Total Mayhem: Chapter Twenty-four – Kryptonite Boxes
Story by Ptath and Lady Raina
Beta-ed by Thalia
A special thank you to our amazing, wonderful, happy, energetic, inspiring, beloved, dear dear muse Thalia. We could not do this without you. glomps Thalia
Disclaimer: We do not own Weiss. Even if we could, simple self-preservation would dictate we stay far, far away.
'This' mean thinking to one's self ('Time to introduce myself')
'This' means talking telepathically ('hello, my name is George,')
"This" means talking out loud ("I like cats.")
Koneko, Brad's room, 9:00 pm
"Really, Brad," Aya-chan said in obvious irritation, "I'm perfectly fine! In fact," she added pointedly, "I'm probably in better health than you are right now."
Brad winced slightly. The stress of having to sit out on rescuing Aya-chan had not done his blood pressure any good.
"You need to be thinking about these things more," she continued. "If you keep going the way you are, you're going to have serious medical problems later!"
"You try dealing with the various 'people' I have to on a daily basis," he muttered.
She gave him a level look. "I do."
He sighed softly, running a hand through his hair. "That's not what I meant," he grumbled.
Aya-chan gave him an exasperated look and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I do appreciate you taking me out tonight."
Brad smiled slightly, pulling her closer. "I was quite happy to," he replied.
"Even if it was just a walk in the park. With many breaks. Lots of water. And being constantly asked if I wanted to rest or if I felt all right."
Brad pushed her back, crossing his arms in front of his chest and giving her a pointed look. "You were kidnapped and drugged. You should be taking it easy."
Aya-chan grinned, "Oh really," she asked, eyes dancing. "Would you still think I need to take it easy if I were to do, oh, say, THIS!"
With that, she leapt at him, knocking him onto his back on his bed, expert fingers finding his ribs and beginning to tickle him mercilessly.
Brad suppressed a yelp, trying to twist away from her. Aya-chan's face glowed in triumph as the ever-intimidating leader of Schatten began to laugh helplessly. She dove at him again, her fingers finding the sensitive spots on his ribs, sides, neck, arms, legs, whatever she could reach.
Her victim lay helpless beneath her, gasping for breath between gales of helpless laughter. Finally, he roused enough air to speak. "Fine! Uncle! I give up! White flag! Mercy!"
Aya-chan's hands stilled, fingers tapping slightly on his sides. "Mercy?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "I'll have to think about it. Answer me this – are we done with the kid gloves? Have you stopped thinking of me as a porcelain doll?"
"Yeah," he gasped, chest heaving as he tried to steady his breath, "you tough Texas woman, got it."
"Good," she said with a grin as she stretched out on top of him. He wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her tight.
"They wouldn't let me come," he said suddenly. "Not Kritiker," he quickly added. "They said not to, but, well, I was still going to come. The others, they wouldn't let me."
Aya-chan gave him a patient look. "I know," she said softly. "They all told me that."
"Oh, they did, did they?" he growled slightly.
"Of course. I was holding dinner hostage."
Brad laughed. "I take it that was when I had a meeting at Kritiker headquarters?"
"When you stormed it, you mean?" she asked innocently.
"Well, when your tracking device suddenly stops sending data they should notice." He nodded to himself in satisfaction. "They will notice if something like this ever happens again. Anywhere."
Aya-chan looked at him levelly. "And then there was the information they were withholding on Esset activity in Japan."
"We will be informed as soon as they have something new," he replied easily. "We'll also be informed if they locate those Esset agents that escaped from the warehouse you were in."
"The ones that were found by nii-san and the others," Aya-chan asked.
"Exactly. When Ran teleported everyone out, there was no one left to watch them. Besides," he added, "they were on a retrieval mission. They had no capacity for transporting prisoners."
"Very true," she murmured thoughtfully. They fell into silence for a few minutes before Brad spoke again.
"Aya-chan, you are the light of my life and the joy of my existence."
"Damn right," she replied and leaned down to kiss him.
Things had begun to progress quite rapidly when the door suddenly slammed open.
"Hey, Brad, the EEG machines are…here…aw hell."
Aya-chan rolled off her fiancé red-faced. Brad sat up and leveled a glare of pure, murderous rage at Schuldig.
"Thank you very much," he said through clenched teeth. "You may go now."
The German gulped softly and quickly stepped out of the room, pulling the door closed behind him. Once outside, he leaned mournfully against the wall. 'I'm gunna lose the bet now,' he thought sulkily.
