The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Noxo was a bitch. A lungful could drop a man for a couple of hours. Without help. The best option was to drive a syringe full of counteragent straight into the heart. Yet, it was difficult to deliver that to oneself. The other solution was to build up a tolerance.

Amy blinked and coughed as her eyes and throat fluttered and spasmed into wakefulness before her brain could catch up. She’d been out for sixty-two minutes, not her personal best, but she wouldn’t be alert for another nine. She rolled her neck and shivered on the lumpy steel floor. She had been defeated, captured, and imprisoned.

At least, it was her fault. Setbacks were always easier to take with someone to blame.

Amy’s first rule of getting captured was: “What are you getting captured for you dumb bitch?” Her second rule was: “What’re you waiting for? Get uncaptured and payback, you dumb bitch!” She usually didn’t add the “You dumb bitch!” to rule two. Usually she had Simon to back her up. If she was caught, he knew it. It was her job to get free so she wasn’t some damsel.

She clanked her handcuffs on the steel table leg splitting her asscheeks. It was riveted to the floor on four brackets. She stood up; her wrists hit the bottom of the table. She was still bent forward and over.

Inventory. She counted her teeth, clacked her nails, wiggled her toes. She cricked her neck, flexed her stomach, and clenched her ass. She had her sports bra, a military tank top, and her pair of boy shorts. Her hair was ripped loose from her combat pigtails. Shit, she had had Loju fit small explosives in her hair ties. She had wanted to hide them in braces, who would take her braces? Then she saw those pictures. One crooked incisor wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

What didn’t bother her was that they’d taken her boots, socks, body armor, guns, ammo pouches, toolkits, and everything else. What bothered her was that Derek and the slut had been the help! The hench! She’d lost to the lunkheads and still had no idea who she had been chasing down in the laboratory mall.

She did have her environment. She seemed to be in a vault. One dull red lamp illuminated the room. Steel and glass cases lined the walls she could see and a massive blast door stood imposingly straight ahead. She heard the low hum of air fans. At least she hadn’t been left to suffocate.

The one thing she didn’t see were video cameras. They’d been in the hall, logging who came and went, but inside the labs and the vaults, there weren’t records. What did they even do here? R&D for Barrett Maxwell could be anything from new synthetic fibres for workout clothes to a new robotic chassis for attack drones.

At least she wasn’t at some WinterPharm facility. She wouldn’t want to be a guinea pig for some new drug trial.

“You’re captured Amy. You can’t rule the worst out yet,” she said, cotton still sat between her neurons damping her thoughts. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been speaking to herself.

No cameras to see didn’t mean they weren’t monitoring at all. The cabinets were much too far away, even stretched to her limit. Usually, she found a hundred eighty-five centimeters was too much for a woman. Right, now Amy could’ve used another fifteen.

Option two. The table overhead. She showed off her flexibility rocking herself up and sliding her calf across the empty table face. Fuck. She rotated back down to her seat on the floor.

She had the cuffs and the leg then. She raked her fingernails across the chain of the cuffs, she’d bet on them surviving longer than the plate steel leg roughing the split in her ass. She felt around. Four rivets held the brackets to the floor and four more held the brackets to the leg. Rivets, not bolts. There was no unscrewing anything to unscrew herself. Her fingernails dug into metal. Her specific brand of nail polish was straight from Great Justice, but it was one thing to cut through zip-ties and another to carve apart steel.

Last option then. She wiped her foot and toes as clean as she could on the inside of her thigh. With another look for cameras she couldn’t find, Amy reached into her mouth with her left foot. Pulling out her back fake molars was a pain in the ass, and the gums had grown in tight around the mounts. She could feel the blood welling on her tongue as she dropped both back upper teeth onto her tongue. She twisted her head and carefully pushed the teeth looking capsules onto her shoulder. She bent far forward, and rocked and flexed, trying to roll the teeth down her arm and into her palm.

The trick to being a superhero was more practice than an autistic stage magician. No, it was having Simon to back you up, you dumb bitch! She laid the first tooth against the rivet, looped it and the chain of her cuffs against it. She pulled it forward cracking the enamel. She yanked her fingertip away from the bubbling acid.

Loju had taken care of the acrid metal smell. The problem was chemistry moved at its own time. Not Amy’s. She tried to think. Where was her gear? What about the vault door? Did it even open from the inside?

It began to ripple, the massive metal structure under the red light before her eyes started to warp like a placid pond that just had dozens of little stones dropped into it. The waves interfered, constructively until at first pinpricks of soft fluorescent light shone over Amy. She dropped her head.

“Motherfucker.” She had shaken off the Noxo.

“There you are,” the cackling voice was bright and jovial. The little pinpricks had coalesced into baseball sized holes. They rolled as warping ripples through the steel into a vague oval big enough for the armored and becaped devil grinning at her.

Baseballs collided and became basketballs. Amy could just watch over the four minutes it took as the oval emptied of door and Devilchild stepped through.

He was shorter than her, even with his armored boots. He wore black and violet segmented armor. Broad pauldrons sat on his shoulders and his scarlet lined cape floated down to his ankles. His dark hair was slicked back from his forehead and a laughing devil mask covered his face and eyes. Blueeyes lenses blocked her view of his mockery. The emblem on his breastplate was a more stylized version of his mask, but with the eyes vivid red rather than pale blue.

“Look at you,” he tutted happily. “You have quite the figure under your little body armor, don’t you?”

He squatted down over her. She immediately went to kick him in the stomach. He eased himself around her blow and slapped his clawed gauntlet on the bare skin of her thigh. “Not soft like a woman,” he shook his head. “Except maybe here?”

He grabbed her left breast and she turned her defiant face away from him as he laughed. “And who left you for me?”

“Go to hell!” Amy grumbled.

“Oh, so sad,” Devilchild said. He swiftly snatched her chin and turned her face to his. She closed her knuckles tighter. The clink of her cuffs against the table rang out in the room. “Well, I can trust the others to attend to the rest. I have an open schedule to fit you into.”

“Simon’ll—”

“You didn’t bring Simon,” he laughed. “Or I wouldn’t be here with you in this quiet unwatched place.”

He stood up, pulling off his devil’s mask. He had a boyish face, blue eyes, fair skin, and a wicked smile. He tossed his mask, pauldrons, cape, and gauntlets far out of reach behind him.

“You’re awful confident,” Amy said, very worried.

“Because I have my squadron behind me,” Devilchild laughed. “And you before me.”

Amy clenched her teeth. Her cheeks flushed against her will. She hated showing that weakness, but the door had sealed itself closed so only the lurid red lighting of the vault shone on her face. The blush was hardly visible.

He grabbed her leg this time when he approached and shoved her knee into her chest. He grabbed her mouth, thumb in her cheek and pulled his face straight to his.

“Mine. Mine. Mine.” He whispered threateningly. She yanked her head backwards and he let her go. It was blind luck that she didn’t cracked her skull against the table leg. He reached down and ran his hand over the lump of her sex. She gasped and shivered.

“I’m gonna make this hurt,” he said. “I do so love payback.”

“I’ll get you for this,” Amy said, on a fiery whisper.

“You’ll try,” he laughed. He slapped her pussy and she winced. He reached up and grabbed the hem of her tank top. He yanked upwards, grabbing under her sports bra as he lifted her clothes from her large round breasts. He grinned. “Soft, like a woman.”

“Shut up!” Amy said, but he slapped her tits right and left, always smiling as he did. He dropped her leg onto his thigh. His armor was pressed against her sex as he pulled on her nipples until her breath changed from a growl to a moan.

“Good,” he slapped her tits again and reached for her jaw. “No biting.”

“You giving me ideas?” she asked, sweetly, tilting her head and fluttering her eyelashes. He pushed her head hard back against the table leg and kissed her. She didn’t bite, her mouth responded like the way her shaking legs and wet pussy responded. When he pulled back, she could see he knew what was happening to her.

“Little by little, you give everything to me,” he laughed. He slid his hands down over her tits and across her washboard stomach. He grabbed the hem of her underwear, athletic boyshorts, and stood up. She couldn’t help but kick her ankles free with her knee against her chin. Her bottoms landed with his gauntlets.

He stepped down on her thigh and pinned her left leg to the ground as he towered over her. He unlatched the sides of his armor and tossed his breast and backplates away. He pulled down his pants and his cock hovered in front of her face, but he left on his boots and greaves. He pressed his foot down harder.

She winced. He laughed when the rapid clanking of her handcuffs on the table leg behind her rang out madly in the room. He grabbed her face, shoved his thumb back inside her cheek and pulled her forward eye to eye with his erect cock.

“No one gets that lucky twice,” he decided, rubbing the tip of his cock over her distorted lips. He removed his hand, running his thumbnail across her clenched teeth. He pushed her face away from his cock. He climbed down on his knees pushing her legs further open before him.

Amy glared daggers.

“Patience…” he laughed. “Like I said, we’ve got time.”

He ran his fingers up her wet slit and tossed the golden blonde hair over her clit. “You’re not all hard and muscles in here, are you?”

“What’re you—”

Amy chomped down her voice when Devilchild’s fingers curled up inside of her. She thrashed at the invasion. She brought her knees up with her heels pressing against the floor as she flinched and fought. She cursed as her index fingernail cracked. She swung her head madly at Devilchild’s face. She stabbed her middle finger into metal and shouted in pain.

“Yeah, I got in this job for the screaming women,” he said. Devilchild dashed his mouth forward. Amy gasped as he skated his teeth across her throat. She brought her knee up but she had no direction or leverage. She could barely rub her thigh across the tip of his dick. He was in control.

His hand jabbed and twisted inside of her. She bellowed as he pinned her back against the table leg. He pulled his hand from her pussy. It ran out with a slick pop. He dragged her desire up across her stomach and over her tits.

“Look at what I do to you?” He waved his wet hand in front of her face and sucked them dry with a smile. “Maybe I’ll keep you tied up forever? You belong like this.”

“Goddammit—”

“Shh…” He shut her up with a wet finger across her mouth. “Be a good girl, and maybe I’ll even fuck you.”

“What?” She frowned. He reached down and started circling her clit. He had his cock in his other hand. He aimed himself for her, but then he pulled up at the last moment and ran himself over her sex. Then he did again. “Just fucking do it!”

“You don’t get to say when,” he said. He pushed his face to hers. “I say—”

She slammed her wrists forward as the acid-rotted and fingernails-cut the chain links between her cuffs shattered. She lunged forward as The Devilchild wailed. She kissed him hard, grabbed his shoulder and slammed him hard onto his back.

“Amy!” He shouted when she let him up but she put her knee down on his thigh, reached under her for his cock and lined him up for her pussy. “For fuck’s sake! No fucking topping from the bottom!”

“You were killing me there, Nathan!” She growled and slammed her hips down onto his cock. “Oh-hoh-ho! I haven’t been that turned on in my life.”

“I would’ve done more if you had let me keep edging you up on it!” He growled, but he grabbed her hips and started fucking into her hard pussy as she rode him, spittle dripping down her chin.

“So, oh, I take it the door’s on a timer?”

“Ten minutes to open,” he said, he tried to roll her over and get on top but she slammed down his neck.

“I’ve been on the cold steel too long, it’s your turn,” she said, gasping lightly as she bounced her hips. “Oh my god! Oh my god! I can’t believe they sent you here to get me. She knows we’re together, she had to know this would happen.”

“X’s laid up,” Nate had given in and started fucking Amy as best as he could. “Red had to form a new team.”

“New team? I thought Lincoln wasn’t gonna happen until YD took another member?” Amy gasped, her heart sinking. This was her fault. “Trials were coming in four weeks. I’d finally qualified for my place.”

“That’s not it, Amy,” Nate said, but Amy was shouting at herself.

“It’s because I fucked up! Stupid bitch!” She snarled through clenched teeth. She closed her eyes hoping to stop frustrated tears from forming. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

“Amy! Amy, stop!” Nate said, worried. She kept going. She kept cursing. She rode out with all of her energy and rage. “Amy! It’s Simon! Red gave Lincoln to Simon!”

Amy stopped dead and looked down. Nate had never seen his girlfriend look at him with that level of bright excitement. If he didn’t know what he knew today, he’d have been more jealous of Simon and distrusting of Amy than could be healthy for any relationship.

“Oh my god!” Amy said. “You gotta go help him! Simon’s up there fighting with his—”

“Amy shut up!” Nate grabbed Amy’s face. “Simon’s not alone. Tailwind has his back and she’s an absolute powerhouse.”

“Tracy?!” Amy worried. “She’s totally green!”

“He’s in good hands,” Nate said. “I’m down here with you, so he can have his full focus up there.”

“Yeah,” Amy nodded. “Of course you’re right.” She smiled. Her eyes shone and she grabbed Nate’s neck tightly. “Simon’s leading Lincoln? The Young Defenders? Finally?!”

“Yeah,” Nate said, looking up at the sheer excitement burning in Amy’s features. She exploded in energy. She rode forward and bent crooked to line up their kiss. She grabbed Nate’s head and lifted him by the hair as she kissed him. He gasped into her mouth in time with her rippling sex muscles. She ground her clit hard into his pelvic bone. The vault was properly soundproof. No one heard them cumming. They never heard the battle.

For a superhero, Simon excelled at running away. Superhero. He was a gadget slinging sparkless normie. He couldn’t tank shockwaves, he wasn’t fireproof, he couldn’t phase through shrapnel. Hence the running.

Simon was lucky. When he wrote up the report, he could say he was chasing the bad guy, the mad scientist, the supervillain. Doctor! Victorious!! raced away from his catastrophically failing island bunker. The cobblestone walkway was heaving and shifting under their feet. Eruptions of sand shot into the air like cannon blasts. Ventilation mushrooms achieved low Earth orbit.

Running wasn’t only about speed, speed mattered, go too slow and the fireball ate you. The same was true if you kicked the tail of the burnt out robotic triceratops husk and face-planted as well. Superheroes ran so that nothing could stop them.

Simon cut the straps of his grenade belts. He had left his gas launcher behind him. His armor had a twenty pound breastplate he’d have cut off, if the backplate would’ve stayed on as well. He was twelve years younger than Doctor! Victorious!!. Simon couldn’t catch up. The madman was running with two eight litre brass gas tanks on his back.

Chalk and concrete dust streamed out of Doctor! Victorious!!’s hair. His lab coat would’ve been flared out like a cape if not for the tanks. He zigzagged like he knew where every single explosive failure was gonna blow.

Maybe he did? Simon didn’t know. He just had to make his best guesses and hope Amy was still behind him. “You can’t save your partner by killing yourself.”

“Amy!” he squeezed the microphone button in the palm of his glove.

“Coming! Calico’s right on your ass!”

“Shit!” Simon didn’t have the opportunity to spare a glance to tag Doctor! Victorious!!’s right hand henchwoman had escaped. “I thought you called taking kitty down!”

“Meow!” Calico snapped snidely as she flying-cartwheeled over Simon’s head. At least Calico had clear superpowers. It wasn’t so embarrassing to be out performed by someone with super reflexes and muscles. Calico’s left hand of clawed fingers stabbed into Simon’s backplate. Good thing he hadn’t dropped the armor.

Adrenaline and attraction seemed to stop time for Simon as he looked up. Calico’s white-gold hair was streaming out behind her. Her perfect figure was amplified by her black and red skintight catsuit. The brocaded shouldered red pirate’s coat flared off of her. She had amazing blue-white eyes and smirking darkly painted lips. If the last thing Simon had to see was so deadly, at least she was beautiful.

Her momentum shifted and she whipped herself about, yanking Simon’s feet from the ground beneath him before stomping her armored spiked heel down into his other shoulder. He crashed, face down, into the walkway. He had to use every greatly honed instinct to land right, on the flats of his forearms, and shift himself onto soft sand rather than through the gulching pathway stones.

“You dead?” Amy asked in his ear.

“Dead-ish!” Simon swore. He squeezed his fist and replied “No.” Amy skidded to land at his shoulder on both knees. She grabbed his arm and he helped launch himself to his feet with her.

“Oh come on!” Simon said. They were approaching the beach where they had stashed their modified Zodiac raft. A giant arachnidian submersible was stomping its eight legs out of the water as its giant scorpion tail folded up over its back. The tail was tipped with a glowing laser cannon.

“Run! Cover!” Amy said. Calico was the first to the scorpion-sub. She leapt onto the head and wrenched open a porthole. She twisted to grab Doctor! Victorious!! by both hands as he flailed his way up the pincers and mandibles. Amy pulled out The Butler, the bigger of her two modified pistols and wrenched the revolver chamber two clicks anti-clockwise and shot.

The pepperball of Noxophene smashed into the brass tanks on Doctor! Victorious!!’s back. He dove headfirst into the scorpion head as Calico covered her eyes and held her breath. The amber gas cascaded harmlessly down the scorpion’s back.

“Shit, I only got fire suppressors and a universal key still loaded up.” Amy said as Doctor! Victorious!!’s galoshes slithered into the submarine. She holstered The Butler and spun The Princess up in her left hand. Simon watched the light in the tail cannon glow from red to white.

“Too late!” he yelled and tackled Amy out of the line of fire. The air didn’t open up in ozone smelling plasma. They bumped and skidded along the sand as Simon squeezed himself tightly breastplate to tank top. Amy had pitched her armor and had kept her guns when Simon had ditched his grenades and kept the body armor.

“Dammit!” Amy tried to push Simon off of her as Calico slipped and collapsed, but into the head of the scorpion-sub. She screamed and pulled Simon down. The air exploded, arcs of chaotic lightning vined around a column of burning energetic death.

It was always like this, Simon thought squeezing the stuffing out of Amy. If it had been Calico, she might’ve re-aimed but Doctor! Victorious!! seemed just willing to say goodbye and leave a singed and glassified line of the beach over and behind Amy and Simon. The sub started walking back into the sea. Doctor! Victorious!! popped his head up and pulled the hatch closed but not before the first waves of saltwater poured in around his hips.

“Stop laughing,” Amy pushed up Simon but she was smiling as well. She tried to sound angry but she was pumped full of excitement and not death by scorpion laser. Disappointment and anger she couldn’t manifest. “Oh my god! He got away again! Red Viking’s going to kick us back down the ladder!”

“We won! We scuttled his weird satellite doomsday laser and blew up his robot factory,” Simon said, letting himself climb up to his knees. He almost reached for her hand to pull her up as the whole nameless island exploded in a vibrant magenta mushroom cloud.

