AN: Some Pokemon references in this chapter. Including a stuffed Mudkip.
"STOP MESSING WITH MY DAMNED FLASHLIGHT!" Selena woke to much screaming. It was rather early still, the sun was still out. She got up, put on her coat and went out of the room to see what was going on.
Syndrome was using zero-point energy to play a cruel game of keep-away with Sikes' flashlight. He hovered tantalizingly out of reach with his rocket boots, moving the flashlight around.
"DAMMIT, GIVE IT TO ME!" Sikes shouted. Selena got to the living area and saw him reach for his jemmy. He attempted to pull down Syndrome with the crowbar.
Syndrome used his other zero-point energy gauntlet and slid Sikes across the floor, away from him.
"DAAAAAAAAMMIT, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES!" Selena screamed, now awake. She took Sikes's jemmy and flashlight, and attempted to push Syndrome back down to Earth. "YOU!" She pointed at Syndrome. "STOP FUCKING AROUND WITH HIM! AND YOU-" She pointed at Sikes, her arms crossed at the middle like the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, "YOU DON'T TRY AND KILL HIM WITH YOUR JEMMY! BEHAVE LIKE THE VILLAINS YOU ARE, NOT NINE YEAR OLDS!" She finished, breathing heavily.
Syndrome made a very nine-year-old-like pouty face and descended.
"Ugh," Selena moaned. "Do you know how irritating it is to wake up to a fight?"
Cyrus entered, rubbing her neck and yawning. "What's going on?"
Sikes growled. Selena glared at him. "I'm taking the jemmy and keeping it hidden. YOU will not find it, I can promise you." She looked over at Cyrus and sighed. "They woke me up. Syndrome had Sikes's flashlight and Sikes was yelling. Sorry for waking you up too, but I'm not like Rylan. I can't control people."
"Mmh... I think we need to get out of here, maybe the cramped space is making everyone uptight or something."
"Where is this 'out of here' that you speak of?" Selena asked, holding the side of her head. "Not Farleigh again...?"
"No, I was thinking more shopping."
Selena stared at Cyrus. "What, villains out shopping? Don't you realise how STRANGE that is?" She looked towards the stairs. "Not that I mind leaving Rylan here. It's like the authors forgot about him or something."
"Um. Well, impulsive shopping always helps me let off steam. Actually, impulsive stealing helps, but hey, I don't really want to get caught today, so I'll just buy stuff with stolen money. That works. And about Rylan, I dunno."
Sikes spoke up. "Wot, are you just gonna leave me out 'ere, then?"
"Unless you want to go shopping. Same goes for you, Syn."
"I have a couple things I wanted to get," Syndrome replied.
Selena snorted, and then looked at Sikes. "I think it's best if we don't take him out in the open-"
"Wot for?"
"Because you're not from this time! Who knows what kind of trouble you'd get into?!" Selena shouted at him, and then turned back to Cyrus and Syndrome. "I need to drop by my house quick, too, make sure I'm not recognized as who I am... you know."
"Syndrome, you should probably change too... if you have anything to change into."
"No, I don't have anything..."
"Then we have to find some stuff while we're there."
"WHAT?!" Syndrome yelled. "I am NOT going clothes shopping. That's for girls."
Cyrus smacked Syndrome. "Shut up! You're getting clothes whether you like it or not!"
"Not all girls go clothes shopping," Selena growled a bit.
"Mirage always did. That was so BORING... I can not see how someone can derive joy from trying on clothes."
"Good question, Syndrome," Selena said. "You should ask her the next time you see her."
Syndrome glared. "I hope I never do, the traitorous bitch... Great. Now I sound like Sikes."
"Very much so," Selena said, looking at him strangely. "Don't tell me..." she trailed off and let the rest of it to thought.
You killed her too?
What? No. I "risked" her life calling Mr. Incredible's bluff, but I knew he wouldn't be able to kill her. She flipped out and betrayed me anyway.
Maybe there was something Disney left out?
Selena shrugged.
"Onward to my house- well, hopefully just me, myself, and I, but if you have to follow, at least stay outside. PLEASE."
"I'm going to go with Syndrome to get my 'car'..." Syndrome looked rather shocked at this.
Cyrus walked out, pulling Syndrome by the ear.
Selena grinned. She had seen that while flipping channels.
Selena went down the stairs, out the door, through the streets, never once crossing paths with Cyrus and Syndrome, and got to her house in record time. She didn't like shopping, per say, but she needed to get out and about more than just tripping and coming across a box of memoribilia from when she was a child. She quickly changed, no longer looking like more than a student at a local high school. She grabbed a dark blue coat that was quite warm compared to her black one, and quickly put her hair into a messy ponytail. "I'm LUNA now. I can't be caught stealing." She repeated these things under her breath while she walked back to Ochre Way.