Koneko Briefing Room, The Great Search – Day One, 10 am
"As you are all aware," Brad began from his seat on his throne/chair, "my visions have become unreliable over the past few months. Fortunately, there is a way to stop it." He looked out over the faces of Schatten, a grim look on his face. "The Koneko will not be opened this week. For emergency maintenance, I suppose. In reality, however, we will be testing each and every person in this room so that we can find out just who is blocking my visions."
"Who? What do you mean who?" Yohji asked in surprise.
"It has to be a who," Schuldig said dryly. "We've ruled everything else out."
"What exactly will you be testing for?" Ken asked in faint alarm.
"Talent. Psychic abilities. Whatever you want to call it," Nagi explained. "The ability to block one person's Talent so randomly has to be the result of another kind of Talent."
Far looked at the younger hacker in surprise. "You can check for Talent? How? Does it have anything to do with the 3 EEG machines sitting in Brad's office?"
"Yes, you can," Nagi replied. "Anyone with Talent emits a distinctive brainwave pattern at all times. Use of Talent merely increases the strength and number of certain brain waves being emitted. There are five types of brainwaves – delta, theta, alpha, beta and gamma.
Delta waves increase to decrease awareness of the physical world. The more aware of the physical world, the fewer delta waves. In normal humans, delta waves are only present during sleep or if someone has Attention Deficit Disorder.
Theta waves are linked to intuition, daydreaming and emotions. It's highly integrated into systems such as the limbic systems, which is mainly responsible for integrating emotional states with stored memories of physical sensations. Theta waves are observed during anxiety, behavioral activation and behavioral inhibition.
Alpha waves signify a bridge between the conscious mind and the subconscious. They are present when in a good mood and account for senses of calmness. They also allow a person to see the world objectively.
Beta waves are present during active conversations, debates or any time information must be processed at high speeds. The higher the mental activity, the more alert you are the more beta waves.
Finally, we have Gamma waves. Gamma waves are linked to problem solving, fear and being conscious. If you aren't conscious, you aren't emitting gamma waves. If you are having to process several different sources of information at the same time, gamma waves increase."
Nagi paused, ready to continue when the glazed looks left the eyes of his teammates. He raised an eyebrow slightly before speaking. "There will be a test." He shook his head when no one responded. "I don't see any reason to go over the specific variations of each Talent, but basically, each type of Talent, precognition, telepathy, empathy, etc., emit their own specific frequency all the time. That frequency increases it's output when their Talent is in use. There are also slight variations in each frequency. If you have two precogs, the stronger one will probably have a higher Alpha output."
"We'll be starting up tomorrow so you have time to go back over this information and ask questions if you do so desire. The scanning will be totally non-invasive," Brad interrupted while shooting Nagi a look that clearly told him to curb his lecture.
Nagi blinked, shaking his head slightly in confusion. He wasn't quite sure why everyone was looking at him oddly. This was interesting stuff. Not to mention entirely relevant to their very existence! "Uh, well, any questions?" he asked weakly.
"Just, uh, when will we be tested," Yohji asked carefully.
"We'll be doing two people a day. Ran and Schu will be first. They'll need time to recover plus we'll need their help going over the data. The next day will be myself and Far, followed by Omi and Ken, Yohji and Sakura and ending with Aya-chan."
"Um, I don't mean to interrupt," Sakura interrupted meekly from her position on the couch, "but why do you need to check me for Talent?"
"After your little moment in Saito Mansion?" Schuldig asked incredulously. "Do you really think we'd just let that go?"
"We're checking everyone," Brad added. "As we've seen with Ran, Talent can be lurking in the most unexpected people."
Ran raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Are you saying that I'm not good enough to be a part of your little…club?"
"Oh, stop it, both of you," Aya-chan said in amusement. "Keep picking at each other and I'm sending you to your rooms."
"I'd pay to see that," Yohji said with obvious amusement.
"I'm sure you would," Ran muttered, cringing slightly, "but it wouldn't be pretty." Aya-chan merely smirked.
"Why am I the one pointing out just how off-topic we've gotten?" Schuldig demanded. "I want to know exactly what the chibi meant when he said that Ran and I would need time to recover. If this is completely safe, why do any of us need recovery time?"
"You're going to have to drop your shields," Nagi said carefully. "That's why we're doing this in Brad's office. The shielding around it is the strongest in the Koneko, save for the first aid room."
"Then why don't we do it in the first aid room?" the German demanded.
"We need to run cables from the computer room so we can record the data and not have to repeat tests," Nagi explained.
"And we don't have cables long enough to run around corners and down two flights of stairs," Omi piped in.
"We're not having cables wrapped all around the Koneko," Ken said in alarm. "That's just asking for it. Someone will get electrocuted, die and it'll be blamed on me. I don't want that. In fact, I'm taking steps to keep it from happening! Executive decision, right now! We set up in Brad's office!"
