Part XI - 2: Awakenings

A few weeks before Spring break, Penny called Suzi to see if she wanted to get together. They went shopping the following weekend, and late that Saturday afternoon I received a phone call from Suzi.

"Tim, Penny spotted her brother sneaking around her place, and we followed him to where we think he lives. Penny wants to... Penny? Hmm, anyway, she'd like you to come down so she can talk to him without worrying about being attacked or drugged again."

I reached out to Suzi, and wrote down the address.

"I should be there in about an hour. Hey, the twins were upset that you didn't take them to see Penny. Would it be okay if they came too?"

"I wanted to bring them myself, but when I mentioned it to Penny, she made it clear to me that she didn't want to see the twins again. I think she is afraid of what they would do to David and Michael."

"Okay. I guess I'll have to sneak... "

"What? Who are you? Get away from... <click>"

"SHIT," I exclaimed. I reached out to Suzi to find what was going on.

When I finally felt the connection form, all I found was that Suzi was asleep, and I couldn't wake her. The impressions I got back from her were very strange. I concluded she had been drugged, but hadn't been seriously injured.

I dialed my dad and got permission to use his helicopter, and in fifteen minutes I was in the air. In another thirty, we were hovering over the somewhat run down building Suzi was in, and where Penny's brother supposedly lived.

The pilot and I had trouble finding a place to land, and I ended up walking three blocks from an empty lot. To my surprise, the only person I could sense inside that building was Suzi. When I finally arrived, I found the building was condemned and had also been in a fire recently.

I suspected something was up, so I kept scanning constantly to make sure no one would sneak up on me. I climbed the stairs, noting the numerous foot prints in the ash, then followed the foot prints right to the door where I felt Suzi was in. I studied the shiny-like-new door knob, wishing I could use Suzi's eyes to see what was in there.

After spending twenty minutes looking for another way in the room, I gave up and tried the door. To my surprise, the door wasn't locked. And just as my suspicions started to rise again while I swung the door open, there was a "ping" and a "thunk" from a tranquilizing dart hitting me in the back. I barely noticed Suzi laying on the floor asleep before I joined her.

A sharp pain in my arm brought me out of my slumber. My head felt fuzzy, and I found my arms and legs tied to a chair. I started to hear people talking, but their words were too faint to understand. I regained my senses very slowly, and once I was somewhat alert, I pretended to still be asleep.

From the sounds in the room, I gathered that someone was getting an excellent blow job. From what the man was saying, the female who was doing the sucking was tied up in a helpless position. But she was willingly giving him the blow job, reminding me of one of my father's slaves.

The instant that thought crossed my mind, I tried to reach out with my mind to find what was going on. The cry I made from the pain in my head alerted everyone that I was conscious.

Someone pulled my head up by my hair, making my eyes open automatically. The scene in front of me didn't make much sense at first.

I appeared to be in a mixture of a doctor's examining room and a bedroom. The shock of seeing the hog tied nude form of Penny happily sucking a man's cock while getting her ass fucked was almost as great as when I realized it was her father's prick she was sucking.

The man in a lab coat who had pulled my hair said to me, "Why are you so shocked? I know you have done this and worse to your slaves."

I refused to respond. Instead, I tried to scan his mind, resulting in my head pounding again.

"I wouldn't try any more of that. The drug I gave you prevents your brain from receiving sugar too quickly. Did you know telepathy uses a lot of sugar? The pain you feel is only warning you that brain damage will occur if you continue depriving your mind of its sugar."

"Who the fuck are you, and what do you want with me," I said.

"Who I am is not as important as who I will become," he said, walking behind me and returning with a hypodermic needle filled with a greenish liquid which he placed on a tray beside me. "In a few days, you will be calling me master. You will use your telepathic skills to enslave as many people as I wish, starting with your lovely girlfriend."

"Don't bet on it," I said softly.

Hearing me, he said, "Oh, I don't have to bet on it. The proof is right in front of your eyes. That slut over there and her father will do anything I or Steven ask happily."

