Lexi coughed and hacked, the sounds being absolutely heartbreaking to Leah Henderson as she watched her tiny best friend, now toweled off by the young chef herself. Lexi's squeaky little coughs reminded her of a wounded kitten. Leah wasn't the violent type but she was extremely pissed off at the strange iron antagonist who left her best friend in such a condition.
"So that's Rachel Rutschmann?" Leah asked, stepping back and letting Lexi speak as her legs dangled off the edge of the dresser she sat on. It was weird how casual this all was to them both now. The fact that Lexi was tiny barely even registered in Leah's head, it was almost as if they were conversing as usual.
"Yeah..." Lexi nodded, "and ... it's obviously my fault she's shrunk"
"But it's not your fault she's dressed like Iron Man or tried to kill you during my final exam" Leah said defensively.
"Actually... I think she was going for you" Lexi squeaked and shrugged, still pulling cookie dough out of her ears
"Me?" Leah asked quizzically, "I barely know her"
"She's going after you to get to me..." Lexi sighed
"That's strangely sweet in some way" Leah paused for a moment, "like I'm your most loved one and all the villains are gunning for me because ... yeah, okay, I'll stop, it's not really that nice of a thing"
"She's not a villain..." Lexi whimpered, "well maybe she is, but I MADE her one ... I'm responsible ..."
"Lexi you didn't do any of this" Leah frowned, pulling up a chair to speak to her tiny best friend at a more reasonable height, "You tried to stop her ... she got mixed up with that Roxie girl ... you couldn't have known..."
"I shouldn't have shrunk her though" Lexi sighed, "Sonia was right..."
"I'm sorry, who's Sonia?" Leah asked
"The police officer I told you about ..." Lexi replied, "she stopped me a few months ago, warned me about getting involved in things I shouldn't ... she was right. If I had just let the police take care of the Chaos Crew that night, Rachel could be in jail but at least she wouldn't be ... what she is now... plus with her mom's money, I doubt she'd see any time anyway..."
"Lex, you can't deal in what if's..." Leah warned, "...although..."
"What? What?" Lexi squeaked, looking down at herself and all around, "do I have more powdered sugar on my face?"
"Hon, you look like a tiny pilsbury doughboy at this point" Leah giggled, "...but seriously... maybe you SHOULD take a break ... yknow? Like you planned to? I mean ... what about your classes?"
Lexi frowned
"Yeah, that's what I thought ... I mean, I'm always going to have your back and you always have mine but you also need to think of yourself..." Leah sighed
Lexi nodded in agreement.
"So ... wh-what do I do? What do we do?" Lexi asked, looking up at her best friend in confusion.
"We ... go do our lunch real quick like we wanted and then you get to your next exam, I'll head back to your place while I have time and pick up the 'SG' belt and all that..." Leah said
"No need, it's in my backpack already, which I left over Josh's" Lexi said
"Oooh, you saw Josh?" Leah teased, "Anything going on there?"
"No... just ... ugh. Whatevs..." Lexi giggled, glad she could still laugh despite all this madness. "I guess... I'm just worried ... that Sugar's going to do something dangerous if I take too long with this"
"Her name's Sugar?" Leah said, whilst raising an eyebrow, "look ... not to be cruel but ... she's 3 inches tall... how much damage can she possibly do?"
----
The time had come, the sky was dimming and the illuminated sign drew people towards the cite of the regional cheer off being held this year at Miniborough University. About half a dozen teams of cheerleaders from around the tri-state area gathered to show their stuff, practicing on the sidelines as the large gymnasium filled up with participants.
In the growing crowd sat Lexi and Leah, sliding onto the gold painted bleachers.
"See? Wasn't that nice?" Leah asked, her hand on Lexi's shoulder for a moment, "you take some time ... take care of yourself and you're looking better already"
"Was I looking bad?" Lexi asked, a bit self consciously as she raised a brow
"No! No ... I just mean ... I've been worried about ya, you've been super anxious and well ... not always yourself lately" Leah said, "it's just ... nice to see you in a good mood... you deserve it"
Lexi smiled and then noticed her cute blonde friend Chrissy getting ready down on the main floor facing her and Leah. She'd wave and step down gingerly to try to meet up with her.
