The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Scarlett returned to the table for a fourth slice of pepperoni pizza. A touch of her habitual programming twitched in the back of her mind, and a complex mathematical equation played out in her head, evaluating energy use, calorie intake, sugars, carbs, proteins, and a dozen other factors; as a result, she poured herself only half a cup of grape soda.

She was no stranger to Alteration. It was part of every team practice, after all. It was nice to use Alteration for something else for once, something not related to basketball. Tonight wasn’t serious, it wasn’t about team spirit, or focus at practice, or proper diet and exercise, or making sure she got her term papers done. This was fun, strictly fun.

It’s fun to win.

She mentally growled at the drilled-in slogan. It was true, of course, that it was fun to win, and other than that last little match of that alien abduction... thing, which didn’t really count anyway, she had been on the winning side of every game they’d played so far.

And it wasn’t like she disagreed with it, or thought it wrong, although she suspected that if she’d had a problem with it, twice-weekly post-practice Alteration sessions would have taken care of that issue; no, she objected to the slogan popping up when it was so unnecessary.

Of course it was fun to win. Of course it was fun to watch her friends pretending to be upset about having to give up their clothing. Of course it was fun to look around the room and see Annie, bare-assed, laughing at Fatin as she dealt with a bit of cheese and onion that had fallen between her naked breasts, or Sunny walking around in her cute and silly cartoon panties, or Chere rolling her eyes in embarrassment at those panties and not at the fact that she, like her sister and Fatin, had her breasts exposed to the whole room.

She didn’t need to be told that it was fun, reminded of it for the twentieth time that afternoon. The reminder made her think of her team Alters, which in turn reminded her that her next practice was Tuesday, and that she had a test Wednesday, and a term paper due next month. And that meant that she needed to think about graduation, and look for work, and do a half-hour’s worth of exercise this evening after she finally got back to the dorm.

She didn’t want to think about any of that. She wanted to think about her friends, and playing games, and shooting the crap out of everyone. She wanted to just have a good time, not be told that she was having a good time.

When Sam had suggested this for her party, Scarlett was maybe the most reluctant. Not because she was worried about losing (no one wins every game), or about being naked (there’s no shame in the natural human body), but Alterations were, as a concept, wearing somewhat thin for her. She was thankful for Chere speaking up about Red Rover; all those mental gymnastics had made her stomach turn, too, but in the interest of being a good sport, she’d said nothing. For some of the group it seemed natural, but for her, looking back on it now, every new team member she acquired, or every time she’d changed sides, her brain had given a massive lurch, before the sensation was covered up by the same systems that made it stagger in the first place.

Some people liked it. Dena, her roommate, best point guard on the team, absolutely loved it, loved the two trances a week, loved the slogans unexpectedly leaping to mind. They’d talked about it a couple times. Scarlett had even walked in on Dena more than once, sitting in her chair, mumbling the mantras that had been drilled into them all instead of... well, instead of anything else.

After graduation, Scarlett would miss the sport, miss the team, miss the friendship and camaraderie; she would not miss the Alteration. Not so, it seemed, for the others here. Laine, she knew, had an appreciation for being Altered, and it was pretty clear that Athena was enjoying it.

And there was no question that she, that everyone, was having fun.

It’s fun to win.

Yes, thank you, she mentally snapped back at herself, then sighed.

She didn’t like the implication, that it couldn’t be fun to lose. Sunny hadn’t won a game yet and was practically naked, but other than when she was blank-faced and staring at her visor, the vivacious grad student was never without a smile, and her voice was full of laughter. No one else seemed particularly upset either. Annie had been grinning like an idiot since she first flashed them, although her win at the abduction game might have had some influence on her mood.

She thought about losing as she finished off her pizza. She thought winning would be fun, sure, but so far as losing was concerned she was... indifferent? She would have to take something off (her shirt, she had decided, if she was ever on a losing team), but otherwise, this was a friendly afternoon, there was no reason to be upset. It was just a game.

She caught Laine’s eyes. The two of them were, visibly, opposites: Laine was short and round, nearly invisible by choice, while Scarlett was very tall and athletic, and as a result was only ever possibly overlooked when standing around with the other basketball players. Still, since they’d met in a poetry class that was an elective option for them both, they had been fairly close, and had spent a lot of free time together.

Scarlett could see that there was something going on with Laine. And by the way Laine blushed and turned aside when their eyes met, she could tell that Laine knew that she knew, and didn’t much want to talk about it.

