Gold Standard

by Kyell Gold

  He licked at her exposed privates, but she stepped away from him, unhooked her bra and dropped it in the hamper. He watched her bare white rear sashay to the bed and plop down on it, bouncing with the springs. Her lithe form turned around, showing off the curves as she sat back and beckoned him with a finger. He wagged his tail and jumped up to the bed in a moment, burying his muzzle in her stomach fur.

  She squealed and batted at his head, leaning back on her elbows. “Jake!”

  “What?” He grinned up, and applied his tongue to the pink nipples now poking through her white chest fur, trying not to get distracted by remembering what she’d told him she liked: some pulling with his teeth, licking up and down, some attention to the breast itself. Marcia wasn’t the first girl he’d slept with, but she was the first he’d taken instruction from.

  She stopped complaining, then, slid her fingers along his erection, and trailed them up slowly. He was already dripping like a leaky faucet; at her touch he moaned and pushed her down onto the bed, washing his tongue up her chest and across each nipple in turn, taking them in his teeth and teasing them gently.

  She shuddered, slipping her paws around to his rear to pull him down against her. He gasped in excitement and worked his hips to rub his hardness against her sex. He felt her moan building in her chest before he heard it, and wrapped his arms around her body while his hips worked back further until he felt the tip of his erection press down into her warm passage. “Don’t forget to concentrate,” she whispered.

  “I know.” For a moment he held there, making her wait, annoyed that she’d broken the mood, and then he pressed in slowly, all the way. She squirmed as he held her, bucking up against him, pulling his muzzle from her chest up to her mouth so her tongue could slide between his lips in a hot, wild kiss.

  They kissed, while he thrust into her and back out, shivering, and that lasted a grand total of two minutes by her bedside clock until he felt the hugeness of his knot lock him to her, heard her high squeals and felt her body shake as the familiar surge of imminent release built in him—

  —and suddenly he was in his own bedroom on all fours, moaning and shaking the rickety frame of his double bed as he spurted onto his sheets even though the warmth of the rabbit was gone. He panted, remaining on all fours, dripping onto his sheets, and then sighed, his ears flat. “Shit,” he said to the empty room.

  He blinked back to her bedroom, ears flat. She was getting under the covers, and if she saw him appear, she gave no sign.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  Marcia shook her head. “You weren’t concentrating.” She lay back on the pillows and looked at the ceiling.

  “I tried,” he said. “But if you weren’t so damn hot...”

  Now she looked at him. “Don’t try that, Jake, it’s not going to work. A real superhero has to think fast and keep his power completely under his control. You had to have felt the power building up, and you should have been able to stop it. Do we have to look at the monitor record again to look at how long you had?”

  He glanced at the machine in the corner, and tucked his tail between his legs. “No.”

  She sighed. “You know this is all for your career, right, Jake?” He nodded. “Well, look. There are worse things than having to practice that some more.”

  When he looked up, she was smiling. “I just feel like I screwed up this whole night. I really have been practicing.”

  “By yourself?” She arched an eyebrow and looked down at his dripping member, only now starting to retreat into its sheath.

  “Well...yeah.” He looked away and flicked his ears.

  “That’s cute. Do you think of me?”

  “Oh yeah!”

  “Nice to know you think of me at least then.” She turned onto her side.

  Jake started to collect his clothes. “Sorry,” he mumbled. He pulled the briefs on, then stood there awkwardly.

  “You can stay if you want to.” She sounded tired.

  “I was going to do my rounds.”

  “All right.” She turned out the light. Just before he blinked to the rooftop, he heard her say, “Be safe.”

  Marcia’s condo building was not tall, but there were few tall buildings between it and downtown Dunstown, so it gave him a nice view of the suburbs and the gaslamp district, and the cracks in between where dirty things happened. He lay on the edge, eyes closed, listening to the city below. The wind ruffled the dark streak of fur down his back and tugged his tail back and forth, slowly carrying away the glow and warmth of sex.