"Hold up, Leah, just gonna say hi" Lexi said, stepping carefully over a couple people who were down a couple rows from them, reaching Chrissy after a more or less straight shot down the rows of bleachers.
"Heya Lex" Chrissy giggled, giving her friend a hug. "Glad you were able to make it, means a lot"
"You kidding me? Of course" Lexi smirked, "just feel bad for these other teams ... I'm sure they're good but they came out all this way just to get mopped up by Mini U"
"Heh, I appreciate that spirit" Chrissy giggled, her eyes briefly looking down as if maybe not so happy
"Is everything okay?" Lexi asked
"It's just ... everything with Rachel and ... I don't know..." Chrissy replied shaking her head, "This whole cheer routine was kind of inspired by her and ... we all just miss her very much"
Lexi's eyes went hollow for a moment and she nodded, feeling the loss perhaps strongest of all.
Her anxiety which had been curbed for the time being seemed to be returning and she didn't want to throw Chrissy off her game, so she'd simply dismiss herself for the bathroom real quick which had Chrissy a bit worried. She'd go to follow but lose her super quick in the crowd, not realizing what happened.
Feeling a bit choked up from the moment herself, Chrissy went and took a detour towards the locker room to recollect herself, knowing she'd soon have to be on point for the cheer competition.
"Fuck..." Chrissy sighed, leaning against a locker, a single tear dripping from her eye. She was alone, so she thought. "...I can't do this"
She'd hear a gun click.
"...don't worry toots. I'll do it for ya"
Down a hallway and tucked down a couple of corridors resided Lexi, who shrank to avoid beind caught up to by Chrissy and slowly slid herself into a ladies room stall. Realizing she felt a bit better now, she was able to rejoin Leah after more time had passed, and by now the crowd had ballooned quite a bit. There were almost no seats left. Luckily Lexi had a solution for that too.
Leah, sitting up a few more rows to make room would feel her phone vibrate. She'd read the text :
"Check your pocket"
"Check your ... are you ..." Leah sighed, reaching in and feeling the form of her tiny best friend. "are you kidding me?"
Lexi herself would actually be giggling out loud as Leah's hand just grazed her side.
Lexi felt her own phone vibrate and read the corresponding text message
"You realize I can't take you out in public, right?"
"I know" Lexi texted back, "Can you at least maybe sit forward a bit? I can pop out like a baby kangaroo and see the show that way ... maybe you can take a bathroom break during intermission?"
After more time passed, and Lexi watched the dots on her phone translate to another message bubble she'd read
"...the things I do for you"
Again Lexi laughed uproariously, although it was no more than a mouse squeak that was inaudible to the large gathered crowd.
Lexi scrunched herself up a bit to have a better view of the action as a gaggle of spotlights all converged to highlight the action on the floor and the booming voice of a young and overzealous male announcer rang out over the crowd.
"Welcome to the Tri-State Regional Cheer Finals!!" the voice announced as the hefty sized crowd responded with overwhelming applause, although a murmur overcame the area as the spotlights redirected to focus on one woman in particular, her seat resting somewhere closer to the action. On the jumbo-tron, a video of the woman being consoled by some of the cheerleaders was shown. It was Rachel's mother, Cindy Rutschmann.
"We'd like to thank Ms. Cindy Rutschmann for coming here tonight in support of her daughter, Rachel who we all continue to miss and hope to have good news soon"
A moment of silence and bowed heads followed as Lexi watched on, trying to hold back tears again. Leah as well looked noticably shaken.
Once the moment of silence had passed, the action would begin.
"To begin things tonight ..." the announcer began but suddenly there was another gasp and audible confusion on the floor as a young cheerleader somersaulted into the center of the hardwood arena. "Oh is that? I believe it's Chrissy Alderson of the Miniburough University team!"
The crowd cheered a bit, although seemed a little confused at the same time. This didn't seem to be a planned part of the show, and what's stranger is that the young cheerleader was wearing a black and purple hoodie, the only thing showing was her long blonde hair as she shook and gyrated a bit to some upbeat music that was playing in the background.
"HELLO MINIBUROUGH!!" the girl screeched into the excited crowd. Lexi raised an eyebrow. That wasn't Chrissy's voice.
