Allí conoció a grandes grupos y cantantes como Queen, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Rolling Stones, The Ramones,...
En Nueva York, comienza a escribir sus propios temas, de entre ellos se halla Runaway, que lo graba en momentos en que nadie usaba del estudio.
La banda aun no funcionaba como debía, era un fracaso, sin embargo no se dió por vencido y llevó Runaway a la estación WAPP FM, la que lo incluyó en un disco de nuevos grupos. Su tema fue muy bien acogido por el público y obtuvo varias ofertas de compañías discográficas. En julio de 1983, firma un contrato con Polygram, quien le da libertad para contratar a los músicos que considere necesarios para la creación de su nueva banda, Bon Jovi.
Llama a su amigo David Bryan y al bajista Alec John Such. Contrata al baterista Hector "Tico" Torres, y por último al guitarrista Richie Sambora.

Su primer disco salió el 21 de enero de 1984 y se llamó Bon Jovi. En el aparece Runaway, y fue todo un éxito como grupo de rock duro.
Actuaron como teloneros de Kiss y Scorpions entre otros. Con los ZZ Top actuaron en el Madison Square Garden de Nueva York.

De un esstilo de banda que no me llamaban demasiado la atencion, haciendo radio me tope con Never Say Goodbye (Slippery when wet, 1986), y fue un flechazo con esa cancion... la pase hasta el cansancio. Luego llegó New Jersey en 1988 y tenia el tema I'll be there for you.
No soy un fan de Jon Bon Jovi, pero siempre me gustaron sus baladas. Podria nombrar muchas, pero me quedo con esas dos que son las que mas me gustan hasta hoy.

Para estar al dia con el visita:
http://www.bonjovi.com (sitio oficial, en ingles)
http://www.bonjovi2000.net/ (sitio no oficial, en español)

Bon Jovi - Never Say Goodbye
[audio http://www.goear.com/files/sst4/84ced254338c14fdf85f1e04e1e7e3b3.mp3]
Bon Jovi - I'll Be There For You
[audio http://www.goear.com/files/sst/c8ed3dbfebeb4a5d3870859fb32c7651.mp3]
Bon Jovi - Runaway
[audio http://www.goear.com/files/sst/27fba57c85d75977030ac2a02e8528cf.mp3]
Bon Jovi - Bed of roses
[audio http://www.goear.com/files/sst/2130fc2d68931e05c428f6611caf9ee6.mp3]

Bon Jovi - Living on a Prayer

Once upon a time not so long ago:
Tommy used to work on the docks
union's been on strike

He's down on his luck - It's tough
so tough.
Gina works the diner all day
working for her man

She brings home her pay for love
for love.

She says: We've got to hold on to what we've got
'Cause it doesn't make a difference if we make it or not.
We've got each other and that's a lot for love -
We'll give it a shot.

We're half way there - Livin' on a prayer

Without knowing it, it was their own grandmother that had ratted them out. She, who was pretending to have Alzheimer’s for inspiration to write a book later on, had snuck into the Head Nurse’s office to use her computer. She didn’t like the idea of not knowing what was happening to her property while she was in “special” care, so she went on the satellite imaging application and looked for her cottage by the lake. It seamed in good condition, but it was hard to tell, as the picture was a bit fuzzy. The door opened, and a rather heavy woman in her mid years entered the room.

“Myriam? What are you doing in my office?” Asked the Head Nurse.
“I, I don’t remember,” she lied.
“Why don’t you carry on with your knitting with your friends?”
“You know, I think I’ll do that now.”
“Thank you Mrs. Wardwell.”

Unlike many elderly persons, Myriam Wardwell hated knitting, and she certainly didn’t have any friends there; whenever she did try to make conversation with them, they said things like peas and carrots or triple king sized bed. She knew what they did with her knitting too. Seeing as the staff thought that they were all completely crippled in the mind, they sold the socks, mittens and sweaters to many large retailers across the world. For this reason, when she did knit, she made a special loop in the back that looked as if it was used to hang the garment, but in fact, when someone did hang it up, the weight of the piece of clothing unravelled the whole thing. She could barely wait to tell the world about how horribly the elderly are treated, but she would only leave once they let their guard down.

Now there was panic in the Head Nurse’s office. As it so happens, she had a very rich cousin that had built an American military satellite equipped with a camera capable of six billion times optical zoom. So although he isn’t supposed to, he had given her access to the live video feed and total control of the camera angle. With a quick sequence of keys, the picture Myriam was looking at became clearer than it would seam possible. Then she was wide eyed, as she saw a bolt of bright light surge from a girl’s hand, flying above a boy’s head.

She pressed the third speed dial button and contacted her cousin right away. He had told her that in the even that she spotted something really exciting, to tell him right away.

“Hello, Ivan?”
“Hi cuz. Something awesome happen?”
“Well if some girl conjuring up some light out of nowhere and trying to kill someone with it qualifies as awesome.”
“You’re kidding right? There’s just no way it’s possible.”
“Why don’t you see for yourself?”

She heard the sound of keys being pressed then heard a deep gasp. “You know what cuz? I think we have a situation here. I’m going to have to let you go, this is a job for the professionals.”

Then the line went dead and there was not a sound in the room but the gentle music playing outside while the elderly were knitting. She reopened the video feed and looked a bit closer. It looked like there were seven children, three girls and four boys. The same number as the news reporting nearly a year ago. Running a quick internet search, everything was confirmed, they looked suspiciously like the orphans that had ran off. Even more suspicious was the fact that the grandmother of the three of them had led her right to them.

She the pressed the second speed dial number. It belonged to Mafalda Von Beraa, her only friend. She had promised her that she would be contacted
immediately if ever she found out anything about the missing orphans. She had mentioned something about elimination, but Vanessa hadn’t really been listening at the time.

*****

Meanwhile, at a secret military base in the United-States, Vanessa’s cousin Ivan was panicking. Only in the event of an emergency threatening the general’s life was he supposed to sound the alarm, but he had completely forgotten whom to call in the event of anything else. It was common knowledge that anyone who sounded the alarm for nothing would be guaranteed demotion, and although he was smart, Ivan was far from indispensable. Unfortunately for the seven runaways, he didn’t care much about his job as long as he felt he was doing the right thing.

“Ivan! Why did you ring the alarm for nothing? Did someone threaten to kill me?” Asked General Prasht Tisht Yonner.
“No sir, but I believe it could eventually become a potential threat.” He showed them all the video clip, but the general simply kept wearing his normal stony face.
“You called me up here just because some kids are playing with flashy lights? You know the penalty for false reports.”
“Yes sir, I do, but this isn’t just any normal light source. I ran every single filter I could find and nearly everywhere I found abnormalities.”
“I’ll make you a deal, because you did greatly contribute to the satellite project. Go to wherever this video is supposed to be, and fetch me something abnormal. If you can’t, you might as well kiss your cozy office goodbye.”
“You’ve got yourself a deal.”

He made his way to the hangars and took the fastest jet he could lay hands on along with a few high calibre handguns. While gathering the equipment, he happened to notice a particularly troubling radio broadcast. “Hurricane Olga is coming,” said the reporter. “Be sure to stock up on groceries and board up your windows; this is a big one! Please note that all flights have been cancelled until further notice.”

Ivan had flown in many a storm, but still avoided them as much as possible. He knew quite well that if lightning struck the craft, his computers would short out and he would be trapped, helpless. Even if he did parachute, it would be unlikely that he survives; lightning rarely only strikes once. He had always said that if he were to die, it would have to be in some glorious adventure, but he wasn’t exactly thrilled by the concept either.

He quickly called his wife and two children to tell them that he would be gone on a mission for a few days, then he stole off into the night, only the trail of the jet engines revealing his presence. So far the skies looked marvellous. They were completely clear, or so he thought. Directly in back of him, loomed a gigantic storm, one of the likes to scare even Freyja out of her mismatched socks.

