"Don't give me that look, Maxxy. You know you're my number one girl! Ay, look at me. Jesus, you're so cranky sometimes, it's ridiculous." Maxxy strolled a few feet ahead, snout stuck up in the air like a Hollywood heiress in downtown Detroit. "It's not like you could've went anyway! This way it's like a bonding experience. We can both go and have a little fun now," Joe Stark whined into the silence. Maxxy was a big dog despite only being three. Taken in by the Stark family from childhood after an incident involving a dog fighting ring in the town, Maxxy had always been Jojo's closest and most loyal friend. Traits which were hard to uphold in Jojo's presence.

Prom wasn't Jojo's biggest priority. Firstly, it wasn't as if anyone would go with him. Sadly, he attracted the attention of outcasted and retributional males, desperate for a niche instead of the preferred cheer leaders who give head on the first date. Secondly, once entered, prom was a difficult event in which to sneak away from to cause havoc. So it would make sense to not [i]directly[/i] attend prom, wouldn't it? His plan was to walk in through the fire exit near the gymnasium using a special magnetic key Jojo had commissioned by one of the science nerds after he had worked out the finer details. From there he would wire up the principal's computer to a spare one still hooked up into the server in one of the rarely used Computing classrooms (this had no relevance to anything, Jojo was just curious to see how it would work and how ling it would take for the admins and technicians to fix). Then he would fiddle around with the water supply and hopefully get the sprinkler system to pour down on the nice and shiny attire of everyone in the prom hall. Not his greatest or most genius plan, but it was simple and highly effective. 

The school was in sight, only another half-mile up the road. Maxxy must have forgiven him as she dropped back and licked his hand, to which Joe scratched her behind her ears. "Good girl," he muttered, hand on her head. 200 metres away, the school exploded. He had no idea how long he was unconscious for, but a rather short time was his guess as the events he witnessed after he had woken up would strongly signify that it was at most 60 seconds ago. Ringing clouded his ears and he tried to massage them. He spit out blood. Stumble, fall, stand, stumble, fall, stand. Maxxy was at the back of him, headbutting his lower back to keep him moving. Ringringringringringring. Constant ringing. So loud, and it burrowed so deep into his brain he wanted to break his head open and claw his brain out. He screamed for the writhing pain like an earthworm diving into the dirt. The only thing besides the incessant ringing was a Shakespeare quote, 'Hell is empty and all the devils are here!' Was it Macbeth or The Tempest? Probably wasn't Macbeth, it seemed pretty irrelevant to that storyline. Most likely The Tempest. 

Jojo slipped and fell. He didn't know what he slipped on, too busy thinking about The Tempest. Could've been arterial spray and grey matter, but he wouldn't know. He was too busy pondering Prospero and his attitude towards just revenge. A miraculous man, if one really thought about. And a hell of a co-ordinator. Maxxy heaved him to a pair of boots in the middle of the road. Why would there be shoes in the middle of the road? The shoes had a face which controlled where they sat then, he decided as a rough, upside-down face appeared in his blurry peripheral vision. Magic face. The mouth like an abyss of absent nothing screaming loud nothings and gesturing towards a grey lego block. No, a grey van. Swirling colours pervaded his sight. The man wrestled Jojo onto his feet and rolled him into the van, where he crudely seated himself at the side. Maxxy leapt in as gracefully as possible with slick blood drenching the smooth metal floor. She sat on his lap and licked his face, the kind of warm attention that almost made him cry. But he was still wondering what was going on. Was he going to be kidnapped? There were one two two three no one three two wait one two three foive? Other people. He leaned back and let his best friend lick away the confusion of whatever had just gone down.

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He woke up again when he heard (Jojo grinned at the sounds) of tins and bottles of liquids being flung back. Whatever. He wasn't moving ever again. He was going to sit in that spot for eternity becoming one with the air and one with the atoms in the van. He wasn't moving for jackshit. Except for Magic Face shouting at them and ordering them out of Jojo's beloved van. That would move him. Maxxy padded around on the grass and watched everyone. Especially Hannibal over there, making the plans. She didn't trust him, nor the redhead. She returned to Jojo who was leaning against the van, not entirely in control of his limbs again. "That's one creepy fucker, kidnappin' us and puttin' us in some woods or somethin'. Like he gunna be watchin' us or somethin'," he slurred into the dust cloud growing from the van as it sped away. He turned to the group and eyed them. There was Hannibal, Red Fox, Rosario Dawson, Hit Girl, Rattata, Bandman, and Captain Nixon. Grabbing some of the stuff and squeezing it into the spaces between the folds of a tent and a sleeping bad, he lugged it onto his back and Maxxy clenched a tent between her jaws. "So, Hannibal, what's the plan?"