Chapter Twenty-nine- Hit and Miss

~*~

"She's WHAT?"

"Yup. Kara's the one who's been behind this," Bryanna said.

The group of trainers gaped at her. Anya was obviously in shock, while the others were mainly confused as to who on earth this `Kara' was, and how she knew Anya at all.

Then, Anya said weakly, "But, Kara! She was hyper, but. how could.?"

"Tell me, did she give you HER Dex?"

Anya slowly shook her head.

"Did she ever call you before today?" Bryanna pressed.

Again, the other trainer shook her head.

"Then I highly suggest you go find your Bishonen, Anya, and stick with them for the next few days. Kara likes to contact people she knows before she either offers to have them work for her, or before she captures their Bishonen."

Anya immediately stood up. Jacky wasn't far behind. Jessica and Miya-chan jumped to their feet and started for the door. "Sano, Chichiri, Heero. Kenshin! I have to get there!" Anya said.

"And Inu-chan, and my Shippy and Miroku!" Jacky added.

"We'll go to the cops and talk to them!" Jessica promised.

Paul and Abby also stood slowly, watching the entire thing. Then Abby pulled out her Bish-ball containing Valgaav and hugged it. "My Val-chan, I won't let you out of my sight!" she declared.

Paul nodded. "And Raistlin, Caramon and Excel are safe with me!" he declared. "Together we fight, or together we shall fall! HA!" He struck a pose. Then he realized Abby was giving him an odd look. "What?"

"Well, you see, I was kinda thinking. I could help you watch over Caramon! Then we could both watch over two Bishies!" Abby said innocently.

"NO! CARAMON IS MINE!"

"But you don't even like him! Caramon, come to me!" Abby cried.

Naturally, the Bishonen remained hidden in his Bish-ball and resolved to do so until a later time.

"He's MINE!"

"But I want him!"

"Too bad!"

"AAAAAAAAAAH!"

Anya, meanwhile, was hurrying towards the gym again. "Just a couple blocks, just a few blocks," she muttered.

"Anya? ANYA!" called a voice behind her.

The teen turned around. "What do you want, Jacky? We gotta get there, who knows when she'll go after our Bishies!"

"That's exactly why I'm talking to you. Anya, you've been going the wrong way for the past five minutes!"

"WHAT!? Why didn't you stop me?" Anya whirled around and raced off in the other direction. "What if we're too late now?"

"I tried to tell you, but you weren't listening!" Jacky sighed when she realized that that was, indeed, still the case. "Wait up!" She raced after her friend.

~*~

"That's right, sir, there's a crazy woman out there kidnapping trainers and their Bishonen, or just one or the other," Jessica supplied.

The officer looked surprised. "Well, it's the first time I've heard about such a thing, that's for sure. Wait." He suddenly became suspicious. "This isn't some prank you're trying to pull on me, is it?"

The two trainers proceeded to bombard him with protests about how he could possibly suggest such a thing, about the fact that they were in danger, as were all Bishies and trainers at the moment.

Finally, he raised a hand and they quieted. "Okay, okay. Just one more question, girls. Are you certain those trainers aren't just letting their Bishies free, or the trainers just wanted to go home?" At their venomous stares he shied away. "Eep."

"We know people who've been missing for weeks now," Jessica said. "We WERE kidnapped ourselves, but we thankfully managed to escape. And that was only with someone else's help!"

"Haven't you guys been noticing a strange amount of Dex registrations disappearing? Surely not that many people want to go home!" Miya-chan added. "I know there were at least five or six other trainers in there with us, along with countless Bishies!"

The officer frowned at them, and turned away. He stared at a computer that sat on his desk for a while, considering a report he'd been working on before they had come in. Then he glanced back at them. "You do realize this is a serious accusation you're making here."

"Yes," they chorused.

".And you do realize that if we don't find evidence, you will be in prison for a short amount of time. Or if we find this person, and find she is quite innocent, you may be sent home to never return."

Both paled, then nodded.

"All right. I'll start looking up things and talking to the higher ups. We may be able to get a grip on what the hell's going on here, both with you and these supposedly missing people. First, what are your names, and can you tell me anything about this kidnapper?"

Both teens smiled in relief, and proceeded to plunge into their accounts of what they had seen.

~*~ A Day Later ~*~

Kara sat back and viewed her newest work with a bit of satisfaction on her features. Stretching, she glanced at the clock; it was now five-thirty a.m., exactly twenty-four hours since she'd had a talk with Eclipse.

And now, after all of their bargaining and discussing, she now had a contract with the demons.

"Now we can really get things moving," she told Hiei, who was reading a magazine.

"Good," he said. "Now are you going to sleep at all tonight?"

"You can if you wish, Hiei. I'd rather savor this moment." The experimenter smiled faintly at him before returning her eyes to the computer.

"You have that saved, don't you?" Hiei asked.

"Yep. On the hard drive, on a floppy, on a CD, emailed it to myself, printed it and hid it ten places. I'm not losing this, Hiei-kun. I am not. I won't have more people turning on us and screwing up my work again."

"Sounds good," Hiei said. The demon shrugged. "Personally, I think you did right starting with the demons. We may not be the most trusted among Bishies, but at least we have the power to overtake anyone who doesn't agree with us in the long run."

Kara laughed now. "Yeah, it'd have been worse if I had chosen something like, oh, I don't know, Sailor Moon people."

Hiei gagged. "That would have been the worst possible choice."

"Yes. Why don't you get some rest? I'm not planning on it, you'll find me here if you need me," Kara said.

"Fine." Hiei shrugged again and turned away.

"I think I'll check on email, maybe look for more trainers," she muttered, clicking on the internet browser. "And. what's this?" She stared at the screen as a news article popped up. "Authorities searching for reported missing trainers? Well, that was to be expected."

Only half-interested in the subject, she read on through the article, about how at least twenty trainers were mentioning that friends had disappeared. She smiled when a police woman suggested they had tired of the Bishie world and gone home, then frowned at a later report.

"What on earth? They're getting smarter. I didn't think they'd want to start tracking trainer's Dexes. I guess I'll just have to settle for stealing Bishies and using them before they go mad and die on me." She smiled. "Though maybe while they're writhing around I can start working on a way to separate them without causing the trainer OR the Bishie pain. Now that would be an achievement as well."

She nodded at this idea. "Now who should I pick? The trainer should already be a little ways away from the Bishie. That would cause slightly less suspicion. Maybe." She pulled up a program on current trainers she'd downloaded a couple years ago. Searching through the updated files, she came across a familiar name.

"Ah."

She smiled sadly. "She's a nice kid, but she's the best choice for now. Sorry, this ain't personal, but. Let's see." She clicked on the name's stats, and her Bishonen count.

Kara's eyes narrowed. "Aha. She didn't mention her Sanosuke was a Sama yet. This is perfect, he's at the gym still working out. And they love to fight, don't they?"

Ideas began to piece together like an overly large puzzle in her head, and her smile became cold, calculating.

"Ne, Hiei-kun, you still up?"

Immediately the Bishonen came to her side. "What's up?"

"How do you feel about luring into the wilderness, and beating an arrogant human Bishonen into the ground this morning?"