Chapter 21: Let The Good Times Roll
"
AN: Sixty-one reviews. Wow. This is a big thing for me. I realize that there are many authors out there who might get sixty-one reviews on a one-shot, or sixty-one reviews per chapter on a multi-chapter, but for me this is big. Not only does it easily break my old record (I've never broken fifty before), but I consider it a win when I can get a story to average more than three reviews a chapter. For some, that's piddling, but I've never been able to crack the ice on a several-hundred review fic, so three per chapter is very good for me.
I want to thank everyone for your reviews. I appreciate all of them (perhaps some more than others, but yes). It helps keep me motivated and focused. Generally, I write for myself, but feedback is always loved.
Special shoutout to Dark Moon Ministry (we've exchanged extended meaningful dialogue about my fic via PM) for helping me sculpt some of the details as this fic went along and keeping focus, sailormoon0630 (on top of her many reviews I've gotten some feedback from her via chat and PM as well) for being very supportive, and Napoleon Bonerfart for being the first person to indicate to me that my Archer references/homages/shoutouts/ripoffs were not being wasted. I appreciate anyone who has ever given me feedback on this story, of course, but those three in particular have really made me happy.
Now, because I'm so happy with how this fic is going and the feedback I get from you all, I have a little offer I'd like to put out there for anyone (even if you've never reviewed or given feedback on this fic before). In order to help myself focus and distill my thoughts for the second half of this fic, I've started going back, combing over the chapters I've written so far, and making many notes about things I thought were good, things I think could have been better, things I thought were straight up bad, key themes, key moments, key lines, points of emphasis, etc. I thought it would be good to take stock of everything so far in this way. However, I then decided that it might be fun to release these notes to anyone who wanted to read them (I can see no reason why not) and I slightly altered the exercise to make the notes more like a director's cut, meaning they're addressed to a reader rather than to myself.
As of this moment, I've completed the note-taking process for the first five chapters, and if you want to see them, then you need only ask. I'm going to continue to take notes on the first twenty chapters over the next several days, the notes contain no spoilers for what will happen over the second half of this fic (I do discuss certain scenes and themes being important later, but never with direct spoilers, and almost always I refer to a future scene that has already been published anyway), and I think they might help shed light on my thought process throughout writing the fic as well as where I'm coming from. I don't believe in revisionist history, but I do believe in admitting mistakes, which is something I do in my notes.
Now there's no problem if you don't want to see them, it is kind of an odd thing that isn't for everyone, and I wrote them for my benefit mostly. However, if you do, you must email me at the gmail account in my profile. If you request it via review or PM, I will not be able to give them to you, as does not allow direct linking outside of the site.
Once you email me, I will email you back with a google docs link as well as instructions on how to view the notes. If I do not email you back within a few hours, PM me on , as your email may have disappeared in gmail's increasingly braindead way of organizing mail and I'll need a nudge to hunt it down.
I think it's a fun little way to celebrate the rough halfway-point and might add a little something to the fic. Again, anyone can request access, and if it's not something that interests you you won't be missing out on anything important.
Moving on, this chapter is a little later than I said it would be. Mainly because I encountered yet another very stressful occurence on monday, but unlike the ones that motivate me to write more, this one was so potentially dangerous that it freaked me out to the point where writing was impossible, and had the worst happened I would have probably had to stop writing for weeks, if not months, to mitigate the damage. Fortunately, by the end of monday, the problem was buried, and no harm no foul, but writing on monday was out of the question.
Also I've been reading and processing thoughts on a SM fanfiction I've recently read (the author of this fic will know what I'm talking about) and trying to put together an indepth and meaningful review, so I've been reading a bit during times where I might be otherwise writing. I'm trying to be a courteous member, and that includes actually reading and reviewing from time to time, which I am bad at, so trying to get better.
And of course, the note taking process has slowed this chapter a bit, but I don't feel TOO bad about taking a break after how exhausting chapter twenty was.
Okay, that's enough of that, on to the fic. This chapter is a chance for me to decompress after last chapter. This is very much a wind down for me, and at least a little bit fluff-ish, while also bringing some focus back to the original main theme of the fic. Good amount of comedy, just to take some of the edge off, take it a little easy. Just turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream.
"
Downtown Mall, July 10th, 9:57 AM
"You sure you're up for mall-trawling with a cast on your arm?" Raye asked, looking down at Serena's large protective arm cast, absolutely covered in assorted marker scribbles.
"Are you kidding me?" Serena said, grinning. "With this thing on, most people let me cut the lines, I'm not passing up my last chance to take advantage of that!"
The team, five girls plus Darien, were huddled up around a bench at a four-way intersection in the middle of the mall, streams of people passing by them in all directions.
