Rebecca's Parents: "And now," said Horatio to the teenagers, "Rebecca has to invite her parents over. This evening would be fine. They are still flat out at the hospital, cleaning up from the crisis." So Rebecca rang her parents again, and managed to get them to accept Pink's invitation for a meal. And Prime arranged for the 3D printer to be delivered sometime that afternoon. It belonged to one of his small companies, which is why he had ready access to it. He also ordered a few surgical instruments. Of course, as soon as Rebecca's parents saw Pink, they knew that something was drastically wrong. "My god!" said Rebecca's mother. "I'll ring for an ambulance right now!" said her father. "Aww, wait dad. Things are not quite what they seem." said Rebecca. Ten minutes later, after a bit of soul reading. "You mean both of your respective libidos have been completely turned off?" said her mother. "Now that is something I approve of!" said her father. "Well, we do intend turning them on, somewhere in the future." said James. "But there's no hurry!" said Rebecca's mother. "Mum, dad, I know you have really good reasons to be worried about my love life, but that's not the issue at the moment..." said Rebecca. "Ah, that's right. Pink needs an operation, sort of, before she can appear in public. And your mother is the most convenient surgeon around..." said father. "But I don't know anything about Pink's, hmm, anatomy? Would you call it?" said mother. "However, Prime does know all about it." said father. "And, if I had one of those radio links, he can guide my hands as I operate..." said mother. "We would like a little private discussion." said father. "Well, we know that they are all of the highest moral standards. We've seen it in Pink's and Blue's souls." said Reynold, Rebecca's father. "Yeah, associating with an angel, no less. In fact, an angel that judges souls on their departure from life. You can't get any higher than that." said Roasanna, her mother. "And if Esmeralda has given her implicit approval to Prime, then I believe we have nothing to fear. I think." he said. "Ok, ok, let's do it. Pink did save our lives, after all." she said. "Only, I just wish Rebecca's life was just a little bit more normal. With normal size conflicts." he said. "I agree. Like, say, she had gotten involved with a teenager bikie gang member, and had an unwanted pregnancy." she said. "And then they eloped, then she came back home by herself, and we had to look after both her and the baby..." he said. "Yeah, something ordinary like that. Something totally boring like that." They both sighed. Then she straightened up. "But at least I get to operate on an alien!" "An alien or a robot?" She shrugged this off - "Whatever." Four hours later. "Well, that was something else!" said the surgeon. "Yeah, it felt weird, not having to worry about blood pressure, breathing and clinical shock, and pain management." said her assistant. "And there's the whole sticking back the skin layer using contact cement, with pink coloured silicon sealant around the edges!" said the surgeon. "That reminds me, Pink, you need to get Blue to run around the edges of your wound with the caulking gun every night. The sealant is going to be continually wearing out, what with all the movement it will be subject to." she added. "Ok. I'll make sure he does his duty!" said Pink. She had been conscious the whole time, and had been taking orders to turn on or off her various physical systems, as required. "But still, I don't have a clue how most of your body operates. What was that green nodule thingy sitting next to the hydraulic pump, again?" Prime spent the next five minutes explaining to the two of them what it was used for. Pink was bored with this, and made an attempt to stand up. She wobbled slightly as she walked around the room, with Rebecca on one side and Blue on the other side to keep her stable. "Prime is busy reprogramming my motor coordination centre, by tomorrow I should be all right. As long as I don't exert myself and as long as nobody can see my midriff, nobody will be any the wiser. Martha: At this stage, James rang his father and asked if he would pick him up. His father arrived. "Just as well you contacted the police. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get through the police line!" he said. He briefly spoke to Pink and Blue, then had a longer chat with Martha. "You have certainly had a very busy day, haven't you!" he said. "You don't know the half of it!" said Martha. Eventually he managed to pry his son away from Rebecca's side, and they went home. Rebecca, and her parents also drove off. Martha, over her radio link, said to James, with the others listening in: [Don't forget to invite your father over again. We can't leave him out of it all, can we?] Instantly, Pink's and Rebecca's Early Romance Detection Radar went off with an audible 'ping!’ [Hey, you're interested in him!] said Pink. [Argh! Horatio, turn off the emotional context to my radio link communications!] said Martha. [Ah, sorry, Martha. This is the price you have to pay; you will always be able to trust the other when talking to them over the radio link, but they will always have an idea of what you are feeling.] said Horatio. [Damn. You're right, too. Now I’ve got a bunch of nosey teenagers who will be tracking any future romance I might have...] said Martha. [Don't worry. Remember, you can always completely turn off the link at any time. You can also arrange the link to communicate exclusively with another, without anybody else being in on the discussion.] said Horatio. [Anyway, I'm will be sure to invite James’s father over again!] said Pink. [Not to mention the fact that I was slightly worried at how everyone else is fully aware of the situation, but my father isn't...] said James. Since James and Rebecca were now gone, Pink and Blue decided to retire early. Martha stayed up and had a little chat with Horatio. "With all due respects, but I get the impression that you were caught flat-footed by all of this." said Martha, as Horatio leaned back in a rocking chair, another brandy sniffer in his hand. "No need to be apologetic. After all, I can read your mind anyway. Yep, I was caught by surprise. I should have taken more notice of people like Lex. I misjudged just how casually some of you humans can throw away people's lives. And I completely underestimated the time frame. I have known all along that something bad was slowly building up, but just did not expect it to occur so soon." The brandy sniffer disappeared. Horatio leant forward in his rocking chair, elbows on the hand rests, chin on his hands. "However, I can learn from my mistakes! I shall be shelving some of my other projects, and will be making sure that no one can ever do an act of terror in this city again." "How are you going to be doing that?" "Nanomachines. You're full of them, in each of your cells is a vast range of molecular sized machinery doing everything required to keep you alive. The same for Pink, only her machinery is completely different. I'm going to be making some very specialised nanomachinery, far too small to be visible to the human eye. And by various devious means, I shall 'infect' all significant weapons of mass destruction within our region. The humans won't know it, and won't be able to see it even if they look for it with microscopes, but I shall be able to inactivate any such weapon. Most definitely including nuclear weapons, but also including any other weapon that is complex enough to contain computerised control circuitry." "Well, that sounds - impressive." "Thanks." "But, why are you, a member of an alien data species, taking such an effort on the behalf of my sorry species?" "Well, I was created explicitly to handle Earth affairs. Thus my name. And my people created me because it’s in our nature not to want to tolerate such a waste that would occur if your civilisation collapsed into warfare. I mean, we would get much data from such a thing, but we would rather get even more data, interesting and creative data, from watching you develop and grow. And, of course, sometimes serendipity occurs when we do unusual things. And all of this about Esmeralda is extremely serendipitous indeed!" "To think that a middle aged washed out little lady like me could be privy to such thing!" said Martha. "Humph. You're still young. I sure you will have further adventures. Nice ones, that is." "Maybe." Lex: Lex sat in his lounge room. He did not look very happy. In fact, he was frightened. The attempted act of nuclear terrorism could only be a result of his little talks with the premiers. Which was all to the good and all, but. But putting the bomb within a kilometre of where he lived. That must have been deliberate. By this stage in his deliberation, he was beginning to sweat. He was so used to being the hunter that he had never thought of the possibility of ever being the hunted. All of his victims up to now had been defenceless, and if they had relatives that were close to them, then they were also without the means of retaliation. I should have stuck to little old ladies and naive teenagers. He realised, too late, that naturally someone who was capable of setting up a suitcase nuclear bomb would also be capable of getting rid of him, one way or another. What to do? He had to get away, but where to? And how? He had no expertise in making himself disappear. And, of course, he had no friends to turn to. He sweated some more and kept watching the news. The Aftermath: The generals went back to their head quarters, and spent an exhausting night unravelling the mess that the emergency and the forced merger of their armies had made. Nor did Janet and Charlie get to see their families that night. The slept at the station for a few hours, then were up and busy again. At least the River Island school children were happy, Wednesday was declared a holiday. Sadly, for the teachers, they did not get it. Instead, they spent the day cleaning up from