Siberia 1908 AD GP officer Kay turned to her partner. "Nice shooting, Yoori. They're going to have to make an emergency landing or be blown to bits." They had been chasing this ship for days. These three renegades had escaped almost ten years ago. All three of them were wanted for more crimes than either Kay or Yoori could remember. Now, months of effort had finally lead them to these three, known only as X, Y, and Z. Real names unknown. Yoori frowned. "We're about to enter a restricted system. No one is supposed to enter here without Juraiian permisson." "Right. You call them while we give chase. If we stop to file paperwork, they'll find somewhere to hide!" The paperwork was still in progress when they spotted the ship heading for the third planet from the sun. The computer's records were rather sketchy, but the planet was named 'Dirt'. What kind of weirdoes name their planet 'Dirt'?, Kay wondered. They probably worship a mud-god or something. Yoori frowned. "They're heading for the surface." "That's easily fixed." Kay opened fire. "Hey! You might kill them!" "You wanna try and comb the freaking surface for them? On a planet named 'Dirt?' No way." Yoori buried her face in her hands, leaning foward and letting her dark blue hair cascade down onto the controls. "Well, they won't be getting away. Because there won't be anything LEFT of them!" The ship spiraled downward towards a snow covered forest in the northeastern corner of the largest continental mass on the planet. "Right. Well, we can do a flyby and check for wreckage," Kay said. There wasn't any wreckage, just a crater with fused sides and the trees leaning inwards towards the explosion. "That's creepy," Kay said. "Their drive must have imploded. Shrunk the whole ship into a micro-black hole, then right out of the space-time continuum." Yoori said. "Well, that'll make the report easy to write." Yoori sighed and headed the ship back out of the system. Three less criminals in the universe, she thought, and no witnesses to our presence. She was wrong on both counts. To the west stood a small hut, and by that hut stood a man in monk's robes, who had seen everything. And heading towards him were three glowing spheres of light... *************************************************************************** Chapter 8: Blown Cover *************************************************************************** Andrea groaned and dragged herself out of bed. Time to go spy on suspect #3, she thought. I hope this isn't as much a waste of time as the previous guy... She soon got dressed and went to check her recording equipment. The subject was a man named Thomas Fujitsu, employee in the Computer Department of the ADPolice. I hope this guy didn't bring some woman home like the last one did, she thought. The last thing I need is a tape full of 'oh baby, oh baby'. Her wish came true. She sat at her computer and punched a few keys, then flicked a switch. "Analysis of recording, Dairak?" A voice spoke, "Subject led a boring normal life except for one unusual phone call. Shall I call it up?" "Yes." There was a brief pause. "Time stamp: 10:55 pm." ********************** The phone rang. Thomas Fujitsu answered the phone. "Yeah, what?" "Would you like to buy a copy of the Watchtower?" "Thanks, I'd rather eat rocks." "We've started advertising in the Tokyo Star. There's a Kingdom Hall in your area. We open at ten, you're welcome to..." "What part of rocks don't you understand?" Fujitsu hung up, then went and got a copy of the Tokyo Star from his dinner table. Unfortunately, Andrea couldn't see what he was reading from this angle. *********************** Andrea went and got her copy of the Tokyo Star. Let's see...she paged through it and found an ad for the new kingdom hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. Time to go see if our friend is on his way there. "Has he left his house yet?" "Not yet." "Good...time for me to do a little following, I think." *************************************************************************** Noa stepped out of the car. Six Ingrams stood on carriers in front of her. They were numbered 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 and looked rather incongrous in a clearing in the middle of a forest. She laughed and turned to her husband, Asuma. "What, no number one?" He smiled. "If we take Alphonse out of your restaurant before we're ready, the government AND Genom will be all over us." Noa looked at the collection of teenagers and young adults. "Where'd you find these people, anyway?" Goto came out from behind one of the carriers. "Our psychic friends." Noa blinked. "Heh...you always were a kidder, Chief. Seriously." Asuma put one hand behind his head, and briefly looked like the kid he had been when he first became a labor pilot. "He's not kidding, Noa." "They're ALL psychics?" One or two, Noa could believe, but THIS MANY? "And blood relatives," Goto said. "I wanted to get Ohta for this, but he's too old. Also, if he left the Academy, people might notice." Ohta was a semi-retired shooting instructor at the ADPolice Academy now. He should have