The AT A-Team: Origins
by Emily N. Daniel
"John, hand me that ratchet please," Kara instructed him as she put the finishing touches on yet another fantastic contraption. It consisted of two huge glass tubes set on two separate platforms. Lighted buttons blinked frantically on the panels inside each of them, making them look like strange glass elevators, only...
"Alright, giant bongs!" Mark exclaimed gleefully, running down the basement stairs and inspecting the two giant tubes over. However, his smile quickly turned into a frown. "What the...?"
Kara laughed. "No, Mark, they're teleporters," she explained to him as John picked up one of them for her and moved it to the other side of the basement. "One will stay down here and the other will go up on the ground floor of this abandoned building. Mind you, we'll have to conceal it somehow..."
"Teleporters?! Man, haven't you ever seen The Fly?" John asked her in disgust as he set the extremely heavy contraption down. "There's no way I'm going to chance getting my DNA mixed up with some insect's and having all my body parts start falling off!"
"Please, John!" Jarrod glared at him. He himself was trying to work on something, though it was not a fancy piece of machinery. For weeks he had been contemplating how he and the rest of the AT A-Team, which Admiral Twin had decided to call their superhero personas, could go out and fight crime without detection. He really did not want to resort to cheesy costumes, but he was running out of ideas. Smoke bombs would only hinder things and masks would make them come across more like the criminals themselves.
"Man, when is Steven coming back with those pizzas?!" Mark moaned as his stomach growled something fierce. "I guess I can just have one of those biscuits from last night's fried chicken dinner."
As Mark shuffled through the fridge, John was looking over the control panel on one of the teleporters. He noticed a thin chord poking out from underneath. It was frayed and it had wire exposed. "Hey, Kara, did you notice this?" he asked as he reached towards it.
"John, don't! That's a live wire!" Kara cried, but it was too late. In a split second, John was engulfed by waves of electricity. Mark, who had been slathering honey on his biscuit, dropped his food and rushed over to help, as did Jarrod. "No, don't touch him!" Kara warned, "You do and you'll be electrocuted too!" Then just as quickly as it had happened, John fell in a heap, unconscious and twitching violently. Strangely, while his clothes had definitely been singed, his skin and hair showed no signs of burn damage.
"Oh my God," Mark gasped, "He's alive! It's a miracle!"
"Miracle my butt!" Kara exclaimed as John's twitching slowly began to cease. Kara kneeled down and looked John over as he slowly began to come around. "John?" she said softly, "John, are you okay?"
John groaned and tried to move, but his whole body was racked with pain. "Oooh, what happened? It feels like I was hit by a truck or something."
"Not quite, seeing that it's not likely one would suddenly come plowing through the building," Kara replied, "You were electrocuted by a live wire on the control panel. Honestly, John, you should know better!"
John just groaned again and Kara sighed, helping him sit up. Mark had also knelt down by this time. "Here, drink this," he said, handing John a bottle of water, "It'll help you feel better." John thanked him and went to twisting off the cap, but it refused to budge. He tried again to untwist it, but to no avail.
"Mark, geez!" Kara said angrily as she took the water bottle from John, "You really expect him to be able to untwist a tight cap with his hands shaking like that?"
"It's not on tight!" Mark snapped back defensively, "It was almost completely untwisted when I gave it to him! See for yourself!" Kara gave him an incredulous look before going to untwist the cap, only to have it pop off in her hand. "See?" Mark said, "I told you so."
"Even so," Jarrod joined in, "with his powers of superstrength that cap should have been no challenge to him whatsoever, even in his current condition! I am surprised the entire top of the bottle didn't rip off!" He watched John slowly lift the bottle to his lips and try to take a drink, only to slop it down his front from struggling to hold the bottle up. As Kara helped him keep the bottle in place, Jarrod could do nothing more than shake his head. "No burn damage...total weakness...no, this just isn't right at all," he muttered more to himself than anyone else. He paced back and forth, pondering the situation. "It just doesn't make any sense," Jarrod said with frustration.
After a while, John was finally able to get up and move around with quite some ease having just experienced near-death. He went upstairs to change clothes. While he did this, Jarrod was levitating a medical book in front of him, reading at a furious pace, pages flipping so fast they blurred. "Just give it up, Jarrod," Mark remarked, "He's in perfect health. You should be delighted, not distressed!"
"It just doesn't fit," Jarrod told him, "How can he be that weak? How can he be as weak as a normal person would be after such an accident? Why is his skin and hair completely fine when his clothes were burnt to a crisp?"
"Well, we could test John when he gets back," Kara suggested, "Maybe it was just a temporary loss of strength."
John came back down the stairs looking as well as ever, as if nothing had happened. Jarrod just looked at him with a furrowed brow. "John," he said, "how are you feeling?"
"Never better," John grinned.
