“True,” Chu said.
“Then leave us alone.”
Chu laughed a mirthless chuckle. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll remove myself from the Imager. But don’t worry—I’ll still be watching.” His face disappeared and the screen returned to blackness.
“Atticus, I’m sorry,” Jane whispered. “I’ve never heard of a technology that blocks someone from Chi’karda. Somehow he’s kept that a secret—a formidable task, trust me.”
“I don’t get how it works,” Tick said. “Normally, can’t you just fill up with Chi’karda and do all kinds of magical stuff? Like a wizard?”
Jane rolled her eyes. “Something like that. Perhaps all I need is a pointy hat with stars and moons sewn on it.”
“And right now you can’t do anything?”
Jane shook her head, squeezed her fists again. “It’s gone, completely. I can’t feel it, can’t grasp it, can’t do anything. It feels like my soul has been ripped from my body.”
“I don’t feel any different,” Tick said.
“That’s because you’ve never controlled it or understood it. You couldn’t even tell when you’d used it before—which I still find hard to believe.”
Tick looked at the floor. “I might’ve felt something. A . . . a burning.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter now. We need to make a decision.”
Tick knew what she was going to say. “He’s watching us, you know. I doubt it will count if one of us volunteers to die.”
“That’s not what I had in mind.” She gave him a creepy look—a blank stare, her eyes glazed.
Tick took a step backward before he realized what he was doing.
“I have no choice,” she said, taking one step toward him. “But . . . it’s for the best. Best for the Realities. I’m the only one who has a chance.”
“What are you doing?” he asked, his back hitting the wall of the hallway.
Tears glistened in her eyes. One escaped and spilled down her cheek. “I’m sorry, Atticus. I’m so sorry. I have no choice but to kill you.”
Chapter
44
Fingers on Neck
Sofia’s breath stuck in her throat as she stared up at the humongous structure that was Chu’s headquarters.
It rose from the ground like a mountain—with a pointed peak and everything—as tall as any building she’d ever seen, stretching to her left and right until it disappeared in a slew of other offices and complexes. There were no straight lines on the structure, nothing flat, nothing symmetrical. Countless odd-shaped windows were scattered across the building’s surface, most of them with lights shining through, but others were filled with dark shadows. Chu’s headquarters towered over her and the other Realitants like a natural formation, a manmade mountain of glistening black stone.
Spanning the several hundred yards between them and the building was a broad expanse of grass and trees. A nice park complete with little streams, bridges, benches, and sidewalks that couldn’t possibly contrast any more with the massive thing that kept it half in shadow.
“That is one cool building,” Paul said beside her.
Both of them were armed with Master George’s strange weapons. The bulky body of the Shurrics were strapped on and pressed against their chest, joystick trigger clasped in their hands. Paul was using his broken arm for that, since all he needed was a finger to push the button. Each carried a leather bag tightly against their left sides, directly under their arm, with a small opening for retrieving the Static Ragers.
“Yeah, it’s cool,” Sofia said. “I can’t wait to see it crash to the ground.”
The Realitants stood in a rough formation, in lines of eight, all facing the mammoth mountain of black glass. Mothball was in front, her head tilted back as she gaped at the top of Chu’s palace so far above. She finally turned to face them.
“Done with speeches, we are,” she said, fingering her Shurric. “Master George got us quite nice and inspired, he did. Are we ready for a bit of battle? Ready to go in there and stop the monster named Chu once and for all?”
Several Realitants shouted their agreement.
“We all know the plan,” Mothball continued. “Get inside and make our way to the studies. Third lower level, section eight. Seen the map, you ’ave.”
Sofia felt a cold pit in her gut, her nerves jittery. An emptiness floated somewhere inside her; she knew what she had to do. If she could actually find Tick.
“I ’spect Chu’ll be sendin’ nasties after us before long,” Mothball said. “Better get a move on.”
Her last word still hung in the air when a great boom rolled across the park, shaking the leaves on the trees. Mothball turned around sharply and Sofia rose on her tiptoes to see what had happened. Another boom shot out, then another. Several more in rapid-fire succession. Soon they were almost indistinguishable from each other.
Sofia saw holes had opened up along the front of the mountain building, big circles that were black on black, barely visible. Silvery balls shot out of them, one after the other. After a very short flight, the things landed on the grass and started . . . changing. They reformed and reshaped themselves, twitching as objects twirled and spun on their bodies, long appendages protruding out and reaching for the ground. There were dozens of them. No, hundreds.
“Uh-oh,” Paul said beside her.
As soon as he said it, Sofia realized what the things were.
Metaspides.
Tick had to keep reminding himself to breathe.
A long, long moment passed, he and Jane staring at each other. Her eyes flickered away now and then, as if turmoil raged inside her as she thought about what she should do. Tick tried to think of his own options. Run seemed like a good one, but he couldn’t move, as if his feet were riveted to the floor. Then Jane’s eyes refocused on him, like she’d departed her own body for a few minutes and had finally returned.
