Saving the World Read online

  I headed towards my locker. Krista and Tim Dobbs were putting their bags in their lockers. They wore much friendlier faces. “You know I don’t have a lot of real power. Right?” I told them.

  “Well, of course, that position is just a token position, hence the reason I let you win,” Wendi told me. “But you do speak for the kids in this school. Well, at least the middle-school part of this school.”

  “Yeah!” Patti said.

  I looked at Patti. “Can you say anything but yeah?” I asked.

  “Yep,” Patti said. She seemed proud of herself for that.

  I sighed, making an effort not to knock her and Wendi over. “Okay, what do you want me to try to do?”

  “Fix the school lunches,” Wendi said.

  “I don’t even think Super Teen herself could do that,” I said. Truthfully, our lunches that weren’t that bad. Most of the time we could recognize what we were eating. At times, the food even tasted pretty good. But I wanted to get on Wendi (and Patti’s) good sides.

  “Of course, Super Teen couldn’t fix them! She is so overblown and over-rated. Just because she can fart down a herd of elephants, she thinks she’s ridiculously amazing.”

  “It was a herd of rhinos,” I corrected. “And she used her underarm odor. But that’s all beside the point.”

  “Oh, I forgot you were her number one fan,” Wendi said snidely.

  “How can I try to help, Wendi?” I groaned.

  “The lunches. We want more options. Like, it would be nice if they had a veggie option. You know, some of us don’t like to eat meat.” She touched her own cheeks. “That’s how we get this great skin.”

  “You know, more options would actually be nice,” Todd said.

  “I hate to put pressure on you, Lia, but man, I would love a salad bar!” Krista said. “I mean how hard can that be?”

  Okay, the masses have spoken. I hated to admit it but more food options did make sense. “Who do I talk with to see what I can do?” I asked Wendi.

  “VP Macadoo,” Wendi said.

  “Yep!” Patti agreed.

  “I’ll make an appointment to talk to him ASAP!” I assured them.

  “Good,” Wendi said.

  “Yeah,” Patti agreed.

  They turned and walked away. Suddenly everything froze. There was only one person who I knew could do that. Sure enough, I saw a smiling Tanya walking towards me looking as cool and confident as always.

  “What’s up?” I asked her. Yep, this is my life now, talking with a girl who can stop time is just the everyday normal.

  “Your dad wants to study my sister, Kayla,” Tanya said. Never being one for small talk she added, “Do you think I can trust him?”

  “He is my dad,” I said.

  “He also runs a super big company that we didn’t even know existed until your powers showed up. He is kind of a mad scientist.”

  “But a nice one who means well,” I insisted.

  “So Mom and I should let him?” Tanya asked, her eyebrows raised.

  I nodded. “Yes, but let’s keep an eye on him and the people around him. I don’t think they’re bad but sometimes they can be scientists first and humans second.”

  “Gotcha,” Tanya said. Okay, I’m keeping everybody frozen until I get to homeroom. Stay cool!” she gave me a nod.

  I watched Tanya walk away thinking, Man, I wish I had control of my power like she does.

  Dear Diary: Sure, I have a crazy lawyer who has convinced the police and some other people that I am dangerous. But I somehow get the feeling that asking for a variety of new lunch options for Wendi and Patti is going to be even more challenging. Still, I hate to admit it but that’s actually a good idea. This school could use some more green food. Well, at least food that is supposed to be green.

  Training

  After the day I’d had dealing with normal kid problems (and lawyers), it felt good to be at BMS labs to let loose a little. But I needed to remember to make an appointment with VP Macadoo about the lunch program changes. That idea made me more nervous than fighting deadly robots. With the robots, I could smash em to pieces. I couldn’t do that with the VP. Man, that would definitely be a blemish on my record!

  Speaking of robots, well androids, Hana was practically giddy as she stood with Marie, Jessie, Tanya and I in the huge practice gym. I haven’t known Hana very long but I did know that anything which made her so excited involved a challenge for us.

