With Great Power
By Jessie AKA Dory
AUTHOR NOTE: Ok – sorry this took so long, I was having idea issues – but now it's a bit better. Here is a 3,000 - so no one can complain about it being short, hah! ;) Anyways – I hope you guys enjoy – I spent most of the middle of the night writing most of it and I think it's going well! Please review! More reviews equals more chapters!
Chapter 3: Super Strange
When we got to Ms. Fowl's house it was barely into the afternoon, we took our bags up through her house and to our respective rooms. For a single woman, Ms. Fowl had a rather big house which seems a bit illogical. Not that it was any of my business, just a curious observation. My room was fairly big and very pink – a bit too pink for my taste. I prefer violet and purple – for obvious reasons.
"Miss Violet and Dash," She cawed from down stairs, Dash and I walked out to the hallway and looked down the stairs till we saw her, "As soon as ya'll are done we can go out for some food or something."
"Actually Ms. F – I was planning on walking around the city, you know, getting my," he paused, "Retro-legs," he turned and sorta winked. Who knew I would suddenly be getting along with my brother of all people, I was starting to feel a tad out of character for enjoying it so much.
"Yea, me too, we'll be back for dinner though!" I pointed out cheerfully.
She seemed a little disappointed, and for that I felt a bit guilty, but she continued, "Ok then, if you ever need help though," she reached into her pocket as we walked down the steps, "just blow these whistles," she handed both of us a little whistle. When I say little, I really mean pathetically small, about the size of half my pinky.
"…Thanks, I'll remember that," Dash confusedly accepted it and put it in his pocket and I did the same with mine.
We walked outside and closed the door in a respectful manner.
"You got your suit and mask?" Dash asked, almost instantly I smacked my hand in front of his mouth.
Giving him a, 'shh' expression with my finger at my lips, he rolled his eyes and pushed my hand away, "Relax sis, the Dash, has got it all covered," he responded way too slyly – he surely is going to make some girls drool when he's older.
Crossing my arms, I just smirked, "Let's not get all excited unless there's really something to save, ok, The Dash?" I said 'the dash' in a dorky little voice, mocking him.
"Alright," he pouted.
Before even the t of his 'alright' was finished, there was a loud sounding crash that could be heard – it wasn't terribly loud because it sounded as if it was quite a ways away, but it was enough for Dash and I to exchange knowing glance.
Dash already had his mask on, "Showtime."
Sheen and Libby slammed through the exit of the Candy Bar within moments.
"OW!" Carl shrieked, and Sheen turned around to see as the door had slammed closed, Carl had been hit face first by the door.
"Oops- sorry about that Carl," Sheen smiled hesitantly as Carl stood again and pushed the door open with a sigh. Poor guy – it was always him.
Libby ignored Carl's comical impact though and looked around, "What in the name of funk was that crash? Where'd Cindy and Jimmy go?" she crossed her arms, "Man I hope that girl didn't go all loony and resorted to throwing cars at Jimmy this time. And if any of you boys need to clean your ears out I said FUNK – not -."
BOOM – CRASH – was heard in the distance again, Libby stumbled slightly from the shaking of the earth. It wasn't an Earthquake – that much she knew – it was coming from somewhere in the more populated city area.
She whipped around to stare at Carl rubbing his nose and Sheen snickering at him, both oblivious to the current situation. Probably not even hearing what Libby had been rambling about a moment ago, not even getting the chance to think she said something other than funk.
"Stop laughing Sheen," Carl warned in his wheezy voice that didn't particularly sound too threatening.
"Guys, listen to me!" Libby yelled and they both looked up at her with their typical dumbfounded expressions, "What are we going to do?"
"Do about what?" Sheen cocked his head, "it's probably Jimmy and Cindy duke-ing it out or someth-," he paused, "Actually, I would REALLY like to see that – lets go!"
In a flash of an instant, Sheen was in costume, all rip-raring to go. He got in dashing position –
"Wait – should we … really be getting into costume?" Libby hesitated, "I do have it with me, but …"
"ME TOO!" Carl raised his hand, "Just lemme go change real quick, kay?" He ran back into the Candy Bar and into the bathroom.
"But that would mean we're going back into being superheroes – Jimmy warned us not to!" Libby pressed on, walking towards Sheen who stood there – dare I say it, in a thoughtful position.
Sheen placed his hand to his chin thoughtfully, "Well – yeah, but Jimmy's told us to not do a lot of things and Carl and I almost always do them anyways and we almost rarely get hurt after a while."
"Is that supposed to make me feel almost better?" Libby raised an eyebrow and gave him a slightly annoyed look.
"I don't know-," Sheen cocked his head again and looked at her carefully, "Is it?"
"You are SO hypocritical Neutron," Cindy shot at him as they ran towards the crashes in full costume.
He arched his eyes and turned his head, "Me? What are you talking about – you promised ME that you wouldn't go using your powers. Right now we NEED to use our power, that's good enough of an excuse. Who knows what caused that crash, but I can tell you that we don't need any scientific data to prove we need to stop it!"
