Chapter 2

Co-written by Eric, and Caleb Jones

A wave of dizziness momentary swept over both Sydney and Nigel.

Nigel recovered first. He felt very strange. He seemed to be standing, almost tottering - like he was on stilts or something. The world appeared subtly different. His vision seemed clearer, but his glasses were gone! Suddenly, during that same moment, he became aware of a strange feeling of constriction wrapped around his chest as if an unfamiliar part of his body were being lifted up. Nigel could have sworn he was holding the statue in his right hand, not left hand!

It was also rather strange how the reporters were all staring at him now, not the world famous and beautiful Sydney Fox - and they were staring with admiration - except for the lone female reporter. She seemed to dislike him. This surprised Nigel, as most females wanted to mother him. It drove him crazy to be short and immature. He wanted to be glamorous and sexy with an authoritative air like Sydney, in a masculine way, of course! Instead, he looked like everyone's kid brother!

"Professor Fox, would you mind telling us of your adventures rediscovering this famous lost artifact?" asked a TV reporter shoving a mike into HIS face. He looked to Sydney but she was no longer there! He looked in the opposite direction for her and instead, he saw his own face staring horrified back at him. 'Bloody hell!' he thought. The rumors of Ram's magic powers were not fantasies! Faced with unquestionable evidence, i.e. his own face no longer on his head, Nigel knew without a doubt he was now residing inside Sydney's sexy body. His idle wish had come true. Now he was the world famous professor Sydney Fox and she was the assistant professor, the short, shy Nigel!

"Is anything wrong, Professor?" asked the man.

Nigel nervously grinned, a bit light headed from the shock. "Not at all." he said smoothly. "The flash bulbs momentarily dazzled me," he said as Sydney's liquid voice rang in his ears. He might be her assistant while teaching but during their adventures, he was her partner. Granted, not an equal one, but he knew all the facts as well as Sydney did, and at least for now, he was speaking for her!

"It started when I received a call from an old friend, a Professor Sadat who said he thought the missing relic was hidden in the stolen collections of the infamous international criminal called the Raven. We flew to Cairo. Poor Nigel here was airsick as usual."

Sydney looked at him with opened mouth indignity. Nigel was the one who had been airsick, not her.

"Using my connections, we learned the Raven was making a buy in the infamous Kasbah district. We adopted disguises and tracked down the Raven's current location. I was able to put a homing devise on his person and then allowed him to escape. That way we could follow him to his lair. Much to our surprise, it turned out to be a secret catacomb inside the great pyramid itself. His guards jumped us and hit poor Nigel on the head. Look you can see the bump!"

With his beautiful, slim hand, Nigel touched his former head and pushed his cowlick aside to show a sizeable bruise.

"As you may be aware, I am an expert in Kung Fu and other marshal arts and as the guards did not expect those in a female, I was able to overcome the three guards. Nigel and I tied them up. Then we had to negotiate a rope bridge over a pit of vipers. Poor Nigel here almost fell in the pit, but I managed to pull him to safety. Next, we avoided a trip stone trap that would have screwed us too a wall with spears."

"We reached an apparent dead end. But, with Nigel's expert help I was able to decipher the cryptic hieroglyphics, and we opened the secret door for the first time in millennia. We came across a ruined temple of the dark god Anubas beneath the pyramids, where it had lain hidden for countless centuries before the Raven made it his vile lair. Raven was lying in wait for us. After a scuffle, the trapped archfiend first tried to bribe us, then reached for his gun, but my crossbow bolt beat him to it, catching him in the chest and he dropped his Luger. 'You will never take what is mine from me!' the mad criminal cried out." Nigel paused to take a deep breath, amazed to see the eyes of the male reporters glance down to watch his curvaceous chest rise as his lungs filled with air. He was ready to continue.

The reporters were enthralled by 'Sydney's' hypnotic voice. They could almost see the scenes, see the desperate struggles in the dark and dank tunnels, the cobwebs, the withering and hissing snakes, the underground temple hidden for at least 4,000 years, and of course, the mad thief Raven clutching the arrow in his chest with blood oozing from his cruel mouth.

"The criminal recovered enough strength to push a disguised panel on the wall which set off a roaring inferno. Overcoming his natural reluctance and fear of fire, Nigel proved yet again to be a great help to me. We dashed into the flames and recovered many priceless relics. One chest however was unreachable in a corner. Thinking quickly, I threw a rug over the flames. This allowed us to sprint to the burning chest and pull it to safety. This was the prize of the Raven's collection, the chest that contained the statue of Ram which you see now."

The reporters burst into spontaneous applause. Nigel in Sydney's body expanded like a flower in the sun. He directed an ironical glance at Sydney. Did he - Nigel- always look so simple? Sydney was still staring at him with slack jawed disbelief.

"What kind of ancient god was Ram supposed to be?" asked the reporter from the Boston Globe.

"He was the god of mischief - the trickster. Legend has it he would sometimes grant wishes that people didn't really mean and see how they did with them. The last known possessors of the statue were a married couple named Tim and Sally Willows in the 1930's. It was stolen from them on an ocean voyage across the Atlantic. Since then, there have only been rumors of it being seen here and there. The most recent sighting was in 1979, until the Raven appropriated it."

"Thank you, Professor Fox!" said the museum's manager, stepping in to take the statue from Nigel. "As usual, I'm sure that the world is in your debt - oh, you too - Nigel, isn't it?" The manager never took his gaze away from Nigel's beautiful body as he placed the statue in a security case and turned on the alarm.

No one would get their hands on it again, not even the Raven!