Well hello there everyone! Again, thank you to all of you so much for the support on Permutations. I just started that fanfic by chance 5 years ago and was so pleasantly surprised to see how many of you liked it. So as promised, here is the sequel Catalyst! This fanfic takes place 3 weeks after the end of the final chapter of Permutations. This fanfic will focus a lot on the pairings, characters, and will have kind of a similar tone to the original show with a bit more slice of life and outer conflict as well as the reintroduction of some characters from the original show, like some past villains from the show maybe? *hint*hint* ;) Anyway, I know this goes without saying, but since this is a sequel and if you have not yet read Permutations, I highly recommend you go and read it just to clear things up for this story. Though it is not required necessarily, it will at least help make sense of this story since my fanfic series is a slight AU with some different events from the original series, like a lot of the later episodes of season 3 never happening in my universe for example. Also, I decided to start this fanfic on a T-rating and then maybe bump it up to an M-rating a little later. But again, you guys just let me know what you think! Without any further delay, here's chapter 1 of Catalyst. Enjoy!

(Sheen's POV)

"Gotta hand it to your sister. She actually threw it down pretty good tonight." Libby said, still looking like she was still feeling it from the party.

It was Saturday night and it was also getting closer to midnight so I knew I had to walk Libby home if I didn't want to die tonight. But, since I wasn't able to go with her to homecoming… I felt like I owed her.

Also, I needed a date for my little sister's Quinceanera anyway so it was a win-win!

Also, not gonna lie… man, I had the hottest date there. I even got 30 bucks from my cousin Jorge since he used to make fun of me and made a bet that I'd never get a girlfriend… well, look whose laughin' now, huh?! Suck it, Jorge!

Also, I felt like laughing when he saw Libby for the first time and asked if I had to pay her to be there as my date since there's now way I could get a girl that hot, until I stopped laughing after I punched him in the arm for saying that about me… and Libby.

But, not gonna, it felt SO GOOD to have all my guy cousins jealous of me for once.

Again, not gonna cuz Libby looked… dang.

I thought she looked awesome when I saw after she ducked out of homecoming and not that she doesn't always look good to me, but… man.

I looked over at her and saw her smiling and I couldn't stop myself from looking down at us holding hands. Yeah, it wasn't the first time by far, since we'd do this even before we started going out, but that didn't mean I still didn't think it was crazy that we were actually together now.

"Hey she wanted the block party thing like you had last year for your sweet sixteen party. Honestly, I still can't believe you've never been to a Quinceanera until now." I admitted with a smirk, considering Libby's the queen of partying and I've been to so many Quinceaneras that it could make your head explode.

Then again, my dad's side is from Mexico and my dad has 4 other siblings so… yeah, I got no shortage of cousins and a lot of my cousins are girls so I have had to go to so many Quinceaneras that it isn't even funny anymore.

She looked over at me with a smile and shrugged as she said, "Hey, first time for everything. And really liked it. Your family knows how to party."

"Thanks! But, after awhile it's kinda the same stuff and to me, it's also a lot of sappy stuff at the start." I said, rolling my eyes a little.

"Well, I thought it was cute. The father daughter dance was really sweet with your dad and your sister. And to me it wasn't a beat party. Once the party got going, I thought it was fun! Your sister's got good taste in music." "Yeah…" I admitted, not wanting to say anything to make me look sappy in front of her.

We got to the front door of her place and I rubbed the back of my neck as I said, trying to keep it cool, "So… I'll see ya tomorrow?"

Even though as much as I'll never admit to her… man, she makes me nervous.

Especially right now seeing her in that dress…

Dude…

For a second I thought my heart was gonna explode when she smiled at me and said, "Yeah, I'll text you tomorrow and let you know what's up."

Then she totally caught me and I really thought I was gonna explode when she immediately hugged me and I heard her say, "Thanks for inviting me, Sheen. I had a great time."

Man, why does she have to use that voice?!

I was really trying to stay cool now as I hugged her back and said, "Y-yeah, no problem, Libs." We stayed like that for a few seconds until we both pulled back a little. I didn't even know what I was doing anymore as I started leaning closer and saw her doing the same thing back at me until…

Yes!...

I leaned more into her as we kept kissing and I felt her arms going around my neck. But, right when I tried to move my hands a little lower on her waist. We heard the front door start opening and we both immediately broke apart and looked over to see her dad in the doorway.

Then like usual he immediately ignored me and looked to Libby and smiled as he said, "Hello honey, did you have a nice time?"

