Nothing to Cheer About (Diana)

When a student blows up in the middle of one of the premier schools in America, it garners attention. When the newly minted student body president, fresh off her first successful run on the college level, received wind of it, the situation gained the insight it needed. When the even happened, Christmas break ushered the campus to a more docile state, mitigating the collateral damage from the student, but still creating an absolute calamity. After hearing about the incident through social media, Danny and Tsukimi quickly left behind their familial occasions, Danny being alone and Tsukimi being alone with Bliss, and made their way back to Stanford, California.

Julia Humphries never showed any signs of domestic terrorist activity, nor did any particular group jump up to gain attention from the incident. Local investigators determined the blast came from the laptop within her backpack, but did not rule it to be an improvised explosive of any kind. While local investigators continued to hunt for what leads they could find, time began to work against them, turning their lack of leads into apathy. Soon, they left the case as an unidentified mystery.

None of that mattered to Danny. Acting on her own leads and gathering information outside of the law, she pieced together something more sinister, a frequency played at a certain pitch used to cause electronics to explode. Testing the same frequency, no pieces of electronics showed the potential the crime piece did, isolating Danny from being able to go to the police, but a recent addition to the laptop put hardware inside the machine not covered by warranty. A Giggle Card.

Tsukimi noticed it while Danny distracted the clerk long enough for her counterpart to get into the evidence locker and take pictures of the rack. Lacking focus and taking universally poor pictures, Danny and Tsukimi tried the routine again, ultimately leading to Tsukimi stealing the rack this time under the excuse of "They weren't using it."

"Giggle Card." Danny looked it over front and back. "I've heard that name before."

"They were around campus before finals week. They offered free upgrades to this thing." Tsukimi began to gently drop a reagent into the charred remains of the Giggle Card. A hissing and light smoke began to emanate from the component in front of Tsukimi. "Yep. This thing is wired to blow."

"So, why blow up one girl's computer? Did they hate her that much?" The website for Giggle Card appeared on Danny's computer screen. "These guys are the tech sponsor for the Rose Bowl."

"Hmm." The rolling of Tsukimi's chair shoved into the fixed legs of Danny's chair. "That's next week."

"And we've got an easy way in." Danny looked over to her sports bag lying against the side of bunk. "Bring the card with us. We've got a mystery to solve."

"Stanford played in the Sunbowl this year. We missed it because we had to fight Dr. Electrode." Tsukimi held Danny's computer up to her face.

"I know." She forgot. "That's why we are going in as-" Danny quickly read the line for the competing teams. "Ew, USC."

"Really?"

"It's to solve a mystery." Danny straightened her posture. "Goddammit."

January third. Pasadena California.

"This feels traitorous." Tsukimi picked at the skirt, wishing she could wear her crimson colors instead.

"Don't worry. We find out who is responsible for this, what they plan on doing, and then we go home- and never tell anyone we did it this way."

"Why didn't we wear Penn State stuff?"

"Too soon Suzy. USC never had a pedophile on their staff before. Too soon." Danny packed a small computer into a bag while giving her bracelet a once over to check for readiness. "I called in back up on this one. Diana should be getting here and helping us with any unforeseen problems."

"We are basing everything we are about to do off of an unsolved case and a blown up graphics card. Everything is unseen. And everything is a problem."

"Your attitude is a problem. Let's just get out there and make sure tons of people don't die." The all white clad Danny tried to keep herself positive in light of the multitude of problems facing their situation. "And, maybe one day, we'll tell everyone Stanford cheerleaders are the reason USC didn't get blown up."

Diana don't text. Only call. Though, Danny was considerate about her friend's dyslexia and would leave a voice message.

As it happens, the maniac with the sword was in the L.A. area once more, as Diana was demonstrating the arm bar to the USC's brazilian jiujitsu club on a big latino guy twice her size when the message arrived. Class concluded after Diana squeezed the arm to an angle it shouldn't, after the man said "he could carry Diana with one arm" and tapped out on the mat.

"Remember people, Jiujitsu was invented for the little people."

Diana sat on the bench when Cortana notified her. "Danny Tummy-moa tagged you in a video message. Would like to watch it now?" the one time virtual assistant to Master Chief now chirped, and Diana voiced her affirmation "Yes." Diana listened as she drank up and toweled down.

Pasadena. that wasn't far off.

