Chapter 26 - The Reality Pen

Art by YinYangMyriad

I found Percy in the office, writing on a notepad with a fountain pen. "Percy, what's going on?" I asked as I heard the Red Vines pelting the castle roof.

"I'm not really sure," Percy said.

"Don't lie to me, Percy," I said. "Why is it raining Red Vines?"

"I don't know," Percy said. "I just found this pen lying around in the office, and it's making weird things happen."

I glanced at the notepad that Percy was writing on, and aside from a few stray ink marks, the only thing that was on it were the words "Red Vines for all mankind" scrawled onto the paper. "How are you doing this?" I asked.

"I told you - I don't know," Percy said. "I just write things with the pen, and they happen."

All of a sudden, Terry walked into the room. "Percy, why is it raining Red Vines?" he asked.

"That's what I just asked him," I said.

"Did you get a good answer?" Terry asked.

"Not really," I said.

"I just have no idea what's going on," Percy said.

"I'll go get Vanessa," Terry said. "She might know what's happening."

Terry left, and a few minutes later, he came back with Vanessa. She immediately inspected the pen, hoping to find out how it worked. After staring at the writing utensil for a few minutes, she tried to pull it apart.

"What are you doing?" Percy shouted. "You're going to break it!"

"I want to see how it works," Vanessa said.

"Percy's right," Terry said. "If we destroy the pen now, we may never learn how it works or the full extent of its power."

"Fine," Vanessa said. She took the pen and notepad and wrote "Please stop making it rain Red Vines. It's kind of obnoxious." However, the Red Vines continued to fall from the sky.

"That's odd," Percy said. "Why doesn't it work when you write with it?"

"I don't know," Vanessa said.

"Let me try," I said. Vanessa handed me the pen and notepad, and I wrote "Make it rain cupcakes AND Red Vines!"

Vanessa rolled her eyes, while Terry ran to the window. "It's still just raining Red Vines," he said. "I don't see any cupcakes."

"Why don't you give it a try?" Vanessa said as she took the pen and notepad out of my hands and gave them to Terry.

Terry shrugged and wrote "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."

"What's that supposed to do?" Vanessa asked.

"I don't know," Terry said. "I just like that quote."

"Write something that might actually work, Terry," Vanessa said.

Terry sighed and wrote "Please make it stop raining Red Vines" on the notepad, but nothing happened. The flood of candy continued unabated.

"Are you sure that it wasn't just a fluke, Percy?" Vanessa said.

"I'm sure," Percy said. "My phone ran out of battery, but I didn't feel like going downstairs to charge it, so I wrote myself a note with this pen to remind myself to charge my phone. As soon as I wrote the note, my phone charged itself."

"Maybe you just misread your phone's battery level," Vanessa suggested.

"That's what I thought at first, so I wrote 'Turn off the gravity in the castle,' but that happened too," Percy said. "Once I realized the pen's power, I turned the gravity back on and tried to write 'Peace for all mankind," but the pen wouldn't do that, so I wrote 'Red Vines for all mankind' instead. Obviously, that worked pretty well."

"If you can make it rain Red Vines, can you make it stop?" Vanessa said. "I wasn't lying when I said that I thought that it was obnoxious."

"Why would I want it to stop?" Percy asked. "I'll get to eat as much licorice as I want!" Vanessa rolled her eyes, and Percy said, "I'll do something else instead."

Percy wrote "Paint the office turquoise" on the notepad, and all of a sudden, the walls of the office turned turquoise.

"Why did you do that?" Vanessa asked.

"Why not?" Percy said.

"You know, this could be the most powerful artifact in the world in someone else's hands," Vanessa said. "You could create world peace or solve world hunger..."

"I already tried to create world peace," Percy said.

"Try it again," Vanessa said.

Percy nodded and tried to write "Peace for all mankind," but by the time he was done writing the first "P," the pen was out of ink.

"That's really strange," Vanessa said. "My point still stands though."

"I'm solving world hunger right now," Percy said. "Think of how many starving children are being saved by my Red Vines right now."

"Red Vines don't exactly fill anyone's nutritional needs," Vanessa said, but Percy ignored her. "Anyways, I'm going to go find my copy of the Encyclopedia of Superheroic Artifacts. Maybe it will tell us more about this mysterious pen."

As soon as Vanessa left the room, I said, "To be honest, I think the pen is really cool."

"Thanks," Percy said. "Do you have any idea where it might have come from? I just found it lying around the office, but I doubt that Ellen would leave a superheroic artifact in the office for no reason."

"Actually, that sounds like something Aunt Ellen would do," Terry said.

"She didn't leave it lying around," I said. "In fact, I'm not sure that she ever knew that it was here. I found it in Roosevelt's Cave and left it in the office."

"Why would you leave such a powerful artifact lying around?" Percy asked.

"I was going to sell it online," I said. "I thought that it was just a fancy pen - I didn't think that it was an artifact."

"You found it in Roosevelt's Cave," Terry argued. "If you find a fancy pen in the first superhuman president's stash of superheroic artifacts, it's same to assume that the pen is an artifact."

"Besides, what would happen if this got into the wrong hands?" Percy said.

"And you're suggesting that your hands are the right hands?" Vanessa said as she re-entered the room. This time, she was carrying a heavy book.

"Did you find anything in the encyclopedia?" Terry asked.