"Alright everyone, we'll meet in the food court at about...say...one o clock." Amy nodded. "Everyone have fun. Mina, you stay here, I want to talk to you about something. Darien, could you do me a favor and come back by here in about an hour?"
"Sure thing," Darien said. "This is so weird, I'm going on a shopping spree with a bunch of teenage girls."
"Well, we'll be splitting up," Lita said. "You can go anywhere you want. I mean, they have electronic stores, sporting goods..."
"And, of course, anabolic steroids," Serena added, giving a wry grin.
Darien's eyes narrowed into slits, glaring at Serena. "Ana...anabolic steroids, is that...some kind of—"
"I'm kidding!" Serena went over and smacked him on the back with her left hand. "Get used to that, by the way. I do a lot of kidding around. We all know your arms are naturally homegrown."
Darien immediately softened his expression. "Oh...well, good."
"Come on, Darien. Don't be jumpy. I said I'd give you a chance to be a friend, so I'm going to give you the full Serena package." She patted him on the back. "Attempts at comedy and all."
"Yes, Darien, that goes for us all," Amy said. "We're going to do the best we can to include you in everything we do and make you feel comfortable, so the best thing you can do is just ease in to treating us like you treat your other friends."
"So...like Andrew," Darien said. "Okay, I can do that."
All of the girls except Amy, plus Darien, withdrew their debit cards and stuck them out into the middle of the group, clinking them together, then hid them back in their pockets before breaking out and heading in various directions. Lita chased Darien down and fell into step next to him.
"Let's walk and talk for a minute here. So, enjoying your personal expense account?" she asked, glancing around with a smirk on her face.
"Oh, you better believe it," he replied.
"So...I've got a little offer for you." She looked around furtively. "Are you familiar with the magic of compound interest?"
"Yeah."
She put her hand up on his shoulder. "Then you are gonna love this."
Back at the bench, Amy sat down, Mina joining her.
"H-hey, Amy, I just realized, you don't have a debit card," Mina mused. "You should—"
"Not necessary," she insisted. "I built a computer system that cost more than fifteen times what the personal accounts have, I've more than had my fair share. I took a little money out for the tontine, and that's fine by me."
"Aren't there things you want to buy?" Mina asked.
"Yes, but I'm content with using allowance money," Amy said. "But that does bring me to the topic I wanted to discuss with you here."
"I'm listening," Mina said.
"Now...forgive me for sticking my nose where it doesn't belong, but I think you understand that I watch every single scout account for obvious reasons, meaning I get constant updates every time something changes." Amy looked around. "That includes the personal expense accounts."
Mina shrugged. "Hey, that's fine."
"I'm not so interested in what you girls are buying, as I do trust you all, it's more that I want to keep an eye out for any sort of fraud," Amy continued.
"And all of us appreciate the help," Mina added.
"Now...your current operation account balance, as of this morning, is seventy-three hundred and sixty nine dollars and twenty-one cents," Amy said slowly.
"Sounds about right," Mina said.
"So, the account started with ten thousand," Amy said. "You put twenty-five hundred into the tontine, same as the rest of us, leaving you with seventy-five hundred."
"With you so far."
"And then, you bought that expensive dress for Serena's birthday, which I recall cost one hundred and nineteen dollars and ninety-nine cents. Add a nine percent sales tax, and that comes out to one hundred and thirty dollars and seventy-nine cents."
"Uh...okay, Rain Man, where you going with this?" Mina looked around uneasily.
"Seventy-five hundred minus one hundred and thirty point seventy-nine is, in fact, seventy-three hundred and sixty-nine point twenty-one. Meaning that, outside of your tontine contribution and Serena's birthday present, you haven't touched your account. And I'd like to talk about that." Amy reached over and put her hand on Mina's shoulder.
Mina looked away. "Oh...I haven't seen anything that I wanted to buy recently," she said quickly.
Amy stared at her flatly for a few seconds. "That may be the funniest thing you've ever said."
"Thank you," Mina said, still looking the other way.
"Mina, I think I already know the reason why. You can tell me, I'm...I'm afraid that this is my fault and I'd like to help you. Why aren't you using the account? I assure you, the others are using theirs."
Mina looked back at Amy, biting her lower lip. "Because...I'm scared?"
Amy nodded slowly. "Yes, I...I thought that might be the case. I'd like to talk about that more."
"Well, it's just...I go out, I look at stuff in stores, and I think...you know, I'd like to have that, or that might be cool, and then I start thinking of how I could buy it without anyone getting suspicious, and then how to make sure my parents don't see it, or if they do I'd have a good reason for it...and then, I just sort of...leave." She shrugged sheepishly. "Like, I think about the angles, try to account for all the considerations...but the moment I lay a finger on anything I'm thinking about buying, I can't shake the feeling that I'm forgetting something."
Amy sighed. "Yes, Mina. I would like to take responsibility for you feeling that way, and I am very sorry."
