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Erin > Fiction > It Came From the Sky!!!
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
TUESDAY, 11:21 AM
"Camping? Are you insane?"
"Oh, c'mon, JC! It'll be fun!" Justin's official Charming Smile was almost audible in his voice, even over the phone. "Think about it. Just you and me and a nice warm campfire and a couple sleeping bags... and nobody around us for miles. Imagine the possibilities!"
"Okay, man. The possibilities. Lemme think... Okay. I'm imagining bears rooting through our tent and bugs in our shoes. Or a bunch of rain or something, especially given you're talking Oregon."
Justin laughed softly. "C. It won't be that bad. I even checked the weather report. It's actually supposed to be nice, warm, and clear all weekend long."
"I dunno, man..."
"It'd be romaaantic."
It was JC's turn to laugh. "Romantic, huh?"
"Yep. Out in the middle of nature, getting in touch with each other... And besides, who knows, you might come up with a song idea or something."
JC paused, closing his eyes. "Do you aim for my weak spots on purpose?"
"Of course I do!"
"Okay." JC took a deep breath. "I don't have anything else to do this weekend. Besides. What's the worst that could happen?"
BELLFLEUR, OREGON
FRIDAY, 5:36 AM
JC stood half in a daze, staring at a display of some unidentifiable fishing equipment of some sort. He blinked a few times as Justin breezed by, adding something or another onto the growing stack of supplies in his arms. He barely had time to even register the addition before Chris wandered by and plopped something else on the pile. His mind wandered as he picked up snatches of their conversation, although without actually comprehending the words.
"So, yeah.. I'll pick you guys up..."
What the hell time is it?
"... didn't really have to..."
Ass-fuck AM. Or something...
"... let you leave your Escalade in the middle of nowhere? No, J, I..."
Too early to be alive.
"Well, we appreciate it, man, we.."
Probably not a good coffee shop within eight hundred miles...
"...anytime. My two favorite lovebirds..."
And they're probably buying all sorts of camping crap we're not even gonna use...
"... oh, promise we'll..."
Christ, it's only a weekend trip. I have to have eight tons of shit in my arms..
"... bring a camera?"
Not that I know what any of it is, cuz my eyes won't actually focus...
"... gotta have pictures of..."
Is there some sort of rule that camping trips have to start before sane people are awake?
"... photo lab?! You sick little..."
Maybe I could curl up on the sleeping bag display and they wouldn't notice I was gone...
"... know a guy with a darkroom, don't worry..."
Mmm.. pile of soft sleeping bags...
"... crazy little fucker..."
Maybe I'll just lean against the shelf here...
"... know it. Well, I think I'm ready..."
Mmm.. Not as soft as sleeping bags, but...
"...good. Looks like..."
Hmm.. dum.. da DUM dum.. daaaa... dada...
"...C, are you..."
La laaaa... wait, no.. too high.. knock it down a few notes...
"... he asleep?"
La laaaa.. Yeah.. better...
"... standing UP.."
Good little hook... I can work with that...
"... surprise me. He can..."
Maybe some sort of neo-disco thing...
"... gotta motor. Let's..."
But for the love of God, no platform shoes or anything...
"Three... two..."
Well.. depending on how good the shoes looked..
"JC!!!!!!"
He jumped a good seven inches in the air, somehow managing not to dump the pile of supplies to the ground. "What?!! I'm awake!!"
Chris smirked. "Sure, man. Do you even have any idea what we were talking about?"
"Platform shoes."
Justin exchanged somewhat odd looks with Chris before wrapping an arm around JC's shoulders. "Sure thing, babe. Listen. Let's go pay for this stuff, then you can go sleep in the car on the way to the campsite. Deal?"
JC smiled gratefully.
SISKIYOU NATIONAL FOREST
SOUTHWEST OREGON
FRIDAY, 3:13 PM
Justin hummed to himself as he finished sticking the last of the supplies into the tent. He then rolled up his new camping backpack and put it in the corner. He glanced around. It looked pretty damn shipshape, if he did say so himself.
