Fan Fiction ❯ Last Bell ❯ Chapter 6
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Last Bell by King Cheetah
Part Six - Schools Out
I cry myself to sleep each night knowing that I own none of these characters...
Rated PG-13, Robin/Raven and Beast Boy/Jinx pairings. Starfire and Terra with probably get drunk and do something goofy at some point.
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Raven felt as though she'd tossed from an airplane and beaten with sticks every inch of the way down to the ground. Struggling to sit upright, she began to get a sense of her surroundings, odd though they be. The room was large, damp and dimly lit, she could tell that much right off the bat, but her eyes were drawn to the squat, humming machine in the center of the room, then to the various inert forms scattered around it.
Rising unsteadily to her feet, she recognized the bodies to be her team mates, each apparently in deep slumber, or so Cyborg's snoring indicated. As she regained more of her faculties, she began to understand all that she was seeing. All of the Titans, plus Jinx and Mammoth lay around the infernal device on the bare concrete floor of what looked to be an old warehouse or storage locker.
Kneeling beside Jinx, she noticed an odd device stuck to her forehead. Sleek and high-tech, it was about four inches long and gently curved to fit the shape of her little friends skull. Her... friend. Wait, no. This was Jinx, and yet...
Looking around, each of the Titans wore a similar device, all evidently in deep slumber. What was all this about, she thought. As she turned to stand, her foot brushed against something, which she found to be another one of the slim devices. Brushing a hand across her forehead, she quickly realized that this was the device that she herself had been wearing.
Rising, she turned her attention to the large device in the room's center. The room itself was a bleak and depressing affair, for places just like people, can give up hope, and this grim pile of bricks had given in to despair long ago.
Stepping over friend and foe alike, she approached the device, a sphere about five feet in diameter with a monitor set in it's upper facing, displaying a telltale of each person behind her on the floor. Looking closely, she saw a blinking red dot next to her name and looked down at the damaged device in her hand.
Virtual reality.
Of course, that explained everything, but... no it didn't . It explained nothing. Her hand lightly traced along the top edge of the VR unit when something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, another body slumped against the farside of the device. Wearing an elaborate helmet with wires connecting it the central unit, she realized who it was in one horrified instant; Mad Mod.
Backing away slowly, she fought to control her breathing.
Okay, okay. It was Mad Mod. He had them in a virtual reality matrix, but now she was out of it. Fine. Great. Gotta get everyone else out. Find Robin...
No, a tiny voice in her head said softly, get Jinx. Hesitantly, she stooped by her sleeping friend and ran her fingers over the device on her forehead. Biting her lip, she was suddenly wracked with doubt, would it hurt her to just remove this thing.
Having survived the experience herself, she took a deep breath and yanked it away with a jerk.
Groaning, Jinx twitched twice and slowly began to stir from her slumber.
"Jinx!" whispered Raven hoarsely, "Jinx get it together, we're in big trouble. JINX!"
"Uuuuuuggghhh... Rrrrraven? W-wha-" Jinx croaked softly.
"No time." she said, dragging a rather flaccid Jinx to her feet, "Help me get these things off everybody, quick. We don't have much time."
"What? Raven, where the heck are we? What's going on?" asked Jinx softly.
"Mad Mod kidnapped us and was holding us in virtual reality. We gotta-"
"Who?" asked Jinx.
"Mad... this crazy old guy. We gotta get everyone out of here before he wakes up." said Raven, now really starting to stress.
Removing the head pieces from Robin and Beast Boy, they set about the complete their task, when the VR unit began to make several rather alarming noises. Craning her head to see the screen, Raven could see that the unit was initiating a shutdown routine. Mad Mod would be awake in a moment. Frantically, the removed the remaining head pieces and desperately tried to get all the captives on their feet, and began to look about for some kind of exit.
"Not... so fast, my duckies." said the Mad Mod as he removed his control helmet, "I will admit that that litt'l test run of the unit wasn't without it's cockups, but I'm right pleased with it none the less. Once I get you lot tucked snuggly back to bed, we'll start'er up fresh and 'ave another go at it. Only this time, I'll make a few exciting changes. Raven and Jinx will be bitter enemies this time, I think. And Beast Boy's self esteem is FAR too high. Won't do to go 'aving a big head now, will it. And I think a nice drug addiction for Terra will round out things nicely, I do. Care to shake hands with Mr. Horse, sweetums?" said Mad Mod with a toothy grin.
