It's War!

[Gravwarp]

It was still early for practice but the young man had gone to the library after breakfast and finished his homework quicker than he anticipated. He made his way to the locker room and changed into his pads and uniform. Throwing his cleats over his shoulder and grabbing his helmet, Bryan made his way out to the field.

The morning sun and the early humidity made the sky hazy, the boy was not looking forward to the grueling practice. Coach Waters had said today he was going to be working on kick returning, it meant a day full of running and massive hits by the guys practicing for Gunner. He rubbed at the back of next subconsciously thinking about the soreness to come.

As he made his way outside, Bryan looked out from the tunnel and saw a small group of people out on the football field. “Guess I wasn’t the only one looking to get a jump on things.” He muttered to aloud to himself.

As he got closer he took notice of who was out on the field. A couple of the offensive players were running the track that surrounded the field, he couldn’t make out who from the distance but in the middle of the field stood Sammy and Bill Harrison. He was holding a ball in front of him, illustrating to her his method of punting.

Instead of running out to greet them, for some reason Bryan hung back and watched. Sam practiced, wailing a half a dozen footballs downfield with ease. They sailed farther than normal, which meant Sam was holding back her strength… it also meant that Coach Waters wasn’t on the field. A wicked grin crept across Bryan’s face as an idea began to form.

Bryan crept down to the sidelines as Bill and Sam made their way to the opposite end of the field and gathered up the footballs. He could see the pair talking, Bill was swinging his leg showing her some other technique. She laughed and mimicked the motion. The hidden young man relaxed for a moment, confident that he had not been seen and that he was now in range.

Bill moved a few yards upfield from Sam, to where they had gathered the footballs. He crouched on the green turf and held a ball, point up, under his finger. She took a running start and belted the through the uprights, it arched slightly to the left. Bill stood and spoke to her motioning his hands. Sam nodded with a smile and moved back to her stating position.

“This is too perfect.” Bryan laughed to himself. The pair on the field exchanged a few more words. Sam motioned and bill placed the second ball on the ground. Sam charged forward. At the same moment, Bryan focused on the ball and opened a small wormhole underneath it. Instantaneously transporting the ball to his grasp.

Sam’s leg continued its forward momentum but when it contacted nothing more than thin air, it kept going taking the girl off balance. She stumbled and fell to the grass with a thud. Sam looked to Bill with a baleful glance; sure he had just played a gag on her. He looked quizzically at her and threw his hands up, no doubt telling her “it just disappeared”.

Bryan stood from where he was crouched and tossed the ball up in the air with a spiral and caught it, a broad smile plastered across his face. Bill noticed him first and pointed to Bryan with a laugh. Sam turned and saw her friend in the stands, laughing and tossing the ball.

Sam’s glare turned from that momentary anger to begrudging amusement at her predicament. She leapt to her feet and yelled. “Bryan Baxter! You’re going to pay for that!” Samantha picked up a nearby ball and hurled it at the laughing prankster. The ball hurtled towards Bryan like a bullet but as it neared him a slight shimmer was in the air and the pigskin seemed to be sapped of all it’s forward momentum and dropped o the ground like a lead balloon.

Bryan bounded over the bleachers and made his way down to his teammates. His smile never leaving his face he approached Sam. “Smooth move Exlax!” Bill could not help it as he chuckled under his breath. Bryan tossed the football back to the uniformed girl. She grinned wickedly at Bryan. “Your scary bubbles are not going to save you this time. You are going to get it.”

Bryan bounded off to the outlying track and laughed mockingly. “I'll never get my comeuppance, do you hear me? No comeuppance!” He added an over the top villainous laugh to his taunt.

Sam looked down at the football in her hand, waiting till he rounded the corner then hurled it at the boy. This one too fell away harmlessly and Bill’s chuckle erupted into laughter. “Hmm… that boy is going to pay.” She muttered to herself as Bryan ran his laps with a smile.