  Hana stood before us in a white jumpsuit. “You super gals all know that I always stress you should work as a team, right? Together you are more powerful than you are alone!”

  “That does make sense,” Marie agreed.

  “Yes, together your sum is greater than your parts. Therefore, we’ve come up with what we think is a suitable challenge for the four of you.

  “I think we can handle whatever you throw at us!” I said.

  “Yeah,” Jess said.

  “We are pretty darn powerful,” Tanya agreed. She looked around. “Hey, where are Jason and Lori?”

  Hana smiled. That smile sent a shiver down my spine. “They are part of your test. They are actually your opponents.”

  Jessie licked her lips. “This will be fun. Truthfully, I don’t see how it will be much of a challenge for us. After all, Lori’s bionics are neat. And that suit Jason wears lets him do cool stuff.” She pointed to the four of us. “But we are the power four in this group. Any of us can take the two of them down.” She stared at Hana as if stating an obvious fact.

  Hana grinned. She pointed across the huge gym to two very large doors on the far wall. Each door had to be at least five stories high. Like I said, this battle gym was way big. The doors slowly rolled open to reveal two massive robots. I mean they were as thick as they were tall. Each robot had a colored dome on top. Using super-vision, I saw Lori sitting in the dome of the green robot, Jason was in the other purple robot. “Tada!” Hana said. “These robots have human operators and are also the latest in artificial intelligence. They have many defensive capabilities. Plus, your friends are up in the control domes and you need to defeat the robots without hurting your friends.”

  “Still Easy!” Jessie boasted. She ran out into the middle of the gym. She motioned for the robots to come at her. “Come on, let’s see what this mix of human and robot has to offer!”

  Jess pointed at the robots and wiggled her fingers. “Going to use my magic to shrink these things down to size!” she boasted.

  The robots clanked forward. They each crackled with energy. They kept coming forward. In fact, the energy ricocheted off the bots back towards Jess, frying the ground at her feet.

  “What the?” Jess said.

  “We built in an anti-magic generator,” Hana told her. “After all, magic is just another form of energy.”

  Jess looked at us. Her dark hair popped straight up. “Ah guys, a little help here!”

  Marie stepped forward. “I might be able to turn those robots into tinfoil!” She moved towards them quickly.

  I tossed a glance at Hana. She shook her head.

  I lifted my wrist computer aid to my face. “MAC, buddy what do you think we should do?”

  “I am not allowed to give hints,” MAC said in a robotic voice. “But if I could, I would say work together,” he whispered in a quieter voice.

  The giant humongous bot operated by Lori reached a long mechanical hand down towards Marie. Marie grinned. “That was a mistake, friend!” Marie touched the hand with her finger. “YIKES!” she screamed. We heard a loud zapping sound. An electrical charge sent Marie flying backward. She crashed to the ground yards away.

  She raised her head. “I can’t touch those things!” She dropped her head back to the ground. “Now if you don’t mind I’ll just lay here until my ears stop ringing and ringing and ringing.” She smiled, “It sounds kind of soothing.”

  “I gotta admit, this is way fun!” Lori announced from her robot.

  “Glad I am not scared of heights!” Jason added.
r />   “Do you last two want to give up now?” Lori asked.

  Tanya looked at the slowly approaching robots. “I got this!” She held her hands up, framing Lori and Jason’s bots in between them. “Stop!” she ordered.

  The two humungous bots froze in place.

  Tanya smiled and turned to Hana, “Game over. We win!”

  Man, sometimes I was so envious of Tanya. She had her act together. Always calm and cool. She knew the score. Plus, OMG, she had the power to control time. Maybe even time and space! Like, holy cow, what a cool power! I know, I know…Jason will always tell me that Tanya may have great powers but she can’t bend steel with her hands, bullets don’t bounce off her, she can’t freeze a lake with her breath, she can’t drop an army troop with a fart. Yeah, that last one might not seem too useful but it is kind of fun to do. Getting back to my original thought, Tanya just knew what to do and when to do it. I think she sweated confidence.

