Chapter 9

Amy is standing by the main database console as Tamaya and Saitx watch Joshua. Saitx is now showing her pregnancy, as her stomach has bulged out a bit. Amy turns to Joshua.

"Alright, you can go ahead and try it out." Amy says.

"Alright." Joshua says.

Joshua focuses on his membrane uniform. His clothing vanishes and the white suit completely envelopes his body. In a matter of seconds his body shrinks and tightens until he looks about ten years old. His child's clothing appears on him.

"Oh. My. God. You are fucking adorable." Tamaya says.

"You're so right. I just want to snuggle with him while he's in that form!" Amy says.

Joshua's entire face turns red.

"Awe, what's the matter Josh-y? Don't you like the attention from two hotties like us?" Amy asks.

"This form even makes me think like a kid again." Joshua asks.

Joshua reverts back to his older form, changing back to his normal clothing as well.

"But those forms might be fun for some time off." Joshua says.

"Did it help your arm?" Tamaya asks.

"It definitely healed the fractured bone. I could feel it fixing itself as I transformed." Joshua explains.

"Well, I guess that's good to know, but it takes the ability to change our appearance to our younger forms and back." Amy says.

"I had no idea that the technology from my world could do all of this. Oh, and I agree with you Amy, I wanted to snuggle him like that too. I knew that the membrane uniform had the ability to disguise me, but to change my body cosmetically, I did not know." Saitx says.

"It might be something we can put to our advantage down the road, for instance, if we can figure out where the enemy's base is, we could infiltrate it." Joshua says.

"I can see us doing that." Amy says.

An alarm suddenly blares and a screen pops up behind Amy. She spins around to look at the data streaming up the screen like a waterfall.

"What the hell is that?" Tamaya asks.

"I'm not sure ... it's not something that I programmed." Amy says.

"I am unsure of what it could be. The alarm is different then it's normally." Saitx says.

"Whatever it is, it's giving us a location..." Amy says.

"Where?" Joshua asks.

"35° 56' 4.749" N by 115° 22' 22.529" W" Amy explains.

"Where's that?" Tamaya asks.

"Nevada desert. Whoa." Amy says bringing up a map in on the screen.

"We should check it out." Joshua says.

"But, what if it's a trap?" Tamaya asks.

"There are no civilians for a few miles in that area. Someone wants to meet us out in the open where there's no one else to see us or get hurt." Joshua says.

"Are you sure?" Tamaya asks.

"Listen, you two stay here. I'll go. We'll figure this out. Keep me monitored." Joshua says.

"Alright, be careful." Amy says.

Joshua vanishes in a glow of purple light. Joshua reappears in the desert. His membrane uniform immediately deactivates leaving him naked.

"What the hell?" Joshua says.

A voice comes from behind him.

"Sorry about that, I had to set up an electromagnetic field with the Aric Force so that we couldn't be spied on by the enemy." The voice says.

Joshua turns around to see another version of him. The other him was dressed in tight black armor that conforms to his body. His hair is blonder than Joshua's but he is roughly the same age.

"You're me?" Joshua says, a bit startled by the whole situation.

Though this situation shouldn't be startling to him, as he had already met god, and things really couldn't get any weirder.

"Sort of, just from another dimension. Looks like Alex was right about your suits being electronic in nature." The Joshua from Dimension Zero says.

"So you're the one who called me here?" Joshua asks.

"Yeah. Again don't worry. No one outside this bubble can see us or hear us. Not on either side. Right now, your team mates are trying to figure out why they can't find you or transport down here." The Joshua from Dimension Zero says.

"It won't take long for Amy to make a work around." Joshua says.

"I noticed. She's a genius, kind of like my Carly." The Joshua from Dimension Zero says.

"So why bring me here?" Joshua asks.

"I wanted to talk." The Joshua from Dimension Zero says.

"Usually, on TV, this doesn't work out well for the hero." Joshua says.

"Ah, a fan boy. That explains why your enemies were watching those old TV shows. I have to tell you, you fucked the lot of them up good. They thought you had an army waiting to attack them." The Joshua from Dimension Zero

"Monarch really did fall for that then?" Joshua asked.

"Yes. My team is with him right now, setting up an attack plan. He's actually your biggest hurdle. But I suspect you know that after breaking your arm. Did the suit heal it? I don't sense any pain from you." The Joshua from Dimension Zero says.

"Yeah. What about your suit, it doesn't seem affected by this?" Joshua says.

"It is in a way. I'm locked in this armor until I drop the field. You didn't seem surprised by the fact that my team is with the enemy." The Joshua from Dimension Zero explains.

Joshua taps the side of his head.

"I see the plan." Joshua says.

"Ah, so you have some psychic abilities here? Were you born with them like in my dimension?" The Joshua from Dimension Zero asks.

