Chapter 2 (1994 - 2000)

I. See. You.

-- Drebin 893 (Metal Gear Solid 4, 2009)

AN INVISIBLE EMPIRE

You can see us, but you do not know where we are.

You can hear us, but you do not know what we are.

You can even speak with us, but you will not know who we are.

We are an invisible empire, a secret kingdom, and we rule the world.

PREVIOUSLY:

Stanley Chen becomes cognizant of his abilities while still a pre-teen. He accidentally uses his "gift" to persuade his tutor, an older girl named Janet, to seduce him. They engage in a secret, furtive relationship for four years before financial difficulties keep Janet at a distance in college.

Near the start of his junior year in high school, Stanley meets a young latent empath named Melanie. While he considers her too young to be attractive, the girl nonetheless becomes a psychic groupie. At the same time, Stanley fosters a relationship with two more girls: one his age named Rachelle, and a younger girl, Shawn, whom he treats with sisterly affection.

Stanley's time is severely divided among his various interests: love, academic, family, and otherwise, damaging his academic career and forcing him into community college. Here, he meets a girl who is equal (perhaps even greater) in mental powers who finds in him some commonality in lifestyle. As his first year of college ends, Stanley meets a mysterious man who wields much knowledge and power in the invisible empire.

DARK RECKONING

Rachelle lay atop me, her smooth thighs slid enticingly over my crotch, threatening to draw me out from my trance. I cupped one of her breasts and slid the length of my hand over her moist clam. She groaned and turned her head to the side, her lips aching for mine. I obliged her lusts but kept my inner focus on holding aloft a small barbeque grill outside in the backyard, a mere ten feet away from where Rachelle and I were making arduous love.

I would have gladly broadcast my conquest to my bi-curious Cossack cutie, but her dance practice began in early evening at her new school. Viktoriya threatened that if I played even one of my mind-pranks on her while she was in class, she'd break into my house and tear me a new asshole. In any case, it was the perfect excuse to practice my other exercises.

My lovely black beauty, Rachelle Elizabeth Hollister, had come back for a visit to her parents, but she could not stay long. We met and chatted about our academic lives, then quickly made up for some lost time. However, little did Rachelle know that I was slowly evolving; after having met Tseng, I felt a new confidence surge through me as I began pushing the limits of my gifts. I learned to improve my efficiency and potency, but I also possessed more gifts than I originally thought I had.

For example, I didn't know I was a psychokineticist. I found I had affinity for telekinesis after I met Tseng. He surmises that Viktoriya's proximity may have triggered my latent gifts. That, or I subconsciously learned from being with her. In the meantime, the strength of my mental projection increased, along with my psychic defences. However, my ability to persuade others pretty much remained unchanged.

In regards to conversational persuasion, I couldn't tell someone to do what I wanted off the top of my head, but given enough preparation, I could nudge someone in the right direction or even induce an itch; it's hard to concentrate once you're scratching incessantly. As for my gift to persuade others to not see me, someone who wanted to look for me would eventually find me. Thankfully, I hadn't given anyone the reason to do so.

Tseng found me though. I realized then it didn't matter how powerful I would be, he was far more powerful than I could imagine. As I entered Rachelle with my wrapped cock, I found myself distracted as I wondered about my eccentric mentor.

I ran through my chat with Tseng again. He had walked with me and asked me some direct questions: how long had I been using my gifts, where and when did I use them, and how many girls had I absconded with. I answered his first questions without aplomb or hesitation, but I took offence at his last question. Tseng took notice and regarded me with his well trained eyes.

'You can hide in your self-made harem all you want boy.' His thought-speak was harsher and louder than his actual voice (which was quite tinny and unimpressive). 'But what do you think would happen if the families of those girls get wind of what you've been doing?' His eyes narrowed dangerously as he went on broadcasting. 'Do you think they would spare you trouble for any of that?'

I didn't have an immediate answer ready, so I kept silent. Tseng dug deeper and discovered my liaisons with Viktoriya and Melanie. The others he dismissed once he realized they were not exhibiting any tell-tale signs of our gift. When he explained his hypothesis of Melanie, I heard his tone soften. He seemed interested in meeting her, but he did not say so.