PASADENA, CA

Diana replayed the video a few more times to make sure she didn't miss anything, though frankly in Diana's mind Danny wanted to share faces to punch and arms to break. Diana was in sweat pants, a tank top, a sweater and a baseball cap. Totally one of the kids, except for her very obtuse art tube that contained the thing that made her a total edge lord.

Heading to the cheerleading lockers, Diana stood outside the locker room door and dropped a missed call on Danny, while keeping an eye, ear and nose out for signs of trouble.

"Well you look inconspicuous." Danny turned to the opening door as Diana stepped in. "Time to go over the rundown. First we-"

"Someone at Stanford blew up because this was in their computer." Tsukimi tossed the graphics card to Diana. "It's from a company Giggle Card. There's not a lot known about them, but they have enough money to be the tech sponsor of the Rose Bowl."

Danny kept her hands on her hips as she listened to Tsukimi cut her off to put in her information. "Most likely whatever they used to detonate that card has probably been placed all around here-"

"We cannot confirm or deny that assumption." A stern look continued to rest on Tsukimi's face.

"We can't confirm it, but I can deduce it. Somewhere in this stadium is a transmitter that can activate these cards." Hand movements helped Danny go into detail on exactly what laid at stake. "They might have them planted around support beams, or maybe in the luxury boxes to hold people hostage, or maybe-"

"This is all speculation. The best thing to do is to shut down the transmitter. Finding where the cards are will take too much time." The course of action Tsukimi wanted remained as clear as her face remained stoic. Her eyes turned from Danny to Diana. "We need to check the press boxes. That's where the communication hub will be. We also need to find out how the field computers are linked. Oh and we need to find out how to jam channels and frequencies."

A moment of silence hung around Danny and Tsukimi. "I don't know how to do that. Do you?"

"No. It sounds like it would work though." Tsukimi and Danny remained motionless.

"Diana, where are you heading? We might need to split up to find these objectives. We're cheerleaders with passes, so we'll see just how far around this place we can get."

Diana took a cue from the girls' outfits, and grabbed a spare cheerleading uniform. She listened as she changed, and her head tilted when she was handed the card, while the two girls started talking about computers, signals and transmitters. "Whoa, whoa there Danny. I thought I was here because you needed me to cut somebody. What am I supposed to do with computers?" Diana was an odd cheerleader. she had the physique, sure, but her body was covered in scars, and bandages here and there, her knuckles wrapped up.

Still, Diana would give it a try. She focused her senses to see if there was a scent of a specific explosive on the graphic card. Getting the scent, so to speak. She looked like a nut though, slowly sniffing the burnt piece of plastic. Specific odors and chemicals began to register in her nostrils, over the smell of after shower perfume and deodorant in the locker. "Hmmm... definitely not your usual garden variety anarchist cookbook recipe. Maybe I can find other people with this explosive on them."

She spied herself in the mirror, looking far too obtrusive, looking like a thug dressed up as a cheerleader. "This won't do...." She spied the mascot at the end of the locker room, getting ready with his routine. Diana got some ideas. "Hmmmm."

"Breaking arms will probably need to happen at some point. If they are wanting to blow up a stadium, I doubt this ends peacefully." Time continued to get further away from the point of relaxation as Danny watched Diana disappear to change. "We need multiple people to find where these arms need to be broken."

"The bandages don't fit. Even with the long sleeve sweater. How did you get so many bruises on your legs? Are you constantly blocking swords with your ankles?" Tsukimi watched Diana come in the room and turned to look down the hall at what caught Diana's eye. The USC mascot: a Trojan. "It even allows you to use a sword."

"I don't think Trojans use katanas." The idea crossed Danny's mind in the same way Danny crossed her arms.

"Okay white girl. Tell me more about who can use a katana." With her head remaining on point, Tsukimi let her eyes confirm Diana's plan.

Danny dropped her arms for long enough for them to raise up. "I'm darker than you. That doesn't even-"

"Alright, so I'm going to check the press box." Tsukimi pointed to Danny. "Danny go check the television vans. Diana, go check the field relays. Ready?"

"No, Diana's never been to a football game." Danny turned her head back towards Diana. "Right? Probably? She doesn't know how that set up works, but she knows what vans are. Diana go check the vans to see if they have anything weird going on. Or, check the press boxes. Either way, we need to get the bottom of this."

