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From: Rass Senip <rass_senip@usa.net>
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Subject: {ASSM} Tim, the Teenage MC - Chapter 21 (e/j) NEW!!
Date: Mon,  3 Dec 2001 03:10:03 -0500
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Tim, the Teenage MC
By Rass Senip
Chapter XXI: Fall 89 - Summer 90
Part 5 - Fitting In, Again
(no sex)

Have you ever been awakened by a brilliant flash of light in the middle of the
night?  Sure, everyone has been woken up by thunder, but what about the flash
before the boom?

Well, about two weeks after settling into my new home, I was awoken one morning
around five by a brilliant flash...  Only it wasn't a flash of light, but of
telepathic energy.

After Sarah's unannounced testing of my telepathic strength, I guess I was a
little jumpy about strange surges of telepathic energy around me.  And shit
this was definitely bigger than a surge.  This was an all out eruption.

Paranoia settled in when I couldn't sense Suzi or Joey within the building, and
my ingrained sense of self-protection prevented me from feeling them out to
keep myself from being detected.  After stumbling around a bit while trying to
passively scan the telepathic "glow" to the southeast, I got dressed and
carefully began making my way towards the source.

The sky was still quite dark, and despite it being a class day, the streets and
walkways were strangely deserted.  Not that I had ever been outside that early
in the morning, and the late January cold probably had a factor in it too, but
I was too scared and hyped up to think of anything but how deserted everything
was.

As I neared the medical complex, I confirmed my suspicions that Sarah's new
headquarters appeared to be under attack.  There were at least forty telepaths
scattered around and within the building, most of them apparently on the
offense as well defending themselves from one or two other attackers at a time.

The telepathic glow was now more like noise being so close, and it was so
chaotic that I couldn't tell who was on whose side.  But after a couple of
minutes of watching the ones closest to me, I decided they weren't on anyone's
side any longer, for probably they couldn't trust anyone to still be on their
original side at that point.

I could clearly see I had the advantage of not only being able to see their
streams of symbols without needing to actively scan for them, but I could see
where they were not protecting themselves, for most telepaths rely on their
senses to tell them where an attack will be by the probe that's usually sent
just before.

That's how Jennifer had disabled those Cabal goons the previous year without
them detecting what she was doing before it was too late.  It still amazed me
how simple these things had come to her where I was always struggling to make
these kinds of connections on my own.

Jennifer's method worked in this case just as it had the year before.  I didn't
try to take more than two or three out at a time so as to not draw attention to
what I was doing for as long as possible.

I think I had taken down around fifteen of them when someone realized something
wasn't right.  Suddenly they all stopped their attacks, then after a minute of
very little activity, half of them started scanning the surrounding area while
the others revived the ones I had knocked out.

Their sudden cooperation and overall group efficiency was so organized, so
methodical, I quickly realized that it had just been some kind of exercise.  

Lucky for me, their probes were actively laced with command symbols to trigger
a physical response in an unshielded mind, so it was easy for me to avoid their
scans since I could see the symbols coming.  It was sort of like someone
spraying a fire hose along the path of a searchlight's beam.

I figured Joey had to be apart of this exercise, and I expected Suzi was too,
since they both never got up this early without needing to be somewhere.  I
knew I had to fess up to my honest mistake to prevent wide spread paranoia
through out the entire group, but to just step out and say, "Sorry guys...  It
was only me," right there and then would have been asking for another round of
a meat-tenderizing hammer pounding the inner recesses of my brain.

So I waited for a chance to contact Suzi or Joey, but to my surprise Suzi
contacted me first, and from the way she did it I knew she suspected what had
happened.

I didn't even have to respond to her probe.  She just felt out where I was and
then thought to me, "I knew it was you," just before the other probes stopped.

Joey's probe was a little more...  uhm...  invasive, but it was directed
towards my memory recall processes rather than my cognitive functions, so I let
it pass knowing he was just making sure I was really who I was, and I still
thought I was who I was, if you know what I mean.

"You better get in here," he then thought to me.  "But don't hurry.  Sarah's
already throwing a fit about this."

"Shit.  Like I should be surprised," I said to myself as I hurried towards the
building anyway just to get out of the cold.

I felt the minds of at least a dozen people focused on mine as I walked down
the misleadingly empty hallway towards the elevator.  I couldn't help but smile
in relief when I found Suzi in the elevator with her arms crossed giving me the
"you just can't stay out of trouble" look.

"You two could have warned me, you know?"  I said in defense when she didn't
return the smile.

"We didn't think you'd wake up this early," she sighed, then yawned.

"I don't," I yawned back.  "But I practically fell out of my bed from the blast
you all made.  I take it you were practicing for something?"

"I can't talk about it," she said with regret as the elevator's doors opened
and we walked out.

"You know, I'm getting tired of hearing that," I said as I noticed at the end
of the hall there was some kind of electronic door.  "Are we going in there?"

"No.  We're going to wait in that conference room for Joey and Sarah," she said
indicating the doorway two doors down from the silver door.

"Oh...  So what's in there?  No, let me guess.  You can't talk about it."

"Actually I've never been in there," she said with the first sign of humor in
her voice since she met me in the elevator.  "I think Joey just had it put in
because it's Star Treky."

"Heh.  Yeah, that sound's like something Joey would do," I said before sensing
she was more worried than she wanted to let on.

"You think I really screwed up," I said with a unavoidable edge to my voice.

"No," she said a little hurt from my tone.  "I mean I can see how you were just
trying to help.  But Sarah..."

"Won't.  Yeah, I know."

"And it's more than that, Timmy.  If one person can knock out a third of us
before the rest of us can notice..."

"You're more worried about that than you are about what Sarah's going to do or
say, aren't you?"

"I can't talk about this..." she whined as she gently banged her forehead
against the wall.

"It's okay, Suz," I said, hugging her from behind.  "I think I can figure
things out from here without you having to strain any of Sarah's stupid rules."

"Oh?  And exactly what have you figured out?" Sarah spat from the doorway.

I held Suzi tightly as she grimaced and tried to turn instinctively to cover
for my intentionally overheard words.

"That someone must have tried to enslave all of you recently and you're just
trying to take precautions to prevent anyone else from succeeding."

"Hmph," she said with annoyance.  "If you didn't have Joey wrapped so fucking
tight around your finger..."

"My finger!" I growled.  "For the past two weeks that I've been here, Joey's
been so damn busy 'helping his sister' I've seen him maybe twenty minutes
total!"

"Timmy..."  Suzi warned me.

"Shit..." I sighed.  "Look Sarah.  I'm only here because Suzi and Joey want me
here, and because I want to be with them too.  But if you want me to leave,
I'll leave.  I'm not going to stay where I'm not wanted."

"But ..." she said due to my tone indicating I wasn't done.

"But I just took down over a dozen of your people without being detected.  If
you really are worried so much about security, doesn't it make sense that
maybe, just maybe I might be more useful to you than harm?"

"You caught us off guard today, that's all," Sarah said coldly.  "It won't
happen again, and we certainly don't need your help.  In fact I want to make
that perfectly clear.  Under no circumstances are you to interfere with our
business.  Even if you are sure we are being attacked by an intruder, our
defenses are based on teamwork and knowing what each other is supposed to do.
The last thing we want is a loose cannon swooping in trying to save the day.
If you agree to that, I'll over look your attempt at being a hero and won't
have you expelled."

"Fine," I said with the coldness of the air outside.  "But let me make this
perfectly clear as well.  I have no loyalties to you, your group, or anyone
else here except to Joey and Suzi.  I'll play by your rules because they want
me to.  You can have your little war games and go up against whoever you want
without me lifting a finger to help.  But if I think either one of them is in
serious trouble, not you, the school, or your pathetic army of symbol blind
telepaths will stop me from trying to protect them."

Sarah's nose flared with anger, but all she said was, "Get out."

I wasn't about to argue with her, and just got up and left without saying
another word.

Suzi led me back into the elevator and pressed the lobby button before I was
even in the doors.  Normally I would have leapt into the car when the doors
started to close on me, but I was so mad I didn't really take much notice to my
surroundings, and even pressed the lobby button myself after the doors were
already closed.

