Alf reeled a fish onto the beach. Dragging it up from the sand, he looked at the sorry creature dangling dispiritedly from the end of his line.

"G'morning Alf," panted Flynn, jogging up to meet him.

"Yeah, not for this fella it ain't," said Alf, staring at the limp fish. It would occasionally twitch it's tail slightly, just to prove that it actually was still alive.

"Geez, there's not much fight in him is there?" said Flynn.

"Nup. There's not much fight in any of them these days. Not since Tasha sold the caravan park to that crook Macklin." He shook his head again and manouvered the fish off the hook. "I don't know how such a nice girl could be so flamin' stupid." He hurled the fish through the air, and landed it back in the ocean. Instead of the splashing flurry of an escape back into the wild, the fish just sank into the waves...and floated back up to the surface a moment later.

***

"Tash..." Irene stood by the girl's bed, gently shaking her. Tash was awake - her eyes staring glassily into the distance of her bedroom wall - but she didn't respond. "Tasha love, you have to get up. Come on, you have to go to school." Nothing. "You've already missed three days of the blasted thing and I'll be damned if I'm gonna let you miss another one!" Yelling didn't help either. "Oh I give up..."

"What's the matter?" asked Kim, sidling into the doorway. Irene looked back at him exhaustedly and waved a hand indicatively at Tash. "What, she's not going to school again?" Irene shook her head. "Well you can't let her keep doing this. She's gonna get behind."

"You think I don't know that?" said Irene irritably. "I've tried everythin'! She's just not budgin'!" Irene looked at Tash, who still hadn't responded to either of the people in her room. She frowned. "She's still blaming herself for this Macklin bizzo. I've tried tellin' her that it's not her fault. It's that damn Josie Russel...gawd I'd like to get my hands on that -"

"Irene," Kim tried to reason with her, "Josie's not the only one that got sucked in by that slimeball, remember? I was working for him myself. There was no way that any of us could have known..."

"Hah! Josie knew exactly what she was doing. She knew she was misleadin' Tasha and puttin' this whole town in the toilet by doin' it!"

Kim sighed.

"Yeah, okay," he conceeded, "But none of this is helping Tash is it?"

"No..." lamented Irene, "I just wish I knew how to get it through to her...You try will you? I'm gonna be late for work if I don't get wriggle on." Kim nodded, and stepped aside to let her out of the room.

Kim sat down on the end of Tash's bed.

"Tash, Irene's right. What Macklin did to the caravan park isn't your fault. I mean building a resort was one thing but turning it into a toxic waste dump? None of us saw that coming. How could we? Especially you, Tash." He put his hand on her shoulder. "You don't have an evil bone in your body, and you don't expect anyone else to either. You're a good person Tash. Brett Macklin took advantage of that. No one blames you for what happened."

Tasha sniffed. Kim pulled her hair out of her face as she started crying.

"It's okay," he soothed her.

"No it's not," she croaked. "Sally and Flynn...they lost they're home because of me. And Ric and Cassie...baby Pippa..." She sobbed harder. "And that's not even the worst thing. The whole town's being destroyed."

"Tash, Sally and Flynn got bought out - they can afford a new house. And the town...well the town will get over it. Plenty of other places in the world have had toxic waste dumps around, and lived to tell the tale." He was glad that Tash didn't ask for examples.

"At least Sally and Flynn could move away..." said Tash, barely registering what Kim was saying. "The animals...they have no where to go..."

Kim brushed her hair back again. Tash was worrying herself sick over this, he could feel the heat from her forehead in his hand.

"They'll adapt," he said, trying to calm her down, "It's what they do." Tasha shook her head slowly.

"No they won't...They're sad...They're angry...and they're blaming me."

Kim stopped brushing her hair. He sat up and looked at her.

"What do you mean 'blaming' you? How can you possibly know that?"

"Because..." said Tasha quietly, "They told me."

***

Cassie and Ric carted a pair of boxes across the living room of the new house. Cassie looked to be struggling with hers.

"What have you got in there?" asked Ric with a smirk.

"Just books and stuff." Ric snickered as the box slipped in her hands. She cought it with her knee and glared at him. "It's heavy, alright?"

"Uh huh. Look, why don't you just put it on top of mine?" He offered his box to her.

"What are you crazy? You can't carry both of them."

"Some of us aren't weak little girls," he said smugly. Cassie squinted at him.

"Fine." She mustered all her strength into violently throwing her box on top of Ric's. Instead of his arms falling off (as Cassie secretly hoped they would) Ric just continued to look at Cassie smugly, fully capably of carrying the total load.

"Weak. Little. Girl." he smirked.

Ric turned away from Cassie, with a view to strutting all the way to his room. Cassie, however, had a better idea. She pushed him in the back.

"Hey!" yelled ric, amongst the clatter of dropped boxes as he stumbled forward. He turned on Cassie, ready to retalliate, but -

"Ric? Cassie?" came Sally's voice from upstairs, "What's going on down there?"

"Nothing..." they answered together. They shot each other distainful glances.

"Well hurry up and get ready. You can unpack after school."

***

The bell rang. Robbie, who had been hopefully watching the school gates, hung his head. Tash wasn't coming...again.

Maybe she's just running late.

He kept watchin, waiting...

"Mr Hunter..." Robbie jumbed as Principal Hyde leaned over his shoulder. "In case you have forgotten, that bell means that classes have started. I suggest you get to yours."

"Yep, on my way sir," lied Robbie. Hyde raised an eyebrow at him in a 'you'd better be' sort of way, and then turned to harrass some other stragglers.

"Come on Tash..." Robbie breathed towards the empty gateway. He waited. He was already going to be late, what was another few seconds?

The road outside the school remained empty. She wasn't coming.

Robbie sighed and turned towards the school. He heard a car door close behind him. He looked back - Kim's car had just rolled up. Why was Kim here? Robbie's answer came instantly as Kim opened the passenger-side door and coaxed Tasha out of it.

"Tasha!" called Robbie excitedly. She returned a quarter of the gigantic grin he was showing her, and hugged him. "Oh, I was so worried about you. I couldn't stop thinking about you! Not that that's anything new." He kissed her on both cheeks. "You weren't coming to school, you weren't answering my calls...Are you okay?" Tash nodded, the same weak smile trying to mask the emptiness of her eyes. Robbie kissed the side of her head. Tasha pushed him away slightly. Kim could understand why.

"Take it easy Rob," he grinned. Robbie threw his hands up and backed away from Tasha.

"Sorry, sorry." He smiled at his girl, unable to maintain that distance for very long. "I've just missed you so much." He quickly grabbed the back of her head again - not roughly, but determined enough that Tash couldn't fight him off before he kissed the other side of her head.

"Hm..." He sniffed at her hair.

"Am I gonna have to get the hose?" asked Kim. Robbie ignored him, still sniffing.

"Tash...have you been smoking?"

"What?" asked Tasha with more energy than Kim had seen from her in days.

"I'm not judging you!" Robbie hadn't meant to get her this offside. "I know you've been really upset and stressed but Tash, addictive carcenogens are NOT the answer."

"You know how disgusting I think smoking is," Tasha snapped at him.

"Then you're not...?"

"NO! Why would you even ask me that?"

"It's just..." He looked at her hair. "I thought I smelled smoke or ash or something. I must have imagined it. Sorry. Forget I said anything."

"Well, if you two are done sniffing each other," said Kim "You might want to get to class." He looked at his watch. "The bell went 10 minuts ago."

"Right," said Robbie. "Ah, thanks for driving her." Tash didn't look like she appreciated Robbie talking for her. She walked away towards the school.

"Don't thank me," said Kim to Robbie, shuffling off to his car, "Thank you're own animal magnetism." Robbie's brow furrowed. "Me and Irene've been trying to get Tash out of the house for days," Kim explained, "Then this morning she just decided that she had to see you. She said she couldn't explain it - she just felt like she had to be with you. Weird, huh?"

"Definetly," said Robbie. He waved to Kim as he drove away.

Robbie stood there alone for a second, thinking about Tash. He'd been thinking about Tash all morning. Maybe her coming to school was the result of ESP? He shook his head. No, if they're bond was that strong, Robbie wouldn't be wondering if Tasha was gonna talk to him any time soon - he'd already know that she wasn't.

***

Tasha and Robbie sat in silence, eating their lunch in the courtyard. Robbie couldn't ignore the tension between them, regardless of how much Tasha was trying to.

"Tash," he began suddenly, "It was a stupid thing to say and I'm sorry, okay?" Tash took a bite of her sandwich. She was watching a magpie picking some scraps out of a bin. "Tash, come on, I only asked because I was worried."

"Why would you worry about her?" said the magpie, "After what she did..."

Tash glared at the evesdropping bird and threw the rest of her sandwich at it. Robbie leaned away from her, startled.

"What the hell was that about?" he asked fearfully.

"Didn't you hear it?" asked Tash. "That stupid bird!"

"It made a noise...yeah...." Robbie didn't know why that warrented a violent sandwich-throwing.

"It said-!" She stopped. "Don't worry about it."

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa," Robbie tried to comprehend, "The bird said something? As in words? As in, you actually heard...?"

"I said don't worry!" snapped Tasha...she was doing that a lot today.

"Tash, if you're hearing birds talking to you..."

"That's it, I've had enough of this. I'm going home. I'll see you later." She got up and began to walk away from him.

"Tash..." Robbie called to her in a 'be reasonable' tone, but she clearly wasn't in the mood for that. She kept walking - fast. Robbie sprang up and chased after her. "Tash, will you just stop?" Still walking... "STOP!"

