to Jason Katims, 20th Century Fox etc. I'm just borrowing them.

Rating: PG-13 – possibly to R

Chapter Thirty-Five Ouch, Did Something Bite Me?

"Uh, hello?" said Maria. "If Tess the evil hell bitch is approaching, why is Ava just sitting here? No offense, Ava?"

"None taken," said Ava with a grin. "Watch this." She touched her hand to her hair, lengthening it considerably. At the same time, she changed the color to a dark auburn color. With the clothes she was wearing, she was completely unrecognizable.

"That is so cool," said Maria, wistfully. "Why can't I have a power like that?"

"I shudder to think of the damage you could do with a power like that," said Alex. "Imagine what you would change if you could do that."

"What! What kind of damage. What are you talking about?" said Maria, her voice ripe with indignation.

"I have two words for you Deluca. Aqua Bra!"

"Oh, yeah, that," said Maria. "Never mind.

"Much as I'd love to hear the whole story behind the Aqua Bra," said Ava. "We need to focus here. Alex, the ball's in your court. Make her think I'm not here.

"Poof, you're not here?" said Alex, weakly.

"Who's not here?" asked Tess, walking up behind them. "Who are you," she added rudely, looking at Ava. "And where is Max?"

Alex closed his eyes and concentrated, focusing on blocking Ava from Tess's mind.

"What did you say, Tess?" asked Isabelle.

"I said, who's not here, and where is Max. God, what are you people, deaf or something?"

"Uh, Max isn't here," said Maria.

"Well, I can see that," snapped Tess. "What I want to know is where he is."

"Sorry, we don't know," said Isabelle. "Alex and I bumped into Kyle and Maria downtown, and we decided to grab some food and have a picnic."

"Well, that was fast," said Tess, snidely.

"What was fast, Tess?" asked Kyle.

"You and Hurricane Deluca hooking up. Glad to see you aren't pining away for Michael. Not that it matters to me. I've got Max, and that's the way it should be. He belongs with me, not with that insignificant little bitch Liz Parker. OUCH! Did something bite me?" she asked, as the angry red imprint of a hand appeared on her face.

"Must have been a mosquito or something," said Maria. "You'd better go put something on that before it starts to swell."

"Yeah, it looks like it's getting bigger already," said Isabelle.

"Swell?" said Tess, putting a hand to her face. "I'd better go. If you see Max, tell him I'm looking for him." She turned and walked towards the entrance of the park.

"Yeah, maybe he can heal that bug bite for you!" Kyle called to her departing figure. "Ava, I love you," he said. "That was perfect!"

"Alex, you did it!" cried Isabelle, throwing her arms around him. "You were fantastic!"

"I was fantastic, wasn't I?" said Alex. "Or was I?" he asked, turning to Ava. "You didn't help, did you?"

"I didn't do anything," said Ava, except for slap the bitch. Man, she is nasty. She's even nastier than Lonnie, and that's sayin a lot!"

"It's proof positive that my mother's message was true," said Isabelle.

"What message?" asked Ava.

"Damn, we forgot to tell you," said Isabelle. "Okay, the short version is this. When the made us on Antar, they made two sets, one to send to Earth, and one to keep as spare I guess. Enemies of the royal family managed to tamper with the second set. They then took the two sets were mixed together, and the scientists on Antar were unable to tell which set was which. So, they sent both sets to Earth instead of keeping one on Antar. I think it's safe to assume that you were supposed to be with Max, Michael and myself, and Tess was supposed to be with those freaks you lived with.

"So like I was supposed to live the whole cornball Mayberry experience? Go figure. Can you see me, growin up in a place like this?"

"Yeah, actually, I can," said Kyle, covering her hand with his. "You are a sweet and wonderful person, Ava. All that other stuff, the attitude, the tattoo's, that was just because of the way you lived. The person you are inside is nothing like Rath and Lonnie, and probably not even Zan."

"No, Zan, he wasn't like them either. I mean, he was, but he wasn't. He wasn't all cruel like they were. He didn't take any of their crap or nothin', but he was still a good person," said Ava.

"Maybe they didn't tamper with his pod," said Alex. "Maybe they were afraid to mess with the King, no matter what state he was in."

"Well, they weren't afraid to kill him," said Isabelle, bitterly. "They weren't afraid to kill any of us."

"Maybe," said Alex. "We'll probably never know, but what we do know is that Ava was supposed to be here with you, all along, and we know that we'll be able to fool Tess. Now we just have to figure out what our next step is going to be."

"Come on," said Maria, as she began to pack up the remnants of their picnic. "We're supposed to meet at my house tonight. Let's get over there and tell Max, Michael and Liz what happened."

"Let's stop and get some food before we head to your house, Maria. I'm starving," said Alex.

"You're starving," said Maria. "How can you possibly be starving? You ate just about everything we brought."

"This mind warping is hard work," said Alex. "How does everybody feel about Thai food?"

"Fine, whatever," said Kyle. "Why don't you go pick it up, and meet us back at Maria's. I want to swing by the station and clue my Dad in on what just happened.

Kyle, Isabelle and Maria got into Kyle's Mustang and drove over to the Sheriff's department, while Alex and Ava drove over to the new Thai place to get take out. After their order was ready, Alex walked out to the car with the food, while Ava ran back inside to get extra hot mustard. When she left the restaurant, she saw Alex standing outside his car, talking with Tess. She walked slowly out of the restaurant, and came around so that she was standing behind Tess.

"I want you to tell them you are going to Sweden on an exchange program," Tess said to Alex. "And then I want you to start working on that stupid book. I have to know what it says. What are you going to need to break the code?"

"Probably a very powerful computer," said Alex. "More powerful than I have here at home."

"Where can we find one of those?" asked Tess.

"Las Cruses," said Alex. "At the university."

"Fine," said Tess. "As soon as I get you the book, that's where I want you to go. They'll be expecting you. I'll take care of everything. Do you understand, Alex?"

"Of course, Tess," said Alex.

"And don't tell anybody we've talked," said Tess. She spun around on her heal, and walked towards her Geo Tracker. Ava ducked behind another car and waited until Tess drove away.

"Are you alright?" she asked Alex, as soon as Tess's car was out of sight.

"Yeah," said Alex. "But I guess I'm going to Las Cruses, at least in Tess's mind.