The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Korporeal

“The roof is clear,” I said into the comms before shifting back into a hawk and fluttering off the roof of the impressive downtown apartment building.

“No sign of anything?” Io said back. She was exasperated. Sometimes I wish I couldn’t understand human speech while in an animal form. Heck, I’d gladly take comms that didn’t follow my shapeshifting too. It would be great to be the one member of Aurora Flight that didn’t have someone barking at them all the time.

“Nothing a dog can smell or a hawk can see,” I said as I turned back into ‘myself’ after flying through a window and landing back in the penthouse. By ‘myself,’ today I meant a 6′5 Sudanese supermodel with rich ebony skin, a bald head, thin features, and a strikingly elegant face. Eyes like some prophetess that were unusually blue against my dark features. Most people found her amazing, but the truth was she was one of the winners on America’s Top Model twenty years ago. I took a lot of my looks from that season, but so far no one had caught on to my system. And if they had, they hadn’t confronted me.

The rest of Aurora Flight was waiting for me in the penthouse. We’d checked the warehouse already for any sign of the blue-haired woman that took Synapse. There wasn’t much to find. No trace of anything biological or prints. Only an eerie four-post bed in the middle of the abandoned warehouse with chains attached to each post. Io had done her best to find any clues, and she took samples of almost everything, but we were waiting for lab results. Crime scene investigation was slow. Painfully slow.

And we were losing our lead.

“I do not like the look of this place,” Bastille said in her French accent.

“No,” Io said, pacing around. The penthouse was a mess when we found it. More than ruined sheets, ripped clothes, and the obvious signs of a wild party. There was a treasure trove of kinky BDSM toys that felt in line with the chains on the bed in the warehouse. Now, I’m not one to kink shame, but some of this shit went beyond the playful and into the dark. And the hospital bed with straps built into it and the series of computer banks that weren’t quite put away didn’t make us feel any more comfortable.

Especially now that Eidolon was missing. She came here last, and then nothing. The tracker in her suit was gone. It must have been the blue-haired woman, grabbing another one of us.

“Looks like a party,” I said as I kicked a studded and massive dildo.

Surya held up a whip and several empty glass decanters of alcohol. “I don’t know if these two go together.” Then she smirked and turned to Bastille. “What do you think?”

Bastille blushed and turned away.

Those two were getting weird.

Honestly, everyone had been since our bust on Hauzer and that bitch’s “escape.”

“I’m going to check the front desk,” I said. “You all dust for fingerprints or something.”

“I’ll come with you,” Io said. “I can check their camera footage.”

I waved her off. “I got it. I doubt we’ll find anything. You look for … I dunno. Bugs or something in here. I imagine they’re probably watching us.”

“Fuck,” Io hissed. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“It’s okay,” Surya said. “You’ve been under a lot of pressure. We all have been. How many hours a day have you been —”

I stepped into the elevator and let the dribble of them comforting Io leave me behind. Io wasn’t the only exhausted one. I’d spent hours each day flying over the city or crawling through its underbelly. But I’m sure Io scanning the internet with her powerful Google searches was exhausting.

I shifted into a shorter, curvier, blonde lingerie model before stepping off the elevator. An early 2000s Heidi Klum, if you must know. I just changed the face a bit to cover my total lack of originality. Tits, ass, and the Aurora Flight patch on my suit got me into the security room where I could look over footage with an overaged creep breathing down my neck.

But after five minutes and no computer skills, I was able to find the time that Eidolon should have been here. No footage in the penthouse, but I watched as she came out of the elevator with some hot and nervous nerd in broken glasses. Then a confrontation with the doorman and a police officer about some redheaded twins. And then Eidolon did her shadow thing and —

“Oh no,” I said, covering my mouth.

She didn’t step into a shadow. She did something … else? Something to the people. I watched the officer’s jaw go slack and his eyes softened. She did something to him. He was there, but all the confrontation was out of him and —

Something wet dripped on my neck.

I jumped and spun around, and the security officer creep was leaning over my shoulder, drooling on me … all slack-jawed and glassy eyed.

“Holy shit,” I whispered.

“Kori, we gotta go,” Io said in my comms. “We got a lead. I think I know exactly where the blue-haired woman is.”

I didn’t say anything as the security officer turned to me slowly like a zombie, still barely there. Then, slowly, he went back and rewound the footage, and I watched again as Eidolon did something to the minds of two strangers before taking the redheads with her.

“Kori? You there?” Io said. “Did you find anything?”

The security officer got a goofy grin on his stupid face and held up a finger to his lips. Then he rewound the footage, and I watched again as Eidolon stupefied two people before kidnapping two more.

“Kori? Anything on the cameras?” Io said in the comms. “Come on, we gotta go.”

I watched the footage again, and this time I focused on Eidolon’s face. She didn’t look scared. She looked pissed. Pissed and something else. Then the officer replayed it, and I watched the other women. They weren’t scared. They were happy to go with her. Giggling. Stupid. Willing.

“Kori?”

“One more time,” I said to the officer. He nodded slowly and replayed the footage. I watched Eidolon’s face. It wasn’t just rage. It was hunger. It was aching.

It was lust.

“What did you find?” Io asked again.

Eidolon wasn’t just taken. It was something else. Something had corrupted her. Like what happened when we lost Synapse. The blue-haired woman.

“Nothing,” I said into my comms. “I’ll be right there.”

