"What was that?" Mrs. Stein asked as she looked at the one way mirror.
"That noise..." Mr. Stein walked forward. "It sounded like screaming."
"W-we have to go." Trini grabbed Chase and Gert's sleeves. "We have to go..now!"
"Dear, you better check on the children." Mr. Wilder ordered as he looked back at his wife; who was already heading towards the door.
"RUN!" Chase shouted as he grabbed Trini and Gert's sleeve and began to run down the corridor; being careful not to hurt each other. Once they got out of the corridors, Alex closed the door shut.
"What happened?" Molly asked quickly.
"W-we need a distraction!" Chase shouted; completely ignoring Molly.
"Here!" Alex tossed A Twister game at Trini. She quickly pulled the top off and threw the continants on the floor. Nico got down and spread the mat out; putting the spinner near the edge.
"Wait, what's going on?" Karolina asked in a panic.
"Just play along with it! Quick!" Trini dropped herself on the mat.
"Yay! Twister!" Molly shouted as she spotted everyone trying to tangle themselves up. She raced towards them and jumped; landing on Chase and Trini. Trini yelled in pain.
"Stop it!" Karolina shouted.
"Get off! You're hurting me!" Gert pushed at Chase.
The door suddenly swung open; revealing Mrs. Wilder.
"Oh, hey, mom!" Alex waved.
She gave him a wry smile. "Alex, is...is everything alright up here?"
"Uh, yeah, totally." He lied, "We were just fooling around with one of your old game." He then mummbled. "And you think Vice City is dirty." He then got up; letting everyone collapse. "Why? Is everything alright with you?"
"Of course, it's just...we heard screaming and we were afraid..." Mrs. Wilder trailed off. "Well, I'm glad you're all okay! Anyway, your parents and I are almost done with the last draft of the new fund raising charter. We'll be up in a few. Try not to break anything expensive before then?"
"No problem, Mrs. W!" Chase waved as he stood up.
The door slammed shut and everyone dropped the act.
"Oh, God...I think my stomach's gonna explode." She leaned back agaisnt the couch.
"I don't think I've ever run so fast in my life!" Gert exhasperated.
"You think she bought it, Alex?" Nico looked over at Alex, who was holding his stomach.
"I don't know." He admitted. "I think...I think I'm gonna puke."
"Ditto," Trini said as she pushed herself off the couch.
"Okay, will someone please tell me wha tthe hell's going on?" Karolina asked from the floor. "What did I miss down there?"
"Why'd we stop twistering?" Molly asked from the same spot.
"Gert, take Molly to the bathroom or something." Alex demanded.
"Why?" She looked at him.
"So we can fill in Karolina what happened." He whispered.
Trini cocked a brow. "But this involves Molly's parents, too you know."
"But she's just a kid." Alex protested.
"She's old enough to know that her parents are evil!" Gert retorted.
"Um, hellooooo!" Molly Said as she put her hands on her hip. "I know what you guys are talking about!"
"You...you do?" Gert blinked.
"Duh! S...E...X...I'm not a baby!" Molly placed her hands on her hips.
Trini's face fell and Gert looked up at Alex.
"Fine," She caved, "Come on, kid. Let's powder our noses."
"Alright," Karolina said loudly. "What the hell is going on?"
Nico grabbed her hand while Trini placed her on Karolina's shoulder. "Karolina, you... you better sit down. I don't know how to tell you this, but-."
"Alex's dad just killed some chick." Chase blurted out,
"WHAT!" Alex whipped around.
"Seriously, Chase?" Trini growled.
"It wasn't just MY dad!" Alex shouted. "It was all of our parents! You saw!"
"Dude, I don't know what we saw!" Chase barked.
"They stabbed an innocent girl in the heart!" Trini threw her hands in the air.
"Stabbed?" Karolina whispered.
"Well, we don't know if that girl was innocent, right? I mean, Trini's mom did that weird purifying thing and-."
"Are you guys high!" Alex snapped. "Our parents are Super Villains!"
"Actually, I think he might be right, Karolina." Nico agreeed as they sat down.
