by Prax Venter
“No, they don't seem to emit emotions. Erica, that hologram we first saw, however- I think I may have felt something from her. But it's strange. As if it's only a shadow.”
They all continued down the hall in silence until Vale stopped at their intended destination. Ahnix moved to the door frame and began the process of convincing the locking mechanism that it should relax a little. She seemed to be getting a better handle on her skill, as the door opened quickly this time.
Vale led the way, skipping the ladder again and just slithering up the tube's walls. They had to climb higher this time, passing several floors, and Mark felt a slight burning in some of his lesser-used muscles.
They passed a few doors that could be opened with the big red buttons clearly labeled 'Open', and Vale pressed the one in front of her now. The reinforced slab of metal whooshed into the wall, and Mark felt Vale's heart skip a beat as she charged out into the hallway.
He raced up the ladder and was just in time to see her smash a security robot in the side of its metal head with her new shotgun, using a spin maneuver that brought it around to shoot a second one approaching from the other direction. The giant naga and the eye-bot both fired at the same time, and although Vale was struck in the shoulder by the icy blue beam, the concussive blast of energized light from the Judge 559 tore whole chunks out of her attacker, ending its existence.
The one she had struck with her weapon like a club had just recovered from the blow, but was cut to ribbons from behind as Ahnix activated a teleport/Assault Rush combo.
All of this happened before Mark could climb up onto his feet from the maintenance tube. Roo climbed up after him, a pout forming on her puffy, red lips.
“I missed the show,” she said as Mark took her soft hand and helped her onto the new level.
“I'm sure we have plenty more enemies ahead of us,” Vale said, attaching her massive shotgun to her hip.
“Yeah, but that was your virgin shot with your new baby.”
Mark shook his head. “Anyway, looks like you made the right choice, Vale. When you said club mode before, I honestly didn't picture you beating things over the head with it.”
Vale smiled and patted her sturdy new weapon. “This way,” the giant naga said as they moved across the hall and through a wide-open archway.
Computer terminals, switches, and unknown machinery covered most of the room, but what caught Mark's attention were the windows at the back that looked out into space. He could feel awe radiating to him from his girls that mingled with his own as all approached the amazing view.
Hanging in the blackness of space was a giant red and yellow ball of churning gas and plasma. Mark figured that the windows must have some type of extra filter or they wouldn't be able to look directly at the ball of raw burning hydrogen from this distance.
“I never thought I'd ever get this close to the sun,” Ahnix said softly.
Roo seemed mesmerized. “It's fire. Pure, alive fire.”
Vale's eyes lingered for a moment longer, then she turned to search for the reason they were here.
“We need to manually unlock the solar panel array and turn it toward the sun. The readout needs to be above eighty percent. But, I'm not sure...” the giant naga trailed off as she glanced around at the hundreds of switches and readouts around her.
Mark leaned forward and searched outside the window. He quickly found the broad set of squares connected to the surface of the station that had to be the solar panel array. Currently though, the business end was drooping toward the station. He could see a hinge with an enormous set of gears that probably controlled its state of erection. He briefly wondered how gravity existed if the station wasn't rotating, but shelved that irrelevant mystery away for later.
“See that square thing sticking out over there?” he said, pointing it out to them. “That needs to face the sun.”
Ahnix scanned the readouts near the windows, and she quickly found what she was looking for. She turned to Mark, pointing at a series of ten dim lights along the length of the console. He was pleasantly surprised by another half-smile blooming on her face.
“These lights display the current power level,” she said.
“So, a solar panel is like a plant then?” Roo asked.
“Um- more like copying what a plant does, I guess,” Mark said. “If we need to raise that giant thing manually, there has to be some kind of wheel to turn, or crank- or something...”
“Like this?” Vale said, pointing to an enormous metal wheel above her head, on the ceiling.
