Chapter 51

            It’s late Friday afternoon, and Zoey’s friends are over. They join her in her room, and Zoey flops on her bed and looks up at the ceiling.

            “I’m so tired…” she says while her friends all chuckle.

            “But you survived!” Chloe says as she sits by Zoey on the bed. “You survived!”

            Chloe lifts Zoey’s arm to shake it around like Zoey’s waving it herself.

            “Yay…!” Zoey says in tired sarcasm.

            Chloe lets go of Zoey’s arm and it flops back down on the bed.

            “Okay, so,” Marina says as she sits at Zoey’s desk, “he wins the fight by not winning the fight?”

            “The voice said ‘disqualified,’” Zoey explains. “And Siro was really upset about it. Siro said The Spektrum got disqualified on purpose.”

            “So he threw the fight so he wouldn’t lose worse?” Marina asks, still trying to sort it out in her head.

            “Yeah, basically.”

            “Guess it makes sense,” Marina says. “If I was in some kind of tennis death match, I’d find a way to lose without really losing.”

            “Oh I didn’t even think,” Chloe says. “What if there was some kind of sports Power Surge… person? Would they just be really good at that sport? Or like, really really good at that sport?”

            “I’m not sure,” Zoey says, a little confused but also chuckling.

            “What happened after that?” Alicia asks as she sits at Zoey’s vanity mirror.

            “Well we did a pose together,” Zoey says. “Everyone took pictures. I raised his hand to celebrate his public return. And then Reciprocity Inc. showed up.”

 

            Fast-Pace and Mountain barged through the side gate on the school and were already at the Quad.

            “Spektrum!” Fast-Pace shouted.

            “Aw hell,” The Spektrum said as everyone looked that way.

            “Go!” Zoey said as she gave The Spektrum a shove.

            The Spektrum headed for the main building, the door that leads right to the lobby between B Hall, C Hall and the cafeteria. That’s where the crowd was the thinnest. The students were slow on the uptake and he had to push his way through, but Fast-Pace just bolted around the outside, covering roughly 250 feet in under 10 seconds!

            “Wow you’re fast,” The Spektrum said as Fast-Pace stood in his way.

            The Spektrum took quick notice of the outfit Fast-Pace was wearing, with the padded spandex and Reciprocity emblem on the shoulders.

            Mountain walked around the crowd while the Reciprocity troops kept the students back at a safe distance. But Zoey/Catgirl pushed her way through and followed after Mountain.

            “Uh, Mr. Mountain, sir,” she said as they walked. “What’re you doing here so quickly?”

            “We’re not stationed that far away,” he said.

            “Oh, okay… But, I actually meant it as, wasn’t I suppose to take care of things myself? Though, that was in the case of The Spektrum… Well, in the case of Siro being too much for him to handle. The Spektrum’s still here, so obviously that’s not the case.”

            “We just need to talk,” Fast-Pace said as he stepped closer to The Spektrum.

            “Yeah, I don’t think so,” The Spektrum said.

            The Spektrum threw a punch, but his fist completely whiffed as it barely reached Fast-Pace’s chest while he was aiming for the chin. The Spektrum groaned, because his arms felt like they were asleep.

            “Stupid, numb noodle arms!” The Spektrum grumbled. “Wait…”

            The Spektrum let his arms go limp and he swung them around with his torso! But this strange flailing wasn’t exactly a good fighting style, and Fast-Pace easily avoided the attacks. The Spektrum spun around and though his arms were numb, he put his hands together.

            “Take- AGH!”

            The Spektrum’s planned two-in-one hammer fist was cut off by Fast-Pace simply shoving him over. The Spektrum tried to brace himself with his arms, but they were of no use and he fell on his face. He rolled over and spat dirt off his mouth.

            “You need to trust us,” Fast-Pace said as he pulled The Spektrum up to his feet.

            “And why should I?” The Spektrum said. “You didn’t tell Catgirl you were already in San Leandro, but isn’t she supposed to trust you?”

            “Yeah!” Catgirl said. “And at the same time, you guys obviously don’t trust me to take care of things, because you showed up without being called.”

            The Spektrum and Catgirl looked at Fast-Pace and Mountain with expecting expressions on their faces.

            “What I need to know is,” Fast-Pace said as he looked at The Spektrum. “Are you the real you?”

            “Yes,” he said, annoyed. “Do you guys not talk with each other about stuff? Darklite visited me on Sunday!”

            “No, it seems there are other trust issues,” Fast-Pace said, sneering sideways at Mountain.

            “So is this just a check-up that wasn’t actually needed?” Catgirl asked.