Then I looked at the security officer, my breath ragged. “Play it one more time,” I said. “Please.”

Eidolon

“Hold her still, Gretch,” I said through gritted teeth. Gretch said something that was probably an apology, but I wasn’t sure. She muttered most of what she said because her bimbo voice had gotten on my nerves. Last time I heard her say ‘like’ seven times in one sentence I threatened to remove her ability to speak. She’s been quieter since then.

And more obedient.

For example, she knew to bring me girls, like this lovely Chinese woman I was fiddling with. Gretch went clubbing, made friends, made out with them, and brought them back here, to our little safehouse. A couple dozen security checks later, and then her friends became more practice.

Hopefully they would turn out better than the twins had.

“I said hold her,” I snapped. Sweat was dripping into my eyes, but I couldn’t free my hands to wipe it unless my bimbo assistant could keep the girl still. I would have to invest in a better apparatus for keeping trials still. I don’t think they felt me stepping into their minds, but I suppose the gaunt and pale woman flickering in and out of the shadows was terrifying enough to make them squirm. I just needed them to keep the lines still so I didn’t cut the wrong one.

Again.

As it was, stepping in and out of the Gray was exhausting. But I had to keep testing. Cut a strand, then ask questions, observe results. Step into the gray, tie the line back. Step out, observe results. Over and over. I still hadn’t figured out how to add personality or preference to someone in the way that Soma did. I could only cut away, and that wasn’t good enough. I couldn’t make Io beg to be my little slut just by cutting away at her personality. Besides, I didn’t want her to lose that spark in her eye. That condescension. That haughty arrogance. I wanted her to be at her full capacity when she begged to lick my cunt. I wanted her to know how debased and disgusting she was becoming all for my amusement. Fuck.

Focus, ’Lon.

Besides, I was miles away from getting Io where I wanted her. I needed more practice, but I couldn’t figure out which was worse: the discovery that where I cut the strand changed the result meant that the puzzle was infinitely more complex than I originally thought or the fact that my weariness was making me sloppy.

“I said hold her the fuck still!” I stepped out of the Gray in time to slap Gretch with my backhand.

And grumpy. Sloppy and grumpy.

Gretch staggered back, letting go of my practice, and I was just about to unleash another torrent of expletives when the power to my one safe place from Aurora Flight was cut. Darkness rushed around us, and despite my weariness, I stepped into the Gray, not wanting to be corporeal when I sensed danger. And I could see in the dark as long as I was in the Gray. It was a vision based on the absence of light, not on the presence of it. Whoever cut the power — assuming someone cut it, Jesus, ’Lon, paranoid much? — didn’t know who they were dealing with. That meant they were an amateur. Or this had nothing to do with me. I was safe. I was safe. I was safe.

Because I knew Aurora Flight would hunt me down. I hadn’t done a good enough job of covering my tracks. Maybe for a while they would assume me going MIA was simply Soma kidnapping me or killing me. But eventually Io would find me. I couldn’t hide as well as Soma did. This building should have been secured. It never had a phone line connected to it, let alone Wi-Fi. I should have been invisible to her here, but I could have made a mistake. I wasn’t my best self lately. On edge. Tired. Horny. All of it —

The lights cut back on. Searing white illuminated the beautiful Chinese girl — maybe college aged — in a mini skirt and tight crop-top with platform heels. Gretch was in the corner, sobbing, and the glaring light made her German skin look even paler. Our room was bare except for the ironing board we strapped our practice subjects too. I didn’t need distraction. I didn’t need tools. I just needed practice — though a better table would have held the women still. And there, in the doorway, was a silhouette stepping into the bright light.

A silhouette with cobalt blue hair.

I shouted something and realized with dread that I had a voice. I was corporeal again. Of course. The light. I looked for a shadow to step into, but something was sliding towards me. It was a black and heavy disk, like a thick frisbee. It landed at my feet and opened up. Lamps unfurled from around it like flower petals, and all of them shot bright UV light directly at me. It was another trap. Just like how Soma caught me weeks ago. There was no shadow to step into, no Gray, no escape.

And before I could panic or cry out, a soft laugh filled the room. Not the laugh of Soma — the laugh that filled and thrilled my dreams. It was delicate. Girlish. And as she approached, the light illuminated the face of my good friend.

Synapse.

“I think it’s time we talk,” she said with a strange smirk on her face. One I’d never seen on her face, but still I’d seen it of late. In mirrors. In dreams. In the shadows. In the Gray.

Korporeal

“We’re one thousand feet above the safehouse,” Io said to us. “That should be out of range of most decent detection, though we could be wrong.”

“We’ve been wrong before,” Bastille said under her breath.

Io glared at her but didn’t say anything for a moment. She licked her lips, and then looked at me. “Kori, you go first and scout it out. I doubt a bird will show up to either of them.”

I nodded and held back my comment. What if I wanted to be a bat? No one seemed to ask what form I preferred to be.

“Then Surya will fly Bastille down when you give us the all-clear. I’ll stay here. If I’m out of range of this bitch’s powers, I can be the central communication between all of us. I’ve reconfigured the network. It’s more analog. You all talk to me, not each other.”

“That makes sense,” Surya said. “Though is separating wise?”

“No,” Io said. “We’re not going to make that mistake again. When Kori gives the all-clear, she’ll meet up with you. Whatever you three do, don’t get separated.”

