"Mom, why do we have to go to Aunt Cleo's again?" groaned Austin Kingfisher, gloomily walking up to the doorstep to the aforementioned Aunt Cleo's house and kicking it. "Why can't we go with you? Or stay with Uncle Giovanni? Or Aunt Saskia?"
"Aunt Cleo is the only one who said yes," replied his mother, Lindsay. "And you know the resort we're going to is no-kids. Your father and I have one vacation a year without you, honey. It doesn't mean we love you any less."
"Yeah, but…" Austin paused and glanced over at his little sister, Sydney, who was staring down at her suitcase in complete silence. "…leaving us with a criminal is a questionable decision," he muttered under his breath.
"Austin," said Lindsay warningly.
Austin winced. He hadn't intended for his mom to hear that. As much as he tried to love his whole family, he had never been sure that Cleo was a good influence on Sydney. After all, someone who claimed to be an "evil scientist" probably shouldn't be looking after children. Not that his mom ever believed him, though. She thought Cleo was just a… what did she call it?… "an experimental biochemist". Having spent more weekends than he could count at Cleo's house, Austin was more than convinced he was right.
Did he actually think Cleo was a criminal, though?
He thought about it for a moment.
Jury was out.
"Were you ever going to knock or were you just going to stand on my doorstep all day?"
Austin jerked round to find his aunt standing just inside the house, arms crossed. Somehow, he had missed her opening the door. He had to stop himself from visibly rolling his eyes when he realised she was wearing her usual white lab coat, blackened in places from various lab mishaps.
"Sorry, Cleo," said Lindsay, smiling sheepishly. "Thanks for watching the kids this week."
Cleo, a slim woman in her early forties, tucked her long navy blue hair behind her ears and did not smile back. "Shouldn't they be back at school or something soon?"
"Their school doesn't go back until next week," Lindsay replied.
"Oh." Cleo shrugged and stepped aside, inviting the kids inside.
Austin pulled his suitcase over the threshold and abandoned it in the hallway, before flopping down on the sofa in the tiny little living room. The house was small, so he knew every nook and cranny in it. It didn't even have an upstairs, and if there was a basement, Austin hadn't been made aware of its existence.
After a minute or so, Sydney joined him, also sans suitcase. "Mom and Aunt Cleo are talking," she said.
Austin let himself roll his eyes this time. "Of course they are. Mom pushes us out the house at a hundred miles an hour but stops to chat for an hour."
"It's been two minutes."
"Aren't Mom and Dad supposed to be at the resort before ten?" Austin continued, ignoring his sister. "What's the point of being sixteen if they don't trust me to take care of us for a week?"
"Austin, you flooded the bathroom last week," Sydney pointed out. "And you set the oven on fire on Christmas Eve. And-."
"Okay, okay, you've made your point," Austin grumbled, slouching further into the sofa.
Sydney paused before speaking again: "Maybe she thinks one or both of us wouldn't survive if you were taking care of us."
Austin glared at her. "Can you STOP?"
"Can YOU stop?"
"Both of you stop," came Cleo's curt voice as she entered the room, wheeling both the kids' suitcases. "First of all, the hallway is not a dumping ground for stuff. Second, I don't want you two bickering through this entire week. You don't want to be here and if I'm honest, I don't want you here."
"Glad we agree about that," muttered Austin.
"Then why did you agree to have us?" Sydney asked.
"Because Reed asked me to and I don't feel up to fighting with him right now."
Austin raised an eyebrow. "You mean our dad?"
"Yeah." Cleo raised her own eyebrow right back at him. "You're old enough to know his real name, right? One of you is fourteen, I know that much."
"I'm sixteen and Sydney is twelve," responded Austin curtly.
"Oh." Cleo frowned, her mouth opening and closing a few times as if she was searching for something else to say, before finally giving up and simply walking out of the room.
Austin huffed. "No wonder her own kid doesn't speak to her."
"Austin!" snapped Sydney, swatting her brother's arm hard.
After a moment, Austin's scowl relaxed. He hoped his aunt hadn't heard that; it was indeed a little too far. However, he had stopped enjoying staying with Cleo around the same time his cousin had moved out, and he got the feeling there was some direct causation there.
"You guys hungry?" asked Cleo, reappearing. "Need something to eat?"
Austin opened his mouth to give a scathing reply but Sydney got there first. "No thank you," she said politely. "We had dinner earlier."
"Can we watch TV?" was all Austin trusted himself to say.