"No, Amy, it has nothing to do with you, this is about me and how I'm—"
"Mina. I really do appreciate you being so thoughtful about using your money, and there's definitely a part of me that's proud I was able to help instill that sense of responsibility in you. But, and this is something I need to apologize for...I fear I may have taken it a little too far." Amy dropped her hand back to her side and looked down at the ground. "You remember day we received the suitcase of money?"
"Oh, yes, of course, I'll never forget," Mina answered.
"I...I stand by a majority of what I said that day," Amy started. "Handling a sum of money that you can't explain having is a very risky and dangerous business, and I still feel it was required that I gain control over managing the process of using it. However, I believe that, in hindsight, I may have...gone a little overboard."
"Amy, you've certainly steered us right to this point. Maybe it hasn't been perfect, but your guidance has done an incredible amount of good for us, so whatever you've done has worked."
"Yes, but...I think I may have used some fear-mongering tactics to secure control," Amy said. "I saw the money, I saw the way you girls were looking at the money, and I panicked. Perhaps understandable, but I do feel I went a little far. And I feel that me going a little far may have intimidated you in a way that's not entirely fair." She turned her head around, looking behind her. "In reality...there's absolutely no reason why you can't go out and buy some comic books or candy. Even if your parents saw them, it would be the easiest thing in the world for you to say that one of your friends bought it for you. Truthfully, movie tickets, pizzas, pedicures...those kinds of things are very low risk, I said some of those things to try to guarantee complete control. And on some level, I was wrong to do that."
"Well...maybe that applies for most people, but—"
"There is always a little bit of risk in what we're doing here, Mina. But we can't give in to fear and let it dictate our lives. That's something I'm really trying to work on. There's risk every time we walk out our front doors in the morning, and...we need to accept a tiny bit of risk." Amy chewed the inside of her cheek. "So, I wanted to talk to you about all that, and let you know that it's okay. Yes, whatever you can do to lessen the danger is good. Keep things you buy at headquarters, buy things you consume and throw away, that sort of thing. But, given that the cosmos are asking us to go out and risk our lives routinely fighting evil forces that threaten to destroy the world, then I don't think there's any harm in buying a pair of shoes sometimes."
"Yeah, Amy, but...it's different for me," Mina said, hands wringing together in front of her uneasily.
"And why might that be?" Amy asked.
"Because...because I'm not smart," Mina answered.
"Oh...come off that," Amy insisted. "That's not true."
"I can just see it now," Mina continued. "I screw something up, this whole thing crumbles, and you guys aren't even surprised. 'Yeah, that's just classic Mina for you'. I mean, it writes itself. And I just don't want that to happen." She reached down and pulled out the debit card, frowning at it. "Honestly, part of me just wants to give this back. I might leave it out on the dinner table and my mom might see it or something."
"You're not giving it back," Amy said, giving a small smile. "I won't take it back. You're keeping it."
"I mean, you, forget about it, you're eight steps ahead of everyone else. Darien, he's really smart and lives on his own, he's fine. Raye, she's got it under control, and her unique living situation makes it a little easier for her. Lita, she gets it and she lives on her own for...some weird reason, so no problem there. And...Serena, look at how far she's come, I think she's really figured a lot of this stuff out. But I...just don't think I meant to handle something like this." Mina shrugged. "And I can live with that."
"You're plenty smart," Amy said. "Listen, if how I've gone about things has made you feel cautious about approaching this money business, then I feel I've done something good. But if I've made you feel paranoid, then I have gone too far, and I apologize for that. So, today, I am going to help you through that." She stood up, grabbed Mina's arms, and lifted her to her feet. She pointed behind her. Mina turned to look at the shop she was pointing at. "So, today, you are going to buy yourself a computer."
Mina looked at the small electronic boutique for a few seconds, then back to Amy. "A-Amy, that's...no, that's several hundred dollars, I don't know how to use a computer, I'll probably break it, and my parents—"
"—will never know you have it, as it will stay at headquarters," Amy said comfortingly. "But I want to give you something to play with, I want you to have the opportunity to learn how to use one without being scared of breaking mine, and I want you to be able to buy something nice with your money. So, I'm going to help you pick one, and then Darien is going to come by to help us buy it. We'll find what you want, you'll go get money out of a machine, you'll give it to Darien, and he'll buy it for you to avoid suspicion. I would not be doing this unless I believed it to be safe, and this is very much safe."
"Maybe we should start smaller," Mina suggested. "Like a bag of jelly beans."
"Maybe we can do that after," Amy said. "But I can see that I've said some things that have intimidated you, and I wish to rectify that by helping you with this." Slowly, Amy guided her around the bench and towards the entrance. "I can tell that you've always wanted one, and in this day and age teenagers should be able to at least have access to one."
