//------------------------------//
// Chapter the Thirteenth 
// Story: The Nine Trials 
// by InspectorSharpWit 
//------------------------------//


Chapter the Thirteenth, or “The Final Showdown”

“What the hell do you mean, is everything ok?!” Miss Rainbow asks incredulously. “Miss Rarity, Miss Shy and Miss Applejack are dead, Mr. Silver over here has a gut wound the size of the Grand Canyon, and it turns out that we’ve been ratted out! DOES IT LOOK LIKE EVERYTHING’S OK?!”
Miss Pinkie smirks and crumples up her paper soda cup. “You guys wanna see something?” she asks calmly.
Miss Rainbow looks at her as if she had suggested that the earth was cube. “Did ANY of the words I just said register with you?! Are you even CARING about our business partners right now?!”
Miss Pinkie sighs, obviously bored. “Whatever, it’s not like they spilled the beans or anything.”
For a second, I thought Miss Rainbow was going to knock her lights out, but surprisingly, it’s Twi that beats her to the punch. “ARE YOU SOME SORT OF PSYCHOPATH OR SOMETHING?!” she demands.
Miss Pinkie wipes some blood from her nose and grins. “Bingo,” she said softly, pulling out her gun from her coat pocket.
Twi mirrors her action, albeit a little more shakily. “I saw what you did to those people back at the job,” she declared, seething with anger. “You fucking ENJOYED shooting those people!”
“You gotta do what you gotta do,” Miss Pinkie replies serenely, her gun never wavering. “They didn’t listen to the girl with the gun.”
Miss Rainbow quickly snatches the weapons out of both of the women’s hands. “What the hell do you two think you’re doing?!” she asks. “We’re goddamn professionals here! Act like it!”
Twilight looks at Miss Rainbow as if she were insane. “You saw this psycho bitch in action! She was laughing it up back there like it was some sort of carnival ride!”
“Look, I don’t like this any more than you do, but we can’t kill each other over nothing! We’ve got to look at this logically, alright?”
Well, that’s a change from Rainbow, I think snidely to myself. A sudden burst of pain snaps me back into reality, and I cough up a bit of blood before moaning in agony.
My pathetic condition drew the attention of the three girls. “So what are you guys gonna do with him?” Miss Pinkie asked, her eyes glowing maliciously.
Thankfully, Miss Twilight comes to my rescue. “I was thinking that maybe we could drop him off at a hospital,” she said a little unsurely.
Miss Rainbow looks at her with undisguised shock. “What happened to waitin’ for Joe to show up?!”
“Well, look at him… I don’t think he has much more to live… Besides, he doesn’t know any of our names, so he can’t rat us out!” Twilight reasoned.
“But he knows our faces and our specialties!” Miss Rainbow groans. “He’ll be able to recognize us if they ever find us!”
“We didn’t even steal any of the diamonds!” Twilight sighs. “The cops spooked us away before we could even get close!”
A guilty look goes across Miss Rainbow’s face. “Uh, actually… I might have been able to nab a few…”
Miss Twilight’s eyes shoot open. “You have the diamonds right here?!”
“Sort of… I stashed ‘em before I got here,” Miss Rainbow confessed. “I thought it’d be better if I didn’t have ‘em with me, in case this was a set up.”
Even Miss Pinkie seems impressed. “Look at you, thinkin’ ahead!” she said smugly.
“So where are they now?” Twi asked eagerly, looking behind Miss Rainbow as if she might be hiding them behind her back.
The rainbow-haired girl looks at Miss Twilight warily. “They’re safe now,” she says vaguely. “We’ll split ‘em up as soon as we blow this whole cop thing out of the water.”
“Speaking of that,” Miss Pinkie interjects with a smile, “I’ve got a surprise for you guys!” She begins to practically skip towards the warehouse doors with a sinister gleefulness.
Miss Rainbow looks to Miss Twilight. “You think we can trust her?”
Miss Twilight sighs. “It’s not like she can be a cop or anything. Besides, she won’t kill you, you’re the only one who knows where the diamonds are!”
“Good to know,” Miss Rainbow grumbles as she shuffles over to the door.
Twi turns to me and gently strokes my face. “We’ll be right back, I promise,” she says soothingly. “Just sit tight and try not to move.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I wheeze, trying to pull off a smile again.
With one last worried glance, she walks off to join the other two, leaving me alone to lie on the cold warehouse floor. I begin to feel reality slip away again…

