"Disappearance Without A Trace"

"Have you gotten in touch with her yet?" Joey asked Lance worriedly.

Lance shook his head. "No. Everytime I call her cell, no one picks up."

Justin looked away from the window and asked the others, "You think she's okay?"

"Yeah," Chris snorted. "Why would anything be wrong?"

JC walked to the front of the bus from the lounge area and answered, "'Cause Tammy said she was leaving for only two days, and here it's been an entire week and we haven't heard anything from her."

Chris sat back and thought about what JC said. Everything his friend said was true. Chris could even remember the exact words Tammy used to announce that she was leaving.

"God, where the hell is she?" JC muttered. In all the time he had known Tammy, she never went AWOL on the guys like this before. "What if she's hurt?" he fretted, running his fingers through his hair.

Chris looked up from his thoughts and looked around at the other four guys, who looked as if they'd lost their best friend. "C'mon guys," he said, trying to cheer them up, "this it Tammy we're talking about. She can beat all of our asses without even trying. What could possibly make you think she can't take care of herself?"

"Then how do you explain her not calling us in almost a week?" Lance challenged, his eyes full of disbelief.

"She's probably using this time as a vacation. You know... to take a break from us. I mean, she has been with us all day, everyday for the past two months. I'll bet she's sick of us." No sooner had the words come flying out of Chris' mouth, he regretted what he said. The other four boys looked even more upset than before. They had all been thinking the exact same thing, but it was a lot more comforting to think that maybe something had happened as opposed to Tammy just being sick of them.

"Yeah," Justin muttered sadly, "she probably did get tired of us."

Chris quickly back pedaled his earlier remark by saying earnestly, "C'mon guys, you know that's not what I meant. She probably just got caught up in what she had to do and forgot to call and stuff. Trust me," he finished, "she'll be back."
"How do you know?" Joey frowned.

Chris rolled his eyes. "Umm, hel-lo? She's in the process of writing the screenplay for a major movie which happens to be about us. She has to come back. She's under contract."

"Yeah, I guess," JC sighed sadly.

Chris jumped up saying, "God! Would you cheer up? Even Joey's in a bad mood, and I thought it'd be a cold day in Hell before that happened. Let's play some video games." He started to walk to the back of the bus and scowled when he realized that the others weren't following him. "Whoever stays up here is a Backstreet Boys lover." Immediately, the remaining four hopped up and ran to the back of the bus. "Now that's more like it," Chris grinned.

Later that day at the venue, while the boys were doing their final soundcheck of the evening before their concert, a cab pulled up outside a door marked "Crew". Out stepped two pairs of feet; one in black Timberlands, and the other in dress up boots. "Here it is," one girl said to her friend. The two girls walked up to the door and were immediately stopped by one of the security guards that worked at the venue.

"Passes please," he growled. The girl with reddish brown hair and honey blonde highlights merely looked him deeply in the eye and said firmly, "Move."

The guards' eyes went somewhat vacant as he moved to the side. The two girls walked into the venue and into the area where the crowd would sit. They sat in the front row and watched as the boys finished off one of their favorite songs.

"Someday, you'll see...if only through heaven's eyes..." the five sang in perfect harmony. The lighting technician, who was testing the spotlights for that night's show, panned the light across the seats. Justin happened to look up to see two girls sitting in the front row. He dropped his mic and immediately jumped off the stage and embraced the girl in the Timberlands. "Tammy!" he cried, swooping her up and spinning her around. "I missed you!"

"Yehanm mfk, Jusojs," Tammy mumbled, for her face was mashed into Justin's torso.

Lance looked out into the crowd also. "Tammy?" he said. He, along with the rest of the guys, jumped off the stage and ran to hug Tammy. All five of the guys took turns hugging her, and when they were done, Tammy took a step back and gasped, "Geez, I was only gone for a week!"

"Yeah, but you never called. Not once," Lance argued.

