by Jamie Hawke
“All because of the sun?”
“The powers, yes. The citadel harnesses those. My theory is still that the sun just worked differently on my mother, but… some have speculated that genetic tinkering was involved. Either way, childbirth is rare. A great responsibility, for those able to participate.”
I blinked, now understanding why the mother had felt obliged to have so many children, and why the supers had considered her to be so important to their continued expansion. If my genes were truly descended from these gods, I also had this responsibility. In a sense.
“One last thing… if there are these super-powerful tier one superheroes out there, why aren’t they trying to save the universe instead of us? I mean, especially… me.”
“Gone,” she said bluntly. “Nobody knows where, but they vanished around the same time of Ranger’s arrival.”
“Fuck.”
“Yes, Drew. Fuck.” She stared at me for a long, hard minute, then said, “Do you accept?”
With a hungry glance at her lips, imagining my own caressing them, then with flashes through my mind of her warm body pressed against mine, how could I say no? The thought of her nipples in my mouth and the throbbing in my cock as I fantasized about the moment confirmed it. The way she was looking at me showed that her mind was in the same place.
“Hell yes, I accept,” I said, then was pressed back in my seat, unable to hide the bulge in my pants as we emerged into space.
3
We flew into space, Lamb appearing and smiling at us as the jolting stopped.
“Enjoy the rest of the ride,” she said with a grin, looking first at me and then Navani. “Gravity shifters are in place, all sensations should be as if we were back on planet. If you experience problems, of any sort,” she glanced back my way this time, a hint of humor in her eyes, “I’ll be happy to help.”
“Thank you, Lamb,” Navani said as the woman faded.
“She’s very lifelike, for an A.I.,” I said, trying to figure out how we’d bring up the subject of sleeping together, but very confused about the whole situation.
“Maybe I didn’t explain her situation well enough earlier?” Navani said. “Her powers, when she sacrificed herself with the others—”
“Wait, so she’s dead?”
“None of them are, yet,” Navani said, frowning at my interruption. “They’ve used the Citadel as a way to channel their powers into finding new heroes. I thought we went over this?”
“How’s that relate to the A.I.?”
Navani sighed. “She’s not an A.I., exactly. Merged, remember? She can really see you, still has her thoughts and whatnot, even kind of feel you in a way.” Her eyes roamed over my body but in a curious way this time. Maybe even a jealous way?
“Explain,” I demanded.
“The way the suit works, it’s nanotech, or biotech or whatever, but fueled by her powers. In a way, that is her essence left behind, and it can work as defensive clothing. She’ll serve as a shield, protecting you against shots to a degree. At least, as long as the shield can last. And while you’re close to the ship, I believe, she can help in other ways.”
“Shall I show you?” a voice whispered in my ear.
I jumped, looking around, and then saw the way Navani was holding back a laugh. “That’s her, isn’t it?”
“Tell him he can speak directly to me,” Lamb said, her voice coming from all around now.
“You heard her,” Navani said. “She can choose to speak just to you or me, individually, or everyone aboard this ship.”
“Are there others?”
She shook her head. “No need, not with her on board. But there will be.”
“Ah, right. The other women I’m supposed to…impregnate.”
Her cheeks actually flushed at that, but she didn’t look away. “That’s correct.” After a moment, she added, “Listen, I know it’s awkward. It’s just as weird for me, and I can assure you it will be for the others.”
“They don’t know yet.”
“Oh, about that. No.” She turned, looking off into space. “We could just try, you and me. But I know the chances, and I know this is bigger than us. If the universe’s fate depends on your seed and our wombs, who are we to argue?”
“Holy shit, did you just say those words?” I couldn’t help but laugh. “My seed? What the fuck?”
“How else should I say it?” she asked, glaring at me as she stood from her seat and took off for the door. She paused at my side, staring down at me. “You think it’s easy to talk to some stranger about him shooting cum up inside me? Is that the crass way you’d prefer? Well it’s my fucking body, and those of my sisters, so I’ll say seed if I want and you can shut the hell up.”
With that, she stormed out of there.
“I’m…” I was about to say ‘sorry,’ but the door slid shut behind her. For a moment I sat there, staring at the door, and then burst into laughter. “My seed. My seed?!”
“You’re being an insensitive twat,” Lamb said, suddenly appearing in front of me at the same time as a pressure started on my balls. “You hurt her, I hurt you. Let’s start this off by being clear about that.”
My laughter was cut off, my smile gone as I scooted back. But now, there was nothing on my crotch, just the pressure as if someone had a foot pressed against my nuts, ready to perform the nutcracker.
Lamb’s translucent face leaned into mine, her black hair falling around her face and almost framing mine, she was so close. “Do I make myself clear?”
I nodded.
“Good,” she continued. “It’s not easy for her, you know. Would it be for you, if you were in her shoes? She doesn’t know you. On your planet, you could be a complete scumbag.”
“Or married with children,” I pointed out.
She frowned. “But the records said—”
“Relax, I don’t. I’m just saying, this is crazy for both of us.”
“We all know,” she admitted, the harshness fading from her voice, her frown relaxing. “But…am I wrong to assume that you Earther men like sex?”