"She sounds passive," he said aloud in a hushed voice. "Keep her under control and she'll die happily as an old woman."

Tseng spoke normally that time. I suppose as powerful as he was, sometimes speaking naturally was just that: talking normally. In regards to Viktoriya, he seemed hesitant. It would be one of the few times he would be at a loss for words. After I described what I saw her do, Tseng explained she was indeed a psychokineticist. Possibly a quite powerful one with someone like me in her proximity.

"So what am I?" I finally asked.

"You are a catalyst, Stanley Chen," Tseng turned to face me with a flat, dead smile. "What powers you have, you piggy-back off others. When you are close to another of the empire, you both increase in power."

"Empire?" I blinked, not understanding. "What empire?"

It was then Tseng revealed the invisible empire and explained the rules of its citizens: do not reveal the empire or commit to actions that may expose it; do not interfere with the lifestyle of another subject of the empire, even if you may disagree with the choice of lifestyle personally; interfere only if the lifestyle threatens to expose the empire; when required, all citizens of the empire must unite and quell those who may expose our existence to the 'normal' world.

To this last rule, Tseng had taken it on himself to seek out "new citizens" and teach them how to properly use their powers, and with absolute discretion. At the time, I thought the empire consisted of telepaths like Tseng, Viktoriya and myself, and the occasional oddity like Melanie; little did I know it stretched to cover other sorts of weirdness.

Tseng was certainly unhappy when he heard about my experiments during my last trip to America's heartland. However, none of that seemed to be too obvious. He was surprisingly knowledgeable when I described the incident at the pizzeria.

"Thankfully, it was taken care of," he said simply.

I then realized that Tseng (or others like him) had been surreptitiously shadowing me for some time. I asked how long the empire had been watching me.

"Long enough," was the answer.

Tseng seemed to relax as he got the rest of my story. When I finished, he related an incident when one young fool decided to control a small town; Tseng confronted and destroyed him, then with a few others, psychically erased the trauma and physical evidence that the errant telepath had caused.

"It was a shame," his voice was banal. "He would have been a great citizen, had he just exercised some self control."

"You are telling me this why?" I asked.

"So you do not make the same mistake."

Then, to demonstrate how he had "neutralized" the problem, Tseng extended his arm to touch a nearby street lamp. His fingertips barely scratched the surface but I heard a screech and saw the shavings fall from the metal surface.

"Discipline and control," Tseng regarded me with his cold dead eyes. "Without it, you will endanger yourself and the other two as well. 'Normals' --" he used a term unique in our kind's vernacular, a thought-symbol that combined the ideas of death, endless torture, and deadly experimentation by faceless men holding scary instruments, "-- must NEVER know what you are."

"So you would kill me," I said matter-of-factly. I lowered my voice, "And Viktoriya."

"Yes." His voice held no emotion.

"Yu-Ching too?" I glared at him. "She's harmless!"

"One is timid, the other brazen," the gaunt man said. "The little one won't warrant undue attention unless you cease watching her. Viktoriya can be dangerous, but she is not foolish. It is not her nature. You found that out personally."

My face flushed deep red. Indeed Tseng was right about Viktoriya. She had been spying on me before I was aware of her. How careless of me! I knitted my brow with worry.

"You will keep them under control for your sakes."

"Why me?" I asked. "You don't even know me."

"I know you enough that you will keep them docile until you tire of them," Tseng spoke of my darlings like disposable luxuries. "Then we shall see."

"That won't happen," I became defensive.

Tseng said nothing as we walked on a little more.

"You can meet them," I relaxed my tone. "Speak to them both as you are doing now."

"No."

He was firm but offered me no explanation for his refusal. Tseng instructed me in a way that only a telepath can: with sharp bursts of mental instructions. While I could withstand thought-speech with Viktoriya, it was different with Tseng. After a minute, I was dizzy and ill. I had to sit on the ground to pull myself together. The mysterious man didn't stick around though. He tersely imparted his message, his lesson, and that was it. When I looked up again, Tseng had disappeared and in my mind was a singular message:

'I'll be around.'

