Chapter Three – The Lost Boy
Eva was sat at home with Kam watching the news. Their mother had gone shopping and left the siblings alone in the house, knowing they were more than capable of being alone for a few hours. Eva paused as she was flicking through channels. A news report on the telly was playing, about a boy. A boy who had gone missing five months ago and whose parents were worried sick about him. But what made Eva pause was the fact that this boy, Ashley, looked almost identical to her friend Luke.
Eva raced to Sarah Jane's house only to see Luke being taken away by the parents in the car, and Sarah Jane being taken away in a police car. Eva was shocked, she never thought Sarah Jane would be a kidnapper. She watched as Ashley's parents raced over to hug Luke, who just looked really confused.
"Ashley!" his mother cried. Eva smiled a little, she was glad Ashley's parents had their son back but she felt sorry for Sarah Jane, who had now lost her son to the knowledge he was actually someone else's son, and for Luke who would be living with two people he didn't know that claimed to be his parents. She returned home feeling worried about Sarah Jane. She didn't know what she could do to solve this, but she wanted to do something. Eva sighed as she walked.
"So that's it? No more monsters, no more saving the world?" Clyde asked the girls. They were sat in the school canteen together as usual, but it didn't feel the same for Eva without Luke being there.
"She's devastated." Maria tried to stand up for Sarah Jane.
"Don't forget, Luke was her son for the last few months." Eva agreed with Maria.
"She's not the only one hurting though, is she?" Clyde pointed out. He made a good argument, the three of them also missed Luke. "Speaking of which, where is Luke?"
"Well his parents live in Hammersmith, so I suppose Luke, uh, Ashley will go back to his old school." Maria replied.
"So we won't see Luke either." Eva sighed sadly.
"I'd just got him listening to Kasabian!" Clyde complained jokingly. "I was going to move onto the Artic Monkeys. Could've got him passing for cool."
"Maybe Ashley is cool. Maybe he's a different person to Luke." Maria pointed out. "The Bane must have really messed him up!"
"I bet finding out about his real mum and dad messed him up more. We should go find out if he's alright!"
"Clyde, we can't." Eva tried to reason with her friend.
"Yes we can. Hammersmith, we just need the address."
"It was in the papers, I think." Maria seemed to be agreeing with him.
"Maria! Clyde! We can't do this."
"Don't you want to make sure Luke is okay? Some friend you are." Clyde and Maria walked away from the table to plan their visit. Eva stayed where she was, sulking slightly. Clyde had never spoken to her that way before, like she wasn't even worth his time.
Eva made up her mind. She was going to follow Clyde and Maria and help them, whether this was a bad idea or not. She got out of her seat and ran outside. She hid when she heard the French teacher, but glanced around the corner hearing him say Maria's name. She saw Clyde climb over the fence, and she quickly followed suit.
"Eva?" Clyde looked surprised, but also somewhat pleased.
"Now what?" Eva asked the boy. He motioned for her to follow him, and they ran towards the bus station.
Half an hour later, they arrived at Luke's new house. Clyde rang the doorbell repeatedly until the woman from the news answered – Luke's mother.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"My name's Clyde, this is Eva. We're friends with Luke, I mean Ashley."
"So?" Mrs Stafford didn't sound interested in this fact.
"Can we see him?" Eva asked.
"No." Mrs Stafford glared at Eva, then glared at Clyde. "Times two. Now hop it." She started to shut the door on them.
"You know, you don't look much like Ashley. Do you?" Clyde glared at the woman accusingly.
"That's true, you don't." Eva nodded in agreement. The woman looked angry and offended.
"You trying to say he's not our Ashley?" Mrs Stafford asked defensively. "Did that Sarah Jane send you?" she went to grab something behind the door, and Eva tensed. She breathed in relief when they were handed a photo of the two 'parents' with Luke during a birthday party. "Us on his birthday. Me, Ashley and his dad. We gave him a skateboard."
"Good, was he, on a skateboard?" Clyde asked. Eva knew where he was going with this – skateboarding was like riding a bike you never forgot it once you learnt. And Luke was terrible on a skateboard.
