by D. R. Rosier
I brought my mind back to the present, and lunch with Tina.
“So, date with Alyssa tonight?”
Tina sighed, “I suppose we should talk about it. I’m looking forward to it, I respect her and like her a lot, and I know Carol desires you deeply. As for us, I’m trying. You are good looking, and I respect you, even admire you, that’ll have to be enough for a start, because it’s all I have to give.”
I nodded, “I didn’t expect anything more, or less. Tips? What does Carol like to do, besides workout, spar, and kick ass.”
Tina teased, “The alpha male wants dating advice?”
I raised an eyebrow. I had to admit I did have alpha instincts that way, I wanted to take care of my woman, and I liked when she gave up control. My sense of humor was also how I tempered that, otherwise I knew I’d come across as an arrogant asshole. Self-deprecating didn’t mean a lack of confidence, on the contrary, a truly confident man could laugh at himself.
I teased back, “Isn’t that what this is about, support in all directions. I like Carol, she’s beautiful, kind, a hell of a teacher, and I trust her with my life. I’m attracted, and I think it will be easy to fall for her, but I don’t know much about her. Her personality yes, her likes and dislikes, no.”
Tina tilted her head, “True. That is what it’s supposed to be about. You know I went for it, suggested it to Carol and Alyssa, because of Oracle’s Maidens. I could see how happy they were in it, and I knew I admired and was attracted to Alyssa, and it would allow Carol to explore her feelings for you. It just seemed like a good idea, but I think you and I are going to have the hardest time with truly embracing it.
“As for Carol, she likes dancing of course, that’s a given for all three of us, for any woman really. She doesn’t like extreme sports, or competitive things, she gets all the adrenaline and thrill she needs from the job and sparring. She likes romantic settings, flowers, parks, fancy restaurants. Things like that. Quiet and romantic, outside of dancing at a club that is.”
I nodded, “Any other tips.”
Tina smirked, “She’s submissive in bed. Not in a demeaning way, but in a romantic submission in trust kind of way. She likes it when someone takes control, and even takes direction. I know Alyssa goes both ways on that, but Carol hardly ever takes the top, and if she does it will be to make love. Not that she doesn’t like it wild on occasion, but only if her partner takes charge. She can be a bit kinky as well, just don’t demean her or you’ll get your ass knocked out.”
I snorted, “I don’t do that.”
She sighed, “I believe you, even if my past tells me all men get off on that kind of thing.”
I asked, “You know what Alyssa likes with me?”
Tina smirked, “We talked about everything last night, I won’t need any tips on what Alyssa likes in bed. I’m not at all submissive like Carol, which works out all around, since Alyssa can be both.”
Right, damn. They really did get naughty with no men around, my center stirred a little bit.
Tina added, “I think Carol already loves you, so if you hurt her…” she trailed off, leaving the threat open-ended.
I snorted, “I won’t, but this was your idea. There’s a chance it won’t work, and that will hurt all of us. We might lose both of them because of it, Alyssa is everything to me, so I’m not going to do anything stupid to ruin it, and I wouldn’t do that besides.”
She nodded, “You know I didn’t mean it that way.”
I nodded, “I did, but what you did mean was offensive.”
She actually gave me an apologetic look, but I could still tell she was far from convinced I wouldn’t suddenly turn into a monster on her.
I supposed I wasn’t surprised she’d think I was capable of doing something cruel or demeaning to Carol, she didn’t trust men at all, but that didn’t mean it didn’t bother me. I suspected Carol and my date would go well later that night, assuming the promise of our chemistry came through, but I was having a hard time imagining Tina and I on a romantic date on Monday.
She truly was beautiful, in a delicate girl next door way, and had a divinely alluring voice that would make angel’s cry in envy. Her body was amazing. Lissome, except for her incredibly bountiful breasts, which were a pure call to sin. She was as graceful as Carol was, if in a more sensuously floating way rather than predatory. My attraction to Tina on a shallow level wasn’t in question, but she was also bitter towards and didn’t trust men.
