A/N: I know I haven't been online since 'Fame'. I'm sorry. Confirmation is today. Lucky me (note the sarcasm). My review will be up shortly. For now, enjoy some 'Warped'.
Disclaimer: Eliza, Skylark, Emery, and Devlin's truck are mine. Everything else, MOA!!
Eliza found a hulking form standing over her in the night. A small scream began to unleash itself until she saw the glint of golden brown eyes. Then her jaw dropped. "What are you doing here?" asked the girl in utter shock. She bolted upright, finding herself still in Kevin's room.
Kevin was out on the couch. Devlin was in a sleeping bag at the foot of her bed and Ken was curled up in the master bedroom. Eliza could only imagine him sprawled out on the massive king-sized bed.
"I'm here for the exact same reason you are. My car was rigged to. But I don't think it was him who rigged it. Had to be someone else. A clone or something because if Kenny saw him specifically then it had to be a clone but if it was another vision of his then we're all screwed and we may never be getting back." His reddish violet hair stood out in the faint moonlight that washed into the room. One dark tanned hand reached up to ruffle it. "Any headway on anything?"
Eliza pulled the blanket around her tighter, feeling very cold with her shoulders exposed to the icy air conditioning that nipped at her bare skin. "Get Dev," she instructed, shivers running up and down her spine. "He'll know what to do," the girl sighed. Her hands rubbed her arms, trying to get the goose bumps to go away.
There was a nearly silent grumble from Devlin as he was disturbed from his perfect slumber. Then there was a groan as he felt a hand on his shoulder. His hand lashed out to slap whoever it was away and a loud slap! noise rang out and a mumbled "Ow" came from the other person. "Dev, you are so not nice."
He pulled the covers over his face, feeling the warmth flood the tiny space that he'd created for himself, the air inside stale. "Get used to it," he growled fiercely, not wanting to deal with the idiots he called his friends in the middle of the night.
"Devlin," he muttered, reaching down to take the other boy's shoulders and shake him hard. "Wake-y wake-y, Sleeping Beauty. Need ya. Like, now please."
The older boy hardly moved. Another groan escaped his lips, but that was all. He hated being disturbed.
Going to desperate measures, he pulled the covers off of Devlin and then took one finger and stuck it into his mouth before plunging it into the older boy's ear. "I warned ya."
Devlin bolted upright just as Eliza had. He reached out and slapped the hand away from his face. "You really need to cut that out. Please." He looked up into the faint moonlight that trickled into the dark room through the semitransparent curtains. "No way..." he breathed.
"Yeah, that's what Eli said too," he chuckled before offering down a hand to his brother. "Can't believe you guys would leave on an adventure without me. How could you? I feel so betrayed, you know that?"
"Maybe we left you on purpose," noted Eliza as she pulled the covers back up around her, the cold stinging her skin with its icy kiss. She watched as her eldest brother sat on the edge of the bed.
The newcomer only laughed like an idiot before realizing that Kevin was only a room away. Emery fell onto the blankets of the bed. He lay down and put his head on Devlin's lap. It was quickly pushed off. "Hard to believe that he's just beyond that door, isn't it?" Emery pointed out, feeling his own shock growing within.
"Ken?" asked Eliza, just as a joke.
He didn't take it that way. Instead he glared at her for only a second before launching his own mini tickle-attack at her.
The dark haired girl burst into a sudden fit of laughter, falling off the bed. The three Levin siblings froze.
"Oh," began Devlin only to hear Emery follow him with, "Crap."
Eliza got back up on the bed without making another sound and gave both her brothers a head slap. "Morons," she muttered before ducking back under the blankets again while Devlin scrambled back down to the sleeping bag. Emery was darting for the closet. When it wouldn't open, he settled for holding a plant in front of his face, violet red hair still vibrant in the waning moonlight. The plant only covered his tanned face and portions of his hair.
It was true. Emery was a first class idiot.
The door to the room opened slowly and Eliza's eyes closed to slits and she let out the biggest fake yawn that she could muster, trying to be asleep.
"Dev, what was that?" Kevin's voice came from the doorway as a thin line of light came in. "Something break?"
Her brother's voice had kept the slightest hint of sleep to it. Devlin was a brilliant liar and con-artist, just like their father. It truly was a gift. "No, I think I just hit my head on something." Eliza heard the rustle of blankets as her brother reached up to rub the back of his head.
There was the underlying tone of honest concern in Kevin's voice as he asked, "You okay?"
Devlin's only reply was a short "Uh-huh." Then the ruffle of more blankets as he curled up again in the sleeping bag. "I'm good. Thanks, Kevin."
"Night," came the whispered voice of Kevin once more as he eased the door shut.