"No. I gained them after sexual intercourse with an alien." Joshua says.

"You ... gained your powers ... by fucking an alien?" The Joshua from Dimension Zero says.

"Yeah." Joshua says.

"Weird. But I'm sure I'll meet her later." The Joshua from Dimension Zero says.

"So you're trying to help us beat the enemy?" Joshua says.

"Hopefully. But I'm not sure they'll all fall for it." The Joshua from Dimension Zero says.

"Well I doubt they're all as dumb as Monarch. But why all the way out here?" Joshua asks.

"I had to be sure that no Civilians saw us talking, or fell into the electromagnetic field accidentally." The Joshua from Dimension Zero explains.

"So what part do you want us to play?" Joshua asks.

"The part of the hero. My crew and I scanned the "Historical Visuals", I still find that funny by the way, into our UTCs. We were able to come up with a plan where we'll mock being bad, and lure one or more of the enemy into a trap, then we can defeat them as a joint effort." The Joshua from Dimension Zero explains.

"Why come here in the first place though?" Joshua explains.

"We're dimension hopping, trying to get stronger for our own problems back in our home dimension. A terror worse than these aliens is waiting us back home." The Joshua from Dimension Zero explains.

"Worse than these guys?" Joshua says.

The Joshua from Dimension Zero nods. He points his hand at a bush and fires a beam of reichi at it, incinerating it.

"Whoa. Energy beams. Like on DBZ." Joshua says.

"Something like that. It's a bit more complicated. Anyways. The enemy has similar abilities to mine, and he's sending an army to face us. We're just not sure if we're strong enough to defeat it yet." The Joshua from Dimension Zero says.

"I'm sure you'll find the strength you need to beat them." Joshua says.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, but things don't always work out like on Television." The Joshua from Dimension Zero explains.

"Wait a sec. This may have been what God was talking to me about." Joshua says.

"You talked to God?" The Joshua from Dimension Zero says as he raises an eyebrow.

"In a vision quest, it was part of recruiting Tamaya." Joshua says.

"Oh, the Native American girl on your team. Well what'd he say?" The Joshua from Dimension Zero says.

"He said that I'd need some help to beat an enemy." Joshua says.

"Listen, the concern now is to get everyone to play their parts. Your team is probably better off not knowing, and don't worry about pulling punches with me in a battle. I can take it better than you can." The Joshua from Dimension Zero explains.

"Alright." Joshua says.

"I'll send you back to your friends. My friends just told me that the attack will take place tomorrow at noon. We'll try to pick an area that's easy for people to get away." The Joshua from Dimension Zero says.

"Thanks." Joshua says.

The Joshua from Dimension Zero snaps his fingers and a portal appears next to Joshua. Joshua steps into it and the portal closes. Joshua drops out of another portal and lands on his ass. The girls are looking at computer screens attempting to figure out what's going on.

"Systems are coming back on line." Amy says.

"I could've hoped for a softer landing." Joshua says.

"Joshua?" Amy says.

The three of them turn around as Joshua reactivates his membrane uniform.

"What happened?" Amy asks.

"Damn, how do I explain all of this?" Joshua explains.

"Just do it in a way we'll understand." Tamaya says.

"Alright ... Let's see here." Joshua says.

"I see." Saitx says.

"Shit, I forgot that you can read minds as well. Well I might as well come out with it." Joshua says.

"Let me try." Saitx suggests.

"Okay." Joshua says.

"An alternate version of Joshua from a place called Dimension Zero has infiltrated the enemy's base and is posing as allies to the enemies. They are setting a trap to try to take out all seven of the generals at one time, though they're not sure if they can get all of them." Saitx says.

"An alternate version of him?" Amy asks.

"Yes. He caused the blackout on the ship, and kept us in a ... well ... privacy field to keep anyone from eavesdropping. He wants us to fight them as if they were the enemy when they attack and they said not to worry, their abilities will make it so we don't have to pull punches." Joshua says.

"Wonderful, anything else. Cause this day is getting better and better." Tamaya sighs.

"Tamaya? What's ... oh no. Tamaya, I'm so sorry." Joshua says.

Joshua covers his mouth and gets a sad look on his face.

"I never thought..." Joshua says.

"Well. It was bound to happen." Tamaya sighs.

"What?" Amy asks.

Tamaya walks over to Joshua, gives him a hug and starts crying on his shoulder.

"This is serious isn't it?" Amy asks.

"Yeah. Tamaya just found out she's pregnant ... Phil is definitely the father ... but when they had sex, he gained an ability in under the time limit, and saw me taking her virginity ... He knows." Joshua explains.

Amy covers her mouth as Joshua hugs Tamaya to comfort her.

"He ... was just so nice ... I thought I was in love with him, and now this!" Tamaya cries.

