Lou Cypher drove his black Trans-Am up along the quarry road. As he pulled up the hill
to the top of the excavation, he was surprised to find no guards, no protective fence, no anything. He figured that his "quarry" were either exceptionally brave, or exceptionally stupid.
For a brief second, he saw three silhouettes, outlined in his bright headlights. The Legion. He gripped the steering wheel, and smiled.
It was then that he noticed a brief sensation of weightlessness, followed by the inexorable pull of gravity….
Jane, Daria, and Quinn watched the Trans-Am tip forward, and fall into the sinkhole that had been carefully prepared by Quinn doing some late-night excavation of her own. The crater was about thirty feet long and wide enough to hold and trap any car coming into it.
Daria's high school algebra, however, had not prepared her for some miscalculation. Daria mistakenly assumed that the car would move forward and fall into the hole the way the bullet fits into the chamber of a pistol. However, the Trans-Am had slowed down on its way up the hill and the front end of the vehicle simply tipped into the hole, ass-end up, with the sound of crunching fiberglass and breaking headlights to plunge the night into darkness again and at the same time, break the silence.
The three Legionnaires stood by, anxiously. They could make out the shape of the back wheels in the dark, spinning furiously, the brake lights of the Trans-Am quietly dying.
"Do you think that's got him?" said Quinn.
"I don't know," answered Daria. "He might be unconscious. The sides of the hole should pin the doors from opening. Either way, he shouldn't be able to get out."
But the sound of glass breaking, again – and again – and again indicated that something was getting out of the car. And fast.
Cypher climbed out of his car through the winshield. The walls of the crater pinned the doors shut. He swung himself around, scattering up the roof of the car like a spider, not so much as breaking for breath, the tilted car creating a steep incline. One lone working headlight lit up the pit from which he found himself crawling.
"You can give yourself up!!" shouted Jane, from the air. "We've got you covered!!"
Cypher watched the person levitating above him. She wasn't armed, but floating in front of her was a barrier. A large, flat piece of metal.
Swinging around, Cypher fired. There was no reason not to, and she might not be very fast or very experienced with the makeshift shield. As he managed to clear the trunk of the car, lots happened….
…Cypher, turning and firing his handgun while he jumped back onto level ground…
…Quinn, firing a bolt of electrical force which just missed Cypher as he cleared the back bumper….
…and Daria, watching and waiting.
Jane had not thought of creating a visor hole for her metal shield, but she caught Cypher pulling something from his coat and figured it was the gun. The shield immediately blocked the line of fire and Jane could feel the minimal impact of plastic pellets harmlessly bouncing off. She moved forward, more confidently.
Cypher ducked as the force bolt Quinn threw blew the fiberglass trunk lid off the crashed Trans-Am. Watching it flutter away like a piece of paper sickened him.
Bitch! You wrecked my ride! This was supposed to be man to man!!
As Daria desperately tried to search his mind – and found nothing! – Quinn battered away at the smashed automobile that Cypher used for cover, throwing bolt after bolt. She couldn't wait until they forced him out, sooner or later and brought him to jail. The plan was that between Jane and Quinn, Cypher would have no where to go.
Cypher, suddenly, rolled out from behind the trunk. He had a new weapon in his hand.
A rock, about the size of a VCR. The large, heavy, unwieldy rock would have served as a weapon for no one except for Lou Cypher. Cypher hurled the rock hard – very hard – in Jane's direction.
Jane brought the shield in front of her just in time. The hard piece of stone was thrown with such force that even Jane felt the impact. The rock, part stone and part sand, disintegrated upon impact with the metal shield and turned into a crowd of brown, blinding dust which rapidly found its way into Jane's eyes. She began coughing, rapidly, half-blinded.
"Quinn!" shouted Daria. "You've got to smash the car! Get rid of his cover!!"
Quinn didn't need the advice. She fired more forcefully, lighting up the sky and illuminating the area as if it were lit by a full moon on a clear sky. The blue blast rocketing from her hands ripped a huge hole in the back end of the Trans-Am…
…and ignited the gasoline tank!
A loud
FFFFFFFFFFFOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMPPPPPPPPHHHHHHHHHH
followed by the shockwave of a large explosion provided permanent illumination to the night sky, followed by a scattering of burning fiberglass debris. Jane was forced back even further by the heat and the black smoke. At least, thought Jane, he has nowhere to hide now.