  No noise reached his ears this night, and after ten minutes, he was feeling a little chilly even through his fur. Even his shaft, covered by his tail and no longer straining against the fabric of his briefs, was cooling down. He took one last look around this area and blinked back to his apartment, on the other side of town.

  Back in his bedroom, Jake dropped his clothes and put on his costume, a tight black jumpsuit with a yellow eye logo in the center. He’d wanted it smaller and over the left breast, but Marcia had overruled him. “It has to be big. We want people to remember it so the brand takes hold. You won’t be doing much hand-to-hand fighting or sneaking around. Pop in, pop out. We’ll put a kevlar sheet behind this so if people aim at it, you can survive being shot. That’s what I’m most worried about. Someone taking a shot at you that you don’t see.”

  So Jake had kevlar on the front and back, a hood he could pull over his head to avoid exposing his identity if he needed to, and black gloves that had a well-textured grip, because early on he had a tendency to blink into someplace off balance and put his hands out to break his fall. He was much better now, but he still kept the gloves because he didn’t know what he would be appearing next to.

  His portable police scanner fit into the pocket on his right hip. He seated the earbud that was connected to it in his right ear before blinking to the roof of his building, his safe spot numero uno. From there he could see and hear several blocks into the Swamp, his low-rent, low-class neighborhood where he’d started breaking up small crimes when he first got his powers. As his confidence had grown, so had his beat, but he always began and ended in the Swamp.

  It was quiet tonight, so he blinked over to spot numero dos, in the financial district, Dunstown’s euphemistic name for the three buildings that housed the city’s largest bank and four financial services companies. There he heard some activity, and turned up the volume until he caught the code: 211-S. Robbery in progress, silent alarm. 221 Redwood, cross street 3rd--that was only six blocks away, a small office complex. Someone after the computers, no doubt. That happened a few times a month. He blinked to the closest roof he could see, and then the next, until he was looking down at the intersection.

  Jake knew that the four-story plain brown building with schoolhouse-regular windows was older than he was, but the collection of antennas on the roof and the black wire at each window showed him that the inside had been brought up to modern standards. He tapped his paw impatiently, itching to blink inside and find out what was going on. He hated having to wait for the police.

  They pulled up ten minutes later, lights and sirens off. Two officers got out, and Jake sighed when he saw the six-foot-tall frame and huge rack of antlers. The presence of Officer Rosen meant he’d most likely be wasting his time, but he had to try. He put his hood up and blinked down to the street, in full view of both the large elk and his new partner, a young fox.

  The fox clapped a paw to his gun in alarm, but Rosen barely twitched. “Blinky,” he said. “Wondered when we’d see you.”

  “Just offering my services, Officer,” Jake said, keeping his ears up and smiling, not reacting to the elk’s condescension.

  “We don’t need the League butting in,” Rosen said. “We’ve got this under control.” He looked over his shoulder. “Collins, you have the building entry code?”

  “I’m not here representing the League,” Jake said. “When I am, I have to wear this red and blue armband, and I can only do that anyway if the
re are supervillains involved or if there are research laboratory thefts—”

  Rosen cut him off with a wave as the fox tapped a code into the security panel. “I’m not interested in your accessorizing tips. We’ve got this under control. Isn’t there a liquor store somewhere you should be staking out?”

  “Sergeant,” the fox said, “It would be helpful if he could pop in and...”

  “Collins, just get that door open.” Rosen didn’t even turn, just kept Jake fixed with his eyes as though he could prevent him from blinking away. Jake glanced over at the fox, and saw a logo that looked like a circuit design and the word Intagrated on the wall at the far end of the lobby.

  The fox’s ears went down. “Yes, sir.”

  Jake shrugged, trying not to betray his disappointment. “Just call on the radio if you need me.”

  “Don’t hold your—”

  He was on the roof before the elk finished speaking. Keeping his hood up, he sat next to the ledge at the edge of the roof and rested his elbow on it, looking over as the two policemen entered the building. If there was gunfire, or if they called, he could get inside pretty quickly.

