Your name is Vriska Serket, and you have a lot of irons in the fire. All of the irons, in fact! You've had nothing but bad luck ever since you left Alternia. You lost your vision eightfold, as well as your left arm. You ended up on a planet full of some lame species called humans, who are almost completely immune to your mind control. The leader of these humans is the biggest problem, though. He's analyzing your every move and keeping most of the wreckage from your ship for himself. But you are far from helpless in this situation.

Really, while you'll never admit it out loud, Equius is actually doing the most to get everyone out of here. He's already made robotic legs for Tavros, and a robotic arm for you. But no matter how much you pester him, he still claims making a new eye for you is beyond his skill level. He's working on Terezi's cane right now, saying he needs to make some improvements. Said improvements seem to be squeezing a strip of metal into a blade he can hide inside of the cane, so that Terezi can use her bladekind.

Basically Equius is doing everything he can to arm your group. The only person who was able to keep their weapon was Kanaya, and that was because her chainsaw is disguised as lipstick. Terezi's hidden blade is the first thing he's making, but he's also trying to determine where the other equipment is being kept. Every time he and Nepeta go out to retrieve equipment for his mechanical projects, the two return with some more details about the layout of the base.

Kanaya has been recording the information they bring back with her sewing, making a discrete map out of needlework. She sits and sews most of the day, under the guise of replacing all of their clothing that was lost in the crash. When Equius and Nepeta are done scouting, Equius will return to his workbench in the corner, where he makes adjustments to various parts for Tavros' legs and your arm. Nepeta will prance over to Kanaya and draw out little lines for Kanaya to fill in with her needlework. When she's not filling out the map, it's disguised as Eridan's new cape.

If you're being honest with yourself, Kanaya and Equius are being very clever about this whole affair. Their planning is very discrete, and their map is well hidden. You've made a point of memorizing as much of it as you can already, so you can use it for your own plans.

You've been making your own escape strategy to use for several days now instead of Equius'. As if you'd let the sweaty asshole break you out of a cell! When Mindfang was captured by Neophyte Redglare, did she ask for help? No! She killed the Legislacerator, killed his Honorable Tyranny, and walked away from the gallows a free troll! As Mindfang's descendant you need to live up to that legacy.

You've got several things going for you. Not quite eight, but enough to get you free regardless. Your mind control may not work, but you can still put humans to sleep, you've managed to poke at the guards outside of your room and make them nod off once or twice. You also have your metal arm, which is strong enough to do a lot of damage.

And the third, most important thing you have going for you is Terezi. The Scourge Sisters are back in action! With only one eye between the two of you you're not as dangerous as you were back in the glory days, but together you're still more than a match for these humans!

Terezi is sitting on your right at the moment, head tilted as she listens to the other trolls. Her senses have been steadily improving over the week you've been stuck in the room. And she's applying her incredible hearing in the most devious manner possible.

"Sounds like things are getting awfully pale over there!" She sniggers, gesturing discreetly towards the corner by the door, where Karkat has taken over. You look over to see that Feferi is talking to him again.

"Such infidelity!" You cackle to Terezi. "What must Eridan be thinking?"

"Sounds like Eridan is too busy trying to black-flirt with Sollux." She frowns and turns to face you. "I thought that you were Eridan's kismesis?"

"Pleeeeeeeease. I left that sinking ship aaaaaaaages ago." You snort dismissively at Eridan's terrible flirting. "Eridan couldn't hate his way out of a paper bag." Terezi cackles at this and sticks out her tongue.

"I taste chocolate and tinfoil on the move." She says with a frown. "He's going for the stairs again, isn't he?"

You turn in your seat and see Tavros waddling along towards a set of stairs that the humans put in "for rehabilitation purposes." You're pretty sure they just like seeing him fall down them. "Yup, Gamzee probably talked him into it again." Tavros reaches the first step and promptly falls on his face. "God he's like a stair magnet or something, he can't stay away from the things."

