by Dani Hermit
Curtis’s gloved hand fell protectively over the object in his pocket. That was his sole objective. Get that in Colton “Mythos” Stephens’s hand. It didn’t matter that Boris was suddenly in front of him after so many years. That day when he slammed the door was a thing of memory, not a fresh hurt.
“You know I would have thought you’d be… bigger after all this time. Like a Thunder Cat.” He said to the blur he was trying to keep track of while protecting the thing in his pocket and while trying to shape Matt’s energy into its opposition. He pondered sneaking another drop of Leo’s gift. There was way too much going on in his brain. And he still was a little giddy over the whole situation.
Leo had handed him the small object and told him he had to give it to Mythos. Curtis took one look at the thing in question and asked very seriously, “So you want me to give him the wood? Do you want me to put it in his hand or am I supposed to put it where it looks like it was made to go? Because those are very, very different tasks.”
“That would put splinters in a very unpleasant place,” Leo had responded with what suspiciously looked like a blush as he looked at the piece of wood again. “Unless you want to share that fate, his hand will be enough.”
Okay well, that part wasn’t so funny. But his response had been brilliant. “You’d have to rub it off a bit more if you wanted it to work properly, boss-man.”
“Just go,” Leo had sighed in that way that said he was amused but couldn’t show it. He was supposed to have a shit-ton of dignity after all.
There had been just the hint of a movement, the twitch of a smile and Curtis couldn’t wait to go back victorious with an even better double entendre when Leo asked if he gave it to him. But back to the present. “You know like Lion-El, or something.”
Boris leapt at Curtis, claws fully extended. He had intended to deal with him and get out of here without sinking to trash talk. But it was hard not to snap back. “It’s Lion-O, you junkie. And he’s a pussy.” Boris’s claws went for Curtis’s face, just barely missing scraping his skin. He landed a few feet away, rolled, and turned back for another attack.
“Oh right, too much in my head. Can’t always keep 80’s cartoon icons straight while tripping.” He’d meant to be playful but the bitterness was hard to hold back. “And my name is Curtis, not junkie. Who would name their kid junkie?”
And why the fuck do I still care what he thinks? I’ve been called worse. Curtis forgot he couldn’t do anything with Boris’s Transformed power and set himself up to accept the next blow.
Out of the corner of his eye, Boris saw that Matt was charging up for another attack, probably using Dark Mirror’s nonstop talking to get what sound waves he could. Best thing was to keep the idiot distracted and talking. “If they’d known how you were going to turn out, yours would have definitely named you Junkie. Or dumpster fire. Or something like that.” Boris leapt again.
“Or waste of space perhaps. Train-wreck was discussed.” Curtis’s eyes were bright with more than his power. “Dead in a ditch before thirty was a bit of a mouthful and surprisingly inaccurate.” Curtis also saw Matt gearing up for an attack. He braced himself, but kept up his conversation with Boris. “But I’m glad to see you found someone to rub your belly or at least feed you scraps.”
Curtis felt destructive. He felt mean. Unlike any other person he’d ever met, Boris made him feel tiny and ugly and unnecessary. If cruelty was the only way to feel something else today, then so be it. He raised a hand and turned Thomas’s more reasonable Amplify energy into Overkill and used it to send Matt’s fire back at him tenfold.
“I wonder, Hammer, can you be burned alive?” Now in control of the flames, Curtis fed them more of the Overkill power boost.
Matt didn’t hang around to find out. He got out of the way of the flames, swearing loudly. He wasn’t getting a good boost from the talking. There was no yelling, no explosions, no loud music. And without Thomas to boost him, he was basically just an angry sparkler. Boris wasn’t having much better luck. His attempts to hit Curtis were all near misses. Matt decided that his first call was right. They needed to get the hell out of here and fast.
But, the SUV wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so they might be fucked.
Boris landed from his last attack, his ears pricking forward and his tail whipping madly. “Curtis, you mother fucker.” He turned, glaring at the other man. “You’re clean. How the fuck did you manage that?”
“Not clean, darling. Just on the best high of my life.” Curtis held up a finger. “Oh, could you hang on a second?” He pulled some cotton out of an inside pocket of his jacket, frowning as he realized that his awesome coat was singed and hanging off him in tatters. “Keep going. I can read lips.” He stuffed the cotton in his ears.