Towards the bed he said, "Steven, take your toy and your father somewhere else. I am about to begin."

"Well, begin. We're not stopping you," Steven answered.

"You know that only one person can imprint themselves while this stuff works on his brain. You agreed to follow my decisions when I gave you your father and sister. Now please, leave."

"Shit. All right, Uncle Jake. If you hadn't had so many chances already to shoot me up with that stuff, I would be afraid to just hand him over to you. Just remember who your friends are. Come on, bitch."

I sat appearing calm, but in reality I was frantic. As he swabbed my arm with alcohol, I said, "If you let me and Suzi go, I won't seek revenge on you. But I must warn you, I have very powerful family and friends. If I turn up missing, it would me only a matter of time before... "

"I have waited seven years to capture a telepath. Nothing you say will stop me from completing my father's wishes. You will rebuild my family's estate, and then repopulate it with slaves."

He held up the needle and squirted a small portion out before lowering it towards my arm.

My cry of pain startled him slightly, but he just smiled and said, "That won't do any good. You can not possibly use that power to... "

I cut him off with my smile, looking at him with bright eyes.

"No, not that power. But another," I said as the empathic connection formed. I quickly lowered him in a forced hypnotic state, watching the shock and fear on his face slowly dissolve until he was completely expressionless.

"There now. You're feeling more comfortable now, aren't you."

"Yess... "

"You would be even more comfortable if you set that needle in your hand back on that tray... Good. See how much better that is?

"I bet you would love to sit down on this chair. In fact, you really want to, don't you? Oh... But I can't get up... If you could untie me, I'll let you sit down on the chair... "

I was manipulating my own emotions to fit what I needed him to feel as I spoke. I desired to sit on the chair, then I needed to untie the ropes, and finally I lusted to listen to the words which were spoken to me.

Once I was free, I had him sit down and demand me to tie him up. I used suggestions to find out who and what he was, and what was going on.

Penny's grandfather died five years before she was born. Ever since then, her uncles and aunts had been driven to explore every form of brainwashing while searching for a telepath vulnerable enough for them to capture and break to their will. I wasn't the first telepath they had captured, but that had been before Jake had perfected his drug, and apparently the poor soul went insane. They lost nearly three-fourths of their slaves and several of their family members to the insanity before blowing up the building where the telepath and several others were.

While they had only lost twenty people in the explosion, over a hundred others had lost their minds, including Jake's wife, two of his sisters and a brother. And his own son had died in the explosion, which was probably why he had taken Steven under his wing like that. I was sure Jake had instilled the need to control others into Steven while continuing to work towards his father's goals.

By the time I got that much of the story out of him, I realized I was wasting time. After several minutes of suggesting and working through his resistance, he finally told me how to counter-act the drug he had gave me, and I released him to prepare the dosage and inject it in me.

Twenty minutes later, I tested my telepathy by attempting to read his mind. I was relieved when I felt his contented thoughts, then immediately turned him into my humble slave.

"Where is Suzi?" I asked.

"She is in our holding chamber with the rest of our intended slaves, master."

"Is there an antidote or a treatment to undo what that drug does?"

"No, master. The effects of this drug are permanent."

"If you are right, then you are going to live the rest of your life begging people to shit in your mouth."

I ignored his whining as I began reaching out to scan the household. I found Steven's mind and barely issued my first command to him when my head started pounding again.

"Shit. Your fucken drug... " I said as the room spun around.

Jake helped me back into my chair, and then I sensed Steven was on his way here. I just had enough time to tell Jake he would have fake it before Steven slammed the door open and stomped in.

"What the FUCK is going on! I felt him screwing with my mind!" Steven blasted. The twenty three year old man realized something was very wrong when he noticed the needle on the tray and the ropes on the ground that had bounded my arms and legs. He controlled his desire to flee, and then decided to do just the opposite. He attacked.

