The Wheel and the Butterfly

A Dan X Pinkie Pie saga

Part 17 Sunset Shimmer Vs. The Dazzlings

Chapter 162 Sunset Shimmer Vs. Hospital Visit

Elise’s eyes fluttered open as she heard the familiar tone of a rhythmic beep, though she sensed her position in the whole matter was a bit different than usual. “Uh… Wha… What?”

“Hey beautiful, glad you’re okay.”

Elise turned to see Chris’s smiling face.

Elise sat up. “Chris I—Whoa…” The room began spinning almost as soon as Elise was upright.

“Careful, honey,” Chris said as he quickly leaned over and gently placed hands on his wife’s shoulders, gently laying her back in bed and pulling her baby-blue covers over her hospital gown. “You lost a lot of blood.”

Elise chuckled to herself as she soon founder herself horizontal again. “Let me guess, they found most of it?”

Chris smiled as he sat back down in his bleu chair with wooden armrests. “Heh. Well the doctors gave you a transfusion, so you should be fine, but you had quite a few cuts they needed to treat. You might have to stay here for at least a night.”

Elise sighed. “Well, I’ve had worse…” Elise looked about the room. Sadly, the inside of a hospital room had become rather common to her, though usually with her and Chris’s positions reversed. The room was sterilely white with a few blue chairs with wooden arm rests and a splash of blue paint just to add a little color. A small flat-screened TV hung on the wall in front of her next to a basic-looking wall clock. Other random items like hand sanitizer dispenser and a shelf full of boxed rubber gloves

Elise casted a wayward glance at the door to her hospital room then lifted a hand. She motioned Chris to come closer with her index finger.

Chris leaned closer to his wife.

Elise nodded towards the door. “There’s not like… Police waiting outside to arrest me, is there?”

Chris glanced at the door then looked down at Elise. “Would you escape the hospital if there were?”

“I guess that depends what they’d charged me with.”

Chris smiled. “Aria is doing about as well as you, if that’s what you want to know.”

Elise gave Chris a serious look. “Assault with a deadly weapon is still a serious crime.”

Chris shook her head. “Don’t worry, Trixie distracted the police with a few magic tricks and I talked to the other Dazzlings. I had to take Sonata to Taco Island for a box of twelve tacos and McBonald’s so she could get a Blissful Meal with a toy, but she agreed to not press charges after that… Or more accurately, by then she had forgotten why she made me get her food in the first place.”

Elise smirked. “I take it you didn’t protest too much to getting fast food?”

Chris gave Elise a sheepish smile. “Well… I maybe have ordered a couple things for myself…”

Elise chuckled. “I see… What about the other one… uh…. Adagio…”

“She didn’t seem to care as much… But she did mention something to Pinkie about being owed a bottle of Champagne.” Chris frowned slightly. “I think she have tacked an expensive bottle of brandy on top of that for her troubles.”

“Huh,” Elise uttered simply. “Well at least things have calmed down finally.”

The hospital room door opened revealing Dan’s smiling face. “Hey Chris! Has your sandwich maker flat lined yet?”

Elise rolled her eyes and gave Dan a sour expression. “It’s nice to see you too, Dan.”

“Elise, you survived!” Dan exclaimed. “Pinkie will be thrilled.” Dan’s smiled dropped into a scowl. “Thanks for almost getting us all killed, by the way.”

Elise’s countenance curdled further as she looked away from Dan. “Look mistakes were made, weapons were drawn, and fires were started.” She turned back. “Pretty average day for me really.”

Dan grimaced. “Well, I think we all could have done without the guns.” He looked at Chris. “Right, Chris?”

“Hey,” Chris began, “I’m just happy everyone lived.”

“Predictable,” Dan said in a disappointed tone. “Well, turns out that dumb chick with the blue hair is just as crazy as Pinkie and they’re going to race wheelchairs.”

“Huh… Sounds safe enough,” Elise said.

Dan grinned. “Wheelchairs that we just attached homemade, or hospital made in this case, rockets to.”

Elise frowned. “I should have known.”

Chris’s expression soon matched Elise’s, “So you need help stopping them?”

There was a brief pause as Elise and Dan simple stared at Chris.

Dan spoke up, “Sooo anyway, you want to get in on this, Chris?” Dan asked.

“Uh… I’ll pass,” Chris said simply.