*****

While he was moving at speeds near supersonic, Mafalda was scrambling in her luxurious study to find a revolver. Ever since the orphan’s disappearance, she had a feeling that they were still alive, and there was absolutely no way that she would allow them back into the orphanage. Besides, seeing as they were already legally dead, no one would be any the wiser if their inert bodies were discovered at the bottom of some deep trench a few decades later.

“Finally,” she said under her breath when she remembered where she had hidden the weapon. ”Now I’ll finally be able to do those brats in.”

Maybe I should let them live and start my own diamond mine. They could do all the work, and if they don’t, they don’t get fed. These thoughts have crossed her twisted mind many times, but she never really paid attention to them. She knew that the children were quite clever for their age, so leaving them alive was not an option.

She crashed through the huge mahogany door and sped straight to her car. It was a very luxurious vehicle, but underneath the grandness was efficiency. A complicated electronic device installed by a shady salesman was keeping any police radar off her, so she could reach top speeds without ever receiving a fine. Of course, there was also a multitude of secret compartments, each containing a number of dangerous objects.

On the wet pavement she drove, not paying any attention to the hoards of angry motorists clenching fists her way. Her license plate wasn’t valid, so even if someone did report it (and numerous people had), the authorities wouldn’t find it in their records. In the event that this failed however, on the backside of the fake was the real one, which could easily be changed with the touch of a button.

“What’s going on?” asked Tom.
“Do any of you remember me reading off this paper?”
“You read the paper that was in the bottle? All I remember is Renzo reading this nonsense, and after that everything is a blur,” stated Helen.

Thor quickly retold the contents of the letter to those who missed it and they were amazed.

“Does that thing really let you breathe underwater?” Asked Helen.
“I don’t know, you were only out of it for a few minutes so we didn’t have a chance to do anything,” said Thor.
“Well I sure hope it does,” said Frey. ”Because I don’t want to be halfway to the bottom and running out of air.”
“Don’t worry,” said Renzo. “I have a friend that has a small house near here. He comes here sometimes to go scuba diving with his grandchildren. He’s probably not here right now, but he has a key hidden under one of the windowsills.”
“Oh that would be perfect, but I don’t know how to scuba dive; I can see myself breathing in water or something,” said Helen.
“I’ll teach you how if you need it, but if they figure out how to get those diamonds of theirs working, then you might not have to.”
“We are trying you know,” said Thor while poking his abnormal hand. “It would help if we had some clue as to what to do though.”
“Well you keep working on that. Tom, you’re coming with me to get the scuba gear; if I can’t find the key then someone will have to pick the lock.”
“Oh I may be clever, but I’m helpless at picking locks; ask Hans.”
“Well then you can both come.”

The three of them walked up the twisty path and made their way to the van, where a flat tire needing repair greeted them. Fortunately, they had a spare in the trunk, and shortly after, they had left.

Meanwhile, The others were saying various silly incantations that they had heard in different books and movies. After a while, they couldn’t think of any more fictional ways to use magic and just gave up.

“This isn’t working. Like I said, it’s our story.”
“Our story… Our story… Hey, that gives me an idea!”
“What?” Asked Helen.
“Who’s the storyteller around here?” He asked.
“Well duh, it’s you. No one in the world can write better,” said Kevin.
“That’s right. Now I need a green pen, and some paper; it’s time to write this story.”
It’s about time they figure something out, but I really don’t see why they don’t just get the spellbooks in the cottage; it would be so much simpler.

He then sat down on a log, placed his paper on a flat rock, and wrote. He loved to write, more than anything in the world. He’d always wanted to be in an epic tale, and when he wrote he could be wherever he wanted, doing whatever he wanted. In a sense it was paradise and once he went in, he never wanted to leave.

Not being accustomed to writing non-fiction, he found it a bit boring, so he added a few monsters here, an injury there and so on. By the time he was done, you could swear it all happened on another planet. But the best part was the end. After writing for several hours, his pen was flying across the page so fast that he could swear the paper was heating up. He knew this was the climax of his writing, and he had only minutes to spare before his mind decided to block.

And then, something magical happened, teaching them the power of the diamonds.

When he finished the last phrase, the stack of paper, his creation, burst into flames before his eyes and soon after he realised what had happened, a rather large book fell on his head, leaving a big bruise hidden by his hair.

“Whoa!” exclaimed his sister, who over the pages of her book had seen a bright flash. “I think this idea of yours worked, maybe a bit too well. Is your head OK?”
“It’s fine, I just wasn’t expecting to get a book to the head that’s all,” said Thor, picking up the book.
“What’s it say?” Asked Kevin.
“I don’t know, I don’t understand the writing; it’s all weird symbols.”
“Let me see it,” said Helen.
So resourceful, thought Thormund. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.”

She looked at the cover, and se too was puzzled. Nothing made sense, and it would take her hours to decode it, assuming it’s just plain 26 letter English. So instead of wasting time pondering on the front page, she opened the book in the middle, but right as she did, something extraordinary happened.

Out of the book shot millions of rays of bright blue light, making her drop the book. Even though it was a sunny day with barely a cloud in the sky, they were still blinded and were seeing yellow until their eyes adjusted. When they finally did though, the light had started to cluster in three spots, directly above anyone with a diamond. Once you could clearly see the that the light couldn’t possibly get more concentrated, it fell from the sky, hitting the three siblings.

It wasn’t a bit painful, although the blue sparks running along their arms did give that impression. The blue lightning seamed much stronger where the diamonds were, but it was most impressive with Freyja, who had put both hands near each other and was forming a little ball of concentrated energy between them.

“Frey, what are you doing?” Asked Helen. “That looks dangerous.”
“No it isn’t,” she said. “Look.” She had opened her hand a bit more to give a better view, releasing the energy. It flew right past her ear, singeing Kevin’s brown hair and finally hitting a tree.
“Frey! That could have killed us all!” Yelled out Kevin.
“I doubt it… people get struck by huge lightning bolts and survive.”
“And many of them don’t you know, or they have irregular heartbeats and other big problems,” said Helen.

By now, the sparks around Wednesday and Thor had subsided, but Frey seamed to be able to conjure it up at will. She wouldn’t stop trying to hit the trees around her, but after a while, Fenrir growled at her as a sign to stop and she did; after all, he’s a smart wolf, and smart wolves deserve a certain amount of authority too.

But Wednesday and her brother didn’t hear, as they were thoroughly absorbed by the strange tome. It all made sense now, the title was Dragon /Magik; Beginner’s Edition and inside must be a multitude of magic tricks they could use. In the hundreds, maybe thousands of pages, there were amazing spells and recipes. All the mystical brews you could imagine and more were in there, not to mention a few million useful spells. To fit it all in there, the whole thing was extremely small print, and at the beginning was a simple incantation that allowed their eyes to adjust far beyond their normal capabilities.

There was indeed a spell to tell you how to breathe underwater, and it looked as if the caster could accommodate one or two more people. At the end of the instructions was a crescent moon shaped symbol with white magic written in minuscule letters underneath. Many other symbols were scattered across the book as well, such as the black circle representing dark magic, a musical note, quill and inkwell that meant creative magic, and a little star shaped doodle that supposedly meant arcane arts, but between brackets was written the words neutral and magic.

“What are you two doing?” Asked Kevin. “I thought you couldn’t understand it.”
“We couldn’t, but it all makes sense now,” answered Thor.
“It still looks like gibberish to me,” said Helen, bending over to peer at it.
“It probably has something to do with the bright thing that came out of the book. But when are the others coming back? I thought he said this friend of his didn’t live far away,” said Wednesday

Almost as if on queue, they heard the crunch of gravel coming from the hill up above. If it wasn’t Renzo in the van then they would be sorry, because as they thought, Fenrir was bolting up the path full throttle.

Oh no, thought Tom when he saw the grey shape darting towards him. He attempted a quick dash away, but didn’t succeed, as Fenrir had already dived upon him.

“Stop that Fen! I don’t particularly like having my face covered in slobber,” he said while pushing the powerful beast away.
Why is it that all these humans tell everyone to stop doing something after they’ve already stopped? Completely deranged. He then screwed up his eyes as if to show craziness.
Soon after, the others emerged from the thicket with a smile on their faces when they saw Tom’s wet, disgusted features. Fenrir seamed to be laughing as well, but it was hard to tell with the menacing fangs filling his jaw.