No one else noticed the quiet girl’s reticence; why would they? Even as well as Scarlett knew her, she couldn’t be certain that there was anything wrong, and no one else here knew Virginia Elaine Halloran as well as Scarlett did.

“Something wrong, Scar?” Chere’s voice shocked the basketball player from her reverie.

“Hm?” She turned to face the older of the two Collins twins. “Nah, not really. Just... resting, I guess.”

“Won’t be too long before the next game.”

“Sure won’t.”

Chere’s concerned expression creaked upwards. “You know everyone’s gunning for you, right?”

Scarlett matched the smaller woman’s smile. “Then you better hope you’re not on my team.”

“Well, we’re on opposite sides now, so...” Chere looked up at the ceiling, thinking. “50/50 chance I switch teams. And 50/50 chance you switch teams.“

“That’s like 100/100, if you add ’em together, so it’s a guarantee.”

“What?” the redhead grimaced. “Don’t... don’t do that when I’m trying to think.”

Scarlett laughed. “If one of us switches, we’re on the same team. If neither or both of us do, we’re still on opposite sides. Still a coin toss.”

“Exclusive-OR,” Fatin said, walking up. “If one and only one is true...”

Chere rolled her eyes. “Ugh, don’t remind me of that shitty computer logic class. There’s a reason I changed tracks.”

“They could sure do me some good,” Scarlett said, getting to her feet. “No clue how the damn things work.”

“Plug it in once in awhile so the batteries don’t die, and tap the app you want when you want it,” Chere retorted. “That’s all I need to know.”

“Besides, we all know at least one computer expert.”

“I don’t know that I’d call Sunny an expert, exactly, but she’s handy to have around...” she shot a glare at her sister’s cartoon-printed underpants, “sometimes.”

Tanya emerged from the staff-only area off to one side, and clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. “Ladies! I hope you’re all having a good time.”

The eight partygoers gave a collective cheer affirming that they were.

It’s fun to win.

Shut up! Scarlett told her programming.

Go, Blaze, Go! the programming replied.

She entertained a small but significant fantasy of gouging out her own eyes. That definitely didn’t come from Alteration, either team-related or party-related. At least she knew that some part of her mind was untouched.

“So I’ve been here since before noon, and it’s time for my legally-mandated break,” Tanya was saying. There were a few plaintive groans from the others. “It’s alright, it’s alright, much as I want to run your whole day, I need to be fresh for later. And with the switch in the schedule, I get to come back for my favorite game, so there’s that. Anyway, for the next two matches, my supervisor, Liss, will be running the show.“

As if on cue, the doors out to the main lobby opened.

The first adjective that leapt to Scarlett’s mind was, ‘delicate.’ This woman—Liss, no doubt—was tall, taller than the other girls, though not as tall as the basketball player; she was thin, graceful, dark-eyed. She wore a green sari and a pair of stylish sandals. There was something vaguely familiar about her, but Scarlett had no idea why; after all, she didn’t really know anyone of east Indian descent.

The reactions of the others suggested that perhaps some of them were thinking something beyond ‘delicate.’ Sam, in particular, seemed bowled over, although Athena and Sunny were fairly flushed as well. Scarlett couldn’t remember if she would have been or not; the same programming that made her comfortable with her teammates’ (and more generally, all) bodies had also

Bodies are natural. Naked bodies are normal. Feeling no attraction to bodies is normal.

... that. Aesthetically, Liss was very pretty, but Scarlett wasn’t feeling anything like what Sam very clearly was. And while a part of her memory of high school suggested to her that she’d had different thoughts back then—and had acted on them enthusiastically—since joining the basketball team in her first year of college she’d barely looked that way at another person, and could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she’d gone beyond just looking.

Although... she had kissed Laine earlier, when her friend was hypnotized and waiting for her to make her Capture The Flag run. So maybe she did need that other hand for an accurate count.

She wasn’t even sure why she had, really. Must have had something to do with the interaction of today’s programming with

A good team is as close as any family.

Scarlett sighed quietly. Hey brain? We’re missing the discussion.

It was true. Introductions were being made. None of the others seemed the least bit self-conscious about meeting this stranger despite being so exposed. So what was it that made Scarlett, fully dressed, so reluctant?

She was moving, though, extending her arm. “Scarlett Davis,” she said, last to introduce herself, last to shake that slight hand.

“It’s wonderful meeting you all, and what an exciting event to be hosting.” Liss’ smile was radiant, as graceful as the rest of her. “Perhaps, hopefully, you will be the first of many. Tanya, thank you, we will see you in about an hour?”