It made me even more angry to realize Suzi was escorting me out of the building
as per Sarah's standing orders.  I was getting so bent out of shape about the
whole situation I nearly didn't notice it when Suzi gave me a kiss on the cheek
when we got outside.

"What was that for?" I said with surprise, distracted from my anger a moment.

"For what you said," she said with an adoring smile.

"What did I say?" I said finding the hot heavy tension in my chest starting to
drain away.

"Protecting us if we get into trouble," she said before she put her arm behind
my back.

I put my arm behind hers as well, and we walked most of the way back to our
apartment building like that.

Suzi invited me in for some breakfast, and then listened patiently as she fixed
our food to my long list of reasons why Sarah should have accepted my help when
I had offered it.

"You know what I think?" she said as she brought our omelets to the table and I
poured our drinks.  "I think you want to be apart of the group more than you
want to admit."

"I don't care about being or not being apart of the group," I insisted.  "It's
just aggravating that I'm not allowed to be involved with things we always did
together before coming here."

We didn't say much while we ate, and when I got up to help her clean up the
plates, I realized she was discussing something with Joey on their little
private two-way link they always seemed to have open.

"Joey's coming over tonight," she announced as we did the dishes.  "Will you be
around?"

"For most of the night," I said with a smirk.  "I know you have to be aching to
play with your boy toys."

"I doubt I'll be in the mood tonight for that," she said.

"Why?  And don't say I can't talk about it because it can't be all about the
group."

Without looking at me she said, "I'm quitting the group."

"You're what?"

"You heard me."

I turned her towards me, but then had to duck down in order to capture her eyes
for a moment when she tried to avoid my doing so.

She was torn between her feelings for me and her programmed loyalty to the
Group constantly making her watch what she said around me.  During Christmas
break we had developed such an honest and open rapport...  But now with all her
Group related activities, she had been unable to continue to do this while I
hadn't stopped.  It was making her feel guilty as hell.

"I sorry," I said as she turned away again.  "I didn't think about how all this
was making you feel."

"You don't have anything to be sorry about," she said a bit unsteadily.  "It's
not your fault."

"It's not yours either," I said, stepping up behind her and rubbing her upper
arms with my hands.  "It isn't even Sarah's.  It's just the way things are.  I
don't want you to quit the Group because of me."

"It isn't just because of you, Timmy.  Mostly it is, but...  I'm here to get a
degree, not to be part of the Group.  I'm not a brain like Joey and you, but
still I've never had a D in my life.  But the only reason I didn't get two D's
last semester was because somebody fiddled with my professors' minds."

"Who, Joey?"

"Shit!  I can't TALK about it!" she spat angrily as she stepped away and faced
me.  "This is so fucking stupid!  I have to quit.  This is just driving me
NUTS!"

Her eyes were damp, and without thinking I gently stepped into her space and
hugged her to calm her down.  She resisted a moment, but then relaxed and
hugged me back, and after we relaxed our arms and simply stood there with our
arms around each other, I started to slowly rock us back and forth.

"What does Joey say about all this," I asked her as she started to go with my
movements and relaxed even more.

"The usual.  Whatever I want, he wants," she sighed.  "And the scary part is, I
know he means it."

"Won't that change if you quit?  I mean, I can't see Sarah letting Joey be your
love slave if you're not part of the Group."

"Joey's already said if it came to that, he'd quit too."

I stopped our little rocking dance to gently separate us enough to look her in
the face and say, "You can't do that to him.  I mean WE can't do that to him."

"Don't you think I know that?" she said with a shrill voice before glancing at
the clock on the wall.  "Shit, it's already ten till eight.  I got to go to
class."

"So do I," I admitted.  "But promise me you won't do anything until the three
of us can talk about it tonight.  Okay?"

"All right," she grunted as she put her coat on, then paused just before
opening the door to say, "But you know, if I have to say 'I can't talk about
it' one more time today ..."

"You won't.  I promise," I said before kissing her on the cheek and thinking to
myself, "I'm going to make sure of that."

After my first two classes, I had a three-hour window before my logic class, so
I decided it was time to pay Wally a visit to see what he thought of the whole
mess.

I thought I remembered the way to the building his suite was in, but I ended up
wasting an hour of my time wandering around before finally asking a nearby
Gamma Alpha Eta who naturally didn't seem to know what I was talking about.

I followed him discretely while I filtered through his cover personality only
to find he had never been to Wally's lair and really didn't know its location.

Of course it wasn't hard to locate another Eta to... uhm..  query since Central
state was the home of the muscle bound fraternity.  But finding one who knew
the location of Wally's suite turned out to be pointless.  Even the one I found
that regularly attended Wally's weekends for lovers was always met and put to
sleep while he was transported to and from the mysterious suite.

I did, however, learn something much more revealing and informative from a few
other Etas.  My assumption that the Group had recently been attacked had been
correct, but I was shocked to learn just that the last semester there had been
at least seven separate such attacks, three of which that had actually
succeeded in disabling a number of the voices in the Group before the rest were
able to get mobilized.

I never did go see Wally that day.  I even skipped my logic class, which was my
favorite class that semester, just to pull more details of these attacks from
the few Eta's who had been directly involved.  I admit I was, in a sense,
violating my agreement with Sarah to stay out of the group's business, but I
knew if the trend continued as it had last semester, I couldn't see how I could
ignore the possible dangers these attacks were to me, let alone everyone else.

Most of the incidences had been just a single person who's appetite for power
had grown so large they were literally unable to resist the notion of enslaving
the Group and gaining control over three campuses of college students.

On at least two occasions, however, there were more than one telepath to deal
with, but in both cases it was just a matter of determining which one was the
master or mistress of the rest, then focusing all their resources to enslave
that single person.  Once the master was defeated, the enslaved telepaths were
easy to take down, and most of them ended up joining the group willingly once
their free will was somewhat restored.

I suppose you could say I had a little more respect for Sarah's rules once I
understood the reasoning behind them.  I still felt she wasn't giving me a fair
chance to prove myself, but I was less offended by the restrictions she had
placed on Suzi and Joey concerning me.  I guess I was a loose cannon, but
that's  only because she wouldn't accept my help without first planting her
damn failsafe program into my head.

There was only one person who could help me work this out, and that was Sarah
herself.  I knew I'd probably end up aggravating her more than resolving any of
our... differences by going to see her and revealing what I found out, but I
couldn't see I had any other option if she was to ever trust me.

Getting her to agree to see me wasn't easy either.  I had to resort to using
her feelings for Joey against her by threatening I would leave Central State
and never return if she didn't at least hear me out.  As much as she personally
wished I would do just that, she knew Joey would never forgive her for it.

I was bluffing, of course.  I had no intentions of leaving Joey and Suzi so
abruptly like that, but she couldn't know that for sure, and she agreed to see
me for ten minutes after she finished with what she was doing.

In retrospect, I imagine she could have seen me immediately, but she too knew
how to use other people's feelings against them.  I wasn't prepared to have to
face Joey as I waited in the same conference room I had that morning.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Joey said angrily after slamming the door
closed.

There wasn't any point to trying to mislead him or to withhold anything from
him, so I simply said in as calm of a voice as I could, "I know about the
attacks, Joey.  I'm here to tell Sarah I understand what she's doing and why,
and that I'll try my best not to interfere."

"And you couldn't have waited until tonight to simply tell me so I could tell
her without having manipulate her into seeing you?"

"I need to talk to her, Joey, in person."

"About what?" he said hotly, my empathic abilities picking up on his fear
within his anger.

"About what Sarah and I can do to make it easier on you and Suzi."

"Make it easier?  How?" he said less aggressively after that had sunk in.

"I don't know.  That's why Sarah and I need to talk."

"So you're not going to try and make Sarah let you join the Group."

"Phht, no!" I strongly confirmed.  "I don't want anything to do with the Group.
But I know you want to be in it, and Suzi does too, so I'm willing to do what I
can to make everyone happy."

Suzi then thought to me, "You should have talked to us about it first."

"I'm sorry Suz.  Maybe you're right, but I think the biggest problem is Sarah
and I have been letting you and Joey mediate things for us and then you two end
up taking part of the problem onto yourself rather than us working it out
directly."

