Rip Washington was always a miserable man, but he became a horrible man in January of 2001. He couldn't keep a job, he spent his days on the internet writing reviews for things he hated, and he had an intense dislike of other people. Even when people tried to show Rip kindness, he remained distant. He knew it was only a matter of time before those people betrayed him. He would lash out at them at the smallest provocation. Eventually, people would stop reaching out. Every time he got a new job, he would typically be fired for starting fights with his boss or sleeping on the clock. Whenever he was fired, Rip would go on a tirade about how the boss was the biggest piece of shit on Earth to anyone who would listen. Unfortunately, no one typically enjoyed listening to him. There was only one person whose company Rip enjoyed: his girlfriend, Jenny Tutone. She supported him day in and day out, working long shifts at the hospital while he stayed home looking for work. She was his guardian angel, sent to help Rip deal with all of the bastards who wronged him day in and day out. Or so Rip thought. In reality, Jenny resented Rip. She worked hard at the hospital, often pulling five or six doubles in a week. Yet, whenever she got home, the apartment was a mess, dinner was never cooked, and Rip was angry about something else. Life had become a prison for Jenny. Whenever she tried to ask Rip to help around the house, he would become furious and accuse Jenny of betraying him. She knew she had to make her escape. "Maria, he's always home! He doesn't even try to find a job! All he does is find things to be angry about," Jenny cried to her friend in the hospital's changing room before her shift started. "Even if I wanted to move out, he would find out and I know he'll explode, thinking I 'betrayed' him." "We won't let him get away with this, Jenny," she said, soothing her friend crying in her lap. "If he won't look for a job himself, you should bring a job to him!" "I don't have a job to bring him!" Jenny sobbed. "My uncle owns a grocery store in town. If I talk to him, he'll give Rip a job. If you take that to him, he can't say no," Jenny sniffled and looked up at Maria like she was an angel soothing a frightened child. "I'll cover your shift on any day that he works. Then while he's gone, I'll have my husband come over and help you get your stuff over to my place." "He never stays long at jobs," Jenny tried to compose herself. She slid off of Maria's lap and hugged her knees on the floor. "If we do this, it'll have to be fast." "I'm ready whenever you are." "Talk to your uncle. We'll do this on the first day he's at work." Jenny stood up and looked out into the hospital hall. She took a deep breath and found the resolve in her to put her all into her work, because she knew sixteen hours in here are better than eight with him. _ Two weeks later, it was finally the day Jenny would be leaving. Jenny had played it cool enough that he had no idea she was leaving. It wasn't hard considering that she was gone most of the time, and the little time she did spend with him consisted solely of her listening to his rants. Jenny was nervous, and felt a mixture of terror and excitement in her stomach. She sat at the kitchen table in her sweatpants and t-shirt. She bounced her foot as she watched Rip put his green employee jacket over the plaid shirt he was wearing to work. He looked at the ceiling and groaned. Jenny closed her eyes and felt her eyebrow twitch. "Why are you bouncing your leg so much? You never do that," he whined, still looking at the ceiling. "Sorry," Jenny faked a smile. "Too much coffee I guess." "Whatever. I'm already not excited for this job," Rip plopped into his chair and drank his coffee. "My back is already hurting." "Rip, you haven't even gone to your first shift yet, you need to just—" she began to raise her voice. She noticed his brows began to furrow. She took a deep breath. "Please Rip. I want to stop working so many doubles. I need your help." "Jenny, I will try this job. You know that I always get stuck with the assholes at work though. They're always out to get me!" "I really just need you to go to at least one shift Rip! I don't give a damn after that, okay?" She snapped. Silence loomed in the apartment. Rip stood up and tossed his mug into the sink. It loudly clattered against the metal, but luckily didn't break. "Fine, I'll go," he said as he grabbed his keys. He walked out the front door and slammed it. "You piece of shit! I can't wait to ruin your life!" she cried out in anger. Rip didn't hear her as he stormed down the steps. Jenny went to her phone and punched Maria's number in. It rang twice and a man picked up. "Hello?" "Hey Ron, it's Jenny. Rip is gone, come quickly." Ron and Jenny spent a few hours packing up her stuff. When they were finished, most of the decor was gone. What remained was the bed, a chair, a table, and a computer. Jenny smiled at the empty apartment, knowing that this was a good choice for her. She took her cell phone off of the charger before packing the charger into a bag. She looked at the phone as it flashed a message. One new message. 