Altered Images

by Dusk Melody

Rating: mature
Tags: Gore, Slice of Life, Dark, Sad, Princess Luna, Drama, Original Character, Octavia, Queen Chrysalis, Other, Romance, Equestria Girls, Sex
Length: 14911

Life carries on, no matter what side of the mirror you happen to be on. It's not always easy. It's not always fun. From graduation to work, from engagement to marriage, Wildfire will soon learn how 'not easy' life can be.

Life carries on, no matter what side of the mirror you happen to be on. It's not always easy. It's not always fun. From graduation to work, from engagement to marriage, Wildfire will soon learn how 'not easy' life can be.

An EQG Slice of Life with Wildfire and her friends, this story features mental illness, living with mental illness, bullying, domestic violence, relationship highs and lows as well BDSM, love, tenderness and an amazing amount of feels. Don't read if any of these are not for you.

Published 2016-12-22 18:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-12-22 18:40:01 UTC

Chapter 1 - Graduation

Principal Chrysalis strode up to and alighted the podium before her on the stage that had been assembled on the well-kept grass outside the large impressive edifice that was Crystal Prep Academy. The tall dark grey skinned woman took a moment to savour the scene.

Brushing her long turquoise hair over her ears she adjusted her red rimmed half-moon glasses in the mid July afternoon sunlight smiled out at the assembled crowd of dignitaries, students and their families. Straightening her white suit she reflected, as she studied the notes of her speech, that this would be the last time she’d see most of the students before her. Some she was more sad to see go than others, such as Wildfire and her group of friends. Others, like Blitzwing the bully, she was happy to see the back of.

A hush seemed to seep over the crowd as she tapped the microphone, the static acting as a silencer. The no-nonsense Principal kept them waiting a moment longer then she smiled that sweet smile of hers and cleared her throat before she began her address;

“Ms. Fleur De Lys, Mr. Filthy Rich,” she started by addressing the keynote speaker and the top political representative by name, then she continued with a deep breath. “Honoured guests, students, and families. Thank you all for attending this year’s graduating class of twenty thirty. My warmest congratulations to the class of twenty thirty, you have proven yourselves through your hard work and talents.”

“Today we reflect on the year that was. You were instrumental in promoting our environmental concerns though a coordinated effort with the city in recycling and reduction of waste management. Your innovations have brought credit on this school and the staff. You have upheld the traditions and ethos of this institution in a modern teaching environment.”

“The class of twenty thirty has been amazing in achieving the highest level of extracurricular participation. All this without any reduction in academic achievement. I’m glad to say there are some colourful characters in this class that will be remembered beyond this day.” Chrysalis took a few minutes to let her words sink in, and to survey the crowd for a few of those colourful students. Before very long she found them, of course sitting together in the fifth row: Wildfire, Dusk, Cyclone, Darkstar and her brother Brightstar.

Always together. She sincerely hoped they always would be.

“Dusk does know how to debate with anyone. Cyclone for starting one of the more interesting, if squishy, student clubs. Darkstar for reminding us all to take time out to laugh with each other and at ourselves. These are just a few of those in this class that have helped to bond us together as one.” Again she paused while some of those assembled cheered and whistled, particularly at Cyclone’s adult baby club, and at Darkstar’s pranks.

Once the cheers had died down, she continued, “I know that our teachers rose to the challenge presented to them by this class. An environment where we all can learn is a promising one for our future. I’m proud to know that some of you, such as Thesis, have chosen to take that to the next generation by choosing teaching as a career path. I also wish to thank the staff who has kept this institution at peak performance allowing all within to achieve success. Our students and staff reflect the diversity of our community. A diversity that is our strength. Each of us, such as Hearthstone, contributed to the whole and brought greater understanding of the world in which we live.”

“Today is a celebration of all that is good about our students, teachers, and school. I’m excited about the future each of you will bring to our community. All of you have the potential to be all you need to be to enhance the world around you.”

Chrysalis smiled warmly out at her students and her staff. Proud was an understatement. “While some may be saddened to say goodbye to our class of twenty thirty, I’m not one of them. I’m gladdened by all you have done and look forward to finding out what you can achieve. Be all you can be and my best wishes go out to each of you.”

Thankfully, for herself and for the crowd, she was at the end of her speech. Her last line went out to one student in particular. One of her favourite students, and not just because he was her cousin’s son but because he was one of the most hardworking of all her students. And he had endured a school life of ridicule to be accepted, a thing made easier in the last year since meeting his boyfriend. “Now, I wish to introduce our Class of twenty thirty’s Valedictorian, Dusk Melody!”

Amidst thunderous applause, a young man of midnight blue skin and dark grey hair stood from the middle of the fifth row and, with pats and thumps from Wildfire and Cyclone, made his way up to the stage. As he arrived, resplendent in his robes, Principal Chrysalis moved from the podium to shake hands with the Valedictorian. She smiled as she greeted him, knowing full well what was under his robes.

With the podium vacated, Dusk Melody stood up to it and smiled out at his friends in the fifth row, mainly, then to them all. “Thank you Principal Chrysalis. Greetings to Ms. Fleur De Lys, to Mr. Filthy Rich and to the friends and family of the Class of twenty thirty. In the interest of time, I’ll not debate Principle Chrysalis on the points she raised.” He paused for a moment while the crowd laughed at his joke.

“I stand before you as Valedictorian, and it did take hard work and dedication to get myself to this point, but I didn’t do it on my own. Each of my classmates contributed to my success, by driving me to excel, or grounding me in reality. Both of these things are important to establish a well-rounded character.” That much was certainly true. He smiled as his pink eyes met those of his friends, his parents Luna and Octavia, and his boyfriend Brush Stroke. Without their support he wouldn't be here at all, let alone Valedictorian.

“All study and no play makes for a dull, introverted academic,” he noted Cyclone nudge Darkstar at that, “but all play and no study makes for excitable, extroverted airhead. Balance is key, and each of you here has contributed to my maintaining a balance between study, play, and most importantly, friendships.”

“Between each other and the faculty we have a network of individuals that can assist us to the next level in our lives and careers. Don’t forget where you’ve come from and don’t lose sight of where you’re going. Together we are stronger than we are alone. From this point we have many choices to make on what our next step will be. Not all of us will choose the same path. When you do choose, step forward with confidence. Ask advice from your peers, and relate your experiences to those who ask you. Most of all don’t fear failure! To succeed in life one must try, but trying can produce failure. Learn from your mistakes and move forward, always forward. But enough of me, for some real advice I wish to take this opportunity to introduce our keynote speaker, Ms. Fleur De Lys.”

Tall, statuesque and drawing every eye to her by virtue of her presence alone, Fleur began speaking. “Ladies and Gentlemen, of the class of ninety…ahem, I mean, twenty thirty…” Dusk sniggered to himself as he made his way back to his friends in the fifth row. Fleur was saying something about sunscreen for some reason. He found himself tuning out when she told the assembled crowd to not read beauty magazines as they make you feel ugly. He took his seat next to Wildfire and nudged her awake.

“Dusk!” Wildfire exclaimed, the sunlight glinting on her pierced tongue as she jerked her head up. “I was enjoying that dream!”

“Let me guess,” Dusk smiled as Fleur talked about being kind to your siblings and getting to know your parents, “It was you and Raid, in your bedroom, and you were tied up being forced to worship her feet?”

“Hmmm…” Wildfire blushed. “It is now. I know what I’m doing later.”

“Ugh,” Dusk wrinkled his nose as he glanced over past his diminutive friend and saw Cyclone and Darkstar cuddling, obviously they too had tuned out Fleur’s speech. “Wily, her feet will have been in her cycle boots all day, they’ll be all sweaty and smelly.”

“Only if I’m a very lucky Pet!” She smiled, thinking of her twenty three year old girlfriend and Mistress.

With that thought in his head, Dusk adjusted his dress that was under his robes and turned to his left to Brightstar, hoping for some sanity as Fleur finished her speech by asking everyone there to trust her on the sunscreen. “Hey, Bright, you stayed awake through that?”

“Sure did,” Brightstar grinned. “Fleur De Lys is gorgeous. I could look at her speak all day.” His smile turned to a groan however, as did a lot of other people in the assembly as Filthy Rich, the politician, ascended the podium. “Jeez this is gonna be rough.”

“Don’t let Moony hear you say that about Fleur,” Dusk grinned, “She’ll spank your ass.”

Brightstar ran his fingers along his grey collar that was around his neck. “I’ll tell her so she will spank me mate.” He said with a wink and he surreptitiously pulled out his phone, looking over some old photographs of his twenty two year old partner to further drown out the noise of Filthy on the stage.

The royal blue eighteen year old settled on his favourite picture, one of himself and Moonbeak with her younger brother Whiteclaw, who was his age and whom he knew rather well and their parents, Aquila the father and Astraea the mother.

As Filthy Rich droned on in the background, Brightstar noticed out of the corner of his eye Dusk’s head lolling forwards. He went back to his treasured photo on his phone. He recalled his meeting Whiteclaw a few years ago now, at the time he had been an exchange student from Stormclaw Academy in Griffonstone. As Brightstar was rather gifted with languages, and spoke Griffon quite well, he quickly befriended him. After a few short weeks, to learn more about griffon culture he was taken home to meet older sister and parents and the rest, as they say, was history.

Thankfully, for all concerned, Filthy Rich’s speech was mercifully short. As he finished, Brightstar gave Dusk’s left ribs a nudge while Wildfire did the same to his right. Jerking awake, he clapped with the rest of his class. “Oh good,” he whispered to Dusk, “Principal Chrysalis is coming back. Looks like this thing is finally over.”