Cleo shrugged. "Sure. I'm going to the lab." She started to leave, paused, then turned back to say, "Um… call if you need anything."
"We won't," muttered Austin.
He wasn't sure if Cleo heard him or not; she simply left the room without saying anything else.
Austin reached for the remote and switched the television on. His aunt didn't have many channels but he found one that was playing an old murder mystery movie he liked and settled down to watch the second half of it.
Sydney curled herself up in the armchair, though Austin couldn't tell if she was falling asleep or also watching.
It didn't take long, however, for a knock at the front door to interrupt.
Austin sighed and turned the volume up. But a minute later when the third knock had sounded and it had become obvious that Cleo wasn't going to answer the door, Austin heaved himself off the sofa and went to the front door.
The man standing on the doorstep was about the same age as Cleo, wearing an almost identical lab coat. Great, Austin thought. Another evil scientist.
"O-Oh, hi," the guy said, giving an awkward smile. His nasally voice sported a European accent but Austin couldn't quite tell which one. "I, uh… wasn't expecting a kid. Is Cleo home?"
"Yep," replied Austin. "I'm her nephew. Hang on, I'll get her."
Before the guy could respond, Austin shut the door and dialled his aunt's number. She answered on the second ring, sounding rather irritated: "What is it?"
"There's a guy at the door," said Austin. "Sounds European. Are you expecting him?"
"Oh. Oh! Yeah!"
With that, she hung up.
Austin let out yet another sigh. He had a feeling he was going to be doing that a lot over the next week.
"Why'd you close the door?" said Cleo, popping up suddenly out of seemingly nowhere. She opened the front door and smiled, for the first time that Austin had seen in a long time. "Heinz. Come on in."
Austin watched the man enter the house and kiss Cleo on the cheek, to his surprise. If his aunt was dating anyone, this was the first he had heard of it. He'd always assumed her first and only love was her work, but maybe he was wrong.
Cleo turned and found Austin and Sydney, who had trotted in from the living room to see what was happening, staring at her. "Heinz, this is Sydney and Austin. Kids, this is Heinz Doofenshmirtz," she said, still smiling. "My… uh…" She glanced sideways at him, apparently trying to decide what term to use to describe him. "My partner," she finally said.
"Wait, are you my lab partner or my romantic partner?" Heinz asked, frowning confusedly. "Cuz I always assumed it was the latter but now-."
"Both," Cleo said quickly. "It's both. Heinz and I are gonna be working late on a project so if you get tired, just go to bed. In fact… what time is it?" Cleo checked her watch. "Shouldn't you be in bed already?"
"It's only nine thirty," Austin pointed out dryly. "And we're still on winter vacation. And we're not six years old. Should I keep going?"
"Whatever, just do your own thing," Cleo said irritably. "We've got bigger things than you to worry about."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Austin demanded.
Cleo responded by ushering the kids back into the living room and shutting the door rather hard behind them.
"I swear to-!" Austin started furiously.
"I didn't know Aunt Cleo was dating someone," said Sydney, frowning. "Did you?"
Austin ignored her and softly pushed the door open a crack, listening intently. He could hear his aunt and her "partner" talking quietly in the kitchen.
"Are you sure?" Cleo was saying.
"Well, you know what he's like," Heinz responded. "So overly dramatic about everything. But… I dunno… it feels different this time. I think he's actually gonna try something."
"What can we do about it?"
"Not a lot, really. Just gotta be vigilant."
"Do you think our families will be in danger?"
Heinz hesitated before he replied, "Maybe."
Austin's breath caught in his throat.
"This is just perfect timing," growled Cleo. "I've got my niece and nephew staying for a week while my brother and sister-in-law are on vacation. They've got nowhere else to go, at least not without raising a lot of suspicion."
"Hey, Rodney's never been one to get family involved before," Heinz said. "He probably won't start now."
"It's the "probably" that's got me worried."
Austin's heart started to race. He'd never heard his aunt sound so serious. Whoever this Rodney person was, he was clearly a big danger to the two of them. If he and Sydney were now at risk…
"I'll see if I can call a LOVEMUFFIN meeting tomorrow," came Heinz's voice again. "I'm not sure if it'll do anything but we can-."
His voice broke off as a loud crash sounded from the hallway. Austin staggered back in shock, automatically pulling Sydney closer to him.
"What's happening?" Sydney gasped.
Austin reached for the door again but it suddenly fell down at his feet with another loud crash, revealing a group of armed people in what looked like a lighter version of riot gear.
"Wh- Who are you?!" Austin demanded, his voice shaking as much as his entire body.
