24Screw it, I have no excuse. Verbally berate me all you want, I feel terrible.
Timeline-wise, I'm estimating that in '03, Jack was 13, so he would have to have been born in 1990. His 'real' age, I guess you could call it, for this fic is 18, making it '09? … I guess… Eh, think what you want. No wait no, I'll just make him 20 so it can be 2011. So much easier. Yeah…
Holding a large clod of dirt in his right hand, Jack contemplated whether or not to actually go through with it. The dirt clump had several little bugs in it, including a few worms, a small black beetle and some ants. Another child had once dared Jack that he didn't have the nerve to eat a chunk of dirt. It was true, he hadn't then.
He did now, though. "I'll show you!" he mumbled, bringing the dirt to his mouth. He took it away though in second thoughts. He repeated the action three times before Chase startled him. "Spicer,"
Jack gasped loudly, stood up from where he was crouched and spun around to look at Chase. The next thing he did was very clearly not thought through. Reeling from shock, Jack took both hands and smashed the dirt to his mouth, making ridiculous noises as he shoved it all down his throat. Once finished, he sprinted away with his arms in the air to another, more secluded part of the conservatory.
Chase had no idea what the hell to think. Jack too was just as confused, but he cared a lot less about it. "I showed that Mattie!" he said. He chuckled to himself. "I'm so cool,"
"No, you really, really aren't." again, Chase scared Jack. Jack squeaked and turned to face him. Chase pinched the bridge of his nose as Jack stared up at him with a dirt-covered face.
"It was a dare! Mattie said that I was too chicken ta eat a handful of dirt and worms and buggies! But I showed him, really I did, you saw! He owes me money now, we hafta go get it from him now! Can we go get my money?" Jack said, looking out the nearest window. "Where are we exactly? I can tell you the exact coordinates of his house, I had to find them once when he stole my Captain Stupendous action figure!"
Rolling his eyes, Chase walked over to Jack and grabbed him by the scalp. "Most certainly not. This 'Mattie' that you speak of no longer exists. It is late now, and dinner is being served. You are to clean up then come to the dining hall to eat, then you are going straight the bed," Chase let go of Jack's hair, but then grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back into the main hallway. He pushed Jack in the direction of the nearest bathroom. "Go on," he growled.
Jack turned and glared at Chase. "Don't push me around, I can do it myself!" he yelled. He turned back around and started to march down the hall, but he stopped again, and looked over his shoulder. "Can we go get my money Mattie owes me after I eat?" he asked. Chase glared, "What part of 'no longer as you know him' do you not understand? No! You are to eat your dinner then bed," he snapped. Jack seemed to not have heard most of what Chase said. "… so, tomorrow?" he asked, facing Chase. "No!" Chase summoned one of his feline companions then. "Make sure he gets cleaned up and down to the dining hall promptly," he snarled. Salvatoré, the mountain lion that appeared, nodded and walked to Jack. He nudged him back towards the washroom, and Jack had no choice this time but to follow.
In the bathroom, Salvatoré lounged quietly in the empty bathtub as Jack sat on his knees on the sink counter, scrubbing his face clean of the dirt with a wet and soapy washcloth. When he figured he was sufficiently clean, he turned and looked over at Salvatoré, who had also begun to clean himself. "That's funny how you clean your head! Look I can do that too," Jack licked his arm for a few seconds than rubbed it across the top of his head several times. "I'm clean now too! No more baths, ever!" he laughed and jumped off the counter, and ran away.
Salvatoré quickly jumped out of the tub and chased after Jack. Gaining on the boy, he pounced – and missed Jack completely. The boy saw the shadow of the giant cat over him, screamed and curled up, not unlike an armadillo. Salvatoré slid past for a second before stopping. He was confused for a moment before he caught his bearings once more. He again made his way to Jack and nudged him in the right direction, acting as if he had been completely composed the whole time.
Seeing that the potential danger was now over (and he was also very hungry), Jack got up and walked as fast as he could the rest of the way. Chase was not amused, dinner was had, and there was a lot of rambling on Jack's part about his favourite technology, and how he could make it better. Chase, for the most part, ignored him. Instead, he sat there with his elbows on the table, his chin resting on his intertwined hands, and thought about the persons that he had done business with, whom had failed to pay him back for his services.
He had been trying to find a good way to remind them that he was owed a fair amount of money, but hadn't been able to think of a suitable- his eyes flicked over to Jack, who was still babbling away about how crappy Walkmans were and how digital music would be so much better (it amused Chase to no end how Jack seemed to be stuck in 1994, when he was truly four years old, and that he was completely oblivious to all the new and current technology).
