Skye Chapter One

SKYE

I resisted the urge to share this with Michelle, especially when Collette gave me strict orders not to after an account of her first two weeks in Florida.  Well, I'm terrible at keeping secrets.  Especially when it seems like I've told the story before.

Sorry, Collette.  I'm only so good at keeping things like this a secret.

Apparently, the story of Tiffany Sheffield starts on the 30th of October in Oak Ridge, Florida.  Two chemistry classes teamed up to visit Ulnar Labs, a small-time local lab complex in the greater Orlando area that performs various robitcs applications and test systems for Disney Animatronics, as well as a newly discovered purchase of a combination matter ray from Columbia.

"And this is our optics lab, where we are planning a test of that new top secret beam that you see under the tarp," Dr. Ulnar explained.  The students looked through the glass door, to a scene of boxes, tall mechanical arrays and a parked car which took up most of the room.
"What does the ray do, Dr. Ulnar?" the teacher Mr. Kerr asked.
"We believe it may combine matter, but so far our preliminary studies have been inconclusive," Ulnar replied.
"Why is there a car in there?" a student asked as he raised his hand.  His eyes darted towards the silver Ford Mustang in the corner of the room across from the ray.
"As I have said, it is top secret.  Shall we move on?" Ulnar asked.
Kerr nodded.  "Who wants to see a particle accelerator?"
Three of the girls towards the back of the pack rolled their eyes as the group shuffled ahead down the hall.  They strayed behind as the teachers and Dr. Ulnar left, oblivious to the trio straying behind.
"I don't know what bugs me more.  The fact that Ulnar is a fool who only survives by meager testing from the Disney corperation or the fact that Mr. Kerr treats his students like 3rd graders," Mari replied.
Sarah agreed with her dark-haired friend.  "Sometimes I'm relieved knowing that this is Mr. Kerr's last year teaching."
Tiffany, a light red haired young woman, shrugged at her friend's observances.  "He seems like a straight arrow... even though he is getting a little senile."
Mari tugged on the door of the optics lab, finding it unlocked.  "As long as we're in trouble for falling behind... we may as well go inside."
"This doesn't seem right," Tiffany began.
"Come on!  Before they come back!" Mari cried.  Sarah grabbed Tiffany's hand and pulled her inside.
"Wait!"

Inside, everything was strewn about.  Boxes lay tipped over and schematics lay with pages far across the room from their counterparts.  The din gave the appearance that someone had assembled the equipment in a hurry.
Mari had already discovered a control console with glowing yellow status lights.  Sarah came to her side as Tiffany inspected the mustang.
"Look at all this equipment!  Can you believe this?" Mari cheered.
"Are you crazy?  We're going to be in so much trouble," Sarah whispered angrily.
Tiffany looked inside the windows of the car.  2008 Ford Mustang... coupe GT... low milage... by all rights this car was brand new, even if it was perhaps a year old.  Silver clear coat paint... blue stripes, black interior... was this the same style of car from that one movie?  Smaller, perhaps... but no doubt the engine had as much power....
"We're just looking around.  What could happen?" Mari asked as she sat down onto the console.  Apparently, she had triggered something as the electrical panels all lit up and began to come to life.
"What's happening?" Tiffany asked, turning.
Sarah and Mari dove for the door as the control console began to shoot sparks.  The electrical energy surged as the ray's emitter exploded, a white beam firing from the emitter as the rest of the equipment began to fail.  The ray stopped quickly, but the damage was already done.
Tiffany was thrust against the wall as the equipment began to collapse and fall apart.  The mustang was no longer in the room and was not there to catch her.
Sarah rushed back into the room and pulled Tiffany to her feet.  "We've got to get out of here!"
Tiffany was alert, but disoriented.  She took Sarah's hand and ran for the exit as an electrical pulse shook the room.  The emitter head of the ray fell to the floor and shattered just as both girls slammed the door behind them.
All three girls caught up to the group, but the explosion had triggered more than just the ray emission.  Dr. Ulnar was staring at the three girls squarely in the eye.
"Just where have you three been?"

