The Shrink Program

Chapter 178

So while I was coming to terms with how badly I wanted to kill Alan then and there, Nigel was the one to ask the important question.

"...isn't Cassandra escaping...a really bad thing?"

I threw an exasperated gesture towards the voice of reason.

"Exactly! Thank you, Nigel. How is this something you just let happen, Alan?!"

"Maddison." Vain gave an exasperated sigh, indicating to Nigel to come to help him set Alex on the ground...before he dropped him...

His frustration probably had something to do with us having this conversation while I still had Peri in my head... but that was the extent of his trying to reason with me.

Somewhat ignoring my outrage, Alan kept his gaze on the horizon, expression pleasantly blank.

"Mother refused to leave this place. Refused to let any of her technology stray out from beneath her control... and as the greatest hypocrisy of all, she refused to let her own technology touch her mind. That is why she looks her age... why she was able to deteriorate into madness...and why you don't need to worry."

The pleasantness was long gone by the time he glanced over at me.

"The system was what was keeping her alive Maddison."

I stared back at him, finally starting to realise the significance of what they had done.

They let their mother go.

Alan awaited my next question with tired eyes, his mix match gaze sad and achingly old.

I knew there was a lot he wasn't saying. A lot he and his Brother may never share with me.

...And as much as it hurt to do so.

I shut up.

"Yea, well." I turned away from him, arms crossed my arms. "I hope they crash."

Mostly.

Cause I was the bravest damn friend on the planet, and I would face a thousand window stabbings if that was the price of giving these lunatics my trust.

So I shut up and watched the sunrise.

Thinking about the little things...like how little empathy the universe has for me and my perpetual bad day.

How, after everything I had been through, I didn't get to beat up anyone. Even Nigel got out mostly unscathed...and how can that even be called a happy ending?

If this experience being helpless has taught me anything, it's that anger management is overrated.

...Though I was content to just sit here and watch the major flip off from mother nature...Nigel had other concerns...

"Um...shouldn't we move away from here...in case the ground collapses..."

"Pfft. I'm a free man now Nigel." Alan dismissed with an eye roll. "I don't ever have to move again."

"You're not becoming a shut-in Alan." Alex was quick to shoot the idea down. "I'll destroy every gaming devise you have before I live with your decaying body on the other end of this Link."

Said the smoker.

"Careful Alexander. You know what happened to the last family member who stood between me and my dream."

Vain was the one groan out a response.

"There is such a thing as too early Floid."

Though I never looked away from the sunrise, I could hear Alan smiling.

"And here I thought I'd been waiting years ."

[*****]

The Shrink Program showed up not long after that.

A blur of blue-eyed giants quickly taking control of the situation.

Alan and Alex were super arrested right away. We all saw them get put in an ambulance...but yea, not the sort of ambulance that actually goes to a hospital.

I'd had seen enough of Alan to last me a lifetime, but I made sure to give Alex a long hard look, just in case I never saw him again. I memorised his precious baby face like the pope would the bible.

Just in case they didn't take any pictures.

Now, Nigel. He got a right proper ambulance. Poor guy was being wheeled away on a stretcher before he realised what was going on.

He waved goodbye with reassuring energy and flare. I pretended not to know him. Standard procedure.

That left me and Vain...or more accurately, me attached to Vain and refusing to really engage with what was going on around me.

I was kinda past the point of faking any control over my temper, choosing instead to snap and glare at anyone who tried to talk to me. All I wanted was my well-deserved breakfast, my family and my bed in that order. As the only one who wasn't injured, kinda a criminal or me, Vain could handle the Supervisors and their questions.

I was sitting this one out.

Vain didn't seem to mind... probably because I was actually quiet for once...

Apollo and Artemis were rescued... You know... Eventually.

They walked out of the Hill mostly unharmed but looking like they had come back from war.

Even I could tell, the Brother's were uncharacteristically frazzled by the trial they had been through. Emo hair cut standing out every which way, Apollo had fervently told the story of swords and explosions and daddy issues...

Yep. While we were psyching out Mad scientists and playing on the computer, these guys were fighting an epic battle against a freaking ninja.

It made me hate them.

Just a little bit.

The search for Robin and Experiment 318somethingsomethingsomething3 was called off when someone rang the police about a freakish bird-person at a bakery.

...Where they had gone for breakfast.

Cause why not?

Turns out, one of them had access to the secret secret entrance. I didn't ask who.

I didn't want to have to kill Robin.

And at the end of the day, with my innocence proven and the evil vanquished, totally by me...you'd think that someone would just stop and think...

Saving the world probably goes above and beyond the criteria of the Shrink Program's standard rehabilitation. Maybe, just maybe, we should unshrink this poor girl. Let her return to her family and her normal life.

...Needless to say...

The Shrink Program had a different idea.