Tasha stopped dead in her tracks. She tried to take a step forward but her feet seemed to agree with Robbie. She sighed angrily and rounded on him.

"What?"

"I just want to talk to you."

"Want to accuse me you mean."

"What? No. No one's accusing you..." He sighed. "Tash, I definitely smelled smoke on you before. I don't know what it was from, and if you say it wasn't a cigarette then I believe you, alright? But I really don't think I was imagining it." He quickly leaned into her hair again. He sniffed and nodded his satisfaction. "See? Still there. I'm not crazy."

Tasha grabbed a clump of her hair and pulled it down to her own nose.

"You're right," she admitted as she smelled it too, "You're not crazy. But maybe I am. I don't remember being anywhere near smoke..."

"It was probably Kim's old bomb of a car," Robbie assured her. "That thing's been dying since the day he got it. A little engine fire wouldn't surprise me one bit."

"He told me not to say anything..." said Tash quietly.

"What?" said Robbie, suddenly alarmed. "You don't mean there was actually a fire? I was just kidding! Are you okay?"

"No, no," said Tash, "I mean, Kim told me not to say anything about...the birds."

Birds? Plural?

"He said that it was just my imagination acting up," she continued, "Because I felt guilty about the caravan park - about wrecking their habitat. And the sooner I learn to ignore it, the sooner it'll go away."

"Well..." said Robbie after an awkward moment of thinking very carefully, "I'm sure he's right. Just...you know...remember to ingore them extra hard if they start telling you to kill or anything..."

Tasha came very close to laughing, but settled on a smile. Robbie was happy enough to see that. He hugged her and kissed her.

Robbie put his arm around Tasha's shoulder and gently wrangled her back in the direction of the courtyard.

"Rob," she asked curiously, "You don't really think that Kim's car could catch fire do you?"

"No," said Robbie confidently, "Of course not." Sometimes, Robbie could see an upside to Tasha being so trusting of what people told her.

***

Kim looked at the temperature guage on his car. It looked about right. But he could swear the stearing wheel felt hot. Well, he had been driving for a while. It was his day off, he thought a mini road trip around the bay might be nice.

He decided not to worry about the temperature - go back to worrying about Tash.

Why would Robbie say that she had been smoking? As if Tash would do that. As if she'd risk her health - her good looks. I mean sure, she was depressed...and hearing voices...but she was still way too smart for that...and funny...and caring...and perfect...

Sniff, sniff.

Great. All this thinking about how insane Robbie was, now Kim was smelling phantom smoke. Or...was it phantom? The temp guage still looked right but....

"Ugh..." Kim looked at the stearing wheel. The black plastic had liquified between his fingers. He knew it was hot but not that hot!

Despite the enourmous urge to take both hands off the wheel and let the car sort itself out, Kim felt it was best to try and pull over first.

The car veered roughly off the road and came to an abrupt halt in the bordering gravel. Kim peeled one of his hands off the wheel. Why didn't that hurt? If the bloody steering wheel was melted, chances were his skin would be too.

Kim looked at his reddened palm. It didn't feel burnt... He took the other hand off the wheel, carefull watching the impressions of his fingers set as the air reached them. He took a moment to process that, and then opened the car door.

One last glance at the temp guage - still normal. Well obviously he'd have to get that replaced. He walked around to the bonnet of the car and opened it up. He stood back, expecting to be engulfed in smoke - possibly flames - something to explain how this could be happening...but there was nothing. Everything looked and felt completely normal to the touch.


What the hell was going on?
_________________________________

TO BE CONTINUED
_________________________________
Flynn turned Kim's hand over in his own, inspecting it closely.

"Well I can't see anything wrong," he said skeptically. "Are you sure you didn't imagine it?"

"Maybe you wanna ask the mechanic I took the car to," said Kim. "He said I might need a new steering wheel."

"You went to a mechanic before you went to a doctor?" asked Flynn incredulously.

"Yeah, well...the car looked like it came off second-best..."

"Yes," said Flynn in a slightly disapproving tone, "You're very lucky. There doesn't seem to be any damage here at all." He finished examining Kim's other hand and let it go. "You still shouldn't have risked it though. Just because you didn't feel anything...you might have been in shock, or - "

"I felt something," Kim interjected. "I felt hot. My hands...I thought it was coming from the car - the engine or something - but the mechanic said it was fine." Kim thought about that for a minute. "You don't think it could be me, do you? You don't think I could be causing it?"

"I don't see how," said Flynn. "For a human being to generate enough heat to melt hard plastic...You'd be more likely to spontaneously combust." Kim paused.

"That does happen though, doesn't it?" he asked with a note of panic in his voice. "People just sitting around, minding their own business and then poof! They're history?"

"Not commonly," said Flynn dryly. "And I think in those very, very rare cases where it does happen, the victims would feel an intense heat in their whole body, not just their hands." This obviously didn't put Kim's mind at ease. "Look, have you ever had these symptoms before?"

Kim thought about it. He'd felt something similar with Tasha this morning but that had been because she had a fever or something.

He thought harder. Kim couldn't remember Tasha ever mentioning a fever, or anything like that. Indeed, aside from when she was crying about the caravan park, she didn't even have a runny nose. And didn't Robbie say that her hair - which he, Kim, had been patting, smelled like smoke...?

Tasha shouldn't have been crying in the first place, thought Kim. It wasn't her fault. Why couldn't she see that? Why couldn't she just remember how beautiful she was? And that she had a best friend who loved her more than anything in the world; who'd do anything she wanted him to...anything to make her happy..."

"Kim!"

Flynn's urgency snapped Kim back from his daydreaming. He focused his glassy eyes on the doctor's, which (it became apparent) were wide with alarm.

"Flynn, what...?" That famliar smell. It definitely wasn't the car now. He looked down at the desk, where his hands were - hot. He pulled them back quickly as thin whisps of smoke rose up from the charred wooden surface beneath them. Two darkened handprints, lightly scorched through the varnish. Kim looked at his palms. Again, slightly redder than usual, but not at all harmed. "Flynn," demanded Kim expectantly, "What the hell is happening to me?"

Flynn tried to answer, but his jaw seemed unable to close.

***

Hayley sat on the lounge, staring vacantly at some boring gardening magazine (she'd already read through the interesting ones). This being Kim's day off - Kim being the father of her unborn and somewhat inconvieniently positioned child - she thought it might have been nice of him to take her out somewhere. He didn't though. He just left her alone in the house, Irene at work and Tasha at school, and him gallavanting off all over the bay without her. Maybe Scott would come and do something with her later...

The back door opened. In walked Kim.

"Run out of places to see already?" she asked, halfway between curious and spiteful.

"Uh, yeah," replied Kim hastily, not bothering to decript Hayley's mood. "Do you know if we have any gloves or mittens or something?" He started rumaging through the linnen closet, hoping to find something stashed in there.

"I don't think so..." said Hayley. "Why?" Kim came back into the loungeroom. He didn't really expect to find anything here, but he thought it wouldn't hurt to ask. Hayley, on the other hand, clearly thought that he was insane.

He briefly considered telling her what had happened in Flynn's office, but decided against it. If looking for mittnes made him insane, then what did burning things with his bare hands mean?

"No reason," he dodged her question.

He strode past her and bounded upstairs to his room. Hayley stared after him, still awaiting an explaination for this bizzare behaviour. Thundering footsteps a moment later indicated his hurried return.

"Kim," she laughed at him nervously, "What is going on?"

"Nothing," he said with a concealing smirk, "I just forgot my wallet." He held it up to show her, but quickly stuffed it into his back pocket as he felt the leather softening sligtly under his warming thumb. "Don't stress," he told her. "You just keep your feet up and I'll see you when I get back." He crossed the room in metered strides and exited the way he had come.

As the back door closed heavily on it's frame, Hayley turned grumpily back to her oh-so-riveting plants.

"It's not like I wanted to go out anyway..."

***

Kim walked across the dingey oil-stained concrete of the petrol station. He looked at his hands. This was not a good place for him to be...

He made his way to the mechanic's shed.

"Excuse me," he tapped a man in greasy overals on the shoulder, and then recoiled as he realised how badly that could have ended up. Happily, the man simply turned around to greet him, unscathed.

"Back already?" he asked, surprised. "You know I haven't ordered that part for you yet. And it's gonna take more than an hour to ship it."

Kim grinned politely, though he could care less for jokes right now.

"No, I'm not here for that. I was just wondering if you could do me a favour."

"A favour? What sort of a favour?"

Kim hesitated. He tried to think of a way to put this without sounding like a complete freak.

"Those gloves you were using to go over the engine...they absorb heat, right? I mean you can't get burnt if you're wearing them?"

The mechanic looked at kim quizzically.

"Yeah, that's the idea," he said. "Why do you ask?"

"Well I was just wondering...where do you get them from?"

"Eh?"

"It's just, until I find out what's wrong with my car -"

"There's nothing wrong with that car."

"I just want to know that if the steering wheel starts melting again, I won't get burnt by it. You know, a little insurance..." Okay, now even Kim thought that he sounded like a crazy person.

The mechanic eyed him suspiciously.

"Tell you what," he said, "I just got a new box of those gloves in for my crew. I'll sell you a pair."

"Really?" said Kim, more excitedly than he intended. "Oh that'd be awesome, thank you!" The mechanic was still eyeing him, pondering this very strange boy. Kim, realising how he must have looked, quickly calmed down.

Besides looking like some glove-obsessed weirdo, Kim didn't need anyone suspecting his real reasons for wanting a pair. Maybe if these gloves could stop heat getting to a person's hands, they'd be able to stop it coming from them.

