This story spans from the very beginning of Martin and Diana's relationship until pretty much when they leave high school. It's not a romantic tale because that's actually rather creepy. Anyway, enjoy.
Martin didn't really remember much about his mum. She'd died when he was two and then he had spent three happy years trotting around the world with his dad. Until his dad met Sierra Lombard. She was quite like his father, logical and only slightly strict. And, a few weeks after they started dating or courting, as his dad called it, Martin met Sierra's daughter.
Diana was nine months younger than Martin and looked like her mother except where she had emerald eyes, Sierra had brown eyes. Martin liked Diana, even though they had nothing in common. Where he went outside to look at rocks and things like that, she read books and studied. Martin didn't mind; even though there was nothing in common between them, they quickly became close friends.
He remembered one time where they'd gone out for a bike ride; they had both slipped and tumbled down a hill. Diana had passed out from hitting her head and Martin had broken his arm. He had scrambled over to her and stayed with her, even as night fell. He had woken to Dad and Sierra rushing towards, torches in hand. Only then he realise that he had pulled Diana close, avoiding his arm, of course, and his chin was rested on her brown hair.
Four weeks later, he had a cast wrapped around his arm and his friendship with Diana was stronger than ever. Most people would laugh and say that the two were almost like siblings because they bickered 24/7. Neither of them had expected that they would actually become siblings but at ages 9 and 10, their parents had announced that they were getting married, both kids had been so happy for their parents.
At the wedding, Martin had promised to be on his best behaviour and had accepted his dad's request of ring-bearer. The wedding was nice, on a beach in the Caribbean since both parents loved to travel, but boring. He had desperately attempted to keep himself occupied until Diana engaged him in a poking war. It continued through the reception and all the way back to the hotel afterwards. He truthfully couldn't remember who won.
Sure, Diana and he fought a lot, even back then, but he'd grown up around her and he start to think that life would be strange without someone completely opposite to him in it. When they started Torrington, he'd literally been drooling at the mouth, watching all the girls go past. Diana had hit him up the head and they'd both grinned at each other. Physical abuse was their 'thing'. When Diana was stressed he would knock her head lightly, getting her to focus. She would do the same thing, usually harder, when he was around girls. He appreciated it. He wanted his reputation to be cool, controlled, a lover.
When he had first started at the Centre, he was ecstatic. It was a whole new life, not like his boring one at school, not his 'sibling rivalry' with Diana. It was a chance to be him; to show his strange actions and personality out. He got along good with the agent he was partnered with and Billy, who was an awesome little alien. He spent 3 months going backwards and forwards through his two lives until his partner started acting strange. At first, Martin had dismissed it as stress because they had been receiving plenty of missions and his own theories were getting wilder.
But after one case, his partner had apparently gone MIA. He was sitting in M.O.M.'s office while she tried tracking his partner's U watch. When the computer beeped, saying the results had come in; Martin could've sworn he'd saw M.O.M.'s face pale. She had told him that his partner's U watch had been coming from Torrington Academy and he had been gone, already racing through Billy's portal.
He curse himself for once telling his partner where he lived and who Diana was, since on missions he would sometimes criticise people who acted like her. As he ran through the halls, he had this bad feeling floating in his stomach and had to swallow to make sure he wasn't going to puke. When he'd started at the Centre there were a few times where a monster had been near Torrington and he had been worried about Diana but it had never gotten close enough to do any damage. He didn't want his paranormal job to screw up his 'sibling rivalry'. So when he rounded the corner towards Diana's room and she ran into his at full speed, her eyes wide with fear, he couldn't help but pull her into a hug.
She had explained that a creepy-looking guy had knocked on her door then try to kidnapped her, so she'd hit him with her bag. Martin had given a snort of laughter, relief flooding through him, and then grabbed his step-sister's hand and pulled her up from the floor and ushered her into a closet. The school was closed, thankfully, for holidays but Martin and Diana had been left there by their parents. He had sighed and decided to use the U watch in front of her anyway which made her pestering stop straight away.
