Meap Me in St. Louis

Chapter 20: Meap's Plight

SHANNA

Without going into too much detail, Isabella and I rocked. She has a knack for using her sash to whip up on bad guys, and for finding clever ways to incapacitate them. After only five minutes, all but one of the Meapians are down.

The two of us join up, both panting heavily, "How ya doing?" I ask her.

"Fine. You?"

"Hangin' in there. How many are you at?"

"7."

"Same here."

We stare at the final Meapian, whose back is turned to us and weirdly isn't making any effort to run away. "Looks like this one's gonna be the tiebreaker," I mutter. We rile ourselves up, charge towards the Meapian, and...

The Meapian finally turns around. Both of us skid to a stop inches away from it. This isn't just any Meapian–it's THE Meap, our friend! His hands are in chains and he has a few burn marks and scratches on him, but otherwise he looks okay.

"Meap!" Isabella and I exclaim happily.

Meap smiles like he hasn't smiled in days. "Girls, what a delight it is to see familiar faces in these times," he says, giving us both hugs (which, for me, is wrapping his arms around my lower knees). Isabella retrieves a pair of keys from one of the guards to free Meap from his cuffs, then he has us follow him upstairs into some kind of inventory/storage space.

"We must hurry. Mitch will be back any second," Meap urges. We poke around the room for a little bit, searching through drawers and checking cabinets. I quickly find the cuteness extractor sealed inside a glass container, which is easily broken with a hard kick. Meap grabs the ray, and we take another elevator back to the main floor. I'd say we destroy the cuteness extractor so no one can use it, but Meap's the expert here and seems to have another plan in mind.

After running through a few hallways, we find a room full of escape pods. Almost all of them are Meapian-sized, way too small for Isabella or I to fit in comfortably. Only one pod, the one at the very end of the hallway that's probably meant for Mitch, is large enough. Meap leaps into the closest pod, and Isabella and I take off for the big one.

"Hold it right there!"

Suddenly, I lose my ability to move. Isabella is frozen too. We are lifted into the air and rotated 180 degrees, facing us towards Mitch, who has us in a tractor beam. His expression has that eerily mixture of calm and enragement, sending shivers down my spine.

"Where's the cuteness extractor?" he asks demandingly.

Right at that moment, Meap blasts off in his escape pod. Mitch dashes to the closed door, watching the pod fly into the depths of space. I feel relieved knowing Meap got out safely with Mitch's most dangerous weapon, but it's not enough to overcome the terror I feel at this moment.

Keeping us in the tractor beam, he slowly turns back around to face us. "Well, aren't you two resourceful?" he growls, switching his gaze between us. "I'd expect this kind of stunt from Isabella, but you... well, frankly, I haven't known you for very long, so I don't actually know what you're capable of, but that doesn't matter."

"Mitch, listen. Shanna has nothing to do with this. I don't care what you plan on doing with me, just let her go, please!" Isabella cries.

"Isabella, no!" I hiss.

Mitch narrows his eyes, creating a near perfect straight line with his eyebrows. "A negotiation, huh?" he sneers. "Are you saying you're willing to give up your entire universe in exchange for her freedom?"

Isabella nods, matching Mitch's expression. I gasp in horror.

"Hmm... maybe there's more to this innate cuteness thing than I thought. I'll have to think about that one," he murmurs. I can't tell if he means that or not.