by Lisa McMann
Charlie reluctantly agreed. She said good night to the scientists and slid off her chair.
As she headed for the door, Dr. Jakande’s communication device crackled. Everyone turned.
“Is it Ms. Sabbith?” asked Charlie. “Did you get Maria’s device to work?”
Nubia shook her head and pointed to her suit collar. “It’s my built-in,” she said grimly. “I thought I was done hearing from Miko. Let’s listen.”
Charlie’s eyes widened. A familiar voice came through.
“Zed,” Miko said in a harsh whisper. “I don’t know if you’re there, but if you are … well … something really bad happened. Maybe you’ve heard by now. Oh—!” There was a sudden loud crackle and a voice in the background. Then silence.
“That was Kelly!” said Charlie. “Did she just shut Miko down?”
Dr. Jakande looked fearfully at the others. “Should I try to respond?”
Dr. Wilde looked at Dr. Sharma and Dr. Goldstein. Slowly Quinn shook her head. “We can’t risk it—not if Kelly’s there with her. She might tell Dr. Gray that Miko’s trying to contact you, and we don’t know what he could do to her. Besides, we don’t want to give them any idea that we’re the slightest bit interested in what they’re doing.” She paused, thinking. “We need to stay consistent and ignore.”
Charlie watched Dr. Jakande carefully. Did the woman look the slightest bit guilty? Had she been telling the truth about not being in contact with Miko? Or … maybe that was worry on her face. It was sometimes hard to tell with the fur and whiskers.
The scientists debated a little more, but ultimately stuck with the decision. When nothing more happened, Charlie dragged her body to bed, wondering what the bad thing was that had happened.
By morning, all questions about Dr. Jakande and Miko were forgotten, for on the kitchen table by the cereal boxes lay three bracelets, a sealed envelope, and a note.
Devices are ready for action! Communication feature not working quite yet—will fix that and any other glitches when you return. Enjoy your trip.
Love, Dad
P.S. There’s money in the envelope in case you need anything. If you have any left over, maybe you can do good with it. I know you’ll think of something.
CHAPTER 24
Doing Good in the Neighborhood
Maria, Mac, and Charlie got off the plane in San Juan and saw Maria’s abuela Yolanda waiting for them. She greeted them with warm hugs, then showed them the way to the car.
The long drive to her house was a big eye-opener. Near the ocean, sailboats were capsized on land and beaches washed away. Inland, buildings were toppled onto cars. Roofs blown off. Debris was everywhere, piled along the road, waiting for someone to haul it away.
“Puerto Rico will never be the same,” Yolanda told them. As they finally neared her house, she pointed out a small grocery store that stood open and appeared to have had little damage. But next to it a row of houses had been flattened, as if a bulldozer had plowed them over.
Yolanda slowed the car in front of a narrow side road that led steeply uphill. “Look up there,” she said. The street was covered in debris—large trees, overturned cars. Pieces of roofs and entire walls. The area around it was razed. “Nobody can get through.”
“Does anyone live up there?” asked Maria.
“Lots of people,” said Yolanda. “They’re stranded on the other side of this mess until the machines can get here to dig them out. We don’t know if they are okay or not.”
The kids stared at the destruction. It was worse than they’d seen on TV. Way worse.
Yolanda continued with the sobering tour. “There are a lot of places that we can’t get to. Streets unpassable. Businesses, houses … all of it is gone.” She seemed like she was about to cry, and Charlie didn’t blame her. This was Yolanda’s island. Her home. And it was destroyed.
Maria reached for her grandmother’s hand. “I’m glad you’re okay, Abu.”
The next day, Maria, Charlie, and Mac met the neighbors and together, with Yolanda, worked harder than they’d ever worked before in their lives. They cleared branches and pieces of wood and siding from houses that had been destroyed. They helped move a big fence out of the road. They ran down to the little grocery store to buy goods for an elderly man whose car had been destroyed.
