I didn't feel like sticking around for long - like spending any more time around either Rath *or* Kyle once I realized that I had a love triangle on my hands. After staying at the beach long enough to reassure myself that they were both, indeed, going to be fine, I grabbed my bag and headed off. I didn't have any particular destination to move towards, I just started walking away from the water and towards what looked like more traditional city buildings. After about a minute I rooted around in the bag, came up with a big button-down shirt that I'd bought in a 'tall guy's' store in Roswell, and put it on as a cover-up over my bikini. It was long enough to fit on me like a short dress, which was pretty much the idea.

Vague thoughts swirled around me as I passed a row of storefronts obviously dedicated to servicing the beach crowd - sunglass & souvenir store, burgers and fries grille, ice cream shoppe. And then, through the sparse crowd, I caught sight of a familiar, lanky figure with ears that stuck out slightly further than his dark hair. "Alex!" He grinned at me, in the middle of sucking one of those plastic slushie tubes. "Have you been wandering around here the whole time! You missed a brawl on the football field."

Alex took the cut edges of the tube out of his mouth. "Umm... doesn't surprise me that much - which was why I took off," he admitted. "Were any of our friends hurt??"

"It was our friends who started it," I said. "And, possibly, over me. Nobody else was involved... just Kyle and Rath scrapping it out, and Max and Michael trying to split them up." Alex's eyes widened, and I took him by the hand and softly explained the whole deal, while continuing to move further away from the beach.

"W-wow," he admitted. "That's really bad, the whole dirty fighting thing. Wish I'd been smart enough to figure out that this was coming in time to warn you." I looked up at him when he said that. "Well... in retrospect, it's kind of obvious... that Rath liked you too, and was getting upset by the fact that you only had eyes for Kyle. And when Rath gets upset... yeah, somebody's liable to get hurt."

"That boy needs to learn some restraint," I said firmly. "I don't care what he feels for me, there's no excuse for this kind of behavior."

"No, it isn't," Alex agreed. "But neither of us really want him to change that much - if he did, he wouldn't be the rough 'n' tough guy that we both know and love." I looked up at him. "In a strictly friendly and platonic way, in my case, of course... you have to decide if the same caveats apply to yerself." I broke out laughing. "But seriously... I'm right, aren't I? I wouldn't want him to be anything other than the sunnuvabitch that he is. Maria feels kind of the same way about Michael, though she doesn't really realize it most of the time."

"Yeah, you have a point," Ava agreed. "But like Michael - Rath is capable of behaving in a more... more civilized and decent way than he sometimes chooses to. That's not about who he is, deep down... just the fact that he acts like somebody that he really isn't."

"Like he's really the male counterpart to Lonnie, maybe?" Alex asked. I had to think about that for a long moment.

"I... I'm not sure about that. Lonnie - I think that Lonnie isn't as bad deep down as she acts, either... though she's a lot closer. She probably wouldn't have tried to take Max's message to Michael and Isabel so readily if she were... and it wasn't her fault that they weren't reachable. But, yeah, I think that Rath got so used to acting as hardcore as she was, just because he thought that they'd be tight forever, that he's still pulling this kind of shit without thinking about it." Considered that. "Which suggests, just maybe, that letting him know it's not gonna cut any ice with me, whether or not we hook up now or not, might have a good effect on him, as long as he's capable of breaking those bad habits."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Alex said with a smile. "So, do you want to head back now?"

"Nah, let's explore town a bit." And I led him down a side street. We wandered for a while, just talking about the little things that had made up our summers since... well, since Isabel came back to Roswell more or less, which is when we stopped spending a lot of time together, for fairly obvious reasons. After maybe twenty minutes Isabel herself caught up with us - she teased me about keeping Alex all to myself and dropped enough clues that I realized she'd been chasing after him for a while - maybe homing in on his mind with her alien powers or something like that. So I couldn't really complain that she wanted to join in, and she was actually pretty good at making me not feel like a third wheel and keeping the conversation inclusive. We stopped at a 'Lone Star fried chicken' place and had some lunch, and hung around chatting long after the food was done, just enjoying spending time together.

"So, well, we're gonna have to leave here eventually," Isabel said around one thirty. "Whatcha think, back to the beach?"

"Hmm... back to the waterfront yeah, but maybe not that beach," Alex said, looking into my face for my reaction. Maybe he still thought I wanted to avoid Kyle and Rath. "I saw a place where you could rent motorboats - and paragliding gear, or waterskis, that kind of thing."

"Can you waterski on the ocean? I thought that was more a lakefront cottage kind of thing," Isabel said.

"I think you can, though it's a little tougher with ocean waves," I put in. "Probably not reccomended for first timers." I stretched slightly. "But, actually... I want to try to find some of the others. Do you think everybody else is still back at the beach, Izzie?"

She looked at me closely, and I wondered if she had any notion what was in my mind. "Well, I think Kyle, Michael, and Maria were going to stay at the beach, and Max and Liz were going to take Rath back to the flophouse... not sure if the dream couple expected to stay there or just deliver him and then head off elsewhere."

