Elsevan DuPris was standing across the room, glaring at them. The Stone of Midnight was glowing in his hand.
'Mr. Manes!' Liz shouted.
'What?' Adam asked. He turned around to see what Liz was talking about.
It was the man from the hologram-the Major. Adam watched in horror as Liz hurled herself at him and grabbed the Majors arm, struggling with the man, who was twice her size.
Adam didn't hesitate. He ran straight toward Liz.
'Adam, no!' Liz screamed as the Major pushed her out of the way.
It was only then that Adam noticed that the Major was pointing a laser at Adam's chest.
A bright flash of white light blinded Adam just as he realized that Liz had been trying to save his life- again.
And then everything went black.
ELEVEN
Michael watched in shock as Adam crumpled to the ground, smoke rising from his chest. Slowly he raised his chin to glare at his two greatest enemies, wondering which to go after first.
DuPris, an alien like himself, with no sense of decency or honor, or even right or wrong.
Or the Major. An agent of Project Clean Slate, dedicated to eradicating alien life on earth.
He wanted them both. But Adam was down. For now that was all that mattered. Michael rushed over to Adam and knelt beside him. He had to connect now.
Confused shouting filled the large cave, but Michael blocked it all out and concentrated on joining himself with Adam. He felt the pulse of Adam's blood, and he shifted his energy to match Adam's aura.
He was in; he and Adam were one. Now all Michael had to do was repair the damage the Major's laser had done to Adam's body.
And hope Mr. Manes didn't decide to fire that laser at him.
The collective consciousness roiled with venomous rage at the sight of DuPris. For a moment Max was scared that the consciousness would surge forward in his mind and take control of him once again… like the time he'd encountered DuPris in their cave.
Max waited for the overwhelming rush of force of the consciousness taking him over, but it didn't come. For whatever reason, they remained separate. Although they still filled Max's mind with furious, violent images that he was afraid to inspect too closely.
Isabel stepped up behind him. Max knew she was ready to join powers with him. But it wouldn't be enough. With Michael, Adam, Liz, and Maria it might be enough. But just him and Isabel. Forget about it.
DuPris raised one eyebrow, as if he knew exactly what Max was thinking. Then he casually glanced to his left, toward the sound of footsteps pounding across the cave floor.
Max followed DuPris's gaze and saw Mr. Manes running toward DuPris.
'I wish I could take the time to play with all of you,' DuPris said, 'but I just have too much to do today.' He raised his hand, the Stone glowing purple-green in his fingers.
'No!' Mr. Manes yelled, lurching forward in an obvious attempt to grab the Stone. But he was too late.
The Stone of Midnight flashed, and Max found himself flying through the air. Literally flying. He sailed across the long cave toward the ship, too startled to even scream.
Out of the corner of his eye Max saw Liz tumbling through the air, too. Her hair covered her face like a flapping veil.
In front of him a portal gaped open in the side of the ship, just in time for him to fly through it. Max somersaulted once and landed hard on the seamless metal floor of the ship's interior.
A split second later Liz rocketed through the door and crashed into Max, knocking the wind out of him.
'Are you hurt?' Max asked breathlessly. Liz shook her head, and Max struggled to get out from under her, but before he could extricate himself, Isabel came flying through the door, too, followed by Adam, Michael, and Maria. They landed in a tangled heap atop Max and Liz as the portal swirled shut-without leaving so much as a seam.
In the moment of calm that followed, Max managed to pull himself to a sitting position. Isabel shifted, and suddenly Max's heart gave a painful kick. Mr. Manes was sitting right behind Isabel. DuPris had thrown him in with the rest of them.
'You're dead!' Michael shouted, scrambling across the ship and hurling himself onto the Major. 'You tried to kill Adam-you die!'
'I didn't mean to-'
'Shut up!' Michael shouted.
He frisked the guy, Mr. Manes not making any attempt to stop him, and came up with a small metal canister. Michael tossed it to Max.
Max caught the canister as Michael pulled back his fist, aiming for the Major's face.
'Stop!' Max shouted.
Michael froze.
Max scrambled to his feet. 'That's Alex's dad you're about to pound on,' he told Michael, his voice sounding unnaturally calm to his ears. 'You might want to reconsider.'
'Why?' Michael shot back. 'He's a Clean Slate agent… and he just tried to kill Adam!'
The Major cleared his throat. 'Can I say something here-'
'No!' Max and Michael both shouted at the same time.
'You should probably just shut up,' Isabel added.
At that moment Max's ears rang with a huge metallic crunching sound and the floor convulsed. He had to sidestep to stay on his feet. His eyes widened as he realized that the walls had just shifted closer, making the space in the ship significantly smaller.
Almost immediately another resounding crunch shook the ship. And again the walls closed in. The floor buckled under Max, and this time he was thrown to the ground.
'DuPris is crushing the ship,' Adam said in a tired voice. 'He's compressing it with his mind.'
Michael released the Major and scrambled to the center of the room, turning from side to side to study the walls. 'It's okay,' he said. 'Nothing can hurt this material.'
'Yeah. The ship always returns to its original shape,' Adam added.
Isabel laughed frantically. 'Oh, goody,' she said. 'That's nice for the ship. But if you think for a
Everyone in the ship was struck silent for a moment, realizing the horrible truth of Isabel's words.
'Or both,' Maria said.
'So what do you propose we do?' Michael asked Isabel.
'We bust out of here,' she answered instantly. 'We blast a big hole in the wall and get the hell out!'
'We can't hurt this metal,' Michael told her. 'It's made for intergalactic travel. I don't think we can compete with that.'
'DuPris opened the wall,' Liz said, 'So it's possible.'
'Yeah,' Michael said. 'Possible if you have the Stone of Midnight.'
'Well, we have to do
