Fifteen - Pt. 2 -

I stormed my way out of the diner and took to the streets, my lungs full of determination and my blood coursing with excitement. There was so much going on right now, I didn't know what to think.
As to be expected, the boys were right behind me, no doubt frantically trying to stop me.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Master called out.
My gaze didn't even turn to them. "I'm going after him! And to do that, I need something from the T.A.R.D.I.S.!" "Who knows if he's even still here!" "I do! I can feel it!"
They were running hard after me, making me feel as if I needed to run harder.
I did, of course, and I was soon in the very street the gang found us in.
It didn't take me long to relocate the T.A.R.D.I.S. and I rushed through the doors to retrieve something that might be of some use. Something that the Master had been tinkering with that he really didn't want me to touch. I jumped down into the lower quarter of the deck and dove into the supply of knit-knacks the Timelord had been keeping in a big black box.

Above me, I heard loud footsteps that slowed down to a halt equipped with heavy breathing.
I glanced up at the boys, seeing that they were either bending down, leaning against things, or collapsed from being out of breath, enduring yet another episode of trying to catch up with me.
"Where is that little idiot?" Master insulted. I crinkled my brows.
"That little idiot can hear you, blondie."
His face moved down and I saw his eyes focus past the grid floor. He stood in silence.
Jim in the meantime hurried across the grid floor and jumped down to join me, but I paid little to no attention to him when he got there.
"What are you trying to find, love?" "A tracker." "A tracker??" "Yesh."
"Oh no, you don't, that is not to be fiddled with by ordinary hands!"
"Quite right--that's why I'm fiddling with it."
Master sighed in defeat. "I bloody hate y-"
Bane suddenly emerged and clasped his strong hand over Master's mouth.
"A tracker for what, Miss Demens? To locate the boy?"
My eyes then honed in on the device poking out from the others and I dug my hand in to pull it out, where I now wielded it with a wicked smirk. "Indeed, my dear masked companion."

At the mention of Mystery Boy, Moriarty frowned and sighed irritably, as if the very mention of MB made him uncomfortable. I continued to ignore him, however, as I couldn't afford to pay attention to anything else. I hurried back up, 'fiddling' with the said tracker.
Master made a face as I emerged back to the top, Bane already having let him go.
"You don't know how to use that."
"Well, Mister Resentful Celery, like all good things in life, I'll learn."
He crinkled his nose. "..I'm not a celery.."
"You're right! You're a banana."
"I will CUT you."
Bane and Joker drew near and investigated what it was I was upto.
"Beloved child, in what way do you intend to track Mister E Boy with THAT thing? What do you possibly have that he touched that you could use?"
I thought for a second, trying to remember what he did touch that I could use, until Bane pointed out the very obvious; "Your clothing." I admit, I was a bit alarmed by this statement, until he further explained.
"The boy carried you when he rescued you, his skin came into contact with your clothes."
"BRILLIANT, BANE, BRILLIANT."
I leaped up and kissed his cheek for being so clever, before hurrying and scanning the pants lying amongst the dirty clothes pile from the Spidey adventure. 

Learning how to operate the device wasn't hard at all. In fact, it only took me mere seconds to catch how to work it, by holding down the big blue button that resembled the trigger of a rifle, pointing it at the said clothing, and a blue light instantly starting to move up and down indicating a legit scan was taking place, similar to how a Transformer scans for a new disguise.
After the scan was complete, the device dinged and a little silver loading circle appeared on the tiny screen. A moment later, the screen now displayed a bunch of information. Info about MB, such as his blood type, current health condition, and the amount of distance he was from my current location.
He wasn't far.
"Oh boy..here she goes. Chasing after her boyfriend again."
"WATCH it, clown."
J rose a brow, "C'mon kid. You totally got it bad for the little punk."
"I do not! I just..ugh!"
"Leave the girl alone." "THANK you." "She obviously is experiencing her first time ever liking a boy."
"I literally just marked you for death."
"What are you saying, she didn't like boys before? What about me???"
"You'd have to be a boy for that to happen."
"Excuse me, yes, hi, I'll have you know, blondy ribs, that I've liked PLENTY of boys in my time. This would not, if it were true, which it isn't, be my first."
"Really? Like who?" Master placed a cocky hand on his hips, smirking.
I shrugged, not even caring anymore. "Present party, for one."
This threw the whole gang off. I blinked, with little to no emotion.
"Yeah, I know. I'm regretting my life, too."

