by Meg Ripley
“You woke me up,” Caden whispered, and Umi’s eyes flew wide open. “That’s why my emotions are being regulated so well.” She took a deep breath, waiting for panic to slide in on the heels of her revelation. She felt a tremor of anxiety, but it didn’t buckle her knees like it normally would. Caden laughed and took a step away from the Hyppo, pointing a finger at him accusingly. “You woke me up without my permission!”
“No,” he said instantly. “I didn’t. Caden, I didn’t!”
“Then why am I…okay?” She was crying, and she wasn’t quite sure why. Then the answer came flying out of her mouth. “What if you took away my power?” Her voice was more of a screech than a shout, and Umi flinched away from her tone. “What if I can’t Hulk anymore?” Caden balled her hands into fists and fell to her knees, feeling rage and despair wash over her---but it wasn’t painful and debilitating like it was after she blacked out. “I’m just me now,” she wailed, pounding the soft clay beneath her with her fists. “I’m just a stupid cyborg!”
“You’re not!” Umi was taking a step toward her and eying her uncertainly, but his voice was sure and forceful. “Caden, you were like this when I was healing you. I think the crash must have jolted you awake. I promise I didn’t do this, but I won’t pretend I don’t think this is good.”
Caden sat back on her heels, peering at Umi through the veil of tears. “How would you know what’s good for me? How would you know?” Umi didn’t speak, so she pressed ahead. “The one thing that set me apart was my Hulk mode. I’m too small to take seriously otherwise. I’m worthless. Xondux needs Hulk, not Bruce Banner.” She laughed bitterly. “You don’t even know what I’m saying. Umi, just go. Just get to your hall; leave me here to die.”
“No.” Umi crouched in front of her and took hold of her shoulders. “I do know what you’re talking about. And you’re wrong.”
Caden looked at his shining eyes, fierce with grim determination. “What?”
“You’re wrong,” Umi repeated. “I shared knowledge with you while you were healing. Bruce Banner was not just some scientist. When he was not in Hulk mode, he was still in invaluable part of the Avenge Team.”
“Avengers,” Caden said shakily. “We shared knowledge?”
“So, I know that the Hulk is incomplete without his other side, and that he is miserable when he denies one part or the other. The Hulk was best when he accepted himself as he was; all the heroes were.” Umi squeezed her shoulders, and Caden shivered as he pulled her a little closer to him. “I know what you are, Caden. And I know what you can be. Embrace your fear when it comes. Let it be a part of you. Let it make you better.”
“How can fear make me better?” Caden whimpered. “How can it make me anything but weak?”
“You have to answer that yourself.” Umi’s eyes moved behind her, focusing on something in the distance. “And you might have to answer sooner than you think.”
Caden turned to see what his eyes were focusing, and almost wished she hadn’t.
What looked like a giant lump of matted fur was moving quickly toward them, eating up yards of space with each second. It was making a fearsome crackling noise at is moved, and Caden’s mind was curiously blank. At first, she thought it was a mountain, and then it let out a great roar that shook the ground beneath their feet.
“Bezoar,” Umi whispered. “Caden, I can’t teleport us. There are huge pockets of disruption in the blood desert, we’ve never been able to figure out why. The interfering energy would dice our bodies to pieces.”
So will this Bezoar, Caden thought as it neared them. Now was about the time that her body usually dropped and her blinding terror took over; being awake to see this sort of thing was not something she was used to. The ground was shaking harder and harder as the snarling beast barreled toward them, and Caden could see a few dozen red eyes embedded in its body at different angles. Her fingers clenched into a fist, but she couldn’t move any other muscle.
“I’m sorry,” Caden heard herself whisper.
“Caden, it’s okay. I don’t blame you for whatever happens.” Umi’s voice was steady, but his body was shaking like a leaf. She pictured the Bezoar bowling her over and crushing him, and the image snapped the last bit of indecision from her body. She could feel his fear behind his words, and his fear stuck in her mind more than anything else. It felt sharp and cold, and finally the red thorn of anger finally took hold of her mind. She knew it was because they had just done the energy equivalent of making love, but his fear had become unbearably personal.
