Disclaimer: I don't own 9, and 81 (aka Jessie) belongs to BeachCat.

Author Note: Gasp! I know, more than one post a month! Don't get used to being spoiled. This has to be the fastest chapter I've written so far.

Last round went great, so I'm doing it again. I added a twist. I've hidden two quotes this time, and both are two liners (two people talking to each other). The winners that find the quotes get to have an OC guest star in this fic, or an alternate prize of a one shot. To be fair, you can only claim one quote. And it was also decided last round that you can use the internet to your advantage. It's no use to you though if you can't find the quote first.

The first quote is very tricky. The only hint your getting is that it's from a computer game. Second quote, I tried to make as easy as possible. It's from a kid's live action movie sequel. It's not Disney, but it airs on the Disney channels.

Have fun!

Edit: We have one winner so far, CreativeJournalist. the harder quote was "...I still have nightmares about that cat." "What cat?" from Half-life 2.

We have our second winner now, FaerieDeathKat. The second quote was "...We're childern not monsters" "What's the difference?" from Spy kids 2.

Brace Yourself

Chapter 4

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"Stupid crazy woman…I feel like a pedophile." Marco grumbled, "What's the point of this?" He leaned back into the leather seat, rolled down the window and lit a cigarette. Mocking Sierra's voice, he whined, "Look out for anything weird and don't get in my way."

He took a puff and blew out, "What the hell does she mean weird? The weirdest thing I've seen these past three weeks is some lesbians making out." He chuckled; that had been fun. He drove right up beside the sign that they were hiding behind and honked at them. He'd never seen anyone jump that high before.

Well, then again, there was also a group of kids that wore similar hoodies, each with a different number on it. It was rather odd, but not weird. They were just kids. Though, right? It could have been a new trend starting up. Still, the oddity caught his attention.

There were two main separate groups; One with six kids, and two loners that walked home in the opposite direction. One from the group of six was picked up, leaving the other five to walk. He had fallowed them once out of boredom. About two streets later one of them peeled off and went his own way. The remaining four continued to the park, and sat there together for a while. Marco excused himself at that point.

Today, though, he was stalking the loners. There was no one else around, and he was sure that they couldn't see him from around the corner. One kid kept turning, as if she knew he was there, so he had to be careful. The other seemed normal enough, until he sneezed a wad of magma out. The girl quickly pulled some sort of odd container out of her friend's backpack and scooped the cooling rock into it. She looked around again, and tried to hurry her friend along.

Marco smiled and mentally marked "Find something weird" off of his to do list.

It was starting to get warmer out and there were a few grass sprouts, even some birds singing. Ace gave a wave to Caleb as he hopped into his mom's van, and they fell into formation as they slowly made their way home.

Andrew walked behind the twins, rolling his bike along. Kelly took lead, leaving Ace somewhere between the others, usually changing his pace depending on who he was talking to.

That had become their norm.

A norm that was about to be broken.

Ace was the one that had noticed her first. "That Girl's been following us since the last street."

Kelly halted and spun around. She recognized the patched hoodieeven though the number, 81, was on the wrong arm. She wondered how the girl managed to keep it like that for so long without having every member of the provider corps trying to snatch it away and fix it. Customization was allowed, but there were some lines you just couldn't cross.

The twin's had their matching blue hoodies, Caleb had his black and white stripes, and this girl had a gray one with darker gray stripes. Kelly hadn't wanted to bother to switch hoodies and kept the classical black one they were all given. Ace seemed to have a similar opinion, or just didn't know. Kelly had seen some weirder customizations, some she wished she could forget, but never before had she seen someone get away with wearing their patch on the wrong side.

Kelly instantly liked her, just for that fact.

She called out and waved, "Hey, you! Your one of Becky's, right? Your pretty far from home if you're going this way. Did you need something?"

The girl in question flinched in surprise, and ran to catch up with them. "I'm sorry, normally I don't come this way and I got kind of turned around… Anyway, my friend is home sick so I had to walk home by myself and there is this weirdo following me!"

