Northern Star

THIS WILL TOTALLY BE WORTH THE WAIT! Just kidding - even if this chapter came with a battery-powered blowjob dispenser, it wouldn't be worth the obscene amount of time it took me to update. Sorry.

That said, I got some shit sorted out, it made the block go away, and I'm going like a bat out of hell now. I'll let this sit here for a bit, and then when something knocks it off the top spot on the page, I'll post the inter-part-interlude that I already have written. You know, just to be a dick.

****************************************************************************************************************

Dominic Cypress was having an off day. He, Dana, and Minerva trudged, bounced, and glided, respectively, down the sunlit street, toward Dana's laboratory.

The three cups of coffee had fully absorbed, and he was jittery and tense. Dana was happily chattering away, as if the previous night hadn't happened. He had been through enough with her to know that her bubbly attitude belied the shell-shock from the previous night - he knew she was simply trying to cope. Meanwhile, Minerva was giving him odd stares and she kept trying to grasp his hand, which they both knew was a bad idea in this part of Kanto.

What in the hell is wrong with her? he thought nervously. She's going to get us fucking attacked!

"Minerva," he said quietly, "if you're uncomfortable, I can always call Grog out." Minerva immediately withdrew, shooting him a dirty look. He regretted saying it as soon as it left his mouth, but after trying to catch her eye for a few seconds and being thoroughly ignored, he gave up trying to apologize, at least for the time being.

"Remember that one, Dom?" Dana chirped, startling him. He realized he had been tuning her out for almost the entire walk.

"Oh...yeah," he lied.

"No you don't, I just got done reminding you of the time the space people landed on Third Street. What's up with you, man?"

Your Pokemon has an entirely inappropriate fascination with me, he thought. "Just a little shaken up," he lied again. He was entirely too used to gunfire for his words to be true.

"Yeah, me too," Dana said softly. "Minerva, baby, you holding up?"

Minerva responded with a look that could almost be described as hateful. The look turned to one of surprise when Dana hugged her tightly, setting Dominic on edge once again. The streets were largely deserted at this time of morning, which he didn't like - it was much safer to be part of a crowd. He visually swept the area while clutching the Pokeball in his pocket. Across the street he saw old Morelli, proprietor of a watch shop, cleaning the windows outside his store while his pet Smeargle touched up the shop's sign. Morelli glanced at them, shook his head slightly, and went back about his business. It seemed to Cypress that the older generation was more prejudiced but less active about it - more prejudiced about race, religion, and sexuality. It was the young people who went out and fought the wars. The guys in the low rider were probably younger than him. With a chill, he realized he might have even known their relatives, or worse, been related to them.

Sometimes he truly hated being who he was.

He also hated being followed, and as the trio entered Dana's building and scaled the stairs, Cypress glanced out a window and confirmed his suspicion that a lanky, tow-headed, conservatively dressed man with a light goatee had been following them for some time. The man was now situated across the street from the lab building, looking at it intently. Cypress was about to bring it up when Dana beat him to it.

"Wouldn't be the first time, you know."

"What?"

"That somebody's taken an unhealthy interest in my work," Dana said, smiling sadly as she subconciously ran her thumb along the deep knife scar Cypress knew was beneath her blouse between the sixth and seventh ribs. What a hellish few weeks that had been.

****************************************************************************************************************

Dana had been closing things down one evening when a young local man who had been stalking her for weeks entered the building with a hunting knife and murderous intent. The twenty-seven year old was a paranoid schizophrenic living with his devout parents who had subjected him to daily catechisms about the evils of those who consorted too closely with Pokemon - researchers, breeders, and Trainers, while denying him medication for his condition. The man had chosen Dana because she kept a psychic-type companion, because she was a Pokemon researcher, and because she was a woman - a factor that aggravated his paranoia. Minerva was returning from another part of the building and Cypress was still a block away when it happened. The man infiltrated the third floor and caught Dana alone. He stabbed her twice, both times aiming for the heart - his first blow glanced off a rib, but his second struck true. The knife was lodged so deeply in Dana's left lung that the man was still trying to pull it out when Minerva returned. Minerva, upon assessing the situation, fired a ferocious Psybeam that threw the man back twenty feet but didn't kill him. The man had scrambled to his feet and gone round the corner of the hall by the time Minerva fired her second shot. This one went straight through the wall and flashed across the street over Cypress' head. Cypress immediately summoned Grog and dashed inside and up the stairs, passing right by Dana's attacker as the man ran away. Cypress arrived at the scene of the crime just as Minerva bravely initiated a two-person Teleport to the hospital - a move that could have killed them both, but instead saved Dana's life.

