Chapter 2

Abigail Xu stormed out of the field house, her long, black hair streaming behind her like a war banner from beneath her mortarboard. Her now-ex-boyfriend would remember what she'd done with his senior ring for the rest of his days. Ever since he'd fallen in with those rednecks, he'd been treating her like dirt because she was Asian. Today had been the last straw. Selling copies of a secretly-made video of her giving him her virginity the year before after the junior prom on the internet was bad enough, but referring to her as ... THAT ... in the title...

She roared with rage and punched at the air. The feeling was only now beginning to come back in her right hand, and it was starting to sting. She ran into Howard Farrell on her way to the parking lot--literally. The two bounced off each other like giant rubber balls and ended up on the concrete.

"Watch where you're going!" she snarled.

"Sorry, Abs." he said, picking himself up. "What are you doing here? Don't tell me I missed the ceremony!"

"No." Abby said snarkily. "You can have your precious ceremony." He touched her hand and she yelped. She must have hit her ex harder than she'd thought.

"No wonder you're so grumpy, this must be agony." he said, gently examining her swelling hand. She cried out in pain as she felt something move. He wrapped her hand in both of his and closed his eyes. She felt the movement again, but it wasn't accompanied by the stabbing pain this time. When he released her hand at last, the swelling was already beginning to recede.

"What did you do?" she asked, looking at her now-healed hand.

"I was about to ask you the same question." he responded. Her face soured. His hand caressed her cheek, and on the second stroke he touched her temple--and her mind.

"I punched out that redneck ... He'd made a video of us at the junior prom when I gave up my virginity, and he'd been selling copies of it on the Internet for a few months. My brother found clips from it on Haporn dot com." Howard gathered her into his arms, and she began to cry.

"I don't blame you for punching him."

"That's not even the worst part!" she sobbed. "In the title ... he used ... a slur!" She couldn't bring herself to repeat what it was, and he didn't ask, but she felt him stiffen, his embrace strengthen, and a reflection of her own earlier rage build within him. He held her at arms' length and wiped away her tears.

"You're not going to give him the satisfaction of letting him drive you away from your own graduation." he said, and she felt strength flowing into her, making her feel a little silly for wanting to run away. They walked back onto the football field together and stayed that way until they got to her assigned seat in the back (since her last name began with an X). Even though he was all the way down with the F's, she could feel him as if he were sitting next to her instead of Jamie Wyatt and Phil Yachtsman. The ceremony proceeded almost as planned--when her ex's name came up, she learned that he had not regained consciousness yet. She took a measure of satisfaction from that, but put it out of her mind as the names continued to be read from the alphabetical list. Not long after she got her own diploma, the ceremony was over, and they were all tossing their caps into the air. Then, Howard was there, and they were hugging. Later, she didn't know whether he kissed her or she kissed him, but their lips were pressing together and her crotch was grinding against his leg, and she didn't care who saw. The time in between was a blur of emotions and hormones, but she found herself in a hotel room with him, and their gowns were on the floor along with the clothes they'd worn under them.

"No cameras, I promise." he whispered, and she found that hilarious for some reason. Then, she was guiding him inside her. He was bigger than ... she pushed that thought out of her mind. He was big. He filled her easily. Their minds were linked more deeply than surface thoughts. His memories were an open book to her, as hers were to him. His pleasure amplified hers, hers amplified his, and they both found release as one, in an explosion of ecstasy that left both unconscious.

She was awakened by the smell of breakfast. Opening her eyes, she found that he'd gotten a hotel room with a kitchen. Scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, sausage and more added their delectable perfume to the scent of last night's lovemaking.

"Lovemaking," she thought to herself, not "fucking" or "humping" or "doing it." She was amazed at how quickly her life had turned around, and for the better. Howard was humming the Mighty Mouse theme song as he poured orange juice for both of them.

They made love again after breakfast, this time with her on top, his hands guiding her hips. She was aware of what he was doing as he induced an ovulation, and for the first time in her life, the thought of being pregnant brought joy, not dread. They lay side-by-side, catching their breath, and she visualized what she would look like, swollen with child.