retired years ago, but as long as he remained somewhat active, he had access to guns. That was enough to keep him in the business, so to speak. "You and Asuma are the only two of us who are young enough to take a more active role in this...and I didn't want to drag everyone out of their lives into this. It's going to be very dangerous." Noa continued to boggle. "Where did you get all these Ingrams, anyway, dear?" she asked Asuma. He smiled. "Most of them are cobbled together from damaged ones we had in a warehouse. Two of them were supposedly melted down for parts back in 2027. We've been working on this for years. We have only so long before someone notices this. Let's go...time for us to play teacher." I hope you know what you're doing, chief...The song 'Revolution #1' began to echo in her head, 'So you say you want a Revolution...' *************************************************************************** Celia came out to the kitchen. A huge breakfast of pancakes, sausage, bacon, and eggs was waiting there for her. Macky was already eating, as was Meylia. "Good morning, dear. How are you?" Celia smiled and sat down. "Still trying to figure out what to do next..." "Well, once you finish work today, Father and I were going to see about trying to awaken you and Macky's abilities while everyone else is out investigating." Celia nodded. "I...Telling everyone about this is going to be...Priss is going to think I'm nuts. I almost think I'm nuts." Macky shrugged. "Something like that." He laughed. "As long as I get fed like this more often, I don't care if I find out I'm related to a giant flaming carnivorous gerbil." Meylia and Celia both laughed. "None of our relatives are quite THAT strange, I think." *************************************************************************** The morning sentry at USSD yawned. Boring morning. It's always a boring morning. There was a flash of light, and 200 disabled laser satellites appeared in the parking lot of USSD. Suddenly, the morning wasn't going to be so boring after all. ************************************************************************* Priss stomped into her band's rented practice room. George, the new drummer, looked up. "Someone pissed in your wheaties again?" "If you see a woman with long green hair and reddish eyes, kick her ass for me, okay?" Priss stomped over to the fridge. "Hey, there's nothing in here but non-alcholic sake...that's like making coffee without any beans." "WHAT?" Ruby, the guitarist said. "Who the hell did that?" Priss grumbled. Someone out there is trying to piss me off. The bass guitarist didn't know it, but he was about to come due for a beating. *************************************************************************** Andrea sat casually in her car and watched a small monitor that was obeserving her target's living room. He stepped out the front door, and she turned on her engine. It was pretty easy to follow him over to the Kingdom Hall. I wonder how someone dresses for a place like this, she thought. I hope I won't look like a mutant. She was wearing a nice blue blouse and a long skirt. She had read the briefing her computer gave her, but it was stock full of unexplained terms that would have required more time than she had to do research. I'll just try to act respectful. She followed him in. **************************************************************************** Linna woke up. The answering machine messages had finished. She listened to the first message again. I'm not hallucinating. But it was just a dream! Just a dream, damnit! A memory took her. *************************** Linna moved through the form gracefully as her master watched. She had been practicing this one for weeks. If beauty contests had done anything for her, they had made her able to do virtually anything with people watching her and not be bothered. Even knowing she would be yelled at if she messed up didn't phase her. Only the form mattered. She finished the form, then returned to a standing ready position. Her master was silent. Too silent. Linna frowned. "What did I do wrong?" A soft snore answered her. Linna sighed. Hiromi laughed. "Just joking. You did very well, but I can tell that something is bothering you." "Master...how did you know that Taiki would dump me?" "He's an obnoxious jerk." "But..." "Also, I dreamed it. And saw it." "Dreams don't mean anything!" "Some do, and some do not. Part of life is learning to tell the difference. You may see what was, what is, or what may be." "But I never dreamed he would dump me...I had no clue." "Only because you chose not to see them. If you go on ignoring whatever you don't want to see, Linna, you will end by seeing nothing at all...Do not be afraid to see, Linna." *************************** Linna sighed. I have to know more...It's probably all just in my mind...but... She tried calling Master Hiromi, but no one answered. Now what? Maybe I should go talk to Celia...I've got a few hours until I have to teach my classes. If nothing else, she might be able to recommend me a good psychologist. I hope I don't NEED