Rosita fell out of her bed with a scream.
"Wha-what happened?" Diya rose mechanically from her bed.
Rosita walked over to the open window and looked down at Pisa from the view of the hotel.
"I'm just having a bad dream...Excuse me," Rosita stumbled opened the door, and stumbled into the hallway. "I'm just going for a walk."
How am I supposed to save Kyna and Jessica? If Wenrin wanted to kidnap both of them...and he wanted them for information...that meant...Channie was no use to him!
Rosita shuddered. An image of a gigantic machine with Wenrin, Jessica, and Kyna attached to it came to me. W-wait...who sent that to me? It's possible that even a non-magical person could do this. All they'd have to do is concentrate on the image and think about sending it to me!
Another image...hmmm...Wenrin petting Rachel in front of the machine. Rachel must be sending this to me...Kyna and Jessica were sprawled on the floor, and a tiny duck hid behind Kyna.
I opened up a channel of thought with Rachel. You. What are you doing there?
Oh, it's you, Rosita. Well, I just told Wenrin that I had been tailing him and the humans he captured to make sure they didn't escape. Look--I am not betraying you.
How can I be so sure, Rachel?
Rosita concentrated her energy into invading Rachel's mind. The truth--
OK, fine. You are telling the truth. But I have an idea. While searching through your mind, I found that machine is a mind-reader, right? And I saw everything while Wenrin was stealing their thoughts. I--
X-X-X
Catherine tapped her foot impatiently. "When is she going to wake up?"
"Stop with the tapping! It's so annoying!" Wenhao complained.
Rosita sprung up from her bed. "What happened?"
Diya sighed. "I found you in the hallway. You fainted."
"Fainted...?" Rosita asked.
"Were you using some sort of magic in the hallway? You must've exhausted yourself, even when you were already exhausted," Mitchell said.
"We've got to abandon the old plan, now," Rosita said. "I don't care how tired I am. We've got to break into Wenrin's house."
She closed her eyes and searched in the world of the conscious.
Rachel, Kyna, Jessica.
Take our energy now, Rosita. Wenrin thinks we're asleep, and he's currently in deep slumber as well. Go.
X-X-X
Nicole and Diya crept silently into the mansion through the highly indiscreet hole in the roof that Mitchell had created.
"This place is huge," Nicole whispered, admiring the magnificent furnishings of the house. She slumped onto the wall, taking the beauty in.
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
Nicole gasped. Diya used her sensitive eyes to observe the wall.
"Damn! There's an invisible switch here!" Diya talked into the speaker in her ear. "I think we've been discovered!"
John replied. "Don't stop! You've got to save Jessica, please!"
"Guys, you'd better continue. You're already in the house anyways. We'll be joining you through the alternate opening shortly," Rosita hissed.
Catherine, Emily, and Wenhao sneaked in through the front door, which Mitchell had broken, meanwhile, John, Mitchell, and Rosita made it in through the kitchen window.
The group ran and ran.
"What's the most probable place where Wenrin would hide his lab?" Wenhao asked into his speaker.
"Probably where he'd be able to guard it...AKA...his room," Diya whispered back.
X-X-X
"Finally, OK. I've figured out the password for this entrance," Diya hissed to Wenhao.
Catherine and Emily were currently pressing a cloth with chloroform to Wenrin's mouth.
"Go, go!" Wenhao urged.
Diya scanned the opening hidden in the wall. "Aha." She pressed her hand against the wall. "68790GH."
With a neat slide, doors opened inside of the wall...and with one whoosh, Diya and Wenhao...were captured.
X-X-X
"I need to go to the bathroom!" Mitchell exclaimed.
"Dear God, why now?" Rosita scowled.
Mitchell closed the door on them.
John and Rosita stood outside, waiting.
"Do you think Jessica is going to be alright?" John asked.
"She should be. She's a smart girl, and I think she'd find some way to survive," Rosita smiled.