I suppose I’d find out, in thirty-six hours, if Alyssa and I didn’t call it off on Monday morning during our talk.
“Good pizza.”
She snorted at my transparent attempt to change the subject.
We finished the rest of the meal in a silence that was only a little bit awkward, which admittedly was an improvement from the last two lunches we’d shared together.
It was maybe ten minutes after we’d put our suits back on, and we started our patrol up again when Jenna interrupted with an emergency.
Jenna said, “Oracle down in Texas has an emergency, and is calling for all heroes capable of getting to Corpus Christie in an hour’s time. Can you go that fast?”
I nodded slowly, even if she couldn’t see it.
“That’s about twelve hundred miles, a bit more? I can get us there in less than thirty minutes, at Mach four.”
Alyssa’s voice surprised me, she must have already been in uniform.
“I can match that speed, but not much faster. Swing by the office on the way, Carol and I will join you two. He needs flyers to fight the leviathan, or it’ll destroy Corpus Christie. Red Siren and Myriad can help with evacuating the docks and houses on the water.”
I felt a bit smug at that, I could go almost twice as fast, but that would take a hell of a lot of energy. As it was, I’d be depleting almost half of the energy in my triple sized meta-energy enchantment to get down there. Triple, as it relates to the energy I could hold in my body.
“How big is it?” I asked, as I put my arm around Red Siren, extended the fields, and took off into the sky.
Red Siren hadn’t even hesitated that time, or looked disgusted, so… real progress there, if minor.
White Witch replied, “About a mile, we’ll have to take it out when most of it is still in the water, if we can. He told me it would work out, if we were both there, and more lives would be saved, if Red Siren and Myriad were there.”
I flew over the building at two hundred miles an hour, and she rose up into the air with Myriad quickly and was shortly just a few feet behind me and to the side. I poured it on then, mentally, and Rose increased the fields until we were going Mach four. It was easy enough to feed her the energy from the power enchantment, and to leave my personal reserves at full.
Flying at Mach four in a suit was a rush. I couldn’t really feel the wind, or the acceleration, thanks to the partial stasis field and inertial dampening field, but the landscape was a blur below us. I had to look toward the horizon to avoid getting dizzy.
It also helped, that our course was on my HUD, and I flew to match it.
Tina hissed, “Don’t you dare let me go.”
I snickered, which turned into an all-out belly laugh.
Tina scolded me, “That’s not funny,” but her voice was on the verge of mirth, which took the sting out of her anger.
Jenna said, “Good luck.”
“Thanks. What else do we know?”
White Witch replied, “Poisonous tentacles, about fifty feet long, hundreds of them. We should be safe from those, that’s why he only wants flyers attacking from a distance. All we’ll have to worry about is the paralyzing acid balls it will spit up at us.”
“Paralyzing?”
She replied, “Yes, if it hits the skin it numbs it, and blocks nerve transmission, while it slowly eats you. I imagine if someone struck fell, they’d either be absorbed into it, or one of the tentacles would grab on and pull them in.”
I nodded, “A-class flyers might need to worry about that, but we s
hould both be shielded.”
She said, “True, but the less we’re hit the better, the acid will eat through shields eventually.”
Of course it would, dodging was paramount.
“Agreed, I just meant we had an edge, for a mistake or two.”
Her more than me, her shields would last a long time, and take a whole lot more hits.
Technically, after last night with the meta-energy enchantments, I could take five times as many hits as I could have yesterday, but I wasn’t eager to test the limits that way, and that still wouldn’t come close to what she could do.
“I don’t suppose he shared how we kill it?”
She replied, “He doesn’t do that, it could change things too much.”
Of course he didn’t.
Chapter Eight
We hovered over the shore at two hundred feet and waited. We’d just gone through introductions. Red Siren and Myriad had run off with Shadow Weaver to help with the evacuation, while me, White Witch, Oracle, Nightstar, and Dark Succubus hovered where the creature would supposedly emerge.