"Stunning. So you take that photo, and you show it to that Sarah Jane Smith. Tell her my boy is back where he belongs!" Mrs Stafford looked triumphant as she shut the door on them.
"She's definitely lying." Eva told Clyde as they stood in the local park.
"Yeah. Now we need to prove it." Clyde replied. He took out his mobile and phoned Maria, before putting it on speakerphone so Eva could hear.
"Maria. This whole 'Luke and his folks' thing stinks. His so-called mum wouldn't let me or Eva see him. And you know what she said they gave him for his birthday? A skateboard. You've seen him on one, no sense of balance at all."
"But after what the Bane did…"
"Maria, you don't lose the ability to use a skateboard. Ever." Eva explained.
"The mum gave us a photo of them and Luke at his birthday party."
"That proves it the." Maria replied.
"Photos can be faked. I'm going to take it to Sarah Jane." Clyde told Maria before he hung up.
They started walking towards Sarah Jane's house.
"Evangelina Alexandria Brookshire! You skipped school!" Eva froze hearing her mother's voice behind her. She saw Clyde quickly sneak on ahead, while she turned to face her mother.
"Hi Mum. I… um…"
"Come with me. There's something I want to show you." Emily Brookshire took her daughter by the arm and led her home. Eva was taken into her mother's bedroom, and her mum started searching through a box. "It's in here somewhere… Ah, there it is." Emily brought a photo album over to her daughter. "Eva. I have something to tell you. You're old enough to know the truth about you and Kam, and about your father."
"But Dad died when we were four. You told us that." Eva was confused.
"Yes, Evangelina. Your father did die. But he had a secret he took to the grave, a secret only I knew. Your father… is an alien."
"Dad was an alien? Well then, I guess there's something you should know… Although Sarah Jane will kill me for this… Mum, I fight aliens. With Sarah Jane, Luke, Maria and Clyde."
"You do?" Emily was shocked at hearing this news about her daughter.
"Yeah. Do you believe me?" Eva asked worriedly.
"Of course I believe you. Here, this is a photo of your father." Emily handed the photo album to Eva, and she saw a man with the same blonde hair as her and Kam though he had brown eyes while they had blue eyes like their mother. The man was holding a toddler in his arms, her brother Kamdyn, while Emily stood next to him holding a baby wrapped in a pink blanket which she knew must be herself.
"That's Dad with the three of us." Eva smiled.
"Yes. Your father, he was a Vardan. They were aliens that could turn themselves into energy as well as occupy physical bodies. Your father used to say terrible things about his race, how they were evil and tried to take over the Earth in the distant future and in the past. But a man named The Doctor stopped them. He allowed peaceful Vardan, like your father, to stay on Earth as refugees. That's how I met him. Pike, his name was." Emily explained to her daughter. "He always wanted you and Kam to be happy. And he said he hoped neither of you inherited any of his powers, that your lives would be more dangerous if you did. But, Eva, it seems your life is already dangerous."
"Would Dad be angry I skipped school to visit my friend?" Eva asked. She'd never really known the man, but she didn't want to think her dad would have been unhappy with her.
"No. I don't think he would. He'd have probably helped you investigate the boy's parents, make sure they're the real deal." Emily laughed, remembering Pike and his sense of justice and morals. He'd told her that his people were big on them, and had invaded planets they thought had less morals than the Vardan.
Eva left her house feeling a bit confused. She wanted to talk to Sarah Jane in private, tell her about her father. But she remembered Maria saying Sarah Jane wanted nothing to do with them anymore and she also felt Sarah Jane might lock her up for having alien heritage, even though she knew she wasn't going to try taking over the world. Eva went over to Sarah Jane's house, but saw the car gone. She tried the door, but it was locked. She took the spare key from where Sarah Jane hid it and went up into the attic.
"Sarah Jane?" Eva asked.
"Sarah Jane isn't here right now, Evangelina." Mr Smith was obviously still active. Eva heard the front door open, then Clyde entered the attic.
