Fractionation 05 - Pulling the Strings

Freya turned to leave the sparring area. Allison, Sam and CS-01 were still catching their breath. “I’m heading back for the evening. Make our new guest feel welcome. And stay on your guard while I’m gone,” Freya said to the young couple and their new cyborg friend.

“Look, we’re not kids, Freya. We can take care of ourselves, just fine thank you,” Allison huffed, blowing a strand of red hair out of her face.

Sam took Allison’s hand, “We’ll be careful, Freya. You do the same. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve seen anything from Fractal. He’s probably waiting for us to let our guard down.”

“Ha! I hope he does try something. I still owe him for last time,” Freya replied, cracking her knuckles.

CS-01 spoke up, “Inviting an isolated incursion from such a formidable adversary is a most unwise tactic.” Her metallic skin shone in the Sanctum’s bright light.

“I’ve been doing this far longer than any of you. I know to handle myself,” Freya answered.

“Well, just be careful alright? We’ll all be here if you need us. We’re going to show CS-01 the library,” Sam said as he turned away. The three of them headed off down the hallway. Freya smiled. Sam and Allison had both warmed up since they started spending so much time together. Still Freya was eager for some time to herself. She enjoyed training the new team, even if they still had a ways to go. But after a long day of drilling them and answering their questions, she just wanted a few hours of quiet.

Freya entered the hall of mirrors, where Twister and Saphira waited for her. A seemingly endless series of tall, gilded mirrors lined the walls of the white marble chamber. The endless reflections made the towering hall appear to reach into infinity. “They’re coming along nicely, Saphira. We’ll need a name for our group at this rate,” Freya joked as she approached.

Saphira turned to face her old friend, smiling.“Yes I suppose you’re right. Perhaps you could all share my title and we could be The Guardian’s of the Mortal Realm,” The dark skinned woman said in her sing-song voice.

“No offense, but that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue,” Twister replied. “How about The Freedom Force? Or Alpha Team? Or maybe Super Squad?”

“No, I don’t fancy any of those. They feel too cheap,” Freya answered. Perhaps she shouldn’t have mentioned naming the group. Maria seemed far too excited about it.

“We’ll have plenty of time to think of something. But if we want to get you two home before sunset, we need to hurry,” Saphira said. She turned to face one of the mirrors and placed her hand on the reflective surface. A soft glow emanated from her palm and radiated across the glass. It rippled the reflection like a stone thrown into a calm pond. And as the ripples settled, the image had changed to one of Twister’s gymnastics studio. Balance beams and Pommel horses were silhouetted against the orange of the sunset.

“Well this is my stop. See you tomorrow.” Twister gave a quick wave and then stepped into the mirror. The reflection bubbled around her like liquid mercury. As the surface stilled again, Freya could see Maria standing within the image.

Then Saphira turned to a mirror on the opposite wall and repeated the process. This time the image displayed the San Angeles skyline as seen through sweeping windows. Freya gave Saphira a nod before stepping through. The surface of the mirror felt strangely warm pouring over her skin. She closed her eyes as she walked, and when they opened again she was standing in her penthouse apartment, wreathed in a warm light.

Even after all these years, Saphira’s abilities amazed her. Freya’s apartment looked just as she had left it. Newspaper clippings of her heroics covered the walls. Piles of unread fan mail flooded across her dark wood coffee table. Her heavy, wooden furniture reminded Freya of her own time. The modern age certainly had its conveniences, but a touch of home did her spirit good. Maybe that was why she chose to spend the nights here rather than at the sanctum.

Freya looked out over the city skyline and wondered if this era would ever feel normal to her. She certainly appreciated the luxuries of modern life, but a part of her yearned for the simplicity of her original time. She missed the feeling of testing her strength with the other Valkyries on a real battlefield. Hero work had some of the same appeal, but couldn’t quite scratch the itch. Oh well, there was nothing to be done about it tonight. She turned away from the silhouettes of towering glass and headed to the kitchen.

The valkyrie opened her fridge and found it mostly empty. She would have to do something about that later. But first she’d earned a warm bath. Freya walked through the spacious master bedroom and to the door of her luxurious bathroom. Still the others’ words nagged at her. She mumbled to herself as she walked, “As if I need protecting. These youths have never seen anything like the battles I’ve fought in.”