“Sounds good,” I said. I turned to Bastille. “Finch? Blue jay? Robin? Cardinal?”

“Finch,” Bastille said. “Blue jays are little bastards.”

“Fair,” I said. I opened the door of the hover jet as the wind ripped around us. I saluted the team with two fingers and plunged into the air, assuming the form of a finch before my feet left the platform. The wind had its way with me as I was caught in the hover jet’s airstream, but then I found my balance and descended towards the safehouse Io had located.

Apparently, she found it by not finding it. It was an absence on the grid, an old building that would be perfect to hide from her. It was in the middle of the city, so it was obscured by all the noise and overcrowding, but still, Io was good. The best.

Except we knew the blue-haired woman was better.

I still couldn’t believe I never got her name. I ate up that bullshit story about her being a famous actress, and somehow never asked her name? No. I couldn’t think straight when she was around. She mentioned that she had been in some adult films, and that was all I thought about. Not her in porn, but just porn in general. It was like every erotic film I’d seen in my entire life was flashing through my head. And then, I was wondering what it would be like to be in one of those films. I knew I could. I could be a sensation. Could any performer do what I did? I could be cast for any role, any scene. Any body type, fetish, kink. Fuck, I could even play the men if a producer wanted me to.

And right there, in the middle of a rescue with a hostage, all I could think about was sex. Sex I had in the past, sex I wanted to have in the future, and sex I could have been having, right there in the present. And then she was touching me, and it was all I wanted. Needed. I didn’t even think about Io or the mission. God help me, I even forgot all about Synapse. In that moment, my body took over. And I’d been there before — though normally with much much more tequila in my system. I’d been to that place where my body took over and my mind faded away. When you don’t care that you’ve never said a word to this guy, you just want his body. When you don’t care if he’s a good guy or married or can even spell. You just want his hands on you or in you. You need your clothes off and your skin touched.

But I wasn’t high or at a club. I was on the job. I was rescuing a hostage. Her life was in danger. My life was in danger. But her hands were better than anyone else. There was nothing like her touch. Trust me, I know now. I’ve been searching. Hunting. Picking up girls and going to kinkier and kinkier clubs. I’ve been looking for it, but it’s nowhere. Not in a dominatrix or a high-priced called girl. Not in Japan or the brothels of France. Nowhere. I can cum. I can fuck. I can do all the things a slutty girl like me loves to do, but it’s just not the same.

It’s empty.

And now we’re going back to the start, back to the blue-haired woman that ruined me. And I don’t just mean the pounding she gave my ass and how I ached for days afterwards. I mean the touch that ruined every touch. I had searched the city and beyond for her, just like we were supposed to do. But it wasn’t the same. The specter of her touch wasn’t in any human hands.

But it was here. Now. In this safehouse.

I was coming home.

Eidolon

“Synapse?” I said. My voice was hoarse, and I hated the weakness in it. Too much shouting at Gretch. Not enough sleep.

“Synapse?” Gretch said from the corner. Synapse looked at her sadly, raised her hand, and my little bimbo passed out cold. Synapse walked over to the table, touched the head of my practice subject, and did the same thing to her.

“Practice subject?” Synapse said. She clicked her tongue and shook her head. “My, how you’ve fallen.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked. “And are you … are you …”

“No,” she said without breaking her gaze at the Chinese woman I’d been playing with. She tapped her forehead. “Just impressions. Nothing concrete. Barely even anything you would recognize as language. More like how you know someone is hungry when their stomach growls, but not like I know what they’re craving.”

She looked up at me and smirked again. “But I can pick up some words. The loud ones.” Chills ran up and down my spine. This wasn’t Synapse. This was Soma. Or something in between. It wasn’t the overwhelming dominance of Soma, but then again, I’d barely seen the blue-haired villain. Sure, she was sweet when she was seducing Kori, but then she was fucking her hard. Then she was a monster. Synapse didn’t make me think monster. No. She made me think —

“Demon,” Synapse said. She laughed. “How appropriate considering my roots.” She looked at her hands as though her body was new, as though surprised to find she had flesh at all. I had to admit she had changed. Not just in her body posture or confidence — she moved through the room like a panther on the prowl. But her hair was longer. She was wearing dark lipstick and thick eyeliner. The Synapse I knew never bothered with makeup. It was a carry-over from her church-girl days. Something about vanity.

But she was also dressed in a way I’d never seen before. Tight black pants that looked expensive, but I couldn’t tell what material they were made out of. Her top was made of black lace with a high neck, and long sleeves that turned into fingerless gloves. The bright light that had me trapped also showed that she had no bra on. A detail that I couldn’t —

“Shame shame,” Synapse said. “Dirty thoughts in the middle of your arrest.”

“Arrest?” The word brought me back to the present. My friend might have changed, but she was still a member of Aurora Flight. It didn’t matter how she escaped Soma. I had thought I could hide from them, but they found me. They were going to find me in a room with one woman strapped to an ironing board and another woman a brainless bimbo.

“She was a doctor,” Synapse said. She sighed and went over to Gretch. “Gretchen,” Synapse said as she bent down, placing her hand on the Gretch’s face. I never bothered to replace her broken glasses. I didn’t care how she saw, as long as she did what I asked her to do.

“What have you done?” Synapse looked from Gretch to me, her eyes narrowed. Her words were soft, but the disappointment in them was keen. No longer was she amused and bantering with me. I saw the flicker of my former friend’s face in shock and horror at what I’d managed.

