Note: this story is about the secrets of the gang...and of the city itself.

Cut Short

Another day, another hopeless day.. Ya sure she should "enjoy" life. But how could she when everything she wanted was running away from her. There was nothing she could possibly do to stop it. She sighed as she opened her locker. Inside lay pictures, and sayings she had worked on collecting. There was one open space, for a picture she knew she would never obtain. She glanced at the empty hall next to her. She imagined Jimmy there. She heard footsteps..she jumped when she saw it was Jimmy himself. He looked really troubled about something.

" Hey Nerdtron.." she said teasingly. He just looked coldly into his locker.

" Hey..not in the mood.." he said coldly. She just smiled and grabbed her books for her first class.

" Ya, sure.." she said as she joined Libby. She had expected him to return the not-compliment. She looked at Sheen and saw the weirdest look in his eyes. She smiled at him as he not so interestingly nodded. Cindy noticed the strange look in Sheens eyes as well.

"Sheen what's up?"

" Same thing..as Jim.." he said quietly. Cindy stood there..puzzled.. What on earth... she ran up to him.

" What do you mean?"

" Oh it's nothing..just go to class.."

The rest of the day she was trying to think of what could possibly be bothering him. She tried and tried but alas, every time she failed..sorrily. She had heard nothing about anything she decided he was just plain crabby. Little did she know, she was anything but right.

Jimmy was holding a secret.. That only his two best friends had been informed about. The secret of Retroville was in him. He couldn't tell anyone.. That.. Well.. Three teenage girls had been murdered. There was no trace of evidence, or blood or anything. The autopsy had proven inadequate and didn't show anything. And he had just heard news that three more had been killed this morning. He was troubled, because none of them had anything in common except for being teenagers. SO he was worried about.. No he wasn't he had to keep that under-wraps to. This stupid town..he thought to himself. It holds to many secrets.. He looked at the pictures..which were grossly sickening. The heads half way off the body..and the police said they found no evidence of anything.. No seamen..(the girls were all naked) and Jimmy just was baffled. If they found no evidence they wouldn't be able to prove anything worth dirt. He sighed as he placed the pictures in his locker. This had been troubling him all day, causing him to be quite crabby. As Cindy had obviously noticed. She was a girl teenager.. She could be next..but he couldn't tell anyone! But he had to. She meant more to him than anything. Of course she had no idea. She was prey.. He couldn't let her die to.. This is so stupid.. He angrily commented to himself as he headed past Cindy. Who seemed very distracted by something in her locker. He walked past Betty who was calling for him..but he seemed to be deaf today. His mind was just on that crazy no evidence.. He had to stop whomever or whatever was doing this. He had thought through every possibility, every chance of a clue, but had come up..with absolutely nothing. If a genius couldn't do this.. No one else possibly could. No one... Stupid..He angrily thought as his thoughts were interrupted by a school announcement over the loud speaker

" Jimmy Nuetron please report to the office." he knew what this was about. He hung his head low. Decided not to chicken out and slowly, drearily walked towards the principals office. To be told about those other three girls killed this morning. Those girls lives had been cut short. It was no fair. He had to find the culprits and fast. Because no- one knew who was going to be next. That's what the principle said. But he just didn't understand..it wasn't that easy. Jimmy had even tried the hypothesis of the Yolkians. But that idea was discarded the moment he realized the Yolkians would kill everyone. Not just the girls. Sheen knew, and was worried about Libby, but Jimmy told him he could tell no- one. Ever since Sheen had been acting very moody. And less silly then before. Jimmy just figured it was because he didn't want his dear Libby to die. And Sheen had affirmed this suspicion. Of course Jimmy said that no matter how big the temptation..always keep it quite. The police won't be to happy if we tell people. But Sheen insisted.. And Jimmy had to zap his short term memory. That's why he seemed so weird today. Well everyone knew that Sheen was shy.. But not that shy they all commented to him. He just said he'd hit his head and had a small concussion. No biggie. Of course Libby reacted like a nuclear bomb had gone off.

