Chapter 62: The Black Beauty is Mine
Back in the Princess Diaries world, at Jake's estate.
The lawn, long neglected, was overgrown with weeds and wildflowers mixed in with the grass, including tall stalks of crabgrass.
Suddenly, a streak of black lightning tore across the property, crushing countless blades of grass under the weight of massive tires!
Whoosh—!!
The black lightning executed a perfect drift, sliding sideways for fifteen feet across the grass before coming to a smooth stop!
The door opened, and Jake, wearing a tank top, stepped out of the driver's seat.
He patted the car hood, admiring his prize.
Its sleek classic design and armor plating capable of withstanding small-caliber rifle fire were enough to make anyone jealous.
Holding a small remote control, he pressed a button!
The hood panels shifted, and twin machine guns rose into position!
Pressing another button, the guns erupted with thunderous firepower, bullets screaming parallel to the ground for several hundred yards before plunging into the lake, creating massive ripples as they disappeared into the depths.
When the gunfire ceased, the Gatling-style barrels continued spinning.
The Black Beauty possessed far more than just these abilities—devastating firepower, missiles, flamethrowers, heavy machine guns, and even a high-powered ejection seat, much like an emergency escape system in a fighter jet.
Acquiring the vehicle had been incredibly easy. After scouting where the Black Beauty would be stored, Jake found a secluded spot in the Green Hornet's mansion and traveled back to the Princess Diaries world.
The entire heist took him only thirty minutes.
For the next two weeks, Jake didn't enter any new movie worlds. He spent his time perfecting his gun-kata technique and working out at the estate.
Matilda had agreed to attend school, but only on the condition that Jake drive her to and from class every day, insisting it would help build their relationship.
And the mischievous girl didn't disappoint—she quickly racked up several A's and demanded that Jake teach her gun-kata.
So every morning on the sprawling estate, two figures, one tall and one small, could be seen diligently training and engaging in mock firefights!
Of course, they used paintball rounds.
Every day after training, Matilda needed a long shower to wash off the paint splatters.
On this particular day, Jake carefully calculated the timeline according to the movie's plot, and finally activated his dimension-hopping ability, returning to the Green Hornet world.
On this day, the Green Hornet and his sidekick Kato were out playing vigilante again; all the staff at the mansion had been dismissed, and no one noticed Jake's presence.
Following the route he'd scouted two weeks earlier, he quickly reached the garage.
The garage door was reinforced and locked, but since Jake was planning a theft anyway, he didn't bother with subtlety. Lucky for him, he had plenty of firepower.
With a thunderous BANG, the Green Hornet and Kato had no idea that their garage door had been blown wide open, and not only that—one of their three Black Beauty vehicles had been stolen!
Before driving away the Black Beauty, Jake didn't forget to make some modifications, such as removing the Green Hornet's hornet emblem and replacing the green accent lighting with white.
There were other improvements he wanted to make, but the technology available in this world wasn't quite up to par.
Grabbing the remote control and settling into the Black Beauty, Jake activated his dimension-travel ability, returning to the Princess Diaries world.
...
After a high-speed test drive around the property, Jake fully experienced what Formula One racing must feel like—fast and incredibly stable!
He laughed out loud. "Now this is what I call a protagonist's cheat code!"
However, some features on the car needed replacing. For instance, the outdated fax machine was swapped out for a compact holographic display unit he'd acquired from the Hunger Games world, with the main interface running through an onboard computer system.
The useless vintage record player was also scrapped, replaced with a top-of-the-line car audio system for a more intimidating presence.
Moreover, the car supported color-changing technology, though currently only black and white modes were available.
Compared to these features, the car's license plate-changing ability seemed rather pointless—it was convenient for avoiding traffic cameras, but could easily be removed, so he ultimately decided to leave it alone.
"Is this your new ride?"
At the entrance of Matilda's school, Jake pulled up to pick her up.
"Her name is Black Beauty. What do you think?" He opened the door for the girl to climb in.
"Badass!"
Matilda knew about all the high-tech gear at Jake's place. She was practically an expert with the holographic projection system by now, and she was particularly fond of the luxury bathtub from the futuristic world—she loved soaking in it for hours.
"Tomorrow's Saturday. What are your plans?" Matilda asked, glancing at Jake.
She loved her current life—it was exciting, peaceful, and she had a guy who constantly brought her surprises, even though he kept shutting down her advances because he thought she was too young.
Studying hard was Matilda's biggest goal at this stage. She was naturally adventurous, and traveling to different movie worlds clearly satisfied her rebellious teenage spirit.
In order to go to other worlds with Jake as soon as possible, she could only work hard and improve herself, but she knew she still wasn't ready—she'd just be a liability.
"Genovia," Jake said quietly.
"Where's that?"
"A very beautiful country."
"Okay, got it." Hearing this, Matilda already knew where Jake was talking about. It wasn't that she was psychic; based on her understanding, Jake didn't know many people in this world, and the ones he did know all had one thing in common: a connection to a woman named Mia.
Facing her potential rival, Matilda seemed eager for the challenge.
But her enthusiasm was quickly dampened by a large hand landing on her head and ruffling her hair. "Stop messing up my hair!"
"Sorry, sorry," the smiling apology didn't seem sincere enough to Matilda.
Just as she was about to complain, Jake said, "We're about to visit a country to meet the Queen and a Princess. Shouldn't we dress more appropriately?"
The next day...
A chartered plane carried Jake and Matilda to Genovia, a small European nation.
"Actually, we should've just flown there ourselves," Matilda grumbled to Jake on the plane.
"But we'd definitely get shot down by Air Force jets as soon as we crossed into restricted airspace."
"Then let's drive the Black Beauty," Matilda pouted. "I want to test it out."
"You don't have a driver's license yet, you can't drive! And do you have any idea how far it is from San Francisco to Genovia? We'd have to cross the entire Atlantic Ocean!"
As the two playfully bickered, they arrived at their destination.
Mia, the first girl Jake had actively pursued, was someone he liked not only for her beauty and endearing personality, but also largely because she'd eventually play Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises.
Now that she was his legitimate girlfriend, maybe he could use this opportunity to set something up for the future?
"I just hope this kid doesn't cause trouble," he thought, glancing at Matilda happily playing games on her tablet. Suddenly, he wondered if bringing her along had been a mistake.
But at least life was more interesting now, wasn't it?
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