Broadcast antennas reached out from the vans towards the skies, not visibly sticking out from any of the either vehicles. While reporters all continued to prep for their broadcasts, one of the vans remained empty from any other forms of excitement.

The press boxes all teemed with life, with reporters cozening in for the beginning of a long game. Each booth remained occupied for long enough to let a watchful eye know of its lack of vacancy, but one of the booths lacked any existence of life or belongings. Just a microphone and a transistor sat atop the lone desk overlooking the field.

Two carts were set up on both sidelines of the field. Neither team took the field as of yet with kickoff still being thirty minutes away, but security still remained around the entrances to check any credentials of people making their ways on to the field. Both carts ran into conductors built into the turf itself, allowing the wiring to move through underground access to the main grid.

"Right, right. Vans and press boxes. Let's coordinate-" Diana's conversation abruptly came to an end when the USC's event coordinator opened the door to see Diana just putting on the mask.

"Hey, it's almost show time! Put your costume on, the Trojans have to start working the crowd- hey why do you have a Katana? That is like, so not what the Trojan uses! and why is it black? This isn't comic con!"

Diana had already concealed her head with the mascot's, and said nothing to avoid giving herself away. She could only shrug as she held up her black sword.

"...Well hope nobody notices. Come on then!"  
The USC coordinator with the bluetooth headpiece more or less dragged Diana from the lockers to the field. She looked at the girls. "...Why are you here? you're routine is going to start soon!"

OUTSIDE

Diana came face to face with a growing crowd, and cheers went up as she and a few other Trojan mascots came into view. She was thankfully not  the rider but one of the costumed extras, giving her leeway to wander around. Of course she had to wave her sword about and rile up the crowd, demonstrating some Katana based kata.

"Wooooh check out the edgelord!" A few of the smart kids react, but the crowd was mostly satisfied.

"...Is this some kind of cultural acceptance thing? Or a refugee thing? Is that mascot with George Takei?"

"Is this even appropriate?"

So far so good, they were buying it. Diana performed her routine while subtly approaching the press boxes and field relays, keeping a close look on anything unusual.

"That's our cue." Danny looked over to Tsukimi just before hearing the coordinator of field operations make her way into the room. Most of her questions went to Diana, but a stray one crossed Danny's bow. "Oh, we're going to the press area for a special feature. We'll be back after the first quarter." When Danny turned around, she saw Tsukimi did not even wait for her lie to finish. Teamwork needed a little more communication, but most likely she could think of where Tsukimi would start.

Danny did predict where Tsukimi went accurately at all. Danny looked around the media area outside the stadium, looking for anything odd about the satellite relays. Each one of them looked uniform and completely inconspicuous. Like they were all picked up from the same store selling satellite relays. Thinking about the logistics began waning on Danny's mind as she found a van with no one near by. All the other reporters were either prepping for air or conducting interviews, but even the away interviews still maintained someone in the van at all times. This green van looked vacant as could be.

Picking the lock is simple when an energy construct can take the shape of whatever the keyhole needs. Opening the door rose no suspicions from anyone around. It took Danny a moment to realize if anyone saw her doing it, they would just blame it on USC cheerleading, so she could operate with a blank check on this one to an extent. The door closed behind her and Danny pulled out her cell phone, illuminating the room. "Well, this is some setup. I wish I knew something about computers so I could know if this was what I was looking for or not."

Upstairs, Tsukimi worked her way past the low level security by positioning an empty credential holder around her neck. Once she got close enough, she began to fumble around with it, purposely keeping the empty side hidden. The guard waved her through after less than a second of her facade. She straightened up as she moved past. "Way to go. I hope Danny gets through okay."

The press room buzzed with excitement as Tsukimi walked in. A man in a grey pull over stepped past Tsukimi, almost bumping into her on his departure from the room. An older gentlemen brushed his hand back over his head to form a cradle to rest in as he spoke with a writer thirty years his younger. The story of the Rose Bowl from the 80s still fresh on his mind, but Tsukimi needed something a little more recent to give her some insight, otherwise any Rose Bowl other than this one would be completely written off.

Right next to them, Tsukimi spotted an empty terminal. She plopped herself down and tried logging onto the computer a few times before turning around to see if anyone else had an open computer.

