by Jamie Hawke
“We’re sitting here trying to figure out how to rescue one of our own from another dimension, and you’re talking about me seducing someone?”
“I agree with her,” Gale said when I turned to her for help. “Seduce the bitch.”
“I’m surrounded by cretins.”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t imagined that pretty little ass staring up at you as you pound her from behind?” Gale said, laughing. “You think the carpet matches the drapes or did she go for no carpet? Only one way to find out.”
“We don’t have time for this,” I argued. “Charm needs us, she could be—”
“Dead,” Twitch finished for me, “but those chances go up even more if we all die in the process of trying to save her because you were too lazy to bring it for this chick and get some damn illusion powers.”
“That’s assuming the powers will even work at all,” I pointed out. “This place hasn’t given me much hope in that regard. And even if they will, we don’t know how the mixture of our other powers would affect it.”
“Unless you didn’t have the other powers,” Gale said with a pout.
“Meaning… delete them?” I shook my head. “I’d be going in there without weapons, basically.”
“Except this one very powerful weapon of illusion,” Twitch argued. “The one skill we might need to get through this, for now.”
I stared at them, hating myself for this, but then said, “Fuck it.”
“You’ll do it?” Gale asked, excited.
“I’ve never had a girl so excited about me having sex with someone else,” I said, trying not to sound like I was pouting. It was a weird situation.
“Charm has grown into a friend,” Gale pointed out. “As short a time as I’ve known her, I know that’s hard to swallow, but it’s true. We need to save her, and right now this seems like our best bet.”
Standing, I didn’t bother to argue or say another word on the matter. Instead, I headed for the door.
“Try to keep it under twenty minutes or so,” Twitch said, earning a chuckle from Gale. “We don’t need to keep her up all night or make her cum fifty times. Your goal here is the power, and you might as well have some fun along the way.”
“I’m glad my sexual ability to last forever is a subject of jokes for you two,” I said, then tried to ignore it as Gale took a finger and started licking it as if it were my cock. I paused at the door, took a breath, and muttered, “Too weird,” before heading out to find Shimmer.
It wasn’t a long walk to the stairs and down, and when I took the last step I was hit with cool air that woke me and alerted my senses. The rock walls curved outward, covered in the glow stones. The light seemed to move within the rocks as if it were alive. I didn’t see Shimmer at first, too focused on my surroundings, pausing to watch the light glitter in the reflection of one of the many pools of water.
Then a splash sounded, and I turned to see Shimmer emerging from one of those pools, her body silhouetted by the glowstones. She had a towel and dried herself off, then turned and noticed me.
“Oh,” she said, standing frozen.
“Sorry,” I turned, realizing I had been staring. “God, I’m not some perv, or… maybe I am, but I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay.”
I started to look back up, but she scoffed.
“I meant it’s okay, like don’t worry about it,” she said. “Not it’s okay like sure, stare at my tits.”
This time I turned completely around, feeling like a complete sleazebag. How could I convince her that I hadn’t been trying to sneak a peek? Then again… I’d certainly enjoyed the view. Maybe I was more of a sleazebag than I cared to admit to myself.
After a moment, she told me she was dressed and said I could turn around, so I did and breathed deep.
“This isn’t how I meant for this to happen,” I said.
“This?”
“I mean, you said before… us.” I tried to put on a sexy face, but that always ended up making me feel like an idiot.
Her eyes went wide and she put a hand to her mouth. “You thought I was serious? Oh, no. Sorry. We have a way of talking, flirting I mean, but… not like this.”
“Damn.” I frowned, not sure what to do here. The truth always seemed to be a good fallback plan, so I told her about the way my powers worked, about how I’d learned about it on the prison ship and used the powers to break out. When I was done, I said, “So, we were kind of hoping this would work out so that I could be the one doing the illusion that would get us where we need to go.”
“I have to say, your way of propositioning a woman is odd, to say the least. Maybe it’s an Earth thing? First you just basically say ‘let’s do it,’ and then you tell me what a slut you are, as if that will help?”
“But, the powers,” I protested.
She held up a hand, her face contorted as she tried not to laugh. “No offense. I’m sure you’ve got a great dick and can make a woman scream, but here’s the thing… I’m not some random skank.”
“Oh, shit,” I said, feeling horrible. “No, I really didn’t mean it like that. Damn. Just, the others on the ship—”
“Were either supervillains or… well, I don’t know their excuse.” She looked at me a moment longer, humored, and said, “Can’t we do it some other way? I mean, this feels weird still, but maybe a quick hand job?”
My cock moved at that, eager to play, but I adjusted, trying to hide it. “It’s not like that. The way it works is with exchange of fluids, so like sex or blood, stuff like that.”
“Oh, why didn’t you just say so?” she smiled, then stepped up and pulled a knife out of her back pocket. “This would work, right?”
I nodded, and before I could protest she had slid the blade along her hand and then reached out for me to do the same. I frowned, really wishing she’d opted for the sex, and gave her my hand.
“Thanks again,” I said, trying not to cringe as she cut me. When she took my hand in hers, she smiled and said, “We could’ve cut another part of you, you know, made this work with the hand job.”