"Kids, get down!" came a yell.
Austin barely had time to register Cleo's voice before he was pushed to the ground alongside Sydney, just as the sound of several laser guns going off erupted from the doorway. Both he and his sister screamed, but Austin stopped when he realised Cleo was shielding them with her body. She yanked them both to their feet and shoved them behind the sofa. "Stay there!" she commanded.
She turned and rushed off, but not before Austin spotted a fresh burn mark on her right shoulder.
"She's hurt!" Austin bleated in terror. "We- We gotta go!"
"Aunt Cleo said to stay here!" Sydney cried back.
Austin peered out from behind the sofa. He could just about see Cleo and Heinz both holding the assailants back, though their efforts would clearly not last for long against an armed squad, especially since Cleo seemed to be carrying her right arm more gingerly than her left.
Sydney grasped Austin's arm. "What do we do?!"
"Get out of here!" Cleo bellowed, turning her head towards Austin, who was shocked to see the physical effort painted all over her face. "Go, get out!"
Austin managed to shake himself into action and grabbed Sydney's hand, pulling her towards the back door on the other side of the living room. As they reached it, they heard another crash and whirled around to see Cleo and Heinz being knocked back by the assailants, who proceeded to surround the pair, aiming their weapons directly at them.
"Aunt Cleo!" cried Sydney.
Austin stared in horror at his aunt for as long as he dared, before pulling Sydney out the back door and round the side of the house. The streetlights illuminated the sidewalk just enough for him to feel confident enough to continue running down it at full pelt. He forced himself to keep going, despite his lungs and legs starting to ache, his hand closed so tight around Sydney's that he was sure it was hurting both of them.
"S-Stop, Austin!" came Sydney's gasping voice a minute later. "Stop!"
It took Austin a few seconds to process her words and a few more to actually act on them but finally, he managed to slow down to a walk, his calf muscles burning.
"What- What do we do now?" Austin panted.
Sydney grasped his arm again, her chest heaving. "I know some people who can help," she said through gasping breaths. "My friends Phineas and Ferb live round the corner. They can help."
"Are you sure?"
"Trust me," said Sydney earnestly, before walking off.
Austin wasn't sure at all about trusting a pair of kids with such a dangerous situation but he figured they couldn't exactly go to the police with such a wild tale - at least, not yet - so he trotted after his sister, following her down the street. Now that he wasn't running anymore, the lack of adrenaline was causing him to start to shiver in the cold night air. It certainly didn't help that he was wearing jeans and a jumper; not exactly the warmest clothes.
After a few minutes, Sydney turned up a pathway to a typical suburban house. In the lamp light, Austin spotted the figure of a girl in the front yard with what looked like a telescope. She spotted them immediately. "Excuse me, who are you?" she asked, her accent English.
"Sinclair?" Sydney ventured. "It's Sydney."
The girl moved closer to the pair. Now that she was closer and fully under the light, Austin could see her frowning. "Sydney? What are you doing out at this hour? The boys are asleep."
"I-I figured." Sydney glanced up at Austin, who shrugged back. He had no idea how to handle this situation. "I'm so sorry. It's an emergency. Our aunt was attacked by these people in armor and they had guns and- and we ran away but Aunt Cleo was hurt and I think she was captured and we have nowhere else to go and-."
Austin pulled his sister into a hug as her voice broke and she dissolved into tears, the shock of the situation clearly just catching up to her now. He gave Sinclair a pleading look. "We need help," he said. "And we can't go to the police."
Sinclair glanced from Austin to Sydney and back again. "I can help you," she said finally. "Or, at least, I can call someone who can."
She pulled out her phone and tapped a number into it. "Hello, Indigo?" she said into the phone. "Sorry to bother you at this hour but we have a situation. Are you and Violet free to help?"
She paused as the person on the other end of the line spoke.
Austin waited, feeling Sydney trembling in his arms. If Sinclair couldn't help them, he didn't know what they would do next. After all, going to the police might actually make things worse for Cleo considering her less-than-ethical occupation.
"Okay, thanks," said Sinclair, hanging up and turning back to the Kingfisher kids. "My friends will be here soon to help. Until then, come inside and get warm."
"Thank you," said Austin hoarsely, ushering his sister forward.
As Sinclair led her towards the house, Austin paused and turned to gaze up at the night sky, dark and cloudy, reflecting his great worry for the safety of his aunt. He had no idea how the situation would evolve from here, but one thing was for sure.
This was the start of something huge.