[Blitzen]

Sam sat at a back table in the library and squinted her eyes, as if that would make the math problem more understandable. "If Train A leaves Station C at 9 am" She read aloud to no one. "And is traveling at a speed of 70 miles an hour, and Train B leaves Station D at 10 am, traveling at a speed of 90 miles an hour, and Station C is 620 miles from....." She looked up as one of the reference books across from her floated mysteriously from one shelf to the next. She grinned as several other books did the same thing.

"I know you're here, Eddie." She laughed. "I recognize the Ghostbusters routine." She heard the distinct hum as Eddie phased into sight.

**I thought maybe we could hit the park for a bit, but I see you're busy with word problems.** He projected.

"Train A and Train B? Face it. Unless me and you are on the train going to see the Titans take on the Patriots, I'm just not all that interested. Hitting the park sounds good."

"Tell you what...." He said, coming around to her side. "How about I give you a hand with this, then we'll figure out what to do? Unless you'd rather be alone." He grinned as he phased back out of sight.

"I wish you could make math disappear like that." She started to curse as she broke yet another pencil point copying the numbers into her spiral notebook but stopped abruptly, looking up. "Eddie! You can go invisible!"

"Figure that out on your own, did you?" He teased, sliding out the chair next to her before phasing back into sight.

"No, I mean, I need a big favor." She replied, a smile spreading over her face. "Bryan Charlie Browned me at football practice. I've been trying to figure out how to get even, but between his force fields and being able to weigh me down so I can't move, it's not been that easy. But I think he forgot one thing." She put an arm around his shoulder and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "I have an invisible boyfriend."

*******************************************************************************
**Well?** She asked via telepathy the next morning.

**On the bench, reading his English assignment.** Eddie projected back, silently keeping his distance as he remained invisible. **But he's paranoid. He muttered something earlier about checking his shampoo bottles for tampering. He even checked above all the doors for signs of a prank.** Sam chuckled.

**Thanks, Eddie. I appreciate this more than you know.** Sam took a deep breath to maintain her composure and swung her backpack as she walked across the field to where Bryan sat reading a copy of Dante's Inferno.

"Whatever you're going to try won't work, Sam." He said, sliding away from her on the bench.

"Try?" She asked innocently. "Oh, right, for the little joke yesterday. I'd forgotten about that. No, I figured I'd come out early, do a little reading myself." She pulled a rolled comic book from her back pocket, and sat down as she unfolded it to read. She rustled the pages a bit, licking her fingertips before turning the page. Bryan tried to ignore her actions, stealing sideways glances until the comic cover caught his attention, his eyes growing wide.

"Where'd you get that?" He asked slowly and cautiously.

"Your room." She replied nonchalantly. "I was going to put baby oil in your shampoo bottle, but you hid them pretty good. This was in that case on your shelf and caught my eye. I figured it'd be nice to take an interest in your hobbies." She folded the cover back on itself, creasing the spine to keep the book open, and heard Bryan wince.

"That's Adventure Comics #12, the introduction of his sidekick, Wonderbrat. Sam, I had to work for an entire year to save up for that! It's in near mint condition!"

"Really?" She said, licking her fingertips again before turning the page, folding the corner down as she did so. "I'd hardly call it near mint. I mean, when I tried using Goofy Putty to tranfer a picture from page eight, you know, when Sensational Man was taking on Captain Corrupt, the page was so thin the picture tore clear off."

"It's Supreme Man." He groaned. "Supreme man fights Captain Corrupt, I can't believe you ripped it."

"It was the Goofy Putty! 'Course it might have been a little thin from where I tried to blot the ketchup off."

"Ketchup?"

"I read it at breakfast." She nodded. Bryan winced again, his face growing red with anger.

"I pulled a harmless trick! I didn't destroy something you worked really hard to earn. I can't believe you would..." Sam started to giggle.

"Ruin a Power Prince book I picked up at the Circle J?" She showed him the interior, laughing. "Eddie reproduced the cover for me in the computer lab. He's got your real book, so you'd notice it missing. The look on your face was priceless though."