"Oh, good, because Kara fixed that wire and now we need the teleporter to be carried upstairs," Jarrod told him, "Can you help us with that?"
"Sure thing!" John replied and went to pick it up. However, unlike earlier that day, no matter how hard he tried, John could not even get the teleporter to budge. He struggled until his face had gone red, his body was dripping with sweat, and his teeth hurt from gritting them so hard. Finally, he gave up and leaned against the glass tube, panting hard. "I can't do it," John gasped, "I can't believe this. I can't move it at all. "
"Oh gawd," Mark gasped, "Do you think…his powers…they're…."
"Gone? Most likely," Jarrod replied, sighing as the book closed and flew back upon the shelf. "If he doesn't have them back by now, then he probably won't have them back later."
"This can't be!" Mark exclaimed, "We were just about…our plans…what about our plans?!"
John, who was still leaning against the teleporter, just looked down, quiet as can be. "John?" Kara went over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "John, are you okay?"
"My powers are gone?" John finally said, his voice wavering. "They can't be…." He went silent again, afraid that opening his mouth again would result not in words but sobs. Kara took him into her arms and hugged him. Jarrod looked over at the two of them, thinking hard. Mark looked over at Jarrod and wondered what he was thinking. Kara looked at Jarrod and thought it was rude of him to stare. John simply couldn't think at all.
"John," Jarrod piped up after several minutes of looking and thinking had progressed, "How did you obtain your powers exactly?"
Kara released John and stared at Jarrod, which Jarrod thought rude to do. "What do you mean how did he obtain his powers?! You mean you don't know?!"
"Neither do I," Mark told her.
"I don't believe this!" Kara exclaimed, "You mean after knowing each other for a good fifteen years neither of you know how the other got their superpowers?!" All three guys shook their heads. "Geez….MEN!" she cried, throwing her arms up in the air in frustration.
"Well, mine is kind of embarrassing," Mark said, "I gained my powers after I…after I consumed some expired Icy Hot™."
"You did what?!" Kara yelled. "How stupid must you be to do something like that?!"
"It was more being drunk than stupid," Mark defended, pouting, "I was just curious to see if it would be warm on my tongue and cool in my belly."
"That's the dumbest thing I ever….Jarrod, how did you get YOUR powers?" Kara asked, still shaking her head in disbelief at Mark.
"Dude, I'm a psychic! They just came naturally," Jarrod replied, but after seeing Kara raise an eyebrow, he added, "…and I was struck on the head by lightening."
"That's better," Kara smiled, "but what about you, John? How did you get yours?"
"Well, it all started when I was about twelve years old, I suppose," John reflected back on that fateful day, "I was walking home from school. I was stopped by some local bullies…and after that I just remember waking up in an open field, not too far from the power plant. Ever since then, I have had these amazing strength and speed abilities."
"Maybe you were exposed to something from the power plant, but what?" Kara paced, thinking hard, but not looking at any of them. "There's only one solution…"
"We travel back to where John used to live and find that power plant?" Mark guessed.
"Close, Mark," Kara grinned, "but we aren't just going to travel back to where he lived, but the time he lived in." She walked over to a large blanket, or rather a blanket covering something large. She pulled the blanket down to reveal a contraption much more massive than the teleporters, with even more blinking buttons and doodads.
"What is it?" John asked her in awe.
"A popcorn maker. I thought we could use a snack as we think of ways to go back in time," Kara went over and playfully punched John on the arm," It's a time machine, doofus! How else do you think we're going to solve your problem?"
"You invented a time machine?!" Jarrod exclaimed in amazement, "That's amazing!"
"I know," Kara smirked, "Now everyone pile in!" The guys did as they were told and Kara joined them, pressing buttons and pulling levers at a tremendous speed.
"Have you ever…tested it before?" John asked nervously.
"Nope," Kara laughed and before anyone else could say anything the room disappeared in a blast of light and color, everything swirling around rapidly before them. Soon they landed on their feet and found themselves on a sidewalk in a neighborhood that John instantly recognized.
"Hey, this is just a few blocks from where I lived as a child!" John exclaimed, looking around, "And that's me in the distance walking home from school! Gawd, I look so young!"
"Will you shut up?!" Kara hissed and grabbed a hold of John's shirt, pulling him behind the huge oak tree where she, Jarrod, and Mark were already hiding. "Do you WANT us to be seen? Don't you realize we have to be careful if we don't want to disrupt the fabric of time and space?!"
"Okay, geez, sorry," John mumbled and watched from his hiding spot as his twelve-year-old self came closer and closer. As the younger John approached the area, the child suddenly looked up towards the tree and his mouth fell agape. John quickly ducked his head back behind it, worried that he had been seen but then he noticed someone coming out of the house whose yard their tree resided in. It was the local bullies John had mentioned earlier.
"Hey, twerp!" the largest of the bullies called out, "I thought we told you to stay out of our neighborhood!"