"We're in no shape to take him on." whispered Raven.
"I know." said Robin softly, then to Mod, "You think we're just going to go back in there?"
Holding up his hypno-dazzler, he fired it up and grinned, "Well now, it hadn't even occurred to me to ask you. Bedtime kiddies, it's a school night."
Caught in the beams pulsing waves, Raven felt all of her energy leaving her. No, not like this, she thought, it can't end like this, as she cast a tearful look over to Jinx.
Suddenly, her eye caught sight of something moving out from the darkness behind Mad Mod. A hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him around violently, slinging the Dazzler over to one corner. His assailant was slightly larger than Mod, with an odd blue suit and a ridiculously oversized top hat. His lips stretched back from his overbite into an inhuman grin as he said, "If there's one thing I can't abide, it's a thief." There was no describing the look of raw terror on Mad Mod's face as he gazed at the mystery man, who pulled him into the darkened corner of the room.
Raven looked over at Robin, who's face had gone ashen as he screamed, "RUN!"
Spinning on their heels, the eight youths dashed towards the wall behind then. Cyborg made a hole, Mammoth made it bigger, and they all made it out into the parking lot. Two blocks away, they finally stopped running, and paused at a street corner to catch their breath. It was evening, about 7:00 PM by best guess. As Raven massaged Jinx's twisted ankle, Cyborg looked at Robin and asked, "Who the heck was that Willie Wonka lookin' dude that just saved our asses?"
"The Mad Hatter." shuddered Robin, "I didn't even like dealing with him when I had the Batman standing right beside me."
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Where else but Jump City could eight super powered youths wander into a Denny's and not arouse much interest?
It was one of the newest in town and reflected the local architect's fascination with the forgotten futures for thing one would seem like home to Ming The Merciless. Looking over the menues of tomorrow, they all opted for breakfast choices and coffee, except Beast Boy who had veggie stirfry and a side of black depression. Their seating choices oddly reflected the shared reality they'd just escaped, though none of them seemed aware of this move.
Raven and Jinx sat opposite each other, with Robin and Beast Boy at their sides. Cyborg and Mammoth sat facing Terra and Starfire, who looked as though she were attending a funeral. The dinner was a halting sullen affair, as Robin gave his best guess at what had just happened to them.
" The guy that saved our bacon was Mad Hatter, one of the guys we used to have no end of trouble from in Gothum City. Thinking about what we just saw, I'm guessing that Mad Mod somehow stole or got ahold of one of the Hatter's dream engines, though how that happened is anyone's guess. So Mod has this thing and decides that it's time for a rematch and catches Mammoth and Jinx in the bargain. Fine, the more the merrier. He could care less. But Hatter dream engine doesn't come with an owners manual, so he'll need to do some test runs to get a handle on this. That's what we were just in, a test."
"So, if this guys such a whackjob, why'd he make the sim so... cool? I mean, y'know Jump Town was REALLY nice." said Terra as she took an extra big bite of her omelet. Looking to her left, she caught a quick look at Starfire who was busied moving food about her plate, but never off of it.
"He didn't." said Robin, sugaring his coffee, "What I don't think Mod understood is how Hatters equipment works. I mean, I've been in Hatter's sims twice before, and each time they were oddly alike. Rather than create a world and try to convince us it's real, his machine taps your brains dream centers and asks it what you'd like to see." he paused to attempt some alchemy with the cream, "We were all dreaming that stuff, it was just lucid, structured dreams. That's why the sim worked so well. Our subconscious minds weren't fighting against the images like you get in real virtual reality. This was showing your brain exactly what it wanted to see, so it never fought it. That's how our personalities got totally buried. We were HAPPY to be these other versions of ourselves."
"So, Jump Town was this perfect little town that we all wanted to live in, is that it?" asked Mammoth, "I didn't think we'd all be on the same wavelength like that." There was a few chuckles around the table, but they quickly faded.
"It was a combination of all of our perfect choices. The machine just picked the points of the most overlap and built off of that. But yeah, I guess we were all pretty much on the same page." he smiled weakly. During the conversation, Robin subtly cast a quick eye around the table to scrutinize his companions.
