Thank you for all of the reviews! Memory, the asterisking psychopath, much enjoys your hate :) But I have to outdo myself with twists in this chapter, so, buckle your seatbelts! THis chappie's gonna be a crazy one!
JetpackGuy/Jezzie shippers, this is for you!
Disclaimer: I do not own Club Penguin
At this point, Jetpack threw himself forward, and began hollering at the top of his lungs that Memory wasn't going to survive the night, that his mother was hideous, that he deserved to spend the rest of his life somewhere very uncomfortable, all in terms that surely had his throat setting on fire.
Memory smirked and leaned back against the wall, taking it all in. Once Jetpack had settled back, panting and bleeding slightly from abrasions on his wrists, he spoke.
"You finished?"
"Why?" Jezzie croaked out.
"Why?" Memory repeated, and waltzed forward. "Why what, exactly?" he put on a fake pout and leaned his weight on one leg, imitating Jezzie's usual way of standing. "Why would anyone betray poor, innocent Jezebel's trust? I'll tell you why, sweetheart. Because you PSA agents run around, talking about keeping things safe, and yet…" he gestured to himself and the entire cave. "You seem to be doing a pretty asterisky job of it. The real way to keep people safe is to take things seriously. And that's what we plan to do, once we get the Director to send out a broadcast, telling all PSA agents to submit to our… detailed instructions. That answer your question?"
"No." Jezzie said, her voice faint. Memory patted her cheek in fake sympathy.
"Don't worry, doll face, everything's gonna be great, with you and Jetty here out of commission." He sighed and crossed his arms, retreating a few paces. "Now, this brings us down to the nitty gritty, here. You have two choices here, door A and door 2. With door A, you hang out here until the hole deal goes down, then you're free to scurry away, heads down, and become ordinary citizens."
Jezzie and Jetpack gave him equally defiant looks.
"That's what I thought, but my employer seems to think that you'd rather do that than go through door 2. With that particular… hey, Rookie! Glad to see that you're awake!"
Rookie looked around, a green tinge on his face, and vomited. Memory clicked his tongue. "I told Herbert to only give you one pill. Oh, well. What's a little nausea, temporary blindness, fatigue, and a possibility of high blood pressure? Speaking of side effects, how'd you like yours, Jetty?" Memory grinned sardonically. "I made it specifically for you. Taps into the cerebrum, where memories are stored, especially repressed memories. I wish I could've seen your face."
Memory waited for a response, and got nothing but deadpan. So he shrugged and got back on track. "Anyway- door 2 involves you serving us as Moderators, you know, keeping the Island safe from idiots and all that."
"Never." Jetpack hissed, and Jezzie held onto a grim silence, agreeing with him.
Memory laughed, a laugh that Jezzie had started to hate with all of her might. "We thought that you might say that, Jetty. So I've got a little questionnaire for you. Who do you admire most? Who, in your eyes, can do no wrong?"
Jetpack was silent. Memory tusked and walked up to him, getting right in his face. "Come on, Jetpack. Tell me. Say it." He whispered, and Jezzie glanced the crazed mind that he worked under. He slightly slapped Jetpack's cheeks, trying to get him to talk. "Please, Jetpack, just say something. I'm getting bored, and trust me; you don't want to see me when I'm bored. Just a few little words…" he mouthed them too, just in case Jetpack didn't catch on.
Finally realizing that it was better for him to let in, Jetpack ground out the words "my parents."
Memory smiled. "Your parents. Do you remember what they look like, Justin? Or have you forgotten? Forgotten the way they talk, the gleam in their eyes? Can you see them, in your mind, Justin? Can you?"
Jetpack wouldn't give him the satisfaction. So Memory took it, by looked over his shoulder at the entrance to their cave and calling out, "Come on in."
Two people walked into what light there was, and Jezzie got a good look at them; both where pale, but the man had a spattering of freckles across his straight, high nose, on which there was a pair of sunglasses. His hair was pitch black, save for the twin gray streaks at his temples, and straight, hanging just long enough to touch his shoulders. He had one arm around a woman just shorter than him, with tan, pale brown hair, combed back into a bun. Her bright green eyes glowed when she looked at the remains of Squad Delta, particularly the boy in a bright red sweatshirt.
With the faintest hint of an English accent, she said "Hello, Justin."
Justin's face was impassive, even as he said the two most impossible words that Jezzie would ever hear.
He said, "Hi mom."
Ten years. Trickling by in a cloud, the only thing in his mind a bright smile and a voice that he had ceased to remember.
Ten years stopped being ten years when she spoke.
"Hello, Justin." She sounded sheepish, like she was apologizing for coming home late. His mind was blank, no reaction, and the words that left his mouth sounded foreign and alien to him.
"Hi, Mom." He could hear Jezzie gasp. He had no response.
His father smiled, and chuckled lightly. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
Jetpack didn't care if they were his asterisking parents. He didn't care how long he waited for them. He wouldn't blink and eyelash if they died right here, in front of him.
Ten years.
Ten years waiting for his heroes, for his real, truthful parents, the best agents in the PSA, to return. And now this. He got them back, as traitors and backstabbers, hiding from him all these years. He didn't care how much of a hypocrite he was; he hated them for it.
"Too long." He heard himself say in a dark, grating voice. "Where were you?"
"We were here." He mother said simply, gesturing to the cave. "Saving the Island."
Jetpack could feel his empty laugh shake his chest in response to his mother's sentence. "Saving the Island? How, by trying to destroy the PSA, the one and only thing that I've ever known-!" his voice had risen to a scream, and he would have continued raising it if he hadn't felt the lightest touch on his hand. He paused, and let the realness of her touch calm him down.
