Orman studied the perp on the ground and saw that he was decaying into dust right before his eyes. Looking through the haze of gas that still hung in the air, the sergeant saw that the other perps were also rapidly turning to powdery ash, which scattered into the air to mix with the drifting tear gas. All that remained of them was their clothing, weapons, and the handcuffs that had been placed on them during their arrests.

"I don't think it's terrorists," Carmody repeated, kicking at the now-vacant pile of ragged clothing at her feet. "Unless we just broke up an al-Qaeda sleeper cell from Mars, that is. “

"Sarge!" called another member of the SWAT team, a burly former bouncer named Richards, who was handcuffing a pair of teenage girls. With their bizarre punk hair and motley riot grrl fashions, they looked like refugees from some eighties-era retro dance club.

Orman walked quickly toward Richards and the girls. "Bring 'em both in for questioning, Artie. I think these ladies have a bit of explaining to do. “

Hidden behind a discarded pile of scrap metal, Rath j watched as a phalanx of heavily armed riot cops proceeded to cuff the fallen aliens, who proceeded to turn to dust just moments after Lonnie's carefully arranged boiler-room explosion.

Rath smiled. The Antarian-possessed freakazoids wouldn't be bothering them, at least for a little while. That was one problem down.

Then he saw the cops leading Lonnie and Ava away in handcuffs. Both girls were clearly too exhausted to put up any real resistance. And Rath knew he couldn't muster enough power to fight off so many armed cops. Not after having been worn down by the freaks.

Maybe there's another way, he thought, silently emerging from the shadows. Moving stealthily, he mustered the last dregs of his powers.

Rath approached one of the riot cops from behind.

Max heard Kyle's words reverberating as loudly as a thunderclap. "Isabel! Isabel, wake up! “

He let out a groan as he turned his head, taking in everything in the space of a heartbeat. Everyone in the hallway who wasn't handcuffed or unconscious was clasping hands to ears, grimacing in pain.

All except Kyle, Max noted. Kyle knelt beside him, his mouth tightly closed, though his eyes were wide with surprise at everyone else's reaction to his words.

Max realized only then that Kyle had not spoken the words aloud. Everyone had heard Kyle, but he had not actually uttered Isabel's name aloud.

Their equilibrium disrupted by the sudden imbalance in their inner ears, the agents and police wobbled a bit. But Max could see that they weren't quite incapacitated.

Gazing down the corridor, Max saw Isabel move slightly, then saw her turn her head. She's okay, he thought, his spirits buoyed.

Isabel rolled over and lifted her hand. Though she still appeared weak, she managed to send a power blast into the midsection of the agent nearest to her, tossing him upward and slamming him against the wall. His gun tumbled from his hand as he crumpled to the ground.

Liz, use your powers, Max thought. In that instant, in his mind, he saw Kyle, then Liz. And he knew that she, too, had heard him, thanks to whatever channel had allowed Kyle to speak directly into their minds.

Down the hall, Liz gritted her teeth and kicked out toward the second agent. Her foot collided with his leg. It would have been an ineffectual enough blow under normal circumstances, but Max could see from the glow that suffused her that she had charged herself with electrical energy. It was yet another manifestation of her still-developing powers.

The agent went down as if he himself had been tasered, but Max barely noticed. Moving as one, he and Michael rolled over and extended their hands. "A barrier, not a blast," Max yelled, and in his mind he released energy down from his brain, through his heart, into his arm, and out through his fingers.

A few feet behind… between the teens and the second group of pursuers… the air shimmered with a slight rainbow effect. Max, Michael, and Kyle got to their feet, and as they did so, the agents charged toward them. And just as quickly, the men bounced off the barely visible energy barrier that Max and Michael had just erected.

"Get Maria and Liz out of here," Max yelled, keeping most of his attention focused on the barrier-blocked agents even as he looked toward the girls. As Kyle ran toward the girls, Max and Michael began stepping backward; as they did so, the barrier moved backward with them, keeping the agents at bay.

Max saw that Liz and Isabel were both standing now, and watched as Liz turned around so that Isabel stood behind her. Isabel touched the handcuffs that bound Liz's wrists, and they clicked open and clattered to the floor. Kyle squatted and picked up Maria; she groaned in his arms, but didn't regain consciousness.

"Come on," Kyle said to Liz, looking off down the hallway toward an exit sign and the stairwell located just beneath it.

"But Max… “

"The Pod Squad is going to have to defend themselves, Liz. They're up for it," Kyle said.

Max turned slightly as he backed up, and was glad to see that Liz and Kyle were leaving. He called back to Isabel. "Get their weapons and IDs. “

Moments later, he and Michael were stepping over the two unconscious agents who had nearly captured the girls. Their other pursuers were still hammering forward, trying to batter the force field down with nothing more than brute strength.

"Isabel, we're going to need one major burst of power here," Max said. "They're just going to follow us out to the exit otherwise. “

She steeled her gaze at him, and he saw there was a bit of blood on her forehead and coming from her nose. "Where do we aim it? “

Max judged that they were now maybe ten feet past the fallen agents, and perhaps another fifty from the exit that Kyle, Liz, and Maria were taking.

Max crouched. "At the floor," he said. Max and Isabel placed their hands on the floor between them and the agents, focusing their powers just underneath the force field that Michael was now maintaining single- handedly.

With a groan that sounded not unlike a Hollywood sound effect, the floor imploded downward, cracking the plaster-and-cinder-block walls that bounded the corridor, and sending a huge cloud of gray dust everywhere that wasn't blocked by Michaels force field. The agents on the other side of the now-collapsed floor cursed, pinwheeling their arms to avoid falling onto the lower level. Max smiled grimly when he saw that their gyrations couldn't prevent most of them from tumbling away into the dust cloud. He knew they'd be hurt by the fall, but they would survive.

"Nice one!" Michael exclaimed, as he allowed the force field to collapse, then turned to follow Max and Isabel. The three of them ran together toward the exit door, and Max was pleased to see that the stairway opened onto the mall's parking garage. Even more luckily, they were on the same level where they'd parked the van.

"Which way to the van?" Michael asked. Kyle and Liz were already out of sight.

"That way," Isabel said, pointing. "I remember passing that blue Jaguar on our way in. “

As they ran, they heard a revving engine and the echoing squeal of tires. The VW Microbus they had gotten from Jesse back in Roswell turned the corner moments later, with Kyle behind the wheel.

With a screech of the brakes, the van stopped near them. Michael flung open the side door and jumped in, followed by Isabel. Max took one last look toward the exit before he hopped into the van, and was dismayed to see that at least one agent had apparently jumped the gap in the demolished floor. One agent with a cell phone.

This wasn't over yet.

Roswell, New Mexico Roswell Sheriff's Deputy Jim Valenti was eating a pastrami sandwich at his desk, taking a late lunch. Sheriff Hanson regularly rotated his deputies, and today was Valenti's day to work in the office. As was typical, not much was happening. Dina Heikenberry had called in a few minutes ago to run some plates on a speeding car, and Glenn Carver had reported some teens motocrossing on Mesaliko Indian Reservation property.