"Ha-ha, real funny!" He huffed, grabbing the book from her hands to make sure. "And just where is your accomplice?" As if on cue, Eddie phased into sight, standing next to Sam and chuckling himself.

"I did snap a couple of good photos with my digital camera." He admitted, causing Sam to laugh again.

"Yeah, yeah..." Bryan said, a smile forming on his face as well. "Where's my comic?" Eddie held it up cautiously to show him it was still in one piece.

"I wouldn't do anything to one of your precious comics, I'm not that mean." Sam continued, reaching towards the comic. Either she grabbed too fast or Eddie released to slow- but the cover and the first few pages tore in her grasp. Wide eyed she looked at Bryan.

"Oh my God." She exclaimed, her face panic stricken as she covered her mouth. "Bryan! It was just supposed to be a joke, I swear! I'll.. I'll get a job and find you a new one, I feel so bad, I'm so sorry!"

"SAM!" He yelled, his face falling once again. She waited near half a minute, but rolled her eyes and laughed as Eddie snapped another photo.

"The real book is back in your room, Goof. But Bryan?" She smiled smugly, winking at Eddie. "Double Comeuppance."

[Blitzen]

"Didn't you already get him back?" Ves whispered as the two girls ducked down in the bleachers.
"Holy cow, yeah!" Sam chuckled. "Twice even."
"So why are we here?" she questioned.
"Because." Sam replied, as if that was all the answer required. Seeing her friend's raised eyebrows, she huffed, and continued. "Because.... C'mon. It's Bryan. He'll think it's funny. Trust me."
"Last time you said 'trust me' it ended with me taking a header into Mr. Johannsen's sedan."
"Oh, he's still mad." Sam replied with a nod. "Everytime I pass his house, he hollers about it. Now shhh, shhh... he's coming." She peeked through a small crack in the stands, watching the teen turn the corner while running laps. She steadied a water balloon in each hand. Bryan wouldn't even see it coming. Just as he passed, Sam gave the go signal and both girls stood, tossing a barrage of balloons in his direction.
"Nice try!" Bryan called out, without breaking stride as each balloon bounced off his protective force field, leaving a trail of water splotches behind him.
"You and your scary bubbles!" Sam laughed, reserving her last balloon until he was across the other side of the track. She gathered all of her strength and threw the projectile expecting it to be deflected as well. She didn't account for the fact that there were so many others on the field in-between her and Bryan, or that her aim was a bit off.

Sam and Vesper watched as the balloon collided with someone other than it's intended mark, both covering their mouths and gasping before quickly ducking back behind the bleachers. There was a ton of other people around. Maybe they weren't spotted, someone else would get blamed? All they could do at that point was hope as they made their way back to the dorms.

[Layla Stevens]

The heat was intense as the girl ran laps around the track. Sweat soaked through her shirt and her legs were tired, but Layla couldn't be happier. She was getting settled into the school quite easily and made friends much faster than she had anticipated. So many new names and faces to remember. Owen, Kylie, Mojo. Layla almost laughed. That's the beauty of this school, she thought. I can be friends with an intellegent monkey named Mojo and no one looks at me weird. And although she'd never admit it out loud, Aiden and Bobby were quickly becoming the best friends she had ever had. They may joke around, playing little tricks on each other, but if she ever truely needed help, they'd be the first people she'd turn to.

Suddenly, from out of the corner of her eye, Layla noticed something small and red flying toward her. She truned to see what it was just in time to have a water balloon explode in her face. She sputtered and instinctively faded from view, running her hand over her eyes toclear them. That's when she heard the chuckling. Bobby was standing in the middle of the field, his foot propped on his soccer ball, nearly doubled over in laughter. "Think that's funny, Hotshot?" she called out to him as she appeared back on the track. The only response she got was more laughter and some broken words she couldn't quite make into a sentence. "Oh, it's on, Bobifer." Bobby bent over and grabbed his soccer ball before sprinting from the field, still laughing loudly. A grin slowly spread across Layla's face as a plan began to form in her head.

