There's a flash of blue in the stairway to the basement in Harmonia’s house before a skrunkly teenager walks into the basement. They're white and 5'6 with short purple hair. Actually... they look a lot like Oleander? Not that Nicky would know that! They're wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants and aviator glasses. They look around for Nicky.
Nicky is tossing a bouncy ball she found at a wall.
"Hey, Nicky?" Venti asks, keeping their voice down.
Nicky looks over. "Oh, hey.”
"Ever been to an arcade?" Venti asks.
"A what now?” Nicky tilts her head some.
"An arcade! You can play games there and it's super fun." Venti replies.
"No, I've never been. Why do you ask?"
Venti shrugs. "I'm bored and want to see if you'd wanna be friends maybe? My name is Venti by the way.”
"Oh well hey, I'm Nicky.” She seems a hint confused as she gets up and pockets the bouncy ball she was messing with.
Venti extends a hand to shake. "Wanna do something fun?"
"Sure, why not." She sounds unamused as she takes their hand.
The two disappear in a flash of blue.
They reappear in Rhode’s Pizza in Rhode Island.
"Do you like pizza?" Venti asks casually.
Nicky is a bit startled and glances around. "Uhm, I've heard of that one at least."
"This place has the best pizza ever. Check it." They go to the counter and order a large cheese pizza. "Want any toppings?"
"Uhh, whatever is normal?" Nicky replies.
Venti shrugs and gets a plain cheese with stuffed crust. "Alrighty-" They go get a seat while they wait, motioning for Nicky to follow. "So, how are you?"
She follows and sits down "Well I could be better. Found out this guy named Cole tricked me so that's wonderful." Nicky rolls her eyes.
"With the chip thing, right?" Venti asks.
A fennec fox wearing a black dress, a witch hat, and striped leggings with an amethyst necklace and combat boots walks into Rhoxe's Pizza. She walks around the little divider to the booth area where they're sitting before shifting into a human, revealing she is none other than Roxanne Meadows.
"Hey whores.”
Venti blinks. "Why were you a fox?"
"I'm not a whore?...also what chip?" Nicky asks.
"Cole put a chip in your head that made it so you can't remember negative memories,” Venti explains.
Nicky’s eyebrows raise. “Well, that's something.”
"I turned into a fox when I broke into Moore Manor last night," Roxy sighs, sitting down. "Anyways. Hi, the chip. Uhhh, let's see how should we do this..."
"Would you want it out?" Venti asks. "I heard about it and wanted to give you the choice because I've had my negative memories taken from me before and it's... it's not fun. But if you want to keep it I won't violate your free will.”
"I mean, I honestly don't remember anything so maybe it took more than just that? So yeah I'd want it out.” Nicky says.
"Sweet," Roxy takes out her phone and slides it to Nicky. Baby Sensory Videos are playing on it. "Watch this for me, okay?"
Venti watches the video intensely.
Nicky looks at it a moment. "What the fuck is this?"
"Don't worry about it," Roxy tries to snap the chip from Nicky's head onto the table.
It's a tiny computer chip with; "Cole Genesone Poppy Chip" engraved in it.
"What do we do with it now?" Venti asks, looking at the chip.
Roxy looks at it a moment. She stashes it in her pocket. "I think it'd be pretty funny if I put it in a Hallowed."
Cole appears in Halo armor with 4 pistons strapped to her left arm and a piece of steel attached to the ends of the pistons. She crosses her arms and looks at the three of them.
"Hi, Benson," Roxy smiles, looking up at Cole.
Nicky looks a bit confused before looking over at Cole.
Venti stands up, wisps of blue starting to float around them.
Cole does not sound happy in the slightest and looks Venti up and down then ignores them.
"So who removed the trauma-blocking chip that I made that prevents Nicky here from manipulating people?"
"Me,” Roxy says.
“Why?” Cole asks.
"Because messing with people's heads is fucked up???" Venti says simply. They look like they could be Oleander's twin. It's... uncanny.
"Me personally, I just thought it'd be funny honestly,” Roxy replies.
“You don't know what Nicky did, do you?" Cole turns toward Venti. "Nicky had a dangerous cult that is now being dissolved as we speak, Nicky manipulated me into being her fucking puppet, Nicky is also just a generally bad person so I will ask again, why did you remove the one thing keeping Nicky from being a fucking super villain?"
Nicky is looking down in thought.
"She’s literally just like you, I dunno what you're on about," Roxy giggles, "You're both weird dogs responsible for many deaths."
Cole's head twitches as she spins on her heel to face Roxy.
"I killed because I had NO FUCKING CHOICE ROXY, I WAS THE GOVERNMENTS LITTLE KILLING MACHINE GET THAT THROUGH YOUR GOD DAMN HEAD-”
"Yeah? Plus besides her cult, what has she done to you directly since becoming Nicky? Maybe Drakes memories fucking CHANGED HER? You don't get to just fuck with people's heads, even if they aren't good fucking people." Venti says, sneering.
Roxy rests her chin on her hands. "Dude I just think it's silly, let a girlboss have fun.”
"AND LAST TIME I CHECKED, WHO HAS THE CULT NOW? OH! YOU!" Venti yells.
Nicky glances at the exit.
"I AM GETTING RID OF IT AS WE SPEAK! THAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ME AND HER I CHANGED I AM REMOVING THE CULT AND SENDING PEOPLE HOME! SHE WANTED TO START A WAR AND I'M ENDING IT.” There's the faint noise of a compressor turning on.
Roxy is attempting to 'my pods' the chip in her pocket.
It doesn't break, not even a crack.
Nicky books it for the front door.
A metal strip flies out of Cole's back and tries to wrap around Nicky's ankle.
Venti attempts to tackle it and stop it.
Roxy sits back and watches.
The metal strip bends to avoid Venti and wraps around Nicky's ankle.
Nicky's ankle phases through it as she keeps running and bolts out the door.
"Girlboss..." Venti whispers.
Cole groans. “God fucking dammit, THE FUCKING MANIPULATOR IS ON THE LOOSE AGAIN.” Cole looks at Roxy, anger in his eyes. "I won't forget this Roxy.” The vents on Cole's forearms and calves open as the jets spin up and she flies through a window in search of Nicky.