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Queenie Powers’s main concern, in all of her endeavors, was on Queenie Powers.

So when she brushed by the crowd of people walking through Destiny City’s busiest shopping area, she didn’t pay any mind to the colorful, odd man standing off to the side until she was forced to pause at the crosswalk.

Hands full of various shopping bags (she insisted on having a bag for every single article of clothing because it made her look like she was carrying far more than she actually had purchased with her limited spending), she sighed dramatically as if the street light had intentionally costed her an additional couple of minutes of wait time.

Eyes rolled as she stared up to the sky, idly glancing around as she and the others around her waited for the crosswalk to turn green. In her glancing, she managed to finally spot the colorful clown pulling… whatever clown-like antics he was up to but as soon as pink eyes met with eerie yellow ones, she found herself quickly turning back around to stare straight ahead.

Yikes.

She never really had a problem with clowns, per say, but they were creepy on their own in general. What grown man wanted to dress up like that and act like a fool? Nobody in their right mind, that’s who!

Alas, it seemed to be too late for Queenie as the honking quickly began shortly after she pretended like she hadn’t made eye contact with the street performer. The loud honk grew closer as squeaky shoes padded their way towards the young woman, the rubber of the pre-blown balloon animals fastened at his waistband rubbing against each other with every step.

All around her, people were looking irritated at the growing honks. Of all preposterous reasons, they seemed to be staring angrily at her, as if her ignorance of the foolish man was the reason he’d begun honking even louder.

Letting off an indignant huff, black heels hit the crosswalk the moment the light went green. She certainly wasn’t going to stay around and be seen with such a ridiculous looking man!

And yet… the honking never seemed to fade away….

Maybe she had a bigger problem on her hands than she’d realized.



Phedre leaned her head back against the leather headrest and let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s not even rush hour yet, why is there traffic?” Granted she was near one of the buisier shopping areas but still. “Come on…” she groaned, patience wearing incredibly thin.

Having pulled too far forward there was no way for her to move into another lane without potentially hitting the vehicle in front of her. So, instead she cut the engine, unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped outside her car to see what the issue was only to be somewhat shocked and quite a bit confused by what she saw.

There was no fender bender or child throwing a tantrum in the cross walk because their parents didn’t buy them a toy. Nope… it was a clown… “Of corse… Destiny City, home of the crazy nut jobs, terrorists and monsters that want to eat you.” Sarcasm dipped with every word as she crawled back into her car just as the line of cars began to move.

Unfortunately she didn’t make it far before the light turned red, again, and she was forced to stop for all the people making a left. Absently she turned her head to watch the silly dressed man pursue someone down the street, walking as if he was knee deep in water trying to keep his stupid looking shoes from getting stuck in the sand. “Take a hint budy…” Clearly the girl wanted nothing to do with him or his painted on smile.



Queenie, as well, wished the clown would take a hint and leave.

Unfortunately, it was clear that the awkward man failed to have enough things to do with his free time than to harass a beautiful, innocent young woman as herself. Queenie knew she was beautiful - there wasn’t a doubt about that - but just because she was unfairly attractive in comparison to everyone else out and about right then, it didn’t give some curly haired, red-nosed jerk the right to follow her around like some stalker!

Hmph!!

She assumed she could lose the freak in the crowd but soon realized she was very sorely wrong about that too.

Turning the corner, she did her best to try to lose him, lowering her head so that her fiery orange hair wasn’t peeking out and in view for creepy gold eyes to see. Still, the ominous sounds of honking and squeaks continued to follow suit and the faster she walked, the faster the honks seemed to follow.

Irritation was quickly growing into distress. This… This wasn’t right.

Should she call the police? And tell them what, that some man in a clown costume was simply walking behind her?

Oh god, she had to get away from this guy!!



Preoccupied with curiously watching the creepy man pursue the young woman, Phedre hadn’t noticed that the light had turned green until the person behind her blare their horn loud and long enough for people on the corner side walk to look over in annoyance. “Oh piss off…” she muttered all the while resisting the urge to flip off the woman in the red honda as she pulled into the left lane to pass.

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes in annoyance before turning her steering wheel to make a right. Not the direction she had meant to initially go but something about that clown didn’t feel right; not that she was overfond of them to begin with but something about how the girl was trying to evade him set up a big red flag.

As Phedre neared the girl with vividly orange hair, she rolled down the window “Hey! Is he bothering you?” She shouted to get her attention. “Do you need a ride to someplace safe?” While the clown was drawing a lot of attention brushing past pedestrians nobody seemed to take notice of the girl trying to get away.



The bags at her side began to rustle more loudly as the pace of her gait picked up. Things were quickly growing less and less annoying and more and more worrisome as the honking and squeaks picked up as well - who was this guy and why in the world had he decided to make her life miserable?

She was so caught up in her own woes that she almost missed hearing the voice call out to her, pink eyes darting over once she realized the woman in the car was addressing her and not some other bystander. It took her a moment for her to realize that the lady was referring to the clown - thank Christ - someone was actually paying attention and doing the right thing, for once!

“Oh, please,” Queenie nodded, hurrying in heels to get to the passenger door of the stranger’s car. At any other point in time she would have questioned herself for simply jumping into an unknown vehicle but desperate times were calling for desperate measures and she was just about to the point where she was willing to do anything to get away from the colorful freak behind her.

