When Misty came to, she quickly found herself panicking over what had just occurred.
"No! Not now! I can't lose him now! I've been looking for him for 6 years, he can't get away now!" Misty thought to herself frantically, as she scoured the snowy mountain plain before her. "Brume! I need your assistance, come before me now!"
'Her presence...is it bad that shes here? Or is it good, can she assist me? Oh well, I can figure that out...later. Now, wake up.'
Leo groaned as he picked himself off the snow, feeling like he had been pile-drived by a bullet train. Seconds later, he noticed the sensation of hundreds of knives being thrust through him, as he found himself missing his jacket. As he went to brace himself with his arm to get up, a yelp of pain escaped him. He began to writhe in pain, while gripping his shoulder. "Haah! Ugh, dislocated. Why didn't it hurt when I woke up?" Leo whined to the eerily quiet forest. Seemingly lacking empathy, it gave no response to his question, save for the occasional small gust of cold wind, feeling like razor blades against his bare cheek. Getting up with his good arm, he began eying a tree and gritted himself. Taking a deep breath, Leo dashed at the tree, and slammed into it with his dislocated shoulder. The ensuing pain caused him to scream at the top of his lungs, and shortly afterwards, he passed out again.
"The hell was that?" Brume muttered to himself when he heard Leo's distant cry of pain. Not being the only one who heard it, Misty zipped to his side. "You heard it too, then?" he asked her, with a slightly down-trodden tone.
"Of course I heard it. I couldn't make out a direction though..." Misty replied, attempting strongly to mask the panic in her voice, but failing greatly. Brume quickly pointed in a direction he figured the sound came from, and Misty began to head in the direction pointed. She only made it a few feet when she realized the Brume wasn't following her. She quickly turned around to look at Brume, who was staring mostly at the snow on the ground before him. "Dude, whats the hold up? Come on, before...before he has a chance to, uh, escape." Misty spoke to him, almost pleadingly.
"We're not really here to assassinate him, are we?" Brume asked, a tone of sadness creeping into his voice. Misty was quiet for a moment, in which she too began looking towards the snow. Opening and closing her mouth a few times as she thought about what to say, she finally replied.
"No...no we're not." Misty answered softly.
"Mind explaining, then, why you've dragged me across the godforsaken universe to this area of Earth which feels like a frozen hell?" Brume shouted angrily at Misty, who uncharacteristically flinched at his anger. As she was formulating a reply, she and Brume jumped when they heard an extremely irritated female voice float out from the bushes.
"Yeah, to be honest, I'd like an explanation too. If it's good enough, I won't beat you as badly before I send you back into space!" Jenny yelled out, her voice dripping in malice, with her fists clenched tight and shaking. Misty and Jenny stared each-other down for what felt like ages, until all three were startled by some bushes rustling next to them.
"God, quit yelling, I have an awful migraine." Leo complained as he emerged from the brush, holding a hand to his head. Misty gasped, and then quickly ran to him, grasping him in a tight hug, to which he let out a pitiful cry of pain. "Ah-haaah! Not so tight, I just relocated my shoulder!" Leo shouted at her. Misty quickly let go, blushing due to embarrassment for her behavior.
"Uhm...what the hell is going on?" Brume asked, sharing a look of utter confusion with Jenny.
"You never told them?" Leo asked Misty, looking a little surprised as she shook her head while so looked at the ground. Leo sighed, silent, with an exasperated look on his face as he looked towards Misty for a moment. Looking back up at the other two, he quickly explained their familiarity with each other. "I've known the Princess for around...what, six and a half years?" Leo finished with a question, looking for clarification from Misty. Brume nodded contently with this new knowledge, but Jenny's mouth opened wide and she gawked at Leo and Misty.
"Pr...Princess? Did you just call Misty...Princess?" Jenny scoffed, having managed to collect herself.
"Uhh...yeah?" Leo answered, still a little startled at Jenny's responses. Staring at Jenny, who was having trouble processing this acknowledgement, Leo suddenly shot an irritated look at Misty, who began chuckling nervously.
"You seriously didn't tell anyone on Earth about your Heritage?" Leo asked Misty roughly, who began to nervously put her fingers together.
"Eh heh...uhh...no, I didn't." Misty replied. "What's the point of doing that? I abolished Rinjak's Monarchy system!" Misty shouted in reply to Leo's annoyed sigh.
"You may have pointlessly removed the Royal Family's - YOUR family's - political power, but it was kept for ceremonial reasons! In the least, you should let people know who you are!" Leo shouted at her angrily. As Leo and Misty got into a heated argument, Jenny sidled over to Brume, still staring at the two sparing in-front of her.
"Is Misty...seriously a Princess?" Jenny asked Brume harshly.
"Yes, she is. But she is so keen to shed her title and power, it baffles me. She made the changes exactly two years from the day her parents were murdered by extremists.." Brume explained to Jenny in an undertone, his final words making her gasp. Suddenly, Leo and Misty's argument garnered the other two's attention.
"I don't get it, why are you so bent out of shape over me managing my people the way I want to? Why I decided it was better to abolish Monarchy?"
"Because too many good people DIED trying to protect it's existence!" Leo screamed at her, clenching his fists in a rage. Leo's face suddenly went pale, a look of shock replacing rage. The clearing stayed quiet for a moment, a silence that was broken with the most shocking reaction, Jenny found, coming from Misty.
"...That's not fair." Misty mumbled miserably, and began to stare at the ground.
"No...it wasn't." Leo similarly mumbled. He remained quiet for a moment, before he walked off up the mountain. Stopping for a moment, Leo looked towards the black clouds in the sky, made even worse by the night sky. "It's time we got back to the van, a storm is picking up." Leo said in a quiet voice. Glancing back slightly towards Misty, who's eyes were hidden by her bangs of hair as she looked towards the ground. "You're both welcome to hop into the van. This storm is not going to be very forgiving if anyone lingers." Leo finished firmly, continuing his climb. Snapping out of her shock, Jenny walked quickly up to Leo with questions on her mind.
