Versus New Beginnings

Ch. 3

"Why would someone go to Antarctica?" Quint asked.

"To meet the Antarticans." Carter riposted in a 'duh' type of voice.

The guys gave him a weird look.

"Antarticans?" Dane questioned.

"What the fudge is he talking about?" Chris inquired confused.

"Think you mean Backyardigans." Sean corrected.

"Why would the Backyardigans be in Antarctica?" Jalen asked.

Mark and the others began to laugh at how stupid this was.

"They can't be in that backyard all the time." Carter defended his friend.

"That's why they're called the Backyardigans!" Quint told him.

"Why the hell are y'all talking about some kids show?" A girl questioned aloud.

Apparently, the guys' conversation could be heard from two tables down. A group of girls, including a certain junior, looked over at the jocks. Their mini argument caught their attention.

"They said the backyardigans are in Antarctica." Dane explained as he pointed to Carter and Sean.

"It's in the name backyardigans stupid!" One of the girls commented on it, making half of the cafeteria chuckle.

They had caught a whiff of the conversation too.

"Well the backyard can get boring!" Sean retorted.

"Then they would've called it the traveling animals!" Another girl logically stated.

"No they wouldn't," One of the guys tried to correct her. His name was Kyle, "Uniqua doesn't count. She's not an animal."

"She's a chameleon dude." Scottie, the co captain of the wrestling team, spoke to him.

"That fat pink thing is a chameleon?!" Kyle asked in shock.

That had everybody cracking up. In the mist of all that, the varsity captain snuck a peek at his girlfriend, who also found the conversation to be pointlessly funny. The two shared a smile as they shook their heads.

*************

It was hard to tell where he was. Waking up slowly, the rich man found himself for once not being chained up. Although, he was in a dark room. He was able to see for the most part at least. Brushing off any access dirt or grime, he looked around as his anger grew.

"How many times is this gonna happen?!" Seth shouted to himself, "can I walk around at all without being captured?!"

"Someone like you deserves to be captured." A new voice spoke up.

Looking to his left, the wealthy adversary watched a familiar face appear. He walked up to him with his arms crossed.

"You captured me? Why?" Seth inquired.

"It's not what you think. It's complicated and a little weird," an old ally told him, "bottom line, I'll kill him if you don't do what I ask."

"I worked for Grey and that red thing already, no way in hell am I working for you!" Seth roared in objection, "and I've turned over a new leaf. There's no way I'm hurting people."

The man scoffed at him.

"I don't care if you like it or not," he responded, "besides, you won't be alone. I was able to bring back a valuable human being."

Gesturing out in front of them, a blonde stepped into the light with a huge smirk on her face. Seth's eyes went wide.

"How?" He asked in astonished, "you...we watched you blow up with the robot-"

"The robot had an escape pod," she explained, "when the ooze helped me wake up, I took it and escaped the robot before it blew up. I found an invsible mode so no one would see me."

The capturer walked up beside her.

"You see Seth, I used your tech to bring her health back up to speed," the guy continued, "she doesn't have anymore powers, but is still capable of a lot of things."

Walking back up to him, the man smiled.

"Now are you joining us so we can be a team again?" He inquired.

"You two worked for ME," Seth reminded him, "not the other way around. I meant what I said and I don't wanna go back. I'm done."

"Fine," Grey responded, "I guess your kid is gonna have to die."

Seth gave her a glare.

"With the robot gone, the world is back to being ours." Grey evilly stated.

The billionaire crossed his arms. He hated this. How could they be back? It made no sense. And Tregear died weeks ago. Things were...they were supposed to be normal. Better! I guess it's true. The world is a wicked place, hiding wicked people. If they cause trouble, it's not a surprise. There was no way Harper was going to let his kid die. There was no way any of those people were just going to go down within a few days. So, with a heavy sigh, the older scientist made a decision.

"When do we start?" He questioned.