"A weirdo?" questioned Andrew. She was a cute girl with wavy chin length brown hair and dimples. If Andrew remembered correctly, she had been in his freshmen art class and went by the name Jessie.

Jessie blushed and fiddled with a large dented ring on her finger, "Yeah… He's been driving around here for a while. I just thought he was picking someone up, but then he started driving after my friend and me the other day…" she looked over her shoulder squinting in the direction where the man was supposedly hiding," …and he's following me now…"

"Well, we'll take you to our provider and see if he can't get you on the right side of town. I think that's the most we can do…" Ace offered.

Kelly broke in and exclaimed proudly, "I have a plan."

Andrew backed up, a look of dread on his face when Kelly turned to him. "Why are you starring at me like that?"

"c'mon, you've rigged cars before."

"On accident! What makes you think I can do it intentionally without blowing us up?!"

"Call it an instinctive hunch."

"Your "instinctive hunch" is what got us stuck in a tree last week!"

Ace paled at the memory. "Forget the tree. I still have nightmares about that cat."

Kelly rolled her eyes, "Oh, details, details."

Jessie blinked in confusion, "What cat?"

The car pulled around the corner, and Kelly waved her hand at it, shouting, "Hey, over here!"

Andrew grabbed her and hissed, "What is wrong with you?! This is how people get kidnapped!"

The car halted in front of them and the window rolled down, letting out the smell of smoke. "What?"

The man was wearing a grey Fedora hat and sunglasses. He taped his amber red cigarette on the edge of the window, causing the end to break off.

He certainly seemed suspicious, just like the kind of person that would abduct and rape an innocent child.

Kelly didn't seem fazed at all. "Nice car. Did you customize it yourself?"

The stranger frowned, "It's…not customized."

"What model is it?"

Andrew sighed, and mentally cursed at Kelly for forcing him into acting. He reached out and touched the car while Kelly had him distracted.

"Look brat, I don't have time to play-Ahh!" The man cut off and hollered in surprise when his car convulsed. The alarm went off, the wipers went out of control, and the radio played for a few minutes before sparks flew out of it and died.

The stranger threw the door open and fell onto the sidewalk in his hurry, one hand holding his hat to his head, screaming, "Shit! Shit, shiten fucking mother of crap!"

"Looks like it needs some work on it. Have fun with that. Bye!" Kelly shouted over her shoulder, already running off with the other teens.

"Sierra's going to kill me with her freaky voodoo crap when she finds out…" Marco groaned as he sat up, and his hand brushed against something.

Marco raised an eyebrow at the yellow flyer that must have fallen out of one of the brat's backpacks.

"what's this?"

Ace dumped his backpack by the door, kick his shoes off, and rounded the sofa to greet his little sister.

"Hey Helen! How was your day sweetheart?" Ace asked lovingly as his mentally challenged sister played with some blocks on the floor. The five year old gurgled something incomprehensible at him.

"I wish you would stop messing around after school; you know I need the help." His mom accused. She placed the newspaper she had been reading on the coffee table, "and I don't like the looks of those kids you've been hanging out with."

Ace felt his nose twitched, and quickly buried his face into his elbow and sneezed. He frowned, hopping he wasn't coming down with something. Shaking it off, he said, "Mom, there not gangsters or anything," The idea was laughable, considering the rural little town they occupied that was surrounded by farm land. "You would like Andrew. I could always invite them over…"

"No. Not when the house is a wreck," came the firm verdict.

Ace rolled his eyes, under the impression that a few toys and clothes on the floor didn't count as a wreck. "What if I clean?"

"My answer still stands as a no. Watch Helen while I make dinner." Ace groaned but none the less sat down on the carpet in front of his sister.

Helen chirped and waved a building block at him. Smiling, he took the offering and whispered, "Do you want to see something cool?"

He took a quick glance at the kitchen to make sure his mom couldn't see, then levitated the block a few inches off of his hand, then let it drop. Helen squealed in delight.