My thoughts drifted back to what I was doing. I ran through the choice bits of training and simply realized I just needed to practice. Multi-tasking was what I was working on now. Rachelle was lying under me, her warm body yielded to the pummeling I was giving her, but I kept concentration on keeping the grill in the backyard off the ground. Looking back at my meeting with Tseng was simply another exercise.

All this was taking a toll on me and I was straining. Rachelle could see me but didn't understand what I was preoccupied with. She thought I was trying hard not to cum so she decided to help me along. She entwined her arms around my neck and drew me down. Rachelle's scent drove me over the edge and I shot my load. At the same time, I lost my concentration and the grill crashed to the ground with a clatter.

"What was that?" Rachelle clutched me tightly.

Unlike Janet, I brought Rachelle home to meet my parents, especially since Andrew had met her last year. I introduced her not merely as my old classmate, but a girl whom I was dating. This gave us some measure of privacy. Nonetheless, Rachelle was shy about my parents (or worse, both our parents) walking in on us while we were making the sign of the inverted starfish. Like Janet, Rachelle learned to be very discreet about our love-making. The loud clatter in the backyard made her jump.

"It's probably just a cat," I groaned and ground my hips against hers, frustrated she had cut short my exercise.

"You should go check," Rachelle sighed and stroked my back. "You know, just in case."

"Yeah," I rolled off her, chucked the condom into the trash, and started dressing up.

"Stanley?"

"Yeah sugar?"

"Are you still seeing Janet?"

I looked back at Rachelle. She was sitting upright in my new bed. It was smaller since I had a drafting table in my room now. This mean when I had a girl over, I generally slept on the ground afterwards. Rachelle regarded me with sad, quiet eyes.

"What do you mean?" I sat next to her. Somehow, this was vaguely familiar. I had thought I had undergone something similar a year before.

"I could see it in your eyes," Rachelle cast a downward glance. "And there's a new picture of her on your desk."

"Oh." I cursed inwardly.

Janet had taken a new photo of herself (dressed in a spiffy business suit to match her new haircut) and Melanie planted the sucker in my room as a "sisterly" favor. Janet might as well have come into my room and pee'd all over the place to mark her territory. I looked at Rachelle and explained myself. I feared I had to relive my fiery argument with Janet all over again, but to my surprise, Rachelle didn't react as I expected.

In an ironic twist, she confessed that she had been screwing around down in L.A. While she flirted with a guy here and there, there was one in particular who she let him get a little closer. She fucked him a week or so before she flew back to the city. Ghandia hadn't a clue, or else she would've leaked it back to Faraz (then back to me) so this was news to me.

I didn't know if I should act elated or jealous, because frankly, I felt neither. Rachelle was entitled to do what she wanted with her body. While I enjoyed my time with her, I hadn't expressly asked for her to be exclusive. In fact, I had not even thought to bring it up while we were dating. So, I decided to approach it as gently as I could.

"Oh sugar," I patted her hand. "That's all right. You had fun and stayed safe right?"

Rachelle nodded, her eyes brimming with emotion.

"I'm sorry about Janet," I said. "But she's a good friend and we always played safe, as I am with you."

My black beauty bit her lip and looked so downcast I tried to soothe her.

"If I hurt you, I'm sorry," I forced myself to smile. "If you can't stand me, I'll go."

"I don't know what to say."

"Well, you always wanted to meet more of my friends right?" I joked despite the situation. "Even back in school!"

"Not THOSE kinds of friends." Rachelle made a face then her brow arched as she realized something. "That girl at the paper --!"

"Shawn," I put a hand on hers to calm her. "What about her?"

"Did you?" she glared at me. "And while we --?!"

"Yes," I confessed. "Her too."

"God," she inhaled sharply. "This, this is so --!!"

"Bohemian?"

Rachelle sniffed. She learned that term when we were watching that episode of M.A.S.H. one late night. It was the one when Major Winchester fell in love with the French army nurse. I was taking a humanities course at the time and was simply excited to have found a usage of the term. My black beauty had chided me about making television boring by turning it into, "edu-tainment."

"You know," I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Shawn wanted to get to know you. I think she admires you."

Rachelle scoffed and looked at me sternly. "Don't patronize me. I mean, would you like to meet Craig?"

