Mystic Mindset: The Tallests' A.I.D., Chapter 7

    A black-haired human girl hurried up the sidewalk of Pleecy ‘Nekri’’s ‘home,’ paying almost no attention to the woodland creature statues sitting in the front yard that turned on the spot to watch her.  The invader of the house had sent a message asking the girl to come over, sounding more aggressive and, well, irked than usual.  So after finishing repairs on a customer’s truck in her father’s shop, Ley had grabbed one or two things she suspected may be of need later, checked in on Heral, told her adoptive parents Pleecy wanted to see her (despite it being some ungodly hour of the early morning), and hustled off.  
    Ley paused a moment at the doorstep, catching her breath a little before knocking.  As is often how it goes, the door opened on its own.  “Welcome back, Pacifist Ley,” the computerized voice greeted monotonously.  “Mistress Pleecy is waiting for you in the docking bay.”  A bit of flooring a few feet from the doorway retracted away and was replaced from below by a metallic circle.  Obviously an elevator to Pleecy, Ley figured, and went inside the house to stand on it.
    The docking bay Pleecy used was nothing stupid like an attic.  Instead, she and Tactics Commander Diz had made a large multipurpose one halfway between their bases, intending to use it until their standard Invader Checkpoint had been established.  Its wide maw opened up to the side of a mountain just outside the city.  It was just one of a handful of ways that the two Irkens had connected their bases over the past year since Dib’s accident.  When Ley arrived, Pleecy appeared to be checking over the innards of her cruiser, which rested near one wall—standard mechanical double-checking, Ley easily recognized.  Was she going on a trip somewhere off-planet?
    “Hello, Pleecy,” Ley greeted the inspecting Blue Irken as she stepped over, keeping a few feet between herself and the ship in case.  Pleecy only grunted greeting in response, not looking up from where she was bent over into oodles of cruiser inner workings.  Ley could tell easily her former pupil had something harsh on her mind.
    Pleecy pulled out and straightened up to turn to Ley a moment or two later.  “Hi, Ley,” she greeted with a small smile, tone sounding a teeny bit apologetic and more than a teeny bit irked.  “Glad you came.”
    “Where are you off to?”  the girl asked before Pleecy could go on, folding her arms evenly.  
    Pleecy gave a small sigh—strange behavior indeed, Ley observed, for an Invader.  A slight guessing that had been in her mind for quite some time now flared up, but she tucked it back away, deciding it was something to ponder later.  “Did you pick up that ship that crashed a rotation or two ago?” the Mystic asked.
    Ley blinked in mild surprise, a crashed ship?  “I don’t suppose I did.  My labs may have detected it and not told me.”  She’d have to check that out immediately when she got home—forget pondering.  Her equipment was supposed to alert her to all objects with an Irken signature that entered the planet’s atmosphere.
    Pleecy nodded thoughtfully.  “Well a few days ago, Dib brought me an unconscious Irken.  It was the Tallests’ current A.I.D.”
    Ley gaped slightly at this, a little wide-eyed.  The A.I.D. in a crashed ship on a backwater planet?  Something already smelled fishy.  Irkens were (…generally…) excellent pilots, and the A.I.D. was rarely allowed off the Massive.  “It must have been some crash for her to have fallen unconscious,” she commented.  Unless Dib had knocked her out himself, that is.  Which, despite the boy’s obsession with Zim’s race, she couldn’t very well see the human boy doing.  Very well, at least.  But it took a lot to knock an Irken unconscious.  “Is she all right?”
    Pleecy nodded gruffly.  “Bibla helped me treat whatever wounds she had before leaving.  When she woke up she told us what happened.”
    “What happened?” Ley asked curiously.
    There was a beat, and then Pleecy’s expression suddenly cracked into her deadly scowl.  Her hands clenched, and one scythelike antenna twitched irately.  “They’d fired her!  Stupidly, might I add!  All but sentenced her to death.  And they never even got her proper training.  An electricity Mystic!”
    Ley looked like shed been whacked with a board.  “What?”
    “Exactly!  Dib said a bunch of lightning bolts had been hitting the same place over and over, and then when he brought her in one struck my base.  Apparently some plan or another got screwed up randomly, and they blamed her solely for it on the advisor’s word.”
    Ley blinked and shook her head a little, forcing herself to unattach from the fact that a Mystic had received no formal training or guidance.  “But isn’t it war time for you?  Why would they take an advisor’s word over an A.I.D.’s?”
    “I asked myself that, Ley.  I asked myself that.  That’s why I’m paying them a quick visit to see this straightened out one way or another.  Hold it, don’t comment disapprovingly just yet.  I wanted to ask if you could watch her while I’m gone.  It shouldn’t be long (hopefully…).  And, maybe, get her a bit of training?  You know, there is a full moon coming…”
    Ley paled at that.  She nodded.  “Is she fine here full-time, or would you like me to take her in, or--?”
    “Yes, she’ll be fine.  The base can tend her.  And, another thing, Ley…”  Ley frowned at the Blue Irken’s tone.  Was that…hesitance?  Worry?  “They called Diz asking her to assassinate her.”  Ley gaped a bit again, and then her expression took on some of the old dangerous air that she’d left behind ages ago.  A frown or scowl that hinted that it could look way more deadly.  “So watch out, ‘kay?  They might find someone else who’ll do the job while I’m gone.  Course, that’s no problem for you and Diz to face, eh~?”
    Ley grinned wryly a little.  “Pleecy, I’m a Pacifist for a reason…”
    “Doesn’t mean you can’t play defense!” Pleecy laughed, and darted over to the driver’s seat, scooping up the holo-clipboard there (which is almost another way to say an Irken iPad).  “So you’ll watch her for me?”  It was a bit more of a statement than a confirming question.
    Ley laughed lightly and rolled her eyes.  “Sure, Pleecy.  She’ll need someone to watch her during the full moon, at least.”  Full moons were notoriously bad for a Mystic.  Without proper training they go mad--sometimes even with training they could go mad.  Even after a whole life of training and meditating to hone and rein in her abilities Pleecy still got headaches from them and locked herself in her room to meditate against the full moon all night.  Once or twice she’d even had her base restrain her.  An electricity Mystic under a full moon could prove horrendous for any developed planet, let alone without training in her abilities and some sort of restraint.
    “Thanks, Ley!  Her name’s Estát.  I believe she’s still with Dib somewhere.  Popping in once or twice a day oughta be enough.”
    Ley shook her head, looking somewhat determined.  “No.  If she is to receive any training, I’ll need to spend full afternoons with her.”  
   “Whatever, as long as you guest-sit her for me.”
    Pleecy waved dismissively as she turned back to her ship, her classic signal that she had nothing else to catch her mentor/old friend up on.  Ley rolled her eyes a bit again and patted the Irken on the shoulder as she went back over to the lift.  She supposed she could look in on and meet this other Mystic before she left.  She’d have to arrange some curriculum when she got home, too.  Wouldn’t be the first time.  And maybe moving Heral to Pleecy’s would be handy, if not for company than for more security.  If the former-A.I.D. was about to be hunted, a poisonous, winged, giant serpent approaching puberty from one of the most infamous planets in the Irken Empire’s range couldn’t hurt to build on personal or base security.  Can’t have too much when faced with a grown, untrained Mystic.  Ley could remember when Pleecy was born—the first time the Blue Irken had gone haywire…yes, can’t be too careful with her technical sister.
    To-do list written.