Dark Succubus had raven black hair, blood red eyes, red tipped tail, short red horns, and black red-tipped wings. She also had a body that was pure sin, waspish in shape, with double D breasts, and a severely and seductively beautiful face. She wore a black bustier, with red string ties, and had blood red knee-high boots with three-inch heels.
Nightstar was petite like White Witch, with C cup breasts which gave her a slightly more curvaceous appearance. She had on white and gold skin tight short shorts and halter top, and her eyes glowed yellow like twin suns, on a mischievously beautiful face with a smattering of freckles on her nose. She also wore dark blue calf high boots with four-inch heels, and she glowed all over her body.
The ladies were friendly enough, in an arm’s length kind of way, and really stunning. I had a feeling they had similar trust issues as Tina did with men, because they’d been very delighted to see White Witch and Red Siren earlier, and even to meet Myriad. Far more openly, than they’d greeted me. Tina had almost been mobbed by them before they moved off, and I remembered her telling me about her supervillain past and that Oracle’s Maidens had freed her from it.
There’d been small talk earlier, but at the moment everyone was silent, as the time to fight came closer.
Oracle, besides being an obviously very lucky man, was dressed in an all-white suit, with a white tie. He also had a white cape with a deep cowl, that was over his head and concealed his face in dark shadows. He seemed like a good guy. I’d felt a twinge of jealousy by the familiarly friendly way he’d greeted Alyssa, but after a few moments I discerned it was obviously just friendship, and that he was completely smitten by his three ladies. He admired the love of my life, my goddess, but he didn’t desire her.
I also studied Dark Succubus while we waited. Not with my eyes, which would have gotten me in trouble, but with my power. One of her abilities was conjuration, and I could see the meta-energy fields for her weapons, tail, horns, wings, and even in other parts of her body, which I thought interesting.
Point being, my research there would go a long way toward the idea of building a suit that was nothing but temporary conjured matter, and her tail and other body tweaks for her superhero suit would help me to learn how to simulate flesh for that body Rose apparently wanted. She had both hard matter that would make excellent armor, and soft flesh with simulated nerves in the mix. I’d still have to figure out how to add sight, hearing, taste, and scent to Rose’s body, but it was a definite help and step in the right direction. Even her clothes were constructs.
I also had the dim idea I’d be able to connect and work the enchantments properly the same way I set up that remote data transfer and internet access enchantment. That way when I fired my plasma weapon, the enchantment might be stored on an object around my neck, but it would be connected to my conjured gauntlet and fire from my palm. Thing was, I had to figure out how to conjure something with a link to the enchantment that conjured it, not just temporary matter, but temporary matter with a temporary enchantment on it, so it was still a work in progress.
Besides the five of us, there were also several A-class and S-class flying heroes who had energy attacks from a distance, but they didn’t hover nearly as closely. I had to admit, I wouldn’t be either if it wasn’t for Alyssa’s casual friendship with them, Nightstar and Dark Succubus were rather intimidating and didn’t invite conversation with anyone they didn’t know, and that went double for the males.
Oracle said in a calm and sure voice, “Thirty seconds,” that spread out effortlessly to all the heroes through an amplification device. I could see he had both magic enchantments and used mad scientist inventions. The cloak was a really good enchantment, but without power to strengthen it like mine, it could probably only stop bullets, and maybe a single ball of fire. It wouldn’t protect him from even a weak punch from someone with super strength.
The guy had balls, but then he could probably see any punches coming with his power, long before they landed, and three of the most powerful super heroines in the world to hide behind.
He looked at me and said, “Stand firm in your convictions, and it will turn out okay. Something major is coming, and we’re all depending on you.”
“Umm, what?”
He shook his head, “I’ve said enough already. Just stand in your convictions, no matter the apparent cost, and things will work out for you and all of us.”