"Yeah," JC chimed in. He continued in a dramatic voice, "If you want this relationship to work, them dammit, Tammy, you have to communicate. You have to give your one hundred percent just like we are. We can't do it alone!" he finished, pretending to cry. Chris put his arm around JC and pretended to comfort him. He glared at Tammy. "You know," he said, "if I wasn't such a punk and wasn't afraid that you'd beat the crap outta me, I'd bitch slap you."

Tammy smiled and pinched his cheek. "Aww," she cooed, "that's the nicest thing you ever said to me!" She then gestured to the Hispanic girl standing back in the shadows. "You all remember the lovely Isabella, I presume?"

Chris threw JC off of him and stepped up to Isabella and kissed her on the hand. "¿Cómo está, beautiful?" he smiled.

Isabella rolled her eyes, but was still smiling. "Don't let Enrique hear you say that, or 'NSync will be a quartet when he's done."

"Who's Enrique?" Justin frowned in mock anger.

"My boyfriend," Isabella said. "Don't look at me like that, Justin. I told y'all when I first met y'all that I had un novio."

"But I didn't think you were for real!" Justin shot back.

"Too bad," Isabella smirked. "Besides, don't you go out with-"

"Don't even go there," Justin cut her off. "I know what you're gonna say, so don't even say it."

"So," Lance started in what he hoped was a natural tone of voice, "where've you been?"

Tammy looked at him sharply. "Handling business," she answered simply.

"It's no big deal," Lance said quickly, "I was just saying it 'cause you were like, 'I'll be gone for two days', and here you are coming back after a week with no phone calls or anything."

"I didn't have my phone while I was away," Tammy lied.

"Not even your business phone?" Joey questioned pointedly. "We even tried calling that number and got no answer. It seems to me that if you're gone on a business trip, you'd keep your business phone on you."

Tammy sighed, "Look guys, I'm sorry I didn't call, but..." she looked at Isabella.

"She had shit to do," Isabella answered annoyedly. "Damn."

Chris held up his hands in mock surrender. "Calm down, girls. Or as Isabella might say, 'Calmáte'. We didn't mean to give you the third degree, we were just worried."

"Yeah," Lance added, "we're sorry."

Tammy pinched Lance's cheeks for what must have been the millionth time since she first saw him. "How can you stay mad at this face?" she asked Isabella.

"You can't," Isabella answered with a smile.

"So," JC asked, "you guys stayin' for the concert tonight?" The two girls nodded. "Well," JC continued, "we better get you some passes so you won't get hassled. Come to think of it," he said as an afterthought, "I don't even know how you two got in without one. We didn't leave your name at the door."

Isabella glanced at Tammy and then smiled at JC. "Let's just say," she replied mischievously, "that I have a look that the guard couldn't quite resist."

Later that night during the concert, Tammy felt her cell phone vibrate. She picked it up and turned it on. "Hello?!" she yelled over the loud music.

"T! Is that you?" she heard a distant voice say.

"Yeah!" T yelled again. "Who's this? I can barely hear you!"

"It's me, Michelle!" the voice screamed.

"Oh, hey Michelle!" Tammy said loudly. "What's up?"

"WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!!" Michelle yelled. "Me and Serena need you and Yasmine to get out here to Cali quickly. Like, in five minutes! Go fourth density if you have to. Just get here quick!" With that, she hung up.

Tammy turned to Isabella and yelled in her ear, "That was Michelle. She says we have to get out to California with her and Serena real quick 'cause something's wrong! Let's bounce!" With that, the girls started to move out of their seats and into the aisles.

As the boys were singing "Bye Bye Bye", they all happened to look up at different times and notice that Tammy and Isabella were gone. "Now where could they have gone?" Joey asked himself as he looked at their now vacant seats.

Meanwhile, Tammy and Isabella were racing across the parking lot on foot. Tammy pointed, "Look, there's a forest...kind of. It should shield us while we transport." The girls ran over to the trees and walk deeper into the "forest". Once the girls were satisfied that they couldn't be seen, they cleared some of the branches and sat down.