Dan shrugged. “Suit yourself,” He said before disappearing back into the Hospital hallway.

Chris turned to Elise and chuckled. “What was that you were saying about things calming down?”

Elise sighed. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Chris and Elise paused as they hear Dan’s voice through the open door. “1… 2… 3… Go!”

‘PCHOOOOO!’

Chris and Elise watched as a pink blur and a blue one whizzed by the open door trailing jets of flame which propelled the girls. Despite the roar of the mini-rockets, two high pitched “WHEEEEEEEEE!”s could clearly be heard until…

“HEY!” Dan’s voice called out. “Move it or lose it, pal!”

‘CRASH!’

“AAAAAAAHHHH!” A masculine voice cried.

Dan sighed as he ran past the open door. “Guess he picked ‘lose it’!”

Chris frowned. “I should go check on them.”

Elise nodded. “Good idea… We may still need to discreetly escape the hospital after all.”

Chris stood up and rushed to the door poking his head up and uttering an “Oh, dear…” at the sight in front of him. Dan was still rushing up to Pinkie and Sonata who had begun to dust themselves off. Past the girls on the black-and-white checkered linoleum floor laid a man with short blond hair wearing a blue hospital gown and the twisted, melted remains of two wheelchairs.

“Whoops! Sorry!” Pinkie offered the man. “The brakes sort of melted… as did most of the wheels.”

“Is everyone okay?” Dan asked.

The man moan in response.

Dan glared at the man. “No one is even talking to you!”

Sonata frowned as she looked at twisted wreck of the man, his limbs, and the wheelchairs. “I think I need a new rocket chair.”

Dan sighed. “It’s really my fault for not being specific.” He turned towards Pinkie. “Are you okay?”

Pinkie gave herself a thorough pat down, starting with her face and moving her hands downward until she reached her legs. “Nothing broken on me…”

“Uh, Dan?” Chris interrupted. “Should I go get help?”

“What for?” Dan replied. He motioned to Pinkie. “The only person involved that matters is fine.”

Chris sighed and shook his head. “Just try not to get thrown out of the hospital, okay?”

“No promises,” Dan replied as Chris disappeared back into Elise’s room.

“So who won?!” Sonata asked excitedly.

“Everyone but that guy!” Dan informed with a devilish grin as he pointed at the injured man.

“My baaaack…” The man moaned.

“Don’t worry!” Pinkie said cheerfully. “We’re already at the hospital!”

“Yeah,” Dan chimed in. “As far as horrible spinal injuries go, you’re already in the right place to have one!”

“Who wants to play nurse?!” Sonata exclaimed excitedly.

Pinkie gasped. “I do! I do!” she said as she excitedly bounced up and down.

“I do not,” Dan said, “but I would like to watch you two.”

“Pa-please, no…” the injured man uttered.

“Hey, you don’t get a vote pal!” Dan shot back.

Pinkie looked down at the man in concern. “We should probably get a gurney if we’re going to move him.”

“Yeah!” Sonata agreed excitedly. “I mean… Old ladies probably have a lot of experience moving nearly dead people! They have to move themselves after all!”

Dan and Pinkie flashed a quick, confused glance.

“Not a granny, silly!” Pinkie said.

Dan gave Pinkie a small look of awe. “I’m impressed you even figured that out!”

Pinkie continued. “A gurney is like a stretcher on wheels.”

Sonata smiled wide. “You know what else has wheels? Those food cart-tray thingamabobs they had in the cafeteria.”

Dan and Pinkie once again gave Sonata a confused look.

Pinkie suddenly smiled wide. “Good enough for me! Let’s go!”

Sunset Shimmer watched the trio run by through past the open door of a hospital room as she sat in a cushioned blue chair with wooden armrests. Next to her in an identical chair, Adagio Dazzle raised a nearly full tear dropped shaped bottle of amber liquid to her lips. In one quick motion she tilted her back and the bottle, taking a large gulp.

Sunset Shimmer watched Adagio with a healthy mix of amazement and concern.

“Ah…” Adagio uttered as she lowered the bottle and gave it a fond look.

“I’m surprised they let you just drink that in here,” Sunset said.

Adagio turned and shrugged. “You don’t get a lot of grief from people when you’re a celebrity.” She took another quick swig of her brandy. “Plus Sonata helped me figure out how I could hide stuff in my hair.” She held out the bottle for Sunset. “Want a hit?”