“Ugh.” I pulled back, repulsed by what I was pretty sure she’d just suggested.
“Joking,” she said, bloodied hand up. “So, this will work?”
I shrugged. “I think so? We’re not sure with the way things are on this planet, but I’m thinking that since your power works fine, maybe I’ll be able to do it too?”
“Let me see it.”
“I…” Those words had left Charm’s mouth not that long ago, but in a very different sense, I realized. “Oh, the powers. Yeah.”
Pulling up my screen, I quickly deleted the other remaining powers so that the wall that was left was an image of a magician’s hat. Odd choice, but I guess these were sort of the selection the super who’d made the suit—Lamb, they’d said her name was—would have represented these. Or maybe it was working in some strange A.I. sense at this point. Before erasing the powers I’d got from Twitch though, I noticed something was happening with the skill trees. I was watching as they adapted to the fact that I now only had the one power. Some of them grayed out completely, but two were still clearly visible, one being the skill that had related to Twitch oddly, and I saw that a path was still open as a possibility. The main one that was flashing with a symbol of the magician’s hat next to it was the one called Troubleshooter, and it seemed to imply that I could find problems in the nature of things and people, and see the solution.
“The hell,” I mumbled, confused by that.
“Everything okay?” Shimmer asked.
“Just, curious is all,” I replied, swiping over to the next skill tree. This was a new one, and it showed that I could indeed use illusions, and the skill tree looked like it would allow me to cast larger illusions with different levels to them. Early ones would be only visible, but more advanced illusions could even include physical manifestations. What I started with didn’t feel so different from the illusion I’d gained as a twisted version of Charm’s cloa
king, but the fact that it could get physical too carried with it all sorts of possibilities.
For fights alone that would be sweet, but I started to imagine what it could mean in the bedroom. Pushing that from my mind, I tried to focus on changing my appearance to look like one of the guys in the kung fu outfits who had attacked us, only my cock was hard again and I couldn’t get my mind off of it.
Suddenly, Shimmer was cracking up, laughing loud. I turned to see her looking away, covering her eyes as she laughed.
“What?” I asked.
“Try to do better at keeping your mind focused when you make an illusion,” she said, “and please, don’t think about your dick.”
I froze, realizing with horror what I’d done. Looking around, I noticed one of the pools of water and ran over to it. Sure enough, when I looked into it I didn’t see my reflection, but a huge version of my erect penis staring back at me.
“Ahhh!” I shouted, instantly dismissing the illusion.
“Hey, if it’s that big, you’ve got your dad beat,” she said with a laugh. “Terrifyingly so.”
“Shut up, please,” I said, my face in my hands. I’m not sure I’d ever been so humiliated in my life. Not only had I basically shown this woman a picture of my dick, but it was blown up to the size of a person. Of me, from head to toe. My stomach churned at the thought, my head spinning.
“Relax,” she said, putting a hand on my arm. “Oh, good, I really just wanted to touch you and make sure you didn’t feel like a dick.”
I pulled my arm away as she laughed.
“Sorry,” she said, biting her lip to stop from laughing again. “I’ve just never thought of making an illusion like that. Look, you showed me yours, I’ll show you mine.” With a wave of her hand, the room was full of thousands of copies of her, all nude except for the real one. She grinned and they all did the same, but before I could process what I was seeing, she waved her hand again and they were gone. “There, we’re even.”
“Shimmer, please don’t ever tell anyone about this,” I said.
“We’ll see.”
“Shimmer!”
She shrugged. “Hey, it’s probably the best story I’ve had in years, you think I’m going to hold it to myself, you’re nuts. Get it, nuts?”
I put my face in my hands again, massaged my temples, and said, “Whatever. Point is, it worked. Kinda.”
“It did,” she insisted. “You just have to focus. Try to get your mind out of the gutter for two seconds, at least long enough to set the illusion, and then it will hold.”
“Got it.” I motioned to my bloody hand and hers. “And thank you for that, again.”
She nodded. “And hey, Breaker.”
“Yeah?”
“If this is ever, you know… done with, and we meet in different circumstances, I wouldn’t be against the idea of getting to know you more. Emotionally and physically.” She offered a smile, and I was about to try to come up with something sweet to say when she added, “After all, I imagine I’ll have your cock on my mind for a long time.”
I rolled my eyes and walked off, ignoring her laughter.
“Wait, wait,” she said, jogging after me. “I can tell you how to find Wendlor.”
She went on to describe the path we should take, and then wished us luck before waving me off. When I returned to the room with Gale and Twitch, they looked at me and furrowed their brows.
“First of all, that was fast,” Twitch said. “Second, it must not have been very fun, you look like shit.”
I held up my hand to show the blood, and they both nodded in understanding. “She thought it would be rushing things if we did it the other way.”
“That bitch,” Gale said.
“What?”
“She basically just called us sluts,” Twitch explained, also glaring.
“Fuck her,” Gale said, standing and jutting out her jaw as she cupped my package. “I want a dick, I get a dick.”
Twitch chuckled and joined us. “That said, as much as you might want it right now, we do have a friend to save. I’m guessing you have the illusion power we need, Breaker?”