“Yeah, like that.” Mark studied the mechanism and noticed the obviously important red lever nearby. He pointed it out to her. “Vale, move that from 'Locked' to 'Unlocked', okay?”
The giant naga extended her torso up higher, raising up on her long tail and switched the lever's position. There was a satisfying metal clunk that came from above that hinted that the wheel was free to operate now.
“Okay, just turn that until-”
“We have company!” Ahnix called out.
Mark spun toward the wide entrance to the solar panel control room and saw four medium-sized robots rushing in. They were like a mix between a small dune buggy and a crab, except one claw was a miniature laser-sword and the other a welding torch. The flat, rounded head with the square window jutting forward from their smooth metallic bodies completed the 'welder bot' look.
Roo acted quickly and tossed her hands into the air while yelling, “Metal Rain!”
The area she targeted for the effect of her ability was dangerously close to hitting Mark, but the iron needles that shimmered into existence near the ceiling and zipped to the floor with frightening speed never touched him. All four welder bots were impaled and pinned to the floor by her devastating wide-area attack.
“More,” Ahnix said as two more rounded the corner from the hallway.
Mark leveled the sights of his crossbow on one of the new welder bots but stopped when his black and gold cat-girl appeared in the hallway behind them. She quickly looked left and right and then vanished, Retracting to her original position behind him, by the window.
With Ahnix clear, Mark blew his target to bits with his explosive crossbow while Roo used her standard attack to launch a small, high-speed iron sphere to bash the head off the other one.
“Too many are coming,” Ahnix said. “We have to do this fast or run.” Her black tail was wildly flipping behind her, and he sensed her extreme dislike of being trapped in this room.
Vale's thick muscles stood out under her armor as she strained to turn the wheel with her hands. It moved, but not very fast.
“I can do this,” she said through gritted teeth.
Mark realized he had a decision to make. He could blast Vale with a temporary strength upgrade or save his enhancing ability for Roo or Ahnix as they fought off the horde of welder bots. As indecision gripped him, a chill ran down his spine.
Before, in the Crystal Heart universe, he would get flashes of inspiration or gut feelings if one choice was better than another. Now, it was their first time having this experience, and they all hadn't lived through thousands of failed attempts.
He blinked away the downward spiral that led toward paralyzed indecision. Ahnix was at the door and attacked with a foot sweep that slammed one of the crab bots into another. They became tangled up, and she quickly dodged their clumsy, desperate attacks while slashing them apart with her claws.
She back-flipped away from the entrance as about ten more rounded the corner. Mark looked back at the readout and saw that only two of the lights were on. If eighty percent was enough, they were a quarter of the way there.
“Hit me, Mark!” Roo called out.
Inaction had ultimately made the choice for him, and he forced a fierce stream of power at the velvet-girl, trusting her judgment.
Light filled her, and she held out both hands, tilting her head forward in concentration. Power blew in gusts around her, causing her skirt and hair to flutter as she charged up whate
ver attack she was planning.
A constant stream of bots was pouring in and quickly becoming too many to count. Mark only had a second to worry that it was too late when an enormous metal wedge grew in front of Roo's outstretched hands. It looked like a thick, single-edged sword blade that extended from one side of the room to the other and it was just floating against her hand.
She got down on one soft knee and launched the massive chunk of iron straight ahead of her while blowing her light body backward past the struggling Vale into the back wall. Mark watched in awe as the fast-traveling blade not only destroyed every bot in the room, but also pushed all the dead ones out into the hallway.
The resulting wreckage of robots and the giant iron blade itself caused a serious blockage in the wide entrance and bought them some time.
“Nice, Roo,” he called, looking back to see her pick herself up from the floor. His eyes tracked up to the power display and saw it at four bars. They were half-way there.
Mark fired his crossbow into two more who managed to shove open a channel on the left side, then called out to his beefy giant naga.
“How you doing, Vale?”
“Can't stop,” she panted. “Spins back if I let go.”