"What the hell was that?" Jenny asked bluntly. Focusing his gaze forward intently, he kept walking and replied without look at Jenny.
"I...I'll explain later, lets go before we get slammed by that storm." Leo spoke with a quiet tone, causing Jenny to stop and watch him. Now frustrated with the lack of transparency in his and Misty's argument, Jenny turned and walked back down to Misty. Misty looked at Jenny with a saddened expression, to which Jenny stood for a moment, and then nodded.
"Come on, let's go before the storm buries you. We'll...we'll sort things out later."
By the time the four of them got to the van, the wind had picked up tremendously. It was beginning to become difficult for everyone (sans Jenny) to see, being referenced sarcastically by Brad.
"Beautiful weather we're having!" he managed to shout over the howling as he held the van door open, beckoning and helping Leo in. He did a double take, however, when he saw Misty and Brume fighting their way through the snow towards the van. Just as he was about to raise alarm, Jenny grabbed Brad's hand and simply nodded at him. The two looked at each other for a moment, and Brad eventually nodded back, quickly helping Jenny in. Just as he closed the door after Misty and Brume, the Kitaki twins, who were tightly tied together in the back, began to panic, albeit groggily at first.
"Oh, oh man! Hurry up and get out of here! This power! It's going to destroy us!" The male of the duo cried out.
"Drive! Hurry and drive away from these mountains, or we'll be swallowed!" his Sister finished for him. The rest of the group looked on at the pair's antics, dumbfounded. While her brother continued to panic, the female Kitaki simply became annoyed. "Can any of you see through the snow towards the south? That...THING is what we're talking about." She explained.
"We're not going anywhere, cause...I can't drive, my arm is still pretty messed up. Besides, no one should drive in this weather." Leo spoke, annoyance on his voice. The girl gave him a dark glare, and jerked her head back. Being closest to the door, Leo sighed and opened the side door to the howling wind again, and tried looking over the rear of the van. He quickly popped his head back in though, shaking it. "I don't see a thing. Unless Jenny notices anything out of the ordinary, we stay." Leo said to the girl bluntly. Jenny got up, grumbling about having to remove her blanket, and then looked out towards the south, with Leo joining her. After she strained her eyes a bit, her jaw dropped wide open. "What? What do you see?" Leo shouted. The weather changed right after he asked his question, and the wind suddenly dropped, making a reply from Jenny moot point.
"Oh...my...gawd." Misty said in place of Jenny and Leo, having glanced out the back window. Jenny and Leo jumped back inside the van frantically, with Brad, Sheldon, and Mrs. Wakeman's confusion growing by the second.
"What? What is it?" Sheldon asked timidly, afraid of the answer.
"Giant freaking tornado, headed this way." Leo replied quickly and bluntly, fear written all over his face. As he went to move towards the driver's seat, his right shoulder bumped into the front passenger's seat, prompting a pained yelp to escape him. "Ugh, I can't drive like this..." Leo grumbled, frantically looking between everyone else, their level of fear quickly rising. Making a snap decision, Leo pulled something from his jacket pocket and turned to Jenny. "You need to drive us out of here!"
"Wh-what? I don't have the ability to drive at all!" Jenny shouted frantically to him. Moving quickly, Leo stabbed something into the back of Jenny's neck, causing her to go temporarily stiff.
"You do now!" Leo yelled at her over the increasing roaring of the oncoming Tornado, while he withdrew a USB stick. Nodding, Jenny dived into the Driver's seat, much to the dismay of Mrs. Wakeman.
"Mr. Silva, we haven't tested that data transfer method yet, if it didn't work correctly and her programming fails we'll-" Mrs. Wakeman began to shout, before being rudely interrupted by Leo.
"You wanna stay here with that twister, fine! Your choice! But I'd personally prefer having Jenny drive, over being a piece of twisted, bloody metal any day!" Leo shouted at Mrs. Wakeman. He looked at Jenny, who kept looking at her Mom and him. "Drive, dammit!" Leo barely managed to scream over the roar of the Tornado. Not skipping a beat, Jenny slammed the accelerator to the floor, prompt the engine in the van to roar in response, and sent the whole vehicle screaming down the road. As Jenny expertly controlled the van around the corners, she noticed that her computer was visually mapping out the best driving line on the road ahead of her. Heeding the advice her own systems were giving her, she followed the line as best she could, accelerating and braking as required. As she began to approach the next turn, another widget on her HUD suddenly began beeping. Giving it focus, she noticed it animating the next series of turns, with the Tornado hot on her heels. Giving her driving sub-system and the widget each 50% of her processor, she focused her attention on the animation again. As it came around to a elongated turn that was further ahead in reality, it showed her that they wouldn't make the turn. The tornado would catch up, and they'd be doomed.
"Oh shit...oh SHIT!" Jenny shouted over the roaring, prompting everyone to panic (except her mother, who was shocked over hearing her Daughter cuss in-front of her). "Leo, there is a massive turn coming up, and-"
"We won't make the turn, I know!" Leo replied, formulating a plan in his head. A few seconds later, he shouted to her again. "Whats the distance between the two points of the road where a straight line would intersect them, and whats the air around us moving like?" Leo asked, still thinking.
"Are you seriously suggesting-? 1-in-100,000 chance! We'll never make it! And I'm being generous by rounding DOWN!" Jenny shouted back, shock replacing fear on her face.
"I know, but it's...our only option now!" Leo replied. Turning to everyone else, he began to tighten his seat belt. "If you haven't done up your seat belt, I'd do it now!" Leo shouted, as they approached the massive turn. As Jenny finished the turn just before, she slammed on the accelerator, ignoring her driving sub-system's warnings about overshooting the turn. As she got to a few feet before the guardrail, the others finally clued in and began to panic, shouting at her to stop, but the van burst through before anything could be done.
