Welcome to the House of Fun

�� A sharp and bitter autumn day, the kind that made you glad of the classroom's warmth.� Danielle Corbeau and Belle Resone walked down the street to the Teyapo house, with a bookbag floating behind Resone, trailing her like a patient pet.� Ayumi had stayed home today, ostensibly due to illness, but they both knew better. Ayumi couldn't get sick.� Most likely her father had kept her home to help him with something.

�� "He could have asked us," Danielle groused.� "I'd have been glad to stay home."

�� "So'd Ayumi.� And Dr. Teyapo's not our father, much as we might like."� Resone was uncharacteristically cheerful-- not that she was normally depressed; normally Resone was an emotional cipher, showing about as much emotion as your typical android.� Today she walked with a spring in her step and a faint, almost imperceptible smile on her lips, which for Resone was what skipping down the street singing would have been for anyone else.

�� "I wish," Danielle muttered.� "What are you so happy about?"

�� "Am I?" Resone frowned slightly. "I suppose so.� Look, Danielle."� She turned and gestured at the patiently floating bookbag.� "I can control it."

�� "Wow." Danielle was not impressed.� "You've been able to control the teek ever since I met you.� You just need to be in the right mood."

�� "No, I--" Resone stopped in some confusion.� "This is the first time, isn't it?"

�� "You don't remember?"

�� "Oh, right." She had lost the faint smile, though, her face reverting to its usual expressionlessness. The only way Danielle and Ayumi knew she wasn't an android was the few times the floodgates had opened, and Resone had gotten violently emotional. She never admitted to these episodes afterward, but they were enough to prove that she wasn't an andy.� That, and the fact that andys didn't have psi, according to Dr. Teyapo, and he was the world's top cyberneticist, so he'd know.

�� They turned a corner and passed a group of guys.� "Woo-oh!" Danielle turned her head to watch them as they passed, leering.� "Check out the buns on the blond there!"

�� "Danielle, you're almost as obnoxious when you do that as the guys are when they do it."

�� "Come off it, Resone.� Either I'm every bit as obnoxious or no one is.� Hidden sexism, you know. Oh, wow!"� Resone followed Danielle's gaze to a stunning redheaded girl.� "Excuse me."

�� "She's got a boyfriend," offered Resone as advice.� "And she doesn't like you."

�� "Who asked you?" Danielle slid into an alleyway and transformed, taking male form.� Resone had seen this scene before-- she didn't need her precog to tell her how it would come out.� Daniel, now, would attempt to charm the girl, and either get into her pants or get hit.� Most likely get hit.� Resone had already divined the girl's opinion of Daniel.� She didn't need to watch.

�� //don't you?//

�� Resone lifted her head slightly.� Someone had spoken.

�� Who's there?

�� No answer.

�� Something was happening.� Resone tried to analyze it, but it was no more yet than a prickling at the edge of consciousness.� She'd have to wait for it to come.� Perhaps it had something to do with Ayumi.� She continued on a path for the Teyapo house.

�� Once there, she paused at the threshold.� She's not here.

`�� Something was happening.� An electric current in the air.� Something she hadn't seen, yet.� From somewhere inside, Resone felt the first faint uneasy stirrings of fear.� She liked things predictable.� If she saw it ahead of time, she could compensate.� Predictable and safe.� The other way was nightmare.

�� mommy please don't i'm sorry

�� No.� The fear went away, like that.� Like a circuit breaker in her mind, shutting off emotion.� She pushed open the door-- and turned, startled, as with a thud her bookbag fell to the porch.

�� Wasn't controlling.� I must be more careful.� Resone picked it up, brushed it off and went into the Teyapo house.

�� Dr. Ndara Teyapo was working on something.� Resone waited patiently outside his door for ten minutes before realizing that he was far too distracted to notice her when her whole field projected a don't-notice-me aura.� "Excuse me.� Dr. Teyapo?"

�� He turned his head.� "Ah, Resone.� Is Ayumi in detention again?"

�� "No..." Resone was esper.� More than simply meaning she had psi, it meant she had perceptions outside the sensory realms, and she integrated faster than most.� It occurred to her, now, that Dr. Teyapo had not kept Ayumi home.� Therefore, something else had kept her from school.� Due to Ayumi's desire to be a Peacekeeper, that something was more than likely trouble.

�� "I think she's in danger," Resone said.� "She and Danielle both."

�� "What?" Dr. Teyapo turned all the way around.� "Why do you say that?"� He then remembered that "why" was a nonsensical question when dealing with Resone. "What sort of danger?"

�� "When did you last see Ayumi?"

�� "Why... last night.� She said good night to me."

�� "She was abducted between here last night and the school this morning," Resone said.� "Or perhaps enticed.� It's hard to say.� I left Danielle behind on the way here, but I shouldn't have.� I didn't sense the danger."

�� "What's the danger?"

�� "I don't know."

�� "Well, let's have you do a psychometric location, see if you can find her.� And Danielle.� Does the danger know what the three of you are?� Is it targeting you three in particular, or is it going after the population in general?"

