KIM - How to enjoy an hotel room

Next thing I knew, I was in a very classy and expensive hotel room in Kailua-Kona and nowhere near going home. Just by car it took more than 1 hour to get to Honoka'a and I had, well, none. I guessed the easiest thing to do would be to ask these guys to teleport me home.

I had settled down on the bed, my back supported by what seemed like a mountain of extremely cozy pillows. I had also found a very comfortable bathrobe to wrap myself in. Not that it wasn't comfortable to be in swimwear but my bikini felt a little out of place. God be good, I was going to get this hotel's address. Even if I knew I was never coming back. There even was a toffee on one of the many pillows surrounding us. As I grabbed it, my attention caught something: the bruise on my arm was a pale yellow. I had always healed pretty quickly but, even for me, this was way too fast. What in the world is happening ?

Saturn stared at me fiercely, as if he was trying to register every single information about me through his eyes. I was kind of getting spooked – can he read my DNA ? – so I sat upright and stared at him right back. He didn't have tanned skin like me. Actually, his looked almost red from over-exposure. His eyes were slightly slanted. He wasn't extremely tall, just normal height but he looked much more mature than any 17-year-old. Or at least, it felt like he was around 17.

He suddenly turned away from our little staring confrontation and rolled his desk chair all the way to a computer. He started typing with a frightening pace, the kind of one you only get from practice. A lot of practice. From the distance, I could swear he was writing some sort of report. The scientific kind. Observation, explication, conclusion. Except no scientist usually writes a report about me or teleportation.

He turned and started asking questions, taking notes non-stop, "Your name ? Age ? Address ? School ?"

"Kimberley Aries Asdan, 17 years old, 9 Lewa Road in Honoka'a, Hoku'ula Private High School."

And he turned back around before typing a dozen more lines. The situation was getting extremely awkward when I spotted a slight movement on the corner of my eye. As I turned my head, I saw Mercury, Neptune and Chaos materialize next to the desk. Immediately, Neptune jumped on the bed next to me and sat back with a smile. Mercury positioned herself on the mat, near Saturn's leg, looking extremely possessive of him. Don't worry Mercury, I get it. She then looked up and calmly asked "Found anything ?".

"Yeah a few things" he answered. Then, he turned his laptop to me. "That you ?", he demanded, showing me a picture of my Passport.

"Yeah... how'd you even get that ? I don't even know where my mom keeps it."

"I've hacked the state's data center. Very practical" he answered. He did what ? Isn't that a crime ? "Born on the 21st march in Hawaii. Never moved out of the state but took a few trips in foreign countries. No family other than parents and sister. Attends a highly competitive gymnastic club since childhood and has participated in a number of national competitions. Normal schooling with excellent grades in Spanish and French."

"That's all correct but why the heck do you have this information ?" I muttered. I was slowly getting spooked out. Forget about falling straight in the volcano. Having some stranger blurt out all your personal info was scarier. Chaos was looking at me with a perplexed expression on his face. Really, will someone please explain what's happening here ? 'Cause this is scary, real scary...

Apparently, Neptune was feeling sorry for me. "Kimmy, you already know that we are aliens, right ?" I nodded. "Basically, a very important member of our population was lost near Earth about 18 years ago. We were sent here to get that person back. And, as of right now, you possess the main characteristics this person should have."

"But I'm extremely normal. I've got a perfectly normal and banal life. Nothing strange or whatever."

Chaos raised an eyebrow and asked "Nothing strange ? You were teleported above the volcano less than one hour ago." Okay, he has a point. "If you don't consider that weird than your life is definitely not as normal as you believe it to be."

At that point, I didn't really know what to say. Sure, a bunch of weird things had happened to me since childhood but they had also happened to Amy. Plus, they always had been a realistic explanation. I hunched forward and started mumbling "I'm pretty positive that I'm a human. I think I would know if I happened to be... you know, uhm, an alien ?" Is it rude to tell them they are aliens ?

Mercury laughed. "It's okay to describe us as aliens" she told me. "Don't panic. We didn't tell you that you actually happened to be an alien. We're just thinking that you may be one. Your age matches with the person we're looking for. Your sportive. And you're very good at foreign languages. That's about all we have."

That's when something hit me. "Wait..." I pointed my finger at Chaos. "You just said I was teleported. So I wasn't the one who used your genetically modified alien powers or whatever they may be."

Saturn raised his head from his laptop in a hurry. "She's right. But that limits our research to 10 thousand persons or so on this island;"

"Haven't you forgotten the tourists ?" snickered Neptune. Deep inside, I was on the same page as him. Knowing I wasn't the one they were looking for would hardly broaden their research. They were thousands of tourists transitioning regularly in Hawaii, including many teenagers. That person could have already left the state right at this point.

That's when Chaos interrupted my trail of thoughts. "Our powers have a unique chemical signature Nep. We just have to trail the signature and we'll get an approximate zone. Plus, teleporting someone in an unknown place is almost impossible. The person who sent Kim above the volcano is someone who went there on a regular basis." It made sense. On Hawaii, most kids visit the Volcanoes National Park more than once, through school activities. But a tourist would usually only go once. Chaos turned his head towards me. "Where were you before..."

"Before being zapped above lava? At Waipi'o black sand beach. A lot of teens from Honoka'a go there since it's only a short drive away." Just after I said that Saturn started typing at mad speed. 15 minutes of silence passed. A diagram materialized on the screen, shortly followed by a map of the island. Part of it was put in evidence in blue. The search zone, from what I saw, followed the coast from the beach to Pa'auilo then went straight down to 'Umikoa before going left to Waimea. Honoka'a was basically in the middle of it.

"Still it's a large zone" I muttered under my breath. They all turned around to stare at me. "Waimea's got like 9 thousand citizens or something. Basically, your search zone is almost half of the Hāmākua district and part of the South Kohala district. Together, they encompass almost 20 thousand residents. That's huge. Plus, you guys' search criteria aren't restrictive enough. 18, sportive and good in foreign languages that's almost every teen on this island. We mainly live from tourism and most kids here learn how to swim from a young age."

"Perhaps" Saturn started. "But that's still a lot less than what we had ever hoped for. And the person we are looking for might have unconsciously used his powers before. I've managed to roughly identify this person's signature so I could maybe restrict the search area some more." Turning to Chaos, he added "It will take some time though. We'll have to stay here longer than what was originally planned."

Mercury let out a squeak – I was almost certain it was one of joy - and quickly asked "How long ?"

"At least one month. Maybe two." While he seemed annoyed at the idea of staying on Earth any longer, the other three seemed quite pleased with it. Guess alien worlds aren't as cool as humans think they should be.

As Mercury and Chaos concentrated on the laptop, Neptune turned towards me, with a sly smile on his face. "Say Kimmy, I heard humans have something called a curfew. Do you have one?"

I felt a pang of panic go through me. As I looked for a clock or a watch or anything, Neptune took out a smartphone and showed me the hour. 8:25. I only had 5 minutes left before curfew. Mom was going to kill me. I shot up from the bed and bolted. As I reached the door I turned around and, beet-red, mumbled "Uhm... Can one of you teleport me back home ?"