Disclaimer: Don't own SPD.
A/N: Next part of the Holiday Series! This time, it's Bridge and Matt's birthday! I decided that it would be easier for me to remember it if they had the same birth-date as me, so they're birthdays are on the 29th of November, like me:)
Holiday Series: Birthday!
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"OOF!" Bridge had the wind knocked out of him by a well-placed punch in the gut. He retaliated by punching his opponent in the face and the two fighters back-flipped away from each other. He took a couple of deep breaths and then grinned at his identical twin, "Lucky shot."
"Sore loser," Matt smirked and took on his fighting stance.
"Think you can pull off the same shot twice?" Bridge assumed his stance as well.
"I feel lucky," Matt charged Bridge again and at the last moment, turned around to deliver a spinning kick. Bridge blocked it with his forearm and ducked down, sweeping his leg at Matt's ankle, knocking him to the ground flat on his back.
"Not lucky enough," Bridge smirked as he pinned his twin.
"Darn..." Matt moaned and then took the offered hand up as Bridge got off.
Meanwhile, outside the Simudeck, Sky and Z were watching the twins train and were understandably impressed by the fierce exchange.
"Did you see them? They're incredible!" Z said in awe.
"Yeah..." Sky nodded and then shook his head to focus on what had brought him here in the first place, "you remember what's coming up, right?"
"Yes, it's their birthday, right?"
"Yup. We're planning a surprise party for them and we need someone to keep them busy while we're finishing the decorations and stuff. Think you can handle that?" Sky looked at her.
"Distraction Squad, that's me," Z gave him a mock SPD salute and, laughing, ran out to the Simudeck. The twins gave her a wave and got back to their stretching.
"Guys, you wanna come to the mall tomorrow? I have to get a proper wardrobe," Z wasn't totally lying. She really did want a new wardrobe, now convinced by Syd that she needed more clothes.
"Uh..." Matt was noticibly hesistant, knowing how much time it takes for a girl to shop, Bridge looked contemplative before he smiled and nodded.
"Great! Thanks! I'll see you guys at the entrance of the Academy tomorrow at eleven, okay?" she said cheerfully and walked off.
"Why did you agree to that?" Matt groaned as he turned to his twin, "Tomorrow is our birthday! I am not eager to spend it shopping!"
"Z doesn't take that much time," Bridge said quietly, "We'll still have time to...experiment."
Matt sighed, "Hope so. I really want to start our 'projects' again." And there would be airquotes on the word 'projects'.
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Z wandered about the hall and headed to Bridge and Matt's room. Time to get to work.
"Z, remember to keep them away from the base for at least four hours, okay?" Sky said for the hundreth time.
"Fine! God, Sky, If I didn't know you better, I'd say you had the hots for those two!" Z said in frutration.
There was silence on Sky's end.
"Sky? Oh My God! You do have the hots for them!" she gasped.
"What? NO! Syd distracted me with her incessant whining again," Sky grumbled.
"Suuuure, Sky," Z giggled.
"When you're done acting like a three-year-old, could you do what we sent you to do?" Sky said dryly.
"Sky, you probably can't see this, but please note that I have just given you the finger," Z snorted.
"Duly noted and reciprocated. Focus," Sky shut the communication.
"Pompous, annoying, pig-headed jerk..." Z mumbled, "And those are his good qualities." She stopped in front of Bridge and Matt's room and raised her hand to knock, but paused at the sound of voices coming from behind the door.
"Come on, just add a little more of the Stickleberries!"
"I think that's a little too much..."
"You said the same about the Aquitarian scales!"
"Not my fault if you wanna overdo everything!"
"Just add it!"
"NO!"
Z sighed and knocked on the door, calling, "Bridge? Matt?"
There were a couple of identical yelps, followed soon by a loud explosion which Z felt even through the door. She banged her fist against the door, "BRIDGE?! MATT?! ARE YOU GUYS OKAY?!"
There were a couple of mechanical whirs and the door flew open to reveal a couple of brunettes grinning at her, both them and their clothes looking rather burnt. The room behind them was surprisingly clean, but Z could see that the attaching room was now completely charred.
"What were you guys doing in there?" she stepped inside the room and looked around.
"We were debating whether to put more Stickleberries and Aquitarian gills into our experiment. Guess which side won?" Bridge grinned with Matt as he wiped off a streak of soot on his cheek.
"Um, Matt's side?" Z guessed.
"Nope! I won!" Bridge waved a hand at the connecting room, "And behind you is the result."
Z looked at the room and gasped. The room was completely blackened with soot, the blackboard had cracked and the curtains were on fire. "Guys?"
"I got it!" Bridge ran into the bathroom, returning with a bucket of water which he threw on the flames.
"Does Cruger know you're doing this?" she questioned.
"..." Both twins looked in opposite directions, whistling innocently.
"No, huh?" she grinned and then took in their state, "do all your experiments backfire like that?"
"Pretty much. When we were kids, we always used to do this stuff. So far, we've managed to turn our hair green, make ourselves get nosebleeds, set fire to ourselves," Bridge rattled off.
"Set fire to yourselves?"
"Let's just say it taught us not to wear long sleeves while experimenting and to keep a fire exinguisher handy."
"Well, what say you clean up and we leave?" she cocked an eyebrow, "If you can."
Matt looked himself over, "Sure! Just give us ten minutes-"
"And a couple rolls of bandages-"
"And we'll be good to go!" Matt gave her a thumbs-up.
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"Well, I think we can split up from here," Z nodded, "this is one department in which I don't need your help."
