Welcome to the Neighborhood
Disclaimer: I don't own anything familiar.
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Vanessa Taylor. A special girl- I mean- teenager. She was 16. A brunette. Her hair was shoulder length, long enough to be tied into a pony tail. She was gifted in the areas of music, but she better in playing the piano than other instruments. She didn't wear braces and was of an average height. Not too short, not too tall. She could sing quite well, probably because of her expertise in music related subjects or criteria. But those weren't the reasons why she was special. The reason was quite a simple one. She didn't think that Bridge, Z, Sky, Sam or Jack were freaks. In fact, she didn't think that anyone who had genetic powers or who were different were freaks. That was why she was special. Granted she did think Bridge was weird sometimes, but then again anyone who knew him would tell you that he was weird. Vanessa didn't care about what others thought of Bridge and the others. To her they were just normal people with cool powers that no one else in the school or probably world had. The other kids at school were simply biased against people who were different from them, and they didn't take time to get to know the others better. Plus, the fact that she had a little crush on Bridge was to be taken into consideration too.
"It's going to be Bridge's birthday in a few days. Eighteen. I wonder if the others are planning something special for him," wondered Vanessa out loud. She decided to visit her friends. Maybe they wanted to go catch a movie or something. It was such a perfect day. Throwing a few items into her back pack, she started towards her friends' house. It was a fifteen to twenty minutes walk to their house.
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"We need a diversion. Then one of us could get his glove off," said Jack. He watched as the group of Krybots grew bigger and bigger in number. "Z, you're the one he's the closest with-"
"I'll give him the jolt," said Z, knowing what Jack was about to say. "Sam can port his glove off, right?" She turned to her brother, he nodded.
"The rest of us fight the robots," continued Jack.
"Diversion. Got it." Syd grabbed the diamond part she had placed in her belt of materials. "I summon this stone!" It glowed the usual shade of pink before turning into the semi-precious stone. Grinning devilishly she directed the sun's shine towards the robots and Bridge, blinding them for a few moments.
Everything happened really quickly after that. As they were temporarily blinded, Z replicated beside Bridge. Sam teleported the glove off of one of Bridge's hands. "Here goes nothing..." whispered Z. She grabbed Bridge's bare hand.
The light blinding Mora's minions vanished instantly after Syd saw that Z had made contact with Bridge. He stood there, memories that seemed foreign yet familiar flooded his mind.
FLASH
Z bent over a piece of paper, colouring and writing furiously. No one had any idea what she was doing. Even the boys had no idea. Then. "Done!" she said, smiling triumphantly. Clutched in one of her hand was a crayon and a pencil, crayon smears were all over her bright, new but now dirty, yellow dress, in her other hand was a piece of paper which looked like a rainbow hit it.
Before any of the boys could see what she had accomplished, the paper was rudely snatched out of her hand. "Hey! Give that back!" demanded the eight year old angrily. She whirled around, facing the 'thief'.
It was Gary. The boy who enjoyed tormenting her and the boys. He started reading the stuff written on the paper out loud. "Oh! It's a family tree! Hmm... Mummy, Daddy... Little brother, Sam... Oh and what's this? You have more than one brother?" He gave a mocking gasp, waving the family tree about, as if an awful scandal.
"Give it back!" cried Z, afraid that Gary might destroy her precious art work. Gary smiled, pausing his waving display of Z's family tree. He jumped onto one of the tables, holding it high out of the girl's reach. She narrowed her eyes. "Or else..." she threatened.
He rolled his eyes. "Oh... I'm soo scared," he said, in a baby-ish way, mocking her. "I'm so scared of a kid- a girl who is two years younger than me. Ahh! Save me from her wrath!" Then he went back to the paper. He scanned it, trying to remember what he was teasing Z about in the first place. "Oh yeah... I didn't know that Jack and Sky and Bridge were your brothers. Since when? Or is it because all of them are freaks like you? So you guys are a big freaky family."
"Give that back to Z!" demanded Bridge, hurtling out of no where, knocking Gary off the table and onto the ground. He grabbed the now quite tattered family tree out of Gary's hand as he picked himself up from clashing into the bully.
Growling, Gary stood up, dusting off any dirt that was on his shirt that he could have got when he fell onto the ground. "You are going to pay for that..." he growled, towering high over the two eight years old. "And you are going to regret about what you just did."
"Oh yeah?" dared Bridge, more confident than he really was. Behind him was a furious but afraid Z. "What are you going to-" Before he could finish his sentence, or rather question, he was lifted up in the air, by the collar of his shirt, by the livid Gary. "Hey! Ow! My shirt doesn't go that way!"