Sunset gave Adagio then the bottle a suspicious look.

Adagio simply flicked her wrist slightly, causing the bottle to jump up and down and the contents inside to slosh slightly.

Sunset reached out for the bottle, brought it to her lips, and took a small sip. “… Wow, that’s really good.”

Adagio nodded as Sunset passed the bottle back to her. “Your friend has good taste.”

“She’s not really my friend.” Sunset answered. “She once threatened my life with a chain-saw... Of course I was going to smash her legs with a police baton, so she can hardly be blamed for that.”

Adagio shrugged. “Sounds like a pretty standard friendship to me.” She turned forward in her chair.

Sunset did the same.

The two girls simply stared at Aria who laid on a hospital bed with an IV stuck into her arm. She was covered in a baby-blue hospital blanket and her pigtails had been undone so her purple hair spread out all over the pillow her head was resting on. Her chest gently raised in fell as a soft beep provided the only sound.

“So… happy?” Adagio asked.

“Hmmmm?”

“You got your wish!” Adagio turned and glared at Sunset. “The concert is moved!” Adagio glanced at Aria again then glared at Sunset. “You must be overjoyed.”

Sonata glanced at Aria and put on a thoughtful look before meeting Adagio’s accusing gaze. “Oh my gosh! I am just so happy! Over the moon, even!” Sunset said with a smile.

Adagio sighed heavily. “Yeah… Welll can’t blame you there… I’d be thrillled to in your cashe, too,” she replied her words starting to slur.

Sunset chuckled. “You didn’t really expect me to care about your crazy friend getting into a sword fight with that crazy maroon-haired girl, did you?”

Adagio shook her head then took another drink. Redness had begun to enter her cheeks and she started to sway slightly. “Not really… Anyhow shtuff like that happensss all the time.” She narrowed her eyes. “Gunsss pointed at my head and eshploding spheee... fearsss… round things pointed at my butt are pretty new though.”

“In my defense things were already out of hand before I got involved,” Sunset insisted. “Also, you pulled a gun before I did.”

Adagio’s expression turned thoughtful for a second. “Guessss it is sort of the fault of the two idiots who pulled gunsss fist… fish… to shtart with!”

“He-hey…” Aria said weakly from her bed. “Your crazy co-worker pulled a gun first.”

Sunset turned and furrowed her brow at Aria. “We don’t actually work for the hotel. We just knocked out the receptionist and put on their clothes because… uh… Actually I never figured out why we bothered to put on their clothes.”

Adagio responded by taking another big swig from her brandy bottle.

Aria wrinkled her nose as she shot Sunset a dirty look. “She still pulled a gun out first,” Aria grumbled.

Sunset shrugged. “Hey! I’m not denying the girl is crazy. Working with her wasn’t my first choice… In fact she just sort of tagged along…” Sunset paused and thought about this. “At first I thought someone like her would want to avoid getting caught up with people as unbalanced as Dan and Pinkie, but she seems to have her own issues…”

“WHEEEEEE!”

A high-pitched squeal of the delight caused the trio to glance out the door as Dan pushed a food cart full of wiggling, green gelatin cups. A wicked grin adorned his face as Pinkie and Sonata followed close behind. Pinkie wore a light-blue nurse’s outfit, and Sonata a light-pink one. The hearts and revealing nature of both outfits gave the impression that the outfits likely came from a costume shop rather than from the hospital itself.

Aria groaned. “I’m going back to unconsciousness.”

Adagio rolled her eyes. “Oh don’t be shuch a shour-pushy… sssuch a grump,” she said as she held up the bottle of brandy. “Here, have a drink.”

“Dagi, I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to drink while recovering from blood loss and being cut like a hundred times.”

Adagio shrugged. “You’re alsho not shupposhed to let chill… chile… kidsss out of your shight without adult shupervishion! But we let Shonata wander around all the time!” She sighed heavily. “And yet ssshe shtill comesss back every time.” Adagio took another swig from her bottle.

“AHHHHHH!”

The trio paused again, this time of a tortured male scream.

“Oh don’t be such a baby!” Dan exclaimed from outside. “You’re just stuck in a twisted mass of two half-melted wheelchairs! You’ll live! Probably!”

“Hammer,” Sonata called out.

“Hammer!” Pinkie said excitedly.

“Hammer,” Dan called out.

“Hammer!” Pinkie said excitedly.

