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Fort Lauderdale, Florida:  12 PM

Sammy leads Sarah to a safe landing on a quiet strip of beach.  The two quickly peel out of the form fitting flight suits revealing bikinis underneath.  The suits get stuffed into the bags they brought with them.  Sarah breaks out a bottle of suntan lotion, squirting a huge dollop onto her palm before offering the bottle to Sammy.  After slathering herself and getting help for the middle of her back they stroll down the beach.  With sunglasses donned the two girls quickly blend into the scene.  The normal tell tale sign of pale northern skin is overlooked due to the influx of tourists, family and college students there for spring break. 

The two chat about the beach, the weather and anything but life back in Chicago, subconsciously avoiding the landmines and pitfalls of life back home in an effort to relax and enjoy.

They wander down the beach passing by spots too crowded, places too empty.  They pass parties and games and even a small local radio station beach party.  The beaches of Fort Lauderdale were now nothing like the drunken hazes that she found a few remnant pictures of in her parents box of personal mementos.  The image of a much younger Rob Rollins doing a body shot off of a clearly very drunk Diane Brady the future Mrs. Rollins would haunt her for some time to come.

Eventually they come to a spot on the beach dotted with very nice beach furniture and evidence of courteous wait staff traipsing back and forth across the sand for the fortunate clientele. 

Sammy grins at Sarah and says, "I think we've found the right spot."

It's good to be a super hero.

The girls claim a pair of beach chairs.  Sammy spots a waiter coming in their direction.  "Sarah," she whispers.  "Waiter coming.  Time for Jedi mind games."

Sarah - *waves hand*  "You've already seen our hotel passes.   We're guests here.  We've paid for everything in advance."
Beach Waiter 1- "We've seen their passes and everything is paid for."
Beach Waiter 2 - "I'll be right back with your drinks ladies."
Sammy whispers furiously to Sarah.
Sarah - "You want to deliver them in just a pair of swim trunks and a smile."
Sammy whispers again.
Sarah looks at Sammy, "Yes I know that's not what you said but the poor guy would lose his job and probably get arrested."

The drinks arrive.  More importantly the cute waiter with the nice six pack arrives carrying them.  Tan, muscular and smooth chested.  Spring break rocks!  The college aged man goes down on one knee between the girls and offers them each their drinks on the tray.  His biceps swell admirably.  The drinks turn out to be of comparable quality.  Fruit, sugar and alcohol swirl together in friendly fashion amidst ice, straws and umbrellas. 

"Can I do anything else for you two lovely ladies?" he asks after their first sip.  Both girls sigh softly. 
Sarah waves him off for now.  "Thanks, these are great for now."  She puts a twenty on the tray and says, "Don't forget about us."

"Not in a million years," waiterguy says, "Nice tattoo by the way."

Sarah looks down at her bare chest and grins happily, "Thanks.  It was a gift from a friend."

"I'm Mark," Mark the waiterguy says and offers both girls his hand.  "I'll be happy to help you out today."
"Hi Mark," says Sarah, shaking the offered hand.  "I'm Sarah, this is Samantha." 

Sammy smiles.  "I'm Samantha." she repeats. "Hi Mark."  They exchange some small talk before he excuses himself.

Sammy watches in admiration as Mark deftly navigates his way back to the drinks station.  "I could get used to this," she sighs.  She looks over at Sarah.  "That is a nice tattoo.  Colin's work?"

Sarah nods happily.  She takes a long pull of her fruity drink before answering.  "Yes.  It was a present to keep me warm for the rest of the winter or whenever.  Though I hardly needed anything to keep me warm with him painting me.  Just the memory of it makes me feel like I'm reclined on a deck chair on the beach soaking up the sun." 

She lifts her sunglasses and looks around in fake amazement.  "Oh my gosh!"

She offers her drink towards Sammy in a toast.  "Samantha does sound a bit older than Sammy doesn't it?" she asks.

