by Prax Venter
There was no way he could do this…
His head snapped to the Blazar Princess backing against the barrier by his side and then the Awysai Chieftain standing ready to face what appeared to be highly mobile green and red plants. Now that they were crawling into the harsh fluorescent lighting he saw that they were simple vine-like creatures with metal blade leaves and battery-pack roots.
Amina extruded her new thicker leg and tail armor to face this angry vegetation worming down the hallway and realization set in that he could do this if he weren’t trying to do it alone.
“Amina! Get over here,” he yelled, then turned to Verrelle. “Help me. Use your energy to sneak under. Then grow it.”
“I- I think I understand,” the legless salamander stammered as she deftly wrapped most of her energy around his, and the redistribution of force caused her torso to sink closer toward the floor.
Amina knelt on his other side and intuited the plan immediately when she saw their combined power.
Mark’s intention was that they’d create their own separate pistons to distribute the weight, but when he felt the warm intimacy of their combined Salivis energy press together… something new stirred in his inhuman pleasure center.
The malleable solid light that the Goddess of Oral Sex allowed all three of them to exude began to merge. The normal ethereal glow her energy gave off began to swell in brilliance as the sexual core of these other virtual beings began to overlap his. It was more than that- more specific. It was the sexual desire to make someone else cum. That selfless erotic greed saturated all their minds as it linked new uninhibited aspects of intimacy between them.
Both Amina and Verrelle were very giving, and Mark was no Scrooge either. The combined pool of power flowing out of their bodies coalesced into a single, blinding white pillar of energy and, together, all three of them willed tons of metal back up the channel it rested within.
“I will hold it,” Angel said next to his ear.
He waited until her black gauntlets grabbed the weight and her elbow braced against her knee before he dropped his energy and spun to see Sasha, Jezebel, and Abby were doing what they did best. Kicking monster ass.
Now that he was paying attention, he felt the flutters of essence enter his balls with every cybernetically enhanced plant they mulched under hoof, paw, and spell. Even Learis helped take out a few with precise wooden arrows. They were working as a perfectly honed team, but the mostly mindless creatures were still writhing toward them in growing numbers. Was this another hivemind- involving cyborg vegetation? Something bigger was out there, controlling these things, but its dark and primal roots gave him the impression it would be best left alone.
Mark turned and pointed under the gap. “Verrelle, Learis, Amina. Go, now.”
The three women ducked through as his Enthralled backed toward him. And as soon as the three not technically bound to his heart were far enough down the hall beyond the bulkhead, Mark triggered his Lover-Class Shield ability.
His ass-kicking team pulled back past the thin, magic membrane as slashing metal leaves cracked against his shield, then they too dashed under the bulkhead.
Mark was the last to go before putting his hand on Angel’s glossy shoulder. The bare-assed bot bent backward in a way clearly not meant for anyone with actual bones as she let the weighty emergency door slam to the floor behind her.
“We are running from more fights these days,” Sasha said with a crack of her tail.
“Yeah,” Mark said as he slapped her ass, “but maybe less shit will come looking for revenge.” He then pointed at the two salamander women and the Lagomorph standing down the hall and beyond the reach of his magic sphere. “You three- quickly, please come back and try to touch this.”
They looked to one another before moving forward and reaching out their fingers in unison.
And all three of his non-Enthralled team members passed right through.
Amina had been the first innocent bystander to get tossed by his protective barrier, and now it was as if it didn’t exist for her.
“I thought as much,” Mark said with a deep sigh. “My ability has upgraded on its own to only affect enemies. It sucks that I can’t see this shit sometimes...”
“I will be conscious of your ability’s safety,” Amina said.
“Have you picked a subclass yet?” Learis asked the Chieftain, pulling away from Mark’s barrier.
Amina shook her head.
The magic sphere began to show spiral fractures from the relatively weak plant creatures still on the other side, so Mark nodded up the hall. “Let’s keep moving,” he said. “Who knows if those things know how to get around this door.”
They’d taken three steps before Mark felt a flash of pent-up aggression flash outward from Sasha. He turned to see her flipping off what appeared to be the lens of a camera embedded in one of the technology-infused walls.
“Hold up,” he said, stopping to face it. “If this data reaches the Centaur Technocracy, I want to go on record and say we did not intend to kill anyone. The true ambushers started the fight with the escort and the explosion happened in the chaos of battle with- what, four collectors and all their superpowered Enthralled? What did you expect would happen? Anyway, we didn’t steal your orb either. We are not that powerful. It moved back to where it was created on its own.”
Mark refocused into the lens, trying to project the truth of his words as much as he could using the chaotic yet responsive currents of his virtual reality.
“When this is all over, I will try to facilitate a meeting between your race and the people who created the Orb of Legend. But until Maliah is stopped, she needs to be the priority of every sentient mind that can understand these words.”
With a sad smile, Mark turned away from what he’d hoped was a live recording device to see seven unique monster women all staring at him, some with their mouths hanging open. It only took a moment to read the thoughts of his Enthralled to know he’d been emitting waves of energy from his mouth as he’d been speaking.