The next day, several kids were doing laundry at the machines on campus. Layla snuck in, careful to keep herself invisible. She walked over to the hampers sitting in front of the dryers. She knew one of these had to be Bobby's. But which one? She didn't have a lot of time before he came to get his laundry and took it back to his room. If that happened her plan wouldn't work. Then she saw it. The old yellow and red shirt that Bobby worn out on the field yesterday. Layla nearly laughed at the simplistic beauty of her plan. Quickly, she grabbed a pair of orange boxers from the hamper and eyed the hamper next to it. Aiden's... Grinning widely, she grabbed a green pair of boxers from that pile and concentrated on the light bouncing off them, fading them from view as well.

With phase one complete, Layla sprinted out to the flagpole. She took the boxers and attached them to the string carefully and slowly began to raise them for all the school to see, snickering. As soon as they were fluttering at the top, Layla heard some low laughter behind her. A group of guys were pointing at the flags and talking amongst themselves. Next some girl with far too much make-up on and her friends stopped and giggled. Soon several people had come and gone from the courtyard, each of them passing it on to the next person they met. Layla leaned against the wall of the dorm, next to the door. Waiting. Twenty minutes later, Aiden and Bobby exited, laughing over some shared joke. Layla smirked as they both stopped and looked at the flagpole.

Then they did something she didn't expect. They laughed. No blushing. No embarassment. They just held their sides and laughed. Layla faded back into view next to them. "Hey, guys."

Bobby jumped to the side, his hands igniting slightly as he startled. "Layla! I didn't do it!"

"What?" She looked over at Bobby confused. What was he talking about?

"The water balloon. Yesterday. That wasn't me," he looked back at her, the ghost of a smile playing across his face. "Please don't mess with my hair today. I just got it how I wanted it. You have to admit though. It was pretty funny."

Layla reached over and mussed Bobby's hair as he cried out in mock agony. She turned to Aiden and pointed at the boxer's. "So what do you make of this? Someone pranking you two now?"

Aiden looked at Layla, then at the boxers, and then back at Layla. "Us? Those aren't our boxers."

[Ty Cloud]

Ty was unusually happy, he had no reason to this happy he just felt good. He noticed many of the people in the court yard were exchanging laughs and whispers. "hey whats everyone looking at?" Ty looked around for someone to give him an answer. Finally some pointed up to the flag pole. "Huh? Hah some loser got his boxers pinned up to the flagpole!" Ty laughed not even realizing one of those boxers were his. Ty took another glance now realizing those were his! "Wait those are mine!!!" Ty sprinted to the flagpole desperately trying to climb up it. "Grrr!" He now looked for the first person in sight. <It was bobby i'm sure!> Ty not even thinking at that point now was off to plot his revenge.

12:05 a.m.

Ty tried his best to hold in his laughs. His plan was pure gold. It was to dark to but he had a faint idea that this was Bobby's Room. He snuck in as quiet as he could be making sure not to step on any potatoe chips. <Pure> Ty carefully opened the door to the bathroom and creeped in. "Well bobby looks like your gonna have a little surprise after your next morning shower." Ty carefully grabbed a shampoo bottle and added some orange dye. Ty let out a very quiet snicker. He then began his way out, as he left the room he noticed Bobby reading in the room across the hall. He panicked. He heard a teacher or someone comign so he ran back to his room scared. If that wasn't Bobby's room then who did he prank?

[Gravwarp]

The hallway was quiet as Bryan ventured out to the showers; the tiled floor was cold against the bare soles of his feet. He quietly closed the dorm room door behind him, bending down to put his shower sandals on his feet. The young man always put them on in the hallway, they squeaked and he was careful not to wake his roommates that still slept.

With a smile and a long stretch, Bryan walked down past the other rooms. He wore a pair of gym shorts and an extremely worn t-shirt; the graphic had long ago cracked and peeled, leaving the image unrecognizable. His left arm cradled his clean clothes, a bottle of body wash, shampoo, a black plastic comb and hair gel.

