THE JOINING: The Cycle of the Shards Book One
Chapter 26

In his over two thousand years of life, over a thousand Marconian cycles, Critock had thought he had experienced all that could be experienced in regards to the passage of time. Orbits around black holes lasting mere seconds to him but days and even years to those on surrounding worlds. But sitting in this classroom, listening to the older teacher speak about polynomials and other algebraic functions made the fifty or so minutes that he was supposed to be in this class feel like time itself had simply stopped, and this was to be his fate. Trapped in a classroom surrounded by children a hundredth of his age talking about mathematical theories that he had advanced past long before he could even remember.

It, of course, was not the math that was dragging down the day, it was the impending incineration of the planet, and the confrontation between him and Pt’ron. Finding out who he had become was so close he didn’t give it any thought, Shanna’s plan was simple enough. Was he ready? He had the Sword of Kon, of course, and he knew it could stand up to most anything Pt’ron could throw at him. But what if the Shards awoke before he could obtain them? Was the sword enough to take him down like he should have thousands of years before? What powers would they imbue upon his former friend? There were still too many questions for Critock to relax, and the waiting caused a knot to form in his stomach. While if asked he would blame his nerves on the human physiology, and of course of the teenage mind he was occupying, but in truth, he was nervous, both for the reunion and the outcome.

Tom was no help for this part of the day. After a scant two minutes of listening to the teacher speak, he declared that he needed to do reconnaissance around the school to make sure they had a good layout in case they had to make a quick escape or sneak around. He disappeared through a wall immediately, and left Critock alone to curse the wisp,

He watched the second hand of the clock, hanging over a picture of a cliché cat hanging onto a tree branch, and could almost swear that it was moving backwards. So involved was he in his thoughts and the lack of passage of time that Critock didn’t notice that the teacher had stopped speaking, before a piece of paper landed on his desk. It was a worksheet with twenty different math problems, which were all incredibly simple by his race’s standards. Hoping it would pass the time, he started the first problem, and caught himself as he put pencil to paper. Just the answer itself would not be sufficient, these types of classes all expected him to show his work. The Marconian way of doing problems was likely not at all similar to how he would be expected to here, and suddenly he wished that he had even half-listened to the teacher, who by now had given them a nebulous time-limit of “By the end of class”. He stared at the sheet, and prodded Kyle’s mind, replaceing it still pliant and easy to pull information out of. However, Kyle was not any better at Earth’s maths than Critock was.

He let out a heavy sigh at the paper and the situation, and was a little relieved that Kyle would fare no better. He would have hated to give the boy any reason to feel superior to him. Taking a fresh look at the paper, scanning the other questions for hints. Finding none, and checking back at the clock to replace only a minute had passed leaving over thirty remaining before the assembly gave him opportunity to escape this mathematic hell, Critock grimaced at the paper as it failed to give up its secrets. Finally, he scanned Kyle’s mind again, replaceing glimpses and fragments of the formulas he needed. By themselves, they were incomplete and useless, and would draw undue attention to him, which considering what had happened and what still was going on with the other students in the room glancing back at him and whispering was the last thing that he needed. But he found he was able to fill in most of the blanks from his own experiences and knowledge and began quickly answering the questions. It occurred to him that once again the solution to the problem is for both of their minds to be put together, but he dismissed it as sentimental nonsense, not wanting to reduce this galactic struggle to the level of a message that could just as easily be written on a greeting card.

The worksheet finally completed, he stole a look up at the clock. Time had passed, surprisingly, but only a bit over ten minutes. Twenty remained before his escape, and he stretched. As he did so he noticed the rest of the class still working diligently, and realized his mistake. His quickness could just as easily cause attention, and the last thing he wanted to do was have anyone thinking that Kyle was smarter than he was, at least right now. He lowered his head back over the paper, and began lightly tracing over the numbers on the page. It was excruciatingly slow work with no basis in necessity, but it succeeded in it’s goal, as the rest of the room continued to work on with the teacher not noticing anything was amiss. He watched the room out of the corners of his eyes, and this also kept him busy for just about five minutes when he saw the first student, a smart-looking girl in glasses at the upper right corner of the room, put down her pencil. As she did not pick it back up as he watched, he put his down as well. Now he was only the second person to finish, and there was nothing special about second place.