They were constantly working alongside other people in the community, so it was hard to find opportunities to use their devices without being noticed, though occasionally Charlie’s strength automatically kicked in when she was helping to lift something heavy.
That night after dinner, once Abu Yolanda had nodded off to sleep in her chair, the three looked at one another. They weren’t done yet.
“Let’s go to that one road,” said Maria, rummaging in the garage for a battery-powered floodlight.
“The one with all the overturned cars,” said Mac, knowing exactly which one she meant.
“Where the people are stranded on the other side,” said Charlie. “If we can clear that road, maybe we can use our extra trip money to buy food and bring it up there.”
“But can we at least try out our new devices first? They might be able to help us,” asked Mac.
“Of course,” said Charlie.
The three set off through the dark using their phone flashlights. Some temporary street lighting had been set up in spots, but not nearly enough.
They’d had time on the plane to check out their updated devices and scroll through the new designs. Mac had even tried out his basilisk suit in the airplane lavatory, but there was a line behind him so he hadn’t had time to admire it for long. Besides, the tail had almost flopped right into the toilet, so the situation wasn’t ideal. Still, he’d tried to get Maria to test her werealligator in there too, but she didn’t dare after what had happened last time. If there were any sort of glitches it would be hard to explain that to a flight attendant.
The impassable road was deserted. When they neared the worst of the destruction, they stopped and set their phones down, facing them so they could see one another. Maria clicked on the floodlight and stood in its glow.
“I’m going to test the howler monkey mode first,” said Maria. “Just to make sure that still works like it did before. I’m a little nervous to try the alligator.” She tapped her bracelet and slipped into monkey mode. It worked as before. Then she smoothly went back to normal at the touch of a button. Returning to a howler, she retested what would happen if she took the bracelet off, and immediately turned back to her human self. “That all seems to be working great,” she said. “One of you go next while I work up the guts to try my new animal.”
Charlie’s Mark Six had all five of her same abilities plus the new viper vision. The device’s screen was larger and the interface was updated, so she got familiar with that before she poised her finger over the new viper heat-vision ability. “Okay,” she said. “Here goes.”
She clicked on the snake and waited, looking around. Mac and Maria took on a red tinge. “I see some red where your bodies are. So, I guess that means it works.”
“What about out there?” said Mac, pointing to the piles of debris. “I’ll bet you can see all sorts of animals. And people, too, obviously. You’ll be able to tell if anybody’s coming while we’re working.”
“That’s cool,” said Charlie. She turned and looked where Mac was pointing. After a minute, she noticed a few small red blobs moving around. “There! Oh my goodness! I see something!”
“What is it?” asked Mac.
“I think … it’s rats! Or really big mice.” She stared in horror. “I kind of don’t want to see them, but now I can’t look away.”
“Gross,” said Maria.
“Hey, as long as they’re not bugs, I’m good,” said Mac.
Charlie messed around a bit more with her device.
Mac was itching to move on. “Are you ready to see my basilisk lizard suit?”
“Yes,” said Charlie, turning back to the others.
“Sure,” sai
d Maria. “I’ll go after you.”
First Mac double-checked his silvery pangolin suit to make sure nothing got screwed up in the process of adding the new ability. Everything checked out. Then he clicked on his new basilisk lizard ability. Instantly his silvery suit thinned considerably and clung to his body. It took on a greenish metallic tinge and the spikes melted into a smooth, streamlined skin. A long thin tail shot out from the back. The part covering his feet grew larger and cupped, and several metallic toes took shape and spread out.
“Wow, it’s beautiful,” said Maria.
“Thanks,” Mac said, looking at himself all over. “I feel a lot lighter in this than with the pangolin suit. But these feet … seem … weird.”
“Try running,” Maria suggested.
“Maybe I’d better start with walking.” Mac took a few steps, trying to figure out how to negotiate his new body dimensions. He took a few more. Then he stopped and hopped lightly over a tree branch. “I can definitely move better,” he said.
