Part 2

Reaching in his pocket Rath made sure he still had it. Usually he would dematerialize the material to nothing more than dust, but this was a prize to keep. She left so fast that she didn’t know she was missing it, which amused him. He always had that affect on people. He inhaled; her smell lingered in his nostril, making him harder. Rath had to find Lonnie soon; he didn’t want to waste a nice hard on. Clutching the material tightly in his hands his thoughts mulled over using Maria’s thong, but he didn’t want to get it dirty, not yet.
***

The end of the day bell couldn’t ring soon enough. It had been a very long day and trying to avoid everybody made it even longer. She spent her lunch period hiding in her car and looking for another underwear; she kept a few items in her car just in case of emergencies. Maria really wanted to go home, but she had had another test that she really couldn’t miss, since she wasn’t doing all that great in that class, but she really doubted she did any better since the incident this morning raddled her.

Bolting out of the door as fast as her legs could take her, she went straight to the parking lot, knowing that Liz would be buzzing around her locker waiting for her. She managed to avoid Michael a few times in the hallway during the day; she knew he was looking for her. Michael would usually be the last one to be seen in the hallway, but he was there, looking. She was about ten feet away from the door when she heard her name called. Quickly looking behind her she saw brown flowy hair and that made her walk faster until she was pulled into an empty room by strong arms.
***

Liz was sure her friend had been just right here, but Maria disappeared. Walking out to the parking lot, Liz noticed that the Jetta was still there. Something was wrong. She just knew it! Liz was determined to wait for Maria at her car until she saw Max walking towards her. Spotting Alex, Liz ran towards her childhood friend and hitched a ride home with him. She didn’t want to deal with Max today plus she could always talk to Maria at work.
***

A large hand was over her mouth to muffle her scream that was lost to fear. She only calmed when she recognized the ring. Chills ran up her spine as she realized that it might not be Michael, that it could be the other Michael, the one from this morning.

He felt her fear; her body was too tense, so much that it was vibrating through her. He took away his hand and slowly turned her around. Her face was ghostly pale but that soon went away when he embraced her to warm her up.

She quickly pushed him away and smacked him hard on the head.

“Ouch! Why’d you do that for?!” Michael yelped as he rubbed the spot where Maria hit him.

“YOU FREAKED ME OUT!”

“And you are trying to avoid me.”

“I’m not avoiding you” Maria said, as she tries to stair him down.

“You weren’t at lunch.”

“Why do you all of the sudden care?”

Shifting his eyes to the side, Michael asked, “-what’s going on Maria? You’re freaked out about something.”

“I skipped lunch because I had another test to study for, I’m freaked out because I had two tests on the same day and now if you could get out of my way, I need to get ready to go to work!-” Maria said agitatedly as she headed towards the door.

Michael moved to position himself between the door and Maria and looked at her sternly and stated, “-Maria… if you need me, if you are in any kind of trouble…”

Maria looked up at him and squinted her eyes and finally nodded.

“Promise?”

“Yes”
***

She didn’t want to be there. She had to cancel her performance for this meeting. Didn’t she get enough of this weird alien stuff with Michael’s double? And now Michael was stealing glances at her from the corner of his eyes. He knew something was up, but she was able to satisfy him with her excuse, right? She wasn’t even paying attention to what Max was saying, his droning voice made it even harder for her to concentrate on Max.

Everybody’s head shot up as Alex nervously descended the stairs, it was only after a booming voice from above that spoke that they understood why Alex was so creeped out. Maria took a step back as Max asked, “Who are you?”

Lonnie answered while smacking on her gum, “We're you.”

“I...I don't understand...” Isabel stammered in surprise as the three dupes lined up in front of the group.

“They're shape-shifters-” Michael said surmising why they were seeing doubles.

“I know you must be buggin' out right now, 'cause I'd be buggin', too.” Lonnie said as she tried to calm them down.

“How can this be?” questioned Isabel.

Thinking out loud, Michael concluded, “Eight… eight, there were eight pods originally.”

The world went hazy as Maria finally realized what Michael was saying. He had told her about the pod when he took her to the granolith chambers. But why are they here, why did Michael’s double seek her out, how did he find her, how did he know who she was- questions upon question rushed through her head, only when she heard the others introducing themselves did she awake from her dazzled state.

“ I'm Max-” was all he said to introduce himself.

“How did you lose your Max?” Isabel asked the doubles since there was not a Max double with them.

Rath explained, “-He died in a stupid accident. You know, all his powers, all his abilities, and, you know, he died in a street accident. For nothin'. Yo, I'm Rath.”

“Lonnie.”

“Isabel-” she said as she uncomfortably shifted her glances.

“I'm Ava-” she said sadly.

“Tess.”

Liz and Maria gave each other a knowing look and it was the pleading in Maria eyes that made Liz concerned, but she understood that the secret needed to be kept.

