“But first things first before I unveil my petty payback plan,” Jackie addressed the rest. “How’s everyone doing? One word, all at the same time?”

“Bad,” they said in unison.

Maddie was on her side, laying her head on the white bumper. She rose up slowly, stopping to grunt in pain, but ultimately stood up. “But bad is better than the flat-out worse I was… Fuck me running, even my brain’s feeling sore as shit—”

Aiko rose from her lot, who had her chin on her bump. “I don’t think it’s the shit that gets sore—”

“Kobayashi, you were a smartass and it was cute once—don’t press your luck again,” Maddie shot back.

Tracy rose from curling up in a ball, in the middle of the garage. “I think the insides of my cheeks are beat up, too. We’re losing so badly that we’re getting injured in the weirdest places.”

River was already up, pushing her hands into her back. “Weeeell, they’re weird places but it’s places people complain about. Getting your bones punched out of your leg? People can’t understand that? Biting your fucking cheek and the ensuing Hell you forced upon yourself? Shit lasts for weeks.”

“Hey, at least we’re still sympathetic!” Aiko chirped.

A lull happened. They all looked at each other.

“Uh—” River’s monotone broke through it—causing the others to laugh out load.

“Yeah, I was gonna say—” Maddie chuckled while she shook her head. “3/5, if they’re being nice—”

Jackie smiled to herself, at the banter going on. This was the kind that she looked forward towards the most, needling but having fun—vulnerable but making light of the problem to ease the strain of it versus making fun of the problem. They were all vastly different people, and Jackie thinks the reason why they constantly spark against each other is because of those different paths. They had no idea who each one laid out, how each one winded across—and those roads intersect or drift apart in the worst ways.

Combine that and the fact these roads were constructed on ground that turns into pudding and explodes because it just can—and there’s not the greatest foundation.

As that reality settled back into her mind, Jackie scanned across everyone with a frown.

Maddie, as established, was the worst one banged up there. Singed on her side, even though it was letting up, she had holes decorated across her shirt that read “’Cuz But Why Tho?”—the font tearing due to the impact of the hit she took. Her eye was still pink with red veins at the sides—to compliment the opposite singed side of her body.

Jackie wasn’t too worried because regardless of lack of character, Maddie is nothing but… Consistent? She doesn’t have the makings to outpace adversity—but one could be damn sure she will try and curse at it while trying. She’s going to say she’s fine and push on, so Jackie might as well use that attitude.

Tracy, by contrast, was the least injured. Her hair was a mess, had a lasting dark-blue-ish mark that covered her cheek up to the bridge of her nose, it looking a tad crooked. Other than that, and the stains that splattered against it—her cream long jacket is still intact, her tights while ripped up were still functioning, and her black heel-boots weren’t surprisingly broken.

But she was exhausted, mentally and physically. Jackie gave her the benefit of the doubt since she was more or less a child actress that must’ve had grueling shooting days, but you can’t put an office worker on an expedition of the tundra because they could handle high pressure situations. She was rubbing her arms, looking around, hoping somehow that this would be over. Jackie knew this was bad.

Aiko was still a well-spring of energy, something which Jackie can definitively count on. This was her element. She didn’t care that she was covered in lacerations—rings around her neck and stitching imprints poking out every time her Hawaiian shirt went up and her cargo shorts went up, as she was still jumping lightly in place. She didn’t care that most of those markings were more or less burns, and she winced every time fabric brushed across her skin.

She strives to forget about pain. All she cares about is the thrill that makes this pain worth it. Dangerous thinking, but something Jackie could at least guide.

And there was River, who was barely holding it together. She closed her eyes and took moments to pant briskly, doing it quicker now since she’s noticed Jackie looking at her. But that’s her type, the down-on-themselves, the depressed. Even before they went into the fray, she only wore a wrinkly brown shirt and equally washed out, faded jeans. Now they were torn and in ribbons at places, and Jackie was sure that she will wear them again a month later if they remain intact. The raggedy girl reached up and pinched the ridges of her scratched up, square glasses, which had who-knows-how-long old tape on them.

Her and Maddie’s attitudes often trip Jackie up, due to them both being a brand of pessimism. Whereas Maddie gives in and thrives as a result, River gives up and doesn’t care. That’s ultimately the troubling thing about bringing her on missions despite being willing to do them: the lack of agency on her part. And that was bad, the obvious morality of keeping a life safe aside, because she really is bright. And amazingly reliable. She just can’t see it herself.

So, that was Jackie’s struggle. To help and guide these people—who have all been through so much that they’ve become such unstable personalities, when she’s just as human as the rest of them. Driving to get to a better destination—but the roads are unruly, she constantly got lost on said roads, she had to leave the roads better than she found them—because she might have to backtrack them, and above all of that: she had to avoid the exploding pudding. Plus, nursing a fuming hatred for pudding.

But she knew “N’atural” was right. The reason why they were struggling because they had the most terrible first experience with this world, and that built equally terrible habits of facing it, or lack there of. Those punks who cheated—who just saw the N’atural-Mayhem event and gained it that way—they survived the first supernatural event, they got to see a new era of Trends that are out of the open, that fight and destroy. It’s easy to mimic that.

As people there to witness that firsthand, why not join in on that?

This was a raging fire. The only way to put that out—is a backfire.

“Sooo, what’s this about ‘payback shopping list’?” Maddie asked. “The word choice alone makes me nervous, because that’s such a thing you could come up with.”

Jackie looked around, trying to find something in their enjoyment.

“I’ll explain it in full,” Jackie said. “It just depends if our monster friend moved or not.”

