Chapter Text
"Ven claridad
Lllega ya amanece de una vez claridad,
por piedad mata sombras, dame luz, resplandor, libertad..."
The words to "Claridad" by the pop group Menudo blasted through the school cafeteria for the third time that lunch break. Charlie sighed as the familiar chorus started up again. He didn't understand why his classmates were so obsessed with this boy band, but then he didn't understand most of what his classmates did. There was an obvious difference between the gaggle of happy teenagers sitting at the table crowded around a cassette player and the sullen boy eating at a table by himself. The group noticed Charlie.
"Ew, what are you looking at?" A blonde girl sneered.
Charlie rolled his eyes and tried to ignore them as he dug in to his left-over refried beans.
"What is Charlie eating over there?" A boy asked redundantly. "Dog shit?" The group laughed tauntingly.
"Aw, what's the matter, Charlie?" Asked Chayanne, the leader of the popular group and Charlie's main tormentor since elementary school. "Let me guess; your Dad got laid off again so you couldn't afford groceries? Or your mom was too hung over this morning to make your lunch?"
Charlie glared sharply at the group, he felt the hatred swelling up inside him.
Suddenly there was a loud, bright flash as the cassette player they were listening to exploded. The cassette tape shattered and unspooled and mechanical pieces flew in separate directions across the table as the cruel laughter suddenly turned to screams of shock. Chayanne leapt off the tabletop he had been sitting on and looked in surprise at his bright red forearm that had been singed by the explosion, than snapped his gaze accusingly to Charlie Masso, who had already grabbed his book bag and dashed out the door.
* * *
Charlie was down to his last quarter when he decided to give up on Pac-Man and head home for the night. It was getting dark and the arcade was starting to fill up with teenagers. Charlie was hoping to avoid his classmates, at least until school tomorrow. As Charlie was heading home he noticed a bit of a commotion near the claw machine. A gorgeous dark, young woman caught Charlie's eye first, she seemed a bit older and far more sophisticated than the girls he usually saw hanging around the arcade. What he noticed next was the crowd of boys around her, and the look of frustration on her face.
"It has to be the blue one, the blue rabbit in the corner."
"Come on, let's get out of here I'll buy you a hundred blue rabbits." A leering young man tried to put an arm around her and she shook him off.
"If you can't do it, let someone else try, one of you must be able to get that blue rabbit."
"I don't think anyone can get it, the claw doesn't reach that far!" A boy sighed in exasperation.
"Let me try." Charlie volunteered, shoving his way through the crowd and elbowing the hopeless player away from the machine.
"I'm next!" A voice called from the audience.
"Nobody's next, I got this." Charlie murmured, sliding his last quarter in to the slot and starting up the machine. He ignored the flashing lights and beeping electric music, the milling crowd and the intent, staring eyes of the desperate young woman. He moved the claw as far in the corner as he could get it, then he focused hard on the blue rabbit. After a second, the blue rabbit wiggled it's way out of the corner and rolled right in to the path of the claw. Cries of awe and disappointment rang out from the milling throng as Charlie easily retrieved the stuffed toy from the machine.
"Amazing..." The young woman was mesmerized.
"Charlie!" A sharp voice rang out over the crowd. It was Chayanne, flanked by some of the boys from the popular table. They began pushing their way through the crowded arcade towards him.
"Uh oh, gotta go. Here's you bear." Charlie shoved the toy in the young woman's hand and was out of the arcade in a flash.
"Wait, hey! Stop!" She called, dropping the toy to the ground and trying to track down the boy she had lost in the crowd.
From a distance, a man with wide-rimmed glasses watched as the scene unfolded.
* * *
"I'm home, Ma."
A grunt from the lump in front of the TV greeted Charlie as he dropped his book bag in the living room of the Masso family's tiny bungalow home.
"Any dinner?"
"On the stove."
Charlie sighed as he entered the kitchen. All that was on the stove was some empty dishes that had once held dinner. He loaded the dirty pans and casserole dish in the sink and let the hot water run on them as he started to fix himself a peanut butter sandwich.
A sharp tapping on glass caught his attention.
It was the woman from the arcade, crouching in the dark bushes outside his kitchen. She looked relieved to see him and was frantically beckoning him to come outside. Charlie quickly switched off the water and smoothed out his hair before dashing outside.
The woman was no where to be seen.
He surveyed the dark, empty yard and heard some rustling coming from a patch of trees in the distance.
"Hello?"
"Here... hurry..."
He made his way in to the thick of the forest his garden backed on to, the foliage overhead blocked out what little light the moon provided and the sound of twigs and leaves crunching under his feet made it hard to pin-point where the sound was coming from.
Abruptly, Charlie was tackled from behind. He fell hard to the ground and was horrified when he saw what had taken him down.
