Part 30a
By Shandi

Shandi spun around in confusion, rubbing her head, as Lorie 
and Jessi ran up to her.

"What's going on?" Lorie asked.

"I have no clue!" Shandi sighed, beginning to get dizzier. 
"One minute I'm with Shannon, the next, I'm on another 
floor with you two."

"You ok?" Jessi asked, placing a hand under Shandi's arm as 
she started to fall.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." she replied, pushing away from Jessi.

"We seemed to have lost the E.V.I.L. henchmen, but we 
shouldn't just stand around, in case they come down onto 
this floor." Lorie motioned for them to start moving.

Suddenly Shandi fell to her knees with her head clenched in 
her hands. She let out a loud shriek.

"Stop it!" she cried. Lorie and Jessi ran to her side.

"Shandi whats wrong?" Jessi asked, not sure of what to do.

"The voices! They won't stop!" she groaned and pushed her 
hands against her head.

"What voices?" Lorie asked, looking at Jessi. Jessi 
shrugged, and continued stroking Shandi's hair.

"There they are!" yelled one of the henchmen.

"Oh no!" Lorie cried. "Quick grab her and run!"

Lorie and Jessi each swung one of Shandi's arms over their 
shoulders and ran as fast as they could. Lorie peered back 
at the three men following them, saw they were gaining, and 
picked up speed.

As they were running, they started to feel the hotel shake. 
They tried keeping their balance but toppled over, all 
three girls going in different directions. The three 
henchmen also lost their footing and fell over.

"What's going on now!?" Jessi yelled, lying against the 
floor.

"It feels like an earthquake!" Lorie exclaimed. She crawled 
across the floor to Shandi, then laid her body on top of 
hers to protect her. Shandi groaned, half-conscious.

After a few minutes the rumbling started to dwindle and 
Lorie grabbed Shandi up again.

"C'mon quick!" she yelled to Jessi who jumped up and ran 
with Lorie.

The henchmen got up and followed the girls again. One of 
them pulled out an object and threw in towards Lorie's 
feet. The object swung around then wrapped around her legs, 
causing her and Shandi to drop to the ground. Jessi spun 
around and ran back to Lorie, trying hard to pull the 
object off her legs.

The men ran up to the girls, each grabbing one. Jessi 
struggled but couldn't free herself from his grips, and she 
wasn't about to leave her two friends. The man tied Jessi's 
hands together and pulled her at his side, the other two 
tossed Shandi and Lorie over their shoulders.

"You'll never hurt KISS!" Lorie exclaimed, "E.V.I.L. will 
burn in hell!"

The men just chuckled.
***************************************************

Ace shook his head after the earthquake started to die 
down. He had no clue what was going on. First his laptop 
totally flipped out, the power went out, and now there was 
an earthquake. What else could happen?

He decided to go to Paul's room and see if he knew what was 
up. Maybe Val was with Paul, she'd probably know why this 
was all happening. He got up off his bed, slipped on his 
sneakers, and left his room.

As he walked down the hallway, he suddenly felt horrible 
pain in his head. He dropped to one knee. His mind went out 
of control and he pictured a fight, three women, three 
henchmen. He felt pain in his heart as well as his mind, 
but he didn't know why, sadness washed over him, then the 
visions and pain stopped.  His mind went back to normal. He 
stood up and ran to Paul's room.  He burst through the door 
to find Paul and Eric Carr talking.

"Hey, whats up with the hotel power? It's like the whole 
circuit has blown..."
********************************************************

Shandi woke up and felt herself being carried. She opened 
her eyes, trying to straighten out the blurred vision. She 
felt groggy and had a slight headache. She carefully looked 
around to see her and Lorie being carried, and Jessi being 
pulled along, down one of the stairways.

She lifted her head to see if she could figure a way to get 
away from them. They had come to the end of the stairwell, 
and seemed to be coming out to the parking garage for the 
hotel.

"Watch out for people, if they see us carrying these girls, 
they'll know something's up." The man carrying Lorie warned 
the other men.