"But it's on my way home," the younger John explained feebly.
"We don't care," the large bully smirked, cracking his knuckles, "We don't want a little weasel like you stinking up our neighborhood. I guess we'll just have to teach you a lesson."
"No, please, guys, can't we just talk this out or something?" the younger John begged, his voice shaking. He backed up towards the tree as the three horrible bullies closed in on him. The large one grabbed the younger John around the throat and smashed his head against the tree, causing him to lose consciousness. The other two just snickered vilely as their leader let the younger John fall in a heap on the ground.
"Now we'll really teach him a lesson he'll never forget….what the?!" The large bully cried out as a huge icicle came hurling towards him, missing his foot by mere inches as it hit the ground. "Hey! What's going on…eeeeeee!" he screamed shrilly as he was given a major wedgie by some unseen force. "Guys, help me!" However, when he looked around he saw his friends had abandoned him. "Guys, wait up!" the large bully cried as he ran away, tears streaming down his face.
"Hahaha," Kara laughed as she watched the horrible children take off, "That was more than brilliant! Good work, Mark and Jarrod!"
"But," John interrupted, "I don't understand. If those bullies didn't drag me over to the field by the power plant, then who did?" Kara pondered this for a moment. A few minutes later, Mark lifted the younger John up in his arms as they all darted from yard to yard, hiding behind whatever they could find as they headed towards the plant.
"This is ridiculous!" John exclaimed, panting as they ran to yet another yard. "What if I…I mean my younger self, wakes up?"
"Well, you said yourself that you don't remember anything before you woke up in that field," Kara explained, "so obviously you don't wake up." That's when the two of them heard a faint whacking sound behind them. They turned around to see Mark still holding the still-unconscious younger John.
"What?" Mark asked.
"Nothing. Just thought we heard something," Kara said and kept running. Mark watched to see if any of them were looking and quickly dropped a small icicle to the ground before running up to join them again.
Eventually, they made it to the power plant. As the four of them searched the grounds though, they grew more and more concerned. "I don't see anything that could have given John his powers," Jarrod commented.
"What about the small pond by parking lot?" Kara suggested.
"But I wasn't wet when I woke up," John told her, "so that can't be it."
"Guys, over here!" Mark yelled out to them and the others came up to where he was standing over a tiny little ant hill, swarming with tiny little ants…tiny little GLOWING ants.
"This is it," Kara said, "This is where John got his powers. He must have been bitten by those ants and it must have done something to his DNA."
"No way!" John cried, "I didn't have ANY insect bites on me! I know because I inspected my body over after I found out about my powers to see what could have caused them!"
"There might be an explanation after all," Jarrod realized, "Mark, give me that honey packet you stuck in your pocket earlier." Mark looked at him incredulously as he handed over the honey packet, which Jarrod immediately ripped open and slathered on both the older and younger John's arms. "Now, lay little John by the ant hill and I'll just scoop up a few of these fellows here…" Jarrod picked up some of the ants and placed them on the older John's arm, where they instantly went to biting him. John yelped and shook them off, watching as little red bumps formed but then just as quickly shrunk back down until they disappeared completely. "Aha!" Jarrod took John's arm and looked it over, "Just as I thought! You must have formed a thick skin, or a sort of human exoskeleton, from ant DNA mixing in with your own!"
"I guess that would explain the lack of injuries during my rebellious teenage years," John smiled sheepishly, "but I'm just glad my body parts didn't fall off."
"Hey, I think little John's been bitten up enough over here," Mark said to them, "Shall I carry him over to the field?"
"No…let me do it," John said and bent down to lift him up. John did it easily, almost hurling his younger self skyward, but quickly clutching onto him before that could happen. Yes, he had definitely gotten his strength back. He walked with the others over to the field and laid his younger self down. As he looked down upon him, John realized that it was not those bullies that had carried him out to the field or to the power plant where he had gotten his powers. It was he himself and his friends who had done it. Before he could get lost in the surreal-ness of it all, Kara placed a hand on his shoulder.
"It's time to go," she told him. John nodded and joined the others. Kara took out her pocket knife and pressed a button on the handle. The guys and Kara found themselves once again spinning through the bright colors and lights until they came to a stop in the machine that had transported them in the first place. Looking at the clock, they saw that they had been gone no longer than a few minutes of their own time. Steven was heading down the stairs, carrying several pizza boxes in his arms.
"Hey, guys, what's going on? Did I miss much?" Steven asked as he set the food down on the table.
"Boy, did you ever!" John laughed and told him the whole story, "…but then we figured it all out and now we're back and I'm as good as new."
"But…I don't get it," Steven said after hearing all of this, "If Kara had a time machine, why didn't you all just travel back to when John was about to touch the wire and stop him?"
The guys and Kara looked at each other and groaned.