"Do you think they're okay?" Isabella asked worriedly.

"I hope so," Tammy sighed. She wondered what the emergency could be, but at the same time, was anxious to get out to where her friends were so she could help. She looked at Isabella and held out her hands. "You ready?" she asked as Isabella clasped her hands.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Isabella replied, squeezing Tammy's hands nervously.

"Just close your eyes," Tammy began.

"Wait," Isabella said. "We're going fourth density? Why can't we just hyper-jump?"

"'Cause there's no guarantee that with a hyper-jump we'd wind up where Serena and Michelle are. We don't have time to be jumpin' all over the place looking for them. Michelle sounded like it was pretty vital that we get there quick."

Isabella nodded. "Okay, let's do it." The two girls closed their eyes and focused all their attention on Michelle, allowing their breathing to become slow and even. Eventually, they felt a piece of themselves fall away and had a sensation that they were flying, yet unconnected to all around them. That was the concept of a fourth density leap. To explain it in simpler terms, it is the equivalent of existing in the fourth dimension, which is both an abstract and unexplainable concept. The theme could only be explained up to the third density, or third dimension. For example, first dimension (or density) is like a string, or a line. Second density is when the line is squared, and the shape of a square is formed. Third density is when the square is squared, and a cube (or a box) is formed. Fourth density is when a cube is squared, which is why the concept is so abstract. The average human is third density, but Tammy and the others were able to go fourth density, which was the equivalent of altering their bodies to a more spirit-like state. By focusing their attention on Michelle, Tammy and Isabella were able to travel thousands of miles in only a few seconds.

When Tammy and Isabella returned to their third dimension bodies, they were shocked at what they saw. "What the fuck?" Tammy frowned. The two girls were inside a huge, decrepit building. The walls were crumbling and the building would just rumble and shake every few seconds, as if a giant were taking steps somewhere nearby.

"Michelle? Serena? Where are you?" Isabella called out.

"Here!" A voice echoed, but not in the building... in their minds. "Don't talk," it warned, "Shilen might hear you!"

"Shilen?" Tammy sent her thought to Isabella's mind. Isabella merely shrugged in answer. The two girls walked further into the building, where the pounding sound got louder. "Where are you?" Tammy shouted out to Michelle in her mind.

"We're on the second floor," Michelle replied. "Be careful. That rumbling and pounding you hear is Shilen. She's trying to knock down a titanium wall to get to Serena."

Isabella scowled. "We'll be there in a minute," she said. The two girls ran up the stairs and around a corner and saw a slim girl with long purple hair pounding a wall. "Keep knockin' but you can't get in, bitch," Isabella snarled. Shilen turned around looked at the two girls. "You want a piece of me?" Shilen laughed, shaking out her hair. "Then come and get me."

Tammy and Isabella walked slowly into the room. "You alright, Rena?" Isabella called.

"Yeah," they heard a muffled voice say.

"Morph," Tammy sent the though to Serena.

"Okay," Serena called back in her regular voice. Seconds later, the girls saw a scorpion crawl out of a crack in the wall. The scorpion scurried directly over to Tammy and Yasmine and transformed into a blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty of about nineteen. "Nice to see you guys," Serena said, taking her battle stance. Suddenly, the three girls heard Michelle's voice in their heads.

"Are you all together?" she asked. "If so, get away from each other. You have to split up! Shilen can..." Just then, Shilen let out a loud banshee yell where the girls could literally see the sound waves. The waves traveled the length of the wall, knocking it down onto Serena. The remaining waves sent Tammy flying into the hallway and Isabella plummeting through a hole in the floor.

As Tammy's body hit the opposite wall, she felt another blow from the sound wave hit her. "Shit," she muttered as she hit the floor. She looked up in time to see Shilen walking toward the pile of debris that Serena was buried under. "No!" Tammy yelled. Shilen merely turned to her and let out another scream. This time, Tammy was ready for her, though. Raising her right hand, Tammy created a force field that reflected the wave back to Shilen, throwing her against the wall.