Bryan whistled a tune as he nudged the bathroom door open with his hip; Nick was coming out at the same time. “Heya Nick! Que pasa, amigo?” His friend mumbled something about mornings and death as he walked out of the bathroom, still half asleep. Bryan chuckled and wished the boy a good day.

Starting the water, Bryan hopped in under the shower and began his morning ritual. Each time he picked up a bottle, he squeezed a bit out onto the floor of the shower. He had only half believed Sam’s threat to dye his hair but, with Eddie on her side in this little war, it was far better to be safe than sorry.

Then he saw it… the drop of orange and white liquid that hit the white porcelain and left a slight trail as it swirled toward the drain. “Orange Dye.” He chuckled. “Ohhh… you slipped up this time my dear.”

He hatched a little plan. Bryan was hesitant at first about returning the dyed shampoo but he soon rationalized it. “After all, she was going to do it to me and turn about is fair play.”

-----

That afternoon in the library, Bryan sat with one of his friends over a chessboard. Normally the pair spoke about one another and the game itself but today there was a different conversation on the menu.

From a distance, you could see him pass the tainted bottle to the young lady. She too was hesitant, but Bryan pleaded and reassured her that as long as she was not spotted that she would stay blameless in this stealth mission.

To the boy’s delight, she eventually agreed, and the bottle was off to its new destination.

[Elly]

"Damn."

"Something wrong?" came a voice from the next shower stall.

"I'm out of shampoo." Elly had looted it (and the rest of her bathroom supplies) from the hotel room where MAGI had put her for the week before her dorm room was assigned; she'd been stalling on buying some of her own because her cash flow was still in flux. Plus she could always do this: "Can I borrow some of yours?"

"Sure, just let me get a dollop first." Half a minute later, an arm reached over with a bottle, which Elly accepted.

It took another minute before she heard from her neighbor again. "Whoa! Hang on over there."

"What?"

"There's something screwy with my shampoo. Don't use it."

Elly paused in the middle of a thorough scalp lathering. "You're telling me this now?!"

*****

They both stared at themselves in the mirror.

"ORANGE?!" First pink, now this. God must really hate her, or at least her hair.

The other girl rolled her eyes at her own appearance; she'd stopped using the shampoo as soon as she noticed the problem and, for better or for worse, "only" had a single skunk stripe of neon orange running up the left side of her hair. "It's Bryan. Has to be. We've been pranking each other for over a week now. I was even thinking about doing something like this to him, but I guess he beat me to the punch... sorry you got caught in the crossfire."

"What are you planning to do to get back?"

"Not sure yet. Why?"

"Because I want in on it." Oh, Bryan would rue this day, he would.

Her new partner gave her a skeptical look, but then shrugged and offered a dye-stained handshake. "Okay, I won't deny you your rightful vengeance. You're in. I'm Sam, by the way."

"Elly." They shook. "Already coming up with some plans, but you know the target better than I do. Let's find somewhere quiet to scheme." She looked at the mirror one more time. "...after I put on a hoodie."

****

She had thought that skipping her own gym class to hide in the boys' locker room would be a reward in itself, but it wasn't like she could see anything from inside the broom closet, so the only clue Elly had that there were guys (naked or otherwise) on the other side of the door were the sounds of the showers and the random perverted joke.

She kept her breathing shallow, both so no one heard her and so she wouldn't have to smell the mold, and listened to the comm, set to the lowest audible volume. Sam had left a private channel open, and Elly could vaguely hear her keeping Bryan distracted out on the field with a lengthy discussion of football formations.

The voices in the room were dying down. She remained perfectly still as the last of them walked past the closet, waited another half a minute to be sure, then dared open the door slowly to make sure the room was truly empty. It was. She whispered to Sam to wrap it up, then closed the door again and waited.

She heard Bryan enter, then the showers turn on one more time. She was now on an uncertain deadline: there was no way to know how long he would take, and there was a good chance he'd just hose down and go. Fortunately, she'd had plenty of practice at speed-looting.

