Back in Charlie’s bedroom, the kids tackled their job of picking their new animal abilities much more seriously than they had done before. Now that they knew the scientists were counting on them, they wanted to get it right.
Charlie’s wheels were turning. “I wonder what would be the best thing for me,” she mused. She’d eliminated everything they’d written down from the zoo and the aquariums they’d visited. Nothing seemed like a perfect fit. And she already had a really well-rounded set of abilities. But what was missing? What was her device’s weakness? She began searching randomly. The room was quiet for a long time.
Over the next few hours Charlie found a number of animals she thought were cool. But none of them really seemed like they would add much to what she already had—or what her friends could help her with. She put down her laptop and started pacing the bedroom. Maybe she was going at this all wrong. She was thinking a lot about what was cool. But maybe she should be thinking about what would foil the bad guys. Was there anything that would give her an advantage over Dr. Gray and his soldiers? And Kelly now, too?
She looked up suddenly. “That’s it,” she said. “That’s what matters.”
“What matters?” said Maria. Mac looked up, curious.
“Kelly.”
Mac raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
Charlie explained. “I got to thinking that it would be great if my new ability could be something that could combat the soldiers. But we don’t know what new abilities Dr. Gray is going to give them. I mean, we can expect one of them to have some sort of jellyfish stinger or something. I’m not sure how worried we need to be about that.”
“I’m safe from it, anyway,” said Mac. “With my pangolin suit.”
“Right. But we’re not sure Dr. Gray will end up using it in the end. But we do know one thing.”
“What Kelly’s abilities are,” said Maria, sitting up.
“Exactly. So maybe I should try to combat those in some way.”
“As long as it’s an animal you like and feel good about,” said Mac, “I think that’s a great idea.”
“The thing I feel best about,” said Charlie, her expression stern, “is being able to beat Kelly before she beats us. And there’s only one ability she’s got that can do us in.”
“Which one?” asked Mac.
Charlie looked from Mac to Maria and back again. “The cuttlefish.”
Maria stared. “Seriously? That’s the one you’re worried about? Not the platypus?”
“Well, sure,” said Charlie. “The platypus spikes would hurt, but I can heal pretty quickly and probably still stop her from doing anything if I saw her coming. But that’s the important part—what if I don’t see her? It’s her invisibility I’m worried about. And worse, the hypnotism thing. That’s really scary. What if she tries to convince us that we should help Dr. Gray?”
The others’ eyes widened at the thought. It was horrifying but entirely possible. After what Kelly was able to do to convince all her teachers that she no longer went to school at Summit? Convincing her parents that she didn’t exist? Charlie was right. That made them all vulnerable.
“The hypnotism is mostly effective on people who aren’t expecting it,” said Mac. “But we know about it. So we can always look away. Nine times out of ten I bet that’ll work.”
“Good point,” said Charlie. “So it’s the invisibility that is the biggest threat.”
“What kind of ability can counter that?” asked Maria.
“I can’t think of anything, unless there’s some animal that spits paint or detects motion that the human eye can’t see,” said Mac. He frowned.
“I know,” said Charlie. “This is a tough one.”
They sat quietly again, then went back to their research to see if they could find any animals that could detect invisible predators. A while later, Charlie landed on a page made of gold. “Ahhh,” she said.
“Did you find something?” asked Mac, leaning over to look at her page.
“I think so,” said Charlie, skimming the information.
“What is it?” asked Maria. She scooted around to get a glimpse too. “A pit viper? What’s that?”
“It’s a type of venomous snake,” said Charlie. She scrolled and kept reading.
“I don’t get it,” said Maria. “I thought you were going for something to detect Kelly when she’s invisible. Did you change your mind? Are you going to try to match her poison with some of your own?”
“No,” said Charlie. “Not the venom part. This.” She turned her screen to face her friends and pointed. “Infrared heat vision.”
Maria and Mac read the description. “Whoa,” said Mac. “This is pretty cool. It’s kind of like those night-vision goggles that hunters use. And spies and stuff in the movies.”
“Yep,” said Charlie, looking smug.
“But you already have night vision,” said Maria. “From your bat. Won’t that work?”
“No, my echolocation only works when it’s dark. This would allow me to see someone invisible like Kelly anytime of the day or night by detecting the heat she gives off.”
“That could really help us out,” said Mac.
“And the best part about it,” said Maria, “is that Kelly will never see it coming.”