A Little Cruise Pt 01

It had seemed like such a good idea at the time. Starting a new life, moving to a new home, a fresh start. But now that Xander was more than 12 hours into his self powered flight across the Pacific Ocean, it didn't seem like such a great idea. The incubus's wings were getting tired, and the sun was beating down on him mercilessly, drying out his wings, parching his throat. It had seemed like such a good idea, but he was starting to realize he was about to run out of steam and there wasn't a hint of land in sight.

As he continued to scan the horizon for a sign of... well, at this point, anything, he failed to realize just how tired his wings were getting. And then all of a sudden the left wing dipped just a bit too far, and all at once his balance was thrown off. He screamed a bit in frustration as the wind caught the wing in just the right way and threw him wildly out of control as he started to spin in mid air and fall rapidly. He tried to recover, but after 12 hours of flight he was just too tired, he didn't' have it in him. He looked down at the rapidly approaching ocean. Hitting the water would probably not feel too good at this speed.

About a mile away from the water he started to scream, not the manly kind of death rattle that you would expect from our hero... no, this was a pure girly scream. And then it happened; the ocean was replaced with something else. Something ... white?! It took him a moment to realize he was heading straight for a cruise ship that just happened to be passing beneath him. The scream got even louder and more girly as he watched the ship start to pass beneath him, he was getting closer and closer. Where would he land? Bridge? No just passed it, Flags? No, passed that too. Rear deck? Definitely rear deck, big rear deck, big... pool!

Xander hit the pool at full speed, the splash sent waves of water flying out of either side of the pool, and soaking several sunbathers on each side. The impact broke just about everything in his body, not to mention every single bone. Fortunately, being an incubus, his injuries healed by the time he came back to the surface. Exhausted and panting he grabbed the side of the deck and gasped in exhaustion. "Perfect 10!" he heard from a very familiar female voice.

He looked up to see Veo, his oldest, and literally timeless friend lounging on a deck chair. Each of her massive blackened angelic wings taking up the chairs on either side of her as she sat smiling, a lemonade in one hand and a book in the other. Directly to her left was one of the officers of the cruise ship standing with a blank, vacant expression that Xander recognized instantly. Veo gave the incubus a wink and looked at the officer. "Thank you Commander, you may tell the captain that he piloted flawlessly and he may now make whatever adjustments in speed and direction he needs to make our destination on time."

Xander watched as the clearly hypnotized Commander replied with a rather flat "Yes Ma'am" and turned and walked away. He laughed a bit as he climbed out of the pool and stretched a bit. As he did his wings seemed to flicker, almost as if, for a split second, they were fading in and out of existence, like static on a tv. "What the hell?" he asked, noticing the wings reactions just before they stabilized. He took a moment to make sure the wings were ok before they started to shrink, becoming smaller and smaller until they folded under the skin of his back near his shoulder blades.

Veo had seen the wings flicker, and knew exactly what it meant but said nothing, she simply used her own wing to slide a chair up for him to sit down, and with a warm smile told him "Take a seat" and handed him a lemonade. "Nice flight?"

Xander crashed into the chair, panting with exhaustion, and started to sip his lemonade, giving Veo a strange look. After several minutes he finally spoke. "How... in the hell... Did you... Beat me... Here?" he asked between pants. "When I started this flight... shit...What is it now, 3, maybe 4 days ago, you were on the same exact rooftop as me... how did you get here fast enough to commandeer a cruise ship?"

The beautiful brunette angel just smiled and laughed at him "Silly boy, I'm an Angelic General, and although I may be retired, I'm still in peak physical condition. That and you are really, really, slow when it comes to flying. Also, it's only been 12 hours, not 4 days... Sorry honey."

Xander rolled his eyes and continued to simply pant and sip his lemonade. After a few minutes Veo stood up and helped him to his feet "Come on Honeybun, I'll show you to your state room."

Several hours later Xander was awoken by the sound of a rather vicious banging on his state room door. After pulling himself out of bed and moving to the door he found Veo on the other side of the door with a beaming smile "Hey! Come on, there is a show I want you to see tonight."

Veo took Xander down to one of the entertainment lounges and pointed to the sign for a stage hypnosis show scheduled for later that night. Upon seeing the sign Xander... well, the poor guy had a bit of a panic attack. "A hypnosis show? Umm I mean why would I... would we... Would you..."

Veo noticed just how nervous he was and put her hand on her old friend's shoulder. "Xander, it's ok, you just got through some major trauma, you're out of sorts and confused in your head. That's all normal. But it's time to get those wheels working again, after all, I know how much you love seeing pretty girls hypnotized." She said while wiggling her eyebrows.

Xander didn't really know what to say, she was right, he LOVED seeing women hypnotized but for some reason, the idea just seemed to scare him right now. Before he had a chance to really figure out what to do, or what to say, Veo grabbed him by the tail and started to pull him into the lounge. "Hey! Wait, you can't... How are you doing that, I'm not exactly light you know?" He said, trying to stop the Angel.

