by Drew Hayes
126.
Vince reacted immediately, his mind racing to analyze the situation. He had no electricity and little fire in his arsenal at the moment, which meant he could flare up quickly and drive off the attacker but have nothing left for afterward. He was waist deep in water, so any fast movements to break the hold were going to be extra difficult to execute in the way of legwork. That left relying on a swift blow coupled with his flexibility.
Vince twisted his right elbow around with all the force he could muster, intent on driving it into the temple of his attacker. It would hurt his shoulder, but unless the assailant had enhanced durability, it would disorient them enough for Vince to slip free. That was the plan, anyway.
What actually happened was Vince’s well-thought-out attack connected with nothing. All at once the arms holding him were gone and Vince was jerking through the water, knocked off balance by the momentum of his failed blow.
“Geez, somebody doesn’t like surprise hugs,” Sasha said from the shore. The wake dispersing through the water made it pretty clear just where she’d been standing when Vince was grabbed.
“I... sorry,” Vince said, finding his footing in the water. “I thought you were attacking me.”
Sasha tilted her head. “That’s an interesting assumption to jump to. Got a reason to suspect someone might be out to harm you?”
Vince hadn’t told her about Michael’s Halloween attack, or the constant aggression the boy showed him at every turn. It just hadn’t seemed like something she needed to worry about.
“Not really. Not today, anyway,” Vince said. He hadn’t had an altercation with Michael in months, so there really was no good reason for him to be so jumpy.
“Mmhmmm,” Sasha said, walking back toward Vince at a slow pace. “You know, you’re lucky your girlfriend has speedy reflexes or this would be really awkward right now.”
Vince paled. He hadn’t even thought about that. If he’d slugged Sasha he would feel absolutely abominable.
Sasha laughed. “Oh, relax, I’m kidding around. It was a good elbow, but it wasn’t a secret death shot. Worst case scenario I’d have a bump and some static in my vision for a few minutes.” She reached Vince, the water coming up to her navel rather than waist. Vince was a few inches taller than she, and as she leaned against his chest, Sasha reflected for the umpteenth time how much she enjoyed that feature.
“There wouldn’t have been words to say how sorry I was,” Vince said, curling his arms around her.
“I know that, silly,” Sasha assured him. “You’re all about keeping the people you care about safe. And you do a great job of it. I never feel safer than when you’re holding me tight.”
* * *
“Tights,” she said, leaning over him. “What am I going to do with you?” As she moved her curly dark hair tumbled down, dangling only a few inches from his body.
“You could start by not calling me that,” Vince suggested. His voice seemed to be caught somewhere in his throat, causing it to come out rougher and lower.
“I could, but I won’t,” she said. She smiled down at him, and for the first time the smile could be seen in her emerald eyes as well as on her face.
“Worth a shot,” Vince said, retuning her grin from his own prone position.
* * *
“Woo, this water is starting to cool down,” Sasha said, breaking their embrace. “What’s say we go get toweled off and warmed up?”
“Why, Sasha Foster, are you asking me to put more clothes on?”
“I am, though if you have a better warming method I am quite open to suggestions,” Sasha replied.
Vince pulled her back into his embrace and kissed her, running his hand through her hair and holding it tightly. He didn’t pull, he just held her there, locking her lips and body against his own. He released a few seconds later, pulling his face mere inches away.
“That do it?” Vince asked. He’d mean to sound casual, making light of the intense kiss they’d just shared. His throat felt thicker than normal, and the voice that emerged from it sounded like someone had poured molasses on his usual tenor.
Sasha didn’t respond verbally. Instead she leapt up onto Vince’s long frame and wrapped her legs around his waist, burying her lips against his. The movement would have knocked most men down, but then most men weren’t undergoing daily physical training in the Lander HCP. The affection assault did rock him backwards, carrying him toward the shore opposite of the camp with the other students. Sasha fully expected to get another good kiss then be set down by her boyfriend as he reminded her that wasn’t the type of relationship they had. He took her by surprise instead, scooping his arms under her to get a grip, then carrying her the rest of the way to the shore.
