A New House (Energy and Lock)

Carmen zipped up her coat and crossed her arms, trying to heat herself up. It was getting colder out every night. "When you invited me to live at your house, I thought you actually had a house."

"Hey, none of that," Jemmy said. The Lord of Chaos was examining the ground, trying to discover where her house had gone. Suddenly it dawned on her. She hadn't reinforced the house's presence in this world, so it had naturally vanished a handful of hours after its creation. She snapped her fingers. "I'll just make a new one."

Carmen was not amused. "You'll make a new house?" No offense, but you need a permit for that...and wood, and bricks."

Jemmy dismissed the words with a wave of her hand. "We don't need any of that stuff." Magic sparked from Jemmy's hands, and a few seconds later a one-story house appeared out of thin air. It looked like it belonged in the residential district, and was completely out of place next to the observatory.    

Or at least, what Jemmy imagined a house to be. Upon entering, Carmen realized quickly that there was no electricity, and no running water. She sighed. For all of Jemmy's magic, a hotel room was looking better all the time. "Well, at least it has beds."

"And comfy ones, at that." Jemmy said, after jumping under the sheets of one of the two beds in the one room the house provided. Jemmy looked at Carmen and noticed an uncomfortable look on the girl's face. "What's wrong? Don't you like the house?"

"The house is fine. It's just...we're so far away from town. It's going to take me a long time to walk anywhere if you aren't around."

Jemmy considered this. "Good point. Well, it's getting too late to make yet another house, but I have plenty of money, so let's stay..."

Carmen crossed her fingers and tried to send her thoughts into Jemmy's head. 'At a fancy hotel. At a fancy hotel. At a fancy hotel.'

"...At some random person's house! That way, we'll have the comfort of home, and plenty of charming company." Jemmy grabbed Carmen's shoulder. As the teenager groaned, Jemmy teleported them into a random house in Jump City...and right in front of Jenny. Of course, Jemmy did not recognize her in her new look. "Hello there, my friend and I will be staying here tonight. We like hot chocolate and bunnies. Oh yeah, and I'm Jemmy. This is Carmen." Carmen waved, slightly embarrassed.

Jenny was coming out of the kitchen after giving up on the torture devices called homework actually using her lighter to light it on fire in the sink deciding to use the 'sorry i thought it was my cigarette' would be a good excuse as to why she only half half of it left in tact. She was going to smoke a real cigarette but was stopped when she nearly ran into Jemmy and she looked at her with wide eyes for a long time. She then though held up her middle fingers to the sky saying "Nope" over and over as she backed away changing her voice a bit of course going into the kitchen then coming back out as she pushed Chuck over to Jemmy pointing to him "His house, not mine...." she then stayed behind him.

Athena immediately sensed a new presence in the house. The dog scurried downstairs to see what was up. Chuck was pushed towards Jemmy without his own free will.

"Hell...o?..."

He looked at the two girls.

"Athena! Tactic #3!"

Bio breathed a gas to make them feel queezy and to distract them while Athena came in with super speed to knock them off their feet. Bio produced a silver shining bio-lasso and threw it to tie them up.

"Well, it seems we've come to the wrong house," Jemmy said. The gas didn't seem to affect her, and she hardly seemed concerned with being knocked over and tied up.

Carmen, on the other hand, was not doing nearly as well. Her head was pounding, and the gas was only making it worse. "Jemmy, what's going on? Am I...going to...die?"

Jemmy laughed. "I guess we deserve this. We did just break into their house."

Carmen threw up on the carpet. "I wanted a hotel."

Jemmy shrunk to half her size and stood up, allowing the silver lasso to fall to her feet. She returned to her normal size and took in her three hosts for the evening: dog with super speed, a gas-breathing boy, and a girl who seemed like a spoil-sport. "You should probably untie Carmen before she gets angry. As I said, we'll be staying the night. I can give you some money, if you want, to make up for the inconvenience." Jemmy stroked an imaginary beard. "So, what are your names? You guys are going to be our family for the night, so we should get to know each other."

Jenny rolled her eyes a bit when he lassoed them looking to him "If they broke into your house with teleportation don't you thing they can get out of a simple lasso wonder woman?" She then looked to the teen who asked if she was going to die and held back the 'Don't worry its not that bad' comment she wanted to say in return. She then watched her puke and looked to Chuck "Side note, You made her puke so I'm so not cleaning that puke up."