The tiny Lexi again felt her cell phone vibrate and read the text, "You didn't tell me Chrissy was going to be doing some kind of show to start?"
Lexi hastily typed, "she isn't"
"I can't hear youuuuuu!!" the girl in the black hoodie giggled as she continued to hop and skip along, but nobody on any of the teams seemed to recognize her, even as she offered a big toothy grin. Finally she flipped the hood up, revealing her pale face, blue eyes sparkling with mischief as her sloppy blonde hair hung down and she shook her head a few times as if shedding an uncomfortable layer of clothing. "I said ... are you ready to PAR-TAAAAAAAY?!"
With that she'd reach up and point a pistol into the air, her shadow highlighted cryptically by the spotlights as they shone on her. Many people were already calling 9-1-1 on their cell phones as the mighty BANG was heard, the wayward bullet striking a light overhead causing it to flash and spark before crackling out.
The crowd would scream and the faux cheerleader would giggle, just dancing and reveling in the mayhem as she licked the barrel of her recently discharged firearm, "What's the matter?? Don't ya wanna CHEER?! Isn't that what we're all here for!"
"L-Lexi....?" Leah asked, fumbling awkwardly for her tiny best friend as if she were a forgotten set of car keys, "Lexi isn't that ..."
Leah retracted her hand from her pocket in a hurry to see it was empty. She glanced down at Lexi's purse that had been parked on the floor next to her. The "SG" medal that would normally be inside it was missing. She just let out an exhausted sigh.
"Fuck"
"Hahahaha, okay, not much for talking, huh?" the darkly clad cheerleader chuckled, mocking the crowd as she paced about. Some would try to flee from the exits only to be stopped by bulky men in leather vests. "My name's Roxie and we are here ... to BLOW AWAY the competition!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!"
The maniacal blonde revealed herself by ripping the hoodie off, wearing her usual purple leather with sleek leather pants, although her reveal would be short-lived as she was tackled by a speeding girl, also wearing purple. The crowd all stopped the frenzy for a moment to see what had happened. The spotlights tried to zero in on the two women as they struggled down on the ground.
"Oh hiya, Lex" Roxie chuckled, swinging one of the pistols up by Lexi's chin before Lexi grabbed at Roxie's wrist and held it as tight as she could to prevent her from making a shot attempt, "How's the family...?"
"Get the fuck out of here!" Lexi snarled, fighting back as the two slowly got back to their feet.
"Wait wait wait ..." Roxie stuttered a bit, although she was half laughing, "are you wearing ... a mask?"
Indeed she was.
Lexi was facing her formidable foe while wearing the black ski-mask looking contraption that Josh had earlier designed for her to wear. It seemed to be the only logical course of action when fighting in such a public space.
"S-So you just ... have a ski-mask, a ... belt and a ... costume just ... sitting around?" Roxie remarked sort of facetiously as she gestured condescendingly towards ShrinkGirl
"What can I say, I pack light" Lexi shrugged, taking the moment to sweeping kick the cocky Roxie off her legs and onto the ground, sending her other gun spiraling into the corner before she had a chance to draw it. At this point, Lexi was smart enough to know never to let her guard down around the vicious criminal. Plus she was about as ready for revenge as Roxie was after seeing what she had helped turned Rachel into.
Roxie appeared to be down for the count, but losing her guns didn't mean she had no weapon. In fact she arguably had one stronger than both barrels, as her fingertips gripped around the microphone she found laying around.
"H-Hey is this thing on?" Roxie giggled.
Since the AV department was no longer a main priority at this point, it was and Roxie's shrill and boisterous voice rang through the terrified auditorium.
"Meet your hero, everyone!" Roxie giggled, pointing directly towards Lexi, "It's SHRINKGIRL, but you may know her better as ... Al..."
Lexi quickly struck Roxie in the side of the face causing her to lose the microphone and her balance.
"Awwww, c'mon honeybuns" Roxie smirked, falling to a knee as the microphone made a horrible feedback noise upon hitting the ground again, "don'tcha want credit for all that superheroing you do?"
Lexi growled, although the mask was proving troublesome for a couple reasons as she could only sort of make out Roxie's exact location between the poorly placed eye-holes and the room being half in darkness. Meanwhile, she was unaware that students and staff alike in the crowd were taking videos on their cell phones. Roxie again grabbed for and snatched up the microphone as Lexi lunged for her.