"One more thing, Abs." he whispered.

"Yes," she agreed, and closed her eyes, letting his finger touch her forehead, letting consciousness fade away as she was evolved.

"You do know she's just gonna grow into a dorky little sister who follows you around everywhere, right?" Whitney asked.

"They tame easier if you catch 'em young." Penelope responded, looking up from little Orchid with a smile. Orchid was Victor's daughter by Kim Kahn and the oldest of the new generation. Whitney rolled her eyes. "Besides, I never had a sister. Or a brother either, for that matter."

"You're not missing much." Whitney responded. She was Penelope's age and a Halle Berry wannabe, but she had too much jaw for her face and too little in the breast department. Nevertheless, she didn't back down when Penelope asked for a little help with her rather strange family. Right now, she was feeding Julia, Marie's baby, from a bottle. In one corner, their friend Millie was thoroughly enchanted by Desiree's twin boys, while Margarita "Speedy" Gonzales, the junior-high track star, fed Inet's little boy, Alexander.

Penelope draped a towel over her shoulder and expertly shifted Orchid to that same shoulder. When the baby burped, what milk escaped ended up on the towel, not on Penelope's shirt. The others emulated her, sparing themselves a stained set of shirts.

"Thanks for the help, kids, we'll take it from here!" Kim said from the doorway as she entered with the rest of Victor's breeding-circle. Those who hadn't yet given birth to children of their own helped the others. Kim passed out twenty-dollar bills and told the youngsters to go have some fun. They took a special private elevator to the employee parking garage, where they met Arnold and two of his recently-graduated former trainees. There was D.J., nephew of the late, lamented Mr. Andersen, and Shane MacDuff, a veteran of the first Gulf War who had gotten a Purple Heart after taking a bullet meant for a Kuwaiti official. It was Shane who was assigned as their driver for the afternoon, much to the girls' delight--he was so easy, it was almost as if Penelope's friends had mind-control powers as well.

"Later, Arnie." Penelope said, drawing the tall, dark ex-Secret Service agent down to her level by his tie so she could kiss him on the cheek. "And one for your wife." she added, kissing him on the other cheek.

She had learned to enjoy life again with help from her family, and had reconnected with her old friends. Her growing ability to foresee the future had helped immensely--she could see an optimum future and what steps were needed to keep herself and her loved ones on the track to that future. She was still young, however, and not above using it to predict when a teacher would give a pop quiz, just as Inet, her adopted mother, used hers to anticipate Victor's needs or to help raise funds for the Foundation with the occasional trip to Vegas.

Shane drove them to the theater for a movie, then to Long John Silver's for dinner. Everything was going fine until they left the restaurant. Penelope and Shane sensed a shielded mind tailing them. Penelope took advantage of the evening traffic to shuffle drivers around the enemy car with subtle mental nudges until their tail had a quarter-mile coating of cars in both directions, the nearest ones to it being large, powerful trucks, and was forced into the center lane. Shane took the Waco Drive exit while Penelope forced the tail to remain on the road they had just left until the cars were far enough away that they couldn't possibly catch up before all of Penelope's friends had been dropped off at their homes.

"Later, Penelope!" the girls said as they each got out.

"Later!" she responded. She slipped into the front seat once her friends were safe. "Okay, Shane, do your stuff."

"Yes, ma'am." he responded. Shielded minds appeared in a different car as soon as they hit Franklin Avenue.

"These guys don't learn, do they?" Penelope remarked. "Keep it to two miles over the speed limit."

"Two?" Shane asked, but complied anyway. They took the usual exit and blew through a yellow light. Their tail was so intent on following them that it was unable to stop before plowing into a truck hauling concrete patio furniture. Penelope and Shane pulled over and ran quickly to the scene of the accident. Just as Penelope had known, the two agents in the car were knocked out, but alive. She reached into their mouths and pulled out their cyanide caps, wrapping them in a Kleenex and giving them to Shane, who pocketed them before shouldering the agents and putting them in the back of the car.

