Chapter 4: Trouble With a Capital TROUB
(or: Kevin Richardson has the I.Q. of a rock)

"Alright, people, listen up! I want this entire ward evacuated, immediately!" Raymond Welsh, the FBI agent in charge of the Backstreet Boys' kidnapping case, barked orders around the large conference room in which he'd gathered his men, loosening his tie and wishing he was somewhere else. Anywhere else. "Collins, you take your team and start work on that. I don't care where you put them; work with the nurses to find room for everybody, but this floor must be deserted, you hear me?"

"Yes, sir!" Collins, a freckled red-head in his mid thirties, leapt to his feet and hurried out of the room, followed by the four men on his team. He was the best for this job since it required a close working relationship with the hospital staff, and Collins was just young and innocent enough to pull it off without seeming domineering. People tended to do what he asked just because he was so cute and apologetic when he requested things.

"Rafferty," Welsh continued, turning to a middle-aged Black woman and her team, "I need you guarding Richardson's door. So far he hasn't tried to break out of there, but at the rate he's going, it's only a matter of time. Do not attempt to enter the room, he is to be considered armed and dangerous. You got it?"

"Yes, sir." Rafferty motioned to the five muscular men under her command and went to complete her assignment. She was tough enough to handle anything, Welsh decided, even a crazed superhuman... thing.

"And Chang, you and I will be working with NYSNC. They'll be here any minute and somebody needs to keep them in line, They are in our custody, alright? Do not let them out of your sight."

"You got it, sir."

"Good." Welsh took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped away the sweat that had beaded up on his forehead. "Here's hoping they can fix this. If they can't, we're going to have a world-class scandal on our hands."

~*~

NSYNC arrived the same way they had the first time, in a van flown by Joey Fatone. Agents Chang and Welsh watched them land, and as the other four superheroes stepped out of the vehicle, Chang stepped forward to introduce himself. "NSYNC? I'm Agent An Pho Chang, and this is Agent Raymond Welsh of the FBI. Thanks for coming."

"Hi, Joey Fatone," the flying man introduced himself needlessly. "And it was no problem. You got us out of jail!"

"Hi, guys," greeted the shortest one. "You probably already know who we are, but anyway, I'm Chris, and this is Justin, JC, and Lance."

They all greeted one another briefly, shaking hands.

"So, what's going on in there?" Justin asked, grimacing. "And what is that hideous growling-roaring-screeching noise?"

Welsh looked confused for a second, then snapped his fingers in remembrance. "That's right, super hearing." He glanced up toward one of the windows a few floors up. "Well, if you're talking about what I think you're talking about, it's Kevin Richardson."

Justin's mouth fell open. "Holy shit, really?"

"Let's go inside," Chang suggested, motioning to the door. "We'll brief you before you go up."

~*~

".... So," Chang completed his explanations as the group of seven approached the room into which they'd locked Kevin Richardson. "As far as we can tell, the madder he gets, the worse the... affliction. Unfortunately, as long as he's locked in there, unable to get to his friends...."

"He won't calm down until he's seen them," JC finished, nodding his understanding.

"Right." Welsh stopped in front of the door and nodded to Rafferty and her team. "This is Agent Adele Rafferty and her team, Agents Brown, Rafe, Ellison, Sandburg, and Banks. They've been guarding the room. Any change, Rafferty?"

Rafferty shook her head. 'No sir. But—" Just then, a loud crash punctuated her last words. The man inside the room let out an enraged roar and something very heavy slammed into the door. It held, but just barely. "But we'd better do something, and fast! The door won't take many more hits like that!"

"What's he doing in there?" Justin asked, looking a little pale.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you," Chang said. "He seems to attract all things metal."

"What?"

"He's magnetic," Welsh explained flatly. "The metal items in the room keep picking themselves up and smacking him."

"Oh." Joey sighed. "Yeah, that'd be kind of annoying."

"Okay," Chris muttered, mostly thinking out loud. "So we've gotta calm him down."

"Have you tried talking to him?" Lance wanted to know. "Explained that he can't see the rest of the guys until he calms down?"

"Oh, yeah, man," Agent Sandburg answered. "We've tried, and so have the doctors and nurses. Problem is, I think he's working on instinct, here. He doesn't seem to really understand what we're saying, and he's scared. It's just not getting through to him."

"Have you seen him? I mean, what are we dealing with, here?"

"Last I saw him," said Agent Brown, "He was, like, seven feet tall and all green and scaly. Huge fangs, too. Ugly dude. Like the Incredible Hulk on speed, man."

