He turned into a mouse.
Sounds painful.
Looked painful, too! I’m freaking out here—how do they get so small?
Hold up—are you serious? There’s no such thing as mouseshiften.
I’m telling you, I saw it,Timber insisted. He hooked an elbow around a tree branch, then pointed at his face.With my own eyes.
Must be a trick.
No trick. I saw it. I smelled it. One minute man, next minute mouse… then big explosion.
Yeah, I remember the big explosion part.
Canyon gestured to the explosives shed which was now a loose collection of shattered bricks in the middle of a deep, smoking crater. The shed hadn’t so much exploded as it had… collapsed like a giant lid had been dropped onto it, squashing it into the ground, containing the heat and the blast in a small area. Six’s computer setup lay in the crater, the metal melted and bent, and the electronics misshapen and strewn around.
“Miracle,” Timber said.
You ain’t lying. There’s no way we should have lived through that.He gestured widely.There should be bricks everywhere.
Canyon jumped to the ground. He patted himself down. He really was in one piece. His uniform wasn’t even burnt.
Thank Rhen,he thought, but something inside—his wolf maybe—said it wasn’t her who saved them.Who then?Canyon thought. He couldn’t think of anyone powerful enough to contain an explosion like that.
Timber jumped to the ground next to him and pulled out his phone, mashing buttons. He swore and held it up. “No communications still. I can’t even make a phone call or send a text.”
Canyon grunted and headed for the crater.
“This sucks,” Timber said, following him. “We’ve got to tell Trevor about the mouseshiften.”
Canyon stopped walking and faced his brother.Are you fucking with me?
“No way, wolf. Swear. He turned into a mouse.”
Canyon shook his head slightly, not ready to believe it. He headed to the crater instead.
I heard beeping right before the blast,he said.Sounded like Predator rolling in.
“Hope not.”
I’m not too worried about Predator, the software can go in any tablet—but that was my best trike.
Canyon spotted a tiny wheel dismayingly close to the crater.
Here it is,he said, with little hope the trike would be reparable. He knocked detritus out of the way and picked the trike up by its robot arm. Surprisingly, it was still in one piece. One tire was askew, the robot arm looked bent, and Predator’s screen was dark.
Canyon fixed the tire as best he could without tools, then examined the robot arm. He held Predator up to the sky, looking at it from underneath.Is it… bigger?
“Nah,” Timber said, but he looked again, a dubious expression on his face.
Canyon tried to pull the tablet that housed Predator off the trike, but it wouldn’t come.
It melted to the docking station.
Canyon pressed Predator’s power button. Nothing happened. He held the button down. Still nothing happened. He turned it over in his hands and then held down several buttons at once, trying the reset combination. Still no response. He put the trike on the ground and stared at it, running through options in his mind.
“Fuckdamshitfuck,” he muttered.
