“Your eye exploded!?” Jane covers her mouth as Tim catches her up, in detail this time, with everything that has been happening.
“Iiii should’ve left that part out.” Tim reconsiders.
“Fuck you, let me see.” She scooches across their bed and grabs his face, looking at his eye first and then all around his face.
“See? I'm fine, satisfied?”
“Eh.” She sits crisscrossed and knee to knee with him.
“Eh?”
“I’m still a little irritated you never told me, I get it more now.” She elaborates. “With a government conspiracy going on and... you being able to get that hurt.”
“Temporarily hurt.” He tries to make sure to hammer that part home. “Though I think healing as much as I did has some side effects.”
“Yeah?” Jane scoots back and lies down, stretching out and taking up most of the bed.
Very tired, very hungry.” He yawns and lies next to her, moving her arm out of his way as he grabs a pillow.
“Eat, sleep.” She turns to him and shrugs.
“I will.” He chews his cheek as he thinks. “I'm really sorry Jane.” He turns to face her, looking her in the eyes. “As soon as I noticed you were getting upset I should’ve told you. You’re the single,most important person in my life, I love you more than anything, and I shouldn’t have let you hurt.”
“Uuuuugh,” she makes a disproportionately horrid noise for how cute a girl she is as she hides her face. “It... I don’t want to be a bitch about it, but it did suck.”
“You can lay into me, it's ok.” Tim offers.
“Can I? Tim I know you, I know you're not ok.”
“Believe it or not, I think it'd help.”
“Then I will after you tell me more about Doctor Moore.”
Tim freezes.
“Look, you’ve always told me everything, the people you’ve seen die, but Tim, you’ve recapped everything twice now, you talked about Eric Silverline, but you skip over the paleontologist, barely mention her.”
“I already talked about it with Raegan and Lance.”
“Well, it obviously wasn't enough.”
“I...” He tries to think of a way to deflect, he can’t hear it outload.
“Tim, do not shut me out.”
“Do you promise to lay into me still?”
“Sure.”
“Promise.”
Tim still hesitates, then holds out his pinky, Jane taking it.
“Ok,” His voice shudders, and he takes a long time to finally get the next words out. “Ophelia died because of me.”
“Tim, she died because of Tesla, like Eric.”
Tim shakes his head, “No, you don’t understand, I only failed Eric, I caused what killed Ophelia. Jane, my powers make it so I have to purposefully kill someone, go more out of the way to do it then a normal person. I... Tesla had just killed Eric, and I wanted him dead, so I lashed out. My powers told me someone was gonna die, but I thought it’d be Tesla, it wasn’t.”
“But Tim, you stopped the—”
“It doesn’t matter.” Tim covers his mouth and shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter if I caught the rubble, it wouldn’t have fell if it wasn’t for me being like—”
“You are not like Beth.” Jane furrows her brow. “Look, you’re always going to blame yourself for this, I know that, but Tim, for fucks sake we are sixteen. Sixteen and you’re risking your life for strangers, going through, fuck dude, burns from the surface of the sun and getting holes punched into you. Like what the fuck? You’re allowed to make mistakes, and knowing you, whatever ones you do make you’ll make up for.”
“You can’t make up for—”
“Shut up and come here.” She wraps her arms around him and hugs him tight. She runs her fingers across his scalp and tucks her face into the nape of his neck. “So fucking concerned about saving everyone else, but who’s going to save you Tim?”
“I—”
“Me, obviously.” She squeezes him again.
“You already do so much for me, and I haven’t even... I’ve been so wrapped up in all this I haven’t helped you at all.”
Jane closes her eyes and shakes her head, “Huh?”
“Find more things you like.”
“Jesus fuck your skull is thicker than the bone head dinosaurs.”
“Pachyceph—”
“I know. Tim, I told you about that a few weeks ago, it would have taken a miracle to fix that even if you put all your effort into it.”
“Well, it's a superhero's job to make miracles so—” Tim tries, but Jane puts a hand over his mouth.
“Shut. Up. You know what I mean, besides, you help me all the time, more than you know.”
“But I’ve put you through so much lately and—”:
“What? We’re just going to segway into ‘laying into you’ now? No way you’re up for it after that.”