Before I could react, he slammed right into me, knocking me to the floor so hard that he winded me and caused my head spin madly. Jake came to my rescue by throwing himself at Steven, not realizing Steven had picked up the needle. The scream Jake made when Steven stabbed him in the gut made me shiver with fear. I had never been so scared in my life.

In desperation, I lashed out with my mind at Steven, causing my head to explode in pain. But as my vision started to go black, my eyes told me he had collapsed on top of his uncle, and for the moment I was safe.

I jumped when I was awoken by a soft hand stroking my cheek. To my relief, the hand belonged to my mom, and Joey was kneeling beside her.

"How?" I croaked.

"We both felt your fear, sweetie," my mother said.

"I was able to keep a lock on you after you passed out," Joey added.

I looked around, finding both Jake and Steven missing.

"Where's Suzi?" Joey asked me concerned.

I reached out to her, finding her still unconscious and moving away in some kind of vehicle.

"We got to help her... " I said trying to get up.

Joey opened a share link with me as he helped me to my feet.

"Thanks, I needed that," I told him. "Penny's brother has... used some kind of drug on her and her dad, and probably her mom too. They've been brainwashed. The guy that did it was going to do the same thing to me. He said it was irreversible! We have to get Suzi back before they use it on her!" I said as I started running for the door.

I quickly realized I had no idea where the hell I was when I entered a long hallway with at least thirty different doors. So Joey and my mom led the way to the roof where another helicopter was waiting.

"Holy shit," I said when I realized the helicopter was some kind of jet copter that they had hijacked. The pilot had already started spinning the blades, readying for a quick take off.

It took ten minutes for us to home in on the van Suzi was in. It was on the highway traveling at a dangerously high speed and swerving around other vehicles. As Joey took care of the driver and the van pulled off the road, I scanned the rest of the van. To my dismay and relief, Suzi was the only passenger in the vehicle.

My past mistakes had made me very cautious about what we would find when we approached the van. I gasped with my realization of who the driver was as I used his eyes to inspect the insides of the van.

Michael carried Suzi out to us before I would let Joey inspect the van. Michael's hair had been dyed black, obviously in honor of Steven's black hair. While my mom examined Suzi, I painfully inspected Michael's mind.

His memories were hard to call up, for his brain chemistry had been altered by the drug they had used on him. From what I could tell, Penny had lured the two brothers into her house where they had both been tranquilized and taken to the same lab we had just left.

It appeared that Steven was quite intelligent, and very twisted. He had planned everything since the moment he realized his father was no longer interested in the slave project. Steven had even used the drug on him, his own father.

The effects of this drug were different than the one his father had used on Penny and I. I called Michael's memory up of his experience very easily. In fact, it seemed to constantly be in the back of his mind, reinforcing his desire to please and serve Steven and Penny.

Instead of being addicted to the sexual pleasure and desire that the other drug produced, this drug excited specific areas of the brain while it reduced the activity in other areas. Michael's senses had been amplified to many times the norm while his individuality and several key cognitive functions had been suppressed. His mind had been flooded by the sight and sound of Steven telling him to be his faithful slave and the like. The strength of the signals coming from Michael's senses had burned themselves into his defenseless mind.

Steven's brainwashing skills were extremely good. Michael couldn't willingly recall anything of his past life unless Steven asked him too. His life appeared to begin when the needle was pulled from his arm. And the memories afterwards I found to be very distressful, and not very useful.

Steven loved to physically abuse his slaves. Once Michael had told Steven everything he knew about me, which wasn't much, Steven had him prove his loyalty and love by having Michael lick his ass. After Michael's tongue had penetrated his rose, Steven knew Michael was his, and proceeded to rape the helpless slave, not caring about the pain his rough treatment caused. Michael hated every moment of it, but never for a moment considered complaining or resisting his master's wishes.

Thankfully, Steven lost interest in him very quickly, and for several months Michael was given to Penny who was taking a very active part in the preparations to capture me. Then a few weeks before Penny had called Suzi, Steven again questioned him about me, then proceeded to abuse him horribly when Michael couldn't tell him what he wanted to know.