"I didn't know you had executive powers," Yohji teased.
Ken made a rude gesture.
"Children," Brad said dryly, "could we please focus on the matter at hand?"
"What is your obsession with focus?" Far demanded. "Anytime we start having fun, you start demanding we focus. You're completely ignoring the fact that we are focusing! Maybe not on what you want us to focus on, but we are focusing!"
"Why," Ran interrupted, a faint pleading note in his voice, "do we need to drop our shields? If there's a major accident or something close enough, we'll be out of it for days."
"The shields interfere with the readings," Schuldig suddenly said. "They mentioned that at Rosenkreuz once. The shields are to keep others out, but also us in. Especially telepaths."
"You're very focused today," Brad murmured in surprise.
"Suck-up," Farfarello muttered softly.
"Hey, if I'm hanging my brain out to dry, I want to be damn sure there's a good reason for it!"
"Very admirable," Brad said. "Keep it up, please." He looked around the room. "If there's nothing left to discuss, I believe we may now return to…whatever it was you were doing. No details, please, Kudoh."
"Hey!"
Brad's office, The Great Search – Day Two, 9 am
"So, how long do we have to sit here?" Schuldig asked plaintively.
"Not as long as I have to," Brad grumbled.
"What we need," Nagi began, "is a base reading on your Talents. You and Ran need to talk, out-loud and then telepathically so we can get a base-line reading. We'll also need you to start teleporting," he added, turning to Ran. "Since we have the machines, we should go ahead and get a reading. Don't leave the room, but do everything up to 'porting out. And if you could use a gestalt so we can get reading on that, we'll have everything we'll need in case of severe head injury."
"How comforting," Ran said dryly.
"But that doesn't answer my question," Schu interrupted. "How. Long."
"Until Brad has a vision."
Schuldig collapsed into a chair. "Mein Gott, we'll be here for days."
A look of annoyance on his face, Brad decided to clear a few things up. "Precogs typically experience a number of visions everyday. Since mine have been dropping off noticeably, it's safe to assume that whomever it is blocking the big visions has branched out to include most of my visions."
"But if we don't have a baseline for a vision, how do we know you're having one?" Ran asked with narrowed eyes.
"We have a baseline from the Rosenkreuz files," Nagi explained. "Plus, we'll see his brainwaves start to shift when a vision arrives. After that, well, we'll see."
"Then we should probably get started," Ran said calmly as he moved to a chair. "Don't want to let Brad get ahead of us, after all."
Computer room, 11 pm
"Are you sure you need us here," Schuldig muttered, a slightly pained expression on his face. "I'm not like Mr. Masochist over there. I don't function well when I'm in pain."
"Shut up," Ran said fiercely, his own pounding headache driving him to be even more irritable than usual.
"Nagi and Omi need to keep up with their school work. Plus, this is something you should know how to read," Brad calmly explained.
Nagi looked at the two telepaths with large, vulnerable eyes. "We'll need your help when it comes time for Omi and I to be scanned," he said tiredly.
'Shit, he's better at that than Omi,' Schuldig muttered silent.
'Of course,' Ran replied. 'He doesn't realize he's doing it and we know he doesn't.'
"Fine, fine," Schuldig finally said. "Don't get all weepy, now. You'll smudge the charts and I'm not going to sit around like that again to fix it."
Brad's office, The Great Search – Day Three, 9 am
"So what kind of readings did you get on our two resident telepaths?" Farfarello asked curiously.
"What we expected," Nagi said as he fiddled with the sensors affixed to his skull. "High Beta readings for both of them and slightly elevated Gamma readings. And Ran's Gamma readings increased dramatically when teleporting and in gestalt."
"And Braddikins?"
"Call me that again and we'll start praying before meals," Brad growled from behind his desk. "I remember some very moving ones from the ranch back in Texas. In fact," he continued thoughtfully, "I think I can even improvise a few."
"Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."
Schuldig smacked the Irish man upside the head. "No teasing the man who has to face a cold bed every night."
Ran frowned over at them. "Don't make me hit you," he warned. "Besides," he continued with some relish, "it's better for his health this way."
The German snickered softly.
"Enough," Oracle snarled. "Finish hooking up the sensors and get out!"
Computer room, 12:30 am
"At least it's not Far," Schuldig said in relief as he carefully untaped the Irish man's print-out. "Can you imagine what we'd have had to do if he'd been the one?"
"I'm trying very hard not to think about it," Brad muttered testily.
"But we do have an explanation for his general randomness and strange obsessions," Ran added.
"We do?"
"Slight increase in the Delta and Theta waves. Further explanation is very technical. You want to hear it?" the younger telepath asked innocently.
