"Hide! I'm okay here! Save yourselves!" Anne whispers her warning.
Thankfully, the two girls stash themselves behind a counter.
While Anne ties the cloth around her mouth, hiding the unlatched handcuff under her palm and pretends to sleep. Right before the intruders twist the knob and open the door wide.
"Whew, that brunette kid was intense to clutch! I think she broke my shin!" A man complains.
"She punched me in the eye!" A woman replies, groaning.
"Quit it guys." A third party intervenes.
Sasha and Marcy plan for a quick and painless strategy, instead of whispering. They exchange hand gestures for efficiency.
Sasha signals (through hand language) that they will lure them into a distraction and knock them. Three birds in two stones.
Marcy agrees and amplifies the plan, If they get caught, she will use her bow and arrows from afar better. To disarm whatever is in their enemy's hands.
They both nod in the arrangement. They take in their positions quickly. Sasha picks up a stone and hurls it to the farthest corner.
"What's that?" The man asks. "That way!" He points where the sound was, leading the comrades to follow after him.
Sasha takes her move. Her eyes narrowed and burned with adrenaline. Marcy stood up and readies her bow.
Anne sets the cuffs down, pulling down the cloth in her mouth in a span of her finger. They both crouch to approach their enemy.
Sasha hands over the other stick to Anne, as they creep closer, the blonde raises her elbow and signals the non-lethal knockdown.
In the blink of an eye, they took a choke hold of the two and put down the unconscious bodies.
"Huh?" The man turns around just in time to get hit in the head by Marcy's plastic arrow.
"Oh yeah, baby! Headshot!" Marcy jumps up and down in victory.
"Sash, Marce, let's get out of here!" Anne turns and rushes to the exit.
"Right back at ya!" Marcy claims and follows Anne.
Sasha refuses, instead, she grabs the collar of the guard and almost gently slams him against the wall.
"Who sent you? How dare you kidnapped my friend-"
Something drops on the floor from the man's hand, Sasha looks down to see a walkie-talkie.
"Oh, crud."
Sasha lets go of the man and run off to warn her friends. "Girls! Don't go-"
The door burst out a surprise attack by a couple of buff wardens with electric batons in their hands.
The girls quickly leap before the door violently opens, thankfully unharmed, and raise their weapons, with the threat in their face.
More guards come in "Lower your weapons and stand down."
The girls made their formation flawlessly, Anne speaks, "Question is, are you guys a fraud then kidnapped us?"
The lead guard is impatient, "Kid, put your weapons down. This ain't a role play"
Their appearance says otherwise, they have dried blood on their neck and scrunched their nose in irritation. There is no space for trust and open-mindedness.
Sasha shakes her head, "More like a real kidnap and girls trafficking. We're not letting you take us."
Marcy nods in agreement and points her arrow at the leader. "Come and get us."
Like in Amphibia, they would never forget the fighting techniques they've learned.
With no spare time, they launched into the battle! Anne takes the lead first, disarming the batons on the guards.
Followed by Sasha limiting her strength not to cause some blunt trauma to their head.
Meanwhile, Marcy takes her shot, shooting down those who try to get up and backstab her friends.
The teamwork of the girls is like an old steampunk, the machine is oiled and working well.
However, one unexpectedly perils the plan. Sasha has been occupied body-slamming her opponent smaller than her size, two men rise simultaneously with their batons.
Marcy uses her last arrow to knock the man. "Sasha! Look out!"
Yet Sasha is fighting for the exit, she couldn't hear the nerd's voice because of the loud war cry from the guards.
The nerd hurriedly finds a weapon to use, she saw a scythe made out of wood nearby hanging on the wall, and grabs it instantly, she surges forward to the person who will hurt Sasha.
Although it was a little too late that the man hits his back at Sasha, the blonde was caught off guard.
She turns and punches the man with her backhand. But it wasn't enough. The leader has quite less damage taken.
Marcy who is on her way spins the scythe as if it was a hobby, oddly familiar use of the scythe.
Marcy twirls and dances along with the scythe through the small battlefield. With the rush of adrenaline, she swifts faster and did not hesitate to hit the man. She used the tang instead of the blade.