All were understandably exhausted, but there seemed to be more to it, not merely physically tired, but also wasted in spirit. A lot happened in the sim, and a lot happened that no one would have expected. They're all thinking the same thing, he thought. We were different there, but... better. We were who we all really wanted to be, doing what we all really wanted to do. Even himself.
But of all around the table, Beast Boy seemed the most down. Jinx perhaps sensed this and was doing her best to cheer him, and to his credit, he pretended that it helped just to take her mind off of her own concerns. Robin knew him well enough inside or outside of Jump Town to see his inner turmoil. Finally, Beast Boy rose from the table and said, "Um, I'm gonna run across the street real quick. I'll um, be right back."
"Ooh, don't be long. I might want dessert." smiled Jinx, as he bent over and kissed her. Both froze and looked about embarrassed. Shrugging a little, Beast boy took off on his errand. Still somewhat disconcerted, Jinx looked sadly up at Raven, who after a moment returned the look.
"So... what now?" asked Raven, trying her best to sound blasZÿ, "You think Mad Mod will try this trick again?"
Robin was quiet for too long, "Trust me, we're never going to see Mad Mod again. The Hatter is a different matter." then the silence again.
"Damn." muttered Mammoth as he elbowed Cyborg, "We were gonna take your dad's boat out the lake next weekend. This sucks."
"I was going to make Sunday dinner with my grandmother." sighed Raven.
"I had boobs." said Terra glumly.
"Yeah." sighed Mammoth and Cyborg.
"Yeah, well get used to it." said Beast Boy harshly, as he handed Jinx a small package, "We're back in the real world now, so just forget all that crap. Forget our families, forget our lives," he looked down at Jinx, "Forget everything. Jump Town is just going to be a scab we pick at for years."
He pulled out a crumpled twenty dollar bill and tossed it on the table, "Reality BITES. I'm going home." and stormed off.
Unsure what to do, Jinx looked after Beast Boy, then back to Raven, then jumped up, "Gar, wait!" and took off after him.
Those at the table were trying their best to pretend that this wasn't happening.
"So, what was causing all the weird glitches in the system. Was that Mod?" asked Cyborg.
This brought a small smile to Robin's lips, "Heh heh... No, that was Jinx."
Every eye at the table raised. "Well, Jinx and Beast Boy, at any rate. I thought about it and from the girls descriptions, Jinx and BB were always together when the hiccups happened. Whenever he'd get her... uh, excited, she was subtly sparking with her powers. Mod didn't think to compensate for this, so there you are."
"Hold on now. What the heck were those two doing that made my whole party crash?" asked Cyborg.
Raven just looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and he was suddenly sorry he'd asked.
She looked back to Robin, "And the Shadow Man?"
"I think that was the Hatter." he said softly, "Once he found us, I'm guessing he was curious as to what was going on. Since he designed the machine, it was nothing for him to slip into the sim unnoticed and poke around. When Jinx was sparking, it didn't make him visible, but it made him... evident. That's what you were seeing."
"And... and why was he following me?" she asked hesitantly, but Robin had no answer for this.
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Despite her pleas, Beast Boy refused to slow his pace or look at her, but she caught up to him none the less.
"Gar wait, we need to talk." she cried.
Stopping, he turned to face her, "Go home Jinx. None of that stuff matters now. We're back in the real world now. So it's time to get on with our lives, just like before."
She looked on the verge of tears as she clutched his package, "Gar... don't. We..."
"We what?!" he cried, "News flash Jinx, we're on different sides out here. You think we can just ignore that?"
She couldn't answer him for a time as she fought back the tears, but finally asked, "What's this for?" holding up the package he'd given her.
This seemed to drain all of his fury, as he took her hand, "I promised you that I'd find you that CD. I didn't want my memories of Jump Town spoiled with a broken promise." and he managed a slight smile. He offered no protest as she reached up to kiss him, and that kiss led to two more. Parting, he squeezed her hand and said softly, "Go home Jinx."
"But Gar-"
"There's no Gar Logan in Jump City, Jinx. Just Beast Boy." he said and turned to leave.
The tears came freely now as she watched him disappear into the evening shadows. Turning, she headed back towards the Denny's as she examined her new most cherished possession.
Slipping it from the bag, she looked down at the CD; Siouxsie and the Banshees - A Kiss In The Dreamhouse.
Fade to black....
