sigh... School is never going to let up and I am going to have to fight in order to have any kind of free time. At least, that's my excuse for this chapter being so dang late… Anyway, thanks to everyone who has reviewed! I'm stunned to see that I have 91 reviews (at least this was the number the last time I checked) and to Cutie5, I'm sorry that I didn't respond to your review in the last chapter, but I wouldn't mind being email buddies or whatever. :P I warn you though, my email is screwed up half the time because of reasons that would take WAY too long to explain here, so if I don't respond right away or if the email gets bounced back… don't worry. It'll get to me eventually.

As much as I hate to repeat myself, standard disclaimers still apply. I don't own JN, never will, and can't even hope to. I'm just borrowing the characters for a short period of time and it's all for my own personal enjoyment, not for profits. Woo.

To Cross the Rubicon
By: pottergal

Chapter Ten: The Hunt Begins in Earnest

Jimmy sat in his lab, typing away on the keyboard, his eyes focused intently upon the main screen. He was reviewing the x-rays Goddard had done on the necklace and as more time passed, the more perplexed he became; he wasn't finding anything that matched what he'd been expecting. And as for that…

Mrs. Ojufemi mentioned that the necklace supposedly came from space. What better explanation than alien technology? But none of the x-rays showed an abnormal infrastructure imbedded within the intertwined silver, and the jewel appeared to be a simple emerald. No sinister computer chip lay implanted within its bottle green depths and no foreign mind control technology could be found.

"Goddard," he called over his shoulder and heard the dog's distinctive trot as he bounded up to Jimmy. "I need to work on the translation program. While I'm doing that, I'd like you to run some more tests on the necklace; I need to be sure that the metal is a classifiable element or alloy and that the jewel is a known stone. Can you do this for me?"

Goddard gave a happy bark of assent before extending one of his manipulators and taking the necklace. Jimmy watched him leave, his mind miles away as he struggled to think of other possible explanations. He knew that whatever was behind the mysterious powers of the necklace certainly wasn't a supernatural power. There was no way it could be!

And besides, the style of necklace wasn't even Egyptian. It matched more with the Northern European design, specifically the Celts, and how it had gotten to Egypt in the first place was a mystery he couldn't even begin to fathom.

The more I think about it, the less this whole thing makes sense, and the more I wonder if I'm being led on by Cindy, he thought somewhat angrily as he turned back to the main screen, his brow furrowing in a frown. She had to be using the curse as a spring board to cause problems for him, she just had to be! There wasn't any other answer that made sense!

Problems? Please, his mind piped up. Some part of you is enjoying this special treatment, admit it!

He snorted softly at that, rolling his eyes, but he did concede that under normal circumstances, he would enjoy such treatment.

And who wouldn't? Going on a private picnic with a pretty girl, being treated like you were royalty... what's not to enjoy?

"Well, the food had been pretty good…" he admitted grudgingly.

Wait! What was he thinking? Cindy wasn't a pretty girl, Betty was a pretty girl! And no, he had not enjoyed that picnic! It had been an hour of pure torture, with him sitting on the very edge of the blanket and picking at the food he was given, half wondering if it were stuffed with some kind of harmful drug. Cindy had finally given up trying to reason with him and eaten her food in silence before vanishing into one of the many hedge mazes. He'd then spent the next forty-five minutes trying to locate her in one of them, as even though he could solve them easily, she was content to merely hide herself until he found her.

Lucky my hover car has a sophisticated radar system, he thought as he began to design the translation program, typing out the complex commands for the computer to follow. Otherwise we might still be in there, me chasing her around corners and then wondering where in the name of Tesla she'd gone to.

So things could've gone a tad smoother, he grudgingly admitted, and he could've enjoyed himself more. But… no matter how hard he'd tried, he just couldn't get past the fact that it was Cindy who he was talking and joking with, and miracle of miracles, even laughing with. It was Cindy who was shyly offering to feed him fruit, like something out of a pastoral fairy tale. He'd half expected to see pink flower petals drifting softly through the air and hear light classical music the moment she'd proffered a grape for him to eat.

The whole situation hadn't sat well with him, to say the least, and his half-forced reluctance had ruined any nice moment they might've shared.

He sighed at that, his fingers pausing on the keyboard as he stared glumly into space. There had been some definite moments, if they could be called that, as contrary to popular belief, he did like being around Cindy. Normally it was only during those rare times when she decided to be nice to him, and those tended to be few and far between. But maybe it was the flash of spontaneity coupled with the knowledge that it wouldn't last that made him savor those occasions so much and made them so special.

And she lied for you, don't forget that.

