La Femme Rosemary Part 3

Diana had been on the move for a while now, ever since she had been forced to flee from Fawn.  Even though she was alone, and terrified, she was doing well in making her way through the Black Rose.  Her inherent traits were serving her well here.  When she was in a room with many pitfalls and a precarious and confusing walkway, the lights had gone out.  Any human would have been lost and confused and probably have fallen.  But she was not human.  Her feline vision enabled her to pass through the rest of the room without incident.
Not long after that, Rosemary had forced Diana into a sick situation.  Basically, Dawn and Yuta had been placed in death traps, and Rosemary said that Diana could only save one of them.  Diana had almost lost it at that point, but her sense of smell told her that neither Dawn nor Yuta were  real.  Both girls had distinctive smells to them that Diana could detect.  As they were only holograms, Diana just walked past them and out of the room without saying a word to Rosemary.
“I must say, I am somewhat impressed,” Rosemary told Diana through the speaker system.  Diana didn’t answer.  “But those last two are going to pale in comparison to the next.”
“Why are you playing these games?!” Diana demanded.  “You could just kill us, or trap us!”
“I could,” Rosemary replied.  “But I am enjoying this far too much.  Besides, it’s an excellent chance to test the abilities of my fortress.  Don’t disappoint me.”
Diana just kept walking.  Eventually, she entered what appeared to be a library.  Someone was seated at a desk, reading a book.  It was Mina.
“Mina?” Diana said automatically.
Mina looked up, looking cheerful and friendly.  “Oh, hello Diana.  It’s so nice of you to join me.”
Diana knew she couldn’t trust Mina right now.  “Don’t get in my way.  I’m going.”
Mina stood up.  “Oh, but you must stay and help me test out these new spells I’m learning from Rosemary’s books.”  
Mina held out one hand, fingers outstretched towards Diana.  Diana, on instinct, leapt to the side.  Just as she did, lightning shot from Mina’s finger tips and destroyed the door that had been behind Diana.  Diana looked at the door, mouth open, then looked back at Mina.
“You’re a quick one, aren’t you?” Mina teased, still being playful.  Mina pointed at Diana, and a fireball flew towards the neko.
Diana dove down to the ground, avoiding the attack.  This low, she had the advantage of cover, and there were a lot of desks spread around to hide behind.  She scurried from desk to desk, very quickly.
Diana’s ears told her Mina was moving around, looking for her.  “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty kitty,” Mina called out.  “Here, kitty, kitty.”
Diana, trying to stay calm, pulled out her taser gun and pointed it in the direction Mina’s footsteps were heading.  As soon as Diana saw Mina’s legs, she fired.
Mina twitched once and fell to the ground.  Relieved, Diana stood up and went over to her.
“Aw, phooey,” Rosemary said over the speakers.  “Foiled again.”
“You are a sick, sick person.”
“That’s a matter of opinion.  Well, I guess now you’re going to take that band off and free her from my control, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am.”  Diana reached for the band on the unconscious Mina’s head.  But, just before she grabbed it, a thought struck her and she stopped.  “That was too easy.”
“What?”
“That was way too easy.  You wanted me to beat her.  And you wouldn’t suggest I take the band off, unless....”  Diana stared at the ceiling in rage.  “You want me to take the band off!”
Rosemary applauded from wherever she was.  “Very observant.”
“What would have happened to her if I did!?”
Rosemary sighed.  “Basically, if you don’t turn the band off with my remote before removing it, you’ll destroy the wearer’s mind, and they’ll be vegetables for the rest of their lives.”
Diana screamed in animal fury.  “YOU WILL PAY FOR ALL THIS!!!”
“Come and get me if you can.”
Diana left Mina and ran through the next door.
*************
It had torn Jessica apart to do that to Sarah.  But what other choice had she had?  Sarah was suffering, and she utilized the only option she saw available.  She shook the tears out of her eyes and moved onward, doubling her determination to reach Rosemary and end this.
More student appeared and tried to stop her, but Jessica just tore past them, using double taser guns when necessary.  She just rushed past any obstacles Rosemary put in her way.
She rushed into a room, students hot on her trail.  She slammed the door shut and bolted it.  She then surveyed her surroundings.