They came down at last, falling onto the soft ground a few feet away from the river’s edge. They rolled even further inland, bit by bit, a constant rotation of top to bottom positioning as they tried to stay comfortable on wet grass. When they finally broke apart they were far enough from the water to have it obscured from view, but not so far that they couldn’t hear its gentle lapping against the shore.
“Whoa,” Sasha said, catching her breath. Her skin was tingling and her body was quite far from cold. She tried to steady her mind and her trembling hands. She’d promised to be a good girlfriend and wait for when Vince was ready. And she’d meant it, too: he was too good of a guy for her to trade his mental comfort for some fleeting physical fun. That being said, if he kissed her again there was a good chance she would tear off his swimsuit and tie him to a tree until he found his willingness.
“Yeah,” Vince agreed. He felt like his whole body had been short-circuited somewhere along the line. Everything seemed sharp and enhanced; even the wind on his skin was noticeable. At the same time, his brain felt half-fried. All his thoughts seem to show up simultaneously then evaporate into silence.
“Sorry about that,” Sasha said, pulling herself to a standing position. She wanted to rest her head on Vince’s shoulder again; however, she didn’t trust herself to touch him right now. Not even lovingly.
“No, no, it’s my fault,” Vince said, remaining in a sitting position for certain logistically-embarrassing reasons. “I started it.”
Sasha left out a small chuckle. “Man, how sad is it that we have a crazy good make-out session and our first response is to apologize to each other for it?”
“Pretty sad,” Vince agreed.
“So, let’s agree: no more of the ‘I’m sorry’ stuff. We’re boyfriend and girlfriend, we get to make out guilt free. That’s one of the many perks of being together,” Sasha said.
“Along with movie and dinner partners,” Vince pointed out.
“Not to mention someone to cuddle with,” Sasha said. “And of course, best of all is that we each get a great friend.”
“A very great friend,” Vince said.
“All right, then: nice, logical perks of being a platonic couple. This helping you calm down at all?”
“Not really,” Vince admitted.
“Me neither,” Sasha said. “But we’ll get there. Maybe the cold water will help.”
“You seem pretty determined.”
“Damn skippy,” Sasha said. “I want to be able to get kissy with my boyfriend, even if that means devising all sorts of self-control methods to stop it from going any further.”
“Or... we could let it go further,” Vince said.
Sasha’s skin froze and her blood turned to fire simultaneously.
“What are you trying to say, Vince?”
Vince brought himself to standing position, deciding eye contact was more important than modesty for a moment like this.
“I’m saying you’re my girlfriend, and I care a lot about you, and I trust you,” Vince said, cradling her face as he spoke. “And that I’m ready.”
“You sure about that?”
“No,” Vince admitted. “But I don’t think I’ll get to be totally sure. There’s some inherent risk in connecting with someone deeply.
So I’m not sure that it will all end well and I won’t get hurt. I am sure that I consider being with you worth the risk, though.”
Sasha stretched herself upwards and kissed him gently on the bottom lip.
“I’ll be gentle,” she said with a slight smirk.
“Liar,” he replied, kissing her lightly on the nose.
“Perceptive boy,” she said. She leapt atop him once more. This time Vince made no effort at all to stay standing.
127.
Roy’s punch caught Stella in the sternum, lifting her off the ground and sending her hurtling back several feet. So far they’d just been dancing, a few light taps here and there. This hit, though, this signaled the beginning of the real match.
Stella rolled with the blow as she landed, doing a few spins across the hard dirt floor of the forest and flipping up onto her feet. Roy idly noted that if she’d weighed the same amount as a normal person his punch would have easily sent her all the way to the tree line. They were in a clearing about forty feet across, so that wasn’t saying a whole lot, but Roy felt he would have at least appreciated the satisfaction of such a sight.
