Chapter XXV - Haywire

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"My session with the shrink is already doing wonders for me. I feel much better than I ought to," Pinz said as she cringed at seeing the fighters flail and scream in agony. "I suspect you two would benefit immensely, too."

They had all shopped for fresh clothes on her insistence, and that had helped too. She had been wearing her Ubuckiff outfit since forever and changing from that had lifted her spirits.

She now wore a one-piece, short-sleeved, red jumpsuit that reached her knees. Its silver zipper at the front revealed a dark-purple top underneath, and a brown belt was looped around her waist. Her shoes were red, with a strap across the instep, as were her hair ties.

Crisscrossing with her belt was another black strap across her waist, affixed to which was the Virtual Backpack. It was shaped like a dark-orange paw with a chartreuse screen. Pinz had made Seluna remove her voice identification from the VBP and had reformatted it. 

"Are you seriously including me?" Heraclark demanded, raising his voice to be heard over all the bluster. "I killed my father's murderer just three days ago. What could be more therapeutic than that?"

"And there is nothing wrong with me!" Jayrock said indignantly. "I am as sane as they come."

"Well, for starters, you think there is nothing wrong with you," Pinz replied, folding her arms. "And you seem to think killing is therapeutic."

"Lady, you got screwed over by your 'best friend.' Don't push your insecurities on us." Jayrock shrugged. He wore a white jacket with black stripes running along its arms. Underneath, he wore a black shirt with a pair of teal patches peeking out. His jeans were teal as well, and his sneakers were white with black soles. His VBP dangled from a pocket chain.

A nearby monitor frantically beeped as a fighter's heart rate surged. A medic rushed to her side and injected something into her cannula. A few seconds later, the fighter settled down, and so did the trace lines.

"What is wrong with me, by the way?" Jayrock asked.

"I can't believe you'd drag me in," Heraclark protested. "Don't tell me you think I should have spared him." He wore a navy tank top along with dark-gray cargo pants and black combat boots. A red muffler was wrapped around his neck, with a red-and-navy check pattern at its ends. His VBP was fixed to a navy band encircling his left upper arm.

"No, of course not. Far be it from me to question your decisions." Pinz put up her hands as if actually distancing herself. "It's just that you barely talk about anything else. Have you thought about what comes next?"

"It's only been three days!" Heraclark said incredulously. "You have been talking about your shrink for three days, too."

"Because I have done my fair share of talking about what happened at the arena," Pinz said wistfully. "Now, I am ready to move on."

When they left the arena in the truck, Seluna bound and gagged, everything still felt unreal — as if she had just observed some nightmarish events from far away. Pinz had to gaze at Seluna's face now and then to remind herself that everything was real. Her best friend had, in fact, betrayed her... tried to have her enslaved at the hands of horrible people.

Through the gag, Seluna kept trying as best as she could to plead her innocence, but Pinz could not bear to hear another word from that wily mouth of hers — the mouth that had spewed so many lies over so many years.

Pinz would not free her hands either — the hands that took Bastelle's life.

And that was the worst part. No matter how much she wished, Bastelle would never return. Never again would she nag at Pinz to work in her next project. She longed for Bastelle to come back, if only for a fleeting moment just so Pinz could ask her to forgive her — to say goodbye one last time. She clutched Puff and cried every time she recalled how she had yelled at Bastelle that fateful night. If only their final meeting had been a more pleasant one.

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