Andrew and Adrienne never asked for their powers. Ever since they were born, something was odd about them. Even odder though, if that's even a word, their "expensive" parents never seemed to notice it. They seemed so oblivious to the VERY apparent accidents over the years. Like when Andrew short-circuited the entire block where they lived when he put his finger in the power outlet. Or that one time when Adrienne got in a fight at school and somehow set off the fire alarm. Supposedly, the kids say there was a ring of soot around where Adrienne stood. They didn't even ask when both their kids asked for weapons for their 13th birthdays. I mean, how else are they going to protect humanity from the Shadows right? Oh yeah! The Shadows are the manifest of darkness throughout the universe. Oh and they're attracted to people with powers. Sooooooo yeah, being the only two they know in existence with those requirements, makes for a very difficult life.

"Why are you talking in 3rd person?" Adrienne asked bluntly, opening the door.

Andrew replied "For dramatic emphasis. Gotta record our life story somehow."

Adrienne grabbed the tape recorder and looked at her twin judgingly "In the janitor's closet at school?"

"Hey! The teacher won't let me in class because she thinks it's 'annoying' " Andrew said as he snatched back his recorder with a hurt look.

Adrienne face palmed and sighed "Well get back to class. We need to be where we can get to each other quickly in case – "

CRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSHHHH!

    A giant dark, clawed hand smashed through the school wall, creating a gaping hole. A gigantic, fanged bear-like head follows the hand, peaking inside the massive hole it created. It scans the smoke and rubble intently for something. Suddenly, a rock flew from the smoke and sailed at the monster, hitting it right in the side of its head. The bulky monster's head swung irritably to where the pebble came from. A second later, thousands of them sped right into the monster's face. The creature stumbled back from the force of the barrage. Before it can recover, one more object flies from the rubble. Just as the Shadow looks up for a return attack, a female voice yells a war cry and a fist connects with its nose, sending it flying.

    The figure lands with a soft thud. A young girl with long, curly, strawberry-blonde stands up ready for the next strike. She has a silver, metal mask covering her mouth and nose, with gauntlets and greaves made of the same material.

"Kind of overboard, don't you think?" said the male with short, straight, similar hair color walking out of the hole in the wall.

The metal mask separated to allow Adrienne to speak. "Nah. Just enough to outdo you." she antagonized.

"Oh," Andrew said, pushing back his trench coat and unsheathing his katana "you think so?"

Adrienne smiled. "Only one way to find out."

    While the two teens were talking, the Shadow had managed to upright itself and roared its challenge at its assailants. It took a long gulp of air and the inside of the Shadow's mouth lit up with a red light. The young fighters stopped their conversation and prepped for the attack. The Shadow finished charging its attack and fired a massive orb of energy at the twins. Andrew grinned and shoved Adrienne out of the way with a hey! He stood with katana in hand watching the orb quickly draw closer. His eyes narrowed in concentration and when the energy orb was almost to him he raised his blade and blocked its progress past him. The orb hit Andrew like an angry semi-truck going 75 on the highway. He was using his blade with one hand and pushing against the orb. Adrienne knew he wasn't strong enough to force it back all the way.     

    Just then, Andrew shifted his feet slightly and with a flash of red light the energy was absorbed into his sword. His arm was jerked back behind him and the red light of his sword kept getting brighter. Andrew was feeling the heat of it and knew he had to get rid of it. So in one swift motion, while his sword was still behind him, he arced it in a downward fashion. The tip of his katana touched and swiped the ground and where it touched, the red energy appeared. Then, with a flick of his wrist, Andrew sliced upwards and released an energy slash back at the Shadow with its own energy. The energy was returned to sender and cut off the Shadow's left forelimb. It drops to the ground once more, sprawling around in pain. Andrew rests his hands on his knees and starts breathing heavily.

"Hey!" Adrienne shouts as she gets up and shoves her brother angrily. "That was mine!"