Master rolled his neck and sighed in an uncomfortable manner, clearly trying to dodge the newfound awkwardness. "I'm hungry." "That's fine and dandy, so get back to the diner where I left you and stuff your face before you eat us all." Joker's brows flexed. "Come again?"
I shook my head, "Long story..anyway, I'm gonna go find the person that could very well wind up telling us what the heckfire is going on on this freaking accursed journey."
"Have fun with your boyfriend, then." "FOR CRYING OUT--he's NOT my boyfriend!!"
"Uh oh, trouble in paradise?" "JDJWDJWDWDJKWJD!!! I don't even know his name!!! OR his exact age, OR what he wants, OR where he comes from! All I know is he's been stalking me almost everywhere I go and I have to find him to figure out what he wants."
"Should we accompany you?" Jim inquired. "I'm going with her." Bane announced, moving towards my side. But I shot a hand out to stop him. "No need. I got this. I need you four back at the diner, to regroup with the gang. Prod them for more information on the case. As soon as I find MB, I'll come back and continue with the investigation." "But your food will get cold."
"Bah, I won't be long. I'll be back before you can say 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'."
"Supercalifra----I'm not saying that word."
"Exactly, which means I'll be back in a jiffy."

I started off for the door, zipping up my black leather jacket due to the chilled air waiting for me outside. The boys followed me out. "But why is it so important you find him NOW? There must be other chances for you to find him." I shook my head, however.
"I can't lose him again. I need to find him before he leaves, and I lost yet another chance. We can't be sure if we'll ever get another one again." I bowed my head. "..I have to know who he is.."
At that, I opened the door and turned for but a moment. "Be seeing ya, boys. Behave, please."
They all looked to one another as if silently saying, 'No promises'.
"Fine then. Bane, you're in charge."
The other three crinkled their faces offensively at the masked man as Bane took hold of his vest straps, puffing up his chest, and proceeded to sear his gaze down on his fellow villains in a very smug manner. I adore him.

And with that..off I went. After Mystery Boy.



(BTW, this be the Scooby Gang.. purple redhead is Daphne, green beatnik is Shaggy, orange sweater with glasses is Velma, blonde jock ascot boy is Fred and doggo is Scooby)
~