“Got it,” I answered, not bothering to elaborate on what had happened with my first time of trying to use it.
Gale sighed, gave me one last caress that, in my mind, was plain mean, and then moved to the door. “Fine, let’s get it on then. I mean, let’s get to it.”
“Sorry,” Twitch said, walking past me and glancing down at the bulge I wasn’t able to hide in my pants. “But trust me, Charm will be damn happy to be saved, and I’m sure she’ll be more than happy to show her appreciation.”
“Can we please find a way to get my mind onto other stuff? I mean really, like anything else.”
She laughed, walking out through the doorway with a hint of attitude that drew my eyes to her ass and didn’t help me in the slightest. Groaning and tucking myself in, I followed. It wasn’t that I disagreed, but this thing was damn distracting. Would a quick thirty-second jerkoff have been so bad?
As much as it annoyed me and even slightly hurt along the way back up, by the time we’d reached the passage they had pointed us to in order to find this special person who could help us, my focus was back on track.
“Oh, guys,” Shimmer said, catching up with us, a younger guy at her side carrying a small bag. “We thought you could use this, you know, in case your powers aren’t working still.”
She had him hand it over, and I was impressed to see a few blasters and knives.
“Won’t you all need this for the fight?” I asked.
“Figure what you all are up to is a pretty big part of the fight, so this is a logical move. Just take them, and make sure to bring them back when you’ve kicked everyone’s asses.”
I thanked her, returning to show Gale, then glancing up to see that Shimmer was inputting coordinates into a map on Twitch’s holoscreen, projected just above her forearm. Twitch thanked her and gave the woman a hug. She paused as Shimmer whispered something. Twitch’s eyes moving to me and she bit her lip to stop from laughing. My cheeks flushed as I imagined what she’d just told her, so I simply turned and kept walking, figuring she’d catch up soon enough.
We took the middle passage, making our way to find this Wendlor character.
6
The need for sleep was really starting to get to me after another hour of walking through the tunnels, and judging by the way Gale’s head was bobbing, she was feeling the same way. Twitch, for her part, seemed as lively as ever.
“What’s keeping you so chipper?” I asked.
“Knowing we’re making progress, for one,” she answered. “But also, imagining what must have been going through Shimmer’s head when you turned yourself into a giant dick.”
Gale turned to me and laughed, “You what?”
“And now you have to tell everyone?” I asked Twitch, but she laughed and kept going without answering.
“Can you do it now?” Gale said. “I’m super curious.”
“No,” I blurted out, walking faster.
“Ah, come on. Just once.”
“Gale…”
She rolled her eyes and said, “Fine, I’ll just have to imagine it myself.” Looking at me intently, she laughed. “Yup, I see it now. Even that one vein—”
“Gale!”
With a shrug, she kept walking, chuckling along with Twitch. These ladies were going to be the end of me, whether through all of this action that could get me killed or by driving me insane.
Soon we reached the point where the tunnel slanted upward, and then there was a ladder. It led to an opening hidden in a rocky hill, but when we climbed out and peeked over the nearby rocks, we were able to see what we were looking for.
A whole army of them, along with some of their fleet. They were conducting drills, hand-to-hand training, and some were showing off their superpowers.
“Give it a try,” Gale said. “The illusion.”
“And try not to think of your dick,” Twitch sai
d with a wink.
I frowned, then considered making one of them look like my dick just for messing with me, but decided against it. Mostly because they’d be mad and I hated it when they were mad—not that I’d seen much of it, but I knew I didn’t want to see any more. That, and seeing a human-size version of your twig and berries isn’t super pleasant. You notice things you wouldn’t have otherwise.
So instead I focused on the outfits the guys below were wearing, even on their faces and hair, and when I looked up, I almost attacked my friends. My powers really worked!
Gale and Twitch, both looking like guys in their brown suits with yellow trim, stared at me, then each other, then back to me.
“You couldn’t have kept us as women?” Gale asked.
“It’s just an illusion,” I said. “To be fair. I mean, you don’t actually have a penis, though if you look—”
She already had as I said the words, then reached down and felt around, looking slightly let down. “You won’t feel anything, because it’s not really there,” I said.
“But, just to be clear,” Twitch leaned in, eyes narrowed in spite of her smile. “You did have to imagine them for them to be there.”
“No!” I protested. “I simply thought of you two as men like I saw, and the rest filled in. Luckily, less for me to adjust on myself.”
“Just checking.”
We were up and moving down the side of the hill farther away from the base so that we could loop around and not look like we’d come from that direction. Twitch started telling us to keep calm, reminding us that these guys were basically some military for an evil race of whatever the Nihilists were—supers from another dimension, aliens? At this point, I had to wonder, were the supers all aliens, even though they had started as humans long ago? When you’ve been away for so long, to the extent that you know nothing of Earth and even have superpowers…. Does it?
“Hey, there you two are,” one of the men said, walking right past me and stopping in front of Twitch and Gale. They’d been doing a good job of walking separately from me, but now I wasn’t sure that was a good thing. “Why haven’t you reported in yet as ordered?”