Chris had offered to stick around for a while and help them unpack, but they had both insisted they'd be fine on their own. So Chris wished them a good weekend and left, promising to be back on Monday morning to pick them back up. After giving the tent one last glance, he stepped outside, taking a deep, cleansing breath. Ahh, nature.
JC was sitting on a log that had been set up near the campfire area for use as a bench. He looked up at Justin as he emerged from the tent. "Hey, man."
"Hey. Communing with nature?"
JC laughed a little. "Something like that, yeah. It really is gorgeous out here."
Justin walked over and sat next to him. "Yeah, it is, isn't it?"
JC nodded and looked around slowly. "So, man, how long exactly have you had this thing planned?"
"Planned? What are you talking about? This was a spontaneous weekend getaway!"
Arching an eyebrow and smirking somewhat, JC replied, "Sure, man. Spontaneous enough for you to have been able to rent out all the camping sites in these grounds, seeing as we're the only ones here."
Ah, touché, Chasez. Justin laughed ruefully. "Okay, I mighta planned a bit in advance."
JC grinned. "Yeah, like a few months, at least. What would you have done if I'da said no?"
"Hmmmm," Justin pondered the question a bit, "Well... pouted."
JC giggled brightly. "Man, that hasn't worked since you were sixteen."
At that, Justin leaned over and planted a long, lingering kiss on JC's lips. "Except for on you, right?"
JC smiled slowly. "Except for on me," he agreed, leaning in to return the favor.
Justin smiled and licked his lips. "See, aren't you glad I made sure we were the only ones here?"
"See me complaining?"
"Not at all."
8:57 PM
The fire crackled sharply underneath the long sticks JC and Justin had wrangled up, blending with the soft sizzling coming from the hot dogs they'd stuck on the ends.
JC looked over the fire, surveying the cooking food. "My hot dog's bigger."
Justin shot back a look that quite distinctly said Oh-no-you-didn't! He was silent for a moment before replying, "Yeah, well mine's thicker."
"Bet mine's still more filling."
Barely restraining laughter, Justin answered, "You know, it's not the size of the hot dog, it's what you do with it."
JC smirked. "Oh, baby, you know I know what to do with a hot dog."
Justin laughed and shook his head, looking at the fire. "Are we really having this conversation?"
"Yeah. I think we are." JC pulled his hot dog out of the fire and grinned. "Looks juicy."
Justin leaned over and took a bite of JC's hot dog. "Mm. It is."
"God, J, that looked obscene!"
The only response to that was a slightly arched eyebrow before Justin leaned over again and flicked his tongue along the tip of the hot dog.
JC stared at Justin incredulously. "Justin... Don't you have better things to be practicing that technique on?"
"I dunno, man... campfire hot dogs..."
JC let go of the stick holding his hot dog and reached across, grabbing hold of Justin's shirt and pulling him closely, whispering roughly almost against his lips, "Trust me. I can find you something better."
Justin grinned slowly and licked his lips, releasing his own hot dog to fall into the fire.
11:21 PM
JC woke up in the middle of the night. He blinked a few times in an attempt to get his bearings. The fact that he wasn't in his bed was not lost on him, but Justin's arms wrapped loosely around him provided reassuring familiarity. He smiled slowly as the events of the last day came back to him.
Taking care not to disturb the still-slumbering Justin, he carefully slid out of the now-joint sleeping bag- it had been Justin's idea to zip the two together, and it worked rather well- and grabbed his clothes that were scattered on the floor of the tent as he headed outside.
Getting dressed while his eyes were still getting acclimated to the darkness was quite an adventure, but he managed. He looked up. It can't be this dark. There wasn't a cloud in the sky earlier.. Oh. New moon. Of course it's going to be dark. Whoa. Just look at all those stars! I didn't know there were that many! He sat down on the log, staring up at the sky in amazement.