"You mean like...Doctor Doom?" Karolina stared off into space in a daze.
"Yeah, only times Twelve!" Alex hollered. "They said they were a part of something called 'The Pride'. Whoever they are, we have to stop them."
"Now who's high." Trini crossed her arms. "How the hell would we do that?"
"She's right," Chase pointed, "You expect us us to get a few guns and go all Menedez Brothers on 'em?"
"Now There's an idea." Trini smirked. "And we can't confront them dead on."
"How do we know they won't kill us?" Nico finished.
"Battle stations, Kiddies." Gert said as she opened the door; Molly behind her. "Something wicked this way comes."
"Hey gang!" Mr. Dean popped his head in and waved. "Don't worry, the old timers are finally packing it in for the night."
Then and walked in; carrying a large metal trunk.
"Gertrude, could I get one of your strapping male friends to give us a hand talking this out to the car?" asked.
"I guess," Gert shrugged. "What's in that thing?"
"Oh, you know, just some stuff the Wilders were nice enough to donate for our auction next month." answered.
"Um, Nico and I can get that, ." Alex said; his uneasyness eminent.
"Yeah, I may not be one of the boys, but playing the tuba in the marching band has given me amazing upper body strength!" Nico sounded just as uneasy.
"Remember to lift with your knees, Sweetie." Mrs. Minoru reminded.
"Yes, we don't want anyone getting hurt tonight." Mr. Wilder advised.
Trini could feel Chase's and Gert's blood run cold. Hers did as well. When the adults walked away, Trini grabbed Chase's sleeve and pulled him back.
"I'm scared." Was all she said.
"You don't think I am?" He questioned. "I just watched our parents kill some girl. My heart is racing!"
'I know...' Trini thought. "But...if we go by what Alex says...do you think we should stop them?"
"Trini, look around. We're a bunch of kids. There's no way in hell we'd be able to go p against our parents. They'd kill us. I say we cut our losses and try to forget this thing ever happened."
"We just saw a girl get murdered and your just gonna blow it off as if it was nothing?" Trini furrowed her brows. "Chase, our parents are murderers! They deserve to be taken down."
"Look, Trini. Just..." He stopped. "Why is your eye black?"
Trini quickly covered her eye. "No it's not."
"What happened?"
"Nothing." She shook her head. "Nothing happened."
"Don't tell me..." He grabbed her hand and pulled it away from her face.
"Did-?"
"Let it go, Chase." Trini yanked her arm away from his grip. "Look, I don't know about you, but I wanna do something about it."
"Hey, guys," Alex said as he popped in the room. "I need your E-mail addresses."
"Why?" Trini blinked.
"So we can meet somewhere tonight to discuss our actions." Alex shoved a pen and a peice of paper with everyone elses e-mails on them.
"Oh, Christ. Not you, too." Chase rolled his eyes.
Trini scribbled her E-mail, then shoved it in Chase's arms.
Alfonso Residence...
11:27 P.M.
"Trini, why don't you wear something more...revealing?" Karolina asked as she grabbed Trini's clothes from the floor. The two girls had been (practically) neighbors. But rarely saw each other. Trini's mom never really let her out of the house. Only for school mostly.
"Because I don't want to. Besides, my mom would never let me wear anything like that." Trini stuffed more clothes into her purple bunny back pack. Trini's parents (along with Karolina's) had left to New York.
"Oh, come on." Karolina picked up a blood red tank top and tossed it to Trini. "Wear that."
"No way." Trini shook her head.
"Come on, your mom's not here right now." Karolina grabbed Trini's wrist and pulled her towards herself. "This'll look so cute on you."
"I can't Karolina. Even if I had a choice, I couldn't wear it." Trini said as she placed a pack of gum in the pocket of her back pack.
"Why not?" Karolina stepped towards her. "Are you...insecure or something? Because you really shouldn't. By the size of your sweater, you look really skinny. And I don't mean Lindsey Lohan skinny, I mean like Beyonce skinny. And I think-."
Trini pulled off her sweater. "This is why I can't."
Karolina's eyes widened. "Why are your arms bruised?"