The leader collapsed under Marcy's feet. Sasha did not know she was there. Too focused on her fight. Every guard is on her.
Ambushed by a few more guards, not just a few guards. The enhanced members of the team. They target Sasha, the strength of the three.
"SASHA!"
Anne yells a warning, being occupied by two guards who are fighting against her.
Sasha froze and heard that same cry. The same tone. But a different voice. She dropped her weapon when her enemies are confused about her being dumbfounded.
"Grime...?" Sasha whispers, no humour or an act. It's all horror. She frantically looks for Grime. He lost his arm. She needs to be there for him.
The heavy atmosphere rises, the blonde can smell blood, metallic rust, sweat and tears, and she can hear someone laughing and Grime gasping for air.
"Looks like he's disarmed. Get it? Disarmed!" Darcy laughs in Sasha's head.
"Are you okay young lady?" One of the vanguards asked. Lowered his weapon as well.
The enemies have been stalled by Sasha's act, this is her chance. Marcy thought and engage her attack on them.
With the formation she performed, she gracefully spins around the weapon. The nerd uses the Tang, it hits the head of the vanguards in one and two sweeps.
With the man fell on top of Sasha, the blonde evades and catches the man. She sets down the unconscious body and froze as if she saw her ghost of the past.
Marcy holds the scythe right in front of the blonde, confused by the blonde's reaction toward her.
Anne turns to face her friends, "Marcy! Behind you!"
Without looking, at Marcy's muscle memory, quick enough that she evades their attacks and knocks off their balance by using the scythe.
Those guards are the last of it. A great success for the trio!
Anne dashes to her friends and cheers, "Whew! Good work guys! Now let's get out of here..."
Anne trails off her sentence, the fight was over, and no enemies were detected. But now there's one.
Marcy grips her weapon in distrust. Both of them were speechless at what they saw...
Guess who?
It is Sasha.
The blonde picks up her stick. Her grip tightened, head down. With the boiling rage in every single nerve in her body.
Anne walks forward with open arms, "Hey hey hey, look at me. Everything is all right Sash!"
Without a word, Sasha jerks her head, eyes locked on Marcy holding the scythe. She launched to attack.
"RAH!"
Anne blocked Sasha's attempt, they grunt while they fight. Until their swords clashed and holds on to their position.
"What. Are. You. Doing!" Anne is angered by Sasha's attempt to assault Marcy.
Sasha did not say a word, she screamed with heartache and revenge. She twists her weapon and takes another hit too fast to destroy Anne's weapon.
"Her strength is too much! We have to wake her up!" Marcy said.
In Sasha's head, she heard Grime's lines over and over. That she couldn't hear what her friends said.
With a little time, Marcy marches forward and quickly disarmed the weapon by hitting Sasha's arms.
The weapon drops, and Anne shoved Sasha. Sasha snaps out and gawks at the floor.
Marcy is horrified. The scythe she was holding is shaking. Soon to realises she is shaking from Sasha's terror.
Marcy throws the sacred weapon away and checks in with Anne.
"Anne, What just happened?"
"I... don't know too Marce."
The girls move closer to Sasha.
She is clinging, leaning on her knees, muttering but it was muffled by her buffy arms. She's shivering like a leaf, and goggle-eyed. Became restless. Most of all, frightened.
Now it's Anne and Marcy's turn to comfort Sasha.
Anne asks the blonde first, "Hey hey hey, everything is okay. What's going on Sash?"
Sasha grasps Anne's shoulders, gazing at the Thai girl fiercely. "Grime? Wh-where's Grime?"
Anne steadily communicates with the blonde, "Sash, Grime is okay! He's fine! He recovered!"
Sasha shakes her head furiously, "No Boonchuy, I need to see him! To see if he's alright! I can't lose him! Not to that thing!"
Marcy wonders what triggered Sasha like this. The nerd is searching for answers in her brain.
Darcy? Maybe it was this fight or that fight? Did I scare her? No way. How could she be scared of me? Was it a weapon or something scared her? Marcy thought thoroughly.
At a first glance, the nerd knew the answer.
