Author : Wild-Melody

Disclaimer : I inherited a whole truckload of money over the week and I now own Rocket Power…as if that would ever actually happen! I own not an ounce of Rocket Power and make no claim too either, the story and plot however are all mine!

Summary : The Rocket Power Gang as teenagers, we finally find out why Lars has returned…will the Rocket Power gang be able to handle the truth? And just what are with these thoughts Reggie and Lars are having?

A/N : This fic takes place in the future, Reggie is 17, Otto and Sammy 16 and Twister will be turning 16 in a few days, oh and Lars is 19.

Chapter 3

Reggie turned surprised eyes on him, "You can?" She asked. Then her eyes narrowed, "Or are you just joking?"

"Not at all, it's one of my majors," Lars explained. "I'm studying Vehicle Restoration, Body Repair and other various mechanical classes. I can fix both you car and my truck easily, if you want me to, that is."

"Who are you?" Reggie asked, looking at him strangely. This definitely was not the old Lars she remembered.

"Um…Lars," he answered.

"You look like him, but you certainly don't act like him." Reggie said.

Lars sat down on the hood of her car, leaning his left shoulder against the tailgate of his truck. "Do you mind?" He asked as he looked up at her.

"Nah, it's fine. Damage is already done after all," she answered. "But, that's what I mean. The old Lars wouldn't have asked if it was all right. He would have just jumped up and sat down and whomped me if I said anything about it."

"I never whomped girls," Lars said quietly.

"You came close a couple of times," Reggie said.

"You made me mad." Lars responded quietly.

"Well, maybe we were as hard on you as you were on us," Reggie said softly as she hopped up on the hood beside him.

"What?!" Twister, Otto and Sam said all together.

Reggie just ignored them. She started to slide down the hood and came to a stop against Lars. "Sorry," she said softly and tried scooting back up the hood, only to slide down again.

"It's all right," Lars said.

Twister, Sammy and Otto found places to sit down in the grass, right in front of Reggie and Lars. Otto looked up at Reggie speculatively, wondering on her sudden change of attitude toward Lars and he decided he didn't like it one bit.

Reggie tried scooting up the hood again, and of coarse only slid down it again. Finally she just gave up and remained where she was, even if she was sitting just a little to close for comfort next to Lars. She looked up at him, "What…" she paused and looked down at Otto noticing the strange look he was giving her, then looked back over at Lars. "What caused you to change Lars?" He just looked at her. "What I mean is, before you got sent away to that military school, you would have never sat here with us, not like this. And before, if you'd had a vehicle, and I managed to smash into it, like I just did, you would have whomped me severely. But you didn't, that just isn't like you. You're not, and you'll have to excuse me for saying this, but your not acting like a total asshole anymore."

"I found out a lot at that military school. I never thought I would say that I appreciate my parents sending me there, but I actually do." He sighed, then suddenly felt Reggie's hand on his shoulder.

"It was rough, wasn't it?" she asked. "I've heard stories 'bout how terrible they can be." She paused and looked down at Otto, "Sometimes I think Dad should send Otto to one."

"Hey!" Otto shouted.

"Well," Lars said, looking at Reggie, "You may say the now, but believe me, if you were ever sent to one, you'd never wish that on anyone. It was rough and a lot of the other guys there weren't really very nice."

"Serve's ya right," Otto said quietly beneath his breath.

"Otto!" Reggie said vehemently, "Shut up and let Lars continue."

Otto just glared at her.

"Thank you," Lars said and smiled at Reggie, "I got a dose of my own medicine, so to speak. I was treated the same way I had treated you guys, I wasn't the bully any longer. Instead, I was the one being bullied around…and truthfully, I didn't like it. It kind of clued me in that you guys probably didn't like it much either."

"Doesn't take Einstein to figure that one out Lars," Otto said.

Reggie glared at Otto, "Lay off Otto!" She said angrily. "Lars is trying to apologize."

"I still don't believe he's changed, this is just some sort of trick." Otto huffed. He continued glaring at Reggie, "And I can't believe you're being taken in by all of his lies! Have you forgotten everything he's ever done to us? All the whompings he's ever given to Twister?"