She was in a stone room, with no decorations at all.  And blocking the only door out was...
“Dawn?”  Jessica, gun raised, gingerly stepped forward, trying to see if Dawn had a sweatband on.
When she got within ten feet, Dawn raised her head up and hissed.  Jessica fired, but Dawn avoided it and rushed forward, knocking the gun out of her hands.
Currently unarmed, Jessica raised her arms in a defense posture, praying that she could take on a succubus.
Dawn went on the offensive, lashing out at Jessica with a series of punches and kicks.  Jessica was able to avoid or block or deflect most of them, but she still took a few hits.
There’s no way Dawn is this weak.  Rosemary must be holding back her strength so she can enjoy this twisted little show.
Whenever Jessica tried reaching for the band on Dawn’s head, Dawn was always able to block her.  Jessica decided her only chance was to keep Dawn down long enough to run through the door.  She was able to do a swiping kick that knocked Dawn down to the ground.
Jessica ran for the door, but just before she reached it, it opened.  Sarah, with the sweatband Jessica had placed on her, entered and shut the door behind her.  Jessica just froze.
Sarah had no such problem.  She started attacking Jessica, and Jessica had to repeat the whole procedure she had just gone through with Dawn.  Like Dawn, Sarah was also holding back her full strength.
Jessica was getting tired.  Sarah’s attacks were relentless and untiring.
While trying to spot an opportunity to escape, Dawn, whom Jessica had forgotten about, got behind Jessica and grabbed her arms, trapping them behind her back at waist level.  Jessica struggled, but Dawn had a vice grip on her.
Sarah reached into her pocket and pulled out another sweatband.  She held it out before her and started walking forward, heading straight for Jessica.
But Jessica didn’t panic.  She was a soldier.  She was trained to deal with situations calmly.  Straining with all of her might, she was able to move her hand enough to grab Sarah’s taser gun that she had taken earlier.  Getting it in her hand, she awkwardly pointed it at Dawn and fired at point blank range.  Dawn was knocked backwards and fell unconscious.  In an instant, Jessica had the gun aimed at Sarah and fired again.  Sarah, too, was knocked out.
Deeply relieved, Jessica put the gun away.  But, before she could examine either of the girls, the door she had bolted was broken through.  Students started pouring into the room towards her.
Jessica ran for the door Sarah had stepped through and threw it open.
And as soon as she did, she came eye to spiraling eye with a smiling, purple ribbon wearing Yuta.
Jessica was caught in Yuta’s eyes.  They kept spinning, and spinning.  They were so wonderful to look into.  She began to feel so calm, and happy.  She had been tired from running through this crazy place, and from fighting her friends.  She had been working so hard.  And staring into Yuta’s eyes seemed to be her reward.
She kept staring into Yuta’s eyes for several moments, then Yuta spoke.
“You want to obey me, don’t you?”
Jessica smiled and nodded.
Yuta held out her hand, something clenched in it.  “Then take this band and put it on.”
Still smiling, Jessica did as Yuta commanded.
***********
Rosemary smiled.  Three down.  She was gaining a great insight into the capabilities of the Black Rose.  Also, she was gaining wonderful experimentation subjects.  Fawn had her hypnotic singing that could be studied.  Sarah was a cyborg, which made her a valuable specimen.  Jessica was a trained soldier, which made her usable as either a specimen or a guard.
But as for that cat girl....
Rosemary watched as Diana made it through another of her obstacles with those annoying cat skills of hers.  She was useless to Rosemary.  She had no special talents for her to exploit or study.  Therefore, it was time to get rid of Diana so she could focus on Jake and call it a day.
**********
Diana had just made it through another of Rosemary’s twisted designs.  She hoped she was getting close to Rosemary.  She couldn’t keep up at this pace forever.  She briefly wondered how many of the others were left.  She might be the only one.
But she would not let that deter her.  In fact, she used it to motivate herself to press on.  She had just entered yet another stone hallway, but this one was wide and very long.  She started running down it.
**********
Rosemary observed Diana on her monitor.  Her finger hovered over a button.  “Bye bye.”  She pressed it.
