Brain Waves

By Mark “Lucky” DeGregorio

Nonie was sitting on the floor of her room staring at her hand when it started to change its shape into that of a spoon, then a fork. She then made her hand into a shape of a mallet, then into a spatula. Stephanie walked into the room and asked her, "What are you doing?"

Nonie looked up and said, "I'm practicing some shape-shifting."

Stephanie crossed her arms and said, "How about you shape-shift yourself into something to clean up this room."

Nonie got up off the floor and asked, "What for?"

Stephanie was in no mood to go into it with her. She simply said, "You know my lunk-headed brother is coming..."

"So, your point being..."

"...And he's going to be sleeping in your room." Stephanie continued.

"Hey!” Nonie glared at Stephanie and snapped, “Why is he sleeping in my room? He's your brother, why can't he sleep in your room."

"I don't want him snooping around my room, " Stephanie retorted.

"But where am I supposed to sleep?" Nonie cried.

Stephanie grinned and smugly said, "There's a lovely couch sitting in the living room for you to sleep on."

Nonie crossly complained, "But why can't Alan sleep on the couch?"

"Who here has a job and pays rent? Raise your hand." Stephanie replied and then she raised her hand.

Nonie stared angrily at Stephanie, knowing well she did not have a job. "Looks like you'll be sleeping on the couch tonight Nonie."

"That's not fair..." The doorbell, rang repeatedly, interrupted Nonie’s protest.

Stephanie sighed and went to open the door. Alan was having excessively too much fun, pushing the doorbell button repeatedly, because he knew it irritated her. "Will you knock it off with the doorbell?” Stephanie yelled, "What do you want?"

Alan strolled into the room. He was not very tall, just a little taller then Nonie. He had short brown spiky hair, and squinty shifty blue eyes. The most notable trait was his broad smile, as he said, "Boy, do I have a deal for you!" He looked around the room and saw Nonie, then continued, "Hey! Who's the redheaded babe?"

Nonie responded, "I'm Nonie Turner, your sister's roommate."

Alan strolled up to Nonie, putting his arm around her, and said, "Hi, let me formally introduce my self. Alan J. Foster, Su-per Genius, and I would....” Stephanie promptly grabbed her brother by his ear and started to pull him off Nonie. "Ouch!"

Stephanie angrily snapped, "Look Super Genius we don't have time for you to put the moves on Nonie! In fact, exactly why are you here?"

After Stephanie let go of his ear, he spent a moment rubbing it until the stinging went away and then said, "I just got the big score. It is BIG! And I'm willing to share it with you."

Nonie was confused, as usual, but Stephanie, on the other hand, was enraged, yelled, "I knew it was a scam!"

“Wait, It's legit,” Alan tried to reassure her, "it’s just a simple salvage operation."

"A salvage operation?” Nonie squeaked, “What kind of salvage?"

Stephanie looked at Nonie and hollered, "Don't encourage him!"

"It's at an alien crash site." Alan addressed.

Nonie’s eyes grew larger than usual responded, "An alien spaceship! COOL!"

"And all Mr. Solow wants is one little thing, the rest is ours for the taking.” Alan continued, then he held up his left hand, making a fist, raised his left knee, and pulled down his arm as if pulling a slot machine, “Ka-Ching!"

Stephanie was not convinced; she'd heard this song and dance before, asked, "Well, I'm not sure about this, and who is this Mr. Solow anyway? And how is it we can salvage an alien crash sight, doesn't the Air Force lock these things down?"

Alan held up his index finger and explained, "One, anything off an alien spaceship would be worth a fortune.”

He then held out a second finger and continued, “Two, Jonathon Solow is the C.E.O of So Low Conglomerates…”

Alan added a third finger and finished, “…And three, the Air Force doesn't even know about this crash sight and will not!"

Still was not convinced, Stephanie asked, "And what do I have to do with this little escapade of yours?"

Alan nervously turned his eyes away from his sister and replied, "Well, I was thinking that maybe you could borrow the company's helicopter..."

