by Jamie Hawke
“These trials… If you don’t succeed, what then?”
I scoffed, looking at her as if she had just said the most ridiculous thing. “You… you shouldn’t be worried! You were one of the leaders of the Gold Reapers, by Oram.”
“And now, it’s all in your hands.”
“Come on. There’s the Citadel, the groups being led by Breaker and Drew—”
“Who?”
“You’d love them,” Cheri piped up, grinning wide. “Drew’s a Marine and has this lady Threed on his team who is kind of crazy and can split herself into multiple people, only she’s pregnant now. I wonder how that works, like… are they all pregnant? And Breaker, his brother, I hear great things about… oh, never mind.” She saw me giving her a look. “But seriously, you should meet Charm, she’s so cool—even has a tail and…” Again, the look. She pretended to zip her mouth.
“Right, that. And new Elders at the Citadel, or Breaker will be soon, anyway.” I waved it off. “Point being, they’ve got it covered, right? Worst case scenario, they pull together and do their thing.”
“I don’t think it’s that simple.” Hinru ran a hand over her neck and paused with it there, worry really seeping out into her aura and making me even more anxious.
“Hey, do you think that if Andromida could shrink like Tink here, we could call her Smurfe—”
“Cheri!” Erupa cut in, giving her ferociously hard stare.
Again, Cheri pretended to zip her lips, this time handing Erupa the fake key. She then mumbled “Sorry,” between closed lips.
“The Blue Lady?” Hinru glanced over, seemingly impressed by that.
“Me, or…?” Erupa said, then shrugged. “Oh, Andromida’s other name, right. Yeah, with Breaker’s team.”
“I didn’t know she had joined the Citadel.” Hinru shook her head. “Still, this is… different. Bigger than that—sure, maybe someone at the Citadel would have empath powers like Ezra, and that would help with connecting to this other dimension, but… How many of them trained at the temple? How many could have possible access to the core stones?” She turned to me, hand on mine. “Ezra, it’s not like there’s some prophecy about you or anything like that. This is about the pieces of the puzzle all fitting together exactly where they need to. But, take out one piece of that puzzle, and we’re gloriously fucked.”
At the word fucked with her hand on mine, Cheri cleared her throat, then slapped the woman’s hand away.
Tink chuckled, then shrugged. “Hey, I find Cheri’s jealousy endearing. Especially since it doesn’t make a lot of sense, given our situation.”
“Fuck sense, I’m a Psychobitch and proud of it,” Cheri countered, then put her hand on mine. “Now, Ezra, honey-pie, tell this chica here that she has nothing to worry about.”
“I…” My brow furrowed as I struggled with the words.
“Darling, dear…” Cheri leaned in, as if staring into my eyes would give me confidence. Actually, it worked.
“Fucking A,” I said, placing my free hand on hers. “Of course, your man has this.”
“See?” Cheri turned to Hinru, beaming. “Now, if you want to touch my man, you go through me.”
“I don’t…” Hinru turned to Erupa for help, but she just grinned. Then to Mer, who leaned over and whispered something in her ear. Hinru immediately blushed, but nodded, turning back to Cheri. “Oh. Here’s the thing. I’m not,” she grimaced my way, “into guys.”
“What?” Cheri cocked her head. “I don’t get it.”
“Guys. Men. Not my thing.”
“As in…?”
“I like women. Only. No penises.”
“The fuck?” Cheri looked at her a moment longer, then laughed. “You must be mistaken. Cocks. Beautiful, gorgeous, throbbing cocks. You’re telling me you’re not imagining his right now, wishing you could jam it into the back of your throat? Hop on and ride it to the Oram system and back?”
“I…” She actually looked like she was about to gag, the poor lady. “No.”
“More for me, then.” Cheri scrunched her nose. “You’re weird.”
“Cheri, you’ve never met a lesbian before?” Erupa asked.
Cheri considered this, then her face lit up. “Oh, Lilly told me that, back at the Citadel, there was this lady with weird hair, I think green or blue… Blue! And these big eyes, pointy ears—”
“Laurel,” Erupa said.
