First Story of Fandom!
This story is dedicated to Lapulta (even though she retired—grrrrr!) I thought of the idea when, after not blinking while reading her story, I had to admit that, according to the books and all that stuff, she had gotten all the facts wrong when talking about the originals. Even so, her story is absolutely AMAZING and I encourage you to read it. It's called Forgiveness the Story of Madeleine Cahill. I will put it on my favorites page as soon as I figure out how (IT'S SO ANNOYING BEING A NEWBIE!) And Lapulta, if you ever read this, I am sorry for criticizing you and sorry especially for taking your idea of italics, but it was so good I just couldn't resist. Forgive me.
Without further ado, the story! Please, no flamers, but con crit is appreciated. DISCLAIMER: IF THE 39 CLUES WERE MINE, THE SERIES WOULD BE ABOUT THE ORIGINAL 5, NOT AMY AND DAN!
M :When do I come in?
L: Aw, don't worry Mads. You come in later.
J :*scoff* Remind me why dad's writing this? I'M THE BETTER WRITER!
G: Deary…
J: DON'T CALL ME DEARY!
G: Don't forget, I'm your father. I think the first chapter is of utmost importance, and cannot be biased. Therefore, I should write it.
L: Dad, come on! At least it's biased in my favor! Do I have to listen to you?
G: Luke, I am your father!
*silence*
L: That was from a movie.
K:Galactic quest? Was it?
T: Close enough. Star Wars.
J:I'M STUCK WITH A BUNCH OF PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW WHAT STAR WARS IS!
G: Why did she leave? Was that fact of great importance?
L: Apparently her great great great great…oh, whatever, her direct descendant was director of that movie. Anyway, I should go take a shower.
T: If I didn't know better, I'd say he LIKED flexing his muscles in front of the mirror. Or at least, his poor excuse for muscles.
K: He does that?
T:Yep.
K: Thanks for the image. I'm going to go wash my eyelids.
T: It's just you and me, dad.
G: Thomas…why don't you go? I heard Louisa found some Coca-Cola…
T: COKE!
G: Peace and quiet at last…okay. Now, first off, despite what I said, I'm not Jane. So don't expect this to win an award. Second, I'm doing this by myself because if I told the children the contents of this chapter, they would gain on me and slice me to bits. However, I felt the need to tell this part of the story. Because, if I didn't find the serum, there would be 2 options. One, humanity as we know it would be a bit like living in Little House on the Prairie. Second option, we're all dead. Actually, probably number 2. However, this DIDN'T happen, so you can be happy about that.
Will you stop looking behind my back, Olivia? I'm praying you won't call over the kids, but one can't be too careful.
~GC (and technically, LC, MC, JC, KC, and TC are coauthors, but that's just because I wasn't there for the rest of it. Plus, I'm writing this chapter. Therefore, I'm the writer.)
"Better combo, par none!"
Despite the fact the dinner table had become a battlefield, Gideon and Olivia Cahill smiled as their 4 children rounded the table, 2 on 2. Jane's temper matched her fiery hair as she leaned over the table to Katherine and poked her in the chest. Despite being the youngest, she managed to coax a cry of pain from the girl. Golden hair swinging, Katherine promptly blushed at the sign of weakness and smacked her hand in the way older sisters can. Luke squeezed Jane's hand in congratulations before returning to his heated debate with Thomas.
"Jane, please! Don't make us hurt each other yet!"
The girlish earnestness of Katherine made the mother and father swing around and laugh. Two heads of dark hair straightened up at the sound of the laughter—Luke and Thomas had temporarily ceased to argue at the sound of their parent's presence.
"Mommy, daddy, don't you have anything to say?"
Even though her hair was graying, Olivia Cahill's laugh was sweet as she reached over to wipe the mouth of the little black haired boy.
"Dearest, I think all your talents are equally worthy, but you aren't masters just yet."
Jane, who had been screaming with mirth while being tickled by Katherine, resurfaced and piped up, "If we survive the plague, we will be!"
The mood considerably sobered. Katherine, Jane, Thomas, and Luke immediately joined their hands into a circle and reached out for their parents, an action a bit like reaching for a security blanket. It was something that had been happening more and more often lately.
Together, they gathered into a circle and prayed for peace. Then, Jane left for her lyre, Luke his ever-present sketch pad and pen (on which he wrote battle strategies) and Thomas decided to go outside. Katherine went with him, feverishly hoping to find some new plant.
Gideon left for the lab.
His partner, Damien Vesper, was waiting.