It was really amazing to see just how many stars there were when you got away from city lights. A couple of meteors streaked across the sky as he continued to watch. This is pretty incredible.
He had no idea how long he'd been watching- although he did feel mild amazement at the fact that he didn't have a crick in his neck- when something remarkably different happened.
It was like another meteor, but a whole log brighter and a whole lot closer. He also noticed a faint purple sheen to it. And almost immediately after it disappeared behind the trees, he heard a rather loud crash. What.. the... hell.
He jumped to his feet and ran over to the tent to see if the noise woke Justin up. The answer to that question was a rather emphatic no. Justin was curled up in much the same position as JC had left him. In fact, it looked like he hadn't so much as rolled over. JC shook his head and suppressed a chuckle as he walked back out of the tent.
Maybe I should find out where that thing landed. Well, if it's close enough... He looked around slowly. He didn't want to get lost or anything. After thinking for a couple of minutes, he quietly headed back into the tent and pulled a flashlight from the side pocket of his backpack. He went back outside, turned the flashlight on, and looked around with it, finally finding what he was looking for- a good-sized, rather thick branch- but still not one heavy enough to be cumbersome. He turned to judge the direction the whatever-it-was went, and he headed off into the woods, dragging the stick behind him to make a trail he could follow back. If I don't find anything in fifteen minutes, I turn back.
Of course, he didn't have his watch on him, which made timing the venture a bit problematic. However, he came up with a good idea. Dear Goodbye! It was about five minutes long! So if he sang it to himself three times, that would be the fifteen! He mentally patted himself on the back for the stroke of ingenuity.
As it turns out, he didn't even need the full three times through. Just as he was beginning to stare out depressed about what words he had to plead for the third time, he suddenly saw a rather strong purple glow coming from behind a clump of trees. He blinked a few times and headed over in that direction.
What he saw, he knew immediately that nobody would ever believe even if he did try to explain it. It looked like a normal circular clearing in the middle of the forest at first, but there were definite differences once he looked closer. First of all, scattered at random spots around the clearing were flowers he didn't think he'd ever so much as heard of before in his life. They were about the height of sunflowers, but the blossom looked almost like a... purple sea anemone or something. But they were actually really pretty.
The next, and probably most important thing was the large glowing purple rock in the exact center of the clearing. It was embedded in the ground, but it didn't look as if it had caused an explosion or anything. He cocked his head to the side curiously and walked over to it. It was emitting a soft glow that was getting brighter and dimmer in a steady pulse every few seconds. This thing would make some pretty cool beads. Offhandedly, he wondered if many other meteorites looked like this one.
Suddenly, the glow grew almost blindingly bright. JC threw his arms up to cover his eyes, squinting. It didn't take more than a couple of seconds for the glow to die back down to its previous level. JC blinked a few times. He found himself feeling rather dizzy all of a sudden. Whoa. I better head back to camp. He made sure he had his stick and his flashlight, and turned back in the direction he'd come.
His trail was faint and hard to pick up in places, but it was there. He made absolutely sure to follow it, though pretty much everything else was spinning around. It was rather unpleasantly like being drunk- without the fun of the drinking. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally made it back to camp. He stumbled into the tent, flopped down on top of the sleeping bag, somehow not landing on Justin, and immediately fell asleep.
SATURDAY, 7:03 AM
The first sign Justin had that something was out of the ordinary came even before he opened his eyes. That sign was the sound of sirens not too far in the distance. The second sign came when he did open his eyes, curious about the sirens. That sign was JC lying on top of the sleeping bag, fully clothed. He didn't look too hot, either. He was remarkably pale, and he was sweating pretty heavily. Justin frowned and lightly touched his forehead. He's burning up! JC was sick.
Maybe he got up in the middle of the night and was chilled so he put his clothes back on? Okay. So that explains the clothes. But what about the sirens? I don't think he up and called 911 in the middle of the night.