"Uh uh uh...." Roxie teased, "Maybe don't be so quick to attack, or I'll tell everyone here your secret ... hmmmmm??"
"Roxie, what are you talking about?" Lexi muttered under her breath
"Oh c'mon ... YOU know the one..." Roxie giggled gleefully, clapping her hands as a couple of men restrained Lexi from behind. Turns out Roxie was just stalling for time while more of the Chaos Crew snuck in, leaving her free to practice her MCing skills for the audience. "Ladies and gentlemen... may I present to you, your hero ShrinkGirl ... but is she REALLY such a hero? Hmmm?? I don't think Ms. Rutschmann would find her to be such a hero.... hmmmm??"
"Roxie... don't..." Lexi growled, still trying to lunge violently for the hazardous femme fatale while being held back, but not for long. Lexi had never stared at somebody with such violent intent as right now. She herself was hurting, emotionally and physically. She knew Roxie was by no means a nice person but this was a new low, even for her.
"Hmm? Don't what?" Roxie asked naively, pretending to not understand the message, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I have some news to report ... well actually a couple of things but we'll start with the big one ... we've found Rachel Rutschmann's murderer, everyone!!"
At this, the crowd would audibly gasp, even if many were incredulous over the revelation.
Cindy Rutschmann in particular got to her feet, glaring visibly at the apprehended ShrinkGirl.
"N-No, it wasn't like that ..." the defensive Lexi muttered, shaking her head as she tried to drag herself free, the purple boots scraping on the hardwood floors. Roxie just looked Lexi up and down and smirked victoriously.
"Oh don't worry" Roxie smirked, holding the microphone away from herself a bit, "What I'm about to do will be much much worse ... just figured we should share the spotlight, I'm not TOTALLY selfish, you know"
With that Roxie just clicked her tongue and winked, bringing the microphone back up towards her mouth.
Lexi knew she didn't have much time to speak, so she did the quickest possible thing to escape the grasp and shrunk herself to tiny size, briefly becoming entangled in the gruff men's fingertips before sliding down their arm and sliding onto the floor like a wayward poly pocket.
"Shit, we lost her!" one of the thugs grunted
"What do we mean 'we'?" the other one stomped angrily, just missing hitting tiny Lexi as she slid across the floor amidst the hectic chaos.
"Boys ... boys..." Roxie grinned, the hand which cradled the microphone now curling around it as she put it along her hip, "no need to get so angry ... that's why we have backup, remember..."
With that Roxie took a bow and brought the microphone back to her mic, saying just 3 simple words, "You're up, Sugar!"
Lexi's eyes darted around while Roxie continued to speak, and while she was still concentrated on stopping the gargantuan titaness, she also had to be alert for the sudden appearance of a high speed assailant on a jetpack. Oh how it used to be much simpler when finals season only involved juggling final exam pressure.
Like a zig-zagging bolt, Sugar was on Lexi in no less than 3 seconds flat, pummeling the similarly sized ShrinkGirl in the jaw with a mighty flying punch, sending her crumpled onto the ground before circling back, weaving between the legs of some of her Chaos Crew cohorts, her one red eye seemingly fixated on the purple clad heroine as if targetting her.
In a fit of annoyance, Lexi tore the mask off as it was only causing her more problems at this point and getting punched had caused it to slide further to the left, only obscuring her vision more. Luckily, she got herself situated quickly enough to evade Sugar's next divebomb manuever which ended up almost hitting Roxie's boot. Fortunately for Sugar, Roxie had the snappy reflexes to avoid causing harm to her tiny cohort and then continued her manacing speech to the show go-ers of Miniborough.
"Yes that's right everybody! Our first 1,000 audience members to the show tonight get a SPECIAL SURPRISE!! HA HA HA HA HA HA!!" Roxie giggled like Harley Quinn a bit, continuing to act like an 80s supervillain as she boasted proudly over the microphone. A couple of her minions took quick notice of this themselves, one of them even turning to the side and muttering, "wh-why does she do this?"
