“You okay?” Helena asked as she went to the mirrored wall, and started doing some handstand work.
“A little hungover.” Zoe had a glass of water with her, which she threw back, wiping her mouth with her hand. “I discovered your wine cellar. Well, Sam did, but I helped knock out a bottle. Hope you don’t mind.”
“That’s what it’s there for,” Helena said, still upside down, mentally timing herself to see how long she could hold her body erect. Eventually she lowered herself to the ground, shaking her arms out once she was stable again.
“I take it you’re not really a wine drinker,” Zoe said as she also started to stretch. She wasn’t quite doing some of the poses that Helena had taught her, but she had incorporated a few things, especially some of the crouches.
“No, that would be my parents,” said Helena. “The basement used to be a gym, back when my grandfather owned the place. But my parents converted this section of the home to the gym because it was bigger, and there was more lighting. The basement naturally made a good place to store alcohol.”
“That stuff down there is worth a fortune,” said Zoe.
“It is, and it’s one of several storages they have. I don’t quite understand their obsession with collecting rare bottles of wine. They don’t actually drink very much, maybe a glass a night. But I guess that’s what us rich people do, right?”
“Come again?” Zoe asked, suspicious of Helena’s tone.
“Well, from the many rich acquaintances I have met, we just seem to collect things that we don’t necessarily need. We have the space to store them, plus we can get the best of the best. I’m guilty of this as well. You have seen my room full of clothing upstairs.”
Zoe nodded. “I have.”
“That’s what I’m trying to say here. People with money to spare usually have the space to store the things that they frivolously bought. Just an observation. Shall we spar?”
“I was hoping you would ask that,” Zoe said, cracking her knuckles.
Helena retrieved a pair of sparring pads. She had to sit down to put them on her hands, using her legs to hold the second one while she slipped her hand in. “You know, I still haven’t forgiven you for betraying us.”
“I figured as much,” Zoe said, a dark look coming across her face as her ears lowered.
“But I’m on my way,” said Helena.
“I guess that’s nice to hear.”
“I thought you would like to know. I was pretty pissed at you for what you did.”
“Do we have to talk about this right now?”
“No one is around; you shouldn’t be embarrassed by the conversation.”
“I’m not embarrassed,” Zoe said, turning away from Helena.
“Maybe I misspoke. I just wanted you to know that I am starting to forgive you. Just so you know.”
“It still sounds weird, but, sure. I guess it sounds nicer.”
“I was hoping we could bond a little more at the spa, but you saw how that played out,” said Helena as she lifted her sparring pads. “Ready?”
Zoe let out quick exhalations as she went to town on the pads, offering up quick jabs, a few of which pushed Helena back a step or two. The tiger girl was stronger in this form, Helena could sense it, and even though there was padding protecting her hands, she could feel Zoe’s strikes in her palms.
“You need me to lighten up some?” Zoe asked.
“No, you’re fine.”
“I probably need to take a nap,” Zoe said after a few more punches. “That wine was more potent than I thought. But I’ll be ready for tonight.”
“Good. Did Sam get very drunk?”
“No, he was mostly doing his best impression of a sommelier as he sniffed the stuff and told me all sorts of details, like how some of the grapes used in a specific batch were lab grown. Shit like that.”
“He’s so quirky,” Helena said, a smile coming across her face. Zoe hit Helena’s pad hard enough to spin her around.
“Sorry. And yes, he is pretty weird, and I guess that is part of his charm. Or maybe it’s his hazel eyes. What do you think? You’re the one dating him. Or is it to be married? I remember hearing something about getting engaged…”
“Want to switch?” Helena asked instead of offering up an answer. She had been in enough CEO situations to know that sometimes it was best to leave questions unanswered, that some fires didn’t need to be stoked.
“Sure.”
Helena handed Zoe the sparring pads, and Zoe crouched a little, her tail lifting up into the air as she got into position. “You going feet or fists?”
“Both.”
Helena started up with a few feet, just simple kicks, nothing that required too much concentration. Once she found her groove, she moved to a combination of punches and kicks that kept Zoe guessing. Of course, Helena never strayed from the pads, but she did keep Zoe on her toes for several minutes.
“Those kicks of yours,” Zoe said, once they had stopped. “I would hate to be on the receiving end of them.”
“You have been before,” Helena reminded her.
“I will not be held responsible for the things I did while I was under the influence of Dr. Hamza’s mind control serum.”
Helena paused, giving Zoe a funny look. Finally she laughed, Zoe eventually joining in with her.
“That wasn’t a fight I was expecting, and I’m glad I got out of it without having my eyes clawed out,” Helena said.
“Yeah, that would have been bad. We should have got some of that serum, though. It could have helped us in the future, I mean, if your hypnosis power was down, or you couldn’t see the person, or something.”
“True, true,” Helena said as she moved over to a set of weights and lay down at the bench press. “But the person doesn’t have to see me if my power-up is active.”
“Aware. I’m sure that will come in handy at some point. Want me to spot you?”
“I was just about to ask. ”
“Does it seem like we’re the only ones who train in this team?” Zoe asked. “Or is it just me?”