�� "I don't know." The fear was beginning to stir again.� That wasn't right.� Resone was never afraid, not of anything.� But then, she always knew how it would come out.

�� Ayumi's scarf, from her bedroom.� Ayumi loved that scarf, wore it whenever they were going on a job.� It had to be something with emotional resonances.� Resone picked it up and wound it around her tiny hands, picturing Ayumi.

�� Ayumi Teyapo-- tall, with chocolate skin, the flawless body of an African goddess, Japanese features that might have been delicately beautiful if they weren't pulled into a scowl all the time, and frizzy pink hair.� Everything about her screamed "attitude."� Teachers hated her, and she returned the favor with interest-- unless they were that rare breed of teacher that could see through the tough-girl pose to the wounded child inside.� Ayumi was a full-body cyborg, made so at the age of 5 by an accident that had killed her mother, and now very little of her was still organic, as of course she'd had to transfer bodies every two or three years to accomodate her growth.� The body she wore now was a state-of-the-art android with an interface to her human brain and actual hormonal glands to enable a full range of emotional experience, since unlike an andy Ayumi had a brain that could interpret emotional inputs.� It looked, felt, and smelled fully human, and had been designed by her father to Ayumi's own specifications.� But it was the first body she'd had that couldn't be pegged as a cybe.� The first body she'd had, as a small child, had been crude and robotlike, matching the then-current android technology, and though each new body had been cutting edge, the edge hadn't reached humaniform until now.� In fact it could be argued that Ayumi's pain at being a freak had been part of what had driven android bodies to improve so rapidly, as her father was the leader in the field and was probably so because he'd been personally driven to make his daughter the best bodies possible.� But having a fully humaniform body now didn't erase ten years of being a freak.� Ayumi couldn't quite believe that people were no longer laughing at her clumsy metal body, and it made her lash out.

�� At the same time, despite her reputation as a JD, Ayumi was truly committed to helping people.� She wasn't a school nark or a monitor, because she couldn't handle toadying to the Establishment.� But she had, for the past schoolyear and change, used her rep to get the lowdown on the gangs and the deals, and reported to her father, who reported to the police.� Timot High was a lot cleaner now than it'd been this time last year.� Ayumi wanted to be a Peacekeeper, and she didn't want to wait the three years until she'd be 18 and it'd be legal, she wanted it now.� She wanted to prove that teens could be effective Peacekeepers too.

�� When Resone had first detected the dimension warp and recruited Ayumi and Danielle against it, it had been Ayumi who gave the group its strength.� Resone was the brains and Danielle was the guile, but Ayumi was the heart of the three, her passion driving the other two.� Since that time, the three had actually become best friends, despite their differences.� It would hurt, if Ayumi was suffering.� It would hurt, and Resone pulled back, not wanting to see what she would see.

�� But of course, she saw it.� The ice came down, freezing her in perfect control, blocking away the pain, as she saw Ayumi trapped in a genie bottle, shouting curses.� Resone couldn't see Ayumi's body, but could tell where it was likely to be-- hooked into a virtual reality simulator.� Ayumi was inside a computer, and didn't know it.� She was no linerider like Danielle-- she would be totally unable to alter her surroundings, even if she knew it wasn't real.

�� Resone couldn't see Danielle, even when she held Danielle's mojo stone, but that wasn't surprising.� Danielle was quicksilver, a water elemental, flowing and changing shape, with little constant enough to make a firm psychometric imprint.� She did, however, get a very distinct impression from touching the stone.� Words, symbols, resolving into a phrase.

�� OUR LADY OF MERCY HOSPITAL.

�� "The hospital," Resone said.� "Mercy Hosputal.� A virtual reality, and a hospital..."

�� "What's happened to them?" Dr. Teyapo asked.

�� "They were lured.� Tricked into going to the hospital, separated from the rest of us.� Each of us, one by one.� Dani, they used sex, of course.� Ayumi, they presented with one in need of rescue."

�� "And you?� How will they go after you?"

�� "Oh, they already have.� Obligation and loyalty.� I'm going in after them."

�� Dr. Teyapo considered.� "They'll be prepared for you, if they're luring you.� I think you need some kind of equalizer."

�� Resone stood behind ice, insulated, and watched herself say, "Don't worry, Dr. Teyapo.� They don't know me well enough to prepare for me."

�� Resone was a tiny, albino female of fifteen, still not quite 5 feet tall, with a mane of fluffy white hair, watery pink eyes she generally concealed behind extremely dark prescription sunglasses, and a girlish, undeveloped body.� One would think she would be very difficult to disguise.

�� One would think.

�� With hair braided and hidden under a short, dark blonde wig in a boy's cut, with dark contacts replacing dark glasses and makeup to make eyelashes and eyebrows look brownish-blond and not white, with tape wrapped around her tiny breasts and a boy's school uniform on, she felt very masculine in a boyish way.� Not Resone anymore.� This was Jason.� Jason turned this way and that, surveying his appearance in the mirror.� He wasn't very objective, of course-- he always saw himself as male, since that was what he was-- but Resone could be objective, and objectively she looked like Jason.� So let it be.� She let herself be Jason, and strode off purposefully, heading for the hospital.

