• • •

-The vortex opens, but it becomes unstable, it changes in size and color, it closes, then another vortex opens, tossing the 7 sliders out into a cell. It closes, then it reopens changing color to yellow, it finally closes for good.

"whats wrong with the vortex, is the timer malfunctioning?"

"it is. I can't get a read out" Quinn hands the timer to his father.

"I need to take it apart, see whats going on"

"well first, we need to get out of this cell"

Everyone realizes the situation there in, so Joe yells for help, but then a kromagg officer arrives.

"Isn't this a humiliating situation, you slide into a cage, without capture, maybe this would have better affects than going out into the area, to capture you humans"

"where are we, whose in charge?"

"this is earth 563, I'm sure Kolitar will be excited of this latest event" the officer heads out, exiting the room.

"great, I thought we already got away from him the first time"

"who is this Kolitar?" Doug asks

"he use to be a powerful leader on my world. Then after kicking the 'maggs out, he had revenge on us all this time for what we did"

"we ran into him too. When we rescued my friend Ryan Coplin, he had captured Laura, then we exchanged her timer for her"

"lets just hope we get help, I don't want to die, before the kromaggs do" Michelle states.

-As hours past, the sliders can do nothing, they just sit in the cell until either killed or taken for torture.

"Is the timer working yet?"

"somewhat. Its started again, but it keeps reading the wrong time to slide, first 34 hours, then 12 minutes, then 3 days, 20 seconds and so on"

"try looking at it now"

"how can I, I need the tools to get to the source of the problem" Michael angerly states.

Kolitar finally enters "ah, the noise of humans yelling. I enjoy that, when there to be killed"

"nice to see you too 'magg. Its probably great to see our world conquered by your people"

"you haven't heard Mallory, our world is engulfed with viruses, unable to sustain life of any kind"

"what do you plan on doing with us!" Wade asks.

"time will tell Wade. I should say, I know what has become of your friends, but I'd rather let you find them yourself"

"why, what happened to them!"

Kolitar begins to laugh "see you all soon, when I get to kill you, myself humans"

Wade pounds on the bars "I hate him, I can't stand this anymore, I wish I knew if my Quinn was alive"

"don't worry Wade, we'll get justice, you can count on it" Jacob says.

Minutes later, a humagg enters "I've come to set you free human friends"

The humagg unlocks the cage, the sliders look at each other.

"well come on, this way, follow me"

"hope this isn't a trick" Michelle states.

They follow the humagg, to the door, he pulls out a device, opening a large orange portal,

"lets go" Quinn tells the others.

The group of 8 enter, then back in Kolitars office, he watches them leave. The kromagg soldier named Krolak, from earlier, enters.

"should we sound the alarm?"

"no, lets let Rick Mallory help hisf friends, then he can sned them back to the homeworld for final destruction, when they die from viruses"

"but shouldn't we attack now, or we might not have another chance!"

"patience soldier. You may be young, like I was, but I wasn't stupid to fight ahead of schedule, and lose a battle"

The portal reopens, from above, inside the Chandler Hotel, tossing the group to the ground, then it closes.

"we haven't been here in over a year"

"we always use to stay here, remember Jacob?"

Jacob looks to the humagg, "who the hell are you?"

"its me, Rick, Rick Mallory. As you can see, the kromaggs melded me with another one of them"

"we thought you were Rick, when we first met, last year"

"yeah, I thought if I could take control of the body, you and the others would realize it was me"

"so why are you helping us, you know that at anytime, your kromagg side could reassert itself, and you may kill us"

"actually I somehow made myself the dominent one, so there shouldn't be any problems"

"this seems a bit too rehearshed, how could you slide us out of that prison, knowing that someone was watching us, and I know that kromaggs play games with us, so explain how we slid out with being detected?" Joe asks.

"its quite ironic, I don't know, but for some stupid reason, the 'maggs trust me, and have my own timer and can slide out at will, so unless you don't trust me, we can try to get you out of here"

"back to our main opinion, we hope you don't turn into your evil double that destroyed my underground"

"I met him shortly after they returned me to my cage, and planned to kill you all. By the way, what happened to the others?"