Thomas was just getting to his feet. He was still fighting for his breath to return to normal. “Damn. Anyone got the card that turns the unbeatable monster into a sheep?”
“What we need is an escape plan,” Matt snapped at him. “The SUV is fucked. Any bright ideas?”
“I don’t know how long this will last.” Colton was pulling his briefcase out of the SUV which he feared might explode at any minute. “But Mythos is quiet and I can tap into the power. I can help.”
He’d been quiet, connecting to the beliefs in the middle of nowhere town. Letting his powers loose Colton summoned the strongest beliefs he could and corn sprung out of ground all around Curtis. There wasn’t time to laugh before a few of leaves slashed Curtis open, drawing blood on his exposed arm and unprotected cheek.
“Nice,” Matt grabbed Thomas and dragged him towards the SUV and Colton. “Boris, let’s go. Where did that fucking cat get to now?” Matt grumbled, not seeing Boris anywhere. “Hey Pony, you think you can believe that the SUV works by any chance?”
“I think Thomas is too distraught.” Colton answered while readying another attack. “His belief his car is doomed is way too strong. I’m going to try to summon a maze. Stay close.”
“Does he really call you Pony? That’s cute. Cause Colton, Colt, Pony. I get it.” Curtis wiped the blood from his cheek with his arm, careful not to get it on his gloves. “But what’s not cute is you thinking you’re so powerful you can set up for another attack before I get you.” As he let fly a very precise attack of freezing cold ice from his fingers, Curtis explained the logic of his attack to no one in particular. “Loud makes fire so quiet makes ice.”
“What the fuck is he doing?” Matt asked, grabbing Colton by the waist to pull him out of the way of the ice. “That’s not how my power works.”
Matt had figured out that they were up against someone who could use powers opposite of his opponents. He thought he’d heard about a younger Villain who could do that. But stuffing his ears with cotton to block out sound shouldn’t activate ice powers. Matt could still absorb sound waves even if he couldn’t hear them. They’d done tons of experiments to figure that out when he was in the training camp.
“This fucker is out of his mind,” he said to Colton. “We need a way out. Your maze will keep him busy, but not forever.”
Curtis was becoming aware he had to separate Matt and Colton but how? He took a gamble and used the Tremor energy to knock Colton’s briefcase away and open.
It paid off as Colton went running after it. “Stop! Those papers are priceless! Help me get them.”
“King takes queen or something like that. I’m terrible at checkers.” Curtis boasted as his next attack slammed into Colton, leaving small patches of ice on his skin and clothes that were slowly growing. Colton started freaking out.
“Oh no! Oh please! Get it off me.” His movements turned jerky as he tried to slap or scratch it away. “So cold. This shouldn’t be happening.” He was no longer in the battle. Curtis’s attack had inadvertently opened old wounds. Colton shivered, not able to stand, afraid his body was freezing from the inside out, afraid the Chills were coming to claim him.
As Matt rushed to Colton’s aide, Boris leapt out of the corn, ta
ckling Curtis. They rolled through the stalks, both getting cut up as they struggled for control.
Thomas put a hand on Matt’s shoulder, sending a weak pulse of his energy. “Can you warm him up? I can get the blanket if it will help. But what the fuck? Your fire burns out, what’s with this ice? Colton, stop believing it can hurt you.”
“Pony, come on,” Matt was rubbing his hands, warmed up as much as he dared with his powers, all over Colton’s body. “I’m warming you up. You have to help me here. You’ve activated your powers and if you think you’re freezing, you will be.”
Thomas turned to see what was happening with Boris and Dark Mirror. “Maybe we can get that bastard to turn it off or something. I’m gonna see if my baby’s got enough for a surprise attack.” He ran off to see if he could start the SUV and drive it into the corn, straight at Curtis.
Colton wouldn’t respond to Matt. His eyes didn’t seem to see him even though he was looking up. In his mind, he was in a healing room and the medicine wasn’t working and Matt would never be there for that. His breath was coming out in visible puffs of air.