Bane, the Joker, Jim Moriarty and the Master all four returned to the diner as Sarah had instructed, where Scooby Doo and the rest of Mystery Incorporated still remained, sitting at the same booth the four villains had left them in. Velma Dinkley turned her head toward them and appeared rather alarmed that Miss Demens was missing. "Where is she?" "Where's who?" The Joker shot back.
"Where's Sarah?!"
Bane was the first to take a seat.
"Miss Demens has personal matters to attend to. She will return as soon as she is finished. For now, she wishes for both our parties to remain here before we move forward with the investigation."
Daphne rose her hands in confusion.
"What personal matters? Does this have anything to do with that boy we mentioned?"
"Yeah, like, she seemed rather ecstatic to go find him!"
Fred rubbed his chin, "Who IS this Mystery Boy??" "I'll tell you a secret." The Joker whispered.
Fred and the clown both leaned in at the same time. The Joker hovered his hand over his mouth as if he didn't want to be heard. "..It's a mystery."
Fred laid his index finger and thumb under his mouth, thoughtfully, not grasping that Joker had pulled his leg.
"The young man who told you of our arrival..Miss Demens has been having frequent encounters with him since our journey began. She believes that he knows more than he is revealing, and has therefore gone out to search for him and approach him on these matters herself. Due to the time he last visited you, she believes he might still be here."
Velma crossed her legs, respectfully.
"Oh, we know he is. He told us he was going to search around town for any clues he could find. He seems very resourceful. Lots of gadgets and a strong head on his shoulders."
"Oh and I suppose he's HANDSOME, too." "Well, actually.." "Oh shut up."
Moriarty slurped down his refill, fiercely.
"So he is still in town.." Master whispered. "That only means she'll definitely find him..."
"Well then..we better wait until she gets back, gang! Good thing we're eating first, because this might be a long night!" "It might. She's quite smitten with this punk. They might even end up on a date or something." "Aw, that'd be so romantic!!" Daphne swooned. "I think they'd make an adorable couple!"
Moriarty steadily grumbled into his drink. The Joker shook his head, skeptically.
"I don't know about that...he's a little creepy. Been following her and all."
Fred rose a brow. "Oh my..that IS suspicious."
"Like, why would you let her go alone???"
Master scoffed and drank from his mug.
"That little pain can outlast a nuclear quarantine. She'll be fine."

The Joker's eyes turned to the Timelord. "You seem a little put off by this..are you jealous?"
The Master then spit out his drink and spun his head at the clown in rage.
"Are you mad?! Don't be ridiculous! I can't STAND the girl!"
Moriarty crossed his arms, "Mm, so you say..you sure do a lot for the girl."
"YOU'RE one to talk!" Joker accused, pointing at the Irishman. This caused Moriarty's face to flex in almost surprise. "You shut down at the very mention of the punk's name, and almost cry when Demens doesn't show you any attention! Look at you two. Pathetic. You're both jealous over the kid."
"I'd advise you to shut your mouth." The Master growled.
"And why not? She's not a bad looking dame, who obviously has a sort've thing for you two. She's unusual and got a bit of a dark, violent side to her...and most importantly, she's not afraid of you. If it's not romance.....well, all the same...I think you two just want her all to yourself."
"You're WRONG."
"Completely wrong."
"We're psychopaths, remember?"
"Sociopath. I don't feel anything. I've never loved anything."
"Now you're being ridiculous. You love. We all do. Not even I will deny that. We're just so screwed up, we ain't got nothing LEFT to love." He played with the edge of his knife. "Who would love freaks like us?" At this, he turned to the window, staring out into the night.
"...So we just chose not to let it get in the way."
Bane's own gaze fell to his hands, his eyes sorrowful and teeming with intellect and reflection.
"Very true, Mister Joker..I do agree. We have simply chosen to keep our emotions at bay and and focus our efforts on our actions..however corrupted they may be..perhaps we learn it..learn to not feel..to make our actions somewhat justified.."

Joker turned back his attention to Scooby and the others and realization hit him.
"Oh yeah, you guys are here."
Velma was leaning forward in a fascinated manner, resting her chin upon her palm.
"Don't mind us, this is fascinating! Every psychiatrist's field day! I never expected you four to be so complex!" "So you're criminals?!" Shaggy exclaimed.
"Until recently..we're sorta doing the kid's own agenda now."
"She was our prisoner before, but now it seems she's imprisoned US."
Moriarty's statement was met with confusion. Daphne, in particular, gawked.
"Umm...PRISONER? Does that mean you KIDNAPPED her?!"
Master shrugged as if discussing the weather. "Kind of, sort of...but it's not like that anymore, it's gotten...complicated." "Oh, I see..it's reversed Stockholm Syndrome."
"Come again??"
"Well now you've fallen for the girl you've kidnapped, so she's not a prisoner to you anymore..she's an object of your affection!" "For god's sake, I DO NOT LOVE HER! She's a filthy little human disgrace and drives me MAD!" "I...never said you were in love with her."
Master's face fell. He gulped. "what.."
"I merely said AFFECTION, that you've fallen for her, yes. Affection can also be platonic. Which it appears more like you four have developed a sibling-like bond with her, as opposed to romantic. Assuming that you four have lived a hard criminal life prior to meeting her, you never had someone positive in your life that you felt truly loved you. You had no one good to connect with. People of your particular profession usually had a rather tragic background going back as far as your childhood. You've basically spent your whole lives feeling alone and beaten, which such negative emotions, if left untreated, can turn ugly fast. But you said it yourself..Sarah shares some of the same ideals as you. She's someone positive that you now connect with and you didn't expect that! And she's obviously someone you can't control or pull into the other side.. despite that, she cares about you four. And that leaves you confused. Shocked that an innocent girl from the opposite side would care for such scummy crooks like you. But she does. And she's become a rock. YOUR rock. And now you don't know what to do. You don't help her because you NEED to..you help her because you WANT to. Because you want her happy..because she makes YOU happy. Am I right??"