*********
The floor beneath Diana opened up and she fell.  It was a good twenty feet before she hit the ground.  Luckily, she landed on her feet and crouched to reduce the impact.  She looked around.
She seemed to be trapped in a stone walled, square shaped pit.  The walls were maybe twenty feet apart on all sides.  She looked up and hoped she could reach the top.
Calling on all her strength and feline features, she crouched down and leapt upwards with all her strength.  But it wasn’t enough.  She was within a foot or two of the top of the pit before she fell back down.
“A valiant effort, my little cat,” Rosemary announced.  “But it’s time you got out of my hair.”
The walls started closing in on Diana.
**********
Rosemary switched off the monitor on Diana.  There was no point in watching.  The neko was dead.  She could not escape.  And there were no more friends to help her.  Jake himself was nowhere near her.  He instead was closing in on Rosemary’s control room.
Rosemary smiled, looking forward to her encounter with Jake.  Her victory over him would be so satisfying.  She adjusted the controls to turn the heat in the room up.  She then quickly changed into some appropriate clothes for their upcoming meeting.
*********
Jake was getting tired.  He had been in this fortress for what felt like eternity.  He had been through traps and tests to try his body and his spirit.  He just wanted this to end.  And as he burst through a set of double doors...
He arrived in a large, technology filled area.  The room was filled with consoles, tables, chemistry sets, monitors, and control boards.  And, sitting in a chair, watching him enter, in front of a set of security monitors, was Rosemary.
She was wearing her lab coat.  She gave him that smile he had at one point loved.
He lifted his taser gun and aimed at her.
She stood up and held her arms above her head.  “I’m not armed,” she told him.
Jake was panting, he felt so exhausted.  But he kept the gun trained on her.  “....I just don’t know what to say, Rosemary.  All that time we spent together.  Everything we shared.  Everything we did.  And then you go and do this to everyone!”
Rosemary started to move closer to him, slowly.  “I feel no guilt or regrets or any remorse at all.  All I have done I did because it suited me.”  
“You’re a monster.  You have no redeeming qualities what so ever.”
Rosemary bit her lip.  “Actually, Jake, I may have one.  I do love you.”
Jake wanted to believe her, very much so.  But he knew it was a lie.  “You can’t fool me, Rose.  If you had even the tiniest capacity for love in you, you wouldn’t have done any of this.”
“You want to know something, Jake?  You’re almost as much to blame as I for all this.”
Jake started sweating.  It was so hot in the room.  “What do you mean?  That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?  Do you remember all those times we were together at night?”
“I can never forget them.  They are among my happiest memories.”
“And how many times did you have me hypnotized?  Plenty.  And if just once, just once, you had asked me about myself, you could have found out what I was planning.  Then, with just a few words, you could have stopped me and prevented all of this.”
There was a measure of truth to her words that Jake didn’t want to admit.  “But you asked me not to question you about yourself.  I was being a good friend by not asking.”
“You mean you were a fool.  You could have asked me whatever you wanted, and I would have never known.  But you let your morality and friendship and conscious get in the way.  And that is why you can never beat people like me.  Because you set limits on yourself.”
Jake had had enough of this.  He was hot and tired.  “That’s enough.  Now tell me how to free everyone from your control.”
Rosemary seemed resigned.  “Oh, very well.”  She wiped at her brow.  “But would you mind if I cool off a little first?  It’s just so hot in here.”
She unbuttoned a few buttons of her lab coat and pulled it off.  This revealed her beautiful body underneath.  She was dressed similarly as the night when he had first hypnotized her.
Jake’s attention was immediately drawn to her figure.  No matter how many times he had seen it before, he could never grow tired of it.  She was so very beautiful.
For some reason, she started a dance of some sort.  It was so captivating, the way her body moved.  It seemed so smooth and graceful, like water.  Jake couldn’t help but watch her.  She was radiant, like a goddess.
The combination of his exhaustion, the heat in the room, and her hypnotic dance was too much for Jake.  His mind ceased to think.  His arms dropped to his side, the gun fell from his hands, and his eyes went glassy.