"No, I do not," Schuldig snapped. "It's sickening. You're rubbing off on Nagi and he's rubbing off on you. Just exchange personalities and get it over with!"
"What, you can't handle us?" Nagi asked in amusement.
"Shut it, chibi."
"But I thought this was what you wanted!"
The German gave him a dark look and began stalking towards him menacingly.
Ran stepped between them and gave the other telepath a flat look. "Really now, beating up someone half your size?"
"Half my-" Schuldig sputtered, "that…he can bend me in…he started it!"
"Then you finish it," Brad finally snapped, "without, I might add, violence or the use of threats."
"Then what's left?"
"Leaving?" Nagi suggested. "Giving up? Crying uncle? Giving in?"
"I may give up but I'll never give in!"
"Just keep telling yourself that," Nagi said dryly.
Brad's Office, The Great Search – Day Four, 9 am
"What are you going to do to if it's one of us blocking your visions?" Omi asked with a hint of nervousness in his voice.
"I haven't decided yet," Brad snapped. "But you can be sure that with everything you've put me through, it will be painful. Excruciatingly painful."
Omi's face went white. Ken merely looked resigned. The soccer player looked at the other assassin. "Don't worry," he said mournfully, "if it's going to be either one of us, it'll be me. Remember Murphy?"
Omi's lips twitched slightly. "It'd be rather hard to forget considering that something's happened to you or around you every day so far."
"Shut up," Ken snapped. "At least I have the sense not to try anything with Ran's sister."
Omi's laughter died in his throat when he heard the sound of a clip slamming into place. He turned his head slightly, face paling when he saw that Brad was aiming directly at Ken's head.
"Oracle," Nagi interrupted, "you'll damage the equipment."
"And?"
Computer room, 11:30
"Well, looks like Ken has nothing to worry about," Schuldig said cheerfully.
"Hmph."
"Don't sulk, Oracle, it's not becoming," Ran teased. He looked back down at Omi and Ken's printouts. "I expect Ken and Omi will both be pleased to hear that they're both completely normal. No trace of Talent anywhere."
Schuldig pretended to sniff. "Normal. I'd almost forgotten what it was like. It's so beautiful!"
"I can still shoot you," Brad scowled.
Brad's Office, The Great Search – Day Five, 9 am
"Come on, Yotan, wake up," Omi said shaking the lanky assassin's shoulder. "We need you awake to get the readings."
"You want me to sit in an office," Yohji yawned, "with Brad Crawford for how many hours? And you want me to be awake?"
"If you fall asleep," Nagi threatened, "you should probably know that I've programmed the sensors to deliver a rather high voltage shock."
"You wouldn't."
"Oh, yes he would," Schuldig irritably corrected. "Him and Ran are working on trading personalities. If you think Ran's capable of it, then so's the chibi."
Nagi looked at him in exasperation. "I still don't see the problem."
"One Ran's bad enough," the German retorted. "I don't want a five foot version running around bending spoons with his mind."
"So should I start bending you instead?"
"Well, he's already bent out of shape," Sakura suddenly interrupted. "Maybe you could bend him back."
Nagi looked at her in surprise as a wide grin began to slide across his face. The young sprinter blushed as Brad Crawford burst out laughing. All Schuldig could do was glare.
Computer room, 2:30 am
"Well, I'm stumped," Nagi said wearily. "It doesn't match anything."
"Check again," Brad snapped.
"We've checked three times," Omi complained. "It's not going to change just because you're trying to be scary."
"The important thing is," Ran pointed out as he rubbed his temple with one hand, "it's not the problem. We know that the small increase in Theta waves hints at a very small precognitive ability."
"Yeah but that means Yohji has it too," Nagi pointed out worriedly.
"A wave that small," Brad began, "means Sakura and Yohji don't get much more than hunches or premonitions."
"Great," Schuldig said sarcastically. "All we have to worry about now are the strange Delta waves."
Ran shook his head, "No, they match up too well with the Theta waves. They're synchronizing so much that we need to worry about both of them."
"But since they're almost always present, they can't be what's blocking Brad's visions," Nagi continued.
"Plus, the two printouts are almost identical," Omi pointed out. "In all the data we pulled from Rosenkreuz, we have yet to see anything remotely resembling this."
Brad sighed softly and shook his head. "We'll worry about it later. We aren't going to get any farther tonight. You both need sleep," he said giving both hackers a stern look. "I'm very aware of how much time you've spent on this and how much time you're spending on your schoolwork. You've handled the strain admirably but I want you to go to bed."
Brad's Office, The Great Search – Day Six, 10 am
"Who set our clocks back?" Nagi demanded.
