Like a fleet of starships zipping into hyperspace, the Realitants winked away in quick succession. Paul actually tasted the choking dust and saw the suffocating darkness before he felt the familiar tingle and was winked to safety.
Chapter 50
No one did any celebrating.
After getting safely back to headquarters and undergoing full debriefings, most of the Realitants said their good-byes and winked back to their home Realities. Paul and Sofia stuck to Tick’s side; except for the rise and fall of his chest, he seemed as dead as a corpse. Paul couldn’t think of much to say as they followed Mothball to the infirmary, where Doctor Hillenstat hooked Tick up to several monitoring machines; an IV dripped a clear liquid into his veins. Rutger watched from the side, scrutinizing the doctor’s every move as if waiting for him to make a mistake.
“How long will he be out?” Sofia asked. “Is he gonna be okay?”
Hillenstat frowned. “An hour. A day. A week. No telling.”
“But will he be okay? ” Paul said.
The doctor felt Tick’s forehead. “Yes, he’s fine for now. But in the long run?” He shrugged. “I think I’ll let Master George be the judge of that.”
Sofia huffed. “Aren’t doctors supposed to make you feel better?”
Hillenstat smiled through his droopy mustache, the first time Paul had ever seen him do it. “Doctors are supposed to be honest. Now, I’ll go and get Master George and you can bother him with your questions. I need a nap.”
He wiped his hands together as if swiping away crumbs from dinner, gave one last look at Tick, then walked out of the infirmary.
Sofia looked at Rutger. “Nice guy you got there. I’m glad I’m not sick.”
Rutger ignored them, looking over at a machine that monitored Tick’s vitals, but Mothball spoke up. “Best doc in the Realities, he is. A bit snippy, though.”
Master George walked in, Sally lumbering along behind him. They both pulled up chairs to the bed and sat down so the whole group was in a circle, looking solemnly at the comatose Tick.
“So what’s the deal?” Paul asked.
“Yeah, what’s wrong with him?” Sofia added.
Master George cleared his throat, not breaking his gaze from Tick’s face. “Yes, yes, a very good question, my young friends. I certainly didn’t expect things to go in this direction with the lad. Troubling, I tell you. Very troubling indeed.”
He paused, and after a few moments of tense silence, Sofia threw her hands into the air, palms up. “Well?”
“Show some respect,” Rutger growled.
“No, no,” Master George said, throwing a quick glance in Rutger’s direction. “We’ve seen a lot this past day, and answers are deserved. If everyone would give me a moment, I’ll do my best to tell you what we know.”
He took a deep breath, then began. “First of all, Sato is recovering nicely. The lunacy left him as soon as the trouble started with Tick in the Fourth-the antidote obviously found its target during all that chaos. But Sato’s very battered and bruised from the abuse he gave himself while under the control of Dark Infinity. I’d encourage you all to visit him. He’s back in his normal quarters-quite a relief, actually. It was very hard to see him locked up like that.”
Master George pointed at Tick. “As for our young sleeping lad, here… goodness gracious me, what a turn of events. I believe I may have found a connection that explains what is happening.”
Paul noticed everyone in the room leaned forward just a little, himself included.
“Entropy,” Master George announced, looking around to see the reaction.
Paul squinted his eyes as if that would make his brain work better. “You used that word in the weird spinner movie you sent us.”
“Quite right. It refers to the rule of nature that all things move toward eventual destruction. Entropy accelerates when a branched Reality begins fragmenting. The nuclear force holding matter together weakens, and things begin to break apart and dissolve-but at a pace millions of times faster than nature’s course. A fragmented Reality can be gone-completely gone-in a matter of weeks or months.”
“What does that have to do with Tick?” Paul asked.
The skin around Master George’s eyes seemed to melt, sinking into a worried frown. “I fear that Master Atticus has no control whatsoever of the inexplicable amounts of Chi’karda stored within him. Where it comes from, and why it’s there, I’ve yet to determine. But I do know what it’s doing. It’s unleashing itself on objects that frighten or threaten Tick. And when it does…”
He paused, as if expecting someone to call him crazy if he continued. “Well, it’s fragmenting them. Tick is doing, on a very small scale, exactly what happens to a fragmented Reality. He’s a catalyst-triggering a heightened state of entropy that dissolves the matter around him. But because it’s so out of control, the matter slams back together, the quantum forces regaining their strength and forming the monstrosities you’ve seen along your latest journeys.”
“Whoa,” Paul whispered.
Sofia tried to sort it out. “So basically, if Tick freaks out, he can destroy and reform things, trapping whatever gets in his path.”
Master George nodded. “Yes, and depending on how far along the entropy develops-how much matter is destroyed before it reforms-the objects may retain some of their old qualities and characteristics.”
“We thought it was something Chu had done,” Sofia said. “The trees by Tick’s house, the spiders, the glass tunnel exploding and melting-all of it. We thought it was all part of the test.”
Paul looked down at Tick’s sleeping face. “Remind me not to make him mad.”
Master George sighed. “I’m afraid Tick’s life will have to move in a new direction. He’ll have to stay at home, be monitored, watched over. We’ll need an extraordinary amount of help from his parents-and we’ll have to find ways of ensuring he doesn’t have another… episode. At least until we sort things out.”
“What about us?” Paul asked. “We can help. We can stay with him.”
Master George shook his head. “No, no, Master Paul. I need you and Sofia to return to your homes right away and pick up on the rest of the school year. With Dark Infinity destroyed, I believe things will be quiet for awhile, and I need both of you to live your normal lives for a bit.”
Paul felt his stomach squeeze into a knot. Nothing, absolutely nothing, sounded worse than going back home and living a “normal” life.
“But,” he said, searching for arguments, “we’re Realitants. Why do we-”
Master George held up a hand. “All in its appointed time, lad. For now, you must go to school, learn, experience growing up. I promise it won’t be long before we wink you in for further training or to help with whatever obstacle presents itself to deter our mission.”
“What happened to Mistress Jane?” Rutger asked.
Master George looked at him sharply, then glanced away as if trying to hide his alarm at the question. “That, I don’t know. We can only hope she’s…” He didn’t need to finish.
“Maybe when Sato’s well enough-” Rutger began, but was cut off by Mothball.
“Pipe it for now, little man. One worry at a time.”
Master George stood up. “Paul and Sofia, I need the two of you to prepare to return home. I’ll send several specially prepared science books with you so that you can study beyond those things you’ll learn in normal schooling. I need a little more time with Tick, and I need him to help me resolve the matter of”-he pointed a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the holding cell-“our captive, Reginald Chu. Tick may be the only one who’ll be able to tell which Chu it is.”