"My mom." She answered. "I can't wear things like that out in public."
"And that scar on your arm?" Karolina pointed at the intricate symbol on her forearm.
"It's the Angelic Symbol for Life." Trini answered. "Mom said I was born with it."
"It looks like someone carved it into your skin." Karolina stated,
"Yeah," Trini nodded,
Karolina smiled and went into her bag. "Here, where this." She tossed Trini gray jacket that seemed to stop at her rib cage if she put it on.
"You can wear the tank top with that on top." Karolina smiled. She then looked around the room some more. "And this, and this!"
Trini was now wearing a red tank top with the gray jacket, dark red thigh high socks, and a gray skirt. She blushed at what she was wearing.
"I-I don't know, Karolina. My boobs-."
"Are very big, I know. But hey, that's the joys of being a woman." Karolina shrugged, "Besides, it's time for the world to see them."
"I-I guess. But-."
"You're not wearing shoes?" She pointed down at Trini's feet.
"Huh? Oh, no." She shook her head, "Not really much of a shoes person. I probably only wear shoes when I'm wearing pants or capris. But that's about it."
"Okay, then," Karolina nodded as she hoisted her back pack over her shoulder. "Now let's get a move on, shall we?"
Trini nodded and began to follow Karolina out the door.
"Oh, and one more thing." Karolina turned around and unplucked the hair tie that was binding Trini's hair back. Trini's long chocolate brown waved cascaded down her back. "There."
The Griffith Observitory...
1:03 a.m.
"We've been standing out here for three minutes." Karolina looked at her watch, "Where's everyone?"
"It's only been three minutes." Trini stated.
"But it feels like an eternity," Alex finished.
"I'm pretty sure everyone got the message." Trini assured.
"Hey!" They heard, "Short bus, Why didn't you just say meet at the Planitarium? It took me an hour to figure out where this stupid James Dean Memorial was!" Chase exclaimed as he stomped towards the group.
"It was Karolina's idea." Trini answered.
Chase peered at Trini, then widened his eyes, "Whoa."
"Yeah," Karolina said softly. "It's pretty much the same distance from my house. Sorry."
"Oh, no." Chase turned his attention from Trini to Karolina. "It was great. I was just messin' with you, Karolina."
"I don't know why Nico's not here yet." Alex said; a little worried."She replied to the forward, right?"
"I'm pretty sure she did." Trini assured.
"But you don't think she-?"
"I'm here! I'm here!" Nico shouted as she walked through the trees hold Gert's hand,"Sorry, Gert doesn't have her permit yet, so I had to give her a ride."
"And I lost my stupid glasses. So we had to stop and pick up contact solution and-."
"Is that Trini?" Nico pointed. "I almost didn't recognize you without your hair up or that sweater."
"Me either." Chase added.
"Whatever," Alex snapped, "Was everyone able to sneak out okay?"
"Yup," Trini nodded.
"Yeah," Karolina answered.
"My parents are practically unconsious." Gert added. "Satanic retuals must really wear a person down."
"I still feel bad about leaving Molly out of the loop." Nico sighed. "I hope she's...you know..."
"Um, is anyone else having a hard time proceccing this?" Karolina blurted out. "I mean, no matter what you guys saw down there , it sounds like our parents have been leading double lives for...years. How is that possible?"
"What? How is it possible that our parents lied to us?" Gert cocked a brow. "Um, let's see, Santa, The Tooth Fairy, The Easter Bunny, um, God?" Gert counted them off on her fingers. "You're the prettiest girl in school. This won't hurt a bit. Your face will freeze like that."
"Everything's going to be alright." Alex finished.
Trini gripped the straps to her back pack. How secluded she felt. Her parents never told her never lied to her. They told her the sraight up truth (well, they'd tell her everything negative about Trini but never said anything about the Pride or whatever).
"So what do we do now?" Nico asked.
"Well, whatever it is, we should decide as a group." Alex said as he scratched the back of his head."But I say we call the cops. They'll put our parents to the vault or wherever they hold the Sinister Six-types these days.
"The cops?" Trini blinked.
