To Vwolf Youjutsu- Meep! You scared me for a second there, shouting like that. Yeah, there's a difference between Foresight and Farsight. As a fantasy buff and a loser with no life beyond the books she reads and the fanfiction she writes, I'm close to an expert on psychic gifts like this. I'm sorry about the wait, but I told you I wasn't going to post until I got five new reviews. I caved after three; I'm a hopeless pushover. Now that you mention it, I'm hungry, too…
"Done," Beki announced, stepping out of her room and into the hallway, where Trowa waited. "Thanks for not running while you had the chance."
"I don't know of any woman who can get dressed as fast as you," Trowa commented. "You look nice,"
"Aw, Tro, you're just the sweetest!" Beki exclaimed happily. It may have only taken her five minutes to change, do her hair, and dig her shoes out of the closet, but she'd put some serious thought into the outfit. "Where're we eating?"
"Where else?" He asked, motioning for her to lead the way out, "McDonald's,"
McDonald's wasn't very crowded, as they'd just missed the lunch rush; there were only two other people in the restaurant, in fact, and Trowa worked for one of them.
"Q-chan!" Rebbekha exclaimed, jumping on the blonde. "Imagine running into you here, of all places! It must be destiny. Will you marry me?"
"I hate to break your heart, but I'm taken," Mr. Winner said.
"Q-chan, you wound me!" Rebbekha said, posing dramatically. "So, is this your main squeeze? He's cute as all get-out. Konnichiwa; watashi wa Beki-chan desu."
"Doozo yoroshiku," Mr. Yuy answered. "Boku wa Yuy Heero desu."
"Waai! Doozo yoroshiku, Heero-san! Hajimemashite? O genki desu ka?"
"Hai, genki desu,"
Trowa gave up and went to order. The only Japanese word he knew was 'gomenasai,' and that was only because Rebbekha used it so often. By the time he got back to the table, thankfully, they were speaking in English.
"It must be really hard work to own a company," Rebbekha said. "I have enough trouble with just one computer and no subordinates."
"Good subordinates make it easier." Mr. Yuy said with a shrug.
"Too bad you never let them handle anything important," Winner interrupted with a laugh. "The only person you trust with anything that actually matters is Lucrezia, and you don't trust her near enough."
"Aw, is poor Heero-kun paranoid?" Rebbekha asked with a laugh. "Well, as long as he's not in the nuthouse or having an affair with a cute intern, I think it's okay. Notice I said I think it's okay, Heero-kun; Q-chan may feel differently. Ah, Tro, did you get my nuggets?"
"Yes," Trowa said, resisting the urge to remind her that for two years now, she'd been getting nuggets, fries, and a Dr. Pepper every single time they went to McDonald's.
"Domo arigato, Trowa-kun," She said with a smile. "You're the best."
"I don't know how you managed it, but this whole engine is toast," Diana said, shaking her head. "I love you like a brother, Kyle, but you're the only man I know that can total his truck in a head-on collision with a cardboard box."
"To be perfectly honest, it wasn't so much the box I hit as the tree I careened off of trying not to run over it," Kyle explained while Diana sighed and made little dismayed sounds over his beloved truck. "And at least the cats got out okay, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, the rodent-eaters are fine," Diana said absently. "And I love the kitten, he's an adorable terror. Do you have any idea what this is going to cost you? This hunk of junk is an S-10. A '96 S-10. Those parts don't come cheap."
"Yeah, but you can get them, right?"
"Of course," Diana assured him as the phone rang. "That's probably Dorothy; this could be a while. Go get me lunch."
"- but Eric says he hasn't gotten hint one of anything big yet, so if you could rope in your foreseer, maybe they can trigger him a vision or three." Beki said cheerfully. "Oh, and there's a kid at my college, the cutest little freshman, she's got Foresight, but I don't think it's very strong; she's 3 at the very highest, but she still might be helpful. Also, I got to thinking, a dangerous occupation for me, and I thought to myself that maybe we should give my sister a call."
It seemed to Heero that Beki was one of those people who talked incessantly, hardly stopping for breath. He usually found that kind of person highly annoying, because they would babble about nothing just to be talking. Beki, however, babbled about relevant issues, although her last leap of logic was beyond him.
"Diana?" Trowa asked, sounding pained. "What use would she be?"
"Well, this mysterious person who attackeded me is using fear and intimidation," Beki explained. "And no one is as scary and intimidating as Diana. Plus, she's street-smart. She and Duo can get me safely into and out of some of the seedier neighborhoods. Adversity, I've noticed, makes for stronger Talents, especially the survival Talents like Foresight.
"Besides," She said with a sheepish grin, "it's too late to veto the idea; I already called, and she'll be here tomorrow."
"Correction," a new voice said. "I was going to get here tomorrow, but Kyle's rig wasn't as banged up as I thought, so I got out a day early."