"No, I haven't forgotten, but if he truly hadn't changed, he would have killed me after I hit his truck." Reggie defended.

"He'll whomp Twister for it later," Otto said. "And it's all probably just an act to lull us into a sense of ease."

"Um…can I stay the night at your guys' house?" Twister pleaded.

"I'm not going to whomp you Twist, I promise." Lars said.

"But if you're not really Lars, how can I believe you?" Twist asked.

"I am Lars," Lars answered, feeling exasperated, sometimes his brother could be a real blockhead. "I've never broken a promise I've made to you, have I?"

"Well, um…what about, no, that was Otto. Then what about, no, that was Otto again." Twister looked up at Lars, "Well, I guess you haven't, at least not that I can remember."

"So, you weren't the bully anymore, you were saying?" Reggie asked, drawing Lars' attention back to what he had been saying before and back to herself.

"Yes, I wasn't the bully any more. I went in there with the mindset that I was going to run things. Like I did here, only problem was, most of the others were a lot bigger and a lot stronger than what I was. I was constantly picked on…and beaten up."

"The others were a lot bigger and stronger than you?" Reggie asked, her eyes glancing down at his arms and noticing he had gotten a lot bigger and filled out nicely. A light blush crept up her face and she returned her gaze to his face. What am I thinking anyways? This is Lars after all! And I have a boyfriend.

"You were beaten up?" Twister asked, a look of awe passed across his face. It was hard to believe that someone had beaten Lars up.

"Yeah Reg," he noticed where her eyes had wondered and smiled at her, "I buffed up a bit at the school and yeah Twist, I was actually beaten up quite a bit. There were a lot of tricks played on me too…and some of them were tricks I'd never have been able to come up with, not even in my wildest dreams."

"What kind?" Otto asked.

"Trying to get some ideas?" Lars asked while laughing.

Otto actually blushed, "No…just curious." And maybe some ideas for later use just in case you haven't really changed after all, Otto thought to himself.

Lars smiled and looked down at his hands clasped together on his lap. "I actually don't want to talk about it." He looked over at Reggie, her hand was still on his shoulder. "The past is just that, the past. I like to live in the present and look toward the future. That military school was a terrible time in my past, but it taught me a lot of things too." He jumped down off of the car and caught Reggie as she began to slide down and lifted her off of the car hood. Sitting her down on the ground he turned around to look at the three guys sitting in the grass. "I have some things I have to do, I just wanted to stop and see mom and dad first."

"They're not home right now," Twister said.

"They're not?" Lars asked, his attention solely on Twister.

Twister nodded his head yes.

"Where'd they go?" Lars asked.

"To the grocery store I think," Twister answered. He looked over at Otto and Sammy, "They left shortly before Otto and Sam got here, about half an hour ago."

"They'll probably be back in an hour or so," Lars said softly, as if thinking to himself, as he turned toward his truck.

"You on break?" Twister suddenly asked when it looked like Lars was getting ready to go to his truck.

Lars turned around to regard Twister, his hand on the door handle of his truck. "Huh? What?" Not understand exactly what Twister was talking about.

"You on break from that certified college thingy you go to?" Twister clarified.

"Yeah," Lars answered. "We're on spring break right now. And it's ASE certified. It's not really a college, closer to a technical institute."

"It's located in New York, isn't it?" Reggie asked, still standing next to the front end of her car, a few feet from Lars.

"Yeah," Lars began, only to be interrupted.

"What's it like?" Reggie asked.

"The Institute?" Lars asked, completely confused.

"No, New York," Reggie answered excitedly.

Lars looked at Reggie, really looked at her. She had grown up quite bit since he had been gone, What is she now? 17, 18? He wondered to himself. Wonder if she has a boyfriend? Where in the hell did that come from? He asked himself. He retuned his attention back to the conversation at hand…it would be a lot safer than the direction his thoughts were suddenly going. "It's hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter. Nothing at all like Ocean Shores." He answered. "People are always in a hurry to get no where fast, and usually wreck their vehicles in the process. Business is great, we always have something to work on."