"Nooo!" Jenny shouted, once her systems calculated that they didn't have enough speed and lift to reach the other side. Just before the van slammed nose-first into the rocky ground below them, everything seemed to freeze in place with a sudden violent jerking.
"Thank Jobs! XJ-8 made it in the nick of time." Mrs. Wakeman mumbled, holding her chest and breathing heavily. Opening the side door, XJ-8 peered inside to see nearly everyone shaking like leaves. As Leo removed his hand from the imprint it made in the arm rest as he clung to it, he only noticed the low hum of XJ-8's boosters and the van's engine.
"Hold the phone...? What happened to the Tornado?" Leo asked, slowly peering out the side of the van to their rear, and noticed nothing but a clear view of the road that had just zipped down and the guardrail they had plowed through.
"XJ-8, what's the storm's readings?" Mrs. Wakeman asked the giant robot that was holding the van.
"Radial Core Vibrations Infra-sound: Null, Core Bursting Infra-sound: Null, Shear Instabilities Infra-sound: Null, Boundary Layer Instabilities Infra-sound: Null. Overall Tornadic infrasonic signature has dissipated, storm system is decaying. First test of Wakeman Storm Seeding and Monitoring Device is a success." XJ-8 replied in her usual monotone, reverb voice.
"So...we're not gonna die, in other words?" Brad asked, looking for a nice answer.
"No, Brad. We get to go home and sleep." Jenny answered shakily, pulling bits of the crushed steering wheel from her hands.
"Alright, lets go home then, XJ-8." Mrs. Wakeman asked her daughter. Once the van was headed back towards Tremorton, there was a collective sigh amongst everyone inside the van.
"So, uhm...what's going to happen to us?" The male Kitaki twin suddenly asked, prompting Mrs. Wakeman to turn around with a powerful glare and stared at the twins.
"You two are going to become temporary residents of my research laboratory. I'm going to need your assistance in detecting more of these freak storms, and why they are even appearing." Mrs. Wakeman replied with a tone that implied argument would not be tolerated. So the twins simply gulped and looked towards the floor nervously. Brad looked over at Misty for a moment when he heard her make a quiet sigh, to which Brume attempted to comfort her. He looked over at Leo for an explanation, who waved Brad off, sighing himself, and then looked out the side door at the landscape flying by them with a sad expression. Panning his vision back across the van, Brad's eye landed upon the twins and his mind suddenly raced.
"Wait a sec, you two control weather...so unless you two caused that, why didn't you simply stop the system yourselves?" Brad suddenly asked the twins, who looked at him seriously for a moment before the boy replied.
"Me and my sister can only cause small, local disturbances." he explained quickly, his sister explaining further.
"The amount of effort it would take us to create that sort of imbalance would kill us and then some. Essentially: my Brother and I would die before we could make something of that magnitude." the girl finished, staring deeply at Brad, making him squirm a bit.
"Here's a question then: Was that natural?" Brume suddenly asked from one of the back corners of the van. The two twins closed their eyes for a moment in thought, and then shook their heads and spoke in unison.
"Natural occurrence for a tornado in the winter seasons is incredibly rare, almost unheard of." They both said, to which Mrs. Wakeman 'hmm'ed and nodded in agreement.
"So thats why you made that thing on XJ-8's back?" Jenny asked her mother.
"Yes, XJ-9, that would be exactly why. I've been tracking these freak occurrences with the help of your...aunt" Mrs. Wakeman explained, hesitant to mention her sister, whom she was on rough terms with. "We've come to the same conclusion: something odd is going on. For the storm systems, Solar output is normal, as are temperatures prior to the sudden spike in energy detected before said storms occur. For the earthquakes, to which we've been blessedly spared from, some do bare natural indicators that they were going to occur."
"Except a select few, huh?" Jenny answered for her mother, almost reading her mother's mind as she pondered the events. Mrs. Wakeman nodded in reply, and continued to speak.
"Indeed. A small number of earthquakes came without warning to areas of the world that have some of the most advanced detection equipment available. Literally, no indicators existed for them! It's almost as if the plates were pushed apart and then let go by unseen hands! It's enough to make MY head spin!" Mrs. Wakeman finished, placing emphasis on the final phrase. Not unwarranted, as most people in the vehicle revered Mrs. Wakeman's logic and intelligence. The van fell silent for a moment. As everyone was thinking of a theory to explain away the events, a loud series of beeps came from Leo's watch. When he didn't react to it, Sheldon reached over and shook his shoulder, trying to get his attention.
"Hey, Leo, your watch is going off. Leo? ...Le-OOH!" Sheldon let out a gasp when Leo finally turned to him, his outburst getting everyone's attention. The color from his face had partially drained away, which gave his eyes a slightly sunken yet puffy look to them. The two looked at each other for a moment, and Leo turned his attention to his watch, moving his good arm stiffly to it to switch it off.
"Don't worry, I'm fine...just tired. We need some sleep after all...school tomorrow and all." Leo attempted to brush them off, but Brad didn't let it down so easily.
"Dude, you look terrible! You look like someone with a really bad flu, are you sure you are okay?" Brad asked him, concerned for Leo's well-being. Leo sighed in an annoyed manner, thought for a quick second, and then answered.
"Yeah, I'm a little sick. I've gone to a doctor already, though. He gave me some medicine and told me to keep a tight sleep schedule. Don't worry, I'm not going to drop dead or anything." Leo answered gruffly. Everyone but Brad and Jenny accepted the answer, and then turned to thinking about sleep, which wasn't far away as the street Brad and the Wakeman family resided on was within view. Without letting anyone know, Jenny switched her internal SMART-E on and did a scan on Leo. As it began to sort through a list of diagnoses, the SMART-E suddenly complained of unknown interference, and gave her a number for a local hospital to get help. Seeing Brad staring at her, she turned her gaze to him and gave him a confused stare. Just as the van bumped into the ground, Brad nodded at her in a silent agreement to meet later. Mrs. Wakeman got up from the front passenger seat and looked towards Brad and Sheldon.