Sammy giggles.  "It must affect everyone around you!  I feel warm too!"  She examines the tattoo more closely.  "If word gets out about that, there might be a shortage of henna and finger paints in the near future.  All the boys will want to try."

Sarah winces at the thought.  "I don't want to start a trend.  Especially if some poor recipient has an inartistic boyfriend.  Can you imagine, some girl running up to me with a big happy face on her stomach and screaming that this is my fault?"

She looks down again.  "I almost wore a one piece so you couldn't really see it.  But it's like when Colin asked me about where to put it.  A tattoo that you can't see is pointless.  I don't want to be twisting around in a mirror to catch a glimpse of it.  I want it there when I shower, when I look in the mirror and when I get ready for bed.  It makes me think of Colin, and the sun and.. and hat night."

She smiles shyly at that thought but shakes it off with another drink.  "Woo.. these are good.  I hope I didn't encourage Mark to make these too strong or we'll be on our asses pretty quick."  She looks over at Sammy.  "Any chance your kin are slightly immune to the effects of alcohol?"

Sammy thinks of her mom, grins, and shakes her head no.  "Not a chance.  Mom gets really giggly.  Toss me in the ocean if I get out of control."

She settles back in her chair and adjusts her sunglasses.  "I'm glad you got the tattoo.  For the record, getting mine from Colin wasn't anywhere near as much fun."

Sarah sucks up half air with her drink and starts coughing madly.  Ice cold liquid splashes her bare legs and she sits up startled.
Yeee!!
Eventually she's able to speak.  "Sorry, went down the wrong pipe.  Uh.. Colin gave you a tattoo?"
Bitch!  Wait!  What do you mean wait?  Bitch is flirting around with Colin.  It's Colin!  So?  Colin.  Oh, right.  If there were ever a more constant star in the sky you don't know about it.
Sarah's expression smooths out after a moment.  "What sort of tattoo?  I never got to see it.  Happy face on your thumb was it?"

Oh by the way Colin might not necessarily appreciate you ogling men or having them strip down to their underwear for you.  Bathing suit! And it was Sammy's idea anyway.  Which you went along with.  Well not entirely as you well know.  Yes but she was kidding.

Sammy gives Sarah a strange look like maybe Sarah has been replaced by Folger's Crystals.  "Yeeeeess," she says slowly.  "Months ago.  When he tied my humanity to me to keep me from going away.  This one here, just by my collarbone.  He has one in the same spot on his body?  You didn't notice it?"

She flicks some condensation from her drink onto Sarah, and a smile lurks around the corners of her mouth.  "You never saw him without his shirt on, did you?  Man, I thought there was finally going to be someone who could give me the real story, and you're making it all up.  What did you guys do, cut a hole in a bedsheet so he could paint you without him seeing anything?  Did he wear double layers of surgical gloves so he technically wasn't touching you? Hmmph."

Sarah says, "Oh.  Um.. it's just."  Moron!  You sort of forgot that big even didn't you!?!
She blushes with obvious embarrassment.  "I'm sorry Sammy.  Er, Samantha.  I wasn't thinking about that.  Not about all the magical, mystical stuff that goes on back home.  I just got...uh..."
Oh just say it loser.

"Jealous.  Thinking that maybe he'd sat and done the same slow painting on you.  The same way with the same intent look on his face.  The same.."
Warm breath on her skin?  The memory of that same breath that leaves you burning?
"I'm sorry.  I suck.  I remember Colin talking about that.  I remember the tattoo.  We've talked about his tattoos a little bit from time to time."

She adds a bit coyly, "He didn't wear gloves but I wore a bathrobe while he painted me.  At least for a while anyway."

Sammy seems simultaneously shocked, amused, and sympathetic.

