The dust had just settled from another wild celebration, and things were going back to normal. DG wandered off to the kitchen, BG and Doc found the television remote and turned on Live/Raw, Ayesa opened her sketchbook, and Fly opened her Calc book, touching her new crown every few minutes in wonder as she looked at vector integrals.
As Ayesa was working on her latest sketch, she felt a tugging on the sleeve of her new pinstriped blazer. Looking down, she saw Billy crouched behind her chair.
"Where the hell have you been the last few days?!" she hissed.
Looking at his feet, Billy bit his lip, "I can't go back in the basement, A. It's not safe anymore."
"What do you mean 'it's not safe'?!" she replied a little louder than she'd meant to. As the room grew silent, she sighed.
Fly spotted Billy. "What is it with you guys and hiding behind or underneath the furniture?"
Billy sighed and crawled out. "The basement's scary."
Ayesa sighed again. "Come with me, we'll go check it out."
Billy's eyes widened. "No way."
Doc's face split in a wicked grin. "Are you scared?" She taunted.
Ayesa walked to the Lounge door. "Billy, come on, you can explain on the way." He stood rooted in his spot, then followed her out the door.
As they walked down the hall, Ayesa shot a glance at Billy. "Let me guess. Bobby's bringing the girls down there again?"
Eyes wide, Billy nodded, "Uh-huh..."
Ayesa made a face, "And it's caused you to want to wash your eyes out with bleach, right?"
Billy nodded again, "But there's something else down there too..."
Ayesa stopped walking, "What the hell are you saying Billy?"
He looked down, "I think there's some kinda mutant creature down there."
(sure, blame it on us. At least I “study math in the garden”
)
Ayesa stopped dead. “Billy, you have got to stop watching those horror flicks with the rest of the guys.”
He made a sour face at her. “No, seriously. There's something growing down there.”
“Are you sure it's not that skanky pile of dirty clothes down there, Billy? Hi A.” Penny said as she made her way to the Lounge.
“Fine, if you don't want to believe me, then don't worry about it.” And he stormed off, looking hurt.
Biting her lip, Ayesa stood in the same spot for a long time trying to decide what to do about Billy's sudden fear of the basement. She didn't particularly believe that there were mutants down there, but she didn't want her most resourceful helper to be upset either. Finally she decided that she would try to find him and then agree to investigate---But where to look?
Eventually, she headed off to the cactus garden where she and Billy had been keeping the pet turtles and tortoises. It was the only place she could think of, and she hoped her hunch was right.
Meanwhile, in the Lounge...
Bobby and Marty had returned from practice. "How did it go?" Penny asked, grabbing Marty and pulling him down next to her.
"It was okay. Billy wasn't there, again."
"He's been hiding under a chair in here. He's scared of something in the basement." Fly glanced at Doc. "Doc-for Christ's sake, can't you do that somewhere else?"
Doc looked over, irritated. "Fine. Come on, Bobby." She grabbed his arm and stormed off.
Penny and Fly locked eyes, and shook their heads.
Wandering through the gardens, Ayesa kept running the idea of basement monsters through her head over and over again.
"Dammit," she muttered to herself, "Soon he'll have ME afraid of mutants."
As she walked toward the cactus garden, deep in thought, Ayesa forgot to watch where she was going and in a sudden, uncharacteristic moment of spasticness, she tripped and fell face-first into the koi pond.
"HOLY SHIT!!" she yelled. The water was cold. Very cold. It wouldn't have been so bad if her swimming back to the surface wasn't inhibited by about fifty or so large Japanese koi fish swarming around her. Finally, she pulled herself out of the water and onto the walkway.
"Forget the basement," she muttered, "All the mutants are in the f**king fishpond."
"Er...you okay?" She looked up to see Billy looking down at her.
Fly sighed, opened up her Calc book again. "Why's Billy afraid of the basement?" Marty asked, putting his arm around Penny.
"No idea, but I've never seen him so scared in a long time. Not since he saw the thingy on the doorstep."
"Hmmm, interesting. Maybe we should investigate."
Penny rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right."
Ayesa quickly stood up, and realized her hat was missing. Grinding her teeth, she leaped back into the pond and came up a few minutes later with the hat in hand. (
)
As she dried herself off a little, she glanced at Billy, "Look. I don't know what the hell is going on, but if it's really bothering you, then we can check it out, okay?"
At this, Billy looked hopeful, "Really? You would do that?"