The challenge of the trial was that the court could not decide whether Minerva and Grog's testimonies could be considered admissible. They had both seen the attacker's face, and if their testimony was accepted then it would lead to an easy conviction. However, with just Dana and Cypress' testimony, a conviction would be significantly more difficult. In addition, Minerva had indeed been shooting to kill when she counterattacked, and if her testimony was used it could have lead to a separate inquiry into her mental health, which would put her in grave danger since the death penalty was much more liberally dealt to Pokemon than to people. Ultimately, under the advice of Dana's lawyer, they withdrew Minerva's testimony, and Grog's was declared inadmissible because he was a Dark-type. Dominic's was also thrown out, because of a comment he had made while on the stand. When asked by the defense lawyer if he had a vested interest in the outcome of the trial, he famously remarked, "Acquit him, convict him, I don't care. I have friends on both sides of the fence." True to his word, after Dana's attacker was released and caught lurking around her building less than a week later, Cypress made some phone calls to some cousins from the old country, and the man had vanished without a trace. Dana had felt pity for the man, but Cypress never did. Ever since then he had wondered if it made him abnormal.

****************************************************************************************************************

"We should call the cops."

"Yeah, so they can be as helpful as they were last time."

Dana had an ironclad point, but Cypress wasn't ready to simply drop it. "I don't like it."

"You don't have to, Dom. But don't worry, what happened last time won't be happening again."

"I wish... I agree."

"You've never sparred with me, have you?"

"Eh, a couple times when you wanted me to show you how to use a Seviian bolo. Still haven't the slightest idea why you felt the need to make big-ass knives your hobby."

Dana's face became stony, and she pulled a large knife of military manufacture from under her shirt. "If someone wants to knife fight, let them come. I won't lose."

Cypress had no idea how to respond, but his cell phone saved him from having to. He plucked it from his pocket to see his office was calling, probably to find out where he was. He flipped it open.

"Dr. Cypress."

"Professor, it's Aaron, where are you?" came the slightly frantic voice of one of his graduate students. With anyone else, he might have been alarmed at the tone, but Aaron was always bent out of shape over one thing or another.

"I'm on business, I'll be out all day, I'm afraid. I trust-"

"Dr. Cypress, wherever you are, you need to get your head down!"

"What are you on about?"

"Professor, there's a crowd, a mob outside the lab! There's about sixty or seventy people here and they're all screaming for you!"

"Fans, I take it." This was not the first mob to come for his head, and Aaron knew it. What was the problem?

"Well, sir, I know this isn't the first time they've shown up, but this is the first time they've burned shit on the sidewalk."

"So? Send a Squirtle to take care of it."

"Sir, it's furniture."

'Furniture?' he thought. 'Why- oh, fuck me running.'

"Sir, when did you leave your place this morning?"

"I never went home last night. They must have been looking to rouse me."

"Wow. Did you hear about what happened at that seafood place on Fifth Street last night? It was another racial thing - that must be what has them so bent out of shape."

"I know, I was there."

Awe welled in Aaron's voice. "Wow, you're lucky. Or just really hard to kill. Either way, it's serving you well right now. Just keep a low profile, okay?"

"I appreciate the concern, thanks for the call." He snapped the phone shut, and cursed floridly in Seviian.

"What happened?" Dana asked. He grated his teeth and tried to compose himself before answering, but due to lack of sleep couldn't quite manage it.

"I'm fucking homeless, is what happened," he hissed through his teeth. At Dana's confused stare, he carried on: "About seventy people showed up at my apartment this morning and completely trashed the place. Now they're using my shit to make a bonfire on my lab's doorstep." It was probably the same sixty to seventy people who always showed up to protest against Seviians whenever something racial happened. They never seemed to go to the poor neighborhoods where the violence originated, probably because the people there would not think twice about fighting back. But against peaceful immigrants, they were fearless. It was funny to think he was targeted specifically because it wasn't his fault.

"Aw, Dom..." Dana gave him a tight hug, and Minerva followed suit, to Cypress' surprise. Upon considering it, he realized he really needed it.

Though even academics were loath to admit it, the Gardevoir species had an emotional hyperactuity. Little work was done in the field, and the lack of study of Pokemon emotional perception often hampered Dana's work because lack of solid facts in the region left holes in her hypotheses. Cypress was one of the few who knew the score: Gardevoir were simply more capable of emotion than humans, or indeed anything else. They could experience a wider range of emotions and the emotions they felt were far keener and more refined than anything a human could experience. They must look down on our simple emotions, he often thought, the way we look down upon Growlithe. To us, Growlithe is always either happy, angry, or ashamed. To them, our emotions must appear as primitive - and as unworthy of attention.

His introspection was interrupted by Minerva's warm tongue caressing his ear as she drew away. He found it didn't make him as angry as it probably should have, and he assumed it was simply her once again being in emotional control. She greatly intimidated him; her emotions were more acute, meaning she could toy with him to evoke any emotional response she wanted, really. Also, their IQs were approximately level, which was impressive - Gardevoir IQs ran along the same lines as human IQs, and Cypress was considered clinically genius, meaning Minerva was also unusually bright. Finally, there was the psychic power. Cypress was lean, quiet, and wore a lab coat, so no one ever expected him to be as astonishingly strong as he was. A college career spent both studying and unloading trucks had made him who he was. However, no amount of physical strength was of any use if you were being held upside down by your ankle by an invisible force of nature. Of course, she didn't need to subjugate him physically - she could always hypnotize him to do her bidding. While Dana worked to dispel the myth that Psychic-types bewitched people into having relations with them, all she had proven was that it was indeed possible, and normal Psychic-types simply didn't do such things.

