This is my first 70s Show fic. Those of you who know the TV Show "Misfits" (go watch!) will notice that this story is a kind of crossover-not crossover. I just took the main idea of Misfits and applied it to our beloved gang, that's all. Everything else is not related to Misfits and events will not play out like they do in the show... Because that would be boring and not very creative of me. So if you don't know it: No harm done, you can still enjoy this fic. :)

Thanks goes to my beta reader HydeLuver!

1. Tyranny and Mutation (great Blue Öyster Cult album)

Point Place
Summer, 1978
Forman's basement

Steven Hyde let his head fall back and sighed contentedly. He was lounging on the beaten couch with his eyes closed behind dark shades, listening to Blue Öyster Cult's "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll." He was blissfully alone in the house and right now, no sounds could be heard except for Buck Dharma's and Eric Bloom's guitars. Heaven.
The rest of the gang - minus Donna and Kelso who were probably on the road somewhere in Utah - had gone out to The Hub. Well, all except Eric had gone to The Hub. Hyde's skinny best friend had been dragged there. He had been dragged there by minuscule Jackie Burkhart, no less. Quite embarrassing, even for Forman's standards, Hyde thought. Kitty had gone to some church meeting and, much like his son, Red had been dragged along. Always one to seize a good opportunity when one presented itself, Hyde had stayed behind. Between a screeching Jackie, yelling Eric and a very confused Fez, it had been quite easy to do so without them noticing.
Of course, he knew that Eric needed all the cheering up he could get and his best friend's current situation didn't exactly leave him cold but, seriously, Steven Hyde was just a human being after all. Eric and especially Jackie were driving him up the wall. If he had to spend one more goddamn evening listening to a never ending stream of "Donna, Donna, Donna, why am I such a skinny loser, Donna, Donna, Donna" and "Kelso, Kelso, Kelso, I'm a princess, Kelso, Kelso, Kelso, when will he come back?" he would completely lose his Zen and start with the ass-kicking. And Fez wasn't exactly helping either. The eternal exchange student never told them to shut the hell up, like Hyde did. Instead he kept talking about his virginity, which seemed to be eternal as well, and Big Rhonda of all people. Even high out of their minds they still kept to their whining. The only reason Hyde still started circles these days was that it helped him keep his calm. As soon as Kelso and Donna returned, they would get the ass-kicking of their lives. Well, Kelso would get twice the ass-kicking of his life since kicking Donna was pretty much out of the question. They hadn't even been gone a week now and already Hyde had to suffer the consequences of their abrupt departure. It was still early days but he didn't really believe that Forman and Devil Girl would get over their broken hearts and egos any time soon. Man, it was times like these he completely knew he was right to not do this relationship shit. It did your head in. Just look at Forman. He had never been the most masculine guy around but this disaster his on again off again relationship with Donna had become was slowly but surely turning him into a shadow of the wimp he had been before. Hyde had to admit that that was more Eric's than Donna's fault. Still, without their relationship none of this would have happened. And Kelso? He was still the biggest joke of them all. Running away from Jackie. Sure, she was annoying as hell and Hyde himself thought that having to marry her would probably be worse than a lifetime prison sentence, but hey, she was like what, five feet tall and about as threatening as … a butterfly or some girly crap like that. Kelso should have been able to just tell her NO without leaving the state. What a dumbass.
Jackie's reaction to all this didn't surprise him though. She was acting as self-centered and spoiled as ever. Kelso wouldn't give her what she wanted for the first time in… ever, really, and she kept whining about it like a five-year-old. Plus, now that she didn't have Kelso to boss around anymore, she was starting to try it with the rest of them. Fez had always been putty in her hands and did what she wanted anyways but Forman used to not take up with her crap. Now? He still complained, sure, but he lacked his former determination and wit and ultimately just gave in. Thankfully, she hadn't started in on Hyde yet. There had been a moment right after Kelso's escape when he had nearly anticipated it. She always came running to him when she was sad. This time, she seemed to have skipped "sad" and gone right on to "pissed off", though. So Hyde still had to listen to her complain, complain, complain every time she was here but at least he wasn't the one being pushed around.
He suddenly realized that the music had stopped and all he heard now was the static sound of the record still spinning after the last song on this side had ended. Damn. He had completely missed "Redeemed", his favorite on this album and why? Just because he had been thinking about his loser friends. Even now they were ruining his evening and they weren't even-

"Hyde."

Here. Right in front of the sofa, all three of them. Great.

"Where have you been, man? How could you just let Ice Princess here kidnap me?"

"You could at least have said something, Steven. That was just rude."