37 minutes ago. Her heart dropped and she listened to it. Rip's annoying voice began to whine on the other end. "Jenny, this job already sucks. There's nowhere to sit and the old Mexican guy keeps telling me to do stuff. I think I'm going to quit and come home." No, no he can't come home now. We aren't done yet! She quickly took a deep breath and called Rip back. His voicemail played back to her. Shit, I hope he hasn't quit yet! "Hey Rip, baby," Jenny put on her sweetest voice. "I know we left off on a bad note this morning, but I'm really thankful you're trying this job for me. Just stay there for the rest of the day. You'll be my hero. I love you, I'll see you soon, okay?" She hung up the phone and gagged a little at the things she had to say. All she could do now is hope he gets the message before quitting. "Ron, we have to hurry up!" she called as she started lifting boxes herself. A mere twenty minutes later, Jenny pulled out of the apartment complex. It's finally time for me to succeed. She never intended to look back. _ "... I'll see you soon, okay?" Rip smiled and put his phone back in his pocket. His lunch break was almost over. He stood outside of his boss's office, originally storming over to quit. That was when he noticed a message he missed from Jenny. After listening to her call him her hero, he decided against quitting right now. "I won't quit today. I'll wait until the next time this old guy pisses me off," he mumbled to himself. "I can't let Jenny think I'm not her hero!" He was proud of himself for this selfless sacrifice he was making for Jenny. When he got home, he felt something was off. Jenny's car wasn't parked where it usually was. He walked upstairs and found the door was locked. "Jenny, what the fuck. You're giving me real mixed signals here," he complained. After unlocking the door, he walked in to see a nearly empty apartment, shrouded in the late afternoon light. He dropped to his knees and sobbed, not knowing how he would make it alone, or why he deserved this utter betrayal from the one woman he considered family. For days he stayed up crying all night. He stopped showering and taking care of himself. All he did was go online and listen to that last voicemail. He couldn't figure out what he had done wrong in between that voicemail and when he got home. He stopped going to work . He lost his job at Maria's uncle's store, never knowing just how close his boss was to his ex-girlfriend. One night, a week or so after Jenny disappeared, he shut off his computer after a long day of fighting on message boards. He laid on his bed and cried again, holding his phone. "Why would she leave me? I wasn't going to quit until she abandoned me! This is her fault!" He sobbed and played her voicemail again. "... I'll see you soon, okay?" The voicemail stopped and he laid silently in the dark. All of a sudden, the phone began to ring. "Who would be calling me? No one calls me," he looked down at his phone's illuminated screen. The top line read "Jenny," but underneath, where the phone number would have been, there was nothing at all. "Is this some kind of sick joke? What's wrong with my bullshit phone?" He answered the phone furiously. "Hello?" He barked into the phone. "Rip?" A familiar voice spoke, "Rip baby, it's me!" "Jenny?" Rip's voice broke. "Jenny, I'm so sorry for whatever I did. Please come home, I'll never do it again, I swear!" Jenny laughed on the other end of the line. "Rip! You didn't do anything wrong at all," she consoled him. "I had to leave town for my job. They offered me a better paying job at a hospital the next state over." "You moved? Why didn't you tell me? I've been so scared you betrayed me!" He began to get upset. "It had to be immediately, they needed me at the new hospital as soon as possible! I promise I would never betray you, Rip Washington!" "Why didn't you call me as soon as you got there?" "The phone company was messing everything up! I finally got them to fix it all. I'm so sorry you haven't heard from me!" "Well I'll pack up my stuff and come up to see y—" "No!" Jenny interrupted him. "No baby, the apartment I'm in is too small