“I know what you mean,” Dusk replied as Chrysalis began speaking, “I can’t wait to get with Oils.”

“Uh huh…” Brightstar grinned, “Hoping your artist will use you as a canvas to paint a pretty picture?”

Dusk blushed and wanted very much to tell his friend to shut up, but he really couldn’t as that was exactly what he wanted. His caged manhood throbbed in his panties at the very thought of it. “Mmmm!” He just mumbled, earning him a well-meaning laugh from Brightstar and Wildfire in turn.

As Principal Chrysalis finished her closing address, and the assembly began to stand and leave, the effeminate Dusk Melody reflected on his very happy two years with Brush Stroke. At sixteen he had gone to his mothers and expressed his long held desire to cross dress. After being extremely sympathetic and supportive, Luna and Octavia who knew various people in various social scenes, had suggested he attend an upcoming party. Whilst there he had met the artist Brush, then aged nineteen. They’d hit it off, and Dusk had quickly become his boyfriend and Pet.

“Ugh…I’m so glad that’s over!” Wildfire exclaimed with a happy smile once the group of five friends had assembled together away from the rest of the departing crowd. Unbeknownst to her, their group wasn’t the only ones to have peeled away. They were being followed.

“I know what you mean chick,” Darkstar agreed, her girlfriend Cyclone linking fingers and holding her hand besides her, “Chrysalis’s lectures were a killer.” A hush fell across the group of five friends at that point, each one nervously looking from one to the other at the use of that word. A word they hardly ever used. “Oh um…” Darkstar flustered, the pure white skinned girl trying and failing to hide behind her long grey hair, “Wily I’m sorry, I wasn't thinking…”

“It's okay Darkie,” Wildfire had a steady smile on her face. A smile that didn’t reach her brown eyes. She called on her breathing exercises and calmed herself, telling herself that her friend hadn't meant to be insensitive. “It's fine, really.”

“Yeah,” Dusk changed the subject, quickly coming to his best friend’s rescue. “So were Shining Armour’s gym classes. I'm ah, very glad we don't have those anymore.” Dusk lied through his teeth, thankful that his blushes rarely showed against his midnight blue cheeks.

“I dunno why you’re complaining, Dusky,” Cyclone giggled as she kissed her girlfriend’s cheek. “We all know you were checking out his ass the whole time.” A delicate little necklace glinted around the black girl’s neck, a little heart shaped lock in the middle engraved with the word ‘owned’. Everyone knew to whom Cyclone belonged.

Now Dusk definitely blushed, shuffling his high heeled feet as he studied the grass intently. “Maybe…” he muttered quietly, although he didn’t attempt to deny it. As it was true. He did wish however that he wasn’t all locked up. Thinking about Shining Armour’s perfect ass was making his manhood twitch painfully against its cage.

A fair way behind them, far enough back as to not draw any undue attention to themselves, Blitzwing lurked with his two ever present ‘friends’, Boudicca and Rex. Little more than thugs, they flanked the dark grey skinned bully like free standing monoliths. “Now?” Boudicca asked, turning her yellow-green eyes to her considerably smaller leader.

Ducking behind a tree, Blitzwing observed the group. Five were too many for his liking, and he noticed that more were turning up in the form of the queer’s two mothers, his filthy boyfriend and the quiet one’s older girlfriend. Nine on three were definitely numbers he avoided, so he hung back. “Not yet, Bou, let the herd thin out first, then we’ll have our fun.”

Luna, the Principal of Canterlot High School, walked straight up to her son with her wife Octavia in tow alongside her holding her hand. Though it was difficult to see, a leather bracelet around Luna’s right wrist was joined by a short chain to a silver bracelet that adorned her wife’s left. Thumbing the quick release catch, Luna let the chain separate before giving her son a crushing hug. “Congratulations Dusk, to all of you!”

With the chain released, Octavia stood quietly and perfectly still with her hands together in front of her while Luna went from Dusk to each friend in turn, hugging and congratulating each one. She knew how to behave for her wife. Once she was done, Luna turned to her and nodded. Only with the silent order given did Octavia step forward to hug her son tightly.

“Oh, hey Oils!” Darkstar greeted the older male, an artist of twenty seven, with a cheery wave of her hand that wasn't entwined with Cyclone’s. “We were just talking about your little Dusky checking out a hot guy’s ass!” At that, Cyclone lightly slapped the back of her girlfriend’s hand. “Ow…he isn’t as hot as you, baby.” The white girl whined, rubbing her hand like she’d be scalded.

“Oh?” Brush Stroke decided a teasing was in order and he hugged his boyfriend’s ass, very pleased to feel the dress he was wearing through the graduation robes. “And just whose ass were you checking out, my little Princess?”

“Um…um…” Dusk meeped, blushing all the harder as he looked from friend to friend for help, then finally from mother to mother. When he realised that no assistance would be forthcoming, he sighed and only just managed to meet his dominant boyfriend’s expectant gaze. “Sh-Shining A-Armour, S-Sir,” he stuttered, much to everyone’s amusement.

“Shining Armour, hmm?” Brush asked with a grin on his face that reached from ear to ear. “At least you have taste. I think later you can help me test out a few new paint brushes…while you tell me all about Shining Armour, and his ass.” When Dusk let out a horrified squeak, Luna chucked to Octavia who nodded as the rest of the group smiled, having a rough idea of the evening Dusk was in for. “For now, give your Sir a kiss.”

Dusk would've done so without the order, the order just made it feel extra squiffy in his panties when he placed a lovingly tender kiss on his boyfriend’s cheek. Again, he wished he wasn’t caged. He resolved to be a good girl in future.

“Well, I am sorry to drag the Valedictorian away from you all,” Luna lead off, reattaching the chain that joined her and her wife at the wrist.  “But, Celestia wants us over for afternoon tea, and to spoil her nephew rotten.”

“Oh!” Cyclone exclaimed, stopping them in their tracks, “you are all still coming to Trixie’s Place later, right? Only it’s…”

“Yours and Darkstar’s first night at work.” They all finished the sentence for her, earning each one of them a playful scowl from the black skinned young woman.

“Okay…” Cyclone giggled, “Perhaps we have mentioned it once or twice…”

“Three times,” the quiet Brightstar spoke up for the first time, getting a swat on his ass from Moonbeak for his trouble.

“Four times last week alone,” Dusk giggled girlishly, and blushed very, very hard when Brush whispered something in his ear about using three size zero brushes in places no brush should go.

“I swear it was five times last month,” Darkstar put in with a giggle, her cheek getting her a pinch on her cheek from Cyclone.

“Fine!” Cyclone threw up her hands in a mock tantrum. “Fine, I get the idea, I've mentioned it before, I get it, I'm just excited that's all, it's our first night dancing!”

“Cy,” Wildfire smiled at her friend, her temper by now under control, “of course we’ll all be there. Now we can all go into the club, we wouldn’t miss seeing you dance.”

“Thanks guys that really does mean a lot to me, to us.” Cyclone smiled at her friends. For all her boundless confidence, she had been really rather nervous about this. It was one thing to dance for them, and for Miss Trixie at their auditions, but quite another to actually do it for a paying crowd.

“And,” Moonbeak piped up next to the quiet Brightstar, her Griffonstone accent jarring with the rest of the Canterlot natives, “don’t forget who’ll be filming the DVD’s and taking promo photos!”

“No way!” Darkstar squee’d like a little girl who’d just been given the pony she always wanted for her birthday. “Miss Trixie actually agreed to that?”

“Well,” the light grey professional photographer grinned, “I’m doing Trix a favour too, with advertising her fetish club, so everybody wins. Trix couldn’t refuse really”

“Awesome!” Cyclone turned and high-fived her white skinned girlfriend, “C’mon Darkie, we need to go practise our moves!”

“Yeah, and get you into a nappy I’ll bet!” Darkstar giggled as she returned the high five. “Guys, we’re gonna head to our place, give our love to Raid, Silver and Heat, we’ll catch you all at Trixie’s later!”

Saying their good byes, the two young lovers left the group, unaware that they were being observed by less than friendly eyes as Wildfire turned to Dusk, and his parents in particular. “Hey, um, where are they, anyway?”

“You may speak.” Luna nodded to her wife.

“Yes Mistress.” The cellist nodded to her wife in turn before answering the diminutive yellow skinned Wildfire. “I believe Miss Air Raid has gone to collect her ‘baby’, while Ms. Silverbolt and Mr. Heatwave were conversing with Principal Chrysalis when we departed the assembly.”

“Very good, Pet.” Luna praised her wife’s concise report, going so far as to stroke the back of the hand that was bound to hers. “There you have it, Wildfire.” The tall midnight blue Dom smiled sweetly. “I’m sure they’ll be here soon. We will of course wait with you until they turn up.”

‘Damn!’ Blitzwing thought from his vantage point, hidden behind the nearby oak tree. Although, as he was soon quick to find out, his ire was sorely premature.

“Oh no, it’s okay, Ms. Luna, you all go on ahead.” Wildfire said quickly. She knew by the look on Dusk’s face he was eager to get away with Brush Stroke. “I’ll be fine here, Raid can’t be much longer, and mum and dad will be here soon, when Chrysalis stops talking their ears off.”

“Principal Chrysalis.” Luna corrected the little woman with a smile. “Well, if you’re sure, alright then. We’ll see you later at Trixie’s Place.” Giving Wildfire a parting hug apiece, the six people: Luna leading Octavia, Brush Stroke leading Dusk and Moonbeak with Brightstar, departed the grounds of Crystal Prep Academy for the parking lot nearby.

