Chapter 11: If You Were to Ask Her
If you were to ask her, she would not be able to offer an explanation. She didn't understand why she acted the way she did around him. Sheen and Libby had such a sweet and innocent relationship, but her relationship was naturally competitive, heated and complicated. If she had the option to hug him or trip him, she would definitely trip him before hugging him, or perhaps just trip him. She wouldn't have any regrets either, because he would do the exact same thing to her. That was just the way they worked. Any form of display of affection between the two of them was completely spontaneous, which made those moments they did share that much more meaningful. However, almost immediately afterwards, they would be back at each other's throats. It was an unintentional cycle between the two of them, and if you were to ask her why, she would not be able to offer an explanation. That was just the way they worked, and she wouldn't have it any other way.
In fact, since they had just finished arguing, it was about time the cycle switched sides. They had finally gotten out of the caves, and were trekking across some kind of woodsy space. Jimmy was absorbed in some kind of calculations involving the amount of fuel they had left in the ship and Goddard was sniffing the ground with his tail pointed in tracking mode. That left Cindy to wander a few paces behind them, bored out of her mind. She kicked clumps of grass here and there, sending the patches flying into the trees, leveling out the ground before her. She sighed and looked up from the ground a little too late to notice that the boy genius had stopped and bumped into him. Jimmy stumbled forward, but caught his balance,
"Cindy, watch where you're going!"
Cindy on the other hand, had fallen backwards onto her bottom. She quickly leapt to her feet to brush off her pants, before Jimmy could turn around to see her klutzy fall. She blew her bangs upwards in irritation,
"Watch yourself, Nerdtron! I wouldn't have bumped into you, if you had spoken up."
Jimmy rolled his eyes,
"I shouldn't have to say anything, because in an unknown environment you should be paying attention, not lost in your thoughts."
Cindy scowled,
"For your information, I wasn't thinking about anything at all."
Jimmy smirked,
"Ha, what else is new."
Cindy balled up her fists, but decided to take a deep breath and let that comment slide,
"Why did we stop anyway?"
Jimmy motioned towards Goddard,
"Goddard has detected some of the minerals I've been searching for and he's going to dig them up."
Cindy's eyes widened,
"Uhm, wait a minute. Do you mean to tell me that this whole time Goddard has been tracking minerals and not leading us in the direction of the Palace?"
Jimmy waved off her concerns,
"Relax Vortex, I told Goddard to keep running his previous command, so that he'd only search for the minerals along the same path as the directions."
Cindy's mouth gaped open,
"Neutron, the last command you gave Goddard before this one was Defense mode. Does this look anything like the surface of the Valley of Unpleasant Holes to you?"
Jimmy's calm features slowly contorted into one of alarm when this realization set upon him. Jimmy gulped,
"G-Goddard, boy, are you still on Defense mode?"
Goddard barked an affirmation.
Jimmy sunk to his knees and held his face in his hands, humiliated over his error. Cindy would have normally ripped into him for doing something so stupid, but all she could do was laugh. She held her stomach and doubled over laughing,
"And you call yourself a genius."
Jimmy glared at her,
"This is not funny, Vortex! I've delayed the arrival to our destination even more."
Cindy managed to stifle the rest of her laughter and looked around. The trees were humongous and reached for the sky. She cocked her head to the side as her gaze fell upon a thick tall tree with level branches,
"I'm going to check out the view."
Jimmy peered through his fingers up at her,
"What in puking plutonium would you do that for?"
His words were lost though, because she was already hoisting herself up through the branches. A sly smile crept across his face as he whispered,
"Goddard, fly cycle."
Cindy was halfway up the tree and panting for breath. The trees were like something out of the Redwoods back on Earth. She looked down through the branches in search of Jimmy, but she couldn't see him. She frowned, and kept climbing. After what felt like forever, she finally reached the top and sat down. They were definitely nowhere near some kind of valley filled with holes, but what lay before her erased any trace of regret, for this place was beautiful. Woods lay as far as the eye could see, and above her, the sky swirled into a mixture of pink and purple as the day came to a close. She smiled, but a sudden voice spliced through the silence,
"Hey, Vortex, how nice of you to finally join us up here."
She spun around to find Jimmy and Goddard, already sitting comfortably and few branches above her. Startled, she began to tip backwards, but Jimmy reached out, catching her wrist and pulling her up onto where he was seated. She elbowed him in the side once she was sitting comfortably,
"Neutron, you annoying little devil. You made me climb all of that while you just sailed to the top?"
Jimmy laughed while she fumed. He threw his arm around her shoulder, lightly shaking her to rid of her anger,
"Oh come on, even you have to admit how funny that is! Now quit being a sore loser and enjoy this view. You had a great idea to come up here, it's quite splendid."
A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she leaned on his shoulder,
"I have plenty of great ideas, you just never listen."
Jimmy tentatively leaned his head against the top of hers,
"Well I'm listening now."
Cindy hesitantly reached out for his other hand and held it, as they gazed out at their surroundings.