Oh, boy. So if I wanted to go see Rath, (a) it would probably be very obvious that that was what I had in mind, and (b) I'd probably need wheels, which would mean leaving everybody back at the beach without a ride home. Boy. When we got up to go, I still wasn't quite sure what to do, though from the way Alex caught my eye I think he knew what was running through my mind. A tall boy intercepted us on our way out the door and pressed brightly colored flyers into all our hands. "You've gotta come - it's going to be epic!!"

"What's going to be epic?" Isabel muttered in irritation. All of the flyers turned out to have the same text, despite the different colors - telling us thar the Alamo nightclub was holding an end-of-summer Bye-bye bash all weekend. Eighteen and over all welcome, big fun, and so on and so forth. Isabel looked up to Alex, over to me, and then back down to the purple flyer in her hands for a moment. "Has potential, hmmm?"

My stomach twitched slightly. "Hmm... I didn't really bring clothes for going out clubbing." Actually, I didn't really even have clubbing clothes back in Roswell.

Iz grinned. "You can leave that to me. Come on." She led the way out of the chicken hut.

"Well, maybe," I muttered as a way to change the subject. "So, umm..."

"Hey, number nine bus!" Alex exclaimed, and both of us turned to look at him. He pointed out the bus as it rushed past us on the street. "Sorry, I just noticed that number this morning, when we were getting ready to leave. I wonder if it runs straight from the flophouse to the beach - and vice versa."

I smiled. Thank you, Alex! "Well, I think I'll volunteer to find out... that one was heading back towards the beach, yeah?" Alex nodded. "So, if it comes back the same way in a few minutes, it'll probably stop... there." I pointed to a cross street not far away, and sure enough there was an oddly designed post that looked like it was most likely a bus stop marker. "Just want to go back to my rented bed and see if I can catc some more sleep in the heat of the afternoon, huh?"

"Um, okay," Isabel said after a split second, as I led the way towards my bus stop. "If for some reason you leave again, write a note or something kay? Just so that I don't need to worry that you got lost or kidnapped or something."

I giggled. "Don't worry, nobody will bother abducting me. See ya around dinner time probably?"

Isabel looked at Alex, and he pointed behind her - the number nine was on its way back already! "Probably, yeah, but don't freak out if we stay out beachside into the evening. Not sure of anybody else's plans."

"Gotit," I agreed, and rooted around in my bag for some bus fare. Ahh... two dollar bills, a quarter, and three dimes. That should be enough, right?

It was only one ninety-five cash fare, and I wondered as I sat next to a little old lady just how many people paid two bucks because they didn't have the correct chane. Busing back home through an unfamiliar city was a bit nerve-wracking, but I managed to spot a seven-eleven that we'd passed on the way out to the beach in the morning, and then saw the sign for the flophouse itself. Alex was right - this bus route was a very convenient way of getting back and forth to the neighborhood of the beach. I got off the bus, said hi to the housemum, who was sitting at the reception desk playing an odd kind of solitaire, and went up to Rath's room first thing.

He was lying flat on his back in bed, staring up at the ceiling. "Hey babe," he said softly, without looking in my direction as far as I could tell. "Come by to keep me company and give up a little sympathy?"

"Not yet by a long shot," I growled softly. "Rath, you don't deserve sympathy at all - Kyle might have won that fight, but YOU started it."

"Won it? Just because he broke a few bones?" Rath scoffed. "The fight ended because you called it off, sugar, and that means it's a draw. If not, the pretty-boy jock would have had a lot more hurt than this comi--"

"...and that's completely beside the point," I interrupted, otherwise Rath's face-saving machismo could have gone on for a half an hour easily. "Bottom line, homeboy - are you jealous of Kyle? Is that why you tried to take him down on the field?"

"I didn--" Rath stopped his denial midway, probably because he could tell that I wasn't going to buy it. "Al - alright, yeah, I guess I was. I... I never said anything to you, but I thought that we'd been getting closer, ever since we met up back in Ohio. Seemed to me like that was leading somewhere, until you went and got stars in your eyes over the Buddhist disciple."

"Alright, thanks for being so honest with me," I told him. "Now here's something equally honest - you're not going to get anywhere with me acting like this. Not by acting all sullen and antisocial because I'm talking to someone else, not by attacking another guy and trying to make it look like football field hijinks... actually, not by attacking other guys I like no matter what you make it look like, really. And even constantly making snide wisecracks isn't terribly attractive on you."

There was a long silent moment as Rath absorbed all of this. I could see a little of what he was feeling on his face. He could tell that I was pretty angry, was embarassed a little at getting dressed down... but he was also very aware of the things I could have told him and didn't, like 'never' and 'you're not my type.' "Okay... noted. Though that stuff did get your attention, didn't it?"

"Yeah... but getting my attention can be a double-sided thing," I pointed out, smiling nastily as best I could... and Rath probably knew better than anyone else what my nasty streak was like when I really let it out. "So behave!" Rath chuckled at that, and somehow I knew that I'd handled the situation okay.