Ayesa looked at him irritably,"Yes, now before we go, I'm going to grab a drink, a flashlight, and I'm going to get a dry set of clothes.
Fly rolled her eyes at Penny and Marty. Without saying a word, she took her book and made her way down to her room. She got to the door when DG stepped out of her wing. "Have you seen Bobby?"
"Umm, he and Doc took off earlier. Doc was slobbering all over him in the Lounge, and she grabbed him and left when I said something about it. Why?"
"Oh, nothing..." And she wandered off, looking worried.
As Ayesa (now dry^^) and Billy headed down to the kitchen, they passed DG in the hall looking worried.
Ayesa stopped, "Hey, you okay?"
DG didn't answer for a few moments and then she responded, "Eh? Oh...I'm fine..." And then she wandered off.
That was strange...she thought to herself as she pulled a few bottles out of the fridge and placed them in a small sack next to her electric torch.
Just then, Fly wandered in, her dreads down for the moment. "Hey there. Where you headed?" she asked, rummaging through the fridge looking for a Diet Snapple.
"Billy says there's monsters in the basement." A looked at the other questioningly.
"Well, be forewarned. Doc and Bobby are probably down there. If there is a monster, let's hope it doesn't eat Bobby."
"Don't you care about Doc, too?" Billy said, shocked.
Fly shrugged, a mischeivous glint to her eyes. "One less person on the schedule." And she left, chuckling at her own morbid joke.
As Fly left, Billy turned and looked at Ayesa, "A, is she always like that?"
Ayesa nodded, "Yeah, why?"
Billy made a face, "I think I understand why you two get along."
A few minutes later, they stood at the mouth of the basement stairs. "Here it is," Ayesa murmured, "The gates of stabbity death..."
"What the hell are you muttering about A?" Billy asked.
"Nothing." she hastily replied.
Before they went in, Billy was hit with a thought, "Hey A, why hasn't it eaten me? Fly said it might eat Bobby, but it hasn't messed with me."
Taking a deep breath, Ayesa looked at Billy levelly, "Frankly Billy, I imagine you wouldn't make much of a meal for a monster."
Billy looked down, "Oh."
DG leaned against the wall in the garden, looking worried. She knew it had been a bad idea to bring him in without the other girls knowing, and now she had to fix it.
Just then, as she was about to search the basement, Dino scrambled out of the foliage, shaking leaves out of his hair. "D-what were you doing in there?" She asked, surprised.
Dino blushed. "Oh, nothing. You look worried."
DG nervously looked at her hands. "I let someone in the Asylum that I shouldn't have."
"Really, who?"
DG bit her lip. "Promise not to tell anyone? Not even Nancy?"
Dino's eyes flickered to where he just climbed out of the bushes guiltily. "Sure."
As they started down the stairs, Ayesa tossed something to Billy, "What's that?"
Ayesa glanced at him, "Taser. I assume you know how to use one?"
He looked at the device cautiously, "Yeah..."
She nodded, "Good. We don't know what we're dealing with here, so anything moves other than the two of us, zap it."
Billy's eyes widened, "But what if we see Doc or Bobby?"
Ayesa sighed, "That's what these are for." She held up a small canister.
"Mace?! You want me to mace them?!"
She nodded, "Better them then you man." And with that, they headed down.
Back in the garden:
DG fell silent. Dino's eyes were the size of dinner plates. "DG, why the hell did you do that?"
She gestured with her hands. "Marty asked me. He felt sorry for him-the guy was living in his car again, and then Marty...he..."
"He eyef**ked you, didn't he? That's why Bobby was so upset over Marty trying to steal his fangirls."
She sniffled. "Now he's in our basement, and he won't leave. I said one night, but he won't leave. And now Billy's scared to go in there. I have to tell Bobby. I have to tell him I'm sorry."
As Billy and Ayesa stepped quietly onto the basement floor, they heard strange noises coming from under the stairwell. Latching onto her arm, Billy's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, "Wha--"
"Shhhh..." Ayesa gestured for him to be quiet, "It's just Doc and Bobby. Don't look."
Eyes still wide, Billy reached into his pocket, "Can I mace them?"
She shook her head, "Only if they provoke us...come on..."
Suddenly, they heard a clatter coming from the far side of the basement and Ayesa saw something glimmer out of the corner of her eye.
Fly was studying math peacefully in her room, sitting on the bed and leaning against the wall. Suddenly the loudspeaker crackled to life.
Odd, she thought. I thought the controls were in the basement, and everyone's afraid to go down there.