"Sure," I shrugged. "If you're okay with it."

"Stanley, sugar." She stopped and soured; she called me that so often, it came naturally. "Look, I didn't mean it that way."

I patted her cheek and gave her an "Eskimo kiss" by touching my nose to hers.

"Rachelle. We're all adults. Let's not dwell over nothing."

My mind was both adventuresome and generous, and my spirit was infectious. I had grown, as did Rachelle. Such pettiness was not worth the strain on either of us. Soon, I could sense Rachelle let go of her jealousy over Janet as much as I did over her dalliance with some guy whose name I'd already forgotten. We stayed like that for some time before we spoke again.

"We're going to be late," I kissed her.

We got dressed and headed out. We were late for Jon-Peter's and Heidi's official engagement dinner party. To both our credit, Rachelle and I behaved like adults. Faraz, Ghandia, Jon-Peter's parents, Heidi's parents, and her brother Patrick were there to hear the good news. Together, Rachelle and I wished them happiness we both were searching for. It came for us later. Much later.

TASKED TO ASK

As my time at community college neared its end, I had the dubious opportunity to participate in the first of many assignments. The man Tseng had not spoken to me, physically or otherwise, for some time. Therefore it was very curious thing that I got a summons in the form of a mental flash. It was a quick and dirty thing: a still of a building, a clock, a day on the calendar, and then nothing.

Had I been a 'normal', I would have blanked out from the psychic shock. As I wasn't, I didn't. While I withstood the uninvited telepathy, it was unexpected, like lightning from a clear blue sky, and I nearly stumbled and fell. Thankfully, I was not alone.

In one of those rare days I had crawled ahead of my studies, I opted to spend a half day of leisure with two of my treasured darlings: Shawn Ellen Horten, who was about to graduate high school in a few short months and go onto San Jose State, and Melanie Chen, who had just celebrated her 13th birthday some weeks earlier and would soon attend the same middle school as my brother Andrew.

Shawn caught me by the arm, eliciting an immediate response from Melanie. I leaned on both girls and contented to simply sit on the nearest revetment at the zoo.

"Are you okay?" Shawn asked.

I nodded and gave her a pleasant smile. My lovely Anglo angel had lost much of her baby fat as her body began maturing; however, this did little to change her kind, thoughtful nature.

"I'll get you some water," Shawn looked around and spotted a water fountain. "I'll be right back."

The psychic disturbance was so startling, I could only nod in silent agreement. Melanie watched the older girl leave before she knelt before me.

"Take my drink Stanley," my littlest darling offered up her cup, still half-full of cherry slushee.

"I'll do that," I said, "If you cut that out right now."

Melanie quickly stood back up, still holding her drink before me. Yu-Ching had gotten into her pretty head that I would be more pleased with her if she adopted some more submissive positions she'd seen (or gotten hints of) on Chinese television. Those soap operas set in period China really made an impression on her. I'd often find Melanie kneeling, sitting, or positioning herself in a way where she'd have to look up towards me.

At first, I had gotten a mild kick out of it, as most of the other girls were nearly at my height (or taller) but soon, I realized she was using that to actively monopolize my attention (especially when the others were around). I decided to firmly (but gently) put my foot down, otherwise Melanie's inhibitions would run out of control.

Control and discipline. Those words made me gnash my teeth. Tseng's words. The only other who would be able to think-speak that clearly to me was Viktoriya, and she knew that I would not be seeing her today. I had told her I was to be indisposed.

'Indisposed my ass!' Viktoriya sniffed as she thought-spoke to me on Friday: 'You're planning to take that Exhibitionist-Slut and the Fat-Freckle-Face to the zoo!'

My ex-Commie cutie had some rather unkind nicknames for each of my other darlings. Janet, my devoted First she called Tom-Boy. Doubtless it was derived from not just her latest hair style (which made her appear like Joan Chen) but also from her forward nature. After all, Janet was the one who seduced me years ago.

Rachelle, the mulatto girl whom everyone else thought I was dating, Viktoriya had coined Two-Face. This was for her seeing another man when she was away at college and for her mixed blood. She didn't use that moniker much in my presence, for I knew she had wanted to make sapphic overtures towards Rachelle.