He wriggled out of the sleeping bag and put his clothes on, being careful not to disturb JC, and stepping outside. He glanced in the direction of most of the commotion. If something big was going down, the press was probably going to be there. And he really didn't want them to connect him to whatever was going on. So I'll sneak up! He headed off quietly, staying behind large trees and ducking behind bushes when necessary. Of course, once he saw the first dude in a HazMat suit labeled FBI, he decided that the most prudent course of action would be to get the fuck back to camp.
Trying to remain quiet, he turned around and headed back in the direction he'd come from. Once he got far enough away that he figured they wouldn't hear him over the noise they were making, he ran. He managed to get back to the campsite without attracting attention- as far as he knew, at least. He ducked into the tend and shook JC's shoulder gently. "C! C! Wake up, man!"
JC's eyes fluttered weakly open. "Unh..?"
"JC! Dude! There's, like, FBI guys out in the forest!"
JC shook his head slightly, murmuring almost too quietly to be heard, "Meteor. Purple. Funny flowers..." He paused for a moment. "Went to see. Bright light.. Got dizzy.. Back here. Justin, I feel... funny."
Justin frowned and pulled out his cell phone. JC had dropped back into a fitful sleep. He called Chris.
"Dude. You should be having all kinds of bendy hotboy sex right now, not calling me."
"Chris. Something's seriously wrong here."
Chris's voice grew immediately more somber. "What is it, bro?"
Justin quickly relayed the events of the morning as he'd experienced them.
"Have the feds seen JC?"
"No. They haven't gotten over here yet."
"Good. Hide him."
"You think I wanna hide evidence from the FBI?"
"Evidence for what? They couldn't have a warrant to search anything of yours, you and C haven't done a thing wrong, and you should really get him to a doctor without government watchdogs. I know a guy, too."
"How can I get him to the doctor? We're in the fucking woods."
"J. Man. I love you to death, but sometimes you are completely dense. Consider me on my way to get you guys. I just hope I don't get too held up on the way."
"Okay. See you in..."
"A few hours. At most."
"Thanks." Justin flipped his phone closed with shaking hands and looked down at JC. Gotta hide him. But where?
8:53 AM
Justin was sitting outside the tent chewing on a granola bar when the car pulled up. Two men in dark suits climbed out and approached him. The taller of them spoke. "Good morning, sir. I'm Special Agent West with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This is my partner, Special Agent Piper."
Justin blinked. Okay, dude. Time for the most important acting job of your life. "FBI? So that's what all that racket was..."
"Yes, sir. We're conducting an investigation on some reports of a disturbance in this area last night. May we ask you a few questions?"
"Sure. Anything to help."
"First of all, may we please have your name?"
"Justin. Justin Timberlake."
The agents exchanged glances. "Place of residence?"
"LA. Primarily, at least. I have a couple houses elsewhere.."
"Are you aware of anything out of the ordinary that may have happened last night around midnight?"
Justin frowned. "No, sir. I was asleep by then. Don't recall waking up over anything, either. If there was a disturbance, must not have been much of one, or just wasn't that close." There you go, man. Stick to as much of the truth as you can.
Agent Piper spoke up then. "Are you alone?"
"Yeah, for now. My friend Chris is supposed to be showing up shortly, but he wasn't here last night or anything."
"And he was coming because..."
"We were gonna do a cool camping trip thing. I got here a night ahead of time with the supplies. And, y'know, getting in touch with my inner self before he got here." He turned on his most practiced winning smile, with a hint of self-assured smirk. "I figure I'm entitled to at least a couple psycho celebrity moments that don't involve wardrobe malfunctions."
"Sir, when he gets here-"
"I'm guessing you want me to leave. Investigation and everything, right?"
"Yes, Mr. Timberlake. Sorry to cut your camping trip short."
"It's okay. I'll call him and let him know." He paused. "Do you guys have any roadblocks or anything...?"
Agent West answered. "Actually, yes. We'll radio to let through... what was his name?"
