The AT A-Team: The Conclusion
By Emily N. Daniel
"Oh, my gawd! We're going to crash!"
Kara's words echoed through Jarrod's head as he slowly opened his eyes. He was flat on his back, looking up at the bright blue sky. 'How is this possible?' he thought to himself. Last thing he remembered, he and the rest of Admiral Twin, along with their friends Kara and Steven, had been driving back to the hideout after the show. Mark, one of his two band mates, had started to attack them for no apparent reason. However, he and Mark, along with their other band mate John, were not only a band but also the superhero trio known as the AT A-Team. They had plenty of enemies who could have done something to Mark. That was why they had been heading back to the hideout, so they could try and figure out why Mark was acting so strange. Now Jarrod found himself on his back with no idea of how he got there.
Suddenly, Kara's words came back to him and Jarrod panicked. Had they really been in a crash? Had he been knocked out the entire night? He rose and looked around. To his amazement, he saw before him a brilliant gold gate. In front of the gate, an elderly but wise-looking man stood behind a podium, flipping through a tremendously large book. The man looked up and gave him a warm and welcoming smile. "Jarrod, I presume?" his tone then darkened as he shook his head, "Such a terrible tragedy…"
"Terrible tragedy?" Jarrod asked him in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"My boy, haven't you realized by now where you are?" the man motioned down. Jarrod looked below him and gasped. He was standing on nothing but fluffy white cloud.
"You mean I'm…I'm…" Jarrod could not bring himself to finish the sentence.
"Dead? Very," the man replied gravely, "You now stand before Heaven's Gate, awaiting your final judgement from me, Saint Peter. Now, if you'll just move to the back of the line…"
Jarrod gave him a confused look before turning around, only to be confronted with a line of people that spanned further than the eye could see. "You must be kidding!" Jarrod exclaimed, "It will take days…months…even years to reach this spot again!"
"Pffft," Saint Peter rolled his eyes, "Days, months, years…it's nothing compared to eternity. However, my dear Jarrod, you are in luck."
"Luck?" Jarrod found this rather hard to believe after having just perished in a crash.
"Why, yes," Saint Peter grinned, "Not long before you died, an entire band was killed in a crash as well. They have agreed to spend their afterlife playing for the people waiting in line."
Jarrod raised an eyebrow, knowing it could not be his own band. "Really? What band would that be?"
"Why, Nickelback, of course..."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…"
"Haha! Look at that! The pansy even screams in his sleep!" a rough male voice laughed. Jarrod's eyes popped open and he found himself facing not the golden gate but a very familiar-looking thug. "Aww, did the poor little baby have a scary dream?" the thug sneered amusingly. Jarrod tried to get away, but found that he could not move much at all. He looked behind him and saw that Mark was pinning his arms behind his back.
"Mark, let go of me!" Jarrod cried, struggling and even stomping on Mark's feet in an effort to make him loosen his grip. Mark, however, did not budge. "What's going on?" Jarrod glared furiously at the thug.
The thug just smirked. "Perhaps I'll just let him explain it all to you, though he may want to dumb it down so your simple pansy brain can understand." He then stepped aside and from behind him a strange little man with wild white hair appeared, grinning victoriously.
"YOU!" Jarrod struggled even harder to free himself, wanting nothing more than to rip the man's eyes out. Still, Mark kept a tight grip, leaving Jarrod no choice but for the man to approach him. "You're the one Mark met at the bar!" Jarrod shouted, "You're the one who did this to him! You're the one who made us wreck our van!" Remembering, Jarrod looked around to survey the damage. As he had feared, the van had smashed straight through the side of the hideout. The windshield was broken and the van was a twisted metal heap.
The strange little man nodded. "Yes, I did it all! I, Dr. Sven Galli, implanted a microchip into your friend's hand. It was I who made him attack you all. It was I who made you wreck your precious van!" He then took out an odd sort of gun and pointed it at Jarrod. "Now it is I who shall take away your glory."
"What are you talking about?" Jarrod retorted, "Don't you realize who you're dealing with? I could easily use my psychic powers to do some serious damage to you and your little thug friend!"
"Yes, I realize this," Dr. Galli replied, letting out a maniacal laugh, "but then I'll just do this!" Mark bent and twisted Jarrod's arms until the pain was so excruciating that he could not even think to use his powers. "Now, Levitator, say good-bye to your precious psychic abilities!" Jarrod howled as his body was hit with a wave of electricity so intense that he felt his body would burst, but then just as quickly he felt drained of all his energy and left strangely empty.