" Oh MY GOSH! Is he gonna die?" Was all he had heard since lunch time. He didn't care. Tomorrow Sheen would be fine.. And he would make him believe he had a concussion.. Even give him some particulars.. Just to make sure. Knowing Sheen he would drag it out..and involve Ultra Lord or something in one way or another. Jimmy just laughed as he thought of Sheen.. And Libby. She kept treating him like a baby. Feeding him food. When Jimmy knew that Sheen remembered how, and was just trying to get all the attention he possibly could from her. It was a little aggravating. But he dared not bring the subject up because then he would get asked questions. And in this case, questions were not good. He silently walked through the hallway. And saw many girls. He kept thinking, sorry if you have to die.. But I don't know whose doing it. This pang of guilt kept getting stronger.. Finally he decided. He would do anything to stop this killing surge. Even if it meant.. Telling.. Her... she would help him.. Because she'd be concerned about all her friends. She was very smart.. He needed her.. Without her.. He'd never get to the bottom of this. But how to tell her. He saw her heading to her class. A knot fixed itself somewhere near the bottom of his stomach. Just tell her... then after class he hurriedly put his things away so he could catch up with her. His legs vibrating(feeling as though he had just run a mile), his eyes watering.. His voice finally cracked and said.

" WAIT UP CINDY!!!!" she spun around and put a disapproving look on her face as he caught up to her. There was no turning back now. None.. She looked at him with her green eyes. They seemed to read his soul, they penetrated his soul, his very being. He worked very hard to get the words he was searching for out.

" There is something that I need to tell you about.." " But you have to swear you won't tell ..anyone!!" he said quietly and quickly.

" Okay, Nuetron.. Whatever you say.."

" Just PROMISE!" he said impatiently he didn't want his backbone to give up on him now.

" Okay already I promise.." she said coldly. He grabbed her hand and thrust her into a nearby janitors closet.

" NUETRON!! GET ME OUT OF HERE!" she cried. He took his hand and covered her mouth. Warm tingles formed around his fingers, he had to shake them off.

" Shush.." he said removing his hand. Her eyes were wide. Obviously confused. " This is confidential" she seemed very tense all of a sudden. And when he thought about it, he did sound pretty scary. But this was pretty scary stuff.

" The reason why I've been so crabby today is because, there have been a few...." he paused did he really want to tell her? He looked up into her questioning eyes. They held many secrets.. And he knew she could hold this one. " Murders.." she gasped rather loudly. He placed his finger to her lips. " They have all been teenage girls, and well there's no evidence or anything.. And I need help.. Because if I don't find the thing or person that did this.. All the girls in Retroville could end up dead." her eyes got very wide again. Scared.. " Ya I know.. Here look at these." he handed her the pictures, he noticed tears forming in her eyes.

" Oh my Gosh.." her voice whispered.

" I know it's really bad..." his voice assured her.

" But why do you want me to help?"

" Because, I think I can trust you..and your smart...so I thought hey why not.. We have to stop these murders no matter what the cost.."

" So no arguing.."

" Well at least when were working on the cases."

" I agree.." she smiled a little bit. Jimmy tried his best to read beyond what she was conveying. But like usual, she mystified him, and he lost the battle.

"Thanks Cindy, this is for every one.. Including yourself.. So it was a wise choice. But you can't speak a word of it! Not even to Libby.. You can tell no-one.. I thought the government was wrong on this issue, but they told me that it would make a chaos kind of effect."he paused.

" Problem is I have no idea how to start..." he Finished. She looked back down at the photographs. They would have to start with the girls, who they were, what were they like, who knew them.. Simple things like that.

" Well, we can start with who the girls were and talk to there families..." she said

" CINDY!!" he smiled brightly.. " YOUR BRILLIANT!" she jumped back a little bit as he continued. " I can't belief I didn't think of it myself..." he just rambled on and on. Cindy was very confused. Had he just called her.. Cindy Vortex smart????? She snapped back into reality.