"I did," said Aya-chan in amusement. "Brad said you needed the sleep."
"But…" Omi looked at her with large eyes. "Our clocks?"
"I may not be an assassin," she said pointedly, "but I do know how to sneak in and out of a room. I did have a brother and younger cousin who would appear on our doorstep randomly." She paused for a moment before casting an exasperated glace all around the room. "Why does everyone assume I was an angel growing up? Nii-san and Toma may have been hoodlums, but I was the one always getting them out of things." She gave Ran a pointed look. "Remember my hairdryer? The one that started shoot flames from every opening and crack?"
"That was Toma's fault!" Ran insisted. "I was studying for that big test, remember?"
"Then how did he get to it? He would never come into my room! And that's where my hairdryer was! My room! In a drawer! In my dresser!"
"You underestimate his desire to perfect blue fire. And we were not hoodlums! Adventuresome, yes, extremely curious, yes, hoodlums, no!"
Aya-chan could only stare. "What does my hairdryer have to do with that blasted blue fire? And didn't he promise Mom that he'd stop experimenting after the tool shed blew up?"
"It had something to do with the heating coil inside. Don't ask me to explain."
As the two continued to bicker back and forth, Omi leaned over to Nagi and whispered, "Let's make sure this Toma never meets Naru of Crashers."
"Agreed," Nagi whispered back. "What's blue fire anyways?"
Dining room, 12:30 pm
Ken leaned back with a soft sigh of contentment as he finished off their ice cream. Omi grinned at him from across the table. "I'm kinda glad that we're not Talented," he said.
"Yeah, if Schatten's to maintain it's status as a unique team, it needs diversity," Ken agreed.
"Diversity's a good thing," Omi nodded.
"Yup."
Ken picked up the folded newspaper sitting on the table, glancing at the article on the cover. "Looks like they still don't know what caused all those power surges last week," he commented.
"You mean the ones that blew the traffic lights?" Omi asked curiously.
"Yeah," Ken peered at the article for a moment. "Still can't believe no one got hurt. Just a few fender benders when people got impatient."
Yohji, on his way to the kitchen, turned and plucked the paper from Ken's hands. "Hey, this paper is a week old!" he exclaimed. "Why's it still in the house? Aya-chan decide to start clipping coupons or something?"
Omi looked at him in exasperation. "It wouldn't have anything to do with how busy we've been this past week?" He blinked in surprise. "Yohji? Where are you going?"
Ignoring the perky blonde, Yohji quickly walked over to Brad's office and opened the door. "Hey, great leader, our race made the…" his voice trailed off as he beheld the empty room. "Boss man?" He sighed softly before spinning on his heels and marching towards the computer room. If he didn't find anyone there, he'd just have to wait.
Pushing the door open, he could hear voices murmuring softly. "Jackpot," he muttered. Pulling the paper out from under his arm, he marching into the room.
"Why's everyone so glum?" he asked merrily, "We made the news!"
"What are you babbling about now, Kudoh," Crawford snapped.
"Don't snap at him, Brad," Aya-chan said in a strained voice.
Looking at them in surprise, Yohji held up the paper. "Just thought you'd find it amusing to know that our race got some attention. Well," he amended, "the resulting power surges got attention. And the blown traffic lights…and the minor fender-benders…yeah, that's about it." He looked at them thoughtfully. "I take it you found something?"
"We're fixing to find out," Nagi said quietly as he pulled the last printout from the printer.
Yohji stared at the group for a moment, sudden understanding striking him like lightning. "You're a Talent," he said staring at Aya-chan. Her face was pale as she looked back at him. "It's not fair," he continued, "you're not even genetically related to Ran and you're pulling the same stunt!" He shook his head, staring at the ceiling. "What is it with your family? There's Mr. TAKATORI SHI-NE! over there, you're doing your thing…" he eyed Brad for a moment, a slight grin on his face. "Never seen someone so capable of wrapping so many people around their fingers." His eyes slid back to Ran. "And I heard about your cousin. The one obsessed with blue fire?"
He started pacing up and down the room, waving the still-folded newspaper in his hand like a fan. "What the hell is blue fire? What is it with your family? Was there something in the water? Some strange pollen?"
Ran suddenly appeared in Yohji's path, arms crossed and noticeably irritated. "Well, you should get the water checked where you grew up. According to the printouts, you're a Talent too."
Yohji stared at Ran in surprise, suddenly realizing that he'd crossed a line. He winced and turned to look at the stunned group gathered around the table behind the computers. "Sorry," he muttered.