A dark blue pickup was parked in front of Rylan's house. Cyrus was sitting in the driver's seat, waving.
Selena grinned and waved back. She came closer. "THIS is your car? You'd never know you had been a thief, ever. Your big house, awesome truck..." She looked at the pickup some more.
"Well. I didn't steal the money for this or the actual thing... used to be in the family. I think. It was at the house and it was my house. So..."
"So yeah, well, what does it matter? We look normal enough, right? By the way, I'm Luna. No screwups." She looked at the truck-bed and then the backseat. "Which would be safer with your driving, the backseat with seatbelt? Or are you pretty good at this?" Selena looked at the bed longingly. It would be awesome, she wouldn't be so cooped up. "Depends on what you mean by good... You'd probably be better off in the backseat."
Selena cursed. "Damn." She checked herself, realising she was someone else. "Darn it."
Selena got in the back and buckled up near a window. It was too bad it was winter... she could've dealt with the cold out in the back, but she was sure nobody else in the vehicle wanted a cold blast of wind down their spines.
"Well, let's go then," Cyrus said, starting the engine.
---
"Ugh, well, now I'm prepared for hell, Cyrus," Selena said, getting out of the pickup. "I do NOT feel well." She stepped on her own foot, feeling really dizzy and even more nauseous. "How do the cops NOT pull you over?"
"Well, illusions help. They don't see me."
"Good point," Selena said, falling over and picking herself off the ground as soon as she felt a bit better. "Man, I'd rather WALK back now. I'm sure Sikes could drive better than you- he wouldn't be able to get the keys in the ignition!"
Cyrus grinned. Syndrome was nowhere to be seen- mostly because he had to find a bathroom, trash can, SOMETHING, fast.
Selena felt a burning sensation in her throat.
I'm gonna be sick, where's a rubbish bin?!?!
She ran towards the building as fast as possible, leaving Cyrus with the car. She made it to the bin near the building before she was sick.
Cyrus followed, and eventually Syndrome joined her after he was done being sick as well.
Selena spit into the bin so she could get the taste out of her mouth. "Hey, um, what exactly are your names?" She whispered. "I'm Luna like I said before..."
"Um... Cyrus... Sol... Sola. Yup, Sola."
Syndrome remained silent for a while.
"I would say 'Buddy,' but... well." Selena snorted.
Syndrome gave her a death glare. "DON'T call me Buddy!"
"Exactly," Selena grinned. "Which is why Cyrus is going to give you a name while I go wipe my mouth with a small, stolen pack of hand wipes." She pulled the hand wipes out of her pocket.
They went inside the gigantic store.
"I need some money, Cyrus," Syndrome demanded.
Cyrus handed him a fifty and watched as he dashed off in the general direction of... the toy aisle?
Selena looked at Cyrus. "What's that all about?" She asked.
"I have no idea..."
Meanwhile, in said toy aisle, Syndrome was shuffling through a small bin of plushies. Children were staring. He pulled a blue plushie from the bin triumphantly and squeezed it. "Mudkip," it said.
"I love you, Mudkip!" Syndrome said, squeezing the small plushie.
"Mummy, i-i-it's SYNDROME!" A little girl screamed in terror to her mother in the makeup department, the next aisle over. "Yes honey, I'm sure they've got a Syndrome toy there..."
Syndrome watched the screaming little girl run for her life and decided that maybe different clothes weren't a bad idea.
Selena was in the video games aisle, staring at the screen of a handheld on display. "Holy cow, they just put these things out to PLAY here?" She asked, very surprised.
She looked for the on button, and when she found it, she turned the system on. It was a demo for some random game called "Platinum," whatever that meant. She was quickly engrossed, however.
Syndrome was walking through the aisles when he heard a strange song.
He stopped and went toward it.
"Dancing in the desert, blowing up the sunshine..."
There was Cyrus, scanning a CD and listening to a song.
"Cyrus? I have what I need now, I think." He squeezed the Mudkip plushie in her face.
Cyrus turned to Syndrome. "Dude... A MUDKIP?!"
"Yep! Don't tell anyone, but I have a secret weakness for Mudkips."
"Hey, I'm done- what the heck is that blue blob you've got there?" Selena came back from the video games.
"It is not a blob! It's a..." He squeezed it. "Mudkip!" it replied.
"What. The. Crap," She laughed. "So I herd u liek mudkipz?"