“Hammer~,” Pinkie sang out.

“... Hammer!” Pinkie said excitedly.

The sound of a man sobbing heavily and metal pounding metal could be heard through the open hospital door.

Aria sighed and held out a hand. “On second thought, let me have a few chugs of that.”

Adagio held the bottle out and Aria stretched her arm, but about a foot of empty space stood between the bottle and Aria’s outstretched fingers.

“Dagi,” Aria said, “I think you’ll need to get up.”

“Eff that noishe! You get up!”

“I’m injured and there’s a thing stuck in my arm!”

“Allow me,” Sunset said as she stood up. She quickly took the bottle and produced a chrome hip flask from her jacket.

“Hey!” Aria protested as Sunset unscrewed the top of her flask. “That’s cheating”

“Don’t worry,” Sunset said a she slowly filled her flask with pinpoint accuracy. “I’ll leave you both some. I just need something to celebrate with tomorrow.” She frowned. “I kind of drank most of what was at my apartment after I got the call about my show being canceled… My head has not been happy with me today…” she said as she slowly tipped the tear-drop bottle back upright and handed it to Aria.

Adagio chuckled. “Maybe there’lll be a bottle allll for yourshelf after your performanssse.”

Sunset gave Adagio a shocked look. “You… you actually want to see it?!”

Adagio shrugged. “Welll, it might be nicshe to shee shomeone ellshe perform for once and we’ve got nothing better to do tomorrow.”

Aria sighed. “I think recovering from a vicious sword fight counts as something, but you and Sonata might get mobbed if I’m not around to shoot any fans who recognize us some angry looks.” Aria took a few large swigs from the now mostly empty bottle.

Sunset gulped as she screwed her hip flask closed. “You’re all going to come?”

“Hahahahaaaa!” Adagio shook her head. “Don’t worrry, we know how to blend in when we want to. We’ll allsho keep Shonata on a leasssh.”

“… Literally?” Sunset asked in a hopeful tone.

Aria held out the bottle for Sunset. “We have a harness that’s shaped like a monkey… Sonata loves the dumb thing even if it means Adagio and I can keep her from running off.” Aria frowned as Sunset grabbed the bottle. “Plus she gets all coocoo if she thinks we ditched her. She actually welcomes us putting it on her if we’re going out in public.”

Sunset passed the bottle to Adagio. “‘Coocoo’? Do I even want to know?”

Adagio shook her head. “Let’s jusht say Sonata is banned from a number of super markets and toy stores all around the country. Even if you agree to pay for stuff, they don’t like people coming in, trying to start action figure rebellions, burning down entire aisles, and setting off the sprinkler systems.”

Sunset whimpered.

“Don’t worrry!” Adagio said. “I’ll keep any fire shtarting mats.. materall… shtuff and anything that firesha projesh… prodouche… thing sout of reach of both theshe idiots.”

Aria glared at Adagio and mumbled a few obscenities under her breath.

Sunset breathed a sigh of relief. “Alright… er… I have a few spare tickets if you three need them.”

“Ish the ssshow shold out?” Adagio grinned knowingly.

Sunset hung her head. “No… Not even close…”

Adagio chuckled. “We’ll buy our own, thanksss.”

“Dan! Pinkie! Sonata!”

The girls paused and listened as Chris’s voice called out.

“I found more wheelchairs! Please leave the man alone!”

Pinkie gasped. “Chris! You found three chairs!”

Sonata squealed excitedly. “We can race our patient!”

“I don’t know,” Dan said. “He’s already got two wheelchairs already. A third really seems like an unfair advantage.”

“Sweet mother of mercy!” the male voice called out from the hallway. “Can’t any of you just get a real doctor?!”

Adagio took another swig from the now almost empty bottle of brandy.

Sunset frowned. “I’m gonna get a coffee and go before anyone needs me to testify as a witness to a murder.”

Sunset walked out of the hospital, picking out Trixie as she performed her street tricks for an audience sitting on benches. The audience in question consisted of Dan, Pinkie and Sonata who still wore their ‘nurse’s’ outfits, and Gibson. Dan watched with a bored expression as the other three seemed transfixed by Trixie’s act.

“For this next trick, The Grrrrrreat and Powerful Trrrrixie requires a volunteer!”

“Ooo me!” Sonata said as she quickly got up. “Me! ME!”