Equius rushes over to Tavros and checks his legs for damage. "I have warned you about stairs, Nitram. I told you repeatedly not to walk on stairs until you've had time to improve your pitiful coordination. And yet it keeps happening."

Tavros smiles sheepishly as he tries to pick himself up. "Uh, sorry Equius, I just, well, I want to walk properly again right away, so I'm pushing myself harder, um, because I'll get better faster that way I think."

Equius sighs and rubs his temple. "You are an exceedingly difficult troll to cull. Your behavior is ludicrous and you will cease such foolishness from now on."

"Aww, don't be like that, bro. Tavbro here is just trying his motherfucking hardest to get his walk on." Gamzee says placating, helping Tavros to his feet. Equius' demeanor changes immediately.

"Highblood, I understand Nitram's intentions. However using the stairs is too much for day two of therapy." Equius is stiffening as Gamzee watches him, and yes, there's the sweating. You wonder sometimes how he hasn't died from dehydration by now with how much he sweats, not to mention his inability to hold a glass without breaking the damn thing.

"Those human brothers were nice enough to provide this bitching setup for Tavbro to use. It would be motherfucking rude not to make use of such a miraculous gift."

"There is nothing miraculous about stairs." Equius says stubbornly, staring at his feet. "Until Nitram has had more time to recover he shouldn't use them."

"I think, uhh, that I should keep trying, because well, we need to make sure we're all safe and I don't want to hold everyone back." You swear that's the longest you've ever heard Tavros speak without hesitating. It's almost impressive; or it would be if he wasn't being a clumsy idiot.

Equius is feeling much the same it seems, because while he was taken aback at Tavros being assertive, he seems to be getting more frustrated, and he finally snaps. "If you break your legs then you will hold us back far more, Nitram!"

"Don't you MOTHERFUCKING talk to him like that, MOTHERFUCKER." The room goes silent as Gamzee glares at Equius. The look in his eyes is dangerous, a far stretch away from the stupid, sopor-addled dumbass you know and find distasteful. He's slouched over a bit, horns lowered, and stance tense. He's coiled like a spring, ready to attack, and it's more terrifying than you care to admit.

Equius backs away nervously, as Feferi rushes over. "What the glub is happening over here?"

Gamzee raises his head and smiles lazily at Feferi. "Ain't anything to worry your pretty head over, sis. Equius here was getting his motherfucking disrespect on towards Tavbro, so I just set him motherfucking straight. Dropped the chastise on him and he got the picture, and now everything is motherfucking miracles again." You notice his arms are still tense, and his eye has a gleam of… something in it, something you can't identify, but know can't be good.

"Gamzee, when was the last time you had a pie?" Karkat's voice startles you, as he speaks from next to Feferi. Ever since that crabby loudmouth was outed as a mutant he's been disturbingly good at avoiding attention. Makes you wonder why he was so damn noisy beforehand. Yet another stroke of luck from this whole mess, though you do somewhat miss seeing him riled up. His monologuing can be downright hilarious.

"Well shit Karbro, it's been a long motherfucking time." Gamzee says with a grin. His stance is almost completely tame again, though his eyes still seem off. "Those humans couldn't salvage much sopor, so I've been saving the few motherfucking pies I've got."

"I think you should have one now." Karkat says quietly.

"Well shit bro, if you think that's for the best, then I'll go have myself a nice pie right now." Gamzee says with a grin, and wanders off to the shelf where he's been keeping all of his disgusting pies.

You realize suddenly what Karkat likely knew from the moment Gamzee snapped: He's suffering withdrawal symptoms. Gamzee may seem like a dopey idiot usually, but he's a purple blood, and that means when he loses it you're all in trouble. Your time limit just got a lot shorter. Gamzee goes through pies fast. And there's no way for anyone in your group to get more sopor.

You don't care what happens later, but right now you need to get yourself and Terezi as far away from him as possible. Everyone else in your group is either capable enough on their own, or not worth worrying over. Except for Tavros of course, but you could never get Gamzee away from him. The two are already trying to tackle the stairs again. He'll have to make do, because while you like Tavros, you aren't willing to fight a homicidal juggalo highblood on his behalf. You like yourself a lot more than you like Tavros.

