“You look bewildered,” Matilda 1 said to Wheezer.
“Everyone is so tough,” she replied.
Matilada 1 smiled. “Yeah, most of us are. Of course, we have versions that are girlie-girls in addition to butt-kickers, too. Looks like you’re a little of both.”
“Oh no, I’m not really a cheerleader,” she said. “I’m one hundred percent tomboy!”
Matilda 1 shook her head. “Nobody is one hundred percent anything, 217. I wear a dress, but I have mad ninja skills. The centaur Matilda is a spelling bee champ. Matilda 19 is half bird, but she’s also a great artist. The more Matildas I meet, the more I realize we’ve all got lots of different sides to us—tomboy, fighter, cheerleader, nerd—”
“Wheezer!” Agent Brand shouted as he pushed through the crowd of Matildas the best he could on his cane. Ms. Holiday followed close behind him. “You are our Wheezer, right?”
Matilda nodded and made introductions. “This is Matilda 1. She’s a member of a multiverse fighting team called MISFIT.”
“I brought the Matildas,” the girl said proudly. “It’s quite an honor to meet you, Mr. Brand.”
“You know who I am?”
Matilda nodded. “Alexander Brand 217. I work with your brother, Thomas Brand,” she said. “He’s our director.”
Brand looked as pale as a ghost. “My brother died in combat.”
Matilda watched Ms. Holiday take his hand.
“Not on my world. He says hello. He wanted to meet you but he’s trying to broker a peace treaty. When Earth exploded all of its population was moved to Earth 64. Turns out tiger people and zebra heads don’t get along.”
A terrible explosion interrupted their conversation. Everyone turned in the direction of the blast, where they saw that despite the attack of over a hundred Matildas, Brainstorm had recovered. He was shooting fireballs from his eyes and tossing cars at the girls using his telekinetic mind.
“You can’t stop me!” he roared, sweeping away his attackers like toys. “Even if you send a thousand pip-squeaks at me! I am Brainstorm. Bow before my intellect!”
Matilda looked out at the battlefield. Those who had escaped the destruction were helping the victims back through the portal. Matilda looked at her sadly. “Time’s up. I’ m sorry We did what we could, Wheezer. I’m afraid I’ve seen what happens to a world when a Heathcliff takes over. Do you and your friends want to evacuate to our world?”
“We can’t leave,” Ms. Holiday said.
“We’re the only thing standing in the way of that monster,” Brand said. “We’ll stay and fight him as long as we can.”
Wheezer clenched her fists. It couldn’t end like this! She had to do something. There was no way she was going to let Heathcliff Hodges, or whatever his stupid name was, take over the world. She would stop him even if this world lost its Matilda.
She reached into her utility belt and found her inhalers, but her hand brushed up against the stone statue her mother insisted she take with her to cheerleading camp. She looked down at it, remembering that her mother had told her old grandfather would protect her from danger. Heathcliff qualified as dangerous. With a blast she rocketed into the air. Though her heart was racing, she focused all her mind on her hands, willing the nanobytes in her bloodstream to congregate there, to turn on their power, and to let it build and grow. She could feel her fingers burning as she stopped a few yards from Heathcliff’s gigantic noggin.
“Only one Matilda left?” he said, laughing maniacally.
“You never thought much of me, Heathcliff. You thought you could label me—misfit, nerd, fighter—but it turns out there’s a lot more to me than even I knew.”
“Yes, now you’re a cheerleader. What a complete waste of time. Now fly away before I swat you.”
Matilda was starting to feel dizzy. The power in her hands was intense and threatened to overcome her. She only had to hold on for a few more seconds until the nanobytes were at their maximum charge. She reached into her utility belt for the old grandfather statue, then shoved it into the tip of her inhaler.
“Give me an O!” she shouted.
Heathcliff smirked. “What is this silliness?”
“Give me a U!”
Heathcliff fired another stream of heat vision at her, which she narrowly avoided. “Why won’t you die, already?”
“Give me a C!” she said.
“When I get my hands on you—”
“Give me an H! What’s that spell?”
“Ouch?”
“Yeah, ouch!” And then she squeezed the trigger on her inhaler. The stone statue blasted toward Heathcliff. Its blunt end slammed into the glowing bridge device and the helmet shattered. It also smacked Brainstorm in the skull with a savage force. There was a huge explosion and Matilda flew backward, slamming her head hard onto the ground. She could feel blackness overtaking her. She was sure she was going to die. Her heart felt like it was ready to leap from her chest. But she had to see. She sat up and watched Heathcliff’s giant head waver off balance. There was a loud groan and then he fell over backward. The last thing Matilda saw was a nasty red welt form right between his eyes.
When Matilda opened her eyes, she found her six brothers standing over her.
“Awww, man! She’s alive,” they cried.
“No one is getting my room,” she said.
“Monkeys! Out!” she heard her mother shout and the boys scattered. Her mother and father were standing over her hospital bed. Molly was holding the old grandfather statue in her hand. Ben was pacing.
“Um, am I OK?” Matilda said, looking at the monitors and tubes attached to her arm.
“The doctors say you’ll be fine,” her father said. “I’m sure we don’t need to tell you that you’re grounded until you’re forty.”
“Your librarian says it was a cheerleading accident. I say shenanigans!” Molly said.
Matilda took a deep breath. It was time to tell them the truth. She sat up in bed and described the last year and a half of her life. She told them about her abilities and the missions she had been on. She talked about walking in space and going to alternate realities. She told them about Mr. Brand and Ms. Holiday and the lunch lady and the rest of the team. She explained about Nathan Hale Elementary, and when she was done, she sat back and looked at her parents’ astonished faces.
It was then that Mr. Brand stepped at the room. “Mr. and Mrs. Choi, I am sure you have a million questions. I am fully prepared to answer them when you are ready.”
“Oh, you will!” Molly said.
“What happened to Brainstorm?” Matilda asked.
“He’s heavily sedated. They’re pumping him full of drugs to keep him asleep. The science team believes that if he wakes up, he’ll be able to cause more chaos, so he’s going to stay in dreamland for a while.”
“If he wakes up, I’ll be ready,” Matilda said. “And the cheerleaders?”
“All safe and sound,” Agent Brand said, “though McKenna broke her phone in the chaos. I don’t think she’s ever going to be the same. The rest of your team has recovered and their nanobytes have been re-installed.”
“Did we save the world?”
Brand nodded. “As far as I can tell, we saved all of them. Get some rest, Agent Wheezer. It won’t be long before we need you to save us again.”
The goon knocked out the window at a tiny roadside motel room and let himself in. He went straight for the bathroom and stood before the filthy mirror staring at his bandaged face. He had to know what was underneath. Using his hook he slashed at the bandages. What he uncovered could hardly be called a face—red and raw with exposed skin and muscle. It was grotesque.
In anger, he punched the mirror. It shattered and fell into the sink.
“You sacrificed me for your own foolish plan,” he raged, as if his boss, the child, were standing in front of him. “You threw me away like I was trash, and look where it got ya. You’re a freakish monster filled with sedatives. They ain’t never going to let you wake up. Well, I’m not sitting around waiting for ya anymore. It’s time this goon got promoted.”