"You two should hurry on home now. I'm sure your family members are worried about you, the appearance of the tornado won't have gone unnoticed by the town." Mrs. Wakeman advised the two boys, who nodded and left the van silently. Leo followed them, but once he left the van, he went inside the Wakeman house instead. Once they left, Mrs. Wakeman looked towards Brume and Misty. "I'm assuming you two have a place to stay? I can arrange for transport if you like." Mrs. Wakeman began, but Misty interjected before she said much more.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to stay close to these two." Misty spoke, in her usual confident tone, as she pointed towards the twins. Adopting a lighter tone of voice, she explained her request. "Mrs. Wakeman, with Jenny off her game...I don't think she could contain them alone." she finished, casting a glance after Leo quickly, who was just entering the house, before returning her gaze to Mrs. Wakeman, who was wearing and frown and staring at her. Mrs. Wakeman thought for a moment, and then spoke.
"Well, she wouldn't be alone with her sister's, and I'm sure the nine of them could contain them. But...I'll heed your request and allow you two to stay the night at-least." Mrs. Wakeman answered, nodding her head, as Jenny's face sprouted a look of extreme discomfort at the prospect of sharing her house with Misty. Thanking Mrs. Wakeman, Misty and Brume got up and began yanking the protesting twins into the house, XJ-8 escorting them to the basement laboratory 6, which housed a cell. Mrs. Wakeman exited the van, which Jenny followed right afterwards.
"Mom-" Jenny began to say, before being promptly cut off by Mrs. Wakeman.
"Jennifer, I need you to set aside your disagreement with Misty for now. At least until I get to the bottom of these anomalies. I have a bad feeling deep in my bones that we're going to need as much assistance as we can get for the next little while, and I can't shake it." Mrs. Wakeman asked Jenny quietly, having turned to her and grasping one of her hands. Jenny was taken aback slightly by her Mother's behavior, having called her by her self designated name as apposed to her model designation. But she was mostly unnerved by her Mother's uncertainty, as her Mom always knew what to do, and what needed to be done. Looking at her, Jenny nodded without saying a word, and then walked with Mrs. Wakeman up and into the house.
"So whats the story with those two? I thought Misty was banned from Tremorton or something?" Tucker asked his older Brother, who was waiting infront of his house for Leo and Jenny to walk with him to School. Seeing them in the distance, Brad waved at them, and the duo waved back, and then began to run up the sidewalk. Looking back towards his little Brother, Brad answered his question.
"Well, yeah, she was. Mrs. Wakeman is being her usual self in being bent on educating children, so she is going to bat for her. Brume is going to stay with Misty until they found out if she can come back to Tremorton High." Brad explained, finishing just as Jenny and Leo met up with them. Leo was panting heavily once they stopped, bending over while clasping his hands on his knees.
"Oh, Leo, if you couldn't run, you shouldn't have! I would've walked you know!" Jenny spoke furiously to the heaving pile of winter clothes.
"I'd...run just fine...if you didn't...force me to wear...three coats!" Leo shouted back in between gasps. Jenny grumbled a bit and crossed her arms.
"It's only the end of January, it's cold out, and you are sick. I'll nurse you back to health at home all day if I have to." Jenny told Leo with a strong tone of authority. Leo simply grumbled in response, which caused Brad and Tucker to burst out laughing. "Oh, hey Tuck! Doesn't Brad walk you to school early? Aren't you going to be late for school now?" Jenny asked Tucker, worried that he might get in trouble.
"Naw, I take the bus again." Tucker answered quickly, as he began to stomp his foot on some thin sidewalk ice. Jenny looked towards Brad for a more in depth answer, to which he obliged.
"Mom and Dad finally 'found the time' to pay for Tucker's bus fees for this school year. 'We're only half done the year, guys!'." Brad finished airily, as if shouting to his parents. Jenny frowned, as she never did like Brad's parents. They always left most of the work of raising Tucker to him and were out of the country most of the time. She did find it fair, then, that they didn't actually like her either. Brad didn't care for their opinion though, and the two typically ignore his parents unless they were needed (when they were around). As Jenny thought about this, an internal bulletin message popped up on her HUD, causing her surprised when she read it.
"Oh, hey Brad, did you remember the...uhh...'thing'?" Jenny asked. "You know, the 'thing'...in your house?" She explained, thumbing towards his house. Giving her a weird look and shrugging, Brad was at a loss for words. She gripped his arm and quickly began walking towards his house. "Let's go look for it then, I'm sure it's in your room or something." Jenny said in a suspicious tone. Leo and Tucker began to follow the two towards the house, and Jenny turned to them. "No, no! You two just wait out here, we won't be long!" Jenny shouted as they stepped into the house. Leo and Tucker looked at each other, each with a raised eyebrow. Shrugging, they began a small conversation of their own.
"What the heck are you talking about? What 'thing'?" Brad finally asked Jenny once they stepped into his room.
"Nothing, that was something I made up. I wanted to quickly talk about last night." Jenny explained, to which Brad remember the glances they exchanged, prompting him to nod.
"Right, yeah, so what did you find? I remembered that you have one of those SMART-E things inside you." Brad asked.
"Absolutely nothing. Besides what I guess you could call TV snow. That's the easiest way to describe it." Jenny told him, a worried look on her face. Brad thought for a moment, and then grasped one of her shoulders.
"While that's weird, maybe he made some sort of blocking device for himself? Just wants a bit of privacy with his health. He did help make the SMART-E, after all." Brad tried to ease Jenny's worries, but she shook her head.
"I've thought of that. If that's the case, don't you find it odd? What does he not want me to see? What if he is actually really sick and is putting on a show?" Jenny suggested to Brad, growing more frantic as more and more scenarios formed themselves in her CPU. She was surprised suddenly when Brad simply hugged her, calming her almost instantly. The two sharing the hug for a moment, Brad spoke to her quietly.