"Nice work, Shane." she said, patting the vet on the shoulder as they drove away.

Howard was supervising Abby and Teddy in telekinesis practice when the phone rang. "Hello, Howard." Victor said when the younger man picked up the phone. "Would you come down to the infirmary?"

"Uh, sure." he replied.

"All right, see you soon." Victor's voice said, quickly followed by a click.

"Not much for phone etiquette, is he?" Teddy asked, looking up from the 3D maze she was working. The BB she was manipulating fell onto a ledge in the middle.

"You're not supposed to let it touch." Abby said. "Now you have to start aaaaaaaaalll over again."

"Behave, you two, I have to see what the boss wants." Howard said as Teddy pouted.

"Can we misbehave when you get back?" Teddy asked with a wink.

"I think you're due a little misbehaving." Howard replied. "You're both coming along great, by the way." He kissed each of them in turn and walked out with a wave. The infirmary was in the third sub-basement. He found Victor waiting for him between two occupied beds. On the way, he said hello to Mirisynt, Zak's mate, who was watching over her quadruplets. He remembered Victor telling him that her species had been enslaved and bred for docility, which had resulted in a decrease in their physical stature and an increase in litter size--it didn't take a genius to figure out that that was a bad combination. Were it not for the near-miraculous healing powers at Zak's disposal, she would very likely have died. It was a sobering thought.

"Howard!" Victor called, beckoning him over to the beds.

"Sorry, gotta go." he whispered to Mirisynt, who smiled and waved him on his way. Howard looked at the occupants of the beds, but there was nothing familiar about them. They both had military haircuts, however. "Who are they?" he asked.

"Enemy agents." Victor said. "We managed to remove their psi-blocking chips without killing them."

"What about their cyanide caps?" Howard asked.

"Penelope removed those when she and Shane pulled them out of their wrecked car."

"No innocent bystanders got hurt, did they?" Howard asked.

"No, Penelope timed it perfectly so that the agents hit the bed of the truck, not the cab." Victor responded with a smile. Howard heaved a sigh of relief. "I've sent a check to the truck's owner and to the guy who was supposed to get those concrete picnic tables. But it's not often we get to scan an enemy agent. It's time you got some practical experience. You take that one."

Howard reached out his hand and touched the forehead of his subject--a bodybuilder-type with a jaw like an icebreaker. Both subjects were strapped down and heavily sedated. It took Howard a while to break through the fog of the drugs. When he did, he found a mind that followed orders, didn't ask questions, and trained itself to hate whoever he was told was his enemy with a passion akin to holy war. His name was Sigmund von Braun, and he was trained to hate telepaths. Howard pushed aside the hatred and delved deeper, finding mission specifics for Penelope's capture as well as every other mission the man had been involved in. He found the locations of sixteen minor bases in Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico, four major bases in the latter four states and the names and faces of his immediate superiors. He pulled out and relayed the pertinent information to Victor, who in turn shared what he had learned from the other. There was a lot of overlap between them, but together the two knew the locations of twenty-five bases. Howard closed his eyes and cleared his mind of Sigmund's personality residue, just as he'd been taught. Struck with inspiration, he dove back in and flipped a few mental switches.

"What was that?" Victor asked.

"This guy's a career soldier, he doesn't ask questions, he just takes out the target. I just changed the target, that's all." Howard responded. Victor came over to examine Howard's handiwork.

"Subtle, you're learning." Victor said. "Now, let's see what you can do with the other one."

Yoshiko's eyes snapped open as she noticed strange holes in her mental perception. Taking up her swords, she rose from her meditative position and rushed outside to alert her fellow ninjas--but then, those with any talent were already aware of the threat; she was just the first out of her house. Helicopters circled the village, launching gas grenades at the temple. Man, woman, child, the gas claimed them indiscriminately. Humanoid shapes descended with the aid of jet packs, landing at the very doors of the temple. She called the ones who had the necessary skill, and they moved as swiftly and silently as a falcon's shadow in the temple's direction. Putting barriers around themselves, they created envelopes of breathable air to sustain them in the wicked miasma, which the circling helicopters kept concentrated in the vicinity of the temple. Enemy agents fell to pieces before Yoshiko's blade, but the one she truly sought launched himself through the temple roof, carrying the clan's treasure aloft with him. Just like that, the helicopters were gone.