The speaker was a short woman, with blue-black hair that spilled loose over her shoulders and down her back, stick-straight to Beki's wavy. Her right eye was a deep, clear blue, while her left eye was leaf-green. Her face was pretty, but there was a stubborn set to her chin and shoulders that suggested she didn't want to hear how pretty she was.
"Heero-kun, Q-chan, meet my little sister Diana," Beki said. "Diana, Heero-kun is Trowa's boss and Q-chan is Heero-kun's boytoy, so no touchie. You remember Trowa?"
"What's up, Unabang?" Diana asked, sliding into the booth next to Trowa. "Nice to meet you two. Talents?"
"Heero-kun's a telepath, and Q-chan's an empath." Beki said. "Both level 1. Can you believe that?"
"Jesus Christ," Diana snorted. "These the freaks you called me in to help?"
"Yes, ma'am. We've got foreseers getting visions of what could be Ragnorak and a psycho projective empath trying to drive me crazy. Anything on your end?"
"Nothing much; foreseers in my neck of the woods haven't been getting anything, but one empath's down for the count, and two low-level telepaths keep picking up distress signals that fade out too fast for them to get a fix." Diana explained, shrugging. "Besides which, some of the pets have gone nuts on us, and even though it's the height of the tourist season, we aren't getting any tourists half the time. If you ask me, it's probably the sarky bastard we hit up four years ago. Remember him?"
"Ugh, how could I forget?" Beki demanded with an expressive shudder. "I say we adjourn this meeting somewhere a bit more private. Q-chan and Heero-kun probably have no idea what we're talking about, and Trowa never got more than a basic outline of events. Who lives closest?"
The group adjourned to Heero and Quatre's apartment, where they ranged themselves around the living room. Heero and Quatre took the loveseat, Trowa the armchair, Diana the couch, and Beki the floor next to the coffee table.
"Okay, who starts?" Diana asked, putting her boots on the table. It was a bad habit, but one she'd never bothered trying to break. "I know more of the details, but you were right in the thick of it."
"Me, then, since I came in before you," Beki said, closing her eyes and taking a calming breath. "Four years ago, when Diana and I both still lived with Mom, we ran into a nasty piece of work with level 2 Projective Empathy. I got into it when he started trying to build an army of Talents; a friend he converted let slip about my radar thing, and he wanted to make like Aerune and have me sniff out recruits for him."
"No literary allusions," Diana said, mostly because it annoyed her when she didn't catch one. She wasn't the kind of girl who saw looking stupid as a learning experience. "And before the problem comes up, stick to the subject,"
"Meanie," Beki pouted. "Anyway, he did then mostly what's happening now; attacking people with weak shields, scaring the heebie-jeebies out of 'em, then claiming he could protect them from whatever was scaring them. The worst part was, he could drain telepaths and empaths, using their Talent to boost himself, like they were extra battery packs or something.
"He tried his tricks on me, but he couldn't hold me for long, maybe a day at the most, and he had to be close to get me at all. He took that personally. When we finally tracked him down and confronted him, he took it even more personally. And when Diana kicked his ass, he vowed revenge. Last we saw, he was headed in the other direction, fast and far as walls permitted."
Diana smiled. If nothing else, Beki had an interesting way of phrasing things.
"My turn. I first heard about this when Beki did the only smart thing she's ever done and came to me for protection."
"Hey!"
"You're an idiot. Get used to the concept. She brought me up to speed and let me loose in the Talent community around our place, where I picked up plenty of info. Our boy Dekim had been going around draining telepaths and empaths for decades, apparently. He went overseas six years ago, and came back after two years, mad as hell according to my sources. Seems someone one-upped him in the Middle East or something. He was building himself an army because his nemesis was in the States, and he wanted to get even.
"He tried for Beki and some other useful Talents in the area, but we managed to best him, mostly because of a friendly police officer with a small Talent for mind control and a shiny new gun. After the fact, we learned just what a depraved freak Dekim was; none of my touchreaders would go near the things he'd handled until after most of the traces were all but faded. He did some real sick things with and to his followers while he was in power. There was a girl, seven at the time, who'll probably never feel clean again as long as she lives."
Quatre was beginning to look green around the gills, so Diana avoided further detail on that case.
"We couldn't jail him for anything, because we had no proof we didn't come by through Talent or illegal means. The cop got suspended, I got charged with aggravated assault, and Dekim rode off into the sunset on a plane. We haven't heard a peep from him since. My guess is he's back. They say revenge is a dish best eaten cold, right?"
It's done! Your chapter's finished, Diana! You can't kill me now!
At least, you can't kill me for not writing your chapter. Most anything else is fair game, I guess. Or you could kill me for no reason at all.
Anyway, please review.