Turn It Into Magic

Zim looked at Pogo with confusion. "How do you already know where they are?"

"Well, it's obvious if you think about it," Pogo said, getting more excited by the moment. "They're going to pick somewhere dark and kind of nasty so that John will feel awkward."

"Y'know, that actually makes sense," Zim said as he thought about it. "They'll shove John out of his comfort zone."

"The only question is where they're hiding him at," Twiggy spoke up.

"Which is also easy to figure out. It's going to be somewhere on their side of the hospital, obviously. But more than that, it won't be anywhere where we would be able to hear them. Or Abi, Elizabeth, and Ginger, for that matter, because we all know Ginger would go in there and kick both their asses," Pogo reasoned.

"So they've got him somewhere in a distant corner of the hospital?" Zim asked, closing the top of his bottle of nail polish so it wouldn't dry out.

"Exactly," Pogo grinned.

"So when do we go get him?" Twiggy asked, sitting up from his slumped position against the wall.

"Right now."

__________

After much debate on who would be left to guard their side of the hotel, Pogo finally decided Zim should, despite the fact that Zim was more agile that Twiggy. But, leaving Twiggy in charge was just asking for an infiltration.

"Hey Pogs, what if we don't find John?" Twiggy asked quietly. He spun his dart gun around on his finger, then dropped it.

"Christ, Twiggs, don't break the gun," Pogo hissed as Twiggy snatched it quickly up off the floor. Both the men stopped to inspect the plastic toy.

"It's not broken," Twiggy said happily. "Now you didn't answer my question. What happens if we don't find John?"

"That's quite simple," Pogo said with a grin. "We go find Trent and Tim and take them hostage. That'll bring out Marilyn and Daisy, and then we'll find John."

"Huh. I never would have thought of that," Twiggy said, nodding as he digested the information. Pogo rolled his eyes and quickened his pace, forcing Twiggy to concentrate on keeping up.

__________

Daisy closed the door swiftly and silently, grinning at Marilyn's expectant stare.

"So? What happened?" Marilyn asked, concerned. "Did you get it the note to them all right?"

"Pogo definitely got the note. I left before I could find out much else, though. I didn't want one of them to catch me snooping around or something. I mean, wouldn't do much good if I got caught, would it?" Daisy rambled, flopping down on the chair next to Marilyn.

"No, wouldn't be good at all," Marilyn said, distracted. He was staring into the cage where John was slumped in an uncomfortable position. His head was lolled slightly to the left, resting on the bars of his cage. His right hand was behind his back, his left on his lap, and his legs were bent and lying sideways.

Daisy turned his gaze to Marilyn's Madhouse and looked at John. "Poor thing. He looks uncomfortable," he said, shaking his head.

"He really does," Marilyn mused. "He's gonna be so stiff when he wakes up." Marilyn stroked his chin as he looked at John's rumpled clothing, then at his damp hair.

"Damn, and that means he's going to be bitching, doesn't it?"

"Yep," Marilyn said, rubbing his cheekbone. "And we don't have enough chloroform to knock him out again."

"So you're saying we should move him?" Daisy asked.

"There's nowhere to move him to, though. There's not enough room in the Madhouse and if we move him and he wakes up outside of it, you know he's going to try to run," Marilyn sighed.

"So we're going to have to suffer through his bitching?" Daisy asked, his hopes of reminiscing with Marilyn slowly diminishing.

Marilyn sighed, "Looks like it."

"Damn."

__________

Pogo pressed his ear to the door, listening for the telltale signs of someone talking or John complaining. He and Twiggy had both fallen silent in order to hold the element of surprise.

As Pogo turned back to Twiggy, he shook his head and moved on to the next door, listening to that one. Again, he wound up with nothing. The two of them continued down the hall, trying to step lightly so their heavy boots would remain silent.

When they reached the end of the hallway, a noise from a room to his right caught Pogo's attention. He motioned for Twiggy to stop, then pressed his ear to the door. He heard a giggle, then some speaking.

"Should we head back to Trent?" It was Daisy.

"Someone should stay here with John, though. I don't really want him to wake up alone and start shrieking," Marilyn said. Pogo could almost picture him contemplating his choices.

"I'll stay," Daisy offered. "You have more... authority with Trent."

"Alright, but we should probably adjust John a litte."

Without a word, Pogo spun on his heel and used his arm to shove Twiggy backwards into the room on the opposite side of the hall. Before Twiggy had time to make a sound, Pogo had crammed them both into the little closet and clamped a hand over Twiggy's mouth.

Before long, they heard the door across the hall open and close and the telltale sign of Marilyn walking away. Pogo let go of Twiggy and counted off a few seconds before they exited the closet.

"Wait," Twiggy said, pulling Pogo back into the tiny closet. He left the door open a crack so that the light could still make its way inside. If it had been anyone but Pogo, their heart would have quickened at the prospect of being in a dark closet with Twiggy, but Pogo wasn't affected. "How are we going to get John?"

Pogo smirked, "Well. We go in there, scare Daisy, handcuff him, then get John back."

Twiggy nodded. "Well, let's go."

With that, they opened the door and stepped as silently and quickly as they could across the hall. Pogo rested his hand on the doorhandle and slowly turned the knob, making sure that it was unlocked.

To Twiggy, he mouthed, "One... Two... Three!"

As Pogo flung the door open, he sneezed as loud as he could. Just as he had hoped, Daisy was caught off guard and jumped from his chair in terror.