It was the young woman from earlier, but she looked different now.
She wasn't human.
Her teeth were sharp, yellowed fangs like a wolf and her eyes were completely black. Two bony, claw like hands held Charlie's face firmly facing hers. Her black eyes locked on Charlie's and started to glow bright red. He suddenly heard a man speaking to him in a calm voice from somewhere.
"Do not let it get on top of you. Do not look directly in to its eyes."
Who the hell had said that?
Groping desperately around him in the dark, Charlie grasped a large stick. He swung it hard at the creatures face, knocking her back just enough for him to wriggle out from under her and start dashing for freedom.
He heard an ungodly screech and looked back to see the demon levitating in the air and plunging toward him. He raised a hand defensively and sent the demon flying back in to some trees. As he started off running, he could hear the creature raising up again. He also again heard the mysterious voice.
"You must kill it."
"How!?" Charlie ducked as the creature swooped overhead. It doubled back around and Charlie backed into a tree, eyes shut tight in terror as the demon flew head on towards him.
"Concentrate!"
Gathering up all the fear, confusion and frustration he was feeling Charlie focused it on the monster. He opened his eyes and locked them with the demons bright red ones that were inches from his face and getting closer.
That's when it happened.
In a flash, the demon exploded just like the cassette player had done. Only when this demon exploded, it sent a wave of dark green blood raining over Charlie. With a pounding heart and shaky breath, Charlie felt light headed as he looked down at the swamp green splatters all over his t-shirt. He became aware of the sounds of feet running closer, and then a boy's voice.
"Hey, did you blow up our demon?"
Charlie looked up and fainted dead away as he saw four young men standing in front of him.
* * *
A cold, wet sensation on his forehead was the first thing Charlie became aware of. He blinked awake as water trickled in to his eyes and tried to sit up.
"There, you're alright." A voice comforted. "What's your name?"
The overhead light was temporarily blinding, but as Charlie regained his vision he realized he was laying in the backseat of a van. A boy was turned around leaning over the front seat with a water bottle and a dripping washcloth. It was too dark outside the van to see what was going on but he heard some voices.
"Charlie. Charlie Masso." Charlie groaned in answer, surprised by the splitting headache that came on when he tried to talk.
"Is he awake yet? Oh!" A blonde head poked in to the window, followed by an arm jabbing an accusing finger. "What did you do? How did you kill that monster?"
"Xavier, shush! Let him wake up first." Charlie's nurse shoved the impatient boy back through the window then turned to him.
"Hi Charlie, I'm Miguel. Do you remember much of what happened?"
"Not really." Charlie struggled to clear his thoughts. "There was a woman in the woods, I was looking for her and then she was chasing me. And then you were there..." Charlie's thoughts trailed off as he suddenly realized he was sitting in a van covered in slime and he had no idea how he got there.
"What were you all doing in the woods behind my house?"
"There was a monster there too, and you blew it up. Do you remember how you did that?"
"Not really. Just looked at and... instinct, I guess... oh, there was a man there... he told me what to do."
"A man? What man?" Xavier called from outside the window, Miguel shushed him.
"So," Miguel wondered aloud. "Eduardo was there."
"Who?"
"Come on, you want to meet everyone else?"
Miguel helped Charlie up and out of the van where he saw they were parked along side a dirt road. Three eager young men were standing around waiting to question him. Miguel handled the introductions.
"Everyone, this is Charlie Masso. A demon lured him in to the woods and he blew it up. I believe our new buddy here has the power of telekinesis." Miguel put a proud arm around Charlie and everyone began speaking over each in excitement.
"Woah, woah, woah!" Charlie shook Miguel loose and cooled the crowd. "I don't have any power, I don't know where you guys got that idea from."
"If you don't have any powers than how did you blow that demon up?" Asked a boy with black hair and dark features.
"That kind of thing been happening to you a lot recently?" Asked another boy with curly hair and braces. "Your mind seems to cause a physical reaction to something?"
"We all have powers, Charlie, and if Eduardo was following you than you must be the fifth member we need." Miguel tried to explain.
"You're crazy. Stay away from me."
Charlie brushed past the other members and tried to leave, but he bumped right in to an older guy who was blocking his path.
"You can't leave Charlie, we need you."
"I said stay away from me!" Charlie snapped and glared at the lanky young man, sending him flying back a few feet. He groaned loudly as he hit the ground and the others rushed to check on him.
"Woah, easy there! So, we don't use our powers on innocent people. That's one of our rules." Miguel chided.
Charlie was stunned at what he had just done. "Rules? What rules?"
"The rules of the group, our group. A group which, like it or not, you are now a member of." Miguel smiled.
"You all have powers too?"