“Hey Tom. I thought you didn’t like dogs,” said his sister
Dog? Do I look like one of those inferior domestic creatures you keep as pets? We may be family, but the similarities end there.
“No, I don’t. Do you really think I asked to be pounced by him?”
Well actually you did when you shot me with that net gun.
“Maybe he’s still hates you because of the net gun,” suggested Freyja.
Hate? What a strong term, I could never truly hate a human; they’re just too fun to ridicule.
“Well anyway, I hope you didn’t get all that scuba gear, because we found out how to use magic,” said Wednesday.
“Really? And how did you do that?” Asked Renzo.
“With the magic of writing,” stated Thor.
“So I brought all that scuba gear for nothing?” Asked Hans.
“Maybe. We haven’t exactly tried anything big, but my writing caught on fire and a spellbook fell from the sky. Oh and Frey made a nice bit of sparks.”
“That’s real good and all, but you wouldn’t believe how hard it was to get the oxygen tanks though. This friend of his is extremely paranoid and had an insanely hard to crack eyeball scanner as a lock. It’s a good thing I was there, because Hans couldn’t have opened it with only picks.”
“Well think of it this way, you avoided being zapped by Frey,” said Kevin, trying to rub away a blackened spot of hair.
“You know, I think it looks good on you,” said Frey.
“If you weren’t the one who made it, I might believe you.”
“You’re right, it does look horrible, but there’s wigs in the van.”
“You know, I have a better idea,” said Renzo. “Why don’t you try something in that book of yours? Where is the thing anyway?”
“I don’t know, the last place I saw it was down at the beach,” stated Helen.
“I hid it behind a stump somewhere on the beach,” said Thor. “It’s a bit too bulky to carry up that path.”
“Well what are we waiting for?” Asked Renzo “We’re not getting anywhere standing here.”

So they all stumbled back down the hill onto the pebbly beach with little incident. The book was clearly visible from the path, but no ships passing by would be able to distinguish it. It looked as if the water from the lake had made it’s way to the manuscript, but when they touched the book, its strange leather was dry and it’s pages unchanged.

Oh god, thought Kevin. I’m gonna die. They’re going to screw up somehow, and I’ll pay the price. Maybe black hair isn’t so bad. Oh I sure hope there’s something in there to reanimate the dead. “Are you sure about this?”
“Absolutely,” said Thor. “I’m sure it’s perfectly safe. The only thing this diamond has done wrong is killed whoever was in the helicopter… Ok that’s horrible, but I was just trying to be optimistic.”
“Well it isn’t working, go along anyway though.”
“What it says for hair re-growth is to circle the desired area and tap the centre of it while saying airha airha a lot,” said Wednesday.
“You’re kidding me! That’s pig Latin.”
“Frey, what are you talking about?” Asked her sister.
“Well I remember that when I was at the orphanage, someone taught me pig Latin so that I could annoy old Maffy better, and that sounds just like it.”
“Frey, I highly doubt that this spellbook is based on a bad joke of a language,” said Tom.
“It’s possible”
So is biting off your head.
“So who’s going to cast this thing? As long as it isn’t Frey; I have a feeling my brain would be fried if she tried anything.”
“Oh can I try?” Asked Wednesday. “Besides mixing potions, I’ve never done anything magical.”
“Well I guess you’re probably the best person for it; I don’t really want my head bursting into flames either.”
“Okay then, stand still.”
“I just know I’m going to regret this.”
“Yes, you probably will.”

She then drew a faint circle around the boy’s scalp and tapped it repeatedly in the centre. “Airha! Airha! Airha! Airha! Oh this feels so silly! Airha! Airha! Airha! Airha! Hey I think it’s working! Airha! Airha! Airha! Airha…”
Oh it’s a good thing that no one is looking, thought Thor. It would be a disaster. He turned his head a bit just to make sure no strangers were looking and satisfied, he returned his gaze to his sister, who by now was spinning and jumping on one foot on top of saying the incantation and tapping Kevin’s head. “Whoa I think that’s enough! Look how much hair there is!”

By now Kevin looked as though he truly fit his part in their rock band. His hair had always been a bit curly, but where the magic had taken effect, it was a foot long tangled mess that jiggled like jelly whenever he touched it.

“Oops. I thought jumping around and spinning would add extra curls and bounce.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, my hair doesn’t need curling. And what on earth is bounce? I’m pretty sure hair is supposed to stay on your head.”
“Do you want me to cut it again?” Asked Frey.
“Go ahead, but if my head is blown off we all know who to blame.”
“This feels so much like one of those manga cartoons,” commented Wednesday.
“No I really doubt that we’re cartoon characters; our heads aren’t big enough, and we aren’t flat as paper,” said Helen.

Frey conjured up the magic lightning, and cleanly sliced off Kevin’s hair. But this time, they were spotted. Not from anyone boating, nor from trespassers by land, but from the sky above.

I think that went well enough don’t you think?
No Tom, it didn’t! I lost my prisoner.
I pity any country she declares war with some day. Said Hans
I wouldn’t declare war, I’d just take prisoners.
You know, I think she might take all of humanity prisoner if she had a chance.
Of course not; all of humanity wouldn’t fit in my dungeon.
Hey why don’t you try to take some aliens prisoner, or maybe a Tasmanian devil, you’d get along perfectly with one of those.
You laugh now, but just you wait; some day my skills will save you all.” And of course one day they would, but that is another story altogether.
Sure, like that’ll ever happen, but I say we celebrate for being safe.
That sounds like a good idea. Oven, preheat to chips!” Said Tom. The oven, like many household items of his, were voice activated, so it instantly obeyed.

Helen helped prepare the party food by pealing potatoes, and Wednesday picked a few jalapeño peppers in her greenhouse for seasoning. As it was, jalapeño chips were a rare luxury item for them, but that was soon to change, as she planned on installing a bigger greenhouse in her room.

A few hours later, the food was ready and they fired up their 7-CD stereo with chrome finish (which they had also taken from their usual supplier). There was no danger of being overheard by any hikers, because the outside walls of the den had been soundproofed.

After they had made their way through all the music they had on disk, the band came in. Thor played the electric guitar, Kevin played the bass and Frey played the instrument most suited to her, the one that involved hitting things. When they played the whole house came to life, as Kev and Thor were plugged into the stereo, which was of course hooked up to speakers placed throughout the entire hideout.

They could play exceptionally well, considering that they had to learn over the internet. Of course it did help that they had Frey with them, unofficially the best drummer in the known world. Frey could easily play any beat you threw at her, double time. For the almost nine years she had been at the orphanage, the social workers had been hard-pressed to keep her from completely destroying the pots and pans with kitchen utensils. Their band was named after Thormund and was called Rolling Thunder, and they had one very comical song called “Social Degeneration”. The other songs they played were originally made by other bands, but slightly better.

When Thor played, he could swear he could see sparks fly off his fingers and run along the strings, but the thought of lightning actually coming from him had never lasted very long; the usual feeling of euphoria he experienced when playing an instrument simply pushed it away. It was actually one of the reasons he had accepted the name of their band, that and the fact that he loved pretending to be the Norse god of thunder.

Everyone was laughing and dancing until they heard it. At first a low thud was mistaken for an extra beat, but that was impossible; Frey never made any mistakes, not once in her existence, but no one noticed because they were too busy partying. Then they really heard it. It couldn’t possibly be mistaken for an instrument; at least none from this planet. The room fell silent.

Oh no, not again, thought Thormund. It was enough trouble trying to get rid of Renzo, and now we have another one. I’m hoping that this one is dead, no, no one deserves that. Just blind, that way they won’t see anything.