one. *************************************************************************** Leon sat with Mihoshi at their desks. Only a few more days and Daley is back, Leon thought. Thank GOD. "Well, I've got the final report done on that haircut boomer. What little we have to report." Mihoshi was busily typing away at something at her desk and humming a tune to herself. "Oh, you're doing it? I thought you wanted me to do it." Leon said, "We don't need a 20 page report for this..." Leon had learned that Mihoshi, whatever her other flaws, wrote the most thorough reports in the history of police departments. Too thorough. The boss didn't need every word spoken by anyone during the case...Mihoshi seemed to remember EVERYTHING...too bad she couldn't ever do anything useful with everything she noticed. He wandered over to see what she was typing. 'Haircut boomer missing its registration plate. Plate appeared to have been removed with a blowtorch or similar device rather than the screws being removed.' Leon frowned. I hadn't noticed that... "Wait, the registration plate was melted off?" Mihoshi nodded. "It might have been whatever killed it did that too." "Why didn't you say anything?" "I didn't really notice it until I actually thought about it." She paused. "Wait...why would the owner melt off the plate when he or she could just remove it with a screwdriver?" "Why would the owner want to bother removing the plate at all? Unless someone wanted it to look destroyed in the...baah. Something is not making sense...unless whoever did this knew it would be destroyed in such a way that we might not realize the plate was deliberately removed instead of destroyed in the battle..." Leon frowned. But what would be the POINT of that? Mihoshi thought for a second. "Maybe the person who removed the plate didn't have a screwdriver...if this was maybe a stolen boomer, and they just fused the plate off so it couldn't be traced. And if it was stolen, they might have taken parts or something for sale elsewhere and that's why it became unstable." Leon nodded. "True. They might have just not wanted to bother removing the plate carefully...it's not like they needed it. Maybe we'd better go check out this haircut place a little more thoroughly." Mihoshi nodded. "Sounds good to me." "Let's go." Leon got up. I guess Mihoshi does come in handy, sometimes. *************************************************************************** Linna headed home from the grocery store. She felt better now. I just needed to get my mind off this. I'll go put this stuff away, go teach my classes, then go home. Yes, that'll be good. Linna's return home was about to be...delayed. *************************************************************************** Andrea listened quietly through the door into the room she had just followed her target to. "Ahh, the disk. Very good. Let's see what we have here." Andrea didn't recognize the deep male voice that had just spoken. "Why couldn't I just email you the information?" This, on the other hand, was her target. "Because a system that is not open to outside access can't be hacked into from the outside. It makes it rather difficult to recieve email too." Andrea could hear typing noises. "You need me to stay or can I go now?" More typing noises were the only reply at first. Finally, the first man spoke. "Hmm. This was all you could find on Loughlin?" Fujitsu replied, "Yeah. The records on her are rather minimal." "Hmmm. That confirms it. She is the one." "So now what?" "Just continuing gathering the usual information and monitoring. We'll handle this. You're a computer expert, not a field agent. See you later." Andrea prepared to duck out of sight. Unfortunately... "Hey, what are you doing here?" Two beefy men in business suits were confronting her. "Help, I'm REALLY lost," she said. "Oh. Right. Follow us." The men turned and started to lead Andrea out of the building. Sadly, before they got out of sight of the door, Thomas Fujitsu stepped out of the room she had been listening to the conversation in. Things only got worse from there. ***************************************************************************** Mihoshi and Leon paused in front of the new Kingdom Hall that had just opened about half a block from the barbershop they were heading to. Mihoshi stared at the sign. "Ano, what's a Jehovah?" "He's the god they worship, I think. Actually, I'm really not sure." Leon spotted Linna, stuck in traffic, and waved. Linna blinked and waved back. Wonder what they're doing around here, she thought. She rolled down the window, "Hello, officers." Leon came over. "Hey, you know who these Jehovah's Witness people are? Mihoshi was wondering." Linna shrugged. "A Hindu sect, maybe?" She paused. "No...Jehovah another name for God...I think. I've never heard of these guys though." At this point, there was an explosion inside the hall and Andrea came running out with a gun in her right hand, swearing loudly. Linna, Mihoshi, and Leon blinked in unison. Two huge men in suits with pistols were shooting at her. Linna muttered, "They must be a militant sect...", then shouted, "Andrea, what