Sentimento was watching what Amy was doing with her face, but her mind was somewhere else entirely. Senzace had had a nightmare, it had involved some white echidna standing on top of a pile of dead bodies, and green flames covered the ground. Itlinis, Senzace, and herself had been chained together, the end of the chain being held by a red echidna in some strange outfit, who'd had a chain around his own neck, the end of that one being held by the white echidna.

But there were strings attached to the echidna, strings that went up to giant, gloved hands, hands which had more strings stretching down to someone else... before Senzace had seen the identities of either of the two, the dream had ended as Sentimento rushed into his room and wrapped her arms around him. The question on her mind was not 'what did the dream mean?' It was 'where is Senzace right now? And is he okay?' The doorbell rang, and she shot downstairs to answer it. Amy frowned.

"Oh great, now she's got a line of mascara going down her cheek!" Iltinis and Senzace came in.

"What happened to you?" Asked Senzace, staring, wide-eyed, at the black line.

"What?" Iltinis sniffed curiously.

"You've got mascara on. Did you allow Amy to start giving you a makeover?"

"I... actually, I'm not sure. I wasn't paying attention." Iltinis smiled and carried the pizza boxes into the kitchen, set them on the counter, then tossed a wet hand cloth to Sentimento. "Wipe that mess off your face, you look better without it. Don't tell Amy I said that though."

"I promise not to," Sentimento wiped it off.

"That took me twenty minutes to apply!" Said Amy as she came down the stairs, smiling slightly. "Didn't like it?"

"It felt weird," said Senzace, noticing the smile of thanks that Iltinis gave her.

"Alright. Well we'll just stick to perfume next time."

Noah neatly ducked as a spitball flew over his head. Iris looked horrified. "That is so disgusting! How could anyone use one of those...?"

"Oh calm down already Iris," said Aaron, shooting a spitball at the offender.

"Think that's funny punk?" Asked the older boy, coming over towards them. Aaron smiled.

"Well yeah, duh. I find satisfaction in getting people back for trying to hit my brother with spitballs."

"Aaron!" Said Noah.

"No, let the little punk stand up for himself." Iris took a subtle step forward, her eyes narrowed dangerously. Noah raised an eyebrow, in what looked like a challenge, but was actually surprise for the expression on Iris's face. She'd never had that sort of face on before.

"So then, I'm standing up. You can sit down now." Aaron grinned. The bully smacked him. Noah leapt forward, anger plastered all over his face. The older boy caught him and tossed him away. Before Noah's back connected with the tree, he jerked to a halt. Iris's eyes glowed, changing from their original colour to a violent shade of red. Noah was deposited on the ground as the bully was lifted into the air.

"You're a brave boy aren't you?" She hissed. "Hitting children who are smaller than you. Let's see how you like getting smacked," before she could wave her hand and send him crashing into a tree, vines wrapped around her arm, immobilizing it. Aaron stared at the vines curling up his own arms in surprise.

"Err... sis?"

"What?" She snapped.

"I think you might want to put him down."

"We've gotta talk to Dad about this," said Noah, coming over.

"We? Only Iris and I have powers," said Aaron. Noah's face seemed to close.

"That isn't the point. Iris, put him down now." She did so reluctantly. "Now, you, Damiel, are going to leave everyone alone. Agreed?" The bully nodded. "Good, now go."

As the dalmatian scurried off, Iris and Aaron went to the swings, while Noah sat on the merry-go-round and watched them, a strange look on his face, and a glint of unshed tears in his eyes.

When Iltinis and Senzace came to pick them up, they could tell something was off. Iris and Aaron were chattering animatedly to each other, and Noah was trailing behind them, hardly noticing when a kid accidentally knocked into him, apologized, and ran on. Iltinis climbed out of the car and shut the door. "Iris, Aaron, behave yourselves for Senzace please." He put a hand on Noah's shoulder and steered him over to the other end of the parking lot. He halted under the trees. "What's wrong Noah?" Noah finally started crying.

Iltinis hugged him as he related the events that had happened during recess. "Just because nothing showed doesn't mean you don't have powers Noah. Your mother didn't know she could bring infinite hammers out of a pocket space until she was ten." Noah looked up at Iltinis.

"Dad, Iris and Noah don't see me as equal to them anymore." He repeated what Aaron had said. Iltinis's expression hardened.

"You leave your brother and sister to me. Now smile, or you're grounded." Noah laughed. "Better, come on, there's pizza when we get home."

Iris and Aaron, who'd been waiting to tell Iltinis what had happened, stopped smiling when they saw the expression on his face. "You know what I am going to say," he growled as they pulled out of the parking lot. Senzace looked confused. Iris and Aaron remained quiet, and Noah stared out the window. "How could you say that to your brother Aaron? And Iris, why didn't you defend him? He defends you all the time."

"Dad, he doesn't have powers! He had nothing to tell you ab..." Iltinis exploded.

"Just because he hasn't displayed any doesn't mean he doesn't have any! And even if he has none, you two do not have the right to talk down to him like you did!" Iris started crying and Aaron glared. Noah turned and started comforting Iris automatically.

"Don't cry Iris, it's okay, Dad knows you didn't mean it..."

"But we did!" Wailed Iris. "I'm sorry Noah!"

"It's okay." Iltinis looked in the rearview mirror at Aaron, who was still glaring.

"Aaron?" His other son just turned his head away, jaw tightening. "Alright then. It's straight to bed when we get home."

"Fine."

Senzace was agitated now, he could feel resentment billowing off of Aaron, that, and other feelings that suggested dark thoughts. He could feel Aaron fingering a pocket knife he'd found, which was not a good thing. When they got out of the car, Senzace pretended to be making sure Aaron got out of the car, but he was really taking the pocket knife from his nephew. "Violence never ends well," he whispered.

"You're not from our family, you can't tell me what to do," sneered Aaron, pushing past him. Senzace froze, blinked, and tried to get the hurt hidden away. He did not want Sentimento to know what Aaron had said, she would react with much more emotion, and they wouldn't be able to hide it from Iltinis and Amy.

He felt that the children had been given enough trouble already.

Finitevus frowned. "These two vampires could be trouble."

"Indeed. However, I have taken the liberty of preparing containment cells for them. The only way they'd be able to keep from starving would be to cause harm to themselves. Much more amusing than simply torturing them." The puppet master paused. "The boy Aaron might be a good servant, if you could get a hold of him. He is currently feeling resentment towards his family. It would be easy enough to get him to turn on them."

"How do you suggest we do this?" Asked Finitevus, not even consciously realizing he was giving control of the operation over to the puppet master by asking this question.

"I suggest that I take control of the dalmatian they had a run in with this morning. It should be easy enough to get Aaron to trust him, then get him alone to talk to him about important matters. That is where I'd go and talk to him. You know how persuasive I can be." Finitevus shuddered. He knew all too well how persuasive his partner was when he wanted to be.

Yes, it's a short update, but hey! Fillers are fillers. This was to get the creative juices flowing again, they encountered a blockage on the stream of imagination.

Disclaimer: *rolls eyes* Oh stop trying to be fancy.

*rolls up sleeves* Care to say that again?

Disclaimer: CrazyNutSquirreldoesn'townanythingbutIltinis'sfamilypleasedon'thurtme!

Good.

Finitevus: -.- You missed that CrazyNutSquirrel doesn't own Finitevus or Amy. She owns the dalmatian, the kids, the puppet master, and the vampires.

Thank you Finitevus. R&R please!