She certainly had, covering up their gross tardy with a cleverly forged note that stated they'd been in the public library doing research. Miss Fowl had seemed deeply suspicious of it, studying it several times before finally accepting it, but the rest of class had passed without incident. Libby had given him a small nod upon seeing him, letting him know that she'd done her part, and it made him breathe a small sigh of relief. He knew it would help keep everyone off his back and people wouldn't think anything of Cindy's strange actions.

I don't care how much Cindy denies it, but her behavior is exceedingly abnormal. The only way to keep people from blaming me for this mess is to tell them that it's all just a joke, he thought as he went over some of the finer points in his program, double checking several of the trickier commands.

"Jimmy?"

Cindy's call shook him from his task and he turned to find her leading Libby, Sheen, and Carl into the main room of his lab. He was about to ask how they'd gotten in without him when his gaze fell on his hair brush, which Cindy waved at him accusingly.

"You know, Jimmy, if you really didn't want people to get in here you'd think about installing a retinal print scanner instead of a DNA one," she said, setting his brush on the nearest workbench. "I know you already have one on your locker, and that way you won't have to rip out your hair whenever you want to enter."

"Cindy, when do Jimmy's actions make sense?" Libby said with a roll of her eyes and sat on a nearby stool. "I'll tell you when, and that is rarely."

"I'll overlook that one," Jimmy said, shooting Libby with a small irked look. "But insult me again, when I'm trying to help your best friend, and I'll have to ask you to leave."

Libby raised both eyebrows at that while sharing a look with Cindy. "What happened to you?" she asked as she turned back to him. "You've certainly got some bees up in your bonnet." Jimmy felt his cheek twitch and Libby held up a finger. "And that wasn't an insult, it was a fact."

"Fine," he said, hopping from his chair and walking to the container where the book had been set up. He'd taken it from the vacuum once he'd gotten home from school and placed it in an automatic scanner, which would systematically scan each page and then transfer them to the main computer for analysis. There his translation program would take over, logically filling in the gaps created by faded ink before spitting out a coherent version of the text.

"So did you find anything yet?" Libby asked and he sighed.

"No," he muttered as he switched on the scanner and turned back to them. "There's nothing unusual about the necklace so far, and I have Goddard running some more tests on it to make sure that the materials are indeed from this world."

"What? You mean you think the necklace is extra… extraterr…" Sheen started, fumbling over a word, and Jimmy sighed a little, his eyes glancing at the ceiling briefly.

"Extraterrestrial?" he supplied and Sheen nodded a few times.

"Yeah, that one!" Sheen exclaimed before continuing. "You think it's extraterr-whatever in origin?"

"It's a distinct possibility, considering that Mrs. Ojufemi told us that the necklace was supposedly sent from Isis, and that it came from the heavens," he said as he glanced at the main screen, silently monitoring the progress made by the program. "I'm not ruling out anything as of yet."

"You seem to have ruled out 'curse'," Libby said and Jimmy threw her another look. "Don't you give me any attitude; I already know that you think it's a bunch of mumbo jumbo. But I'm thinking that maybe something you can't explain with all your mighty fine science is causing Cindy to act all psycho."

"That's preposterous," he said, shaking his head slightly. "Everything can be explained by science, from ghosts to Loch Ness monsters to silly little curses. We went to that tomb twice, didn't we? And are we dead?"

He looked at everyone briefly before continuing. "No, we most certainly are not!"

"But we almost got killed the first time!" Libby shot back. "Whose to say that it wasn't that curse making your electro-life thingy bring those zombies back from the dead?"

"That was just a bad coincidence," he retorted. "A curse couldn't have set those events in motion because it doesn't exist! Might I remind you that pain didn't erupt from our every pore?"

Libby made a sound of disgust as he adopted a rather mocking tone to his voice and she folded her arms over her chest. "You know, I'm glad my momma expects me home in an hour. I can't take much more of your closed mind."

"If you're through arguing over what has caused my supposed lapse in sanity," Cindy's exasperated voice made them both turn to her and she glared darkly at him and Libby. "I think Goddard has something to report."

Jimmy turned his dog at that and found him waiting patiently beside Cindy, the necklace in one of his manipulators.

"Well? Did you find anything, boy?" he asked and his stomach sank when Goddard regretfully shook his head. He handed over the necklace, safe in its case, as well as a thick stack of papers. After leafing through some of the top sheets, Jimmy quickly realized that they were the printouts from all the different tests Goddard had run.

"I rest my case," Libby said, holding her hands out dramatically, and Jimmy frowned down at the papers.

"I don't understand," he muttered, running through the results of the analysis done on the gem. "There're no strange emissions emanating from the jewel, no unusual chemical residues, no nothing. This doesn't make sense!"

