~~~
She leaned back in the booth, stretching languidly with a large yawn. Tucking her hands behind her head and beneath her bun of hair, she sighed contentedly. "Pizza is mankind's greatest invention," she commented.
Jery gave her a glowering look. "So you're all right now?" he said doubtfully, waving a crust at her. "You won't just drop dead on us in the middle of the night or anything?"
Roger growled in exasperation. "Jery, would you stop asking her that? She's already answered you a couple hundred times!"
"I'm just making sure," his brother said defensively.
Blue grinned, reaching over to ruffle his bleached hair. "Of course! You're worried about me, I understand that. But from what I can tell, you've given up on your previous affections."
Roger snorted into his beer. "I'm telling you, Jery, she's psychic now. She can re-eead your mi-iind..."
Jery dumped the last of his beer in Roger's lap as a reply. Roger yelped, grabbing napkins as Jery sighed heavily. "Yeah, I guess you could say I did. I mean, what with you being all immortal now, romance probably wouldn't be a good course for you. Unless it's with one of the other immortal-y people."
"You mean like Leon?" she said, immediately seeing what he was getting at. She took a crust from his plate and began chewing on it. "Naw, he disappeared. Went off into the sunset or something. You know he's the hermit type and I don't think we'd be very good at romance anyway. Besides, he was never in love with me like you were, Jery. He loved the old one."
"Yeah, so I heard," he said, nodding. He passed the glowering Roger some more napkins with a smirk. "So where to next?"
She smiled, swallowing the last of the crust. "I was thinking of joining the Martian Government," she said lightly.
Roger's head snapped up, eyes wide, as Jery choked on his drink. "What?! But they want you dead!"
"Not anymore." She smirked. "Ever since I outsmarted that Gega-class whale, I've been hearing they'll take the bounty off my head if I work for them."
"What, in the military?" Jery asked skeptically.
She frowned. "No. . . I've had enough military crap to last me a couple dozen lifetimes. And I'm tired of just pointing and shooting. I was thinking of hopping into their police department."
"That's pretty basic stuff for a hotshot like you," Roger pointed out. "Not much of a challenge."
Blue shook her head, playing with her fork. "The bounty hunters and local criminals get out of hand sometimes, and lately there's been hints that the crime around Mars, especially in the Equator and Outskirts, is becoming organized. Syndicate stuff. If it went around that they had me cracking down on crime syndicates, I think the crime would drop faster than a rock in double-Gs."
"No shit. You only single-handedly started a war," Jery said dryly. "They still haven't totally cleared that up. But still, it sounds rather dull, just being a normal policeman."
She smiled, her eyes devious. "Oh, I don't plan on that either. I'm planning on recreating the police system on this planet and off it. You know they've found out how to do mass-transit star travel, right? The first colonization projects of star systems outside of our own begin in just a few years, and you can imagine all the crime that will come with the human race spread out over such a wide area."
Roger groaned. "Oh god, you're not planning on making some galactic space-cop org or anything, are you? Please tell me you're not."
"Exactly," she said in a satisfied tone. "And I'll start with Mars!" Her look was triumphant.
Jery gave her a scrutinizing glare. "Why do I feel like someday I'll wish I never went along with this?"
"Perhaps it's because every time she drags us into one of her schemes, we end up with the shit jobs?" Roger suggested.
"Ah yes, that's it."
Blue glowered at them. "Someone has to do it, so why not me? I'm tired of sitting back and watching history make itself. And if I'm going to be the one living through the future that the idiots of humanity's leaders create, I want to make damn sure that it turns out well. Unlike Leon, I don't believe in ignoring the world."
"Jeezus, you're so ethical and logical," Roger drawled in a disappointed tone.
"It's a significant change from the old 'just shut up and follow orders'," Jery agreed.
She shrugged, smiling. "People change, whether they're human or not. That includes me." She leaned forward across the table, her eyes intent. "So are you two in or out?" she asked. She looked from one to the other hopefully, colorless eyes bright.
The twins looked at each other, but there wasn't anything to say. "Yeah," Jery said with a lopsided grin. "We're in."

END.

Sequel: up'n'comin.