"Did you see it?" Timmy bounced in his chair as he waved his hands around. He was also drawing a lot of odd looks from the other patrons of the cafe they had stopped at for lunch.

"Yes, Timmy, I saw it," Brian leaned his chin on his fist. "I saw your rocket. I saw it make a dent in Efi's ceiling. I even saw the little parachute catch fire, fall, and almost ignite the fuel canisters."

That took a bit out of Timmy. The boy looked sheepish and dropped into his chair. Then he began poking at his hamburger with a french fry. "Do you think she's made at me? Will she let me come back?"

"Heh," Brian chuckled reaching out to ruffle Timmy's hair. "She's let you visit four times in the last two weeks, and each time, one of you almost caused a minor catastrophe. So, yeah, she'll probably let you go back."

"Yay!" Timmy grabbed the ketchup bottle giving it a good shake. Gotta make sure it's all mixed up and stuff, otherwise you get that weird water puddle at the beginning.

Brian, on the other hand, watched, with mild horror, as the lid to the bottle went flying off on the first upward swing. Following this, in painfully slow motion, a large blurb of ketchup flew up and over Timmy's shoulder, coating the back and shoulder of the poor woman sitting behind his, soon to be murdered, little brother.

"Gah!" the lady exclaimed, jerking forward, and true to the Laws That Govern Brian's Life, she knocked over her mug of steaming tea into her lap. Which caused her to jump to her feet. She then tripped on her chair and fell straight onto her back. Where she lay, seemingly stunned, her limbs spread wide about her as she blinked at the ceiling, confused as to how her life had gotten her to that point.

"Oh. My. God," Brian jumped to his own fet and rushed to the woman. "You killed her!"

"No, no," the woman's arm shot straight into the air as she pointed up with a finger. "I'm okay!"

Brian took the woman's hand and helped her into a sitting position, where she sat for a moment, shaking her head, then squinted at him.

"Cute…" The word slipped out of Brian's mouth, without asking permission. Because, to Brian, she was freaking adorable. True to her accent, the woman was chinese, with dark, almost black eyes. Her hair was dark, shiney black and appeared to be long, judging by the size of the bun on the back of her head, held in place by a long white hair stick that dangled a small snowflake.

Her nose was pert, and adorable. And it made Brain itch to 'boop' it. Her face was a bit rounder, giving her the look of somebody that would be amazing to snuggle with.

And now, with Brian's pronouncement, the woman's eyes widened as a faint blush crossed her cheeks. "Oh! Well, Thank you," she smiled shyly before squinting at him again. "But do you think you can help me find my glasses?"

"Yes, of course," Brain halfway panicked. "I am so sorry about what happened! If you just give me the bill, I'll pay to get your clothes cleaned."

"I found them," Timmy said quietly as he handed the woman her glasses.

Putting on the thick dark frames, the woman blinked a couple times and looked at the two brothers with a warm smile. "Thank you, and really, it's fine. Accidents happen."

Standing, Brian held out a hand to help the woman up, frowning slightly as he did. She looked extremely familiar….

Taking the proffered hand, the woman also stood, pulling off her jacket and turning it so she could see the stain before giggling. "Heh, it looks like I'd been shot!"

She stepped over to her table and reached into her backpack, pulling out a small blue domed drone. Setting it on the table, she tapped a couple times on the small optic screen. "Wake up Snowball," the woman's voice was warm, like she was talking to a close friend.

And then the little screen blinked into a pair of blue glowing eyes and rose gently into the air, beeping at the woman. The drone flew around her as she laughed. "I need you to freeze my jacket," she gestured to the garment draped over the chair. Go to...hmm...negative...eighty? Yes, eighty!"

With an confirming beep, the drone floated over to the jacket and released a spray of white mist. As it did, the jacket took on a frosted sheen of ice, almost instantly.

"Whoa!" Timmy gasped, as he took an almost involuntary step towards the drone, and looking at it from every angle he could.