***

Tasha and Robbie entered the Beach House through the kitchen, deep in conversation.

"I told you Robbie, the dog didn't want to be there."

"I'm not sure the owner's gonna be too understanding of that when he comes out of the shop to find someone's let his dog loose!"

"Well the owner wasn't there, was he? His owner wasn't the one saying 'I'm hungry! I'm thirsty! When's that idiot going to come back and untie me?'"

Robbie rolled his eyes. Why couldn't he have just let Tasha take Kim's advice, and not ask her what every second animal was talking about? It's not like Robbie wanted Tash to be indulging the voices, but he was curious...what if she really could hear animals? What were they saying?

Eight jeering birds, three whiney dogs, and a foul-mouthed stray cat later, and Robbie wished he'd never asked.

He collapsed onto the lounge, exhausted by it all. He looked across to his left where Kim, who had evidentally had the same idea some time ealier, was asleep.

Tash was about to continue defending her actions to Robbie when he caught her eye and put a finger to his lips, telling her to keep quiet. Confused at first, Tasha opened her mouth to protest, but the words didn't come out. She saw Kim, and felt that her bemusement must have stopped her.

"What's he doing there?" she whispered. Robbie shrugged with his back to her, looking over his dormant friend. He noticed the thick gloves on Kim's hands.

"And what are they for?" he added, intrigued. Tasha spied the magazine on the coffee table.

"Maybe he's been gardening...?" Robbie didn't think that was too likely. He needed to hear this from the source. He slowly leaned into his friend's ear...

"KIM!" he shouted. He felt Kim jump beside him, and was prepared to have a laugh at his expense, until...

"KIM!" Tasha screamed as well, but she was definitely not doing it for kicks. Her eyes were wide with horror as the gloves on Kim's hands burst into flames. Kim - now fully awake from both voices - looked down, just as horrified. He began patting the flames out on his chest - he couldn't smother them (and he was wrecking his shirt).

He leapt up, bashing his leg into the coffee table in a frantic bid to find a runway that wouldn't involve going too close to Robbie. Robbie was still cowering at the other end of the lounge, dreading that he himself would be set alight.

Kim kicked the obstacle of a table out of the way and ran to the kitchen sink, where Tash already had the cold water running.

"Quick! In here!" she directed, moving aside so that he could access the faucet. Steam hissed off him as the water dowsed the flames. He panted fearfully as he watched the frayed and blackened holes of the material emerge underneath the icy stream.

The fire was out. The gloves, such as they were, were completely saturated. Tasha looked at Kim to see what he was going to do. He didn't do anything. He just stood there, shaking, with his hands cupped under the water. He hadn't actually seen flames before...maybe he wouldn't get away so cleanly this time.

Tasha stepped over to the tap and turned it off. Kim didn't remove his hands. Robbie, who had now summoned the courage to emerge from his fortress of cushions, heard the water droplets spinning off the trembling gloves and pinging against the stainless steel below.

"I'll call an ambulance," he announced hoarsely.

"Wait," said Kim as Robbie reached for the phone. "I want to check something." Tasha and Robbie (his hand on the phone) exchanged worried glances.

Kim stared down at the gloves. He could see that his skin was red through the holes in them. It was brighter than the last time...

He grabbed at the fingers of his left glove to pull it off. Tasha held him by the arm.

"Don't!" she scolded. "You'll make it worse!" She guided him over to the dinner table. "Just sit down and wait til the ambulance gets here." Kim pulled his arm from her's. He had to know... "Kim!"

He ignored her, pinching the fingertips of his left glove.

"Kim!" repeated Robbie more sternly, "Sit down!"

Kim glanced at Robbie, and then pulled out a chair. Tasha made a sharp sound at the way he grabbed the back of it - tight and forceful, and not at all considerate of the injuries he might have been carrying.

Kim slumped at the table, staring expectantly at Robbie, who was still wasting his time calling an ambulance that nobody needed.

"I'm going to get you some more water," said Tash calmly. "Don't. Move." Kim didn't answer her.

He waited until he heard the tap running, and then grabbed at his glove again.

"Kim, don't!" said Robbie, seeing him too late. The glove was already off. Kim held it still in the air, as if waiting for Robbie's permision to continue. Tash ran back to the table, and saw the glove suspended in Kim's hand.

"Kim! What did I..." Her mouth gaped as Flynn's had done. Robbie wore the same, dumbstruck expression. They looked at Kim's exposed hand...it was completely normal. Kim himself noted that it wasn't even red anymore.

Robbie slowly hung up the phone.

"How in the hell does that work?" he managed to ask. Kim shook his head - he had no idea. He removed the other glove to prove that it wasn't a fluke. Once again, his hand was clear and healthy looking. "But we saw you..." Robbie said. "You were on fire...Your hands were on fire! They should be all boiled and peeling and gross!" Kim frowned at him; did Robbie want him to be disfigured? "Look what it did to the gloves!"

Tasha prodded the soggy grey lumps of cloth on the table. The fire had torn right through them. Great protection, thought Kim.

Tasha reached out to touch Kim's hand. His heart skipped as he felt her skin on his. He quickly glanced at Robbie, as if Robbie might have seen this internal reaction. He didn't want to want Tash, but living under the same roof with her, knowing what an extrordinary person she was...

Kim felt his hand start to tingle where Tasha's fingers where. He pulled it back quickly.

"Did I hurt you?" she gasped. Kim shook his head. He didn't want to hurt her.

Robbie walked over and sat down at the table in front of Kim.

"How did you know?" Kim looked at him, unsure of what he meant. "When I said I'd call the amblulance," Robbie explained, "You said to wait. You wanted to check...You thought you'd be okay. Why would you think that, when you'd just been set on fire?"

"How did this even happen?" added Tash, who, now that the panic was subsiding, realised that there were a lot of questions that needed answering.

"I don't know," said Kim truthfully. "Flynn couldn't explain it either."

"You've been to see Flynn?" asked Robbie. "So this has happened before?"

"A couple of times," said Kim. "That was the first time with actual fire, but there's been some definite heat." He glanced sheepishly at Tash. He was beginning to realise what was causing that.

"So you're telling us..." began Robbie, oblivious to Kim's feelings for Tash, "That YOU started the fire?" Kim hesitated, and then nodded. Tasha, who had been standing up throughout this exposition, finally felt the need to take a seat.

"What caused it?" she asked. Kim didn't want to tell her, or Robbie, the whole truth on that one.

"I don't know why it happens," he began vaguely, "But I think it's connected to my emotions. Like just now, you guys scared me, and I reacted to it...And then I kept being scared, so I kept reacting - that's why I couldn't get the flames to go out." Tasha gave Robbie a very disapproving look. "But when I calmed down a bit, and the water..." He smiled at Tash. The tingle in his hand returned for a split-second. "Fear's the strongest emotion, which is why it was the hardest to control, I guess. The other ones you can kind of get a handle on, if you think about it."

Tasha nodded a simple understanding, but Robbie looked thouroughly enthrawled.

"So you're saying," Robbie concluded eagerly, "That if you could control your emotions, you could control the fire?" Kim considered the logic.

"Yeah, I guess." He considered it even more. The power to control fire...Well, he'd never be stuck trying to find matches in a blackout...He grinned.

"You SO have to learn to use this thing," Robbie grinned back at him.

"Responsibly," Tash reminded both of them. They're faces fell a little, but they were happy enough to agree to the condition.

"Try it now!" urged Robbie.

Kim placed his hand above the table, palm up. He concentrated. Or, he tried to. Having Tash there was very confusing. He was trying to think about her, and not think about her all at once. He almost felt the tingle but it wasn't anywhere near enough to create the inferno that Robbie so obviously wanted to see.

Robbie stared at Kim's very boring hand, and frowned.

"Maybe if we all concentrate on it?" he suggested.

"What good's that gonna do?" scoffed Kim. "I told you, it's runs off my emotions. And I'm just not feeling very emotional right now."

"Well try harder!" said Robbie imaptiently. "Just visualise the fire, be the flame." He focussed unblinking on the center of Kim's open palm. Kim just looked at him, thinking that he'd never been any further from feeling like he was about to combust.

But apparently he was wrong about that.

"Jesus!" Kim jumped back from his own hand as it unexpectedly erupted into a hot flash of orange and gold. He hadn't even felt a tingle a second ago! All three of them watched the mysterious fire, transfixed by it's glow.

"Does it hurt?" asked Tash, feeling that she had to be certain, even though Kim didn't look to be in any pain. He shook his head.

"It's just hot."

"Can you make it bigger?" asked Robbie, staring at the 5cm flames. Kim wondered with some concern where this pyromaniac streak had come from.

"I don't even know how I made it that big," he said.

"I told you," said Robbie, "Just concentrate." He kept his eyes on the fire as he spoke. Kim jumped again as the flames suddenly doubled in hieght, through no will of his own. "See?" Robbie grinned. Kim stared at him, a little fearful.

"Rob, I'm not doing that."

"What do you mean?"

"I think...the fire's doing what you want it to do."

"But it's your fire," said Robbie.

"I know but...Look, just try something. Try to get it to move to one side. Dont tell me what side you want either."

"Kim," Robbie said skeptically. Kim looked mildly serious about this. "Alright."

He took a few deep breaths, psyching himself into this clearly taxing task. The fire's height dropped dramatically the moment he stopped concentrating on it.

"Okay fire," said Robbie (it flared up again), "The direction I want you to go in is..."

Left.

The flames lurched to Robbie's left. Kim and Tasha looked at him expectantly. Robbie didn't say anything.

