Chapter Twenty-eight- Conversations and Plans ~*~ "..." The experimenter sat back, letting a sigh of relief escape her lips. She closed her eyes, smiling slightly. "Finally," she murmured. "It's back." Should one bother to look, one would find that the entire formula for giving trainers the ability to capture half-Bishies was completed once again. The experimenter had spent the past few hours straight staring at the screen, testing and re-testing the formula. When she had gotten it right, she had immediately saved it both on the hard-drive, on a floppy disk, and had emailed it to herself. Now, she figured it was fairly safe to assume that she needn't worry about losing the formula again. "That was close..." Hiei came into the room then. "Ne, you done?" he asked. "Yeah, just finished." "Good. Here's that coffee you wanted." "Thanks." The experimenter took the cup in hand and had a long drink. "Aah, that feels better. It's always nice to have a bit of caffeine to keep you going." "It's kind of late, you know," Hiei said. "It's almost two in the morning." "Bah, college kids stay out later. I'll be fine. Besides, if that's the case then I'm on schedule." "For what?" "For meeting some people. I need an agreement from a few... acquaintances... to get this going." Then she muttered, "And after that, I gotta friend to check up on... I think..." "Are you asking Tokio-sama and LSS-sama?" Hiei asked, distracting her. The experimenter laughed at that. "Please! They'd look at what I was doing and find some really dumb reason as to why I couldn't do this. No, I'm meeting people who would be much more beneficial for us, Hiei-kun." "Like...?" Then, a dark shadow seemed to cover the room, and both trainer and Bishonen felt a chill. The chill soon dulled, thankfully, though it was still noticeable. The experimenter smiled, while Hiei went into a fighting stance. "You are the mortal I was to meet?" The experimenter looked up. "Ah, Master Eclipse, glad you could make it." Hiei blinked. Then he grinned, relaxing from his fighting stance. "That's my trainer. Demons always make the best negotiators," he remarked. The Bishonen regarded Hiei coolly for a moment. "Indeed." He returned his gaze to the experimenter. "So, are we to start our meeting?" "Yes." The experimenter gestured to another chair. "Please sit, Eclipse. I'm not going to bite you. As you can see, and probably sense, I don't have an empty Bish-ball anywhere in this room. Nor do I have anyone around with such things to capture you with while we negotiate." The demon Bishonen played with a strand of his long, raven-black hair for a moment, then smiled. It was not a warm smile. "You speak the truth. Amazing for a mortal. This should be interesting." "Indeed," the experimenter said, slightly mocking the Bishonen. "Now what is your proposition to me?" The experimenter gestured to the screen in front of her. "What do you see?" Eclipse barely glanced at the screen. "A human's babble," was the short reply. "I'm afraid you're wrong." "Oh?" This was said with a hint of danger in the Bishonen's voice. One hand cupped, as though readying to hold a ball of dark energy with which to attack the experimenter. "Yes. With all due respect, this is my proposition." "You mock me. I do not read the human's writings." "I know. And I'm not mocking you." "I'm getting annoyed, girl. Tell me what your proposition is or I'll be leaving." "Okay, okay." The experimenter sighed. Then she smiled and leaned towards him slightly. "What do all Bishies have in common?" Without waiting for an answer, she said, "They all have less than desirable cousins, known as half-Bishies. Now, what say you we manufacture this potion that will make them as vulnerable to a Bish-ball as a Bishonen. No, what if they were MORE vulnerable? You know more have been appearing lately. And you know people think of them as Bishonen. Heck, sometimes people think that Bishonen AREN'T Bishies and the Halflings ARE." The experimenter spread her hands. "You all just need to fade into the background for a while. Then you can have THEM get caught and 'trained' by the 'trainers'. If you wish, then you can come back and take back that city that a few humans took over..." Eclipse's eyes glinted. "You are flailing around, girl. Why don't you seek to put them in YOUR category, the humans? I hear it's very... noble these days to speak of equality amongst humans." "It's complicated." "Ah. As in, since you created many of these new Halflings, you do not wish