"Courtney, someone claims to be a friend of yours..." A prison guard said.
The 22-year-old blue-haired woman put down her book. She was escorted to the cafeteria. A strange person whom she has never seen before arrived up and shook her hand.
"Hello Courtney, I am here to say-"
"Who are you and what are you here for?" The inmate said with confusion.
"I'm here to say that you are pardoned."
Eyebrows were raised.
"Huh?"
"You're free to go."
"But I only served a few months!"
"You were given a reduced sentence."
"But no one told me!"
Courtney was escorted out before she could say anything else.
Quint set the train on autopilot before joining up with the group.
"So what should we do?" Jack asked.
"Let's explore the train," June said. "Hopefully, there will be something interesting."
"I'll stay here in case you need anything," Quint said.
The group made their way past the engine room.
The group arrived first at first class. Although blood and guts were smeared all over the walls, tables, carpet, and floor, the seats were super comfortable.
"Let's clean up around here," June said. "I've never been on first-class before. Plus, we have the train to ourselves..."
"Quint, we need you!" Peter shouted.
They had worked so hard. The group made sure to dump out all the dead bodies off the train, remove the guts from the floor and seats, clean the blood off the surfaces, lit scented candles to mask any remaining smell. The group was left sweating and lying on the seats with their energy levels critical.
"Where's... Dirk..." Jack tiredly moaned.
Peter looked up.
"Quinn's gone too!"
Everyone was starting to panic until Quint got a whiff in the air.
"Something smells... delicious!"
The group made their way to the kitchen. There they found a big-muscled kid along with his younger sister cooking something on the stove.
"Oh hey, guys!" Quinn waved to the group.
The group remained silent at Quinn.
Everyone sat down to eat. Food laid in front of the group.
"Okay, eat up."
Everyone ate like kings, even if they still had supplies they brought with them.
"So what should we do now?" Dirk said, cleaning up after himself.
The group was left brainstorming as Peter cleaned up the rest of the dishes.
"I've got it!"
Jack stood at the table for everyone to hear.
"In every movie, TV show, or book, when a group of heroes gets together, they tell about their dark and tragic past. It's a way for a moment of seriousness."
"That's corny," Peter said.
"Sounds cool," Dirk said.
Everyone sat at the table before Peter could say anything. Jack went first.
"You know how I said I was an orphan before the apocalypse started?"
Everyone except Courtney nodded.
"You were an orphan?" She asked.
"Yep. I had a mom and a dad and they both love me when I was super young. I had everything I ever wanted, lived in a very fitting town where everyone knew each other like family."
"So what happened to your parents?" June asked.
Jack then changed his tone. "I guess you could say they... left me."
At that moment, everyone stared silently at Jack. They noticed him almost depressed, and it wasn't until someone spoke up.
"That doesn't sound right," Peter said. "How could your parents do something like that?"
"I don't know what happened to my parents! But my foster parents keep saying they died in a car accident, a plane accident, they were killed by a robber, or they never loved me."
"I guess you just came up with that solution because you read Spider-Man?"
"That's the most common, most sensible reasoning." Jack defended.
"Well, while you guys do your thing, I'm heading to the bathroom," Courtney said.
Peter kept a close eye on Courtney.
"Can you stop looking at me?" She said back.
"I can't trust you," Peter said, moving up.
"Well, I can't trust you either. We're only together because we had to."
"Guys, chill," Jack said, breaking up the argument.
Courtney rolled her eyes and closed the bathroom door.
The group, without Courtney, got back together.
"So who's next in their tragic backstory?" Jack said.
"Maybe Peter can go," Dirk said.
Everyone looked at Peter.
"Hold a sec.."
Peter took a large gulp of his lemonade to clear his throat.
"Okay, back to where everything started. Remember Unikitty and Newton? The unicorn and the hybrid?"
"Oh yeah, you told us about them," June said. "We almost forgot."