John propped up his leg against the wall, and the wall fell backwards.
X-X-X
"Diya! Wenhao! Are you guys alright?" Emily asked.
"Man, this is boring," Catherine yawned.
"It's frozen prison. We're in some sort of freezer-like room right now! SAVE US!" Wenhao screeched through the plastic screen.
Emily tuned into the speaker in her ear. "Guys, mayday! Diya and Wenhao are stuck inside an icy prison!"
Emily used the laser jets from her anime eyes to defrost the inside a little. "That's the most I can do now."
"Thanks!" Wenhao called from inside. "Ewww! Sloshy water!"
Diya transformed her arm into a sharp chainsaw, and started cutting the plastic screen. "Thank goodness Rosita took the energy of Kyna, Jessica, and Rachel and divided it amongst ourselves. We've all powered up. But even so, it would take a while for me to break through this thing."
X-X-X
"Jessica!" John gasped. Upon some hovercanoes, John and Rosita lifted Kyna, Rachel, Jessica, and the little duckling.
"Go, go!" Rosita sent the hovercanoes to their rooms in the hotel in Pisa.
So this is the machine that Wenrin used...hmm...
Suddenly, several Daakshi soared into the lab. "Intruders!"
"I'm sorry, Rachel's comrades, but Wenrin is using you! He created you for his own use!" John exclaimed.
"That's not possible!" one of the Daakshi cried.
Rosita aimed her staff at the machine and it blew up into pieces. "Quick!" She grabbed John, and they climbed onto a hovercanoe created in mere seconds.
X-X-X
"We're out! Let's go!" Diya exclaimed.
They scurried into the kitchen from the spiralling stairs. Mitchell was eating from the refridgerator.
"MITCHELL?!"
"I finished taking a dump earlier, but Rosita and John disappeared!" he said through a mouth full of lettuce, ham, steak, and bread: Manwich.
With a blast from downstairs, John and Rosita emerged. "We sent Jessica, Kyna, and Rachel back to Pisa."
"Then, let's get out of this place before anything more happens," Diya said, and they ran off into the night.
X-X-X
Wenrin felt awful. "Why did I keep such a huge stash of chloroform in my room anyways? I could've travelled back to where I came from, 2048, and then kept the duck mutant and Lover number 1 there. But no! I had to create my own mansion in this time and age!"
Wenrin flopped onto his carpet. "Wait a minute...this shard of metal...it comes from that metallic human! I can...oh...Wenrin, you are ONE SMARTASS! Cloning is my new favorite word."
X-X-X
"Why isn't Kyna waking up?" Emily asked.
Jessica sighed. "Please explain the concept of switching bodies, please, little duckling."
"WHAT?! What do you mean the mafia leader is out of town??" Wenrin screamed into the phone.
"I truly apologize, sir! Vincenzo has taken everybody out to vacation, saying something about celebrating a reunion with an old friend," said the voice over the phone.
"Darn! Does this mean he's out of the story then?" Wenrin gnashed his teeth.
"Story, sir?"
"It's a figure of speech, you fool!" Wenrin growled, slamming down the phone.
Rubbing his temples furiously, Wenrin decided that it was time to unleash his latest invention. He stormed into the next room, the doors opening with a Star Trekkian whirr. "Mother would be proud of those doors," he snickered, marvelling at his own handiwork.
Yanking off the massive sheet that covered his machine, he allowed himself a maniacal grin as he surveyed the work of genius machinery in front of him.
The machine had a massive processing unit in the middle; to the unscientific mind, it looked like a giant metal box with a ton of buttons and levers. To either side of this central unit was two chairs with straps that had helmets hovering above them. Wenrin had salvaged the parts from an old execution room. And finally, there was a third compartment, just big enough for a human to stand in.