the creator to be put on the same level as the creation?" "Something like that." "I see." Eclipse sat back. "Yet you place them with the Bishonen." "I want to place them properly BELOW the Bishonen, Eclipse. I want them to be the ones captured instead of you Bishonen. Surely you've gotten tired of losing your scouts to teenyboppers." "And what have you planned for the Bishies themselves?" "I plan to make you all equal to the humans, of course." "So it will be as the society of Dragonlance." "Exactly. You'll be the elves; we'll be the humans. We stay equal, yet apart. And the Halflings shall be viewed on both sides as something... less." Eclipse smiled. "You're starting to have a firmer grasp on your own situation. Perhaps we can make a deal of sorts, you humans and we Bishies." "That's what I was hoping for." "Now then, why don't you explain what's needed for this formula... are you certain we can't just poison them...?" ~*~ "...And that's it," Bryanna finished. "Wow." Anya shook her head. "I already heard rumors about people getting kidnapped, as well as Bishonen... but this!" "I know," Jacky said. "It's so... disgusting and, well, racist." "Yeah." Bryanna nodded. "I never liked her experiments. I was willing to make Halflings equal to Bishonen, but that only makes sense, right? I only wanted to be able to capture more Bishies, get more of a challenge in things." She frowned. "Now I'm just a wanted deserter who has to hide behind the masses." "The ignorant masses can be helpful sometimes!" Excel said, popping up out of nowhere and wagging a finger at them. "They can fight and kill and blood and fight for IILLPALLAZO-SAMA!" This she said with a dramatic pose on the table they were sitting at. Then she paused. "Ne, Paul, when ARE we going to meet my Iilpallazo-sama?" "Uh... soon?" "Okay!" Excel ^-^ed and went back into her Bish-ball. Everyone sweat-dropped. "Anyway..." Jacky said. "So what're we going to do?" "No offense to all of you guys, but I'm going off on my own," Bryanna said. "She's going to be after me the most, so I'll have to train a lot. I don't want to involve the rest of you all. You're a cool bunch and I don't feel like seeing you used for experiments." "But if we're in a group," Jessica began. "Then we'll be easier to catch off-guard," Bryanna interrupted. "If we split up, she'll have to go after us individually..." "Why don't we involve the authorities?" Miya-chan asked. "Then they'll be able to stop this, won't they?" "They'd have to find the place," Bryanna said. She shook her head. "And that's nearly impossible. I know the mountain range, but it goes for miles both ways! It'd take months to find it, and by then she would have hightailed it outta there!" "Well, we don't have to do that!" Paul said. Everyone turned to look at him in surprise. "What? Anyway, I think that if we just talk to the authorities, they'll start keeping an eye on our Dexes." "Then if someone disappears without a reason- like if they still have their Bishies and stuff- then they could go after them!" Jacky said. "That's an awesome idea!" "Or they could just alert everyone else," Anya added. "If everyone knows, then maybe the authorities will come up with better tracking devices than just our Dexes- we can easily lose these things anyway." "They had all of our stuff in a separate room," Miya-chan said. "I mean, everything; backpacks, Bish-balls, and other stuff." She shrugged. "I'd guess they'd wreck the Dexes, but ours thankfully were fine." She pulled hers out. "See?" "So I'll go the authorities," Jessica said. "I'll go, too," Miya-chan added. "We should stay together for a while, at least. Then there'll be a witness." "Witnesses are good," Anya agreed. "Assuming the witness isn't caught as well," Bryanna said. "Well, yeah," Anya said. "But a lot of villains tend to be stupid when it comes to the heroes." "Whoa, when did this become good versus evil? It's just a sick, obsessed woman versus a group of normal kids," Bryanna objected. "Isn't that what good versus evil usually is?" Abby asked. Everyone became silent for a moment. Then, "Okay, so Bryanna's going on her own, and you two-" Anya nodded at Jessica and Miya-chan, "-are going to the authorities. I'm going back to the gym to train with my Bishies and get another gym victory. Anyone else wanna come?" "I have to," Paul said. "I've never fought at a gym. Do you think I can beat him twice and count it?" "Um... maybe..." "I'll go, too," Abby said. "I just need one more." "I got two