They’d stop squeezing and hugging each other until they were certain those weren’t aftershocks but the other’s heartbeats.

Rosa jumped with the knock on the laboratory door. She put a hand on her chest, it raised and fell with her ribbed black sweater. She looked down. She wasn’t used to wearing clothes that cost this much, that looked this good. She worked in a lab. Through her undergraduate and master’s courses she had worn bleach-pitted sweaters and thrift store jeans. She looked up. He was at the door. Dr Astaire had recruited her from her university doctoral program. She had never expected entomology to be lucrative, just infinitely fascinating. She felt an unfamiliar surge of confidence. The clothes helped. She made a note to thank Erin.

She raised her index finger, begging for a moment. Dr Astaire nodded, smiled, and looked down to his tablet.

Rosa turned back to her work station. She picked up the dragonfly nymph she was examining and returned it to a slot in the large glass terrarium. She closed the flap.

Confidence wasn’t the absence of nerves. She brushed her hands down on the skirts of her Barrett Maxwell branded lab coat as she crossed the floor to the door. She may have been wearing a nice sweater and professional slacks, but she was in a lab. Her shoes were comfortable cheap trainers. She wore no jewelry and no makeup. Her hair was tied back in a bland ponytail. Her safety glasses were prescription.

She opened the door with only a heartbeat’s hesitation. She smiled, crookedly but honestly. Dr Astaire blacked out his tablet and slipped it into the pocket of his lab coat.

He was a man in his late 50s. Tall, square shouldered, and healthfully fed. He smiled, his teeth were perfect and his skin was warm and ruddy. His gray flecked hair was cut short and sat high on his head above tall widow’s peaks. He wore a pale blue shirt and black pants stuffed into white Barrett Maxwell branded galoshes.

She was just shy of half his age. Half Columbian, half Texan, she had smooth brown skin and thick black hair. She smiled up, from her five feet to his six.

“Dr Astaire! I’m happy to see you!” she said, brightly. Her stomach turned. Way to suck up, Rosa! She leaned her weight awkwardly back from him as she berated her puppy dog excitement.

“And I you, Ms Veranes,” he said. “Please, show me what you’ve been doing.”

“Of course!” she said, jumpily. “Come, I have just dissected one of the females.”

He gestured her to go first and she cut across the lab. A large magnifier on a three-jointed arm was settled over a white metal tray. She stopped one pace past the tray, standing with her back to the first of her terraria. Dragonflies buzzed about in strange flight patterns behind her.

Dr Astaire stopped in front of the tray. He gestured to the arm. “May I?”

“Oh! Of course!” Rosa said. “Or, you can use the camera there and use my tablet to aid in magnification.”

“Thank you,” he said. Rosa dropped her smile. Of course he knows how everything works! He provided the lab to you! God!

Dr Astaire preferred the magnifier to the technological means. Rosa picked up a glass rod and pointed out what she had been looking at.

“Here, and here, these glands are normally about 1/10th this size in females,” she pointed to two structures on either side of the heart. “And even smaller in the males.”

“It seems to be in the way of their wings,” Dr Astaire frowned.

“It does impede their flight, they don’t turn as quickly as dragonflies normally do,” Rosa said. “However, they don’t hunt the same either. Males quickly begin become agitated when the females are hungry and begin bringing her food. The biggest problem we’ve had is the females overeating.”

“Not the males competing and fighting?” Dr Astaire asked.

“That’s the thing, they don’t fight!” Rosa laughed. “They simply provide.”

“That’s very surprising,” Dr Astaire said. “What about over mating?”

“Truthfully, the females are mating less than usual,” Rosa sighed, thinking. “I think that might be because the males are fighting less. The lack of competition provides no clear preferred male to excite the female.”

“Interesting,” he said. “But, I believe there’s more.”

“Yes! When a second female is added!” she exploded in excitement again. Clearly Dr Astaire had been reading her reports and reading them carefully. Hannibal Astaire was a legendary man who had created dozens of medical technologies used in the stabilization and correction of hundreds of superhuman accidents. If he was interested in her work, maybe she could make a real difference. She didn’t know how insect mating would do this but she was less well versed in human anatomy and mechanisms.

“Yes?” Dr Astaire said, smiling as he waited for her joy to die down.

“In the presence of one augmented female and one natural female, the males will completely ignore the natural female until she approaches the augmented female too closely. Then all of the males will tear her apart.”

“The natural female,” Hannibal clarified.

“Yes, like they’re acting as guardsmen to their new queen,” Rosa said. She frowned. “Not insect queen queen. I was using a more human royalty metaphor.”

“I understand,” Dr Astaire nodded. “And if both females are augmented?”

“That’s when it gets strange,” Rosa said. “The beta males will kill the beta augmented female while the alpha males attempt to defend her. However, if the alpha female comes too close to inspect, the alpha males retreat and let the beta males tear apart the opposite female.”

“You used your tear apart aphorism twice.”

“It wasn’t a figure of speech. It’s quite gruesome,” Rosa said, she was way too excited to convey just how gruesome it actually got.

“Interesting,” Dr Astaire said. “Very interesting. Your most recent findings are on the cloud?”

“Everything is, always,” Rosa said. “I don’t see how I could keep this to myself… Though I’ve learned there’s very few people who want me to tell them about bugs.”

Dr Astaire’s laugh was short and polite. Rosa’s eyes widened like her smile. She blinked and Dr Astaire looked appreciatively up her and down her.

“This is good,” he said. “I’m very happy at how well, and how quickly, your ideas are paying off. You do great work, soon-to-be Dr Veranes.”

“Soon?” Rosa said. She was 26, she expected to be 30 or more before she would be near that level of success. “Soon?!”

“The next stage of life is always sooner than you’d think,” Dr Astaire said. He pulled out his tablet. He pressed a few buttons.

“Ahoy Doctor!” That was Derek’s voice, Rosa recognized. He was the front desk security guard for the building. Rosa found him very attractive and he was always happy to let her tag along when they went to the bars after their Friday shifts. Erin said it was because Rosa was hot, so of course the entomologist would always be welcome. Rosa was even starting to believe Erin. Though no one was as hot as the unrepentantly bitchy friend Rosa had made.

“Mr Koszosk, please arrange for experiment phase two,” Dr Astaire said. He hung up on the guard as Derek attempted to say yes. “Ms Veranes. I’ll see you again shortly.”

“You’re always welcome,” she said, smiling. She was sincere. She even managed not to second guess herself as he nodded and left. Rosa watched with her tilted head until the door closed. She then shouted and pumped her fists dancing spastically in a circle.

The Escher spat out The Butler and The Princess. They went spinning down the industrial steel ramp and skipped across the hewn stone floor. Amy’s pistols were white with gilded plates. The Butler was the larger: large enough to fire a two-hundred foot half-ton rate grappling hook cable. It was loaded by drum, quickly able to switch between a variety of tactical ammo. The Princess was shorter, more slender, and magazine fed. The Princess was most often loaded with Noxo or rubber bullets. Though Amy loved glue-balls and incendiaries too. She never overspecialized.

The Escher whirred on. It was a huge industrial machine built around a twisted brass tube pointing into the cavernous command center. The aperture was two and a half meters to the micron. Its joints were riveted with polychromatic glass pegs stabilizing the barely Euclidean Gordian knot of feeding pipes.

Amy’s glove hands stretched out through the Cherenkov blue fog chugging out of the Escher. She rolled, slapping her hands down onto the top of the ramp. She had momentum she couldn’t shake. She slowly arched her feet straight up into a handstand. She walked forward on her hands as she did the splits upside down, and rolled forward, using her knee guards and sheathed combat boots to manage her momentum straight onto her feet. She jogged a half dozen paces in order to slow down.

She snatched up her guns and lifted her feet to avoid Simon’s blue body armor and filter mask as they skidded off the ramp and across the floor. He shot out of the aperture in a leaping somersault, misguessed his momentum, and rolled to a splat on his ass. His crotch skidded to a stop millimeters from Amy’s boot. She smiled, took her hands off her holstered pistols, and grabbed his left arm. She pulled, he kicked, and he was on his feet.

“We need to be all the way into Great Justice,” Simon said. “E.V.I.L.tech teleporters don’t have momentum correction.”

“You say that every time. Learn some better tumbling. I’m too tall for GJ’s network.” Amy shook her head. “Besides, we’re already umbrellaed by YD. We could’ve called for a ride to the node and tacked on two and a half hours to our twelve minute journey. Not counting how long we’d have been waiting on a raft south of Cuba to be picked up.” She narrowed her eyes as Simon flapped his fingers like they were Amy’s gums. “I’m impatient too. Twenty six days.”

“Twenty five days, fourteen hours, and…” He looked to the left. This central room of their command center was a big hourglass shaped cavern. A floor of steel plates tiled the rough volcanic glass underneath. A crystal clean river ran through the neck of the hourglass. In this half, they had their computer console, elevators to the surface, Escher tube, and collection of defeated robots. Simon would’ve put the triceratops next to the wasp drone.

He was turning to look at the central computer bank. He figured he could’ve checked the time on one of the screens. But Zeta, Amy’s little sister, was reclined in the command chair, bare feet up on the desk, headphones loud enough to be heard across the room, spooning cereal into her mouth, while watching a competitive dating show on all five screens. Simon looked back to Amy as if he had seen nothing and continued. “...and X minutes.”

“What is she doing in here!” Amy was red-faced. She would’ve strode across the command center to chew Zeta out. Simon grabbed his partner’s shoulder.

“Loju,” he answered.

“But why? She’s not even trying to hero! She’s not even hanging out with him and she can watch Powered Love in her own fucking room!” Amy needed to shout those words out. Zeta, clearly not hearing, but aware her sister and Simon were there, reached up with her left hand and waved.

Zeta was fifteen centimeters shorter than Amy. Zeta didn’t have the intensely trained hard body either. With black hair, darker skin, and red-gold eyes, Zeta had been flagged for years but she had never manifested her father’s lavakinesis. Simon was glad of that, Amy barely passed the scratch test to prove she was daughter to a spark. If Zeta had gone full super… The main thing the Glasser sisters got from their father was the capability to carry a grudge. Reasonable or not.

“Amy. He does this all of the time,” Simon said. “It’s Loju.”

“It’s Zeta!” Amy gestured.

“Yeah, great question! Why would a 19 year old nerd do favors for an 18 year old girl with perfect boobs?” Simon tilted his head and tapped his chin. “Not a clue. Good thing we’re commandos not detectives.”

Amy growled at Simon as she re-holstered her golden guns. She turned and stomped off to the armory. There were four doors in this half of the command center: garage and workshop beyond Zeta by the elevators, and the arsenal and the gym following Amy. Simon slung his armor over his shoulder and swung his gas mask around by the strap.

Amy punched in the lock code and the door slammed closed in its weaponized way as soon as Simon was clear. He didn’t give her a moment and walked over to a long bench in front of the lockers. He ran a mental inventory again as he took off his cap and goggles. Failing to catch Doctor! Victorious!! had set him back two crossbelts, a grenade launcher, his primary toolbox, and a full complement of grapnels, gasbangs, and other gadgets. Amy had ditched her top armor and burnt through all but a handful of ammo. They’d had more costly missions. He put his boots on the bench next to him and started emptying the pockets and pouches of his cargo pants.

Amy stripped the red hair ties from her ponytails and put them gingerly into the ordnance reclaiming station along with the drums and clips, full and empty, of The Butler and The Princess. She pulled her goggles from her head and put them on top of the pile Simon had made stripping off his gear.

“We’re the best there is,” Amy said. “You and me. There’s no way they take anybody else.”

“What about Tess?” Simon asked. “She’s a legacy and—”

“A legacy of a C-lister!” Amy wiped that line of thought out of the air. “Tracy jumped us because her dad’s Paladin, her brother’s Daybreaker, and her mom’s Golden 5. Headwind of Golden 5,” she gave Simon a look that dared him to contest that. “OK C-lister wasn’t fair. Luminary was a big deal but he also lost. The Challengers can’t afford losers. Plus, I mean, Kendra didn’t make YD, Tess’s a bitch, and it’s not like Riley or Gillian are even interested.”

“That’s true,” Simon conceded, with a long thought. “I’m just saying, last time we got our hopes up nepotism kept us out of YD. I was making a point with Tess, generally. Specifically, I don’t think we have to worry about any Britcher. Besides, they poached Tess for that all girls team.”

“Skin Deep?” Amy asked.

“No, Les Belles,” Simon overacted the French. “The one with the slutty schoolgirl outfits.”

“Good for her,” Amy said, but it was hollow. All girls teams were career kisses of death. And they either ended up as full on public-relations baby-kissing show-ponies or...

“Did they catch The Huntsking yet?”

“No,” Simon said. “Silent Tiger’s on it. I’ve been keeping tabs in case there’s a call for a strike team. I know you’ll want in.”

“In a heartbeat. But I’d rather we do it as YD.”

“Amy, there is more than one basket capable of carrying eggs,” Simon said. Except, he knew her goal. She wanted to be a Challenger. So far, there were only two ways into The Challengers. Through the Young Defenders or getting handpicked by Paladin. Neither Amy nor Simon had any idea how to go about the latter.

“No one’s got our record,” Amy said. “No one’s got our wins. We’ve earned it and Growing Boy’s out! Up to The Challengers! Red Viking’s always been headhunting us for Lincoln.”

“Headhunting me,” Simon said. “You’re just my sidekick.”

She flicked him in the ear.

“Yeah, well you’re the best,” Amy agreed. “When you get to the top. Don’t forget the little people.”

“And who’re these little people, giant woman?”

Amy smiled and stuck out her tongue at him. She slumped, with her boots untied. Her feet ached as she kicked them off.

“It’s not a pipe dream. Paladin’s a Challenger,” Amy said. “You don’t need to go full sparkhead to get in.”

“Paladin’s not just a Challenger. He was Golden 5.” Simon reminded Amy. “The original superhero team: Omen, The White Wizard, Headwind, Scoundrel, and Paladin.”

“And Headwind was the only one with powers!” Amy said smiling, but her smile left on a thought as she considered. “Maybe, I think Scoundrel was a little bit of a paragon, but there’s no real proof.”

“And who knows what Omen was like under the armor,” Simon said.

Amy had a bunch of vintage Headwind posters up in her room. The first superheroine. Amy had to celebrate Headwind. A feminist icon with or without consent. Due respect aside, it was The White Wizard Amy idolized. Brains, gymnastics, and a whole slew of clever and crazy gadgets. That was what Amy did, trading in The Wizard Staff for The Butler and The Princess. The gadgets had only gotten better, the fighting moves more refined, in the last 40 years.

Simon was stripped down to his boxers. He tossed, stretched, and grabbed a towel, soap, and shampoo out of clearly his own locker. It had his name on it. And there were cute bear stickers all over the only other one that was labeled.

“Stow your gear,” Amy said.

“Cover for me?” he asked.

“Why would I do that?” Amy asked.

“Hot date tonight!” Simon grinned.

Amy blinked. She twisted and watched Simon stalk off to the showers. “With who?” The perfect breasts comments tickled her brainstem. She threw off her clothes, grabbed a towel and ran after him.

Nothing had been stored.

The command center compound had been built to house a whole army of henchmen. It wasn’t finished, it hadn’t been used, but what was done, including the showers and gym, were the best Simon had ever used.

Simon and Amy had been superheroes since someone had stole his bike at fourteen. His then best friend had showed him this place she had inherited. Taking down a bike theft ring, like heroes, with E.V.I.L.tech had started their partnership. They were best friends, but Amy had grown up years before Simon had caught up. Hearing he had a date? This was news.

Normally, Simon went to his stall. Amy went to hers. Amy left first. There were three stalls between them, notable for the cute teddy bear sticky grippies in Amy’s and the realistic snarling grizzlies in Simon’s. Simon had zero to no say in how anything in the command center was decorated.

“Amy! What?” He saw her fuzzed out body through his frosted door as she took the stall next to his.

“Is it Zeta?” Amy demanded, not even turning on her water.

“Is what Zeta?” Simon asked.

“Your date?” Amy said.

“No,” Simon said.

“She would, you know,” Amy said. “Just to fuck with me.”

“Thanks, I feel so attractive.” Simon laid on the sarcasm.

“That’s not what I meant!” Amy huffed. “Is it someone I know?”

“Is it any of your business?” Simon started to enjoy himself as he started scrubbing off the beach, smoke, and sweat.

“What? Oh! It could be! Are you being seduced by some sort of sexy superspy who wants access to the command center?” Amy said, hopefully.

“Jackie? No, she’s more of a cutthroat mercenary,” Simon said.

“You’re not dating Calico! Shut up!” Amy laughed. “Hm… Is it Gloria? No, no, no! Memphis!”

“I can’t tell which twin is which,” Simon said. “If they’re not in costume. So, I guess that means I can’t tell you.”

“Memphis would give you a good education on girls but Gloria would be a good girlfriend,” Amy said.

“Cool, you should ask her out,” Simon said.

“Not for me!” Amy scowled. “C’mon! We’re a team! You have to tell me!”

“I’m pretty sure we don’t date as a team,” Simon said.

“Oh! Silent Tiger!”

“She’s dating Daybreaker,” Simon said.

“Shut up!” Amy said.

“Why do I know the gossip?” Simon said.

“Nora! No, wait, Kayla!” Amy said.

“There are women that aren’t superheroes.”

“Oh my god, Vicky!” Amy said.

“Vicky? Kristofferson?” Simon asked.

“She took you to prom a couple years ago. She’s the girl next door. She was a grade above us but it’s not like she’s older…”

“I haven’t seen Vicky since you bullied her to be my prom date.”

“C’mon tell me! I’d tell you!”

“And I try not to ask,” Simon said. “Golden rule and all of that.”

“Is there any reason not to tell me?” Amy was seriously getting frustrated. Simon calmed down and took a deep breath. He rinsed out his hair before he answered.

“People… Girls see me and you together, and they think we’re together,” Simon said. “If I want to really get to know someone, I gotta do it myself. Without you scaring someone I might like off.”

“I’d never do that!” Amy said. “I’d be the perfect wing girl!”

“You’d try,” Simon laughed. “You’d certainly push your way in between us, even if you thought that was trying to get us together.”

“But—” Amy sighed. “Is she at least… I dunno… Is she good enough for you? Hot enough?”