"I'm stronger than I look, remember?" She said as she walked up to table near the middle where they would have a clear view of the stage. When they arrived she pulled out a chair, maneuvered Xander in front of the chair and gave his tail a downward tug to plant his butt in the chair. Not before smiling and pulling up the chair next to him. "Relax Honey, it's just a show, it will just help to get the wheels turning again. You don't have to go on stage, and you don't have to hypnotize anyone, alright?" Veo understood, in a way far better than Xander did, that the last few years had taken a toll on him, and that because of it he was depressed, more than he realized. But she was going to help him through it.

As the two sat and talked about nothing, Xander started to notice that there were various statues all around the edge of the lounge. From his vantage point he could count 6 of them, all on pedestals near the walls. Each statue appeared to be made of a different material, but each seemed to be a beautiful woman. A rather unclothed, beautiful woman.

The one closest to him appeared to be made out of white marble with bright blue veins running through the stone. The woman it depicted was standing on her right leg with her left leg bent so that her left foot was behind her right knee. Her right arm was bent up behind her neck to counterbalance the weight. While her left arm was limp along her left side. Her head was looking down to her left and what appeared to be curly hair was tied up in a ponytail. Her posture made the pony tail and tuft of hair seem to stand up more. It was beautiful.

The next one down appeared to be of shiny metal, with the lighting it was hard to see but it appeared to be gold, or maybe brass. The woman this statue depicted appeared to be an athlete. She had firm muscular legs and arms, and perfect six pack abs. Her pose was less seductive and more one of convenience. As she was standing firmly on both feet spread about shoulder width apart, with her arms directly behind her with her fingers interlocked together as if she was stretching. This pose had the added bonus of jutting her breasts completely straight forward, with her two little perky nipples shining in the stage lights. From this angle Xander couldn't be sure but he thought the hair of the statue had been pulled up into a bun.

He was about to comment on the statues to Veo when the lights dimmed around the club and the stage lights came up. Standing in the middle of the stage was a blonde haired young man who looked like he was in his early 20's. He was in the typical stage show attire, dress pants, sparkly red vest under a long tailed suit coat complete with a top hat. As the audience started to applaud the performer smiled and removed his hat so he could bow; as he stood up he tossed the hat a good 30 feet over to a red marble statue of a woman with her hand extended up as if reaching for something she desired. Hopefully what she desired was a stage hypnotists top hat because that landed perfectly on her hand as if he hadn't even tried.

The perfect shot with the hat earned the showman another round of applause as he smiled and took his microphone out of his pocket. "Thank you ladies and gentlemen" he began "My name is Sandy and I will be your entertainer tonight as we take a journey, together into the mind, or minds...of our audience" he said with a wink at a young lady who was seated at a table near the stage. "This journey will be completely safe, and I promise to return you to your normal lives, safe and sound... in a few days or so" he said with a devious smile that earned him a laugh from the audience. "However on this journey I am not responsible for lost items...of clothing. This is not Vegas... what happens on this stage does not stay on this stage... only your memory of it does. And in this realm the sky is no longer the limit, merely your imagination. So without further adieu, I would like to ask everyone to please sit up in their chairs... yes even the drunks in the back... and look at me for a moment, I have a question for you all..."

He paused for a moment while the audience seems to sit up and pay attention a bit more, scanning the audience for who was listening, who was ignoring him and who was eager for what would come next. "Now I have a question for all of you, all of you who can hear my words, all of you sitting, focusing, paying attention to me. This is an easy question for you, an easy question for you to answer without thinking about it, without thinking at all. Who here, among this vast group of travelers tonight, has been hypnotized before?"

Xander's hands did what any nervous hypnofetishist's hands would do in this situation... they shot... directly under his butt as fast as he could move them there. He was almost hit however by Veo's hand shooting straight up without the slightest hint of hesitation.

From the stage Sandy watched as hand after hand rose up to answer his question, some nervously, some eagerly, some already rising up in a way that implied the owner was already remembering, already feeling just what it was like to be hypnotized, again. "Very good" he replied in a soothing tone already sliding into his hypnotic voice "now who here, with their hands up, or not... Wants to be hypnotized by me tonight?" A few more hands raised in the audience, while a few that were up slinked back down to their nervous owners. "Very good, you are all doing so well now" he continued "those with their hands up.. I want you to let the hand that is up lower in front of you, to about eye level... and as it does you will find your other hand slowly rising to meet it, holding your hands so your palms are facing one another, about an inch apart. And... Focus... on the space between your palms. Just focus on that space, and start to feel a pull on your hands. You can feel the pull, like two powerful magnets slowly pulling together. Positive to negative, negative to positive. Just feel them pulling closer and closer. As if the magnetic field were reaching out and wrapping around your hands and pulling them in... Closer and closer. Soon your hands are so close, your fingers just seem to close around one another, interlocking your fingers around your hands and feeling them completely locked together, nice and straight, nice and tight, together."