“That’s right! Lilly said Laurel had never been with a guy, but I figured it was Lilly making up some stupid shit. Or maybe it was because guys found Laurel disgusting to look at. I don’t know.”
“Who’s Lilly, again?” Hinru asked.
Cheri held up the little bear chained to the hilt of her sword. “Hinru, meet Lilly. Lilly, this is Hinru—she doesn’t like cock.”
“Oh. Right…”
“I feel like we’re getting off track, here,” I noted. “Although, the distraction has been helpful. All this talk of dicks being disgusting or whatever has certainly made me less worried about passing the trial and getting the stones.”
Hinru laughed at that. “Me too, actually. And for the record, I didn’t say anything about your stuff or anyone else’s being disgusting. Just not my thing.”
“Right.”
“You never had… curiosity?” Cheri asked.
“I thought we were trying to focus, now,” Mer cut in, apparently bothered by all this talk. In a way, it made sense considering the fact that she had been kissing Hinru. I wasn’t sure what to think about that, but figured now wasn’t the time to ask.
Then again, fuck that.
“You two…” I started, unsure how to approach it.
Mer blushed. “It’s not… I mean, I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Slow down, it’s okay, really.”
Cheri glared at me, then Mer, but didn’t say anything.
“Yeah?” Mer asked. “Because I don’t understand how all this works. I might not have all my memories, but I know that back on Earth, we certainly didn’t have relationships like this. So, it’s all so new, confusing. And I just sort of hit it off with Hinru.”
“Really, it’s fine.” I cocked my head, feeling a sudden pain in my chest. “But, does it mean you’re with her now and not us?”
Cheri’s emotions shot out with the same feeling I’d just had as she turned to Mer with wide eyes, waiting for a response. Erupa and Tink seemed unsure what to think, yet.
“Er, no?” Mer shrugged, then took Hinru’s hand. “It was brief, I know that. But… we have something, right?”
“I think so,” Hinru replied.
Turning to me now, Mer kept holding Hinru’s hand with hers, then reached out for mine with the other. “And Ezra, I want to be part of the group. That will never change. Can’t I… have both?”
“You’re saying you want to be with us, and with her?” Cheri scoffed. “Give me a fucking break.”
“Really?” I started, but Erupa had a hand on Cheri’s shoulder to pull her around.
“Calm the fuck down. Is it that big of a deal?” Erupa kissed her, suddenly and passionately, then gave her a ‘go ahead, answer’ look. When she didn’t, Erupa continued. “First, we’re all enjoying ourselves, here. What the hell does it matter if Mer enjoys herself with Hinru, but Hinru doesn’t want to be with Ezra?”
“Nothing personal, again,” Hinru said, giving me an apologetic look. I waved it off.
“Yeah, but—” Cheri started.
Erupa interrupted her. “And it’s not like Ezra has a lack of pussy, am I right?”
“Not remotely,” I replied.
Cheri frowned, letting out a sigh. “Point taken.”
“So… what’s the real problem here?”
For a moment, Cheri seemed stumped by that one. Then she turned to Hinru, and licked her lips. “Does that mean… what, you and Mer have your own thing, and exclude the rest of us?”
“Doesn’t have to,” Hinru admitted.
“And… if we wanted to get involved, wo
uld it have to be in a different room from where things are happening with Ezra?”
Hinru blinked, caught off guard by this direction, and then made eye contact with me. Finally, she said, “I might not be into it, but… I don’t suppose the idea would be a turnoff. Just not a turn-on.”
“So, it could work for you.” Cheri beamed. “Interesting.”
“To be clear…” Tink fluttered up, small all of a sudden, as if somehow that took the focus off what she was saying. “You’re proposing that there’s another lady in the mix, but one who won’t be touching Ezra?”
Cheri nodded, but turned to me. “If you’re okay with it.”
Part of me wanted to say that would be weird, but honestly, the idea of a woman who wasn’t involved being there while another fucked me was kind of hot. Like the forbidden fruit. Or maybe I thought I had a shot at converting her, although I tried hard to wipe that from my mind. As we had already established, I had an abundance of pussy. It wasn’t like I needed my ego stroked, so what was the deal?