Unfortunately, Dana was still unable to ascertain just how normal Minerva was. Dana had spotted that little lick she had given Cypress, and while giving their loved ones little kisses was not unheard of in that species, her indiscretion that morning - they thought she didn't know, those knuckleheads - was indeed out of order. Surely some part of Minerva sticking her tongue down his throat had tipped Cypress off that there was a pack-dominance issue between the three of them. Or was that even it? If Dana had been presented with these facts in a "normal" Gardevoir - that is, one that got an 80% or higher on the Ralts Family Multiphase Psychological Inventory - she would call it pack competition.

It was not unheard of for a Trainer that owned one to get married and find their Gardevoir of either sex treating them much differently. Examinations had determined that it had something to do with competition to become the Trainer's favorite and the co-leader of the group, the alpha animal of the pack, so to speak. They would often see the Trainer's partner providing certain forms of affection such as confidantism and sex, and become resolved that if they too could provide that for the Trainer, they would become the new favorite. Handling a Gardevoir or even a Gallade was very difficult, though the Gallade inherited some Fighting-type pragmatism, making them a little more stable. Not that that made them any less likely to try becoming the co-alpha. Gallade and Lucario were particularly bad about it, though for less emotional and more pragmatic reasons. Lucario had been known to proposition their Trainers or team members simply because it had been too long since their last bit of companionable exercise - it was as though they simply didn't see species barriers. It also suggested that they engaged in sex not for reproduction, but for fun and satisfaction, which was another issue that was psychologically significant but didn't receive the attention it needed. Dana got the same negative attention Cypress did when she tried to suggest that a feeling of strong sexual attraction between certain Pokemon and their Trainers at certain stages of their lives was not only extant, but normal.

Even if Minerva had been normal, it did not mean the matter between the three of them was simple. And Minerva was definitely not normal. She had an abusive past which Dana could not shed light upon despite repeated searches. She knew that Minerva had been abused by her psych evaluation, and they knew it had been a Trainer because she was level 41, which for her age was unheard of in the wild. The police department which had processed the case in Hoenn was quite reluctant to disclose case information to Dana, whom they considered "touched in the head with impure thoughts." Minerva herself was tight-lipped about it, and so Dana had very little to go on, taking the dangerous route of adopting her and living with her to try and heal her.

And it had been dangerous indeed. Minerva was sweet and forthcoming almost all of the time. When she wasn't, people got hurt. She suffered from night terrors, and when Dana tried to wake her she would sometimes lash out, pinning Dana to a wall with her power or simply biting or scratching her. There were times when Dana would lie in bed in a cold sweat with Minerva standing at the foot of the bed, staring at her for hours. She awoke one morning with Minerva curled around her, clutching her breast and hip and licking her neck, quite asleep. Minerva had no memory of whatever had transpired to get her there. And, of course, there was the time Minerva had pinned her down and performed rough, painful oral sex on her. They did not talk about that.

Cypress knew, of course, having been bitten and scratched himself a few times. But he never talked about it, presumably trying to keep the peace. The secrets were beginning to seriously piss Dana off. Between Minerva's passive-aggressive behavior and Cypress' inability to talk, Dana wanted to just bonk their heads together.

'Shit,' she thought. 'All this... it's based off the basic assumption that Dominic is my mate. Is he? It sure as hell must look that way to Minerva, or she wouldn't be doing this. I think. Anyway, Cypress will probably try to tell me about it later, stumbling over his words like a pussy. And that bitch Minerva is going to deny it left and right until she breaks down and either attacks me or starts crying, or both. Fucking horny little-' she cut herself off, because Minerva might hear. 'Jirachi,' she thought, 'I'm letting my feelings get way out of control here. What does it say about me?'

She had already started to correctly assume that despite her best efforts, she was playing Minerva's game.

****************************************************************************************************************

And so was Cypress, some time later. Dana had gone to her first daily meeting with Celia, and she had brought along one of the lab's Kadabra to assist her, sending Minerva to reorganize the file cabinets, and suggesting Cypress go help her. They were both well aware that because Minerva could have the cabinets done in about ten seconds, this was Dana's subtle way of telling them both to go fuck off.

Cypress did not want to be in the same room as Minerva, and she knew it, so when he ducked off to the break room at his first opportunity, Minerva quietly followed him. He was drawing off some more coffee when he heard the door click shut behind him, and it took no genius to know what was coming next. He set down his cup and relaxed his body, preparing to be seized by her power, but the attack never came. Instead she turned the lock on the door and sauntered up to him, pulling herself close and resting her chin on his chest.

"You know this can't continue," Cypress said, biting back his anger.

"Oh, but it will, Dom," she said, caressing his name with her voice.

"No, it won't. You know it will hurt Dana, it has to stop."

She smiled in a way that he would have called innocent in any other situation. "No, it won't. You can't read her mind. I can. Let me show you what she really wants." With that, pictures flashed in his mind - pictures of himself, Minerva and Dana engaged in a wild sexual encounter.

"You're wrong," he said, carefully suppressing how much the thought had enticed him. "She thinks there's something wrong with you, and she wants to help you."