Sunset watched as Sonata excitedly ran up to Trixie. The magician raised her hand to Sonata’s ear, said “Abracadabra!”, and revealed her palm to the excited looking woman.

“Oh my gosh!” Sonata exclaimed. “A quarter! You can make unlimited money!”

“Amazing!” Gibson cried.

“Eh,” Pinkie said as she swatted at the air dismissively. “That’s not such a big deal.”

Dan cupped his hands around his mouth. “Lame!” he called out.

Trixie turned to glare at Dan. “Trixie is running out of tricks, alright?! She’s just waiting for—”

Sunset cleared her throat.

Trixie turned and motioned towards Sunset. “Her ride.”

“What are you all doing out here anyway?” Sunset asked.

Trixie scowled at Sunset. “I had to distract the police, remember!”

Gibson smiled and stood. “And I had to help her!”

Trixie cocked an eyebrow at Gibson. “You didn’t help so much as sit in the audience and shout encouragements.” Trixie pursed her lips slightly. “Which was nice, so thank you.”

Gibson lifted a pair of pink panties with purple heart on the front. “And I got a nice souvenir!”

“GIVE TRIXIE THOSE!” Trixie cried as she snatched the panties from Gibson. She inspected them carefully. “… These aren’t Trixie’s.”

“Oh, hey!” Sonata exclaimed as she leaned her head over and examined the article of clothing. “I was wondering why it got drafty halfway through your performance.”

Trixie handed the panties to Sonata as she shot Gibson a glare that seemed like it could melt steel beams.

Gibson put his hands up defensively. “What?! You’re the one who pulled them out of thin air with magic and threw them into the audience!”

Trixie blushed slightly. “Trixie forgets herself when Trixie performs…”

“Ooookaay…” Sunset uttered. “Well what are the rest of you doing here?!”

Pinkie smiled. “We all got kicked out of the hospital!”

Dan nodded. “Yeah, something about being a public nuisance and too many scorch marks on the walls.”

Sonata giggled to herself as she slipped her panties back on under her nurse’s mini-skirt. “You’d think they’d want us to stay with all the business we gave them!”

“That’s what I said!” Dan exclaimed said as he stood up off the bench. Pinkie followed.

“Sshonata!”

The group turned to see Adagio leaning against the automatic sliding door of the hospital, barely keeping herself upright as she held an empty bottle in one hand.

Adagio continued. “Aria’s ssis too weak to fffight back! I’fe ben hitding her with hwer wone hans for like… tha lasht fiffe minutess!”

Sonata’s eyes widened. “I am sooo there!” she began running off towards the hospital but stopped as something occurred to her. She turned and waved. “Bye Mr. Shouty! Bye Gibson! Bye Pinkie Pie! Bye Hixie! We’ll all play again sometime, okay?”

Trixie groaned.

Gibson took a quick, slightly worried glance at Trixie and gave Sonata a small wave.

Pinkie grinned wide and waved back. “Bye-bye! See you later!”

“Come ooon!” Adagio said. “I wanna harrash…hard-a… annoy Aria sh’more than find a hot doctor or nwurse to corner!”

“Coming!” Sonata called out as she continued running up to Adagio.

Adagio turned and stumbled back inside as Sonata came up beside her.

“Hehe, Adagio you’re walking funny!” Sonata said as the automatic door closed behind the pair.

Dan watched the girls go then turned to scowl up at Sunset.

Sunset looked down at Dan in confusion. “… What?”

“Well?” Dan asked expectantly.

“Well what?!” Sunset snapped in irritation.

“Aren’t you going to thank us?!” Dan exclaimed as he flung his hands out to his sides. “You get to have your lame ice theater thing!”

Sunset frowned at Dan. “You know you guys didn’t really do anything constructive. The problem had resolved itself before any of us got involved. All any of you did was knock out a bunch of innocent people and escalate a situation until nearly everyone had guns pointed and drawn at each other.”

Dan folded his arms across his chest. “You and I have very different definitions of the word ‘constructive’.” He scrunched his lips to the left for a moment in a thoughtful expression. “Though I could have done without the guns. That was a new one for me.”

Pinkie smiled and raised an index finger. “The important thing is we all learned a valuable lesson.”

Dan cocked an eyebrow at Pinkie. “You really think Elise won’t get mad enough to start shooting at someone again in the future?”

