Chapter Two: Shade, Part One
At the ungodly hour of two in the afternoon... on a Saturday, Elliot was woken up prematurely by a phone ringing. Not really thinking about it, just wanting to make the ringing stop, the brown haired teen picked up the phone.
His eyes were still sleep addled, the blanket was still half on his head, and he was barely able to snort out an understandable greeting to whoever was on the other end of the line.
"Hello?"
"Elliot! It's Sarah! You and Tedd are in today's paper!" The blonde girl all but shouted over the phone, "It talks about how Tedd brought the goo to life and how you destroyed it."
Elliot nodded though he knew Sarah could not see it, "Well, yeah, some guys interviewed us. I guess some people think anything is news..."
"You don't consider goo coming to life news?" Sarah was understandably incredulous.
"Not after some of the stuff I've seen at Tedd's house..."
999
Elsewhere, someone else was perusing the Saturday paper and also came across the article about Tedd, the goo and its eventual destruction at the hands of Elliot.
Could it be? The person thought, Could... could this "Tedd" help me?
999
Back at Sarah's house, the young woman was screwing up her courage to do something she'd wanted to do for a while.
"So, um, Elliot... I was thinking maybe we should see a movie tonight..."
Elliot's response was quick, "Cool! I'll call Tedd." And unsatisfactory.
"T-Tedd? A-actually, I was thinking just the two of us would go to a movie, together..."
"But Tedd will get lonely! We really should include him."
Sarah was beginning to lose her patience, "He can watch TV!" She nearly shouted into the phone, "Look, you goon, I'm trying to ask you to go out with me!"
"Well, yeah, I figured you wanted to go the theater and not rent..."
"What? That's not-"
"Alright, I've got Tedd online. He's interested in 'Bionic Lesbians From Mars: Episode VIII'. What do you wanna see?"
Sarah's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as she came to the eventual conclusion that she was romantically interested in a moron.
999
Later that day could find the three teens standing outside the theater. The cold weather prompted Elliot and Sarah to add a jacket to their normal ensemble.
Tedd was wearing a winter cap, a scarf, a heavy winter coat and wool mittens and still seemed to be freezing, his arms wrapped tight around himself and his whole body shivering.
"So many movies..." Elliot intoned, looking at the list, "Alright, what should we see?"
Sarah, her entire goal for the evening already being thwarted by Tedd's presence, was noncommittal in her response, "Anything but a Chick-Flick."
Tedd stuttered out through shivering jaws, "B-but y-you a-are a ch-chick...
Sensing the argument to come, and wanting nothing to do with it, Elliot took off his jacket, pulled it over his head while leaving the front open so he could continue to peruse the list of movies and began mentally chanting a mantra, Nothing can penetrate the Coat of Solitude...
"So?" Sarah snapped at Tedd, "My movie preferences are not defined by my gender!"
The shivering teen turned to her with a grin hidden by his scarf, "O-oh, I-I get it! Y-you're a l-lesbian! Gotcha!"
For a moment Sarah thought of attacking Tedd, but seemed to push it to the side, He's getting the beating of a lifetime once he takes off that thick winter coat...
Elliot was deep into his mantra by that point, I am invincible...
After finally picking a movie, and with his coat back on normally instead of draped over his head, Elliot went to buy the tickets.
"Three students for Attack Of The Frozen Waffle," he said to the blonde haired teen in the ticket booth, handing over enough money for all three.
"You are the man!" He got in return as he was handed the tickets.
"Huh?"
"Those two fine ladies are with you, right? Way to go, Playah!" The blonde teen grinned in pride at his fellow playah as he handed him his change.
"What?" Elliot resisted the urge to face palm as he began to explain, "First of all, only one-" He then noticed a discrepancy in the amount of money in his hands, "Wait, this is too much change..."
The blonde's grin became almost devious as he said, "Now, I can't charge full price to a fellow playah, like yourself!" He gave Elliot a thumbs up as he finished with, "Buy your women some diet soda! They'll 'thank' you later..." and the whole bit was capped off with a conspiratorial wink.
Elliot didn't notice the wink, pondering the cash in his hands and the virtues of being honest about Tedd's gender.
