Zoom, Academy for Superheroes: Part 1

Clarity

"Hold still, right before we crash, 'cause we both know how this ends. A clock ticks 'til it breaks your glass and I drown in you again. You are the piece of me, I wish I didn't need. Chasing relentlessly, still fight and I don't know why. If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy? If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?"
-Zedd & Foxes

*****

October 31st, the day that Cindy had been waiting for since September. This morning, she was up at the crack of dawn running around the halls of Area 52, singing some Halloween song and knocking on everyone's doors to wake them up early since it was her favourite day of the year.
Last Halloween, Cindy was out with her mom, getting picked on by the neighbourhood bullies, no knowledge of the Zenith Program and what was in store for her. This year, she'll be out with her best friends and teammates, her family. Cindy knew that Mr Shepherd would make sure they all had fun tonight, they always do.
The whole team had planned to go out with Tucker and Cindy as they did their trick-or-treating and Cindy was looking forward to that more than anything. The costumes, the candy, the ghost stories; she couldn't get more into the Halloween spirit if she tried. But, that didn't mean that she wouldn't try.
The day proceeded as usual, it wasn't a holiday, obviously, they still had work to be done during the day even if they were going out to have fun tonight. But it was Friday, so they didn't have to worry about waking up in time for school and work tomorrow.
But of course, the team couldn't resist indulging in some of the Halloween festivities, though, they were the only ones. All the busy scientists probably didn't even realize that it was Halloween, but the children on the other hand, they were another story.
Cindy went around and handed out sugar cookies shaped like Jack-o-lanterns that her and Summer had made the night before to everyone she saw. She also helped Summer get everyone's costumes ready for later that evening. Dylan, Tucker, Jack and Marsha were being completely surprised by what their costumes would be, but Summer and Cindy had hinted that they would be dressed in pairs. Dylan and Summer, Cindy and Tucker, Jack and Marsha. Frankly, they had no idea what to expect, which, of course, worried them.
Dylan and Tucker were out rounding up the scariest horror movies they could find, after all, it's not Halloween without a little film induced terror. They laughed as they thought of how the poor girls wouldn't sleep for weeks after tonight's movie marathon.
Even Jack was getting into the Halloween spirit, but in an incredibly annoying way. All he really enjoyed was having an excuse to pull horrifying tricks on people. Dr Grant and Miss Holloway bearded the brunt of it, they were just so easily scared, it was hard for Jack to resist.
Grant had already spilled two cups of coffee on himself, and Marsha had screamed quite loudly, more than once, in the middle of crowded rooms at unfortunately inappropriate times, embarrassing herself immensely. Jack was loving it, everyone here was just so jumpy. Strange, they worked in a place where they watched superheroes fight bad guys for a living and they were jumpy.

*****

"Ok, Tucker you're going to love you and Cindy's matching costumes!" Summer said excitedly before pulling out two black and white outfits and a case of face paint.
        "Mimes? Sweet!" Tucker said, relieved that Cindy didn't want to be something ridiculously embarrassing.
"Dylan honey, you and me are going as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, no objections!" Dylan groaned a little, but smiled and went to go put on his outfit when he saw how excited Summer was.
"Jack, you're going to hate this, but that's kind of why we did it, but you and Marsha are going as a prince and princess."
"A prince? Oh, you've got to be kidding me, there is no way that-"
"You have to!" Cindy yelled before he could even finish objecting.
"No, it's cool! You've got like armour and a fake sword and stuff!" Summer insisted, but Jack rolled his eyes. Meanwhile, Marsha, who obviously wasn't too keen on the idea either but didn't want to disappoint Cindy, turned her attention to the young superhero.
"Cindy, I thought that you would have wanted to be a princess?"
"But Miss Holloway, I am Princess! That wouldn't be dressing up, and on Halloween, you have to dress up!" Cindy explained with wide eyes before skipping out of the room to put on her costume, Summer soon followed.
Jack and Marsha shared a look of what could have only been agony before they, too, left to get ready.

