Company Ink

by J. A. Cipriano

  “Go get trapped again.” She nodded back to the original spot and gave me a wicked grin. “Trust me. Shit is about to get awesome.”

  “Right.” I looked down at myself once more, and even though I felt like I was wearing a weird version of the Venom symbiote from Spiderman, I did as she indicated.

  Once again, she hit the button, and I was encased in the weird polymer.

  “So, now what?” I asked when everything had finished.

  “Now break out.” She nodded at me. “Just say something that’d get you out.”

  “Um … right, okay.” I looked down at myself, and then feeling kind of dumb, said, “The goop dissolves.”

  As I spoke the words, I felt the pen heat up, and something pinged in my ear. A second later, the goop dissolved, leaving me standing there.

  “Whoa, what the fuck did you do?” I asked, unable to believe it.

  “I rigged up a set of nanites that fuse to the tip of the pen, making the tip much, much smaller. The suit reacts to your commands to move the pen on a nearly microscopic level, writing what you say onto the nanofibers of the suit, making it happen.” She gave me a wide grin. “It sort of works with thoughts but not as well. We’re still trying to get the bugs out of that.”

  “I don’t even know what to say,” I said, swallowing hard as I looked down at myself clad in my new black suit. “This is a game changer.”

  “Yep.” She smiled at me before hopping up on the workbench and slowly spreading her legs. “How about you come here and show me how much you appreciate it?”

  3

  Two hours later, I finally made my way to the showers, only as I opened the door, I found Miss Montgomery leaning over the counter and peering into the mirror. The shower was already running, filling the room with steam that billowed over me, covering me in a wash of warmth.

  I must have stood there staring for a long time because when my naked guidance counselor finally turned around, she sucked in a breath and made eye contact with little me who had reacted accordingly.

  “Already?” she asked, finally turning her eyes to me. She gave me a smirk. “I’d hoped to have a bit of time to recover …” She took a step toward me, bare feet padding on the tile floor as the sound of the shower filled my ears. “But since you went out of your way to find me …” She drew her hand up toward her breasts, only as she touched her left nipple, she winced slightly.

  “Actually, I didn’t come here for that.” I looked at my feet sheepishly. “I just wanted to get in the shower, it’s why I snuck out early, but then Cami found me and made me this suit.” I fingered the pendant around my neck, causing the suit to spring into being and cover me in an instant.

  “Oh, thank God.” Miss Montgomery dropped her hand to her side. “I would have needed a vagina transplant for you to hit it again.” She nodded at me. “I mean, I’d have made it work, but yeah, I’ll be honest, the shower sounds better?” She gave me a sad smile as she looked me over. “I feel disgusting.” She gestured toward the shower. “I was just waiting for it to get warm.” That’s when she seemed to notice my new suit. “That suit though. It’s pretty amazing.”

  “Thanks,” I said, looking down at myself. “It makes the pen voice activated, and it sort of all retreats into the necklace for the pendant.”

  “Voice activated?” Miss Montgomery raised an eyebrow at me. “You mean, instead of having to write, you can just speak your commands?”

  “Pretty much.” My eyes flicked to the shower, and I smiled at her. “Well, I won’t keep you since you were going to shower, and you don’t seem like you want company. You were here first. I’ll wait.” I stared longingly at the shower and wondered if I should add more stalls. Initially, the communal shower thing had seemed like a great idea since, well, I could stare at naked women, but at the same time, I sort of agreed with Miss Montgomery, being able to shower by myself from time to time sounded like about the best thing ever. That said, I had a brand-new suit I wanted to play with a bit. Waiting wouldn’t be a big deal.

  “You can join me in the shower, Roger.” She turned and began walking toward the water. “I may not look like it, but I can behave myself.” She stuck her tongue out at me. “I just don’t prefer it.”

  “I’m not sure why, but I don’t quite believe you. Still, if you’re serious, I guess I can wash your back?” I followed after her, and as I did, I retracted the suit back into the chain that held the pen, so that in a moment, I was standing there naked with the pen around my neck. “Then you can wash mine?”

