This chapter is even shorter than the last one. That's weird. Trust me, they get longer.


Selena walked away from the group, finding the dumpster that marked where the quick-route to her house was. She was a little out of breath, and really tired. Pretending to be a ghost really took a lot out of her, apparently. She would keep that in mind.

Continuing down the straight path to her dump, she felt quite ridiculous. She couldn't even steal a damned book, let alone pull off murder?

She had the anger, yes, and the power, but for some reason it didn't occur to her to kill her mother at all.

She arrived at her house and found the old, tattered Harry Potter book she had loved as a kid. If it made that Syndrome shut up for once in his life, she would let him have the thing and do whatever he wished with it. But, before she could leave the house, she was taken down by her worst enemy, sleep.

---

"So. Now that we can talk again, like-dare I say-NORMAL PEOPLE, what are we doing, oh great and fearless leader?" Syndrome asked, voice heavy with sarcasm.

"Syndrome... I'm not the leader here."

"Wait, what?"

"Selena thought of it. She brought Sikes here, and she brought you here. And she could probably kill any of us. So. I'm guessing it's best we just let her do her thing and go with it."

"THAT FREAK GIRL CAN NOT BE THE LEADER-"

Syndrome was cut off by Rylan's eyes glowing a fierce green.

"S-sorry..."

Sikes was looking at the book he still had. "Didn't know our witch-girl was starting a library," he muttered. "All of this for a stupid book? And we didn't even have any problem! Nothing went wrong at all... except the girl didn't even try to steal anything worthwhile. Useless, just like Nancy," He added under his breath.

"Sikes..." Rylan sighed. "It's for part of the plan later on. We're getting another ally with it..."

"ANOTHER ONE?!" Syndrome shouted. "Hopefully he isn't anything like that one over there, THEN we'll be in trouble, we'll have more brawn than brains..."

"Shut UP, Syndrome," Rylan snapped.

He rolled his eyes. He didn't quite know what Selena was thinking-even with just the two, things were not going well. Syndrome treated Sikes like some kind of dumbed-down, shorter, evil Mr. Incredible; and Sikes treated Syndrome like... well... a nuisance that should be permanently silenced.

What could she have been THINKING, bringing someone else into the mix?

Granted, they'd have Cyrus's aid, but still…

Selena woke to a loud SNAP. She jumped off the bed, summoned a table leg, and shouted, "WHO'S THERE?!" There was no reply, just a little crackle of leaves. "DAMMIT, I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE!! WHO'S THERE?!"

She was about ready to go outside when-

"Gah, I really have got to start working on being more discreet since I got out of jail. That kind of thing kind of makes you lose your edge," someone whispered.

Selena opened the door quickly, still holding onto her table-leg-club with both hands.

"Who the hell are you, and what are you doing standing outside my house? I give you three seconds to answer, starting NOW."

"Hey, put the table leg down, my name's Cyrus, and I was just wandering around."

Selena almost dropped her club in shock. She caught it before it reached the ground, and pulled it back up to batting-position.

"You- You- YOU?" She snorted.

She would have started laughing had she not known that Cyrus was a murderer. Selena knew very well that murderers could be provoked by laughter.

"Yes, me- me- ME. Now if you don't mind, I'm looking for an old friend's place... Could you tell me which way..." The somewhat short girl paused and pulled out a piece of paper. "...uh, 1020 Ochre Way is?"

"You're not joking," Selena said more to herself than anyone else. She summoned her Harry Potter book and said, "I'm going there. If you can keep up, you can get there too."

She then made a mad dash, twisting through the alleyways as always.

She looked behind her.

Some ways behind her, the other girl was panting and trying to catch up.

"Hold up," she shouted. "I'm not that fast. I've been sitting around too long."

"So I've heard," Selena thought to her. She slowed down a tad- after all, Cyrus had been in jail, but that girl still needed to be on top of her game.

"Hey, whassat bit with... ya know... not moving your lips, but still talking?" Cyrus said between gasps. "Hey, waita minute, you're Selena, aintcha? Rylan was awfully proud of you, ya know... before you went and turned him in and all. Heard all about it in the slammer. Ya hear all kinds of things there."

Selena paled, but kept moving. "Yeah, like what?" She asked. "Oh, and you can just think your answer. Keeps things a bit more quiet for everyone else."

Kay, but this might take some getting used to... although it does let me "talk," so to speak, without getting even more out of breath. It's more efficient. Anyway. You hear all kinds of things in the slammer.

