A/N: This is set after 'Swarm At The Edge Of Space' and quite a few years after Weekend At Beeman's (If you haven't read that one, then please do). This is actually based off of my first SS fan fiction so please be nice! Also, shout out to cihojuda for being a Beta.
Updated in 2015: AHH! I seriously need to make changes to this! So again, I wrote this a few years ago and I wasn't the best of authors back then so I am fixing it now. Or at least editing chapters a bit so they look better.
Grunts of annoyance and humor left the black haired teen's mouth as she tossed a tennis ball at the robot's hand in front of her for what had to be the 50th time that day. Like all the times before, the ball hit the hand but bounced off the metal and flew past the human with a soft 'ziiiip', much to the girl's annoyance. This girl in particular was 12 year old Cassandra 'Casey' Grey, or at least that's what she preferred to be called, and her mother and father respected that... For the most part that is.
"Deadbolt! You're supposed to catch it!" She scolded the machine, shaking her fist and then running to retrieve the ball.
The robot beeped sadly in response to the scolding, and he slumped onto the floor as the girl returned with the ball. Sighing heavily, she tossed the ball to the side and sat down beside him. The game sounded so much more fun when Zak Saturday had told her about it, but then again, he had different partners to play with. Partners who actually knew how to play back and not just stand there staring. Turning her head to the door, she watched as her mother walked into the room with a clipboard in hand and a look of stress on her face.
"Casey?" Miranda called, walking into the room, stopping and laughing a tad when she saw the two on the floor. "Trying to play wallball with Deadbolt again, I see?"
Her daughter wrinkled her nose at the comment, and quickly got to her feet and opened her mouth to protest, stopping only when she saw the clipboard and knew instantly what it meant. Miranda gave a quick nod to confirm her daughter's thoughts, and set the board aside. She was just about to explain herself, but was cut off by a loud siren that served as the house's doorbell.
"Oh that reminds me, Epsilon and his son are coming over to help with a project," Miranda informed her daughter as she walked over to the farthest wall to shut off the alarm.
"That explains your clipboard... Which project is this for again?" Casey asked, getting up from the floor with a raised eyebrow. "You never invite outside help on projects."
"A classified one until its completed." Miranda replied, making her way over to the front door with her daughter at her heels. "So try to be nice to-"
"Oh joy, two weirdos who I hardly know are coming into my house and I have to spend the afternoon with one of them while my mom works on a super cool project without me..." Casey mumbled sarcastically, playing with the fabric of her uniform shirt; thinking of all the things that could go wrong.
Her mother rolled her eyes and opened the door, reviling two of the strangest looking people that Casey had ever had the displeasure of seeing. They were both very pale and slightly tinted green with matching outfits. From far away, they almost looked like the same person, other than a couple of obvious differences. For one, the one that was about Casey's age didn't really seem like he wanted to be there. Regardless, Miranda stiffly pushed her daughter towards them both.
"Introduce yourself." Her mother whispered, seemingly completely unphased by things.
"Um, hi... I'm Casey..." Casey mumbled, trying not to blurt anything random out and instead holding out her hand to the boy in front of her.
"I know." Without a second to register this, Casey's hand suddenly jerked back, just as dark green sparks shot off around the boy and hit her hand.
"WHAT THE KYRPTONITE!?" She yelped loudly, looking down at her hand as it began to burn and tingle from where the sparks had hit her.
With a quick breath, she proceeded to take five steps away from the boy, giving him as dirty a look as she could muster as she did so and glancing at her mother to see if she seemed anymore surprised than her daughter was. Meanwhile, the boy only stared at her, as if unaware of what she was yelling about.
"You bloody-" Casey made her hands into tight fists and would have punched him, but she soon remembered what would happen if she did so she drew back her hand and instead mouthed 'Prude'.
Miranda shook her head slowly and patted her daughter's back gently, looking up at her male counterpart with an annoyed look, though she really wasn't very surprised that this had happened. She had caught word from the Saturday's earlier on about these two. With a silent nod, she stepped out of the doorway and allowed the two in and led them all to her lab. As soon as they got to the lab the adults turned to the children.
"Now, Casey, remember I said that this was a classified project?" Her mother began, folding her arms across her chest.
"Until its finished, yes." She replied, ignoring the others in the room as she rolled her wrist. "So do I have to leave?"
Miranda shook her head, turning to get started as her daughter's eyes went as wide as saucepans. Never before had her mother let her witness her work on a project, and the thought of finally getting to watch was just exciting. However, this excitement was short lived, as the nameless 11 year old scoffed suddenly, obviously directly it towards Casey's excitement and instantly dampening her mood.
"Laugh at me again and see what happens." She snapped, only to catch the death glare her mother was sending to her.
"Cassandra, this will be a learning experience for both of you, so if you can't play nice then I'll have you both wait outside." Miranda said, her glare holding just a bit longer before softening. "Understood?"
"Yes ma'am." Casey nodded, folding her arms behind her back and nodding her head quickly, watching as the adults got to work on God knows what.
With a happy smile, she watched as the two got set up, comparing their individual notes and blueprints. Casey didn't know yet what they were prints of, but she kept her interest as the two adults worked with the children standing off to the side watching them. Everything seemed to be going fine at first, with the metal structure coming together quickly and flawlessly... That is until something happened so quickly that it took Casey a full minute to process it all.
Just five seconds earlier everything was going fine until-
"Francis, plug this in," Epsilon commanded, picking up a minicomputer Miranda handed him.
The boy (Now named Francis apparently) plugged something into a nearby outlet, just out of the left side of Casey and Miranda's lines of sight. If they had seen it, then surly they would have done something earlier, but unfortunately they didn't, and five seconds later there was a loud 'POP' then the lights slowly began to flicker then went out. It was finally at this point that Miranda turned quickly to face them in the dark, reaching out quickly in search of her daughter's hand as she found her words.
"No, you fool! What did you do?"