Finally someone broke the silence. “More prisoner!” she said, with a glee all too real.
“Frey, No!” they all said in unison.
“And why can’t I go capture whoever crashed? Name one good reason.”
“Frey, it isn’t good to capture people, you were just lucky last time. If he had remembered his wallet, we’d be in some youth centre right now,” explained her brother.
“I guess. But if they come knocking on our door, I’ll take them prisoner anyway.”
“I’d love to see the day that you face ten foot tall giants,” said her twin sister, not knowing that one day, those words would have dire consequences.
“I’m going to the computer, I’ll have the wolves see what happened exactly.”
“Wolves? What are you talking about?” Asked Freyja.
“Oh that’s true you weren’t there. The wolves you saw a few days ago were robotic.”
“So that’s why they just stopped running after a while. I must have tired out their batteries.”
“No, they’re just programmed to stay a little ways away from the den. Oh this is really bad. Come see everyone, it’s completely destroyed.”

They gathered around the screen and what they saw was neither gruesome, nor horrible, nor even repugnant. Simply dark, with what looked like a black cube on one side. Tom rewound the film and then the scene became gruesome, horrible and repugnant.

A small, privately owned helicopter was slowly making its way towards the ground, but there was something odd about it. For some reason the tail end of it was pointing the wrong way, which meant that the craft was obviously being pulled. Hmm this reminds me of one of those movies with the flying saucer and tractor beam, thought Tom. All that’s missing is the flying cow.

As the aircraft approached, it gained speed and eventually, it crashed beside Renzo’s plane. After a few minutes, smoke shot through an open window, soon to be followed by an explosion, during which a human arm could be seen flying across the screen. After that, smoke cleared to reveal blackened earth and the black box.

They should have all been petrified at the sight of a severed arm crashing past them, but they weren’t; Frey had shown them blood and guts time and time again. You could almost say they were used to it, even though Wednesday covered her eyes and the rest had mouths gaping, one would usually expect unconsciousness.

“Frey go out there and blast the box with plasma, quick!” Urged Tom. “It’s probably broadcasting its location right now.”

This is weird, thought Thormund. Two crashes in a week can’t be normal. But why now? This wasn’t happening before, and it isn’t the first time a plane has flown above the den either. It almost looked like an invisible line was pulling it in. But that’s impossible, I think Tom will know about it though.

“Hey do you have a video on when Renzo’s plane came down?” Asked Thor.
“Probably, but I haven’t checked yet.” There was a pause while Tom went through his database. “Here it is. What are you looking for?”
“Well, I was thinking that it looked like something was reeling them in.”
“So you want me to figure out what was pulling them down?”
“If you can”
“Give me the mini PC and the high powered laser and consider it done.”

They hurried outside, Tom carrying the mini computer, Hans and Kevin transporting the less than portable super laser. You could only see short black hair belonging to Hans above the contraption.

“Why on earth isn’t there any wheels on this thing?” asked Kevin.
“Well I never planned on having to move it, actually it never moved it an inch until now.”
“But you could have at least made it more portable, right?” asked Hans.
“If you want to burn up in flames, then sure, I can make it smaller.”
“Would it kill you to just say a simple yes or no?” asked Helen, although she was already anticipating the answer.
“Yes it would actually, if I don’t let out a little extra wittiness every once and a while, my blood pressure will go up to alarmingly high levels. Then all my blood vessels will pop and I’ll die of internal bleeding.”
“Oh really, then we should have used the duct tape treatment a long time ago.”
“Well then it’s a good thing that we don’t have any at the moment.”

Such friendly rivalries among them weren’t uncommon, in fact, Tom had programmed his computer so that if he didn’t say one witty comment every 24 hours, it would have the robotic spiders tie him up in front of the screen to undergo psychotherapy online until he did. It could be quite annoying at times when he was sleeping, but it would ensure that he preserved his character, he reasoned.

A few minutes later they had finally hauled the laser outside. It was a hassle to fit it through the door, but they managed, with the help of Thor and Freyja. Once outside, Tom calibrated the laser to the exact angle of the crash and it fired through the mountain. Almost instantly they heard a rumbling noise and shut off the machine.

“Is it supposed to make that noise?” Asked Wednesday.
“No, but I bet that means we found something.”

They ran back into the den, leaving the laser behind. When they had found where the laser hit, they were quite surprised. Frey had been using the diamond drill to add another section onto her dungeon. The drill was slightly more precise than the plasma, even though it was much slower, but every bit of precision was needed in order to make moveable walls. But it wasn’t her new renovations that surprised them, it was the thousands of bullet holes that lined every wall ad a red hot diamond.

The laser had hit the multifaceted head of the diamond drill and projected the concentrated beams of light from every single facet. And seeing as this particular diamond seamed to be cut to be round, it had such a large number of facets that most people would lose count halfway through. The drill part had melted because the heat, but you could still see a large puddle of molten plastic flowing into the new holes in the floor.

“This diamond is what’s pulling planes down?” Asked Frey
“Well I could be wrong, but it looks like it. I’d need to run a few tests first to be sure, but we need to wait for it to cool down first.”
“I’ll get some water,” said Helen.
“No you won’t; It’ll blow up into a million pieces,” said Tom. “Remember the time at the orphanage?”

*****

She remembered, it was almost a year ago, but she remembered it like it was yesterday. It had been her thirteenth birthday, and she had been told that because it was a special occasion, she could make herself a cake. “Just follow the recipe and clean up afterwards” was what the social worker had said and she had, although the cleanup part was where the disaster was.

It was a magnificent cake, of the likes to serve a queen, and it was almost done, all it needed was a bit of hot butter poured over the top. She warmed the butter in a glass measuring pot over a hot plate until the butter was boiling and then poured it on the cake. She then complied with her instructions and put the steaming measuring pot in the sink. It instantly shattered into a thousand little pieces of glass. A rather round and bossy social worker had heard it break and came rushing into the kitchen to scold her.

“Helen you naughty little girl! I don’t care if it’s your birthday; I’m taking that cake for myself. Oh and you’re going to have to pay for that measuring cup.” She said in a shrill voice.
“But I slaved over a hot oven all day, and I don’t have any money.”
“I-don’t-care” She intoned slowly to make herself clear. “And that’s why you’re going to get a job. Now go to your room before I find another punishment for you.”

Some time later, Helen had heard a knock on her bedroom door. It was the social worker that had allowed her to bake the cake in the first place. Among all the adults there she was her favourite, as she still remembered what it was like to be a kid.

“She wants to see you in her office now. I’ll bake you a new cake later though. It’ll be our little secret.”
“Thanks.”

The head of the orphanage had always had a luxurious room, but Maphalda Von Beraa had never liked children very much and didn’t mind sparing them any luxury she could. She had spared them so much comfort over the years that her personal dwellings were able to entertain a person ten times as much as the average widescreen television with unlimited channels. The only real reason she had taken the job in the first place was fuelled by her hatred for children. Nothing in the world gave her more pleasure than their cries, and coincidentally, causing emotional pain for them was what she did best. Her goal in life was to become prime minister and illegalize children, but in order to do this she reasoned that she needed to find some good reasons to get rid of them, and the best way to do that is to study them.

“Hello dear,” said Maphalda in a voice all too fake. “Kitty here is hungry, now what ever are we going to feed her?” In one corner of the room was an enormous cat; it looked like it could live off fat alone for several months.
“Oh let me guess, your wrinkly old snake tongue.”
“I’ll have you know that I will not tolerate such behaviour in this establishment.”
“Shut up you cow! You’re constantly trying to bring us down and keep taking our privileges away for no reason, do you have a heart?”
“Do you want dinner or not?”
“I happen to know that it’s illegal to not feed me enough. But wait, how do you tell ones responsible for you about it when the responsible people are evil?”
“How do you know about the law? Has Rachel been educating you?”
“We have this wonderful invention called the Internet that you banned us from, you should look through it some time. Maybe use e-mail instead of killing thousands of trees with your letters.”
“That’s it! I will not tolerate such mockery! Now watch me feed my cat. And if you attempt any physical violence I will place you in solitary confinement.”
“Solitary? Cool, that means I’ll be away from you for a while.”
“On second though I think I’d make you spend the day with me licking stamps and envelopes, seeing as you’re so fond of them.”

