Heroes Wanted

Chapter 25

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Calamitous' lair was more or less how he had expected it to be. Overly dramatic and needlessly dreary. The walkway he went down while following the yellow blinking dot that was Cindy—or rather, Cindy's wristwatch—was particularly so.

He had encountered no one else, and the fact alone bothered him. Usually, Calamitous had his hideouts crawling with his henchmen to intimidate whosoever dared find him. Regardless, Jimmy proceeded with caution, keeping to the sides of the walls and keeping low to avoid potential security cameras. He didn't doubt that he was being watched.

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Cindy helplessly watched the screens, watched him make his way towards her thinking he could save her. She wanted to scream for him to get away, but the cloth Gorgeous gagged her with was proving to be quite effective.

The door slid open, and she watched him walk in with sad eyes.

Like she thought, he went to her first before anything else.

He quickly pulled down the cloth around her mouth.

The first words she managed to say were, "I can't leave…"

"What do you mean?" He said, turning her around to free her of other bonds.

"There's a timer on the computer screen," she explained. "Calamitous and his daughter set this entire base to go off in one hour before they left. And now," she looked at the screen to confirm, "we have eighteen minutes and twenty one seconds left."

"I can get you out in time," Jimmy insisted, already lasering away at the metal bars to create an escape passage for her.

"Jimmy, listen to me! I can't leave."

"Why not?" He asked, confused. He had already finished creating the opening. "Just come with me, and we can leave together now and still make it."

"No, I can't. Jimmy, he—he… made this collar for me."

Jimmy's eye widened. He had only just noticed the new accessory that adorned Cindy's slim neck. It counted down in a fashion identical to that on the larger screen.

"He told me it'd go off at the same time as the base. By the time it reaches zero, I'll be dead, but I'll be damned if I hurt you, too!"

He was shocked to find her face wet with tears. He wasn't even sure if she knew she was crying, but he wiped them away all the same.

"Cindy, I can't. I'm not going to leave you here to die alone or die at all. I can save you."

"I don't want you to save me. I don't want you to be a hero. Right now, I just… I just want you to leave."

She turned her head away from him. She tried retreating further back into her cage away from him, but he caught her and pulled her flush against him and through the opening he made for her. He forced her to look at him. His own eyes reflected his distress. He was at a loss. Though it was obvious that he needed to remove or deactivate the collar, he wasn't sure how. It might have been set to go off if tampered, or it might detonate if he did something wrong.

"Leave…," she repeated, fisting her hands against his chest

"I never wanted to be a hero," he told her, whispering in her ear as she buried her head into the crook of his neck. "I just wanted to protect you. I've always wanted to protect you."

He felt her whimper and shudder against him. She didn't deserve this. She was dragged into everything wrong because of him. He wanted to die in her place. It was the only way he'd even barely make it up to her for every single pain that was inflicted upon her.

"Please, leave."

"You don't know what you're saying."

"I do."

"I can think of some other way. Let me take a look at it."

"No! Neither of us know what would happen."

"It's just looking," he insisted.

"It's more than that, Jimmy…" Suddenly, she put her palms flat against his chest and pushed them apart. He stumbled back and looked at her with shock. Her eyes grew cold and her voice like steel. "Jimmy, I hate you," she stated, void of emotion.

He was caught off guard and slightly winded by that admission.

"I hate you," she repeated, louder. "Go!"

"I can't believe that."

"Can't? Or won't? What more do I have to say?"

"Just give me a chance. I can fix this! Just let me."

She crossed her arms over her chest and resolutely exclaimed, "I've always hated you. I've hated you so much that I spent years looking for you so I could tell you how furious you made me feel. I hate you so much I can't even think straight! Jimmy Neutron, I hate you. I hate you. I hate you!" She just wanted him to leave before it was too late, and she knew she was what was holding him back.

"Then," he began, "Why are you crying?"

She let out a shocked gasp of air.

"Cindy, please. I can do this. We can do this."

"Not this time," she said quietly, not acknowledging the falling droplets from her eyes.

"I guess we'll do this the hard way then." He took two purposeful steps and closed the gap between them.