"The scythe. It's the scythe! That must have PTSD flashback!" Marcy solved the puzzle. The only way to do this is to calm Sasha down.
Marcy suddenly takes her move forward but retreats her steps.
"No, I can't. Maybe I'm the trigger why Sash is having this."
The nerd gets behind the back of the Thai girl and gently set her hand on Anne's shoulder.
"Anne, tell her she's having a flashback," Marcy advised.
The nerd is watching Sasha clutching her heart and head. Uncontrollably breathing. Cold sweat, hesitate to speak.
"Sash, it's okay. You're having a flashback. You're here, safe. We're here for you." Anne's word of affirmation
Marcy has never seen Sasha being like this before neither did Anne. They both knew the blonde was hiding her difficulty for their sake.
After a couple of minutes, Sasha responds terribly. "I... Do?"
"Yes, you do Sash. It's okay. Grime is okay. The thing that used to control Marcy is gone." Anne continued
It's no wonder why she's acting like that. She had trauma back in Amphibia all along. Did you know that no?
Marcy slowly face the blonde and sat on her knees. Gently place her soft hand on her rough dough hands of Sasha.
"Sashy, I need you to breathe with me okay?"
"...okay."
Marcy taught her to breathe, inhale when four fingers up, and exhale when four fingers down.
After Sasha calms down, she smiles apprehensively. She thought that it was embarrassing to be vulnerable to her friends at the wrong time.
But eh, they wouldn't mind. After all, they've seen each other like that.
"Thanks, guys. I owe you two." Sasha timidly said.
"Nah, don't mention it, dude." Anne waves it off, and stood up and dust her pants.
"Thank you for protecting the both of us, Sasha." Marcy genuinely whispers, holding out a hand to help out Sasha.
Sasha gladly accepts it, the blonde and the nerd stood up and the trio heads to the exit. Meeting an unknown stranger.
The stranger was soon to be revealed as a staff of the mansion. Dishevelled ponytail hair, a uniform and an ID, and a distressed look on her face.
Sasha takes the lead and knew what was going on. She frowns and crosses her arms.
The staff bows, "I can explain!"
---
At the exit of the mansion house, Sasha and Anne confront the staff who is apologizing. Marcy is tending the wounds of the wardens they fought against.
MARCY'S POV
I took out the bandage and splatter the ointment. To cover the bruise of the lead guard.
"Sorry officer, we went too far, we are quite aggressive when we engage in a battle. Especially Sasha she doesn't like seeing her friends in danger."
The group laughs in sync, making me feel more remorse but I felt I bit reassured.
"Name's Junior, don't worry kiddo. We suffered more worst than this."
One of the members speaks up, "Hey, we're done here, girl. Why won't you help your friend?"
Huh, who?
I tilt my head, my eyebrows lift, confused at what she said.
"The girl I hit in the back, Sasha is it? The blonde girl?" Junior explained.
"What? Pfft, she's fine. She's okay!"
The member laughs, "As if. You've been glancing at her for at least more than twenty times."
The whole group agrees while I deny what their assumption is.
"No no! Just curious what the staff saying!"
Junior sighs in nostalgia, "High School crush huh? The typical forbidden love choice. Confession. Confusion. Complicated"
Everyone laughs once again, and I flow along.
"Come on kiddo! Don't be shy! Make a move to your crush!" The female member said.
"Urgh, the thing is! I don't know who to pick!" I groan. While Junior pats my back.
"Kid, if you're lost. Just give yourself some time. But this is serious, I've hit your friend with great damage. Help her. As a friend."
Gosh, I can't believe people are encouraging me to confess my sins to my crushes. I'm I that obvious?
Junior nudges me and nods. "Go for it kiddo!"
I stand up and raise my hands in surrender. I run off to Sasha while the whole group is cheering for me loudly. I can feel the blood flushing in my ears.
Okay, Marcy Wu, you can do this! Do I like Sasha? Ughhh, I'll deal with it later! Just aid Sash!
I tap Sasha's shoulder, while Anne and the staff are discussing. She turns and smiles at me. As I held up the medkit right in front of her.
"Hey! I'm doctor Marcy Wu. Are you my next patient? Sasha Waybright is it?"
