Tim, the Teenage MC
By Rass Senip
Chapter XXI: Fall 89 - Summer 90
Part 1 - Searching For the Pigments of Your Self Portrait
(mff)

I awoke in my bed alone, the old ache in my heart making its presence felt as I 
got up and got dressed without a purpose to my life.

After having spent a week in Atlanta with Eric and his family, I came home just 
in time to help Suzi move into her apartment in Kenton county and to see Joey's 
new house.  I spent another week with them, having promised them a chance to 
show me how much fun it would be if I went to Central state with them.  

And a lot of fun I was.  I had the separation sickness that Kain had warned us 
about after I had been bonded to Eric.  I tried my best to keep it from 
interfering with the things Joey and Suzi had wanted to do while I was there, 
but in the end I just wasn't capable of having fun.

But just being with them...  I would have been a thousand times more miserable 
if I had stayed home that week.  Joey and Suzi provided the distractions and 
support I needed to keep my emotions from switching off in what I believed to be 
some sort of self-protection mechanism I had no control over.

I know I've kind of skimmed over the details of the bond between Eric and I.  
It's just... how do you describe the feelings which go with having a twin 
brother who knew how you felt, liked what you liked, thought like you thought...  
Even Joey and I never got so close that we could predict what the other was 
going to say.  Well, sometimes I guess we could, but not like Eric could with me 
those few precious weeks.

The bonding between Eric and I was on the emotional level, and this produced an 
incredibly powerful need in me to be with him.  That first week following 
Gladius's death I couldn't bear to leave him even though I knew that he was 
using his newly super sensitized empathic senses to absorb my personality into 
his own.  And in a week's time, Eric was my twin.  Or at least his personality 
was the twin to mine as much as it could be.

Despite what you might think, there was absolutely no sexual activity between 
Eric and I.  I mean, I'm not sexually attracted to myself, and sure, 
masturbation isn't beyond me, but neither of us were interested in getting off 
with everything else that was going on.

After the first week where the initial effects of the bonding drug had subsided, 
Eric and I began exploring his memories in the hope of restoring his own 
personality that way.  But it wasn't until we were back in Atlanta that I 
realized that he could never begin the transition back to his own separate 
persona while I was around him.  So once he was comfortable being back with his 
family, we said our goodbyes both knowing we wouldn't be seeing or hearing each 
other for a while.

So I was feeling pretty lonely as I rode the elevator down to get some 
breakfast.  I wanted to talk to Eric so badly about Her.  Eric was the only 
person who understood what I felt for Jennifer, so he was the only one I could 
really open up to about anything concerning her.  

And the only two people who were capable of making me forget about Eric for a 
while were Joey and Suzi.  This resulted in I having second doubts about my 
decision not to join Joey and Suzi at college, but if I did that I might miss my 
only chance of Her attempting to contact me.  I felt trapped in a paradox of 
loneliness with no way out.

I went to the mall after breakfast, hoping to find something to inspire me, 
motivate me, anything but the struggle not to think about Her.  I wouldn't allow 
myself to think her name or imagine her face, not that it didn't pop up once in 
a while despite my best efforts to prevent it.

The mall is such a depressing place.  Tired mothers with crying or screaming 
children, gangs of roving teens bored out of their minds as the first day of 
school approached, casting its restricting shadow over their free summer fun.  
Boyfriends and girlfriends walking hand in hand in the glow of first love.  Old 
couples who had been together for so long that their arguments were so well 
rehearsed they were to the point of being a ritual.  Like I said.  Depressing.

Every once in a while an uncommitted girl would walk by, either with her mother 
or in a group of other girls and guys her age, and I would perk up for a few 
moments as I felt out their minds and emotions with my senses.  I was always 
disappointed when they fell short of Her purity of heart, Her innocence, Her 
inner beauty and life.  Nevertheless, I spent the whole day there, and returned 
the very next day with the hope of finding another Her.

By the following week, I had started visiting other malls, but with school 
starting up everywhere, I soon gave up looking at the malls, and considered 
checking out the high school cafeterias at lunch time.  But instead I decided I 
should start looking at the older girls, (after all, I was eighteen and legally 
a consenting adult) and started hitting the two community college campuses 
nearby.

Okay, okay, I admit I was getting pretty bored of all the looking and no 
touching.  A few times I indulged myself in having them strip themselves down in 
the bathroom while I watched, but I never touched them or altered them beyond 
giving them the urge to do the little strip show for me.

By the beginning of September, I had given up on finding another Jennifer, but I 
did discover someone who was even more innocent and perhaps more loving that she 
was.

Richie was only fifteen months old, but he knew at least a hundred and thirty 
words, was walking like an eighteen-month-old, and we were in the process of 
potty training him.  My mom told me I had been potty trained at sixteen months, 
and we all were attempting to beat that family record without actually having 
said so out loud. 

One weekend in mid September, my mom and dad took a trip to Washington D.C. and 
left Richie in my care.  I admit that by Sunday night when they stopped by to 
pick the brat up, I was glad to get rid of him.  But by Tuesday I was missing 
him something awful, and it broke my heart when my mom called and told me he was 
crying for me to come and play.

My mom and I had slept together for years when I was little, and of course we 
had slept nude together in more recent years without any problem.  Now that 
Richie was old enough to get around on his own, he had been sleeping with my 
parents for about a month, and he was the only one who wore anything to bed, for 
we couldn't trust him to stay dry overnight just yet.

What I'm leading up to is, that Thursday night, Richie was being a brat again 
and wasn't going to go to bed unless we all went with him.  Never before in my 
life had I shared a bed with my father, and yet I don't know why we were so 
apprehensive about it.  Once Richie was curled up between my mom and dad like he 
was every night, he whined and whimpered until I did the same.  Only then was he    
happy enough that he relaxed, and was out like a light when he finally closed 
his eyes.  

I admit I found it kind of nice lying there with my head against my mother's 
chest as the three of us watched him sleeping for a few minutes.  We were a 
family sharing one of those special moments you never forget.  After that, I 
wasn't the bit hesitant to sleep with my parents, or at least sleep with them 
while Richie was there too.

I became as close to Richie as my parents were, and after two weeks of running 
home to the south mansion for a change of clothes or something else, I emptied 
the refrigerators, packed my things, and moved into the north mansion to be with 
my family.

For a while, I was somewhat content with my life, having found someone to spend 
time with and teach, have fun with and take places.  But by the middle of 
October my contentedness decayed into dullness, and even though I still loved 
the time with my family, I was starting to strongly yearn for something more.

I started having trouble sleeping through the night, my tossing and turning 
disturbed the others, and once I even accidentally rolled on top of Richie and 
made him cry.  So I started sleeping in my own bed at night, and on the third 
night of being alone in my own bed, I rediscovered the nightly jerk off and 
slept soundly for the first time in a week.

At first I felt guilty about jerking off like that every night, but since I 
simply couldn't fall asleep easily any other way, I convinced myself it was a 
necessary evil and didn't think much about it after a couple days.

Then Richie caught me doing it one night.  He had sneaked out of bed after my 
parents had fallen asleep to come sleep with me, and I didn't notice he was 
there until after shooting off and catching his eyes as I tasted the load on my 
belly (for diagnostic purposes only.  No really!)

I held my breath until he smiled coyly and toddled up to the side of my bed and 
waited to be lifted up.  I quickly wiped what was left of my spunk off while 
attempting to analyze what was happening in his seventeen-month-old mind.  After 
lifting him up and helping him get comfortable under the sheets with me, I 
sighed with relief when I concluded what he had seen hadn't concerned him in the 
least, and with that I fell asleep with my little brother curled up against me 
like the baby he really was.

Did I say baby?  I should have said little rat, for the next morning he blurted 
out what he had saw at the breakfast table, then all day kept taking his pants 
off to demonstrate that he was just like his big brother.  Oh man, was that ever 
embarrassing.  My dad even took me aside and tried to talk me into providing 
some of his slaves with their weekly fucking.

By that evening though, Richie had gotten tired of doing his hand hump, and I 
thought the subject was going to be forgotten.

Oh, was I ever wrong.  After politely turning down I don't know how many offers 
by the staff for sex, then witnessing Richie's temper tantrum about having to 
sleep with my mom and dad which they firmly insisted on, I was met in my room by 
the twins who were not going to take no for an answer.

That was the first time since bringing them home from Gladius's keep that they 
had shown any self determination whatsoever with me.  We argued for hours before 
they tried triggering Timmy the Toy-boy, and that's when I blew up at them, 
physically forced them out of my room and locked my door.

Well, at least by the time I calmed down, I didn't need to jerk off to fall 
asleep from the anxiety and stress of the day catching up with me.  But early 
that next morning I woke up with a guilty conscience, and then felt even worse 
when I discovered the twins had slept right outside my door.

I ended up unlocking my door and carrying them in one by one, then when they 
didn't push the suck thing after I climbed in bed, I gave them both a kiss as a 
sign that I forgave them, and went back to sleep in between their very soft and 
curvy bods.

I have to admit I was very tempted to give into my lust when I woke up later 
than morning surrounded by those two gorgeous sex pots.  And they naturally did 
all they could to help my temptation, but after they finished their licks and 
kisses of my chest, I managed to wiggle out and run for the bathroom to take a 
very cold shower for a while.

I love those two like sisters, you know.  While I was showering without any hot 
water on (in the middle of October that can be kind of cold), I realized I could 
help them become more independent like before just by spending more time with 
them.

So after I got out and got dressed, I hunted them down and suggested they help 
me with Richie that day.

I figured what could be more fun than spending a day with your little brother 
and your empathic sisters?  And it was fun for the first couple of hours, but 
then Richie wanted to play with his finger paints, and I had a heck of a time 
convincing the twins to come and join in.

Okay.  Picture this.  A spoiled seventeen-month-old boy with finger paints.  Do 
I really need to go any further as to the state of his clothes and face after 
the first half hour?  No?  Good.

Anyway, after Richie got some in his eye, I gave up on trying to suggest 
something to the twins to paint and just left them there as I took the colorful 
crybaby to the nearest bathtub, but told them if they hadn't painted something 
by the time I got back, I wasn't going to take them shopping after dinner like I 
had planned.

Richie can be so sweet after he gets upset.  He clung to me whimpering softly as 
I started the water, then limply let me undress him before he smeared more of 
the gunk on my face with a kiss and hug.

But I didn't care.  When he didn't let go right away, I gave him a big hug back, 
then held him like the precious thing he was to me: My little brother.  He was 
my little brother.  I was probably glowing right then as I kept thinking that to 
myself.

I ended up getting in the tub with him since I was nearly as messy as he was by 
then, and after we had cleaned ourselves up, I refilled the tub, grabbed a few 
toys and just played in the water with him a while. 

When he did his little hand hump thing teasingly in front of me, I couldn't help 
but grin at him and then replicate his motion with my dick and hand.  It was one 
of those bonding moments I guess: my little brother showing me how he humps his 
hand.  Heh.  That might seem kind of funny or strange now, but it became our 
little secret handshake in a sense, and one of us would always do it and make 
the other laugh when we were alone and naked together.

That day was special for two reasons, the first being the hand hump thing with 
Richie which we still do even today.

When we returned to the "painter's room" to see if the twins wanted to eat lunch 
with us, they were gone, but left something behind which changed our lives for a 
while.

I almost completely missed the two sheets of paper lying beside each other on 
the table, but the wetness of the paints caught my eye and once I saw their work 
I was totally amazed.

At first, the two pictures appeared to be mirror copies of the other.  An open 
mouth licking the side of a surging cock, only one half of the cock showing with 
the other being beyond the edge of the page.

It was obvious that the two pictures went together, but yet when I butted the 
two against each other to join the left and right halves of the cock together, 
the subtle differences in the scenes sprang out.

One picture portrayed a cock being licked and teased towards orgasm, while the 
other was the immediate aftermath where the tongue was cleaning up the mess they 
had made.  I feel I must remind you that they had painted this using finger 
paints and their fingers, and it was totally amazing to me that they could put 
so much detail in such a crude painting as it was.

I got very excited over the possibilities of what this could mean.  I managed to 
pawn feeding Richie his lunch off onto my mom, then found the twins taking turns 
sucking my dad while he talked on the phone with a business associate.  

Since I hadn't gone by my room to get some fresh clothes, there was nothing to 
hide the instant boner I got seeing their butts sticking up between my dad's 
legs, and even if I had they would have sensed it anyway.

Joy got up and came over to me while I stood there hesitating, and it was like 
suddenly our sexual needs fell into sync for I just couldn't resist her lips as 
they slipped down my cock and her throat swallowed my head.

I don't care how many times you've been sucked off by a twin, you're literally 
helpless once your dick is in their mouth.  Joy worked me up until she knew I 
was aroused beyond my possibly resisting her mouth, then confidently led me over 
to the mattresses and had me lay down.

I had never witnessed the twins doing anything other than sucking my dad before, 
but ever since he had come home from Venezuela, he was a different man when it 
came to the twins.  My dad had retained part of the knowledge which Gladius's 
grandfather had passed on to him in his late teens, and it gave him a much 
clearer understanding of the twins, or at least that's how he put it to me.  I 
suspected there was something more to it than that, but he still had very strong 
paternal protective feelings for Joy and Honey and I have always relied on that 
fact about him.

Anyway, as Joy slid up my body to mount my hard staff, Honey was doing the same 
with my dad, and I can't remember exactly what he sighed at that instant, but it 
was something like, "This is how it should have been with my dad."

Once the twins had worked us up, they willingly let us roll them onto their 
backs and submitted to our aggressive humping of their cunts.  I knew I was 
going to regret it later, but I couldn't stop myself from fucking Joy as best I 
knew how, and managed to pull out and blow most of my load all over her before 
aiming the last squirt at her rose to help lube it up.

My mom said I had never resembled my dad so much as while I was humping Joy's 
ass with slow and steady pumps.  Oh God, did it ever feel good too.  The whole 
time I was fucking her I wanted it never to end, and then when it did I wasn't 
too upset since it was probably one of the best climatic orgasms I had had since 
that first time with Lee.  Heh, and my mom said I sent shivers up and down her 
body from the moan I made.

I was gently licking Joy's neck after having collapsed on top of her when Honey 
teasingly ran her slickened finger up my crack.  I nearly jumped off Joy in 
surprise, then saw my mom's face twisted in her first passionate moan when I 
turned to see what was going on.

I later suspected that the four of them had planned this, but I was completely 
entranced by the sight of my dad fucking my mom's ass while the twins did their 
best at providing me with erotic physical stimulus without being able to use 
their mouths on my cock after it having been in Joy's ass.

It was at the point where I was watching my mom's breasts rolling with my dad's 
powerful thrusts that I snapped out of my motionless state and got up.  I led 
the twins back into my bathroom, let them wash my cock and suck on it to their 
hearts content in the new padded shower my dad had installed in the past month.

I didn't even know it when Joy left, but when she returned holding out the 
bottle of drink, I suddenly came to my senses a moment and winced at my 
mistakes.

But with Honey mouth wrapped around my semi-hard tool, that moment faded and 
then all I said was, "Oh what the hell...  I know I'll regret it later, but... 
Gimme that!" as I took the bottle and began drinking half of it down.

After watching them fight over my first drink enhanced cumming, my sex filled 
mind got this evil idea of breaking Gladius's instilled resolution against girl 
girl sex and commanded them both to share the rest of the contents of the bottle 
with me.

Being the sex slaves they had been brought up to be, they couldn't refuse my 
order.  I was pretty loaded with the stuff myself, so once they had finished 
draining the bottle, I helped myself to Joy's snatch while Honey slipped hers 
over my dick.

You have never truly had mindlessly lusty sex until your cum is flowing down 
your cock and balls like a stream after filling the cunt still humping your 
pleasure stick.  When Honey's love box was full, I obliged Joy's needy requests 
for the same, then after getting them both so worked up without them cumming 
themselves enough to satisfy their drink saturated brains, I gave them the 
ultimatum of either sucking my cum out of each other's cunts or I leave them and 
finish myself off with one of the staff.

They didn't like it when I said it, but no sooner had they gotten into position 
did they go after their sister's innards with their tongues and sucking lips.  
Shit, just hearing them and watching them wiggle got me so worked up I just 
stuck my index finger in Honey's ass before replacing it with my cock and 
fucking it full blast.

By the time the drink wore off, I was all fucked out and fighting to stay awake 
long enough to shut off the water with my pruned up foot.  I don't know who 
moved us out to my bed that evening, but I didn't wake up until Honey's mouth 
attached itself to my morning hardon the next day.

I was sore all over, and apparently they were too, but not too sore for them to 
fight over what would get my last cum for a week.

It was while I was lying half asleep in my post-cum high that it all hit me.  I 
had really really screwed up my pledge to myself to refrain from having sex 
until I was properly married.

I felt my body go ice cold from this realization, and the gasp of despair that 
followed caused the twins to turn right around from leaving to wake my dad and 
came back to my bed.

I hadn't cried about losing Jennifer since before graduation, so at first they 
were clueless about what I was so sad about.  It took all morning to explain it 
to them, for the concept of abstinence was like a disease they felt duty bound 
to cure somehow.

But the emotions behind my wishes spoke louder than my words, and in an 
emotional teary exchange of kisses, they swore they would never tempt me towards 
having sex with them again without my express permission.

Sometimes I really wish those two could talk.  I mean, I usually didn't have any 
problems understanding them, but I believe their voices would be very soft and 
soothing if they could use them.  Just like the rest of their physical traits.

I forgot all about the paintings they had made until Richie wanted to finger 
paint the next week and it came back to me.  I spent an hour trying to find 
their finger paintings to show my mom and dad before giving up and asking the 
twins to paint another set.

I watched them paint that time.  I thought I had gotten used to their 
synchronized movements a long time ago, but watching them paint what at first 
appeared to be the same just mirrored scene just ticked me to death.  And while 
they didn't reproduce the exact same scene as the one a week earlier, they still 
had the subtle signs which only became apparent that it was a before and after 
thing.

They started to catch some of my enthusiasm about it after the third set of 
fellatio paintings, and after consulting with one of the guys who paints 
professionally under my dad's uhm... payroll, the three of us started trying our 
luck with a brush and oil paints.

At first I was only painting so the twins wouldn't lose interest in the idea, 
but after about a week of practice, I started to seriously enjoy the process of 
painting out a scene.

Okay, so I had an unfair advantage over the twins.  Once I had struggled with 
trying to learn the art on my own and my visions of creating beauty and life in 
my paintings ended up being smudgy blotches of.... paint, I gave in to the idea 
of lifting some tips off the painters my dad had.

But once the twins got over my cheating in our unspoken competition, I was able 
to pass on what I lifted to them by example before focusing myself on painting 
my first serious scene of Tobias the owl launching off my arm to fly into the 
sunrise.

One morning shortly after completing "Free at Last," I awoke from a dream where 
I had been stroking Jennifer's face with my fingers as she smiled at me.  I 
moped around all morning and part of the afternoon in a really down and out 
mood, but then the twins came back from a little business trip with my dad and 
immediately led me to the room where our paints were set up and started...  
instructing me in their wordless way on how _they_ paint.

At first I resisted their efforts to teach me anything, but then suddenly what 
they were trying to show me clicked in my head.  I started _feeling_ out the 
emotion hidden beneath the canvas and revealing it to my eyes using the brush 
and pigments of the paints.

I cried when I recognized the face of my love appearing from beneath my 
brushstrokes.  Painting her features almost felt as good as touching the real 
ones, and I spent days of nothing but eating, sleeping, and painting her bright 
smiling face.... Oh. heh.  And a few potty breaks in between too.

Over the next month and a half, I painted eleven portraits of Jennifer, and even 
though I put a lot of time into them, I still made myself spend some time with 
Richie and the others every single day.  

Most of the paintings were based on special moments between us, three being from 
the Valentine's dance.  My favorite one of those has me looking lovingly at her 
face from the side while she smiles happily facing straight ahead but her eyes 
looking towards me.

Two of the paintings were partial nudes of her, and I started a third at one 
time with the intention of putting her into a seductive pose, but I ended up 
painting clothes on her when it was starting to get a little too seductive, 
especially with her lips forming a pleasure driven "O."

Suzi's parents went to Kenton County for Thanksgiving instead of Suzi and Jason 
coming home for the holiday weekend.  Joey was really upset with me for not 
tagging along, especially after not going to see him on his birthday in October 
like he had wanted.  Yeah, I had wanted to go too, but I didn't.  Shit, every 
weekend we spoke on the phone about everything and anything under the sun, but 
after I hung up I always felt so lonely.  I knew it would a hundred times worse 
if I went and saw them then had to go home without them.

So after I completed my seventh painting of Jennifer, I painted one of the three 
of us.  Myself standing behind Suzi and leaning to the left to look at her, 
she's looking up at Joey who's above and behind us both, and he's looking 
straight ahead, giving the viewer one of his most enchanting smiles.  We were 
dressed in all white fancy dress clothes, and oh yeah... I was leaning on a 
white cane, Joey was wearing a white dress hat tilted slightly that seemed to 
add to his smile, and Suzi...  Well, besides the white silky dress that accented 
her womanly curves, the shining diamond earrings and matching necklace, she wore 
the prettiest smile that just makes her shine like the star she was in my life.

When I finished my tenth painting of Jennifer where Jennifer was peacefully 
asleep in a bed of flowers and protected by a wall of full blooming roses with 
deadly thorns, I decided it was time to paint a few more of someone else since 
it was getting close to Christmas.

I started painting three different ones for Eric, one of him and James, one of 
him and me, and then one of Suzi and Candice on either side of him.  But each 
one seemed to bring back some unpleasant memories, so I gave up on painting his 
"Jennifer" portrait and painted him on a Harley looking really cool with all of 
us above plus the twins crowded around him. 

After that, I got into the family portrait business, painting my own family's 
portrait first with the four of us and the twins sitting on the front steps of 
the south mansion dressed in nice clothes and looking at Richie as he gets 
excited over a butterfly flying by.

I wanted to do Joey's family's portrait next, but wanted a recent photo of 
Tommy, so I just started on Suzi's family until Margaret could mail one to me.

Man, did I ever have trouble figuring out some kind of pose to put Suzi's lot 
in.  I like putting the people I paint in a more colorful situation than just 
doing a group mug shot, but with them I couldn't think of anything but having 
them all sitting together in the traditional family portrait style.  It turned 
out pretty good, but I was still somewhat disheartened that I couldn't think of 
something better.  

Suzi's dad sitting in a library with his hand on an open book, Jason standing 
immediately behind him with a hand on his mother's shoulder, and in turn the two 
women were standing on either side of Frank each with a hand on his shoulder 
nearest to them.  The men were in suits, the women in fine conservative dresses, 
and I probably put a little too much twinkle in Frank's eyes than I had ever 
seen there, but hey...  I could stand earning some brownie points from him, you 
know?

When I got the envelope of pictures from Margaret, I suspected my mom may have 
leaked to her what I was doing.  I had two pictures each of Joey, Suzi, Tom, 
Margaret, Sarah, Tommy, a single shot of Stan with his two sisters, and then a 
whole bunch of snapshots of some baby I hadn't seen before.

I called Margaret up the day I got them to thank her and ask about the baby, but 
when nobody answered the phone, I hung up and got busy painting from a blast of 
inspiration, and basically forgot about the baby since nobody had ever mentioned 
it to me before.

I was deep into painting a Christmas scene centered around Tommy opening a big 
gift from Santa when I realized that there wasn't enough room on the canvas to 
fit everyone.  I spent a half a day trying to figure out what to do about it, 
for I really didn't want to start over again, but yet didn't want to exclude 
anyone after Margaret went through all the trouble of sending me recent pictures 
of everyone.

Heh.  The twins had just finished painting their eighteenth set of fellatio 
paintings and wanted my opinion (again) on their work when I got the idea of 
doing a multi-canvas scene.  Of course I couldn't get any further work done 
until I let the twins guide me through the emotions behind their latest creation 
(again).

That was the hardest and most time-consuming painting I had attempted.  I wanted 
to give the scene a wrap around look, placing Tommy in the center with Joey, his 
parents, and Sarah on the same canvas, but then changing my mind I don't know 
how many times....  Well, I ended up having to start all over again anyway after 
having started someone's image in front of the tree too many times and making 
the tree look weird from all the slightly different colors of green.

Ah, but it was worth it.  After ruining the original, I kept the idea of having 
multiple canvases, but turned the center one so it was a diamond rather than a 
square, made it a little smaller, and had five canvases total instead of three.  

The Christmas tree got moved to the very center of the center one so I could put 
the edge of the fireplace in and other components from the other four canvases. 
Tommy was in front of the tree opening an even larger gift than before, Sarah 
was kneeling down beside her son while Harrison watched from beside the tree 
with a bright red plastic sled crutched under his arm like he was dieing to use 
it after that last gift.

I put Joey's parents on the upper right canvas, sitting in front of the fire 
place with Tom's arm wrapped behind Margaret's back, grinning at Tommy's 
expression like everyone else.  The stockings were hung, and all that jazz, but 
I had a lot of trouble making the fire look right with most of it being covered 
up with their backs.

I put Denise and Gina in the lower left canvas sitting on a couch together, each 
with a clear mug of eggnog.  Heh.  I did a really good job on the way Gina held 
hers too.  Not really snooty, just dainty with a spoiled attitude I guess... 
well I'll just stop there and let you imagine her your own way.

The lower right canvas didn't have anyone in it, but without it the whole thing 
would have looked lopsided.  So I painted a wall with framed pictures of the 
family, including what I could remember of Joey's grandparents, and a large 
window with a deer, a rabbit, and a pair of squirrels looking in from the 
snowing winter scene to see what the big fuss was all about.

I painted Joey's last, for I kept drawing a blank at what to make him do.  I 
considered putting him and Suzi standing together with their arms around each 
other, but I wanted it to just be the immediate family despite having heard of 
Suzi's acceptance into the Group's confidence and all.

I had just started painting his face when I got the call that Joey was coming 
back with Suzi and Jason the next day and staying until the day before Christmas 
which was only a week away.  I offered to let him stay with me, but was 
surprised when he readily accepted the offer, then we spent I don't know how 
long on the phone making up plans of what we would do that week.

I worked all night to finish his canvas, and it was sometime after eight in the 
morning before I was satisfied that I was done and went to bed....

"Timmy.....  Timmy Wimmy wakey wakey," a soft voice said in my ear.

I guess I stirred a bit when the voice didn't say anything else right away, but 
after I had stopped moving, I heard another voice in my other ear say, "Your 
fly's down, Timmy."

"Ugh!" I said, reaching down to my jockey shorts and struggling to find the 
zipper.

I opened my eyes to look down to help my fingers find the missing handle, but 
found instead another pair of legs beside mine on the bed.

"Hi sleepy head," Suzi said when I followed the legs to their owner and 
discovered her face beaming at me.

"Hi," was all I could say before looking over the other shoulder to find Joey 
grinning at me.

"Heh.  You were right, Suz.  We have blown his mind."

"What?" I said looking back and forth between them, then finally hooked my arms 
behind their necks and pulled both of them to me for a simultaneous hug.

"Man, have I missed you two," I said with no regret after pulling them down with 
me and releasing them from my hug.

"Shit," Joey said, rubbing the back of his neck.  "If you missed us so much...  
Oh hell.  It doesn't matter now, right?"

I opened my mouth to agree, but had to close it really fast to accept the kiss 
Suzi gave me on the lips.

I checked the time to find that it was a little after two in the afternoon, then 
said, "I didn't expect you guys until after dinner.  I figured Suz's parents 
would..."

"Actually, we haven't gone to my house yet," Suzi quickly explained.  "We 
stopped off here first to pick you up."

"Yeah, but we didn't expect you to still be sleeping," Joey said with a touch of 
humor to his voice.  "What were you doing all night?  Did the twins break you 
down and get you to have an all nighter?"

"No," I said while grinning coyly.  "If you have to know, I spent the night 
working on your Christmas present."

"Shit, really?  Damn.  Now neither of us is going to get any rest until I drag 
it out you..."

"Timmy, I don't mean to rush you, but Jason's waiting out in the car for us," 
Suzi said to divert where she knew the conversation was heading.

"Uhm, well then why don't you two go on and I'll..."

"No way, loser," Joey said before scrambling off the bed, then reached over to 
me and pulled me off too.  "We're not leaving here without you after four months 
of your excuses for not coming to see us.  I'll dress you myself if I have to."

"All right, all right," I said as Joey set me down on my feet like a rag doll 
and started leading me over to my dresser.  "Suz, you go ahead with Jason, Joey 
and I will be right behind you."

"Told you he'd see it our way," Joey said to Suzi as he let me go.

"Well, you boys don't take too long.  I don't want to miss any fun," said, 
giving me a kiss on the cheek then doing the same to Joey before she left.

I yawned then sat down on the bed saying, "I think I'm still half asleep.  
You're not just a dream, are you?"

"Want me to pinch you to find out?" Joey said with an evil grin.

"Fuck no," I chucked.  "I'm not that out of it."

"Good," Joey said, sitting down beside me.

There was a long pause, then we both started to speak at the same time.

"Go ahead," Joey said.

"Uhm, well...  No you go first.  I'm not really sure what I was going to say."

"All right," he said, turning to face me.  "I just want to know why you didn't 
come see us."

"Shit, Joey," I sighed.  "Why don't you ask me something really hard, like how 
to perform brain surgery on myself or something."

"It's not supposed to be a hard question," he said softly yet firmly.  "I know 
it hasn't been easy for you, but...  <sigh>  Suz and I want to be there for you 
when you need someone, but you keep making excuses about why you can't be with 
us so we can do that.  If I wasn't so damn busy with school and stuff, I'd have 
come back here every weekend..."

"I'm sorry Joey," I said, putting my hand on his shoulder and looking him in the 
eyes.  "You're right.  It hasn't been easy.  I've wanted to come see you guys, 
but every time I thought about actually doing it, all I could think of was how 
hard it would be to leave.  I guess I just didn't want to get so attached again 
that... you know... I'd have to go through all that again."

"That's exactly what Suzi said," he said with a sigh.  "But what I still don't 
understand is why you would have to leave.  I know if you just gave Central 
State a chance you'd love it there."

"Doing what?" I said, turning away from him with self-frustration.  "I don't 
know what I want to do for a career any more.  And I don't really like the idea 
of being around all those slaves, especially when they're fucking each other for 
their masters..."

"Oh come on, Tim!  You were there.  You know that's not how it is.  Or least not 
all the time anyway.  And Fuck,  you think you're going to figure out your 
career by staying home and hiding all the time?  Central State has a lot of shit 
I know you could really get into."

"Like what?" I said, almost afraid to hear what.

"Like... uhm... Shit... They got these computers that do all sorts of graphical 
shit.  I think it would be really cool if we could get the symbols into the 
computers somehow and analyze the patterns with them."

"I'm not really that great with computers," I said hesitantly.

"Shit, you don't have to be.  At Central State, all you really need is a good 
project and to find a few people interested in doing it, and we can get the 
whole thing certified for credit.  Just think about it, okay?  And I want you to 
come to Central State for a couple of days before classes start up again so I 
can really show you what you're missing.  If you agree to do that, I won't nag 
you about it any more.  All right?"

I sighed, turned back to face his hopeful look, then said, "Okay, Joey.  I guess 
I can give it another chance."

"Cool," he said with an excited grin.  "I know you're going to love it.  There's 
so much I want to show you that I didn't even know about last time."

"Well, I guess I ought to get dressed, huh?" I said after a silent moment 
passed.

"Want me to do it?" Joey said with a playfully mischievous smile.

"What, you mean swap bodies?" I said, feeling a bit playful myself.

"Nah.  It's a game Suzi and I play once in a while.  You just relax and let me 
do all the work."

"I don't know..." I said as the playful mood waned a bit.

"Hey.  Trust me," Joey said from the dresser.

Actually, it was kind of fun letting Joey dress me like I was his puppet or 
doll.  He got behind me and basically moved my arms and legs with his own, and I 
was pretty surprised at how well he did it too.  In five minutes he had me 
dressed and was combing my hair into a little boy's hairstyle before I took over 
and combed it back the way I usually wore it.

"So tell me about this Neil guy," I said after we had climbed into my car and I 
pulled out of the garage.

"What about him?"

"Come on Joey.  I know you link with him for his voice, but Suzi mentioned on 
the phone you and he have been hanging out together too.  So what have you guy's 
been doing?"

I sensed Joey's discomfort at that point, which only increased my curiosity 
concerning this Neil person he'd never mentioned to me.

"We've gone to a couple of parties together, went to some football games, stuff 
like that."

"Do you like him?  I mean, do you guys have fun together?"

"Well sure we have fun together..."

"A lot of fun, actually," I said after feeling him out.

"Damn your empathy," he sighed.

"What is the matter with you?" I said with a grin.  "You afraid I'd be jealous 
or upset if I found out you had fun with somebody other than me?"

"Not just because I have fun with him, Tim," he said gently.  "It's the kind of 
fun we have.  The kind that only you and I used to have together."

"Ahhhh," I said, everything becoming clear to me.  "You mean like the girls 
bathrooms and stuff like that."

"Well yeah, that too."

"Huh?  What other kind of fun did you and I....  Wait, you don't mean..."

"No, we're not fucking each other," Joey said, seeing I had overshot the mark.  
"Although we've played Suz ball a few times...  But then again, Neil is sorta 
bi.  I think if I wasn't so committed to Suz, Neil might have talked me into 
doing something by now.  I'm not really his type though.  He has a thing for 
smooth hairless legs."

"So you've gone with him to pick out a few fucks, shared Suzi with him, anything 
else?"

"We don't really do that much fucking together.  Most of the time it's just 
talking about it, and sometimes even when we have the chance to do it we just 
play with them a little and let them go without even having them strip.  You'd 
like Neil.  He's a lot like you."

"Like me?  How?"

"I don't know.  I guess it's because he had had his voice for three years before 
coming to Central State and hadn't abused it like most people.  He didn't have a 
harem of girls, he never touched his family... Shit Tim, he even has that no 
taking of virginities rule you used to have."

"Really?" I said, impressed.  "You'll have to introduce me to him when we're out 
there."

It was Joey's turn to say, "Really?"

"Sure.  I mean, anybody with voice who hangs around your pitiful ass has to have 
pretty good morals to have to stoop that low."

"Fuck you," Joey chuckled.  "I'd like to see who Neil says has the more pitiful 
ass, you or me."

"There's no contest.  My ass is."

We both chucked, then sat silently for a few minutes before I offered, "Want to 
link with me?"

"I was hoping you'd ask," he said as he instantly formed the share link.  

After the link formed, I heard Joey gasp out a "Whoa."

"What?"

"It's nothing really...  I just didn't expect to be able to link with Suz from 
out here."

"There's not all that many people between us," I said after feeling Suzi out for 
myself.  "That always makes it easier."

"Yeah, that could be it," Joey said, not really believing it was.

"What else could it be?"

"Well, I just might have more range when linked with you than with Neil..."

"Oh...  How strong is Neil?"

"Pretty strong," Joey said before snickering and saying "One time while we were 
out with Suzi, heheh, he tried out a blanket command making this whole room of 
people think they were the Three Stooges.  Heheheh.  They were poking each other 
in the eyes, conking each other on the heads, a couple of guys got kneed in the 
groin... heheh.  It took the three of us a half an hour to straighten everyone 
out and make them forget it all.  Heheh.  You should have saw this one guy....  
heheheh..  He was dead ringer for Curly.  Nuk-nuk-nuk."

And so it began.  Joey seemed to have a story of his escapades with Neil for 
practically every occasion.  Like after arriving at Suzi's and getting a snack 
to replace the breakfast Joey hadn't let me grab before we left, I sat there 
munching on a few Christmas butter cookies while Joey told me about the time 
Neil and he had skipped breakfast.  Apparently they had overslept after spending 
the night going around with some other guys from their school tipping cows over 
as they slept.  Jason caught the tail end of the story and made the most 
obnoxious "Mooooooo!" that cracked Suzi, Joey and himself up, apparently a 
running joke between the three... er, I should say four of them if you included 
Neil.

Then there was the time Neil talked Joey into being the tail end of the horse 
they had gone as to a Halloween masquerade party.  The highlight of that story 
was when a female horse showed up, the front end of the male horse kept trying 
to drag the back end over to the female, which was kind of backwards if you know 
what I mean.

When Joey finally gave in (more like when he got Suzi's permission), they 
galloped over to the pink horse, and the two horses talking must have looked 
pretty funny because Suzi wouldn't stop giggling while trying to describe it to 
me.  All I got was a vision of the two horses side by side, with the front ends 
turned towards the other's middles.

Joey's back was aching from stooping over so long, so he graciously accepted 
Neil's suggestion that they switch, not catching the fact that he was also 
talking to the other horse as well.

Suzi was in tears she was laughing so hard as Joey described his reaction to 
finding a pair of small soft hands feeling him up from inside the suit.  Even I 
laughed from the image of Joey trying to turn around to look at his horse's new 
pink tail end, then trying to get away from it.

Joey later added that Neil had basically done the same thing to the girl who had 
been the tail end of the female horse before the four-way switch.  But she must 
have liked it for Suzi said the female front was swaying back and forth a lot 
after the male backend was zipped onto her, and even though no one said, I knew 
Neil must have ended up fucking both ends of the pink horse that night.

I think the hour before dinner was Neil-free, but then Betty mentioned enjoying 
the Thanksgiving meal at Joey's, and that made Joey think of the time Neil had 
cooked dinner for Suzi and him.  Everyone at the table was grinning by the time 
Joey got to the part where they had put out the fire, then Suzi blurted out they 
had just sat down to eat what was left of their meal when the fire truck 
arrived.  By the time they straighten that out, their food was stone cold, so 
they ended up going out for dinner instead, Neil's treat.

After our dinner was over, Betty had a brief argument with Jason over him having 
made plans to go out with a girl that night.  But Jason still left, and from the 
vibe I got from him he wasn't going to be back until late.

When I mentioned to Suzi I believed Jason was going out to fuck one of his ex-
girlfriends, Suzi just shrugged and said, "I'm sure he is.  He hasn't gotten 
laid since he left with us in August."

"Why's that?" I asked, finding it hard to believe.

"I guess because he doesn't have time.  You know how busy Eta's are during the 
semester.  I barely see him except on Sundays."

"Sundays?"

Suzi grin wickedly as Joey said, "He cleans her apartment every Sunday."

"What?" I said, astonished.

"Jason made a deal with Suz.  If he cleans her apartment every week, Suzi lets 
him get linked with us for a couple hours."

"You can do that?" I asked with surprise.  "Be fully linked with three other 
people all at once?"

"I cancel my link before Joey links with Jason," Suzi explained.  "We tried 
doing a four-way link like that once, but..."

"I passed out," Joey said meekly.  "The moment I added Jason to the link, my 
head exploded."

"All our heads exploded," Suzi added.  "And before you say it, I'm not going to 
try it again, Timmy."

"Aw..." I said, seeing my chance at outdoing Neil in that department slipping 
through my fingers.  "After all those headaches I had when we first started our 
threeways, you won't try this just once with me?"

"Even if she would, I won't," Joey butted in before she could answer.  
"Seriously Tim.  This wasn't like your headaches.  You were just straining your 
telepathic muscles until they were strong enough to handle the load.  But the 
share link just plain snapped.  There was no muscle to it to stretch."

"Okay, okay..." I sighed.  "I guess I just forget you're the one the sharing 
link comes from, not me."

It was around eight o'clock when I got this vib from Betty that she was a bit 
upset with how the night was turning out.  I knew it was mostly from Jason 
leaving, but after a few minutes of feeling her out inconspicuously, I realized 
that it also was due to Suzi spending all her time with Joey and I.

I clued Suzi and Joey in on my discovery, then without much discussion, Joey and 
I thanked Betty for the meal and left to go back to the north mansion.

"Have you heard from Eric lately?" Joey asked after we had got on the highway.

"I talked to his mom the other day.  He's acting a lot like his old self again."

"That's cool.  You're still not talking to him directly though, huh?"

"I don't want to risk him having a relapse from hearing my voice," I said 
softly.  "Besides, whenever I talk to his mom or dad, I can sense they're not 
telling me everything."

"Like what aren't they telling you?"

"I don't know, and I honestly don't want to think about it.  That's probably the 
biggest reason I don't give in to calling him directly or something.  I don't 
want to know, and I definitely don't want to trigger it happening again, you 
know?"

"I guess," Joey sighed from the frustrated feelings the topic had stirred up 
within him.

"Joey..."

"What?"

I sighed myself before saying, "You think I push you and Suz away to prevent my 
problems from hurting you two."

"Basically, yeah.  Unless you give me a better reason..."

"I push you two away for the same reason I keep my distance from Eric," I said a 
bit shakily.  "To keep your problems from hurting me."

"Oh."

Neither of us said anything for several minutes, but then Joey said with 
confusion, "Like what problems?"

"Huh?"

"What problems do Suzi or I have hurt you?  Shit, Tim.  Ask anybody the past 
four months what my biggest problem is, and besides not getting enough sleep 
during the week, they'd say it was because my best friend won't visit me even 
though he doesn't have any kind of schedule to prevent him from doing so.  For 
the longest time I felt guilty about going out with Neil and having fun without 
you.  It was just the last month when I knew I'd be coming back with Suzi and 
seeing you that I didn't feel so bad about having fun when I was with Neil.  And 
while Suzi tries to be understanding about it, I know it bugs her too.  So what 
problems do we have that hurt you so much that you're so afraid to have to deal 
with?"

I couldn't answer him, for at that moment I couldn't think of any.  When he saw 
that, Joey huffed in a surge of anger, but then calmed himself seeing that this 
might have been a breakthrough in getting me to do what he thought was best for 
me.

We didn't dare touch that topic the rest of the night, but it was constantly on 
both of our minds.  I had spoke the truth, yet when I couldn't explain what it 
was I was afraid of, I felt guilty for allowing this to control my actions for 
so long.

In an attempt to begin to make it up to Joey, right after Joey's nightly workout 
around midnight, I suggested we take a shower together.  He was all for that, 
but when we got to my room the twins were there waiting on us and changed our 
plans for us.

Who am I kidding?  They were waiting for Joey.  Both Joey and I had forgotten 
that Joey was still technically their guardian, and even though they had 
regained a partial state of free will, they still instinctively desired to 
please their master and to a lesser extent their guardian.

After Joey checked with Suzi for permission, the four of us got into the shower, 
but after I declined the twin's offer for their attention, I didn't waste any 
time in washing up and was out before Joey had tired of sucking on Joy's wet 
tits while Honey worked on his meat on her hands and knees between their legs.

They were at it at least a half an hour before things quieted down in the 
bathroom.  I had fought my desire to beat off by climbing in bed and watching an 
old John Wayne movie on TV, but I was getting fairly curious on what they were 
doing in there twenty minutes after the water had been shut off.

Then the bathroom door opened and the twins came out alone, my empathic senses 
picking up the conflict within them from their otherwise emotionless 
expressions.  It wasn't until they climbed on the bed and pulled the sheets down 
to find my traitor organ already making a tent in my jockey shorts that I 
understood Joey had ordered them to blow me despite all three of them knowing I 
wouldn't wish it.

"Call them off, Joey, or you won't be sleeping in my bed tonight!" I threatened 
while not resisting the twins' attempts to remove my shorts.

"Don't let him get soft, girls, but don't go any further yet," Joey said coming 
in, his staff at half-mast.

"I can't believe you'd use them like this," I said a bit angrily.

"I'm not having them do anything they don't want to do," Joey said sternly while 
climbing in bed and scooting up next to me.  "What I can't believe is that you 
beat off every night alone rather than letting them do what you know they love 
to do.  Look at them, Tim.  Look how badly they want to bring pleasure to you 
just doing what they've done a thousand times before.  And you want them to do 
it, otherwise your dick wouldn't be standing up like that."

"Leave the twins out of this.  If you make them do it, you'll be making them 
betray me.  If you want me to have a blowjob so bad, do it yourself," I said 
evenly.

Joey sighed, then said, "Sorry girls.  Maybe next time."

The twins didn't let out whether they were relieved or disappointed as they got 
up and left the room, but I know they knew I was relieved beyond words and 
probably didn't want to tempt fate any more than they already had.

I nearly yipped when Joey took a hold of my slowly deflating cock to give it a 
couple of strokes.

"Joey..."

"What?  Bring back too many memories or something?"

"No, I just don't want to pursue this line of action."

"Pursue this line of action?  Shit, Tim.  What kind of talk is that?"

"You know what I mean," I said before shuddering from his thumb swirling the 
slight amount of pre-cum, which had just emerged from having been built up over 
the past hour, over the crown of my dick's head.

"But you can't sleep without cumming," he teased as he tightened his hand a 
little and did a few slow and stretching strokes.

"I'm not going to sleep anyway.  I didn't get up until eleven fucking hours 
ago!" I spat as I commanded his hand to let go and I rolled off the bed.

"Tim, wait..." Joey called after me as I headed for the door.  "I'm sorry, all 
right?  I just wanted to...  bond with you again, somehow..."

"Bond with me?" I said, hesitating at the door.  "If you want to bond with me, 
do it somehow that doesn't involve making me do something I don't want to do."

"It was only a hand job...  It wasn't like I was going to blow you," he 
explained.  "I didn't think you'd see it as anything but... <sigh> Come back.  I 
won't try anything else."

He moved over to his half of the bed, then when I didn't move, he rolled onto 
his side with his back towards me.

I was somewhat confused as to what his true intentions had been, but I knew he 
had meant it when he said he wouldn't try anything else.  So I carefully crawled 
into bed and lay there sorting things out for a while.

Joey was just about to fall asleep when I crossed over to his side, slipped one 
arm under him and the other over him for a hug.

When I finally let him go, he let me pull my arm out before rolling onto his 
back with a sheepish smile on his face.

I crawled halfway on top of him, ignoring the rising hardons we both had, then 
gently said in his face, "Now I know what you really want, and I'm willing to 
give it to you."

Joey licked his lips nervously before saying, "You are?"

I grinned and said, "You want me to trust you like I used to."

"What?  I... ... I guess I do," he whispered, almost afraid to admit it.

"All right then.  Until you give me solid reason to doubt your motivations, I 
won't let my concerns interfere with trusting you in whatever you say or do.  
This doubly applies to anything sexual, so be careful not to let either of us 
get carried away.  Cool?"

"Cool," he said a bit choked up.

"'kay," I said before testing out the pact with a kiss on the lips.

After the very brief kiss, I laid down on my back beside him, my hardon sticking 
straight up invitingly.

"So what was it that made up your mind?" Joey asked after listening to the 
grandfather clock way down the hall by the elevator strike two.

"The part about me not seeing the hand job as anything but an act of trust." 

"I didn't say that," Joey said doubtfully.

"Yes you did.  Just not with words."

"But that still wasn't what I was going to say," Joey insisted.

"Then what were you going to say?"

"I didn't think you'd see it as anything but...  Shit, it's still hard to say 
it."

"Pretend you're saying it to Suzi.  You don't have problems telling her things 
like this anymore, do you?"

"No, but its different with her."

"Try anyways."

"Okay..  I didn't think you'd see it as anything but... but as love."

"See?  Told you it would work."

"Yeah, I guess..." he said slightly disappointed.

"I love you too, Joey."

I watched his smile fade in the mirror above my bed, followed by his eyes 
closing and his breath becoming shallower as he drifted off to sleep.

"Figures," I said softly as I moved over to my half of the bed and began to give 
my hardon its nightly strokes.  "When I don't want him to, he wants nothing else 
but too.  But when I want him to, he doesn't have a fucking clue."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tim, the Teenage MC
By Rass Senip
Chapter XXI: Fall 89 - Summer 90
Part 2 - Revealing Truth with Every Brushstroke
(mf)

I hadn't been to the mall since I stopped going there looking for another Her 
that fall.  With it being the week before Christmas, the mall was like a totally 
different place than it had been.

I couldn't believe how... uncomfortable I was being around so many people again.  
I think I would have freaked out and left if I hadn't been there with Joey.  But 
I couldn't show that kind of weakness in front of him like that.

My biggest problem was what to do with my eyes while we were walking.  What _do_ 
you look at when anytime you look at someone else they feel your eyes and turn 
to look at you?  It's pretty hard to keep your eyes on neutral objects when 
you're walking in a crowd.

Joey was oblivious to my... problem.  We were there to find something for him to 
give to Suzi for Christmas, but everything we found was either not good enough 
for her, or just didn't represent his feelings for her appropriately.

Like when we found a rather perverted, but funny as hell, board game that I 
thought she'd love, Joey wouldn't hear of it because it wasn't the least bit 
romantic.

So after an hour of keeping my eyes down, I finally asked him, "Why don't you 
just buy her a ring or something?"

"What kind of ring?" he replied almost nervously.

"I don't know.  Just a ring...  Or a necklace."

"You think that'll do it?" he asked me, looking me in the eyes briefly.

"Depends on what you get her," I said while sorting through the nervousness he 
was feeling about it.

"Well I guess we can go look," he sighed before turning in the direction of the 
nearest jeweler.

I followed him in, then waited silently for him to choose a display counter to 
look at until it was clear he was waiting on me to do just that.  So I just 
picked the one closest to me that was open and worked my way around to the 
others.

"So how much are you willing to spend?" I thought to him after getting a feel of 
what they had that Suzi might like.

"Doesn't matter," he thought back.

"Of course it matters.  I don't want to look at something that's $400 when 
you're only thinking of spending $50."

"Then look at the $1000 ones."

"Uhm, don't you think that's kind of..." I said out loud.

"How much did you blow on that replica of her grandmother's necklace?"

"That was different," I said.

"How is it different?  I have the money, Tim.  And I'll spend three times that 
much if I find something I think she'll like better."

"Echm," a man behind the counter interjected.  "May I help you?"

"We're still deciding on what we're looking for, thanks," I said while trying to 
feel Joey out a little more.

"Will you stop that?" Joey suddenly said, looking up at me from the counter with 
a frown.  "Shit, if you want to know something, ask.  You don't have to do that 
empathic eyeball thing on me."

"Sorry," I said guiltily while digesting the information our brief eye contact 
had given me.  "I though you might have been trying to... uhm...  You know, top 
me."

Joey sighed, then looked up me with a sly grin and said, "I am.  Just not with 
dollar signs.  It has to be something really special.  Something that describes 
what she means to me.  The problem is nothing seems to do that for me except..."

He looked away after realizing he had said one word too much, then in an attempt 
to distract me from this, he said, "Lets try another store," and made his way 
out.

We didn't say much while checking out the next jeweler, or the third for that 
matter.  But when we arrived at the fourth, Joey went straight to the counter he 
had been ignoring in the others, and that's when it all clicked in my head.

I hooked an arm over his shoulders and gave him an approving grin when he looked 
up from the engagement rings.

But instead of my grin encouraging him, Joey's frustration deepened, making him 
turn and walk out with a huff.

"Where we going?" I asked when I caught up with him.

"I don't know!  Back to your place I guess."

"What about Suzi's gift?" I insisted.

"Fuck...  All right!" he said angrily, reversing his direction and almost 
running into some woman loaded down with shopping bags.

I followed him back to the novelty store and didn't say a word as he picked out 
an untampered box of the board game we had looked at before and took it up to 
the checkout.

I waited until we were back in my car and on the way home before saying, "I 
think you picked the right gift, Joey."

He pulled the box out of the bag and looked at it again, then sighed, "It just 
doesn't... mean what I want it to..."

"I know, Joey.  But it's a Christmas present.  It's not supposed to express 
everything you feel for her.  The day you give her the present that does, you'll 
make that day a whole separate holiday for both of you, you know?"

"I guess," Joey sighed.  "I know she's not ready for that kind of present 
anyway.  And shit.... I guess I'm not either.  But the last thing I expected was 
for you to be.  You're supposed to talk me out of making rash decisions, not 
encourage them."

"Sorry," I said grinning.  "Can I help it if I like being the best man in 
weddings?"

"Shit..."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Two days later, after seeing a movie together, Suzi, Joey and I went to a 
restaurant for dinner before the unveiling of the painting I had painted of the 
three of us.

While we were going over the menus, I looked up just as a blonde two tables in 
front of me looked up and our eyes met.  A whole second must have ticked by 
before we both looked away, but I almost immediately glanced back and confirmed 
the blush on her cheeks I had felt begin to form.

After we ordered, I found myself periodically looking at her.  I was physically 
located at the table so that my eyes just naturally looked that way whenever I 
looked up.  It wouldn't have been so bad if every time I noticed, she noticed 
too.

She did have a sweet smile.  And once, I caught her looking at me as well.  I 
was seriously starting to consider talking to her, for she looked to be about 
eighteen and while her companion had her back to me, I had a feeling they were 
sisters because their body language was so similar.

"Why don't you bump into her on the way back from the restroom or something," 
Joey suggested as the two women were served their meal.

"Who?" I asked, honestly believing he couldn't have noticed the momentary 
glances I had made of the girl.

"You know who," Suzi said smiling.

I looked at her, then at Joey who also was smiling, but all I could do was shrug 
and say, "Nah."

"Why not?" Joey asked.  "It's not like you're going to walk out of here with her 
for a one night stand."

"I'm just not...  ready to start doing stuff like that again."

"Oh, come on, Timmy," Suzi said softly.  "It's all perfectly innocent, and she 
seems interested."

"She does?" I said, glancing up and catching her looking at me again.  "Well, 
maybe after she gets through eating..."

Our food came pretty soon after that, and while we ate, I had a hell of a time 
keeping my eyes from wandering back to the blonde who appeared to be enjoying 
her companion's company just as much as I was mine.

Joey and Suzi kept my attention busy by asking me questions about what I had 
been doing, and offered some topics of their own experiences at college.  I was 
so comfortable in their presence, yet I felt I needed to keep some distance 
between us, which conflicted a lot with the bond we were trying to reform.

When the girl across the way pushed her plate forward as if to say "I'm done," I 
took two more quick bites of my mostaccioli before getting up and saying, "Well, 
I'll be right back...  Maybe."

She never made eye contact as I walked towards her, so I just kept on going 
towards the bathroom like Joey had suggested earlier.  As I passed her I noticed 
they had a baby in one of those portable baby beds on a chair between them, but 
the other woman at the table appeared to be older, so I assumed she was the 
mother.

I stalled for a few minutes inside the dimly lit bathroom, then washed my hands 
and proceeded to walk back towards my table.

As I approached her from the rear, I was shocked to see a cloud of smoke rising 
above her, and was dismayed when she turned her head slightly as she pulled her 
lit cigarette from her mouth and held it over the ashtray.  

Now I don't really have a problem with smokers.  It's their lungs, and despite 
the smoke clinging to their clothes and the odd taste to their kiss, I never 
really minded whether a girl smoked or not.  I would be upset if someone I cared 
about started smoking, but I always tried to accept people as they are when I 
meet them, so if they smoked, they smoked.

But this girl had seemed very nice and clean...  She even blushed, damnit!  To 
see her puffing away on that tobacco stick just sort of ruined my image of her 
and my mood.

Her sister lit up one herself as I detoured around them and retook my seat, and 
after they finished their smoke, they got up to leave.  When the baby started to 
fuss from being disturbed, it was the younger sister who picked it out of the 
bed and held it like the mother she apparently was.

The three of us just looked at each other, then after I shrugged, I said, "Come 
on.  Let's go.  I've been waiting all day to show you my painting."

I honestly didn't have another thought about the incident with the girl and her 
baby.

But Joey and Suzi did, and it was on their minds during the drive back to my 
place until I said, "You both know as well as I do there's more fish in the sea.  
Stop worrying.  I didn't chicken out, I just decided not to go for it.  There's 
a difference."

After that they must have picked up on my excitement about showing them my 
painting for they let the whole thing go.

"Tada!" I exclaimed while uncovering the portrait I had painted of the three of 
us.

"Oh Timmy!  It's fantastic!" Suzi cooed.  "You really painted this yourself?"

"I sure did.  I haven't just been sitting around masturbating like some people 
would say," I joked.  "I'd show you where the twins and I paint, but I still 
haven't cleaned up from finishing Joey's."

When Joey didn't make the expected comment from my indirect tease, I nudged him 
and said, "So...  You like?"

"Huh?  Yeah, I like.  It's...  Incredible," he said energetically. 

But then a moment later with a sound of disheartedness he added softly, "Really 
incredible."

I threw him a questioning glance while Suzi studied the painting close up and 
she asked, "So what are you going to do with it?"

"What do you mean, do with it?" I replied while Joey shook his head, then 
stepped up beside Suzi to have a closer look himself.

"Well, were you planning on hanging it anywhere particular?"

"Uhm, well, not really.  I figured it'd go in my room, somewhere.  Why?"

"Oh, no reason really," she lied while putting an arm behind Joey and giving him 
a one handed hug.

"I can't get over how beautiful you made Suzi look," Joey said in awe.

"I don't know if I should be insulted or grateful by that," Suzi teased.

"It's like he painted you right after you fixed Donaldson's head that one night.  
You looked like you were on top of the world...  With that playful look... That 
happy glow..."

"And look at you," Suzi pointed out.  "That's exactly how you smile when you're 
having fun.  Your sharp blue eyes... He even put in the way your cheeks redden 
when you smile a lot."

"They do?" he said, blushing as he looked at her a moment, then glanced back at 
me.

I nodded my confirmation, then let out a snicker as he grinned then suddenly 
felt his cheeks with his hands.

"It's a shame he messed his own image up," Suzi said.

"He did?  Oh... Huh.  Yeah, I guess he did, didn't he?"

"What do you mean I messed me up?" I said, stepping up and looking over Suzi's 
shoulder.

"Well, you never look at us like that any more," Suzi explained.  "You used to, 
but now you're always so... uhm..."

"Reserved.  Like you're afraid to let too much out," Joey finished for her.

"I don't mean to," I said honestly.  "At least I don't mean to any more."

Suzi turned around, looked me in the eyes, and asked, "Why did you paint this, 
Timmy?"

"Why?  I guess because I missed you two."

"I think you painted it because it made you feel better about not coming out to 
see us.  You painted us like you wanted to think of us.  Happy and having fun 
together.  But we weren't happy, we weren't having fun, and because of you we 
weren't together."

"I...  But...  Shit..." I said, turning away to recompose myself after finding 
her comments striking too close to something I didn't want to explore.

"Timmy, what are you afraid of?  Do you even know?" Suzi said, forcing me to 
turn to face her again.

"Suz...  I'm sorry I didn't go see you, okay?  I just...  I didn't want..."

"Don't tell me the same story you told Joey because I don't believe it.  You're 
still trying to avoid telling us something."

"I am not," I said honestly, then realized it wasn't entirely true after all.

"Now I know you're holding back something," she said, reading my eyes with 
precision.

"Suz...  Don't," I said, again turning away, finding myself trembling slightly.

"Don't what, Timmy?" she said, wrapping her arms around me from behind.  "Are 
you afraid of me?"

"No!"

The calm sternness in her voice evaporated as she said, "You are..."  then in an 
increasingly emotional voice she asked, "Why are you afraid of me, Timmy?  TELL 
ME!"

The emotion in her voice triggered my own to cascade within me, and suddenly the 
truth I had been struggling to deny to myself and everyone else began to slip 
through my lips like the tears suddenly springing from eyes and flowing down my 
cheeks...

"I still love her Suz," I choked out.  "I don't want to feel that close to 
anyone else until...  Until I prove to her that I love her more than anything 
else in my life...   But whenever I'm with you or Joey..."

"How does not letting yourself get close to us again prove anything to her?" 
Suzi interrupted.  "You don't think she expects you to not have feelings for 
others when she's not even around, do you?"

"No, but there's more to it than that." 

I turned around to face them, taking a hand from each of them and saying, "Some 
nights I think I'm going mad from needing sex so badly...  And other nights I'm 
just lonely for the lack of... intimacy.  I just know the more time I spend with 
you two the harder it will be to resist...  Resist making love with you..."

"That's why you've pushed us away?" Joey asked.  "Because you're afraid we'd 
talk you into having sex with us?"

"No..." I sighed while wiping my face with the back of my hands.  "I'm afraid 
I'll WANT to have sex with you two because... Because of our history together 
for one thing.  And because you know me so well, it'd be hard for me to step 
back for some space without you picking up on it and hurting your feelings if I 
told you why."

"You just never learn, do you?" Suzi said while hugging me again.  "All you ever 
had to do was explain it to us.  Now that we know what you really want, we'll 
make sure it never goes that far.  And if you have to distance yourself from us 
once in a while, that'll be a lot easier to deal with than not having you around 
at all."

"I don't think it'll be that simple," I said honestly.

"Neither do I," Joey objected.  "I mean, I'll do what you want, but..."

"But what?" Suzi asked when I didn't.

Joey let out a huff of frustration, then said to her, "Well, for starters, if 
he.."

Suzi stopped him and turned him towards me before sitting down on one of the 
chairs in the room.

Joey hesitated a moment before asking me, "I just don't understand why you 
haven't even tried looking for her if you really feel that way about her."

"I want to," I admitted.  "But I know her, Joey.  I think she'd run if I tried 
to contact her before she's ready.  I don't really know the exact reason she 
left, but I think part of it was because she was scared she'd break her promise 
to her mother out of love for me...  Sort of like what I'm afraid will happen if 
I spent too much time with you two."

"So you're willing to avoid having a life of your own in hopes she eventually 
come looking for you and find you've been faithful to her?  How long are you 
going to wait if she doesn't?"

"I don't know," I said feeling my own frustration rising.  "I guess I'll wait 
until she's eighteen, then if I haven't heard from her by then, I'll go looking 
for her.  But I can't imagine her going that long without at least a phone call 
or something."

"Shit, Tim...  You really want her that bad?" Joey asked after a few moments of 
careful consideration.

"As much or more as you do Suzi," I said softly yet full of emotion.

"What do you think, Suz?" Joey said, glancing over at her.

"I don't think we have a choice," Suzi said.  "We either pledge to not allow our 
feelings to grow beyond being friends for the next three years, or..."

"Or we don't see him except during holidays, if even then," Joey concluded for 
her.

"It's only two years, two months, and... three days," I corrected.  "And I'm not 
sure a pledge would be enough."

"Don't you want to spend time with us?" Suzi asked.

"Of course I do," I sighed. "But even now my wanting to stay faithful to 
Jennifer is seriously struggling with my urges to...  get it on with either of 
you, if you know what I mean."

I watched as they had a brief telepathic discussion with each other, and for a 
few moments I was completely distracted by the fact I could get the gist of what 
they were thinking to each other just by watching for key symbols in their 
telepathic streams.

My attention was brought back to the topic at hand when Joey inserted a stream 
of symbols into Suzi's mind, then Suzi did the same to Joey a moment later.

Before they could say anything, I probed Suzi to see what the command was, then 
said, "That wouldn't slow me down at all if I really wanted to have sex with 
you."

"It isn't supposed to," Suzi explained.  "It's to prevent accidents from 
happening, not to stop you if you completely lose control."

"And we're not done yet," Joey added.  "Only by giving up Jennifer forever will 
you be able to undo our commands."

"Shit," Suzi complained when her attempt to insert the commands Joey was 
speaking failed to reach my mind.

"If I hadn't known you were going to do that, I'd probably be pretty upset right 
now," I said, covering up the painting for lack of anything else to distract 
them with.  "I know you mean well, but part of what I want to prove to Jennifer 
is that I don't need anything but my feelings for her to keep me...  faithful to 
her.  I have to do that on my own.  

"But," I added while turning around to face them again.  "You two have made me 
realize that I can't keep hiding from temptation if I really want to prove 
anything to her.  So if its okay with you two, can we just drop the subject and 
go do something fun?"

They looked at each other, then Joey asked, "Like what?"

"Oh, I don't know," I said with mischievous grin.  "Maybe something a little 
slippery."

"And maybe something a little dirty, in a clean way?" Joey said, catching on.

"And is this something a close contact kind of sport?" Suzi sighed.

"The closer the better, I always say," I confirmed.

"And I just had my hair done," Suzi sighed again as she stood up and lead the 
way out.

It's amazing what fifty gallons of mud can do for a friendship like ours.  First 
Suzi and I ganged up on Joey, then Joey and Suz ganged up on me, then Joey and I 
ganged up on Suz...  I think we went through three or four cycles of that before 
Suzi almost fell asleep while laying on top of Joey, resting, after 
unsuccessfully trying to pull him off balance to help free me from underneath 
him.  By the time we pulled our sorry asses out of the mud and headed for the 
showers, I felt completely at ease with them, in sync with them, almost like the 
last two and a half years hadn't happened.

I was overwhelmed when I realized the large emotional weight which had been 
holding me back since Jennifer left was gone.  I could barely contain myself 
long enough to reach Suzi and hug her before letting my happy tears and rather 
loud sobs flow.

Joey at some point put his arms around both of us to keep us on our feet after 
Suzi wobbled a bit too much from my extra weight.  I blubbered out to Suz that 
she had been right, that she always had been right that by telling her and Joey 
my problems, we'd always find a way to fix them, and swore I'd never keep 
anything like that from them again.

That's the last thing I remember from that night.  I woke up the next morning in 
my bed with my best friend spooned up against my backside.  But instead of 
moving away from his close contact like I had every morning before, I snuggled 
back against him, then grinned at the concept of teasing his arriving morning 
hardon with my ass, knowing I could without any fear of it leading somewhere I 
didn't want to go.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Timmy!  Timmy!  Ho-Ho was here!" my baby brother exclaimed extremely early 
Christmas morning, right in my ear.

"UhG" I groaned, rolling away from his chirpy irritating baby voice and covering 
my head up with one of the pillows on my bed.

"Timmy...   TIMMY!"

"What!!" I exclaimed rather grouchily through the pillows.

"Timmy??" he mewed.

I sighed, then rolled back towards him again, only to find him halfway up on the 
bed already.  I helped him up, then was shocked to find he was as cold as ice.

"You're freezing...  Get under the covers with me," I ordered.

"But Ho-Ho," Richie complained weakly as he complied, plastering his cold skin 
against my bare chest.

I shivered as I checked the time, then said "Dang, Richie...  It's only five 
o'clock.  You'll never get dad out of bed this early."

"I been good for Ho-Ho," Richie said, looking up at me with sparkles in his 
eyes.  "I saw.  Ho-Ho was here."

"Did you see...  Lots of pretty boxes?"

"Uh-huh."

"And the big red socks all full with candy?"

"Uh-huh.  And Ho-Ho ate his cookies," Richie said laying his head down on my 
breast.  "Can we g'see's the bunnies eat theirs?"

"Reindeer, Richie.  Remember?  And no, it's too early to go outside."

"Bunnies," he stubbornly yawned as he snaked his hands underneath me to warm 
them.

I carefully probed his mind to find out what all he had done during his early 
morning reconnaissance.  Besides tugging down a "red sockie" and filling his gut 
with the sweets inside, most of his time had been just walking from my parents 
room, to the study, then to my room.

I was nearly giggling when I probed for how he had managed to get up to this 
floor.  He just jumped up and pressed all four buttons on the elevator, then 
just sat there in the elevator eating some more of his heist until the elevator 
stopped at the right floor... the third time.

"I told mom she should have barricaded the door to keep you from wandering 
around the house for Santa.  How long have you been up?  An hour?  Two?

"Richie?

"Figures," I sighed softly.  "And now I'm wide awake, of course."

But then next thing I knew, I awoke to Richie exploring the insides of my mouth 
with his fingers.

I was just about to try and suck his hand in when he pulled it away.  

His eyes sparked again looking in mine as he said, "Ho-Ho was here."

"I know he was," I said while catching a bit of the old Christmas morning 
excitement myself.

Richie wasn't really excited about the presents and sweets that older children 
dream about.  That was the first Christmas he'd take part in, so he knew nothing 
of the pleasures of tearing colorful paper off of mysterious boxes.  He was a 
Christmas virgin, so to speak.  His excitement was mainly from the magical 
nature of Santa Claus visiting during the night.  The fact that Ho-Ho left gifts 
for him was secondary to the so called realism of one of the fairy stories read 
to him at night had come to life.

I put on the special Christmas robe my dad had gotten everyone, then we went to 
Richie's room to get his.  Richie wouldn't put it on until I let him take off 
his rubber pants and undershorts, and then he got this look in his eye...

"I'm daddy," he said seriously when he got a hard on and it poked out of his 
robe.

He then proceeded to crack me up by proudly strutting around with his little 
pencil dick bouncing up and down between the gap of his robe.

I don't think I've mentioned that my dad and Richie both have dark hair, and 
while my own certainly wasn't blonde any more, it was definitely lighter than 
theirs.  The older Richie got, the more he really resembled me at the same age, 
but with his dark hair matching my dad's perfectly, he really did look like a 
smaller version of my dad strutting around with a hard on.

When we finally got down to the study where the big Christmas tree with all the 
gifts underneath was, Richie went straight to the newly installed fireplace, 
jumped up and knocked the gas key off its hook, inserted the key into its hole 
in the floor, twisted it until the auto lighter started clicking, then waited 
until the fire flared up before removing the key and very carefully put it back 
on its hook, having to stand on his tiptoes just to reach it.

After giving him the standard scolding while hiding my pride for his showing his 
smarts, I led him over to the presents and tried getting him interested in 
guessing what was in them.

But he was more interested in learning whose present was for who rather than 
their contents, and without any help from me beyond reading the labels out loud 
for him many times, he learned to read "Richie", "Tim", "Twins", "Joy", "Honey", 
"Mom", "Dad", "Charles", and "Sam".