Watching from the tree, Blitzwing saw his chance.

“Aah…such a sweet day!” Left alone at the edge of the grounds, Wildfire took off her robes and stuffed them in her backpack, standing in her stonewashed blue jeans and crimson and yellow hoodie. She smiled in the mid afternoon sun, the slight breeze ruffling her straight black hair. Digging her hands in the pockets of her hoodie she rocked on her heels, completely at peace. “Everything’s right with the world…”

“Talking to yourself now, Killer?” Blitzwing asked, his smug confident tone shattering Wildfire’s sweet day as he and his two thugs stepped out from behind the oak tree and strode into the sunlight towards the little yellow woman. “Look what we have here,” he gestured to her, “On her own and all alone. A wildfire that needs to be put out.”

Rex and Boudicca chuckled nastily as they advanced. Three on one were numbers they liked, especially when the ‘one’ was almost half their size.

Wildfire spun to face them and froze. She quickly sized up her options. None looked good. Running was out, the huge thugs would catch her easily. Talking her way out of whatever was going to happen was out too, as was shouting. The remains of the assembly were far enough away as to not be direct witnesses. Blitzwing had her trapped and, by the look on his face, the dark grey bully knew it too. “Get lost Blitz, you’re spoiling the sun.” She decided to front him out, at least until Air Raid turned up.

“Big talk for a little Killer…” Blitzwing grinned, his two friends now flanking his prey.

“B-Blitz…” Wildfire realised her predicament. She began to breathe heavily. Her head was starting to hurt as her heart rate increased. ‘No…no, not here, not now…’ she recognised her signs. She had to get away. Now. “Blitz, please…please don’t call me that…” It had been two months since her last episode, and she was slipping fast.

“What, Killer?” He grinned as they steered her towards a tree near the sidewalk, pleased that she was retreating. He liked that in his victims. “Grad was a nice ceremony, don’t you think?” He asked rhetorically.

“Wh-What?” Wildfire gasped, clutching her aching head at the temples. ‘Let me out…you know you want to…’ the monster in her spoke as it started to wake up.

“Graduation.” Blitzwing pressed. “I enjoyed it. Our families enjoyed it.”

“Please…” Wildfire backed up till she felt the bark of the tree at her back. She couldn’t back up any more. “Blitzwing please just let me go…”

“Isn’t it cute when they beg?” The dark grey bully gloated to his accomplices.

“Real cute, Blitz,” Rex chuckled nastily, his sister Boudicca getting out her phone to record the upcoming event and quickly joining in the mocking laughter now they had the small young woman cornered.

“Did your dad enjoy it, Killer?” Blitzwing asked, thoroughly enjoying the tears that suddenly ran down Wildfire’s yellow cheeks. “Oh, but you don’t know do you, he isn’t here to ask, is he?”

“Please,” she begged again, “just let me go, please!” She was crying, of that she was sure. She couldn’t back up any further, but she was trying her best to press herself into the rough bark of the tree behind her. ‘Let me free, Wily. I can help. I can make him go away…just like I made the other one go away…’

“No!”

"No, that's right." Blitzwing gloated as Wildfire dropped to her knees in the dirt and the grass. This was too easy.

“Um…Boss,” Rex muttered, worriedly watching Wildfire kneel and cry, “are you sure about this?”

“Shut up Rex!” Blitzwing snapped. “I’ve waited too long to get her on her own. Now here we are.” He hunkered down in front of his crying prey. For the past year since the incident had taken place and the whole school, not to mention the whole area, had found out through the media – and city officials his dad knew and had dealings with – Blitzwing had been itching to get Wildfire on her own. Her friends though hadn’t cooperated, always sticking with her. Especially that Air Raid. “Just having a chat, aren’t we, Killer?”

‘Ten, nine, eight, and seven…’ Wildfire fell back on her breathing exercises that Ruby had taught her. Where was Raid? She needed Air Raid. She was losing control. Air Raid could give her control. “B-Blitz please!”

“How did it feel?” The bully got right in her face. “Swinging that poker, did it feel good?”

‘Six, five…f-four…HA! You can’t breathe me away Wily, I’m coming!’ Wildfire made a fist with her left hand so hard her fingernails dug into her palm and drew blood. “SHUT UP!” She was trembling, shaking with the effort of control.

‘I’m coming!’

“Shut up?” Blitzwing taunted, his face inches from Wildfire’s own. “And we’re having such a pleasant chat, we’re we, Killer?”

“Boss,” Rex said again, casting a very concerned look at his sister, who mirrored it back at him. “I don’t think she was talking to you.” He pointed to the trembling girl, who had made a fist now with her right hand.

“You aren’t here to think, Rex, just to stop her running.” The bully commented coldly.

“D-Don’t…don’t call me that!” Wildfire gasped through gritted teeth. ‘But you are, Wily. I am, and I’m almost here now. You can feel me, can’t you? Give in, go on…just once…I won’t tell anyone…’

“What, Killer?” Blitzwing ignored her.

‘T-Three, t-t-two’ “STOP IT!” Wildfire punched the grass. “LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“I don’t think so, Killer.” Blitzwing continued to taunt the little woman, unaware that she wasn’t screaming at him anymore.

“I-I’m….I’m not…” Wildfire’s chest heaved, her head felt like it was being cloven in twain. She looked up at Blitzwing, and instead of him she saw a tall muscular pale blue man with a beaten kneeling woman that was her mother cowering in tears before him. She could see the bruises, the black eye. She could smell blood. She could see blood.

She felt rage.

“I’m no…not…I’m not…PLEASE!”

“Killer.”

She felt the poker in her left hand. She saw herself swing. She saw blood. She felt it, warm and sticky and coppery, on her skin.

“RAaaAaaAAAAaaAAAAGH!” With a feral scream she snapped. In an instant the monster achieved full wakefulness. She launched herself at the unsuspecting bully with all the force she could muster and in one fluid movement she had him pinned on his back on the grass, straddling his chest, her knees keeping his shoulders down.

Stunned, but not completely surprised, Blitzwing landed on his back, his crimson haired head bouncing off of the grass as Wildfire launched at him. For a very, very tiny moment he was scared, absolutely terrified by the sudden transformation, though of course he’d never ever admit that to anyone. That tiny moment passed in a millisecond however when he saw Wildfire pull her fist back.

Over her left shoulder he saw Boudicca with her phone, filming the whole thing.

Blitzwing smiled.

‘I’m free! I’m free!’ The monster exulted in Wildfire’s head. She saw the pale blue man smirk up at her. “AAAAAAAGH!” With a scream, she threw the fist of her left hand straight for his nose.

“Wildfire no!” Three seconds too late, Air Raid pulled up to the scene on her black Harley Thunderbike. Killing the engine the leather clad woman vaulted from the seat and ran over to where her girlfriend was mounting the Crystal Prep Academy bully. She’d watched in horror as she had thrown the first punch, getting a spray of blood from his nose.

*Flash!*

Air Raid saw the flash of the camera from Rex’s phone even as she closed the distance between them, several more flashes went off. “Wildfire! Stop!”

Doing absolutely nothing to protect himself, Blitzwing just smiled and laughed up at the rage filled woman as she pulled back and delivered a right followed by a second left, accompanied at the time by camera flashes.

‘Shit…oh shit, oh shit!’ Air Raid, after what felt like several eternities, finally made it to her younger girlfriend. “Wildfire!” Rex and Boudicca didn’t nothing to interfere, help or hinder anything, they just kept their distance and kept filming.

Wildfire, by now covered in sweat, drool leaking from her snarling mouth, and was completely oblivious to anything other than the blood red scene in front of her. She wound back for a fourth punch.

“Daffodils!” Air Raid screamed in her ear as she caught the punch in her right hand. Being naturally bigger and a little stronger, managed to hold her. Just. “Wily, stop! Stop now!”

‘Daffodils? Nooooo!’ The monster screamed its defiance. Despite her girlfriend being bigger, Wildfire was possessed of an absolute rage. Gaining some control, she shook her hand free just as Air Raid screamed that word at her again. Throwing the punch, she instead hit the grass. ‘No! No! I was so close! So very close!’

“Daffodils!” Air Raid found she had to physically drag the smaller younger woman off of the sprawled bully. “Enough! Kneel!” Breathing hard, the tall lime green biker reached into her leathers and pulled out a collar and leash, the same colour as her skin, and quickly buckled it around her kneeling girlfriend’s neck as Boudicca and Rex both helped Blitzwing to his feet, blood pouring down his face. Air Raid sighed as she fought to get her breath back. With her girlfriend and her Pet momentarily under control she turned to the three bullies.

As Air Raid turned on them she noticed that in her haste to help Blitzwing to his feet, Boudicca had dropped her phone. Thinking quickly, the lime green woman snatched it up from the grass. Scanning the touch screen surface, she could see the video was still recording. Scowling, Air Raid’s first instinct was to delete it, then she remembered Rex had been taking pictures. While the three were distracted, and Wildfire was kneeling, she quickly pressed the screen and sent a copy of it to her own cell.

The vibration inside her leathers let her know it had been received.

Now she could delete it. Her finger hovering over the necessary button, she flashed her grey eyes down at Wildfire to check on her. Her girlfriend was knelt quietly, her head bowed and hands palm down on her knees, just like she should be. Unfortunately the momentary distraction cost her and Boudicca snatched back her phone with a snarl on her face.

