Just a quick note, I did mean to get this done much sooner and I apologize for the delay. I could lie, but quite honestly I have no good excuse...Basically this was going on in my head:
Logical Me: Come on, people are waiting for you to put up a new chapter, get a move on!
Crazy Me: But I'm tiiiiirrrreeeeedd, can't we just be Death Eaters?
LM: No, we can't just be Death Eaters! *proceeds to kick me and remind me about all my totally awesome reviewers who deserve another chapter because they are the coolest people in the whole wide world*
Now I sound crazy. Awesome. For those of you who are still hanging around after my spazziness, I hope you enjoy this chapter! Please review and feel free to send suggestions for future chapters. Hugs and butterfly kisses, ravenclawdancer4999
"EAT MY DUST!" Joe yelled, leaning over his controller in concentration.
"NOT FOR LONG WALKER!" Holden grinned evilly, quickly gaining speed.
Unlike the girls, all of the guys were wide awake and each engrossed in a different activity. Both of the Brians, Holden and Rosenthal, along with Walker were engaged in a heated game of Mario Kart. Joey lazily watched from the couch, occasionally dozing off. Corey Lubowich was hunched over his laptop, typing rapidly, while Dave, Jim, Tomek, and Dylan sat at the table playing gin rummy. Clark sat at the other end of sofa, rifling through page after page of sheet music, stopping every so often to mutter something to himself before continuing.
It was nearing the end of the race; Walker and Holden were each vying for first, while Brian was stuck in fifth.
"Accelerate is the button on the RIGHT, dumbass," Holden taunted, trash-talking best he could."
"Can it, Holden," Brian growled, not breaking his concentration as he moved into fourth.
"Face it, Rosenthal," Walker smirked, "You couldn't catch up if we jumped out of our karts and ran to the finish line."
"You three have the mental maturity of an eight-year-old," Corey rolled his eyes. Just then, both Joe and Holden both screamed something that would have been censored on TV.
"Except with a much more colorful vocabulary..." Clark mused, looking up from his sheet music. What had happened, was that Brian had suddenly obtained a blue shell and released it immediately on to the track. Predictably, he claimed first once the other two had been knocked back by the explosion.
"KISS MY ASS LOSERS!" he shouted triumphantly, jumping up and doing an obnoxious victory dance. Walker and Holden scowled, throwing down their controllers and slumping back into their seats. Eventually Holden got up from the couch and traipsed over to the refrigerator. Upon opening it with a yank, his eyes scanned the side for the familiar red and blue cans, not finding a single one. Becoming desperate, he began to rummage around the two main shelves, still not finding a thing.
"What the fuck happened to my Red Bull?" he bellowed, his eyes flickering dangerously, "Alright, who's the wiseass who thought it would be a good idea to take my one link to being halfway-sane?" Everyone stayed silent as Holden's eyes narrowed, glaring at each person in turn. Finally, Brian slowly raised his hand and began to shrink back in his seat, trying to appear as small as possible.
"I kind of, drank it," Brian gulped, "I'm sorry?"
"WHAT?" Holden roared. He flew at Brian, grabbing the collar of his shirt with both hands. "DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?"
"Calm down, Holden," Jim warned, making an attempt to pull him off of Brian.
"I WILL NOT CALM DOWN," he barked, "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO A SHOW IN A COUPLE OF HOURS WITH NOTHING TO PUT ME IN MY RIGHT MIND?"
"Too late for that," Tomek muttered under his breath, earning a few snickers from Dave and Dylan.
"There's this thing called sleep," Joey offered, "You should try it. I should warn you though, usually it works best if you get more than three hours..."
"BULLSHIT," Holden snarled.
"You know what? Let's just stop and pick up a six pack of Red Bull," Dylan whispered in Corey's ear, "Before he starts to get delusional..."
"Fair enough," Corey sighed. As he promised, Corey asked the bus driver to pull over at the next gas station they passed. Once the bus stopped, everyone piled out.
"What the hell are we doing now?" Holden demanded.