Stephanie was in shock, which rapidly turned into anger. "You want me to take the company's helicopter; and go on one of your stupid idiotic adventures! What happened! Did you take a serious blow to the head? I could lose my job!"

Alan tried to reason with her. "But Mr. Solow said he would pay us ten thousand dollars if we recover this do-dad for him."

Stephanie thought for a moment. She looked at Alan with that smirk, then at Nonie with those puppy dog eyes. She then clenched her teeth and growled, "Alright, I'm not promising anything, but we can go and talk with this Solow guy and if I like what he says, we'll do it."

Nonie started to jump up and down repeating, "We're going to see a alien spaceship!"

* * * * * * *

Later that afternoon, the three of them arrived at So Low Conglomerates to see Jonathan Solow. After waiting twenty-five minutes, a man appeared. He was short and pudgy wearing brown pants, orange shirt, and a black vest. He had blonde curly hair and a big honking nose. He approached them and said, "Johnny, uh... I mean Mr. Solow wants to meet with you now."

The three got up and followed the man into the office. The room was large and elaborately furnished. A man with butch dark hair and a goatee was sitting at the desk. He wore black pants and shirt with a blue sports jacket. "Come, sit down." Mr. Solow spoke, "That will be all Joey." As Joey turned to leave, he knocked over a hat rack, which fell over and hit Mr. Solow's desk. It in turned knocked over a pitcher of water sitting on the desk, spilling it all over Mr. Solow. "I swear, you can't get good help these days. JOEY!"

Joey rushed over to clean up the mess, responded, "I'm sorry Mr. Solow, I'll get ya all cleaned up in a jiffy."

After fumbling around for a few minutes, Mr. Solow shouted, "Joey! Get Out! GET OUT NOW!"

Joey turned to leave and tripped over the cord from a lamp. He got up, placed the lamp back on the desk, and scurried out of the room.

After Mr. Solow got his composure back, he started the meeting. Stephanie bluntly asked, "So, exactly what is it you want us to get?"

Mr. Solow picked up a remote control and pushed a button. The lights dimmed, and a projector flashed an image of the crash sight with part of an alien spaceship buried in dirt and rock.

"This is the site, and as you can see, it almost completely buried which is why the Air Force hadn't found it."

Mr. Solow clicked to the next frame, showing a drawing of a black and silver device with a small hole in between two knobs. "This is the thing I want you to retrieve for me." Mr. Solow continued.

Nonie asked, "So, what does it do?"

Looking at her, Mr. Solow said, "It's a device to cure many forms of Cancer. People will no longer become ill and die."

"Wow!", Nonie gasped her eyes brightened as she said, “We could save millions of people.”

Changing to the next slide Mr. Solow continued, "This is where you enter, the device is said to be in the Medical Bay."

Mr. Solow then held out a small device, "After you get the device; push this button,” he instructed, “but not before you get the device, understand?"

All three agreed and Mr. Solow handed Alan the box. Stephanie said, "I'm still not sure about this."

Mr. Solow then held out a check and said, "This is five thousand, you get the rest after you bring me the device."

Alan nudged Stephanie, "Come on Steph, do it for the team."

"I want to do it, and you did wanted me to get a job." Nonie pleaded.

Stephanie rolled her eyes and said, "All right, but I will hold onto the check." and she snatched the check from Mr. Solow.

After they left the office, Joey returned and asked, "Gee Johnny, uh I mean Mr. Solow, did they fall for it?"

Mr. Solow looked at his plump sidekick and replied, "Oh yes, they sure did. What they do not know is what that little device really does. With it, I will be able to control the minds of everyone in the city. Just think an army of zombie slaves at my disposal… Oh, and Joey...”

Joey rushed over to Mr. Solow and asked, "Yes Mr. Solow."

He was surprised to see Mr. Solow's fist thrusting towards him as Mr. Solow fisted him for the water incident.

* * * * * * *

Alan, Stephanie and Nonie were getting things ready to retrieve the device. As they were loading equipment into the helicopter, Alan said, "I know what I'm going to do with my share; I'm going to get me a harem of pretty girls to wait on me hand and foot, and all the Dr. P cola I can drink."