"Alex, if the Pride really is a group of... of Bad Guys, like you think it is, how come I never read about them in my history of Masked crime elective?" Karolina asked.
"Yeah, I couldn't even find them on the Internet." Trini added.
"Exactly, just because they dress up in stupid outfits doesn't mean they're super terrorists." Chase barked.
"It's called a secret society, boys and girls." Gert answered. "Like the Freemasons? Am I the only one who saw, From Hell?"
"But if I accuse my mom and dad of something, and it turns out they didn't really do it, it could still ruin their careers. That happens all the time in Hollywood." Karolina stated.
"Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I realize it was probably just some kind of lame performance piece. We should forget that we ever saw it and go back to our lives."
"Seriously, Chase?" Trini shot him a glare.
""Live in denial much, Chase?" Gert glared. "I say we get the LAPD on the horn and narc these psycho's out."
"I agree...which means we're two for and two against." Alex announced. "Trini?"
She shook her head. "I refuse to make a decicion right now. Honestly, I think calling the police would be a waste of time. The cops wouldn't believe us unless we had proof. And we can't just blow it off as if it was nothing because, well, our parents did kill someone. So...I'm not deciding."
"Okay, you're the tiebreaker, Nico." Alex finalized.
"Um… I don't know, really." She twisted her lips in response. "Were talking about our parents. I mean, mine aren't perfect, but they're not monsters. They never were to me, anyway." She lowered her voice. "But I keep thinking about that girl. She wasn't much older than us, you know? If nothing else, we should try and get to the bottom of this for her." She looked back up at Alex. "So I say…make the call."
"WEAK!" Chase shouted; causing Nico, Trini, and Karolina to jump. He wiggled a finger in her face. "You're just voting that way 'cause you want to suck face with Alex."
"I do not!" Nico denied.
Alex looked hurt.
"I mean..." Nico started.
"Forget it, Nico." Alex waved his hand back. "Paul, a little dialing music..."
"You're making a huge mistake, Bro!" Chase shouted.
Trini placed her hand on his shoulder. "Let it go."
"Hi, um, I'd like to report a murder..." Alex started.
"Liked to?" Trini cocked a brow.
"I mean, I wouldn't like to. But-." Alex was cut off. He sighed, "Well, it's complicated...You gotta understand. We're not talking about a bunch of Gang-bangers doing a drive-by here. My parents...and their friends. They're a part of The Pride. They're like Dark Wizards...and...and Mad Scientists...and-." Alex was cut off again. He gripped the phone. "No! God, please! I swear I'm not lying!"
Trini blinked a she heard it again. His heartbeat. Surpisingly enough, Alex had a pretty calm heartbeat. It wasn't racing like she'd eexpected it to be. It was extremely calm. She cocked a brow at him. The next thing she knew, Alex pulled the phone away form his face with a frown on his face.
"Told you!" Chase snapped.
"Geuss we're on our own." Alex put his phone away.
"We can't just give up!" Nico cried. "The police will have to believe us if we bring them some kind of evidence!"
"We don't have evidence, Nico." Trini stated.
"Exactly," Chase agreed. "What are we gonna show them? Our parents' Haloween masks?"
"No, more like a body." Gert replied.
"Yes," Nico pointed. "Where's the trunk now?"
"Trunk?" Chase blinked. "What trunk? Why does it feel like I accidently skipped a chapter?"
"Gert's dad probably already dumped it into the tarpits or somthing, Nico." Alex replied.
"Actually, he and my mom carried it inside as soon as we got home." Gert answered.
"And the girl?" Trini asked. "You think she's still inside?"
Alex narrowed his eyes. "Only one way to find out."
Santa Monica Freeway...
1:59 a.m.
"I ran away from home, and now I'm running back there?" Gert groaned as she leaned against the inside of the van.
"It's not like you're gonna stay there." Trini said as she pressed her head back agaisnt the van.
"Yeah, "This is purely smash-and-grab, Gert." Alex said. "We'll be in and out."
"Please don't say In-N-Out. I'd kill for one of their burgers right now." Nico whined, crossing her hands over her stomach. "I have this thing with stress and food..."