"About time. I left early. The boys insisted I stay. Little will they realize how important this is."
Gideon flinched.
"Damien, we do this FOR the future generation. So they will survive the plague."
Damien's smile softened.
"Should I go and apologize?"
"I'll have all the things I need. Go ahead."
The young man, in his twenties, skipped toward the door happily. Gideon smiled and sighed. The man had so much promise and talent, but for some reason Gideon couldn't destroy the sense of foreboding—the sense that sometime, somewhere, Damien would leave. Leave and take something very precious—something of Gideon's—with him.
Turning back to the test tube, Gideon poured in another ounce of clover. Slightly shaking the vial, he held it up to the light. Then, he found a small, dying bug and without hesitation poured a drop onto its head, nearly drowning it.
The bug turned and lay still.
Gideon sighed and took out 7/8ths of the clover—it was clogging the top.
"Gideon, I'm back! Any breakthroughs?"
In his surprise, Gideon turned and jolted his arm. His vial flew up in the air and smashed on top of a rat. The rat had its tail caught in one of the many mousetraps ingenious Katherine had designed—one of her only experiments that had worked. Its fur was patched in places: it was also a victim of the plague.
Ah well. Gideon shrugged. The rat was dying anyway. Damien, however, leaned forward. "Is the rat okay?"
The rat was okay. The rat was better than okay. The rat was doing wonderful. Instead of struggling with the trap again, it stopped, nibbled part of the trap, then reached for a bit of the spilled clover. Wedging a single leaf between his tail and the metal trap, he managed to get his tail out with the hair of a space the clover had given him. Turning twice, it scampered off.
Damien and Gideon straightened up. Damien's face was flushed with the thrill of excitement.
"It healed the plague, but not only that: it made him ingenious, smart, gifted. With a serum like this, we could rule the world!"
Gideon hesitated. "One thing is for certain: it will cure the plague. But the question is, if it gives up supernatural powers…"
Damien snapped. "What?"
"Are you sure we should burden the world?"
Damien smiled, a power-hungry grin that scared Gideon.
"Gideon, dear friend, we'll heal our families first, and talk about the side-effects later."
"Olivia…"
Gideon's wife rounded on him with a fire in her eyes he couldn't quite place.
"Gideon, let the others change history! I cannot, will not do this! This is the new plague—the plague of power!"
"No." Gideon held out his arms. "It is the gateway to the future, millennia ahead of schedule.
"Let the future come when its time is right!" and suddenly Olivia was crying—horrible, hacking sobs shaking through her whole body like a storm. "Luke, Katherine, Thomas, Jane." Olivia gave a half laugh. "And Madeleine."
"Mark," corrected Gideon.
Olivia shook her head. "Madeleine. It will be a girl, I am sure of it." She placed a hand on her stomach. "They're your children, Gideon. This…serum will tear them apart. It will unleash the ruthless side of them we all have, but never want to see."
Gideon wriggled himself loose of the hug. "The serum will be discovered sometime—and by a less peaceful, less morally right family than us." He shook her shoulders, the golden scarab ring from Damien glittering in the sun. "The future is ours to ruin by handing over to someone else—or save by keeping, treasuring, and nurturing to perfection."
Gideon mutely handed Olivia the vial. Olivia pursed her lips, slipped her fingers around the glass, and drank it in one gulp.
"Children?"
The 4 looked up in the middle of the prayer of Luke.
"Sh, dad, Luke's praying! Wait a bit, please?"
The innocent teens turned back to Luke. "…and please, let us find a way to stop the plague."
"Amen." They all turned back toward Gideon
Gideon smiled and handed them all a cup of hot chocolate. "It's a special Goodnight present."
The children stampeded each other toward the mugs. A treasure like this was very rare. As soon as Katherine had wrapped her hands around the steamy froth, ever the curious, she questioned. "We only drink hot cocoa on special occasions. What happened?"
Gideon smiled again, even wider. "Drink."
Luke gasped and dropped his already empty mug. It landed with a muffled thump on the rug as he turned his glinting black eyes to his father. "You found the serum, didn't you?"
Gideon repeated, "Drink."
The remaining 3 gasped and eagerly gulped down the drink—the drink that would lay out their destiny.
It was late at night—VERY late at night. Gideon and Damien smiled at each other.
"My children were a bit over-enthusiastic about it."
Gideon smiled. "Likewise. Luke even dropped the cup in surprise. There's a crack now—but never mind. A crack in a cup won't matter."
"Indeed…we shall rule the world."
