Out of This World (26 page)

“I don’t have time to explain,” she said urgently. “But you need to follow me.” She set off at a slow jog.

She looked back and her parents hadn’t moved an inch, still surveying their surroundings with their mouths open. “Temporary amnesia?” said her father, trying to find some rational explanation for having no idea where he was, or how he had gotten there.

“Mom! Dad!” shouted Jenna. “I know you’re confused. But we don’t have time for this. If you’ve ever trusted me, you need to trust me now! Zachary’s life is in great danger. You need to follow me NOW! It might already be too late.”

Both of her parents swallowed hard. They glanced at each other. The pleading in their daughter’s voice and desperate look in her eye was enough for them. They both decided they needed to take a leap of faith and do as their daughter asked, without understanding why.

Mr. Lane grabbed his wife’s hand and began jogging toward Jenna. She nodded her thanks and started jogging herself, leading them back toward Zachary, and knowing her parents couldn’t take a faster pace.

Jenna’s mind continued to churn, far faster than her feet. She only had a few minutes to devise a strategy with two people who had no idea where they were, how they had gotten there, or what they were up against.

“I don’t have time for a discussion,” she called out as they jogged. “So pay close attention. And I need you to believe everything I say without question. Can you hear me?” she yelled.

Both parents yelled back that they could.

“Okay. We’re not on Earth anymore. It’s a long story, but your memory has been erased.”

Jenna remembered that Zack had said that one of her father’s friends was working on ways to control gadgets with the human brain. “This planet is very, um . . . high tech,” she lied. She knew instinctively to avoid the use of the word
magic
at all costs. “They’re able to broadcast some kind of signal that picks up the electricity from minds and allows you to control, um . . . light,” she said, remembering that Hirth had told them this was the only thing her parents’ magic had been able to affect. “You guys have already been able to do this. You just don’t remember.”

She paused to suck in a few deep breaths and then continued. “In just a few minutes, we’ll be arriving in the middle of what will probably be a battle. We need to help. Fighting on our side will be Zack and a man who looks a little like an Ewok without any fur.”

“Did you say,
Ewok
?” yelled her father in disbelief behind her, his breathing fast and irregular.

“Yes,” replied Jenna. “Like from
Star Wars
.”

Jenna considered telling them that millions of lives depended on this alien ally, but this would confuse them even more, so she decided against it. “We’ll be fighting another man from this same species. One who can control just about everything with his mind, not just light. Our friend is wearing a blue robe, and our enemy a red one.”

“Jenna, are you sure you’re okay?” yelled her Mom.

“Mom, I’m fine. I know this sounds crazy. But if I were crazy, we wouldn’t be on a strange world, would we? And in just a few minutes, you’ll see for yourself that everything I’m telling you is true.”

“I have to . . . stop for. . . a minute,” said her father, barely able to get the words out. They had been jogging at a fairly slow pace, but neither of her parents were in good shape.

Jenna stopped and her parents bent over, panting, looking as if they would be sick.

Jenna was so impatient she was practically jumping out of her skin.
They needed to get there already
.

But part of her wondered if it would really matter if they did. Wyland and Zachary were going up against the most powerful magician on Orum. And what could she offer? Only her parents, totally winded and disoriented, who might have the ability—
maybe
—of controlling light a tiny bit.

If only they could control electricity. Or gravity. These were forces from which you could make weapons. True, Jenna had turned light into a weapon in the cave, but only because she had used it against a being with super sensitive vision. Now they were in bright daylight, so even if they could manage to generate an extremely bright light—a big if—this wouldn’t work against Hirth.

There was only one way to use light as a weapon, and she had already found it.

She jumped as if she had been shocked
.

What was she thinking? Light could be turned into the most powerful weapon of all.

 
A laser.

She knew all about lasers. She had just created a laser with her dad for the science fair.

Was this why Wyland’s intuition had told him their chances would be better if
she
revived her parents instead of her brother? Maybe so.