After it left his mouth, he realized that was the worst comment he could have possibly made. Her face turned furious, and she threw him into a chair, pinning him. She stormed up to him and straddled him, and Cypress was vividly reminded of what had occurred in this very chair yesterday. She kissed him forcefully and raked her claws across his chest.

"You love me," she growled. "I know you do. Why can't you just let it happen!"

Cypress' mouth was still free, and he struggled to speak. "You're a Pokemon, this can't happen."

"Why the fuck not?" she screeched, and a pulse of power shook the room, flickering the lights and shattering the coffeepot. "You're MINE, you understand? Both of you are mine! You can keep doing it, fine, but I won't be denied, not again!" She was snarling and crying and Cypress was on the verge of panic. She could easily snap his spine in a fit of anger, or even pin him down and have her way with him. His heart began beating furiously as he realized she had chosen the latter option. His breath came in short gasps as she began to remove his pants.

'Man up,' he thought to himself. 'This won't hurt you like it would a woman, or if a man was attacking you. Just tune it out.' He tried, but Minerva was invading his mind, finding out the exact locations of the spots he liked to have touched and the specifics of what drove him crazy. He began to shiver uncontrollably, and his breath quickened so much that the corners of his vision darkened. He hoped he would pass out, but Minerva would have none of it.

"Relax, love," she said quietly, breathing gently on his ear to simulate a real whisper. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just going to make you give in to your love for me." She kissed his neck, nibbling slightly, and ran her tongue along the ball joint and the end of his collarbone. As she knew, it was exciting him. He did his best to shut it out, and sensing this she changed tack. She freed his mouth from paralysis and kissed him deeply. He tried not to respond but she used her power to loosen his lips so she could force her tongue into his mouth. She was either very good or she was doing something to highten the sensation, because the feeling was fantastic.

"Not enough," she said quietly. "I'll help you." What he saw before him began to change and warp, and in an instant Dana was sitting on his lap, smiling deviously.

"Better?" came Minerva's voice from Dana's lips. "I can be anyone you want." She changed again into one of his graduate students, a pretty girl from Sevii. "I can be anyone, and I'll do anything." His vision changed again and now his grad student was naked and so was he, and she was sitting on his lap facing away from him and she was leaning back, kissing the side of his head while her lightly colored hair draped over him. Her flawless chestnut skin glistened with sweat and her hips moved smoothly, coaxing him toward orgasm. Then reality changed again and Dana was bent over in front of him and he had her by the hips and he was giving her all he was worth. He rammed his hips into her, and a moment later his dick had slipped out and found its way into her anus, which had never happened in real life, and Dana cried out for more as he explored the new territory. Then it changed again and she was Minerva again but she was sucking him off more enthusiastically than anyone ever had. She then jumped up and he was in the chair again and she was riding him wildly, shrieking with pleasure whenever her lips weren't pressed to his. Her vagina was slick and warm, and there was a tugging near the head of his dick that was driving him crazy. He remembered that Gardevoir had a muscular sphincter near the cervix used in egg laying, and she was using it on him to magnificent effect.

"See?" she said. "You have to love me, because I can be everything you want. How does Dana even come close?"

She had gone too far. A curious tingling filled Cypress' head, almost like the feeling of a limb fallen asleep.

"I love Dana," he growled, "and Dana doesn't want this to happen."

She scowled. "But you do. So let it happen already!"

"No!"

"Why can't you just take what you want!"

"Because the two of you come before me!"

"Why?"

"BECAUSE I LOVE YOU BOTH!" His vision went temporarily black, and suddenly he was standing. Minerva had been thrown onto the floor. He stormed over to her, and grabbed her by the upper arm. She tried to use her psychic power on him, but it didn't work. After a moment's tense pause, he slapped her roundly across the face.

"Dana and I love you, and we love each other," he said, each syllable shaking under the weight of his rage, "and what we have is complicated. And going behind her back is not the answer." He was still trembling, and he thought he might have come in his pants. He blinked tears from his vision, and Minerva was also trembling and crying.

"I'm sorry, Dom," she said meekly. "I'm sorry."

"Me too," he said quietly.

For a long while after that, they sat quietly and held each other.


****************************************************************************************************************

"The thing about the barriers is that only we can cross them," Haegr said. Marcus had been laid up for days, confined to a hospital bed while his nanites were replaced with Northern Star variants. All citizens were injected at birth with nanomachines that fought disease and repaired injury. To prevent unleashing a plague in the event Ranek's armor was breached, his body was injected with Northern Star nanites which killed his normal nanites, along with all the bacteria in his body. The new nanites would take the place of his gut symbionts so that they could not escape into the atmosphere of Hielodar, and the nanites themselves would die if they got more than an inch from their host's body.

This was an ingenious plan, but the nanite replacement therapy itself was nothing short of torture. For three days grey goo composed of the carcasses of dead nanites had seeped from every opening on his body, including his pores. His skin was covered at all times with a combination of sweat and grey film, and he suffered from a very high fever. Haegr had sat by him nearly the whole time, rattling on about how deployment off-planet would work. Marcus hadn't been able to speak long enough to tell him he didn't care.