"It doesn't make sense because science can't explain real-life curses," Libby said triumphantly, raising her chin slightly.

"Jim, could you take the necklace away? I don't wanna be cursed," Carl whimpered and Jimmy felt his cheek twitch again.

"Oh for cryin' in mud… It's not cursed!" he snapped, a bit more viciously than he intended, and Carl cowered behind Libby, who was glaring at him. "Curses are a physical impossibility. There's no scientific proof that an outside supernatural force can influence anything!"

"Then what about spoon bending?" Cindy asked innocently. "How do you explain people who theoretically can channel energy to bend a spoon?"

"They're the ones doing it with their hands, even though they don't realize it! It's like that Ouija board game, where you're the one really moving the piece, though you do it without knowing! There've been studies to prove it!"

"But there've also been scientific studies done about the paranormal," she said, making him mentally roll his eyes. "I'd read that many scientists, after reviewing studies done to test psychic ability, come to the conclusion that the results are significant enough to warrant further investigation," Cindy continued and he glared at her.

"If you can name one prominent scientist who supports that," he began, setting aside Goddard's results and handing the necklace back to the mechanical dog, "I swear not to set foot in my lab for a month."

"This is stupid," Libby snapped, hopping from the stool and giving Jimmy a look. "It doesn't matter if they're prominent or not. Cindy's point was that scientists are indeed researching the supernatural and finding proof that there is something worth studying. Why don't you just admit that this is something you're probably not going to be able to explain?"

Jimmy glared at her silently before turning to Goddard. "Run those tests again," he said, making Libby groan in frustration. "Repetition insures accuracy, so I'd like you to repeat them. I'll be there in a moment to help."

"Okay, fine. Obviously my input means nothing," Libby said before turning to Cindy. "I would love to stay, being your best friend and all, but I just can't take much more of this. You want to join me for some ice cream at the Candy Bar?"

Cindy glanced from Libby to him, biting her lip in deliberation, but soon she sighed and looked away. "Sure. We didn't get to hang at lunch," she said, nodding slightly.

"Great! Then you can fill me in on where you really were," Libby said, finally sounding happy, and the two of them began to make their way to the exit. Just before the door closed behind them, Cindy looked at him over her shoulder, her face holding an expression Jimmy didn't have time to identify.

"That went well," Sheen said as Jimmy frowned slightly in thought, trying to place the emotion. Was it… reluctance? Or perhaps guilt? Maybe she felt guilty for putting him through so much… "I think I've learned what not to say to Libby, and I have Jimmy to thank for it."

"Yeah," Carl added, "who knew Libby could argue just like Cindy."

No, it wasn't guilt, he decided. It was more like she'd wanted to stay with him, but felt honor bound to spend at least some of her time with her friend…

"Maybe someone just has to disagree with him, so Libby is just stepping up to the plate in Cindy's absence."

Yes, that was it. Her eyes had held unmistakable longing, like she'd been hoping he would step in and tell her to stay.

"You think so?" Carl asked. "What do you think would happen if neither Libby nor Cindy argued with Jimmy?"

"Then I guess the only person left with enough brain power to spar with Jimmy's intellect would be Ultralord," Sheen said, triumphantly holding up one of his many action figures. "He'd fry Jimmy mentally in a matter of seconds, just like he did to the Cervians in episode three hundred and twenty-two, who were trying to use their massive brains for great evil!"

Jimmy finally tuned into the ensuing conversation between Carl and Sheen, and when Sheen started describing just how Ultralord had destroyed the Cervians, he felt a flash of annoyance. As if some stupid fictional cartoon character was really going to beat him in a battle of intelligence…

"Was that the episode where he has to ride a Cervian goat to safety once the planet got blown up?" Carl asked, frowning slightly.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Sheen asked suspiciously. "It's an extremely rare episode, and you have to buy it to be able to see it!"

"Because they're always showing it and citing it for animal cruelty on the Llama Channel," Carl explained. "The Cervian goat was actually a llama that they painted blue."

"Are you serious! They're constantly showing it on your dumb channel? This is an outrage! How can it be a rare episode if it's always on!" Sheen exclaimed, gesturing wildly and his face set in a dark frown. "Give me the address of your station's guy in charge! I have to write a letter explaining how horribly they throw off the Ultralord market by showing that episode!"

"But it's the only episode with a llama in it," Carl said, sounding slightly panicked. "There aren't any other Ultralord episodes that have one!"

"Then find a different show to exploit!"

