The Fantastic Five, chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Heroes' Ambush

And as if that night's events weren't enough, on the following days, we encountered more and more already solved crimes, where the ones catching the criminals had always left the big sign of number five somewhere nearby, and the criminals themselves were unable to tell us anything what had happened. And always they had been taken out in the same way: some were pummeled to half-death, others were slashed badly, some had become blind and were hearing non-existing music, some were caught in some kind of web and some looked as thought they had been petrified.

This mystery started to become an obsession for me. I could spend long times in my room, just walking around and thinking about what could we do to find out more of those mysterious crime solvers.

One thing I had already realized: whoever was doing this, must have superpowers, because no ordinary human could do it, that was clear.

Then I came up with a plan to catch those mysterious attackers red-handed. I told about this plan to my family, and they agreed, as all of them were also eager to find out who was doing our job for us.

The plan started with Bart calling a fake call for the police, informing that there were troublemakers in 22 Double Street. The trick was, that just like its name tells, there are two Double Streets in Springfield, one at the western part of the town, and other at the eastern part of the town. The police headed for the eastern street, but they had missed one important spot: the eastern Double Street's street numbers only went up to 21.

We, however, hid ourselves in the deserted store building that was at 22 Double Street, and waited. If the mysterious attackers were listening to the police scanner, they would arrive to this address in no time.

And so they did.

We had been hidden only for several minutes, when we heard a sound as if someone was pummeling the door. Then there were a loud slashing noises, and the door's lock was broken open. As we heard the door opening and footsteps entering the room, I gave the promised sign.

"NOW!"

I leaped out from behind of a big crate, Bart jumped out of another crate like some sort of a Jack-in-the-box, Maggie bounced out of the same crate as Bart, mom used her hair to descend down from a beam on the ceiling, and dad burst out of a small closet.
I quickly pulled a big switch on the wall to activate the floodlights on the ceiling, and moved besides my family members to form a line to face the persons who had entered the building. They, however, avoided the floodlights and retreated into the shadows.

"Hey, man, what's going on here?" asked a girl's voice.

"Where the bad guys?" asked a low male voice. "Want to bash..."

"Calm down, calm down..." said a woman's voice. "Now, who are you? Are you the troublemakers the police reported about?"

"No!" I called. "There were no troublemakers in the first place! We faked that call to get you here, so we could find out who you are and why are you doing our job for us!"
"Your job?" asked a boy's voice from behind us. Before I could properly turn around, I and my family members were tied with threads of sticky web. I lost my balance and fell to the floor.

"Catching criminals is what we always do", the boy's voice said. I could see how something was moving in the shadowed parts of the walls behind the floodlights. It looked like a human figure, moving on all fours...

"That's so true, man", the girl's voice spoke again. "Catching evildoers allows me to pour out my soul, to do my art, to express my inner howl..."

"Oh, please, stop that already", the boy's annoyed voice said. I could see how the boy's figure crawled across the shadowed parts of the walls towards the others. Then he jumped down and joined his companions.

"Now we want to know what did you mean by luring us in here!" the woman's voice said from the shadows.

I was tired of us being treated this way, so I easily broke the webs that were tying me and stood up.

"For your information, we are the superheroes that protect this town!" I said while sweeping the remainders of the web off my clothes. "I, the Clobber Girl, my team mates Stretch Dude" (I pointed at Bart, who was also freeing himself from the web) "and Bouncing Battle Baby" (I pointed at Maggie, who was still tied by the web), "along with our companions the Pie Man" (I pointed at dad, who struggling to free himself from the web) "and The Entangler" (I pointed at mom, who was using her hair to rip the web off) "are the protectors who keep criminals down around Springfield!"

The figures fell silent for a moment. Then there was a moment of quiet murmuring. Then the figures stepped into the light.

It was a weird sight. I didn't know these persons at all, but still they seemed oddly familiar.

One of them was a bald man, who had ripped white shirts and blue jeans, and, most notably, green skin and muscular arms.

Another of them was a woman with tall hair, nude suit (which also covered her hair), black mask covering her eyes, bare arms, blue gloves, blue boots, and, again most notably, three sharp, long, metallic claws coming out from her knuckles on each hand.

One of the persons, obviously the boy who had tied us, was wearing a suit that highly resembled the suit of Spider-Man.

The girl who I had heard talking was wearing a black, whole-body jazz suit, a black beret, dark glasses, and was carrying a saxophone around her neck.

