"Then we realized that we could use the ocean as a way to fully test the combined power of the Stones," Trevor continued.

"The bad news is, forming a connection and using the Stones together didn't give us much more juice than each of us using the Stones separately," Michael added. He adjusted his weight on his leg so it wasn't pressing into the side of the hood ornament.

"Which means we're looking for another way to boost the Stones' power," Maria said.

"Yeah," Michael agreed.

"Yeah," Trevor repeated.

Silence descended. Too bad none of them had a clue how to do it.

Michael stretched out on the hood, staring up at the sky as if looking for inspiration. Maria tried not to look at the strip of naked stomach that Michael's scrunched-up shirt was now exposing. It gave her a certain kind of inspiration, but definitely not the kind she needed.

Stones. She needed to be thinking about the Stones. How could they be enhanced?

Maria forced her gaze away from Michael and over to Trevor. "I guess it wouldn't help for you two to connect with me? I mean, I can add a little bit of energy, but probably not enough."

"Probably not," Trevor answered, but he said it in a nice way. Maria was liking Michael's brother more and more as she got to know him. But as similar as he and Michael were, Trevor just didn't get to her the way Michael did. Looking at Trevor was enjoyable. Looking at Michael was almost meltdown inducing.

"Wait. Wait. That almost made me think of something." Michael sat up fast.

"What?" Trevor asked.

"Almost made?" Maria chimed in.

"Shut up," Michael snapped at them, running his fingers through his black hair until it was spikier than ever. "Just wait. I got this flash of a thing. An idea."

Trevor gave Maria the raised-eyebrow look. She gave it back, but she had to use her fingers to make her eyebrow go as high as his did.

"Okay, connecting with Maria is a stupid idea. It would hardly do anything," Michael burst out.

"That's been established, thank you very much," Maria muttered, blushing for no reason.

Michael ignored her and turned to Trevor. "But what if the two of us connected to Max? It might take the power of all three Stones to shatter the consciousness from the outside. But if we link to Max, we link to the consciousness, and then we'd be using the power of the two Stones from the inside."

Maria's stomach dropped. Destroying something from inside Max didn't sound appealing to her.

"It could work," Trevor answered slowly "The consciousness might be much more vulnerable from the inside. But there's no way of testing your theory. Max is the only being on earth connected to the consciousness."

"What's the downside of trying it?" Maria asked, hoping they might see how dangerous this could be. "I mean, do you have any idea if the consciousness could sense what was happening and… retaliate?"

Trevor shrugged helplessly. "I don't have any more information than you do. It's never been attempted."

"It wouldn't be the first time we've done things that have never been tried," Michael said. He tried to smooth down a few of his spikes, but it didn't work. "But who knows if the human body can even withstand having the power of the Stones directed into it?"

"Exactly," Maria said, remembering the way the Stone's power sliced straight through Adam's heart. Her mouth was suddenly very dry.

"When I used a Stone on DuPris, I didn't hold back," Trevor said. "I detonated it right into his body. I don't know if any entity could take that kind of blast without-"

"Going splat?" Maria finished for him. She wiped her hand across her face, as if flecks of DuPris's bone and blood were still spattered there.

"Once we're in, we might be able to direct the power at the consciousness without sending it full force through Max," Trevor said, lacing his hands together and putting them behind his head. "But I don't think we'd be able to avoid giving him some kind of jolt."

"Why not try it on me?" Maria swallowed hard. "That's what a lovely assistant is for, right? Just connect and give me a little, teeny bit of the Stones' power."

"No way," Michael said immediately.

Her heart jumped at the quickness of his protective response, but she wasn't about to back down. "Why not?" she demanded. "It's safer to test it on me. The consciousness won't be alerted, and if… if something goes wrong, you guys can heal me."

"If we just do a little, just to see the human body's reaction to a low dose…" Trevor let his words trail off as Michael shook his head. "No way. We can't risk it."

"It's for Max. I want to do it for Max," Maria insisted. "And besides-" She looked Michael right in the eye and touched his arm. "I trust you not to let me get hurt. At least not permanently."

At least not permanently physically, she added to herself. Emotionally was a whole other story.

Michael stared at her for what seemed like an eternity, and a few times she thought he was about to say something, but he stopped himself. Maria's heart was beating a mile a minute.

"Okay, but we'll take it very slowly," Michael said finally. "If anything goes wrong, even the slightest bit, we break the connection."

"Agreed," Trevor answered. He pulled one of the Stones out of his pocket and put one hand on Maria's left arm. Michael stepped over, Stone already in his fist, and gently wrapped his fingers around her right arm.

I hope they don't get anything too embarrassing off me, Maria thought as they made the connection. The Stone in Trevor's free hand began to glow with a blue-green light. The Stone in Michael's glistened purple-green.

Maria closed her eyes, trying not to panic. Don't think of splat, she ordered herself. Don't think of splat. She repeated the words over and over until Michael interrupted her.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Is it over? Did you do it? Am I bleeding?" Maria exclaimed, her eyes still squeezed tightly shut.

"You're not bleeding," Michael answered. "Do you feel like you should be bleeding? Does something hurt?"

"No. No. I was just wondering," Maria said. She thought she heard a snicker. "You better not be laughing at me!" she warned them, without opening her eyes. She'd open them when this was over, not one second before.

"We're just going to try a little more," Trevor told her. "And no one is laughing."

"Okay. Good." She began her mantra again. Don't think of splat. Don't think of splat.

"Yow!" she cried as she felt her feet leave the ground. Her eyes flew open despite herself. She was eye to eye with Michael. And she was… okay. "So this is what it's like to be tall," she said, glancing around. "I like."

"No pain?" Trevor asked.

Maria turned her head toward him, and her body followed. "I'm good," she told him.

"Let's go up just a degree," Michael said.

Maria slowly rose another two feet. She flapped her arms up and down. The guys got the message. A second later she was swooping and darting through the air. "I'm a ballerina bird," she exclaimed, starting off on one of her uncontrollable giggle fits.

"Is she hyperventilating?" she heard Trevor ask.

"No, she's just being Maria," Michael answered with a smirk.

"More! Do more!" Maria begged. And she was dropped into a rolling nosedive, then pulled out just before she reached the desert floor.

"Better than any amusement park ride, huh?" Michael shouted up to her.

Maria giggled even harder as the power twirled her through a triple somersault, then skimmed her low enough to touch Michael and Trevor's heads.

"We don't have anything like amusement parks on the home planet," Trevor said. "When we go back, we should open one. We could call it Guerin brothers. The Guerin makes it kind of exotic sounding."

Maria stopped giggling so abruptly that she bit her tongue. The taste of blood filled her mouth. She couldn't have possibly heard what she thought she'd just heard. Michael was planning to go back home with Trevor? And he didn't think this was important enough to even tell her?