"You think we could stop by to get something to eat. If I don't eat within an hour, I start feeling weaker than the word." Trini stated.
"Didn't you bring food with you?" Karolina asked from the passenger seat.
"Did I?" Trini pulled off her back pack and searched through. "Oh, Gold Fishes!" She ripped open the box and began to eat them. She then looked at Nico. "Want some?"
Karolina sighed as she grabbed the fuzzy dice hanging from Chase's rear-view mirror. "I still think we should have taken my car" She said, "It's less conspicuous than the Shaggin' Wagon here."
"Hardly. Remember those two sniper dudes last year?" Chase smirked. "Everyone in Virginia was looking for one white van, but they couldn't find one 'cause every plumber and electrician and whatever drives one."
"So do Pedophiles." Trini added from the back.
"Say whatever you want, Trinket-" (That damn name that Chase came up with when they were young an constatnly called her that because he hated repeating her name) "-I get in this bad boy and I totally drop of The Man's radar. I'm hiding in plain sight."
Gert cocked a brow. "Is anyone else worried that the apple dind't fall far from the tree?"
The Yorkes Residence...
2:43 a.m.
The group slolwy made their way towards the basement, with Gert leading them. Alex turned around and put his finger to his lips.
"All right, keep the volume on low," He whispered. "We don't wanna wake the big bads."
"Don't worry, my parent's slept through the '94 earthquake." Gert said from ahead of Alex. "Plus, they bought practically the only house in California with a basement in it so I could play drums without ticking off the neighbors."
Just as they got to the bottom of the stairs, Trini stopped. "Holy-."
"Right?" Karolina said from next to her. it's like a whole season of Antiques Roadshow down here. How are we gonna find anything?"
"I don't think we could find anything without breaking something." Trini motioned towards the back with Karolina.
Gert turned on the light and blinked. "Well, at least I found my accursed glasses, granted, they were in my pocket."
"But no sign of the Pirates Chest." Chase announced ."See, no evidence of nothing!"
"You are such a downer." Trini glared at him. "You haven't even been looking!"
"Because there's no point." Chase turned to her. "We're not gonna find anything."
"Well, what if there was a secret passage or something?" Nico asked softly. "Like in Alex's house?"
"Check around for some kind of switch." Alex ordered.
"I told you idiots, we're not going to find anything!"
"Says you, Dummy." Trini said as she lifted up painting. "Looky what I found." It was a keypad.
"Don't touch it." Gert cautioned. "What if you trip off alarms or something?"
Nico walked up to it and peered at the pad. "Looks like you need a five digit password," she said, looking even closer at the keys. "Something with the numbers three, four and seven."
"How can you tell?" Karolina asked.
"Those keys are a smidge darker than the other ones, from the oil on your fingertips." Trini pointed.
"Get out! That is so C.S.I!" Karolina squealed.
"Are there letters with the numbers?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, like on a phone. Why? What can you spell with those three digits?" Nico asked.
"Pride." Alex said coldly.
"What?" Trini turned around.
"The name of their little club? Isn't that a little obvious?" Chase quirked a brow.
"Well, Old People ARE kinda obvious." Trini shrugged.
"Yeah, like my mom's AOL password is password." Karolina added.
"It's not worth the risk, Alex!" Gert argued. "If my parent's catch us down here, we're dead. Literally. I know I said they where heavy sleepers, but they're not-"
"If he's wrong," Trini inturupted, "And they come downstairs, we'll throw Alex at them. Sound fair?"
Alex rolled his eyes and turned to Nico. "Try it, Nico. I've got a feeling about this."
"A bad one." Chase muttered.
"Have a little faith in me." Alex persuaded.
"I do, Alex," Nico said as she punched in the letters, "I-." She was cut off by the wall splitting open.
"Whoa!" Nico exclaimed.
"A trapdoor? Are you kidding me?" Gert yelled.
"Well, that was predictable." Trini shook her head.
""It worked! It actually-" But Karolina was cut off the appearance of, from the open trapdoor, something large, dark, and exceedingly reptilian.
It hissed menacingly.