Chapter One: No Rest for the Worried
"Pizza!" Jackie crowed, bouncing around the kitchen. Mommy glanced at her and grinned, sliding a steaming slice onto a plate for her. Jackie accepted it and followed Amanda into the den, where Mommy shut the door. She finished her slice, watching the movie with her sister, until she decided she was still hungry and wanted another slice.
Mommy was sitting at the table, her back to the door and her shoulders shaking.
"Mommy?" Jackie asked, putting her plate on the table. "Why are you crying?"
Mommy wiped her face and tried to smile, but Jackie knew that it had something to do with Daddy. They almost never had pizza. Daddy made the best dinners.
"Nothing's wrong, sweetheart," Mommy said, gathering Jackie up in her lap. "Mommy and Daddy had a misunderstanding."
"Is that why Daddy isn't home right now?" Jackie asked. "Is he ever coming home?"
"He will," Mommy nodded, "and I want you to remember that. Your daddy loves you and your sister, and he's always going to come home to you."
"What about you, Mommy?" Jackie asked. "Doesn't Daddy love you?"
Mommy didn't answer, but her eyes filled up again. Jackie hugged her.
"It's okay, Mommy," she said. "I know he does. He just can't say it sometimes."
"You're awfully smart for a five-year-old," Mommy teased, kissing Jackie's forehead. "Go back in the den with Amanda, honey. Mommy needs some alone time right now."
Daddy came home after Jackie's bedtime, woke her and Amanda up, and made everyone a brownie sundae. They didn't say it, but Jackie knew that Daddy and Mommy weren't sad at each other anymore.
Jackie knew something was wrong when her dad ordered pizza.
Hudson, being the sweet little kid he was, didn't suspect a thing, but Jackie and Amanda shared a meaningful glance. Once Brick was off the phone Jackie raised her voice.
"Everything okay, Dad?"
"Hmm? Yeah," he nodded, "everything's fine." He weighed his phone in his hand and set off for the basement stairs. Jackie waited until he was gone before turning back to her nineteen-year-old sister.
"Any ideas?" she asked. Amanda frowned, adjusting her glasses.
"Mom," she said simply. "Six o'clock and no word? Something's up."
Jackie nodded slowly. Blossom had been acting odd lately, along with Aunt Bubbles and Aunt Buttercup. Whatever it was, she was pretty confident their husbands had no idea what was going on.
This confidence was strengthened when her uncles and cousins all arrived around the same time as the pizza. Brick came back upstairs, paid the pizza man, ignored Jackie's pointed questions, took one of the six boxes, and retreated with his brothers back into the basement. Amanda and Gabriel, as the oldest, took charge with organizing the younger kids; Jackie got her slices and went to the backyard to wait for Janey and Jezebel.
She didn't wait for long. The two cousins who shared her birthday came out a few minutes later, Janey making a beeline for the tree house ladder, Jezebel for the only swing on the swing set that wasn't broken.
"So?" Jackie spoke first. "What do you think?"
"It's fishy," Janey frowned. "Mom never goes anywhere without leaving some kind of note. It's not like her."
"Whatever it is, it scares them," Jezebel said calmly, pushing her dark curls out of her face. "It's something big."
"Well, whatever it is, they'll be back soon," Janey replied optimistically. "They've never met a monster they couldn't handle."
Jackie nodded slowly, chewing her pizza.
"What's the plan, Leader Girl?" Janey asked. "Snoop or stay?"
"We keep our eyes open," Jackie replied, "but no direct snooping. If our dads knew anything they wouldn't be so bothered. When the time is right—"
"—we'll be told," Janey finished. "Man, I'm so tired of hearing that."
"Janey," Jezebel warned, but Janey seemed to have already hit her stride.
"Seriously," she plowed on, "you'd think, after six months of this crap, we'd be some kind of improved."
"We are," Jackie countered. "We can already fly farther, run faster, and hit harder. We'd be more of a team unit if someone wasn't more concerned about beach parties than training."
"Jackie, come on," Jezebel pleaded listlessly, lifting her feet as the piece of pizza Janey was about to take a bite of buried itself in the playground mulch.
"Excuse me, Jackie, I didn't realize it was such a big crime to want to have fun once in a while," Janey scowled. Jackie's dark pink eyes flashed, but she held her outer tranquility.
"It's as good as a crime when we should be preparing for what's out there," Jackie argued.