“I really like her, Amy,” Simon said. “That’s all the hints you’re getting.”

“So she’s not hot?” Amy probed, smiling again.

“She’s gorgeous,” Simon said.

“Sweet, extra hint!” Amy said.

Simon didn’t answer. He was discreetly capping his shampoo and body wash.

“Yvette? No, too bony.” Amy had returned to naming the female members of The Young Defenders. Simon pulled his boxers and towel from the door of the shower next to his. He had left his shower running as he had sneaked away. He took the long way out of the showers, through the gym. Zeta waved to him as he jogged past her in a towel, back to the arsenal, to grab his change of clothes from the locker.

Amy had code locked it from the inside.

“Loju’s in the garage if you need to borrow some coveralls or something,” Zeta said. “Or you can just be shirtless. I won’t say anything to Amy.”

“Yeah,” Simon laughed, walking to the garage. “You or Amy not saying shit that would get a rise out of the other?” He waved away the impossible. Zeta put her headphones back on. Soon, Simon, dressed in black coveralls and borrowed workboots, waved from the closing elevator door. Timing it perfect as an angry Amy shoved her head out of the Arsenal door. She had barely taken the time to tie her bathrobe.

It wasn’t often Simon got to see that indignant look on Amy’s face. It was cute. It was a small victory.

Erin sprinted in stilettos. Rosa couldn’t keep up in trainers. The fiery red alarm systems echoed throughout the mall. Erin scowled as she came back around the corner for Rosa.

Erin was a couple of years younger than Rosa. Rosa guessed Erin was probably straight out of a bachelor’s degree and into her first real job as a HR representative. Barrett Maxwell was a pretty big job to land. Rosa was proud of her new friend.

Erin dressed in a sleek black skirt suit with stockings that made her white legs appear even darker than Rosa’s Columbian skin. She had her hair cut at her chin and dyed a vibrant pink. Her makeup was perfect and her jewelry sparkled. She was the first girl like that that hadn’t come off as a bully to Rosa.

“Hurry up!”

“What’s going on? That’s not the fire or biohazard alarm!” Rosa said, dashing up to Erin.

“It’s an attack!”

“Why? We do boring research on bugs and stuff!” Rosa said. “There’s barely anything a drug maker could use!”

“Supervillains don’t always have plans you can figure out!” Erin said. She grabbed Rosa’s hand. “Now run!”

“Supervillains!” Rosa gasped. She’d seen dozens of news reports and YouTube videos of villains and heroes. There had been a wild spark somewhere on campus while she had got her biological engineering bachelor’s degree. She’d once seen Meteor Man’s fiery contrails after he had flown overhead. She had assumed nothing she had done in her life would ever bring her near supers.

“Yeah, we gotta get to the safe rooms!” Erin yanked Rosa’s hand to speed her up.

“Shouldn’t we evacuate!” Rosa asked.

“And run through the warzone?” Erin growled. “Move your ass!”

Rosa obeyed but her mind was outrunning her feet.

“I’m so lucky you were down by my lab when this happened,” Rosa said, as they cut out of the main hallway and into the office tower that centered the big L-shaped building.

“I had a complaint!” Erin barked. “We can discuss it when we’re safe!”

“Discuss it!” Rosa freaked out. “Someone complained about me!”

“No! Run!” Erin grabbed Rosa’s arm with both hands and dragged the girl away from the front desk.

“But—”

“I meant gossip, for fuck’s sake!” Erin snarled. “Move your sweet brown ass.”

Rosa laughed at that. Out of all the people to say anything like that, she was glad it was Erin. The girl from HR saying out of place sexual things? Rosa needed that break.

Erin did not.

“Fine! I’ll leave you here if you won’t run!” Erin let go of Rosa and dashed to the stairwell.

“Don’t! Please!” Rosa yelled and ran across the office. She looked at the desk. Derek wasn’t there. He was off facing some supervillain! She prayed that he was OK.

“Oh god!” Rosa said. She grabbed Erin in a hug when she had found her friend had waited inside the stairwell door.

“You can hug me when we’re in the safe room!” Erin growled.

“I didn’t even know we had safe rooms!” Rosa said, chasing Erin down the stairs.

“Yeah, um, all Barrett facilities have them…” Erin shook her head. “This one does at least. The bottom floor!”

Rosa looked around; over four hundred people worked at the facility. She had only seen Erin on her rush down here. Not even through the hallways.

“I hope everyone else makes it!” Rosa said. They stepped out into an underground section four sub-basements down. Erin sliced her ID card through a scanner. One of four big steel doors slowly rolled open.

Rosa looked down and pulled her badge and keycard off the clip on her lab coat. Erin snatched it out of her hand.

“I’ve got it! You know I can run faster,” Erin said. Rosa nodded and ran up to the slowly opening door and slipped inside. She came to a stop. It was an operating theatre with one doctor waiting for her.

‘You made it here safely!” Rosa rushed over and hugged Dr Astaire. “I figured it was a safe room specifically. I didn’t know it was makeshift.”

“Yes,” Dr Astaire smiled. He grabbed Rosa by the hair and spun her around. She watched Erin walk in with a femme fatale strut. The big steel door closed, locking them all inside. “Miss Hannigan, well done. I expected you a minute fourteen seconds sooner.”

“She’s got short legs,” Erin said.

“What’s going on! Let me go!” Rosa said. She struggled and screamed in Hannibal’s grasp. He kicked the back of her sneakers and force-marched her to the operating table. “Erin! Help me!”

“Of course,” Erin said. She slapped a leather cuff on Rosa’s wrist. She smirked as she dragged Rosa bodily, with Hannibal’s help, up and face down across the table.

“Stop it!” Rosa kicked but Erin yanked a leather strap through a buckle, pinning Rosa’s arm down at her side. Erin smirked as she did the same to Rosa’s ankles, and then her other arm.

“There you go, one cocktease nerd delivered.” She mock-saluted Dr Astaire.

“Go, prepare for incursion. Your partner is in B-3 A1.” Dr Astaire waved her away.

“You sure you don’t need a nurse, Doctor?” Erin laid on the sex to her voice.

“What’s going on? We’re friends! Why are you doing this? Erin? Dr Astaire!”

“You’re not needed, Erin.” Dr Astaire picked up a pair of scissors and cut into the back of Rosa’s lab coat.

“I’ve found I enjoy watching,” she said.

“No, I don’t believe I’ll be allowing that,” Dr Astaire said. “The timetable is clear. You’ve come recommended as muscle. I have no use for you when it comes to mental work.”

“Erin, please!” Rosa said.

“Seriously, I all but shove his dick in you and you couldn’t put out for Derek!” Erin tutted. “It’s your fault he had the dryest four months of his life.”

“Stop teasing, Erin,” Dr Astaire said. “You’ve handled your tasks admirably. I’ll pass it along.”

“Yeah.” She scowled one last time at Rosa. “When this is all said and done, Rosie, you’ll come find me and kiss me for today.”

“Please! I don’t understand! Let me up!” Rosa begged. She screamed as Dr Astaire had begun cutting away the back of Rosa’s top.

“It’s a lovely bra, but the strap is in the way. I’ll just undo it,” Dr Astaire said until the whoosh of pneumatics told him the door was properly closed and Erin was on the other side. “She’s wrong, Rosa. You won’t waste your time with someone like her when we’re finished.”

“Finished what?” Rosa asked.

“Hm…” he reached over and checked her pulse on her neck. She had twisted her head away but he had followed and held her neck uncomfortably until his check had finished. “I believe I will tell you. I believe you will modulate your heart rate better with the knowledge.”

“What?”

“I work, and so did you unwittingly, on the experimental borders of meta-instigatory events,” Dr Astaire said.

“Sparkplugging!” she gasped.

“I hate that term,” Dr Astaire said. “I’d have rather you said I was making you superhuman, or giving you superpowers.’

“Why? Why me?”

“Your work on pheromonal control reopened lines of inquiry we had chased down and assumed were deadends. And you managed to create a system that could profit our cause.” Rosa flinched when Hannibal began swabbing alcohol down Rosa’s spine.

“What? My experiments worked a little bit on dragonflies and some locust species!” Her voice rumbled and quaked. Hannibal had assumed right. The academic discussion was keeping her from a full-blown panic episode. “It couldn’t work on humans! Let alone mammals! Let alone vertebrates!”

“We hope otherwise,” he said.

“It’s too early! This is decades away!”

“These vectors have been decades away since Operation Hot Porridge,” Dr Astaire said.

“What? What is that?”

“Oh, after World War II, the United States government scooped up any German scientists they could in an action called Operation Paperclip,” Dr Astaire said. “That was for rocketry and other projects. A very specific subset, Operation Hot Porridge, was the Paperclip for… sparkplugging.”

“Oh my god! Nazis!” Rosa gasped.

“Yes, several of them,” Hannibal said.

“But! Vectors! What are you doing? What’s going to happen to me!”

“Powers manifest in many different ways,” Dr Astaire said. “The most common, superhuman abilities, abilities that simply amplify human traits of speed, strength, cognition, or awareness, are called paragon vectors.”

“And things like Meteor Man or Headwind?”

“Kinetics and generators are usually subtyped as elemental vectors. I’ve always found that the actual division between them and other forms of mutancy is largely bookkeeping,” Hannibal said. “So, technically, I’m attempting to adapt your body to promote various shusterins and siegelases, the hormones and enzymes of meta-instigation, to perform the tasks we want.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Why, be a human queen bee, so to speak.”

“A breeding pit!” Rosa freaked.

“No, and it was you who mislabeled the queen bee thing just this morning.” She felt his laugh was more like the mimicry of human mirth.

“I’m going to begin the first injections now, four, between several of your vertebrae, and then two more into your adrenal glands,” he said.

“Don’t do this! I don’t wanna be a… a guinea pig!” she pleaded.

“Someone had to be a volunteer,” Dr Astaire said. “I felt it was fitting you be the first to inhabit this power you finally made manifest.”

“I didn’t volunteer!”

“Those that do? The Derek Koszosks and Erin Hannigans. These are not the people who should have these powers.”

It was the first heartfelt agreement Rosa had with Dr Astaire since this had begun.

“Do not struggle, a needle of steel in your spinal cord can cause irreparable damage,” Dr Astaire said.

“Put me out! Aneathesitize me!” Rosa pleaded as she felt his latex gloved fingers trace out the shape of her spine and the space between the discs.

“No, it would be very ill advised to mix medications,” Dr Astaire said. “And this way, I can monitor the metamorphosis.”

“I hate you,” Rosa said.

“That does happen before success is assured,” Dr Astaire said. “Steady now.”

Rosa bit into her cheek as the first needle plunged into her. She didn’t breathe until he wiped up the blood with a sterile swab.

“Good girl, just five more needles,” he said.

Rosa wouldn’t breathe until he finished with her spine. She got all of the oxygen she could handle while she screamed through the needles in her adrenal glands.

Zeta was still in the Command Center. She was finished with her cereal, which now sat as an empty bowl in front of the Escher diagnostics. Amy, dressed in her workout clothes, stepped out of the arsenal and crossed the cavern with as loud of clangs as her sneakers would allow her.

“Hey sis.” Zeta reclined her chair back when Amy stood over her. Amy looked at the screen.

“Girls are fighting over Crimefighters now?” Amy said. “Man, sluts are desperate.”

“That’s not some K-Mart Crimefighter! That’s fucking Mechastar, he’s like the biggest Frontliner short of Sleeping—You’re fucking with me.”

“You’re easy,” Amy smiled. “Who are we rooting for?”

“Oh no, they’re all sluts. I hope he gets pissed off and meets someone not a golddigger at, like, a Starbucks or something,” Zeta said.

Amy wasn’t even looking at the stream. She tilted her head. Her skinny little sister did have great breasts. But perfect?

“Oh my god! What are you doing?”

“What?” Amy frowned. “Looking at the intruder who’s come into my base.”

“It was Dad’s fucking lair,” Zeta barked. “I have as much right to be here as you do!”

“It’s not a lair!” Amy shouted.

“It’s a cavern he carved out of the earth so he could plan world domination! It’s! A! Lair!”

“Gah! You’re such a bitch!”

“A bitch you were just scoping out,” Zeta said.

“Simon said you have perfect boobs,” Amy growled. “Mine are better.”

“Except my perfect boobs are on a woman’s chest. Not some silverback gorilla’s,” Zeta scoffed. “Presentation.”

“Oh shut up!”

“Simon really said that?” Zeta said, smiling and brushing her hair back over her ear.

“You’d better not!” Amy glowered.

“What goes around comes around,” Zeta mocked. Amy just lost her anger and slumped in her chair. Zeta was surprised. Amy loved to fight. “What?”

“Don’t fuck things up with whoever he’s dating,” Amy said. “He really wants a girlfriend. It’ll be good for him before we get in YD.”

“Who’s he dating?” Zeta frowned. “Strangegirl?”

“Charmedgirl’s more his speed,” Amy said. “And he said no, couldn’t tell the twins apart.”

“It’s easy, Strangegirl wears purple with a splash of—”

“Out of uniform,” Amy said, laughing along with her sister. “You don’t have to do anything for Loju to get down here?”

“Like flash him my perfect boobs?” Zeta smirked.

Amy scowled.

“No, the smiling and eyelash fluttering helps. But no, he just lets me in,” Zeta said.

“Simon said it’s because Loju likes you,” Amy said.

“Yeah,” Zeta said, raising an eyebrow. “I’m cute as fuck.”

“There’s got to be more to it than that. Lots of girls are cute and I never see them down here,” Amy said.

“He doesn’t talk to anybody else besides me and Gillian,” Zeta said. “And do you think a Britcher would come into the lair? Dad murdered—”

“I know!” Amy said. “I know. Please, c’mon. I gotta stop hearing about Dad.”

“When’s the last time you went and seen him?” Zeta said.

“We don’t get to see him, we get a video conference that’s totally recorded and used to add more years onto his sentence.”

“I went last month,” Zeta said, laying breadcrumbs.

“Not since the first time we got skipped into YD,” Amy said.

“Three years ago?”

“And a half,” Amy agreed. “If I’m gonna make the world a better place, he’s not gonna get there.”

“They say he’s been good in prison,” Zeta said. “Twelve years and no incidents. Good behavior and all of that. He should be up for parole…”

“They’re not going to parole Volcano Glass!”

“Mom said—”

“Watch your stupid show!” Amy got up and stomped across the command center and stormed through the garage doors. Loju was sitting with a tablet in hand. Three cables ran from it to the side of Amy’s goggles. Simon’s lenses sat on the seat of her motorbike. Amy turned on her heel and pounded in the lock code.

“Hey Ames, good mission? The installs I made are near perf… I think I’ve upgraded the HUD to follow Calico’s ragdoll agility better. You check in with YD yet?” Loju was a heavyset East Indian boy in blue coveralls and work gloves. He wore white ear protection around his neck and steel-toed boots. He smiled a smile that split his chubby cheeks as Amy stomped past him and collapsed down onto the stool next to his welding bench.

“No! Someone’s using the computers!” Amy said.

“Then send Zeta off to the pool,” Loju said. “You really should debrief while it’s fresh.”

“Stopped the rocket, villains got away, by scorpion-submarine.” Amy said. “There wasn’t a lot of nuance to miss there.”

“What weapons were Calico using?” Loju asked.

“In-built cat claws, probably Jetsteel or just black painted high performance normal steel. She had two cutlasses, but I separated her from those in the first attack. She had six pistols, small calibre handguns. Doc Vic had provided her with a shoulder mounted laser cannon but Cali hates those and fought full catscratch at me. Slashed my armor and busted the fibres so I ditched it.”

“What was the layout of—”

“Do you think I missed anything?” Amy interrupted, “Really?”

“Not that Simon didn’t catch,” Loju answered.

“Debrief’s all me. He went out on a date,” Amy said, immediately hating herself for sounding at all unhappy for Simon. He’d better have attracted a good girl. Any bitch would have to deal with Amy.

Which is probably why she’d never seen someone he had dated before. Except Vicky but that was a pity prom… Pity! Simon! Vicky was lucky she wasn’t there to deal with Amy.

“Cool, good for him,” Loju said. “When you call in YD, send the order along to Great Justice. We’ve got Noxo for weeks to replace your KO bullets but we’re out of screamers and lightningbombs.”

“Who is Simon dating?” Amy demanded.

“I would know when you don’t?” Loju shook his head.

“Yeah, sure, guy talk. You’re his best friend,” Amy said, but she could tell from Loju’s eye-roll he believed Amy was Simon’s best friend. Even if that was true, girls and guys don’t talk about this shit the same! Amy frowned and changed tactics. ”He knows all about you and Zeta, right?”

“Me and Zeta aren’t really a thing,” Loju said.

“But you could be,” Amy said. “You just gotta take her out someplace quiet. You’re not a club scene kinda guy. Go to the wildlife park! She’s a sucker for raccoons. I’ve always liked the black bears, but…”

“I’m just about to start on the bike, you could help?” Loju said.

“And afterwards, take her somewhere with something fun to eat where you can talk. Like Alice Britcher’s…” Amy frowned. “Tess doesn’t still waitress, does she?”

“Nope, full on Les-B-an now,” Loju laughed.

“What?”

“You didn’t hear she got a place in Les Belles? Les B’s. The Les-B-ans? Seriously, a swarm of twitter journalists are calling them the first all girl all queer team,” Loju laughed.

“Tess isn’t—”

“Probably not the others either. The Beautiful Women, but they’re down in New Orleans, so they added that French twist,” Loju smirked.

“What I’m saying is that if Tess isn’t at her mom’s, take Zeta there,” Amy said. “Riley and Gillian actually like us.”

“OK, but Zeta and me don’t actually date, Amy. Ames! Fuck…”

Amy strutted across the command center smiling like a shark. She hopped into the second chair and stared at Zeta. Zeta sighed and paused her show.

“Loju’s gonna take you to the wildlife park!” Amy grinned.

“Why? Is he trying to seduce you with cuddly bears?” Zeta asked.

“It’s sweet. It’s fun. It’s got raccoons,” Amy said.

“It’s your idea,” Zeta countered.

“So? He likes you.”

“He likes my perfect boobs,” Zeta said, smirking.

“And you’re heart-shaped ass.” Amy wouldn’t be outdone by Zeta.

“Your idea, you pay, I’ll go,” Zeta said.

Amy glared at her.