"Try again," he decided.

Up.

The fire rose up dramatically.

Down.

It sank.

Left, right, up and then spiral back down!

Hastily composed, and not helped by Kim's reluctance to let Robbie toy with his powers anymore, the fire carried out Robbie's mental orders to the best of it's ability.

"This is too freaky..." said Robbie, obviously shaken by the realisation of what this meant. Tasha and Kim gathered from that, that Kim's theory had been proven right.

The fire in Kim's hand disappeared, along with Robbie's desire to see it there.

A magpie called from somewhere outside the kitchen window, eliciting an unexpected retalliation from Tash.

"He is not a wuss!" she yelled in that general direction. She shook her head dismissively, "Don't listen to him Rob."

Robbie nodded his forced gratitude. Tasha was clearly unaware that she had just startled both he and Kim to within an inch of misusing their powers.
__________________________________

TO BE CONTINUED
__________________________________
Flynn walked into the new house. He threw his keys on the table without looking. They fell to the floor with a crash. Right, there was no table near the door in the new house. He picked them up.

"Hey," said Sally, trying not to smirk as she saw him. "You're still getting used to that too, are you?" Flynn nodded tiredly and relocated the keys to the little nest of tables beside the lounge. He seemed troubled. "What's wrong? He shook his head, pretending there was nothing. "Flynn..." She knew him better than that. He sighed.

"Okay," he prepared her, "This is going to sound really weird, and I don't know how it happend but I saw it with my own eyes and -"

"Flynn," Sally stopped him, "Calm down. Just tell me what happened." He pulled the breaks on his excitable rambling.

"Okay." He took a breath. "Kim came into the hospital today..."

"Is he okay?"

"He's fine...That's kind of the problem." Sally didn't understand. "He burnt my desk."

"What?" said Sally, shocked. "How did that happen? I'm assuming it was an accident..."

"Well, yes," said Flynn. "He didn't mean to do it but...I still don't know how he did it. He was just sitting there with his hands on the desk, and then they started smoking..."

Sally tried to comprehend what her husband was telling her.

"What, he had some kind of chemical on them?" Flynn shook his head.

"There was no irritation to his skin. Nothing that would indicate any kind of acid or...I don't know. I had no idea what was going on. I was just staring at him. He left before I could say anything - give him any advice, refer him to...someone...I didn't know what to tell him." He put his hands at the back of his neck. "I was no help at all."

"Well if he was alright..." Sally tried to comfort him.

"It's not the point, Sal. I should have been able to do something. What if he hurts someone?"

"Kim wouldn't do that."

"Not on purpose..."

"Flynn, you can't help everyone. And I'm sure Kim is just as worried about this as you are - more so. He'll be careful. Just try to calm down."

Sally rubbed Flynn's shoulder in what she hoped was a reassuring way. She didn't know if any of this was helping or if anything she had said made sense, but it was all she could think to do.

"Flynn?" Ric's voice came from behind them. Sally and Flynn turned to look at him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to listen in, but...Did you say something was wrong with Kim?"

"Uh, yeah," said Flynn hastily, "But I'd appreciate it if you didn't repeat that to anyone." He looked at Sally and lowered his voice a little. "I shouldn't have even told you."

"No, I won't," Ric assured him, "It's just...well I think I might have something wrong with me to...something weird."

"What?" asked Sally, mirroring Flynn's worried expression.

"No, it's nothing bad, or dangerous," Ric backpeddled."At least, I don't think it is...I just don't think it's normal, that's all."

"Well what's the problem?" asked Flynn. Ric looked at his own biceps, considering how to proceed.

"Okay, well, me and Cassie were carrying some boxes around this morning."

"When you should have been getting ready for school," added Sally.

"Yeah...anyway...Cass had this one that she said was really heavy, and I didn't think it was - I mean at all. So when I was walking past the bathroom, I thought I'd check out how much it actually weighed on the scales."

"And?"

"Fifteen Kilos." Sally and Flynn looked at him. "I mean, I could normally carry that okay, I guess, but I had another box as well and it didn't even bother me."

"Well you must have read it wrong," said Flynn.

"Or maybe the scales were acting up," suggested Sally.

"That's what I thought," said Ric. "But then in P.E. today, we were doing fitness tests, and...I did a little too well. Way too well, actually. I...may have broken the punching bag..." He looked sheepishly at Sally.

"Well..." she began calmly, "It was probably an old one. The school's funding doesn't really allow for a lot of new sporting equipment."

"Oh make me feel worse why don't you?" groaned Ric.

"All Sally's saying is, there's probably a reasonable explanation for everything. Don't go jumping to conclusions because there may be something wrong with Kim."

May be? Flynn knew there was something wrong with Kim. But what?

Ric sighed. Sally and Flynn obviously didn't believe him. There was only one way to settle this.

"What are you doing?" asked Flynn as Ric walked towards him. Ric put an arm around Flynn's back and then swept his legs out from underneath him. "Hey!" Flynn clung instinctively to Ric's neck and shoulders as the boy half his size picked him up easily.

"Oh my god..." said Sally, her hand reaching up to her open mouth. Ric locked eyes with Flynn in an 'I told you so' way, and then put him back down.

"You believe me now?"

Flynn stumbled back in shock, his knees feeling very weak as Ric let him go. Sally cought him by the arm before he had a chance to topple over. Ric looked at them both imaptiently, folding his inhumanly strong arms as he waited for their answer.

***

"Kim, toast!" demanded Robbie from the lounge.

"Get it yourself!" said Kim, opening the fridge.

"But you're right there!" said Robbie. "Besides, I'm the guest."

"Some guest," mumbled Kim. "Since when do we feed you anyway? It might make you think that we want you to come back." Robbie narrowed his eyes. Kim grinned, but didn't get the toast. Robbie huffed his annoyance and dragged himself away from his very comfortable spot.

"Some host," complained Robbie as he walked into the kitchen. "I should have known not to expect any hospitality from you - you were asleep when I got here!"

"Yeah, until you woke me up." He moved aside to let Robbie pass. "That ended well...Besides, I was just resting. I thought it might help with...you know...my little outbursts..."

"Hm..." Robbie grabbed two slices of bread from the bag on the bench. "Speaking of..." He turned around and held them out to Kim.

"What?" asked Kim, looking down at the bread.

"Toast," Robbie reminded him.

"You're kidding."

"Come on! It's good practice!"

"I'm not a house-hold appliance, Rob," said Kim. "And while we're at it, I'm not you're own personal pyrotechnics display, right?" He didn't sound angry about it, he just wanted to make it clear. "Besides, you've got powers, why don't you practice?" Robbie gave him a threatening, unbroken stare. Kim rolled his eyes. "Not on me..."

"Fine," said Robbie, leaving Kim alone and heading towards the actual toaster. "I don't need to practise anyway. Unlike you, my power's obviously been developing for years." He'd clearly gotten used to the idea of having it now. "It's not uncommon for people with exceptional genius to display psychic abilities from time to time." He popped the bread into the slots. "Doubtless, my mind has become so advanced, that my body can no longer contain it's awesome power." He pushed the lever down. "And so it spills out as telekinetic energy." He turned around to face Kim while he waited for his toast to cook. "It's always been there," he said knowledgably, "I just didn't see it for what it was until now."

"Exceptional genius, eh?" said Kim, looking over Robbie's shoulder. "Is that why you forgot to turn the toaster on?"

Robbie looked back at it. On closer inspection, the elements weren't glowing at all, and the bread remained as cold and spongy as ever. Someone had turned it off at the wall. He hadn't noticed that...

Robbie flicked the powerpoint on, as casually as possible, and again waited for his toast to cook. The elements were turning orange now. He turned around to Kim and smiled confidently, somehow expecting Kim to believe that he'd meant to do that.

Toast in hand, Robbie went outside, where Tasha was glaring up at the trees. He stood beside her, chewing lazily.

"Whatcha lookin' at?"

"Magpie," she hissed through grit teeth. He nodded, spotting the bird that had been taunting Tasha as though she were a house-cat.

"You know I heard that some girl stopped a frog's heart once," he commented, watching the magpie as it jumped from branch to branch. "Just by willing it to happen - imploded it. Do you reckon I could do that?" Tasha took her eyes off the bird and stared at him. "Not that I would," he added quickly. "Still, it wouldn't be calling me a 'wuss' again anytime soon..." He took another bite of his toast, watching the bird. Tasha went back to it too, deciding it was probably best not to tell Robbie what else the magpie had been saying about him.

***

"So what do we do about this?" asked Sally quietly. She and Ric looked to Flynn. Flynn looked to the floor.

"I'm not sure what we do," he admitted plainly. "Maybe nothing."

"Nothing?" Sally repeated in disbelief. "We have to do something."

"I'm not sure we can," said Flynn. "Besides, Ric seems okay. You are, aren't you?"

"Yeah, fine," said Ric honestly.

"But it's not normal," said Sally, almost whispering as if she didn't want Ric to hear her.

"I know that," said Flynn, in the same tone (that Ric could hear perfectly well), "But I think the best thing we can do now is..." He looked up at Ric. "Try to adapt."

Ric wondered what exactly Flynn meant by that. Would he, Ric, have to adapt to his new-found strength, or would Sally and Flynn have to adapt to living with a freak?

"Well he can't be the only one this is happening to," said Sally. "There has to be other people. Like Kim - it could be the same sort of thing that he has." Ric couldn't help but feel a little disheartened about the way she said that - like he had some horrible disease. "Something has to be causing this," she concluded, desperate for an answer.