"So... what'd you do after leaving the beach? It's been a while since I got back here, yeah?" Rath has a very well developed time sense - something that he usually pretends is part of his warrior heritage.

"Umm... I'm not sure exactly when you got here, but yeah, it was a while since I last saw you. I went off looking for Alex - I found him, and then Isabel found both of us." I told him a little of what had happened, at lunch, and mentioning the nightclub flyers that we'd got. Mine was now folded up in my bag, so I took it out and handed it to him.

"Hmm... wouldn't suck to check it out. Find out if these Texas fools have any clue how to par-taay," Rath drawled, and I chuckled.

"Do you actually have to lay there flat on your back without looking at me, by the way, or is it just that you feel you have nothing better to do?"

Surprised, Rath twisted his neck to shift me into his field of vision, and then sat up slightly. "Neither, I guess. It was just fairly comfortable. I'm not sure that Max was able to do a full job on me, out there on the beach."

"Hmm." I considered that. "Did you tell him so? Liz said he did good work on her - and if it was a question of the confusion or worrying about being spotted in the middle of something weird, he could have tried again here, in relative privacy."

"Ehh, didn't want to be any more of a drag on him," Rath admitted. "Could tell that he wanted some alone time with the little lady."

"Ahh, right." I sighed. "So do you think you'll be able to hit the nightclub tonight, then? Without Max's help, I mean."

"Actually, yeah. I just realized that I'm feeling a lot better than I knew I was." And he suddenly cocked his head. "What *is* that?"

I listened, a little puzzled, and heard what he was talking about. At first it seemed just a buzz like a big black fly was caught in the room. And then, it sounded more like talking - like someone talking a fairly long way away... and not just talking faintly, but... but in another language!

"The comm badge," Rath exclaimed about half a second before I could jump to that conclusion myself. Someone from another planet was trying to talk to us again.

I jumped up to find it, with Rath sitting up and giving directions, though he didn't actually look himself. It was right where he said it would be, in Max's bookbag, and I looked at it in confusion as it squawked away, sounding like a crystal radio with a bad case of static. "Is the translation circuit on the fritz, or is it something else?" I asked, more to myself than anyone else.

"Well, Michael was here the last time we tried," Rath pointed out, "and he lived for days on that little colony planet, and learned their language. He still couldn't understand. Mind you, he might have forgotten too much of it by now, or have learned the pronunciation different, like louisiana french and parisian or what-the-hell-ever..."

"We should get Isabel to try," I suggested. "She might have remembered more than Michael did." I'm not sure why I really thought that - Michael might not do well with languages in school, but he hadn't learned that one in school, and he'd have probably more natural inclination to retain it than Isabel did. Still, it was worth a try. "Oooh!" I heard someone coming up the stairs, probably either the housemother or one of the other boarders, and it wouldn't do to have any of them noticing the translator. I got up and closed the door of the room, which had been halfway open since I came in.

Rath, who had been holding the communicator at that moment, looked up in surprise. "Hey, I think that that made a difference! It's a little bit clearer now, though I still can't make it out."

"What... what made a difference?" I asked, and before he could answer, "closing the door??"

"Yah." He considered. "Maybe we should try..." He used his powers to draw the window closed, (cutting off the mildly refreshing breeze,) pull down the blind and close the heavy blue drapes. This time I heard the difference - the 'staticky' impression that the sound from the communicator had was much less noticeable, and the volume a bit higher. It even sounded slightly less like a foreign language... just english that was muffled and not being spoken by someone native to it - which of course, it wasn't.

"Why... why is it so sensitive to the immediate environment?" I asked.

"Not the point," Rath argued. "The question is... what changes in the immediate environment can we make to get it working even better?"

"Ummm..." That stumped me for a moment. The triple room, like Liz and mine, was pretty bare, which meant not a lot that could easily be changed. Of course, moving into a different room would definitely be a change in the environment, but not an easy one to experiment with while other people were moving around the flophouse. I tried opening some dresser drawers, (no effect, or maybe a slight decrease,) and then hit on the light switch.

"Halloo, Halloo?" the transmitter suddenly said in distorted but recognizable words. "Tis is Raydeevernal, the diregd replesentatif of her Emeritus Maggesty, Queen-who-was Alinda. Wishing to speech with Max Evans, Michael Guerin, oor Isabel Corinna Evans."

"Hello!" I exclaimed, picking up the transmitter myself and speaking into it as loudly as I can. "Max, Isabel, and Michael aren't here right now - this is..." Wait a second - do these people know about Rath and me, and if not, how to explain without confusing them, making us look like bad guys, or stepping on Max and Michael's strategies? I didn't really want them to think that Rath was the real Rath of Antar reborn and Michael didn't matter in comparison to him, after all, and if they knew that I was Tess' dupe they might want Max to kill me. And Rath had tried to kill Max himself, though he was trying to make up for it now. "We're friends of theirs," I finished lamely. "Hello, are you receiving?"