“Of course we do,” I admitted. “I’m definitely not complaining here, just…confused? Maybe a bit nervous.”
“I see.” She leaned back now, crossing her arms in a way that pushed up her cleavage even more. I’d done my share of VR sex games in my day, I admit, but this was on a whole new level. Her tongue brushed gently across her upper lip, then she cocked her head, looking at me. “I hadn’t considered that you might need coaxing, or help. But it makes sense, and we can accommodate that.”
One of her eyebrows went up and she smiled, and at the same moment, the pressure on my balls changed to an entirely different sensation altogether. Instead of the threat of pain, it felt like hands were caressing me, massaging my thighs, working in and gently brushing against the edge of my package. More hands began to knead my back, and at once my back was arched, my legs spread as I invited those hands to grab my cock. My mind was completely at ease, though somewhere back there I was vaguely aware that there were no actual hands.
“How…?” I tried to ask but instead shuddered as the invisible hands moved across my shaft, like a woman accidentally brushing across it, or when one pretends to but is really testing to see if you’re hard. Believe me, by that point I was.
“It’s technically not me,” she said. “I belonged to another, in life. In this state, we’ve left parts of us behind to help with the transition, and this…” With a smile, she watched me as I moaned, my muscles clenched, the hands taking me in full, “…this is simply the suit responding to your desires, with a little prodding from me. I suppose it’s what it would have felt like if it were really me, though.”
“That’s… that’s…” I wasn’t listening, I just wanted it to keep going. But suddenly, it stopped. I realized my eyes were closed, so I opened them to see that she was gone. A glance over my shoulder revealed that the doors were open again, Navani standing there staring at me.
“What’s this?” s
he asked.
“I was showing him how the suit could help… prepare him,” Lamb said, not appearing.
“And you think I need that?”
“Not you, him. He’s not entirely comfortable either. Or… wasn’t.”
Navani frowned, turning my way as if to challenge the statement. Instead, she strode over to me, stared me down, then leaned in and planted her lips on mine. It was awkward, forced, unnatural. My eyes met hers, and I saw it too.
When she stood, she said, “Dammit,” and then stormed off again. This time she paused at the door and said, “Lamb, stay out of it. I’ll calm him the fuck down.”
Holy hell, was my mind swirling. My cock was still rock hard, the memory of those hands fresh in my mind, and now I was stuck with that horrible feeling that this wasn’t going to go well at all with Navani. That kiss had been like kissing a sister. It didn’t work. At all.
I’d been in only one situation like that before, when I met this amazingly beautiful woman at a get-together with some friends, and one of my buddies had convinced me to hit on her. There was something off about the whole situation. You know when a woman is insanely hot, but you’re not sure if you’re really attracted to her? Like she’s clearly a ten, but you can’t imagine the two of you rolling around in the sheets, no matter how hard you tried? It was like that. But she was open-minded, and we went out for a drink. She thought I was fun, loved the idea that I was a Marine, and I think that was enough for her to come over to my place. We had just settled down to watch a movie when she turned and pulled out my cock.
“What are you doing?” I’d asked, totally caught off guard.
“I’ve always wanted to go down on a Marine,” she explained, and I watched with amazement as this perfect ten took my limp dick in her mouth. Her large, brown eyes—I think she was part Egyptian, part something else like Indian, maybe—stared up at me as she did, and all I could think was that this girl never would’ve even talked to me back in high school, and now she had my limp dick in her mouth.
And that’s all that happened, because no matter how hard she licked, sucked, or tugged, it wouldn’t go up. A mental block, for sure. I know it worked fine, because the next night I met a seven at a club, maybe she was even a six, I don’t know, and she’d gone down on me behind the stairs out back. No problems then.
This, I imagined, was something like that whole former experience. It was my fault. I was hung up on her beauty, maybe feeling a bit inadequate.
All that time, sitting there, I hadn’t noticed when Lamb had returned. There she was though, watching me with a skeptical face. When she saw that I had finally noticed, she scoffed.
“Wow, we’re all royally fucked, aren’t we?”
“What?” I asked.
“You’re just sitting there when you should be going after her. Jackass.”
Of course, she was right. I stumbled up, tucked my boner in the belt of my pants, hoping it would go away soon, and went back out through the doors to find Navani. I wasn’t yet sure what I’d say once I found her, but knew I needed to find a workaround here.
Fuck that. I had a beautiful woman ready to show me what it means to be a man, to toss me back and let me cum inside her as many times as I could, and I was being a dick about it. Excuse me, that wasn’t about to keep happening, I told myself. I was a fucking Marine! It was time to go into her room or wherever she was, apologize, and whip out my dick. Or maybe I’d talk to her first, make it sensual. I didn’t exactly have it figured out, but the point was that I was going to make it right. If I played my cards right, I’d have my flag planted very soon in a garden of silvery-purple pubic hair.
That was a thought! One that instantly hit me, visually and physically, as a chill ran up my spine. Maybe getting over my hold-ups wouldn’t be as difficult as I’d thought.