"Chris. Kirkpatrick."
"Yes. He'll get through. Mind if we look around some while you make your call?"
"Sure thing. Just.. don't dig through my stuff or anything, please? I gotta repack, and I'm kinda anal about my stuff getting touched."
"Of course, sir. We just want to make sure there's nothing grossly out of the ordinary here, like... elsewhere."
"Sure thing."
Justin then called Chris back to tell him 'their camping trip' was being cut short. Once he was done with that, the agents quickly got his contact info and left their cards. 'Just in case you think of anything else that's strange.' They then drove off, presumably to check other campsites. Justin let out a sigh of relief.
10:13 AM
Chris's SUV was a ridiculously welcome sight when it finally arrived. As was Chris. The second he emerged, Justin enveloped him in a bear hug. "Thank God you're here, man."
Chris nodded. "Here to save the day. Just like Mighty Mouse. Where's C?"
Justin walked over to the pile of firewood by the tent and carefully removed the top layer of logs to reveal the firewood-box he'd made to hide JC, still snoozing on his sleeping bag, in. Chris whistled softly. "Not bad."
Justin nodded. "I had to hide him somewhere." He leaned over and felt JC's forehead. "At least his fever looks like it's gone down some."
Chris was staring oddly at JC. Justin blinked. "What's wrong?"
"Does he look... different to you?"
"Yeah, he looks sick."
"No, besides that. Like.. his chin's pointier. And his forehead's wider. I mean, I know it ain't plastic surgery, cuz I saw y'all yesterday."
Justin squinted. "You're right. This is seriously weird."
Chris nodded. "Let's get him in the car before we load up everything else. We can't solve this here."
Justin nodded in return and leaned over, wrapping an arm carefully around JC's waist. He froze. "What the fuck?"
"What?"
Justin pulled his arm free, and yanked the rest of the firewood away from JC. He then tugged his shirt up away from his waist, looking down. "Come and look at this."
After doing so, Chris's reaction was rather blunt. "Fuck, what are those?"
Evenly spaced about every five inches apart around JC's waist were smooth round purple bumps, about two inches around and sticking out just as far.
Chris shook his head. "This is some seriously fucked up shit."
"Tell me about it." Justin sighed and carefully lifted JC with Chris's help, taking him over to the car. "Let's get the rest of this all loaded and get going."
"Good idea," Chris said with a nod.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
SUNDAY, 5:02 AM
As Chris finally pulled up to Justin's driveway, Justin stretched with a loud yawn. God, am I going to be glad to get out of this car. With JC in the back, looking progressively worse as time went on, they didn't risk stopping except for really quick bathroom breaks on the entire seventeen hour drive from Oregon. He shot another quick glance at JC who was lying on the back seat, covered with a blanket. He couldn't make out too many features in the pre-dawn glow, but it still didn't look good.
He sighed softly and climbed out of the car, walking around to open the door to the passenger side. Chris came around to help him quickly. "Let's get him out of there."
Justin nodded and unfastened JC's seatbelt. No sooner had he done so than JC grabbed his wrist and stared over at him, moaning softly. Shit... What the fuck is wrong with him? If he had looked somewhat different before, he looked really different now. His entire head was almost... elongated. And tapered into almost a triangle. The only upside, if anything could be considered an upside, was that he didn't seem quite so pale as he had earlier. Justin turned to Chris. "Dude..."
Chris looked rather freaked out as he stared at JC. "We have to get him inside. Then I'll call the doc. After he looks at him..."
"Yeah?"
"Lance and Joey have got to know."
Justin nodded silently and rested his free hand on top of JC's. "Let go of my wrist, JC. We'll get you some help."
When a thick purple tentacle wrapped around his other wrist, the thought that there was seriously bad shit going down suddenly became an absolute certainty.
10:22 AM
"Tentacles?" The incredulous question was Joey's. He and Lance had come as quickly as they could after Justin had called them to "Get to LA for an emergency group meeting. And I seriously mean emergency." Justin and Chris had been filling them in on the details.