Not twenty seconds later, Elliot began to lead his two friends towards their designated theater, a half lidded look on his face as he said, "Follow me, ladies."
Tedd's outraged cry of, "What?" didn't change the fact that Elliot didn't have to pay full price for three tickets.
999
"What is it I'm looking at here?"
In the theater, the movie well underway, Sarah sat between Tedd an Elliot, occasionally cutting her eyes to the taller of the two longingly.
"Well, General, it's... a frozen waffle."
"This is what destroyed an entire city?"
The blonde girl cut a quick look to Tedd, making sure he was completely distracted by the movie before looking at Elliot a little more intently. A plan quickly formed in her mind to salvage at least some small part of this evening.
"It is more dangerous than it appears!"
Sarah leaned over in her seat, laying her head against Elliot's shoulder, getting a glance from the taller teen.
"You, Dr. German, are a loon. We have nothing to fear from such a simple thing!"
Elliot, not quite sure how to react to the subtle intimacy Sarah was trying to initiate, simply went back to watching the movie.
"Nothing at all!"
999
Well after the movie was over, the three teens were in Elliot's car on the way home. Tedd, still wrapped up in his thick winter clothing, was vocal about his opinion of the movie they just watched and its lack of favorable qualities.
"That was the worst movie ever," he proclaimed, "Ever I say!"
Sarah turned to Tedd from the front passenger seat, "Oh, and the Bionic Lesbians would've been better?" She did not seem convinced by his arguments so far.
Tedd, understanding that it would take more than his approval of a movie to warrant Sarah's own, quoted a fact he'd heard about the Bionic Lesbians From Mars: Episode VIII, "Ebort gave it two thumbs up!"
She was still unimpressed, but further debate was stalled by Elliot.
"Your house, Tedd," he pulled his car over to the curb.
Tedd exited the car, bidding a quick farewell to his friends. He was still pondering how one could possibly extoll the virtues of Waffles over Lesbians.
Waffles Versus Lesbians... were his exact thoughts, There just isn't any contest!
"Are you Tedd?"
Startled out of his thoughts, Tedd whipped around to face the speaker with a voice he did not recognize. What he found was a dark skinned girl with long, coffee brown hair kept in a ponytail, wearing a trench coat. She was shivering, nearly as much as Tedd was earlier, as she spoke.
"A-are you Tedd?" She repeated her first question to the purple haired teen, "That guy who made goo come to life?"
A little surprised that the pretty girl was talking to him over something as silly as that little goo debacle, Tedd nodded, "Um, yeah, that's me. But who are you?"
"I'm Grace," she told him easily enough, "Can we, um, go inside? I'm cold."
Tedd lifted an eyebrow at that, "Now wait a minute... I've never met you before, and-" at about that moment in time he realized this woman, who looked to be around his age, wasn't waring any shoes and he couldn't see the collar of a shirt, "Um, what are you wearing underneath that trench coat?"
Grace, unsure of what he was getting at, answered honestly, "Well, nothing, but-"
Tedd, suddenly quite accommodating, rushed over to his door, opening it up and offering her a rapid fire speech, welcoming her inside, "''rehavingnightmaresit'!"
A couple minutes later, Grace was sitting in a green leather chair, nursing a hot chocolate while Tedd fetched some clothing for her. Hearing him come back into the room, she felt the need to explain a little bit about the trench coat.
"Thanks for letting me in," She looked a mixture of depressed and relieved as she said this, "And I want you to know that the reason I'm only wearing this coat isn't sexual in any way."
"Dammit," Tedd cursed, then rushed to cover it up when he realized he spoke out loud, "I mean, um...Listen putting clothes onto a girl goes against all my instincts, but if ya want you can wear some of my clothes for now so you won't be stuck just wearing that."
Grace seemed honestly surprised by the purple haired glasses wearer's generosity.
"Thanks, Tedd. I-"
She was interrupted by a man's voice yelling down to the basement, "TEDD? WHO'S DOWN THERE?"
Tedd was visibly nervous as he muttered, "Aw crap, my dad's home!"
Seconds later a man, just a bit taller than Tedd himself, came to be standing in front of the two teens. His blue hair was cut short unlike his son's purple locks, he had a blue mustache that hid his mouth when he talked normally and he had a pair of mirror lens glasses on his face like Tedd, only his were rectangular instead of circular.
