image created by JulieOh

Chapter 3: Curiouser and Curiouser
(Chris is Hot. Justin is Cool.)

Chris was getting angry.

Justin and JC exchanged worried glances as their oldest groupmate's face slowly turned an unattractive shade of pink. Chris was worse than angry, he was pissed. And was it hot in here?

They had been ambushed right outside the police station by four Jive executives, their manager Johnny Wright, and a fleet of bodyguards, and whisked to a rented hotel conference room. Once there, they had been yelled at for over an hour. And counting.

"...half the time you're making fools of yourselves on national television, but I let it go, because you're 'N Sync, but this?! This takes the cake!"

The screaming middle-aged executive—Johnny had called him Thompson before the lecture started—had not let anybody get a word in edgewise. The moment they'd entered the room he'd started in on them, insulting their hair, their clothes, their talent, their intelligence, and their parentage. Lance sat stone-faced, arms crossed, staring at the opposite wall. Justin, Joey, and JC fidgeted. Chris fumed. Johnny was shaking his head apologetically. Even the bodyguards were rolling their eyes.

"...the hell possessed you to tour a nuclear power plant in the first place?! And then you get blown up and live through it? For God's sake, we just spent four hours planning for the release of your last recordings, only to find out you're still alive?!"

Chris's face deepened to red.

Johnny cringed and finally opened his mouth, no doubt to try to diffuse a potentially volatile situation, but Lance spoke first. He stood up slowly, his voice tight with anger. "I'm so sorry our continued existence is such an inconvenience for you," he spat, green eyes flashing.

Thompson seemed to finally realize he'd gone too far. "Umm...."

"Uh-oh," Joey muttered, and slouched down in his seat, doing his best to make himself invisible. Lance didn't get angry often, but when he did.... JC turned back into a puppy and cowered in the corner, whimpering. Justin watched in wide-eyed awe, while Chris just gnashed his teeth. The temperature in the room rose a few degrees.

"Lance," Thompson began, unconsciously sliding down in his seat, but Lance interrupted him.

"Shut up."

Thompson snapped his mouth shut, swallowing hard.

"We've sat here listening to you berate us for over an hour now," Lance snarled, "for something that was not even our fault, but we let it go, because we figured you'd had a pretty bad scare. But no, the fact that we're actually alive causes you more—" He broke off suddenly, his face going utterly white.

Joey leapt to his feet and placed a hand on Lance's shoulder, steadying him. "Whoa, Lance, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

Lance was staring, wild-eyed, at the cowering executive. "You!" His voice was a mere whisper, but everyone in the room heard it. "You did this!"

"I... I don't know what you're talking about!" Thompson's eyes began to dart around looking for an escape, but bodyguards Lonnie and 'Dre stepped immediately to the door and stood there glaring at him—blocking the only way out.

"You found out we were planning to tour that power plant and you paid our tour guide to blow the place up—with us in it!"

The panicked man's eyes gave him away.

Chris turned purple. "You son of a BITCH!" he shouted, leaping to his feet. His body, vibrating with fury, suddenly burst into flames.

All hell broke loose as everyone shouted with shock and surprise, leaping away from Chris. The conference table was immediately ignited, the deserted chairs soon after.

Joey moved with inhuman speed, grabbing Lance and yanking him away from the inferno, then going back for JC, who was still a pitiful bundle of fur, cowering in the corner. The room emptied quickly.

Once everyone was out, Joey struggled back inside, straining to see through the roaring flames. "Chris?" he croaked into his arm, hardly noticing the way his clothes were being burnt off.

Chris didn't hear him. He was too busy ranting about greedy fucking executives and how he was going to fucking burn that guy's fucking balls off. Joey caught a glimpse of him though the inferno, and though his eyes were the only part of his body not engulfed in flame, they seemed to burn the brightest of all. He shuddered. "Chris..."

Justin's voice came from somewhere behind him. "Yo, Chris," he shouted, "Chill!"

Two streams of freezing cold water shot past Joey from behind, slamming into Chris and quickly dousing the flames, encasing his body in a thick coat of ice.

Joey's mouth fell open as he turned and saw Justin, arms still outstretched, water streaming from both palms. "Oh."

For a moment, everything was silent. Then, the ice coating Chris's body shuddered briefly before shattering altogether and falling in a slushy puddle at his feet. He turned and glared at Justin as the last of the moisture evaporated into nothingness. "Thanks a lot, JuJu, really."

Justin shrugged. "You were out of control, man." Then he stepped up to Joey, looking him up and down with a slight smirk. "Dude, you're naked."

Joey looked down. "Awww, damn!"

~*~

After Justin put out the last of the lingering fire, everyone filed back into the room, gaping at the damage done. "There goes our security deposit," Johnny lamented resignedly.