  A breeze wafted past his nose, carrying a familiar avian scent. She was quiet and his hood muffled surrounding sounds, so he hadn’t heard her, but she was good about approaching him from downwind. “Hi, Moxy,” he said in a low voice.

  “Rosen run you off again?” A tall, stately raven settled herself a few feet in front of him, leaning her arm on the ledge in a mirror image of his pose. Her beak clacked lightly as she talked. Like most avians, she wore no clothes, as all but the lightest garments made it difficult to fly. She had fingers on the ends of her wings and clawed talons at the ends of her skinny black legs, but when she had her arms spread out, she looked like a person in a bird suit.

  “Yeah.” Jake looked over at her bright black eyes. “I thought things would get better once I got in the League, but it’s just gotten worse.”

  The raven clacked her beak and grinned at him. “They were threatened by a superhero horning in on their turf, and you thought that joining with a bunch of other superheroes would make that better?”

  Jake shrugged. “I just thought, y’know, they’d see that I’m legit, that I’m not just some cocky kid out there who doesn’t know what I’m doing.”

  “Cops have long memories. Why d’you think the cop beat at the paper turns over every year?”

  “I thought it was cause most reporters are lightweights and once they see their first murder, they ask to be transferred to the society pages.”

  “Ha ha.” She clacked at him again. “For your information, that was a promotion. I’m still on good terms with some of the cops.”

  “But not all of them.”

  “Do you want to trade or not?”

  He grinned. “What’cha got?”

  “Some info the cops aren’t talking about on their scanner.”

  That perked his ears up. “Really? Why not?”

  “Why do you think?” She fluffed her wings. “They don’t want you and the League hearing about it and getting involved.”

  Jake couldn’t stop his tail from wagging. “A supervillain? Here in Dunstown?”

  “Maybe. But no, just a couple thefts from research labs specializing in supernormals.”

  “Which labs?”

  “Tell me about your girlfriend,” she countered.

  He jumped. “How did you know…” Then he stopped, because her beak was open in a laugh. “Dammit, Moxy…”

  “So you do have a girlfriend. That’s sweet. How long you been going out? Does she know your secret identity?”

  “One question,” he said. “Since you already got a bit of info. She’s gonna kill me anyway.”

  “Does she know your secret identity?”

  He nodded. “Yeah.” He hadn’t really been able to hide it, when he’d blinked out during sex on their fourth date.

  “So you trust her. Wedding bells in the future?”

  “Which labs?” He was determined to hold her to one question. Moxy often dug up good information for him, and if he didn’t parcel out the things she wanted to know about him, he wouldn’t get far with her. She’d already asked about his family and once about the League in the four months since she’d first met him on a rooftop in the gaslamp district.

  “Ling Scientific and the Mount Cedar government facility. The cops are really worried about the Mount Cedar one because it had state of the art locks. They think it might be a new gadgethead.”

  “Cripes, not another one. You know the League has a list of about a hundred of them?”

  “I’ve heard.” She cocked her head as he took out his handheld phone and started jotting notes. “You’re just going to send that unsecured?”

  “Oh, CryptoFox does all kinds of security on it,” he said, tapping a quick message.

  “Yeah, but if I pick that up, or knock you out and take it, I could just read it from there.”

  He grinned and tossed it to her. “Go for it.”

  It clattered to the roof as she swiped and missed, unprepared. She picked it up and stared at him, then down at the handheld. Her black eyes blinked, and she looked back up. “It won’t turn on.”

  “Thumbprint reader on the side, keyed to me. I have to be holding it for it to be on.”

  “What if I sever your thumb?”

  He shuddered. “Come on, Moxy.”

  She tossed the device back to him. “Hey, you have to think like a supervillain.”

  “Well, it has to stay warm. And I think it checks for a pulse too.” He applied his thumb to the pad and watched the screen light up.

  “Okay,” she said. “So I just have to tie your paw to it and keep you in restraints.”

