Chapter 5 - Mad Science, Nightmares, and the Best Friend That I Ever Had

Art by NeverCatchMe

When I woke up the next morning, I immediately got ready to leave and then ran over to the kitchen, where Dad was making a bowl of cereal for himself. "Dad?" I asked. "Can I please borrow the car?"

"Not today, Jay," Dad said. "I need to drive to work."

I groaned and then said, "I promised Ellen that I would come to her castle today. It's important."

"Who's this Ellen?" Dad said suspiciously.

"I'm talking about Ellen Black," I said. Dad still looked confused, so I added, "Have you ever heard of Lady Quake?"

"A few times," Dad said. "She's the one who started that big earthquake last year, right?"

"Yes," I said as I started to make myself an omelet.

Dad sighed and then said, "If you let me know where it is, I might be able to drive you to her castle. I don't know what you're up to, Jay, but please try to stay out of trouble this time."

"I'm already in trouble, Dad," I said. Thankfully, he didn't ask for details, so I simply gave him Ellen's address, and he drove me there. On the way, I turned the radio to San Urbano's one and only alternative station, and Dad and I sang along. Sometimes, it seemed like the only thing that Dad and I had in common was our music taste.

Dad parked in front of the castle, and as he stared up at the castle, he asked, "When should I pick you up?"

"I don't know," I said. "I might have to stay here the whole day."

"How about you just text me when you're done?" Dad said.

"I'll do that," I said as I climbed out of the car. "Thanks for the ride, Dad."

"No problem," Dad said.

He drove away, and I knocked on Ellen's door. The door opened slowly, and once I was inside, Ellen said, "Jay, I'm so glad you're here. I'd like to get started right away on trying to get Terry's soul back. I already miss having him around."

"I can understand that, Ellen," I said.

"Let's get started," Ellen said as she headed upstairs to Carmen's lab. I tried my best to follow her through the twisted hallways of the castle. When we arrived on the correct floor, Ellen told me that she had some business to attend to and left me with Carmen.

"Hello again, Jay," Carmen said. She gave me another one of those unnerving smiles, and then added, "I'm just going to run a few routine tests, if you don't mind."

"I don't mind," I said, although my shaking body said otherwise. She told me to lie down on top of one of the lab tables, and I did as instructed. Carmen ran off to talk to one of her lab assistants, and before long, she was back with a team of scientists and a set of unfamiliar instruments. I tensed up immediately, and as they proceeded to poke and prod me, I simply stared up at the fluorescent lights of the lab and reminded myself that this was not the Academy. I was putting up with all of this for a reason.

It wasn't enough. Memories from the Academy came flooding back to me, but the ones that stuck with me were the memories surrounding my first few days at the Academy.

It all began three days after my thirteenth birthday, when I was biking through the park with a few of my friends. I barely remember them now, but I do remember riding past a tall Indian woman who seemed to be busy feeding a group of ducks. My friends were laughing over some inside joke that one of them had cracked, but I noticed that the woman was watching me. Her eyes followed me as I pedaled around the park, and my heart began to race. I zig zagged across the park, hoping that the woman would look away, but her eyes stayed glued on me.

"Come on, Jay," one of my friends said. "Let's ride over to Central Tower."

I followed my friends, and I didn't think about the incident again for the rest of the day. My thirteen year old brain assumed that the woman had merely been interested in all of the crazy tricks that I could do with my bike, so it was clearly nothing to worry about. When I went to bed that night, I had no doubt that I would wake up the next day and enjoy my summer, and if it was an especially good day, I could postpone working on my summer math packet for a little bit longer.

Something felt off as I rolled around and began to wake up the next day. Even though I hadn't opened my eyes yet, the lights in my bedroom were far too bright, and I couldn't find my pillow. Maybe it just rolled off of the bed, I thought. It wasn't anything to be concerned about.

I slowly opened my eyes and realized that I wasn't in my bedroom at all. Instead, I was sitting upright in a chair in the middle of some sort of laboratory. There were men and women in white lab coats wandering around, but none of them paid any attention to me. "Please tell me this is some sort of dream," I said, but I didn't get a response. I pinched myself, and sure enough, I could feel it. This wasn't a nightmare, as I had suspected. "Dad?" I said. Surely, he wouldn't just leave me here like this. "Dad?!"

Still, nobody responded. I stood up and started to wander around the lab, hoping that someone or something could give me some answers. On the other side of the room, I found a large sign that read "Academy For The Research and Education of Superpowered Individuals - San Urbano Location." Superpowers? I thought. That can't be right. I don't have superpowers. Like every other kid in the world, I had often dreamt of having superpowers, but I was a teenager now. I had outgrown my silly fantasies of having powers.