Mina sighed, but allowed Amy to guide her into the store. "Well...alright, if you say it's safe then...I guess it's safe. But I probably will break it."
"
Headquarters, July 11th, 1:03 PM
"Aaaaannnddddd..." Lita tapped the mousepad with the tip of her right index finger, bringing up a browser window. "You are now online."
"Alright, cool," Mina said. The two were seated on the couch, the laptop on the coffee table in front of them. Mina went down to her knees in front of the screen, carefully running her index finger along the pad. The computer was thin and light grey, a fairly simple and typical model.
"A whole universe of information and resources is now at your fingertips," Lita said, sitting back. "A little later, I'll introduce you to the world of free internet porn."
"Wait, that's a thing?" Mina turned to look at Lita.
"Oh, you have no idea," Lita said, smirking.
"An illegal thing for fourteen-year-olds, thank you very much," Amy said loudly.
"Yeah, Amy, that's true, definitely the only illegal thing that's ever happened in this warehouse!" Lita retorted sarcastically, chuckling to herself. "Go hack into NASA again!"
"I did not hack into NASA," Amy said. "I hacked into a radio emitter that I used to trick NASA."
"Well, that's much better," Lita said, laughing.
Amy was seated at the computer chair, working with her tablet. Suddenly, the door swung open. Darien, Serena, and Raye entered, Serena holding a bag of donuts in her left hand.
"Yeah, said your mom," Darien said, pointing at Serena. "BOOM!"
"Ugh, third time today," Serena said, shaking her head.
"Yeah, he's...good at those." Raye set her bag down on the floor by the door.
Mina held up a small blue device about the size of her finger. "So, what's this?"
"That's a storage device," Lita explained. "They call it a thumbdrive, you can store data on it, like pictures."
"Like porn?" Mina asked, staring at the small device.
"Absolutely." Serena, Raye and Darien came over to the couches, stopping behind the one closest to the corner. Lita got off the couch and grabbed the drive from Mina. "All you have to do is stick it in the hole over here."
Darien pointed at Lita quickly. "Yeah, said your mom, boom!"
"DAMMIT!" Lita moaned. Mina, Serena and Raye suppressed a few giggles.
"...right." Amy rolled her eyes and got up, walking over towards the group, tablet in hand. "Okay folks, we need to talk! The nature of the game is changing, and we have a lot to discuss. I have an itinerary here that we need to cover. And please be patient with me, as it's very long."
Lita immediately pointed at Amy. "Said your mom, boom!" Everyone else started giggling again, except for Amy, who was decidedly unamused.
"Yeah, that was good," Darien said.
Amy turned to glare at Darien. "This is your fault."
"Yeah, pretty much," Darien admitted, looking rather pleased with himself. "Hey, you said treat you girls like I treat Andrew."
"Yes...starting to regret that a little bit. You know, Darien, when you joined the team, I was rather hoping you might be more the...intellectual type," Amy said, sitting down heavily on the couch. "We really could use a little more of that."
"Hey, I am plenty intellectual," Darien insisted. "My grades speak for themselves."
"Starting to wonder how you pull those grades off, exactly," Amy muttered to herself.
"And, as an intellectual, I have four words for you." He pointed at Amy. "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."
"Okay, you've...you've lost me," Amy said.
"This whole situation is unbelievably screwed up, and believe me when I say that it's going to result in all of us being unbelievably screwed up. You girls should be having slumber parties, chasing boys, and watching Hugh Grant movies over the summer, and instead you're tasked with saving the planet from the forces of evil. You risk death and dismemberment constantly, you don't even really know why you've been given superpowers...I mean, it's a mess. The things you girls have to do at such a young age? You'll probably all be catatonic by the age of thirty-five thinking about these atrocities. Serena literally dropped a bank on someone."
"Still not getting it," Amy said flatly.
"And me? I mean, not to be a pussy about it, but I did so not need all of this stress and pressure given what I've already had to deal with in life. I don't really believe in karma, but if the universe wants to make it up to me, then I had better be re-incarnated in my next life as...like, a Prince, who lives in a castle made of diamonds, with a harem of like five hundred supermodels." Darien shrugged. "And retractable angel wings."
"Do you have a point?" Amy asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
"The point is, the best thing we can do is keep things loose and fun, to try to mitigate all the emotional trauma that this endeavor is going to cause, and I am going to do that to the best of my abilities." Darien nodded. "If some jackass upstairs wants to make six teenagers try to defeat the forces of evil, then the least I can do is crack jokes to keep the mood light."
Amy rolled her eyes. "Yes. Well, fair or not, this is something we all have to do, and so as much as I am thrilled with our recent successes and victories, I'd like it if you could all take this a little more seriously right now."