"You'll probably stay there once you graduate, won't you?" Twister asked, sounding just a bit disappointed.

"Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to Mom and Dad about, the Institute is going to be opening a branch here in Ocean Shores, they've already started the construction on it. You had to have heard about it, there was a write up in the paper about it." The four teens shook their heads no. Lars sighed and continued, "The approximate date for the opening is shortly before spring break is over with. I want to transfer here, I miss my family and friends, plus I miss being able to whomp you guys." He said it with all seriousness that the four friends had no idea that he was just kidding around.

"I'm dead!" Twister moaned, hurriedly getting to his feet.

"You said you changed!" Otto cried out as he and Sammy scrambled to their feet.

Just as Otto said that, Lars lunged for Reggie, she was the closest of the four. She struggled against him, trying to break his vice like grip. When that didn't work, she resorted to banging her fists against his chest. He only laughed, the sound coming from deep within his chest, strangely, the sound thrilled her at the same time it scared her. He placed both of her wrists in one of his hands and was just reaching for her waist with the other when he caught her movement from the lower part of his vision. He managed to dodge her foot as she tried to sweep him off of his feet to land on his ass, then he heard her start to laugh.

What? Has Reggie suddenly gone insane or something? What is she laughing about and is Lars' really back for good? What is with these strange thoughts they keep having about the other? Could they possibly have feelings for each other? How would Otto deal with such an idea…Otto? What about Twister? Could he handle one of his best friends liking or even being in a relationship with his older brother? All these answers and more in the next chapter…maybe, the answers might span over a few chapters, but that's only if you're kind enough to review!

Now on to the Thank Yous,

John : Yes, I've continued and I got at least another chapter or two completed, but that's just as long as everyone is kind enough and reviews. I just love reviews!

Skydivainthewingdom : I know the characters are a bit OOC, but they can't continue to act like 10 and 11 year olds when they aren't anymore. This is based on them as teenagers, young adults…I tried keeping their characters true to form, but you can only go so far when you're writing a story that takes place 5 or 6 years in the future. I loved your review though! Glad you liked the details, I'm a stickler for details, I can rewrite a chapter four or five times if I feel the details aren't right. I'm glad this story has only been rewritten three times with some major modifications in between. Keep up the reviews, and remember the characters a bit older than they were in the show! Thanks

Ledophole : I have to finish it? Glad you think so, but I won't add another chapter until I see an update for 'A Mirror's Reflection'! I absolutely love that story! Ok, so I may update before you do, but I'll still bug you each time about updating your story!

Lovely Moonlight Maiden : I'll update, but you had better too! Especially 'Hold Me Closer', you've got a good story going on there. I like 'The Tears He Didn't Cry' too, but it doesn't have Reggie in it! You just had to kill her, didn't you? But it's still good! Glad you like the story so far.

Wallington M. Simpson Jr : I just couldn't handle putting…oh, wait a minute, if I say that I'll give part of the story away…but Lars needed to change. He couldn't stay a bad boy forever, well, actually he could, but not in my story. I'm glad you like the story so far.

Cassidy : not much I can say to you, you pretty much already know everything that's going to happen in this story, LOL. Hurry up and update your stories, would ya? I'm patiently waiting…ok, maybe not patiently, but I'm waiting!

NC : Glad you like the story and that Lars has changed. Actually, Reggie didn't crash her car into the Stimplton's pool, Twister did, but that gets explained later in the story and Reggie isn't to happy when she discovers what happened.

Hartfelt : And just what are you trying to do? Give away details no one else is suppose to know yet? People, if you read her review, just ignore it…I never said Lars was leaving! At least not yet…or did I say he was leaving and just don't remember it? I'll have to review my notes for the story

Oh, btw, if you would like an e-mail as to when I update this story, just let me know in a review, but you're going to have to make sure you leave a e-mail address if you don't do a sighed review, thanks!

Catch ya later

Wild-Melody