“New power?” he said with a shrug as he began jogging into this new section of the facility and away from whatever trap that had been laid for them.
“Incorrect,” Angel said as she hovered sideways beside Abby. “You used this ability when the llama harem attacked.”
“Let’s not talk about powers right now,” Jezebel said with a quick glance back at the camera, and Mark had to agree with her.
The hooves of his Enthralled hammered against the metal floor once again as they jogged through the unlit corridor, and the sound filled Mark with a sense of raw power. He hated sneaking around. He felt the most in tune with his team when they were kicking down doors and making some fucking noise. He had nothing to hide.
Mark’s thoughts were scattered when he jogged past Abby at a dead stop in front of a massive window to a darkened lab.
“Abby,” he said, as he stopped and then turned to look through several transparent walls to see a shimmering gold portal to another world filled with mountains of coins and treasure. Six claw-type robot arms looked to be holding it open. He watched as disturbing bursts of turbulent magic energy flung outward from the edges as the tear in reality tried to force itself closed. This deep place beyond also had its own mind, and it was not happy with this situation.
“It’s so magnificent,” Abby mumbled, her tentacle reaching up to press on the glass.
“What’s happening?” Learis asked from up ahead. “Why are we stopping?”
A flickering panel over the closest door held white lettering that read ‘Avarice Dimension’.
“A new world for your ability?” Sasha asked, pressing her hand on his back as she came up to stand behind him.
Mark shook his head. “That place does not want to be found. Maybe we come back after, little one. Let’s keep moving.”
The Abyssal Horror tied to his heart closed her eyes and used her increasing mental link to feel exactly what information he did through his upgraded sens
es, and there, she saw the faint anger and uncomfortable struggle the sentient sea of treasure was experiencing from this open wound gouged into its normally safe and private existence.
With a deep sigh, Abby bunched up both tentacles and turned her growing telekinetic powers onto one of the distant metallic arms. It creaked once, but combined with the pressure from the portal itself, the extra push was enough to bend it out of alignment.
The strange entity in the Avarice Dimension seemed to focus a stream of magic waves too complex for Mark to understand toward the Abyssal Horror’s smooth green skin before the portal slammed itself closed with only a minor burst of final indignant ire.
He put his hand on her waist to encourage them to move on, and she turned her big yellow eyes on his as she allowed herself to be persuaded.
“You have taught me that willingly offered rewards can have inherent benefits over theft.”
“Sometimes,” Mark agreed as those who could fly continued scouting ahead. “I’m not sure what just happened there, but you and I both felt a hint of gratitude from that insanity, so who knows.”
“A functioning interface,” Angel called from further down the hall and everyone moved to where she stood illuminated by a wall-mounted panel. With a side eye glance and a tiny dagger, Mark scanned the area around them, but did not detect any threats.
Their combat droid was already tapping on the panel faster than he could even see and felt a burst of excitement flash out from her mind at the valuable information filling up her caches.
“What did you find?” Mark asked as he jogged up.
“A directory and, after some data reconstruction, logs and equipment manifests,” Angel said, then tapped one final series of swift commands before pulling back so everyone could see the simple black-and-white, monochrome display.
‘001-005 Combat Heuristics’ [Disintegrated]
‘006-017 Acoustic Warfare’
‘018-019 Muscle Memory’
‘020-045 Avarice Dimension’
‘046-049 Bionic Vegetation [Hazard!] [Breach!]’
‘050-051 Codebreaking’
The list of 30 or so kept going, but Mark felt a spark from the one she’d been excited about and stopped.
“Those scavengers currently failing to trap us must be supplying some type of power,” Jezebel said, “but it’s obvious they aren’t skilled enough to know what they are doing.”
Mark let out a snort. “About time we were strong enough to deal with some of the pointless horseshit getting in our way in this world.”
“We’ll show you pointless!” the normally calm voice of the lead scavenger said through the PA system, and just as he did, all power in the area shut down- including the speakers and the active data terminal.
“A request, Mistress,” Angel said, turning to Abby. “I do not want to mention why, but I believe a detour into a nearby sector for salvageable hardware might prove invaluable against the numerous foes we still yet face before reaching our final objective.”
He could tell she was trying as hard as she could not to give anything away to anyone who might be listening to their plans, but despite not being linked to this bot’s heart, time and closeness had bonded them in more ways than one.
And through his insight, the others picked up her intent.
“Request granted,” Abby said, coiling a tentacle through Angel’s metal fingers. “And your application of creativity and logic pleases me.”
“I love that there is always a plan,” Learis said, gripping her bow. “Although I have only the vaguest idea what is going on here, I feel that I am learning much about the chaos of adventure.”
“Agreed!” Verrelle cheered.
Amina nodded solemnly. “My people will need to know this world- all worlds. As a Collector, it is now my duty to experience the chaos of adventure.”
Learis turned her tan eyes to focus on Amina, and the curvy rabbit-woman quivered under her steady gaze. He gave the Awysai a few minutes to finally give them both superpowers, but the moment passed, and he didn’t want to force them.
