Hey, everyone! Itanu here, with Chapter Two of "A New Beginning".
Now, let me tell everyone something: If you guys all remember what the AN at the end of the last chapter said, well... I had predicted incorrectly. If you don't remember, then please don't worry about it. It's no biggie.
Fair warning: There is a curse word in here. Just to let you all know.
I do not own MLaaTR or any of the characters or settings therein. The show and all underlying components are Copyright and Trademark to Nickelodeon and, more significantly, Rob Renzetti.
Here we go!
I'm not... I can't see anything consistently- it's all just sort of flickering. But I can feel my way around- that's what I'm doing right now. Maybe I can find... him... get one last glimpse of him, if I can. Maybe... well, I don't think it'll do anything. It won't save me. I might still not want to be saved.
But if I could... see him one last time... That's all I'd need.
The next morning was like ultimately any other in Tremorton- birds made all sorts of clamor, and the people driving their noisy vehicles this early seemed to be trying to maximize the sound pollution they caused.
Brad reflexively brought his pillow around his ears and flopped onto his belly as a means of defense; this seemed to work until he heard the one sound no teenager could ever truly shun: his alarm clock.
"What?" the young man groaned as he looked at his digital clock, lifting his pillow slightly to do so. When he saw the time, he tightened the pillow back onto his head, adding, "It's Four o'clock in the morning. Why-?"
As soon as he remembered his 'duty' to protect the house, the teenager shot out of his bed, and within five minutes, he'd taken care of his hygiene and was heading down the stairs.
As he approached the kitchen, Bradley could feel something wasn't quite right, triggering him to pause in his tracks. It was odd, really- though it wasn't necessarily a 'bad' feeling, he could tell something was missing. Shrugging, Brad started walking (though staggering may have been a better word for it) into the kitchen again, and headed immediately to his cabinet to grab some breakfast.
Two and a half minutes later…
As Brad munched eagerly on his dry cereal (he'd decided not to waste time adding milk), he attempted to review his plans for the day. It wasn't really a good effort- all of it would narrow back down to his anticipation for his date with Teresa.
At that moment, Brad realized what the earlier anomaly was: the coffee maker wasn't running; nor did its intended product reside within the kettle.
"Huh," Brad muttered as best he could through his tired, croaking voice, "that's funny. Mom never leaves that thing alone."
Brad took a moment to ponder it for a bit.
'Ah, well, Brad concluded, 'she's probably just sleeping in.'
Brad didn't even wait to chew his food when he'd finished his breakfast. He now zoomed back up to his room, still masticating the mouthful of cereal. This was his opportunity to put the final touches on his pickup lines.
"Ah," a lonely figure sighed happily as she looked through a telescope into the night sky. She continued, in a most peculiar accent, "Nothing like a bit of astronomy in the early morn!"
The elderly woman, one Dr. Nora Wakeman by name, pulled her eye from the lens of her gargantuan telescope, and looked down at her watch.
"Hmm..." she muttered, it's almost time to get XJ-9 up." Dr. Wakeman resisted the urge to grind her teeth. Really, why did the call of duty always have to happen when a breakthrough was just around the corner? She continued, "I guess I'd better pack up for now."
As the scientist reached for the button to retract the telescope, though, something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. She looked up, noticing a red-orange light in the sky. Her first intuition was to dismiss it as the sun- it was, after all, morning, was it not? The sun does have to rise eventually. But it didn't take long for her to consider that, unlike the sun, this light was not hurting her eyes- nor was it enveloping Tremorton in its rays. Something was wrong... very wrong. Without prompt and ceremony, she crammed her eye back into the lens of the telescope and aimed her sights onto the anomaly. Upon inspection, it turned out that the light was emanating through the clouds, growing more and more intense. It continued to intensify like this for about a minute. Then... it stopped suddenly.
Nora was puzzled. She'd seen some pretty weird things in her life- the aliens of the Cluster being a prime example- but this was the first phenomenon she had seen in a long time that both interested and confused her at the same time. Suddenly, the light flashed once more, and without warning, what looked like a huge fireball jettisoned from the clouds down to the ground, landing in the middle of the forested area behind a neighboring suburb.