"Hello, Roswell?" Rayde's voice seemed a bit clearer now - and of course, she couldn't tell that we weren't in Roswell at the moment. "I... I'm not receiving you properly - probably a misalignment at this end. Can you signal your status again??"

"Our status is good," Rath replied. "We're receiving your transmission clearly - anything we can do to help you hear us?"

"Still couldn't get that," Rayde replied, a slight note of sadness in her voice. "Will try again in about a day. Maybe the interference will have cleared up by then. Transmission ends." And the 'badge' fell silent, not even humming.

Rath muttered under his breath for a moment. "Well, we're almost there. No doors or windows upen. No light. What else can we do?"

I thought about it for a second. "Maybe a place that's even more enclosed - one without a window to open." Michael and Alex's room was in the middle of the second floor of the flophouse, and they'd been complaining this morning about how dreary it is. For the communicator, though, that might be just what we needed.

"Hmm... worth a try," Rath agreed. "Of course - with the door closed in there, and no light on, it's going to be a bit spooky. But if that's the secret of getting this thing to work..."

"Yeah," I agreed. And the last time we'd tried, I remembered, we'd been in Max's room, with both windows uncovered, (and I think at least one of them had been open a crack,) with the door ajar, and the light on. This was starting to make sense. "Well, we can't try again now I think, though it might be a good idea to try a transmission of our own rather than waiting for her to." How I knew that Rayde was a woman I wasn't sure.

"How about... this?" I pulled a little brown case out of Max's bag - I'd noticed it while going for the communicator. It was a little magnetic travel chess set. Rath had taught me chess four years ago; he'd learned it hanging around the people who played it in central park, and we'd become fiercely competitve over the mock battles - Zan too. (Lonnie usually announced that she found the whole idea boring, though she'd occasionally taken to the red and black field to defend her honor, and she wasn't any slouch at strategy.) We had a few of our own house rules that we played some of the time. "Pterrian protocol?"

"Get ready to be annihilated," Rath declared, rubbing his hands together with anticipation.

----------

After a grueling session, (final score - two wins for Rath, two draws, and only one checkmate for li'l old me,) we went down to the kitchen for an early dinner. Rath hadn't really had any lunch, so he was ravenous. I thought about trying to go somewhere else, but the kitchen charge didn't really penalize us too heavily for making extra use of it, so it seemed like the best option.

Rath fried up some hamburgers, and I cooked a vegetable medley, (Rath groaned, but I reminded him that eating veggies would help make sure he healed okay,) and also chopped up some fresh trimmings for the burgers. After dinner was done, I challenged him to a chess rematch out in the back yard, and was just in the middle of pressing home a pretty cool double check attack when the van pulled up and Alex, Kyle, Isabel, Michael, and Maria piled out. We pretty much waved as they hurried past us into the kitchen to make their own supper, and most of them drifted outside to watch the game while eating.

I had the advantage for a long time, but Rath is clever and awfully hard to really pin down when you've got him on the ropes, and he nearly turned the tables on me about seven or eight times before I was finally able to lower the boom. Then Maria challenged Michael and Kyle to a pairs game, with Isabel on her team, and that was really fun to watch. Rath played referre, and suggested a rule variant where each team had to take turns according to strict rules... first Maria had to make a move without Isabel's help, say, and then Kyle had to play on his own. Then Isabel, and Michael, and then each of them could conference and collaborate on one move, (which, naturally, ended up involving some planning for the next two turns, although they couldn't confer privately, they had to speak in front of the other team.) Alex and I just hung around and watched - I think that Maria had deliberately left him out because she thought that he'd pulverize anyone he came up against. I'm not quite sure about that... both Rath and I played a bunch of chess with Alex when he was supposedly dead, and he was about in the same league as me, with Rath maybe a whisker ahead of both of us on his best days. But then again, I could probably have played better than most of the players in this team match, so Alex would probably have been able to tip the tables too.

As the sun was starting to think about sinking close to the horizon, and the clocks ticked past six thirty pm, there was still no sign of Max and Liz, and I wasn't sure how to feel about that. Maria and everybody else didn't seem to be concerned though. The girls won the big team chess match, and Alex challenged Rath to a challenge match. Now that Kyle wasn't busy with dinner or chess, I suddenly noticed him a bit more, and all of the confused stomach-twisted-in-knots feelings hit me again. What did he think about where we stood now? He hadn't really talked to me since coming back from the beach. As far as he could tell... I'd left, and spent most of the day with Rath after he attacked Kyle in the football game. Which was pretty much true... had Isabel and Alex told Kyle that they'd had lunch with me, when they got back to the beach? It's not like that part really mattered.

Did Kyle realize yet that Rath was a rival for my affection? Whether he did or not, he still was probably upset. Suddenly decisive, I stepped up to him when he wandered out beneath the shadow of a few trees near the back of the yard. "Umm... I'm, well, I'm sorry for bailing on you earlier."