“God damn it, Pony. Don’t make me set you on fire,” Matt snarled at him. He did the only thing he could think of and pressed his thumb against the still-healing brand on Colton’s chest, hoping the pain would snap him out of his fugue.
Colton cried out but he still wouldn’t respond to Matt. He sort of felt a little bit of warmth around him and he tried to believe it could heal him. He hadn’t told Boris the whole truth. Yes, he’d been in for serious healing from attacks of the Chills, but what he didn’t tell him was it was becoming more resistant to the medicines and his stays were longer and more touch and go. Colton curled in on himself more. The fear was bigger than anything because he’d never been a victim of his own power.
“Ham-ham.” Colton whispered not truly believing his lover was there but still finding comfort in the connection.
Matt was getting desperate. His hands, very close to spitting flames, weren’t enough. His words, nonsense that they were, weren’t helping. He couldn’t connect to Colton. But how did he get him out of the spiral his own power had put him in? This wasn’t like when Colton overworked himself and the Mythos power was too loud or too much. Matt didn’t think that he could fuck him sane.
“Pony, come on. I’m right here.” He began to attack the chunks of ice with brutal bursts of flame. Better to singe Colton a little than to lose him to hypothermia or whatever his powers were doing to him.
It was very, very far away to Colton but he heard it. “How can you be here?” He could hardly bend his fingers towards the warmth of Matt’s words. “I don’t want you to see me like this.”
“Stop being stupid and let me warm you up. Then we can kick this guy’s ass and get the hell out of here.” Matt was relieved that Colton seemed to be responding, even if he didn’t exactly know where they were. It was a start.
“I was wondering where you went.” Fighting with Boris was a bitch. It was hard to think for too many reasons. “Thought maybe you were taking a bath.”
Curtis believed he needed a moment’s peace to prepare for an ice attack so that was out. He stopped fighting and started to re-thread Thomas’s Amplify into a new attack, one worth any stab wounds or claw marks. Curtis tried very hard to keep hold of the idea he had for molding Thomas’s energy but it was risky work.
Boris was one of the Transformed. And while he wasn’t immune to an attack from Dark Mirror, the energy didn’t always go as planned. If he didn’t get it just right, he could really hurt Boris. He could trap him in his Cat Fight form forever and Curtis wouldn’t do that. Even though he hated what Boris did to him, that was just too cruel. He pulled one of Cat Fight’s ears trying to get the attack of teeth and claws to pause long enough for him to properly focus.
“Could you maybe stop that?”
“Sorry, don’t you like it?” Boris asked as they stopped tumbling through the corn. Curtis ended up on top of him, though hardly with the advantage.
Oh Christ, here we go, Boris thought as his legs hooked around Curtis’s, effectively pinning him in place. Boris’s hips rose up, much to his horror and definitely against his wishes, to rub his uncontrollable erection against Curtis’s thigh.
“Is this better?” Boris asked before his brain could shut it down. And the entire mess was topped off by Boris licking the side of Curtis’s face.
“I’ve told you that is not the way to win a fight.” Curtis started to lecture. “I would never take advantage of you.” But Curtis was torn and frustrated with Leo holding him at arm’s length, never really touching him except during the ritual. He ran a hand through Cat Fight’s fluffy hair. “Have you learned to control it? Could it be that you really want me?”
Boris purred and nipped at Curtis’s bottom lip. “Can’t fake this.” He ground his cock against Curtis’s leg more aggressively. “C’mon. No one’s looking.”
Boris was going to have to save being mortified for later. Cat Fight’s almost insatiable libido was front and center and he had little control over how that went. But maybe once the stupid slutty cat boy got off, he’d be able to find a way to stop Dark Mirror and get away with the others. Or at least, he could be a distraction long enough for them to get away. He could always meet up with them later.
“That doesn’t mean much, Bori.” Curtis’s head was spinning. He wondered if Cat Fight set off pheromones when he was actually in battle. He wanted to kiss him so bad. “This doesn’t go any further until you kiss me, Bori. You, the man behind those crazy big eyes.”
“I’ll kiss you,” Cat Fight purred, grabbing Curtis by the hair and pulling him down. “I’ll kiss you all you want.”