"Don't get your boxers in a twist, we're stopping to get you some Red Bull," Dave rolled his eyes, grabbing his wrist, "Come on." All the guys stumbled into the small service station and made a beeline for various aisles. A few minutes later, there were about a dozen bottles of soda and various packages of snacks piled on the cashier's counter. Dylan, Jim, Walker, Tomek, Dave, Jim, Corey, Clark, and Rosenthal were all gathered near the front door when they heard a loud crash.
"You've got to be kidding," Clark groaned, "Don't tell me-"
"Must be the work of that infamous Hogwarts jaguar," Holden proclaimed from across the store, "Bless his soft, adorable paws that he trips over when he's running too fast!"
"And so the insanity begins," Jim shook his head, making his way to the source of the noise. Lo and behold, Holden had knocked several packages of Oreos off the top of a stack and was now simply standing over it, holding his pack of Red Bull.
"It wasn't me!" he defended himself, "It was-"
"The infamous Hogwarts jaguar, I know," Jim interrupted, "Just go pay for your sanity in a can." Holden nodded and raced towards the register while Jim re-stacked the fallen cookies. Before leaving, he stopped by the cashier to apologize.
"Kid, I've seen plenty of people in here at 3 AM before," the cashier chuckled, "Most of them just as bad, don't sweat it." Jim thanked him and sped out the door to the tour bus. By the time he entered the tour bus again, there was already an empty can on the table. However, instead of being back to his regular self, Holden was sitting on the couch giggling like a little girl.
"Holden?" Jim said warily, "What's the matter with you?"
"Absolutely nothing," Brian mused, "And that's why they call me SUPERMAN."
"He thinks that he's Superman now," Tomek whispered.
"Awesome," Jim murmured, "Just fantastic."
"I mean, jeez, I've seen him DRUNK before and he isn't this bad..." Corey remarked.
"The last time he was this screwed up was when we were still working on Starship and he hadn't slept for-" Joey observed.
"Does anyone know the last time he slept?" Brian asked abruptly, suddenly alarmed.
"He was still awake when I went to sleep at two last night," Clark admitted.
"And he got up a few minutes after I woke up around four," Dave added.
"So he's only had 2 hours of sleep for the past 48 hours?" Dylan marveled, "No wonder he's so fucked up..."
"Well what are we supposed to do now?" Jim questioned, "He can't go on stage like this."
"Try to get him to sleep I guess?" Joey shrugged.
"I'll take care of this," Dylan volunteered, walking over to Holden, "Hey, Superman, why don't you get some shut eye? I'll take care of Metropolis while you're sleeping."
"Don't be silly, Green Lantern," Holden giggled, "Superheroes don't need sleep, you know that!"
"Yeah, I know that," Dylan recovered quickly, "But doesn't Clark Kent need to sleep?"
"We're the same person, you know that," Holden drawled, "I know Lex Luthor told you at golf..." Dylan shook his head and threw his hands up in surrender.
"Now what?" he uttered. Suddenly Walker's eyes lit up and he ran over to his suitcase. Rummaging around in the front pocket, he finally found the object he was looking for and approached his friend once more.
"Hey Batman," Holden grinned goofily, "Where were you at the Solomon Grundy thing last week?
"Oh, you know," Walker replied, "Just hanging out with Robin, playing around with Wonder Woman, cleaning up the streets of Gotham, just the usual stuff. Oh, I also got you a present..."
"What kind of present?" Holden asked eagerly.
"Just a little piece of home," Walker answered, pulling the metallic green ball of tinsel from behind his back, "Some Kryptonite."
"Fuck you!" Holden screeched, beginning to slow down, "You know that stuff, makes, me..." He trailed off and soon was fast asleep on the sofa.
"I was planning on using this to play a prank on him later," Walker explained, "But I think this was a better use for it."
"I wouldn't count that idea out just yet," Dave smirked, "I doubt he's remember any of this in the morning..." Everyone snorted quietly and most retreated to their bunks. Once Jim was sure Holden was out for the count, he leaned over to Corey.
"Did you get all that?" Jim whispered.
"Every last part," Corey smiled, tucking away his video camera, "This will make one hell of a behind the scenes video..."
A/N: Boy, those Starkids really enjoy their blackmail don't they?