He shrugged a bit. "No big deal... I mean, it's not like you had any obligation to hang out with me... though I thought we were having fun." He sighed. "Or are you going to tell me that you didn't want to talk with me more because it might get Rath even angrier at me?" He nodded over to where Rath and Alex were still concentrating furiously over the tiny little chessboard. "Because I know that Max patched him up, but somehow I don't really think he's in any shape to tangle with me yet."

I breathed deeply. "No, actually, that didn't have anything to do with it at all." Sighed. "Well, umm, at first I just left because I needed a little time to think about what had happened in the fight, and then I met up with Isabel and Alex and we hung for a while. But, the big thing is... Rath, umm, Rath likes me too. THAT's why he tackled you, not because he was acting brotherly protective of me."

"OHHH." Kyle blinked and stood still, an odd expression coming over his face. "Now *that* changes things."

"Don't start dreaming up payback," I advised. Kyle looked up at me, clearly disappointed. "Seriously. He knows that he stepped way across the line - and, well, even though he won't admit it, he knows that you were doing better when the fight stopped. That's enough." Kyle considered this, and nodded.

There was a bit of awkwardness, and then I blurted out, "Do you want to check out this nightclub tonight? I think Isabel and Alex, Rath and me will be going at least... maybe the whole gang, I'm not sure."

"Hmm." Kyle considered this. "Is it a fake IDs required place?"

"Um, no, I don't think so - not for us now anyway. The flyer said all 18s and up welcome."

"Aww, well, at least it isn't all ages any further down," Kyle said, still seeming unimpressed that we were talking about going to a club where he could enter legit. "Maybe I'll check it out - doesn't really hurt to give it a try, huh?"

"I suppose not... not if you don't count all the time and energy you spend on dressing up... or maybe it isn't that hard on guys," I teased him. "You know, I've actually used a fake ID to sneak into 18 and up places."

"Hmm... in N Y C?" Kyle asked, and I nodded. "Hmm... I didn't know they had many of them there... but somehow I can picture you guys doing that kind of thing. Actually, you'd probably have needed to get some kind of fake ID just to have any kind of identification at all, right? I mean, you don't have birth certificates, you haven't gone through the social services beast like Max, Isabel, and Michael did."

"Yeah, I have a few, actually," I admitted. "Different cards for different purposes - one that's about the right age for how old I looked when I came out of the pod. But no, I really don't want to use the last name that's on that one, if you were thinking of it." Kyle's face fell slightly.

"Can I see it, at least? C'mon, if you don't I'll find some way to sneak a peek anyway."

"Sure - but I don't have it with me." My bag was still up in Rath's room, and I had never changed out of my bikini and stylin' coverup - which didn't really have much in the way of pockets. There was one breast pocket on the shirt, which I could have slipped an ID card into easily enough I guess, but I hadn't thought of it.

"Hmm... I'm not sure how long those two are going to be at it," Rath said, waving over at the chess game in progress, "but I'd like to take the opportunity to challenge you to checkers once they're done. That's my specialty, it's part game of strategy and part artform, and I know that chess players sometimes look down on checkers, but..."

"I - I'd love to play checkers with you," I interrupted him, "but I'm not sure if there's any way to do it with that set - I mean, there aren't any checker pieces."

"You're joking, right?" he asked, and I shook my head slightly, confused. "Those sets are *designed* to double as checker sets. All of the pieces are little flat disc, red or black, with the design of the piece on them, and magnetized to stick on the board, yeah?" I nodded agreement. "Doesn't that make you think of anything?"

For a second I was blank - and then it came to me. "Of course, duhh. All you need to do is flip the discs over, and they're still red or black, with no designs on them - voila, you have checkers. To king a piece, you can magnetically stick two of them together."

"That's pretty much it," Kyle agreed. "Technically, I think you could make a play of it even if the designs were on both sides, just ignoring the distinctions between them - but that might be confusing." He smiled. "Wanna go over and watch? You can probably make a guess as to how long they'll be at it, and we can see if anyone else wanted dibs on the board after they were done."

"Cool, yeah," I said, and wandered over towards the picnic table, Kyle right beside me. He reached out to hold my hand in his... and I smiled.

----------

"Okay, what do you think of that?" Isabel asked through the door.

"Umm... I'm not sure." I'd begged out of getting changed in front of the other girls - it was fine to undress in the same room as Liz when neither of us were really looking or caring, but somehow I still felt too shy to be naked and the object of scrutiny at the same time. Finally I'd gotten this latest outfit ON, but I wasn't sure how it looked, and didn't feel like coming out until I'd gotten a good look myself. Still - how? the little mirror on the wall didn't give me much of an idea, other than a glimpse of the same light aqua-blue color that I could see if I just looked down at myself. (The fabric had originally been a light blue pair of Isabel pants, which should probably give you a tiny notion of how it fit now that it was turned into an Ava dress.) Come on, what was there in here that could be reflective? I pulled up the shade on the window and waved my hand over it - turning the glass temporarily into a ninety percent mirror. Ahh - that helped. Remembering something that Isabel had said about her trip offplanet, I did the same waving trick on a patch of air, set at an angle to the window, and created another mirror literally out of thin air. Cool. Now I could even check out my own butt, if I angled myself carefully and let the reflection bounce off both reflective surfaces.