“And, fine, I’ll make it a real date, and give him a real shot,” Zeta said.

“Sold!” Amy beamed. She ran to the locker room, found her bag, took out a debit card and strode into the garage again.

“You didn’t close the door, I heard everything,” Loju said, exasperated.

“Which means, you take this,” she slapped the card down on Loju’s shoulder, “and you go take advantage of your real shot.”

“I never said she had perfect boobs or a heart-shaped ass,” Loju said.

“But she does,” Amy said. “Real. Shot.”

“Fine,” he said, taking the card. “What’s your PIN?”

“It’s a tap,” Amy said.

“And every now and then, you still gotta use the PIN,” Loju said.

“The date Simon and I took down the bike thieves,” Amy said. She was happy she kept the blush off her cheeks.

“August what?”

“Twelfth,” Amy said, unhappy Loju didn’t know it. He got the month right, give him the win Amy!

“Fine, I’ll get her out of here,” Loju said. “Your bike’s good. Your clips are still empty. I haven’t set the factory robots to build a new grenade launcher for Simon yet.”

“Cool, I’ll do it,” Amy said.

Loju got up and crossed the Command Center to Zeta. Amy watched proudly from the garage door. She was getting her boy laid! A real shot with Zeta was a slam dunk! Assuming Zeta was like Amy, and Amy figured little sister was far wilder than big sister. Amy still frowned as Zeta and Loju bickered to the elevator. That was the best she could do, it was out of her hands. She turned and saw Zeta’s dish on the console.

“Take your goddamn cereal bowl!” Amy shouted. Zeta smiled and gave Amy the finger as the elevator doors closed. Loju looked morose.

“Bitch!” Amy said, smirking. Real shot? Loju was gonna get pulled around by the nose! Zeta was just the worst.

Amy avoided calling YD, picking up the cereal bowl. It was metal, meaning it was from the command center. She cut through the cavern, over the clear river, and into the back half. This was where the dojo, the pool, the kitchen, the pantry, the barracks, and the master bedroom was. Amy set the steel bowl spinning on the counter over the dishwasher.

Everywhere in this half of the cavern was unfinished, unmelted, and unshaped by her father’s lavakinesis. Amy had hated the number of scratch tests and psych evals she had to take from fifth grade to college admissions. She didn’t have her father’s black hair and red eyes like Zeta, they were the secondaries of the power. And Zeta didn’t spark either.

Amy had to walk back into the kitchen and put the bowl and spoon in the dishwasher. She went to the gym. Hit the heavy bag. Ran the treadmills. Used the gun range. Then realized that it was the first time she had been alone in the command center.

She hit the showers and masturbated. She couldn’t call Nathan to come join her… If she called YD, she’d be stuck in the debrief for at least an hour. She closed her eyes. Dreaming of herself in a YD tailored costume. She hoped it was green. Most of her underlaying gear was army surplus but she liked the color. She’d be armed up, in Defenders Tower, Devilchild with her. Simon fighting off the twins or X or Arc Angel or Ivory. First step to being the best.

She came on her fingers but it left her feeling amped up. She strutted naked through the whole command center. It was terrifying and fun. Her ears were pricked up, one wobbly clank of the elevator and she’d have run for clothes.

She made it to the big bedroom. She wanted to take a nap on the big bed, but frowned. She didn’t like wasting an afternoon. She stepped in front of the big mirror in the en suite. She prodded her shoulder and side, making sure there were no marks beyond the bruises from Calico. She practiced her smile. It had taken a couple of years but it came as easily as it did brightly now.

She wasn’t a silverback gorilla. She stuck her tongue out, thinking of Zeta. She had awesome legs and a great ass. Her tits were not better than Zeta’s, but Amy could never admit that. Her skin was what mattered though. She worried over every freckle. No scars.

Young Defenders and The Challengers all had amazing smiles and no scars. You couldn’t advertise you were invincible with scars. All of The Challengers were invincible. It’s why Amy’s ears had never been pierced.

If she kept looking, she’d get caught up in her head and get pissed at the way her lips crinkled when she smiled or the way she walked. She stayed naked though, because she could. It was getting less scary, maybe even less fun.

She went to the pool and dove in, her tits were a pain in the ass to not have in check if she wanted to swim. It was still fun. She kicked off the deep end wall and swam back. She almost didn’t hear the elevator before the door opened.

Simon held Riley Britcher’s hand as they stepped into the cave. Riley was short, brown with almond eyes, her father’s family were Native American. She was short, with yellow sclera like all of her sisters. Like her dad.

“This is it, you OK?” he asked. She squeezed his hand more tightly.

“This is it,” she nodded. This was built by the man who had killed her father. Now owned by that girl she had hated and the boy she currently loved.

“Ames?” Simon pressed a button by the elevator. His voice rang out through the command center. “Loju?”

He frowned as two minutes passed. He smiled. “They’re not here,” he brushed Riley’s cheek, “we have the place to ourselves. Let me show you around.”

“Everywhere?” she asked.

“Not the garage, the computers, or the weapons,” he shook his head.

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean…” she said.

“It’s OK,” Simon said. “This place is actually amazing… If you’re not scared of it.”

She looked up. 600 meters of rock before she could possibly see the stars. It did scare Riley. She felt out of touch with her power. Not that she had much. She could hardly blind a pigeon when even her younger sister could laser a ton truck in half.

“I’m not afraid with you here,” she said.

Amy was shocked to see Riley with Simon. Amy had hid when she was called. How was she gonna explain why she was naked! If he was going to take Riley on a tour… He’d come straight to the pool. Amy, quietly more than quickly, tried to make her way to the showers. The arsenal was off limits. That’s where her clothes were and—

Amy hid herself in the sauna when Riley and Simon came in over the bridge on the river.

“Seriously? A pool?”

“It was being designed to host a platoon of henchmen. Keep them trained and ready for action,” Simon said. “Then he… He turned himself in.”

“Yeah,” Riley said. “Let’s not talk about Volcano Glass and Luminary. Off-limits. Let’s talk about Riley and Simon.”

“Riley is incredibly beautiful,” Simon said.

Riley smiled. “Simon is totally yummy.”

“Yummy?” Simon asked.

“I like meat,” she said, baring her teeth and squeezing Simon’s muscles. He had been wiry when they had gone to school together. He was powerful now, thanks to his filling out shoulders.

“And I like… sweet?” he said.

“Sweet’s better than bitter or sou—” Riley was kissed as Simon pulled her to him. She moaned against his chest.

“Wow,” Riley said. “You’ve gotten good at that.”

Gotten good? Amy seemed shocked as she eavesdropped. This wasn’t their first date! Simon had kept a secret from Amy?

“I think it’s time I start the advanced lessons,” Simon said.

“Finally!” Riley said, stretching out her arms and shouting. “Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t want to push you.”

“And yet you pulled me in all of the same,” Simon said, grabbing her and kissing her again.

Amy smiled. Riley! Of course! She never would’ve guessed Riley. Simon had always been Amy’s friend and Riley had hated Amy for so many years. It was hard to tell a 10 year old not to hate the whole family of the man that had taken her dad. If Zeta and Gillian hadn’t become friends… Riley and Amy may have never buried the hatchet.

Though if they had stopped being enemies because Riley wanted Simon, Amy couldn’t blame the girl either.

“There’s a beautiful apartment with a huge bed down this way,” Simon pointed towards the barracks. “We could—”

“We could take the whole day,” Riley said. She walked Simon over to a bench that sat on the side of the wall of the pool. Riley sat down but pushed Simon back up.

“Riley?” he asked.

Riley pulled Simon’s zipper down and started wiggling down his pants.

“Amy could come in, or Loju, or—”

“You’d hear the elevator, you said.” Riley grinned mischievously.

“Not the Escher,” Simon replied. “But if I’m the only one here, I’d have to authorize the entry…”

“So we can’t get caught?” Riley said. “And if someone does come, you can whisk me to your apartment with the really big bed!”

Amy watched unseen. Riley was pulling on Simon’s cock. She was taking him in her mouth! Wow, that was awesome! Good for you, Simon! Riley was awesome... She was pretty and smart and wasn’t trying to be a super. But she was a spark, she could get it, what Simon did with Amy. Simon and Riley could work. Amy didn’t stop watching, but she didn’t take it further. One hand to her breast and she had to make herself stop.

That would be too much of an invasion.

Simon brushed Riley’s gorgeous hair away from her brightly smiling face. He smirked. Four months they had been dating. He didn’t know what he was doing, and the forced patience and perfectionism of superheroing, could’ve scared off a girl who didn’t know him. She knew that if he trusted her enough to bring her to the command center, then he trusted her enough with his heart. His heart and all of that yummy body that housed the heart.

She started with the blowjob because Simon was stiff-shirted most of the time. Get him off balance and he was at his best. Having a blowjob out here, where other people travelled. It got his blood pumping more, his mind running faster.

Riley pumped her wrist around the base of his cock as she slowly and happily laved her tongue around his thick cock. He wouldn’t let go of her head. His fingers warmly petted her hair and she smiled.

Simon took a deep breath and couldn’t stop smiling. It was finally happening and he had an amazing girl to do it with. She was eager to please him and he could see that. He was proud of himself when her tongue slipped inside his foreskin and slipped up the edge of his cock.

Her right cheek ballooned out as she took him into her mouth. She dragged him across her humming throat and pushed out her left cheek after. Her teeth were threatening, not touching. Simon’s shoulders shook as he let her go.

Riley licked and sucked and twisted her head about as she tried everything. He just loved it. She couldn’t tell what was more exciting or less. He just absorbed it all with awe. This was just the first of many. She grinned around him and battered the tip of his cock with his tongue. Their first act today even. She wanted to see that apartment.

Part of her couldn’t shake the offness of the place. The facilities were normal, a beautiful Olympic sized pool. Silvered ladders. Everything looked like it should. Except the walls above the laid down tiles. The roof. It was all craggy and glassy cooled rock.

Simon was here. She was safe with him. That offness, that fear, was just a serpent under her skin. She couldn’t let go, until he had her in his arms. While he was in her mouth, she had to put her all into it. Simon clearly enjoyed that. Riley’s heart battered her ribs.

Amy wanted to take notes. Riley was putting on a show. Amy felt so wrong to watch, hidden in the sauna, which was thankfully off. They were doing it in the pool, they wanted an audience.

Was that why Amy had swum naked?

She shivered. She quietly cheered on Simon.

Simon’s senses were acute. You had to be, if you didn’t want to get shot in the back. Something was telling him to move along, go to the apartment. Take Riley where she belonged. With you, in that bed.

He just couldn’t call it quits. This was his first blowjob and it was amazing. He was gonna have to address that. If Calico, or someone as hot, had him captured she could…

Simon crushed down all of the bad ideas and thoughts of other women. Riley deserved him present for all of the work she was doing. His fingers tightened up in her hair. She pulled him to the back of her throat. The low hum rippled to the base of his cock.

“Yes,” he growled low. Riley reassured herself she was breathing through her nose. She pulled him more shallow in her mouth. She made her tongue and her wrist do the work. She twisted her head and smiled.

“Yes!” he moaned again. His breath wasn’t ragged but he had better control of himself than that. He cupped the back of Riley’s skull. She pushed on his thigh, teaching him not to slam his cock down her throat. At least, not yet.

“Yes!” he grimaced and tensed. Riley started swallowing as the first eruptions of cum hit her teeth and sloshed over her tongue. She pulled him forward, he bent so she could tilt her throat back, collect him and swallow him.

Amy’s knuckles were tense and her skin was burning. She was going straight to the showers as soon as the way was clear! Riley was wiping her mouth, clearly done swallowing and hunting out his remnants with her teeth. Simon dragged her to his feet and they kissed.

After a blowjob! Kissed! Amy had to brush her teeth to keep Nathan from getting weirded out. Amy sighed. Simon and Riley. Good.

Simon and Riley broke their kiss.

“That was amazing,” he said.

“You’re welcome,” she said. “I liked it too. Now, I’m horny out of my skull. You said there’s a big bed?”

“Really?” he asked.

“My superhero’s not gonna leave his damsel in distress, I hope?” Riley smirked.

She squealed as Simon slung her over her shoulders and kicked out of his shoes and pants. He had no trouble hauling Riley’s tiny body through the barracks to the big apartment.

Amy counted to five and sneaked out of the sauna. She felt guilty and excited and horny and… She had to stop those thoughts as quickly as possible. She wanted another shower and another orgasm. But it felt dirty to do it after being such a voyeur on her best friend. She cut through to the arsenal and dressed in sweats. She was gonna go. She could hit up Alice’s and get a burger. No, she didn’t want to spy on Simon and Loju in one day.

She hadn’t called into YD yet. She couldn’t leave that hanging.

There were cameras throughout the facility, but they’d been disabled. It was all or nothing and she didn’t want hours and hours of her showering. Now, it meant she couldn’t watch Simon and Riley in the master bed. She was glad there was no temptation.

She clicked, brought up the GJ comms and called into YD.

Red Viking answered dressed not much differently than Amy. Erik Scarlett was a very well built tall black man of 23. YD employed until 25, but with Growing Boy now Titan of The Challengers, Erik was the current oldest.

“Shit, hey Ames. I didn’t know you were around.”

“We’re in from the DV job south of Cuba,” she said. “Loju told me to send this along with our—”

“You stop him?”

“Yeah.”

“Catch him?”

“Scorpion submarine,” she frowned.

“Stamped. Approved. I need you. Suit up.” Erik said.

“What?” Amy asked.

“There was an alarm set off about an hour ago at the Barrett facility outside of Eastwater. Roosevelt’s out, Jefferson’s hospitalized, and Washington’s doing PR shit. You’re the first hands on deck. You and Simon check in, report,” he said. “It should be easy peasy, but Barrett Marley’s got platinum access.”

“Seriously?” Amy said. “Any other notes?”

“Yeah,” Erik said. “On site security has several missing persons they need accounted for. The building’s locked down, so it could be a breach and brawl. That’s what you and Simon do best.”

“What kind of facility is it?”

“Research, horticulture, and etymologists? Bug doctors. I think they’re studying pollinating and shit,” Erik said.

“Not an arms locker?” Amy perked up.

“Yeah, they’re not calling for Front Line here, and no bodies means no Challengers. Looks like a head count and report,” Erik said. “Plus, it’d get you and Simon in the spotlight right before the trials. And wear the Blueeyes, you don’t want your E.V.I.L.tech goggles on camera.”

“Right on,” Amy said. She’d pack the Blueeyes, but until she got the full on YD suit connected to everything, Loju’s work beat GJ. In with E.V.I.L. eyes, out with Blue.

“There’s an Escher drop not far from site. Take your bikes and get going,” Erik said.

“Yeah, I love cities,” everywhere GJ had shut down E.V.I.L. there were access teleporters.

“Good luck and good hunting,” Erik said. “See you and Simon on the news.”

Not likely, unless Barrett Maxwell really needed to cover their asses on something. Amy frowned. If it was easy peasy, she didn’t need to ruin Simon’s date. They hadn’t heard the elevator. She’d have to tell them why she hadn’t answered the intercom. Shit.

If anyone could handle their own shit, it was Simon. Amy wasn’t going to be less the hero than he was. She was outfitted and armed in under a minute. She scrambled her bike to the Escher and walked it into the tube. For a tiny jump like that, from the suburbs to the west to the industrial park north of the city? She didn’t have to worry about the momentum kick. She could drive out, hit the ground running. That’s the way she liked it. Start each mission with her blood up.

There’s no way Simon wouldn’t have heard an engine starting even with four doors between them. Amy didn’t start her bike until she was eighty miles away.

Rosa was limp and breathing shallowly on the table. Her back was beaded in sweat and glistened like her spray-on bandages. Dr Astaire was disposing of the needles. He picked up his tablet.

Erin was mostly undressed when Dr Astaire checked in. She had a body for dance, ballet perhaps, perfect in movement and form. She had the mind of a cutthroat stripper. He had been warned against taking her for his sexual favors. She would do anything for her sparkplugging. He didn’t mind using the crass term for her.

Derek was a gorgeous man. He was tan and muscled with a boyish charm to his face. He was twenty-three and buttoning up his shirt. He was as mercenary as Erin, of course. He shook his brown hair out of his eyes and snapped on heavy duty armor over his chest.

“What the hell are you picking up?” he asked.

Erin showed off a pair of forearm length bracelets. Pinkish seams ran up the blue edges. She bolted them to her arms. They were in an arsenal. The best options Barrett Maxwell had ever made for military, police, or soldiers of fortune the world over. Erin grabbed a Dragonsilk reinforced bodysuit in dark green and black trim.

“Shields?” Derek asked, in disgust.

Erin twisted her hands, blue and pink haze filled the room. She pulled a belt with two holsters from a peg on the wall. The haze vanished as Erin grabbed her prize.

“You’re not the worst with those,” Derek admitted. “At least you’re not expecting them to put up solid walls of force.”

“I don’t have superstrength. I’m not gonna go after someone with a baton like you,” she scoffed. “I don’t see why either of us should fight close. Why don’t you grab a rifle or—”

“I will be,” he said, as he slipped the reinforced truncheon on his hip. “Though, not much good it’ll do fighting in the thin hallways above.

“Why do we have to fight? Seems Dr Astaire got his shit done?” Erin asked. “I say we bounce.”

“No,” Derek said. “Rosie’s gotta cook all the way through. I’m putting in my time. I got my eyes on a set of paragon sparkplugs. They need to know how invaluable I am.”

“How? By being the perkiest cannon fodder?” Erin scoffed. “How’s that plan gonna hold up if they drop a goddamned Challenger on our heads?”

“I could take The Dragon,” Derek said, lifting up a sword; he tested its weight, balancing it on his index finger. It was a harsh looking piece with a Roman looking blade set into a tactical modern military handle.

“Fuck off,” Erin scoffed. “One: No. You couldn’t. And two: 1 in 11 odds is basically a guaranteed death sentence. You don’t get to pick your Challenger. As far as you know, you’d just be melted into slag by Meteor Man or Heartwood’d impale you on a Christmas tree.”

“They won’t send a Challenger for this kinda shit,” Derek said. “This isn’t a military facility. This room shouldn’t even be here. No, they’ll send some pack of YD or a couple of Front Liners.”