"Only we with the Gift can cross these barriers. The thing is, we still have to take the psychics with us, and they have to be tuned in to the planet's psychic field for clear pictures. So here's how it works - the Northern Star is too large to land. It stays up in space, flown by a computer, at all times. It has a shuttle, New Moon, which takes passengers to and from. New Moon also has a device that we can focus our minds into to create a shield bubble, like a tiny version of what encloses the planets, that allows us to bring the psychics through the field of our planet to get them into space. So, that's how we get to Northern Star. The shuttle docks with NS and we're on our way. We'll stop on the way at Pyrus to get you trained on the ground, and then we hit Hielodar. We head for the ground in the shuttle, while the ship lowers a psychic antenna on a miles-long cable right through the barrier. The antenna is hooked up to a series of seats in which our psychics can sit and get readings as though they were right there where the antenna is."

Marcus gasped slightly as he suddenly became entirely too hot. He threw off his blanket and was shocked at the sight of his own body. Where there had once been a naked chest and a slight paunch, there was now a sheet of rippling muscles and a heavy dusting of dark chest hair. Haegr seemed amused at his reaction. He glanced at the EKG next to Ranek's bed and smiled.

"Looks like you're done cooking," he said. "You're fever's breaking. You want to know something funny?" Marcus was still unable to talk, so Haegr went on. "The nanites don't have to cause a fever. It's something they artificially induce. The fever breaks when the process is complete. That's all it is - a timer." Marcus groaned loudly, and Haegr chuckled, lifting a bottle of water to Marcus' mouth. After drinking the entire bottle, Marcus was surprised to find his head completely cleared and his strength fully returned, which he announced to Haegr.

"Your strength isn't all the way back. You're about twice as strong as you were before the treatment. It'll come rushing to you soon." Haegr leaned back in his chair to look out the doorway. He quickly leaned forward and whispered "Get in the shower. Quick!"

Marcus stumbled to his feet and into the bathroom to get rid of the grey film that clung to him. Almost as soon as he shut the door, he heard Asenath's muffled voice on the other side. He would have to remember to thank Haegr. Shortly afterwards, he heard what sounded like the voices of Culexus and Eversor. His hearing, he noted, was significantly more acute. The group talked for a few minutes as he showered off, and after five minutes the room was quiet. Ranek wrapped a towel around himself and walked out into the room. The door was closed, and Asenath was seated on the bed.

"That's a hell of a new look for you," she said sunnily.

"Uh... yeah," Marcus responded, immediately wishing he had something less stupid to respond with.

"I like it," she said, eyeing him hungrily. "So, you're fully recovered?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Haegr didn't say anything about taking it easy, did he? Anything about avoiding exertion?"

"He said I'm a lot stonger than I was before, and it should come pretty quickly."

Asenath sidled up to him and ran her hands across his chest. "I don't want to hear anything about coming quickly..."

He snorted. "So far, you've been mostly talk."

She feigned offense. "How dare you, sir? I'll have you know I'm absolutely sincere!"

"I hardly know you," he said quietly. "Why are we so attracted to each other, anyway?"

"It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I'm smoking hot, and you're a manly beast," Asenath said with a sly smile, "but maybe if we get to know each other, we'll figure it out." With that, she shoved him toward the bed. "Let's get to know each other right now. Really well."

Marcus had just started to remove her robes when she jolted upright. "Damn... Dad's onto us. We'll have to save this for another time."

Marcus groaned. "Please tell me he's not going to be on the ship with us."

"Nah, he'll stay here with the Emperor."

"Good. I hope you're not all talk, because when we're on that ship, I'm putting you to the test."

"No worries. Come on, it's time to get your armor checked," she said. She led him out of the room, waving her hips as she went.

****************************************************************************************************************

"Just hold still while it runs," came Eversor's voice. Marcus stood on a small platform in the middle of a room full of heavy, whirring machinery. He was clad only in a skin-tight body glove, the only garment that would fit underneath his powered armor, which the machines around him were preparing to assemble. Along the wall was a bank of windows though which Eversor, Emendi, Haegr, Culexus and Asenath were watching. A large metal frame slid into place around him, and four robotic arms reached out from various parts of the room to seize his limbs. Marcus cried out as the arms shoved his hands and feet into the metal frame. He was now suspended uncomfortably by his hands and feet.

"It'll be done shortly. Just relax," Emendi called out to him through the room's loudspeaker. The machine pulled a balaclava over Marcus' head, securing his long hair, and set to work assembling individual pieces of his armor on his body. Large grey pieces clanked into place around him. First came the inner chestplate, then the shoulder under-armor and inner belt. Then, a large waist guard and codpiece were attached, and this was linked to a large outer chestplate and upper arm and leg plates, after which greaves and vambraces were attached.

The frame released him at last, and he saw that it had attached similarly designed gauntlets and sabatons. Getting a full picture at last, he realized just how gigantic the armor was - at least three feet wide at the shoulder, and probably seven feet tall. The robotic arms seized his shoulders, and a large circular plate that covered his chin and neck was assembled. On top of that, a slightly pointed upper helm was connected, covering most of his skull. As a respirator assembly slid into place from his chin piece to connect to his face, all that was left exposed were his eyes.

