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Things were a little blurred from where Nathan was sitting. He could see a pointed needle. It slid back and forth, changing almost constantly. Sort of like the world around him. It was spinning. Or maybe that was the wheel in front of him, it was really impossible to say for certain. No, that was the world. That meant he was going to be thrown off, eventually. He could feel the lifting, then the falling back into the seat. That was it. They were in a car, and it was spinning.

No wait. Wait wait wait. If they were spinning, they were doing a barrel roll, which didn't make any sense at all. They wouldn't do that, it wouldn't be safe. They couldn't be free-falling, or spinning, there would be accompanying feelings. No. That meant it was his head that was spinning, which meant...

His sanity and consciousness snapped back into place like a rubber band released, and he sat bolt upright in his own chair. His glasses were still on his face somehow. That was good, he could see. Things were clearing. That was good.

"Where are we?" was his first question. It wasn't garbled. He was recovering, apparently.

"Going to hell and back," Anatoly informed Nathan dryly. "Namely, since those guys were government, that means we're now fugitives." He then added, a little self-consciously, "Well, those of us who weren't already." He slid back in his seat, taking off his seat belt to take a more comfortable posture. "We're heading to a motel to lay low, recover, and plan. We've got fire and ice Mystickers, a ton of soup, and some of that god-awful Nutrispread s**t, so if we can get some bowls we can hopefully make a reasonably not-awful vessel for the Nutrispread, I'm thinking."

Nathan nodded along as Anatoly listed off their possessions. "Nutrispread, eh?" he grunted grimly. "Man, just our luck. Soup and Nutrispread, we're eatin' great," he grumbled, but shook it off. "You're right, we could just eat it straight out of the tube if we have to."

Once at the motel, Nathan sat up. "No, take me, I'm thinking straight and I'll be helpful," Nathan told Sarah. "Anatoly, I think you can handle the crazy one, right?" Blaine didn't sound good at all. "Hold in there," he muttered to himself.

Sarah nodded towards Nathan. "Okay, four eyes. You're coming with me to see the manager. What's-your-name, Blaine, and girl, go ahead and head towards Room 23 here on the left," she pointed to the farthest room on the left of the building. "Whether you take care of Blaine now or later is up to you. Just don't let him die or pull any stupid s**t like that," she said as she got out of the car. She reached over the other side and got Nathan to piggy back ride her. Again.

"Four eyes, we're gonna go and talk to the manager. Name's Jimmy. You might not want to talk during this conversation," she told him as they entered the lobby. Inside was a rather fat man reading a magazine. "Hey! Jimmy! Long time no see." Jimmy looked at her with a grimace. "Jesus, what'd you do, kid?" Sarah shook her head, "Nothing you really wanna know about. Hey, gimme the keys to Room 23. I'm calling in that favor you owe me." Jimmy easily passed her the keys (which really meant that Nathan had them). "Done."

"Thanks Jimmy." Soon as they'd turned around, Jimmy let out a last few words. "Your mom says hi." Sarah tightened her grip on Nathan's legs. "Like I give a s**t about her. She never gave a damn for me."

She quickly went back to the others. On the way, she asked, "So four eyes, what's your name?"

"C'mon, Kitt. Let's head in," Anatoly said gently. He froze a layer of ice to stop Blaine's bleeding and made an ice wheelchair. His head began pounding from the use of his Ice 1. He carefully dragged Blaine into the chair and wheeled it towards room 23. They waited outside the door for Sarah. "Huh. How'd she know it'd be this room?" he mused. "Kitt, let me know if he starts acting weird, I'm going to get our stuff from the car." He began wheeling back wheelchairfulls of soup and Nutrispread.

"Anatoly Yang," he introduced himself, bringing the final load back. "Blaine, you okay there?" Blaine was standing unsteadily on one leg. Anatoly groaned and made him a crutch of ice. "Let's get this inside, this isn't exactly inconspicuous."

After jiggling the door knob like Sarah had said, the group was finally able to enter the room. "Ah, thank God!" Sarah headed straight for the bed to put Nathan down. "So the bed's big enough for three and there's the couch. Boys get the bed and girl gets the couch." That left Sarah on the ground, but that was fine with her. She started to pop her neck and stretch her arms out.

She sat on the ground and started looking through her knapsack. "Dammit, I thought I had some mend stickers in here...I was pretty sure I put my left over stickers in here..." She didn't find any stickers; she never put any in her knapsack in her hurry to get out of her house. "s**t. Am I gonna have to go to the manager again to get some mend stickers or no?"

"That means leaving the cripples behind and potentially in danger," Nathan pointed out. "It's not unsuspicious at all to have you wheeling Blaine around in an ice wheelchair and her just dragging me around on her back. Our other option, of course, is to come up with a lie and drop by the hospital and have you gentlemen refuse to leave. Claim you're my psychiatrist or something, I can't be left alone, I'm insane, dangerous, need a friendly face at all times of the night. That ought to keep us safe, as long as we can get out of there fast. Maybe." Nathan didn't sound too convinced with his own idea.