"For once, I agree with Tim," Sarah said from the door.  "Joey, go to class.
You're late as it is."

"No." Joey said stubbornly, his eyes studying my face.  "This has everything to
do with me and Suz.  We need to be ...."

"Joey, go to class," I said standing up from my chair.

"I'm not going leave the two of you alone," he insisted, trying to make it
sound like a joke as a distraction.

"Yes you are," Sarah said, holding the door open for him.

"I'm not LEAVING!" Joey said angrily as he successfully fended off my attempt
to override his legs and march him out the door.  "I'm the one who pushed you
both into this!  You can't...  

"Make...

"No, Suz...

"But...

"Okay, I'm going."

As Sarah closed the door after Joey, Suzi sent to the three of us, "Now if you
two don't work things out before dinner, we're all going over to Joey's house
and let their parents in on it.  Clear?"

"Clear as crystal, Suz," I thought back to her, grinning.  "Thanks for
understanding."

"Don't I always?" she replied before closing the connection.

"Well...  At least we've cleared one thing up already," Sarah said with a weak
grin.

"What's that?" I said, cautiously taking her bait.

"Who really does have Joey wrapped around their finger."

"What?  You just figured that out?" I laughed.

"Well, I always suspected," she said, a bit unsure whether to be insulted by my
laughter or not.

I grew instantly serious and said, "That's part of the problem too.  Joey wants
very badly to be apart of whatever you're doing, but his first... uhm...
priority is to making Suzi happy, and... well ..."

"She's unhappy with having to hold things back from you," Sarah finished for me
to speed things up.  "I know all about that, but I can't just let her be free
to talk about things that might not seem important, but in the wrong hands
could be used against us."

"I want you to know I understand that now.  I really am trying to look at these
things from your point of view, but...  Well, things like the fact you've been
attacked over a half a dozen times the past five months.  How can me knowing
that be used against any of you?  I have voice.  Surely you can see that there
are some things I need to know just so I can live in coexistence with what you
all are doing."

She shook her head, then sat down in the chair across from where I had sat and
stared at me with probing eyes.

I too sat down and we ended up playing a little staring game as I studied the
streams of symbols swirling through her mind.

Every mind is unique, and I have never found two minds whose swirls of symbols
are so similar as to immediately understand what they were thinking about that
way.  But there were patterns that I was starting to look for when deciphering
another's mind, and even through her shield I could make out enough to
recognize she was recalling the first time we had met.

I guess I lost the staring game when I smiled at her memory of Joey kissing me
on the lips in front of her in his old room.  My smile faded quickly seeing
that everything I did seemed to irritate her.  And not just irritate her ...

"Sarah, why are you afraid of me?"

"Afraid of you?" she sputtered, then laughed like she had never heard anything
so funny in her life.

"Look me in the eye and deny it," I said, feeling a bit irritated myself.

"Okay," she said with a wicked grin.

She leaned forward and stared deeply in my eyes while she said, "I am not
afraid of you."

I blinked, confused by the sincerity of her words after having felt the fear
towards me just moments before.  But then I noticed the strange dual layer of
streams within her mind, and that's when I knew how she was hiding it from my
empathic skills.

"Fine.  If you don't want to be honest with me, then I guess there's no point
of me trying to be honest with you."

She squinted her eyes at me, then stood up and turned her back to me as she
slowly dissolved the cover personality.

"Why shouldn't I be afraid of you?  You infiltrated my office, you broke
through my defenses, you disabled my best friend and made my husband unable to
resist you.  And then you single handedly hold off the combined force of the
entire Group, and to top it all off I end up looking like the bad guy for
having nearly killed you in the process.  All I am trying to do is protect what
is mine and keep everyone safe from the stupid people who try and take it all
away.  But I can't do that very effectively if every time I turn around someone
brings up 'Tim would do this,' or 'What about asking that Tim guy how he did
it.'  You scare me shitless because you've become a God damn living legend
around here, and the others might eventually believe in that more than in what
I'm trying to accomplish here."

Her voice was strained, and she was clearly trying to keep herself from showing
how shaken up she really was.  She still had her back to me, but even without
eye contact, I knew exactly what she was feeling.

"I didn't come here to threaten your authority..."

"Well, you are...  At least you are to me."

"Someone once said to me the only way others can believe in you is if you
believe in yourself."

"Well that someone was full of it," she said, wiping her eyes.

"Don't talk about your mother like that," I said crossly.  "It's bad karma."

"Leave my mom out of this!" she said defensively, turning around with more
anger in her eyes.

"We're not getting anywhere, are we?"

"No, we're not....  Why are you here?"

"Huh?  To figure out a way to help make ..."

"No, dip shit.  Not why you're here in this room.  Why did you come to Central
State?"

"To be with Suzi and Joey.  That's all."

"So you didn't come here for an education?"

"Well, yeah, that too.  But I could have gone anywhere for that."

"I told you the truth, now you do the same.  I know what Joey told you to try
and entice you here;  promising help from the university with your little
projects, and getting paid for it too.  Are you sure you're also not here to
take him up on his offers?"

"Honestly?  I really haven't given it much thought.  Sure it sounds good,
but..."

I sighed, then looked her in the eyes so she'd know I meant what I was about to
say.

"When Joey suggested that stuff, I imagined he would be doing it with me, and
that's what made the idea so...  tempting.  But he doesn't have time for me...
or at least for that kind of stuff with his classes and working with you.  So I
wasn't looking to do anything like that for a while.  Maybe even never.  It
just wouldn't be any fun without him."

"So you're not planning on starting your own little 'study' group?"

I shrugged, then said, "I'm just trying to fit in right now.  I'm not
interested in forming a 'study group,' and I'm not sure what I'd do with one if
I did.  I take it you don't like the idea."

"No I don't, but..."

"But?" I said with hopefulness in my voice.

"Joey made me promise him I'd let you form at least one study group, and
depending on how well you do with it, maybe more.  We have specific rules you
would have to follow, but they're the same rules we all have to follow..."

"Understood.  I wouldn't want you to make an exception in my case."

"But you ARE the exception.  That's the problem.  Every telepath who steps on
this campus must either join the group or let us bury the memory of our
existence and leave.  But because of Joey and my parents, I can't give you that
ultimatum without divorcing them in the process."

"And so here we are," I said, resisting the grin from the warm happy feeling
her admission gave me.  "We're both here because we care about them so much
that we're willing to compromise."

"I can't compromise anything that may jeopardize the security of the Group,"
she said very certainly.

"I wouldn't ask you to.  But at the same time, I can't jeopardize my own
security by allowing you to put that failsafe in."

"So what does that leave?  Not a fucking lot."

"Oh come on, Sarah.  Don't give up just when we finally get to the point of the
problem."

"I'm not giving up!  I'm just..."

I saw a spark of an idea in her eyes, and then felt her mind begin to probe
mine which I had to restrain myself from blocking.

"You know, most telepaths consider that to be extremely rude," I commented when
she finished.

"I'm sorry, but I do have an idea..."

I kept my mouth shut as she outlined a series of commands that she wanted to
give me.  I knew I couldn't allow her to give me the commands, but if they were
reasonable and wouldn't interfere with my own defenses, I was willing to put
them in myself.

After she finished, I listed my objections then, in a completely business like
manner, we compromised until we had something we both were comfortable with.

Basically, the programming I inserted into my own mind would prevent me from
interfering in the affairs of the group, made me protect any details or secrets
I learn about them as if they were my own, and I would allow anyone in the
group to scan my mind to make sure this program was still in effect after I had
verified their intentions to be honest and they were still loyal to the group
which I could do with just a glance into their eyes.

Sarah's idea was to make it so I was free to remove this programming at any
time with understanding to do so would mean I was betraying the group and
basically destroying any trust between us.  But as far as I was concerned,
removing it would only put me back to where I had been that morning, which was
basically Joey and Suzi having to be tight lipped around me all the time.

What did I get out of this?  Simple.  Joey and Suzi could stay in the Group and
not have to watch what they said around me.  And I swear I never guessed how
much they had been holding back until the three of us spent most of the night
talking about all the things they were doing as apart of the group.