“Jane, look, like you said, I doubt I’m ever going to... feel better about Ophelia, but, telling you? Telling you everything, it's such a relief, in the van it felt like a literal weight came off my shoulders. I can never fix what happened at the convention center, but I can fix what I did to you.”
“Nothing is broken.”
“Jane...”
“Alright, alright.” She relents with a thigh. “Just let me get my thoughts together.”
She lets go and scooches away, running her hand over her head and chewing on her lip.
“I really had no clue what was happening with you, like, I couldn’t think of anything that made sense. It was so sudden, so off. You never, ever blew off hanging out with me, Rowan and Alex. Never ever hid things from me, by the way you're shit at hiding secrets.” She grabs a stuffed animal and hides half of her face behind it.
“From you, yes.”
“Alex thought something was up too.”
“That sounds like Alex, but keep going.”
“I don’t know.” She hides her face again. “You suck, don’t ever do that to me again.”
“I promise I won’t, no more secrets.” He pulls her in for another hug.
She wraps her arms around him and holds him for a while, sniffling.
“God I fucking hate crying.” She scoffs.
“The red puffiness really brings out your eyes though.” He teases.
“I hate you.” She snorts, and then goes quiet for a while. “What if you die?”
What if he dies? In his fights with Tesla and Ray he knew it was possible, with Ray he almost ran, but then he kept going. Maybe that psychopath was right, maybe he is a little insane.
“You don’t need to worry about that, Ray practically smashed my skull in and I’m ok, and barely anything can hurt me anyways.” He tries to reassure her.
“That’s not even an answer.” She squeezes him tighter. “Tim, I lost my mom, I’ve basically lost my dad, if I ever even had him. I can’t lose you too. You’re the most important person in my life too, I... love you more than anything. I can’t... you don’t get hurt by rocket launchers but some random guy almost punches your head off? I—” She takes a deep breath. “Fuck, this is exactly what you were worried about, isn’t it.” She laughs. “Ugh, I don’t want to prove that shit right.”
“I... I’m sorry Jane. I don’t know what to say.”
“I just... love you so much.” She tears up again and backs off, looking him in the eyes.
“I love you too.” He gives her a soft smile.
And then she kisses him.
Tonal whiplash and pure shock hit Tim first as their lips make contact. He thought she was just going to put their forehead together, like they always do. Then excitement, bliss, as it feels like fireworks go off in his head, every chemical that makes someone feel happy flooding his system. Then confusion as he involuntarily leans in, and then she pulls away, her cheeks beat red.
“Wait! No, fuck, shit.” She stammers.
“What?”
“No, no, just forget that happened ok!? Fuck.” Jane groans and kicks her feet.
“What?”
“Shut up! Ugh, I got caught up in the moment!” Jane tosses a pillow at him.
“What moment!?” He deflects the pillow off onto the floor.
“Don’t you have crime to go fight or something?” She pulls up the blanket and buries her face in it, giving a scream.
“Why are you screaming? I should be the one screaming!”
“Shut up!” Jane says.
“No?” Tim quickly answers.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like that! I was supposed to find something else I love before I told you!”
“What?” Tim says.
“I need to be passionate about more things!”
“What the fuck are you talking about right now Jane?” Tim raises his hands above his head.
“I don’t know! Just forget it!”
“I’m going to have an aneurysm.” Tim rubs his temples.
“Good! Go brain dead!” She yells from under the covers.
“Why are you getting mad at me? You’re the one who kissed me!”
“Ahhhhhhh!” Jane kicks her feet more violently now.
“Jane can you settle down and...” Tim stops as his wristband vibrates. “Seriously?” He groans and answers it. “Yes Lance?”
“Are you busy?”
Tim looks at the still thrashing Jane. “Yes.”
“I will make it brief then.” Lance says before clearing his throat. “Dr. Brown made bail.”
“Tesla?” Tim asks in disbelief.
“Yes.”
Tim’s chest gets so hot, his organs clench so tight that he feels like he’s going to throw up. He wants to break into Arch just to wail on Ray again, or better yet, the judge stupid enough to give Tesla bail. How is that maniac still managing to invade his life?
“How?” Tim notices he’s shaking with rage, and takes a breath to steady himself.
“I am unsure, but the bail has been posted and paid for.”