"Guys, could you stop it?" Jimmy finally cut in, as he'd been steadily growing more and more annoyed the longer their conversation continued. He'd tried ignoring them, but he'd found it nearly impossible to disengage himself from their exchange.

Both Carl and Sheen turned to Jimmy, their eyes blinking in slight confusion, and he looked from one to the other before continuing.

"Look, maybe it would be better if I did this research on my own," he said carefully, working hard to keep his irritation from showing in his voice, and Carl and Sheen looked at each other before nodding a little. It wasn't the first time Jimmy had asked them to let him study something alone, and they had a feeling it wouldn't be the last.

"Good luck, Jim," Carl called as they walked to the door, Sheen starting up where he'd left off.

"See you later, Jimmy," Sheen added before grilling Carl over the llama episode of Ultralord. Their discussion faded slowly away, leaving Jimmy surrounded by the faint hum of his lab at work. The computer beeped occasionally, signaling its progress with the book, but it was slow going, as it had to fill in a decent amount of gaps from where either the paper had degraded or the ink had faded.

He sighed a little before plopping back down in his chair and resting his forehead against the cool metal of the keyboard. What was wrong with him? Normally he would welcome Carl and Sheen's banter, finding it amusing. It almost provided him with a relief of sorts, like a way to ground himself after spending so much time focused on science. Sure, he did put a stop to it when it became a problem for his focus, but he'd never felt so… so fed up with it before.

Libby had certainly been right about one thing; he was much more irritable than usual, taking what would be normal comments personally. He couldn't quite explain why he suddenly felt like everyone was going out of their way to insult or bother him, but he had a feeling it was coming from the way he was constantly on guard over Cindy. Being that tense for the entire day had to be influencing him in more ways than he realized… and it didn't help that he was no closer to solving the situation than he'd been earlier in the day.

A soft whine of concern made him lift his head and he found Goddard standing close beside him, his metal head tilting slightly to one side.

"Hey, boy," he said softly, reaching out and resting a hand on top of Goddard's head. "I'm okay, really. I've just got a lot on my mind right now."

Goddard nuzzled at Jimmy's hand before whining again in a way that distinctly asked if he wanted to talk about it. He sighed slightly at that, frowning a little in thought. Did he?

"I don't know what's happened to me, boy," he said at last, his gaze drifting absently around his lab. "I feel so… so confused and flustered and…" Goddard whined sympathetically and Jimmy shut his eyes. "I'm starting to feel like I won't ever get Cindy back to normal, and that really bothers me."

Goddard barked a little, tilting his head in question and Jimmy shrugged in response.

"Why does it bother me? I don't know, I really don't," he said, opening his eyes and silently scanning the main screen, but not registering anything he'd read. "I mean, it shouldn't, right? This new Cindy is as nice as pie and I suppose that if I let go of all my preconceptions about her, we'd get along perfectly. I think what's really bothering me is that I can't seem to find an answer that fits."

"I hate feeling helpless, Goddard," he said softly, his hands clenching slightly. "There's an explanation for everything, so why can't I find one for this situation?"

Goddard barked before gently nipping at Jimmy's sleeve to pull him from the chair. He tugged Jimmy to his feet before giving him a nudge towards the other room, silently telling him that if he wanted a solution that badly, he needed to work at it.

He's right, Jimmy thought as he began to walk, feeling slightly better. It wasn't much, but it was a start, and if he focused, he could solve anything. He knew he could.

A few hours later Jimmy shuffled back to the main room of his lab, feeling once again frustrated and disheartened beyond belief. He'd run tests until finally he had to just take a step back and stop; it had been getting to the point where he'd repeated the test so many times that he was getting sloppy in his actions. If it hadn't been for Goddard's alarmed bark, he might've melted the necklace in his attempt to run one of the tests again.

I'll go over what the computer has translated so far, he thought as he collapsed into his chair, feeling both mentally and physically exhausted. After interrupting the program, he opened the saved files and sat back as he prepared to read.

Here lies a detailed account of the powers of the Isis Amulet, sent to punish the wicked, blah, blah, blah... Jimmy read silently, skimming over the lengthy introduction until he reached the explanation of the curse. And what he read was almost enough to make him stare blankly at the screen in shock.

"Jumping Jupiter…" he whispered. "It can't be…"

Hm, bad place to stop? Well, tough, because this chapter is already long enough. But woo hoo! I've made it to ten chapters, and I think that the next one is going to be the last. I'm not promising anything, however, because originally I'd intended this one to be the last, and look what happened. I just keep drawing it out and drawing it out…

Anyway, what do you think is going to happen? Will Jimmy finally find the answer he so desperately wants? And why is this story listed under romance if there hasn't really been any so far? Stay tuned and find out!