Daria and Quinn hit the ground when they saw the Trans-Am go up. Most of the car was trapped in the crater, and the two Legionnaires were shielded from the blast effects.
"Daria…can you hear him?" whispered Quinn.
"No…I can't…." answered Daria. I've tried listening in, and I can't even find his mind at all! This can't be happening!
Quinn turned to Daria. "You have to get out of here."
"Quinn, I – "
"Get out, Daria!" shouted Quinn, charging up. "I mean it! I don't want to see you get killed!!"
Daria stood still.
"RUN!!" screamed Quinn.
Daria, not knowing what to do, and feeling utterly helpless, ran in the opposite direction, away from the battle.
Jane coughed away the last of the dust of smoke. When her line of vision cleared, she saw Cypher break for open ground, using the explosion as cover.
She reached in her pocket and pulled out a ball bearing the size of a large marble. She sent the marble flying at the fleeing Cypher with magnetic force.
She knew she hit him. But it didn't even seem to knock him down. She had other marbles, but decided not to use them.
"Quinn!" Jane shouted. "I'm going to set him up! Get ready!!" She brought the metal shield with her in case Cypher had any more tricks.
Quinn ran rapidly after Cypher, now very short of breath and sweating heavily. It would be up to Jane and Quinn alone to take care of the attacker. Quinn wondered if she would be up to it. Jane had explained what the "set up" meant. Quinn saw the logic in it, but didn't know how much force she could use.
Jane had now outflown Cypher, rocketing past him. Cypher stopped running, turning almost as if on a dime. Jane was now using extending the shield even further from her body, this time using it as a floating barrier and flying after Cypher.
Cypher ran from the shield, his way blocked by Jane's floating fence. Quinn ran to close the distance between the two. She watched Jane get closer with the metal barrier…
…as Quinn closed in further.
Cypher knew he was trapped. He stopped running. Jane made sure to keep the metal wall up to limit his movements.
"NOW!!!" screamed Jane.
Quinn fired.
She hit Cypher with a shot of electrical force as Jane released the metal shield completely. She had once felt Quinn's force bolt crawl around (or was it through) a magnetic field and she knew she didn't want it to happen again.
The trick would be for Quinn to hit Cypher with enough force to stop him.
Cypher began running toward Quinn. The arcs of force glowed through his body, blew holes in his trenchcoat, and knocked the hat from his head.
And still, he kept running. Quinn could see his teeth glowing with electrical force, a rictus grin, heading straight for her.
"HIT HIM HARDER THAT THAT!!" shouted Jane.
"IF I HIT HIM HARDER, I'LL KILL HIM!!" shouted Quinn.
"IT'S EITHER YOU OR HIM! FOR GOD'S SAKE, HIT HIM!!!"
Cypher closed the gap. Thirty feet.
Twenty feet.
Ten feet, hands outstretched, smoke coming from his hands, a creature of hell.
Quinn gulped, and concentrated.
Five feet….
Kevin and Brittany smooched at Lover's Lane, which happened to overlook the Quarry. Kevin hoped that tonight, he might see the promised land for the first time.
As he ran his hands over Brittany's body, he could see a powerful flash of lightning in the background reflected in the glass of his jeep. He remembered from grade school that thunder followed lightning, because sound was faster than light. Or something like that.
"Gee babe, better close the top!"
Brittany smiled. "Tee hee! I thought you wanted to peek under the hood!!"
"I'll peek under your hood!!" As Kevin prepared to close the back of the jeep, he hoped that the big storm coming would come at just the right time. He hoped to be under the roof all night, if he got lucky.
The shot Quinn hit Cypher was something to behold, if one's retinas could survive it. Jane felt the ground shake as if the area had been struck by a flash of lightning. Jane levitated slowly but as quickly as safely allowed, forced to shield her eyes all the while.
When night took over again, Jane saw Quinn sitting on the ground, slightly dazed. Jane looked for Cypher at Ground Zero.
There was nothing there. Not a burning corpse. Not a pair of empty shoes.
Nothing.
"Holy crap!" said Quinn, panting rapidly. "I incinerated him!!"
Jane walked over to the area, which was still hot. "It can't be that easy…." she muttered. She looked about.
