“Recording in three… two… one… go.”

“Hi, we’re the Backstreet Boys!” Howie, Brian, AJ and Nick chorused out. They had decided to make a video for the fans and world to see, to update them on their recovery, their plans, and thank them for the prayers and support. They were in Brian’s hotel room, smashed together on the couch while Jenn filmed them.

“Oh my god, we’re back again… can’t hold us down, get it through your head!” Brian sang out, causing the other three to laugh.

“But here we are, we are back, on the mend and looking forward to our future thanks to all of you out there.” Howie spoke out.

Nick chimed in next, “We just want to thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts, for your unconditional love, support and prayers that you have given us during this time.”

Silence had befallen the group, causing Howie, Brian and Nick to look over at AJ, who obviously missed his cue. “Oh, my turn?” he asked, causing them to groan out. “We’re all okay, and are continuing to heal. We’re actually talking about getting back into the studio once everything settles down, and I apologize ahead of time if Nick and I forget lyrics during our performances, because… these head injuries we sustained managed to knock out what little amount of brain cells we had left.”

Nick shot a look at AJ, “Wow dude, never thought I’d hear the day where you’d dumb yourself down.”

“We actually have a special guest with us here today!” Brian interjected in a goofy tone, “He wants to thank you all as well for your continuous love and prayers. It’s none other than Daddy Kevin!!”

The four of them began to clap and cheer as Kevin slowly wandered into the shot from the side. He was shirtless, and his arms, chest and back were all painted blue. In the middle of his chest, was the Superman logo sloppily painted on. He walked in with nothing but khaki pants on, his top half painted, and his hands placed on his hips.

“Yeah, it’s Superman!” AJ laughed as the rest of them cheered, “Nothing can keep him down.”

Brian rose from the couch, “Look, you can’t even see his surgery scar!” he said as he pointed to Kevin’s right shoulder, where he had the surgery done.

Kevin sighed and shook his head… they kept referring to him as ‘Superman’, so it was Nick’s bright idea to have him walk into the shot, shirtless and have them paint the Superman logo onto his chest. He could clearly see that not a lot had changed with these guys since he’s left… if anything, they probably got worse with their crazy antics.

“And now, we have a special surprise for one of our own, and we will have Superman here present it himself!” Brian said to the camera before he sat back down on the couch.

Kevin smirked and rolled his eyes, reaching behind him and pulling out an object from his back pocket. “We gather here today, in part to express the fullness of our gratitude and appreciation to a young, brave soldier who saved countless lives… three to be exact. While he did not act alone, his fellow comrade who also bravely laid down his life on the line in attempts to save others recognizes the fact that no one outside of military personnel receives a medal of honor.”

As the group busted out in laughter, Kevin handed the medallion over to Nick, “A medal, not so much of honor, but carefully selected by the four of us with pride and dignity.”

The group cheered as Nick grabbed the medallion, looking it over. “Wow, you guys are assholes... thanks.” Nick said in an unenthusiastic tone, causing them to all laugh. “I am number one!” Nick read from the medallion as he held it up for the camera as Jenn zoomed in on it.

“Speech!! Speech!!” AJ jeered in a low voice, causing Brian to do the same.

Nick stood up from the couch, giving slight bows and pretending that he was waving at an audience of people in front of him, “I’d just like to thank all the little people and this…” he gestured back towards AJ, “grizzly of man behind me for staring danger in the eye with me. Through this experience, our bromance has truly grown and become unparalleled.”

“Alright, that’s enough Nick, you can sit down!” AJ quickly interjected, pulling his younger friend to sit back down on the couch.

Brian leaned forward to look at AJ, “Who’s traveling down the Bromantic Brick Road now?”

AJ shook his head, “No, no, no, no, no dude… Nick’s been in a gay mood.”

“Can I shower and put a shirt on now?” Kevin asked, rolling his eyes. He couldn’t believe that he was standing there, shirtless with his makeshift Superman costume, while the younger ones bickered back and forth with each other.

“Yeah you can…” Nick replied, “but after you do that one thing I told you to do.”

“Nickolas, no.”

