My Computer Keeps Freezing..., Ellie

[Ellie West]

"Um?" Ellie said. Quinn was so weird. She would never in a million years understand the Quinn Finns. "Okay!" she called to Quinn's disappearing figure into the trees.

She decided it was probably important to walk quickly back to the car. Once she arrived at her car, she fumbled with her keys and then crawled into the back seat before carefully locking all the doors.

Ellie pulled out her phone and scrolled through the contacts before selecting 'Future Husband Rick.' Ellie preferred texting to talking but Rick was old and probably did not even know how to text.

She waited for him to answer. "Hi Rick! Are you busy?" she asked cheerfully.

[Rick Starr]

The name Necessary Evil #3 began buzzing on Rick's phone. This had better be an emergency or trouble because otherwise he was going to regret giving his cellphone away.

"West, what are you calling about?"

[Ellie West]

"Hi!" she said again, cheerfully.

"So, remember how we're all like, taking turns patrolling? And tonight I'm patrolling with Quinn? The girl one. So we were patrolling and then we stopped because it was raining and my shoes had mud on them." Actually they still did and there was mud in the car now. Oops. "And we were going to eat but Quinn's mom gave her canned soup and I have the wrong Quinn to eat canned soup so I wanted pizza and Quinn said no because you'd be mad and then she said yes and then we were going to get pizza but she didn't want any!"

Ellie took a moment to breathe in between sentences. "So then she said she was sick and I was going to taker her home and she said no and then she told me to go back to the car and call you. So i called you." There was another brief pause. "Oh! And also? Quinn ran off into the forest by herself and she made like, an ice weapon and ice clothes. I think it was armor. I dunno. Ice clothes."

They were possibly doomed.

[Rick Starr]

Rick said many bad words right into the phone right where her young teenage ears could hear them all.

[Ellie West]

"Oh my God!" She whined unhappily. "Rick are you mad at me? Quinn told me to call you! You said you wouldn't be mad at me and I said you didn't want any pizza!" Ellie didn't understand adults. or Quinns. "Also, too, what does that last thing you said even mean?"

[Rick Starr]

"I'll teach you later," he sighed and considered if it was irresponsible to leave them to their own devices if he claimed the activity was a character building exercise. Unfortunately, he knew the truth of the matter even though his work spread sheet did say he got at least two character building exercises.

"Tell me where the two of you are."

The chances there was real problems were probably pretty limited but it was always good just to make sure. Really what was the worst thing they could run into out there? Maybe some thugs or something. Wasn't like they were wandering off the side of the map into somewhere full of illustrations warning that here be dragons.

[Quinn_Finn]

So, Quinn was fighting a dragon. She had always expected to one day fight a dragon, but she didn't imagine how poorly she would be doing. As it turns out, ice is not the best weapon against a beast that breathes fire.

But Quinn was not a quitter, and continued to bob and weave, staying a few steps ahead of the dragon as she tried to get under his neck to strike at the joints, where she assumed that it would be most vulnerable.

She wondered if Ellie called Rick. She wanted Rick to see how awesome she was. Slaying a fucking dragon.

[Ellie West]

"We're in the Glades!" That was pretty helpful. "We parked off of the old 95 interstate by where the marshland preserve is." Ellie didn't know if that was helpful. "I left Quinn by the picnic gazebos." Obviously everyone knew where the gazebos were. Ellie was super good at giving directions and Rick was going to be really proud.

Ellie crawled over the seats to look at herself in the passenger sun visor mirror. Her hair was so frizzy! How awful. Maybe she didn't want to get pizza at all because what if someone from school saw her and told everyone? "If you're coming," she added to Rick. "Will you bring me some mousse for my hair?"

[Rick Starr]

Why were they in the Glades? They were were supposed to be walking down Glade Street. Rick spent days walking all the routes he wrote out for the kids to make sure they wouldn't stumble into a super villain's lair or have to fight Chaos Nazis or something. This of course was a complete waste of his time if they decided to trespass on federal land to combat malaria and leeches in the dead of night.

"Okay West, stay in the car," he crawled out from under his covers. First, he would find pants and a flashlight. Then he would yell at the two girls for an hour straight. Most likely after that he would need to call their parents to tell them that the two teenagers needed inoculation against a variety of swamp based diseases.

Goddamn it. I'm installing tracking chips in their bodies next time I see Rom.

[Ellie West]

"You're bringing me mousse, right?" Ellie asked again before Rick hung up. It was important that it was mousse and not gel. She didn't want her hair to be crunchy.

Well, now what? Ellie put a hand on the stereo and tried to make it turn on, but nothing happened. Stupid powers. What kind of stupid powers didn't work in the rain? Ellie was totally going to quit.

But first she was going to wait to the next PEYOP meeting because she couldn't quit with frizzy hair and no witnesses.