It would have made for a wonderful moment between the two of them, if not for the giant creature which flew up in front of them with what looked like two guards on its back. Before they had a chance to even flinch, their bodies were swept up into the claws of the giant creature. They hung, dangling in the air, swooping over the forest and into the distance. Jimmy yelled,
"What in leaping leptons is going on?"
A guard called down to them,
"We have reason to believe that more of your kind has taken our Emperor, and now you shall face the consequences of the new royal adviser's choosing."
Jimmy gulped. A new royal adviser, what had happened to Sheen and where were the others? It was a no brainer to know that this was not going to go well. He looked at Cindy, "Cindy, lean this way and reach into my backpack to hand me my Encephalo Synthesizer. If I can hold it up at the right angle, I'll be able to know what thoughts the guard has in store for us. Cindy was about to do as she was told, when her blood ran cold. The Encephalo synthesizer…she had left it under the seat in the ship. She felt her insides churn, as the feeling that the universe had betrayed her set in. Why or why did this sort of thing have to happen now? Cindy carefully sifted through Jimmy's bag,
"Uhm, it's not here. Looks like you must have dropped it."
Jimmy shook his head,
"No, I would have felt a change in weight."
Cindy seethed,
"Well it's not here, so get over it already!"
Jimmy looked at her quizzically, wondering why this was getting her so riled up, but his curiosity faded into a sort of understanding,
"Cindy, what did you do with it?"
Cindy huffed,
"Why do you always assume everything is my fault? I didn't do anything to your stupid invention."
Jimmy felt the anger rising in his cheeks,
"Vortex, so help me if you don't tell me right now—"
Cindy rolled her eyes,
"Like what are you going to do Freakbrain? I'm the state champion bla—"
Jimmy didn't want to play games,
"Now, Vortex! Tell me right now!"
Cindy balled up her fists,
"Ohh fine! It's back on the ship."
Jimmy shook his head. Why would it be back on the ship…unless…
"Did you use it on me?"
"What? No, obviously not! Like I would want to know what kind of weirdness goes on in there."
Jimmy deadpanned. The only thing that was obvious to him was that she was completely guilty. He closed his eyes, trying to remember what he had been thinking about. When his thoughts drifted to her, he gasped. He averted his eyes from her, as he tried to explain his rationality firmly but his voice trembled,
"What you heard was a mere contemplation of hormone confusion. I was overtired and left with nothing but my thoughts in empty space, so my brain simply considered certain emotions out of context. There is no use getting a big head over anything."
Cindy was looking at him like he was crazy, as if her head could get any bigger than his already was. However, his words struck a chord within her. My brain simply considered certain emotions out of context. There is no use getting a big head over anything. Her face turned into a devilish grin,
"Neutron, you were thinking of me?"
Jimmy rolled his eyes, not in the mood for her rubbing it in, but stopped himself. She had phrased her sentence as a question, so…that wasn't what she had listened in on. His mouth gaped open at his own stupidity. Cindy laughed,
"All I heard was some kind of bogus dream with Einstein, but I'm flabbergasted to know that of all the topics to converse with him about, you chose me."
Jimmy was speechless, so he just narrowed his eyes on the horizon and ignored her. Throughout the entire journey there, Cindy relentlessly pressed and teased him for more information, but Jimmy remained silent, not giving her the benefit of the doubt. Goddard whined as the cycle began to switch sides again, because that was just the way they worked, and if anyone were to ask Cindy now, she definitely wouldn't have it any other way.
Libby awoke in a dark room. She held her head as her eyes adjusted to the dark, making out the bodies of her friends scattered on the ground around her still unconscious. She shook her head as she tried to remember where they were and what had happened. The memory came flooding back to her and she gasped. Where were they, but more importantly what had they truly done to her? Libby stood up, but her legs felt woozy and she sat back down. She shook her head, the memory seeming to escape her. She closed her eyes and opened them again. She looked around shocked to see others around her too. She squinted at them, and felt as if she knew them, but shook her head again closing her eyes. The next time she opened them, her vision was a dull red.
A/N: Hey everyone! I want to thank you so much for reading this far into my story. I also really appreciate those who have reviewed. It's great to know where people's thoughts are concerning the story line, so that I can steer it in a direction that everyone will like:) Sorry that I've only been updating once a week right now. I had caught a really bad cold and my head wasn't in it. Also, I was registering for my courses in the next fall semester.
To fanfictionstoryreviewer: Goobot certainly has evil plots in mind, but the Void has other things in mind. Will Goobot's plans be overrun by the Void's? You'll just have to keep reading to find out:)
To Jack Coffison: Thank you so much for the reviews! I really try my best to keep all of the characters in character and have their interactions as realistic as possible. There will be two more characters that will show up very soon to rescue Sheen yet again along with the others:)
To Super Guest: Fret not my friend! Libby will turn out okay, but for now her conversion serves as an important factor to the story:)
To brainblast: Thank you for the reviews! I can assure you that my plot will definitely stay intact and I will not deviate from it. As for my scientific vocabulary, it's actually all terminology I've used through studying the sciences. It's fun to put a little of it to use in the story:)