Four days later, I was awakened by another blast of telepathic energy.  But
this time, even though no exercises were scheduled that morning, I just rolled
over and went back to sleep, only barely noting Suzi's door slam shut in her
rush to join in the fight.

-------------------------------------

"Hey Tim!" Neil yelled from down the path I was on that Friday as I was heading
home for the day.  "You have any more classes?"

"Nope," I said, "I'm done."

"Cool.  You feel up to a little friendly competition?"

"What kind of competition?" I asked.

"Our kind," he simply said with an all-revealing grin on his face as he caught
up with me.

I looked at my watch to hide my own grin, then said, "What the hell.  As long
as it isn't against the rules."

"Oh come on.  If it wasn't just a little against the rules, it wouldn't be any
fun.  Don't worry though.  Joey will be there, so everything's cool.  Just
don't go telling Sarah about it, that's all."

"I can't believe Joey would be in on something his sister wouldn't like," I
half joked as I followed him into an area where there were just a few old
buildings used to store maintenance equipment and the like.

"Well, he doesn't actually know if she wouldn't like it or not.  He just never
asked her for permission to include you."

"Permission for what?" I asked as he opened the faded green wooden door for me.

"Enter, young Jedi.  Your answers and your destiny await you."

I felt it the moment I walked through the door.  The building was infested with
the corruption and inflicted evil that rotted the most innocent of souls.  The
air contained the diluted musk of sex, and the hall echoing the faint sounds of
people with desperate needs, anxious cries, gentle laughter, and practically
every other emotional sound a human can make.

"Are you all right?  You're as white as a ghost," Neil said after waiting for
me to move on for several moments

I let out the breath I was holding and suddenly realized the building was
actually very quiet and only had that slightly musty odor old buildings have.

"What is going on in here?  What is this place?" I barely croaked out.

"It's where we keep all the slaves we free from anyone who tries to enslave us.
Joey thought you'd like to see it."

"Where is he?" I said out loud as I tried to feel him out.

"He's probably upstairs getting our candidates ready.  Oh, wait until you get a
load of Sabrina.  She's got tits that hang down to her knees..."

If I hadn't have known better, I would have sworn I had died and was standing
in the middle of my own personal hell.  The minds above me were twisted,
mutilated, inhuman even.  They were my worst nightmares in flesh and blood
form, all in one place, and all dedicated to serving one person.  Joey.

I don't remember falling to my knees from that realization, but I had, and I
was shaking uncontrollably from my worst fears playing out in my mind as Joey
skidded to a stop in front of me and asked, "Tim, what's wrong?"

Joey flinched when I made eye contact, and as I dug my empathic fingers deep
into his soul, I managed to pull myself up off the ground using the grip on his
shirt.

"Joey?" Neil said with anxiety, probably sensing Joey's emotional stress
through their share link.

Joey managed to wave him down as I found his soul was purer than it had been
for a long time, and as I released my grip on his being, I draped my arms
around him to half shudder and half sob, "Oh thank God I was wrong, Joey.
Thank God I was wrong."

We ended up standing there hugging until I recovered enough to look him in the
face again.  Joey just gave me a little grin before he sniffed and wiped his
eyes.  If Neil hadn't been standing right there, we probably would have hugged
again, but instead I just glanced at Neil and said, "Sorry.  I uhm..."

"Jesus...  I was ready to blow the horn," Neil said.  "What the hell was that
all about?"

"Just a case of mistaken identity, I think," Joey said somberly, keeping his
eyes on my face.

"Who did he think you was?" Neil asked exasperatedly.

"A creep named Joseph," Joey said, carefully watching my face for my reaction.

"But all these people..." I managed to say.  "They all believe you're their
master."

"And I am, but only until Perry gets back and takes over," Joey explained while
asking with his eyes if I still wanted to see them.

I shrugged, then nodded before asking, "Perry?"

"He's this ancient guy Sarah came across about a year ago after the first
couple of serious attacks," Neil explained as we slowly walked down the hall to
the stairs.  "He knows everything about keeping, handling, and restoring slaves
to their own lives."

"So he has voice?"

"Nope.  Just the opposite.  He's immune."

"Empathic?" I asked Joey.

Joey shook his head, then paused before we were to start up the stairs and
said, "Maybe this isn't such a good idea."

"Why?" Neil and I said at the same time.

"What if you freak out again?" Joey asked me.  "Some of these people are pretty
screwed up."

"I didn't freak out," I argued.  "It was just a shock, that's all."

"Looked like you freaked out to me," Neil stated.

"Yeah, and I'm not even talking about like just a few minutes ago," Joey said
firmly.

"You mean like after that day I confronted you in front of Sarah and Gina and
you tried to bash my head in with a baseball bat?"

Joey turned slightly pale before answering, "Yeah."

I put my right hand on his shoulder and said, "Sorry Joey.  I didn't mean it
the way it sounded.  I just meant to point out that unless you revert to your
old ways, like back then, I doubt anything could upset me so much for me to
freak out like that again.  That's what I thought happened, but you've proved
me wrong, and I'm ..."

"Shit... Okay, okay," he said, physically and emotionally distancing himself
from me a bit.  "Just make sure if you start getting caught up in it you say
something so we can get you out of here."

Joey lead the way up the narrow stairs with Neil bringing up the rear, which
was probably a good thing since I otherwise wouldn't have been able to hide
that I was pretty puzzled over Joey's suddenly emotion detachment when I had
been trying to express my new... uhm... confidence in him.  I didn't figure it
out until later it had just been Suzi's commands kicking in to prevent
'accidents' from happening between us.

The stairs creaked noisily as we climbed them, but that racket was nothing
compared to the awful groan the door made at the top.  I thought it was going
to fall off its hinges when Joey let its doorknob go, but my attention was then
too taken up by the people beyond the door for me to notice what happened with
the door after that.

There were twenty-one people in that room, fourteen of which were permanent
residents while the rest were just staying there until their minds could be
cleaned up enough to leave and live somewhat normal lives.

As Neil explained this and introduced me to the seven who we were there to
treat in a competitive game like fashion, I scanned their minds for their
mental state while Joey's eyes watched my expressions like a hawk.  He was
making me just a tad uneasy to say the least by all his close monitoring.

"What about the others?" I asked, directing my mind towards the nearest one and
then shuddering from the contact.  "Oh my God."

"Tim," Joey said, standing in between the thirty something woman and myself to
block my line of sight.  When I lifted my eyes up to Joey's, he said, "We've
already done everything we can for them.  They have to do the rest.  But we CAN
help the others."

Feeling how much he wanted me to follow his suggestion, I looked over at the
five men and two women, then glanced back at Joey long enough to say, "Okay.
So what do we do?"

"Like I said, we've made this into a sort of game," Neil explained.  "We each
get to choose a slave to clean their minds of their past master's or mistress's
commands.  For every command you undo you get a point, and your points are
averaged by how much time you take to finish the cleaning."

"You can't be serious," I said, shocked.  "These are people you're playing
with, not a junk yard you can run around smashing car windows for points!"

"We know that," Joey stated patiently.  "But the removing of commands from
their minds can be a really painful thing for them, so the faster you do it,
the better it is for them."

"But ..." I began before Neil cut me off.

"AND, when one of us finishes cleaning, the others take a turn at it and get
double points for any command they find that the first person missed.  There's
no time limit for that part, so we take our time and make sure we get
everything."

"We put them in a trance or knock them out by that point since they're usually
pretty emotional," Joey added.  "After we finish, we take them downstairs and
turn them over to Perry and few graduate psych students who usually spend
several weeks working with them to help them adjust.  We usually stay with them
for a few hours just incase we need to add a command or two to help them start
the transition."

"I still think making it a game is pretty heartless," I said, probing the seven
victims for the depth of their alterations.

"One of the first things they tell you in med school is you have to keep a
professional distance from your patients," Joey said.  "These people aren't
going to remember us making a game out of un-enslaving them, and it helps us
stay detached from the depressive realism of what they went through.  You have
to make it a game so it doesn't get to you.  Shit, maybe this really was a bad
idea."