"Okay, then, Joey, have fun," Justin joked, pushing Joey forward.

"No, hang on," Chris said, grabbing Joey by the shoulder. "JC, I think this one's on you."

JC stared at him, confused. "Me? What can I do?"

Chris looked him up and down thoughtfully. "Turn into a kitten. A really small, really cute kitten."

JC wrinkled his nose. "A kitten? Are you kidding me?"

"Trust me. Just do it."

JC sighed in annoyance, but did as he was asked. Chris picked him up and looked at him critically. "No. Cuter."

JC changed again.

"Cuter. C'mon, JC, lethally cute."

The kitten let out a protesting mew but changed once again, becoming even smaller and fluffier. He was completely hidden within Chris's hands. Chris slowly lifted him up, in front of Agent Banks' face, then removed one of his hands, exposing JC to the large man's view.

"Oh, look at you!" burst out the agent, his voice immediately going up an octave. "Aren't you just the cutest thing on four legs! Yes you are! Yes you are!"

Chris yanked JC away. "Okay, that's perfect."

Agent Banks closed his mouth, then looked terribly confused. "What the Hell was that?! Why did I... I have never...."

The other Agents just laughed. The sight of Banks, easily six-foot-two and built, suddenly dissolving into baby talk had been priceless. Banks himself just looked put-out.

"Dude, is that a new power?" Justin wondered.

"Nah," Chris answered, absently petting JC. "Kittens have it built in. Okay, JC, you are going to go into that room and soothe the savage beast."

"Mew!" The kitten immediately began to cry, trying to crawl up Chris' sleeve and into his shirt.

"No, no, c'mon, JC, you'll be fine! Really! Hey, get out of my sleeve!"

"Chris, how is he gonna do that?" Lance asked doubtfully. "Kevin's not exactly in his right mind, he could hurt him!"

"No, he won't," Chris disagreed. "Look, he's working on instinct, right? Probably. Well, if there's one thing I know about Kevin Richardson, he's all about protecting the little guy. He's like... the big brother from Hell. Even in this state, he won't hurt something as little and defenseless as JC. Look at these eyes, come on, I ask you!" Chris managed to extract JC's claws from his shirt and held him up by the scruff of the neck, showing him off.

"Can't... speak... normally," Joey whispered, his voice strained. "Want to... use... baby talk!"

"Exactly." Chris walked up to the door and placed his hand on the knob. "JC, just trust me, okay? You know I wouldn't ask you to do this if I had any doubts at all."

"Mew...."

"He won't! Besides, if anything at all goes wrong, you can just run out through the wall, or something, okay? Please?"

The kitten let out a little sigh of acquiescence and rubbed Chris' hand with his head.

"Okay." Chris let go of the doorknob only long enough to accept the key from Agent Ellison. He quickly and quietly unlocked the door, then opened it just wide enough to place JC inside. "Knock 'im dead, Tiger," he whispered, then closed the door softly behind the frightened animal.

The growling from inside stopped.

~*~

JC stared up at the thing that had once been Kevin Richardson, his entire body shaking in fear. From down here, the transformed Backstreet Boy looked even more threatening than he'd sounded when Agent Brown described him. Seven feet was really tall to a four-inch tall kitten. He cowered against the door as the creature took a few slow steps forward. "Chris, I changed my mind, let me out," he whined, but in this form, it came out sounding like a pathetic little mew.

The creature let out a string of garbled syllables and stepped slowly closer, falling to its knees in front of him. JC cringed back and started to cry. The creature kept talking, slowly reaching for him. The syllables started to sound a little bit more like words. "No scared," it seemed to say, "won't hurt. Nice kitty."

A large green hand closed over him and JC was lifted up to the creature's chest, one scaly hand petting him gently. JC froze, too scared to even breathe. He was going to kill Chris if he ever made it out of this alive.

The creature just kept petting him, murmuring that he shouldn't be scared and he wouldn't hurt him. JC blinked in sudden realization—it was finally using complete sentences. He looked up into the creature's face. Kevin didn't look quite so scary anymore. To JC's critical eye, it appeared that maybe his skin wasn't quite so scaly, and maybe even not green so much as... olive. There was an intelligence in the eyes that hadn't been there just a few moments before.

JC saw a movement out of the corner of his eyes and yelped as a large metal tray, already lying on its side on the floor, picked itself up and sped toward them. But Kevin held him tight and hunched over, protecting JC from the impact. He growled a little when it hit, but his grip remained gentle and he stayed calm. "Chris," JC called, knowing the crash would have frightened and worried his friends, "I'm okay! He's not hurting me, I'm okay!"