"Tedd," He scolded, "You know you're supposed to call ahead before before bringing anyone into this house unless it's Elliot!" His arms were crossed, one finger in the air to emphasize his point, and yet again proving his genetic connection to Tedd.
Grace's eyes were wide as saucers as she noticed man Tedd called 'Dad', I don't believe this! How can he be Tedd's father?
Similarly, the look on Tedd's father's face changed when he properly identified Grace, Is that-Shade Tail?
"Shade..." Tedd's father intoned to Grace, "Does anyone in your family know that you're here?"
"'Shade'...?" Tedd muttered looking at the young woman.
"No, they don't," Grace answered, looking at the floor.
His father nodded and pointed in her general direction, "Good let's hope it remains that way. Tedd, make up the guest room. Shade here will be staying with us. See if you can get that girl Sarah to help get her some decent clothes tomorrow, as well. Other than Elliot and Sarah, tell no one that Shade is here, got that?" He turned to leave after giving his orders to his son.
Grace, or Shade, snapped her head up in shock, the two locks of hair framing her face seeming to lift with her mood, "Are you serious? You're going to protect me?"
Tedd, still standing next to the chair Grace was sitting in, still holding the clothing meant for her and still confused all to hell, could only mutter, "...What the hell is going on...?"
Quickly giving the clothes to Grace, he ran to catch up with his father.
"Okay, Dad, while Grace is changing her clothes, tell me what's going on! Aren't we going to get in trouble for keeping her from her family? How do you know her? Why do you call her Shade?" He was breathing a little hard by the time he asked all of the questions he wanted to know the answers to.
His father did not hesitate in his answer, pointing directly at Tedd to get his point across without any misinterpretation, "DGB." He then quickly walked away, not letting his son get another word in edgewise.
Tedd was now more confused than ever, scratching his head as he tried to connect the cute girl with his dad's job, "How is Grace 'Dad's Government Business'?"
Grace had finished dressing by this point and had come up from the basement wearing a pair of his khaki pants and one of his black shirts.
"It's a long story, Tedd. Thanks for the clothes," She paused, then observed, "They fit surprisingly well."
Ignoring the fact that his clothes fit well on a girl, the teen turned to face her, "Listen, Grace, I don't mean to sound rude, but why are you here?"
Grace, yet again, seemed shocked by something either Tedd or his father had done.
"...You called me Grace."
Tedd lifted one eyebrow at that, "Huh? Um, well yeah, that is your name, isn't it?" he was confused further when the pretty girl seemed to get more depressed than ever before looking at him with desperate hope in her eyes.
Tears gathering in the corners, she made a request, "Tedd, I Came here to get help from you... but first I want you to get to know me as Grace, and not as Shade or anything else! …Can you do that for me?"
His eyebrow still raised he gave a brief nod, "You're confusing the hell out of me, but I suppose I can do that..."
Relieved almost beyond words, Grace turned away from him, tears finally leaking from her eyes in joy, "Thank you."
999
About an hour later could find Grace and Tedd vegging out on the couch in the basement, watching TV. Tedd channel surfed for a little bit, looking for something of interest, but gave it up as futile after a few minutes.
"Man, there's nothing good on TV. Wanna do something else?" He asked Grace.
"I dunno. Anything 'normal' would be good," She looked a little tired as she said this.
Tedd grinned as he turned to her, resting one arm on the couch's arm, "Really? Cause ya know, it's technically normal for people to sleep together..."
Grace was quick though, "Ah, but not if they've just met and aren't in a relationship," and she lifted one finger, as she had seen Tedd's dad do, to emphasize her fact.
Tedd didn't move, didn't say anything, he almost wasn't even breathing.
Don't fall for it, stay on guard... He told himself, Just wait for the hammer... Any second now...
The dark skinned girl was beginning to worry for his health.
"...Um, are you feeling okay? You look kinda frozen..."
999
Elsewhere, a figure shrouded in darkness impatiently waited the return of another.
The other person dropped out of the sky, wings clearly distinguishable on their back.
"Did you find her?" The first figure demanded.
"No," came the scratchy reply from the second.