"That's enough Roxie! You're going down!" a miffed but still tiny Lexi chirped back, standing in the shadow of her dark boot before tripping on what felt like ... glaze? She'd fall to her knees and have trouble standing back up, her suit and boots having different ideas as Lexi tried to pull her body off the floor but kept getitng interfered with by the viscuous nature of the fluid in which she was currently ensnared.
"Not good to feel helpless, is it?" Rush quipped, landing nearby after having landed the shot, a single foot long strip of glaze on the floor, "like you can't move? Can't do anything? Nobody around to save you?"
"Rachel!" Lexi squeaked, "I ... I didn't mean..."
"SHUT UP!!" Rush screeched again, cocking the cannon again, she'd fire another jet of hot glaze, this time in Lexi's immediate direction. This time, Lexi would take the lesser of two evils, opting to dodge downwards back into the glaze, only further pinning her down but it was better than a scorched upper body. Even the near miss radiated heat around the miniature superheroine as her armor plated antagonist closed in, a sadistic grin on her face.
"I'm ... I'm sorry" Lexi nodded, only on one knee right now.
"Nobody wants to guess?" Roxie giggled, "Nobody at all? Awwwww sad face...." Roxie teased now, making pouty lips as she brought the microphone to her face again. One thing was for sure -- if the villain thing didn't work out, the young and troubled Roxie may have had a future as a game show host.
Sugar Rush meanwhile was a bit less talkative, opting instead to blast off towards Lexi again and slam into her at full speed, so hard that the force pulled her pinned body free from the glaze, the sound akin to that of pulling gum from one's shoe. Lexi just groaned and whimpered as she was forcefully flung further from the action, only hearing Roxie's words echo in the further obscuring darkness in the distance.
"Oh very well then!" Roxie giggled, striking a cheery pose of her own, "Tell ya what, I don't like to leave ANY of you out, so ... you all get ... a BOMB!! HA HA HA HA HA HA!! ... you get a bomb, and YOU get a bomb ... EVERYBODY IN THE CROWD GETS A HOT FRESH BOMB!!"
At this point, the panic understandably ratcheted up to 11. People were frantic, trying to push the thuggish goons aside as they pushed for the exit, some falling and tripping on the bleachers, some even cruel enough in the heat of the moment to step on their fellow citizen as they tried to be among the first to get out the door. Some did manage to find exit out of the building but there were still likely a few hundred or more remaining inside, either paralyzed with fear or intimidated enough by Roxie and her goons. The police were on their way, but would there be enough time?
"Ughh...." Lexi groaned, her vision a bit blurry as Sugar had her in her arms and would cruelly dump her off. She'd scream, having fallen from maybe a foot but at her current size, it felt more like quadruple that and as she looked up, she'd briefly see the thrusted engines of Rush's jet boot as it was about to slam down on her.
Fearing that and powered solely by adrenaline, Lexi sprang out of the way of the rocket stomp, rolling onto her side briefly and getting back to her feet as Sugar prepared the arm cannon again. At this point, the timid ShrinkGirl wasn't sure what would come out. Another blast of glaze? A Mentos grenade? A lasso that tasted like Nerds rope? That would actually be quite tasty.
"Rachel ... please..." Lexi squeaked
To this mention, Sugar Rush would only raise the cannon again in threatening fashion.
Lexi gulped.
"Sugar ... Ms. Sugar Rush..." Lexi nodded, trying to say the name in as respectful a manner as possible, "Pl=Please... didn't you hear her? She's going to set off a bomb ... she's going to kill everyone here... you could die too!"
"I'm already dead!" Rush shook her head, stopping just short of letting another blast free, "besides ... I trust Roxie ... if this is her course of action, then I'm on board"
"Yeah? Is part of the plan to kill your mom too?" Lexi asked
Sugar had fired up her jetpack again and was about to make another drive at Lexi, consumed only by a craving for revenge before hearing the stunned heroine's last question. It finally clicked with her, if only for a moment. But it was a moment enough for her to rethink her actions, if only momentarily.
"What... did you just say?" Rush asked
Lexi pointed up frantically. It was hard to tell with the shuffling people going back and forth, but she could see a woman wearing a black suit, similar to the kinds her mother would always wear but it looked like the kind of suit someone would wear to a funeral, with a black shirt underneath and a black hat to match.
