“Tick?”
The voice startled him. He put his hands down to the ground, ready to spring to his feet. But a second later he realized it was Sofia, just a few feet from him, lying down with her head resting on her folded arms. She pushed herself into a sitting position and looked at him. He could barely see the features of her face, but they didn’t look as sad as he would’ve expected.
“Still here,” he replied. “Did you actually fall asleep?”
She yawned in response. “Think so. Had a bad dream.”
“I wish this were a bad dream.”
“Yeah.”
“Dude, I finally snooze and you guys wake me up.” Paul was getting to his feet, rubbing his eyes. He made his way over to sit next to Tick and Sofia. “You think the geezer and your mom and dad are actually sleeping?”
“I hope so,” Tick said. “They’re old—they need it.”
“Actually,” Sofia whispered, “the younger you are, the more sleep you need. Just for the record.”
Tick wasn’t in the mood for her smarts. “Whatever.”
“So what do you think she’s up to?” Paul asked. “Jane the Beast, I mean. And what’s the deal with that robe and mask, the scratchy voice? Tick, you’re the only one who’s met her before—did she talk like that? Did she have that mask?”
Tick shook his head and was happy to realize he didn’t feel any guilt at what Paul had just said. In fact, he wished she’d died. “Remember when I broke apart Dark Infinity and attacked her with it? I think it burned her and melted stuff all over her. Kind of like it . . . fused them together.”
“And maybe it made her more powerful, too,” Sofia added. “Maybe she somehow kept the powers of Chu’s weapon. How else could she have winked into your basement and winked us all here?”
“Huh?” Tick asked. “How do you know she did it? Not someone with a Barrier Wand?”
Sofia pointed in front of her as if Jane were standing there. “Because I was staring at her the whole time. As soon as you quit trying to do whatever you were doing with your orange hocus-pocus stuff, she reached out with her hands and swept them through the air, like she was picking up a big pile of leaves and throwing them. Then I felt the tingle, and next thing I know, we’re here.”
“What were you doing to her, anyway?” Paul asked.
The question hit Tick like a thump in his chest. He hesitated, not knowing what to say.
“Hello?” Paul pushed. “Earth calling Atticus Higgin-bottom.”
Tick shifted to get more comfortable. “I don’t know, man. It’s hard enough to understand it in my brain, much less explain it to you guys.”
“Well, try,” Sofia said. “If we can help you figure out these freaky powers of yours, we might get out of here someday.”
Freaky powers, Tick thought. Did she have to say it that way? After a long pause, he cleared his throat and resolved to tell them everything. “Every time I’ve had an . . . episode, I feel this heat in my chest and gut, something burning inside me. I’ve been able to push it down a couple times recently and make it go away.”
“Hey,” Paul said, “at least that’s progress over what you did at Chu’s shack. Maybe you’re learning to control it.”
Tick nodded. “Maybe. Anyway, in my basement, I kind of panicked when Jane started talking, and when the heat came, I didn’t stop it. I . . . encouraged it, tried to hold onto it, make it grow. It was like I had these mental hands, trying to clasp invisible fingers around an invisible . . . something. I don’t know—I can’t describe it. It took a lot of focus and concentration. Then, I just mentally threw it at her. I guess I attacked her just by thinking it and wanting it.”
Paul and Sofia stared at him, apparently at a loss for words, a minor miracle with those two.
“Anyway,” Tick continued, “it felt really good. I still think I’m a long way from controlling it anytime I want to, but this was about a billion times better than what happened a few months ago. Back then it was like somebody had ripped my spirit out of my body, and I couldn’t do anything about it.”
“What is the power?” Paul asked. “I mean, you’re doing some crazy stuff here, dude.”
“It’s Chi’karda, brainiac,” Sofia answered. “We know that much. For some reason Tick has a ton of it.”
Paul shook his head. “I know it’s Chi’karda—at least, that’s what Master Georgie boy over there thinks.” He pointed to the snoozing man, who looked a little ridiculous all dressed up in a prison cell. “But what does that mean?”
“What do you mean, what does it mean?” Sofia said.
“I mean, what does it mean?”
Sofia blew out a loud breath. “I don’t know what it means.”
“Man,” Tick said, “we are really making progress here.”