by Jamie Hawke
“Kind of like your brother,” she said, thoughtfully.
“Exactly. And if Xin ever pops back in, I’m going to ask about that. My theory is that my brother’s one of these other heroes in training… but where?”
“The Elders are all over, or were.” She motioned me on, and we started walking again, the direction we’d been going. “They were charged with protecting the universe, or at least our part of it. Maybe just our galaxy? I’m not sure how all that works, but if your brother was picked up by Xin too, he could be any number of places.”
We walked on in silence, me thinking it over, wondering how he was doing, when finally Charm broke the silence.
“It wasn’t on purpose,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“My crime. I did it, but I didn’t mean to.” When she saw I was waiting, she adjusted her collar, glanced down at her feet, and continued. “We were playing a game at the academy. A dare came up, and I was stupid enough to accept. Everyone knows about our rival school, though I guess you wouldn’t. It’s called Rocadium, a mixed school… not only male and female, but any supers are admitted, not only those who have sworn to be superheroes like at my school. So, as you can guess, supervillains have been known to come from there at times. Especially from a sub-house led by a notoriously neutral super named Slingshot. He’s able to throw whatever powers you send his way right back at you.
“Anyway, the dare was to infiltrate his barracks, steal a pair of underwear from one of his top boy students, and bring it back. Stupid, so stupid… but I was young.”
“You’re not so old now,” I said. “Right?”
She shrugged. “Let’s just say I’ve been here for five years. Not so young then, not so old now. Still, I was younger, dumber, and yeah… accepted.”
“Stealing underwear doesn’t sound like something to get you thrown in prison.”
“Of course not. And I didn’t even succeed. Thought I would, what with my ability to cloak and all that, but the boy who I tried to steal from had a reveal power, sort of like a radar for supers, and he came after me. Chased me all the way back to the academy, where I panicked. I charmed him into forgetting where he was—temporarily—and ran.
“I should’ve told someone, done something. But he’d been shouting about how he was going to kill me, probably thought I was there to do something far worse.”
“Why would he assume that?” I asked.
“Turns out, he was involved in some dark circles,” she explained. “Thought I’d figured him out and was trying to expose him. Well, he woke up from the charm and was really confused, and when a group of teachers found him, he started shouting my name and attacking them. He ended up killing all but one of them. The exact teacher I’d had a bit of an argument with the day before when I’d been caught trying to charm her into giving me a better grade. I never said I was perfect, but I didn’t want this.
“She went to the authorities, and it rose right up to Xin and the Elders, even. She claimed I was involved with this guy who’d attacked her and killed the others, and that I’d brought him into the school in order to do just that. He could even prove I’d charmed him, as faint remnants of my charm remained.”
“Damn,” I said, shaking my head. “I mean, you did royally fuck up, but…”
“Yeah, their deaths were on my hands, so I accepted my punishment. It was my fault, right?”
“Wait, you didn’t try to fight it? Tell them the truth?” I shook my head, unable to process it. “None of the other girls stepped forward to defend you?”
“As I said, my fault.” She shrugged. “It wasn’t like the teacher said, and I certainly hadn’t wanted anyone to get killed. But it’d happened nonetheless, because of me. If I hadn’t charmed him, he might not have gotten so violent when it wore off. He wouldn’t have been there if not for me. I deserve to be here.”
My mouth gaped. “You actually don’t. That’s bullshit.”
Her eyes looked grateful, but she didn’t believe it. I stopped, took her by the shoulders, and stared firmly into her eyes. “Listen to me. From what I’ve seen, you’re a good person—”
“You sure you don’t just mean good at giving head?” She smiled, but it was too self-effacing to be cute.
“Stop. That’s not funny, and I’m being dead serious here. You’re an amazing woman. I don’t know what kind of shit you’ve been through, I don’t know if you had a hard time with this fox look—sorry, but it’s part of you and it’s grown on me, but that doesn’t mean I understand what it’s meant for your life—but I’m here for you. Like you’ve been for me… That’s why I know you’re a good person, and whatever happened sounds like it wasn’t your fault, not really. You couldn’t have known who he really was, this underwear douchebag, and you certainly had no way of knowing he was going to hurt those people.”
For a moment, her eyes looked defiant. She opened her mouth to respond, then leaned in, head on my shoulder and arms clinging to me.
“I don’t deserve you,” she said.
Again I pulled her back. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. You. Are. Amazing. I believe that. It’s time you started believing it too.”
Seeing her about to protest again, I leaned in, pressing my mouth to hers. My God, I loved that taste of her, the warmth of her tongue against mine, the passion with which she kissed me and ran her hands across my back.
If we hadn’t been in that hallway, I was pretty sure she’d have thrown me to the ground and taken me right there.
Instead, she pulled back, smiled, and then looked away.
“Charm…”
“No, I’m good,” she said. “That’s enough.”
“Then what is it?”
“I really have to piss, but don’t see any cells or toilets nearby,” she admitted with a self-conscious chuckle.
A glance around showed she was right.
