New Kids

NOTE: Should really be 11+, not 9+, just in case.

OK, this is the first story in a new series. It is not related to the Loonatics Enchanted or Loonakids stuff that I've been doing, it's a different storyline that I thought I'd do and have now started. Tell me what you think!

Chapter 1

A young girl of about 16 waited patiently in her tree house. 3 of her closest friends would be arriving soon. She looked at the blue sky outside. Clouds slowly drifted across, some even slightly covering the sun. A squirrel came to the door and looked at her. "Hey there. Are you searching for nuts?" The squirrel flicked his tail and then scurried down to the ground. "I'll take that as a yes."

At that moment, a hand reached out from the door of the wooden clubhouse and grabbed the floor, pulling itself up to reveal one of those weird tiki masks or whatever you call them. "Booga, booga, booga!"

"Very funny, Nathan," said the girl, "You still aren't going to get to me."

The boy took off the mask to reveal himself as a dark-haired, brown-eyed, 16-year-old boy. "Hey, can't blame a guy for trying."

"Yes, I can," said the girl, pulling back her elbow-length brown hair in a scrunchie and swinging it over her shoulder, "Where are the twins? They're late, just like you."

"Zara and Zack?" Nathan asked, "Kyra, you said 3:30. It's not even 3:15. Forgive me for being early."

"Well, I will," said Kyra, "because I said 3 o'clock and it's 3:20 right now."

"Oh…"

After that, 2 blonde kids, a boy and a girl, both with deep blue eyes came up. "Sorry we're late," said the girl, "What'd we miss?"

"Nathan," was all Kyra would say.

"Again?" both twins said at the same time.

"Nathan, you've got to get over it, buddy," said the boy, "You're not going to get any of us, let alone Kyra, who, I might add, went through a 5-and-a-half-hour marathon of scary movies last Saturday and didn't scream once."

"Yeah," said the girl, "While you screamed twice…every hour."

"I get it," said Nathan, "Don't make me come at you with a very large fork, Zara."

"Oh, come on," said Zara, turning to face her brother, "Zack, please tell Nathan to shut up so that we can get on with whatever Kyra wanted to talk about."

"OK," Zack said, turning to Nathan, "Shut up so that we can get on with whatever Kyra wanted to talk about. There. Are you happy?"

"Yeah, but I didn't say you had to tell him those exact words," said Zara.

"Guys, can we move on?" Kyra asked, "I just wanted to spend some time with you guys like usual instead of boring ourselves for 3 hours like last time we came to the clubhouse together."

There was silence for a few minutes since there was nothing to talk about after what Kyra had said.

"Yeah, that's not going so well," said Nathan, "Nothing exciting ever happens on Acmetropolis anymore."

As soon as he said that, the whole planet started to rumble.

"I spoke too soon!" Nathan yelled.

Just then, a huge rock slammed into the earth, throwing it off its axis and releasing a huge wave of energy that altered their DNA almost entirely, as well as dozens or even hundreds of other people on the planet.

One Year Later…

It was now 2773. The 4 victims of the shockwave were now 17 years old. But there were 6 others, anthros, who were going through some different stuff.

A pink and black female rabbit anthro did a back-flip and made a jump/kick at a man in a brown jacket and fedora, causing him to bounce back, but he still landed on his feet.

A yellow and black male bunny got up from the floor. "Nice try, Lexi, but I don't think it worked!"

"I'd like to see you try, Ace," said Lexi, "This guy is pretty tough."

Ace turned to face an orange and black duck. "Hey, Duck!" The duck turned around. "You mind pitching in here?"

Duck nodded and formed an orb of fire energy (or "egg") in his hands and threw it at the guy, missing by a few feet and scorching the wall behind him. "That didn't go so well."

Ace turned to the red and black roadrunner. "Rev! Try maneuver 42609!"

"On-it-Ace!" Rev zoomed at the guy, who took one step to the left just before the roadrunner came close, making him slam into the wall right next to the spot that had been scorched by the fire egg.

A purple and black Tasmanian devil came up and took him from the wall.

"Thanks, Slam," Rev said, his voice slowed by the pain.

The guy they were fighting got up on a pile of boxes, heading to jump out a window about 25 feet off the ground and then make a break for it. A green and black coyote put out his hands as they (and his eyes) glowed green. The box on the bottom of the stack the guy was on glowed green and pulled out from under him, making the stack fall down just as he jumped onto the next one.

"Tech, something gives me the hint that this battle is not going so well," said Lexi.

"You think?" Duck said, "He's got an action ready for every move we make! We're completely hopeless and utterly—"

"Don't say it!" all 5 anthros cried out at the duck.

Just as the guy was about to jump onto the stack of boxes that was tall enough to reach the window, someone crashed through the glass and landed on their feet on the ground 25 feet below, effortlessly and with no pain whatsoever. 3 others followed.

One, a girl, held out her hand above her and a light shone, disappearing to reveal a bald eagle (not an anthro) headed straight for the guy, knocking him down a few stacks, almost falling on the stack that Tech had dismantled. She turned to face the anthros showing herself to be none other than Kyra. "Looks like you guys could use some help."