You said that already.

Like your rise above Rylan while he was incarcerated. And yeah, I know, I repeat myself a lot. Get used to it.

You said he was proud? My ass, he was! He obviously didn't tell you the full story. Did he tell you about how HE threw ME out? I was 'a kid running around the operation,' according to him. Useless. He never once let me kill, either. Always saved it for himself. However, if someone needed to be harmed, then it was all my job. I don't think he could restrain himself, the old fool.

Now listen. Rylan may be a fool, but he ain't old. He's only late twenties, early thirties... something like that. And he's kinda like that. See. I got around that bit.

Don't know how you could without being sent off.

I just stick an illusion in front of him and he thinks I left. And then for some reason when I show up the next morning, he doesn't even care. And then I stopped coming around so often. Just stopped to chat for old times' sake. Course, I was on my own a lot faster than you were.

Selena glowered.

Maybe six, seven, eight, hell, I can't remember. You got lucky. You didn't have most of your memories blanked before you left. I remember the basics of what I need to. And nothing else before he threw me out.

He blanked your memories?!

Yup.

Selena's thoughts went straight to Sikes.

We need to get there NOW.

It kind of sucks.

Selena stopped. They WERE there now.

Hey, whaddaya know, just like old times.

Hey, Rylan, Sikes, Syndrome! Anyone!

Hey, wait, did you say SYNDROME?!

Oh shit, Selena thought to nowhere in particular.

Let me and Cyrus in, eh!? Or I'll pick your lock! And then it won't be any good!

Hey, no need to get so touchy! Give me a minute, will you? And what? You brought Cyrus? And none too soon...

She was hiding outside my house!

Yeah, she does that...

The door swung open to allow passage for the pair.

YOU SAID SYNDROME! Cyrus thought like the somewhat-hyperactive fangirl she was.

As soon as they were both in, Selena shut it. She shouted upstairs, "She found out about Syndrome, sorry!"

"SHE WHAT?!" Rylan yelled. "WHY DID YOU TELL HER? NOW SHE'LL BE FANGIRLING ALL NIGHT!"

"I didn't! She somehow overheard me yelling at you three to get your asses down here! Well, psychically yelling."

"YOU WERE YELLING!" Cyrus yelled. "I CAN HEAR PEOPLE WHEN THEY'RE YELLING!"

"Only the people I'm yelling AT should be able to hear me, Cyrus! How the hell did you do it!?"

Selena walked up the stairs. "I really need to rest up," she growled. She walked over to her bed and said, "Hopefully, that was all just a fault of my extreme fatigue."

"SORRY!" Cyrus shouted after her.

Sikes looked at the retreating figure. "Since when does someone like that say "fatigue?" Creepy witch."

"What's this I hear about fangirling?"

"Ohh, no..." Rylan started. "This... is going... to be very, VERY bad..."

Selena rolled over. She could still hear them. Thinking to Rylan, she said

I didn't fangirl very long after I brought Sikes here... I don't ever remember squealing. Maybe she'll be good enough to let me sleep?

And then there was a high-pitched squeal.

Dammit.

And then there was silence.

She fainted. Looks like we'll all sleep well, at least tonight...

Selena heard a single thought besides Rylan's. That damn girl is worse than the witch...She faints as much as Nance does, too.

I hope so, because I'm not the only one who's grumpy.

You don't know the half of it. Syndrome's probably more irritable than you'd ever guess... A fangirl would probably just add to the problems.

Why, because he's finally liked by someone in this group of 'randoms,' as I've heard?

Well. Actually, I think everyone here's much too tired to give her the attention she needs as a fangirl. Especially him. When we get up again... then she's HIS problem.

Why the hell are you guys tired, besides the run home? I did all the work at mum's…

I got rid of her. And she only came over a couple times to talk... Well. I think our sleeping cycles are thrown off... or something... I dunno. I'm tired as hell, though... although that might be from all the ground control I had to do while you were gone.

Ground control? What happened here?

Well. It's Syndrome and Sikes with only me to break up arguments... What do YOU think happened? Syndrome started complaining as usual... and then they started fighting... plus my powers are much more exhausting than you would expect.

Of course... I suppose.

Selena's mind fluttered to Sikes for a moment, and then came back to reality.

Look, I'm dead tired. Let's all get some shut-eye.

Sounds like a good idea to me.