Hello again. Many apologies for not updating sooner. Thank you for all the lovely reviews. You all get pizza!
Disclaimer: Roses are red, violets are blue, I don't own Jonny Quest... so screw you! (This is why I don't submit poems.)
Last time: "You're here! You're back!"Jessie paused suddenly and suspiciously asked, "This isn't a dream, is it?" When Jonny shook his head no, she smiled and hugged him again. But then Jonny cried out, pressing his fingertips to his temples.
Jessie stared at him in shock and asked him, "Jonny, what's wrong? What can I do?"
Jonny stared back, eyes glazed over. Then he whispered, "Get me into QuestWorld."
Inversion: Battleground
Jessie stared fearfully at her best friend, who was convulsing slightly in the chair. Hadji also looked at Jonny worriedly, wondering what was making him shake like that. Jonny had been transported into QuestWorld just moments ago, and had almost immediately started shuddering, as though someone was fighting him.
"Fighting him…" Hadji whispered. Then he turned around and asked Dr. Quest and Race, "Is there a way to see as Jonny sees in QuestWorld?"
Race looked at Hadji oddly. "Of course there is, Hadji. What, has your remembrance of the QuestWorld technology suddenly dissipated after your summer away?" Not waiting for an answer, Race typed in the necessary code, and then gestured to the screen above his head.
A gasp involuntarily flew from Jessie's mouth. "Kuso," she hissed in Japanese.
Race turned and narrowed his eyes slightly at his daughter. "I told you not to curse, Jessica."
"Oh, please, Dad!" Jessie snapped, her mind wavering from the matter at hand. "I'm over eighteen. But…" She returned her attention back to the screen. "Dad, it's Jager," she whispered.
Race finally focused on the screen and swore in one of the many languages he knew. His eyes ablaze with figurative flames, he swung around and snapped, "What is going on here?!"
Benton stared at the screen and absentmindedly rubbed his bearded chin. "Extraordinary. Jessie," he said, turning to the girl, "when did you meet this boy, this Jager?"
Jessie wracked her brain, keeping one eye on the fight going on right in front of her, albeit in QuestWorld. "Uh, just this summer." She winced when Jonny took a dreadful hit from Jager, shown both on the screen and in Jonny's trembling form, but she forced her mind to pay attention to Dr. Quest.
"Have you ever seen him before this summer? I know that this summer was the first time you met him, but that doesn't mean that you couldn't have seen him elsewhere."
Jessie's eyes widened as the dismissed connection was suddenly reestablished. "The photo!" she cried in disbelief.
Hadji's eyes also widened as he realized what she meant. He moved so quickly that he was by Jessie's side in an eyeblink, though she was on the other side of the room. Hadji grabbed Jessie's shoulder and said urgently, "Jessie, did you do anything to that photo while we were away?"
Jessie hit herself in the head, angry. "I uploaded it into QuestWorld," she admitted. "I wanted to see if I could make it a positive using the QuestWorld program. It didn't work."
Race stared hard at the screen. "Jessie, we have to do something. If Jager can call to Jonny when he's in QuestWorld and Jonny's not, I don't know how closely they're connected. We have to do something." Race directed his gaze to his daughter, who let a hint of a smirk play across her mouth.
"I'm ready."
In QuestWorld:
Jager stood over Jonny's prone form, looking down at his inverted twin. The blonde winced as he unsuccessfully tried to get up. He finally gave up and just rolled onto his back, looking up at Jager's mocking smile.
"What… do you want from her?" Jonny asked.
Jager replied sneeringly, "What you already have, Jonny-boy."
Jonny spoke between breaths. "I… I have… nothing… from her."
Jager ignored his protests and instead moved gracefully around Jonny, talking to him all the while. "Why is it that the blonde runt gets the girl and I get nothing!? I mean, sure, I've got looks, charm, wit, and what do you have? A family," Jager spat disdainfully. He kicked Jonny's kneecap for emphasis, smiling when he heard Jonny's grunt of pain.
"Why… do you… hurt me?" Jonny asked, clearly in pain.
"Because I like pain. I like your pain. And I really like causing it." Jager paused and said conversationally, "That's from a book, you know. Good book, too. It was called Demon in My View, by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. Lovely girl, once you get to know her." He glanced down and noticed that Jonny was regaining some color and knelt, fastening a hand around Jonny's windpipe. He squeezed fractionally, electing a moan of suffering from the blonde. But then Jager froze as a thin, pale hand fastened itself around his neck.
"Let him go," Jessie Bannon growled.
"Ah, Jessica!" Jager said brightly, ignoring the fact that one quick motion could easily cause his death. "Come to join the little family reunion?"
A wry smile twisted Jessie's mouth. "What family reunion? As far as I can see, you're not related in any manner to either Jonny or me."
A confused look flitted across Jager's features, but he shook his head as if clearing his thoughts. "Of course I'm related to Jonny. How else could he look like me?"
"How else could you look like him?" Jessie challenged, releasing her hold on Jager's neck. With a nearly imperceptible motion, she swept her foot around, knocking a very surprised Jager away from Jonny.
"How could I look like him? It's impossible. An original can't look like a copy, and of course I'm the original." Jager got up from his rather ungraceful position on his posterior, unblushingly brushing his exoskeleton off. "Now leave us, Jessica. It's not right for the prize to be involved in the fight."
Jessie's eyes flashed angrily, and Jonny tucked himself into a ball to prepare for the coming explosion. Oh boy, he thought, observing her reddening face. She's gonna blow!