"In the short time we've known him, Leo has always been very private. Leave it be, Jen. Let him have his privacy, if that's what he wants. If he finds it in himself to open up to us more than he has, that's fine. Until then, let's simply hang out with him and have fun, okay?" Brad suggested. Jenny stared at him for a moment and then gave him a sad smile.
"You know, you're actually pretty wise sometimes, Brad." Jenny told him, to which he smiled back, and then gave her an annoyed look.
"Hey, 'sometimes'? Aren't I always wise?" Brad pouted, to which Jenny giggled and began to leave his room.
"We should head back out now. I still want to keep an eye on him, even though he won't let us know whats really wrong." Jenny said to Brad as she descended the staircase and went out the front door. Quickly following her, he got outside in time to see Tucker boarding his school bus. He quickly stopped to wave at his older brother and Jenny, and then continued up the steps once the doors closed and the bus began moving. Brad quickly joined Leo and Jenny, and the trio made their way towards the high school. The three discussed various school subjects, gave answers to homework the other neglected to do, and managed to throw in a bit of gossip as well.
"I'm wondering how Prima is going to play off taking off on you last night..." Leo trailed off in his thoughts, directing his speech to Jenny. When she suddenly stopped, and began glaring at him and Brad (who was cursing Leo under his breath), he realized he might have made an amazingly bad decision to bring the previous night up.
"Actually, I wondered why you guys showed up. I didn't have time to question it then, and after the tornado it got pushed to the back of my task list. What the hell were you guys and my Mom doing there?" Jenny growled at the boys. "And YOU TOO!" Jenny shouted at a surprised and now extremely-concerened-for-his-wellbeing Sheldon. "Why did you follow Don and me?" She demanded an answer from the three now-cowering boys.
"The Krust Cousins were planning to ruin your date so we tried-!" Sheldon began to spill out his excuse for the three of them, but once Jenny processed the first five words, a look of extreme rage took over her face.
"Those girls are DEAD." Jenny said quietly, as she began to tremble and walk towards school. Every step she took shook the ground and made cracks in the sidewalk. As the three boys watched in awe, she suddenly burst into a sprint, causing the sidewalk under her to buckle.
"Oh man, the Krust cousins are gonna get it! We have to get to school before Jen does!" Brad shouted at the other two, who simply stood for a moment, and scrabbled at their watches in a panicked manner.
"We'll NEVER catch up to Jenny. Those girls will be brown bread before we even get onto the same city block as the school." Leo explained as he and Sheldon kept pounding on a button on their watches. Suddenly, a holographic image popped up from their watches containing an unhappy Mrs. Wakeman.
"Yes, boys? Is this important? I'm in the middle of a meeting with your school's vice principle." Mrs. Wakeman answered their hail.
"Condition Omega!" The two boys cried, prompting a confused look from Brad. Mrs. Wakeman suddenly became more interested, but didn't share their worry.
"Really? That's interesting...no alerts came up on my end...I'll have the debug that I guess."
"Why do you care about a few software glitches! Jenny took off like a rocket with murder on her face! You have to hide the Krust Cousins!"
"Hm? Oh, don't worry. They're actually in here. Shaking like leaves now, but..they're here. Besides, You'll see XJ-9 a few blocks away anyways." Mrs. Wakeman told the two boys, who were more confused than panicked now. "Go take a look for yourselves. Let me know what you find." Mrs. Wakeman finished, before she killed the connection. Leo and Sheldon looked at each other, and then to Brad.
"Well...uhh...let's go to school. Fastest route, as I'm sure Jen would've taken that one.." Brad suggested to the other two, who nodded in agreement. After turning the corner and following broken and strewn sidewalk for about three blocks, the boys noticed Jenny's winter coat on the ground by the park entrance. Looking around, Sheldon noticed a plume of steam rising into the air from the park's pond. The three boys rushed over to the pond to see Jenny wading in the middle of it, looking absolutely exhausted.
"So...hot...I need SNOW!" Jenny shouted, suddenly jumping out of the water, diving headfirst into a tall bank of snow. Brad slowly and carefully peaked his head into the small tunnel made by Jenny, and witnessed her attempting to rub snow wherever her skin was exposed.
"So, what did you find?" Brad could suddenly hear Mrs. Wakeman's voice from behind him.
"Jen is...thrashing around in the snow like a wounded animal. She just got out from the pond, too." Brad described. He turned around expecting to see Mrs. Wakeman in person again, but it was simply the holographic image again. The image from Leo's watch turned to look at Sheldon. "Mr. Lee, remember that tool I handed you about a week ago? Go and connect it anywhere on exposed skin." Mrs. Wakeman commanded. Once Jenny plowed herself out of the snow in search of something to cool her down faster, Sheldon jabbed her slightly exposed waist. The blue meter on the top of the device quickly emptied to nothing, and Jenny froze on the spot.
"Oh man, that feels...amazing...who did that?" Jenny groggily asked aloud. See Sheldon still holding the device in his hand, She latched herself onto him and repeatedly kissed him on the cheek while mumbling 'Thank you' in between each kiss. Quickly after a few kisses, however, she seemed to shut down suddenly and laid down on the frozen ground, eye closed. Sheldon quickly went to the ground as well, but with a less graceful 'THUD!', still holding onto the device with an iron vice grip.
"What...what the hell was that?" Brad asked Mrs. Wakeman, flabbergasted.
"Portable super-cooled coolant device. To get it to work right now, I had to do some shoddy hack and slash software editing, hence why she seemed drugged for a moment and then shut down." Mrs. Wakeman explained.
"Really? Fastest shutdown I've ever seen an automaton do.." Leo replied to Mrs. Wakeman, staring at the still Jenny laying on the ground.
"Well...more correctly, her core processes...crashed. Hence my comment about it being 'Hack and Slash'. She'll be rebooting right now." Mrs. Wakeman replied, visibly embarrassed.