“Nothing is going to happen,” Caden said. The anger bloomed in her chest, and she stepped in front of him, shoving him back with one hand and squaring herself in front of the beast. Her heart was slamming against her ribcage, and her body was vibrating with the anxiety and adrenaline coursing through her system. Caden didn’t think about Umi’s soft cries of pain as he landed a hundred feet behind her, focusing on stopping the thing intent on causing him more harm. As the beast got nearer, she noticed odd lumps on the parts of its body between its eyes---like bundles of nerves, or even joints. She realized that those were the places where the Bezoars all knitted together; she was looking at the equivalent of its heads. The beast was two hundred feet away and closing, and the dust it was kicking up nearly overtook Caden’s small frame; for a moment, her fear swelled up like a cloud to swallow her—but instead of turning from it, she let it sink in and sharpen her instincts, pulling the acidic feeling deeper into her body as she leapt into the air. The Bezoar collided with her at the same time as she plunged her steely fingers into four of its eyes, and a torrent of boiling liquid poured out over Caden’s hands. The beast kept moving, and she felt it swing its body around, trying to fling her from its fur. Caden pushed one hand deep into the cartilage between two of its eyes and closed around a bundle of sinewy fibers and tubes. She was dimly aware of Umi screaming from somewhere around her, and then she ripped her hand backward, screaming at the top of her lungs as her fingers came away covered in spinal fluid and brain matter.
The last thing she was aware of was being toppled onto the ground. She knew that she had fallen from a height, but she couldn’t make sense of how far. She felt hands slip around her shoulders and carry her away, but there was also a curious singing coming from somewhere far above her---before she slipped out of consciousness, she wondered if they were what humans called angels, singing to her from the gates of heaven.
“So, she awoke on her own?” a female voice spoke softly.
“Yes. I healed her after the crash and found that the trauma had jostled her empathy board awake. Then we were attacked.”
“Why are you not hurt?”
“She shielded me both times—during the crash, and from the Bezoar. She took it down herself.”
The owner of the first voice gasped. “So it’s true---she took down an Octo-Bezoar herself?”
“All by herself.”
Caden realized she was lying on a soft surface in an immaculately clean room. She opened her eyes, and after a moment, two shapes swam into view. Umi was talking to a short, curvy alien with brilliant violet skin and piercing lime-green eyes. The figure wore a deep blue robe that covered her from neck to toe. Caden thought it was a woman.
The female Hyppo smiled at Umi. “And you two are bonded now, I see? Does that mean you’re keeping her?”
Caden’s heart pounded and she closed her eyes part-way. What?
“That’s up to her, of course,” Umi said, his voice bashful. “I didn’t know they were sending her with me to be in my detail, and she didn’t either.”
“Well, Earth only recently decided to lend us help,” the female Hyppo said. “Most of the cypeople probably don’t know they’re being reassigned to us.”
“Most of them don’t know something is wrong on our planet at all,” Umi said, and his tone was dripping with misery. “They’re coming into the situation totally blind. What if none of them can really help us? What if we’re only sending them to their deaths?”
“Umi!” The female Hyppo’s tone was one of admonishment. “You know better than to doubt our predictions. The High Council is infallible.”
“The High Council is all,” Umi said, but his words sounded empty and automatic, utterly without feeling. “The High Council says we’re all helping each other. I feel like we’re all missing something.” Caden hadn’t heard him sound so bitter before this. It bothered her.
“That may be,” the female Hyppo allowed. “But I think that’s a matter for another day. Our soils need to be replenished. Our people are starving. Our very suns are freezing over. We must do something.” The Hyppo turned her head and smiled, and Caden’s eyes snapped shut, but it was too late. “And I think your cyborg is awake.”
Caden opened her eyes as Umi twisted around to peer through the doorway and into the stark white room. His face lit up as he smiled, and he slipped into the small room and closed the door as Caden sat up.