She knew exactly how to turn light into a laser. The trick was that the light had to be all the same color, exactly, and it had to be something called
coherent
—which her father had explained meant organized. Instead of light waves traveling randomly, every light wave had to march in unison, exactly overlapping. Hirth didn’t know anything about science, so even though his magic could easily deliver light in this precise way, he had no idea the power that this would generate.

Hirth and Wyland had been right. A knowledge of science
could
dramatically improve magic. If only her parents could do the
magic
part.

“Okay,” announced Jenna. “Here’s the plan. When we see the enemy I told you about, all of us need to use our minds to control the light around us. We need to get all the light waves to be, um . . . coherent.”

“Like in a laser?” said her father, his breathing now more regular. “You want us to create a laser with our
minds
?”

“
Yes
,” said Jenna. “You’ve done it before,” she lied. “I can’t tell you how to do it. Just take everything you know about light, and about lasers, and just imagine moving light waves so they’re marching in step. And then it will happen.” She paused. “Let’s try it now.” She pointed to a nearby tree. “All of us together imagine the most powerful laser ever. Imagine we can see the individual light waves. Then push them so they’re traveling perfectly together.”

Both of her parents strained as hard as they could and Jenna strained just as hard.

Nothing happened.

“We have to try harder!” insisted Jenna.

“I can’t help but feel a little ridiculous,” said her mother, and her father nodded his head in agreement. “You’re
positive
we’ve done this before?” added her mom skeptically.

“
Yes!
” shouted Jenna. “Positive. If you take this absolutely seriously, I promise you it will work. Now let’s try again. And really mean it this time!”

They strained for all they were worth for almost a minute, but with the same result.

Jenna frowned. “We’re out of time. Let’s go,” she said, starting to jog once again. Even if they had no weapons, they could at least help to distract Hirth, possibly giving Wyland a chance to defeat him.

Less than two minutes later they heard a sound unlike anything they had ever heard before. As if the air itself were alive and throbbing with energy.

The three emerged from behind a tree and almost tripped over a groaning Wyland, barely alive on the ground. Fifteen feet away a second short creature was hovering in the air, and crystals were spinning around him. To their left, Zachary was suspended in the air as well, writhing in agony and gasping for breath, as if a vise was slowly crushing his chest. There was no doubt that the short alien being was somehow responsible for what was happening to Zachary.

“
Stop!
” thundered Mr. Lane, more loudly than Jenna had ever heard him yell.

“
Put down my son!
” screamed Mrs. Lane. “
Or I’ll make you regret it!
”

Hirth turned to consider the new arrivals. As he did so, the invisible force holding Zachary loosened its grip just a bit, and Zachary gulped air as if he had been held underwater and had just emerged.

“Took you long enough,” said Hirth calmly to the three humans. “I need another few seconds to finish off your son, and then I’ll get to you. Just be patient.”

“
I won’t warn you again!
” said Mrs. Lane in a tone so intense that even Hirth couldn’t help but shrink back for a moment.

Hirth recovered from his initial reaction and began to laugh. “Since your warnings mean absolutely nothing, I’d actually
appreciate
it if you’d stop giving them.” He turned his attention back to Zachary, and once again squeezed the breath out of him. Zachary began to gasp for air like a fish out of water, seconds away from suffocating to death. “Like I said, I’ll be with you very soon.”

“On three,” said Jenna, and her parents knew exactly what she meant. “One, two . . . three!”

Jenna and her parents strained with all of their might, willing the ability to control light to be real, pouring their hearts and minds and souls into their task in desperation. This time, they allowed no doubt to creep into their minds. Their belief that they could control light with their minds was now absolute, because it
had
to be. Zachary’s life depended on it.

A beam of lava-red light as thick as a broom handle shot toward Hirth
.

The beam hit the trunk of a thick tree Hirth was standing near and blasted it into oblivion, the very air around the beam catching on fire as half the tree was vaporized instantly and the other half was driven into the woods, as if it had been shot from a cannon. The sound this caused was thunderous, and nearly deafening.