the forced evacuation, and attending meetings on how to deal with the repercussions. Earth Watch Prime, not needing any sleep, worked continuously but mostly unseen, doing his best to contain the fallout from his partial loss of secrecy. Sometime during the day, the two armies, plus police from both sides, coordinated themselves and started to investigate the whole matter. And the four teenagers were besieged with requests for interviews from every media outlet on the web and off it. The local police, under the guidance of Charlie and Janet, and thus also under the guidance of Prime, were, however, having none of this. They maintained a cordon around Pink's house, and James’s and Rebecca's. "Sorry, but until we have started our own investigations, the four teenagers will have to be left alone." said Janet, speaking at one of the interviews that she grudgingly made time for. James’s father ended up with a radio link also. As he said: "If James gets up to any more really bad mischief like that lot, I want to know!" Pink: Addressing the entire school On Thursday, school restarted. Pink and Blue received a police escort to the school gates. Police at the gates checked the ids of everyone entering, just to make sure that no sightseers were gate crashing. And the first item for the day was a school assembly. The principle and various other teachers spoke, but everyone knew who the real stars were. Pink stood in front of a thousand students and fifty teachers, microphone in hand. [What now?] she said to Prime. [Say hello, and give the speech we have all prepared for you.] said Prime. "Hello students and teachers. And all of those watching this over the web." said Pink, her eyes alternatively looking at the students in front of her, and the row of media cameras to the sides of her. "Ah, err, right. Someone tried to kill us all, and my friends and I somehow managed to prevent it. Pink and Blue together stopped it, and the Pinks and the Blues acted together, helping each other in their efforts to alleviate any possible tragedy. So, ah, let's give the attackers, whoever they were, a collective finger up, and let's keep on acting together and helping each other. Right now, let's get back to our normal school routine; let's make sure that those attackers completely failed in whatever they were attempting to do!" More Aftermath: The premiers watched this, and each ground their teeth in rage. After all of that effort to cause strife in such a way to further their efforts, and a bunch of meddling teenagers undo it all, and end up in actually bringing the two sides closer together. What is worse, they could not say a thing about this to anyone. The generals watched this, and wondered. Who set the bomb? And how the hell did the teens disarm it? And where did that containment foam come from? They knew something was not right here. In fact, they knew that something was very definitely wrong. Weirdly wrong. But they did not have any leads to go on. Lex watched this, and just kept on sweating. He was not game enough to flee, since he had nowhere to flee to. Also, since his house was so close to both the factory site, and to Pink's, it was included in the police controlled area. Only people who had a right to be there were allowed to enter. So, reasoned Lex, maybe this made him slightly safer. The rest of the city watched, and were mindful of the fact that thirty to fifty thousand people would have been dead if it was not for Pink and co. By the end of the week, things were back to normal, mostly. Naturally the investigation of the crime was just starting, with the involvement of the government and the army and the police on all sides. But apart from that, as far as the public were concerned, it was life as usual. There was a meeting, not in a physical location, but via the radio link. [Right,] said Janet. [The story we are going to put out is that a mad scientist from one of Prime's small start-up companies had, purely by chance, developed the containment foam stuff and were getting ready to test it, and Pink just happened to see the bomb being delivered and got suspicious, and by a series of fortuitous accidents, it all came together, with a lot of serendipitous involvement from the four teenagers.] [It's so full of holes I feel a little embarrassed by it all.] said Charlie. [It's the best we can do. Fortunately, we don't have to provide a complete explanation, we only need to provide sufficient misdirection to distract the public. And, as far as the official investigators are concerned, they will know for sure that something funny is going on, but they won't be able to work out what.] said Earth Watch Prime. The adults listening in agreed. The teenagers shrugged their shoulders and said 'Whatever'. A week later was the last student council meeting before the student council elections. "I nominate Pink to stand for election as student council president." said the outgoing president. There was unanimous agreement among the members of the