"Yes, that's right... My mind-linker machine! With this, I can transfer the thoughts of any two individuals to each other! Ahahaha!" Wenrin threw up his hands in delight. "I will link myself up to one chair and grab one of those meddling kids to figure out what they're planning! And I know exactly who I want, too..." He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "But first, I must work out the last of the side effects of this dastardly mechanism." Wenrin grabbed his welding torch and started his work.
"Those fools may have magic and luck on their side, but they don't have a technology that allows them to read minds, do they? Ha!"
---
"Alright guys, what's the plan?" Diya turned to the assembled group.
"If I may speak, I suggest we locate the insane one and the pup first. This way we can continue our journey with our full forces," Rachel replied.
"Yeah, sounds good. We've gotta save their faces, right?" Nicole agreed.
Jessica Li, who had been quite for a long time, finally spoke up. "Ok, while you all have been dealing with the drama of the situation, I've analyzed the data that Diya presented to us earlier."
"You mean those rows and rows of numbers?" Nicole looked confused. "How do you analyze something like that?"
"Years of physics labs, I suppose." Jessica shrugged. "Alright, here's where we should go..."
(One long and drawn out plan later)
"I see! It all makes perfect sense now!" Nicole exclaimed. "K guys, let's go!"
*CRASH THUNDER BOOM DRAMATIC ENTRANCE SOUND EFFECTS!*
"Not so fast!" A massive mecha dropped into the restaurant, completely and utterly demolishing the roof and all four walls.
"Who's there?" John challenged, stepping out from the magical forcefield that Rosita had conjured up. He wished to appear manly before his one true love, Jessica. Puffing out his chest, he pointed at the shadowy figure sitting in the giant robot. "Show yourself! Like a man!"
Evil laughter rang out. "I don't think you're in position to be demanding anything from me, puny human!" The voice boomed.
Elder Wenrin! Rachel immediately recognized the voice, even through a voice deepener device. But wait! I must reveal nothing, lest he realize my true loyalties. I must act as surprised as the rest of my comrades.
"I'm in a good mood today. Instead of annihilating the lot of you, I will only need two of you to come with me! Who will it be?" Wenrin demanded.
"We're not selling out anyone! It's all or nothing! Kill us all or take none alive!" Diya shouted back.
Rosita tapped Diya on the shoulder and whispered, "Uhh, you do realize what you've just said, right?"
"Huh, what?"
"... Never mind."
Dissatisfied by the lack of dramatic response from his victims, Wenrin decided to heat things up. "Fine then! If you will not choose, I shall choose for you!" With that, he shot his robot's extendable arm forward, straight towards John.
"Eeeeek!" John screamed shrilly, shielding his face with his arms.
"Johnny-kins!" Jessica cried, leaping forward and pushing John out of the way, only to be caught by the robotic hand in his place.
"Honey-bunches! Nooooo!" John cried, reaching out his arm desperately, grabbing Jessica's hand.
"No, John, don't! Save yourself!" Jessica tried to free her hand from John's grip.
"I'll never let you go!" John yelled frantically, grasping at Jessica's arm with his other hand.
"Don't, just let go," Jessica felt her hand slipping from within John's.
Only their fingerstips barely hanging on, Jessica mouthed a silent goodbye before letting go.
"JESSICAAAAA!" John screamed, falling from the mecha's arm. The arm immediately drew back to its original length.
"One more!" Wenrin laughed, clutching at the controls of his robot. "And please, cut it with the lover's drama. I nearly threw up inside here."
Without warning, his other arm shot out and grabbed Kyna before anyone could do anything. "Oh yes, I forgot to mention, this arm travels at the speed of a supersonic jet. I really do love technology, don't you?"
"Hey! Get back here!" Diya shouted.
"No! He will not hesitate to gun you down at this point! We'll have to find some other way," Rachel planted her taloned paw on Diya's shoulder.
Excellent, Rachel. Wenrin smirked to himself.
Diya's eyes blazed as she turned on Rachel. "No! We have to go after him! Now! Before we lose our chance!"
