The Super NKOTB
by Kittie

Episode Nine - Come Together

Jonathan shuddered as he felt a cold wind blow across his brain. It wasn't actually a wind, he decided after a moment, but that was the closest thing to it. He knew what it was, and it was a lot worse than just a wind.

"Hey, uhh... Danny, can you help me? In the kitchen?"

"What?" Danny barely looked up from the book he was reading—Quantum Physics for Rocket Scientists.

"I'll help you," Donnie piped up, tired of reading over Danny's shoulder since none of it made any sense to him anyway.

"Okay Donnie, thanks. But bring Danny and Joe with you."

Donnie eyed him suspiciously. "Why does it sound like you want everyone in the kitchen except Jordan?"

"Shh!" Jonathan clapped a hand over Donnie's mouth. "Keep it down, will you?"

"Relax!" Donnie squirmed out of his grasp. "Jordan's nowhere near here, man!"

"Where is he?"

"Shopping."

"Shopping?"

"Yes," Danny piped up, finally closing his book. "One unfortunate side-effect of his powers is a greatly increased metabolism. He'll be eating the equivalent of eight meals a day now."

"Eight meals?" Joe repeated, letting out a low whistle as he strolled in, hands jammed in his pockets. "Well he'd better bring his own food, I'm not exactly rich, you know. It was hard enough keeping Donnie fed!"

"You are too rich," Donnie retorted. "And besides, I don't eat that much."

"Not anymore, compared to him." Danny grinned.

"Anyway," Jonathan snapped, "I need to talk to you guys! Without Jordan!"

"Why, what's up?" Danny put an arm around his shoulders and guided him to the couch, where they all gathered around.

"Mr. Man is up, that's what's up."

His statement was met with dead silence. Finally, Joe cleared his throat. "That was the black thing huh?"

"Definitely him," Jonathan confirmed, nodding grimly. "I had my suspicious before, but just now...." He shuddered. "Well, I felt him laughing in my head."

"What's he doing in your head?" Donnie burst out, casting a nervous glance around the room. "Is he here?"

"No, not anymore. But he's definitely involved in this guys. I think he tried to kill me."

"What would he want with you," Joe asked, then hesitated before continuing. "I thought he wanted Jordan."

"I don't know.... But he's back, and he's after me. I think he... knows."

"He knows? About us, you mean?"

"Yeah. But you can't tell Jordan. He'll freak out!"

"We gotta tell him man, he's gotta be prepared—"

"No way. He won't be prepared, he'll just lose it. You saw how he got when he remembered... if he knew—"

"Cool it," Donnie suddenly barked. "He's back!"

No one doubted his words, they just leapt into action, trying to look busy. Jonathan dove for the remote control, Joe hurried into the kitchen, Donnie flopped over on the couch, and Danny hastily picked up his book—realizing too late that he was holding it upside-down.

"Hey guys," Jordan said as he flashed into the room. "Hey Danny, since when do you read upside-down?"

"Since now," Danny answered smoothly. "I find it challenges my mind."

"Uh-huh." Jordan contorted his body, trying to read the title. "Quantum Physics?! Euw."

"Don't knock what you can't understand."

Jonathan, who had been flipping channels on the television, felt an intense wave of confusion pass through his head. He turned toward the kitchen and saw Joe standing there, staring at Danny with a peculiar look on his face. What's the matter, he asked Joe telepathically.

Joe jumped and turned to him, hand flying to his heart. "Don't do that!"

Donnie gave him a weird look. "Do what?"

"Jon was talking to me in my head."

"Oh. Cool."

Jonathan got up to stand next to Joe, where he whispered normally, "Okay then, what's wrong?"

"Well... Danny just turned colors."

"Pardon?"

"Well he didn't, just that glow."

"Glow?"

"Yeah, you're all glowing, man, and his turned colors."

Jonathan shook his head. "I don't get it."

Frustrated, Joe tried to broadcast his thought into Jonathan's head.

"Oh! I get it now. His aura changed colors!"

"Aura? Okay, yeah, sure."

"Waitaminnit," Donnie interrupted from his perch on the couch. "You're saying you can see auras now?"

Joe flinched. "You and your stupid bionic ears!"

"Auras?" Danny repeated. "He can see auras?"

"Cool," Jordan enthused. "What's mine look like?"

Joe stared at him for a moment. "Hungry."

"Hunh?"

"When did he change colors," Jonathan suddenly asked, not giving Joe a chance to answer Jordan's question.

"When he told Jay why he was reading upside-down."

Jonathan shot Danny a look, then sent a thought to Joe. You mean when he lied?

Joe jumped again. "Get outta my head!"

"Well?!"

"Alright, yes! That's exactly when!"

"What's when," Jordan asked, but he was ignored.

"What did it change to?"

"Kinda purpley. I dunno."

"What was it before?"

"Blue."

