The kiss did not last long, maybe one or two seconds at most.

“Wh-whoa,” he stammered, dazed, after she pulled back.

“Chase go for kiss!” she explained, in case he was confused.

His blush started coming in now, a bit late. “You sure did,” he answered. “A bit early in the night, isn't it? Isn't the first kiss usually a 'last dance' kind of thing?”

Chase shook her head. “That kiss for last date, one I screw up. Dance go good, Tor get one more!”

Torey laughed. “Fair enough.”

As they left Alicia's street, Torey got them both drinks from the bar. “Here you go,” he said, sitting back down and handing Chase a soda.

She took the cup with her free hand, then regarded the liquid inside with caution. “This no make brain fuzz, right?” She didn't want anything hampering her in her fight with Melissa C.

He laughed. “Nah, I checked, no alcohol. I guess they don't really stock the bar if they know they're going to be giving a ride to teenagers. Damn them.” As the limo went around a corner, his smile sort of faded away. He took a thoughtful gulp of his beverage. “Believe me, I WISH I could pre-drink for this. This is gonna be so painful.”

Chase looked alarmed. “What? Harv make pain?” Did he know about the impending battle? Or was there some other source of pain at Harvest that she didn't know about?

The boy nodded. “For me, it will. Your friends aren't gonna want to see me there, and MY friends aren't gonna want to see me there. It's gonna be awkward from both sides, I just know it.”

The mountain girl was surprised to hear this. “Chase friends do want see you. Them glad you get place for Harv!”

Torey didn't look so sure. “What about that little one?”

“Who, Vic?” she smiled. “She not want see no one. It just her way. She respect Tor, and great glad for Sandy Harv. Chase can tell.”

“...Are you sure you're not misreading her?” he speculated.

“Oh, no.”

The limo was not built for speed. The trip to the edge of town, where the Sandman was located, ended up taking a lot longer than it would have in a regular-sized car. In fact, Chase was fairly sure she could run there faster. Torey offered to teach her how to play a video game, and she agreed to be taught, but her mind kept wandering to the dance, and to Melissa C.

What if she was already there? What if she was wreaking havoc? Destroying the drive-in, hurting her friends? What if while Chase was sitting here in this nice long car, enjoying a soda and playing a game, people were being hurt in her name?

No. It was Chase that Melissa C. wanted. She wouldn't try anything until Chase arrived at the Sandman.

Or so Chase thought.

THUMP. Something very heavy landed on the roof of the limo.

Torey looked up from the TV, the controller motionless in his hands. The sound had come from right over his head. “What the hell was that?”

Chase had some idea. She wasted no time in grabbing him and pulling him away to the back of the limo, and it was a good thing too. A split second later, a buzzsaw blade ripped down through the roof, shrieking through metal and raining sparks on the plush seats and carpeted floor.

“Holy shit!” Torey shouted.

From the seat next to him, Chase moved her free hand to his chest, as if to keep him from trying to get up. “Be calm, Tor,” Chase told him in a serious voice as the buzzsaw widened the hole. “No let her hurt you.”

As he watched the deadly blade carve the limousine's roof like a turkey, Torey didn't think being calm was entirely appropriate. “No let who hurt me? What the hell is going on?”

The blade was pulled up, and a heavy foot stomped down on the laceration. The thick metal curled inward like tinfoil, parting submissively to allow the intruder access.

The foot was attached to a girl's leg. And it was wearing a high heel.

After another two stomps, the piece of torn roof was bent far enough inward to allow their attacker to drop down into the vehicle.

There was not enough room to stand in the limo normally, but with her handmade sunroof it was possible for Melissa C. She was wearing an elegant black dress. It was held up by two spaghetti straps which crossed over her collarbones in an X shape. A long slit freed her right leg. The slipstream of the moving vehicle was fluttering her brown hair. “Evening, Chase. Wow, LOVE that dress. I'll try to kill you in a way that doesn't damage it.” She grinned and revved the buzzsaw a couple times. “Maybe I'll cut your head off? Not the cleanest way, I'll admit, but it should be fairly painless...depending on how painless I want to make it.”

“You no need kill,” said Chase. “Us all can just go Harv and have good dance.”

The cyborg laughed. “Oh, please. Don't give me that. You look pretty hungry to me, cannibal. You want to kill me just as much as I want to kill you.”

Chase shook her head. “No, not want kill Mel C. Just want help.”

Melissa C.'s face froze over. She looked confused at this response, and also annoyed. She ducked into the vehicle and took a step towards the two teens. “You keep saying that. You and the other girls. You keep saying you just want to help.” A furious scowl burst up from beneath the ice. “Maybe it's even true. It doesn't matter if it is or not. I'll just have to MAKE you want to kill me! So help me god, I'll force you to fight for your life...and lose!”

The buzzsaw revved again, this time into a sustained scream. It led the charge at Chase, who dodged to the left. The vinyl seat she had been in a split second earlier was punctured by the weapon's fangs, sending foam flying.