Rachel controlled her troubled senses. Wenrin would definitely expect me to take this action; however, it is for the humans' benefit as well, she thought. "We will have further chances if we remain alive!" she retorted.
Diya narrowed her eyes and turned away. She furrowed her brow in thought. Is Rachel on Wenrin's side after all?
"Damn it, our group is being split up," she slammed her fist into the wall.
Rosita dropped to the ground wearily, exhausted after using up too much magic through her mind-connecting spell and protective forcefield. "Nothing for it, I guess. Rachel's right, if you think about it. Wenrin - if that really was Wenrin - is ruthless."
"Wenrin? Who's that again?" Catherine yawned, uninterested in the latest capture of two of their friends.
"The only major antagonist in this story, of course! Remember? The one I said had a beautiful sounding name, something I would name my own son?" Wenhao twittered.
Diya facepalmed. "Never mind, let's just go. And stick together this time! No more wandering off and out-of-the-blue kidnappings, ok?"
---
"MUAHAHAHAHA! MUAHAHAHA! MUAHAHAHA! MUAHAHA!" Wenrin let out a great chain of evil laughs.
"Quack." Kyna responded, still bleary from the chloroform. She tilted her head to the right and saw that Jessica Li was still unconscious.
"Don't mock me!" Wenrin snarled, standing in front of his two victims defiantly. "It's time to put my evil plan into action!"
Bending down, he lifted the unconscious Jessica and hauled her into one of the two chairs of his machine. He secured her head into the helmet and strapped down her arms. Wiping his brow, he turned and walked back to Kyna.
"And now... it's your turn. I need you to step into this third chamber here." Wenrin gestured.
"Erm... why would I do that?" Kyna looked puzzled.
"Because I need a sacrifice for my machine to work!" Wenrin blurted out.
"Never!" Kyna proclaimed.
Narrowing his eyes, Wenrin adopted his evil smirk. "Then you leave me no choice." Reaching into his pocket, he took out... a cute lil' duckling. "If you don't help me, I'm going to coat this duckling in oil... and throw it into a tailing pond!"
"Nooooo! Anything but that!" Kyna leaped (or flew) forward, trying to snatch the duckling from Wenrin. But Wenrin cleverly evaded and stuck out his foot, causing Kyna to stumble and fall into the third chamber. Laughing triumphantly (again), Wenrin forced the door closed. "In order for this mind link to work, I need a secondary source of neuronal material to create the link. And you are that sacrifice! Your brains will be reduced to nothingness after I finish this! AHAHAHA!"
Without another look at his sacrifice, Wenrin strapped himself into the other chair, just as Jessica was regaining consciousness.
"Where am I?" Jessica groaned. "I feel like I've just tried to configure a matrix based on the foundation of Fibonnaci's Triangle..."
"Ha! Awake, are you? Perfect! This will increase the chances of my machine working! Everything is playing right into my hands, oh chosen target, Jessica Li!" Wenrin sneered. "Yes, that's right, I had my eye on you from the very beginning! You were the smartest of the group, I figured, and therefore, you will have all the plans!"
"But I--"
"Silence! Let the process begin!" Wenrin pushed a big, red button... and everything went white.
---
When Wenrin opened his eyes again, he glared at Jessica, eyes burning. Scarred. Forever. "You- You've destroyed what's left of my innocence! Why do you have a list of 482 lovey-dovey nicknames for this John person in your head? AUGH! And what was that, some strange form of wrestling? Inside the bedroom?!"
Jessica sat up straighter. "Too bad for you, I guess. But as for me... I've discovered what you plan to do next in your scheme!"
"Why you-!"
"But on a side note, why is this mechanism two-way? Wouldn't it been more intelligent for this to have been a one-way transfer? Not to give you ideas or anything," Jessica hastily added.
"Yes, but according to my calculations, that would leave the third person, the sacrifice, with still some semblance of the human brain left. In this design, that brain should technically be rendered useless!"