I broke off my scans, turned to face Joey and while slightly shaking from
excitement said, "No way, Joey.  I want to try this.  I HAVE to try this."

"Are you sure?" he said uncertainly, but with just a little excitement in his
voice as well.

"Joey, I don't think I've ever been so sure about anything in my life," I said
as I realized my palms were sweaty, my heart was beating fast, and my mouth
felt dry.  "You two go first.  I want to see what you do before I try."

"Sorry," Neil said with a smirk.  "The rules are everyone wings it their first
time."

I looked at Joey for support, but he only could shrug and say, "Those are the
rules.  But if it helps any, there's a good reason for this rule."

"But you're not going to share the reason before I follow it?" I asked only to
confirm my assumption.

"Those are the rules," Neil said, taking a seat in one of several old recliners
as the seven slaves quietly retrieved metal folding chairs for themselves and
sat down in a line facing us.

Joey grabbed a folding chair and set it up four feet away from the middle
slaves, then had me sit down in it before he sat down on a couch behind them.
He obviously had planned this out, for he could easily see my face no matter
which of the seven I turned to face.

I spent a good fifteen minutes scanning them, but as far as I could tell they
were all pretty much programmed the same even though they were originally
enslaved by two different people, the men by a young woman, and the two women
by a middle aged man.

"Neil, if you were to pick one, which one would you pick last?" I finally
asked.

"Last?  Probably Brentwood there.  He's been a drone the longest."

"A drone?  Oh, you mean as in a drone bee..."

"Yeah.  They don't care about themselves, just serving their queen and the rest
of the hive."

"How long have you been a drone?" I asked the man.

When Brentwood didn't answer right away, I scanned his mind for the reason why
and found he was still trying find the answer.  I helped him a bit by freeing a
few memory blocks he kept hitting, then finally just said, "Never mind.  You're
my pick."

"I get first dibs after he's done," Neil told Joey.

"Oh yeah?" Joey said with a playful tone.  "We're playing by the rules,
remember?"

"So are there any more stupid rules I need to know before I start?" I said,
feeling like they were expecting to rack up a lot of points after I finished.

"Just make sure you know how to reverse anything you do just incase it
backfires on you, because it will" Joey advised.

"Shit.  Like I've never done this before," I complained.

"Not like this, you haven't," Joey said seriously.  "Oh, and once you start,
you have to keep going.  If you have to pause more than fifteen seconds, you're
done."

"Oh, well, shit.  Nothing like rushing something as fragile as dissecting a
person's mind," I complained.

"Those are the rules," Neil said.  "You can either play by them, or not play at
all.  It's your choice."

"Hmph," I said, turning my attention towards the twenty-seven-year-old man's
mind.

I examined his mind in depth three ways.  First I telepathically probed him,
then I examined his jittery streams of symbols, and finally formed an empathic
connection which made Joey stand up in objection.

Whatever Joey said, I didn't hear it, for I was already feeling out the many
different pollutants within the man's emotional streams.  I took my time
getting a feel for what his true self would be like, then once I found a safe
place to start, I began to pluck the commands from his mind and plugging up the
largest and dirtiest holes with neutral fillers.

I wasn't aware of how much time was passing as I pulled weed after weed out by
their roots, but yet I didn't feel as if I was rushing myself.  In fact I was
pacing myself at a conservative rate if anything just to avoid missing
something and having to undo or redo something I did.  And when Neil didn't
stop me for going too slow, I just kept going at that pace.

By the time I finished, Brentwood's and my eyes were struggling to stay open,
and our cheeks were wet from sometimes our natural tears having no where else
to go. I was extremely stiff and felt completely drained, but I also felt too
good about my accomplishment to care.

Brentwood (actually I thought of him as "Dan" at that point from having
wandered all over his mind and soul) slowly slid out of his chair as his mind
tried to clear after six years of living in a fog.  But he ended up curling up
on the floor to sleep out of exhaustion from the long empathic link, and I had
half a notion to join him.

Joey walked over to me and handed me a Big Mac, which I instantly took a huge
bite out of due to my stomach's noisy demands.  I wolfed down over half of the
lukewarm burger and a half melted shake before noticing most of the room was
dark, only a light by the door which we had entered through and a lamp by
Neil's empty chair being on.

I was surprised to find Neil and the other six slaves were gone, so I asked
Joey between mouthfuls "What time is it?"

"Around one," he said, sitting up on the couch after having lain down when I
had started eating.  "Neil ran to McDonalds before it closed, and then he went
home about an hour ago."

"Shit.  It took me what?  Eight hours?" I said before standing up and
stretching.  "How long did it take you the first time?"

"Twenty minutes," Joey yawned.  "I got hung up on a stupid repetitive trigger
and timed out."

"But still..  Eight hours?  I guess there's no way I'll win the game this time.
Oh well."

"Yeah, well, technically you lost fifteen seconds after you started scanning
his head for details, but Neil and I wanted to see how you'd do.  We never
expected you'd get past the first half hour without timing out though.  Shit,
if we had known you'd try and finish your first one, we wouldn't have started
this until tomorrow morning."

"You mean, it usually takes this long?" I asked after dumping my empty
containers in a trashcan and then indicating I was ready to leave.

"Depends on the subject.  Sometimes it only takes a few hours, others take
several days, but most of them take about six or eight hours ..."  Joey said,
trailing off as he stood up.

As we walked to the door together, Joey glanced at me with a sly grin that told
me he was holding something back.

So when he reached for the doorknob, I planted my hand on the door and placed
my weight against it until he looked at me long enough for me to feel him out.

"And how long would Brentwood have taken you guys normally?" I asked.

He grinned and opened the noisy door despite my best effort to stop him, then
said, "Longer than eight hours, but don't quote me on that."

The next morning I felt like a million bucks.  I got up at seven and wasn't the
least bit tired despite being up late the night before, and went for a long
walk around the neighborhood before letting myself into Suzi's apartment and
started cooking breakfast for the three of us.

I knew Suzi came out of the bedroom and watched me humming to myself as I
flipped the flapjacks and danced as I set the table, but when she went back to
the bedroom without making a sound, I just went on with my business.

But when she came out the second time, she was only able to say "Good" before I
swooped her into my arms and danced us around the room humming and singing
'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'.  When Suzi joined in the humming and
singing of the parts we knew, we started going faster and faster, and I guess
we got a little carried away.  I slipped and we fell to the floor, but then we
just laughed our asses off when Joey came running out with only one arm in his
shirt from hearing us fall.

Joey just grunted at us and went back to finish getting dressed as Suzi and I
found ourselves in a rather intimate position.  I watched as an irregular
jumble of symbols in one of her streams intersected another stream and reduced
Suzi's smile before she carefully detangled herself and got up.

I sighed as I felt the moment evaporate, but then smelled something burning and
jerked myself to my feet to dump the rather overly crisp flapjack into the sink
before it could burst into flames.

I felt so...  Invigorated by what I had done the night before.  While I didn't
dare think it much less say it, I felt I had discovered my true calling, my
reason for being, the purpose to my life.  I suppose it was a bit naive of me,
but that morning I believed I had finally found my niche in life.

But my enthusiasm was dampened down a bit when Joey received a phone call in
the middle of our breakfast.

"Yeah Perry...  Shit, I'm sorry.  I didn't even think...  Oh fuck, he did?
Shhhit.  Yeah.  Okay.  We'll be over in about a half hour.  I'm really sorry,
Perry.  Okay.  Alright then.  Yeah.  Bye."

"What's wrong?" I asked.  "Is Dan okay?"

"Dan's in the hospital," Joey said carefully as he sat down at the table.  "I
forgot to insert a demotivator before we left last night.  When Dan woke up
this morning, he couldn't handle it and jumped out a window when Perry tried to
calm him down."

"Is he going to be all right?" I said as my stomach twisted itself into a knot.

"Physically he will be, but now he's in a sort of emotional shock.  He's acting
like you did after your wipe."

"You mean he's not showing any emotions?" Suzi asked as I gave up on eating the
rests of my breakfast.

Joey just nodded.