************
Rosemary felt incredible satisfaction.  She watched as Jake succumbed to her power.  After being under his control so many times, this was what she had been hoping for.  Taking Jake without any gadgets, or special powers, or anything like that.  Hypnotizing him with using only her body, and her mind.
That was one of the reasons she had spent so much time with Jake at night over the weeks.  The experience of being hypnotized had been instrumental in developing her dance technique.  It had allowed her to determine what states one would be most suggestible in, and what stimuli could work.  Besides that, her time with the boy had been fun.
She ended her dance and walked to the still standing Jake.  She placed a finger under his drooping chin and raised his face until they were eye to eye.  He was clearly under her power.
“Jake?  You will obey me.”
Jake was helpless to resist her.  ‘I... will... obey you.”
She smiled.  She turned and walked away.  “Follow me.”  Jake complied.
*********
A short time later, Rosemary was back in the control room.  She had changed her clothes and was now wearing shorts and a comfortable shirt.
She was proud that she had hypnotized Jake, the ‘wonder boy’.  But she was no fool.  She knew that there was no guarantee she could keep him under her control indefinitely, even with her new technology.  So she had placed him inside a stasis tube nearby.  There he would remain, in suspended animation, for as long as she deemed fit.  It would allow her to decide later whether she wanted him as a servant, a plaything, or a specimen for experimentation or dissection.
She had decided to go and get some sleep.  She now had plenty of things to keep her occupied the following day.  Even when the students disappearances were reported, they would never be able to track her.  And even if they did, she had her wondrous Black Rose to protect her.
But before she went to bed, she wanted to survey her handiwork one more time.  She walked back over to the monitors and surveyed all those she had in her control.  There was Fawn, and Jessica, and Sarah, and...
Suddenly, she saw a shadow appear in front of her.  Spinning around, she saw Diana swinging down at her head with a piece of equipment.  Rosemary was barely able to move away in time.
Diana’s blow dented the control panel.  Rosemary skipped backwards, gaining distance between the two of them.
“YOU!!” she screamed.  Diana stared at her, with something that went beyond revenge lurking behind her teal eyes.  “You’re dead!  You can’t be alive!  There is no way you could have escaped that trap!”
“Too bad you didn’t try to get to know me.  Then you may have known otherwise.”
***********
Flashback.
The walls were closing in on Diana.  Her best jump was still not enough to get her out of this situation.  The walls would be on her in thirty seconds.
But she did not panic.  She was past the point of fear.  No one would come to help her.  She knew that.  She had only herself to rely on.  So she kept calm, and came up with a plan.  She remembered a trick she had once performed in gym class.
When the walls were ten feet or so apart, she did a quick run and jumped for the middle point of the wall in front of her and called upon all the agility she possessed.  As she hit it, she immediately pushed off of it with her feet and launched herself at the other wall.  She did the same thing again as she hit it.  This pushed her up high enough to get her out of the pit only seconds before they smashed together.
She lay down on the floor, exhausted.  She was amazed with what she had done.  After resting, she got back up and continued onwards.  She noticed that she no longer possessed her taser gun.  It must have fallen off when she fell into the pit and was now crushed.
End flashback.
***********
“How did you escape!?” Rosemary demanded.
“You’re the evil genius.  You tell me,” Diana retorted.
Diana’s eyes fell upon the monitors.  They displayed students and so many of her friends throughout the fortress, mindless drones to Rosemary.  She also saw Jake in some kind of tube, apparently asleep.
She turned and stared at Rosemary.  Diana was now beyond any kind of anger she had ever felt before in her life.  At first, she had disliked this woman.  Then she had feared her.  Now, now Diana possessed nothing but hatred, rage, and vengeance for this, this, this manifestation of humanity’s dark side.
Rosemary attempted to regain her composure and calm.  “So, the little kitty cat’s angry.  But what are you going to do?”
Diana noticed the remote control she had seen Rosemary use to take control of Katia lying near the monitors.  Quickly she grabbed it and glanced over the controls.  Her gaze settled on the button labeled ‘Deactivate’.  She pressed it and looked gloatingly, at Rosemary, expecting to see her lose it.
But Rosemary was just smiling.  The control started flashing and beeping.  Diana threw it away from her.  A few seconds after she did, it exploded with the force of a small grenade.