“That all you got?” Stella taunted as she got her footing. Roy’s punch had taken some of the breath from her, a fact she was trying to hide by stalling. She’d been caught off guard; last time she’d seen him fight was at the beginning of the year. Back then he swung wide and blocked minimally. Things had clearly changed in the last few months.
“Not even close,” Roy replied with a smile. She was buying time to recover, he was well aware. Hell, he’d gotten more experience at that than any other aspect of fighting in the time he’d been sparring Chad. Roy had no qualms with letting her catch her breath. He wasn’t going to let her win, but that didn’t mean he felt the need to utterly crush her.
Stella steadied herself and regained control of her breathing. She also took the opportunity to fix the top of her suit slightly. Admittedly, challenging someone to a fight while wearing only a bikini might not have been the smartest move, however Stella Hawkins had never been one for a tremendous amount for forethought.
“Thank god, I was scared I’d get bored,” Stella shot back, moving toward him carefully. Roy began advancing as well, a series of small, careful steps with his eyes never swerving from her body.
In a flash of sunset glinting off steel, Stella dashed forward, faking a right before throwing her momentum in a slide. It carried her through Roy’s initial punching range before he could adjust to the shift. Taking advantage of the low position and the opportunity, Stella swept her legs around, striking the backs of Roy’s knees. They immediately buckled and sent him tumbling forward. Stella readied herself to nail Roy in the torso when he moved to catch himself. Instead she was caught off guard as Roy threw his right leg in front of him, stopping the descent in a move that would have easily broken the ankle of a normal combatant. Roy pushed off on his heel, reeling against the fall and spinning his body around in time to take a swing at Stella. The punch was too short, but it forced her on the defensive as she scrambled back to her feet. Seconds later they were circling each other once more.
“I make it a personal goal never to bore a lady,” Roy said, flashing Stella his patented smile.
“No, just to infer that we’re weaker, softer, and don’t belong on the battlefield,” Stella replied.
“Am I still inferring? I thought after a certain point it was considered speaking what you were thinking,” Roy said.
“That is fucking it,” Stella said, charging forward. This time she didn’t even bother with a fake blow, she just reared back and swung with a hard right. She was positive he’d be able to block it, she just wanted to make sure it would hurt. Roy caught her by surprise once more though. Rather than try and stop her blow he lowered his head and met it dead on. With his skull.
Stella winced at the unexpected pain, a movement that cost her the chance at seeing Roy’s next move. This was unfortunate, because Roy used his lowered frame and her open right side to catch her dead under the chin with an upward blow. Her eyes flashed with sparks as she was sent sprawling. There was no fancy roll this time, just coughing and clawing at the ground as she tried to regroup. To his credit, Roy made no move to come after her as she recovered, though this only served to agitate her more.
“So what,” Stella said, spitting on the ground and checking to see if she was bleeding. “You don’t press the attack if the opponent is a girl?”
“Could be, or maybe I’m just admiring how nice your ass looks when you’re crouched like that,” Roy responded.
Stella slammed her fist into the ground and pulled herself up. “You are one dead motherfucker.”
“Says the girl who has only landed glancing blows so far.”
“I’m warming up,” Stella lied.
“Sure you are, Sugar Dumpling,” Roy said. He spread his feet apart and readied for another charge. Stella wasn’t the type of opponent one wanted to let catch them off guard.
“Geez, your parents must have really done on a number on you,” she remarked as she looked for the best angle to attack from.
“That a fact?”
“Yeah, I mean, for you to hate girls as much as you do there must be some really messed up shit in your past,” Stella sniped.
Roy blinked in genuine surprise. “You think I hate girls?”