Michael had bruises all over his body, possibly a few cracked ribs, a black eye, and his left cheek was severely swollen. But from what I could tell, Michael had weathered better than David who had apparently been in the hospital for several weeks before assisting Michael in stealing the van.

I had to take a break once I got that far, so I checked with my mother to see how Suzi was.

"She's been mistreated, but not severely. From what I can tell, she'll be okay once the sedative they gave her wears off. They haven't tampered with her mind. What about the other one? I take it you know him?"

I explained about Penny's two twin boyfriends and the hell they had been put through. We decided the best thing to do was to fly them both to the hospital, meaning two of us would have to stay behind.

Joey and I stood by the van as the helicopter took off. We both wanted to go with them very badly, but knew we were stronger together and wasn't about to make my mom stay behind. I suppose that was the first instance were Joey and I thought about it like that.

Just as the helicopter disappeared from our sight, a police car pulled up behind the van with it's lights on. Two policemen got out, hands on their holsters, and told us to stay where we were and to keep our hands where they could see them.

"Shit. I bet they think we were driving the van," Joey said out loud.

"Officers, we just got here. Honest. We were dropped off by a helicopter and... " I tried to explain as one of the officers made me spread'em.

"Now that's a new one," he said as he frisked me. "He's clean, Burke."

"So's this one. You boys are in a lot of trouble. As if you didn't know it, this van was stolen by two teenage boys."

"And because I don't see a helicopter, you two have the right to remain silent... "

"Uhm, Tim?" Joey said as Officer Sinak continued reading our rights while they handcuffed us.

"Hang on Joey. Help's on its way," I said with a smile.

"That better mean your parents are coming for you. 'Cause if it doesn't... " Burke began, hearing a familiar sound grow louder.

As my father's helicopter sat down, I looked up at Sinak and said, "Uhm, that's my ride. Can I go now?"

Recovering from his shock, he said, "I'm sorry, son. That doesn't prove a thing. We still have to take you... Burke, didn't the description say two black haired males?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean... Oh, it also said one of them had a black eye... " Burke said, suddenly reaching for his keys.

"Sorry guys. Simple case of mistaken identity," Sinak said after I finished magnifying the differences between the descriptions and us in their minds. Actually, I could have done more than just magnify, but tampering with the minds of the law... Isn't that some kind of federal offense?

They insisted on taking our names and addresses, saying we were on the scene first and would they would need to get a statement from us. So we gave some bogus addresses and they let us on our way. Yeah, I know. We lied. But isn't fibbing a heck of a lot less... wrong... than outright tampering?

While we were in the air, Joey and I opened a thought channel so we could discuss the events.

"What I don't get is, if they had time to pick up everything of value and leave, why didn't they take me with them too?" I thought to Joey.

"Maybe they saw it was too big of a risk. What if they didn't have any more of that drug and didn't want to chance you waking up and taking over the place?"

"Yeah, that sounds reasonable. But they couldn't have known about you and mom coming to get me, so why did they have David and Michael steal the van, then send Michael off with Suzi as a decoy?"

"Hmmm. Either this asshole is pretty smart, or pretty paranoid. Hey, let me see what you got from Michael's head again... "

I allowed him access to my mind, letting my attention wander to the ground below us.

"Shit, Joey. This is all my fault. If I hadn't left Penny with her dad... "

"Don't start that shit again. From what I see, Steven would have gotten his hands on her sooner or later. At least now we know how to protect ourselves."

"What. You figured something out?" I asked surprised.

"Yeah. I was comparing what you remember about Michael's mind last summer and what you found today. Those commands you gave him last year. It doesn't look like that drug can get around them. Michael couldn't tell anyone what you told him about Penny and her dad... "

"Whoa! You mean... All we have to do is send each other a command that would stop us from doing whatever Steven says and the drug wouldn't work?"

"Something like that. But not just Steven. And we need to check Michael's head out a little more and get a better idea what to prepare for. But I think it would work."