Gideon faced Damien. "Damien, Olivia told me this serum would set the world at war and turn apart our families."
Damien snickered. "She's too old fashioned, Gideon. I told you. You had the choice—you could have married Anna, Eva, Lillia, but—"
"Damien," murmured Gideon in an impossibly soft voice, "I think she's right."
The man gasped in surprise, then regained composure and stepped backward, away from Gideon, blending into the shadows.
When the man spoke again, his voice was harsh. "Gideon, you haven't drank your fill yet, have you?"
Gideon blanched. "Well, no, but—"
Damien stepped back out of the shadows. The same Damien, yet different. His eyes were pitch dark, his head held a lot higher, his posture screaming with malice. "Don't tell me you plan to find a way to terminate the effect?"
Gideon hung his head. "It is the truth. This serum will rip apart the bonds of families and the promises of friends."
Damien stared back. In his eyes were a type of black fire that burned a hole through Gideon, at the same time containing chips of midnight ice that were freezing him to the spot.
"You are right, as always, Gideon." The voice was cold as Arctic snow. "This serum SHALL rip apart the promises of friends. It already has ripped one bond—ours. "
Damien threw the vial on the floor, and grabbed a bag. Ripping it open, he found bars of tungsten.
"I paid for this," Damien's voice shook slightly. "Out of my own pocket." He plucked out a single sliver, twirling it between his long, slim fingers. "Imported directly from Asia—all for a chance to escape this all. And THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME?"
The metallic material hit the wall with a bang. Gideon called over the sudden din as Damien began to ravage his other items, "Stop, Damien, stop!"
"I DON'T CARE!" he shrieked. "I DON'T CARE! THIS IS SOMETHING I DON'T NEED—" he threw a bag of gold on the floor. "OR THIS—" down came a vial of phosphorus. "AND CERTAINLY NOT THIS!"
He was holding the last 2 milliliters of his vial of serum.
"Damien—"
"THIS IS HOW I THINK OF THE CAHILLS!"
Damien smashed the serum against the floor. By the time Gideon had moved his eyes from the serum, the black, swirling form of Damien had disappeared into the night.
Olivia sighed as Gideon recounted the events of the night.
"Gideon, I can't say I'm surprised."
"I'm not either," he said glumly. "I knew he would sometime, somewhere in my heart. I just didn't want to believe it."
"Well, we're always deluded by our conscience at some point." Said Olivia wisely. "At any rate, take off that ring."
"I don't think I will," said Gideon thoughtfully. "I'll keep it as a reminder. To not be too paranoid."
"Exactly. If you'd let other people on the island, then someone could assist you when Damien ravaged the lab. "
"I doubt an army could stop Vesper if he was determined," commented Gideon dryly.
"At any rate, " said Olivia as she gazed into the fire, "we've got each other. And that's really all we need."
A flash of lightning illuminated the forms of Luke, Katherine, Thomas and Jane. They leaped into the arms of the parents, obviously scared by the lightning.
"Jane, you're already 7! Still scared of lightning?" laughed Olivia.
"Never to old to hug your mom" murmured Jane, already falling asleep next to Luke as she sat in her mother's lap.
Thomas and Katherine clung to both of their father's arms.
"See?" laughed Olivia "That's all we need."
Gideon mused Thomas' hair and hugged Katherine.
"Yes," he agreed. "All we need is right here."
J: FATHER! I TOLD YOU NOT TO WRITE ABOUT IT! I TOLD you. I TOLD you. AND YOU DID! I ACT LIKE SUCH A BABY IN HERE!
L:Well, you WERE a baby in there!
J: Care to repeat that?
L: Woah! Chill…what was that that calmed you down? Maddie? Oh, right…you need a cup of tea…
J:A CUP OF TEA?
L:Or was that coffee…with 2 sugar cubes and a cup of milk?
J:CUP OF MILK? I'LL TURN YOU INTO A CUP OF MILK!
K:Well, now that Thomas and Maddie have left to chase off dad and Luke and Jane—wow, Jane, wow—are…occupied? Anyway—LANGUAGE, JANE, LANGUAGE! I know it's 21st century already, but no need to—never mind. Yeah, so I guess this concludes the first chapter of the story! Privately, I don't really care about this section—I was mature enough—but I probably shouldn't mention that to Jane…
Yeah, I know, horrible. Part of the italics was from Miss Lapulta *tips hat* but the writing was 100% me. Con crit, and NO FLAMES! C'mon, people. Cut some slack—it's my first fan fic! And can someone please tell me how to add a story to favorites?