"Horrible, isn't it?" Dr. Galli chortled as Mark let Jarrod go and Jarrod fell down on all fours, shaking and gasping for breath. "The feeling of powerlessness…" He then pointed the gun at Mark and he too was hit, his body engulfed in electricity. "Yes, I know all about that feeling." Mark fell down beside Jarrod, looking a wretched state but also like he'd finally snapped out of it. "However, I will soon have more power than I ever dreamed, thanks to the AT A-Team!"
Jarrod felt someone grab his arm and lift him up roughly. It was another familiar-looking thug. A third one took a hold of Mark and together they dragged the two over to the entrance of the basement. Dr. Galli joined them and gave Jarrod one final leer before the thug shoved him down the stairs. Jarrod tumbled down, hitting his head many times along the way before finally landing hard on the concrete floor, stars bursting before his eyes.
"Jarrod!" Kara cried, rushing to his side, "Are you okay?" Suddenly, the sound of more tumbling filled the air and soon Mark was on the floor as well, blood trickling from his hand. "Oh, my gawd! Mark, you're bleeding!"
Jarrod came to his senses and tried to lift his sore figure up. John went to help him while Steven went over to Mark with a first aid kit. "Mark had a microchip in his hand," Jarrod explained to Kara, "They were using it to control him, but they must have cut it out." He then noticed blood was not only trickling from Mark's hand, but from Kara's head as well. "Kara, you're…"
"Bleeding? I know. That's what happens when your head gets busted on a windshield," Kara gave him a weak smile as she went to bandaging Mark's hand. Jarrod felt a rush of guilt deep in his chest, remembering how he had complained the last time Kara had helped them out. Now he saw just how often she put the guys' needs before her own.
"Kara, look, I'm sorry about…" Kara lifted her hand, signaling Jarrod to stop speaking.
"There's no need. It's in the past," she told him as she finished tending to Mark's wound, "Right now, we need to be more concerned about how we're going to stop Galli."
"Yes, about that…what is his plan exactly?" Jarrod asked as he made Kara sit down so he could take care of her injury.
"Dr. Sven Galli is a renowned scientist," Kara told him, "but he is also an egomaniacal idiot who will boast about his plans to anyone. You know those villainous types. While the rest of you were unconscious, he explained to me how he'd seen Mark use his powers one day and since then has been researching obsessively to learn all he can about you guys, including your true identities. He then went to the prison and found those thugs you captured last year. He managed to bust three of them out and now they're helping him with his evil plan, which is to steal your powers and use them to take over the city!"
"I don't believe it!" Jarrod exclaimed.
"I know!" John joined in, "They didn't even ask our permission!"
Kara stared at him in shock. "John, don't you realize that you've just lost your powers again?!"
"Yeah, I know. I hate it when that happens," John replied, "but we can just use the time machine to get them back."
Steven burst out laughing. "Look around you, man!" That's when Jarrod noticed just how much in disarray their headquarters was. Everything had been either torn apart, smashed, or completely destroyed. "We have nothing, man! Everything's ruined, man!"
"And the door's been locked. We're trapped in here," Kara stared down at the floor, near tears. Mark hugged her. John just stared at the wall while Steven started shifting through some of the rubble. Jarrod, however, felt as hopeless as Kara did. They were trapped with no way out.
"It's been two days since the AT A-Team turned against the city of Tulsa, causing destruction and mayhem wherever they go," the news reporter reported.
"Gawd, I don't believe this!" Kara cried, staring at the small television which had been one of the few things that hadn't been destroyed by the thugs. "I mean, come on! It's obvious that they aren't you guys! The costumes they stole don't even fit! You can see 'The Levitator's' butt crack!"
"Maybe they think we're trying a new fashion," John remarked.
"Worked for Britney Spears," Mark grinned.
Steven came down the stairs, a welding torch in hand and a protective mask over his face which he promptly lifted up. "Kara, I don't know what you made that door out of, but it's indestructible. I've tried everything!"
"Well, I just wanted to make sure no one could ever get in here besides us. Backfired though, didn't it?" Kara sighed and turned off the TV.
Jarrod was flipping through a book, trying to ignore the situation. However, he now had to read his books by hand instead of levitating them in front of him. "Ow, son of a bitch!" he yelled after his fifth paper cut. He threw the book across the room, frustrated.
"If only I had my powers of superstrength!" John commented, "Then I could just rip the door right off its hinges!"