"We had everything completely under control, thank you very much," said Duck.

Another, a boy, looked back to reveal himself as Nathan. "Yeah, we could see that." He turned to face one of the stacks of boxes and looked at the one at the bottom of the stack that the guy now laid on. He stared at it for a couple seconds before he revealed what was inside: bricks that were, no doubt, supporting the stack above it. "Zara."

The other girl in the group turned to face him.

"I wish that box at the bottom of his stack was empty," he whispered.

Zara nodded and snapped her fingers, making the bricks come out of the box. The box then smashed into splinters by the weight above it. The guy almost fell off, but grabbed onto the ledge of the box that now supported him.

The last in the group, Zack, of course, felt his eyes flash and the box disappeared, making the guy plummet to ground.

"Oof, that's going to hurt," said Ace.

"Or kill him," said Zara, turning to her twin brother with her arms crossed.

"What?" Zack said. Zara put her hands on her hips. "Don't give me that look, he's afraid of falling!"

"Oh, good!" Zara sighed with relief.

The Loonatics finished their mission and the 4 kids went into the street and began to walk back to their homes. Before the teens could leave, the Loonatics came out and stopped them.

"Hold up," Lexi said, "What was that back there?"

"What are you talking about?" Kyra asked.

"All that stuff you were doing," Duck said, "What else?"

"OK, OK," Kyra said, "If you must know, we got powers from the meteor, too. First things first, I'm Kyra and this is Nathan and the twins, Zara and Zack."

"What kind of name is Zara?" asked Tech.

"What kind of name is Tech?" asked Zara.

"Touché," Tech said.

"That's your power: being annoying?" asked Duck.

"No," said Zara, "I'm a wish-granter."

"Yeah, right," said Duck, "Prove it!"

"OK," said Zara, "Wish for something."

"Oh, I wish for a giant chocolate chip pancake to fall from the sky," said Nathan.

"Will you stop wishing for that?" asked Kyra.

Zara rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers, making a giant chocolate chip pancake fall from the sky…and crush Duck.

Slam ate the whole thing in 2 seconds, releasing Duck from the breakfast-y weight crushing him.

"Thanks," said Duck, "but I think that one of the chocolate chips hit me in the head and knocked my brains out."

"Then, lucky for you, I'm also a healer," said Zara, taking his hand and healing his wounds.

"Thanks again," said Duck as she let go.

"Whereas, I can talk to animals," said Kyra, "and summon them to help me in battle, if needed."

"Cool," said Lexi.

"That's nothing," said Nathan, "I have X-ray vision and night vision. I could solve a hay bale maze at 3 in the morning."

"Hey, Zara's twin brother over here, unable to use dangerous powers unless in dire situation!" Zack said.

"Whoa, wait, how can you be twins if you're a boy and she's a girl?" asked Duck.

"Fraternal," Zara, Zack, Tech, and Rev all said at the same time.

"Whoa, that's kind of freaky," said Nathan.

"We pull the 'twin jinx' thing all the time," said Zara, "The only thing freaky about this time is that we did it with Tech E. Coyote and Rev Runner."

"Tell me about it," Tech said.

"So, uh, what are these freaky powers of yours if they're so dangerous that you can't use them around us?" Ace asked Zack.

"Simple, I'm the grim reaper," said Zack. Zara hit him. "Well, it's close!"

"He can kill people by touch and make them live out their worst fear," said Zara.

The Loonatics all backed up a few steps.

"Luckily, it's voluntary," said Zack.

"Oh, good," said Lexi in relief.

Duck and Slam still looked confused.

"He means that he has a choice whether or not to use it when he touches people," said Tech.

"Oh…" Duck and Slam both said.

"Now that makes sense," Duck alone said.

"So I guess you guys should be heading home, huh?" asked Ace, beginning to leave with the others, "We'll see you around."

"Actually, you won't," said Kyra, "Nathan and I are orphans and the twins' mom died when Zack found out about his powers."

The Loonatics stopped dead in their tracks, knowing that she meant that the twins' mom had been the first victim of Zack's power, back when he didn't know he had them.

"We've been living together with the twins' dad for a year now," Kyra finished.

Duck turned around. He knew what it was like to be an orphan, but to unknowingly murder your own mother was a different story. "So, uh, your dad is all you've got, huh?"

The Loonatics weren't entirely shocked by this sudden question, knowing that Duck was an orphan, but they still hadn't expected him to say this.

Zara and Zack nodded. Zack was silent, remembering that dreadful day.

*Flashback*

The twins came into the kitchen of their house, just waking up a couple days after the meteor hit, to find their mom.

"Zara! Zack!" the twins' mother came up, hugging them. Zara hugged her in return. Zack merely stood there, not knowing what was going on. "Are you 2 OK?"

"We're fine, Mother," Zara said, "What happened?"

"Some meteor hit the planet a couple days ago and knocked us off the axis," their mom answered, "You 2 and poor Nathan and Kyra were all out of it when we found you in the clubhouse and you hadn't woken up since. I wasn't sure if you were going to be OK or not. You had me so worried."