"No," she says kindly, "It wasn't that way at all.  Not even remotely.  And I wouldn't let it happen, not while you guys are so solid.  I might play, but I like you too much to do anything for real, not unless I got some sort of clear signal... and I haven't.  Not in any way."  She smiles.  "It also helps that I'm a little bit afraid of where you might send me if I ticked you off."

She takes another sip of her drink.  "So?  How much are you going to tell?  Was it... " It's Sammy's turn to blush.  "I haven't yet.  With anybody.  Funny, huh?  You'd think... but no.  Not even once."

"Thanks?  I think?" says a slightly confused Sarah.  I'm pretty sure she meant that all in a good way and not the catty, Don't worry Sarah I'd never steal your boyfriend even though I totally could without a second thought, kind of way that it sounded in my head just now. 


Sarah holds up her hand and says, "It wasn't.  I mean what happened was totally awesome, amazing, mind blowing, fantastic, wonderful, romantic, sweet, funny..  uh.. but what happened wasn't it... I mean we didn't officially.  Y'know.  Stuff happened.  A lot of.. stuff."

Sarah puts down her drink on the armrest and covers her flaming face.  "Let's say that we both left feeling very happy but I can still ride a unicorn if one were to show up."

"Oh.  Oh, okay.  You're both happy though, so its good." Sammy seems content to leave it where it is and not chase it any further.  But she didn't miss Sarah's confusion.  "In case I wasn't clear?  As cute as he is, Colin lives in the off limits part of my brain.  Like I said, I might play, I might tease, but he is clearly and consistently labeled as yours, and I'm not going to, uh, peel off any labels or pretend I can't read.  Besides, I don't think I could get far even if I tried.  He doesn't look at anybody else the way he looks at you.  You know, with everybody else its dum-di-dum-dee-daah, but when you walk in the room its all ah-WOO-gah, ah-WOO-gah, clang-clang-clang, woop! woop! woop!"  With the last bit she puts a moony eyed, lovesick expression on her face, and moves her hand up and down from her chest to simulate a heart beating wildly.  "You don't have a thing to worry about.  Not from me."

Sarah giggles at Sammy's... er Samantha's antics. 
"It's such a relief knowing you have no intention of stealing or even just borrowing my boyfriend." she says with a grin.  "Let us drink to this agreement and celebrate by the ogling of hard bodies!"

Sometime later a somewhat tipsy Sarah suggests, "Y'know... I think.. I think I'd better walk around a little to clear my head.  I don't want to rush this whole fun in the sun thing too fast.  Want to splash around in the ocean for a while?"

Sammy agrees to that very good idea, as she's feeling more than a little tipsy herself.  "Ooh! Maybe Mark the Magnificent will towel us off when we're done."  That sends her off into a paroxysm of giggles.  She rolls out of her deck chair and skips merrily down to the water's edge.

"We'll have to find out.  C'mon!"  Sarah runs past Sammy and heads out into the water.   "It's so good!  This is amazing!"  She wades in up to her chest and turns back towards Sammy.  "Lake Michigan is a giant ice-cube right now."

OOC:  my day = not happy. 

OOC:  sorry to hear that.

Sammy wades in and much squealing and splashing and chasing ensues.  Any horny dolphins are firmly rejected, at least by Sammy.  After a while she stumbles back on to the beach and wraps up in a big fluffy towel thoughtfully provided by Mark's cute coworker Brad the towel boy.  She smiles sweetly and allows him to make sure the towel isn't going to fall off her waist when she sits down on her chair again, and incidentally borrows his t-shirt to keep from burning until she can somehow get more sunscreen on her back.  Some ice waters are ordered to delay dehydration.

A very sober and slightly grumpy Sarah stomps out of the water.  She scoops up a towel and gives Brad a dirty look.  She looks at Sammy and asks, "What the hell is wrong with the fish here?"

She turns back to the water and holds up her hand with her thumb and forefinger a half an inch apart.  "This close Flipper!  You were this close to trying a dive off the thousand meter board!"   


