by Jamie Hawke
Dead supers all around me reached, trying to pull me back, but I wouldn’t let them. And that figure in red appeared again, reaching for me. When she made contact, I was torn from the pyramid, I was back on the prison ship the first time I’d met Charm… then the first time I’d slept with her. Suddenly I was lost, in an ocean of dark water and rose petals, floating as if it were a bed. Charm was there, riding me, her back arching, her breasts shaking, her tail wrapping up over her shoulder and then her whole body shuddering.
Only, as she came it wasn’t her, but this figure in red. I could see nothing of her, only feel an intensity around my cock—unnatural, but amazing. The voice in my head said this was unnatural, to fight it. To push back.
We were taken from that spot, now atop the pyramid as its peak opened to show that we were facing off, each with short swords in our hands.
“Succumb,” she said, her voice smooth like flowing water.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“I am you, you are me,” she responded. “We are joined now, don’t you see?”
Her use of rhyme threw me, and for a moment I hesitated. She took the advantage and charged, slashing with her swords. One caught me in the arm and I yelped, but as she withdrew the blade, the wound healed.
“You see,” she said. “This is futile.”
I slashed back, cutting through her throat, but the material simply reappeared. This time she leaped and landed with two blades in my back, twisting and throwing me over her to the other side, then came at me against one blade to my throat as she dropped the other, and grabbed my crotch.
“Or maybe this is all foreplay to you?” A moment passed while she stroked me and it felt like ten women riding me all at once, as impossible as that was. “I’ve seen in your mind, Chad. I know what you like. Your turn-ons. But… maybe I’m not enough?”
Metallic versions of my ladies rose around me, all nude, all taking on more realistic features until I could almost believe it was them. They strode forward, joining, rubbing their hands along my body. I was nude now too, though didn’t know how I’d gotten that way. Fingers extended, metal warped, and then they were everywhere, their hands and fingers invasive, and I was drowning in them, surrounded by liquid metal.
I tried to scream, but more metal entered my mouth and filled me.
“You are me,” the lady said. “I am you.”
This time it all faded and again I was the pyramid, every bit of it there at my disposal. More supers had arrived, apparently, but I took them out with ease, squishing them and suffocating them, and those who had stronger powers to fight back were sent to face the fires. When some staggered out of there, they were met with my undead army.
I was there, among them, wearing my red robes from head to toe. I laughed maniacally as the supervillains were slaughtered, as I stepped forward with blades for hands and decapitated them.
But it all felt… wrong. Then I remembered why.
A room in my core, deep down, contained a sarcophagus with a woman kneeling next to it saying a name, “Breaker.”
I was back with Charm in the prison ship, not in a moment of lust, but simply smiling, laughing, holding each other. Her hand was entangled in mine, her fingers moving across mine like she was making love to my hand, and her scent—like peaches and cream popsicles, and then her breath as she tenderly kissed me… and it tasted like cherries.
Large, green eyes staring up at me. Honest, vulnerable.
Slowly, a beating sounded, rose up through my body and then pounded in my head. It took me a second to process that it was my heart, another to realize that this emotion taking over was one I’d been all too familiar with lately, but one that had been pushed out the moment this system started taking over.
No, I wasn’t going to say it was love. Not again, or not so soon after I’d made a jackass out of myself in front of Charm. But that… whatever you want to call it… was coursing through my body and mind, taking over, and reminding me that I was doing this for them, I was here for them.
Everything was for them. Those weren’t invaders at all, but my ladies. They were with me, trying to pull me from the sarcophagus.
It took an effort. With all of my mind focused on breaking free, I heard a distant grunt, processed that it was mine, and then pulled myself from the sarcophagus. A pop sounded in my mind and everything spun. The cold, stone floor slammed into me and I lay there for a moment before hands took me, lifting me up, carrying me from there.
Who it was and all of the details escaped me, my eyesight blurry and senses still trying to return to normal.
“Stick with me,” Gale said, and now I could see it was her helping me along. My head swiveled and I could barely make out Shimmer helping Charm, who looked limp.
She’d used her breath on me again, the multicolored one that had hit her pretty hard last time. Of course she wasn’t able to walk on her own.
“Where… where are we… going?”
“Anywhere but here,” she replied as the others charged in, coming to our aid as they helped my mom along. With another thunder of our surroundings, it registered that it wasn’t only my head rumbling and spinning, but everything else as well, shifting, metal grinding. If we didn’t get out of there immediately, in the state we were in, I wasn’t sure we ever would.
18
We quickly discovered that the pyramid without anyone in it took on a life of its own. The undead army of supers, having fallen when I stopped using them, now rose again, as a projection of an ancient A.I. in red robes from head to toe appeared in our path.
My body tingled and I flashed back to my fight on the top of the pyramid, then the other stuff that had happened with ‘her’ when I was plugged in. Staring at her now, I wasn’t sure how to feel, except that I had been, in a sense, violated.
“You’d abandon me, just like that?” she said. I had no response. With a nod of her head, the undead charged, the walls attacked, and we realized we were fucked.