"Yeah... Man I hope so... "

Joey went back to examining my memories to see if he could find anything else, while I sat quietly, trying to keep my mind from wandering too much. As the helicopter approached the hospital, I reached out to Suzi to check on her.

"Shit. She's still out cold," I thought to Joey.

The helicopter that my father had 'borrowed' for my rescue wasn't anywhere in sight when we landed on the chopper pad of the hospital. I was a little disappointed to find my mom had let the pilot go on his way. That jet copter had been really cool to ride in, but I didn't want Midge getting jealous and let it drop from my mind.

Besides, there were more important matters to deal with. Michael did in fact have three cracked ribs, and they were also treating his swollen cheek when we arrived. But his most serious injury was an anal infection from the violent rapings Steven enjoyed. Actually, Michael's condition was mostly due to his programming to ignore any physical discomforts he had while carrying out Steven's or Penny's orders. Michael simply hadn't been able to admit that he needed medical attention while helping to prepare for my capture.

My mother was having a lot of difficulty explaining how Michael and Suzi had obtained their injuries to a woman police officer when Joey and I found her.

"Mom, how are they?" I asked interrupting Officer Peterson's latest question. I quickly scanned the woman's mind, finding she didn't believe my mom was in any way responsible, but had the feeling she also wasn't telling everything. Kim was a very intelligent woman, and I found myself respecting her sharp mind.

"Michael is going have to stay at least the night, and Suzi still hasn't woken up. They took a blood sample from her to try and find what they used on her."

"I take it you're friends of the two victims?" Officer Peterson asked.

"Yeah. Michael's a friend of a friend, and Suzi's our girlfriend," I said, not really paying attention to what I was saying. Joey was busy checking out Michael's head for himself, while I was fascinated by Kim's mind. I was considering telling her the truth, thinking she might be able to help us.

Kim had blinked at my slip up, but didn't waste any time on it. She asked several questions about our involvement, and after getting pretty much the same story as my mother had given her, she thanked us and went to talk to the nurse at the counter.

I was just about to discontinue my scanning of her mind when I felt her momentary excitement as her partner walked up.

Officer Rick Corben was a six foot tall, dark haired, nicely built man with a boyish face. It was their third day as partners, and Kim was having second thoughts about the arrangement when she found herself incredibly attracted to him. She had always had a thing for younger men, and on more than one occasion found herself thinking indecent thoughts about some kid she had just booked. It always took a good romance movie or novel to get herself straightened out.

Corben was anything but what his innocent face portrayed. He had used his looks to get into the pants of many women, starting way back in the eighth grade. Even though he had sex with three other women on the force, he had never allowed it to interfere with his work. So he had immediately put the thought of tasting Kim's sex out of his mind as she turned it towards him.

Having already copied her home phone number into my head, I did the same with Corben's before turning my attention to Suzi as I walked up to her bed. Her mind was asleep, and that's all I could get from her. I felt Joey's concern start to grow, so I slipped my arm behind his back and pulled him towards me. We stood side by side with Joey's head resting on my shoulder as we both probed her mind and body for signs of normal activity.

I didn't hear my mom leave the room, but when she came back in, Joey and I stopped our probing. Joey sat down while I turned my head towards my mom. I knew the moment I saw her face that it wasn't good news.

"What is it?" I asked.

"They couldn't find anything in her blood. There's no trace of a drug."

"But why doesn't she wake up?" Joey said without looking up.

"They don't know... "

"Do they have any idea how long she'll be out?" I asked.

"No, dear. I'm afraid... they're not sure she will wake up."

Joey and I looked at each other, and immediately knew we had both come to the same conclusion. Before my mother even realized something was up, I sat down in the chair next to Joey, and we closed our eyes and formed a share link with Suzi.

Joey and I shuddered as we felt Suzi's energy mix with ours. I realized I was slipping down in my chair, and panicked when the experience with John popped into my head. I quickly connected with my mother, then started connecting up to as many people as I could, trying to dilute the sleepiness I was quickly succumbing to. After the first ten or so people, Joey started to do the same.