To be continued.... (okay I lied, there's another chapter)
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Part Six - Schools Out
I cry myself to sleep each night knowing that I own none of these characters...
Rated PG-13, Robin/Raven and Beast Boy/Jinx pairings. Starfire and Terra with probably get drunk and do something goofy at some point.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------
Raven felt as though she'd tossed from an airplane and beaten with sticks every inch of the way down to the ground. Struggling to sit upright, she began to get a sense of her surroundings, odd though they be. The room was large, damp and dimly lit, she could tell that much right off the bat, but her eyes were drawn to the squat, humming machine in the center of the room, then to the various inert forms scattered around it.
Rising unsteadily to her feet, she recognized the bodies to be her team mates, each apparently in deep slumber, or so Cyborg's snoring indicated. As she regained more of her faculties, she began to understand all that she was seeing. All of the Titans, plus Jinx and Mammoth lay around the infernal device on the bare concrete floor of what looked to be an old warehouse or storage locker.
Kneeling beside Jinx, she noticed an odd device stuck to her forehead. Sleek and high-tech, it was about four inches long and gently curved to fit the shape of her little friends skull. Her... friend. Wait, no. This was Jinx, and yet...
Looking around, each of the Titans wore a similar device, all evidently in deep slumber. What was all this about, she thought. As she turned to stand, her foot brushed against something, which she found to be another one of the slim devices. Brushing a hand across her forehead, she quickly realized that this was the device that she herself had been wearing.
Rising, she turned her attention to the large device in the room's center. The room itself was a bleak and depressing affair, for places just like people, can give up hope, and this grim pile of bricks had given in to despair long ago.
Stepping over friend and foe alike, she approached the device, a sphere about five feet in diameter with a monitor set in it's upper facing, displaying a telltale of each person behind her on the floor. Looking closely, she saw a blinking red dot next to her name and looked down at the damaged device in her hand.
Virtual reality.
Of course, that explained everything, but... no it didn't . It explained nothing. Her hand lightly traced along the top edge of the VR unit when something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, another body slumped against the farside of the device. Wearing an elaborate helmet with wires connecting it the central unit, she realized who it was in one horrified instant; Mad Mod.
Backing away slowly, she fought to control her breathing.
Okay, okay. It was Mad Mod. He had them in a virtual reality matrix, but now she was out of it. Fine. Great. Gotta get everyone else out. Find Robin...
No, a tiny voice in her head said softly, get Jinx. Hesitantly, she stooped by her sleeping friend and ran her fingers over the device on her forehead. Biting her lip, she was suddenly wracked with doubt, would it hurt her to just remove this thing.
Having survived the experience herself, she took a deep breath and yanked it away with a jerk.
Groaning, Jinx twitched twice and slowly began to stir from her slumber.
"Jinx!" whispered Raven hoarsely, "Jinx get it together, we're in big trouble. JINX!"
"Uuuuuuggghhh... Rrrrraven? W-wha-" Jinx croaked softly.
"No time." she said, dragging a rather flaccid Jinx to her feet, "Help me get these things off everybody, quick. We don't have much time."
"What? Raven, where the heck are we? What's going on?" asked Jinx softly.
"Mad Mod kidnapped us and was holding us in virtual reality. We gotta-"
"Who?" asked Jinx.
"Mad... this crazy old guy. We gotta get everyone out of here before he wakes up." said Raven, now really starting to stress.
Removing the head pieces from Robin and Beast Boy, they set about the complete their task, when the VR unit began to make several rather alarming noises. Craning her head to see the screen, Raven could see that the unit was initiating a shutdown routine. Mad Mod would be awake in a moment. Frantically, the removed the remaining head pieces and desperately tried to get all the captives on their feet, and began to look about for some kind of exit.
"Not... so fast, my duckies." said the Mad Mod as he removed his control helmet, "I will admit that that litt'l test run of the unit wasn't without it's cockups, but I'm right pleased with it none the less. Once I get you lot tucked snuggly back to bed, we'll start'er up fresh and 'ave another go at it. Only this time, I'll make a few exciting changes. Raven and Jinx will be bitter enemies this time, I think. And Beast Boy's self esteem is FAR too high. Won't do to go 'aving a big head now, will it. And I think a nice drug addiction for Terra will round out things nicely, I do. Care to shake hands with Mr. Horse, sweetums?" said Mad Mod with a toothy grin.
