The Universe's Mixer

It was 'date night' for Logan and Veronica. Which meant that he had the night off from Caritas and he'd actually been able to pry her away from her case long enough to watch the Big Lebowski and eat some takeout. Logan hadn't seen a whole lot of his girlfriend lately, so he'd actually made an effort to clean up the discarded beer bottles and pizza boxes so his apartment was presentable.

Man, he missed having a maid or at least room service.

Unfortunately, those days were behind him which meant that his apartment usually looked like the typical slob's bachelor pad. Which meant that it had taken the better part of an hour to get it looking more like... a slightly neater bachelor pad.

The food had already been delivered, which meant he was just waiting on Veronica. He was already hoping that he could distract her from the movie after they'd had the chance to eat. Especially since they hadn't seen that much of each other lately. Hey, he'd missed her and all the things that went along with seeing her on a regular basis.

It had taken some work, the notion that formed in the leprechaun's head. He admitted he was curious as to the way the City had kept the Djinn away from him, since they had a stint there where it felt like that infernal woman was everywhere he went. Always, as she tended to do, interfering with his day-to-day activities. And she was horribly judgmental. Not to mention ungrateful. Just when he was trying to take the high road, be the better person and make sure she got to safety... she acted out against him again.

( If Sweeney didn't know better, he'd have thought Jeannie liked him. )

This day in The City was as beautiful as most of the days were. It liked it when people were outside and enjoying themselves, so it rarely changed the weather. It knew that people enjoyed occasional rainstorms, so it allowed those from time to time. But unless it was experimenting, the weather never altered too much for too long.

It had not done much experimenting lately. He had brought in the giant King Kong, wanting to see what those Justice League individuals could do against it. Prior to that had been the werecreatures. There had also been a very wild storm, which it had had nothing to do with.

It had been worried when the storm had happened. The word for the emotion that over came it when that happened was fear, it thought. It feared the one named Baba Yaga. It had opened itself to her, using her like a conduit. She had misbehaved, and it had thought to punish her. The punishment had only made her very angry, she had lashed out. She had done something it had not expected, and it had not liked the feeling of that.

The worry had not, of course, stopped the City's mischievous ways completely.

The love holiday was coming up again. It had played with it's citizens once before on the love holiday. So much fun had been had, that The City was intending to play with them again. Differently this time, but it thought that there was more potential behind the new idea. It would be bigger, more gripping. It had liked to see the people fall in love last time. It wanted more of that.

As The City prepared to unleash the new game, it felt a jolt. Though it had no body at the moment, the jolt felt like it ripped through the entirety of The City. Then came another. And another. The jolts were distracting, mind-swimmingly blinding.

And they hurt.

Jesse woke up with a start. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and he didn't know why. But something was wrong. Really, really wrong. He looked around, trying to see if he could spy fire or smoke, or something immediately near that would cause him to feel this way. But the apartment was clear. Zoe slumbered peacefully next to him. If she was still asleep, calm, then there was no danger within her apartment. She wasn't the type to sleep through a problem.

He was up and dressing as quickly as he could, looking out the windows of her bedroom. He could see nothing out there to cause panic. But he gathered the rest of his items and went to Zoe's side of the bed. He kissed her softly on the cheek and whispered that he had to go, but didn't bother to try to wake her. He felt like there was no time for it.

As he moved through the apartment, he finished dressing himself. There was a smoke in his mouth and lit up before he hit the elevator, and it was finished as the bell dinged for the lobby. The ride had felt like it took years, but he knew only minutes had gone by.

When he got outside, the wrongness settled on him further. Jesse looked and couldn't pinpoint it. Everything seemed fine. But there was something... what?

He began to walk, the destination of his own building in mind, ready to navigate the moving streets and shifting buildings, and that's when it dawned on him. None of that was happening. Everything was still. Everything was staying in one place.

Jesse stopped in the middle of the street, looking around him, more than a little confused.