“Do you think I’m stupid?” Rosemary said.  “Do you really think I’d properly label the button that could defeat me?  What kind of a villain would I be to do something like that?”
Diana flexed her hands, and her claws emerged.  “Tell me how to save them.”
Rosemary jerked her thumb over her side, indicating behind her.  “The control has been transferred to a panel over there.  But to get to it, you’re going to have to go through me.”  Rosemary pulled a hairband out of her pocket and used it to bunch her hair together.  She then assumed a martial arts stance.  “To be fair, I should tell you that I was captain of the karate team at school.”
But Diana didn’t care about that.  She was past the point of caring.  All she wanted to do was defeat this woman, maybe even kill her.  Rosemary did not deserve to live.  
“You have put me and my friends through hell.  And I don’t care how weak I am, or how strong you are; I am going to KICK YOUR ASS!!!”
Calling to mind some of the defense training Jessica had given her, Diana rushed forward to clash with Rosemary.
Diana started slashing away at Rosemary with her claws, fast and furiously.  But Rosemary was calm, and collected.  She kept ducking under Diana’s advances, or backing away, or interrupting her attacks with her arms.
After playfully sparring with her for a few seconds, Rosemary grabbed both of Diana’s hands and pulled her forward, kneeing her in the stomach and knocking the wind out of her.
As Diana bent over in pain, Rosemary backed off a little, surveying her handiwork.
Diana forced her self to ignore the pain.  She straightened up and tried to calm down.  This time, she waited for Rosemary to come to her.
She didn’t have to wait long.  Rosemary went on the offensive and launched at Diana with punches and hand chops.  
Diana used her natural talents and agility to keep trying to avoid the blows.  When she couldn’t move fast enough, she tried to block with her arms.  She took a number of blows, but tried to weather them.  She kept this up until she saw an opening.  When Rosemary’s defense was down, Diana slammed her right palm straight into Rosemary’s nose.
Rosemary stumbled back, and Diana tried to catch her breath.  Blood started to pour from Rosemary’s nose, and her glasses were now crooked and busted.  Without taking her angry eyes off Diana, Rosemary calmly reached up, took hold of her glasses, pulled them off her face, and dropped them on the floor.
Rosemary had at it with Diana again.  This time, she used her feet as well as her hands.  Diana couldn’t hope to counterattack against this fierce onslaught, so she just tried to defend herself.  But she was failing.  Rosemary kept landing strikes on her stomach, her face, her chest, everywhere.  She kept forcing Diana to back away further and further.
Eventually, Diana’s back was pressed against the wall.  Rosemary lunged forward and seized Diana by the throat.  Her hands closed, and she started to choke the life out the teenager.
Rosemary had no witty repertoire this time, no snide comments, no insults.  All she had was anger.  And she was letting loose on Diana.
But Diana held more than anger for Rosemary, and she was letting loose as well.  She was the only one who could save the those she loved, and she would not allow herself to fail.  She sunk her claws into Rosemary’s arms and kept pushing, digging them deeper and deeper.
Rosemary could only take so much pain.  She was eventually forced to let go and pull her arms back.  As soon as she did, Diana leapt forward and clawed at Rosemary’s face.
Rosemary yelled in pain and covered her face.  That was a mistake.  It gave the Diana an opening to let go with all she had.  She mercilessly punched, scratched, kicked, whatever.  She even used her tail to trip Rosemary off her feet onto the hard ground.  She hit her head and apparently fell unconscious.
Diana just stood above Rosemary, staring at her.  She wanted to do more to her.  To make her hurt more.  To make her suffer.  But there was one thing she did not want to do, and that was become what she hated.
With Rosemary no longer a threat, Diana ran through the door Rosemary had entered from.  As she had expected, she found Jake inside the stasis tube she had seen on the monitor.  Working the controls for a minute, the tube deactivated and opened.  Diana shook Jake awake.
He groggily awoke and sat up, holding his head.  He glanced at his friend.  “Diana?”
After being alone for so long, Diana was so happy to see one of her friends.  She grabbed up Jake in a hug and cried, so relieved.  “Jake, oh Jake,” she sobbed.