"Oh come on, Amy!" Raye said. "You know full well that, when it comes time to get serious, we all know how to get serious. But right now...I mean, Zoicite's remains are being peeled off a slab of marble downtown, the negaverse just had to waste a ton of their resources on an attack that we were able to beat back, Serena's cast is coming off in a few hours, we have a new full-fledged team member, there's just a lot to be excited about."
"Our work is far from over," Amy insisted. "We've had a good solid week of taking it easy and enjoying Zoicite's defeat, I'm fine with that, we earned it, but there's still one general left, and then we have Beryl and the negaforce to think about, so I think it's time to get our game faces back." She turned back to Darien. "And, no offense to anyone here, you're all great, but I am currently sitting on one side of the seriousness seesaw with a black cat in my lap, and you are all on the other end, so I could use some help."
"Oh, you're...serious enough for all of us," Darien said dismissively.
"Darien, please, this is already hard enough—"
Darien pointed at her. "Said your mom, boom." Chuckling to himself, he turned around and went over to the fridge. Amy glared at his back, then shook her head.
"I think I liked him better when he was mean," she grumbled.
"Oh, don't be like that," Mina said. "I like friendly Darien, he adds a whole new dynamic to the crew."
"Yeah, I wish we could bring more people onto the team like this." Serena said. "It's a great change of pace. I wish there were more Sailor Scouts."
"That would be great," Mina mused. "Too bad there aren't any more planets."
Amy raised an eyebrow, then turned to stare at Mina.
"I was joking!" Mina said quickly.
"Were you?" Amy asked tersely.
"Oh, yeah, that would be cool!" Lita enthused. "If there were other Sailor Scouts for the other planets, and they joined us, that would be the coolest!"
"Well...yes, I suppose, now let's turn to more pressing considerations—" Amy said through gritted teeth.
"Wait a minute," Raye said, standing up. "We have a Sailor Moon, so...what if there were also Sailor Scouts for all the other moons?"
"Oh my God, we'd have an army!" Mina enthused. "We'd need to find a bigger warehouse!"
"We could make a football team!" Darien said, coming back over towards the couch, holding a bottle of water. "Actually, probably two football teams, and we could have intramural football games! Oh, or, we could make a basketball league! Ten teams, all of the planet scouts, plus me, would be team captains, plus Pluto so she doesn't feel bad about the whole Neil Degrasse Tyson thing. We'd have games every saturday, definitely a midseason tournament, and then playoffs for the top four teams at the end! I could buy a big trophy for the winning team every year too!"
Amy closed her eyes and slowly shook her head.
"Oh, and what if the scouts for the moons were, like...minions of the scout for their planet?!" Lita suggested.
"Oh, wow, I could have two minions!" Raye said excitedly. "Sailor Phobos and Sailor Deimos!"
"I would have so many freaking minions!" Lita said. "I'd make a giant feast for them every single night! Sailor Io would definitely be into spicy food, and Sailor Europa would be all about seafood, and Sailor Callisto would be a big eater, so I'd have to redo my kitchen so I have enough room to make all those different dishes at once..."
Amy's shoulders sagged, and her eyes re-opened into tiny slits.
"Wait." Serena put her hand to her chin. "With all of those scouts, we'd...run out of money pretty fast."
"YES, Serena, thank you, we would, so we should stop talking and thinking about it!" Amy said, standing back up. "Now—"
"Well, hold on, what if one of the new scouts was loaded?!" Raye suggested, pointing at Serena. "She could replenish our accounts!"
"Oh, yeah, that's true!" Serena agreed. "I mean, one of the scouts could be a trust fund kid, or a heiress..."
"Oooh, or an actual Princess!" Mina added.
"Oh my God, what if one of the Sailor Scouts was a Princess?!" Serena shrieked. "That would be so great!" Suddenly, her forehead wrinkled. "Wait, if the moon scouts would be minions for the planet scouts, would I then be the minion of Sailor...Earth?"
Amy slowly walked over towards the corner of the kitchenette, arms crossed over her chest, hugging the tablet close to her, scowling.
"Yeah, I guess...but what if Sailor Earth was the Princess?" Darien suggested.
"I would totally be okay with being the minion of a Princess!" Serena said, grinning.
Thud.
Everyone looked over into the corner. Amy was slumped over, head resting on the counter of the kitchenette. She picked her head back up a few inches, then brought it back down onto the hard surface.
Thud.
"Oh, I'm sorry Amy." Raye walked over towards her, putting her hand on her back. "Mercury doesn't have any moons, so you don't have any minions, that's a tough break."
Amy picked her head back up and brought it back down on the counter a third time.
Thud.
"Oh...have a heart."
Amy looked up to find Artemis sitting next to her head on the counter.
"I'm sure your briefing is excellent, Amy, and also very important, but...maybe not today. I mean, Serena still has her cast on...and they're way too hyper, too many good things are happening."