She collapses back into her deck chair and sips at her water staring out at the oh so innocent looking ocean.  "Not a word Jameson.  I know where you live." 

Sammy tries to be nonchalant, but spoils it when she tries to stifle a giggle and snorts water out her nose.  "I didn't invite them to the party!" she laughs.  "I don't even speak dolphin."  She giggles again.  "I betcha Colin would change his dolphin-free tuna tune pretty quickly if you told him they were making moves on you."

Hungry, she orders a tuna salad with extra dolphin in it, and admires a yacht passing by in the distance.  "Ooh.  Pretty.  Shiny.  I bet its even dolphin free."

Sarah growls at Samantha's comments but eventually accepts that it is fairly amusing.  Sarah has the house salad with grilled chicken.  Looking at the Yacht, Sarah decides to let the last comment slide and says, "Would you want to have that kind of lifestyle?  Roaming the ocean in a giant yacht?  Big houses?  Expensive cars?" 

"Money enough to be able to just roam around, yes.  I wouldn't argue about the rest, but its not required."   Sammy chomps on some fries. "El's family can live like that if they want.  That's how come he's always offering to buy stuff for me.  I can't let him do it all the time though.  It's not my money, so I'd better not get used to spending it."  She dips into some ketchup.  "How about you?  Do you want it?"

Sarah shakes her head.  "I'm not sure.  I don't want to be rich.  I don't want," she waves her hand towards the yacht, "stuff.  I don't need any things.  I admire and enjoy elegance and luxury from time to time but all I need is love ba ba bada bum... and happiness and friendship.  I don't want money because it brings trouble.  I don't want to be poor because it's hard to survive.  I don't even want to be average because everything is so... ordinary."

"Not that I think I'm going to end up living an ordinary life.  I've already been told I'm going to be going a long way.  I probably wont have time for a house or a boat even.  Just running around helping out and moving from place to place.  But it sounds kind of lonely."

"Yes," says Sammy thoughtfully, "It does.  Maybe you should always make sure to have a person or people to go home to.  I guess that would be your family?  Or maybe there are jedi Lassie dogs out there somewhere who can tag along and keep you company."

"Jedi Lassie dogs?"  She grins at Samantha and shakes her head.  "I want a flying pony thank you."

"Ooh!" says Sammy.  "If you get one, can I come visit?  Especially if its a purple one, with a long sparkly mane and tail.  I'll comb it and pet it and sing the My Little Pony song to it.  I'll even steal a tiara from one of Donnie's dragon's hoards if the pony wants one."

Sarah nods primly and says, "You may."  She holds up her finger to make a point.  "My pony will be lavender.  That may also be her name but something celestially related is also an option.  Tiara's are welcome and so are apples."

She finally grins broadly.  "Thank you for silliness.  Do you want to do anything special while we're here?  I'm happy staring off into space or crashing celebrity parties or anything in between."

Sammy claps her hands with glee.  "Yay!"

"We don't have to do anything special."  She looks at her cell phone.  "It's not real late.  We could go find a baseball game if you want to do something.  Find a place to ride real horses if you want to practice before Lavender Starpetal puts in her appearance.  We could be touristy and hit Disney or Universal.  Nothing in-state is too far away.  Or we could just stay here and build sand castles and have a battle to decide ultimate dominion over Beachytopia.  Whatever you'd like.  It's all about sunshine and warm air."

Sarah ponders the options.  "Anywhere but Sea World," she offers with another glance at the ocean.  "I haven't been to Disney in a long time.. but the lines..  I refuse to use my powers to cut ahead of people who have been standing in the blazing sun for half an hour.  That's just evil.  But if we go I'll buy you a Mickey Mouse hat.  Baseball could be fun.  There's probably a game somewhere around in the next day or two right?  Real horseys?  Ooh.  That'd be awesome.  Let's make some phone calls or have Mark or Brad find out for us!"   