I glanced over at Libby and even though she looked like she wanted to die of embarrassment like I did… well I was embarrassed and also freaking out, but she pushed it back.

"Yeah, it was fun!" She said, trying to seem normal.

She looked back at me and smiled, even though I could still tell she was embarrassed and also pretty put out with her dad walking in on us.

Then I was even more freaked out when she went up on her toes a little bit and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

I mean, normally I wouldn't be complaining, but I could feel her dad pretty much burning a hole through my head just by looking at me.

After that she walked inside the house and Mr. Folfax just gave me nod and not doing a good job at hiding a pissed off look on his face before quickly shutting the door on me.

Ah… dang it…

The following Wednesday

(Jimmy's POV)

I walked into the math tutoring center a minute shy of the bell like usual since I wanted to walk with Cindy to the English tutoring center on the way.

At Retroville High School, the math and English classrooms are set up in these pods with the classrooms surrounding a room in the center of each pod that's used as a tutoring center specifically for that subject.

So since Cindy and I are both in our school's Honor Society and we both need service hours, we both took tutoring spots during our study halls. Hey, it's an easy 40 minutes everyday and some days I don't even tutor anyone.

Even if I have no homework, Mr. Mulchron just lets me do whatever I want a lot of the time in the Math tutoring center where I am. So I mostly either text Cindy when she doesn't have anything to do in the English tutoring center or just come up with concept blueprints for new inventions.

As it was, it was just me and Mr. Mulchron right now and he looked like he was grading papers while listening to audio books or music like he usually does.

The place was empty still so I just sat at a table, pulling out some graph paper and just started sketching out invention concepts.

Especially since it was Wednesday and Cindy seemed like she was going to be proofing a lot of English papers with the amount of people already in the English tutoring center, I decided to take a leaf from Mr. Mulchron's book and listen to an audio book he recommended to me about Nikola Tesla while I worked, even though I already met and talked to Tesla personally when I interviewed him using my time booth for a biography project in 7th grade.

After the whole incident with Edison back in elementary school and reading more about him as I got older, it only confirmed how much I didn't like him or his work anymore.

Especially since a lot of his success was something he practically took or piggybacked from inventors like Tesla or Le Prince who had the concepts before he did.

So, it was actually quite interesting interviewing Tesla, well after I calmed him down when I ripped him out of his time period and he seemed pretty frazzled.

Though that behavior was to be expected.

But, he was a lot nicer and more professional than Edison seemed since at least Tesla actually went back without trying to date any of my teachers or do any other act of insanity to break the space time continuum.

Anyway, I was actually rethinking an old invention of mine recently.

The I Can't Believe It's Not Oil machine.

But, I wanted to make a few tweaks on it to make it more suitable today's demand and make it more environmentally friendly… plus making it less likely to backfire on its users would help.

About 15 minutes went by until I felt a tap on my left shoulder.

I guessed it was probably someone needing tutoring, but I wanted to finish a part of my blueprint that I was concentrating on. I opened my water bottle to take a drink as I took out an earbud and was about to tell them to have a seat when I heard a calming and smooth tone I knew all too well, "Hey Jimmy."

I slowly glanced up from floor level and slowly scanned up.

The canvas tennis shoes, the white skirt, the pink button up blouse with no sleeves, the shoulder length brown hair, light brown eyes.

Betty Quinlan.

She just smiled at me as she brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear and I shook my head and cleared my throat a little as I responded, trying to sound as normal as possible, "H-Hi Betty. How can I help you?"

Ugh, really James? What? Are you trying to sell her a car?

Even though she was probably one of the first girls I ever had a crush on… I'd be lying if I said that I didn't still kind of have a little bit of a crush on her.

Then again that's me and almost every other guy at school.

She put her Calculus book on the table that prompted me to look down before looking back up at her.

"Hi Jimmy, I'm sorry to bother you. But, would you mind helping me with a problem on my homework? I've been doing pretty well with the material but now we're going over Squeeze Theorem and I'm getting confused about a couple things. I know this is a senior class subject and you're a junior, but I figured out of all the math tutors in the junior or senior classes, you'd be able to help me." She explained in a calm and friendly tone as she smiled again.

I was lost in thought for a moment and I thought Betty picked up on it as she gave me a funny look before saying and pointing, "Um, Jimmy… your water."

I looked down and realized my water bottle was leaking all over the floor from when I tried to take a sip earlier.