“Can you… face the other way?” She said, then pointed to the hallway ahead. “Keep an eye out that way, in case anyone comes?”
“What then?” I asked. “Fight them off by myself while you finish?”
She shrugged. “Yes?”
“Okay, I’ll do my best.” As I walked down the hallway a bit, I tried not to hear the tinkling sound or think about the fact that there was no tissue paper around. At least it was only number one! A thought that got me wondering why I hadn’t had the urge to go number two yet since I’d arrived. Probably the stress. My brother said nobody had taken a shit for the first two weeks of boot camp. None of us had believed him at the time, arguing that one’s intestines would burst. Now that I was living it, I was a believer.
Still, two weeks seemed unrealistic. I’d just have to hope I could get out of here before my time came.
The hall was quiet aside from a distant grinding and clanking, giving me time to wonder where Twitch had gotten off to. I hoped she hadn’t gone far. She was part of the team, and an integral part at that.
Plus, there was the fact that I really was growing feelings for her, too. Had she done something so bad? I couldn’t imagine her out there being a real supervillain, but her reaction didn’t make sense otherwise.
“Done,” she said, walking over with her typical bounce—as if we’d never had the heavy conversation a few seconds before.
“My turn,” I said, turning to find a spot. As I took a few steps back she followed but stopped when I turned to look at her.
“What?” I asked.
“Just… curious. Can I hold it?”
I stared, trying to understand what she was asking.
“While you’re pissing, can I hold it?” she elaborated.
“You’re really weird,” I said, shaking my head. “No way.”
But she stepped up behind me just as I was about to piss against the wall, and breathed into my ear as she said, “Please, I’m just curious. Never done it before.”
“And we could have supervillains round that corner at any minute. What would they do if they saw you holding my
dick while I pissed? I don’t think it would make them change their minds about killing us.”
I turned to see her grinning. Of course she knew I couldn’t say no to her, so I just rolled my eyes and shrugged.
She reached around me, pulled down my pants, and grabbed hold. “How do I aim it?”
“Like you’re doing.”
“Okay, go.”
I stood there, cheeks flushed, blood starting to flow into my dick. Not the time, I told myself. Focus, piss dammit! But it wasn’t happening.
“Why’s it growing?” she asked. “I thought you had to pee?”
“Stage fright, I guess.”
“Okay, maybe if I,” she pinched it, “do that?”
I laughed. “Really, really not helping.”
“Fine, I’ll shut up. Even close my eyes. Go.”
A glance over my shoulder showed she was peeking, but she closed her eyes when she saw me looking. I closed my eyes too, reminding myself to never get into this situation again. It was just too weird. We could seriously die, and instead, I was letting this woman hold my pecker while I tried to take a piss. What was wrong with me?
I sighed, about to give up hope, when… out it flowed.
“Ah!” she startled, moving it so that it hit the wall and almost splashed back, but I course-corrected for her.
“Keep the aim there,” I explained. “Best to avoid splatter.”
“It does that?” she asked.
“Ever used a hose? Same idea.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her nodding, watching with fascination. So. Weird. Finally it was done, so I took matters into my own hands again, shook, and pulled up my pants.
“Never tell Twitch about this,” I said.
“Ah, so you assume she’s coming back?”
“She’d better, or we’re in trouble,” I replied. “What’re we going to do, just leave her out there by herself? I don’t doubt she could handle it, but still… no way.”
“Good,” Charm said with a grin. “Makes me glad to think you wouldn’t leave me either. Or let me leave you, as the case may be.”
“She’s just mad, she’ll cool off. And besides, she knows where we’re going.”
“On that note,” Charm gestured to the hall, where it split at the end. “She was the only one who knew where we were going.”
“Damn.” I honestly hadn’t considered that. “We’ll just have to do our best, keep going that way and hope we stumble upon this guy.”
“And then hope he doesn’t kill us.”
With that wonderful thought, we took the corridor to the left, hoping we weren’t walking off to our gruesome deaths. Or even worse, to wander aimlessly until we died of starvation or boredom.
9
My stomach started rumbling, reminding me that I had no idea how long we’d been walking. This prison was insane—the ship must be huge, likely the size of a small city, from what I’d gathered. More so, when you took into account all the different levels.
In a sense, that seemed about right. They had to have a place to imprison all of the supervillains. The old saying about power corrupting was certainly true from what I’d seen, so it stood to reason that when people got superpowers, there would be a lot who would abuse those powers.
We came upon a circle with several passages out of it like a wheel and spokes. Until that point, at least we had thought there might be a chance we were going in the right direction. Now I knew we were royally fucked.
“What are we doing here?” I asked.
“Giving up and heading back, I guess,” Charm said, looking as defeated as I felt.
I was about to agree, when I noticed the hairs on her tail moving with a light breeze. They were finer than the hair on her head, so moved with a gentle breeze. I followed it, realizing the source of the air came from a series of small vents along one wall
“Hadn’t Twitch said something about this guy being located near the central air processing unit?” I asked, then started tracing it.
“She did!” Charm exclaimed with excitement.