None of us were in the right state of health for this kind of fight. My mom had come to, however, and she was struggling back as Andromida, Gale, and I attempted to fight.
“Leave me!” my mom shouted, lunging and grabbing hold of me as she said, “It’s the only way.”
“We just met,” I countered. “I’m not doing that.”
The pain in her eyes said she didn’t want it that way either, but she held me tight as the fighting continued on around us. “There’s no other way.”
Hating myself, I looked back at the room before sending a tempest attack into my enemy, throwing back a line of the undead. But no, of course I couldn’t do this.
“Let us leave!” I shouted, turning on the A.I. and storming up to her, casting undead aside and then stopping to throw out a ball of electricity that gave us a clearing. “We’ve kicked out the evil presence, and now all we want to do is be free. Step aside.”
The fighting stopped, the A.I. assessing me. A scratchy voice came from the walls, “I’ve been one with you. I know you. Why do you seek to be free, when you’ve tasted my power?”
“We have more evil people to stop,” I said, simply and bluntly.
For a long moment the A.I. didn’t move, then she gave me a curt nod and waved her hands. There was no way I’d expect that to work, but I’d had to do something. The walls started moving back, clearing the way, as the floor rose at an angle.
“Perhaps it is time I return as well,” the A.I. said, undead falling from our platform as it rose away from the rest of the floor. Only she and my team remained. “I believe my directive has been fulfilled.”
“And what directive would that be?” Twitch asked, clutching a sack to her chest that I’d only just noticed.
The A.I. looked her over, contemplated the sack, and then said, “To study your kind. Debate your value as an ally, and report back. We’ve learned much, watching you torture each other, fight each other. It wasn’t until this woman,” she indicated my mom, who I had become strong enough to support now, “an
d then you,” she nodded to me, “shared your conscious with me that I grew to understand the full nature of this galaxy.”
I still wasn’t following, and on top of that had a billion questions for my mom. Everything about this situation was throwing my sense of the universe on its head.
“Who are you with?” Gale asked.
“I’d like to know what you’re going to report back,” I added. “Enemy, or ally?”
The A.I. smiled as the metal moved enough so that light could shine on us, and she faded except for where the bottom of her robes was in the shadows. “I believe we have both enemy and ally here,” she replied. “Whether my masters will decide you’re worth keeping around or simply destroy you as a whole, I cannot predict.”
“What the fuck?” Charm said.
“Be grateful that I will let you leave today,” the A.I. said, irritated by her comment. “And know that I have both good and bad things to report. When we next meet, I hope it won’t be as enemies.”
“You and me both,” I said, still dazed. The platform had stopped moving and now we had a direct path to our ship, visible ahead with scattered debris from destroyed enemy ships all around it.
“I’ve got you, Mom,” I said, helping her from the platform and onto the path. As we walked, I glanced back to see the strange A.I. turning and walking away as the pyramid reshaped itself overhead.
“This has got to be one of the strangest days I’ve ever had,” Shimmer said. “We got what we came for?”
“Right here,” Twitch said, tapping the sack. “The powers, though not the supers.”
“We have one,” I pointed out, nodding to my mom.
“And it was worth it,” she replied.
“But will we be able to track down Ranger?” Gale asked.
“I’ll need to do some calculations, but I have his stones. Since he used the last of his power to travel, I think we’ll be able to track him with some of the powers here. It might be risky, but not impossible.”
“We have to ensure it’s finished,” I said, and they agreed.
Before we had reached our ship, the ground started to shake. We started to run, hurrying forward onto the earth as the pyramid started to fold inward, lifting up out of the ground. We could see others in the distance doing the same, though they were smaller. By the time we reached our ship there were many pyramids in the sky, floating as they folded and folded until at last, they had a shape similar to our destroyers back home. If what the A.I. had said was true, they were scouting ships, here to gain information on this world. Were the ancient pyramids of Earth similar, or some other structures?
These started off, and I couldn’t help but wonder how we’d survive if we were up against that. Presumably, this wasn’t even the beginning of what they had in store for us. Maybe we could still be friends, but too many people in power always make that too difficult.
In the meantime, we’d do whatever was needed to keep our system safe.
I turned to help my mom up the ramp, and saw Twitch with her screens, scanning the departing craft.
“What’re you doing?” I asked.
“Learning everything I can,” she said. “In case there is a problem with them in the future.”
“Good thinking,” I admitted.
My mom was halfway up the ramp when one of the stones started glowing in Twitch’s sack. Taking it out, she assessed it, then handed it over. Nothing happened.
“Maybe it needs this?” Twitch said, and she pulled out a strange mechanical glove. When she held it over the stone, the glove glowed, pulling the light from the stone. Next, she turned the glove on my mom and the light moved to surround her.
The transformation was instantaneous. Where moments ago a battered woman had needed my help to stand, now that same woman stood tall, radiant. Her skin seemed to glow gold, her eyes the same.
“Son,” she said as if really seeing me for the first time. She cocked her head, one hand on my cheek, and smiled. “You are more handsome than I ever could have imagined.”