"Ohhkaayyyy..." Matt raised an eyebrow, "why call us if you don't need our help?"
"I don't need help here. When I'm choosing other stuff, it's always good to have a guy's opinion. Plus, I don't want you guys to go into that shop looking the way you are," she eyed them. Both successfully looked like they had been involved in an explosion, which they had, with the bandages peeking out from their half-sleeve shirts and from under their floppy hair.
"I'd say you should be thankful we didn't come like we nearly did," Bridge grinned.
"And I am. Now scoot!" she ordered.
"Now what do we do?" Bridge sighed and looked over at Matt, "...What are you planning?"
Matt had a devious grin on his face, "I think we need to pick up some ingredients for our...research."
"Research?" Bridge blinked and then grinned evilly himself, "Ooh, research."
"Research," he nodded.
"Fair enough."
Three hours later
"Come on! What did you buy?" Z asked for the tenth time.
"Just something we need. Now can we go back to base? I wanna get back to inventing!" Matt whined.
"Well..." Z bit her lip and both twins turned to her with the puppy-dog eyes, "AUGH! I hate that look!"
"Please?" they asked sweetly.
"Fine!" she groaned, "but we're going to your lab. Sky said he wanted some 'alone' time with Syd today."
"We'll be as quiet as mice!" they nodded solemnly.
More like rats... Z thought.
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"Okay, hand me the Funamiun clippings," Matt held out a hand and Bridge dropped the clippings into it before going back to his calculations. Z watched patiently - and from a distance - as the twinstried to make whatever it was that they were making.
"Hmm, now all we have to do is add 2oz of the Klarlk scales-" Bridge was interrupted in mid-sentence by a loud bang and Z screaming. When the smoke died down, Bridge and Matt both looked charred again with their hair sticking up in even more random directions than normal and the tapestry they had put up on the wall to hide a large scorch mark was in blazes. Bridge sighed and donned a look which clearly said, 'Why am I not surprised' and turned to see Matt looking at him sheepishly.
"You were gonna say 'slowly' next, weren't you?" he rubbed the back of his head with one hand.
"Now we gotta start over," Bridge groaned and tossed out the remainder of what they had been working on while Z put out the flames. Again. Thankfully, the explosion hadn't been that bad and nothing was damaged except for Matt's pride and the tapestry.
"You guys love blowing things up, huh?" Z grinned.
"Yup!" they beamed at her. The next attempt went along smoothly and once the experiment simmered down, there was simply a small green pill left in the bottom.
"That's it?" the Yellow Ranger said dryly.
"Indeed!" the twins grinned and then blinked up at the clock. Z looked up as well and saw that she was supposed to have returned with the twins an hour ago.
"Well, I think that's enough time for the saga of Sky and Syd. I'm heading to the Rec Room, come on." They shrugged and followed her out of the room, chatting happily. Once they reached the rec room, Z flicked on the lights and-
"SURPRISE!"
Bridge and Matt jumped a foot in the air and clung to each other before they realised what was happening and then laughed along with the others, Z grinning like Cheshire Cat.
"Happy Birthday!" Syd came up to them and kissed them both on the cheek, causing a pink blush to appear on Matt and a red one on Bridge, Sky came up to them and shook Matt's hand, but gave Bridge a hug, Jack came up to them and they both had manly, backslap hugs and Z just clung onto both of them with an arm around either of their necks.
"Thanks for sharing that with me," she whispered so that only they could hear.
"Anytime," Bridge whispered back.
"So how old are you guys?" Jack asked teasingly.
"17 years, three hours, thirty-six minutes and fifty-five seconds," Bridge nodded.
"17 years, three hours, thirty-seven minutes and fifty-eight seconds," Matt supplied while everyone boggled at the precise time.
The party went along for quite sometime. Matt and Bridge both opened their presents and had various reactions to all of them. To Syd's gift of pink shirts, they looked happy when they received it, but as soon as she turned her back, they made gagging faces and whispered to Z that they had new uniforms for experimenting. Sky got them both much niftier outfits which consisted of white shirts, greens blazers and jeans which prompted a comment from Z about how Sky could have such good fashion sense even though he wore nothing but his uniform. Jack' gift was a colletion of comic books, which they didn't mind. Z promised to give them their gifts in their room, which the twins had no problems about.
After the party, they made their way to the room and Z gave them both a box each. They eagerly ripped into them and their jaws fell open at what was inside.
"ASSORTED PRANKS!" they squealed and then glomped her, "THANK YOU!"
"Knew you guys would love it," she smiled and hugged them back, "you have to promise not to use them on me though!"
"We solemnly swear!" they raised their right hands and placed their left onto their chests. "Doesn't mean we can't prank the others."
"That is allowed," she nodded.
"Our reward for our first prank should be coming in," Matt glanced at his watch, "Three...two...one-"
"WHAT THE HELL?!"
"What did you guys do to Jack?" Z blinked at the scream.
The twins merely smirked and walked outside with her, just as Jack came running into the Rec Room with bright green hair and eyebrows. Sky was soon on the floor clutching his stomach as he laughed and Syd had collapsed onto the couch in giggles. Z smothered them with her hands and turned to the twins behind her. "You're never gonna let him forget this, are you?"
"Never!" they grinned in unison.
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A/N: I know it isn't very big, but I wanted to get a chapter of Talk Show done too. Turns out the latter is gonna take time...sigh.
Next up for the series will be Christmas! I'd do Hanukkah, but I don't know how it's celebrated, so for this series, Bridge isn't Jewish, unless I learn more about Jewish festivals. Which I'll try.