                                                                                                                         ***

Slowly walking down the battered underground halls, Jackie spotted River’s phone, untouched—therefore unnoticed.

Jackie gambled and leaned to see down the tunnel, just to make sure. No one or thing was visibly there.

She quickly grabbed the phone, wincing because of how hot it was already. She pressed the stop button on the recording, seeing it totaled nearly 2 hours of content.

Someone was about to comment, and Jackie quickly raised a finger—her index—telling them to quiet. They stood erect for 5 minutes, before Jackie slumped her shoulders. She then used her thumb to point back to where they came, knowing in her gut that they’re barely done here.

Making there way back, on the staircase they were once scattered over and passed out on, Jackie felt confident enough for them to talk there and review the footage. Pressing play.

“C’mon man—you’re Everest in a jumpsuit to me—” Maddie complained. “What do you see--?”

“Nothing, so far…” Jackie confirmed.

N’atural just laid there, twinging, as she screamed out in pain every 3 minutes or so. Laying on her side, as her legs kicked and jerked.

Jackie pressed on the right side of the device, causing the footage to fast forward. For at least 40 whole minutes, N’atural just laid there—somewhere along the way becoming perfectly still, which factored in the additional 50 minutes.

As she tapped away, she sped past the point where the girl slowly got up—practically using siVis to stop her fingers midtap.

She was hunched over, breathing oddly. It was unclear why, until Jackie noticed how her right arm was pressed against her neck.

N’atural strained, pushing said arm away from her neck—as the band around her throat stretched and stretched.

That Sinclair girl. She managed to get a hit on N’atural Savage of all people?

Jackie had to fight against her active siVis use—otherwise she would’ve balled the phone up into nothing.

In the video, N’atural continued to struggle, unable to break the band with strength alone. Jackie thought this really must’ve meant that she’s really weakened.

Until she transformed her arm in a rush, roaring on the way, tearing the band into rubber ribbons within seconds… Before slumping back down onto the floor, panting hoarsely.

“That… Was a complete mess…” the recording of N’atural’s apparent misery. “An utter mess…”

Everyone looked at each other, with a deafening silence.

“I think I’ve never been so inspired in years—” River mumbled dryly.

“It should’ve worked…” N’atural looked at her clawed hand as she leaned against the wall. “Why didn’t it work…? It should’ve triggered twice over, there was so much siVis activity… And it didn’t work…”

The girl in the white gown suddenly coughed violently. Tensing up with siVis as her muscles constricted.

“Whatever…” the monster girl whined. “Calling it a terrible night. It’s no different from the others…”

She slinged away, with 20 minutes on the recording to spare.

Jackie collapsed the phone, giving it to River. “Well, now I have more than enough reason to act on the payback shopping list—”

“What’s the list mean--?” Maddie stressed.

“We’re going to follow her, wait for her to sleep, and cage her,” Jackie explained.

Palpable silence.

She pulled out her own phone, tapping away in their group chat. “And we’re going to use whatever we find at the Mall to give us some chance.”

“…Like… Are we going to… End her…?”

Jackie looked up and saw a worried Aiko.

“Because if we are, then… I don’t think I joined to be a mercenary…”

Jackie tilted her head, and was confusingly worried.

“What makes you think that I—we want to kill her…?”

“Iunno… Well. Between the fact the world would want someone to do it, and be mad at us for only just caging her if we claim fame to it… And well. Our history with her.”

It often surprised Jackie, Aiko’s acuteness.

“We’re not going to kill her… Just trap her here. If it’s here she’s resting for the night or what. We’ll let fate fall where it may.”

Jackie looked at Maddie. Who in turn, stared back and raised her shoulders.

“The hell do you want outta me--?” she asked.

“Am I making up a new plan on the fly or something?” Jackie quizzed.

“To be fair, you made the recess plan work and it went off without a hitch, so,” Maddie crossed her arms. “Outline it. Tell us what to do.”

“Aiko and Tracy’ll go up to the site—” Jackie was cut off by Tracy’s noises of surprise/fear, but continued on. “—Because, they’re the ones that can escape easy if things go off the rails. Me, Maddie, River—we’ll try to find N’atural. With River, we’ll at least have an escape plan of our own—I could punch her away and give Maddie an opening to tie her claws together for a second or two—she is weak.”

Jackie looked down at the screen. Somehow with her enhanced sight, she saw her forlorn expression. With the preview of her scuffed up face.

“…I guess… Other than the weird pressure of… Everything… I guess I keep making plans upon plans because I just don’t know when to quit. Because if we do, we accept all of the terrible shit that’s happened to us, to the terrible shit we’re called… We give in like the rest. All I want, above all else, is just to pull something shitty from this sucky time we live in. Do you guys realize? That we’re around the time where high school is ending for us? We’re getting ready to be adults? We’re so fucking far into bizarro land that we’ve forgotten all that.”

They all looked at each other. Trading glances until someone else looked at a new person.

“There’s a part of me that’s saying ‘fucking finally, you admit it’,” Maddie grinned. “The other is telling you to not do this now; we’ve completely forgotten about the plan now.”

“Oh god, there’s two of you…” Jackie managed faux-horror.

Everyone else laughed, as Maddie nodded with her eyes closed and the grin maintained.

Jackie couldn’t hide her now-wide smile. She looked down, and finished her list.

“Let’s go, girls.”

                                                                                                                             ***

Jackie, Maddie, and River had only seconds to hide, as N’atural spun around on her heels. Her face turning red with anger.

“I KNOW YOU’RE THERE—"

The girl got on all fours, and begun digging her manifested claws into the stone, crawling so fast and so frantically, she begun to crawl on the ceiling itself.