  Hana crossed her arms. She sighed. “Yes, you have frozen your friends in time forever. Bravo, you must be so proud,” she gave a little mock clap.

  Tanya seemed unaffected. She pointed at the time-stopped robots. She looked at me. “Go take those two overgrown legos apart. Be careful not to hurt our friends though.”

  Yep, that Tanya…she really did have it figured out. I shot forward using super speed. I didn’t need to but I wanted to show off some. I spun up the length of Lori’s robot smashing it over and over as I rose. Knowing that the robot was frozen in time, I was aware that I could smash it without having to worry about it falling over and hurting Lori. Reaching the top, I popped off the dome and dropped gently to the ground. I placed the dome down carefully.

  With Jason’s robot, I took a different approach. I leaped up to the top and removed the dome that was holding Jason. I gently lowered it to the ground. I leaped back to the top of the now dome-less big bad bot.

  I crossed my arms over my body and started spinning down. Spiraling down through the middle of the bot’s body, I was pretty sure I had split it in half. I smashed through its metal legs and jumped to Tanya.

  Tanya smiled and snapped her fingers. “Time to move again!”

  The two bots crumpled to the ground.

  Jason ran over to Tanya. “Man! That was so way cool being frozen in time like that. Great way to use teamwork.”

  Hana groaned. “I guess that was…not quite what I had envisioned. But I can’t argue with the results. Nice work Tanya. I’m impressed that your control of your power has improved. I am so glad we have your little sister to work with now. Teaching one so young will be very beneficial for us and for her.”

  “I hope so,” Tanya said. “Mom and I are hoping that some training will help her learn to control her power.”

  “I’m sure it will!” Jason said. “The people here are great.” He pulled back his sleeves showing Tanya his advanced under-armor. “See!”

  Tanya touched the armor gently. I wasn’t sure why but I didn’t like that much. No, not much at all.

  “Nice,” Tanya said politely.

  Jason couldn’t stop gushing. “I think you and your sister have such great potential with your powers. Time is something the entire universe shares.”

  I leaned forward. “Yeah, but can she lift her arms and let her BO clobber a city?” I regretted saying that for a number of reasons. I flushed a bright shade of red.

  Jason and Tanya both turned to me. “You do have awesome raw power,” Jason said.

  “Agreed,” Tanya said. “Of course, it’s not a contest. We are a team.”

  I gulped. “Great point…”

  Jason took Tanya by her hand. “Come on, let’s go greet your sister!”

  Tanya looked at me.

  “Go!” I said. “Make her feel at home, she is a kid.”

  “See you later, Lia!” Jason said.

  I watched as Tanya and Jason walked out of the training area.

  Lori came up and patted me on the back. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  I nodded and forced a grin. “Yes, of course. Jason and I are BFFs. We are great BFFs. He is allowed to have a life without me.”

  “Should we keep training?” Marie asked. “My head isn’t spinning as fast now.”

  “I’ll give it a shot,” Jess said. “I’m not used to my magic being fizzled out.”

  Hana looked at us. “Well, I have to go and supervise Kayla’s training. But I approve of you three working alone.”

  “Actually, I’m going to check in on Kayla’s training, too,” I told the others.

  Dear Diary: Okay, what the heck just happened to me? I’ve never really been jealous before in my life. I’ve been angry, sad, mad and not glad, but never ever jealous. I am pretty certain I felt a little spark between Jason and Tanya. Maybe nothing will come of it? Maybe I’m imagining it? But even if something does happen between them, I need to find a way to be happy for them. They are my friends. Jason and I will always be BFFs. Right? Of course, we will! Right? Right?

  Mixed Feelings

  I followed Tanya and Jason to the training area where Kayla was to begin work with Dad’s people. Dad was talking with Kayla and Tanya’s mom, Mara. Kayla had four, white coated training experts around her. Using my super hearing, I heard Dad reassure Mara that Kayla would flourish here and that she would learn to control her powers. He also mentioned that spending the weekend here would be great for Kayla. Mara seemed to reluctantly agree.