Aya-chan leaned out, grasping Yohji's arm and pulling him into the group. "I know this is hard," she said softly. "We'll get through this, all of us. We'll do it together." Her lips quirked suddenly. "And if you ever meet Toma, don't ask about the blue fire. He'll drag you into his experiments. One of them left him and Ran both with bright purple fingernails. The girls at school kept asking where he'd gotten the nail polish."
Yohji's lips twitched at the idea of a young, purple-nailed Ran. He looked at the young girl and let a loose grin cross his face. "Thanks," he said.
Unnoticed by the crowd in the room, Omi slipped in and hurried over to the computers. He was supposed to be here, after all.
"Yeah, fine, guys?" Nagi's voice suddenly broke in. "Can we….focus?"
"What, three personalities now? We going for a record?" Schuldig demanded.
"Well, if I end up with too many, I'll just add yours. That should negate four or five right there."
"Children," Brad broke in, noticeable frazzled, "Focus!"
"For fifty points, what was the most-used word this week?" Omi beamed. "Focus!"
"What did you find, Nagi," Ran asked desperately.
"High Alpha and Theta waves," he said. "A pattern that can only be empathic. The level of synchronization between them," he continued pointing to the relevant points on the chart, "is an indication of how strong her abilities are and, more noticeably, her mental shields."
"And this?" Brad asked pointed at the Gamma waves.
"A kinetic pattern," Ran realized.
"Yes," Nagi said.
"So what exactly are you saying here," Schuldig demanded. "Can she move stuff around like you? I mean, I remember what you were like when you first joined Schwarz. One temper tantrum and the furniture was shooting through the roof." Nagi's face reddened noticeable. "I mean, Aya-chan isn't nearly the cry…I mean as emotional as you were, but I think we'd have been noticing things at least once a month."
Another chart suddenly unfolded itself next to Aya-chan's. "Look at this," the telekinetic said. "On my chart, you can see a major increase in Gamma waves. There's also a slight elevation of the Theta waves because of how closely my emotions affect my power. On Aya-chan's chart, however" he continued, "you can see the same patterns and that they're just as strong, but they're also much smaller and a lot more controlled."
Schuldig grumbled to himself for a moment. "Can you repeat that in a language other than Geek?"
"Nagi works on the Macro level and Aya-chan on the Micro level," Yohji explained. Everyone stared at him in surprise. "What?" he demanded. "It makes sense. Nagi works with the stuff we can see. Aya-chan works small. She's just as strong and since we don't see feathers or dirt floating around, whatever she's moving has to be even smaller. Hence, Micro."
Nagi looked pleased. "That is the same conclusion I came to when I saw this pattern appearing on the computer screen. I went back into Aya-chan's medical records and found something very interesting."
A file suddenly flew from a nearby cabinet and flew to the group gathered around the table. "The agents who kidnapped Aya-chan dosed her with chloroform. Chloroform is extremely dangerous."
"Ten percent of the population is deathly allergic to it," Omi added. "Plus, with how much it takes to knock someone out, it's frighteningly easy to get overdosed with it. And it's usually lethal when that happens."
"You were exactly right when you said that she shouldn't be walking out of the hospital," Nagi continued looking at Ran. "She literally shouldn't have been able to walk out at that point, not so quickly. Chloroform is extremely potent and extremely dangerous."
"So it's nothing like what you see in the movies," Yohji asked with a wince.
"No," chimed the two hackers.
"So what exactly are you saying," Brad demanded. "What do the Gamma waves show us?"
"That Aya-chan can manipulate cells on a microscopic level. She is literally a micro-kinetic. She can repair her own body, self-heal. Once she learns how to control this ability, she can become one of the best doctors in Japan, or even, the world."
"It's all my fault," Aya-chan's voice suddenly broke in. Everyone turned to look at her in surprise. "I'm the one blocking Brad's visions. I'm the reason everyone's been getting so badly hurt. It's…me."
'Ah,' Schuldig grumbled to Ran, 'the infamous Fujimiya self-inflicted guilt trip. I blame you.'
'Shut it,' Ran sent back with a silent snarl. "Aya," he said in a gentle voice, "do you want people to get hurt?"
"Of course not," she said in horror, her eyes wide.
"Then it isn't your fault. You didn't decide this, your subconscious did. You were probably trying to protect us."
"Protect you?" she demanded, her voice hard. "How? By getting kidnapped? By letting Brad fall into an orchestra pit? By possibly preventing Brad from Seeing a vision of one of us getting killed? How is that protecting people?"
Before Ran could respond, Yohji pushed past him until he was eye-to-eye with Aya-chan. "What do you know?" he asked softly. "When we go on a mission, what do you think? What do you desire?"
"That everyone comes home safe," she said after a moment.