“You’ve lost your clunk,” noted Maria.
Mac hopped around a few more times. “I’ve never been a very good runner,” he said apologetically, “so don’t be disappointed if I don’t go as fast or as smoothly as you expect.”
Charlie smiled. “Don’t worry. Go ahead. Give it a try.”
Mac took a breath and let it out. “I forgot. My inhaler’s in my pocket,” he said, looking sheepish. While Charlie and Maria waited patiently, Mac powered down the suit, used his inhaler, took a few slow breaths, and then clicked on the basilisk lizard. This time green liquid poured from his device and formed the suit. His feet grew cupped and wide as before.
“Okay, cool.” Mac took a few steps, then started jogging.
“You can do this,” Maria encouraged. “Don’t worry about it. It’s the pangolin suit that’s slow—not you, Mac.”
Mac shrugged, knowing that was only partly true. He jogged across the dirt, getting used to his new strange feet and the streamlined effect of the suit. He felt almost buoyant.
He looked that way, too.
“Go faster, Mac!” Charlie called out. “You’re doing great.”
Mac sped up. Surprisingly, he found his legs were incredibly strong—they weren’t getting tired like they always used to when he tried to keep up with Charlie and Maria. He went faster, feeling like he was stepping on springs.
“That’s it,” Charlie encouraged. “You’re moving really fast!”
“I am?” Mac shouted back as he turned to circle around.
“You’re cruising,” said Maria. Instinctively she clicked into monkey mode and ran for the trees so she could move along with Mac and encourage him. “Is your breathing okay?”
“This is hardly winding me at all,” said Mac. “It’s just so … easy! I’ve never … been able … to run like this before.”
Charlie grinned. Whether he’d meant to or not, Dr. Goldstein had given Mac something that nobody had realized Mac wanted. He’d always lagged behind the girls when they ran, and he didn’t have their soccer-playing stamina. He had to be careful because of his asthma. But the girls hardly ever thought about it. They never realized Mac might feel like he was missing out because of it. He’d never said so. But now he was moving like a track star.
Maria swung on the tree branches just behind Mac as he came back to where Charlie stood. Normal Mac would have stopped and probably collapsed, but lizard Mac didn’t even slow down. He flew past Charlie and started up the road, hopping over debris, picking things up and chucking them along the side of the road.
Charlie knew this was important. They’d had to wait for Mac in the past, and that could put them all at risk. Now he could keep up a better than normal pace. If only they could find some water nearby to see how his ability worked. There were some flooded ditches and big puddles around that might do. But that might be dangerous if Mac fell in. Yolanda had warned them that the standing water left over from the hurricane could be filled with bad bacteria or have sharp objects hidden under the surface, so they should stay away from it.
The girls stayed within their lighted area. Charlie clicked on her elephant strength mode and began picking up large tree branches while they waited for Mac to come back. He was breathing harder now, for sure, but wasn’t nearly as winded as he would have been. His grin was wide when he switched back to normal. “This,” he said, wheezing a little, “is awesome.”
“We’ll have to find some clean water for you to try to run on,” said Charlie.
“I could try Yolanda’s bathtub,” said Mac with a laugh.
“There’s always the beach, though I’m not sure what’s left of it,” said Maria. “We’ll have to see how much work we get done here first.”
The other two agreed that the work was more important, at least for now. Then Mac and Charlie turned to Maria, who was still in monkey mode.
“Well?” said Charlie. “Are you ready to become an alligator? Maybe once you’re strong you can help me roll some of these cars over.”
CHAPTER 25
Like Old Times
Maria, still in monkey mode, gave Charlie a nervous look. “I’m scared.”
“Still?” said Charlie. “I don’t get it. You’re not going to get stuck as an alligator. That part got fixed, right?”
“I know,” said Maria. She sighed. “It’s not that.”
“Then what is it?” asked Mac.
“I guess I’m scared of the ferocious part,” she said. “I mean, what if I start attacking people like Kelly did with Andy?”