"They are driving me crazy, Hyde!"

Before he could stop himself, he abruptly jumped up from the sofa and pushed Fez over in the process.

"Listen up, Forman" he said in a dark voice, completely ignoring Fez who got up again and was about to have a fit,"I've said it before but I'm not going to say this again so get this through your fat head- You're like a brother to me man, but right now you're even more annoying than Kelso and I don't know how long I can handle that without killing you with something heavy. You fucked up and you know it. Either do something about it or forever hold your damn peace, Mr. I-Don't-Want-To-Be-Second-Choice-To-Casey-Kelso. Oh, and protect you from Dolly McScreechface here? How old are you, five? And YOU!"

He turned to Jackie who had just opened her mouth to give him a new nickname of her own. "What is wrong with you? No, wait, you know what, that would take too long. Just stop fucking talk about that idiot all the time. I swear, my head is about to explode from it. And Fez…." The slightly smaller man looked up expectantly, waiting for an apology."

"You're just weird, man. And now… Be right back."

He turned around, climbed over the back of the sofa and disappeared in his room leaving behind three stunned people.

Eric was the first to speak: "I'm not annoying."

"Yes, you are" came the impromptu reply from Jackie and Fez.

The only girl left in the group crossed her arms. "I'm not talking about the idiot all of the time."

"Yes, you are."

Hyde was back and fifteen minutes later the four of them were sitting around the low coffee table. Hyde was back on his chair, Fez on the other one and the dumbed ones on the sofa.

"This is… much better." Hyde smiled and blew out some smoke. "Much, much better. I don't even remember why I flipped out like that."

"What's so special about California anyway?" Jackie fell back against the back of the sofa and stared up at the ceiling.
"It's starting to come back to me…" Hyde mumbled.

"At least the two of you had someone. Who did Fez ever have? No one!"

"Fez…" Eric spoke up, "Believe me you're better off where you are. I mean, I had Donna. I had her. And what did I do? I suddenly got big ideas and sent her away because I didn't want to be second choice! I should be lucky my stupid name was on the list at all."

Fez nodded after seeming thoughtful for a few seconds. "You're right, Eric. I guess it is better not to find the love of your life then losing her forever, like you did and- OW, Hyde! That hurt!" He held his head where an empty beer can had just hit him.

"Just cut it out guys. What's done is done. Just be cool, be-"

Jackie held out a hand. "If you're going to tell me to be Zen again, I'll kick you where it counts."

"Fine then, Midget. Eric and Fez be Zen, you just be mute and invisible."

The three of them fell silent but it wasn't the sort of comfortable silence Hyde would have hoped for after some fun talking. Jackie was glaring daggers at him. Hyde would have liked to strangle her himself. Fez didn't seem too impressed with him as well and Eric was still wallowing in his own misery. Not that there had been any fun talk in the last couple of days. He hadn't even gotten around to telling them about this amazing car he had read about. It ran on water and…. Come to think of it maybe he had already told them.

After a few minutes Eric sat up straight, a concentrated look on his face. "You hear that?"

"What?" Hyde asked.

"It sounds like it's raining outside."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "Well, duh, because it is. It already started right before we got back here but you were too busy with your skinny self to notice. Sounds like it turned into a little storm."
Now that he actually paid attention to it, Hyde could hear the rainfall and wind outside. He still didn't get why it was so important to Forman though. Yeah, it was unusual for this time of year but not unheard of.
"No!" Eric jumped up and frantically looked around. "My mother asked me to cover some of the vegetables in the garden. I totally forgot. She'll be angry and Red will kick my ass."

Hyde took a deep breath and got up. "We'll help you, man. I don't want you to have another reason to sulk and ruin my mood."

Jackie got up and poked Hyde in the chest. "Why would I help? It's not my problem he's too dumb to remember something as simple as that."

He took off his glasses for a moment and rubbed his forehead in exasperation. Then he suddenly had an idea and put the glasses back on. "You don't have to help us. We wouldn't want you to get hurt or do something wrong."

Then he stepped around her and it only took her a few seconds to react just as planned.

"Me do something wrong?! I am going to help but only to make sure you airheads don't muck it up."
She then rushed to the door and stepped outside into the heavy rainfall. Fez and Hyde followed. Eric quickly grabbed a big blue tarp from next to the freezer and ran after them.

Once outside Hyde watched Jackie with a smirk on his face. She was the most infuriating person he knew and more often than not he'd like to kill her but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy seeing her soaked in the rain. That she was pissed off as hell was just an added bonus.