Her fears immediately vanquished, Z rushed forwards, trying to push the bully down and to save Bridge. The three of them soon broke out into a fight. The commotion attracted a crowd, a few joined in, wanting to beat up one of the 'freaks'. "Don't touch Bridge!" she shouted at the bully, afraid of a psychic reaction Bridge might receive. She kicked at the bully's shins, trying to make him release Bridge.
The sound, unfortunately for the bullies, also attracted Jack and Sky, who were at the other end of the play ground. And everyone knew not to mess with any of their 'siblings' or suffer the wrath of the angry older 'brothers'.
"Leme go! Leme go!" cried Z, struggling against the grip of another kid who decided to join in the fight. Her 'captor' had both her hands held back, as if in a hand cuff. Though she was strong for an eight year old, he was much, much stronger. Looking around, she spotted Bridge, thankfully not hanging by the collar of his shirt but, in the same predicament as her. Then there was a short flash of blue and suddenly she was free. "Thanks Sky!" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jack phase out of the ground, scaring the heck out of the boy who was holding Bridge. The people crowding around suddenly dispersed quickly, not because of the arrival of Jack and Sky. The teacher was here.
FLASH
"And as your nearly kind of brother, I reserve the right to break the arms of your 'boy friend' if he ever hurts you," vowed Jack, sounding both joking but serious. Then he said to Sky in a stage whisper, "You can have his legs."
"Okay. And I reserve the right to break his legs," continued Sky, trying not to laugh at the expression of disbelief on Z's face.
"Guys! You are not allowed to harm him at all!" said Z exparatedly. "And don't worry, I can take care of myself."
"And as your younger brother-" quipped Sam, following Jack and Sky's example.
"Not you too..." sighed Z, waiting for her younger brother to continue his vow of harming her date if he ever hurt her. Why didn't they get the fact that she could take care of herself? Sky, Jack and Sam grinned.
"I reserve the right to..." he broke off, not knowing what to say. Sky bent over and whispered something in Sam's ear. "I reserve the right to teleport him to somewhere not very fun or nice if he ever hurts you. Or the Sahara Desert... Or... yep..."
"What about you Bridge? Anything you want to add?" asked Z, shaking her head.
"I won't give him any of my buttery toast if I make any," said Bridge. Then he added, seriously, "And I'll beat him up if he ever dares to hurt you."
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"What's happening?" asked Syd, in mid battle. The two, Bridge and Z, had been frozen in place for a few minutes so far. Both of them had a glazed far away look in their eyes. "Why aren't they moving?" She let out a karate yell as she punched one of the Krybots.
"I don't know... We never tried doing that before." Jack threw a worried look at Z and Bridge. It was true that they had not moved an inch since Z had grabbed Bridge's hand. "I just hope that they are both alright and that it would break the mind wipe."
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Were these his memories? But he didn't remember being in any of them at all. His sub conscious told him that this was the real him. That he was Bridge Carson, Z, Sam, Sky and Jack's brother. But his conscious told him that he was Bridge. Evil warrior of Mora. He didn't know which was real or which was fake. The mind wipe was too strong. He was Bridge. He had been given orders. He was to destroy them. Or capture them. These images were all created to fool him from his task. All he had to do was to take his hand away.
But that seemed impossible to do. He couldn't seem to take his hand away to break the connection between him and that girl. As if one part of him refused to let him do that, to let him loose the only chance of breaking the spell. All he could was watch memories that didn't seem to be his but seemed to be his at the same time.
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"Cool! Z's like us! Z's like us! Mummy! Mummy!" exclaimed the five year old Bridge excitedly. He ran into the house and emerged a few seconds later with his mother's fair hand in his gloved one. "Mummy! Z's like me! And us!" He started talking at full speed. Mrs Carson smiled gently, not knowing exactly what her son was talking about but knew that it had to be of a big importance to him. "Can you believe it Mummy?"
In the back yard of the Carson residence was seven year old Sky and seven year old Jack and five year old Z... And another two five year old Zs. "Mummy! Look, Z has powers like us! Z can be more than one Z," cried Bridge, pointing to the three Zs. "We were playing catch and Z fell and she became three Zs. And it was so cool! It was like splat then she became three! And her eyes became a buttery yellow colour!"
"Are you sure you are ok?" asked Sky, concerned, ignoring Bridge.
