Author's Note: This is a collection of one-shots based around the universe "Catalyst" established.
This particular one-shot is a universe onto itself, as other one-shots lead to another series I won't post on there, where Jimmy regains his sanity at a price.
One last note- this is quite possibly the most disturbing one-shot in this series.
The cold metal hand of science had never steered him wrong. While it had deprived him of his family and friends, he considered it a small price to pay for the ability to invent without limitation. The weak protests of a disobedient dog were nothing compared to the glory of...what, exactly? What was so glorious in inventing things for people who never deserved them? Those who bestowed upon him a delicate word, an embrace, did so out of fear or anticipation of windfall. However, they were not science as he constructed it. They were alive, not artificial. As such, Jimmy avoided them. Jimmy avoided everything he could not manipulate.
He made a Cindy doll once. It was a trifling, trite thing that lacked her warmth. Of course, she had had no warmth to speak of either, none that he recalled. The doll had been more than a 'doll', but he reserved that title. A cyborg was closer, but he had designed it to care about him. There was the mistake. Jimmy permitted no one to care for himself but himself. Goddard checked to his physical needs...the boy genius lacked emotions, so emotional health was a non-issue. Yet Cindy the doll insisted that Jimmy had burned himself out and would continue to suffer until he remedied the situation. Therefore, he ended her experiment and placed it in the failure bin.
Today, he checked in on Retroville to see whether his inheritance would happen soon. The people, insignificant ants, drove by in their cars, chatted on their cell phones, and had no idea the magnificence of the boy genius they had spurned. They had never appreciated him. No one ever appreciated him.
Goddard floated beside him, but the cybernetic canine was different, better. Everything was better once Jimmy had finished with it. The dog body had gone into the wastebasket, along with Cindy's doll, and the remaining functions had been uploaded into a creature the size of an imaginary pixie. None of Goddard's personality had been retained. There was no point in remaining hopelessly backward.
He touched down to Retroville's main street. If he were not invisible, no one would have recognized him anyway. He smiled, revealing perfectly white teeth, and proceeded on his way. His legs needed exercise, or they cramped. Unfortunately, they needed upgrades that spending long hours in a lab and crouched over an invention could not easily remedy. Jimmy's last few attempts at self-surgery had nearly ended badly for him. Nearly, because the boy genius knew better than to kill himself. He knew all the ways to do it, but he was not that foolish.
He passed former neighbors, former friends, and halted by Cindy Vortex. She had grown much since last they met and her face was long and haggard. She looked dissimilar to his doll and he stared. There was not a twinge of regret or remorse for what he had done or the feelings that had passed when he was eleven. There was nothing left in him to give a damn.
In a perverse way, he was glad she was miserable. From what he recalled of their childhood, she deserved to be miserable. She had made him miserable enough to contemplate this chain of events that led to him here, alone, absent the emotions that she valued. Actually, he should be thanking her. If it were not for her actions and those of his peers, he never would have realized his true potential.
He clipped the cymbals and appeared. Cindy jumped back and screamed. Jimmy curtailed the cry and pressed a hand tightly against her mouth. She stared, eyes wide.
"Neu..." she whimpered behind his hand and he scoffed, resisting the urge to fling her into the nearest window display.
"How ever did you recognize me, Cindy?" he said cordially.
His eyes were cold, distant. The smile on his face looked wrong. His whole face looked wrong. Jimmy had replaced everything flesh with electronics and his blue eyes buzzed in their sockets. Even if they were capable of human emotion, which Cindy doubted, they reflected the man within more than ever.
His cheeks were flesh colored steel. His hair was thick, falling in brown sheets, but when she brushed it, it felt synthetic. Everything about Jimmy was synthetic. She bit back the strangled cry that Jimmy had prevented.
"I had wondered how you were," Jimmy said and shrugged. A small, winged metallic thing buzzed by his head. "In a passing fancy, you must understand."
He released her and she stared at him. He smirked.
"I never loved you, you know," he said, quietly. "What I considered love was nothing more than a fleeting glimpse of insanity. Now, of course, I am much better."
She shivered and opened her mouth to object, but he clamped his hand over it again.
"And all good things must come to an end, Cindy."
He kissed his hand over her lips and chuckled. It was inhuman, like everything else about him. She growled, her first instinct to fight. He removed his hand and patted her on the head.
"Be a good girl now. I have no more use for you."
He clapped two things on his fingers and disappeared. She reached for him and came up empty. She was so angry...was that why tears burned her cheeks?
His mother had died. Jimmy watched his father restlessly attempt to do the things his wife had done before her death. Judging by the dark clothes, wreaths, and the like, Jimmy's mother must have died recently. Jimmy filed that away, since he knew that with Judy's death, Hugh would come tumbling after. It was apparent in everything he did, everything he said, and the way he held himself.
It would be a blessing if Jimmy killed him. In fact, Hugh might even beg for it from his son. Jimmy nodded, smiling. Yes, that was good. Hugh would finally appreciate his son's gifts.
Jimmy clapped his cymbals and entered the house without a sound. Hugh turned, sensing something but unable to pinpoint it. Jimmy smiled and walked quietly to the sofa. Extending his arms, he squeezed Hugh's throat and applied just enough pressure to do what must be done.
The instant before Hugh died, Jimmy revealed himself. He called himself Hugh's angel of mercy, if angels existed.
Perhaps everyone would be better off dead, instead of suffering through life. Nevertheless, there would be more time for that later. He was not in the mood to do the world favors, no matter how much they might need it. Jimmy carried his father's body to where his old lab used to be and destroyed the corpse in a burst of laser light. There was nothing left but ash, scattering to the wind.
Well, he had come here to do what he had wanted and now, it was done. Jimmy turned to Goddard, the pixie thing, and smiled. There was nothing even remotely resembling life in Goddard's programming now, much like there was nothing in Jimmy's mind that resembled his old self. He was not insane, no, he was better. Faster. Stronger. Smarter. Less prone to the stupid acts of a dying race.
"We're going home," Jimmy remarked quietly. "Leave the porch light on."
He smiled as Goddard lit the Neutron's porch. In a few hours, the ghosts would have police company. There would be an investigation, but Jimmy had no intention of playing host.
He regretted nothing. There was no such thing as regret, only wasted opportunities.