Arriving at work tomorrow

“Why did you have to wake us up so early?” Gogo complained as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She was wearing a casual version of her hero outfit and had her yellow and Violet ownership collar on. She was sipping on a thermos of coffee while seated in the passenger’s seat of your car.

“I’m curious as to why as well,” Diana said as she leaned forward from the backseats.

“I guess you were too tired earlier,” you say, flowing through the morning traffic. “My manager messaged me about my assignment for the rest of the week. Since I need to be on light work, I’ll be on Trash World Duty.”

“Trash World?” Gogo frowning in disgust.

“Yeah, we’ll be in a transport patrolling over the trash heaps, scanning for any characters, character remains, etc. that we can find, put them in storage and bring them back for processing,” you explain, avoiding a beat up pickup truck that was cutting across the lane. “Through contracts, rules, and procedures, we are normally able to get nearly all characters who have been thrown out.”

“But some still wind up dumped with the trash,” Gogo deduced.

“And since Trash Worlds are for trash, they have a horrible and likely short life ahead of them if we don’t pick them,” Diana continued. “We will save them.” She sat back in her seat with a confident smile.

“But you still didn’t say why we’re going with ya,” Gogo asks.

“Trash World Duty requires that the employee brings a mechanic character with them and my managers said to bring a strong character to help me with any heavy lifting,” you continued to explain. “Since I’m in good standing with management, I get to bring characters from home instead of using company characters.”

“Thanks nice of them,” Diana agreed just as you reached the security gate at Reintegration Corp. You raised an eyebrow upon seeing Urdnot Wrex manning the gate instead of Clover.

“Battlemaster Wrex,” you greeted as you handed over your badge.

“Flower boy,” Wrex replied as he swiped the badge. He leaned over and put a hand on your car. “I heard you had an interesting time in a Normandy.”

“Yeah, the previous owner had a crazy ex,” you shrugged before waving at Gogo. “Thanks to Gogo and my girls, we got out alright.” Wrex gave Gogo a respectful nod and grunt.

“Were you the one who killed one of those Balloon Boy fuckers?” Wrex asked Gogo, who cautiously nodded. Wrex straightened up and laughed. “Good, when that quadless asshole Afton took over all the animatronics, a Balloon Boy almost took my arm.” He took off some armor to show a massive scar around his arm. “Was able to convince the bosses to let me and the others go to the Hunting Grounds to keep us sharp.” He put his armor piece back on before handing you two bracers.

“Just the two of them? No early morning pickups?” Wrex asked as he checked your car.

“That’s right, today's trash day in my neighborhood,” you comment, recalling that you saw a few cans out. “I forgot today, I’ll let the other character pickup guys get them this week.” Wrex nodded before opening the gate and giving you back your badge. You drive in and find a parking spot.

“Before we enter, just a fair warning, there are two characters who will be waiting for me,” you say, putting the car in park. “One of them in particular is…scary.”

“Scary how?” Gogo asked, a bit concerned.

“She heard that Aelita was pregnant and in an hour, decorated my house, catered, and sent out invites for a baby shower to all my family members and some neighbors.” You explained, trying to convene the otherness that was a Pinkie Pie in party mode. “And according to the security cameras, she never left the Rein Corp grounds.”

“How scary can she be?” Diana asks. Immediately, there was a loud thump as two figures pressed themselves against the windshield. Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony and Andy from Parks and Recreation were pressing against the windshield with a sign between them. It read, “Congratulations on not dying!”

“Oh James!” Pinkie trilled as she stared into your soul and fogged up the window.