“It totally works!” she said, laughing loudly. “Holy crap! I’m so drunk!”
“How long do you think it will last?” I asked Grace. Hell, that question was really for anyone, but none of us really knew the answer to it.
“I’ll be fine, Gideon, don’t be such a pussy. I’m not even drunk. You’re drunk!” Dorian slugged me in the chest.
“Hey!”
“I want someone to carry me. I have to pee, I think.”
I hesitated but decided that if anyone deserved to be carried, it was someone who’d agreed to be a guinea pig. And besides, if she did piss on me, it wouldn’t be the first Cherry Blossom Girl who did so, considering that had been Grace’s opening move when we first arrived in Santa Fe.
“Okay, piggyback ride.” I got in front of her. “Easy, don’t jump too quickly.”
She climbed on, her arms around my neck.
“Carry me softly,” she whispered in my ear.
“I’ll try, just don’t …”
Dorian’s legs were tightly wrapped around my waist, her breasts pressed into my back, and she was breathing heavily into my ear as she bit my earlobe – hard.
“Shit!”
“Sorry, Gideon, I’ll behave.”
By this point, Michelle, Ingrid, and Fiona were all rolling on the grass, laughing. Grace and Veronique stood by, indecipherable expressions on their faces.
“To the restroom we go,” I said as I brought her into the house, past the living room, and to the nearest porcelain throne. Her hand started to charge as soon as I set her on the toilet.
“No, no,” I told her in a tone of voice one would tell a child not to put something in their mouth.
“My pants – I mean, shorts,” she said, trying to undo the button.
“Shit, let me help you with that.”
It isn’t easy undressing someone else. But I did my best, unbuttoning her shorts and pulling them over her taut hips. Next up was her fishnet pantyhose, followed by black panties adorned with a skull and crossbones. I slid everything down and out of the way, got a pretty good view of her bush, looked away, and was about to move when she started to topple forward.
“Oh man,” I said as I caught her.
Once I got her into position, Dorian pissed. I waited for her to finish, and realizing she wasn’t going to clean herself, decided to take matters into my own hands.
What in the hell has happened to my life? I thought, tearing off some toilet paper from the roll. I’d never cleaned up a woman after she went to the restroom before. I figured it wouldn’t be that hard, probably just like cleaning myself after dropping a deuce.
Nope, that’s not the right image.
I cut the inner monologue short as I pressed the paper against her lady parts.
Swipe up? Swipe down? Left? Right?
No clue, I just let it soak up for a moment, dropped it between her legs and flushed.
“Why do you have to wear so much clothing,” I muttered as I pulled her panties up, followed by her tights, then her shorts. I buttoned them, realized I was sweating a little, wiped my brow, and fireman-carried her into the living room.
She hiccupped and said, “I wear cool clothing because it’s cool.”
“Is that so? Well, let me be the first to say you are the coolest one of all of us. Tattoos too.”
“Really?”
“Believe me. I wouldn’t lie about something like coolness.”
“You didn’t wash your hands,” she said, giving me a comical icky face.
“I’ll wash them, dammit, just let me make sure you’re comfortable.”
I laid her on the couch and noticed Michelle standing nearby with a glass of water. I had no idea how long she’d been there.
“I hope this won’t make her pee more,” Michelle said, “because I like this couch. I don’t care if she pees, just not here.”
“Don’t worry about that.” I tilted Dorian’s head back and gave her some water. “Now let’s get back outside. We’re supposed to be training.”
Chapter Twenty-Six: Capture the Hero
The game was called Capture the Hero, and the rules were relatively simple: one of the CBGs stood in the middle and everyone attacked her.
Like Fight Club, there were rules. Unlike Fight Club, the first rule was, ‘Do not kill the Super or attempt to kill the Super.’ Like Fight Club, the second rule was a repeat of the first rule. The third rule was also not like Fight Club: ‘Yes, Gideon has some superpowers now, but he isn’t actively competing so please don’t challenge him.’
Stella was currently the ‘target at large.’
She stood poised, ready to use her abilities to augment the shit out of reality. Grace was the first to attack, trying to push Stella off her feet with a telekinetic wave.
But the killer vector queen was too strong for something like that. She barely moved an inch before she reverted the attack back to Grace, blowing the psychic shifter off her feet.
Another thing that was different this time was that no one was wearing body armor. This, predictably, was Veronique’s idea, who thought it was important for them to fight as if they really were defending their lives.
The Super Teens were instructed to attack as well, but at the start, none of them advanced on Stella.
Their apprehension didn’t last long. Eventually, after Stella stopped a wall of scrambled together bits of metal from hitting her, Fiona moved into action.
The water user lifted into the air, propelled forward by vapor. As she did this, a small tornado of water formed in her hand. She pulled back and pushed both hands forward, sending the spiraling cyclone of water at Stella.
The cyclone slapped into the translucent sphere protecting Stella and trickled down to the ground.
Michelle, who was bobbing on the sidelines and also looking for an opening, decided to go with a distraction technique. She zipped around Stella, fast enough that I could hardly see her unless I blinked quickly.
