I loomed outside my twin brother's bedroom door.

"Pedal safe!" I heard him call to his goofy and desperate friend Morgan. I waited a moment, trying to figure out the best time for me to enter. It was his birthday, and I had just gotten home from a session at the gym.

I heard his keys clack, and I opened the door.

"Attack troll with nasty knife." I heard my brother mumble, and I stepped inside his room, closing the door behind him.

"Chuck?" I asked, and walked over to his side. Suddenly, a bright light flashed onto the screen, and millions of pictures flew by, and I blanked out.

I was vaguely aware of the outside light slowly growing brighter, and my legs aching. My world suddenly spun again and I awoke some time later to Morgan and Chuck kneeling above me, worried looks on their faces.

"Sis!" he waved his hand, and I blinked in shock when his fingers left a peach colored trail.

What happened last night? I groaned and he called my name.

"Em!" Morgan poked my cheek, and I rolled onto my side, squeezing my eyes shut.

"Morgan, Chuck?" I asked in confusion. "What happened?"

Their large hands wrapped around my arms and carefully lugged my deadweight body onto Chuck's bed.

"I was going to ask you guys the same thing." the bearded man replied.

"Did you spike the punch or something?" I mumbled into my brother's shoulder.

Memories of last night flooded into my mind. I remembered spending time at my brother's party, going to the gym, Morgan leaving, and then...nothing. Everything after that was absolutely blank.

And that bothered me.

Really bothered me, actually.

"Something goes wrong, and you both blame me." he threw his hands up in exasperation. "After all these years of our friendship, Em, Chuck, where's the trust?"

I heard him mumble, almost to himself, "Yes, I did." and I sat up, grumbling.

"Morgannnn!" I complained, punching his shoulder.

He grinned sheepishly.

"Well, I'm going to get a shower, I guess." I got up, my legs sore, but not wobbly.

~0~

I stood in front of a foggy mirror, towel drying my hair.

"The 101 is clear at Universal City. Watch out for delays near Burbank Airport. Security is checking all vehicles." My radio announced.

My vision was suddenly overtaken by a frenzy of flashing images, and I felt my body freeze in place. I couldn't make heads or tails of them. What seemed like hours later, but what was in reality only about five seconds, the foggy mirror returned. I pushed my damp brown hair back behind my ears, and stared at my reflection.

I took the corner of the towel and wiped a circle of fog away.

My eyes were puffy, giving me a sick look. My vision tilted as a dizzy spell washed over me. Just great.

White knuckling the counter, I slipped my robe on as easily as I could, and tied a knot in the belt.

"Sissy?" I stumbled into the hallway, looking for my older sister, and my almost mother, Ellie.

"Em?" she stuck her head into the hall. "Are you okay?" coming out from her bedroom in her scrubs, she frowned. "Gosh, you look terrible."

I chuckled dryly. "Thanks." I slumped into her offered hug. "I don't feel so great. I think Morgan spiked the punch."

She held me at arms length and scoffed. "No wonder! Chuck looked sick this morning, too!"

I pressed my lips together and nodded grimly.

~Later, at work~

My current occupation was as a cashier at this little store called Lexi's Closet. It was two stores down from my brother's work, the Buy More. Lexi's Closet sold secondhand clothes from popular stores like Forever 21, Abercrombie and Fitch, Aeropostle, Old Navy, etc. I absolutely loved it, and I even got to hold stuff back if I wanted to try it on when we were looking through the bins of clothes we had bought from people.

Now, don't get me wrong, I had nothing against fashion retail, but I honestly wanted to do something with my life. I went to San Fran State to get a basic degree until I decided, but that was almost a year ago, and I still hadn't figured anything out. I had originally wanted to go to the Army or Marines, but decided against that once I broke my ankle the second year in college. No way I could run after bad guys with a jacked up ankle.

"Em, hun, you can go on lunch break now!" Lexi, the obvious owner and my boss, called to me from the back. She was in her early forties, and had auburn hair, fair skin, green eyes, and one rascally seven year old named Nate, whom I often babysat for extra money.

"Alright!" I called back, grabbing my purse from under the counter. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's slow today, go on ahead!"

I returned my thanks and exited the shop, going over to my brother's work.

