Lexa and I sprinted back to the gym floor with the neutralizing agent in hand. She didn’t ask about what happened to the Martian. She saw the green mess on the wall.

  The neutralizing agent itself was a shimmering white powder. Similar to the shimmering green powder that made up the supplement that was the source of Gav’s inhuman strength.

  The gym was a sea of bodies and turned over exercise equipment. Gav was at the center of the unconscious horde, having propped himself up against a rowing machine. His skin was greener than I’d ever seen it before. There was a puffy, almost bloated aspect to his skin. It was like he was filled with green juice. It might have been the beginning stages for whatever had happened to Michael. He was out cold.

  “Why does he look like that?” asked Lexa.

  “It’s withdrawal. Gav’s super human body was given to him by a supplement shake that the Martians were testing on humans. Going too long without it seems to turn you into a plant person.”

  “Can we still help him?”

  “I hope so. Hey, Gav,” I said, kneeling down beside him. “Hey, bro, are you okay?”

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  No response.

  “Gav?” called Lexa, grabbing his hand. “Hey, big guy, are you still with us?”

  I wet a finger and put it under his nose, feeling the faint coolness on it as he weakly exhaled. “He’s breathing,” I said.

  I started shaking up some of the neutralizing agent in a Mars Gym branded shaker that we grabbed from the merch storage. When it was adequately mixed, I opened Gav’s mouth to feed it to him.

  “Aren’t you afraid he might choke?” asked Lexa

  “I am, but he’s done for anyways if he can’t get this down.”

  I pressed the mouth of the shaker up to Gav’s, and started pouring it into his mouth. I held my breath, and hoped to see his throat begin to swallow. A moment later, it did, and the tension that I felt in my body started to dissipate. Gav grabbed hold of the shaker on his own, and I fell down on my ass with relief.

  I watched him glug down the last of the neutralizing agent, and watched as his eyes fluttered open.

  “Where am I?” he asked.

  “We’re at Mars Gym. We got you the neutralizing agent, and you’re not gonna be a plant person.”

  “Uh…” he croaked. “Plant person?” Gav looked at me and Lexa, and then at all the unconscious bodies. “Who are you? Who are all these people? And bro, what was that about becoming a plant person?” Gav tried to get up, but as he did so his legs buckled underneath him. He fell back down hard, and as he did, the stringy tank top that had been hanging off his shoulders slinked down to his waist. His face, which had appeared healthy and full, was beginning to look gaunt. “My legs. I can’t feel my legs.”

  “He’s shrinking!” yelled Lexa.

  He was.