“Are you ok?” he asked, kneeling before her on the bed. His cerulean eyes were peering into hers, and he took both of her strong, slim hands in his. “You saved me, Caden.”
“How did we get here?” She felt no pain as she sat on the foamy mattress, and her hair was unbound around her shoulders. She let the sheets fall to her waist as she reached forward to press Umi’s shining face between her palms, and a current of something she couldn’t quite name passed between them. Her body was naked, but she was healed from the injuries she knew she should have died from. She slipped her thumb over the fullness of Umi’s mouth, and he shivered, smiling as she gazed at him in silent wonder. “How did you save me?”
“I ran,” he said softly. “When you ripped out one of its neural sacs, the fluid got all over you and starting eating through your skeletal frame.” His eyes were dark with fear as he spoke, and Caden realized she could hear the quick pounding of his hearts. “I ran. You were screaming, and…I thought I was dying, Caden.” He laughed, and the sound was bittersweet---like the windchimes she used to see on Earth outside some houses when she was leaving a patrol to go back to the hub. It made her sad without quite knowing why. “I was healing you while I ran.”
Caden gasped. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
Umi’s eyes burned into hers. “Neither did I.”
The silence stretched between them, and Caden’s mind burned with questions-- she wanted to ask why he tried so hard, why he kept running for what must have been two or three hours while carrying something twice as heavy as he was, how he was even standing up and conscious, even though it surely couldn’t have been more than half a day since the meeting had passed. The words were there in her mind, but like earlier, she found herself answering them as soon as they had been formed—and the answers were all the same. It was the same reason he had found himself unable to deal with the idea of leaving her dying body behind if something went wrong, the same reason that she squared up in front of a beast that very nearly killed her—the same reason she found herself unable to look or pull away from him now. She could hear the thudding of his twin hearts, and it was far faster than it should have been; she began to wonder why, and again the answer came immediately, and was the same as the others. She felt her lips curl upward slowly, and saw Umi’s beautiful face light up in response. They—and their energies-- were entwined, like two separate particles spinning thousands of micrometers apart in space but still inexplicably bonded together in rhythm. They had been, ever since their energies mingled and Umi healed her body; it was the reason for the warm, gently tingling feeling wrapping around her heart, her sudden clarity in the face of death. She let herself feel it before she opened her mouth to speak.
“I love you,” Caden whispered. Umi was silent, and she was afraid she was wrong, and was ready to recoil in shame; then he surged forward and kissed her, pushing her back onto the bed with his powerful body as he tore away the sheet from her naked flesh. He knelt back, and Caden could feel the weight of his gaze taking in her small, tight breasts, the curve of her stomach, her strong, slim thighs and the shock of dark hair between them. She saw his eyes brighten until they were almost white, and her pussy clenched with desire when she saw his cock rise from his curly green pubic hair, thick and long, as his kilt dropped away.
“I love you, too,” Umi said, and his voice was rough with desire. Caden spread her legs wide, and her hand moved to pass over her vulva automatically, relishing how sensitive she was now that each of her nerve endings and circuits were buzzing with activity. Her lips were already slick with her juices, and her hips were moving slowly, almost imperceptibly, against the weight of her hand. Her other hand was pulling on her nipple, twisting the nub until it puckered and grew erect.
Umi lowered his mouth to her breast as he pressed the head of his member on her hot, wet opening. He sucked her nipple between his lips, teasing it with his teeth until Caden cried out in pleasure, pressing her hips upward in an attempt to pull him inside. He left her nipple and kissed the soft skin of her neck, raising his eyes to meet her gaze before he slowly pushed himself into Caden’s wet pussy.