“Yeah, because getting our hearts lightning bolted out of our chests by Arc Angel would be any better!” Erin scoffed. “A proper elemental sparkplug. That’s what I want, even if they have to give me a big ass sandpaper enema. I want lasers out of my eyes and fireballs out of my nipples.”

Erin shook her tits at Derek who didn’t look. She scowled and zipped up her armor. Dr Astaire closed the window and opened up another. It took a minute and change to connect.

“Good news, Doctor Astaire?” The King spoke. He was one of three rippling silhouettes that appeared inside seven boxes. Indistinguishable but for the position on the camera. The Taxman and The Ghost sat silently. It had been over a year since the sixth box showed The Beast. Well, The Beast’s Project Overshadow hung on the shoulders of Dr Nightmares. A worthless deadend in Astaire’s opinion.

“We’ll know in days,” he replied. “You have an extraction team for me?”

“I do not,” The Ghost answered. “My agents are broken.”

“I have an option,” The Taxman said. “Amy Glasser and Simon Koszosk.”

“Glasser?” Astaire frowned. “I do not wish to be in the crosshairs of E.V.I.L. or be tied in anyway to that psychopath.”

“Those freelancers will perform well enough,” The Ghost said.

“Then send them,” The King said. “I expect success, Doctor.”

“There’s no chance of failure,” he replied. “She’ll provide us the blueprint we need to produce a perfected Chrysalis.”

“Excellent,” The Ghost said. “It is in motion.”

Dr Astaire nodded. He frowned as the app closed. He walked over, closed the hooks of Rosa’s bra. He planned to be methodical. He looked at the cases of prepared Meta-Instagant still sitting inside a glass doored freezer.

They would have to be prepared to travel. He had the data and the instructions on his tablet. He could make more. There was no way in hell he was staying to see Volcano Glass’s... Wife? Daughter? Sister? Decrepit grandmother? Who cared who this Amy was? There were some risks not worth taking.

Amy sat on her motorbike from across the access road. She had found two other bikes waiting. Unless this was a street racing hub, she was sitting at the raiders exit point. She leaned forward, looking through the Blueeyes windscreen. It quickly outlined the building, marked the exits, windows, and subterranean access points.

It was a commercial building mostly. There were big tanks of chemicals in the back and there were a lot of big protected vaults inside. Six security guards: one former cop and a handful of college dropouts.

Who would attack this place? Potato smugglers? Amy sat up and pulled her green mounted goggles down. She didn’t have access to all of Great Justice’s database, but they were much better tactically. She unclipped her guns.

Amy unholstered The Butler and mounted her breaching magazine. The first shot was a spray of iron filings and sawdust. That would kick the lock out of any of the doors in the building. Maybe even tear any door off its hinges. Though, not the laboratory’s vaults. She wasn’t getting into those without a plasma torch. Might even need a few to spare after the first conked out.

Amy loaded The Princess with a magazine of Noxo pellets. One in the chest, would both knock whoever she hit flat on their ass and rain Noxophene mist over them until they gave into a dreamless coma.

She reholstered her guns, Princess on the left, Butler on the right. She stepped off of her bike. It was mid-afternoon. She loosened the filter mask on her neck, triggered the monitor on her upper arm, clacked her wrist armor, punched her breastplate, and tightened her grenade bandoliers.

She looked to her left. Simon wasn’t there.

Easy peasy, her goggles HUD was up. Say hello, hit up the security desk, and track down the cause of the alarm. She scanned the parking lot. From this distance her goggles picked up nearly every license plate. She couldn’t read one letter from this distance but her goggles could. Any plate she couldn’t see matched the make and model of someone in the building.

She checked her monitor once more. It was sending data home. She had her bases covered. With a deep breath, she headed in.

Her costume was piecemeal. The goggles didn’t give off the Blueeyes glow of a Great Justice operative, but at least Loju had turned off the black E.V.I.L.tech death glare.

She scanned each door as she passed by. Emergency exits, every one, and properly locked from the outside. There was only one proper entrance. She didn’t need her goggles to recognize his face. He was sitting behind the front desk. Derek Knight had been the name on the Blueeyes readout.

“Oh fuck!” He had managed to dive backwards over the desk before Amy started shooting. The amber fog of Noxo swirled down his chair.

“What the hell?” A woman’s voice crackled out of the console.

“Derek!” Amy shouted.

“Fuck,” Derek looked at the truncheon in his belt. He had left his rifle under the desk. He yanked up a thin membranous scarf from under his security jacket and pulled it up over his nose and mouth. He dashed across the front room and ran for the hallway. He tried to track her but Amy wasn’t in the doorway anymore. “Shit!”

Four sliding doors led to the parking lot. The front desk sat in an open quarter circle of a room that reached up all three stories. Staircases zigzagged up to the upper floor hallways, elevators sat in the back.

With her goggles down and her gas mask up, Amy projected a truly intimidating stormtrooper glare. She’d swapped in her grapnel into Butler and was hanging from the roof when Derek had dashed out of sight. There was a pink haired girl on one of the monitors for just a moment. She wasn’t wearing office gear and she wasn’t hiding tactical armor under a rent-a-cop shirt.

At least two. Amy frowned. She still had no idea what the alarm was about. Derek didn’t work for some two-bit operation though. It was all Amy could do not to call for backup.

If she did that, she’d be calling YD. She’d come on her own: failing to prove herself (while advertising her recklessness) could cost her the opportunity to get into YD. No, she’d take down Derek herself.

He didn’t even have a sword. She could do this.

Her goggles weren’t picking up any other heat signatures. No bodies, reinforcements nor tangoes, anywhere nearby. Why not?

She wouldn’t get answers from Derek. Pinky’d have to do.

Derek smiled as he flipped his baton in his right hand. Smoke bombs and flashbangs would only serve Amy. He slipped on a pair of scaled sunglasses. This was a fight, stay close. Those guns of Amy’s were dangerous.

“Sitrep!” Erin hissed in his ear.

“Two fighters,” he said. “Girl in the front, boy breaching elsewhere. Shields up, and high blow. Don’t breathe the Noxo.”

“No other blips but—”

Amy started with a flashbang. Derek gritted his teeth as Amy ziplined down to the floor. Amber smoke spat and burst off the walls and floor. Derek ran through it. She only managed to catch his club strike with Butler one handed. He had much more mass and power than she did. She holstered The Princess as she cartwheeled out of the fight.

Derek wasn’t expecting the shotgun blast of iron and sawdust. She hit him in the thigh and hip. He couldn’t run her down as he spun out across the linoleum floor. Amy cursed, her right elbow stinging with the kick of shooting The Butler one handed.

She skidded in a circle on her knees and brought up the big ass gun. The big calibre rubber shot that followed chased Derek across the entrance. He dove over the desk again; Amy lobbed a grenade over him. He managed to kick it upward as it exploded into gluey foam a meter and a half overhead. He abandoned the rifle again.

Amy switched out The Princess’s clip. The Noxo was not much use against Derek’s muffler. She racked a red striped clip and cocked the slide. Bad, but she wasn’t surprised when she sidestepped the front desk and found Derek much closer than she expected and charging her. Worse, he wasn’t surprised when she set him on fire.

The incendiary hit him hard, raking over his body armor as it skinned his whole body in flames. He didn’t have the luxury of defense, of self-preservation. He was only winning this fight if he could divide Amy from her force multipliers. Derek could beat the fuck out of an unarmed woman.

Amy’s armor was made of layers of scale-like ceramics between sheets of dragonsilk. It moved fluidly. She could do gymnastics or tank a shell of buckshot to her core. She wouldn’t take it standing up. That much momentum would throw her on her ass.

Derek slammed into her. He aimed to drive the tip of his baton through her shakey elbow. He was on fire, even with her training and reflexes, Amy was more than encouraged to flinch away.

The floor cracked where Derek’s baton slammed home. Amy managed to get her knee between his chest and hers. It wasn’t enough to kick him off, but she managed to kick herself an extra meter along the floor.

The Princess cracked its report from her left hand as she hammered the bottom of The Butler’s handle into Derek’s eye. He took the blow on the visor of his security hat. Clouds of Noxo swirled around them.

Amy breathed easily through her heavy duty filter mask. Derek wheezed through the filtered scarf over his mouth. Amy tried to kick him in the head. The clouds of amber mist exploded away from the two of them on a pair shimmering air currents.

Erin was running hard across the plaza. Pink and blue waves pulsated around her as she moved and danced her arms. Her dance flowed the Noxo around on currents of pink and blue. A beginner, therefore an idiot, quickly got themselves killed with shields. They didn’t make seemingly solid barriers as the unaware expected. Shields created force fields, vector flows, currents to pull gasses easily, liquids strongly, and solids with much practice. Amy was cartwheeling up as the air, and thus the oxygen, was pulled off of Derek, extinguishing the fires.

Amy ejected The Butler’s drum into Derek’s face as she trusted her goggles. She spun The Princess in her left hand and squeezed the trigger. The brown pellet whipped and zigzagged through Erin’s shields and slammed into her chin. Her jaw bounced off of her shoulder as her face was soaked in amber knock out gas. She collapsed to the ground. Her shields stopped acting with any plan, blue and pink aurora filled the room.

Amy retreated as Derek launched himself up to his feet. She blocked his baton with the top of The Princess spinning her whole body with the strike as she slammed home the green striped magazine.

Derek rushed Amy with a somersault. The tiles below him splattered in more foamy glue. The tendrils of stickiness pulled and swirled by Erin’s field lights. He felt them with his feet, letting the edges of his boots squeak along the floor as he came up hard on Amy’s left. He grabbed her arm and she twisted, kicking a foot through his legs and rolling herself. His momentum carried her over him and she fired The Butler.

Erin’s fields caught the heel of Amy’s foot. She twisted and missed. Derek whipped his spine, landed on the balls of his feet, and jumped back slamming his shoulder into hers.

“Shit!” Amy scowled through her clenched teeth. She was too low to the ground to roll and too tightly held enough to kick away. She jammed the barrel of The Butler into Derek’s armpit and shot, sealing her gun away in his left arm and gluing his arm to his side.

She had already let go when his baton came across her body. Her armor held but he knocked her upper arm into the floor. She grabbed The Princess, he let go of the baton as it bounced madly across the floor. She was gonna smash him in the eye as she ejected the magazine. He twisted and grabbed the side of her gas mask with his teeth.

Her mask was secured tightly. His toothy grip was weakened through his own face covering. He was pissed off for his glued left arm. Erin had been help only by accident. He pulled hard and while he lost his grip, Amy’s mask shook loose. Just enough to make a gap between her cheek and her nostril

Derek shoved Amy’s entire hand to her face and forced her finger to punch two brown Noxo pellets to shatter off of her goggles before she could eject the magazine. One more in the chamber but she moved her head enough to send that last shot exploding six meters away.

Amy reached with her free hand and yanked the pins of two of her grenades. Noxo was watering her eyes, deadening her fingers and toes.

Five second timers, Derek managed to destroy the door to the west hallway as the flashbang pitched the firebomb to the roof. He rolled away and used Amy’s limp body as his shield.

He staggered to his feet. He was gonna need acetone or a better solvent to free his arm. He flipped Amy over and grabbed into one of her belt pouches. He unclipped the pouch next to The Princess’s magazines. The resulting shock staggered him backwards and onto his ass.

“Fuck it, I’ll go back to the arsenal,” he growled. He staggered to his feet. He couldn’t leave her there. He needed to act fast. Erin hadn’t found Simon and there’s no way Amy didn’t have something reading her vitals and filling in the partner. He yanked a yellow kit from under the security desk. He tried to keep his eyes open as he stomped by Amy to Erin.

He zipped Erin down until her left tit popped free. Derek bit the cap off a syringe from the kit. Muscle memory guaranteed that he stabbed perfectly between the ribs. Erin’s body launched herself off the floor almost before Derek could yank his hand off the needle.

“You took her down?” The Noxo had left Erin’s lips feeling like they were full of novocaine.

“She’s never alone,” Derek said. “I’m getting that sword.”

Simon led Riley by the hand through the sliding bulkhead door. Riley’s eyes went wide. Her heart was in her throat, but only partially for the same reason that Simon’s was. Candelabras ringed the room, sitting on small shelves jutting out from the walls. They lit themselves as Simon and Riley entered. She squeezed his fingers hard and looked at the fractal polychromatic beauty rippling across the jagged roof of volcanic glass.

“Oh my god!” she said, covering her mouth. It was so beautiful, and it had come from the ugliest person she could imagine.

This may have been built by him, but it was Simon’s now. One look into his anxious smile and Riley knew that it was good.

“You’re beautiful,” he said, squeezing her hand, rubbing his thumb across her knuckles. She smiled, happily. He wasn’t even seeing the sheer wonder of the place, but he knew it was here, that’s why he had showed her.

“Wow,” Riley said. She took in the rest of the room. It wasn’t like the cold utility of the rest of the command center but it wasn’t warm and homey either. The walls were black with lines of gold. The room was centered on a massive bed with red silk sheets and thick black comforters. It stood on a raised dais with a three step staircase leading from all sides to the bed. There was a small dining table in one corner, heavy black curtains were waiting to be pulled across to seclude it, shut the world out from the two people eating. A bathroom was beyond one opaque glass wall, she saw them mirrored from the light in the room.

“This is… Wow…” Riley said again.

Simon pulled her fingers and spun Riley up against his chest. She laid her hands on his muscles and smiled her excitement. She frowned for a moment.

“This is Amy’s room.”

“It’s no one’s,” Simon said. “It’s ours.”

“You guys don’t live down here?” Riley said. “No, you’d have to be together.”

Simon frowned this time.

“I’m sorry!” she said. “We all thought that in school, until Amy and…” Riley sighed. “That’s when I stopped hating her for her dad.”

Simon brushed Riley’s hair.

“I don’t hate her at all, anymore,” Riley said. “I wasn’t the only one who was envious, you know?”

“No, I don’t. Or didn’t,” Simon said.

“Let’s stop talking about Amy,” Riley said. “If we’re not trespassing, I want this to be about us.”

“So do I,” Simon said. He leaned down and kissed her. She pulled him tighter; he countered and she melted under how strong he was. Her knees shook below the line of her skirt. He brushed her hair as their kiss broke. He asked on a smile, “I didn’t make you wait too long?”

She punched his chest, smiling brightly. “You’re a torturer!”

She squealed as he picked her up and rushed her across the room. She laughed brightly as he easily carried her up the steps and dropped her on the edge of her bed.

Riley had never been so eager for sex in her life. Since she had tasted him on her tongue, she had seen his last barrier fall. He had been slow, careful, but determined. Four agonizing months of near constant flirting, dating, talking, listening, and exploring. He trusted her as much or more than he was attracted to her. Riley considered that her greatest accomplishment.

Simon was a master of personal control and he had tortured himself for months. He could’ve been here two days after Riley had said yes the first time. His heart was happy he had waited but his body and hormones had been screaming bloody murder at him for months. He loved Riley, even beyond the swirling cocktail of first love pickling his brain. She was so soft in his hands, but she pushed and pulled him as much as he had ever been.

They kissed madly, passionately. Her hands were struggling on his shirt. He was taking his time exploring every inch of her first through her little black dress. She moaned, tempting him, when his hands first crossed over her nipples. She squirmed as he ran his hands behind her hips and clasped her ass.

She had missed one of his shirt buttons and it clattered on the floor and down the stairs as she pulled his shirt away from his bare chest. She was giddy when her hands ran over his chest and stomach. He was built tall and lean and incredibly strong. She squealed and laughed as their kiss half broke. He nibbled and licked her lips and chin.

She was unlatching his belt as he slid her first spaghetti strap off of her shoulder. She growled as the loops frustratingly caught his belt. She wanted to throw that garbage away and move on.

Their kiss broke and he raised off of her to watch as he pulled her dress down. Her breasts were capped in light brown nipples and shuddered with her quick breaths. She was awed by the bright wonder and excitement that shone in his eyes.

“Get rid of that shirt,” she said, as she finally got his belt free and threw it away.

“Don’t get rid of the dress,” he said, slinging his shirt off of his right arm, “I’m still playing with that.”

Riley bit her lip as Simon tossed his shirt in the opposite direction of his belt. He was down on her again. She was pinned to the bed as he took her breasts in his hands and kissed her throat. She had never been so right now for sex and he was still going slow. She arched her back off the bed as he kissed her breasts. Her breath hitched as he sucked her into his mouth. One then the other.

She still had her dress bunched on her hips and her thong riding up her ass. He kissed the bottom of her ribs, her navel. She kicked off her stilettos. She couldn’t reach his pants so she grabbed his hair.

Simon was stomping on the heels of his shoes. His hands were too busy to untie them and it took some force to get them off. His knuckles had Riley’s dress. He felt the silk of her underwear as she slipped the dress to her knees. He placed a kiss under her belly button and stood up again. He wanted to see her full body as he slipped her dress off of her ankles.

Riley wasn’t going to be on display! She was going to fuck her man! She forced herself up after Simon, shooting her hands to his zipper as he stepped on the toes of his socks, kicking those off.

He didn’t get his show, but he grabbed her neck and lifted her ass off the bed as he kissed her. Superheroes adapt. No plan survives engagement with the enemy. He smirked into their kiss and Riley felt it.

She thought it was because she was pulling down his boxers. She grabbed hold of his cock. The one she had first seen only minutes ago. It was amazing in her hand. They both thought that. It’d be better when it was in her, where it belonged. They both knew that.

Simon stepped out of his bottoms and boxers. Riley retreated up onto the bed. He crawled up over her. With a hand full of her red highlighted black hair, he pressed open her thighs. She had been trying to shimmy out of her thong. She could only breathe in relief as she eased it out of her ass and wet pussy.

“You forgot something,” she said, pushing the spread crotch of her panties against the tip of his cock.

He laughed, grabbed her knees and pushed them to her right shoulder. She gasped, being handled like this was the greatest feeling in the world. She bit the inside of her cheek as he pulled her thong off her toes and sent it flying to nowhere like so many of their clothes.

He dragged her legs down to the bed. She pressed her heels onto his knees as she dragged him down to kiss her. She was short, he was tall, they could only kiss so long before need, desire, and geometry broke them apart.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

“Of course,” he said.

She grabbed his cock-holding fingers. She helped him aim, rolling up her hips. She tried to keep her golden brown eyes locked with his pale blue ones. She felt him against her, grabbed the blankets of the bed, and dragged herself down as he pushed himself forward.