When Jemmy easily escaped the lasso she looked over to her then back to Chuck with the 'told yah so' look before looking back over to her. Then Jemmy once again said that she was staying the night but would give them money for it. She couldn't help but sigh, Jemmy always did annoy her with her 'I'm going to do this and you have no say in the matter' attitude towards just about everything.

Though Jenny was glad that Jemmy couldn't read minds anymore, if she did she'd freak out even more most likely because Jenny was jenny and she was alive. It was these situations that definitely made her wonder if school life was more annoyed and stressful as and the bs that is thrown daily at her in her heroing life. "I'm Janet...." She looked to chuck "I need a smoke did you mom say no to smoking them inside? I cant remember."

"What?"

Bio looked back at Jenny before it happened.

"Superhero rulebook states that you're supposed to tie up the criminals after you beat them. Y'know guns, hidden kni-"

He suddenly noticed that they had gotten out of the lasso. He then just folded his arms, annoyed and tense. With all of what he had seen the Russians and others were capable of, someone who had just teleported into his house had him ready for a fight.

"Hell no! I'm not cleaning up trespasser vomit on my floor. And no, she said you can't. I'm the only person who can smoke, I got the real stuff, immortality style you clowns. So get out of the house! You and you go!" He said to Carmen and Jemmy, breathing out small puffs of gas and ready for more puke power action.

Athena then spoke up to Bio in a personal telepathic conversation

"Hey Chuck you know what? Instead of being the usual ass%#!$ like everyone else is, maybe you should cut them some slack, they're probably just dumb kids who think they own the world because they have powers. You've gotta rise above them,"

 Bio shot back quickly but speaking out loud awkwardly,

"Are you kidding me? Charity is one thing but then there's just being punks like these guys and strolling around with your head up your ass and not having any respect for other people's space.  Janet do you know these guys? Get the f-"

Bio knew how looks could be deceiving and he was being super protective of his family and the new member who had just joined them. He wasn't going to lose it all without a fight.

"Bio look. You're not being yourself. There's a war going on out there and you're worried about meta teens? They probably are idiots, but you have to be you right now. Do you know why you and I are important? Because we're not dicks to everyone we run across. We actually try to understand. However stupid these two are being, let's make sure they aren't friendly before we rag on them. It's just not fair when there are much worse people out there who deserve it."

Bio sighed and looked at them, he wasn't scared of Jemmy despite her apparent powers.

"Okay here's the deal. No sudden movements and I want you to tell me why you think you can come and live here. A good reason. And why here? Why not a hotel or an apartment?"

"Criminals?" Jemmy pouted. While she wouldn't classify teleporting into a house as 'breaking in,' at least Janet wasn't accusing them of any crimes. Bio, on the other hand, dared to call himself a superhero, as if tying people up and causing them to throw up was a good thing.

But what angered Jemmy the most was that Carmen had been treated so badly. Even if Jemmy deserved to be treated like an intruder, Carmen hadn't had any say in it. But Jemmy refused to blame herself for this. Attacking people, even strangers who suddenly showed up in your house, was not okay unless they were threatening you, of if they had done something to make you really mad.

Just in case there ended up being more fighting, Jemmy checked herself. She had a surrogate ready, and was dressed in her 'armor.' The pre-teen girl was wearing a red dress, long red gloves, and red socks under her black shoes. Normally, such clothing would hold no defensive value, but with Jemmy, there was always more to the situation than met the eye.

"Well, you've ruined it," Jemmy said, throwing her arms out to the side. She shook her head at Bio. "We just wanted a warm place to stay for the night, and I thought staying at a house would show Carmen that there are still good people out there. I thought she could pretend to have a loving family again. But no, you had to assume we were here to rob your piggy banks and tie us up and make her throw up. How is she ever going to learn to trust people again if nobody is actually trust-worthy?"

Jemmy put her hands on her hips, continuing to judge Bio with her eyes. "Superhero? Yeah right. Super jerk, maybe. The last time I checked, superheroes were supposed to care about other people. I used to be one, you know. You want to talk about not respecting people's space? You don't know what respect is. If I had a doughnut for every time..."

"Jemmy!" Carmen said. The teen girl was still tied up, but she managed to brush her black hair out of her eyes with the edge of a sofa. "Jemmy, it's alright. We were trespassing. I appreciate what you were trying to do, but they aren't required to let us stay here. There are no good people, Jemmy. There are no superheros. Everyone is just selfish, because that's the only logical way to live."

