Chapter 2 12

The next hour is filled with nothing but the sounds of the more clumsy of us scrabbling for traction against the steeply angled descent path, and the steamy, dripping cacophony of million-year old stone and ore sizzling away under my touch. Listener is directly behind me; the idea being that she'll be able to tell us what awaits us sooner than the rest of our group, but all I feel is her eyes scooping out whatever knowledge my stray thoughts possess for her own quiet, contemplative purpose. It's fortunate the job keeps me focused; the five of us stuck in these circumstances is far too close to previous fantasies for my comfort.

The only excitement on our journey is Penny singing away a good chunk of her top, having failed to realize that a drooping stalactite of magma had settled upon it.

"That's coming out of my bonus", says Thundress mutedly. Annoyed as she was, it'd do no good to hurt Penny's feelings. The all-but-invulnerable triple-ex colossus was more prone to finding a nice corner to cry in then brush off the occasional comment against her. It was sweet. It was depraved.

I wanted her whole world to love her like she loved it.

I wanted her to see me doing it, too. And know it was me. Not for greed or attention, but to show her in all the ways that words couldn't what she, we might have together if only-

Listener behind me clears her throat.

Anything. Everything. All of it bubbles in my head, and I let it; birthdays and funerals and hot dogs and hot summers and hot clothes and hot skin and hot lips and-

I shake my head, jolted. Horny is one thing--a state of being for me, I've come to terms with--but unable to keep it out of my thoughts long enough to elude a passing scan? That's new.

"What's the situation up there?" Thundress asks. I realize I've stopped. I slowly straighten, and focus all of my effort on two words, so desperate to be heard that it leaves me silently panting.

Listener.

Please.

The silence is deafening. It would cost her little to tell the truth; none save for Penny truly seemed to appreciate my presence anyway, let alone my powers. Thundress could bolt away at the rock edifice until a new path opened, or Penny could be told to barrel through.

They didn't need me like I needed them. Craved them. Worshiped them.

All of me is in her hands.

Goddamn me if it isn't turning me on even more.

I can't help it. I don't want to help it. I just want the pleasure, the suspense, the rush, and the knowledge that I would be in relatively safe hands afterwards.

I had three of those things.

"Just a geode deposit. Give us a minute to clear it."

My voice warbles, hungry of air. "It'll only take a few seconds, but hold on to the walls--this may destabilize them a little."

I can't tell if they heed my warning, and frankly, I'm not sure I care. They're all so much stronger, better, faster, hotter. And Elogia was probably tittering behind me, already far too aware of what was about to happen.

My palms endure their normal scorching start, and bright blue flame, concentrated to a tiny point, bursts forth. I hear a crunch of falling rock behind me, and Listener's hot, close breath wash itself into my mind.

"You owe me", she says breathily, sending shivers up and down every part of me. "And I intend to collect".

She withdraws, and the threat leaves me empty as it exits. Breathless. Would she collect? She must. I tried not to transmit how eager I was to take her up on that offer in my mind, but I doubted it would do any good. Listener had my most intimate thoughts cataloged. Sorted. Strip searched. As long as she wants me, I'm hers.

How long does she want me though? Part of me says forever.

Part of me says she never did.

The wall drips away into nothing, a blazing red circle carved into its face. I tentatively lean forward, and then step, standing carefully in the cavern that awaited us.

The steepled ceiling, the intricately carved columns that ascend as flawless examples of Greek classicism, the light that comes from nowhere and seems to spread everywhere... it all screams one thing.

Lair. Ashley... Thundress was right.

But as my light feet make the transition from my rough-hewn entrance to the immaculately smooth marble floor of this atrium, it's not the tasteful architecture that gets my attention, nor even the shocked gasps of Penny behind me as she beholds our condition.

It's the two women before us.

At least, one of them is a woman. She's perfect. Long black hair frames a delicate face with pretty, almond eyes, upswept gently and intelligent. She stands perfectly at ease, her short skirt and almost academic outfit well pressed and quaffed. The only thing about her that stands out to me is her smile. It's not pleasant. It's patient, and it twitches with excitement, and pulses with motion so subtle I can't be sure I see it, and yet I can't deny it's all she is thinking about.

I've had that look. The look of tantalizing possibility, so close and so achingly, meltingly hot to the touch, to the thought.

She is one of the Twins. And there is something desperately, cravenly wrong with her.

But it doesn't compare to who she is standing next to.

The other person is naked, and strapped by no less than twenty black buckle bindings to a flat plate of harsh metal dotted with points of restraint. Her sweaty, straining muscles press vividly against her containment. Her legs are bent and yet spread, her puss--her... vagina exposed utterly. It clenches with abandon. Her eyes are wild, her hair is soaked with days of vigor, and there is only one way to describe her gagged vocalizations.

She is screaming.

In her I too see myself. The scariest moment of my life, even if I would snatch it back in a heartbeat if I could. Suddenly I'm back on the bed, strapped down, suspended in a moment of continuous orgasm. My mouth doesn't move, my body is locked in like I'm being tazed, but still my partner doesn't stop.