"Crap! Quinn, I want you to look around. You might have knocked him out of the area. Stay charged up at all times! I don't want anybody touching you. Does your phone still work?"
Quinn fumbled for the phone at her belt. Her costume was intact…but the belt was gone. Quinn looked down to see a burning canvas strip of cloth, with what used to be a cell phone smouldering away.
"I'll check on the mayor! Search the area! You couldn't have knocked him far!!" At least Jane hoped not. Finding the attacker in the dark would be difficult at best. The last thing she needed was for Cypher to get away, for when they found him again, they would probably have to fight him on his terms next time.
Sandi waited with Daria and Tiffany. Tiffany strained to see what was going on. The three winced as they could see what appeared to be lightning flashes light up the sky…including a huge lightening stroke that almost seemed like a mini-thunderstorm.
"Should we call Jane?" asked Sandi.
"I don't know if we should call her in the middle of a fight! That might not be a good idea!" said Daria.
"But how…will we know…what's going onnnnn?" moaned Tiffany.
"We wait till they get back."
Silence. For the longest time. And then, a knock on the door.
"Who is it?" asked Sandi.
The knock continued, louder, and more persistent.
"I'll see who it is from here," said Daria. - All right, we hear you, now STOP KNOCKING! -
Silence.
Then the knocking continued, loudly and aggressively, the door beginning to shake.
"Oh shit," muttered Daria.
'What?"
"I CAN'T READ HIS MIND!!! RU – !"
Before Daria could get the words out of her mouth, the thin trailer park wooden door cracked down the middle. A second kick broke it to pieces.
Lou Cypher stepped into the trailer.
He was a mess, to say the least. And he no longer seemed to be Lou Cypher, or at least, the parts that were still there didn't add up to Lou Cypher.
The clothing had burned off his body, revealing a mostly seared and partly melted plastic armor. His toes appeared to be bloody stumps, and the SQUISH of his feet was the sound of dread to the three terrified girls. His skin had boiled away, large open sores and red scalds with the rims of the sores black with dead skin and dripping with bloody pus.
His hair had burned away, leaving only smoke and the white of his skull visible from the top of his head. One eye had turned a shade of yellow, and had shrunken, having literally cooked away in his skull. A large flap of skin from the left side of his face hung half-off his cheek like a slab of cooked bologna.
Upon his face, as a famous author once said, was the look of extreme annoyance.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" screamed Sandi, as she almost ran over Daria and Tiffany. The two would have found Sandi's sudden cowardice unforgivable, if they weren't literally running one step behind her.
For a dead man walking, Cypher could move with amazing quickness. The girls snaked through the trailer, a multicolored snake weaving through furniture. Cypher knocked wood, glass, whatever he could find aside. Because he only needed one hostage.
Sandi found the back door. It opened, and Sandi lept the six feet or so through open air and out onto the dry rock quarry. The other two girls quickly followed, with Daria barely escaping before feeling the touch of Cypher's bloody clabbered hand.
Cypher tumbled out the back door, not knowing that there was a six foot drop. He stumbled to the ground, and screamed, loudly, sending the small hairs on the back of Daria's head dancing.
The three girls ran in different directions. Cypher was now chasing one lone girl, the one he had the closest line of fire to.
…not Tiffany….
…not Daria….
SANDI.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" screamed Sandi as she felt the blood-matted hand of Lou Cypher grab her by the arm and twisted her forward. She found herself looking into his death's head.
"Whereth the may'r?" he shouted.
"Huh?"
"WHERE'TH THE MAYORTH?!" Cypher had developed a speech impediment as he grabbed Sandi's other arm.
Sandi felt her bladder release, warm soaking warmth down the length of her pants as she faced the half-dead madman, her hindbrain not considering bladder control an essential function. Her still living tongue dried up and shrunk, to match the size of the cooked tongue that still rattled on about its obscene mission of hopeless death.
Daria watched. She had to do something….but what?
-- Sandi! What I SAY…YOU SAY!! I'M WITH YOU!! --
"We have the mayor!" said Sandi. Cypher did not notice Daria only fifty feet away, moving her lips exactly as Sandi moved hers. "But you're not going to be able to stop us all! Give up!"
