Chapter 7: Collaboration

Jennifer sighed. What a day.

It was last period, and she was stuck in an algebra test. The test was done, but she'd decided to savor the last few minutes alone: Courtney had finished already and was probably standing outside. Will this never end?

Looking back over the last three days, she couldn't help but think that if there was a story about her life, the author probably would have skipped over them. The strange girl had stuck to her like glue, or something else that sticks to you all the time. Most of the supernatural stuff had stopped after the first day, after gym class, when dodgeball had gotten out of hand. (She'd defended herself saying, "Oh come on! The teacher was counting down the line, one-two-one! You know all the good players switched places to be on the same team. I was just evening the odds!") Of course, there were still plenty of strange things about her. For one thing, she understood English perfectly, but she didn't know how to write! She said written languages weren't worth knowing if you knew how to speak them! The teacher had just stared at her.

Then there was drama class, when they had to do trust exercises. The idea of falling backward into another's arms has been somewhat overdone, which kind of removes the 'trust' issue. Courtney had found a way to reintroduce that need for trust by catching her about six inches off the ground. A handful of jocks then tried to copy her, which of course led to disaster. Something about the way she could mysteriously apply pressure down the entire back, but they could only catch the shoulders. It was actually pretty funny to watch.

And probably the most disconcerting "coincidence" was that of her two best friends, Clare and Brittney. Clare had gotten a new boyfriend that she always hung out with, nothing unusual there, but Brittney had won a vacation to Hawaii. From a contest that she didn't remember having entered. Yeah…right. That happens all the time.

Sighing again, she finally got up and headed for the door. No point delaying the inevitable. But then, Courtney wasn't there. Jen looked around warily and went for her locker, feeling…lucky? Maybe that was it. She got what she needed from her locker and walked out the front door of the school. And there stood Courtney.

"Do okay on the test?" she asked pleasantly.

"Whatever." Jen slumped her shoulders and trudged down the steps. Courtney fell in beside her.

"I was wondering if you want to grab something to eat."

"Maybe." Another thing Jen had learned: this girl was loaded. If you have to be followed everywhere, it's nice if the person buys you food and stuff.

"Cool. I just found this place downtown."

"Really? For what?"

"Pizza."

Jen froze. Her shadow stopped after a few steps and looked back at her. "Something wrong?"

"Uh, no, I guess not. It isn't shaped like a pizza slice, is it? With an open upper level?"

"Yep, that's the one!"

Jennifer started walking again. This girl was obviously making her paranoid, making her see coincidences as a big deal. Nothing but a coincidence.

While she was thinking, Courtney did one of the small weird things she did. She reached for her right shoulder, where she had a bright red tattoo in the shape of a rose. Then she physically reached her hand into it and drew out an odd looking cell phone. Jen didn't even notice anymore. She flipped it open and pressed a few buttons. After a few seconds, a teenage boy's face appeared on its screen. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," was all he said, and the screen blinked off. For a second, Jen noticed that Courtney was gritting her teeth, and the tips of her hair were pointing upward slightly. Then she relaxed and smiled.

"Aren't you going to ask who that was?" her face looked genuinely friendly. How does she do that?

"Let me guess; you have a boyfriend who's psychic."

Courtney just stared at her. Then she laughed. "How'd you know?"

Jen groaned.

"Actually," Courtney continued, "He's not my boyfriend. And he's not really psychic. He just wants people to think that."

"Great. And is he as annoying as you?"

"You have no idea."

"Is he gonna to go all stalker on me, like you did?"

"Ask him yourself." Courtney pointed over her shoulder. "He's followed us for two blocks. I figured I'd annoy him by not stopping to introduce you."

Jennifer whirled around and saw a blond teen dressed in all black striding after them. Courtney turned and waved, and he returned the gesture.

"Hey," was all he said when he reached them.

"Hey," Courtney responded. "You look like you just woke up."

It was true. The teen's back was stooped and his eyes… looked exhausted.

"Yeah, well, I slept in."

"It's past 3 o'clock."

"Like I said, I slept in."

They were approaching the pizza place now, so the conversation turned to pizza toppings. Several minutes later, the trio sat eating on the second floor.

Jennifer finally felt like speaking up, so she turned to the newcomer. "By the way, who are you?"

They both looked up from their food. Courtney spoke first.