for both of us. Let me work this job for a while and build a life here for you to come home to baby." Rip smiled as he heard Jenny soothe him. That sounded like a nice easy life he could relax in, away from the demands to make something of himself. Eventually, Rip began visiting shady websites to purchase credit card numbers and bank account numbers, so he never had to work too hard. Jenny supported his identity theft all the way through. He didn't care that his schemes hurt other people. They deserved it because they had such nice lives, while everyone else ruined Rip's. For three years, Rip and Jenny kept up their relationship over the phone. Every day, Rip was excited to move in with his girlfriend again. In late September of 2004, Rip went out to buy his groceries. It had become one of the very few times he would leave his apartment. Jenny was at work, so he couldn't talk to her. Over the past few years, they had spent every moment that she was off of work talking over the phone. Their relationship was better than it ever was when they lived together. While walking to his car, he recognized a face from his past. A blonde woman walked towards a SUV with her friend. Rip recognized her instantly as Jenny. It was so strange for him to see her smile. He was certain it was because it had been so long, but the truth was that Rip had never seen Jenny truly happy. None of that mattered now, Rip was happy to see his girlfriend again. He sprinted towards the two women happily. "Jenny!" He called. As he approached them, he saw a look of repulsion on Jenny's face. He was taken off guard. "Rip? Hey," she said awkwardly, moving closer to her friend. "Jenny, I missed you! I'm so glad you're back!" He said happily. She was uneasy looking at him. He had abandoned any attempt at helping himself. From his hygiene to his social skills, Jenny struggled to tell if he truly was worse off now, or if she just knew better now. "Rip, this is kind of awkward." She began to fiddle with her keys, trying to unlock her car. "What's awkward? We've been talking every day since you had to leave town!" He was confused by Jenny's bizarre attitude. Her car door flew open with a loud whoosh. "Rip, I haven't talked to you in three years!" Jenny snapped. "You were a leech on my life, Rip! All you care about is yourself and getting revenge on whoever wronged you. It's pathetic!" Rip's heart felt like it was in his throat. "I left you Rip. I'm engaged now, I'm getting married next month. Stay out of my life!" Rip felt his anger reach a brand new level of fury, but it felt different. The fiery inferno of red rage in Rip's heart turned dark and concentrated. He felt like Cyclops from the X-Men as he imagined a ray of that dark rage fire from his eyes. The darkness began to collect together into the form of a tall figure towering behind Jenny. It wore a helmet that showed off nothing but a crooked yellow smile against its pale purple skin. The helmet was black, Rip could not see it's eyes behind a visor that shined a bright purple. Its shoulders had pauldrons with Z's on them, further down it had no arms. In the arms' place were small, motionless cyclones. It stood tall in its dark purple platform boots. A belt formed around its waist that read "SiS." "Rip! Do you hear me? I hate you! Stay away from me!" Jenny continued to yell as her friend tried to calm her. "Master," Rip saw the monster's twisted mouth smirk. The voice sounded eerily familiar to Rip. Was it his own voice? It didn't matter, Rip knew this figure was on his side. "Don't you get tired of people like this?" it said malevolently. Rip shook as Jenny continued screaming. His eyes were locked with the creature's purple visor. Jenny and her friend seemed to not even notice it at all. "I see you cannot talk right now. That's fine, I know you're tired of it. My name is Sleepless in Seattle. You have had enough. I am your Stand and I am here to protect you from people who seek to ruin your life." "Get the hell away from me Rip!" Jenny screamed as she got into her car. As she began to climb into her SUV, Sleepless in Seattle rose in the air. His legs slowly faded into a cyclone propelling him upwards. He drifted backwards gracefully. "Master, I'll make sure that her dreams are killed just the same as yours are now that she's humiliated you. I'll always keep you safe, because no one can protect their soul in a dream." He shrunk smaller as he drifted backwards into Jenny's eye. In his mind, he knew exactly what Sleepless in Seattle would do. Its ability was simple. With a glance, Rip could plant Sleepless into his victim. That night, Sleepless would show up in a