She then placed the cake in front of the cat’s face. Helen was surprised at how fast the beast could move considering its weight, but at the same time was saddened to see the fruits of her labour being wasted on such a creature. Maphalda was videotaping the whole scene, shifting between her precious cat and the tears rolling down the girl’s cheek.

“You only brought me here to torture me! You evil woman! It’s too bad witch burnings don’t take place anymore, because that would be an easy way to get rid of you!”
“Being rude certainly won’t help you. And for your information, I brought you here to tell you abut the job I found for you.”
“What is it? You’ve hired me out to the Mafia to kill anyone that treats children like scum?”
“No, I’ve gotten you a job with a very nice man named Frank doing household chores. It will do you some good. Now stop contaminating the air in here and go to bed!”

The job she had been given was horrible. His house was filthy and she was worked all day long with no breaks. Finally at nine o clock, she was allowed to leave and was paid a penny. From that moment on she knew that she couldn’t possibly stay at the orphanage and gathered up her friends. They had been planning an escape for when the going got worse and it was foolproof. They had an old friend that had grown up at the orphanage, but now was grown up and had a family of his own. He too hated Maphalda and strongly supported their idea of one day escaping. So when everyone was sleeping, they had borrowed Rachel, the good social worker’s cellphone and called him. Three hours later they were gone and far away from the orphanage. The only thing they left behind was a note to Rachel telling her that they were safe and well, but not to tell her boss about it. Fortunately for them all, everyone hated Maphalda, especially her younger relatives.
*****

It was a while ago, but the thought still haunted her dreams at night. There was always the possibility that she was still searching for them, after all they were legally dead, so Maphalda couldn’t be arrested if she murdered them. She had been the only one in history that was unaffected by Frey, but only because of her crazy ambitions.

They waited a few hours for the diamond to cool, and eventually it did, although it was painfully slow. Of course when Tom did test the diamond their suspicions were confirmed. The moment Kevin’s toy helicopter went over the gem, it crashed nose first on the diamond and crumpled under the gravitational force.

“Well, it’s definitely the diamond.”
“But what’s so special about this one?” asked Wednesday.

What could possibly make a diamond do that? Thought Tom. It can’t be magnetic, because anything that powerful would attract the small amount of iron in people too. If I was younger I would say it’s magical, but that’s ridiculous, magic only exists in books. But it’s either that or blame coincidence.

“There’s two possibilities. Either it was a complete coincidence that the aircrafts crashed towards the diamond, or the thing’s magic.”
“Which is more likely?” Asked Thor.
“Well lets put it this way. My computer that can supposedly handle an infinite number of digits crashed, because of all the zeros after the decimal.”
“But I thought magic only happened in stories,” said Hans.
“So did I, but even though scientists deny the existence of magic, they’ve never actually disproved it. The chances of magic not existing anywhere in the universe are so insanely small that I’d bet everything I own that it exists.”
“But even if it is magic, what are we going to do about it?” Asked Kevin.
“I don’t know, but I think our good friend Mr. Aldridge might know something about it,” said Thor, a grin forming on his face.

“What the hell was that?” Asked Kevin, who like the rest of them, had made their way to the front door.
“It sounds like a bomb,” answered his brother.
“Nah, no one would bomb this mountain,” said Tom.
“What If the ones that moved into the big blue house know about us and told the government?” asked Hans.
“The government may be annoying and extremely inefficient, but they won’t bomb their own country, and they don’t bomb places like this one, they bomb big cities like Hiroshima, so that they can kill the most people possible in one shot,” said Helen quite plainly.
“Then what is it?” Asked Frey.
“Well we’re not going to find out here, are we?”
“Let’s just bring the plasma canons in case it’s something dangerous,” suggested Kevin

They all went outside, all except Wednesday, who quivered at the thought of possibly having to shoot something living with plasma, besides, someone had to guard the door and let them in later.

They went outside and the sight they saw was just horrible. They were all thinking thoughts along the lines of, “oh my god”, or “that’s so horrible”; all except Freyja, who was thinking along more positive lines, or at least that’s what she thought of them.

Frey’s jaw just dropped. That’s so cool, she thought, something that was quite rare; usually her mouth worked at the same rate her brain did, thus drastically reducing the amount of deep thought. There’s never enough action around here, but this makes up for it a kazillion times over. Oh wait a kazillion isn’t a number… Oh well, it is now. I hope there’s a survivor, that way I can scare them. She smiled, showing a row of pointy teeth.

A small aircraft had crashed several feet from the front door, narrowly missing the satellite dish. It wasn’t too badly damaged, so the passengers must be alive, but if they’re alive, they’ll be likely to discover the den and report it to authorities. And they could hardly keep anyone prisoner in the den, unless.

“Frey what are you doing?” said Thor, when he noticed that his sister had been trying to pry the door open with a stick.
“I’m going into the plane so I can take the prisoners to their cell.”
“We don’t even have a cell.”
“That’s what you think”, said Frey, an evil expression on her face.
“Frey just blast it with plasma.” Suggested Hans.

And she did, melting the door in the process. After the resulting fumes had cleared they heard coughing, then finally actual speech. “Oh thank you for saving me!” Said a man inside the plane. “All the exits were blocked, I thought I was going to die in here.”

The man who emerged from the plane looked like a police officer. He was well built and nearly twice Frey’s height. He had short dark hair, and he was wearing a black trench coat that was partially covering a well-polished, silver badge.

“I was just flying over this mountain, heading towards Montreal to take an aerial picture of some crop circles, when I started to lose altitude. At first I didn’t notice, because I was polishing my badge, and by the time I realised something was wrong, I had already crashed.”
“Oh that’s horrible, mister. You must be really hungry from the bad experience. Our parents are about to serve dinner,” she lied. “Come on I’ll lead you to the dining room.”

The others didn’t even attempt to stop Frey; after all, she was right. If they let him go right away, he would undoubtedly send reinforcements, but if they convinced him otherwise…

“Right this way Mr…”
“Aldridge, Renzo Aldridge, and in case you haven’t already guessed, I’m an investigator for the RCMP.”
“Pleased to meet you mister Renzo sir, how do you like our home?” Asked Frey, putting on her best innocent girl voice.
“It’s lovely, but how do you sustain yourself?“
Wednesday came out from the kitchen to greet the guest. “It’s nearly totally self sufficient,” she said.
Frey motioned to Wednesday from behind the investigators back not to do anything. “Ok, the dining room is right over here,” she said, leading him into her room.

Freyja’s room was full of weapons, antlers and violent depictions of stick figures. It put even the most complete armouries to shame. In one corner was a small bed with crimson pillows stacked around it like a wall.

“This room is very well… Um, cheery.”
“It’s a memorial to my grandfather. This was his room when he was younger; he fought in a war.”
“I see, but how does this lead to the dining room?”
“Well you see, my ancestors made this house as complicated as possible so that one day we will win the most original house award,” she said, lifting up a blood red, frilly rug and revealing a trapdoor.

The trapdoor led to a very deep, and very dark cave. Until now, only Frey knew about it, and had used it several time to hide from others. Of course she had also made it to serve as a dungeon, in the event that she was ever lucky enough to have prisoners.

She led the way down the rungs of a ladder, and Renzo followed. When they finally reached the bottom, he was getting quite annoyed. I think they’ve won the award, he thought.

“I can never remember where the light switch its,” he heard her say. “I think if you go just a bit further…” Who puts the light switch for an extremely dark and big room, far from the exits? I mean most people would put it at the top of the trapdoor at least. He thought. Then he had a horrible realisation: It’s a trap. But it was too late, as Frey was already scurrying into her room.

“Hey come back here! I will call the rest of my squad if you don’t let me out!” But it was too late, he could see a faint light for a second and then it was gone. He was locked in with no way out. And he highly doubled that his phone would work through the rock, but it was still worth a try. But of course it didn’t, not even one bar. He also went against the book and didn’t bring any of his cool investigator gadgets; generally one doesn’t expect their plane to crash and to be kidnapped by evil two-faced children, but in his training he had been warned: expect, the unexpected. Now all he had was his clothes, his badge and his cellphone. There really wasn’t anything he could do, so he watched a movie on his phone to pass the time and distract him from the thought of food; it was beginning to be a bit overwhelming, as he could swear that he could smell a turkey dinner.