Both figures had eyes that glowed with sinister intent as they spoke.
The first turned away from the second, and his spiky hair could be made out, "Dammit, Shade! Why have you left us?"
The second, protrusions coming from the side of his head, things that might be ears, asked, "Shall I look again?"
"...No," the first said after a second of though, "We have more pressing concerns at the moment." He looked off into the distance, growling with barely suppressed anger, "Enjoy your time off, Shade... It will not last."
999
The next day, at two P.M., Tedd decided to call Elliot. He quickly punched in his friend's number and waited for him to pick up.
"Hey Elliot, it's..."
The other teen interrupted him with an annoyed bark of, "No way! It's my day off! Get Randal to do it!"
Tedd lifted an eyebrow, not that Elliot could see, "...Huh?"
"What? Oh..." He seemed to realize it wasn't his boss that called, "Uh, sorry about that. What's up, Tedd?"
"Listen, I want you to come over. Something crazy happened last night and-" He heard his father call him, "Uh, hold on a second," Tedd pulled the receiver away from his mouth, "Yeah dad?"
From Elliot's side of things, the taller teen was laying in bed again, the blanket still half covering his head. He could hear Tedd's dad say something, but couldn't make out what.
After he was done speaking Tedd returned to the phone, "Okay, apparently odds are good that your phone is tapped, so I can't go into details just now. Can ya come over?"
For a moment, Elliot just stared at the phone, wondering if his friend was serious.
999
An undecided amount of time later, Elliot arrived at Tedd's house and was greeted at the door by his friend's father.
"Ah, Hello Elliot!" The blue haired, mustachio'd man greeted him, "Let's see..." He put one fist to his chin in thought, holding up one arm with the other, "Tedd was either upstairs studying, or downstairs working in that lab I gave him..."
A boom, a flash of light that seemed to temporarily render the world in negative colors, and the cry of, "AAAA! My eyes! MY BEAUTIFUL EYES!" answered that question.
Elliot walked by Tedd's father a half lidded look on his face.
"Basement it is then."
"Try not to get injured this time."
After storing his coat, Elliot walked over to what appeared to be a mutant cat creature with hedgehog spines going from the top of its head to the tip of its tail. He carefully pet the creatures head.
"Ah, Jeremy..." He greeted the cat thing, "What's it like, being a creature that nature never intended?"
Jeremy just meowed at him questioningly.
While his back was turned, Grace had noticed him, and approached, hand outstretched to shake hands.
"Oh hi!" She greeted, "You must be Elliot!"
Elliot was puzzled for a moment, then it clicked. He pointed at her, and said, jovially enough, "And you must be a robot, as there's no was a hot chick like you would be in Tedd's lab!"
"What?" Grace frowned at the accusation, "I'm not a robot!"
"Aw man, I'm sorry..." Elliot was honestly embarrassed, "He didn't kidnap you, did he?"
Grace just gave the brown haired teen a deadpan look.
999
Later that very day, after a thorough tour of Tedd's lab, Grace had a few things she needed cleared up.
"Tedd..." she ventured, "After all I've seen, there is one question I must ask..." She turned a fierce glare on the purple haired teen, "Do you enjoy playing God?"
Tedd, sitting at a computer, playing a video game, with Elliot to his right, didn't hesitate in answering, "Why yes, yes I do."
"Hey, that village doesn't believe in you," Elliot pointed out.
"When do I get a turn?" Grace asked.
"As soon as I burn this village to the ground."
A few minutes later, Tedd and Elliot stood side by side, watching Grace play the game Tedd had abandoned in favor of explaining things to Elliot.
"So that's how you two met? Twisted."
"Yup."
"And you want me to convince Sarah to help get Grace some clothes of her own?"
Tedd nodded turning to face his friend, "I'd do it, but no fashion sense and I'm banned from that area of the mall."
Elliot shrugged and crossed his arms, "We'll need to know what size clothes she wears."
Tedd looked back to the pretty young lady playing on his computer, "Could be a while; I think she's addicted.
"No! Bad cow!" Grace shouted at the computer, "Stop eating all of my villagers!"
999
One phone call and some ego stroking later, Elliot stood upstairs waiting for Sarah with Tedd.