Jake carefully returned the hug.  “Uh, hi Diana.  What’s going on?”
Pulling away and wiping her tears, Diana gave him a brief run through on what had happened.  Together, the two of them walked back to the control room.  And when they entered, Rosemary was no where to be seen.
“Where did she go?” Diana exclaimed.
“Warning,” a computerized voice said over the loudspeakers.  “The self-destruct sequence has been activated.  The self-destruct sequence has been activated.”
“Oh, come on!” Jake shouted.  “This is ridiculous!  How many survival horror games has she played!?”
“The complex will self-destruct in fifteen minutes.”
Jake and Diana ran over to the control panel Rosemary had indicated to Diana earlier.  Working together, they were able to permanently disable all the sweatbands and control units Rosemary had created.
All over the Black Rose, people were coming back to their senses, wondering where they were.  When they heard the announcement of the self-destruct, they started to panic.  Fortunately, the sequence had highlighted the ways to all the exits, and everyone hurried to exit the fortress.
Fourteen minutes later, everyone Rosemary had taken control of, plus Diana, were standing by the transporter they had used to arrive.  They watched in silence as the sequence finished and the fortress exploded, a bright contrast to the dark background.
“What the hell is going on?” one of the students asked.
Jake held his head in one hand and sighed.  “Alright, who’s turn is it?”
Yuta raised her arm excitedly and started jumping.  “Oh, I’ll do it, I’ll do it!”  She faced the students, her eyes transforming into spirals.  Within seconds, they were all entranced, and their memories being altered.  When their minds had been wiped of this little chapter of their lives, they were sent back through the transporter and sent home.
While Diana was filling in Yuta, Dawn, Mina, and Katia on what had happened, Jake was just staring at the burning remains of Black Rose.  An appropriate phrase from an episode of Star Trek came to him.
When Diana was finished, Jake said, “You know, I’ve been living in Yoto for a while now.  Things are sometimes a bit complicated.  There didn’t seem to be such things as truly good or evil; it all seems to be a shade of gray.  And then, you get to know someone like Rosemary, and you realize there is such a thing as truly evil.”
Everyone just stared in silence for a minute as Black Rose finished burning, then stepped through the transporter to go home.
********
Not far off, someone else was watching Black Rose burn, with sorrow, and with anger.  
Rosemary was sitting on her motorcycle, wearing her biker outfit.  She was thinking over what had happened.  After Diana had beat her, she knew she had to flee.  She couldn’t get assistance from her drones in time, so she activated the destruct mechanism and fled.  Black Rose had had to be destroyed.  She would not allow her enemies access to it, or leave evidence of her involvement.  
All that time of planning, and waiting, and then being given the opportunity to work with Mato.  Everything.  It had been going perfectly.  And now it was all gone.  Ruined.  And why?  Because she had failed to take into account one little girl.
Rosemary brought her hand up to her right cheek.  There were three scar lines there now, thanks to that scratch from Diana.
Rosemary composed herself.  Yes, she had been defeated, but she was still alive and free.  And that meant that there were always more opportunities to accomplish ones goals.
Taking one last look at her home of such a short time, Rosemary declared, “I swear, Diana, one day I will make you pay for this.  I will use all the cruelty I have and make you suffer, and you will beg me for death before I finally grant it to you.”
With that oath made, Rosemary rode off into the sunset.
*********
It was evening in the Mato home.  Diana had just finished telling the entire story to Jake and the seven girls.  Everyone was speechless.
“Diana,” Mina started saying, “you mean you went through all that-?”
Diana held up her hand for Mina to stop.  “Please, everyone.  I am so very tired.  I just want to go home and sleep.”  Nobody stopped her as she got up and left.
Everyone sat in silence for several minutes.  The girls who had just learned about Rosemary’s true nature were still accepting it.
“Diana’s done so much for us,” Jake finally said.
“Yeah, she has,” Katia concurred.
A thought occurred to Mina.  She smiled.  “You know, I just thought of something.”
*********
As soon as Diana got back to her home, she snuck to the bathroom so her mother wouldn’t see her in her battered condition.  She took a nice long, relaxing hot shower, got some dinner, and went straight to bed.