“C’mon Kev, just do it one time!”

Kevin gave his infamous “look”, to which riled a reaction out of Nick and AJ.

“HE DID IT!!” AJ shouted, jumping up from the couch and cheering. “Good lord, he did it!” he ran up towards the camera, “Did ya’ll see that?! That’s what Nick and I had go through for the last seventeen years of our lives!!”

Kevin closed his eyes and shook his head at their retarded antics, “I’m not doing it Nick.”

“Who saved your guys lives?” Nick counteracted.

Kevin glanced over at Howie and his cousin, hoping that they would come to his defense. Brian was chuckling while Howie held his hands up in defense, “Don’t look at me bro… I had to deal with them in your absence.”

Rolling his eyes, knowing that he wouldn’t get anywhere, Kevin slowly sauntered over towards the center of the camera, getting ready to do whatever it was Nick wanted him to do.

“Wait!” Nick shouted as he rose up in his seat a bit, reaching back to grab something out of his back pocket. “We need music!” was all he said as he pulled his cell phone out and began to pull up his music player on the phone.

Kevin closed his eyes as soon as he heard Soulja Boy’s “Crank That (Superman)” song blast through from Nick’s cell phone. Positioned in front of the camera, Kevin began to do the “soulja boy” dance, while the rest of the boys sang the song along with the music in the background, “Soulja boy up in this oooohhh, watch me crank and watch me roooollllll, watch me crank that soulja boy and superman that oooohhhhh!!”

“Alright, that’s enough!” Kevin said sternly as he stopped dancing and walked off to the side again. “Can I leave now?”

“Kevin Richardson, ladies and gentlemen!” Nick joked as he gestured over towards Kevin while the rest of them cheered unenthusiastically.

Kevin walked up to the camera, “And you guys wonder why I left the group.” he said before he walked away.

“Wait, wait, wait Kev, come back!” Brian exclaimed, “Lets all end this video together.”

A few seconds later, Kevin trudged back into the shot, placing himself at the end of the couch where Howie was sitting. “Alright, what are we gonna do?” he asked as he sat down on the armrest.

“What better way to end the video than to go into one of our songs, acapella?” Brian suggested.

They huddled together, discussing what song they could sing acapella and began to sound out their harmonies. When they were ready, they turned back to the camera and waited on their former leader.

Kevin counted them in, “One, two, three…”

They began to sing the song they thought would be fitting to leave them on, harmonizing with each other perfectly, “Everybody, yeah… rock your body, yeah… everybody, rock your body right.”

“Rock your body right!” AJ belted out.

“Backstreet’s back ALRIGHT!!”

~*~*~*~

“Right through here ma’am.” a prison guard said as he led a young, blonde female through the halls and over to the cubicle where a criminal was waiting.

“Thank you.” she replied, “I’ve got it from here.”

“Yes ma’am.” the prison guard nodded as he watched her walk over towards the waiting criminal. She was a beautiful blonde bombshell, who wore big, white framed sunglasses. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail with a fashionable hair scarf wrapped around her head. She wore a simple creamed colored dress, a large fashion designer bag slung on her shoulder. Her red pumps and red lips stood out painfully, her heels clacking on the cold, hard tile in a steady rhythm.

She sat herself down on the chair that was positioned there, staring at the man she came to visit and speak to. A plexiglas is what stood between her and the criminal, and on the side of them were two black telephones. Slowly, the man reached out and picked the phone up off the receiver. A few seconds later, the woman did the same.

“Hello.” he started off.

The woman simply continued to stare at him, “What… happened.” she bit out in a low, menacing tone.

“We had them all, we really did!” the man blurted out.

“Will you be quiet!” she seethed in a whisper. “We’re still in a place where people can fucking hear you!”

“James and Adrianna captured them all in the house… I-I’m not sure what happened after that!” he explained in a softer tone.

The woman pushed her sunglasses further up the bridge of her nose as she began to massage her temples, “I’ll tell you what happened Rick… you guys were only supposed to capture TWO of them, that’s it, not five, but two. I told you guys if you had to kill the other three, then do it, but I only wanted two of them to be brought back to me, alive. I paid you all for a fucking reason, how hard was that?”