"We're in no shape to take him on." whispered Raven.
"I know." said Robin softly, then to Mod, "You think we're just going to go back in there?"
Holding up his hypno-dazzler, he fired it up and grinned, "Well now, it hadn't even occurred to me to ask you. Bedtime kiddies, it's a school night."
Caught in the beams pulsing waves, Raven felt all of her energy leaving her. No, not like this, she thought, it can't end like this, as she cast a tearful look over to Jinx.
Suddenly, her eye caught sight of something moving out from the darkness behind Mad Mod. A hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him around violently, slinging the Dazzler over to one corner. His assailant was slightly larger than Mod, with an odd blue suit and a ridiculously oversized top hat. His lips stretched back from his overbite into an inhuman grin as he said, "If there's one thing I can't abide, it's a thief." There was no describing the look of raw terror on Mad Mod's face as he gazed at the mystery man, who pulled him into the darkened corner of the room.
Raven looked over at Robin, who's face had gone ashen as he screamed, "RUN!"
Spinning on their heels, the eight youths dashed towards the wall behind then. Cyborg made a hole, Mammoth made it bigger, and they all made it out into the parking lot. Two blocks away, they finally stopped running, and paused at a street corner to catch their breath. It was evening, about 7:00 PM by best guess. As Raven massaged Jinx's twisted ankle, Cyborg looked at Robin and asked, "Who the heck was that Willie Wonka lookin' dude that just saved our asses?"
"The Mad Hatter." shuddered Robin, "I didn't even like dealing with him when I had the Batman standing right beside me."
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Where else but Jump City could eight super powered youths wander into a Denny's and not arouse much interest?
It was one of the newest in town and reflected the local architect's fascination with the forgotten futures for thing one would seem like home to Ming The Merciless. Looking over the menues of tomorrow, they all opted for breakfast choices and coffee, except Beast Boy who had veggie stirfry and a side of black depression. Their seating choices oddly reflected the shared reality they'd just escaped, though none of them seemed aware of this move.
Raven and Jinx sat opposite each other, with Robin and Beast Boy at their sides. Cyborg and Mammoth sat facing Terra and Starfire, who looked as though she were attending a funeral. The dinner was a halting sullen affair, as Robin gave his best guess at what had just happened to them.
" The guy that saved our bacon was Mad Hatter, one of the guys we used to have no end of trouble from in Gothum City. Thinking about what we just saw, I'm guessing that Mad Mod somehow stole or got ahold of one of the Hatter's dream engines, though how that happened is anyone's guess. So Mod has this thing and decides that it's time for a rematch and catches Mammoth and Jinx in the bargain. Fine, the more the merrier. He could care less. But Hatter dream engine doesn't come with an owners manual, so he'll need to do some test runs to get a handle on this. That's what we were just in, a test."
"So, if this guys such a whackjob, why'd he make the sim so... cool? I mean, y'know Jump Town was REALLY nice." said Terra as she took an extra big bite of her omelet. Looking to her left, she caught a quick look at Starfire who was busied moving food about her plate, but never off of it.
"He didn't." said Robin, sugaring his coffee, "What I don't think Mod understood is how Hatters equipment works. I mean, I've been in Hatter's sims twice before, and each time they were oddly alike. Rather than create a world and try to convince us it's real, his machine taps your brains dream centers and asks it what you'd like to see." he paused to attempt some alchemy with the cream, "We were all dreaming that stuff, it was just lucid, structured dreams. That's why the sim worked so well. Our subconscious minds weren't fighting against the images like you get in real virtual reality. This was showing your brain exactly what it wanted to see, so it never fought it. That's how our personalities got totally buried. We were HAPPY to be these other versions of ourselves."
"So, Jump Town was this perfect little town that we all wanted to live in, is that it?" asked Mammoth, "I didn't think we'd all be on the same wavelength like that." There was a few chuckles around the table, but they quickly faded.
"It was a combination of all of our perfect choices. The machine just picked the points of the most overlap and built off of that. But yeah, I guess we were all pretty much on the same page." he smiled weakly. During the conversation, Robin subtly cast a quick eye around the table to scrutinize his companions.
