Fuse ✔

Chapter One

"Get back here!" Axel yelled as he chased his brother down the hallway.

"No! Can't get me, I'm the ginger– Woah!" His younger brother, Zander, went before he stumbled over his little feet and down the stairs.

Luckily, he only fell three steps, not the whole twenty-six.

"Zander, are you okay?!" Axel guessed as he picked Zander up.

"Ow!" Zander wailed, holding his head.

"Shhh! It's fine, it's just a small bump." Axel hushed as he cradled his brother, hoping he would stop crying so their mother wouldn't come storming in.

Zander was rather small for a three-year-old boy, and Axel was also small for a thirteen-year-old. Zander had their mother's caramel brown hair and green eyes, while Axel had their father's golden blonde hair and greyish eyes. You wouldn't be able to tell that they were brothers, except for the large number of freckles they had sprayed across their similar-looking noses.

"How about we go grab a snack from the kitchen? I think Monty baked some triple chocolate cookies this morning?" Axel coaxed as he carried his brother down the stairs.

"Cookies!" Zander smiled as he rubbed his snotty nose on Axel's red T-shirt.

That was his favourite T-shirt, and it had just been washed too.

Sitting on the serving tray was a pile of triple chocolate cookies. Surprisingly, they hadn't been all eaten, yet.

"Want two!" Zander ordered, now standing on the floor.

"We have to go to Mr Stein's garden party tonight. Mother does not want you to spoil your tea, again,"

"Want two cookies!" Zander steamed as he stomped his foot.

"You can have one."

Before Zander could throw a fit, the kitchen backdoor swung open and Zander's twin sister, Zaria marched in. She was covered in dirt, clutching her lion plushie, Mr Roarey, who was also smeared in mud.

"Shrewrace," she announced looking up at Axel.

"Pardon?"

"Shrewrace." She repeated, jiggling her left foot in the air.

"Put your words in a sentence, please."

"Tie shrewrace."

"That is not a sentence, Zaria," Axel responded.

"Pwees tie shrewrace, Acle."

"Zaria, can you say shoelace?" Axel asked while tying her soaked muddy shoelace.

"Sh-Shoooelice."

"Close enough. What about please?"

"P- Palease."

"There. Now, what do you say?" Axel asked as he handed her a cookie.

"Tanks."

"What are you three up to?" Their mother asked as she walked into the kitchen with bags of groceries.

"Went eckploring," Zaria told her as she smeared mud all over Zander's white shirt.

"I frew downstairs and got a cookie." Zander gladly beamed, pushing his sister away.

"Oh really?!" Their mother exclaimed, giving Axel the stink eye.

Zaria and Zander giggled and ran off to play in the garden.

"Hello, Axel." She greeted as she placed a kiss on his forehead.

"Hello, mother."

"Good evening to you, master Axel." Their butler, Monty, greeted as he placed down the rest of the groceries.

Axel's mother, Sophie, insisted she did the grocery shopping, like any other New York household.

"Where's Lola?" Sophie asked.

Lola was Axel's older sister, by seven years.

"Overlooking father's fieldwork," Axel replied putting away the groceries.

Axel's father, John, was a superhero. He was the hero known as Glitch. Glitch was a technological suit John had made for his company, Cooper industries, but realized it would be too dangerous if the world got its hands on it. Originally, the first suit had a glitch, which managed to save New York.

Since he fought crime and ran a billion-dollar company, John was always tired. He always had a sore arm, or a concussion, or a few bumps and bruises. Because of this, he doesn't want any of his children to take the same path he has, it was already dangerous enough to have Lola helping him.

"We have Robert's garden party at six," Sophie said as she put away the last of the groceries.

"I know. I'll be in my room doing homework if you need me." Axel said as he walked out of the kitchen.

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Axel was too busy tapping to the beat of the drum solo and reading over his science textbook, to notice his door slowly creak open and someone walk up behind him

"BOO!"

"Holy shi-" Axel jumped.

"Hahaha!"

"Lola, don't scare me like that! You almost gave me a heart attack!" Axel sternly grumbled as he playfully hit her.

"Father says it's time to get ready." She said, calming herself down from her laughing attack.

"How did he do today?" Axel inquired.

"It was fairly breezy today. He stopped two bank robberies today and saved people from that burning building on West Avenue."

"He didn't run into Vayne?"

Vayne was Glitch's arch-nemesis, the first villain Glitch ever fought against. Vayne was the leader of a gang called The Reds.

"No, Vayne has been silent lately." Lola worried.

"Maybe he finally left?" Axel shrugged.

"I doubt that..." She muttered, before piping up, "anyway, we're living in about half an hour."

A few months ago Lola was helping out at a homeless shelter when she was abducted by The Reds.