"Umm...." Joey stood self-consciously against the wall, hands cupped protectively over his crotch. "Can somebody go get me some clothes?" Lonnie relinquished custody of Thompson to 'Dre and left for the nearest clothing store. Everyone else made themselves comfortable against the walls or on the floor, waiting for the police and fire department to arrive.

JC, human again, nudged Chris lightly with his elbow. "So.... Fire power, huh?"

"Apparently." Chris glared across the room at Thompson, grinning evilly when the man shuddered and looked away.

"And you've got ice power," JC continued, looking sideways at Justin.

"Yup." Justin wiggled his fingers and made a small pile of snow on the floor. "Well, it's, like... water power, but I can make ice and stuff, too," he explained, shaping the pile into a tiny snowman. "I guess."

"Man.... I wonder if I can do anything else," JC mused. "I feel left out."

"No more powers, please," one of the other executives begged, shaking her head. "I'm already having a nervous breakdown!"

"What's the count now?" Lance asked tiredly, his fingers slowly massaging his aching head.

"Justin: laser power, enhanced sight and hearing, water power," Chris recited, still staring menacingly at Thompson. "Joey: super strength, invulnerability, super speed, flight. JC: shape-shifting. You: clairvoyance, telekinesis, healing. Me: super speed, super genius, ability to talk to animals, fire."

"Modest, much?" Joey teased, then blushed and shrank into himself when everyone's eyes turned to him. "Quit looking at me, I'm naked!"

"Nothing to be ashamed of, honey," said the female executive, leering openly at him.

Joey swallowed hard. "Oh."

"But there's more," Lance insisted. "I can't... God, my head hurts!"

Chris finally took his attention off Thompson and stood, hurrying over to Lance and began to massage his back comfortingly. "Hey, okay, quit trying so hard." He slowly lowered Lance to a seated position on the floor. "Close your eyes, and lean back against me. Just relax, okay? Let it come to you."

Lance nodded, his tensed body going limp, the lines smoothing out of his face. "Okay...."

"What do you see?"

Everyone was watching the two of them, holding their breath.

"I..." his brow furrowed, fists clenching slightly. "JC.... Disappearing. Into a wall."

"Huh?" JC looked to Chris for explanation.

Chris shrugged. "Try it. Go through the wall."

"Through the wall...?"

"Sure, why not?"

JC thought about that for a minute. "True."

He walked up to the wall, stared at it for a moment, then walked right through it. "Cool!" they heard him exclaim from outside.

Chris grinned. "Okay, anything else, Scoop?" he asked, as JC came back in through the wall.

"Invisibility."

"Who?"

"Me!" JC answered, vanishing. "Awright!"

Chris sighed and shook his head. "Guess you don't feel so left out anymore, huh?"

"Nope!" JC answered cheerfully, his disembodied voice coming from the opposite side of the room from where he'd been just a moment before.

Joey chuckled, then brightened as Lonnie entered the room carrying a plastic bag full of clothing. "Yes! Clothes!" Lonnie stood in front of him so he could get dressed in relative privacy.

"Teleportation," Lance continued, as if he hadn't been interrupted.

"JC again?" Chris strained his eyes, trying to figure out where JC had gone, but couldn't see anything.

"Yeah."

"Really?"

Johnny jumped as JC's voice came from directly behind him. "Don't do that!"

JC shimmered back into view and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

"And Justin," Lance added, opening his eyes and yawning, "can control the weather."

Justin's eyes grew wide. "I can?!"

Lance nodded slightly, then curled up and went to sleep.

"Word!"

The police, led by a very disgruntled Captain Taggart, arrived just as Joey finished dressing. Taggart was not at all pleased to see the five singers again, and was certainly annoyed when told of the new powers they had exhibited. "How the Hell am I supposed to explain this?" he barked at them, gesturing to the burnt-out shell of the conference room.

Chris just shrugged. "Spontaneous combustion. It happens."

Taggart actually growled.

~*~

"Pyroman."

Chris gave Lance a completely disgusted look. "Pyroman? Are you kidding me?"

Lance shrugged. "Well...?"

Justin glanced up from his Playstation game. "That only covers the fire thing. What about his other powers?"

The five singers-turned-superheroes were lounging in Joey's hotel room after returning from their second trip to the police station. Thompson had given a full confession to Captain Taggart under Chris's watchful eyes, and they had all gone to give their statements about both that and the fire. Lance had been detained the longest, since it was he who had accused Thompson in the first place. Somehow, "I think I read his mind" just didn't hold up when put into print.

A crowd of reporters and fans had been following them since the accident, and that crowd had grown steadily larger as the day went on. Now, they were trapped in the hotel by the ocean of people outside, the screaming, crying, and chaos clearly audible even through closed and bolted windows several stories above the ground. They had not even had to discuss it before gathering together, gladly using one another for strength and comfort.