He'd grabbed the X-rod and Diana's arm and raced out of the closet, only to come face-to-face with his partner. Whatever had been wrong with him had also been possessing him so his skin was tinged a sickly dark green and his eyes glowed yellow. Martin swore he saw horns coming out of the top of his light hair. He also didn't blame Diana for screaming. His partner grinned and Martin couldn't help but feel grossed out. Luckily, he didn't need to do anything because M.O.M. rounded the corner; ten agents right behind and took his partner down.
The next few hours were a blur. Both he and Diana were taken back to the Centre with his, now ex, partner. M.O.M spent a good hour talking to Diana, determining if it was worth erasing her memories while Martin paced nervously back and forth outside the doors. Even Billy wasn't able to distract him.
While he wanted to keep Di away from this business, heck he got into fights every other week and near death experiences were as constant as having breakfast, he also wanted to share this world with her. Get her to live a little, see new sites and maybe even open up a new opportunity between them. Torrington did have them drifting away a little so it would be wonderful… but she could also get hurt.
He was so wrapped up in his thoughts he jumped and gave a girlish scream when Diana placed a hand on his shoulder, M.O.M right behind her. Diana gave him a look while M.O.M looked particularly amused, and herded the siblings into her office. Martin slumped into one of the chairs, trying to radiate an aura of suaveness and collectiveness but he couldn't help fidgeting.
M.O.M. looked down her nose at him. "Martin, stop it." Her tone was cold like stone and her face was expressionless.
"Yes ma'am." Martin snapped to attention. Why did M.O.M look like someone had died? The leader of the Centre took in the two siblings before clearing her throat. "Miss Lombard has informed me of the events that took place earlier tonight and they match with your own story, Agent Mystery. I have decided, in light of this event, to allow Miss Lombard to keep her memories and instate her as an agent here at the Centre."
Martin leapt to his feet, grabbing his sister's arms and spinning her around. "Congratulations, Di."
"Please stop spinning me." Diana laughed. "I'm getting dizzy."
The first thing Martin did was introduce Diana to Billy and the two got along like a house on fire. Billy was used to hearing rapid questions from all the people he helped in the Centre, so he was the perfect person to answer her rapid-fire. As the week went by, the questions slowed considerably, but Billy would stop by whenever he had a free moment and they weren't surrounded by people who would need memory adjustments, to find out how Diana was adjusting. Within three weeks of becoming a Centre Agent, Diana confided in Martin that Billy felt a bit like a little brother, something Martin agreed with immediately.
The first time they went on a mission, Diana said that he was strutting around and would give her proud looks whenever she worked something out; something that did not last very long. Not because Martin got annoyed of his sister. Never because of that. It was because Diana hit him after he gave her a long-winded speech about how happy he was that she touched some slime. From that day on, they had an agreement to avoid overdoing the simple things. Well, as much as Martin could hold in at least.
It was a few months into their partnership when they met Java. Both siblings took a liking to the large man, taking him under their wing. After he was released from the Centre and given a job at their school, they would take him out on the town and slowly introduce him into the new world. His reactions to simple things like ice cream, television and radio, just to name a few, delighted the two teens beyond belief. They taught him reading together (well as much as two sixteen year olds could without either a: falling behind on homework or b: getting distracted) and it wasn't long before Java joined the strange little family they had created.
Their relationship was far from perfect however. The Centre missions brought them closer but as they travelled through the years in high school, Diana became more worried about her grades and began to wonder if she should stop the Centre in order to concentrated on them more. Martin, not nearly as dense as everyone thought he was, went to his little family and informed them.
The next night, they had a family meeting with M.O.M. and the rest to fully consider all the options. Despite Diana's dislike of slime and the paranormal, she didn't want to just leave it behind and pretend it never happened. And M.O.M. was not willing to lose an agent who could keep Martin in line. They became the first team in the Centre to actually have transitioning members. Billy was extremely excited when M.O.M. revealed her idea. Billy and Diana would switch positions depending on the type of mission; thus if Diana was loaded with homework, Billy would take her spot and she would do any in depth analysis that were needed.
After watching this system work for a good few months, Martin couldn't help a smile. Though he and his sister were different in many different ways, they'd found ways to stick together.
And who would want anything other than that?