Chapter 5: THE END!  Ta-da!

  Rikki docked Little Air in its mother ship with absolutely no conversation. He popped the hatch, climbed out, took two steps and collapsed in a heap on the floor. Alex stepped out as well, and turned back to retrieve Fidget's body. He walked in to the "living area" of Big Air and set her on the table. Grinder turned around in the piloting seat, his expression completely changing as he saw poor Fidget. He glanced up at Alex with a horrified and questioning look in his eyes, but the former had already turned back to where Rikki lie crumpled.

  He squatted down next to the shuddering lump that was his manager and laid a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. Rikki turned back to face him.

  "Alex," he whispered, climbing to his feet unsteadily. "What...what happened?"

  Alex swallowed hard. "The man, the hooded man you saw, he...he had some sort of torture wall. With spines. Fidget...she was chained to it. When he snapped his fingers, it triggered something in the wall, and...and..."

  Here, he was forced to stop. The point was made, and nobody felt like talking it over at the moment. Grinder was standing in the doorway, and for a moment nobody moved except to bow their heads.

  Finally, Grinder spoke. "I guess we ought to do something. She can't just lie there." He gestured towards the other room, in which was the table with her body.

  "Yeah. I guess so." Alex answered at length, beginning to trudge out. The others followed him slowly, and all ended up around the table, staring at the edge instead of Fidget herself.

  Alex felt angry. That robed man had killed her off, and for what? To test some worthless collar?! Completely worthless in that it didn't even accomplish it's assigned task?! He began to shake uncontrollably, his vision started to pop with little yellow and blue fragments...

  Wait. Yellow and blue fragments? Alex jumped at the sight of algebraic figures swirling through the room around him. His AMP factor? Why was it starting up now? A delayed reaction, maybe?

  As he watched, the figures swirled around Rikki and Grinder, who weren't frozen in mid-motion, as things usually were when golden equations started to calculate, but moving quite at normal speed. The ribbon of algebra flitted back to the table, and that's when the really odd things began...

  Alex watched the ribbon creep underneath Fidget's still form, slowly at first, then faster and faster, spinning her and itself until she was cocooned in flying, gilded numbers. It lifted off the table, spiraling wildly, and turned her vertical in midair. For a solid three seconds it spun there, glowing brighter and brighter until there was a blinding flash, and Alex fell back, stunned for a moment by the light. The AMP ribbon zipped away, now swirling in a circle about ten feet wide. It spun round a sort of axel, an axel which certainly appeared to be a fully repaired Fidget Wilson, still dangling some five feet above the ground. She shook her head, opened her eyes, looked around for a split second, then gave a little gasp and began to wave her arms in wild circles. The golden equations disappeared, leaving the entire room in stunned silence.

  *BASH!*

  "OOOOW!"

  Silence, at least until Fidget finally fell with a loud crash to the tabletop and confirmed the discomfort in doing so. Her screech broke the spell, and everyone began, instead, to stutter and babble aimlessly.

  "Hey, yuh...wah, ooo?"

  "Uh? Ah...ah...whah!"

  "Buh-buh-buh...eh..."

  The reincarnated Fidget looked herself over approvingly, completely ignoring the other team members' blubbering. "Not bad. Especially considering I was dead..." She looked into their shocked and puzzled faces. "Stop gaping, already. I'm alive, aren't I? Or aren't I..." She narrowed her eyes and they darted accusingly at each member. "Am I dead?" she demanded suspiciously. Rikki, at least, found the decency to shake his head.

  "Uh...no! At least, I hope you're not, 'cause you're moving and all..."

  Fidget hopped off the table, toppling a chair in the process. "Oops..." she caught it halfway down and set it back up, then turned to grin sheepishly at the other members. "Gotta go to the bathroom now. Be right back!" she proclaimed, and hurried off to the back. Alex grinned a little, something he hadn't expected to be doing for a while.

  "At least we know she's not dead, Rik. Her spirit would never be as clumsy as the real thing."

  "I'M NOT CLUMSY!" she called out from down the hall. The entire group in the "living area" smiled. It was nice to be back to normal, and back together.

  Later that week, after everyone felt a little more comfortable talking about the bad incident in the underground city, Alex found himself seated comfortably across the wing of Big Air. They had landed for a show, but it was over with, and he had suddenly found himself with a little bit of precious free time. He had been sitting quietly for a good ten minutes, thinking about everything that had happened (but mostly about Fidget's death and reincarnation) when he heard a door shut. Moments later, the camerawoman herself had managed somehow to climb onto the wing (although we may never know how, her being 4'11) and seat herself by Alex with a sigh.

  "Hey." she said, nudging him with her shoulder. When he made no particular effort to answer, she swatted him jokingly with the back of her hand. "Earth to Alex, come in Alex." He sighed, and looked over at her. She was staring right back at him expectantly. "Well? Watcha thinkin' about?"

  He smirked. "You, actually."

  She bowed her head slightly. "Flattered. Why?"

   He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "What did it feel like? To be dead? I know that's a cliche question, but I really do want to know."

  Fidget pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Not really like anything, I guess. Like being asleep, without dreams. Just nothing at all. I was dead, after all."

  "Okay, then. What did it feel like to be brought back?"

  She thought again. "Weird. I sort of woke up, but couldn't really...feel anything. Numb, you know? Then, this is sort of funny, I guess, it itched, or tickled or something, around all those...those holes..." she drew a shuddering breath, rearranged herself on the wing, and looked Alex in the eyes. "It was weird. I think...I know this sounds dumb, but...I think I know what it feels like when you AMP up. I could even see those orangey-yellow numbers, although I haven't got the slightest idea what they meant. I never was that great at math." she laughed a little, then cocked an eyebrow at Alex. "I suppose you were?"

  It was Alex's turn to laugh. "You'd think so, wouldn't you? But no, not really. Remember, this is a subconscious thing, I only discovered it since I started with you guys. And it wasn't even there until high school, so it didn't do a lot of good in the grades."

  "Eh. That sucks."

  "Just like gravity?"

  Fidget looked puzzled for a moment, then glanced down at her shirt and laughed out loud. Alex smiled, happy to have her back and alive. But the smile faded as his thoughts turned to the underground city, and the figure...

  "We couldn't have killed him off when we hit him like that."

  Fidget glanced up, jerked from her own thoughts. "Hmm?"

  "Oh, I forgot. You were actually dead at the time-"

  "That can cloud your memory." she cut in.

  "-but the figure got hit by Little Air when Rikki came and saved us. Me, you were already lost...but anyway. He was probably just knocked out. And that whole city, did you see it?"

  She frowned and looked at her drawn-up feet. "I didn't see much anything, they carried me off down some tunnel and-" She jumped and clutched her right ear. "My headset! Oh, man! Rikki's gonna kill me!"

  Alex patted her shoulder. "I'm sure he'll forgive you, just this once, given the circumstances."

  She still frowned. "Speaking of missing items, I haven't seen that iguana since I was last alive..." She hopped off the wing and out of site, and Alex heard scuffles and crunches of dirt and a non-feeling "Ow." He smiled a little as the door closed again.

The End