My mouth opened to respond, but I couldn’t. All I could do was wonder what had happened, my mind returning over and over to the fact that this was a woman who had given me and my brother up. Worse, sent us to Earth where we’d have no powers!
“It wasn’t like that,” she said, and then nodded. “And yes, part of my powers is telepathy.”
“If it wasn’t like that, how was it then?”
“We had to save you two, to keep you from all this,” she said. “Evil supervillains were after us, and therefore after you, as well. If anything had happened to you…”
“And instead something happened to the two of you, leaving us without parents… almost.”
“Your dad isn’t dead,” she said. “I can tell you that much.”
I blinked, confused. “How?”
“Even without him being nearby, I feel his life force. Strange, maybe. But he’s not dead at least.”
“And you?” I asked. “You’re fine now?”
“Now I am, thanks to you and your friends.” She smiled and looked at us, but then blinked and looked back at me. “Or whatever you want to call them. Not judging,” she quickly added, hands up with a laugh. “Sometimes this mind reading ability tells me more than I’d like to know.”
“An embarrassing moment with my mom,” I replied, grinning, “I’ve always wanted one of those.”
She reached out and took me into an embrace. “I can’t stay, you know.”
“Where will you go?” Twitch asked. The others were all there, watching and listening.
“To protect the Elders, to…” Her voice faded as she looked at me, along with her smile. “But if you’re here, that means they’ve fallen.”
“It does,” I said.
“And the Citadel?”
“Not yet.”
She nodded. “I don’t suppose you’re headed there?”
“We have other business to attend to,” Twitch answered. “But will be back there again soon.”
“Good,” my mom replied. “Because that’s where I’ll be. I mean to set up the defenses, find a way to launch an offensive and serve as a beacon for all new warriors. It’s of the utmost importance, and really must not be delayed or I’d certainly come on this mission of yours.” Leaning in, she lowered her voice to add, “Though some of these women would rather have you without me there, for some odd reason.”
“I can’t think why,” I replied with a laugh, then added, “Ah, please don’t read my mind right now.”
She sighed, gave me another hug, and then stepped back and vanished.
Without another word, the rest of us found our way into the ship, took our posts, and prepared for takeoff. We’d figure out how the powers of the supers trapped in the stones worked, while hoping it would lead to the location or at least more clues regarding the missing Tier Ones. We’d also figure out how to get to Abaddon, so we could fulfil our promise to Andromida.
As we took to the sky, I looked out at the deep holes in the ground, then back to that spot she’d vanished. I hadn’t expected to find my biological mom here. Hell, I hadn’t expected her to actually be alive. I’d seen enough sad movies to expect her to be up here drugged out of her mind and wanting nothing to do with me. Instead, she’d be back at the Citadel, where I too would one day end up.
It gave me that much more motivation to kick ass and earn my spot as an Elder as soon as possible, because now, more than ever, I understood what it could mean to one day be too late. This wasn’t an opportunity I was willing to let go.
And on that note, I was pleased to see that I’d upgraded to level twenty-nine. Fuck yeah, I was extending my ability to transform and hold it there. Dragon all the way, baby.
19
Nobody had said a word until we were back in space, flying toward Junos and the superhero schools, where Twitch said we would touch down if she’d been able to do what needed to be done by then.
“He escaped!” Charm shouted when she was out of her seat,
kicking at the air in a way that made her look like a madwoman, or maybe a ferocious fox defending its little ones. “How the fuck did that happen?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Andromida said.
“Don’t you tell me that shit,” Charm said, “not after all your hokey-pokey bullshit about revenge and—”
“It doesn’t matter,” Andromida repeated, “because we know where he went, and it’s exactly where we’re going. At least where I’m going.”
“We,” Twitch assured her.
“And if he’s not there?” Gale asked.
“You mean, if he’s teleported again?” Twitch asked, then glanced at me.
I shook my head. “Doubtful. From what I can tell, we’d sapped his powers pretty good. That might have been the last of them right there, just to go to that place.”
“And what place is that?” Charm asked, glancing around at everyone but Shimmer and Gale. “Seems like half of us know what’s going on, but I’m on the other half.”
“He’s on Abaddon,” Andromida said.
I considered this, then nodded. Somehow, him teleporting while I had all those powers active had allowed me to sense what was happening, and that sounded right.
“I recognized the woman,” Twitch said.
“The final piece of my revenge puzzle, the one I’d thought was dead,” Andromida said. “He’s gone to her in hopes of having his powers restored. It won’t work.”
“Unless she gets the supra tech that has put a halt on supers’ powers on Abaddon,” Twitch countered. “Then we might have some trouble on our hands.”
Twitch indicated our new collection of stones and held up the glove. “In this case, they’ve captured power much like they had on the prison ship. They keep prisoners on Abaddon, both normal and super, but cancel out the powers of the supers so they can throw them to the wolves, as it were.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, they put them in with the rest of the barbarians on that Abaddon show,” Twitch said. She grinned, motioning to the display. “I’ve been catching up on some reading.”