*****

“Now what do we do with him?” Asked Kevin
“I don’t know, but I do know that if we send him away, he’ll just send a ton of people to investigate,” said Wednesday.
“But what if he was crazy?” Asked Hans “Nobody listens to crazy people”
“Oh I see,” said Tom “we drive him insane, so that nobody will believe him, then we send him back. They might send someone to get the plane though, but we just have to hide the evidence that anything was ever here; it will just discredit him more.”
“Let me guess, I’m going to drive him bonkers?” Asked Freyja.
“Yup, just act really smart mouthed. Make him feel helpless, frustrate him until he’s pulling the hair out of his head and babbling like a baby. Just be as annoying as possible.”
“Te-hee, This is going to be fun.”
“Oh by the way keep him well fed, you can use the food as a form of torture,” suggested Kevin
“Tom could you give Frey one of those small cameras of yours?” Asked Hans. “I want to be able to play this back later, maybe even submit it to Canada’s Funniest Home Videos some day.”

This is way better than just any prisoner, thought Frey. I get to torture this one. Psychological torture is more up Tom’s alley. Oh well I can still drive him crazy my way; it works on everyone else around here.

“Hey Mister,” said Frey into her dungeon.
“Be quiet, I’m trying to watch a movie.”
Just then she threw a hundred noise making rubber bouncy balls through the trapdoor. The sound was horribly loud, capable of deafening an average person for several minutes. For that reason, Freyja had taken the liberty of spraying the trapdoor with soundproof spray before releasing the sonic terrors. Ten minutes later, Frey opened the door.

“Are you dead?”
“Not quite,” said Renzo, his ears still ringing.
“Oh that’s good; dead people can’t go back to their base to tell everyone about stuff.”
“So you plan on releasing me?” He asked hopefully.
“Of course, doing otherwise would be just plain evil. Besides, nobody will ever believe you…”
“Of course they will! I’ve been with the RCMP for years.”
“Yes, and people will think that these years are catching up on you and that’s making you tell a crazy story about a bunch of kids that live underground and capture people so that they can keep them in their dungeon.”
Renzo had thought about this before. There was no way that anyone would believe his tale without any concrete proof; He himself barely believed it. But how to convince others that it was indeed true? Of course! His phone had a built in camera.
“Of course you will have to give me your camera phone. Oh and maybe your badge too if you don’t want us to feed you to the wolves when we release you.”
“But I need those! And my phone has a ton of important phone numbers on it.”
“Maybe if you’re lucky and cooperate, we’ll e-mail you the phone numbers later.”
“Maybe I just won’t give you my phone. What are you going to do? Most of you are half my height.”

Just then his question was answered, and all of the bouncy balls suddenly lit up with glowing red eyes. They provided just enough light to distinguish twelve tiny legs and two pincers emerging from each. The next thing he knew, they all pounced, and then he couldn’t remember anything.

The tiny robotic insects were actually entirely invented by Tom; he had wanted to test his skill after taking an online robotics and miniaturization class. At first he had only used them to do household chores, but then he added the sonic blasts and anaesthetic because Frey wouldn’t stop nagging about their defence systems.

After what seamed like weeks, he awoke feeling slightly dizzy. He could tell his badge was gone, by the absence of weight on his chest, but his phone was still there, yet it too felt strange. He pressed the on button and nothing happened. That’s weird, he thought. It was working fine before. Upon further inspection, he discovered that the batteries had been removed. Those evil kids!

After he reached a climax of annoyance, Frey opened the trapdoor again. “Having fun? I bet you’re hungry by now.”
“Am I going to be fed or not?”
“Of course you will, eventually, but first…” She said in the most evil tone she could muster. “spiders, tie him up.”

And they did. All of the bugs grouped together to form a super strong chain around him, effectively preventing him for making an escape. Frey then flicked a light switch disguised as a rock and the room was instantly illuminated.

Suddenly, the room was a lot scarier than in the dark with all the insects. For one, all the spiders could be seen, but the array of torture devices that were suspended on the ceiling really put the cherry on top.

“Isn’t this fun? Time to eat though. By the way don’t try any funny stuff or it’s nighty night for you,” said Frey, pointing at the spiders.
“What are we eating?”
“Who said anything about we? Maybe if you keep your mouth shut I’ll give you something.”
She then pressed another hidden switch and a wall slid away to reveal a huge table stacked with food, and a massive turkey in the middle.
“Now doesn’t this look good.”
Psychological torture, he thought. Just what I don’t need.

Frey then started to pig out on the food. It was so delicious that it would put any cordon bleu chef to shame. Another product of Tom’s ingenuity; his computer controlled all the settings on all of their appliances to cook whatever it was that needed cooking perfectly. The only thing it couldn’t do was take the food out of the appliances, so it did require some supervision.

By the time she was done, her belly was bulging and the table was bare, with the exception of a few bones.
“Oh that’s true, you’re hungry.”
Yes you manipulative troll, now feed me! He thought.
“You’ll never guess what you’re going to eat.”
“Let me guess, something disgusting and very bad for me.”
“No. What I’m going to feed you is full of nutrients, and it can’t be that disgusting, because it was bought at a grocery store.”
“Plant food?”
“No silly, it’s lima beans!” She said, pulling out a can from her pocket.

This was the only bit of canned food that was left in the house, as all of them hurled at the mere sight of it. They had originally taken the food from Mme Bouffard’s house, when they first moved in and were very hungry. The beans were currently a few months past the expiry date.

“But I can’t stand that stuff!”
“Okay, then I guess I’ll just have to let you starve; there are children in third world countries that would love to have this you know.”
Renzo then felt a pain in his stomach. “You know what? I think I’ll take the beans.”
“Smart move,” said Frey, while putting the can on the rock floor in front of him.
“How will I open it? I don’t see a can opener.”
“Oh you’ll find a way. Besides, when I leave, the spiders will let go and you are free to explore this cave. Oh and you probably have to use the bathroom by now, so you’ll have to find that too.”

She then climbed the ladder and locked the trapdoor. The spiders let go of him and they then went about to prey on rocks, like normal robot spiders do. Of course now Mr. Aldridge still had to open up the can, in every sense of the word.

How on earth will I ever get out of here with that demon girl and these spiders? He thought. Maybe there’s some clue in the bathroom, if I can find it.

He found the washroom very quickly. He was walking to the other end of the cave, where Freyja had flicked some switches, and he tripped over a stalagmite. To his utter amazement, another wall slid to the side, to reveal a door with a three-digit keypad on it. 467 tries later, he was in.

“Ugh” he grunted and closed the door. There was a very foul odour emanating from that room, and he doubted he could stay conscious if he entered. Suddenly, the trap door opened and a teenaged boy climbed down it. He looked friendly enough, but so did that devil girl at first. His blue eyes were filled with kindness and sympathy.

“My sister told me what she was feeding you and I feel sory for you,” said Thormund. “So I brought you this.” He handed the investigator a plate heaping with pheasant, potatoes and corn.
“Thank you. I guess you kids aren’t all the same after all.”
“Frey is a bit aggressive, but she does mean well.”
“She wants to kill me.”
“Maybe, but if she does it’s to preserve our way of life. If we let you go, then you’ll rat on our hiding place.”
“What if I don’t tell? Would you let me go?”
“Maybe. But how would I know that you won’t just rat on us when you’re back with the authorities?”
“I don’t know, but I doubt that my word would be enough.”
“No it wouldn’t.”
“Well could you talk about it with your friends?”
“Sure. And by the way, Frey told me that you have to punch in 674 to clear the air in the bathroom.” He then climbed the ladder and once more, Renzo was left alone.