  “That would be divine,” she said, stepping into the water and causing it to cascade down her long red hair in a way that made me wish she hadn’t been so worn out, and Jesus, I needed to get a grip. I just had sex with Cami literally ten minutes ago.

  “Are you coming?” she asked, turning and holding one of those fluffy pink luffa ball things out to me. Only as she saw me standing there, she swallowed hard before a mischievous smirk crept over her lips. “I’ve been very dirty.”

  “Talk like that will definitely lead to you needing a vagina transplant,” I said, taking the luffa from her as I stepped into the water. And oh my God, it was like fucking Heaven. I don’t know how Skye had managed to program the AI so the water temperature was always perfect, but god fucking damn.

  “Right, sorry.” Miss Montgomery leaned her back toward me. “Soap me up, and then I’ll soap you up.” She gave me a look. “Though now that I think about it, couldn’t you just make me not sore?”

  “Nope. Can’t heal you like that,” I said before dousing my head once more and letting the warm water wash over me. Getting some soap from the dispenser, I squeezed the luffa a couple times. “It’s a little weird because I could make myself less sore, but not other people.” I’d learned that after the first night when Gail had started wincing during sex.

  “Well, you better hurry then,” she whispered. “If you don’t, we’ll have company.” She was silent a second. “I know you don’t think that’s bad, but then I’ll never get out of here.” She shivered. “Shower sex is like my favorite sex, so even if I can’t participate, I’ll be forced to stay and watch.” She waved a hand. “It will be a whole thing.”

  “Right.” I began scrubbing her back, making very careful to do a good job because if someone were washing me, I’d want them to do a good job. As I ran my soapy hands over her pale skin, images of her in very different positions danced through my mind, and before I realized it, she’d reached down, grabbing little me in one soapy hand, stroking him a couple times.

  “Seems like you can’t even wash me without getting excited.” She glanced over her shoulder at me. “We’ll have to do something about that.”

  “I thought you couldn’t actually have sex right now because you were sore?” I asked right before she did a weird twist thing with her hand that made me moan.

  “Well, here’s the thing about women.” She winked at me. “We have a couple different places you can put it.”

  4

  “Are you hungry, Mandy?” I asked a few hours later as I stared out at the crocodile pool. Below me, the giant crocodile in the tank below made no visible response other than to eye the bucket of chicken in my hands. “Of course, you are.”

  I upended the bucket into the pool, and as Mandy and the six other crocs made their way toward it, I smiled. I don’t know why but having a pool full of crocodiles made me feel like a badass. I mean, okay, it was like evil overlord 101 to have a croc tank, but I wouldn’t be dumb enough to actually make someone walk the plank into it or anything. That’s why we’d spent the last little bit trying to come up with anti-pen-bearer defenses.

  Thankfully, ever since we’d taken down Wayne and transferred him to Agent Smith and the FBI, we hadn’t had any trouble.

  That said, failing to plan was planning to fail.

  “I feel like you enjoy your crocodiles a little too much,” Marty, my best friend and now head of security, said as he came toward me dressed in combat pants, and a bandolie
r of grenades that made him look like Rambo thanks to his well-muscled chest. That was another thing we hadn’t cracked yet. I could literally write Marty having huge muscles, but if he got hurt, I couldn’t write him well again. And making him invulnerable or giving him super strength? That was a no go.

  “Man, I enjoy everything a bit too much. That’s like a perk of the job as overlord.” I nodded to him as he moved next to me and leaned his back against the railing like he wasn’t worried about falling twenty feet into the enclosure and getting eaten.

  “Ha. Ha,” Marty said, rolling his eyes at me. “That’s sort of what I came to talk to you about.” He looked me over. “Are you wearing the suit?”

  “Yeah, I just wore this over it.” I gestured at myself in my white button up and jeans.

  “You wore your uniform from the Super Mart over your clothes?” he asked before shaking his head. “You have a whole closet full of clothes…”

  “I dunno, man. There’s something about pen-created clothing that bugs me.” I picked at the shirt. “I guess I should go shopping.”