"for starters, Laura was a spy all along, we don't know about Ryan, Quinn or Sara. And we slid Remmy's double home a few worlds back" Wade says.

Suddenly, a man appears, pointing a gun at the group, "so, you thought you could hide here"

"hold it kid, we just got our butts saved, we're humans, so put the gun down!" Joe yells.

"I'm Michael Mallory, doubt that you care, but I'm a scientist from-"

"kromagg prime, as we humans like to call it. My friend Nina is below, she knew you from a long time ago"

"thats right, we were good friends"

Doug grabs the gun, "fine, then take us down below, introduce us to Nina, and we can figure things out"

The guy puts his hands up, and shows them the way, to the basement.

As they walk down the stairs, Nina points a gun at them, "move and I'll cut you to pieces!"

"your friend here will break our fall"

"Nina, Michael Mallory is here, he says your an old friend"

Michael appears, stepping up to Nina, "great, you return to my life, probably only to break my heart again" Nina puts her weapon down, and so does Doug.

"we slid here, our timer is having problems. If we can borrow a few tools, we can leave"

"actually I'd like you to stay. But that humagg must be chained"

"I can handle it, besides, I'm no humagg, I was melded with another kromagg, for a test, to possibly save lives, when kromaggs are near death"

"have a seat all, I'll crack a jug of water open. Otis, get tools for Mr. Mallory"

As the others sit down at a table, with other weapons, Michael pulls the timer out, setting it next to the PDL, that Quinn pulled out.

"so, how has your life been, since the invasion started again?"

"I've been sliding for a while now. But I'm glad to see you are ok. I know that in our first struggle, you left, when your husband was killed"

"what about Liz, where is she?"

"shes been captured, I don't know if she is alive or dead"

Otis returned with tools. Michael begins to take the timer apart, when Rick starts speaking.

"have any of you know of a way to unmeld me?"

"why ask us, you had the chance in a kromagg prison, learn everything you could, but I guess you decided not to!" Nina then walks over to grab paper cups, "sorry, its been rough for me. I can't stand kromaggs"

"its ok, I just would like to get apart from this 'magg"

"what about our laptop, it can hack into any kromagg file"

"I could use the PDL to scan you, maybe the data that is brought up in your scan, could provide a way to unmeld to 2 of you" Quinn, Rick, Otis, and Michelle head up stairs, to work with the problem.

As hours pass, Michael works feverishly on the timer, the other sliders agreed to join everyone upstairs for him to concentrate, except Nina, who decided to remain.

"you know one thing I never got, was why we never hooked up, we dated a few years, but as the kromaggs became fierce, you became a scientist, and soon met Elizabeth"

"maybe if you had my passion, things might be different"

"maybe it is, on another world. Hows the timer coming?"

"I've gotten to the source of the problem. When me and the others met up with Quinn, Joe and Michelle, their timer was fried, but with the help of a caveman society, we got the timer working again. So much for mining, this copper is useless now, after we slid to at least 40 worlds. Now I need to find a new power source, and quick. If those kromaggs locate us again, we may be slaughtered, especially because of me"

"what about my timer. After I fled the homeworld, I landed here, thought this would be a good place to live forever, until the kromaggs took over"

"where is your timer?"

"its in my room, I hid it in a box, when I thought about remaining at a hotel, until I got a job"

"fine, lets get it" the 2 exit the basement, heading up the stairs.

Otis is able to hack into the prison, to locate where the melding process took place. Quinn scanned Rick, and had fluxuations reading critical.

"we better unmeld you soon, or both of you may disappear, or die"

"what if only one body can support this shell, could you find a way to make that happen"

"not without further tests, and I don't have a laboratory to work with"

"yeah guys, I found something!" Otis punchs on a few more keys, and a room is shown.

"that is the exact place I was taken to. I can't believe how stupid I was"

"maybe thats why they trusted you, with brain washed information, you wouldn't remember what happened or where" Joe states.

"do you always make assumptions before a correct answer is thought out and found?"