Jemmy looked at Carmen, a betrayed look on her face. "Carmen...no, there have to be good people out there. Jenny was good. She was my friend. There have to be other people like her, because...because otherwise I'll blow up the world."

Carmen looked at Bio. She wanted to make sure there weren't any more misunderstandings. "She doesn't mean that. But you shouldn't make her angry again, or she will kill you. You should also untie me, or else she'll kill you. In fact, you should probably get us a parting gift filled with sugar, just to be on the safe side."

Jemmy crossed her arms and stuck out her lower lip in an exaggerated frown. "I'm not that violent...but he does kinda deserve it."

Jenny looked at him like he was a moron "Yeah I'm not gonna clean up the puke.... but I will make them puke more..... you sire are full of just wonderful ideas...." She looked to them as they talked and she went a bit wide eyed when jemmy said what she did about her and she then looked at Chuck. She hit him hard on the back of the head and pointed to the corner of the room speaking in her normal voice with a slight southern accent. "Corner now...."

She then walked over to Carmen kneeling down brushing the hair out of her face gently. "There are selfish people out there.... but there are good people too.... and sometimes the good are selfish just like the selfish can be good" She untied her and chuckled "And then you got the head strong people that are way too over protective like Chuck over there, WHO STILL HAVE A LOT TO LEARN SO THEY SHOULD CALM THE #%!$ DOWN." she directed the last part to bio and smiled to Carmen helping her up.

"The trick is to don't let anyone phase you unless they are trying to help you out like Jemmy is. Because if you let every little bad thing in the world hit you, well you won't last a day." She let her hair fade to black and her eyes to brown as she listed off things on her fingers. "I've been pelted by rocks, beaten till all my bones were broken, got shot 17 times then put in a coma, nearly crushed to death by a ceiling light, stabbed in the stomach, shot down by a helicopter, then by some dick who shot me in the lungs."

She smiled softly to her wiping off her make up with her sleeve removing the fake attachments to make her ears look normal. "But it was people like jemmy there that kept me going. You gotta look back to the happy times and enjoy any that come your way until you die...... theeeen magically come back to life without explination, go to a bar after a nap after you dig your way out of your own coffin, then get offered a place to live while you enjoy the normal family life you never had for a while until you realize its over rated."

"During said time Jemmy might show up requesting to spend the night at the place you're at and then you realize oh %#!@ you're doing that never shut up thing again until she yells at you for not telling her you were back but you don't know how." she said with a slight shrug and looks to jemmy. "Oh yeah, I'm back..... if you want to hit me please note again, not may house so if it would break anything i'll walk outside for you."

Bio was too busy with closed eyes in thought weighing the pros and cons of more metas staying at his house to listen to the obnoxious little girl who said almost nothing coherent.  He then dodged Jenny’s smack on the head, because he wasn’t in the mood for lectures from people who were demanding generosity and not giving anything back in return.

“Agh… shut up you drama queens and let me think.” (directed at everyone)

Bio scratched his head, and came to a decision.

“Okay.. Carmen. Now that I understand where you’re coming from I’ll take this into consideration. There is a war going on out there and shelters might not be the best place for the homeless right now so we’ll think about it. Jemmy-or whoever you are-you want to hurt me, kill me whatever? Do your worst. Go ahead and be a piece of %#!@ in front of everyone so you’ll not only be wrong about me being a superhero but you’ll be wrong about actually caring about anyone. A hero, a smart one, has to make sure there is an actual need. Some people, like you just did, take advantage of other people’s kindness or don’t realize that they can fix the problem themselves. I’m not God, I’m a very limited kid who can’t even drive yet. Did you even know there would be a superhero here? And, by the way, the first thing you said was that ‘we probably deserved it we did just break into their house’… psh … dumbass.”

He said this all and shook his head chuckling at the absurdity of this newcomer.

“If you really need a place to stay, then change your tone like your friend did.”

He then walked over to Carmen

“Water and a little something to eat we’ll help you shake off the queasiness.  Wecome to the Jones abode. Good thing Mom isn’t here or there would be war. Janet, stop being mad that we aren’t letting you get lung cancer and get back to homework. If you need help, stop whining, and just ask Athena, jesus christ"

He then stopped the banter with Jenny when he realized what she was doing. Now completely confused he just shook his head quickly.