*****

“So now what do we do with him? We can’t keep him here forever, and he doesn’t seam to be going crazy either,” said Hans
“I think I might have an idea,” said Wednesday. “Thor is going to write a contract, and guess what happens if Mr. Aldridge breaches its terms.”
“He gets eaten by an octopus?” Asked Kevin
“Nope.”
We get all his money?” Suggested his brother.
“No, it’s much worse.”
“We submerge him in a corrosive solution, and slowly melt his skin?” Asked Tom.
“Not even close. Think of the last thing he would want.”
“Oh I know! We make him adopt Frey!” Said Helen.
“Isn’t that good? I think he’d die.”
“No he wouldn’t! I’d keep him fed.“
“Just like how you fed him a can of lima beans without a can opener? I’m going to write that contract,” said Thormund, before going into his room.

Writing always took Thor’s mind off the things that were bothering him, but it’s quite difficult to do so when you’re writing about the subject that’s irritating you. It took a considerable amount of time to finish, but in the end, it was a job well done and Renzo had signed it, although rather reluctantly.

I, Renzo Aldridge, agree not to divulge any information pertaining to the lives of Thormund Wardwell, Wednesday Wardwell, Freyja Wardwell, Helen Mc Quade, Thomas Mc Quade, Hans Wuthrich and Kevin Wuthrich. If I divulge said information, I agree to adopt Freyja Wardwell and raise her until she has reached at least 18 years of age.

Renzo Aldridge

It was a fairly simple contract, but the essentials were there. As of this May, living with Freyja had become number one on his list of things never to do, so it was the ideal means of insurance. After the whole legal matter was settled, they invited the investigator to stay for another day and he accepted, on the condition that Frey would leave him alone, which of course she did, because she was busy modifying her torture room.

“This is a really nice place you have here,” said Renzo. “I can see why you don’t want to leave, but may I ask how you support yourself?”
“Well we sell things on the internet, then we buy things from Mme Bouffard, said Helen.
“But these people know about you?”
“No of course not, we have things delivered to her house, we steal it and then transfer some money into her bank account,” said Tom.
“But how did you dig this place out? It looks like it would take decades.”
“It would have it hadn’t been for Mrs Boufard and a bit of luck. At first, this was only a small cave, but we found a fist sized diamond a little ways in. It was even cut, so we think somebody left it here. Anyway, we took a drill from her tool shed and a solar panel of her roof. Then we mounted the diamond on the drill, and we had a mining tool. It took weeks to make the cave big enough to live in, so we had to make little huts like the Native Americans did in the meantime. Eventually, after about a month of digging, we found plastic briefcases with all sorts of different metals in them. There were some weird symbols on them too, but we didn’t know what they were. Eventually we also stole her satellite dish and laptop so that I could access the Internet and pay her back. And we built up from there to what we are now.”
“But how did you keep yourself fed? Surely you didn’t steal food the whole time.”
“We only stole food once, and that was almost a year ago, when we first found the place. But besides that, Frey hunts for the meat, and Wednesday can do wonders with plants, so she grew quite a bit of our food too,” said Thor.
“Really this is amazing. It’s a shame that you are all minors though; you would be rich if you cold show this to the world.”
“We’re already rich from that”
“But how? If any of this is patented, you get discovered.”
“Well I only make a little bit of money from this, but I do sell some of my inventions. Of course all together, with the books, paintings, beadwork, and online jokes, we have huge amounts of money. Oh and Frey does some metalwork sometimes.”
“Self sufficient before the age of 18, really you are all amazing!”
“I know, isn’t it great?” Said Tom, any hint of modesty draining from him.
“Well at any rate, I have to go, but can I have my badge back?”
“Yea sure,” said Kevin while fumbling in his pocked for the silver object.
“Thanks,” he said while catching the badge.
“Could I have your e-mail address?” Asked Tom.
“Couldn’t you be tracked that way?”
“I thought about that a few months ago, so I ran a high speed wire underground to a satellite dish on Mme Bouffard’s house so that we can safely broadcast information. She thinks that it’s giving her television, but lucky for us, she only seems to watch the weather channel, so it was fairly simple to send a constantly updated weather podcast to her TV.”
“Ok, you can have it,” he said while reaching into his back pocket for his wallet. He smacked himself hard on the face. “How could I have been so dumb? I had my wallet the whole time; I could have jimmied the lock with a credit card. Oh here, take it”. He gave Tom a plain looking business card.
“Thanks.”
“Oh and I’ll have to send someone to clear the wreckage, so you might want to hide the door to this place,” he said, walking out the door.
“Ok thanks for the warning. Bye.”
“No problem,” he said, closing the door behind him.

It was a bright summer day and she sun was shining, the birds were singing, the squirrels hoarding food and the mole was peacefully burrowing its hole. Everything was so peaceful, well almost.

“Tom! Let me in! You know perfectly well that nobody can remember your passwords!” Yelled Freyja, who was persistently banging on the big round wooden door.
“Why should I let you in? For all I know you could be another one of those pesky hikers.”
“For all you know there could be a pack of rabid wolves after me!”
“Really? Just like the time rabbits with spears were chasing you? Or the time chipmunks were assaulting you with acorns? Or the time that—“
“No! This time it’s real! I swear there was a pack of wolves back there and they were foaming at the mouth.”
“So you’re saying that the times before weren’t real?”
“Yes. I mean no! Oh just let me in dammit! You’d think the peephole would be enough, but no you just have to put the cherry on top don’t you. Next thing we know there’ll be fingerprint scanners, eyeball readers, genetic makeup doohickeys and just to top off the extreme lets get a machine to listen to our voice patterns!” She said.
“I don’t know Frey. You didn’t tell me the Pa—“
“TOM! Open that door or I will smash that satellite over here in the bushes!”
“Okay. Okay. Just don’t break the dish.” He said while unlocking the door and hiding from Frey in a nearby cupboard.

It wasn’t really necessary to hide from her, because she was too busy running towards the washroom, golden locks trailing behind, but he didn’t want to take any chances, she may be small, but she was viscous as a Tasmanian devil. When he realised that he wasn’t going to be pounded to a pulp, Thomas quickly jotted down the security features brought up in the recent argument; voice recognition would certainly eliminate the need to answer the door, so better not forget it lest he encounter another brilliant idea. When he was done scribbling, he made his way down the long corridor to the lab.

The lab was by far the most technologically advanced room in the subterranean residence. There was only one computer terminal, but it was years before anything on the market, as Tom had made it himself. He had specially designed it to control nearly every aspect of the place; from air supply to entertainment, this baby did it all.

Of course the lab also contained the numerous research projects that were being conducted, most of which wouldn’t have been possible if it hadn’t been for the computer stealing the plans from several government facilities. Of course stealing wasn’t exactly the correct term, because the computer did give something in return; just not legal tender. Tom found it extremely boring sitting in a chair all day, and realised that he needed some way to make the long hours observing chemical reactions less monotonous. So with the help of his supercomputer, he developed a virus that played a good joke every fifteen minutes by fetching one from leading websites. He figured the least he could do was infect the terminals that he borrowed his information from, so he did. Little did he know that all it did was cause fiery arguments over who gets the “funny” computer.

Today, Tom was preparing for an experiment concerning waste management. Kevin and Hans were gone to the sulphur spring today to collect a very special moss that he believed could turn human excrement into pure glucose. If his theory were correct, it would eliminate their need to hike down Mount Bolton and secretly raid Mme Bouffard’s Pantry. Which would make him feel a bit less guilty for taking her laptop, satellite dish and speakers; even if he did transfer a bit of credit into her account afterwards. It just isn’t right to make an old lady run around doing our groceries, he thought. No matter how desperate we are.

“Hey Tom, sup.”
A boy about Tom’s age, with light auburn hair and lightly tanned skin had entered the room. His clothes seamed almost new, something odd considering that the boy had no parents.
“Oh, Hi Thor.” Said Tom, a bit surprised. “I’m getting ready for the experiment on sulphur moss, How’s the mining going?”
“Great! We got 40 pounds of quartz, 20 carats of gems and a big chunk of sulphur. That, and Wednesday’s room is way bigger now.”
“That’s good, she kept asking me to help her with that, on top of all the potions she needs me to test.”
There was a pause.
“Potions?”
“About a month ago she started looking into medicinal plants and tried to make potions and stuff. I’m telling you, your sister is no normal ten year old girl.”
“Why did she tell you and not me?”
“I asked her why one of her potions wasn’t poisonous because it was made of a deadly neurotoxin found in a local mushroom. I told her that you’d need special equipment to neutralise it, and she told me that all she did was touch it with her finger and that made her hand glow a bit and the mixture changed colour. I figured you’d just think it was nothing.”