The teacher was furious.  The doctor continued to spout regulations and how they had bought the ray from assembled parts that came from Colombia over the past several years... Tiffany and Sarah were just leaving the principal's office as the clock in the hall displayed 3:30 in the afternoon.
"Can you believe how easy they let us off?" Sarah asked.  "Mari really took it in the shorts though... serves her right."
Tiffany walked slowly towards her locker, hanging her head low.  Her grandparents would give her a real stern lecture when she got home... thank goodness that Miss Neller, the cheerleading coach, had insisted that she and Sarah were still able to go to cheerleading camp over the weekend.
"Tiff?  Aren't you excited?" Sarah asked.
"I feel terrible... like I've been hit in the stomach with a sledgehammer..."
"You're feeling remorse?  For what?  Most of that was put on Mari... special detention, only a few students have ever gotten that.  You and I both know that it was her idea.  And that beam passed right through you, didn't it?  You seem okay.  Unless you think you should go to the nurse's office?"
"Nurse has gone home for the day by now.  And besides, we're due for the bus to cheerleading camp in an hour," Tiffany replied.
"There, ya see?  You can sleep on the bus, and everything'll be fine.  You're packed already, right?"
Tiffany nodded as she sat on the floor next to her locker.  Her duffle bag was on the bottom, ready to go.  All she had to do was pick up her cheerleading equipment from the locker room near the gym, and she could get onto the bus.
"So what's the problem?" Sarah asked.
Tiffany simply shook her head.
"I'll buy you a pop from the soda machine.  We've got to head over to the bus for cheerleading camp... you know what Miss Neller will say!  If we're not ready for the competition on Sunday we'll really be chewing dust!"
Tiffany nodded and slowly stood up to open her locker.  Was it really fatigue?  Or was it the fact that the ray really had an impact on her?  It couldn't have been remorse... like Sarah said, she wasn't responsbile for the destruction of property.

Tiffany slept on the bus ride to Camp Grassnick, a YMCA camp on the northeastern fringe of the greater Orlando area.  It turned out to be a two - hour long ride, as they had to take a longer route due to traffic and extensive road construction.  
By the time the bus pulled into the camp, the evening activities of team building and orientation for the Tigers Pep Squad were cut short.  Anything physical had been kept to a minimum as well, and the girls were sent to their cabins around nine o'clock.
Some were playing card games.  Others were talking about boys.  Another girl was sitting on her cot listening to her iPod while doing her nails.
Tiffany wasted no time in getting onto her cot.  She fell asleep at once, not even bothering to change into her night clothes.  

Someone may have tossed a blanket on her during the night.  In fact, two girls may have done so as it got rather cold that evening.  Someone else may have heard a strange creaking noise as well.  
In the morning, all the girls were looking at her oddly.  She woke to see no less than eight of her cheerleading friends leering over her.
"When did it happen?"
"Did you sleep through it?"
"How did you manage to do it?"
Tiffany's eyes found Sarah's.  "What do you mean, what happened?"  She turned and looked to her left and right, to find the frame of the bed bent and twisted in an odd configuration, as if a great weight had pressed down from above.
Oddly, the mattress was still intact and beneath her - if anything had happened to her last night, it also affected the matress in much the same manner.
"Are you okay, Tiffany?"
"Fine... just fine.  When's breakfast?"
Sarah helped her get up from the mangled bedframe.  "Yeah, she's okay."
A trumpet playing reville sounded from the main building.  "Morning exercises!  We're late for the morning run!"  All the girls ran out into the common area.
Sarah grabbed a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants from Tiffany's duffle bag.  "Here, put these on.  Hurry!"
Tiffany looked over the shirt with the school logo and the camp name emblazend upon it in bright green embroidery.  "Where'd I get this?"
"Last night!  Gosh, you were tired yesterday!  Go on, get dressed!"