Regardless of whatever was happening in my mind, and as annoying as it was that Cheri was looking at me like she understood it all perfectly, I said, “Could be fun.”
“Fun?” Cheri asked, and Hinru blushed slightly.
“I mean… Come on, Cheri, you all are talking about enjoying her body, and Hinru, you’re not exactly ugly. Having you in the room would be a fucking turn on, and I’m not going to beat around the bush.”
“Not her bush, anyway,” Tink said with a chuckle.
“Right.” I laughed, and then we were all laughing.
“So….” Hinru said when the laughter had died down. “We’ll try this out, right? After the trials and everything’s settled?”
I nodded, looking forward to it. Watching Mer go down on this woman or some other version of that equation was something to look forward to.
“Not now?” Mer asked.
“We should wait,” I admitted. “I’m focused and, if there’s one thing I learned here as a monk, it’s self-control. And how to kick ass, of course. Fine, two things at least, but one was self-control.”
Mer pouted. In fact, they all were pouting!
At least Hinru spoke up, saying that she agreed and we should get me to it. We made our way to the temple gates, all of our minds on what was to come and on our future cumming. To say I was distracted was an understatement, but it was fueling my desire to succeed, so hey, I was all for it.
We were passing one of several wooden buildings with their thin walls when I overheard two people arguing.
“He doesn’t belong here,” one said. “This is an outrage!”
“Don’t worry. I’ve taken steps to ensure this doesn’t happen.”
“Taken steps?”
“Trust me.”
I paused and glanced over to ensure the others had heard it. Cheri hadn’t waited. She was already charging over, throwing open the nearest door, and pouncing. A moment later the wall exploded outward as she and two men came flying out through it. They rolled on the ground and she came up, sword raised over one of them, blaster aimed at the other.
“What the fuck do you have planned, exactly?” Cheri said.
“Shit,” Erupa mumbled, but went along with it, aiming a pistol at one of them, her other pistol up as her eyes searched the nearby area for trouble. We were on a walkway between buildings, a few of those spiked trees hanging over, but no signs of trouble.
“Tink, Mer,” I said, and they took the hint, going to the two sides of the path to look out for others coming in either direction. Meanwhile, I crouched next to the closest of the two monks on the ground, recognizing him slightly from long ago, but not someone I actually knew. “Now, what exact steps have you taken?”
The man laughed. “All you have to do is turn that next corner and find out. The monks won’t let you go on with this.”
“Some of them have split off? What, they’ll try to kill me or throw me in chains?”
“The latter, until you agree to leave. We’re not animals.” He scrunched his nose at me. “The idea that you claim to have defeated Master Shen… Ridiculous.”
“It’s true,” I said, and stood, walking on. “Come, let’s get on with it.”
“But…” Cheri pouted.
“Don’t worry.” I paused, motioning her on. “If they want to try and stop me, I’ll just have to prove myself to them.”
The monks on the ground stared at me with confusion, but my ladies knew enough to follow rather than show a lack of cohesiveness among the group. Hinru joined, looking at me with a whole new level of respect.
“What?” I asked.
“I thought you’d let her slit their throats.”
I chuckled. “Cheri would’ve done a lot worse than simply slit their throats, for one.”
“Damn right!” Cheri piped up.
“And that’s not my way, not here. When we’re up against some assholes who don’t know good from evil, or who are full on bad, sure, gut ‘em. But these are my brothers and sisters, or once were. I can’t ignore that.”
“Maybe I’ll end up sucking your cock after all, you keep impressing me like this.” Hinru licked her lips, slowing to walk next to Mer. “Kidding!”
I opened my mouth to protest at that, but instead shook my head and kept going. The adrenaline of the moment was making her act like that, surely, and a little playful banter among the team members had never hurt anyone.
“You can’t do it, Ezra!” the second of the two men called out. “Give up!”
“I’ll succeed,” I replied, not turning as I walked. “Trust me.”