"Oh, Miss?" The older man gestured. "The log in is on your credentials darling. Now, when OJ ran in that Rose Bowl..."

The rest of the noise fell away as Tsukimi looked down and remember she never actually stole a credential pass. She needed some access to the main frame, but even without it, she could still hope to try opening up the computer and seeing what was inside it. She gently popped the bottom off the laptop and turned it over. A Giggle Card.

On the sidelines of the stadium, the press carts still did not have tuning in for the two football teams, leaving their channels open to pick up frequencies in the environment. "Hey boss-" A voice came through the connection. "We got a problem. Some cheerleader is snooping around. You want us to to make sure she doesn't find anything? Or you want us to make sure she does find something?"

Inconspicuous. That was difficult with to seek out in a massive, smelly, loud crowd. Diana worked the crowd along with her fellow mascots, while eventually ending up near Danny. Good, Danny smart, Danny move things along. Diana smash.

"How's the computer coming along? Had I known we needed tech support I would've brought Oyuki. Uh oh... trouble."

Diana snapped back to sentience when she saw some men approaching with a determined body language. Uh-oh. No good if Danny got caught. She couldn't bash some skulls in either out in the open. Well, the crowd was getting sluggish already...

"Mommy, mommy, look!" A little child in the stand noticed how one of the Trojan mascots was hyping up the crowd, teasing a couple of men in suits, making fun of them and more importantly, keeping them busy.

"Haha, the trojan. Yeah, yeah, big game... you're in the way, step aside..." When they try to move Diana aside, their hands only seemed to grasp the air, their body movements subtly redirected. This was the passive-aggressive power Aikido and Judo. It was also slapstick, getting the crowds laughing. It also bought Danny time.

Stop. Danny time. A commotion began to rock the motion of the van while Danny still tried to make heads or tails of the computers around her. At one point Tsukimi found something inside of the computer, and when Danny was younger she once set a computer on fire with her bracelet. Neither of those things helped her in the here and now, so Danny started trying to take the back off the computer.

While Danny found her way to pop the back off the computer, she also heard the door to the cab open and slam. Breaking and entering probably did not explain themselves away with the simple, 'I'm a cheerleader' excuse. Also, staying in the back of the van while it continued to move with a stowaway would not help Danny's cause either.

After failing to get in the log in screen, it became more clear things around Tsukimi were not the answers to the password. Neither was 'Password" or the more coded 'P@ssW0rd'. A swipe of her finger unlocked the screen for her to try and Google the card specifics, then an idea hit her. "Hey, pressbox selfie!" Tsukimi leaned back, getting close to the older gentleman and the younger sportswriter.

The wheels rolled back in front of the computer booth Tsukimi occupied. Taking a look at the picture, Tsukimi zoomed in on the credentials from the two men, seeing the code on the younger man. Username. Password. Good. Good. The operating system opened up, slowly loading the windows. Her cheeks filled with air as Tsukimi slowly exhaled until she felt a poke on her shoulder.

"Hey." The younger man leaned over. "Can you send me a copy of that picture. For my Instagram."

"Can't." Giving out the picture would infringe upon Tsukimi's desire to never let anyone know she disguised herself as a USC cheerleader. The scandal to the Stanford campus would defy anything Tsukimi would care to imagine. Even if it only stayed in her imagination. "School policy. USC's really dumb like that. I wish I studied harder so I could have gone to Stanford."

Tsukimi turned back to continue working at her computer, trying to get into any form of centralized server. It took her a minute to get past the protocol and into an auxiliary server, but all the work she accomplished went to naught as the lights flickered around the press box. The flicker turned to darkness and before Tsukimi could turn around, a hand grabbed her from behind, holding her mouth closed as someone dragged her through a door.

A voice came through the cart near the the sidelines. "We grabbed a snoop. We can handle it from here."

Diana was nearly done with her fun, as the crowd's attention quickly dwindled, as did the agents she stalled from reaching the van were running out of patience.

The mascot-dressed swordsman turned to knock on the door, wondering what took Danny so long. "Danny you should... hey!" The van had already begun to move, and quick. It had already put a good thirty feet between the Trojan with a katana, when Diana produced some shuriken to slice up the tires.