"Well, you're fourteen, bud." Peter reminded. "Anyway, as I said, Unikitty and Newton were a couple. Newton initially became cold and somewhat hostile towards Unikitty. While not physical, he was somewhat short-tempered and sometimes aggressive to me and Uni."
"But if he's like that, how did Unikitty maintain a relationship with him?" Quint said.
"But then we discovered what made him that way. It turned out Newton and Unikitty came from another world filled with unicorns, hybrids, dragons, and lots of fantasy creatures. The former was the prince of one such kingdom that was overthrown by another. He fled his dying homeworld to escape to where I come from. The latter was the daughter of a native hybrid tribe chief. She fled to my world to escape from the very same kingdom."
"Whoa..." Quinn said.
"Eventually, time passed. I taught Newton and Unikitty to put the past behind them, but both of them wanted to fight back. We discovered that the remains of both Unikitty's tribe and Newton's kingdom have teamed up to fight back against the enemy. Guess who won."
It didn't take a genius to know the results.
"But just as we were about to leave, they told me something," Peter said. "They wanted to stay. They wanted to rebuild the kingdom. As they married each other, everyone had to say goodbye."
"Whoa..." Jack said. "That must've been a lot."
"No wonder you seem different the last time we saw you," Quint added.
"Yeah, and me reacting to that became viral on YouTube."
"That must affect you to behave like that."
"Not all was lost though."
Everyone looked up.
"After they left, I found and rescued a nice family of penguins. They seemed to understand why I was so upset. I also met a hacker group, liberated a town, and fully defeated what's the rest of Newton's enemies."
Everyone went silent at those words. Peter decided to end it there.
"I need to go to the bathroom."
Peter got up and left.
Peter took some time in the next car over to take a couple of breaths. He moved on, but it still hurt. He would keep this to himself... after getting a splash of water on his face to cool off. He walked up to the restroom. There he saw what looked like to be a brown trash bag. It took a second to realize who it was.
"Courtney!"
Peter bent down to the woman's body and tried to sit her up. Her nose bled, her eyes wary, she was mumbling unintelligible words.
"Courtney! Courtney. couRTne... cOurt... c..."
In the magical world of Euphoria, Courtney Faden found herself surrounded by imaginary characters.
"Come on Courtney, let's all go to the beach!" An anthropomorphic blue hedgehog said.
"Don't forget to bring a towel," Courtney said.
Courtney, along with a group consisting of a blue hedgehog, a yellow fox, and a red echidna, and a blue female fox.
"So what should we do?"
The group noticed loops, rings, and springs. Looking at each other, they had a great idea. The blue hedgehog went first, collecting rings, bouncing on springs, and going through loops.
"Now it's your turn!" He said back.
Courtney went next. She ran for her life as the girl sprung into the air. Suddenly, she was sent falling. She braced for impact, but nothing happened to her yet. she fell. she fell. she fell... falen... fal..fa...
Coldwater awoke her. Courtney was sent gasping for air.
"Hey, hey, hey." A voice mumbled to her.
As her vision cleared, Courtney saw Peter with that anime look.
"AHHH!"
With the force of a truck crashing into the wall, Peter was down on the ground with a bruise to the eye. Instantly, she saw what she did.
"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!"
Peter groaned as he got up.
"Just shake it off, P..."
"I didn't mean to hurt you. I..."
Peter stopped her.
"What were you doing in there?"
Peter noticed fine powder on the sink. He licked his finger and took a very small dose. Stale and sour. He washed out the taste with water.
"Courtney... what is this?"
"It's nothing."
Peter still didn't buy it. "You know what this is, don't you?"
Courtney couldn't fight her words. "Don't tell anyone else."
"Peter, you okay over there? Did something happen to Courtney?" Jack called from off.
"No, we're fine."
Peter faced back at Courtney. "Let's just keep this between us."
Courtney refused to get helped up by Peter. It took her a couple of seconds of legs feeling like jelly, but she seemed normal. Peter escorted her back to the dining room.