Jessica gasped, "You mean you kidnapped someone else for your plan too?"
"C'est correct!" Wenrin broke into French as he unstrapped himself from the chair. He strode over to the chamber and unlocked the door. Kyna's body tumbled out and lay limp on the floor.
"Kyna!" Jessica cried, straining against her bonds. "What have you done?!"
"I have done exactly as I intended!" Wenrin threw up his hands theatrically, grinning maniacally.
Just then, a peeping noise came out from Kyna's cupped hands. Pushing them open, a duckling emerged.
Wenrin's eyes widened. "What? She saved that duckling when she dove at me? Impossible!"
The duckling jumped onto Kyna's unmoving head. It looked up at Wenrin.
"Quack. Hello." it said.
There must be something strange going on. Diya and Rachel generally don't get along that well, so it was obvious...obvious that something had happened. Rachel and Diya were talking in hushed voices, and I turned my back to them. They had stopped talking and Rachel had rejoined us. Rachel appeared to be vulnerable now...she seemed surprised. I'll just catch her off guard now.
I extended my consciousness to hers. She only shivered as our minds touched.
Wenrin might be suspecting me! What am I to do?
I burrowed even further into her mind and rummaged around for her memories.
Wenrin sat in a living room with...Channie and they were sipping tea. Rachel lay on the rug by Wenrin's feet. The flames in the fireplace crackled, and...Gasp! Wenrin's furniture didn't match the colors of his walls! What horror!
"You see that Daakshi lying on the rug over there? I created their race. I suppose you are more of a mechanical engineer, while I am a genetic engineer, but let us speak, engineer to engineer. How did you create the transdimensional device?"
This must mean...Wenrin is questioning Channie! Rachel growled. Ooh...the Daakshi are servants created by Wenrin...and Rachel realized this...and she's glaring at Wenrin now...feigning ignorance...
Anna Chu, Anna Chu, Anna Chu! I shook my head to get rid of the echoing of her name. What does Anna have to do with this? OK, OK. Back to the memory...
Channie's eyelids drooped, and he blinked slowly with a stupid smile on his face. Something shiny flashed from Wenrin's pocket. There was a label on it...Vod....Vod...Hmmm....Channie seemed...drunk? Vod...Vodka! Wenrin tried making Channie drunk so that he would talk! Part of Rachel's memory was a bit fuzzy, so I couldn't really make out what happened after that...(it happens pretty often if you delve into someone's mind without their permission)
"Remember Captain, I will be watching you."
Wenrin...must tell Diya--
"Diya, open up your mind," I said, drawing Diya aside.
"What?" she asked.
"Just do it. Relax, let me transfer some information into it. I was reading Rachel's mind just a couple of minutes ago. Relax, and it won't hurt as much. Gives you a bit of a migraine," I put my hand on her shoulder and stared into her eyes. Diya's eyes rolled back and her mouth opened and closed several times, as she watched Rachel's memory.
"Do you understand now, Diya?" I asked telepathically. "Don't worry. You can reply because I am talking to you."
"This is...most interesting. I had no idea you had that ability to read minds and send ideas mentally."
"I've always been able to, but I saw no great use of it until now. But I think it was a mistake for you to talk to Rachel like that. Wenrin could be watching us right now. Every word we say, every action, where we go...it's very easy for him to track us. I suggest we throw Wenrin off our path by sending him images of other places in the world. It probably won't be a perfect plan because Wenrin may have a tracking device on Rachel too. But I know. I know he can't read minds. I'm certain of it. So, if you have any of this stuff about Wenrin to say, say it telepathically. Just ask me to open up a channel for you in your streams of consciousness."
I took my hand off of Diya, and she swayed a little with the effort of communicating. "Told you to relax."
X-X-X
Wenrin sipped some tea in his room. Blast it! I can only see how that metallic human and the magician are looking at each other! But what could be happening on that end? Damn! I must follow them personally...with the help...of the Italian Mafia...