They spend a couple of days having ridiculous amounts of fun doing whatever.  Sammy saves a line full of hot, tired toddlers from meltdown at Dizzy by pretending to be Wendy from Peter Pan: "Look, Pete-ah!  Michael! John!  I can FLY!"  She does not accept the subsequent summer job offer to be Tinker Bell's "helper", but she wears the Mickey hat everywhere.  She is not a very graceful equestrienne, and only her ability to fly saves her from a hard landing in a stream when the horse she is riding takes exception to a funny looking Mickey ear shaped shadow on the ground.  She hoots and hollers and blows kisses to the players and props her freshly pedicured and suntanned toes up on the railing along the first base line at a baseball game, earning herself and Sarah several moments on the big tv screen.

Sarah enjoys Disney despite the lines, taking pictures with every character they can find.  She particularly enjoys Sammy's expression in the one with Tigger when his front paw slipped down to squeeze her butt.  She discovered that horseback riding was amazing though hard on the legs.  She  limped around for an hour until porting to a spa for a long soak.  She treated Sammy and herself to a full treatment where Sammy ended up with perfect piggies.  The ball game was a blast, Samantha drew in the camera several times with her antics.  Sarah chewed on a big bag of Major League bubblegum and often as not was seen on TV with a giant pink bubble obscuring her features. 

A foul ball slammed off a bat and flew straight for the girls heads.  Sammy and Sarah attempted to duck but at the last moment the ball vanished and landed with a plop in another fan's popcorn a few rows back.  No one seemed to notice anything unusual, no doubt the ball had skipped off something in the crowd.  Only a slow motion frame by frame could detect anything amiss.  But who would do that?  Fortunately they were saved from such a reply with the next pitch ending in another solid hit, this one flying deep into centerfield and just over the fence.   

Sarah annoys Sammy the rest of the day in D by singing "The wonderful thing about Tiggers! is Tiggers are wonderful things! Their tops are made out of rubber! Their bottoms are made out of springs!"  "And its a good thing too!  Did you see the way he bounced away after I thanked him and told him I was only 15, and my daddy was still awaiting trial for beating up the clown who groped me?  I should have picked him up and dropped him on his head in a tank at Sea World.  There could have been a Tigger vs Flipper Death Match."

"Clowns are scary enough without making me think of one groping me."  Sarah shivers at the notion.  "That is truly a disturbing image.  Besides I hear that the people in costumes are mostly G I Double R L's.  Not that a girl doing it is any better.  Though I'm sure Donnie and the rest of the boys might disagree on that."

The days wear on and the girls laugh and play.  Soon the time to head out to Arizona approaches...

"Are you ready for another road trip?"

"Okie dokie.  Want to set a new travel time record for us?"

"Always willing to try."  Sarah grins at the notion.  "I feel like we didn't do half of what we should have... but it's been really relaxing.  This is the first time I've ever been away from my parents for any real amount of time.  I mean, the first time was when I ran off with Donnie but that was more like a mission.  He wanted to track down his dad and find out some answers.  I didn't even think about it then.  But this time, I mean... no Mom, no Dad.  No bedtimes or rules unless we make them.  That probably sounds a little foolish considering we've been running around Chicago all year fighting witches and mummies and bees.  I am over a thousand miles from my parents and any adult supervision."

"It is nice, sometimes.  Its good to get away from everything.  Good for me anyhow.  So..." she sets out a flight plan for the both of them, with the suggestion that they both push until the other cries for mercy or a potty break.

Sarah leans towards Sammy and says, "Just call me Sahara."  Only just not yet cause I actually really do need to go.

"I'm just going to freshen up before we go though."

"Good plan.  Me too."  The girls do the necessary deeds to prepare for the trip.

Shortly into the trip Sarah yells in the wind to Sammy, "You know... I think we'll go faster if you take the ears off."  She points to the Mickey Mouse hat that Samantha clutches. 