"Beginning electrical systems test," said Eversor. With that, two metal wings on his helmet slid down into place, and his helmet was atmospherically sealed. There was no visor - the inside of the helmet was completely dark.

For a terrifying moment, Marcus could not move at all, and all stimuli were cut off. He was trapped inside a pitch-black suit of armor, unable to even hear his own breathing. Then, the suit activated.

There was a soft mechanical whirring, and suddenly he could see again, as though his helmet had vanished. It took him a moment to realize the entire inside of his helmet was a video screen, calibrated to where he could focus on it as close as it was. His respirator activated, and cool, clean, slightly humid air flowed onto his face. Words and numbers flashed across Marcus' vision faster than he could read them, and he saw orange boxes appear around the people watching him, with small readouts indicating how far away they were.

Small indicators flashed through the corners of his vision. Most of them were gone too fast to catch, but he saw glimpses of things like "O2," "TOX," "AMMUNITION," and "SHIELDS," as well as the universal symbol for radiation.

In the middle of his vision, "MASTER LOCK TOGGLE" appeared in red.

"Ranek!" called Eversor. "Do you see some words in the middle of your helmet?"

"Yeah," he replied, his voice sounding unfamiliar in the confines of the helmet.

"Look at the words, and blink your eyes twice."

Marcus did so, and the words disappeared. He promptly fell over on his back.

A great gale of laughter came out of the loudspeakers, and Eversor said "Guess I should have warned you that that would put the suit under your control. Go on, try it out."

Marcus stood, and the machines withdrew their arms almost reverently. He moved a bit and found the suit to be highly responsive and comfortable, more like a tight-fitting garment than the bulky knight's armor he had been expecting.

"Alright, Ranek, tense both your biceps at the same time without moving them."

Marcus followed the order, and a circle appeared in the middle of his vision, surrounded by small icons.

"Use your left wrist to rotate the focus of the menu," Eversor said, and Marcus rotated his wrist at the joint. As he did, the each icon swelled and shrank in turn. When they were selected, the icons printed out small descriptions of their function.

"When you've got one selected, release the tension on your biceps to activate it."

Marcus found an interesting-looking one: STRENGTH ENHANCE. He activated it.

"So? How does it feel?"

Marcus had barely opened his mouth when he took a step forward and got thrown tumbling by the force of his own foot.

"There will be plenty of time to get it figured out," Eversor said flatly amid another gale of laughter.

****************************************************************************************************************

Clank.

Cypress lifted his head, which had been resting against Minerva's for some time. The noise was unmistakably that of the heavy stairwell door slamming shut. The outer door of the building required a passcode to open, so no unauthorized people should have been able to enter. Cypress had a funny feeling, though, and judging by the way Minerva had perked up, so did she. They stood and unlocked the break room door, and Cypress stuck his head out to see the blond man who had been following them. Did he work here? Cypress could not remember. As it was, why had he waited so long to enter the building? And what was the purpose of the strange fixture on the man's head? He was wearing some sort of black circlet that didn't seem to be a fashion statement of any kind.

"Minerva," he whispered, "can you tell what that guy's thinking?"

"Yeah," she replied, "give me a sec - wait, something's wrong." She shook her head slightly. "No. No, I can't tell what he's thinking. That's weird, it's like he's not even registering somehow."

Cypress was puzzled, and quite concerned. "Follow me. Stay quiet." They slipped out of the room, with Minerva following Cypress close. They stayed a stealthy distance from him, following him around a corner and into the wing of the building housing the mirrored-glass interview rooms. The man stopped abruptly, and Cypress and Minerva slid into a broom closet in the nick of time. Peeking out again, Cypress saw the man more closely. He was no man at all - more of a kid, probably nineteen or so, with his blond hair closely cut and his goatee inexpertly done. He carried a backpack and wore the traditional Trainer garb - a generic shirt and hiking vest with durable cargo pants and a hat, in this kid's case a beret. Beneath the hat was the strange black circlet Cypress had noticed earlier - it was almost like a tiara.

"Dom," came Minerva's psychic whisper. "Dana, Loki, and Celia are in that room." Cypress suddenly had a strong suspicion as to the man's identity.

"Can you get a warning out to Dana and Loki?"

"Yeah... hang on." Minerva closed her eyes in deep thought, and gasped sharply, clutching her temples. "There's something wrong. Something's creating interference."

"Have you ever experienced psychic interference before?"

"Sometimes, when especially powerful Dark or Ghost types are around, they can cause problems," she said, "but there's never been a blackout this complete. Surely Loki feels something." Loki was the Kadabra assisting Dana in the interview, and Minerva's coworker.

'Enough fooling around,' Cypress thought, and started out toward the young man, with Minerva frantically trying to stop him.

