“Get up.”

A low groan.

“Now!”

Nothing. No sound, no movement. From behind the girl doing the ordering came a snicker. “Despite the sexiness of your dominating act, it doesn’t seem to be working. Maybe you should crack a whip.”

“Michael, I’m not talking to you; shut it. Nikki, if you don’t get up right now I am going to see how long it takes to kill someone by shooting bullets up their ass.”

Finally, there was another voice. This came from the talking pile of blankets and clothes huddled in the corner of the room. “Can’t kill me. Kace’d kill you.”

“No she wouldn’t. I’m too important.”

Pause. “Can’t kill me. You’d kill everyone else.”

Michael burst out laughing. “She’s got you there Jenny.”

“Don’t call me Jenny. Nikki, get up! We have to be at the meeting about half an hour ago!”

“Well, then it’s lucky we have a time girl with us-”

“I am not transporting us backwards in time just so I can excuse Nikki’s lazy ass. That’s just overkill.”

“At least you didn’t lecture about the dangers of it,” Michael sniggered. Jenna threw a glare in his direction, but her attention was soon diverted by Nikki finally moving.

Her voice was far too cheerful for the situation. “Up! Up! See, like a sky. Or a bird. Or a hedgehog.”

“Hedgehog?” Rather than being confused, Michael’s question was amused. Then again, that wasn’t exactly unusual.

“Yup. A hedgehog. After it’s been thrown at someone. The little buggers hurt!”

Jenna groaned and rubbed her eyes. “The fact that her saying things like this doesn’t surprise me is really disturbing.”

Michael tried his hand at comforting. “It’s her upbringing, and her life. And her mentality. And her lack of intelligent. Or common sense. Or sanity.” Unfortunately, his comforting was slightly ruined by his hysterics.

“I hate you both. Severely. And once this is all over and the universe isn’t in any immediate danger of being destroyed, I’m going to kill you both. Very, very slowly.”

She grabbed Nikki’s arm and pulled her up, getting ready to transport the three of them. Just before they left Michael had time for one last retort.

“Only immediate danger?”