She was eager to soak in her massive tub and forget the day. Not having a secret identity had a few perks, she thought as she placed her hand on the cool door knob. She paused for a moment. Hadn’t this door been open when she left?

The door exploded in a shower of splinters as a yellow blur shot forward. The figure stabbed out in a flash of steel. The blade scraped off Laevateinn. Freya had barely raised her own sword in time. She parried, sending the figure stumbling back. In that moment, Freya caught sight of her attacker.

She wore a yellow jumpsuit, emblazoned with white accents. A yellow helmet shaped like a lion’s head covered the woman’s face. This was the yellow Dyna-Trooper, part of a group of heroes. The attacker whirled around, angling her blade for a long strike across Freya’s torso. Freya stepped backward and knocked it away. Laevateinn could probably cut the woman’s sword in half. It was an ancient relic itself after all. But the yellow trooper could be helpful if Freya could just free her.

Her mind raced to put the pieces together. The Dyna-Troopers were heroes, a team of five. They would never attack her, not of their own will anyway.

Someone had to be controlling her, but who? Mr. Mesmer should still be in prison. The yellow figure stabbed again, but Freya deftly deflected. The Xondor mind worms should all be extinct. This felt too clumsy for Fractal. Whoever it was must have a grudge against her specifically. That was it!

The yellow-clad assassin stabbed forward. This time Freya dropped Laevateinn. It clattered to the floor as Freya stepped to the side. She quickly wrapped her hands around the woman’s outstretched arm. Then heaving over her shoulder, Freya flipped the trooper into the air. She hit the ground with a thud. Her helmet shattered on impact, revealing a woman’s face with ebony skin and a glazed expression.

The woman tried to stand, but Freya pounced, pinning her to the ground. Quickly, Freya reached a hand to the back of the woman’s neck. She felt it there, just as she’d expected, a small bump. The hero crushed it between her two fingers.

The life returned to the other woman’s features. She looked around hesitantly for a moment. Then she seemed to realize that she was lying on the ground with Freya on top of her, face just inches from her own. “Oh. Um. Hello. I’m sorry, I don’t remember how we got this way. Not that I’m . . . Um complaining or anything,”

“Well let’s see, you broke into my home while I was away and then tried to kill me upon my return. Jogging your memory?” Freya asked, still keeping a tight grip on the stranger.

“What? No, I would never do that.” Then she gasped, “The warehouse! The others!” The woman tried to get up, but still couldn’t escape Freya’s pin.

“What warehouse? Tell me everything,” Freya answered.

“Please, you have to help us. My name is Talisha. The rest of the troopers and I, we went to investigate some smuggled tech shipments down by the docks. We had just forced our way through the door. There was a man inside, and . . . and that’s the last thing I remember,” The woman gasped.

Freya released her grip and helped Talisha to her feet. “It’s alright. That man was likely a super villain named The Mind Hacker. I’ve vanquished him many times before. Take me to your friends. We’ll have The Mind Hacker in irons before the night is out!”

Talisha led them back to the warehouse. Rust stained the corrugated metal siding. Sections of the metal were bending and peeling away from the building’s frame. The trooper led them to a side door. The lock had already been cut through. The door swayed gently in the cold, evening breeze.

Freya had been hoping for a break tonight. But an easy win over a familiar foe was its own form of comfort. Fractal’s plans had led her to dead end after dead end. But The Mind Hacker was usually more straightforward. His abilities to control people made him overconfident. This would be a nice break for her, simple, easy. Still the words of her young friends tugged at the back of her mind. She opened a comm channel on her ear piece. “Twister, this is Freya. I’m at warehouse forty six down on the docks. I’m handling a villain. If you don’t hear from me by the end of the night, come investigate with the others in the morning,” she said, feeling silly even doing it.

The two heroes breached the door. The moon’s pale light filtered through dusty sky lights and bathed the interior in an eerie glow. They moved slowly around stacks of crates. The place appeared deserted. But Freya saw signs of recent activity, footprints in the dust and a few crates hanging open. Then she heard it, a faint whistling sound. She ducked just in time to avoid a pink boomerang cutting through where her chest had been. It returned to a figure clad in pink, standing atop a pile of boxes. “Looks like we found your friends,” Freya called to Talisha.

“Yeah I noticed,” she yelled back. The red trooper had leapt out from a rack of oil drums and was swinging at her with his massive gauntlets. But Talisha stayed one step ahead, quickly retreating back towards Freya.