"Over here!" Forman said loudly over the sounds of the storm and pointed at a small vegetable patch a few meters away. Hyde's sunglasses were dangling from his t-shirt collar but it was still too dark outside to really see anything. Every now and then lightning flashed across the sky but it only made it harder to see after it got dark again. He didn't care what they were about to cover up anyway, he just wanted to get it over with. Rain always did funny things to his hair. Not that he would ever have said something like that out loud.

When they finally spread the tarp out, it was nearly ripped out of their hands, because the wind was getting stronger by the second.

"What is wrong with the weather in your country?" Fez screamed, frantically holding onto the tarp. They somehow managed to get it down to the ground and for a moment it looked as though Jackie was about to be blown away.

One can always hope, Hyde thought.

They proceeded to secure the tarp with rocks that were outlining the patch and suddenly something in the air seemed to change. For a second, everything seemed to come to a stop. Then there was a loud CRACK, bright light and then-

Only darkness. No sound, nothing.

And just as suddenly, the storm came back. Hyde was lying on his back. The first thing he saw when he looked around was the tarp hanging in one of the trees. Then he noticed Jackie who was lying next to him covering her eyes. He sat up and just then Eric did the same. He was a few meters away and shook his head, looking confused.

"Are we dead?" Jackie said sounding very scared and Hyde only heard her because he was right next to her.

"Um… I hope not. I don't want to spend eternity in Forman's garden…. Are you okay?"

She peeked through her fingers and shook her head.

"Are you hurt?"

"I don't think so."

"Okay." He got up and gripped her by the elbow, pulling her to her feet. They walked over to Eric and Hyde felt the tiny brunette clinging to the back of his t-shirt. There was scared and sad Jackie again.

"You okay, man? What the hell was that, it seemed like we were-"
"Struck by lightning, yeah… How are we still alive?"

Hyde didn't know what to say to that so instead he looked around for Fez.

"Where's Fez? ... FEZ!"

They kept looking for a minute or so but deep down they were all nervous to still be out in this weather after what had just happened to them. Whatever it had been. They went back inside and after telling Jackie to finally let go of his Doors shirt, he went back into his room. Fez wasn't there either. That was weird. How long had they been out cold? It couldn't have been more than a minute, tops.

When he came out again Eric was sitting on the sofa and Jackie had grabbed one of the clean towels out of the tumbler and was drying her hair.

"That was really weird, man. Did all of you see that bright light or was it just me being high?"

Eric shook his head. "We're all a bit high but I saw that light too and I don't think we would imagine the same thing."

"I saw it too." Jackie said and went over to stand right next to Hyde, another towel wrapped around her shoulders.

"Do you think something happened to Fez?" She asked and bit her lip.

Again, Hyde didn't know what to say. Bitchy Jackie he could handle, but scared Jackie? Not so much. So he just went over to the laundry and got himself a towel as well. Then it happened.

He turned around again and saw Eric still sitting. He put the towel to his face for just two seconds to stop the water from running into his eyes and when he looked again there was Fez, right between him and Forman. He looked pretty scared but that was nothing compared to Jackie who started to scream and took a frantic step back, tumbling over a stack of records. Eric screamed as well, jumped and promptly fell behind the sofa.

Later Hyde would be very proud that he had managed to stand perfectly still even though Fez' sudden appearance in the middle of the room had scared him as well. He would also wish that he had been standing closer to Jackie, because what happened next was even scarier.

She tried to get up again but somehow couldn't. That was when Forman decided to be a gentleman, or maybe he just wanted to get further away from Fez. Whatever the reason, he got up quickly and went over to her. He held out his hand to her and when she reached for it he suddenly jerked her up violently and pressed her to him.

"God, I want you."

Neither Hyde nor Fez moved at first, because they thought they weren't hearing right. Eric was standing with his back to them and they couldn't see his face so surely they must have misheard. But then Jackie began to wiggle and yell and Eric just grabbed her tighter and started to pull on her hair.

That got them going and Fez was the first one to reach them. He grabbed Eric's hand in Jackie's hair and used his other hand to take one of hers that was clawing at Eric's arm. Just when Hyde joined them, Fez's grip tightened and he began to kick Eric's shin.

"No, I want her!"

Hyde opened his mouth but nothing came out. What the hell?

That's it for the first chapter. (Small "warning": The others will be longer.)

All Eric fans out there: My main focus is on H/J but E/D will also come up every now and then. Don't worry though - Donna will not have it too easy. ;)

I'm a bit nervous because I've only ever written for Harry Potter so far and never in English, so please write a review if you enjoyed it (or didn't :'D). Thank you and see you in chapter 2: "American Beauty"!