Zach and Yuki stormed into the motel, a building barely worthy of the name, and found a girl of about eighteen years old blankly staring at a wall mounted television turned to MTV.

“Hey,” Zach panted, leaning down on the counter, “Did a man come in here?”

The girl blew up her gum, looked at the potential customers, then frowned, keeping the bubble between her lips before suddenly answering.

“A man?” she asked, sounding mildly amused, “Just a man?”

“Some mafia looking guy,” Zach asked, “With a girl in tow.”

“Oh,” the girl nodded, “Vinnie. Yeah, he’s here. Room three oh… Wait. Why should I tell you?”

“Because,” Zach bit at the girl, “That’s my sister.”

The receptionist gave him another vacant look, blew her gum and popped it again before finally answering, “So?”

“My sister is thirteen,” Zach snarled, “She shouldn’t be here. Let alone with a guy twice her age.”

The girl frowned, “You’re a nip. Girl’s white…”

“Adoption,” Yuki added.

The girl nodded, clearly not believing a word they said, but her boss probably wouldn’t like a reputation as a location for statutory rape.

“Fair enough. She did sound very young,” she said, collecting two objects from under the service desk, “You might need this.”

Zach barely noticed the master key, staring at the taser with unconcealed concern.

“You know how to use that?” the girl asked, raising her eyebrows as she blew up her gum again.

“We will figure it out,” Yuki said, picking it up and headed for the stairs, “I know which side to point away from me.”

“Room three oh…” Zach wanted to know?”

“Five,” the girl filled in for him, “Should I call the cops?”

“Let’s hope that won’t be necessary,” Zach sighed, following Yuki up the stairs, “But be ready anyway…”

The girl put her finger and thumb together, nodded, and turned her attention back to the TV, pretending she’d never seen the duo.

“No!” he heard Tara shout, “I don’t want to!”

Zach tried the door, rattling the handle.

“Fuck off!” a man yelled.

He pushed his ear against the door to listen.

“Just try it,” the man said, trying to sound comforting, “You want to be a model, right?”

“No!” Tara replied, her voice broken, “I want to go home! I want my mommy!”

“Just give it a little rub… You might like it.”

Zach rammed the key in the lock, struggling to get open for a second, then threw the door open to find his sister on the motel bed, looking terrified. She had been crying and tightly clutched a pillow to her chest. In front of her was the man he head seen earlier, the pristine white pantaloons around his ankles and his hands around his groin.

“What the fuck?” the man said, attempting to turn around with his pants half down.

He didn’t get a chance. Zach had stepped in and let instinct take over, using the only move that had stuck from his ‘karate’ training, yelling its name loudly, “Riesenschwanztritt!!!”

There was a gasp as the tip of his sneakers connected with the man, a confused yell from Tara and then silence, only broken by a nervous cough from Yuki in the aftermath.

Zach stepped on the groaning man, grabbed his sister’s hand and pulled her to the door, “Come on…”

“Who are you?” Tara manged to bring out.

Zach simply kept pulling on her arm, not taking no for an answer.

“I’m your new best friend,” he muttered, trying to keep his girl voice up, “And you’re going to your old one…”

As he pulled her out of the room, he noticed Yuki had undone her neckerchief and tied it around her mouth, giving her the odd appearance of a bank robber in a western movie.

He arched a questioning brow and she simply shook her head.

Zach led Tara out as Yuki returned the master key and taser back to the reception. The girl cast a brief curious glance at the girl with them, not commenting, more interested in MTV than the girls that had interrupted her work.

Even though Tara didn’t know the girl who’s hand she was holding was actually her brother, she held his hand tightly and tried to stick close, meekly letting him lead her back to the diner.

“Yous back already, gals?” Miss Kozlova asked, “...Did yous rob a bank?”

Yuki shook her head, let out a pretend cough, then followed Zach to a small booth where Tara was waiting for them, nursing a glass of water.

“Sit,” he said to Tara, then folded his arms, waiting to have the two girls full attention.

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“Your ID’s,” he demanded.

Tara and Lucy shared a look, then produced two drivers’ licenses for the state of Conneticut, dropping them on the table. Neither of the photos looked remotely like the girls Zach knew.

He picked them up, put them in his satchel and, shaking his head, sat down next to his sister.