Which wasn't many. Seemingly startled, the drone kept turning to face the boy, even as the boy dodged left and right, then down, up… all the while making startled beeping noises.

"Oh, Snowball, it's fine!" The woman laughed again, something that she seemed to do a lot. And it was as adorable as she was, as her smile lit up the room to Brian. But then, to Brian's utter amazement, she brushed her jacket off, the ice falling away and taking the offending ketchup along with it.

Half turning, she caught Brian's shocked gaze and grinned. "I found out about that on accident!" she giggled again. When I was working on a project I accidentally froze a pile of rags. But when I picked them up, the oils and stuff just broke right off!"

"Wait…" Brian frowned slightly. The woman was familiar to him somehow. And the drone...what she just did…His eyes widened. "You're Zhou Mei-Ling!"

This time it was the woman's turn to be surprised, but her expression quickly went back to a grin, now a bit wider than before, as she nodded. "I am, yes! And I am impressed you knew how to say my name properly! But really, you can just call me Mei. It's easier."

"Yes! Of course! Sorry...umm...Mei…" Brian stumbled over his words before giving himself a small shake, then taking a deep breath. "Sorry. I read your journals online. I'm a fan of your work."

"Oh!" Mei tilted her head. "Why thank you! It's nice to know people are interested in what I am doing. I get a lot of weird hate mail about how I'm 'clearly a tool of the liberal media!' " Mei's voice dropped several octaves as she portrayed a stereotypical conservative voice.

With a small laugh of his own Brian shook his head. "No, After reading your articles, I did some data mining. Even talked to a friend of mine that is a huge conspiracy nut. Weird as she is, she is an amazing hacker. She agreed with your data and was saying you were on to something."

"Really? Well, why don't you have a seat and we can talk about it?" Mei smiled, gesturing to the empty chairs at her table before turning to her drone. The little omnic seemed to be having fun now, dodging Timmy. "Ha!, Snowball, I know you're having fun, but back to standby, little man."

Beeping a sad note, the drone dipped itself at Timmy before flying to Mei's outstretched hand and shutting off and being stowed away.

"Aw," Timmy sighed as he dropped into the seat next to Brian's. "I was still trying to figure out its cryo polarization algorithms…"

"Oh!" Mei gave the boy a surprised look as she sat, pouring tea for the pair. "You seem to be a clever one!"

With a grin, Timmy nodded. "Yup! I made a rocket! And I get to hang out with Efi Oladele!"

"Do you?" Mei looked impressed, as she smiled. "Maybe I'll have you look at some of my data! Who knows, maybe you'll notice something I missed!"

"You got a giiirrlll'sss number…" Timmy teased Brian as they walked home from the cafe in the early evening. In the end, the three had talked for nearly four hours. And by that time the cafe actually asked them to leave.

In the end, though, Mei had given Brian her contact information. She had seemed to enjoy the conversation. And Brian managed to not come across as a hormonal teenage creeper.

"I did," Brian nodded, still smiling. "And I can happily accept your wisecracks, because nothing can bring me down!"

Pretty well on cue, Brian's phone beeped.

Giving the phone a look, Brian cursed under his breath. "We need to get home. I just got offered a quick, easy job, and I need to jump on it before she passes the bounty onto someone else."

With an over dramatic sigh, in the way only a twelve year old can manage, Timmy gave his brother a look. "I've always wondered, have you ever met this lady? I mean, you get all those freelance jobs, but she keeps throwing you these random 'bounties'. What if she's some sort of criminal? You could be working for Talon or something and not even know it!"

Laughing, Brian ruffled Timmy's hair again as he shrugged. "No, I haven't met her in person, but we email each other a lot. We are kinda like penpals. She points jobs my way, and I do some bounty work for her. No big deal. Nothing too illegal."

Freezing a moment, Timmy narrowed his eyes at Brian. "You said 'too illegal'. Like...they are kinda illegal?"

"Mm," Brian tilted his head as he thought for a moment. "Nah, but it does skirt the edge a bit. Kinda in the grey areas. Besides, It isn't like Sombra is a terrorist."