"GIVE UP? GIV' UP? I'M GONN' KILL EVERYBOTHY HERE!!" shouted Cypher as blood-tinged spit sprayed Sandi's face. "I'TH EITHER TH' MAYOR, OR YOU!! AND YOU.. LOOK…THWEET!" Cypher smiled, or as much as he could smile.
"Th'weet enouf to eat," he said. "Maybe I'll make you my thpecial friendth." He held Sandi by one arm as he reached for his hard plastic knife. The scabbard had burned into crip leather, but the blade still held an edge. "Maybe I'll mak' you prett-ee….!"
Sandi looked at the knife with wide, terrified eyes. "Okay," said Sandi, mouthing Daria's words. "You can have the mayor! Just let me go!"
"Where ith he?"
"He's up at the tower! You'll have to get him there!"
"Then leth's go. But don' you run too fasth. My legth ain't what they used to be."
Cypher and Sandi half-jogged, half-ran to the partially constructed tower area. A large plywood fence surrounded the area, with the menacing logo
NO PROGRESS BEYOND THIS POINT
WEAR HARDHAT!!
"Tho…where ith he?"
Sandi tried to look for something to say. She waited for the words to come, the words that would make this crazy man go away, the words that Daria promised to give her, but
there was nothing. There was no one there except herself and this burning corpse. Daria…had abandoned her!!
Sandi found her words. "I hope they kill you!" She stared at him with all the force of hate she could muster.
"Oh thweetie," chuckled Cypher, "don't you know? I'm unththoppable."
Another voice broke the silent night.
"Really?"
It was Tiffany. Tiffany now standing in front of the plywood barrier.
"You couldn't even kill me!" said Tiffany.
"HAAAHH!!" Cypher threw the knife, right towards Tiffany's heart.
godIhopeI'mdoingthisright
…the knife passed right through Tiffany as Tiffany faded into insubstantiability. The knife imbedded itself in the plywood a good two inches.
Tiffany knew she would require Daria to get her back to solid again. Still, Tiffany kept running towards Cypher as Cypher threw Sandi aside and prepared to attack his next target.
Cypher swung at Tiffany with a roundhouse punch. It was as if he had hit open air. He couldn't hit Tiffany at all, and figured that his eyesight must be impaired in some way. But his punches would have taken down a bodybuilder.
Tiffany let the punches pass through her, but still flinched out of habit. She dived through Cypher to get to the other side of him and to make sure that Sandi was out of the way.
As she dived through his body…she was stopped. In mid-dive.
She hit something hot…
and HARD.
Tiffany bounced back out of Cypher's body, as if slamming into an iron bar. She remained in her insubstantial form, but rested on the ground temporarily as if she had turned solid.
"YEAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHH!!!" shouted Cypher. Somehow, Tiffany had hurt him. It was a scream of pain. Cypher immediately began reaching for his chest, as if to make sure that all of his insides were still in one place.
"Hey, asshole."
It was the voice of a female.
"I think you just shot your last bullet. Why don't you pick on somebody your own size, buster?"
Suddenly, unexpectedly, all of the working lights came on at the incomplete Legion Tower. Someone had thrown a switch somewhere. As Cypher crane his neck up, he found Jane Lane standing on the top floor, looking down on him with a three story height advantage.
Cypher figured that now was the time to break for it. He no longer had the advantage. He ran.
Behind Jane, long thin steel structural support bars lifted up behind her, floating in the air as if animated by their own power.
Jane smiled. "Never threaten my friends. NEVER."
A bar snaked out to find the rapidly running Cypher. It left the floor as if it were an arrow, a javelin aimed by an invisible force. It just missed him.
The second one missed him and Cypher smiled with what was left with his lips. Stupid bitch…maybe you should practice next time!!
The third bar pierced Cypher's femur.
One inch in diameter, the bar shattered his right femur, its terminal end finding the hard ground.
Cypher knew he had to get the bar out of his leg before more bars came his way.
Before he could wrap his hands around the bar, another metal shaft suddenly split his upper chest.
"AAAAAAHHH!!! NOOO!!!!" Cypher screamed, his burnt jaw barely hanging open.
Still, his blackened frame jiggled on the wires as he gave up trying to free himself and clutched at his chest again. A bright beam of light, as if on a pinhole, broke free from his chest, a tiny searchlight.
Tiffany strode forward. She knew there was something inside him. Something hot, and hard, and foreign.