“This is Michael, and these are our friends: Alex, Maria, and Liz-” Max said as he looked back at them.

“ Uh, we met-” Maria said quickly, not noticing that Michael was looking back and forth at her and Rath.

Laughing, Rath apologized, “-sorry about that. I was, uh...I was just trying to get the lay of the land.” Looking at Max, “something's cookin'...something that's gonna affect all of us. Could we talk in private?” The group stood there, stunned as Rath and Max walked up the stairs to Brody’s office.
***

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me-” Liz said as she stiffled her voice to a whisper.

“I didn’t know what to tell you! I didn’t even know what to think!”

“Maria. I can’t believe that we worked the whole day together yesterday and you said everything was fine and you didn’t give any explanation why you disappeared yesterday and all you can say is this!. How could you keep me in the dark?”

“Why are you making this about you? I’m confused, OK. I had NO idea. I mean, it happened so quickly and I guess I missed Michael and our quazi-relationship. I was just happy and with all the crap that is going on in your life, I didn’t want you to bother with mine.” explained Maria as she sat down next to her best friend.

“I’m sorry Maria… I’ve been so consumed and I guess I’ve never noticed your pain. Thanks for being there for Max during the summer. I just… I just can’t deal with him and Tess right now.”

“I know… I know-” Maria comforted Liz as she put her arms around to hug her long time friend.
***

He watched her as he hid behind the wall. She was interacting with brown ‘n boring and the more he watched the more intrigued he was by her. Her head went up as he coughed to get her attention. He jerked his head to motion her over to him. She whispered something to Liz and Liz’s face took a look of concern, but it seemed that Maria was able to smooth it out because she was heading his way.

“Yo, wasszup?” Rath said with a sly smile as he backed up, hiding himself behind the wall.

“You stupid fuck! How dare you do that to me!-” moving forward she smacked him across the head then folding her arms in front of her chest. She casually looked around to see that both of them were somewhat hidden. She could make out Max as he was talking to the others. It was dangerous that no one could see them, but she really needed to talk to Rath, get things straighten out. Maria didn’t want anybody to see her with Rath. So it was good nobody could see them, especially not Michael.

“Aah! Yo, Rath likes foreplay-” he said as he rubbed the spot where she hit him. “You were totally bitch’n for me and if I’d kept my mouth shut, you would’a creamed in my hand.”

“OMG, you are so repulsive! And the only reason you were able to even get me was because you remotely resemble Michael. I can’t believe I let you kiss me and for that matter, touch me!” Maria exclaimed as she waved her hand around in exacerbation.

“Yeah, I think we did a little more than kiss and touch babe-” Rath smirked as the pulled the black thong out of his pants pocket and dangled it in front of Maria’s face.

“Gimme that!-” Maria yelled while lunging forward to take back her underwear from the pierced-Mohawk-freak.

Instead of moving back to get out of her reach, Rath moved forward, wrapped his arms around her waist and pushed her up against the wall to pin her with the weight of his body. He leaned down and gave her a kiss that she would never forget.

The kiss only lasted a matter of mere seconds, but it seemed so much longer. Maria tried to push him away but he was too strong. It was the opening of the metal doors of the UFO center that pulled Rath's attention from his captive.

Looking into her eyes, Rath gave her a lazy smirk and said breathlessly, “RIGHTEOUS!”
***

“What the hell is this?” Brody questioned as he walked towards the group of teenagers standing around.

“Morning-” Max said in hopes to divert his boss’ attention to him and away from the others.

“What? Is there a party going on? Funny I wasn't invited, seeing how it's my building. And who are you?” he said as he looked at the freaky-pierced Michael look-a-like standing next to Michael.

“Uh, Brody, this is my, uh, twin brother… Bob,” Michael explained.

“I didn't know you had a brother.”

“I live in New York-” Rath said in his New York accent.

“Well, that explains the hair. Now who can explain what you're all doing here?”

That was Maria’s clue. She was feeling extremely weird and didn’t want to be there a minute longer. She wasn’t even sure if Michael saw what Rath just had done and wasn’t ready to deal with Michael. This was her only escape, although Brody was a little on the strange side, but that might help get his attention away from the others.

Maria smiled brightly as she greeted Brody, “Hi.”

“Hi!” greeted Brody, smiling back at her, surprised by her presences there.

“Um...you know how you asked about lunch?”

“ Uh-huh-” he replied with a goofy grin on his face.

“-Well, how do you feel about having a little breakfast?” she asked as she laced her arm around his and turned towards the stairs.

“Stay as long as you like,” Brody said to the group without taking his eyes off of Maria.

“You want me to kill him for you?” Rath said to Michael, although he felt like killing Brody for himself.

A flood of nervousness rushed through Michael's body as he looked at what just happened. “I'll get back to you on that,” was all that he could say as he looked at the two leaving, feeling like his chest had gotten the air squeezed out of it.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Fic