  He grinned. “You seen a restraint that could hold me?”

  “If I’m a gadgethead, that’s the first thing I try to build. Mount Cedar had a lab devoted to power negation.”

  “What?”

  “You think the government likes the idea of you guys running around?”

  “The League has a government contract…”

  “Wake up, Blink,” she said, now sounding cross. “The government defaults on contracts every day. You expect them to rely on the innate honor of anyone else? They expect in others what they would expect from themselves. They just want a way to control you guys in case…in case they need to.”

  “But why here? Why not in New York, or L.A.?”

  “In the big two’s backyards? Nah. Dunstown was a good, medium-sized town without a superhero, until a couple years ago.” She laughed again, a breathy ah-ah-ah sound. “The radiation burst you got your powers from was a malfunction in a machine headed for Mount Cedar, remember? Hella ironic, eh?”

  “I guess. I don’t really go for irony.”

  “To each his own.” She grinned. “This’ll make for a good couple articles. ‘Ms. Blink,’ I think we’ll call her. Probably a coyote, right? No, wait, cubs would be a big liability for you. So probably not a coyote.” She tapped the ledge. “Probably not a canid. Oh well. I’ll make up a few likely candidates and profile them. Should get me through the month. Hey, look. Your cops missed the guy.”

  Sure enough, Rosen and Collins were coming out of the entrance of the building alone. They got in the car, and Jake turned up his scanner in time to hear Rosen’s gruff voice saying, “…no suspects found at the scene. Security company rep arrived and reset the alarm.”

  He turned the scanner down. “Did you see a truck from the security company pull up?”

  “Yeah.” Moxy pointed down to where the police car was driving away. “It’s around the corner from here. There goes the guy.” A bear in a dark uniform was tapping a code at the security panel and then walked off and out of view.

  Jake watched him go, and looked back up at the building. No lights flickered behind any of the windows, no flashlight appeared now that the police and security were gone. Still…

  “Don’t go in,” Moxy said, watching him.

/>   Jake didn’t take his eyes from the windows. “It just doesn’t feel right.”

  “Alarms go off sometimes,” she said. “But look, you go in there now and the best thing that can happen is you don’t find anything, nobody sees you, and you come back here to this spot. So let’s just pretend you’ve already done that, and move on?”

  “What about truth and justice?” he said, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

  “What about ‘em?” She rustled her feathers. “Sorry, kiddo. You get caught snooping around in there, you’re breaking the law. You catch a thief after the cops have already been here, you’re making things worse. Just move on. Keep an ear to the scanner, and don’t worry. You’re a good kid and you’ll get a break eventually.”

  Jake sighed and forced himself to look away from the building, working his paws against the frustration building up inside him. A few mistakes he’d made in the past couple years as an overzealous kid, and suddenly the cops wouldn’t let him help with anything. And the League gave him nothing but petty assignments and food duty. “I sure hope so,” he said sourly.

  “I’ll see to it,” Moxy said, standing and stretching her wings. “After all, someone’s got to be your Lois Lane, right?”

  “You’re first in line.” He waved as she leaped from the roof, spreading her wings and soaring down over the street.

  Sometimes he wished he could fly, more for the experience than anything else. He liked being able to hop from place to place in no time, though; he wouldn’t trade gifts with Moxy. Besides, any avian or bat could fly around. Only he, so far as he knew, could teleport.

  He watched the papers for the next few days, but saw no mention of a break-in at Intagrated. Moxy’d been right, as he was finding she often was. She’d reported on the police for a year with the Dunstown Herald, and before that she was covering the wires, so she knew her stuff.

  Jake caught a car thief two nights later, blinking onto the hood of the car long enough to startle the driver and get a look at the interior, and then he’d blinked into the passenger seat and grabbed the horse’s gun, blinked with it to the back seat, and held it on the suddenly terrified driver until he slammed on the brake and stopped the car. The police had grudgingly given him credit for that one, but of course nobody at the League meeting had noticed it except for Red Lightning.