            “It certainly looks that way…” Mountain said, actually sounding a little embarrassed.

            “Then go!” she said. “We need…”

            She motioned to herself and The Spektrum.

            “And they need…” she said, motioning to the rest of the students around them, “to get back to class!”

            Fast-Pace and Mountain are flustered from Catgirl being so assertive.

            “Shoo!” she said, even shooing them with her hands.

            Mountain started back first as Fast-Pace still glanced at The Spektrum. Fast-Pace eventually followed Mountain, and Catgirl kept her eyes on them the whole way, her tail fluffed up and swishing fast.

            The Reciprocity Inc. agents left, but the students still hung around. Catgirl looked at all of them and her ears pointed back aggressively.

            “Shoo!” she shouted at them, even stamping a foot.

            The crowds dispersed, some students grumbling at her.

            “Wow,” The Spektrum said. “When did you get all that attitude?”

            “Didn’t I tell you?” she said. “I’m the one who negotiated the move to San Leandro. I stood up to Darklite!”

            “Wow, really? That’s awesome!”

            “Yeah, well,” Zoey said, her ears drooping. “It was at a time when I thought… You were dead, so… I dunno, I was just upset and felt like I needed to be forceful.”

            “So, wait, did you volunteer to be moved here or did they choose to move you here? What was the forceful part?”

            “I had to tell them to move me here instead of my cousins. They wanted to move just Seth up here since he’s the oldest and would be heading to college and stuff, but I didn’t want him and Jeff and their family getting separated.”

            “Then why didn’t you just have Reciprocity move your cousins to San Leandro?”

            “Because I wanted them to be back home in Alameda,” she said. “I mean, you’ve seen how Karina and Jeff are. I wanted them to have a chance.”

            “Wow. That’s really sweet of you.”

            “Thanks,” she smiled.

 

            “Aww, you did that for me?” Karina says in the present.

            “Well of course,” Zoey says.

            “Aww, thank you,” Karina says as she gave Zoey a hug while she still lay on the bed.

            “So what happened next?” Chloe asks as she nudges Zoey.

            “Well, school went smoothly,” Zoey says. “Everyone was talking about us. Well, The Spektrum and Catgirl. Thankfully, no one connected the dots that I moved there from Alameda, and now Catgirl is in San Leandro.”

            “Oh, we need to keep our ears open about people at our school talking about that, too,” Chloe says.  

            “Do you think anyone at Encinal will put it together Catgirl is me?” Zoey asks.

            “It’s actually surprising no one figured it out right away,” Alicia says. “You’ve loved cats so much your whole life, and now you’re part cat.”

            “We won’t be able to keep people from thinking about it,” Marina says. “Someone will figure it out.”

            “And with the internet, everyone will find out moments after that someone does,” Karina says.

            “Then if it’s inevitable,” Zoey says, “we can’t worry about it. The only thing we can worry about is what we can prepare for, and that’s when Zorb, Siro and whoever else decides to show up again.”

            “Why didn’t any more of Zorb’s guys show up?” Alicia asks. “For that matter, why don’t they show up on weekends to make trouble?”

            “And only at the school,” Karina adds.

            “Maybe they like the attention,” Chloe says. “The students and The Spektrum will all be there, so there’s no reason to try anything else.”

            “But things have seemed pretty different with Siro around now,” Chloe says. “And if he’s Simon, a human, wouldn’t he know things about Earth that could help Zorb?”

            “That’s so true!” Zoey says, only lifting her head up off the bed. “Great, now I’m worried about what he might be teaching them.”

            “I thought you just said you shouldn’t worry about the inevitable,” Karina says, also lifting her head.

            “Well this is different,” Zoey says. “Someone putting together that I’m Catgirl is inevitable. Something Siro and Zorb end up doing is variable. We can still worry about variables.”

            “Just like math…” Marina grumbles.

            “They could be talking about stuff like that right now…!” Chloe says. “Like about the President or the government!”

 

            At this very moment on Zorb’s sunny-side-up egg ship, Siro sits and reads an alien magazine while Zita is checking the ship’s refrigerator.

            “We need more app-pull drink,” Zita says as she pulls out the plastic jug.

            She holds it up to the light, and there is very little left.

            “What did you say?” Siro asks.

            “We need more app-pull drink,” she repeats. “Look how little there is.”

            “It’s pronounced ‘apple.’ Less emphasis on the second part.”

            “I was wondering why there was an Eee there,” Zita says.

            “I think I need to teach you English in return for teaching me your language,” he says.