"Oh...I see." Leo replied quietly. The following silence deafening, Leo asked Mrs. Wakeman another question. "What caused the massive spurt in speed? I noticed her eyes changed from blue to red as well?" Leo probed.
"It's a long and complicated answer, I'll let you know in a bit. As for the eyes, I'm not certain. I didn't intend for an eye color change to occur." Mrs. Wakeman answered. Indicating she needed to get back to the meeting, she and Leo exchanged farewells.
"Uhh...what happened? Why am I on the ground?" Jenny asked while sitting up, utterly confused. Noticing Sheldon on the ground beside her, Jenny began prodding him. "And why is he out cold beside me?"
"Well, he jabbed you with that coolant thingy in his hand, and then..." Brad trailed off, unsure if he should continue.
"And then what? I know there is more, tell me." Jenny pressed Brad.
"You sorta...went all wonky and kissed his cheek like, six times? Then you laid on the ground and shut down." Brad explained. Jenny cringed when she heard the word 'kiss'.
"Ugh...lets get to school. I'm freezing." Jenny complained. When she looked over at Leo, he had removed one of his three jackets she forced him to wear, and slipped it over her own jacket. "I'll take your jacket only because I feel like a mechanical ice cube. You'd better be wearing it when we go home." Jenny grumbled at Leo, who shook his head while smiling.
Jenny was quickly back into her clothes just before first period, as the school had a set of 10 second dryers in the Home-Ec room, which was normally reserved for seniors. She was still fuming as she entered the classroom. Getting out her textbooks for English class, she hadn't noticed Don approach her desk.
"Hey doll, why the long face? Did you miss me?" Don asked her in his usual smooth voice, prompting Brad (who was sitting beside her), to roll his eyes and look at Leo, who was sitting on his other side. When Jenny simply scowled at Don, he lost track of where he was headed for a moment, and then continued his attempt to smooth things over. "Look, I'm sorry I had to jet last night, but something important came up. Want to try again tonight?" Don asked, winking at her.
"No." Jenny told him flatly, throwing him right off his game, but Don recovered quickly.
"Aww, come on babe, don't be like tha-" Don had begun, but Leo cut him off.
"Don, she said she wasn't interested. Move on." Leo told him while sitting in his seat, both him and Brad glaring at Don. The other students in the room heard the commotion, and got ready to watch a fight. Licking his lips, Don walked over to Leo and grabbed him by the collar.
"Was I talking to you, Silva? Did I even look at you? No." Don said to him aggressively. The rest of the students started to chant 'fight!' over and over again.
"Don, let go of me right now, and this ends as is." Leo told him quietly. Jenny was slowly getting up, in case she needed to intervene, as no Teacher was yet present in the room.
"In case you haven't noticed, I've got a grip on your shirt collar. I'm also the Boxing team captain. Last I saw and heard, you actually stated that you couldn't fight." Don said to Leo, as he begun to actually pull him off the floor.
"Don, today is already bad enough for me. I'm sick, today is the anniversary of something awful, and you have succeeded in pissing me right off. End this. Now." Leo told Don, keeping his cool and aggravating Don even further.
"You have no platform the be talking so disrespectfully like that, Silva. Lemme give you an appetizer as to why I'm number one." Don said to Leo with increasing aggression. When Don brought his right arm back to make a punch at Leo's face, there was a flurry of motion as Leo brought both his arms slamming down on Don's, ripping his grip away. Not wasting the confusion, Leo raised his left arm to block Don's delayed punch, allowing him an easy opening for a palm strike to Don's face. As Don bumped into a desk behind him, Leo grabbed his left arm, swung his own left fist at him, and proceeded to send wallop after wallop into Don's gut, prompting him to yelp in pain. Leo screamed at Don, who's nose was bleeding profusely over the desk. As he wound up for another strike at Don, Leo suddenly found himself yanked off Don with extreme force. Turning to look at his side, he found that Jenny was the one who pulled him off Don.
"Calm down, Leo! My god, you're like...somebody else right now!" Jenny shouted at him, visibly upset, and a little frightened of his extreme response to Don. She walked over to Don, who was hunched over, and gave him a cloth for the bleeding. As She began to talk him to the Nurses office, Don turned to look at Leo.
"Silva, you're going to regret this." Don threatened him, to which Jenny forcefully yanked him out the door, and Leo shouted after him.
"Don't let me down, now!" He yelled back sarcastically. Grunting angrily as he sat back into his desk and pulled out his English books, he turned to Brad. "Hey, you got the answer to the final question for the homework we got? Couldn't find the answer." Leo asked. Brad almost chucked his book and Leo, and leaned away from him slightly, as if he expected to have to dodge an attack from Leo. Sighing, Leo flipped open Brad's textbook to find the answer, and copied it down.
As first period finished, and second period came and went, Leo found that almost everyone was distancing themselves from him. They were also staring if they thought he couldn't see. Annoyed by Brad's reaction to him during English class, and a little ashamed that Jenny had to pull him off Don, he ended up taking his food from the cafeteria to the rooftop of the school, and ate up there, on the edge of the building, in silence.
"Man, he is a lot more private than I thought.." Brad said to Jenny, as the two of them and Sheldon ate in the cafeteria. "What, with saying he can't fight, and then that thing with Misty and now Don. He's got like a 'Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass' technique going on, just without the 'Moron' part." Brad spoke his mind aloud.
"That's debatable. He's managed to piss off every sports team that Don is a part of, which is to say, every single sports team in Tremorton High. All the jocks are gunning for him now. On the moron scale, I'd say that's pretty high." Jenny countered, to which Sheldon agreed.
"Yeah, doing something like that was a little...no, it was extremely illogical." Sheldon said the Brad.
"I dunno, though. I'm sure most people, including the jocks, are probably thinking 'If he could do that to Don so easily, what makes it impossible for him to do the same to me?'. He's got a pretty good following of respect as well." Brad explained his thinking. "Course, it's mostly due to fear mongering, which isn't all that good.."