"Sorry, I forgot. This is John. He's a friend from my old school"

John nodded. "Pleased to meet you, Jen." She wasn't surprised.

A few more minutes passed in silence. Finally, John spoke up again.

"There goes another one. This city is killing me!"

Courtney frowned. "How far is it?"

He pointed. "Right there, actually. I got it, don't worry."

"I can get it if you want."

"No, I'm good."

With that, he stood and walked to the edge of the roof. Courtney followed, and Jen tagged along. With one impressive move, John vaulted the railing and landed on the street below. He started walking down the street to where he'd pointed.

"What's he doing?" Jennifer asked.

"What you used to do every day, I expect. Watch and see if you want your old life back, okay?"

Jen said nothing, but a part of her was seething. Just leave me alone already, you freaks!

On the street, a mother and daughter were walking side by side, carrying their shopping bags. Just when Jen looked, the girl's fingers slipped and she dropped one of the bags. Something small and round rolled out, bouncing along the sidewalk. The girl, maybe 8 years old, took off running after the ball, while the mother bent down to grab the rest of the things. Then the ball rolled out away from the curb. That's not good! Jen realized as the girl charged after it. John was standing across the street now. Coincidentally, a large truck had just turned the corner and was rumbling down the street towards them. John strode quickly into the street and kicked the ball back toward the little girl.

She watched it go by her with an open mouth, but didn't stop running.

"Cute kid," Courtney mumbled.

When he realized that she wasn't going to stop, John dashed toward her. The truck driver, finally aware of his part in the accident, slammed his brakes and pounded the horn. With a great leap sideways, John snatched up the girl and twisted so she was on top of him. A disk of light started to form beneath them, but its formation was too slow. It shattered as John fell through it, and he skidded a foot along the asphault. Jen's jaw dropped as she watched the truck surge in front of them, missing by a few inches. Apparently the truck driver didn't feel like sticking around. The mother barely had time to switch from calm to hysterical to relieved, so she opted for a strange combination of all three. "Oh, thank you! Thank you! What were you doing out there Casey? You could have died! Oh, what would I have done? But you're safe now, darling." John was already jogging back to the restaurant. Jennifer was speechless.

He jumped back up to the second story. "Well, that didn't go as planned," he commented.

"Yeah, it's almost like you're losing your touch," Courtney chided him.

"If I am, it's not from a lack of practice. This place is keeping me busy."

"So, Jennifer." Courtney was back to business. "Want to guess what would have happened if we weren't here?"

"No." Jen looked down.

"Want to guess how many people you would have saved if you never stopped being a superhero?"

All of a sudden Jennifer felt anger overwhelm her. "Shut up! Shut up already! Is this the only reason you came here? I'm not special, okay? I don't have any supernatural powers I can use to save the world! Just leave me alone!" She was about to leave, but her feet were pressed to the floor by an unnatural force. A similar force kept her from falling over when she tried to turn anyway and lost her balance.

They were both glaring at her. Courtney's eyes were glowing red, and her voice was layered when she spoke.

"Little Casey's still down there, you know. It's not too late for you to run over there and beat her to death, if you want her to die that much. I'll even hold her down for you."

---

Starfire flew though the air, enjoying it thoroughly. She always enjoyed flying. She was headed for the pizza parlor they always went to, but since Robin usually paid, she'd almost forgotten to bring her purse with her money in it.

Glancing down, she noticed a storefront that interested her, so she landed and went inside. After spending several minutes inside but buying nothing, she came out again. Just as she was about to take off, she heard voices shouting nearby.

"Look at him go!"

"What…woah!"

"What's up with him?"

Starfire turned to look just in time to see Beast Boy slice through the air above her. She didn't have time to think, but she took off after him right away. He turned a corner, and when she followed, she saw that he was in human form...mostly. A pair of massive bat wings had sprouted from his back and he was using them to fly recklessly through the city.

---

Beast Boy didn't know what he felt. He was part frantic, part excited, part dreading seeing her again. All he knew was as long as he was looking for her he'd know what to do. When he found her, things would get confusing again. On the bright side, his wings were working perfectly. A whole new world was open to him now, with the idea of partial transformations. He felt the strain, but the ability to fly so well was definitely worth it.

He'd tried the school, but it was done for the day. He'd tried a handful of other places as well, and now he was just doing random patterns. Maybe he'd try the pizza place next, he decided suddenly. He turned a few corners, and there it was. He thought he saw a uniform from her school, but it was so far away. Time for another partial transformation: eagle eyes.