“About an hour, Liss.” Tanya crossed the room and handed her supervisor the control tablet. “Call me when you’ve finished the next couple matches.”

The group said their thanks to Tanya as she headed into the main lobby. Liss made a couple of gestures on the touch screen. “Oh, it seems that there’s been a slight change in your schedule?”

“My fault,” Chere said. “I needed a brain break.”

“Oh, well, then. Blind Queen’s Castle will serve you well.” Liss’ voice was kind and understanding. “Are any of you familiar with the game?”

Sam alone raised her hand.

“Well, then, it’s quite simple,” Liss explained, her eyes on the tablet. “The game is played in five-minute rounds, and you will be divided into two teams. One team will be defending the blind queen, one will be trying to reach her. The queen will be seated in a throne, from which she cannot move—I see that Tanya has already set that, while you were having your meal. Good. If an invader tags her, it’s game over.”

“If she can’t move, how can she get away?” Sunny asked.

“That is the point of the game, Sunny,” Liss replied with a smile. “The blind queen has guards, and they defend her from the invaders. If a guard tags an invader, she will return have to return to the starting point before trying again.”

Chere spoke up. “So we get all zombie-like again, like with Capture the Flag?”

Liss shook her head. “No, actually, you will have to make your own way back. Your systems will be deactivated, you won’t be allowed to shoot anyone or be shot.”

“So why have a queen, and not just a goal or something? And why is she blind?” Annie asked.

Liss nodded. “I can answer the second question first; the queen’s visor will be darkened, and she will be unable to see her surroundings. Instead, she will have a full map, and a limited radar. She is blind to what is near her, but has a wider view of the field. The queen is like a general. The guards obey her orders. Invaders show up on the radar only if they’re within a short distance of the guards. The queen also collects, and distributes, powerups.”

“Back up a step,” Athena said. “The guards obey her orders? Just like that?“

“Yes, Athena, just like that. If you are a guard and you’re given a command from your sovereign, you will obey. That,” she added with a wink, “is the fun of it.”

Scarlett noticed that Athena wasn’t the only one to react to that. Laine blushed. Sunny grinned.

“The invaders will have the advantage of numbers, of course,” Liss continued, “but lack the coordination and the map view afforded to the Queen and Her guard. The guards are on comms, so that Her Majesty can manage the defence. The winning team will be determined by the most successful defenses, and a tie broken by time. Have I forgotten anything?”

Sunny spoke up. “What are the zappers for?”

“Ah, my apologies.” Liss turned to face the questioner. “The powerups in the maze act as special ammunition. A standard shot produces a short stun, about half a second. We call it a ‘stagger,’ since it’s about long enough to stop someone’s momentum and that’s about it.” She smiled and looked around the room. “Anything else?”

There was a brief pause. “I think we understand,” Chere answered for the group.

“Then, teams,” Liss said, tapping a control. “Grab your gear, please, ladies. Fatin, Sunny, Sam and Annie, blue team; Athena, Laine, Chere and Scarlett, red.”

“I guess that answers that,” Scarlett said to Chere as the players went to get their equipment. “You’re doomed.”

“Only because everyone’s after you,” Chere snapped back, grinning.

“Your luck has to run out sometime,” Fatin added with a chuckle, patting Scarlett’s shoulder as she walked by.

“Hah! ‘Luck,’” Scarlett said, mock-derisively. “Everyone knows that basketball skills translate directly to laser tag. Where’ve you been?”

The three of them laughed. Fatin grabbed her equipment and went over to the blue door. Scarlett was still pulling her visor on as Athena and Chere finished with their setup and headed in. She slowed her progress some, taking her time in attaching her weapon and tagger, pretending to fiddle with the straps, until all the blue players had left, and Liss had moved towards the restricted staff-only area, leaving only two people in the waiting room.

A good team is as close as any family. “Laine?“

The younger woman stopped in her gearing up. “What is it, Scar?”

“You okay?”

“Huh?”

“Are you alright?”

“What do you mean?”

If something bothers, ask. Scarlett turned towards her. “You’re awfully quiet.“

“I’m always quiet.”

“Not like this.”

Laine blushed. “I... can we...”

So there was something. “Later?”

Laine nodded. “Later.”

Still Scarlett lingered, hesitated. “Is this... because I kissed you?”

