hardy boys fan fiction
THE INVISIBLE MAN
hardy boys nancy drew fan fiction
by
Duckling
Chapter 6
hardy boys fan fiction
THE CHAPTERS
Joe looked at Frank. “Do you want to stay inside the van?” He was secretly hoping that his older brother would; he didn’t want to worry about losing him while he was busy with the repairs. But Frank promptly signaled “No.” Joe leaned over to release his brother’s safety harness.
“Let’s see how creative the girls got,” Joe said with a sigh, reaching down to pop the hood. He hopped out, went round to the passenger side and opened the door. After counting to five, he shut it. Walking back to the front of the van, he raised the hood and peered inside.
As Joe did a quick assessment, Frank smiled in amusement. It looked like the girls had thoroughly enjoyed trashing the van’s engine.
Finally the blond boy straightened back up with a sigh. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that someone was mighty mad at me.”
Frank, meanwhile, had circled the van, inspecting it for any other mischief. He soon spotted two flats on the rear tires. Poor Joe, he thought with a trace of compassion, We’ll be lucky if he can get all this repaired before tomorrow morning. Thinking it best to warn Joe of the flat tires, Frank returned to the front of the vehicle, where his brother was half-hidden under the hood.
He quickly tapped on the younger boy’s elbow. Joe immediately looked up, seemingly into Frank’s own eyes. The older boy had been amazed at how well Joe could sense where he was, and he was grateful for Joe’s determination to look his invisible brother in the face. It made Frank feel almost visible again.
“Yes, Frank?” Joe asked patiently.
Suddenly remembering the message he wanted to convey, Frank signaled the blond teen to follow him. Joe allowed himself to be led by Frank’s touch on the arm, halting at one of the rear tires when Frank squeezed “stop.” Looking down at the flat tire, the blond boy groaned. He continued around to the other side only to find that one too had been punctured.
“Now I know they’re mad at me.” He squatted to the ground for a closer inspection. Shaking his head with yet another sigh, he stood back up. “And those were brand new tires, too.”
“I guess I should fuss around a bit longer with the engine until I can conveniently discover the flat tires and call mom and dad.” He looked glumly over at his brother. “I’ll never get it all fixed tonight. It might even take days.”
Frank patted him on the back. Joe took great pride in keeping the van running well; seeing all his hard work destroyed had to be rather disheartening.
The younger boy returned, a bit sadly, to his impossible task.
***
Laura Hardy was furious. The elder Hardys had been a bit miffed by the boys’ failure to return at their accustomed time or phone home with some sort of excuse, but when Joe finally called and explained that someone had seriously disabled the van, she grew livid. While not a mechanic by any means, she could at least appreciate the extent of the damage as her son miserably rattled off a list of slashed hoses, punctured tires, and cut wires. Glancing at the clock, she realized with exasperation that they would never be able to make their appointment now, even if Fenton left to pick the boys up immediately.
Joe had refused her offer to have someone come over and help, explaining that he had called a tow-truck and had arranged to take the van to a repair shop a friend’s father owned. Joe had been granted the privilege of hanging around the shop at odd hours and lending a hand; it had been an excellent way for him to hone his skills. Someone would drop the brothers off at home later, he promised.
She glared at the phone as she replaced it back in its cradle, upset at the fiends who had vandalized the van. On the whole, it was relatively harmless mischief. But the repairs would most likely be expensive, even with Joe doing them himself. Her irritation with her sons had been transferred to the vandals, and magnified to white-hot anger. Pausing a minute to get a handle on her emotions, she jumped at the strident voice behind her.
“Whatever is taking those young rascals so long!” complained Gertrude Hardy, Fenton’s elder sister. “We’re going to be late for the photo session. Ours is the last appointment for the day.”
Laura sighed and turned to face her sister-in-law. “Some hoodlums decided to vandalize the boys’ van,” she explained curtly. “Someone ripped out a lot of wires, slashed the hoses and punctured two tires.”
The two women exchanged angry glances.
“The boys stayed and did their homework at the library, thinking they’d have plenty of time to get home and get ready. Joe said he didn’t realize the extent of the damage at first, and tried to fix it himself. Had he known, he would have called as soon as they discovered it.”
“Well, there’s not much to be done about it, I suppose,” Gertrude conceded. “Poor Joe. You can’t really fault him for taking the time to try to fix it himself.”
Laura looked over at the older woman in surprise. While she loved her nephews dearly, the tall woman tended to be rather sharp with the boys, hiding her affection under a mountain of mild complaints and scoldings.
“Yes,” Laura agreed with a small smile. Then she sighed. “I think that’s what got me so angry. The poor boy sounded utterly devastated. He spends hours on that van.”
“Well,” Gertrude stated decisively, as she replaced her coat on the coat rack. “I’d best call the photographer’s and let them know we aren’t coming. Such a shame, too.”
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The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The Hardy Boys Fan Fiction authors of the Hardy Detective Agency have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.