Someone did not stop with this poor woman either. I wonder if she begged to be allowed a break, or begged to avoid one.

It's the other Twin.

"What is this?" Thundress says from behind me. It's the first indication in whole seconds that the Twins and I are not the only people in the world. The only things. I'm not sure if they really are people anymore. Her smile speaks of yawning chasms of corruption.

The orgasmic screams speak of permanence.

I don't dare think freely. Listener is just behind me. If she reaches out, she might be overwhelmed, but there might be temptation enough to catch just the barest shore of the Twin's mental anguish, and my ideas would be caught in the backwash.

But I feel one thing more than all others. It blossoms deep in my core, and washes into my veins like ice fire. It boils in my chest, and tingles in my most intimate places, physical and not.

I'm so very jealous.

Did the Twins even understand what they were feeling?

Was it a torture?

Or was it a gift?

The slightest, quietest, secretest of moans slips its way past my lips.

It is so very hot in here.

"Thundress", says Listener quietly, awestruck, horrified, transfixed, blank. The restrained Twin writhes more. The standing Twin tilts her head ever so curiously. "What... how?"

"I don't know", says Thundress. "I'm tired of not knowing". She steps forward and closes the gap between herself and the Twins. "Mindy, Joanna. What's going on here?"

I'm shaken slightly. I've always known these girls as the Twins. They weren't in my league--literally. But I could never figure out what made these girls special besides being virtually identical.

The standing Twin--Mindy or Joanna, I don't know which--opens her mouth, as if to offer a pleasant reply, but I frown as all that emerges is a small droplet of drool. It runs down her chin and her eyes widen and her smile twitches more. It's on her blouse now.

What the fuck?

From beside her, the bound Twin grunts and strains, and screams. Words are forcing their way past her lips. They're impotently shouted through the gag, but in perfect synchronicity, the Twin beside her speaks.

"You know".

Her eyes focus on Thundress now, and even from my distance, I can see her pupils are dilated. Drugs? Possible. But I'm not stupid enough to think that this is so simple a set up.

"I don't understand", says Penny gently. Out of all the feelings to have, the sadness of her words feels out of place, cloying, and yet rich with a kindness that seems wholly absent anywhere else in the cavern.

Again the writhing girl grunts. At her side, the standing Twin speaks.

"Tell her".

They're saying the same thing, I realize at length. Like clockwork. Now that I notice it, their twitches are largely synchronized. The standing Twin resists them more effectively, but they are still present. Undeniable.

"Or She will", says the Twin, and her smile becomes ever more menacing, her eyes grow more vacuous. It's the hook Thundress has been waiting for.

"Who will?" she says, ready for whatever answer she receives.

"I will", replies a voice, disembodied and yet coming from all around them.

I look up to the vaulting ceiling--not enough heroes look up first and foremost--but there's nothing there. No, strike that--even as I am starting to look away, a flash of black motion, like a shadow upon the air itself, fluctuates and cavitates, and throws itself towards the ground.

"Down!" I shout. All five of us dive for the cover of a low position, and not an instant too soon, for the swirling black mass flows just over us, and converges just behind the Twins.

I look up.

Scarlet eyes transfix me.

My breath exits my body. It's not mine to hold anymore. It goes to the eyes. I go to the eyes. I feel my whole self, of the body and not, rising, rising to meet the eyes, rising to meet their expectations of me. Is there a me anymore?

The eyes will tell me soon.

I can't wait to find out.

And then they look away.

I fall back to earth, my breath shuddering in my lungs again. I feel cold, colder than Madam Magma ever should. It's like the lava has seized in my veins. Tentatively, I try to superheat a bit of the marble that my hand is on. It takes concerted effort over a few seconds even to illuminate my digits. I'm exhausted. I'm stymied.

What did those eyes take from me?

And why do I feel like I've disappointed them?

And why is there electricity arcing within me where fire had been before?

It takes all of my will to look up, and behold the master of ceremonies.

Where there had been empty space a moment before, and a black, roiling cloud just after, imperious beauty herself has been revealed. Its shape is a woman, but no woman I have ever seen could compare to her sculpted, absolute definitions. Black hair, dark as obsidian, rolls down her body in majestic, flawless curls. They spill onto the red-clad shoulders of a dress that hides only as much as she pleases. Her curves arch and flow with every step she takes, and the clack of black stilletos is the only sound in the air. Her steps are deliberate, calculated.

I'm transfixed. Riveted. But terrified--for as awesome as her presence simply is, it's nothing... nothing at all... compared to her eyes.

What will they take when they turn to me again?

And will I want it back when they take it?

"I often find it intriguing", said the imperious woman gently, "just what heroes will keep secret from even themselves."

She stands to the side of the Twins, who don't acknowledge her. She bends over, the split seam of her dress leaving exposed a creamy white thigh that sends me deeper into a thrall I never thought I could taste. She is Penny's body, and Thundress' presence, and Listener's control. She is so much more. More than any of us. I've never been so hungry. From her bent position--bent but not stooped--she blows a gentle kiss to the standing Twin. Both shudder, and though the standing twin's stance does not change, she's held stiffly, as though an outside power compels it alone. Her eyes roll back, and she struggles to remain cogent.