Also, she noticed Rex and Boudicca advancing on her now. Though she was five years older than them, the brother and sister thugs were easily her size in height, as well as wider across and packed with muscle with a side order of mean. Air Raid wasn’t scared, not of these two anyway. What she was scared of was knelt at her heels. Wildfire had her psych evaluation with the fire department coming up in a few days and this was the last thing she needed. She however needed a cigarette. Badly.

‘Damn it! This was supposed to be a happy day! Damn you Blitzwing!’ Air Raid didn’t know how long her Pet would remain under control. She knew she had to end this, and end it quick. Taking a step forward she placed herself between the two thugs and her girlfriend, all the while keeping a very tight hold of the leash.

Blitzwing, who by now had regained his composure, stood triumphantly between his two cronies. “That filthy animal you call a girlfriend wants locking up!” He spat nastily, blood still trickling down his face. “I have the proof to do it, too!”

'Shit...I don't have the time for this...I don't know how long Daffodils will last…’ Air Raid thought to herself. She could see her options running out fast. She seriously doubted if the conditioning would kick in if she needed it again. She needed to get Wildfire away from these three. Now. The lime green woman unzipped her white leather jacket to reveal her Taurus Judge pistol in the pocket of the right side.

This caused the three bullies to stop and back up a step. Or two.

“I’m licensed and legal.” She announced clearly, calmly. “And right now I’m looking for an excuse.” She gave them the same narrow eyed look she gave a race track when she was on the starting line. She glared at each of them in turn. “Any. Excuse.”

“Y-You wouldn’t!” Blitzwing declared, although he took a further step backwards, his resolve wavering in the face of the armed woman.

“I wouldn’t?” Air Raid took a step forward, stretching the leash taut between Wildfire and herself. Not once did she raise her voice or close her jacket. “I wouldn’t defend myself and my girlfriend from an unprovoked homophobic attack? Try me Blitz. Please.”

Out of the corner of her grey eyes she saw a very welcome sight. Silverbolt approaching with Heatwave holding her hand. ‘Finally!’ Air Raid thought as Wildfire’s mum and stepfather walked nearer. She had to admit the tall orange skinned guy looked good in his black suit, although she much preferred Silverbolt in her full length sky blue dress. “Whatcha gonna do Blitz? Cavalry’s here.”

As they walked up following their talk with Principal Chrysalis – their very long, very drawn out, talk with Principal Chrysalis – Silverbolt saw her daughter knelt on the grass, the collar and leash, Air Raid in the stand-off with the other three students. Squeezing her husband’s hand she quickened her pace until they were within feet of the scene. “What in the world is going on here!?”  She demanded angrily, knowing full well that her daughter kneeling like she was meant one thing. She’d lost control of her illness again.

“Explain yourselves!” Heatwave demanded, the off duty firefighter as irate as his wife. They’d had many run-ins with this particular bully over the past year, and he was in no mood for him today.

He was unsure before. Now with the arrival of the two angry adults, Blitzwing decided that discretion was the better part of valour. Tugging Rex and Boudicca the dark grey bully turned to Wildfire’s parents with a victorious smirk on his face. “Doing my civic duty Ma’am! Making sure the wild animals get sent to the pound!”

“Why you nasty…” Silverbolt took a step forward but was halted by Air Raid’s panicked voice.

“Silver!” Air Raid shouted, getting the older woman’s attention as the three bullies ran away, their cackling laughter ringing in their ears after they had disappeared. She felt a tug on the leash behind her. She knew time was running out.

“Air Raid…what’s happened?” She asked, worry rife in her voice.

“I dunno, I wasn’t hear for all of it,” Air Raid admitted. “They got to her, Silver. She lost control.” Again she felt the tug on the leash.

“Wildfire,” Silverbolt knelt on the grass in front of her daughter. “Wily it’s mum, can…can you hear me?” She put a yellow hand on her daughter’s in an attempt to comfort her, to reach her.

“Grrrrrrr!” Wildfire only dimly heard the words that were directed at her. She saw the hand touch hers but she didn’t move. Mistress hadn’t told her to move. The other though, the voice of the monster, was whispering in her ear. He was telling her to move. She was flinching. Instinctively she growled like a caged beast when she was touched. “Grrr!”

“Oh…oh dear…” Silverbolt whimpered and stood up. She knew Wildfire couldn’t hear her. She was somewhere far removed from Crystal Prep’s school grounds. As she stood, Heatwave was there immediately to support and hug his wife. “Whatever can we do?”

“Uh,” Air Raid thought fast. ‘Ruby!’ She thought of her girlfriend’s therapist. ‘I need to get her to Ruby!’ She turned in earnest to Wildfire’s parents. “Ruby!” She exclaimed. “Silver, I need to get her to Ruby Tuesday, she can help, and she’ll know what to do!”

“What do you need?” Heatwave asked, wanting desperately to help but not knowing what, if anything, he could do to help.

Air Raid looked at her bike. Wildfire hated riding her baby at the best of times. This was most certainly NOT the best of times. “Heat, can I use your car? I don’t think she’s up to riding my bike.”

“Sure thing Raid, here.” Heatwave reached into his blazer pocket and passed the lime green racer the keys to his flame red Chevelle. “We’ll take your bike and head home.”

“No.” Silverbolt interrupted her husband. “They’re going to call the police. We should head on over to the station, try and head off whatever storm is coming.”

“Alright,” Air Raid agreed, swapping keys with the firefighter. “I’ll call you, ‘kay?” When they both nodded, Air Raid turned to her kneeling girlfriend. “Wildfire. Stand.”

Obediently Wildfire stood up from the grass, her hands held in front of her like she’d been taught during the conditioning therapy.

“Very good Wildfire.” Slowly, Air Raid reached out and gently stroked Wildfire’s cheek. Reassuringly, she did not get growled at, but she noticed her large brown eyes were dilated and looking everywhere at once. Not good. “Walk with me now.” Tugging gently on the leash, she brushed Silverbolt’s shoulder with her free hand as she led her charge through the now empty grounds to the parking lot.

~ ~ ~

The afternoon was drawing on towards early evening when Air Raid rounded the corner from Quills and Sofas at the bottom end of Canterlot’s Mane Street and on to Canter Avenue. Almost straight away she saw the large white fronted building that was her destination nestled amidst a grove of leafy oak trees. Unlike most buildings in the suburban town, the psychiatrist’s surgery still bore a thatched roof, making it stand somewhat at odds with its neighbours further down the avenue but giving it a friendly welcoming appearance.

Air Raid parked up Heatwave’s flame red Chevelle on the thankfully empty gravel drive. Getting out of the car, Air Raid let her girlfriend out of the passenger side and tugged on her leash, approaching the office with a slightly weary gait. The drive, while short, had been…trying, at best. Hitching a smile to her face Air Raid turned to the little yellow girl at her side. “Wily, we're here.” She announced with as much cheer in her voice as she could muster.

“I can see that,” Wildfire muttered darkly, her temper still simmering, just loud enough to be heard, though she didn’t really care either way. “I’m not blind…” The monster that lived inside her didn’t want to be here, it’d made it abundantly clear it didn’t want to be here.

Air Raid reached out her hand for the door, ‘oh good...’ she thought despondently, ‘He's still here with us. What fun.’ With that in her mind she pushed open the door and led Wildfire into the psychiatrist’s reception.

Behind the desk in the small reception area a tall woman, her skin the colour of fresh spring leaves, looked up as they entered. “Good afternoon Miss Air Raid, Miss Wildfire” Shorthand smiled a practised, welcoming smile that amazingly reached her amber eyes. “Welcome to Doctor Tuesday's office. I passed your call on to Doctor Tuesday, go on through, she is expecting you.”

“Thanks, Miss Shorthand,” Air Raid smiled as she ushered Wildfire in alongside her, thankful she’d thought ahead and called her from the car to let her know they were coming. Looking around the reception she saw the only other door in the room. “Thanks, again. C'mon Wily.” Brushing her smaller shoulder with her lime green hand, the older woman helpfully steered her girlfriend to the door.

Irritably Wildfire shook her hand off of her hoodied shoulder with a hard shrug of her shoulders. “I can walk!” She groused with a scowl as she stomped forwards and roughly opened the door to the psychiatrist’s office.

Air Raid liked Ruby Tuesday’s office. She always had, ever since they had started coming here for the past year. She had been greatly surprised at first to see the office had no desk, it was a large spacious room decorated in tongue and grooved Maplewood and a quilted summer green carpet. One wall was nothing but a large triple glazed window that allowed in acres of natural daylight from the wooded park it overlooked. Occupying one of the four stretched seating pads – something that was a cross between a chair and a bean bag - in the office Doctor Ruby Tuesday was a bright red skinned professional woman with a long mane of dark red hair. “Welcome Miss Wildfire, Miss Raid.” She greeted them both kindly, though her tone had a no nonsense quality that Air Raid liked.

“Hi, good afternoon, Doc.” Air Raid took a few steps into the office and glancing to her left; to the wall opposite the huge window, the upper half of the large wall holding all the doctor’s framed diplomas, certificates and, to Air Raid’s very great surprise several Running of the Leaves marathon certificates. Upon closer inspection she was even more impressed to see they weren’t just participation certificates, but three first places, two seconds and a third placing award.

Wildfire on the other hand slouched into the office full of attitude as she looked anywhere but at the doctor herself. “Hello.” She muttered flatly, in a voice that said she wanted to be anywhere else.

“How bad off is the one she attacked?” Ruby asked straightaway, foregoing the greetings to get down to the point. Air Raid had sounded quite panicked on the phone mere moments before, and the racer never sounded like that.

