Opposites Attract

The emergency call logo on the console lit up and John punched the button to answer it, eager for something to do. "International Rescue, what's your emergency?"

Selene paused, unsure of how to continue since she hadn't really expected to get an answer after calling a random number on google. "... Erm... Hi?"

John's sigh could have been heard from Mars. "Are you in need of help... Miss?" He couldn't see who was calling, the video part of the call having been blocked.

"Yes, yes I am definitely in need of help!"

"And how may we assist? Is your life in immediate danger?"

She awkwardly lifted her head up to look. "If this branch snaps, then yes."

"Branch?" He could feel a headache coming on and pinched the bridge of his nose in an effort to relieve some of the tension . "Miss, have you been drinking?" Now that he thought about it her words did sound a little slurred.

Sel paused again as she started another slow rotation, looking all around her for a way to get down. "There may have been mead..."

"Mead?" Who did he have on the phone, a viking?

"Yes, mead, it's a honey wine made..."

"I know what mead is, Miss-"

"Selene, my names Selene, and yours is?"

"Erm..." he was pretty sure they weren't allowed to give names out willy-nilly to drunk girls on the phone.

"Nice to meet you, Mr Erm... Now, as I was saying, I need a bit of help here."

"What's your current situation? I can't help unless I know who and what to send."

"Promise you won't laugh?"

John's eyes slid to the button on his console that pulled up the feed to Tracy Island, debating. Were they too far away to help him, or could the woman fend for herself? He decided that he was a professional and will just have to cope.

"I don't make it a habit to laugh at people in trouble, it's not a nice thing to do with this job."

Sel scowled at her phone as if she could project it to him and he'd feel it full force. "That's not a promise..."

"I promise I won't laugh at you. What is the problem?"

"I'm counting on you, Mr Erm... OK, so, I was coming back from the summer solstice celebrations..."

John's eyes widened, was he was dealing with a drunk hippy... "And?"

"And there was this owl that I tried to avoid. My bristles hit a power line and sparked and I pitched sideways and the tree caught me."

"Bristles?" She was crazy. Pure, unmedicated lunatic.

"Yes, and now my broom is on the ground, the shaft snapped and I fear my knicker elastic is about to go the same way..."

His fingers flew over the console as he pulled up the locations of his brothers, one of them would have to take over, his brain couldn't cope. Scott was already out, Alan was on a job with Kayo and Brians, so that left Virgil and Gordon. Virgil could likely be counted on to be a professional but Gordon was another matter entirely. Her last words pulled him up short.

"Knicker elastic?"

"Yes!" Her tone was growing more desperate by the second. "I kinda slid down a branch and my underwear got caught on something and it's the only thing keeping me in the tree, I appear to be hanging with my head closer to the ground than my feet. I've managed to get my legs around a branch but I'm kinda in an atomic wedgie situation and can't move."