Mark grimaced at the information. She couldn't help them defend the room, and she would have to quickly throw the switch to lock it down or they'd lose too much progress.
They made it to six bars when two sentry bots wheeled in from both sides of the hallway at once.
Roo launched a needle at one before it could fire, but the other got a short burst out before Ahnix appeared behind it, destroying it with a Doom Kick. The beam hit Vale in the stomach as she worked on the wheel and her cry of pain forced Mark to kick off his healing ability on her, minor wound or no.
While he was healing her, he modulated his intent and blanketed her whole body in a warm, soothing rejuvenation.
It wasn't much, but he could tell it made a difference. The seventh bar lit up- they were almost there. Nothing came to disturb them for the time being, and everyone got a bit of a breather.
“Eighty percent!” Ahnix called out, the tip of her tail jumping in excitement.
Mark watched Vale continue to spin the wheel. He knew she was smart enough to work in the little bit of safety.
Roo fired off a sewing needle, blinding and disabling one of the eye-bots as it tried to monster truck itself over the wreckage.
Vale let go of the manual control wheel with one hand to flip the lever, and when the solar panel was manually locked into place, every screen and button lit up in a dazzling array of color. After spending so much time under the dim emergency lights, the intensity of the white light stung his sensitive eyes.
He saw Ahnix teleport to a panel near the door and begin typing commands into one of the stations.
“What are you doing?” Mark asked.
“Locking the door,” she answered, distractedly.
Vale slumped forward slightly, fatigued. “Whew, that was rough.”
He was about to reach out to rub her back when he felt a message from Ahnix sear his mind. Through her, he saw three security bots wheel up by the blockage in the hallway and get a clear line of sight on her new position by the door.
He surrounded her with a protective bubble just as the three beams struck the shield, all targeting different parts of her body. The cat-girl stood motionless, her teleport on cooldown.
Vale surged forward, pulling her Judge 559 from her hip as she moved, her snake body making tight weaves and propelling her quickly.
Vale pointed her new weapon at the three security bots that Mark couldn't see out in the hallway and destroyed all three with a spread of accelerated photons.
“Back away from the door!” Ahnix called out, finishing her work on the control panel.
As Vale pulled her arm in, a massive slab of metal slammed shut from the ceiling, and a blue layer of energy bubbled a few inches out from the door.
The moment the area was sealed, Mark felt a substantial rush of pleasurable essence enter his body. Checking his reserves, he was nearly halfway full.
He heaved a content sigh. “Great job, everyone.”
Ahnix turned from the panel. “I tricked the door into thinking there is a breach in this room. This is a level ten shield. Nothing should be able to get in here after we leave.”
Roo crossed her soft arms and smiled. “Your new ability to manipulate the doors and walls of this world is kind of making me jealous.”
“I burned a lot of points, Roo,” the cat-girl said, her tail shooting straight up, the tip flicking slightly. Mark couldn't remember seeing it do that before. It usually hung low or flipped around and sometimes wrapped around him when she was particularly amorous.
Ahnix continued, a tiny smile curved into her small mouth. “If I didn't spend a chunk on a boring skill called Emergency Procedures, I wouldn't even have known it was an option, let alone have the codes to pull it off.” Ahnix crossed her arms over her chest and continued. “Besides, I'm a little jealous of your ability to hurl giant sword blades out of nothingness.”
Vale chimed in, “Yeah, I saw that. Clearing the room was a fantastic strategy.”
Roo's eyes twinkled behind her mask under the praise.
“Couldn't have done it without Mark's enhancement,” the velvet-girl said, and all three of them turned to look at him.
Ahnix's eyes took on a seriously sultry look. “We couldn't have done any of this without Mark.”
“Roo,” Vale began, as she slid toward him, never taking her violet eyes off his. “Can you open a door back home for us?”
Roo nodded and summoned her door.
“Oh come on, my lovelies,” Mark said, a wide grin plastered on his face. “I'd be lost without you three. Can we agree that we're all equally awesome?”