"Yeah. Tentacles." Chris was sparing Justin having to give many of the details unless he himself didn't know them. Justin was freaked out enough by the whole incident. "We managed to get him into the basement. It wasn't easy. Whatever the hell happened to him, it made him... ah... kinda grouchy."
Lance frowned. "You didn't hurt him or anything, did you?"
"Fuck no!" Justin took it upon himself to answer that one. "Whatever the fuck it is that happened to JC, it's still JC, and I will be fucked if I allow anyone, let alone me, to harm a hair on his head."
Chris rested a head on Justin's shoulder comfortingly. Justin shot Lance an apologetic look. "Sorry, man. I'm just... on edge."
Lance nodded. "Don't worry about it. Sorry for suggesting it. I should have known better. So, Chris, you said you called a doctor? What did he say?"
Chris shrugged. "He said it looked like some kind of mutation, like we didn't know that much already. He took some blood- carefully; mutant JC doesn't like needles any more than normal one does- and said he'd let us know when he came up with something more conclusive."
Joey nodded. "Can... can we see him?"
Justin and Chris exchanged glances. "Yeah," Justin said, "Just... no sudden movements, and keep your voices low. We really really don't want to startle him."
Lance and Joey agreed, and within a moment, they were standing at the basement door. Justin opened it slowly. "C, babe," he called out softly, "Lance and Joey are here to see you. Chris is still here, too. Mind if we come down?"
There was no answer. Chris arched an eyebrow. "Didn't throw anything. I think we can take that as a yes."
They all slowly walked down the stairs. There in the middle of the den, sitting on an ottoman, was JC. In the light, the tentacles around his waist, which Justin had originally taken for a pure purple, shimmered between purple and pink, depending on what angle the light hit them. With their almost constant movement, as if they had minds of their own, the effect was actually really... pretty. Even like this, man, you manage to be amazing.
"Don't touch the you-know-whats," Chris said to Lance and Joey. "Far as we've discovered, they're kinda sensitive."
JC eyed his four groupmates almost warily, Justin noticed with some sadness. It's almost like he doesn't recognize us. But he's got to. "JC. We're all here. Just like old times, right? Or at least a Challenge, or something. Without the sunburn."
"J, man, be careful. I really don't think he knows us right now."
Justin looked into JC's eyes. "He knows us. In there somewhere, he knows us."
"We just don't want you to get hur--"
Before Chris even finished that thought, a few of the tentacles shot out and wrapped themselves around Justin's legs, twisting sinuously around him. There was no way he could get away, strong as the grip was, and he had no idea what they were going to do nex-- Whoa.
"OK, dude, I've seen some serious PDAs from the two of you, but damn, tentacle porn is fucked up enough in anime without me having to see it in real life," Chris burst out. Lance and Joey were just staring. JC's tentacles were unmistakably pawing at Justin's crotch.
This should probably not be giving me a hard-on, Justin thought, as if his dick would be paying remote attention. "Oh, dude, JC, that's, ah, oh, okay, whoa, um... appreciate the attention, man, but... Uh... this is kinda..." He wriggled slowly away from JC, sighing in relief when the tentacles withdrew. Justin hastily headed over to the other guys. Staying out of reach of the tentacles seemed suddenly like a pretty good idea.
"So, ah," Joey commented, "at least he still likes you?"
Justin smiled weakly, willing his dick to calm down. He was spared having to reply by Chris's cell phone ringing. Chris flipped it open. "Hello?"
Justin, Lance, and Joey turned to watch Chris as he spoke. "Oh, hi, what's... yeah?.... That's.... So what.... Okay, great. Thanks so much for calling." He hung the phone up. "That was Doc Cathin. He's gotten the bloodwork done."
"And?" Justin asked insistently.
"He says it looks like some sort of virus he's never seen before. It attaches to cells and makes them behave differently."
"Okay?"