Amy narrowed her glare at the white cat.
"You know they're good for it most of the time. Just...let the good times roll and...and for today, meet them halfway," he finished.
Amy stood back up straight, then marched over to the couch. "I don't negotiate with terrorists," she muttered under her breath.
Raye chuckled. "I'm gonna have to disagree with that."
Lita came up and sat down on the left side of the couch as Amy took the middle. "Yeah, Amy, remember that day we first got the money?" Raye took up the seat on Raye's right. "I mean, what else would you call that?"
Amy scowled even deeper.
"I mean, you sure submitted to torture pretty quickly," Raye said, smirking to herself. "Remember?"
"Yes, Raye. Vividly." Amy turned to glower at her. "And we need never speak of that...sickening display of brutish, savage bullying again, thank you."
"Oh come on, Amy, don't tell me you're still mad about that!" Lita said, giving her a light little shove on her left side. "It's water under the bridge now!"
"Yeah, Amy, don't be shitty!" Raye gave her a similar light shove on her right side. Amy was entirely unamused. "I mean, we said we were sorry, and maybe it wasn't the nicest thing we've ever done, but that was months ago! It's a funny story now!"
"There is nothing funny about that little violation of the Geneva convention that you two committed," Amy grumbled.
"Hey, you owe us for doing that!" Lita insisted. "You were going to throw the money away! If it wasn't for us, that money would be sitting at the bottom of the lake, and we'd all be stuck fighting the negaverse with no equipment!"
"Yeah, Amy, you should be thanking us!" Raye agreed.
Amy, who still had her arms folded over her chest, did not look at all ready to dispel any sort of gratitude. "You could have achieved the exact same end by participating in a rational and reasonable discussion with me, in which you used your words to convince me that the rewards outweighed the risk."
"Yeah, but...our way was so much easier and had a much better chance of success," Raye said, suppressing a giggle. Amy hunched over even further.
"Amy, Amy, answer this simple question." Lita put her hand on Amy's shoulder. "True or false, the million dollars has been immensely helpful in our attempts to fight the negaverse."
Amy glanced around, still frowning. "True," she forced out.
"True or false, us using aggressive negotiation tactics to convince you to keep the money was a big reason why you didn't try to get rid of it." Lita leaned in towards Amy's face.
Amy closed her eyes, then heaved a great sigh. "True," she grumbled.
"Ergo, you should be thanking us for caring about you enough to do that to you!" Raye said, leaning in close to her other side.
Amy opened her eyes again, glare darting from one girl to the other. "No."
"Okay, fine, be a baby about it," Lita said, standing up and grinning.
"Waitwaitwait," Mina said suddenly, kneeling down in front of her computer and looking at the screen. "Venus doesn't have any moons either?" Her head bowed. "Bummer."
Amy cleared her throat. "Yes, Mina, you don't have any...'minions', so can you please focus and—"
"But..." Lita kneeled down next to Mina and tapped in some input, "...Jupiter currently has sixty-two known moons on record!"
"Holy crap, you could have your own platoon!" Raye said.
"And..." Lita did a few more manipulations on the keyboard. "Saturn has sixty!"
"Add it all together and we'd have our own...like, company! Almost a small battalion!" Raye said.
Amy buried her face in her hands.
"Oh, buck up Amy, you and Mina can borrow my minions," Lita said. "And probably Saturn's too, unless she wants to be a bitch about it."
"Wait!" Mina jumped up. "That's it! After we're done with this negaverse business, the scouts and all our minions should form, like, a private military contractor to make money!"
"No, Mina, we can't," Amy said, voice strained and tired.
"Can't, or won't?" Mina asked, leaning in towards Amy. "Come on Amy, we could travel around the world, selling our services to the highest bidder, overthrowing dictatorships..."
Raye thought for a second. "I think if you add it all together, it would be around...one hundred and seventy five total superhumans, so that's at least a great start."
"They're discovering new moons constantly," Darien pointed out. "And, if you count Trans-Neptunian objects, trojan moons, and large asteroids, we're closer to three hundred and fifty." He pointed at Amy. "See? Intellectual."
"Freedom fighters would be falling all over themselves to recruit our services!" Lita said. "We could single-handedly end the Israel-Palestine conflict!"
"Come on Amy, you would totally be into that!" Mina said. "You could be like M, and we would be like your double oh agents!"
"I don't want to be M," Amy moaned into her hands.
"Well, okay, you can be a double oh agent too, M could be...like...Greg, after you marry him," Mina suggested, grinning.
"Serena," Amy choked out. "Come here."
"Waitwait," Mina said, walking over to Lita, Raye and Darien. "If we had...one hundred and seventy five members on the team, what would the tontine look like?"
"Let's calculate that out," Lita said, running over to the whiteboard.