When that finally got old, I decided we'd waited long enough for "Charles" and 
"Sam" to get up, especially when I realized it was nearly nine o'clock already.  
So after Richie picked out a few pieces of candy to take with him, we headed off 
for the master bedroom.

I think I was as disappointed as Richie when we found their bed empty.  The plan 
was to toss Richie on the bed between them and let Richie kiss them silly, 
smearing the chocolate off his face onto theirs.

So to keep the element of surprise, I didn't probe for their locations, just did 
it the old fashioned way.  I called Sherman and asked if he knew where they 
were.  Heh.

Sherman didn't know where my mom was, but my dad was eating breakfast in the 
main dining room.  I wondered why my mom wasn't eating with him, but figured she 
probably went to check on us, which as it turned out was right...  Sort of.

"MommY!  Ho-Ho was here!" Richie exclaimed when she appeared down the hall while 
we were making our way back to the study where I expected her to be.

"Yes, I saw.  And it looks like you've already had some of Ho-Ho's sweets?"

Richie pulled out a red foil wrapped chocolate Kiss from a pocket in his robe 
and held it up to her.

"Mommy wanna kiss?"

"Do I get to choose what kind?" she asked while picking him up.

"Uh huh."

"Then I'll take... this kind," she said before kissing him on his pursed lips.

"Good?" he asked after doing his best to smear his lips across hers.

"Very chocolaty", she said with amusement, then laughed when he tried to do it 
again.  "Now stop...  I don't want to get fat from your sweet kisses."

"Heh.  And I thought you couldn't get fat that way," I said before giving her a 
kiss on her cheek.

"I can get fat on anything," she sighed.

"Sam, I need'a potty," Richie slyly announced.

"Sam, huh?" my mom said while giving me an accusing look.

"He wanted to know what the labels on the presents said, and when he noticed 
that es ay em wasn't the same as em oh em, I told him why," I explained.

"Noo...  Em oh em EM WHY," Richie corrected.

"Oh yeah, smarty pants?  Ho-Ho has reindeer," I teased.

"Bunnies,  Tee I em em why" he teased back.

"Shit," I gasped.

"Timothy.." my mom growled.

"Sorry...  But I didn't...  I mean, all my presents are labeled Tim, not Timmy.  
He must have figured that out all by himself."

"Oh, don't give him so much credit," she said, pointing to the Timmy embroidered 
on my Christmas robe.

"Es ay em ay em tee... uhm...  uhm...  Richie... Are... I... see... uhm..  
aych... Aych.   Es ay em ay em tee aych ay...  Sam-am-cha Timmy?"

"Samantha," I corrected before giving him a kiss on the cheek. "That was so see 
oh oh el cool, Richie."

"Coo'w," he repeated softly, then looked at mom with a bashful smile before 
hugging her the rest of the way to the nearest bathroom.

I went back to the study, and as I studied some of the larger gifts with my name 
on them, the twins showed up, one dressed in an all red outfit, the other in all 
green.  Until that morning, I had purposely avoided looking to see how many were 
mine, figuring most of them would be Richie's since I pretty much bought 
anything I wanted for myself.  But while going through them with Richie earlier 
I quickly realized that a lot of them were mine, and I was perplexed as to what 
they all could be.  And the twins weren't helping by letting me know they knew 
what each gift I inspected was.

By chance, both my mom and dad arrived at the same time from opposite entrances, 
and I instantly felt there was some sort of tension between them.  I was then 
distracted by Richie running full steam at me, and I barely had enough time to 
grab him as he playfully collided with me, his momentum knocking me onto my back 
with Richie landing on top.

I tossed him up and down a couple of times before mom complained I'd make him 
sick, then when my dad made a remark that I didn't hear over Richie's protests 
of "More!  More!", I kept Richie occupied while they argued telepathically.

This wasn't the first time they had argued like that.  They were both strong 
willed individuals who had their own ideas of how things should work, and that 
naturally led to rather long private disagreements before one of them gave in to 
the other's logic or they just dropped it altogether.

But this time they were both sticking to their guns, and it seemed like it 
wasn't just going to go away on its own.  I wasn't about to interfere with their 
business though.  I figured they'd include me if it ever got really serious.

I don't know what my dad said/thought to her, but whatever it was, it hurt my 
mom's feelings immensely and the next thing I knew my dad was calling after her 
trying to apologize as she left the room.

A few moments later, I was on my feet in a flash when my mom's frantic high 
pitched emotional voice reached my ears, but resisted my instincts to rush to 
her defense when it didn't continue, and relaxed a little when my mom's and 
dad's swirls of symbols went in two different directions.

My dad reentered the room with a discouraged but stubborn expression, but lost 
his nerve a bit when he saw us standing there watching him.

He sighed, then did an about face saying, "I'll be back in few minutes...  With 
your mother." 

"Uhm, take your time," I called after him, then with lessening volume I added, 
"If you need to I mean..."

Despite his promise, he didn't come back with mom, but he said she'd come in a 
while and that we should start opening gifts without her.

Richie silently went up to our dad and put his arms up to be picked up, then 
clung to him for probably the next half hour without saying a word no matter how 
much I prompted him.

I opened a couple of mine, then opened a few of Richie's to try and get him 
interested, but it wasn't until mom finally showed up and asked him what he got 
from Ho-Ho that he actually left dad's lap and opened one himself.

At first I tried to ignore the fact that they avoided looking at each other, but 
after Richie opened two more gifts on his own, he was hooked, and I had my hands 
full keeping him from opening every gift under the tree himself.

Not all the gifts were for the six of us.  Seven of the servants had no family 
to spend Christmas with, so they were included in our Christmas and all had 
gifts under the tree too.  Sherman was one of those people, and he was the only 
person besides my dad who always got something for everyone.  That originally 
was probably out of a sense of duty since he was in charge of the staff, but I 
think he also just didn't have much use for his money besides that, since 
everything he needed was supplied for him and he never seemed to desire anything 
for himself.

When Richie decided he wanted to play with one of his new toys before he opened 
another gift, I took an inventory of what I had got, and was further perplexed.

Oh, there were the regular things like new shirts, a bottle of cologne, a 
transvestite makeover kit (a joke from Brad, of all people), a paint by numbers 
(from Richie), a couple of CDs, a new sports coat, and an ultra-deluxe, seven-
speed male anal pleasure probe (from the twins, the little darlin's).

But the dish set, the toaster oven, the microwave, three sets of Tupperware, the 
stickless pots and pans, the bath towels, cordless phone, answering machine...  
Whew, and probably a few other things I don't remember....  Well, it was like 
they were trying to tell me something.  Like, get out.

I guess with their own problems plaguing them, my mom and dad just didn't notice 
my confusion about their gifts.  And as soon as the last gift was opened, my mom 
left, taking Sherman with her which surprised everyone, including Sherman.  
Well, not my dad.  He didn't even flinch.

I was busy playing with Richie and his new toys until around one thirty when he 
finally gave in to taking a nap, then decided that now would be the best time to  
go over to Suzi's for our little gift exchange and to hopefully talk.

I didn't try to hide my concerns from Suzi when she picked up on something being 
wrong after I laughed too hard at something she said.  After telling her 
everything that happened that morning, she told me to stay there and went to her 
room for a few minutes.

I didn't listen to her very well when I started looking around the room for an 
empty space on the wall, and ended up wandering into some of the other rooms 
looking for just the right spot for my painting which was still wrapped in gold 
foil paper.  

Betty and Jason were watching a Christmas special on TV in the family room, with 
Jason lying on the couch with his head on his mother's lap.  If I hadn't just 
barely touched one little branch of the Christmas tree that naturally caused a 
silk ball to fall to the floor, they wouldn't have noticed me.

"What'd she do, give you your present then tell you not to open it until she 
came back?" Jason joked.

"Not exactly," I said while having to refrain from feeling him out during his 
casual glance.

"Did you see what Joey got her?" Jason said, sitting up with a hint of mischief 
in his voice.

"Oh don't be so..." Betty began.

"What?  I didn't give it to her," Jason said with amusement.

"No, but you've told everyone you've talked to about it ever since she opened it 
this morning."

"You're talking about the game, right?" I asked.

"What game?" Suzi asked, walking in with a gift that wasn't wrapped in Christmas 
wrapping paper.  

"Oh, that game," she said after Jason made a face.

She then handed me the six by four by one inch box and said, "It was supposed to 
be an early birthday present from me and Joey, err mostly Joey, that you were to 
open before you left for Central State, but I think you might want to open it 
now."

Betty and Jason didn't say a word, apparently already knowing what it was, so I 
slowly undid the bow and slid the top off the box.  I got the feeling this was 
something which had been planned for a while now, but I was even more confused 
than ever when I opened the box up and found just a silver key in a piece of 
gray foam rubber.

"What is this?  A key to someone's heart?" I joked.

"Wait a minute.  Where's the..." Suzi said, lifting the foam out of the base, 
then said, "Oh, of course.  Look in the lid, silly."

Stuck in the lid of the box was piece of folded paper, which after I nearly 
dropped the rest of the box to pull it out, I found to be a five month lease 
agreement for an apartment in Kenton County.

"What's this for?" I asked.

"What do you mean, what is it for?" Suzi said excitedly.  "It's for you, that's 
what.  The girl who lived in the apartment below me moved out two weeks ago, and 
Joey and I rented it for you as.. a..

"surprise?" she peeped when she realized I wasn't sharing her excitement.  "We 
thought you'd like being in the same apartment building.  Joey sleeps there 
practically every weekend, and we... You know...  Thought you'd..."

"That's why I got the dishes and towels," I realized out loud.  "That's why the 
twins have been trying to get me to spend more time with Richie.  Everybody 
thinks I'll want to go to Central State after seeing it again."

"Everyone but you," Jason said after feeling me out in his own way.

"I'm sorry, Suz," I said with a tense sigh.  "I'm trying to keep an open mind 
about it, and I'm not saying I won't go.  It's just...  Well now I feel like I 
have to go when I'm still not sure I really want to."

"This wasn't supposed to put pressure on you to do it," Suzi explained softly.  
"It just seemed the right thing to do.  You don't know how hard it was for us to 
find my apartment in the first place, and having you in the same building was 
just...  Well, it was like it was meant to be."

"Thanks," I said, giving her a peck on the top of her head.  "You're right, it 
is a neat idea.  I'm just a little out of sorts from earlier, I guess.  How 
about you open mine now?"

She looked me in the eyes with a suspicious squint, then smiled slightly, 
probably from the twinkle I had in my eyes.

"Gee, what could it be?" she teased as we walked up to the three by four foot 
object leaning against wall.  "Could it be a dress?  A pair of shoes?  A TV 
maybe?"

She started peeling off one end carefully, then found the heavy brown paper wrap 
underneath and said, "You sure wrapped it enough."

"I had to.  Christmas paper doesn't hold up very well if there's nothing behind 
it.  But you should have seen what all I did to Joey's.  He's probably still 
unwrapping it right now.  I even warned him he'd need a crow bar."

She finished tearing off the decorative wrap with ease, then after carefully 
feeling out the depth of the frame and the canvas from the paper, she took one 
of her fingernails and carefully cut a slit near the top, then took a good hold 
and tore a third of the front off.

"Oh my GOD!" She exclaimed.  "Mom!  Jason!  Come here and see this!"

"What?  Did he do a nude?" Jason partially joked as they rushed down the hall.

"No he didn't do a nude!" Suzi blathered.  "This is so GOOD, Timmy!  I can't 
believe it."

"Wow, you did this?" Jason said just as Suzi tore the last strip off, revealing 
Frank's hand laying on top of the open book.

They all froze when they saw that, and just as I started to ask what was wrong, 
the back door opened and shut, and I recognized Frank's swirls of symbols coming 
in.

"I'll get him," Jason gasped out as he sprinted back down the hall. 

"What's wrong?" I asked Suzi as Betty kneeled down beside her.  "You all are 
acting like you've seen a ghost."

"A ghost would almost make sense," Betty remarked.

"When did you paint this, Timmy?" Suzi asked without looking up.

"Uhm, I guess about three weeks ago.  Yeah, two weeks before you and Joey came 
home.  Why?  What is going on?" I asked as Frank stepped up, equally stunned by 
the painting, but only momentarily.

"Is this some kind of sick joke?" Frank said with an unsteady voice.

"A joke?" I repeated.

"Tim.  In the family room, on the left side of the tree.  Go look," Betty said 
with a quiet urgency that I was compelled to follow.

Next to the tree, sitting on top of two boxes was another painting.  My eyes 
bulged out of their sockets by the uncanny similarities between my painting and 
this one.

The people were unfamiliar to me, and their clothing were...  well, pretty old.  
But the setting was all too familiar.

A bearded man sitting in a library with his hand on an open book, a young man 
standing immediately behind him with a hand on his mother's shoulder, while she 
and young teenage boy were standing on either side of the bearded man, each with 
a hand on the man's shoulder nearest to them.

"That boy was my grandfather," Suzi said from the doorway.  "He died a few years 
ago, but my grandmother is still alive and just gave that painting to my dad for 
Christmas.  She found it in their attic a couple of weeks ago and just knew he'd 
like it....  But... how did you..."

"I don't know," I said almost too soft for her to hear.  "I mean, I didn't... 
Shit, Suz.  I just got inspired by thinking about the first time I met your mom 
and dad in person.  Remember the goblet my dad gave your dad to auction off 
before we even knew they knew each other?"

"Vaguely."

"The library, remember?  Your dad mentioned naming the new library after my dad 
if he gave the rest of the goblets up for auctioning, and the library thing just 
always stuck in my head about your dad."

I sighed with a touch of disappointment, and then said, "But maybe while I was 
racking my brain for ideas I unconsciously connected with him and pulled this 
out of his head."

"I don't think so.  My dad said he had never seen it before today."

"Well, then maybe somehow I picked up on your Grandmother finding it."

"What, all the way in Canterbury England?" Suzi pointed out.

"Shit, I knew you were going to say that," I said, then couldn't add anything to 
that but a shrug.

"Dad wants to see them side by side in the living room," Jason said coming in.  
"There's better light in there."

I got out of the way, then followed Jason and Suzi almost timidly back into the 
living room where Frank was on his knees looking at the book closely.

"I didn't make the text readable," I confessed.  "It would have taken me weeks 
to get all the letters to slant the same way and at the right angle."

"Wow, now that's what I call freaky," Jason commented as he backed away after 
setting the older painting down in a stable spot.

"Damn.  They are the same, aren't they," I said unhappily.  "I'm sorry.  I 
thought I was painting it on my own, not copying someone else's work."

"The poses may be the same, but the people aren't," Frank said as he went back 
and forth between the two canvases, taking close looks at some of the details.  
"My grandfather's right hand has a ring on it, mine doesn't.  Suzi's hand lays 
flat on my shoulder, but my father's is loosely coiled."

"Their faces are... cold," Betty pointed out.  "But you made ours... pleasant.  
Even Frank's."

"Yeah kind of went overboard on dad's, if you ask me," Jason muttered.

"I heard that," Frank pronounced, then looked back at Jason with a grin, 
startling Jason by having the same twinkle in his eye as I had portrayed in the 
painting.

"Okay, maybe not," Jason said, recovering quickly. 

"So does that mean, you like it?" I asked.

"Like it?  I love it!" Frank exclaimed. "I don't even care HOW you did it.  The 
parallelism between the two separate generations, versus the obvious differences 
between the ages they were painted... But there is that same family link 
blatantly displayed in both despite the gap of time.... and it is so genuinely 
us.  I've haven't been so... excited over something like this since I saw the 
Mona Lisa at Le Louvre for the first time."

"Uh oh..." Jason said, stepping away.  "Uh mom...  You know that show is still 
on."

"Oh, you're so right," Betty said, quickly following him just as Frank put his 
arm over my shoulder and asked, "Have you ever really looked at the Mona Lisa, 
Tim?"

"I...  I guess not," finding Suzi also silently taking the opportunity to escape 
whatever I was doomed to experience.

Bah..  They just didn't understand Leonardo Da Vinci's astounding brilliance and 
talent.  Oh sure, everyone knows the famous chick's mug shot with the less than 
exciting smile.  But have you ever really looked at the details of the painting?  
It's incredible how real the strands of her hair look, the illusion of depth in 
the background, even her own shadow beneath her chin.  Sadly, this picture just 
doesn't have the resolution to show these details very well, but believe me, to 
paint something as detailed as the Mona Lisa with only oil paints and brushes 
truly takes a genius, and a hell of a lot of patience.

After Frank and I delved into a real Master's work, my own never seemed as good 
as it should.  Frank got me so wound up in the magic of Da Vinci's brush, I 
rushed home that night and immediately started a new Jennifer portrait which 
would have been my Mona Lisa.

But it just wasn't meant to be.  After I couldn't replicate a single strand of 
hair like the Master had, I gave up painting altogether.  You see I no longer 
had to express my bottled up emotions through the brush, pigments, and canvas. 
They simply weren't bottled up like they were, thanks to Joey and Suz.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey man, wazzup?"

"Hey Brad!  I wondered if you'd ever gonna call me back.  I've like left ten 
messages with your sister."

"Sorry dude.  I've been like tied up, but I can hang with yah today."

"Tied up huh?  ... Hey, the twins and I were about to go pick up Suz and go 
shoppin'.  You wanna go?  Suz was even asking about you yesterday."

"She was?  Yeah, okay man.  Shopping's cool.  I'll meet you over at Suzi's, 
'kay?"

"Yeah, okay.  Unless you want me and the twins to pick you up on the way over?"

"Nah.  I'm not home right now.  I'm like at a friend's.  I'll see you in a few, 
then.  Cool?"

"Cool."

"See yah, man... <click>"

The day was December thirtieth, nineteen eighty-nine, two days before the end of 
the eighties and the beginning of the nineties.  I couldn't get rid of the 
feeling everyone was pressuring me to move to Kenton County to go to school, but 
the greater the pressure got, the less I felt inclined to go.

I was relishing every last minute I had with Suzi before I left to see Central 
State a week later to find some reason against moving there.  The strange thing 
was, I wasn't hiding any of this from Suzi, and we even talked about it openly 
without it upsetting either of us.

But we both knew better than to tell Joey about it.  At least not until I was 
out there anyway.  We didn't want to spoil his "peace of mind" as Suzi called it 
that he had had since I had agreed to give Central State another try.  That of 
course was just another source of pressure, probably the biggest come to think 
of it.

So you could say I wasn't looking forward to the nineties.  To many unhappy 
possibilities were down the road.  And from the way my parents were acting, one 
of those possibilities was my parents getting divorced over something they still 
hadn't clued me in on.

And that made another reason I didn't want to move to Kenton County.  I felt 
obligated to be there to shield my little brother from the increasingly 
unpleasant yet so far still silent arguments my parents were having, and I had 
made the decision to confront them about it before my preview trip to Central 
State in a week's time.  I was still hoping they'd somehow work it out before 
then, but I wasn't counting on it.

There was a brand new green Ford pickup parked in front of Suzi's when the twins 
and I arrived in the limo, and I quickly concluded it was Brad's from the "TI-
MEDWN" on the license plate.  Brad had received a partial scholarship from Texas 
A&M University, and his parents had practically forced him to take it.  
Apparently he had gotten over the "trama" of being so far from his sister enough 
to enjoy himself, for he had the A&M logo painted on the back window of his 
truck.

I was about to touch Suzi's mind to let her know we were there when she and Brad 
came out on their own.

"Hey man," Brad said as he climbed in, then quickly added, "Wow, you two look 
awesome," from the snow bunny outfits the twins had on.

"See?  I told you," Suzi said to the twins as she sat down.

"Told them what?" Brad asked with a million dollar grin as the twins sat down on 
each side of him and teased his ear lobes with their tongues.

"That's between them and me," Suzi said wickedly.

"Suz helped pick their outfits out," I added.

"Yeah, man..." Brad said somewhat incoherently from the twins experienced 
caresses of his chest.

"Hey, don't get too carried away," Suzi objected when Brad's shirt started 
getting untucked.  "We're not THAT far from the mall."

The twins complied, and Brad wasn't the least bit disappointed, which was 
surprising to me.

"Cool truck," I said when his eyes wandered towards me and he gave me a sheepish 
smile.

"Thanks, man.  My dad almost had a hernia when he saw it, but he's cool with it 
now."

"Didn't your dad help you pick it out?" Suzi asked.

"Nah, he didn't even know I got it until I drove up in it.  Heh, Sandi doesn't 
seem to tell them anything, even the things I said she could."

"Shit, Brad.  How are you paying for it if your dad isn't?" I asked.

"I got a weekend job, man.  A real good one, too."

"Well?  What is it?" Suzi said slightly exasperated when he wasn't forth coming.

Brad put on his most charming smile and said, "I'm a model.  Isn't that totally 
wild?"

"A model?" Suzi repeated.

"Really?" I said surprised, then adding, "Yeah, actually, I can see that."

"So how much do you make?" Suzi asked with more than just passing interest.

"At first it was only a hundred bucks or so a shoot, but now everyone thinks I'm 
really hot, and my agent says she doesn't even call them back unless it's four 
digits."

"Your agent?" Suzi cooed.

"Four digits, huh?" I said, sensing that while he wasn't speaking a mistruth, he 
was stretching the truth a bit.

"Yeah, man.  I bought my truck after Harriet landed me a contract for fifteen 
gees, and she's lining up another big one for me for the summer."

"Wow," Suzi exclaimed.  "What are you modeling?"

"Clothes," he simply said.

"What kind of clothes?" I asked.

"You know...  Shirts, pants, suits, underwear, shorts, jeans...  Clothes."

"Underwear?" Suzi said with enthusiasm as she sat down beside him, literally 
butting Honey out of her way with her butt.  "You mean, like in catalogs?"

"Yeah...  That's what that big contract this summer is for too."

"Wow Brad," Suzi said with a rather husky voice.  "Will you model some stuff for 
me while we're here?"

"Man, that's what Sandi said when I told her.  I guess I can, but no pictures.  
I gotta be careful not to breach my contract."

For the next ten minutes the twins and I sat quietly as Suzi interrogated on 
what all he had modeled before, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that 
Suzi really wanted to jump his bones, probably with Brad still wearing a pair of 
white briefs if it was possible.

When we finally arrived at the mall, I think Brad was as relieved as I was when 
Suzi and the twins got into their shopping mode and basically ignored us except 
when asking for our opinion before they made a purchase.  Actually, I don't 
really know why they bothered to ask since every time I ever disapproved of 
something, all three would argue with me until I caved, even if one of them had 
disliked it before.  

You're probably wondering why I even went shopping with them if they didn't 
really respect my opinion on what they got.  The pure and simple truth of the 
matter was... I got a kick out of it. 

Seinfeld can't hold a candle to the twins silently arguing with Suzi over every 
nit picky detail.  Their superb performances were reason enough to want to go, 
and the expressions of the sales people as they struggled to fill the twins side 
of the... discussion were just the icing on the cake.

The problem was they couldn't do it very often or very long without the word of 
mouth spoiling it.  It just isn't any fun when other people come watch the show, 
especially when they're the sale people from the surrounding shops.

But this was only the second time we had gone to this mall this Christmas, and 
the few salespeople who recognized us I was able to... divert their attention 
(mainly with the old "bladder is really full" command.)

It was while we were in Sears watching them argue over lingerie (they couldn't 
resist when they saw one of the salespeople was a guy) that it was Suzi's and my 
turn to be astounded by someone else's performance.

Having people stare in our direction wasn't unusual in these situations, but it 
always had stopped when the girls had finished their show and either purchased 
the item or put it back.  But this time the whispers and glances didn't stop, 
and this fact was just starting to register with the twins and I when a group of 
noisy teenage girls happened by and suddenly became all whispers.

I was bewildered by this, but not Brad.  He leaned back against the counter with 
his arms crossed and gave them a sparkling smile, making the girls swoon 
momentarily before they quickly moved on in a fit of giggles.

Suzi and I just stared as Brad suddenly seemed to be in a spotlight where 
everyone, and I mean everyone walking by took notice of him and was awed in 
different degrees by his friendly smiles, nods, and even a few winks at his 
public.

It wasn't until that first group of girls came back and actually asked him for 
his autograph that we noticed the sales add he was signing, or more specifically 
the 25% off for men's casual shirts add, was in fact Brad.

And damn our surprise when Suzi and I looked up from the "borrowed" ad and found 
Brad's image down the isle in the men's store on top of a post they put in the 
middle of the isle to advertise special sales.  The four of us had walked right 
by it without noticing it, but now all we could see at that end of the store was 
Brad, Brad, and more Brad.

What a performance he gave too.  He was outgoing, charming, humorous, and didn't 
come off the least bit stuck up.  Brad was completely comfortable at being in 
the public's spotlight like that, thriving in it in fact.  Neither Suzi nor I 
had ever seen him so...  personable?  Energetically sociable?  Whatever.  This 
just wasn't the laid-back, self-absorbed, never-lift-a-finger-unless-you-really-
have-to Brad.  I would have said it was alien supermodel disguised as my old 
friend if I hadn't known better.  I guess you could say I hadn't taken Brad's 
success in his modeling career seriously until I had to blanket the store just 
so we could leave in time for Suzi's dinner.

Speaking of Suzi, all this had quite an affect on her.  I knew she had been 
pretty restless ever since Joey went home for Christmas, so it hadn't been a 
surprise the day before when she mentioned Joey's suggestion to look Brad up for 
a roll in the hay.  But I was a bit shocked when the moment we were all in the 
limo with the door shut, Suzi grabbed Brad by the chin and promptly inserted her 
tongue into his mouth with a primal growl.

It took every ounce of my will power to resist the temptation of joining them 
somehow.  Once I even opened the sunroof and stuck my head out while we were on 
the highway to clear my head, but it was way too cold outside to do that for 
long.

Now that was the Brad I knew.  He let Suzi do most of the work, and I ended up 
blowing my own load (manually with the twin's objections) moments before Brad 
from watching his admittedly perfect male ass while he pounded away into Suzi's 
front door.

After dropping Suzi off fifteen minutes late, Brad left his truck at Suzi's and 
came with us to the North mansion per the twin's suggestion.  At least I got to 
talk to him during the drive and during dinner.  But the moment the plates were 
cleared, the twins led him away and I quickly located Richie and kept clear of 
the twins' room for the rest of the night.

The next morning, I was combing my hair after a quick eye-opener shower when I 
sensed Brad coming down the hall.

"Morning, Brad," I said just before he entered my room wearing only his jockeys.  
"Twin's didn't keep you up too late, huh?"

"Just 'till around two, I think.  You know, I never thought I'd run out of cream 
with the twins, but after a week of it, I was out, man!"

"Cream?  Oh...  Wait.  A week?"

"Shit yeah.  I told you I'm pretty hot right now.  I got women lined up all over 
the place, man.  Isn't that fucking wild?"

"Yeah, I guess," I said, trying to sound enthusiastic about it since even Brad 
wasn't so shallow that he'd share this with just anyone.  "So how does Sandi 
feel about all this?"

"She's not too happy with it, but she has three different guys from school 
giving her everything she wants, so she'll live."

"I guess so..." I said, having a momentary flash back to the time Brad, Ted, and 
I had gang banged her the day I enslaved her for what I had thought had been her 
own good.

I zoned out a bit thinking about the mistakes I had made concerning Sandi, and 
when I snapped back to the present, I discovered Brad had stretched out on my 
bed and had fallen fast asleep.

I took a good look at him while he was like that.  There was no mystery to his 
sudden stardom in the model industry.  Brad was lean, tanned, smooth, and while 
he wasn't built like Joey, his arms, pecks, and legs were muscular.  I kept 
meaning to ask him how he kept himself in good shape knowing how lazy he could 
be.

I got on the bed myself and started thinking back to when Joey, John, Brad, Lex 
and I were the fantastic five.  We played sports together, swam together, went 
to camp together, built our "fort" in the woods together, and basically spent 
every summer of our childhoods doing what boys do.  It was the time of 
innocence, when I was just another one of the boys.  Sometimes I really missed 
those days where the biggest responsibility I had was taking out the garbage 
every Tuesday and Friday mornings before school.

My thoughts wandered to what Lex and John were doing those days.  Lex had gone 
to a private high school and we just never really saw him after Jr. High.  I had 
heard he had gone away to college, but that's about all I knew about him.  

I never did get John's address from Dawn, the ex-ring slave who shared losing 
her virginity with John our sophomore year and had apparently rekindled their 
relationship after holding hands at my funeral.  I had felt that maybe it was 
just best to leave things as they were, that maybe John was better off...

I knew better than to continue that line of thinking, but I did at least 
acknowledged to myself that I had this fear that anyone who I formed or reformed 
feelings of friendship with would eventually have some kind of harm come to 
them.  Not that I personally would ever do them harm, but I knew Gladius had 
made me unable to be coerced by anyone threatening to harm someone I cared 
about.  That worried me enough that I formed a sort of resistance to the idea of 
making new friends or reforming old ones.

But Brad was a special case.  I felt obligated to him and his sister after 
screwing them both up with their incestual relationship I had helped form.  And 
while Brad could be somewhat self-centered, he openly trusted me, and that meant 
a lot to me.

I nearly dozed off myself if it hadn't been for the twins showing up and seeing 
an opportunity for a good morning blow.

I watched them do their thing, stroking myself after watching too long, then 
nearly jumped out of my skin when Brad uncharacteristically reached over and 
tried to give me a helping hand when I had stopped and rested with my eyes 
closed.

It was purely innocent, and I while I didn't allow it to continue, I let him 
know I appreciated the gesture before signaling to the twins to hurry it up.

Shit, they didn't like that.  They basically told me that if I wasn't willing to 
participate that I should go find something else to do, for they weren't about 
to hurry up their favorite pastime.  I got out of there fast.

After Brad and the twins had their breakfasts, no pun intended, Brad and I ended 
up playing handball in the gym while the twins watched.  Brad seriously kicked 
my ass, but I didn't mind.  While we played Brad told me about his life at A&M, 
and surprisingly it wasn't just about his modeling and the girls he had slept 
with.

Brad really enjoyed living on his own and college life.  While his classes 
weren't exactly exciting, which isn't surprising it being his first semester, he 
wasn't all that bored with it like he had expected to be.  And once he had 
gotten into the routine, he managed to get most of his schoolwork done during 
the week, leaving his weekends free for whatever he wanted to do.

Suz and Jason came over after lunch.  I was initially surprised that Jason had 
come on his own initiative, but I quickly realized he was more interested in 
seeing what the twins were up to than what Brad, Suz and I were going to do.

The twins took one look at Jason and whisked him away to their chambers.  I 
queried Suz if she knew what had stirred Jason's interest in the twins, and she 
simply said he got a look at them when we dropped her off the day before and 
just started asking questions about them.

The three of us went swimming, played some pinball, pool, and then raced around 
outside on go carts for a while.  When we came in to warm up, Suz suggested a 
little mud wrestling, but she mostly watched Brad and I.

I do love the mud.  I'm slipper than a snake in oil.  Once I felt vindicated 
from the earlier handball humiliation, I nagged Suz about just being a spectator 
until she finally stripped naked and came in all fired up.

She actually pinned me down twice, but I pinned her at least seven times before 
we realized Brad had gotten out, toweled off, and was now watching us.

"Next," I said to him as I let Suzi up and got up to get out.

"Naw man.  I gotta get going.  My mom made me promise her I'd have dinner 
tonight with them."

"Aw Bradley," Suzi teased while she swirled her left index finger around her 
left nipple.  "Don't you want to have just one more round with me?"

"Well..." Brad began, looking over his shoulder at the clock.  "I really need to 
get going, I'm sorta trying to save some energy for Sandi and...  well... you 
know..."

"Oh," Suz said, trying to contain her feelings.  "I understand.  I guess we 
should go shower then, huh?"

"I'm gonna wait and shower at home.  I'm clean enough for the drive home, don't 
you think?" he asked me.

"Yeah, you're clean enough for the limo.  I take it you want to go now?"

"Yeah, man.  I don't want to be late for Mom and Sandi," Brad said, glancing at 
Suzi as she got out of the mud ring.

"Okay," I said after notifying the driver.  "The limo will be out front by the 
time you make it up there."

"Thanks man.  It's been a blast.  Say bye to the twins for me," he said, pulling 
his under shorts on and grabbing the rest of his clothes as he hurried out.

Suz sighed, then gave me a weak grin when I gave her a consoling look.

I extended my arm out to her then, without a word, we walked to the showers 
together, my arm snuggly behind her back with my hand on her hip and ass.

Washing each other was a great strain on my self-control, and even though Suzi 
ignored my boner, I knew it was only because of Joey's programming that she 
could stay so cool with what we were doing.  But for the rest of the time had I 
left before my trip to Central State, I held that shower to be the greatest 
proof that I could be around them without breaking my personal oath.

As the day for my visit to Central state approached, I became more worried about 
being uncomfortable around Joey and wished deeply that Suzi was going with me.  
I felt so close to her, so in sync with her, and I trusted her like no other 
before.  I had never had such a close and open nonsexual relationship with a 
female besides my mom, and I was becoming very dependant on our exchange of 
worries and concerns and talking them out.

With all my anxieties about what would happen when I got to Central State, I 
couldn't bring myself to query my parents about their own problems.  On the day 
I was to leave, I was so full of anxiety I threw up after eating breakfast.  I 
was seriously considering canceling the whole thing when Suzi showed up and gave 
me a kiss on the lips.

"No matter what happens or what you decide, I'll always be here for you, Timmy," 
she said after walking me out to my car and belting me in.  "The sooner you see 
Joey the sooner you'll feel better.  Now stop thinking about it and just go?"

I sighed and started the engine, then said, "I hope you're right."

As usual, she was.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tim, the Teenage MC
By Rass Senip
Chapter XXI: Fall 89 - Summer 90
Part 3 - The Greatest Tests Are From Within
(no sex)

Joey sensed me twenty miles from the Kenton county boarder.  Damn his excitement 
was contagious.  The moment I felt his mind touch mine I instinctively sped up.

I was shocked to learn he wasn't linked with anyone.  Neil had gone home to 
visit his family for the holidays, and without Suzi around he just hadn't felt 
the need to link with anyone else.  But he gladly accepted my offer, and after 
that it was like he was in the car with me from all the talking we did over our 
two-way link.  What we talked about, I don't have a clue any more.

I totally forgot about my concerns of feeling uncomfortable while I was there.  
In total honesty, I never felt more comfortable as we spent the day hanging out 
in his new home watching cable TV, working out in the basement, and playing 
Super Mario Brothers on Tommy's Nintendo which Joey had borrowed.

That night after his parents turned in, we watched an old Abbot and Costello 
movie somehow neither of us had seen before, then surfed channels for hours, 
watching parts of some B movies just like old times.
 
We slept until almost noon the next day, spent half the day in the shorts we had 
slept in while doing the same as the day before until Margaret ordered we had to 
get dressed for dinner.

It was while I was getting my clothes out I uncovered the key to the apartment 
Joey and Suzi had rented for me.  I had totally forgotten about it and 
everything else I had worried about the past two weeks.  I think that was the 
first moment I actually truly considered what it would be like to use their gift 
the way they had intended it.  I took a shower just to give myself time to think 
about how to bring it up with Joey.

During dinner, I found myself again completely at ease.  I was with the family I 
had spent many meals with, and the changes time had made to us all didn't seem 
to matter.  The surroundings were unfamiliar, but the feelings were just as they 
had been ten years before.

After we finished eating, Joey and I were trying to find something worth 
watching on TV in the family room when Joey sighed and suggested, "Wanna go out 
tonight?"

"Sure," I managed to say convincingly even though I would have rather not.  
"Where do you have in mind?"

"Well," Joey said thoughtfully, "The Rave is open till midnight all week.  It's 
a restaurant and dance hall on campus.  It shouldn't be too crowded since half 
the students are still gone for the holidays."

"Sounds good to me."

"Is there anywhere else you can think of you want to go too?" Joey asked 
innocently enough.

"Well..." I said as the key in my pocket poked me when I stirred uncomfortably.  
"What about taking me to see that apartment you two got me before we go 
dancing?"

"I'm with that," Joey said, trying to constrain some of his enthusiasm.  "I was 
beginning to think you forgot about it and left the key at home."

"You kidding?  I haven't stopped thinking about that damn key since I got it," I 
said, then bit my tongue for having said it that way.

When Joey didn't respond, I added weakly, "I do appreciate why you did it and 
all..."

The TV snapped off, and even though I sensed his eyes on me, I was afraid to 
look at him.

"Tim, I want you here, Suzi wants you here, but if you really don't like it 
here, there are plenty of other people who are interested in that apartment.  If 
you're worried about us losing our money on it because you don't want it, we 
won't.  You can take it or leave it.  Okay?"

I relaxed after that sunk in, but I couldn't help but still feel a little 
guilty.

I opened my mouth to tell him how I felt, but he cut me off saying, "Come on.  
Let's go.  Don't worry about the apartment.  Let's just go and have fun."

There were maybe twenty people in all when we entered the Rave, but that was 
good, for if it had been overly crowded right away, I would have been 
overwhelmed by the churning emotional tide of a crowd.  At first I was a bit 
bored, Joey having recognized some guy from one of his classes last semester and 
had struck up a conversation about the final.

But as more people showed up, I started paying attention to the women's body 
language, especially when they started to dance.  It was a very flirtatious 
atmosphere, and while there were couples, most didn't seem so serious so as not 
to flirt with others when the opportunity arose.

I wasn't there an hour before I was out on the dance floor doing my best to 
flirt and dance like the rest.  I felt so alive, so free, even a bit wild, 
letting my empathic senses go with the flow of the crowd, feeling the crowd's 
combined emotional force, and shaping my responses to amplify the free good 
feelings.

Without really knowing I was doing it, I began to drive the crowd's good mood 
and free spirits higher with the simple gestures and expressions I had learned 
to restrain the year before.  I just completely let go, generating the vibes 
that would make everyone around me feel what I wanted to feel myself, and 
reveling in the results.

I had...  No, everyone had a blast.  They were supposed to close the place at 
midnight, but no one made any announcement about it until well past one, 
probably due to I having taken a long breather at a table with some girls I had 
met on the dance floor.

We went back the next night and completely wore ourselves out, but left well 
before midnight after some of the girls I was dancing with started getting a 
little too flirty with me.  I decided the accumulative affects of my empathic 
abilities were to blame, and told Joey I thought it would be best if we did 
something different the next night.

So Joey and I went to a keg party the following night and we both got nicely 
plastered.  I had always associated getting drunk with escaping my worries and 
fears, and never really saw what was so fun about it until that night.  Shit, 
I've never laughed so hard and so long over the stupidest things before.  And oh 
man, did I ever make a fool out of myself.  But I don't regret a moment of it 
because Joey was right there with me making as big of a fool of himself as I 
was.  Of course I might not feel that way if I could just remember some of the 
details...

We decided not to go out the fifth night even though I was supposed to go home 
the next day.  We spent most of the day in bed recovering, and between the 
hangover and the growing desire to stay, I was pretty uncomfortable.  So was 
Joey for probably the same reasons, but neither of us mentioned anything but the 
hangover when sharing our mutual displeasures.

After dinner, Joey decided he needed to workout, but I wasn't really in the mood 
for it myself.  So while Joey did his thing in the basement, I pretended to 
watch TV while sorting through my very mixed feelings about whether to stay or 
not.

Joey startled me when he suddenly came up and said, "If you're gonna see the 
apartment before you leave, now would be a good time."

I felt some urgency in his words, but I just attributed it to being similar to 
my own need to come to some kind of decision about staying.

"I think you're right," I said, getting up.

"Good," he said with relief.  "And I need explain a few things on the way over."

The short drive over to the two-level, four-apartment, apartment building 
started out with Joey explaining how there were a lot of things he still wanted 
to show me, but he couldn't without knowing I wanted to stay.  But the rest of 
the drive and a good twenty minutes after we got there ended up being all about 
my reasons why I didn't want to stay, and more importantly the reasons I did 
want to stay.

I was just as undecided as I had been before we got in the car when Joey's 
sister Sarah showed up at the open door.

"Well?" she queried right off the back without even a simple hello.

"He hasn't decided yet," Joey said, visibly uncomfortable by her sudden 
appearance.  "I told you I'd let you know if he did."

"I can't wait all night," Sarah insisted.  "I'll give you ten more minutes."

"Ten minutes!" Joey said exasperatedly.  "Come on Sarah!  I haven't even told 
him yet!"

"Tell me what?" I interrupted, sensing Joey's panic.

"If you stay, you have to join the Group," Sarah stated.

"What if I stay but I don't join the Group?" I said while I felt my heckles 
rising up.

"That isn't a choice," Sarah stated coolly, then huffed from Joey's scalding 
stare and left as sudden as she had arrived.

"What is this all about, Joey?" I asked as calmly as I could after following her 
cluster of symbols out to what was probably a car where three other shielded 
minds were waiting.

"Tim," Joey said anxiously to my face while putting both hands on my shoulders 
to get my full attention.  "I can't tell you anything until you can tell me for 
certain you will stay.  I swear to God the last thing I wanted to do was put you 
on the spot like this, but it's now or never."

"Why is it now or never?" I demanded.  "I've had a great time, Joey, and I 
really want it to continue, but we both know this isn't the way it would 
normally be.  I just need more time to figure out what I really want."

"But everything you want is here," Joey urged.  "God, I wish I could show you.  
Please, Tim... if there was ever a time to trust me blindly, now's the time.  I 
can't tell you why."

"That's only because of her!" I nearly snarled.

"No!  I mean, yes, but its not just her!" Joey said, turning away, suddenly 
unable to face me.  "I can't say anything else.  I just can't, Tim.  I can't."

I could hear the tremble in his voice even though it had only been ever so 
slight.  I opened my mouth to ask why he couldn't, but I already knew why, so 
what was the use?  I had to decide what I wanted more.  To either be with Joey 
and Suzi or...  not.

Suddenly the very concept of not being around either of them for long periods of 
time upset me immensely.  To go without Suzi's council, to live without Joey's 
camaraderie, to return to the life I had before Christmas break...

"I want to stay," I whispered.

"What?" Joey said, turning around.

"I said, I want to stay," I said again, this time louder but shakier.  "I don't 
care what I have to do.  I just don't want to go without you and Suz again."

"Are you sure?" Joey excitedly restrained himself from yelling out.

I shivered from the new mixture of emotions I was struggling with, but without 
much hesitation I said, "Yeah, I'm sure."

The next thing I knew the air was being squeezed out of me as Joey gave me an 
exuberant hug that almost made me see stars.

After he released me and I gasped for breath, Joey was telling me something 
about the Group's new precautions against ensuring the loyalty of newcomers and 
protection of outside attacks.  

When he mentioned that every member had to submit to having what he called a 
failsafe program inserted into the deepest portion of their minds, my stomach 
knotted up and I immediately objected.

"What do you mean, no?" Joey said almost argumentatively.  "You said you didn't 
care what you had to do to stay, and you can't join the Group if you don't allow 
this one thing."

"But I just can't let someone put something in my head like that.  What's to 
stop someone else from using it against me?"

"We've been really careful to make it almost impossible for it to be triggered 
by anything but someone enslaving you to work against the Group.  You can even 
fine tune it if you want as long as we approve of the changes."

"No, Joey...  I... I just can't..." I said as I struggled to understand why I 
felt so certain I couldn't allow it.

Suddenly the four minds out in the car probed and attempted to command me not to 
resist, but even with the element of surprise on their side, because they had 
probed for my mind, I was able to cancel the command symbols before they reached 
even half the distance between them and I.

Joey seemed as startled as I, but just as I started saying, "Joey, what the fuck 
is ..." four more minds probed me and attempted to break through my newly raised 
mental barrier.

The first four tried to use the second four's attack as a distraction, but 
detecting and canceling bursts of symbols like that was really trivial if you 
know how.

"What's going on!" I demanded when I saw he was communicating with his sister.

"Sarah's says she's sorry but she can't let you go without the failsafe.  She's 
afraid someone might use you to get to Suzi and I.  I didn't know she was 
planning this."

"Tell her to stop or I'll start fighting back!" I said just before ten more 
minds joined in the fight and they simultaneously attacked.

"Shit, Tim.  She's not going to back down.  But if you can hold them off without 
fighting back, Sarah says she might let you in without the failsafe."

"Shit, I don't know if I can..."

"Just try, okay?  The worse thing that will happen is you have the failsafe put 
in.  I'll help you take it out later if you really want me to."

"Promise?" I grunted out, looking him in the eyes while detecting another six 
minds preparing to add their own streams to the now steady flow of symbols.

"I swear," Joey said truthfully.

I closed my eyes to focus myself entirely on my symbolic sight just in time to 
see Sarah send a telepathic transmission to a distant group of symbol clusters.

While I was holding off the twenty or so people's dynamically changing streams 
of symbols, I wasn't sure I could hold off many more without seriously straining 
myself, and if all those distant clusters of symbols that were coming closer 
were telepaths coming to join the fight, I knew I was in deep shit.

My heart was already racing from the excitement and effort I was exerting, but 
as the large group of symbol clusters drew closer (and thus the number of other 
minds between them and I diminished giving me better clarity of their clusters), 
my heart started beating even faster out of growing sense of terror due to their 
numbers.

"Joey tell them to stop!" I yelled when I felt at least twenty more minds probe 
for me.

Whatever his reply, it was lost in my effort to protect myself from the combined 
attack of forty-three minds.  I was frantically canceling as many symbols as I 
could while the ones I simply couldn't get around to pounded my barrier of 
purely telepathic energy.  My heart was pounding so damn hard I could hear the 
rush of blood in my ears.  Then I felt the knife stabbing inside my brain that 
meant I was overstraining my telepathic abilities, but suddenly found some 
measure of relief when I surged more blood into my head somehow.

But it wasn't enough.  My barrier was weakening, I was having painful bright 
flashes behind my eyes, and there was this noise rising above the almost 
deafening shhhhhing in my ears...

I had just recognized that sound as coming from my open mouth when I felt my 
defenses fail and my heart leapt up another notch in a burst of pain.

Joey said he had felt the pain in my chest the moment my barrier fell, and 
between that, the blood coming out of my nose and eyes and the look of total 
fear on my face made him realize Gladius's conditioning would kill me before 
allowing my mind to be taken by another.

The next moment Joey began shielding my mind as he shared his strength with me, 
startling the others long enough for me to recover from my near fatal panic 
attack.  I kept my grip on the world around me in case the attacks began again, 
but to my relief they never did.

Just Joey's telepathic message I was safe followed by a query asking if I needed 
to go to the hospital.

I opened my red blurred eyes and croaked, "Take me home," to which he worriedly 
nodded and proceeded to gently gather me up and carry me out to the car.

My head hurt, but thanks to Joey's share link the stabbing knife was for the 
most part gone.  I felt so weak, so violated, so defenseless.  All I wanted to 
do was rush home and seek the comfort and protection of my mom and dad.  But at 
the time, the best I could do was to stay linked with Joey until I was strong 
enough to go home.

I must have looked terrible when we got to Joey's house.  Despite Joey having 
cleaned up the blood from my nose, Margaret nearly freaked from the blood on my 
shirt and the little bit around my eyes from what my tears had been washing out.  
Joey managed to explain what happened while Margaret carefully cleaned around my 
eyes, then after I took some aspirin and said I wanted to shower and go to bed, 
Joey helped me get undressed and showered with me in case I might pass out.

After the shower, I called home and told them I was coming home first thing in 
the morning.  When I hung up, Joey handed me a glass of orange juice, then asked 
the question he had been avoiding ever since we got there.

"Are you going to come back?"

I didn't answer him right away, but instead laid down on my side of his bed and 
rested long enough for the sharp pounding in my head that had been building up 
while I was upright to go down to a dull throb.

"I don't want to join the group.  I don't know if I even want to be around 
them."

"I'm sorry Tim."

"It wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was.  I pushed you and Sarah into it."

"You didn't push me into anything I didn't want.  Now shut up and let me go to 
sleep.  We can talk about this tomorrow when you drive me home."

"But ..."

"Shhhh!" I said, then I moaned from the new throb that had created.

My sinuses started acting up pretty bad in the middle of the night.  I felt like 
I had a serious head cold, and the one time I risked blowing my nose, I nearly 
shit from all the really dark red and chunky blood I got out.  My eyes hurt, my 
head hurt, and I swear at times I could hear three different ringing sounds in 
my ears.

I felt so much worse the following morning than the night before that when 
Margaret learned the details of what hurt, she immediately called up my mom and 
they both agreed I needed a CAT scan, against my own protests I might add.

At least they didn't push taking me to Central State's medical complex when I 
objected to it.  Instead we went to a local hospital and after only about an 
hour of waiting I was injected with something to make the scan come out clearer, 
then laid there as this thing rotated around my head as it x-rayed.

Once the scan was finished, they moved me to a hospital bed when I complained I 
felt sick to the stomach, which I blamed on the substance they had injected me 
with.  I rested in there alone, which was fine by me, but then I sensed 
something was wrong, and out of instinct reached out and found Joey.

"... not sure it's a tumor?" Margaret asked the doctor and technician while Joey 
immediately started explaining to me they really didn't seem to know what they 
found.

Through Joey's eyes, I examined the computer screen that displayed the results 
of the scan, and as the technician varied the views, I started getting a sense 
of where this supposed tumor was located inside my head.

"Joey, I'm not sure of this, but I think that's where it hurts when I overexert 
my telepathy."

"So you don't think it's a tumor either?" Joey queried while asking the 
technician for a bigger view of the anomalous tissue in question.

"I don't know.  You said yourself they don't know what it is.  If it doesn't 
look like a regular tumor to them, then maybe its something to do with 
telepathy."

"Sarah says none of the other telepaths she had CAT scans done on ever showed 
anything like this."

"You're talking to her about this?" I angrily thought to him.

"Can you think of any other doctor who might know more about the medical aspects 
of telepaths?" he bluntly thought back.

I broke off my link with him and muttered, "If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be 
here in the first place."

Having at least found forming simple links wasn't causing me any further 
discomfort, I started scanning some of the other resident doctors for 
information about tumors.

Brain tumors are pretty dangerous things to have.  While this supposed tumor 
wasn't in the exact center of my brain, it was deep enough to rule out any kind 
of surgery to remove it.  The absence of any symptoms before the attack, its 
location, and the doctor's uncertainty all made me think what they were seeing 
was a result of the depletion of sugar in that area of my brain.   Of course 
when I tried to pass that idea through a couple of doctors' minds, they all 
rejected it since they couldn't fathom the brain using glucose at such a high 
rate like that.  Brain cells would die from hypoxia (lack of oxygen) long before 
the lack of glucose would.  Of course that was always based on something 
blocking the flow of blood to those cells.

At least they were able to help clear my sinuses and relieve my headache, which 
was the reason I had come there in the first place.  And I also learned my 
venous sinuses (cavities in the skull that act like wide blood drainage canals) 
were larger than average, but the doctor who pointed this out also said he had 
seen larger.  

After many hours of consultation with other doctors, a new prognosis was 
starting to gain favor, especially with me.  The golf ball size area which they 
were detecting was similar to scar tissue, but no one had seen scar tissue so 
deep in the brain, so localized, and without any symptoms beyond the pain which 
was not even noticeable any more.

What cinched it for me was the comment it looked like something had burned out 
part of my brain somehow.  

While these doctors didn't know anything about telepathy, I did know from past 
experiences that whatever tissues in the brain responsible for telepathy used 
sugar for their energy source.  I deduced that in my case those tissues could 
even steal the sugar from surrounding tissues when needed.

All those times I had strained my telepathy until it hurt believing I was 
strengthening my abilities, I had actually been killing brain cells by depriving 
them their supply of glucose, the type of sugar the body and brain actually 
burns.  

The result:  My brain had a dead spot.

I was feeling pretty drowsy after all the drugs they had given me kicked in, but 
at least I only had a mild soreness left by the time we got back to the Connors' 
house that evening.  

Joey had some sort of Group thing the next day, so I was seriously considering 
just have a limo pick me up and have another driver drive my car back.  But with 
Suzi planning to make the trip to school the day after, Joey talked me into 
letting someone else drive me home in my own car and then they'd come back with 
Suzi.

The next morning my driver arrived promptly at nine.  I had expected an Eta, but 
Joey had wanted someone with voice, and more importantly, someone he trusted.

"Neil Rhine, Tim Brandton.  Tim, Neil," Joe introduced us formally in his living 
room.

What to say about Neil...  Hmmm..  Well, he was oriental in heritage, but born 
and raised in America as had been his parents before him.  He was as tall as I 
was, had a roundish youngish face, yellowish tan skin, perfectly straight black 
hair, and while not up to Eta standard, he was quite muscular in build.

We shook hands with the regular exchange of pleasantries, and I noted he avoided 
looking me in the eyes, something that was becoming a regular occurrence with 
people who knew of my empathic abilities but hadn't experienced me using them.
 
Despite myself, the sense of friendship between Joey and Neil stirred some 
feelings of jealousy in me.  I could feel they shared secrets that Joey couldn't 
share with me.  Was it due to their friendship, or were they just secrets of the 
Group?  I didn't know, and I made a point not to look into it. 

My purple feelings were somewhat dispelled a short while later when Joey and I 
exchanged manly hugs while Joey only gave Neil a friendly pat on the back.  Of 
course that might have been due to the fact he would be seeing Neil again the 
next day.

Neil was verbally impressed with my car to my chagrin.  He loved all the buttons 
and gadgets, and especially made a big deal about the CD player, which I think I 
had used maybe twice up to that time.  When he mentioned he wished he had 
brought some of his CDs with him, I suggested we stop by his place so he could 
do so.

I didn't have to suggest it twice, and while I didn't go inside with him, I got 
the impression his apartment wasn't as nice as the one Joey and Suzi had gotten 
me.  It was one of those larger apartment buildings with three floors and dozens 
of individual apartments of varying sizes.

He brought out six CDs, all of which I liked, even the four I had never heard 
before.  I think I drifted in and out of consciousness after a while, but I 
always seemed to snap awake when he changed CDs.

I don't think either of us realized we were doing it, but we both had avoided 
topics concerning Joey.  But after finishing our lunch without saying much, I 
was a bit surprised when we got back on the highway and Neil didn't start up 
another CD.

I could tell Neil was gearing himself up to say something he was uncomfortable 
about bringing up, so I wasn't surprised when he suddenly broke the silence 
saying "You're not going to hold what the Doc and the rest of us did to you 
against Joey, are you?"

"Of course not," I said a moment before realizing he had been one of the 
attackers.  "He didn't know, and you were just following orders."

Several minutes of silence passed.

"Joey's worried you won't come back after what happened.  I personally couldn't 
blame you if you didn't."

I sensed an understatement in his words.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," I said in all honesty.

More silence.

"I've never had a friend like Joey before.  You're lucky to have known him so 
long."

"Yeah, well...  You're pretty lucky too.  From what Joey's told me, you two have 
had some pretty outrageous times together."

"What has he told you?"

"Shit, what hasn't he told me.  No offence, but when he was staying with me 
before Christmas, I got sick of him constantly talking about what you and he did 
together the past four months."

"Really?" he exclaimed, followed by an explosion of laughter.

"What?" I said, finding his laughter full of relief as well as humor.

"From the day I met him, all Joey could ever talk about was what you and he did 
in high school!" he gurgled.

"Really?" I exclaimed myself before finding the humor of the whole thing and 
chuckled.

"Yeah really!" he said wiping his eyes.  "I got to the point where I wanted to 
barf every time I heard the name Tim."

"Shit.  I only had to endure a week of 'Neil, super bud.'  I can't imagine what 
months would be like."

"Yeah, he drove me crazy with it, but I couldn't tell him it did.  He gets so 
..."

"Excited," I finished for him.

"Yeah.  Exactly...  Wow," he exclaimed as it all sank in.

"You can say that again."

More silence as we both wondered what stories Joey had told about each other.

"You know what we should do?" Neil prompted.

"What?  Oh... Yeah."

"Only seems fair."

"Want me to go first?" 
 
"Excellent."

For the rest of the trip we traded stories about what Joey had told us about 
each other and sometimes gave our own versions.  Nothing really embarrassing 
came up, not that we limited ourselves in that fashion.  I guess you could say 
we bonded that way, and the more I got to know him, the easier it was to see him 
as one of us.  Yet to this day can't explain what it was about him that made me 
feel that way.  He was different, yet he was the same.

----------------------------------

I had Neil drive my car into the garage and park it near the door leading into 
the North Mansion.  Servants immediately showed up, and one of my dad's part-
time nurses made me get in the wheelchair she had brought while my luggage was 
taken in and my car was taken over to the cleaning station where it was vacuumed 
out and later probably washed.

Neil was rather shocked by all this.  He had known of my dad's wealth and wasn't 
the least bit surprised by the size of the North Mansion or its grounds, but 
Joey apparently had never mentioned the enslaved servants my parents had.  He 
was just getting over that when my mom showed up in her birthday suit and he 
witnessed our hug and kiss.

Not that our hug and kiss was inappropriate or anything.  It was just your 
standard mother and son squeeze and peck on the lips.  No tongue or anything 
like that.  Just a quick smooch on the old facial puckers.  Joey used to kiss 
his grandma like that.

My mom's nudity made Neil uncomfortable, and while I sympathized, I wasn't about 
to ask my mom to put some clothes on or send her away.  And after I introduced 
Neil to her and told her a little about him, I teased them both with the 
suggestion they get to know each other a little more intimately while I took my 
next dose of pills and probably pass out.

I actually did dose off once the pills started kicking in again.  When I awoke I 
found Suzi had come over, but she had already left and had taken Neil with her 
without me having been able to thank him for the trip and all.

My mom was gone too, but she had told me earlier she was going to meet some of 
her old co-workers for dinner and probably wouldn't be back until late that 
night.

I laid around watching TV until it was time for dinner, and then went to the 
dining room for some grub even though I wasn't really hungry.  My head was a 
little cloudy from my medication, so I didn't really concern myself with the 
uncomfortable feelings I got whenever I passed someone in the halls on my way 
down.  I just thought it was the medication making me feel odd.

I was the first to arrive in the dining room, and I waited patiently for ten or 
fifteen minutes for my dad and Richie to show up before asking the regular 
dinning room attendant Jillian about them.

She explained that my mom had fed Richie before she had left, and my dad had had 
his dinner brought to him in the south wing's study.

After I had her verify that my dad had requested his meal in the south wing's 
study, this startling news lifted the fogginess in my head, and my empathic 
senses quickly focused on the source of the discomfort I had been having around 
others.

My dad at that time had around thirty five women serving him, some of them only 
part time, less than half of them living within the walls of the North Mansion, 
but all programmed to need his cock inside them to keep them happy and satisfied 
with their job, and to some extent even their life.

The men who served my dad were motivated differently, but most of the servants 
had sex with each other periodically, probably about half of them having sex 
with one or two others on a regular basis, and generally they were all pretty 
happy bunch.  Oh, individuals had the usual up and downs when relationships 
formed or broke up, but for the most part my dad's enslaved servants were quite 
content with their lives.

But Jillian was under a lot of personal stress, and I quickly discovered 
virtually everyone else was as well.  It seemed my dad hadn't fucked any of his 
fuck slaves for over two weeks, and the women were getting so depressed about 
this that it was depressing the men as well.

After forcing myself to eat a hamburger, I checked on Richie who I found playing 
with some of the servant's kids around his own age.  I thought that was a great 
idea, and told the parents so with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.  But 
when they mentioned they thought it would help cheer him up, it obviously meant 
to me that Richie had not been excluded in the increasingly depressive 
atmosphere.

I managed to get a hug and kiss from my little brother before leaving him with 
his playmates and headed towards the south wing.  I found my dad still in the 
south study, lounging on a couch in the dark wearing sweat pants and a t-shirt 
while talking business to someone on the phone.

He acknowledged my presence, yet he continued to focus his attention on the 
phone conversations he had with the untold number of people he called or got 
transferred to.  Even without my empathic abilities I would have known he was 
trying to avoid talking to me about what I obviously was there to talk about.  

But I wasn't going to let this go on any further without at least getting an 
explanation of what it was all about.  I was kicking myself for not having done 
so before leaving for Central State, and since my mom wasn't available and 
something had to be done about his lack of concern for his slaves' state of 
minds, I just patiently waited him out, knowing he couldn't talk forever.

During my wait I wondered where the twins were.  I quickly tried to seek out 
Sherman only to find he wasn't on the estate.  I learned through some of the 
other servants that my dad had sent Sherman and the twins to England, and got 
the impression the twins put up quite a fight before my dad apparently did or 
said something which put them in their place and they left without any further 
trouble.

That troubled me immensely.  I don't know of anything that would have broken the 
twins resolve to stay and help him when he obviously needed their council.  And 
it was a simple fact that my dad loved those two more than he did me.  What 
possible chance did I have in getting him to level with me and listen to my 
opinion if the twins for whatever reason couldn't?

After taking a deep breath and holding it for as long as I could, I let it out 
saying," Dad...  I just want to know what's going on."

After a long pause, my dad said into the phone "I'll get back to you tomorrow, 
Wan," and hung up.

"Is your mother still out?" he finally asked.

"Yeah.  She said she'd probably be late tonight."

"How's Richie?"

"He's having a ball with his new friends.  Why don't we go see him?"

"No, that's all right."

"Why?"

"I don't want to disturb him while he's having fun," he made up on the spot.

"You sent the twins and Sherman to England."

"Yes."

"No reason, you just sent them?"

"The girls were getting overly protective of me, and Sherman wasn't helping.  
They'll be back in a few weeks."

"Overly protective?"

"They wouldn't leave me alone!  I'm not going to justify my reasons in my own 
house!"

"What is WRONG with you?  Ever since Christmas, you and mom have been... What is 
it that's making you two act like ... like ... two selfish children?  And why 
are you purposely letting the entire house suffer from your stupid pouting?"

"Pouting!?!" he cried with anxiety.  "You think I'm pouting?"

"What else do you call it?" I said forcefully while scrambling to define the 
emotions behind his words.  "How many times have you told me how important it is 
to give slaves whatever they are conditioned to need to keep them happy and 
productive?  I've never thought of you as a hypocrite."

"Timothy?  I am not a hypocrite!  You...  You... You just wouldn't understand!  
....  I'm going to bed!  Good night!"

I bared his way and as calmly as I could I said to his face, "Not until you tell 
me what you and mom are fighting about."

"I can't tell you, and that's the truth.  You have to ask your mother.  Now get 
out of my way before I make you!"

The sudden anger and frustration behind his threat startled me enough to comply 
with his demand, but not before I noticed the exhaustion on his face, especially 
around his eyes, in the dim light.

I had the strong suspicion he wasn't going to get any sleep despite he obviously 
needed it.  I could see that something to do with my mom was eating away at him, 
something that he either was blaming himself for or had resigned that he was 
powerless to stop.

I decided I would ask my mom the moment she got back, but I doubt she would know 
why my dad was ignoring his obligations to the people he had forced to need his 
attention.  I mean, if he didn't want to fuck 'em, he could easily enough change 
their programming so it wouldn't make them so unhappy going with out it.  This 
is why I wasn't willing to just wait for my mom to learn anything more.  If 
there was anyone besides my mom and the twins who would know what was going on 
with him, it would be his right hand man.

"Sherman?  This is Tim."

"Oh hello, sir," he said somewhat enthusiastically.  "I'm afraid the twins are 
currently indisposed at the moment.  Would you like me to ring you back when 
they ...?"

"No, no... I called to talk to you."

"I see...  Is it that bad?" he said, dropping the forced sound of optimism in 
his voice.

"Depends on how bad you expect it to get."

"Sir...  Believe me when I say I truly am just as concerned with the Master's...  
problems, and I am quite distraught with worry about how the staff are handling 
it, but...  I must not interfere if he does not wish me to."

"Interfere?  I'm not asking you to interfere.  Just tell me what you know about 
why he's...  shit, what's the word for it?  Negligence?  Abuse?  Irrespons--"

"Sir!  I protest!  He has done everything he can to..."

"What?  Sherman, for pity sake, tell me!"

"Master Timothy, I'm sorry, but to _say_ anything more, no matter what I 
_think_, would be an act of betrayal to your father.  Do you understand?"

"I believe so," I said, already trying to feel his mind out.  "But I'm having 
some trouble...  Could you explain it to me?"

"Certainly sir.  Since I was acquired by you father, I have worked very hard to 
prove to him I was more than just a reliable and competent servant, but someone 
who he could confide in, talk to, bounce ideas off of, and in summary, be his 
friend without the usual complications.  My entire childhood was structured in 
such a way so I would find it easy to accept my position and to place the honor 
to serve with loyalty and perseverance above any other selfish indulgences like 
collecting wealth or engaging in relationships with the opposite sex.  I believe 
I have been most fortunate serving your father.  I quite honestly don't know how 
my life could have been any more productive..."

"Sherman, are you sure you don't want to say what my dad's problem is before I 
go?" I interrupted him when I finally made contact with his mind.

"I'm quite sure, Master Timothy.  But I hope I have enlightened you otherwise."

"Shit.  Uhm, yeah, you have.  Thanks, Sherman.  Thanks a lot.  I'm not sure what 
I'll do, but...  I'll figure out something."

"I'm sure you will, sir.  Thank you for calling."

"Thank you, Sherman.  You really are my dad's best friend."

I hung up to save him from what would probably be a long winded response, then 
gently rubbed my temples in circles as I fought the return of an ache from some 
of the drugs starting to run low while considering what if anything I could do 
to consol my father about his...  Uhm...  problems.

Problems.  Plural.  The first of which was his inability to get any sleep, which 
apparently directly caused the second problem of his voice being too weak to 
work on anyone.  The third, however, was the most significant problem, but I 
knew there was nothing I could do about it directly, and confronting him about 
it or even letting him know I knew would most likely only depress him even more.

So I waited for my mom to get home.  I still didn't know what the conflict 
between them was about, but I knew whatever it was, it was the source of my 
dad's three problems.

It was after three in the morning when her new red custom limo pulled into the 
garage.  When she got out a little unsteadily, then giggled slightly to herself, 
I was too shocked for words or action finding her a bit tipsy from the drinks 
she had drunk.

"Hello, sweetie Timmy..." she cooed as she approached.  "Did you wait up just to 
see your mother to bed?"

"Something like that," I said coolly as she gave me a limp hug, and then licked 
my earlobe teasingly.

"Oh, I've had such a wonderful night..." she sighed, stroking the back of my 
head gently while she laid her head on my left shoulder.  "I feel like I'm 
twenty again..."

"You want me to help you get to bed?" I asked gently, sensing nothing but her 
love and trust in her otherwise suggestive actions, and also finding she was too 
drunk to reason with so questions would have to wait until morning.

"Would you dear?" she purred.  "Just you and me, like when you were little?"

I hadn't meant sleeping together, but this was my mom.  I believed that no 
matter how drunk she was, she would see me as her son first, and as a male 
second.  And I really didn't have anything to worry about.  She laid down on the 
bed when we got there, then passed out fully clothed.  I undressed her down to 
her underwear since she would have ruined her outfit if I had let her sleep in 
it, then after several minutes of indecision, I went to my own room to sleep 
alone.

My head felt like shit when I woke up the next morning, but after I got some of 
the drugs in me, I knew I'd feel more or less human in an hour, so I went back 
to my mom's room and cuddled up to her and fell asleep again.

Richie woke me up by crawling on top of me, but he too was a cuddler in the 
mornings and we both fell asleep with him lying on top of my belly and chest.

No matter how many times it happened to me, it was always embarrassing to wake 
up with my morning stiffy and have my mom notice it.  This was no exception, but 
to make matters worse, my baby brother woke up and started to crawl off to 
cuddle with my mom, stopping and turning around when his foot accidentally found 
the tent pole in my shorts.  

Richie grinned and immediately started pulling on his little dick, then said, 
"Timmy, do it.  Do it."

"No, Richie.  Now cut that out.  You're not supposed to do that in front of 
mom!"

"Mommy?" Richie mewed to her for confirmation.

"You do it if you want to, baby.  I don't mind."

"Mom!"

"He's only a baby, Timmy.  He'll want to do it in private when he starts doing 
it for real."

"How can you be so sure?  You don't know what he might remember by that time."

She smiled gently then, as Richie climbed up and into her arms, I saw it in her 
eyes.

"I did not!"

"You did too.  I imagine all little boys do.  You don't remember a lot of 
things."

"Like what?" I asked, somewhat afraid of the answer.

"Well...  Like you used to love pineapples.  You never got tired of pineapples."

"Yuk."

"Mommy, pineapples?" Richie murmured.

"Yes, baby.  You like pineapples too."

"Yuk," he stated, and then turned his head towards me to seek my approval. 

I grinned at him and shook my head back and forth as I moved to butt my nose 
against his, then after smashing our noses together a few moments, I rose up and 
gave him a raspberry on his back making his squeal.

"MMM...  I do like them raspberries though," I joked before giving him another.

I felt every ounce of her discomfort and depression in her short sigh, naturally 
bringing my attention to the problem at hand, which she saw on my face to be the 
next subject of the morning.

"Did he tell you?" she asked.

"Who dad?  No.  I asked, but he said he couldn't tell me, that I had to ask 
you."

"He would," she said with contempt in her voice.

"Are you going to tell me or not?" I said, suddenly angry at the both of them 
for letting this get so out of hand.

"Now isn't the best time," she said carefully while hugging Richie who's eyes 
were wide with confusion.