She slowly walked forward, arms coming up, outstretched and reaching for Tick, her fingers curved like claws. Tick was so baffled by her sudden change, and the almost laughable Frankenstein gait she’d chosen, that at first he didn’t react. When she came within a foot, though, he snapped out of it and dodged to his right, ready to run.
With shocking speed, Jane spun and kicked her right leg out, smacking him in both shins. Tick lost his balance and dove toward the ground, just getting his hands beneath him before he crunched his nose. He started scrambling, but Jane was on top of him, grabbing both his shoulders from behind. With a jerk of her surprisingly strong arms, she flopped him over and onto his back, gripping his torso with her legs like a vice.
She clutched his face with both hands and leaned forward, putting her mouth flush against his ear, her breath hot. She whispered so low Tick could barely hear her.
“Listen to me. I don’t think Chu can stop the Chi’karda in you—it’s too strong. But I need to draw it out. Listen to me. I’m going to strangle you, do you understand? I’m going to kill you unless you fight back. It’s the only way, Atticus. Do you hear me? I will not stop until you die or until you let the Chi’karda explode out of you and it saves us both. Listen to me. I . . . am . . . going . . . to . . . kill . . . you. For your own good.”
Jane pulled her face away, staring down at him with her green eyes aflame. She put both of her hands around his neck, squeezing. Panic flared inside Tick. He kicked out with his legs, beat on her arms with his fists, but she didn’t budge.
“Let go of me!” he tried to yell, a guttural croak that barely came out.
Jane squeezed tighter. “Look at me, Chu!” she bellowed out, lunacy glazing her eyes. “I obeyed! I will be your apprentice!”
As pain enveloped him, as his breath left his body—squeezed from him—Tick thought distantly that he couldn’t tell her intentions. Is she really going to kill me? Is she acting? Would she really kill me?
Her fingers closed tighter, gripping his skin, pinching the tendons and nerves. Tighter still. Tick struggled, kicking, beating her arms, thrashing beneath her. She squeezed even harder. Tick couldn’t breathe, couldn’t find air.
“He’s almost dead!” Jane yelled. “Chu! I’ve won your test!”
Tick’s eyes bulged and he felt his face puffing up. He heard the choking sounds torn from his own throat. Black stars formed above him, swirling in the air, growing bigger until they blackened his vision. Darkness fell upon him, complete.
Images flashed across his mind’s eye almost too fast to register: his family, Sofia, Paul, the library back home, Master George, snow, school, Mr. Chu at the chalkboard, the Barrier Wand, the Grand Canyon, Rutger, Mothball . . .
I don’t want to die!
Something snapped inside Tick’s mind. He felt it—he heard it, like a branch cracked by a bolt of lightning. Heat surged through him, first warm then hot, pulsing through his veins, as if his blood had combusted into lava, burning him.
A piercing scream rocked the air. He realized it had come from him just as the blackness swept away, replaced by Jane’s face, hovering above him as she kept trying to strangle him.
Tick screamed again.
Jane flew off him, catapulting across the hallway and slamming into the wall. An unseen force pinned her arms and legs flat as her head thrashed back and forth. The ground shook as Tick struggled for breath, gasping in air, fighting to get his arms and legs under him. Sounds of bending and breaking filled the air. He looked up to see the metal panels of the walls warping and cracking, bubbling and melting. Tremors rocked the floor, ripples surging back and forth like waves on water, crashing into each other as large cracks rent the hard material.
Jane hadn’t moved, still pinned to the wall. The chaotic sounds of destruction hurt Tick’s ears. Everything had gone crazy; he couldn’t take it. Somewhere inside him, he knew it was coming from him, that it was all his fault. I’m a freak. I’m a freak! Knowing he had this power only made it worse, panicked him further, sent his mind and thoughts reeling.
I’m going crazy, he thought. I can’t do this. I can’t control it! What have I done?
Chu. Reginald Chu. This was all his fault. Everything was his fault.
Tick glared at the massive double doors, the black square still blank. The world around him rocked back and forth, things breaking and crashing and melting. The heat within him intensified. He felt certain his organs were about to burn, fry to a crisp, leaving him dead.
Tick threw all of his anger and pain at the doors. At Chu.
With a terrible squeal, the doors wrenched to the sides, crunching into a mass of twisted steel, leaving a gaping, smoking hole behind. Tick caught movement out of the corner of his eye—Jane falling to the floor in a crumpled heap.
I can’t do this, Tick thought. I can’t do this!
Screaming, he got to his feet and ran through the twisted and broken doorway.
Chapter
45
The Shower of Gold
A sea of metaspides littered the park outside Chu’s artificial mountain, crawling along the ground with their creepy, jointed legs. Sofia found it hard to believe they were machines because they seemed so alive. They swarmed together in a tight pack, heading straight for the Realitants.