Hmmm... not at all bad! I meant the outfit, not my butt, though that's also pretty good if I do say so myself. Actually, the dress is so short that it nearly doesn't cover my butt - hmm... better be careful about how and when I bend over - but that isn't a tragedy. It could even be a useful move if I should decide that I need one. Aside from that, the sheath of blue fabric fit close enough about my body to show off figure without being completely slutty about it - the back dipped fairly low, though not low enough to reach to my waist or anything like that. Cleavage check was satisfactory as well, giving a nice hint of the girls but not going too far. The straps that looped around my shoulders weren't quite small enough to be called 'spaghetti', but not much thicker than that, either. I could definitely see myself having a great time at a nightclub in this outfit, especially if... I rushed over to pull the old brown rigid case from under my bed, opened it up, and pulled out my best pair of heels, white three-inchers with leather straps. A touch, a moment's concentration, and they had changed to a shade of blue that perfectly matched the dress. I put the heels on, took a few practice steps to get the hang of them, and strutted out the door to show my gorgeous self off to Liz and Isabel.

They weren't the only ones I ended up showing myself off to... and I'm not just talking about Maria, either. Kyle and Rath had been standing in their doorway when I swayed into the hall, in the middle of a slightly macho exchange I think, but for a long moment that was forgotten as they stared at yours truly. Seeing them there like that, next to each other and both looking me up and down with slightly hungry eyes made me feel... well, nervous and excited all at once. They were both so... so manly and vigorous, in different ways, and... well, I couldn't help but think in that moment that I could hardly go wrong - as long as I didn't manage to piss them BOTH off at me so badly that I ended up with no-one. Pick one of them - great. Draw out the process, so that they were both flirting with me and trying to impress me - hey, great! I have to admit, the thought of trying to have my cake and eat it too even flashed through my mind... though egos would have to be VERY carefully managed if I wanted to make that any more than a fantasy - otherwise, see above under messing up and ending with nobody.

"Oh my god, you look incredible," Liz said, so bright and perky that it almost annoyed me. Now, I guess I should probably explain this part a little further, since the last you heard of Liz, I was still waiting for her to show up again, and getting a little nervous and wondering if somebody should call her cell phone. She and Max arrived, with Alex's car, about halfway through my checkers game against Kyle. Both of them looking all glowy and blushing slightly, so that I started to wonder exactly what they'd been up all afternoon and halfway into the evening. But there hadn't been time to pull her aside and ask, of course... and probably my imagination was starting to run away with me. I mean, Liz wasn't the kind of girl to 'become a woman' out on some isolated oceanside point, far away from home, was she? I thought for a little bit longer about sex on the beach, and then put the notion aside. Damn, the sand really *would* get EVERYWHERE!!

"Cool!!" I said, hugging Liz impulsively, then turning back to Isabel to say thanks before I forgot. "What about you, Parker - you're coming along, right?? Whatcha gonna wear?"

"Umm... you know, I think I packed some things that should work without alien alteration," she said. "Just a minute." And she slipped into the room alone, leaving me to wonder just what she had in mind. But with no way to find that out but wait, I started to look around. Maria came out of the other girls' room at that point, dressed up herself in a very classy black dress, her hair down and straightened, which was a pretty good look for her. Isabel was still wearing a fairly plain tank top and olive shorts, so I figured that she was going to get changed in a minute or two.

Oh, wait a second, you probably want to hear about the checkers game a bit more, don't you? Well, it wasn't long after we started hanging around that Alex managed to pull off an inspired skewer to capture Rath's queen, and after that it wasn't long before he had the checkmate. Rath clearly didn't like the idea of me playing games with Kyle, (though he didn't have any room to be jealous, since we'd played so much chess that afternoon, and he didn't act up nearly as badly as he did yesterday, which I counted as an improvement.) Once it was clear that Kyle was more familiar with the game than I was, Rath decided to help me out, which I didn't really mind, and Kyle didn't make a big deal out of.

So it was the three of us, playing and joking, and *not* really saying anything to acknowledge the whole love triangle thing. I really had a lot of fun, and learned a few things about both guys by the way they were dealing with the situation, though I'm not sure how to put my new realizations into words, never mind fit them into any eventual choice. Oh, and Kyle managed to annihilate me even with Rath's help, though R probably helped me stay alive a lot longer than I would have on my own. Then again, maybe Kyle wouldn't have played so hard against me alone.

So, after the game was over, we started getting ready for a night out at the Alamo, which pretty much catches you up to where I started this scene. And somehow, I suspected that no matter how things went tonight, I was definitely going to remember the Alamo. (Groan it you must.) Some of the guys were already dressed... I think Maria probably talked Michael into the white jeans and pale yellow t-shirt, but he did look pretty good like that. Max was fairly restrained, but decent, in tight navy blue slacks and a gray button-up shirt.

That reminded me - I hadn't remembered to tell Max or anyone else about the transmission event this afternoon, and somehow I doubted Rath had either. So I crossed over to where Max was standing next to Michael. "There's something I have to tell you about the communicator."