"yes, because I'm almost always right"

"well lets use your timer and get us back to the prison in that room"

"hold it cheif, the kromaggs don't exactly have visiting hours"

"maybe if I could return, they of coarse would trust me, then I could unactivate the shield, and you can slide in"

"one problem, you need the timer too"

"why don't you all go, let Rick disable the shield, then slide to the room"

"good idea Otis, I'm feeling stupid more often now"

Michael appears with Nina, "we found a power chip to activate the timer, so after I finish my work, the timer should be in working order"

"good work Mr. Mallory. But we have other problems to deal with. When I become unmelded, we will need quick escape"

"just slide back here with the timer"

"no can do. See, when I was melded, I was given a timer, only to work with my kromagg DNA, and if I lose that, I can't activate the portal"

"fine, let me continue my work, get my timer done, then we figure things out of what to do"

"better make it quick, look, the camera that I've locked onto, it looks like the kromaggs are starting spring cleaning"

"what about this. We take a kromagg captive, force him to open the vortex, then we can slide out"

"or why don't we just open it, using the 'magg I'm melded with. All I need to do is, have him push the button"

With no time to spare, Rick, Joe, Michael, Nina and Otis slide back to the prison, while the others remain at the hotel, to wait. Rick disables the shield, then slide the group to the lab.

"fine, lets get these machine running. I know most of these, since I worked with them during my studies" Nina states. She turns on another machine, which is reading to scan Rick to separate the 2.

"ok, Rick, sit in the seat over here, Otis, put the deianized scrambler over his head"

Michael helps Nina to start the procedure, while Joe and Otis watch the door, holding lazer weapons. A small device appears, shooting a lightning bolt of light towards Rick.

"I'm starting to get 2 distinct frequencys, they should begin to spread apart"

"what if it can't work, thy have been melded for a long time"

"either way, someone will die"

Suddenly, a red vortex opens, spitting out 7 kromagg soldiers and Krolak pointing guns at them, "stop this procedure, or you die!"

"its too late, their unmelding. If we stop this now, they both will be destroyed"

Otis fires, then he gets killed by a gun.

"hold your fire!" Nina yells to the 'maggs, but Krolak fires at her, knocking her to the ground. A loud noise is heard from the system, "its over loading Joe says.

"this must of not been used lately" Michael says. Then an explosion occurs, Rick splits into 2 pieces, before smoke covers the room.

Michael gets up, his hair is messy, as he finds Nina in pain, about to die, he grabs a hold of her hand.

"I'm sorry about this, I wish this could of been different"

"nothing you can say will change this situation. All I can say, is I love you, and I hope you find Liz" Michael and Nina share a kiss, before she dies on the ground.

Joe gets up, weapon in hand, and locates Rick, and the kromagg beside him. He is unconscious, but alive.

"Michael, we did it. Rick is himself again"

Michael heads near them, "fine, lets go. I have the timer, we need the 'magg to open our portal"

Joe takes the timer, heading to the 'magg, which is barely alive, "open the portal, or I kill you" the 'magg takes it, opening the gateway, then drops it, dying of burns. Joe and Michael pick Rick up, heading into the vortex.

By the next morning, Rick awakes up in a hotel room, part of his face is bandaged, his stomach and back are bandaged. He tries to get up, but can't due to pain, Wade enters "hi, sorry, we had to cut up your shirt, I thought you might like a new shirt, its black, hope you don't mind"

"not really"

Wade helps sticking it over his head, then backs off.

"how long have I been out?"

"the entire night. But we got you fixed up"

"thanks. What happened, I was out of it when I got that helmet on my head"

"they got you unmelded, but the 'magg died, letting you, Michael and Joe to return. Nina and Otis didn't make it. We slide out in a few hours, you can sleep until then. Quinn scanned you for your homeworld, if you like, you can head home"

"I actually want to go home. I have nothing there, but I can start over. Sliding was fun, especially meeting the kromaggs, but I'd rather explore my own life, try to put things back the way they were, maybe go to college, get into sliding physics. Hope my friend Angela Bennett is still around. I could use the company"

Wade smiles, then leaves the room, as Rick lays back on the bed, closing his eyes.