Next to the sign, I found a bookshelf. I chose a random book off the shelf and took it back to the chair where I had woken up. However, when I flipped through the book, I saw that it was filled with jargon that flew right over my head. This book couldn't tell me anything about where I was or why I was here.

As I closed the book, panic began to sink in. What if I was stuck here? I couldn't bear the thought of never seeing my friends or family ever again. Maybe there was a way out of this place. According to the sign, I was still in San Urbano, so if I did find a way to escape, it wouldn't be hard to return home.

"What are you doing?" I heard a man with a sharp voice say. I looked up from the book and saw a man with light brown hair and a goatee wearing a lab coat glaring down at me.

"I'm sorry," I said softly. "I was just wondering what was going on."

The man shook his head, put the book back on the shelf, and then called, "Sanjana! Is this the new arrival?"

The woman from the park ran over to me and then said, "Yes, that's him. I found him at the park yesterday."

"What's your name, kid?" the man in the lab coat asked.

"Jay," I replied. "Jay Sasaki."

The man took out a notepad and jotted something down. "Excellent," he said. "I'm Dr. Rosenberg, and this is my colleague, Sanjana Maji."

"Welcome to the Academy, Jay," Sanjana said with a forced smile.

"Where's my dad?" I asked.

"Don't worry about him," Sanjana said. "We've already informed him about all of this. He knows that you're safe with us."

"Then why am I here?" I asked. "I don't have any superpowers."

"We have reasons to believe otherwise," Sanjana said.

I gave her a confused look, so Dr. Rosenberg jumped in to clarify. "Sanjana is a superhero, possibly one of the most important heroes that we have," Dr. Rosenberg said. "She is the Clairvoyant."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"Sanjana can detect other superhumans, so that they can be brought to the Academy for training," Dr. Rosenberg said.

"I've never been wrong before," Sanjana said. "Jay, we know that you have superpowers."

"You're wrong," I said.

"Are you sure?" Dr. Rosenberg said. "Have you ever had anything unusual happen to you?"

"No," I said. "I can't think of anything."

"There has to be some sort of indication as to what kind of powers he has," Sanjana said.

"Perhaps you've hovered before? Have you lifted something that nobody should be able to lift, or had a wound heal faster than it should, or talked to an animal?" Dr. Rosenberg asked.

"I've never had any of those things happen to me," I insisted. "I'm pretty sure I don't have powers at all."

"We'll figure it out," Dr. Rosenberg said. "Now, if you don't mind, we're going to ask you a few more questions and perform a few routine tests, and then I'll send you on your way." I nodded, and as Dr. Rosenberg pulled out a syringe, Sanjana confirmed with me that all of the information that my dad had given the Academy was correct. She then told me that she would return with a class schedule and walked away as Dr. Rosenberg drew blood from my arm. When he finished, I rubbed my arm, already concerned about my future at the Academy.

Dr. Rosenberg performed a few more tests, and once he was done, Sanjana came back and handed me a piece of paper. I looked over it and saw that it was a simple list of classes. Most of the classes seemed to be normal subjects like math, science, and social studies, but there was one row that read "Experimentation on the Research Floor," and another that read "Rotate Between Superpower Training Classes As Instructed."

"Since we don't know what your powers are yet, I couldn't assign you to a training group," Sanjana explained. "Until we figure it out, I'll just have you rotate between the groups. Hopefully, one of them will help you find your powers."

I was still confused by everything that had happened so far, and I was still half-convinced that it was all just a dream, but Sanjana either didn't notice or didn't care. "Come on," she said. "The other kids are upstairs in the cafeteria." I followed her out of the lab, and the two of us climbed upstairs until we reached the cafeteria.

As we headed towards the cafeteria, I asked Sanjana, "How long will I be here?"

"The Academy is a year-round boarding school and research institution," Sanjana explained. "You'll be going to school here until you graduate at age eighteen. Students are allowed to leave to visit family on weekends, but you'll notice that there are very few students who take advantage of that opportunity. Most students find it difficult to relate to non-superpowered family members after spending time at the Academy."

I was still certain that the Academy would find out that I was powerless and let me go back to my normal school, but it wasn't worth arguing with Sanjana. When we arrived in the cafeteria, she headed back down to the research floor, leaving me alone to gape at the scene in front of me.