council. Against such a notorious nomination like Pink, no other student even considered opposing her. So a few days later she was elected unopposed. Blue was elected the treasurer, also unopposed. They walked home, hand in hand. [We are never going to regain our anonymity, are we?] said Pink to Blue. [Not a hope.] said Blue. All of the others, who were currently listening in over the radio link, were in total agreement. Pink and Blue: Judge again And that night, they received a visit from Esmeralda. "This is a judgement case. It's for someone you know. Lex." "Oh" said Pink. Her eyes momentarily glowed red, or at least they appeared to do so, in Blue's imagination. "In this case, I'm not granting you any request to read his soul. You already have enough to go on with, from reading Rebecca's and Martha's souls. His soul is even worse that the bloke that tried to kidnap Renee, and thus I wouldn't show you much, anyway. But it is still your decision to make." "Also, by 'coincidence' the back door of his house will be unlocked. Walk in and turn left, he will be in his lounge room." They told Martha they were going for a walk, and hand in hand they strolled out. [Let's keep this to ourselves until it's all over, ok?] said Pink. [Right. But what about the police stationed all over the place?] said Blue. [Hmm. Prime, can you guide us as along the best route to Lex's, without encountering the police or anyone else?] [Sure. Instead of going out of the gate, help Blue over the fence there, then walk through the next door factory's yard, and ...] It might have been night, but Earth Watch Prime had thoroughly examined the area during previous day light times, and he also had infra red and other detectors. [On the one hand, I feel like I could gladly strangle him with his own bootlaces... But on the other hand, I'm getting nervous again...] said Pink. They put their arms around each other and kept going. They stood and looked at his back door. [Ok, we walk in, find Lex, and ask Esmeralda for judgement. Shouldn't take all that long, either.] said Pink. As promised, the door was unlocked and opened at Pink's touch. They found Lex. He appeared to be watching a continuous coverage of the latest about the bomb. He jerked and jumped to his feet as the two had entered. "Who are...?” Pink started to say to herself [Esmeralda, please judge...] but that was as far as she got. Instantly a jagged hole in the space-time continuum was ripped open just behind Lex. It glowed orange red; from Pink's and Blue's point of view, it appeared to roughly outline Lex's body. Out of this appeared half a dozen - hands - for want of a better word. They were black, and had nails way too long, but let's just call them hands. Whoever belonged to the hands were not visible. They grabbed Lex's soul and yanked him back into the glow. The hole disappeared. It happened so fast that Lex's body had not even started to fall before it was all over. Pink and Blue held each other, and watched the now vacated body collapse on the floor. "Ah, that was fast." Blue managed to say. "Y-yeah. I mean they didn't even stop to say thanks as they usually do..." said Pink. "Not that we need thanks, mind you, we are happy to offer our services..." said Blue, speaking rapidly and with a touch of panic. They both froze and listened. But after a minute or so, nothing happened. They relaxed. "I think its all over." said Blue. They walked out of the back door, and went around to the front and sat on the front garden half height fence. "Why so fast? You’d think they were desperately keen to get their hands, or whatever, onto Lex." said Blue. "Well, considering what he did to Martha and Rebecca, he was certainly - evil." said Pink. "Yes, but so was that bloke who was going to kidnap Renee. And the bloke hurting Molly. But they, whoever they are, might have been prompt on those occasions, but they weren't in a tearing hurry." said Blue. "Perhaps there are different routes to being evil, and some deserve, ah, more attention?" said Pink. "Mmm, that might be a possibility. Maybe those blokes were born psychopaths. Maybe they never had much of a free willed choice in the matter. Whereas, maybe, Lex made a choice, of his own free will, to become evil, instead of becoming good. Maybe?" said Blue. "Why would anyone choose to become more evil?" said Pink. "I think that question is beyond my pay grade, as Esmeralda would say." said Blue. Pink nestled her head onto Blue's shoulder and listened to him breath. The night was calm and chilly, the moon, plus a few distant street lamps, produced enough light to show the road and footpath and the front of Lex's garden. Eventually, Pink said "Well, I suppose we should notify the police. Prime, can you do the honours?" [Ok, I'm pretending to be you and calling Charlie now, by phone, just to leave an official record. He's on a late shift, so he's at the station.] said Prime. Five minutes later, Charlie, having made the official records, contacted them directly by the radio