cascade | kotlc

29. The Infiltration, Part 2

channeling my inner fangirl into faye + june writing this

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"This is a tremendously horrible idea," June decided as she sat down on the iconic spire of the Empire State Building. She'd already set up the entire pendulum mechanism she'd need for her upcoming stunt. All that was left was to wait.

"Yep," Faye cheered, her scattered giggling echoing through the intercoms. Easy for her to say. She was safely poised in the electrical room, the door securely shut and locked. "Thirteen minutes to door knock."

June sighed, tightening the knots around her waist connecting her to the pulley and rappel system.

"Is there seriously no other way?" June had asked, rather desperately, not exactly confident in her abilities to knock out at least ten heavily armed men, assuming she even survived her stunt. While Dex's technology had seemed of utmost safety during her Foxfire excursion, now, as the one swinging herself, with no talents or abilities to save her, the thin thread suddenly seemed much too flimsy. She doubted it would even hold taut properly.

"The door's a specially made three-foot-thick slab of titanium," Biana had reported. "There are at least twenty guards patrolling around. The floor, ceiling, and walls have been rigged with explosives, should anyone attempt to break through. Your best bet is from outside -- they haven't reinforced the windows. Most likely because they thought no one was stupid enough to scale the outside of the 1500 feet Empire State Building."

"Well that just makes me feel so much better," June had said sarcastically, biting her lip in weary acceptance.

"Earth to June?" Faye called, yanking her from her stupor. "Are you still there? Did you accidentally fall off or something? If you did, I'm taking your crown-"

She scowled, swatting at her mic. "Perfectly alive," she retorted. "And no, you don't get my crown. Sophie gets my crown."

"Of course," Faye drawled. "But! Since we've got time to blow, let's talk about ships. Yes, yes, ships! Woo! So. What first..."

"Marellinh," June suggested, not really excited to be gushing over her friend's relationships, but at least it would help her take her mind off things. If she dug her nails tighter into her thighs she'd end up disabling herself before she could even jump.

"Yesssss. Marellinh. In other words, the cutest ship to exist, ever. You were there when Linh tried to stop Marella from going to Nightfall. Did you see that shoulder squeeze she did? Fucking adorable. Ohhh, and during the sleepover, when Biana dared Fitz to swap all of Linh's hair products, and when Marella found out her not-yet-girlfriend's hair was dyed white the next morning she burned Fitz's hair off-"

"And I almost took her head off when I found out Fitz was basically bald," June finished. "And then Linh got mad when I smacked Marella with a lushberry pie, causing the plumbing in Everglen to explode, which meant Biana got annoyed and tried to beat up Linh, and Marella burned off her hair, and Tam almost strangled her but Linh stopped him and let Marella burn off his hair, and then you returned from the bathroom and saw the carnage and beat all of us up. All the while Dex was experimenting with caterwhauling alarms." She frowned, remembering something. "Where were Sophie and Keefe during that?"

Faye nodded vigorously, clapping her hands together. "I know!" she squealed. "I found them in the bathroom closet after I went to brush my hair." At June's horrified look, she hastily added, "Keefe was trying to convince Sophie to wear pink sparkly unicorn dresses. Marella found them first anyway, and Keefe must've annoyed her, because when I saw him he'd also lost all his hair."