Terezi seems to realize your train of thought at this point, because she's turned to you and grabbed your wrist. "Vriska, we need to wait and make sure we do this properly. If we panic and execute our plan before we've received our verdict it won't end well for us." She's unusually serious all of a sudden, but you suppose crazy clowns must have that effect on people.

"Pleeeeeeeease, Terezi. I can handle these people with one eye closed." You laugh as you shake her off.

Terezi will not be dissuaded though, and she shifts her hand to your shoulder instead, turning you to face her. "I'm serious, Vriska. That Scratch person is dangerous. He's smart, he has a lot of armed goons, and he has exclusive access to all of our technology. If we underestimate him he has more than enough of an advantage to make us regret it."

"Which is why I won't give him the chance. He'll be out of the picture before he knows what's happening."

"No, see, that would be a perfect example of underestimating him. We are the prisoners, and he is the honorable tyranny of this world. If we make our move too soon we will all hang." You don't think Terezi has ever looked so somber when talking about hangings before.

You aren't really worried by her warnings though, for two reasons. The first is that you think Terezi is overestimating Scratch after her slipup at his first greeting. She was recovering from suddenly being blind at the time, so nobody really held it against her. But she is still very upset with herself for letting something slip about their home planet to a group of potentially hostile aliens with unknown military power. (Truthfully, you're still feeling rather smug about Terezi being the first one to slip up, since she's always acted like she's smarter than you.)

The other reason you're not worried about Scratch is because you can see Gamzee still has that strange look in his eye. He's unstable already, and he hasn't even run out of drugs yet.

You're not the only one who's on guard though. Karkat and Feferi have gone back to muttering in their corner, but you can see Karkat glancing at Gamzee from time to time. Equius is keeping to his desk, but you can see he's whispering to Nepeta, and she's not very discrete about how much Gamzee terrifies her. Eridan's pacing back and forth in the middle of the room, and you know he wants to put himself between Gamzee, and Feferi and Sollux (Not that he should bother because he's got no chance with either of them). Though they're in opposite corners so he has to make do. Last but certainly not least is Kanaya, who has set her lipstick on the table beside her.

They can all sense that Gamzee is slipping. The look in his eyes is dulled by sopor, but beneath the haze of failure emanating from the sick clown you can tell he's getting ready to explode. When the sopor runs dry he'll probably try to kill all of you, and you're not sure he can be stopped. Kanaya is dangerous, and armed, but Gamzee is stronger and faster. And the only other one in you group who could feasibly fight him is a hemocaste worshipping loser.

Your best bet is to abscond while you still can. And you know exactly how to do that. You brush Terezi's hand from your shoulder and place a hand on her face. "Shoosh Terezi, I can handle these pathetic humans. Just trust me."

Terezi freezes. "Vriska… did you just… shooshpap me?"

Your mind goes blank for a moment, and then goes into overdrive. You definitely just shooshpapped Terezi Pyrope. You glare at the offending hand accusingly. Then you try to comprehend exactly what this means. Terezi doesn't look angry, just surprised, and curious. And you have to will your hand to part from her face. There might just be something happening here.

"I guess I did." You eventually admit, stepping back sheepishly. Her face is glowing with teal blood, and you're sure your own face is flushed with cobalt, but you don't really have time to think too deeply about it. You need to get your plan under way before you become overwhelmed by what just happened. "We can talk about it later, okay? I can't stop now, too many irons in the fire."

"Vriska, I really think you should-"

"Don't worry, I'll be careful." You reassure her and flee before she can convince you to stay. You move to the door and knock loudly, getting the attention of everyone in the room.

"Serket. What are you doing?" Equius rises from his seat and folds his arms sternly. Nepeta isn't moving yet, but the look she's giving you is certainly calculating.