Stephanie glared at her brother and said, "Only you would think of that."

"How would you spend your share Steph?" Nonie asked.

"First, I would pay off the loans so I don't lose the house we grew up in, then get the car fixed, and maybe have enough to put some food on the table."

Alan responded, "Oh yea, make me look bad."

Stephanie replied, "That's not too hard to do. And how about you Nonie?"

Nonie thinks for a moment and then replied, "I would go to a school to learn how to stretch and shape-shift, and so I can get better at being a superhero."

Alan quickly looked at Nonie and queried, "A super hero? Are you telling me that you’re a superhero?"

Nonie detected a tone of disbelief in his words, "Yea, I'm Elasticity. See..." She stretched her arm some fifteen feet, wrapping it around Alan's body. "I can also do some shape changes too." She took her other hand and changed the shape into a set of pliers, then into a hammer.

Stephanie gleefully said, "Either whack him, or give him the squeeze, but get in here so we can go!"

After Alan and Nonie got into the helicopter, Alan noticed that Nonie's clothing had changed, said, "Hey! What happened to your jeans and t-shirt you were wearing?"

She looked down to see she was wearing her Elasticity costume. "Uh, what happened to my clothes? I was wearing my costume under my clothes." As Elasticity said this her costume begin to change into jeans and a t-shirt. "Whoa, did you see that?"

Stephanie asked, "Hey, can you do Armani…" but before she could finish her sentence, Nonie's clothes transformed into an Armani dress.

Nonie excitedly said, "Cool! My costume changes at will, I can wear anything I want!"

Stephanie had a sick look on her face and said; "Now I'm jealous." Then the Helicopter took off.

* * * * * * *

Back at Stephanie & Nonie’s apartment, they were getting an unwanted intruder. A kid of nineteen years of age had got the door opened from a set of keys he swiped from his parents. He looked around the living room, and called out, “Nonie? Are you home? It’s your loving brother, Kevin.”

Nope, she was not home, he thought. Kevin moved across the room and said, “Now let’s see what goodies I can find.”

Kevin headed straight for Nonie’s bedroom. He started to dig under her dresser and pulled out a book and said, “Let’s see what juicy things you wrote in your diary this week.”

Kevin then jimmied the lock open and turned to where he left off. The last entries were details of Nonie becoming Elasticity.

Kevin’s face seemed to become brighter at the prospect of exploitation. “I know someone who will pay top dollar for this information.”

He rushed to grab Nonie’s high school yearbook, flipping through the pages until he found the person who he was looking for. “Ah, here she is, Patricia Connling.”

Kevin knew how Patricia tormented Nonie all through school. From the first day in per kindergarten until she graduated from high school, Patricia out-bested Nonie at everything. She was even head cheerleader.

He took the diary into the living room and started to scan all the pages of her diary about Elasticity. When he was finished, he E-mailed it to his computer. Afterwards he then deleted the evidence of his deeds. He then placed the diary back under Nonie’s dresser, and locked the door on his way out.

* * * * * * *

The helicopter landed at the base of a mountain and the three got out, Alan said, “Looks like we’re doing some climbing.”

“Or, I could just stretch up there and pull you guys up.” Nonie suggested.

Alan replied, “Or maybe we could do that.”

“Well, get stretching.” Stephanie told Nonie as her clothing began to change into Elasticity. She then stretched her legs, then her upper body, and finally her arms to the plateau at the point of the spaceship’s location. Her lower legs formed a pair of loops where Alan and Stephanie could use as a harness. As soon as they were ready, Elasticity, with a little strain, pulled them up.

The trio approached the entrance of the ship; only a big rock blocked the entrance. Alan jokingly said, “We’ll need someone with muscles to move this rock, Get to it, Stephanie.”

Stephanie glared at her smart-ass brother and replied, “It’s going to take all of us, that also includes you, to move this rock!”