  “That’s actually why I came here.” Marty shifted, bringing around a suitcase. “I need you to make some more cash.”

  “Why would we need cash?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “I can create more or less whatever we want.”

  “Dude, we need to buy things.” He gestured at the crocs. “Like we bought those because you didn’t want to create living creatures.”

  “Right, but I thought we had most of the money from the casino?” I asked as he opened the suitcase, revealing a bunch of one-dollar bills.

  “It’s almost all gone. After what Skye paid those hackers for that bleeding edge computer gear, and what Cami’s been buying for her mad scientist stuff …” Marty shook the suitcase at me. “Then there’s the armory. That cost a lot. We’re just spending like crazy.”

  “Why didn’t you have me make that stuff?” I asked, confused.

  “You were kinda busy.” He made a nod back toward where my room was. “You told me to just have them buy stuff, and they have been, so …”

  “Do you have a bank account?” I asked, moving to the suitcase and glancing at it. “All the bills are now one-hundred-dollar bills.” There was a ping in my ear as the suitcase’s contents changed from ones to hundreds. “Like, I could just write a bunch of money into it …”

  “I thought you tried that?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at me. “Like didn’t that not work? I thought you could only make bills and loans paid, but you couldn’t actually create money as it were.”

  “Well, I was going to try again.” I threw my hands up. “What’s the other option, keep making suitcases full of money?” I gestured at it. “We can’t even really spend that. Like, what? We just walk into a bank and try to deposit a suitcase full of money? We don’t even know if it’d pass inspection…” Marty was smiling at me as I spoke. “Wait, what if I made gold or diamonds or something? You know, pretend I’m an alchemist?”

  “The problem would be selling it. Do you want to try selling gold or diamonds or baseball cards?” He raised an eyebrow. “Want me to set up a store on eBay?”

  “That’s not a terrible idea …” I rubbed my chin. “But it feels so small time. And big-ticket items that would net real cash might draw suspicion. So far, we’ve been under the radar, but if I suddenly sold an Action Comics number one in mint condition? That’d draw notice.”

  “That’s why I think that perhaps you should give the Vegas thing another go.” He held the suitcase out to me. “Go turn this into some real money so we can actually use it to make money.”

  “Was this your plan all along?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “To have me go out on the town and make some money?”

  “Sort of.” Marty waved a hand dismissing my words. “I was talking to Skye, and she came up with the idea.” He flushed a bit. “She and I have been talking a lot actually.”

  “Oh?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “If it’s a sex thing, I don’t really care, but Lisa might …”

  “It’s not a sex thing.” He looked away. “Even if I wanted to fuck Skye, she and most of the others wouldn’t do it.”

  “What? Why? I made you into a sex god too, just like you asked.” I stared at him in confusion because in a lot of ways, Marty was actually a lot more desirable looking than I was, and I said that as a totally straight man.

  “Because no one wants to fuck Robin when they can fuck Batman, dude.” He shrugged. “No one besides Robin’s girl, anyway.” He gave me a wry grin. “And to be honest, she’s more than enough for me. I don’t know how you get anything done.” He laughed then. “Actually, that’s why you never get anything done.”

  “I don’t really, but those are sacrifices I’m willing to make for my girls.” I smirked, and he socked me lightly on the shoulder. “Anyway, so what’s the idea for the money?” I took the case from him. “Because I’m totally willing to go to Las Vegas and win a bunch for the team.”

  “Skye is still drawing that up.” He paused like he was waiting for me to respond, and when I didn’t, he continued, “But, honestly, dude, you’ve been cooped up in here for weeks.” He gestured at the crocs. “And you spend all your time with the fucking crocodiles.”

  “It makes me feel like a Bond villain.” I nodded to Mandy who eyed me like I would taste delicious.

  “You are a Bond villain, dude.” Marty put his arm around my shoulder. “Go out, have fun, blow off some steam and stop thinking about that FBI chick and the other pen bearers.” He rubbed his thumb against his index and middle finger. “And make some scratch so we can keep living large.”