The blonde was caught off guard by my sudden roleplay, now she acts along.
"Why yes, I need medical attention from you. Doctor Wu."
I wave my hands and show the way, "Right this way, Ms Waybright!"
We sneak behind Anne and head to the bathroom. Sasha washes her face in the sink. I set the med kit and brightly wait for her.
"Okay! Show me your back!" I consult
Sasha is confused and waves her hand off. "For what? I didn't get hurt."
"Ms Waybright, you can't fool the doc! Come on, strip your shirt."
Sasha smug, "That's bold of you doctor, do you-"
I blush and break my role as a doctor, "Just remove your jacket! I'm examining your bruise, Sasha!"
Sasha laughs as she takes off her jacket and shirt. I look away and can't help but peek at the chiselled abs and muscle lines.
Ohhh my newtsss, why can't she stop being hot? Stop thinking that Marcy!
Sasha relaxes as she feels my touch, the bruise. It's quite massive. As if it was a virus that spreads.
Right beside it, the burn it's here. It seems scary to touch it. Her body is covered with small scars.
"Does the burn still hurt?" I hover my hand over her skin.
"Yeah... It does sometimes. But it's okay to touch." Sasha rubs her arm and sighs.
I touch her burn, smooth but it's miserable to see. I scoop out Tiger balm with my hand and moisten the bruise and the burn.
"Ow..." Sasha hisses and exhales. I paused and panicked that I hurt her.
Newts! Be careful Marcy! She just told you it still hurts!
"Sorry! I just need to massage it! Except for the bruise of course!"
Sasha breathes deeply when I start massaging her lower back. Her back jerks forward that hits the jackpot.
"W-wow Mar Mar! That was sooo good. Where do you get those skills?" Sasha sounds almost drunk. That earned her well.
I finished the short massage and wrap up the bandage around her.
"Eh, here and there! Learn it from the best!"
Sasha wears her jacket and shirt on, her smile is plastered. "Thank you, Marcy."
She leans on me, instead of kissing me on the forehead. She hugged me.
Oh nooo. I got used to forehead kisses!
I hug back, calming my nerves and breathing not to let Sasha notice.
Will I choose her? Is she my right choice?
---
Marcy pulls back, smiling. She packs up the med kit. "Okay! I'm giving this back to the staff. See you on the other side Sash!"
The nerd shortly leaves, green colour grows on spots on her cheeks and her nape. Striding weirdly. Right arm, right leg. Left-arm left leg.
The blonde watches her go, chuckling while her hand covers her mouth. Delightful when she sees the adorable nerd friend she has.
---
The girls went out of the area, they were given a free credit card to use at the nearby restaurant. Who can't deny it after all that fight and horror treatment?
"Well, the horror mansion is a bummer. I thought it helps us all ya know?" Marcy tries to explain.
"Aw come on Marcy! That was great! Screaming for hours and clinging onto Sasha like a tall tree." Anne said.
"Oh come on! I am not a tree, Anne! Let's be honest, I had fun having a little battle! I missed having one." Sasha scoffed in nostalgia.
Optimistic Marcy mode activated, "And heck! It was fun! No names for the book of losers!"
"Says the one who's screaming for hours and sleeping in my back." The blonde deadpan tells not but the plain truth.
"Fine! But first. Let's go to that restaurant or eat after all the screaming and crying!"
The girls enter the restaurant in luxury. Unique food was presented beautifully.
Anne and Sasha engulf half of the dishes. Marcy enjoys and takes the moment to eat.
"Whew! Man, I'm full!" Anne pats her stomach and slouches in her seat.
"Ah! I agree! The food is too good I can't even eat because of the decoration!" Marcy consumes the last piece of her plate.
"Eh, all expensive restaurants are the same." Sasha sips her drink, uninterested but satisfied.
"Don't say that Sash! That's rude!" Marcy whispers.
"What? I was just genuine!"
"Yeah! But harsh! Anyway, let's go to the final place!"
The brunette asks, "Where to?"
Marcy raises her finger, raising the suspense. She freezes for a minute.
....and she points to Anne.