The three of them got into position and a short time later, they moved the rock. The next obstacle was the computerized locking mechanism. “No pro-blem-o…” Alan said as he started to hack into the mechanism. Moments later, the door opens. “…He shoots, and scores! He makes it with nothing but net! I rule!”

Stephanie looked at her brother and said, “If your finished admiring yourself, we do need to complete this mission that you got us into.” She then turned to Elasticity, “Peek in and see if it’s safe inside.”

Elasticity stretched her neck into the ship and looked around. After she saw nothing, she signaled the others to follow. When they all were in, Stephanie said, “We need to split up and search.”

Elasticity responded, “But that always gets people killed in the movies; you are walking ALONE in a creepy place. Then the creepy music starts to play, and then…. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”

“WILL YOU STOP SCREAMING!”? Stephanie yelled, grabbing Elasticity by the neck, then slapping her so hard that her head spun around completely, “That’s only in the movies, this is real life, understand!”

“It’s amazing how much it echoes in here.” Alan said, rubbing his ears.

Stephanie opened up the backpack she was carrying and pulled out the flashlights and walkie-talkies, then she handed them to the others. When they all had their flashlights and walkie-talkies on, the three split-up and started to look around.

Stephanie moved down a corridor and found a door, which read, Weapons Locker 249. Opening the door, Stephanie entered the locker. Inside, Stephanie looked at the weapons picking a few out and placing them into a backpack she was carrying.

Elasticity was nervously backing through a darken corridor and backed into Alan. This made them both jump with fright. Alan spun around and saw it was only Nonie, said, “You go search over there.”

“But it’s dark and spooky over there.” She whined with a little squeaky voice.

Alan pointed, and Elasticity cautiously moved slowly in that direction.

Stephanie voice came over the walkie-talkie, “Have you found anything yet? I found some weapons.”

Elasticity would feel a lot better if she had one asked, “Hey Steph, can I get one of those blaster guns?”

“Hell No!” she responded, “A gun in your hands, you would just shoot yourself or worse, shoot me, then I would have to kill you.”

Elasticity smiled and asked, “So, can I get one?”

Does she have pudding for brains, Stephanie thought, then snapped, “Just look for that stupid device so we can get the hell out of here!”

Alan approached a door at the end of the corridor. After he pulled off the panel and hot-wired it, the door opened. Alan entered the room, which seems to be the central computer for the entire ship. This was his specialty, computer hacking. “Yo, Boss! I found the computer core, and I should get power up in a few minutes.”

Alan went to work and about twenty-two minutes later, the lights came on. “See, I told you I could get the lights on.” He bragged.

Stephanie grabbed her walkie-talkie and shouted, “I could have read War and Peace before you got those dam lights on!”

He was about to leave the room when he saw the device sitting by the control panel by the computer in the central computer room. Alan thought why would this be in here instead of the medical bay. He grabbed his walkie-talkie and called the girls, “Hey! I found what we came for, Level 12 Corridor D.”

When Stephanie and Elasticity arrived, Alan said, “Okay, I found the device we were looking for; time to press the button.”

Alan held up the little black box that Mr. Solow had given them and pressed the button on the. The box started to vibrate and Alan startlingly yelped, “Hey, what the…”

As he dropped it to the floor, the box began to transform into a large robot. It sprouted cable tentacles and grabbed the one holding the device, which happened to be Alan.

“What the hell is that thing?” Stephanie cried, “It has Alan!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll stop that thing!” Nonie responded and then she lunged at the mechanical monster, but the robot produced a circular saw and slashed her across her midsection.

Elasticity then collapsed in pain as the monstrous robot sprouted a rocket out of its back and took off with Alan.

Stephanie ran over to Nonie “Are you alright?” she asked Nonie.

Elasticity was bleeding across her stomach. Then, something strange happened. The cut on her stomach started to heal itself in a matter of minutes. Five minutes later, Elasticity was as good as new, in perfect health.

“Nonie, you seem to have some sort of regeneration ability.” Stephanie said.

Elasticity looked down at her stomach and said, “Yea, I’m okay, but what about Alan?”

