A/N: I'm not going to bother with a disclaimer. I did one before. I'll do one every few chapters, when I remember to do one.
Sorry for the last chapter being so short, I typed it up during my off class at school, which is only and hour long and I had other things to do, plus librarians that would quickly tell you to quit it and do something productive. I'm in class now, so no worries.
And please don't flame me about the upcoming age mention, I'm not perfect, and I suck at math. I tried to get it as close to correct as possible, so that it would work in our world. But as I said before, I suck at math.
Syndrome:
Buddy walked down the street, holding Bruiser's leash. He had a vague idea of where he was going, but wasn't completely sure. He had bought Mirage a nice house just in case something went wrong, but it had been ten years. She could have moved.
Stopping to cross a street, he waited for the familiar bee-boop of the walk light that told him he could cross. It came, and he crossed quickly. He hoped nothing had changed; he was going by memory, because the last time he had gone there, he hadn't been blind.
Bumping into someone, he apologized quickly, and then started to continue on. He stopped again, as he found the person had touched his shoulder.
"Who are you?" The person asked it was a kid, ten by the sound of his voice, maybe eleven.
"I'd ask the same of you." Buddy asked. "But I can't, as I'm trying to get somewhere."
"I'm Alexander Pine. I could help you out, if you need any." The boy said kindly. He had obviously guessed that Buddy was blind.
"Well, okay. I'm a little confused anyways. I'm looking for 6 Boland Road." Buddy said simply. He heard a small gasp come from the boy, but the kid quickly regained his composure.
"What do you want to go there for?" Alex asked. Buddy started wondering why this kid was so curious… he'd find out soon enough.
"I used to know a lady that lived there, and I've been… out of town… for a while and was wondering if the she still lived there." Buddy said, quickly thinking up a reasonable excuse.
"Okay, I know where it is. I'll take you." Alex said, gently holding onto Buddy's arm and leading him down the street.
Half an hour later, Alex walked Buddy up and into a house. This confused him a little bit, but he said nothing. The kid probably knew Mirage, she had always liked children.
"Mom, I'm home! And there's someone who wants to talk to you!" Alex shouted. Well, apparently Mirage had been busy. She had always been good in bed….
"Who is it honey?" A lady called. She walked into the room, and gasped. Buddy smiled.
"Is that you Mirage?" Buddy asked, smiling hopefully.
"How? You? Alex, you and Steven go to your rooms, And don't listen in this time." Mirage said. The kid, Alex, walked up to his room, followed by someone else who Buddy guessed was Steven.
"Mirage… I wish I was able to see you." Buddy said, cursing Chad for making him blind.
"What do you…? You're blind?" She asked, surprised. "What happened? Why do you look so young?"
"Long story. Some old 'friends' did this to me. I got my memories back from one of them, and you were the first person to come to my mind." He said, letting go of Bruiser's leash, and going to where he thought she was. He heard her let out a soft sob.
"It's been so long, nine years I thought you were dead. nine years, you were alive, living a new life. nine years of not knowing..." She said, taking his hand and putting it to her face. It was wet with silent tears, her shoulders shaking from crying.
"Not knowing?" He asked, confused.
"You're a father." She whispered to him. "Alex recognized you, from a picture I have of when we first met. Alex and Steven, they're yours. I found out a few day's after you were thought to have been killed in that jet turbine."
"What? I'm… what?" Buddy stammered, astounded. A father? Of twins? Nine years… They had grown up without a father, and now they find out he's in a body not much older than they are. They could never find out.
"We can't tell them yet." Buddy said. He wasn't happy about it, but it was necessary. They would expect their father to be forty-four years old, not seventeen.
"We'll wait until you get that man to change you back." Mirage said. "I'll help in any way that I can." She said. "And I'm sorry."
"For what? I'm the one that got caught." Buddy said, confused again. He didn't like being confused so much in one day.
"For being mad at you, I couldn't get it off my mind, the fact the last time I spoke to you I was angry. Please forgive me Syndrome." She cried. He shook his head.