"Too bad," I said more calmly for Richie's sake.  "I told dad you two were 
acting like children, and looks like I was right.  If it's so terrible for 
Richie to hear, then you can think it to me, but I'm not going to wait any 
longer."

"All right!  I was planning on telling you both today anyway.  On Monday I'm 
going back to work."

"For how long?"

"I don't know...  Until I decide to retire probably."

"Oh..  Uhm...  Why?"

"Uhg!  Why is it so hard to believe I might actually enjoy working for a 
living?"

"That's not what I meant," I said crossly.  "I just meant why now?  Are you that 
bored?"

"Bored?  Well...  No..."

"Then what?  Is Dad giving you a hard time about being the money maker?"

"No..." she sang with irony.  "Just the opposite."

"Ah...  So that's what you're arguing about."

"We're not arguing any more.  He's just pouting because he knows he can't stop 
me."

"When's the last time you saw him?"

"Saw him?  I don't know.  He's been such a shit head about it that I've been 
staying clear of his... business."

"So you've been ignoring him," I snapped.

"Tim, I don't like your tone of voice," she said warningly.  "Your father is 
acting like a spoiled brat who only cares about getting his own way.  I am not 
going to give in to his stupid pouting because I don't want to live my life in 
his mother's image."

"Who says he does?"

"Oh you should hear his list of things I don't do right.  Letting Richie nurse 
until he stopped on his own was only the beginning, and he still thinks I 
somehow weaned Richie without letting on I was doing it."

"He's only trying to give Richie the things he had and loved as a kid," I 
prompted.  "I know some of those things would be pretty ridiculous for you to 
do, but..."

"Oh, so you think I should suck on my baby boy when he's unhappy or he's having 
trouble falling asleep?"

"Oh come on, Mom.  They can't all be that bad."

"No?" she snorted.  "Apparently you don't know your father a fraction as well as 
you think you do.  A month ago, in the middle of sex, he had Richie come in and 
nearly got him to enter me from behind.  And then he tried it again the next 
night, and the night after that...  He's obsessed with this concept that Richie 
needs to fuck me for me to be a good mother to him."

"Mommy, I don't yuck you..." Richie whimpered.

"Oh sweety... I know you don't," my mom said, hugging him tightly and giving him 
a kiss.  "You're a good boy, and I know you love me just as much as I love you.  
You're by little man.  My precious little man."

"I remember you used to call me that," I said somberly.

"Well, back then, you were my little man.  Timmy, you were all I had.  
Everything your father keeps trying to talk me into doing is something I at one 
time wanted to do with you, but I loved you too much that I never did.  I need 
something to keep my perspective on what's good for him and I.  That's why I 
feel I need to go back to work.  I need a reminder to what it was like."

"I understand, mom.  Really I do," I said, finding her feelings similar to the 
original reasons I didn't want to move out to Central State.  "But...  What 
about dad?"

"What about him?"

"Uhm..." I hesitated, seeing Richie's attention was now following me closely.

So I thought to her, "I don't think it's pouting, if that's even what it was to 
begin with.  He hasn't slept properly in three weeks, he's so tired he can't 
focus enough to use his voice...  And..."

"And?" she thought back with a hardened expression on her face.

"I don't know how to say it.  He's so emotionally upset...  Well, he... Uhm...  
He can't...  You know..."

"No I don't.  What?" she snapped at me out loud.

"He...  can't...  get it up."

"What do you mean he can't get...  Did he tell you this?" she asked 
suspiciously. 

"No.  He wouldn't tell me anything.  I ended up calling Sherman, and then he 
wouldn't say it either.  I had to feel his mind out over long distance to find 
out."

"Long distance?  Where is he?"

I gave her an incredulous expression before saying, "Dad sent him and the twins 
to England four days ago.  You didn't know that?"

"No.  I did wonder why I hadn't seen the twins, but I thought they were simply 
staying close to Charles.  My my my....  If it's true, maybe he really hasn't 
been playing a game."  She then chuckled and added triumphantly , "Charles 
Richard Grodmen impotent?  I never would have believed it."

"Now who's being childish?" I pointed out.

"Daddy sick?" Richie asked me with a worried expression and his thumb in his 
mouth.

"Yes, Richie, he's sick," I admitted to him with my mom's disapproval.

"Mommy...  Go make daddy better?" Richie asked sweetly.

"I don't think I can, honey," she said with reservation.

"Does daddy need his mommy?"

"Yeah, that's probably what he wishes for right now," I answered him.

"Mommy, be daddy's mommy...  Please?"

"Richie, I can't.  I can't be Daddy's mommy."

"Please, Mommy?"

"No!  I can't, and that's that!"

"Why, Mommy?" Richie said in tears.

"Because she isn't anything like my mommy, Richie," my dad said from the door 
startling all of us.

"Daddy," Richie whimpered, sitting up and raising his hands out to him.

"No, Richie.  You stay here with your mother.  Since I'm the reason she'll be 
leaving you eight hours a day, five days a week, I don't want you to miss any 
more of her company as you have to."

"Damn it Charles!  You're just making things harder again!"

"Am I Sam?  I'm not the one running away from her child to a job."

"Daddy..." Richie cried insistently.

"Well, I'm not the one who can't get it up when things don't go the way he 
wants!"

"All I want is for my son to have a mother when he needs her!"

"You want him to have a nymphomaniac, not a mother!"

"Come on, Richie," I said evenly.  "Time for me to introduce you to Jack 
Daniels."

"Don't you dare!" my mom shouted.

"Just try and stop me!"

"He's just trying to shock us, Sam.  He's not serious."

"Ha!  Just watch me, pop!" I said while taking my baby brother out of my 
mother's frozen hands and walking out of the room.

"I want daddy," Richie whimpered to me in my arms.

"I know you do," I said coarsely, focusing my mind on preventing them from 
following us.

Dad was easy.  In his state he couldn't command a fly to.. well, fly.  But my 
mom...  It's pretty hard to override another telepath's control of their own 
body for very long.  I didn't dare violate my mom's mind with commands, for that 
would have been going too far, so I just did my best at causing her legs to trip 
over themselves, lockup, go numb, things like that.  My dad never moved.  He 
didn't believe I would do it.

You don't believe I would do it either, do you?  Well guess what.  Not only did 
I get Richie so drunk that he puked, I got nicely plastered before my mom got so 
furious she tried commanding me to strip and lay across her lap so she could 
spank the shit out of me.  Luckily for me, even with my reflexes impaired, I 
held off her assault.  But afterwards I corked the bottle and waited for the 
rest of the fireworks.

Richie was pretty sick, and for that I was truly sorry.  I should have never 
made him believe the shots of Jack Daniels tasted like pineapple juice with a 
warm after taste.  He really had drunk too much.

Why did I do this?  As I told them when they finally stopped yelling at me and 
each other long enough for me to do so, I did it because I'm their son, and I 
could be just as stubborn, thickheaded, and purposely hurtful as they were.

As you would imagine, they both did a whole lot more yelling after I said that.

Richie surprisingly didn't hold a grudge against me for getting him sick like 
that.  Once I sobered up, I went to see him in his room.  He immediately wanted 
me to hold him, and quite frankly I very much wanted to and did so.  He was 
always so sweet when he didn't feel good or was upset.  I think in this case it 
was both.

Maybe it was a reckless thing for me to do, and I honestly didn't know if it 
would accomplish anything when I did it, but they had been keeping this whole 
thing to themselves too long and I just felt I had to rebel as if to punish 
them.  It had just been the first opportunity that presented itself to do so.

In any case, they were at least communicating again instead of avoiding each 
other.  Communicating very loudly, in fact.  They weren't hiding it at all any 
more, and I had never heard my mom talk so filthy in my life before.

By the weekend, however, my dad had verbally relented to her decision to work, 
and in fact I found he was, for the most part, trying to give her what she 
wanted.  But it was as plain as day that he thought she was a terrible mother 
for leaving her son to go to work when she didn't need to, and that just made my 
mom furious.

On Sunday, the day before my mother would start back to her job, I found myself 
longing to see Joey and Suzi.  Home just wasn't homey any more, and the more I 
thought about it, the more I wanted to pack things up and go.

The only thing stopping me was Richie.  I couldn't bear to leave him there with 
only servants to take care of him during the day while my mom and dad went to 
work.  My dad hadn't actually gone to work for nearly a month, but he did spend 
a lot of time on the phone during the day.

I found it somberly ironic that for weeks I had wanted to find some real reason 
not to go just to justify not wanting to, then when I actually wanted to go, I 
had this real reason not to.

At least my dad found some relief from his sleeplessness.  He was trying to get 
Richie to take a nap and was reading him a story his mom had read to him when he 
was little.  Apparently it hadn't lost its magic, for when I checked on them, 
they both were sound asleep in Richie's king size bed which had been a Christmas 
present I forgot to mention before.

My mom and I ate a late dinner together, both of us not saying much but we both 
felt like there was something we wanted to discuss.  We watched TV together, ate 
a bowl of ice cream together, then when she decided it was time for her to go to 
bed so she could get up for work the next morning, I hugged her good night and 
told her good luck.

I was in bed, almost asleep, when she came into my room and as quietly and, as 
gently as she could, got into my bed, not realizing I was still somewhat awake.

When I heard her sniff, I woke up the rest of the way and turned to her saying, 
"What's wrong, mom?"

"I don't know who's right any more.  Me or him" she cried softly.

I hugged her, not know what else to do or say, feeling somewhat tired of this 
old battle of wills and thus wanting to stay completely neutral.

"You think he's right?" she asked me.

"I don't know."

"Do you think I'm right?"

"I don't _know_," I said, letting her go and moving slightly away and laying on 
my back.  

We laid in silence for probably a good twenty minutes, and I think she had 
started to drift to sleep when I said, "Do you really want to know what I 
think?"

"Yes," she said, snapping awake.

"I think you want to go to work, not just to get away from 'temptation', but 
because you miss it."

"Why on Earth would you think that?" she said, propping her head up with her 
arm.

"I guess...  Well, when you came home the other night a little drunk, you said 
you felt like you were twenty again.  I thought maybe you miss having friends at 
work and all that."

"I do a little," she admitted.  "But when I _was_ twenty-three, I went to work 
because I had to support myself and you.  I _hated_ leaving you in day care, and 
I swore I'd make it up to you some day, but I never felt I did...  Do you think 
I'm a bad mother?"

"No...  You're a great mother.  You've always come through for me when I needed 
you to.  Just because you didn't spend every minute of my childhood with me 
doesn't make you a bad mom."

"But what about now?  Charles is right that I don't _need_ to work."

"Mom?  In all honesty, I think you should do whatever you really want to do.  
Richie isn't going to be left with strangers when you're not around.  I'll be 
here, Dad can take off work whenever he needs to... Hell, I imagine the twins 
would make great baby sitters in a crunch, and there's always several of the 
staff who I'd trust in a blink of an eye.  So if you really want to work, go 
work.  There's plenty of time left in the week to be the best mom in the 
Universe."

"But by whose definition?  Yours?" she said with weak smile.

"Nah.  Richie's."

She sniffed several times then leaned over and gave me a hug saying, "You're 
still my precious little man.  I love you..."

I awoke with a jolt, finding it after eight in the morning and my mom gone.

"Well, I guess she went to work," I glumly stated to no one.

I stretched, scratched myself, got up, and then sighed a resigned sigh, 
accepting I wasn't going to join Joey and Suzi after all.

I drug my ass down the hall to Richie's room, then when I found it empty, I 
figured my dad had Richie either in his room, eating breakfast, or somewhere 
else.

I didn't bother feeling out their location, just headed towards the master 
bedroom on the other end of the wing.  I felt sorry for myself, feeling I had 
given up my own freedom for my moms, and stuff like that.  

The covers were in such a huge disarray it took me several long moments to 
realize that while my dad was certainly fast asleep in his bed, Richie was not 
there.

I started to get a little concerned at that point, for Richie was pretty clingy, 
and it wasn't like him to leave one of us in bed in the morning unless it was to 
go and snuggle with another one of us.

When I didn't find him back in my room, I felt him out, and to my surprise found 
him getting fed by our mother.

"You're not going to work?" I asked her breathlessly after hightailing down to 
the dining room.

"Nope.  Not for a few more years, anyway.  Why? Does that make you happy?"

"Yeah it does!  Does dad know?" I asked incredulously.

"What, you didn't hear us?"

"What?  When?  No! Why?"

"Daddy's not sick," Richie explained.  "Mommy made him all better."

"You didn't..."

"Well...  I couldn't resist the challenge..."

"What challenge?"

"To see if I could cure impotency..." she said shrugging but with a smile 
forming on her lips.

"So....  Does that mean you two have a new understanding about...  What a good 
mother should do?"

"Well, I though someone's advice to just let Richie decide what makes me a good 
mother would appeal to your father, so after I got him to promise not to try and 
push ideas into his head, I forgave him for being an es ach eye tea ach e ahe 
dee and started treating him for his you know what."

"Timmy, what does es ach eye tea ach... uhm...  what does that spell?"

I looked at him a moment, then with a grin I said, "poophead."

"Mommy, what's a poophead?"

"Never mind, honey.  I think your big brother needs to eat before he packs."

"Pack?  What for?"

"Do _I_ have to spell it out for you?" she said, raising her right eyebrow like 
Joey's Mr. Spock imitation.

"But..  I mean ... Holy shh ...  Holy poop! Thanks Mom!" I cried before giving 
her a quick kiss on the cheek and rushed out to start packing.

"Aren't you going to eat?" she cried after me.

"Later!"

"Mommy, is Timmy a poophead?"

"Oh Richie...  Look, I'll tell you a secret.  All men are poopheads."

"Is me a poophead?"

"No, not for a long time anyway.  And I'm going to enjoy every minute until 
then."

"Mommy?"

"Yes baby?"

"Is me a shithead?"

"Eat," she groaned.  "And hush."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tim, the Teenage MC
By Rass Senip
Chapter XXI: Fall 89 - Summer 90
Part 4 - Suzi's toys
(mc, mFm)

As I pulled up to the curb in front of the apartment building which would be my 
new home, my heart was pounding out of anticipation of my surprising Joey and 
Suzi.  _I_ was actually surprised I had reached this far without either of them 
picking up on me, and took a moment to congratulate myself for my idea working.

Basically, whenever Joey wanted to form a share link with me, I had to 
consciously will my life force to mix with his.  After we had gotten good at 
doing that, we experimented with willing different aspects of our life force, 
and while we really didn't understand how it worked, we learned how to limit the 
affects of sharing our life forces, like preventing ourselves from becoming 
drunk when the other was tanked up.

Joey, Suzi, and my mom know me well enough to feel me out without exerting 
hardly any effort.  Especially Joey.  Even when Joey isn't linked with someone, 
he can feel me out across a crowded room without any conscious effort.  Of 
course when Suzi isn't linked through Joey, she can't feel me out at all, but I 
couldn't imagine her not being linked whenever Joey was.  And I had learned that 
week before Christmas that there was no way I could sneak up on either of them 
for they were as tuned into me, and each other, as I was to them.

This idea of life forces and our will being able to affect it had given me the 
idea I might be able to hide myself somewhat from their expanded senses just by 
willing myself not to emit Timmy like signals.  It had only been a hunch, and 
while it was a bit draining to constantly be holding in my vibes, so to speak, I 
knew if I could feel them both in Suzi's apartment on the second floor, they 
should have sensed me by now if they were going to.

I doubted I would be able to hide myself from them if they actively sought me 
out, and the closer I was to them physically the harder it would be to keep my 
presence masked.  I could feel them so clearly, and while surprising them at 
this point would have been fine, I really wanted to see their expressions, and 
that meant hiding my presence up until they opened the door.

But I was losing my confidence in how long I could keep it up.  Unless I 
successfully surprised them at the door, I felt my sneakiness wouldn't be 
appreciated.  So I sat in my car for several minute trying to work out some sort 
of plan.

It wasn't until two Eta's started walking down the path to the apartment's front 
door I decided it was time to go.  I jumped out of my car and, as quickly and 
quietly as I could, snuck up behind them before inserting a block in their minds 
to prevent them from noticing me.

From that point I put myself on automatic pilot and let them lead me inside.  I 
almost gave it all away, however, when they went straight to my apartment's door 
and then walked right in without needing to unlock the door.

I quickly took back control of my body and just stood there afraid to move as 
the two muscle bound Eta's took off their coats and laid them across Joey's old 
family room couch.

"Sir, may I ask you something?" the blondish rather short guy asked 
respectfully.

"Please don't call me sir," the only slightly taller red head replied after 
hesitating a moment from taking off his shirt.  "And you don't have to ask me 
permission for anything."

"Yes sir..  I mean, okay, Jeff.."

Jeff tossed his shirt on the floor and laid a sympathetic hand on his 
companion's shoulder while the blonde tried to unbuckle his own pants with 
shaking hands.

"Kent, relax.  No one's expecting you to perform any better than what you 
naturally can do.  This is your first time with a woman, isn't it?"

"I...  yeah," he said nervously and somewhat submissively.  "Except with 
Mistress Gina, but I never...  You know...  With her anyway."

"Yeah, I know all right," Jeff said gently as he reached down and unbuckled 
Kent's belt and undid his jeans.  "Losing my virginity to another guy wasn't my 
plan either when I joined the Eta's."

"You too Sir?" Kent asked as Jeff slid Kent's pants down and waited for him to 
step out of them."

"Yep.  Mistress Gina picked me out for the same reason she picked you.  She 
likes seeing the short guy get fucked up the ass by all the others.  I did it so 
much I thought I wanted to keep doing it when she finally got tired of me, so I 
asked Baker if I could join Richardson's group."

"Me too," Kent admitted softly as Jeff finished undressing him, neither of them 
seeming to take notice of Kent's cock at full mast after his briefs came off.

"The fifth weekend I was there, Master Joey showed up, and he and Wally took me 
into a bedroom to talk with me.  You know what they said?"

"What?" Kent said while sliding Jeff's pants down just as Jeff had done for him.

"Pretty much the same thing I told you.  Wally didn't think I really was 
interested in men after not having chosen someone to pair up with, and that Joey 
thought I'd be perfect for his Mistress."

"His Mistress?" Kent asked confused, pausing only a second before tenderly 
pulling down Jeff's tented jockey shorts, as if afraid he'd hurt the cock if he 
wasn't careful.  "But he's..."

"Yeah, I know.  He's the Doc's brother.  I couldn't believe it either, but after 
you get to know Suzi you'll understand.  If I didn't already want to fill her 
every desire, I'd probably do so willingly."

"Would you like me to blow you?" Kent said nervously, still on his knees and 
staring down Jeff's hard on.

Jeff sighed, shook his head, then with a somewhat commanding tone he said, "No.  
Keep your thoughts on what you were brought here to do."

"Yes sir," Kent replied obediently.

Jeff offered Kent his hand, and when Kent took it, Jeff pulled him up to his 
feet, put both hands on Kent's shoulders, and said, "I picked you because I knew 
you're just like I was.  Confused, horny, and wanting something more than just 
getting fucked in the ass and giving blow jobs.  After tonight if you still 
yearn to fuck around with another guy, you can always go back to Richardson.  
But I think once you slide your cock into one of Mistress Suzi's hot holes, 
you'll never want to do it with a guy again."

Kent looked up at Jeff and said with some measure of certainty, "I think... I 
hope you're right, Jeff."

"Now that's more like it," Jeff said with a grin.  "Now lets get into the 
bathroom so we can get oiled up."

"Yes sir!" Kent said smartly, turning around and heading that way.

Jeff watched Kent's ass a moment, then jumped forward and smacked it with his 
right hand saying, "And I get to do your ass first."

I didn't follow them, but instead sat down on the couch feeling a bit sick to my 
stomach.  Neither Suzi nor Joey had mentioned anything about Suzi having been 
sampling the Eta's beef, and it wouldn't have been such a shock if they had.  I 
had assumed Suzi's restlessness during Christmas break had been from not having 
Joey around to fuck.

But now it was as plain as day to me why her restlessness hadn't been sedated 
long by her fuck with Brad in the limo.  She had gotten used to having more 
attentive partners, probably more than one at a time before break.

Jeff and Kent were joking around in my bathroom a bit when suddenly Joey probed 
for them and nearly caused me to shit in my pants.  Seriously.  Once I was sure 
Joey hadn't detected me, I was straining to hold it in as I passed Jeff and Kent 
on their rush to leave the bathroom while I was rushing to get in.

I managed to hold it off long enough to remove the mental blocks in their minds 
just in case Joey or Suzi might detect them, and then tried desperately to keep 
my turd from coming out too fast in case they might hear the plop.

Time passed slowly as I waited in my apartment for them to return for their 
clothes.  They had made a bit of a mess in my shower, and I was quickly coming 
up with a list of things I forgot to bring.  Things like cleansers, and more 
embarrassing, a plunger for my freshly clogged toilet.

The only furniture in the apartment was the Conner's old couch and a card table 
with two folding chairs I guessed Suzi had supplied.  I was seriously 
reconsidering my decision to move there again, but no matter how much this whole 
thing bothered me, I knew I wanted to be with them.  After spending three weeks 
with them, I couldn't bear going back to the way it was before.

Sometime after one in the morning, after being up there for nearly four hours, 
Jeff and Kent finally came back looking happily tired, placid, and took every 
measure possible to make as little noise as possible.

They stunk of sex, their hair was a mess, the shine from the oil they had 
applied earlier was dull from the mixture of sweat, and from their odor, their 
own cum.  Without comment they headed right to the bathroom, and even if I 
hadn't inserted commands for them to ignore it, I seriously wondered if they 
would have even noticed the clogged toilet.

I followed them to the bathroom this time, curious as to what all they had done 
up there while not yet ready to peek for myself, especially while Joey was still 
awake.

Jeff turned on the shower, then directed the happily dazed Kent into the path of 
the water when it was ready, grinning as Kent sputtered from the water forcing 
Kent's mind back to life.

"You did really good, Kent," Jeff praised him as he handed Kent a bar of soap 
and a cloth.  "I think she liked you a lot."

"Really?" he asked hopefully.  "I thought I really screwed up when I tried to 
give Master Joey a blow job."

"Yeah, well, you weren't the first to make that mistake.  Hell, I was constantly 
trying to persuade him to fuck me until Suzi finally had me lay down on the 
floor on my back and she mounted me.  I don't think I ever gave him another 
thought after that."

"So do you think she'll want me...  again?"

"Fuck, yeah.  You and I have an advantage over the other five.  We're just her 
height."

"We are, aren't we," Kent said in the middle of soaping up his face with the 
cloth.  "Is that another reason you picked me?"

"Yep.  You and I have a lot in common.  I haven't told her this yet, but I'm 
hoping you'll be able to take my place on the Tuesdays and Thursdays she calls 
since I have this night class.  We usually start around seven, but that's when 
my class starts."

"But you said they only do it on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays."

"It's not Suzi's fault my schedule didn't work out.  The way I see it, since 
Joey made me responsible for managing us, my first duty is to see that Suzi is 
made happy.  If that means I have to sacrifice my own time with her, then that's 
what I'm going to do.  And with you around, she'll always have someone her own 
size.  I think that makes a difference."

"I... I don't know how to thank you," Kent said, having been so stunned that he 
had stopped his washing.

"Thank me by serving our mistress to the best of your abilities," Jeff said 
seriously.  "She's the one who you should be grateful to."

Kent went back to washing himself when Jeff finished his own washing, then after 
Kent bent over to wash his legs, he noticed Jeff's cock getting hard, and 
realized why.

"Jeff, do you ever think about having sex with guys again?" Kent asked as his 
cock started growing as well.

"Not usually, no," Jeff admitted.

"Have you ever fucked a guy in his ass?" Kent asked, facing away from Jeff, 
bending over slightly while running his hand over his left buttock, creeping 
closer to his crack with each pass.

"No, and honestly, I don't want to start," Jeff said.

"Okay," Kent sighed.  "But if you ever want to try..."

I left the bathroom at that point, sensing Joey having fallen asleep.  I relaxed 
a little on the couch while Jeff and Kent finished up in the bathroom, then 
slipped them both into a dream state and had them get dressed and sit down.

Jeff's loyalty to Suzi was not programmed, I was glad to see.  In his mind she 
rescued him from living a life not meant for him, and while I did see Suz 
deserving some of the credit, I had found it rather suspicious that he saw her 
to be the soul reason until I realized he was in love with her.

Kent didn't have those kinds of feelings yet.  The sex he had just experienced 
had completely blown his mind, and while the main reason I was detaining them 
was to get the details of that sex, I skipped over that for the moment to make 
sure he wasn't being misguided in someway.

From what I could tell, everything they had told him was on the level.  And his 
mind was so buzzed by the new feelings he had discovered during his first 
heterosexual sex made me realize how important this night would be to him for 
the rest of his life.  He felt liberated, freed from his self image of being gay 
and never having anything more than some guy's cock in his face or in his ass.

Jeff had experienced the same feelings, but there was one important difference 
between the two young men.  Jeff focused his gratitude towards Suzi, while Kent 
was rightly accrediting Jeff for making this possible.  I wondered where it 
would lead, but it wasn't any of my business.

At that point I had them recall what had happened since entering Suzi's 
apartment.

Suzi and Joey were watching TV together when they arrived, and after Joey had 
them let themselves in, Suzi walked up to them and started inspecting them like 
the two pieces of meat they were while Joey shut off the TV and sat back to 
watch the real show.

When Suzi began feeling Kent's muscles and firm butt while commenting to Jeff 
and Joey on his nice compact build, Kent had problems thinking straight, and I 
recognized that as probably Joey reprogramming Kent's rat to better suit them.  
After that, Kent's nervousness disappeared as his desire to serve and pleasure 
his mistress outgrew his concerns of his inexperienced performance.

Holy shit, Suzi once again proved she knew how to extend foreplay.  She had the 
two oiled up hunks pose and flex their muscles while she took free feels of 
their bodies and tease them with little licks, nibbles, and eventually short 
French kisses for what seemed to Kent to be forever.

It was during one of those kisses that Kent first felt Suzi's mind touch his.  
The sensations of having someone share their thoughts with you can be very 
intimate, but it also was a huge shock to Kent until he actually started to 
listen to what her thoughts were saying.

At that point, he let go of his inhibitions and let Suzi's mind guide his 
actions.  Kent's hands smoothly slid up her back, taking her slipover sweater 
with them, and gently separated himself from her lips to slip it over her head.

Jeff assisted him in removing her clothes, one piece of clothing at a time, and 
to Kent every movement he made was pure bliss for he was coming closer to 
feeling his mistress's skin against his own.

Once Suz was as naked as they were, they spent a long time just rubbing their 
bodies against hers, apparently the goal was to transfer as much of the oil as 
they could without using their hands.  

They spoke no words, and even thoughts were not exchanged in full sentence form.  
Kent quickly became good at perceiving her intentions with out needing for her 
to send anything more than her desire in raw form, and he wasn't even 
consciously aware of sucking on Suzi's left nipple until after the fact.

There were no selfish thoughts or feelings within Kent when Jeff's loving 
suckling of Suzi's neck ended up in her turning towards him to exchange her 
royal saliva with him.  His mind was too far gone to care what he was sucking 
on, and continued his mouth's caressing her skin across her back and then headed 
downwards.

Kent didn't know what to do, however, when Suz licked down Jeff's body herself 
and then consumed his cock into her mouth.  It was while Suzi began a gentle 
bobbing motion with her head that Kent suddenly noticed Joey had pulled his out 
and was sitting there on the couch with his eyes closed.

To Kent it seemed perfectly natural to pleasure a master while his mistress 
wasn't needing him.  Joey stopped him before he ever even got down on his hands 
and knees, and flat out told him he was only to pleasure Suzi, no one else.

Kent's uncertainty of his performance returned momentarily, but then he felt his 
mistress's desire touch him and he instantly scrambled to the floor between her 
legs and lost himself in sampling the nectar of his goddess.

Kent's instincts were aided by Suzi's telepathic guidance in teaching him how to 
lick a woman's cunt the right way.  He was so pleased when she came under his 
tongue's and lip's administrations that he wasn't the least unhappy when he 
thought the night was over after she made him stop and stand up.

Shit, was he wrong.  After she had them pick her up, Joey led them into the 
bedroom where they gently laid her down on the bed then both got on themselves 
and waited for their mistress to command them.  

Suzi had no intentions of commanding them to do anything.  In fact, just the 
opposite.  After having them lay flat on their backs side to side, Suz drug her 
body up theirs and proceeded to alternate her lips and tongue on their mouths, 
necks, and nipples, fondled their permanently hard cocks, and at times humped 
her wet box against one of their thighs.

And all they could do was lay there and take it.  Kent's instincts were hitting 
his resolve to remain inert pretty hard, but Joey's rat kept him in check.

Something within Suzi's deep French kiss told Kent he wouldn't have to wait much 
longer, but he didn't even realize Suzi had wiggled herself entirely on top of 
him until Jeff sat up and started kissing the back of her neck.

When Kent's cock began sliding within her wet box of pleasure, Kent relinquished 
his grasp on the moment and savored the termination of his true virginity.

As that moment slowly faded into oblivion, Suzi began to slowly hump his rod of 
meat, lifting herself up on her hands and then plunging herself back down with a 
slap of skin to skin.

Her tongue tore into his mouth, her mind infiltrated every corner of his 
consciousness, her cunt swallowed and reswallowed his cock as Kent felt his 
being hurtling farther and farther into a sex filled canyon of servitude.

Suddenly Suzi came, her orgasm filling Kent's mind as if it was his very own.  
He was only momentarily shocked afterwards to find he hadn't ejaculated, but 
then in his new state of mind he knew he wouldn't until she willed it.

Kent momentarily felt the familiar tingle of someone's finger probing his ass, 
but then realized it was not his ass but Suzi's Jeff was loosening with his 
spit-covered fingers.  Kent patiently waited as Jeff lovingly prepared his 
mistress's shit hole, finding himself anticipating her pleasure and desiring 
that she come repeatedly during the double penetration.

My own memories of feeling Joey's cock through the skin separating Suzi's pussy 
and shit canal as it slid into her ass amplified the realism of what Kent had 
experienced from Jeff's entry.  While Kent was very concerned over Suzi's 
initial discomfort, he knew all too well it would pass and produce wonderful 
pleasurable feelings, and had verbally tried to ease her pain with words of love 
and tenderness beyond any he had ever said before.

Once Jeff started his regular humping motions, Kent believed they would be 
building towards the final climax of the evening.  Jeff had to rev up to a 
brutally pounding speed before Suzi's orgasm overtook them, and after Jeff 
dismounted and Suzi took one more sample of Kent's mouth's juices, Kent expected 
they would be leaving and got up to do so.

"Where you going, stud boy?" Suzi said as she got on all fours.  "I haven't 
tasted what those balls of yours has to offer yet."

Normally, Kent would have shot his load fifteen seconds after entering a vacuum 
of moist hotness like Suzi's mouth.  But Suzi consumed his meat for a good ten 
minutes before releasing the block on his ability to ejaculate, then made him 
empty his testicles into her mouth and afterwards paint her neck and chest with 
the cum dribbling out of her full mouth with his semi-erect cock as his paint 
brush.

Once that was finished, Jeff pulled his cock out of her cunt, waited for Suzi to 
lay on her back, then promptly straddled her stomach and placed his cock between 
her well lubricated breasts as she compressed them around his dick.

Kent followed his mistress's desire to stimulate her cunt and twat with his 
mouth, but when she tired of Jeff's tit-fucking enough, she had Kent watch 
closely as Jeff filled the crevice between her breasts with load of cum that 
made Kent slightly light-headed.

Jeff almost immediately got off of her, then as the puddle of cum made its way 
towards her bellybutton, Jeff began using his semi to spread the cum around, 
Kent instinctively aiding him with his own re-hardened cum brush.

Suzi caught some of the runoff with her hands and smeared it onto the two 
heavily rippled abs and chest, then commanded them both to relax a few minutes. 
She had Joey come over to her so she could lovingly worship his cock with her 
sweaty cum covered skin, then deep throated him with abandon until he shot his 
seed down her gullet.

Joey covered her with kisses as she panted to get her breath back, then 
patiently stroked her body lovingly until she got up and told him to get ready 
for bed.

Kent again assumed they were finished for the night, but remained relaxing on 
the bed as Suzi crawled over to Jeff and kissed him on the lips in short gentle 
bursts.

"Are you ready, my redheaded pleasure boy?"

"Always, my mistress."

"Do you think my new toy will hold up as long as you did the first time?"

"He will, if he desires to serve his mistress as much as I did."

"I do!" Kent screamed in his mind.

"Yes, I believe he does," Suzi said smiling as she looked at him.

Her eyes filled Kent with a lust he had never felt so strong before.  He began 
to shiver and twitch as his mind slowly sank into a primeval sea of sexual need 
and carnal energy.  He felt like a rubber band being twisted round and round, 
stretching tighter and tighter, coiling up every ounce of his energy in 
anticipation for when she would let him go...

"Stand," she commanded.

The next instant Kent stood at the foot of the bed, every vein in his body 
pulsing with his sexual energy and need.

"I will become apart of you both," she began in a ritual like voice as she 
stepped up in front of him and grasped Kent's steel hard and pulsing cock.

"Our bodies will become one," Jeff continued as he stepped up behind her with an 
intense look of lust on his face.

"I shall be meat once more," Suzi whispered huskily as she drove her two 
enslaved cocks into her two holes and released their pent up energy slowly.

From that point, the two males took over and held her between them as they 
fucked her standing.  Suzi became completely inert, the two males holding her up 
with their arms and sometimes with just their cocks as they fucked her in 
intensive bursts that racked her body with orgasms, then, as they began pushing 
their own endurance, they established a slower and more steady rate which they 
began to build a final climax.

As they pushed their bodies steadily beyond their normal tolerances, the two 
males began experiencing discomfort from several different groups of muscles, 
but ignored these sensations as they began to feel their cock's grow inside the 
cavities which they fucked.  

When I found that Suzi's body had stiffened between them at this point, I was 
momentarily horrified by my realization she was recreating my illusion of her 
body transforming into my cock.

And that's precisely what Kent experienced.  To his delusional senses her body 
transformed into the largest cock he had ever imagined moments before every 
muscle in his body seized up in a mixture of pain and pleasure and his massive 
cock spewed it's surprisingly small amount of clear ejaculate, and it took me a 
few moments to realize it was only saliva she squirt out of her open mouth.

I was stunned beyond thought for a couple of minutes, then I hastily scanned 
their minds for what happened next.

They mechanically carried her over to one side of the bed, then gently laid her 
down atop of Joey who had showered and apparently had powered himself with 
something that made him not only smell fresh and flowery, but probably also kept 
the cum on her skin from gluing them together when it dried.

Once she was comfortable, the two preprogrammed slaves jerked themselves off, 
and then, as quietly as they could, left while Joey tenderly stroked her hair 
and body until she was fast asleep.

That image of her asleep on top of Joey quieted a lot of my emotions that were 
upsetting me.  I checked Jeff's memories of earlier sessions before sending them 
both home, finding while there had been quite a lot of variation in the foreplay 
and regular fucking, they seem to have always ended with the long building fuck 
and transformation illusion.

I was awakened by the apartment's front door being swung open quickly, then 
cursed myself for having been so careless to fall asleep on the couch like that.

"Tim, what are doing here?" Joey asked with disbelief.  "I saw your car outside 
with the trailer...  Have you've been here all night?"

"Uhm, yeah.  Surprise," I said with a touch of humor.

The sound of floppy sandals coming down the steps were only barely audible as 
Joey asked, "Does this mean you're going to stay here?"

Joey stepped forward to let Suzi in just as I said, "If you haven't rented out 
this apartment to someone else, yeah."

"Ew Timmy!" Suzi squealed rushing towards me to give me a hug, her robe falling 
open a bit revealing she had nothing on underneath.

"Whew!" I exclaimed after receiving the brunt of the hug and getting a whiff of 
her potent odor.  "Somebody's ripe!"

Suzi started turning red and stepped back, but Joey I think was even redder.

"Uhm, so what time did you get here last night?" Joey asked as I ignored Suzi's 
retreat, grabbed her, and gave her a hug and wet kiss on her cheek.

"About the time your toy boys got here," I admitted.  "Speaking of which, next 
time your boys want to use my shower to oil up, make sure they clean up their 
mess when they come back."

Suzi squirmed from the guilt and shame she felt about what I must have seen 
second hand, but I held onto her and said, "You wanted us to be open and honest 
about everything, remember?  You have nothing to be ashamed of with me.  
Besides, I've done worse things than playing with a couple of boy toys."

"They're not boy toys," she sighed.

"Then what are they?"

"Hunky men toys," she chuckled after a moment of thought.

"I can't believe you're here," Joey said standing immediately in front of us.

"I can't either," Suzi admitted.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I can't believe it myself," I said, 
giving them both a hearty dose of my empathic smile.

"Man, Suz..." I said when my nose again complained.  "You really need a shower."

"Shit, alright!  Joey woke me up when he saw your car outside.  Just give me a 
few minutes and I'll be smelling like roses again."

"Do you want me to do it?" Joey asked as she closed her robe tightly around her 
and turned to go.

"I think I can do it myself this time," Suzi teased.  "You need to organize the 
help for moving him in."

"Yes ma'am," Joey called after her as she paddled her way back up the stairs.

"She sure is something," I said wistfully.

"Yep.  She's something all right," Joey said standing six inches to the right of 
me, smiling at me as bright as the sun in July.

"What?" I said, my own smile growing.

"Nothing.  Just....  Remember the first day of our freshman year?"

"I'm not sure."

"The first time we entered the cafeteria..."

"Oh right..."

"Remember what I said?"

"Yeah.  Today is the first day of the rest of our lives." 

"And we were going to be masters of the school by the time we left."

"Heh.  Yeah.  Ironic, isn't it."

"Mark my words, Timmy boy.  Today is again the first day of the rest of our 
lives.  And we will be masters of..."

"And mistress," Suzi thought to us.

"And mistress," Joey confirmed officially.  "of this school by the time we 
leave.  Now that the three of us are together again, nothing can stop us."

"And after we leave, we shall go on to become the rulers of the GALAXY!" I 
boomed in a deep evil sounding voice.

"Heh.  The Universe even."

"Nah...  I plan to retire after we conquer the galaxy.  Besides, we have to 
leave something for our kids to do."

"True.  Very true."

"Well before you boys go running off to play war, just remember you still have 
to unpack the royal trailer outside," Suzi advised.

"Queen Suzi is right!  Come King Tim.  We must begin recruitment for our 
dastardly plans."

"Uhm, King Joey...  Before we start gathering our evil hordes..."

"Yes?"

"Do you think I could borrow the royal plunger?  My porcelain throne needs..."

"Shit...  I thought it kind of smelled in here.  Phew!"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tim, the Teenage MC
By Rass Senip
Chapter XXI: Fall 89 - Summer 90
Part 5 - Fitting In, Again
(no sex)

Have you ever been awakened by a brilliant flash of light in the middle of the 
night?  Sure, everyone has been woken up by thunder, but what about the flash 
before the boom?

Well, about two weeks after settling into my new home, I was awoken one morning 
around five by a brilliant flash...  Only it wasn't a flash of light, but of 
telepathic energy.

After Sarah's unannounced testing of my telepathic strength, I guess I was a 
little jumpy about strange surges of telepathic energy around me.  And shit this 
was definitely bigger than a surge.  This was an all out eruption.

Paranoia settled in when I couldn't sense Suzi or Joey within the building, and 
my ingrained sense of self-protection prevented me from feeling them out to keep 
myself from being detected.  After stumbling around a bit while trying to 
passively scan the telepathic "glow" to the southeast, I got dressed and 
carefully began making my way towards the source.

The sky was still quite dark, and despite it being a class day, the streets and 
walkways were strangely deserted.  Not that I had ever been outside that early 
in the morning, and the late January cold probably had a factor in it too, but I 
was too scared and hyped up to think of anything but how deserted everything 
was.

As I neared the medical complex, I confirmed my suspicions that Sarah's new 
headquarters appeared to be under attack.  There were at least forty telepaths 
scattered around and within the building, most of them apparently on the offense 
as well defending themselves from one or two other attackers at a time.  

The telepathic glow was now more like noise being so close, and it was so 
chaotic that I couldn't tell who was on whose side.  But after a couple of 
minutes of watching the ones closest to me, I decided they weren't on anyone's 
side any longer, for probably they couldn't trust anyone to still be on their 
original side at that point.

I could clearly see I had the advantage of not only being able to see their 
streams of symbols without needing to actively scan for them, but I could see 
where they were not protecting themselves, for most telepaths rely on their 
senses to tell them where an attack will be by the probe that's usually sent 
just before.

That's how Jennifer had disabled those Cabal goons the previous year without 
them detecting what she was doing before it was too late.  It still amazed me 
how simple these things had come to her where I was always struggling to make 
these kinds of connections on my own.

Jennifer's method worked in this case just as it had the year before.  I didn't 
try to take more than two or three out at a time so as to not draw attention to 
what I was doing for as long as possible.

I think I had taken down around fifteen of them when someone realized something 
wasn't right.  Suddenly they all stopped their attacks, then after a minute of 
very little activity, half of them started scanning the surrounding area while 
the others revived the ones I had knocked out.

Their sudden cooperation and overall group efficiency was so organized, so 
methodical, I quickly realized that it had just been some kind of exercise.  

Lucky for me, their probes were actively laced with command symbols to trigger a 
physical response in an unshielded mind, so it was easy for me to avoid their 
scans since I could see the symbols coming.  It was sort of like someone 
spraying a fire hose along the path of a searchlight's beam.

I figured Joey had to be apart of this exercise, and I expected Suzi was too, 
since they both never got up this early without needing to be somewhere.  I knew 
I had to fess up to my honest mistake to prevent wide spread paranoia through 
out the entire group, but to just step out and say, "Sorry guys...  It was only 
me," right there and then would have been asking for another round of a meat-
tenderizing hammer pounding the inner recesses of my brain.

So I waited for a chance to contact Suzi or Joey, but to my surprise Suzi 
contacted me first, and from the way she did it I knew she suspected what had 
happened.

I didn't even have to respond to her probe.  She just felt out where I was and 
then thought to me, "I knew it was you," just before the other probes stopped.

Joey's probe was a little more...  uhm...  invasive, but it was directed towards 
my memory recall processes rather than my cognitive functions, so I let it pass 
knowing he was just making sure I was really who I was, and I still thought I 
was who I was, if you know what I mean.

"You better get in here," he then thought to me.  "But don't hurry.  Sarah's 
already throwing a fit about this."

"Shit.  Like I should be surprised," I said to myself as I hurried towards the 
building anyway just to get out of the cold.

I felt the minds of at least a dozen people focused on mine as I walked down the 
misleadingly empty hallway towards the elevator.  I couldn't help but smile in 
relief when I found Suzi in the elevator with her arms crossed giving me the 
"you just can't stay out of trouble" look.

"You two could have warned me, you know?"  I said in defense when she didn't 
return the smile.

"We didn't think you'd wake up this early," she sighed, then yawned.

"I don't," I yawned back.  "But I practically fell out of my bed from the blast 
you all made.  I take it you were practicing for something?"

"I can't talk about it," she said with regret as the elevator's doors opened and 
we walked out.

"You know, I'm getting tired of hearing that," I said as I noticed at the end of 
the hall there was some kind of electronic door.  "Are we going in there?"

"No.  We're going to wait in that conference room for Joey and Sarah," she said 
indicating the doorway two doors down from the silver door.

"Oh...  So what's in there?  No, let me guess.  You can't talk about it."

"Actually I've never been in there," she said with the first sign of humor in 
her voice since she met me in the elevator.  "I think Joey just had it put in 
because it's Star Treky."

"Heh.  Yeah, that sound's like something Joey would do," I said before sensing 
she was more worried than she wanted to let on.

"You think I really screwed up," I said with a unavoidable edge to my voice.

"No," she said a little hurt from my tone.  "I mean I can see how you were just 
trying to help.  But Sarah..."

"Won't.  Yeah, I know."

"And it's more than that, Timmy.  If one person can knock out a third of us 
before the rest of us can notice..."

"You're more worried about that than you are about what Sarah's going to do or 
say, aren't you?"

"I can't talk about this..." she whined as she gently banged her forehead 
against the wall.

"It's okay, Suz," I said, hugging her from behind.  "I think I can figure things 
out from here without you having to strain any of Sarah's stupid rules."

"Oh?  And exactly what have you figured out?" Sarah spat from the doorway.

I held Suzi tightly as she grimaced and tried to turn instinctively to cover for 
my intentionally overheard words.

"That someone must have tried to enslave all of you recently and you're just 
trying to take precautions to prevent anyone else from succeeding."

"Hmph," she said with annoyance.  "If you didn't have Joey wrapped so fucking 
tight around your finger..."

"My finger!" I growled.  "For the past two weeks that I've been here, Joey's 
been so damn busy 'helping his sister' I've seen him maybe twenty minutes 
total!"

"Timmy..."  Suzi warned me.

"Shit..." I sighed.  "Look Sarah.  I'm only here because Suzi and Joey want me 
here, and because I want to be with them too.  But if you want me to leave, I'll 
leave.  I'm not going to stay where I'm not wanted."

"But ..." she said due to my tone indicating I wasn't done.

"But I just took down over a dozen of your people without being detected.  If 
you really are worried so much about security, doesn't it make sense that maybe, 
just maybe I might be more useful to you than harm?"

"You caught us off guard today, that's all," Sarah said coldly.  "It won't 
happen again, and we certainly don't need your help.  In fact I want to make 
that perfectly clear.  Under no circumstances are you to interfere with our 
business.  Even if you are sure we are being attacked by an intruder, our 
defenses are based on teamwork and knowing what each other is supposed to do.  
The last thing we want is a loose cannon swooping in trying to save the day.  If 
you agree to that, I'll over look your attempt at being a hero and won't have 
you expelled."

"Fine," I said with the coldness of the air outside.  "But let me make this 
perfectly clear as well.  I have no loyalties to you, your group, or anyone else 
here except to Joey and Suzi.  I'll play by your rules because they want me to.  
You can have your little war games and go up against whoever you want without me 
lifting a finger to help.  But if I think either one of them is in serious 
trouble, not you, the school, or your pathetic army of symbol blind telepaths 
will stop me from trying to protect them."

Sarah's nose flared with anger, but all she said was, "Get out."

I wasn't about to argue with her, and just got up and left without saying 
another word.

Suzi led me back into the elevator and pressed the lobby button before I was 
even in the doors.  Normally I would have leapt into the car when the doors 
started to close on me, but I was so mad I didn't really take much notice to my 
surroundings, and even pressed the lobby button myself after the doors were 
already closed.

It made me even more angry to realize Suzi was escorting me out of the building 
as per Sarah's standing orders.  I was getting so bent out of shape about the 
whole situation I nearly didn't notice it when Suzi gave me a kiss on the cheek 
when we got outside.

"What was that for?" I said with surprise, distracted from my anger a moment.

"For what you said," she said with an adoring smile.

"What did I say?" I said finding the hot heavy tension in my chest starting to 
drain away.

"Protecting us if we get into trouble," she said before she put her arm behind 
my back.

I put my arm behind hers as well, and we walked most of the way back to our 
apartment building like that.

Suzi invited me in for some breakfast, and then listened patiently as she fixed 
our food to my long list of reasons why Sarah should have accepted my help when 
I had offered it.

"You know what I think?" she said as she brought our omelets to the table and I 
poured our drinks.  "I think you want to be apart of the group more than you 
want to admit."

"I don't care about being or not being apart of the group," I insisted.  "It's 
just aggravating that I'm not allowed to be involved with things we always did 
together before coming here."

We didn't say much while we ate, and when I got up to help her clean up the 
plates, I realized she was discussing something with Joey on their little 
private two-way link they always seemed to have open.

"Joey's coming over tonight," she announced as we did the dishes.  "Will you be 
around?"

"For most of the night," I said with a smirk.  "I know you have to be aching to 
play with your boy toys."

"I doubt I'll be in the mood tonight for that," she said.

"Why?  And don't say I can't talk about it because it can't be all about the 
group."

Without looking at me she said, "I'm quitting the group."

"You're what?"

"You heard me."

I turned her towards me, but then had to duck down in order to capture her eyes 
for a moment when she tried to avoid my doing so.

She was torn between her feelings for me and her programmed loyalty to the Group 
constantly making her watch what she said around me.  During Christmas break we 
had developed such an honest and open rapport...  But now with all her Group 
related activities, she had been unable to continue to do this while I hadn't 
stopped.  It was making her feel guilty as hell.

"I sorry," I said as she turned away again.  "I didn't think about how all this 
was making you feel."

"You don't have anything to be sorry about," she said a bit unsteadily.  "It's 
not your fault."

"It's not yours either," I said, stepping up behind her and rubbing her upper 
arms with my hands.  "It isn't even Sarah's.  It's just the way things are.  I 
don't want you to quit the Group because of me."

"It isn't just because of you, Timmy.  Mostly it is, but...  I'm here to get a 
degree, not to be part of the Group.  I'm not a brain like Joey and you, but 
still I've never had a D in my life.  But the only reason I didn't get two D's 
last semester was because somebody fiddled with my professors' minds."

"Who, Joey?"

"Shit!  I can't TALK about it!" she spat angrily as she stepped away and faced 
me.  "This is so fucking stupid!  I have to quit.  This is just driving me 
NUTS!"

Her eyes were damp, and without thinking I gently stepped into her space and 
hugged her to calm her down.  She resisted a moment, but then relaxed and hugged 
me back, and after we relaxed our arms and simply stood there with our arms 
around each other, I started to slowly rock us back and forth.

"What does Joey say about all this," I asked her as she started to go with my 
movements and relaxed even more.

"The usual.  Whatever I want, he wants," she sighed.  "And the scary part is, I 
know he means it."

"Won't that change if you quit?  I mean, I can't see Sarah letting Joey be your 
love slave if you're not part of the Group."

"Joey's already said if it came to that, he'd quit too."

I stopped our little rocking dance to gently separate us enough to look her in 
the face and say, "You can't do that to him.  I mean WE can't do that to him."

"Don't you think I know that?" she said with a shrill voice before glancing at 
the clock on the wall.  "Shit, it's already ten till eight.  I got to go to 
class."

"So do I," I admitted.  "But promise me you won't do anything until the three of 
us can talk about it tonight.  Okay?"

"All right," she grunted as she put her coat on, then paused just before opening 
the door to say, "But you know, if I have to say 'I can't talk about it' one 
more time today ..."

"You won't.  I promise," I said before kissing her on the cheek and thinking to 
myself, "I'm going to make sure of that."

After my first two classes, I had a three-hour window before my logic class, so 
I decided it was time to pay Wally a visit to see what he thought of the whole 
mess.

I thought I remembered the way to the building his suite was in, but I ended up 
wasting an hour of my time wandering around before finally asking a nearby Gamma 
Alpha Eta who naturally didn't seem to know what I was talking about.

I followed him discretely while I filtered through his cover personality only to 
find he had never been to Wally's lair and really didn't know its location.

Of course it wasn't hard to locate another Eta to... uhm..  query since Central 
state was the home of the muscle bound fraternity.  But finding one who knew the 
location of Wally's suite turned out to be pointless.  Even the one I found that 
regularly attended Wally's weekends for lovers was always met and put to sleep 
while he was transported to and from the mysterious suite.

I did, however, learn something much more revealing and informative from a few 
other Etas.  My assumption that the Group had recently been attacked had been 
correct, but I was shocked to learn just that the last semester there had been 
at least seven separate such attacks, three of which that had actually succeeded 
in disabling a number of the voices in the Group before the rest were able to 
get mobilized.

I never did go see Wally that day.  I even skipped my logic class, which was my 
favorite class that semester, just to pull more details of these attacks from 
the few Eta's who had been directly involved.  I admit I was, in a sense, 
violating my agreement with Sarah to stay out of the group's business, but I 
knew if the trend continued as it had last semester, I couldn't see how I could 
ignore the possible dangers these attacks were to me, let alone everyone else.

Most of the incidences had been just a single person who's appetite for power 
had grown so large they were literally unable to resist the notion of enslaving 
the Group and gaining control over three campuses of college students.

On at least two occasions, however, there were more than one telepath to deal 
with, but in both cases it was just a matter of determining which one was the 
master or mistress of the rest, then focusing all their resources to enslave 
that single person.  Once the master was defeated, the enslaved telepaths were 
easy to take down, and most of them ended up joining the group willingly once 
their free will was somewhat restored.

I suppose you could say I had a little more respect for Sarah's rules once I 
understood the reasoning behind them.  I still felt she wasn't giving me a fair 
chance to prove myself, but I was less offended by the restrictions she had 
placed on Suzi and Joey concerning me.  I guess I was a loose cannon, but that's  
only because she wouldn't accept my help without first planting her damn 
failsafe program into my head.

There was only one person who could help me work this out, and that was Sarah 
herself.  I knew I'd probably end up aggravating her more than resolving any of 
our... differences by going to see her and revealing what I found out, but I 
couldn't see I had any other option if she was to ever trust me.

Getting her to agree to see me wasn't easy either.  I had to resort to using her 
feelings for Joey against her by threatening I would leave Central State and 
never return if she didn't at least hear me out.  As much as she personally 
wished I would do just that, she knew Joey would never forgive her for it.

I was bluffing, of course.  I had no intentions of leaving Joey and Suzi so 
abruptly like that, but she couldn't know that for sure, and she agreed to see 
me for ten minutes after she finished with what she was doing.

In retrospect, I imagine she could have seen me immediately, but she too knew 
how to use other people's feelings against them.  I wasn't prepared to have to 
face Joey as I waited in the same conference room I had that morning.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Joey said angrily after slamming the door closed.

There wasn't any point to trying to mislead him or to withhold anything from 
him, so I simply said in as calm of a voice as I could, "I know about the 
attacks, Joey.  I'm here to tell Sarah I understand what she's doing and why, 
and that I'll try my best not to interfere."

"And you couldn't have waited until tonight to simply tell me so I could tell 
her without having manipulate her into seeing you?"

"I need to talk to her, Joey, in person."

"About what?" he said hotly, my empathic abilities picking up on his fear within 
his anger.

"About what Sarah and I can do to make it easier on you and Suzi."

"Make it easier?  How?" he said less aggressively after that had sunk in.

"I don't know.  That's why Sarah and I need to talk."

"So you're not going to try and make Sarah let you join the Group."

"Phht, no!" I strongly confirmed.  "I don't want anything to do with the Group.  
But I know you want to be in it, and Suzi does too, so I'm willing to do what I 
can to make everyone happy."

Suzi then thought to me, "You should have talked to us about it first."

"I'm sorry Suz.  Maybe you're right, but I think the biggest problem is Sarah 
and I have been letting you and Joey mediate things for us and then you two end 
up taking part of the problem onto yourself rather than us working it out 
directly."

"For once, I agree with Tim," Sarah said from the door.  "Joey, go to class.   
You're late as it is."

"No." Joey said stubbornly, his eyes studying my face.  "This has everything to 
do with me and Suz.  We need to be ...."

"Joey, go to class," I said standing up from my chair.

"I'm not going leave the two of you alone," he insisted, trying to make it sound 
like a joke as a distraction.

"Yes you are," Sarah said, holding the door open for him.

"I'm not LEAVING!" Joey said angrily as he successfully fended off my attempt to 
override his legs and march him out the door.  "I'm the one who pushed you both 
into this!  You can't...  

"Make...

"No, Suz...

"But...

"Okay, I'm going."

As Sarah closed the door after Joey, Suzi sent to the three of us, "Now if you 
two don't work things out before dinner, we're all going over to Joey's house 
and let their parents in on it.  Clear?"

"Clear as crystal, Suz," I thought back to her, grinning.  "Thanks for 
understanding."

"Don't I always?" she replied before closing the connection.

"Well...  At least we've cleared one thing up already," Sarah said with a weak 
grin.

"What's that?" I said, cautiously taking her bait.

"Who really does have Joey wrapped around their finger."

"What?  You just figured that out?" I laughed.

"Well, I always suspected," she said, a bit unsure whether to be insulted by my 
laughter or not.

I grew instantly serious and said, "That's part of the problem too.  Joey wants 
very badly to be apart of whatever you're doing, but his first... uhm... 
priority is to making Suzi happy, and... well ..."

"She's unhappy with having to hold things back from you," Sarah finished for me 
to speed things up.  "I know all about that, but I can't just let her be free to 
talk about things that might not seem important, but in the wrong hands could be 
used against us."

"I want you to know I understand that now.  I really am trying to look at these 
things from your point of view, but...  Well, things like the fact you've been 
attacked over a half a dozen times the past five months.  How can me knowing 
that be used against any of you?  I have voice.  Surely you can see that there 
are some things I need to know just so I can live in coexistence with what you 
all are doing."

She shook her head, then sat down in the chair across from where I had sat and 
stared at me with probing eyes.

I too sat down and we ended up playing a little staring game as I studied the 
streams of symbols swirling through her mind.

Every mind is unique, and I have never found two minds whose swirls of symbols 
are so similar as to immediately understand what they were thinking about that 
way.  But there were patterns that I was starting to look for when deciphering 
another's mind, and even through her shield I could make out enough to recognize 
she was recalling the first time we had met.

I guess I lost the staring game when I smiled at her memory of Joey kissing me 
on the lips in front of her in his old room.  My smile faded quickly seeing that 
everything I did seemed to irritate her.  And not just irritate her ...

"Sarah, why are you afraid of me?"

"Afraid of you?" she sputtered, then laughed like she had never heard anything 
so funny in her life.

"Look me in the eye and deny it," I said, feeling a bit irritated myself.

"Okay," she said with a wicked grin.

She leaned forward and stared deeply in my eyes while she said, "I am not afraid 
of you."

I blinked, confused by the sincerity of her words after having felt the fear 
towards me just moments before.  But then I noticed the strange dual layer of 
streams within her mind, and that's when I knew how she was hiding it from my 
empathic skills.

"Fine.  If you don't want to be honest with me, then I guess there's no point of 
me trying to be honest with you."

She squinted her eyes at me, then stood up and turned her back to me as she 
slowly dissolved the cover personality.

"Why shouldn't I be afraid of you?  You infiltrated my office, you broke through 
my defenses, you disabled my best friend and made my husband unable to resist 
you.  And then you single handedly hold off the combined force of the entire 
Group, and to top it all off I end up looking like the bad guy for having nearly 
killed you in the process.  All I am trying to do is protect what is mine and 
keep everyone safe from the stupid people who try and take it all away.  But I 
can't do that very effectively if every time I turn around someone brings up 
'Tim would do this,' or 'What about asking that Tim guy how he did it.'  You 
scare me shitless because you've become a God damn living legend around here, 
and the others might eventually believe in that more than in what I'm trying to 
accomplish here."

Her voice was strained, and she was clearly trying to keep herself from showing 
how shaken up she really was.  She still had her back to me, but even without 
eye contact, I knew exactly what she was feeling.

"I didn't come here to threaten your authority..."

"Well, you are...  At least you are to me."

"Someone once said to me the only way others can believe in you is if you 
believe in yourself."

"Well that someone was full of it," she said, wiping her eyes.

"Don't talk about your mother like that," I said crossly.  "It's bad karma."

"Leave my mom out of this!" she said defensively, turning around with more anger 
in her eyes.

"We're not getting anywhere, are we?"

"No, we're not....  Why are you here?"

"Huh?  To figure out a way to help make ..."

"No, dip shit.  Not why you're here in this room.  Why did you come to Central 
State?"

"To be with Suzi and Joey.  That's all."

"So you didn't come here for an education?"

"Well, yeah, that too.  But I could have gone anywhere for that."

"I told you the truth, now you do the same.  I know what Joey told you to try 
and entice you here;  promising help from the university with your little 
projects, and getting paid for it too.  Are you sure you're also not here to 
take him up on his offers?"

"Honestly?  I really haven't given it much thought.  Sure it sounds good, 
but..."

I sighed, then looked her in the eyes so she'd know I meant what I was about to 
say.

"When Joey suggested that stuff, I imagined he would be doing it with me, and 
that's what made the idea so...  tempting.  But he doesn't have time for me... 
or at least for that kind of stuff with his classes and working with you.  So I 
wasn't looking to do anything like that for a while.  Maybe even never.  It just 
wouldn't be any fun without him."

"So you're not planning on starting your own little 'study' group?"

I shrugged, then said, "I'm just trying to fit in right now.  I'm not interested 
in forming a 'study group,' and I'm not sure what I'd do with one if I did.  I 
take it you don't like the idea."

"No I don't, but..."

"But?" I said with hopefulness in my voice.

"Joey made me promise him I'd let you form at least one study group, and 
depending on how well you do with it, maybe more.  We have specific rules you 
would have to follow, but they're the same rules we all have to follow..."

"Understood.  I wouldn't want you to make an exception in my case."

"But you ARE the exception.  That's the problem.  Every telepath who steps on 
this campus must either join the group or let us bury the memory of our 
existence and leave.  But because of Joey and my parents, I can't give you that 
ultimatum without divorcing them in the process."

"And so here we are," I said, resisting the grin from the warm happy feeling her 
admission gave me.  "We're both here because we care about them so much that 
we're willing to compromise."

"I can't compromise anything that may jeopardize the security of the Group," she 
said very certainly.

"I wouldn't ask you to.  But at the same time, I can't jeopardize my own 
security by allowing you to put that failsafe in."

"So what does that leave?  Not a fucking lot."

"Oh come on, Sarah.  Don't give up just when we finally get to the point of the 
problem."

"I'm not giving up!  I'm just..."

I saw a spark of an idea in her eyes, and then felt her mind begin to probe mine 
which I had to restrain myself from blocking.

"You know, most telepaths consider that to be extremely rude," I commented when 
she finished.

"I'm sorry, but I do have an idea..."

I kept my mouth shut as she outlined a series of commands that she wanted to 
give me.  I knew I couldn't allow her to give me the commands, but if they were 
reasonable and wouldn't interfere with my own defenses, I was willing to put 
them in myself.

After she finished, I listed my objections then, in a completely business like 
manner, we compromised until we had something we both were comfortable with.

Basically, the programming I inserted into my own mind would prevent me from 
interfering in the affairs of the group, made me protect any details or secrets 
I learn about them as if they were my own, and I would allow anyone in the group 
to scan my mind to make sure this program was still in effect after I had 
verified their intentions to be honest and they were still loyal to the group 
which I could do with just a glance into their eyes.

Sarah's idea was to make it so I was free to remove this programming at any time 
with understanding to do so would mean I was betraying the group and basically 
destroying any trust between us.  But as far as I was concerned, removing it 
would only put me back to where I had been that morning, which was basically 
Joey and Suzi having to be tight lipped around me all the time.

What did I get out of this?  Simple.  Joey and Suzi could stay in the Group and 
not have to watch what they said around me.  And I swear I never guessed how 
much they had been holding back until the three of us spent most of the night 
talking about all the things they were doing as apart of the group.

Four days later, I was awakened by another blast of telepathic energy.  But this 
time, even though no exercises were scheduled that morning, I just rolled over 
and went back to sleep, only barely noting Suzi's door slam shut in her rush to 
join in the fight.

-------------------------------------

"Hey Tim!" Neil yelled from down the path I was on that Friday as I was heading 
home for the day.  "You have any more classes?"

"Nope," I said, "I'm done."

"Cool.  You feel up to a little friendly competition?"

"What kind of competition?" I asked.

"Our kind," he simply said with an all-revealing grin on his face as he caught 
up with me.

I looked at my watch to hide my own grin, then said, "What the hell.  As long as 
it isn't against the rules."

"Oh come on.  If it wasn't just a little against the rules, it wouldn't be any 
fun.  Don't worry though.  Joey will be there, so everything's cool.  Just don't 
go telling Sarah about it, that's all."

"I can't believe Joey would be in on something his sister wouldn't like," I half 
joked as I followed him into an area where there were just a few old buildings 
used to store maintenance equipment and the like.

"Well, he doesn't actually know if she wouldn't like it or not.  He just never 
asked her for permission to include you."

"Permission for what?" I asked as he opened the faded green wooden door for me.

"Enter, young Jedi.  Your answers and your destiny await you."

I felt it the moment I walked through the door.  The building was infested with 
the corruption and inflicted evil that rotted the most innocent of souls.  The 
air contained the diluted musk of sex, and the hall echoing the faint sounds of 
people with desperate needs, anxious cries, gentle laughter, and practically 
every other emotional sound a human can make.

"Are you all right?  You're as white as a ghost," Neil said after waiting for me 
to move on for several moments

I let out the breath I was holding and suddenly realized the building was 
actually very quiet and only had that slightly musty odor old buildings have.

"What is going on in here?  What is this place?" I barely croaked out.

"It's where we keep all the slaves we free from anyone who tries to enslave us.  
Joey thought you'd like to see it."

"Where is he?" I said out loud as I tried to feel him out.

"He's probably upstairs getting our candidates ready.  Oh, wait until you get a 
load of Sabrina.  She's got tits that hang down to her knees..."

If I hadn't have known better, I would have sworn I had died and was standing in 
the middle of my own personal hell.  The minds above me were twisted, mutilated, 
inhuman even.  They were my worst nightmares in flesh and blood form, all in one 
place, and all dedicated to serving one person.  Joey.

I don't remember falling to my knees from that realization, but I had, and I was 
shaking uncontrollably from my worst fears playing out in my mind as Joey 
skidded to a stop in front of me and asked, "Tim, what's wrong?"

Joey flinched when I made eye contact, and as I dug my empathic fingers deep 
into his soul, I managed to pull myself up off the ground using the grip on his 
shirt.

"Joey?" Neil said with anxiety, probably sensing Joey's emotional stress through 
their share link.

Joey managed to wave him down as I found his soul was purer than it had been for 
a long time, and as I released my grip on his being, I draped my arms around him 
to half shudder and half sob, "Oh thank God I was wrong, Joey.  Thank God I was 
wrong."

We ended up standing there hugging until I recovered enough to look him in the 
face again.  Joey just gave me a little grin before he sniffed and wiped his 
eyes.  If Neil hadn't been standing right there, we probably would have hugged 
again, but instead I just glanced at Neil and said, "Sorry.  I uhm..."

"Jesus...  I was ready to blow the horn," Neil said.  "What the hell was that 
all about?"

"Just a case of mistaken identity, I think," Joey said somberly, keeping his 
eyes on my face.

"Who did he think you was?" Neil asked exasperatedly.

"A creep named Joseph," Joey said, carefully watching my face for my reaction.

"But all these people..." I managed to say.  "They all believe you're their 
master."

"And I am, but only until Perry gets back and takes over," Joey explained while 
asking with his eyes if I still wanted to see them.

I shrugged, then nodded before asking, "Perry?"

"He's this ancient guy Sarah came across about a year ago after the first couple 
of serious attacks," Neil explained as we slowly walked down the hall to the 
stairs.  "He knows everything about keeping, handling, and restoring slaves to 
their own lives."

"So he has voice?"

"Nope.  Just the opposite.  He's immune."

"Empathic?" I asked Joey.

Joey shook his head, then paused before we were to start up the stairs and said, 
"Maybe this isn't such a good idea."

"Why?" Neil and I said at the same time.

"What if you freak out again?" Joey asked me.  "Some of these people are pretty 
screwed up."

"I didn't freak out," I argued.  "It was just a shock, that's all."

"Looked like you freaked out to me," Neil stated.

"Yeah, and I'm not even talking about like just a few minutes ago," Joey said 
firmly.

"You mean like after that day I confronted you in front of Sarah and Gina and 
you tried to bash my head in with a baseball bat?"

Joey turned slightly pale before answering, "Yeah."

I put my right hand on his shoulder and said, "Sorry Joey.  I didn't mean it the 
way it sounded.  I just meant to point out that unless you revert to your old 
ways, like back then, I doubt anything could upset me so much for me to freak 
out like that again.  That's what I thought happened, but you've proved me 
wrong, and I'm ..."

"Shit... Okay, okay," he said, physically and emotionally distancing himself 
from me a bit.  "Just make sure if you start getting caught up in it you say 
something so we can get you out of here."

Joey lead the way up the narrow stairs with Neil bringing up the rear, which was 
probably a good thing since I otherwise wouldn't have been able to hide that I 
was pretty puzzled over Joey's suddenly emotion detachment when I had been 
trying to express my new... uhm... confidence in him.  I didn't figure it out 
until later it had just been Suzi's commands kicking in to prevent 'accidents' 
from happening between us.

The stairs creaked noisily as we climbed them, but that racket was nothing 
compared to the awful groan the door made at the top.  I thought it was going to 
fall off its hinges when Joey let its doorknob go, but my attention was then too 
taken up by the people beyond the door for me to notice what happened with the 
door after that.

There were twenty-one people in that room, fourteen of which were permanent 
residents while the rest were just staying there until their minds could be 
cleaned up enough to leave and live somewhat normal lives.

As Neil explained this and introduced me to the seven who we were there to treat 
in a competitive game like fashion, I scanned their minds for their mental state 
while Joey's eyes watched my expressions like a hawk.  He was making me just a 
tad uneasy to say the least by all his close monitoring.

"What about the others?" I asked, directing my mind towards the nearest one and 
then shuddering from the contact.  "Oh my God."

"Tim," Joey said, standing in between the thirty something woman and myself to 
block my line of sight.  When I lifted my eyes up to Joey's, he said, "We've 
already done everything we can for them.  They have to do the rest.  But we CAN 
help the others."

Feeling how much he wanted me to follow his suggestion, I looked over at the 
five men and two women, then glanced back at Joey long enough to say, "Okay.  So 
what do we do?"