The entire party sat in silence, the four men especially unable to speak a word.
They all stared at Miss Dinkley with widened eyes and hanging jaws.
She blinked at them through her thick glasses before raising her arms innocently.
"What?"
The silence continued. She took one final uneasy glance at them before the silence became unbearable and she at last turned her attention down to her milkshake, to begin hurriedly and nervously sipping it.
~

I zipped across the dead streets, the tracker leading the way, not a soul in sight.
The amount of distance I needed to travel became all the more shorter. With every step I took, my heart raced faster and more intensely. I was fully preparing what to say and do when I got to meeting Mister Dark, Fun-Sized and Handsome. But inner me knew I was probably gonna screw it up and be 10000% more awkward than usual and stutter all my words as I always do..yes, I do stutter quite a lot. Don't let the excellent writing skills fool you. I'm getting better as time goes on, but I often mess up the simple things I should say or often talk too fast when I'm excited or simply just start screeching like a rabid monkey. It's hard to display this curse in writing, so apologies for not informing you sooner of this irritating condition. It's as annoying as my stupid nose or over-aggressive behavior or short size and clumsiness. I'm not strong as I'd like to be and don't say the right things or just push others away because I'm ashamed of who I am. I've got a lot of issues and hate myself just a bit too much.
I wanna be so much more and I'm just stuck with...me.

The reason why I say these things is because I'm also overly honest.
And for some reason..I just want others to see the real me.
It drives me mad when people got the wrong impression of me or just simply believe things about me that aren't true. And I just..well..I want you to understand, Cataclysm.
I want you to know who I am.
This is who I am.
Not some perfect queen, who's the savior of the worlds.
An imperfect weirdo, who's a mess. A mess, however, who loves endless amounts of living beings that'll go as far as it takes to keep them from dying.
So I'm sorry..I'm sorry for what I'm about to do on this adventure. I really am.
But you leave me no choice.

I got closer and closer, closing in on his location.
Until I got to an area that felt overwhelmingly suspicious for no good reason.
And as soon as I arrived, the tracker stopped.
I now froze in the middle of a wooden dock. Water rested beyond this dock into the black misty background, where I stood close to a building reeking of fish and oil.
Not too keen on fish, I admit. So the smell wasn't very appeasing.
I fiddled frustratedly with the device for several minutes, shaking it, hitting it, and thrashing it like a bop it device. All actions had the same result. It refused to work.
I growled, when my attention then turned to something else.
That something being the building. Its lights were on, indicating possible activity inside.
I sighed as things seemed to be going downhill rather quickly.
At this, I rolled my eyes away at the blackened sky, looming above me as I heard faint sounds of the ocean swaying underneath, buoys chiming in the distance.
It was almost haunting..that's when my eyes centered on..him.
Straight at him.
A silhouetted figure before me, standing all the way across the dock.
My brow raised. My heart beat just a little faster.
..That wasn't Mystery Boy.

- to be continued -