Laine looked surprised. “You did? Uh, n-no,” she continued quickly, flushing a bit. “No, it’s nothing you did. It’s nothing anyone did, there’s nothing... nothing wrong, really. Just a lot...” She scratched at her cheek, and Scarlett could read the frustration in the gesture, frustration probably due to some uncertainty or some inability to express the problem. “Later.“

“Later.” Scarlett nodded.

No more was said until the two of them had joined Chere and Athena in the small waiting room. In the little space, a team name list popped up, with the message “Please decide on an order for team leaders.”

“Hey guys, glad you could join us,” Chere said a touch sarcastically. “’Theen and me were talking, and we think we should put our best strategy players last, so we can get an idea for the game first.”

Laine nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Great!” Chere clapped her hands in front of her stomach. “That puts you last, Laine, and me before you.”

“I’ll go first, if that’s alright with you, Scar?” Athena asked.

Scarlett nodded. The names rearranged themselves on her visor to read, top-to-bottom, “Athena, Scarlett, Chere, Laine,” and finally, “Confirm?”

“Works for me,” Scarlett said. The others nodded.

Their screens briefly flashed the word, “Confirmed!” before changing to give the game’s conditions.

Sam’s Bachelorette Party! Match 4!

Blind Queen’s Castle

8 Rounds, 5 minute time limit

Friendly fire is ON

Powerups are ON — STRONG AMMUNITION set

Sudden Death is OFF

The game will begin when the players take their places

The door to the arena opened. A little arrow appeared on Scarlett’s visor.

Red Team will defend first

Queen of the Castle is SAM

Please proceed to invader’s home base

“They put Sam first?” Chere asked as the red team followed their arrows through the maze.

“She knows the game, probably can give them a good idea of how it goes,” Athena said. “You ever do anything like this, Scar?”

“I’ve only been a couple times, and only really played the basic game.” She shrugged. “I’ve heard that Blind King’s, er, Queen’s Castle is a popular option, but I could see it being a problem with more than... I dunno, a dozen people.”

“Annie, Sam and Fatin have all been here before,” Chere recalled. “Might give them an edge.”

“Might,” Scarlett agreed. “No point in worrying about it now.”

What is beyond control is to be accepted.

Yeah, yeah, fuck off.

The red team moved into the small dead-end that represented their safe place and starting area. Scarlett’s HUD showed both a five-minute timer in the corner which wasn’t ticking down, and a fifteen-second counter front-and-center which was.

Scarlett assessed her team, automatically slipping into competition mode. She herself was in good shape, rested and relaxed, ready to go. Chere was covering up her eagerness under cool sarcasm, but her body language clearly showed that her attitude was something more like her sister’s.

Athena and Laine, though... Both were distracted, their minds elsewhere. She didn’t doubt that either would play well, of course, but Athena’s endless curiosities were at the front of her mind, and while Scarlett couldn’t tell what Laine was troubled with, she was definitely bothered. It was no great loss to the team in ’Theen’s case, she wasn’t really that great a player, but Laine was a near-perfect shot, given the chance.

“We’re not going to be on comms, do we have a strategy?” Scarlett asked her teammates.

Athena shrugged. “Pair off?”

“I’ll go with Laine, then?” Chere asked.

“Sure. Let’s just go get her. Keep an eye out for ammo.” Scarlett’s competitive nature started to show. “We’ll go left?” she asked Athena, with a brief motion toward the adjoining corridor.

“Got it.”

The timer ticked down to zero; Scarlett and Athena headed out of the safe zone and turned left. Scarlett assessed the information the HUD offered up: distance to the goal, direction to the goal, round timer, special ammunition (none), enemy presence (none). That last one caught her interest; it wasn’t radar, exactly, more of a proximity alarm, but it could still be quite useful.

These games were different from the couple times that the Blaze had come down for team-building evenings. They hadn’t booked the entire building, as Sam had, and business was thriving, so the arrival of a dozen or so college basketball players just meant that the lot of them were shuffled into the regular games. When you have thirty people in the maze, the only game that really works amounts to “shoot other players, score points.”

And sure, that had been fun, bonding with her teammates (a good team is as close as family), pitting herself against new opponents (competition is the best part of life), getting a night out (new experiences are important), but it was nothing like this. This time, the Alteration process was much deeper, the games much more strategic, the play much more...

Her mind jumped back to the game of Capture the Flag, of holding Fatin in place with repeated, timed shots; of chasing Sunny and Sam through the maze; of tearing out, full speed, to get that last point.

Intense. The play was so much more intense.