"Sh-She actually came..." Rachel squeaked, looking up at the sight confused as all hell, "M-Mom ... never came to the cheer regionals ... always said she had ... work to go to"
"She cares about you, Rachel" Lexi implored, "I get why you're angry ... I especially get why you're angry at me and I understand why you're angry at your mom but ... you don't want her to die, right?"
"I ... I ..." Rachel paused, before shaking her head, threatning to conk Lexi in the head with the cannon, "No!! This is another trick!! You're in on this!"
"What?!" Lexi squeaked in surprise, backing away as the enraged Sugar Rush fired another shot of hot glaze across the way at her.
"I ... I ... this is all some bullshit!" Sugar Rush growled, her eye glowing red again. Maybe Rachel really WAS gone. "Roxie would never put my mom in danger, Roxie is my friend!"
"I'm telling you she's not!" Lexi squeaked, panicked as she shook her head, "Roxie only cares about one person and that's herself ..."
"LIAR!!" Sugar Rush growled blasting off again at Lexi. This time, Lexi would jump over the jetpack armed Sugar, delivering a powerful down kick on the jetback to disable her for the moment, essentially piledriving her into the floor. She'd sigh under her breath and shake her head. "Sorry Rush, but I've gotta try to find this bomb and save these people ..."
With that, ShrinkGirl would unshrink and head into the shadows of the locker room while people were hopefully too distracted to notice her unmasked. Most people were, except for one.
Roxie dropped the micrphone, again causing the feedback static as a blood red smile crossed her face.
"Awwww cmon Shrinks, we were just gettin' started ..." Roxie giggled, stomping on her way to catch up to Lexi. In the process, she'd just miss stepping on Rush who rolled out of the way with a meek scream.
Sugar would simply watch after Roxie, her thrusters slow to recharge.
Lexi would run frantically down the currently empty corridors down towards the locker rooms. There wasn't anybody inside. Well ... actually. That wasn't completely true. She could hear the faint screaming of a woman.
"Ummm... hello?" Lexi asked, quietly at first before raising her voice. "Is anybody in here?!"
She'd hear it again, the concerning sound of a woman's muffled screaming. It was coming from somewhere in the locker room. Lexi's heartrate was near ready to go into overdrive and as she saw red and blue lights flashing in the distance. Fuck, who do I go to in a time like this?
Somewhere else on campus sat a focused Joshua James who was focusing on tweaking his latest Yugioh deck that he made for worldwide dueling online when a phone call came to him from none other than ShrinkGirl herself. And how did he know this? The caller ID would show "None other than ShrinkGirl herself" while a ringtone belted out triumphant superhero like music.
Josh picked it up, not sure what to expect, "Hey Lex ... how are things going with that new villain? Sugar Star you said her name was?"
"Sugar Star?" Lexi stammered, momentarily taken out of the action, "No, do you even pay... never mind ... Josh I need to know ... if you know anything about ... b-bombs..."
Lexi sighed, the question sounded completely asanine. Why would Josh know anything about ...
"What what kind of bomb is it? A remote detonator? A chemical bomb? Are we looking at an amateur operation here, because then it's most likely a pressure cooker bomb or something using the motherboard of an old Game Boy...." Josh answered with methodical precision and attention to detail.
"Moving on ..." Lexi groaned, also trying to search for the source of the woman's voice, "I don't have much time ... there's a bomb somewhere in here ... would I hear like ... ticking or something?"
"Not necessarily" Josh answered, "If it's a remote detonator, it might not even be active ... but I mean ..."
"Hold on" Lexi said, finally hearing some banging coming from a locker as she neared it. She'd slip her phone into her pocket, unknowingly hanging up on Josh while she tried to pry open the locker. She'd peek in briefly through the slits to see a pair of blue eyes staring back at her, sweat dripping down the face of the captor.
"CHRISSY?" Lexi said audibly.
This would only make the woman in the locker shake and scream more.
"Hold on... I will get you out of there..." Lexi lightly kicked at the locker door, careful not to hurt the girl inside. She then got an idea, dislodging the S from the SG belt and using it as a sort of lock pick. She'd sigh in relief as she she thrust it in at just the right angle to disengage the lock, sending the frightened Chrissy out of the locker and into her arms, shaking and crying.