the HELL is going on?" Andrea spotted her fellow officers. "Run! RUN!!!!!" Leon and Mihoshi drew their guns. "What the hell is going on here?" "I found a hacker into the ADPolice system so I stupidly chased him here by myself...he had friends. Run, I think these are boomers!" Andrea ran. Leon and Mihoshi followed her lead. "Where are we running to?" Mihoshi asked. Linna watched them run. I hope Andrea's going to be okay... "Somewhere they aren't!" Andrea said, turning down an alleyway. Leon said, "Why don't we just shoot them?" "They've either got body armor, or they're boomers." Andrea replied. Mihoshi said, "If they're boomers, we're going to need help." Leon said, "Mihoshi, you go to our car and call for backup. Andrea and I will take these guys for a long jog." Mihoshi nodded and ran off. Leon turned to Andrea, "This hacker was working for this religious group?" "He's an ADPolice employee, named Thomas Fujitsu. Works in computers. He was reporting to someone in there, but I suspect it's just a front. Why would some religious group want to infiltrate ADP?" Leon nodded. "How'd you get on this guy's trail?" "Someone hacked into my personal records. He was overconfident about his ability to hide his backtrail. He hacked into your records too...and a lot of other people." Leon frowned. "Damnit. A traitor." They almost reached the end of the alleyway when two more figures stepped into view. "End of the line." "SHIT." **************************************************************************** The ADPolice officers finished combing the area while Mihoshi ran around everywhere, shouting, "LEON!" Lt. Shinohara came over to Mihoshi. "Well, we haven't found a body, so probably whoever it was took both of them captive...whoever it was. The Jehovah's Witnesses want to press charges for tresspassing against Officer Loughlin if we ever find her." Mihoshi pulled herself together. "Thank you, Lt. Shinohara. I need to go report in." Her lips moved without forming any coherent words and she trembled slightly. "I'm going to take one last look." She went back to the alleyway and looked around. A few officers were still picking over it, but it didn't seem likely they'd find anything useful. Mihoshi wandered around. There has to be a clue somewhere...Distracted, she slipped on a banana peel and landed in a pile of garbage. A small red globe earring was lying about an inch from her eye. Ahah! A clue, she thought. Oh wait...this is one of THOSE earrings. She smiled. All hope was not lost. ***************************************************************************** Linna finally finished her classes for the day and went home. She was rather surprised to find Mihoshi on her doorstep, trying hard not to cry. "Mihoshi, what's wrong?" Mihoshi grabbed Linna. "You've got to help me! I can't find anyone else and they've got my partners!" Linna blinked. "Who has your partners?" PartnerS? "I don't know, but we've got to hurry before they kill her or something!" "Ummm...If you know where she is, why haven't you called in the rest of the people at the ADPolice?" "I did, but they don't know where to look!" "Well, what good would I be?" "I can't tell them about this transmitter she was carrying because it's a secret! Tenchi'll get mad at me! WAAAAAHHH!!!!!" Linna blinked. "Andrea is carrying a transmitter?" Mihoshi nodded. "It's standard Galaxy Police Issue." "Standard what?" Mihoshi said, "Uh...Pretend I didn't say that, okay?" Linna blinked. "You really ARE from outer space?" Mihoshi jumped up and down. "How did you guess?" "Let me go call some back up..." She paused. "Wait...ANDREA was carrying the transmitter? She's from space too?" "Yes! She's my partner...uh...waaah, I wasn't supposed to tell anyone that either!" Linna shook her head. Isn't ANYONE normal anymore? ***************************************************************************** Leon looked over at Andrea. "I don't suppose you've got a laser in your watch by any chance?" Andrea laughed. "Not me." They were both tied up in the corner of a large old warehouse. Two of the thugs were watching them, but not very well. They seemed to be waiting for someone. "Any idea who these people are?" Leon asked. "Almost certainly Genom...who else would bother to infiltrate ADPolice?" Besides us, Andrea thought. "Not that they'll admit it." Leon nodded. "Well, maybe Mihoshi will find us." He paused. "On second thought, I think I'm going to pray for a quick death." "Oh, she'll save us. We won't enjoy it...but somehow, she'll save us. She always accomplishes what she sets out to do. Everyone around her may suffer intensely, but she'll find us." Andrea laughed faintly. "Haven't you noticed that by now?" Leon nodded. "Somehow, she does get stuff done...don't ask me how. So why did you go after this guy by yourself?" Andrea sighed. "Because I'm stupid. I hate to say that...but yeah, this was stupid." A car drove into the warehouse. A man got out. He was tall with short brown hair, wearing a dark suit. Three men who looked like, 'Joe bodyguard' surrounded him as he got out and walked over. "Interesting. I am surprised to