"Yes! I told you I'm okay!" replied Z, still in shock. She had powers too! Like Jack and Sky and Bridge. She wasn't different from the rest any more.
"Are you-" Sky was cut off.
"Sky, don't worry... Z told you already a gazillion times that she is fine," interrupted Jack, bored of hearing Sky ask Z if she was feeling okay. He spotted Bridge with his mother. "Look, we'll just ask Mrs Carson to help us." Then all of a sudden, the two duplicated Zs disappeared as sudden as they appeared. "And the other Zs just disappeared. So she's okay now isn't she?" To confirm his statement, Z nodded.
"This is so cool..." breathed Z, smiling.
FLASH
"Sam do that again," said Z, surprised. She was 13 and her brother, Sam, had just made- show displays of powers like her. "Did you just make that thing disappear then appear?"
"Yep. I think I just did..." replied the equally amazed Sam.
FLASH
"Make a wish," said Z.
"Why?" asked Sky. "It never comes true."
"Why? What did you wish for? A giant marshmallow headed alien that eats goats and fishes suddenly rampaging through town and destroying everything in sight?"
"Maybe..."
"Uh huh..."
FLASH
"You like him don't you?" asked Z, accusingly. She had caught Vanessa staring at Bridge. Again. For the 5th time since the start of the day. "Just tell him..." And truth be told Z rather Vanessa start going out with Bridge then any other girl. Or no one. It was rare that someone would actually talk to them. It was even rarer for that someone to fall for Bridge. But then again, what's not to like about Bridge? He was funny, sweet.
"No I don't," replied Vanessa, mentally kicking herself for letting Z catch her again.
"Riiight..."
"Fine I do. I think he's really awesome. And he's sweet. And funny. And just perfect," said Vanessa. "Oh and if you told him this I'd rip your limbs off your body and cut them up into little bite sized pieces and feed them to the alligator they have in the zoo."
Z grimaced. "Oh ew. Aren't you gory."
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I am Bridge Carson. No you are not. I AM BRIDGE CARSON. You are not anything. You are working for Mora. You are not the Bridge in these memories they are simply created to fool you. You're lying. I remember them. I am Bridge Carson. They are my friends. I do not work for Mora.
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"No! No! No! Stupid girl!" shouted Mora angrily. She had realized what their plan was and unfortunately for her. It was working. Bridge was starting to fight the mind control. "You stupid girl! Why are you going to ruin EVERYTHING?" Then an idea came to her and if it were an anime show a light bulb would be flashing above her head. Her mood changed immediately and she scrambled off her seat in search for her drawing book.
She placed the book on the ground then went off to find the rest of her drawing materials. Crayons, colour pencils, erasers and pencils. Then with all the materials needed, she started work. Just because her Plan A didn't work, didn't mean that it was going to fail completely. She had a Plan B. A plan that even them would not be able to get out off.
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"Bridge. You are ok?" asked Z, warily. She had decided to break the connection between the two. She waved her hand in front of his face. "Are you there?"
I am Bridge Carson.
"Say something. Anything. Like something stupid you'd normally say," pleaded Z. Had their plan gone hay wire and instead of freeing Bridge from the mind wipe made him forget everything that happened?
The mind wipe broke. He got a head ache as memories after memories started flooding back in. It was like watching a video, then suddenly changing it when you just realized what was happening in the show. As soon as he figured out what happened in that memory, it changed to a whole new one, as if each and every thing wanted his acknowledgement. Then it occurred to him that Z was talking to him. "Huh?" he asked. It was quite weird really. The process from mind wiped to recovering your lost memories. It was incredibly quick, and there wasn't much to it. Just bam! your memories are back and your mind is clear.
"You're ok?"
"Fine, just fine. Oh and about Va-"
"Talk later. Fight now," replied Z, relieved that Bridge was alright. The Krybots had started circling them as well.
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"So you may have defeated the Krybots and maybe even the Blue Head so what?" said Mora. She had finished her drawing. She hugged her book tightly to her chest. "But you can never beat this!" She flipped the drawing book to a certain page and showed it to the group. Confused, they watched as the drawing glew an eerie colour and turned into a real living, breathing monster. "Meet my newest monster!"
"So pleased to see you." The monster was like a mix of an octopus, an eagle and a bear. It had a bear body with tentacles and the head looked like it was of an eagle's. "My name is Phear. Welcome to your night mares," it said, whilst its eyes glowed red.