“Doc,” Air Raid steered her girlfriend over to the stretched pad she always sat on. Thankfully, although she was now silent, she was at least compliant. “She punched him three times by the time I got there, he's got a cut face and definitely a broken nose, easy.”

Ruby Tuesday raised her eyebrow as she studied her diminutive patient. “Police?” She asked simply.

Air Raid let out a long despondent sigh. “They threatened to call them as they ran away.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose with a lime green hand.

“You call them, I'm going to take pictures.” Ruby gathered her digital camera from a little chest of drawers situated by her pad and she walked over to her sullen quiet patient. “Wildfire,” she opened with her practised calming smile, “please stand so I can take some pictures. Air Raid, did you see it from the beginning?” She asked as Wildfire stood up to her full four foot ten inch height, the psychiatrist noted she was still wearing her collar.

“No Doc,” Air Raid shook her head, although she desperately wished she had been there. If only that jerk off in the Lexus hadn't boxed her in back in the parking lot, she would’ve been there and this whole thing wouldn't have happened. “But I downloaded a video recording they took of the whole thing.”

“Good,” Ruby nodded, turning on the overhead room lights to better illuminate her subject. She was very pleased that Air Raid hadn’t cleaned her girlfriend up before coming here. This would be valuable evidence. “Would you please download it to my computer?” She asked as she took several pictures of the little woman’s dirty jeans, the grass stains on her knees and the blood spatter on the arms of her hoodie as well as the blood still caking her knuckles. “Call the police, let them know where Wildfire is.”

“You got it Doc.” Air Raid was a woman of action, a doing woman. Given a task to do, she galvanised herself straight away. Quickly accessing her emails on her cell, she quickly, with a couple of button presses, sent a copy of the video that Boudicca had filmed to Ruby’s computer. “Alrighty, here we go…” returning her phone to its standby screen she dialled the police while Wildfire turned as she was directed, not saying a word.

After two short rings the phone was answered. “Canterlot Police, how can I help you?”

‘Damn…he sounds like he’s having the same day as me…’ She thought as she replied, “yeah hi, this is Air Raid, I’m calling to let you know there's been a fight outside Crystal Prep Academy, and that Wildfire is safe at her psychiatrist's office.”

“Who were the others involved?”

Air Raid could hear the frantic scribbling of a pen on paper. She could picture in her mind’s eye notes being made over at the station. “Blitzwing, Boudicca and Rex.” The lime green racer tugged her leather jacket uncomfortably as she reeled off the names, wishing again she’d got there sooner. “It happened after the grad ceremony.”

“One moment, Ma’am…”

“Okay Wildfire,” Ruby Tuesday said while Air Raid was on hold on her phone, “let's get you cleaned up and see if you took any damage.” Very gently, avoiding the collar and leash, the latter of which that was tucked into the pocket of her hoodie, she led her through a side door to the restroom.

“We've had no report of a fight at the school today.” The officer, most likely a desk sergeant, said as he came back on the line not more than two minutes later. Though it felt like an eternity to Air Raid. “I've taken your statement, but I'd recommend you get legal counsel before you say any more.”

“Alrighty, officer, you got it, thanks.” Air Raid said and she disconnected the call as she watched Wildfire follow Ruby quietly, very thankful that she wasn't putting up any fight, at least for now. ‘I guess I'll call Silver…’ she thought as she bought up her soon to be mother in law’s phone number and pressed dial.

“Are you at Ruby's office?” Silverbolt asked quickly, just like the psychiatrist she dispensed with the pleasantries, at least for now.

“Hey Silver, yeah we are.” Air Raid liked Silverbolt. She liked her directness a lot. Ever since she had gotten with Heatwave after what had happened with that scumbag that she was married to before, the racer found she liked her even more.

“Heatwave and I are at the station. Until you called there was no report of a fight, so I don't know what is going on.” She said, trying and ultimately failing to hide the panic, fear and unease in her voice. She desperately wanted her daughter to be alright, not in the least because she blamed herself for what had happened, the way it had happened and most of all the lasting effects it’d had on her. In a very quiet voice, she asked, “How is she?”

Air Raid sighed a long low sigh. “She…she’s not good Silver.” She decided honesty was by far the best policy here. Especially with what was at stake. “I used Daffodils, I had to use it twice, and put the collar on her before she'd calm down.”

Silverbolt stiffened at that, a change that carried to her voice when next she spoke. “Keep her safe.” At first she had been highly resistant to Air Raid and her daughter’s relationship, unconventional as it was. At first she was worried it was as abusive as her prior relationship had been, but having actually seen it for herself, and witnessed the amount of care and love that Air Raid had shown her little Wildfire, she had given them her blessing. “We'll have to see what the other side does. I can't see them dropping this. Maybe we'll get lucky.”

While Air Raid was about to answer, Ruby returned from the restroom with a cleaned up Wildfire and gave the lime green woman a very knowing look straight at her. “Heh, you know Blitz.” She said with a humourless smile. She very much doubted they’d be lucky.

“To me he is just another jerk.” Silverbolt said dismissively. “Let us know when you're coming home.”

“You got it momma.” She didn't use the affectionate term very often, but when she did she knew the older woman was smiling on the other end of the call. Hanging up, she turned her attention back to the red skinned doctor. “Doc, how is she?”

“In a good place right now.” Ruby replied when she realised that Wildfire, who was busy studying the floor, her hands held in front of her, wasn't going to say anything. She led her patient to a pad on the floor. “Sit.” She ordered simply in that tone that she had taught Air Raid to use.

Shooting her a glowering look, Wildfire mutely walked across the office and sat where she was directed to sit. “I’ll leave you guys to it, shall I?” Air Raid asked, not at all certain of what the doctor would want to do next.

“No,” Ruby Tuesday said definitely, “we will watch the video you took. After that you will take the collar off. The conditioning has broken. I've watched her eyes. Even now she is taking looks at us thinking about her next move.”

“Yeah…yeah I noticed that.” When Air Raid looked at her girlfriend sat there on the floor she could see Wildfire’s brown eyes were looking everywhere. She looked for all the world like a cornered animal and she hated not being able to do anything about it. “Doc, I had to use Daffodils, twice.”

Ruby pulled her clipboard from the drawers near her own pad and checked her notes that she had made from their previous sessions together. “We will need to start over, so you'll need to stay for the first session, just like last time. Isn't that right Wildfire?” She asked, addressing her directly, “Or do you want to walk out of here as you are?”

“I want to hurt you!” The diminutive yellow girl snarled from her pad on the floor, clutching her head in her hands. “Nggh... my head hurts!” She made fists of her hands and started to rock back and forth. It always started with her head hurting. Always.

Air Raid was no stranger to this occurrence. She’d seen it before, more times than she’d care to admit. “Sure, I’ll stay.” She walked over and sat supportively near Wildfire on a vacant pad.

“You need to watch this with me Air Raid.” Ruby said calmly, “Wildfire, will you not hurt me?”

“I wanna hurt you!” She screamed loudly, beginning to once more give in to the growing pain in her head. “Hurt both of you!” She was by now shaking on the pad. “I’m breathing, I'm doing the breathing but it's not working!” Indeed it wasn’t. The troubled young woman was barely keeping it together.

“Honesty is your best weapon now, Wildfire.” Ruby Tuesday said, not unsympathetically. But she was right. Whatever the fallout from this incident might be, honesty would be key. “Please stay where you are while Air Raid and I watch the video.” She offered Air Raid a set of in-ear headphones, which the racer accepted and slotted the jack in to her phone. She waited while the doctor put one of the buds in her ear then she did the same. Calling up the video, she pressed the play button with a shaky finger.

‘She wants to hurt me?’ Air Raid thought, slightly stunned after all they’d been through as she put the bud in her ear.

“Hmmm…” Ruby Tuesday watched the video, completely unfazed by its admittedly troubling contents, and made the noncommittal noise more to herself than to the lime green woman. “A lot of that must be guess work on his part…” she thought out loud when she watched Blitzwing repeatedly call her patient a killer. She noted there was no detail to his taunts, no meat on the bone, as it were. “Still, he wouldn't have access to her sealed files.” She trailed off when the little woman launched herself at the bully. “Wildfire,” she asked seriously, “did you want to kill him?”

“It was all around the school what happened, Doc.” Air Raid whispered, putting her phone away. This much was true. For the first few months after the summer vacation, all anyone would talk about was Wildfire and her dad.

“YES!” In a sudden flash of rage and temper Wildfire took her left hand and punched the floor as hard as she could, thankfully the carpet was quilted, so her hand wasn’t broken. She just left a silence in her wake.

“You remember the first session?” Ruby asked Air Raid.

“Vaguely…” Air Raid nodded with a shrug of her leather clad shoulders. She was fishing for details but she’d slept since then, and gotten drunk, and had minor crashes on the racetrack since then. Her memory wasn’t the best in the world.

Ruby Tuesday simply gave Air Raid a well-practised eye roll and shook her head. “Do you remember, Wildfire?” She asked as Air Raid simply blushed a deep red.

“Y-Yeeeees!” She half moaned, half screamed, holding her head in her hands as she began to rock back and forth on her pad.

Ruby once more picked up her clipboard, her pen at the ready. She was well aware her next question would be a difficult one, for everybody involved. “Do you want to kill Air Raid?”

At that, Air Raid simply looked open mouthed at the psychiatrist, unable to even form any kind of reaction.

“I want...” Wildfire grimaced, her rocking increased in pace. ‘YES! I want to hurt her! Let me kill her!’ “I want…hurt...I want...” she murmured and whimpered, wrestling with the monster that lived inside her head. “NGGGGGH...NO!” She screamed and slapped herself very hard across the face, leaving a handprint. “No!”