"Well, we're fine now," said Zack, "How are Kyra and Nathan doing?"

"I don't know," said their mom, "I think they're OK."

Zara looked around. "Where's Dad?"

"He's downtown, looking around," their mom answered. Their dad was a policeman, so he did a lot of "looking around" (inspecting). "There were a lot of people hurt after that shockwave was released."

"'Shockwave'?" both twins quoted.

"Yes," said their mom, "When the meteor hit, it released a shockwave and a lot of people were hurt on contact. Some of them only looked at it."

Zara and Zack sat down at the table. Zack put his head in his hands, a little sore, and Zara began to try to snap her fingers (she wasn't doing so well).

Zack looked up at his sister. "Zara?" Zara turned her attention to her younger brother. "What are you doing?"

"What's it look like I'm doing?" asked Zara, going back to her attempts, "I'm still trying what I've been trying for the past few weeks."

"Sis, you were unable to do it before the comet, I doubt you'll be able to do it now."

"I'm still going to try."

Zack banged his head on the table. After Zara tried 3 more times, he lifted his head. "I'm hungry. Hey, Zara, why don't you give that up and make me a sandwich?"

"I am not making you a sandwich. Get one yourself."

"Kids, it was bad enough last week," their mom interrupted, "Don't start this again."

"I just wish I had a sandwich."

Zara finally succeeded in snapping her fingers and a sandwich appeared in front of them.

"How did you do that?" asked Zack.

"I don't know," Zara responded.

"Mom, exactly what happened to the other people that were injured in the comet?" asked Zack.

"I don't know, but it probably wasn't as weird as that," said their mom, "Are you sure you don't know how you did that?"

"Positive."

"Then what's going on?" Zack asked.

"I don't know that either!" Zara said.

Kyra and Nathan came downstairs.

"What's going on?" asked Kyra.

"I just said I don't know!" Zara yelled.

"OK, pushy," Nathan said.

"OK, you want to know what happened?" asked Zack, holding up the sandwich, "This is what happened."

"Wow, you made a sandwich, good for you," said Nathan.

"All I did was snap my fingers and it just appeared out of nowhere!" Zara said.

"That is weird," said Kyra, coming down the stairs, "First, we get knocked unconscious by a giant rock that just appeared out of nowhere, and now this sandwich appears out of nowhere. Maybe we can ask your dad what's going on."

"The last thing we want to do is to worry your father about this," said the twins' mom.

"Mom, how are we supposed to keep this a secret?" asked Zack, "I couldn't even keep the secret about Nathan's surprise birthday party last month."

"Oh, yeah, that didn't go so well," Kyra said.

"Then we've got to tell somebody," said Nathan, "And for another thing, what if Zara isn't the only one who was affected by that energy?"

"We can't take that risk, I'll tell you that," said the twins' mom.

"Come on, he can't be far away," said Zack, getting up from the chair with Zara and beginning to leave. His mom stayed back, wondering what was going on with her kids. "Mom." He came back and took her hand, pulling her with them.

Before she could take a step, she began to scream in pain and dropped to the floor. The spot where he had touched her was burned and decaying.

"Mom!" the twins both cried. They rushed to her side as she slowly died. Zack took one look at her and realized what he had done. He ran off to his room.

"Zack!" Kyra called after him. She reached out for him.

"Don't touch me!"

*End Flashback*

"Yoo-hoo! Earth to Zackary Thompson!"

"Huh?" Zack snapped out of his flashback and saw Kyra in front of him with Nathan, Zara, and the Loonatics. "Sorry, I was…"

"Again?" Zara asked. She knew what his worst fear was: losing all he had left, friends and family.

"Maybe you should stay with us," suggested Lexi.

"Dad is going to worry if we don't get back now," said Zack, "It's way past 11."

"Are you kidding?" Zara called after him, "We're pushing midnight! Forget worried, he's going to be downright furious!"

Kyra turned to the Loonatics as Nathan scurried off with the twins. "Thanks for the offer, but we've got a lot going on." She turned around and ran after her friends. "Hey, guys, wait up!"

The Loonatics went back to HQ alone.

* * *

The 4 kids arrived on their street.

"We had some fun tonight, huh?" Nathan asked them.

"Tell me about it," said Kyra.

"OK. First, we jumped through a window…"

"No, Nat, it's an expression!"

Zara stopped walking when their house was in sight.

"What is it, sis?" asked Zack. He turned to look at the place her gaze now fell upon to see a mess of battered wooden planks and broken windows. "Dad!"

The twins ran to their house, Kyra and Nathan following closely behind. Zara opened the door. The first thing she saw made her cry. She sank to her knees on the floor. The other 3 saw what was such torture: the twins' father lying dead on the floor, a blood-stained dagger plunged through his heart. Zack withdrew the dagger from the corpse. It was a silver dagger with a crest on the hilt shaped like a snake. This was no accident, their father was murdered. He turned back to his sobbing older twin sister. All 4 of them were orphans and 2 of them were only children. Now, they truly had nothing left but each other.