“I … I … I …” Why were words failing me now? Was it the light? Or was it simply someone from my past. Perla and Gretch had to reconcile with what I was — what I was presenting to them. But Aurora Flight would have to reconcile with what I’d become. Especially Synapse. Maybe that was why I was hiding in this little fortress?

Synapse closed her eyes and put both her hands on the side of Gretch’s head, massaging my minion’s temples. “You’re a butcher,” she said. Again, her words were soft. I would have preferred if she was yelling at me, if she was punching me. Anything but this.

Synapse opened her eyes and let Gretch’s head slump back onto her shoulders. My blue-haired friend in black lace rose to her feet. At first it seemed like she was impossibly tall, but then I saw the thin stiletto heels forcing her onto her tiptoes.

“You need practice,” Synapse said. The softness in her voice was gone and replaced with a huskiness I recognized. She pointed to the Chinese woman — I really should have learned her name — strapped to the table. “And so you got some.”

I said nothing as Synapse clicked her tongue and moved towards my subject. She clicked her tongue and shook her head with disappointment, but this wasn’t the disappointment of a friend, it was more like a strict teacher disappointed with her favorite pupil. She put her hands on the Chinese woman’s forehead as she had done with Gretch.

“Gretchen,” Synapse said softly with her eyes closed. “I won’t correct you again.”

“Sorry,” I said. And though I felt guilty for a flickering second, that spark of shame was enough to ignite my rage. I didn’t owe anyone an apology, not even Synapse. She had spent her life messing with people’s heads. And now that I was learning the craft, she was disgusted with me? She was the only one allowed to play God? Fuck that. Fuck her. I was done with the bizarre morality games of this world. Not just Aurora Flight, but anyone. Everyone. We all pretended to be decent human beings, and then when no one was looking, we got away with whatever we could.

“Hm,” Synapse said as she let go of my test subject’s head. “That’s more like it.”

“What’s more like it?” I ground my teeth. “Cut out the omniscient goddess bullshit. It’s rude.”

“Now you care all of the sudden what’s rude and what’s not? What about the bizarre morality of this world?”

“Fuck.” I spat in her general direction. “You.”

“Poor ’Lon,” she said, circling around me in the light trap. “So much anger.”

“Let me out and I’ll show you my anger.”

“I have no doubt you will.” I tried to follow Synapse as she spiraled around me like a hawk preparing to descend on her prey, but she lurked just out of my vision. I didn’t know how traps like these worked, why they didn’t just cut me off from the Gray but took away all mobility in my body as well. It should have panicked me. A member of Aurora Flight had me trapped. A potential minion of Soma had me. There were victims in the room. I was done. It was over. But it wasn’t fear or panic spreading through my body. It wasn’t even the anger flaring up from Synapse’s condescending tone.

It was something else.

Something warm and sticky.

Something slithering up my thighs and down my belly.

“But what do you have to be angry about now, little ghost?” Synapse said. “You used to hate the Gray. Now you’ve discovered it has more power than you could ever imagine. You hated that Aurora Flight rejected you and looked down on you — not just them, but the whole world — but now you reject the ‘bizarre morality of the world.’ You’ve found power, purpose, and freedom. Yet you’re still so angry. Why?”

“What did she do to you?” I asked.

“Who?”

“Soma.”

Synapse stopped circling. I tried again to twist my neck to see her, but it was as though the light tightened around me whenever I tried to move. And as the light’s grip on my skin intensified, so too did the tingling stickiness over my skin and between my legs.

Fuck.

“You’re playing with my senses,” I said. My voice was ragged and breathy. I barely stifled a moan, but I couldn’t hide my arousal. “Just like she does.” I bit my lip as the warmth centralized. All warmth fled my body except for the yummy heat between my legs.

Holy fuck.

“I’m learning how she works. You should have seen what she did to Gretchen’s brain,” I said, proud to use the moron’s proper name and avoid any of Synapse’s ire. “I know I cut away too much, but I was just trying to cut out what Soma put in there. I can cut away her control over you.”

Synapse was silent. The overwhelming pleasure in my cunt stopped building. It stayed at a steady thrum, taunting me. I knew she could give me more. She could give more than I could ever handle, more than I’d dare to ask for. I focused on the pleasure to cut off my thoughts. If she could read my plan — my only hope of escape — I’d just piss her off rather than convince her to let me out.

“This isn’t you, Synapse. You don’t talk this way to your friends. You’re not some alpha bitch. You’re my only friend in Aurora Flight — my only friend in the world.” I didn’t have to over act and lay the pity on thick in my voice. I wasn’t thinking at all. I was just talking. My thoughts were on my pussy, were on my desperate need to get my fingers there, to ease some of the building pressure inside me. “You are empathetic and loving. Gentle and nervous. A little shy but only because people suck. Not in the way I think they suck. In a genuine and compassionate way. You thought they were too much. Too loud. But you cared about them and —”

Synapse broke my moving speech with her sharp laughter. It wasn’t the wonderfully haunting laughter of Soma’s that haunted my dreams. Here, Synapse sounded young. She was. It was almost a giggle, all high-pitched and girlish. But it ran through my safehouse, riding the paralyzing beams of light, and running over my skin. It was the giggle of every high school bully bitch before she tore you apart in front of the whole school. It was the popular girl’s disbelief at how stupid you were. It was dozens of bad memories all at once. Questions about my pale, inhuman skin followed by that giggle. Questions about my flat chest or thin features, and then a gaggle of bimbos giggling in harmony. And all you want to do is hide in the shadows, but the light won’t let you. They can see you, and the light won’t let you. They all can see you, and the light won’t let you. The shame burns like the light. It lingers on the skin for weeks. It slumps the shoulders to create your own shadow, to slip away. But there isn’t enough darkness. Just light. More light. Too much light.