I looked at White Witch worriedly, she looked magnificent in her sexy suit, and stormy gray eyes that billowed with dark clouds.
He chuckled and shook his head, “I don’t see personal things, I can’t tell you how that works out, but good luck with that too.”
I laughed, “Thanks, I think.”
The ocean started to churn below, and I could see the darker shadow within the blue water getting close to the shore. The tentacles on the front of the thing broke the choppy surface first, and then the vast bulk started to rise up on the beach and above the shallow water.
That’s when everyone started to fire from the sky. I sent down plasma and railgun rounds, which was joined by Dark Succubus’s conjured spears, Nightstar’s plasma, and White Witch’s ice storm from her hands. That was all joined by several more fire, ice, earth, air, electricity, and other forms of energy attacks.
The leviathan slowed slightly, which I think was the point of it all, because it seemed like for every destroyed tentacle two more grew, and the main mass healed the damage as quickly as it occurred.
Oracle said, “Just slow it down, White Witch will freeze it when enough of it gets out of the water. Stay alert!”
Then I dodged slightly to the side, as a ball of acid almost took me in the chest. All the heroes started to dodge and move, as we continued our attack. It would have felt completely pointless, if we didn’t know it was just a delaying action to stop the creature from getting too far into the city.
Only about ten yards of it was on the beach, and it was wide, already several hundred yards wide given its mile diameter.
I barely dodged an acid ball and tried my freeze ray. That was just as damaging, and just as ineffective, but I still kept it up. I considered using my meta-energy ray, but things weren’t nearly that dire yet, and Oracle obviously had a plan, as well as knew the end of the game.
Of course, if I took any of that for granted the future might change, so I focused, and continued to rain hell down on the leviathan that wanted to destroy Corpus Christie and eat all the crunchy humans that lived there.
Oracle lifted his arm, and he triggered a device that shot a plasma ray. At first, I thought it was going to hit one of the A-class heroes, but it blasted into an acid ball and destroyed it before it could take down the hero.
He shrugged, “I could save that one.”
Right, kind of scary, did that mean there were others he couldn’t?
I got the answer to that question a moment later, when a scream lit up the sky, and one of them fel
l from the sky. My heart started to pound even harder, as the monstrous leviathan absorbed the hero into its body.
I shuddered.
The fight seemed to last a long ass time, and I completely depleted my triple meta-energy cell which was half my total energy. Granted, a third of that was just from the flight down to Corpus Christie, but it didn’t seem like we’d made all that much progress. It was maybe thirty yards onto the beach, and had already crushed several bungalows and beach houses, when White Witch started to cast a long spell at Oracle’s direction.
Clouds swirled in the air, and cold wind blew in, and I continued to fight. It was almost a minute later, when she completed the spell, and the hail of ice put my cold ray to shame. The ocean churned, and started to freeze solid from the shore line, and it slowly ramped up in speed, as the chill whirlwinds gathered on the ocean, and slowly froze it solid.
It was insane, there was ice instead of moving water for almost as far as I could see. S-class my ass, my goddess of magic could take out an entire city, given a minute to cast a spell. It would truly be terrifying, if I didn’t know what a wonderfully sweet and caring woman my incredibly powerful insatiable sexpot was.
He turned to me, “You need to tell them where to strike.”
Right, the thing was frozen, no acid balls, and the tentacles were listless for the moment. I aimed at the ground and poured on the speed, I didn’t want to get close for long. It occurred to me he must know I can read the things energy, but if that was the case why didn’t he just tell everyone where to shoot, why make me do this if he already knew the result?
That whole reading the future thing gave me a headache, I didn’t envy him his power.
Several tentacles stirred, but they were far too sluggish to intercept, as I flew just a few feet above the frozen ice and weaved between them. When I passed over it, I learned something new about my power. The things meta-energy pattern was a mile wide, but I could read all of it, as long as I was close enough to catch just a small part of it. As if my power could travel along and trace its own meta-energy matrix.