I wasn’t even three paces from the doors before the ship took its first hit, sending me slamming into the far wall.
“Battle stations,” Lamb called, voice carrying throughout the ship. “The hunters have found their prey—us. Let’s see if we can escape them, shall we?”
Navani appeared a moment later, eyes blazing blue, and walked right past me without a second glance. I looked up and down the hall, wondering where she kept storming off to, but when a second hit sent me sprawling across the floor, I followed to return to my chair.
The display was lit up, attacking vessels all over us. We were definitely fucked. If anything had been about to happen, this was the biggest cock-block of all times.
4
The ships were zooming past, much faster than ours. Navani and Lamb were in control, sending out shots and maneuvering, the shields flaring each time we took a hit.
“We’re going to die,” I mumbled. As much as I didn’t want to believe it, I’d been in enough firefights to know that, when outnumbered like that, it was only a matter of time.
“Don’t be so sure,” Navani said.
The ship moved faster than I would have thought possible. No ship back on Earth could’ve handled this, not even one from the notorious fleet of three hundred. We flew on through space, but it was clear that, somehow, the other ships were even faster.
“Can someone tell me who the hell they are?” I shouted, starting to panic as the shields fizzled time and again as shots connected.
“Followers of Ranger, the enemy of the Citadel,” Lamb said, appearing at my side. As the attacks kept coming and we swept around to fire back, she continued. “He’s set up a regime of supervillains, able to travel on a dimension inaccessible to us, but able to attack our defenses. While they defeated the Citadel, they must wait for him and his army to arrive. One move he recently made was to divert his powers toward a prison ship full of the most notorious supervillains alive. He promised them freedom and power if they would help him fight, but we’ve sent a team to deal with it.” For a moment she looked distant, confused. “That is all I can say on the matter, for now. But other missions of his are in play to secure his points of power, such as making a move to destroy you and your brother.”
“Because of this whole DNA connection to the super known as Apollo. Yeah, I get it.”
She continued, explaining that he had set up various supervillains with different armies around the galaxy, making moves on other planets, though the majority of them focused on the Citadel. As she spoke, though, I started tuning out—the ships were gathering too fast, gaining, and more and more seemed to be showing up. I honestly couldn’t see a way out of this.
And while the ships were too many, starting to surround us, even targeting us and locked in, Navani was smiling.
“What?” I asked.
She glanced my way, but before she could respond Lamb said, “Incoming call.”
“Accept,” Navani replied.
The screen flashed to show a new image in the middle. A large man looked from Navani to me, his eyes a creepy, glowing green. All of his skin had the look of someone who’d been lightly burned, and he had no hair. It could have been pathetic, if not for the size of him and those wild eyes.
“Goros,” Navani said, spittle practically flying at the display. “So, he sent you as his lackey?”
“Hand him over,” Goros said. “His brother will be dealt with soon enough, and this will all be over. No use prolonging it.”
“You can’t have him,” she grumbled.
“Him, then you. Of course, I might as well deal with the rest of the sisters while I’m at it. Mine is a grand vision, Navani, one you couldn’t possibly hope to understand. Ranger isn’t destroying your way of life, he’s fixing it. With everyone in their place according to power positions, we will be free to go about our business without confusion over who is what. Ranger is our savior, but you must be destroyed, all of you, so that we may all thrive in the future.”
“You’re sick,” she told him, shaking her head. “Shove this up your ass.”
She nodded to Lamb and a second later a barrage flew at the enemy ships.
“Preparing for
jump space,” Lamb said.
The ship lurched, moving fast, going along in a circle among the enemy so that they fired upon themselves as they tried to hit us.
“Who is he?” I asked as Navani took the pilot seat and called out for Lamb to be ready.
“One of these supervillains who’ve appeared out of nowhere, lately. It’s odd,” she said as she dodged a strike, working to pull the ship up and fire back, “all these powerful supers, appearing like this. Usually, we have records, keep tabs at the Citadel. But these guys who’re under Ranger, they don’t show up anywhere. Ready, Lamb?”
“Affirmative,” Lamb said.
“And Ranger is the ultimate enemy?” I asked. “The one we need to kill?”
“Right now, we just need to escape, then focus on your mission. There are worse evils out there that the offspring must deal with. Evils only now growing, lurking—”
“You sound like you’re out of one of my little brother’s nerd fest movies.”
She glared, then said, “Lamb, how’s our connection to Hadrian?”
“Coming up on the jump spot in three, two, one…”
Navani stood, hands out, and her eyes flared. She moved her hands and holo-screens came up from the display. As she put in coordinates, the ship started to shake, blue flowing out from her eyes until the whole ship was blue light, and then a figure appeared as if floating in front of it, wearing red and gold space armor. He turned, no helmet, and I saw that half of his face was disfigured, but his smile was pleasant, his power overwhelming.
“I have your coordinates,” the figure said, and then we were pressing through, only light visible so that I had to close my eyes to stop from going blind. With another jolt, it was over, and we were through.
“What…happened?” I asked.
“You’ve just seen our gateway super,” she explained. “One of the supers who is making all of this possible, thanks to his sacrifice.”
