and turn it into water first; it's tricky to go right to ice if I can't see my target. Plus, it gives me brain freeze.” She spoke her formula, and the air above the entire playground turned into water.

“You're getting us wet, too,” Myarina whined.

“Then you're lucky I didn't just freeze everything first,” Loisana replied, “or you'd all be a lot chillier.”

Robertitus looked at the water accumulating on the playground and smiled. “Just what I needed.” He generated more seismic waves, and each ground shift sent tidal waves of water toward the kids.

Simon, Alysha, and Owen were struggling to see through the reflective field when a six-foot-high wave of water sprang out of one wall and slammed them to the quivering ground.

Owen yelled over the roaring water, “Lower our gravity so we can jump out!”

Simon shook his head. “With the ground pitching like this, we couldn't control where we'd go!”

A concrete tube broke free of the tortured ground and rolled through the mirror illusion. The kids dove out of the way, only to get smacked by another wave.

Alysha grabbed Simon and Owen. “Get in the tube!” she yelled. They hurried inside and Simon used friction to hold the tube down. Although the concrete still moved with the rocking ground, it couldn't roll away—it was stuck fast to its patch of wet, icy dirt.

Inside the shelter of the tube, Owen asked, “Did you see? The tube and the waves went through the mirror. The walls aren't solid; we can go through them!”

“You're right!” Alysha said. “I've got an idea: when I leave, get on top of this thing, and whatever you do, stay out of the water on the ground. Can either of you do something to distract them?”

“I can try to throw water in their direction,” Owen said. “I'll send it over your head at them. Let's see how
they
like it!”

“I can increase the gravity by the school to slow them down,” Simon said. “But it'll hit you, too, when you get close.”

“That's okay,” she said. “I'll be prepared. Ready?” Alysha reached her hand out to them, palm down.

Simon and Owen just stared. “Why are you showing us your nails?” Owen asked.

Alysha rolled her eyes. “Haven't you guys
ever
watched sports? Put your hands on top of mine, then we'll say…oh, never mind. Just kick some butt.”

Owen put his hand on top of hers. “Major butt!”

Simon put his on top of Owen's. “Colonel butt!”

Alysha sighed. “You are
so
corny. It's always the quiet ones.”