Ace whispered teasingly, "This is our little secret. Don't tell anyone." His little sister patted the block in his hand, and he swore she gurgled out a mangled version of the word, "secret". He didn't care what people told him, he really believed Helen could understand more then what they gave her credit for.

He kissed her on the forehead and cooed, "You are such a sweetheart. Man, I need to get Kelly over here someday. She would love you to death."

Helen offered him another block.

Izzie sighed and pushed a piece of broccoli around her plate. Not that she didn't like broccoli. She was getting bored though of listening to their parents yack on and on. You tended to get left out of a lot of conversations when you couldn't talk.

Ian reached over and stabbed the vegetable she had been playing with, and it was gone in a quick bite. She smiled, and took a piece of his chicken patty in turn. It was an old inside joke that started when they were as young as three.

Figuring that they wouldn't be missed, they put their plates up and headed for their room. Ever since their grandma moved in, they had been shoved into one room together. It was only supposed to be temporary, just until her house was repaired, but it had been going on a year now, and she didn't seem to be moving out anytime soon.

There was no doubt that Izzie loved her brother, but she needed her space. It was bad enough that they naturally stuck together.

Their grandmother grumbled at them as they passed her in the living room, "monstrous brats."

Ian signed back cheekily, "We're children, not monsters."

Their grandmother snorted, "Is there a difference?"

Izzie grabbed her twin and dragged him off before he could sign something inappropriate.

Kelly tapped the table irritability. The plate in front of her was spotless, her glass half way full. The spot across from her was empty and the untouched meal had gone cold long ago.

She looked at the clock again and sighed in annoyance. Her mother was rarely late for dinner, and if she was, it was because she had foolishly decided to go to a bar with co workers without warning her daughter first. The last thing Kelly wanted to deal with was her mother in a drunken state again.

Hopping to kill some time, she got up in a huff, washed her silverware off, and as she loaded it in the dishwasher, she could hear the front door unlock and swing open. She quickly shut the washer and stormed into the living room.

"Well, it took you long enough. What's your excuse this ti—" Her voice caught in her throat.

Andrew sighed, and flicked the T.V off. The only thing on his favorite Chanel was some sort of documentary on super heros. He wasn't too fond of watching those. Most of the super heroes were complete fruit loops and for some reason they went out of their way to make it seem like having powers was as easy as breathing.

Yeah right.

He could hear his parents arguing from the other side of the house. Most likely about him. He couldn't figure out what their problem was. For some reason they just couldn't accept the fact that he was (relatively) normal. He didn't drink, he didn't do drugs, he didn't cut himself, and he defiantly wasn't a pyromaniac.

They could drag him to every shrink in the area, and they wouldn't be able to find anything wrong. But no, for some reason they thought that there had to be something wrong with him. Maybe it was because he was a single child. Ace, Caleb, and the twins didn't have this kind of problem, and he couldn't use Kelly as a comparison because her mom didn't actually count as an adult.

With a final sigh, he decided on trying to read one of the computer books Harold let him borrow.

There was a knock at his door. Caleb paused, knowing that this was coming.

"Caleb?" Called his dad, "May I have a word with you?"

The seer rearranged the note pads on his desk and called back, "Sure…"

His dad came in, his face firm. Caleb's guess had been right. "You were fighting with Jennifer again."

"She started it," came the practiced lines," She was talking about cutting my hair again."

"That isn't the story that I heard."

"Then she lied." The words bit, words that he didn't want to say.

His dad came closer, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Caleb…Jennifer does not hate you, nor does she want to change you. It bothers her when you constantly have to brush your hair out of the way. She was just trying to suggest that you keep it tied up."

He reached to graze a hand over his hair, "You used to keep it braided all the time before…"

And Caleb had no choice but to dodge it. "…I like it this way."

His dad hesitated then, "You know if something is bothering you, you can always tell me."

"I know." He stated calmly, but inside he was crying for the need to tell his father the truth.

His father nodded sadly and left.

Frustrated, Caleb yanked the metal band off his head and threw it in his desk drawer for the night. He hated hurting his dad like that, but he couldn't risk him finding out. The sooner he got that replacement piece, the better.