 

            It was right after Siro fought The Spektrum, only to win by a disappointing disqualification. He arrived back on Zorb’s ship after the teleportation beam grabbed him.

            “Mapahamak duwag! <Damn coward!>” he shouted as he hobbled off the platform. “Letse, letse, letse! <Damn it, damn it, damn it!>”

            “Calm down, calm down,” Zorb said.

            Siro growled at Zorb, refusing to do what he’s told. Instead, Siro headed for the hallway, wincing with every step on his damaged leg.

            Zita nudged Zorb and he looked at her with confusion. She motioned to Siro, and Zorb sighed. Zorb got up and walked up behind Siro, and put Siro’s arm around his shoulders.

            “I don’t need your help!” Siro snarled at Zorb.

            “No, you don’t want my help,” Zorb said. “You actually do need my help.”

            Zorb helped Siro to the medical room, and Zita followed behind. She activated the medical tub and Zorb helped Siro get in.

            “At least now you know how it feels,” Zorb said, moving his own leg around.”

            “Your leg is doing fine now,” Zita countered. “You’re basically at 100%.”

            “I don’t know,” Zorb said. “Something still feels off.”

            “It didn’t feel that off last night,” Zita said. “You were thrusting pretty well.”

            Siro would ask what she meant by “thrusting,” but he quickly realized the lewd reality behind this conversation.

            “Don’t talk like that in front of me,” Siro grumbled.

            The machine started its inspection of Siro’s leg. Nothing was torn, which was a relief. However, both the medial collateral ligament and anterior cruciate ligament, aka the MCL and ACL, were stretched to the point of being sprained, so the machine initiates a treatment protocol involving cold gel.

            “If you keep going like this, you’re going to need to start working this machine yourself,” Zita said to him.

            “What?” he said flatly. “You just press the button and it gets to work.”

            “It’s not automated to that level,” Zita said with a laugh. “You still need to press other buttons for the other functions. Hold on, I have some things you can use.”

            Zita left the room while the machine finished wrapping Siro’s knee in gel. Siro bent his leg and could feel how tight the gel is wrapped around his leg.

            “So this gel is like a giant ice pack around my knee,” he said as he starting getting up.

            “Hold on,” Zorb said, keeping him from getting out. “It needs to finish sealing the gel or it’ll just slide off.”

            Siro sat back down and the little machine arms continued to work. They wrapped the gel in a clear material, like putting Saran wrap on it.

            “Okay, now you can get out,” Zorb said.

            Siro got up and out of the tub and dried himself off before putting clothes back on. Zita returned at this time with quite a few books.

            “You can start by reading these,” Zita said as she handed them to him.

            Siro looked at the cover of the first one with a skeptical raised eyebrow. The cover had a big bold title and a pair of female humanoid aliens standing back to back. Oddly enough, it didn’t look too out of place from the magazines and tabloids found in an American department store.

            “And how am I supposed to when I don’t know what any of these symbols mean?” he asked as he flapped the magazines around.

            “Oh, that’s a good point,” Zita said. “Hold on, let’s go to the den and I’ll write out the letter system for you.”

            The three of them went back to the living room and Zita picked up pen and paper. After a few seconds, she tore out and handed Siro the page she wrote all over.

            “What in the world is any of this?” Siro asked as he looked between the paper and the magazines.

            “It’s our written language, obviously,” she says. “Don’t you see?”

            Siro did see some of the characters between the paper and the magazines, so she can’t have made all of this up. For that matter, he noticed some resemblances to the English alphabet, after tilting his head.

            “Wait… I, L then… Well, those look like H and A… Well O is too similar. Umm… P, B, D… S and Z.”

            “I’m not sure what those are,” Zita said. “But it’s Aiee, Ela, Eee, Effa, Umma, Unna, Eha, Eya, Uu, Wuu, Yuu, Ohh, Guh, Juh, Ch’ya, Kuh, Puh, Buh, Duh, Vuh, Tah, Err, Suh and Zuh.”

            Siro stared blankly at the paper, not sure what to make of those names.

            “Let me see if I can translate those to English,” he said as he wrote on the rest of the paper.

            Many seemed pretty obvious, as the tilt was the only thing different about them.

 

I L E F M N H A

U W Y O G J K

P B D V T R S Z

 

            “No C, Q or X, huh?” Siro said.

            “What are those?” Zita asked with a confused look.

            Siro wrote C, Q and X out on the paper, and Zita’s confused expression went up a couple levels with wide eyes and raised eyebrows.

            “Why do they look like that?” she asked. “It’s like half of Suh and the top half of Ch’ya, and then that round one is like you sneezed while writing Ohh.”