Jane seems to process what’s happening now and comes out from the covers and watches Tim with concern.
“Connors, it has to be him.” Tim grates his teeth.
“Possible, but I'm unsure.”
“Who else could it be? The judge has to be corrupt to even allow bail for him and it got paid for right away? Who else has that kind of power and an interest in someone who can take me on?”
“I’m still uncertain, Tesla wants Connors dead, and they have more resources to challenge you, a basement full of anomalies, Phantasm, Carsus. Why recruit someone as dangerous and unstable as Tesla?”
“I don’t know, but I am going to go find out.”
“Wait.” Jane says.
“What? Didn’t you want me to go out and fight crime?” Tim huffs.
“Don’t be a dick, aren’t you still too tired from your fight?”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“I’m tired and hungry but I’ll be fine.” He says with confidence.
“But what if you aren’t?” She grabs his hand and holds it up, his rage and resolve beginning to melt away.
Even if Tim wants off this rollercoaster, what he said is true, she’s the most important person in the world to him, and he’s done with hurting her.
“I’ll be ok, really, I’ve fought the Phantasmaraptor plenty of times now.”
“You said it could cut through you, it has every time you’ve fought.” She squeezes his hand.
“Jane...”
“Look, I'm not going to ask you to stop doing this, ok? It's perfect for you, a literal dream come true, but... Like you said, your skull practically got caved in today. The healing took a toll, right? Do it tomorrow, please?”
What if tomorrow is too late? Who knew what Tesla can cook up in a day with all the crazy things at Arch?
“I also ask that we wait.” Lance says from the wristband. “Going in recklessly is dangerous. Give me time to construct devices to help us.”
Lance sounds oddly desperate in his request, likely still beating himself over his capture earlier. Tim does want to do anything he can to cheer his friend up, and it is safer to go in with a plan. Then there’s Jane, still holding his hand, quickening his pulse.
“Ok.” He says to both of his friends. “But... I'm still going to go out, I need some time to think.”
Jane blushes at that and lets go of his hand, clearing her throat. “Or you could think about nothing? Cause you forgot the past five minutes.”
“Yeah, no.” Tim rolls his eyes.
“Then, could you meet me at the scrapyard? I could use your help with my projects.” Lance asks
“Suuuure.” Tim gets up and activates his wristband.
“Uh... make sure to come home and sleep, ok?” Jane rubs her arm awkwardly.
“Yeah.” He gives her an equally awkward thumbs up and makes his way out the window.
Flying, as it turns out, is incredibly valuable just from the time it saves alone. Traveling to the junkyard would eat up a good chunk of every night, but now, Tim simply has to fly up to the cloud line and dive down to the junkyard, only taking minutes.
Tim lands directly on the van and hops off of it to the open back door, Lance sitting inside watching his monitors while typing occasionally. He freezes as he sees Becca’s face on one, also surrounded by monitors.
“Hey rock licker!” She waves.
“Uh, what are you guys doing?”
“Working on things you wouldn’t get.” Becca winks.
“Exchanging data, amongst other things.”
“I expected you to already be soldering or something.” Tim climbs in and sits by his friend, looking over the non-Becca screens.
They seem to be some sort of museum, or maybe an art gallery? Tim isn’t sure, but the building is well decorated with a lot of paintings, sculptures, and various trinkets in glass cases.
“My cousin needed my help, sorry...” Lance says.
“With a heist?” Tim asks.
“In a sense.”
“Gonna implicate me with the regular police? Bad enough Area-51 is going to want to lock me up with you and the aliens.” Becca jokes.
“They prefer Site-51 actually.” Lance corrects.
“Whatever, you think the aliens are hot?”
“Can I have more details on the ‘heist’ please?” Tim retracts his suit and rolls his eyes.
“Sorry, my cousin learned of a dangerous artifact here that he intends to deal with.”
“Artifact?” Tim and Becca ask at once.
“Yes.“
“Lance.”
“Sorry, as I’ve told you before, the world is a much stranger place than most know. Artifacts that show various anomalous effects, while rare, aren’t necessarily uncommon when compared to other forms of anomalous activity.”