"It's not what?" she whispered in a dangerously low voice.
Jager winced, instantly realizing that he'd said the wrong thing. "You should be flattered," he answered quickly, hoping to diffuse the situation. "Two boys in their prime of life, dueling for the right to claim you as a part of his life…"
"Not a duel," Jonny interjected from his position just behind Jessie. He was standing now, but seemed to have some trouble remaining straight. Jessie moved back a little and slipped an arm around Jonny's waist, trying to help him support himself.
Jonny took a deep breath and told Jager, "This wasn't a duel. A duel is undertaken with both the consent and knowledge of both participants. You called to me, forced me to join you in here, and then started attacking me. This was no duel."
Jessie frowned and asked incredulously, "Wait, he called to you?" Jonny nodded his head, and Jessie answered with a rather dubious look.
Jonny tried to explain. "Jess, it was like there were two voices in my head. One was me and normal, you know? The other… it sounded a little like me, but was… not. It was practically screeching at me to get myself into QuestWorld, and it came with not a little pain. As I got closer to the lab, the pain began lessening, and was gone when I entered QuestWorld. But then this idiot started attacking me, and…"
Jonny abruptly winced and laid a hand on his sore ribs. "Jess," he said, lifting his eyes to hers. "Jess, I can't breathe."
Jessie watched in horror as one of her best friends slowly sank to the ground, ashen-faced.
In the real world:
Hadji heard the alert go off for a few beeps before shutting down, and he swung around to inspect the monitors above Jessie and Jonny, trying to find out what was wrong. His features drained of color, due to fear, and he called out to Race and Dr. Quest frantically. The two fathers came running from where they were taking a break somewhere else in the lighthouse.
"What is it?!" Race shouted, brandishing a fireplace poker (Hadji secretly grimaced, not sure that he wanted to know where that thing had been). But Dr. Quest sought out the screens instinctively, and his mouth set into a grim line when he saw what was there.
"He's stopped breathing, Race," Benton said shortly. "Hadji, get the first aid kit." The boy nodded and left the room. "Not that it'll be any help," Dr. Quest mumbled pessimistically before saying, "Race, you've done CPR before." Race nodded and moved toward the immobile Jonny, Dr. Quest watching a few feet away.
A few breaths and pumps later, Race grunted, "He's not coming around yet. Benton, if we can't get him breathing within the next two minutes, it's most likely that he'll die from lack of oxygen to his brain."
"Merde," Benton swore in French. He turned to the returning Hadji and asked, "Is there anything that you've ever heard of that could help Jonny?"
Hadji shook his head sorrowfully. "Not unless you count in The Matrix, when Neo died and Trinity brought him back to life with a…" He trailed off, twin light bulbs going up over his and Benton's head.
"With a kiss," they said together.
In QuestWorld:
Jessie tried frantically to wake Jonny up, tears cascading down her face. "Jonny, Jonny, please wake up," she whispered.
"Sorry, babe," Jager whispered into her ear; she jumped, startled, since she hadn't heard him approaching.
"Sorry," Jager repeated. "Looks like you're gonna be stuck with me."
"Over my dead body," she spat, her tears drying in the heat of her anger.
"Oh, come on, Jess," he replied with a laugh. "You can't say that being with the bad guy doesn't have its charms." Jager easily took Jessie's arm and moved her from her position next to Jonny. She fought to break away from him, but he held on, his arms easily encircling her hips.
"That's the terrible thing about these exoskeletons," he whispered to her. "You can't really… feel anything." He pressed forward, forcing his mouth onto hers, but then he grunted in pain when she kneed him.
"I guess you can feel some, can't you Jager?" she asked sweetly. He fell over, down, but not yet out.
She ignored Jager and moved back to Jonny's side. She touched his hands gently, gasping when she felt how cold they were.
"What's happened to you, Jonny?" she wondered softly. "When did you get so cold?"
A single tear found its way to the end of her nose, falling onto Jonny's cheek. Jessie gently reached out and brushed it away, smiling through her grief. "It looks like you're crying, Jonny. Like you're crying with my tears."
Oblivious to the audience they had both within and without QuestWorld, she leaned over and carefully brushed her lips across his. She finally pulled back and swiped her tears away from her face, standing unsteadily.
"I never told you what I felt," she whispered.
But the moment shattered when the mocking tones of Jager reached her ears; he was back up, fully recovered from the hit he'd taken from Jessie.
"My, my, my, what a touching moment in QuestWorld. Almost like a soap opera." Jager feigned wiping a tear from his face before laughing. "How romantic," he told Jessie sarcastically.
Jessie swung around, furious.
"Shut up!" she spat, her fists clenching and unclenching at her sides.
Jager laughed derisively. "Or what?" he challenged. "You'll kiss me to death? Frightening."
"You self-centered, egotistical, stupid carbon copy," she hissed. "Why did you do this to him? Why did you have to kill him? What had he ever done to you?"
"He took what was rightfully mine," Jager snapped back, stung by the carbon copy remark.
"Oh yeah, and what was that?" Jessie snarled, the landscape around them changing to fit her fury as QuestWorld read her emotions. The sky gradually darkened to ebony streaked with blue lightning, as the ground became hard and rocky.
"He took you."
Author Notes
Yes, I do realize that the whole "waken with a kiss" thing is a bit trite, but it was the first thing I came up with. By all means, if any of you have a better idea, share it. I'll redo the chapter if another idea is better. Cheers.