I woke up when a giant ball of light streaked over the Rustbucket, our RV. I saw the comet hit a spot in the woods and throw up a huge cloud of dust. I ran towards it. I just had to see what it was. I sprinted through the woods as fast as I could go. I had a bad feeling about that comet.
I ran closer towards the crater. I came up to it and peered inside. A large metal ball buried in the center. I crept closer. A strange glow oozed from the orb. I crept closer still. Suddenly, the orb split open. A really bizarre-looking piece of technology sat inside. It looked like a watch, but the face was too big, and it had a lot of weird knobs, dials, and buttons. I reached my hand out to pick it up. It suddenly launched itself up and wrapped itself around my left wrist. I heard a strange clicking, beeping noise. What was this thing? What did it just do? I tried shaking it off, but it wouldn’t let go. The watch face began to spin. An image of a strange, bald creature with four arms appeared! I grabbed at the watch, trying to rip it off. The face of the watch depressed with a loud noise and a bright green flash, and a quick shot of pain lanced through me, starting in my arm. I felt a surge of agony as my arms split in two. I felt myself shoot up and fill out. My vision fractured and refocused as my eyes divided. I staggered through the forest, woozy from my transformation. I looked around, trying to figure out where I had come from. I suddenly realized that I was lost in the middle of forest in the middle of the night. I stumbled around, trying to find a path through the forest, something, anything. I couldn’t find anything. In anger, I punched a tree. The tree was ripped out of the ground and flew five feet. Holy crap! This guy was strong! I stumbled around some more, hopeful that I might just accidentally come across a path and get out of the forest. I hoped Gwen would be able to find me. I set off to find a place to sleep.
I bolted up, sweat on my face. Kevin sat up, awareness etched in his chiseled features.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing, baby, just a dream. Go back to sleep,” I told him.
“You had the dream again, didn’t you?” He looked at me suspiciously.
“I’m fine, baby. I had the dream again, yes, but it wasn’t as bad this time. I’ll be fine. Can we go back to sleep now?”
“Not quite yet, baby. I had a couple plans for us.”
“Okay,” I told him as we fell back into bed together.
≈≈≈
I woke up with my hair messed up and my clothes strewn around the room. “Wow, Kevin, you really know the meaning of having a wild night. I had a lot of fun last night. You were great, baby.” Kevin blushed.
“Thanks, babe. You were pretty good too. I’ve never seen one person in so many positions,” Kevin chuckled. “I had no idea that you were so flexible.” He smirked as he saw me blush.
“Stop it, baby, Gwen will hear!” I giggled.
“Well, you’d better get dressed before she comes in here and the whole thing gets blown sky high. I don’t want to get yelled at for four hours by Gwen at six in the morning the first weekend of summer break. Get it in gear, Tennyson!”
We got dressed, hurried out to the dining room, and sat down. Gwen had already started bacon. BACON!!! As Gwen set the plates down, we started talking.
“So what’d you guys do last night? I heard a lot of weird thumps. It sounded like there was a fight.”
I felt Kevin look at me in shock. I had to make up an excuse on the fly.
“There was a…rat! Yeah, a rat! We had a pretty hard job actually catching it. Kevin fell down more than once.” Mwahahah, sweet revenge… “We finally caught it and threw it outside. It took a while, though.” Crisis…averted. I saw Gwen narrow her eyes for a second, but she eventually went back to her eggs.
Gwen turned on the news just in time to hear, “…bank robbery underway at the corner of Washington and Ginsberg.” Gwen switched off the TV. “Let’s go,” she said, grabbing her jacket.
≈≈≈
As we pulled up to the bank, I realized that the criminals were still here. I immediately slammed my hand down on the watch without thinking. I realized then that I hadn’t selected an alien. I looked down at the watch but I couldn’t see the alien before the transformation started. I felt myself shrinking, my pinkie finger being sucked back into my hands. I felt a splitting pain as my mouth widened and turned green, lips blackening and thinning. I felt a lump form on my back, and wires sprouted from it and planted themselves in my ears, which shrank back into my head. I saw a green flash flood the room as the transformation finished. I growled as I recognized the form I had taken. “Echo Echo? Really? Why can’t you work with me just once?” I snarled as I realized that I had to deal with it. I split into eight and ran towards the building. My copies and I split up and searched the area. I ran forward and started looking around inside the bank itself. I felt a thought come in from one of my doubles. It was the one in the alley.
“He’s here!”
“Alright, wait, keep him there, I’m coming.”
“Hurry! He’s trying to get away. What should I do?”
“Chase after him. Herd him toward us. We’ll surround him from the other directions.”