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"What are you talking about?" was the question Bridge was about to ask when he realized that Phear was no longer here. He looked around and realized that the others weren't with him either. In fact, he wasn't even in the park anymore. It was completely dark. Then the surrounding scene changed.
Fire. Angry flames surrounded him. Near enough for him to feel the heat but not near enough to get burned. He was surrounded with it. Everywhere he looked was fire. It was creeping nearer and nearer. As if wanting to eat him up. The scene was familiar. He was in his house when it was burning down. They licked closer and closer. The fire formed a circle around him.
Bridge hated fire. He was afraid of fire.
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She had a bad feeling about the monster. Phear. It sounded too much like 'Fear'. The whole place went dark for a second. "What's going on?" Then it changed. She was in a room. The walls were of pure white, the 'whitest' walls she had ever seen. In fact if she didn't know that she was in a room, she would have thought that it was just the floor that stretched long into the horizon. "Where am I?" She didn't like this place.
Z shivered. The white walls seemed to be closing in on her. But that couldn't be possible right? The room seemed to get smaller and smaller. She closed her eyes, hoping that she when she opened them she was back in the park with the others. No, she was stuck here alone. The walls seemed to get nearer and nearer, wanting to enclose her. It seemed harder to breathe. Like the air was running out.
One thing to know about Z. She was claustrophobic.
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It was pitch black. He wasn't in the park anymore. "Z? Sky? Anyone?" called out Sam, uncertainly. His voice seemed to echo around, mocking him. It seemed to grow louder and louder with each echo, as if telling him that he was the only one around. No one is here. No one is here. "Someone? Anyone?" He couldn't even see in front of him, not even his hand which he put out to feel around, just in case there was anything in front of him. What was going on? And why did it have to be dark?
A roar sounded off somewhere behind him. It was faint. Then it got louder and louder. Another roar came from in front of him, it was higher in pitch. But equally frightening. Noises of animals that he didn't hear before started erupting about everywhere, as if there were many animals and monsters about that wanted very much to eat him up. They were not very loud, faint then getting louder. Not loud enough to mean that they were directly in front of him. Foot steps, and roars coming from all directions. No matter where he turned, there was something there waiting for him to come. He thought he saw something moving in front of him.
It was completely dark. There was no light. At all.
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Syd thought she had gone blind for a second when the whole world went dark. Then, thankfully, it became bright again. It was clear that she was no longer in the park. It was clear that the others were no longer with her. And it was clear to her that she was in water. Surprisingly the chlorine in the water didn't hurt her eyes, as she could keep her eyes open without feeling the stinging sensation one would usually feel when they opened their eyes underwater.
She swam to the surface to take a breath before she ran out of air. But she couldn't. There was a glass pane placed over the pool which prevented her from surfacing. She would run out of air. And die. A few precious air bubbles escaped from her lips.
The worst way to die, according to Syd, was to drown. All alone. Waiting for Death.
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"Here we go again..." muttered Sky, as his surroundings turned dark. First meeting Syd, then getting attacked by robots, then getting kidnapped by some weird girl, then getting worried over Bridge, then meeting up in the morning, then finding out that Bridge was turned evil, then waiting nervously for Z to get Bridge back to normal, then feeling thankful that Bridge was okay, then meeting some weirdo red eyed monster, and now this. What else could go wrong? If you asked him, he'd rather spend the day reading, or doing things that are actually counted as normal.
The place lighted up. The group was no where to be found. "Great. Just great..." There were random people, throngs of random people, surrounding him. There was just him in the middle of the circle. They were laughing. And laughing. He looked down. A red blush crept to his cheeks as he realized that his pants was gone, leaving just him in his shirt and boxers. Bright pink fuchsia boxers. Their laughter started getting higher, more people laughing.
He felt embarrassed. An emotion he hated- maybe even feared- to feel.
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"Oh for the love of God..." Jack resisted the urge of muttering the worst swear word he had ever came across. Everything went dark. Then lit up again. It wasn't exactly very bright. The sky was a dull gloom, cloudy and depressing. He looked around and realized. He was still in the park. But there was no one around.
"Oh crud... Where the heck is everyone else?" he asked himself, running a hand through his hair. He started off towards his house, thinking he would at least run into a few people. No one. There was no one at all. It was as if it were a ghost town. And he was the only one in the whole city. It was both eerily silent and yet there seemed to be wailings coming from everywhere.
Alone in the world with no one else but ghostly wails. Jack shivered. It was freaky.
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I couldn't think of any fear for Jack. Hope it wasn't too long. Please review.
Blackie Frogz
