I didn't know what happened-if I had a dream, or there was a noise, but it got me awake. Unsure of whether I was up for real, I looked at the clock.

And panicked.

Leaping over the other girls, I flung open Tom's door. Sidestepping Marco and Jake, I hissed, "Ax? You awake?"

No answer. Figured. I shook him until he jerked. "What?"

"The power's out. The alarm clock won't work." Fear radiated from his shadowed face. "How long have you been asleep?"

"If I recalibrate, tuttuttuh…eeeeeei."

"Get up." I refused to accept the worst. "Go into the bathroom. I'll get Cassie."

He vaulted out. I followed and returned to Jake's room, rudely jolting Cassie. "Merrychrizmus…Rachel?"

"Help Ax. The alarm clock didn't work."

She raced to the bathroom. I followed, a step behind. "Demorph."

"I can't."

"Yeah you can," she urged. "Try."

He shook his human head, or at least that's what it looked like. None of us could really see much.

>Yes, I shook my head.>

Oh. Good to know.

Cassie placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to encourage him. I stared him down. "Ax. Demorph."

He staggered forward, his center of gravity changing as he began to grow. Cassie exhaled.

When it was finally over, I exclaimed, "What was that?"

Ax and I couldn't see what Cassie was doing, but it only took her a few seconds to test. "Yep. I accidentally acquired Ax, and the trance made him impressionable enough to listen to you."

"Whatever, it worked."

"Ax, you probably shouldn't go back to sleep. Can you stay up and keep remorphing?"

>Yes.>

"Okay." I was going back to bed.

When I woke up for real, it was to chaos. Apparently Marco had thought it humorous to let Homer out of his kennel. Even more apparently, nobody else found it humorous.

The light through the windows was enough to see things dimly, but we needed more. Jake's dad had evidently figured this out, but had given Ax the candle to light, a bad choice. "Rachel?" he asked.

"Yeah?"

"What are these objects?"

I squinted to see them. "Matches."

"And what are they used for? Four is the square of two. And negative two, too. Two is a pleasant sound."

"Yup, it is, Ax. We light the candle with them, see?" I struck a match.

He stared in astonishment. "This produces artificial light? How?"

"It's the chemicals."

"Chemicals? Zuh?" This cheered him up drastically. He reached for a match. "I enjoy Earth chemicals very much. Cha!" He opened his mouth and brought up the match.

"NO! No, no, don't do that." I swiped it away and frantically lit the candle. "Okay? Who wanted this again?"

"Me," Jake's dad called from downstairs. "Tom's going to get a lesson in how to fix a blown fuse."

"I don't wanna," he sulked. Disheveled in large pajamas, he trundled down the stairs.

Jake, a little more awake as he had been forced to deal with Homer, caught my eye. I nodded.

Deliberately casual, he tried to keep the subject off Tom. "So…how're things?"

"Pretty good. Our friend here has discovered pyromania."

"Oh."

All of us crowded around to watch the ensuing drama as an unwilling Tom poked around the fuses. His mom held the candle up so he could have a partial clue as to what he was doing. "Errgh…okay, reach across here…hey! I found a quarter!"

"See? Aren't you glad you did this?" his dad asked.

"No. Oh…almost…" The lights flickered on. "Got it."

He climbed down from the stool he had perched on. "So, can we eat breakfast now? Will the stove work?" Sara inquired.

"Yes," my mom said curtly, at the same time as Jake's mom was saying "probably not."

"Probably-what?" My mom turned to Jake's, head tilted and hand on knee. They stepped to the side, discussing something.

Practically, Jordan stepped to the next room. "Hey Sara, you couldn't eat breakfast even if the stove did work!"

"Oh why not?"

"Cause it's already lunchtime!"

"What?" Tom bolted after her. Fixing the fuse had reset the clocks, and they now displayed a time of 12:00. "It's noon?"

"No," Ax said, "it has been for-"

"Hey, not now, okay?" Jake interrupted.

Marco cupped a hand behind his ear. "Do you guys hear that?"

Cassie nodded, worriedly. "Footsteps. Someone's running-"

A crash, like a shatter. Tom was going to risk it.