As they crossed over to their home dimension, the lustful emotions coming from all his Enthralled were almost overwhelming.
They instantly began to strip off their armor- their intent was clear. Vale was first out of her armor and moved to help Mark out of his.
Her massive tits hung in his face, and he lapped at one of her black nipples as she pulled his shirt over his head.
The giant naga moaned, tossed his shirt aside and brought her fingers down to run through his hair as he gently caressed her sensitive flesh with his tongue.
When the others were undressed, Vale took his hand and pulled him to the large bed that took up half the space in the room. She encouraged him to sit down on the edge and then got down between his legs. Her large, stunningly vivid violet eyes stayed on his as her long, wet tongue slid out of her elfish face and wrapped around his cock like stripes on a candy cane.
Roo and Ahnix came in from the side, and all three of them pressed in close as they used their mouths on his penis. Ahnix licked the tip while Roo ran her lips over the side, around Vale's stroking tongue, and then they switched. The constant stimulation on his rigid dick was maddening, but their beautiful eyes all locked on his, giving themselves to him body and soul was what really turned his insides to pure bliss.
To stop himself from cumming too soon, he decided to practice his new multi-target enhance technique. Trying to focus on anything while the three of them engulfed his cock with their mouths was almost impossible, but he managed to create a feedback loop within his enhancing ability.
With white flames dancing in his eyes, Mark harnessed the ecstasy he was feeling and triggered a slow pleasure enhancement on all of them at once.
His Enthralled gasped on his cock, and he could feel them all melt under his ability. Roo couldn't take it anymore and climbed up on top of him, pushing him backward onto the bed. Vale moved with him, her tongue still firmly wrapped around the shaft of his cock.
Mark could feel the giant naga constrict her tongue as Roo slid her perfect, wet, velvet pussy down over both Vale’s tongue and his dick.
With Vale's head still between his legs and under Roo's perfect ass, Ahnix climbed up
onto the bed, laid her head on his stomach and began to lap Roo's purple clitoris.
Absentmindedly, Mark reached his hand down to Ahnix's furry bottom and began to gently trace his fingers around her pussy lips and the outside of her asshole. She started purring as she sucked on Roo's velvet clit and the added vibrations had to be driving her wild.
Vale's tongue swirled around his penis within Roo's pussy, and they both felt beyond amazing.
He held on as long as he could, but with all the sensations swirling around him he was forced to unload his cum and essence into Roo. The essence transfer caused her pussy to spasm with her own orgasm, and she threw her head back, groaning with pleasure.
Roo pulled her light, soft body off his, and she was almost immediately replaced with Ahnix as she teleported on top of him. Having never let go of her stranglehold on his cock, Vale constricted her tongue again as Ahnix slid her furry pussy down over both.
Roo straddled Vale's back as she got behind Ahnix to lap her soft, wet tongue on Ahnix's pussy and asshole.
The cat-girl leaned forward, spreading her furry rear for Roo and pressing her lips onto Mark's. They writhed like this for a while, and he wrapped his arms around Ahnix's muscular ass, spreading it further. His triple pleasure enhancement was still going and seemed to be driving all of his girls wild. It wasn't overly powerful, but the warm erotic bliss he was pumping into them was enough to have a noticeable effect.
He got lost in his cat-girl's half-lidded exotic eyes as they took turns slowly probing each other's mouths with their tongues while Roo and Vale licked their grinding genitals.
After a while, Mark eventually shot his load into Ahnix, pulling her warm, furry body tightly against him. She climaxed with him and moaned into his mouth as essence poured into her.
When she got up, he expected Vale to finally let his dick go and climb up on top of him, but instead, she lifted up and engulfed his penis with her hot mouth.
Jerking off his cock with her talented tongue inside her mouth, she slurped up all the juices left behind from Roo and Ahnix. He had never seen her so focused on pleasuring his dick.