All were understandably exhausted, but there seemed to be more to it, not merely physically tired, but also wasted in spirit. A lot happened in the sim, and a lot happened that no one would have expected. They're all thinking the same thing, he thought. We were different there, but... better. We were who we all really wanted to be, doing what we all really wanted to do. Even himself.
But of all around the table, Beast Boy seemed the most down. Jinx perhaps sensed this and was doing her best to cheer him, and to his credit, he pretended that it helped just to take her mind off of her own concerns. Robin knew him well enough inside or outside of Jump Town to see his inner turmoil. Finally, Beast Boy rose from the table and said, "Um, I'm gonna run across the street real quick. I'll um, be right back."
"Ooh, don't be long. I might want dessert." smiled Jinx, as he bent over and kissed her. Both froze and looked about embarrassed. Shrugging a little, Beast boy took off on his errand. Still somewhat disconcerted, Jinx looked sadly up at Raven, who after a moment returned the look.
"So... what now?" asked Raven, trying her best to sound blasZÿ, "You think Mad Mod will try this trick again?"
Robin was quiet for too long, "Trust me, we're never going to see Mad Mod again. The Hatter is a different matter." then the silence again.
"Damn." muttered Mammoth as he elbowed Cyborg, "We were gonna take your dad's boat out the lake next weekend. This sucks."
"I was going to make Sunday dinner with my grandmother." sighed Raven.
"I had boobs." said Terra glumly.
"Yeah." sighed Mammoth and Cyborg.
"Yeah, well get used to it." said Beast Boy harshly, as he handed Jinx a small package, "We're back in the real world now, so just forget all that crap. Forget our families, forget our lives," he looked down at Jinx, "Forget everything. Jump Town is just going to be a scab we pick at for years."
He pulled out a crumpled twenty dollar bill and tossed it on the table, "Reality BITES. I'm going home." and stormed off.
Unsure what to do, Jinx looked after Beast Boy, then back to Raven, then jumped up, "Gar, wait!" and took off after him.
Those at the table were trying their best to pretend that this wasn't happening.
"So, what was causing all the weird glitches in the system. Was that Mod?" asked Cyborg.
This brought a small smile to Robin's lips, "Heh heh... No, that was Jinx."
Every eye at the table raised. "Well, Jinx and Beast Boy, at any rate. I thought about it and from the girls descriptions, Jinx and BB were always together when the hiccups happened. Whenever he'd get her... uh, excited, she was subtly sparking with her powers. Mod didn't think to compensate for this, so there you are."
"Hold on now. What the heck were those two doing that made my whole party crash?" asked Cyborg.
Raven just looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and he was suddenly sorry he'd asked.
She looked back to Robin, "And the Shadow Man?"
"I think that was the Hatter." he said softly, "Once he found us, I'm guessing he was curious as to what was going on. Since he designed the machine, it was nothing for him to slip into the sim unnoticed and poke around. When Jinx was sparking, it didn't make him visible, but it made him... evident. That's what you were seeing."
"And... and why was he following me?" she asked hesitantly, but Robin had no answer for this.
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Despite her pleas, Beast Boy refused to slow his pace or look at her, but she caught up to him none the less.
"Gar wait, we need to talk." she cried.
Stopping, he turned to face her, "Go home Jinx. None of that stuff matters now. We're back in the real world now. So it's time to get on with our lives, just like before."
She looked on the verge of tears as she clutched his package, "Gar... don't. We..."
"We what?!" he cried, "News flash Jinx, we're on different sides out here. You think we can just ignore that?"
She couldn't answer him for a time as she fought back the tears, but finally asked, "What's this for?" holding up the package he'd given her.
This seemed to drain all of his fury, as he took her hand, "I promised you that I'd find you that CD. I didn't want my memories of Jump Town spoiled with a broken promise." and he managed a slight smile. He offered no protest as she reached up to kiss him, and that kiss led to two more. Parting, he squeezed her hand and said softly, "Go home Jinx."
"But Gar-"
"There's no Gar Logan in Jump City, Jinx. Just Beast Boy." he said and turned to leave.
The tears came freely now as she watched him disappear into the evening shadows. Turning, she headed back towards the Denny's as she examined her new most cherished possession.
Slipping it from the bag, she looked down at the CD; Siouxsie and the Banshees - A Kiss In The Dreamhouse.
Fade to black....
To be continued.... (okay I lied, there's another chapter)
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