“You aren’t wrong there,” said Helena as she lifted the barbell, using short breaths now.
“It would be funny to whip Sam into shape, but I don’t really see that happening. He has his uses though, and he’s getting better with his wrist guard.”
“I agree,” Helena said as she set the barbell back down. “And while it is funny to watch them struggle to keep up with us, we would be best served by having him practice with his wrist guard.”
“Agreed.”
“Especially since I have the target practice area set up. I might spring for a more completed area in the future,” Helena said, nodding her head to the corner of the room, to the goalie net that she had bought from Dave the weapons dealer.
“Maybe we should train more with Dinah,” Zoe said as Helena lifted the bar, Zoe’s fingers under it just to be sure that she could hold the weight.
“Not a bad idea, actually. While she does serve as a good distraction, a naked woman just running around who can get shot at multiple times and never die is a definite advantage. If she had a little more offensive skill…”
“Okay, let’s train her then. Starting tomorrow, though. Because we may need her tonight, and Ozella can only use her in that form for an hour.”
“We could prolong training sessions by starting at eleven at night and then going past midnight to the next day. That is when it resets, right?”
“I believe so, yes.”
Helena grunted as she lifted the barbell again. “It’s strange, you know.”
“Dinah? Ozella? The power-up? The fact that I have a half-tiger face? Your weird hypnosis eyes? Sam’s nose? My half-tiger face? Or something else?”
“All of it.”
Chapter Seventeen: Sexy Sam
(Taking cosplay to a whole ‘nother level!)
The rest of the day was kind of a blur for Sam Meeko.
He had done what Zoe had suggested, only changing ou
t his power for a few minutes so he could slurp down a protein shake Ozella had made, so he had plenty of time left to switch his powers out that night.
But he wasn’t as concerned about that part, even though he maybe should have been.
There were things Sam didn’t know, of course, and one of those things was that tonight would again test Vigilante Justice’s limits, something that all the training in the world couldn’t prepare them for.
But foreshadowing aside, he didn’t know that, and he wasn’t as concerned about infiltrating the southern Centralia pimps’ exclusive party as he was the way in which they were planning to infiltrate it.
“Are you ready?” Helena asked him as she led him into the shower. They stepped into her bathroom, Sam nude and Helena wearing a bralette and matching thong underwear.
“I don’t know if ‘ready’ is the right answer,” Sam said.
“It’ll be fun, well, maybe it won’t be fun, but it will be educational. Now you know what we go through.”
“I still don’t see why this is our only option for infiltration…”
“The only way we are getting into that party is if we are all a bunch of ladies, or ‘hot bitches,’ as Zoe stated. And three of us already meet those requirements.”
“I don’t know; I wouldn’t call Zoe a lady…”
Helena smirked at him. “Careful, she could hear you.”
“No, she’s upstairs figuring out what I should wear tonight.”
“I don’t know,” Helena said as she started the water and tested its warmth. “I’m pretty sure she’ll be able to sense that you were talking shit.”
“Maybe,” Sam said as he dipped his leg into the tub. Helena had already made some lather, which she quickly applied to his leg.
“Ever done this before?” she asked as she started just under his kneecap, bringing the razor blade down and Sam’s dark hair with it, washing it off in the water and starting again.
“No,” Sam said, mouth-breathing, trying not to smell the shaving cream.
It was Helena’s father’s shaving cream, and it smelled like rich pine trees, if that could ever be a smell.
Of course, his nostrils told him more than this.
As soon as the scent reached his superpowered olfactory epithelium, the odor molecules moved up his olfactory tract where they were dissected even further by his amygdala and his thalamus, his neocortex.
He knew that the semi-famous masculine scent was the creation of an intelligence-based exemplar, who was looking for work after he got out of the hero business. The man had grown up on the border of Centralia and the Northern Alliance, where towering pines were the only trees that could grow in the sand dunes.
This was more toward the Eastern Province border, not where Sam’s family had a vineyard, but he was familiar with the place, having vacationed around there in his teens.
“Are you okay?” Helena asked as she finished shaving his right leg.
“Sorry, the smell was just triggering a bunch of memories. I’m fine.”
“We should probably shave a little bit higher, just in case your skirt shifts any.”
“Sure, that works for me.”
Helena lathered up his thighs, and started shaving them as well. Eventually, she turned on the shower to wash some of the lather off his legs, his erection starting to grow the closer Helena’s hand came to his penis.
“Can you make this quick?” she asked, a mischievous look on her face.
“I can sure as hell try,” Sam told her as she put more lather in her hand, using it as a lubricant to jerk him off.
It was a little bit harder to ejaculate while standing, but seeing Helena move just a little bit closer to his cock, her lips parting ever so slightly as she looked up at him was definitely doing the trick.
But it was when her right eye turned into a red bullseye that he knew it was all over. “Finish for me, Sam,” she whispered.
Yes, maaaaaammm….
Helena moved aside just in time as Sam came. She removed the showerhead so she could wash some of his jizz away.
“Now, we continue what we were doing. Are you good?”
“Just let me catch my breath for a moment,” Sam said, his heart still beating rapidly. “Damn, I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Nor was I, but we definitely don’t need that thing poking up tonight, not while you’re wearing a skirt.”