The final figure was the smallest, but also the weirdest one of them all. It looked like a small baby in a blue jumpsuit, but their head was enormous, way bigger than even an adult's one, looking as if it contained very large brains. And, most notably, the baby figure was levitating in the air.

While I, mom and Bart released dad and Maggie from the web, we all looked at the figures. When we were all free, the woman with the metal claws stepped forward and withdrew her claws into her knuckles, as if showing us she wasn't going to attack.

"Let me introduce ourselves", she said. "I am Margerine, he" (she pointed at the green-skinned man) "is The Incompetent Homer, he" (she pointed at the Spider-Man-looking boy) "is Spider-Bart, she" (she pointed at the jazz-suited girl) "is The Jazzler, and this" (she pointed at the big-headed baby) "is the BrainBaby. Together, we are referred as the Springfield Protectors, or, more commonly, The Fantastic Five."

We all were quiet for a moment. Then I stepped forward towards the woman who called herself Margerine.

"Excuse me", I said, "but did you just say ''Springfield''? Because, as far as I'm aware, we have always been the only superheroes around here."

"I'm just surprised as you", Margerine said. "I don't have the slightest clue why this town doesn't recognize us anymore, although we always leave our sign to every crime scene we visit, like we have always done."

"The Fantastic Five", I said quietly. "That indeed explains those number fives. But I can't really explain why you..."

Bart stepped forward and interrupted me. "You mean you have always lived in a town called Springfield?"

"Yes", Margerine said, being unsure.

"And you are notable superheroes in you home town?" Bart continued.

"Yes", Margerine said again.

"And just some days ago, you found out that you were in a different place which was also called Springfield, but where no one recognized you?"

"What are you trying to say with all of this?" Spider-Bart asked.

Then I realized the same thing as probably Bart had. "Of course! This must have something to do with Frink's machine!"

"Exactly", Bart said and nodded at me.

"Have you lately experienced anything particularly odd?" I asked.

"Well, we were witnessing how a machine blew up at a technology market", Margereine said. "There was a flash of bright light, and we sort of passed out and woke up later, being in this place."

"Those two explosions must have been connected somehow", I said.

"What was that other one?" Margerine asked.

I quickly explained how Frink had told us about the explosion of his inter-dimensional transport system.

"If I recall correctly, that machine we saw blowing up was also called an inter-dimensional something", Margerine said thoughtfully.

"That's it", I said. "These two matter transporters must have been activated simultaneously in different dimensions: ours and yours. Somehow, this must has resulted both of the machines to blow up and send you to our dimension, where there also exists a town called Springfield."

"So, you mean", Margerine said slowly, "that this is also Springfield, but..."

"Not your Springfield, that's right", I said and nodded.

Suddenly mom spoke. "But, if they are from Springfield like us, and they're a group of five superheroes like us, could that mean...?"

I gasped. I hadn't thought about that possibility at all. I slowly turned to look at The Fantastic Five.

"What do you think, can we trust each other enough to entrust our secret identities to each other?" I asked.

"Maybe we can", Margerine said. She then turned to The Incompetent Homer.

"Could you tell these people who you are?" she asked nicely.

"Me... am... Homer... Simpson..." The Incompetent Homer answered slowly.

Dad's mouth fell open.

"And I", Margerine said, taking off her eye-covering mask, "am Marge Simpson."

Mom looked flabbergasted.

"As for me", The Jazzler said, taking off her glasses, "I am Lisa Simpson."

I could feel my heart beating loudly against my chest.

"And I", Spider-Bart said, taking off the mask from his head, "am Bart Simpson."

Bart was looking at him with his eyes round.

"And I guess BrainBaby's real name is Maggie?" I asked quietly.

"Yes", Margerine said.

The two Maggies looked at each other.

"This is really weird, because..." Somehow, it was hard for me to get the words out of my mouth. "...we are the Simpsons as well. In company, we use to call ourselves the Super-Simpsons."

The Fantastic Five looked at us.

"I am Homer", dad said, taking off his mask.

"I am Marge, too", mom said.

"I'm called Lisa Simpson as well", I said.

"My name is Bart", Bart said.

Maggie nodded, messaging that she was also Maggie Simpson.

Both teams looked at each other quietly for some time. Then I finally spoke.

"Let's go to our home before the police comes", I said. "We still have a lot to talk about..."