I didn’t know what she was trying to do, but her attack was halted by a blast of transparent force from Stella.
By now, strands of Stella’s dirty blond hair had twisted loose from her braid and fell into her face. She was breathing a little heavily but maintaining her cool. The way she moved reminded me of the way someone would use chi; she was light on her feet, and when something came in to attack her, she would simply float her hands forward to stop it.
Which was how Fiona’s next water offensive was dealt with. Stella simply stepped into it, hands forward as she spliced through the liquid assault.
“My turn!” Ingrid yelled. She began to tremble, her muscles bulging and pulsing as parts of her clothing was torn off her body. Her jaw elongated, teeth formed, her skin hardened, and spikes burst from the top of her back as Tulip made an appearance.
The beast came in for his first swipe, saliva flying out of his wicked maw.
Stella gently pressed her hand in front of her body and Tulip’s fist stopped inches from Stella’s open palm. The beast tried to swipe with his other hand, claws growing in size as they neared Stella’s head, but they also failed to connect.
As Tulip beat the hell out of the shield protecting Stella, Veronique tried a long-distance drain, and for a few seconds, it actually took, evident in the way Stella hunched forward, her protective shield wavering.
She regained her footing, though and swept Veronique to the ground.
It seemed there was only going to be one way to bring Stella down: telepathically.
I didn’t know if I thought this or Grace thought it through me, but the next thing I saw was Tulip being tossed sideways by Stella as she fell to the ground, slapping her temples. “Make it stop! Make it stop!” Stella shrieked, veins pulsing on the side of her head.
Grace lowered her hand and Stella stood, fists clenched at her sides.
“Everyone relax.” I stepped into the middle of the mayhem like a dumbass.
Even Tulip, who was growling at me, lowered his beastly head as I took my place
next to Grace.
“This is why we’re doing this,” I told them. “We have to figure out each other’s flaws and how to work together. I think today’s exercises should be devoted to learning everyone’s flaws. Later, we can work on operating fluidly, working toward the same goal. Great job, Stella; it’s clear your only weakness is psychological in nature. That said, I believe you,” I nodded at Fiona “could have also brought her down.”
“You mean, by making her drunk?”
“That’s right. So who’s up next? Grace?”
Grace stepped into the center, and everyone else stepped away.
Tulip had already morphed back into Ingrid by the time I finished my spiel. Michelle and Fiona were near her, Veronique in front of the mansion, and Stella was to the right of Grace.
Grace, who wore a loose T-shirt and a pair of denim shorts, lifted into the air, her long, blond hair flowing behind her. Her eyes turned white, and everyone, including me, took a knee as our heads filled with a terrible static-like screech, almost exactly like the mental attack Mother was fond of using.
Veronique was the first to recover.
Her hands before her and charged red, Veronique yanked Grace to the ground using the metal in her jean shorts.
Grace cushioned her fall, but the action left her vulnerable to Stella, who created a visible wave of vibrating energy that hit Grace and sent her sprawling. But she quickly got her footing and brought Stella to her knees with the nightmare attack again.
Michelle appeared behind Grace in a flash and shoved her. Grace stumbled forward and was whipped off her feet by a gush of water from Fiona. The water kept slamming into her as she tried to get up, infuriating the psychic.
Within seconds, Fiona was now fighting against the other supers, attacking Veronique with a column of water. It slammed the metal vampire to the ground, lifted her up, and slammed her again. The liquid sluiced in and out of Veronique’s mouth, choking her as she tried to get to her feet.
Tulip was back now and came in for a physical attack that Grace blocked with her power. But the hunkering beast didn’t stop there. It pulled both arms back and tried to smash through Grace’s telekinetic shield like an angry ape.
I felt a tug on my heartstrings. If anything could break through Grace’s shield, it was Tulip’s overwhelming strength, and at that moment I almost told them to stop.
You have to trust. Grace maintained control over Fiona’s mind and was continuing her attack on Veronique while fighting off multiple jabs from Tulip, yet she still had enough power to communicate with me.
This was on top of the fact that I still had some of her power.
She was distracted, that was for sure, and I caught Stella lurking toward her, vibrations moving up her arm and swirling as she pulled her fist back.
Whoosh!
Grace hit the ground. Fiona stopped attacking Veronique. Michelle quit running around in a circle. And stumbling forward, Tulip morphed back into Ingrid.
“Good, good!” I made my way to the middle again.
Everyone was a little out of breath, including me, as all the action had me on edge.
“Everyone take five – no, take ten. And then let’s do the same thing with Veronique in the middle.”
“How about you go in the middle?” Michelle asked in an innocent voice.
Veronique and Stella chuckled.
“Laugh it up, laugh it up. I know I’d have my ass handed to me. I’m not stupid enough to think I’d last more than three seconds against any of you.”
“What about against me?” Dorian asked.
She stood behind me, her paintbrush charging.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I felt super drunk, and then I felt normal. What did I miss? I mean, I remember starting to fall and you carrying me. That’s about it.”
“You didn’t miss much,” I lied.
“In that case,” she said, “I want to go next. I have a few tricks I’d like to try on you guys.”
“Well, if you’re up for it,” I said just as Veronique stepped forward.