Max blinked for a second. "So tell."

I started with the basic fact of a communication attempt while Rath and I had been the only ones in our group around the house, and then started to describe what we'd found out about the communcator being responsive to its immediate environment, what we'd done to get it to react as well as we could, and our ideas about what might improve the conditions even further. Finally, (and feeling a little foolish about the order,) I repeated what I could remember of the transmitted words themselves.

"Hmm..." Max considered. "Rayde-something?" I giggled nervously and nodded.

"I... I think she was mentioned while I was on Stellynfrus," Michael muttered, his eyes locked onto mine. I realized, with a little internal chuckle, that he was carefully keeping his gaze above my neck to avoid getting in trouble with Maria or something... in fact, Max was looking at me in much the same way. "She's not just some personal assistant - according to Antarian social convention she's permitted to stand in for Alinda in nearly any situation... which makes her nearly royalty herself."

Max looked up at that. "What are the limits of 'nearly any situation?' I mean, if we manage to talk to this lady... should I treat her as if she were... were my long lost grandmother or whatever? The same way I'd talk to Alinda herself?"

"Um... no, I don't think so. Purely personal relationships and family don't carry over the same way," Michael replied. "Well, good idea about trying it in our room in the dark. We'll try that... late tomorrow morning?"

"Alright," Max said. "I'll see who wants to crowd in."

Just about that point, Max got distracted by Liz's reapparance, wearing a pleated miniskirt, (not quite as short as the hem on my dress but nearly,) in a red, blue, and purple wavy pattern - and a sleeveless, black, cropped peasant blouse, that went up nearly all the way to her neck but left a strip of midriff exposed between itself and the skirt - and her smoothly tanned arms of course. The entire outfit looked like it could have been stashed up the sleeve of the shirt Liz had been wearing earlier without any of us noticing... and I'm pretty sure Max liked that about it. The fabric of the skirt seemed particularly thin and delicate... like the substance of a hankerchief. I smiled, enjoying the sight of Liz all dressed up for a night on the town, (and looking very sexy.) "Ohmigawd," I breathed, hurring forward. "I love that bracelet - where did you get it?"

"Um... this?" Liz said a bit needlessly, holding up her left wrist, which had a pretty silver chain stretching around it, decorated with shiny black stones every inch and a half or so. "Umm, it was a present from my Grandma - I've had it for years." She smiled at me, and then jumped slightly. "Jewelry! That's it!!"

"It's what?" Max asked, drawing Liz into his arms for a tender embrace and a kiss.

"Umm... that's what Ava's outfit is missing... or doesn't have enough of anyway." I blinked in surprise at Liz's declaration, but couldn't argue - the only bling I had on were tiny little gold studs in my ears, and now that my hair was down, and grown out a bit, you could hardly even see them. Max sighed goodnaturedly as his date dragged me back into the room to see what pretty little things we could find for me to wear.

----------

The nightclub was pretty cool.

By the time Liz and I were done with the jewelry thing... (mostly cheap and tasteful rings, one arm-band, and a necklace pendant that Liz was able to sit right at the top of my cleavage 'just to emphasize the decolletage,' she said,) everybody else was ready to go. None of the guys had taken much time getting dressed, though they all looked good - mostly wearing jeans and a varied assortment of shirts. I paid special attention to my two suitors, of course - Rath was wearing black jeans and a forest green t-shirt that he'd drawn the whirlpool galaxy onto with his powers - I remembered that shirt from our New York Days, which was possibly why he'd picked it. Kyle's jeans were blue, the color almost washed out of them in places, and he was wearing a red collar shirt with three buttons down the front. Again, it was hard to say which one looked hotter. Took us a little while to find the club, but not long enough that I'm going to go into a big narration about it.

"Oh, I'm so glad that we happened to be in that chicken place at the right time," Isabel said as we walked inside. Oh, speaking of Isabel, she was looking incredible all dressed up to party too, though that shouldn't really surprise anybody. She was wearing black leather pants, boots, a tight red tube top, and she had tied her hair up into two long plaits (or maybe braids,) that ran halfway down her back. (She's been growing her hair out all summer.) The look was very dramatic, and it got me wondering just how long it had taken her to braid her hair like that using her powers. It couldn't be just a question of waving her hands and bam, braided hair... our powers couldn't really allow matter to pass through other matter. She could move any bit of hair just by concentrating on it, but still it was an awful lot to keep track of. Alex was dressed up in some kind of fancy pants too, black to match Isabel's leather, and a light blue dress shirt.