"Like I said, we've made this into a sort of game," Neil explained.  "We each 
get to choose a slave to clean their minds of their past master's or mistress's 
commands.  For every command you undo you get a point, and your points are 
averaged by how much time you take to finish the cleaning."

"You can't be serious," I said, shocked.  "These are people you're playing with, 
not a junk yard you can run around smashing car windows for points!"

"We know that," Joey stated patiently.  "But the removing of commands from their 
minds can be a really painful thing for them, so the faster you do it, the 
better it is for them."

"But ..." I began before Neil cut me off.

"AND, when one of us finishes cleaning, the others take a turn at it and get 
double points for any command they find that the first person missed.  There's 
no time limit for that part, so we take our time and make sure we get 
everything."

"We put them in a trance or knock them out by that point since they're usually 
pretty emotional," Joey added.  "After we finish, we take them downstairs and 
turn them over to Perry and few graduate psych students who usually spend 
several weeks working with them to help them adjust.  We usually stay with them 
for a few hours just incase we need to add a command or two to help them start 
the transition."

"I still think making it a game is pretty heartless," I said, probing the seven 
victims for the depth of their alterations.

"One of the first things they tell you in med school is you have to keep a 
professional distance from your patients," Joey said.  "These people aren't 
going to remember us making a game out of un-enslaving them, and it helps us 
stay detached from the depressive realism of what they went through.  You have 
to make it a game so it doesn't get to you.  Shit, maybe this really was a bad 
idea."

I broke off my scans, turned to face Joey and while slightly shaking from 
excitement said, "No way, Joey.  I want to try this.  I HAVE to try this."

"Are you sure?" he said uncertainly, but with just a little excitement in his 
voice as well.

"Joey, I don't think I've ever been so sure about anything in my life," I said 
as I realized my palms were sweaty, my heart was beating fast, and my mouth felt 
dry.  "You two go first.  I want to see what you do before I try."

"Sorry," Neil said with a smirk.  "The rules are everyone wings it their first 
time."

I looked at Joey for support, but he only could shrug and say, "Those are the 
rules.  But if it helps any, there's a good reason for this rule."

"But you're not going to share the reason before I follow it?" I asked only to 
confirm my assumption.

"Those are the rules," Neil said, taking a seat in one of several old recliners 
as the seven slaves quietly retrieved metal folding chairs for themselves and 
sat down in a line facing us.

Joey grabbed a folding chair and set it up four feet away from the middle 
slaves, then had me sit down in it before he sat down on a couch behind them.  
He obviously had planned this out, for he could easily see my face no matter 
which of the seven I turned to face.

I spent a good fifteen minutes scanning them, but as far as I could tell they 
were all pretty much programmed the same even though they were originally 
enslaved by two different people, the men by a young woman, and the two women by 
a middle aged man.

"Neil, if you were to pick one, which one would you pick last?" I finally asked.

"Last?  Probably Brentwood there.  He's been a drone the longest."

"A drone?  Oh, you mean as in a drone bee..."

"Yeah.  They don't care about themselves, just serving their queen and the rest 
of the hive."

"How long have you been a drone?" I asked the man.

When Brentwood didn't answer right away, I scanned his mind for the reason why 
and found he was still trying find the answer.  I helped him a bit by freeing a 
few memory blocks he kept hitting, then finally just said, "Never mind.  You're 
my pick."

"I get first dibs after he's done," Neil told Joey.

"Oh yeah?" Joey said with a playful tone.  "We're playing by the rules, 
remember?"

"So are there any more stupid rules I need to know before I start?" I said, 
feeling like they were expecting to rack up a lot of points after I finished.

"Just make sure you know how to reverse anything you do just incase it backfires 
on you, because it will" Joey advised.

"Shit.  Like I've never done this before," I complained.

"Not like this, you haven't," Joey said seriously.  "Oh, and once you start, you 
have to keep going.  If you have to pause more than fifteen seconds, you're 
done."

"Oh, well, shit.  Nothing like rushing something as fragile as dissecting a 
person's mind," I complained.

"Those are the rules," Neil said.  "You can either play by them, or not play at 
all.  It's your choice."

"Hmph," I said, turning my attention towards the twenty-seven-year-old man's 
mind.

I examined his mind in depth three ways.  First I telepathically probed him, 
then I examined his jittery streams of symbols, and finally formed an empathic 
connection which made Joey stand up in objection.

Whatever Joey said, I didn't hear it, for I was already feeling out the many 
different pollutants within the man's emotional streams.  I took my time getting 
a feel for what his true self would be like, then once I found a safe place to 
start, I began to pluck the commands from his mind and plugging up the largest 
and dirtiest holes with neutral fillers.

I wasn't aware of how much time was passing as I pulled weed after weed out by 
their roots, but yet I didn't feel as if I was rushing myself.  In fact I was 
pacing myself at a conservative rate if anything just to avoid missing something 
and having to undo or redo something I did.  And when Neil didn't stop me for 
going too slow, I just kept going at that pace.

By the time I finished, Brentwood's and my eyes were struggling to stay open, 
and our cheeks were wet from sometimes our natural tears having no where else to 
go. I was extremely stiff and felt completely drained, but I also felt too good 
about my accomplishment to care.

Brentwood (actually I thought of him as "Dan" at that point from having wandered 
all over his mind and soul) slowly slid out of his chair as his mind tried to 
clear after six years of living in a fog.  But he ended up curling up on the 
floor to sleep out of exhaustion from the long empathic link, and I had half a 
notion to join him.

Joey walked over to me and handed me a Big Mac, which I instantly took a huge 
bite out of due to my stomach's noisy demands.  I wolfed down over half of the 
lukewarm burger and a half melted shake before noticing most of the room was 
dark, only a light by the door which we had entered through and a lamp by Neil's 
empty chair being on.

I was surprised to find Neil and the other six slaves were gone, so I asked Joey 
between mouthfuls "What time is it?"

"Around one," he said, sitting up on the couch after having lain down when I had 
started eating.  "Neil ran to McDonalds before it closed, and then he went home 
about an hour ago."

"Shit.  It took me what?  Eight hours?" I said before standing up and 
stretching.  "How long did it take you the first time?"

"Twenty minutes," Joey yawned.  "I got hung up on a stupid repetitive trigger 
and timed out."

"But still..  Eight hours?  I guess there's no way I'll win the game this time.  
Oh well."

"Yeah, well, technically you lost fifteen seconds after you started scanning his 
head for details, but Neil and I wanted to see how you'd do.  We never expected 
you'd get past the first half hour without timing out though.  Shit, if we had 
known you'd try and finish your first one, we wouldn't have started this until 
tomorrow morning."

"You mean, it usually takes this long?" I asked after dumping my empty 
containers in a trashcan and then indicating I was ready to leave.

"Depends on the subject.  Sometimes it only takes a few hours, others take 
several days, but most of them take about six or eight hours ..."  Joey said, 
trailing off as he stood up.

As we walked to the door together, Joey glanced at me with a sly grin that told 
me he was holding something back.

So when he reached for the doorknob, I planted my hand on the door and placed my 
weight against it until he looked at me long enough for me to feel him out.

"And how long would Brentwood have taken you guys normally?" I asked.

He grinned and opened the noisy door despite my best effort to stop him, then 
said, "Longer than eight hours, but don't quote me on that."

The next morning I felt like a million bucks.  I got up at seven and wasn't the 
least bit tired despite being up late the night before, and went for a long walk 
around the neighborhood before letting myself into Suzi's apartment and started 
cooking breakfast for the three of us.

I knew Suzi came out of the bedroom and watched me humming to myself as I 
flipped the flapjacks and danced as I set the table, but when she went back to 
the bedroom without making a sound, I just went on with my business.

But when she came out the second time, she was only able to say "Good" before I 
swooped her into my arms and danced us around the room humming and singing 
'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'.  When Suzi joined in the humming and 
singing of the parts we knew, we started going faster and faster, and I guess we 
got a little carried away.  I slipped and we fell to the floor, but then we just 
laughed our asses off when Joey came running out with only one arm in his shirt 
from hearing us fall.

Joey just grunted at us and went back to finish getting dressed as Suzi and I 
found ourselves in a rather intimate position.  I watched as an irregular jumble 
of symbols in one of her streams intersected another stream and reduced Suzi's 
smile before she carefully detangled herself and got up.

I sighed as I felt the moment evaporate, but then smelled something burning and 
jerked myself to my feet to dump the rather overly crisp flapjack into the sink 
before it could burst into flames.

I felt so...  Invigorated by what I had done the night before.  While I didn't 
dare think it much less say it, I felt I had discovered my true calling, my 
reason for being, the purpose to my life.  I suppose it was a bit naive of me, 
but that morning I believed I had finally found my niche in life.

But my enthusiasm was dampened down a bit when Joey received a phone call in the 
middle of our breakfast.

"Yeah Perry...  Shit, I'm sorry.  I didn't even think...  Oh fuck, he did? 
Shhhit.  Yeah.  Okay.  We'll be over in about a half hour.  I'm really sorry, 
Perry.  Okay.  Alright then.  Yeah.  Bye."

"What's wrong?" I asked.  "Is Dan okay?"

"Dan's in the hospital," Joey said carefully as he sat down at the table.  "I 
forgot to insert a demotivator before we left last night.  When Dan woke up this 
morning, he couldn't handle it and jumped out a window when Perry tried to calm 
him down."

"Is he going to be all right?" I said as my stomach twisted itself into a knot.

"Physically he will be, but now he's in a sort of emotional shock.  He's acting 
like you did after your wipe."

"You mean he's not showing any emotions?" Suzi asked as I gave up on eating the 
rests of my breakfast.

Joey just nodded.

"I'm sorry, Joey," I said guiltily.  "I should have prepared him..."

"It wasn't your fault," Joey objected.  "I knew I was supposed to put the 
demotivator in after a cleaning, but I was so tired last night it slipped my 
mind.  Dan will be okay.  It'll just take a little longer now, that's all."

"Well, I'm sorry anyway," I sighed.  "I was so involved in cleaning all the 
commands out I didn't think to what his mental state would be like after he woke 
up this morning.  You were right about me never having done it like this before.  
Looks like I still have a few things to learn."

"I guess this means you two will be over there all day today," Suzi sighed.

"Only if you want us to be," Joey humbly offered.

Suzi glanced at me as a wicked smile formed on her lips, then she said, "Just 
call Jeff before you leave and be back by nine."

"Yes ma'am," Joey said enthusiastically.  "How many should I tell Jeff to bring 
with him?"

"Just one," Suzi said, standing up to take her plate to the sink, but then 
relented to let Joey to it for her.

As Joey cleared the table, my mind wandered to what I would do differently the 
next time I cleaned a person's head of their enslaver's commands.  I'm not sure 
how long Suzi was smiling at me, but when I focused my attention on her, she 
said, "I haven't seen that look in your eyes for a long time."

"What look?" I asked, noting Joey was finished in the kitchen and was in the 
bathroom getting ready to leave.

"The one you get when you're dieing to do something.  <sigh>  First Joey, and 
now you.  I think I better get myself a hobby."

"Why don't you come with us then?" I suggested, getting up as Joey came out.

"No, that's okay.  I played that game once.  It's not my kind of game.  You boys 
go and play.  I have things I need to do."

"I can come back after I clear things up with Perry," Joey offered as we put on 
our coats.

"Did you call Jeff?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Then just be back by nine."

"Yes ma'am."

"And Timmy?"

"Yes ma'am?"

"Hrrr.  Don't you start that too."

"Heh.  Sorry Suz."

"Promise me you won't over do it.  You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I know.  I promise."

"Don't worry, Suz.  I'll keep an eye on him," Joey said as I shut the door 
behind us.

"Heh.  And who's going to keep an eye on you?" I asked playfully.

"Me," Neil said, standing against the wall by the stairs.

"Oh yeah?  Who's going to watch you?" Joey asked, not being the least bit 
surprised by his presence there.

"You want the full list?"

"How about just the ones who tended to your bed last night?"

"That was just the usual.  Kelly and Mark."

"Mark?" I queried.

"Package deal," Neil explained.  "Nobody else wanted them, and after I had him 
shave his legs and ass, he turned out okay."

"Package deal?" I asked with caution.

"We don't let Group members freely enslave innocent people any more," Joey 
explained telepathically.  "Anyone who registers for financial aid is scanned 
for their financial situation and sexual history, and if they fit the criteria, 
we offer to pay their tuition bill if they will spend three semesters as sex 
slaves.  Every once in a while two people will agree to do it only if they're 
together, and that's called a package deal."

"I can't imagine anyone going for that.  I mean, what do you say when you ask 
them?" I asked with mixed feelings.

"We don't actually verbally ask them," Neil stated.  "We put the idea in their 
subconscious and let it run around in their head a few days.  If they accept the 
idea as something they might be willing to do, their next semester schedule is 
cleared and whoever is chosen to be their master or mistress gets to enslave 
them.  It takes some of the fun out it, but so far everyone's been content with 
the arrangement."

"Hmph," I grunted.  "Everyone but the slaves."

I sensed Joey and Neil having a heavy telepathic discussion right then, but I 
didn't try to eavesdrop.  Instead I began anticipating what I'd do to the next 
slave I cleaned if I had the chance that day, and didn't notice they had stopped 
until we were standing in front of the peeling green door.

"Just to warn you," Neil began softly as Joey opened the door, "Perry is kind of 
a hot head."

"Yeah," Joey whispered.  "Best thing to do is to just agree with whatever he 
says."

"Got it," I said softly.

Joey led the way to a door just before the base of the stairs where he knocked 
and waited for a reply.

"Nobody's in there," I said, a little surprised that Joey hadn't detected that 
himself.

"You never can be sure with Perry," Neil explained.  "He's full of tricks like 
that."

"Tricks?  I don't play tricks!" a low crackly voice said from an opening door 
across the hall.  "And it's about time you got here.  It's bad enough I wake up 
to a screaming idiot, but now I'm going to have to hurry to make my bus!"

This heavily browned and wrinkled old man came limping out on a silver handled 
inverted L shaped cane, his mind surrounded by some sort of fog like shield that 
hid his swirls of symbols.  And when his eyes briefly glanced my way, I was 
startled by how well he could hide his emotions as well.

"Is this the one who I have to thank for my early awakening this morning?" Perry 
said accusingly as he poked me in the gut with his cane.

"He didn't know to put the demotivator in," Joey said, stepping in front of me 
protectively.  "It's my fault."

"Stand aside, grunt!" Perry said angrily, hitting Joey in the arm with his cane.  
"I wasn't addressing you!"

I caught the tip of his cane with my right hand and held on to it as I stepped 
around Joey and said, "I cleaned Dan's mind out, yes."

"You better let go of my cane before I slice your fingers off," Perry said 
smiling.

I let go just before he pressed a hidden button on his cane, springing knife 
like blades from three sides of the lower fourth of the cane.

"Shit," I yelped after sensing I had barely let go in time.

"Make sure you educate him before he tries another," Perry purred, pointing the 
sharpened tip three inches away from Joey's nose.  "I'll be back around ten 
tonight."

"Ten?  But ..." Joey whined before Perry's cane came an inch closer.

"But?"

"But he swore to Suzi he'd be back by nine," Neil explained cautiously.

"Oh, so your mistress is horny again, is she?" Perry cackled before pointing his 
cane at Neil and saying.  "Since there's no chance in Hell I'll let party boy be 
in charge after what he pulled last time, I suppose the new boy will have to 
watch over the kids until I get back."

And with that he hobbled down the hall at full hobble and even managed to slam 
the door behind him.

"Won't he get sick without a coat?" I said to break the stunned silence.

"That hard ass get cold?" Neil exclaimed.

Joey suddenly snapped out of his staring at the door Perry had left through and 
put his arm over my shoulders and said, "He liked you."

"Bull shit," I laughed.

"No, seriously.  Shit, he didn't even give you hardly any trouble about your 
cleaning of Dan last night."

"Damn, your right!" Neil exclaimed in disbelief.  "He's even letting you watch 
the place tonight!  Granted it's only for an hour, but he didn't even let me 
stay here alone that long for two months after my first cleaning!" 

"He probably guessed what you had in mind," Joey chucked.  

"I still don't see what's wrong with throwing a party for a bunch of slaves."

"The party wasn't the problem," Joey teased.  "It was the part where you had 
them all get drunk."

"Well nobody threw up ..." he insisted before noticing my eyes were on him and 
quickly avoided them.

"He doesn't even know me," I argued. "You can't possibly believe he likes me 
after two minutes."

"Perry isn't anything like anyone we've ever met before," Joey said, carefully 
peering in the door Perry had come out of.  "He's spent his whole life going 
from master to mistress offering to take the slaves they were tired of and 
restoring them enough so they could go back to some sort of normal life.  I 
swear he can read people better than the twins, and he really knows some 
powerful shit."

"Yeah, like that time he hypnotized you by just tilting your head to the side 
real fast," Neil snickered.

"That was you!" Joey shouted exasperated.  "How many times do I have to say it!"

"You're fucking nuts!" Neil said defensively.  "He told you to think he did it 
to me!"

"No, you're the one that's fucking nuts!  That's what he told you!"

"Echem?" I inserted before Neil could respond.  "Has it ever occurred to you 
that maybe he did it to both of you?"

"You're fucking nuts!" they both instantly shouted at me.

"Heh.  If that wasn't a planted reaction, I don't know what is.  But I still 
don't believe he likes me after nearly slicing my hand open with is cane.  He 
was just... in a hurry."

"But he didn't slice your hand, and Joey's right," Neil insisted as Joey closed 
the door he had been peering into earlier.  "He does know things about people."

"He wouldn't let anyone be master of this bunch if he wasn't pretty sure he 
wouldn't abuse them," Joey stated while looking me in the eyes to make sure I 
felt the certainty of his words.

What I felt even more than his certainty was this sense of accomplishment that 
made me suspect Perry hadn't based his decision just on our momentary meeting.  
Obviously Joey must have subjected Perry to his "Adventures with Tim" stories 
like he had everyone else.  The strange thing was I never knew Joey to be the 
type to tell stories like that.  At least not before attending Central State.

I suddenly found myself seeing how Sarah's accusation that I had become somewhat 
a legend within the Group and their associates could actually have some truth to 
it.  Joey broke the eye contact before I had thought of this, but even without 
it I knew by the way he momentarily grinned when I threw him a raised eyebrow 
that he was guilty of purposely biasing Perry towards accepting me.

My attention at that point was diverted by the awful racket we made as we 
climbed the noisy creaky steps.

"Man!  Somebody needs to put a few hundred screws in these stairs!" I commented.

"Yeah, and Perry would spear ya for sure if you did it," Neil snickered.

"What?  Why?  What do you mean?" I said, turning around and watching his eyes 
avoid mine again.

"Do you really think these stairs could get this noisy all by themselves?" Neil 
stated as he climbed past me.

I was stunned a moment, then stated the intended conclusion, "You mean Perry 
made them this way?"

"Yep," both Joey and Neil confirmed just before Joey opened the screeching door.

"And the door," Joey confirmed before I asked.

"Why?" I exclaimed as I leapt up the remaining steps.

"Security," Neil simply said just before one of the permanent female residents 
flung herself onto his back and started humping him.

"Shit!  Jean!" Neil exclaimed.

"Morning Jean," Joey chucked in amusement as Neil tried to keep himself on his 
feet while moving towards the nearest bed to put her down.

Jean suddenly wrapped her legs around his stomach and her arms around his head 
and convulsed in orgasm, which sent Neil and herself to the floor with a loud 
"FUCK!" from Neil.

"Don't interfere," Joey ordered when I stepped forward to help.  

When I gave him a questioning look, Joey grinned and said "Jean has a crush on 
Neil, and Perry thinks its a step forward for her.  She'll settle down after a 
few minutes.  She's always horny in the morning."

Joey turned away from the struggling mass that was now partially hidden by a bed 
and motioned over a different woman who was dressed in pink leotards.

"This is Sable.  Sable, this is Tim."

When Sable held out her hand, I immediately did the same with mine and said 
"Hi," as I gently shook hers.

She leaned forward and licked the top of my hand twice before doing a curtsy and 
walked off.

"Sable used to think she was a dog," Joey stated as a shabbily bearded middle-
aged beer-bellied man wearing a t-shirt too small to cover his gut, blue jeans 
whose snap was hidden under his overhanging gut, and pair of nice black sandals 
walked up.

"How's it going, Precious?" Joey asked him.

The man ripped a loud fart before shrugging.

"Perry still not letting you watch TV, huh?"

Precious rolled his eyes and farted again.

"I'll make you a deal," Joey said as I maneuvered myself to stay upwind.  "You 
take a shower..."

Precious rolled his eyes before sniffing his wet stained underarms with deep 
breaths.

"With soap," Joey carefully added.

Precious snapped his head forward and snorted, then made jacking off motions 
with his right hand while emphasizing the upstrokes with "Ppppzz" sounds from 
his lips.

"And I'll let you watch the Smurfs."

Precious glanced over at the clock, then with a panicked look he pointed up at 
it, opened his tongue-less mouth and emitted  "Ahhhh... Ahhhh" sounds.

"You have fifteen minutes yet.  You can do it if you don't waste time."

"AAhhh WAhHHH?" he offered.

"No, you have to use soap.  And I'll know if you don't.  Now go or you'll miss 
the first la-la song."

I shrugged when Precious glanced at me for help, then after he mooned us an OO-
kay with his small white hairy ass and scampered down to the first floor, I 
couldn't help but chuckle out, "What would Papa Smurf say about that?"

"He'd say, 'Precious?  Scrub that hairy ass!'" Joey snickered.

Joey took me around and introduced me to the other permanent occupants, and I 
quickly came to the conclusion that Jean, Sable, and Precious were the only ones 
who had a free will.  The others weren't brain dead zombies or anything, just...  
lacking self-motivation.  Their minds were so twisted that you couldn't work out 
where the knots started or ended, and simply pulling commands out would be like 
cutting their minds into little pieces and hoping it would come back together in 
some rational order after you finished.

"Perry says the only way to help people like them without completely 
reprogramming them is to just have patience," Joey explained when he saw my 
helpless expression.  "Sooner or later they'll show some kind of interest in 
something they weren't programmed for.  If it's reasonable, we encourage it, and 
if it becomes an obsession, we clean their minds of their programming and use 
their obsession to keep their focus on important things while they deal with 
everything else.  It's rough, but it seems to work."

The two-floored building was larger than it looked from the outside.  It 
originally had been Central State's main administrative building, fifty or so 
years ago, back when the school had only been a local medical college for men.  
The main floor had offices, a few classrooms, restrooms, and new shower 
facilities, which were really just two offices each with a pair of shower stalls 
and a tub.  The single hallway formed a blocky U, entrances at each top tip, and 
two sets of stairs, both creaky as hell, leading up to the second floor at the 
left and right sides of the U's base.

The second floor was broken up into three sections, the second section being 
identical to the first except it contained a kitchen in the space where the 
recliners and couch were in the first.  The third section wasn't really a 
section, just four offices, one on either side of each staircase along the back 
side of the building.  One had a TV, which was the focus of Precious's 
obsession, another was a half linen closet and half pantry, but the other two 
were empty.

There were a couple of offices on the first floor which were locked, but since 
Joey was trying to save us time by only showing me the rooms he thought were 
interesting, I wasn't the least bit concerned by the fact he completely skipped 
the other side of the U by the entrance we hadn't used.

And to tell you the truth, I was getting a bit anxious to try another cleaning 
and was all for returning to the second floor when he suggested it.  I felt my 
patience getting a little thin after watching the Smurfs with Joey, Precious, 
and a few of the others, and almost groaned when Neil wanted he and I to take 
Joan, Sable, and Precious outside for some Frisbee.

I must have sighed or something for Joey finally diverted his attention from 
Precious and asked me, "What?"

"What what?"

"You're acting like you're in pain."

"Pain?  No.  I'm just..  Bored."

"Oh," Joey said trying to hide his disappointment.  "I thought you'd be into 
this."

"No offence, Joey, but watching someone relearn about right and wrong from a 
bunch of little blue people isn't very exciting for me."

"But... Well then... What do you want to do?"

"What do you think I want to do?  I want to take a crack at another cleaning!"

"Told ya," Neil said, turning away the next moment to avoid my eyes meeting his.

"Neil, will you stop that?!" I spat.  "You act like I'm going to put you in 
trance or something if you look me in the eye."

"I uh..." Neil said while looking at Joey and a burst of telepathic messages 
started passing between them.

I sighed with just a touch of annoyance, then noticed one of the two women due 
to be cleaned was looking at me instead of the TV.

Her mind was so disjointed by the commands that apparently had been haphazardly 
inserted into her mind over the three months she had been enslaved.  I wasn't 
even really thinking about it when I reached in and pulled out the nine or so 
commands which had the most affect on her persona, but when I saw how large the 
hole left in her psyche was, I hesitated a moment before putting them back.

"What did you do that for?" Neil queried immediately.  "Once you start ..."

"This is NOT a game to me!" I said with frustration.  "Look, you go play your 
Frisbee, and you stay here and work on Precious Smurf.  I'm going to figure out 
how I can clean their minds without tearing them up in the process."

"Tim ..." Joey began.

"Do I need to remind you who Perry left in charge?"

"I don't care who he left in charge.  I told Suzi ..."

"Neil," I said, capturing his eyes when he automatically glanced at me.  "I need 
to speak to Joey alone a minute.  Would you mind?"

I released his eyes while standing up and grabbing Joey by his left armpit which 
instantly caused Joey to squirm and jerk to his feet.

"What?  Stop!  Okay!  I'm coming, now stop iT!" Joey gasped and struggled to 
keep his balance from my manipulation of his secret ticklish spot.

"Joey?" Neil queried, following us out.

"Go on.  I think I know what he's going to say.  It's not a big deal."

"All right, but I get to do the next cleaning."

"Yeah, all right," Joey whimpered as I wiggled my finger in his pit.

Once Neil gathered his team of Frisbee players and headed outside, Joey said, 
"You should know I can't keep anything from him very long.  He can worm things 
out of me better than Suzi sometimes."

"That's your problem," I said while directing him towards one of the unused 
offices.

"What?  You're not afraid this bunch is going to tell someone, are you?"

"Okay, Patty Whack."

"Office.  Good idea," stuttered after his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

Patty Whack was the nickname for a boy... yes, a boy... who had moved into our 
neighborhood in sixth grade.  He had a mouth that normally would have gotten him 
beaten to a pulp if hadn't been for his tales of his older brother.  You see his 
brother had only been a year ahead of us in school, but he had a black belt in 
karate and had been in the newspapers a couple of times.  Patty...  I mean 
Patrick, practically got away with murder in sixth grade because whenever he 
gave someone lip and they in turn wanted to give him a fat one, he threatened 
he'd have his brother make mince meat of them the following year in Junior High.  
As it turns out, his brother was just as sick of his brother's lip as the rest 
of us, and on the second day of Junior High our local Karate Kid made his legend 
a reality by making mince meat of Patrick at lunch.  

It happened so fast that nobody actually saw the fight, but several people heard 
a "Smack! Patti-whack! thud... Splat!" 

When they turned around to see what the commotion was, Patrick was pulling his 
face out of the mud, gasping for the breath that had been knocked out of him, 
while his brother coolly walked away without a mark on him.

Once we were in the office with the door closed, all I said was, "Why?"

"I don't know...  It just sort of... happened."

"You can lie to yourself all you want, but damn-it Joey," I began hotly, lost my 
anger in a surge of heartache, then had to struggle to choke out, "Don't start 
lying to me again."

"I ..." was all Joey said for several minutes, then he sighed and said, "I only 
wanted to make it so you'd love it here...  You know... So you wouldn't want to 
leave."

"But why like this?  I mean, two days ago three Group members recognized me 
while I was walking to class and challenged me to what was basically a mind 
hopping race.  I ended up having to tell them to fuck off just so they'd leave 
me alone, but yesterday I learned that they and a dozen other Group members are 
planning to wait outside my last class on Monday and taunt me until I agree to 
compete in their stupid game."

"They're only curious," Joey offered.  "I'll tell them to leave you alone if it 
really bothers you."

I couldn't help but grin a little before confessing, "No, that's okay.  I'll 
deal with them in my own way.  I guess what I'm trying to get at is, why you 
didn't tell me."

"Tell you what?  'Oh by the way, Tim.  I've told everyone all about you and they 
think you're the coolest thing since edible underwear'?  Face it Tim.  I know 
you better than you know yourself.  You luuuve getting attention like that.  You 
want to show off without looking like you're stuck up, and what better way to do 
that if they come to you?"

"I'm not the same person as I used to be," I said slowly as I sorted through my 
own feelings on the matter.  "Joey, I...  I guess I just don't want to draw 
attention to myself."

"Now I think you're trying to be modest..."

I looked him in the eye a moment before coolly saying, "First I do a couple mind 
hopping races, then say I make an entire lunchroom of people do a little dance 
just to please the crowd.  Eventually they'll con me into dueling against them 
to sharpen their own defenses, but where's the fun in that for me?  Sooner or 
later, either by my request of theirs, they start taking me on by the twos, then 
threes, then fives..  But where does it stop?  The more I do, the bigger I 
become, and the bigger I become, the larger a target I'll be.  I can't start 
using my abilities in a competitive way because then I'll lose my perspective on 
the risks I'm taking and sooner or later I'll lose.  Game or no game, you know 
what would happen if someone actually does beat me."

Joey sighed, ran his hands through his hair, then said, "Up until Sarah nearly 
killed you with her stupid test, I never thought about the danger you might be 
in here...  Maybe you shouldn't ..."

"Uh uh!" I cut him off.  "Don't even say it.  You were right about Central state 
having what I needed, and I'm not going to just pack my bags and leave just when 
I found it."

Joey broke out into a weak grin and said, "Told you so."

"Yeah, you told me so," I said returning his grin with my own.  "I just don't 
understand why it took you so long to show me this place."

"Well..." Joey began a little uncomfortably.  "Neil and I aren't the only ones 
who like cleaning minds...  You wouldn't believe the strings I had to pull just 
to get last night and today to ourselves."

"You mean...  This is like a campus wide sport?!?" I said, horrified.

"Sort of.. Only about a third of the voices play it on a consistent basis, and 
Perry oversees everything that goes on.  Somehow he keeps things from getting 
out of hand."

"He's not overseeing anything at the moment, now is he?" I pointed out.

"Yeah, well...  Perry would personally extract my balls and put them in a jar of 
acid if I let anything happen he wouldn't like.  And I'm not exaggerating 
either."

"I never thought you'd be afraid of an old fragile man..."

"Shit, Tim...  He may be old, but there's nothing fragile about him.  And I'm 
not afraid of him...  I... Respect his.. ahhh..  Authority."

"Uh huh.."

"Look, you have to understand that in here, whatever Perry says goes."

"Fine.  I don't have a problem with that.  But I'm not going to make this into 
some kind of game either.  It's..  It's just...  Shit, Joey.  It's like I was 
meant to do this.  This is really serious stuff to me."

Joey sighed, let his eyes go unfocused as he felt out the people in the 
building, then said, "Tim, I don't have that kind of... pull here.  As far as 
Perry is concerned, I'm just another voice who he sort of trusts not to screw 
around."

"I'm not asking you for anything like that.  Just don't ask me to make this into 
a game, that's all."

"But you don't understand...  The game is Perry's idea, and I think he's not 
only trying to help these people, but he's trying to educate the voices so they 
naturally won't alter people in ways that can't be easily undone.  I don't see 
him letting you clean as many peoples minds as you want when you already 
practice what he's trying to teach the other indirectly..."

"So you're saying that even if I figure out how to clean their heads with less 
side effects, he still wouldn't let me have any more chances to do it than any 
one else?"

"That's what I'm saying."

I turned my attention towards the jittering, sick looking clusters of symbols in 
the other rooms as my heart sank from my disappointment.  I wanted to help those 
people so badly.  I just knew I could help them so much better than the others 
could if I was allowed to try, but at the same time I understood what Joey had 
meant about Perry trying to educate the voices.

"Although maybe ..." Joey began.

"What?"

"I was just thinking that maybe if you did find a way to clean up the ressies...  
the residents that act like zombies...  If you could figure out a way to help 
them, then somehow convince Perry you can do it, he might just let you work with 
the ressies all you want."

After I rescanned the nearest 'ressy', I shook my head and said, "If I can't 
even work on the easy ones, how am I supposed to figure out the really hard 
ones?"

Joey put his arm over my shoulders and said, "I don't know.  But then I can't 
see the symbols flying around people's minds, and I can't look into someone's 
eyes and instantly know what they're feeling.  And don't forget what Mr. 
Pendleton always said..."

"99% observation, 1% experimentation," I quoted.  "But I only got a C in his 
class."

"Heh.  Yeah.  It was the only class in Jr. High that I actually got a better 
grade than you."

When I didn't respond to the old tease, he nudged me, then said, "You can still 
try another one today, if you feel up to it that is."

"I'm up to it, I'm just not sure if there's any point in doing it now."

"What do you mean, no point to it?" Joey exclaimed with disbelief.

"I mean I think you're right about the observation bit.  I already know how to 
clean their minds.  Now I need to study how the cleanings affect people, and how 
the different ways they're cleaned affect them.  Besides, you promised Neil he 
got the next shot at a cleaning, and I'm more than just a little curious to see 
how he does it."

"Oh yeah?  I think I'd surprise you more than you can imagine."

"I don't doubt it, especially from all the drills and contests you've been in 
here and in Venezuela.  But we learned the basics of using commands together, so 
everything you've learned since then was based on top of that.  Neil learned it 
all independently.  I'd like to see how he does it so I can then compare it to 
how you do it.  But I guess it doesn't really matter who goes first."

"Well I did promise him...  But I doubt we'll have enough time today to do more 
than one.  And it'll be another month before we'll get another chance."

I looked at him with a grin and said in an English accent, "As Mr. Pendleton 
would say...  'All in good time, Mr. Connor.  All in good time.'"

----------------------------------------------------------------
As it turned out, Neil's approach to cleaning a person's mind wasn't all that 
different than the way I would have done it without my empathic abilities or 
symbolic vision.  Oh, he had some interesting tricks to sort out what was 
natural and what was not, but nothing that I couldn't have worked out in my own 
way.

The real advantage I had over the other voices was not strength or speed, but my 
being able to sense out what was natural and what was not without having to 
insert commands of my own to learn what parts of their persona was bolted down 
by other commands.

After Joey and Neil left for the night and I got the 'kids' to bed, I took one 
of the folding chairs downstairs and waited for Perry's return by the stairs 
near Perry's office and quarters.

I didn't realize I was sitting in a dark corner, and when he came in the door 
and a smile formed on his lips while looking in my direction, I thought he was 
smiling at me and I just naturally smiled back in silence.

But when he reached about halfway down the hall and I stood up, I barely had the 
time to recognized the sh-cling sound of his cane's blades popping out before 
finding it embedded in the wall seven inches to my left at gut level.

"It's only me!" I gasped out when I realized he had pulled a knife out and was 
repositioning himself to watch both me and the doors around him.

"Come out of the shadows, slowly..."

I complied with my hands open and away from my body, then slowly turned myself 
in a 360 when he motioned for it, and only then did he finally relax and put his 
knife away.

"Remember this next time you want to sit in a dark corner, grunt," he said with 
contempt as he hobbled past me to retrieve his cane.  "Now get out."

"But.... Don't you want to know ..."

The cane came flying towards my face this time, and it would have hit me if I 
hadn't ducked and scrambled away.

So when he ordered "OUT!", I was shaken up enough to not question it and just 
hightailed it out of there.

I didn't even realize I had left my coat there until I was already halfway home.  
My teeth were rattling themselves out of my head by the time I got back to my 
apartment, and from all this excitement I totally forgot Suzi had guests until I 
was about to knock on her door and heard an unfamiliar voice inside.

Joey knew I was at the door for I could feel his attention on me, but when I 
didn't knock and just turned around and went back down stairs, he didn't query 
me on what I had wanted and we left it at that.

As you could probably imagine I was feeling pretty discouraged that night.  I 
wanted to talk to Joey and Suzi about it, but I didn't think it was so serious 
to interrupt their fun.  I had considered calling Neil up, but the fact I didn't 
have his number quickly eliminated that option.  Oh, I guess I could have got it 
without bothering Joey, but he wasn't really the person I wanted to talk to in 
the first place so I just let it go.

The next morning I had a bad case of homesickness which only got worse after 
calling home and hearing my little brother crying for me to come home.  I even 
had my dad put the twins on the phone just so I could talk to them despite they 
not being able to talk back.  After the phone call, I kept having to talk myself 
out of going home for the day for I wouldn't have been able to spend more than a 
couple of hours there, and just I promised myself I'd go home Friday and spend 
the whole weekend there.

Joey had made breakfast and served it to Suzi in bed while I had been on the 
phone, then after they had showered and Joey had changed the sheets, they ended 
up back in bed.  Around eleven I gave up on them and gathered up enough courage 
to go get my coat, being very careful to not to sneak in like I instinctively 
wanted to.  As it turned out Perry was upstairs and probably ever knew I had 
been there, which I was fine by me.

I walked around campus for hours that day trying to sort out what my options 
were concerning my newfound purpose in life.  While I felt a bit intimidated by 
Perry's violent behavior, I convinced myself that it hadn't been personal.  But 
I still felt that it wasn't an appropriate time to go asking favors from the 
man.

And then there was Sarah, the Group, and their rules.  I imagined Joey was going 
to hear it from Sarah when she learned he had included me in on one of the 
Group's activities, but now that he had, I knew she couldn't prohibit my 
involvement unless I broke the established rules somehow.

So for the mean time I decided my best bet was to follow Mr. Pendleton's advice 
and simply observe while I waited my turn.  Every fiber in my being wanted to go 
and start experimenting, but I had gotten pretty good at resisting other urges 
and temptations so I figured this wouldn't be much different.

Joey and Suzi had gone to the Connor's for dinner by the time I went back to my 
apartment, but Joey left a note inviting me to come.  I called the Connor's 
house and declined the offer, explaining I had run into a couple of girls we had 
met at the Rage in January and had been invited to go dancing with them that 
evening.  As I expected, Joey happily let me off the hook.

The place was pretty packed when I got there.  I was having some serious second 
thoughts from all the people's emotions blasting my empathic senses.  But there 
was this wild thrill calling to me to join in, and despite the intensity of the 
crowd I went in and started looking for the girls I had promised to meet there.

After two complete circles of the place, I picked a spot near the entrance to 
watch for them and waited for nearly fifteen whole minutes before giving into 
the excitement of the room.  I danced with four or five girls before going up to 
the food balcony surrounding the dance floor to grab a late dinner.

I was searching for a table to eat my rather expensive burger and fries when 
this girl bumped into me and nearly knocked my soda out of my hands.  Somehow I 
ended up accepting her offer to join her and her friends at their table, and 
twenty minutes later found myself feeling completely at ease talking college 
life and stuff with Carl, Chris (short for Christina), Mike, Jon, and Karen.

I'm sure I used my magic smile on them to break the ice, so to speak, but I 
wasn't consciously aware of it if I used it after that.  Yet after the Rage 
closed at midnight and I finally went back to my apartment, I began questioning 
myself what had happened.  I had never clicked so well with a group of strangers 
like that before.  My empathic senses had been focused on the crowd the whole 
time, yet I couldn't help but feel I had been unconsciously driving them 
empathically somehow for they to be so receptive to what I liked and talked 
about.

I tossed and turned for hours that night trying to remember anything I or they 
did to point to the cause of their near eagerness to get to know me better.  
Nothing I had said disinterested them.  I think I could have talked about my 
last dentist appointment and they would have gobbled it up like I was talking 
about the Super Bowl or something.

The next morning I managed to drag my ass out of bed in time for my first class, 
but fell asleep in class, which is something I hardly ever did in my life.  All 
day long I felt as if I was forgetting something, but it wasn't until I went to 
my last class of the day that I remembered there were going to be a few people 
waiting for me after class.

I was kicking myself for feeling disappointed when they didn't show, then when 
my disappointment turned to anticipation for what they were really up to, I 
admitted to myself Joey had been right.  I loved the attention.

Oh how I would have loved to play games with them.  Like tricking their senses 
into hearing a tyrannosaurus rex stomping around behind some trees then adding 
the visual stream of the t-rex crashing through the trees and coming right at 
them.

Trickery like that was allowed within the Group as long as it didn't involve 
altering their consciousness in any way.  Commanding their mind to see a 
prehistoric dinosaur was completely against the rules, but commanding their eyes 
and ears to see and hear it was okay because the illusion would stop the moment 
I stopped sending the streams.  Of course nobody had done it to more than one or 
two people at the same time, and this would have been more than a dozen people, 
which is what was so cool about the idea.

But to play those kinds of games were opposite of what my protective instincts 
were telling me.  I needed to dispel the legend Joey had worked so hard in 
establishing, yet do it in such a way that didn't discredit Joey or generate any 
negative feelings towards me.

I called Joey at home that night and confirmed he hadn't said anything to them 
about it, then checked with him if he knew of any Group related activities that 
would have made them change their plans.  There weren't any he knew of.

When they didn't show up the following two days, I stopped actively watching for 
them and just resigned to wait for them to make their move, if they ever did.

Suz and I went home for the weekend late that Friday afternoon.  The whole time 
I was there I had to resist the idea of experimenting on some of the in-house 
staff with my ideas on cleaning minds with less side effects.  Even while I was 
bouncing Richie up and down on his bed Saturday morning after waking him up to 
surprise him (he hadn't known I was coming home), I had this desire to clean the 
commands out of his new nanny.

That's right, a nanny.  I was shocked to find my mom had brought in a nanny 
after all what had transpired with her wish to go back to work, and then 
deciding against it so she could spend the time with Richie.  But after spending 
the morning with Michelle and Richie, I pretty much understood why my mom had 
hired her.  She loved playing with kids, and they loved her for it.  Hell, I 
loved her for it, even after Richie and Michelle ganged up on me and tickled me 
silly.

Michelle was going to school part time to become a teacher (ideally a 
kindergarten teacher), and she and my mom were working out this plan to stretch 
Richie's mind to its fullest potential.  But for the first two or three months 
Michelle was just going to be a full time playmate in order to give her and 
Richie and time to bond.

The fact that she was nineteen, Catholic, and had a laugh that made me shiver 
from being so similar to Jennifer's, I was fighting my attraction to her by 
dinnertime which luckily was when she went home. 

Three times Sunday I found myself looking her in the eyes with 'that look' and 
had to make up some excuse to leave the room just to get a grip on myself.  To 
make things worse, she started flirting with me, and I think if I had stayed one 
more day, Richie would have found the two of us in my bed the next morning.

Despite my best efforts to keep my mind on school and other normal things, I 
couldn't stop my wandering eyes from checking out the girls all day Monday, and 
even checked out a couple of guys which shocked me when I realized I was doing 
it.

And then when Suzi came down for dinner that evening and we got on the subject, 
I couldn't keep myself from giving her 'the look'.  Joey's commands efficiently 
made her immune to my signals, which only made my sexual frustration worse 
despite her efforts to help distract me from them.

Cold showers and jerking off did provide some relief the next couple of days, 
and then in my logic class Wednesday, one girl started emitting sexual vibes 
while she daydreamed, and I ended up having to leave class early after peeking 
into her head and finding her imagining what it would be like to touch her 
roommate's breast's while they showered.

Shelly, my classmate, had a thing for her straight and completely clueless 
roommate, Vanessa.  Actually, it was beyond just a thing.  Shelly lusted for her 
year younger and nicely stacked roommate.  Every morning she got up an hour 
earlier than she had to just so she could join Vanessa in the showers and steal 
more glances at her sexy roommate.

So Logic, my favorite class scholastically that semester, was now my absolute 
favorite class due to the fresh supply of jerk off material it provided.  This 
seemed to satisfy my raging hormones to the point I went to the Rage Saturday 
evening for a night of harmless flirting and dancing.

Shit, the place was beyond being packed.  I understood why Joey and Suzi had 
declined to go with me after it took me a half an hour just to get in, then it 
took me almost fifteen minutes just to get up to the dance floor.  Not that 
there was a lot of dancing going on with all the people there, but I managed to 
do a little boogying before I got sick of the constant bumping and random limbs 
colliding and waded upstairs to grab something to eat.

You have to understand the atmosphere of that place to understand why people 
just didn't leave from it being so crowded.  At Central State, the Rave was 
considered THE social scene for the dorms, so naturally Saturday nights meant 
all the socialites gathered there in their coolest or sexiest clothes and... 
well...  socialized.

Even though alcohol wasn't sold there, the staff didn't stop people from 
bringing a can or bottle or two in, even if they were underage which a lot were.  
The crowdedness sort of self limited the people who drank to just getting buzzed 
and not drunk since they couldn't just leave and come back with more.  Obviously 
there were people who still managed to abuse this, but eventually they got 
recognized by the staff enough that they just weren't allowed in.

Naturally the people who brought beer clustered at the tables on the second 
floor, so after I finally got my food, I found myself wandering around looking 
for a table longer than I liked.

I was just about give this one couple the urge to go dance so I could claim 
their table when Karen and Carl came up behind me and led me over a table in the 
corner where Chris, Jon, and two other girls, Virginia and Jenny, were sitting.  
They made room for me, and I was even conned into drinking one of their spare 
Bud Lights, which went straight to my head.

I wouldn't say I was drunk, but I was sure relaxed.  I don't remember how we got 
started, but we ended up having this friendly contest of naming the kinkiest 
thing each of us would actually do to arouse someone else without it involving 
sex.

Chris didn't play, which didn't surprise me after having been around her enough 
to know how conservative she was, but I did catch her laughing with the rest of 
us on the good ones.

At first it was little things simple things...  

Jon: he'd take a cold shower while wearing his underwear and t-shirt, then come 
out and use ice cubes on his nipples and stuff.  

Jenny: she'd wear her mini bikini and have the guy put lotion on her.

Carl:  borrow Jenny's mini bikini bottoms so he could show off his cute butt and 
have the girl put lotion on him.

Virginia:  She'd eat a banana.  

Jon, Jenny and I prodded her for details and ended up buying a banana sundae 
just to get her to demonstrate one bite.  All I'll say is... It sure looked 
yummy...  We gave it three woodies.

Me:  Do a striptease.

When they booed me for it, I got up, faced away from them, grabbed my butt 
cheeks and started fondling and wiggling my body with the music below, making 
sure I turned my head enough so they could get glimpses of my red tongue through 
my wet parted lips as I worked my shirt up my body, off my arms, then finally 
snapped it over my head and spun it over my head in circles.

After I bowed to the hoots, wolf whistles, and just plain hollers, I draped my 
shirt over the back of my chair and sat down to cool off in just my undershirt 
and a large grin.

We all agreed to Chris's suggestion of no more demonstrations from that point 
on.

Jon:  Eating soft-served ice cream off a plate...  With only your mouth and 
tongue.

Jenny:  Eating soft-served ice cream off another girls tummy.

That one got oohs from us guys, but then Carl complained he couldn't compete 
with that and resigned.

Virginia:  'accidentally' pouring some of the chocolate syrup for her soft 
served ice cream on her chest and cleaning it up with her fingers.  We almost 
disqualified her for breaking the no demonstration rule by licking off her 
finger sensually, but she swore she had done it without thinking and wouldn't do 
it again.  Pity.

Me:  Fill my mud wresting ring up with chocolate syrup and wrestle someone in 
it.

When they queried as to who I would wrestle, I said it didn't matter.  I could 
either wrestle another guy to double the eroticism for the girl watching, or 
just wrestle the girl.

Jenny really loved the idea, Virginia scoffed me for using her chocolate, and 
Chris had this tight-lipped smile on her face as she stirred some of the 
chocolate left in the sundae container.

Jon:  "You want kinky?  I'll give you kinky.  I'd buy a black pair of thongs, go 
to one of those tanning salons and get a really deep brown tan every where but 
there.  When I get the girl alone, I do a striptease down to my thongs, oil 
myself up and make sure she sees the tan lines, play with myself a bit to tease 
her, then slide them off and strut my stuff."

Jenny: "Tan lines on a guy isn't kinky.  But I liked the black thong and 
strutting your stuff part.  So...  Since we're getting naked now..  I'd take a 
shower and come out dripping wet and towel myself off in front of him.  Then I'd 
lay down and have him shave all my pub hairs off."

Virginia:  "I think Tim should go next so it goes girl guy girl guy."

No one objected, so I did.

"I'd have my pubes and ass shaved beforehand," I said, letting myself go.  "I 
think I'd leave just a little bit around the base though.  I'd feel naked 
without a little coverage."

A bunch of "phffs" passed.

"I'd keep my arm pit hair too just so when I'm sweating really hard I can lift 
one of my arms up, take a good strong sniff, then swirl my tongue through the 
hairs."

Virginia: laughs "Gross!"  

Jon: "Damn, that was a good one."

Chris: Earnestly "Disgusting!"

Jenny: "I'd like to see you do it!"

"Next time I'm sweating without my shirt on..." I promised.

We all looked over at Virginia who moaned, "My turn already?"

"You want me to go on?" I offered.

"No!" she gasped, then drummed her fingers on the table as she absently wetted 
her lips repeatedly.

"Oh I give up...  I can't think of anything I would actually DO."

Jon:  "Shit, then I got something so kinky, so bizarre...  And I already did it 
so you can't say I wouldn't do it..."

"Then spill it," Carl said.

"I don't know...  I'm not sure some of you could handle it..."
 
"Oh sure, this coming from the guy who thought tan lines on a guy was kinky," 
Jenny laughed.

"Yeah.  Almost every guy is going to have tan lines..."  Virginia pointed out.

"That's because we don't want to roast our nuts," Carl chuckled.

"All right, you all asked for it," Jon said, his grin not disappearing after 
everyone else's did.  

In a hushed voice he said "I'd do the striptease thing, oil myself up, get down 
to my thong and slowly uncover my white ass, turn around and oil up my cock and 
balls with long stretching strokes, then turn back around and oil my white 
ass..."

"It still isn't any kinkier," Jenny complained.

"I'm not done yet," Jon hissed.

He leaned forward and said in an even more hushed voice, "If you guys ever tell 
anyone, I'll...  Just don't you dare breath a word of this...  Carl.."

"Okay, okay..." Carl said as we all leaned in to hear, even Chris.

"Well, one time when I was like sixteen, a friend and I snuck some beers from my 
dad's fridge out in our garage.  We got pretty drunk, then after he left I got 
horny as hell and started...  You know... Messing around."

"You spanked the monkey.  Gee, I'm shocked."  Jenny teased.

"I didn't just spank the monkey.  I was drunk, you know?  I get..  get weird 
ideas when I'm drunk, and I sort of wondered what it was like for a girl... So I 
took one of the beer bottles into the shower with me...  and.."

"Gross!  That's just too gross!" Chris exclaimed.

"Told you," Jon said with satisfaction.

"Well I'm not even going to try and beat that," Jenny admitted.

I kept grinning while staring at my empty beer can when everyone looked at me, 
and didn't even glance at Jon when he said, "Can't top it, right?"

"Well?" Virginia prompted me a few moments later.

"Oh, I could top it..." I said keeping my eyes planted on the can. "But I'm not 
going to..."

"Oh, come on.." Chris blurted out, then turned three shades of red.

I was tempted...  Really tempted to tell them about the GrrrGrrr game, the times 
I had used multiple dildos on myself, and a half a dozen things that popped into 
my head that I would do if the right situation ever presented itself.  Like 
water sports.  That right there would have done it, but I just didn't feel it 
was appropriate and it probably wouldn't have been seen in the right light by my 
new friends.

I gently said no, then excused myself from the table to take a leak which seemed 
to trigger everyone else's bladders as well.

Carl took a stall, but when Jon took the urinal right next to me, I pretty much 
guessed what was coming.

"Did you really have something to top mine?" Jon said as hushed as he could as 
our lizards emptied.

"Does it matter?"

"Come on, man.  You can tell me."

I looked him in the eye a moment and instantly felt his feelings on the matter.  
He wasn't looking for something to use against me, and he wasn't trying to lead 
me into something.  Yet something wasn't quite genuine about his interest into 
my personal secrets, so I just gave him something that would satisfy his 
curiosity.

"I never tried a beer bottle," I simply said while facing forward and shaking 
the drips off.  "But I doubt it felt as good as the vibrating dildo I used to 
use."

The subject didn't arise again.

We had our first test in my logic class that Wednesday, and on the following 
Monday while the professor handed the graded tests back he let it slip I got a 
perfect score on the test.  It didn't ruin the curve for anyone so I didn't 
think much of his announcement, but I swear Faith was grinning her ass off that 
Wednesday when Shelly asked if I could help her with the class before showing me 
the 39 on her test.  Despite my better judgment, I agreed.  I always was a 
sucker for a damsel in distress.

Tuesday morning at breakfast Suzi told me Perry had scheduled Joey and Neil for 
the games the following Tuesday, but not me.  She explained I needed to go see 
Perry personally before he would schedule me in again, then queried me on why I 
hadn't done so already.

After telling her what had happened the last time I had seen Perry, Joey formed 
a connection with me and basically told me Perry was like that with everyone.  
Joey even went as far as to say that if Perry didn't threaten him with his life 
or throw his cane at him at least once a week, he'd feel Perry had lost his 
faith in him or something.

"The thing you have to understand about Perry is, he's always trying to keep you 
on your toes and keeping you in check.  Hell, Perry came at us swinging that 
cane of his like he was trying to slice our guts open the night he let me and 
Neil watch the place alone for the first time.  Neil practically had to drag me 
back the next time, but then Perry acted like nothing had happened and even left 
us there alone for most of the day, so I figured he was just this moody old man 
who liked to scare the shit out of people and wasn't really the suicidal maniac 
he sometimes appears to be."

So after my morning classes, I took Joey's advice and headed over to the old 
admin building on the other side of campus to talk to Perry.  When I reached the 
lane leading up to the building's front entrance, I was surprised to see Mike 
and Carl walking up to the old green door carrying a couple of McDonalds sacks 
and handing one of the sacks to this huge six foot two red haired mountain of 
muscle before going in.

I ducked behind the corner and watched as Mike's and Carl's swirls of symbols 
went up the stairs at the end of the hall and entered the room where someone 
else was actively cleaning a slave's mind.  I was letting myself believe they 
were just delivering food to the telepath upstairs,  but when Carl's swirls of 
symbols emitted a few command streams to another slave within the room, my whole 
body went cold from the recognition that I had been had.

A moment later my body's temperature began to rise sharply as my anger boiled my 
blood, and after dropping my school bag I walked swiftly up to the door to 
confront my so called friends.

The gorilla at the door growled, "Where the fuck do you think you're going?" 
which I answered with a command to go home and clean his shitter with his 
toothbrush.

The next moment I was staring at my own surprised expression in the gorilla's 
silver reflective sunglasses as he held me six inches off the ground by the neck 
with just his left hand.  I instinctively commanded him to release me, then when 
he didn't, I did so again with all my might.
 
"I said, where the fuck do you think you're going, ass wipe?" he spat before 
grinning at little pieces of his burger which had landed on my face.

I opened my mouth to give some appropriately foul mouthed reply, but only choked 
out the "Inside, you moth.." before he raised me up a good two feet above him, 
the angle his hand intersected my neck choking off my air passage completely.

His damn glasses effectively prevented me from capturing his eyes to use my 
empathic skills on him, so for several moments I struggled in vain to break his 
grasp on my neck as he took another bite of his big Mac.

Just as everything started to get dim and my limbs began feeling heavy, I got a 
flash of vindictiveness and managed to throw my weight to one side enough to 
slam my knee into his right hand and sent his burger flying.

The next moment I joined the hamburger in flight, and just as I had gasped for 
my breath, it all got knocked out of me when I landed on the ground, hard.

If the sun hadn't reflected off his glasses and captured my attention, he 
probably would have broken me into pieces right there.  But despite my desperate 
gasping for breath, I managed to gather my legs up underneath me to spring 
forward and head butted his rock hard stomach.  Somehow I managed to keep myself 
out of his grasp long enough to turn around and run as quickly as I could.

Surprisingly enough, he didn't even try to follow me.  I later reasoned he must 
have been guarding the place and hadn't left his post to chase me, but I didn't 
stop my terrified stumble until I was inside one of the law buildings in the 
next cluster of buildings away from him. 

As I washed my face in the men's room and tried to calm down, I nearly jumped 
onto the sink when someone else came in to use the john.  I quickly made him 
forget I was there, then scanned his mind a bit deeper when I sensed his 
personality had recently been modified by another telepath.

His name was Lake.  No, that's not a typo.  That's an a, not a u.

Lake was one of those students who had applied for financial aid and accepted 
the concept of being a sex slave for two semesters in exchange for tuition.  He 
was already on his second semester of serving his slave hood, but was taking two 
classes that semester in addition to being a full time slave.

I don't know why, but something about his face attracted me.  He had average 
brown eyes, but looking into them stirred erotic and sensual feelings within me, 
and after groping his cute ass a moment, I had to wash my face again to calm 
down before sending him on his way.

In all my life I had never done such a thing to another guy before.  Sure, I'd 
groped a few girls like that, but I had never even had had the urge to do 
something like that to a guy before then.  My homophobic paranoia was going full 
tilt when someone else entered the bathroom, then another thirty or so seconds 
later.

When I noticed the increased activity in the halls, I checked the time and found 
it was time to go to my next class.  Like a lightening bolt striking me, I 
yelped when I suddenly realized I had left my bag back where the gorilla would 
have certainly found it by then.  

The red marks on my neck tingled hotly to remind me what could happen if I ran 
into that gorilla again, so after a few minutes of sweating, I decided to go 
incognito, so to speak, and selected my unsuspecting aid from the students with 
thoughts of where to get lunch on their mind.

For obvious reasons I picked a girl for the task, then after finding a nice big 
lecture hall with more empty seats than filled ones, I sat down in the very back 
in the darkest seat I could find and closed my eyes.

Slipping on Loretta's trim athletic body was such an erotic thrill, I had to 
rush my borrowed body into the girls room for a quick inventory and self grope 
before giving my nipples one last tweak and headed back towards the old admin 
building.

I was extremely relieved to find my bag was right were I had dropped it, but 
resisted the thought of just grabbing it and high tailing it out of there.  Of 
course one of the reasons I had chosen Loretta was in preparation for that 
possibility, for she ran every morning and sometimes in the evening too.  
But just to be cautious I decided I better check what the gorilla was doing 
before going near my bag.

So I circled around to the opposite end of the lane and just casually walked 
down it intending to pass right in front of his nose and snagging the bag after 
turning the corner.

After passing the covered doorway, I felt his eyes burning holes in my clothes, 
especially after I stupidly gave him a wink and a smile.  I was holding my 
breath the rest of the way to the corner, then just as I went around it, he 
called, "Were are you going, good lookin'?"

'Just grab the bag and run', I pleaded to myself at the same time a plan for 
revenge began forming in my head.

My moment of hesitation made the decision for me, for when I bent over and 
wrapped my fingers around my bag's straps, his massive hand made a nice clean 
"whap!" sound against my jean covered ass.

"Just as I thought," he purred while grinning cagily.  "Buns of steel..."

"Yeah?  Well just try that again if you want to see how hard this," I jerked my 
right knee sharply up to groin level, "feels."

"Awe, come on, Lori...  I know its been a long time, but you did give me the 
signal..."

"I... I did?" I said honestly as my head reeled from the realization he knew 
Loretta...  

More than just knew her.  I was just getting over my shock when he wrapped his 
arms around me, clasped my buns of steel in his hands to lift me up to his face, 
then forced his tongue into my surprised mouth while his six pack stroked my 
crotch and his fingers teased my crevice and suddenly tingling hole.

For a few fleeting moments I struggled to get away from him, but this ape man 
was stroking just the right spots on my borrowed body.  My telepathic link 
brought her body's sensations to my mind which in turn interpreted them as being 
highly sexually arousing, and before I knew it, I was enjoying this bully, this 
overpowering tower of brutal male muscle ravaging my mouth and groping my ass 
with abandon.

When he withdrew his tongue followed by his mouth, I was limply hanging from his 
thick neck with both hands, only vaguely aware he had walked us over to the 
entrance of the building where he somewhat gently set me down on my feet again, 
then started laughing when I promptly fell on my ass.

"You haven't changed a bit," he chucked rather harshly.  "Fuck, if I wasn't on 
duty right now, I'd have you on all fours by now swallowing me whole."

"Fuck you," I snapped at him while struggling to my feet, internally cursing at 
the erotic shiver his suggestion had triggered.  

He grabbed my hair and jerked me towards him before violently picking me up by 
my arms, pinning me up against the building, then licked my lips twice in a way 
that sent bolts of arousal coursing down my body.

"I'll be over around seven.  Make sure nobody interrupts us.  You know how it 
spoils my mood."

All I could do was nod my head, then walked away in a more or less straight 
line, feeling the folds of my cunt sliding across each other, heavily lubricated 
by the juices within.

I dropped my bag at my real body's feet, then took Loretta's body all the way to 
the sub shop she had planned on eating at before disconnecting and opening my 
eyes.

I didn't go to class the rest of the day, and you wouldn't believe the internal 
struggle I had resisting finding out where Loretta lived and reestablishing the 
link for the seven o'clock fucking.  Thank god Suzi came back to the apartments 
after her classes.  I think I would have given in to my lust if she hadn't been 
there to talk me through it all.

At first Suzi didn't think she knew who the gorilla was, and after I shared the 
image of him with her, she nearly didn't accept my word that this guy had 
attacked me like he had.

His name was Rich Bugle, and the two times Suzi fucked him, he hadn't even 
hinted at liking the rough stuff.   She swore he had been as gentle as a man 
could be with someone who weighed a third of what he weighed, and it was his 
lack of aggression that had doused her attraction to the twenty-year-old hulk.

Rich had attempted to join the Eta's his freshman year, but because he was 
immune to voice, he was told he wasn't fit enough to join and wasn't allowed to 
workout like his obviously less fit friends.

So he worked out on his own, pushing his tolerances beyond what his friends were 
describing, or at least that was before they mysteriously stopped associating 
themselves with him and got their ears pierced.  

That was the last straw for Rich.  He got his ear pierced after somehow managing 
to get an Eta ear ring, then one day followed a group of Eta's he didn't 
recognize to the medical center and just got in line with them.

He even played along when Gina, Joey's sister in law, walked down the line, 
feeling a crotch or chest here and there, stopped in front of Rich and verbally 
order him to drop his pants.

Because he was nervous and scared, he didn't get hard after doing as she 
ordered, but did when Gina grabbed his meat and gave it a couple of strokes.  
Apparently Gina had commanded him to get hard, and believed for quite some time 
afterwards that he was just like all the rest of the anxious cocks standing in 
that line.

Rich couldn't believe his luck when Gina took him alone into her private suite 
and demanded he fuck her.  For three days he played the role of being a royal 
fuck slave, only leaving her when nature demanded it, and managed to convince 
himself that she'd never ask him to do any of the gross gay things the other men 
she had join them in her quarters did.

The bubble burst for both of them the fourth day when Gina ordered Rich to fuck 
the short guy he knew from one of his classes and refused.  Gina freaked when 
she finally worked out he wasn't under her control, and Rich was scared shitless 
for several long hours after the other men all jumped him and locked him up 
still naked in a closet for some time.

Sarah was the one who immediately recognized the opportunity Rich's immunity 
represented.  Through the closet's door, Sarah had Rich explain why he had 
pretended to be an Eta, and because she could read his mind as plainly as any 
other mute, twenty minutes after she had spoke her first word to him, she let 
him out of the closet and gave him back his clothes.  It didn't take long for 
Sarah to feel out what he was responsive to in exchange for his trust.

So two years later, Rich was as loyal to the group as Joey or Sarah herself.  
Suzi admitted she had known his loyalty hadn't been given freely, but the price 
of the group sharing their cache of willing sex slaves with him was a small 
investment for a bodyguard who couldn't be tampered with by other telepaths.  
That in itself was worth the combined power of ten extra voices.

Suzi and I spent the evening in her apartment watching TV and talking during the 
less interesting commercials.  The whole time I was plagued with this dark urge 
to swap bodies with Loretta again and experience Rich's overpowering male body 
having its way with me.  I couldn't shake this desire to feel completely 
helpless within his grasp.

I was lost in my own world when Suzi said she was going to shower, but she 
wanted to talk some more afterward so I shouldn't leave.  I mumbled my okay and 
just sat there trying to get a hold on my feelings.

I admit I did hear the phone ringing, but I thought it was just a phone on TV 
until Suzi yelled for me to get it.

"Suzi Aster's residence, Tim speaking," I rattled off into the handset.

I was startled when the person on the other end of the line dropped the phone, 
then listened to it drag across the floor or something quite a distance before 
it came to a rest.

"Hello?"  I said loudly when no one picked it up after a good thirty seconds 
went by.  "ARE you THERE?   If you don't answer me, I'm going to assume you're 
hurt and call the pol..."

There was movement, then someone picked the phone up.

"Helloo....  Whoever you are..." I said just as Suzi came out wrapped in a towel 
with another in her hands for her hair.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"I don't know.  They haven't..."

"It's me..." a highly emotionally restrained voice said in practically a 
whisper, yet its power was so great I instantly felt my guts being ripped out of 
my body a moment before my legs gave out beneath me.

It was my turn to be stunned beyond words, or even thought really.  I just 
stared at Suzi as she became increasingly alarmed from my inability to answer 
her simple question, but when Suzi tried to take the phone from my hand, I 
suddenly snapped myself back into focus and croaked, "Let go!  It's Eric!"

"Eric?  Timmy, give me the phone..." Suzi demanded, tugging on the phone.

"Just let me...  Say something... Anything..." I pleaded with her, trying to get 
my mouth up to the handset's mic.

"Tim?" I heard Eric's voice say.

"Yeah Eric?" I answered shakily after Suzi let the handset go and backed off 
slightly.  "Oh damn it's good to hear..."

"Give her the phone..." he said, his voice betraying his true wishes.

"I...  I can't, Eric..." I admitted.  "I just...  can't.."

"I can't stop either," he blurted out.  "Just hearing your voice makes me 
feel..."

"Connected," I finished for him, feeling the same thing.

"Timmy, either give me the phone, or I disconnect you," Suzi said, the fingers 
of one hand hovering over the cradle ready to carry out her threat while the 
other held her towel closed.

"Suzi's going to disconnect us if I don't give her the phone," I relayed to him.

"Then give it to her...  Talking through her won't be as bad as not talking at 
all."

"You're right," I said, but still unable to do it.  "I know you're both right, 
but...  I.."

"Three...  Two..." Suzi counted down.

"Bye!" I groaned as tossed her the handset.

Suz managed to catch it, but at the expense of letting her towel drop to the 
ground.

Once the handset was safely cradled between her chin and shoulder, she bent down 
to retrieve the towel, but then noticed I was distracted by her breasts hanging 
beneath her and ended up only wrapping her towel around her waist.

"He's looking at my boobs," she snickered to Eric.  "It's nice to see they can 
still hold some of his attention."

My head was starting to spin again from everything which had transpired that 
day, but Suzi kept bringing my attention back to the real world by teasing me 
with glimpses of her twat or wetting a nipple or two and blowing on them to make 
them harden.  I answered her relayed questions as best I could, and managed to 
ask a few of my own, but for the most part I was in a emotional daze of lust, 
separation anguish, and thanks to Suzi, a decreasing feeling of confusion about 
my sexuality.

I never felt my head hit my pillow that night, but I do remember the brief 
erotic dream I had of Shelly sneaking out of her bed and silently going over to 
her roommates to touch the breast beneath the thin t-shirt.  

When I woke up with a raging hardon, I sighed to myself, "Now that's more like 
it," then rolled over and went back to sleep hoping to catch the rest of that 
wet dream.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tim, the Teenage MC
By Rass Senip
Chapter XXI: Fall 89 - Summer 90
Part 6 - A Lover, A Dreamer, That's me
(no sex)

"We were starting to think you weren't going to show," Karen said above the 
regular din at the Rage.

"I had some things I had to take care of before coming tonight," I explained 
while sitting down beside her.  "Where's Jon?"

"Probably collecting beer bottles," Carl snickered.

"He's working on something for school, but he said he'll try and make it," Jenny 
explained.

Despite the steady and strong flow of the crowd's emotions, I had my empathic 
senses focused on just the people at the table.  I immediately sensed Jenny was 
holding back on the explanation, but that wasn't necessarily cause for 
suspicion.

"Chris couldn't make it either?" I queried.

"She's here...  Somewhere," Virginia stated, looking over some heads a moment 
before repeating, "Somewhere."

"Anybody thirsty?" Karen offered, pulling a few iced down Busch beers in glass 
bottles from underneath the table and setting them in the middle of the 
tabletop.

"Shit, Karen.  How many do you have down there?" I asked as I looked beside my 
feet and saw a cooler at her feet.

"Enough," Virginia answered for Karen, grabbing one and having Carl open it for 
her.

"Jon's sure going to wish he hadn't missed this," Carl said while he and Karen 
each took one as well.  "You got these in his honor?"

"Dishonor you mean," Jenny laughed.

"Something like that," Karen grinned.

"Do I see beer at this table?" Mike crowed as he walked up, startling most of 
us.

"Take one and shut the hell up," Karen hissed, tossing him one, which he nearly 
dropped.

"What's the matter?  Busch not good enough for you?" Karen asked me when she 
noticed I hadn't taken one yet.