One kiss, Curtis told himself. One kiss and I’ll know it was never going to happen.
He let Boris guide their lips together. This was good. This would put a nail in the coffin of the past and then he could get back to whatever was so important.
Moaning out his triumph, Cat Fight used all four limbs to hold Curtis close as he enthusiastically kissed him. Even his tail got involved, softly thwacking against Curtis’s back and ass. Boris was ready to accept the fact that he was about to be fucked in the dirt by the guy they were fighting. Hopefully Thomas wouldn’t see this, because that wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have. Actually, he hoped none of the other guys ever found out what he was doing in the suddenly sprouted cornfield with Dark Mirror.
Curtis wanted to believe it. “If you meant it, I’d stop all of this. I’d probably walk away from the boss-man and join your little club.” He fought to get to his pocket. “But maybe if I give you exactly what you expect of me, maybe we can end this.” Curtis pulled out the vial and popped it open deftly. He poured a drop or two on Cat Fight’s lips. “Maybe I can do enough to haunt your nightmares.”
Curtis slid his tongue along Cat Fight’s lips and into his mouth, sharing his intense high with him. He was feeling strange. Aggressive but not abusive. He was thinking he could be something to Boris he’d never known. The top he wanted. No, more of a dominant. Curtis just needed the high to take him to this new edge.
He didn’t realize it was the major side effect of his powers making him feel this way. A part of Matt’s energy, that he had so carefully studied, was teasing Curtis’s psyche. Just like Colton’s power had sabotaged him, Curtis was in danger of being a mirror cracked.
Cat Fight rebelled against the drug being forced into his mouth. Boris had been taken advantage of too many times by the drugs handed out to the men and women who bought time with him from the Priesthood. The little pink pills to force his change. The white ones when too much of Boris’s mind remained in Cat Fight. The green ones for the times they wanted him to forget. Spitting and gagging, Boris realized that what Curtis had dropped into his mouth wasn’t any kind of drug he’d ever run across.
“Jesus Christ, are you on super concentrated kids’ cough syrup?” Boris asked as he collected himself. “That is nasty.”
The drug seeme
d to mix with Cat Fight’s very Boris-like outburst, clearing Curtis’s mind. “What am I doing? Bori, I’m sorry. I would never hurt you.” He could do the attack now if he could just focus for a second. “Which is funny considering what you did to me. So, I’m sorry for that and especially this.”
He sent Thomas’s altered power straight into Boris with one word hoping it would shape the power correctly. “Regress.” He prayed it would work and turn Boris into a harmless kitten.
Boris howled in indignation as his body shrank and twisted until there was nothing but a super fluffy black kitten blinking at Curtis from inside the arm of Boris’s t-shirt. The little thing hissed, baring teeny tiny teeth and took a swipe at Curtis, but his little legs just couldn’t reach.
“That’s better.” Curtis scooped him up and scratched his ears. “Now no one will make you do anything you don’t want to and you won’t claw my face off, Bori.” He set the kitten in the pocket with his vial and patted it. “But stay in here. It’s not safe for you right now.”
CHAPTER SIX
Thomas had pulled himself into the driver’s seat. His plan, having seen what little use any of their powers were against Dark Mirror’s abilities, was to send his amplify energy into the SUV and drive it full speed at Curtis. He knew he was overcharging the remaining working parts. There was a good chance it would explode on impact. Thankfully, other than Dark Mirror, there wasn’t much to hit out here. Maybe a random tree or deer. But that’s why Thomas was planning to drive it until the last possible second and jump out.
He put the SUV into gear, apologizing, “You’re saving us all, baby.” Sending as much of his power as he had ever summoned in one blow and more than he knew he had, he brought the car roaring to life. Even the radio started blaring. “Bet you’re not ready for this, fucker.”
Tiny kitten Boris heard the distant noise with his sharp ears before Curtis seemed to notice. Poking his head out of Curtis’s pocket, he looked around for the source of it. It sounded like a rock concert was coming at them at 45 miles per hour. Plenty of noise for Matt, which was a good thing. But Boris didn’t think this was such a good thing for him. The only sound he could make now was a pitiful little mew, and that did not express the level of rage he felt. Nor the level of concern that was growing.