She scowled, but didn't argue as they hurried towards the scene. Within moments they were in the heart of the city – buildings were tall all around them and busy people pushed passed them through the streets.
This didn't seem right at all – it was almost like nothing had happened, and in fact most people were staring at them as if they were freaks. Well – probably at Jimmy's orange skin and green hair – and the fact they were in costume, but it still seemed weird to the two of them.
"I could have sworn I heard the crash around here -," Jimmy scratched his head in pure confusion, "This doesn't make any logical sense."
Cindy crossed her arms, "Well this was a waste – these people don't even seem like they need help -," she then pouted, "And we've lost our whole mysterious-out-of-no-where-heroes-look since we're all out in the open like this!" She stomped her foot, the harshness and her strength left a bit of an indent in the ground, "Way to go N-dork! Ruining our style," not that it really mattered that much to Cindy. Inside she knew that style didn't matter- especially when most of the time she was doing this all in secret. However to her, being out there in the open so casually for so long seemed so amateur. Besides – any chance she had to put down Jimmy at the moment, she was willing to take.
Jimmy rolled his eyes, and suddenly there was once again a huge crash, and Jimmy and Cindy both fell to the ground. Then another crash, and another, them bouncing as each crash came – almost as if a giant was taking step after step through the city.
Almost as if by cue, the people of the street started in a chaotic frenzy of panic, looking around upwards, shouting and screaming insanity! Many ran through the street, pushing past Jimmy and Cindy to get away from the direction of the sound.
Jimmy and Cindy grasped hands and slowly stood, feet firmly on the ground as each crash came. Just staring upwards as they felt like ants all of a sudden, or they at least felt like Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow in that movie in New York with the giant robots.
Jimmy glanced at Cindy with narrowed eyes, "Waste –," BOOM, "of-," CRASH, "time-," BOOM, "huh?"
She rolled her eyes, "Like I saw this coming," the two looked down to see their hands embraced the way they were, their faces turned a quick shade of red and they instantly separated.
Suddenly – they saw something the two had never witnessed before – smashing through the streets like a bull in a china shop, was the most terrifying thing they had ever witnessed before. It was like a giant silver and gray ball, there were a number of robotic legs spiraling around it, and it seemed to have a mind of its own.
Instantly Jimmy stepped in front of Cindy as if to block her from danger, holding his arms out.
"W-w-what i-i-is th-that?" Cindy stuttered uncontrollably.
Jimmy narrowed his eyes and cocked his head, "it's very familiar – I know it's some form of AI robot," he looked down to think for a brief moment, "where have I seen it before."
"All I know is that thing is incredibly scary – big – and – I really would like to go home now, thank you," she turned away and Jimmy grabbed her by the cape and he yanked her back.
"Not today Vortex – you and I are bringing this baby down."
Her eyes widened in terror as the object came closer, "You've got sixty seconds Neutron – go!"
"Don't pressure me!" Jimmy scowled back; he couldn't think when she was threatening him like that.
One of the legs plowed into the black cement barely a few feet in front of them, it's ends were claw-shaped and looked horribly sharp and scary.
"Ok," Cindy sweetly responded to the shaking and pale faced Jimmy, "Let THAT thing pressure you instead."
The two backed up slowly, as the claw retracted itself from the ground, Jimmy gulped and now suddenly wished he had gotten the others to come along with them.
"If – if I only had my backpack, I could shrink it," he yelled out loud so Cindy could here.
She muttered as they continued to quicken their backwards pace, "That's nice – but I really want to hear about the things we CAN do, genius!"
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" He responded.
She shook her head, "I'm sick of this – this monster is goin' down – NOW!" She separated from Jimmy and ran towards an area full of parked cars.
"Cindy!" Jimmy squealed, wishing he was angry so he could go Hulk and at least do something other than being orange.
"Come on – come on, there's always one," Cindy muttered, searching in the air at the parked cars, "AHA!"
She soared down and picked up a Hummer from it's parking place, "This otta give that robot a nice knock down," she spoke to herself as she carried it from underneath the oversized vehicle.
Jimmy at this point was running now, luckily the robot did not see him as any sort of threat otherwise it'd be attacking him. Most of the entire area was practically vacant at this point other than empty cars and stores.
"EAT HUMMER ROBOT!" Was suddenly screamed from the air, Jimmy looked up and smiled as Cindy hurtled the Hummer at the robot.
The Hummer flew in midair and Jimmy cheered it on, but suddenly, it all stopped. The robot turned it's head and spotted it- grabbing the Hummer with a claw and crushing it almost as if it were a simple empty soda can.
Cindy went wide eyed, "Shiiiittaki mushrooms!"
The robot hurtled it back towards her, Cindy screamed in terror and dived down to duck. Barely missing it, as the Hummer crashed into the pavement, she turned to face it and gave a sigh of relief. Too soon, unfortunately, as a spare piece hit her on the side of her head and she spun out of control towards the ground.