We split up pretty quickly once we were inside - Max and Liz, Michael and Maria decided to go dancing first thing... (well, Michael didn't really decide so much as Maria decided for him, but this once he didn't seem to mind.) Isabel and I, and 'our guys' (Alex, Kyle, and Rath,) ended up drifting towards the bar area to get some drinks and just sit down to get our bearings. There was already a fairly long line for the bar, and it took nearly fifteen minutes of standing and waiting before any of us came up - but that wasn't too bad. I chatted with just about everybody, pointing out other people in the crowd and trying to guess things about their life, which became a game that everybody else joined in with. I got a sweet, fruity, slushy mug of something pinkey-purple when I got up to the bar - can't remember what it was called or how I'd managed to order it if I didn't know what it was. Kyle tried to get a cold beer, passed a fake ID and got caught at it by the bartender, and both Isabel and I had to flirt with the bartender to keep him from calling a bouncer and getting Kyle thrown out. Kyle ended up just having an expensive bottled water. I got a good look at Rath's face when all of that drama was over... he'd been quietly enjoying the trouble that Kyle had gotten himself in, but now seemed upset that I'd gone to such lengths to keep Kyle around. Maybe he'd been hoping that Kyle *would* have had to leave, and then he'd have me all to himself all evening, and it'd have been Kyle's own fault. We chatted and talked as a group for a long time, maybe fifteen minutes, and then Alex spotted a more intimate table for two that was free, and he and Isabel excused themselves. Of course, it shouldn't have surprised me that they wanted to spend some quality time alone together, but suddenly it sunk in that we were back to the threesome again.

"Umm... so, anybody got any big plans for tomorrow?" I asked a bit nervously.

"Probably go to the beach again," Kyle said lazily, trying to look as cool as he possibly could while drinking water.

"Hmm... well, I was thinking about hitting the Lexington," Rath countered. Was he trying to set me up in a situation where I'd have to make a choice? "She saw a lot of decent action in the Pacific, world war two. Now they've got her set up as a museum ship in the harbour."

I smiled, shaking me head slightly. "You always did love the big millitary hardware, didn't you Rath?"

"Hey, that sounds pretty cool actually," Kyle chimed in. "Better than the beach again. I'm in."

Huh. What... oh, hmm, was it possible that Kyle had interpreted my sympathetic comment as a prelude to deciding that I wanted to go to the aircraft carrier myself? And, rather than set himself up on the losing end himself, he switched to call off Rath's symbolic victory. Or, maybe he just liked the navy stuff too. The thing was, *I* wasn't particularly interested in going to see the Lexington - I'd rather go back to the beach, especially since I hadn't spent the whole day there today, or maybe check out the Aquarium or something. But... well, as amusing as it might be to say so right now and watch the macho men try to find a way to backpedal, I decided to wait for later. (Or maybe they'd just go and see all the big guns by themselves, with Michael maybe joining in. If they went alone, I have to admit I'd be worrying about what might happen if they got into a scrap again. Hmm.)

I turned to look out at the dance floor, and a few seconds later, a voice blurted out, "M'lady, may I have this dance??" It was Rath. I turned back, and Kyle was glaring slightly at the other young man and looking upset that he hadn't asked himself.

"Umm... no, not this one - I haven't quite finished my drink yet," I pointed out. "How about the next song?" Took a swig of slushy pink. And I shot a meaningful look at Kyle... I'd be saving the song after that for him, regardless of whether he asked me or not. Taking turns seemed like the best way of handling this kind of thing for the moment.

As it happened, the next song was a slow dance, and the one after that a fast one, which meant that things didn't quite come out quite even, and though I did my best to keep things fair, it got more and more confusing and frankly, I wasn't as worried about keeping the peace as much as enjoying myself as the night wore on. There was, to my surprise, a kind of video arcade in the back of the club, which was pretty much a hit with all three of us, and we ran into a few of the other guys in there too... Max and Liz were playing some partnership game with colored bubble patterns at one point, and Alex slipped in to get a little Mega Man action while Isabel was off at the ladies' room. Around this point, they stopped spinning vinyl and got a live music act, a pretty decent punk rock band that I didn't think was local, though I didn't recognize them. I just sat in the vicinity of the stage for a while and listened, not dancing, and Rath joined me. Kyle sat down too, but I don't think punk is really his scene, and I spotted him dancing with a short and pretty girl, maybe Mexican or indian from the tone of her skin, though it was a little hard to judge such things under the dance floor lighting.

Rath went over to the bar, and got me a refill of my pink stuff, and I drained it pretty quickly - the inside of the club must have been hotter than I'd thought. I listened to the band for a bit longer, but before long I was out on the dance floor again... a fast, energetic number, shakin' my bootie near both Kyle and Rath, not dancing with either one specifically, nor all three of us dancing together really, but each near to the others. Kyle smiled at me in a way that was somehow enormously appealing, and I stepped over to him and kissed him energtically.

Almost immediately, there was a scoffing sound nearby, soft, but I could hear and identify it perfectly even over the loud music and the crowd sounds. Rath was just starting to turn away from both of us. "Noo," I urged, reaching out to grab for his arm while still keeping my other hand touching Kyle. "I... I didn't mean to, well -- the more the merrier, right?" I smiled alluringly at Rath.

And the next thing that I remember was losing my balance and wilting. Kyle tried to wrap his arms around my back as I fell, but he wasn't quite prepared and I slipped away from his grasp. Then darkness.

TO BE CONTINUED...