"It's not a big deal! If the job gets too big, our moms can always step in!" Janey yelled.
"Your mothers aren't here now," a deep voice replied, and from the shadows of the backyard the girls' fathers emerged. "It's about time you three buckled down and got serious."
"Dad, what's going on? Where's Mom?" Jackie asked, getting to her feet. Janey and Jezebel followed suit, standing on either side of Jackie. Brick studied all three of them, the lines on his forehead very pronounced.
"Mom's not coming home for a while," Brick said, his voice more gentle.
"What does that mean for us?" Jezebel looked at her own father as she spoke. Butch shrugged.
"Basement, girls. Now." Brick led the way, dodging the twins and his own son as they tore through the halls. Jackie cast Janey a hard look, who returned it with a scowl. Jezebel slapped their arms and rolled her eyes.
In the basement was a large computer-simulation training chamber, connected by a thick steel door to an observation and control room. It was accessed by key pad and thumb scan, and virtually impregnable when in lockdown mode. In short, it was the perfect place to discuss their immediate plans while keeping young superhuman ears from eavesdropping. Brick waited until they were all seated around the table before starting in.
"I'm not going to sugarcoat it," he said. "It's a mess. We have no idea where your moms are, or what they could possibly be doing. Not to say we don't have theories," he continued as Jackie opened her mouth, "but nothing solid." He rubbed the bridge between his eyes. "What did I tell you girls, six months ago?"
"You said that times were getting dangerous and the time for playing hopscotch in the clouds was over," Jackie rapped out immediately. "You guys are getting old, and the world needs new protectors."
"I still resent that comment," Boomer muttered, making everyone at the table but Brick smile.
"Good," Brick nodded, flashing his daughter a quick grin. "I asked you a question. What did I ask?"
"You asked if we were in, or out," Jezebel replied.
"Janey, what was the answer?" Brick asked. Janey huffed before answering.
"We said we were in," she said, though she sounded like she dearly regretted it now. "To be fair, Uncle Brick, you never said—"
"Jane Elizabeth Utonium, if I knew this was going to happen, rest assured, I would have included it in my proposal," Brick snapped. "When you said you were in, all three of you made a promise. This means you stop complaining about responsibilities," he glared at Janey, who yanked on her golden braid and avoided his gaze, "you give one hundred percent and don't slack off," his eyes moved to Jezebel, who had the grace to look ashamed, "and you stop arguing amongst each other." His gaze rested on Jackie, who nodded and glanced at Janey apologetically. Janey avoided her, as well.
"The best we can do right now is to continue your training until they get back. When school lets out next week, all three of you are to be in this basement bright and early at nine each morning, five days a week," Brick continued.
"We talked him into letting you have the weekends off," Boomer whispered to Janey loudly, who looked up and smiled a little.
"Talk nothing. I flat-out told him I wasn't giving up our Sunday fishing trips," Butch winked at Jezebel.
"That being said," Brick plowed on, "your training isn't going to be easy. You're going to be tested. You're going to be sore. You're going to bruise and tear and bleed. When the hotline goes off, you answer the call. No more messing around, no more preliminaries. This is the big leagues. Have I made myself completely clear? Does anyone have any questions?"
"Do we get potty breaks?" Janey asked innocently. Boomer cracked up, giving her a high-five. Brick stiffly let everyone around him laugh before letting himself relax and grin.
"Get out of here," he chuckled. The girls didn't need telling twice. His brothers lingered a little longer.
"What about us?" Boomer asked softly. "What do we do?"
"Whatever you have to," Brick replied. Boomer nodded. Then he snorted.
"Drew's going to kill her," he laughed. "She promised she'd come to his recital next week."
"Kids and I are going to go stock up on frozen food later on tonight," Butch grunted. "I'm really gonna miss her cooking."
"It's not forever," Brick said, though he didn't sound like he believed himself. "Come on, boys. Strong faces."
When the house was empty and the leftovers stored in the fridge, Amanda, Jackie, and Hudson all crawled into their parents' bed and loudly demanded to watch their mom's favorite TV show. Brick resisted for about five minutes, it being a school night for Jackie and Hudson, but relented at Hudson's fat bottom lip.
Around midnight Brick turned the TV off and picked a sleeping Hudson up. Jackie went with him to tuck her little brother in.