She let out another shocked gasp when he lifted her and pulled her tight against him to partially immobilize her. Using her training, she tried to break free, but he overpowered her. In the back of her mind, she was awed by his strength. She had no idea he had become so skilled. But, she supposed, he was a top agent.

They ran out the doors, and he dragged her up to the water surface. She barely had time to reorient herself when he grabbed her again and hopped onto his awaiting hovercycle. She caught him glancing at her neck and wished she saw how much time they had left as well.

"Jimmy," she finally said, "You have to let me go."

"You made me promise to never leave you, and I won't," he said, eyes on the long stretch of water in front of them.

Even with a full hour, they'd never make it to the closest BTSO base. And, she knew Jimmy hadn't brought Goddard along on the mission. There was no way he could have the right equipment to even analyze the collar.

"Please, Jimmy, please let me go," she said again, squirming to get away but only succeeding in having him pull her closer. It almost hurt, but it brought comfort to her. Was it selfish of her to want to spend her last moments with him? Yes.

He spotted the island they had planned to meet at and landed against her will, carrying her and leaving her to catch her breath against the rocks.

"What are you doing, Jimmy? You need to leave. Quick!"

"I'm tired of repeating myself, Cindy. I can't. I don't want to," he said sincerely, searching her eyes for some reassurance that she didn't want him to.

"But I hate you."

"No, you don't." he said, trying to stay calm.

She sat up against the rock and pulled her legs up so she could rest her head against them.

Jimmy sat in front of her and tipped her chin up, leaving her to stare at him directly, to see the sincerity in his eyes. "You don't," he said. "Keep your chin up. I'm going to see how this thing works."

She did as he asked, but still argued, "You can't do anything but leave. That's all I want right now."

"Call me selfish," he told her.

Cindy quieted herself, but her trembling was still evident. Her throat bobbed up and down as he ran his fingers over the seamless collar. Had the display been hidden, Jimmy would've thought it was just another pretty piece of jewelry or accessory that he didn't understand. However, the two minutes that it showed he had left sucked all the appreciation he had for it and left dread in its place.

His hand searched for hers, and he squeezed it to comfort both her and himself.

"There can't be much time left," she stated in despair.

"No," he said without sugarcoating the truth of their situation.

"We should make the most of it instead," she suggested, focusing on his lips while licking her own.

He caught on fairly quickly as he had a similar idea. He pushed the meaning of the collar to the back of his mind and traced the side of her face carefully as if memorizing it, and she did the same. Without further hesitation, he brushed his lips against hers briefly before pulling back.

"I hate you," she said with a smile, lips tingling. Her entire body sighed in relief and satisfaction with the intimate contact.

"Liar. You love me," he threw back boldly, capturing her lips again.

"Cocky bastard," she said against his mouth. "I didn't say you could do that again."

He paused just enough to quip, "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission."

The third time they made contact, Jimmy had his fingers firmly in her hair and had tipped her head back for better access to her lips, throat, neck, anywhere he could possibly reach.

For her part, Cindy had tightly kept her eyes shut as she let him take control. It felt magnificent in a way and scary in another. At any moment, boom! and they'd be gone. Or at least, she'd be. He might just be heavily injured, and that thought made her stomach drop. Squeezing her eyes harder shut, were Jimmy's eyes open, he'd notice tears leaking out of the corners, wetting her eyelashes and making them darken. She was selfish, but she'd ask for forgiveness later.

Sighing as he nipped at the base of her neck, Cindy wondered how her life was before she met Jimmy Neutron. She wondered how she lasted so long not acting on her emotions, foolish as she was to deny them. Though, Jimmy, too, was foolish. She knew that now without him having to say it. They had enough moments back when they were younger to tip her off to that. And, his recent actions only reinforced that. She wondered if Jimmy regretted it as well, not making the most of their years leading up to this one dragged out moment of bliss.

She whined as she felt his lips leave her, but didn't open her eyes. Perhaps she'd already died, mercifully bypassing the pain into the afterlife.

"Cindy," she heard him say.

She managed back, "Mmm?"

