NO PARENTS ALLOWED

Part V: Out of the Frying Pan

By Hunter Lambright

The Little Shoppe of Horrors
Los Angeles

Primo Falcone was not having the best morning of sleep. As far as sleep went, he and his twin brother Matti did not hit the hay until five in the morning on a regular basis because they ran the shop outside from midnight until half-past four each morning. And even then, Primo’s sleep was always filled with nightmares.

He was being chased by gnashing teeth, violent limbs, and fatty, skin-colored bodies. These were features of the creatures that his father’s mutant curse spawned from his body. Primo and Matti sold those creatures at their shop, and tonight, for some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something had happened that was their fault. His nightmares agreed. Even across the images, though, something else was prevalent. Primo couldn’t quite put his finger on it, though…

“Smoke!” he shouted, springing awake. Now he was certain—something was on fire, and he was positive that it couldn’t be a good thing.

“Matti! Wake up!” Primo shouted, as he threw off his covers and grabbed the first pair of jeans he saw. “The shop’s on fire!”

Matti Falcone sat up and rubbed his eyes. “What?” he asked.

Primo grabbed his brother’s bare shoulders and shook him. “The. Shop. Is. On. Fire! Get up! We have to do something!”

“Oh, god!” Matti shouted. “What do we do?!” He jumped out of his own bed and grabbed a pair of shorts that were on the floor. “Where’s mom and dad?”

On the small of Primo’s back, a small, green tattooed bird of prey twitched. “They’re on the other side. If we have a chance of getting them out, we have to go now…”

Matti could hear the roar of the flames now, and the cries of the creatures in the shop. The scent of burnt flesh began to mingle with the smoke. He could only hope that it wasn’t his parents’ corpses that he was smelling.

“Let’s go!” he agreed, and the two Falcones sprinted out of their room, and into the next part of their lives…

The Hostel

Alex Wilder sat awake in one of two intact armchairs that were still in the Hostel. There had been three, but after Molly fought off a vampire within the Hostel, only two of those remained.

The crystal-blue headset called W.A.T.E.R. was atop Alex’s head, matting down his out-of-style afro. “W.A.T.E.R.: Describe the current criminal projects of the Pride.”

“Where to begin, Mr. Wilder?” asked the Wilder Automatic Tech Emitter and Receiver. The computer was programmed to answer commands. Alex had inherited his father’s baritone—just one of many things he would discover he had in common with that man.

Alex paused, watching as the glass eye-screen projected a list of projects that his parents had been working on. “Um…I don’t know,” he said. “How about drug dealing?”

The screen pulled up a new list, this one of drugs. The list had a scroll button, and the first page only went through letter D. Alex groaned. “Pull up letter—”

“You formerly requested police reports on business-related facilities,” W.A.T.E.R. said. “Police now report new of a fire on the outskirts of District C, the place referred commonly to as the Little Shoppe of Horrors. Tracking scans found Stein Project 327.6B on the scene prior to the fire. Would you like to link to Victor?”

“No,” said Alex quickly. His hand went to his chin. “W.A.T.E.R., how many people live in this place?”

“Four residents,” said W.A.T.E.R., “including two children.”

It was time to change things by doing as much as they possibly could. For so long, the parents of the Runaways had screwed up their lives. Why should they be allowed to screw up the lives of other kids, too?

This had to end. Now.

“Coordinates?” Alex asked, as a plan began to form within his mind…

The Little Shoppe of Horrors

“Help me out here!” shouted Primo. His hands were scalded by the heat the door to their room had started to absorb.

Matti wasn’t convinced that this was their best course. “Wait! If the door’s hot, the fire’s outside our door, Primo!”

Primo withdrew his blistering hands from the doorway. “The other door, then—come on! Mom and Dad’s lives depend on it!”

Matti covered his nose with a pillowcase from the floor. He gingerly felt the doorknob with the back of the hand before grabbing it and swinging the door open. By now, the fire could be heard everywhere, roaring across the crossbeams that held up the roof.

“This place is gonna go any minute now, man!” Matti shouted, but he led the way down the hall.

“We don’t have a choice!” Primo shouted. He dropped to his hands and knees. “Keep low, it’s cooler!”

“I saw the same videos that you saw in kindergarten, too!” Matti snapped angrily. They turned right, beginning to crawl down a second hallway.

CR-CRA-ACK!