"So there's no question, no doubt that you want to protect us," he continued. "It's evident in the way you constantly watch over us, that you constantly take care of us the way you do. So what do you know?"
"I know…" she began, brow furrowing for a moment. Her eyes widened suddenly. "I know that the first time Brad had a vision around me he practically went catatonic."
Yohji nodded slowly. "And that bothered you, didn't it?"
"It frightened me," she said. "He was one of the few people who came into contact with my brother after the accident. He was partially responsible for my awakening. I knew he had told me the truth when he said he regretted the circumstances surrounding my awakening. I know…the look in his eyes when he caught me, when he froze. It frightened me. I thought I was going to lose one of the few links I had to my brother, to the only family I still had. The look on his face made me think he was in pain. When I found out that he'd had a vision, I remember wondering if they always caused him pain the way that one seemed to."
"So you weren't focusing on Schatten," Brad interrupted softly. "You were focusing on me, on protecting me."
Aya-chan looked up at him, eyes tearing slightly. "We talked about my brother and then you asked me out so you could try and make up for him dying. And then you asked me out again. You told me about Weiss, about Schwarz, about your powers, about how you were trying to free yourselves. You told me everything. I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Brad replied, smiling slightly. "I'm actually rather flattered to know that you thought so much about me after just a month."
"You do know that this is fixable," Schuldig interrupted. Everyone turned to stare at the German. "You have two telepaths here and Esset's strongest kinetic. We can fix this no problem."
"Yeah," Nagi piped in. "It really shouldn't take that long either.
Koneko, one week later, 8:30 am
"So much for it not taking long," Yohji muttered.
Nagi glared. "Bite me."
"Sorry, you're under eighteen." He grinned when Nagi made a rude gesture. "Nagi, I'm shocked! I might have to tell Aya-chan and you know what that means – she'll be cleaning your hands with the nastiest bar of soap she can find." His smile faded slightly. "So, any idea why we haven't been able to make any progress with our little mother?"
"I dunno," Nagi said, shoulders slouching slightly. "Setting a shield up around her subconscious should have worked. I don't know why the shields keep disappearing."
"Perhaps another subconscious issue?" the blonde suggested.
"Could be."
"Great." Green eyes flicked towards the door of Brad's office. "Think they'll be able to fix this?"
"We'll see."
Inside the office, Ran and Schuldig sat on either side of Aya-chan. Brad was absent, storming Manx's office, as Schuldig had put it, to explain the appearance of three more Talents in Schatten, two of which they really couldn't identify.
Ran's eyes flicked towards the German telepath. 'Could we have a minute?' he asked silently.
Schuldig looked at him in surprise before rising to his feet. "I'm getting a beer," he announced as he strode towards the door.
Aya-chan watched him go and, after the door closed once more, turned to Ran. "I take it you wanted to talk in private?"
Ran looked slightly disgruntled. "At least we know now why Toma and I always had so much trouble pulling one over on you."
Aya-chan preened slightly.
Sighing softly, Ran looked her in the eye. "Can you drop your shields? We need to figure out just what's holding you back and if I can get in your head a bit, we'll have a better chance of figuring it out."
After a moment's hesitation, Ran could feel his adopted sister's complex mind open before him. "Ok," he began, "let's start with how you feel about Brad, about Schatten, the people who make it up."
Aya-chan nodded slightly, thinking furiously. "Brad," she began, "I love him. He trusted me from the beginning, with things that couldn't have been easy to talk about. He respected me for who I was, not because I was your little sister."
"What about Nagi?"
"Nagi's still young. Not much younger than me, I know, but he's never had a real family. Brad tried but he could only do so much without risking Esset catching on and separating them. Brad doesn't know it, but Nagi was always afraid that if he didn't measure up, then Brad would get rid of him, send him back to Rosenkreuz. He was only there for a few weeks after all and could see how bad it was. When Brad picked him for his new team, it was a Godsend. Even when he knew what Crawford wanted to do, that Crawford would free him, he was still afraid of losing him. He just wanted Brad's approval. In a way," she said slowly, "Brad is the closest thing Nagi's ever had to a father. And since he had seen so many families broken up, he was terrified that his would break."
She stopped suddenly, seeing something in Ran's face.
Ran looked at his sister, struggling to keep the sorrow and grief he felt from reaching her. The reason for her unconscious struggle had just come to light. She was like Nagi. She'd lost one family and was afraid that she'd lose another if they didn't like her or if she failed them. Waking up alone, learning that her brother had died (as they had thought at the time) minutes before she awoke, that while she slept he had begun to consider himself unclean, unworthy of basic human consideration. All this had terrified her, so she had clung desperately to the idea that if she made a new family, she would be safe again, whole She would have to make herself lovable, indispensable and unexpendable.