see you here, Officer McNichol." "Nice to meet you. Who the hell are you?" The man smiled. "You may call me Mr. Warren, if you like." "Not really, but I will anyway." Leon said. "You're making a lot of trouble for yourself, mister!" The man laughed. "I would never have pegged you as one of their agents...but the world is full of surprises, I suppose." Andrea recognized the man as the voice she had heard talking to Fujitsu before. "You got that right." "So, do you want to tell us everything now, or do we have to beat it out of you? I don't care either way." Andrea glanced over at Leon who said, "Well, I don't have any secrets. Ask me whatever you want." Much as I'd like to be defiant, he thought, what's he going to ask me that I can't tell him? Andrea smiled faintly. "Whatever." "So how long have you been working for the Yakuza, Officer McNichol?" Leon laughed. "The WHAT? What gives you a crazy idea like that?" Andrea said, "He just happened to be in the area investigating another case. He's not part of this...he doesn't know anything." "Uh huh. Just a coincidence. Right. And I'm the King of Siam. I suppose you're not aware that 'Officer Loughlin' is neither an officer nor really named Andrea Loughlin?" The man sounded clearly rhethorical. "WHAT?" Leon looked over at Andrea. Andrea sighed. "Got any proof of that?" "Besides the fact that no one in New York City knows who you are, other than your 'superior', who sang a different tune when we got ahold of him...you paid him pretty well, I have to admit." Andrea laughed. "What gives you the crazy idea I'm Yakuza? They don't exactly recruit women, you know." Leon just stared. She was a spy? In the ADPolice? Clearly not working for GENOM...assuming this guy was working for Genom...haven't seen anyone yet we can prove is a boomer. Of course, Andrea might be a boomer. Leon's brain started tying itself into knots. Andrea's earring pinged softly. She smiled. "Then who ARE you really working for? SCHAFT? US Robots?" "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Andrea said. A tiny voice whispered in her ear. Too bad this thing doesn't have a longer range, she thought. Leon looked around. Where's that faint voice coming from. Mr. Warren's frowned. He thought he heard something too. "Try me. I've heard some very wild true stories." "Well, here's a little story. I'm from outer space, working for the Galaxy Police. My partner is about to blast her way in here with her space ship and turn you into a large pile of ash along with your little friends. Someone in your company has a grudge against the house of Jurai and we're going to bring him to justice, quite possibly over your dead body. Do you want to surrender now or shall we do this the hard way?" Leon blinked. Mr. Warren began to laugh. "I haven't had this good a laugh in a long time. Let's try the truth this time around?" "Okay, the truth is that my partner can't find the keys to her spaceship, so she brought the Knight Sabres instead. KNIGHT SABRES, GO!" The ceiling exploded and four female figures in hard suits crashed down, followed by a fifth figure in a green clunky looking battle suit who toppled through the hole and landed on her head. She promptly started yelling, "Owwie!" Everyone froze for a few seconds as Sabre-Green quietly slapped her forehead. Sabre Prime spoke. "Give up now." Mr. Warren swore. Damnit. "Deal with them," he said to his bodyguards and ran. The three bodyguards promptly did the 'split out of their skin into a big blue laws of physics defying critter' trick. The Sabres opened fire, not waiting for them to finish. The other men in the place ran for their lives, knowing they were just ordinary humans and not heavily enough armed to deal with the Knight Sabres. Sabre-Pink chased Mr. Warren while the others dealt with the three combat boomers. Meanwhile, the clunky green mech headed over to where Leon and Andrea were still tied up. Leon turned to Andrea. "Please tell me that's NOT Mihoshi in that thing." "That's not Mihoshi in that thing." Andrea said. The green mech tried to lean down to untie the two and fell down instead, nearly crushing Leon's legs. "ITAI!" The mech shouted. Leon sighed. "You lied to me!" "You asked me to lie to you!" "Good point." Meanwhile, the Sabres were having a moderately rough time of it with the boomers. While this model of bodyguard boomer was low on offensive capabilities, they were very tough and fast, which made them hard to kill. Linna and her opponent danced about, both of them trying to get the other to make a mistake, neither succeeding. Priss was wrestling with hers. She managed to pin it, but then didn't have any weapons conveniently placed to DO anything to it. Celia's opponent was wary, also, dodging her gunfire and managing to stay out of arm's reach. Mr. Warren, on the other hand, had no luck. Sabre-Pink easily grabbed him and dragged him off. Meanwhile, the green mech managed to get back up and untie Andrea and Leon. Mihoshi popped up her face plate. "Are you two okay?" "We're fine, Mihoshi," Leon said. What the HELL is going on here? Damn I'm confused. "Good! Time for me