A boy -- boy? An individual wearing black leather, purple spiked hair, and with multiple body piercings walked by. "This is familiar?" said Zeke.

"Yeah," Meredith replied, not paying attention. She glanced over her shoulder and noticed the individual in question. "You get used to it."

Zeke shook his head in disbelief and nearly lost Meredith as they walked by the Bugle Boy store. But Meredith suddenly stopped as a look of deep concentration crossed her face.

"You feel that?" she queried.

"Feel what?" said Zeke.

"I'm not sure... something's not right."

"Well, you're right," Zeke said lightly. "Trees really shouldn't grow indoors..."

Meredith smirked, rolled her eyes, and lightly smacked Zeke across the shoulder. "Always making a joke!" She paused and began to concentrate again. "No, this seems to be coming from HammerSpace." She started to jump in, when Zeke grabbed hold of her collar.

"You can't just jump into HammerSpace in the middle of the mall!"

"Why not?" Meredith retorted. "This world is fake anyway!"

"No, not fake," Zeke said. "Created. Fiction."

"Fiction. Fake. Same difference."

"Well... at least disappear down the escalator or something! These people may be fake, but they're still leading lives, after a fashion."

"Fine," Meredith sighed as she jumped onto the escalator. "And you're coming, too!"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Zeke returned sarcastically.

------------------------

Meredith and Zeke crossed from Meredith's HammerSpace into HammerSpace proper.

Meredith remarked, to no one in particular, "Man, is that place a mess."

Zeke was a little impatient by this point. "Why are we here? It's not like this is extremely friendly territory."

"It's Susanne. Something's really wrong. Panic. Claustrophobia." Meredith turned her head slightly, sensed the energy, and took off for it.

"What the..." Zeke began to protest before sighing and following her.

The energy became stronger as they got closer. *This is weird... how did I know which way to go? What is this?* Meredith thought. There was a strange tingling sensation then, but she wrote it off to a normal chill. After all, HammerSpace *was* creepy. But Zeke had stopped and was staring at her strangely. "What?" she said.

"What did you just do?"

"I took four steps," Meredith said in her usual exaggerated sarcastic manner.

"No, that... that glowing thing," Zeke said. He walked forward and bumped into the barrier. "Ouch!" he said, rubbing his nose.

Meredith was confused and walked back to him.

"There! There it goes again!"

Meredith was beginning to think Zeke was crazy and raised an eyebrow.

"No, really, look!" Zeke reached out a hand and touched the barrier. It glowed gold in response to the pressure.

"Weird," said Meredith. She reached up and touched it also. She pushed on it. "What is that? How come I can go throu--" she said as her hand fell through the barrier. She pulled it back and pushed, pulled it back and pushed it through. Then, in a flash of gold light, the barrier was gone.

"Hey! where'd it go??" Zeke had been leaning on the barrier and stumbled as it disappeared. Meredith was wide eyed.

"I don't know, but this is too creepy for me. Besides, Sus isn't in trouble anymore. Let's get out of here." She grabbed Zeke's arm and dragged him once again through a portal to California.

Once there, Zeke frowned at her. "You know, I *can* move on my own. You don't need to drag me everywhere."

"Well, you were moving too slow. I just have all this energy, and people usually have a hard time keeping up with me anyway. Like Sus. I wonder where she went to, anyway. The panic disappeared with that barrier thingy, and then she left. What was that barrier thingy anyway? And how come I could go through it and you couldn't?" She was gesturing up a storm now, almost reverting into complete sign language.

"Breathe. That's it, calm down. Big breaths." Zeke held her hands firm. "I don't know what it was. But we won't accomplish anything upset. Here. You could use a good dose of Anne of Green Gables." Meredith smiled and took the book from him. He had gotten to know her well this last little while, and she was really starting to like having him around. He was a great sounding board, and an often necessary calming influence. She began to read, and a few pages into it, she decided that the lights were too dim. She looked up to ask Zeke to turn another light on, when the light just came on.

"How'd you know what I was going to say?"

Zeke looked up from his nap and shot her a confused look. "What? Huh?"

"The light. You just turned it on, didn't you?"

"No, why would I turn the light on? I'm sleeping."

"Well, I'll turn them off and go into another room then," Meredith said, half experimenting. Sure enough, they flicked off, and Meredith smiled to herself as Zeke fell back into slumber.