Luckily not a lot dripped on the front of my pants until I said, trying to recover, "Oh, uh, sorry. Have a seat, Betty. Let me see the problem."

"Thanks." She said, digging through her book bag until she found her homework.

Out in the hall

(Cindy's POV)

Finally I got through a small chunk of the gauntlet of Freshman Research papers.

I was almost happy when Mrs. Patel gave me a letter to deliver to the math tutoring center just to give myself a break.

Also, I get a free chance to say hi to Jimmy while he's tutoring. I smirked at that thought as I walked through the hall and down the short staircase until I got to the math tutoring center.

I was about to open the door when I froze up at what I saw through the small window embedded in the door. Jimmy was sitting at one of the tables tutoring, but it was who he was tutoring that made me want to have an aneurysm.

Betty 'freaking' Quinlan.

I could feel my fists clenching and had to consciously stop myself to prevent my left hand from crushing the letter I was holding. Jimmy looked like he was smiling as he was explaining something to her and she said something that made them both laugh a little.

Oh that pretty and perfect little…

I decided to finally act as I walked in and handed the letter to Mr. Mulchron, who looked like he was too into his grading and whatever audio book he was listening to, to even care that I came in.

Jimmy and Betty didn't even notice as Jimmy kept going on explaining.

I couldn't take it anymore. I walked over until I was right next to Jimmy as he said, "So, you just use sine and… oh, hey Cindy!"

Betty saw me too and smiled at me which only made me want to just punch her in her stupid, perfect face even more.

"Hey… so, what are you guys doing?" I asked, trying and somewhat failing not to show my skepticism. "Just helping Betty with a problem on her homework. How did you get over here? You looked like you were going to be held hostage with papers." He asked.

Why? Did you not want me here so you could just drool over Betty like every other idiot at this school?!

Well, that was what I wanted to say. But, I held back and answered, "I got relieved of duty to fulfill a messenger assignment from Mrs. Patel. But, I need to go back. I'll see you at lunch next period, okay?"

Jimmy just smiled at me and said, "Oh yeah, Cindy. For sure." I smirked before hugging him, all the while I was glaring at Betty over his shoulder, which made her just tilt her head at me with a confused look on her face.

I didn't care.

She can feign ignorance all she wants in my opinion, but I wasn't about to just walk away and let whatever was happening between them go on without reminding them of who's dating who.

And I was definitely not about to let Miss beautiful and perfect flirt with my boyfriend.

({No POV})

Betty watched on in confusion as Cindy left, but not before having her confusion doubled as Cindy gave her one last look over her shoulder before quickly using her right hand to give her a subtle I'm watching you gesture before walking out of the math tutoring center.

"Something wrong, Betty?"

Betty looked back and saw Jimmy giving her an inquisitive look as she just tried to brush what just happened off and replied, "Oh, it's nothing. Now what did you say about using sine again?"

Just like that, they jumped back into the assignment where they left off until the bell rang.

3 hours later

(Jimmy's POV)

Cindy and I were walking back out to the hover car in the school parking lot and holding hands just like we've usually been doing for the past 3 weeks since we went public.

Overall… it hasn't been too bad of a transition actually!

Well, it could've been a lot worse if I'm being honest. But once we hit the 2 week mark, everything kind of calmed down and people stopped staring at us or making remarks at us as we walked by, well at least until Cindy in particular would give them a death glare.

But, this week so far has been nothing but smooth sailing… until late this morning.

Ever since she came over the math tutoring center she's been acting; well, not Cindy all day. At least not like the Cindy Vortex I'm used to now.

Even in chemistry she was being quieter than usual and acting distant.

We got to the hover car and we both got in. I was about to hit the ignition when I heard, "Jimmy!"

I looked over and saw Betty walking up the hover car. I didn't even have time to say anything as she came over with a history book clutched close as she gave me a smile and said, "Thanks again for your help today, Jimmy. I really appreciated it."

I smiled back and was about to say something again as I heard Cindy say in a part passive aggressive and part annoyed tone, "Yeah, I bet you did."

I looked at Cindy out of the corner of my eye and just saw her looking straight forward, her hands clenched so hard in her lap that her knuckles were turning white.

I tried to keep my expression even as I answered back to Betty, "You're welcome, Betty. Just let me know if you need any more help." Betty let out a laugh and said, "Knowing me, I probably will at some point if I'm being honest. Thanks again."

She smiled and gave me a wave before walking off in another direction of the high school parking lot.