Hirth was so stunned and terrified he became momentarily paralyzed, and the magic he had been using to pin Zachary ceased. Zachary dropped to the ground, finally able to breathe normally, sucking in huge lungfuls of air as fast as he could.

Wyland, his strength beginning to return, had observed the laser blast from his position on the ground near the three humans, and his mouth now hung open in utter astonishment.

Jenna and her parents were just as shocked as everyone else, unable to believe what they had created out of thin air, and still having no idea how they had done it.

Mr. Lane was the first to recover his senses and glared at a stunned Hirth with a savage intensity. “Our aim still needs a little work,” he hissed. “But we won’t miss the next time. Care to go another round?”

Hirth took one last look at the three humans, his eyes wide, and promptly vanished, clearly wanting no part of a magical force the likes of which had never been seen on Orum.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Earth

Jenna and her parents rushed over to Zachary, who was lying on his back where he had fallen. They each took turns hugging him as if he were a life raft in a stormy sea, tears sliding slowly down their faces. They had been seconds away from losing him forever.

“Did I ever tell you guys how much I love you?” he whispered hoarsely to his parents, his voice barely audible.

His parents both smiled and told him how much they loved him, as well.

“So is that all we have to do to get you to tell us you love us?” said Mrs. Lane, smiling through her tears. “Just create a powerful laser out of thin air to save your life from a furless Ewok? Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Zachary would have laughed but he didn’t have the energy. “Saving my life was definitely a good thing,” he whispered. “But you two are the best parents any kid could hope for. Even when you’re grounding me.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” said Jenna.

As much as Zachary was ecstatic that he and his family were still alive, he knew they weren’t out of the woods yet. “We need to check on Wyland,” he croaked, nodding in the direction of their ally. He pulled a yellow colored crystal from his pocket and handed it to Jenna.

“You did it!” shouted Jenna, brightening like a small sun. “Incredible!”

“Um . . . did what?” asked her dad.

“We’ll tell you later,” said Zachary. “We need to see Wyland.”

Mr. Lane lifted his still-weak son from the ground and carried him the short distance to where the blue-robed alien was slowly rising from the ground. When they arrived, Zachary told his father he had regained enough strength to stand, and Mr. Lane set him down gently on his feet.

Wyland nodded to the four humans. “Now that,” he whispered thinly, “was a battle. Thanks for saving my life,” he said to the Lane siblings. He turned to Jenna and despite his weakened state, managed the hint of a smile. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re quite the warrior?”

Jenna laughed, knowing Wyland had heard Nivek in the cave. “Yeah,” she said. “I get that all the time.”

“You may be the only person in history,” noted Wyland, “on any world, to ever use
light
in two different ways to overcome two different, unbeatable enemies.”

Mr. and Mrs. Lane glanced at each other. “I think we have more catching up to do even than we thought,” said Mr. Lane.

“We have to get going,” said Zachary, still not back to normal but feeling much better. “We still need to save California.”

“Okay,” said Mrs. Lane, raising her eyebrows. “Now I think you’re just messing with us.”

Zachary sighed. “I wish I were.” He looked at Wyland. “Are you able to transport us all to the portal?”

Wyland was still extremely weak, and it would take him days to recover. He had been far closer to death than he wanted to admit. “I think so,” he said wearily. “But only because this yellow crystal was charged up by the entire Grand Council. Otherwise, I couldn’t even transport myself
right now.”

The short alien levitated once more and held the yellow crystal in his hand.

Suddenly, they were all in a wide open field in front of a portal, with no sensation that they had moved.

“We need to step through without delay,” said Wyland. “No telling how quickly Hirth can regroup and bring reinforcements.”

Once again the mouths of Mr. and Mrs. Lane were hanging open. “Uh . . .how, exactly, did we just, um . . . get here?” said Mrs. Lane.