"Ugh...he doesn't make complete sense anymore. He keeps brushing off anything to do with him from before we met! What doesn't he want us to know?" Jenny groaned. She was really concerned about Leo, what with him being sick, and keeping his past mostly to himself. Accessing her database, she shockingly only found a few items that she knew about his past. "You know what we know of his past, guys? That he used to be a Skyway Patrol mechanic, that he was involved in a secret Skyway Patrol project or two, He was nearly killed by a girlfriend in the past, and that he must have trained in combat extensively in the past. That's pretty much it." Jenny told the two boys, as she rested her cheeks on her palms. "We knew nothing of his family, nothing of his ambitions, very little of his health, and he rarely displays how he really felt about any given subject. It's insane that we know so little about him, and how even when we ask, he manages to avoid the question. Usually without detection."
"He wasn't always like that." Misty was heard saying from behind her. Jenny turned around to take a look at her, and saw that Brume was with her. "Would we...be able to sit with you guys? I can tell you a little bit about him.." Misty offered as bait, knowing that Jenny wouldn't be able to resist. Jenny nodded curtly.
"Yeah, fine, sit down." Jenny replied gruffly, not waiting for an answer to come from Sheldon or Brad. Nodding, Misty and Brume situated themselves between Brad and Sheldon. "Well? What do you know? I dunno what to do about Leo, and I wonder if learning about his past would even help, but all the same...maybe it will?" Jenny finished with a question. Misty nodded, and then looked at Brume.
"Sorry, I don't know much about him except that you've been wanting to find him for a while." Brume told her, prompting Misty to nod.
"Okay...well, lets see...I met him when I was 9. He was really good at paperwork and logistics apparently, so his Sister convinced her superiors to bring him along with her to Rinjak during it's civil war. She was part of some sort of elite team, which spearheaded the campaign to beat the rebels back. It was mostly free to do as it found necessary to make sure my family was safe, but it was still snarled up by the bureaucracy from time to time, so it wasn't completely effective. Due to that, the squad's leader convinced my parents that I should be hidden away, so I found myself living with Leo and Sereena." Misty was explaining. When she noticed the curiosity on Jenny's face, she continued. "Sorry, Sereena was the name of Leo's sister. Anyways, I lived with them for about half a year. I learned all sorts of random facts about him, like how he loves pineapple, and hates Spaghetti. Said he found it slimy. Guess it turned him off." Misty reminisced, a smile on her face.
"Misty, earlier today, just before Leo went ballistic on Don, he mentioned that today was the 'anniversary of something awful'. Any idea what that is?" Jenny asked her. Misty's face went dark, and she nodded slowly.
"It's an awful anniversary for the both of us. Today is the anniversary that my-" Misty was beginning to say, when there was a sudden rumbling of the floor, and it sounded like a freight train was rolling by outside the school. Things all over the school were bouncing around and dishes could be heard shattering against the floor. Jenny was probing her proximity radar, looking for a threat, when a lone message appeared in red, partially encased by a yellow triangle on her HUD: '!Earthquake!'
"EARTHQUAKE! Everyone get under the TABLES!" Jenny shouted to the rest of her classmates, just as some of the tiles from the ceiling of the cafeteria came crashing down. Some walls around them cracked and broke, and at one point the northeast corner of the cafeteria roof collapsed slightly, raining down on a table that housed a number of students. Just as Jenny was getting frantic, as she heard the rest of the building groaning under fatigue, the earthquake stopped.
"Jen, the people who were sitting there-!" Brad began to shout, before Jenny threw the table out of the way, and began remove the rubble of the collapsed roof. Helping some students out from under the table, she noticed one looked to be in pain. After a quick SMART-E scan, it gave her a diagnosis.
"Hold still, you fractured your Ulna. Let me sling it for you." Jenny told the girl with a soothing voice. After using some fabric stored in a portable first aid kit that was stored in her, Jenny finished the sling. "There...now, let me help you out." Jenny spoke to the shocked student, easing them out from under the table. As she braced the injured girl, she looked up and around and saw that most of the students who got out from under their tables were staring at her. Sighing with relief, she was about to lead the student to the nurses office when the building let out another loud groan and shifted, prompting a few more ceiling tiles to fall, along with alot of dust. "Everyone, get the hell out of here! This place could collapse at any point!" She shouted, and everyone but those at her own table and the girl she was helping scurried out of the cafeteria. "Misty, Brume, we need to go looking throughout the rest of the school making sure no one else is trapped or hurt!" Jenny commanded more than asked, but the two nodded all the same, and turned to clouds to easily worm their way through the rubble to get a head start. "Brad, Sheldon, get out! Now!" Jenny shouted at the remaining two. The two of them hesitated, worried about Jenny's energy level. Sighing, she opened a cavity in her right palm and jettisoned a device to them, which Brad caught. "You can keep an eye on my status with that. See? I'm fine. Now, GO!" Jenny shouted at them again, this time they listened.
"Brad, let's see if we can't get that exosuit onto you, then we can do a patrol around town, in case people need help!" Sheldon shouted as the two of them ran down the hallway. Even though the cold air rushing around him around the hallways that were partially broken to the outside, Brad was frantic to find out about the safety of his brother. Glancing back to the device that he was holding in his hand, he also found himself scared that Jenny wouldn't be able to keep up with the constant debris removal, or that she herself might get pinned by shifting rubble. He shook his head suddenly, remembering, that while she still didn't quite have the strength of a million and seventy men back, she was still quite capable to getting out of the debris. This thought made him calm down a bit. As he steeled himself for the potential carnage that waited outside, he suddenly hear a familiar voice shouting out from above the side entrance.