"Jack," Chase said calmly, hoping he would only have to attempt to get his attention once. Unfortunately, this didn't work out that way. Jack seemed to not have heard him, and kept on talking away. "Jack," Chase said again, a little louder this time. Again, nothing. "Jack!" Chase yelled, slamming his hands on the table. Jack jumped in shock. "What?" he asked hysterically.
"Jack," Chase gave him a fake smile. "Do you know how to light a match?"
Jack grinned and nodded. "Sure do! I'm the best there is when it comes to-"
"Do you enjoy lighting matches?" Chase interrupted him with another question.
"Yeah sure!"
"Do you like fire? The heat of the flames, the way they simply seem to eat everything up that they touch at a moments notice?" As if to emphasize, Chase summoned a small fire in front of Jack, and he relished at how Spicer seemed hypnotized by it instantly. He put his face in his hands and stared at it intently.
"Yeah… I like it. Real warm," he mumbled. This made a sadistic grin appear on Chase's face.
"Have you ever set anything on fire, Jack?" Jack slowly shook his head, still looking into the fire.
"No, my momma says that she'd be stupid if she was gonna give me a match. Says I'd burn the house down,"
"Have you ever wanted to set something on fire, Jack?"
Jack shrugged. "Yeah, I guess,"
Chase's sadistic grin reappeared. He realized though that Jack was stubborn. If he really wanted the boy to do his bidding he'd first have to get on his good side.
"Perfect. Valentine," he looked at a black panther with bright red eyes. "Why don't you make Jack some dessert? Such a cooperative boy deserves a nice sundae, don't you think?" The jungle cat nodded once, then morphed into a tall male with long black hair, fully dressed in Steampunk period clothing of the same color.
He walked over to Jack, who snapped out of his stupor when Chase extinguished the harmless fire, and put a pale hand on his shoulder. "Come, Jack. Let's go make you dessert," he said in an eerie, deep voice. Jack stared up at him for a few moments, then grabbed at his pants. "I like your pants, where'd you get them? My daddy doesn't want me wearing black because he says I'm already a freak and don't need to stand out anymore than I already do!" Valentine just blinked once, and continued to stare down at Jack.
"When he is done eating take him to his room and put him to sleep. Once that is all taken care of, join Caligula and I in the den. We have some planning to do for tomorrow," Chase told him. He turned and walked away, Caligula following close behind. Valentine nodded again. He looked down at Jack when he felt the boy tugging at his pants again.
"Hey Val, can I have extra bananamas? I love bananamas!" he said, looking hopeful. Valentine nodded, and became amused when Jack screamed, "Yahoo!" and got so excited he fell out of the chair. He helped the boy up and led him into the kitchen.
It wasn't until an hour later that Valentine joined Chase and Caligula. Chase was sitting in his favourite plush chair, relaxing in front of the lit fireplace and stirring a cup of tea.
"That certainly took longer than I expected," Chase commented when Valentine appeared. Valentine made a noise in the back of his throat. "Yes, well, if you recall, Master… Spicer was already a rather hyper being to begin with. Giving him a bowl of ice cream at the age of four probably wasn't the wisest thing to do. I stayed up with him until he got tired; he didn't have any toys to play with so he took a lamp and made it into a small robot-monkey," he explained.
He wasn't afraid that he was overstepping his boundaries, or that he was going to be punished for speaking without permission. He, Caligula and LaLaurie, a white tigress, were in Chase's top circle of trustees. The only reason LaLaurie wasn't joining them tonight was because she had recently had a litter of cubs with her mate, Maximilien, and needed time with them.
"A lamp?" Chase asked, intrigued.
"Yes, my lord,"
"Well, it seems he shall be needing a new light-source then. Also, a few playthings. That will be remedied after tomorrow. But for now, Valentine, we must catch you up. You missed our complete discussion, but I shall tell you the important details," Chase sipped at his tea, then put it plus the saucer on the side table that was near him.
"Tomorrow, at the crack of dawn, we will be arriving at the Li estate. We shall be taking Spicer with us, and he will be doing the dirty work this time around. Wake him up at 5:30, if you will, and give him breakfast while I meditate. We will leave after that at six,"
Jack most certainly did not want to be woken up at this time. "No! Go 'way! I'm still sleepin'!" he yelled. The feline in charge of waking him up was very frustrated after ten minutes of this. He, Nero, another black panther whose fur was jet black, loosely grabbed Jack's ankle so as to not hurt him, and started to drag him out of the bed. Jack, in return, began kicking and screaming as loud as possible.