Reaching out, he gathered her into his lap, hugging her close. 'I'm not leaving,' he told her silently, 'not Brad, not Nagi, none of us.' He reached out once more, finding Schu's familiar mind. 'I found the problem,' he sent quietly. 'Now we just have to convince her subconscious that no matter what, she won't lose her new family.'
'Tall order,´ Schu sent back. 'Any ideas? It's all about the phrasing, after all.'
'Ass. Get back here and help.'
'Yes, sir,' was the German's mocking reply.
"You know," he said walking back into the room, "if we, and I mean Weiss and Schwarz here, can survive fighting each other, being in a building in the middle of the ocean when it collapses while it's on fire, falling into the ocean, nearly drowning, your brother finding out that he's working with us now, finding out that you've been living with us, finding out he's a telepath, a teleporter and a gestalt-er….thingie…if we can survive your brother when he's got crap for mental shields, when he thinks Crawford's seduced you, when-"
"She gets the point," Ran said in a disgruntled voice. In his lap, Aya-chan was trying unsuccessfully to restrain a fit of giggles.
"The point is," Schuldig continued blandly, "if we can survive all the crap your brother has put us through, we're immortal." He grinned down at her. "Those two?" he asked, projecting the image of Nagi and Yohji sprawled out over the chairs outside. "They're fidgeting out there because they're worried about you. Nagi got a new computer game almost two weeks ago. He hasn't even started it yet. Kudoh? Usually asleep at this hour. But he's been up for a while so he could worry about you properly."
"This worry of yours," Ran continued, "is like kryptonite to us, to Brad. Who will probably kill us when he finds out we compared him to Superman and not one of the X-men…but still. If we can't box it in, it'll kill him."
'Do you think this is working?' Ran sent worriedly?
'You bet it is,' Schu responded. 'I'm reinforcing this as much as I dare. Trust me when I say that her subconscious is getting it. Let's give her time to mull things over and try the shields again in a few hours.'
'Sounds good,' Ran agreed in silent relief. He yelped when Aya-chan poked him in the ribs.
"I swear," she said with some exasperation, "you two are worse than you and Toma ever were and you and Toma were practically brothers!"
Ran gave the (amused) German an aggravated look. "We'll try the shields again in a few hours."
Next morning
'Better check and see if the shields held,' Schuldig sent sleepily.
Ran snorted slightly at the German's laziness but quickly reached out for his sister's mind. 'Knock, knock,' he said softly. 'Let me check.'
'Of course,' she replied politely, dropping her shields as she did so.
After a moment's study, Ran could feel that the shields had held. The box within a box was in place. 'It held,' he told her in relief.
'Good,' she replied. 'Now scootch so I can get a shower.'
Making a face, Ran slipped out of her mind after a quick 'Love you' to Aya-chan. He glanced down at Schuldig and promptly pushed him from the bed. "They held," he said blandly. "Aya-chan's showering. She'll start breakfast as soon as she's done. Why don't you go set the table while I shower?"
"And why isn't it the other way around?" he demanded.
Ran gave him a superior look. "Because I said so, that's why. Now get down there before I take you down there." That said, he grabbed a fresh set of clothes from his dresser and disappeared into the bathroom.
Schuldig made a face at Ran's back. "I'm going to be so happy when I can move back into my own room," he muttered as he scrounged a clean shirt from the basket of folded clothes Aya-chan had delivered a few days earlier.
Breakfast found everyone gathered around the table, all pleased to hear that Aya-chan's powers were under control. Everyone, that is, except Brad.
Aya-chan's brow furrowed slightly every time her eyes fell on his empty chair. Finally, footsteps were heard on the stairs. Brad soon appeared, fresh from the shower and dressed for the day.
"You're late," Yohji said blandly. "I ate your muffin."
"Why were you late?" Farfarello demanded. "Aya-chan was worried."
Brad cleared his throat faintly. "Vision," he said shortly as he poured himself a cut of coffee.
"What about?" Omi asked carefully.
"Personal business."
Schuldig studied him before a smirk suddenly stretched across his face. "You sure were in the shower a long time."
Brad gave him a dark look. "Perhaps I should send you to the post office today," he threatened.
Yohji looked at the German. "You're dead," he said blandly. "Must have hit the nail on the head."
Brad threw his napkin down on the table and stomped into the kitchen.
Omi looked back and forth between Yohji and Schuldig. "What nail?" he asked in confusion.
Many thanks to Wikipedia for providing the information on brainwaves. The labeling of different Talents with different wave patterns is not from any source other than our own minds.
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