The man holding Jessi, stuck his head out the door and 
peered around.  Suddenly Lorie swung her feet up, kicking 
the man in the head. He fell to the ground, releasing 
Jessi. Shandi struggled and freed herself from the man 
holding her. She punched him across the face and ran.  She 
ran in between cars as he followed cursing and yelling.

Jessi pushed her foot on the one mans throat as she freed 
herself from the ropes around her wrists. The man holding 
Lorie looked around in shock for a moment, then continued 
through the garage with Lorie on his shoulder.

//That's it, I'll just shoot her.// Shandi suddenly turned 
to see the man following her, pull out a gun.

"How did I hear that...?" she shook her head. Then realized 
she was gonna get shot if she didn't think of something 
quick.

//I just have to get her to stay still!// The man thought.

Shandi heard him...then dove to the side, rolling under a 
couple of cars, and then regaining her feet again. The man 
spun around in confusion, then ran the way he had just 
come.

Shandi ducked under a couple of cars again, and took a 
second to laugh at how frustrated he was getting. She 
popped up giggling, then gasped when she found herself 
standing right in front of him.

"So, you think your cute, don't ya?" the man asked, gun 
pointed at Shandi.

She backed up against a car, finding herself cornered, she 
started to pray. 

The man walked up to her, placing the gun at her throat. He 
ran his one free hand across her cheek. Kissing her 
roughly, he moved the hand up between her legs. She started 
crying.

"Don't cry little girl, this'll be our little secret." He 
chuckled.

Tears started to stream down Shandi's face, as she heard 
what he was thinking of doing to her. Her anger built.  She 
wanted to make a run for it, but she couldn't let herself 
get shot. One more thought of what he was about to do to 
her pushed her over the edge and she thrust her knee into 
his groin, causing his feet to lift off the ground. He 
grunted and grabbed himself, falling to the ground. Shandi 
ran.

Jessi had tied the one man up and handcuffed him to the 
stair way railing. She went looking for the man that had 
taken Lorie and saw Shandi running toward her.

"Shandi!" she yelled. The two girls embraced for a moment. 
Jessi saw her tear stained cheeks. "You ok?"

"Yeah" Shandi smiled. "We won't have any trouble with that 
guy anymore."

"Good, let's find Lorie."
**********************************************

Ace had just left Val and Eric to go find Shandi. He 
remembered the young girl from the NY Steel concert in NYC, 
last November. They had a wonderful night together, but 
ever since he had been with her, he hadn't been the same. 
He'd been hearing people's thought's, seeing things 
happening through other peoples eyes. He thought it was 
kinda cool, but still wasn't sure how he adapted the 
abilities.

He got a vision of the slimy henchman groping Shandi, and 
felt her anger and weakness. "Shandi's in trouble!" he said 
out loud, as he started running.

"She's downstairs..." He said running toward the stairs.

How had he known she was in trouble? How had he known where 
to find her? He felt like he was linked to her. Could that 
one night of passion have Linked the two together? He 
wasn't sure, but he knew he had to get to her as fast as he 
could.
***********************************************

Shandi grabbed Jessi's hand as they ran to find where that 
guy had taken Lorie. Suddenly headlights came on, pointing 
directly at the two girls. The girls came to a dead stop.

"Lorie's in that car!" Shandi said, concentrating.

"How do you know...?" Jessi started to ask when they heard 
the engine rev.

The car was coming straight forward at a high speed. Shandi 
and Jessi both froze in shock. They gripped each other's 
hand tightly as the car sped forward.

Ace ran out of the stairwell door to see the car speeding 
right for Shandi and Jessi.

Shandi hid her face with her free hand and closed her eyes, 
waiting for the pain, but it never came. She heard the car 
brakes squeal and take off in the distance. She slowly 
opened her eyes and looked around. She was fine...standing 
in the same place she was before, Jessi still holding her 
hand.

"How did the car miss us?" Shandi whispered to Jessi.

Jessi just stared at Shandi in shock. Ace came running 
over, with a huge smile on his face.