Xander, during this whole exchange, did everything he could to avoid thinking about his hands. He fidgeted in his pockets, put his hands under his legs, at one point he even bit his own tail. But in the end he was rewarded by remaining unaffected by the suggestibility test. He smiled as he looked around to see several of the patrons with their hands locked together in front of them. Most were laughing, some looked nervous, one or two had the glazed relaxed look of someone who was already lightly hypnotized. He leaned over to point out one of them to Veo only to notice that her hands were locked together in front of her. As he looked at her face he noticed her eyes focused squarely on her hands, her pupils were completely dilated and her mouth was open, eyes half lidded as she stared at her hands. She wasn't just lightly hypnotized, the beautiful angel was already deeply hypnotized. Xander just chuckled a bit and whispered "lightweight."

Xanders attention was drawn back to the stage when the stage hypnotist started to comment "well well well, look at all those hands stuck together, whatever shall we do about that? I know, why don't we get a few of you on stage and we can help you out" he said pointing towards a giggly short haired blonde "would you like to come up on stage miss, get your hands unstuck?" The blonde shook her head as her friends laughed at her and Sandy waved her up on stage. He greeted her by the stairs "welcome miss, and you are?" he asked pointing the microphone at her.

"Jane" she replied turning a bit red now that she was the center of attention.

Sandy smiled at the audience as he looked back at her "no, no miss... that's your name... you are?" he asked again.

Jane looked at him a bit confused as she replied "ummm, stuck?" raising her hands up as an example.

The audience laughed as Sandy started to move her onto the stage, a few of the stage lights came up behind Sandy to illuminate some chairs behind him "yes, but you are more than that, do you know what else you are miss Jane?" he asked with a smile. The blonde just looked at him and shrugged then shook her head 'no'. Sandy smiled and leaned in to whisper into her ear, with the hand that he had the microphone in going along, which made whispering pointless but it was more for effect anyway as he whispered. "You're in a deep, deep, " with one smooth motion his other hand came up and tapped the young woman directly in the forehead as he said "sleep Jane..."

The tap and the command took the young woman completely by surprise. A look of shock filled her face as she tried to figure out why he had just tapped her on the head, and there was a split second when her eyes even crossed a little bit to look at his finger. Her mouth opened to start to ask a question, and then 'sleep jane' was whispered into the microphone. Her body jerked a bit and her eyes continued to cross and roll right back up into her head. Her head slumped back a bit as her shoulders instantly sagged and her hands fell forward until her elbows were extended, then her hands popped apart and went limp at her sides. Sandy had been quick enough to slide the hand with the microphone down to her mid back to support the young woman as she all but went limp on her feet. He smiled as the audience began to applaud.

After depositing the lovely Jane in one of the chairs, he turned back to the audience with a grin. "See, her hands are free! I told you they would be, now who else is having an issue here with their hands.. Hmmm let's see" he said looking around the audience.

After a moment his face lit up in a big smile as pointed almost directly at Xander, and said "you... feel your hands gently pull you forward now... eyes locked on your hands, you can just feel yourself being pulled forward slowly... gently... safely..."

Xander looked at Sandy like he was insane, there was no way he was going up on stage, but before he could finish that thought he was hit in the back of the head by Veo's massive wing as she rose from her chair and started to slowly move towards the stage, staring at her hands the whole time. Xander actually turned beet red from embarrassment when she stood up. And there was something else there... a weird emotion buried deep inside, jealousy maybe?

Sandy met the angel at the stairs and helped her to center stage. "My, my, my, would you look at that, an angel! How rare is that!" he said as the audience responded with a round of applause. "And who might you be, my dear?" he said lowering the microphone to Veo. who responded with her name in a very monotone voice, still focused on her hands. Sandy of course noticed her eyes locked on her hands and commented "You're hypnotized already... aren't you Veo?"

The way she replied, with a very smooth, relaxed "Yes" sent a gasp through the crowd. Followed only by her next answer of "Very... Deep" to the question of how hypnotized she was.

Sandy smiled at the audience as they applauded and he moved to her and put his hand on her still locked together hands, and said in a slow voice "your hands are free and you can simply sink... sink... into sleep, and just go deeper, and deeper now Veo."

As soon as he started to lower her hands they sank and fell to her sides, her eyes closed and her head fell directly against her chest, Sandy was able to catch her as he said in a commanding but soothing tone "Able to stand up, nice and sturdy, nice and strong" which made Veo stop her fall to the floor before it began. But even though she stood there, her massive Wings, folded up on her back began to extend and sink, like her arms, limp at her sides. Her wings extended out and slid across the floor of the stage, making it look almost like she was wearing a long blackened train behind her.

Sandy stepped away and let the audience admire the rare beauty not only of an angel, but of one hypnotized on stage. The audience applauded enough that he even took a brief bow before looking back at the stage and asking with a grin "Now... who else is having issues with their hands out there tonight?"

Xander crossed his legs uncomfortably, trying to hide just how much the whole scene before him had affected his...pulse rate. Yeah we'll go with pulse rate.

To be Continued...