"But the good news is that it doesn't actually mutate the cells themselves. So if you kill off the virus, he should be cured pretty quickly."
"So how do we kill off the virus?"
"He's still working on that part."
Justin sighed. "I just want my JC back."
Chris nodded. "I know, J. I know."
Joey looked around. "So what are you gonna do until the doc comes up with something?"
Justin glanced over at JC, who was in the process of pulling cushions off of his couches, and grunting. "I'll figure something out."
THURSDAY, 9:17 AM
As Justin learned, having a housemate afflicted with some kind of alien virus was far from the best living arrangement. He was pretty much forced to keep JC in the basement, as he didn't want to run the risk of JC being spotted through the windows, or worse, getting out.
The first couple days in particular were rather nervewracking. Once JC had gotten somewhat used to his surroundings, he'd taken to throwing things. Justin was just glad Chris had volunteered to stay around to help out, because they had spent most of Sunday evening carrying up the breakable things that they managed to get to before JC did. Somehow, he doubted that he had alien mutant insurance on his house.
Tuesday morning had brought a lucky discovery. JC was going through another one of his tantrums when Justin decided to go down and see if he could calm him at all. Talking didn't really seem to do much good. Neither did dancing, or telling jokes. Trying to play basketball only got the ball leveled at his head. However, once he started to sing, JC noticeably calmed. It seemed as if recordings worked, too. Therefore, Justified had been on fairly constant loop in the basement for two days. Chris had taken to wearing earplugs whenever he went down there, citing 'too much of a good-but-still-overhyped thing.'
Feeding him also proved to be an adventure. Mutant-JC was pickier than Briahna had been in those couple of months after she turned two- at least according to what Justin recalled of Joey's accounts at the time. He tried to bring JC a big variety of stuff, but from how little he actually ate, Justin seriously hoped JC didn't starve to death before Doctor Cathin found the cure.
Justin was stretched out exhausted on the floor of his living room when his phone rang. He groaned and stretched out, grabbing the cordless on the coffee table and answering. "Hello?"
"Hey, J. I got good news and bad news."
"Chris? Aren't you just out picking up breakfast?"
"Well, that's the bad news. No, I'm not."
"Uh, what's the good news?"
"I just saved hundreds of dollars on car insurance by switching to Geico."
"Ha. Funny. Except not. Seriously."
"Doc found the cure. I just picked it up."
"Shit, that's great! Get over here!"
Chris laughed. "I'm coming, man. Hold your horses. Be there in ten."
Justin hung up the phone and ran down the hall. Whether or not JC understood him, he was gonna tell. When he got to the basement door, he froze.
He'd left it wide open.
Glancing around, he saw the side door to outside had been pushed open.
JC had escaped.
10:30 AM
Absolutely nobody who lived anywhere near Justin had seen JC. He'd made up some bullshit story about getting ready for a costume party and his friend was kinda drunk, so if you see him, could you please just call his cell phone and not the cops? There hadn't, however, been any luck, at least on his end. He called Chris, who'd been doing the same technique in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, the results there hadn't been much better. He was about to suggest calling the cops to see if there had been any reports when a call came in on the other line of his cell. He told Chris to wait a moment. "Hello?"
"Justin?"
"Oh, Lance. What's up?"
"Um... where are you?"
"Out looking for JC. He... uh..."
"Is on your roof."
"What?!"
"Uh, yeah. I dropped by to check on him, and didn't find you, but he's up there."
"Don't take your eyes off of him! I'll be right there!" He clicked back over to Chris. "Get back to the house. Lance showed up and found JC on the roof."
"The hell? Okay."
Justin turned his car back around and headed for home, breathing a deep sigh of relief. Almost over.
Of course, knowing he was on the roof and being able to get to him were two totally different things. Justin arrived back at his house roughly the same time Chris did. Lance was standing in the driveway looking up. JC's head, irregularly shaped as it was now, was peeking out over the edge of the roof. "What is he doing up there?"