By 5:30 pm, the team of 6 were in full costume and makeup, ready to go trick or treating. Cindy and Tucker's costumes considered of many black and white stripes, but Cindy's had a tutu, of course. They also had their faces painted with black and white paint to make them look like mines.
Dylan wore a black shirt, red pants with suspenders, and, of course, a pair of mouse ears. While Summer was sporting a red dress with white polka dots and her own mouse ears, complete with a big red bow.
Jack was not overly happy with his costume. A medieval looking shirt, brown pants, heavy metal armour and a big, annoying crown. Marsha was wearing an, also medieval looking, light blue dress with one of those pointy princess hats. The 6 of them were definitely a sight to be seen.
After an hour and a half, they'd already been to plenty of houses, but Tucker and Cindy insisted that it wasn't near enough. The two of them were eagerly running up to every house they passed by with excitement, turning the charm way up to acquire as much candy as possible. While the rest of their team hung back, talked a bit, and laughed as they watched Cindy and Tucker happily fill their pillowcases with sweets.
Before they called it a night, Jack thought that Halloween wouldn't be complete without a trip to a graveyard, so they looked around for a bit, and eventually came across an old cemetery. It was quite abandoned, the tombstones we're sinking into the ground here and there, the moon shined eerily through the clouds, and a thin layer of fog danced around their feet. It was all too perfectly cliché for Jack not to have a little fun.
He began by claiming there was a terrifying tale about this very cemetery and the woods surrounding it. Of course, he was making it all up as he went. Nobody believed it at first, but as the story grew darker and more interesting, the five quieted down, listening with wide eyes, and let themselves believe the make believe horror story.
Cindy was squeezing Summer's hand, while Summer herself took a step closer to Dylan. Tucker was constantly looking over his shoulders, Marsha seemed suddenly very quiet. It was all he could do for Jack not to ruin the story by laughing out loud at their reactions right then and there.
Jack made the story believable, then, when the five terrified teammates were all looking over their shoulders, he swiftly tossed a pebble behind himself. He turned around slowly, making it seem like he didn't know what the noise was.
Dylan, Summer, Marsha, Tucker, and Cindy remained frozen in fear, staring with into the darkness behind Jack and what lay on the other side of the fence in the dense forest.
Jack told them all to wait where they were and proceeded to walk behind the others, making it seem like he was going back through the gate to go see what was on the other side. The team kept their attention straight ahead of them, where they'd heard the strange noise.
Jack stood behind the team, contemplating which one of them would be the most fun to terrify. Though, he didn't really need to think too hard, he already knew the answer. When the moment was right, he silently walked up behind Marsha and grabbed her shoulders while he yelled loudly.
Marsha freaked out to say the very least. Her scream could have fractured eardrums, and her outburst, and Jack's yell, caused the others to panic as well. The four children scattered while each one of them screamed in fear.
Jack chuckled and smirked when they all realized that it was only him, and he was obviously very proud of himself. Once the panic was over, the laughter started, and after the laughter came anger. But the anger soon turned to laughter once more, though Marsha remained pretty angry at Jack, which was understandable. She had no idea why she was always the main victim of Jack's tricks like this, but she didn't much appreciate it.
The team soon made their way back to Area 52, it was getting cold and it had gotten fairly late. Everyone seemed to be a bit nervous, though, after their incident in the graveyard. Cindy immediately climbed onto Tucker's shoulders, and Summer made sure she had a hand in Dylan's at all times. Jack couldn't help but chuckle when he noticed Marsha move slightly closer to him, too nervous to walk alone, but he put an arm around her waist and suppressed his giggles after a while as they made their way home.

*****

The team ended their Halloween with a horror movie marathon, as planned. The hours of scary movies went hand in hand with scared faces covered by blankets, eyes hidden by hands, and small squeals from Cindy and Summer. Admittedly, Tucker was pretty scared too, and Dylan would try to laugh it off when, even he, jumped during the scary parts.
Jack had seen all these movies multiple times, horror movies were always the old team's go to, so they just didn't scare him anymore. His night got even better, though, when during an extremely suspenseful scene, Marsha jumped in fright and spilled the bowl of popcorn all over both of them.
When the movies were all over, Tucker fidgeted anxiously, Summer was hiding underneath a blanket, Marsha nervously looked around, and Cindy ran to turn the lights on.
For once, Jack was the only one who got a good night's sleep that evening.