“Right,” Mark said, holding his hand out for Angel to lead the way. “Let’s crank this bitch to eleven.”
- 16 -
Angel systematically swiveled a high-powered beam of light from her glossy helmet over the abandoned over-sized corridor as she silently hovered forward, and Mark smiled when it began illuminating the tell-tale soundproof slats appearing in some of the labs. It had been an extra thirty minutes of sub-level searching and three more lifted bulkheads, but they’d eventually found the abandoned Acoustic Warfare section of the Centaur Technocracy’s “temporary” research station built around the Orb or Power.
Practicing with coalescing their Goddess-granted-energy into something seemingly stronger than their individual pools was worth it alone, even if they didn’t find whatever discarded tech Angel was hunting down... And each time they merged their power, it was the equivalent of an oral three-way in his head.
“It is in there,” the android said, and Mark caught up to where she’d stopped.
The darkened space beyond the glass wall was larger than any of the surrounding labs. They stood near an observation point looking down on what would be various experiments happening on yet another floor below. The ceiling was a downward, forty-five-degree angle covered in the deep grooved surfaces of black soundproofing panels, and it ended at the back wall, all the way to the red carpeted floor. There were a handful workstations left intact, but the room was a field of wire clumps standing stiff from holes in the floor, silently glinting under Angel’s roving searchlight. Her ambient excitement jumped when she found a cluster of shelves in one corner bursting with abandoned computer components. Her light illuminated several speakers, and Mark updated his assessment to ‘audiophile stockpile’.
“We might be able to find a way down,” Jezebel said, backing up and looking down the hallway. “Maybe a-”
“Cover your face,” Sasha interrupted as she widened her stance. Two seconds later, her Arc-Charged hoof was through the glass barrier with a satisfying outward shatter.
Learis and Verrelle both cowered, yet Amina was grinning at the brazen succubus.
“Resuming search,” Angel said as she too punched through a different pane and hovered downward.
“There are ledges,” Verrelle said as she pushed out some of the broken shards in the opening with one of her many glowing appendages. He could tell she was fascinated by the strange technology around her and wanted to see everything. Curiosity also hit him from Jezebel when she noticed a display flickering in one of the abandoned workstations.
“Sasha and Abby,” Mark began, “please stay here with Amina and Learis, while the rest of us go see if we can help find whatever we’re scavenging.”
“We will not be idle,” Abby said as she immediately started prying open one of the abandoned storage crates littering the wide hallway.
Sasha crossed her arms and shrugged. “I’ll make sure we don’t go far.”
He turned back to see the Blazar Princess already adding more legs as she hastened her way down. Her dwindling hang-ups about self-image were long forgotten as the sense of forbidden knowledge rushed through her mind.
Jezebel stepped up next to him at the edge and he gave her a quick peck on the cheek before he leapt forward into the open area below. The ground came up to meet him, and he landed firmly on his feet. After repeated falls, Mark was starting to get a sense of timing down.
The Druid landed close behind with more grace on her dainty hooves, and all three of them converged on the Lunar Power Droid bent down, inspecting something at the bottom of a shelf.
“How do you know anything about this centaur technology?” Jezebel asked, rubbing her horn.
Angel straightened, her bright-white eyes fixing on the research AI.
“Machines in the area are relatively primitive,” she said. “There is absolutely no magical field manipulation which makes entropy-drift calculation several orders of m
agnitude more manageable. However, I am looking for a unique component that generates a strong magnetic field among many. This may take 11 minutes.”
“Ah,” Mark said, rubbing his chin as he picked up a vacuum tube so big he could barely fit his hand around it. “This is a weapon to deal with that magnetic hivemind back on the other side.”
Angel turned to inspect another shelf of discarded equipment as she responded.
“Correct. If I can find the high-frequency transducer mentioned in the manifest I’d overserved when the power was temporarily restored, I may be able to customize an interface point with my own hardware. If I can interface with this component, I may be able to fully engage my arcane accelerators while the device handles physical electroacoustic oscillation to ultimately reproduce the exact ethereal frequency Learis was emitting, but on a larger scale with a stronger effect.”
“You saw that too?” Mark said, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t think even she knew she was doing it.”
Jezebel nodded. “Great thinking, Angel. But given the portable size of all this equipment, you’re only talking about broadcasting this artificial trill within limited range, correct?”
“Correct,” the bot said. “There is a lot of speculation and unknowns to eliminate, but the maximum expectation would be a dampening field within a 10-meter radius from me.”
Princess Verrelle watched Angel closely. “I actually understood some of that. I know way more about magical field manipulation than I do about any of these metal and lightning machines. There is so much that I’ve seen here, I’ve given up on trying to remember it all. There is a lifetime of study in this room alone…”
Jezebel let out a deep sigh. “I agree. What the living minds inside this world have built on their own, from nothing, astounds me. I really hope I get to show you the vastness of the real world when this is all over. You’ll be able to perceive the machine that contains your universe.”