-------

A sharp poke on my arm causes me to jolt back awake in my chair. “Whazza?” I mumble, the sleep still affecting my speech.
Miss Twilight gives me a look of annoyance. “Joe’s about to explain the plan,” she says reprovingly. “You can’t just fall asleep like that!”
I rub my eyes and peer ahead. Joe gives me a look of amusement. ‘Late night, Mr. Silver?” He says knowingly.
I suddenly remember what was going on. “Uh, yeah, I guess,” I say, deciding to just go along with the plan.
He chuckles and gives me a wink. “Quite frankly, I’m surprised Miss Twilight’s been able to stay awake, if you ask me.” His grin stays on for half a second before slipping into a look of authority. “Alright, ladies and gent, listen up,” he barks. “As you all know, I’ve called you all to discuss a potential job opportunity.”
I look behind me to find that the whole gang was here, all in identical suits and ridiculous wigs. This is one hell of a flashback, I think to myself as I marvel at the realness of it all.
“Now, in order to prevent anyone ratting on each other, I’ve made sure that none of you know each other,” Joe continues. “You are not to discuss your personal lives, your past, your future, or your true identities to each other. I’ve given you all aliases in order to remind you if the secrecy of this project. They will be as follows: Mr. Silver,” (he points at me for this), “Miss Twilight, Miss Pinkie, Miss Rarity, Miss Shy, Miss Applejack, and Miss Rainbow.”
“Why am I Miss Rainbow?” the girl in the rainbow wig complains loudly. “I mean, c’mon! That’s the most girlish name in the book!”
“Names don’t matter,” Miss Twilight says factually. “Besides, it goes with your disguise!”
“So I’ll trade with you!” The girl retorts. “Here, gimmie your wig and YOU can be Miss Rainbow!”
“No one’s switchin’ names, and no one’s switchin’ disguises!” Joe insists. “Now, if you two are done yappin’, we can get back to business!”
Miss Rainbow groans and slumps down in her chair. “Go ahead,” she sighs in defeat.
“Thank you. Now, the plan goes as follows: Miss Shy and Miss Rarity are gonna be our snipers on the outside,” Joe explains. “Miss Pinkie and Miss Applejack, you two are crowd control. Miss Rainbow and Miss Twilight, you two are gonna be crackin’ the safe. Mr. Silver, you’ll be tryin’ to keep everyone calm so we can keep casualties to a minimum. Everyone clear?”