My legs splay against the marble. My soft, satin-feeling costume presses against my clit, and a bolt of scorching perversion slices through me.

"The Twins here, for instance", says the woman, returning her attention to all of us, and none of us. "Did you really think it wise to deliver such desperately helpless creatures into my midst?"

Thundress didn't answer, but she was the only one of the Flight now standing. Her strength was impressive, even in the smallest of ways.

She would serve so well.

Whoa. Where did that come from? I've never known Thundress to serve.

That wasn't likely to change.

Not with any power I knew, anyway.

"They're not fighters", said Thundress, apology, defensiveness and frustration all alight in her tone. "They're scouters. We just wanted to see--"

"What was happening in this region", finished the woman. Thundress fell silent. "Yes, the Twins... for now, Joanna and Mindy, have told me everything. Their mission. Their abilities. Their weaknesses."

She steps before the Twins, as if they no longer hold her interest. She scans over us with her eyes, and I feel myself entering her presence with every glance. She is a power I can't stop. I must listen.

"For anyone unaware of Mindy and Joanna's particular brand of extra human ability, consider the possibility that two people might be more than simply identical twins."

Her words are honey. The dictionary would sound blissful with her sugared tones.

"Consider that two people might share more than a womb, or even a brain. Imagine that what one felt..."

Here she leaned over, this time revealing the other thigh. I'm melting. I don't care. With delicate, blood red lips, she blows a gentle gust over the subtly dark skin of the confined Twin. Even in her struggling, eye-rolled state, I see the goosebumps spread across her arm. A sudden inhale from the standing Twin leads my gaze to her arm, and to my astonishment, in the same place, at the same time, goosebumps appear on hers too. The woman in red was too far away for it to affect her, unless...

"Indeed", says the woman in red, as though my thoughts are hers. Can everyone in this damned room read my mind? "They are linked neurally. What one feels, the other cannot help but feel. It's an interesting tool, and an advantage in the right hands. But in better hands...in the right hands... in my hands..."

She caresses the Twin with supple fingers, white as birch, and the Twin shudders again, remaining standing only through an exterior power.

"It is their greatest disadvantage. And yet their greatest--"

And here her eyes affix to me again, and I yield under them, even as they speak to me a thousand pictures worth of words.

"--gift".

"We can talk about this", says Thundress slowly. Her words are slower, more thick, like she's speaking through honey. "I represent the United Extrahuman Initia--"

The woman in red looks at her, steps to Thundress, holds her in a vice like gaze. Her eyes drill into Thundress, and I watch her relax her shoulders, and let her head go limp, only to stiffen attentively an instant later.

"You will not interrupt", says the woman in red. Thundress' lips slam shut, as I know they must. It's a fact. Thundress will not interrupt. Curious, I know, that the truth should be so easily stated and known by the woman in red, but it is truth. Thundress will never interrupt again.

The woman in red continues.

"Of course, this means that Mindy here--" the woman in red gestures to Mindy, and I finally know who is whom. "--is feeling everything that Joanna is, strapped down and having her mind torn to shreds with orgasmic torment. Why aren't you writhing like a sliced worm, Mindy?"

"Because Goddess commands that I remain still", says Mindy. It's truth. Mindy cannot move. The woman in red didn't say it to me, but I know it all the same. Mindy can't move until she's given leave by the woman in red. Somehow, I know--deep in my boiling, lust-drenched heart--that the next time the woman in red orders her to move, it will be for the last time.

"It is important that you stay standing for me." The woman in red begins to circle Mindy. She is a shark, and Mindy is her prey, and I and the rest of the team, even Thundress with her slammed-shut mouth--are but covetous witnesses to the most perfect slaughter.

"Yes, Goddess", says Mindy. Sweat is pooling on her brow. Her body is strained to the point of utter ruin. How long has she been like this? As long as Godde--that is, the woman in red told her to be. It's really quite simple.

"And why is it important, Mindy?"

"Because you are to be obeyed, Goddess". There's no wavering in Mindy's voice. Her words are like a confession, a lessening of burden. I want her eyes. I want what she has. That empty fulfillment.

"Beyond that?" asks the woman in red. Mindy tries desperately to think, but she's not been told to think, only to respond. The interplay is so clear to me. So obvious.

I feel meant for it.

"I... don't know, Goddess", she says, her voice honest and yet quavering at the truth.

The woman in red steps closer to her suddenly, closing the gap between them to nothing. Her lithe leg steps authoritatively before Mindy's, and a red-manicured hand grips Mindy's throat tightly. Mindy's eyes widen--the strength of her Goddess is cutting off blood, but she does not struggle.

She is glad to be prey.

"Because a goddess never bends to feast."

The woman in red leans back, and from her immaculate bosom a strangled, guttural snarl rings out.

The instant of clarity in Mindy's eyes shines almost as white as the fangs that plunge into her throat.