"And if I had my powers of fire and ice," Mark added, "then I could…I could…well, I could do something…I guess."
"Well, you don't!" Jarrod snapped, "I just wish you guys would get it! We're done! There's nothing we can do!"
"That's what you think," Kara grinned and lifted up something that looked very similar to the gun Dr. Galli had used on the guys. "I noticed how Sven Galli's gun seems to operate and I think I may have figured out how to replicate it. If we could just get out of here, we could play him at his own game."
"But we've done everything!" Jarrod exclaimed, "That door's impossible! This plan's impossible! You guys and this whole fucking place are impossible!" Jarrod kicked angrily at a heavy piece of metal, only to wind up with a throbbing toe and again screaming out the male offspring of a female dog.
"Look!" Steven pointed to where Jarrod had kicked the metal. It had moved just enough to reveal what looked like a vent.
"Oh, wow! It's a vent!" Mark proclaimed.
"Good! Turn on the air conditioning. I'm dying in here," John said, fanning his face.
"No, you doofus!" Kara grinned, "We don't need to turn it on if we won't even be here! Boys, I do believe we have found our escape!"
"Yes, yes! Burn it all down!" Dr. Sven Galli screeched as he watched his minions torch, smash, and demolish the city of Tulsa, "From this we will build a new paradise, where all will bow down to me!"
"Not so fast!" a voice called out from behind him, "Your evil plan will stop today!"
Dr. Galli quickly turned around, his face twisted in anger. "Who doubts my genius?! Come out! Come out and meet your doom!" His eyes then fell upon Jarrod, whom he instantly recognized. "Oh, it's you," he grinned viciously, "So, you escaped. Good for you."
"But, may I add, bad for you," Jarrod smirked, "This is the end of the line. Give up now if you don't want to get hurt."
Dr. Galli burst into laughter. "What can a pansy like you who has no powers whatsoever do to a genius like me with three thugs who have the power to annihilate you on the spot?!" With that, Dr. Galli spoke into his wristwatch, which made Jarrod wonder just how crazy this man really was. However, he quickly realized it must be a communication device as well because the three thugs soon stopped destroying the city and joined Dr. Galli, staring amusingly at Jarrod. "Say good-bye, pansy," Dr. Galli sneered, "It's too bad that your other idiot friends aren't here to observe your untimely death."
"Oh, but we are!" Mark exclaimed as he and the rest of the AT A-Team ran up to join Jarrod, "I mean, not to observe his death, but to stop you! Give up now, slime!"
"Yeah, the jig is up!" Steven shouted. John stopped dancing and pouted.
"We suggest that you give up graciously or else face our wrath," Kara said, a smug look on her face.
Dr. Galli just stared at them a moment before finally again bursting out into horrible laughter. "You must be kidding! You have nothing! We are the ones who have the power now! How could you possibly stop us?!"
"With this!" Kara answered, pulling out the gun she had made, "We have come to take back the guys' powers!"
"Ah, very clever," Dr. Galli mused, "I must admit, your genius is almost match for mine...almost..." Without warning, a bolt of lightening streaked towards Kara and hit the gun directly, the gun exploding and sending her a distance before hitting the ground hard, losing consciousness.
"Holy fuck! Lightening power!" Jarrod exclaimed outloud in his shock, "I didn't know I had that!"
"Nevermind that!" Steven cried, "Grab Galli's gun!"
"What, this old thing?" Dr. Galli sneered and took out his gun, tossing it up in the air where the thug with Jarrod's powers quickly shot it with lightening as well, making it explode in mid-air.
"Nooooooo!" John wailed, "What are we going to do now?" Mark just stood there dumbfounded. That was it. It was over. The bad guys had won. There was no way four guys with no powers could defeat three guys who did and another who was an evil genius. Jarrod just looked around at the others, wondering why no one was doing anything. Suddenly, the shock wore off and he felt his anger rising. This wasn't what was suppose to happen. It couldn't end this way. He wouldn't allow it.
Letting out a battle cry of sorts, Jarrod ran up to the thug with his powers and grabbed him, shaking him. "Give me back my powers! Give them back to me now! GIVE THEM BACK!" The rest of the AT A-team stared at him in shock while Jarrod screamed his head off at the thug, shaking him so hard that the thug wasn't even able to think to use his powers. Even the other two thugs and Dr. Galli had been dumbstruck enough to just stare at the pathetic situation.