***

Alf wandered into the Diner, eyes downcast beneath his wide-brim hat.

"Still not biting?" asked Leah, seeing the fishing rod in his hand. Alf shook his head dissapointedly.

"Worse than yesterday," he said. "Haven't caught a bloomin' thing since that Macklin got his hands on the place. Nothing worth keepin' anyway."

"If you ask me," Colleen butted in with an arm-load of dirty plates, "That Brett Macklin ought to be ashamed of himself!"

"What would we do without your insight, Colleen?" asked Alf tiredly. She threw her head back, ignoring his snide remark, and shuffled into the kitchen.

"Hey Grandad!" said Martha, bounding down the stairs from their aparment above. "You're back early." She realised his unpleasant mood. "What's up?"

Alf didn't want to speak ill of the girl's father in front of her, even though he was quite sure that Martha would say the same thing.

"Don't worry about it, love. I'm just gonna head up stairs for a while. Maybe see if there's anything on tele." He angled his fishing gear past her and made his way up the stairs.

"Did I miss something?" asked Martha, stepping out of the doorway to let a couple of teenagers leave. Leah made a pained sort of a face that indicated that she had missed something, but it wasn't really worth worrying about.

"Oh," said Colleen, emerging from the kitchen. "Did those young kids pay already? That was quick - I only just cleared their table!"

Leah and Martha looked at each other. No one had come to the counter.

"Oh no..." said Leah.

"I'm on it," said Martha, turning to pursue the teenagers.

She ran out of the Diner and spotted the kids - they were already running a good two-hundred meters ahead of her.

"Hey!" she called after them. One of them looked back and saw her. He pushed his friend to make him run faster, and both of them increased their pace, as did Martha.

She growled, determined not to lose the little punks. Even though it seemed like an impossible gap, something told her that she could catch up with them, all she had to do was run faster.

The scenery around her became a blurr. She was so focussed on her goal that the periphery didn't matter to her anymore. Flashes of green and blue and brown swept past her, the two boys remaining as clear as ever, getting steadily closer. They weren't even trying anymore - it was like they were standing still!

She ran up behing the first boy and pushed him in the back, sending his face into the dirt without breaking her stride. A second later and the further one was sharing the same, gritty fate.

"That was too easy," panted Martha, though she really didn't feel to be out of breath. She kicked the second boy over onto his back and pinned her foot to his chest. "Now, let's go back and pay for your meals, shall we?"

Colleen shook her head as Martha dragged the shell-shocked teenagers back into the Diner.

"Disgraceful!" she exclaimed bitterly.

"Thank you so much, Martha," said Leah sincerely. "And YOU," she rounded on the boys, "What did you think you were doing?"

"Us?" said the more precocious of the two, "What about her!?" He stared wide-eyed at Martha. "She pushed us!"

"You deserved it," Martha scowled.

"She ran us down!" said the younger one, genuinely shocked by the older girl's actions. "She was like ten times as fast as us! It's not fair!"

"Not fair?" asked Leah, ignoring the wild exaggeration. "You left without paying! Do you think that's fair?"

"Martha," Alf's voice interrupted the argument from the stairs. "A word?"

"Just a second Grandad." She loomed over the boys. "Pay. Now." The younger one, unnerved by Martha's steely glare, reached into his pockets and emptied them on the counter. He then ran again, but this time Martha let him go. The other one, having lost his lacky, quickly followed suit, the pair of them leaving even more money than they owed on the counter.

"Well," said Leah, pushing the excess coins to one side, "I suppose we can give them store credit or something."

"Rubbish!" said Colleen. "If I see either one of those little scoundrels in here again I'll-"

"Martha," said Alf more sternly. Martha acknowledged him and followed him up stairs.

"It's that nucleus waste dump that's attracted this bad element," Colleen hissed to Leah, "You mark my words!"

Leah nodded compliently and handed Colleen a new plate of food to serve, hopefully one that would be paid for without Martha's pursuasion.

***

"So what did you want to talk about Grandad?" asked Martha cheerily. She was still happy about her heroic efforts. Alf walked over to the window, and then glanced back at her.

"Martha...is there something you want to tell me?"*

*(cont. <i seem to have found the limit on post capacity> )

"Like what?"

"Like," he turned to face her, "How you can cover three hundred odd meters in less than five seconds?"

"What?" she laughed. "Grandad, don't be stupid - no-one could do that!"

"No, I wouldn't have thought so either...until I saw you chasing those kids."

"No way..." She went to the window, determined to prove that he was wrong about this. She looked at the distance between the Diner below and the place she had stopped the boys. Well, that was about right. "It can't have been less than five seconds. Maybe you had a microsleep while you were watching me or something."

Alf scoffed.

"Martha, I know what I saw."

"Well you're wrong!" she yelled. "God, I try to do something nice for Leah and Colleen and all I get is you calling me a...wait, what exactly are you saying?"

"I'm not sure, to tell you the truth."

"You think I'm taking drugs or something, don't you?"

"I don't know what to think."

"Well I'm not! And I don't appreciate the implication!" She stormed away from the window and headed for the door. "I can't believe you! Jeez, remind me not to help out next time!" She reefed it open and slammed it behind her. Alf cringed at the noise of it, and then exhailed. That didn't go very well at all.

***

Kim, Tasha, Robbie and Matilda stood outside a house they didn't recognise. The fact that it was past 6pm didn't help.

"Is this is the right place?" asked Kim.

"It's kind of quiet," observed Tash.

"Well this is the address Cassie and Ric gave me," said Matilda.

"Maddie probably wrote it down wrong."

"Shut up Robbie, I did not."

"Who brought you along anyway?" he asked.

"Well mum told you to," she said, "But if you're asking who actually got me here, then I guess that would be Kim. You know, the guy who actually has a car?"

"That was low."

Kim knocked on the door.

"Wait," said Tash, "I don't know if I can do this..."

"Tash," said Robbie, "It's okay. They obviously forgive you if they've invited you to their house-warming party."

"Not that there's anything to forgive," Kim added.

The door opened.

"Kim," said Flynn nervously, "Hi." His eyes slipped over Kim's fist and back to the front of the door.

"It's okay," said Kim, realising that Flynn was checking for fire-damage, "I'm not all Human Torch today."

"Right," said Flynn.

"We're here for the party," said Robbie.

"This is the right day, isn't it?" asked Tash meekly. There was still no noise from the house.

"Uh...yeah..." said Flynn, "About that..." He looked at each of them. "Okay, why don't you come in?"

Kim, Tash and Matilda walked in and headed into the loungeroom, where Sally, Ric, Cassie and Martha were waiting.

"Small group," said Robbie, lingering in the entrance way to have a better look around. "When are the other's coming?"

"Actually," said Sally, "This is it." Robbie paused.

"Okay..." He walked into the loungeroom to join his friends. "So...you and Flynn didn't want any adults...?" Flynn and Sally looked at each other.

"Robbie," said Flynn, taking a seat. "This isn't exactly a social thing."

"Oh God, this isn't another intervention is it?" Robbie sat down heavily on the lounge. "What did I do now?"

"Not you," growled Martha beside him, "Me. Grandad thinks I'm on drugs so he's sent me to the good doctor to sort me out."

"So there's no party then?" asked Robbie sarcastically.

"No," said Flynn, "And it's not an intervention either. The reason you're all here is you've each shown a certain...uhm...talent. And Sally and I thought it might be good to get you all together and discuss these...special skills."

"Woah, wait," said Robbie, "Is this about Kim's fire thing? Cause he can't help that."

"Not just Kim's power," said Flynn, "All of yours."

"You mean everyone here has powers?" asked Tash.

"Everyone under twenty," answered Flynn. "For some reason, whatever's causing this phenomenon doesn't seem to affect older people. I haven't had much time to research it but-"

"What makes you think that we ALL have 'powers'?" asked Martha.

"Well, I've seen Kim's for myself," said Flynn, eyeing Kim warily(his hands were stretched out on Flynn's favourite armchair). "And he told me that Tasha and Robbie have certain abilities."

"I thought you said I shouldn't say anything?" Tash said to Kim.

"Yeah, and I don't remember telling you you could blab about me either," grumbled Robbie.

"I was worried guys," said Kim. "And you couldn't have kept it a secret forever. Flynn said he could help us deal with this stuff better..."

"So you lied to us?" asked Tash.

"I asked him to lie," said Flynn. "I wasn't sure if you'd want someone telling you how to handle things. I didn't know if you'd come here tonight, and it was really important to us that you did."

"So you lied to us," repeated Robbie angrily.

"Yes," said Flynn, "But now that you're here, you might as well stay, right?" Robbie crossed his arms. He felt just about as impressed with his whole situation as Martha did.

"Fine," said Robbie. "We already know that Kim can start fires, Tash can talk to animals, and I assume you know that I have some kind of telekinisis thing going on. What about everyone else?"

"Well," said Sally, letting all of that wash over her, "Ric seems to have super-strength, and Cassie...well..."

Cassie hung her head. She held up her hand. Her fingernails extended to a semi-impressive length, and then retracted.

"Is that it?" asked Martha. Cassie glared at her.

"And Matilda," Sally went on, "Cassie and Ric said that you had something to show us?"

Matilda closed her eyes, a little embarrased, and concentrated. She heard people gasping. She assumed that her power had activated then. She opened her eyes to check. She looked down at her body, which was no-longer visable. She closed her eyes and concentrated a second time, reversing the process and reappearing with a small smile.

"Maddie," said Robbie, "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Well you didn't tell me about yours," she said fairly.

"And Martha," said Sally finally, "Mr Stewart said that you showed a lot of speed the other day?"