I finally got the hover car started and started to drive until I heard Cindy say something to herself through her teeth and under her breath so quietly I could barely hear it and couldn't make out what she said.

We got to the stop light at the exit of the school and I took the opportunity to look over at her and just inquired straight out, "Um… is something wrong?"

I just watched as Cindy continued not to look at me and cross her arms before saying, "Oh, everything's just peachy."

The light turned green as I turned onto Main Street as I contemplated that. Particularly that even I could see Cindy was lying if the bitter sarcasm lacing her voice was any indication.

We pulled in front of her house with neither of us hardly saying anything the whole 10 minute ride back home.

I parked in front of her house to drop her off like usual as I looked over at her still with her arms crossed and eyes fixed in front of her.

I turned toward her slightly and just said straight out and kind of annoyed, "Look Cindy, as much as I'd love to play a game of 20 questions, would you just tell me what's going on?"

I meant it. Is she mad at me? Did I do something wrong? Even though I can't think of what I possibly could have done to make her mad at me.

"Oh, like you don't know…" She said passive aggressively, crossing her legs and turning her head away from me slightly.

"Huh?" I let out, my inner monologue escaping me.

She turned back to me and practically threw her hands in the air as she lashed out, "Oh c'mon! Like I didn't see you making goo goo eyes at Betty Quinlan earlier!"

I was completely caught off guard by her accusation as I snapped back, "No I wasn't!"

"Oh please! Like you aren't like every other drool monkey at our school with a Y chromosome that doesn't start dragging their tongue at her every time she smiles at you with her stupid, perfect face?!" I felt something in me twinge and my eyebrows scrunched together on reflex as I snapped back, "Oh and what?! I can't be nice to any other person with two X chromosomes that isn't you? I was just helping her with her homework!"

She rolled her eyes before knitting her eyebrows together like I did as she directed, "Yeah, right? And I'm sure you'd be happy to help Betty Boring with more than just her homework, wouldn't you?"

"What are you implying?" I shot back.

"Admit it! You still have a crush on Betty Quinlan, don't you?!" She accused.

I was stunned into silence for a second until it just slipped out, "And so what if I kind of do?"

"Ha! So you admit that you do!" She snaps, pointing a finger at my face. I leaned forward and got in her face as I spat back, "And what?! Just because we're together, I can't admit any other girl that isn't you is pretty? How insecure are you that you can't even trust me?!"

"OH! So you're telling me that you wouldn't be jealous if it was me looking at some other guy that wasn't you?" She jabbed, still cross examining me.

I knit my eyebrows together and lost my inner monologue completely as I snapped, "No, because I don't get jealous! Especially not over trivial idiocies like this!"

Ah… crap.

At that moment, I realized that I went too far. Cindy just pursed her lips at me and knit her eyebrows together before just throwing the door open on her side and hopped out of the hover car with her book bag as she started stomping toward her house until she got inside and slammed her front door behind her.

I was sitting in the hover car in a state of absolute shock for almost a full minute as I stared at her house, trying to contemplate everything that just happened.

Eventually I got enough sense to drive the hover car into the backyard shed. I pulled in and shut it down, but I just kept sitting there until I just involuntarily leaned forward until my forehead started hitting the steering wheel.

Ugh… gas planet.

And a cliffhanger!... *prepares self for virtual tomatoes to be thrown and 'boo's' to be dished out* Haha. But, in all seriousness, I told you I was going to start off this story with a bang! And what better way than for Jimmy and Cindy to experience their first argument as a couple. Now, this will eventually be elaborated on, but I wanted to show the realism of a disagreement with a couple and how many times both sides can be in the wrong. Even though Cindy was in the wrong for letting her jealousy of Betty get in the way of her trusting Jimmy, Jimmy also didn't help the situation either by basically saying not the right things to Cindy in said situation. I also hope you enjoyed seeing Betty Quinlan make an appearance in the fanfic. Honestly, I always kinda liked Betty. I felt like she only got a lot of hate because she got in the way of the JxC ship back in the day, but I always thought Betty seemed like a genuinely nice and sweet girl… probably explaining why Jimmy liked her since she was one of the few girls he knew that didn't ridicule him. Then last but not least, I hope you enjoyed the SxL interaction… until Mr. Folfax ruined it. Lol. XD Anyway, thank you all for reading and constructive reviews are always appreciated.

Stay classy, healthy, and safe everyone!

Dexter1995