Jackie couldn’t exactly refute that, the insanity claim, as she sort of fidgeted in place.

But the “small ‘urban youth’” certainly could.

“The fuck kinda officer calls the people they just saved ‘insane suicidal kids’, guy--?” Maddie had her arms crossed, leaned so far back that her back was practically in the seat itself, versus the back-post itself. “Better yet, the fuck kinda operation detaining kids from doing stupid kid shit involves throwing them into a fucking pit and hoping for the best? I’m backed by three white girls, sir, they can sue and people’ll listen to them.”

Jackie tried to stifle a laugh, pressing her lips together. It’s been so long to hear Maddie… Be Maddie. Using curse words as commas—grammatical structures and processes in general—and a no-holds-barred attitude because, as she told Jackie at the ripe age of 12, “I fucking hate people and they hate me—so who cares?”

The Enforcer Head clearly enjoyed it as much as Jackie did, as he only gave a short, bassy laugh. “THAT’S GOOD--!”

“…Anyone tell you that you’re a creepy motherfucker--?” Maddie was cut off by feeling Jackie’s very telling glare and with an eyeroll, the small brown girl opened her mouth again. “You’re a creepy ass motherfucker. Respectfully, sir.”

“GOOD!” the Head then laughed with another series of curt, booming laughs before continuing. “Means that it’s working, my method…!” The man slowly walked towards where Maddie sat, causing the girl to angle her head upward. “Stagger a man and you watch ‘em flail—willing to do anything to stay afloat, and still fall anyways… You never learn about a man when he thinks he’s on the cusp of failure. Everything comes out, then!”

“Christ man—” Maddie actually sit up a tad, before settling back into her vaguely “grinning” state, pointing at Jackie. “—Don’t go yelling at me—keep yelling at the girl that’s 12 feet tall and tricked us to do this—I was just saying—Free speech and all, plus you said yourself—I urban youth, no schoolin’ ‘cuz I did the druggies n’ gangbangingz—"

Jackie then huffed through her nose. A huff of “no hard feelings”, but a huff of annoyance regardless of how playful.

That was the other aspect of Maddie. It’s funny when her nonsense was directed at someone else, but absolutely daunting to deal with when it’s on you.

“Oh don’t you worry—I’m saving her for last!” the Extant Head jollily scrolled over to Jackie to unlock her cuffs, the massive weights nearly hitting her feet had she not reeled back in time. The Head’s massive mitt of a hand pressed against Jackie’s back, guiding her to the far back of the table, sitting her down on the now-formed chair. Jackie barely settled in the seat as a result.

“Real talk though, since I’m the only one that’s brave enough to do it—” Maddie oh-so-gracefully broke the silence. “Does all this shit like—if we pop open the floor: are there are row of fucking lawn chairs just ready to go? How the fuck something so futuristic feels worse than something that was purposefully made to be shitty and forces idiots to buy more---?”

“I think we all had enough of your questions right now, Madison,” the Extant Head walked back forward. Standing proud—arms behind back—chin rosed as he metaphysically weathers the soft “alright, you fucking cop, keep singling me out—” that rang in the air.

“I’m just trying to find the thread—the connection here, beyond the obvious…” the Head of course paced in a militant fashion, back and forth with his obscured stare fixed on the girls. “Why would a weird assortment of 17-year-olds come together, figure they had nothing to lose, and did it all roughly the same time…? And ‘betted’ on the chance of coming here, Fort Ayderdale Minor, that’s holding strong due to Captain Rick Raymond Leech himself?!”

“YOUR FUCKING NAME IS ACTUALLY LEECH?!” Maddie roared with amusement, shifting completely in her seat, now leaning forward and pressed against the table with her small hands gripped at the edge. “I THOUGHT THE BOYS THAT BROUGHT ME IN HATED YOUR ASS OR SOMETHING, HOLY SHIT—”

“Yes, let’s continue to mock, belittle, and ultimately irritate the man that has the power; can and WILL throw us into an institution!” Tracy practically shrieked, tugging on her locks of ginger hair, the hold slipping yet getting more fervent in pace as she continued to stroke the respective bundles. “Keep it up, Maddie!”

“I’m just saying—I fucking respect his ass now, it’s not a bit anymore,” Maddie replied. “And can I just say? It’s really, really, assuring that you grew into some 34-year-old librarian and still sound like a screaming goat: it gives me hope that I won’t be alone, y’know Goodwin?”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Oh my goooood...”

Everyone quickly turned their hands towards Aiko, who was clutching at her head through her tourist head covering the entire back of her head as she did what Jackie could only describe as writhing with extreme force before stopping cold.