Light and warmth.

The tingling of skin and the relaxing of the scalp as the light danced over my soft skin. Warmth over my small breasts. My nipples stiffening at the sound of their giggles. My legs going weak. My thighs burning as they all see me shuffle away. The sound following me, running over my skin like light. Burning me up. Swallowing me.

I moaned like a whore in heat.

I tried to arch my back, to get my fingers to my pussy, to run my hands over my breasts, but I was trapped by the light, and that just made me moan again. Moan louder. I was trapped. There was nowhere to hide. Synapse saw me truly. She saw that I was a monster. An angry monster. She saw my victims. My crimes. There was no way to hide it anymore. For years people thought I was a ghost, a demon, because of how my powers worked. And I thought being a hero could hide that from them. But they were right. I was a demon, and now Synapse saw me truly. I was trapped in her light, trapped by her laughter.

And fuck, I wanted to cum.

“Soma doesn’t own me,” Synapse said. “Though I’m glad you can sense the change.” The clicking of her heels filled the room as she circled around me again.

“How does she do it?” I asked. “Is it just through sex?”

Synapse stood in front of me. Her cobalt-blue hair looked almost platinum with the burning light against it. The burning UV showed every curve of her breasts through the lace top. She was magnificent to behold. Like an angel. No. Like Lucifer. The angel of light turned devil.

Synapse shook her head. “No.” Her smirk appeared again on her dark lips. The smirk of every person who ever mocked me, ever made me feel dirty and small. The smirk of Soma.

The smirk of Io.

“Though you would be surprised how compelling arousal is to obedience.” Synapse reached out to me. Out for my pussy. And I wanted to run into her hand. To grip her wrist and hump her fingers wildly. But I couldn’t move. I could only watch as her hand approached, as it crossed the barrier of the light trap, as it cast a long shadow over my skin.

I didn’t hesitate.

Before the thought could appear in my mind, I stepped through the shadow — which never required me to move an inch of my body — and out of the light trap.

Korporeal

“The power has been cut to the building,” Io said as I approached the safehouse.

“There are lights on,” I thought into my comm. We couldn’t afford five telepathic linking comms, so I got the only one. It was better than squawking at the team.

“It’s a generator,” Io said. “Has to be. Can you check it out?”

I didn’t think at her, ‘Is that an order?’ Instead, I dutifully flew closer. If a generator was making this light, it was one hell of a generator. The light was brighter than anything I’d ever seen, like fluorescents on crack. Pure white beams flowed out of the windows and cast long shadows over the dark hallways.

I flew around the building three times, trying to get in every detail before calling in Surya and Bastille. My tiny bird heart was pounding and drowning out all sense of reason. On one hand, if they were with me, I was less likely to be found and trapped by the blue-haired woman. On the other hand, if they weren’t with me, I was likely to be found and fucked by the blue-haired woman.

Decisions. Decisions.

I flew up onto the roof. “Looks clear so far,” I said. “Though it looks like all that light is coming from only one room. I don’t hear a generator, and that light is powerful.”

“Could be a super,” Surya said.

“Exactly,” I said.

“You think she’s got more villains under her control?” Bastille asked.

“Or a hero.” Io said. “Any other light supers besides you, Surya?”

“Lightlance is based in London. I doubt she’d go across the planet to recruit.”

“She’s been gone a long time. Plenty of time to build a team.”

Surya sighed into her comms. “Lightlance is also pretty weak.”

“But he could do this, right?” Io asked.

“Yeah. He could.”

“Let’s go,” Bastille said. “I want to be down there.”

“Fine,” Io said. “But be careful.”

In another moment, Surya and Bastille were with me on the roof, all of us about to explore the one room where the light was coming from.

Eidolon

I didn’t bother with a counterattack. There was still almost no shadow in the room, and I didn’t know how many more traps Synapse had. I stepped into the hallway and turned to run back into the darkness of the safehouse when my legs gave out.

And my knees.

Hands.

Feet.

“Fuck,” I gasped, but even my diaphragm was slow and sluggish.

“Sorry,” Synapse said. “I can’t have you getting away with what you know now. Maybe I should show you what it feels like to be a pig at the butcher.”

“Into vengeance now?” I asked. It was stupid. I was wasting my breath on banter.

Synapse loomed over me, casting a shadow over me from the light pouring out of the room behind us, but I didn’t jump. Not yet. I tried to clear my mind. I focused on the panic of losing my limbs, of being trapped, of being lobotomized by my best friend.

“You could have practiced on animals,” she said.

“They can’t hold a good conversation.”

“Neither can Gretchen now.”

This would have been the perfect time for a condescending shrug of my shoulders. Fucking paralysis. I expected to see some cruel and disapproving look from Synapse staring down at me with the light haloing around her beautiful blue hair. But instead, it was the same amused smirk.

“Fuck,” I said, “you’re not mad at me, are you?”

Synapse shrugged. “Maybe annoyed. But I can’t say I had a much kinder fate in store for her.”