I had never seen so many superheroes together in the same place. Admittedly, none of them were true superheroes yet - they were still training, and I couldn't find a single person who was over eighteen in that room, but it was still an impressive display. There was one boy who had somehow made his bagel levitate, and I spotted a girl who was busy turning her glass of water into ice. A group of girls had turned their lunch table into a miniature volcano, until the lava started flowing onto a neighboring table, and a kid from that table flipped the girls' table over, even though it had appeared to be bolted to the floor. I could see kids who were probably twenty feet tall sitting next to kids who couldn't have been taller than six inches, not to mention the group that was playing tag at super speeds. In a room like that, I couldn't help but feel out of place.

I took a few pancakes and a slice of cantaloupe from the buffet that was laid out for us, and then I took a seat at an empty table next to a wall. Normally, I would have plugged in my headphones to drown out the noise, but I had no idea where all of my stuff was. I had heard Sanjana say something about moving all of my items from home into my dorm room, but I had no clue where that dorm room was. I was stuck listening to one of the boys at the table next to me, most likely close to graduation, brag to his friends about his ability to create clones of himself. "Even Lady Quake can't beat a clone army," he insisted.

"You can't be serious," one of his friends said. "A clone army with your aim would be gone in seconds."

Something distracted me from their conversation. There was a black, speckled bird with a bright yellow beak flying around near the ceiling, singing loudly. Nobody else seemed to notice the bird, but I was fascinated as I watched it soar between the rafters, chirping the whole time.

All of a sudden, the bird ducked downwards until it landed on the seat across from me. It hopped up onto the table and tilted its tiny head slightly as it looked into my eyes. I wasn't sure what to do, so I watched the bird as it flitted back down to the seat across from me.

I took one more bite of my pancakes, and when I looked back at the seat next to me, the bird was gone. In its place was a girl around my age. She had short, light brown hair and hazel eyes, and she was wearing a simple blue T-shirt and denim shorts. "Are you new here?" the girl asked. I nodded, and she gave me a wide smile, revealing the braces on her teeth. "I'm Harper Knight," she said. "What's your name?"

"Jay Sasaki," I said. "I don't think I'm supposed to be here."

"The Academy doesn't make mistakes," Harper said. "Anyways, what do you think of the food?"

"It's okay," I said as I finished off my pancakes.

"I agree," Harper said. "If they served real maple syrup, this could make a decent meal. Apparently the Academy has enough money to buy new equipment for the Research Floor, but not enough to give us tasty food. What classes do you have?" I handed Harper the class schedule that Sanjana had given me, and she looked it over. "Look at that! We have social studies and math together. Social studies is right after breakfast, so if you want me to walk with you to class, I could."

"That would be nice," I said. "I still haven't figured out where everything is yet."

"It takes a while to get used to this place," Harper admitted. "How long have you been here?"

"I got here this morning," I said.

"Wow, you really are new," Harper said. "Let's go to class. You can tell me more about yourself on the way."

As it turned out, our classroom was up three flights of stairs, making me wonder just how massive the Academy building was. Harper practically ran the whole way there, so it was nearly impossible to keep a conversation going, despite her best efforts. When we made it to the classroom, Harper took a seat right at the front of the classroom, and although I usually preferred to sit in the back, I sat next to her. She was the only person I knew at the Academy, after all.

The class itself wasn't too interesting - it was mostly review of what I had learned at my old school. Harper clearly already knew the material as well, since she spent the entire class period sketching a horse running through an open field. I looked over at her desk and watched as she carefully traced the outline of the horse and then shaded it in, making the whole drawing look beautiful.

After class was over, Harper gave me the drawing. "You should keep it," I told her. "You were the one who drew it."

"I have a million of these," Harper said. "Mrs. Atkins' lectures are always super boring, and I love drawing horses, so I have entire stacks of drawings just like this in my dorm room. You need this more than I do." She thrust the drawing into my hand, and I took it.

That night, when Sanjana finally showed me where my dorm room was, I posted Harper's drawing on my door. It brightened up the bare room just a little bit, and for the first time since my arrival at the Academy, I smiled.

"Jay!" I heard someone shout. "Jay! Are you even listening to me?" I looked around, and all of a sudden, I was seventeen again, and I was back in Ellen Black's castle. "Oh good," Carmen said. "You are awake."

"I'm awake," I said.

"I think I'm done with you for now," Carmen said. "I have an idea I'd like to try, but it will take me a while to build the equipment that I need for it. You can head home, or you can hang out here. I'm sure that Vanessa and Percy could use some company. Those two rarely get visitors that are their own age."

I considered my options for a few minutes. Even if I did decide to go home, I would have to call my dad, and I didn't want to interrupt his work. It would be easier if I stayed at the castle for a few more hours, and it would be nice to interact with Percy and Vanessa a little bit.

I thanked Carmen and left the lab. I wasn't sure how all of this experimentation would turn out, but surely, this would end better than my time at the Academy.