He was then startled, with ten minutes remaining in class, the teacher focused her gaze on him. “Mr. Edison.”

A beat passed before Critock remembered Kyle’s last name. “Yes?”

“If you need help, you can ask a neighbor.”

Critock shook his head, a slight red glow burning in his cheeks. “No, I’m finished.” He hated this, already all eyes in the room were upon him.

“Really?” The teacher stood slowly, and walked over to him, her heels making a clacking sound on the linoleum floor. She took the worksheet from his desk and read over it quickly. “This is an…Interesting way to solve the problems. Where did you learn this?”

“Uh…” He thought quickly, but Kyle thought quicker, and suddenly spoke through his own mouth. “My father learned it in school, he taught me this at the beginning of the year. Is it okay?” Critock had to fight to keep from clasping his hands over Kyle’s mouth.

The teacher put the sheet back on the desk. “No, no, it’s fine, it’s a little bit more…advanced than I was expecting, but it does look fine. Good work.” With that, the teacher spun around and began to walk back to her desk, and Critock sighed. He mentally prepared to push Kyle back, but he received an image of the boy walking backwards, his hands up as though to say he was going, and then the image disappeared. He glanced around the room, and no one was looking at him, returning to their own attempts to finish their work. Relieved he turned his head back at the clock. He forced himself to count down the seconds each minute, and while it did seem to make the time passing even longer, at least it was a way to verify that time was actually moving.

At last, the second hand hit the twelve, and the bell rang out. Forcing himself not to just jump up and run out of the room, he collected his books, and walked up to drop off the worksheet at the desk. He did it quickly and tried to do it at the same time as the main thrust of the classroom, not wanting to make himself further known to the teacher and have to waste precious time speaking with her about things that did not matter to either Kyle or himself even on a day when the world might end! He then moved with the group out into the hall and began to walk to the auditorium.

Tom rejoined him at the top of the stairs as he began to walk down. He flew close to Critock’s ear and whispered. “I’ve got the whole place mapped out. Two floors, bunch of rooms. Probably about five minutes to get from one end of the place to the other, two at a sprint.”

Critock nodded, and whispered back, moving his lips as little as possible as he descended the stairs, counting on not being noticed amongst the massive group that was moving down the stairs alongside him. “Good for you. I did twenty word problems all about replaceing X. Bad news. It’s still missing.” Tom stopped floating, trying to work out exactly what that meant as Critock reached the landing and moved forward from the stairs.

The auditorium itself was a retrofitted gymnasium across from the stairs leading up to the second floor from the main entry, and the space under and behind the stairwell was a good place to duck into without being forced into entering the assembly itself. Already Critock could tell this was something that he would have tried to replace a way out of regardless of any ongoing plans. The double entryway doors were lined with cheerleaders doing simple, hardwood-appropriate cheers, and he looked on in relief that Shanna wasn’t one of them.

He wasn’t the only one hanging back from entering with the main crowd. There were several other students scattered around the lobby, waiting for friends or just trying to sneak away from having to be subjected to whatever nightmares lay inside. After a minute or so, Critock noticed that the crowds were thinning out. He didn’t see any of Kyle’s friends anywhere, and assumed they were caught up in the main rush. He doubted they would miss him, as they probably would assume that him and Shanna were together somewhere. They’d be right, if she would ever appear! As the crowds thinned and the teachers that were monitoring the entryway started to move away from the door to start to assemble the slow movers into the room, he moved back a bit, behind a nearby full trophy case and near a slightly open door, and looked around. Where was she? The case would block him for now but if they saw him, he’d end up being stuck!