"I'm sorry, Joey," I said guiltily.  "I should have prepared him..."

"It wasn't your fault," Joey objected.  "I knew I was supposed to put the
demotivator in after a cleaning, but I was so tired last night it slipped my
mind.  Dan will be okay.  It'll just take a little longer now, that's all."

"Well, I'm sorry anyway," I sighed.  "I was so involved in cleaning all the
commands out I didn't think to what his mental state would be like after he
woke up this morning.  You were right about me never having done it like this
before.  Looks like I still have a few things to learn."

"I guess this means you two will be over there all day today," Suzi sighed.

"Only if you want us to be," Joey humbly offered.

Suzi glanced at me as a wicked smile formed on her lips, then she said, "Just
call Jeff before you leave and be back by nine."

"Yes ma'am," Joey said enthusiastically.  "How many should I tell Jeff to bring
with him?"

"Just one," Suzi said, standing up to take her plate to the sink, but then
relented to let Joey to it for her.

As Joey cleared the table, my mind wandered to what I would do differently the
next time I cleaned a person's head of their enslaver's commands.  I'm not sure
how long Suzi was smiling at me, but when I focused my attention on her, she
said, "I haven't seen that look in your eyes for a long time."

"What look?" I asked, noting Joey was finished in the kitchen and was in the
bathroom getting ready to leave.

"The one you get when you're dieing to do something.  <sigh>  First Joey, and
now you.  I think I better get myself a hobby."

"Why don't you come with us then?" I suggested, getting up as Joey came out.

"No, that's okay.  I played that game once.  It's not my kind of game.  You
boys go and play.  I have things I need to do."

"I can come back after I clear things up with Perry," Joey offered as we put on
our coats.

"Did you call Jeff?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Then just be back by nine."

"Yes ma'am."

"And Timmy?"

"Yes ma'am?"

"Hrrr.  Don't you start that too."

"Heh.  Sorry Suz."

"Promise me you won't over do it.  You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I know.  I promise."

"Don't worry, Suz.  I'll keep an eye on him," Joey said as I shut the door
behind us.

"Heh.  And who's going to keep an eye on you?" I asked playfully.

"Me," Neil said, standing against the wall by the stairs.

"Oh yeah?  Who's going to watch you?" Joey asked, not being the least bit
surprised by his presence there.

"You want the full list?"

"How about just the ones who tended to your bed last night?"

"That was just the usual.  Kelly and Mark."

"Mark?" I queried.

"Package deal," Neil explained.  "Nobody else wanted them, and after I had him
shave his legs and ass, he turned out okay."

"Package deal?" I asked with caution.

"We don't let Group members freely enslave innocent people any more," Joey
explained telepathically.  "Anyone who registers for financial aid is scanned
for their financial situation and sexual history, and if they fit the criteria,
we offer to pay their tuition bill if they will spend three semesters as sex
slaves.  Every once in a while two people will agree to do it only if they're
together, and that's called a package deal."

"I can't imagine anyone going for that.  I mean, what do you say when you ask
them?" I asked with mixed feelings.

"We don't actually verbally ask them," Neil stated.  "We put the idea in their
subconscious and let it run around in their head a few days.  If they accept
the idea as something they might be willing to do, their next semester schedule
is cleared and whoever is chosen to be their master or mistress gets to enslave
them.  It takes some of the fun out it, but so far everyone's been content with
the arrangement."

"Hmph," I grunted.  "Everyone but the slaves."

I sensed Joey and Neil having a heavy telepathic discussion right then, but I
didn't try to eavesdrop.  Instead I began anticipating what I'd do to the next
slave I cleaned if I had the chance that day, and didn't notice they had
stopped until we were standing in front of the peeling green door.

"Just to warn you," Neil began softly as Joey opened the door, "Perry is kind
of a hot head."

"Yeah," Joey whispered.  "Best thing to do is to just agree with whatever he
says."

"Got it," I said softly.

Joey led the way to a door just before the base of the stairs where he knocked
and waited for a reply.

"Nobody's in there," I said, a little surprised that Joey hadn't detected that
himself.

"You never can be sure with Perry," Neil explained.  "He's full of tricks like
that."

"Tricks?  I don't play tricks!" a low crackly voice said from an opening door
across the hall.  "And it's about time you got here.  It's bad enough I wake up
to a screaming idiot, but now I'm going to have to hurry to make my bus!"

This heavily browned and wrinkled old man came limping out on a silver handled
inverted L shaped cane, his mind surrounded by some sort of fog like shield
that hid his swirls of symbols.  And when his eyes briefly glanced my way, I
was startled by how well he could hide his emotions as well.

"Is this the one who I have to thank for my early awakening this morning?"
Perry said accusingly as he poked me in the gut with his cane.

"He didn't know to put the demotivator in," Joey said, stepping in front of me
protectively.  "It's my fault."

"Stand aside, grunt!" Perry said angrily, hitting Joey in the arm with his
cane.  "I wasn't addressing you!"

I caught the tip of his cane with my right hand and held on to it as I stepped
around Joey and said, "I cleaned Dan's mind out, yes."

"You better let go of my cane before I slice your fingers off," Perry said
smiling.

I let go just before he pressed a hidden button on his cane, springing knife
like blades from three sides of the lower fourth of the cane.

"Shit," I yelped after sensing I had barely let go in time.

"Make sure you educate him before he tries another," Perry purred, pointing the
sharpened tip three inches away from Joey's nose.  "I'll be back around ten
tonight."

"Ten?  But ..." Joey whined before Perry's cane came an inch closer.

"But?"

"But he swore to Suzi he'd be back by nine," Neil explained cautiously.

"Oh, so your mistress is horny again, is she?" Perry cackled before pointing
his cane at Neil and saying.  "Since there's no chance in Hell I'll let party
boy be in charge after what he pulled last time, I suppose the new boy will
have to watch over the kids until I get back."

And with that he hobbled down the hall at full hobble and even managed to slam
the door behind him.

"Won't he get sick without a coat?" I said to break the stunned silence.

"That hard ass get cold?" Neil exclaimed.

Joey suddenly snapped out of his staring at the door Perry had left through and
put his arm over my shoulders and said, "He liked you."

"Bull shit," I laughed.

"No, seriously.  Shit, he didn't even give you hardly any trouble about your
cleaning of Dan last night."

"Damn, your right!" Neil exclaimed in disbelief.  "He's even letting you watch
the place tonight!  Granted it's only for an hour, but he didn't even let me
stay here alone that long for two months after my first cleaning!" 

"He probably guessed what you had in mind," Joey chucked.  

"I still don't see what's wrong with throwing a party for a bunch of slaves."

"The party wasn't the problem," Joey teased.  "It was the part where you had
them all get drunk."

"Well nobody threw up ..." he insisted before noticing my eyes were on him and
quickly avoided them.

"He doesn't even know me," I argued. "You can't possibly believe he likes me
after two minutes."

"Perry isn't anything like anyone we've ever met before," Joey said, carefully
peering in the door Perry had come out of.  "He's spent his whole life going
from master to mistress offering to take the slaves they were tired of and
restoring them enough so they could go back to some sort of normal life.  I
swear he can read people better than the twins, and he really knows some
powerful shit."

"Yeah, like that time he hypnotized you by just tilting your head to the side
real fast," Neil snickered.

"That was you!" Joey shouted exasperated.  "How many times do I have to say
it!"

"You're fucking nuts!" Neil said defensively.  "He told you to think he did it
to me!"

"No, you're the one that's fucking nuts!  That's what he told you!"

"Echem?" I inserted before Neil could respond.  "Has it ever occurred to you
that maybe he did it to both of you?"

"You're fucking nuts!" they both instantly shouted at me.

"Heh.  If that wasn't a planted reaction, I don't know what is.  But I still
don't believe he likes me after nearly slicing my hand open with is cane.  He
was just... in a hurry."

"But he didn't slice your hand, and Joey's right," Neil insisted as Joey closed
the door he had been peering into earlier.  "He does know things about people."

"He wouldn't let anyone be master of this bunch if he wasn't pretty sure he
wouldn't abuse them," Joey stated while looking me in the eyes to make sure I
felt the certainty of his words.