It was like a door opening inside her--- she could feel the force of his love, his passion, his unbelievable need to stay inside her as long as he possibly could, and the desire to make it last forever. Every inch of her velvety walls was being massaged by Umi’s steely member, and she wrapped her legs around his strong hips, gasping as he pulsed deep inside her soaking pussy. She gazed at his gorgeous features as he slowly drew his cock out and rushed back inside, marveling at the exquisiteness of his expression, even in the throes of passion. His eyes were glowing softly, moving across her features and lowering to take in the bounce of her perky breasts as he thrust between her legs. His strokes intensified, and Caden felt the first stirrings of euphoria start to build in her core. She wanted to stay like this, being pounded by his beautiful, powerful body until she couldn’t move or speak from the mind-blowing pleasure.
“Umi,” she moaned deliriously as his cock moved faster more forcefully inside her. Every stroke brought another streak of incredible pleasure ripping through her body, and she tried to focus on meeting his passionate strokes with the motion of her hungry hips. He kissed her lips roughly, burying himself as deep inside her as his body would allow. Caden shrieked in pleasure, wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders as he thrust against her hips frantically. Her body was starting to tighten around him, and his moans were growing higher and more frenzied. One of his hands fisted in her silky red hair, and Caden looked down at his lean body as he propelled himself between her slick walls, pounding against her g-spot so hard that the air was sapped from her lungs. His mouth opened, and a low moan poured over her body like molasses, triggering an orgasm so violent she felt her nails rake down Umi’s muscular back before she could stop herself.
“Caden!” Her name left Umi’s lips as a passionate cry, and she felt her walls clench around his thickness as his cock twitched and spasmed, emptying inside her. He kept thrusting against her, and his weight rubbed against her swollen clit, provoking another slow wave of ecstasy that tightened the muscles in her thighs and inner core. She bucked against him weakly as he kissed her again, and he moaned with satisfaction. Then he pulled back and slid off of her, and, to her dismay, found his kilt to dress again.
It seemed wrong to jump back into action after having such an incredible first time together, but Caden realized she still hadn’t been debriefed. She pulled the white sheet around her, watching Umi’s muscled ass disappear behind his green garment. Something had changed between them; they were both smiling and meeting each other’s eye far more easily than before. It’s the bond, she thought suddenly. It didn’t seem like that profound a change, but it was there—in the he looked at her, the way she wanted to be constantly touching him, and the jab of pain in her heart when she thought about when she might need to leave him again. This is love, she thought, and it surprised her; Caden had assumed love would be a weakness. A sort of Kryptonite, she liked to think. But it had enabled her to t
ake down a monster she never thought she could take down while clear-headed. Love had done that, and it made her happier than she’d ever been; who needed to be fearless when love could teach you to use it as a weapon?
“What’s next?” Caden mused aloud.
“Well, now that you’re awake, we need to go meet with the High Council.” He smiled when she didn’t react, and Caden blushed. “I take it you overheard us speaking. Lia will be there, and she’ll explain it better than I can.”
“Is something wrong?” Caden felt fear trickle into her bloodstream, remembering that she was millions of miles from homes. “What am I here to do?”
Umi looked embarrassed. “Well, you’re here to protect me while I help my planet try to stop its impending doom.” He laughed. “You look surprised now. I’m just kidding. Kind of.”
“Umi, be serious!” Caden stood, and was satisfied to see that he was very distracted by her naked body. “Eyes up here.”
His light brown skin took on a bluish tint, and Caden realized he was blushing. “Sorry. I’m trying to think of an easy way to explain it before you have to get dressed to meet them.” He paused, and his eyes closed again as he accessed his memory banks. They opened again a moment later, and he smiled excitedly.
“Superman’s planet was destroyed by natural forces? It imploded because of internal forces, and he never knew his home planet because of it.”
Caden nodded slowly. “This isn’t making me feel better, Umi.”
“It’s not like this yet,” Umi said. “There’s at least a handful of ways to stop it. One of those ways involves going down into the crust of our planet where only machines can go, in order to destabilize a pocket of energy that is threatening life.” He hesitated. “But the machines get too hot for us to pilot, and remotes stop working at a certain distance.” He gazed at her, apparently unwilling to go on.