  She kissed Kayla goodbye and then slowly made her way out of the room.

  “I’m not sure this is such a good idea,” Tanya said. “Kayla is so young. I mean, she’s just a kid….”

  “All the better reason to teach her to control and use her powers now,” Jason lectured politely. “The people here are pros and they have everyone’s best interest at heart.”

  That’s one of the traits I loved about Jason. He always saw the best in people. He believed that everybody was like him and wanted the best for everybody else. I really admired that. And I may be the only person who sees that in Jason.

  But then I listened to Tanya speak and I realized I wasn’t the only one to see that quality in Jason at all.

  She put her hand on his back, she looked him in the eyes. He smiled. I fought back the urge to frown. “Jason, I love the way you see the world. You see everybody as pure as you are!”

  Jason looked away from Tanya and began to blush. “Ah, gosh,” he mumbled. “Thanks, Tanya. That’s so nice of you to say that!” He glanced over at me, “I think Lia thinks the same thing.”

  “I do!” I said. “I do!”

  Tanya rolled her eyes. She looked into Jason’s eyes as Jason continued to talk. “I do believe that if you treat people properly they will treat you properly!”

  “I hope you’re right,” Tanya said.

  “I know you’re right!” I said.

  Tanya snapped her fingers. Jason and the rest of the people in the room, except for Kayla, froze in time. Man, she had control of her power.

  “What gives, big sis?” Kayla asked, walking over.

  Tanya eyed me. “Am I fishing in your waters here?”

  “Huh,” Kayla said, “there’s no fish or water here. I guess I could make some if I wanted.”

  Tanya turned to her little sis. She bent down to her. “That was just an expression.”

  “Oh… bummer, making water here might be fun….”

  Tanya waved a finger in front of Kayla’s face. “No, we don’t use our powers like that. It’s too dangerous! That is why you are here!”

  “But you’re using your powers now,” Kayla protested.

  “True, but only a little local time stop. Nothing big!” Tanya insisted.

  “Okay,” Kayla said taking a step back. “What do you want to talk to Lia about? How to do super farts?”

  “Ah, no!”

  Kayla licked her lips. Her eyes popped open, she stood on her tiptoes. “Do you want to talk to her about how you and Jason look at each other?” she asked.

  �
�Maybe,” Tanya said.

  “That means yes!” Kayla said, jumping up and down.

  Tanya frowned and pointed at Kayla. Kayla froze in mid-jump. Tanya turned to me. “Now, we can talk in private.”

  “Unless Hana or somebody comes in,” I joked.

  “Nope, the entire world is frozen except for the area around us now,” Tanya said.

  OMG! She could freeze the world easier than most people take out the trash. And she was so calm about it.

  “Really?” I gasped.

  “Trust me, we can talk…about everything.”

  “Everything?” I said.

  Tanya lifted a finger. “First, can I trust your father and his people? I know you aren’t as naïve and sweet as Jason.”

  “Nobody is,” I said.

  “Great point, but it doesn’t answer my question.”

  I sighed. My sigh sent Tanya staggering back. I stopped myself from grinning. “You ask a good question. I love my dad. After all, he is my dad, and in many ways, he wants to help the world just like Jason does. Sure, he’s more secretive. Sure, he disappeared from my life. But he’s been a big help since he’s been back. And I truly think that he wants what is best for everyone.

  “Okay, good,” Tanya told me.

  “That said, I can’t say all his people agree with him. I have no idea about his backers. But we have to admit they have really helped Marie and the others get a good grip on their powers.”

  Tanya nodded. “Okay, I’ll trust him, for now. If it doesn’t work out I can always reverse time.”

  “Can you do that?” I gasped.

  Tanya simply smirked. She looked at me. “Now back to the BIG question. Do you have an interest in Jason?”

  Wow, she really was forward. I think I liked that. The problem was I didn’t know what I thought about me and Jason as more than BFFs.

  Tanya tapping her foot said, “Well, while we have all the time in the world, I don’t want to keep them all frozen like this for too much longer.”