"Ugh...I shouldn't have snapped like that. Everyone thinks I'm some sort of crazy lunatic now." Leo complained to no one as he leaned against the fence the surrounded the rooftop, placed to ensure no one fell off the building to their death. He suddenly heard a distant boom which perked his interest, which was quickly lost when he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Sighing, he was pushing himself off the fence when he suddenly felt an intense and dramatic shaking and swaying. Instantly aware of what was occurring, he began to stumble towards the entrance to the staircase, when a small part of the wall of the school gave way, causing the portion of the roof he was on to fall at a steep angle. Panicking, he scrabbled to grab at anything as he quickly began to slide off the school. He managed to grab hold of the now exposed bottom of the fence, which partly gave way to his weight and caused him to swing away from the roof slightly. "AH!, Oh, shit, huh, haaah...calm down, calm down.." Leo had commanded himself, and began taking deep breaths. Finally calm, he began to plot his escape from the situation. Looking at how he was holding onto the now weakened fence, he decided his only hope was to try to swing from the pole he was gripping. There was a catch, though: if he swung too hard, he was certain he'd break the pole he hung from, and fall to his death. If he swung too little, he'd really only save the school a few dollars in cleanup and repair. Laughing nervously to himself, he began to slowly swing himself. As he zeroed in on the ledge, however, he hadn't noticed the large crack that was forming in the cement of the ledge that the fence was attached to. Taking one last look before he made his first large swing, he noticed the crack too late and couldn't stop himself in time. Once he made his move, the ledge finally failed, and the pole he was holding onto went vertical. Screaming in his panic, he managed to maintain an iron-vice grip on the pole, which the morbid assembly of chunks of cement and fence quickly stopped ripping out quickly after the initial failure of the ledge. Scared, Leo made a fatal mistake and looked towards the ground in a staring match. Before he could stop it, his imagination projected how he fell, and the gut-wrenching crunch his body would make when it the ground 4 stories below, and how blood would spout from his mouth when it happened. His current situation reminded him of one in the past which was eerily similar, where is was nearly certain of his death then, which was the same day that he did die a little. Memories and fear clouding his mind, Leo's panic grew to extreme levels and he began to scream and shout. "HOLY FUCK, SOMEONE HELP ME! AAH, I'M GONNA LOSE MY GRIP! I'M GONNA DIE! HELP!"
When Brad saw Leo clinging onto a lone pipe of metal 4 stories in the air, his gut dropped.
"Oh GOD DAMN, Sheldon, LOOK UP!" Brad shouted. Sheldon glanced up, and his mouth dropped open.
"We have to help him, hurry! We have to find Jenny and Misty!" Sheldon shouted, yanking on Brad's sweater. The two boys ran as hard and as fast as their bodies could take them, and looked into every room they saw open on their way to the fifth floor. As Brad glanced into a classroom on the 2nd floor that was on the same side that Leo was fighting for his life, he saw Brume and Misty patching up some students.
"Misty! Leo is stuck hanging from a pole on the roof, look outside!" Brad screamed without warning. Once she understood what he said, Misty's eyes grew wide and fearful, and she ran over to the window and looked up to see Leo at the end of the pole, hanging by only one hand, and shouting frantically.
"Misty, lets head up and get him!" Brume had shouted at her, to which she suddenly shouted 'NO!' as she watched Leo's final grip give and him plummeting to the ground. As he quickly neared the window, she leap out of it, attempting to catch him. All the three boys saw was a mid-air collision between the two of them, which sent them tumbling into the small tree patch near the school. Without waiting, Brume grabbed the collars of Brad and Sheldon's shirts, then ran and jumped out the window into the snow after Misty. The three boys running towards where the two if them landed, they could hear Leo continuing to scream incomprehensibly, and Misty pleading for him to collect himself.
"Leo, please calm down! You're fine now! Everything is over!" Misty attempted to calm Leo. Once the three of them got full sight of what was going on, Leo had both his hands clutching his face, his eyes were wide open, and he was continuing to scream as if someone was stabbing him with a hot poker, as Misty had him propped up on her lap trying to calm him. Brad rushed over, and began to shack Leo lightly and join Misty in pleading for him to stop. "Go find Jenny and Mrs. Wakeman!" Misty shouted at Brume, who nodded and quickly turned into smoke as he zipped into the school. Eventually, the screaming caused a crowd to gather around Leo, with people becoming scared of what was happening to Leo. What was mere seconds and felt like long moments, Brume returned, and Jenny, followed by Mrs. Wakeman, could be seen running towards them through the crowd's legs.
"Let me thought! LET ME THROUGH!" Jenny frantically shouted, attempting to be heard over over the crowd and Leo's own shouting. She finally managed to burst thought the final ring of students, and as she got a glimpse of what was going on, she gasped. Rushing over to kneel beside Brume, she looked at Leo as he continued to grip his face, stare towards the ground and shout in agony. "Mom, where are you? Come here, I don't understand whats wrong! Please, you have to do something!" Jenny shouted frantically over Leo's screams, tears building in her eyes. Mrs. Wakeman shoved the other students aside as she rushed to help. Shooing Brad and Jenny aside, she cupped his head and looked into his eyes, thought for a moment, and then spoke loudly.
"His mind seems to be suffering a complete loss of composure and control! Whatever happened to him now has triggered multiple horrific memories!" Mrs. Wakeman explained to everyone around her. Looking back to Leo with a look of fear, she tried to get his attention herself. " Leo, listen to me! You must exit your memories! Come back to us in the here and now! Leo!" Mrs. Wakeman shouted at Leo. His screams suddenly died to a whimper, and he immediately passed out. Scared out of her wits, Jenny began crying and buried her face into Brad's shoulder, who grabbed her into a hug, tears in his own eyes. As paramedic's finally arrived, they placed him onto a stretcher. "The hospitals will be overflowing with patients, take him to my house! I can look after him there!" Mrs. Wakeman told the man and woman, who nodded in agreement. Jenny, the rest of her friends, and the onlookers watched as Leo was carted away with Mrs. Wakeman to her house.
"What is happening to our world..?" Brad asked no one in particular, as Jenny's tears fell onto his sweater and froze in the cold air.