Quinn huffed and puffed her way up the hill. "Tiffany! GET OUT OF THE WAY! I'M GOING TO ZAP HIM!!"
"DOOOO IT!!!"
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!"
"I SAID GO AHEAD!" screamed Tiffany. "TRUST MEEEE!!!"
Quinn closed her eyes. It was hard trusting Jane or Daria, much less Tiffany. She didn't even know how powerful she was, so why would a deadhead like Tiffany know how powerful she was.
She fired a mini-arc. The arc went right through Tiffany and found the steel rod piercing Cypher's chest. Sparks flew as the rust on the rod ignited, the electricity freeing the oxygen. Cypher danced like a puppet on a string.
Tiffany remained insubstantial as Quinn hit Cypher again. Cypher's body was now igniting. Tiffany had plunged both of her arms into Cypher's screaming form.
As his capacity to speak diminished, with his one eye, Cypher looked into Tiffany's face for even a hint of mercy. Tiffany's face was as a marble statue. She looked as Cypher as if her were a slab of meat in the way of something more interesting.
"STOPPP!!!" shouted Tiffany. She found what she was looking for.
It gave way. Cypher's chest opened up, a pressure inside it bursting open, an object that Tiffany, even in her insubstantial state could touch.
Before Tiffany could grab the object and release it, Cypher reached inside his burning body, shoving an arm inside, cracking his sternum open and grabbing what Tiffany was looking for.
The area around Cypher glowed red. Cypher was holding…somehow…a brilliant light in his hands, as if a torch. The light glowed red hot, but gave off no heat, giving off instead a red strobing light.
The light flew from Cypher's hands. It was hurled in the direction of a target.
SANDI.
The light hurled like a red hot sun, to strike Sandi's abdomen. Or rather, would have if Jane Lane hadn't moved the steel shield in front of Sandi at the last second.
A loud CLANG! could be heard.
Cypher had stopped moving. Quinn stopped zapping him.
Jane flew from the Tower and the five girls gathered around the site.
Cypher was dead, it seemed. There was not much left of the burnt skeletal form impaled on the steel bars.
Tiffany picked up the glowing, strobing light and held it up.
"It's gloooo-winnnnng…." she said.
And indeed, it was. The light was not some type of focused energy, but came from a source. A red jewel, which tapered off into a razor-sharp tip. The jewel continued to glow, as if promising incredible power.
The five girls gathered around, watching it. Tiffany held it aloft.
"How can you even hold that?" asked Daria.
"I don't knoooowww." Yet somehow, Tiffany could. Tiffany looked all right holding it. Gingerly, Quinn reached out and touched it.
"It feels warm!"
The others all reached out to touch it. First Jane, then Daria…
YOUSTUPIDFUCKINGCUNTILLKILLYOUILLKILLYOUICANTBESTOPPEDIAMTHEDARKONEGETYOURFUCKINGHANDSOFFOFMEGIVEMEFLESHIHAVETOHAVEFLESHIFYOUDONTGIVEMEFLESHYOULLSUFFER--!!
Daria yelped, snapping back as if she had been bitten by a snake. She fell to the hard quarry floor. Jane and Quinn rushed toward her to pick her up.
"Daria -- !" shouted Jane.
Daria looked cold. "H..H..horrible. He – he's in there. Now I know why I couldn't read his mind."
Silence. Then Tiffany asking, "why?"
"Because – F-Freddy Krueger over there wasn't the enemy. That thing you're holding in your hand is!"
Tiffany dropped the crystal. Everyone else stood back…far back.
There were three tasks left that night. The Legionnaires split up into groups.
Jane, Quinn, and Tiffany had to dispose of Cypher's car. Tiffany was put to work (against her will) searching for metal, plastic, and anything that might be construed as part of an automobile. Anything she found, she threw inside the choke hole pit, all the while complaining about how touching the icky car parts were getting her nice white Legion uniform dirty. When Jane told Tiffany that she could do the job assigned to Daria and Sandi, Tiffany began working with a fervor that amazed even Jane.
It was up to Jane to lift up the Trans-Am and deposit it in another part of the quarry, far away from prying eyes. She would also have to get the Mayor taken care of. The two girls waited for Jane to get back, knowing that it was after 4 am and that the sun would be coming back soon. Quinn and Tiffany didn't say much, too tired to even speak, with all sorts of horrifying thoughts in their heads.