Shawn received the dubious moniker of Fat-Freckle-Face because, according to Viktoriya, it was my angelic baby girl's plump body that drove me crazy. My Russian beauty's most vicious barbs though, was retained for a fellow empire citizen: the latent empath Melanie. She heaped on a different derogatory epithet each time she'd bring up little Chen.

While I never thought Viktoriya would never be jealous of my dalliances as I could be more of hers, my dance-loving darling's comments did give me pause as I pondered who would've pinged me so strongly. It didn't feel like Viktoriya, although we could both send something fairly strong and brief without identifying ourselves in the process. That meant it had to be him.

Tseng. What the hell did he want? As I sat wondering about the message, Shawn had come back with a cup of tap water. She saw me me holding Melanie's cup of crushed ice, my eyes staring at nothing in particular. She sat down beside me and proceeded to bump me out of my reverie.

"Hello? Earth to Stanley?" Shawn put her hand gently on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

I nodded as I swapped drinks. "Thank you."

"Geez," Shawn looked at me with worry, "If you're that tired, you should stay home and get some rest."

Melanie puffed up her tiny chest and was about to say something, but I stopped her with a gentle touch on her arm.

"I'm all right," I said. "Being cooped up in my room half the time is enough. C'mon, let's go to the monkey house --" I eyed Melanie "-- or whatever else you two want."

"Pandas!" Melanie smiled brightly.

Shawn grinned, as did I. She was a little more understanding with my different liaisons than Janet and Rachelle. Perhaps it was because she already knew I was slamming Rachelle and Janet before we got more intimate. The "other woman" already knew all the players but she (thankfully) wasn't jealous. I suppose that was what made our relationship work.

It was near evening when I headed back home. I wanted to accompany Shawn back to her place, but she told me it wasn't necessary.

"I'm a big girl now Stanley," she poked me in the ribs, just as she did when we were younger.

I gave her a tender kiss on the forehead before I hopped off the bus with Melanie. I had to escort her home (likely on pain of death) as I had promised her folks I'd get her home safe and sound before dinner. Now that her family knew she was seeing a boy nearly seven years her senior, they wanted to take no chances; Melanie often had to be home before dark.

For Yu-Ching, it was a mix of the good and bad. It was good that our relationship finally saw the light of day, although Melanie tread a very thin line when her mother and father pressed her for what intimate acts we may have done together. She held on fast and stuck to the story she and I concocted. It was a mix of fact and fiction: she had met me as a classmate of Andrew's, and started hanging around me to learn how to cook.

After a few impromptu interviews, I got Andrew to cover our story. My innocent mother (who knew almost all of Andrew's friends) thought something fishy, but she eventually trusted my brother when he vouched for Melanie's story. Since my father was generally not home (or asleep) he came to know the situation only through my mother. He and I had "the talk" and realizing I had been dating Rachelle until recently, he asked what the hell was wrong with me.

Luckily, O.J. Simpson provided a good fictitious reason. Rachelle and I both were in agreement in suspecting the fellow had a guilty conscience (or at least a lot of knowledge about what happened). However, the case was dividing L.A. (and the rest of the country) along racial lines. To those who bugged me about details of why we broke up, I simply hinted O.J.'s trial as a possible reason. After this, questions about Rachelle were confined to gutter talk and idle gossip.

It worked out in the end. This shaky interim arrangement was the reason which allowed me to take both Melanie and Shawn out for some quiet time. Unfortunately, it was interrupted quite suddenly and rudely by that damned Tseng. When I got home, I finally deciphered the mind-message I was sent: I was to meet someone downtown, next week, sometime around morning (I cannot give the exact time and place for reasons soon to be evident).

I silently cursed, because it was during one of my heaviest scheduled school days. I lay back in my tiny bed and wondered if I should go. What power did Tseng have anyway to interfere with my life? I decided to ignore it and concentrate on my studies. No sooner than I settled on that decision when a powerful thought-symbol came to me: 'No joke.' 'Be there.'

I cringed and acquiesced to an unwanted invitation. I packed my usual, thinking it might be a brief meeting, before I went back to class. I hopped off the bus somewhere in downtown and began walking towards the building I was supposed to be at. Thankfully, I had not met Viktoriya that day. I found out later that I had just missed her by a few minutes.