When I entered the wall to wall appliance store, I noticed Chuck, and three of his fellow workers crowded around a computer inside the Nerd Herd station.

"Hey Chuck." I said with a big smile, leaning against the desk.

"Hi Emily!" Jeff replied, his eyes drifting down, then back up.

"Why, helllooo Em." Lester, the equally perverted Indian chimed in, also lacking eye contact like his friend.

I stood up and crossed my arms. Lester and Jeff have always shamelessly flirted with me, ever since I started to visit my brother during lunch. I don't think they've pieced together that he's my brother just quite yet, and neither Chuck nor I wanted to tell them.

"Hi Chuck." I repeated my brother's name, and went behind the counter, pushing them out of the way.

"Hey Em." he smiled at me, all dimples and curls. "Subway sound good today?"

I nodded, a whole wheat turkey sub making my stomach rumble.

"BARTOWSKI!" a heavy-set black man lumbered into view. "NO GOING OUT FOR LUNCH! YOU HAVE TO FIX THAT COMPUTER!"

I raised a hand in greeting at Big Mike, the manager of this particular Buy More. "Hi Big Mike."

His expression softened a little and he smiled. "Good afternoon, Miss Bartowski." he nodded at me once, and glared at Chuck again. "NOW."

My brother's eyebrows shot up, and he nodded rapidly, pulling out a keyboard from under the desk.

"Wait..." I heard Jeff mumble to Lester. "Why did he call her Bartowski?"

I turned on my heel, and slid my hand down my face in exasperation. They'd probably – hopefully – back off if they knew I was chuck's sister. "I'm his twin-sister, knuckleheads."

"Twins?" Jeff mouthed, and turned, wide-eyed to Lester. "Clones?"

They stared wide-eyed and me, and nodded to themselves. I groaned, and looked back to Chuck, who was rambling on about how the virus is called the Irene Demova virus, and implied that Morgan went on the porn star's website.

"Anna, Em, close your eyes." he held a hand up over my eyes, and I rolled my eyes, pulling it away.

Not like I didn't have what she had!

Anna didn't look away either. Your typical slutty girl appeared on the screen.

"Food is sexy." she said, her Serbian accent heavy. "Am I sexy?" It repeated it again, and then distorted.

The screen and laptop itself made a sizzling noise, and the screen went black.

Chuck and the rest of us glanced over at Morgan, who shrugged innocently. "Sorry, Chuck, she drives me crazy, but that's love!" he jammed his finger down on the remote in his hand, turning on all the televisions behind him.

"Just ignore dirty uncle Morgan." my brother said, rolling his eyes, but still smiling slightly. "I think that everything..."

The newscaster on the TV caught both my brother and I's attention.

"...Los Angeles later today. To deliver his speech tomorrow evening-"

We stared at the television, confused. "...will be...normal..."

The strange images, flashed violently in front of my eyes, and this time I was able to make out a clip of a plane or jet taking off, and of an older man in a suit walking towards my view.

"He's already here." I mumbled. "He landed last night."

Chuck's eyes widened as he repeated what I said, only a bit louder.

"Who's already here, Chuckles?" Anna asked, leaning forward to try and see his face.

"I don't know." I replied for him, gnawing on my lip. "I'm going to go get Subway." I laid a hand on his arm, meeting his eyes. His eyes looked as haunted as I imagined mine did. "Your usual?"

He nodded, snapping out of his stupor. I felt his five dollars shoved into my hand.

Whenever I went out and brought back Subway, or Chinese, or whatever else he and I wanted, he would pay me $. I protested originally, but we came to a compromise. He wanted to be a good brother and pay, and I wanted to spend more time with my best friend/brother.

I turned on my heel and walked towards the Subway.

Later, I brought back Chuck's sandwich and half of mine, only to see him standing with a pretty blonde girl, a younger girl in a tutu with her father, and Morgan.

I caught Morgan glancing at the blonde quite frequently, and I giggled to myself.

Oh Morgan, ever the flirt.

When I got closer, I saw the man panicking. "Oh no...oh no! Mom's gonna kill me."

My brother glanced at the girl, who shrugged.

