OSA Reimeiki

"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.