"Hell if I know," Lance replied simply.
Chris looked faintly ill at just the prospect of being up that high and it not involving roller coasters or something. "Okay. What now?"
"Well, we gotta get him down to give him the cure," Justin said.
Lance looked over sharply. "You found the cure?"
Chris looked over at him. "Well, we didn't, but yeah." He pulled a plastic jar out of the pocket of his hoodie. "Doc figured the virus got in through skin contact, so that's how to get it out. We need to get the stuff onto his skin somehow."
Lance looked thoughtful. "Just some?"
Chris nodded. "He said he purposely gave me an overlarge dose in case some spilled." He smirked. "He knew me in college. He said that only something like an ounce or two actually has to touch him, but the more does, the quicker it would work."
Lance nodded slowly. "Can it be diluted?"
There was another nod from Chris. "He even recommended putting it in his bathwater or something."
Lance hmmmed softly, looking between JC, Justin, and Chris. "I have an idea."
11:19 AM
Justin took a deep breath. Climbing up his house with a ladder was really not his idea of a good time. He'd never even used the ladder himself. He just kept it on hand for maintenance people and stuff. It was a big ladder. He was glad, at least, that Lance was at the bottom, stabilizing it. He was only halfway up, and it was seeming kinda heady even for him. He shook his head. Gotta do this for C. He continued upward.
When he finally reached the top, he looked out onto his roof. "JC? Where are you, man?"
No sooner had he spoken than JC walked around a skylight to make himself visible. Justin hoisted himself off of the ladder to make his way towards the flat part of the roof. "You chose a hell of a place to get away from it all, man. Once you can talk, you'd better tell me how the hell you got up here."
JC cocked his head to the side, peering at Justin curiously.
"I really want you to get back to normal soon, man. I mean, it's not like I love you any less like this, and the tentacles are really pretty cool looking, but I miss talking with you, laughing with you, and just... being with you, y'know?"
JC made an inquisitive half-purring noise somewhere in the back of his throat and slowly stepped closer.
He must have been visible from the ground, finally, as a stream of water flew up directly at JC, powered by a huge Super Soaker Chris was wielding. Rather unsurprisingly, he had good aim. JC was positively doused. He let out an almost unearthly squeal and started squirming violently.
Justin ran up and wrapped his arms around the writhing JC. There was absolutely no way he was going to let JC run off the edge of the roof because he didn't know what he was doing. Therefore, he planted his feet and refused to let go. No matter how much JC squirmed to get loose, no matter how much the tentacles pulled at his arms, no matter how loud JC's screeches grew, Justin positively refused to let go.
After what seemed like an eternity, the squirming stopped. Justin chanced a look to see if it worked....
... And saw a tired, but perfectly normal-looking JC looking right back at him. "Thanks," he murmured hoarsely.
Justin grinned.
2:40 PM
After plenty of congratulations, hugs, and Chris gloating about what a good shot he was, he and Lance had departed, leaving Justin and JC alone.
"So, really, what was it like?"
"Really... strange. Like... I was able to see, hear, and everything like that, but it was almost like it was all through a foggy tunnel. There was just this disconnect between me and... what I was."
"That had to be scary as hell."
"It was, a little bit, at first. After a while, I got used to it, though. It seemed kinda metaphorical for something. You know, looking at your life and not feeling like you're in it. Enough thought, and it might make a kickass song."
Justin burst into laughter. "Only you, man, only you."
JC smiled slightly. "Yeah, I know, right?" He paused. "I did wanna thank you, though."
"For what, climbing on the roof?"
JC shook his head. "For, y'know, treating me like... me, and not some sort of alien freak."
Justin laughed a little. "Well, y'know, what's the difference, right?"
JC laughed and shook his head. "You know what I mean. And really. Thanks."
"What else could I do, C? I love you."
"I know." JC leaned over and kissed Justin deeply. "But, man?"
"Yeah?"
"So never going camping again."