"Okay," Elliot said, pointing back at himself with his thumb, "It took some convincing and a whole lot of complimenting of her artistic skill and fashion sense, but she's on her way."
Tedd was confused, "Why is she coming here? We just need her to get clothes."
The brown haired teen shrugged, "Eh, I think my compliments went to her head. She said something about needing to see Grace to know what to get her."
Tedd was a little stunned, rubbing his chin in thought, lifting one eyebrow, "I never thought Sarah would come back to my house..."
"Hey, you turned her back to normal," Elliot reasoned, "She's got no reason to hold a grudge."
Before Tedd could formulate a reply, an obnoxious dinging noise filled the air. Both of them turned in the direction of the door and Tedd went to answer it.
"Sup- Sarah?" Opening the door for the blonde, it was revealed she was wearing the same clothing as normal, pink shirt and blue jeans, with the addition of a black beret tilted to one side and a pair of stylish dark sunglasses.
"Hello Tedd," she greeted him coolly, "Take me to the girl; I have work to do."
Not wanting to say anything at this point that might end up with his face beaten in, Tedd simply went to fetch Grace.
Sarah approached Elliot, "So where is this girl, 'Grace'?"
Thinking for a moment, Elliot gave her his best guess, "Well, I believe at the moment Tedd is trying to drag her away from his computer..."
At that moment Tedd was indeed pulling the dark skinned girl away from the game, "C'mon Grace, Sarah needs to see you if she's going to get you stuff!"
Grace was struggling to get back to the computer and continue playing the game, "But... But I was just about to trade in my cow for a sheep!" She tried in futility to reach the keyboard.
Tedd became more insistent, hearing that, "In that case, I'm doing you a huge favor!"
A couple minutes later and Tedd placed Grace before Sarah, "Here ya go."
Sarah was almost disgusted by the discovery of the girls current mode of dress, "You're wearing Tedd's clothes?" she frowned, "This is an emergency!" She paused to think for a moment, then added, "Wait... The reason you need me to do this is because someone dangerous might see and recognize you?"
Grace, wondering about how much to give away, hesitated, "Um... Sorta..."
"Join me in the next room, Grace. I have an idea..." She ushered the other girl out of the boys' sight.
Tedd grinned almost evilly, "You see that? She wants to be alone with Grace! Man, I told you she was a lesbian!"
Elliot scoffed, "Right... that would explain her wanting to go out with me."
Tedd's head whipped towards Elliot, "She wants to go out with you? Since when?"
But Elliot was too distracted by the return of Sarah and Grace to answer, "Whoa!"
"TA-DA!" Sarah said in presentation of Grace.
The target of her ministrations was standing there, wearing a pair of fake glasses, her dark hair pulled out of it's pony tail, even the two prominent bangs that normally framed her face brushed down to be inconspicuous. Grace seemed dubious about her change in appearance.
She turned to Sarah, a frown on her face, "I look ridiculous."
Sarah shrugged, holding up her hands, "Well, this is just so you can go out without someone recognizing you!"
Tedd pointed to her new look and added a comment, "Just think of it like normally you're Superman, and this is Clark Kent."
Elliot had a deadpan look to him as he thought, She didn't look ridiculous before?
Sarah hooked her arm with Grace's and began dragging her for the door, "And now that you're disguised, to the mall!"
"Noooo," Grace cried, struggling against Sarah like she had with Tedd, reaching for the basement door, "My villagers need me!"
999
At the mall, and sans beret and dark glasses, Sarah led the dark haired girl around. Grace, appearing to have never even been to such an establishment, her head was whipping around, taking in all the sights.
"Let's see," Sarah began, "Probably the first thing we should get you is a decent coat to wear..."
At that moment Grace spotted something she did recognize.
"VIDEO GAMES!"
Sarah tried to be the voice of reason, "Now hold on. That money Tedd's dad gave us is meant only to be spent on-"
Grace ignored Sarah and ran past her, a comical 'Zoooom!' sound filling the air.
"-clothes..." Sarah muttered, watching the other girl sprint through the mall to her destination.
Sarah would find Grace a few seconds later, sitting on the floor, reading through a game guide.
"Man, the sheep really does suck..." She mumbled to herself as she looked over the statistics.