"There's nothing to forgive. It was a long time ago. And you can't call me Syndrome. It'll be a dead giveaway. As it is, I may have to lay low for a few years, to get them to stop searching for me." Buddy said sadly.
"Where are you going to go?" Mirage asked.
"I have a place, it's in an alias I never use. I've had it for years, but never went there. I'll stay there for a while; I have money put away in the same name at a handful of different banks. I'll be okay." He said reassuringly.
"What about Alex and Steven?" She asked. "Are you just going to drop out of their lives again?"
"Never. I'll be around." He smiled in his I know what I'm doing so don't mess with me way.
Zac woke up with a headache. It took her a little while to remember what was going on, but when she did, she bolted up into a sitting position. Rubbing her eyes, she slowly remembered that she was blind.
"Major, here boy!" She called. Listening, she heard his dog tags jingling towards her, and then his nose up against her hand, wanting reassurance that she was all right. Petting behind his ears, she crawled over to the first person she found, trying to wake them up. She hadn't thought that Buddy was that strong with his powers. He could turn out to be a formidable enemy.
The person she found ended up being a guard, and he was one of the ones that never spoke. Sighing in frustration, she told him to wake the other's up, while she figured out what to do.
In all the years that she had known him, he had always been good at hiding, and not being found if he didn't want to. He knew exactly how and where to hide, and usually it was right in the open, in the most obvious place you could think of, only you didn't because it was that obvious. This was going to be a long day…
"Gaaahh!" She heard someone shout, as they sat up. It sounded like Mitchell, so she went towards the sound.
"Zac! Are you all right?" She heard Lisa ask. Zac nodded her head, not trusting her mouth. She was still mad at them for using their powers on her without her permission.
"You can't stay mad at us. You still need everyone else to turn to back. And I could still take your memories again." Lisa pointed out, and Zac knew she was smiling. She was right, but that didn't mean Zac had to like it.
"Fine. Where the hell is Chad?" She demanded. The next instant someone burst into the room, doing their own fake fanfare.
"Presenting, the one, the only, Chad!" He shouted, not noticing that everyone was kneeling or laying on the floor at first.
"What are you guy's on the floor for?" He asked, almost laughing.
"Shut up. Buddy blew up one of the guards watches, and it knocked us all out." Zac said, leaving a few key parts out. They didn't need to know all the little details… She stood up slowly, and carefully walked over to Chad. He seemed to think it funny that she couldn't see him, so she automatically knew that he was making faces at her. She punched him in the face, forcing him to stop. She may be blind, but she wasn't stupid.
"Give me back my sight." She demanded, jabbing her finger into his chest.
"And why should I do that? I seem to remember you just hit me." He said, his voice dripping sarcasm.
"Because if you don't I can turn you into a babbling idiot." She said, referring to one of her powers, telepathy. This seemed to get the point across, because he knew she could and would do it if she didn't get her own way. He quickly gave her sight back.
It was as if everyone turned the lights on all at once. After living in darkness for ten years, she was amazed at all the colours that could be in one dark room. Having a momentary lapse of anger, she wrapped her arms around Chad's neck, giving him the biggest hug she could muster.
"Thank you." She whispered into his ear, before punching him again. "That was for taking it in the first place." He laughed at that, deciding he deserved it.
Five Years Later
Syndrome walked down his hallway. He had lived here for five years now, ever since he had escaped from Zacathia's clutches. He had been laying low for the entire time, quietly rebuilding the inventions he had lost on Nomanisan. He had built three new Omnidroids; they were all smaller than before but three times better. He would control them all, which would make them not attack him, which was always a good thing. He had built a small army of androids, also to be controlled by him. And all built out of things he got at the neighborhood hardware store.