At seven o’clock the next morning, her telephone rang.  Diana ignored it, but it kept ringing.  Finally, still tired, she answered it.  “Hello?”
“Diana?  It’s Jake.  Could you please come over here right away?  It’s important.”
Diana just wanted to get some more rest before school, but she consented.  “Okay.”  She got dressed and walked over to the Mato house.
It was so early that there was only a little light available.  As she entered the house, she noticed that everything was completely dark.  “Hello?” she called out.  She heard noises coming from the kitchen, so she went there.
As soon as she stepped inside...
“SURPRISE!!!”
The lights came on, and Diana saw Jake, Mina, Katia, Dawn, Fawn, Jessica, Sarah, and Yuta holding up a huge banner that read, ‘WELCOME TO THE CLUB!’.  They were all wearing party hats, the table had on it a huge cake with an illustration of Diana with a superhero’s cape, and there was food all over the place.
“What’s going on?” Diana asked, bewildered.
The gang put the banner away.
“Well,” Jake said, “Mina told us the reason you were depressed shortly after Rosemary’s arrival.  You know, the whole, ‘we’re heroes and you’re not’ stuff you were thinking?”
Diana looked at Mina, who just smiled.
“So, all us ‘heroes’ decided to officially acknowledge you as one of us,” Jessica proclaimed.
“But, but...”
“Diana, face it,” Mina pushed.  “Don’t you understand everything you did?  You went through hell and back for us.  You were incredibly brave and determined.  You succeeded against all odds.  You saved each and everyone of us.  And to top it all off, you were the only one who wasn’t hypnotized!”  Mina and the others laughed.  “You’re a true friend!  And a real hero!”
Diana just started crying on the spot.  She was so happy.  In fact, she didn’t think she had ever been this happy before.  “Thank you,” she whispered, smiling.  “Thank you all.”
“So why don’t we just party for the rest of the day?” Fawn said.
“But, some of us have school,” Diana pointed out.
Jake smiled.  “Actually, we don’t.  You see, last night, Yuta paid a visit to the whole school board.  There is no more school for the rest of the week.  The missed days will be made up at the end of the school year.  We figured you could use the break.”
Diana smiled again.  “Yeah, I really could.  Thank you.”
“So, let’s eat,” Dawn said, cutting into the cake.
Sarah klonked her on the head with her night stick.  “Wait for Diana!  And why are you even here!?  It’s a party for heroes!”
As the argument between the two rivals heated up, everyone else started conversing and enjoying themselves.
“You know,” Katia said, “I’m never going to live down the fact that I wore one of those awful looking bands.”
Everyone stared at her.  “That’s what you’re never going to live down?” Fawn asked incredulously.
“Actually, I liked those sweatbands,” Mina said.  Everyone glared at her.
“You know what would make this party more fun?” Yuta asked, smiling.
“NO MORE HYPNOSIS!!!”
Suddenly, the door opened and in walked Mato.  “Hello, everyone.”
*Jake instantly picks up a chair and breaks it over Mato’s head.  Mato develops a large bump.* “Hey, you made me break my favorite chair, old man!” Jake screamed.  *Jake picks up another chair and breaks it over Mato’s head.*  As Mato is lying on the floor, Jake rips his PAT watch off of him.
“Is that how you treat a genius!?” Mato shouted.
“No,” someone announced.  A cherry pie was thrown into Mato’s face.  “That is!”
************
I hope everyone enjoyed.  This was a long fic, but I think it was worth it.  Even though it was very dark, I still enjoyed writing it.  I would like to extend special thanks to Neowhyachi, for his support and his very humerous suggestions.  Never stop being funny, man.  I would also like to thank Malroth.  I did this fic as a favor to him for drawing that Best of Friends picture, which turned out wonderfully.  He was very supportive and suggested great ideas as well.  This is my seventh fic, and I still do not tire of this story.  Let it be known that, as long as I have the ability to do so, I will never let this site stagnate!  Any comments, requests, or whatevers can be sent to gbrn32e@yahoo.com, any my Yahoo IM name is gbrn32e.  Drop me a line whenever you want.  Bishoujoland rules!