"Your house!" Marcy barks her answer
"My house? What for?" Anne is truly startled by Marcy's plan.
Sasha now knew the dork's plan, "Oh! I see! A sleepover! Let's not waste more time now!"
"Probably. Let's go!" Marcy perked up and grab her things.
Sasha takes her jacket and her keys. While Anne is dazzled and still processing what's going on.
"Now?" Anne finally speak
"Yeah?" The nerd replies.
"Let's go losers, the clouds are dark. It might rain. We have to go to the parking lot." Sasha swings her keys.
Anne lean back and became a couch potato, "You guys get the motor. Fetch me."
Marcy shortly answers, "Okay! Take your rest! Your chauffeurs will get ya!"
---
The skies grow dim and the sun is behind, it's there shining bright. Like, mourning Sasha and the merry Marcy. The girls noticed and watch up to the skies. The clouds start to drizzle.
"Huh, odd. LA rarely rains." Marcy lifts her palms and turns over her palms. Amused by the touch of wet pearls from the clouds.
"Yes, Marce. Rain is great. MOVE TO FIND A SHADE OR OUR BUTTS WILL BE WET!" The cheerleader captain grabs the wrist of the geeky girl. Running for shade.
Marcy doesn't mind, Sasha, however, IS NOT. Make-up and didn't wear waterproof mascara is a huge mistake for the blonde. Thankfully, they found a shade before it rains cats and dogs.
SASHA'S POV
My feet are aching and my back is pretty tired. I raise my head not to leak my wet mascara. I gingerly wipe the wet tears-from the sky- from my cheeks. I can hear Marcy "woahs" in pleasure.
"Sashy! Sasha! Sasha! Look at this!' Marcy yanks gently on my sleeve vents. I look down then at Marcy.
"What is it Mar-Mar?" I asked, Watching her brownie eyes twinkling with interest.
She points in front of her, I turn my head to see, and wow... what a sight to witness.
Simultaneously, it's raining and sunny. Forming a tiny rainbow below our knees. Far away from the sidewalk.
This is rare to watch, I have never seen this. It's just wow.
Marcy and I watch the raindrops fall against the concrete. But I can't help to stop the feeling of the energy of this nerd is rising.
"Hey Sash. You know what I'm thinking?"
"What? Dancing in the rain?" I jokingly answer. Expecting something else. Maybe sharing my jacket with her and-
"Heck yeah! You know me well!"
What. WHAT? This is not what I want-
"Marcy- that is NOT what I meant! I was just joking! I have my mascara on-AH!
Too late, too little. Marcy was one step ahead reeling me into the rain.
"Don't mind about that makeup Sash! Suck it up! Let's have fun!" Marcy pulls me close and afar. Like a tango.
"I thought you were a horrible dancer. It will be funny if it does."
Marcy laughs cheerfully and winks at me. "I daresay, you always underestimate the cute and smart ones!"
"Who said you're cute?"
"The one idiot who is in front of me!"
"Shut up. You're cringing."
"Hey!" March pouts.
I take her hand and lead, twirling her while she giggles when she triumphantly teases me.
We pull each other close, close enough that I can see the details of her hair and I almost crack up.
I've already locked off my feelings for her, being with this. Feels nicer than before.
"How long will you take this dance, Ms Waybright?"
"Ha! As long as I can beat your muscle endurance, Ms Wu"
"Let's see about that!"
"Wanna bet?"
"Sure!"
We both dance, laugh and love the day as we dance the gloominess away. Until the rain finishes their cry. But the joy and memory we made are making progress.
But how about the answers that we've been looking for? Will Marcy pick Sawyer over me?
---
Such naive and complicated she is, Sasha Waybright isn't it that right?
Meanwhile, Anne is sipping her favourite drink. Watching her friends who are just ten steps away. She dreamily sighs.
Her friends laugh as if they were only the two people in the world.
Anne giggles, "These idiots."
~End Of Chapter 7~
Author's Note: UGH FINALLY I WRITE THAT SPECIFIC SCENE YESS! A thousand more to go to write that another specific scene...IM ON MY HOPPIN LIMIT *flips up the table* Woohoo!
See you in the next chapter!