He lived in seclusion, even if it was in the suburbs. The house was under the name Konrad Zuse, the man to invent the Z1 computer, the first freely programmable computer. None of his neighbors ever came to visit; he never went to visit them. He rarely left his house, and when he did, it was to go to the grocery or hardware store. Even then, he would sometimes get Steven or Alex to come with him. They were fouteen now, but they still knew the neighborhood better than he did. His house was across the street from theirs, so it wasn't a short walk. They didn't always want to go, but Mirage made them. They hadn't been told why, but they listened to her out of respect.
He found out that he had a lot in common with his sons. He had been told they looked like their mother, Mirage, but they thought like him. They enjoyed staying up late inventing, finished their homework faster than the teachers could give it to them, and were strong willed. He had on many occasions resorted to paying them to stay with him when they ran into their friends on the way to the store. It was usually a hefty price too, in the fifty-dollar margin. But he didn't care; he knew they'd put it to good use. Maybe he'd let them in on his plans. All he'd have to do is build them remote controls.
Smiling, he bent down and put food in Bruiser's dish. It was a cheap kind, but it was a dog, what would he care? All he cared about was getting fed on time.
A knock on the door told him Alex had come over for some reason. It was probably just a bug in his newest invention's circuit.
Walking to the door, he asked whom it was. It was Alex, just as he had suspected. Opening the door, he felt the boy rush in, then quickly shut the door. This wasn't the kid's typical behavior, so Buddy was instantly worried.
"What's going on?" He asked, looking around. He heard something hit the door. "What was that?"
"Some bullies. They took all my clothes except my underwear and started throwing water balloons at me." He sounded shaken up, so Buddy didn't make him go home. He would later, but not right now.
"Really huh? Well let's deal with this now." Buddy smiled. He had told Alex he had powers, but not what they were. Now it was time to show him. "Would those boys happened to have gotten wet?"
"Yes. Their shirts were soaked from filling the balloons." Alex said.
"Good. Watch them through the window." Buddy said, pointing to the window beside the door. Buddy reached out with his powers towards the boys, and searched for electronics. They were all wearing waterproof watches, but one had a discman in his pants pocket. Smiling, Buddy decided to use that as his conductor. He overloaded it, until the batteries sent a shock through the boy, which traveled to the other two. They were unconscious within two minutes.
"You might want to call an ambulance." Buddy said, smiling. Alex agreed, running to where he knew the phone was. Buddy continued smiling, while going back down the hall to get a towel and spare clothes. He hadn't thrown anything out, so he pulled a trunk of the clothes he didn't wear anymore. He pulled out a pair of pants and a shirt, knowing they would match because He only had black clothes.
Alex ran into the room, excited. "They're coming."
"Put these on, after you've dried off." Buddy said, tossing him the towel and clothes, and walked out of the room. Buddy called Bruiser, and proceeded to walk outside to the boys. People had started to look out their front doors, to see what was going on, but Buddy was the only one to actually go up and see if they were alive. He knew they were, he had only made a slight shock. He had even compensated for the magnification the water would have on the electricity.
Alex quickly ran out of the house, and up to the boys on the sidewalk. "How come they're twitching?" He asked. This wasn't good.
"Twitching, they're twitching? You're sure?" Buddy asked, bending down to feel one of the boy's hands. Yes, they were twitching. The kid wasn't playing a joke on him. Maybe he hadn't compensated quite enough…
He let go of the boy's hand when he heard sirens coming closer to them. Standing up, he heard someone come up to him. It wasn't one of the guy's from the ambulance, he would know if it was them. This person wasn't wearing any electronics. This could be bad, only one person knew the extent of his abilities enough to not wear them…
"Hello Syndrome." The person said slyly.
"Hello Zac. And please, call me Buddy. Syndrome died years ago." Buddy said. "How did you find me?"
"We've been watching for any hint of someone calling in with an unexplainable electric shock. You've been careful, but not careful enough." She replied.
"It was fun while it lasted." Buddy sighed, allowing the guards to lead him into a vehicle. Buddy shouted out the window; "Alex! Take care of Bruiser for me!"
"Okay! When will you be coming back?" He heard over the roar of the engine.
"I don't know!" Buddy replied, before the vehicle sped away.