Andrew managed a weak smile. " Just enough to outdo me huh?"

"Well he's not dead yet" Adrienne said, nodding her head towards the weakened Shadow.

"Then let's finish it." Andrew said, a crackle of electricity running through his hand excitingly.

Adrienne put her hand to her chin and considered. She shrugged "I don't see why not." She looked at her hand and felt it heat up until fwoosh! A cloak of fire enveloped her entire hand.

"Same time?" Adrienne asked.

"Same time." Andrew agreed. He took a step back, prepping his attack and waiting for her to get ready.

    They both braced themselves and put everything into this attack. The Shadow stumbled up on its 3 legs. At that, the twins bolted towards it at top speed. They closed in on the creature in no time and with their combined powers, pinned it against another building wall. The sparks and flames were flying everywhere. The Shadow roared its last roar until SPLAT! The force of the twins against the solid wall crushed it into a dark goo. The silence was unbroken for a couple minutes while Andrew lay on his back resting and Adrienne was against a wall, taking a breather.

Adrienne looked at her brother "You should go home if you want a nap, ya baby"

Andrew raised an eyebrow at his sister "You should get rid of that picture in your locker of that boy you like.

Adrienne blushed "Shut up!" She went and helped her brother up. "We should probably get home while the coast is clear"

"Sounds good" Andrew stood on his own and walked home next to his sister.

    Andrew and Adrienne walked home from their little tussle. Andrew dissolved his trench coat as if it were made of a weird mist and willed his katana to disappear until he needed it again. Adrienne just made her greaves into ankle bracelets, her gauntlets into little wrist trinkets with a fire symbol dangling from her right wrist, and her helmet/mask into a necklace with a heart-shaped locket. Every now and then she would open it and look reminiscently at the picture of her parents holding 4 year old Addy and Andy. She couldn't help but smile at the happy faces they all wore.

"What happened to you? You used to be so cute when you were little." Addy said still staring at the locket.

"I live with your ugly mug. Adapt to survive missy." Andy retorted, taking out one of his ear buds and smirking. Across the road on the other sidewalk, going the opposite direction, a teenager about 14-15 years old, wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt, looking very dirty and worn out, managed to raise his hand to his mouth and yell "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!" Then he continued his trek to wherever he was headed.

Andrew doubled over laughing and pointed at the stranger. "See? He gets it." He took a deep breath and looked his sister in the eye.

Addy gave her best I'll murder your face off stare but just rolled her eyes and took out Andrew's other ear bud and they sang until they reached their house.

"Work it harder, Make it better" Andrew started.

"Moving faster, Makes us stronger" Adrienne continued.

"More than ever"

"Hour after"

"Our work is"

"Never over" the twins continued their song until they reached their home. Adrienne took out her key and opened the front door.

The twin's father, sitting on his favorite chair reading a book, looked up at his two kids and smiled.

"Hey there kiddos. How was school?"

Adrienne skipped over to her father and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Just fine and dandy, Dad." She continued on to her room. Andrew walked over and fist bumped his dad. "Same ol same ol." Andy said indifferently.

"Did you bring up that D in your math class?" his Dad said very seriously.

Andrew faltered in his response. "Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat's a good question, padre."

Dad just rolled his eyes and went back to his book. "Get that grade up asap and you won't be grounded anymore."

Andrew nodded and went to his room. "Yes sir." He was about to open his door when he heard the door behind him open and a very annoying voice whispered, "Ooooooooooooooooooooohhhh!" So he grabbed the handle and shut Adrienne's door in her face and headed for his own room. About 4 hours later, a voice yelled from the kitchen," Time for dinner!" Two doors rushed open and the twins bolted for the kitchen. They reached their destination quickly and sat down at the table. Their mother turned from the stove and walked over to her little munchkins.