“I won't ask about me since I'm not your friend.” Ruby smiled and scribbled on her notes. “The choice is the same, you have to want me to take the urge away.”

Silently, Wildfire rocked on the floor. “Please…” she quietly whimpered eventually, with as much control as she could muster, “please help me…”

Turning away to her cabinet, Ruby Tuesday pulled out two pills from her drawer and she gave them to a visibly shaken Air Raid. “Give her these and some water.” She said simply. “They will put her to sleep for a short time, but it will be long enough for the adrenalin to wear off. We can start the session after that, if she still wants to.”

“You got it, Doc.” Taking the pills in her hand, Air Raid got up from her pad and walked over to the sink in the corner of the office to fill the glass with cold water. “Alrighty Wily,” she said, turning around, “I need you stay with me and to swallow these, okay?”

Wildfire looked up at her girlfriend with haunted brown eyes. “NGGH...quickly, help me Raid, please!” Feeling that familiar twitch in her arms, she sat on her hands, just in case.

With Wildfire’s mouth open, Air Raid fed her the pills and she tipped the rim of the glass to her lips so she could help her drink the water. “Wily,” she said once that particular job was done, “I'm gonna hug you, okay?” When she nodded, Air Raid reached behind her neck and she unbuckled the collar, and removing it she held it in her hands before stowing it in her jacket pocket. “I love you Pet, so very much.”

Nestling into her embrace, Wildfire didn't reply, but after a few minutes the little yellow woman began to get drowsy. Very drowsy. While her mind was still looking for an exit, a way out. Her brown eyes drooped, in spite of her best efforts, and a few minutes later she was sound asleep. Once she was asleep, as evidenced by the soft little snores coming from her, Ruby Tuesday came over to help her to move her to the couch.

Accepting the help gratefully, Air Raid and the doctor picked her up and set her down on the couch. Exhaling a long breath, Air Raid slumped into a nearby chair, feeling utterly lost and a tiny bit defeated. Wordlessly she accepted the offered black coffee from the doctor.

Forty five minutes later, in the easy comfortable silence of the psychiatrist’s office, Silverbolt called Air Raid’s cell phone.  Roused from her reverie, she knew who was calling before she answered just by the ringtone, Beautiful South’s ‘Perfect Ten’, she tried very hard to keep the weary from her voice. “Hey, Silver.”

‘She sounds like I feel,’ Silverbolt thought to herself. “I just got a call from the police.” She started, trying to put the worry out of her mind. “Blitzwing has filed a report that Wily attacked him with no provocation.”

‘The bastard! I’ll kill him myself and save Wily the job!’ Air Raid growled, “Yeah well, we can piss on his chips.” She smiled, picturing Silverbolt wincing. She knew she hated swearing. “I got a recording his crony made of the whole thing...ugh...can you believe they RECORDED it?” She asked somewhat rhetorically, “it clearly shows he wound her up.”

“I'll bet he edited his copy.” Silverbolt replied with a world weary sigh. “I told the police she is under medical care. She needs to stay overnight, but be at the station at ten a.m. Is that possible, Raid?”

“Hang on…” she looked over at Ruby, as her phone was on speaker.

“I have admitting privileges, so that isn't a problem as long as Wildfire is willing to cooperate.” Ruby explained, speaking up so that she was heard on the other end of the call. “I can't force her. She is sleeping at the moment.”

“She'll cooperate.” Air Raid said determinedly. “Silver I'll make sure she's okay, you have my word, mom.”

“Thank you Raid, I'll be at the station tomorrow too.” She had a peace of mind knowing Air Raid was there with her daughter. “Heatwave and I are going to turn in for the night, but call if you need 'anything', okay?” She said, failing completely to hide her tired yawn.

“I will mom,” Air Raid smiled, “give my love to Heatwave.”

Twenty minutes or so after the lime green racer had hung up the call to Silverbolt, Ruby Tuesday walked over her office, dodging the seating pads to stand next to her as she was watching over Wildfire on the couch. “I've called the hospital and we can drop her off at any time.” She smiled down at her, and added for good measure. “I have a room where you can stay with her if you want.”

Stroking Wildfire's straight black hair, Air Raid gave the doctor a determined look. “I'm not leaving her, Doc.”

“I didn't think you would.” Ruby patted her leather clad shoulder. “I'm going to try a different approach with this session. We will need to replace ‘Daffodil’ as a trigger word.”

Air Raid smiled as she continued to stroke her sleeping girlfriend’s hair. “There’s no way I'm leaving. Ever. Silver would never forgive me, and I hope to marry her…” Air Raid suddenly blushed and flustered, “um I mean Wily, not Silver.” She looked at the floor for help, but none was forthcoming. “Ahem!” She hurriedly changed the subject even as Ruby was biting her lip to keep from laughing out loud. “What you planning to do?”

“Word association and guilt removal.” The twinkle of amusement was still in her eye, but the psychiatrist chose to store it for later teasing. “Seems the word ‘Killer’ was buried too deep and I didn't root it out the first time.”

“Hey, at least that's ALL Blitz threw at her…” Air Raid shuddered as she pictured in her mind’s eye the horrific scene that had greeted her when she had walked into Silverbolt and Cold Front’s house. “Like you said, he didn't have access to the files or the rest of the story.”

“Had you noticed her reacting to the word in normal speech, even if not directed at her?” Ruby asked as she walked back to her pad and checked her notes.

Air Raid paused for thought. She couldn’t honestly remember any outright reaction to the word, but as she’d be the first to admit, her memory was not the best. However there was one instance she did recall. “Well, last month she had an eye twitch or two when we were all chatting, but she brushed it off as nothing.”

“I think the first session repressed the word,” Ruby thought out loud as she flipped through her pages, “but now I'm going to work with the word.”

“Um, okay.” Air Raid wasn’t at all sure about this hypno stuff. She didn’t understand it, not one bit. It was meddling, tinkering in a brain. Give her a fast bike and a track, she was your woman. No matter what though, she’d stand by her girl. “She'll still be her though at the end, right?”

Ruby gave her a very questioning look, complete with a raised eyebrow that she had patented. “This won't change who she is at the root level, but it will change how she relates to what she has done.”

“Sorry Doc,” Air Raid blushed a bright red, “I know you know what you're doing.”

Ruby smiled. “Always question Raid, not everyone knows what they are doing, and she is important to you.” Picking up the clipboard, she walked back over to the young couple. “She should be coming around soon. I have the paperwork for her to sign right here.”

Air Raid sat as ever by Wildfire's side, gently stroking her hair for the next few moments until the little yellow skinned girl began to stir from the drug induced slumber. “Mmmm…huh...” she groaned as she woke up. “Uuugh...” Slowly she opened her chestnut brown eyes and blinked once then twice. “Wh-What happened?” She looked up at Air Raid, then around at the office, realising just where she was. “D-Doctor?”

Immediately Air Raid’s hand cupped her girlfriend’s cheek. “Shh, Wily it's okay, it will be okay.” Oh how she wanted so much for it to be okay.

“It will be better.” Ruby corrected her gently, “If you want it to be.”

“Uuuh...y-yuppers, I mean, I do.” She tried to sit up with a sigh. Everything that had happened after the graduation ceremony was a jumbled blur. The harder she tried to work it out, the more blurry it became. That only meant she’d lost control. The only questions were who she’d hurt and how bad. “What did I do? How bad was it?”

“I can let you watch the video,” Ruby started kindly but firmly, “but if you do, you may need to nap again.”

Wildfire shook her head, trying in vain to clear the fog. “Make me better, first, please?” She pleaded quietly, causing Air Raid to squeeze her hand.

“I can't make you better, but I can let you make yourself better.” Ruby detached a form from the clipboard. “This is the same consent form as last time.” She handed Wildfire the document and a pen.

“You can do this, Wily.”

Wildfire took the form in her right hand, the pen in her left and signed it straightaway. “I know, I'm glad I have you here with me, Raid.”

“Always, my love.” Air Raid kissed her cheek for good measure.

“Okay Wildfire,” once the consent form was signed, Ruby walked over and pulled up a spare seating pad to allow her to sit comfortably in front of her patient. She spoke calmly, clearly and firmly. “Listen to my voice, follow my voice, it is leading you to a place of rest, a place of peach, listen and relax.” She smiled, seeing the effects of the hypnosis taking effect almost instantly. “Listen and let go of stress, relax. Follow and relax, and you are limp.” Just like that, with the enunciation of those last four words, Wildfire was in the trance. Thankfully Ruby was ready for this and she caught her.

Watching the whole thing, Air Raid mouthed, “wow...” though she didn’t understand it, she never got tired of watching that happen as the doctor caught her limp girlfriend.

Ruby spoke clearly, “You can sit and follow where my voice leads. Answer from your heart. Are you a killer?”

Now she could sit on her own, Wildfire did so and with her eyes closed her head turned to the sound of the doctor’s voice. “Yes.”

Air Raid looked on desperately but she knew not to interrupt what was happening now it was underway. If Ruby noticed the racer’s look she gave no sign. “Are you a murderer?” She asked, pressing on with the therapy.

“I...I...n-no.” Wildfire answered, but she didn’t sound too sure of herself.

“There is no reason to be proud that you killed, but you did kill.” Ruby continued, “Did you kill to protect another?”

Wildfire nodded. She frowned but her voice remained the same. “My mother was hurt. She was bleeding. She was crying.”

Ruby Tuesday began the repetitive nature of the hypnotherapy. “You did kill. Did you kill to protect yourself?”