-------

I wake up to the sound of someone’s sobs ringing through the air. I blearily open my eyes to see that there was a cop, beaten and bloodied, tied up to a wooden chair. His face was wet with a three-way combination of blood, sweat, and tears, and his hair was matted and filthy. I guess this was Miss Pinkie’s surprise, I think to myself in horror. My first instinct is to get up to help the poor guy, but a ripping pain in my gut reminds me that I’m in no position to be a good Samaritan either.
The door to the warehouse creaks open, revealing the silhouette of Miss Pinkie. “Well, well, well, it looks like we’re all by ourselves now, aren’t we Mr. Policeman?” She asks in that menacingly innocent voice. “I think we can have a little fun while they’re gone…” She walks up to him, her hips swaying seductively as she takes off her suit jacket. She sits on his lap, her legs open in his direction, and rips off the duct-tape covering his mouth. Ignoring the cop’s scream of pain, she pulls his chin up roughly and forces her lips onto his before pulling way suddenly with a leer. “Oh yes, I think I’ll enjoy this a lot,” she coos in his ear.
The cop looks at her with a mixture of confusion and horror. “What are you going to do with me?!” He asks, terror filling his words.
She lets out a high, cruel laugh and pulls a straight lock of pink hair from her face. Without answering him, she goes outside and comes back with a small radio. She puts it down on the floor and fiddles with the controls a little before finding the station she wanted.
“… And now, continuing with our classic rock week, is the Dylan-esque one-hit wonder from Steelers Wheel,” a bored voice drones over the radio. “Debuting in their 1972 album, it continues to be the band’s standout in an otherwise boring career. Here it is, Stuck in the Middle with You.”
A catchy little beat begins to play, starting off with a little guitar riff. Miss Pinkie taps her foot to it, getting more and more into the music. With a graceful twirl, she manages to land back into the cop’s lap. She gives him a seductive leer before viscously digging her nails into his face.
The cop manages to stop from screaming, but the tears dripping from his eyes said it all. Chuckling, the pink-haired menace pulls a small, black object from her pants pocket. With the click of a button, a thin silver blade pops out, much to the horror of both the cop and I. She giggles at his terrified expression and slides the knife across his cheek, adding a neat cut to his already bruised and bloodied face.
Seeing the silent tears sliding down the cop’s face, Miss Pinkie gives him a childish pout. “Aw, I wanted you to scream,” she frowned before quickly lighting up. “Oh, I know!” She roughly grabs his head and begins to cut at his left ear, causing the cop’s silence to break. I could barely watch as I watched the psychopathic woman roughly separate the ear from his head, a task made even more unbearable to watch because he was thrashing around like a wild animal.
When her grizzly task was completed, she giggles girlishly and holds the severed ear in her palm. “Hello? Can anyone hear me?” she asked playfully before tossing the ear away. Apparently satisfied, she gets off of the cop and walks outside, giving me my chance.
The horror I had witnessed gave me the strength to prop myself onto my elbow. “Hey, you,” I say to the cop in a hoarse whisper. “I’m an undercover cop, just sit tight and maybe we can-“
The warehouse door slams open again, and Miss Pinkie strides in with a gallon of gasoline. Before the cop can react, she splatters him with a downpour of the stuff, causing him to bellow in pain. Laughing, she pulls out a match, strikes it against the box-
BANG! She falls to the floor, bleeding profusely through her forehead. I see Miss Twilight behind her, her face a mixture of horror, disgust, and hatred. She quickly shoves her gun back into its holster and runs over to me, ignoring the cop completely. “Please, please, please be ok,” she muttered under her breath.
Miss Rainbow walks in, takes one look at the scene, and begins to hyperventilate. “WHAT THE HELL!?” She cries out, running over to check on Miss Pinkie. “SHE’S DEAD!”
“I know,” Twilight says coldly, not even looking behind her. “I killed her.”
Miss Rainbow begins to nervously pace around the warehouse. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! What are we gonna do?! Joe’s gonna be here any second now!” A sudden stroke of brilliance strikes her. “I know! We drag Miss Pinkie’s body to the corner, say the cop killed her, and we were just about to beat him up! That sounds like he’d fall for that, doesn’t it?!”
“Or we could tell him what happened: She was torturing this poor guy, and was about to burn down the fucking building!” Miss Twilight retorted. “You saw her reach for that match! She was gonna torch this place!”
Miss Rainbow bites her lip. “I guess that is true,” she admits. “Still, Joe won’t be too happy about it…”
I hear a car pull into the parking outside. A few seconds later, Joe stomps in, looking positively murderous. “Where is he?!” he bellowed. “I’m gonna bite his head off!”
Miss Rainbow walks up nervously to Joe. “Look, we got the cop, there’s no need to-“
Not even bothering to listen to her, Joe walks up to the cop, pulls out his gun, and blasts him in the chest. “WHERE THE HELL IS SILVER?!” he demanded.
I feel a sudden falling sensation in my stomach when I hear those words. “Why, what’s going on?” Miss Twilight asks warily.
Seeing me sprawled on the floor, Joe points his gun at me. “Move aside, Miss Twilight,” he ordered. “We’ve got a traitor in our midst.”
Twi looks from Joe to me incredulously. “Joe, that can’t be right!” She protested. “Silver’s good for this, he took a bullet to the stomach for us! He can’t be the snitch!”
“No, he’s even worse! He’s and undercover cop!” Joe growled, his eyes boring into mine. “He had the cops waiting for you at the bank!”
“No, you’re wrong!” Miss Twilight insists, growing more and more hostile. “He’s good, Joe, he is! He’s a victim too!”
“Step aside, Miss Twilight,” Joe growls.
Twi stands up and pulls out her gun. “Leave him alone, Joe!” She demands, her gun not even wavering. “He’s part of the team, not one of them!”
“Miss Twilight, if you do not get out of my way, I will shoot,” Joe says menacingly.
“Whoa whoa whoa, back up!” Miss Rainbow says pleadingly, trying to get between the two. “Look, let’s just take a second to relax and we can try to-“
“Joe, stop pointing your gun at Silver or I’ll shoot,” Miss Twilight snarled, her eyes gleaming dangerously. Miss Rainbow, seeing this gleam, gives up and scurries away.
Joe lets out a scoff. “You ain’t nothin’ but a rookie.”
*BAM* Joe’s sent reeling back, blood spreading through his shirt. Twilight also staggered back, as it seems that Joe had sent a bullet sailing towards her. She looks at me with a pleading look as she quickly begins to bleed.
Miss Rainbow looks at the bodies in horror and swiftly makes her escape, leaving Twilight and I alone with the dead and dying bodies. “Twi,” I whisper hoarsely. “I got somethin’ to tell you-“
“Please, don’t,” she says plaintively, wheezing slightly. “Let’s just… Just stay quiet for a little…”