"I've had enough of stalling! I'm going to take matters into my own hands!" You declare with a smile. "Just sit back and watch as Marquise Spinneret Mindfang saves you wrigglers." Using your role-playing name only makes you surer of yourself. Nobody can beat Vriska Serket in confidence; she is simply the best there is!

"Oh sweet bulge chaffing fuck, she's role-playing as a dumbass." Karkat deadpans from his corner. "Vriska go sit down and shut up before you get all of us killed."

His words sting a little, but you know you're far too great to let a nobody like Karkat stop your foolproof plan. "Mutants should be culled and not heard." You say with a sneer. That shuts him up, but you can see Feferi and Nepeta giving you dangerous looks. The idiots are both obsessed with the noisy excuse for a troll.

Nobody else gets the chance to stop you though, because the door opens and a soldier steps in. "What do you want?"

"I'd like to speak with Doctor Scratch." You say with a smile. "I have something important he needs to hear."

You're whisked away from the room that's served as your cell for many weeks before any of your fellow trolls can object. You try to keep track of your surroundings, but they move you so fast it's near impossible to determine where you are. All you can tell is that you're above ground, and that this complex is gigantic. No wonder Equius needed Nepeta to handle the mapping; she's probably got the best sense of space in the group, due to being practically feral.

Suddenly, the soldiers are gone from your side, and you find yourself in a long hallway. The walls are painted a bright, emerald green, almost an eyesore. You proceed to the ornate door at the end of the hall, but before you can knock, you hear Doctor Scratch's voice. "Welcome miss Serket, I've been expecting you. Please do come in."

You jump at this, wondering how the Doctor knows your name. You enter the room slowly, sizing up the office of the man who has your friends held captive.

The room is large, ornate, and painted with various shades of bright green. A fireplace crackles on one side, a large map on the wall above the mantle. On the other side is a large golden clock, decorated with serpents. The furniture in the room all looks very old, and you see that instead of a husktop or human equivalent, he has an old fashioned typewriter on his desk.

"Welcome to my office, Miss Serket." Doctor Scratch says pleasantly, "I'm so glad to finally get a chance to speak face to face with a member of your fascinating species. I have many questions for your group. Of course being the excellent host that I am I wouldn't dream of prying into the business of a group of crash survivors. It would hardly be fitting of one as devoted to hospitality as myself."

"Good grief you like to talk!" You burst out impatiently. "If you want information on trolls, you should probably give us a chance to get a word in! I mean reeeeeeeeally, it's rude to talk your guest's ears off, especially when they're already missing body parts!"

Scratch chuckles drily at this, but you see his eyes narrow. "You are right of course. I suggest you raise your hand when you feel I am speaking too much, it is a method proven successful in human classrooms." It's a clear jab at your obvious youthfulness, and it tells you that Scratch takes poorly to interruptions. Instead of being insulted though, you take it as a sign that he's underestimating you.

"Let's just discuss things like civilized beings and skip the gesturing." You say with a smirk. "So tell me, what do you want to know?"

Scratch gets to his feet and begins to pace back and forth. "Well, let's see here, there are so many questions that need answering… but I suppose the most important question would be the location of the twelfth troll."

You try not to blink your remaining eye, and fail miserably. You were not expecting him to go for the throat so quickly, and you certainly weren't expecting him to know about Aradia. "What makes you think there's a twelfth troll?" You ask, barely managing to keep your voice even.

Doctor Scratch looks smug, and you both know he's taken the early advantage. "My people have taken every scrap from your ship and brought it into our compound for examination. While technology was our primary goal, we also made a point of finding genetic material. It took us some time to sort past the DNA of the various biological systems aboard your ship, but in the end we were able to match DNA to the blood samples we'd already collected during your medical treatment."

"What we weren't expecting to find though, was a twelfth genetic code, that we were able to determine was troll. Despite our searching however, we were completely unable to uncover any remains. So where is this twelfth troll?" He turns to face you with a look of suspicion. "How did they escape? Are you maintaining contact with them somehow?"