It didn't work very well. Without any practice, he only succeeded in blurring his vision badly. He was dimly aware that he was getting closer to the pizza place, still trying to fly straight and fix his eyes at the same time. It was kind of like walking and chewing gum: Beast Boy couldn't do that either.

The changeling barely managed to make out the rooftop, so he banked down to land on it. With a series of loud crashing sounds, he ended up sprawled out on a table. Finally, he could focus on his eyes again.

"Uh, who's that?"

"I think it's Beast Boy. He's one of the Teen Titans."

"Oh, I've heard of him. Is he okay?"

"Hey Beast Boy, you okay over there?"

"I have to go, now," a third voice said. Somehow that girl's voice was familiar to him.

"What?" the other voices said in unison. He couldn't tell, but he thought he heard running footsteps before they stopped abruptly.

Beast Boy finally stood up, able to see again. No more experiments for a while. He shook his head to clear it completely, then looked around. A familiar teen was standing in front of him, looking a little surprised.

"That was a dramatic entrance," Recoil commented. Beast Boy recognized him instantly, from the surveillance tapes. He looked past Robin's new rival, remembering why he was there. A black-haired girl was standing by the door, wearing the Jump High school uniform. He sighed heavily. Not her.

"Hey, Recoil," he said tiredly.

"You want some pizza?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

They both sat down and grabbed slices of pizza. Beast Boy found himself staring at the girl he'd thought was Terra. She was still standing there, looking awkward.

"Who's that?" he asked.

Recoil glanced over. "She's a friend of mine. She, uh, gets nervous around strangers."

"Oh." Beast Boy didn't seem interested.

As soon as he looked away, Seraphic made a face at Recoil. He'd pay for that later, but right now she had to stand here, making sure "Jennifer" was pinned to the wall inside a small alcove by the door, her mouth covered as well. A lot of strange coincidences just happen to make things easier when you're working with that guy. It was the truth, no use denying it.

Jennifer was glaring poisoned daggers at her from the shadows, but Seraphic figured deep down the girl was glad Beast Boy had shown up. Something about the way her heartbeat had nearly tripled when she saw him. She's like an open book…

"Beast Boy, can I ask you something?"

The changeling looked up from his slice. "Yeah?"

"I need to know…Ah, never mind."

"What?"

"Beast Boy, you know I'm a psychic, right?"

"That's what you told Robin."

"Well, normally I'd just use my ability to get all the information I need from you, then I'd say the exact thing you need to hear to be impressed. I've gotten pretty good at that."

"Okay…"

"The truth is, I'm really tired right now. I've been reading minds constantly for days, and I don't want to go to all that trouble, so I'm just going to ask you to fill me in, okay?"

"Is my reputation really that bad?" Beast Boy crossed his arms, insulted. "I know I'm not the smartest hero around, but come on!"

"Oh, so her name is Terra. Thanks, Beast Boy."

The Titan just stared at him, frozen in shock.

"I can still do it, I just really don't feel like it right now. If you talk to me honestly, I'll share some of my information with you."

"What do you want to know about Terra?" Beast Boy demanded, then, "Wait! What do you know about Terra?"

"I know that she has lost some or all of her memory. I know that she believes that her name is Jennifer and she has gone to Jump High School for the last few years. It is obvious from her situation that she was not a normal human before, as she not only forgot who she was, but she had alternate memories attached to her, probably against her will. Now it's your turn. How do you know her?"

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Xephyr: Hello everybody! I'm an extension of Critic's personality, here to provide comic backup! Yeah…I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Critic: I know I haven't written in like 2 weeks or so, and I'm very sorry. I'll try to keep up the pace I had before, but I am in college, and I'm not exactly getting perfect grades here. I was wondering if maybe an extra segment at the end of each chapter would keep me interested in the story itself. Oh, and some FEEDBACK would be nice.

Xephyr: I'm actually a character in this story, but my entrance is so far off Critic decided to give me some lines to keep me occupied before my debut. So I'll be here for a while, commenting on the storyline and stuff in the life of the author until I get to join the fun. I'll try to keep it shor-

Critic: Time's up! I'm gonna post the chapter now, so my friend Xephyr will have to wait. I'll probably finish the next chapter in a day or two anyway.

Next Chapter: Deviation