to save the day!" She turned and opened fire on the mech Celia was fighting. Her lasers cut it in half, then kept going and caused Mr. Warren's car to explode. "Ooops." Mr. Warren tried not to cry. "My CAR!" Andrea laughed. "Poor baby." She turned to Leon. "I think that's our cue to get out before we become collateral damage." He nodded and ran. Celia went after Priss's opponent and finished it off with her electroknife, then both of them went after Linna's opponent. By this point, most of the men had cleared out and the few that were left simply threw their hands in the air. Nene dragged Mr. Warren over to the other sabres. Priss grinned at Warren. "I needed a good fight. Thank you." "Uh, you're welcome." "Now you're going to tell us EVERYTHING." Mr. Warren said, "Or you'll what?" "Or I'll use you to play 'Operation'. With my railgun." Priss said. Mr. Warren began to sweat. ********************************************************************** Leon turned to Andrea outside. "What the HELL is going on?" "I can't tell you everything...but...I am really a cop. Just not from New York. However, I'm on leave from that job. Genom has been killing off members of a family that is very important to me. So I came when they asked to infiltrate the ADPolice. We're trying to find out who in Genom is responsible so we can bring them down. Mihoshi's a cop too where we're from. She's my partner in fact." "And where are you from?" She sighed. "I can't tell you that yet. I swear that I'm not any kind of corporate spy. I haven't done anything to obstruct the ADPolice. And I really was chasing someone who was hacking into people's files. He was a plant for Genom." "And the Knight Sabres are working for the same people you are? Or are they the people you work for?" "Yes. They're working with us now." The sounds of fighting had died down. Leon swore mentally. Now what do I do? I have to tell my superiors SOMETHING... "So now what?" "I think this is my resignation from the ADPolice so to speak. I've done my part. Mr. Warren should be waiting for you inside." She held out her hand. "It's been nice working with you and everyone at the ADPolice." "I can't just let you leave! I..." "Unless you can knock me out with sheer moral force, I'm out of here. Although I suspect we will meet again. Good day, Officer McNichol." She ran off, leaving Leon staring after her. This is going to be TOO much fun trying to explain this at HQ. **************************************************************************** Warren had sung like a bird. He was working for a man named Wallace, one of the new Vice Presidents at Genom. Wallace was in charge of various corporate spies. Fujitsu was one of Warren's agents in the ADPolice. He had no connection to the assassination, or at least none they could shake out of him. However, he said he wouldn't be surprised to learn Genom had agents in Schilling Enterprises, who WERE connected to it. They'd wrung lots of names and places out of him. Of course, a lot of the information wouldn't stay good for long... One piece of information, however, would. It was Wallace who had sent the attack on Meylia. "Now what, Celia?" Nene asked. The Sabres had returned to base. Mihoshi and Andrea, whose real name was Kiyone, had headed off to let the others know what was going on. "Time to rip this group of agents apart and see what falls when we shake the tree. But first, we'll need to confer with our new friends and see what they've learned." Priss sat quietly and brooded. I've got to talk to someone normal...someone who isn't part of this...but hardly anyone falls into this category any more. "I need to be alone for a while. Call me when you need me or when we're going to do something." Linna sighed. Andrea was the last normal person I knew that I was really close to...Although with that dream...no, I won't think about that. I guess I should call Master Hiromi. "Well, if we're not going to do anything right now, I'm gonna go too." Celia looked at Nene. "I'll stay. We can practice being royalty together," Nene said, laughing. Priss snorted. "If you put crowns on our hardsuits, I'll kill you. I'm outta here." Celia said, "Keep in touch. We may do something later tonight." Priss nodded. "Let's blow this palace, eh Linna?" Linna quietly slapped herself mentally. Priss is still as normal as she ever was...I must be starting to go crazy in the head. As they walked out, she said, "I bet you never expected things would get this strange when Celia walked into your life, eh?" Priss turned to her with a vaguely haunted look. "No, I didn't. Nothing quite like finding out someone is not quite what you thought they were?" "Well, we're still the same. It's kinda scary. Then again, maybe someone will show up and tell us both we're faerie princesses, eh?" Priss started, then stared suspiciously at Linna. Linna paled. "Sorry, I was trying to be funny..." "You failed." Priss got on her bike and roared off. Linna stared after her. What did I say? Maybe I'll go barhopping for a while...I NEED a drink. *****************************************************************************