"I'm not really much of a beer drinker," I explained honestly.  "I'm more a Jack 
Daniels man."

"Now here's a man with the same heart as mine," Mike clamored just before 
spotting an empty chair three tables down and hurrying over to grab it.

"Well have a beer anyway," Karen insisted, slapping a bottle into the palm of my 
right hand.

Not wishing to create any waves, I opened the bottle and took a swig, then after 
making a slight face, I smacked my lips and said, "Ahhh."

After Mike squeezed in between myself and Carl, the talk turned towards some 
stuff on TV and then somehow got on the subject of what color of underpants we 
had on.

"If I had known there'd be a contest, I would have worn my Elvis briefs," Carl 
joked.

"Elvis?" Virginia exclaimed while Jenny started laughing with abandon.

"Heh... Wait.  Briefs?" I queried.

"Hey, don't go making fun of the King!" Carl said seriously.

"Oh brother," Karen said under her breath to which I gave her a look of 
agreement.

Suddenly Chris walks up and announced, "I think I'm love!"

"Oh brother!" Karen exclaimed much louder than the moment before while the 
others gave a mixture of groans and comments like "That's nice, Chris.."

"This is real...  This time," Chris sighed, holding her hands against her chest 
with a far look in her eyes.

"You say that every time some guy smiles in your direction," Virginia remarked.

"But I felt it.  I felt it in here when I..."

"CHRIS!" Karen shrieked, cutting her off and scrambling over me to get to her.

"What's the mat...  Oh..  OH!" Chris exclaimed as she noticed me sitting there.  
"Sorry, I didn't know... Uhm..."

As Karen and Chris headed for the ladies room, the tension which had shot up all 
around the table started coming back down as I pretended not to notice anything 
strange going on.  Then when I took an impassive deep drink of my beer, the 
level dropped almost back to normal.

"I take it Chris is a hopeless romantic?" I asked no one particular.

"That's an understatement," Virginia gasped out.

"You know, I used to be like that," Jenny offered.

"Yeah right," Mike chuckled.

"I was..." Jenny insisted.

"So what happened?" Carl dared to ask.

"My boyfriend took me parking and tried to get to third base."

"And succeeded," I added with certainty after feeling her out a moment.

"Yeah, I can believe that," Mike laughed while Jenny's cheeks turned red.

I decided if I was going to get the information I wanted, I was going to have to 
get them as comfortable as possible around me, especially after Chris's blooper.  
So I drained my beer and asked Virginia for another, and was happy to see 
everyone else following my lead.

"My dad calls me a hopeless romantic," I stated for the record after letting out 
a decently long burp.

Mike's burp made mine sound like a baby's, but when Carl tried to out do Mike's, 
he accidentally burped out the other end as well which cracked everyone up.

"So are you a hopeless romantic?" Virginia asked after everyone scooted away 
from Carl a bit.

"From his point of view, definitely," I said before blowing across the lip of my 
bottle at different angles until I got a tone.

"My dad would kill me if he knew..." Mike commented.

"Knew what?" I asked.

The tension shot up a bit again, but Mike handled it coolly by saying, "That I 
wasn't a virgin.  He's a bit of preacher, you know?"

"My dad is no holy man, but he's not all bad either," I said.

"My dad couldn't care less if I was a virgin or not," Carl said.

"That's because your parents are weird," Virginia said with authority.

"They can afford to be weird," Jenny said.  "I wish my parents had money like 
yours."

"So what's stopping you from making it happen?" Carl asked after a long burp.

"Oh, like I could just go rob a bank and get away with it," Jenny huffed.

"When MY dad caught me making out with a boy when I was fifteen," Virginia 
interrupted.  "I was grounded for a month.  No phone, no TV, nothing but 
homework and books."

"Heh.  My dad took videos of my first sex."

"Uh uh.."

"Bull shit."

I looked Virginia in the eyes and said "And he and my mom ate popcorn while they 
watched it with her parents."

Everyone but Virginia stated their disbelief, for she had felt the truth of my 
statement in the brief empathic link.

"Nobody but sickos would take videos of their kids having sex," Mike insisted.  
"You're making it up."

"Just ask Suzi.  She'll tell ya."

"All right.  I'll ask her tomorrow at the meeting..."

"You could also ask Joey.  His parents watched it too."

"Man, all your parents are sickos..." Mike stated before draining his beer, 
burping, then noticing everyone else was looking uncomfortable.

"What's up with all you?"

"He knows, stupid," Jenny hissed.

"Knows what?"

"That you're all part of the Group," I stated.

"About fucking time," Mike laughed, throwing his arm over my shoulders roughly.  
"Now lets go get some real booze."

"I think I've had enough," I said, carefully removing his arm from my shoulder 
and standing up.  "In fact, I've had enough of this whole charade.  Thanks for 
the beer and the small talk.  Nice knowing you."

I took four steps away before realizing I needed to sober up a bit before I 
could navigate the crowd as it was.  But then it occurred to me I didn't have to 
restrain myself from using my abilities in front of them any more, and simply 
blanketed the room to make a three foot wide walk space from my position all the 
way to the door.

But just as I reached the main floor, Jon came through the door looking very 
bewildered by my walk path until he spotted me, then stood there with this 
stunned expression as I walked up to him, pulled the foot long three inch 
diameter tube from my coat and handed it to him saying, "Batteries are not 
included."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I awoke the next morning to a mild headache... and Joey sitting on the edge of 
my bed.

"Morning," he said.

"Morning," I echoed him, glancing at the clock to see it was 10:23.

"Things didn't go very well last night," he stated.

"Not exactly how I had hoped, no," I admitted.  "Why?  What's up?"

"All the newbies were acting kind of weird this morning at the Group meeting."

"What do you mean, weird?"

He shrugged and said, "They just weren't themselves.  Kind of down, I guess.  
They just didn't have the enthusiasm newbies usually have."

"Newbies?"

"Yeah.  Most of them only just passed the coin test in January.  And only about 
half of them have developed their voice."

"Really?  Why didn't you mention this to me before?" I complained.

"I thought you already knew," he said frowning.  "Why?  Does it make a 
difference?"

"Kind of," I said, sitting up and frowning myself.  "I think."

"So what happened?" Joey asked patiently.

After I told him, he asked, "So you're pissed at them because..."

"Because they set me up, Joey.  They found out about my rendezvous with the two 
girls I was meeting at the Rave that first night I went there alone.  I spent 
most of the day yesterday tracking down the real cause of the emergency that had 
kept the girls from showing up.  It wasn't just a coincidence that Karen bumped 
into me that night and asked me to join them at their table.  They planned the 
whole thing."

"Which one's Karen?" Joey queried.

My eyebrow shot up while I flashed him an mental image of her, then realized he 
probably didn't know all the voices by name, the newbies even more so.

"Not that it matters, but Karen's still a mute."

"You said you tested them with the coin?"

"Yeah.  That's how we've grown so large over the past couple of years.  Every 
semester we test all the new students during the first week or so.  Sarah used 
to borrow my coin to do it, but now I'm the official recruiter," he said with a 
short grin.

"So that's why they all know you and Suz," I concluded.

"I guess," he said, holding something back.

"And?"

Joey sighed, then said, "And that's probably why they went through all this 
trouble to get to you.  The first two weeks of this semester I had all my 
classes plus recruiting to do, so I didn't have any time to help you settle in 
and do the stuff with you like I wanted to.  They must have picked up on how 
worried I was about you feeling welcome here after the group attacked you and 
all...  I think they were just trying to help bridge the gap between you and the 
Group."

After about a minute or so of silence, Joey asked, "So what are you going to 
do?"

I fell back onto my back and groaned, "I don't know.  I can't help but feel they 
wronged me by tricking me like that...  But..."

"You're thinking about giving them a second chance," Joey concluded.

"I guess.  That's if they'll even see me to give me a second chance."

"I don't think that'll be too much of a problem.  Three of them are upstairs 
with Suz."

"Now who's setting me up!" I groaned before throwing a pillow in his face.

"Hey!" he said, returning fire with the same pillow.  "I'm just the love slave 
following orders.  Suz is the mastermind behind this setup.  But if it makes you 
feel any better, I don't think they know you live here."

Carl, Jenny, and Mike were sitting on Suzi's couch watching Suzi's copy of the 
tape my dad had made of our sex that faithful night so long ago.  I stood there 
watching them exchange bursts of telepathic messages to each other, realizing 
that these three were probably the only ones who had gained full conscious 
control over their newly discovered abilities.

One by one all three leaned forward in interest as the Suz-ball portion got 
underway.  When Jenny glanced at Suzi and asked, "Didn't that hurt?", she 
noticed me and then hesitated before saying, "Hi."

"You're missing the best part," I said, grinning when the two guys looked up in 
surprise, then motioned for them to go back to watching the video.

Their exchange of telepathic messages increased sharply for a minute, but then 
as the video approached the climax of the scene, they practically stopped until 
it was over, at which point Suzi hit the stop button and flipped off the TV.

"I guess you weren't making it up," Mike said apologetically.

"I didn't make any of it up," I said while sitting down on the arm of the couch.

"We didn't make anything up either," Jenny assured me.

"I know you didn't.  I would have sensed an outright lie."

"We were just trying to be your friend," Jenny added.

"Look, I think I understand why you guys did what you did, but I didn't last 
night because I didn't know the details.  I'm sorry I led YOU on when I could 
have just told you from the start.  But now I need to know what you want from 
me.  Besides a drinking buddy to share kinky stories with."

They looked at each other a few moments, then after several telepathic 
exchanges, Carl spoke for the first time since I had entered saying, "Before we 
actually met you, we thought you'd be a big show off and we could sort of learn 
some tricks off you."

"But you didn't do anything," Jenny continued.  "Or at least nothing I could 
detect the first night.  And when everybody liked you, I talked Mike into 
standing watch the second night so I could see what you were really like."

"Who stood watch last night?" I asked with suspicion.

"Mike was supposed to," Carl said accusingly.

"When Karen brought out the beer, I said, 'fuck this shit,'" Mike explained.  
"No way was I going to miss out on free beer a second time."

"Like you don't get drunk every night," Jenny remarked.

"Yeah, but that's different.  It's not as fun if you can't get caught."

"So you found I wasn't as big of a show off as some would lead you to believe," 
I said to put the conversation back on track while giving Joey a look.

Joey shrugged as Carl said, "Yeah, but then you did that...  thing with the 
crowd last night.  That was awesome."

"Yeah, that was too cool," Mike said brightly.  "Nobody noticed."

"Will you stop saying that?" Jenny groaned, then explained to us, "That's all he 
said last night after you left.  Nobody noticed.  Nobody noticed..."

"It was just a blanket command with a subconscious amendment," I said modestly 
before looking over at Joey and asking him, "Don't you guys teach them 
anything?"

"Telepathy 101 only covers getting control over their abilities.  We don't cover 
blanket commands until TE310."

"You don't seriously have class numbers for telepathy," I said with a cautious 
look on my face.

"They're not in the course listing, but yeah, we do," Joey said grinning.

"You're shitting me," I said with disbelief.

"No he isn't," Carl assured me.  "And TE101 is the stupidest class.  We don't do 
anything... interesting.."

"That's because you gained control over your voice the moment you realized 
them," Joey objected sternly  "But for someone like Christina who's still trying 
to get a grasp on them after nearly a year of trying, it can make all the 
difference."

"But why hold everyone back for the few who need it?" Jenny argued.

Suzi waved Joey silent before he could respond, then asked, "What did you do in 
TE101 Friday?"

"Practiced controlling our arms and legs," Jenny snorted.  "The same thing we 
always do."

"Yeah.  It's so lame," Mike asserted.  "I mean, what's the point of us doing it 
over and over when we already....  HEY!!!  What the fuck!"

His hands were feeling up his chest, obviously without his intending them to do 
so.  

I was snickering softly to myself before Suzi slapped him in the face a couple 
of times with his own hands and explained, "This was the hardest lesson I 
learned last semester, and I didn't learn it in a class, but during an attack.  
You can't protect yourself or anyone else if you can't control your own body 
over a stronger or more experienced voice.  

"So until you can control your limbs telepathically as easily as you can 
normally, you're not going to be shown anything else.  If we did, it would be 
like sending you out to do battle with a sword and a shield, but without clothes 
or armor."

"Nicely put," I thought to Suz before saying out loud, "On guard!"

"What?" she peeped, then as she started turning in place on her tiptoes with her 
arms up like a ballerina, he cried, "Timmy!  This isn't fair!  You're as 
familiar with my limbs as I am!"

"Which is my point," I said, making her do a little curtsy before terminating my 
control streams.  "Armor doesn't do you much good if you don't have the shield 
and sword to compliment it."

"So much for not showing off," Jenny snickered.

"But I do agree with you Suz," I assured her as her eyes tried to throw 
lightening bolts at me to strike me dead.  "Learning control over your own body 
is probably the best first step."

"Which is why he could do that to Suzi so easily" Joey explained to defend 
Suzi's honor.  "Tim got a lot of practice in controlling our limbs as much as 
his own when he was starting out."

"And you know, if I had known the cause like I do now, I would have stopped when 
my head started hurting during those three ways."

"You really don't know for sure what caused it," Joey reminded me.

"Whoosh...." Jenny said, whooshing her hand over her head in emphasis.

"Sorry...  Old discussion," I said.  "What was the point of this conversation 
again?"

"I don't know, but I sure could use a beer," Mike announced.

"Poor baby," Jenny cooed mockingly.

"You wanted to know what we wanted with you," Carl said.  "But in honesty, I 
guess it's up to you to decide what you're willing to do with us."

"If nothing else we can just meet for drinks on Saturday nights like we've been 
doing," Jenny offered.

"But you GOT to teach me that path thing," Mike insisted.

"The drinks we definitely can do.  The blanket command... we'll see.  Uhm... So 
are you three the only ones who can use your voice?"

We spent a good hour talking before I ran down to my apartment for a quick 
shower, then dashed off to meet Shelly for our first official study session at 
the library.

To my disappointment, she didn't show.

Shelly came in late to class on Monday, and after one look at her I knew 
immediately something was wrong, but I resisted probing her to learn what it was 
so I could try and consol her after class with a more natural perspective.  
Granted, my empathic senses didn't really allow for that too much, but over time 
I had learned it was better to go through the process of asking questions and 
reacting to their answers naturally than popping into their heads and getting it 
all at once without their knowledge.

"I take it you forgot our study session yesterday?" I asked her after class as 
she got her things together to leave.

"I guess I did.  Sorry," she said, her spirit almost not existent.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you look like hell," I said sympathetically.

"You would too if you had slept in a car the last two nights," she blurted out.

"In a car?  It was below freezing last night!  Why the.."

"Please, just forget it.  I don't want to talk about it," she sputtered out as 
she walked away in a hurry.

I grabbed my bag and hurried out after her, catching up to her just as she left 
the building.

"You don't have class now do you?" I asked.

"No."

"So do you want to go to the library?" I offered.

"No! I want to be alone, okay?"

"Okay, okay..." I said, putting four or five feet between us, but continued to 
walk parallel to her.

"Look, will you please just go away?"

I shrugged and said, "I'm just going in the same direction as you are."

"Oh," she said.  "Then where are you going?"

"Where are you going?" I countered.

"I asked you first."

"Well, then it depends."

"Depends on what?"

"Depends on where you're going."

"Look, I don't KNOW where I'm going!  Just go away!"

"Okay.  As long as you know where you're going," I said, turning and walking 
away, leaving her understandably baffled.

Fifteen minutes later, Shelly walked into the dorm's cafeteria and got in line 
for food.  When she came out I directed her attention towards me, then all I had 
to do was push the other chair at my table out with my foot for her to give up 
and come over.

"How did you know I was coming here?"

"I told you I was going the same direction as you were," I said, avoiding 
answering the question directly.

"What do you want?" she sighed.

"To listen."

"Listen?"

"To why you're sleeping in a car instead of your dorm room."

"Maybe I like it.  What business is it of yours where I sleep?!" she demanded.

Switching gears, I simply commanded, "Sit."

After her ass came to rest on the seat, I looked into her surprised face and 
said, "Either tell me you're going to go sleep in your dorm bed tonight, and 
mean it, or tell me why you can't.  It's your choice."

"I...  I'll sleep in my dorm bed tonight," she stuttered out, her cheeks drained 
of color.

"Good.  Now relax and eat.  I only have an hour to study with you."

As I had said before, that logic class was my favorite that semester.  Not only 
because it came easy to me, but it gave me new insight into how the mind 
perceived decision paths and how it made assumptions on imprecise statements.

Okay, so in English that means I saw a new way to telepathically manipulate a 
person into seeing only two or more possible choices of my design without 
affecting their ability to choose between them.  The "assumptions on imprecise 
statements" thing just gave me a better understanding of how politicians could 
basically do the same thing without the use of telepathy.  Needlessly to say my 
way worked better.

After going over her test with her, I managed to get her to commit to working 
after class the next week or two to get her caught up.  I left her sitting at 
the table reworking part of her test without really knowing what her exact 
problem had been, but it was easy enough to guess it had had to do with her 
attraction towards her roommate.

I got to Suzi's just as her phone rang, and through Suzi, Eric and I had a 
pretty good conversation.

This might sound weird, but it was good to hear he was taking interest in guys 
again.  And I was following his interests with similar interest of my own.  In 
the past that kind of conversation would have made my eyes gloss over in 
boredom.  I made a very loud "AAACK!" noise when I suddenly realized I grasped 
the sexiness of the male butt that she and Eric had described to me so many 
times without my really understanding it.  I had always known what a bubble butt 
looked like, but suddenly I knew what made one more sexually inviting over 
another.  It's a...  Well you know...  The more..  Uhm..  Shit.  I guess you 
just have to like bubble butts to understand them.

Tuesday on my lunch break I went in and saw Perry about scheduling time for 
myself.  To my surprise he immediately grunted his consent, so I then carefully 
mentioned I wanted to also observe a few others as they worked without competing 
against them if I could.  

The man acted very passive.  Not polite or pleasant, just...  passive.  I think 
he said a total of ten words, and that included the grunt hello and the grunt 
goodbye.  

Wait.  Come to think of it, I think all he did was grunt.  

No.. He did say, "Damn right," to my suggestion I wouldn't compete against those 
I watched, so he hadn't been just humoring me without listening to what I was 
saying.  At least I think.

Anyway, in his shabby office he flipped a freestanding chalkboard to the other 
side revealing two sets of calendar month blocks painted onto the board.  On the 
one filled in as the current month of March, he indicated I could choose either 
of the two days that week where only two people's names were signed.  The rest 
of the days already had three.

I signed my name to both which, when he noticed I had done so, he hit me in the 
nose a couple of times with the eraser and indicated I had to erase one.  I 
swiped one off and ran out of the office to violently sneeze two or three times, 
then managed to tell him thanks for his time and I would see him Thursday.  You 
already know what his reply was. 

Shelly seemed better Wednesday, and as we worked on the latest assignment 
together after class, she opened up a little about herself; things like she came 
from Ohio and loved coffee ice cream with chocolate syrup.  Nothing of what I 
was really interested in came out, but then I didn't expect her to ever admit 
anything to me.  Unfortunately, because she was royally sucking in the class, 
she was making the conscious effort to pay attention better, thus my supply of 
fresh lesbian daydreams seemed to have cut itself off.

Skipping classes for telepathic excursions obviously was not new to me, and 
since I had been keeping a pretty good track record that semester, I didn't feel 
the least bit guilty about skipping classes all day that Thursday.

I showed up at the admin building at nine o'clock sharp, just as the schedule 
had said, but ended up waiting over an hour before my two competitors finally 
wandered in.

"Oh great," the dark haired slightly over weight guy said when he saw me.  
"Don't tell me you're here to play."

Taken aback, I only peeped out a "I guess I am."

"Look at it this way, Frankie," the shorter, skinnier pug nosed sandy brown 
haired guy said.  "We'll be the first to see how good he really is."

Sensing they were trying to intimidate me to favor their odds, I smiled brightly 
and asked, "Have you ever seen a pig fuck a cow?"

When they opened their mouths to respond, all they heard come out of their 
mouths was oinks out of Don, the pug nosed guy, and moos out of Frankie.

"Is that the best you can do?" Don said as he blocked my streams. "Anyone can do 
chicken shit tricks like that."

"You're right.  I'm sorry," I said, slightly grinning.  "Do one of you want to 
go first?"

"Seeing that you're still pretty new to all this, I'll go first," Frankie 
announced.

"There's not much to choose from," I commented as the one woman and three men 
lined up before us.

"These aren't the only choices," Frankie simply stated as more started filing in 
from the other section of the building.

There were seventeen people in all, three of them were only like fifteen years 
old too.  I knew the moment Frankie sent the three girls back to the other room 
without even considering them that I didn't like him, Don, or the stupid game 
that prioritized ease of cleaning over all else.

Despite this, I have to give credit where credit is due.  Frankie was good.  In 
fact I would have to say his cleaning was the most efficient and thorough I had 
ever seen a non-empathic telepath accomplish.  

This isn't to say I wanted to copy his methods though.  Far from it.  He was 
horribly brutal to the subjects mind, causing all sorts of intense emotions, 
many times conflicting, all geared towards illuminating what mental patterns 
were natural and what weren't.

Despite the seemingly cruelty, the end result was a fully command-free mind in 
only thirty-five minutes.  I knew it would have taken me twice as long doing it 
my own way, but Dan had only cried a little during his cleaning and his 
condition had been several orders of magnitude worse.  After both Don and I 
verified she was clean, the zombified woman that was lead away by a grad student 
and another woman who I assumed was a nurse of some kind.

Don insisted I go next, but when he saw I was focusing my attention on the three 
girls, he warned me, "You'll probably want to ask to do a light probe on those 
three if you're serious about trying them."

"Isn't that against the rules?"

"Let him learn the hard way, Don," Frankie said while lazily stretching out on 
the couch.

"And have Perry say we let him choose a ressy candidate without warning him?  
He'd scalp both of us."

Frankie sighed like he was about to give away one of his best tricks and said, 
"I allow Tim to perform one light scan on each of the three ressy candidates.  
Happy?"

"I allow Tim to perform one light scan on each of the three ressy candidates," 
Don repeated, then added, "Yes."

"So what was that all about?" I asked.

"Just say out loud I will now scan each of the three ressy candidates and do 
it," Don said patiently, then thought to me, "The walls have ears, and Perry 
loves formality."

"I will now scan each of the three ressy candidates," I said out loud, then 
began a light scan on the first girl.

After I scanned all three, I sat down on the chair I had placed in front of them 
with a deflated sigh.

"They're pretty messed up," I admitted.

"Too messed up to clean them and have anything left afterwards worth the 
trouble," Don confirmed.

"I guess.  Sorry girls."

So I ended up picking one of the adult males who I remembered from last time and 
cleaned his mind in just under four hours.

Don and Frankie spent another hour verifying he was clean, and it really upset 
me that Frankie put him through the same hell he had the first one after I had 
been so careful to keep the discomfort to a minimum.

I came to accept Don as a pretty decent guy, so when they announced I had gotten 
everything and called down for the someone to pick up another one, Don's 
comment, "That was pretty good.  You might have some new competition, Frankie," 
was high praise to me.

Don wasn't bad himself, but nowhere near as efficient as Frankie, or myself for 
that matter.  He finished the butch looking woman in under three hours, but I 
found a couple of things he missed, and to my astonishment, Frankie found 
another after I claimed she was clean.

All in all, I felt pretty good that night about the whole experience.  I had 
learned from Joey that Frankie was the all around champion of the game, and 
nobody but Don ever tried to go nose to nose with him since he never lost and 
loved to rub it in.

I really started to despise the game itself though.  Several times during the 
evening I had pondered on how to reduce my time in order to meet and exceed 
Frankie's speed.  I was pretty positive that in order to do so I would have to 
resort to his methods, and that I absolutely would not do.

After classes on Friday, Suzi and I went over to Joey's to go out with his 
family for Margaret's birthday.  Joey didn't mention that Sarah would be there, 
so I was greeted by Sarah's dirty look when I opened the front door and walked 
in without knocking (as per Margaret's standing orders).

"Hey," Joey greeted us next, purposely walking right into the entryway's wall 
with Tommy hanging off his back.  "Tommy, watch where you're steering," he 
joked, producing another giggle from the eight-nearly-nine year old.

Joey bounced from wall to wall as he led us to the family room where Tommy 
suddenly jumped down from Joey's back and rolled head over heels over to a baby 
laying on a blanket in the middle of the floor.

"Peek-a-boo!" Tommy sang as he unrolled himself with his face just a foot above 
the infant's head.

As the baby grinned and chortled it's pleasure to Tommy's surprise visit, Neil 
came into the room only wearing jeans, his hair and hairless chest still wet 
from a shower.

"How did it go, Neil?" Suzi queried him.  "Did you beat her?"

"Only barely," Neil said, noticing my eyes on him, then avoided them when I 
looked up at his eyes.

"Beat who?" I asked, temporarily forgetting the other pressing question 
concerning the infant on the floor.

"McDonaldson," Joey answered for him.  "She challenged Neil to a duel this 
morning."

"Why?" I asked blankly.

"Because she's a sl..  a...  you know," Suzi said as Tommy gave the baby a 
raspberry on its tummy.

"Ahh," I said.  "And if she had won, you..."

"Mom!" Tommy interrupted.  "Kathy's stinky!"

"Would have been sleeping at her place this weekend," Joey snickered.

"Well then change her, Tommy!" Sarah's reply came.  "I'm helping your Grandma."

"Yeah, helping her talk," Tommy said under his breath, then looked up at us and 
said, "Anybody else want to do it?"

"What's the matter, Tommy?  I thought you liked changing her diapers," Joey 
needled him.

"That's only when she doesn't shit in them," he complained, standing up and 
bending over to pick up the drooling child.

"Then I'll help you, Tommy," Suzi offered.  "Joey's been telling me how good you 
are at it."

"That's because Kathy likes me to do it," he said smartly, leading Suzi towards 
the back hall carrying the baby almost over his shoulder he had her so high.

"Because you entertain her so much," Joey remarked.

As soon as Tommy was out of sight, I punched Joey in the arm and complained, 
"Why didn't you tell me?!?"

"About what?" Joey said honestly.

"About the baby," I said in a very hushed voice.

"What?" Joey said, astonished, as Neil snickered and headed down the back hall 
as well.  "Shit, Tim.  How could not have heard about her?  Didn't your mom or 
dad tell you about the dinner they had over here?"

"No," I said, baffled.  "They knew?"

"Shit, Tim, they knew even before my mom and dad knew."

"Wait a minute," I said, sensing there was more to this.  "Let's start over 
here.  First, who's the rug rat?"

"Duh...  Kathy.  My niece."

"That's what I thought," I confirmed.  "So how did my mom and dad know before 
your mom and dad?"

Joey sighed, then motioned we go to his room to talk privately.

Neil was sitting on Joey's bed putting on his second sock when we walked in, his 
eyes staying firmly focused on his foot instead of looking up like his instincts 
would have liked.

Joey explained the mess Sarah had gotten herself into in an attempt to save her 
failing marriage.  I was truly shocked that Sarah had actually insisted on Wally 
altering her to feel the things she felt for Stan from back when she had been 
his slave.  I always felt that Sarah was too uptight to ever allow someone else 
to mettle with her perception, especially like that.

Kathy had been born the first week of December, a month earlier than Sarah had 
originally predicted when she had told her family of her pregnancy.  While Kathy 
wasn't born premature, there had been a few complications during her birth and 
had spent the first week of her life in intensive care.

An hour later at the restaurant, Joey mentioned out of the blue how I hadn't 
known about Sarah having Kathy until I saw Kathy that day and "had to ask who 
the rug rat was."

Margaret immediately questioned me, "Didn't you get the pictures I sent you?  I 
sent you almost a whole roll of just Kathy."

"I... Yeah, I uhh.. I got'em..." I stuttered out.

"Didn't you think it was odd she sent you so many pictures of a baby if it 
wasn't important?" Sarah drilled me.

"But I didn't know!" I tried to explain.  "My mom wasn't there, I didn't think 
about asking my dad, and I tried calling you, but nobody was home...  And then I 
got into my painting, I guess I forgot about it after that.  Nobody ever, ever," 
I said while giving Joey and Suzi blaming glances, "mentioned anything about...  
a baby."

As Joey started trying to make it my parent's fault for never saying anything to 
me, the thought of where I would have put a baby in the paintings, followed by 
the concern they would want me to add it now made me realize ...

"Say...  Where are you keeping my Christmas present anyway?  I haven't seen it 
since I wrapped it up!"

When Joey exchanged anxious glances with his parents, I started getting anxious 
myself.

"What's the matter?  You didn't lose..."

"It's down in the basement," Joey's dad said uncomfortably.

"It sort of got messed up," Joey added.

"Messed up?  How?" I said rather alarmed.

"It's my fault," Margaret explained.  "I told them to put it in the garage until 
Christmas Eve because it was so big.  We didn't know paint would crack from 
being in the cold."

"The paint cracked?" I moaned.  "On how many?"

"How many?" she asked.

"How many of the canvases did the paint crack on?" I clarified.

They all looked at each other in confusion making me realize their mistake.

"Joey!" I laughed.  "You dork!  I told you you would have to use a crowbar to 
pry off the stuff I shipped it in!"

"What?  What do you mean?"

I rolled my eyes happily and said, "What you guys thought was my painting was 
just my first attempt that I used to make the shipping case.  I tried cleaning 
the canvas off with turpentine, but it wasn't coming off easily, so I just used 
it, another messed up canvas, and some damaged frames to build this super duper 
shipping case to hold all five inside it."

"Five?" Joey exclaimed as Margaret sighed with relief and Tom laughed.

"I told you you would have to tear it apart.  Didn't you think it was kind of... 
thick for painting?"

"Well, yeah...  But..."

"And you thought I was getting old for thinking it was too heavy," Tom accused 
Joey lightheartedly.

"Am I still in it?" Tommy interjected.

"I don't know, Tommy," I said, grinning like a fox.  "You're just going to have 
to wait until we get back to see."

"You have to be in it, Tommy," Joey analyzed.  "Because we talked about it on 
the phone Christmas night, and I made a big deal about you being the center of 
the scene."

"Cool!" Tommy chirped, then sniffed a few times and moaned, "Mom..."

"Tommy, you must have dirty diaper Radar," Neil remarked as Sarah confirmed 
Kathy had soiled her diaper again.

"You would too if you were down here at my height," Tommy complained, holding 
his nose as his mother got up to take Kathy to the ladies room for another 
diaper changing.

Tommy was no longer the quiet bashful boy I had first met three years previous.  
If anything, he was just the opposite.  He wasn't obnoxious or anything, but he 
was constantly clowning around.  Five or six times his mom or Margaret had to 
tell him to settle down during dinner, but that naturally only lasted a few 
minutes before wearing off.

After all the times Joey's mom had washed his mouth out with soap as a kid 
before giving up on breaking him of his inherited use of cuss words, I was 
really surprised at how tolerant Margaret was of Tommy's frequent use of 'shit'.  
I never heard a single 'fuck' from him at the table, but Tommy didn't have any 
reservation of using 'shit' and I sensed he purposely used it as much as he 
could to make him feel more grown up.

Sarah objected when Tommy wanted to ride back in Joey's car with Suzi, Neil, and 
I, but when Joey gave her a look, she sighed before warning Tommy, "If you give 
them any shit, you'll have diaper duty the rest of the week."

"Shit!" Tommy cried, then after a moment of indecision he ran up to her and gave 
her a big kiss on the cheek before scurrying off after us.

"You sure know how to play your cards," I remarked to Tommy after he climbed in 
the back with Neil and I and shut the door.  "I bet your mom is still smiling."

"My friend Josh says if you give them a reward whenever you get your way, 
they'll let you get away with more."

"Your friend is pretty smart," Suzi chuckled.

"Josh is going to be a spy when he grows up.  He says you have to know how to 
man... man-upe.."

"Manipulate?" I offered.

"Yeah.  You have to know how to Manip-e-ulate people just to get into spy 
school."

"How old is Josh again?" Joey demanded while Neil and I laughed.

"He's nine," Tommy stated with indifference, but secretly loving the attention 
he was getting.

"Shit.  I don't remember being that conniving at nine," Joey remarked.

"How old were we when we conned your dad into taking us to see that rated R 
movie?"

"Rated R?" Tommy queried.

"Oh, we were a _lot_ older than nine," Joey said cautiously.

"How old?" Tommy begged.

"Older than you," I confirmed.  "We were definitely in the double digits by 
then."

"Oh..." Tommy said with disappointment, then suddenly exclaimed, "Double digits!  
I'm only..."

Tommy silently counted the months left before his next birthday, then asked, "In 
one year and three months, can I go see a rated R movie with you Uncle Joey?  
I'll be in my double digits..."

"No...  Your mom would kill me if I did that," Joey said firmly.

"But what if she said it was okay?"

"Look, Tommy," I said, feeling guilty for having started the whole idea, "Do you 
know why movies are rated R?"

"Yeah, because they put stupid naked ladies in them and, and, say things like 
shit and God damn.  But I don't want to see naked people, and I won't hear 
anything I don't hear at school, so..."

"The movie Joey and I saw...  What was the name of it Joey?  I can't remember."

"Uhm...  I don't know..."

"I can't think of it either... Anyway, we wanted to see it because it was about 
this military academy for boys that for some reason people wanted to shut down.  
Only the boys didn't want them to shut it down, so they barricaded themselves in 
and shot at anyone who went near the place."

"Cool," Tommy said, his eyes full of interest.

"The National Guard surrounded the place, and the kids moms and dads tried to 
talk the boys into giving up and coming out and stuff.  Then someone 
accidentally dropped a loaded gun that went off, or something like that, and 
everybody started shooting back at each other in defense."

"Awesome!  So the kids killed everybody?"

"Shit, Tommy!" Joey exclaimed.  "No!  One of the boys that was our age got shot 
and died.  It was awful.  I got so sick to my stomach we had to leave before the 
end of the movie, and then I threw up in the car."

"And I had nightmares about it for weeks," I added.

"So then don't take me to see any stupid movies like that," Tommy argued.

"You missed the point, Tommy," Suzi said.  "They rate the movies R to warn kids 
that the movie has stuff in it they really won't want to see."

"Bull shit!" Tommy spat.

The car suddenly veered onto the shoulder as Joey slammed on the brakes, then 
just as we were all coming to our senses to ask what was wrong, Joey turned 
around and angrily said to Tommy, "Don't you EVER fucking talk that way to Suzi 
again, you filthy mouthed piece of shit.  I'm not taking you to see a rated G, 
PG, PG-13, or R movie ever if you don't say you're sorry right now and mean it!"

"I'm sorry," he whimpered with wide innocent eyes.  "I'm sorry Suzi."

"Okay, Joey," Suzi said gently while he continued to brow beat the withering 
boy.  "Let's get moving or the others are going to wonder where we are."

"Yes ma'am," Joey said automatically as he gave Tommy one last warning glance 
and turned around to drive.

It was quiet for the remaining four or five minutes of the trip back, Joey's 
guilt from overreacting and Tommy's broken spirits making me feel even more 
uncomfortable than the others felt.  I had been the one to mention the movie, 
after all.

I knew Joey was just fooling to still be mad when he ordered Tommy to remain in 
the car after pulling into the driveway, but Tommy didn't and was scheming how 
he could soften up his uncle to reduce the impending punishment.

If Joey had known that, he probably wouldn't have gotten down and offered the 
boy a piggy back ride inside, but like everyone else he assumed the kid didn't 
think like that even after Tommy having admitted he played his mom for a dope.

Margaret and Tom were both already in the basement by the time we got inside and 
removed our coats.  Tommy raced ahead of Neil and Suzi as they headed to join 
them while Joey and I stepped out into the garage and picked out the tools to 
pry open my Trojan painting.

"Shit, I see what you meant," I exclaimed when I saw the cracked and flaking 
paint on the exterior.  "It wasn't like that when I wrapped it up in brown 
paper."

"I hope the ones inside are okay," Margaret said for the third time.

"This was probably caused by the turpentine drying out," I said after taking a 
closer look.  "I kept brushing it on until I saw the paint was just getting 
mushy and gave up."

"Well, you packed the thing," Joey said, handing me the wedge and hammer.

"I'll help, but I'm not going to do it alone," I insisted.

"I'll help!" Tommy said, popping up between us and holding out his hand for a 
tool.

"Tommy, why don't you go run up and get your mom," Margaret said firmly.

"Awe..  Please ma-ma?"

"Go on.."

Tommy's huff was shortly followed by his slow stomping feet on the wooden stairs 
which only made Margaret hiss at him, "Tommy!  The baby is asleep!"

Tommy tiptoed the rest of the way up.

Neil, Joey, Tom, and I were all working to pry off the center frame holding the 
two halves together when Tommy tiptoed all the way back down the stairs and up 
to his grandma to whisper, "Mom said she'll see it when it gets hung."

"That girl!" Margaret huffed before marching herself upstairs, giving Tommy a 
turn to hiss, "Grandma, the baby is sleeping!" from her not so quiet footsteps.

Once we had the four sides of the center frame off, we all waited for Margaret 
to come back down before going any further.  Tommy peeked under the top half a 
few times, but naturally didn't see anything since I had individually wrapped 
each painting as well.

The moment Margaret stepped on the top step of the basement, Tommy rushed up and 
lifted the top section off and tossed it aside, then got yelled at by Joey for 
doing so.

"Is Tommy making trouble?" Sarah asked threateningly.

"No," Tommy said before anyone else could.

"Tim, I think you over did wrapping this present," Margaret remarked as she 
joined us all standing around it.

"It's just that my favorite part of getting a present is unwrapping it," I 
offered as I knelt down, picked up the top most painting, and handed it to her.

As she used her fingers to break the tape holding the brown paper in place, I 
handed one to Joey, one to Tom, got a surprisingly pleasant thank you from Sarah 
when I handed her the fourth, then called Tommy over to the larger center piece 
and said, "If you're really careful, you can open this one, okay?"

"Cool!" he said, falling to his knees and slipping his fingers between the taped 
edges of the brown paper.

At that point I just sat back and watched as they all removed all three separate 
layers of brown paper wrapping, Tom beating everyone else by revealing the 
canvas with Margaret and himself sitting in front of the fire place.

Margaret was very touched by that one and the scene of the wild animals looking 
in the window which she opened, and Sarah was speechless for a few moments after 
getting hers open and seeing I had included Gina and Denise in the family 
portrait.  And she even humorously complimented me on how good of a job I had 
done on Gina's pose.

Suzi was fussing at me over Joey's, mainly grilling me over who's lipstick was 
on the cheek of his image standing there blushing with arms crossed, when Tommy 
flipped the center pane up out of the last layer of paper and made a big "WoW!!"

I got out of the way as the Conners gathered around, getting a hug from behind 
by Suzi as they started arranging the pictures around the center piece until 
they got it right.

"Can I hang mine in my room?" Tommy exclaimed.

"No, silly..  They go together," Sarah said gently.

"Then can we hang them all in my room?"

"They're not ours, honey.  They're Grandma's, Grandpa's, and Uncle Joey's."

"But we're in the center one," Tommy insisted before looking at me and pointing 
out, "And I'm in the center of it.  And Dad, Aunt Gina and Aunt Denise are in it 
too."

"The label I put on the Christmas paper said to the Conners and Harrisons," I 
reminded them.  "I'd prefer it if they were kept together, but I guess it's 
really up to you all to decide what to do with them."

"Then they'll stay here, together," Sarah said firmly.

"But, mom..." Tommy whined before whispering to her, "Then Dad and Aunt Denise 
won't ever see them."

Despite having attempted to conceal what he had said from everyone else, 
Margaret had either heard it or guessed what he had said, for I felt her lose 
her high spirits and became occupied by her understandably bitter feelings 
towards her son-in-law.

After dropping off Neil at his apartment building where he expected to have an 
extra bed attendant waiting for him, Suzi let out a contented sigh and said, 
"I'm so glad you moved out here."

"Me too," I said honestly.

As I parked my car in front of our building, Suzi became disturbed over 
something, and knowing her like I do I guessed it had to do with the lipstick I 
painted on Joey's cheek.

"Timmy," she said snapping me out of my staring at her for several long moments.  
"When you were painting Joey's..."

"I'll tell you a little secret," I said with a smile.  "Originally that wasn't 
lipstick on Joey's cheek."

"It wasn't?  Then what was it?"

I gave her a kiss on the cheek approximately in the same location as in the 
painting, then said softly "Your lips, silly.  You're actually standing there 
kissing him on the cheek, only I painted over it to hide you since you're not 
officially part of the family... Yet."

She smiled and gave me a peck on the nose before those damn commands in her head 
kicked in and made her open the door and get out.

I followed her up and like practically every evening since I had moved there we 
spent the rest of the evening watching TV and talking before I went back to my 
apartment for my nightly routine.

That night I dreamed I was a cloud floating around campus peeking in the windows 
of the buildings to see what was up.  Sometimes I would float inside to watch 
and listen to the people's activities, entering into a couple of dreams after 
accidentally being sucked into one.

By chance I drifted into the room of this one guy I had noticed in my morning 
classes that had a really cute face and butt.  His name was Darwin Evert, and 
after drifting through Craig, his roommate, and finding his mind deeply asleep, 
I asserted my will within Craig's body and sat it up.

I had control, yet sensations seemed very distant, and I had difficulty keeping 
my inhabited body on its feet as I crossed the room to view my object of 
interest.  In the dim grey light, Darwin looked incredibly cute and sexy, his 
slightly parted lips inviting my own in an intoxicating way.

My borrowed body's sensations began perking up as I uncovered the young man's 
shirtless chest and kneeled sloppily to sample his musk, somehow managing to 
avoid touching him from nearly falling over forward when my balance gave.

I found myself straddling his limp arm between my legs, my groin becoming rather 
swollen by the nearness of his hand's touch.  I gently reached down to his still 
covered package beneath the sheets, then carefully felt it out, measuring the 
size of his testicles and the limp noodle attached.

Stirring in his sleep, the hand between my legs raised itself up and slapped me 
in my ass.  Slightly shaken, I stepped back and watched as his arm folded itself 
successfully, then waited several minutes before approaching his silvery face 
and those inviting lips.

His breath still held the minty odor of his toothpaste, and after inhaling 
several of his breaths and savoring its flavor, I resisted my urges no more and 
inserted my tongue into his mouth for a brief but very tasty sample of his 
mouth's inner juices.

I was up bright and early the next morning to begin my observations of how 
different cleaning methods affect the recovery of a person's mental normality.

I got to the old admin building around eight intending to scan the people 
waiting to be cleaned thoroughly, knowing ahead of time I would be invalidating 
any possible chances to clean them in competition for having advance knowledge 
of their conditions before hand.

I was just walking down the hall heading for the stairs when one of the doors 
opened just behind me and I heard this "SHHING!" sound.

I turned just in time to see Perry's cane bounce off the wall a mere foot behind 
me, then just as I started to react to his swift advance, I found myself falling 
from my left foot being hooked by the cane's L handle.

In seconds I was face flat on the floor with my hands hog-tied behind me and 
Perry swiftly immobilizing my feet with my own shoelaces.

"PERRY!  It's only me, for GOD'S SAKE!"

"Learn one thing, grunt!" he snapped at me after finishing with my shoelaces.  
"Friend or Foe, I will lunge first, immobilize second, and then kill if I 
suspect foul play.  Now just be quiet and contemplate your mistake of surprising 
me while I clean up the damn mess you made me make with my coffee!"

He left me laying there completely helpless for what seemed like forever, and 
after I got tired of waiting for him to let me loose, I just closed my eyes and 
began doing what I had gone there to do in the first place.

Seven complete scans later, I was interrupted by Perry's foot slowly stepping on 
my face.

"What are you doing, grunt?" he asked suspiciously.

"Scanning," I said as best I could, hampered by the foot warping my face's 
curvature.

"Scanning what?" he said sharply.

"Scanning slaves," I said, finding the pressure becoming more than 
uncomfortable.

"Why?"

His foot had made it impossible to respond, but since I wasn't completely inert, 
I simply jerked my body to pull my face away from his shoe and then cried, 
"ARGH" as he managed to pin my lip to the floor.

"Why?" he coolly repeated.

"To study the after affects of cleaning them!" I cried.  When he didn't seem 
satisfied with that, I added, "I want to lean how to clean people that helps 
them recover faster!"

"Such a noble cause for a pathetic excuse for a grunt.  Why don't you just leave 
these poor people alone and find some whore to play with.  I don't need some 
punk kid trying to alter my program here."

I freed my lip and spat, "Are you afraid that some punk kid might figure out a 
better way to help these people?" 

Three very hard taps of his cane on the back of my skull later, Perry calmly 
said, "That's what you get for trying to coerce me with my pride.  The only one 
who should be afraid here is you, grunt."

Gambling that as long as I was physically immobilized, Perry wouldn't actually 
do anything to me but bully me, I decided my best option was to explain myself 
to him and hope he truly was more interested in helping those people under his 
protection than intimidating me into submission.  So I began rattling off 
everything I could think of that might have bearing.

"This is a college, damnit.  I am here to learn.  My strongest ambition in life 
right now is to learn how I can reverse the damage other voices have done to 
people with the minimum side effects and producing the quickest and most 
painless recovery possible.  

"My voice is stronger than anyone's I know, but I rarely use it except in self-
defense.  

"I am empathic, and through eye contact I can feel out the distortions in a 
person's mind without the use of telepathy.  

"I am not apart of the group, and I have no intention of ever being.

"I have sworn an oath of celibacy until I marry the girl I proposed to last 
year.  I have not broken that vow since making it."  That hadn't been exactly 
true, but he didn't need to know the details, and probably didn't care.

"I don't intend to do anything but observe until I have solid evidence to 
support my findings.  Then and only then will I try anything different than what 
I have done in the past in my cleanings.

"Not only do I have voice, but I can see the thought streams of a person's mind 
without actively probing for them.  A person I once knew had this same 
telepathic vision and understood it in ways I am only starting to understand.  
She could clean a person's mind simply by smoothing out irregular streams.  I 
think this could...."

"This person was a woman?" Perry demanded suddenly.

"A young woman.  She is... sixteen now," I said, a lump forming in my throat at 
the very thought of having missed her sweet sixteen birthday.

"How many others do you know that have the sight?" he asked without emotion.

"Only myself, Je... the girl, and an adult woman named Lee Vo who was part of 
the Group for a couple of months before taking herself and her family into 
hiding."

The only sound for several minutes was the movement of slaves on the floor above 
us, the gentle ticking of a clock somewhere, and Perry's rather unique sounding 
breaths.

Then suddenly I heard the "SHLING" sound again, and I involuntarily shivered as 
one of the three blades of his cane scraped down my nose, then stopped at my 
upper lip as he said, "My word is not to be questioned.  If I say jump, you 
jump, with no questions asked, before or after.  If I say cut your thumb off and 
suck on it, you do it, or I'll do it for you.  If I ever catch you in a lie, 
attempting to use any of your hocus pocus on me, or purposely exposing me to 
danger, no matter how little, I will personally choke you with your own 
intestines.  Do we have an understanding?"

"And what do I get in exchange for blindly following your orders?  Your trust?" 
I asked, my parents' business sense demanding me to clarify both sides of the 
contract.

"I trust no one.  You will only gain my.... Cooperation."

"That's it?"

"I will also let you live," he growled impatiently as he purposely nicked me on 
the chin with his damn cane's blades.

"Ow! Damnit.  Look, if you agree to do the same for me, I'll..."

"I don't follow anyone's orders, especially a hog-tied grunt's!"

"Okay!  Then just the part about no lying, tricking me, or putting me into 
danger.  My word won't mean didily-squat to you if you can't trust me, and that 
won't happen if I can't trust you."

He grunted, then in a blink of an eye his cane raised up and slashed down.

Instead of letting some air into my spine, I found my slightly numb hands free 
as their bindings fell away.

"I take it we have an agreement?" I asked in surprise.

"If we didn't you would be bleeding in more than just one place right now," he 
said without emotion as he walked down the hall and went into his office.

I hurriedly untied and retied my shoestrings, then stood at the door of his 
office waiting for him to direct me somehow.

"What do you want now?" he finally barked.

"Uhm...  I guess I thought you were going to help me or something."

"Look, grunt...  I don't have anything to teach you.  You wanted to observe, go 
observe.  When you think you've figured out something, you better the hell be 
sure you're right before trying it or there will be hell to pay.  In any case I 
don't want to hear about your ideas, conclusions, or how you cleaned all the 
ressies in one day.  The only thing I want to hear from you is yes sir, and no 
sir.  Clear grunt?"

"Yes sir," I said, making no attempt to hide my anger.

"Good.  NOW we have an understanding.  Close the door as you leave."

I was rather discouraged after my ordeal with Perry and almost left.  But I 
stayed and watched some Saturday morning cartoons with the gang upstairs, and by 
the time the group members scheduled to play the game that day arrived, I was 
feeling more confident about my overall plan.

Isabella Smith, Jan Riveo, and Steve Kroch were not immediately open to the idea 
of having someone observe them as they played.  Understandably, they saw my 
explanation as just as an excuse to learn their tricks.  So I pointed out I 
eventually would probably compete against them and see their 'tricks' anyway, 
and I let it slip that I had already seen Frankie's tricks and wasn't about to 
use his cruel methods despite their efficiency.

For once, my legend worked in my favor.  They didn't seem to doubt I had already 
competed against Frankie and had faired well.  But what convinced them was their 
idea that by helping, they could finally see someone beat Frankie and put him in 
his place.  This of course wasn't my intended goal, but as I would find out 
later, most of the other voices that allowed me to observe them shared this line 
of reasoning.

To my disappointment, I quickly realized that they all seemed to use the same 
method of inducing emotions to shake out what was natural or not.  Frankie's 
wasn't even all that unique from the others, just the same technique taken to an 
extreme.  I suppose what set Frankie apart from the others was his ability to 
determine the best commands that would induce the strongest version of the 
emotion he wanted, filter through the results, and then induce a different type 
of emotion that would compliment the last.  Most of the others seemed to go 
about it in a nearly hit or miss fashion and thus taking longer and had more 
chances of missing something.

So the only thing I could hope to gain by observing them was to see if removing 
different aspects of one's programming in different orders affected their 
recovery, and at first this seemed pointless to me.  But then I started watching 
how the symbolic streams were affected during a cleaning, and that's when I saw 
how important the order really could be.

From the symbolic stream point of view, the insertion of a segment of symbols 
not generated by the person's natural processes creates an irregular turn or 
twist that never seems to completely smooth out even after several years.  Some 
smoothing does occur over time, for a person's streams are constantly changing 
accordingly to their experiences.  How their experiences affect these changes 
are based on the current configuration of the streams themselves, and because 
the normal natural symbolic stream have no twists, juts, or sharp bends, the 
mind doesn't seem to be able to straighten these out.

Over time, the smooth segments before and after an irregular segment tend to 
adjust their curvature to match the edges to the irregular segment.  Once this 
is done, little by little the irregular segment is curved until it reaches an 
angle that is too great for the stream to naturally bend to.  Of course the way 
the stream changes its curvature is by the swapping out of simple symbol groups 
during the intersection of other process streams, but that's a whole separate 
topic that quite frankly is too complex to discuss in full, but I may elaborate 
on it a little later.

From this point on, I'll be mixing terms between the command and symbolic stream 
point of views.  Essentially whenever I refer to a command, that is equivalent 
to a irregular symbolic segment, although technically any common telepathic 
command usually involves inserting multiple irregular symbolic segments into 
usually multiple streams.

While a command may appear to be static, the underlying mechanisms of the mind 
adapt as best they can, affecting both the natural and the induced traits of the 
host's personality.  The original command inserted into a person's mind can 
actually be modified by the mind's naturally inner workings, but only to a 
limited extent.  Only under extreme circumstances could the command be jarred 
loose or bypassed non-telepathically, and then there would be far more damage 
done to the rest of the mind than the little good it did to disable the command.

Now, the removal of a command is complicated by this process of adaptation or 
smoothing.  As you would expect, you can't just remove the offending command 
after it had been in there for some time and expect the person to go back to 
normal.  Putting memory aside for the moment, removing a segment of symbols from 
a stream will, in almost every case, cause a new irregularity to be formed just 
by the mismatched curvatures of the two sections you're joining together.  Or 
from another perspective, if you remove a person's deep desire to fuck carrots 
before falling asleep every night, the person will have many sleepless nights 
before finding something to fill that gap in their personality.  

If you now add the effects of the person's memory in, you will see how easily it 
would be for a person to reform the same trait as the removed command had 
induced.  If the person remembers that they never had trouble falling asleep 
after fucking themselves with a carrot, they very likely will raid the fridge 
looking for carrots, and indeed have an easier time falling asleep because their 
mind's streams had adjusted themselves to be that way back when the command was 
still firmly in place.

The difference here is the person's mind would recreate a similar pattern of 
symbols to fill in between the two edges forming the irregularity.  But they 
never regain the full strength or functionality of the original command because 
their mind can't reform the irregularity of the command.  So in the case of the 
carrot fucker, they most likely would experiment and expand their selection to 
other sexually pleasurable vegetables or just out grow the fetish all together.

That evening I was explaining all this to the newbies at the Rave over drinks, 
and by the time I finished, they all had questions which made it clear it all 
had gone right over their heads.

"I still don't get why memory is so hard to get around," Carl complained.  "You 
can plant memories, right?"

"Yeah," I said a bit unwillingly.

"So why can't you just erase the memories of fucking carrots so they don't 
figure it out that way?"

"Because you can't," I sighed.  "You can plant a new memory by forcing the 
conscious mind to dream it up and then have them recall the memory of that dream 
a half dozen times, but that's just a basic brainwashing technique anybody can 
do under the right circumstances.  As far as I know there is no way to erase 
memories except by damaging the part of the brain the memory is stored in.

"You can block the recalling of memories, but that gets messy really fast, and 
the mind a lot of times eventually gets around that anyway.  You know, memory 
flashes, dreams, things like that.  You can alter memories by forcing them to 
recall the memory with only small modifications, but that usually take a lot of 
time, and you still have the same problem of they recalling the original in a 
dream or memory flash."

"Then what about for the ressies just removing some commands and leaving the 
rest in a while to give them time to adjust to just a few missing?" Jon asked 
thoughtfully.

"Because the ones you didn't take out become more dominant in their personality 
than they would if they all were left in.  The point of giving the ressies the 
chance to find something to focus on before cleaning them is to have something 
as natural as possible present after the cleaning that can expand quickly and 
limit the effects of what their minds regenerate in place of the missing 
commands."

"Why are you cleaning them again?" Karen asked.  "I mean, can't you just program 
them to be as normal as possible and not have to go through with the rest?"

"Or after cleaning them, force them to accept what happened to them and to be 
normal for a while to give it time for all that to stick," Jon suggested.

I sighed again, wishing I hadn't brought the whole thing up in the first place, 
but considered the best way to explain it that wouldn't generate even more 
questions.

"Without a free will, a person can't react properly to situations they haven't 
been prepared for.  Only God can program someone well enough to act normal under 
every conceivable situation, and you could say that he already did that before 
shipping us out from the factory.  So what we want to do is reset the person to 
their factory defaults and let them deal with what happened according to their 
natural programming. 

"Because that's different from person to person, everyone defines what's normal 
differently.  By forcing one person to behave according to another's conception 
of normalcy, you're essentially corrupting what's left of that person's original 
personality, which is what we really want to restore.   

"Or if nothing else, there's common sense.  The more you alter a person, the 
harder it is for that person to ever return to something that's normal for them.  
My goal is to figure out if there's a way the cleaning can be done that makes it 
easier for the person to deal with their situation and regain a state of 
normalcy."

"Let's talk about something else," I said when no one said anything right away.  
"I'm tired of thinking about it."

"Tell them what you did today, Jon," Jenny prompted.

"It's nothing big," Jon said almost bashfully.  "I was in line at lunch and 
thought Jenny was up ahead of me but couldn't really tell.  I just kept staring 
at her trying to see if it was her, and then I suddenly felt her thoughts."

"Whose, Jenny's?" Karen asked.

"No, the girl in the lunch line."

"What did it feel like?" Virginia asked.

"Did you feel her boobs?" Mike asked wickedly.

"No, I didn't feel her boobs!  It just felt like.. Uhm..  Sort of like how it 
feels when Jenny thinks things to me.  But I was getting everything, not just 
stuff directed to a particular person."

"Remember when Mike started hearing other people's thoughts?" Jenny said with a 
grin.

"I knew you were going to bring that up," Mike said accusingly.

"What happened?" I said, biting the bait.

"I'll tell it, if you don't mind," Mike said, cutting Jenny off.  "I was drunk 
when it happened and..."

"You drunk?  Nawhh.." I kidded.

"when I heard them at first I thought they were just people talking in the 
room," Mike continued.  "But after a couple more beers, I had to pee and went 
into the bathroom..."

"He came hopping out with his underpants around his ankles yelling, there's 
ghosts in the commode!  There's fucking ghosts in the commode!"  Carl said as 
Mike took a drink from his beer.

"Hey! I said I was telling it!"  Mike complained.  "Now I get to tell them about 
the time you tried making yourself into a better lover."

"Do, and I'll tell them an even worse one about you!" Carl threatened without 
any real malice. 

"Oh please..." Karen remarked.  "If I hear another one of your stories about 
what you guys do in your dorm room, I think I'll puke!"

"You guys still live in the dorms?" I asked surprised.

"Were did you think we lived?" Virginia asked.

"I don't know..  I guess in a frat house or a sorority house."

"I wish," Jenny said with a smirk.

As I queried into the details of their living arrangements, I learned that the 
day they passed the coin test, they were given new room assignments on the 
second floor of Basler Hall, the newest and most modern dorm building on campus.  
While they still shared rooms with a member of the same sex, the floor was co-
ed, including the bathrooms which was otherwise unheard of on the campus at the 
time.  

Their rooms were significantly larger, nicer, and completely modern, and the 
beds were full size, which to my standards was still tiny, but I could see that 
they could easily hold two people as long as they didn't mind their feet 
sticking out the end after sex.

Twenty two people lived in the 14 rooms on that private floor, all of them 
having passed the coin test but had not yet fully developed their abilities to 
the satisfaction of the others to be allowed to live as they like.  I suspected 
it was more to limit the amount of self-corruption that always followed the 
discovery of one's voice.  By keeping them within a peer environment rather than 
turning them loose to freely experiment, they would learn from each other's 
mistakes as well as their own, and give them more time to mature and strengthen 
their moral integrity before achieving their independence.

Jenny had been the first of this group to realize her voice.  As with most 
telepaths, she had been overwhelmed by the sea of thoughts, and what made it 
worse was the fact she had been asleep when it had happened and was totally 
disorientated when she awoke.   But even though at the time she had only 
attended one class of TE101, the instructions of what to do had at least 
partially stuck, and with the help of a few of the other voices who had already 
broken out, she had her voice under control by daybreak. 

A couple of weeks later, Mike had his haunting experience that ended in a rather 
anticlimactic way.  After Carl managed to calm him down and got him to realize 
what was happening, Mike told the voices to go away, then finished the six pack 
he was working before passing out on his bed for the night.

My empathic sense read in between the lines that there had been some telepathic 
exploration between Jenny and Mike before Carl broke out and Jenny took a bigger 
fancy to him.  Luckily Mike had gotten tired of Jenny by then anyways, so there 
weren't hardly any bad vibes between the two roomies, and they even joked about 
it with Jon, who Jenny was currently seeing between the sheets.

Jon had started breaking out the month earlier, but they were intermittent at 
best, and he never seemed to have access to them when he really wanted to use 
them.  Chris had just the opposite problem.  They were always there, but she had 
no real control over them.

Karen roomed with Virginia, Jenny with Chris, while Jon had a room all to his 
self.  As the night wore on, our conversation drifted from the sexual and 
telepathic topics to more normal college based ones, but as it got close to 
closing time, Mike got the others to prod me into clearing a path to the door 
again, which only made them ask more questions about how it was done.

Sunday I met Shelly and a few others from our class to study for our test the 
next day.  Soon after sitting down, Shelly suddenly became uncomfortable, and 
when I looked up I recognized Vanessa, Shelly's roommate, sitting across the 
library flirting with a really cute guy I had never seen before.

I didn't know who to look at, the hotie or the cutie, so I looked at both, then 
suddenly became aware the others were noticing my stare.

"Wow, she's hot," I said to complete their assumption.

"She's my roommate," Shelly admitted gloomily.

"And I take it you've got the hots for..." I said, nodding in their direction.

"No!" she said somewhat alarmed, then realized I hadn't necessarily meant her 
roommate.  "Well maybe a little, but it doesn't matter."

She focused on her studying, but I could feel her heart wasn't into it, and by 
the time we were done, I was more than just a little inclined to cheer her up.

"How about we go grab some dinner," I suggested after the group broke up for the 
night.

"Thanks Tim, but I don't feel like going out tonight."

"Awe, come on Shelly.  It'll take your mind off of you know who."

She eyed me a moment, then as she opened her mouth to decline again, I said, "Or 
you can eat at the cafeteria, then go back to your room and wait for your 
roommate to come back from her not so studious study date."

She sighed, then said, "And after dinner what do we do?"

"We could go to the Rave and dance..."

"Anything else?" she said unconvinced.

"I don't know..  It's not like I'm asking you to come over to my place to check 
out my hot tub or anything."

"Are you sure you're not?" she asked suspiciously.

"Well, considering I don't have a hot tub, yeah, I'm sure."

"I just don't want you thinking I want to be anything more than friends," she 
said.

"Oh..." I said, truly a little hurt.  "I see."

"Not that you couldn't be more," she floundered.  "I'm just not ready to start 
something up with someone again so soon."

"Well, the dinner offer still stands," I offered.

"Oh, okay.  But just this once."

We went out for pizza, something we both agreed that friends could go eat 
without it having to be a date.

She told me a little about her last boyfriend who broke up with her after nearly 
five months of what she thought was a great relationship.  She didn't go into 
details, but I could tell she was still hurt a little by the whole thing even if 
it had all taken place the previous year.

I asked her about the guy that was with her roommate, finding she did know some 
details about him to my surprise.  Tony Pendleton lived on the same street as I 
did, in the same style apartment building as mine.  He played on the tennis 
team, which instantly caused me to form an image of him wearing tight shorts.  
Vanessa and Tony had started dating in November after getting acquainted from 
noticing each other at the Rave.  Shelly admitted they made a nice couple 
personality wise.

Then I asked about what her roommate was like, Shelly wasn't sure about doing 
that at first, but once she started talking about Vanessa she started feeling 
better.
  
It was nine o'clock before we realized it, and she didn't seem too enthused 
about my suggestion of stopping by the Rave and eventually said she'd just 
rather call it a night.  So I just took her back to the dorms like she asked 
without pushing anything else.

But before she got out of my car, she looked me in the eyes and triggered an 
empathic connection that left me smiling the short trip home.  I fell asleep 
thinking about her, which is probably why I had the dream I had that night.

I dreamed that the empathic connection was still slightly open, that as I 
floated through the empty space between the distant stars, I could feel her 
calling me, inviting me into her being, into her soul...  I followed this 
stringy sketchy trail of star dust back to its source, joining with her fiery 
blazing light and adding my own unique glow to hers.

We became aware of another heavenly body floating near by, gravity tugging our 
attention to it as we rose out of the deep gravity well which was our sanctuary 
and focused our joined beings on the object of our immediate needs.

Eyes focused on the sleeping form of this heavenly creature, we swept our covers 
off our legs and turned ourselves to face the body with which we intended 
intersect.  Standing up brought swift and all too brief pleasure to our tingling 
erect nipples from the cloth's movement across them, yet we shed them in order 
to give off our full natural glow. 

We yielded to the constant pull of this new gravity in front of us, letting our 
nipples guide us forth towards the similar yet much more towering hidden 
mountains of the body we were compelled to embrace and share our cosmic rays.

Running a sleek and glowing finger across the sleeping face below us, the 
landscape began to shift and turn before a windy gasp and a twin pair of glass 
like pools reflected our glow back with a sense of fear.

But we were there to warm her with our glow, we reasoned, and so we began to do 
so, emitting every ounce of our body's intensiveness, giving everything we had 
to make her see we were not a danger to her, not something to be scared of, just 
another warm body who's loneliness could be abated with the simple sharing of 
another's brilliant light and energy.

And so when our heavenly sister accepted our glow and began to emit her own glow 
in return, we began our decent into her own gravity well, our cooling limbs 
finding new warmth within her soft and glowing fields of femininity.

The glow of my counterpart began to overcome my own, and as the two heavenly 
bodies exchanged their first kiss, my fire's strength wavered and so I began to 
fall away in order to rest, knowing I would return and be one again with the 
other fires I had joined that day.

--------------------------

My heart almost stopped when I recognized the glow coming from Shelly the next 
afternoon.  I had wanted to believe it had just been a wonderful erotic dream, 
but in the back of my mind I had acknowledged the possibility it had been more 
than just a dream.

Shelly seemed on top of the world, and flew through the test with confidence.  
In fact she finished so quickly and left that I didn't have the chance to talk 
to her, but then I didn't really know what I could have said.

Joey tried to make it sound like it had been inevitable for me to find some 
sexual outlet like that, but neither Suzi or I bought it.

Figuring a phone call to Eric would help take my mind off of Shelly, Suzi called 
him that night, but we ended up talking about it and surprisingly Eric convinced 
me that all I had done was help Shelly make some kind of connection with her 
roommate.  I then convinced myself that it really had been all Shelly's doing, 
that she had initiated the empathic connection, that she had called me to her, 
that she, not I, made the decision to cross the cold gap between the gravity 
wells..  Er.. I mean beds, and perhaps through my empathic abilities shared her 
feelings with her roommate who had accepted them and returned them willingly.

That lasted until Wednesday's class where Shelly was as miserable and confused 
as ever.

She didn't want to talk after class, but she did allow me to take her to the ice 
cream shop and ruin her diet on a large coffee sundae with rich chocolate syrup.

And then suddenly, with only three bites left of her sundae, a bubble popped and 
she started talking about Vanessa and couldn't stop.  At first it wasn't 
anything she hadn't told me before, but then she started explaining how Vanessa 
had been the first person to make her feel special since Kurt, her ex-boyfriend, 
broke up with her.

From there it just went deeper and deeper into her feelings for her, and the 
whole time she talked she kept looking into my eyes for my support.  I guess she 
found what she wanted since she didn't stop until she had told it all.

When she finally fell silent, she wasn't emotional, and she hadn't shed a single 
tear.  Oh, she was shaking a little, but she wasn't falling of an edge like I 
would have expected her to.

Instead she said, "Well, now you know my secret."

"I won't tell a soul."

"I wasn't talking about Vanessa," she said with a weak grin.

"Huh?" I said, honestly confused.

"I always spill my life's troubles after eating coffee ice cream," she chuckled 
somberly.

"What does the chocolate syrup do to you," I joked.

"Makes me fat," she chuckled with more humor, then added, "Fat-er."

"I don't think you're the least bit fat," I said honestly.

She smiled briefly, then fell silent as her eyes went distant as she recalled 
Vanessa's words, "It didn't happen."

"It did happen," I said, snapping her back to the present.  "You know it, and 
she knows it.  Give her time.  Her head is probably spinning so hard right now 
she's just trying to keep it from flying off." 

"I know how she feels," Shelly admitted.  "I've never done anything like that 
before.  Ever.  Not even with Kurt...."

She went silent, and I could feel her emotions finally starting to snap, her 
eyes filling with water as she stared into empty air.  

"What have I done?  I've ruined my life!" Shelly finally sobbed quietly, 
covering her face with her hands.

"What, by kissing another woman and bringing her off with your fingers?  Shit, 
I've gone a lot further than that with other guys, but now I'm engaged to a girl 
and I've sworn to be faithful to her and only her."

"You're engaged?" she said with a mixture of emotions.

"Yeah," I said, feeling a little shakiness rising from my gut.  "The point is, 
you're probably just going through a phase in your life where you're afraid to 
be hurt by another guy, and found so much comfort in your relationship with 
Vanessa you...  You know.."

"I keep telling myself things like that, but I just keep...  Thinking of her."

"I can see that," I said, grinning.  "You want to know something?"

"What?"

"I keep thinking of you and her..."

"Well, at least I'm not the only one," she hissed looking me in the eyes like 
she had three nights before and triggering the empathic connection again.

"I uhh..." I said, jerking myself out of the link.  "I better get going."

"Oh, okay," she said, standing up as I did and started putting her coat on.  

"Well, I guess I'll see you later," I offered as we walked out the shop, 
wondering how soon later would be.

"Yeah, uhm...  Thanks," she said with shaky affection.  "For the ice cream and 
stuff."

I looked her in the eyes and said, "In more ways than one, it was my pleasure."

Even with Suzi's help, the evening just dragged on out of anticipation.  I 
couldn't detect any kind of residual empathic connection, but I doubted I really 
needed it to find her mind in the middle of the night after having done it twice 
before.

Naturally, I was torn between my sense of commitment to Jennifer and my loins 
doing what they did best, and no matter how much I considered commanding myself 
to refrain from using my telepathy in my sleep, I kept talking myself out of it 
saying it wouldn't prove anything to Jennifer if I cheated resisting temptation 
like that.  So I ended up allowing fait to decide what would happen that night.  
Fait sure seemed to have been getting a lot of my time back then.

