interdimensional investigations initiative - invasion

Chapter 4- ryan the criminal mastermind

RYAN WENT AFTER the school bus tires on Friday after school. It scared the devil out of him to go through with this. He was running out of time, though he was starting to wonder if it mattered. Maybe he could take a side trip out to the TUIST by stealing his folks' minivan, then go and destroy Dr. Inman's office. Or steal his computer... he was terrible at coming up with villainous ideas.

He checked traffic and looked at the houses facing the Inkster Department of Education parking lot for way longer than was strictly necessary, then leaped up to the top of the wall and looped a leg over before he could psych himself out and fail at this before he even got started.

He dropped into a weird foreign country. Buses sat in perfect rows, lined up in a way that reminded him of headstones. This was not a part of the high school, and it caused his heart to pound at double speed. What would he say if he was caught?

"Don't get caught," he told himself.

He ran in a ridiculous crouch across the parking lot to where the high school buses were parked. They were taking the whole ninth and tenth grades on Monday... he had to deal with something like a dozen buses. This was a terrible idea.

The tires didn't want to blow up with a simple knife jab. He had underestimated the thickness of bus tire rubber, or the flimsiness of his knife. It broke on the third stab attempt, and he cut his own finger a little. Idiot.

He contemplated just letting the air out, but figured they could probably refill the tires in time.

This caused him to head all the way back home on his bike, figure out how to stuff a crowbar into his school backpack, figure out how to lug it all the way back to the school when it was super extra awkward, and then hop the wall again.

Once again, the quick jab failed utterly and completely. The pointed end of the crowbar, which looked quite a lot like a giant screwdriver end, simply bounced off the tire. It did not, however, threaten to break off and send a shard of metal flying just past his head like the knife blade had.

Shudder.

He was making himself sick doing this, though he was laughing almost all the way. Acid bubbled up into his stomach, but he laughed anyway. He shivered with the clammy adrenalin rush the whole time.

After several more failed whacks, he pressed his thumbs into the pins and let the air out of each and every one of the dozen buses with INKSTER HIGH SCHOOL on the sides. This simple, yet ridiculously difficult task took him almost two straight hours of sweating, pushing, and frantically looking over his shoulder.

"Yeesh," he said.

And later, after it was over, he still felt no relief.

iii

"I'm thinking we could do a complete crossover," Ryan said.

Derek looked awkward in the coffee shop, pressing into the sides of his chair uncomfortably and frowning down at the squeaky table where their books were spread out. Next to Ryan, Ginny curled into her chair and mostly disappeared behind the Creature Collection. She made surprised and amazed noises every once in a while.

Ryan didn't care. Some part of him knew the field trip was canceled, sure. The rest of him was terrified that nothing had changed. His right wrist still periodically itched and burned. He was starting to be a bit more comfortable with Ginny's presence... a bit.

Now he was trying to turn his mind to dating her: where should he take her? What kinds of food would she like? How long before his mother started to get suspicious about him having sex? Whoa. Was sex even theoretically possible? He was fifteen years old, and that was physically possible, sure, but was Ginny...