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down-covered legs, he managed to extricate himself from the human pants before falling on his face, but only just. He let out one of those strange, scream-like cries which reminded me of a peacock I heard once...
    Right before he changed again, this time growing taller and losing the feathers.
    Within a few more seconds, we found ourselves staring at a green-scaled, semi-human-shaped biped with webbed hands and feet. In that form, Nik stood about eight feet tall and had thick, seaweed-like hair. Since he’d lost the pants with the bird shape, he stood naked before us once more, although with a decidedly un-human-like shape below the waist.
    “Nik,” I said, averting my eyes with an embarrassed sigh. “What is it with you and the pants right now? Can you find something less...exhibitionist?”
    Jake let out a hysterical-sounding cackle.
    Irene just stared, her coffee cup held at chest height.
    The green-skinned Nik gave me a faintly offended look with his baseball-sized, deep-black eyes, blinking a set of transparent lids before his shape changed again.
    That time, he transformed back into the shape of a human, but instead of the Nihkil shape I knew, he looked exactly like Gantry...including the naked parts. I couldn’t help wondering, how, exactly, he’d managed to get that part right.  
    Because it was right.
    A little too right, frankly.
    My wondering must have gotten through that thread we shared in the lock, because Nik answered the question as if I’d spoken it aloud.
    “There’s a DNA element,” he told me.
    “DNA?” I said, frowning. “But you didn’t touch him.”
    Nik shrugged, as if my question were irrelevant.
    Deciding getting answers out of Nik on the specifics of how the lock and shifting worked, I glanced at the original Gantry. His normally cinnamon-colored skin had paled to the color of rancid milk.
    He also looked like he’d forgotten how to breathe.
    “Okay, Nik,” I said, as the morph blinked at Gantry with his own face. “Okay,” I said, sharper. “That’s enough. Seriously. You’re going to give him a coronary.”
    Nik immediately transformed back into his usual form, the human version.
    When I pointed at his pants, which now lay on the floor in an inelegant heap, Nihkil dutifully picked them up, untangled them, and shoved his now human leg into the correct pant leg. Only then did I spare another glance in the direction of Irene and Jake.
    Jake looked pretty similar to Gantry, actually.
    Irene, on the other hand, now looked at Nik with pure, unfettered adoration.
    I might have to nip that little crush in the butt, honestly.  
    Avoiding the twinge of jealousy that arose at the thought, the one I’d been pretending wasn’t there, I looked back at Gantry.
    “Well?” I said. “You wanted the truth...Tonto.”
    Gantry swallowed.
    It seemed to take most of his concentration to get it right after the first two tries. He looked up at Nik, his irises and pupils like two black dots punctuating the white of his eyes, then up at me, then back at Nik again, as if trying to decide if I’d conjured Nik there somehow, if it was all some kind of trick with computer animation and projection screens.
    Then Gantry cleared his throat, motioning towards Nik with a muscular hand for a few seconds, as if trying to remember how to work his vocal chords.
    “...that...that thing...” he said finally. “...Could I see that again?”
    Nik looked at me, maybe for permission.
    After another pause, I sighed. Shrugging, I leaned back against the cabinets, raising my mug of coffee to my lips.
    “Sure,” I said. “Whatever. Knock yourselves out.”

3
    Breakfast and a Poorly-Conceived Plan

    That went on for awhile.
    I think Nik took at least twenty different forms during that time, including imitating the shapes and faces of every one of us in the room, down to each excruciatingly embarrassing detail. He also made himself into the blond golfer guy from that day in Washington Park, and I hadn’t even