My mom had to verbally say, "Boys, that's enough people!" before I realized we had connected to nearly two hundred healthy individuals. I still felt a little tired, but I wasn't sure if it was from Suzi or just a result of our numerous sharing links.

We started to close the links when Suzi yawned and opened her eyes. Joey reached the bed before I did, then we each took a hand to hold.

"What happened?" Suzi asked. "Where am I?"

"How do you feel?" my mom asked before we could reply.

"I guess I feel okay," Suzi said, trying to sit up. When she accidentally pulled the IV in her arm taunt, she said, "Ouch! Ow... I'm a little sore... and this needle in my arm doesn't help... "

My mom pushed the call button, and a few minutes later, the doctor was checking her out.

My mom agreed with the doctor she should also stay the night for observation, so Joey and I stayed with her after my mom went home in the helicopter. We had made the excuse we wanted to stay in case Steven or one of his helpers some how manage to sneak in to grab them, but no one was fooled. We simply couldn't bear leaving her alone for the night.

We brought both Suzi and Michael to my mansion the next day after convincing the doctors that Michael would be well taken cared for. My father arranged for one of his nurses to always be on duty with Michael, and I copied the information on treating his infection into each nurse he sent.

Once Joey and I worked out what to do, we issued the commands to each other and to Suzi to immunize us from Steven's drug. Suzi went home afterwards, but Joey stayed the night, and went to school with me the following morning.

Joey couldn't drive over after school because his dad needed his help with the yard that afternoon. I spent several hours with Michael trying to undo Steven's brainwashing, but even though I didn't have any problems altering his mind, it was like having a bag of bubble gum and trying to pull out all the pink ones out without disturbing all the others. I managed to fix a few things without disturbing anything else, but on several attempts I found I actually made things worse instead of better.

I finally came to the conclusion that I wouldn't be able to restore Michael back to his original self. I could attempt to recreate his original personality, but I knew it wouldn't be anywhere near the real thing.

So when the twins showed up, I was glad to accept their emotional support. But when they insisted on seeing Michael, I wasn't that comfortable about it considering their last meeting. But I figured Michael was safe since David wasn't there, and finally allowed them to see him.

Michael resembled a zombie in his current state. He didn't really care about anything. He didn't speak unless spoken to, and unless he was told to do something, he just sat, stood, or laid where he was and stared at whatever there was to look at. I planned to fix that once his body recovered, but for the time being he didn't really care about the pain except that it was something the nurse had to treat.

When we came into his room, he was on his stomach nude while the nurse was treating his ass hole. Actually, I had forgot to cancel the commands for the nurse to pleasure her patients as much as possible and was now simply massaging his back.

"Lynn, if you're finished treating his injuries, please leave us alone until it's time for his next one."

"Yes, master," she said collecting her things. For a moment, I considered letting her treat me for a while, but then I didn't want my mind clouded while the twins were with Michael.

Joy and Honey walked up and stood on opposite sides of Michael's head. They reached down and stroked his cheek and hair, then closed their eyes and concentrated.

My curiosity almost made me interrupt to ask them what they were doing, but I contained it and waited for them to finish. They opened their eyes five minutes later, then indicated to me they wanted to show me something.

I stood at Michael's head and attempted to copy what they were doing, but finally just had to relax and let them lead me through it.

The empathic connection they helped me form finally seemed to focus and intensify. I suddenly felt Michael's presence, or more like I could feel his soul. As my mind concentrated on focusing on this feeling, it grew to the point it was almost like I could see it. Actually, when I recall the experience now, it comes to me as an image with an assortment of feelings attached. So I suppose I was seeing his soul, and I immediately saw something wrong. The otherwise bright, nearly white 'object' looked as if it had been shot with a paint pellet of dark ink. The 'ink' had splattered on impact, spreading it's little fingers outwards.