            “I could ask you the same things about your alphabet,” he countered.

            “Alpha bet?” Zorb said. “What’s an alpha bet?”

            “Well, I suppose that doesn’t translate, does it?” Siro said. “It has to do with an Earth language called, ‘Greek.’ The first two letters were Alpha and Beta, and so it was shortened to Alphabet.”

            “You humans are ridiculous,” Zorb said. “Just call it the ‘written language.’”

            “That takes longer to say,” Siro said. “At least in English.”

            “But it’d make more sense,” Zorb said.

            “That’s all beside the point,” Zita said. “You’re going to learn the language so you can start doing things on your own.”

            Siro grumbled, but the first lessons began right then and there.

            In the first 12 hours, Siro came to memorize the alien alphabet, but he had to ask.

            “Where does Ch’ya even come from?”

            “Can’t you tell?” Zita asked. “It’s the cross of Guh and Juh. Look, if you write one on top of the other, it becomes Ch’ya.”

            “Oh, I see it now,” Siro said. “So, the sounds those two make are supposed to explain ‘Ch’ya’?”

            “Well of course,” Zita said.

            Siro thought on that sound, Ch’ya.

            “Well then the equivalent of that in English is C and H. Ch, Ch, Ch.”

            “Then why not just write a letter that represents that?” she asked.

            “Well, the letter C is a very versatile letter. It can make the K sound like Kuh, or the S sound like Suh.”

            “That’s crazy,” Zita said, completely astonished.

            “Seems convoluted,” Zorb said. “How would you know what way that letter is being used the first time you see a word?”

            “Well there’s all sorts of other rules behind the letter C,” Siro said, “but I suppose just replacing C with letters like S and K would work better.”

            Then a lightbulb went off in Siro’s head. And he chuckled.

            “What’s so funny?” Zita asked.

            “The way I, or rather, we spelled our name,” Siro said. “The word ‘spectrum’ is spelled with a C, but I chose to use Kuh.”

            Siro wrote it out for Zita and Zorb to understand.

            “I see…” Zita said. “Not bad for your first time writing out language.”

            “I still don’t see how this will help me understand what your little magazines here are saying, though,” Siro said as he picked one up.

            He stared at the title, spelled H-O-E-I-B-O-W.

            “Hoe… Hoey bo? Hoey bao?” he said, sounding it out.

            “Very close,” Zita said. “It’s Fame.”

            “What? How is this read, ‘fame’?”

            “How is it not?” Zita said. “Oh, I see what’s going on. This is the tricky part of translators. Hold on.”

            Zita touched behind her ear to press the translator implant.

            “Ho Eee-Ai Boa,” she said, a slight accent audible in her voice now.

            “So it’s about isolation of syllables,” Siro said.

            “Owa?” Zita asked in here native language. “Eee, eee, Aiee ohma.”

            Zita pressed the implant again.

            “Okay, say that again?” she said, back to perfect English.

            After letters came numbers, since Zita realized those would also be needed for Siro to understand.

            “The little square is zero,” Zita said. “So, you’re a little square.”

            She chuckled at her pun about Siro meaning zero.

            “They’re like Roman numerals,” Siro said. “So, this should be very easy, actually. One line is one, two lines is two, and three lines is three, making that four, five, and so on until two fives makes ten. Blah, blah, blah, three fives makes 15. And then, this next one is 16.”

            “Right,” Zita said. “Because our number system is-”

            “Is base 16,” Siro said, realizing it for himself. “Hexadecimal.”

            “Um, that’s probably some Earth word that is a clever way of saying base 16, isn’t it?”

            “Yes,” he said. “So… One is 16, two is 32, then 48. And you just build from there until you get to… This next wide one is 64. Then you go until you get to… 80?”

            “Not quite,” Zita said. “You can go up to 95 by having 48, 32 and 15 together. This one is 96.”

            “Wow. So then, 96, plus 48, plus 32, plus 15, you can get up to 191 without going up to this?”

            “Right,” Zita said with a big smile. “This big one is 192, because it represents two of the 96.”

            “It’s pretty good at keeping the numbers in a compact space, mostly,” Zorb said.

            “Especially when you go back to 16, and start filling it in,” Zita said. “That represents already having a factor of 192. So you could write 16, and fill in each third, for 576! And it still goes up, until you’ve written a 48 and filled it in, for 1728!”

            “Does that work the same for filling in a 96?” Siro asked.

            “Yes it does,” Zita said. “Filling in one part of 96 means a factor of 576. So a completely filled-in 96 means 1728.”

            Siro sat back a moment, his brain feeling full. Then he had a thought.