Later on the speed starts taking Sarah's breath away.  Bathroom break was the last thing on her mind but being able to survive blasting through all this wind and maintain her focus for the big jumps.  She had goggles on so she could see without squinting ahead of them.  Fortunately it was another beautiful clear day with only a few scattered clouds.  She could see for miles and the jumps stretched out.

We're both getting better I think.  We'll make it across an ocean someday.  Then it's breakfast in Paris time.  I'm going to enjoy the hell out of this place before I pack my bags.

She spares a breath to yell out a cheer.  The two rocket across the country skipping along like a stone across a lake. 
No big dragon for your radar this time boys.  Good luck tracking us.

Sammy exults in the experience, her entire being reveling in the joy that comes with flight and speed and freedom.  She crows "I'm pretty sure this is faster than I can go on my own, isn't it great?!"  She shouts her excitement into the skies.

When they get closer to Ajo and Eagle's Nest, she returns to Earth a little.  The wildness and ecstasy leave Sammy's face, and she shifts into a more sober mode.  "I'm going to call ahead, let them know we're coming in," she says.  "We don't want to be shot out of the air.  I've read stories about what they can do."

They come down outside the gates of the paranormal national defense team's base.  "If they try to recruit you," Sammy says to Sarah, "hold out for the flying lavender pony as long as you can."

She nods.  "I think so.  I think to figure it out we'd have to do math so... maybe you and Colin can figure it out later and let me know."


"Eek.  Yes call.  I bet we could do a pretty good job dodging but I don't want to find out if I can dodge a missile.. or any other toy they might have lurking around."


Sarah giggles at the pony notion.  "Nuh-uh.  They'd dig one up and then I'd have to sign on.  I've got a previous engagement anyway."

Sammy chants "--destiny! destiny! no escape for you and me!" then raises her hand in acknowledgement to the pair of guards approaching in their khaki colored hummer.  "I'm probably not joining either.  I guess neither of us will be drinking the Kool Aid."

Heh. Sedagive?!?

Deliberately misinterpreting Sammy's comment Sarah quips, "Wait.  They have Kool Aid?  Isn't that a little juvenile for secret government agency types?  Maybe they do have flying ponies after all."  Blucher! *whinnies*

"We're underage.  They get beer; we get Kool Aid.  Maybe you should ask about the flying ponies though.  It'd be cool to take one home, unless one of the dragons thought it was steak on the wing."

Sammy snickers (whickers?) at the Blucher! comment.

She grins at steak on wings comment.  As the serious faced guards approach Sarah gets the random thought, Man we could clean up if we were girl scouts.  Bet you could sell ten thousand boxes here without trying.  Delivery would be tricky though.  Address: Secret Government Operation, Non-existent base, Ajo, AZ.  Probably just air lift out of GirlScout Cookie headquarters or something.

"Hi, we're here for the junior eagle recruitment tour?" she says quietly to Sammy.

Sammy tries not to choke on her laugh, but fails.  She coughs.

In the same low tone she adds, "You should put the ears back on when they take us around."

Sammy nods somberly.  "You're right.  I should."  She puts them on.  "Now will you ask about the flying ponies?"

The guards find themselves the victims of two giggling teenage girls who apparently find encroaching on undisclosed military bases to be hilarious.  The redhead seems to gasp out something that sounds like, "Take us to your ponies!" before falling over.  The other is wearing... Mickey Mouse Ears. 

OOC: Does this catch us up to Adobe?  :)

OOC: Please, please say yes. I fear what those two could do to national security if allowed to run loose in a secret government facility...

"Shh! Shh! It's ringing! Mr. President? Is your refrigerator running? Then you'd better go after it!" *SLAM* :D

OOC: Yes, I think it does, unless the SixKiller girls won't share their Barbies or Polly Pockets with Sarah or Sah-mahn-thah.  Then there will be hell to pay!!

P.S.  Sammy is wearing the Mickey Mouse ears to block out the Mind Control Rays.