"Chrissy Chrissy..." Lexi whimpered, holding her tight, not even thinking about the fact that her secret identity had just been further exposed. "Holy shit, what happened to you?"
Chrissy just let out near silent mumbling noises in between sobbing. It was then Lexi realized why the screams had been so muffled. She had been silenced with an almost too generic piece of tape across the mouth. Lexi winced as she slowly took the tape off her mouth, Chrissy looking utterly stunned but also borderline unconscious from not getting much oxygen.
"Chrissy, I gotcha, I gotcha, I promise" Lexi sighed, her anxiety but also her anger climbing when she thought about the kind of horrific soul that would try to hurt somebody as kind as Chrissy. Her arms slid down Chrissy's to try to find the tape or rope that was keeping her from moving her limbs. Her face would turn stone cold upon realizing that what she was feeling wasn't rope or even the back of Chrissy's wrists. It was sleek and likely metallic.
"Lexi ..." Chrissy finally spoke after a pause, "I ... she... you ..."
"It's okay Chrissy, we will get this off of you!" Lexi sighed, the bomb currently strapped around Chrissy.
Before she could make another move, Lexi would hear a giggle, her eyes darting all around. Since it was just her and the traumatized Chrissy, that really only left a couple more possibilities for who was in there now and Sugar Rush would've made a distinctly different sound.
"Heya Lexi..." Roxie giggled, simply strolling into the locker room, "Oh didn't you hear? I'm thinking about trying out for the team? Don't you think I did a great job out there? I really KILLED"
"Roxie, you bitch!" Lexi growled, setting Chrissy carefully down on a bench while she was a bit immobilized.
"Tsk tsk tsk... not so fast there, Shrinky" Roxie smirked callously, a remote detonator in her hand, "I .... wouldn't do that"
Chrissy's eyes widened.
"The fuck is wrong with you Roxie?" Lexi frowned, still keeping her distance, not wanting to take a chance.
"You know... I take that as a compliment... oh hold up, my shoe's untied" Roxie giggled, settling her foot down on a bench as she non-chalantly set the detonator down on the ground, going to lace up her right boot with both hands before winking over at Lexi, "just by the way ... you make ONE move towards that detonator ... I blow us all to high hell..."
Unbeknownst to both Lexi and Roxie, Sugar had found her way into the room and was watching the battle unfold from a distance.
"So you really don't care, huh?" Lexi asked
"You're going to have to be more specific than that..." Roxie shrugged, finishing the lacing of her boots and standing up straight, taking the detonator back into her hands. Lexi noticed briefly a green crumpled up bag of cookies fall out of Roxie's pant pocket. It bore the logo of KEKSE cookies on them. She shook her head in grief as Roxie casually scooped up the bag and ate a cookie out of it.
"Rachel's mother!"
"Who?" Roxie asked, mouth full of cookie crumbs.
"Rachel Rutschmann!!" Lexi snapped
Again Roxie remained standing up with a befuddled look on her face.
"...Sugar" Lexi sighed, rolling her eyes
"Ohhhh oh yeah, what about her?" Roxie shrugged, seeming fairly uncaring at this moment. She'd toss the now finished bag of cookies to the concrete.
"Her mom is going to die if you blow that bomb" Lexi said
"And?" Roxie giggled, "You think I give a fuck?"
"She thinks you're her friend, Roxie" Lexi said
"Yeah, and?" Roxie asked
"You are seriously messed up" Lexi sighed
"You're REALLY laying it on thick with the compliments tonight, Shrink ..." Roxie smirked, sliding up to Lexi uncomfortably close, "but flattery will get you nowhere, if you know what I mean ..."
"Ugh..."
"Oh my god, what do you want, a cookie? Fresh out ... Her mom's in the crowd, whatever ..." Roxie giggled, "She's pretty much served her purpose... this whole operation was at best a suicide mission ... for my men anyway ... I'll be slipping out the back as soon as the cops close in which ... seems like they're ahead of schedule surprisingly"
If it was possible to hear such a sound, the sound of Rachel Rutschmann's heart breaking could likely be heard from behind a locker door where she watched the action unfold.
So ShrinkGirl was right ... Roxie wasn't her friend either.....
Giantess World