As if the evening was bad enough, falling asleep proved to be even more 
frustrating than staring down a banana sundae served in a hairless cunt, 
complete with a whole banana and a tasty cherry to top it off.  I went to bed 
around ten, tossed and turned, jerked off to at least three climaxes, even tried 
self-hypnosis, which I have never gotten to work, and finally, after jogging 
around the block three times, taking another shower to rinse the sweat off, and 
then squeezing out another orgasm from my little buddy, I fell asleep sometime 
after three thirty and slept soundly for the rest of the night.

I was exhausted the next day, but managed to stay awake during my important 
classes and only drifted off once during a slide show in the other.

I went straight back to my flat after my last class and just collapsed in my 
chair and flipped on the TV.  I was out before the first commercial break, and 
sure enough I found myself floating within a very busy blue sea.

As tired as I was, I just let the currents take me wherever they wished, 
slipping through one cluster of spinning seaweed, getting battered by another, 
then eventually drifted into a less active, almost peaceful cluster of seaweed 
that I found slightly familiar...  And who seemed desperate for change in their 
dull life.

As silently as I could I attached myself to the lazily spinning stalks of my new 
host, ever so gently tapping into its life giving bloodstream.  As I gorged 
myself on my host's excess energy, I began to carefully probe my benefactor's 
senses and swiftly located the center of its being.  Then with a swift strike I 
plunged the very core of my being into it's own, and quickly the two of us 
became as one.

Our eyes snapped open as the confusion of our melding melted away.  Our 
surroundings were the same as they had been, sitting in our class, struggling to 
stay awake as the instructor's dull voice became even duller to our sleepy ears.

But wait...  There he is.  I know him... Don't I?  Yeah, I know his name.  
Darwin.  Man he looks hot.  I wonder if he knows how hot he looks staring out 
into nothing with the tip of his pencil touching his lips like that.

Man, if only Vanessa's lips looked like that.  I'd never stop kissing her lips 
if they looked as sexy as ...

What am thinking?  I'm getting hard over him?  

And why not?  He's cute as hell.

Stop it...  This is too queer for me.

Oh, but look at him...  God he makes me hard.  I bet he smells good too.

Oh shit, he sees me looking at him.  Better pretend I was looking past him.  
Holy shit.  He smiled!  What the fuck?  Is he coming on to me?

Look at him.  Now he's blushing.  God that is so fucking cute.  I think he's 
about to..  Shit, what do I do?

I can't believe I just smiled back at him.  I'm fucking flirting with this..  
queer.

I got to stop thinking like that.  Queer...  There's nothing wrong with being 
attracted to another guy.  It's not like I want to have his baby.  Now that 
would be queer..

Wow, I think he's actually interested in me.  If he just would look back one 
more time so I can make eye contact...

Damn.  Why is it that the end of the class never comes soon enough except when I 
don't want it to!

Man, and he's in a hurry too.  Well, I guess I'll just have to wait until next 
week.  Hmmm, he has a nice ass too.

"Hey, you're Tony, right?"

What the fuck?  Why did he come out here if he wanted to speak to me?

"Yeah.  Darwin, right?"

Man he's even cuter when he's surprised.

"Yeah!  Uhm, I'm sort of waiting for somebody to bring me a book, but if you're 
not busy, maybe we could grab something to eat at the Rave or something?"

"Sure.  I don't have anything I have to do right now."

Liar.  Only my Spanish history lecture.  Oh man, I just want to grab his ass...

"Sorry."

"No problem."

I touch his ass and he thinks he bumped into me.  Is he really that naïve?

"Neil!  Over here!"

OH shit!  OH shit oh shit!  

He's not recognizing me...  And he doesn't seem to act like he suspects.  That's 
right, Neil...  Look in my eyes just a little longer.  What are you hiding in 
there?

"Well, I got to go, Darwin.  I'll see you Sunday."

Why would Neil be seeing Darwin on Sunday?

"Ready?"

"And willing."

Definitely not naïve.  Man if he touches me like that again, I think I'll...

"Want to go to my apartment first?"

"Uh.. Sure."

Thank God Larry has lab today.  We'll have the apartment all to ourselves.

"You know Tony, I would have never imagined you'd be... interested.  Or at least 
not in me, anyway.  You never gave me any signals before."

"Well, I guess that's because I wasn't interested until today.  I just sort of 
woke up out of a daydream and saw you sitting there..."

What is going on?  I'm taking this guy I barely know to my apartment in hopes 
of.. having sex with him?  Stop.  I'm not gay.  I'm not gay.  I'm...

"Are you okay Tony?"

"Huh?  Yeah, I'm just...  I've never... uh..."

"It's okay.  I understand.  I guess I came on a little fast.  I kind of had the 
feeling you were new to this.  Let's just go to the Rave and skip the apartment 
thing.  I didn't bring any protection today anyways."

Holy shit, this is a regular thing with him.  Oh man, I got to end this now. 
Quick.  Before I end up wanting to suck his...

"That's.. okay...  I got a couple of rubbers incase my new girlfriend... Uh.."

"Are you sure?  I mean, if you're seeing someone.."

"Let me put it this way, it's now or never.  I doubt I ever feel this way 
again."

Look at him.  He's torn.  Maybe this will make up his mind.

Shit, and I thought I was hard...

"Timmy?"

Huh?

"Timmy!  Open the door!"

I opened my eyes with a start, and as the remaining link to Tony faded away, I 
yelled, "Yeah, I'm coming, Suzi."

"What were you doing?" she asked suspiciously when I opened the door.

I yawned then said, "I was watching TV, and I guess I sort of dozed off."

"And you were dreaming again?"

I sighed, then with a wiry grin I said, "You could say that."

"I knew it."

"Why are you here?  Aren't you supposed to be at a Group thing?"

"I was until Neil detected your dreamtime self hanging around his cousin sending 
out fuck me waves."

"Fuck me waves?"

"That's what he called them.  He said if he hadn't left when he did, all three 
of you would have probably been...  Timmy, tagging along for the ride is one 
thing, but the guy you..."

"Possessed?"

"This isn't funny," she chuckled.  "Tony is completely straight.  Can you 
imagine what it would be like for him to suddenly be himself again while what's 
his name,"

"Darwin."

"While Darwin was humping his butt?"

"I imagine he'd be a little surprised," I said.

"A little!"

"Look, Suz.  I admit this isn't something I want to happen every time I close my 
eyes, but...  I wasn't really the one doing the driving.  I don't know why it 
happened, but while I was with him, this part of Tony that he usually represses 
came to the surface and took control.  I'm starting to think I'm actually being 
attracted to these people because they... need me."

"Need you?  That sounds a lot like an excuse to me."

I stepped up into her space and gently took her face in my hands and stretched 
it to make the worry lines disappear.

"Don't you trust me?" I asked softly.

"Of course I trust you.  But when you're dreaming..." 

"When I'm dreaming, it's still me.  Well, in this case, me and somebody else.  
This is new to me Suz.  I want to explore it a little more before deciding 
whether it's good or bad.  Okay?"

She grasped my hands with hers and gently pulled them off her face before 
entwining them with her own and saying, "Just please don't get anyone pregnant?  
Okay?"

"I'll try, Suz...  I'll try.  Now, how did you know about Tony and his sexual 
preference, hmm?"

The blush on her face said it all as she turned around and left.

Tracking down Tony while awake was easier than I thought.  I only had to close 
my eyes and attempt to recall what he felt like, and there he was.

Three blocks away, Tony was nervously holding the apartment's entrance open for 
Darwin, partially hoping something would happen and Darwin would chicken out 
like the last time he had gotten himself into the same situation.

I dived into the memory he kept thinking pieces of, finding that after tennis 
practice one day in his freshman year of high school, he and his friend had 
messed around in the locker room.  It started seeming very innocent, the two 
boys making sexually slanderous jokes in reference to their tennis skills, 
throwing each other's sweaty shirts into the other's faces, and other macho 
locker room activities.

But just as his friend was setting up to pull his shirt over Tony's head to 
gross him out while his back was to him, Tony turned around quickly intending to 
jab his friend in the gut with his right hand only to find themselves in each 
other's faces.

Tony was instantly hard, and hovered over his friends face as they both realized 
their arms were sliding down the other's still slightly slick bodies.  When his 
friend's hands rested on his hips for more than a second, Tony initiated his 
very first kiss, which lasted for nearly ten minutes before they heard someone 
coming and broke apart.

Hormones raging through their bodies, they quickly finished getting dressed and 
walked to Tony's home in near silence.  But after Tony unlocked the back door 
and held it open for his friend, his friend chickened out, and afterwards 
wouldn't have anything to do with Tony ever again.  

After the sizzling sensation of touching his friend like that filled his 
fantasies over the summer, he found himself attracted to the guys more than the 
girls when he went back to school the following fall.  That scared him into 
repressing those feelings and focusing on getting a girlfriend to lay, which he 
successfully did, or at least until I had brought those feelings back to the 
surface that day.

Once Tony and Darwin were inside his apartment, Tony tried everything he could 
think of to distract them from what they both knew what they had gone there 
together for.  

Turning on the TV seemed like a good idea until they sat down on the sofa 
together, so he asked Darwin if he wanted something to drink so he could have an 
excuse to get back up.

Darwin politely declined, but Tony got himself a soda, then ended up sitting 
back down next to Darwin after Darwin smiled and patted the cushion next to him.

After a few minutes of watching the tube, Tony held on to the soda with 
increasing shakiness as he felt Darwin's hand slowly wander up his thigh.

Eventually Darwin took control of the situation by taking the soda from him and 
setting it down on the coffee table.  But by the time he looked back up, Tony 
was getting up, excusing himself to go to the bathroom.

Darwin's hand snagged the back of his shirt and tugged him backwards onto the 
couch where Tony surrendered himself to Darwin's approaching mouth.

Once they got into their exchanging of saliva, I closed my links from feeling 
like a peeping Tom.  The temptation to just close my eyes and let myself drift 
back into Tony's mind was tremendous, so I left and went to the only place I 
could think of that could distract me from my hormones running high.

I spent several hours watching and talking to the people working with the 
cleaned ex-slaves.  To my surprise, two of the three people who escorted the 
mentally numbed forty-ish woman that had just been cleaned were in fact ex-
slaves themselves who had only been cleaned four or five months earlier.  Part 
of their treatment included working with others who had had similar experiences, 
and after walking along with them through the cold March evening air, I saw that 
despite their outward normal appearances, they still had some problems to deal 
with.

As we entered the hospital-like building where the listless woman would probably 
live the next year of her life, I sensed it was home to nearly a hundred ex-
slaves recovering from their enslavement.  While the nurses didn't wear uniforms 
or white hats, nor were there any gurneys or wheelchairs to be seen down the 
halls, the place looked and operated just like a hospital.

Numbered rooms with medical charts clipped to the foot of the beds, nurses in 
civilian clothing manned counters at the intersection of every hall, and you 
could tell by the people's body language they were ready to scramble into action 
whenever there was a pause or a surge of static in the music playing over the 
intercom.

You could say I gained a lot of respect for Sarah.  That place was funded by the 
Eta antibody harvesting project's profits and her other medical enterprises, and 
that included paying for the released patients' tuitions for those who hadn't 
attained a degree yet.

My respect got knocked back down a bit after learning the details of their 
release.  By the time a person was deemed ready to live on their own again, they 
had been literally brainwashed into partially repaying the university back for 
their treatment.

The few who had a degree of some sort already ended up giving nearly a third of 
their net income to the "Harrison Foundation" for three years, while the rest 
were conditioned to seek a degree of their choice from Central State first 
before doing the same thing for five or more years depending on how much it cost 
to fund for their education.

The thing that really blew me off was these people were not allowed to contact 
their families while they were living at the hospital.  Can you imagine the 
distress that had on the families of those ex-slaves who had actually been 
allowed to maintain their family's contacts during their enslavement?  I really 
had a hard time accepting that, but I eventually just made myself not think 
about it since I wasn't in a position to do anything to change it.

I got back from the hospital just after midnight and went straight to bed 
without even taking a shower.  My mind stayed in my head through the night, and 
I even managed to refrain from peeking inside Darwin's skull in the class I had 
with him the next morning.

Suz and I went home for the weekend, and to my relief, Michelle, Richie's nanny, 
had the weekend off.

That didn't mean I had a stress free visit with my family, no sir.  After having 
been away from the twins for nearly three months, I found myself drawn to them 
like a moth trying to ignore a TV in a dark room showing a sunny, snow-blanketed 
landscape.

It was more than just seeing their naked, curvy, sexually-divine bodies every 
time I turned around.  It took me half the day Saturday to realize it wasn't the 
usual sexual frustration driving me nuts, but something deeper, something that 
must have been induced into my psyche by Gladius's twins.

I don't know who stuck to me closer while I was there, Richie or the twins, but 
either way, I knew it was going to be hard leaving the next afternoon.  Anyway, 
Richie threw a fit when I tried to get him to leave the twins and I alone for a 
while, and it wasn't until after dinner that my dad managed to distract Richie 
long enough for the three of us to slip away to my room.

The twins didn't believe my problem was anything more than frustration until I 
looked Honey in the eyes and let them feel me out.  They seemed baffled at 
first, but then confirmed it was similar to the seeded impulse that they and the 
other empathic twins would plant to get a male to return to them on a regular 
basis.

The moment they sensed my anger rising, Joy softly caressed my left cheek with 
her hand and successfully drew my full attention to her face and sent a shiver 
of excitement down my spine.

In her eyes she explained that none of Grandfather's twins would have planted a 
control like this in one of their own.  

In one of their own.

One of their own.

That thought kept echoing in my head as Joy stroked my cheek again and again, my 
legs eventually getting wobbly from the shivers and shudders her simple touches 
produced.

I wasn't helpless like the average Joe would have been.  I mean, the average Joe 
hadn't spent their previous summer resisting the brainwashing fucks of 
Gladious's twins like I had.  Yet I didn't resist when they laid me on my back, 
removed my shirt, and I even consciously lifted my butt off the bed allowing 
them to pull off my jeans and underpants.

You see, I understood that they could not betray my trust any more than they 
could betray each other.  One of their own.  When I drank that potion the 
previous summer and was paired with Eric, he and I essentially became twins, if 
only for a short period of time.  Empathic twins couldn't betray another, 
therefore they wouldn't betray me.

I'm not sure when I lost touch with my surroundings, but I can clearly recall 
how the twins hands felt as they stroked their hands from my cheeks down to my 
shins in perfect unison.  They sent me into a semiconscious state where I 
drifted for a time, then suddenly recognized Eric's mind as I drifted towards 
it.

I nearly broke the trance they had me in from the fear of what touching Eric's 
mind might do to him, or me for that matter.  But I trusted them, therefore I 
trusted them.  That might not make sense at first, but I think you can see how 
it does.

And as it turns out, there was no danger involved because it wasn't the real 
Eric Roberts I was feeling, but the part of his personality I had apparently 
reabsorbed myself during our brief but emotionally intense phone call.  

Drifting through my own head like that answered questions I hadn't even 
consciously formed, yet had been there waiting for an answer for some time.

My recent increase of attraction to men, gay men in particular, was from Eric's 
own restored attraction towards them.  I had been unknowingly picking up on 
their signals and subconsciously sought them out like Eric would have on the 
conscious level.

I also realized the pull I had felt towards the twins had just been my ever 
present need to be twinned again getting excited by their own twinning.

Richie found us at some point, but surprisingly didn't try to interfere.  If I 
had known he was in the room, I wouldn't have agreed to the twins suggestion 
that they bring me off.  They didn't betray my trust because they didn't 
conceive why I would be upset by Richie witnessing me orgasming again, and after 
they gave me what felt like the best damn hand job I ever had in my life, I was 
too exhausted and sedated by the post orgasmic bliss to notice right away my 
little brother had a strand of my cum in his dark hair.

I'm going to take this time to boast about my little brother's smarts.  He was 
not even two yet at the time, but my mom and Michelle had begun teaching him his 
ABCs and 123s, and my jaw fell to the floor when he had sang the alphabet song 
for me that morning.

Richie had an excellent memory and wanted to learn about everything he came in 
contact with.  When I had left for college, he had only started asking "What's 
this?"  The last time I had been there, Michelle had fielded most of the 
explanations for me, but this time, I was having to explain everything to him 
myself.

So there I was, dazed, totally spent, and utterly satisfied when my little 
brother climbs up between my legs on the bed and grips my yingyang with both 
hands and starts to pump.

"Richie!" I screamed, sounding a lot like I had before puberty from it being in 
such a high-pitched voice.

"Do it, Timmy!  Do it again!"  he said, not understanding my alarm.

I sat up, grabbed his wrists and made him stop, then as I started calming down 
and he started getting upset, the twins each took a cheek, and in seconds, 
Richie was flat on his back on my chest as they soothed us both with their 
empathic tender caresses.

The instant they stopped, Richie rolled onto his tummy and cuddled on top of me.  
He knew he had done something wrong, but like so many other times, he hadn't 
known that it had been wrong, and so I just sighed and just tried wiping the cum 
out of his hair I had finally noticed.

The questions were boiling in his little head by the time I given up and just 
rubbed the rest in.  When he lifted his head to begin his assault of questions, 
I groaned from feeling the wet spots down the back of his shirt with my hands.

He was already asking if my wee wee could make more white pee pee when I sat us 
up, so I avoided the question by telling him we were going to have to take a 
bath because we had gotten the wee wee all over us.

Oh the questions he had.  Why did girls like daddy's wee wee so much?  Did white 
wee wee taste good?  Why wouldn't I or mommy let him taste some?  How come he 
couldn't make white wee wee?  Why didn't girls like yellow wee wee?

Then there were the more normal questions.  Will my wee wee get as big as yours?  
Will I have hair around my wee wee?  Why does my wee wee get hard?  Why does my 
wee wee feel good when it's hard?

All those came out before we even got to the bathroom, and as he paused to watch 
how I would turn on the jet bath, I quickly decided on the shower instead.

I got his mind off of wee wees by getting playful as I soaped him up, but even 
though I turned my back when I did my crotch in hopes he wouldn't be reminded, 
when I turned back to him, he was playing with his little hard pencil.

His questions remained innocent, so I relented and answered them as best I 
could, let him feel mine (it was soft), felt his when he requested it, and even 
did my best to bring him off after his curiosity got the better of my own.

I don't feel I did anything irresponsible or acted in a perverted manner by 
doing these things.  He was my little brother, and I was only trying to satisfy 
his natural curiosity.  There was nothing sexual about it for either of us.

I admit he was more familiar with the concept of sex than he should have at his 
age, and if I had known that during the next month my little baby brother would 
lose his virginity because of my explanation why girls liked boys wee wees....  
Actually, I don't know what I would have done.  And it would only be the first 
of many shocking blows concerning my little brother and his unnatural curiosity 
into these things that were too old for him to truly understand.

Since Richie only slept in his bed about half the time, my mom and dad had 
apparently patched things up enough where they took advantage of Richie spending 
the night in my bed rather than in theirs.  When they weren't up by the time 
Richie and I came down for breakfast, Richie insisted we go sneak into their bed 
and wake them with a big hug and kiss.  But when we entered the room, the sent 
of sex was still heavy in the air, and I barely grabbed Richie's arm before he 
was out of my reach.

The twins found us as we were eating breakfast, and we spent the morning 
together, the twins surprising me with some of their more creative ways of 
entertaining Richie.  I was pretty appreciative of them wearing clothes that 
morning, and before I left I gave them both a hearty kiss on the lips.

My mind stayed in my own skull at night that week, but that's probably because I 
never got in until after midnight from spending my evenings working on my 
private research at the old admin building and the hospital.  My real school 
work started to become an irritating burden, for I really didn't need to sit in 
the classes to learn what I needed to learn and get the grade.  So, on Thursday 
and Friday, I selected a few people in each of my classes who needed some extra 
motivation to bring their grades up, and in exchange I planned to leach off what 
they had learned the day or two a week I'd go to class.

Shelly's frustration over her roommate was starting to wear off, and she even 
surprised me after class Friday by asking if I wanted to go see a movie that 
weekend.  I quickly agreed, even though it was contrary to what I had planned, 
but then when she asked what day was good, I quickly suggested that night to 
which she responded, "Okay, sure."

I was convinced she didn't know she was doing it, but three times during our 
not-a-date date she looked me in the eyes and triggered a momentary empathic 
connection.  I kept my hold on the situation, and afterwards I didn't feel the 
anticipation like I had last time, so I wasn't too worried about going to bed 
that night.

The moment my eyes were closed, I felt it coming.  This time there wasn't any 
dream intro to it, just a feeling of crossing a distance to where she was, and 
then finding my eyes coming back into focus on the huddled over figure of my 
beautiful roommate.

"She's crying?" I asked myself.  "Why?"

"I don't know.  She won't tell me," I answered.

I gently sat down next to her and extended my arm behind her back in empathy, 
only for her to repel from my touch, crushing my already broken heart.

I started crying too, her rejection having carried to much weight and knocked me 
off my emotional feet.  I loved her, but I revolted her.  She had made me so 
happy when she was my friend, but now she doesn't even trust me to touch her.

I leapt across to my bed, buried my face into my pillow, and bawled with all my 
heart and lungs.  I was so utterly destroyed, it felt even worse than when Kurt 
dumped me the year before.  

I didn't realize my blubbers were anything more than that until Vanessa gently 
shook my shoulder and...  and...

"I'm sorry, Shelly...  I..."

I didn't know what to say, so I just stared at her, making it very clear she was 
the reason I was feeling this pain.

Everything blurred a moment, then I found myself staring in a mirror... 

No, it wasn't a mirror.  It was Shelly's face.  I felt like shit for making her 
cry when she was only trying to make me feel better after...

"Tony was cheating on me," I said, my eyes blurring with tears.

"He was?" Shelly croaked out.

I couldn't look at her and say it, so I looked back at my bunk and blurted out 
as best I could, "He...  met someone else..."

"I'm sorry, Vanessa," she said honestly.

"It was another man..." I whimpered, covering my face with my hands to muffle my 
returning spasms of despair.

She didn't say anything, just sat up and hesitantly put her arm behind me again.  

I didn't pull away this time.  I wanted to be comforted by someone, I just 
hadn't been prepared to be touched last time.

She's crying again.  Crying for me?  She is..  She's crying for me.

"You're crying for me?" I sobbed.

She made this most pathetic sad face with her chin shuddering and fat lower lip 
for an eternity before finally whimpering, "Yes ..."

I hugged her, she hugged me back.  We cried together.  I never had felt so close 
to someone before.  Nobody had ever cried for me before.  Nobody ever lov ...

"You love me?" I whimpered into her shoulder.

"I love you," she confirmed into mine in a squeaky voice.

"I think I love you too," I wept, then cried all the harder when she really 
started to bawl.

I don't know how long we sat there holding each other after we stopped crying.  
I started crying again twice, and she started it once, but we didn't cry very 
long because we didn't want the other to start crying too.

Shelly shivered making me realize that all our tears and perspiration were now 
chilling us both as they dried.  My heart started racing thinking what I might 
be getting myself into, but I couldn't hurt her like Tony had me.  I couldn't 
hurt anyone like that purposely.

So I slowly disentangled myself from her limp arms, then as I opened my mouth to 
tell her to get under the covers, her head fell in rejection and she turned away 
to hide herself from my gaze.

I couldn't stand it.  She shared my pain and now thought I didn't feel hers?  I 
knew what I had to do, but it went against everything I was brought up to 
believe in.  But I couldn't let her feel this way any more.

I got up, flipped off the lights, then shook in a mixture of nervousness and the 
spreading chill of the air as I took off my clothes as silently as I could.

"Shelly?" I said, standing beside her bed, shivering so hard my voice quivered.

"What?" she pathetically asked, not turning towards me.

"I'm cold, Shelly.  Let me get in your bed?"

"What?" she asked, turning her head then staring at me as I wrapped my arms 
around me to help keep me warm.  It didn't occur to me by doing this I was in 
effect pushing my boobs up.

"Shelly..." I whimpered, my nervousness coming back as her eyes wandered over my 
body.

She started sobbing again as she anxiously sought the top edge of the sheets 
beneath her pillow, then in a single motion pulled the sheet and cover open for 
me, and even wrapped them around me as I crawled in between them.

My teeth were chattering as my whole body shook, yet Shelly just laid on top of 
the covers staring at me in disbelief.

The side of the bed I was on was cold and I could just barely feel the warmth 
coming from underneath her.  I couldn't move to get closer to her without 
getting uncovered, and I think she was too scared to move herself.

I looked her in the eyes, begging her to warm me up, and it only took a few 
moments for her to understand me.

Shelly was shaking almost as hard as I was as she carefully got under the covers 
with me and cautiously pressed her clothed body against me.  As the sudden chill 
of the cold air she had brought with her faded and her warmth started to soothe 
me, I felt my own warmth growing towards her, an affectionate warmth.

As soon as I stopped shivering, I turned towards her and embraced her in a 
loving hug.  She tried to start crying again, but she was all cried out.

So we just hugged each other, silently, body to body, girl to girl, broken 
hearts helping each other to heal.  I couldn't understand what I had been so 
afraid of, to not have let this happen before.  How many times had she told me 
how I had been the only person to make her feel better after that jerk Kurt had 
dumped her?  Why couldn't I see it before now?  She wasn't a pervert.  She 
needed me.  And now I needed her.  But it isn't natural for a girl to need 
another girl like that, is it?

"Vanessa?" she whimpered.

"Hmmm?" I said, squeezing her supportively.

"Why are you...  naked?" she whispered.

"I..."

What could I say?  I did it to show her I trusted her...  That I loved... her...

"Because I love you too," I said clearly, my voice surprisingly steady and not 
quivering like my guts were.

She kissed me on the cheek, so I kissed hers, then I realized the feel of her 
clothes against my flesh didn't feel right.

"Take off your clothes," I said firmly, releasing her from my arms.

"Are you sure?" Shelly asked, wide eyed as she leaned away from me to look me in 
the face.

Her eyes...  her face...  her lips...  So sweet.  So tender.  So full of love.  
My only answer was to press my lips against hers and shared my new feelings with 
her the only way I knew how.

The only softer and more delicate sensation than feeling another woman's breast 
brushing against yours is the feel of infant cuddling on top of you.  I knew 
this sensation well, yet from the perspective I shared with Vanessa at the time, 
I only had the short and brisk experience from the first time with Shelly to 
compare, and it was nothing as near as nice as this.  

This was different.  This was love.  Two women who needed each other, each 
wanting to fill in the hole someone else had left in their hearts, knowing it 
would just be until they were ready to trust someone else once again.

So when Shelly pushed me onto my back and broke our kiss, I sighed, letting 
myself be loved and pleasured by the only person on this earth I trusted to do 
so.

Her lips and tongue did things to my nipples I had never experienced before.  
The few times I had let Jay, my old boyfriend in high school, suckle on my 
breasts, it never had brought me enough pleasure to sustain me very long.  I 
knew men liked them, so that was the only reason I had let Jay take my shirt and 
bra off those nights in his car last summer.

But Shelly...  It must be because she's a woman.  She knows how to make it feel 
good.  I wonder if I could do that to her too.

When Shelly's mouth and tongue grew tired, she crawled off and cuddled up beside 
me.

"In the morning, you won't tell me this didn't happen, will you?" she asked as I 
gently kissed her down the bridge of her nose.

I simply kissed her again on the lips while sending my left hand down to her 
crotch.  It took me a moment to find her little button, but when I did, she 
stiffened, then melted, just my touch having been enough to make her cum.

As they drifted to sleep in each other's arms, I felt myself separate from 
Vanessa's mind and drift away.  For the rest of the night I slept drifting among 
the hundreds of minds around me, sensing how there would be rich and fertile new 
experiences for me to share and enjoy... all in due time.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I awoke the next morning feeling refreshed and eager to start classifying the 
different symbol groups I was getting a feel for, and got to the old admin 
building around eight o'clock. 

I must have been just a few seconds later than the last time I showed up that 
early, for as I walked down the hall towards the stairs, a door just ahead of me 
to my right opened and this time I saw the coffee momentarily float in mid air 
before it plopped to the floor as the familiar "SHLING" sound filled my ears.

I froze, carefully dodged the cane as it came flying at my head, then held my 
arms up in the universal sign of surrender and only barely saw the blur that was 
Perry as he lunged.

The next thing I knew, Perry had his legs forked around my midsection as I was 
falling backwards.  I think if he hadn't recognized me at that instant, he 
wouldn't have curled both legs around me.  I realized later that if he had left 
one of his legs straight and landed on one foot, his other leg could have caused 
my back to snap into two.

So instead of a broken back, I got a bruised tailbone and another three good 
raps on the top of my head while cleaning up his spilt coffee.  I swore to 
myself I would be prepared the next time.

Once I limped my way upstairs, I made myself at home on the couch and started 
studying some of the less heavily damaged streams in a couple of ressy's.

Almost two hours later when the first of the three group members showed up for 
the game, I was discouraged as hell from finding that so many different 
combinations of symbols that could form a segment that I couldn't keep track of 
them all.  To make matters worse, one of the voices that had tried to taunt me 
into a mind-hopping race two months earlier walked in to play.

Terence Wishmaker was British and probably one of the best offensive voices the 
Group had.  Unfortunately, his big voice came with a big ego, and he loved 
proving he had one of the strongest voices on campus.  Joey and Neil both 
separately tried to put him into his place by challenging him to a telepathic 
duel, but Terence managed to take down their shields before they could do the 
same to him. 

Both of us seized this unexpected opportunity, Terrence challenged me, I 
immediately accepted, and quickly we agreed the showdown would be at high noon, 
Sunday, in front of the old cathedral.

Big ego or not, I had to respect Terence for his skill and strength.  But to me 
what was more important was the circumstances of how he had come to be apart of 
the group.

Terence had just begun to experiment with his telepathic abilities when another 
much more experienced voice discovered him and enslaved him.  After convincing 
his family Terence was too despicable to speak too, the man brought Terrence 
back to the states with him.  He taught Terence a lot, drilled him constantly, 
and perhaps this was the reason Terence was so good at the duels.  But he spent 
five years serving this man like any other slave, having no real life of his 
own.

So when he and his master attempted to enslave the Group, thinking there were 
only a handful of them to deal with, they were quickly disabled and brought to 
Sarah for judgment.  Sarah quickly saw Terence's situation, and after removing 
the rather simple commands the man had enslaved Terence with, Terence eagerly 
accepted her offer to join them, deeply afraid he would become someone like his 
ex-master if left to defend on his own.

Like I said, I respected Terence for making that decision and adhering to the 
group's rules when he could have left and used his abilities freely.  He had 
seen the corruption that kind of thing does to a person, and didn't want that to 
happen to him.

What Terence hadn't known was I had immediately seen through the ego he used to 
hide behind, and saw his fear of being enslaved again.  While Terence may have 
physically been twenty years old, in many ways he was only fifteen.  He had been 
enslaved at the ripe age of fourteen, and essentially his social development had 
stopped while his body continued to grow for those five long years serving his 
master without a care about himself.

Terence refused to allow me to stay for the game that day.  I understood his 
feelings, and left without much of a fuss, but you could say I was more eager to 
teach him a lesson after he used his inflated ego like a club on me to get me to 
leave.  He made it sound like I was worried he'd break through my defenses and 
try and enslave me, which as everyone knew by then, I would most likely die 
before that could happen.  Hmph... Like any trick he could have up his sleeve 
would be less effective by my observing how he cleaned minds.

Joey's car was parked behind mine when I returned to my apartment building, so I 
went up to Suzi's and found they had just got back from apartment shopping with 
Jason.

"So how come he's suddenly looking for an apartment?" I asked Joey while Suzi 
was in the bedroom changing clothes.  "I thought he liked living in the frat 
house."

"That was before he was known as the brother to princess Suzi," Joey snickered.

"Princess Suzi, huh?" I grinned.

"That's what he had called her.  I think it was supposed to have been an insult, 
but you know Suz."

I nodded, then said, "What about Johnson's apartment downstairs?  He's moving 
out at the end of the semester."

"The prick doesn't want to be in the same building as his overbearing meddling 
sister," Suzi said as she came out wearing tight jeans and a cut off t-shirt.

"Shit, Suz.  You feeling randy or something?" I said, personally loving seeing a 
bare tummy exposed to the public like that after the long winter.

"No, I'm just horny," she said off handedly, then walked over to me and asked 
sweetly  "Timmy?  Can my boys use your bathroom again tonight?"

"Sure thing, sexy," I said, giving her a kiss just to the right of her bare 
belly button.

"Stop that!" she said, slapping me on the top of my head.

"It was only a kiss!" I protested, then issued the old 'down boy' command 
silently.

"Well, just don't kiss me when I'm like this," she said, frustrated.

I sighed, realizing that because she was horny, those damn commands Joey put in 
her head would probably kick in even at something as simple as a hug.

Man, she was horny too.  When I started telling them about Terence's challenge, 
Suzi sat down on the opposite side of Joey, plastering herself against him as 
she listened, her hand absently wandering up and down his chest.  Joey was 
trying to listen, and Suzi was too, but even I wasn't really paying attention to 
what I was saying by the time Suzi was teasingly running her finger between his 
legs and watching his crotch move with his heart beat.

"I, uh..  think I'll be going," I said getting up after everyone had stopped 
talking for over a minute.

I expected someone to say something, but all I heard behind me was the anxious 
meeting of lips and deepening breaths.  I closed her door behind me with a lump 
in both my throat and my pants, and left the building without even stopping off 
at my apartment.  

I was halfway across the street when Joey thought to me, "Hey, wait up."

To my surprise, Joey came jogging up asking, "So where we going?  Back to the 
old admin building?"

"I can't go back there today.  Terence, remember?"

"Oh," he said, accepting that he had missed the reason while Suzi had been 
petting him.  "So what about the hospital then?"

"I don't...  feel like it," I admitted, frustrated in more ways than one.  "How 
come you left Suzi like that?"

"I didn't leave her.  She ordered me out.  She didn't want her mood used up 
before tonight.  Besides, she knew I wanted to see what you've been working on 
all week."

I sighed with my frustration, finding my hopes of what I was trying to do were 
diminishing out of the sheer number of symbol groupings I would have to memorize 
to accomplish it.

"Tim, what's the matter?  Did that shit head Terence..."

"No.  Nothing like that," I quickly assured him.  "Come on.  Let's go to the 
hospital and I'll show you."

I was shocked to realize I had never shared the vision of the symbols with Joey 
before then.  We spent hours just...  rediscovering the majestic beauty and 
grace of the symbols, something that I had forgotten to appreciate for quite a 
long time it seemed.

By the time I got around to showing him the details of how impossible it would 
be for me to memorize the different possible arrangements of simple symbol 
segments, I was starting to feel the drain of being in that kind of a link for 
so long.  After I closed the link, we remained sitting on this padded bench down 
a hall for quite some time, my eyes shut while I rested and his mind spun 
frantically with his forming ideas.

I never got to ask him what he was thinking, for suddenly he jumped to his feet 
and quickly said to me, "Red alert.  All hands to battle stations.  Got to go."

As my grin faded from my face, I closed my eyes again and laid down in the spot 
he vacated, then ignored the increasing bursts of telepathic noise nearby as the 
group assembled to track down and fight off another power hungry voice.

I dozed off a while, and when I woke, I was surprised to find the search still 
going on.  I then bumped my head on the fucking arm of the bench when I checked 
the time and saw I was late for my Saturday night drinks.

Strangers were sitting at our usual table, and I slapped myself on the side of 
my head for not remembering the newbies were confined to their quarters during 
an attack.  So I decided if they couldn't come to Rave, I could bring a little 
bit of the Rave to them.

Unfortunately, I found the elevator refused to go to that floor as it apparently 
had been locked out.  When I tried one set of stairs and found the second 
floor's door locked, I noticed a swirl of symbols just outside the other 
staircase's door on the opposite side of the building.

I cheerily climbed the first set of stairs to the landing between floors, then, 
as I turned the corner and recognized the guard's face, the gorilla noticed me 
and did the same.

"YOU!" he yelled.  "COME'ER, FAGGOT!"

I bet my face was as white as ash, and as I turned to run back down the steps, I 
heard this electrical buzzer going off above and below me followed by two slams 
somewhere above me and clicks from what I guessed were electrical locks closing 
on all the doors to that stairwell.

"You can't get away this time, bed wetter," he snarled.  "You're going to pay 
for making me miss my lunch."

I turned towards him, seeing my trapped-like-a-rat expression in the reflective 
sunglasses he wore.

"Look, I don't think you know..." I started to explain, then got cut off as he 
grabbed me by the throat and threw me against the concrete wall, winding me and 
knocking me momentarily senseless.

"When I get done with you, bed wetter, you'll wish you had stepped in front of a 
locomotive instead of running into me."

"I already do," I gasped, then snapped my sprawled legs together and tried 
hooking his left foot out from under him.

"Looks like I need to beat some more sense into you," he laughed after I failed 
to pull him off his feet.

"Shit.  Perry makes it look so easy," I muttered to myself as he dropped to his 
knees, pinning me between them.

As he raised his arm to commence with his promised beating, I looked him in the 
glasses, desperately trying to look behind those damn mirrors he wore, and said, 
"I'm here to see the newbies!"

"The fuck you are!" he exclaimed after his moment of surprise passed.

"I was supposed to meet them at the Rave!" I shouted, barely moving out of the 
way as his fist came down at me.  "God Damn it!  I'm a voice!"

"And I'm a silencer!" he barked, hitting me this time squarely in the gut, the 
impact not only rearranging my organs in very uncomfortable ways, but also 
jarred his sunglasses off his face and partially into my open mouth.

It took me several seconds to realize what I was nearly choking on, then just as 
he grabbed them with one hand and raised the other to finish me off, I made eye 
contact and "ZAP!" he was out for the count.

The twins would have been so proud of me.  Heh.  Of course I can't take all the 
credit.  If the gorilla hadn't done such a good job inducing the terror I had 
felt,  I probably would have only been able to stun him for a few moments.

Once I stopped holding my guts in agony and helped all my organs to go back into 
their regular assigned spots, I was strongly tempted to give the asshole a 
couple of kicks in his gut for the trouble.  But I didn't, finding it against my 
code of honor to injure someone while he was down, not to mention not wanting to 
risk waking him up and having to relive the terror again.

After inspecting around the door he had been guarding and not finding anything 
to release the locks, I carefully searched the gorilla's pockets and found what 
looked to be a garage door opener in the left one.

Once the doors were unlocked, I was tempted to strip the fucker down and take 
off with his cloths, naturally locking the doors behind me.  But the buzzer had 
made him stir, so I didn't take any chances and just got the hell out of there.

The telepathic activity was still going strong as I made my way towards the dorm 
building Shelly lived in.  I was puzzled.  What could have been taking them so 
long to track down the intruder, for that's all they had been doing since I had 
awakened from my little nap.

I knew Shelly wasn't in the room when I knocked on her door, but Vanessa was, 
and my curiosity got the better of me.

"Hi, is Shelly in?" I asked when she opened the door.

"She ran to store for some stuff," Vanessa said with a cautious tone.  "Are 
you... Tim?"

"Yeah," I blurted, actually surprised she knew my name.  "Uhm, I was just..."

"Come in, I guess," Vanessa said with uncertainty.

"Thanks," I said, stepping past her and momentarily grinning at the sight of 
Shelly's unmade bed.

"So you're Tim," she said, motioning me to sit on her bed as she turned down the 
volume on a twelve inch black and white TV set sitting on the study table at the 
foot of her bed.

"And you're Vanessa," I said, keeping my humor of the situation from showing on 
my face.

She looked at me like she suspected something, then as she discarded the thought 
with a yawn, I had front row seats watching her raise her arms over her head and 
her braless breasts tried to poke through her t-shirt.

She caught me admiring her bust, and instantly went on the offensive by asking, 
"Are you planning to get serious with Shelly?"

I blinked a few times to reinitialize my thought processes, then said, "I didn't 
plan on it, no.  She didn't want to get involved with someone else so soon."

"So you're not out to get into her pants?"

"Excuse me?" I said, mocking my taking offence at the suggestion.  "I'm not 
trying to get into anyone's pants.  I'm engaged!"

"Oh.  Sorry!" she winced.  "She never said you were... Uhm.  Engaged."

"Even if I wasn't engaged, I wouldn't be trying to get into her pants without 
her wanting me too!" I said, still playing mad.

"Sorry!" she said in aggravation.  "I just got dumped by a guy I...  I guess I'm 
just feeling protective."

"Tony dumped you?  Why the hell would he do that?"

"You know Tony?"

"I doubt he'd know me, but yeah, I know him."

"Oh," she said slightly disappointed.

"Pardon me for asking, but why did he dump you?"

"I'm not going to tell you... that," she said, looking me in the eyes and 
suddenly sensing something familiar.

"Have we met before?" she said, blinking after I glanced over at the TV a 
moment.

"Not in person, no.  I've seen you around though."

She looked me in the eyes again, this time triggering an empathic connection.

"Why do I feel like I know you," she asked softly.

Curious to see where this was going, I didn't break the connection and asked her 
again, "Why did Tony break up with you?"

"You... You already know why," she gasped.

"Tell me why Tony broke up with you," I insisted.

"Because...  He said he fell in love with...  another man," she said shakily.

"What else did he tell you, Vanessa?  How did he tell you?"

"All week long something was bothering him, and when he was late picking me up 
to go to the Rave last night, I tried kissing him in the car to try and soften 
him up so he'd tell me what was bothering him.

"He didn't kiss me back right, and when I stopped and looked him in the face, he 
got this big guilty look...  He told me he met this guy last week... And... 
Tony's gay!" she blubbered, breaking the link and throwing herself forward into 
my shoulder.

I gently rubbed her back as she recovered her self-control, then sheepishly 
scooted away from her when Shelly came in and caught us like that.

"What's going on?  Tim, what are you doing here?" Shelly exclaimed worriedly as 
she closed the door with her foot while holding two sacks in her arms.

"My plans for tonight fell through, so I stopped by to see if you wanted to do 
anything.  Vanessa was just telling me how she had picked out a fruit as a 
boyfriend and..."

"Don't call him that!" Vanessa objected, then lightened up a little and giggled 
slightly.

"You told him?" Shelly said with mixed feelings.

"I... I guess I did," Vanessa stuttered.  "I don't know why.  I just..."

"You didn't give her any coffee ice cream, did you Tim?" Shelly asked nervously.

"No, silly.  As far as I know that only works on you," I said, looking her in 
the eyes to see what would happen.

"Shelly, did you tell him?" Vanessa suddenly asked.

"Tell him what?" she asked even more nervously.

"Anything about... things?"

"I uhm..."

"It never happened," I quoted, looking Vanessa in the eyes.

"Yes it did," Vanessa said with a sudden burst of emotion.

I looked up at Shelly to see the same surprise on her face as was probably on 
mine, then as I got up to leave I said, "Well, then...  I guess you two uhm...  
Look, I'll just see you in class on Monday, 'k?"

"You're not going to...  Say anything still, are you?" Shelly said worriedly, 
following me to the door and opening it for me.

I smiled at her and pretended to zip my lips closed with an invisible zipper, to 
which she gave me a peck on my cheek and slowly shut the door.

"What to do, what to do..." I sighed as I left their dorm building.  "It's 
Saturday night and there's nobody left for me to hang out with."

I was tempted to just go to the Rave, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with the 
crowds, especially if I wouldn't be able to dance while I was there stag.

I walked around the quieter parts of campus until I noticed the group's probes 
were starting to spread out across the whole campus.

"I wonder what took them so long to try that," I said out loud, then nearly 
jumped out of my skin when a motorcycle with two people on it came speeding down 
the walkway and I had to hop out of their way.

"Why don't you fucking watch where you're going, you morons!" I yelled after 
them, then watched as two more went down a walkway on the other side of the 
yard.

Within five minutes the group had formed a perimeter around the entire campus, 
and after watching them slowly make their way inwards for a while, I got bored 
and tried a tiny little pulse that I estimated they wouldn't sense from their 
distance just to see if the intruder was hiding anywhere nearby.

When nothing came back and the others' search pattern didn't change, I just 
started hopping around people's heads looking for anything unusual, making sure 
I kept out of the range of the Group's probes.

I didn't really expect to find anything that way, and I didn't.  You could say 
the intruder found me, but it was really just chance that she probed the person 
I had just popped into and instantly attacked my mind through the link.

That was something I had never had happen before.  I never had someone attack me 
through a link I had formed to another person's mind.  She nearly succeeded in 
worming herself into my head through my own remote sensory feed streams, but I 
cut them off the moment I recognized non sensory symbols within the streams.

I barely got a fix on her before she stopped emitting her command streams at the 
person I had just disconnected from.  Seeing she was still effectively boxed in 
by the group's shrinking perimeter, I just watched her streams from a distance 
as she moved briskly towards their northern-most flank.

By the time I realized where she was heading, she was physically too far away 
from me for me to catch up with her in time.

"She's heading for the Rave," I urgently broadcasted across the whole campus.

"Tim, what are you doing?" Joey thought to me.

"The intruder accidentally scanned me while I was hopping around heads, and I've 
been watching her.  She's heading right for the Rave.  I'll lose her if she goes 
into that crowd."

"Are you sure it's her?"

"Yes, I'm sure.  You want me to stop her?"

"Just a sec.... Yeah.  Go ahead."

I focused my symbolic vision on her and discovered she didn't seem to have a 
shield or protective barrier up, and with a simple command stopped her fast in 
her tracks.

I had expected some kind of fight, probe, or something, but it never came, so I 
probed her and found out the reason why.

"Joey, whoever it was, was just using her as a relay.  She doesn't have voice."

"Good thing I didn't call off the search then," he replied before closing the 
thought channel.

After examining the young woman's mind a bit more, I made sure I knew where I 
could find her if I wanted to scan her in more detail later, then sent her back 
to the Rave where apparently she had been before whoever it was had borrowed her 
body for some scouting.

They didn't find the real intruder that night, and it was doubtful the intruder 
had ever actually set foot on the campus that night, or the other nights during 
the two weeks previous that someone had detected a suspicious probe and hadn't 
been able to locate the source.

I was relieved to hear that they had easily ruled out myself as being the cause 
of some of these mysterious ghost voices, but then I wasn't all that pleased to 
know how easily Suzi could detect when my mind was drifting around outside of my 
skull.

Suz had canceled her planned night with her slave boys, but that's not to say 
she didn't have any fun that night.  After their climaxes and things got quiet 
upstairs, I drifted off to sleep without knowing it, and found myself cuddling 
Suzi on top of me as I stroked her long sweaty hair.

My cock was still hard and deeply embedded inside her, and ever once in a while 
she'd stir and readjust her hips to get it in deep again.  My balls were getting 
a little sore for having fucked so much without cumming, but then they were used 
to this, and Suz never forgot to take care of that before going to sleep.

I closed my eyes to enjoy the slutty sensations Suz was sending to me through 
our share link.  I loved being her instrument of pleasure.  I'd do anything she 
wished without question or hesitation.

She's thinking about it now...  She's going get me off in some really perverted 
way.  I know her.  She hasn't been this horny since before Tim came here.

She's getting ready.  I can always tell because her cunt gets wetter as she 
thinks about it.

But then she snapped her head up, looked me in the eye with a suspicious look 
and said, "Timmy?  Are you in there?"

"What?" I asked.

"You ARE!  Get out of his HEAD, TIM!"

"What are you talking about, Suz?" I...  Joey asks as I found myself drifting 
slowly away.

"Go on..." Suzi thinks to me.  "Go find somebody else to haunt.  If you want to 
have sex with me, you come up here in your own body and do it.  I don't like 
SNEAKS."

Well, excuse me for dreaming.  Shit.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

"Good morning," Joey said with false cheeriness when he opened Suzi's door the 
next morning.

"Morning," I said, not sure what to make of his mood.  "Suz still mad at me?"

"Nah," he scoffed, closing the door behind me.  "I think you just surprised her, 
that's all."

I looked him in the eyes suspiciously, then as he let his concerns show on his 
face, I said, "But you're upset about what happened last night."

"Kind of," he admitted.  "Tim, I didn't sense you doing that.  You were in my 
head, but I didn't..."

"Joey... I'm ready," Suzi called from the bedroom.

"Coming," he immediately responded and left to join her.

I sat down at the breakfast table to think about what Joey had said, but got 
distracted watching his symbols flow about his body as he dressed Suzi.

Joey's and Suzi's mental signatures were as familiar to me as the feel of my own 
body.  I could even recognize them by their symbolic streams, and I had never 
really studied their streams in that great of detail to do that.

"Suz, how did you know I was connected to Joey when Joey didn't?" I asked her 
when they came out.

"I felt you watching me," she said, shrugging.  "I didn't sense anything else."

"I didn't sense anything at all," Joey pointed out.  "That's really starting to 
freak me out."

"Well then I want to try something before we go eat."

"All right, but hurry up.  I'm starving," Suzi said.

"I bet.  You put out more energy last night than the whole football team does in 
a game," I remarked.

"Well at least I don't sneak around spying on people to get my jollies," she 
snapped back playfully.

I smiled at her comment with my eyes closed, focusing my mind on just her 
symbols.  I imagined I was like a camera with a zoom lens, going nearer, 
focusing, going a little closer, focusing...

"Timmy...  This is feeling weird," Suzi said a bit nervously.

"What is?  Damn it, I can't sense anything!" Joey huffed in frustration.

"What does it feel like?"  I mumbled out.

"He said what does it feel like," Joey repeated for me.

"I feel like he's looking at me under a microscope," she said, clearly starting 
to get rattled.

I opened my eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "It didn't feel like last night 
then?"

"No, not even a little," she said shakily.  "Maybe you should try it on Joey."

"I thought you were hungry?" I asked.

"I'm not any more," she said with an uncomfortable expression.

"Sorry, Suz.  I didn't think it would upset your stomach," I said, noticing the 
difference in her digestive stream.

"How did you know my tummy was upset?" she asked.

"I can see it," I explained simply.  "Let me try this on Joey, then I'll 
explain."

"He just likes holding us in suspense," Joey thought privately to Suz.

"I do not.  I'm keeping the conditions the same.  She didn't know what I was 
doing, so you shouldn't either."

"Remind me to encrypt this thought channel later," Joey thought to Suz as I 
closed my eyes again.

Focusing in on Joey seemed easier, but that might have been because I had a 
little more practice.

"I think I can feel it," Joey commented.  "I feel like I'm standing up on stage 
in a packed house and forgot to wear pants."

"I wish that's how it felt to me," Suzi said.

"So you feel it too?" Joey asked.

"No, I meant when he was...  Timmy...  What I felt was much more subtle.  I 
think you're trying too hard."

So I backed off, then just studied his streams as a whole for a while.

"I don't feel anything now," Joey updated.

"Neither do I," Suzi added.

I took another deep breath, then tried relaxing in hopes to reform that drifting 
feeling I got before and after my little mental romps.

"Tim, I'm getting hungry again.  Can't this wait until after breakfast?"

I opened my eyes and yawned, "Yeah, I guess."

We went to Denny's, and after getting seated, I closed my eyes and let my senses 
wander around the room to see if I could recreate the conditions of last night 
without actually falling asleep.

There was this little girl about three who was idly playing with her dolly while 
her family waited for their breakfasts to arrive.  I enjoyed listening to her 
thoughts for they reminded me a lot of Richie's, yet they were different in the 
sense that Richie didn't really go for dolls.  I guess he was too spoiled to 
need to pretend dolls were people to keep him company.

A couple of times I got close to that drifting state, but never quite got there 
enough to drift into her head.

"I give up," I finally announced, opening my eyes and finding my breakfast was 
already in front of me.  "Shit, why didn't you tell me the grub arrived?"

"We did," Suzi said with her mouth full. 

"Yeah," Joey said critically.  "You ignored us, as usual."

"Sorry," I said, cutting my pancakes up with my knife and fork.  "Anyway, I 
think the reason you didn't sense me in your head, Joey, was because I wasn't in 
your head."

"Well that's good.  But then how were you able to know what I was thinking and 
feeling?"

"'Could see your streams," I said between mouthfuls.

"What, through my shields?" he asked worriedly.

"They make it harder," I simply said.  "But if I concentrate, I can usually make 
out enough to get the gist of what someone is thinking.  Especially you and 
Suz."

"I guess your dad was right," Joey thought out loud.

"Right about what?" Suzi queried.

"When we were down in Venezuela together, Tim's dad said the reason why Gladius 
teamed teens together was because they would form stronger links with each other 
than other people could.  Or something like that.  His dad was convinced I would 
be able to feel Tim out no matter where he was because we did so much together 
when he started getting the hang of his voice...  Holy shit.  Remember when 
those two assholes at the mall handcuffed me and then raped you?  Tim, you said 
you felt something was wrong that night and that's why you called me."

"Yeah.  And I was inside the Nursery too when I felt it."

"Shit, that's right."

"What's so special about the Nursery?" Suzi asked.

"The walls have this wood in them that blocks telepathy," Joey explained.  
"That's how Gladius hid him from everyone there.  Including me."

"So what does this have to do with what happened last night?" Suzi sighed.

"Yeah, Joey."

"I don't know.  I just thought it was interesting," Joey said with a 
disappointed shrug.

"Well then I'll tell you what it has to do with it," said after munching on my 
bacon thoughtfully a minute.  "I think what's happening while I'm asleep is I'm 
just tuning into someone else's streams enough that my dreams become 
reconstructions of what I make out from them."

"Yeah, but then I should be able to feel you probing me," Joey objected.

"Do you feel me probing you now?" I said, looking at Suzi while I had my 
attention on Joey's streams.

The both hesitated for they weren't sure who I was talking to, then Suzi opted 
to answer since I was looking at her.

"Not you silly," I said before she could speak.  "Joey."

"No," he said just as I recognized his digestive streams working to expel some 
excess air from his system.

"Excuse you, Joey."

"What?" he said, burped, then said, "Excuse me."

Suzi and I both chuckled, then when Joey realized the joke was on him, he had 
this expression on his face I hadn't seen since our freshman year of high 
school.  Then Suzi and I just looked at each other knowing we had both been 
thinking the same thing.

"Just don't go waiting for Wishmaker to burp before embarrassing him today," 
Joey said as his slight blush started to fade.

"Embarrass him?  You know that's not my style," I said, feeling a little edgy 
about the impending conversation.

"I just can't wait to see his face..." he said with a grin.

"You both aren't planning on watching this thing, are you?"

"Well I'm not," Suzi said as she absent-mindedly probed some fresh meat that had 
just come in the doors.

"Why?" Joey asked me cautiously.  "You don't have a problem with spectators, do 
you?"

"Hell no.  The more the better.  But..."

Joey was pretty upset that I didn't want him present for the showdown at noon.  
He didn't see how he being there would make him appear to be my backup in the 
unlikely event that Terence actually was able to penetrate my defenses.  I 
trusted the integrity of the group not to let it go as far as my life being in 
danger, but with Joey there, it might complicate things. 

Plus Suzi had taken a serious interest in two frat boys who were eating a few 
tables away, and Joey and Suzi ended up going back to Suz's apartment with them 
while I kept myself occupied off campus by shopping around town.

I felt odd as I wandered around the strip malls, yet I couldn't put my finger on 
what exactly felt odd.  It wasn't until I was driving back to campus for the 
telepathic dual that I noticed I felt a bit stuffed up, like I was coming down 
with a cold.  Yet that wasn't quite it either.

The cathedral's clock's larger hand was halfway between the 9 and 10 when I 
reached the square in front of it.  I was thrilled to see over fifty people were 
waiting to watch the duel, some of the voices having brought their...  
companions.

"I don't know what you said to Joey, but you sure pissed him off," Neil said, 
suddenly beside me.  "He broke the share link with me when I said I was coming 
to watch."

"Sorry," I simply said, feeling a bit apprehensive, even a little nervous about 
the upcoming dual.  "He'll get over it though."

"Yeah, I guess," he said, resisting his urge to press me for more info, or at 
least probably until after the match was over.

I passively scanned crowd, finding for the most part they expected me to win, 
but hoped it wouldn't be too quick of a battle, or too long.

"So what do you think?  Should I just go for the kill right away, or see what 
tricks he has first?" I asked Neil without looking at him.

"Hmmm...  A quick kill would definitely deflate the hot air in his head, but it 
wouldn't be as fun."

"Agreed," I said, giving Terence a confident smile just as he happened to look 
at me, and noting the flash of uncertainty pass through his eyes.  "Besides, I 
don't want to disappoint the crowd.  They're expecting a good fight."

Slowly, the hands of the giant clock moved to the upright position, and on the 
first strike of the bell, Terence released a quick resonating probe of pure 
energy that surprised me enough that I couldn't bring up my shields before it 
returned to him with the information he sought.

"Nice one, Terence," I called out loud to him.  "I don't think knowing what 
strategy I WAS going to use is going to help you any though."

"We'll see," he cautiously shouted back.

"'scuse me," I said to Neil as I formed my first blanketing illusion and 
disappeared from the crowd's sight.

The gasps and general turmoil caused by the crowd made me want to giggle as I 
walked briskly to ten feet away from Terence at approximately thirty degrees to 
his right, then as Terence and a few others in the crowd scanned for my position 
as well as for how I was deceiving their eyes, I manipulated their scans to show 
my position to be forty-five degrees to his left and altered the illusion to 
show me popping up there as well.

"Surprise," my illusion said as Terence stabbed at it with a fast telepathic 
blow, then it disappeared again.

"No, no... Over here," my image said as it blinked back into existence ten feet 
behind him.

After he threw another telepathic jab at my image, I could tell he wasn't going 
to fall for the same trick again, so I dissolved my blanketing sensory streams 
and said, "What's the matter, Terence?  Can't figure out what's real?"

He took a deep breath like he was going to yell, but instead quite surprisingly 
used the energy to generate a low level pulse I had no hopes of deceiving.

I just grinned at his indecision after the pulse didn't reveal my location being 
anywhere he hadn't already sensed me to be.  Despite the energy barriers 
protecting his mind, I could see the thoughts running through his head just by 
watching his face as he came to realize I was really standing right where he 
perceived to me.

This time when he probed me, I raised my barriers up long enough to protect my 
altered plans, then felt the first tingling of discomfort deep within my brain 
as he attacked my mind with not one, but two command streams.

"Say, that's pretty neat," I commented as I canceled the two streams as they 
emerged from his barriers.  "Let me try that."

I formed two, then added two more streams when he seemed quite able to handle 
the first pair.  I was impressed at how he was able to continue emitting his two 
control streams while at the same time maintaining his barrier.

I, on the other hand, was expelling significantly less energy than he was simply 
because I wasn't having to maintain a barrier to shield my mind.  Yet I was 
starting to feel a bit drained, and every once in a while I would feel this 
sudden throb in my head, which was really starting to concern me.

"Terence, I wasn't planning on making this so short, but I think I'm coming down 
with a cold or something," I said as I turned up the intensity of my streams and 
inspected his barrier for a weak spot.

"It's not over until it's OVER!" he growled and threw practically all of the 
telepathic energy he was using for his barrier directly at me.

I only had an instant to react to raise my barriers again to absorb the 
telepathic fireball, and was already forming the new command stream to seize 
control of his mind while his barrier was so weak when it hit me and sent a 
blinding flash of pain through the inner recesses of my brain.

My scream startled everyone, including Terence who stood there dumbfounded as I 
started to get up from the crouched position I had fallen down into.  Just as my 
finger pressed against this strange foreign object in my left nostril, Terence 
started pounding me with bursts of telepathic energy.

Pain shot through my head with each blow, and between that and feeling the 
familiar sensation of blood running out my nose after the foreign object in my 
nostril burst under pressure, I suddenly realized the true extent of the damage 
the group's attack in January had done to me.

In a desperate surge of fear, remorse, and anger, I transmitted this realization 
in a pulse to everyone there.  Terence at first thought it to be a ruse and 
pounded me with two more pulses before watching me fall to my hands and finally 
noticed the blood coming out of my nose.

Even after he stopped sending them, the pulses kept ringing in my head and 
stimulated new bursts of pain that shot throughout my body as well.

Like a survivor instinct, I knew I had to get to Joey as quickly as possible, 
and as people started closing around me trying to sense or ask me what was 
wrong, I lunged myself in the direction I knew Joey to be.

I was barely aware that it was Neil who helped me back to my feet after another 
jolt of pain tripped me to the ground the third time.  After I tried to shake 
him off me, he looked me in the eyes and said, "I'll help you."  All I could do 
was nod my head before shutting my eyes as my head exploded again.

It took us ten minutes to reach the apartments on foot.  Neil was extremely 
annoyed with Joey's refusal to answer his telepathic messages, but he didn't say 
a word about it when Joey opened the main door of the apartment building when we 
approached it.

Joey and Neil helped me into my bedroom, then after Suzi called Neil out, Joey 
shut the door and came over to me.

"Hey," Joey said in my face to get my attention.  When my eyes met his, he said, 
"Remember the Alamo."

Just like that, the pain stopped and my mind cleared.  I laid on my bed a few 
moments blinking as I sorted through what happened, then looked Joey in the eyes 
again and said, "Thanks."

"You okay?"

"Yeah."

"I take it it worked?"

"Couldn't have worked better," I said, rubbing the left side of my nose before 
remembering the empty capsule of fake blood was still up there.  "Can you hand 
me a tissue?"

"So was it worth it?" Joey said as he handed me the box of tissues from my 
dresser.

"I hope so.  I hate to think I went through all that for nothing.  Shit, Joey.  
That pain felt real!"

"Shh.." Joey said, reminding me that Neil was in the next room with Suzi.  "I 
guess I haven't lost my touch then," he said grinning.

After pulling out the empty capsule from my nostril, I got up and went into the 
bathroom to wash the fake blood off my face saying "Nope.  From the moment we 
split up at breakfast to the moment you said the trigger phrase, I had no idea 
my perception had been altered."

"Who says it still isn't," Joey kidded.

"The fact that I'm still breathing does."

"Like I couldn't figure out away around that," Joey said.

"Well, don't go out of your way trying to work out how since I'd never let you 
try it in the first place."

"Hmmph.  Oh ye of little faith."

"It's not about faith, Joey," I said as I returned to the bedroom, sat down 
beside him, and put my arm over his shoulder.  "Or.."

"If you say the t word, I'll puke all over you," he said seriously, yet with a 
touch of humor in his eyes.

So I didn't say it in words.  I just shared it with him empathically, very much 
like how the twins would communicated to us without actually making eye contact.  

To my frustration, his natural response to this triggered Suzi's commands, 
causing him to turn away uncomfortably saying, "We better go.  Suzi won't be 
able to distract Neil much longer."

I let a frustrated sigh escape as I got up to follow Joey out, but was 
completely distracted from this the moment I entered the room with the others 
and sensed Neil had already figured things out.

"Feeling better?" Neil asked.

"Lots," I said truthfully.

"Joey to the rescue," he said somewhat sarcastically.

Suzi's glared at me a moment, reminding me that she hadn't liked the whole idea 
from the beginning, and that now she wanted me to fess up to Neil before he got 
any angrier than he was.

"I guess.  But you helped me first...  Thanks."

"Yeah...  Good old gullible Neil," he said, looking Joey in the eyes a moment.

"Aw... Come on, Neil..." Joey said apologetically.  "It wasn't like that."

"No?...  No, I guess not.  You probably didn't expect me to help him afterwards.  
You wouldn't have done such a crappy job of acting afterwards if you had planned 
to use me like that."

"Blame me for it, not him," I defended Joey.  "This was all my idea, and you're 
right.  I didn't even consider what you might do.  For what it's worth, I'm 
sorry.  I didn't intend for you to get caught in the middle of..."

"I don't fucking care!" Neil blurted out.  He turned to Joey and said heatedly 
"I don't care you lied to me, I don't even care if you all used me or not!  The 
point is I always come second!  I'm fucking sick of working my schedule around 
Tim's when most of the time it doesn't matter because he's always out doing his 
own thing anyway!  But I guess it shouldn't surprise me at all that you wouldn't 
include me in on something like this.  I bet you didn't even think of letting me 
in on it, did you?  DID YOU!"

When Joey's guilty face could only stare at the floor, Neil said, "FUCK," 
turned, flung the door open, and left.

"Neil!  Neil don't go like this!" Suzi cried before yelling at me, "I told you 
this wasn't a good idea!" and ran out after him.

"Suz!" Joey protested, then let out a frustrated groan while pitching himself 
onto the couch.

"I'm sorry Joey.  I shouldn't have asked you to help me with this," I said 
guiltily.

"I started the mess.  It was right for you to ask me to help you undo it.  It's 
not your fault Neil wants to have a hissy fit about it."

The lump in my throat grew as I opened my mouth and said, "You don't really work 
your schedule around mine, do you?"

"Nah... He's exaggerating.  There were a couple of times when I thought you and 
I would have time to do something together that I told Neil I wouldn't be able 
do stuff then.  Suzi's the only I really base my schedule around."

"Then why are you feeling so guilty?"

"Because I did consider letting him in on it, but I also wanted him to be there 
in case something went wrong.  I knew he'd be pissed at first, but not like 
this."

"Joey," I began cautiously, breaking a lengthy period of silence between us.  
"Ever since I first met him, Neil has purposely avoided making eye contact with 
me.  I've had people do that before, but sooner or later I catch them off guard 
and after they experiencing it, they realize they don't really have anything to 
hide that's worth the trouble."

"But not Neil," Joey concluded for me.  "That doesn't mean he's hiding something 
from you.  He's just being defensive."

"Yeah, that's what I had figured too.  But...  Now, I'm not so sure."

"What do you mean?  You think he's a spy or something?"  Joey said incredibly.

"No, nothing like that."

"Then what?"

"I don't know, but I think it has something to do with why he reacted like he 
did to this."

Joey let out a long sigh before looking me in the eyes and asking, "What was he 
feeling?"

After my eyebrows shot up in surprise, Joey said, "Come on.  I know that's what 
you're basing your assumptions on.  What was he feeling?  Betrayal?  Jealousy?"

"Disgust... Anger...  and I think he was restraining some fear."

"Fear?  What kind of fear?"

"He's very careful not to let out too many signals for me to feel him out all 
the way, and I've never sensed any malevolent emotions from him, so I don't try 
to pry into his emotions while he obviously doesn't want me to..."

"But ..."

"But...  I'm fairly certain he's hiding something.  Something he doesn't want us 
know about.  And now I think its more specific to hiding it from you."

"Me?  What could he possibly have to hide from me?  Are you sure you're not 
getting your wires crossed?"

"No.  Like I said, he purposely makes it hard for me to read him.  But Joey, I 
am sure of one thing."

"Great.  What?"

"You're his best friend."

Joey eyes had a touch of guilt in them when they connected with mine for a mere 
instant before rolling north as he sighed, "Share links do have that affect, 
don't they."

"Among other things," I said before going over to the kitchen for a glass of 
juice to give him a moment to his thoughts.

Sometime in late February during a long hard freeze, I had come across a few 
birds in the back yard of our apartment building trying to find something to 
eat.  When I had sensed how truly hungry they were, I rushed outside with the 
remaining quarter loaf of bread I had on hand and summoned all the hungry birds 
in the immediate area for a meal.

Suzi had to lure me back inside with her own half loaf before I would stop 
driving my organized chaos of feathers long enough to put a coat on.  After 
having no bread for a week due to the expectant hopes of my newfound friends, 
Suzi and I went out and bought a half a dozen bird feeders for the back yard.

As I drank my orange juice, I peered out the kitchen window at the bird feeders, 
automatically reaching out with my mind to feel out the birds pecking through 
the scattered seed that earlier birds had purposely knocked out of the feeders 
while digging for the sunflower seeds.  They were obviously disturbed by the 
presence of a nearby threat, and it only took a moment to recognize the two 
clusters of swirling streams of symbols and realize Suzi and Neil were standing 
outside at the back fence watching the birds as well.

Looking out through one of the dove's eyes, it was obvious Suzi had done her 
magic and had calmed Neil down enough that she got him to break into a grin 
momentarily.  In fact, I quickly realized his guard was down and that my 
empathic senses were picking up his true feelings a little clearer even through 
the rather psychedelic vision the dove had.

When Neil noticed my stare, I suddenly found him innocently looking me straight 
in the eyes.

Natural empathy largely relies on the subconscious processing of the miniscule 
but definitive bits of emotional data given off by the human body, and the 
generation of responses to enhance the desired emotions of another.  The problem 
was, a dove's body, especially its face, doesn't have the appropriate features 
to generate the correct signals for a human, so I ended up amusing Neil and Suzi 
with strange feather arrangements and head bobbings as I tried to dive into his 
soul with my empathic sense.

"Timmy, you better stop that before you hurt the poor thing," Suzi said to the 
dove after I lost my/the dove's balance for a moment.

Slightly offended by her lack of faith in my bird-skills, I had all five doves 
raise their wings as high as they comfortably could go, prance around each other 
in a circle, then do a curtsy before I released them and they flew off in an 
explosion of wings beating air.

Just as I finished rinsing out my empty glass, Joey suddenly rolled off the 
couch exclaiming "Red Alert!" before leaping across the room and out the door.

"So much for a relaxing Sunday afternoon," I said to myself as I watched the 
three of them pile into Suzi's car and drive off.

Over the next week or so, the group was on constant alert as they kept detecting 
one or more people's probes on campus.  Even I sensed a few, and I wasn't trying 
to.  The probes were so short and so well targeted that by the time you realized 
it was a probe and reached out to trace its source, the probe was finished and 
the telepathic signal was gone.  