  I wanted to disagree with him, to tell him that it was stupid, but he had a point. I’d spent most of my free time wondering about the other pen bearers. Did they all have pens like mine? Did they have different powers? Hell, why hadn’t they attacked yet?

  I’d tried to ask Agent Smith, but since she’d made it clear she wouldn’t help me unless I joined the FBI, I was on my own. Sure, part of me had contemplated the idea of joining up, but the larger part wasn’t interested. The way I saw it, the FBI was just another tool of the pen bearers, and last I checked, they didn’t exactly need the help.

  “Okay,” I said after a moment, but as I spoke, Marty replied like he hadn’t listened to my response.

  “Look, you should at least consider … wait? Did you agree?” He gave me a once-over. “Are you sure?” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I figured it’d be more of an argument. Skye made a presentation.”

  “Well, for one, I trust you guys.” I waited until he nodded before continuing, “And all my top people agree I should do it. I don’t keep you around for your pretty faces.” I winked. “That’s just a bonus.”

  “That’s kinda gay, dude.” Marty shuffled uncomfortably.

  “You’re kinda gay, dude.” I snorted. “Anyway, I can spare some time to go out and make us some startup capital.” I tapped my head. “Maybe some exercise will get the mental commands working. Last time I tried, I manifested a cabbage.”

  “What were you trying to manifest?” Marty asked, curiosity leaking into my voice.

  “The bucket of chicken.” I pointed to the spot where I’d dumped the empty bucket. “Let me just say, Mandy does not like cabbage.”

  “Dude, no one likes cabbage.” Marty turned as he spoke and stared down into the pool where a lone cabbage floated in the water. “Ugh, it’s the purple one too.” He stuck his tongue out. “Gross.”

  “I didn’t make it on purpose,” I said with a shrug. “As I said, that shit needs to get fixed, but either way, we’re good.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my pad. “Either way, I have my backup.” I smacked the pad on the railing. “So, what’s the plan exactly?”

  “It’s easy.” Marty shrugged. “You go topside and make some money for us. If things get too crazy, say the safe word, and we’ll come help you.” He smiled. “It’s ‘cowabunga.’”

  “Cowabunga?
” I repeated, somewhat confused. “Why cowabunga?”

  “Dude, have you ever tried to work ‘cowabunga’ into normal conversation? It’s damned near impossible.” He pulled his hand from his pocket and smacked me on the back. “But don’t worry, I’m sure everything will be fine.” He smirked and began walking toward Cami’s lab. “In fact, the AI predicts a ninety-eight percent chance of nothing happening.”

  “So, there is a two percent chance of someone coming after me?” I followed behind him. “‘Cause with those odds, we might get attacked.”

  “Well, if that happens, we’ll get a lot of data by seeing how you get attacked so we can adjust accordingly.” Marty looked at me over his shoulder. “Besides, what else are you gonna do? Stay here and fuck your girls for the six thousandth time?” He frowned. “Because I saw Miss Montgomery before I came out here. Girl needs a break, bro.”

  5

  Two hours later, I was standing outside the Medallion with explicit instructions to “do whatever the fuck I wanted” as long as I made money. It was a bit weird because this was the first time I’d been outside my lair in months. While I wouldn’t say the sunlight burned me like I was a fucking vampire, it was brighter than I’d remembered, and the temperature left something to be desired.

  I glanced up and down the avenue looking for people trying to get me before looking down at my pad and smiling. My line was still written there.

  No other Pen Bearers can find me.

  I shouldn’t have worried. The AI Skye and her cohort had designed gave me just over seventy-two hours before I was likely to be found by someone trying to kill me and take my pen. That seemed like more than enough time to make some money, and besides, I was starting to feel a bit cooped up.

  Smiling to myself, I took a deep breath of the Las Vegas air and glanced around. The streets were filled with people sloppily carrying those giant margarita cups, and as I watched a particularly boisterous group amble by me with plans to “tear it up, bro,” I grinned.