Without warning, the door nearest him opened slightly, and a hand reached out. It grabbed Critock’s arm, catching him unaware and pulling him into the small room, which apparently was a maintenance closet. He stumbled a bit as he was forced back against a metal shelf, and began to move into a defensive position before he realized who had pulled him in.

Shanna stood before him, the light reflecting off her skin in a way that made Kyle’s mind start to move towards thoughts that were completely unhelpful in this current situation. Mentally asking him to calm down and wait till he was gone for that kind of thinking, he looked at Shanna, smirking at having caught the alien unaware.

“You know, when I thought about dragging Kyle in here before, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

Critock breathed angrily, still not happy about the sudden scare. “Can you people think without using your hormones for one second?”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, like you were never a teenager. We have to stay in here for a minute. When the Pep Rally starts, then we can get out of here. I saw Phelps going in, we should be okay.”

“I thought it was an assembly.”

She gestured to her outfit, something Kyle was glad to have an excuse to look at but just caused Critock to be uncomfortable. “They’re not having us wear this ridiculous outfit so someone can teach us about how evil smoking is. I’m almost grateful that the world might end since it’s giving me a good reason to avoid that insanity.” She turned around, and bent over slightly more than she needed to check that the door was secure. She turned back and suddenly Critock realized she was very close to him, and it was a mixture of both Kyle’s nervousness and his own uncomfortableness that caused him to start to sweat. “Still, I should be grateful to you for this…opportunity…” She moved even closer and Critock closed his eyes, wishing for it all to end, whether by missile or otherwise.

It was a full minute before he opened his eyes, and was relieved albeit confused to see that she had moved away from him, and was watching him with an amused expression on her face. As soon as his eyes were fully open she began laughing. “Calm down, Martian, that was for Kyle. I’m not into interspecies…whatever this is.” She slowly turned and opened the door a crack, looking out at the hall and listening for any noises, as he tried to regain control of both his and Kyle’s thoughts. She turned back after a moment. “C’mon, we need to go.”

She moved out of the room quickly, and he followed. He followed her lead, not accustomed to stealth and it was obvious this was not her first time sneaking around the premises. He didn’t see any teachers or anyone else around, but it didn’t mean that someone wouldn’t pop up around the corner, so he kept himself on edge.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tom spiraling down towards him. The wisp whispered to them loudly. “Where did you go! I look away for one second and you vanish!”

They stopped at the corner to Phelps’ classroom hallway, Shanna grinning as she peered around the corner. “We had some alone time in the closet. It was magical.” She laughed to herself as Tom flashed red while looking at Critock, who shook his head.

“Ignore her. Go keep an eye on Phelps. We’ll be in…” He looked around the corner alongside Shanna who was watching as a young woman, most likely a teacher’s aide, got a drink of water from a fountain, and then disappeared into a nearby restroom. “…Second room to the left down the hall, towards the back. Change of plans, go stand guard by that bathroom. Let us know if she’s coming out, then get to Phelps. Got it?”

“Got it. Please try to keep your hands to yourselves while we get this done, okay?” Without waiting for an answer, Tom flew away, as Critock sputtered trying to think how to explain this away.

Shanna laughed again. “I didn’t know aliens were so easy to rile up. Let’s go.” She then moved off suddenly, forcing Critock to jog to catch up. Keeping an eye on the bathroom to make sure they weren’t about to get caught by the aide, they moved to Phelps’ door. Reaching it undetected, Shanna looked back at the hallway, satisfied to replace it empty, and reached back behind her to move the door handle. It moved, but only slightly. She tried again, and again, and she turned around and tried to move it with more force.

Critock, also keeping a nervous eye on the hallway, whispered at her. “What’s going on? Open the door!”

“I can’t! It’s locked! Phelps’ always leaves his door unlocked!”

