Reality Check

Miles Apart

II'll Come Back For You (by Max Schneider)

"I'll come back for you, back someday for you. If it's too hard for you, then do what you gotta do . . ."

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Kiel raced to the Quanterian Center for Scientific Studies, pushing through the crowd of murmuring Quanterians. He had to stop Dr. Verity before the worst occurred. His mind resembled a fog as he ran, barely hearing his friends' voices or the noises around him. Determination and anger burned in his veins, which only escalated once the building came into sight.

He couldn't believe that Dr. Verity was alive. It was shocking and irritating all at once. He'd never imagined that the crazed scientist would ever escape the room with the Source of Magic that Kiel had locked him in. How had Dr. Verity ever gotten out of that place?

There'd been a bomb in there too, which should've made it impossible for him to escape. How could he have? It seemed impossible, yet here he was, once again threatening Kiel's life. Just like he'd always done.

All Kiel cared about was the lives of the Magisterians, who were in danger at this very moment. And he was angry. Angry that Dr. Verity had survived, angry that he'd gone as far as to hold Magisterians hostage just to get back at Kiel. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a voice told him that he should calm down and think things through before he barged into the building.

He was normally pretty calm in regular situations, not getting angry unless something truly made him upset. But this was different, because Magisterians — his people — were involved. He would've felt the same way if any of his friends were in danger.

But Kiel ignored the voice. The danger hardly mattered. He'd fought Dr. Verity so many times before, and he would win this time again. He couldn't let anything bad happen to them, not if he could do something about it. These people were from Magisteria. The place he'd grown up in, that he loved. He'd never forgive himself if he let them suffer or die.

Taking two stairs at a time, the boy magician sprinted up the steps of the Quanterian Center for Scientific Studies. Reaching the top, he took his wand-knives out and kicked the door open. "Verity! Where are they? Where'd you put the Magisterians?"

"You're here early," a voice said, and a man wearing a white lab coat and huge goggles stepped into view from the end of the hallway. "I wasn't expecting you to show up this fast. Honestly, I was hardly expecting you to come here at all. But look at you, obliging me by showing up anyway!"

Dr. Verity walked closer, holding up a ray gun. "Wow, you look older. And taller. Wait until you're my age, kid. This is what you've got to look forward to." Kiel said nothing, and the man grinned. "It feels like old times. Me threatening to kill you, you coming to stop me . . ."

"How are you alive?" Kiel felt even angrier at the sight of his old nemesis. "I left you in the Source of Magic with your own bomb about to explode!"

Dr. Verity rolled his eyes. "You know how much of a genius I am, Kiel. I had my escape planned from the start!"

"You'd never seen that coming. You couldn't have gotten out, not without help from outside. So who let you out, then? Science Soldiers?"

"Of course not!" Dr. Verity spat, looking annoyed now. "I arranged to be removed from the vault at the last moment by this . . . faceless man. Called himself Nobody."

Nobody?

"I knew that only one with powers like his could have saved me, or I'd never have allowed you to close the vault door with me in it," Dr. Verity continued. "I am all-knowing, smarter and more powerful than anyone on the planet! Do you think I'd let you lock me up?" He cackled. "No, because I foresee everything, unlike you. I don't care what that faceless guy said to me about me being written as some sort of villian—"