Trick or Treat, Pt 21
By Jill Weber
Big Guy and Rusty characters owned by Sony and Darkhorse and are used without permission or intent to make a profit.
"Afterword"
***
Neugogg woke up in his cell again. He sighed. "Missed it by that much!" he snarled, holding up his tentacles. On the bright side, though, he'd actually had fun at a party for once. "I wonder what they're doing for Christmas," he mused.
Erika Slate had previous experience in restoring Neugogg's stolen intellects back into their owners' braincases. So she was the natural choice to fix this lot of victims. It took three days to restore everybody back to normal, and it would take several weeks before they were all back on duty.
Donovan was fretting about being shorthanded and falling behind schedule. If he was grateful for Rusty, Hunter and Slate stopping Neugogg, he gave no sign of it.
"The victims are lucky they have you around to fix them," Dwayne said when he dropped by her office to visit.
Slate eyed him warily, as if expecting a punch line. "Really?" was all she said.
Hunter nodded and looked sincere. "Honest, I'm impressed with the way you handle Neugogg's gear." He paused.
Slate wondered if she was blushing. "Thank you," she said. She managed to prevent herself from saying 'Um' with difficulty. "So, how's Jeffy?" she asked. 'Like "so" is better than "um" she thought.
"He's fine," Hunter said. "I don't think my sister will ever speak to me again, though."
Slate grinned. "I can testify that it's not your fault!" she said. "So, what brings you here?"
"Ah, thanks," Hunter said to the first part. To the second part, he added. "I just needed to get away from Jo telling Garth 'I told you so.' Apparently, she predicted a rough night."
"Oh," Slate felt disappointed.
"I also wanted to tell you that I was impressed with how you handled yourself on Halloween," Hunter said, surprising himself as much as Slate.
Slate raised an eyebrow. "What, no lecture on being too silly to save myself?"
"No, just a sincere thank you for coming back to save me," Hunter said. "And finally, I… well, I was wondering…"
Slate's heart rate increased dramatically and she struggled to maintain a casual façade. Was he actually going to…? "Yes?" she said.
"Well, I was wondering if maybe you'd like to…" Hunter rubbed the back of his neck and a faint blush started to creep across his face.
Oh, he was going to ask her out! "If I'd like to…?" she prompted.
The Big Guy signal sounded, making them both jump.
Hunter sighed. "If you'd like to do the usual, Pinky. Help us go out and save the world!" He left, humming the tune to Pinky and the Brain to keep himself from cursing.
Slate shook her head sadly. "They're Pinky, Pinky and the Dwayne, Dwayne, Dwayne, Dwayne…" she sang. Then she stopped. "Hey! That makes ME the insane one!" she bellowed after Hunter.
"Well, you're the one who doesn't have enough sense to run!" Hunter yelled over his shoulder. Then he sighed. 'That probably wasn't the best way to convince her to go out with you, you idiot.' He thought as he raced off to join his crew.
Slate glared after him, then grinned. Maybe SHE should ask DWAYNE out? She started humming to herself. First, though, she needed to get revenge for that 'Pinky and the Dwayne' crack…
***
A/N: I'd like to thank you all for reading this whole thing, especially considering how long it took to finish! I actually had planned to finish it by Halloween of last year. Sigh. Oh, well, maybe I should start on the Valentine one. Maybe I'll finish by next Valentine's Day…