"You there," Cypress started, "do you have authorization-" The rest of Cypress' sentence was silenced by a high kick to the side of the head that knocked him flat. Cypress struggled to stand up as stars flashed in his vision. Minerva promptly fired a Psybeam, and was stunned to see it had no apparent effect. The young man used Minerva's pause to strike her hard on the nose, causing her to fall over. Cypress began to see red; it had little to do with his injury. He leapt up and threw a punch, which the man dove under to deliver a retort to Cypress' ribs. Cypress leapt a yard backwards and threw another heavy punch which the man deflected outward; Cypress then turned his punch into a back fist, which the man caught, and then used the leverage to throw Cypress over his shoulder and onto the ground. Cypress was back up immediately, and threw some Seviian martial arts into the mix. Kicking his foot against the wall, Cypress propelled himself into the air back at the man. He landed with his legs on the man's shoulders wrapped around his head. Leaning his weight back, Cypress extended his arms and still clutching the man's head with his legs pulled a complete backflip, touching his hands to the floor and throwing the man over his own body. The man landed hard on his back and Cypress landed on top of the him, whereupon he began mercilessly beating him. The young man would not be beaten that easily, though - he reached up with his legs and grabbed Cypress in a sleeper hold, pinning him on his back and slowly strangling him. Cypress began to see grey, but then Minerva reappeared with her talons extended, furiously clawing at the man's eyes. She did little damage, and the man swatted her away easily, but it gave Cypress enough time to get back to his feet. It was at this moment Cypress realized there was something seriously wrong.

The other man was already on his feet as well, and he had seized Minerva by the throat. She should have been able to snap his neck, but her powers didn't seem to work at all around him, and Cypress began to suspect the circlet. In addition, this man was entirely too strong to be completely real. He must have been using some kind of enhancing drugs. By the time Cypress had made it to his feet, the other man had pinned Minerva to a wall and thoroughly beaten her face and chest. He made to charge at the man, Cypress fought as best he could but the man was just too fast. By the time Cypress had processed the possibility that the man was on drugs, he had already grabbed Cypress by the throat and thrown him violently through the mirrored glass into the interview room and onto the table at which Dana, Loki, and Celia were seated. Cypress' desperate eyes met briefly with Dana's shocked ones before the man was upon him again, picking him up by the throat and waist and throwing him violently down on the table, collapsing it. Loki had already responded with a supercharged Confusion attack, which predictably did nothing. Loki was rewarded with a telling kick to the chest, which brought him to his knees. The man began to advance on Celia, who was wailing and cowering and obviously already knew that psychic powers wouldn't work. Loki tried to interpose himself between the attacker and Celia, but was swatted aside with a back fist. The attacker at last grabbed Celia by the upper arm.

"We're going home, baby," he sputtered through gritted teeth. "We're going home, and it'll just be you and me." Before he could turn to leave, he stopped to feel the large knife Dana had just planted in his ribs.

His hand caressed the handle briefly, and Cypress had just gotten back up, broken and bleeding, when the man astonishingly just pulled the knife out. Dropping Celia momentarily, he leapt toward Cypress with staggering speed, ignoring Dana completely. He knocked Cypress onto his back and landed on top of him, and so began a desperate struggle to plunge or deflect the knife.

"Dana!" Cypress growled with an edge of panic. "Get everyone... out of here!" The knife edged closer and closer to Cypress' chest, and he though he fought like hell unleashed, he was slowly, inexorably losing. The knife crept closer and closer until it began to slowly, hideously penetrate the skin between his throat and collarbone.

Cypress was on the verge of resigning himself to the end when Minerva tackled the man in the side, throwing him off of Cypress. Cypress was unable to move for a moment, and in that moment the man had already backhanded Minerva once again and started back toward Cypress.

"Enough," Cypress said in a low voice. The man reached down and seized Cypress' leg just as Cypress grabbed a broken table leg from the floor. As the man dragged Cypress back for more punishment, Cypress attacked with the wooden dowel, beating the man viciously around the head. He was able to stun the man long enough to reach out and take hold of the man's arm. Using the leverage of his arm, Cypress threw the man onto the floor face down, whereupon he leapt onto the man's back and seized the man's head and chin in his hands. With a sudden, brutal snap, the fight was over.

Cypress stood, and took a moment to pocket the black head appliance - it would not do to have it locked uselessly in a police station. He would have to examine it. A moment later, he was suprised to realize that the knife was still lodged a couple inches deep in his chest.

He reached up and numbly took the handle of the knife, and in a quick jerk that caused him no pain, he pulled it out and dropped it. The cut bled heavily, but he had no diffculty drawing breath, and he assumed there was no lung damage. Darkness ate at the edges of his vision, and the pain his body had suppressed began to wash over him. He looked up and saw Minerva, flat on her back with her arms splayed. Her mouth hung slightly open, with a trickle of blood running out of one corner. One of her eyes had filled with blood and was swelling shut, but the other one was wide open and fixed on him. Through their psychic link Cypress could distantly feel waves of her emotions: shock, terror, and revulsion. It was all centered on him.

He tried to work out why as a researcher he had forgotten the name of swept into the room with a Hypno and a Medicham at his sides. The Hypno laid Cypress down gently and warned him not to move, and assured him he would be fine. Cypress fought, trying to reach Minerva, but was held down firmly.

As the severity of his injuries finally caught up with him, Cypress realized what the issue was. He was able to put things into the back of his mind to prevent a mind-reader finding out about them from a casual peek. However, when he had finished his attacker, it had brought back a significant group of memories out of shadow, and Minerva had seen them.