“House blowing up probably changes a man.” Critock sighed, and was about to try the door for himself when he saw Tom come flying out of the restroom, and he didn’t have to wait to see what he wanted. Quickly grabbing Shanna’s hand, he pulled her back a short length to the back stairwell. The stairs did not reach the full length of the hall, only halfway, and the banister in place for the remaining space didn’t look quite safe as he pulled Shanna down the stairs and out of sight from the hall. They knelt on the stairs and waited, Tom turning around and waiting for her to go out of sight, hopefully in the direction of the pep rally.

“What are we going to do now?” Shanna suddenly looked on the verge of tears, as though the reality of the situation was catching up on her now that the one plan she had to keep her mind off of the imminent end of the world looked like it was up in smoke.

“Shanna, look at me.” She continued to look off into the distance out the window behind them, over a grass field and then the nearby highway. “Look at me.” She turned at the sudden change of his voice, a voice that was not Kyle’s. She stared at him. “Shanna, we’re okay. We just have to replace another way. And there’s always another way.” He turned, and peeked up, noting that the aide was walking away from them. “Look, she’s leaving. What about the door next to Phelps?”

She peeked up alongside him. “Mrs. Edwards. She never even closes her door!”

“Okay. Outside, is there a ledge?”

“Yes. YES!” Shanna exclaimed the last rather loudly, and Critock had to gently put a hand on the back of her head and push it down, as the Aide turned around, thinking she had heard something. After a moment, she continued on her path, which took her around the corner. Obviously she wasn’t too concerned about getting to the rally on time. Critock looked up at Tom, who moved his form up and down in a nod, and then flew off to complete his part of the mission. As he did that, Critock took the lead this time, moving quickly from the stairwell past their original destination, and into Mrs. Edwards’ room.

The room, not unexpectedly, was empty, other than Edwards’ cluttered desk, the twenty-five empty wooden tables in straight rows, and the snake in a tank that was used as a constant frame of reference for the biology classes she taught. Critock suddenly shuddered as a memory from a previous class came unbidden to mind. Kyle had been holding the snake during a lesson on the anatomy of a frog when suddenly it had defecated on him. It was an unfortunate day for his clothing and his reputation. Critock shook it off as Shanna headed straight for the large glass windows in the back, grabbing the bottom ridge and yanking it up.

It was a crisp day, and Shanna shuddered as the cold air hit her. Critock realized that in her outfit walking outside was not ideal. For her part, however, she was undaunted as she looked out the window at the ledge, and Critock joined her and peered out as well.. It was easily large enough to handle one foot at a time, and while there were a few cracks it looked stable enough.

“Well, if we put our backs against the wall and slide over, we should be able to do it. How much time do we have?”

“The rally is supposed to last all period, so probably about forty-five minutes? We’ve still got a lot of time.” Before Critock could say anything, Shanna started to crawl out the window. He watched nervously as she awkwardly arranged herself around, using the window and brick side of the building to steady herself as she rose into a standing position.

Shanna shuffled to the side slightly as Critock poked a head out, looking up at her and trying to make sure Kyle’s gaze didn’t spend too long on the fact that she was wearing a skirt and he was below her. “You okay up there?”

“It’s...a bit cold. But I’m okay! Get out here!”

Critock sighed, looking at the ledge and the ground below him. “Right.” He slowly put a hand down on the ledge, steadying himself as he felt more of the soft cold wind against him. Inside, he felt Kyle’s stomach drop when he realized that they were actually doing this. Critock wished he had the time to reassure him, but he was having a hard enough time figuring out how he was going to get across. He crawled up onto the small bookcases surrounding the windows, and brought a jean-clad knee out, resting it on the ledge. Bringing his body sideways, one knee and now leg outside, and one leg inside, he slowly stood up as far as he could without hitting his back on the top of the window. Taking a breath, he shifted his body and, keeping a hand on the window ridge itself, he brought his entire body except for one leg out to the ledge. Sliding around and pressing his back to the window, he brought his other leg out slowly, closing his eyes and hoping for balance.