"C'mon, Grace," Sarah urged, "We're supposed to be getting you some clothes."
Grace ignored her to keep reading the book.
"Th mall is only open until five on Sundays. At this rate you'll wind up playing those games without any clothes on!" She tried using the fear of being naked in a house with Tedd as incentive.
"You think Tedd would mind?" Grace asked, finally looking up from the book.
Sarah had to smack herself in the forehead. This girl was obviously too naive for her own good.
After finally convincing the girl to leave the game store and find some clothing, Sarah came around from another isle to see the other girl glaring at the shirt she was inspecting.
"Found any clothes you like?" Sarah asked.
Grace sighed, "Yeah, but none of them are stretchy enough."
Sarah took a look at some of Grace's choices and lifted one eyebrow, "Well you know, that wouldn't be a problem if the clothes you looked at weren't so small..."
"They're small on me now, but when I'm small they'll fit well."
Sarah scoffed and crossed her arms, "Oh what, you plan to lose some weight? C'mon, you look fine already!"
Grace considered Sarah's words, "That's not what I meant, but maybe I should. One hundred sixty pounds is pretty heavy."
For a couple seconds Sarah was shocked into silence by the other girls words. Eyes wide and pointing at her general, obviously well defined form, Sarah stuttered out, "Y-you weigh a hundred and s-sixty...?"
Oblivious to the blonde's distress at what should be a physical impossibility, Grace nodded, "Last I checked," she smiled as she saw something else she liked, "Ooh, those clothes look good!"
999
About a half hour later, Sarah was still trying to chew her way through the paradoxical data Grace had revealed to her.
"Teenage girl, average height, almost no visible fat, one hundred sixty pounds... It boggles the mind!"
Raising one, slightly annoyed, eyebrow at her new friend, Grace asked, "We've finished shopping and you're still stuck on that?"
"I'm sorry," Sarah quickly apologized about her obsessiveness, "it's just that I find it a little-"
"Weird?" Grace interrupted her. Sarah nodded. Grace just smiled, "That's okay. I'm a weird person."
Sarah smiled a little herself, deciding that it was a mystery that, at this point, really didn't matter. Instead she focused her attention on something of more immediate consequence.
"...Dude, where's my car?"
Looking around, the other girl piped up, "Um, I think we went through the wrong exit..."
Sarah looked around again herself and groaned, "Oh great, we did take the wrong exit! And with the mall being closed we're going to have to go all the way around!"
Grace spotted a shortcut and hoped that might cheer her friend up, "Why not go through that gap between the buildings?"
"Hmmmm..." Sarah glanced at the alley then placed a hand on her chin as she recited the facts she could already tell about it aloud, "Dark alley... Night... Two unarmed teenage girls... Screams wouldn't be overheard by nearby traffic..." She missed the way that each thing she said made Grace get more and more nervous, "Sounds good; Let's go!"
"Um, wait a second..."
A few feet into the alley, Grace was really regretting pointing it out to the blonde girl.
"Let's turn back..." She whispered nervously.
"This was your idea, you know," Sarah told her dryly.
"It was a stupid one."
Suddenly a man in a ski mask, equipped with a knife jumped from behind a barrel and roared at the two girls, "Hand over all your money! DO IT NOW!"
Sarah, fearful for both her and her new friend's lives, put her hands in the air and tried to placate the man, "O-okay, we don't want any trouble! We'll give it to you!"
Grace looked to be panicking, her entire body shaking with fear.
"HURRY UP!" The masked man barked at the two of them.
Sarah noticed Grace's state of panic and tried to get her to settle down and give over the money, "Grace, calm down! You have the money, just git to him and we'll-"
She was cut off by an inhuman growl coming from the other girl. She hunched over, her eyes began to glow, and her hair flowed out of it's brushed state, her two locks of thick hair at the front swishing out. Tears began leaking out of her eyes as her body began to go through a change.
First, Grace's eyes started glowing red. Then her hair, already looking pretty wild as it moved on a wind that did not exist, became spikier and wilder yet. Her fingernails grew into long black claws, fur started growing all over her body. Finally, a tail grew out from the base of her spine, growing a large amount of fur and curling back towards the ground once it reached a certain length.