The two women stood back to back as the other troopers encircled them. A blue trooper with a spear and a black-clad figure with a hammer emerged to join their teammates.

Freya whispered under her breath to Talisha, “Alright. It’s four on two. But we don’t need to defeat them. We only need to get the chips off their necks. Then the odds will turn in our favor. They can’t use their combination attack without you. So as long as we watch out for The Mind Hacker we should be fine.”

Then Freya felt a sharp jolt in the back of her neck, followed by a wave of intense calm. She looked over to see Talisha pulling her hand away. Freya fell to her knees as her mind grew numb. “But how?”

Talisha smiled. “Master said you would be too confident. Now you will take your rightful place as his toy.”

“Toy . . .” She repeated, dazed. Freya’s mind instantly agreed. She was meant to be Master’s toy. But she knew those thoughts weren’t her own. “Where is Master?” She managed to say.

“I’m right here, my precious little doll,” a high voice cooed. The gaunt man stepped out from the shadows. He wore a black vest and pants over a white shirt and carried a strange piece of wood in one hand. “I’ve waited for this day a long time.”

A wave of relief washed over Freya at seeing him. She didn’t need to think, she only needed to obey her master. But she struggled against those thoughts, desperately holding onto who she was. “How?”

He approached her and began gently running his hands over her arms. “Let’s just say you’ve made some powerful enemies, my pretty doll. They gave me some new tricks in exchange for taking you out of the picture. But don’t worry, my toy. They’ll leave you alone now. No one will bother you anymore,” he cooed. The man’s bony fingers ran across Freya’s trembling arms.

Freya sighed with joy. No one would bother her anymore. She could just focus on obeying and pleasing her master. No! Her resistance rallied inside her shrinking mind. “Blow away the chains. Gust!” A sharp wind blew around Freya. It tore the microchip free from her neck. Freya felt her mind clearing. She knew she had to act quickly. She leapt up from the ground and lunged towards The Mind Hacker. Except her arms didn’t come with her. They hung taught in the air, anchoring her in place. They pulled her body back and turned her lunge into a fruitless, flailing kick.

“Tsk Tsk Tsk. Didn’t I tell you I had some new tricks.” He waved the piece of wood in his hand and Freya’s hands responded immediately. They fell to her ample breasts and began massaging them. She felt like a prisoner in her own body. She tried to make her hands stop, but they no longer listened to her. They felt like they were moving on strings.

“That’s an artifact isn’t it? You’re working with Fractal,” Freya gasped. She pulled against the strings but her arms were rooted in the air, so she just ended up squirming in place.

“Guilty as charged,” the man said, oozing with condescension. He approached her and reached out his hand.

Freya managed to twist around and kick him in the chest. The Mind Hacker stumbled backwards, but he ran his hand across her inner thigh as he did so. Freya could feel them now, the tiny, invisible strings anchoring themselves to her flesh. Then her leg stopped responding. It swept out from under her, causing the hero to fall on her back.

The Mind Hacker coughed from the kick, but came away smiling. He returned to Freya on the ground and attached his strings to her other leg. Her arms and legs spread helplessly at his command. She tried to move, but her limbs were no longer her own. All she could do was wiggle her torso and turn her head.

“Tear through the,” Freya called out trying to summon the wind. But that was as far as she got, before he placed a finger on her lips to shush her. As he did, the strings attached to the soft skin of her lips and they went numb. Her mouth hung open, unable to speak or move.

“That’s better, my pretty doll. You don’t need to speak unless I tell you to. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes Master,” her voice answered clearly. Freya tried to tell him to go fuck himself, but her mouth just hung limply open, waiting for new commands.

The Mind Hacker ran a gentle hand across her chest, spreading strings as he did. “That’s it. I’ve waited so long for this day. You put me in jail so many times. You foiled so many of my plans. But I never gave up. I knew that one day you would be the crown jewel of my collection. I knew that deep down you wanted that too, didn’t you?” His hand lingered on her breasts, slipping under her armor to tease her nipples.

“Yes Master. I’ve always wanted to be your doll,” she responded. Freya wanted to scream but couldn’t. No part of her body responded to her anymore.

“That’s what I thought,” he purred. He reached a hand under the leather skirt of her armor.