Kevin mistook the loud mew for a sound of fright and began to whisper to him again. "It's okay, I'm sorry. It's okay." His skin was almost completely free of green by now, and he'd shrunk back down to his normal height.

"Chris, I think we're okay in here," JC called. "Try talking to him."

Almost immediately, there was a quiet knock at the door and Chris' voice rang out carefully. "Um, Kevin?"

Kevin's head shot up and he glared suspiciously at the door.

"It's Chris Kirkpatrick, from NSYNC. Um... you okay in there?"

Kevin stood, stepping carefully toward the door. "Kirkpatrick? What are you doing here?"

"They called us," Chris answered. "Can I come in, please?"

Kevin looked down at JC. "Should we let him in?" he asked, not really expecting an answer.

JC nodded, and Kevin stared at him, surprised. "Um... okay. Come on in."

The lock clicked right away, letting the door swing open to reveal Chris, Joey, Lance, Justin, and eight very relieved FBI agents. "Hi," Joey said. Justin waved.

"It's good to see you back to normal, Mr. Richardson," said Agent Welsh, extending his hand to him. Kevin had to shuffle JC over to one hand to accept the greeting. "I guess you'd like an explanation."

"That'd be nice, yeah," Kevin drawled. "Where are the others?"

Welsh and Chang exchanged a look. "Well, we can explain all of that in just a minute. Would you care to get dressed and accompany us to the conference room a couple floors down?"

"Can't I just see my friends?" Kevin wanted to know, the worry audible in his voice.

"I sympathize with you, but we'd really prefer the chance to talk things through first," Chang said. "it should only take a few—"

They all cringed as the heart monitor in the corner of the room flew over to Kevin and slammed into his back, hanging there for a few seconds before it crashed to the floor.

Kevin flinched, once again protecting JC with his own body. Then he straightened and looked plaintively at Agent Welsh. "There's no metal in there, right?"

~*~

AJ McLean was not the type of man to look a gift horse in the mouth. He had no idea why his nurses kept falling into trances, or why they kept losing sight of him even when they were looking right at him, but as long as it allowed him to get dressed and waltz out of his hospital room unchecked, he didn't really care about the whys and wherefores.

He moved stealthily past the entranced nurse just inside the doorway, putting his sunglasses on as he went. First stop, the nearest vending machine. Then he'd find his friends, even if he had to turn the whole hospital upside-down to do it. He was halfway down the hall when a familiar and very welcome voice called his name.

"Alexander James McLean, just where do you think you're going?"

AJ turned around, letting a wide grin cross his face. "Kev!" he jogged up to meet his friend and enveloped him in a brotherly hug. "Am I glad to see you!"

"Watch it, AJ," Kevin said, pulling away slightly, "You'll crush JC."

"JC?" AJ frowned at the tiny kitten in Kevin's arms, stepping back and doing a double-take as he suddenly noticed Kevin's companions. "Hey, that's NSYNC!"

Chris' mouth fell open. "Really? Where?!"

Justin rolled his eyes but couldn't help laughing. "Chris....."

"Oh my God!" Chris squealed, "it's Justin Timba-Timba-Timbalake! Can I have your autograph?"

"Quit it!" Justin pushed him away, still laughing. "Freak."

Kevin sighed and shook his head in disbelief. "Yes, that's NSYNC. They rescued us and brought us here. And this," he held up the kitten, "is JC."

"JC? As in JC Chasez?"

"Yup."

"But.... but he's a cat."

"He's a shape-shifter, AJ, you knew that," Kevin reminded him impatiently. "He turned into a kitten to help calm me down."

"Wait...." AJ shook his head, confused. "Wait, maybe you'd better start at the beginning."

Kevin squinted at him, his lips turning down at the corners. "You mean nobody explained any of this to you?"

"No, man, they keep, like, falling into these weird trances and just staring into space. Either that or they start asking where I went, even when I'm right there in front of them. It was starting to freak me out."

"I can explain that," Chang said, stepping forward and holding out his hand for AJ to shake. "I'm Agent An Pho Chang, FBI, and this is my supervisor, Agent Raymond Welsh. We're in charge of your case."

"Oh, um... hi."

"You were kidnapped by a group of mercenaries hired by an unknown individual," Chang told him, keeping the explanation as brief as possible. "This unknown party deliberately exposed you to the same sort of radiation that turned NSYNC into superheroes. Unfortunately, they didn't get the formula quite right. When NSYNC found you, you were all unconscious and extremely ill. That's why you were brought to this hospital."