"Said I was on a lot of Speed, more like it," she sulked. "There's nothing wrong with me! He's an old man, he was just seeing things! Why can't everyone accept that!?"

"There's nothing wrong with any of you," Flynn was quick to say. "These powers don't change who you are. They don't make you any better or worse than anyone else, just a bit different, that's all."

"That's right," agreed Sally. "I know it's strange and scarey right now, but if we all support each other and help each other to adapt to these new aspects - learn to be responsible - then I don't think we have anything to worry about."

"We?" asked Martha icily. She stood up suddenly. "And what exactly is your power, Sally? What makes you a super-human freakshow?" The tone of her voice was raising, and so was the temperature of it. "What gives you and Flynn the right to sit there and preach to us about how it's all going to be okay and how this isn't going to change everything for us?"

The room went quiet, Martha's words echoing through everyone.

"I thought you didn't have a power, Mack?" said Tasha.

Martha turned on her, but didn't say anything. Instead, she walked out, again, slamming the door behind her. Kim wondered if Flynn would be checking the condition of his new door after that.
_______________________________________

TO BE CONTINUED
_______________________________________

Yay! *claps hands excitedly*

More, more ^_^

This story has limitless possibilites, I look forward to it never ending!

Ever -_-

Awesome. Hysterical funny...can't wait for more!

I need to find out where in the states they show this now lol...

“Rob, I don’t think this is a very good idea,” Tasha warned him. Robbie laughed at her cautiousness.

“Tash, if we’re going to have these powers, we might as well use them.”

“Not like this,” said Tash. “Besides, Flynn said that we should keep them quiet. If you go showing off in class…”

“I’m not ‘showing off’,” he said, turning to face her at the doorway of their next class. “I’m using what I have to my advantage. What’s wrong with that?”

“It’s an unfair advantage,” said Tash quietly, as a nervous looking kid pushed past her. “And anyway, how do you know that your power can even help you? Kim said it didn’t make you any smarter.”

“Yeah, well, Kim doesn’t know everything.” He walked into the filling classroom.

“I still think you should have studied,” mumbled Tasha behind him.

The desks were arranged separately in preparation for their test. Robbie sat down and pulled out his pencil case. He took out three different blue pens, one red one, two pencils, a sharpener, an eraser and a ruler. He wanted to be prepared.

“Okay everyone, you’ll have one hour to complete the test,” announced Dan from the front of the room.

Tasha watched as Robbie neatly arranged his stationary at the top and side of the test paper, nudging things by millimeters so that they were perfectly square. He didn’t seem to be listening to Dan.

“Robbie,” she whispered to him, “This is cheating.” He rolled his eyes.

“Tash, it’s fine. Don’t worry. Anyway, what would you do? Honestly, if a little birdie flies up to the window and starts squawking the answers, are you going to ignore it?”

“Time starts now,” Dan interrupted. Robbie and Tash returned to their test papers, each quite certain that the other was wrong.

About five minutes in, Robbie realised that the answers weren’t exactly leaping out at him. Maybe he was over-thinking it; maybe he had to let his power guide him. He closed his eyes. Tasha glanced over at him, wondering what he was doing. She shook her head and ignored him.

Robbie concentrated. The first question, he was sure he knew the answer to that…He searched the recesses of his mind…it was definitely in there somewhere…

“Yes!” he hissed to himself as he stumbled upon it. He coloured in the corresponding circle, grinning proudly to himself. Okay, he was on a roll now: the second and third question, he remembered those too. But the fourth, that was harder. Had they even covered that in class? Maybe it part of the homework…but then, he hadn’t done the homework…

Alright, one question. He could live without answering one question.

Question five. Well that didn’t even make sense. Who wrote this thing?

It was no good, Robbie had no idea what the answer was. He flicked through the rest of the pages. It didn’t look to be getting any easier. Now he was freaking out. He really should have studied.

He looked across to Tash. He wondered if she would give him some answers if he asked, but he already knew how that would turn out:

“No! I warned you not to leave everything up to those stupid mind-tricks of yours. Now leave me alone!”

He didn’t need that.

He looked to the other side of him. Hello…that guy had already finished one of the answer sheets. It was just sitting there, waiting to be read…If only it was a bit closer…maybe hanging off the desk a little so that Robbie could see it clearly without being too obvious about it…

The boy’s left arm swept absently across his paper, pushing it away from the one he was working on so that it dangled precariously over the edge. Robbie, who just happened to be looking in that general direction at the time, noticed that the boy had answered at least twenty questions. God bless multiple choice.

Robbie duplicated the pattern of little coloured circles onto his own page, and then subtly tilted his chin back towards the other boy. The boy’s arm caught the exposed answer sheet back onto the desk. Lucky no-one had seen it…

Rather conveniently, the next time Robbie got stuck for an answer, the person in front of him dropped their paper on the floor. Funny how they didn’t notice it lying there until Robbie was done skimming it for ideas.

“Five minutes,” said Dan.

Damn it. Robbie had barely started the last written task. Why did that jerk beside him have to have such small writing? And the one in front seemed to still be writing furiously – she was no good to him. And Tasha…well, she was just drawing on the back of her test. That was helpful…not.

“One minute.”

Crap!

Okay…okay, okay…

He’d have to answer this one himself – just make something up. But there was no time!

He looked up at the clock. Dan was watching it too. Robbie couldn’t stop it, Dan would notice. The seconds were ticking by…He couldn’t stop it, but…

He concentrated. The second hand slowed down…he’d bought himself another minute without anyone noticing. The girl in front put her pen down – too excitedly. Her hand slipped as it met the desk and sent her finished paper to the floor. There was nothing subtle about it. Everyone looked at her.

“Everything okay, Amy?” Dan asked her. She nodded, though she was a little confused and embarrassed. It took her a moment to pick everything up. Tasha looked at Robbie, who was too busy writing to notice her disapproval.

“Pens down,” said Dan, as the commotion died away. Everyone did as they were told, including Robbie, who only had to put a full stop on his barely legible sentence. That was close. Next time, he was definitely going to study.

***

“Tash, let it go! I’ve learned my lesson, okay?”

Robbie had suffered through Tasha’s bad temper all the way home from school. He had hoped that by the time they got to the Surf Club, she might have gotten over it.

“No, Rob, I don’t think you have,” she continued as he turned his back to her. “I’m disappointed in you for cheating on the test – ”

“It was just a class thing!” He lifted one of the pool cues and a triangle down from the wall. “It’s not like I was sitting the HSC!”

“That’s not the point!” He ignored her and shuffled the triangle to the center of the felt. “And anyway, I’m more worried about how you did it. You made Amy drop her test, didn’t you?” Robbie sighed tiredly. “You wanted to see her answers.”

“So what?” He corralled the balls to his end of the table, dropping them heavily into place.

“So, you controlled her!” said Tash, astonished about how casual he was being. “Can’t you see how wrong that is?”

“I wasn’t hurting anyone!” he defended himself, finally meeting her eyes. “So I made her knock a piece of paper on the floor, big deal! It’s not like I made her jump off a cliff.”

“You shouldn’t have made her do anything, Robbie!”

“Hey,” said Kim, interrupting them pointedly as he strode into the Games room, “Do you guys wanna keep your voices down? I can hear you out in the Gym.”

“Tash started it,” mumbled Robbie as he retreated to the pool table and lined up a shot.

“That’s not what it sounded like,” said Kim, dragging Robbie up by the back of the shoulder and taking the cue out of his hands. “But right now, I don’t care. You can’t be having those kinds of conversations in public, especially not at that volume.” He lowered his own voice further. “You’re just lucky you didn’t say anything too obvious. At least I don’t think you did.” He waited for one of them to confess to something even stupider than what he had already heard but, mercifully, they didn’t seem to have anything to add. “Good. Now if you guys have something to say about your abilities, then go home and do it – before you get us all into trouble. Some of us are trying to maintain a normal life here. I don’t think that includes my clients finding out that I could set them on fire.”

Kim gave the pool cue back to Robbie, which, Robbie noticed, was a lot warmer than before.

“Fine,” said Robbie, dumping the cue on the table and turning away from them. “Tash, when you’re ready to apologise for over-reacting to my ‘ability’, I’ll be at home. See you later.” He gave them an apathetic wave over his shoulder and left the room.

Kim and Tasha watched him disappear around the corner. Although they both thought that Robbie had just acted like a total jerk, they couldn’t help feeling concerned for their friend.

***

Kim knocked on the front door of Robbie’s house. It opened slowly, but there was no one behind it. Thinking that it mustn’t have been closed properly in the first place, Kim called out and took a step forward.

“Hello?” The lights were on. Someone must have been home. He walked on, and called again. “He- hey!” He stopped abruptly as he felt his body collide with something unseen. Matilda materialised in front of him, blushing wildly, but acting very cool all the same.

“Oh, sorry,” she said casually. “I didn’t see you there.”

“Yeah…same,” said Kim, knowing that he was almost certainly the only one telling the truth. “Is Robbie home?”

“In there,” she said very maturely as she threw her head back in the direction of the TV room. “He’s in a foul mood though. He had a fight with Tash.”

“Shut up Maddie,” called Robbie from behind the wall.

“Thanks,” said Kim for the unnecessary warning. He brushed past her as he headed for Robbie. Matilda made no effort to lessen this fleeting contact with her former crush. She blushed again, trying to control a smile behind his back, and then ran off into the main loungeroom.

Kim entered the smaller TV room to see Robbie channel surfing, flicking repeatedly through the same five programs, not bothering to settle on anything for more than half a second.