"What makes you so sure it's this serious?" Jackie asked quietly as Hudson shifted and snuggled into his pillow. Brick sighed and sat at the foot of Hudson's bed.
"I think it's more than you need to know right now," Brick said simply. "But in the interest of keeping you girls informed, I'll say this: your mom isn't always as sneaky as she thinks she is."
"Dad?" Hudson roused drowsily. Brick looked at his son. "When's Mama getting back?"
"I don't know, kiddo," Brick replied, tucking Hudson's favorite stuffed bear under Hudson's arm. "Get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning."
Brick elected to tuck Jackie in, as well, and kissed her forehead.
"Don't worry," he said quietly. "Leadership is in your blood. Fighting injustice is what you three were all born to do."
"It's just going to be really hard. Everyone's going to expect us to be as good as they were when we're not," Jackie said in a small voice.
"Don't stress it. You'll do fine. Townsville understands you're still learning the ropes." He stood up. "Sleep tight, Jackie Bear."
"'Night, Dad," Jackie grinned at the sound of her old nickname. He closed the door of her room. Jackie shifted to look at the old glow-in-the-dark stars glued to her ceiling. They weren't as bright as when she and her mom first put them up, but to her sharp eye they still cast some light. The thought made her curiously homesick, and she rolled over to get to sleep.
Six o'clock came way too early, Jackie grumbled, pulling herself into the chair in front of her mom's old vanity. Amanda claimed she outgrew the vanity years ago and it passed to Jackie; it was still the same vibrant pink as in Blossom's childhood. She turned the lights on and blinked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
She looked at herself. She inherited her father's dark red hair, cropped short and kept messy. She first did it to drive her mother crazy, but as the years went on, she ended up really liking the look. She dusted it away from her forehead to check for signs of breaking out (to her satisfaction, there were none) and dragged her fingers down her cheeks, making a face for a minute. She grinned at herself and dropped her hands, reaching down in her drawer for her brush.
Her fingers brushed something foreign, and she pulled out a long red ribbon. She recognized it as one that her mother used to wear, judging by the size, in her teens; the fabric still kinked where the smaller, less obtrusive bow used to be. She looked at herself again and, just for kicks, tied it in her hair. It sat like a red fly on her hair, and she stuck her tongue out.
Struck by an idea, she undid it and tied it horizontally, the bow part hanging off the left side of her head. She checked herself from all sides, sweeping her hair around it and fashioning it just so. To her delight, she really liked it. It looked…cool. And it made her feel closer to her mom.
Downstairs Brick drank his coffee and read his newspaper. Amanda was serving up thick slices of French toast while Hudson loudly recited the Preamble to the Constitution to her. Jackie straightened her shirt and kissed the side of her father's head, who blinked and lowered his newspaper.
"You're chipper this morning," he said. Jackie shrugged.
"Hey, that's cool!" Hudson said, pointing at Jackie's latest accessory. Jackie grinned and accepted a plate from Amanda.
Breakfast was less than peaceful, with Hudson determinedly pressing through the Preamble when it was clear he didn't know it. Amanda, who did, kept correcting him and making him mess up even more. To forestall a fight, Brick folded his paper.
"Hudson, do you have a test on this today?" he asked. Hudson hung his head in defeat.
"I really tried," he protested. "I studied it for, like, an hour."
"Well, you've got the beginning down," Brick replied, "but you keep tripping up at the end. Tell you what, I'll drive you to school today and you can practice with me. Deal?"
"Deal!" Hudson shouted, shoving an entire slice of French toast in his mouth. Jackie smiled and tossed a napkin at him.
The time came to leave and head their separate ways. Amanda said her goodbyes to her family and jetted off to her job at the mall.
"Want a ride?" Brick asked, jangling his keys. "I'll let you drive."
"In rush hour morning traffic? Please," Jackie laughed. "Besides, don't want to miss making my grand entrance." She kissed his cheek and ruffled Hudson's hair. "See you guys."
They waved, and Jackie lifted off, leaving a magenta streak behind her. Once up high she could see Amanda's coral just fading in the downtown Townsville area, as well as her cousin Jude's electric green and Jude's brother Troy's deep green on the outskirts. In the direction of Townsville High a sea-green stripe arched across the sky, and a sky-blue stripe wasn't too far behind. Jackie blasted into hyper drive, watching as her energy fizzed around her in a dark pink shield.