They would have to keep the crystal, thought Quinn. They couldn't trust burying it, because what would happen if someone dug it up? Turning it over to an adult didn't make sense, because no adult would know what it was, or wouldn't believe the tale the Legion had to be told.
Still, Quinn felt creeped out by knowing that the man they thought was still horribly alive, trapped in the crystal, and would look for revenge if he could find a new host.
It was time for Quinn to do her job. To call someone at Quest Corporation at 5 am in the morning, wake them up and tell them to make sure that no construction took place today. As well as to tell Dawn Hall what had happened.
What would she tell Hall? Hall knew everything. Perhaps the truth. She figured Hall wouldn't be surprised. Hall would probably scream at Quinn and tell her that she had done something wrong. Quinn hated Dawn Hall, who had made her cry over the entire choice of uniforms thingie.
Quinn had a response ready. They had done the best they could do. The construction men would be there in thirty minutes. What to say about the big hole in the ground in the middle of the road to the site? Perhaps the best thing would be to claim ignorance….
(la la LA la la)
"Gah! I hate this!"
Three black clad Sandi Griffins and Daria Morgendorffer continued to dig away with shovels and picks. The hole didn't have to be deep, just deep enough.
"Why do I have to do this?" said Sandi 3.
"Well…you have to admit we weren't able to do much at all," said Daria.
"Tell me about it!" said Sandi 2, in a snit. "I got chased by a creep who got blood and goo all over me! I turned into a scared girl from some dumb horror movie and peed all over myself! I couldn't do a damn thing, except get in everyone's way."
"Well," said Daria, "that's not quite true. Remember when I had to let you go? When I wasn't there in your head?"
"Yeah?" said Sandi 1.
"That's when I was calling Jane on the cell phone. I managed to tell her where he was. And you did a good job of not freaking out when I was in your head, nor when I was out of it You managed to keep him distracted long enough for us to get into position."
The three Sandis kept digging, unconvinced. Finally, one of the Sandi's muttered "okay" and there were other mutterings from the other two Sandis.
"How deep does this thing have to be? It's like, I'm sweating all over!" said Sandi 1. She didn't have time to take a shower and God knew what she smelled like.
Daria put her foot down into the small crater. "I figure that's deep enough."
She looked at the body, and then looked at the three Sandis. "So which one of you is going to volunteer?"
Sandi 1 stepped forward, slowly. Daria and Sandi1 pulled the body by a piece of burnt trenchcoat into the small crater. It seemed to fit well enough.
"So who was he, anyway?" asked Sandi 2 as the four began to pour dirt and rock back into the crater with their shovels.
"I don't know. If he had ID, it was burned. Trust me. He's still quite alive. We're only burying the unnecessary part of him…his body."
"He tried to throw that…he tried to throw…himself at me!"
"Yeah."
Sandi 3 stopped digging. "Daria…are you sure he can't get out?"
"Sandi…I could feel his mind. His mind was trapped inside the crystal. It wanted… flesh. He was crazy. I give it a 99.999 percent chance that this body has seen its last days on earth." Daria thought. "Hell…we don't even know if it's his body we're burying. This body could have belonged to some unlucky bastard who crossed him. We're just burying a container."
The word "container" made Sandi feel okay. Whatever the Dark Man was, was in the crystal.
Sandi still had a lot of questions to ask Daria. She didn't know that Daria had a mind control power. Perhaps she would ask Quinn about that.
Daria looked to the horizon, which was turning blue-black at the edges. "Daybreak will be here soon."
"Crap!" said Sandi 2. "We have to change!"
"Why?" said Daria.
"School day," said Sandi 3.
Oh Jesus. Great. I completely forgot. I'm in no shape to go to school today. Daria moaned at the thought of it. But the thought of not showing up and having Mom find out almost scares me as much as fighting this guy again. Mr. O'Neill would call Mom, all concerned about my absence and Mom would flip out.
Well Mom, I wish you could see me now, burning a dead body in an open quarry, one step ahead of the cops. What would you say about that? I'd probably have to bury you right next to him, you'd be so freaked out.
"You know what?" said Sandi 2.
"What?"
"This sucks. Big time sucks," said Sandi 1.
Daria smiled. Yes. Yes it does, suck big time indeed. I suppose three Sandis can't be wrong….