"Oh, man...." AJ breathed, his face going slightly pale. "Are the others okay?"

"That's all relative," Chang answered slowly. "They're alive, but...."

"We've developed powers, AJ," Kevin sighed. "Kind of like these guys, only... not quite as useful."

"How d'you mean?"

"Well, like, such as I'm magnetic, which doesn't seem to serve any purpose other than getting' me smacked with hospital equipment every five minutes."

"Oh." AJ struggled to keep a straight face and failed. "I see."

Kevin glared at him menacingly, which only served to make him giggle. "And if that isn't enough, whenever I get mad, I turn into some kind of hulking beast with green scales, fangs, and the IQ of a rock."

That shut AJ up right quick. "Really? You're not shittin' me?"

"No."

"Well, fuck!" AJ exclaimed succinctly.

"Just about," Kevin agreed, absently stroking JC's furry head. "They shoved poor JC into my room and hoped I'd react favorably to him. Luckily for them, I did. I dunno that I'da risked it. In the state I was in, I could just as easily've eaten him as petted him."

JC squeaked nervously, and Kevin chuckled a bit, rubbing him under his chin. "I didn't, though, so it all worked out."

"So, um.... why's he still a cat?" AJ wanted to know.

"He's the only thing keepin' me calm and human right now, Bone," Kevin answered grimly.

"Oh."

"As for your nurses' strange behavior, Mr. McLean," Welsh put in, "I was told that you have a tendency to quite literally blend into your surroundings. Your skin actually takes on the exact color of—" he broke off, squinting in AJ's general direction.

"Whoa," Lance breathed.

AJ frowned. "What?"

"You're doing it right now, Mr. McLean," Welsh told him. I can barely see you. Even your sunglasses have—oh, you're back."

AJ blinked. "But I didn't do anything!"

"I'm not surprised," Agent Chang admitted. "Judging from Mr. Richardson's difficulties and what little we've been told about your friends, I have a feeling you will all have a lot of trouble controlling your new powers."

"Great," AJ mumbled. "That's just perfect."

"You also mentioned something about trances?" Welsh continued. "That must be another power. Can you tell us a bit more about it?"

"I can do better'n that," AJ said, motioning to his room. "I'll show you. They're all still in there." He led them to his room and pointed inside, where four nurses stood frozen in place with blank looks on their faces. "See?"

Joey waved a hand in the face of the woman closest to the door. "Hellooo? Anybody home?"

She didn't even blink.

Chang took her pulse. "Pulse is normal, and so's her breathing. It's like she's just not there."

Welsh had walked around the room and briefly checked all of the other nurses. "They're all suffering the same symptoms. There's nothing physically wrong with them."

"AJ, I bet you could snap them out of it," Lance suggested. "Why don't you give it a shot."

"Okay." He stood just in front of the nearest nurse. "Hey, um..." He glanced at her nametag. "Carol. Wake up." Nothing happened. "Snap out of it!" He snapped his fingers and waved his hands in front of her face. "Hey!" Nothing.

"Take your sunglasses off," Chris suggested suddenly.

AJ grimaced, but did as he was asked. Sunglasses in hand, he looked directly into her eyes. "Carol, wake up."

She snapped to awareness with a start. "Oh! Mr. McLean, how did you...? What...? Oh!"

AJ looked around at them in wonder. "It worked!" He frowned when nobody answered him. "Guys?" They all just stared blankly at him, their mouths slack.

AJ sighed. "Well, shit and shinola."

~*~

"Extraordinary...."

Dr. Julian Brummel leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingers together as he re-watched the security tapes from the laboratory for the sixth time. The police had no doubt confiscated the original tape as evidence, but luckily the cameras were also fed directly into a system here in his office.

He was fascinated by NSYNC and the powers they exhibited. The news reports simply had not done them justice, he decided, sitting up in his chair and squinting in concentration as the events unfolded in front of him. Their powers should have been utterly impossible—especially those of the shape-shifter. Where exactly did his clothing go when he shifted? And that super-man. His body must be extremely dense to withstand that sort of pressure. The firestarter could probably be explained rather easily, but his super speed was another supposed impossibility. Why, just the air pressure alone at that sort of speed should break the human body apart. Again, perhaps a question of density, though he didn't seem to be invulnerable like the super-man. Another interesting question to ponder.

Brummel lifted the remote control and turned off the television. Extraordinary. Absolutely extraordinary.

He would have to get them into a lab for further study, possibly dissection. Them and the Backstreet Boys. After all, Dr. Julian Brummel had never left an experiment unfinished, and he certainly had no intention of doing so now.

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