You laugh at this. "Finally figured it out, have you? Our trump card, hiding in the background all this time? She's been biding her time until we were ready to flee, and she has more than enough firepower with her to take you all apart!" It's not a perfect bluff, but you feel confident in your ability to use this to your advantage.

Scratch smirks at your threat though. "A female, then? Certainly not the same female that misters Captor and Zahhak have been so tearful over?" You stop smiling, and Scratch tuts at you. "Clearly so. Miss Serket, you should not have been so quick to show your hand, until your face gave it away I was by no means certain. So tell me, how did she die in a way that didn't leave a corpse?"

"Weapons malfunction. A laser blew up in her face." You respond quickly, knowing already the excuse won't be enough.

"Your ship didn't have weapons." Scratch said with a bored expression. "Never mind, I already know who was responsible. Equius, Karkat, and Sollux have all acted guilty since the crash, but Sollux is the only one with the capacity to kill in such a way."

Your head snaps up in alarm. "How could you know that?"

"We've checked your brain activity levels. Sollux Captor's mind was powerful enough to destroy everything we've used to attempt to measure his neurological power. Quite remarkable, really. Of course, having you here to confirm my hypothesis is helpful as well." He turns aside and dials a number on a rotary phone. "I have confirmed that Captor is the target. Be gentle with him. He is still our guest after all."

You have underestimated Doctor Scratch. He knew everything he needed before you even walked into the room. All you've done is confirm his suspicions. But he's made the mistake of placing himself alone in a room with you. Which means your plan is by no means cancelled. You snap your hands to the side of your head and start channeling your mind control into putting Scratch to sleep. Once he's at your mercy, you can take control of everything easily.

Scratch doesn't so much as blink as you focus on him though. "You know, before I was assigned leader of FELT, I was placed through rigorous mental training to resist torture and drugs. Mind control is just a more sophisticated form of these things. Thank you for showing me your skills though. I knew from the brain scans that you were also gifted, but I wasn't sure what you could do."

"You shouldn't take risks with trolls." You say with false bravado. "We're notoriously lucky." You start to back towards the door, but you see him advance fearlessly and know you can't hope to outrun him.

Doctor Scratch chuckles mirthlessly. "My dear girl, it doesn't matter how lucky you are if I hold all the cards." He leaps at you at impossible speed, and throws a punch you barely block with your robot arm. It still sends you flying to the side though, and you hit the wall next to the fireplace hard enough to knock the wind out of you.

Scratch shakes his hand out irritably, and jumps at you again. You barely dodge out of the way, and his fist hits the wall hard enough to make the room shake. You see a flash of blue beside you, and notice several small blue pieces fall from the desk. You laugh breathlessly. It's the fluorite octet! Doctor Scratch is still recovering from punching the wall at mach four, giving you time to scrabble over to your dice.

"I'd appreciate it if you would refrain from dragging out the inevitable." Scratch says irritably. "This was checkmate the moment you walked into the room."

"Not anymore." You say with a laugh as you hold up your dice. "This isn't chess anymore, this is craps!" You roll the dice and grin at Doctor Scratch, who is watching the die warily. 1-8-8-1-1-8-8-1. The dice glow and trigger a spider web, which pins Scratch to the wall. You laugh as the dice reappear in your hand, and walk up to Doctor Scratch. "What did I tell you? I have all the luck. Aaaaaaaall of it!"

You're about to throw the dice again to go for a finishing blow, but the sound of voices in the hallway mean you need to make a hasty retreat. "Well looks like there's a little luck left over for you after all." You smile at him and rush for the exit. You see soldiers in the hallway and throw your dice. 4-1-3-5-2-4-1-3. A gust of wind blasts the soldiers backwards down the corridor, and gives you an extra burst of speed.

You leave the hallway with soldiers flying through the air around you. When you look around you see chaos at the building you came from. Sirens are blaring, and spotlights are sweeping around, illuminating the expanse between you and the walls encircling the base. You grin and head for the source of the racket to reunite with the other trolls. It's time for a jailbreak worthy of Mindfang herself.