His parents stared at him with injured eyes. His father pressed his lips together. "Well." He said simply. "You'll come around soon." He turned around on his heels, and his mother followed him out, glancing over her shoulder at her lost and empty son. She didn't say anything.
"Well. Wasn't that fun? A family reunion!" Memory cawed happily once a silence had fallen.
"What is wrong with you?" Surprisingly, the one to speak was Rookie, now looking considerably less green.
Memory leaned against the wall and propped his feet up on a rock, his hands behind his head, still holding the keys to their chains. "I'm a psychopath." He stated simply. "I don't feel sympathy with humans, so I don't feel guilty for lying, backstabbing, ex cetra. So, to me, all of you are just my little playthings. How does that make you feel?" Memory asked.
No one answered.
He shrugged again. "So, I'll just leave you to your decision making. Remember: Door 2 equals parents and answers, door A equals nada." He got up and walked out, shooting a serious glance back over his shoulder at them. "Don't try anything." He reminded them.
Once the sound of his footsteps was gone, Jezzie coughed modestly. "Jetpack… do you…?"
"Not now." He said harshly. "Right now we need to get out of here."
Jezzie nodded. "I have a plan, but it's a bit risky. Untested."
Jetpack smiled without warmth. "My favorite kind of plan."
The Director lightly touched Robinson's shoulder. He turned to look at her, his furrowed brow hidden beneath the brim of his fedora. G, who had been chatting with him about the new technology of transportation via molecular scrambler.
The Director whispered in his ear "it appears that my young friend has gone amiss. Where could she have gone?"
G coughed and tried to shuffle Robinson away, out of earshot, but the older agent simply scoffed. "You really think I don't know about the security breach? Please. I know where she's gone off to. I'll find her."
Before G could protest, he was already gone.
"You got it?"
"I'm getting it."
"Be careful."
"I am!"
"And keep your voice down!"
Jetpack bit his lip and ignored Jezzie as she flipped herself, gripping her chains for support, looking like she was sitting on the wall with her legs straight out in front of her. She was at the perfect height for his hand to reach into her dress pocket and pull out her spy phone. One loose finger and their way out could end up on the floor, out of reach.
"Rookie, grab my hand." Jezzie ordered, and he complied. "Jetpack, hold down the call button for five seconds and then grab my hand, without dropping the phone. Got it?"
"Stop nagging." He muttered, and had finally managed to get the phone out and flip it open. He held down the button as she insisted, and gripped her hand.
"Get ready…" She muttered, and he felt a sharp prick in his hand, the center of his palm. He cursed, and Jezzie sucked a sharp breath as the skin beneath his grip also was affected. Rookie squeaked when it was passed onto him.
A worse feeling followed, a buzzing and vibrating that set his teeth on edge and made his eardrums burst. He tried to hold back his screams as his bones creaked and were twisted, and he could hear Jezzie struggling with her own silence.
Rookie, however, let loose a bloodcurdling cry just as they slipped free of their chains in a million pieces and flew across the sky, and into the Pizza Parlor. Jetpack's last view of the cave was Memory, rushing down the hallway, fury in his features.
They were all sitting at a table, menus opened and glasses full of water. A waiter, one of the most versatile people on the entire Island, brushed off their sudden appearance as a normality for table seven, and asked them all if they were ready to order.
"No, thanks." Jezzie said after a while. "Can we have a few more minutes?"
"Sure." The waiter walked off.
"What was that?" Jetpack asked in a hushed tone, leaning forward over the table.
"Transportation." Jezzie said shortly. "New science that G was working up before the mission. He put some on my phone in case of emergencies."
Jetpack ran his fingers through his hair, swearing that he would never, ever use that stuff again. As he looked up at the ceiling and tried to process that he had just met his parents, he was slapped in the face with the realization that the door had opened, showing a panting and rushed looking Memory, having sprinted the entire way from the cavern to the shop. He ducked in, looked around for them, and then leaned against the wall to catch his breath, taking another, closer, look at the people sitting around the tables.
"Jezz, Memory's here." Jetpack said in a hushed voice.
"Asterisk." She muttered. "Has he seen us yet?"
"No, but if we move he will. And if we stay here, he will." Jetpack muttered, trying to keep his voice low and his lips from moving. He kept his eyes on the table in front of him, pretending to look at his menu.
"What's worse?" Rookie was sweating like crazy, and his arms and legs were shaking like leaves in a hurricane. "Will, or will?"
"They're both bad." Jetpack elaborated, "But will is just pathetic."
Jezzie got an idea, no doubt brought on by the lingering transportation serum in her veins, and quickly acted on it while she still thought that it wasn't that bad. "Rooks, get under the table."
He did as he was told, taking his menu and glass of water with him to erase all signs that a third person had been there. Jetpack looked up at Jezzie, surprised at her order, and was met with a surprise.
Jezzie started kissing him.
Jezzie started kissing him.
It took him several moments to realize that her lips were against his, and her hands were on his face, and that this was wrong and probably against every rule on conduct in the PSA handbook, and… and…
And. He didn't care.
He sank into the kiss, and realized that the reason that she was kissing him was to hide his face from Memory with her hands. But what about her? A voice reminded him, and he moved his own hands to cup her cheek, obscuring it from view.
She was kissing him.
And he kissed her back.
It was four o'clock. Two hours to go.
You're welcome :) Instead of a preview, I will tell you that a new character will be joining the sequel. Name: Adam Libson, aka Libby, aka Adlib, aka Annoying Southern Guy. Discuss.