Chapter Nine: Jet
I was walking back to the
Diner, head down and trying to be brave. I hated when Nikki got me in trouble
like this, but she couldn't help it, I guess. She was Nikki after all.
That was something she had to do, get in trouble. It was random at best,
but that's what she does, so what can I do? I was trudging kinda slow,
knowing we were in trouble, byt also having that weird feeling in the back
of my processor, like something wasn't right.
It wasn't until I got
to the Diner and went inside that I heard everyone talking. "I can't believe
she's actually in danger of deleting." said a five numberal. "Well, good
riddence." said an eight. "After all she's done, good riddence." Hearing
this, I immediately got a slightly panicked. I certainly hope they weren't
talking about my Mom, but then again, if they were they wouldn't be in
the Diner. Really confused and even more intrigued, I went to the bar where
our waiter, Cecil, was standing there washing some dishes. He regarded
me with a weird look before continuing his task.
"Hey, what's everyone talking about?" I asked.
The binome sitting next to me answered. "That witch Hexadecimal was attacked this morning. She's in the P.O. now with your folks and everyone else trying to figure out what happened."
"If you ask me," another binome repilied from the other side. "I think her brother came back and taught her a lesson. Or even worse. Daemon."
The last comments were made in silence, as to not upset everyone. But I'm sure someone must've heard cause the whole place went up in an uproar. "What if Daemon's come back?" one binome asked. "What if Megabyte has come back?" asked another. "What is they're in cohoots together?" That statement alone caused even more panic. Soon, the whole place was murmuring about how Daemon and Megabyte had hooked up and had attacked Hex in order to try and take over Mainframe again, as well as the Net.
"Hey!" I cried, standing atop the bar counter. It seemed to calm everyone down, escept maybe Cecil, who was trying to make me get down. "Now listen to me, everybody! Both Daemon and Megabyte are gone and destroyed. There's no way they're coming back to destroy the system. Now, whatever's going on now, I can assure you my folks and everyone else in the P.O. is handling the situation. We'll get to the bottom of this, you'll see."
Everyone calmed and went back to their meals and such. "What a wonderful boy." replied a binome mother. "He certainly does take after his parents, doesn't he?" asked another. It seemed I had saved the crisis, but I wouldn't be getting any respect from Cecil, who kept shooing me from the bar counter. I hopped down and headed downstairs to my apartment. Even after calming everyone down, even I had was starting to wonder about this. I knew it couldn't be possible for Daemon and Megabyte to be behind this, so it was someone else. But who? And who could be powerful enough to take out Hex?
Sitting at the dinning room table, I remembered that dinner we had not so long ago, where Nikki had shown her powers and how I ended up showing mine...
Phong stole a glance at her twin brother, Jet, who seemed to be furious with the attention given to his sister. The wise sprite figured he would have to wait in order to see the kind of things this young boy could do.
He wouldn't have to wait long.
Jet huffed and marched over to his sister. "I can do that too!" he exclaimed.
"No you can't." his sister said, matter of factly.
"I can too!" the boy screamed.
"Prove it."
Jet turned to face the sofa and extended his hand. If Nikki could bring a file to Phong, he would bring the seat cushion or even lift the couch. But as he stood and tried with all his might, he just couldn't get anything to come. He knew he didn't have this power, but he hated being left out. It made him feel lonely. When nothing happened after a microsecond, Nikki turned to him, sticking her tongue out at him, saying, "Told ya." Jet sniffed and folded his arms.
"I'm going home." he huffed.
And just like that, he was gone.
Phong and the rest of the Lan family looked in awe, their mouths hanging open, except Nikki, who just rolled her eyes. "Want me to bring him back, Phong?" she said. Phong just nodded mutely.
Nikki stood for a micro, as though she was thinking. In a nano, Jet reappeared next to her, arms still folded across his chest. "What?" he sniffed, still mad at his sister. "Mr. Phong and everybody wanted you to come back." Nikki replied. "I told you that."
Phong just stared at the two. "My children, how did you do that?" he asked.
The twins looked at each other and then back to the wise old sprite. "Do what?" they asked.
"The levitating and the disappearing and the.." Dot stumbled.
The twins looked at their mother and shrugged. "We've always done that." Jet replied, confused as to why his family didn't know it.
"We can make balls like Daddy and Kit." Nikki replied, opening her hand and making a small energy ball. "Kit taught us."
Kit cringed, as the adults looked at him. "I only knew about the energy beams." Kit confessed. "I had no idea about the other things...well... I kinda did know about the psychic ability thing, but Phong said it was a twin thing!" he cried, pointing at the small sprite.
Phong bulked at the accusation, but he did remember young Christopher coming in and asking about twins and their ability to communicate with each other. The wise sprite cleared his thought and once again turned to the two small children in front of him. "Tell me, children," he said sweetly. "When did you know you had these powers?"
"When we were babies." Nikki replied. "Like Kit did."
"Thank you very much for your help." the wise replied, handing each a lollipop. "Would you help me again and go with your brother? Kit, could you show them the new recreation room?"
"Of course, Phong." the boy said, reaching for his siblings' hands. "Come on, small fries. Let's go play."
The two children were excited to play with their older brother, someone who they hadn't seen for so long. The three left, leaving the the three other sprites in Phong's office. "Amazing." he muttered, rolling around to his chair. "Simply amazing." The wise sprite had been astounded by the powers that Kit and Sabrina harbored, but in the same second, he discovered the other three siblings had special powers of their own. Remarkable.
"Phong?"
The wise looked up. He had been in his own thoughts, he had almost forgotten Bob and Dot were still there. "Oh, forgive me my children." he appologized, sitting up in his chair. "I was lost in my own thoughts."
"Phong, how...how did this happen?" Dot asked, also lost in her own thoughts.
"All I can say, Dot, is that it is based on the same principle of Young Christopher." Phong replied. "Some of Glitch's abilities seem to be manifesting within your children."
Bob gulped. This was something he wanted to feel happy about, but couldn't. His ultimate sacrifice had potentially ruined any normal life his children would have. And on top of that, if anyone ever found out...they had come close with Cadet Daniels and the only thing that kept the uptight and low down sprite from saying was the suspension he had gotten from Turbo and then his own deletion in the Ultimate Fighting League. The Guardian didn't want to think about what could happen if someone they couldn't control learned of this.