After a quick nap (all five of them in one big pile on the floor), they got up, ordered some pizzas, and began to discuss their futures.

"Okay, hold off on Chris for a minute," JC was saying, pacing the room excitedly.

Chris glared at Lance, muttering "Pyroman..." under his breath.

"Let's do this logically," JC continued. "Lance should be easiest, since his powers are all basically powers of the mind, right? So—"

Joey sighed. "Oh, come on, guys, who says we all have to be 'Somebody Man'? Why can't we just be Joey, Chris, Lance, JC, and Justin? Everybody knows about our powers already."

"You're just pissed because 'Superman' is copyrighted," Justin teased, not even looking up from his video game.

"Me and Justin can be," Chris took a deep breath and spoke in a booming announcer's voice. "Freakish Man and his loyal and trusted sidekick, Golden Boy!"

"Why do I have to be the sidekick?" Justin complained, frowning as his game ended in a crushing defeat.

"Cuz you're an infant."

"Whatever, Pops."

JC sat down on the edge of one of the beds, his eyes far away. "Justin's mom can make us all matching costumes." He smiled dreamily. "With spandex."

They all stared at him. "You're kidding, right?" Lance asked incredulously.

JC seemed to snap back into the present. "Huh? Oh, right, kidding."

Chris rolled his eyes. "That's it. JC is 'Spazzman.'"

Joey suddenly sat up straight. "Hey, wait a minute!" He shot an accusing look at Chris. "How come your stupid fire burned off all my clothes, but yours are still there?"

Chris looked down at himself. "Oh. Um...." He frowned, deep in thought. "It wasn't hot right next to my body, so I must have some sort of built-in force field that protects my skin and clothes from my fires."

"Oh." Joey looked disgruntled at that. "I want a force field, too!"

"Just wear flame-resistant clothing," Chris suggested, trying to be helpful and failing miserably.

"Thanks a lot, Genius Boy," Joey muttered.

"Ooh, can I be 'Fantastic Man'?" JC asked.

"Okay, let's finish this right now," Lance said suddenly. "Joey, you're 'Something-or-Another Man.' JC, 'Whatchamacallit Man.' Justin, you can be 'Whatever Man.' I'm 'Who-the-Hell-Cares Man,' and Chris is 'Genius Boy.' How's that?"

They all stared at him blankly. "Okay, you're weird," Justin finally declared. Lance just smiled.

"Wait," Chris protested. "How come I'm a 'Boy' and you guys are all 'Men'?"

The blank stares turned to him.

"Oh, right. Never mind."

Their pizzas arrived.

~*~

"So, seriously, what about costumes?"

They were just finishing up the last of their pizzas when JC spoke again. The others rolled their eyes in complete unison.

"Look, JC," Lance explained patiently. "The whole world already knows about our powers, so what's the point of having stupid names and even stupider outfits?"

"It'd be cool!" JC insisted. "Think about it—"

"I'm afraid to," Justin muttered, but JC ignored him.

"They don't have to be all tacky and stuff. They could be all black, with, like... different color stripes up the sides. You know, like... Chris would be red, Justin would be blue, Lance would be green, Joey would be.... Umm... no, wait, Joey would be red, so Chris could be silver, or grey, or something. And I could be purple. Oh! And Joey should have a cape, cuz capes look cool when you're flying. And they would be flame-resistant, so Chris's temper tantrums wouldn't burn our clothes off."

"Temper Tantrums?!" Chris glared at him, insulted. "I don't have temper tantrums!"

"Chris, you burned a whole room."

"That asshole tried to kill us!"

"Still...."

Lance decided to step in before Chris had another temper tantrum. "Hey, guys, cool it, okay? Just forget the costume thing, JC, it ain't happening."

Joey sheepishly spoke up. "Well...." They all looked at him, JC with renewed hope, the others with pure disbelief. "Come on, guys, I think it'd be really cool to have a cape."

"See?!" JC threw an arm around Joey. "Thanks, Something-or-Another Man!"

"No problem, Whatchamacallit Man."

Justin doused them both with a cascade of freezing cold water, just for the heck of it.

~*~

As night fell over the city, five exhausted superheroes bid one another goodnight and fell into bed. One disgruntled and frustrated police captain sat wide awake in his office, gulping down lukewarm coffee and wondering when his life had gotten so complicated. The executives at Jive records and the management team for 'N Sync sipped their own coffee, wondering how these strange powers would affect the group. And one man—one bitter, angry, and betrayed man—waited, plotting, in the bowels of the destroyed nuclear plant. As the last of the sun vanished beneath the horizon, his eyes began to glow. And he laughed.

Chapter: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Epilogue

"Crunked" image © 2000-2001 JulieOh

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