The bags were haphazardly tossed in the backseat of the girl’s ride as Queenie slid into the seat. The door was closed and manually locked before she even bothered with a seatbelt, pink eyes focused on the ominous looking clown who seemed very unhappy that his target had chosen to get in a vehicle instead of continuing her trek on foot. “Anywhere will work - anywhere away from him!”



Phedre made haste to pull into the left lane the moment an opportunity became available and then moved over once more into the turn lane when they approached the light. The main idea was to put some distance and a moving barricade between them in the event the crazy clown decided to play frogger across two lanes of traffic to try and break into her backseat.

“Do you have a car parked somewhere around here I can take you to? Or do you have a friend you’d like to call that we can meet somewhere?” They were strangers after all so offering to take her home might seem just as stalkerish or worrisome to the already frightened young woman.



“Uhhhh…..”

Her mind raced with options as eyes continued to dart between both the new stranger and the creepy stranger. The woman seemed friendly enough but she was still technically a stranger, so Queenie refused to let herself feel at complete ease. She could give her the address to Ms. Ellis’s apartment or the office building… but chances were, Suri wouldn’t be at either location at the current moment.

Shoot.

“The library is fine, actually.”

The old, musty building popped into mind and she seized the opportunity. The public library in her part of town was next door to the police station and only a few blocks from her parents’ house. All in all, not the worst place to be dropped off, even if Queenie hadn’t actually stepped foot in that particular building in years.

Who even used books these days, anyways, when everything was so accessible to the internet?

“If that’s alright, of course.” She caught herself remembering her manners as hands moved to smooth out the wrinkles in her skirt. “I appreciate the rescue. I’m… not really sure what that guy was doing but it was not funny, I can tell you that much.”



“Sure thing, I can take you there.” Phedre took the opportunity to glance over and offer the girl a sympathetic smile.

When the light finally turned green she turned her attention back to the road. “I take it he wasn't done ex-boyfriend with a weird clown fetish then?” By the way he had been fixated in pursuing her it seemed almost as if he had a long standing beef with her or something.

Phedre shook her head and chuckled. “Some people take this Halloween thing too seriously. By the way, my name is Phedre.” Had they’ve been standing toe-to-toe she could have extended her hand in greeting but as the were it would be a little bit awkward to do while sitting in the car.



The idea suggested was so absurd that Queenie almost didn’t laugh --- almost.

Her hand went up to cover her mouth as she let out a series of giggles, trying not to be offended by the notion that she’d date any man who was voluntarily willing to ever put on a clown costume. It wasn’t like this girl knew her from any other Jane Doe, so she received a generous benefit of the doubt, especially seeing as she’d saved the day at the perfect opportunity.

“Oh god, I would hope not. Halloween is fun and all but clowns are just downright creepy.”

At the introduction, she offered a smile of her own and a small nod. “I’m Queenie. Thank you again for saving me back there, Phedre - I owe you a coffee or something for the trouble, at the very least.”



Aww she's so sweet! At least she seemed to relax a nit after a good laugh. “I appreciate the offer, but unfortunately I'll need to take a rain check. I have a meeting I need to head to once I drop you off.” Even though it was kind of a show up as you can, when it came to the Negaverse and energy turn in she would rather not be late if at all possible.




“Rain check it is, then.”

While she would have preferred to keep the company (especially if Mr. Clown decided to get the unwise idea of following after Phedre’s car), Queenie knew she couldn’t continue to occupy her hero’s day with any additional neediness.

Grabbing her receipt from one of the bags in the backseat, she dug in her purse until a pen surfaced up, red as the color of her hair. She jotted down her cell phone number and folded the paper up - hopefully she had no reason to return anything, but being rescued was worth any ill-thought purchase. Handing the slip to Phedre, she smiled at the young woman.

“Just text me any time - I do have classes now and again but I’d love to take you out for a drink of any kind, as my way of saying thank you.”




“I’ll shoot you a text this evening so you have my number as well. At the same time we can maybe plan to meet up later this week if your available.” While Phedre did work full time her hours were extremely flexible. As long as she put in the time her manager didn’t care when she got in or took a break.

As they neared their destination, Phedre checked her side mirror before merging into the right lane. Thank goodness for modern cars with blind spot and lane assist. More often than not, when she was driving her first vehicle, the car in front of her would break tap her the moment she looked over her shoulder to change lanes. Such assholes but with her current vehicle there was no need to worry about such things.

“And here we are.” Pulling into the nearest available parking spot to the library entrance, she put her car in park and unlocked the doors so Queenie could get her bags from the back seat. “Do you need me to stick round until your friend arrives?”



“I think I should be alright - I appreciate it though, truly.”

Stepping out of the car, she looked around from all angles before feeling safe enough to retrieve her belongings from the backseat of the stranger’s -- no, Phedre’s - vehicle. The clown was nowhere in sight, unless he’d managed to find a way to hide his bright, gaudy colors in plain view somehow.

Hopefully, that wasn’t the case.

Bags soon at her side, she offered Phedre a small wave before making her way towards the library’s entrance. She figured she’d hang out for a minute just to be on the safe side (god forbid the clown find a ride of his own, if he was that determined) before making her way home and far, far away from any more sidewalk entertainers.