Once his second leg was on the ledge, and he was satisfied he wasn’t falling of his own accord, he opened his eyes. Not allowing himself or Kyle to look down, he instead turned to the right. Shanna had already moved almost to Phelps’ window, plastered against the side of the building. “Are you coming?” She yelled. Nervously, he turned back and looked out at the landscape. Outside of a few rocks and a combination football-soccer field off to the right, there was just a grass field stretching back, and a brief row of trees too small to be called a forest but large enough to be noticeable. There was no one out here to see or hear them, fortunately.

“Yeah. What if his window is locked too?” He started moving slowly, sliding his feet as Shanna was doing, and feeling the cold air blow against him fully.

“Break it? Don’t make me think things like that while I’m doing this!” Shanna yelled back, and Critock was suddenly reminded of her near panic attack out on the stairway. He kept his mouth shut but tried to move faster across the ledge, also trying not to notice the way that the toes of his shoes extended over the lip.

Shanna had reached the window, and Critock had caught up with her speed but was not quite next to her yet. Before he could say anything, she bent at the knees to lower herself, keeping her back against the bricks. She slid down and reached down with one hand to the window ridge, and pulled up. He worried about her balance, but also remembered that her cheering skills, wanted or not, probably meant that she was able to hold it together more than most people would be able to.

Critock and Shanna both let out a sigh of relief as the window started to raise, but the sigh was interrupted when the window stopped moving. Shanna started to breathe faster as she tugged upwards on the ridge harder. Nothing was happening.

“Is it locked?” Critock sidled up next to her, and she shook her head quickly.

“No, it’s just stuck! I can’t get it to move!”

Critock sighed. “Ok. Follow me. You’re not going to like this.” He thought a moment. “Well, maybe you will. I don’t know.” He started sliding back to the right, and she just watched him. “C’mon! Trust me.”

She started muttering to herself as she began to move. “Sure, trust the alien. That’s always worked out well. He certainly won’t turn into a dragon and eat me…” He ignored her as he moved a full body length over and stopped. She moved right next to him. “Okay, now what?”

“Now don’t move.” He said this as much to Kyle as he did to Shanna, pushing him back forcefully not out of wanting to take complete control but needing to. He didn’t think about what he did next, he just acted out of pure instinct and muscle memory from cycles of training and precarious circumstances all throughout his life. Pushing back with all of the strength he could muster, keeping his right foot firmly planted on the ledge, he pushed his left side up off of the wall and swiveled around Shanna. He felt an incredible fear and rush of adrenaline as the left side of his body swung around and involuntarily pressed against Shanna fully. She screamed as he moved and settled against her, his left leg and hand planted back against the ledge and wall respectively. He thought he was doing quite well, but his concentration was broken by a sudden blast of fear from Kyle made him lose his balance slightly, and he began to pitch backwards, his eyes widening as he did so. As soon as he did so, however, he was kept from falling by a single hand from Shanna, coming down from the wall and pressing firmly on his back and forcing his body more firmly against her. The pair looked at each other deeply into their eyes. “Thanks.”

“Any…” She gulped, wishing she could wipe the sweat from both her brow and his. “…Time.”

“You ready?” Critock was edified that the contact between Shanna and himself had distracted Kyle from the precarious position they were in.

“I probably could hang out here for a bit.” She smirked. He didn’t want to risk the balance to roll his eyes, so he quickly repeated the motion, again pushing off and quickly moving the orientation of his foot around. This time, his back hit the wall safely, and Kyle barely noticed what had happened. After a moment of reorienting himself, he bent at the knees downward as Shanna had done before, grabbing the ridge, and pulling upwards using all his strength both from Kyle and himself. It was still rough, but with a loud grinding creak, the window moved up with him. Taking a couple heavy breaths, he turned to Shanna who was looking at him admiringly.

“I’d prefer to hang out in there.” Slowly moving over, he carefully bent in front of the window, and slid himself in backwards, his head and arms the last thing in. Shanna, recovering from both the fear that the window wouldn’t open and her close encounter with both Critock and Kyle, moved over, and as quick as she dared, followed him in, ready to get this over with.