An old, wary man sat at a desk, behind a wall made of glass. He seemed… familiar, like an old family friend that he hadn't seen since he was a child. There was warmth there, a kindness and an unexplainable trust for this man.

Another man stormed in, someone else he knew but only by name. A strict, firm man; the Chancellor. The familiar old man startled and the two broke out in an argument, slurred words that he couldn't hear.

The farther end of the window smashed, and a new person staggered forward. In an instant he had the chancellor pinned under him. he hissed, an awful, thick breath lingered over the trapped man.

In an instant his head fell back---dead cold.

The body decayed at a rapid speed, unraveling and falling apart to reveal inwards and bone and---

The familiar man had fallen against the wall in shock, eyes behind his glasses wide as could be.

The crazed man smiled at him, his own eyes gleaming in pride….

"Hello father. I'm home."

Jeb hated getting calls in the middle of the night.

Actually, if you wanted to be accurate, he absolutely loathed them. Night time calls ranked number three on his hate list, between teenage punks and mariachi bands.

"Hello?" He asked tiredly, not bothering to check the caller I.D first.

"…I…I saw something…"

He groaned at the sound of Caleb's panicked voice. "You woke me up just to tell me that you disobeyed me yet again and took the device off."

"p please! It's important! He's coming! H..he…"

"Caleb…stop watching horror films and go back to bed." With that, he ended the call, placed the phone back on his night stand…and got a full ten minutes of sleep before it rang again.

"Yes?" Jeb growled into the speaking piece.

"Mr. A…I don't think I can make it tomorrow."

Jeb hesitated at the sound of Kelly's distressed tone. "What happened?"

"Just…family problems," she sobbed.

He knew Kelly didn't have a stable home, but never had he heard the confident child so upset before. He knew it had to be bad to unnerve the girl so much. "…I see. Would you like me to send Harold?"

"…please."

Jeb almost ended the call then, but paused, and whispered a reassuring, "Good night, then."

Not even a minuet latter, it rang yet again. Jebgrowled at the name that ran across the glowing screen. "What now? Someone better be dying!"

"No, someone will die. I sa-ss saw it!"

Jeb groaned, and tried his best to keep his tone even, "Caleb…put the god damn blocker back on and GO TO SLEEP."

"But-"

Jeb slammed his cell phone shut.

His phone rang again.

"WHAT!?"

It was Ace this time. "Um…Mr. Anderson? Do colds like, affect our powers or something? Because I have this really weird tingling feeling…"

"If its bothering you that much, come see me first thing tomorrow. Otherwise ignore it and let me sleep."

Jeb laid back down, pleased by the silence of his house. But just when he was starting to think that his calls were done for the night…

Harold was thoroughly surprised when he was thrown out of bed, and a cell phone was chucked at him.

"You take care of it!"

Confused and voice tinted with drowsiness, he picked up the cell phone and asked, "Hello?"

"He's going to die! Evil…so evil! Just crumbled apart!" Hissed Caleb on the other end of the line, absolutely terrified.

"Calm down, you're not making any sense. Breathe, Ceb." Harold advised placidly.

"I saw The Chancellor being murdered," Caleb whispered.

"I don't see how that's a bad thing."

"The man that did it…isn't normal. So evil…so angry! And there was someone else. Don't know him but I know him…" Caleb was starting to get excited again.

"Alright, alright, just keep calm. Getting upset isn't going to help anyone." He allowed a pause then asked, "Are you okay?"

"…yeah, I'm fine."

"Caleb, could we talk about this later at a more decent hour?" Harold was trying his best not to yawn, but it was difficult to do at three in the morning.

There was a long pause then a quiet, "…Okay…"

"Try to get some sleep, alight? Good night Caleb."

Author note: (holds up Helen) this has got to be the awesomest twist I've done so far! C,mon, there's no way you could be expecting that, and she's just so cute!

I really really loved this chapter, it was so much fun doing everyone's family problems. And the phone conversations at the end. I got a blast out of it! XD