Before Melissa C. could turn around in the stiflingly close quarters, Chase had made her way behind her. She looked around for a weapon, but there wasn't much to choose from. Making her choice, she grabbed hold of the TV and yanked on it with all her might. Bolts popped with loud, ringing snaps, and then it was free. Still wired to the wall of the limo, the TV was turned on and showing the video game's pause screen as Chase whacked Melissa C. on the back of the head with it.

The screen cracked, but the TV held together. Melissa C. put her normal hand to the back of her head in pain, then angrily turned as Chase made another swing. Melissa launched up the buzzsaw blade to intercept it.

This proved to be a mistake. The blade bit into the TV screen without much more difficulty than it bit into the limousine's seat. Sparks flew again, only this time they came with the sound of a buzzing crackle, and the sight of Melissa C.'s body seizing up for a moment while the limo's interior lights flickered.

Her paralyzed muscles resisted every attempt she made to move them, but she forced herself to rip the buzzsaw away. As soon as she had her voice back and could feel something other than pain, she let out a cry of sudden rage. “Grah! You bitch!”

She turned her other hand into a second buzzsaw blade and began swinging them both at Chase in a loose, graceless dance of destruction. Chase dropped the broken television and began to dodge for her life. Cuts sprang up on the floor, on the ceiling, on the walls and seats, even on the soda bottle Torey pulled out, spilling foamy coke all over.

Edgar was trained to ignore a wide variety of rough-housing from his passengers, but this was getting to be just a bit too much. He did the unthinkable for a limo driver and rolled down the window that separated him from the back without being asked.

When he saw what was going on back there, he slammed on the brakes, threw open his door, and started running away.

The sudden lurch as the limo stopped caught Melissa C. off guard in a way it did not for Chase, the more poised and experienced fighter. The cyborg stumbled forward, off balance on her high heels. Chase took advantage of this, grabbing the toppling girl and helping her along, thrusting her full force at the front wall of the passenger area.

Melissa C.'s head struck the wall, the careening momentum of hundreds of pounds of metal body parts behind it. She fell to the floor and did not move.

“Oh, my god!” Torey shouted. He was on his feet now, just barely. “Chase, what...what are you doing? How does that girl have saw hands?”

The fighting machine was unconscious, for the moment. She was sprawled in the aisle, eyes closed. One arm was at her side, the other thrown up by her head.

Chase didn't have much time. She opened the passenger door and ushered Torey out. “Will tell all when safe. For now, Tor must drive!”

“Drive? You mean drive the limo?! Drive where?!” he asked.

Could she explain the plan? No. There wasn't time. Already, Melissa C. was stirring, a heavy moan escaping her synthetic lips. “Get us to dance! Get Mel C. to dance! Just one way for stop her! I keep her fight, while you drive!”

But Torey had more confusion to voice. “You're gonna fight her? No way, Chase! That girl's seriously dangerous!”

Although time was of the essence, she took a moment to suppress her impatience and sense of urgency, and just give him a reassuring smile. “Chase am know much of fight and beat foe, Tor. Fought shoot guy at foot field, yes? Can hold own, as long as Tor drive to dance quick! You do?”

He hesitated. He didn't feel comfortable leaving her to keep that monster occupied while he acted as the getaway driver. In his mind, it should have been the other way around. But everything about her, from her voice to her face to her stance, were inviting him to give her the reins, and telling him that once he did they'd be in capable hands.

Chase watched him waver, and then, slowly convince himself. He ran around to the other side of the car and got behind the wheel. She sighed with relief when she felt the car move again. Good, that was one thing she didn't have to concern herself with anymore. Now, she just needed to worry about keeping Melissa C. occupied.

In short order, even that worry was alleviated. A strong, hard hand forcefully seized the back of her neck, making her jump.

“Damn heels. Why did I think these were a good idea?” Melissa C. asked, kicking them off. “I'm amazed that YOU'RE fighting in them. I mean, you won't be for long, but still. Color me impressed.”

Picking Chase up by the nape of her neck, she hurled her through the rear window with a ringing smash.

Chase managed to cross her arm in front of her before the impact to protect her face. She landed on her stomach, shards of glass rattling onto the limo's trunk around her and sprinkling into her hair.

Melissa C. climbed up to the roof of the limo through the hole she'd made earlier. The limo's low speed was not enough to concern the solid, heavy girl, so she strode across the top of it to the trunk, hair flapping in the breeze.

Chase was hanging out the broken window from the waist up. Amused at her foe's plight, Melissa C. took a moment to watch her enemy shakily get her hand and cast underneath her and start to push herself up. Then, she jumped down onto the trunk and stomped a foot down on the girl's back.

A cry of pain escaped Chase's lips as her arms buckled and her body was forced back down to the trunk's waxed metal surface. Melissa C. laughed. “You just stay right there.” She leaned a little more pressure onto Chase. “Hmm, maybe I'll just keep putting more and more weight on you until your rib cage collapses. That'd be a unique death, wouldn't it?”