The keyboardist wasted no time in pouncing on his former bandmate. He tackled him and held him to the floor.

"Aha!" he yelled triumphantly. "Twiggs, get me the handcuffs."

Twiggy quickly unlocked the handcuffs he used to adorn his leather pants. He handed the cuffs to Pogo who immediately closed them on Daisy's wrists.

"Come on, guys. This isn't cool," Daisy complained as Pogo tried to gently haul him back up into a sitting position.

"Stay," he commanded as he stepped back to admire his work. "Good. Well, we need the key to John's cage."

"Manson has it," Daisy said.

"Fuck!" Twiggy hissed, looking at John's still-uncomfortable position in the cage.

"I know you have one around here, Daisy. What if John wakes up and has to piss? I know Manson would have left a key around here," Pogo said, glaring at the man on the floor before him. Pogo turned to look at the cage. "For Christ's sake, Twiggy, get off the cage!"

"There's a key around here somewhere... if you can find it," Daisy laughed. Pogo growled and looked around the room, trying to decide where they would hide a key.

"Fuck that!" Pogo said, patting his trench coat for something that could aid him in retrieving John. Quickly, he found something that could help.

"I'm not even going to ask why you have that," Twiggy said, referring to the flashlight and paperclips that Pogo was holding.

"Watch Daisy. I'll handle this," Pogo said, grinning at Twiggy. He knelt down in front of the lock on John's cage and began to work at the lock.

In moments, he had the door swinging open.

"Twiggy, get Daisy up. We're going back to our headquarters." Pogo spoke with authority and pride as he gently tugged John out of the cage. A little less gracefully, he threw the man over his back and began to lead Twiggy and Daisy from the room.

__________

John awoke to the odd feeling that he was either in a hammock, on a boat, or being carried. As he opened his eyes and see the tail of a trenchcoat and a solid looking pair of boots, it seemed that he was being carried. As he recalled the events that happened before, he became frightened.

Spastically, John began to thrash around in the arms of his captor, hoping to wiggle himself free. Whoever was carrying him had a strong grip on his legs, but John didn't let that deter him. He simply thrashed more violently until his captor dropped him on the floor.

"Shit, Five! I was trying to help you!" John stopped scrambling around on the floor and looked up at the man who had spoken to him; Pogo.

"I thought I was being kidnapped," John mumbled, rubbing his thigh, the limb that had taken much of the impact of the fall.

Pogo turned to Daisy and looked at him accusingly. As he pointed dramatically at John, he said, "You see what you do to him? Do you see?"

"Oh, good. You guys got Daisy," John smiled, looking from Pogo to Daisy and then finally to Twiggy, who had a tight grip on the handcuffs that were behind Daisy's back.

"C'mon Pretty-Boy. Let's get going before Marilyn finds us," Pogo smiled, offering John his hand. John took it, stood, and brushed himself off.

"Dammit, my clothes are all fucked up," he muttered. Pogo rolled his eyes and started walking, tugging on the sleeve of John's coat, since he seemed to be in a daze.

"I didn't drop your ass that hard. Now hurry. I'm sure Zim's wondering where we are," Pogo said, his tone not as sharp as he would have liked.

After a few silent minutes of walking, John asked, "Does Ginger know what happened?" The concern in his voice was almost palpable, and the half-worried half-scared look in his eyes.

"No, Ginger doesn't know. Well, he didn't know when we left to get you. That's not saying things have changed..." Pogo responded.

"Damn," John sighed.

"We can stop and see him, if you want," Pogo suggested regretfully, though he couldn't figure why he would regret the choice.

"That would be great," John said, grinning at Pogo. After a few more moments of walking, they came to Abi and Elizabeth's office. John glanced back at Pogo.

"Take all the time you need. We'll wait right here," Pogo assured him.

"Thanks Pogs!" John said, giving the keyboardist a quick hug. Then he turned and ran into the room.

"How long do you think they'll take," Twiggy giggled, nodding his head toward the door.

"I'm going in to get him if it's gonna take more than five minutes," Pogo said, checking the clock on the wall. He watched 48 seconds go by, then John reappeared beside him.

"Let's go!" he said, smiling.

"Did you tell Ginger what happened?" Pogo asked as they continued their journey back to their headquarters.

"Nah, I figured we could keep it secret for a little while," John said, then quickly added, "If that's okay."

"I don't see why it would be a problem, but Ginger's bound to find out sometime," Pogo said.

"Oh well," John shrugged, dropping the subject. By now, they were rounding the final corner to their headquarters. Zim looked up from his gun, which he was still painting, and shook his head.

"I'm not even going to ask," he sighed, capping his nail polish.

"We got John!" Twiggy said excitedly, pointing at John, who waved and smiled.

"I can see that. But where are we going to put the other one." Zim motioned to Daisy.

Pogo shrugged. "I guess we can just keep him here, can't we? Just like, tie him up?"

"I don't see why not," Zim sighed. He set his gun down carefully and grabbed a coil of rope that was dropped on a box next to him. Twiggy led Daisy over to Zim, who handed the rope to Pogo instead. The keyboardist tied Daisy to two doorhandles so it would be harder for him to try and escape.

"There," Pogo said, smiling. "Just perfect."

"What happens if Marilyn comes?" Zim asked, brushing back some hair from his face.

"We cut him loose and hold him to gunpoint," Pogo said happily. "Now come here. I've got something I want to show you."