Suddenly, it was not only Jarrod's anger that was rising, but he and the thug as well. In the air, Jarrod and the thug struggled frantically, neither completely realizing what had happened, at least not until they found themselves both engulfed in a cloud of electricity. Jarrod knew it couldn't be from the guns, which had both been destroyed. That's when he felt a surge of power within him and grinned. He knew instantly that he had gotten his powers back and this was affirmed when the thug suddenly started falling, unable to levitate anymore. Still, Jarrod wasn't cruel. He grabbed a hold of the thug so he wouldn't fall to his death.
Noticing this, Dr. Galli cried, "No! This can't be! Thugs, kill him! KILL HIM NOW!" The remaining two thugs prepared to use their powers on Jarrod, but not before Jarrod zoomed down, dropping the other thug on the ground and grabbing onto the other two tightly.
"I don't think so," Jarrod grinned, the other two thugs yelling out as they too were engulfed in a cloud of electricity, their powers draining away. Dr. Galli ran to stop him, but Jarrod simply used his psychic powers to send Galli flying and crashing into the side of a building. "Mark, John, catch!" Jarrod let go of the thugs and sent out the electricity bolts towards them. Mark and John regained their powers and before long the three powerless thugs had been rounded up and tied together so they couldn't get away.
Dr. Galli moaned and lifted himself off the ground, dusting himself off and looking up, only to find himself surrounded by a now powered-up AT A-Team. "It really is the end of the line for you, Galli," Jarrod grinned, but suddenly he felt someone tapping him on the shoulder. He turned to see John looking almost frightful and he soon saw why. As the thugs had stopped attacking the city when they went to fight the guys, the public had decided it was safe enough to come out and see what was going on. None of the guys had noticed at the time of the struggle, but now they realized that they had been seen out of their costumes while using their powers. Steven, who had been helping Kara up, who had finally come around, also saw this. Not only had Dr. Sven Galli been surrounded, but it seemed the AT A-Team had been as well and there was no escape...at least not for the guys. Jarrod quickly turned back around and saw that the mad scientist had run off when they weren't looking. "SHIT!" Jarrod exclaimed angrily, "He's escaped!"
"That's not the biggest of our problems right now, Jarrod," Mark sighed, watching as the crowd drew nearer, staring at them in complete and utter amazement.
"It's Admiral Twin!" a girl finally piped up, "They're the AT A-Team!"
"It's so obvious now," a man added, "AT...Admiral Twin...how did we not see it before?" A camera flashed and Jarrod looked in horror to see they had been shot by a local news photographer.
"What a story!" the photographer cried. Jarrod thought about using his powers or even his fist to stop him, but he knew that doing this in front of the large crowd could be seen as an act of violence and it'd not only turned against him but the others as well. However, a blonde woman in her mid-twenties walked out in front of the crowd. Jarrod instantly recognized her as the bartender from the first night that the guys had ever used their powers for heroic purposes.
"Now, listen here!" the woman called out, getting the attention of the entire crowd, "I remember the night these three, along with their two friends, saved me when The Stadium was being robbed! If it hadn't been for them, I might not even be here today! I'm not the only one they've saved either! They have helped us all! We have them to thank for our city not being destroyed and now we are going to expose them to all the world? I mean, who cares that we now know who they are? We owe them so much, we ought to at least be able to keep their identities a secret amongst ourselves. Tulsa has their own personal superheroes. Why should we spoil that?" Murmurs rang throughout the crowd. The guys just watched them nervously while Kara and Steven joined them, waiting to see what would happen. To their great surprise, the crowd seemed to be thinking the same thing as the young bartender.
"Yes, we do owe them that much!" the man who spoke earlier replied. Shouts of agreement soon followed and they all broke out into applause. The five members of the AT A-Team just watched the clapping crowd, unable to believe what they were seeing. They had been exposed, but nothing was going to come of it. No one outside of Tulsa was ever going to find out. Even the photographer agreed not to give the photo to the newspaper, despite the money he'd lose. Jarrod broke out into a wide grin and the others soon followed. No longer was the public shunning them, but instead giving them the respect they had been lacking for so very long.
And so it was. The AT A-Team continued to fight crime, feeling a renewed sense of satisfaction for what they did. The people of Tulsa were true to their word and never revealed who they were. The media, though they still reported on the trio, referred to them by only by their superhero alias and never did otherwise. Even the crowds at their shows when the guys played as the band Admiral Twin had gotten better and they now had a larger fanbase than they had ever had before. Things were looking up for the AT A-Team and, it seemed, they would never come back down again.