"Is there anything we can do?" Amy asks.

"Unless we can find some way to not only remove him from having the ability, but stopping him from having those powers again, I doubt he'll ever hook up with anyone again." Joshua explains.

"What about you Tamaya? Have you decided what you're going to do?" Amy asks.

Tamaya pulls away from Joshua and wipes away her tears.

"There's not much I can do. I'm going to have to visit a clinic, because if my father finds out I got pregnant..." Tamaya explains.

"There's still time, and our new allies, maybe they can help in some way." Joshua says.

"I hope so." Tamaya says.

Tamaya, Amy, Saitx, and Joshua all stand near the changing rooms for the beach. Saitx is in disguise.

"Are you sure the transformation won't hurt the babies?" Tamaya asks.

Tamaya looks down at her stomach and puts her hand on it. Joshua reaches up and touches her stomach.

"It'll be fine, a normal reversion is possible without a second thought." Amy explains.

"Besides, we're only going to play for a couple hours. Then the battle will be on, and our suits should help protect us." Joshua explains.

"So yeah! Let's get changed!" Amy shouts.

Amy grabs Saitx and Tamaya by the hand as Joshua goes into the men's changing room. The changing room, much like the beach is deserted. Joshua reverts to the membrane uniform and allows it to cover his body. He transforms his body to a child form with a pair of swim trunks then exits out of the changing room to find Tamaya, Amy, and Saitx waiting for him in their child forms. Saitx is still disguised, but her human child disguise is a cute one. Each of the girls is wearing a one-piece swim suit. Amy's is dark blue, Tamaya's is purple, and Saitx's is white.

"Alright! Let's go play!" Tamaya exclaims.

Joshua laughs in his younger voice.

"What?" Tamaya asks.

"And you two thought I was cute in my younger form! You guys look adorable." Joshua laughs.

"Well we're still tough! I could kick your butt!" Amy says.

"Now come on, there's no need for violence." Saitx says.

"And you sound cute too!" Joshua says.

Amy blushes, and then gives Joshua a quick kiss at the cheek which makes his face turn bright red. Amy laughs at this.

"Now that's cute!" Tamaya exclaims.

"Alright! Let's go play." Joshua says.

Tamaya stops Saitx as Joshua and Amy run off.

"Saitx, I want to talk to you for a minute. While we stand here in our purest forms about something that would affect both of us." Tamaya says.

"What is it?" Saitx asks.

((Saitx, what's going on? Why did you two stop?)) Joshua asks Saitx psychically.

((I am unsure. Tamaya wishes for us to talk privately.)) Saitx tells him.

Tamaya blushes then places a kiss on Saitx's lips. Saitx is a bit shocked. The kiss, though innocent is letting her read a portion of Tamaya's mind that had been blocked to her before. Something that had been garbled each time she had tried.

"Wow." Saitx says bluntly as Tamaya pulls back. "I did not expect this."

((Tamaya just kissed me. Her mind is completely open to me now. She wishes to have a relationship with me. She has been attracted to me all this time, and is in what I have come to know as Love.)) Saitx says to Joshua.

Saitx blushes in her human form.

"I know I've been keeping it a secret for some time, but Saitx, I had to be sure." Tamaya says.

((What do I say?)) Saitx asks Joshua. ((I am unfamiliar with this.))

((Do you feel the same way that she feels?)) Joshua asks psychically.

((Yes.)) Saitx says telepathically.

((Then tell her. If you are in love with Tamaya, you two should be together. Be her girlfriend.)) Joshua explains telepathically.

"I understand, and the truth is, I have the same feelings for you, Tamaya." Saitx says.

"You do?" Tamaya asks.

"Yes Tamaya. Though I have a better way of concealing my true thoughts from you and the others, but I have been feeling the same things." Saitx confesses.

"Really?" Tamaya says, a bit in disbelief.

To confirm what she's saying, Saitx takes her by the hand before placing a kiss on her lips.

"Really." Saitx says.

((Please Let Amy know so that there isn't any confusions about our relationship.)) Saitx says telepathically.

"So, should we inform the others?" Tamaya asks.

"I'm sure Joshua will explain it to Amy. He's sort of been guiding me through all of this." Saitx admits. "For now, let's join them."

Tamaya nods and the two of them turn towards the waiting Joshua and Amy. The two of them run to catch up with Joshua and Amy on the beach where they run into the water and begin playing, splashing each other playfully, diving and swimming, and just enjoying themselves. The beach soon gained a small fill of people, not too many, but not completely deserted. It was a nice fill for a summer day. People begin screaming and running from the beach as Joshua and the girls are swimming. Joshua and the others turn towards the beach.

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Don't Change - Book 1: Beginnings

Joshua L. Edwards

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