Chapter 17 - Don't Ask An Evil Overlord For Relationship Advice

Art by YinYangMyriad and VelaJune 

The next day, I arrived in Carmen's lab, ready for whatever would come. Even though the lights were far too bright for my taste, I had enough confidence to stride into the lab without being plagued by memories of the Academy. Certainly, there were surface similarities, but Carmen wasn't Dr. Rosenberg. She wasn't in it for the pain or a twisted sense of self-righteousness. Instead, she genuinely seemed to care about Terry and I. She was the only scientist that I had met who was like that.

I waited for a few moments, and Carmen quickly came over to me with a strange contraption. The machine had a long tube sticking out of each end, with a metallic central portion covered with lights and buttons. The machine whirred softly as Carmen carried it. "Is that what you're going to use?" I asked, a little bit afraid.

"Yes," Carmen said. "Don't worry, it's not nearly as dangerous as it looks. Follow me, Jay."

Carmen's frightening grin didn't ease my nerves at all. I followed her further into the lab until we reached the bed where Terry was laying. He looked exactly the same as he had on the day that I stole his soul, but he seemed lifeless. Terry's deep brown eyes were fixated on the ceiling as Carmen instructed me to sit down on a chair next to him.

"It's a simple procedure," Carmen said. "I'm going to prick both your finger and Terry's, and then I'll hook both of you up to the machine, and it should do the rest of the work." I looked away as Carmen took my finger, pricked it, and placed one of the machine's tubes onto it. She then did the same for Terry.

For a moment, I worried about what would happen. What if something went wrong? I wanted to trust Carmen, but she was a scientist. My years at the Academy had taught me to never trust anyone in a white lab coat. While the machine whirred, my heart raced, certain that this would end with one of us dying in some horrible way.

I lurched forwards as Carmen's machine tried to yank something out of me. Pressure built up and then suddenly released, and even though I couldn't see anything moving through the tubes of the machine, I knew that it had pulled something out of me. Once it was all over, I felt fine, but it took a few minutes before anything happened with Terry. Even after I recovered, he still seemed lifeless.

Carmen and I watched Terry closely, uncertain if her procedure had worked. At first, it seemed like nothing had happened. Terry remained in place, and after waiting a few minutes, Carmen said, "I guess it didn't work, but these things never work on the first try. I'll just recalibrate the machine and try again later this week."

She walked away, taking the machine with her. Almost immediately after Carmen left, Terry's finger twitched. "Terry?" I whispered. "Can you hear me?" He rolled around in his bed and then nodded slightly.

"What happened?" he asked weakly. "Why am I in Carmen's lab?"

Carmen sprinted back towards Terry. "It worked!" she exclaimed. "Terry! You got your soul back!"

"Wait, what?" Terry said, quickly regaining strength. "Why wouldn't I have my soul?"

"I might have stolen it from you," I said.

"You stole my soul?!" Terry exclaimed. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"It was an accident!" I said.

"I'm not sure that I believe you," Terry said. He stood up and asked Carmen, "How long has it been?"

"Since Jay stole your soul?" Carmen said. "It's been about a month."

"That's a whole month that I could have used to take down the Academy," Terry said, gesturing wildly with his robotic arm. "I don't even know why Aunt Ellen hired you, Jay. You can't even control your powers."

"I've gotten better," I said. "I've been training with her."

"Of course," Terry said. "You stole my soul, and then she rewarded you for it. What else has happened while I was gone?"

"Terry, I'm really sorry about all of this," I said. "I wish I could go back in time and undo it."

"That doesn't mean anything," Terry said. "Time traveling isn't one of your superpowers, so that's just an empty statement."

"I'm still sorry," I said.

Terry sighed and said, "I guess it's not your fault. I shouldn't be blaming you. If the Academy had trained us instead of torturing us, none of this would have happened."

"That's true," I said.

"We should find a way to get revenge on them," Terry said. "Where are Percy and Vanessa?"

"I think they're in the break room," I said.

Terry gave me a rare smile and said, "I'd like to them again, along with Aunt Ellen."

"Let's go see them," I said as I walked towards the door.

Terry and I left the lab, and as I opened the door, I heard Carmen say, "I don't even get a 'thank you' for saving his life! How is that fair?"

Almost as soon as we left the lab, we ran into Ellen. "Terry!" she exclaimed as she enveloped him in a hug. "You're back!"

"Yeah, Aunt Ellen," he said. "I'm back."

"I was worried that I would never see you like this again," Ellen said. "It's so wonderful to have you back."

Ellen and Terry then started a long conversation where she attempted to catch him up on everything that had happened over the last month. Terry didn't seem to be listening; instead, he smiled and nodded along with everything that Ellen said. I snuck off to the break room, where Percy was blasting dance music and playing on his phone and Vanessa was attempting to clean.

Vanessa briefly looked up from rearranging the game controllers and said, "Hi Jay. What's up?"

"Carmen's experiment worked," I said.

"What experiment?" Vanessa asked.

I was about to respond, but Terry entered the room. "Hey everyone," he said with a small smile on his face.

"Terry!" Vanessa shouted. She hugged him tightly and said, "I can't believe that you're here."

"Me neither," Terry said. "It's great to see you again."