Now, the Doctor was at a total loss for words. Whatever this thing was, it didn't seem hostile- it didn't even appear to be animate. Nonetheless, there was no denying that this was something to be investigated. Soon, at that. Jenny had school, though, so the idea of sending her after it was out of the question. Besides, this didn't seem like a big threat- at least, not yet.
Nora looked with determination to the forest in which the object had landed. As she started to put away her telescope, she reached a resolution for her dilemma: she would go after it herself, later today.
"Hey, Baby... You feelin' lucky tonight?" Brad said as suavely as he could as he stroked his chin with a razor.
Brad thought about what he had just said. Pathetic.
"You know," Brad started over, "you're so hot, I'll bet you could cook every dish in this restaurant just being here."
That one's pretty good, Brad thought. Yep, he'd hold onto that one. Having satisfied himself with his pickup line practice (he'd already been at it for ten minutes in front of the mirror in this way), he washed off his razor, discarded it, and wiped his face off with a towel. Man, this night was going to be great! A beautiful girlfriend, a chance to be alone with her, and maybe a kiss if he played his cards right.
As Brad fantasized, he suddenly felt a sort of lightheaded feeling come unto him. Then, nausea. Man, what was with him lately? Yesterday, he felt a manic depression with no real basis. Last night, he'd hardly been able to ingest dinner. And now, he felt like throwing up. It was like he'd suddenly been infected with a parasite of some kind- or at least like he'd been pumped full of charcoal. Under normal circumstances, he'd probably just take a few medicines, but this... couldn't have been a worse time. The only medicine he knew of that his house had for nausea had more than a few unpleasant side effects that could intervene with his date, and his general popularity status at the school. Brad shuddered for a moment as the nightmarish image of him belching loudly in front of Pteresa went through his mind.
"Nope," Brad reasoned, "I'm just stressed out, that's all. I'll... err, um... just take a walk! That's exactly what I really need, now." The young man grabbed his cell phone off of his bed, and headed downstairs. He knew of a nice little pathway going through the woods to walk through- perfect for soothing his troubled mind.
Entering the garage was an essential part of the plan; while the sun was technically out, it definitely wasn't bright enough to see much in front of oneself, especially surrounded by the shading of trees. Logically, the red-headed boy needed a flashlight.
Brad entered the garage. The door closed behind him before he could even reach the light switch, which left the young man stumbling about in the darkness as he tried to find it. Finally, he found it.
It was upon flipping the switch that Brad saw that the vehicle was missing. The teenager stood motionless for a moment. Did someone masterfully steal the car while the door was still open last night? Was a friend borrowing it?
But alas, it didn't take long for Brad to figure out what the case was:
His mom had already left. No warning, no goodbye, nothing- just the absence of the vehicle.
"Dammit!" Brad swore angrily. He growled subsequently, and proceeded to stomp out of the garage, through the house, and out the back door. He didn't even bother to take the flashlight- he wouldn't need it.
"She always does this!" Brad ranted after locking the door behind him, "every time, she just heads off to do her own thing without even giving Tuck or me a heads-up! That-!"
Bradley snarled, sucking his temper back in with his breath. There was a pause; a moment of silence, of consideration.
"What am I doing?" Brad sighed, breaking the silence, "I'm acting like a stupid little kid," he continued. He was feeling far more irritable than usual this morning, fair enough, but even he knew when he was taking it too far.
He was now at the edge of the wooded area he had intended to walk through.
"All right!" said Bradley in a sudden, cheerful, polar twist from his anger session, "I'm going to go in, take a nice walk, and forget this ever happened."
Suddenly his usual happy-go-lucky self again, Brad started whistling a tune as he headed into the darkness of the forest.
Well, there it is. Again, if you guys and gals out there have any suggestions at all for how to improve this chapter, please let me know.
See ya'll next chapter!