One of the crossbeams burnt off at one end, dropping it across the hallway. The burning wood missed Matti’s face by inches. “Back the other way!” Primo said, grabbing his brother’s forearm. Matti had frozen at the near miss. “Come on!’

They turned back into the hallway that they were originally in, and went the other direction. This took them around the kitchen and back up toward the front. That part of the shop was the actual store part, where the horrific creatures were kept. Matti tried not to look up in case he would see the creatures’ charred corpses, but there was nothing to be seen.

Flames raged openly out here, and even the floor was hot to the touch. Primo’s palms were burnt so raw that he had to move on his knuckles. He knew he must look like a gorilla to his brother, but they had to be above such pettiness if they wanted to survive.

Sweat poured off their bodies as the temperature in the shop rose. “We’re gonna die, aren’t we?” Matti asked from behind Primo.

“Shut up,” Primo muttered, but he wasn’t too convinced otherwise himself. “We’re here. We just have to get them and get out.”

Primo reached up to grab the doorknob and twisted, just as the bird of prey twitched again on his back. The world erupted into an inferno from hell that would take a miracle to survive…

Chase Stein’s Van

“Jeez, Alex!” moaned Nico Minoru, stretching her arms behind her head and yawning. “We stay out till four in the morning and you wake us up at six?! What kind of dictator are you?” Nico’s dark hair contrasted with her pale skin. The clothes she had worn the night before were wrinkled from sleeping in them and dirty from the escape they’d barely made from the Steins’ home.

Alex, at the steering wheel, laughed halfheartedly. “Speak for yourself, Nic. I didn’t sleep at all…” Alex was the only African-American on the team. He was thin and geeky, with squared glasses and an afro. Alex especially looked like he needed a pitcher of coffee, despite the fact that he absolutely hated the stuff.

Karolina Dean shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep anyway. I tried lying there, but after the first nightmare about being an alien…well, you get the picture.”

Karolina was the picture-perfect, blonde, toned girl that every boy dreams of—until she found out that she was born to parents from the Majesdane planet. When she wasn’t wearing her medical bracelet, Karolina’s skin lit up like the aurora borealis. “At least I can fly,” she said, crossing her arms.

Nico yawned again before poking her head over the backseat to see the speedometer. “Where are we off to in such a hurry that we had to leave Molly and Gert…again?” Nico asked, seeing the speedometer climbing past seventy miles per hour in the forty-five zone.

“It’s a house fire, complete with mom, dad, and two kids. One of the Steins’ tech things was detected at the scene, so W.A.T.E.R. let me know about it,” Alex explained. “Really, it’s kind of cool when you think about it. That thing lets me keep tab on our folks. Kind of like reversing the deal, you know? Anyhow, it doesn’t matter, because Gert said that she wanted time to think about everything we’ve found out. Especially for her and Molly—can you seriously believe they fought off a vampire?!”

“Forgive us if we’re not awake enough to be awestricken,” Karolina said, using her fingers to keep her eyes open.

Nico poked her head around the seat again. “Are we there yet?”

The brakes squealed. Had the three not been wearing seatbelts, they would have flown through the glass and across the hood into the gravel.

Alex turned around and grimaced. “That’s a yes, by the way…”

The Little Shoppe of Horrors

All that could be heard above the roaring flames was the screech of some kind of bird. A falcon. Primo could only see green all around him. He could hear wings beating around him, pushing away the flames. Matti’s arm swung into Primo’s chest. Somehow, something had happened. They were both alive, protected by this green…something.

“Move out of here!” Primo shouted over the fire’s screech. “Mom and Dad probably got out another way!” They both knew that this probably wasn’t true, but they didn’t have much choice but to believe it…and hope.

The twins began to work their way toward an exit, the heat blistering their feet with every step. “Move, damn it!” Matti shouted at the green around them. It moved with every step they took, but much too slowly for their feet to be comfortable.

There was a sudden cry as if from a bird’s mouth before Primo and Matti each felt something cold and scaled tighten around their waists. The green falcon beat its wings and burst through the burning roof!

Somebody save us, thought Matti as his eyes squeezed shut and his teeth clenched together. Flying was something that he’d always feared. Even on roller coasters, Matti was dominated by the fear of heights and moving quickly through them. He winced as the falcon touched them down to the ground, shrinking down to the size of a postage stamp directly in the center of Primo’s spine, molding itself back to his skin.

“That was you?” Matti asked in shock. “You—you’re a mutie?”

Primo’s face mirrored his brother’s. “I-I don’t know!” he stammered. “W-what if I am…?” he began to ask, but was interrupted.