wonderful dream the victim would have. While the victim was unprotected, Sleepless would use its cyclone arms to destroy everything in the dream. When the victim woke up, they would find they would never sleep again. Rip hadn't heard a single word that Jenny had screamed at him, but she didn't care. Her engine turned over and she floored her car out of the parking lot. Her friend briskly walked back to her own car as Rip fell to the ground, overwhelmed by his new knowledge. _ When Rip got home, he was pissed off. He left all of his groceries on the messy counter as he grabbed his cellphone. He sat on his chair and opened his voicemail. He looked at the voicemail from Jenny from 3 years ago and began to press the delete button. Suddenly, the phone rang. It said Jenny again, but still had no phone number. He picked it up. "I don't want to talk to you, you bitch!" He spat into the phone. "Rip, I've been lying to you, and I'm sorry. But you're ready for the truth," Jenny's voice begged over the phone. "What's your damn issue?" He demanded. "I am not Jenny." "What?" "When Jenny left you, she left a voicemail. You played that voicemail all the time. You obsessed over it. You obsessed over her. You loved her. I wanted to be loved like her!" The voice began to yell. Yellow sparks began to fly from the phone. "Jenny, you aren't making any sense!" Rip began to panic as he held the phone away from his ears as sparks flew. "I'm not Jenny, I'm the voicemail that Jenny left you," the phone was away from Rip's ear, but it was as loud as if she was in the room. The sparks came together to form a crude image of her before falling apart. "I'm sorry Rip, I can't fully form myself for you. I wish I could so we could truly be together." Rip was silent. The phone stopped sparking as the false Jenny went silent as well, only chiming in with an occasional sob. "What a bizarre relationship we have," he said, staring at the wall. "But I don't care. You have been nicer to me than Jenny ever was. I still love you." "You do?" "Yes, we both have extraordinary abilities Jenny, don't you understand?" He said excitedly. "I gained an ability today and I planted it in the other Jenny. In a couple weeks, she'll drop dead of exhaustion," he began to laugh darkly. "Then it'll truly be just us. I'll hone my power to defeat anyone who tries to ruin my life. You'll hone your power to fully form into your physical body. Then we will have everything we need to be happy. No one will ever wrong us ever again!" "Yes Rip! You are a genius!" the voicemail screamed over the speaker. "And I know exactly who my first target will be," he said confidently as he grabbed his book of stolen credit card numbers. He walked into his bedroom, past a ripped poster of Rohan Kishibe and his character, Pink Dark Boy. _ "Okuyasu! He went this way!" Diya ran down the alley way to see the two paths before him. He had no idea which way the American had gone. But at his feet laid an old cellphone. Diya picked it up and Okuyasu turned the corner. "Diya? Why aren't you chasing him?" Okuyasu yelled as he caught up. "I don't know which way he went, but he dropped his cell phone," Diya began to flip through the options. "So? What are we going to do?" "I'm sure he's staying at a hotel around here. The number is probably saved in the phone. We call them, find out the address, and then go there." "Good idea, Diya!" Okuyasu cheered. "Hold on, I think I'm in his voicemail, let me get out," but Diya found he wasn't able to get out. The buttons he pressed began playing the one voicemail on the phone. "Hey Rip baby." The voicemail began. "I know we left off on a bad note this morning, but I'm really thankful you're trying this job for me." "What is it?" Okuyasu leaned over Diya's shoulder. "Sounds like a message from his girlfriend," Diya explained. "Are you kidding me? This guy can get a girlfriend and I can't?" Tears streamed down Okuyasu's face as he cried into the sky. "Just stay there for the rest of the day," the voicemail continued. "You'll be my hero. I love you, I'll see you soon, okay?" "That was a waste of time," Diya sighed. He began to search through the phone again, but stopped as he noticed yellow sparks flying from the phone. "You're done for now, you little twerp!" The phone showed zero seconds left of the voicemail, but the voice continued to speak. "I won't let anyone get in between me and Rip's happy life!" The sparks began to shine brighter as Diya's hair was pushed back by the power emanating from the phone. "What the hell is happening Diya? You have to drop the phone!" Okuyasu yelled. "I can't!" Diya screamed back. "Hotline Bling!"