"Look kid, you're in big trouble already. Don't make it any worse-" A ridgehand blow to the throat put an end to these shenanigans with the goon, and trying to pull a gun on Diana only caused the offending hand to get some fingers broken with the hilt of a sword.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!" The goon did not plan on breaking that many fingers in one day, and was rushing to find help.

"...I need my sidekick." Diana mumbled, going to help Danny in the van, slicing open the door if it proved stubborn.

Sudden movement in a truck never approached Danny as a wanted turn of events. Nothing saved within the computer was ever torn open for scrutiny, but Danny did manage to find the small card she and Tsukimi both analyzed in their dorm room lab a few days ago. It looked in much better condition than the one she saw previously, giving her a much worse condition. "These things are everywhere."

"What? Someone back there?" A slow voice stirred from the front seat. A middle aged man checked his rear view mirror, bringing his eyes close to making contact with Danny. A brief moment of exhalation set Danny at ease against the terminal mounted on the side of the van. Now she just needed to stay rested against the side to brace herself from any sharp turns and she could rest easy.

Turns moved suddenly down the priority list as torn tires escalated the ladder and axle of the van. Danny lost her footing and slipped on her butt, taking her head to a more opportune location for the laptop to fall on top of. Her eyes darted to the front of the van, seeing the man bumble around his seat like a bobble head while trying to safely park the van. His shock gave more quickly than the van would ever dream of, but now Danny knew her cover would not survive the turn of his head.

The first attempt to open the door only amounted in a loud failure. The second attempt made motive, intent, and assailant perfectly clear. "You can cut doors off vans?" No longer caring about cover, Danny jumped up with the laptop under her arm. "Sorry about the mess mister. We might make it up to you sometime, but probably not."

Danny hopped out of the van. The crash drew attention and attention never helped. While all the eyes fell on the crash, hidden enemies could always sneak up on the now known heroes. Well, not known heroes, but known miscreants. Hopefully they would be able to masquerade as heroes within the next few hours, but for now, public menace was the next ledge they hoped to pull themselves up.

"Let's get somewhere a little less- open." The cheerleader and the mascot would need to go to a Halloween party to fit slip into cover, but for now, not standing next to a crash sight would have to take the consolation prize. Letting go of the stolen property would cut down on the number of crimes currently resting on their record, but in for the dollar in for the dime. "Let's get to the locker rooms. We can make our way to the control room and try to just shut down all electronics. That should work. Maybe."

Diana peeled away the sliced steel and plastic, helping Danny get out of the van. Their cover was blown now, and a hasty retreat required.

"One of these days I'll let you see how sharp this sword is." She mumbled reactively to Danny's fascination at her sword's sharpness, as she helped the cheerleader to her feet.

They beat a hasty retreat, Danny giving their next location but Diana taking the lead. Ronin took to taking the utility corridor paths where there were few pursuers and fewer cameras. "Gotta ditch the costumes." Diana put her keen hearing to use, keeping them both to the shadows of narrow, damp corridors and avoiding regular stadium staff and actual goons. With all luck they'd hit the lockers with no harassment, and have the reprieve to change into something less conspicuous. Like leggings, tanktops and hoodies. "...Any word from your sidekick?" Diana asked, while always keeping an eye out like an overactive animal.

"You wanna head to the locker room?" It went opposite of Danny's plan, but at the same time, Danny's plan also involved her knowing more about electronics than what her outline required. "Is being a Trojan that bad? What am I saying, of course it is, but I can stick it out for a little while longer." Danny would follow along with Diana back into the stadium.

Danny found a chain link fence and with a contructed blade, quickly severed a hole big enough for the two of them. "My blade is pretty sharp too." Once Diana fit through, Danny would make her way through without binding the fence back in place. "I don't know where Suzy is. She said she was going to the press boxes, so we might try there after you change."

The path to the locker room felt easy enough to get through, maybe a little too easy, but with how alert Diana kept, it probably would be alright. Both girls would slip into the locker room with Danny holding watch out. With the coast clear, it gave Diana plenty of time to change, but the coast got a little dark. The lights shut out over head, and the clanging of metal rolled on the ground. "Flash bang?"

A flashback reminded Danny of the last time she tried to take a flashbang directly. Instead of reliving previous failures, Danny grabbed Diana and pushed the two of them into a nearby locker, letting the door shut behind. While the sound still ringed in Danny's ears, it managed to mitigate the major impact of the actual incapacitating nature of the grenade.

