Sofia reached out to touch the box, but George pulled it away. “No, no. We must be very careful how we decide to proceed in this matter.”
“Karma’s a good thing, right?” Paul asked. “Let’s just push the button and hope for the best.” Even as he said it, he knew he couldn’t possibly sound less like the scientist he was supposed to be. But he was mostly joking. Mostly.
“My good man, use your brain. After all that effort and work, no one has ever pushed this button before. Gretel believes that the power will swirl and coalesce around the one who holds the box, infusing them and their surroundings with Karma to use for whatever purpose the bearer may need.”
“Well,” Paul countered, “I’d say we’re in pretty bad shape, so maybe now is a good time to try it. You’re the one who says you don’t really know what to do about the Void. Let’s push the button, and then maybe Sofia and I can figure out how to use the power.”
George pulled the box back into his lap. “You haven’t understood what I’ve told you if you think we should be so hasty. Remember what Karma does. I believe you said it this way: ‘What goes around, comes around.’ In a way it magnifies, significantly, good or evil.”
“Yeah? So what?” Paul pushed, a little sarcastically.
“That’s all very well if the power latches on to something good.” George pursed his lips and shook his head dramatically. “And I daresay the both of you are as good as it gets. But if it somehow got into the hands of someone evil, then we’d all be in very much trouble, indeed.”
Chapter 45
Brainpower
The Void was a monster now.
Sato and his troops had retreated to the edge of the forest, watching the gray mass continue to grow.
There was nothing left of Mistress Jane’s castle. The churning, spinning cloud was now two or three miles wide, its edges a chaotic dance of lightning and boiling tendrils of gray mist. The vortex was probably half a mile tall, blocking out the sun. Thunder pounded the air, and the darkness of a heavy storm cast a gloomy mood over everything.
No one could have felt it any deeper than Sato. There were things to learn here. Terrible, awful things. He had to talk to Master George, tell him about the centipede experiment.
“Tollaseat!” he called out.
The man was a few dozen feet away, but came running. When he pulled up at Sato’s side, he looked haggard and exhausted.
“Yes, Captain?” he asked.
Sato took one last glance at the growing Void, hoping he’d never have to see it again. How were they supposed to fight such a thing? They needed brainpower.
“Let’s get everybody deeper into the woods,” he said, hearing the defeat in his own voice. “I’ll contact Master George and have him wink us somewhere safe. We’re done here.”
Tick lay in the dark, staring up at a ceiling he couldn’t see. Chu had put him in a room with no windows and then turned off the lights. Just to make him angry, probably. Just to show him who was in control. It obviously still rankled the man that a teenager had more power than he did.
What a mess. Tick’s chest hurt from holding in so much stress and despair. He longed for those few moments after escaping the Nonex, seeing his mom and sister, thinking that maybe all would be right in the world again. How wrong he’d been.
As if the Void weren’t enough of a problem, he’d been captured by a man insane with the lust for power. Chu had explained to him a few things, had even shown him a video feed using a Spinner on the screen in the auditorium. It basically boiled down to one simple fact: Chu wanted to harness the incredible amounts of energy he believed emanated from the Void currently devouring the Thirteenth Reality, then use it to meld himself—and, evidently, Mistress Jane—with Reality itself. It sounded similar to what Tick had accidentally done to Mistress Jane—melding her with Dark Infinity—so long ago.
Chu claimed that once he’d accomplished that task, it would be easy for him to stop the Void and force it to return to the Fourth Dimension. Then he and Jane would use their godlike powers to rule the Realities in a way no one would have thought possible. It was such an impossible idea that Tick couldn’t even grasp it. And he highly doubted those two actually trusted each other. Each one of them probably thought there’d only be one left to rule in the end. Each one probably saw the other only as a means to an end.
But Tick was scared. He knew better than to underestimate Reginald Chu. The man was psycho, but he was a scientist through and through. There was no way he’d pretend he could do magical things. If Chu thought this scheme was possible, then it probably was possible. And that turned Tick’s fear into terror.
He tried to rest up. He needed to be ready when the time came to act.
Chapter 46
A Little Help, Here