            “You guys must be really smart then,” Siro said. “Well, compared to us humans, I guess.”

            “We’re pretty good by our own standards, too, you know,” Zorb said.

            “Well, wait,” Siro said as he studied the numbers more. “What would a number like one million be?”

            “Mill-yun?” Zita said. “How much is that?”

            “I’m sensing there’s still a language barrier, even with the translator,” he said. “Um, it’s like if you had…”

            He tried to do the math in his head, but 16 fits into a million a lot…

            “It looks like this, doesn’t it?” Zorb said as he walked over.

            He took a pen and wrote on the paper.

1000000

            “Yes, exactly like that,” Siro said.

            “I know your silly Earth numbers,” Zorb said. “The one good thing about it is using zeros is to just take the number up a factor. Our people started using it in the number system only recently after we realized the inefficiency in our system.”

            “Yeah, so did the Romans,” Siro said. “Wait, how did you learn our numbers?”

            “My father,” Zorb said. “He’d been to Earth when he was younger than me. Actually, probably closer to your age. It’s how these translators even know how to do English.”

            “How old are you two anyway?” Siro asked, looking at Zorb and Zita.

            “Well, our planet’s days are comparable, but certainly not our years,” Zita said. “One year on our planet takes about 450 days.”

            “And on our planet, we’ve lived about 20 years,” Zorb said.

            “Zorb, don’t give away our age,” Zita scolded.

            “I gave an approximate age,” Zorb defended.

            “Years here are 365 days,” Siro said.

            “450 multiplied by 20 equals 9000,” Zita said, doing the math in her head. “9000 divided by 365 is… 24.657. Eww, we’re almost 25, Zorby… We’re old!”

            “Oh stop it, that’s not old,” Zorb said. “Thirty’s old.”

            “Fine, I’ll learn all of this language and number system,” Siro said as he picked up the magazines. “I suppose it’ll come in handy.”

 

            Back in the present, Zoey’s friends all stress about an assassination attempt on the President of the United States, but Zoey is calm.

            “Siro wouldn’t tell Zorb about stuff like that,” she says as she finally sits up.

            “What makes you say that?” Chloe asks.

            “Because he’s still a lot like Simon deep down,” Zoey says. “Yes, Siro is this part of him that feels almost… exorcised from him. But when I stepped between him and The Spektrum, he didn’t keep fighting. He listened to me, and he left.

            “But you said The Spektrum went after his leg,” Alicia says. “Maybe he stopped because he realized he couldn’t fight.”

            “His bad leg wasn’t stopping him from going after The Spektrum after the disqualification,” Zoey says. “He would’ve probably brushed past me to keep going after The Spektrum, but he didn’t. There has to be good in him if he listened to me.”

            Her friends look at her, then at each other, then back at her, all with skeptical looks.

            “Zoey,” Chloe starts. “It’s good that you see the… good in people. Or, the best, I guess. But just because Siro is a clone of The Spektrum doesn’t mean there’s good inside of him. Not that there means there isn’t, it just…”

            “This isn’t like yin and yang, Zoey,” Karina says, also sitting up. “There are awful people who are just completely awful. Siro might be that now.”

            Zoey admits to herself that that’s a valid point. She could just be trying to convince herself of things that aren’t true. Her feelings for The Spektrum shouldn’t transfer over to Siro, because Siro isn’t The Spektrum. But she can help keep The Spektrum from ending up like Siro.

            “Okay,” Zoey says with a nod. “Yeah, that’s all true. I won’t worry about a copy when I should focus on the original.”

            “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Karina asks as she leans in with a big smile.

            Zoey and the others laugh a little.

            “Yes, Karina,” Zoey says. “I’m over Shaun. I’m feeling better. I’m back in the game!”

            “Yes~!” Karina practically squeals. Then she starts chanting, “Triple date! Triple date!”

            “You’re still on that?” Alicia asks, still smiling though annoyed.

            “Just make it happen already, Alicia!” Karina says back. “It’s not that hard. It’s like Nike shoes say, just do it!”

            “Why does your triple date have to hinge on my love life?” Alicia says. “What about one of your other friends?”

            “Yeah!” Chloe and Marina say, realizing they’re being left out.

            “There’s a natural order to things,” Karina says. “Jeff and I are together, and we all know how Alicia feels, so it just makes sense we would have sibling double dates. Niji ‘n’ Neko are just a bonus.”

            “Niji ‘n’ Neko?” Zoey repeats. “You guys gave us a nickname before we’re even an item?”

            “We’re planning ahead,” Karina says with a proud smile.