His gym clothes were scattered over a bench. They all got stuffed in Elly's backpack. The school uniform in his open locker followed. In its place -- she had to give Sam credit for the sheer chutzpah of this idea -- was placed a brand new girl's field hockey uniform. Complete with a note that said "Comeuppance!" Sam had suggested this would be especially, quote, "meaningful" for Bryan in some weird way, and Elly had decided to take her word for it rather than examine that thought. She zipped up her pack and got the hell out of there.

Sam was already outside, half-concealed behind a low wall; Elly joined her. "I heard the shower turn off just as I got out the door; he should be finding it right about now." The two girls waited for the boys' locker room to open and Bryan to attempt a stealthy but skirted escape. Sam readied her digital camera, and the two girls tried to refrain from laughing.

"Whatcha doing?" A hand pulled the red and white bandanna from Sam's head.

"Waiting for..." Sam cut herself short as realization set in. "Bryan?"

"That's still my name, streak," Bryan chuckled, putting a foot up onto the bench as he crunched into an apple. He was still in the gym clothes that were supposedly in Elly's backpack. "Going to introduce me to your friend?"

Sam avoided the question, to Elly's eternal gratitude. "Uh, B? You're... not going to get changed?"

"Thought I'd grab some food and rest up first. Not like I have another class to get to. Maybe I'll wait until I get back to the dorms."

"So... if you're out here... who's in there?"

Elly quietly pulled her hood further over her head as Sam got a little too obvious in the questions.

"I dunno." Bryan took another bite before "three point" shooting the apple into a trash can, then noted the camera and smirked. "Why? You girls weren't planning to peep on me, were you?"

The conspirators exchanged a worried look, glancing again towards the locker room door.

"No. Just curious. We gotta go," Sam stammered as Elly hastily grabbed her backpack. The two ran off, leaving a confused Bryan to watch them go.

[Katabatik]

Oh, no. He couldn't. It would be just too much, entirely too much! It would be too cruel, and he couldn't make himself do it. He squeezed the bag of glitter, at war with himself. He walked the aisles of the party supply store, spending the better part of a quarter of an hour looking at festive napkins. Anything to stifle the temptation! He wouldn't give in. Layla was his friend, and she was about the least sparkly person he knew! He could not do such things to his friends! He turned on his heel and walked away from the glitter, firmly resolved to maintaining his own basic goodness.

Of course, within an hour he was back in his quad, consolidating a dozen smaller bags of glitter into one enormous bag of metallic purple and silver dust. Billy gave Bobby perhaps the oddest look he had ever given him, but he gawked for just a moment before turning away to read.

"Oh! This isn't for me, I swear!" Bobby said, pouring in another bag.

Billy let escape a small, feral grunt. Was it protest? Assent? Resignation? Bobby couldn't quite tell, but he was sure whatever it was Billy would let it pass soon enough.

Bobby gave the gallon-sized ziplock bag a heft. It was somewhat heavier than he had expected it to be. The contents shifted like unstable terrain. With the utmost gingerlyness he put the ziplock into his shoulderbag and tried to not let it bounce across his side.

* * *

He slipped, occasionally on tiptoes, from the door to his quad to the academic side of campus. The problem, of course, was evading detection. He took time at lunch to synchronize his watch with the cafeteria clock, which rang the dinner bell later in the evening. The escapade had been planned for the dinner hour, late enough to avoid heavy traffic and the presence of witnesses, but still early enough avoid suspicion should someone traipse through.

He reached into his bag and fished out the ziplock. The contents, mercifully, had not spilled through in any large quantity. He surveyed the upper opening of the locker, the small crack between the door and the frame. It would be too horrible. It would also be too perfect! It would be like Lisa Frank blew chunks all over Layla's books. He poured the contents in, suppressing a cackle of mad glee. He reached and pulled the heat from the locker, driving the thermal exchange and creating a blustery wind inside the small, confined space. A gout of glitter spouted out the air vent and fluttered to the ground, embedding itself in the carpet. Bobby stopped to survey his handiwork for just a moment before the bell rang, signaling the end of the dinner hour. Bobby stuffed the ziplock in his bag and walked, quickly, quietly, and smirkingly, back to his quad.