"If this message has been activated, then your sacred crystal has been taken hostage." said a voice. Yoshiko glared at the recording device sitting in the crystal's exalted place. "Do not attempt to recover it directly, or the container in which it has been placed will be detonated with sufficient force to destroy the crystal and whoever is sent to enact the recovery. It will be stored aboard a top-secret satellite until you have completed our task: Eliminate Victor Phillips." Yoshiko's blade cleaved the recording device and the crystal's violated pedestal. She exited the temple in shame. Looking around, she found that almost half of the village had succumbed to the gas once it was free to spread out from the temple.

"Yoshiko! What do we do?" asked Kaede, pulling the mask off her face.

"We have no choice. If we are to recover the sacred crystal, we must kill the target they have set before us." Yoshiko said. "Once we have it back, we will take our revenge. No one holds our treasure for ransom and lives!"

"Yoshiko!" a young voice called. The clan's most skilled ninja and most accomplished practitioner of the fading art of combat-meditation turned to find its youngest, little Kagome, hopping in her direction and trying to get her left shoe on. "I'm coming!"

"Kagome..." Yoshiko began.

"Yoshiko, I'm coming." the little girl responded. "I have to."

"You can't. There's no room for children on this mission."

"Yoshiko, you remember when I told you about my hunches? How they only happen when it's really important? Like when I decided to go pick herbs the day Fuji's baby came, and the herbs I brought were the very ones the healer needed to cure the infection she caught? Last night, I felt I had to sleep in a tree, and then this morning the gaijin came and used a gas that sticks to the ground. Well, now I've got a feeling I have to come with you."

Yoshiko sighed. Kagome was very young, not even ten, but already she had a burgeoning precognitive ability that manifested as strong hunches. Only recently had she begun to have conscious awareness of them so that it did not seem quite as much like the whims of a child. One day, she would be able to predict a foe's attacks before they had even formulated them, but for now...

"Fine." Yoshiko said. "Kaede, gather the best of whoever's left."

"Any hunches about who we should take, 'Gome?" Kaede asked.

"Everyone we can." Kagome responded. Soon, twenty ninjas had assembled at the edge of the village--twelve males, eight females. Kagome shed a tear as she cast a final look at the village of her birth, those who could not fight preparing to bury the dead. Then she rushed to catch up with the others.

Mirisynt opened one eye as the door to the infirmary opened. Her Master, mate and father of her children came in, embracing her mentally until he was close enough to do so physically.

"Did I wake you? I'm sorry." he said.

"I'm not." she said, snuggling her head into his chest and under his chin. Her voice trilled with pleasure at his presence, and her eyes shone in the dim light of the room. The maternal mortality rate for Krei'i was close to forty-five percent, but when she looked at their little ones, she felt it was worth the risk. With careful incubation after the Caesarian section, the little ones had grown strong. Their nostril slits were concealed by snow-white hair that would darken to cobalt blue before the end of their first year. Other than that, they looked a lot like the dominant life form of the planet they were inhabiting at the moment, at least as long as no one looked too closely at their hands.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better every day, Master." she said, kissing him. She felt him touch her mind and allowed her love for him and the happiness she felt in his presence to flow across the link. His hands roamed over her body for several minutes. He slipped his hand through the disinfecting force-field around the incubators to caress the infants--two males and two females--before he curled up beside Mirisynt, who lay her head on his chest to listen to his hearts beat until the sound lulled her back to sleep. Technically, they had quarters elsewhere, but Mirisynt was unwilling to leave their offspring, and Zak was unwilling to press the issue lest she think it was an order. The rare moments together were a treasure to be savored.