"Wait... WHAT?!!!"

At first Carmen sighed when Janet started talking to her. Was she really going to tell her that her life wasn't that bad, or that she should just get over it? Janet didn't know anything about her. Soon, however, Carmen's eyes widened in surprise when the girl said she had suffered so heavily, most notably being shot in the lungs. Janet, if nobody else, seemed to have suffered as much as Carmen had, and that made Carmen feel that they understood each other.

Jemmy chuckled at Janet's list of injuries. The girl had really taken a beating. She must have been a soldier or something. "Not bad," she said, impressed.

Janet removed her makeup, and pulled something off her ears, making them look pointy. Revelation dawned in Jemmy's eyes. "Jenny?" But Jenny was dead. Jemmy had been at her funeral. She still felt bad for kinda messing the funeral up. It seemed that, under the guise of Janet, Jenny had been living with Chuck, trying to experience a normal life. Jemmy could understand the motivation behind that, though not why she had chosen Chuck of all people, as her adopted family.

Jenny suggested that Jemmy wanted to yell at her, and even offered to let Jemmy hit her. Come to think of it, Jemmy did kinda want to hit Jenny for not immediately telling her that she was alive. They were friends, after all, weren't they? That seemed like an important detail to share with your friends.

But all Jemmy could do right now was give Jenny a hug. A few tears ran down her cheeks. "I knew you weren't gone forever. Everyone told me you were, but I never believed them. I didn't even ride your bike, because I knew you would come back and beat me up for it."

There were a lot of emotions going on here, and Jemmy was not sure how to respond to Chuck. How could someone claim to be a superhero and yet be so mean? If he was a superhero, than Jemmy was the queen of England. Jemmy hated Chuck. She wanted to take him up on his offer and end his pathetic life in a single attack. He needed to learn that a 'smart' superhero did not mock a god.

But the words of a kind police man reminded her not to kill just because she felt like it. On top of that, the teachings of her Kung-Fu master told her that she had to choose her battles. If she fought every person who annoyed her, then she wouldn't be ready for the big, important fights. Chuck, Jemmy decided, was not a battle worth fighting.

Finally free from the restraints, Carmen stood up and listened to Chuck. He offered her a place to stay for the night, but continued to insult Jemmy. He finally stopped, confused by what Jenny was saying. Carmen couldn't take it anymore, and she took the opportunity to get in Chuck's face.

"You are garbage. Jemmy did not know there would be a 'superhero' here, or even a 'smart' person. She assumed there would be a 'good' person, and a good person would not ask questions. They would open their home to someone claiming to be in need, assuming that they were telling the truth." She spit at him. "I didn't realize it was such a horrible thing that someone would want a warm place to stay for the night. You know what's really disrespecting people's space? Breaking into their house, kidnapping them, forcing them into slavery, and beating them when they refuse to do whatever horrible, disgusting thing you ask."

Carmen pointed at Jemmy. "Jemmy is the only good person I know. She saved me from that hell. She offered me a house to stay in without asking questions. She gave me the time of day. If anyone is a superhero, it's her."

After her outburst, Carmen needed a few seconds to catch her breath. Jemmy was stunned. She had never seen the teen girl express herself so strongly. Carmen walked over to Jemmy and put a hand on her shoulder. "Jemmy, your house doesn't have running water or electricity or heat, but it has love. Let's go back there for the night. I'll never complain about it again."

Jemmy smiled at Carmen, but her expression changed when she looked at Jenny. "What about you? Do you really want to stay here with him? You can come with us. You can even keep your disguise. We could be our own family."

Jenny was now getting angry at lock not because he ordered her to do that torture called homework then as a dog! for help cause she couldn't understand it nor the fact he said she was whining but because he was acting like a jerk and was being rude to her best friend and that was not okay. She looked at him with completely light blue glowing eyes showing off her sharp canine teeth. "I suggest you with hold any further comments about Jemmy unless they are nice ones...."

She let her eyes fade back to normal before she smiled to Jemmy and kneeled down hugging her back lightly petting her head chuckling. "Oh please one bullet is not going to stop me, and as for my bike I want you to keep it, I can always get another, besides you look way better on it than me." she then wiped her tears away gently with her sleeve and kissed the top of her head. She slowly got up looking at Carmen as she too stood up for Jemmy and gave a nod of respect to her.