Alex, Nico, and Karolina ran over, concerned looks on their faces.

“What the hell happened?!” asked Alex. “That was freakin’…wow!”

“Not amazing enough to save Mom and Dad,” Primo gasped. “They’re…they’re still in there…” His face was streaked with smoke stains that laced his tear marks.

Alex turned to Nico and Karolina and all three nodded. “We know what to do,” he said simply. Karolina snapped off her bracelet, unleashing the fury of the northern lights upon the early morning dimness.

“We’re going in.”

The roaring of the flames was ravenous now. There was not much more left for the fire to consume, even if the house’s frame was still obvious. This was the most dangerous stage of the fire, where all appeared calm until nothing was safe in any way, shape, or form. “Move fast!” Alex urged, winding his way down the tight, flaming hallway that ran the center of the house.

“Aieeee!” Nico squealed. Another beam had fallen across the hallway, this one clipping her across the arm. The sleeve was torn and a laceration ran the length of her shoulder to her elbow.

“Are you okay, Nico?” asked Alex concernedly. He grabbed her shoulder, but she didn’t move. Her body was as stiff as the beam that had fallen in front of her. “Snap out of it!”

Nico’s eyes went out of focus and her body leaned impossibly backwards. “WHEN BLOOD IS SHED,” she uttered in an unusually deep voice, “LET THE STAFF OF ONEEMERGE!”

There was a spectacular flash of light that outshone even the fire and Karolina’s skin combined. Then Nico’s chest appeared to split open, and from that chasm erupted the Staff of One. The rod was painted pure black, topped by a golden orb that sported a ring on top. The Staff levitated into Nico’s right hand before she snapped back to reality, catching herself before she fell from the odd angle.

Nico held a hand to her head. “Ooooh,” she moaned. “What the heck just happened…?”

Alex was mystified. “I honestly don’t have a clue,” he said, shaking his head. “But we don’t have time for this—we have people to save!”

Outside

Matti and Primo crouched nervously as the fire roared onward. Matti put his arm around Primo’s shoulder and whispered into his ear, “You realize who did this, right? This is some whacko payback thing from the Pride. We sold the critter that offed one of them, and this is how they’re getting us back!”

“But…you said yourself that the man you talked to told us we were safe!” Primo protested.

Matti frowned. “Like this would be the first time they lied to us, Primo? What about the time they promised a contract run for their underground? Did we ever see that? No. Maybe the time we got on the bad side of the Triad branch that was in town last year…did they fend ‘em off for us? No. We had to stand at the door every night and make sure the next guy who came in wasn’t some Chinese suicide bomber. This is it, Primo. We’re done—we’re out of freakin’ business. See you in juvie.”

“What the heck are you doing, Matti?” Primo asked. Matti left Primo sitting there as he jogged off toward the remains of the shop. “You can’t just run back in there like that!”

Matti turned back. “Did you forget that the cash is under the floorboards? We’re sunk without it. See you on the other side, brother.”

Primo looked longingly after his brother, but did not try to stop him.

Inside

On the ground, the three Runaways crawled as best they could. It was taking precious minutes to maneuver around burning floorboards and fallen beams. There was no way this place was going to stay standing for more than a few more minutes.

“It’s got to be at least a hundred degrees,” Alex huffed. He could feel the hair on his arms and legs singing. “How close are we?”

Nico, in the lead now, prodded the area in front of her with the Staff of One. “No idea,” she said. The air was thick now, and it was harder and harder to breath with every second.

“Turn on your nightlight, Karolina,” Alex said. “Maybe it’ll help us tell…”

Karolina reached for her wrist and yanked off the bracelet. Instantly, her body was surrounded by an amazing lightshow, the likes of which no human mind could ever have conceived. Alex and Nico shut their eyes as the light grew brighter and brighter.

“What are you doing?!” asked Nico. She could feel the building growing more and more unstable.

Karolina rose into the air uncontrollably. “I don’t know! I can’t stop it!” The light grew brighter and brighter. It pierced the already-weakened boards.

Alex watched as wood began to splinter around him, digging into his clothing. “We have to get out!” he decided, though the girls had come to that conclusion thirty seconds before.

There was a monstrous crack as the fire opened its jaws for the final bite. The building was ready to collapse. “Get us out, dammit! Get us out!”

A wall of flame crashed toward them.

