Melinda Metz - The Stowaway

"That was so cool!" Maria cried.

Max opened his eyes, feeling shaky with relief. He'd done it. He didn't know how, but he'd done it. All eight of them were standing in the museum's little coffee shop.

Liz shook her head. "It should have been impossible. How could you have re-formed us when your own brain was in pieces?"

"You even put my leg back the right way," Cameron added. She kicked her leg out a few times. "No broken bone."

"And you managed to bring our clothes," Michael said, "What a guy"

"I didn't bring the Jeep, though," Max answered. "I guess I'll have to tell Dad that Isabel left the keys in it again and someone stole it." He glanced over at his sister. She had her eyes lowered, and he could tell she hadn't even heard what he'd said. She just needs a little decompression time, he thought.

"I have a theory-well, not about the clothes part, but about the other part. Want to hear my theory?" Maria asked. She bounced back and forth on her toes, obviously enjoying an adrenaline high.

Max smiled at her. "I would love to hear your theory." In fact, there was nothing he'd like more. He wanted to stand here for a minute and hang with his friends like a normal person.

"There are some massage therapists who believe memory is stored in the body, not just in the brain," Maria explained. "Supposedly they can help people tap into a repressed memory just by touching them in the right place. Anyway, I think maybe our molecules remembered where they belonged."

"Either that or the molecule fairy put them back together for us," Alex said.

"Molecule fairy?" Adam repeated, a faint frown on his face.

Max was struck by just how few days Adam had had in the real world. He had a lot of lost time to make up for. Max promised himself he'd help him do it.

"Adam, there's something you have to know about Alex," Michael told him. "He's a moron."

Everyone laughed except Isabel. "So what do we do now?" she asked, her voice harsh.

Max rubbed the back of his neck. "The wormhole," he answered. "I don't think we have any choice." He braced himself for another round of protests. They didn't come. Probably because they'd all gotten a firsthand look at how phenomenally powerful DuPris was, how impossible it would be for them to come up with a plan to defeat him.

"When?" Liz asked, wrapping her arms around her waist.

"As soon as we can figure out a way to catch DuPris a little off guard," Max answered. "Any ideas?"

"We could all dress up like hookers," Alex suggested, voice flat.

"I think we should eat, get some rest, then meet up and start working on a plan," Liz said.

"We don't have time for that," Michael answered, his voice grim. "Look!"

Max followed Michael's gaze and saw a network of veins forming a few feet away. "DuPris followed us!" he cried.

"Not just DuPris," Michael shot back. And Max realized there were two other bodies beginning to form-the hunters.

"How long will it take you to open the wormhole?" Alex demanded.

"I don't know," Max admitted.

"Go upstairs and start the process," Liz ordered. "Ray's bedroom is pretty much over the coffee shop. We'll keep DuPris in here. You open the hole above him."

"How are you going-" Max began to protest.

"Let us worry about that!" Liz exclaimed. "Now go!"

Max ran for the staircase. Liz checked on DuPris. His organs had formed, but he still had no eyes. "Michael, Isabel, Adam, make all of us look like DuPris!" she cried.

"What good will that do?" Isabel yelled.

"I don't know. But we have to try something, and maybe we can confuse the hunters," Liz explained in a rush. "They won't attack us if they think there's a possibility we're DuPris."

Adam stepped up in front of her and put his hands on her face. She felt her flesh begin to shift, her bones softening and re-forming in a new configuration. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Michael working on Cameron. She glanced in the other direction. Isabel already had Alex and Maria looking exactly like DuPris.

"Done," Adam announced.

"Do yourself. Hurry!" Liz urged. Flesh was covering DuPris's body and the long, thin frames of the bounty hunters. But DuPris's eye sockets were still empty, and the dozens of little bumps that were the bounty hunters' eyes hadn't formed yet.

"Now what?" Isabel asked.

"Now we try to buy Max some time," Liz answered. She forced herself to stand right next to DuPris, and she was the first thing he looked at when his eyes formed.

"I'm tired of games," he told her. He reached for her throat.

"Are you two lumps going to stand there while he attacks me?" she yelled at the bounty hunters, striving for DuPris's arrogant tone. "Kill him!"

The bounty hunters responded immediately, so fast on their long legs. One of them grabbed DuPris by the hair.

"Touch me again and I'll turn you into ash right now," DuPris barked. The bounty hunter let go. DuPris pointed at Liz. "That one is an imposter. Destroy it!"

"Both of them are impostors!" another voice that sounded like DuPris's called from behind her. "Leave them and follow me!"

The hunters hesitated, looking at each other. Then one moved up to DuPris and one moved up to Liz. It leaned close, closer.

Hurry up, Max, she thought. She squeezed her eyes shut as the hunter began using its mouth tentacles to explore her face.

Max felt the consciousness pulling the power out of him, stretching it out and up as they frantically tried to construct a tunnel between his world and theirs.

He knew only part of the power for the wormhole had to come from him. The power of the consciousness would create one piece of the tunnel.

But he was exhausted, and he wasn't sure he had enough power in him to make this work. He tried not to resist as the consciousness yanked more power from him. He thought he could feel his body withering on the inside, as if blood and other vital fluids were somehow being taken out of him, too.

You're imagining it, he told himself. But he hadn't imagined the dried-out spot on his neck. The process, whatever it was, obviously had an effect on his body.

There's no other way to get DuPris back, he reminded himself, gritting his teeth as the power was drawn out of him even more rapidly.

He heard a sucking sound, and for a second he thought he was actually hearing his power being siphoned from his body. Then he realized that it was the sound of the wormhole beginning to open.

Max tried to swallow, but there was no saliva left in his mouth. His tongue felt like a hunk of sandpaper.

There wasn't much left in him, he realized. Not much power. Not much of anything.

He just had to hope there was enough to finish opening the hole.

Isabel shot a glance at the swirling spot in the ceiling almost directly over Liz's and DuPris's heads. It was as if the plaster in the spot had turned to thick pudding that was being stirred by an invisible spoon. It had to be the wormhole beginning to open. Any time now, Max, she thought.

She returned her gaze to Liz and the bounty hunter. It was using one of its tentacles to trace the inside of her ear. Even watching sent shivers of revulsion through Isabel.

"I told you, I'm over here!" Isabel shouted. "Come on! We have work to do!"

The hunters didn't respond. They'd clearly decided to examine the first two DuPrises completely before they did anything else. Would Liz's disguise fool them? Why hasn't DuPris shifted shape again? She assumed, from the worn expression on his face, that he had exhausted too much of his power to shape-shift again. Or maybe DuPris knew there was something in Liz's scent or shape that would give her away.

Isabel hated just standing there watching. She wondered if she should slip away and go upstairs. Maybe Max needed help opening the wormhole.