"I think so," Vanessa said. She opened the Encyclopedia of Superheroic Artifacts and turned it to an article titled "The Reality Pen." All four of us began to read.

THE REALITY PEN

One of the many superheroic artifacts supposedly located inside Theodore Roosevelt's legendary Cave, The Reality Pen, as suggested by its name, has the power to warp reality. It appears to be an ordinary fountain pen, but the inscription on the side with the name of the artifact on it reveals the pen's true nature. Writing with the pen will cause the words written to become reality - however, only certain individuals have the superpowers necessary to unleash the power of the Reality Pen.

According to legend, the Reality Pen was created by an unknown manufacturer somewhere in Europe in the late 1800s or early 1900s, and it came into Roosevelt's possession in 1910. King George V of Great Britain gave the Reality Pen to Roosevelt as a gift, as he was traveling in Europe at the time. The gift commemorated both world leaders' superhuman heritage - historically, superhumans have been well represented among heads of state around the world, but by the early 20th century, only a few superhuman world leaders remained due to increased persecution and superhumans' higher death rate in comparison to normal humans. Roosevelt placed the Reality Pen inside his namesake cave alongside such fabled artifacts as the Elixir of Immortality shortly before his death in 1919.

The Reality Pen is designed to channel the powers of those with the ability to manipulate language. Without this power, the Reality Pen functions like an ordinary pen, but in the hands of a superhuman with the power to manipulate language, the Reality Pen can cause this person's written words to become reality. Because of this extraordinary power, many language manipulators have coveted the Reality Pen. Expeditions to find Roosevelt's Cave and the Reality Pen have been put into place since the 1920s, but no expedition to find the Reality Pen has ever been successful.

The only real limitation of the Reality Pen's power is its tendency to run out of ink if the user attempts to warp reality in a way that is too extreme for the Reality Pen to handle. This prevents the user from drastically changing the status quo of the planet. The pen may also suddenly run out of ink if the user attempts to warp reality too many times in a single day.

The current whereabouts of the Reality Pen are unknown. Several famous superheroes have claimed to have visited Roosevelt's Cave, but none of these trips to the cave have been confirmed by independent sources. It is possible that the Reality Pen is still inside Roosevelt's Cave, but because no person has traveled to the cave, it is impossible to know if the Pen is still there or if the cave exists at all. However, like many superheroic artifacts, the Reality Pen has sparked the imaginations of superhumans and normals alike.

"Well, this explains a lot," Percy commented when he finished reading.

"I don't remember seeing the Reality Pen in Roosevelt's Cave though," Vanessa said.

"I picked it up when we were there," I said. "I left it in the office afterwards."

"Jay thought that it was a normal pen!" Terry exclaimed, laughing.

"At least Percy found a good use for it," I said.

"No kidding!" Percy exclaimed. "This thing is great!" He picked up the Reality Pen again and wrote "I guess we can stop making it rain Red Vines now" on his notepad, and all of a sudden, the rain stopped. He then tried to write something else, but the pen ran out of ink.

"I guess that's enough reality warping for one day," Vanessa said.

"That's unfortunate," Percy said. "I was going to deliver a box of chocolates to Declan."

"Don't even bring that man up," Vanessa said.

"I'm sorry," Percy said. "Can we play Super Smash Bros. or something?"

"Didn't we just do that?" I said.

"I didn't get to play, but I'd probably lose anyways," Vanessa said. "Why don't we watch a movie?"

"I suppose that works," Percy said.

After some bickering over which movie to watch, we finally decided on one and watched it. As soon as the movie was over, however, I had to go home. Dad still wasn't too happy that I was hanging out with Ellen's apprentices, so I had to be home somewhat early.

The next morning, I ran into Declan on my way into the San Urbano Times building. "The strangest thing happened this morning," Declan said.

"Why are you telling me about it?" I asked.

"Vanessa won't talk to me anymore, and you're the only other superhuman working here that I know of," Declan whispered. "This random box of chocolates showed up in the base this morning, and I don't know where it came from."

"It's probably from Percy," I said.

"He's never been to my base since I moved though," Declan said. "I'm not even sure that he knows where it is."

"He must have used the Reality Pen then," I said.

"What's a Reality Pen?" Declan asked.

"It's exactly what it sounds like - a pen that can warp reality," I said.

"Wait, are you telling me that Percy can warp reality now, and he used it to send me a box of chocolates?" Declan said. "What a waste of potential." He opened the door to the San Urbano Times building, and we headed in our separate directions.

Later that day, I borrowed Vanessa's computer and searched through the archives for articles about Michele Russell. I couldn't find anything, so I searched "Michele Sasaki," but I couldn't find anything there either. My curiosity about my mother's past was started to drive me crazy, and if the archives couldn't help me, then what could?

I had visited Mr. Russell a handful of times over the last few weeks, but I had never asked him the questions that I really needed to ask. The two of us needed to have a real talk, and now that my friends' drama had calmed down a little bit, I could do that. I decided to ask him about my mother as soon as I could. If anyone could give me answers, he could. For now, however, I was happy knowing that I had helped Percy increase his powers, even if it was by accident.

A/N: Thanks for reading Villains For Hire! I will be out of town for the rest of the week, so please be patient because the next update will not arrive until after I get back. There are nine chapters left for this book - I can't believe that I'm almost done! In the meantime, thank you so much for supporting my work! :)