Freya shuddered as the strings reached deep inside of her. Suddenly, the entire situation seemed incredibly arousing. The heat between her legs built quickly into a roaring fire. She knew those feelings weren’t her own, but that didn’t make them any less real.

“See, you love being tied up, don’t you?”

Freya tried to speak but her lips ignored her. That was so hot to her now. So instead she nodded her head. It was all she could do.

“Such a good doll for me,” he said. He twitched his wrist and the strings inside her heightened her pleasure even further. They filled her completely, pushing further and deeper inside of her than she’d ever felt. And as they crept deeper inside, they took her nerves captive along their path. Every inch of her sensitive flesh was under his control now, trapped in an endless vortex of pleasure.

The hero tried to resist the fireworks going off in her mind. But with every passing second their intensity grew. Her muscles spasmed and twitched as all her pleasure centers fired on their own. The heat inside her couldn’t be denied. She struggled to ignore the wonderful sensation, but that only made the feeling stronger. At last, she couldn’t hold out anymore.

Freya came and couldn’t stop. Her hips thrashed against the cold, concrete ground. All of her thoughts washed away in the endless tide of pleasure.

“Now you want me to keep going and make you a doll,” he said firmly.

“Yes Master, Yes Master, Yes Master,” she moaned, as he commanded of course. But her head was nodding too. She couldn’t stop. She couldn’t think. She just wanted the pleasure to go on forever. Then she felt them, the strings reaching deep into her mind. Her thoughts, her beliefs, all just puppets on strings. She could feel her Master going through them. The thoughts he had no use for fell limp and went to sleep. Her desire to be a hero and help people went to sleep. Her pride in her accomplishments turned to pride at serving her Master. Her feelings of arousal and submission pulled up, dancing through her mind. Freya could feel her Master returning control of her limbs to her. Of course, she would only use them as he desired. “Thank you for enslaving me, Master,” she whispered.

“Of course. Now crawl over to me,” he commanded.

Freya complied immediately. At first her body twisted and jerked as the strings tugged at her. But nonetheless her clumsy limbs padded across the concrete floor. Slowly her movements became more fluid and more deliberate as she adjusted to the guiding force of her tether. She bowed down deeply when she reached him, pressing her forehead to the dusty ground.

He pulled her strings once more and Freya instantly felt her thoughts responding. She knew exactly what her Master wanted. She undid his fly and his already hard cock sprang free. Freya’s mouth watered at the sight of it. She knew her thoughts had been rearranged to crave his cock. But her thoughts had also been rearranged to love having her thoughts rearranged. It just made it even hotter. She happily took him into her mouth and began sucking.

His member twitched against her tongue. She delighted in feeling his pleasure. The Mind Hacker grabbed her braid and used it as a handle to guide her deeper onto his shaft. She obeyed happily, taking him deep into her throat. She loved to obey now. A salty dribble leaked into her mouth. She was close to finishing him and that brought her such joy. She sped up, moaning loudly.

The sounds of her pleasure pushed her master over the edge. His hips strained as he shot his seed into the back of her throat. Freya swallowed it all eagerly. She released her seal on him with a wet popping sound. Then she gave his prick a small kiss, before looking lovingly up at her master.

The thin man released a happy sigh. “I knew you would be worth waiting for, my doll. You did not disappoint.”

Freya beamed at his praise, any trace of resistance banished from her mind. “Thank you, Master.”

—-

The motorcycle’s headlight cut through the darkness of the docks, like a shooting star. It came to a stop outside warehouse forty six and Twister dismounted. She couldn’t sleep. She knew Freya had said to wait until morning and come with the others, but it had been too long. Maria couldn’t help but worry.

She found the door to the rusty warehouse hanging open. She knew they had made it inside then. Maria took a flashlight from her belt and entered. She panned the light across the stacks of broken boxes. The warehouse was quiet and still, save for a faint rustling sound.

“You shouldn’t have come. The situation is completely under control,” Freya’s voice echoed through the metal structure.

It took Maria a moment to find her with the flashlight. “Oh thank goodness you’re safe. What happened with the villain you were after?” She asked, relieved.

“He escaped. The Mind Hacker proved far too clever and skilled for the likes of me,” she replied coldly.

“Oh I see. The Mind Hacker. He’s a classic villain of yours. He’s the one with the mind control chips right? I’m surprised he got away. Usually you beat him pretty easily right?” Maria asked suspiciously, trying to casually approach the other woman.