Meap Me in St. Louis

Chapter 24: Tensions Rise

ELLE (525)

While Heath, Luke, and Skylar are checking out the higher floors, the rest of us (aside from Candace, who's still running from the Meapians) stay on the lower level. We walk through another door at the other end of the room that leads to another large room, this one having a spaceship about half the size of Heath's ship.

"Is that Mitch's ship?" I ask.

Phineas nods. "Yep."

"Well, if there's anywhere he could be, this seems like a good enough place," Sam murmurs.

As we walk towards the ship, I use this time to scan everyone else's feelings. Baljeet is easily the most scared of the four animated characters, with Phineas leaning more towards worry than fear. Even Buford, the quote en quote "bully" of the group, who's acted the toughest this entire time, has a bit of uncertainty in him. And Ferb... even with my powers, I can't get a beat on him. You'd think having the power to read other people's emotions could decipher even the most mysterious of individuals, but I guess Ferb is just that much more complex.

Sam is a bit doubtful, but that's normal for him. I'm sure there's a part of me that's unsure of this (I can't say for certain because I can't read my own feelings). No matter how many times we've been on dangerous missions, there will always be those nerves you just can't shake. Even as Powerful Kids, our success isn't guaranteed. If this were our Shanna we were out to rescue, I think I'd be less worried for her safety (mainly because she can just punch her way out of almost anything). That's part of what makes the 524 people so impressive to us: they don't have the advantages we do, and they've lived through over three times as many things.

The sight we walk into on Mitch's ship... it's hard to put into words. Indescribable creatures of all shapes and sizes slither, fly, and walk around, or just sit motionless. Most of them don't make any noises, and the ones that do just emit low-pitched moans. It doesn't even seem like any of them notice we're here. There's a broken pink window behind them leading to some vast, open space, which is probably where they broke out from.

"What is this, a zoo?!" I ask.

"He's more of a poacher," Ferb replies.

"How fitting," Sam mumbles.

A couple of weird-looking bugs latch themselves onto Sam's shoulder. "Ugh, get off!" he exclaims, unsuccessfully trying to brush them off.

"Okay, screw this." He opens his mouth wide, shoves the two bugs into his throat, and swallows them whole. That's a trick he learned a couple of years ago: he can eat, digest, and defecate out just about anything, including living beings. For obvious reasons, he almost never uses this ability.

The 252 people gape at Sam. "Did you just... eat those?" Baljeet asks, a little disgusted.

"Yeah. It's the first part of a 3-step attack combo I've got," Sam replies.

Phineas grins. "That's so cool! What are the other two steps?"

"You don't want to know," I tell him, shaking my head.

"Let's just say I'm working on step two right now, and I'll need to find a place to do step three," Sam tells them. The others get the hint and don't ask for any further clarification.

I wish I can say that we found something worthwhile on Mitch's ship, but we don't. Mitch, Meap, Shanna, or Isabella are nowhere to be found on board, just a bunch of mindless, bizarre specimens. On the upper floor, we do notice one of the escape pods missing, though it's too small for either Shanna or Isabella, so it was likely used by someone else. Maybe Meap?

We only spend a few minutes on the ship before exiting. An unsettling thought creeps into my head as we're leaving. "Didn't you guys say Mitch has an army of robots?" I ask.