Hot, wet, tight, near-perfect. He grunted as they connected. She held her breath. She moaned out as he seated himself.

“You are incredible,” he said.

“I—” she stopped herself. They hadn’t said the words yet. She wasn’t going to do it before sex, during their first time. It had taken so much for them to connect and trust, she wasn’t going to rush the words.

“I—” Simon also stopped himself. They kissed rather than finish their words. He arched his back to fit. She led his hands down her hips, to pick up her ass. They broke their kiss again. Fucking geometry!

“There’s one thing you should know,” Riley said, her breath was low and heaving. She was ecstatic and couldn’t stop rolling her hips already. Her skin was red and her sweat was boiling off.

Simon cocked his smile proudly, “You’re not fragile?”

Her heart nearly exploded at how aggressive that was! She nodded fiercely. She had expected gentle, loving, even tentative. She had been ready for it. She was so excited not to be ready.

Simon kissed her again. He slid his cock from her and thrust it home. Her voice squeaked as her lungs emptied. She grabbed his shoulder and hung on.

Her knees were splayed outward. She was balanced on her shoulders and toes. She kicked her hips up to Simon. He was methodical, metronomic, a machine. His cock punched into her and dragged out. The room echoed with slick slipping and scalding breaths.

She had to dig her nails in to hold on. She had to close her eyes as her muscles shook and rocked. She had to make herself breathe. She forced her eyes open. He was looking down at her, over her, into her. She was totally at his mercy. She had never been more safe.

He was ecstatic. She was incredible. He couldn’t believe how perfect it felt inside of her. She thrust her hips begging for him. He was happy to spoil her. He wanted to kiss her again, he couldn’t stop himself. He could feel the sharpness of her nails. Everyday sharp, not painted with steel cutting polish. He forced his breath to slow, the soldier in him to quiet. He was with Riley. He wasn’t in a fight.

He made sure his body felt like it was going through a fight. He used every muscle. He watched the small woman below him twist and gasp. He grinned as she slipped off of her toes. She dug in her heels, hoping to keep pushing. She was lost.

She wanted her eyes open. She wanted to see his face twist with pleasure as she felt him stiffen in his thrusts. She felt he was cumming and he was here. She was here. She dug her nails in. Blood welled around her middle and ring fingers. She moaned and arched and flattened to the mattress. He chased her down, his weight pushing down on her, holding her, trapping her.

“Riley!” he said, between his grunts. She moaned back. Her throat quaked like the rest of her muscles. “Riley!” He gasped again. He wanted this feeling to go on forever. He wanted to run with it off a cliff. “Riley!”

She wanted to say his name back. It was a whisper of ash. There hadn’t been any air in her lungs. She licked her lips and he rose up like a snake, striking. He had her tongue, her lips, kissing her as he shuddered inside of her. They both moaned as his cum spattered against her walls.

She hooked her ankle over the back of his calf as they slowed down, panting and gasping. He stroked her hair, broke their kiss. He stretched up and she kissed his collar bone. A giddy smile was plastered on her lips. He let his eyes close. His smile was peaceful.

She luxuriated under him. Holding him to her, pressing her palm into the nicks of his shoulder and happy to never let go. He kept up the embrace. She even smelled amazing in the sweat and sex.

‘Riley?” he finally said.

“Simon!” she nuzzled her nose into his throat. He limped out of her. He rolled off of her. She shivered, the room was warm but Simon’s body had been hot. He settled down on his back, she wiggled over and laid the back of her head on his chest. He grabbed her hand and squeezed down his fingers between hers.

A metallic rumble echoed throughout the command center. He brushed her hair and squeezed her hand. She didn’t flinch.

“What was that?” she asked.

“The elevator, we’re not alone down here anymore,” he said.

“Amy?”

“Or Loju,” Simon said.

“I…” Riley said. “I hope it’s Amy. I can’t believe you only told her today.”

“I just said I had a date,” Simon laughed. “Not a girlfriend. Not you.”

“Oh my god!” Riley twisted around and glared at Simon. “Really? I thought she was like a sister to you.”

“Do you tell your sisters everything?” Simon asked.

“Yes!” Riley said, but then she frowned. “At least Gillian, anyways. And Kendra whenever I get to see her.”

“I haven’t talked to Derek in five years,” Simon said.

“Oh, well... Then what is Amy to you?” Riley asked. “I’m not jealous!”

“She’s my best friend,” Simon said. “And my superhero partner.”

“Then I’m even more worried you didn’t tell her,” Riley said. She almost accused him of trying to have Amy as a girlfriend too. Simon wasn’t like that though. She knew it and was glad she caught herself. She tried to think it through. “You weren’t sure we were going to work?”

“Is anyone ever sure when they start dating?” Simon asked.

“No, but… Maybe I wanted you to show me off…” Riley said.

“Get your dress on then.” He kissed her. “If you can walk.”

“I can walk!” she smirked at Simon. “Provided you don’t have more of those in you?”

“We can stay in bed and find out,” Simon said. They kissed warmly. They knew they were getting out of bed.

“C’mon!” Simon and Riley twisted to see the door of the master bedroom slide open. Zeta had her back three-quarters to them. She was stripping off a plain black t-shirt. “You saw the feed! I promised Amy I’d give you a real shot and you’re just lucky I’m feeling super horny!”

“Zeta?” Simon said.

Zeta jumped, twisted to look behind her, went white to see Simon slinging naked out of bed and Riley covering herself with a pillow. Zeta screamed.

“Nice boobs,” Riley said.

Zeta covered her tits and ran. Simon pulled his pants and boxers up as the door slid almost closed. Loju’s hand caught it. He glared daggers at Simon.

“Sorry we had the same idea,” Simon smirked. “Not sorry I got here first.”

“What in the fuck are you doing here?” Loju growled angrily. “Sorry Riley.”

He covered half his vision with his hand and stared down Simon.

“I almost wanna tell you this isn’t some place to take girls back to,” Simon laughed. “But I’d be a bit of a hypocr—”

“Amy’s on a mission. Why are you here!” Loju growled.

“Mission? What mission?” Simon said.

“Riley, stay in here. Zeta!” Loju picked up the black t-shirt from the floor and tossed it to Zeta.

“Please, Riley,” Simon said. “I may have to make a call to YD and you’re not on the list.”

“Don’t push me!” Zeta scowled at Loju.

Simon walked by Zeta buttoning up his shirt and frowning to find the button just under his ribs missing. He shrugged, turned back and waved at Riley. The door closed.

“Hey Z,” Riley said. “I thought Gillian and Loju were a thing?”

“Not a couple thing,” Zeta said. “I wouldn’t screw my best friend like that. I was actually looking forward to comparing notes.”

“You two are weird,” Riley said.

“Yeah,” Zeta said, smiling wistfully. “We can’t all have Simon.”

Riley frowned at that statement. She sighed and put down her pillow. She guessed it was fair after seeing Zeta’s boobs. Zeta picked up Riley’s dress and handed it to Riley.

Riley was thinking about Simon. She was trying not to think of her father. He hadn’t come home from a mission. Her hands trembled as she took the dress.

“I’ve got a few outfits stored in the closet if your dress is too messed up,” Zeta said. “We’re about the same size.”

“You’re 8 inches taller than me,” Riley said.

“So my belly shirts are your t-shirts and my miniskirts are your normal ones,” Zeta said, with a shrug. “But we still match. We both got perfect boobs.”

Simon clipped on his body armor as Loju sat at the console.

“Red Viking’s not picking up,” Loju said.

“How long until my new grenade launcher is assembled?” Simon was harsh in speech. He had never been so pissed in his life. He would never have gone without Amy.

“Eighty minutes,” Loju said.

“Arc Angel then,” Simon said.

“Nevermind, Red Viking’s back,” Loju said. He clicked the pad and Erik was shirtless and was wiping his face of pasta sauce. Or blood. Simon pushed the dark thoughts out of his brain.

“Already? You two are the best,” Erik laughed. “I can’t wait till I fit you for chevrons.”

“Where did you send Amy?” Simon demanded.

“What? I sent the two of you,” Erik said.

“She didn’t interrupt my date and she’s unclipped,” Simon said. His face was red, he was embarrassed to admit this weakness, especially after Erik had basically called Simon a shoe-in. If this fiasco cost Amy her career… At least this time it’d be her fault.

Unclipped, her monitor that matched the shaped box that fit Simon’s bicep sent continual data back to their command center. He wondered why YD wasn’t using anything as good.

“She went on her own!” Erik frowned. “Dammit!”

“What?”

“I told her it should’ve been easy. Easy for you two. I’d have taken my own team if the twins weren’t busted up,” Erik said. “I never pegged Amy for stupid.”

“Me neither,” Simon agreed. “I’m going to get her. Where did you send her?”

“North—” Erik frowned. “I’m giving you Lincoln’s command.”

“What?” Simon said.

“Nate’s not a leader, you want my help, you take the job,” Erik said. “We can do all the paperwork and name shit later.”

“You’re gonna take us?”

“No,” Erik said. “I’m giving Amy to Silent Tiger.”

“No!” Loju said, but Simon said the same straight after.

“There’s no way in hell you’re putting Amy on fucking parole.”

“You think I can trust someone who ran off on her own!” Erik said.

“Don’t pretend this isn’t what you wanted,” Simon said.

“It’s not!” Erik growled out the words. “I know what she’s worth. But there’s no fucking way Great Justice signs off on giving Volcano Glass’s daughter a place in YD. She was never gonna be anything but Black Wave.”

“She’s gonna be a Challenger,” Simon said. Loju nodded fiercely.

“Are you finding her yourself or are you taking the deal?” Erik asked.

“I’m—” Simon stopped. Someone had taken down Amy and unclipped her. This wasn’t a fight he could take alone. “I’m, uh…” She would never forgive herself. He didn’t think she’d forgive him either. “Goddammit! Give me Arc Angel and Outlaw Blade.”

“No,” Erik said. “You get Lincoln.”

“They took down Amy!” Simon growled. “Devilchild and Ivory aren’t heavy hitters.”

“Yvette’s taken my spot on Roosevelt,” Erik shook his head. “You get the new girl.”

“Who the fuck?”

“Tailwind,” he said.

“She’s… Named after Headwind…” Loju looked back at Simon.

“Her daughter,” Simon and Erik said together. Erik continued. “Daybreaker’s sister. Paladin’s kid too.”

“She’s strong?”

“Output? She’s extreme,” Erik said. “Finesse… That’s something you’re gonna have to teach her.”

“How green is she?” Simon asked.

“This’ll be her first mission,” Erik said.

“No,” Simon said. Loju frowned hard. “I need the best. What’re you doing? X? Stone Man?”

“You got Tailwind,” Erik said. “And you’re running Lincoln and Amy’s going to Black Wave. Or you got this yourself.”

“We’re not finished,” Simon said to Erik.

“Of course not,” Erik said. “You want Amy to get into YD? Take this command and be the best. Take my job.”

The screen went black.

“How long until they get here?”

“Spin up in three minutes,” Loju said. “You’ll be out the Escher after Amy in five minutes.”

“Good, get me everything,” Simon said. Plan B was twice as many grenades as Plan A.

Erin and Derek stepped back into the armory. They tossed Amy’s gear onto the main table. Erin had barely carried the heroine’s cargo pants and tank top. Her legs were just starting to stabilize from the needle in her heart.

“You’re the best I’ve ever seen with shields,” Derek said. He put down The Butler and The Princess with their magazines still loaded. He wasn’t stupid enough to disassemble someone else’s gear. There was no way her guns weren’t booby trapped.

“She put me down offhanded,” Erin said.

“It was Amy,” Derek said. “She was alone.”

“Yeah good for us,” Erin said. “She put me down, offhanded, while still fighting you!”

“And she caught your funnel and gassed you,” Derek said. “I shouldn’t have let her get that off.”

“You barely stopped her,” Erin said.

“She has a partner,” Derek said. “They’d have hogtied us in their sleep. Together.”

“You know this nobody?” Erin frowned.

“Plucked her virginity.” Derek flashed a grin at Erin.

“She’s half-baked. Wanna give her round two?” Erin said. “I’d prefer to see her scream, but a win’s a win.”

“We don’t open the vault,” Derek said.

“She’s got nothing,” Erin said, gesturing to their looted bounty.

“You don’t believe that,” Derek said.

“No,” she shook her head. “What I believe is…” she walked over to Derek. He was replacing his baton for the short sword he had picked out earlier. “...you just took down a hero. No name brat or whatever she was.”

“I wouldn’t have needed you with this,” he showed off the balance of the sword, and grinned.

“Well, to thank me,” she said, unclipping the sides of his armor.

“Her partner?” Derek asked.

“Look, dead cameras everywhere,” Erin said, with a gesture. Rosa’s still spasming on her table. Dr Astaire was gone. Erin bit her lip.

“You’re right,” Derek said. “We gotta babysit Snow White until the dwarves come find her.”

“If she was lucid,” Erin said. “I’d say we should take the party to her.”

“If I’m gonna fuck a bitch,” Derek said. “I’m a mugger, not a cat burglar.”

“Then make this a hold up, cowboy,” she grinned, her ass slipping back against the table full of stolen gear. She pulled her front zipper down to her hip. The flap fell away from her lithe body.

Derek stabbed his sword lighting fast into the tabletop next to her hip. She replied by pulling her heels further apart. He grabbed her face, her breast. They kissed the shit out of each other.

Victory is aphrodisiac. Violence is even better. Erin grabbed more of the clasps holding Derek’s armor to his sides. He squeezed her breast, reached behind her with his other hand, and had to stop himself from scattering Amy’s gear.

“Let’s not get stupid,” he said. He let Erin go with a slap of her belly. She flicked opened the last clasp and he pitched his body armor over his head. Erin spun. They gingerly stacked all of Amy’s gear in the corner of the room, on the floor.

“I’ve always wanted a pair of these,” Erin said, picking up Amy’s goggles.

Derek flashed her an ‘are you stupid?’ look. She laughed, sometimes she was, but she was too wet to give a shit about toys. She set them on top of The Princess.

Derek grabbed her from behind and slung Erin through the air to crash her down on the tabletop. He yanked her shoulders free from her body suit armor, trapping her elbows behind her back. He manhandled her by the throat, dragged her head off the edge of the table and shoved his pants and underwear down to her boots.

Erin took his cock down her throat upside down and with ease. Her neck muscles grabbed him tightly as she squirmed. She kicked her legs, catching the zippers up the back of her boots on the edge of the table. Their steel shanks and toes clattered off the floor.

Derek smirked as he grabbed her by the elbow and tit. She gasped for air as his hand left her throat. She inhaled hard, with her nose pressed against his balls. He fucked her neck. She was red from her ears to her cunt. She managed to rip her right arm free from under her. Derek dragged her bodily up and down his cock as she slapped around to get another arm free.

The strength of his grip and the fury of his fuck shook her bones and made her shiver from her toes to her clit.

Derek ripped himself free of her throat. A geyser of saliva splattered over his thigh.

“You’re slow,” he slapped her tit, “You’re uncoordinated,” he slapped her cheek. “You’re a worthless soldier.” He grabbed her hair and squatted down eye to inverted eye. “Get you pussy out and be worth something.

She ripped her left arm free and kicked her legs so her ankles hooked Derek’s shoulders. She tried to drag him for a kiss as she thrust her panties and bodysuit over her ass. He grabbed her legs and bodily flipped her.

She gasped as the air pitched out of her lungs. Derek dragged her by the hair, mounting the table over her in a nimble jump. He grabbed her armor and yanked it all clear away. Her black panties hung off her right ankle. She still wore her shield bracelets on her wrists. Derek still had his pants around the tops of his boots. Legs bound, he was stronger and quicker than she was.

She used her forcefields to spin them over. The wind and electric hum buzzed in their ears. He grabbed her throat again.

“I took down the hero,” he said, smirking. “My celebration.”

When Erin was slammed back onto her spine, she almost had a little cum. Rage and power, only the bad guys let it take over their libido like Derek was doing. Good little bitches like Rosa and Amy would never have a real man.

Erin was a deluge when Derek crashed himself up her pussy. He squeezed her throat tighter. There were echoes in her ears as her eyes began to bulge. She didn’t know if he was gonna fuck her through her death. She had never cum so hard in her life!

He did let go. Oxygen feeding fires of pain down her rasping throat. She’d have his fingerprints bruising her neck for weeks.

Derek watched the dark purple retreat from Erin’s white face. He slammed his cock into her. He had taken down Amy, one on one. He’d take down Simon next, show his brother that playing goaltender for a bunch of suits was for chumps.

When he had his paragon sparkplugs, speed, strength, durability, he’d be the next Volcano Glass. The next Ferryman. The world wanted to strip a man of his freedom: fit in the box, work the job, do what you’re told. There was only a small opportunity for real freedom, and Derek was gonna be powerful enough and cruel enough to make the most of it.

He growled, kissed Erin, and hammered his hips. He let it go as her flexing pussy quieted from her explosive orgasm. He dumped himself inside of her. He yanked himself free and hopped off the table.

“You fuck like a god!” Erin said.

“Get your shit on,” Derek said. “She has a partner.”

“And where is her little lost lamb?” Erin singsonged.

Derek pointed to the screen. The secret cameras were watching the parking lot. Simon was there, blue cap hiding his face. He had three grenade belts running parallel over the same model armor Derek was clasping closed on his own chest. The girl on Simon’s left in orange blue looked like Headwind from her 90s Playboy cover days, on his right, Devilchild of The Young Defenders. Derek yanked the sword out of the table.

“Get moving,” Derek said, grabbing his breastplate and storming out of the armory.

Erin nodded, zipping up her body suit. She smiled, and slipped a keycard in by her breasts. The keycard Dr Astaire had given her to trap Rosa in the vault below. She was whistling, carrying the truncheon Derek had abandoned as she went out to meet company.

After having staggered and tumbled out of the Escher earlier that afternoon, Simon was pleased that Devilchild and Tailwind couldn’t handle the ejection north of the Barrett Maxwell facility as well as he did. Simon was on his bike, and that did have gyroscopic stabilizers.

“Get ready, Trace—”

“Tailwind,” she corrected. “We’re in the field.”

“I don’t have a name yet,” Simon said.

“Boss works well enough,” Devilchild nodded. His bike wasn’t outfitted by Loju. He and his bike sloshed through rippling asphalt. The purple, black, and red of his costume rippled too. He could camouflage himself, if the sun set and the street lights never came on. He was nearly out of the ground, ready to right his bike and get going.