from before I met you all," Jacky said. "So I'll hang out with Kimiko, if she's all set." "Sounds good," Anya said. She glanced at a clock. "Well, how about we head back to the gym? I want to check my Bishies and get ready for another gym battle." "Yeah, me too," Abby said. "I SO wanna kick that Tamahome's ass!" Everyone sweat-dropped. "Sure, Abby, you do that," Jessica said. "Well, it was interesting meeting you all," Bryanna said, standing up. "But if you don't mind, I don't feel like staying in one place and getting harmed by the people I used to help out. I'm heading out." "You sure about that?" Anya asked. "Honestly? ...No. But I'd rather do something than sit and twiddle my thumbs." "You're a Bishie elite, aren't you?" Anya asked. Bryanna paused. "Yeah, so?" "Whoa, you're an elite?" Jessica said. "You didn't tell us that!" "You didn't need to know. Why does it matter?" "Because if you're an elite... elites get awarded for their efforts by fighting with LSS-sama or Tokio-sama, don't they?" Jessica continued. "So?" "So... if you fought with them, you met them, so you know them a bit?" Bryanna sighed. "Yes, you fight them. Wow, whoopee. Just because I fought with Tokio-sama once doesn't mean I know them, nor does it mean I could run up to them and mention this little problem." "Why not?" Anya asked. "Because-" Suddenly, Anya's Dex began to beep. "Message for Anya from unknown, public information building, Cigam City..." "Oh, what the heck... Excuse me, everyone. I'll be right back." Anya got up and walked a few paces away so she wouldn't bother the others as they continued to talk. Bryanna shrugged at her, and started to explain to the others what she had been about to say. "Hello?" "Hey Anya! Remember me?" Anya blinked at the grinning, cheerful face on the monitor. "Kara!" "Yup! Long time no see. How's it going?" "Uh... great! You see, I got four Bishies now." "Awesome. Which ones?" "Ano... Sanosuke, Kenshin, Heero, and Chichiri." "Those are cool." "Yeah. How about you?" "Oh, not much. Me an' Hiei hang around a lot. I did catch a Hotohori and a Duo a while back, but I let them go." "How come?" "They didn't want anything to do with me or something." Kara shrugged. "I'll catch others later on, maybe." "Yeah, you probably will. So what's up with the sudden call?" "Nothing, really... just wanted to see how you were doing." "I'm fine... well, actually, there IS a bit of a problem. You know the whole half-Bishies thing going on?" "Do I ever. So you heard about them becoming more and more common, eh?" "Heard? I got attacked by an insane one, once!" Kara winced. "Ouch. That sucks. Is that the problem?" "Kinda. You see, there's this rumor going around that someone's making these Halflings, and making them go insane like that." "Whoa." Kara blinked. "Not good." "Yeah." "Well, what can we do, you know? Who started that rumor?" "Um, I've heard it from a number of people, actually. There's this elite girl named Bryanna, um, Kimiko, and..." "Ah. Oh! I'm friends with Bryanna. If she's around, tell her hi, okay?" "I will." /Wow, small world after all,/ she thought. Then her eyes narrowed. /But isn't she being a little too laid back about the whole Halflings thing?/ "Well, just wanted to check on ya.. have fun with yer Bishies. And don't be afraid to catch Bishoujo either, you know!" "Yeah, yeah, see ya. Call again, will you?" "Of course! Gotta check up on my friends!" With that, Kara closed the link. Anya turned off her Dex, shaking her head. /That was weird, her suddenly wanting to hang up. And she looked kinda tired, too. What if something's after her.../ She shook her head again. /No, you've got your own problems. Since Kara didn't mention anything, I'm sure she can handle things all right./ With that, she headed back to the table. "Who was that?" Jacky asked when she returned. "An old friend of mine. Her name's Kara, she's the one who showed me around when I first showed up," Anya said. "Cool." "Oh, right!" Anya turned to Bryanna. "She said that you were an old friend of hers, and wanted me to say hi for her if you were around." The redhead stiffened. "You're kidding. You gotta be kidding... Tell me you're kidding." "What? No, I'm not." "Damn it!" Bryanna swore. "Did you mention we're around here?" "Uh, no, only that if I saw you around I'd say hi to you. What the hell's going on, Bryanna?" The redhead elite trainer glared at everyone at the table. "That girl- no, that *****- Kara, is who is making all of the half-Bishies." "WHAT?!"