---xX--Xx---
I woke when the light hit me right in the temple,
Felt something cold touch my toes as it passed.
Might not be the face you’d expect,
But he’s clearly insane, got me pegged in the back.
---xX--Xx---
“Is that all? I suppose I can help you with that, but you may be a little queasy in the end.”
Before Lina could pull her head away from Angel, his index finger connected with the spot on her forehead where many religions said the third eye rests. It was as if the Lost Number had turned a key in the lock her brain had become, and in the blink of an eye everything came flooding back. Marcelina’s combat experience was returned to her completely. She didn’t feel queasy at all: in fact, there was a distinct sense of peace and closure once the memories had returned. Gadrael had utilized forbidden arts… no wonder they’d all been defeated.
“Thank you,” the woman said to Angel, on a sigh of relief. “That’s actually much better.”
But before Angel could respond to Lina, he was struck in the face with a fist-sized pink blob. It had been launched by Seira, who crowed triumphantly from the doorway. And then all hell broke loose.
The psycho thirteen year-old was back. She must have been standing just outside the door listening to everything like the fruitcake she was. Of course she was furious that the ‘trash’ had struck her partner. She proceeded to attack the entire group, calling in a judgment protocol on all of them.
This was not like facing down Gadrael. Kai felt no fear at this little girl’s display of power. As he floated upwards -along with his chair, and the table, and everything else in the room- he caught Lina’s green gaze.
You know this is all part of their act, right?
Of course, Lina replied in her head. We don’t seem to be afraid of, or impressed by, them at all… I called her partner on acting like a dumbass… they had to do something.
All this power, Kai couldn’t help marveling at the Chrono’s talent, and she uses it over a silly food fight. Imagine what she could have done to Gadrael if she had just been there!
It’s a shame, isn’t it? Lina thought back. What a waste!
As Kai was floating in mid-air, a small pink blob with an odd shape floated past his chest. As Angel tried to calm his rampaging partner, Kai reached out and clasped the thing gingerly between his right forefinger and thumb. It spoke to him immediately: this was a gadget covered in goo. He pocketed the unknown device right about the time Reri was distracted by the cell phone charm and gravity restored itself to normal.
Angel started speaking then, and Dos Pistolas paid close attention to his words again. It was another long tirade, but this one much more informative and much less taunting. Kai and Lina watched and listened with expressions on their faces that mixed boredom and incredulity.
---xX--Xx---
Eyes huge, so little left if something:
Cracks and clues, he’s crazy as a straw!
Why denied, does no one care or nothing?
How, you ask, I ever last so long.
---xX--Xx---
How much of that do you think is true? Kai asked his partner telepathically. She was always better at seeing through people than he was, at guessing the truth from their lies.
I’d believe the part about us being suspected traitors. Judging by the sound of this CODE, it’s something you might have been able to crack. That alone could have put us on the list. I believe the part about the near-death experience and the scan: that totally sounds like something the A.M.R.O. would do to us.
True, Kai agreed.
It also makes me wonder if these two were supposed to have a near-death experience as well. Because if they haven’t had one… then they haven’t been scanned. And there’s only one reason they’d avoid it, really.
Kai’s amber eyes widened a little, flickered over to where Angel and Reri were standing, then back to Lina.
The part about the A.M.R.O. wanting us dead, about us belonging to the Chrono… that shit I don’t buy for a second. If we were supposed to die, they would have just left us out there in the desert to do it on our own, kept their hands clean. Like Crazy Straw said, there’s a lot of paperwork involved, more if the A.M.R.O. does the deed themselves instead of a KIA.
The male Asylum nodded, and waited expectantly.
If they are the traitors, Lina continued, of course they’ll want us to be as loyal to them as possible, so they want us to think that they’ve risked their necks to keep us alive. Perhaps they’re hoping it will make us less likely to question them and their motives in the future.
As far as us proving our worth as Asylums… well, we do that on every mission we complete, and we were going to do that again on this mission, anyway. So whatever these lunatics want our motivations to be, the result is the same. We need to handle the Kings and the Circus as quickly and quietly as possible, and do our best to look out for information leaks along the way.
Agreed. So I guess we have work to do, Kai replied.
By now there was a gun on the table, and Angel was dramatically demanding they choose death or the Lunatic Team.
“So pick your poison, i Gemellie de Demone… Or A.M.R.O and its Laws, in which case you can just unclip this magazine down your throats.”
Kai and Lina did not have a choice to make. They were creatures of the A.M.R.O.: always had been, always would be. Dos Pistolas had been raised by the Organization, indoctrinated with its principles and laws since before they could remember. It was their Mother and Father, their past, their present, and their future. They could never be anything but loyal to it, and they knew that the Organization did not appreciate or condone ritual suicide. Furthermore, Dos Pistolas could not be entirely sure that the agents of the A.M.R.O. asking this sacrifice or surrender from them were completely loyal to the Organization themselves.
So it was with a very noncommittal attitude that Kai rose from his seat and offered a hand to Lina, helping her to her feet as well. Distantly, he noted that she’d chosen her black skirt today, coupled with a form-fitting v-neck tee shirt the same color green as her eyes. It was emblazoned with the word POW! on a very 50’s style comic book star of red. She smiled at him a little as she grasped his hand and drew herself up. It had been a long time since Lina had actually taken his offered digits - the past few months, she’d been brushing off the gesture.
“Oh and Siera, that hearing aid was actually a 180 thousand dollar worth bio-cybernetic and its will be coming out of your salary. You and your partner will probably be dirt poor for the next few months.” Angel said, almost as an afterthought.
So that’s what I have in my pocket, Kai thought to himself. Luckily for the other team, the male member of Dos Pistolas was easily capable of restoring it to new condition with a series of simple casts. Kai’s sly smirk was sexier than Angel’s, without a doubt, and doubly sharp. Joke’s on that bozo: nobody’s taking a paycheck deduction today!
Despite Lina’s tirade, she’d suddenly gone quiet. Kai assumed that she’d reached the same conclusion he had: doing further verbal battle with a madman was pointless. Neither member of Dos Pistolas wanted to push the Gemellie into doing something violent in order to silence the pointed, well-founded questions they wanted to ask. Finally accepting that he’d have to be the one to speak for his team, Kai cleared his throat a little.
“Well, looks like Marcelina and I have some work to do. If you’ll excuse us, we’ll be in the computer lab. Anyone who wants to brainstorm is welcome to join us… and if there’s an actual briefing, please give us a shout.” Kai tapped on his temple as he said this, indicating that the ‘shout’ should be telepathic.
With that, the pair headed for the exit. It hadn’t been lost on Kai that between the other teams they had a deaf man, a blind man, and a mute man. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. He wondered if that was some kind of sign or something.
Seira was still near the door when Lina and Kai passed. It hadn’t escaped his notice that she’d been sneaking glances at him before Angel’s arrival in the dining room.
“Catch up with me later. I have something for you,” the big, tattooed male Asylum said to the raven-haired female. He winked at her, and kept walking.
---xX--Xx---
He’s regretting every word; those empty lies,
One more tonight!
A blinding riot, as I summon every nerve.
Just need a bit of luck, get 'em up,
Point the gun at the eyes
Or at the knees, had to shoot, had to fight!
Gonna take out the gunman!
---xX--Xx---