“I did k-kill.” Wildfire repeated, her voice calm and steady. “Da...Da...He had hurt mum. He was hurting me.”

“You did kill,” Ruby repeated again, driving that home in order to desensitise her, “Could you kill again to protect another?”

“I did.” There was no pride in her voice. “Yes. I could.”

“You did kill,” Ruby intoned relentlessly. “Could you kill again to protect yourself?”

“I did kill.” Wildfire nodded slowly, like a puppet not quite in control of its strings. “Yes I could, to protect myself.”

“You did kill,” again, and again, Ruby bored those three words into her patient. She watched her soak them up as a sponge soaks up water. “You could kill again. Are you a killer?”

“Yes I did,” Wildfire nodded, more sure of the answer now. “Yes I am.”

“Wildfire,” Ruby asked her directly with no warning, “whom are you planning to kill?”

“Planning?” The unexpected question threw the entranced teen for a loop. She wasn’t planning on killing anyone. “N-Nobody. I’m not planning to kill anyone.”

Ruby returned to the repetitive nature of the therapy. They were almost there. “You did kill, you could kill.” She drove it home. “Are you a killer?”

“I did kill...I...I am not a killer.” Wildfire replied. “I had to do it.”

Ruby smiled once they had crossed that hurdle. She knew her patient was speaking honestly from her heart. Now she changed her strategy just a little, adding a subtle layer to the suggestion. “You are not a killer, the word has no meaning to you. It is like the summer breeze. Let it wash over you and wash past you.” Now to test whether or not the suggestion had held. “Wildfire, you are a killer.”

Wildfire heard the words, but like a breeze, they blew over and around her. Instead of getting angry, she smiled. “I am not a killer.”

“Wildfire,” Ruby pressed on, “are you a murderer?”

“No.” Again she smiled. “I am not a murderer.”

“You are not a murderer, the word has no meaning to you.” Ruby smiled and pressed on with yet another layer to the hypnosis. “It is like the summer breeze. Let it was over you and past you.” Next she tested it as she had before. “Wildfire, you are a murderer.”

Where before she would’ve no doubt got angry and lost her control by now, Wildfire instead smiled serenely. “I am not a murderer.”

“Wildfire,” Ruby started, very happy indeed with how everything had progressed so far. It was a rare thing that her patients were this receptive. She put that down to her general submissive nature. “Are you evil for taking a life?”

“No.” Wildfire shook her head, sounding more determined than she had so far. “I had to stop him. I saved three lives.”

“That is right, Wildfire.” Ruby pressed, although she noted Wildfire’s use of the word ‘him’ as opposed to ‘dad’ or his actual name. She’d have to weed that out right here and now before it subverted all their good work thus far. “Evil does not save lives. Good saves lives. You are good, Wildfire.” Taking a deep breath, she tested the new layer of suggestion. “Are you good Wildfire?”

“I am good.” She nodded. “I saved my mum, I saved me and I saved Air Raid.”

Ruby Tuesday decided to switch tack, to wheedle out this new root before it could take and spoil her now well-groomed garden. “Wildfire do you hate Cold Front?” She asked as Air Raid mouthed, ‘me? She didn't save me...’

“Uugh!” Wildfire began shaking at the mere mention of his name. “NGGGH...yes!” She exclaimed with a barely contained snarl.

‘Yep, we need to step on this,’ Ruby thought before carrying on with the treatment. “Wildfire do you hate the dead?” She asked simply, bluntly.

“I hate him,” Wildfire answered, “for what he did, what he was about to do.”

Ruby sighed and returned to the ‘default’ question for this layer, seeking a foundation to work from. “Wildfire, do you hate the dead?”

“No.”

Ruby saw her opening. “The dead do make us emotional when you hear their name. Do you hate the dead?”

“No.”

“The dead do make us emotional when you hear their name.” The psychiatrist repeated, building on this opening. “You can miss the dead. Is there a name of someone who is dead that you miss?”

“Yes. Stormfeather.” Wildfire nodded, a nostalgic smile spreading over her face at her grandmother's name.

“The dead do make us emotional when you hear their name.” Smiling, now she had an ‘in’, Ruby continued to drive her suggestion home. “They lived their life to the fullest. They made a positive impact on your life. If they were still alive you would want to make them proud. Their name may make you feel you miss them, but their name also makes you happy that you knew them. Do you miss Stormfeather?”

“I miss her. She was fun.” Wildfire smiled a wider smile as she spoke about her grandmother. “We'd read poems together in her rocking chair.”

“The dead do make us emotional when you hear their name. Their name fills you with happiness even though you miss them because of what they represent in your life. Does Stormfeather fill you with happiness from the memories even though you miss her?” Ruby asked her patient, almost ready to add on the final few layers of this treatment.

“Yes it does.” Wildfire replied, “I wrote my first poem for her. I performed it for her.”

“The dead do make us emotional when you hear their name.” Again Ruby began with that phrase. “The ones that wasted their life and had no positive impact on yours. You miss them only for what they could have been. You pity them for what they became. Wildfire do you hate the dead?” She asked again now that layer had been strengthened.

“No.” Wildfire answered her definitely. “I do not hate the dead.”

“The dead do make us emotional when you hear their name. The ones that wasted their life and had no positive impact on yours. You miss them only for what they could have been. You pity them for what they became.” Everything seemed to be going very well so far. Perhaps too well. Now for the acid test. “Wildfire, do you hate Cold Front?”

Wildfire paused, longer than she had so far. Eventually, with some effort, she sighed. “N-N-No...no...I...I pity him.”

Ruby Tuesday was overjoyed, although her tone didn’t show it. “Wildfire the name of Cold Front is not worth your hatred, only your pity. That is only the name of the one that was your father. The one you did good by killing to save others. Pity that one for he is not worth your hatred. Only that one. You will find another in this world with that name. That one will make their impact on your life. You will judge them by their actions and not by the name of the one who is dead and pitied.”

“He is not to be hated.” Wildfire said calmly as she nodded, accepting what the doctor told her. “I pity him for the life he wasted. He was just my father. Heatwave is my dad.”

“Wildfire,” Ruby stated her name, drawing her head to face her. “Do you hate all the living?”

“No.” She answered honestly. “No I don't.”

“Wildfire, do you hate Blitzwing?”

“No.” Wildfire answered quickly, assuredly. “No, I don't hate him. I pity him.”

Ruby Tuesday couldn’t contain her broad Cheshire cat smile. That reaction was more than she could’ve hoped for. “That is very good Wildfire. There is no room in life for hate, but not everyone is worthy of your love. Do you love Air Raid?”

Now Wildfire smiled a very big smile, almost as big a smile as the doctor’s own. The diminutive young woman was still smiling when she answered. “I love her so much, more so than a girlfriend.”

While Air Raid was busy blushing, and drawing up possible plans for their future, Ruby carried on with this part of the therapy. “Wildfire, you are the master of your emotions. Hatred gives way to pity. You have killed to protect. You can kill again to protect. Can you kill for revenge?”

“No.” She replied quickly. “Killing for revenge is wrong. That would take me away from my girlfriend, and my family.”

“Very good, Wildfire.” Ruby could have clapped her hands with glee. “No-one can kill for revenge, you can only murder for revenge. Are you a murderer?”

“No.” Wildfire robustly shook her head. “I'm not a murderer.”

Ruby Tuesday judged it was time to start wrapping this session up. “Wildfire, you will be bullied by someone in your life. Is it okay to kill if you are bullied by words?”

“No. Words cannot hurt me.”

“Words cause emotions. Emotions can take control of you.” She began the last layer for this treatment. “When you experience the emotion of hatred, what will you change that emotion to?”

“Pity. Nothing is worth the effort to hate.”

“Words cause emotions. Emotions can take control of you.” The doctor made her last set of notes on her clipboard with a satisfied nod. “You can feel worthless by the words of others. Are good people worthless?”

“No. Good people are not worthless.”

Ruby drove this last point home. “Good people have value. Are you a good person?”

“I am a good person. I have value because I'm good.”

“You are not worthless.” She wanted her patient to really absorb this. “Words cannot make you worthless. When a bully touches you but does not do so in a way that could take your life, can you kill the bully?”

“No.” Wildfire knew what was expected of her. She had listened, and understood. “That would make me a murderer. That's not me.”

“When a bully touches you but does not do so in a way that could take your life.” Ruby paused and took a sip of her water she had been nursing this whole time. “Can you defend yourself?”

“Yes.” She nodded, sure of herself and her reply. “I can do that.”

“Once the bully stops bullying you, can you still defend yourself physically?” Ruby Tuesday pressed one last time.

“No. I should do what I can to get away.”

“Should you report what happened to you?” Ruby asked, though this query was noticeably a gentler one than her previous questions.

“Yes.” Wildfire nodded, “I should tell somebody.”

“Wildfire, do you want to save lives?” She asked, full in the knowledge of her patient’s desire to join the Fire Department alongside her step-father, and that she’d already undertaken the requisite job interview.

“Yes.” She answered certainly. “I want to save lives, like my dad, Heatwave.”

Ruby noted the pride in her voice when she spoke of Heatwave. The doctor didn’t know him personally, but she knew him well enough. “Wildfire do you want to be a Firefighter?”

“YES!” Wildfire gave the most animated of all her responses so far. “Yes I do! It's what I want to do.”

“Wildfire, who is the master of your emotions?”

“I am.”

Ruby decided to fall back on a previous layer. Just to test her. “Wildfire, have you killed?”

“Yes I have, to protect and save lives.”