“BUBBLE OUT OF THE RUBBLE!” shouted Nico, just as the wall fell…

Outside

Primo stood there, arms across his chest, shivering. He saw the walls fall in. There was no way Matti, his parents, or those new kids had survived the destruction. The fire had finished its meal. All that was left was crumbs.

Ashes rained down as something then burst from the rubble. A lime green bubble surrounded the three teenagers as they shot straight up into the sky before bouncing down once, twice, and a third time, finally settling on the grass. The bubble dissipated a split-second later, allowing Alex, Nico, and Karolina to tumble out onto the grass.

“Firefighters are on their way,” Alex noted, hearing the sirens. “We need to go home.”

Nico looked at the burning mess that was once the Little Shoppe of Horrors. “We’re going to be the suckiest heroes ever…”

Slapping her bracelet back on her wrist, Karolina returned to normal. “I don’t know what happened,” she whispered. “I’m sorry…”

“What part of ‘we have to go’ didn’t you two get?” Alex asked, halfway toward Chase’s van already. “The cops are hand-fed by our ‘rents! Let’s go!”

They began to run to the van, but Nico turned around. She saw Primo standing in the grass, looking at what used to be his home. “Wait for me,” she said to Alex, before running over to Primo.

“I’m sorry…” Nico said. She followed Primo’s gaze. “The Pride ruined your life, just like they’ve ruined ours. We’re kids who consider ourselves without parents now, and, well…I think you fit that bill.”

Primo was silent.

“Come on,” she urged the fourteen-year-old. “Let’s get you home…”

The Wilder Residence

Geoffrey Wilder gave Chase Stein an approving look. The bald, bearded black man regarded Chase now like a second son. “You did well this morning, Chase,” he said. “You have proven yourself well as the newest member of the Pride.”

Blond-haired Chase gave Geoff a stony look. “All due respect, sir…but no way in hell am I joining you guys. My right of passage involved killing kids.”

“Those kids sold the beast that killed your father,” Geoff said, putting his hands on Chase’s shoulders.

Chase looked up into Geoff’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Mr. Wilder, but I’m not going to be one of you. I’ll work for you. I’ll work with you. But I won’t do anything I don’t want to, and that’s all I see you people doing if I join you.”

“And what will you do instead?” asked Wilder.

“I’ll do what’s more important,” Chase said. “I’ve gotta take care of my mom and keep her head on straight.

“But first thing I’m doing is burying my dad.”

The Hostel

“You ran into a burning building?! No wonder you guys look like you do!” Gert shouted. “If I’d been there, you’d have at least thought about it first…”

“But we’d have done it anyway,” Alex shrugged. “We have to start somewhere if we’re going to start fixing our parents’ mistakes.”

Gert shrugged and pushed a few strands of unkempt, purple-dyed hair away from her eyes. Hands on her pudgy hips, she changed the subject. “How’s the new kid doing?”

“He’s still asleep,” Alex said, shaking his head. “Nico said that she thinks he went into shock. I’m not surprised, though. He said his brother ran back in after we did.”

“Did you check W.A.T.E.R. for a police report?” Gert asked. “Did the rest of his family make it out?”

Alex shook his head. “They identified a body as his mother’s. They didn’t find anything for his dad or brother, but they found lots of tiny little bodies, from the things they were selling.”

“Creepy,” Gert said, shaking her head. She looked into the room where Primo was still sound asleep. “I hope we can help him.”

“Of course we can,” Alex said with genuine enthusiasm. “That’s what we’re trying to do—fix the things our parents screwed up.”

“Amen,” Gert agreed.

The sound of tiny footsteps alerted the two to another person’s presence. “Can I ask you a serious question?” asked little Molly Hayes, her head capped in a cute, pink cat-hat.

Fearing the worst, Alex quickly excused himself. “All yours, Gert.”

Gert rolled her eyes at him before turning back to wide-eyed, innocent Molly. “What do you need to know, Mols?”

“Why does Karolina turn into a pretty rainbow?” Molly asked.

Gert groaned. How was she expected to explain that one to an eleven-year-old?

The La Brea Tar Pits—Lair of the Pride

Geoffrey Wilder stood in front of the Pride, the collective parents of the young Runaways. “You all know why we’re here. We got sloppy, and our kids realized it. We have less than two weeks until the Rite of Thunder, when we have to face the Gibborim with this failure. We have two weeks to find our kids.”

“Does that mean what I think it means?” asked Stacey Yorkes, her face crinkled with worry.

“Yes,” said Geoffrey. “It’s time to call in the super-people.”