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Two of a Kind
by Thunderboomer
part 2

"That awful woman took away my Boomie!" the young woman anounced as she stomped through the ship's corridors.

Gruumm sighed heavily. "What is it, Morgana?"

"She took away my Boomie!" Morgana whined, sounding more like the little girl she'd been a short while before instead of a youngish woman. "Now everything is going to be absoultely ruined."

Gruumm leaned more heavily on his arm, slinking deeper into his throne. "Would you care to explain to your emperor what you're going on about? What pre tell is a Boomie?"

She let out a sigh. "That SPD Cadet that was a threat to our plans. That Boomie!"

Gruumm grunted. "You were the one concerned about the psion, not me. Let Kruger enlist whomever he likes, his adopted world will fall just the same."

At Morgana's glower Gruumm smiled. "Just what happened to him"

"Boomie?" Morgana asked. "I kidnapped him long enough to block him, that's what! Kruger can't recruit what can't think straight long enough to be an asset to him."

Gruumm sighed again. "What happened to him NOW, Mor - Morgana."

"One of the other Espers found him." Morgana paced about. "She took him from me. She found a way into his mind. I still am blocking him a little bit, but I can't block him all the way, not any more."

"Why is this a problem?" Gruumm asked. "I thought you just wanted him as another one of your toys. Do you seriously believe one man can hold back the full might of the Troobian Imperial Armada?"

"He might!" Morgana decreed. "He might be powerful enough to end our plan right here and now, if I don't regain control..."

Gruumm dismissed her. "Broodwing and whatever else you need is at your disposal. Have fun. Don't break anything of mine"

Morgana walked off with a grim, but satisfied smile.

"I still think Kruger is behind why you don't have control of your powers," Lisa told Boom as they walked down a street on their time off.

"What makes you think that anyway?" he asked, licking his ice cream cone. "He's wound tight, but he's never done anything evil that I've seen."

"What if he supressed your powers? What if he didn't want you to be a Ranger?" Lisa asked.

Boom laughed between licks, setting off a coughing fit. Lisa slapped him on the back until it passed. "Thank you. Besides, you don't know I'd have made it as a Ranger even if I'd gotten onto one of the squads. SPD has tons of nonpowered operatives." "Yes, but... everybody knows about Katherine Manx's clutzy assistant. What if that's what he wanted you to be?"

Boom stopped eating long enough to laugh again. "I think if Kruger wanted rid of me he'd just kill me himself. He wouldn't keep me in SPD developing weapons systems."

"Maybe it keeps him happy to keep you enslaved in your mind."

Boom shrugged. "You're the psychic. You read his mind. I never could, even when my powers were at their peak."

Lisa shook her head. "I don't read anyone unless I have to."

Boom nodded. "See? Your own paranoia aside, Kruger isn't a bad guy. You can't just assume the worst of everyone because they rub you the wrong way."

"I still am not sure he's on the level," Lisa said, knowing the futility of convincing her fellow empath of that. Kruger had to have a hold on him somehow. She'd just have to figure out how to break it.

Boom shrugged and finished his ice cream. "Your choice. I don't think he's got some lingering control over me. I feel more like myself than I have in years."

Lisa grinned. "That's a good thing," she said.

As Boom tossed the cone wrapper in the garbage, they were suddenly surrounded.

Boom fell into a very loose battle stance, his own SPD training obviously long forgotten. "Lisa, I hope you know how to fight.

"Um." Lisa paused. "No."

Boom gulped. "Crap."

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