At first I was absolutely mystified as to how anyone could direct a probe so 
accurately without having to broadcast a wide field probe to discern their 
target's location.  But then it hit me that I could do the exact same thing 
using my symbolic vision, and you can guess what I concluded from that.

The response I got from the group when I told them what they were dealing with 
was discouraging to say the least.  Even Suzi didn't find this news upsetting as 
I felt it should have.  Apparently I had never really considered what it would 
be like to go up against another with the sight before, where everyone in the 
group had ever since that morning I demonstrated it by taking down a third of 
them while they were already at full alert.

I didn't see Joey or Neil at all that week, and only saw Suzi when she came home 
to shower and change clothes... with my favorite gorilla accompanying her every 
time.

Suzi had told me he had been bugging her about getting to meet me for weeks, and 
he apparently hadn't been able to go to the duel the previous Sunday because 
everyone else had gone.  So when Suzi notified me she and Rich Bugle were going 
to swing by my place after she showered, I rushed around in a near panic to 
prepare.

I purposely had my back turned when Suzi opened the door, then after Suzi 
introduced me, I twirled around with my hand out for a shake saying, "Also known 
as slippery Tim."

Oh, the satisfaction...  It was pure bliss.  His jaw hit his chest so hard when 
it opened that he nearly lost is sunglasses from the jolt.  And just as Rich 
recovered enough for his anger to kick in, I anxiously grabbed the Ruma's deli 
sack from the table and held it out as calmly as I could saying, "Peace?"

His grumbling stomach calmed his anger enough that he didn't break my arm as he 
snatched the bag from my slightly wavering hand, then after inspecting the 
contents, he muttered, "Thanks," before giving Suzi a dirty look while saying, 
"We need to go."

After bravely saying goodbye to both of them as they left, I stood frozen in 
place sweating for nearly a whole minute before I sat down from my shaking 
adrenaline soaked muscles and finally just busted out laughing. 

Encouraged by Suzi's observation that Rich had been somewhat appeased by my food 
offering, I went out of my way to make sure I would have something hot, tasty, 
and because he was an Eta, not too greasy available to me on short notice. (Etas 
have special restrictions to their diet so their bulk is as close to 100% lean 
muscle as possible, and that meant they didn't get to eat fast food very often.)

So whenever Suzi was about to run home after sleeping in the medical complex 
like everyone else in the group, she would let me know so I would have enough 
time to either get something run over to me or fix something myself to feed the 
gorilla while Suzi showered and changed.

The more I learned about him, the more threatening he became to me.  Sarah had 
three graduates assigned to keeping Rich in the best shape he physically could 
be, and she continuously tested him in various ways, many times without warning.

Sarah's cloak and dagger testing had forced Rich to adopt the "assume everyone 
is hostile" attitude, and that somewhat explained why he had acted as he did 
when we first met.

Finding out that he had even fought off three Eta's single handedly once, I 
found I could no longer think to myself, "he could rip me in half," and know I 
was exaggerating.

Anyway, all my trouble and work definitely had an effect on his disposition 
towards me, but not the kind I had hoped for.  I don't call him gorilla for no 
reason.  Animals can smell your fear, and this telepathically immune gorilla 
definitely smelled mine.  

I couldn't help it.  He was so large, so powerful, and my only true defense was 
dependant on knocking his sunglasses off which now had half circle earpieces on 
the ends of the arms to help prevent them from falling off.  I wanted get along 
with everyone there, and I didn't like the concept of having someone like Rich 
holding a grudge against me.  The knowledge that I had gotten away from him 
twice before didn't comfort me anymore since now he knew where I lived, and I 
knew revenge was very high on his list of things he liked to do.

After the first couple of meals, he mentioned he liked tuna fish cheese melts, 
then when I made that for him the next day, he started telling me what he wanted 
to eat the next day.  I only humored him the first time, but then when I had 
takeout Chinese instead of whatever it was he had asked for...  Well, it wasn't 
pretty.  He belittled me, tripped me once, and then just before he left, he 
grabbed me by the neck and mouth and made me promise him I'd have steak with all 
the trimmings for him the next day.

The worst part about all of this was, the sensations I felt through Loretta, the 
gorilla's ex-girlfriend, kept coming back to me.  After he left the building and 
I finished thoroughly cussing out his entire ancestry, I had to take a cold 
shower to stop the crazy erotic thoughts I was having.

The probes stopped the next morning, but Suzi wasn't allowed to leave the 
medical complex due to the threat of an imminent attack.  I offered to bring her 
a change of clothes, but I wasn't allowed to do so for the same security reasons 
she wasn't allowed to leave.

But that didn't stop Rich from calling me that evening and telling me he wanted 
his steak dinner brought to him.  Outraged, I barely managed to say, "It'll be 
about an hour," before slamming the phone back on the hook and headed for the 
kitchen to start cooking.

Steak wasn't the only thing I was cooking that evening.  Part of me was saying I 
needed to stand up to him like a man, and another part of me wanted to just do 
what I had to do to appease him and leave it be.  But I knew better than to 
listen to my emotions.  Fight or submit.  That's what he'd expect me to do.  
That's what all bullies expect you to do.  But those are never your only 
options.

When he finally came out of the medical complex's loading dock door an hour 
later, he was surprised to find I had set up a little table with a setting for 
two.  The weather was unusually warm that night, so it was perfect for a dinner 
for two under the stars.

"What's this?" he asked suspiciously.

"Your steak dinner with all the fixings," I said calmly.

"And who's the other plate for?" he asked threateningly.  "You?"

"Let's just say it's a surprise."

"Just make sure it's a good one," he said as I went over to my car, his eyes 
watching me carefully, then turned to his food.

Rich was so involved with his steak that he didn't notice the limo drive up 
until the door opened and the occupant exclaimed, "Are you starting without me?"

"Lori?  What the hell are you doing here?"

"I came for dinner, stupid.  What did you think?"

I walked up with a champagne bottle saying, "I thought you might enjoy some 
female company with your steak.  Was I wrong?"

He eyed me carefully a moment, then smiled broadly as he turned towards Lori and 
tried to grab her like a piece of meat.

Again, the satisfaction of watching her flip him onto his back was most 
rewarding, and best of all, she had done it all on her own.

"Playing hard to get again, eh?" Rich gasped as he desperately sucked his breath 
back into his lungs.

Lori winked at me as she sat down in her seat, then after I scooted her in, I 
started poring the champagne.

Rich sat down and started to eat again, but it was obvious that his attention 
was so split between Lori, myself, and everything else around him that he could 
have been eating cow manure and wouldn't have known the difference.

I waited on them like a faithful manservant, speaking only when spoken to, and 
even called them ma'am and sir as I served them their desert.  Rich had finally 
relaxed enough to enjoy the double fudge cake, and he was actually being very 
charming to Lori who was for the most part receptive to his act.  All in all, 
the dinner lasted an hour, and I was almost forgetting whom I was dealing with 
by the time the limo returned and announced it was time for Lori to go.

Anticipating I was about to spring my trap, Rich walked Lori to the limo with 
one hand around her and the other clenching into a fist then relaxing 
repeatedly.  I could feel his presence in the air as he kissed her good night, 
his senses fully alert for whatever was to come.

But nothing came except the wind following the limo's departure, and after 
standing there for several moments ready to leap in any direct, he finally 
barked, "What the fuck are you up to?"

"Up to?" I said innocently, then took a deep swig of the champagne straight from 
the bottle and said "What makes you think I'm up to anything?"

"How did you know about Lori!" he demanded, walking up to me with a fast and 
powerful stride.

"She has such a nice athletic build.  I can see why you like her," I commented 
confidently.  

So confidently that it made him stop in his tracks and ask in a cold, almost 
nervous voice, "Are you threatening me?"

"Did you enjoy your steak?" I asked with earnest, looking myself in my own eyes 
through the reflection of his sunglasses.  "Did you have a good time?  Or were 
you so paranoid about what I was planning that you couldn't?"

"You tricked me!" he said, leaping to the conclusion I was trying to obtain.

"I didn't have to," I said honestly into my own eyes.  "But at least you didn't 
make a fool of yourself like I thought you might.  I'd say you scored some 
pretty good points with Lori.  Especially since she thought the dinner was all 
your idea."

"What?  Why?" he choked.

"She broke up with you because she thought you were as romantic as sledgehammer, 
remember?"

"What do you want from me?" he said tensely.

"An apology would be nice," I said daringly.  "But if you can't manage that, 
I'll settle for you leaving me alone.  I don't like kissing peoples asses.  Or 
at least not ones as big as yours."

"And if I don't?" he said menacingly while stepping forward to tower over me.

"Lay a finger on me again, I'll sue your ass for everything its worth," I said 
coolly and without a hint of fear in my voice.

He stood there expressionless for several long moments before poking me in the 
chest with his finger and saying, "Stay out of my way, and stay away from Lori, 
and I'll pretend you don't exist."

And with that he went back inside, leaving me to clean up the mess.

Besides not being my style, revenge always seems to have this way of making 
things worse, and I believe that most people got what they deserved sooner or 
later.

Take Steven for example.  This man brainwashed my best friend into being my 
worst enemy, made Suzi into a mindless sexual animal, and did numerous 
unspeakable things to other people I cared about not just to torture me, but 
because he also liked to do it.  Suzi, Joey, Dana, and Jerry all have his dark 
nightmare living within them, effecting them in different ways, and it will 
haunt them for the rest of their lives.  

Joey's guilt about the things he did as Joseph and later while recovering his 
identity had made him so unconfident about his own decision making abilities 
that it was only natural he found comfort in letting someone else make the 
decisions for him, that person naturally being Suzi.  He also tends to blame 
himself for any unhappiness Suzi or I experience whether he had anything to do 
with it or not.

Steven's greatest mark on Suzi was removing every last trace of sexual 
inhibition to the point where even rape is just another form of sexual 
intercourse to her.  This only reinforces Joey's guilt since it was Joseph who 
had raped her time and time again while she was under the influences of that 
drug.  Joey and I both share this fear that Suzi may someday forget herself 
while playing with her boy toys and seriously get herself hurt or even killed.

Dana has this fixation on getting pregnant by Jerry, while Jerry constantly 
struggles with his ingrained need to have sex with her every chance they get, 
pregnant or not.  I called them from time to time just to see how they were 
doing, and I'll never forgive Steven for what he did to them from hearing them 
cussing each other out horribly in anger followed by their mad fuck, which was 
their way of settling any disagreement.

Yes, I wanted and still want Steven to pay for his crimes and all the pain he 
has caused.  And while I was his prisoner, I wouldn't have given it a second 
thought about killing the bastard with my own two hands if I had been given the 
chance.  But that was because he was a deadly threat to not just me, but many 
others, and that would be the only reason I could ever use deadly force on 
another.

After Joey shot him in all four limbs, this proving his hold over Joey had 
finally been broken, I wanted nothing to do with the man.  Oh, I checked to make 
sure he would never be able to harm me or anyone else again, but I didn't waste 
any more of my time on him after I was told his telepathic abilities had been 
permanently disabled and he would most likely never walk without the aid of a 
cane again.

To inflict suffering upon a crippled and defenseless man, no matter what he may 
have done to me in the past, was, and still is, wrong.  To seek revenge puts you 
on their level if not beneath them, and invites retaliation by not just your 
target, but by others who would never otherwise involve themselves in your 
business.

Rich was still somewhat a threat to me, and I was pretty pissed having to clean 
up everything myself after quite frankly bending over backwards to befriend the 
big ape.  But I wasn't about to do anything to seek retribution for all my 
trouble.  The guy just better never push his luck with me again or I'd follow 
through on my lawsuit.  

Either that or sick the twins on him.  Once they seeded him, I wouldn't have 
minded homing my empathic controls by making Rich the toy dance around in a tutu 
and having him serve me a steak dinner or two.  As entertaining as that was, I 
doubted I would go that far.  He would really have to piss me off for that to 
happen.  Lucky for him, he never did.

Suzi came home the following night, looking more tired than I had ever seen her.  
She invited me in, and after sitting down on the couch with a glass of Gatorade, 
she asked me to go turn on the shower for her, which I did without giving it a 
thought.

She kind of surprised me when I came out and found her laying on her back 
topless while struggling to pull off her jeans with one hand.

"You want me to go?"

"Not unless you want too," she grunted, then violently shook her legs in an 
attempt to fling the loosened pants off them.

"Here, let me do it," I insisted, then when she didn't object, I not only took 
her jeans off, I took her panties off and carried her to the shower.

"Where's Joey when you need him," I said as she got in and I started to walk 
out.

"He's probably even more tired than I am," she said just before I heard the soap 
hit the floor of the shower.

When she sat down in the stall with a sigh and didn't get back up, I hesitated 
by the door undecided whether to offer to help her or not.  

When she dropped the soap again and groaned with frustration, I took a deep 
breath before asking, "You want some help in there?"

"What?"

"I said, "Would you like some help?""

"What, you mean, like washing my back?"

"If that's what you need help with," I said, trying to restrain my excitement.

The soap bounced around the stall again before she answered, "I guess.  I'm not 
getting anywhere in here.

"Down boy," I commanded as I probably broke my own personal stripping record.  I 
had to pause a moment to deflate before opening the shower door, then forgot all 
about it from the sight before my eyes.

I suppose it was her dripping wet hair that made her look so... pitiful.  I 
washed her with the same tenderness and... professional manner as I did my 
little brother.  The little pecks on her forehead were the only actions I 
desired to give her, and once I tucked her in her bed and got dressed myself, I 
felt really good about how innocent it had remained.

An hour before dawn that Saturday, I headed over to the old admin building to do 
some comparisons between ressy and non-ressy symbol streams after a bolt of 
inspiration hit me in class the day before.  This was the first time I had 
returned to the admin building since the duel with Terrance, and I wanted to do 
my scans and leave before that day's contestants showed up to keep appearances 
up that I was ashamed of my defeat.

I sensed Perry's clouded mind still apparently asleep as I entered, so I took a 
moment to marvel at how thoroughly hidden his thoughts were even while he was 
fast asleep.  I didn't do that long, however.  I wouldn't have been surprised if 
Perry could somehow detect a telepath's attention upon him, and I could only 
guess what he'd do if he caught me examining his privacy shield.

I quit my scans a little before eight, frustrated this time by just how complex 
and numerous the symbol pattern differences between ressies were, let alone the 
differences between them and the non-ressies.  Different ideas of how to start 
recording and classifying these differences were spinning around in my head as I 
made my way down to the ground floor on those squeaky steps, but my attention 
snapped completely onto the door opening ahead of me as I left the staircase and 
headed towards the exit.

Right on cue, the "SHLNG" was followed by the slight whooshing of Perry's cane 
as it came at me.  Minding the razor sharp blades protruding from the end, I 
managed to catch it, spun it on my finger in a 270 before holding it out to 
Perry who calmly hobbled towards me, carefully sipping his coffee.

Perry took his cane, retracted the blades with a twist of the neck, and 
continued towards his office without breaking his stride

But he did grunt, "Not bad, Branson.  There may be hope for you yet."

Branson?!?

"Not bad yourself.  You didn't even drip your coffee."

He grunted an acknowledgement, then as he unlocked his office's door, he added, 
"New board's up if you want to sign up."

I was about to say no thank you, but then thought twice as "Branson" echoed 
through my head.

There were only four names on the board, two on one day, two on another, so I 
picked out the next Saturday, rather curious to see who would sign up to 
challenge me.  There were only two weeks of classes left to the semester, and 
since about half of the voices would go home for the break, most would try to 
squeeze themselves in before finals.  Someone was bound to sign up on my day if 
for no other reason than to squeeze it in.

Okay, I admit I'm not the neatest penman, especially when writing on the 
chalkboard.  Last month when I signed up, the d and t kind of got overlapped, 
and if you blurred your eyes, it did look somewhat like a deformed s, mostly 
from the way I make my ds.

Anyway, this time I carefully printed my name, "Timothy Brandton", fitting my 
last name under the first so it all fit in the box.  I would have put my middle 
name as well, but it wouldn't have left much space for anyone else to sign.

Perry had left his office before I had decided on a day, but returned as I was 
walking out.

I said, "See you next week, Perry," then got the grunt acknowledgement I 
expected as I headed for the building's exit.

But just before I reached the door, I heard Perry...  Well, it sounded like a 
dog trying to bark while wearing a collar three sizes two small, but in Perry's 
case it was a choked gasp, and was followed by the sound of his coffee cup 
shattering on the floor.

"Perry, you alri..." I exclaimed before stopping dead in my tracks from the 
ashen color of his face and the intense vibe of fear he emitted when he looked 
over at me.

His left hand was covering his heart while the other abandoned his cane for the 
edge of the desk to steady his wobbling frame.  I immediately thought he was 
having a heart attack, and when he didn't respond to my question asking him 
this, I reached over to the phone and dialed 911.

The 911 operator had just answered when Perry laid his hand over the cradle 
disconnecting me, then firmly rasped, "I'm fine.  Please go."

"But," I said, noting his color wasn't quite back to normal.

"OUT!" he bellowed, reasserting his control over the situation.

"Okay, okay..." I said, walking out of the office, but hesitating at the 
building's exit unsure whether I should leave him alone.

His phone rang, and he answered it with his usual friendly demeanor.

"What do you want!?"

....

"No, I dialed the wrong number!  Who the hell decided on using 911 in a town 
with 991 phone numbers anyway!  Don't you people have any...  Hello!  HELLO!  
<clang> Morons."

"I said GET OUT!" he shouted a moment later when he came out of the office, 
probably to get a mop to clean up the coffee on the floor.

I didn't have to be told a third time.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tim, the Teenage MC
By Rass Senip
Chapter XXI: Fall 89 - Summer 90
Part 7 - A Pickled Matter
(no sex)

On the last day of regular classes, I had a test.  A test.  I also had a final 
for that class two days later.  Is that stupid or what?  I can't tell you how 
tempted I was to correct that injustice.

Granted, Political Science wasn't my favorite class.  Whatever possessed me to 
take it, I didn't know, but I was determined to get an honest A in it.  

I guess I shouldn't have blamed myself for letting my guard drop so much that I 
fell victim to the most unique and unusual attack I had ever encountered to that 
time, but it had been such rude awakening to how relaxed my defenses had become 
that I would never again go without a mental barrier like I had done all 
semester long.

I remember having difficulty with the essay portion of the test.  I kept 
spelling words wrong, but I don't know how many I actually corrected before 
falling under the pickle-pickle spell.

Yes, the pickle-pickle spell.

"Pickle, pickle, every pickle pickles, pickle to the pickle."

At least that's what I had written on my test before completely pickling out.  I 
can only imagine what I must have said out loud.

Now, I didn't stay under the spell for its whole duration.  No, nobody in the 
group came and snapped me out of it.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I guess 
you could say Joey did, but not in any way intentionally.

I had three tremendous shocks all within twenty seconds or so, the first was 
feeling the sharp hot pain of a bullet burrowing into my back and through my 
right lung.

After hitting the floor with my face, the sensations evaporated, and after I 
regained my senses enough to take inventory of my condition, I was then shocked 
again by the knowledge that besides a slightly bleeding lip, I was fully intact 
without holes in my body that weren't supposed to be there.

The instant obvious conclusion raced through my head, and in the time it took me 
to get back to my feet while gasping, "Joey," the third shock hit me as all of 
my classmates turned towards me muttering, "pickle," in various emotional 
voices.

Just hearing the very soothing and welcoming word caused me to lose my grasp on 
the situation a moment.  Actually this was somewhat of a saving for me, for 
during that moment I muttered the magic word myself, and the other pickled 
students lost interest in me.

My old instincts finally kicked in enough to make me raise a telepathic shield 
around my mind.  If I hadn't, I am certain I would have joined the others in 
their pickled existence and that I would never have forgiven myself for.

I was just trying to take in what was happening when several of my nearest 
classmates took notice of my lack of pickle muttering, astonishingly issuing 
several very crude telepathic commands with the intent on repickling me.

Within a couple of heartbeats, the others in the room seemed to become aware of 
my condition, and as I sensed their strangely charged symbols forming the same 
commands as the others had, I put up a false pickled personality and responded 
with an enthusiastic "pickle-pickle" in time to divert their massive attack.

I wasn't out of the woods yet, however.  They seemed disturbed by my shield and 
were constantly issuing verbal pickle queries to which I did my best to respond 
to.

After dissolving my false personality and mimicking their actions as best I 
could, I became increasingly desperate from the never-ending pickle demands.  My 
break came when I accidentally made full eye contact with one of them and was 
overwhelmed emotionally by their pickle-ness.  When I reflected that emotion 
back at them, the guy literally passed out from an overload of pickle-ness.

I was emotionally drained by the time I had knocked out the whole room, and it 
quickly became obvious that I wasn't done over-pickling people.  I could feel 
hundreds more all around me, and in fact that was all I could feel.  It was like 
the whole world was just a bunch of pickles.  But even if it was, I had to find 
Joey.  Pickled or not, he had to have been seriously injured for me to have felt 
it like that.

As I continued to assess the situation, I glanced at the time and was startled 
to find it was already a little after two in the afternoon.  My class had 
started at noon, meaning I had been a pickle for more than an hour.

Scanning the surrounding area didn't paint a very rosy picture.  There were 
pickles out in the hall, pickles in the surrounding classrooms, pickles outside, 
pickles above, pickles below, and with the sound of a groggy "pickle-pickle", I 
realized the pickles in the room were starting to wake up as well.

My instincts told me using a blanket command to keep the twenty or so classmates 
and its instructor under would be like putting a flashing target on my head, and 
seeing that I couldn't sense very far with all these pickles around me, my best 
option was to get the hell out of there.

I slowly opened the door and slithered out, immediately finding all twelve pairs 
of eyes in the immediate area of the hallway were focused on me intensely.

Mimicking their own actions and to some degree their thoughts, I calmly walked 
down the hallway thinking and muttering "Pickle, pickle," finding that while 
they didn't ignore me, they also didn't try to stop me, and that's all I really 
cared about at that point.

Walking down the steps to the main floor turned out to be impossible.  
Apparently while pickles seemed to be quite capable of walking around, even 
running as I found out later, they didn't seem to grasp the concept of climbing 
or descending stairs.  There were anywhere from ten to thirty pickles clustered 
at the tops and bottoms of the stair cases with a few apparently stuck on the 
stairs in between floors.  They would have instantly seen me as a non-pickle if 
I had done something so unpicklely as going downstairs.

So I took the elevator.  It wasn't hard.  The single pickle in the elevator 
didn't seem to question the elevator's movements, and even seemed rather 
relieved to have another pickle wander in to swap pickle-pickle comments.

Sadly, I just wasn't pickle enough for her.  Heh.  After she became very 
dissatisfied with my pickleness, I had to resort to zapping her with my pickle 
stare, but got a nice feel of her bod as I helped her down to the ground.  

I didn't have any further problems getting out of the building, but not ten feet 
away from the entrance I found an unconscious Eta who had been severely beaten.

The pickles around me became visibly agitated by my attention to a subdued non-
pickle, and before I knew it, I was running from a small mob of pickles that had 
violent intentions towards me.

All I got to say is, thank God for steps.  It took me a couple of panicked 
dashes from one set of steps to another before I managed to fool the pickles at 
the opposite side of the steps that they didn't start to chase me.  Of course it 
was also rather difficult to find steps that they couldn't just walk up the 
slope beside them or get around some other way.

By the time I was walking among them without any of them chasing me again, I had 
seen at least four beaten people laying unconscious along the way and had to 
focus myself on just the "pickle-pickle" stuff while sneaking in a few thoughts 
in between about what I should do or where to go.

I wandered around a bit looking for a place to hole up, preferably with lots of 
stairs and doors I could lock.  Unfortunately, everywhere I went had pickles 
inside them, and I was about to try my luck at using a phone to call for help 
when I faintly sensed someone scanning the area from the newer physic's 
building.

Whatever it was that was doing this to people had the added effect of clouding 
my telepathic senses.  I felt like I was walking in a fog towards a faint 
flickering light that of course stopped just as I was starting to get a firm fix 
on it.

With pickles everywhere I went, I didn't dare probe for the source myself, and 
just made my way slowly into the building.  Since the source had been at least a 
floor or two up, I immediately looked for an elevator and found two, both with a 
large group of pickles around them.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a red horn of the fire alarm just above a 
glass door with a fire hose behind it.  Straining to keep my thoughts from 
racing while I was under the scrutiny of so many pickles, I came to the 
conclusion I needed to draw the attention of whoever was upstairs to me, and 
what better way than with horns and a few flashing lights.

You wouldn't think it would be that difficult to find one of those little red 
boxes that manually triggered the fire alarm, especially in a modern physics 
building where you expected people to blow things up once in a while.

I finally found one behind a big plant in the foyer, which in a way was a good 
thing since the plant hid me from the ever present eyes of the pickles around 
me, plus I was near the exit which had steps leading up to it and no ramp on 
that side.

The coolness of the chemical in the glass vial that broke when I triggered the 
alarm startled me, and between that, the noise of the alarm, and the probes from 
upstairs shooting out, the pickles in the foyer became very hostile towards me.

My route outside was blocked by a pickled Eta knocking over a plant in front of 
the doors as he moved in to probably pulverize me, and after only receiving a 
few scraping blows, I thrust myself out into the main hall and desperately 
dodged the pickles racing towards me, tripping them with their own feet or 
running them into the walls and each other, quickly running out of room as my 
telepathic activity brought them out in droves.

I was getting knocked around quite a bit and had lost where the stairs were when 
suddenly there was a ding of an elevator followed by...

"HEY YOU GUYS!  COME AND GET ME, YOU PICKLE HEADED SHIT FOR BRAINS!"

I almost got run over by the crowd of pickles running to silence the non-pickled 
voice, and I was so stunned by this it took me a good ten seconds to realize 
they had totally forgotten about me.

"RUN FOR THE STAIRS, IDIOT!" the muffled amplified voice said over the roar of 
"Pickle! Pickle!" just as I had turned to do so.

When I got to the stairs, I found not only the bottom clear of pickles, but the 
landings above also void of pickles despite knowing there had to be pickles up 
there somewhere.  I climbed to the first landing as quickly as I could, then 
paused a moment to get my breath back while straining my telepathic senses for 
my fellow pickle refugees.

A distant repetitive clanging drew my attention just as it stopped, and I held 
my breath listening anxiously, sensing it was a signal from my benefactors.  
When the clanging returned, I concluded they were trying to tell me what floor 
they were on, but the damn fire alarm echoed really bad in the stairwells, and I 
just couldn't be sure if the clangs I heard were all clangs or echos of the 
alarm.

So I just started climbing, figuring that if nothing else, I could tell what 
floor they were on by the loudness of their clangs.  The building was eight 
floors plus a basement, but they stopped clanging when I reached floor three and 
didn't restart even when I got up to floor eight.

With pickles on each floor near the stairs, it hadn't been easy to slip by them 
without their notice, even with all the stairwell doors closed from the fire 
alarm going off.  I pondered on what to do next while sitting on the steps just 
below the eighth floor, and I came to the conclusion that being trapped in this 
building with who knows who wasn't going to help me find Joey and help him.

If it wasn't already too late.  An hour had already gone by since I awakened 
from my pickled state.  If Joey had been shot, he could have already bled to 
death by now, and that's only if whoever shot him hadn't finished him off before 
hand.

I looked up for some divine inspiration or, even better, a miracle, and after 
nothing immediate happened, I sighed and closed my eyes with the image of the 45 
degree slope of the backside of another rise of stairs fading from my eyes.

I snapped my eyes open whispering to myself, "Stairs?  Stairs that go where?"

"The roof," I answered myself a moment later after climbing up the rest of the 
steps to the eighth floor and peering up to where the steps rose to.

The landing above had a metal ladder that went up to a hatch... that was 
padlocked.

"Damn.  I wish Joey was here," I muttered after climbing up and checking it out 
close up.  Joey was better at picking locks than I, not that Joey would have had 
any better luck with a padlock like that.

I was just about to climb down when I noticed the screws for the hinges were 
exposed, and in ten minutes, six of those were on the floor below me as I pushed 
open the hatch.  Or at least I pushed it open as far as the padlocked clasp 
would allow me to.

The opening was big enough for me to squeeze through, and once I had, I felt 
safe for the first time since I awoke from my pickled nap.

It's amazing what altitude can do for your perspective.  Passively scanning the 
area around and below me, I began to get a grasp of what was going on.  But 
before I get to that, I better explain some of the so called physics behind the 
magical power of telepathy.  

Keep in mind this is highly theoretical and based entirely on my and my team's 
research into the inner workings of telepathy and its kin.  We have not yet 
worked out exactly how it all fits into the physics we are all familiar with, 
but that should all come in due time.

Every body of organized matter generates a... I'll call it field of energy for 
lack of a better term.  This field of energy represents the sum _state_ of that 
body, and this field pretty much dictates what that body can do in respect to 
the other bodies around it.  You can call it a life force, telepathic presence, 
an aura, or what have you.  Everything has a distinguishable field that's 
separate from its components, yet it is composed by those component's fields and 
changes when they change.

Everything we consider matter has this field.  From a single electron, to an 
atom, a molecule, a microbe, a red blood cell, a rock, a plant, an insect, a 
bird, a human being, a body of water, an island, a continent, a planet, a sun, a 
galaxy, and probably the entire universe if there is more than one universe out 
there.  

For all matter, there's its mass and energy with its gravity and inertial 
forces, but only cold matter (that's matter near absolute zero) is so limited to 
those purely physical traits.  Warm matter is almost always undergoing reactions 
of some sort, whether chemical, atomic, or electrical.  The more diverse the 
reactions, the more descriptive the field, and at some point it crosses the line 
where you could call it "alive".

(There's are also some pretty interesting aspects concerning dark matter too, 
but if I tried to even begin to explain that here, I'd have another month long 
min-war within my team of experts again.)

Most organic species of our planet can sense changes of certain components of 
the life forces around them.  Take trees for instance.  Some types of trees that 
are upwind from a forest fire inexplicably wilt.  Flocks of birds fly as one, as 
do schools of fish swim as one.  Dogs, cats, and other animals sometimes can 
sense an impending earthquake hours before they happen.

And then there are people.  Humans.  Homo Sapiens.  Some people can sense when 
the phone is about to ring, others know they will be eating their favorite meal 
when they get home from work that night.  There's the psychic, the empathic, the 
telepathic, the very rare telekinetic and the extremely rare... uhm... whatever-
you-want-to-call-Joey-with-his-share-link-ic.  

Sorry Dave G.  The share link doesn't' quite fall under being telesomatic or 
psychosomatic.  The share link only allows the balancing of states between two 
or more bodies, not alteration of their states.

Telepathy is based on the complex fields we all generate that are not just an 
aftereffect of the electrical impulses traveling through our body and brain.  
These fields in a way actually define HOW the electrical impulses will travel 
before they do, and in that sense they define how we think and react to 
stimulus.

Emotion = chemistry with environmental factors.  Full empaths like the twins and 
lessly myself can sense and to some extent manipulate that "spectrum" of the 
human aura without needing our other senses.  But other senses do help a lot, 
and its easier and more conventional to use them, especially in my case.

Telekinetics is something that I have been...  Exploring I suppose.  No, I'm not 
causing things to float in mid air or anything of the sort.  For the context of 
this discussion, think of telekinetics as the ability to alter the cold matter 
physical traits of matter.  Making things float would require altering the 
gravimetric properties of the mass, or alternatively the inertial properties, 
but doing so for something as large as an object we can see requires tremendous 
amounts of energy that the human body cannot supply very long.  

That is not to say it doesn't have its uses.  Telekinetics are great healers, 
for once they are trained to recognize foreign pathogens or cancerous tissues, 
they can kill them directly by exciting key molecules within their own cellular 
walls.  They tell me viruses are a bit trickier, and usually it is easier to 
just help the patient's immune system combat them rather than tracking them down 
themselves.  I'm nowhere near to being that good with telekinetics.  I'll be 
more than happy to just get enough electrons to flow to make this damn night-
light bulb to light up.  They make it look so easy. <sigh>

Every human being alive has limited psychic, empathic, and telepathic abilities, 
but very few ever realize them, let alone learn how to control or use them.  
Actually, that's a bit misleading.  Ninety nine point nine percent of the human 
race does not have the...  capability to control these powers at will.  However, 
most people do experience a few of them at least once in their life time, and 
perhaps three percent of the mute population do so, a few maybe even as often as 
twice a month.  There are so many random elements involved in triggering these 
abilities to surface momentarily in a mute that it is practically impossible to 
predict who, where, or when.

Anyway, getting back to the roof of the physics building at Central State, what 
I sensed below me was that different people emitted different levels of what I 
thought of at the time as telepathic energy.  What was significant was seeing 
how four or five people in the building emitted much greater levels of energy 
than the others, almost as if they were somehow generating the pickle field.

Feeling rather safe from the stair and ladder handicapped pickles, I decided to 
test this theory and attempt to knock out the nearest pickle emitter to see if 
the others around him were affected.  The pickles below me were quite agitated 
by my sudden telepathic burst, but besides causing a temporary shortage of blood 
to my target's brain to make him pass out, their fuming shouts of "pickle-
pickle" and mad scampering underneath me was the only effect.

"Man I sure could use Midge right about now," I muttered after walking the 
perimeter of the roof and finding nothing but pickled people, some staring up at 
me.  

A couple of robins swooping down from branch to branch gave me an idea, and in a 
few moments I was flying over the campus with great speed.

Altitude definitely made a difference.  The closer I flew toward the ground, the 
greater difficulty I had maintaining control over my borrowed feathered body, 
and twice lost my link when a building of pickles came between me and the bird.

I counted over twenty-five bodies lying out in the open on the campus, but none 
were Joey, which I was partially thankful for.  A few I recognized as possibly 
group members, but most I either didn't know, or couldn't see their faces.  I 
was almost positive a few of them were dead from the way they laid, and this 
made me even more desperate to find Joey.

Releasing the little sparrow I was using last, I closed my eyes and started 
building up a pulse I hoped would reach Joey if ...  I didn't let myself finish 
that thought, nor did I finish the pulse when I recalled the mental wandering I 
had experienced lately while asleep.

I sat down on the blubber-like roof Indian style and focused on feeling Joey 
out, recalling what his mind felt like, his body, his soul, even the scent of 
his cologne, the emotion behind his smile, the fear he felt when fighting for 
someone else's life...

'Wait a sec...  I never felt him feel that...  Joey?'

'Tim?!'

'Joey, where are you?'

'Safe.  Tim, find Suz.  I lost the link with her, but I can't leave them.'

'Leave who?'

'Neil, and some others.  They're hurt bad.  Share link helps.  Can't leave them.  
Find Suz.  Please.  You got to find her.  She was running from them.'

That was all I had to hear.  I didn't think to check the female bodies.  I had 
been looking for Joey...  'Oh God, what if...'

As I rechecked the bodies, two things happened almost so quickly I almost missed 
them.  First of all, a body I hadn't noticed before suddenly sprang to his feet 
and bulldozed his way through a small crowd of pickles heading towards the court 
yard beyond the building across the street from me. 

The second was the slight ripple of energy which flowed from the west towards 
the area surrounding him, and then rippled back out in all directions. 

That's when the gentle pickle-pickle sounds stopped and all hell broke loose.  
People began spilling out of the buildings screaming nonsensical phrases at the 
terrified man, and it was when he flung his glasses at the crowd while lunging 
at them, I recognized him as Rich, my favorite gorilla.

"NO!" I screamed as I attacked the crowd with blanket command after blanket 
command, finding that while they weren't running away with terror like the 
blanket commands were instructing them to do, it did cause enough of a emotional 
conflict to stop their frenzied attack long enough for me to yell, "RICH RUN!  
I'LL COVER YOU!"

But where to run, that was the question.  Everywhere I could see mad 
bloodthirsty students and staff spilled out of the surrounding buildings, none 
of which were the least bit slowed down by steps or even by each other.  For 
several moments it looked completely hopeless for Rich.

Rich wasn't about to go down without a fight, and seeing this made me focus my 
attention to helping him take down as many as he could.

And I wasn't alone.  The telepathic fog all but dissipated when the pickle spell 
ended and the mad crowd spell began, and from every direction trained telepaths 
started picking off the possessed mutes one by one.

Rich was starting to falter, however, and no matter how hard I and the others 
tried to knock the ones closest to him out, Rich kept getting pounded by the 
next wave.

In desperation, I took direct control of a Eta and began protecting Rich 
physically as best I could.  After handling an entire basketball team a year 
before, I managed to gain control of about seventeen people and just formed a 
wall around Rich.  The entire crowd was focused on Rich and Rich alone, and so 
they only tried to climb over my human wall.  Not one of them seemed to think 
about attacking one of my human planks to get to their objective.

Once the immediate threat to Rich was finally over, I focused my mind on finding 
Suzi.  With the telepathic fog lifted, I was getting a very bad feeling in my 
gut from my inability to locate her since she couldn't be very far away.

I had to find her.  I just had to find her.  With the amount of energy I was 
putting into my search, I felt I should have at least felt a vibe from her even 
if she had been transported to the other side of the moon.  Yet I felt nothing.  
Nothing but a terrible emptiness.

As the last ripple of energy from the west released the remaining population 
from its spell and faded from my senses, an all-new emergency presented itself.  
Thousands of mutes were awakening to a scene that quickly caused a huge panic, 
interfering with not just my own search for Suzi, but the group's attempts to 
help the seriously injured.

But it wasn't until someone realized that people were running away not just to 
get out of harms way, but to report what happened that containment became the 
number one priority.  Since I wasn't getting anywhere with all the confusion 
going on around me, I helped out the best I could, blanketing as many people as 
I could to forget the strange events of the day and to go about their normal 
business ignoring anything out of the ordinary.

It wasn't enough.  The sight of ambulances was welcome, but the police cars and 
even worse, the media made me glad I wasn't apart of the group, and therefore 
wasn't my problem.

Suzi's unknown location weighed heavily in my gut.  I had all but given up on 
finding her alive when after things had settled down and I gave the entire 
campus a full sweep, I still had not found any trace of her.

I rushed back to my apartment to try one last thing before giving up, and that 
was a dream walk.

Dream walk.  I didn't know what else to call it.  I seemed to have greater 
resolution while asleep, and hoped that even if she was dead I would find her 
that way.

Before laying down on the bed, I looked myself in the mirror and simply said, 
"This is not a joy ride.  This is for Suzi.  You know what you have to do.  
Don't fail her."

I can't say I actually fell asleep completely, and there wasn't the usual 
imaginative transition to the world of symbols.  Just the great expanse of minds 
all around me in every direction, a great number of them unusually disturbed, 
but that wasn't my concern right then.  I was only interested in finding one 
mind.  One particular mind.

I floated in between minds of different spins and states, searching for 
something familiar.  Slowly at first, then running, I searched with a careful 
haste between the different bushes and trees in what became a great forest.

My legs were just starting to tire when I thought I smelt her briefly in the 
wind.  I pounced to a stop, then with my nose and tail up high, I filtering out 
all the natural forest scents and focused on finding Suzi's flowery scent.

It was there, but only just.  I carefully circled around with increasing 
radiuses until I could discern from which direction it came from, then very 
carefully made my way through the undergrowth, several times having to stop and 
backtrack to regain the scent.

The scent lead me to a dark corner of the forest where dead trees surrounded a 
patch of total blackness, reminding me of skeleton warriors guarding an evil 
magician's treasure.  My tail fell from the sense of death all around me, my 
worst fears apparently coming true.

I had to know.  I had to find her.  If not for me, for Joey.  So with unsteady 
legs I slowly treaded forward, following the sweet flowery smell inside the 
hollow dark center of death itself.

My senses deadened, and I felt increasing resistance to my advance inside.  But 
her odor was growing ever stronger, and even though I was quickly struggling 
just to inch forward, I could almost feel her...

The dream dissolved as I doubled my efforts to push through the barrier between 
us.  I was physically straining my muscles, sweating and breathing heavily, just 
as if I was truly pushing something very heavy up a steep incline.  The sound of 
my blood rushing through my veins was only a gentle reminder of the intensity of 
telepathic energy I was generating to keep the forward momentum to my probe.

Finally I was through enough to feel her mind, to touch her mind, finding it 
simply asleep.  I just barely managed to awaken her before the strain of pushing 
against whatever it was stabbed me in the center of my brain and I lost my lock 
on her.

I was just finishing my cusses and wiping my strain induced tears intending to 
go back and find out where she was when out of the blue I felt her presence pop 
up half way across campus.

Just as I opened a two way with her, a pulse of telepathic energy rolled out 
from the west like a fast moving storm.  The two way broke and as people all 
around campus began surging with the pickle-pickle spell again, I lost my fix on 
Suzi all together.

I ran out of the apartment and crossed the street dodging a couple of cars and a 
shuttle bus to reach the taller apartment building on the other side.  Thankful 
that the building had an elevator, I waited impatiently for the damn thing to 
reach the main floor, then rode it to the top floor where I raced to the roof's 
maintenance hatch where a volunteer was already prying it open for me.

The building was only five stories, but between it being outside the pickle 
spell's influence and the vastly reduced number of people inside the campus, I 
was able to penetrate the telepathic dampening effects of the pickle spell and 
hijacked one of its victims.

By jumping from pickled mind to pickled mind, I surveyed the general area where 
Suzi had been and found nothing.  Fearing it had been no accident that the 
pickle spell had restarted when Suzi had come out of hiding, I located the 
closest group member and opened a two way with them.  What I learned made me 
very anxious.

Whoever was doing this was after Joey's coin.  Once they realized that, Sarah 
came up with a plan to locate and trap the attacker, using the coin as bait and 
Joey's share link to Suzi as the line and hook.  The share link wasn't effected 
by the telepathic fog the pickles caused, and Suzi would appear to be the least 
threatening of the bunch both physically and telepathically.

The plan fell apart when the pickles attacked the medical complex before they 
were ready.  Suzi and Rich were already making their way towards what they had 
labeled the Cloak building when the pickles broke through the medical complex's 
doors and stormed the first floor of the building.  It was during that chaos 
that someone started shooting and a stray bullet hit Neil as he and Joey were 
retreating to the stairs.  

Because the bullet's damage to Neil's body was, to a limited extent, shared with 
Joey and Suzi, Joey instinctively killed the share link, but found he couldn't 
restore it to Suzi when he relinked to another voice.

Somehow, Suzi managed to keep the pickle spell from taking control of her long 
enough for Rich to get her to the new construction site which was their 
destination to begin with.  After learning that a wood existed which telepathy 
could not penetrate, Sarah apparently had someone find a supply of this wood and 
was having a new facility built with it incorporated into the structure's 
furthest interior room's walls.  This was the Cloak building, and despite the 
building only having been started the previous week, the wood was already on the 
lot.

Rich had to not only build Suzi a protective box out of that wood, but also 
fight off the constant threat of pickles accidentally tripping over the 
foundation and falling inside the two foot wall what otherwise held the small 
mob of angry pickles at bay.

I apparently had telepathically burrowed in through one of the small air slots 
Rich had made so Suzi wouldn't suffocate.  Rich had guarded her until the 
pickles rushed him, and after circling the area to make sure they were leaving 
Suzi's box alone, Rich took off to get help before they could overwhelm him.  It 
was after a long game of hide and play dead that Rich reached the area I was in 
and got mobbed by the angry crowd.  

The news that Suzi was out of her protective box was not what the group wanted 
to hear.  They were still licking their wounds and trying to keep the lid on 
things, and with Joey having left with Neil and a few others for the hospital, 
they assumed there was no way of tracking Suzi to the attacker's location.

I quickly corrected them on that assumption.  If I could find Suzi while she was 
inside a shielded box, I could find her now, I told them.  I also explained that 
the energy causing the pickle spell seemed to be coming from the west, so 
whatever their plans, they should take that in consideration.

At that point I was politely told to butt out, that it was a group affair and my 
help was not needed.  When I tried to argue with the guy, he said he was sorry 
but he had his orders, and I had mine.

One of the things I disliked the most about that rat every group member had in 
their head was the way it made them follow their instructions in a time of 
crisis without hesitation.  Yes, I could see the advantages to this, but at the 
same time this gave Sarah a hell of a lot of power.  There were safeguards built 
in to make sure she or anyone else couldn't use this for their own personal 
gains, but still... She was human.  She could make mistakes.

And so could I, I knew.  I stood on that roof staring at the western sky, 
teetering on the verge of casting off the self-imposed commands of not 
interfering while attempting to determine what was being done to find Suzi.  
This madness had already claimed six lives, maybe more.  I couldn't stand the 
thought that I was helpless to protect Suzi from being the seventh.

Searching my feelings, I found there were things I could still do that wouldn't 
be considered interfering, yet wouldn't be just standing around leaving 
everything to Sarah's already blotched plan.  Finding an Eta as far west as I 
could reach in the murky pickle zone was difficult to say the least, but with a 
little help from my eyes in the sky I managed to find one and form a link.

Within seconds of establishing control over my borrowed body, a bolt of 
concentrated telepathic energy cut my link like an ax cutting a twig in two.  It 
had startled me, but I quickly reformed another link to another able body 
nearby, and this time paid careful attention to where the bolt came from.

Oh, whoever they were, they were good.  The bolt came from a slightly different 
direction, but it was still west from my rooftop.  Three more links gave me an 
approximate location, but without a stable link to someone in the area, I 
couldn't figure out what else I could do with this information.

What I needed was someone who I could direct to the source without losing 
contact with them and could shield themselves from the pickle spell.  My choices 
were very slim.  I had Rich or Perry, a group member, or some Joe Smo off the 
street.  

Rich's and Perry's immunity was ideal in that they couldn't be pickled, but that 
strength was also their handicap.  I couldn't tell them where to go if they 
couldn't receive my thoughts.

Since all the group members knew I was not to interfere, I was certain none of 
them would help, not even my drinking buddies.  Of course I wouldn't have asked 
them in the first place since they weren't experienced enough to go into combat 
like this.  

I had already tried the Joe Smo idea, so without much choice I did a little mind 
hopping over to the old admin building.

Everyone inside except Perry was pickled of course.  He had locked the 
entrances, bared the doors at the top of both stairwells, and had the entire 
bottom floor to himself.  Unfortunately he was apparently napping in his office 
at the time, and was completely oblivious to my shouts from both the outside and 
the upstairs.

I ended up calling him on the phone.  Man, if he isn't the crankiest person when 
awakened from a nap.  I didn't even get a word in before he hung up, and when I 
tried calling back, the phone just kept ringing.  (Apparently he ripped the 
phone cord out of its jack and just went right back to sleep.)

So I only had two options left.  Remove the commands that kept me in the groups 
confidence and go myself, or persuade Rich Bugle to help me.  I decided to try 
the latter first despite my doubts he would even consider it.

Rich was holed up in the medical complex getting his cuts and bruises tended to 
while recovering from a slight concussion.  I couldn't mind hop into there since 
all the mutes had been kicked out of the building the moment the pickle spell 
stopped the first time, and to hop into a group member wasn't permitted.  So I 
used the old faithful telephone again after looking up the extension number from 
a directory Joey had given Suzi months ago.  Mind you, I had to have someone 
break into her apartment to get it, but I didn't think Suzi would mind in this 
instance.

"Rich, I know this is a lot to ask, but Suzi needs your help."

"Suzi?  Who is this?"

"Uhm...  The guy from the roof."

"The guy...  You saved my life."

"Yeah, I guess.  Look.  There isn't much time.  Joey told me to find Suzi, and I 
will, but right now she could be walking right into the hands of enemy, and 
without you..."

"Alright..  What do I do?"

"So you'll help me?"

"I was supposed to protect her and I couldn't.  If you can get me to her, I'll 
do what I can."

"Cool.  Okay.  Now all we need is a radio or something so we can communicate.  
Any ideas?"

Five minutes later, I met Rich out back in another borrowed Eta, he bringing the 
walkie-talkies and I the transportation.

"I can't ride that!" he immediately objected when he saw the motorcycle.

"Why not?  Just think of them as a big fast noisy bicycle."

"Fuck that.  There has to be something else."

"Nothing that can cut through the court yards and in between buildings," I said, 
handing him a helmet.

"But I've never even been on a motorcycle before," he said, handing me my 
walkie-talkie and hesitating before putting on the helmet.

"All right.  Let me think a second," I sighed.

Reaching out to the nearest pickles, I picked a freshman girl whose petite body 
suited me, grabbed control over her and took off running for the nearest stairs.  
The nice thing about me being so far away was, I could safely blanket the other 
pickles in the area without other pickles getting worked up.  Unfortunately, it 
wasn't easy to keep a lock on my borrowed bodies with so many pickled minds 
between us and I momentarily lost my lock on the first body.

I have to give Rich credit.  He had fast reflexes.  By the time I reestablished 
my hold over my Eta, Rich had him in a sleeper hold.

"Stop!" I cried from my other body as she turned the corner.  "I've got control 
over him again!"

"Who are you?" he said warily, loosening his strangle hold just a tad.

"I'm your chauffeur," I had the freshman girl say while throwing her arms and 
hands over her head and striking a pose.  "You like?"

"Kinda...  small, aren't you?"

"The lighter we are, the faster we are," I said grouchily, her hands now on her 
hips.  "I could have picked this skinny freckled face nerd boy, but I thought 
you'd appreciate a feminine figure to grope as we rode."

"Thanks, but I'd rather have someone like him as a riding partner into battle," 
Rich said while passing the helmet to my Eta body.

"You don't understand.  I can't hold a link with anyone once we get kind of 
close.  That's why we need the walkie-talkies.  I can only drive you so far, 
then you're going to have to take over.  The girl is just to give you a chance 
to get used to the bike a little before you have to drive it yourself."

"Great.  So I'm going in without any backup?" he said as I put the helmet on my 
female head and we climbed on the cycle.

"I wouldn't say that.  I'll be watching you the whole time and I should be able 
to knock out any ground resistance there is if they aren't shielded.  Besides, 
the plan is to make sure Suzi doesn't get hurt and that they don't take her with 
them.  We'll leave everything else to the group."

"What about the coin?" he shouted after I started the engine.

"To hell with the coin.  Six people have died over it already.  It's not..."

"All right, all right.  But just so you know, they found another one right 
before it all started up again.  It's seven, not six."

"Fuck!  Hang ON!" I shouted as I peeled out.

Weaving our way through the walkways and the few pickles still wandering about, 
I almost enjoyed the thrill and excitement of the ride.  It wasn't just the ride 
that was exciting me either.  I realized it hadn't been such a great idea to 
pick a small body for this huge gorilla of a man to cling to...  Just shifting 
our weights back and forth in the turns was making me hornier by the second.

I tried concentrating on showing him how to shift, and once he seemed to get the 
feel for it, I rode the remaining five-minute journey struggling to keep my 
arousal under control.  That actually got easier the farther we went due to the 
increasing difficulty of maintaining the link with her body at a level that 
wouldn't draw the attention of the visiting team players.

By the time I stopped and got off, my control over her body was reduced to 
operating her a lot like a robot.  I could see through her eyes, hear through 
her ears, and had enough sensory information to keep her balance and direct her 
arms and legs, but I was disconnected from the rest of her body and never knew 
if he actually did take a quick grope before I got off the bike.

Once Rich got going, I released my hold over her completely and concentrated on 
watching him and feeling Suzi out.

Bolts of telepathic energy carrying command symbols started hailing down on Rich 
a minute later as he got closer.  I doubt Rich was even was aware of them, and 
they didn't have the slightest effect, but I still held my breath while I waited 
to see if they would.

The energy flowing from the west surged a moment, then stopped, but within 
seconds of feeling the reduced strain to my telepathic faculties, I felt a probe 
targeting me personally.

If I hadn't prepared the fake personality before hand, there was no way I could 
have raised it before the probe's querying symbol payload reached my mind.

My fake personality was constructed to appear to be a zombie acting as a conduit 
for hiding the true location of a telepath.  Considering that is what this 
person or persons had done when scouting out the campus weeks before, they 
wouldn't be surprised to find someone else using the same trick.

What I hadn't considered was they had a counter to this form of protection, but 
luckily they just didn't do it right.  Before I knew what was happening, they 
used an old trick of mine, releasing a small amount of my own urine into my 
bloodstream which made me very faint and sick as a dog.

Telepathy can't stop the effects of blood poisoning, but I wasn't unconscious, 
and after a few minutes I recovered enough to form a link with another pair of 
eyes in the sky.

Rich was getting pretty good controlling that bike.  He was dodging the things 
thrown at him by what few people there were that far away from campus, but he 
apparently had lost his bearings and was heading a bit too far to the north.

I had trouble forming a link with someone near the walkie-talkie, and was 
seriously sweating it while fighting the loss of my hold on my senses as my body 
wanted to faint.  A jolt of adrenaline helped keep my grip on consciousness, but 
it made my nausea worse, which was really getting hard to ignore.

"Rich, over to you right more," I groaned into the walkie-talkie with a new 
borrowed voice.  

"What?"

"You're going too far north.  Turn towards...  your right."

"You find Suzi yet?!"

"No, I've been...  busy."

"Fuck!  They're shooting at me!"

I zombified my borrowed body so it wouldn't wander away, then mind hopped as far 
west as I dared before visually searching for Rich and the person with the gun.

Instead I spotted Suzi and three Eta bodyguards heading up this hill away from 
the activity.  Someone was somehow masking their minds from my telepathic 
senses, but this also meant they couldn't be in active control of the four 
zombies.  I would have detected the symbolic control streams if they had been 
there.

Using my eyes in the sky, I strained my abilities as far as I dared in the 
condition I was in to see if I could locate where Suzi and the others were 
heading, and to my surprise my link with the barn sparrow was severed by bolt 
directly below.

"Rich, I've found Suzi.  She's just reaching the top of the hill to your far 
right."

Nothing.

"Rich, can you hear me?"

Nothing again.

"Look, if you can hear me, Suzi's heading over the hill by the three tall trees 
to the south west.  Rich, do you read?"

"Damnit we're so close!" I moaned with my own mouth.

"A little of that help would be good right now!" the walkie-talkie spat 
suddenly.

"Roger!"

"Well, in for a penny," I groaned while forming as many links with as many birds 
in that area as I could and sending them in every direction.  I quickly found 
Rich who had ditched the bike somewhere and was trying to get his breath back 
after having just knocked out two men who must have come from the other side of 
the hills.

Rich suddenly hit the dirt, and after circling several birds around the area, I 
spotted the rifleman.  After unsuccessfully attempting to take control of him 
directly, I just made his finger fire his riffle until he was out of shells.

"He's out.  Run while he's reloading!" I yelled into the walkie-talkie.

"Which way is Suzi?!"

"Southwest."

"Which fucking direction is that!"

"Look up!" I said as I put my birds into a V formation pointing towards the hill 
where I last saw Suzi.

"Oh shit," I gasped as I felt multiple minds probe for me.

"Tim!  Are you doing that?" Terrance thought to me.

"That depends.  Doing what?"

"Never mind.  Just keep doing it!  You're distracting them."

"Okay..." I thought back to an already closed thought channel.

"God Damnit!  Will you fucking take that guy out!" Rich's voice screamed over 
the walkie-talkie.

"Roger.  I'll do my best," I said nervously.

In order to break the hold over the rifleman, I would have to use a greater 
amount of telepathic energy than I had been using which would be easily 
traceable back to me.  Exposing myself to the enemy like that meant I would be 
risking my life to help him.

But I reasoned that Rich was already risking his life, and he was doing this by 
my suggestion.  I was responsible for his life, and if one of us was to die, I 
should be the one.  Not that I wanted or planned to die, mind you.

Using my fleet of eyes in the sky, I got a fix on the rifleman, picked out the 
faint control stream, and traced it back to its source.  Using the same 
disabling trick as they had tried on me, I triggered the release of urine into 
the man's blood, but I got the dosage right and he passed out instantly.

Rich didn't take any chances.  The moment the rifleman staggered and dropped his 
gun, Rich leapt from his cover, hauled his ass across the field, and tackled the 
poor dazed man, knocking him out cold.

I only had enough time to become a little queasy from Rich picking up the gun 
and taking it with him before my eyes in the sky got disrupted one by one as I 
felt an angry probe focusing upon me.

The single attack stream that followed the probe was surprisingly easy to 
counter.  It wasn't very sophisticated; in fact it was almost insulting to have 
to counter it at all as simple as it was. 

But what the stream lacked in sophistication, it nearly made up with just the 
raw power driving it.  Normally I can push back an attack once I get synced up 
with the symbol flow, but in this case, I barely could keep up.  The symbols 
just came so damn fast.

I was actually starting to lose a little ground when there was an explosion of 
telepathic activity in the hills just beyond my telepathic vision.  This knocked 
my attacker off guard long enough for me push the intersection of our two 
canceling symbolic streams well past the mid point between us, and at that point 
the stream was cut off to prevent me from tracing it all the way back to its 
source.

Huffing for breath, I sat up and took a moment to survey what was going on.

"Looks like the troops finally got their act in order," I muttered before 
closing my eyes and reaching out to my eyes in the sky again.

"Rich.  Follow the birds.  I say again.  Follow the birds.  You're getting 
close."

"Rich.  It looks like they're getting ready to leave.  I don't think they are 
planning to take Suzi with them."

"Watch it when you get over the hill.  I think the three Eta's and Suzi will try 
and jump you."

"Who has the coin?" Rich radioed back.

"Who cares?"

"Damnit bed wetter!  I'm not going to just let them get away with what they came 
for!  Tell me who has the coin!"

"What are you going to do?  Shoot them?"

"If I have to!  Now tell me who has it!"

"I don't know!"

"Are you telling me the mighty Tim Brandon has lost his magical sight?!  I knew 
Joey was exaggerating that you could see the stuff coming out of the coin from a 
mile away."

I was stunned a moment by his revelation that he knew it was me, that he must 
have known since the beginning.  But for some reason once the shock wore off, he 
getting my last name wrong ticked me off.

"Fine!  It's the one in the chair!  The little one!"

I watched from above as Rich scrambled around the hill to come up behind a tree, 
then I held my breath praying he wouldn't actually shoot as he took aim.

The person in the chair hadn't moved since I first spotted the group from above, 
while the others had climbed into a minivan and were apparently fighting off the 
group's combined attack from within there.

Rich kept taking aim, then looking over the gun at his target with both eyes, 
then taking aim again.  He did this five or six times before crawling back away 
from the tree several feet then rolling down the hill a bit to where he left the 
walkie-talkie.

"Are you sure she's the one with the coin?"

"Yeah I'm sure!"

"I swear if you're lying to me, I'll beat the living shit out of you," he 
threatened.

"Why would I lie about something like this?!"

"Because you know I can't shoot a little girl!"

"What?!"

"I can't shoot a little girl!"

I swooped one of my aerial eyes down for a closer look, then swooped down even 
more when no one disrupted my link.

I landed my bird ten feet away from the small figure who was sitting in a wheel 
chair, then carefully hopped closer studying the features not hidden behind the 
impossibly black glasses she wore.

Rich was right.  It was just a little girl, probably no older than Tommy, 
sitting there with the coin clasped between her hands that were otherwise laying 
limp in her lap.  She didn't move, not even when I flapped my wings and then did 
a little chirp that was a favorite of mine.

So I probed her.

Holy shit did she throw a hard punch!  I didn't even feel it coming.  The next 
thing I knew, Joey was kneeling down beside me gently slapping my cheek to wake 
me up.

"You all right?" Joey asked as I sat up with a killer headache.

"Uhgn...  What time is it?" I groaned, noticing it was dark out.

"A little after ten.  Can you stand?"

I spit a foreign object out of my mouth that must have blown in during my... 
uhm... nap, then said, "I don't think I want to try.  Is Suzi okay?"

"She's fine.  She was bouncing off the walls worried about what happened to 
you."

His voice was tired, but more than that, it was down.  That could only mean...

"Neil?"

"He lost a lot of blood and it was pretty scary for a couple of minutes, but 
he's stable now."

"Oh.  Good.  For a moment I thought..."

"Seven people died, Tim, possibly more.  The police are all over the place 
trying to make sense of what happened, it's all over the news, and now the FBI 
is getting involved.  It's all over.  You and Suz should just pack up your stuff 
and go home."

"You know neither Suzi or I are going anywhere without you."

"I know... But I wish I never brought you two into this."

I groaned a moment while rubbing my temples trying to reduce my pounding head, 
then said, "It's been a long day.  You're tired, I'm tired, and I'm sure Suzi's 
tired.  We're not going to make sense of things or make things any better while 
we're like this."

"I have to go back to help Sarah in little bit.  I..."

"What?"

"I need someone to link to."

"Oh please yes.  This head is killing me."

Joey's emotions were raging a private war within him, and after over a minute of 
silence passed without any sign of him forming a share link, I tugged on his arm 
for him to sit down next to me and said, "Link, then talk."

"All right," he sighed.

As my headache faded and we traded our different kind of fatigues until they 
were at equilibrium, my dulled empathic senses perked up and explained what was 
going on inside Joey's head.

"How can you blame yourself for this mess?" I asked him incredibly.

"It was my coin she was after.  If I had just given it to her..."

"Like Sarah would have let you."

"Leave Sarah out of this!" Joey said defensively.  "She's done everything she 
could do to protect us.  It isn't her fault we get attacked two or three times a 
month by power hungry... thieves!"

"So that makes it your fault?"

"No..."

"Then why are you torturing yourself about it?"

"Because Neil got shot, I put Suzi in danger, and then I had you risk your neck 
to finish what I had started."

"Let's just get some things straight here.  Did you in any way cause the gun to 
go off that shot Neil?"

"Well... No."

"Did you order Suzi to be the hook for the bait?"

"You know no one can order her around like that."

"Did you volunteer her?"

"No!  She volunteered for it herself."

"Then when I risked my neck, I did it for her, not because you asked me to."

"Shit, I know all that.  I just...  If it wasn't for me, you, Neil, and Suzi 
wouldn't have been here to get hurt in the first place."

"Next thing you'll say is if you hadn't come to Central state, bringing your 
coin, those seven people wouldn't be dead."

"Shit...  You know, you're not helping by saying things like that."

"But by continuing that logic, those seven people wouldn't have died if I hadn't 
given the coin to you in the first place."

"So now it's your fault.  That doesn't make it feel any better."

"So then does it matter whose fault it is?  Seven people are dead because we 
made choices, innocent choices that no one can fault us for, that just so 
happened to play a role in causing this mess.

"Besides, if it's anyone's fault, its John's."

"John's?" Joey queried, looking over at me.  "Oh...  Heh.  Yeah, I guess it is 
all John's fault."

"He did find the damn thing."

"Well then... If your dad hadn't given you yours, John wouldn't have recognized 
mine at the coin shop."

"Now why didn't I think of that," I chuckled.  "I guess your mom was right.  
It's always the dad's fault."

Joey's grin faded, and despite in his heart he knew it really hadn't been his 
fault, he still verbalized the strongest emotion he felt right at that moment.

"It should have been me."

There simply was nothing I could say to ease his suffering, and I knew it.  An 
empathic link would have temporarily helped, but in the end that would only 
delay Joey having to deal with this in his own way.

So I did what any normal person could do.  I hugged him, and nearly got the shit 
squeezed out of me when he hugged me back.

Joey and I were both startled when Suzi kneeled down beside us, neither of us 
having detected her coming up on the roof during the hug.  Worried, relieved, 
and just a tad ticked off that we hadn't contacted her, Suzi waited patiently 
several long moments as we just stared at her in stupefied shock, then punched 
us both in the upper arms to get us to let her into the hug.

We not only took her into the hug, but Joey also formed a share link with her 
with a block to prevent our own fatigue from affecting her.

"Damnit, why can't they just leave us alone?" Joey bellowed as we all suddenly 
sensed the group's probes searching for them to give them the alarm.

"I'm going with you," I said as Joey made contact and queried for details.

"Timmy, I know you just want to h..." Suzi began.

"I think you better come," Joey interrupted her.

"Why?" I asked a bit nervously.

He looked at me with worried eyes and said, "The Cabal are on campus."

"Joey, this isn't necessarily a bad thing," I said as we raced over to the 
medical complex in Suzi's car.  "The whole purpose of the Cabal is to prevent 
the knowledge of the existence of voice from getting out.  With their resources, 
they can probably fix everything."

"Can they bring people back to life?" Joey snapped sarcastically.

"You know what I mean," I said carefully.  "They can help handle the press, the 
police, and the FBI."

"Yeah, and break up the Group too."

"What?"

"That's what the emergency's about.  They're demanding that we either break up 
the group permanently, or they'll permanently disable all our voices."

"Shit.  Can they do that?  I mean, how many of them can there be?" Suzi asked.

"Potentially a lot," I explained.  "The Cabal is a loose organization of 
telepaths from all over the continent, maybe even the world, I'm not sure.  All 
they really care about is preventing this massive witch-hunt by mobs of mutes if 
the world ever found out telepaths existed and what they can do.  If they decide 
the Group is a threat to that, they can call upon a shit load of power to get 
the job done."

"Of course they don't fucking care that we were only defending ourselves," Joey 
spat.  "They'd merrily stand by and watch us all go under if we're quiet enough 
about it, but make too much noise and we become public enemy number 1.  
Fuckers."

"Joey, do you know if the Inquisitor is in charge of this?"

"No idea.  Sarah, Stan, Alex, and I think Rich are all in the main conference 
room with two cabal and two escorts of some kind.  I'm not even sure if we'll be 
allowed in."

"Alex is there, but not Wally?"

"Wally's been at Northwest all week for some pet project he's been messing with, 
but I imagine he's on his way here now.  Since Alex pretty much runs Northwest 
State, I guess he's involved in the meeting to represent them."

"How many voices are at Northwest now?" I asked.

"Eight, I think."

"Eight?!?" I choked.

"What?"

"Why only eight?  Don't they get attacked too?"

"Uhm...  I think one time last year they did.  Not much happens at Northwest."

"Doesn't that seem strange to you?"

"Never really thought about it," Joey shrugged as Suzi put the car into park and 
shut off the motor.

We went into the medical complex docking bay door and had to step around all 
sorts of debris strewn about from the earlier pickle attack.  The debris was 
everywhere, and only when we reached the main hall was there a clear path, 
basically from the main doors to the two primary staircases and the elevators.

While waiting for an elevator to arrive, Joey turned to Suzi and said, "Maybe 
you shouldn't come up, Suz.  Maybe... Maybe you should just go back to your 
apartment, pack and leave."

"I'm not leaving you," she said firmly.  "Nothing is going to happen.  We 
haven't done anything wrong."

"Please?"

"No.  You're being overprotective."

"Tim, don't you think it would be safer if..."

"Timmy, tell him he's being..."

"Don't get me in the middle of it," I exclaimed, throwing up my hands.

"Some help he is," Joey remarked to Suzi.

"He's been squeamish ever since he died," Suzi agreed.

"Fine.  If you really want to know what I think," I said as the elevator arrived 
and I stepped in.

"Timmy!" Suzi yelled as she and Joey tried to move their frozen feet.

"This isn't funny!" Joey exclaimed.

As the doors closed without them, I thought back to them, "Considering neither 
one of you are true voices and they can't silence them the normal way, I think 
you both should go home and get some rest and just let Sarah and the others work 
things out."

"Then what are you going to do?!?" Joey thought back.

"Nobody but me can represent me.  I'm not in the group, remember?  If Alex has a 
right to be there, so do I."

"Well we're just going to follow you up there," Suzi warned.

"Go ahead.  You wanted my opinion, I gave it," I said as the elevator doors 
opened and I stepped out into an unfamiliar hallway.

"Uhm, Joey?"

"What!"

"How do I get to the conference room?"

"You'll have to follow me," he said out loud, stepping out of the elevator next 
to the one I had just left.

"Oh," I said, trying to avoid Suzi's fuming stare.

"You know I hate it when you make decisions for all of us," she said, hitting me 
on the arm as we followed Joey down the hall.

"Let's see.  The way I see it, if I had taken sides, we probably would still be 
standing outside the elevator arguing.  Instead I delayed us a whole twenty 
seconds by playing a little trick and getting you to come to a decision.  I 
could have broken the share link then commanded you both to go home if I had 
really made the decision for you."

"So you thought I was being overprotective," Joey complained.

"No.  I think you both should go home.  But I'm not going to make that decision 
or any other for you."

"You're right, Suz.  Dieing HAS made him more squeamish."

As we turned a corner, I focused my attention towards the thirty or so clusters 
of symbols ahead of us and picked out the seven which were isolated from the 
others geographically.

"Looks like Wally's beat us here," I remarked after recognizing his swirls from 
the others before checking out the swirls of the four visitors.

I stopped in my tracks when I realized that two were in close sync with each 
others.

"What is it?" Joey asked just as Suzi bumped into him when he stopped too.

"The escorts are twins.  Gladius twins."

"Twins?"

My eyebrows shot up in further surprise as I noticed the different neurological 
pattern to their bodies, then added, "Male twins."

"Male twins?" Suzi repeated with interest.  "Eww..  this could be..."

"You're not going in there," Joey said parentally. 

"If I'm not, you're not," Suzi said just as parentally.

"Well I am," I said as I stepped past them and headed for the crowd waiting 
outside the conference area.

Unfortunately, the crowd, not to mention the two guards, didn't see things my 
way.  They were all very tired and stressed, so I couldn't blame them for being 
so rude about it, but they didn't seem to understand that...  That...  Well, I 
guess I didn't really have any more right than they did to be in there, but at 
the time I sure felt I did.

Once I saw I wasn't getting in, I cried, "All RIGHT!", channeling my anger into 
an empathic pulse to make them all to jerk back away from me.  I hate it when 
people get in your face like that.