She landed just beside the flagpole, where Janey and Jezebel already were.
"Morning," she said brightly.
"Morning," Janey returned. "Nice bow."
Jezebel nodded. "Leslie says Queenie's out for blood today," she said.
"Let her be," Jackie snorted. "If there's one thing I don't think I have to fear, it's Queenie Morbucks with a dodgeball."
"Ladies," Rob Believe said, swinging up and putting his arms around Jackie and Janey's shoulders. "What's cracking?"
"Besides your voice?" Janey poked him in the stomach playfully and he promptly released them. "Epic battle is going down in gym today."
"Ah, why should today be any different?" Rob sighed, winking at Jackie. "Down with the Red Queen, I say."
There was a high-pitched squealing and someone crashed into Jezebel, talking at high speeds.
"You'll never guess, you just will not guess what I found out!" Mimi Chang cried, half-strangling Jezebel in her attempt to cease momentum.
"Mimi," Jezebel gasped, massaging her throat, "ow."
"Oh, ow yourself, you know that didn't really hurt!" Mimi poked her friend in the side teasingly. "You freaks will never guess what I just found out!"
"Obviously we'll never guess, so why not enlighten us?" Jezebel asked. Mimi stuck her tongue out and went on with what she was saying.
"Queenie Morbucks has a twin brother, and he's getting back in the country this summer from France!" Mimi announced dramatically. "From what I heard from Leslie, who heard it from Benita who heard it from John who heard it from Queenie, he's gorgeous and single! And he speaks French! Fluently!"
"Wow, Mimi," Jackie whistled, "did you hit your head when you got up this morning? None of us can stand Queenie."
"I know, and I'm not crazy about her, either, but he's different!" Mimi protested. "No, really! Leslie heard it from Benita—"
"We get the chain, Mimi, just move on," Jezebel said hastily.
"Anyway," she continued, "I heard that he's different from Queenie. He's actually decent and not a total snobby sleaze like Queenie. That's why Mrs. Morbucks sent him to Europe and not to public high school with Queenie."
"I bet that makes Queenie feel better," Janey snorted. "What's his name?"
"Duke," Mimi said it reverently. "I have his picture around here somewhere—he's famous in Europe, and Leslie found a news article—where is that stupid picture?" She dumped her large purse out on the ground, rummaging through the odd bits and ends until she found a tattered scrap of paper. She thrust it at Jackie with the air of someone granting a huge honor.
Jackie took the paper and unfolded it, reading the article within. Schoolboy Places First in International Essay Contest. From what Jackie could tell, this was a huge deal; he was competing against some of the best high schoolers in the world, including a worldwide record-holder from Japan. Mimi tsked.
"The picture, Jack, not the words under the picture," she tapped the picture several times. "See? See? Isn't he gorgeous?"
Janey and Jezebel both looked over Jackie's shoulders as she evaluated the picture. He was pretty good-looking; Janey whistled and Jezebel bit her lip.
"Nice hair," Jackie said eventually, tearing her eyes away, "but he's still probably as big a snot as the rest of his family. No thanks."
"Oh, you're no fun," Mimi sniffed, stuffing the contents of her purse back into its carrier.
"Mimi's drooling over apparently gorgeous rich boys aside," Rob said, winking at Mimi's dirty look, "I have other news as to why this summer is going to be hotter than usual."
"The lack of shifts in atmospheric pressure?" Jackie suggested.
"Volcanic eruption?" Janey guessed.
"Arsonists?" Jezebel proposed.
"Ever the ray of sunshine, Jezzie dear," Rob rolled his eyes. "No, I'm referring to the fact that—"
Whatever Rob was about to say would have to wait; the bell rang, and the student body in the courtyard crushed towards the multiple doors. Jackie hunched her shoulders and muscled her way through, wading to her AP US History class. Once alone and not in the refreshingly distracting company of her friends, her mind returned to her various problems. A couple weeks ago had been the AP exams and as such Jackie didn't have much of anything going on in her classes, which didn't help her in the least. She kneaded her forehead while pretending to read a passage in her textbook, her mind racing through a million subjects at once.
Wherever her mom was, she thought, she hoped it was pretty dang important.
A/N: Well, folks, I did it. I'm writing chapter!fic. Let me know what you think, because this is completely unbeta'd (though edited some by me) and I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this (lawl yes I do sort of maybe).
Reviews. I likes them.