"Is he always blue?"

"Yeah, mostly."

"What am I?"

"Umm... you'll get mad."

"No I won't, why would I get mad?"

"'Cause you're pink."

Donnie suddenly started to laugh. Loudly. "Aww no! Pink?!"

Jonathan flushed, his cheeks turning about the same color as his aura. "Shut up."

Joe shrugged. "Sorry."

"What color is hungry?" Jordan asked, somewhat nervously.

"Kinda reddish. Donnie's always red, but it's not cause he's hungry. It's just cause he's Donnie."

"What am I when I'm not hungry?"

"You're never not hungry, but I think I see some green in there."

"Green, huh?" Jordan smiled a bit. "That's cool."

"So," Danny muttered, "not only can you project your astral being—"

"Astral being?"

"—You can also see and interpret people's auras. Interesting."

"He can also project his thoughts to me," Jonathan added, "But not in words."

"How d'you mean?" Donnie giggled, still tickled about Jonathan being pink.

"Well," Jonathan said, giving him a dirty look, "He can send me pictures and emotions, but not sentences. Just ideas."

"But you can project whole words and sentences into his head?" Danny asked.

"Yup."

"Yeah but don't do that," Joe complained. "I don't like it."

Okay, Jonathan sent, just to annoy him. It had the desired effect.

Joe grabbed at his temples and yelped. "Quit it!"

Jonathan just smiled.

~*~

"Okay, this meeting will come to order," Danny intoned, banging on the tabletop with a closed fist.

"You just think you're so important don't you," Donnie teased, "Now that you're a genius."

Danny stuck his tongue out at him in a decidedly not-genius manner.

"Okay, so what're we meeting about?" Jordan asked, eyeing the kitchen door longingly. "And is this gonna take long? I'm hungry."

"Again?! You just ate, not..." Jonathan looked at his watch. "Two hours ago!"

"Eight meals a day," Donnie reminded him.

"Okay Jay, go get a snack or something, we'll wait," Danny told him.

Jordan was up in and the kitchen in a split second. Literally.

"He better quit doing that, or he's gonna eat us all out of house and home," Jonathan complained.

Joe pouted. "What're you complaining about, it's my house and home he's eating!"

"Okay, I'm ready," Jordan said, appearing back in his chair with a trayful of bread and coldcuts. He fixed himself a sandwich in triple-time, and was about to take a bite when he noticed four pairs of eyes on him in shocked silence. "What?!"

"Umm...." Danny cleared his throat and forced himself to look away. "Okay, well I called this meeting so we could discuss what's going on. We know that someone... apparently this Spooky-Guy Joe met... is after us for some reason."

Jonathan shot him a grateful look, releived that he hadn't mentioned Mr. Man.

Danny nodded slightly, acknowedging the unspoken thanks, before continuing. "We all have lives to go back to, but I think we oughta take care of this problem before we split up."

"But—"

"I know, you have to work on Monday. Can you call in?"

"Well...." Jonathan fidgeted a bit, nervous about what Mr. Man might do to Jordan if they split up, but knowing he could very well get fired if he asked for another week off. "Ah, to heck with it, I have savings, who needs a job. I'm in."

"Will you really get fired?" Joe asked suddenly, casting a concerned glance on Jonathan.

Jonathan jumped, startled. "Did I say that out loud?"

"No, you said it in my head."

"Oh.... Well, yeah, probably."

"Then don't stay," Jordan said with his mouth full. "We can handle that Spooky-Guy."

"Umm... well.... I can get another job. It's okay, really. ... And don't talk with your mouth full."

Jordan rolled his eyes and deliberately put his elbows up on the table.

"Okay, okay... does anyone else have a problem?" Danny looked around the table and, once satisfied that everyone was in agreement, nodded his approval. "Good. Then I think we should each try to figure out exactly what these powers are going to change in our lives. We're the only ones—besides the Spooky-Guy, I guess—who know about this, and we should be able to help each other out. I'll go first. I estimate that my physical strength has been augmented to about fifty times what it was before."

"Fifty times?!" Donnie yelped. "That's like... You're an ant!"

"No, an ant can lift fifty times its own body weight. I can lift a lot more than that."

"Holy—"

"I've also calculated that my IQ has risen to approximately 568 points, with 150 being the cutoff for genius."

"Modest, isn't he," Joe joked.

Danny shrugged. "Pure and simple fact, my friend."

"How do you figure?" Donnie asked.

"I could go over the calculations with you, if you have a few hours to spare."

"Never mind."

"I thought not."

"So... what was your IQ before?" Jordan inquired, "If you don't mind me asking."

"Not sure," Danny answered. "Probably around 140-ish."

Jonathan let out a low whistle. "No wonder you can read quantum mechanics upside-down!"

"Physics. It was quantum physics."

Jonathan shrugged. "Whatever."

"Okay Donnie, you're next."