“That thing took him, and I have a very good idea where he was taken to.” Stephanie said.

Elasticity looked at Stephanie, got up off the floor and said, “So Low Conglomerates.”

Stephanie surprisingly looked at Nonie. “What!” Elasticity continued, “Like I couldn’t figure that out?”

Stephanie angrily said, “Let’s get that two faced, double-crossing rat-fink!” The two girls made their way out of the ship and headed for the helicopter.

* * * * * * *

Alan found himself strapped to something, which give the impression of a massage table, except with his arms and legs spread apart and held tight. Some how he knew this was not going to feel like a massage. His head strapped so as not to move it.

Mr. Solow was standing at the head of the table with Joey positioned behind him. “I hope you are comfortable, I wouldn’t want you to strain your brain…” Solow joked.

“Hey! Johnny, you made a funny; Strain…Brain.” Joey blurted.

“Do you want your other eye blackened too? DON’T INTERRUPT ME!” Solow yelled at his sidekick.

Joey felt his black eye he got from when he spilled the water on Mr. Solow. Joey pleaded, “O-Kay Johnny, err I mean Mr. Solow, I’ll be quiet. I will be as quiet as a little itty-bitty tiny mouse. You won’t hear a peep out of me. You don’t have to tell me a second…”

By this time, Solow became completely irritated, threw his fist at Joey, and belted him in the mouth.

After Solow regained his composure, he continued, “This device, for which you had graciously brought me, is a marvelous device for controlling minds. And as soon as I get this operational, I will turn the entire population of this city into my mindless slaves.”

Alan, unable to look anywhere but straight down, asked, “So, I’m suppose to be a test subject?”

Solow gave a big grin and then replied, “Oh on…no…no! You see my friend; this is a double bladed device. It works on brains to control brains. In order to do that, it’ll have to be hooked to a brain, your brain to be exact.”

Solow bended down to look Alan in the face and continued, “Your brain will be drained to power the device. Too bad you will not live long enough to be one of my slaves, but hey, I can live with that. Joey!”

Joey rushed over to see what Solow wanted. “Yes Mr. Solow.”

“Start the process,” Solow commanded. Moments later, Alan felt a painful stabbing burning at the base of his skull. “What you are feeling is a computer data port being implanted into the back of your neck. It’s necessary to reach your medulla oblongata.”

All Alan could do is scream. Solow laughed and said, “Once I connect this device into that machine and plug you in, I will start transferring your brain and powering up this baby.”

Joey looked out the window, saw a helicopter coming towards them, and said, “Uh…Johnny, we got company coming.”

Mr. Solow ran to the window and saw the helicopter, smiled, “They’re not as dumb as I thought, no matter. I have a surprise waiting for them.”

* * * * * * *

Elasticity and Stephanie approach So Low Conglomerates. “You wanted to be a super hero Nonie, now is your chance.” Stephanie said.

As the helicopter drew near, a missile was launched from So Low Conglomerates. Elasticity’s eyes were wide; her mouth opened as she screamed, “Turn… Turn… Stephanie TURN!” However, it was too late.

The missile hit the back of the helicopter, blowing off the tail of the aircraft. They started to spin downward as Elasticity grabbed Stephanie and they jumped out of the helicopter. Elasticity flattened herself into a parachute, with her arms and legs wrapped around Stephanie. The spinning wreckage slammed into the ground, and exploded.

When they reached the ground, Elasticity asked, “Are you alright Stephanie?”

Stephanie looked at the smashed, burnt-up junk-pile that used to be a helicopter and said, “I am so fired.” With her fist clenched, “Solow is toast!”

The two ran into the building where two guards waited. The first guard said, “Charlie! You get the blonde, and I’ll take down the little one in the funny spandex.” Stephanie pulled out a blaster she found in the alien ship and started to fire at the guards.

Stephanie yelled to Elasticity, “I’ll hold them off, you get Alan!“

Elasticity ran down a hall and into a machine room. She saw the air duct and thought air ducts run throughout the entire building. She smiled and said, “Hey, there’s an idea.”