Tara grabbed his hand again.

“You’re lucky we were around,” he said, pointedly looking at Lucy, “Or this might have ended up worse.”

“I didn’t know Tara would listen to bullshit,” Lucy threw back, “Besides, it’s just sex. Gotta get that over with sooner or later.”

“On your own time,” Zach sighed, echoing something his mother had told him, “And it’s not something to ‘get over with’. It’s supposed to be fun.”

“That’s not what my mom says,” Lucy bit back.

Zach, who had little experience with the subject aside from magazines and sex education, simply drummed his fingers on the table, before turning his full attention to his sister.

“Tara, was it?” he started.

“You have her ID,” Lucy muttered. Zach ignored her.

Tara nodded, squeezing Zach’s hand.

“Tara, remember. You don’t have to have to sex if you don’t want to. And if they pressure you. Kick them…”

“...In the nuts?” Tara suggested, a brief sparkle in her eyes.

“In the nuts,” Zach confirmed, then sighed, “And you, Lu…”

A kick to his ankle from Yuki stopped him saying the full name.

“What’s your name?”

“I think you know,” Lucy replied, sounding suspicious.

“I wanted to call you lunatic,” he hurriedly lied, “What’s your name?”

Tara hissed at her to answer.

“Lucy…”

“Listen, Lucy. I don’t care what you do for fun, but don’t go getting your friends in trouble like that.”

“What if it was her idea?” Lucy challenged.

“Was it?” Zach asked Tara softly.

Tara shook her head.

“Wasn’t mine either,” Lucy muttered, “That club was pretty straight to video.”

Zach arched a brow, then shook his head and looked at his watch, not noticing Tara quietly staring at the time piece.

“Do you have a ride home?” he demanded from the two.

“Mom’s picking me up after the movie,” Lucy mumbled.

“Good,” Zach said, “Then we’re going to wait for her outside the theater.”

He apologized to the waitress for not ordering anything, gave her two dollars as a tip anyway, then led the group out of the diner.

“You don’t have to guard us,” Lucy bit at him, leaning against the porch into the movie theater.

“I do,” Zach said, acutely aware of his sister still clinging to him, “We don’t know if that guy’s coming for you.

“Why? You want him for yourself?” Lucy challenged. Tara just looked at her feet.

Zach wanted to smack Lucy, but before she could goad him into losing his cool, a banged up white Volvo skidded to a halt in front of the theater.

The passenger door was thrown open and a cigarette butt flicked to the curb. This was followed by the sound of another cigarette being lit, then an angry woman’s voice urging the girls to get in.

“Why are you tarted up like that?” Lucy’s mother demanded, followed by “Who the hell are you two?” directed at Zach and Yuki.

“I can answer both questions,” Zach said, trying to make up a lie real quick. Lucy looked angry at him. Tara just gave him a pleading look.

“Well?”

“They went to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show…”

“Hrm. And where do you two come in?”

“There were some creeps preying on your daughters, ma’am. We decided to keep them company till they were safe..”

A cloud of smoke came from the car and Zach was glad to see that Tara was getting in the backseat, further away from the smoke than Lucy who rode shotgun.

“In that case, thanks girls. Have a nice evening. Tara, close the damn door.”

The door slammed and Lucy’s mother cut into traffic, forcing the cars behind her to slam the brakes.

When the car was out of sight, Zach sighed in relief and squatted down on the sidewalk.

Yuki took off her mask and neatly returned the neckerchief to its rightful place. She smiled at him.

“I was wrong,” she said, “Your sister was in real danger.”

Zach held his head in his hands for a moment, then stood up, “Don’t remind me.”

“What do we do now?”

“Go home?”

“We said we are camping out for concert tickets. We can not go yet…”

“Crap,” Zach sighed, “Should’ve thought of that.”

He checked the money in his wallet, “We could go to a motel.”

Yuki batted her eyelashes at him, giving him a slight smirk, but making no further comment.”

“...There’s an arcade that’s open pretty late,” he said, hurrying to make sure that Yuki wouldn’t get the wrong impression, “We could also go there for a while?”

“Might be fun. Lead the way.”

Zach took her hand and she gave hem another of her crooked smiles, but she did not protest, a light skip in her step as she went along with him.