"CINDY!" Jimmy screamed in terror as he saw his secret love fall to the ground, oh where was Sheen when he needed him?
"I got her! I got her!" A young and eccentric voice screamed in the distance and before she hit the ground she was scooped up into the speedy character's arms.
"Sheen?" Jimmy cocked his head, and he smiled and raised an arm in victory, "Way to go Sheen!"
"WATCH OUT!" A female voice shrieked, Jimmy turned and saw a large chunk of building from that of the destruction the robot was causing flying towards him. He weakly put his arm up in defense – knowing he was about to feel severe impact.
But – there was nothing as he heard a weird sound suddenly as he noticed he was on the ground now. Right in front of him was a girl holding her arms up and a mysterious force field was coming from what seemed like her hands. The object about to hit him had bounced off and he was safe.
He squint his exhausted eyes, "Libby?"
The force field disappeared and the girl turned around, she was in red as far as he could tell and had long black hair, "No I'm not Libby – we need to get you into a safe place, come on," she pulled him to his feet.
He shook his head, "What about the robot?"
"My brother and I will take care of it," she pushed him hesitantly towards a building.
Jimmy shook his head, "This isn't something only two people can handle!"
"Not if they're a super," she responded, pushing him behind a building.
There Cindy sat, leaning against the building. A blonde boy in the same outfit as the girl but appeared to be closer to his and Cindy's age rather than the girl who seemed older. He was kneeling next to her, and seemed to be comforting her.
"Gee – that was really sweet of you to save me like that," Cindy's face turned a bit red, and the boy turned red in response, practically matching his outfit.
"It's – no big deal, really," he touched her shoulder, "Anything for a gorgeous girl, like you."
Jimmy sort of narrowed his eyes at their flirting behavior, "Where's Sheen?"
The boy looked up – he recognized that name, "Sheen?"
"Didn't he save Cindy?" Jimmy pointed to his female companion.
The boy looked at Cindy, "That's your name? It's pretty," he shyly said, some how not sounding as hyper as he usually did.
"Thanks," she clasped her hands together and smiled sweetly.
Jimmy irritatingly put his fingers through his green hair, "What in the name of –," a crash in the distance was heard again, "gas planet! That robot needs to be stopped!"
"Hey, we've dealt with that thing before, and we can deal with again. You two just better sit here and gather your strength," the girl suggested.
"Where have you dealt with this before?" Cindy asked, looking at the girl now.
"I don't think it's the same one sis," the boy pointed out, "It has more legs – and seems a little smarter this time, even stronger too. You saw how it crushed that Hummer!"
She nodded, "I know, but all we have to do is have it penetrate itself again – it can't be too hard."
"Penetrate it?" Jimmy looked around the corner to see it crushing more pavements, "Why can't we just aim something at it instead? That sounds easier."
"It isn't," she sighed, standing next to him, "It learns as it goes along."
"So I was right earlier – defiantly Artificial Intelligence."
"Right," she scratched her head, "But Syndrome is dead – he can't be controlling it, let alone building an upgrade."
"Yo! What's up my homies?" A voice appeared from nowhere, and they turned around to see Sheen in costume.
"Sheen! There you are," Jimmy sighed with relief.
"Here I am," he nodded, "I'm sorry it took so long – Carl was trying to put his costume on," Sheen sighed and rolled his eyes, "he got stuck – bad zipper incident. Got the fire department to show up too."
"Why wouldn't the fire department show up here?" Cindy questioned reasonably.
Sheen shrugged, "Libby called first I guess – she's staying with him – so she sent me!" He zipped in a few circles quickly.
"Whoa – you – you can run fast, like me," the boy stood up from where he was next to Cindy.
"Wait a second," the girl came between them, "You guys – are supers too?"
"Duh – you saw me flying, didn't you?" Cindy crossed her arms.
She nodded, "Well yeah – I assumed you had, I don't know – a jetpack. I'm not used to meeting many supers," she sighed, "Most of them are dead now."
Before any further explanation the claw crashed into the pavement nearest them, causing them all to scream in shock. From the top of the robot appeared a cloaked figure – all they could see was the figure's eyes beneath the cloak which glowed silvery.
"Hello my dears," the robot's claw arose to the top and turned into a platform – the figure seemingly floating onto it with ease, "My name is Phantasm."
Jimmy and the super-girl exchanged confused glances.
"Not one of my enemies," he whispered.
"Same here," she gulped.
"Who are you?" The boy walked next to his sister and stared as the platform neared them. It was obvious from the curvy outline of the person that it was a girl. She put her hands on what they assumed to be her hips.
"Did you not hear me? I'm Phantasm," she grinned (or so it seemed) and then put her hands behind her back and continued.
She stated this so plainly and yet sweetly it was rather chilling, "At just the slightest snap of my fingers – I can become your worst nightmare."
TO BE CONTINUED