Percy finally looked up from his phone. "What's going on?" he asked. He then saw Terry and smiled. "Wow," he said. "Did Carmen really manage to give you your soul back?" Terry nodded, and Percy added, "That's insane."

"I know," Terry said. "Did anything important happen while I was gone?"

"We'll catch you up over dinner," Vanessa said.

"When's dinner going to be ready?" Percy said.

"It might be ready now," Vanessa said. "Should we go check?"

"That sounds good," Percy said. "I'm starving."

All four of us went downstairs to the dining room together. Ellen's kitchen staff was busy setting the table, but they appeared to be almost done. Dina had made some pasta, and it looked delicious. My stomach growled as I watched the kitchen staff place each plate on the table.

A few minutes later, Ellen took her seat at the table, and we all began to eat. "What's been going on around here?" Terry asked as I savored the delicious pesto sauce that Dina had cooked up.

"I'm sure Percy and Vanessa can tell you about all of the progress that they've made," Ellen said.

"I figured out that the Elixir of Immortality is in Yosemite," Vanessa said, grinning.

"That seems too obvious," Terry said. "Are you sure that it's there?"

"I thought so too at first, but all of the evidence points to the Elixir's location being somewhere in Yosemite National Park," Vanessa said.

"That's interesting," Terry said. "Do you know where it is within the park?"

"Not yet," Vanessa admitted. "I'll figure it out soon."

Terry shrugged and said, "What about you, Percy? What have you been up to?"

"I found Captain Fedora's email address," Percy said.

"Great," Terry said. "Do you know his secret identity yet?"

"No," Percy said. "My powers don't work well on him."

"You clay-brained barnacles!" Terry exclaimed. "You've gotten nothing done while I was gone."

"I can't tell whether you're quoting Shakespeare again or if you've just been reading too much classic literature," Vanessa said.

"I came up with that one myself," Terry said.

"Not bad, Terry, but both Percy and I have made some progress," Vanessa said.

"I was soulless for a whole month, and the Academy's still here," Terry said.

"Things never happen that quickly," Vanessa said.

"We could at least go a little faster," Terry said.

"Speaking of the Academy, I've been getting some strange emails from Captain Fedora," Percy said in an attempt to change the subject.

"What kind of emails have you been getting?" I asked as I finished up the last few bites of my pasta.

"I think that he might be flirting with me," Percy said.

"What makes you think that?" Vanessa asked.

"He's just been a lot less hostile to me lately," Percy said. "It's like he's starting to actually enjoy my presence."

"That doesn't mean anything," Vanessa said.

"I also sent him a picture of me..." Percy said.

"Why would you do that?" Terry interrupted.

"I was trying to get him to send a picture back so that I could compare it to the photos of him that I already have," Percy explained. "Of course, he didn't send me one back. Instead, he said that my picture was 'super cute.'"

"Okay, maybe he is flirting with you a little bit," Vanessa said.

"He could also just be messing with you, Percy," Terry said. "You can't forget who the enemy is."

"I know, but it's hard sometimes," Percy said. "I've always thought that Captain Fedora was kind of attractive, and maybe I'm having too much fun emailing him, even if he still won't tell me his secret identity."

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" Ellen asked suddenly. Percy gave her a confused look, and she explained, "I could have kidnapped this Captain Fedora and sent him into the dungeon."

"You have a dungeon?" I said.

Nobody bothered to elaborate on that, and I made a mental note to ask about the dungeon later. "You wouldn't dare," Percy said.

"Percy, our ultimate goal is to destroy the Academy," Ellen said. "There are plenty of cute boys out there who aren't trying to kill you, although it would be even better if you didn't have anyone to distract you from our mission. The best course of action is to see what sort of information we can get out of Captain Fedora, and if he refuses to cooperate, then we can use some of the plants in the garden on him. That's what they're for, after all."

"This is ridiculous," Percy complained. "Vanessa has a boyfriend, and you're not trying to kidnap and torture him."

"My boyfriend's not a superhero," Vanessa said.

"That's exactly it," Ellen said. "If there was some other boy who wasn't a superhero that you liked, I wouldn't interfere at all."

"I shouldn't have told you about the emails at all," Percy said. He got up from the table and stormed away.

I only realized just how problematic this situation was after Percy left. I had no idea why Declan was flirting with Percy. Maybe Terry was right, and Declan was just doing it to mess with him. Either way, he already had a girlfriend. I was tempted to tell Percy about Captain Fedora's secret identity, but that would just complicate things more. It was best to stay out of this.

"You know, I've been thinking about something," Terry said after Percy left the room.

"What is it, Terry?" Vanessa asked.

"We should attack the Academy directly," Terry said. "Between the five of us, we have enough power to do it."

"Four," Ellen corrected him. "I'm retiring, and as happy as I am to see you all taking action against the Academy, I don't want to become involved in this."

"We could still do it," Terry said.

"That's a pretty good idea," Vanessa said. "What do you think, Jay?"

"The Academy's hurt me a lot over the years," I said. "Getting some revenge sounds like a great idea."

"Delightful," Terry said. "I will ask Percy about it later."

As I drove home, I replayed the day's events in my head. While I was glad that Terry was back, I still had so many questions. What would happen with Captain Fedora? Would attacking the Academy accomplish anything? Could Carmen give Harper her soul back?

Sometimes, it seemed like there were no easy answers.