Rick remained silent for a while, contemplating if he should reveal the change of plans James and Adrianna had come up with. He figured, perhaps if he told her, she could help him break out of this place. “James had a change of plans when he realized that these guys you had us going after were celebrities. He figured he could make more money off of making them hostages then he could have received from you. Yo-you didn’t tell us who we were dealing with!”

“Because it didn’t matter!” the woman snapped back. “I paid you guys, and your guys’ job was to only get the two that, ironically, were the first to get away and get help, and bring them back to me alive. But instead, you all decided to be so selfish and now look, a sabotaged plan that left both James and Adrianna dead. And now, here we are… you’re all locked up, those guys are walking around and I’m back to square one.”

“I-I wasn’t apart of their plan! I can get those two for you all by myself, I promise you, I can!”

The woman simply shook her head as she stood up, “They always say when you want something done, you have to do it yourself…”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Rick cried out his apology.

“Oh, you will be.” the woman replied in a dark tone as she began to walk out. “But it won’t matter.”

Rick watched as the young woman left. “Fucking bitch.” he growled out under his breath as he stood up from where he sat and was led out by a prison guard.

“It’s lunch for you guys.” the guard spoke out as he led Rick out to the large dining hall, where the other prisoners had already gathered to grab their food to eat.

Rick immediately spotted Bobby, Dennis, Richard and Zack, who were all seated at a table, already eating their food. Rick got in line to grab his meal and made his way over towards them. “That woman’s a fucking bitch!” was all he said as he sat down next to Dennis.

“What’d she say?” Richard asked as he scooped up a heaping spoonful of mush that was supposed to be meatloaf. “Is she gonna bust us outta this joint?”

“She just reiterated what the plan was supposed to be… I swear, if it wasn’t for fucking James and that bitch of his, we’d still be free men, roaming around with a shitload of money in our pockets.”

“That’s what happens when you bite the hand that feeds you.” Bobby growled out as he slammed his fist down on the table, rattling their metal trays and causing a few burly prisoners to look their way.

Before another word was said, a group of big, muscular prisoners approached them from behind. The five of them turned around to address the group of Mexican gangsters, who were now just staring at them. “Can we help you?” Bobby asked in a gruff tone, trying to bluff, which no one bought.

“Courtesy of Layla.” was all the leader said before the gang immediately rushed and pulled the five up from where they sat and began to beat them relentlessly, stabbing them over and over with their makeshift weapons.

~*~*~*~

Her heels clacked painfully against the pavement as she walked out from the prison and towards a waiting vehicle. She smiled as the guards that had followed her out immediately turned around and began running back into the building, yelling out that there was a riot going on.

“I guess those guys accepted our gifts.” the driver said as the woman, named Layla, opened the car door and climbed into the passenger side. “It was an offer they couldn’t refuse.”

“Made sure those five dumbasses won’t EVER speak of our propositions with them.” Layla replied as she flipped down the overhead visor and began to look herself over in the mirror. She removed the scarf that was wrapped around her head, along with the blonde ponytail wig, allowing her short, dark brown hair to cascade down to her shoulders. She removed her sunglasses and ruffled her hair a bit as she settled back into the seat.

“I love it when you mess your hair like that, you’re so fucking hot!” the man growled as he reached over to grab her, pulling her close to him and smashing his mouth onto hers, kissing her deeply. “With the way you can easily disguise yourself, you never cease to amaze me.”

She leaned forward to catch him in another kiss, nibbling on his lower lip before she pulled away, “You love anything I do Daryl.”

Daryl gave a sultry smile as he turned the car on and threw it into reverse, pulling out of the parking lot. “We’re the modern day Bonnie and Clyde.”

Layla simply grinned, pearly white teeth peeking out from her harsh, red tainted lips, “That we are baby, that we are…”

“Where off to now?” he asked as he drove down the road.

She remained silent for a while, formulating a plan that suddenly came to her as they drove away from the prison, “Lets go get my man… and our money.”