"How'd you do that?" he asked.

Shandi looked down at Ace, then realized, her and Jessi 
were levitating. She gasped and both girls fell to the 
ground.

"Ouch!" Ace cringed.

Shandi and Jessi shook their heads. Ace helped both girls 
up.

"You two alright?" Ace asked looking them over.

"I guess so...just a little shaken up." Jessi sighed, 
brushing herself off.

"Oh shit!" Shandi groaned. "He got away with Lorie! I can't 
believe I let him take her."  Tears streamed down her face.

Ace hugged her. "It's ok, doll. It wasn't your fault, you 
did the best you could."

"I tried..." she sighed sadly.

"Now Lorie, Lady M, and Holly are captured." Jessi 
reminded. "We have to make sure the rest of us are on 
guard."

"You're right." Ace said, "I'll have to let the guys know 
that another Girltalk member has been captured. We'll all 
watch out for you girls as best as we can."

"Thank you for being so kind." Shandi gave a weak smile. 
She thought back to that night with Ace and wondered if he 
remembered her, or if he just thought she was another 
Girltalk member in trouble. Ace heard her thoughts.

"I remember you Shandi." he smiled.

Her jaw dropped. //You can hear my thoughts?//

He chuckled. //As good as you hear mine, as well as 
others.//

"Why are you two staring at each other like that?" Jessi 
asked.

They both laughed.

"I can read minds, Jes!" Shandi exclaimed. "Ace and I were 
just talking telepathically."

"Really?...Then what am I thinking?" Jessi asked, 
concentrating.

Shandi grinned. "What a nasty girl you are, if Peter heard 
that, he'd jump your bones in a second!"

"Holy shit!" Jessi exclaimed.

Ace and Shandi laughed again.

"So, what do you say, we go upstairs and tell the others 
what happened?" Ace asked putting his arm around Shandi and 
heading for the door.

"Sounds good to me!" Jessi said, already heading up the 
stairs.

"Stay close, Jess..." Shandi smiled.

Ace looked down at her. //You didn't think I'd remember 
you?//

She bit her lip. //Well...I figured I was, just like the 
others.//

//You're special, I don't know how to explain it, but I've 
never been the same since that night.//

//What do you mean?//

//I've been hearing people's thoughts, seeing through other 
peoples eyes. I can feel what you're feeling, unless I 
block it.//

//Someone said something about us Girltalk members having 
powers...mine are Telepathy and Mind Link, I'm guessing. 
Maybe I passed them to you some how?//

//Val was talking about Links, maybe you and I were 
Linked.// Ace shrugged his shoulders guessing.

//What's a Link?// Shandi asked.

//Val said it could be done through a ceremony, or sex. It 
allows you to communicate with that person through 
telepathy, and you can feel what they feel. But you have 
the ability to block their feelings or thoughts.// Ace 
explained. //Pretty cool, huh?//

//Yeah it is...// Shandi smiled. //But whats up with me and 
Jessi floating?//

//Maybe you have telekinesis too?//

//Wow, this stuff's pretty cool!// Shandi exclaimed.

Ace flinched. //You don't gotta yell.//

Shandi giggled.

They finally made there way up to the floor Shandi and 
Jessi's rooms were on.

"So, what do you wanna do now Jess?" Shandi asked.

"Well, what are you doing?"

"I was planning on taking a shower and maybe laying down 
for a little while, my head still hurts."

"Ok, what are you doing Ace?"

"I'm gonna head up to Paul's room and tell Val and everyone 
about Lorie, and what is going on. You're welcome to come 
with me if you want."

"Ok, I'll do that." Jess replied.

They walked Shandi to her room. Ace walked in to check and 
make sure nothing was waiting to pounce on her.

"Looks clear." Ace smiled. He pulled Shandi into a hug. "If 
you need me, just give me a hollar." He cackled pointing to 
his head.

She laughed, hugging Jessi. "You two get to Paul's room 
safe."

They walked out and Shandi made sure the locks were tight 
on the door and the balcony.