Tiffany quickly changed clothes and was soon jogging her way across the camp fields.  Sarah lead the way as Tiffany struggled along towards the group, which were running along a country lane around the lake.
"What's with you lately?  Normally you're the best runner among us!  Every spring the track director begs you to join," Sarah said.
Tiffany lowered her head and recalled her speed.  
"That's it!  We'll have caught up in no time!"  Sarah rode into her stride as well.
Tiffany could see the group in front of them, but as she ran and began to feel the beads of sweat beneath her light red hair begin to flow down her forehead, a different feeling passed through her entire body.  She slowed down and came to a stop.
"What is it now?  You really are ill?" Sarah asked.
"I feel...." Tiffany began.  Her fingers began to tingle, as cold chills passed through her from head to toe.  A well of warmth, much like an exploding oil derrick, seemed to expand through her pores as the feeling began to subside.
She balled up her fists as her fingers began to expand.  With a small cracking noise, they turned black and enlarged as her hands transformed into heavy, large, rubber tires.  On the outsides each were capped with an elaborate chrome hubcap.
"Tiffany...!" Sarah gasped.
Tiffany lost her balance and fell to her knees as her feet began to throb in much the same way.  Her shoes began to round out as the tennis shoes were absorbed in the process, soon rounding into a similarly matching pair of tires.  Wrists and ankles were now supporting a full set of rubber tires.
Sarah slowly backed away from her friend as Tiffany's body began to extend in length as her hips and lower body bulged out into metal and blue parts - her posterior seemed to explode as each cheek formed into a silver bumper complete with red taillights.  In the center a Florida license plate appeared between the new fenders.  Meanwhile, her front tires joined together with a round axle appendange.  She gazed between her hands and watched in horror as a gearbox took shape, all the while while her midsection was growing in size.  "Sarah... unngh... what's... happening... to me?"
Sarah was speechless now, as Tiffany's shoulders and face began to follow suit with the rest of her changing body.  She caught a brief glimpse of her own mouth as her face expanded, forming a radiator grill, headlights, and hood features.  
What had seemed like an eternity was over in moments, as all traces of Tiffany's humaity had been whisked away.  
Sarah couldn't believe her eyes, as her friend was now parked in front of her... a silver Ford Mustang.  A pair of twin blue stripes ran her length from hood to trunk.  Front seats, a small back seat, stick shift... front scoop... performance package... this was a mustang built for speed and power.  And somewhere, deep inside the atomic fabric... was her friend Tiffany Sheffield.
"Sarah?"  Tiffany's voice seemed to be coming from the radio.
"Unbelievable... simply unbelievable...." Sarah muttered.
"Are you listening, Sarah?  What happened to me?" Tiffany asked.
"Whatever happened, Tiff... I think you're awake now..."
"What?  Tell me already!"  The engine of the mustang roared to life.
"Did you do that?" Sarah asked.
"Do what?  Is that a car running... don't tell me...."
Sarah ran her hand along the hood of the mustang.  "Yes, Tiffany... that's exactly what just happened."
"I'm a car?  What kind of car?" Tiffany asked.
"The silver car from the optics lab yesterday... a silver Ford Mustang..."
The car shifted into reverse and slowly backed up.  "Impossible."
Sarah stepped back several paces.  "How are you doing that?"
"Doing what?" Tiffany asked.
"Careful!  You're in reverse gear!" Sarah rushed alongside as the car came to a stop.
"Reverse gear... reverse gear?  I have a reverse gear now?"
"Didn't you just pass your driver's test a month ago?  You've been talking about cars all month!  I don't have to-"
"No, you don't have to tell me what a reverse gear is, Sarah!  I just need to get used to the idea of having a reverse gear...." Tiffany trailed off.
In the distance, the echo of the trumpets playing reville sounded from the far side of the lake.  The group was done running and breakfast would be served soon.
"We're way behind... they'll be serving breakfast soon..." Sarah said as she pulled open the driver's side door.
"Hey!  Take it easy... is that my arm you're pulling?"
"Is it?  I have no idea.  I just know that we're going to be in real trouble if we can't figure out what to do about you."  Sarah put Tiffany into drive.
"Ugh!  Quit tugging on that!"
"I didn't tug on anything!"  Sarah pushed her foot to the accelerator and drove Tiffany forward.  "What am I doing now?"
"It feels like my ankles are being pulled forward.  The faster you go, the longer my ankles are being extended."
"Good, good.  Focus on what I'm doing," Sarah said as she drove.
"What are you doing?  Where are we going to?" Tiffany asked.
"There's an old farm near the camp... I'm going to hide you in the barn until I can figure out what to do with you."  Sarah drove faster down the country lane and up to the house with the for sale sign outside the decrepit farmhouse.
"Sarah!  What if I'm stuck this way?" Tiffany gasped.
She couldn't answer.  The blonde continued to drive the mustang past a damaged gate and onto a rough trail strewn with potholes and dirt.
"Yuck!  What foul... ouch!  Careful!" the car protested.
"Sorry!  I just got my learner's permit... I'll be more careful."  Sarah drove the car up to the barn, which was left ajar as the locks had worn away years ago.  She exited Tiffany and pushed the barn doors aside before returning to the driver's seat.
"Ugh... it stinks in there..." Tiffany muttered.
"Really?  Can you still smell?" Sarah asked.
The car became silent.  How exactly had she known it was smelly?  She no longer had a nose, yet....
"No matter.  In we go."  She drove Tiffany inside and put the transmission into park before killing the engine and making her exit.
"Sarah!  You never told me what you'd do if I'm stuck this way!"