Simon could trust Devilchild. He managed to do so with Amy, so Simon could trust Nate with nearly anything.

Simon looked at Tailwind as she looped around a meter and a half off the ground. Her costume was a modern update on her mother’s. Tailwind was a caramel skinned teenager with a short curvy figure and black floating hair. The air pulsed off of her. She didn’t fly like flyers did. She was rolling and pushing the wind against her body to stay afloat.

The colors of mother and daughter were reversed. Tailwind wore a sky blue leotard, with orange swirling clouds designed into the Dragonsilk and semi-solid plating. She wore knee-high boots in orange. Her long scarf wafted off her shoulders in two tails. They rubbed against the dinner plate sized shurikens strapped across her back. Headwind hadn’t carried those either. She had also floated in the air, dead still. Headwind’s wind only visible in her floating hair and scarf.

Headwind had been younger than Tailwind when she had first started out.

Simon checked over his shoulder and Tailwind followed his gaze. It was obvious which one of the three bikes sitting there was Amy’s. Tailwind floated over.

“It’s armed, leave it alone,” Simon said.

“Right,” Tailwind said, corkscrewing herself as she turned to float over Simon’s shoulder. “I’m ready, let’s go.”

“You on comms, D?” Simon asked.

“All synced up.” He nodded.

Simon had his villainous E.V.I.L.tech goggles in a belt pouch. He pushed the heroic Blueeyes higher on his nose.

“We’re gonna make some noise,” Simon said. “You got the tag on Amy’s clip, D. Get to it, read it, and follow back to her. Or at least where they took her from.”

“We went over this in the cave,” Tailwind said.

Devilchild nodded. “If she’s still on site, I get Amy supplied, and I bring her back to you, Boss.”

“This is gonna be loud and messy, Tails,” Simon said. “We keep comms clear and precise. Back me up. We’re breach and brawl. How much damage can you do?”

“I’ve thrown dumptrucks,” Tailwind said. She looked at Devilchild and back to Simon. “Boss.”

“And the shurikens?” Simon asked.

“They give me a visual on where I’m bending the wind,” Tailwind said. “I don’t have Mom’s precision. I can’t pick a lock, but I can pick a gorilla up and throw him half a mile.”

“Leave any gorillas you see alone,” Simon said. He had hoped to lighten the mood but he sighed. “No, do what you need to if there’s gorillas.”

“They don’t really do a lot of animal experimentation here,” Devilchild read from his HUD. “Even then it’s mostly bugs, pests, and potatoes, Boss.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time there were surprise gorillas,” Simon said. “Move out.”

Tailwind flew in above the powerlines, Simon gunned it on his motorbike. Devilchild set the timer on his Blueeyes. He’d go in three minutes or under the cover of war. Simon wanted Devilchild in as soon as possible. It was time to bring the noise.

Tailwind flew hard for the mall. She cursed into everyone’s earpiece, realizing she was too amped up for her first mission. She had to cut a massive twenty meter vertical loop or splatter herself on the building.

Simon drove for the front doors. His eyes moving faster than REM as he checked all of the data rolling across his HUD. His bike hadn’t fully stopped by the time he had launched himself from it. He stormed through the doors. His bike’s kickstands shot into the asphalt, cracking it. The whole chassis contracted, arming itself like Amy’s had.

“Here comes the white knight.” Derek’s voice cackled over a loudspeaker. “Looking for your little damsel in distress?”

“Oh no.” Simon smiled under his filter mask. “I get to be here for you.”

Tailwind walked in behind him. He felt the whole front room thicken, like the air had put on weight. Tailwind floated up.

“I see him!” she shouted. Simon followed her gaze to the top of the stairs. He didn’t have line of sight.

“Tails wait!” Simon shouted. She burst forward on a thunderclap. Simon was running. Tailwinds shurikens helicoptered free of her back. She knicked and slit the ends of her scarf. It just gave her a more ecstatic comet tail.

Simon felt the tug across his feet before he saw the shimmering web of pink and blue light. He forced his weight down, feeling the pull and skidding across the tile floor to the left of the staircase.

“Tails! More of them!” he shouted. Simon slammed a knockout grenade hard into the floor. The burst of amber Noxophene geysered and flowered wicked vines. Simon’s Blueeyes couldn’t quickly calculate the pink and blue pull in the midst of Tailwind’s building tempest. His other goggles could have managed it. “Tails! Back me up! Fall back!”

Simon watched Tailwind aggressively turn into a blue and orange bolt of violence. She blasted forward into a third floor hallway.

“There’s just one henchman! I got him!”

“Tails! Listen to Boss!” Devilchild said.

Simon couldn’t reiterate. He was slammed in the chest as he heard the report of a rifle. His Blueeyes at least caught and marked the muzzle flash. His chest plates couldn’t take shots like that for long.

“I’m your opponent!” Tails sounded giddy. “Give me that gun!”

The shift in wind dragged Simon back across the ground floor and Tailwind whooshed backwards. She grabbed the gun though and the glove holding the trigger. She grabbed them both with a tornado. She squealed in self accomplishment.

“He wants you in close if he let you take his gun!” Simon warned Tailwind. He couldn’t get the words out quickly though. His chest still throbbed from the blocked gunshot. The pink and blue were swirling in the far corridor as well.

Erin walked like pure sex. Once sparky had chased Derek into the third floor hallway, it was focus on the grunt time. He didn’t have guns like the bitch had. A thrown Noxo canister or firebomb was child’s play to keep away from herself. She had a pistol in her left hand, but she was too busy pulling the blue to aim. Her right hand pushed the pink. The blue pulled the pink, completing her chains of force. The air shimmered in her fields.

Derek had shot through Erin’s shields and sparky’s indoor gale and still tagged grenade-boy in the chest. Derek’s plan better work; Erin had no chance of taking down a flying hurricane with her bare hands.

The pistol wasn’t going to help much either. She had already cracked off three shots and her own shields had whipped the bullets harmlessly all over the front complex.

“Tails, don’t close the distance!” Simon finally managed to speak clearly. “Smash him into walls but from as far back as you can.”

“He’s a ragdoll,” Tails said. “I got this.”

“Coming inside Boss,” Devilchild said. “Watch your feet, I’m sinking through the floor.”

Simon could see the tiles rippling across the room, but had never seen Devilchild even approach the door. Simon locked eyes with the pink haired woman standing on the second floor landing. She knocked away his concussor. He smirked as the bomb exploded. She had to do everything she could to twist her shields between herself and the bomb. Simon charged up the stairs.

He didn’t have eyes on Tailwind. He could hear her excited breathing in his earpiece. Devilchild was shorting in and out as he explored the sub-basements. He let go of Devilchild. He had to get to Tailwind.

Tailwinds gales ripped loudly through the entire complex. The noise was deafening. Only that they’re earpieces were uncomfortably deep gave them any chance of communicating. Simon slid protectors over his ears. He preferred to keep his hearing for later. He immediately compensated with his eyes. His eyes chased around everywhere.

Blueeyes visors look blue from the outside, but they’re clear and colorless from behind the HUD. Still, it was his own skills that saw the blue and pink shimmers webbing the second story landing. His other goggles would’ve spotted them a mile off.

Simon had to guess as he ripped a flashbang off his crossbelt and threw it around the corner as he stepped off the stairs. The woman waiting for him was shocked by the move, but she posed and the grenade shot harmlessly away. Simon had already grabbed a gluebomb and a Noxo gas canister in either hand.

She shot Simon in the chest.

It was a small handgun; his armor was built for rifles. She had been aiming for his Blueeyes. Her shields and Tailwinds runoff were more than enough to curve the bullet even over the two meters it travelled. His armor could handle the shot, it even dispersed some of the momentum. It was still a gunshot to the chest. Any lower and it might’ve cracked the busted plates and fibres Derek had targeted. Simon spiraled back a half turn. His Noxo bomb fell from his hand and carpeted the bottom floor in a thin layer of amber smoke.

“I got him on the run Boss!”

“Doors and corners!” Simon shouted back. “Tails! Keep your distance!”

“This is child’s play!” Tailwind laughed madly.

Simon set his jaw. He popped the pin of his glue bomb, and didn’t throw it until he had counted four and half seconds of its five second fuse. Erin still managed to accelerate it away. The splash of foamy white glue exploded out bare centimeters from Simon’s glove. The balcony railing was a steel frame surrounding large glass panels. Simon and Erin both dived away from the glue and slammed into the elevator doors.

Simon was good at running. It wasn’t all about speed. It was mostly about not letting himself get slowed down. He barrelled forward. He brought his knee up hard into the chest piece of Eric’s armored catsuit. She staggered back. He kept his footing and lowered his shoulder.

She gave up her feet to manage her bracelets. She and Simon slammed down and skidded to the railing. Simon’s boot clapped the goo and glass. Erin managed to draw herself back across the blue and pink webbed tiles. She rode Tailwind’s blowback.

Simon cursed as he couldn’t pull his leg forward. Somewhere in one of his pouches or cargo pants pockets, was a spray bottle of dissolver. Some incredibly toxic solvent to get rid of the glue and dissolve the rubber soles of his army boot. Chemistry didn’t work at superhero speeds. He tossed a concussor and got it stuck to the glass.

Erin was running away. Simon was wishing he had the calculators in his E.V.I.L.tech goggles. The best he could do was tuck in his tail and hoped his Dragonsilk underarmor would survive better than his pants were about to.

The explosion rippled through his body. His next breath came out whistling. He ducked his shoulder and rolled. Glass and hardened glue cracked the ground as he was up and running again.

“Motherfucker!” Erin said. She fired three times at Simon but she hardly had control. Simon figured he could just put her down hard. Tailwind was—

“He ducked into a room! No way out but through me!” Tailwind said.

“Stop!”

Simon yelled. Erin didn’t pull the trigger a fourth time. Not even a crackle from D. Devilchild was too far out of the fight. Tailwind only had Simon. Erin was shocked when Simon barely bodychecked her back into the elevator door as he took a hard turn and started up to the third floor.

Tailwind screamed. “You little fuckstick!” She was gasping. The wind kicked up to almost triple intensity. Simon was blown, not simply down the stairs but up and off of them. Erin curled up against the wall, covering her hair from the wind. Simon barely managed to grab the railing before he went over.

Shit! Now his hand was stuck.

“Tails!”

He said, yanking his hand from his glove and dropping down onto the security desk. He landed hard and sprinted to the stairs again.

“He slashed my hand! My gauntlet got the worst of it!” Tailwind said.

“Stay out of the room. Keep distance and control!” Simon said. He skidded onto the second floor carpet again. Simon popped the pin on a Noxo grenade. “Drop the wind for just a second!”

Tailwind’s powers cooled sharply. Simon yelled “One Mississippi!” and left the gas bomb glued next to his glove. Erin tried to blast it and Simon, but the wind roared again. Simon kicked her with a sweep to the knee. She collapsed. The amber smoke burst out. The wind dispersed too much of it to catch Erin.

Simon didn’t stop a millisecond longer than he had to. He was up the third set of stairs three at a time. Tailwind was nursing her arm, floating left and right outside of an open door as her shurikens whipped in and out, swirling around her. Then one came out in two pieces. Tailwind shrieked, not controlling the imperfectly cut shuriken properly. The armor of her boots held but there were glaring white streaks in the orange.

“You cocky scumbag!” Tailwind rushed back to the far wall. “I got you now!”

“Tails! He’s baiting you!”

Simon couldn’t stop himself. It was as if the whole hallway was taking in a big breath and blowing it hard into the lab. Simon tumbled through the spot Tailwind cleared. He scrambled, ripping at the tiles for purchase. Only because of the garbage on his glued boot did he even move forward. He ran to the door.

Tailwind had landed on the far wall, crouching against the window. Her shurikens were buried in brick and furniture. The whole room was chaos of wreckage. Derek stood in the center of the room, swirling his sword and moving his feet expertly against the wind. Simon and Derek were spat back: Simon across the hall and Derek to the wall. Tailwind launched herself like a bullet. She had her good arm bent across her face, her wounded hand rolled up against her belly. Simon powered forward.

Simon saved Tailwind’s life.

Derek whipped his sword in a cleaving downward slash. If Simon hadn’t snagged one of Tailwind’s scarves and dragged her to him, that sword would have cut through Tailwind’ skull, nearly bisecting her brain by the hemispheres.

Simon had saved Tailwind’s life. He hadn’t saved her from everything.

Derek’s sword tip bit in just below Tailwind’s eye. He scraped her cheekbone, slashed through her upper canine, and down through the edge of her tongue and the bottom half of her jaw.

The wind exploded. Tailwind couldn’t scream, her face opened the wrong way and blood spattered everywhere.

Simon had tried to get Derek with a concussor, but Tailwind had sent it careening into a far wall. The concrete busted and showered the room in dust.

Derek took the opportunity. He was laughing when he stomped down on Simon’s shoulder and through himself out the door. He ran, grabbed Erin who had just managed to crest the stairs.

“You kill them?” Erin demanded.

“Maybe the bitch, probably not,” he grabbed Erin’s face. “But that girl was Headwind Two or some shit. They’re gonna remember us forever. We’re done here.”

“What about the job? Rosa?” Erin was running away with Derek.

“Oh, that’s hardly gonna be what matters for today,” Derek said.

“North side exit,” Erin said. “I got bikes waiting for us.”

“You’re an idiot, down and out through the first basement backway,” Derek said. “Can’t leave our shit behind and it’s always more fun to say goodbye with explosives.”

“Well, if we’re taking a detour,” Erin grinned. “I’m gonna need to make a stop.”

Tailwind was powerful, beautiful, confident, eager. Tracy was hurt. Her face didn’t fit together right. She was trying to keep her mouth closed but Simon needed to help her. He had slipped a dissolving painkiller under her tongue. She worried it had slipped inside her jaw bone. It was starting to kick in.

Simon hadn’t seen an injury this bad before. Even the few broken bones he’d suffered had been hairline fractures. Amy had wrenched her hip out of its socket once. He still knew what to do. He’d rescued people before: burns, scrapes, bullet holes. He just hadn’t seen this before.

Tracy had been gorgeous, model perfect. He had her wrist taped up; that had thankfully been a shallow cut.

“Stop trying to talk,” he said. She was burbling. She nodded. She held his shoulder as he finished taping her face back together. “Devilchild!”

“Boss? You sound fucked. I got Amy. We’re going to the armory. That’s where they stored her—”

“Medevac’s en route. What were they protecting?”

“Medi? What happened to Tails? Shit!” Devilchild was whispering now. “Pinky headed downstairs. I’ve got eyes. Amy’s almost armed.”

“Good hunting,” Simon said. He looked down at Tracy. “I’m sorry.”

She looked at him with bright, slightly drug-fueled eyes. She nodded. If Tailwind had listened, Tracy wouldn’t be hurt. She squeezed his armored arm. He brushed her hair. Dust and their hair and anything loose was floating up all around them.

“Your powers are beautiful,” he said. His smile was calculated. Keep her calm. She just stared at him adoringly.

“Boss!” Devilchild shouted. “You better get down here.”

“I can’t leave Tails…” Simon said. The floor below him rippled as Devilchild floated up through the half melted tiles of the hallway. It solidified under his feet. He ran in the door.

“D’s here,” Simon said. Tracy grabbed Simon’s arm when Devilchild squatted down and examined Tailwind’s face.

“Jesus!” Devilchild said. “And I was fucking—I was fucking around with Amy.”

“I don’t need the details,” Simon said. “Tails… Tailwind… Tracy… I need to go.”

“Seven floors down,” Devilchild said. “Tracy…” He followed Simon’s lead and leaned down smiling for the injured girl. “Simon has to go save somebody. It’s what he does.”

Tracy nodded. She shouldn’t have tried to smile. More blood flushed down her neck.

“ETA?”

“Less than two minutes. SMC,” Simon warned.

“Shit,” Devilchild said. “Make Amy put on her Blues.”

“Did she go after Pinky?” Simon asked.

“No, she’s not going off on her own again,” Devilchild said. “Go, Boss.”

Simon took off running.

A rescue job. Someone was on the line and Amy had left her partner at home because she was happy Simon was with a girl. With Riley. She didn’t want to get in between Simon and Riley. She wanted to be supportive. Amy had fucked things up for this girl… This Rosa Veranes, because she didn’t want to be a cockblocking friend.

Amy put the ID card back down on a steel table. She had grabbed a sweater from the armory they had found. Pink-hair was gone. Derek was gone. Doctor! Victorious!! Calico. Four villain getaways in a single day.

“Holy shit!” Simon said. He was hardly ready for Amy turning on him and hugging him before he could grab her and be happy she was alright. “Oh my god, Amy.”

“Simon! I fucked up!” Amy said.

“Yeah, you really did,” Simon said. No matter how relieved he was to see her, he couldn’t pull punches. “Who’s the girl? She dead?”

Girl? Rosa Veranes was six years older than her saviors. Or, five if Amy judged by Nathan. “She’s a researcher. Bug doctor. Or almost PHd. She’s been sparkplugged. Human guinea pig.”

“Fuck,” Simon said. “You figure some whistleblower leaked things to Great Justice so someone could save her?”

“Or she did,” Amy said. “And this is whoever’s payback.”

“Do we know what they put in her? Paragon? Mutant? Elemental?” Simon said. He squatted down in front of Rosa’s eyes. They were open, wide, and unfocused. “I don’t want to move her if she’s gonna earthquake the city.”

“There’s papers,” Amy said. “Network.”

“A psychic?” Simon stood up. “That telepathy shit doesn’t work.”

“And because I fucked up, Rosa knows that too,” Amy said. She smiled. “And yet, it sped things up. They gave you Lincoln?”

“Yeah,” Simon didn’t meet her eyes. “First mission. Derek cut Tailwind’s face in half.”

“Oh my god! Is she dead?”

“D?” Simon called on his radio.

“There’s no signal in the room,” Amy said. “Big metal vaults make for effective Faraday cages.”

“She wasn’t going to die. No arterial blood spurts. I handled the risk of swallowing and choking. I think she got her pain meds before she could go into shock,” Simon said. “But she’s gonna be fucked up.”

Tailwind: daughter of Paladin and Headwind, little sister of Daybreaker. If anyone had the gilded path to being a Challenger… It wouldn’t be a girl with a scar down her face.