“Yeah, I’ve discovered small pockets of anomalous material and collected them for myself.” Becca says, “Real weird, new elements, forms of matter. They have protons, neutrons, electrons, and never before seen things, like a particle changed with cosmic.”
“Really? What are you calling those?” Tim asks.
“Cosmons, keeps it simple.”
“Huh, I love scavenger hunt arcs, when we going after the Sheng Gong Wu?”
“I’m unfamiliar with what you’re referencing.” Lance hits a few keys while watching a stream of code on one monitor.
“Same,” Becca says, taking a hit of her bong, stirring up irritation in Tim.
“When are we going after the Dragon Balls?” Tim “corrects” himself.
“That I understand.” Lance briefly smiles before his face returns back to a neutral expression.
“Are you ok?” Tim pokes his shoulder.
“Relatively.”
“You just seem to be beating yourself up about earlier.”
“Would you not?” Lance steals a brief glance at him.
“Sure but—”
“I do appreciate your concern, just as I’m sure you appreciate mine when something mostly out of your control happens and you are unable to do anything about it.” Lance says. “But, like you, I can't help but perceive it as a failure regardless.”
“Well, when you put it like that.”
“Yes?” Lance prompts him to continue.
“No, that's it, that's the sentence.” Tim snorts.
“Very well.”
“Aw, I’m so glad I get to be included in these moments.” Becca chuckles. “Hey, can you get me a sample of that yellow panda’s fur? I wanna analyze it.”
“Once I find him, sure. Can you send us twenty million dollars and more materials?”
“Once I’ m sure I won't get suicided by Site-51, sure.” Becca sticks her tongue out at him and he meets it in kind.
“I’m not distracting you am I?” Tim looks back to the scenes where a tall, lanky man in black and grey stalks through a hall, an eerie, pale green glow coming from his goggles.
“No, not at all, this is all relatively simple.” Lance's eyes continue to go screen to screen while his fingers are primed on his keyboard.
“Where is this anyways?” Tim asks.
“A manor owned by a wealthy collector not all that far from here.”
“Oh? Your cousin is in town? I’d like to meet him before he heads out again.”
“Hmm, I’m sure that’s possible, even with how busy we are.”
“Speaking of, let’s start thinking of ways to deal with Tesla, I don’t want him on the streets for long, and I need the distraction anyways.”
“Distractions? Why?”
Tim looks at Lance, then to Becca, then back to Lance.
“Something happened that I want to be distracted from.”
“May I ask what?”
“Yeah, do tell,” Becca sips some water as she types.
“Where’s the disconnect button?”
“Oh come on, am I not in your little club Tim?” Becca flutters her lashes at him, “ Call it paying me back for my mech.”
“Ugh, fine!” Tim rolls his eyes, “do you know anything about romance?”
“No, not particularly. I’ve never been attracted to anyone before,”
“Oooh, is this about that girl?” Becca straightens her back and leans in, “You gonna beat me to asking her out?”
“Aren’t you a little too old to ask Jane out?” Tim grimaces.
“Huh? I’m three months older than you guys.”
Right, she looks their age, it's just that the whole billionaire thing aged her up in Tim’s head.
“Anyways,” Tim looks over the keyboard to see if there’s an obvious way to shut Becca off, “Well, she kissed me.”
“Ah, and?” Lance says.
“And?” Tim raises an eyebrow.
“Yes, I didn't think I needed to elaborate on that.” He seems to tease, though it's a little hard to tell.
“Is that it? You guys do anything else?” Becca asks.
“Like?” Tim narrows his eyes at her.
“You know.” She shrugs.
“Why are you like this?”
“Why aren’t you, either of you. Man, crazy I’ m the most masculine out of our club.”
“Congratulations.” Tim hits a few keys on the keyboard before Lance shoos his hand away. “Anyways, it has me reeling.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know! She’s just, she’s my best friend. She's the most important person in the world to me, I know I'd do anything for her. Plus we get along perfectly, she’s hilarious and thinks I’m funny. We like a lot of the same things and we both like when each other pops off about something they love even if it's not something we’re interested in.”
“Mhmm.” Lance taps on his keyboard.
“Are you just scared of messing up your friendship?" Becca asks.
“I don’t know.” Tim rustles his hair, “Not really to be honest, I think our bond is way too strong to ever really be jeopardized.”
