PLATO'S STEP-DAUGHTER I FLYNN CARSEN

Two Birds, One Stone

Two Birds, One Stone

Before

All it took was one trip, and Clara was out of the game, stumbling over her own feet, taken out by her own toes. Jacob was next, landing in the pile of cardboard boxes beside her, except his demise was not of his own doing. All that remained was Cassandra and Ezekiel, the former crouching down behind some crates, the latter shrouding himself in shadow, his gaze falling upon the distant exit sign. At the sight of it, Ezekiel's face lit up, and before Cassandra could blink, he was gone, throwing her to the lions.

But as he bailed, he too was trounced, flung to the floor, the thud of his body making Cassandra's jaw drop dramatically. She was the last sprig of hope, the only one left to save the world. She could do this, she would do this. But as she sat there, imagination aflame with visions of her being wreathed and feted, she heard the click of coming doom, hell in high heels crossing the floor towards her. Panicking, Cassandra scuttled forwards, only to freeze at the feet of her foe. Eve threw back her hood, before folding her arms across her chest, rolling her eyes as Cassandra tried to get up, only to smack her head off the shelf above her.

"Typical, just typical," Eve muttered, exhaling sharply. As they then all made their way back to the Annex, Eve began her usual lecture, Clara and Jacob exchanging their usual eye-rolls. "It took me two minutes to disable you two," she began, gesturing impatiently at Ezekiel and Jacob, "whilst Cassandra was flattened by a piece of flatpack furniture. As for you, Clara, I don't even know where to begin" -

- "Then don't," Clara muttered, walking on ahead.

"You've got an IQ of 290," Eve argued, "yet you can't even walk in a straight line without almost breaking your neck."

"Sue me, then!" Clara flung over her shoulder. "See you in court!"

"Hey, you don't need to tell me you're every lawyer's dream," Eve flung back, "a compensation cash-cow ready to milked" -

- "What an alluring analogy," Ezekiel said thoughtfully, making Eve glare at him.

"You bailed on your team," she pointed out to him.

"These are the hands of a world class thief," Ezekiel pointed out in return, showing her his palms, "I don't do punching."

"Like me," Jacob interjected, puffing out his chest.

"You can't solve everything with brute force," Eve said tiredly, "you need to fight smarter, not harder."

"Well, I'm only here to do science and math, maybe occasionally hallucinate," Cassandra said firmly. "I'm definitely not here to do battle with bookcases."

~*~

"This is all Eve's fault," Jenkins said pettishly, wringing his hands. "She's supposed to be training you for this kind of thing, yet look what's happened! We're practically paralysed by pink, crippled by shame and humiliation!"

"She is training us," Clara said impatiently, "everything just goes... a little pear-shaped now and again."

"Pear-shaped?" Jenkins exclaimed in disbelief. "You're a bit past that stage! I'd say you've evolved into avocados by now!"

"Anyone fancy an apple?" Flynn said flippantly, brandishing a Belle de Boskoop.

"That'll be you by the time this mess is sorted out," Jenkins said to Clara, "mark my words, you'll be a mere Malus pumila with a bad perm" -