"Serena." Amy still had her face in her hands. "Please make them stop. Please, please make them stop."
"Oh...come on, Amy," Serena said, trying to suppress laughter. "They're...having fun."
"They'll listen to you, please make them stop," Amy begged.
"I'm...I'm sorry, Amy, normally I'd feel bad for you, but I'm still on some painkillers, and I ate like eight donuts already today." Serena shrugged. "So I kinda just...find this funny."
Amy didn't move, sitting there, slumped over in defeat.
"Amy, are...are you crying?" Serena asked.
"No," she said thickly.
"Okay, then..." she reached forward and grabbed her arm. "Show me your face."
"No, I don't want to," Amy said stubbornly, holding her hands over her face.
"Okay, okay...you're crying, come on Amy, it's not a big deal, I'm sure your presentation is great, and we'll...okay, here." She let Amy go. "I have an idea, here's what we'll do."
Amy finally dropped her hands and wiped the insides of her eyes off with her fingers. "What?"
Serena leaned in to Amy's ear and started whispering. Darien, meanwhile, was grinding out the numbers on the whiteboard.
"Okay, one hundred and seventy five people, twenty-five hundred dollars a head, starting amount of four hundred and thirty seven thousand five hundred." He made a quick spreadsheet in red marker. "So, even if this negaverse stuff got really bloody and everybody but one died in the next few months, that's still not a bad golden parachute for whoever makes it. But..."
Serena finished her little idea. Amy recoiled.
"You want me to reward them for their unreasonable behavior?!" Amy asked. "Are you—"
"Amy. You're meeting them halfway. You're appeasing them. Sometimes, that's all it takes."
"But...that's what The Cheesecake Factory was for," she complained.
"And that was a very nice thing to do, Amy, but it cost you like...two hundred dollars. Come on, you can do this. These are the things you can do when you have funds." Serena rubbed her back. "That's my advice. Sometimes you gotta dangle a treat."
Amy looked down at the ground and grimaced. "Okay, fine. But I don't have the stomach to tell them, you tell them!"
"Nono, you are telling them!" Serena insisted, standing up and grabbing Amy's arm. "You can do it. Come on." She guided Amy over towards the whiteboard. Amy took in a deep breath and shook her head, but complied with Serena's guidance.
"Holy crap!" Mina yelled, then spun around and looked at Amy and Serena. "Guys! Look at this!"
"Assuming at least two people in the tontine are still alive in eighty-five years, or about the time you girls would turn a hundred, there would be seventy-one million dollars in there," Darien said, pointing at his equations with his marker.
"Seventy-one mil!" Mina screeched. "I would totally kill all of you for that much money!"
Everyone turned their head to look at Mina. She glanced around underneath the glares.
"Well, not...not you guys, but...some of the minions. I mean, I'm not gonna get along with all of them, so...maybe the ones who I think are jerks." Mina shrugged.
"Uh-huh," Darien said dryly.
"OKAY!" Amy said loudly, still scowling. "Everyone, listen! In light of certain...circumstances, I am postponing my presentation until tomorrow, and we are having another team morale event tonight!" She raised her right index finger up in the air. "One final evening of fun and games before everyone re-focuses back onto business! There is a summer carnival opening this afternoon down near the docks, and we will be attending! The carnival is both a psychological ploy by the city to get spirits up after all the damage done in the recent attack, and a fundraiser to gather money for the rebuilding effort. So, everything will be absurdly overpriced, but it's all for a good cause, so it's okay! The operations account will be paying for everyone's deluxe pass, which allows you to cut the lines for all the rides. The operations account will also be paying for as many games and as much food as you all would like, and you are all free to stay as late as you would like!"
"Sounds like a plan!" Raye said, leaning up on a blank spot on the whiteboard.
"Yes, I will pay for everything using scout money, on ONE condition!" Amy looked around. "You all get all your...giggles out tonight, and show up here tomorrow ready to listen to what I have to say, and ready to resume treating this business with the seriousness it deserves!"
"Okay, okay," Lita said, chuckling to herself and going up to Amy. "Come on, don't be mad, we're still riding a high, sorry for trying to have some fun. Thank you, though, that sounds like a great morale event."
"And I've officially negotiated with terrorists," Amy mumbled to herself, pouting.
"Again!" Raye added, laughing.
"Okay, just so I don't make myself look like a jackass later, is this...girls' night out, or am I in on it too?" Darien looked around.
"Oh come on, stop with the misguided attempts to be a...loner, or whatever. Of course you're included, it's a team morale event," Serena said dismissively.
"And, Darien, you have plenty of...giggles...to get out of your system as well, and tonight is your chance to get them out, and out they had better be by tomorrow." Amy glared at Darien. "So, yes. You're coming."
Darien pointed at Amy, grinning. "Said your mom, boom."