I soon found the place. It was a huge Federal building, full of clerks, administrators, and other bureaucratic types. I wondered what to do as I wandered into the lobby. Tseng came up silently behind me. I didn't know he was there until I heard him greet me. As I turned, I sensed more instructions tingling in my mind.

'Do as I tell you Stanley Chen. We go into the lion's mouth now.'

We shook hands and he chatted amicably about the weather, the traffic, and the lousy bus lines as he continued his thought-speak. I came to realize this was a ruse of some kind. Tseng wanted to show me something. Something that the 'normals' in the building (especially the ones armed with lethal weapons) had no knowledge of. He continued the tour in thought-speak.

'I am going to introduce you to a NSA field director.'

'The NSA?' I wondered as we swept past the security checkpoint to the elevators. 'Isn't that like the CIA or something?'

'Something yes. But different.' Tseng pushed the elevator button, and asked aloud if I like coffee. I demurred with an audible reply.

'NSA (National Security Agency) does not exist, much like we do not exist.' He continued showing me around with 'words' only I could hear. 'They conduct espionage on everyone. Spying. Listening. Eavesdropping.'

Tseng looked at me. 'Make love to Chen Yu-Ching and they can hear it all.'

A shock hit my body. What was going on? What was this all about?

'It is not the girl you should worry about.' He thought-spoke. 'This easily transcends your indiscretions.'

I felt my cheeks flush then realized it was foolish. Tseng and I were the only ones in the elevator. I had not hid my thoughts well.

'Someone at the agency thinks you may be a handy asset.'

"What?" I blurted aloud, breaking the physical silence between us.

Tseng smiled but his attitude was cool. 'Stay silent. I told them you may be a -- as they term it -- talent.'

'I thought we weren't supposed to say what we were!' I began casting about looking for a way out.

'The empire is safe.' Tseng became thoughtful. 'But that fight you had back in school didn't escape notice.'

'You lied.' I stared coldly at him. 'You told me you took care of that. The records I mean.'

The elevator's doors opened and we stepped out. I didn't have much choice.

'The official records yes.' Tseng seemed to utter a sigh. 'But you were reckless. Do you remember the girl in Utah?'

It was my turn to be thoughtful. Finally, I replied. 'I think so.'

'She was cattle of another citizen.' The old man stopped to drink at a water fountain.

'Oops.' I didn't realize I had trespassed into another telepath's domain.

'You were reckless.' Tseng repeated and resumed walking. 'But Lillian was both reckless and careless. From the faint telepathic imprint you left, she began looking through government databases for someone like you instead of going through more subtle channels.'

'Government databases?' I asked as we shuffled down the hall at a slow pace. 'I don't get it. Who's Lillian?'

'Someone you do not need to worry about.' His empty and hollow tone hinted at her fate.

'So what now? You're going to shove me off the building?' I peered around and asked aloud, "How high are we?"

"Seventy eight stories," Tseng answered in his tinny voice to my audible question. He fell back to thought-speech immediately.

'If I wanted to kill you, I would have not approached you before witnesses. Now listen carefully.' We stopped at the end of the hall and Tseng knocked lightly on the door. 'Certain elements of the agency believe there are telepaths in the world. This, for all intents and purposes, will be true.'

I eyed him warily as I examined the room we entered. Two men were immediately visible in the middle of the room. A suited man with short black, curly hair sat at one end of a plain metal prison table. The fellow's huge face and bulk were evident despite his sitting position. Tseng in the meantime, seemed to hurry along his briefing.

'What they do not know, and SHOULD NOT KNOW, ' he emphasized quickly with his thought-speech, 'Is how many of us there are; that we are organized; that we know probably more than they know.'

Jesus Christ, I thought. This was turning out to be quite a day.

The big fellow looked like he could've stood twice as tall as I when standing. The second man was not nattily dressed. I suppressed a smile. That was the word Janet had used when she wanted to remake my wardrobe after things had come to a head. Nattily. Ha-hah. But enough of that; I pushed that memory away and focused on the second man. The first man, I knew, was with NSA.