Chapter 4

While Madelyn was telling the group about what her powers had been sensing, the evil brother and sister were in their lair again.

"That is it!" the woman suddenly exclaimed, sitting cross-legged on the floor, "I'm tired of waiting! When are we going to strike?!"

"Patience, Jesse!" the man said, crouching down next to her, "Our time will come!"

Jesse pulled her hood down to reveal her dark hair and eyes and pale skin. "You keep saying that, brother, but so far I've not seen anything to promote a plan!"

The man slammed his fist on the floor. The floor in front of them split open and revealed a glowing chasm. "We'll throw them in here and send them to hell when we get the chance."

"Hunter, the Fang Gang tried that already a few years back."

Hunter pulled down his hood to reveal his own dark hair and eyes and pale skin. "Yeah, but that was completely different." He closed the pit. "We need time to get this right."

"And to come up with a better plan."

"Do you have one? Didn't think so!"

Typical brother and sister, evil or not.

A week later…

The group was collected in the living room, researching silently.

Jack suddenly slammed his book shut and dropped it on the table. "This is ridiculous! If we don't know anything about this thing other than that it's not a Vampire, how are we going to find out what it is? Let alone defeat it!"

"Jack, we can do this!" Sarah snapped.

"I'll deal with him," Brenda said, getting up from her seat and dragging Jack down the hall to his room. She shut the door behind her. "Look, I get it. You're worried they're going to find out about us. We need to calm down and get over it or we're going to straight out tell them by accident."

"OK! OK!" Jack started to open the door to leave and turned back. "Can we kiss and make up?"

"I don't wanna make up! But I'm cool with the other part."

The two kissed. When they came back, they saw that the door was cracked.

"AHA!" They both jumped at that voice. Archer was looking at them from the floor. "I knew it! Well, not 'knew it' in the sense of actually having the slightest idea, but I knew there was something I didn't know! Oh, I can't wait to tell the others." He started to run off. Jack ran after him. Archer came into the living room. "Hey, guys! Jack and Brenda—"

Jack tackled Archer to the ground behind the couch.

"Uh, Jack!" Sarah tried to stop them, leaning over the back of the couch, "We kind of already knew you two were dating!"

The fight stopped. Jack got up. "Really?"

"Well, at least I did."

"No, we all knew," Ryan added, "I thought I heard something suspicious from the hall the night you two made out."

Jack's eyes started darting back and forth. "Oh."

"Wait, I didn't know they were together!" Wendy said.

"Then I guess it was a confession," Brenda said, coming into the room.

Nadine sighed. "Well, while we're confessing…"

Ryan stopped her. "We tell them now? Are you serious?"

"Ryan!" Ryan backed off. Nadine turned back to them. "We're married."

Everyone looked at them.

"Did we miss something?" asked Lexi.

"Perhaps now is a good time to mention that Benny and I are married," Sarah added.

"Yeah, we missed something," Sophie answered.

"Yeah, and Mike and Mad are dating, too," Kelly said, jokingly.

"How'd you know that?" Michael asked. Everyone looked at him.

"I think she didn't," Madelyn said.

Michael realized his mistake. "Oops."

Everyone looked at Lucy and Robert. After a few seconds, they looked at each other, sighed, and nodded.

"I knew we were missing something," Tech said.

"Oh, well," Sophie said, "At least we know what's going on now."

A year later…

"I still have no idea what's going on," said Madelyn.

"I'll tell you what's going on," Jack said, "NOTHING!"

The group was in the foyer of the tower, discussing the situation. Nothing majorly exciting had happened since the group admitted their couple-ness (at least not in comparison to the usual superhero daily routine).

"You know what?" Kelly broke in, "We just need a break. We've been working our tails off—almost literally—trying to figure out what this thing is and how to stop it. We probably don't even need to worry about it! It's probably another super Vamp that Mad doesn't realize is the problem. That stuff we can handle."

"Kelly's right," Benny said, "We need to relax and take a break."

"Yeah, we should be fine," said Jack, "As long as nothing bad happens."

"WHAT'D YOU HAVE TO GO AND SAY THAT FOR?!" Sarah cried.

"WHAT?! Nothing bad is gonna happen!"

"Well, yeah," said Nadine, "until the dummy says 'as long as nothing bad happens'!"

"It's the ultimate jinx!" said Sarah, "Right up there with 'What could possibly go wrong?' OH! I just said it!"

"What were you thinking?" Lucy asked, "Or were you even thinking at all?"

"You don't know that!" Jack intercepted, "Maybe this time will be different."

"Jack's right," Brenda defended her boyfriend, "It's probably something we've faced before."

"Oh, please!" Wendy cut in, "What kind of moron, evil or not, would ever wanna come back here?"

Across town…

An old car smashed into the "Welcome to Downtown Acmetropolis" sign. The car skidded to a halt and Sean popped out of the front seat. "Home, sweet…home."