A shiver ran down my body. “What the fuck happened to you?”

“I shouted down my better angels.”

I wrinkled my face in confusion long enough for her to tilt her head back and laugh, closing her eyes.

I stepped through her shadow and down the corridor out of her abrasive UV light. I was in the Gray, about to round the corner and get the fuck out of this deathtrap when it felt like a leash around my neck yanked me back. I fell onto my back, out of the Gray, but still in the dark.

Synapse clicked her tongue. “I haven’t got to play with many supers, but if you keep that up, I’ll understand how your power works and shut it off forever.”

“Fuck you,” I said. I wheezed. It felt like ten tons were on my chest, crushing me and making it impossible to breathe.

“Ooh, hard to breathe?”

“F-F-F—”

Synapse giggled again. And fuck me if it didn’t turn me on. Was she giving me some kind of humiliation fetish? Fuck her very much, I think we can call that working for Io for years. Jesus, fuck, I needed to get out of here. I needed to breathe.

I needed to cum.

I knew she was right — that if I kept stepping into the shadows, she’d figure out how my powers worked and ruin me with it. But I needed to breathe. There was the whirring of something outside the building? A helicopter? Had the idiot police somehow found this place? I stepped into the Gray and immediately stepped out around the corner. I made a big fucking noise, and then stepped back into the Gray, rushing through Synapse and —

I froze.

There, in the middle of the hallway, in the Gray, Synapse’s mind was like a goddamn beacon lighting up the room. Her brain was shadowed and hidden like Gretchen’s or the twins. It was a disco ball letting its rays of light sparkle all over the hallway. No. That makes it sound cheap. It was like a diamond the size of her brain that was filled with a tiny sun. It was the loveliest thing I’d ever seen.

I stepped out of the Gray and resisted the urge to fall to my knees. “What are you?” I whispered. I didn’t bother to hide the awe in my voice. I don’t think I could have managed it. If all my other test subjects had brains like cities, they were small fry stuff. Knoxville, Durham, Hoboken. Fuck. Places plenty of people lived but no one heard of it. Scattered lights. Dim Constellations. Synapse was New York City. She was Vegas or Dubai. She was a tightly swirling galaxy compared to their boring cities. She was a supernova.

But Synapse didn’t answer my question. Not with her mouth anyways. She reached out with her mind, and I felt her seize me once more. The weight was back on my chest. My limbs were frozen under her control. The warmth was back between my legs as I ached to be restrained. I was the bitch that no wall could keep out, but I just wanted to be held down. To be pinned and —

“Fuck,” I hissed before stepping into the Gray. I was blinded immediately with the marvel of Synapse’s mind. But I wasn’t planning to stay. I flickered back into my body immediately, and Synapse didn’t hesitate. She seized me again, but she didn’t press.

“Hold still,” she said. Her hands were on her hips as she pouted, but she didn’t make me laugh. There was nothing amusing about what she could do to me. Nothing amusing about what my body wanted her to do to me. Nothing amusing about what that miraculous mind was capable of.

“Stalemate,” I said. I stepped back and lifted my fists. Neither of us were fighters, but if it came to that, I liked my chances. Synapse was tough but she didn’t have the cruelty to —

Synapse drew a long and curved knife from a sheath on her thigh. She didn’t hold it like an amateur. “No. Keep flickering, and I’ll have you. You can’t hold out forever.”

“I don’t have to,” I said. “You hear that?” I looked up, and Synapse’s eyes darted up. I could have tried to run again. I could have stepped into the Gray and tried to get the knife from her. I could have done a dozen things, but something in me told me that she wasn’t my enemy. Maybe it was something she put there. Maybe it was more goddamn mind games.

“They’re here,” I said, hoping it was true. Thinking with all my might that a hover jet filled with Aurora Flight was a thousand feet above us.

“They. Not us.” Synapse’s smile widened. When her shoulder relaxed, I made my mode. I stepped into the Gray and feinted that I was moving at her, thinking as hard as I could that I wanted to grab that knife. But I was rushing past her. I was getting the fuck out of here before the rest of Aurora Flight showed up and —

I became corporeal all at once. I tried to step into the Gray again, but my power didn’t answer my call. I panicked, but something strong grabbed my wrist, spun me, and slammed me into the wall of the dark hallway. I cried out in pain, but I was silenced immediately. At first, I thought she was gagging me, but when the warmth between my legs turned to lightning, the pleasure burned white hot, and her tongue slipped past my lips, I knew.

Synapse was kissing me.

And before my brain could do a damn thing about it, my body was kissing her back.

Korporeal

I went first as a tarantula on the ceiling. Bastille and Surya were always a few feet behind me, waiting at each corner or door before I let them know things were safe. The entire building was blacked out except for that one room, which was a beacon of white light burning against the night.

“Uhhn,” someone moaned from down the hallway. I knew it was probably someone restrained, someone gagged and desperate. Hell, it could be someone being tortured. But even my tarantula body thrummed at the idea that it could be someone else. Knowing the blue-haired woman, it could be.

The moan — god, there really are two different kinds of moans, aren’t there? — was followed by another sound. Sounds. Something wet. Something sticky. Slapping. Clapping.

Oh god. Fucking.

Bastille and Surya were looking at each other nervously back around the corner. Were they suddenly shy? Or were they like me? Was this all too familiar? Were they haunted by the delightful dreams they’ve been having since the last time they hunted down the blue-haired woman in a dark building.