“Are you sure it has to be a skirt?” he asked as he looked down at his cock, a bead of cum now visible on the tip. Helena sprayed this as well, startling Sam with the cold water. “Shit!”
“Sorry, it’s cruel, I shouldn’t have done that,” she said, laughing as she turned the water warm again.
“We have to be careful. Someone may come running if they hear me scream.”
“That would have been funny,” Helena said as she finished shaving his other leg. From there she turned to his arms, and then left the bathroom so Sam could shave his own face.
It had been a few days since he shaved, but eventually, he was looking pretty clean, well, aside from the fact that he was still clearly a man.
But the ladies had assured him that they would be able to do something about this through the power of makeup, and after tightening up the towel around his waist, he intended to see what they were capable of.
“Underwear is there,” she said, nodding to the vanity.
Helena was applying makeup, focusing mostly on her eyeliner to make it look like her eyelashes were a lot larger than they normally were, adding peaks that stretched all the way to her temples.
It was more makeup than Sam had ever seen Helena wear before.
“Yeah, I probably shouldn’t go up there in just a towel.” Sam dropped the towel and took another look at the underwear that Helena had set on the vanity. “Seriously? I have to wear panties?”
“Yes, you have to wear panties. You can’t have your bulky boxers under a skirt,” Helena said, laughing again. She was now in a robe as well, and Sam was secretly disappointed she wasn’t parading around in her thong.
“I can’t believe I signed up for this.”
“It will work, Sam, just go upstairs and let them take care of the rest. I will be up shortly.”
Sam turned the door and stopped. “To be clear, you want me to walk up the stairs wearing a pair of panties?”
“Yes. It will get a rise out of them.”
“Okay, but just remember, this was your idea,” Sam said as he exited the bedroom.
He was moving past the living room when a poof of energy indicated a teleporter was arriving. Bryan King stepped into the living room, a stack of files in his hands.
“It’s not what it looks like,” Sam told Helena’s assistant.
“Yeah, sure, sure it isn’t. I grew up with sisters, you know. Anyway, these documents are for Ms. Knight. Please let her know.” With that, Helena’s bearded assistant was gone, leaving Sam standing there in a pair of lacy black panties, the files now resting on the couch.
“Dammit,” Sam said as he took the stairs, wondering if he should ask Helena to have some telepathy work done on her assistant. He was sure he would run into Bryan again in the future, and he didn’t want the man remembering him parading around in panties.
He heard Ozella and Zoe talking in the bedroom upstairs, the one that Helena had converted into a giant closet. Figuring he would just be part of the joke for now, because it was definitely coming, Sam waltzed into the room and did a quick twirl.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Zoe said, starting to laugh.
“Oh no,” Ozella said, immediately glancing down, her bangs falling over her face as her cheeks turned red.
“Helena said you two would like this, so blame her.”
“She could have found you larger panties than that,” Zoe said as she walked over to Sam, examining him. “And if you’re wearing a skirt, you probably should be wearing a thong.”
“Let’s just get this over with,” Sam said.
“We should pro
bably start with a wig,” said Ozella as she opened a drawer full of hairpieces. Sam was glad that Dinah wasn’t in the room, or if she was, she wasn’t currently visible.
He had promised Ozella that they would visit her parents’ home at some point in the future, where Sam would hopefully be able to sniff around her room a little bit and see if he couldn’t figure out who Dinah was, or what memory, or whatever, had sparked her.
“Definitely not that one,” Zoe said as Ozella lifted a pink wig out of the drawer.
“No, my hair is black, and my brows are black. I’m already going to stand out. Just make me blend in.”
“Fine, try that black one,” Zoe said, pointing at a black hairpiece with a few highlighted curls in it.
“Highlights?” Sam asked.
“Why not? It’s stylish.”
“Says who?”
“Are you forgetting that I’m a model and that I work for a modeling agency?” Zoe asked, her tiger ears twitching.
His ex was wearing a pair of tights and a hooded sweater, but Sam assumed she had already picked out what she wanted to wear after noticing a rack behind her with a single garment on it.
“I remember now,” Sam said, offering her a tight smile.
“Good, now go with the black wig with blonde highlights.”
Ozella handed it to Sam and he fastened it over his head. Once it was in place, he took a look at himself in the mirror, impressed with how authentic it actually looked. He didn’t know how they did it with these things, but the piece really did look like they were his own roots, that this truly was his hair.
“Also, you did a shit job of shaving,” Zoe said as she came closer to him, placing a hand on his cheek. “I can feel the beard stubble.”
“I have dark hair, it’s hard to make it all go away.”
“We’ve got makeup for that, lots of makeup. Now it’s time for wardrobe.”
“These are the ones,” Ozella said, moving a rack over to Sam. There were several dresses on it, a few tops, and skirts.
“As I suspected, going for one of these cute dresses will expose your upper arms, and even if we shave the hair on your arms, you still have enough definition in your shoulders that people will look at you suspiciously. So we’re going to go with a long-sleeved blouse and a tight skirt, dark colors, to hide any bulges.”
We Could Be Heroes 2 Page 13