“Of course you do. You just see us as holes to fuck, not equals,” Stella said, her own rage boiling over and culminating in another charge. There was no good angle to come at, she could see that clearly. No matter what she did he’d be able to counter. His headbutt to her fist had inspired her, though. This wasn’t a fight in the gym, this was a brawl. She didn’t care if he got in some good licks as long as she gave them right back.
Stella slammed her shoulder into Roy’s abs, ignoring the two punches he landed on her shoulder when she came in range. She used her superior weight to drive him back, slamming him against a tree before dragging him to the ground. They crashed into the dirt together, immediately rolling around to get on top. Stella had more experience at groundwork, but the previous blows were muddling her head and Roy’s non-metallic frame gave him an advantage in speed. As a result they soon came to a rest with Roy perched on top of Stella, his knees pinning her chest to the ground.
“For the record,” Roy said, leaning back to avoid her hand that was clawing at his face, “I don’t hate women.”
“Sure, you’re a goddamn patriot of feminism,” Stella huffed from her prone position.
“Probably not,” Roy admitted. “But I don’t hate them.”
Stella stopped struggling for a moment to look up at him. The boy was interrupting a good fight to make this point, it was clearly pretty important in his eyes. And speaking of his eyes, they actually looked sincere at this particular moment. Stella didn’t think she could have ever guessed what sincerity would look like on Roy Daniels, but there it was, plain as day.
“Fine, I’ll concede that you don’t hate women. You don’t think of us as equals, though.”
“Agreed. I think you’re kinder, smarter, and gentler than men can ever hope to be. And yes, physically weaker and softer. Paint me as an asshole all you want, but that’s just how I see it. So I prefer to see woman away from the battlefield, safe where they won’t get hurt. Because the world outside of combat needs them far more than it needs men, especially men like me,” Roy explained.
“You realize that’s still misogyny, right?” Stella asked.
“Realize it? I don’t even know what it means,” Roy said.
“And all the random sex?”
“I’m an adult, so are they. Everybody likes fucking. I’m not apologizing for that one.” With that he stood up, taking Stella’s hand and jerking her to her feet as well.
Stella accepted his help and brushed herself off. Much as she hated to admit it, her anger had all but completely ebbed away. Yeah, he was six feet and a few hundred pounds of pure dickbrain, but his motivations weren’t quite as pighe
aded as she’d thought.
Roy was feeling about the same way. “Guess we’re done with the fight, huh?”
Stella replied by socking him in the ribs. Roy doubled over and began coughing.
“Hell no,” she said. “I might not be mad but I’m still all worked up. Besides, I haven’t had a fight this good in a long time. So there is no way I’m letting you go already.”
“Fine by me,” Roy said, coming back up and rubbing his side tenderly. “I’m good to go all night long.”
“Boys and their empty promises,” Stella said, taking another swing at him as he stepped backward.
The remainder of the fight lasted about five minutes. The sex that followed lasted considerably longer.
128.
“So day one was, as you’ve described it here, a ‘hookup bonanza’, correct?”
“Yes, sir,” Angela replied.
“I can certainly see how that would happen,” Dean Blaine said. He turned the page in the packet of documents he was holding. “Now, the forest fire on the second day, that one will require a bit more explanation.”
Ben squirmed around in his chair. The dean’s office was plush and comfortable, but having to answer for the actions of a class of drunken Supers was worse than sitting on pins made of lava.
“It’s really quite simple, sir. You see, some of the students decided to make a campfire at the end of the day. Unfortunately, we were still collecting the tubes and we had the matches, so one of the students chose to do the job himself.”
Dean Blaine cocked an eyebrow. “Would that have been Mr. Reynolds?”
“No, sir, he actually helped us quell it before it got out of hand. The one who started the fire was Allen Wells,” Ben said.
“Ah yes, the young man who can throw explosive balls of energy.”
“Yeah, the idiot figured it would be combustive enough to ignite the nearby wood,” Angela scoffed. “And he was right.”
“Indeed he was. The park service is none too happy with me about the damage left behind,” Dean Blaine said.