She then looked to Jemmy putting on her jacket pulling on the hood. "You were always my family Jemmy I just am the kind of person who liked being on her own honestly. But if you are okay with it I'd be willing to hack into a few things and get you the best hotel room in the city for you both until you get things fully working in what i assume is your epicly awesome house. Which i may join you in if I ever want to spend the night and hang out or need to crash in for a bit. Though I may not be going back to my original life and who i was, I wont be staying with the whole civilian life for the most part."

Bio could only stand there and listen to everything around him. In all his experiences he had never experienced anything as angry hormonal teenage girls all scolding him at the same time. He just carefully watched everything. If they decided to bring it, especially the loli magic psychopath, then just bring it already.

Athena barked and then laughed in everyone's minds, using her soothing human voice to try and break up all of the tension. The super genius had been sitting back and enjoying a bit of live action drama and had been wishing there was popcorn to munch on but once she saw how hurt Carmen was, she and Jenny had to say something before the girl just completely broke down.

"Alright, everyone let's relax. This is clearly a coincidence here. Jemmy, lord of Chaos I presume. Sorry for the confusion, but humans' adrenaline and fears are pretty crazy when things don't all go according to plan such as knocking on doors and randomly teleporting into their home. Bio actually offered to let Jenny live in his home, but at the same time he doesn't want Jenny or any of his family getting hurt so he clearly assumed the worst until the end here. Please understand....

Bio's an inexperienced 'superhero'.. very inexperienced only been at it a few months and very active. He's been going headfirst into things without any proper training or readiness. Listen Bio, as a superhero you have to be mentally prepared for everything not just strategically. Calm yourself and assess things before calling shots like that. Street smarts aren't the only smarts out there and honestly they can only get you so far before it's immature. Anything you'd like to say?"

She looked to Jenny's offer which was a much nicer offshoot of what Chuck had somewhat suggested.

"That sounds great Jenny, but I can just arrange for a hotel and pay for it. It's on me."

Athena knew how to juggle stocks and bonds so income was definitely something she had. Bio sighed and pulled out his cellphone to turn off the recording app he had on it for criminal evidence.

"Yeah, yeah.. okay I'm sorry about tying you up. Didn't know you guys were friends or whatever. Do whatever you want I gotta do the chores and get back to homework."

Bio apologized then grabbed a broom and went to the dining room to sweep, muttering something about women.

Jemmy wondered what kindhearted thing she must have done in order to have Jenny be her friend. The teen girl joked about how one little bullet couldn't possibly keep her down before offering to arrange a hotel room reservation. Jenny herself declined the invitation to go with them, but said that she would probably visit and hang out with them in the future.

Jemmy nodded. "Just make sure you make it soon. I missed you, you know."

The dog started speaking telepathically. Carmen jumped when she heard the voice in her head, but to Jemmy it was nothing surprising. The Lord of Chaos was impressed that the dog knew who she was, and then was further impressed by the speech made to calm everyone down. It even offered to pay for a hotel room for the two girls from it's own funds.

Jemmy walked over to Athena and petted the dog on the head. "You're a wise dog. Very wise. I accept your gift of a hotel room. Today, you have gained the favor of Chaos. If you ever need a favor, feel free to ask, especially if you need someone to smack some sense into Mr. Grumpy." Jemmy pulled a cell phone out of a small pocket and dialed a number. "I'll call a taxi to take us to the hotel. Carmen's had enough teleporting for one night and I do have some cash."

With the call complete, Jemmy looked to Jenny. "I'm glad you're alive, Jenny. Enjoy the civilian life. You deserve it. I'm sorry that I tried to kill somebody at your funeral. Can you forgive me for that?"

Jenny shrugged off everything sighing as she opened the door looking back to jemmy and smiled softly to her with a chuckle a cigarette between her lips. "I'll visit you once I get everything set up for myself again, thank you for understanding and yeah I heard about that and honestly" she grinned to her "I found it funny and I liked action going on rather than people just standing around crying, at my next funeral hopefully a long time from now can you make sure its more fun with dancing and %#!@ like that and celebrate the stupid crap i did not moron the loss of me?"

After Jenny and Carmen talked about visiting each other, Bio just shook his head and finished sweeping. Before the taxi driver came he walked back into the kitchen with the broom on his shoulders.

"Pardon me for asking but what the heck is a Lord of Chaos?"

That name certainly sounded quite ominous, and judging by the way she and everyone had acted just a few moments ago the title seemed to fit.