Serena climbed out of the rubble as Shilen hit the wall and hurriedly jumped through the same hole in the floor that Isabella fell through. Shilen got up and followed Serena. Tammy called out to Michelle. "Shelle! Where are you?"

"I'm downstairs," she called back into Tammy's head. "Where's Shilen?"

"Downstairs somewhere," Tammy replied back through her thoughts, scrambling to her feet and running downstairs. When she got there, she saw Isabella and Serena on one side of Shilen, and Michelle on the other side. All four girls were geared up for an attack. Without warning, Shilen jumped into the air, her leg cocked back to deliver a crushing blow to Isabella. Michelle didn't hesitate to throw up her hands and stop Shilen in mid air.

"You stopped time?" Serena said to Michelle. "I thought you said it didn't work on Shilen," she asked.

Michelle shrugged. "I can't stop sound, but I can stop her." She looked at the others. "So what are we gonna do with her?"

"For us to eliminate her, she has to be unfrozen," Tammy said. She looked at Isabella. "Any ideas?"

Isabella shook her head, moving out of Shilen's path. "She's a strong puta."

Tammy looked at Michelle and said, "Unfreeze her." Just then, Shilen came back to life and crashed into the wall. She jumped up and dove for Tammy, who merely ducked and watched as Shilen sailed over her.

Shilen tried to charge Tammy from the back, but Tammy ran towards the wall, stepped up onto it with her left foot, and flipped over Shilen's head. She grabbed her by the back of her head and mashed her head into the wall, knocking her out. She looked at the other girls. "Let's get this over with," she said. Just as the girls were preparing to send Shilen back to sixth density, Shilen woke up and with a howl, kicked Tammy in the right hip, sending her flying.

The remaining three girls immediately jumped on Shilen at once, but it was as if she woke up with a demon strength. She threw each girl off of her, and sent them flying into three separate walls. "You can't defeat me," she hissed. She opened her mouth and let out another scream as Tammy got up off the floor. Shilen's latest scream sent an old couch flying towards Tammy, who braced herself and jumped high into the air and onto the couch as it was flying. She then jumped off the couch and was preparing to land a deadly drop kick on Shilen. To any outside person watching this, all they would have seen was a light brown blur flying off the ground, then off of a flying object, and sailing swiftly through the air.

Before Tammy could hit Shilen, though, Shilen threw up her left arm and swiped Tammy away in mid air, sending her rocketing into a wall. She slammed into the wall with her right arm and slid to the floor. Rolling over and groaning, she muttered, "Man, fuck all this nonsense," and decided now was time to use her inner strength, even if it did leave her drained for days afterward.

Climbing to her feet shakily, Tammy screamed, "Power up!" and held up her arms. A huge wave of energy entered her body, condensed into a ball, and was propelled towards Shilen faster than the speed of light. It slammed into her lean frame with much force and immediately encased her. "Now!" Tammy gasped.

The other three girls focused all their energy and attention on Shilen and Michelle opened the gate to the sixth dimension. The three girls, using nothing but their minds, catapulted Shilen through the portal. As the gate closed, Isabella muttered, "Man am I glad that's over."

"Yeah," Michelle agreed, wiping the chalk and dust off of her dark brown skin. "I want some sleep after that battle."

"And to think," Serena mused, "we still haven't found Rakshiki."

Isabella groaned, "Don't remind me. We spent an entire week looking for him, and nothing." She looked at Tammy, who was sitting tiredly on the floor. "Look T," she said, "I don't think I'm gonna stay with you and 'NSync like I planned. I'm too tired. I'm just gonna hyper-jump you back to where their at, and then leave, okay?"

"Whatever," Tammy muttered. Her joints and muscles ached all over and all she wanted was some aspirin and a nice soft bed. Still, she couldn't help but wonder how she was gonna explain this to the guys.