“You left pretty quickly,” said Kim, as a means of opening up the conversation.

“You told me to,” said Robbie, shutting him down, still surfing.

“I told you and Tasha not to go shouting about your powers all over the bay,” said Kim calmly. “You know better than that.”

“And you know better than everyone, don’t you?”

Kim didn’t answer him. He happened to think that on this occasion he did indeed know better than Robbie, but he didn’t see how saying that was going to help anything.

“All I’m saying is,” he began diplomatically, “We have to learn to be more careful. Not everyone is going to accept this as well as Sally and Flynn have. We can’t afford to let the wrong people find out.”

Robbie turned the TV off.

“Fine,” he said. “I won’t say anything about it, alright? I don’t want pitch-forks and flaming torches anymore than you do.” He looked at Kim’s hands. “Well, I guess you wouldn’t really mind the torches.”

Kim hesitated for a moment, and then sat down next to Robbie. Robbie stared in avoidance at the blank screen.

“That’s not the only thing I came to talk to you about,” he said ominously. “Tash told me about what happened at school today. About Amy…”

“God, you make it sound like I walked her in front of a bus or something,” said Robbie. “It was nothing! I don’t know why you guys are making such a big deal about this!”

“Well you should,” said Kim. “You can’t use your power to mess with innocent people. You might not see it now, but it could get way out of hand. Today you make a girl knock her test paper on the floor because you want to read it, tomorrow you…I don’t know…make someone’s head explode because you don’t like them.”

That scenario seemed a little too familiar to Robbie to be a coincidence.

“What exactly did Tash tell you?” he asked.

“Enough,” answered Kim. “Just promise me you won’t do anything stupid…with your powers, that is. I know you can’t help the regular stuff.” He grinned. Robbie smiled back at him…grudgingly.

Robbie nodded.

“Sure,” he said. “Nothing stupid. Got it”

“Good,” said Kim. He patted Robbie hard on the back as some kind of reassurance. He picked up the remote control that Robbie had discarded to the lounge. “What’s on?”

***

Kim was curled awkwardly on the lounge, deep in sleep and completely oblivious to the relentless rapping outside that had forced Robbie out of bed. Robbie squinted down at him as he crossed the TV room in the harsh morning light. 8am on a Saturday…What the hell kind of time did people call this to be making house calls?

Robbie shuffled, half-blind, to the front door.

“Tash,” he mumbled as he opened it for her. “What are you doing here?”

“Kim called last night,” she said. “He told me he was going to stay with you, and asked if I could bring some clothes around for him in the morning. So here I am.” She looked down at the satchel she was carrying over her shoulder. “He’s got work today and he didn’t know if he’d have time to make it home and get ready.”

Robbie, who was still trying to comprehend the fact that he was standing up, talking to someone, rather than in his bed, dreaming, looked at her strangely.

“So you walked all the way here, at this time of the morning, just because Kim asked you to?”

“Well, not just because of Kim…I wanted to talk to you, too.”

“At this time of the morning?,” Robbie repeated, unable to see the sense in it.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she confessed, “Knowing you were mad at me.”

“Tash…” he sighed. “I’m not mad at you…” It was way too early to be having this conversation. “It just hurts that you don’t trust me.”

“I trust you,” said Tash, a little offended that he thought otherwise.

“Is that why you told Kim that I was going to kill someone?”

“What?”

“The bird,” said Robbie, leaning his arm against the doorframe (he still hadn’t invited her in). “You told him what I said about stopping its heart. What I jokingly said.”

“Robbie,” Tash looked away, “It’s not that I don’t trust you…”

“Then what?”

“I don’t trust your power,” she admitted. “It’s dangerous. I’m worried about what it could do to you.”

“Tash, I’m fine,” he assured her. “My power’s no more dangerous than Kim’s or Ric’s…”

“Yes it is. Rob, you’re power is unlimited – you can make anyone you want do anything you want. If you start abusing that now…”

“I’m not abusing it,” he said, still keeping her in the doorway. “And I’m not going to – I already told Kim I wouldn’t.” He looked up to the ceiling in a mock gesture of redemption. “I’ve seen the error of my ways.”

“Robbie…” began Tasha.

“You know,” he talked over her, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were jealous.” Tasha was dumbstruck. “That’s it, isn’t it? Here I have this – what was it? – ‘unlimited’ power, and all you can do is play Dr Doolittle to a bunch of stupid animals.”

“Jealous?” asked Tash, wondering if this was another of his increasingly unfunny ‘jokes.’ “Rob, if I could do what you can do, I’d be terrified.”

“Why? I know what I’m doing.” He crossed his arms smugly. “Besides, you should be the one who’s scared. Hearing voices, Tash? That’s not a good sign. Seriously, how do we know you even have a power? What real evidence is there? I mean there’s your word, but you could be lying – trying to get some sympathy so that people won’t be angry with you about the caravan park. Or maybe you’re just going crazy.”

Tasha couldn’t believe that he had just said that to her.

“You’re right,” she agreed angrily, “I must be crazy.” She lifted the satchel off her shoulder and shoved it into Robbie’s stomach in one violent movement. He hunched over, slightly winded, and stared after her as she paced away from him.

He regained his former posture (which still had a rather sleep-deprived slump) and closed the door. Kim finally stirred.

“Rob, was that Tash?” he asked, sounding as dazed as Robbie had felt.

“Yeah,” said Robbie. “She left you this.” He handed Kim the satchel.

“Oh, excellent,” said Kim, opening it up and pawing through the contents. “She didn’t stay?”

“Things to do,” lied Robbie. He didn’t feel like letting Kim take up round two of this battle with him right now. And just to make sure… “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for work anyway?”

“Mm, yeah,” said Kim, looking at his watch. “Damn it. Do you mind if jump in the shower for a minute?”

“Nah,” Robbie shook his head. “You remember where the towels are?”

“Yep, thanks.” Kim took a hurried step towards the bathroom, then pulled up and turned back to Robbie. “You haven’t seen Matilda this morning, have you?”

“Um…?”

“Mum, waffles,” said Matilda’s voice from somewhere near the kitchen.

“Okay, good,” said Kim, happy that she was nowhere near the bathroom. “Keep an eye on her, will you?

“Uh…”

“Thanks. Back in a bit.” He trotted down the hall and out of sight. It occurred to Robbie that Kim was the second person to run out on him within ten minutes of his being awake. This was going to be a lonely day.
__________________________

TO BE CONTINUED

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Madogis,

This is really good. Robbie is having trouble adjusting to this newfound power of his, so he lets his emotions get him caught up and make him feel like a superhero. Tash is the voice of reason, as is Kim, and he doesn't want to hear it now. Great conflict.

This is what is called "the meantime" of the story...that annoying time where no one knows what will happen next but they just can't wait, can't wait...and I can't.

this installments pretty craptacular. i'm not sure why i wrote it...
oh well, enjoy
______________________________
Cassie flicked the light switch on the wall. It didn't move. She took a closer look at it. It was stuck. She hadn't been in here before (it was the spare room) but some of the other switches in the house had been a bit difficult when they first moved in. Cassie supposed that the previous owners must have had a kid with extremely grubby fingers or something, because there was a fine, immovable layer of gunk outlining almost every button. This was the worst so far.

She pressed her thumb to it and pushed down harder. Nothing. Her nail grew a few millimeters longer, inspired by her frustration, as she pressed with all her might.

Snap.

"AH!" Cassie yelled as the nail broke across the flesh of her thumb. The light still wasn't on. She growled in a pain-fuelled rage. "RIC!" she commanded. She winced and quickly grew the nail back to close the stinging wound.

"What?" said Ric impatiently. She had dragged him away from a very important CD.

"Fix this damn light, will you? The switch is stuck."

"Well what do you want me to do?"

"Unstick it!"

Ric hesitated. He didn't like being ordered around like this, but he figured that if he just did what Cassie wanted, he'd be be out of there faster.

He sighed and brushed the button with his finger. It didn't pay any more attention to him that it did to Cassie. Cassie rolled her eyes. Not to be defeated that easily, Ric tried again. He had, in truth, been holding back. It was hard for him to judge these days how much force was too much.

He put his thumb to the button, as Cassie had done, and heard a click. The light came on. Halfway through smiling smugly, Ric realised that he had actually heard two clicks...one of which was the button falling out of it's hole.

Cassie gasped. "What did you do...?"

"Me?" asked Ric, gaping at the open hole in the plastic, "This was your idea!"

"Sally and Flynn are going to kill you."

"No they won't!" Ric thought for a moment. "They don't even have to know about it."


Martha surveyed the damage, shining a torch into the hole. The white of the missing button reflected behind it.

"Can you fix it?" asked Cassie anxiously.

"Of course she can fix it," said Ric, "She's an electrician." He wasn't as sure as he was making out. "You can fix it, right?"

"Yeah," said Martha, "It shouldn't be too difficult. Hand me that screwdriver." Cassie jumped to Martha's aide, passing the tool as she had requested. "Ouch," said Martha as Cassies long nails grazed her skin.

"Sorry," said Cassie. "Nervous..."

Ric watched as Martha lifted the screwdriver up to the plastic casing of the switch. She pried it off and then leaned into the screws beneath. It occured to Ric that his cousin was about to put metal on metal, whilst playing around with electricity...

"Ah," Ric interrupted her, "Shouldn't you kill the power first?"

"Ugh, don't say that word to me," mumbled Martha, setting to work on the first screw. Ric was becoming increasingly tense at the sight of it.

"I meant the electricity," he said. "That looks pretty dangerous, I don't want you to get hurt."