"Night," murmured Devlin in reply as he rolled over in the blankets. His dark hair was let down and messed up for the first time in a long time as he felt his nerves on edge. Never in his entire life had he seen Kevin anything like that. Never.
"That," began Emery as he dropped the plant carefully on the table, "was weird." He let out a deep sigh before heading back over to the bed and flopping down on it.
"Hush up," snapped Eliza, clamping a firm hand over his mouth. She pulled him off the side of the bed and kicked him underneath in the very little space he had down there. "Kevin could be back any minute," the girl hissed.
He only whimpered when he kicked her and then scrambled beneath the bed.
"Dev," she called out to her brother who was now sitting on the side of the bed. "What are we going to do with him?" Her emerald gaze fell upon her other brother. The grade A moron.
But Devlin's mind was already at work behind his deep navy blue eyes. Sifting through the thoughts and memories of Emery. His powers were useful when determining a threat or not, but it also ruined any surprise party if he knew people were keeping secrets. There was some more unimportant garbage that he tossed aside before he hit the glory of he world. His eyes flickered back into the real world and Devlin smiled over to Eliza. "We were never alone," he stated, eyes glinting.
Raising one eyebrow, the dark haired girl could only put on a puzzled face. "What are you talking about?"
Devlin crawled back down into his sleeping bag. "This isn't some kind of freak accident. Dad putting the thing in my car? A planted memory. We both could've figured that one out, but it was too good to be true so we wanted to believe it more than anything. Kenny must've been taken aside or it was thrown into one of his visions." Devlin kept his tone low and soft. "It wasn't randomly against us, Eli. We're not the only ones here."
Green eyes now narrowed, she wanted to kill something. So far, Emery was looking like a great target if he would let her cover him in red and white paint. And he probably would let her do that. "Who else is here, Devlin?" she dared to ask.
He sighed. "We were never alone for a reason. Mom couldn't follow us and Dad... We both know why he couldn't no matter how much we want to believe that we can change the future by existing here and now." He had to drink in the dark air in the room. It was cold and dank to say the least.
Eliza breathed slowly. "Ben's here?"
"Our Ben. And this wasn't even our brother," noted Devlin, grabbing his red haired brother's foot. "Clone, yet again. This time, they tried robot. Clearly, it sucks beyond anything else they've tried so far."
Emery did not move. Shut down easily by the invisible scorching electricity that Devlin had surged through him, the mission was over.
"But if Ben's here, that means he's probably a clone and someone is after us. Unless he really is here. I won't be able to tell the difference unless you and Ken could find him and hold him down long enough for me to get in his head, find what we need, and get out." Devlin hated having so much work to do. "We could go now, if you want. I tracked down the location through this idiot's thoughts. I'm pretty sure the clone Ben is ring leader and that he's going to have clones of everyone else we know from the future too." He ran his fingers through his tangled black hair. "This is going to be a long day for us."
Eliza was already on her feet, working to grab the duffel bag that Gwen had loaned her and shuffle into the walk-in closet on the far side of the room to get changed. The door opened for her.
Devlin sent a quick message to Ken through their thought waves before pulling on his own plain white t-shirt and grabbing his signature gray jacket to pull over it. He was already wearing some long jeans to sleep in. Though a bit wrinkled, they were fine to wear. "I'm done," he called in a whisper to his sister.
She came out of the closet only a second later, working on pulling up her mess she called hair into a ponytail. The red highlight around her face hung limp. Then her green eyes flashed as victory finally came to her side and her hair gained another shred of obedience. "I'm finished up." Eliza had on a dark red t-shirt with a giant speech bubble on the front that said "Got Milk?" and a pair of tight, dark blue dyed jeans hung around her thin waist. "Kenny comin'?"
A knock on the window signaled that he was right outside and ready to go.
Eliza pulled the blinds and curtains away so that Kenny's smiling face was right outside, casting a long shadow right into the middle of the room. He had on a dirty green jacket over a brown shirt and a pair of cargo pants. He knocked again cheerfully, still wearing that stupid grin, too.
"Sometimes me makes me want to slam a door against his cute little face," she muttered fiercely as she pulled open the glass window and managed to escape into the world outside. Seconds later, Devlin followed. He turned and eased the window shut silently. "Come on," he said. "We can take my truck."
"Or Kevin's car," pointed out the Levin daughter. "I hope he'd be alright with that. It is for a good cause and all."
A smirk crossed Devlin and Ken's faces. "I like your thinking," snickered her brother.
"Dibs on shotgun!" called Ken as he raced ahead into the blackness of night, both his friends right behind him.
A/N; for writing it in the middle of the morning, I think it turned out pretty dang good… by the way, that pretty much is how Emery acts…Clearly, he spent too much time with Ken… Please review!
~Sky