Again, Ruby smiled. Things couldn’t have gone better had she scripted it. Now there was but one thing to take care of. “Wildfire, Air Raid and I are going to talk. When I say your name you will only listen for me to say your name again. When you hear your name you will be able to hear all that is said. Until you hear your name you will ignore any other words you may hear as if you didn't hear them at all.” Pausing for a moment while her patient nodded her understanding, she said quite clearly, “Wildfire.” Then, she turned her attention to the Air Raid who, up until now, had been silent. “Raid you still want her to have a safety leash with a key word?”

Realising it was now her turn to say something, Air Raid shook her head. “Y'know...I don't think so.” She spoke up, finding her voice and assessing everything she had just witnessed. “But, will this affect our personal life, you know how we play, right?”

“In truth, nothing is perfect.” Ruby commented, searching her notes for what they needed to do next. “I feel that a safe word to turn her into a Pet is more beneficial than it is bad. I don't think you'll abuse this privilege. Then again, you really don't want me to find out you are.”

“Sweet lord no!” Air Raid tried very hard to not be offended. “I love her too much for that. This um, this might be a silly question, but when we 'play', I don't use the safe word first, right?” She could almost see the eye roll beginning to form, but she ploughed on regardless. “That's for like, super emergencies, like earlier?”

“For play you need your own words that you agree on to enter or exit play.” As expected, there came the eye roll. “This word will turn her into a Pet against her will.”

“I got you, Doc.” Air Raid kicked herself. “Go for it.”

Ruby put away her patented eyes and instead offered her a smile. “Then give me a word you'll remember, and will not use in your everyday conversation.”

“Wildflower.” Air Raid said after a moment or two of thought.

“Okay,” Ruby said, taking note of the code word. “We'll keep 'you're not a Pet' to snap her back out of compulsion pet play. You must remember, she will remember what is happening during forced Pet play.”

Air Raid nodded. “Usually she says Peaches. That's her safe word. And I wouldn't ever, EVER abuse this.”

“Wildfire.” Ruby Tuesday said with a nod, allowing her patient to hear everything now. “Wildfire, do you like being Air Raid's Pet?”

“Oh yes!” Wildfire gushed happily. “We have a lot of fun when we play!”

“Wildfire, are you willing to let Air Raid force you to be a Pet?” Ruby asked, getting straight to it. She had to agree to this for this to work. “No matter where you are or what you're doing. Will you give Air Raid the power to make you a Pet even if you don't want to be her Pet?”

“Yes.” The diminutive young woman answered immediately without any pause or hesitation. “I trust Air Raid. I trust my girlfriend and I trust my Mistress.”

“Wildfire, Air Raid is going to say the code word.” Ruby started, “When you ever hear this word again you will become her Pet.” The doctor looked over at the racer and nodded.

Air Raid, whose heart was still pounding fit to burst from her girlfriend’s praise, said very clearly, “Wildflower.”

“Wildfire,” Ruby announced again, “Air Raid is going to say a phrase. This is the phrase that will let you stop being her forced Pet.” Again, Ruby looked at Air Raid and cued her in.

“Wildflower, rest.”

“Wildfire,” Ruby said calmly once she’d scribbled her notes. “Follow my voice and I'll bring you back to the world of your friends and families. Follow my voice while you are still relaxed. Follow my voice and hold what you heard inside yourself. You have the power inside you. You have the mastery over yourself. Follow my voice and…wake.”

Once the command was given, Wildfire opened and blinked her chestnut brown eyes with a smile as she came back to herself. “Thank you, doctor.”

“Don't thank me yet.” The psychiatrist affirmed gently. “I want you to watch a video with Air Raid.”

“Alrighty.” Wildfire surmised this was the video that the doctor had mentioned earlier, the one that supposedly would necessitate her having to ‘nap’ again.

Air Raid, wholly dubious of what might transpire from this, nevertheless sat herself on the couch next to her girlfriend and with a few swipes of her fingers she called up the video stored on her phone, turning up the volume as far as it would go. “Ready, Wily?”

“Yuppers!” Wildfire snuggled up to her girlfriend and Air Raid pressed the play button. Having already seen the video once, Ruby Tuesday sat back on her seating pad and instead she observed both Wildfire and Air Raid’s reactions to it. She was very pleased to see there wasn’t any from Wildfire at all, beyond a bemused smile. “Oh…oh wowsers...he really got to me, huh?” She commented once the video had finished its playback and the office was silent.

“I'm sorry, Wily.” Air Raid muttered as she put away her cell phone.

‘I should hate him,’ Wildfire thought to herself but, whenever the impulse to hate spurred in her head, it was subtly altered immediately, thanks to the therapy session. Instead she smiled. “I feel so sorry for him.”

“You will have to face him tomorrow.” Ruby said, although she was pleased the session had seemed to have worked. “He wants to press charges of assault and battery against you, Wildfire.”

“Does he?” She questioned, the ghost of the smile still on her lips, “what, based on that video?”

“Did you hit him in that video?” Ruby asked as she gathered her notes together.

There was no denying it. She had hit him. Wildfire nodded, though there was no sense of pride in it she might’ve felt before. “Yes I did.”

“Did he hit you in that video?”

“No.” Wildfire drew her hands around her and hugged her waist. “He never touched me.”

“So,” the doctor concluded, “all he really needs is this video then.”

“He acted like a bully.” Wildfire tried to defend herself, hugging herself a little tighter. “He used words to hurt me. I lost control.”

“So, all you have is that incited you to riot. Heatwave has the Fire Department lawyer to represent you at the grand jury hearing tomorrow at nine a.m. I cannot predict how that will turn out. Best case is you get a warning and parole.” Ruby Tuesday paused and patted her patient’s shoulder. “Worse case is jail time.”

“I understand...”

Air Raid sprang to her feet and to her girlfriend’s defence. “Isn't there something else we can do?” She exclaimed, “I mean, the IED, it wasn't her fault, Doc!”

‘No. No excuses. Heatwave’s taught me better than that.’ Wildfire uncurled herself and stood up to her whole four foot ten inch height. “Raid, it's fine, really. I'm a big girl.” She looked up at her grinning, questioning face and decided to cut off the snarky quip before it could be uttered. “Shut up. You know what I mean.”

Ruby Tuesday tried very hard not to snigger. She failed. It wasn’t her fault. The sight of this tiny young woman squaring off against her girlfriend who was just over a foot taller than her was too adorable for words. “If the grand jury judge sends this to trial, then I'll have to testify. I will use that as part of the defence.”

“I get it.” Air Raid sighed. She might’ve got it, but she didn’t have to like it. “Wily, the Doc's got you in the hospital tonight, 'kay?”

“Uh huh.” She rocked brightly on her heels.

“I'm driving Wildfire over.” Ruby snatched up her car keys and her coat. “You riding with us or following in Heatwave's car?”

Air Raid shook her head and jangled the keys in her jacket pocket. “I'll be taking the Chevelle. I promised Heat I'd keep it safe.”

Wildfire sprung up to the tips of her toes and planted a very delicate kiss on her girlfriend’s lips. “At least I get to ride with a sensible driver!” She teased, stealing another kiss.

“Hmph!” Air Raid slumped into the driver’s seat of Heatwave’s flame red Chevelle and slammed the door shut. “Better driver my ass!” The lime green racer dug through the pockets of her white leather jacket and pulled out her half empty packet of cigarettes. Slotting one between her lips she was still fuming as she flicked open her lighter. She knew that Wildfire had said ‘sensible driver’, but in her head she had heard ‘better’.

She watched the doctor drive off ahead of her as she breathed in the soothing nicotine. She resolved that after the judge thing tomorrow, she’d make her Pet regret saying that. Just as she fired up the muscle car’s engine, Air Raid's cell phone rang, and she saw it was Cyclone's caller ID. Switching her phone to speaker, Air Raid answered, “Hey Cy!”

“Where are you!?” Cyclone’s irate voice sounded down the phone and she could hear the various sounds of Trixie’s Place in the background. “I've finished my first set and Darkie is up now!”

‘Shit! I forgot all about their first night! Damn, damn!’ Air Raid sighed as she gave the car some gas and pulled out onto the main road. “Uugh...chick I'm sorry. Wily had an 'incident' with Blitzwing earlier after grad.”

“What?” Cyclone paused, her rant halted before she could get up a head of steam. “Is she okay?”

“Well…” Air Raid took a long drag on her cigarette, “she beat the snot out of him. He provoked her IED, Cy. She's fine now but I had to use the code word and take her to Ruby.”

“Put her on the phone.” It wasn’t a request, more a demand.

Again, Air Raid sighed. “I can't, the Doc's taking her to the hospital. She's gotta stay overnight.” She turned a corner as she took another smoke. “I'm on my way there now. He's pressing charges and she has a hearing at nine in the morning.”

“Okay, so you're still with her, good.” Her anger all but gone, Cyclone was more concerned for her friend now. She knew just what this all meant for her. “I'll let Darkie know. Should I tell the rest?”

“She's in the Doc's car,” Air Raid commented, “I'm driving myself. If you can tell the gang that'd be great, hun.”

“Can do when we have a set break.”

“Thanks Cy.” Air Raid said somewhat grimly as the hospital came into view further down the road. “I'm not far away now, I'll text you if anything changes before the morning.”

“Text Dusk if it is big news.” Cyclone put in, “Darkie and I can't really have a phone on stage.” A stagehand in the background called out her name. “I'm due up. You stay with her!”

Air Raid pulled into the hospital’s parking lot. “You couldn't pull me away. Good luck Cy.”