What I felt even more than his certainty was this sense of accomplishment that
made me suspect Perry hadn't based his decision just on our momentary meeting.
Obviously Joey must have subjected Perry to his "Adventures with Tim" stories
like he had everyone else.  The strange thing was I never knew Joey to be the
type to tell stories like that.  At least not before attending Central State.

I suddenly found myself seeing how Sarah's accusation that I had become
somewhat a legend within the Group and their associates could actually have
some truth to it.  Joey broke the eye contact before I had thought of this, but
even without it I knew by the way he momentarily grinned when I threw him a
raised eyebrow that he was guilty of purposely biasing Perry towards accepting
me.

My attention at that point was diverted by the awful racket we made as we
climbed the noisy creaky steps.

"Man!  Somebody needs to put a few hundred screws in these stairs!" I
commented.

"Yeah, and Perry would spear ya for sure if you did it," Neil snickered.

"What?  Why?  What do you mean?" I said, turning around and watching his eyes
avoid mine again.

"Do you really think these stairs could get this noisy all by themselves?" Neil
stated as he climbed past me.

I was stunned a moment, then stated the intended conclusion, "You mean Perry
made them this way?"

"Yep," both Joey and Neil confirmed just before Joey opened the screeching
door.

"And the door," Joey confirmed before I asked.

"Why?" I exclaimed as I leapt up the remaining steps.

"Security," Neil simply said just before one of the permanent female residents
flung herself onto his back and started humping him.

"Shit!  Jean!" Neil exclaimed.

"Morning Jean," Joey chucked in amusement as Neil tried to keep himself on his
feet while moving towards the nearest bed to put her down.

Jean suddenly wrapped her legs around his stomach and her arms around his head
and convulsed in orgasm, which sent Neil and herself to the floor with a loud
"FUCK!" from Neil.

"Don't interfere," Joey ordered when I stepped forward to help.  

When I gave him a questioning look, Joey grinned and said "Jean has a crush on
Neil, and Perry thinks its a step forward for her.  She'll settle down after a
few minutes.  She's always horny in the morning."

Joey turned away from the struggling mass that was now partially hidden by a
bed and motioned over a different woman who was dressed in pink leotards.

"This is Sable.  Sable, this is Tim."

When Sable held out her hand, I immediately did the same with mine and said
"Hi," as I gently shook hers.

She leaned forward and licked the top of my hand twice before doing a curtsy
and walked off.

"Sable used to think she was a dog," Joey stated as a shabbily bearded
middle-aged beer-bellied man wearing a t-shirt too small to cover his gut, blue
jeans whose snap was hidden under his overhanging gut, and pair of nice black
sandals walked up.

"How's it going, Precious?" Joey asked him.

The man ripped a loud fart before shrugging.

"Perry still not letting you watch TV, huh?"

Precious rolled his eyes and farted again.

"I'll make you a deal," Joey said as I maneuvered myself to stay upwind.  "You
take a shower..."

Precious rolled his eyes before sniffing his wet stained underarms with deep
breaths.

"With soap," Joey carefully added.

Precious snapped his head forward and snorted, then made jacking off motions
with his right hand while emphasizing the upstrokes with "Ppppzz" sounds from
his lips.

"And I'll let you watch the Smurfs."

Precious glanced over at the clock, then with a panicked look he pointed up at
it, opened his tongue-less mouth and emitted  "Ahhhh... Ahhhh" sounds.

"You have fifteen minutes yet.  You can do it if you don't waste time."

"AAhhh WAhHHH?" he offered.

"No, you have to use soap.  And I'll know if you don't.  Now go or you'll miss
the first la-la song."

I shrugged when Precious glanced at me for help, then after he mooned us an
OO-kay with his small white hairy ass and scampered down to the first floor, I
couldn't help but chuckle out, "What would Papa Smurf say about that?"

"He'd say, 'Precious?  Scrub that hairy ass!'" Joey snickered.

Joey took me around and introduced me to the other permanent occupants, and I
quickly came to the conclusion that Jean, Sable, and Precious were the only
ones who had a free will.  The others weren't brain dead zombies or anything,
just...  lacking self-motivation.  Their minds were so twisted that you
couldn't work out where the knots started or ended, and simply pulling commands
out would be like cutting their minds into little pieces and hoping it would
come back together in some rational order after you finished.

"Perry says the only way to help people like them without completely
reprogramming them is to just have patience," Joey explained when he saw my
helpless expression.  "Sooner or later they'll show some kind of interest in
something they weren't programmed for.  If it's reasonable, we encourage it,
and if it becomes an obsession, we clean their minds of their programming and
use their obsession to keep their focus on important things while they deal
with everything else.  It's rough, but it seems to work."

The two-floored building was larger than it looked from the outside.  It
originally had been Central State's main administrative building, fifty or so
years ago, back when the school had only been a local medical college for men.
The main floor had offices, a few classrooms, restrooms, and new shower
facilities, which were really just two offices each with a pair of shower
stalls and a tub.  The single hallway formed a blocky U, entrances at each top
tip, and two sets of stairs, both creaky as hell, leading up to the second
floor at the left and right sides of the U's base.

The second floor was broken up into three sections, the second section being
identical to the first except it contained a kitchen in the space where the
recliners and couch were in the first.  The third section wasn't really a
section, just four offices, one on either side of each staircase along the back
side of the building.  One had a TV, which was the focus of Precious's
obsession, another was a half linen closet and half pantry, but the other two
were empty.

There were a couple of offices on the first floor which were locked, but since
Joey was trying to save us time by only showing me the rooms he thought were
interesting, I wasn't the least bit concerned by the fact he completely skipped
the other side of the U by the entrance we hadn't used.

And to tell you the truth, I was getting a bit anxious to try another cleaning
and was all for returning to the second floor when he suggested it.  I felt my
patience getting a little thin after watching the Smurfs with Joey, Precious,
and a few of the others, and almost groaned when Neil wanted he and I to take
Joan, Sable, and Precious outside for some Frisbee.

I must have sighed or something for Joey finally diverted his attention from
Precious and asked me, "What?"

"What what?"

"You're acting like you're in pain."

"Pain?  No.  I'm just..  Bored."

"Oh," Joey said trying to hide his disappointment.  "I thought you'd be into
this."

"No offence, Joey, but watching someone relearn about right and wrong from a
bunch of little blue people isn't very exciting for me."

"But... Well then... What do you want to do?"

"What do you think I want to do?  I want to take a crack at another cleaning!"

"Told ya," Neil said, turning away the next moment to avoid my eyes meeting
his.

"Neil, will you stop that?!" I spat.  "You act like I'm going to put you in
trance or something if you look me in the eye."

"I uh..." Neil said while looking at Joey and a burst of telepathic messages
started passing between them.

I sighed with just a touch of annoyance, then noticed one of the two women due
to be cleaned was looking at me instead of the TV.

Her mind was so disjointed by the commands that apparently had been haphazardly
inserted into her mind over the three months she had been enslaved.  I wasn't
even really thinking about it when I reached in and pulled out the nine or so
commands which had the most affect on her persona, but when I saw how large the
hole left in her psyche was, I hesitated a moment before putting them back.

"What did you do that for?" Neil queried immediately.  "Once you start ..."

"This is NOT a game to me!" I said with frustration.  "Look, you go play your
Frisbee, and you stay here and work on Precious Smurf.  I'm going to figure out
how I can clean their minds without tearing them up in the process."

"Tim ..." Joey began.

"Do I need to remind you who Perry left in charge?"

"I don't care who he left in charge.  I told Suzi ..."

"Neil," I said, capturing his eyes when he automatically glanced at me.  "I
need to speak to Joey alone a minute.  Would you mind?"

I released his eyes while standing up and grabbing Joey by his left armpit
which instantly caused Joey to squirm and jerk to his feet.

"What?  Stop!  Okay!  I'm coming, now stop iT!" Joey gasped and struggled to
keep his balance from my manipulation of his secret ticklish spot.

"Joey?" Neil queried, following us out.

"Go on.  I think I know what he's going to say.  It's not a big deal."

"All right, but I get to do the next cleaning."