"Cindy!" He said more urgently.

Slowly, she frowned at him for ruining the wondrous moment that he had created with her. She opened her eyes to ask, "What?"

"The display, it's blinking zero," he said, a touch of confusion in his voice.

"Oh, God," she whispered, bracing for impact and closing her eyes once more.

"No, Cindy!" He shook her. "I don't think anything's happening. Anything that could have happened should have happened, but, it's been blinking for a long time… longer than either of us have noticed."

"I didn't hear an explosion, though."

"It's possible that the sound wasn't loud enough to reach the surface." His forehead wrinkled in deep thought.

"We need to go down there again and check it out."

"No, we need to take care of you first. We'll go back to the base, figure out how to get the collar off you safely, and then I'll check out the base alone."

She punched him in the gut without holding back.

"What's your problem?" He grunted.

"You," she answered. "You were ready to die with me, Jimmy. If we can do that together, we do everything else together, too, because I'll always remind you of this moment where you were stupid enough to want to die with me. Understand?"

With their hands still intertwined, he gave her a squeeze and an exasperated sigh, "Fine. But first, we take care of your necklace."

"Agreed. I have a few ideas about what happened though," she said uncertainly.

"What kind of ideas?"

"His dossier… it said he never had a problem completing things, even sentences sometimes. And, I noticed it in the base, too, some things were missing or not fully installed, I don't know. I couldn't think properly when the thing was literally counting down to the time of my death, but it makes sense, right? I'm not dead because he couldn't finish programming my collar or even the base to detonate properly."

He sat there slackjawed in front of her as if she had hit him again.

Her brows furrowed in worry when he started to laugh.

"Jimmy?"

His laughter grew, and her concern grew to annoyance. She didn't think her idea was that laughable. It really made sense and explained why they were still in one piece and not spread across the beach.

She moved to punch him again, but he was ready for her and blocked it.

"Sorry, Cindy, I—I just love you," he said suddenly and so sincerely it hurt.

She felt her jaw drop in shock but did nothing to fix it.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jimmy swooped in to steal another sweet kiss from the blonde. He was an idiot. Of course Calamitous couldn't have planned something so complex and finish it all the way through. He had trouble with jigsaw puzzles for Einstein's sake.

Helping her to her feet, he spun her around and shouted for joy.

"Jimmy!" She admonished, trying to glare at him but finding it extremely hard to do so when he was so damned happy.

He spun her back into his arms and held her there.

"I'm just so relieved. I suspect that the collar will come off with force, but seeing as your lovely neck is at risk, I'll double check at the lab first. Come on!" He said jovially, and they ran to his hovercycle, flying all the way back to the base and occasionally kissing and enjoying each other's company after realizing they wouldn't be dying.

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One month later.

Cindy gingerly touched her now bare neck, remembering the threat that once promised to doom her and Jimmy. That had been quite a scare to put it lightly.

Staring through her goggles, she had him within her sights from the building opposite his. She made Jimmy promise to let her be the one to bring him in. She all but refused to marry him if he didn't. She smirked at the memory, turning the ring as she fidgeted from her vantage point.

She was just waiting for his signal that told her that Gorgeous was apprehended—there it was! Her multipurposed ring briefly flashed red twice to alert her. The signal.

She hopped over the roof's ledge and quickly scaled down the wall and jumped to the ledge of his building. Melting the glass of the window, she made an opening for herself.

Taking loud steps to alert him of her presence, Cindy smirked when he turned around. She'd forever enjoy the look on his face, surprised and fearful. She was practically giddy with joy.

"Miss me?" She grinned, bearing teeth.

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Cindy Neutron proved that she was capable and could do things alone but never again would she have to.

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A/N: That's it. The end. All in all, I hope you guys enjoyed this story. It's been quite a while, and even if it was rushed, I'm glad it's done all the same and Jimmy and Cindy finally got their happy ending. I humbly thank you all for your support and patience. Any questions? Just ask, and I'll be happy to answer them. Replies to guest reviews will be posted here, I guess haha. Long live the Jimmy Neutron fandom! ^^