"Well... I didn't do any calculations like genius-boy over there, but I can see and hear things from really far away. I can also see the cells in most objects too if I concentrate hard enough. I don't really see what's useful about that, though."

"Okay, so what's useful about the rest of it," Danny prompted.

"I can eavesdrop like a pro," Donnie said in all seriousness. "And I'll be good as a lookout, cause I can see Spooky-Guy coming from a mile away."

"Good to know. Donnie'll be our surveillance man."

"Cool, man, I'm a spy."

"Right. Jordan?"

"Okay... well I can move around at light speed, and I been thinkin' I could probably outrun a bullet if I had to. My reflexes are really fast, so no one could get the drop on me unless I didn't see them ahead of time. With Donnie as my lookout, I can disarm any evil guy that messes with us."

"Definitely a good skill. Hopefully we won't run into anyone that needs disarming. Anything else?"

"Not really. But isn't that enough?"

"Probably."

"Okay, Jon?"

"Well, there's the tellykinesis and the other thing—"

"Telephathic abilities."

"Right. And the invisibility."

"Did you ever figure out your limit? How much you could lift using your telekinesis?"

"Not really... I only got as far as Jordan's car."

"You lifted my car?!"

"Well, you were blocking me in!"

"If you dented it—"

"I didn't dent it, Jordan, relax!"

"Enough you two," Danny ordered. "Jonathan, you do realize that Jordan's car probably weighs just over a ton?"

"Umm... I hadn't thought about it—"

"So between the two of us, we could probably lift about anything."

"Anything, huh?"

"Just about."

"Okay."

"And the invisiblilty... can you hold it indefinitely?"

"Yup."

Joe's eyes suddenly grew wide. "Hey Jon, I just thought of something! Do you realize what this means?!"

"What?" Jonathan asked, eyeing him nervously.

"You could sneak into girls' locker rooms! And showers and stuff!"

"I would never even think of something like that," Jonathan objected, even as his eyes lit up with a mischievous twinkle.

"Okay, okay," Danny interrupted, trying to hold back a grin of his own. "What about you, Joe? Including our interesting discovery this afternoon, what's the verdict?"

"Well, I've got asterisks projectiles—"

"Astral projection," Danny corrected.

"Right. And I can see people's... auras, which means I can tell when people are lying and stuff. I can also see right away if somebody's evil or something."

"And if they don't have a soul," Jordan pointed out.

"Yeah. Spooky-Guy's just a big blank."

"He can also project his thoughts to me," Jonathan pointed out. "And he can hear me when I project mine."

"Okay, but you said he can't send words?"

"Nope."

"So how exactly does it work?" Donnie leaned forward, folding his arms on the table. "This, I gotta hear."

"Well...." Jonathan looked over at Joe and sighed. "Okay Joe, think something at me and I'll try to explain what it was."

"Okay." Joe stared deep into Jonathan's eyes, a tiny smile beginning to form on his face.

"Don't think about that," Jonathan burst out, his cheeks turning pink. "I can't say that!"

Joe snickered. "Sorry. I'm in my prime, you know."

Donnie made a face. "Oh man, Joe, I can't believe you!"

"What! Oh, okay hang on, lemme try to think of something else."

"Good luck," Jordan muttered.

"Okay," Jonathan said after a moment. "He's thinking about back when we were in the group, when everything was really taking off."

"That's exactly it," Joe nodded.

"So, how did you get that," Donnie prompted. "What did you see?"

"I got a lot of excitement, a bit of fear, a lot of screaming... a few posters flashed through my head, and flashbulbs. All of it together made it pretty clear what he wanted me to get."

"That's amazing, man!"

"Yeah, that is pretty cool." Jonathan suddenly flushed again. "Joe, quit it with the girls already!"

Joe gave a sheepish grin. "Sorry."

"So wait a minute," Jordan said suddenly. "You two are linked now?"

"Seems like it," Jonathan answered after a short mental conference with Joe. "We kind of... boost each others' powers."

"How so?" Danny asked.

"Well... when Spooky-Guy was here earlier... I didn't see him, I just felt him. It was through Joe that I was able to see him. Joe didn't really know what he was seeing until he got that weird vibe from me. So between the two of us, we knew who it was."

"Yeah," Joe nodded. "What he said."

"So... between the five of us, we're pretty powerful guys. Put us all together and you've got one heck of a problem."

"I'll say," Jonathan shuddered. "It's a good thing all five of us were there at that studio, or maybe just one person would have all of these powers!"

"Yeah, and if that one person was evil...." Joe shuddered despite himself. "That'd be a bad thing."

That's exactly the idea, young Joseph, whispered a faraway voice, ringing with evil laughter. Exactly the idea.

Jonathan's eyes met Joe's, a split second before Joe's eyes rolled up in his head and his body hit the table with a hollow thunk.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6
Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12