“I zoned out so I could skip past all of this and you’re still goooing…” Despite being muffled against the table and hat stretched over the head, Aiko’s agonized boredom. “You don’t need to put me in jail, at least. I’m already suffering—”

Jackie had to grit her teeth so harshly, she was afraid that she was going to shatter them. Turns out that giving people solely direction versus detailed, dictated choreography was going to result in a complete mess. While the plan was to make this as natural and chaotic as possible, it was erring too far into the unmanageable for Jackie’s tastes.

She had to watch on with a stoney face, as the others continued to make a painful, annoying cacophony.

Thankfully, River slowly raised her hand. As if she was in school again, and did so silently until everyone present calmed down a bit.

“As you can see, we’re… A poignant example of… Our generation,” River’s tone was completely even, monotone, and so—so tired. “That said, to answer your questions, Mr. … I-Is ‘mister’ okay, no, yeah, Captain Leech, sorry. But to answer your questions, Captain Leech, we were once friends when we were baby teens—things happened, went our separate ways. I’m sure that you have the files on us to get exactly why, and while I would say it, again, we only recently came back together and if I did, I have no idea how the others would react… Maybe something among the lines of opening one of the doors and letting it close while I’m still in the middle of it. Anyways, we all met up and decided, “hey… Shift’s coming up, sounds really scary, scary enough that we have to do something stupid to get past it’… And um. Here we are.”

It was both eerie and comical, how fast everyone went silent during that whole explanation. Not to mention how long it stretched out after that whole explanation.

“yeah this is why I don’t bother talking about… Anything,” River slowly lowered the volume of her voice as she sluggishly shifted so far to the left of her chair, she was literally shrunk off to the side.

As anyone could’ve predicted, Leech was the first to break the silence with his belly-bound laughter… Only for it to be low, mocking even.

“You think…” as he pointed upwards to the smooth ceiling above them all. “You—you—yooou…You all thought you had a better chance of doing something with that… Chaos, more than anyone in history, huh?”

Leech proceeded to swing that arm, directed at all of them, “Did you all forget that this Meta Crisis is on the verge of happening in a matter of weeks? Days, worst-case scenario? And in all of this planning and reading, not one of you read the part that these rumblings are starting to get more and more destructive that we’re struggling to hold it all back now?”

“Yeah, and remembered the eight straight times when each Shift was the equivalent of a wet-ass fart,” Maddie “retorted” so maturely. “We’ve been through this dance time and time again, pal—you cry cosmic space wolf, people panic like they used to do when the weather person called for snow, and in the end, shit happened and we’re all stuck with bags of salt in our arms.

Maddie then got up from her slump, putting her hand on the table while pointing at Leech, “In fucking fact, ain’t your boys pulling outta our city because they realized that shit’s not gonna happen? Stopped rolling out goons and you’re like… The five dudes that are left here? Face it, bud, you nor your bosses know what the fuck’s going on—”

The act of Leech slamming his helmet onto the table, and the resounding thud he created, immediately caused everyone but him to jump in their skins.

Maddie not only quickly zapped back into her seat, she had balled fists in the air, wearing a shocked, open-eyed expression of confusion. Aiko scrambled upwards, now fully awake, clutched her chest trying to stabilize the shock. Tracy, naturally, screamed bloody murder and covered her mouth with both hands. And River somehow managed to lower her head further, looking down while trying to keep her glasses from falling.

Jackie’s eyes were wavering, her clamped mouth trembling. Forced her hands on top her lap, out of sight, so she could completely her shaking in fear, hidden in plain sight.

“AND IT SHOULDN’T BE LIKE THAT!” Leech bellowed out, the echoes this time adding to his point. “Yes! You’re right—we DON’T know what the FUCK is going on! All the more reason to prepare—take action—DO SOMETHING OTHER THAN COWARD AND HOPE FOR THE BEST, WE ALL KNOW THAT CAN’T HAPPEN ANYMORE! And you feckless youth, the ‘Shifting’ Generation—think that living with this for all of their lives—you think you can conquer what has KILLED millions! I saw some of those millions die before my very eyes!”

There was nothing but his simmering pants that filled that room.

“…” the Captain adjusted himself, and stood back firm. If not visibly and tangentially haggard. Wounded. “I’m sorry. I’ve taken out my… Very recent frustrations out on you. You’re at fault, but not at fault about everything. But it still begs the question… Why?”

The girls shifted about in their chairs, collectively, uncomfortably, at that question. It was a question they didn’t expect. This level of genuine emotion and care, they didn’t expect.

Especially for Jackie. She, in a million years, never counted on the fact that at least one EXTANT worker thought how she did. It proved how stupid, how rash she was in creating all of this, and it made the already present guilt that’s been building… Near impossible to keep in check.

In fact, she didn’t want it to be in check anymore. It simply wasn’t fair.

“I don’t want to speak for my… ‘Co-conspirators’, if you will, but…” Jackie adjusted in her chair, very aware of all of the eyes in the room trained on her. Subtly buckling against that metaphysical weight. “But the very same reason as you, Captain.”