“Fuck, yes,” someone shouted across the building. “There. There. Right. Fucking. There!”

“At least we know it’s consensual,” Surya whispered.

Bastille glared at her. Did she think Surya was being too flippant? Or was she thinking what I was thinking? That we didn’t know if anything could be consensual where the blue-haired woman was concerned. Because if it was, what the fuck happened to us last time? Things we consented to? Things we wanted? Things we ached for?

“What?” Surya asked when Bastille wouldn’t stop glaring.

Bastille shook her head. “Let’s go,” she said as she pushed past Surya. Past me. Heading deeper into the darkness.

“Wait, let me lead,” I thought over the comms.

But Bastille ignored me.

“What’s going on?” Io asked over the comms.

But no one answered. We rounded the corner and saw a room overflowing with white light into our little hallway of darkness. But it wasn’t just the light that spilled out. The noise flowed out of there too.

It was time.

Eidolon

I melted into her. Like her lips were the Gray, a world only I could slip into. No. Not the Gray. The Gray was depressing and colorless. A world like it. Where anything was possible. Where everything was free. Not quite the opposite of the Gray, but definitely the opposite of the light trap.

The Dark.

Her lips were the Dark that I could step into now. Dark like her lips. Like the lace clinging to her body. Like the shadows cast over us now. I wanted to stay there, to step into her world and never leave it. There was only warmth there, like the center of the world. Darkness and heat. Death and lava. Shadow and lust. My body was brimming with desire, and my cunt ached to be touched, to be … anything.

But Synapse broke the kiss. She pulled back, and both our chests heaved. I would say it was passion building between us. But it wasn’t quite that. It wasn’t even desire. It was more like hate. More like anger under my skin. But I didn’t want to punch a wall. I wanted to kiss her again. I wanted to pin her against a wall. I wanted to make her moan.

“Not now,” Synapse said. She looked up as she stepped back. “We’re out of time.”

“What about …” I didn’t know where the sentence was going. What about me? What about my victims in the other room? What about us? What about Aurora Flight? What about the Darkness budding between us?

“I’m going to rule the world one day,” Synapse said. All her flirtation was gone. She wasn’t the disappointed friend or the amused villainess. She said it as plainly as some people say they’re going to college to be a doctor. She looked into my eyes, and with the light haloing around her and blinding me, her eyes looked black. Another Darkness I wish I could step into.

“It’s my destiny,” she said. “I’m not from this planet, and I was sent to conquer it.”

I knew she was saying words, but I wasn’t processing them at all. She kept talking quickly. Something about Soma looking for her, being one of her people. Something about them being conquerors. Something about their brains. But all I could think about was how she was going to leave me. Again. First Soma, then her.

“You can come with me,” Synapse said, as if she could read my mind. I mean, of course she could read my mind. Fuck. Was she the one making my brain fuzzy? Or was it one stupid kiss?

She grabbed my hand. It wasn’t calculated or professional. Or if it was, it was acted perfectly. It was the primal human ache to have their hand grabbed, so that you don’t get left behind. So that they take you with them this time. “You can be one of my lieutenants in the new world,” she said.

But the word broke her spell.

My.

I let go of her hand and tried to step back before remembering there was a wall behind me. I could run down the hallway, but I couldn’t stay in the light and keep a safe distance between us.

I shook my head slowly. “No one rules me now.” I brought my hand to my chest and cradled it, as if trying to protect the memory of her touch. “Not anymore. Not ever again.”

Synapse didn’t look shocked. Fucking mind-readers. “Are you going to stop me?”

I suppressed a laugh. How could I stop her? She could cut off my access to my powers. I could maybe run for a long time, but could I fight her? Would I even be able to slice away the strands of her mind in the Gray?

I shook my head again. “Leave me a slice of your world, and I’ll be fine. I don’t care about the rest.”

Synapse put her hands on her hip. “Are we negotiating now?”

“You’ll never catch me,” I said. “I could be the last being on the planet free of your control, but you can’t enter the Gray.”

“You hate the Gray.”

“Not so much anymore.” My voice was a whisper. I hated that I sounded weak. This should have been my moment of triumph. I thought that Soma would have been so proud of me, but that thought was ridiculous. I didn’t know her. She didn’t know me. And besides, she was with Synapse. No. No one would be proud of me. So I had to be proud of myself. That was it. I was going to be the one proud of myself.

“And I hate being owned more than the Gray,” I said. “That’s what I’ve learned these past few weeks.”

Synapse was quiet for a while. The hover jet was still buzzing overhead. We didn’t have time. I imagined soon Kori would be snooping around as a snake or dung beetle to spy on us. Then Surya would blast down the walls, and we would be back in a holding cell in the Borealis. We could both pretend to have been brainwashed, which they would believe because of Soma’s powers.

“What slice do you want?” Synapse asked. I tried to look into her eyes, but again the burning light from behind her blinded me. I could only see the silhouette of her features as her dark lips curled into a smirk.

What slice of the world did I want? Australia? No. Too hot. Too bright. Somewhere dark and cold. But too North and the sun wouldn’t go down for months. Maybe I would follow that. I just wanted the parts of the world where the sun didn’t touch.

Who was I kidding? I didn’t want any land. I didn’t care for the world much at all. There was only one thing I wanted. One person that —

“Io,” Synapse said.

My mouth went dry. I nodded.