Martha sighed.

"Alright," she said, "Where's the power board?" She didn't like saying the word herself.

"Near the kitchen," said Cassie.

"Ok, you go turn it off then. Happy Ric?" Ric watched Cassie leave and nodded. a moment later, the light went off and Cassie returned. "Ok," said Martha, continuing with the screws.

She pulled the rest of the plastic off the wall and located the button behind it. It was suspended on a system of wires. Martha checked that they were all still connected and, satisfied that they were, picked up the bit of palstic she had just removed.

Sally came home and walked into the kitchen. She attempted to turn on the light, but nothing happened. She flicked the switch up and down to test it - it wasn't stuck, but the light still wasn't responding. She was reluctant to change the bulb, as she had had a bad experience with that before. She thought to check the power board first.

Martha alined the button to it's hole and pressed it up from the back. It took some finagling to make it clip into it's rightful place. She clamped her hands around the button and the plastic housing, her fingers pressed tightly to the wires behind it.

Sally saw that one of the switches on the board had been tripped. She turned the power back on. As the light in the kitchen appeared, and then flickerd out, two horrified cries from another part of the house signalled to her that something was terribly wrong.

"Ric, Cassie!" said Sally as she haulted in the doorway of the spare room. They were frozen with shock. Sally saw Matha unconsious on the ground. "Oh my god..." She knelt down to the girl and saw the light switch cover in her hand. Sally realised what had happed. What had she done?

"Martha..." Sally encouraged a response. "Martha..." She tapped her face. "Wake up..." Martha didn't move. "Oh my god..." said Sally more desperately. "Call Flynn!" Cassie broke herself free from her trance and ran out of the room to do as Sally said.

"Is she okay?" asked Ric, as Sally checked Martha's wrist for a pulse. Sally didn't answer him, her fingers still resting on Martha's veins. "Is she..."

"She's alive," said Sally quietly. "But her pulse...I'm not sure what to make of it." Sally beckoned for Ric to come and feel it. Ric was hesitent. Despite what Sally had said, he couldn't help feeling like her was about to touch a dead body...

He put his hand on Martha's wrist. It jerked slightly. Ric could swear that his own heart stopped for a second, but sally was waiting for his opinion. He replaced his hand. A look of confusion struck his face.

"It's strong," he noticed. "And fast."

"I know," said Sally. "Anyone else would have had a heart attack by now."

"Well, do you think she...?"

"What happenned?" said Martha, dazed. She opened her eyes and looked up at Ric.

"Hey," he said softly, "You okay?"

"Fine," she said, sitting up as though she'd done nothing more than fall asleep. Ric felt his cousin's pulse rate drop before letting go of her wrist.

"Do you know where you are?" asked Sally. Martha looked around.

"Um, yeah," she said sheepishly, "You're spare room." She spied the wires hanging out of the wall. "I can fix that..."

"Oh, don't worry about it," said Sally, "Just as long as you're ok!"

"We thought we'd lost you," explained Ric, not quite achieving the sense of relief he was aiming for.

"Lost me? Why?"

"Flynn's on his way," announced Cassie, barrelling into the room. She almost fell over when she saw that Martha was alive and well. "What happened?"

"That's what I'd like to know," said Martha.

"You don't remember?" asked Sally. Martha shook her head.

"You were electricuted," said Ric flatly. Sally cringed inwardly. She had been holding out hope that something different had happened to Martha.

"It must have just been a little shock," said Martha. "I probably fell back and hit my head or something."

"You were shaking," said Cassie.

"I thought you were dead," said Ric, losing the sugar-coating.

"Well, I'm not," Martha reminded him. "I'm sorry if i scared you, but these things can sometimes happen. Anyway, I'm fine, really."

"Cassie!" called Flynn's voice.

"In here!" Cassie replied.

"I'm fine!" Martha added loudly, rolling her eyes. That didn't slow Flynn down.

"What happened?" he asked, striding in and crouching at her side.

"Well," began Sally, "As far as I can tell, Martha was fixing the light switch -"

"I broke it," Ric interjected guiltily.

"And I didn't know..." said Sally.

"I should have put a note on the power board," Cassie hissed to herself.

"And so when I turned the power back on..." continued Sally.

"I got fried," ended Martha. "Apparently...Really, I feel great though. There's no need for this..." She eyed Flynn's stethoscope. He put it to her chest. "Ah!"

"It hurts?"

"It's cold!"

"Sorry..."

Flynn listened to Martha's heart.

"Well," he announced, "It's a bit faster than i'd like, but that's to be expected after stress."

"What stress?" asked Martha. "I'm relaxed here."

"You mean this is your normal resting heart rate?"

"Yeah...I think so...why?"

"Are you in any pain?"

"What? No...Oh, my fingers sting a bit." She looked down at them. The tips where she had been holding the wires were welting. It occurred to Martha that a 'little shock' wouldn't have done that. She hid her hands before Flynn could see them. "On second thoughts, they're fine. What's with all the questions anyway? I have other places to be today you know."

Flynn couldn't help but be suspicious about Martha's sudden desire to leave.

"Martha, can you think of any reason your heart rate would be above that of a normal teenager's?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said sarcastically, "Maybe I'm in love."

"Martha," Sally caught on to what Flynn was implying, "If this is a side-effect of your power..."

"Ugh, will you stop already!?" Martha finally got up off the floor and escaped from the circle of concerned carers.

"Martha," said Cassie, "You can't just ignore this!"

"Don't try and lecture me," Martha sanpped at her. "You don't have a clue what it's like for me! It's not like you even have anything to ignore - the only person you'd freak out is a manicurist!"

If Ric wasn't so angry at Martha, he might have laughed at that. But he was angry.

"You almost died!" he yelled at her. "Because I was trying to hide what my power had done to that stupid light switch; because I was afraid of what Sally and Flynn would think of me if they found out I'd messed up."

"Ric..." said Sally sympathetically.

"Every time I think I have a handle on this thing," he continued, "Every time I think I can ignore my power til it goes away, something like this happens and I feel like - well, like you said - a freak. But I get over it, cause I know that I have people that want to help me deal with it...and I realise what an idiot I've been for ever thinking that they wouldn't understand." He looked at Sally and Flynn and they smiled back at him.

"Martha," Ric tried to reason with her, "What's happening to us isn't normal and it isn't fair, but it IS happening, and you can't pretend that it's not. If you do that, then you're just going to be living a lie, and I know you don't want that. It'll only end up hurting you and the people around you."

Martha fell silent (which was an achievement in itself). She turned to Sally and Flynn.

"What do you mean by my heart-rate being a side-effect?" she asked calmly.

"Well," said Flynn, "You're power - your ability - it's super-speed, right?" Martha shifted her gaze and grudginly nodded. "Well, normally when a person runs, their heart rate increases."

"Right," said Martha, expecting something a bit more relavent to her.

"But the human heart has a limit; a certain amount of beats per minute. If it goes past that limit, it breaks down. Your heart doesn't seem to have that problem. And I'm betting that your other muscles are just as fit."

"So..." said Cassie, "Is that why the electricity didn't kill her? Because her heart could take it?"

"Well it looks that way," said Flynn.

"And it looks to me," said Sally pointedly, "That Martha's power just saved her life. I think you owe it to yourself to learn how to use it properly from now on."

Martha listened to what Sally was saying, and thought about what everone else had said too.

"Alright," she finally caved, "I'll join The Radioactive Mutant Club." This was too much of a break though for anyone to take too much offense. "Besides, that electricity thing's really going to come in handy at work. Sign me up!"

"Good," smiled Sally, "I'm glad to hear it."

"Yeah," Flynn agreed, "But I think we might want a better name for you guys than 'The Radioactive Mutant Club'..."

"Tremk..." Cassie tried to sound it out, "It's not a very impressive acromymn..."

"Yeah, and it's not like that's what we are anyway," added Ric.

"Well I was kidding..." explained Martha.

"It's something to think about anyway," said Sally brightly. "Coming up with a team name. You can pretend it's a school project."

"Gee, thanks Sal," said Ric, "That'll make it heaps more fun." Cassie and Martha laughed at his sarcasm. Flynn smiled along, but his mind was very much occupied by other thoughts.

Radioactive mutants...

It seemed crazy - impossible - but so had a lot of things lately. Ever since the Macklin Corporation has started dumping radioactive waste...

Flynn didn't say anything. He didn't want to scare them. In his experience, radioactivity did less for making superheroes and more for making dead wildlife. But if that was what was happening, why were the kids the only ones affected, and why had it affected them like that?

"Flynn, you coming?" said Cassie.

"Sorry...?" He snapped out of his daydreaming and realised that everyone was leaving the room.

"Milkshakes at the Diner to celebrate Martha's coming out," repeated Cassie.

"About my power, that is," Martha clarified.

"Give it time..." said Ric. He grinned. Martha hit him.

Flynn smiled again to mask his deeper thoughts and followed them out.
________________________________________

"a crumby world of plot-holes and spelling mistakes" - i think that somes up that installment nicely :P

the next one will be slightly more interesting, i promise...*

[SIZE=1](*notanactualpromise)[/SIZE]

I don't think that was a craptacular installment. Martha getting electrocuted is pretty entertaining stuff

You should have Colleen make everyone costumes in a future episode. Brightly coloured spandex costumes, none of this modern day matching leather uniform stuff...

You've already designed matching leather outfits, and I've just offended you, haven't I?

quote:

Originally posted by Salem:
You should have Colleen make everyone costumes in a future episode. Brightly coloured spandex costumes, none of this modern day matching leather uniform stuff...

*makes a note of it*