That’s weird, he thought. From what I know Wednesday has never told a lie, ever. Tom probably just misheard it, or maybe it was just the angle of the light hitting her hand. At any rate it can’t be that important

The logical part of his mind was satisfied, but there was still a feeling deep in his head telling him that this was something important. And every time he had ignored it, something bad seamed to happen.

“You’re right it’s probably just nothing,” he said.
“Of course I’m right! A few of her optical nerves probably fired at the wrong time, that’s all.” But it’s one thing to make someone believe you’re right, and quite another to have the correct answers.

Just then the doorbell rang. Kevin and Hans were home, and probably with the special moss too. They both ran to the door and answered it. Immediately after, Frey started ranting.

“You open the door for them but not me!” she screamed from her room.
“Shut up Frey!” Yelled Tom’s sister Helen, from her own room.
“Hi everyone.” Said Kevin.
“OK where’s the moss?”
“Well there was a bit of a problem with that…” Answered his twin.
“What kind of problem?” Asked Tom.
“You wouldn’t believe how fun that sulphur spring is. That moss is like a huge springboard … and well—“
“We sort of squished it all.” Finished his brother Hans.
“But there’s more. You know that big old abandoned blue house, the one with the half moon porch?” said Kevin.
“Yup”
“Well it’s not abandoned anymore. A couple with two kids just moved in, and they almost saw us in the sulphur spring.”
“Oh and we saw something that looked a lot like wolves on the way up the mountain.” Completed Hans.
“See, I told you there were wolves!” Screamed Freyja once more.
“Well at least now we know the sulphur spring isn’t safe.”
“But lets get Frey out of the house before we talk about it some more; I’ve been dieing to soundproof her room.” Said Thormund in a hushed voice.

Getting Frey out of the house is among the simplest tasks in the world, but only when it isn’t raining. She hated water even more than she loved to hunt; and that’s saying a lot, considering that the reason that they found the den in the first place was because she had ran after an injured bird all the way up the mountain. She hated baths, so every time se took one, she ingested a pill developed by Tom to make her skin numb on contact with water and go back to normal again when dry. Fortunately for them all, it was a beautiful, cloudless, summer day. So all they had to do was give her a plasma canon and a few pointy sticks and she’d be gone hunting wolf in minutes. A regular mammal didn’t stand a chance; nothing on foot could escape the fierce hunter, and anything airborne would need cloud cover. But these weren’t normal wolves; Tom was testing out the robotic variety, and from the looks of it, they were working perfectly, which was bad news for any passing trekkers.

The important thing was to not let Frey realise that her room had been modified; if she did she might get offended, and when she was offended, everyone felt very badly about it; or rather, their ears did.

“Okay, so how’re we gonna do this?” Asked Helen.

Thor smiled; he always smiled when he saw her. She’s just so beautiful, he thought. And she’s not a snob either, and she knows how to get things done without being too pushy, and she’s smart too, not as smart as Tom, but that would be annoying… But does she feel the same about me?
“We have to move all the furniture first, then get some paint,” said his sister, snapping him out of his daze.
“But maybe Frey will like the glowing walls,” said Hans.
“Maybe not,” replied Helen. “I think it will be a bit too obvious when she sees bright orange rock. It’s a shame that we didn’t just make the walls thicker from the beginning though; It would have been much easier.”
“Well at any rate I’m starting the boom box, it’s way more fun to renovate with music. Brings out your creativity, right Thor?”
“What? Say that again Kev.” He had once more been caught daydreaming and decided to mark it down on paper. If he was so passionate about Helen, he could probably incorporate the idea in some book or another.

Two days later, they were done. Frey hadn’t returned yet, but they weren’t too worried. Because of her tendencies to run off on long hunting trips, they had planted a tracking device in her scalp. According to it, she was wandering around the other side of Bolton Pass, and her vital signs were normal. The chances of her being caught by anyone were very slim, so they weren’t worried; besides, when she came back, she would be likely to be carrying enough fresh meat for a month.

In the meantime Thor had finished writing a short story and had e-published it. This was their main means of survival. They each had something they could sell over the Internet. Thor made books and short stories, Wednesday made paintings, Tom patented various inventions, Helen sold beadwork, Kevin made jokes, Hans made pottery, and when Frey was there, she did metalwork under the supervision of Tom.

They each had a contact that would go to a secret location and pick up their products, but leaving a nice amount of liquid cash in their accounts first. Usually they agreed to hide things under a little used bridge, but occasionally, they would have to meet in person. On those occasions, either Thor or Helen would go see them. Of course they were completely unrecognisable, so there was no risk of accidentally being led straight into an investigator’s trap. Of course those chances were actually quite slim, as they had been declared legally dead for quite some time. The orphans who were left behind were quite sad about this at first, but when they found out that they would be able to go to college and university because of it, they were thrilled.

For deliveries it was a bit more complicated. They needed a delivery address for their online shopping; so they took Mme Bouffard’s. She had never failed them yet. Every time the deliveryman came, she didn’t ask any questions, and kindly accepted whatever was being delivered. But she was puzzled to find that days later, whatever she had received had vanished. Of course she didn’t complain; her wallet wasn’t suffering, and it built muscle to lift the sometimes-heavy parcels.

Later on that day, just before lunch, Frey came home with antlers balanced on her head, and a huge backpack full of various meats.
“Guys you won’t believe it, but there’s someone that’s making a huuuuge mansion in the Pass. Now it’s even more super easy to hunt, because I think all the loud noises scared the animals to the other side of the valley, but I’m not sure. At any rate it was super cool. Why don’t any of you ever come and hunt with me? It’s really fun!”
There must have been a mistake when I was born, thought Wednesday. There’s absolutely no way that that jungle woman is my twin. Hey, maybe I should make a potion to counteract it!

It wasn’t uncommon that she thought such things. Frey was just so unlike her. Identical twins, Pfft. But she didn’t think about her sister for long, as she was too busy preparing dinner. A wild turkey, some moose, and a partridge simmered in creamy white gravy later, and she had completely forgotten about her twin. Only to be reminded whenever her shrill voice erupted from somewhere other than her room. She laughed; maybe they should have soundproofed her mouth.

“Oh my god! You really outdid yourself this time Frey. I know you can be a pain sometimes, but this makes up for it a kazillion times over.”
“What’s a kazillion?”
“It’s a really big number.”
“Could you count to a kazillion for me?”
“Ask Tom, I’m sure he can download something like that off the Internet.”
“Okay,” she said. “TOM! I need your help with something.”

Oh no, he thought while scurrying into his room to hide under the bed. Not again. Why, oh why do I have to be so helpful all the time? There has to be a self-help book out there somewhere that I could use. I should charge a fee. If I got paid a quarter for every time I helped someone, I’d be rich enough to buy every single fiction novel in existence, but then I’d need a place to put them all. Well I guess we could dig out a huge library. Ooh and have one of those super high ladders that move along rails on the top and bottom of the bookcases. I always wanted one of those.

Just then he was interrupted by a set of big, upside down, blue eyes peering at him. “I found you!”
“Really? I would have never guessed. Now what is it that you want now?”
“Thor told me that you could downsomething, someone counting to a kazillion on the internet.”
“Well I can’t, because that’s not a real number.”
“THOR! You liar! A kazillion isn’t a real number!”

And I thought I got rid of her, he thought. “Well it sure sounds like one”
“So does an uberzakokolimian”
“Umm. No.”
“Just drop it Frey,” yelled her sister from somewhere else in the house.
“Yeah, but Tho—“

A very loud rumbling emanating from the outside interrupted her, and oddly, it sounded like they had been bombed. But who would bomb a said to be uninhabited mountain?