Troy grabbed his sister, pulling her in close as he watched the cat creature raise its surprisingly human-like hand.

  As the gems on the cat’s bracelet flashed, little blue mouse-people started materializing all around him, as if being beamed down from an old Star Trek movie. They were all about the same height, coming up to the Agent Cat’s waist. Their clothing represented styles spanning decades of American culture, from poodle skirts and zoot suits to hoodies and sweatpants. They kept appearing until there were hundreds of them. Each had collars around their necks that matched Agent Cat’s bracelet, black with glowing green gemstones.

  “They are soooo cute!” Emily squealed, unconsciously straining against Troys grip. He couldn’t help but agree, though he wasn’t going to let her get any closer.

  “Are some of them… transparent?” asked Pearl at the same time as Sam said “Woah, they’re like ghosts!”

  Troy had thought it was a trick of the fading light of the day, but sure enough, half of the mice aliens were totally see-through. However, they acted the exact same as the non-transparent mice. They were all chittering amongst themselves excitedly, pointing covertly towards the group of humans, as they spread out across the field. Soon, the solid mice-people were holding hands in a giant circle that filled most of the field. The ghost mice formed a second circle around the first, each of them reaching out to put their hands on the mouse in front of them. Agent Cat stood off to the side with his arms folded, his black sunglasses facing the hill, as if waiting to see how the humans were going to react.

  From the corner of his eye, Troy could see Sam pinching himself while Pearl kept the video expertly trained on the little blue mice-people. Emily was bouncing on her toes, itching to race down the hill.

  “What are they doing? Should we go tell somebody?” Sam glanced nervously at Troy while holding his strangely subdued puppy tighter against his chest.

  Before Troy could answer, the circle of mice-people all looked up at the sky where a pink dot appeared. It quickly grew until what looked like a giant stream of glowing pepto-bismol shot out of the sky and silently blasted into the earth right in front of the mice people’s faces. A second later, the column pulsed, and a wave of pinkness shot out through the ground in all directions, changing the ground and everything touching it bright pink. The group of teens gasped in tandem as the wave raced through and past them, changing the whole world a solid pink before fading back into its normal colors.

  Troy heard screaming from his friends back at the house. Then he heard the screen door slamming and his friends shouted questions, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the giant glowing umbilical cord from space that the aliens had just tethered to earth.

  The mice people were still standing in a circle, now with the pink stuff flowing into the ground inches from their faces. The cord pulsed and another wave of pink shot through the ground.

  After one more pulse, the mice-people all released their grips and started celebrating, giving each other high-fives and jumping around like they had just won the lottery. The Ghost Mice were no longer transparent, their fur now bright blue like all the other mice.

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  Soon, the rest of Troy's friends gathered at the top of the hill and joined in on the gawk-fest, staring at the cord and the mice aliens running around in celebration. The cord continued to pulse every few seconds, sending out new waves of pinkness.

  The mice’s celebration was cut off as Agent Cat raised an arm. The mice, suddenly looking completely cowed, scurried over to him and one-by-one began disappearing back into thin air.

  One female mouse in a business suit, however, grabbed Troy’s attention. She stood in a ditch, on the opposite side of the pillar from Agent Cat. She pulled a small round device from her pocket and touched it to the collar of another mouse, sucking up the green light until the collar was left dark. The freed mouse slipped the collar off, handed it to the female and laid down in the ditch, throwing dirt over himself. The female tucked the collar and the device into a pocket and lined up with the rest of the mice.

  Soon, the last of the mice disappeared and Agent Cat started strolling towards the group on the hill. When he was close enough that Troy was starting to feel nervous, he called out in a high scratchy voice "Who would like to become the system champion for Planet Earth?"

  "I will!" Sam immediately piped up.

  "What? Sam, no!" Rose hissed at him, the first time she had said anything to him since their breakup several days before. Sam’s mouth twitched up in a half smile.

  Agent Cat had a small smile playing over his face as he walked right up to Sam. The puppy started growling again, overcoming whatever was suppressing him earlier. "You look like the purrfect champion." Agent Cat held out a headband to Sam. “Just put it on your head when you are ready. Don’t forget to say your goodbyes."

  Agent Cat smiled again, snatched Pearl’s phone from her hand, pointed to the sky, and disappeared just like the mice-people had.

  Pearl stood staring at her hands in shock. “Did he just…” “Why would he…”, finally ending on “My parents are going to kill me.”

  Suddenly, the tiny blue fugitive popped up from the ground, spraying dirt everywhere. There were several gasps from the group. The mouse person ran up to Sam with a big nervous smile on his face, waving a human-sized wristband over his head. Sam’s face held a whirlwind of emotions, mostly a look of determination but with hints of terror. The fugitive mouse spoke in a squeaky little voice "Hurry, put this on too. It will let us speak talk with you while you quick beat the challenge. You are so so big! You are going to do great!"

  “What… are you?” Sam asked, at the same time as Emily burst out “He’s so cute! Can I keep him?”

  The mouse alien focused on Emily. “I’m Pipinipip, but you can call me Pip! And I’m a Mim. A free Mim! The first new free Mim in a very very long time!”

  Another pulse of pinkness passed through them all and Pip smiled up at the cord. “That is the biggest link we’ve ever made and it is filling this world with essence super fast!” Then his eyes got wide as if he just remembered he was in a hurry. He sprung into the air and twisted around so he was facing Sam. “But I am only a free Mim if that Kak doesn’t come back and get me. You need to put the talktalk on and go beat the challenge and I need to hide!” He bounded right into Sam’s personal space, hopping and waving the band furtively in his face. Sam snatched the bright blue bracelet and slipped it on his wrist.

  “Sam, don't you dare put those things on.”

  “Thanks Rose." Sam said. "I love you too. I have no idea what is going on, but I was born for this.” He squeezed his eyes shut like he was trying to wink with both eyes at once and lifted the headband.

  "Wait! What if it is a trap! What if it, like, takes you over and turns you into a slave?"

  Sam said "Yeah, that would be totally lame," and then he smiled and slipped the headband on.

  Sam’s eyes lost focus as if he were staring at something in the air in front of him. He said "sure" as if he suddenly wasn't quite sure. And then Sam and his puppy turned transparent and faded away as if they had never been there.

  With a furtive thumbs up, and a glance back at the sky, Pip zipped away, ducking under a fence and disappearing into a copse of trees.