�� //Something's happening, and you don't know what it is, do you, Belle Resone?//

�� Nobody here by that name.� Sorry.

�� He walked to the hospital, sensing dimly a gathering storm.� The warp was active.� This was another stage of the strange war the intruders waged.� The hospital was not the hospital.� The street was not the street.� Like traveling between air and water, he stepped onto the street and everything was different.� Yet he couldn't tell exactly how it had changed.� Everything looked the same.� Change of refractory index-- inside, it was the same.� It was the outside that was different.

�� Jason was afraid.

�� He wanted to be Resone again.� Resone was sheltered under ice, cold and insulated from fear.� But Resone couldn't do this.� They were looking for Resone, so she could never walk in directly under the eyes of the receptionist.

�� "Young man, where are you going?"

�� The receptionist was a pinched and dusty old lady with piercing glasses and the smell of moldy fish, not quite drowned by antiseptic chemicals.� "I'm visiting someone," he said.

�� "It's not visiting hours," the turtle-mouth snapped.

�� A stained clockface on the wall read a dreary four o'clock.� "When are visiting hours?"

�� "Not until five."

�� Hands of the clock spun, aged and rusty things responding to Jason's will.� He was dominating, not like passive Resone.� He was free to act, to control.� "But it is five," he said.

�� "It's only--" The receptionist glanced up.� Jason worked the same alchemy on her watch as she looked away, so it confirmed the lie.� "That's strange.� Where does the time go?"

�� "The time eaters get it," a tall black man said, and laughed at his own joke.

�� "Who are you here to see?" the receptionist asked.

�� The lobby was filled with human refuse.� Old smelly women with bulging black handbags as weapons against the world.� Young women in loose t-shirts with huge breasts and screaming dirty children clinging to them.� Snot-nosed brats of 11 or so flinging slingshot spitballs at each other.� Dirty unshaven men in undershirts with beer bellies.� And the black man with the spiked dreadlocks, the mishmash mismatched clothing that covered plaid, solids, spots, in bright and loud colors, a ridiculous leisure suit and a ridiculous bowtie, askew, over a Day-Glo yellow shirt.� The man with the piercing grin.

�� //Something is happening, but you don't know what it is-- do you, Belle Resone?//

�� Jason pulled a name and a number out of the air.� "Room 23B," he said.� "Rachel Buscaglia.� I'm her brother."

�� "You have to be over 14."

�� "I'm 15.� I'm short."

�� //You're also a girl, girl-child.//

�� Shut up.� I'm a boy.� "Can I see her?"

�� Unable to find another reason to prevent him, the receptionist muttered, "I suppose so. Elevators are back that way."� She gestured vaguely.

�� Jason lost it as he left the waiting room.� The man in the mismatched clothes was following him, and a surge of fear swamped him.� Be Resone, cold, controlled.� Resone turned to face the man, safe behind a thin but strong layer of ice.� "Excuse me, why are you following me?"

�� "We're going to the same place," the man said cheerily.� "I'm Rachel's brother, too."

�� Resone frowned.� "Rachel who?"

�� "Rachel Buscaglia.� You remember, girl-- or maybe you don't, oh well.� But we're going to the same place.� You're gonna need help."

�� "I don't need help.� I don't know you."

�� "I'm the March Hare."� He grinned broadly.� "Also known as the Cat Who Walks Through Walls.� That was a book by Heinlein, long time ago.� Good book."

�� "Who are you?"

�� "Who are you?"

�� "Resone.� I'm Resone."

�� "I like your first name better."

�� "What?"

�� "Belle.� Bella.� Beautiful.� Tu es La Belle Dame Sans Merci, n'est-ce pas?� The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy.� Ah, Bella."

�� Resone stiffened.� "Don't call me Belle.� I don't go by it."

�� "Somebody does."

�� "What?"

�� "For someone who's supposed to be such a hot esper and have so much on the ball, you can be dense, chere Belle."

�� "Don't call me that! I'm Resone!"

�� A white heat threatening to crack the ice.

�� my belle my beautiful belle come to daddy belle

�� The ice engulfed.� The anger drained out into the encroaching dark.� Why should I care what he calls me?� "I have things to do."

�� "So do I.� By some strange trick of fate, many of them are the exact same thing as yours.� How's that for coincedence?"

�� "Hmm.� You're an esper, I take it."

�� "You know all about me, Bella.� All you have to do is think."

�� "Perhaps I don't care to."

�� She headed for the staircase.� Danielle should be found first, because she could hook into the line and find Ayumi.� Resone might be esper, but she wasn't a linerider.

�� "Perhaps not.� Where to?"

�� "Find Danielle."

�� "Could be rough.� I think our friends are about to find you."

�� "Really."� Resone didn't sense any danger-- but then, her senses seemed to be somewhat dulled here.