Flattening herself to paper thin, Elasticity slipped through a space in the air duct’s louver panel. Elasticity popped herself back to normal and began to crawl through the duct. She came to a vertical duct, which appeared to run up the entire building. Elasticity stretched herself up farther then she has ever done before, when she hear Solow’s voice. Flattening again, she slipped out of the duct and saw Alan hooked to a machine with a cable going into the back of his neck.

Solow turned and cried out, “Where did you come from?”

“From my mom some twenty-two and a half years ago.” Elasticity coyly answered. Then Elasticity rushed over to where Alan was restrained.

She did not get far before she was stopped by Mr. Solow. He grabbed her and said, “Oh no you don’t! Don’t you touch that device!”

Joey added, “Gee Johnny, do you think she’s trying to reverse it?”

Elasticity thought, reverse it? Then stretched her arm behind, around Solow, grabbing the lever, and pulled it the other way; all unnoticed by Solow.

Joey saw what she did and decided it was time to make an exit. When he got to the door and opened it, Stephanie was there, blaster cocked, and pointed at Joey gulped, “Oh oh!”

Stephanie pulled the trigger and stunned Joey and said, “One down…”, and then pointed it at Solow, “…one rat to go!”

Solow held Elasticity as a shield and asked, “How good of a shot are you? Do you think you could get me without hitting your little red-headed friend here?”

Stephanie grinned and replied, “Oh, I don’t think that would be a problem, Nonie, do your thing.”

Elasticity began to stretch her body to the left, giving Stephanie a clear shot at Solow. It’s her, Solow thought as Stephanie fired the blaster and Mr. Solow fell to the floor, stunned.

“Alan!” Elasticity cried and she and Stephanie rushed to see if he was all right. When Elasticity pulled the lever, it reverses everything. The device was drained of all memory into Alan’s brain. Stephanie grabbed the cord and pulled it from his neck.

Elasticity said, “We’d better get him over to Beaker, he’ll know what to do.”

“Well, first things first,” Stephanie said, “First we need to call the police to round up these rats, then we take lunk-head to see this Beaker of your.”

* * * * * * *

After the police took Solow and Joey into custody, Elasticity and Stephanie took Alan over to the research lab. Beaker entered the room where the girls waited to find out about Alan’s condition. He said, “He seems to be alright, his brain absorbed a lot of alien data. And as for the data port at the base of his skull, it can’t be removed without killing him.”

“Why not?” Stephanie asked.

Beaker took a deep breath and said, “Because, it is fused into his brain, in the part which controls everything in his brain and body.”

Elasticity asked, “Will he be alright?”

“Alan will be able to live a normal life, if he wanted to, he could interface with computers.”

Stephanie rolled her eyes and said, “Oh, that computer hacker would really love that! All I can say is, he better not try anything stupid if my computer!”

Beaker then frowned and said, “There is one other thing that I should tell you, it’s not about your friend Alan.”

Elasticity asked, “Why, what happened?”

Beaker explained, “Last night, someone broke into the lab, stole the elasticity serum, and used the machine which gave you your powers.”

* * * * * * *

After returning home from this non-lucrative adventure, Alan, Stephanie, and Nonie were sitting on the couch pouting over the rotten day they had. Stephanie sulked, “I destroyed the company’s helicopter, and lost my job.”

Alan looked at his sister and said, “Well, at least you don’t have a piece of metal stuck into your skull.”

“Yea, and the worst part of all is that the check Solow wrote is no good, because all his assets are being held by the government.” Stephanie complained.

Nonie tried to cheer things up, said, “Well, at least things can’t get any worst.”

Stephanie handed Nonie a letter and said, “By the way, this came for you.”

Nonie took the letter and opened it. She read it and the color seemed to drain from her face. “Oh no! It’s a notice for my five year high school class reunion!” Nonie screamed, “I’m NOT GOING!”

Alan and Stephanie asked, “Why?”

“Patricia Connling, I hate her! That’s why!” Nonie yelled.

The End

Next- Plastrica