Her transformation complete, which only actually took a few seconds, Grace turned a fierce brown eyed glare on the mugger.
The man frowned behind his mask and readied his knife to stab the two girls.
"I don't know what the hell you are, but I'm still gonna mess you up good little girl!"
That plan of action was nixed when a purple glow surrounded the hunting knife he was using and it was lifted out of his hand, a high pitch hum filling the air.
The thief took a moment to cogitate the current events then turned and ran, throwing his hands in the air, shouting the whole way, "AAAAAAAA! DEMON GIRL! REPENT! REPENT I SAY! AAAAAAA!"
As he ran the purple glow disappeared with a swish and his knife was dropped to the ground.
Sarah's eyes, wide as saucers, took in the girl's appearance, "Grace...?"
"Please..." The other girl grunted, more tired than she'd ever felt before, "catch... me..."
Sarah rushed to do as the now smaller and hairier girl requested, and she barely succeeded, "Oof!" Struggling to get to her feet with the other girl's arm pulled over her shoulder, Sarah couldn't help but comment, "Ugh! How are you so heavy?"
As she slowly, arduously worked the two of them towards her car, a look of rage over took Sarah's face, Tedd... I'm going to kill you for this...
+- Chapter Two: Shade, Part One End
Omake: Q&A Number One
In a room with dark green floors and white walls, a familiar German scientist stood.
"Guten Tag," he greeted in German much the same as his first appearance in the prologue, "I am the Stereotypical German Scientist. My assistant and I are here to answer many questions you readers have had, and to kill time till Sunday so as to allow Dan to-"
He was interrupted by his screaming assistant rolling by on rollerblades, barely maintaining her balance, "AAAAAAAA! ROLLERBLADING IS HARD!" As she zoomed by she noticed the Doctor, "I'll be with you in a second Doctor...!" Seconds later she crashed spectacularly, causing the doctor to wince.
"Back off," he grumbled to you the reader, "She types one hundred twenty words a minute."
+- Hey, Rollerblading IS hard. That or I just suck at it.
Again, the German scientist stood in his lab, his assistant standing next to him, drinking a soda absentmindedly.
"At least a couple of you have wondered," The scientist said, "why Grace was still so heavy after becoming smaller due to her transformation. The answer is simply that mass doesn't just disappear," he explained.
To his left, his assistant felt an odd gurgling in her stomach.
"Therefore," the man continued, "her overall weight remained the same, but her size got smaller resulting in a greater density, so technically it would be even harder to carry her when she's small."
Behind him, almost instantaneously, his assistant shrank right out of her clothing to the size of a doll.
"I personally have succeeded at designing methods to in effect reduce mass without actually getting rid of it, as my assistant just accidentally demonstrated by foolishly drinking a shrink potion of my own design," he peered down at her for a moment before going on to say, "You'd think she'd know not to drink just anything she finds around the lab by now."
"Hey!" his miniaturized assistant protested, "You told me it was soda!"
+- She wouldn't last five minutes in Tedd's Lab
The German Scientist yet again stood, ready to dispense scientific fact to you the reader.
"Question: Why didn't Sarah use her hammer on the mugger. Answer: The hammers women can use in this comic are meant only for comedic purposes. If the situation is serious in anyway, they cannot be used. Besides, they can only be used against men who have said or done something offensive towards women."
With a titanic boom, a comically sized mallet slammed into the German scientists head. It hit with such force that the mallet actually cracked all around the one side.
His assistant stood there, holding the hammer, a smug look on her face behind her glasses, "He's had that coming for at least a couple of months."
"Ow..."
+- Remember: REAL hammers do REAL damage
The German scientist and his assistant stood once again in his lab. The elderly German man held a letter in his hand.
"Dr. Germahn, is that really the last question we get to answer?" the busty blonde woman asked, pleading him to say that it wasn't.
"I'm afraid so, Amanda," Germahn said a little melancholy himself, "Let's hope for a good one."
Opening it up and unfolding the paper, Dr. Germahn read aloud with Amanda reading over his shoulder, "'Dear German scientist... what is your real name? And also, what is the name of your assistant?'"
For a moment, silence.
"Dammit."
+- The German Scientist's name is Dr. Germahn?