Nero let go, jumped on the bed and roared as loud as he could at Jack. Jack screamed in terror and jumped off his bed, running out of the room. Nero chased after him, scaring him with his loud roars into the dining room. He stalked over to a corner of the room and sat there, tail flicking angrily. Jack stared at him fearfully as he climbed onto a chair, and ate warily as Nero leered at him the whole time.
Chase finally walked in, and took brief notice of Jack and Nero. He walked into the kitchen to grab a drink then came back out only to see the same thing. "Nero. Be elsewhere," he ordered. Nero nodded and left. "Good morning, Jack. How are you?" he asked the boy, resting an arm on the back of the chair Jack sat at. Jack grunted as he ate his pancakes. "'m tired, wanna go back to bed," he grumbled. "We have work to do today, Jack. Hurry up and eat, and we will be on our way," Chase told him. Impatient as ever, after about a minute of watching Jack eat as slowly and messily as possible, he snapped his fingers and the food disappeared.
"He-ey!" Jack whined. He went to wipe the strawberry jam off his face with his arm, but when then he blinked and the next thing he knew he and Chase were in front of a huge mansion. "Hey, what?" he asked, taking care to wipe as much of the jelly as he could get off his face and arm onto the red stripes of his shirt. "Jack, if you recall, we had a nice conversation about fire last night," Chase said.
Jack's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah, yeah!" he gleefully said. "Well, now is your chance to create fire, and lots of it," Chase told him, pulling a book of matches out of a pocket. "Why don't you take these, and go set that bush on fire, Jack?" he handed them to Jack.
Jack looked where Chase gestured, and nodded. "Wait… why?" he turned and asked. Chase hesitated. "… You don't need a reason, Spicer. Just do it!" he growled. Jack still didn't move. "Don't you like setting things on fire, Spicer? You said so yourself last night. Now's your chance to do it, because you can. Now why don't you take this opportunity to go do so?"
Jack nodded. "Yer right!" he decided, running up to the selected shrubbery. It didn't surprise Chase that security was lacking- his clients were always far too proud to hire security. After several attempts, Jack finally managed to get a match lit. He tossed it into the bush and ran back a few paces, before turning and watching it engulf in flames. He started laughing. "So cool!" he yelled. He looked back at Chase. "Can I burn more stuff?" he asked.
Chase grinned. "I encourage it," he said. Jack cheered and proceeded to set alight various plants and items around the area. Chase was about to suggest to Jack to light up the actual home, when he was surprised to find that Jack had already gone and done that. He was even continuing to burn pretty much everything in sight- he might even hurt himself if not careful.
"Spicer! That is enough," Chase called out. Jack sprinted over to him and latched onto his leg, smelling like smoke. "I did good, right? I had fun, too!" he said, jumping up and down. "Yes, Spicer, you did excellent," Chase said as he watched the mansion burning to the ground. Grabbing a tight hold on Jack's hair, Chase teleported them again…
… in front of an ice cream parlor. Jack gasped loudly and sprinted inside. When Chase followed him in, Jack had hopped onto the counter and was holding on with his arms. "Ok, ok, I want, um, Banana Split, yeah that, and Chunky Monkey!" Jack had to pause to laugh, "chunky monkey, chunky monkey, chunky monkey! Oh, and Coffee, Coffee buzz buzz buzzzzz!" He hopped off the counter and jumped up and down as the man behind it got him a big bowl full of these flavors.
Chase sighed. This was probably a very bad idea; he never should have done it. When Jack was handed the ice cream, the cashier began to say the amount owed. Instead, Chase said, "No," and teleported himself and Jack back to the lair.
Chase shooed Jack away to eat his ice cream, and left to relax. It looks like he had time to do some long-awaited spying. He summoned the Ying-Ying Bird and sent it off to various places to spy on, though there was really nothing eventful happening.
And then he checked on Spicer's mansion. Yes, finally, the brat's parents were actually home. He could get rid of the spoiled thing for another decade at least. Chase quickly stood up. "Spicer! Here, now!" he yelled. It took a few moments, but Jack ran in, all hopped up on sugar and caffeine.
"What?" he asked.
"You're leaving, now," Chase grabbed Jack's hair and quickly teleported them inside the main foyer of the mansion.
"Hey I'm home!" Jack said, looking around. He stopped and gasped when his mother walked in. "Momma!" he yelled, trying to pry himself from Chase's grip. Chase let go, and watched him fall on his face. Jack got up and ran to his mother, who stared at them in horror.
"Momma, I'm home! Aren't ya glad to see me?"