"You heard right!" He grinned.
Better Mudkips than me, she thought to herself.
"Did I also hear right that some kid got scared away from the toy aisle when you got that thing?" Selena asked. "You really need to get out-of-costume, bud."
"Don't call me that," he growled.
"Wha- oh, sorry. Didn't mean it like that," She realized.
"Yeah, I bet you didn't mean it like that. Just like you never mean anything else you say," Syndrome spat.
"And just like how you don't EVER mean to hurt Sikes!" Selena growled at him. "I know deep down you just want him gone forever, dead like he's supposed to be. Well guess what? I'm supposed to be dead! YOU are supposed to be dead!" She silenced herself. A few people had started to stare.
"We should save this for another time. This is not the time nor the place where this should be discussed."
Moronic coward, Selena thought bitterly.
"Oh, so you want to discuss it here, in front of all these people? And put everything at stake? Fine! I WILL! I have never said I didn't mean to hurt Sikes! And truthfully, I do want him dead! But I know the implications of killing him, so I don't!"
More eyes turned on the trio of villains. If this had happened at a school, you could've bet all your money on someone starting to chant 'fight, fight, fight...'
"You KNOW I'm STUPID!" Selena roared. "I say things before they even CROSS MY MIND! IT'S COMMON KNOWLEDGE! SO WHY DID YOU HAVE TO PICK A FIGHT ABOUT IT?!"
"I wouldn't have continued with it if you hadn't brought up Sikes! I would have just let it go! But it's all about Sikes to you! You don't care about anyone but him and yourself, you never think of how that affects anyone! LEAST OF ALL ME!" he shouted, and stomped off.
EXCUSE ME FOR FANGIRLING! Selena screamed mentally, and then stormed off in the opposite direction.
She found a nice wooden bench along the side of an aisle. She sat down and immediately sobbed, barely any acting necessary.
"Never mind them, they're just practicing for a play..." Cyrus said, and went after Selena.
Cyrus sat next to Selena on the bench and sighed deeply. "You just don't get it, do you?"
Selena turned her head away. She was too weak right now. She tried to silence herself.
"He goes through a lot for you, and you repay him with undying hatred, or so it seems. You don't get how much that hurts. Actually, I think you might. Imagine getting thrown out again, and Sikes not doing anything about it- EVERY DAY. Imagine the cuts you had from the Christmas lights, only fifty times worse. Try and imagine that... and you might just have a taste of Syndrome's life."
"His arm..." Selena whispered. She saw, in her mind's eye, a crudely twisted piece of metal shaped enough like a hand to work. She saw the turbine. She shook her head. She felt like she was going to be sick again. "I've become my mother."
She thought hard for a moment. Why did she like Sikes? Because she had read about him several times during her life for comfort? That was it, wasn't it? She stuck to him because she had liked him before. That's why. She felt cuts into her skin, she felt the cold, she felt the pain of everyone thinking of themselves over each other...
Selena wiped her face and looked down at her feet. "I'm such a dumbass."
"No, you just forget that some people-like Syndrome-are not so unlike yourself... And then you get angry at them, and you say things... and you forget that they had to go through something very similar. And then, behind the scenes, they become very upset and sulk for hours..."
"Where is he?" Selena asked, trying to keep her face from growing even redder.
"I have no idea..."
Why would I want to go over there, anyway? She'll just yell at me again.
Selena looked up, wiping her face again. "I'll be right back," She mumbled. She saw a pizza in her mind, a cheese pizza. Frozen foods. She ran off, and found Syndrome standing there, leaning against a store refrigerator. Selena went up to Syndrome and hugged him, bursting into tears. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."
Syndrome was, quite frankly, speechless. Selena was hugging him, and apologizing. Was he dreaming?
She took a step back, wiped her face, and said, "I've turned into my mother... I've turned into my mother, but I'm stopping the cycle." She took off her coat and rolled up the sleeves of her shirt. There were many stretched out scars all over her arms, more noticable than the ones on her face. "I'm not going to EVER do this to you. It's already happened once."
Syndrome opened his mouth, then shut it again. He couldn't get the right feelings to come out...
Selena looked at Syndrome. "You really need some actual clothes," she said abruptly.
He nodded briefly.
Why couldn't he say it? Three words- but they were villains, it would be awkward... but he couldn't just let that last display go without comment... or maybe he could. Maybe that would be the better choice.
"I don't think many villain fans will be fond of this chapter anyway," Selena muttered under her breath. But she too kept silent, and motioned for Syndrome to follow her towards Cyrus.
And that was exactly what Syndrome did.