Special Delivery

Author's note: So, same old, same old with Mat. I guess you're running out of things to say.

Chapter 4: Not a Good Sign
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CARLSBAD APARTMENTS 12TH FLOOR - 24:18.3
My partner and I continued hacking through the dense jungle. I was carrying an important delivery that we had to make in less than half an hour. We had befriended a lion that had been separated from the herd, and it is now journeying with us through …

"You're not amusing anyone, Crocodile Dundee," Alex told me. "Quit playing around."
I hung my head. "Aw."

"In any case, we'd better hurry. Who knows what Marvin has planned for us next." Alex and I both put on our heat-sensor 6000 sunglasses so we could better see through the jungle.

Sam, still wearing the lion costume, was beginning to sweat. "I don't see how Marvin could bear this costume. It's really hot in here"
Drops of sweat formed on Sam's face and ran down her body. And wouldn't you know it, one of them hit her X-powder, short-circuiting it and causing it to malfunction a little.
Alex and I looked over and saw what was happening. The clothes-changing feature on Sam's X-powder malfunctioned and misfired. Somehow it interacted with her disguise, causing her to transform into a real lion.

I cannot begin to describe how this spectacle would look to the naked eye, let alone through a pair of heat-sensor 6000 infra-red motion-detector sunglasses.
I'll try to describe how it happened as best I can. The heat signature I knew as Sam's began to pulsate, and then it quickly spread to the rest of the lion costume (which changed in appearance slightly, as it was no longer a costume).
(I know I mimicked some famous author's writing style in those last two paragraphs. I'm not sure who, though.)

Alex looked at Sam. "Sam? Sam, are you all right?"
"ROOOOAR!"
"Wow, what did you have for breakfast this morning, Sam?"

I used my DS to scan Sam. "Alex, I don't think Sam is Sam anymore."
"Huh?"
"According to this analysis, she got turned into a lion somehow."

"Well, that's not good. We've got no time to figure out how to reverse it. Come on, Samba."
"Samba?"
"Just a little joke. You know, Simba, Samba, with Sam being a lion and all …"

I did not find this pun especially funny. Sam apparently didn't either, but I can't say for sure. That attempt to bite her ankle off could've been just a joke.

"Alex," I finally said, "you go ahead and forage a path. I'll stay with Sam and follow you."

Alex nodded, I climbed on top of Sam, and we proceeded. At that moment, a familiar yell pierced the silence. "AWEYAWEYAWEYAWEYAW!"
I looked up. There was Marvin, dressed like Tarzan, swinging from a vine. With lightning-quick reflexes, I pulled out my ball-point pen laser and lasered the vine in half.
CRASH!

I rolled my eyes. "That has got to have been Marvin's most pathetic attempt yet," I decided. We laughed a little, and then continued.

For a moment, the journey was uneventful. Then, my DS beeped, and I answered it. It was Jerry. "Twenty minutes to go, spies," he told us. "How are you doing?"
"Not as good as we could be," I explained, filling him in on the situation with Sam.
"Oh, my," Jerry responded. "That can't be good. Hold on, I'll get a lock on her and try to figure out how to undo it. Ta-ta."

Jerry hung up. "Hey, Leo," Alex called as she shoved some more shrubbery aside, "I think we've reached the staircase. Come on, let's go."

Wow, that's got to be something. But is that little turn of events with Sam a set-back, or something else …?