The man laying on the floor was not the first Cypress had killed.


****************************************************************************************************************

"So... uh, when's the countdown?"

"There is none," said Bellatrix, eldest of the Northern Star psychics. Her long hair hung sideways out from her head, and she was in the process of tying it. "It's unnecessarily stressful on passengers. We just go."

"That's... that's great," Marcus choked out, his mouth cotton-dry, the restraint harness digging into his shoulder as gravity tried to pull him sideways out of the seat. He shut his eyes tightly.

"Relax, kid," Haegr said calmly - of course, his calmest voice was a booming baritone that filled the entire crew cabin of the shuttle. "It's smoother than a mag-rail."

"I had trouble my first time," came a wine-smooth voice to Ranek's right. He turned and was surprised to see it was Emendi. He had never heard the man speak before.

"Alright," Eversor said sharply, suspended above them at the control seat. The control seat was facing backwards toward the cabin, and therefore Eversor was suspended high in the air, relatively. "We're on a timetable here. Bellatrix!"

"Ready," she said offhandedly.

"Hera!"

"I am prepared," said a slender, dark-skinned psychic with very short black hair. Her dark eyes flashed at Marcus briefly before closing, and she looked as though she had immediately fallen asleep.

"Lunaril!"

"Light 'er up," said a short, blonde psychic. She was extremely comfortable-looking, as though she had found a way to recline in the heavy launch harness.

"Sestus!"

"Let us off," the visibly old man said. Marcus had met him briefly, and had it from Haegr that he knew the dirtiest jokes to ever exist, and was fond of telling them in the company of the warriors. That aside, he was as kindly and peaceful as any grandfather.

"Culexus!"

Asenath looked briefly about for her father, and then turned red. "Uh... I'm ready."

Eversor smiled slightly. "We'll go with your first name. Emendi!"

Emendi responded without opening his mouth or eyes. Instead, he coolly pointed his index finger out of the front windscreen of the shuttle and at the sky. At this point, the entire ship began to rumble and shake, and Marcus felt a strong urge to vomit.

"Haegr!"

"Start your engines!" Haegr said spiritedly.

"Ranek!"

Marcus nearly choked on his own tongue; after a moment, he managed to force a raspy "ready" out.

"Launch control, this is New Moon," Eversor said as his seat rotated and pushed him up to the controls of the ship. "The family's all buckled in, and we're off on your go." With that, the passenger seats, which had been facing toward each other, all rotated at once and locked in place to face the front of the ship.

There was no warning, except that the shuttle's engines went from a low rumble to a wild, howling roar. Marcus could see a trace of the launch gantry out of Eversor's window, and a second later it was gone. He clenched his eyes shut, for how long he did not know. When he opened them again, the sky that had previously been gold with the sunrise was now the faded purple of nightfall. He could see no stars. He had never felt the tug of acceleration beyond the weight of his own body.

"That's because the shuttle accelerates so slowly," Sestus' voice said inside his mind.

"I thought you people couldn't mess with my mind anymore," Marcus said aloud, breaking the long silence that had bathed the shuttle.

Eversor chuckled slightly. "They can't mess with the minds of those of us who have mastered it," he said. "You, they could make to sit up and beg." At this, Marcus caught Asenath's eye, and she gave him a look that needed no mental pictures to enhance it.


****************************************************************************************************************

The docking process in which New Moon became part of the interplanetary Northern Star took an entire two hours. Finally, they were allowed to detach their harnesses and exit the hatch, which had connected itself to Northern Star's airlock. They ducked their heads slightly to get through the door, and what Marcus beheld left him thoroughly unimpressed. The interior of the ship was composed of long hallways with doors that led to rooms of all functions but mostly uniform size. It was like a generic building, save that it was in space and the walls seemed rather cluttered with exposed cabling and various electrical pathways and routing nodes.

"Mind the stuff on the walls, you'll get hung up on it," Bellatrix warned him as they filed on board. Everyone seemed to know exactly where to go, with some of them entering rooms within sight range. It was exactly like arriving at a hotel. "The stuff on the walls is exposed so that you have something to hold onto while we're at zero-G. Anyway, your quarters are right down the way there, next to Asenath's." With that, she swept off down the hall, gesturing vaguely at their rooms as she passed them.

"Right next to each other," Asenath purred. "Let's go get settled in." She pulled him by the collar to her room, and she was about to pull him in when Eversor appeared from nowhere and grabbed Marcus' shoulder.

"Come on, kid, we've got to..." he stopped. He released Ranek, and with a knowing look at the pair of them, he said "In three hours, report to the lower deck to get your weapons synchronized with your suit. Three hours." He then turned and walked off, and Asenath pulled Ranek into her quarters.

She began to shower him with light, flirtatious kisses. "Finally, I have you all to myself." She began to disrobe, and she was expecting him to grab or bite her. What she was not expecting was the soft, dulcet kiss he planted on her forehead. She smiled widely, and before enthusiastically proceeding as they would, they simply held each other for a moment.

End of Part One: Unexplained Phenomena