The Stormloader was filled to capacity. Metas were jammed into its interior like clowns in a small car. The more resilient ones sat or stood without restraint. They were all bundled up for the harsh cold of the Antarctic even as they stood in the middle of the Caribbean. {I am happy that I turned my olfactory sensors off.} Jym said from the device in Adem's hand.
Many of the people inside the hovercraft couldn't help but stare at Adem. It wasn't the fact that he was an astounding six feet, eight inches tall. Nor was it the dark blueish hair that covered his head or the strange orange orbs that sat in place of eyes in his face. It wasn't even the fact that he was having a steady conversation with some kind of Game Boy or something in his hand. No. The reason the other occupants of the Stormloader could not help but cast their gazes upon the visitor from another world was due to the fact that, as they sat bundled up for the sub-zero temperatures of the southern pole, Adem Different sat in a shorts and a t-shirt. Clothes that was more suitable for their current tropical climate.
"He's on my side!" a yell from a masked man came.
"Am not!" replied the hairy man sitting next to him.
"Of all the times....," the impatient man sitting across from the masked man said as a father on a cross country vacation would. "Could we please not go through this right now? Can the two of you just try and act mature just this once?"
"I am," the masked man replied. "Just as soon as Johnny gets off of my side." He pushed the hairy man's arm off of the armrest sitting between their seats.
"Screw you, Luchie!" the hairy man replied. "This is a free country, and I can put my arm anywhere I want."
"Anywhere but here! This is my armrest!"
"You've got one on the other side! Use it!"
"No! You use it!"
"That's enough!" the other man shouted at the two men.
"How can I use it if it's all the way over there, passed you?" Johnny continued.
"That's your problem!" Luchadore yelled back. They were both in each other's faces.
The man across from them reached over and grabbed each of their hands. The skin around his touch turned slightly red, as if reacting to poison ivy or some other irritant. Johnny's arms fell loose around him. Luchadore's eyes seemed glazed over. Both men stopped speaking.
"Thank you, Dr. Huerta," Grimm said from the front of the craft.
"Oh, great," Johnny spoke as though he'd said this line many times before. "Now I can't move my arms again."
"My eyes!" Luchadore replied. "What do you keep doing to my eyes?!"
"Keep this up and I'll make sure neither of you will see or feel your arms again. Understood?" Huerta's voice was forceful and unrelenting.
"Yes," the two men replied like scolded children.
"Get us out of here," Grimm ordered as he turned to Phil. "The quicker we take off, the less we'll have to deal with this. And this trip is going to be long enough already."