“Then what’s stopping you guys? That sounds sickeningly sweet, if I had a relationship like that ‘d be all over it.”
“It's complicated.” Tim sighs.
“Are you physically attracted to her?” Lance focuses in on one screen in particular.
“What?” Tim stammers out, the whiplash criting him.
“There’s obviously emotional compatibility, and I assume emotional attraction. You’re very similar and have quite a bit of shared trauma, from what you’ve told me.”
“Is shared trauma a—”
Lance holds up a finger as he types, “Those are already both essential for a standard romantic relationship, the other standard is physical attraction.”
Becca snorts and bursts out laughing so hard she starts to cry.
“Holy shit, that’s amazing, he’s obviously into her Lance, that wasn’t even a question.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Oh my god.” Tim hides his face in his hands. “Are you almost done so we can start building your stuff?”
“We can change the subject if you’d like, but you mentioned it was all you could think about.”
“It is, however, I don’t want to think about it anymore.”
“Very well, Becca, this will be labor intensive so I’ll let you go for now.”
“Talk to you later, good luck with all the Latina spice Tim.”
“How do you hang up on her? I wanna do it.”
Damn it, that didn’t help at all, maybe he should just focus on building the gear and thinking of ways to nab Tesla and put him back in jail right away. He tries, but it doesn’t work, the thought of Jane cutting through even his mounting rage. She already calms him so easily, and that kiss, he can’t help but think about it, how it felt. How can he stay angry at the world when that sensation lingers on his lips, and how can any other thought dominate the question of whether he wants another one? Wants this relationship?
“Fuck, probably,” Tim groans as he throws his head back into the wall of the van.
“Please don’t dent my van.” Lance requests.
“I didn’t,” Tim waves him off. “Man what do I do about this? Uuuuugh.”
“I am not an expert.” Lance shrugs. “Though I can offer you further distraction.”
Lance begins to guide him through ripping and cutting the materials they scavenged from the Nuclear Plant, though a bulk of what Lance uses him for is just blocking or absorbing radiation that comes off of the pylon.
It gets used up for a few things, one is “over feeding” Tim’s suit so Lance can begin the process of making a new, insulating one, a priority now that Tesla is on the board again. Next is to power a few devices Lance had previously made for himself, and lastly, what Tim and Lance call an amp. A one time use device that’ll allow Tim to reach the same power level that he was in his fight with Ray.
“Hey, I’m curious about something.” Tim says.
“Yes?”
“You never needed any weapons when you work with your cousin?”
“I have, many times.”
“Phantasm was too strong for them or?”
They are heavily specialized.” Lance finishes up the device and hands it to Tim. “It should adhere to your skin, place it on your chest and apply your strength to the sides in a 6 a clock pattern.”
“Thanks, anyways, what are they specialized for?”
Lance chews over his thoughts before answering.
“Its still something I’d prefer to keep a secret, for your own good, and mine.”
“Man, whenever you talk about what you and your cousin do it just makes me want to know about it more.” Tim grumbles.
“And I very much hope you never have to learn about it.” Lance says as he puts his new gadgets in the van.
“Youuuuu should tell me anyways though.”
“Do you not have girl problems to deal with?” Lance turns and raises an eyebrow to him.
“Ack! Man why’d you have to bring it up? What am I going to do? We share a room! I’m not ready for this conversation!”
“Hm, we could find out who bailed Tesla out.”
“I’m telling you, it was obviously Connors.” Tim says despite his thoughts centering on Jane.
“I still have my doubts.” Lance gestures to join him in the van.
“Why can’t you just hack into the courthouse to find out anyways?” Tim sits in the passenger side and activates his suit.
“Unlike what we normally deal with, it's not uncommon for government buildings to use a majority closed system. So I can’t remotely access it, yet.”
“Yet?”
“I long ago developed a device to essentially turn a closed system open, to me at least, I simply need it placed.”
“Do they have vents big enough to fit a Compy?”
“That, and the device is small enough for one to hold.” Lance smiles.
“Nice, let's transform and roll out then.’
“Are you going to transform this soon?”
“I guess not, no.”
“Poor timing then.”
“Let me have my pop culture references Digi.”
Which POV has your favorite supporting cast members?