“Shit,” Amy would’ve cried in frustration. She kept that part of her cold. If she had to cry, she’d do it back in the command center.

“Yeah,” Simon frowned. He stepped outside. “D?”

“Shmucks are here, Boss. I’m riding with Tails,” Devilchild said.

“Good, word from Red?”

“Red Viking’s meeting us in hospital,” Devilchild said.

“I’ll be there once we get the girl straightened away.”

“Amy’s gotta put her Blueeyes on,” Devilchild said. “You know how SMC agents are.”

He didn’t. He hadn’t been a Young Defender for an hour yet. “Right. It looks like they sparkplugged a—”

“Not on radio, Boss,” Devilchild said. “See you soon.”

“Right, D. Thanks for getting Amy.”

“I’d go through hell for her,” Devilchild said.

Simon nodded. Nathan was a good guy. Amy had finally shown some good taste. Simon walked back in.

“Blueeyes on, Amy,” Simon said. Amy was squatting down brushing Rosa’s hair. Amy’s E.V.I.L.tech goggles were sitting up on her forehead as a hairband. Her pigtails swished when she turned. “You brought her a sweater, good.” Simon said. “Let’s get out of here. We need to talk.”

“Yeah we do,” Amy said. She pulled a pair of blue sunglasses made to curve with her face to her ears. She reached up to her goggle straps. Rosa spasmed and gasped. Her eyes focused on Amy’s goggles and then on the mask on Amy’s throat. In Rosa’s white-in, Amy looked like another villain. Rosa screamed.

Simon felt his body stiffen. He rushed at Amy. Her reflexes were trained, despite her disbelieving shock, she got away from Simon in a roll. Simon twisted. His pupils dilated. His limbs moved like Frankenstein’s monster. Amy spun The Princess out of her holster and shot a blast of knockout gas into Rosa’s face. Amy pulled her filter mask up to match Simon’s. Simon still collapsed. He dropped the second Rosa stopped screaming.

“I better find a gurney,” Amy said, looking at the two prostrate bodies.

Simon managed to swing his legs off the stretcher before the elevator reached the ground floor.

“What happened?” he said.

“She’s a psychic,” Amy said. She had dressed Rosa in the Barrett Marley sweater. Rosa slumped in a wheelchair.

“Huh?” Simon frowned at the girl. He squatted down.

“She let go of your brain when I Noxo’ed her,” Amy said. She took a deep breath. “You OK? No headaches or anything?”

Simon felt energetic. He wanted to get home and kiss the hell out of Riley. She hoped she wasn’t in as eager as a mood this afternoon. He wanted the sex, but he also looked forward to taking his time. He needed the cuddle.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” he said. “How are you?”

“Giddy and self-loathing? Ecstatic and gracious.” She frowned. “I’m feeling a lot of things.”

“Never do this again,” Simon said.

“I didn’t want to get between you and Riley,” Amy said. “Like you said in the shower. Fuck.”

“I said women thought you’d get between us!” Simon said. “Not that you do. Jesus. I will kiss my girlfriend and suit up if we’re called to go. You’ve done the same with Nate.”

“I—I’m sorry,” Amy said. “The worst part is how happy I feel. Lincoln team. The Young Defenders. Finally.”

“Shit, Amy? I had to sign up to get backup,” Simon said as he grabbed the handles of Rosa’s wheelchair. The elevator doors opened. “I didn’t get you a spot.”

“Oh,” Amy said. “Are they closing down the trials in a couple of weeks?”

“I had to promise you to Silent Tiger,” Simon said, as he put his attention on Rosa. Amy grabbed The Princess.

“What?!”

“Amy, you were missing, I had to come get you.”

“Black Wave! I don’t have a criminal record! I’m not gonna be a supervillain!”

“I chose your life over your career,” Simon said.

“That’s not your choice to make!” Amy’s face was red. She ran ahead of Simon, blocking his way out the door.

“Tailwind’s hurt,” Simon said. “I can’t have this fight now. You fucked up. The price was your line through YD. You want to be a Challenger? Impress Paladin.”

“Impress him?!” Amy said. “I got his daughter’s face cut in half! Goddammit! Shit!”

“Smiles, Amy,” Simon said. “Don’t show weakness for the shmucks.”

Amy spun on her heel. There was a suped up ambulance backed up to the doors. The paramedics were dressed like normal paramedics. A couple of men in black flanked it. Amy grabbed Rosa’s hand. One woman, pretty almost thirty, and a man, heavyset pushing fifty, rushed over.

“We found her strapped down with needle marks up her spine,” Amy said.

“We believed she was sparkplugged,” Simon said.

“She woke up panicked. I dosed her with Noxo before we could figure out the extent of her powers,” Amy said. She and Simon stood straight and strong, she smiled brilliantly, he smiled lightly. They had been practicing for years.

Amy boiled inside. She had been a Young Defender in all but name since she had decided on it at 16. Now she was Black Wave? That’s where they put the delinquents who fucked up too young to be tried as adults. It was parole board community service. She wasn’t a criminal.

“Here’s her identification,” Simon said, and handed Rosa’s cards to the approaching SMC agent. “The docs are gonna need her medical history.”

Simon and Amy were looked up and down. They’re hodgepodge armor and gear wasn’t standard. The shmucks seemed to scorn all Great Justice heroes but being freelancers was even worse.

“What outfit are you with?” The second agent asked.

“Young Defenders, Lincoln Team,” Simon said. Amy didn’t answer. “Devilchild accompanied Tailwind in another ambulance?”

“Chopper,” the agent with cards said. “Eastwater System 4 Facility, sixteen clicks south.”

“Thank you,” Simon turned to Amy. They didn’t make any habits of hiding their real names but after labelling themselves YD it seemed crass to say Amy. He walked up to his bike and disarmed it.

“Give me a ride to my bike, Boss?” Amy asked, recalling Devilchild’s words on the radio before they saw Erin flee. She climbed up and wrapped her arms around Simon’s waist.

“Right, move out,” Simon said. They crossed the parking lot. Simon just wanted to go home. He was terrified for Tailwind. For Tracy. Yet, he looked at Amy with profound relief. Even if they were both furiously pissed.

“My dad’s in prison, thirteen years with perfect behavior,” Amy said, as soon as her Blueeyes confirmed she was out of earshot. “Your brother literally hurt people today. I get benched and you get a command?”

“We never expected fair,” Simon said. “Just… Rules.”

“Fuck…” Amy growled. She didn’t curse much. It exploded out of her mouth. “Whatever, I better get to go tell Tailwind ‘Thank you’.”

“You’re with me,” Simon said. “Forever Amy. If there’s a way up, we’ll kick down every door till we find it.”

“You think we can do this shit anymore? Me and you? Like we’ll have any time to hero together?” Amy said. She frowned. “I’m really happy you found Riley. She’s awesome. You deserve awesome.”

“Thanks,” Simon said. The other two stashed motorbikes were still there. Amy got off Simon’s and straddled her own. “Me and you should take down Derek.”

“It won’t make this right,” Amy said.

“He took you,” Simon said. “And he hurt Tails. My girls. I wanna break him.”

“You need me to do it right?” Amy asked.

“Yeah,” Simon nodded. “And now you know you need me too.”

Amy didn’t respond to that. She took off first, expecting Simon to be right on her taillights. She was four blocks away when she heard the explosion. Simon had stayed behind. She instantly circled back. Amy sighed in relief. The shmucks were handling whatever had exploded. Simon was sitting on his bike just staring at the ambulance as it sped off with Rosa Veranes.

“Simon!” she shouted. He blinked.

“Sorry,” Simon said. “I hope that girl’s OK.”

“We know her name,” Amy said. “We can visit her after Tailwind. Check in on the boom?”

“It was just Derek bombing anything he may have left behind. Leave it to the shmucks. Let’s go,” Simon nodded. Amy raced after him to catch up.

Derek vaulted the twelve foot chain link fence and cleared the trio of barbed wires with ease. Erin slapped her hands at the top. Erin flexed her wrists and her shields hummed up.

“Turn those off, they make too much noise!” Derek twisted on his heel as he backwards ran away from the fence.

“Not as much noise as I make tied up in barbed wire!” she barked. “I’m not making this jump on my own!”

“You would if you dropped that case!” Derek said, but he turned back around as he reached the access road. Erin kicked her feet off and shaped the fields. Moving herself with the fields was harder than pulling the gas away from Simon’s grenades. She swung her hips, using as much of her own muscles as she could to throw herself straight up. The steel case cracked her in the spine as she apexed her handstand.

The burst of force cartwheeled Erin over the barbed wire but the chain link straight down from her left hand knotted and twisted.

“I didn’t cut through the fence with my fucking sword because I didn’t want a fucking billboard pointing at our escape!” Derek shouted.

The smack in the spine miscalculated Erin’s landing and she crashed into the earth with her armor. She managed to roll. Everything was sore but she wasn’t scraped apart on the concrete.

Behind them a half dozen ground floor windows blew out in a huge explosion. Derek smiled proudly for Erin.

“Who’s making too much noise now?!” Erin barked at Derek. She chased him across the road. They skirted the far side of the building. The sirens weren’t local cops. Those were feds... The shmucks.

The SMC was a federal arm of police that had sprouted off of the FBI. A response to The Ferryman Ransom. It was a government answer to Paladin’s Great Justice. Superhuman Mitigation and Containment. Someone had to study the most powerful of humanity if there was any hope of imprisoning the criminal element.

Derek didn’t care about the history lesson. Escape was harder now. Erin knew too much and would take too much needed time to silence. They were stuck together.

They did stop shouting and bitching at each other. They crossed the next road and entered a covered parking lot. The van he had stashed there, belonged. It was labeled Harold’s Pest Control and slapped with all of the scariest chemical warnings he could get away with.

Erin liked this idea better. She had stashed a pair of motorcycles. If they had been dumb enough to flee on those, they would’ve stuck out by looking too cool.

Erin skidded up to the back of the van that Derek had opened. He jumped in after her. They stripped and loaded their weapons and armor into suspicious looking gas canisters and sealed them tight.

“Shit,” Erin said, jumping into her coveralls naked. “It’s even got our names patched on the breast. Hey Leon, I’m Marie.”

“Shut up, Marie,” Derek growled. “And why the fuck do you have that case? At least fucking stow it.”

“How many of these jobs have you done? Still no sparkplugs, huh?” Erin said. “I’m surprised you didn’t think of it.”

“I was arranging our escape. I hope Davis and Jane’s corpses were fresh enough. And I didn’t have shield bracelets to make your decoy convincing.” Derek said. “We can’t spare the time I bought.”

He crawled over the back of the driver’s seat and grabbed the keys from behind the visor. “Marie!”

Erin didn’t react. She had sat down on the floor and opened the case. She wasn’t getting that elemental juice she had her eyes on. She lifted the first of four dull red needles from the foam. The two green ones were glowing.

“Shit! That’s what you took when I was covering your ass!”

“You didn’t even go for it,” Erin said. She dragged her right foot up onto her knee and held apart her toes.

“Now?”

“They were in a freezer,” Erin said. “They’re already above freezing. Later might not work.”

“I hope you foam out the mouth and die.” Derek was already pulling out onto the access road. “At least I can pretend you sniffed the wrong gas and panic drive you to hospital.”

“Wouldn’t you be lucky?” Erin pressed the plunger. There was no instant feeling. She grabbed the second needle and loaded that one in too. She frowned. “Why was I the one who grabbed the juice? You’re the one who had all the good plans ready.”

“They’re networks,” Derek said, angrily.

“Shit,” Erin growled. “Telepathy doesn’t work!”

But, she figured, she was going to die a mortal if she didn’t take the chance. She was feeling feverish when she plunged the sixth needle in. She didn’t lace up her boots and she had barely pulled them on when she climbed over the seat backs and crashed down in the passenger seat.

“You gonna die on me, pretty?” Derek asked, harshly.

“You’re just saying I’m pretty because you’re gonna fuck my corpse,” Erin pitched forward, caught by her seatbelt, and fell into convulsions. Her pink hair shook wildly and was half standing on end.

She had hitched herself to Derek and was all in on trusting a man she figured would kill her for a startlingly low price. But not for nothing. The world faded to black.

Hayley punched the roof. Orrin started driving the ambulance out of the parking lot. Rosa Veranes, their patient lay out on the stretcher.

“Blood pressure’s a little elevated, breathing’s shallow, and she’s sweating hard,” Hayley said. “I think she’s having a reaction to the Noxo.”

“Nothing on her history would lead to that.” Orrin read off of the Blueeyes HUD spread across the windshield.

“Unless it’s something to do with her augmentations,” Hayley worried. She had a little experience with superhumans. A whole lot with Noxo. Reactions were very rare, but one in a million meant huge lawsuits. Most cops couldn’t deploy it. Only private security. Like superheroes. “I’m gonna bring her out of it. See if I can help her stabilize.”

The explosion cut off Orrin’s muttering. He checked the mirrors but he had a job, some other medic could worry about the g-men. Hayley had barely registered the explosion. She was doing a last quintuple check of Rosa’s vitals.

“No need for that!” Orrin shouted back. “Leave her. We don’t want her waking up and frying our skin off.”

Rosa seized. She thrashed hard against her bindings but just as quickly relaxed. Hayley pushed Rosa’s shoulders down. The paramedic pulled open Rosa’s eyelids and frowned. Rosa’s pupils were rapidly and randomly dilating. They didn’t respond to Hayley’s penlight. Rosa’s legs kicked against their bindings. She relaxed again.

“I’m doing it,” Hayley said.

“Don’t!” Orrin said. “Seriously, leave her! Holly!”

Hayley ignored the fact that Orrin hadn’t learned her name. SMC goons had just forced her along with Orrin when the call had come in. Michael, Hayley’s regular partner, would’ve trusted her judgment. That was enough for Hayley to trust her own judgment. She wasn’t going to leave Rosa to a grand mal seizure because Orrin recommended passing the buck. Hayley pulled the case from it’s wall compartment and readied the Noxo counteragent.

“Holly! Collins! Stop!” Orrin panicked. Shit. “If she blows—”

Hayley had already scissored open Rosa’s new sweater. Hayley marked her spot with her blue gloved fingers and drove the counteragent into Rosa’s heart.

Rosa gasped and she fought her bonds.

“It’s OK. Shh… I’m here, we’re taking you to the hospital,” Hayley squatted down.

“You fucking didn’t!” Orrin growled.

“Who’s he?” Rosa shouted. Her brain shook like it was in a tumble dryer. She closed her eyes.

“He’s my partner, driving the ambulance,” Hayley said. “How do you feel?”

“Like my lips weigh twenty pounds.”

“Knockout gas,” Hayley said. “It should be clearing up.”

It was. Rosa shook her head. “Where are they?”

Hayley wanted to ask who. She wasn’t a cop, a superhero, or some government agent. She focused on what she could do.

“Shit! Shit… Shit…” Orrin grumbled to himself. He turned left. Hayley almost missed it, focused on Rosa.

“What the hell?” Hayley poked her head up. “There’s no left turns until—”

“Let me up. I don’t want to be tied down again!” Rosa shouted. Orrin rocked back and forth. He stamped his foot hard into the brakes. Hayley was thrown against the cab wall.

“Orrin! What’s going on?”

Orrin stopped the car and got out of the cab. Hayley picked herself up. Rosa was praying in a quiet childlike voice.

“What the hell are you—”

Hayley scrambled back. The SMC agents that had been following them were right up on Orrin as he opened the back doors of the ambulance.

“You’re to take the cargo to—” The agent stopped shouting when the bullet took off the back half of his skull. The other agent ran for his stopped car but didn’t make it as he took two in the chest.

Orrin climbed over Rosa and was unbuckling her restraints.

“You can’t take her out there!” Hayley rushed to Orrin. His face was twisted as Rosa scrambled off the stretcher and clambered behind Hayley.

“What’s going on? Who shot those people?” Rosa demanded.

“I don’t know!” Hayley said.

“I’ll go ask,” Orrin said. He turned around and walked outside.

“Orrin! Shit!” Hayley said. She couldn’t access the cab and drive away without going out the back.

Orrin stepped out. Two men wearing armor like Derek and goggles like Amy stepped forward. One was older, maybe fifty, tanned with shock white hair. The other wasn’t much more than a teenager with dark red hair. Half his left ear was missing and that side of his face was scarred in half. They had modified rifles in their hands. The older man absently shot Orrin in the heart. And a second time after the medic fell to the asphalt.

Hayley and Rosa screamed.

“Which girl do we need, Wellington?” the younger asked, looking into the bay.

“The one not wearing a paramedic’s uniform,” Wellington, the elder said.

“Don’t kill me!” Hayley pleaded.

Rosa held Hayley, using the medic as a shield. Her face was twisting and her head was shaking.

“We don’t have to,” Wellington said. “Give me your phone and radio.”

“And strip down, both of you,” younger said.

“No taste tests, Steel,” Wellington said. “Faster Miss Veranes. We’re on a timetable.”

“We’d have some time if this idiot,” Steel kicked Orrin’s corpse, “Drove us all of the way to Astaire.”

Hayley’s hands were shaking as she opened her paramedic’s shirt. Rosa pushed her down and shouted: “I’m not going anywhere near Hannibal Astaire!”

Wellington and Steel froze. Rosa walked over Hayley. Rosa was shaking as she stepped between Steel and Wellington.

“You have a car?”

“No, we’re driving those,” Wellington pointed to a pair of ATVs that they’d driven up onto the side of the road from between abandoned buildings.

“What’s going on?” Hayley said.

“I don’t know,” Rosa said. She gestured. Steel put the barrel of his gun in his mouth. Rosa didn’t have it in her to make him pull the trigger. She frowned and turned to Hayley. “Take the ambulance and go.”

“You need help!” Hayley said. “What are you doing with them?”

“I need to get away from Astaire,” Rosa moved the men around. She was attracted to the older man. She had been attracted to Hannibal Astaire. She grabbed the younger one. “We’re leaving. I don’t know how to drive this thing. Take me somewhere I can’t be found.”

She would learn she didn’t have to say the words. It helped in that moment. She got on the ATV behind Steel.

Hayley watched Wellington’s eyes twitch, but his muscles were still locked. She left her blouse open, her white tank top hugging her tits as she grabbed the keys from Orrin’s fingers. The back door of her ambulance flapped madly as she drove as fast as she could.