"Hi." I greeted, beaming up at Chuck. This girl smelled like trouble to me, and she was way to pretty to be sending flirty eyes at my brother. Pretty girls like her always went for the jock types or bad boys, never the nerds, as sad as it was to admit.

"I brought you your lunch." I set the foot-long sandwich down on the counter and turned to the man. Chuck introduced me to the girl, whose name was Sarah. I could tell she thought I was his girlfriend or something at first, just by the uncertain look that was plastered on her face.

I glanced at the dad and daughter, then to Morgan.

"Morgan!" I called to my friend. "I need the wall."

Morgan glanced at my brother for the 'okay' before leaving, calling over his shoulder, "It's yours."

"Didn't put digital tape in?" I asked with a gentle smile. The man nodded.

Chuck, whom seemed to get my wonder twin idea, came over. "Ready?"

The girl looked upset, and he knelt down to her height. "What's wrong?"

"I'm usually in the back row." she admitted, and frowned.

"Why?" I furrowed my brows and knelt next to my brother and the ballerina.

"I'm too tall, and I block the other ballerinas."

I smiled to myself. "Wanna know something? But you can't tell the other girls." Chuck continued, glancing at me.

"Real ballerinas are tall." he nudged me. "That's why she isn't one. My sister's way too short." we stood up and I scoffed, placing my hands on my hips.

"Not my fault you're a giant and I'm normal."

I was only 5'6, and my brother was a giant to me, and practically everyone else. He was a whopping 6'4.

We all chuckled, and I explained to the others my plan.

The girl began her dance, this time, being recorded with a tape in the slot, and four televisions behind her showing what the camera saw.

We grinned and I glanced over at Lester and the dad who was watching his daughter with an even bigger grin. My eyes then drifted over to Sarah. She looked impressed and happy.

Wow, maybe not that bad after all.

Once the ballerina, Susie, was finished, Chuck headed over to the Nerd Herd desk, where Sarah was, only to be blocked by Harry Tang, one of the most obnoxious and rude employees in the store.

"Chuck!" he snarled, looking up at my brother.

I watched Harry bicker at him, while Chuck replied calmly and politely. I don't know how he did it, I would have probably tried to deck the bald man a long time ago. He's always been more level headed then me when it came to dealing with rude people it seems.

I finally sat down with Morgan and Anna, and finished my lunch before returning to work. The day finished slowly, but thankfully my drive home was quick.

When I went into my front door, I saw a ninja, an actual NINJA carrying out Chuck's computer.

"Wha-?" I mumbled, drawing my attention to myself. The ninja's head whipped around to mine, and took a defensive stance. I'd only taken a few self defense lessons from Devon, and I hadn't taken any karate since middle school and the first year of high school.

I felt the images flash again at my stance, and everything came back almost instantly. I carefully rearranged my feet, and grabbed the book off the shelf, flinging it at the black clad person. They threw it back, causing me to dive for the ground, and roll. I yelped as my shoulder came in contact with the couch leg.

My senses screamed, and I leaped to my feet, trying to lash out to get them away and out of my apartment, which was adjacent to Ellie's, and had adjoining doors. They easily deflected my wrist, and I snarled in frustration. I lashed out again, sending a kick and then a punch. Only to have to avoid my foe's kicks and punches moments later.

My door suddenly burst open, and Chuck and Morgan stared wide eyed at the scene. The slight distraction caused the ninja to lash out again, sending me flying back into the wall, my head banging against the door frame on the way down.

"Come on Chuck!" Morgan exclaimed. "Do something!"

My vision was hazy, but I watched as Chuck's eyes landed on me, and then his computer, laying in a heap in the ninja's arms. He jumped into action, trying to seem menacing. "Give me that-"

I watched in shock as the ninja threw it up, swept my brothers' legs out from under him, and kicked him to the wall, all before the long black arms shot out and snatched the computer out from mid-air.

Morgan then rushed forward with a golf-club, and I passed out.

I awoke on my own couch, Awesome [aka Devon], Ellie's boyfriend, hovering over me. He was an attractive blond haired nurse, with blue eyes and a nice smile. Almost like a typical jock, but he was a doctor, and a really good one at that.

"Em." he murmured, waving a little flashlight in front of my eyes, testing for pupil response I supposed.

I groaned. "Did they get the ninja?"