“Oh, Maria,” Charlie said, “you’ll still be the same on the inside. Just like you are as a howler monkey. The animal doesn’t change who you are. It just gives you abilities.”
“Kelly made her own choices,” Mac said. “The platypus spikes didn’t make her hurt innocent people. She decided to use them, knowing exactly what they would do.”
“Trust yourself,” said Charlie. “We trust you.”
“I know,” said Maria. “Thanks for the reminder, though. I do trust myself.” She pressed her lips together, then nodded confidently. She examined her device, took a breath, and clicked the alligator mode. She cringed and waited.
A split second later, Maria’s body morphed wildly. “Whoa!” she cried.
Charlie and Mac jumped back and shone their flashlights on her. Maria flopped onto the ground, her arms and legs growing short and squat and her torso extending crazily. Her face flattened and her mouth protruded, her teeth grew more plentiful and bigger and sharper, her forehead sank and her eyeballs bulged. When she stopped moving, Charlie gasped. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, I think. Just … wow. I think we’ve got our first glitch.”
Then Mac got closer to her and started laughing.
“Dios mío,” Maria muttered, trying to look at herself. “Why are you laughing, Mac?”
“You’re still covered in monkey fur, Maria,” said Charlie, trying not to laugh like Mac was doing. “And you still … well …”
“You still have a monkey tail right above your alligator tail!” exclaimed Mac. “Oh wow. This is amazing.” He started cough-laughing and held his stomach.
Maria curved her alligator shaped body sideways so she could see herself, and her bulging eyes widened even more in horror. “I look ridiculous! And I’m so … so …”
“So alligatory?” said Charlie.
“Yes! This … this isn’t going to work.”
“Can you go back to monkey mode?” asked Mac, who had stopped laughing by then.
“Yeah,” said Charlie. “Try that. I’ll bet you have both animal features because you went from weremonkey mode to werealligator mode. Click out of both and start from your normal human self. Can you even reach your device?”
“Ay caramba.” Maria was still trying to see her full self and looking worried. “Sooo much alligator.” She moved one clawed front foot to the other, where the device was tightly wrapped around her … well, her wrist-like area. She tipped her head sidewa
ys and peered at it with one bulgy eyeball, then tapped her claw on the device a couple times. Soon the alligator features disappeared and she morphed back into a more normal size. Then she turned off the monkey.
“Well,” she said, happy to be on two human feet again, “that was quite an adventure.” She looked at herself all over, checking for tails and fur and claws, and determined she was completely human again. “At least I can turn them off.”
Charlie was relieved that Maria was handling the issues so well. “And like you said, it’s a glitch. A pretty big one, but this is just a trial run. A chance to figure out the problems. I’m sure Dr. Jakande can fix all of this.”
“Yeah,” said Maria, “I know. I’m not worried this time.”
“Now try the alligator directly,” suggested Mac.
Maria took a deep breath and steeled herself for the strange morphing once again. She clicked the alligator, and this time, along with taking on a mostly reptilian shape, she showed no signs of being a monkey.
“That was it,” said Mac. “Charlie, you were right. Hopefully that part won’t be too hard to fix either. Do you want to try moving around?”
“Um … sure.” Maria worked on walking first. It was harder than she expected with four limbs on the ground. Soon she got the hang of moving her right front with her back left, but she didn’t like being so close to the ground. It seemed too difficult. She pushed herself up to try to stand on her back legs, then tried walking upright like a human. She staggered on her short limbs, trying to balance the weight of her long torso using her tail to lean back on. “I’m gonna need to look a lot less like an alligator,” she said. “It’s too hard to move normally and how am I going to be able to help fight the soldiers? I want my regular arms and legs back, at least.”
“For sure,” said Charlie. “And maybe not quite such a big alligator head and face?”
Maria put her head down and felt her cheeks. “It’s so … warty.”
“Well,” said Mac, as if to remind her that she chose it, “it is an alligator.”