A voice came through the speaker. "It ain't pretty..."
"Oh, f**k no." Fly jumped off her bed, fiddling with her bracelets as she marched down to the basement.
She threw the doors open with a dark look in her eye. "Whose sick joke is it to put that song-" she stopped when she saw who was controlling the loudspeaker.
As the loudspeaker crackled to life, Billy and Ayesa leapt at the form hunched over the controls, tasers crackling.
Ayesa's taser struck the basement monster in the base of the neck and as it slumped to the ground, Billy froze, "A-Ayesa..."
Ayesa looked up, "What Billy?"
"L-look..." He pointed down at the floor, and as Ayesa followed his gaze, she let out a small gasp of surprise and fury.
There on the basement floor, was a sparkly bullhorn.
"The hell?" she breathed.
Ayesa and Billy stood there, looking at on another, as Fly came in, and they turned to her. She walked over to the prone body, and kicked it hard in the stomach. "Yeah, I'd say he's out."
The three of them grabbed the body and began dragging it through the halls. They passed some of the inmates, who screamed and ran for cover when they saw the face. They dumped in rather roughly in the front lawn.
"A, can you go use the loudspeaker to tell everyone to meet in the Lounge in five minutes?"
"Sure thing. Come on, Billy. You can get rid of the bullhorn." They split off-Bill and Ayesa to the basement, Fly to the Lounge to make an announcement.
Back in the basement, Ayesa seated herself at the loudspeaker controls while Billy attempted to destroy the bullhorn as completely and totally as possible.
"May I have your attention please?" Ayesa announced over the intercom, "Will all inmates please report to the Lounge for an urgent meeting? I repeat, this is NOT a drill, all inmates report to the Lounge immediately!"
Suddenly Billy fell out laughing as Doc and Bobby dashed up the stairs wrapped in towels. Making a face, Ayesa tossed him a canister, "I'd say that's proper provokation. Mace 'em Billy."
After repeating the announcement once more, Billy and Ayesa headed up to the lounge.
A few minutes later, everyone was in the Lounge, fully dressed, even though Doc couldn't see out of her left eye at the moment(Bobby had run off too fast).
Fly stood in front of the television, snarling. "I want to know who let __ in?" She spat, ignoring the gasps as she said his name. No one said anything.
Finally Dino stood up. "I did it. The poor guy was sleeping in his car, and I couldn't let that happen. I said one night, but he didn't listen. I'm sorry."
Everyone stared at him, and Nancy, looking as stern as she could with a smile, said, "Naughty,
naughty Dino, I'm going to have to punish you."
Fly tilted her head. "Well, I guess that settles that. Dino, please don't do those kinds of things. The inmates are in delicate health. I'll leave it to Nancy punish you though." She straightened again. "I think we need rules to keep this from happening again. I'll talk to the doctor about setting up visitation procedures to keep this from happening again."
Looking at Dino out of the corner of her eye, Ayesa smiled and shook her head before giving DG and Marty a knowing glance. She knew what had really happened, but she was perfectly willing with letting things play out as they were.
As the crowds dispersed from the Lounge, she turned and looked at Billy. "Well, it looks like you can return to the basement now Billy."
At this, Billy gave her a mortified look, "But what about Doc and Bobby?! I'm almost out of bleach!"
Putting her hands on her hip, Ayesa looked at him levelly, "Well where the hell are we supposed to put you then?"
Doc and Bobby were about to return to the basement when Fly caught them by the arms. "Fly, what the hell..." Doc said as she half-drug them to Doc's room.
"There's a reason we have private rooms." And she pushed them in. "Billy's running out of bleach," she said, shutting the door for them.
As she stood in the basement with Billy, Ayesa glanced at him, "Er...you know that bleach is poisonous, right?"
Billy gave her a startled look, "Um...oh shit?"
Sighing, she shook her head, "Oh well, Fly's convinced Bobby and Doc that there's a reason we have private rooms, so you should be fine."
As Billy sank down into a bean bag chair, "What if they come back?"
Smiling viciously, Ayesa pressed a small canister into his hand and whispered something in his ear. "And if that doesn't work," she added as she walked away, "We'll see what we can do about getting you your own room."
Before returning to her room, Fly poked her head in the Lounge. "Thank me that I suggested we put cork in the walls, Penny."
"Why should I do that?"
Fly grinned wickedly. "Because Doc's room is next to yours." And she left before anyone could say anything about it.
Bobby" written all on all the short answers