"Okay good, no one will recognize me now. Except for the black sword." Diana was already prepped to start chopping up everything in stylish streetwear.

"Flash-" Danny muttered, before the world became all dark and cramped metal, and a loud bang hit. Diana did not hear the assailant somehow. Must've been one of those weird sword carrying killers in black pajamas? no?

With her senses tuned to 'high', the ringing in Diana's ears was more like, hmm, two giant bowie knives swiftly jammed into her eardrums. each. Diana's eyes rolled up into her head, and was inflicted with "stunned" rather than just "disoriented", and the cc involved some drool on Danny's shoulder, seeing as a locker didn't have much space for anywhere else.

Drooling on Danny's vest acting as the fourth or fifth thing wrong with the situation only served to remind Danny of how much trouble they found themselves. At least, Danny found herself in, as Diana drifted off into a metaphorical dreamland induced by a flashbang. "At least I didn't go down this time." Danny pressed her blade through the cracks on the door, prying it open, and forcing herself into a fight she knew she would find.

Her blade stumbeld forward into a spiral as someone grabbed her arm and pressed a bag over her head. A gas let loose around Danny's face, filling up her nostrils and temporarily blinding her- at least she assumed in the darkness of the bag. Slowly, Danny gave out before the same technique knocked Diana out as well.

"Wakey, wakey!" A hideous laugh bounced from wall to wall. Danny slowly lifted her head. She tried to bring her hands up to her neck to rub out the crink, but found her hands tied up at the moment behind her back with rope. She struggled with her chair, trying to give herself some wiggle room, but her torso and upper legs were taped to the chair. She did not need to check her ankles, but did so anyways. Yep. Taped together. "Diana? Are you there?"

She looked to her right and found Tsukimi. A wide piece of tape stretched from cheek to cheek with a smile drawn over the mouth. With no real information to draw from her gagged partner, Danny tried her other side, this time finding Diana. While examining Diana, Danny noticed a new component to this ordeal. One of the motherboards they tested previously was attached to the tape around Diana's torso and her upper legs. Danny quickly checked herself as well, finding the same tools of destruction. "Who are you?"

"I ask the questions." A woman with a white face with green lips and a bulbous blue nose leaned towards Danny, placing a finger over her mouth. Her outfit consisted of a red overcoat with a black top hat. Her belts all contained numerous explosives, but the hand grenade belt drew the most attention. "Who are you?"

"Whatever you plan on doing with these bombs- it isn't going to work. Our agency knows all about this." Danny told a fib. "You think they just sent the three of us in here by ourselves? Please."

"Oh, I'm so scared of the cheerleader." The ring leader would tremble, trying to hold back a laugh. "Agency? What agency? Wouldn't most spies die before giving up a source. You need to shut up."

Danny found herself coming up with an excuse for her fabrication just as the mastermind placed a piece of tape over her mouth, drawing a tooth filled smile over the mouth. "What about you? Are you from the same agency as the two cheerleaders here? Were you just changing into your dumb little outfit?" She moved away from Danny, having accomplished her objective. "I'll let you in on a secret, but don't tell the cheerleaders. Those computer thingies I taped to you, well, they're going to explode at half time. Then, the whole place explodes at halftime, pretty neat right. People know about Kovah, but they don't really know Kovah, ya know?"

Kovah looked behind her. A television showed the game progressing just below the five minute mark. Danny began computing the time in her head, with commercial breaks, the two minute warning, and three time outs, it could mean ten minutes. But she, had no way of relaying any of that information to Diana in her current state. "Pipe down cheerleader. You should have stayed on the sidelines. Then, you wouldn't be in this- oh wait, you kinda would still be in the mess. Well, it would be a surprise. Cause, you know, I did the worst thing by ruining it for ya. Toodles!" Kovah would laugh as she stuck a piece of tape over Diana's mouth and drew a smile over it. "Later losers. I'll be sure to watch how it ends for you on the security feed."

And with that, Kovah waltzed out the room.

No way could Danny just let Kovah do this, but first of all she needed to make sure these bombs did not go off. Actually, that would be second. First and foremost, she needed to get the tape off her mouth and out of this chair. After a bit of struggling, Danny finally got her thumb to rub enough of her bracelet to get a blade out. Now, she just needed someone to get their chair around to her so she could cut them loose.