8
Walking out into the meditation gardens, I found three groups of monks waiting, while others watched from the surrounding buildings. The ones in my way wore the black and purple robes of senior monks who were not quite at Grand Master status, but close. One stepped toward us, a tall man I recognized, and was pretty sure had gone by the name of Melter before joining the temple. See, before the temple, many supers had led other lives. Some were even supervillains and had gone on to learn their lesson, turn over a new leaf, and join the temple.
Melter was one such super. He had black hair that hung thickly, ashen in parts, and skin that looked like it had been burned and then healed many times over.
“Come to see me off, Melter?” I asked.
His lip curled up in a snarl. “Master Buland, now. And we’re here to tell you to turn around, go home, and never return.”
Eloise approached and I sensed in her emotions that she was about to intervene. Holding a hand out behind me, I shook my head. It wasn’t worth the risk for her. I could figure this out.
“Stand down, Master Buland.” I said firmly as I continued to advance. “Masters Dawa and Richter were both behind me on this.”
“And both traitors, going off to work with the Hermites.” He scoffed. “Oh, I’m familiar with their cause, but it seems you aren’t so familiar with what’s been going on here.”
I frowned. It would have been good to be aware of strife within the temple, but this changed nothing.
“The question is,” I went on, “who do you align with? If not them, Hadrian? The Citadel? Or is it that you would throw off all ties, even denounce the Grand Masters? Is this mutiny?”
“We aren’t a bunch of cutthroat pirates,” Buland spat out, hands up and in fists, ready to take me on. “Last warning, bounty hunter.”
He said those last two words as if there was nothing worse than being a bounty hunter, and for that I wanted very badly to punch him in the throat. Instead, I simply kept walking, staying alert for his aggression spikes.
“Fuck this twat-shitting fuckbrain!” Cheri growled, sword up and lunging forward.
“No!” I shouted to Cheri, hand out. “Don’t hurt them!” She frowned, skidding to a stop, and backed off. As monks moved in on her, I added, “Don’t let them touch you, though.”
Her sword flashed up, and the monks paused.
“You have a problem
, take it up with me,” I said. “Otherwise, we won’t hold back.”
“That was the last warning, as I said.” Buland gestured toward me, and a group of monks surged my way, forming a binding with their powers—meaning, lines of light shot out from their fists as if they were carrying a large net between them all. When any of them struck at the air, the binding light shot out and threatened to capture me, pulling me into their snare.
Since we didn’t have much time, I decided to make quick work of these guys.
“Nothing fatal,” I told my team.
The monks moved their hands in patterns that I was all too familiar with, working to put their binding light on me. I pulled out my arc baton but lowered the intensity of its electric bite. While I wasn’t about to kill them, hurting them to teach a lesson was definitely in the plan.
I dove left, rolling to avoid the first burst of light. Way this stuff worked, the light had to touch you and sort of shot out like whips. As long as I kept moving and stayed unpredictable, I might be okay, I told myself. Leaping up and over an attempt on their part, I saw them catch Cheri as she tried to help, but I was free and sprinted over to hit the first with my baton. She pulled back but took the burst of electricity on the shoulder, enough to cause her to stumble and lose her part of the restraints.
“Let me make this clear,” I said as I turned to the next, who had adjusted the restraints to make up for the last and keep Cheri tied up. “Anyone who hurts one of my ladies, dies. Fuck it, right?”
The guy looked me straight in the eye and apparently sensed something clearly, as he held up both hands and stepped back. Cheri’s bonds of light vanished and she growled at the guy.
I held a hand back to the rest of my team, knowing Erupa could get in there with her shadow strike or Tink could fly over and do some damage—while Mer could likely use the nearby pond to her advantage. But this wasn’t the time for that. All I had to do was make it past this group, to the Valley of Tears, and accept the trial with Eloise.
This was about me, not my team, so I gave them one more signal to stay put, then charged out into the group of monks. No room for light bonds here, this was a clear challenge from me. If I thought I could fight them all hand-to-hand and they refused, what did that say about their courage or skills? Not much good, that was for sure.