" Nuetron will you just shut up already?' she angrily snapped at him. His mouth closed and she smiled.

" That's better..now whose the first girl?"

"Her name was Sarah Mcgrellin... it says here that she was 13.She lived just south of here....near the downtown area." he looked at her nervously... " Are you sure you want to do this Cindy? You don't have to you know..you never know, it could get ugly.."he said almost inaudibly.

" Exactly.." she replied flashing him a smile as she walked out of the Janitors closet. " I'll call you when I'm done with my homework, and you better be ready to kick some major solving BUT!" she called as she walked away. Jimmy sat stunned. Not only in that sentence had she not used Nerdtron or Spewtron ..once..she said she was going to call him! HIM! His heart felt like it had grown wings. He smiled as he also walked out of the closet. He laughed at himself as he dazedly walked towards the doors. He noticed several girls outside. Please let him find the culprit... please.. Maybe if he just kept thinking he would, he would. This thought pleased him as he walked into his house.

About three hours later the phone rang. Please let it be Cindy..it's getting late.. He thought as he picked up the cold receiver.

" Hey this is Cindy, is Jimmy there?" her voice sweetly asked. When he heard her voice he almost lost the ability to speak, but then he remembered that he had a mission.

" Ya, this is him.." he spoke generally. He coughed so his voice didn't sound so raspy.

" Okay, I'm heading over there...c ya in a few..." her voice replied quickly and bluntly. His nerves went way up.

" K," he replied nonchalantly. She hung up as he did... he nervously fingered the cord. Sure enough a tiny bit later he heard the buzzer to his lab ring. His heart jumped as he pushed the button. He loud scream filled the corridor. He hurried over .. He had intended to catch her.. He really had.. But she.. Was kicking and screaming. She landed on top of him, knocking him over onto his back. She laid on top of him, looking into his eyes for quite a while.

" Better watch where your going next time Nuetron.." she looked down realizing she was pinning him to the floor. A tiny bit of a pink covered flushed on to her cheeks. He smiled.

" A little bit uncomfortable eh?"

" I was surprised, so don't get any ideas.." she said quickly. He smiled.

" ok.. Well I found exactly were our first girl lived..so shall we?" he asked her.

Should she let him lead her around? Ya, why not. She was going to help him after all. She did like him..but it was completely out of her personality. Or the one she put on anyways.

" Ya, let's go.." she decided to content..for Sarah. They followed the street signs. They finally arrived at a green house. It had three floors and several windows. All the lights were on and a small blue car was parked in the drive-way. They were home. Both of them shaking on the inside knocked on the door. A tall scruffy looking man with glasses came to the door. His beard almost seemed to cover his mouth. Cindy tried to contain the big laughing fit that was going on inside of her. Jimmy smiled at the man. Oh so sweetly. Cindy had to look away so that she would be able to pay attention to what was going on. After brief introduction to the man who called himself John Mcgrellin he led them inside. Cindy found a comfy chair as Jimmy began talking. John led them to Sarah's room. He said they could go through anything to find out who killed his baby. They silently watched as he left the room. After he left. Both burst out in laughter. Jimmy looked at Cindy as she laughed. His breath seemed to be caught in his right chest cavity. She looked at him questioningly. He looked down at the floor quickly. She smiled again, as she started going through her diaries, and papers. Jimmy felt weird doing this, but she was dead, and if he wanted to save Cindy, and everyone else he needed to do things that were uncomfortable.

Cindy gasped. She opened the diary to show him a picture of an old man. Jimmy eyed her carefully..

" Ya, so.." he said. She pointed to the heading.

' Local man shot...Police investigating...' " There's no words in here , just newspaper clippings, what do you think she was on to?"

" Who knows, but that was like 15 years ago, she could've been doing a report.." Cindy looked discouraged..

" Ya .. I guess..." her voice replied. He smiled as he touched her hand.

" Nice find though.." he smiled trying to hide the tingles once again running through his hand.

" Thanks, I guess.." she said looking through more papers. This was going to be a long process.