Amy closed her eyes and shook her head as everyone else giggled.
"Definitely liked him better mean," she muttered.
"
Docks, July 11th, 7:37 PM
"Alright. Call out which one you want," Darien said, tossing a baseball up and down in his right hand. He was turned away from a booth that had several small targets set up next to various stuffed animals.
"Three out of five for the small ones," the carnival worker said as he set four other baseballs down on the table. "Five out of five for the big ones."
"Yeah, I know how to read," Darien said dryly. "Just because you didn't learn until you were twenty-eight..."
Serena pointed at the top left corner of the back of the booth, at a large black cat. "That one looks like Luna!" The doll had two small targets, not much larger than a baseball, on either side, as well as one right above.
Immediately, Darien hurled the ball at the leftmost target, grabbing the second ball in the same motion as the first projectile landed dead center. Spinning around, he casually lobbed the second at the rightmost target, again smacking it right in the center. He grabbed a baseball in either hand, simultaneously chucking both, and getting both to hit the designated targets. And then, he picked the last one up, tossed it up into the air, caught it in his right, then turned his body to look the other way. He tossed the ball over his shoulder without looking, listening to hear the sound of the target getting knocked off it's perch.
"How'd you get so good at this?" Serena asked. All five girls were holding assorted stuffed animals, both small and large, in giant plastic bags, the bounty that Darien had spent the last half-hour procuring at all the game booths.
"Well, at the orphanage, we took a lot of field trips to carnivals, and...one of the great joys of my young life was ruining the days of carny folk," Darien explained.
The man behind the booth slowly brought a large stuffed animal out from underneath the desk.
"Yeah, that's right, come render onto Caesar!" Darien said, beckoning his hands towards the employee.
"Uh, sir—"
"Hey, hey." Darien pointed at the man. "Less talk, more baseballs."
"Uh...sir, you can't play anymore," he said uneasily. "I'm...I'm cutting you off."
"Oh, after one round?!" Darien said, grinning. "So you're an even bigger bitch than the woman over at the dartboard booth!"
"Sir, go away," he said flatly.
"What, did I touch a nerve? Is she your sister? Or your wife? Or, wait, is she both?!" Darien grabbed the large black cat toy from the table.
"I'm gonna have to ask you to back off," the man said slowly.
"Come on, Darien," Lita said, grabbing him by the shoulder and tugging him away from the booth.
"Yeah, that's right!" Darien called out as Lita pulled him away. "Yeah, I see your crappy camera phone! Take my picture, warn your family, warn your friends!"
"Are...are you drunk?" Raye asked, raising an eyebrow at Darien.
"No." Darien handed the large cat to Serena, who took it in her arms. "I just hate carnies. They're my least favorite type of people after the Yazuka."
"I may regret this, but...why?" Serena asked.
"Everything...buncha jerks," Darien said, smirking. "Rigged carnival games, pompous attitudes, inbreeding, crappy clothes..."
"How...nice," Amy said dryly.
"Well, we all have certain types of people we just don't see eye-to-eye with," Mina said, as the group started heading over to the food court across the walkway. "Nothing wrong with that. For me, it's Mexicans."
"Really?" Lita asked, looking at Mina.
"Well...kind of...I mean, personally, I don't really know, but I grew up listening to my mom bitching about how they steal jobs and...cruise around in low-riders and listen to rap music." Mina shrugged. "Kinda...hard to get all that out of your head."
"Uh...okay there, Rush Limblonde," Darien said uneasily. "Anyway, I've been on the coaster like three dozen times already, so after we get some food, we can load all of these animals into my car and I'll drop them off at headquarters tomorrow."
"Alright." Serena quickly took a seat at the nearest table. "Time to break my fast."
"I don't think six hours counts as a fast," Lita said, sitting down next to her. The others quickly found their seats around the plastic picnic table as well, setting the bevy of dolls down.
"I'm actually not that hungry, I ate all those scones half an hour ago," Darien said. "Don't worry about me."
"You don't have to hang around here if you don't want to eat," Raye said. "We'd understand."
"Well, I already got kicked out of all the game booths, so I think I'll just stay here," Darien said. "And...y'know, I kinda like hanging out with you girls."
"Well, that's nice to know," Serena said happily, flagging down a waiter.
"Besides, I wanna see how many corndogs you can eat," Darien said.
Serena pointed at Darien. "My record's eight."
At this, Amy covered her eyes with her right hand and slowly shook her head back and forth.
"
AN: I wish fanfictions could have soundtracks so I could have put The Cars on in the background during these scenes. Alas.
Anywho, this chapter was just a nice good time. Not crucial to the plot, but some character advancement, a lot of comedy, and just a breather chapter to establish changed relationships. It's a little different, but I liked writing it.
Not sure when 22 is coming, hopefully by friday but it's hard to say.