Sarah made her way to the door, glancing outside to see if she had been followed.  "I'm not sure, Tiff.  I really don't know what I'd do if it happens that way.  It's not exactly a normal thing, a teenager turning into a car... I'll do what I can, but I can't think on an empty stomach."
"You're leaving me here, aren't you?"
The girl brushed her hands on her knees from the cobwebs that had covered the doorway.  "I'm sorry, Tiffany.  I'll be back as soon as I come up with something, or at least as soon as I can get away from the camp again."
"When will that be?  And what if they ask questions?  Someone will certainly be looking for me," Tiffany sighed.
"Yes, they will.  Hopefully it won't be long..."  Sarah cracked the door a bit as a cool breeze began to brush past her.
"Ooh that's a cold wind!"  Tiffany began to feel strange again as the cold breeze skimmed across her hood.  "Something's wrong..."
"What did you say?"  Sarah stepped aside from the door and turned towards the mustang.
"Just like before... something else is happening...."  
Tiffany's car body seemed to be getting smaller and changing color before Sarah's eyes.  Her hood began to shape into facial features as her mid-section and fenders quickly followed suit, all the while her body panels slowly changed in color from silver to the same white training uniform that Sarah was wearing.  Tiffany's hips and legs reformed along with her arms and red hair, and soon she found herself kneeling on all fours, except still with tires on her limbs.
"Tiffany...." Sarah began.
Tiffany looked around with her eyes for a moment and held up her tires, which quickly reformed into fingers and hands at each end of her wrists.  When she turned to check her feet, these had also already reverted into tennis shoes.  She did not hesitate to pull her left shoe off, discovering that her foot and toe was exactly as it had always been.
"Sarah... I'm me again!" Tiffany jumped to her feet and began to go into a routine.  "I... am... me again... I am cute again!"
Sarah nodded, watching as Tiffany bounced around the straw-covered floor, doing several backflips in place.  "Yes... but could it happen again?  Not only that... how did it happen in the first place?"
"What do you mean?  Everything'll be okay now!  Everything is... is..."
Sarah came closer to her friend.  "Tiffany?"
Tiffany checked her forehead, which was again covered in a bead of sweat.  For the second time, her wrists grew heavy as they enlarged into tires once more.
"Sarah!  I'm turning into a car again!"
The young woman spotted her friend's shoe and quickly grabbed it as the red-haired cheerleader kneeled to the barn floor a second time.  Exactly as it had happened in the road earlier, Tiffany again transformed into the silver mustang coupe.  
Sarah paced around the room, refusing to watch the spectacle a second time.  Her eyes stopped when she spotted a dusty thermometer hanging from a hook.  She cleared the dust from the face and read the reading, which was close to 82 degrees.
"Tiffany... it's because you're warm again," Sarah said.
The redhead's face had just finished stretching into the hood of the mustang.  "What?"
"I said, it's because you got too hot... you were sweating just now, right?"
The mustang was quiet.  "Yeah, I guess I was.  It didn't seem like I was overworking myself.  What are you looking at there?"
"An old thermometer.  It's 82 degrees in here, and when the cold breeze from the wind outside blew across you, it cooled you off and changed you back."
The car put two and two together.  "Cold makes me a human, and heat makes me a car, then?  Is that right?"
Sarah hefted her friend's shoe, which she had still held in her hands.  "And it would seem that it doesn't make a differnce what you're wearing when you get hot, as well."
"What do you mean?"
She brought the shoe near the car's headlights.  
"My shoe... this time, my foot...?"  A vision of a curling foot sprang into her mind.
"I think so.  And, apparently, your clothes were still on you when you changed back briefly, so at least we don't have to worry about any Bruce Banner effects," Sarah said.
"Bruce Banner effects?" Tiffany asked.
"Didn't you go with the others to the new Hulk movie last summer?"
"Never been much of a super-hero fan," Tiffany replied.
Sarah adjusted the door to direct more air onto the mustang.  The cool breeze was subsiding, but it was enough to bring Tiffany's temperature down once more.  The car began to shrink again.
"Here we go again... this is so bizzare..." Tiffany replied as her body reformed into her normal human self.
Sarah kneeled to her friend's side as Tiffany's limbs reformed last.  She noted a small tire tread mark in the dirt as she handed Tiffany her shoe back.  "Heat turns you into a car, and cold turns you into yourself.  Makes perfect sense."
Tiffany pulled the shoe on and retied the laces.  "It does?  But if I'm stuck turning into that car... was it because of the lab yesterday?"
Sarah nodded.  "There's no other explanation.  We should head back there and try to figure this out."
Tiffany gasped.  "Sarah!  We can't just leave.  What would Miss Neller do?  She'd throw us off the team, that's what!"
"At this point, Tiffany, the cheerleading team is the least of our worries.  In fact... we should get back."  Sarah took Tiffany's hand and pulled her to her feet.  "It's too hot in here for you anyhow.  This old barn sure makes for quite an oven... no wonder they don't farm here anymore.  Animals would die from exhaustion...."
"Sarah!  Slow down... let's think about this!"
Sarah continued to pull Tiffany through the doorway, where the redhead's foot became caught on the cracked boards.  Tiffany soon found herself face first in the gravel path, her foot aching in pain.
"My foot!  Unngh... ankle hurts..."
Sarah helped Tiffany back to her feet, but Tiffany refused to walk on it.  "Good!  Good... you're in pain, that'll help our cause..."  Sarah started walking down the trail towards the main road.
"Sarah!  I can't walk!" Tiffany cried.
The blond returned and held Tiffany by the shoulders.  "Fine, but don't you start transforming on me.  Especially once we get to the camp!"
Tiffany did her best to walk carefully as the two headed back to camp.  At least in the breeze outside, she would not have to worry about growing tires for the time being.