“Meaning, if we follow this direction the breeze is coming strongest from, maybe…?”
“I’m not sure it works that way, exactly,” she said, but then shrugged. “But it’s better than giving up.”
“Hey, better than nothing is good enough for me.”
“I’ll take it.” She grabbed my hand and started walking around the circle, us stopping at each corridor to see how the hairs on her tail blew. Talk about a strange walk with a date—which it sort of was, in a sense.
Finally, we came to an opening at the far end and a strong gust hit her tail, so we took that passage. It was a bit of a long shot, but I’d worked on my share of spaceship parts and designs, and knew there were generally several possibilities for how this worked. My guess here was as good as any.
Whether it was the right path or not, it at least took us out of the doldrums of those other endless passages we’d come through. Within a few minutes, we heard voices. Soon we saw why—up ahead, directly in our path, and with no way around them, were several men gathered around playing some sort of game.
Charm held out a hand to stop me, placing it directly on my crotch on purpose, and shrugged. “What do we do?” she whispered.
I took her hand and moved it to my chest, then whispered back, “Supposed to be here when you want someone to stop. And… turn and run?”
She grinned, catching the fact that I was joking. “I’ll cloak, go up and see if I can find out what’s past them. You stay back here, out of sight.”
I nodded, then stepped back a bit as she vanished into a shimmer. As I watched her, I decided to check these guys out. Pulling up their info, I wasn’t impressed. One could manipulate luck, and since they seemed to be playing cards, he was likely winning. Another could make certain objects appear if he thought about them—hence the cards. But it was a limited power. The other two had super strength and speed, respectively.
Nothing that would put Charm at risk of being caught, it seemed.
Her shimmer passed them, and one of them yelled out, “You fart-licking spider shit,” but when he punched the guy in the arm next to him, it was clear the outburst had to do with the game and not him seeing Charm. She was past them now, I was pretty sure, and I even saw a flash of light—barely—as she turned the corner ahead.
The supers were arguing, one rubbing his arm, when out walked another one from an opposite hallway that I hadn’t even noticed was there. He was taller than the rest, with pointed ears and no white to his black eyes.
“Lock it up, jackasses,” he said, then held up a hand. Everyone froze as he sniffed the air. This didn’t look good, so I pulled up his info. Great, as I’d suspected, he had a few things going for him, including a super sense of smell and a sort of echolocation. “We have company.”
His head swung toward me and he froze, then kept moving in the direction Charm had gone. Another sniff, and he seemed to be debating which way to go first, then he pointed at me and said, “Two of you, there. The other two with me.”
I took a step back, debating my move here.
Another step back, this time to press myself against the wall. It was fairly dark here, maybe I could stay in the shadows and not be spotted? It was a long shot, and as their footsteps echoed through the corridor I knew it wasn’t likely.
Only, as I took another step backward and toward the wall, I fell. There was no wall, just open space. For that brief moment I thought I’d simply fall on forever, out into space, and be done with it all. Hands grabbed me and I was pulled back. One of those hands went over my mouth, and then I saw the wall appear back where it should have been in front of me, leaving me in darkness.
My imagination took me in every direction. Would a knife slit my throat, a plasma beam tear open my skull? For all I knew, the room could be full of supervillains all capable of seeing in the dark, and they were all laughing at me as they prepared for my death.
Then it registered in my mind
that the wall had disappeared, or opened up, and then reappeared. Only one person I knew could do that.
“Twitch?” I whispered, though it was more of a muffled whisper through her hand.
She let up and pulled up one of her pink screens. Not to do anything with, but so we could see. Her eyes looked troubled and beautiful. Sexy as hell.
“I lost my temper,” she whispered, “and I’m sorr—”
It wasn’t possible to let her finish. I pulled her down and pressed my lips to hers. We held the kiss, me uncertain if I should keep going with it, her frozen. As much as it surprised her, it pissed her off.
When she pulled back, a moment of fury passed in her eyes. “Did I give you permission to do that?”
“You didn’t like it?”
“That’s beside the point,” she hissed. “What, you think because Charm’s all into it, I would be too?”
My eyes went wide at those words, and I said, “Charm!”
“I’m Twitch, you idiot.”
“No, no, she was out there and that guy was going toward her.” I pushed myself up, out of her grip, trying to keep my voice down in spite of the worry. “He can sense her, even when she’s cloaked.”
“Shit!” She turned, ready to move. “Which way?”
I turned back to the wall, made my best guess, and pointed. Soon we were moving through the door to our right, dodging wires and large beams. We pushed into a room just as one of the supers was charging, the tall one pointing as he turned to see us.
My fist hit him in the neck, though I’d been aiming for his jaw, and he stumbled back. Twitch had a hole in the floor below the charging man, and he vanished with a shout. Charm appeared at the other side of the hole, barely missing it, losing balance as she looked over the edge and teetered.
The hole was gone before she fell, and I was at her side a moment later. She knelt there looking confused.
“Echolocation,” I said, gesturing back to the man who was now pushing himself up, still gagging.