"You got it." The dark haired boy answered as he helped the man to his feet. "My name is Johnny and I have the power of pyrokinisis." He gestured to the other boy helping the man stand. "And that's Ricky, he has the power of telekinetic orbing." Ricky smiled proudly.
"Check it out." He offered, then looked over at Miguel. "Washcloth!"
Charlie couldn't believe what he saw. The washcloth that Miguel had been holding suddenly appeared in Ricky's empty hand. Ricky grinned wildly and tossed Charlie the washcloth, which he examined trying to figure out how that had just happened.
"This is crazy." Charlie gasped. "I... I'm sorry, I'm not like you guys. I don't have any kind of magical power like you do."
"Well, there's one way to tell for sure." Miguel stated firmly. "Xavier?"
Xavier nodded and raised both his hands briefly. Everyone looked around at each other.
"Well!" Xavier said. "That proves it."
"Proves what?" Charlie sputtered. "Nothing happened!"
"Yeah? Look at him!" Xavier snapped back, gesturing to the unknown man. He was standing where had been, but wasn't moving an inch. Charlie waved a hand in front of his face and shoved him lightly but the man showed no response.
"Wha... what happened to him?"
"I froze him." Xavier beamed. "That's my power."
"And if you weren't magical, then you would have been frozen too." Miguel pointed out.
Charlie tried to process all this. "Well, what about you?" He asked Miguel. "What's your power?"
"His power sucks." Xavier snorted.
"My power does not suck!" Miguel snapped defensively. "I just don't have an active power." He explained. "I have the power of premonition, I can see the future, the past, get visions, that sort of thing."
"Cool... "
"Charlie you have the fifth and strongest power of all, but you need to learn to harness and control it properly so you can join us."
"Join you in doing what?"
"That creature earlier was just one of a whole army that is trying to gain the five powers and control humanity. Our five powers have always existed on earth, and when threatened they will posses someone young and strong enough to handle that power. The demon had already stripped someone else of telekinesis, so the power transferred to you because you were strong enough to handle it."
"You mean..." Charlie realized what they were telling him. "One of your friends lost their power... and I inherited it?"
They nodded.
"Well, if that demon had the power of telekinesis why didn't it use it against me?"
Ricky answered this one. "A demon can't use our powers unless they gain all five of them. If that ever happens, there's no way to stop it."
"But it already has the power of telekinesis? Why was it trying to strip my power?"
The boys looked at each other awkwardly.
"It wasn't," Miguel answered carefully. "It was trying to kill you so you couldn't use your powers against it."
"That must have been why Eduardo didn't want us to try and fight the monster." Xavier pointed out. "He knew that Charlie would be able to take it out and didn't want to risk one of us losing our powers."
"Well I'm glad he has so much confidence in me!" Charlie was slightly offended at the risk he had been put in. "Who is Eduardo? The frozen dude?"
"Oh!" Xavier raised his hands and unfroze the man who quickly noticed everyone standing in a different position than they had been when time froze.
"Let me guess, freeze time?" He asked.
"Just showing off our powers." Xavier explained.
Miguel handled introductions again. "Charlie, this is Joselo, he once had powers too. Actually, he's had all of our powers at one time or another. But every time he gained one he always lost it to a demon, fortunately he didn't lose them all to the same demon, but it's unheard of for a person to get more than one power in their lifetime let alone to have all five. So with all his experience he sort of guides and mentors us."
"Us?" Joselo asked with an intrigued smile. "So Charlie, does this mean you've decided to join our team?"
"Do I have much of a choice?" Charlie asked weakly, and Miguel put a comforting arm around him.
"Great!" Joselo declared. "We'll start your training tomorrow at 9:00 AM, right before dance lessons."
"Dance lessons?!" Charlie asked.
"Of course!" Miguel answered. "You do recognize us, don't you?" Charlie stared blankly.
"We're Menudo!" Miguel was surprised. "We're a band, we-"
Charlie recognized the name.
"Wha- oh, no!" Charlie pushed Miguel off. "You're joking!? No! No, the demon killing thing- fine, but the dancing and singing, no. I really can't do that."
"Well you said it yourself, you don't really have much of a choice." Miguel's hands were on his hips.
"Why a boyband?" Charlie was exacerbated. "Can't we just hunt monsters without doing... that?"
"It creates the perfect cover." Joselo explained. "You'll need an excuse to miss school and disappear whenever a demon might strike. Your life will no longer be normal, and celebrity is a good excuse to hide the real reason why."
"And by travelling the world and being teen idols, we are able to keep a close eye on all the young people who tend to be the most vulnerable to demon attacks." Miguel continued. "Not only do good powers enter strong young people, there are dark powers out there too that are looking for vessels."
Charlie realized he was fighting a losing battle and conceded with a sigh.
"I can't sing. Or dance."
"You'll be fine." Miguel smiled. "I'll help you."