Pinkie maintained her smile, but paused as she opted to simply blink a few times. “The import thing is we all experienced something that maybe someone learned something about… possibly.”

Sunset shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t see why I owe you two anything,” she said simply.

Dan narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth, “Why you little ketchup-and-mustard drenched—”

“HAH!” Trixie cried derisively, cutting off Dan. She gave Sunset a knowing look. “Without anyone else around, you would have showed up at the hotel, punched Adagio Dazzle in the face, and gotten arrested… Assuming she took mercy on you and didn’t give you to Aria first.”

Dan paused and simply stared at Trixie for a moment.

Sunset sighed heavily and hung her head. “I would have punched Adagio Dazzle in the face and gotten arrested or thrashed…” she admitted. She looked back up at Dan and Pinkie with a reluctant look on her face. “Thanks. Somehow everything worked out and you two maybe had something to do with it.”

Pinkie smiled. “You’re welcome!”

Dan simple shrugged. “Eh, it’s what we do.”

Sunset cocked an eyebrow. “Knocking people unconscious, stealing their clothes, and getting into armed conflicts is what you do?”

“Well… not every day,” Dan admitted.

Pinkie nodded her head up and down. “Sometimes it’s just one or two of those things!”

Sunset chuckled. “Whatever…” She turned to Trixie. “Here, Trixie.” Sunset said as she handed Trixie a few slips of paper. Give one of these to Flash and tell him ‘I’m sorry’, alright?”

Trixie chuckled. “The great Sunset Shimmer is actually apologizing for something?”

“Well… insulting him and telling his girlfriend to dump him while he was in the same room wasn’t exactly cool, you know.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Trixie agreed. “What about Twilight?”

Pinkie’s eyes widened in interest. “Twi… Twilight?”

Sunset sighed, pulled out a small handkerchief from her jacket, and ran it under her left eye, whipping away makeup and revealing a purple bruise. “Tell her that if I see her after my performance, I probably won’t punch her.”

Trixie cocked an eyebrow. “I’ll tell her, but punching you once in the face is nothing compared to what you’ve put her through.”

“I said ‘probably won’t’, didn’t I?!” Sunset put the handkerchief back in her jacket and pulled out two more tickets. She turned to Dan and handed them to him. “Here… Please wait until after my performance to do anything crazy.”

“Ugh… Ice skating…” Dan said as he pulled a disgusted face. “Thanks, but please stick the tickets up your a—”

Pinkie quickly grabbed the tickets. “We’ll be there,” she said cheerfully.

Dan frowned heavily. “We will?”

Pinkie nodded. “Yep! And we’ll be on our best behavior.”

Dan shot Pinkie an irritated glance. “Why are we being punished for helping this woman?!”

“Oh don’t be such whiner,” Sunset said. She motioned off towards the parking lot. “Here, I’ll drop everyone off.”

“Sweet!” Dan exclaimed. “And here I thought we’d have to take public transit!”

Trixie chuckled as the group began walking past cars. “You know when Sunset says that, she means ‘hijack a bus’.”

Dan paused. “Wait… It means something else, too?”

‘Knock, knock.’

Helen watched as woman with a dark complexion knocked on a hotel door. She wore a gray-blue uniform with a white collar that matched Helens.

“Housekeeping!” the woman said. She turned to Helen. “So… You were a waitress before this?”

Helen nodded. “Yes, but it was a little too crazy. Hotel work seemed a like a nice change of pace.”

The woman smiled and nodded. “Well, aside from the occasional huge mess, it’s pretty quiet.” She knocked again.

There was no answer.

The woman inserted a keycard into a device on the door and opened it. Both women peered inside to the messy but deserted hotel room.

“Empty again,” Helen mused. “Is that usual?”

The other woman shook her head. “No, but it makes our job easier. Why don’t you check the next one?”

“Sure,” Helen said as she walked over to the next door and knocked. “Housekeeping!” she called out.

To her surprise there finally was a noise on the other end, something which sounded like a chorus of muffled cries. She quickly pulled out a keycard and unlocked the door. Helen opened it revealing a room full of half-naked people of all ages, genders, and races all tied up and gagged, staring up at her with a look of hope and relief… All except a young girl with light-purple hair with a white stripe through it. The girl gave Helen an annoyed look as she simply expected her to help.

Helen sighed, did an about face, and walked away. “Forget it. I’m going back to being a waitress.”