“How about we go together?” she asked.
“You two against everyone else?”
“Yeah,” Dorian said. “Give us your best shot.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven: P.F. Panda’s Out the Wazoo
Veronique and Dorian made one hell of a team. Dorian jumped in and out of reality, leaving explosive purple energy bombs or conjuring up crazy looking demons with guns, while Veronique did what she did best: orchestrate total destruction.
Since she wasn’t trying to kill any of them, Veronique mainly used her metal wielding to pull the others around or bring them to the ground. She also occasionally drained some of their energy, topping off before moving on to the next Super.
Tulip had taken it upon himself to punch any and all of Dorian’s creations. It was interesting watching the creature leap and snarl, hurling his body at the shapes, only to have them fizzle out when he reached them, sending a shock through the beast that only made it angrier.
“Let’s switch it up,” I called out.
I took one look at the scorched trees around us, the concussion blast in the ground, the muddy soil from Fiona’s attacks. Whenever the owners did return, they would think someone dropped a bomb in their back yard.
“Try to use physical attacks.”
“Like punch people?” Michelle asked, after sliding to a halt. “I’m good at shoving!”
“Don’t hurt anyone!”
Is this really a good idea? Grace thought to me.
You know what, you’re right, this is a terrible idea.
But my instruction had already caused some of them to move into action. Metal from some of the frag pouches Veronique had detonated earlier wrapped around her hands, forming metallic gloves.
Clink!
She punched them together once and charged at Stella, who brought both her fists back as well. In what would have made an excellent comic book cover, their fists connected, and they blew each other back, causing a small sonic boom that I could feel in my chest.
“Not too rough!” I reminded them.
Dorian teleported away and appeared behind Tulip. She brought a charged fist back and took the beast down.
Tulip kicked off the ground and twisted mid-air, nearly striking Dorian. Hell, even from my vantage point, it looked like he’d hit her, but the teleporter got away just in time, flashing out of existence.
This was definitely going to get out of hand, and I knew just the solution.
“Okay, everyone stop!” I yelled as I walked to the middle of the melee. Again.
They begrudgingly gathered around me, and once they’d all chilled just a bit (and Tulip had turned back into Ingrid), I sat on the ground with my legs crossed.
“I want everyone to sit down with me and just breathe. I’m no yoga guru or anything like that, but I took a yoga class in college to get my physical education credit.”
“Yoga?” Michelle asked. She was the only one who had already sat on the ground, knees pressed to her chest.
“If you guys don’t know what it is, that’s fine, but I know a few things about breathing techniques, and I believe it will help all of us.”
“Breathing is great!” Michelle added.
“You’re right, and I’m a little manic, so I should probably do breathing exercises more often myself. But, what can you do? You forget about these things until they’re necessary.”
As they started to sit around me, I showed them the finger gesture I wanted them to make. Surprisingly, Stella was the second to sit; not surprisingly, Veronique was the last.
“Here’s the gesture.” I touched my thumb to my middle and ring finger. “Close one nostril with your pointer finger, and breathe in through the other, then close the other with your pinky finger, and breathe out through the first nostril.”
“But that one is still closed,” Fiona said, pinching both her nostrils.
“Yeah, you have to open th
at one to breathe out. Good, like that.”
“This is ridiculous, Gideon,” Veronique said.
“If you play nice, I’ll treat everyone to Chinese food for lunch today. P.F. Panda’s. It’s great, just like the food they eat in Asia, at least that’s what I’m told, and we can get a private room there so people don’t stare at us.”
“She doesn’t eat food, she eats people,” Ingrid said, her now ripped clothing hanging off her body.
Fiona snickered. Michelle was focused on trying to do the breathing exercise.
“She can feed as well. We have a system for that, and I’ll explain it to you guys when you’re older, how’s that? I don’t hear everyone breathing, I should hear you breathing!”
Eventually, they started listening to me, or they started listening to Grace, who was able to persuade the weaker-minded individuals. I even found myself getting into the breathing technique, feeling that nice, cool Colorado air, a lightness to it due to the higher altitude.
I gave them instructions every minute or so, reminding the superpowereds to focus on their breathing. I had actually skipped most of my yoga classes at Southern Connecticut, and I might be the first guy in history to have gotten a C in yoga, but I did happen to make it to the breathing exercise class and it was something I should definitely do more often.
But all spiritual practices are like that.
When you do it, you suddenly realize that you should have been doing it up until the point you decided to do it. But then it takes you a week to do it again, and that’s if you can conjure up the motivation.
Breathe, Gideon, Grace said inside my head. In one nostril, out the other. In the other, out the first.
“That was nice,” Grace said once we’d finished. Everyone was inside now, getting cleaned up and ready to go to the restaurant.
I was stretched out on the couch, wearing a button-up I’d grabbed from the writer of the house’s closet. My guess was the family was nearly in Asia by now. What a trip that would be! And rather than go to P.F. Panda’s, he’d get to eat real Asian food.
His shirt wasn’t silk, but it did feel silky, and his initials were monogrammed on the cuff.
Cherry Blossom Girls Box Set Page 61