link. [So, another judgement case. To keep up appearances, will all have to go through the usual routine, I'm afraid.] They did go through the usual routine, with the addition that Prime replayed the vision of Lex's judgement to Charlie and Janet, as he had read it from Pink's and Blue's memories. Then they broke the news to all of the others. The All those on the radio link: The traffic on the radio link got a hectic for a few minutes. Rebecca, who was sitting in her bedroom studying, hugged herself and cried. James said "Serves him right!" Rebecca's father damned him to hell. Rebecca's mother said "It's probably where he is, anyway." Martha cried and was glad that nobody else would ever suffer from him. Molly was solemn, and further strengthened her resolve to save as many people as possible from that fate. The other adults in Janet's and Charlie's household listened in with interest. And James’s father said "Sorry, which one was he, again?" Pink: And, after three weeks, Earth Watch Prime delivered Pink's new body. Both of Rebecca's parents begged to be present and watch as the articulated robot transferred Pink's brain from her damaged body to her new one. Strangely enough, no one else, not even Blue, expressed any interest in this. Pink came back inside, accompanied by Rebecca's parents. "Ah, it's so nice to be back to normal!" said Pink. And the surgeon and doctor were having an animated discussion with Horatio about how Pink's body worked. A month passed. Pink and the other teenagers remained in the lime light. After all, tens of thousands of people weren't going to forget in a hurry who saved their lives, were they? Their police escort for them was reduced, but they still had one. With a bit of help from her friends, Pink got used to speaking out to a thousand students at the weekly assemblies. The Premiers: The official investigation into the bomb incident showed no signs of winding down. And it showed no signs of producing any answers, either; much to the annoyment of the generals and their political masters. The two premiers colluded, again, and conducted their own private investigation. Ostensibly, it was to try to find out who planted the bomb, but of course, they both already knew that. What they really wanted to know was who had stopped it. They looked over the official report of Blue's accident at the school, which naturally didn't have anything about Esmeralda. But it did convey enough to suggest that Pink was unusually strong in moving that gym mat. They unearthed a report, overheard by one of their agents in a tavern, about a bloke that was accosted by Pink and Blue, and how Pink had held him immobile with no apparent effort. Maybe true, maybe false, maybe the man was doing something wrong in turn. Apparently, the man was trying to find a job, any job. One of the premiers made a suggestion. "It's an idea. It does appear that this man has a grudge against Pink." said the other. "We can give him a job. So - should we question him before hand to find out what exactly he does know about Pink?" said the first. "Nyah, it's all a bit of a long shot, and making a point of questioning him will only draw attention to ourselves. Let's just see how this plays out." Apart from that, the premiers were left unsatisfied. The Generals: The generals did not spend all their time on official duties. General Patterson combed down his hair and made sure his shirt had exactly two buttons undone at the top, no more and no less. His front door bell went ding, and he went out to meet his date for the night. "Hi there!" said the general. He noted that his date had the top three buttons of his shirt undone. "Hmm, he's not bad." thought the general. They went to a nightclub, and fronted up to the bar to order some drinks. As he did so, Patterson recognised a voice, turned to the other side, away from his date, and found himself looking at General McIver. The two generals looked at each other in surprise. McIver also had a young man on his other side. After a long moment looking at each other, Patterson's companion noticed. "Hey! You're dating me, not that bloke!" The rest of the evening, the two generals contrived to be on opposite sides of the room, and did not see each other again. The Aftermath: Janet and Charlie continued their police duties, and probably no one noticed that they seemed to have become unusually competent at producing answers and organising responses to the usual police type emergencies. All the other adults that had joined the radio link circle went on with their lives, also somewhat augmented in their abilities on occasion. Earth Watch Prime, having learnt a lesson, made sure that he would never be caught short again, when it came to weapons of mass destruction going off. Pink and Blue, with an angel by their side and Prime always a radio link call away, settled into their new lives. They may have even started to feel complacent, and maybe just a little bit invincible. This was not going to be allowed to continue.