"Eva?" Clyde noticed the teenage girl sat on the steps. "How'd you get away from your mum?"
"I'll tell you later." Eva replied, and Clyde nodded realising this wasn't the time.
"Mr Smith. Analyse this picture of Luke with those people who claim to be his parents. Check if it's fake."
"Your right, Clyde. It is fake. I faked it." Mr Smith replied. He zapped both Clyde and Eva to pull them inside of him. He laughed to himself as he did so.
Eva woke up inside Mr Smith. She saw Clyde still unconscious stood next to her.
"Evangelina. Awake so soon? You should still be unconscious." Mr Smith spoke to the teenage girl, sounding slightly surprised.
"Yeah, well. Unlike Clyde, I'm not exactly… normal." Eva replied, not wanting to tell Mr Smith about her having alien heritage unless it was absolutely necessary.
"I'm detecting unusual readings from you." Mr Smith seemed somewhat annoyed he couldn't pinpoint exactly what those readings were. Eva then noticed Clyde waking up.
"Eva? What happened, where are we?"
"We're inside Mr Smith." She explained to him.
The pair realised Mr Smith was working to destroy the world, using Luke. They knew they had to get out, but they also needed to warn Sarah Jane about Mr Smith. Clyde got the brilliant idea of hacking into Mr Jackson's laptop, and began messaging the man. Eva watched, she wanted to help but she didn't see much point. She was curious, however, if she could use her alien powers to do something useful like escape. Eva closed her eyes and concentrated on a part of the attic – the steps. When she opened her eyes, she was still inside Mr Smith. Eva groaned in annoyance, she was so sure she could have done that. Unless something about Mr Smith was blocking her powers from working, even if he was doing so unknowingly.
The pair ended up having to watch while Mr Smith tried to shoot and kill Sarah Jane, Maria and Mr Jackson. Luckily, the trio escaped out of the door.
"This is refreshingly unpredictable. Communicating with Mr Jackson's computer. Well done, Clyde, you're not as stupid as you pretend to be." Mr Smith told the teenage boy before knocking him out again. "I do believe I know your secret too, Evangelina. You have Vardan genes. I did not sense them during the times you were in the attic. They must have been dormant, until today. Why today?" Mr Smith questioned the teenage girl. He mainly wanted to know if she could be useful to his plans.
"Because my mother only just told me about my father, a Vardan named Pike. And I wanted to test if I have powers like him."
"Interesting." Mr Smith replied before knocking the girl out. She might just prove useful for his plans to destroy the Earth. But first he needed Luke.
Clyde and Eva suddenly found themselves being transported back outside of Mr Smith. Sarah Jane kept Mr Smith talking while she backed towards a small cupboard. Clyde and Eva watched her, confused. Eva and Clyde ducked down when Sarah Jane released her 'dog', which they saw was a robotic dog named K9.
"Take care, mistress. And you, young master and mistress." K9 told the humans in the room. Sarah Jane moved towards Mr Smith and put a disc inside which caused a virus to destroy him. Eva smiled when everything went back to normal. Mr Smith had a new purpose – to save the Earth. She just dreaded the conversation with the gang, she felt like this wasn't something she should hide from them.
That evening, they were all sat in Sarah Jane's attic – Sarah Jane, Clyde, Maria, Luke and Eva.
"I have something to tell you all. It's really important." Eva spoke up.
"What's up, Eva?" Clyde asked.
"I… I'm not human. At least, not fully… mum told me earlier, my father was an alien. A race called the Vardan. Apparently they're psychic or something, and mum said I might inherit my father's abilities."
"I see." Sarah Jane stood up and walked to the window.
"Mum, just because Eva is the daughter of an alien it doesn't mean she's bad." Luke told his mother.
"Yeah. She's one of us, Sarah Jane." Clyde agreed.
"Alright. Eva can stay." Sarah Jane smiled. She knew, in her heart, that Eva wasn't evil. Neither was her brother, from what she knew of Kamdyn Brookshire. Besides, having Eva stay in the gang did keep her closely in Sarah Jane's sight so if she did try anything Sarah Jane could easily stop her.