"Yeah, all right," Joey whimpered as I wiggled my finger in his pit.

Once Neil gathered his team of Frisbee players and headed outside, Joey said,
"You should know I can't keep anything from him very long.  He can worm things
out of me better than Suzi sometimes."

"That's your problem," I said while directing him towards one of the unused
offices.

"What?  You're not afraid this bunch is going to tell someone, are you?"

"Okay, Patty Whack."

"Office.  Good idea," stuttered after his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

Patty Whack was the nickname for a boy... yes, a boy... who had moved into our
neighborhood in sixth grade.  He had a mouth that normally would have gotten
him beaten to a pulp if hadn't been for his tales of his older brother.  You
see his brother had only been a year ahead of us in school, but he had a black
belt in karate and had been in the newspapers a couple of times.  Patty...  I
mean Patrick, practically got away with murder in sixth grade because whenever
he gave someone lip and they in turn wanted to give him a fat one, he
threatened he'd have his brother make mince meat of them the following year in
Junior High.  As it turns out, his brother was just as sick of his brother's
lip as the rest of us, and on the second day of Junior High our local Karate
Kid made his legend a reality by making mince meat of Patrick at lunch.  

It happened so fast that nobody actually saw the fight, but several people
heard a "Smack! Patti-whack! thud... Splat!" 

When they turned around to see what the commotion was, Patrick was pulling his
face out of the mud, gasping for the breath that had been knocked out of him,
while his brother coolly walked away without a mark on him.

Once we were in the office with the door closed, all I said was, "Why?"

"I don't know...  It just sort of... happened."

"You can lie to yourself all you want, but damn-it Joey," I began hotly, lost
my anger in a surge of heartache, then had to struggle to choke out, "Don't
start lying to me again."

"I ..." was all Joey said for several minutes, then he sighed and said, "I only
wanted to make it so you'd love it here...  You know... So you wouldn't want to
leave."

"But why like this?  I mean, two days ago three Group members recognized me
while I was walking to class and challenged me to what was basically a mind
hopping race.  I ended up having to tell them to fuck off just so they'd leave
me alone, but yesterday I learned that they and a dozen other Group members are
planning to wait outside my last class on Monday and taunt me until I agree to
compete in their stupid game."

"They're only curious," Joey offered.  "I'll tell them to leave you alone if it
really bothers you."

I couldn't help but grin a little before confessing, "No, that's okay.  I'll
deal with them in my own way.  I guess what I'm trying to get at is, why you
didn't tell me."

"Tell you what?  'Oh by the way, Tim.  I've told everyone all about you and
they think you're the coolest thing since edible underwear'?  Face it Tim.  I
know you better than you know yourself.  You luuuve getting attention like
that.  You want to show off without looking like you're stuck up, and what
better way to do that if they come to you?"

"I'm not the same person as I used to be," I said slowly as I sorted through my
own feelings on the matter.  "Joey, I...  I guess I just don't want to draw
attention to myself."

"Now I think you're trying to be modest..."

I looked him in the eye a moment before coolly saying, "First I do a couple
mind hopping races, then say I make an entire lunchroom of people do a little
dance just to please the crowd.  Eventually they'll con me into dueling against
them to sharpen their own defenses, but where's the fun in that for me?  Sooner
or later, either by my request of theirs, they start taking me on by the twos,
then threes, then fives..  But where does it stop?  The more I do, the bigger I
become, and the bigger I become, the larger a target I'll be.  I can't start
using my abilities in a competitive way because then I'll lose my perspective
on the risks I'm taking and sooner or later I'll lose.  Game or no game, you
know what would happen if someone actually does beat me."

Joey sighed, ran his hands through his hair, then said, "Up until Sarah nearly
killed you with her stupid test, I never thought about the danger you might be
in here...  Maybe you shouldn't ..."

"Uh uh!" I cut him off.  "Don't even say it.  You were right about Central
state having what I needed, and I'm not going to just pack my bags and leave
just when I found it."

Joey broke out into a weak grin and said, "Told you so."

"Yeah, you told me so," I said returning his grin with my own.  "I just don't
understand why it took you so long to show me this place."

"Well..." Joey began a little uncomfortably.  "Neil and I aren't the only ones
who like cleaning minds...  You wouldn't believe the strings I had to pull just
to get last night and today to ourselves."

"You mean...  This is like a campus wide sport?!?" I said, horrified.

"Sort of.. Only about a third of the voices play it on a consistent basis, and
Perry oversees everything that goes on.  Somehow he keeps things from getting
out of hand."

"He's not overseeing anything at the moment, now is he?" I pointed out.

"Yeah, well...  Perry would personally extract my balls and put them in a jar
of acid if I let anything happen he wouldn't like.  And I'm not exaggerating
either."

"I never thought you'd be afraid of an old fragile man..."

"Shit, Tim...  He may be old, but there's nothing fragile about him.  And I'm
not afraid of him...  I... Respect his.. ahhh..  Authority."

"Uh huh.."

"Look, you have to understand that in here, whatever Perry says goes."

"Fine.  I don't have a problem with that.  But I'm not going to make this into
some kind of game either.  It's..  It's just...  Shit, Joey.  It's like I was
meant to do this.  This is really serious stuff to me."

Joey sighed, let his eyes go unfocused as he felt out the people in the
building, then said, "Tim, I don't have that kind of... pull here.  As far as
Perry is concerned, I'm just another voice who he sort of trusts not to screw
around."

"I'm not asking you for anything like that.  Just don't ask me to make this
into a game, that's all."

"But you don't understand...  The game is Perry's idea, and I think he's not
only trying to help these people, but he's trying to educate the voices so they
naturally won't alter people in ways that can't be easily undone.  I don't see
him letting you clean as many peoples minds as you want when you already
practice what he's trying to teach the other indirectly..."

"So you're saying that even if I figure out how to clean their heads with less
side effects, he still wouldn't let me have any more chances to do it than any
one else?"

"That's what I'm saying."

I turned my attention towards the jittering, sick looking clusters of symbols
in the other rooms as my heart sank from my disappointment.  I wanted to help
those people so badly.  I just knew I could help them so much better than the
others could if I was allowed to try, but at the same time I understood what
Joey had meant about Perry trying to educate the voices.

"Although maybe ..." Joey began.

"What?"

"I was just thinking that maybe if you did find a way to clean up the
ressies...  the residents that act like zombies...  If you could figure out a
way to help them, then somehow convince Perry you can do it, he might just let
you work with the ressies all you want."

After I rescanned the nearest 'ressy', I shook my head and said, "If I can't
even work on the easy ones, how am I supposed to figure out the really hard
ones?"

Joey put his arm over my shoulders and said, "I don't know.  But then I can't
see the symbols flying around people's minds, and I can't look into someone's
eyes and instantly know what they're feeling.  And don't forget what Mr.
Pendleton always said..."

"99% observation, 1% experimentation," I quoted.  "But I only got a C in his
class."

"Heh.  Yeah.  It was the only class in Jr. High that I actually got a better
grade than you."

When I didn't respond to the old tease, he nudged me, then said, "You can still
try another one today, if you feel up to it that is."

"I'm up to it, I'm just not sure if there's any point in doing it now."

"What do you mean, no point to it?" Joey exclaimed with disbelief.

"I mean I think you're right about the observation bit.  I already know how to
clean their minds.  Now I need to study how the cleanings affect people, and
how the different ways they're cleaned affect them.  Besides, you promised Neil
he got the next shot at a cleaning, and I'm more than just a little curious to
see how he does it."

"Oh yeah?  I think I'd surprise you more than you can imagine."

"I don't doubt it, especially from all the drills and contests you've been in
here and in Venezuela.  But we learned the basics of using commands together,
so everything you've learned since then was based on top of that.  Neil learned
it all independently.  I'd like to see how he does it so I can then compare it
to how you do it.  But I guess it doesn't really matter who goes first."

"Well I did promise him...  But I doubt we'll have enough time today to do more
than one.  And it'll be another month before we'll get another chance."

I looked at him with a grin and said in an English accent, "As Mr. Pendleton
would say...  'All in good time, Mr. Connor.  All in good time.'"

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