Rude Awakening (Open)

It was a touching story, though there were a few details sprinkled in-between that would raise some eyebrows. But Rin kept her poker face so as not to appear rude. The storytelling however was interrupted by what looked like a very bad headache causing Jemmy to wince and hold her head. It looked pretty serious.

Rin turned to the taxi driver to ask him to take them to the nearest hospital instead but before she could utter a word, the car around them began to shake. Some dangerous looking energy was dancing around the walls of the vehicle, eating through the material. Were they under attack by something?

There wasn't much time to think about what to do. Seeing as the driver himself saw fit to abandon ship, they should too. Rin grabbed Jemmy, kicked her side door open and jumped out of the taxi. Just before they hit the road, Rin activated her hero transformation to hopefully help break their fall.

Memories. She now remembered a wedding between Kyte and someone named Nina. Jemmy had been in attendance at that wedding. She had very few memories after that...until the universe started again. Jemmy watched the stars be born a second time, watched as civilizations formed again, watched as history repeated itself. She had forgotten everything by the time she met Kyte again.

The universe had reset itself.

And that wasn't the worst of it. Jemmy had new memories, in addition to old. That night, after Rain had tucked her in to bed, the universe had reset itself again. She had watched the cosmos be built a third time, had watched the pyramids rise again, and had lived through all of history yet another time. But she had done so without realizing it. As soon as her world, her home, her mother had been taken from her, Jemmy had erased her memories, deciding to not let them come back until this very day, when she could once again be able to find her beloved Rain.

This was the day she had met Rain, exactly one forever ago.

Jemmy opened her eyes. She was no longer in the car. She was lying on the ground with Rin. Rin had changed her appearance a bit, and was cradling her, protecting Jemmy from the destruction that Jemmy herself had caused.

"I'm sorry," Jemmy said to Rin. "I hope I didn't hurt you." She stood up. There wasn't a scratch on Jemmy, even though they had just jumped out of a moving car. Suddenly, Jemmy's feet left the ground. She was hovering a foot off the ground. Holding a hand out in front of her, she made a guesture, as though tossing something ahead. A crackling black hole opened up in front of her, sizzling against the air.

Jemmy didn't have any other words to say to Rin. She floated through the portal, appearing on a certain hilltop overlooking Jump City. There was nobody here.

"Where are you, Rain?"

The portal was still open, a few feet away from Rin. She could easily go through it, if she chose to do so.

They managed to touch down safely on the side of the road, with the only "damage" being dirt and dust on Rin's clothes. Jemmy stood up and apologized, to which Rin responded with a reassuring nod that all was fine.

Suddenly the girl was floating in the air, opening what looked like some sort of portal and going through it. Did she perhaps regain her teleportation ability? Was the problem with her powers that she mentioned earlier the cause for the accident? The situation seemed dangerous. Despite not having a scratch on her, Jemmy's expression looked very troubled. Something even more terrible might happen.

Rin's thoughts however were interrupted by audible groaning coming from the middle of the road. The driver who had jumped out earlier was not as lucky as them with regards to being resistant to damage and it looked like he broke something when he hit the ground. As much as Rin wanted to continue helping Jemmy out, between an injured helpless man lying unsafely in the middle of the road and a super-powered little girl searching for her way home, the former required her more urgent attention.

She leaped to the man's side in a single bound, gently picked him up, and with another jump made it back to the side of the road. She then began to administer first aid while keeping an eye on the portal. She wasn't sure how long it would stay open, but as soon as she was absolutely certain the man was out of danger, she would try to go after her. It was doubtful it would remain open for more than a few more seconds though. She was already thinking about how she would go about finding Jemmy again in that case. It shouldn't be too hard to get information on a girl like that right?

The portal started to diminish, growing smaller as Rin gave first aid to the driver. Before Rin finished her task, the portal fizzled out of existence entirely. Rin had chosen to prioritize the life of the injured driver, like a true hero. Most likely, she saved his life by stopping his bleeding. But the chance to follow Jemmy had passed.

On her hilltop, Jemmy waited, alone, until the sun set. Rain never showed up. In this world, it seemed, everything was happening in a different way. Of course, change was often a good thing. As a Lord of Order, Jemmy knew that well. But right now she just wanted Rain, and Rain wasn't here.

Jemmy shivered more and more violently as the sun went down. A tree next to her started to crackle with black lightning. A few second later, it was completely devoured by anti-energy. Jemmy's knuckles went white as she tightened her fists. She would do whatever it took to find Rain, even if she had to tear this facade world apart.

The End



(OOC: Thank you for this delightful thread!)