As I started walking back to where Joey and Suzi were standing, the room 
suddenly got very quiet, then I felt an all too familiar empathic greeting.

I turned around a bit hesitantly, but gave the two male twins the expected 
empathic reply, almost as automatically as saying "hello" when picking up a 
ringing phone.   

I had never met these fully adult empathic male twins before, yet I felt I knew 
them, and they knew me.  I guess I hadn't realized how much I had picked up over 
the summer living in the nursery where all Gladius's empathic twins learned 
their traits and skills.  There was a particular empathic protocol twins used 
when encountering other twins they didn't know, something I had picked up on, 
but hadn't been able to quite comprehend or emulate while in the Nursery.   Or 
at least not before I had drank that potion and twinned with Eric, and after 
that I hadn't come into contact with any twins that I already wasn't familiar 
with.

From that moment on, I trusted them.  As disturbing as that may sound to you, I 
knew no matter what their master or mistress may order them to do, they simply 
could not betray the trust of another twin, even a twinless twin as myself.

"Timmy?  You're not really thinking about going in there with them, are you?" 
Suzi's voice said from somewhere behind me.

"It's okay, Suz.  They can't hurt me any more than Joy could hurt Honey," I 
said, my words causing the twins quite a bit of amusement, which I was the only 
person in that room who could detect it.

I opened a partial one way to both Joey and Suzi as I walked up to the twins, 
then was surprised when the twins turned and opened the doors for me.  In my 
experience, twins expected others to open doors for them, not the other way 
around.  My surprise also seemed to amuse them, but they were not amused at all 
when the two guards refused to allow me to go in.

The guards were trembling at the knees within seconds, erasing any question that 
male empaths were just as powerful as their softer looking sisters.

"It's okay, guys," Sarah sighed.  "He can come in.  We're done for tonight."

Wally gave me a friendly nod as he and Alex past me to explain to the others 
outside what was going on, and from the expressions he and Alex wore, I assumed 
it wasn't going to make them happy.  

Stan was standing behind Sarah's chair rubbing her shoulders as she listened to 
a middle-aged woman wearing a very colorful blouse and a ton of jewelry 
describing something about blind children.

The Inquisitor came back into the room from apparently using the attached 
restroom, and as he walked up to me, the twins stepped to either side of me 
which puzzled the both of us.  That was the standard position which twins took 
when protecting their master or mistress from possible threats.

"Charlene, call off your pets," the Inquisitor said patiently to the woman.

"Well well...," the woman cooed as she got out of her chair and walked up to me 
all smiles.  "Charles, darling.  Introduce us, won't you?...  Boys..."

As my empathic brothers took their positions on either side of her, Charles 
grunted his contempt before saying, "Timothy Brandton-Grodmen, Charlene Stewart-
Joules."

"Charmed," she said overflowing with eagerness, holding her hand out limply for 
me to kiss.

"A pleasure," I said after giving her hand a peck, then glanced at the 
Inquisitor a moment hoping he'd enlighten me with what was going on.

All I got was a shrug.

"Well, if we're done here..." Sarah interrupted.

"Yes, yes, you may leave now, dearie."

Sarah's look of resentment towards her only lasted a few moments before the 
twins turned around and hurried her and Stan out with a simple glance.

"Would you mind getting us a drink, Charles?  The poor boy looks as if he's 
parched, and I know I am."

When the Inquisitor folded his arms and didn't move, the twins took it upon 
themselves to carryout her wishes.

"Uh, thanks.  I guess I am a bit thirsty," I confessed as one twin poured and 
the other dropped cubes of ice into a second cup.

The Inquisitor motioned for me to take a seat, which both I and Charlene did, 
but he remained standing.

"What's going to happen to the group?" I asked directly as the twins brought 
over the drinks.

"That has yet to be decided," the Inquisitor said, watching the twins as they 
stood just behind both Charlene and me.  "Since your friends are being more or 
less cooperative, we are helping them with the damage control before dealing 
with the exact details."

"So you're not necessarily going to force the Group to break up?"

"From what I understand, you're not apart of this organization."

"No I'm not.  But that doesn't mean I want to see it broken up.  Is that still 
your intention?"

"Just think of it as downsizing," Charlene answered for him.  "In any case, if 
everyone stays as cooperative as their leader has been so far, I'm sure we'll 
find a solution that will suit the majority.  Now, why don't we just move on to 
the next piece of business so Timothy...  May I call you Timothy?"

"Uh, sure.  Most people call me Tim, though."

"Oh, but you will most certainly find out that I am not like most other people.  
Charles, I believe you had something else to discuss with Timothy?"

The Inquisitor's suspicious eyes glanced from her, to me, then very briefly at 
the two twins before saying, "What do you know about the man who is supposedly 
helping restore old slaves back to a normal life?"

"Who Perry?"

"Yes, if that's what he's calling himself here."

"Uhm, he's just this ancient guy who's immune to voice, walks with a cane that 
has switchblades in the end, and basically runs the cleaning program and takes 
care of the ressies...  Uh, the severely enslaved cases.  Why are you asking 
about him?"

"This Perry is very likely a well known assassin of voices.  He has a price on 
his head, so he usually stays clear of potential trouble spots like this.  The 
fact that he's still here makes me believe he's up to something."

"Is that why they're here?" I asked, indicating the twins.

"They are here because I am here," Charlene clarified.  "Not to make old men 
repent for their crimes."

"Well, I can't read him at all, telepathically or empathically.  But I guess I 
really haven't tried to since he's quite capable of castrating me if he thought 
I was.  I'm not really sure what I can do to help you.  He'd be a hard nut to 
crack."

"I'm not asking you to do anything, just keep your eyes open and be careful if 
you have to deal with him at all.  He has a long record of killing in cold 
blood, mostly without warning or provocation.  He's not to be trusted for a 
moment."

"Enough," Charlene announced.  "The hour is late, and now that business is done, 
let us send Timothy on his way so he can get his rest, and us ours, hmmm?"

The Inquisitor held his tongue, but only barely as she stood and held her hand 
out to me to walk me to the door.  Once I saw the Inquisitor wasn't going to 
object, I got up and allowed her to lay her arm across my back and walk me to 
the door like I needed her support to make it that far.

Just before we reached the door, she said very softly, "Now do go and get some 
rest and perhaps the boys and I will stop by in the morning to answer any more 
questions you might have.  Would you like that?"

Obviously there was an ulterior motive to her offer, but the vibe I got from her 
told me it wasn't anything malicious, and in fact just the opposite.

If nothing else, I agreed out of curiosity.  But then again I also planned on 
keeping her to her word about answering any questions I would have.

Suzi met me at the elevator before we went down a floor to wait for Joey get out 
of the briefing Sarah and Wally were holding.

"Joey and I will be out all night blanketing the town with the others," Suzi 
said while we rode the elevator.

"Then I guess I'll be sleeping for the three of us tonight," I said while giving 
her back a rubbing.

"I wish you could," she sighed.

"I was serious."

She looked up at me and said, "You know it doesn't really work that way, and 
even if it did, then you'd be just as tired as we were in the morning.  You need 
to be on your toes when you're asking 20 questions tomorrow.  Joey can just link 
with someone else tonight."

I sighed, then said, "Alright.  Have it your way.  I guess I just miss having 
the link to you two.  It's like a hot line.  I know you're both okay every 
minute of the day."

Joey's commands diverted her natural response to hug me, and that angered me to 
the point where I almost tore the damn things out.  I didn't, and didn't try to 
clear up her confusion as to why I was suddenly in a bad mood.

When Joey and the other group members came out, I tried to talk him into keeping 
the link open with me and just putting a block on it to keep them from draining 
my energy as I slept.  But like Suzi, he wanted me to be as fresh as I could be 
the next morning, but he still made me memorize all the questions he personally 
wanted answered before cutting the share link and letting me go to sleep.

I got my sleep out, all right.  Woke up a little after nine and threw off the 
covers intending to get up, then next thing I knew the clock said ten forty 
three.

My head was full of cobwebs for sleeping so late, so after turning on the shower 
to warm up, I went out to the kitchen to grab a glass of orange juice while 
absently stroking my semi-hard member.

Extremely relaxed, I let my anything-but-little buddy lead the way back to the 
bathroom after gulping down the juice, but nearly jumped out of my skin when 
Charlene said from the recliner, "Good morning, precious.  You all rested up and 
full of spunk again?"

"How did you get in here?" I sputtered while silently commanding a down boy.

"Is that really important?" she asked while standing up, turning slightly to the 
right and stretching, making every inch of her leotard and leather outfit mold 
itself to her feminine curved shape.

She was obviously delighted to see her little stunt had the desired effect, but 
I ignored my restored hardon and asked straight out, "What do you want from me?"

"Oh silly man," she said walking up to me.  She ran her hands up my tummy and 
chest to my face, my hormones freezing me from pushing her away.  She swirled 
her fingers through my hair as she gently and honestly said "You go shower, then 
we shall eat a nice hot breakfast and talk about anything you want to talk 
about."

"But..."

"Shhh...  Go..." she said, gently kissing me on the tip of my nose.

I dazedly turned to do what she asked, and while in the shower, I couldn't keep 
my dick limp with the image of her stretching flashing into my head all the 
time.  I had no doubt in my mind she was using my hormones against me, yet she 
wasn't doing it to cloud my mind as much as...  Something else that just wasn't 
clear to me yet.

I was very tempted to go out there without any clothes on, but some part of my 
brain was still working enough to talk the rest of it to at least putting on 
something, even if it was only a pair of sweats.

Stuffing my hardon into the tightest, most ragged pair of jeans I owned almost 
proved impossible, especially since I was feeling pretty kinky and wasn't 
bothering with underwear.

I strode out into the living area in my skin-tight jeans, bright florescent 
green-yellow surf shirt, and bare feet feeling all macho and sexy, and then 
froze in disbelief at the sight of the male twins cooking while Charlene set the 
table for four.

"Well, now isn't that outfit...  unique," Charlene said with a touch of sarcasm.

"I uh...  Uh...  I'll be right back."

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," I swore to myself as I struggled to peel off my jeans.  
"Rule three to catching an older woman's eye.  Dress accordingly.  God, how the 
fuck did I get these on!"

Five minutes later, my discarded jeans were now cutoffs and I wore a more 
spacious sized pair of jeans, a polo shirt, and socks (but still didn't put on 
the underwear).  The omelet and funny looking pieces of toast were already on 
the table, but the twins were just sitting down from having served it.

"Smells good," I offered honestly.  "Never would have believed twins could cook, 
much less cook something as nice as this if I hadn't seen it myself."

"There is very little my boys can't do.  They are very special twins.  
Especially to me."

I smiled as they expressed their love to her in the most adoring kisses that 
didn't contain even a trace of anything sexual in them, then snapped out of my 
little daze as it became apparent they were waiting for me to take my first bite 
of the meal they prepared.

Relieved to find it was quite good, I ate probably more than my fair share, but 
the twins only saw it as a compliment to their cooking which I suppose it was.  
Words didn't matter to them, only actions and expressed emotions.  Of course 
Charlene couldn't get enough praise for her twins accomplishments, and I quickly 
understood she was more of a mother to them than a mistress.

Now her attitude towards me was a bit confusing to my empathic senses.  She was 
trying very hard to appeal to me sexually, and while she didn't have much 
trouble finding me attractive probably because of my youth, she seemed to have 
trouble keeping the feelings she had for her twins being reflected onto me as we 
apparently were close to the same age.

"That was excellent," I said, stretching my arms over my head and leaning back 
with a full tummy.  "I'm so full I feel like I could go right back to sleep."

There was no doubt in my mind she wanted something from me, and it was becoming 
increasingly obvious that it wasn't coincidence that she had come with the 
Inquisitor when this crisis had broke.  Yet when I again asked her point blank 
what it was she wanted, she insisted we move to the sofa and that I first ask my 
other questions first.

"Why?"

"For heaven sakes, trust me, Timothy.  If I told you what I'm really here for 
first, you wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything else.  That wouldn't be 
fair to you and your friends, now would it?"

If I hadn't felt how brutally honest she was being, I doubt I would have 
accepted her word and started asking Joey's questions.

The Inquisitor had apparently been watching the Group ever since they started 
growing in rapid spurts thanks to Joey's coin, and had recently placed a few 
moles in the area to keep closer tabs on their activities.  I found it curious 
to learn that the guy across the hall in my apartment building kept the 
Inquisitor informed of Suzi's and my activities.  Exactly how he could do this 
without my empathic senses warning me Charlene didn't know, but then it also 
wasn't the first time someone fooled me like that.

The Group was to be broken up, end of story.  Charlene made it clear that the 
Inquisitor would not settle for anything less, and that he would take any steps 
necessary to execute his decision.  History has proven time and time again that 
whenever a large number of voices joined together and formed an organization 
like the Group had, their activities always drew the attention of not just 
mutes, but other voices as well.

The Cabal's records showed that in some cases such organizations fell apart on 
their own, but in most cases they were conquered by larger more powerful 
organizations created out of the common threat the original organization posed 
to other voices.

How large a threat one appears to be depends on two factors: the size or 
relative strength of the organization, and how secret they maintain their work.  
Obviously the larger the size such an organization became, the larger the threat 
they became to other individual voices.  But size also made them more likely for 
other voices to discover their existence, for no matter how secretly they 
worked, these organizations always influenced the mute population around them 
which other voices picked up on.  And the more secret they were, the greater the 
threat they appeared to be to the outsiders, who's concerns would eventually 
become so great that they would join together and...  Well, all hell breaks 
loose.

So why didn't the Cabal and their organization fall into this trap?  There were 
several reasons.  
A, they didn't give a rat's ass what you did (as long as you didn't make a 
public scene of course.)  
B, the members usually hated or feared each other enough that it was 
obvious that nobody could use the organization for anything other than what 
served them all.
C, the combination of A&B resulted in the general rule that the Cabal 
didn't involve itself in protecting members from each other or outsiders.
But mainly it was because of D, the Cabal served every sane voice's self 
interests, and anyone who wouldn't see this almost always caught the 
Inquisitor's personal attention long before they could ever grow be a threat to 
them all.

Through a large network of unsuspecting mute informants, the Inquisitor was a 
one-man taskforce who carried out most of the Cabal's rather dirty business.  He 
spent most of his time searching for the telltale signs of a voice who's actions 
may lead to public exposure, and then took whatever measures necessary to 
correct that situation, rarely ever needing to call upon other members to help 
him do so.

The Group's size and secrecy actually wasn't as big an issue as their rapid rate 
of growth and their focus on defensive maneuvers and strategies.  The Inquisitor 
had actually resisted a few of the other member's increasing demands that he 
take action to break up the Group before now, seeing that the Group could be 
reasoned with and dissolved peaceably given the right circumstances.  Those 
circumstances he knew would happen fairly soon given the number of individual 
attacks against them, and had even put safeguards in place in case something 
like what happened the day before occurred.

Charlene actually seemed impressed by the Inquisitor's handle on the situation.  
She hadn't expected Sarah to submit to his terms without a fight, but after 
announcing their presence and intentions, they were only subjected to a short 
barrage of annoying probes before they were led to the medical complex to meet 
with Sarah and the rest.  Together Charlene and the Inquisitor explained the 
situation, and after offering their help in cleaning up the group's mess, Sarah 
agreed to the terms with the only condition that the Group as a whole was 
allowed to decide the means of their breakup.

After Sarah had accepted his terms, the Inquisitor tested her strength like he 
had mine when we first met.  Apparently Sarah gave the Inquisitor a fairly good 
fight with all her creative offensive tactics, but she simply wasn't strong 
enough to hold out against his superior strength and he overcame her defenses 
within ten minutes.  

Her twins shared how terrified Sarah had been by the challenge and yet she 
hadn't let it show.  I would have said she was just maintaining her fearless 
leader roll, but Charlene's twins' senses were sharper than mine.  Sarah had 
done it to keep the others from taking action without thinking, and Charlene had 
a considerable amount of respect for Sarah's high degree of intelligence and 
self-control.

Charlene couldn't really answer most of Joey's questions since it was the 
Inquisitor who would have the final say on things and she could only guess what 
that would be.  I sensed she wasn't really concerned what happened to the group, 
but she had taken the time to learn all she could about the whole situation in 
hopes in aiding her in winning my favor.

I obviously surprised her when I pressed her for as many details as I could for 
the Inquisitor's plans concerning Perry.  Apparently the Inquisitor didn't know 
of the... agreement between Perry and I, otherwise he wouldn't have told me that 
he knew Perry's true identity or hint that he may take some kind of action 
towards him.  All Charlene knew was the Inquisitor was already investigating 
Perry's intentions and would deal with him if he found anything he didn't like.

Actually, if I had really thought about it, I might have suspected I was being 
used to flush Perry's motives to the surface, but it really didn't matter one 
way or the other.  I felt honor bound to learn what I could and report it to 
Perry since it obviously endangered Perry's safety.  I only wondered if Perry 
would have actually done the same for me as he had agreed to.

Once I ran out of questions, Charlene took an interest in the painting I had 
painted last fall of Suzi, Joey and I, asking questions about them, my parents, 
my brother, and Honey and Joy which her twins immediately encouraged discussing.

After mentioning them by name, Charlene revealed that she had also named her 
twins, but only used them when the three of them were alone.  Curious, I tried 
to worm them out of her, but she wouldn't budge and I couldn't talk her twins 
into giving me any empathic hints to what they were either.

She had been walking around the room studying the painting, the few pictures I 
had of my family, and the other knickknacks I had brought from home, then sat 
down beside me and studied my features with such an intensity I kept breaking 
out into grins.

I knew she was about to reveal her true intentions, and despite the uneasy 
feeling I had about it all, I couldn't help but feel she meant me absolutely no 
harm so I allowed her to get to it in her own time.

"You are a very unusual and unique young man," she finally said softly, stroking 
my left cheek gently with her fingertips.  "When I first heard of you, I 
believed you would be a spoiled and selfish child who couldn't possibly trust 
another being he didn't control.  I have seen so many young voices who grew up 
with a parent who also had voice waste their youth believing that only through 
testing and using their power could they be happy.  They never really find their 
happiness, not like you and I." 

"I, uhm..."

"Shh..." she said, putting her finger over my lips and leaning closer.  "You're 
nothing what I expected to find, and that makes it... much harder for me to ask 
you for what I came here to ask.  If you had just been like those others, I 
wouldn't feel so..."

Charlene's eyes were so full of motherly tenderness and empathy she was very 
nearly triggering a empathic connection to form between us.  She wanted 
something very badly, yet her motherly feelings for her twins were interfering 
with that so much, she was scrambling for the strength to put her wishes into 
words.

Avoiding the empathic link trying to form, I turned away and stood up, finding 
myself a bit shaken by the intensity of her own emotions and ended up walking 
over to the kitchen's counter to steady my weight and give us some space to 
think.

Every nerve of my body sensed her get up and walk up behind me.  I held my 
breath when she embraced me from behind, then tensed up when her hands started 
feeling around my chest.

"I'm forty three years old, Timothy, and I've had four children who I've loved 
and spent every moment I can watching and helping them grow up into good and 
well adjusted human beings.  I love them all with my heart and soul, and they 
have given me everything I ever wanted and plus some.  But they do not have 
voice, and for years I lived believing I would never pass on what my mother 
taught me and what her father taught her because no third generation voice could 
have a child with voice..."

"Then you heard of me," I concluded.

"I didn't really believe it at first, but after I looked into it I...  As I 
said, you are a unique young man.  Perhaps one of a kind if your little brother 
doesn't develop voice when he grows older, but by then I would be too old...  
You're my only hope to give me child so I could teach them what has been handed 
down to me by my family..."

"You... You want me to father your child?" I stated incredibly.

"Yes."

I turned around and looked her in the eyes, catching the glimmer of tears 
leaving her eyes from the emotions battling inside her.

"I..." I began, struggling to get a grasp of how to sort out the maelstrom of 
conflicting emotions running through me.

"Please don't try to give me an answer now," she said with a sincere and 
empathic smile, obviously relieved that my initial reaction hadn't been an 
instant negative one.  "I know how hard of a decision it may be for you to make, 
and you should take as much time as you need to decide, but I hope you will 
allow me to show how much this means to me and that I love any child I bring 
into this world more than anything else as my boys can tell you."

I didn't catch her double meaning immediately, but when I glanced at the twins 
standing a good three yards behind her (which for twins is a considerable amount 
of private space to give up), I suddenly saw the resemblance between mother and 
sons.

"You're their real mother..." I stated for the record.  "Are the other two ...?"

"No, they're not twins.  And I wouldn't want them any different than they way 
they are.  Glenda is fifteen and Robert is eight.  If you would like to meet 
them, we could go to my home...  I don't feel comfortable about bringing them 
here under the present conditions."

"I can understand that," I said, finding the whole situation a bit too surreal.  
"Uhm, how old are the twins?"

"Twenty.  Twenty and three months, actually.  Although sometimes they act like 
they're ten."

"You can tell a difference?" I chuckled, remembering how the little ones in the 
Nursery acted very much like the adult twins, only with less experience.

"Of course I can.  I'm their mother," she said slightly amused.  "They can pout 
like no other child can."

"Yeah, I guess," I said, imagining it, then wondering...

"If we did... you know... and they turned out to be twins, would you..."

"No," she said with a touch of regret.  "I would want them to experience all the 
joys of life without the need to please and protect their mother like the boys 
do.  I've finally gotten them to think seriously about someday choosing a pair 
of girls they date to marry and start a family with.  I doubt I'll ever get them 
to move out of the house though."

"They date?  And they can have... kids?" I sputtered out.

"Certainly they can.  Do you think I would deprive them the same opportunity I 
was given when I had them?"

"I think I need a drink," I said out of the need to distract myself to clear my 
head a bit.

Charlene sat down at the kitchen table and watched me as I poured a glass of 
lemonade and gulped half of it down, then without making an audible sound, she 
signaled the twins to leave, which they did with only the click of the door 
marking their departure.

"Why did you send them away?" I asked.

"Because it disturbs them whenever I try and seduce a man, you especially...  
They seem very protective of you."

"Is there any reason why they should protect me from you?" I asked, wishing I 
was asking the twins rather than her.

"No.  Please believe me I mean you no harm, no matter what your decision," she 
said honestly.

I swallowed the last drop of my lemonade, put the cup down, then stared at its 
bottom as I asked, "Would we... sleep together?"

"Do you mean would we have sex?  I would prefer that, but if you have problems 
with having sex with an older woman, we could..."

"No, sex is fine," I stammered out before turning to look at her.  "I mean, that 
is if I decide to go through with it..."

"I doubt I can compare with girls your own age, but I like to think I still have 
an appealing body," she said, giving me another look at her profile.

"Very appealing," I admitted.

"I've already seen how beautiful a body you have," she stated a little nervously 
as she approached me.  "If you would like to examine mine a little more...  I 
won't mind."

I hesitantly reached out to touch her leotard covered stomach with my right 
hand, then after feeling the feminine softer firmness there, I put both hands on 
her tummy, then slid them to the sides and ran them up her back, then back down 
to her butt.  Her body was in excellent shape as far as I could tell, and got 
brave enough to remove her leather like jacket that hid the shape of her 
breasts.

Once the jacket was removed, the leotards couldn't hide her breast's growing 
arousal as her nipples' erections pushed the material even further out.  The 
thought of sampling those breasts' milk was driving me crazy until the thought 
of her twin boys having once used those breasts in their intended function and 
brought me around to reason.

"I need to think about it," I said stepping back and getting a hold of my lust.  
"Alone."

Seeing the crestfallen look on her face, I quickly said, "You're as sexy as 
hell, and if you stay much longer I'll be ripping both our clothes off for sure.  
Please, I need to think about this with a clear head, and a clean conscious."

"I understand," she said with a wave of relief, and started heading towards the 
door.  "But I am going to leave you with something that I hope will keep your 
attention."

She picked up a box sitting beside the door and put it on the table before 
gently stepping over to me, kissing me on the cheek, and saying, "My number is 
inside.  Thank you for giving me a chance."

I looked in her eyes and truthfully said, "I'll call you tonight whether I made 
a decision or not."

If she had looked into my eyes a moment longer, I would have kissed her on the 
lips, hard.  But she turned away the last moment and walked out the door without 
looking back.

I watched her swirl of symbols join her sons in what I imagine was a van or 
something equally spacious, and smiled as it appeared they were hugging.  My 
smile started to fade as one of the two young men sat down in front while the 
other remained in the back with their mother, then I was astonished to realize 
that the one in the front was driving the vehicle as they pulled away.

When I turned my attention to the two-foot long plain brown box, I was startled 
to see not just one set of small swirls of symbols coming from inside, but two.

My hands shook with uncertainty and excitement as I opened and carefully 
unwrapped the gray metal figure of Charlene's naked body arched backwards in a 
pleasure filled stretch of pure sexual loveliness, her nipples made out of the  
same red amber-like material as the coins.  I stood there a long time astounded 
by its beauty, its priceless nature, and the raw sexual urges it generated 
within me.

Joey called about an hour later to let me know they were going to sleep in the 
medical complex and to hear what I had learned.  Between I not making much sense 
and he being overtired, he gave up on getting the details and hung up saying, 
"We'll just come over tonight, k?  Night."

It was well after two o'clock before I had spurted enough seed that my head 
cleared enough to get my priorities straightened out.  I managed to catch Joey 
just before he fell asleep and got him to form a share link with me, he being 
careful to block sharing out his fatigue thankfully.

I knew I would need to be on my toes while warning Perry, not as much to defend 
myself from him incase he goes loco, but more to keep myself from getting caught 
in the middle of his troubles.  I considered the share link a sort of safety 
line I could tug on in case he did go loco, but I really had a hard time 
believing he would harm me if I told him what I knew and then left him alone.  
Didn't happen that way, of course.

The moment I stepped into the building, I knew something was different.  The 
ressies upstairs were making all their usual sounds, and Perry's fog hiding his 
swirls of symbols was in his office, but there was an elevated level of tension. 
Or perhaps it was expectation.  I couldn't quite tell which.  Maybe both.

Expecting him to leap out at me at any moment, I walked up to the open office 
door as calmly and nosily of footsteps as I could make on the old linoleum 
covered concrete.

When I reached the door, I found him sitting in his chair with his back to me, 
the last position I expected a hunted man to take when the hunters were nearby.  
As I raised my hand to knock on the open door, he cut me off saying, "What do 
you want," in a tense yet calm voice.

"I uh...  Need to tell you something," I said as my heart pounded in my ears.

"Tim..." he said, spinning his chair to face me with just a faint look of 
surprise on his face before it vanished into the cold expressionless mask he 
wore all the time.  "Don't you have other things to worry about than to come and 
bug me?"

"Actually, I have a lot...  Wait a minute.  Like what?" I asked suspiciously.

"Hmm?!" he grunted, then saw I expected an answer and said, "I'm busy!  Go 
away!"

"The Cabal knows who you are and are investigating to see if you're up to 
something.  If they find out you are up to no good, they're going to do 
something about it.  Now I'll go."

I turned around and stepped out of the office, then had to forcibly ignore his 
command "Wait."

A few seconds later I heard the "sching" sound of his cane's blades that made my 
heart almost stop in fear as the Inquisitor's words came back to me, "has a long 
record of killing in cold blood...  He's not to be trusted for a moment."

"I trusted you!" I exclaimed without looking back, quickening my pace sharply to 
a trot.  "I'm not a threat to you, and I..."

I fell when his cane tripped me only two paces from the exit doors, and before I 
could gather my feet up to leap through them, he knocked the wind out of me with 
is foot and then sent me into a daze with a hard chop to the back of my neck.

"... down, damn good for nothing grunt.  You know you're a fool for coming in 
here, but not as big of a fool as your pipe smoking, bible thumping, poor excuse 
of a protector for believing I would fall for such a transparent trick.  Get 
up."

"You might as well kill me now, you bastard," I spat as I tugged on my lifeline.

"Oh, so you want to die, do you?  What's the matter, grunt?  Can't decide 
between your loins and your sanity?"

"What?"

He sighed, twisted the cane's neck to recoil its blades, then leaned against it 
a bit while he offered his other hand down to me.

"Well, don't take all day!  You think I like bending over like this?" he snapped 
when I didn't move.

Not knowing what else to do, I let him help me up to my feet, then stood there 
confused as he just walked away, heading back to his office.

He was just sitting down when I poked my head around the door frame, and we just 
looked at each other a few moments before he grunted, hung his cane up on the 
edge of his desk and said, "Come in here and close the door."

Unsure of his motivations, I entered the room and closed the door like he asked, 
but didn't release the doorknob so it wouldn't latch.

"You jumpy because of what that preacher said?  Or because Charlene's trying to 
get your sympathy?"

"How did you know about that?" I said, amazed.

Perry took a moment to enjoy holding me in suspense, then grunted, turned 
towards a pile of file folders on the right edge of his desk, pulled off the top 
one and tossed it to me.

"I pulled a few too many strings while I was gathering that, and it must have 
drawn enough attention for someone to look at what it was I was getting.  Hell, 
I didn't know you were a fourth generation.  Like everyone else, I didn't know 
you could exist."

I looked up from the birth certificates and other documents he had gathered on 
my heritage background, and simply asked, "Why?"

"Before I get into that, what did that preacher tell you that made you run from 
me like that?"

"He said you were a known assassin who targets voices.  That you've killed in 
cold blood without any apparent reason and I wasn't to trust you."

"And despite all that, you still came back to warn me.  Alone.  I bet you didn't 
even tell anyone, did you?"

"No..."

"You are by far the stupidest voice I've ever met.  Hmmph...  Rose would have 
adored you."

"Who?"

His eyes sharpened like I had just insulted him, and then he snapped, "For your 
information, grunt, your preacher friend was partially right.  In my earlier 
days, I killed more voices a year than you'll probably meet in your whole 
pathetic life.  But I always had a reason."

"And what was that?" I said, ready to send a big enough pulse through the share 
link to knock Joey out of bed and probably clear across the room.

"I'm not sure you could handle it.  Oh what am I worried about?  I doubt you'll 
even believe it."

"Then maybe I shouldn't hear it," I said, opening the door.

"Timid like a field mouse, just like your grandfather," he snorted.  "Jasper 
never did like hearing things that might upset his little world."

"You don't really think I'd believe that you knew my grandfather, do you?"

"Hrmm...  No, not if you had any sense about you.  Close the door and sit down, 
Tim.  I'm not here to murder you or anyone else."

I hesitated, then opened my mouth to ask why and was cut off by the last word I 
thought I'd ever hear come out of that old man's mouth.

"Please."

What could I do?  The guy was really trying to put my fears at ease, and despite 
knowing that he could very well be lying through his teeth and I'd never know 
it, I couldn't help but believe he was sincere.  So I reentered his office, 
closed the door, wiped off who knows how many months of dirt and dust off the 
never used chair intended for guests, and sat down.

"You tell another living soul about any of this, I'll cut your tongue out," he 
warned.

"Do you want me to stay or not?" I said grouchily.

"Yes, damn it.  Hrrrgh..." he growled, cleared his throat, and then turned his 
chair so his back was to me.

"My mother was a popular dancing girl during the early twenties, but not too 
smart when it came to men.  I never knew who my father was, though my older 
sisters both met theirs once, and we lived with my little brother's and sister's 
father for four years before black Tuesday hit and he took off on us.

"Now my ma wasn't a prostitute or anything of the sort.  She was just not too 
bright about people, or money..."

I sighed and got a little more comfortable in the chair, then said "Sorry," when 
Perry paused from the interruption.

"You ever hear of Hoovervilles?"

"Uhm...  Yeah.  Weren't they like the towns the poor built out of trash during 
the depression?"

He grunted his confirmation, then said, "We lived on the streets for two weeks 
until my mom hooked up with an old friend from the dance clubs and we moved into 
the shipping crate he called his home.  It was better than sleeping on the 
streets, but not much better.

"About a year later, I was a streetwise nine year old looking for my next meal 
when I spotted a young zoot-suit with two dames heading towards the old Crandon 
hotel.  But I wasn't the only one to see them.  Every kid from six to sixteen 
kept a watch on that hotel.  It was a popular place for rich men to take their 
sluzies to, and a gold mine for anyone brave enough to sneak inside their room 
and snag their wallet or their watch while they were occupied.

"I couldn't believe my luck when it looked like everyone decided they didn't 
have a chance and went back to what they had been doing.  I figured they all 
were just too chicken with there being two dames, but I hadn't eaten in almost 
two days.  Hunger can make you fearless, especially when you're nine.

"It wasn't hard to figure out which room it was with all the noise they were 
making, and I couldn't believe my luck when I found they hadn't even closed the 
door.  

"I walked in, took the wallet, and walked right out without anyone seeming the 
wiser.  I stupidly went down to the basement figuring nobody would think to look 
in the same building as they were in, and started counting the bills.  I was 
just reaching a hundred when he walked around the barrel I was hiding behind and 
said 'I think that belongs to me'.  

"I fainted out of fear when I saw he was buck naked and his pecker still hard 
and wet from the dame's insides.  I thought for sure he was going to make me 
pretend to be a girl for him.  I had heard of those kind of things happening on 
the streets and I was terrified of it happening to me."

"I take it he didn't make you into a girl," I joked.

"No.  When I woke up, he and his wallet was gone, but he had left me forty 
dollars and an apple.  That money kept me fed me for nearly a year."

"You didn't share it with your family?"

"My brother and sisters never shared anything with me, and I knew better than to 
give it to my ma.  It would have been gone in a week without us getting much out 
of it.

"In the two years after that lucky day, the Hoovervilles grew bigger and more 
crowded.  My mom's friend left us one day and never came back, but another man, 
Big Jake he had us call him, moved in with us so we could keep our two crates.  
My oldest sister Tammy took a likin' in Big Jake, and when my ma wasn't around, 
he'd take her into our crate and they'd make it creak.  

"When I was eleven and it got warm enough outside to sleep out there, I started 
living on my own more and didn't go home much after I found out Tammy was going 
to have Big Jake's baby.  I spent most of the summer running wild and getting 
into all sorts of trouble, staying as far away as I could from my family until 
it started turning cold and I had no where else to go.

"The crates were there, but somebody else was living in them.  I spent a week 
looking for them, but nobody knew where they went.  And nobody wanted another 
troublemaker living with them, so I got kicked out after I tried taking some 
bread from another kid.

"After that I managed to find enough food to stay alive, but I was getting weak 
from being cold and sick all the time.  I doubt I would have lived through the 
winter if the man I had stolen the wallet from hadn't turned up again.

"It was on the day after the first snow that year, and I had found a half-eaten 
apple in the trash and was running from the other scavengers in order to keep 
it.  I tried to eat it as I ran, but I only had two bites down before they 
tackled me to the ground.  I curled up into a ball with the apple in my arms 
trying to hold on to it, but they were too strong and eventually got it away 
from me.

"Someone yelled from down the ally and they all scattered, but I stayed on the 
ground trying to hold down the couple of bites of apple I had eaten.  I knew 
someone was coming, but I was afraid to move and lose the only food I had eaten 
in three days, so I just played dead.

"I heard the feet stop right beside me, but nobody touched me or said anything 
until I couldn't hold the apple down any more and threw it up."

"I didn't recognize him from looking at him.  He had an overcoat on and a hat 
on, and I don't think I ever really saw his face in the basement.  He waited for 
my heaving to stop, then helped me up and asked me if I had thrown up the apple 
he had given me before.

"I didn't know what he was talking about until he mentioned the money, then I 
got really scared and took off.  I know he didn't run after me, but I was just 
starting to catch my breath after slipping into an abandoned warehouse when I 
felt something cool touch my cheek and found him holding an apple in my face.

"He yelled my name when I started to run again, so I stopped and asked him how 
he knew it.  He said he'd take me to my mom, then waved the apple in front of 
him and offered it to me.  When I took it, he told me his name."

Perry cleared his throat a few times, then turned around and said, "That man 
made me who and what I am.  He took me to my mother, paid her a thousand dollars 
to sign me over to him as his adoptive father, then took me away and gave me a 
life, an education, and a purpose.  They call me an assassin.  I suppose I am in 
their eyes.  But I was the only weapon the world had to keep the voices out of 
the war, and to prevent them from tearing the world apart when it was over."

"So you saved the world," I said a bit sarcastically.

"No.  I was only the weapon, the instrument one man, one voice used to save the 
world.  And his name, in case you were wondering, was Timothy Brandton."

I was... stunned?  Nah...  More like overwhelmed with disbelief.  My grand uncle 
saved the world?  Yeah, right.  

"I knew your mother when she was just a little girl," he went on when he saw I 
didn't believe of word of it.  "Tim took me with him a couple of times when he 
went to visit Jasper and Rose.  Sammy loved company.  The poor thing was starved 
for it with Jasper trying to live like a hermit on that farm of theirs.  I never 
understood what Rose saw in him.  I would have given her the world if she had 
given me the time of day.  But she didn't have eyes for anyone but Jasper.  
Except maybe for Tim.  Never could figure those three out completely..."

He paused, apparently lost in his own thoughts, but not so lost he didn't notice 
me shifting in the bare wooden chair and stifling a yawn.

"You still don't believe me.  Hmmph...  I take it you're planning on going home 
for your little brother's birthday in a couple weeks.  Tell your mother Berry 
Livingston said hi.  Now get out."

I walked out of the building with only a bruised knee and a head spinning with 
questions.  The campus was virtually deserted, partially because of what 
happened the day before, but mostly because there was no finals scheduled until 
the following Monday.

The sky was pretty cloudy, and I kept getting small chills whenever the breeze 
picked up while the sun was hiding behind the clouds.  I felt like my life had 
suddenly spun out of control again, and I was having a hard time deciding what I 
should be worried about the most.

The idea of fathering a baby which I would have no contact with or who's life I 
would have no role to play in bothered me a lot.  I wasn't sure if I could leave 
such a child alone, especially if they did inherit the voice Charlene believed 
they would.  I believed she was a good mother and all, and from what I could 
sense she was a good person, but rarely are people really what they appear when 
they want something from you as much as she did from me.

I stopped by the medical complex to try and talk to the Inquisitor but found he 
wasn't there.  He apparently had also worked through the night and had left to 
get some sleep, strangely without leaving a number or where he was staying in 
case there was a need contact him before he returned.

The medical complex was full of activity, mostly mutes cleaning up the mess and 
starting to make repairs.   After finding out the Inquisitor wasn't there, I 
turned to leave so I wouldn't be in their way, but as I was walking to the door, 
the receptionist I had just spoken to called me back by name.

"Dr. Harrison would like to speak to you.  Go to room three ten, please," she 
simply said.

I opened my mouth to decline, but then shrugged to myself and just headed 
towards the nearest elevator.  I knew I would have to face Sarah sooner or later 
for having involved myself in the mess, but I hadn't expected her to want to do 
it while she was worn out like I knew she had to be.

You could say I was a bit startled to find "Dr. Stanley Harrison, Associate 
Dean" on the door, and when I entered, I was greeted by a male receptionist who 
gave me the old corny line, "The doctor is expecting you," and let me in.

Stan was on the phone when I entered his rather modest office.  He greeted me 
with a friendly nod as he continued to interject "uh-huh", "yes", "no", "right", 
and other verbal acknowledgements to the person on the other end of the phone.  
After a couple of minutes, though, he rolled his eyes and made gabby motions 
with his hand, then covered the mouthpiece and said, "Dean's wife."

"Ahhh..." I said.

"Yes, Fran, I'm listening," he said, rolling his eyes again.

My eyes drifted over to the framed documents on the wall behind him:  Bachelor 
of Biochemical Science - 1979; Doctorate of Medical Science - 1983;
three or four awards in Biochemistry and at least a half a dozen for outstanding 
achievements in the medical science education.  All these were in black plastic 
or wooden frames, but the crayon drawn award for the best dad in the world - 
Father's day, 1988, was in a gold frame and hung in the center of the rest.

"All right, Fran.  Thanks for calling," I heard him say, drawing my attention to 
his rather comical expressions while trying to end the conversation.

"I swear that woman thinks she's just as much the dean as Rodney is," he sighed 
when he finally hug the phone up.  "She's almost as big of a pain in the ass as 
the school lawyers are."

"Did he marry her out of love, or to avoid a lawsuit?"

He chuckled, then said, "Probably both.  They got married a few months before 
she gave birth to their first child."

"Heh."

"I have a favor to ask you.  You're the only one here who's awake and not tied 
up with the cleanup."

"Sure.  What's up, doc?"

"The little girl won't communicate with us, or even acknowledge us unless we 
touch her, and then she just screams and throws a fit until we either leave or 
she wears herself out.  I was hoping you could use your...  empathy on her to 
get her to trust us enough to get some answers out of her.  Or at least get her 
to eat something."

"I can try, but...  Could you fill me in on what happened after she got the 
coin?  I kind of missed it."

The little girl was not only confined to a wheelchair, but she was deaf and 
blind as well.  I quickly realized it was only natural for a deaf, dumb, and 
blind child with symbolic sight to have new insights and learn different uses 
for it than someone more fortunate like myself would.  Yet to learn that none of 
the adults that I, and the others, had traced the probes and direct telepathic 
attacks to had any signs of voice afterwards made me reconsider this.  Surely 
such power was beyond the average telepath.  At least I certainly hoped so.

I apparently had startled her with my probe, and her natural reaction to repel 
it caused her to divert the power she was using to drive the adult's battle with 
the Group long enough for the Group to take them and end the whole thing.

And the little girl hadn't seemed to care that her soldiers were in the hands of 
the enemy.  She just sat in her chair holding the coin contently up until the 
moment Sarah sedated her and she passed out.

They kept her unconscious until workmen finished paneling a room with the 
telepathy-proof wood and had transferred her inside it.  When she awoke and 
found herself not only totally blind and alone, but coinless too, she let out a 
loud whimper before throwing herself out of the chair and dragging herself all 
over the room in search for a way out.

I was somewhat glad to hear that when Sarah finally got the time and courage to 
enter the room, the little girl didn't try anything.  She did let Sarah help her 
back into her chair, but neither Sarah nor the Inquisitor could penetrate her 
shielded mind to try and talk to her.

Stan had a grad student who worked in one of the group's projects come and take 
me up to the room the girl was in.  I admit I was a bit nervous about being in 
the room alone with this powerful little girl, but one glance at the video 
monitor that showed her sitting motionlessly in her chair told me all I needed 
to know.

She felt totally alone.

Her swirls of symbols were barely visible through her telepathic energy barrier, 
but I could tell she knew I had entered the room from how the activity behind 
the barrier fluctuated.

My own barrier was purely defensive and I was purposely keeping it as 
transparent as I could in hopes she would read my intentions and let me talk to 
her somehow.  At that time I figured she either couldn't read my thoughts 
through her own heavily distorted field or simply didn't want to, but I later 
realized that perhaps it was more that she didn't know how to interpret them.

Nothing I tried got through to her, and after an hour of begging, pleading, and 
even shouting, I tried shaking her gently to try and get a reaction from her.  
All I got out of her was a couple of silent tears.

By that time my empathic senses were seriously making it difficult for me to 
stay objective without trying something stupid like opening the door and 
wheeling her out.  So after giving her an unacknowledged hug, I promised her I'd 
be back and left the room so I could sober up and think.

I found an empty office and sat down in the middle of the floor and just let my 
thoughts run wild.  After letting all the crazy ideas work themselves out of my 
head, I let my mind drift a few minutes and ended up seeking out Joey's and 
Suzi's swirls in the building to check on them.

As I confirmed to myself they were still asleep, I recognized the smaller 
signature of Joey's coin apparently hanging around his neck.  My mind raced as I 
leapt to my feet, but then I slammed on my brakes as I reached the door 
realizing the girl might not give the coin up again without a significant fight.  
I wanted to use it to gain her trust, but that trust would be crushed if I had 
to force her to give it back.

Seeing I really didn't have any other options, I made my way up to the room 
where Joey and Suzi were sleeping and gently roused Joey.  I only had to tell 
him I wanted to borrow it for Joey to take it off and hand it to me.  I wondered 
if he'd even remember he had given it to me when he woke up when he fell right 
back asleep before I even left the room.

I told the people watching her and the room what I was going to do, and was 
rather surprised when they didn't put up any resistance to my plan.  They did 
warn me that if anything appeared wrong they would gas the room, and I had the 
feeling that wasn't the only precaution they had standing by.

The girl didn't react any differently than last time when I entered the room, 
and didn't show the slightest interest when I held the coin out in front of me.  
But when I put it in her hand, she jumped in startlement, then hugged the coin 
against her, sniffing after happy tears formed in her eyes.

Her fears slowly dissipated the longer she hugged and fondled the red 
translucent coin, then suddenly she reached out with her mind and like two 
fingers squeezing a grape, she squashed my barrier and... felt me out.

She wasn't using symbols to probe me, just...  feeling me out telepathically.  
When just thinking to myself that I wanted to help her, that we didn't mean her 
any harm and were just protecting ourselves from her, stuff like that didn't 
seem to catch her attention like it should, I instinctively looked into the 
unfocused and wandering eyes and attempted to form an empathic connection.

I just couldn't quite get it to form with her eyes roaming everywhere like that.  
In a surge of frustration I commanded her eyes to look straight forward, then we 
both held our breaths as she stood ready to pound my mind into telepathic goo 
while feeling the empathic connection form.

At birth, a child's mind is entirely composed of their immediate physical needs 
and feelings.  They have no sense of past or future, just the immediate now.  So 
naturally at first there is only emotion, but as time goes on the developing 
mind begins to learn how some sensations lead to other sensations, how the 
sensations of sight and hearing work, and before you know it, the little bugger 
begins constantly searching for new images and sensations to associate together 
to bring them even more new sensations.

All the senses are explored.  The sense of taste being the main reason babies 
put everything in their mouth, while the sense of sight is the reason simple 
objects can hold them spellbound for long periods of time.

With the sense of sound, the human mind begins the all-important association of 
sound to thought.  Before a child can even learn how to form these things we 
call words with their mouth, they first have to grasp their meaning when they 
hear it, and quickly the mind learns to use that sound to convey the same 
meaning to another.

Essentially, the very format of a child's thoughts are defined by the language 
they use to communicate with.  As a child grows and matures, the mind uses these 
memorized sounds internally to explore linear derived topics to their learned 
conclusion.  An example would be feeling your stomach's emptiness and perhaps 
having visions of food generate the word "hungry" in your mind.  I personally 
tend to verbally say out loud, "I'm hungry," whenever my body tells me it's chow 
time.  Of course there is a very good reason for me to say it out loud, but I do 
not wish to disclose the reason at this point of my little story.

Children born deaf tend to still learn to think in a very similar way through 
the study of other people's mouth movements.  It's a little slower process, but 
many deaf children naturally learn how to talk, and of course read.  It is 
usually more difficult for a telepath to read a deaf born person's thoughts, but 
the underlying emotions, images, and other sensations are enough for any half 
decent voice to interpret them correctly, especially if the subject learned how 
to read at an early enough age.

But this girl's thoughts were nearly indecipherable to me due to their unique 
wordless form.  Part of her language, if you could call it that, was loosely 
based on the patterns of symbols she had learned from watching them swirling 
around in peoples minds.  Her thoughts were more emotion with a slightly 
structured combination of senses and a few symbols, and as I carefully shared my 
side of the empathic link with her, I concluded my best method of communication 
with her was through emotion rather than thoughts.

In just a few hours, I was able to roll the poor girl out of that room to change 
her soiled diaper, give her a bath, get us both a dinner, then meet Sarah, Stan, 
the Inquisitor, Charlene and her boys to explain what I had learned.

Since she had no concept of what a name was, she obviously couldn't tell me 
hers, so I chose to call her Helen after Helen Keller, the blind deaf woman who 
learned not only to read and talk, but to teach others how as well.

For as long as Helen remembers, she had been alone.  I got the impression she 
was an orphan who had lived in several different foster homes before she fell 
out of her wheelchair and hit her head and started sensing the minds around 
hers.

Like any child, she quickly explored this new sense, and while she never learned 
how to interpret other people's thoughts, she did recognize their emotional 
states.  Within a matter of days she trained herself in influencing their 
emotions to do what she wished them to do, a slower, more subtle, but just as 
effective, form of mind control.

From what I had gathered, that had been over a year ago, for even Helen knew of 
the seasons changing the weather outdoors.  During that year she began exploring 
the world using the people around her as conduits of both her will and power, 
and it was on one of these expeditions that she encountered another voice.

At first she believed the voice was just playing with the three people's minds, 
but when the voice didn't put them back to the way they had found it, she 
realized the woman had done something to them, something not right.

Helen watched that voice for a long time without the voice ever noticing.  
During that time Helen studied and learned how to emulate what the voice was 
doing, but didn't understand exactly what it did or what it was for until trying 
it on one of the men who gave her a bath at night.  After the shock of having a 
tongue lick her between her legs and trying to penetrate her hymen, Helen 
quickly decided the woman voice was evil and kept a close eye on her.

The voice eventually came across an Eta who had gone home to visit with his 
family over a weekend.  Shortly following that, the voice went in search of the 
person behind the Eta's hidden programming which she had been unable to uncover, 
and was quickly dealt with by the group when she attacked the first voice she 
found.

Helen was horrified by the existence of so many people with the power who in her 
mind were just as evil as the woman they had enslaved from the things they made 
their mutes do.  Yet she would have never involved herself with the group at all 
if she hadn't observed Joey using his coin to test some students about a month 
ago.

The way I understood it, Helen believed it had been calling to her ever since 
she first started feeling the minds around her, but she hadn't known where the 
call was coming from until seeing Joey pass it around.  After that she began 
feeling out the mutes on the campus to see which were the strongest conductors 
for her power and working out some sort of strategy to get the coin.  I had felt 
the strength of her obsession to get to the coin.  It had simply blinded her 
young mind to the consequences of her actions, even the deaths she had caused.

Helen ended the meeting by impressing her desire to go to sleep.  I was fairly 
tired myself from the long empathic links and other activities of the day, so 
after tucking Helen in a bed she picked out through feel, I left her and the 
coin to the capable hands of the child psychologists and doctors for the night.

Part of me didn't want to go back to the apartment because I knew that statue 
would be there tempting me, yet I couldn't think of anywhere else to go that was 
close.  So I went back to my place and went to bed with the door shut so the 
statue couldn't see me in there.

Didn't help.  Those nipples were like two eyes glowing in the dark.  I could 
feel them constantly watching me, and as I fell asleep, I could have sworn they 
were calling me, desiring me to caress them and suckle them dry.

I was startled awake when an arm fell across my midsection, but relaxed 
instantly when I recognized Suzi's symbols swirling lazily beside me, and Joey's 
beside hers.

As my eyes picked her features out of the dark, I decided to keep my business 
with Charlene to myself for the moment.  They had enough on their minds to deal 
with.  I'd try to figure things out for myself first, then talk it over with 
them before giving Charlene a final decision.  I'd probably take her up on her 
offer to visit her home just to make sure she was the type of woman she led on 
to be.

Around midnight, I got up and called Charlene just to let her know it'd probably 
be a couple of days before I'd really know how I felt about it.  I think she had 
been asleep, for she wasn't too coherent, but I had promised her I'd call her 
and she had thanked me for doing so before hanging up.

"I have to admit," Joey said with a shit-eating grin on his face standing next 
to the kitchen table when I turned around.  "I never thought you'd go for an 
older woman."

"What are you talking about?" I said as my cheeks burned guilty-as-charged red.

"What are you talking about?" he mimicked me before picking up the statue, 
holding it up in front of his face and answering in a higher pitched voice, 
"He's talking about me, with my cold naked body and my red glowing titties 
standing on your kitchen table waiting for you to call me and say, 'fuck me, you 
big stud.  Fuck me and make me young again'."

"It isn't anything like that," I said while my dick screamed, "Yes it is! Yes it 
is!"

"What, she's just loaning this to you for the weekend or something?" he said as 
he took another close look at the nipples.

"She thinks I can give her a kid with voice, okay?  She's trying to buy my 
genes."

"Really?  Shit.  So are you going to put your dough in her oven?"

"I don't know... She's been nothing but honest with me and isn't trying to rush 
me into deciding, and I think she probably is a good mother, but..."

"You don't know if you like the idea of having unlicensed Timmys and Timmyets 
running around outside of your backyard."

"Yeah, something like that."

"Well, looks like you got some soul searching to do," Joey said, yawning.  "You 
hungry?"

"Yeah, actually," I said, feeling better from just telling him about it.

"Well, I got cherry flavor and raspberry favor," Joey joked with the statues 
tits.

"God, put that thing down.  It's already given me blue balls once today."

"Really...  Shit, Tim.  Maybe we should see if Suzi is up to...  Okay, okay...  
It was only an idea."

I put the jar of m&ms down I was threatening to throw at his head, then followed 
him into the kitchen area to raid the fridge.

After getting some odds and ends out and sitting down to eat them, Joey paused 
before his first bite to ask, "So why you?  There's lots of other young stud 
voices on campus."

"Fourth generation voice," I simply said, not expecting him to understand the 
relevance, but I figured it was enough to get him to shut up at least a minute 
so we could both eat.

"And I'm a sixth generation blonde, so what?" he said only ten seconds later.

"All the experts say that a great grandson or great granddaughter of a first 
generation voice can't get voice.  My dad's, dad's, dad had voice.  I'm not 
supposed to have it.  Plus there's the fact my mom and dad both have it and 
that's never supposed to happen either.  Charlene thinks that even though she's 
a third generation voice, I could give her a kid with voice so she could pass on 
her family voice heritage or whatever."

"Oh."

"What would you do if some woman wanted you to father her child so her child 
could form share links and stuff?"

"Depends on what Suzi thinks."

"Oh come on, Joey.  That's a cop-out.  What would you do if Suzi wasn't in the 
picture?  Besides shriveling up and dieing I mean."

"Let's see...  Tommy doesn't seem to have it, so I probably wouldn't do it 
because the kid wouldn't live up to their expectations.  And even if he or she 
did have it, if I couldn't raise the kid myself, I wouldn't want to take the 
chance the kid grows up without the right upbringing that they use the share 
link in bad ways.  So I guess in both cases I'd say no.

"But," he added after draining his glass of lemonade, "If it was because they 
wanted their kid to have my good looks or something, I'd charge them a thousand 
bucks an orgasm."

"Oh yeah?  Who's orgasm?  Yours, or theirs?"

"Heh.. Both."

"Heh... Yeah, me too."

Suzi walked in yawning, "I hope you guys left something for me to eat."

Joey popped to his feet and rushed over to the refrigerator ahead of Suzi, and 
after Suzi saw he was taking care of getting her something, she sat down where 
Joey had been and asked, "So what's the story with the stone slut with the red 
head lights?"

"Let me, Tim," Joey inserted before I could say anything.  "The slut wants Tim 
to knock her up so she has a kid with voice even though her slut mother's mother 
had voice and it's against the genetic rule book for there to be a fourth 
generation slut with voice.  Since Tim's dad's, dad's, dad had voice, he already 
broke the rules, so she figured he could do it again with her."

"Oh," Suzi yawned.  "So the slut gave you the statue thinking she'd buy you with 
trinkets.  Have you told her to go to hell yet?"

"Thanks Joey.  Now she has the completely opposite picture I wanted to paint."

"Does it matter what the picture looks like?" he asked, setting Suzi's sandwich 
down in front of her.  "I know you.  You won't do it.  Too many consequences to 
worry about."

"And besides," Suzi said with a full mouth. "What would Jennifer think?"

"Oh shit.  You're right!" I said in horror.  "How could think of such a thing?"

"Timmy," Suzi winced.  "I didn't mean to make it sound..."

"It's okay, Suz," I sighed.  "I haven't actually done anything.  And you just 
saved me a lot of personal grief trying to decide."

"I guess that means she'll want the statue back," Joey sighed.  "Ya think she'd 
notice if we pry the nipples out and replace them with some kind of clear red 
plastic?"

"You think you'd notice if I pry your nipples off and bronzed them?" Suzi 
teased.

"You want them?  They're yours," Joey teased back.

"Hmmm... Maybe later."

I told them what I had found out from Charlene about the breaking up of the 
group, and as it turns out it wasn't anything they didn't already know.  Around 
one o'clock they went up to Suzi's so we all could go back to sleep, but I ended 
up laying awake even after they had made love and fallen asleep themselves.  I 
couldn't stop feeling the size and shape of the empty space inside me that I had 
reserved for Jennifer, and Jennifer alone.

I dreamt I was chasing little Timmys through fields of pink, blue, and yellow 
blooming corn, trying to round them all up before someone decided to snag one 
and use them to take over the cornfield.  I was carrying three of them while 
chasing a fourth, yelling at the one riding my right hip to stop tickling the 
one on my left while the one around my shoulders was trying to cover my eyes 
with his hands.

And then suddenly there she was.  Standing in the middle of my cornfield that 
darkened and disappeared as I stopped to stare at her.  She had been watching me 
playing with the kids...  

She said, "I miss you..."

I awoke feeling her faint thoughts slipping away, my mind frantic to keep the 
already disintegrated link open to tell her, to ask her, or even just to be with 
her one second more...

But she was gone...

I felt dead inside again.

Suzi appeared at my bedroom door wrapped in her robe with worry written all over 
her face.

"Jennifer touched me while I was asleep.  She said she missed me," I explained 
with very little energy in my voice.

"Oh Timmy," she said, sitting down on the bed beside me.  "It was just a dream.  
I'm sorry I mentioned her."

"It was her, Suz.  I know it was."

"Timmy...  It was only a dream.  It couldn't have been her."

"It was her," I repeated, putting my arms around her waist to hug her, my left 
hand going beneath her robe and finding bare skin.

She jerked to her feet at that moment, and as I recovered from my shock I 
realized Joey's damn commands had triggered it.

"I am so SICK and TIRED of these things!" I spat as I tore them out of her head.  
"If I get horny from hugging you, that's my problem, not yours!"

"Shit, Timmy..." Suzi said, her head spinning slightly from the intensity of 
which I had performed my altering of her mind.  "Don't do that without warning 
me next time!"

"Sorry," I said guiltily.  "I'm just...  Oh, I don't know what I am," I sighed, 
rolling over to bury my face into the pillow.

"What's going on?!" Joey yelled, standing at the foot of the bed naked as could 
be.  "Suz, you okay?"

"I'm fine.  Timmy, scoot over.  Joey, go back to bed.  Timmy and I need to 
talk."

"Yes ma'am," Joey said hesitantly, then went back upstairs to Suzi's bed as 
ordered.

Suzi took off her robe and got in bed with me, carefully scooting herself 
against me and began stroking my chest soothingly.

"It had to be her, Suz...  I want so badly for it to be her..."

"Maybe it was Timmy, but it's been a year since she left.  Don't you think it's 
time to let her go and get on with your life?"

"No!  I don't want to let her go.  I want to prove to her..."

"Timmy stop it!  She's not coming back."

"You don't know that!"

"Yes I do...  Joey and I looked for her last year before coming down for 
Christmas..."

My world was now spinning violently from beneath me.  I was frozen, afraid to 
look at her to see her expression, terrified that I really would never see Her 
again.

"They had moved to Lake City, Florida, but they somehow knew we were coming... 
The house was empty by the time we got there, but she left a note...  Joey 
burned it he was so mad.  He didn't want you to know any of this because he 
thought you'd be happier not knowing."

"What did it say?" I said with my heart already smeared across the highway of 
life.

"Tell Tim to leave me alone," Suzi said with teary emotion.

"Joey put a memory block in your head," I reasoned out loud.  "I must have 
mistaken it as part of the other commands.  Does he remember?"

"No..." Suzi sniffed, deeply worried I had switched my emotions off again.

My emotions were very much on, but didn't know what to feel except I didn't want 
to be alone.  At least I knew I wouldn't be with Suzi right there.

I hugged her, and relaxed in a sort of temporary state of emotional 
contentedness when she hugged me back with a ferocity I really needed right 
then. 

Waking up the next morning with Suzi sleeping naked beside me generated an 
assortment of conflicting emotions in me I hadn't felt for a long time.  Trust, 
guilt, love, sorrow, lust, loyalty...  Half of them were against me staying in 
bed with her any longer, while the other three, trust, love and lust, for once 
teamed up and argued why I should stay.  But it was Joey who decided for me, 
sleepily walking in wearing tented shorts and crawling in bed beside me.

"Morning," I said softly as my own tent started to go down a bit.

"Mmmm.." he acknowledged, rolling onto his side to face me but leaving is eyes 
closed.

Feeling a little wicked and playful, I sent my hand over to his crotch and dug 
his semi-soft wood out.

"I hope you have a permit for that," he said, his eyes still closed, but only 
because he sensed I was up to something.

"Never needed one before," I replied as it hardened under my slow strokes.

"Shit," I groaned in dismay when it suddenly went soft from Suzi's commands 
kicking in.  "A guy can't even have a little fun."

"Nope," Joey said as he got out of bed, pulled his shorts back up, then crawled 
back in bed on Suzi's side.

"Mmmmmm..." Suzi sighed, then reached over to Joey and pulled herself on top of 
him.

After exchanging a lazy kiss wet kiss, Suzi straddled him the rest of the way, 
then slid down to where her head was laying on his chest and went back to sleep.

"She'll wake up again in about ten minutes for some loving," Joey said softly.  
"We can go upstairs if you want..."

"What, and spoil the mood?" I said, kissing Suzi on the tush before crawling out 
of bed and tossing my boxers off.  "I'll just go shower and wank off, then fix 
breakfast, okay?"

As I headed into the bathroom, Joey thought to me, "Tim?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"No problem, buddy."

In the shower I thought of the old days when in situations like this, Joey and 
Suzi would have joined me in the shower to surprise me and make love to me in 
their own special way.  But I stopped that line of thinking, for it was becoming 
more of an erotic fantasy than anything else, and ended up not orgasming in the 
shower after all.

They were both asleep when I left the bedroom, so I held off making breakfast 
until they were for sure up and instead lay down on the couch to think.

My thinking didn't get very far with that damn statue calling me to seduce its 
red horny nipples.  I studied it from the couch with both visions, admiring the 
workmanship, the detail, the simple steady flow of energy the red translucent 
material generated as the strange not quite human symbols traversed it, and 
sometimes crossed the empty space between them.

There was some sort of telepathic... attraction to the material.  I could just 
barely sense this tiny pull from them, and I realized that's really what Helen 
had been describing.  I smirked to myself that maybe they really were calling me 
to sample their nipples, then quickly checked to make sure Joey and Suzi were 
still asleep before sucking on each one for a moment to see what would happen.

Other than tasting the dirt left behind by who knew how many hands, I didn't get 
anything out of it but another woody.  Just a bit infuriated by this, I decided 
to do what I had been wanting to do since I first saw the damn thing.  I wacked 
off and sprayed the lavish sex object with my cum.

I used my fingers to spread as much of my spunk over its surface before cleaning 
up the spatters off the table and started making breakfast.

"What?" I said, hiding my amusement when Joey and Suzi finally came out and 
found me still naked eating my breakfast with a cum-frosted statue in the middle 
of the table.

"Shit, if you were that horny, why didn't you just say so?" Joey said grouchily, 
probably due to not having gotten laid that morning like he had expected.

"Are you okay?" Suzi said worriedly, hugging me around the neck from behind my 
chair.

"Yeah, I'm fine.  I just had to get it out of my system, that's all.  The twins 
would approve of my artistic inspiration, don't you think?"

"If they didn't just see it as a waist of good spunk," Joey commented as he 
fetched the eggs and bacon I left in the pan I had cooked for them.

"Heh.  That's exactly what Charlene will probably think too.  This is all the 
spunk she's going to get from me.  But I'm thinking she doesn't need it any 
more."

"Why?" Joey asked as Suzi sat down in her chair and Joey divvied up eggs.

"Because there's already a little girl with voice needing a good mommy, and 
between the two nipples and Charlene's twins, I think Helen would be happy with 
her."

"That's a wonderful idea, Timmy," Suzi said.

"Is it?" Joey said skeptically.  "Do we really want to turn something as 
powerful as that little girl over to someone we know almost nothing about?"

"Do you ever want to get your coin back?" I teased.

"I don't care about the coin," Joey said defensively.  "It's already caused more 
trouble than it's worth.  And explain to me how turning Helen over to her is any 
different than you fathering her a kid with voice.  Jennifer and all that shit 
beside."

"Joey, what is wrong with you?" Suzi snapped.

"I'm tired, okay?  And I'm not hungry," he said, getting up without having 
touched his food. "I'm going for a walk."

When Suzi stood up to go with him, he added firmly, "Alone."

"I really worry about him sometimes," Suzi said after he slammed the door behind 
him.  "First he blames himself, then he gets so angry..."

I nodded, then said, "At least he's letting some of it out now.  He'll be okay."

Suzi sighed, then looked at me thinking the same thing as I was.

"I guess he's right.  There isn't much difference," I admitted.

"I don't know, Timmy," Suzi said, sliding Joey's plate over to hers scraping his 
eggs onto her plate.  "One creates a new life, the other doesn't.  Someone has 
to teach Helen how to live, and it sounds like that's what Charlene wants to 
do."

"Yeah, you're right.  Plus I think I could sell it to Charlene by pointing out 
Helen could very well be a first generation voice, and that means Helen could 
pass on what Charlene taught her to another generation.  I can't see how either 
one of them could say no if they just think about it."

"Well then you go get dressed and get going.  I'll take care of the dishes and 
lock up when I leave," she said, patting my bare thigh.

I looked her in the eyes and playfully said, "You gave me a boner just my 
touching me like that."

"Really," she said, rubbing my thigh, then smacking it just hard enough for it 
to sting.  "Maybe tonight I'll touch you there some more, but right now you have 
a job to do.  Now go!"

"Yes ma'am," I sighed while giving the old down boy command.

I had expected some sort of greeting, or at least a positive acknowledgement 
from Helen when I joined her, but instead she gave me the cold shoulder and once 
even tried to make me leave the room.

She wouldn't let me form an empathic link either, but after spending a few 
minutes studying her shielded mind, I decided I would have to get her to open up 
to me again in a more natural way.

From the little bit I had been with her, I knew Helen loved her baths, but I 
ruled out a swimming pool from suspecting she feared deep water since her legs 
were useless.  So I took her to the next best thing I could think of.

After draining the water to where it was only at her knees, I sat her down on 
the Jacuzzi's bench, started the fill and switched on the jets while making sure 
the temperature wasn't set too high.  She started getting a bit nervous when she 
realized the water was rising, so I stripped and sat down beside her, holding 
the hand that wasn't holding the coin at the time.

I felt her mind probing me for my intentions, then slowly relaxed as the water 
reached high enough for the jets to kick in and she felt their soothing 
vibrations.  When the water got up close to her neck, though, she panicked a 
moment and grabbed my bare chest with her fingers and sharp nails.

After I winced, I instinctively pulled her into my lap and held on to her as she 
hugged my neck, soothing her fears with calm supportive words while rubbing her 
back.  She may not have been able to hear my words, but she could sense enough 
of the feelings behind them for they to have the intended effect.

She eventually turned around in my lap to enjoy the bubbles and warm water.  
There was a moment of panic for both of us when she dropped the coin in the 
water and it went straight into one of the jet intakes, but the symbolic vision 
show us both it only went in about an inch before stopping.  I just assumed 
there was a filter of some sort preventing foreign objects from entering the 
jets and tried to explain that to her without any luck.

Helen wasn't happy until we got out, turned off the jets and retrieved the coin, 
but then after she hugged it several long moments, she held it out to me, then 
directed me to put it somewhere safe before we went back in.

After ensuring the coin was safe sitting in her wheelchair with her clothes, we 
got back in with the jets on full.  Helen's smiles were all I needed to see to 
know I had her trust again.

I had told Charlene to meet me for lunch and to bring her sons along, and Helen 
didn't fight me when I picked her up and got out to keep our lunch date.  But 
she must have picked up what I was planning to do for Helen started giving me 
the cold shoulder again by the time we left the Jacuzzi room.

So I picked her out of her wheelchair and carried her, hoping the closer 
physical contact would help her feel my intentions were for her best interests 
rather than my own.  She was a limp noodle in my arms until I reached the 
cafeteria and saw Charlene and her boys waiting for me, my hesitance making 
Helen clutch on to me in a sign of not wanting to go.

Despite the short time I had spent with her, I was becoming very attached to the 
helpless girl.  This conflict between doing what I knew would be best and my 
feelings of loss comforted her in a way I doubted anything else could.

Charlene listened to my idea and my reasons why it would work, then surprised me 
by admitting the idea had occurred to her as well.  The twins seemed a little 
skeptical she would do it, but it didn't surprise them when her motherly 
feelings kicked in while looking the girl over and triggered something in Helen 
I could never have.

Helen held her arms up to Charlene in a sign to be held.  Charlene carefully 
took her and held her against her, her eyes widening in concern as I felt Helen 
focus her mind on Charlene's and popped her mental barrier like she had mine.

The twins tensed and readied their empathic punch to protect their mother, but I 
managed to get them to hold off long enough for Charlene to understand what was 
going on and relax.

That evening, Charlene handed me the coin after convincing Helen she didn't need 
it, then tried to talk me into keeping the statue which I certainly felt tempted 
to do.  But in my mind it already belonged to Helen, and I wasn't about to keep 
what wasn't mine.  

I gave Helen a kiss goodbye before they left that night, and I am proud to say I 
received Helen's very first kiss.  

I just wish it hadn't been in my eye.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++