Synapse stepped closer and took my cradled hand. “It’s okay,” she said. “I know how you feel.”

I closed my eyes. Even in the shadows, I couldn’t look at her. “You do?”

“Mmmm,” Synapse said as she loomed over me. God, she was intimidating in these fucking heels. The lace of her top was pressed up against me. I could run my fingers over it and feel her skin. I could rip it away and —

“It’s like that,” Synapse said. “But stronger.”

I nodded and pressed my head against hers, curling into her Darkness.

“Dark,” she said as she wrapped me in a hug. “Sticky.” She stroked her hand over my back, and it felt like I had no clothes on, like her fingertips could slip through the fabric and get right to me. “Hot.” Her hands roamed up and down, and where they touched, that Dark stickiness spread throughout me. “Thick.” The zipper slid away silently, but the warmth of her was spreading everywhere. “Cruel.” It was as though she was everywhere all at once. Everything. “Painful. God. So much pain.” Her hands went down my back. Down down down. It gripped my ass, which was suddenly bare. God, when did that happen? “But pain for who?” Synapse said before giving my ass a playful smack.

She pulled back with a mischievous grin. All at once she looked like my old friend, the one who would share glances and rolled eyes at Io’s random pontificating or Surya’s endless PR goals. But we weren’t on that team anymore. We had switched sides, but we were still friends.

“Or something more,” I said to myself, though I knew she would understand. She understood it all perfectly.

I ran my hands over the lace barely hiding Synapse’s skin. It felt like jamming my finger into an outlet. The electricity of her skin, of her, was intoxicating. I knew she was enhancing the touch, but I didn’t care. We didn’t have to play by anyone’s rules anymore. My hands went down her back to her ass, and I squeezed it back playfully.

“Not pain for me,” I said before pinching her ass. She yelped with delight, and we both laughed. And as the tension broke, I did the only thing that made sense to my body.

I pulled her down to kiss me and seal our deal.

Korporeal

I shifted back into a female form as we approached the room. I told myself it was to better prepare for a fight, it was so Surya and Bastille could see and spot me better, it was so I could shout and call for help.

But it was mostly so I could have a pussy again.

I didn’t know what form to take. I went with a reliable Japanese schoolgirl look with the pigtails and everything. I needed to be fucked, and I didn’t care if my clothes showed that. If Bastille or Surya thought it was odd, they didn’t say anything. They were used to my choices appearing random instead of the hyper-intentionality I used when picking them.

I made eye contact with both of my teammates before we rounded the doorway into the room of light. Bastille would go first and provide cover for Surya. I would do … animal things. And then we would —

“Fuck. There. God. Fuck. How do you do that?” The moaning washed over us. The voice was familiar now that we were closer, but that didn’t make us feel better. This blue-haired woman was making mindless sex drones of people, and that … that …

Was that so bad?

Bastille counted to three, said “Going in,” over the comms, and rushed into the room. Surya rolled in after her, and I counted to three before following and —

A television.

That was it.

The room was empty except for a television on a small table. It was playing a video of … a video of …

“Is that Synapse?” Surya asked.

“And ’Lon,” Bastille said.

It was the two of them fucking wildly. I mean, wildly. They were both the mousiest members of Aurora Flight, but the things they were doing? Spanking. Biting. Moaning. Insulting. Slamming into walls. God, it looked like ’Lon was … fuck. Was she fingering her in the shadows?

We stood transfixed for too long. “What’s going on?” Io said. “Are you all okay? What’s with your bio readings?”

“Uh …” Surya said back over the comms.

We watched as our two teammates fucked like whores. I don’t mean that as an insult. I mean like professionals. Like high priced courtesans or dominatrixes. They slammed into walls and found positions I had only read about. And it was in this room. They were covered in the burning white light and the dingy atmosphere. But it was earlier. Way earlier. We were too late.

“Look at this,” Bastille said. She pointed to the tabletop where a note was waiting for us:

Now I have them both.

Meet me at the Pierson Dock Warehouse 5 in one hour.

Or the next video will be of them killing each other.

Soma

“Fuck,” Surya said this. She grabbed the note and ran out of the room, tugging on Bastille to follow. “Come on.”

“What’s going on?” Io said. “What did you find?”

“You won’t like it,” Surya said. She rounded the corner with Bastille so they could both fly up to the hover jet. We had to plan and prepare before crashing the warehouse and getting into another showdown with the blue-haired woman.

“Soma.”

I whispered the name now that I was alone. It was the name of the woman that had changed everything. Ruined? No. I couldn’t say that everything was ruined now. Even as I watched Synapse grab Eidolon’s hair and drag her mouth to Synapse’s pussy, I didn’t think we were ruined.

Or when I watched Eidolon finger Synapse’s ass.

Or when Synapse spanked Eidolon.

Or when Eidolon twisted Synapse’s nipples.

Or when there was giggling and moaning behind the camera.

Or when Eidolon queened Synapse’s face.

Or when Synapse sucked on Eidolon’s tiny tits for what felt like forever.

Or when they fucked each other to a blissful orgasm, as their foreheads glowed with sweat, as their bare chests heaved with pleasure and hunger, as their bodies curled into each other time and time again.

I didn’t think we were ruined when Io kept calling my name over the comms.

I didn’t think we were ruined when I took my comm out of my ears.

I didn’t think we were ruined when I slipped my hands under my tiny fuck-me skirt and into my panties.