"Hey there's the gruesome twosome." She said lovingly, kissing both teens on the head. "Hi momma!" Both kids replied. "Yeah. Hello mama cita." said Dad as he walked in the kitchen and gave Mom a kiss on the cheek. Mom giggled and smiled at her husband. "Hola mi amor." she said with a wink. The twins erupted into a chorus of EEEWWWWWs AND GROOOSSSSSSSes. The parents just rolled their eyes and set up dinner. Andrew was shifting in his seat restlessly when the feeling hit him. He looked outside the screen door and saw a silhouette slide around. He kicked Adrienne in the shins to get her attention. His foot met solid steel and he recoiled with an ow! He looked up at his sis and she was giving him a I felt it too look. He turned around and announced to his parents," Be right back. I...uh - forgot to wash my hands!" and he took off for the bathroom. Adrienne piped up. "Yeah! Me too!" and off she went, following her brother. Both parents looked at each other, shrugged, and went back to setting up dinner.

Adrienne got to the restroom just in time to see her brother, battle ready, jump out the window. Before he even touched the ground, a dark blur rammed Andrew out of view in half a second. Adrienne recoiled with a small ooooh ouch. Then she sprinted towards the window, jumped and tucked and flew out of the window, activating her armor in the process and landed outside but was almost swept off her feet. The ground was moving beneath her feet, no, the Shadow was moving beneath her. She dug into the Shadow's body with her fingers and held on. The giant, snake-like Shadow was weaving itself in a sort of spiral type formation. She looked around for her brother and saw him, but not in a very good way.

    He still hadn't gotten his balance and was bouncing/rolling of the snake's back repeatedly. She sighed to herself and launched off her knees and started running up the Shadow's spine at top speed. She was gaining on the serpent's skull. So as she passed her brother, she grabbed the scruff of his coat and tossed him up in the air. He went sailing a good 100 feet. So she continued for the Shadow's head. She focused more of her energy on her feet and she felt them heat up and her pace pick up drastically. She was nothing more than a silver blur. She finally reached the head and jumped, pushing fire out of her feet, creating a type of rocket boots and connected a blow right on the Shadow's head, sending it straight back down to Earth. It landed with a CRASH! She was about to finish it when she felt her hair stand on end and managed to just barely dodge her reckless brother who, with his katana unsheathed, zoomed towarded the grounded Shadow.

    He smashed into the head at full speed and stabbed it right in the base of the skull. Adrienne landed near the serpent's body and was about to help but one look at her brother told her otherwise. He was repeatedly stabbing the Shadow, who was wriggling around in pain. The part that kept her away wasn't the Shadow, but Andrew himself. His eyes weren't his. They had a crazy feel about them. He was smiling. Not a small smile, a big ear to ear smile, and he was laughing. It was a laugh that sent a shiver down her spine. He was normally calm and finished Shadows quickly. He was torturing the Shadow... and he was enjoying it. She almost never felt sorry for Shadows, but this was one of those times when she did. Eventually, the Shadow started twitching and stopped moving altogether. It dissipated and Andrew landed on his feet. Adrienne took a step towards her brother.

"Andy?" she said hesitantly.

    Andrew's head snapped to look at his sister. That crazy look hadn't subsided. The smile was still there. Adrienne stood there, waiting for her brother to calm down. Andy took a step towards his sister, not taking away eye contact. The crazy look faded slowly from his face. His eyes went back to being innocent and childish. His smile faded. Adrienne went up to her brother cautiosly.

"It happened again" she said sounding worried.

"I know. Sorry." Was all Andrew could muster. The guilt and fear in his voice was prominent. Adrienne went up to her brother and hugged him tightly.

"Come on bro. Time for dinner" She let go of her brother and climbed back through the window. Andrew followed shortly. They both walked together back to the kitchen and sat down. Their parents had just gotten the food ready and sat down to eat with their children. Then Dad asked, "You guys washed your hands? I never heard the water running." Andrew and Adrienne both looked at each other and knew this was going to be an interesting cover story indeed.