Scarlett realized she’d been moving on autopilot, heading vaguely in the right direction, when Athena tapped her shoulder, making her start and quickly turn to face her teammate.

“What is it?”

Athena pointed down a short corridor where a powerup sigil glowed on the wall. “I’m gonna grab that. You wanna move on?”

My team needs my support. Scarlett shook her head. “I’ll keep watch. You’ll just be a couple seconds.“

Athena nodded and darted down the corridor while Scarlett stood by the turn and looked around. The proximity alarm pinged. Already a little on edge, Scarlett tensed up, scanning every possible angle.

Athena came out of the little dead-end, and quickly slipped down into a crouch as her alarm was set off as well. “Any idea who or where?”

“None,” Scarlett replied, her words quick and quiet. “Must be over a wall somewhere. What’d you get?”

“Freeze ray. I can shut down a guard until she gets rescued by an ally.” Athena was similarly hushed.

“Nice. Maybe you’ll have a victim shortly.”

“Might.” There was an odd note in that simple statement. Hope, possibly? Anticipation? It was difficult to gather good information from just one word.

Scarlett motioned to Athena to continue down the path, moving behind her; being a good half foot taller than the other girl gave Scarlett a clear line of sight, and of fire, over her teammate’s head. Both were aware that somewhere, one of the blue team was near enough that they were being picked up on radar. Which also meant that Sam knew where they were.

It would have been nice to have some information about Laine and Chere, where they were, what they were doing. Anything to help paint a bigger picture of the situation, even if it was incomplete, would have been useful.

Spying a sigil down a side-path, Scarlett tapped Athena on the shoulder and motioned in that direction, hoping for some weapon to match the freeze ray. The two of them travelled down the hall, pausing for Scarlett to reach out to the wall and claim her prize.

Her HUD responded. Powerup acquired: Cut the Wires. Target’s connection to the Queen will be severed for twenty seconds.

“Oh nice,” Scarlett said as she and Athena started moving again. “I can shoot someone and break their comms.”

“Great, I freeze someone, and they’ll never find her...” Athena giggled. “They’ll be stuck there until...”

There was a flash in Scarlett’s visor, and her brain responded, quickly processing the complex chain of events.

Ignore Athena, like you can’t hear her. Stand still. Say nothing. The commands rang in her head, unfamiliar and yet powerful, insistent.

We help our friends in their time of need, her regular programming replied.

You should act like you can’t hear Athena, or anyone at all. Stand still. Do not react to anything you see or hear.

Idleness is wasteful.

Will you both just shut the FUCK up? Scarlett shouted in her head. You. She mentally pointed, not physically moving, at the imagined character of her training. This is not basketball. It’s not practice. It’s not school. It’s a party. It’s fun. You don’t have to matter right now. We’ll talk after. And you! In her mind, she turned to face the second voice. Look, I already told you, I’ll play by your rules, so quit argu...

“Scar?”

Scarlett’s body leapt forward, startled, crashing into the wall. Athena’s hand, Athena’s tagger, had been on her bottom, releasing her from her trance. Her head hurt some, but she couldn’t tell why, and anyway it cleared fast enough. It wasn’t the first headache she’d had today, but none of them were particularly concerning, mostly just a flash, quickly left behind. An expected, and not concerning, side effect of the Altering.

Athena giggled. “Sorry, sorry about that. I nailed Sunny with the freeze ray after she got you with hers, so if you wanna shoot her and break her link?”

“Right, sure.” Scarlett took quick aim and did as her teammate suggested, and her powerup vanished from her HUD. She knew that Sunny wouldn’t appear on Sam’s map for some time. With a high five, she and Athena continued on their way, angling for the throne.

It occurred to Scarlett, almost as an afterthought, that if they could win this match, Sunny would be going into the next game naked.

Bodies are natural. Naked bodies are normal. Feeling no attraction to bodies is normal.

But it wasn’t the body itself that she was attracted to. Not that there was anything wrong with Sunny’s body, small and svelte and almost unbearably cute, her red hair framing a childlike face, not quite as athletic as her twin but no less shapely; but she was frozen in place with her zapper pointing at where Scarlett had been standing, barely breathing, her eyes fixed on a mind-numbing pattern on her visor, and that...

While she wouldn’t say that she found that attractive, not in the way Athena so clearly did, it held a certain appeal. In fact, that none of them showed any hang-ups, any hesitation, any embarrassment at all in stripping or in being around those who had, was...

Distractions have no place on the court.

Scarlett was reminded of this (despite not being on the court, exactly) by the signal of the proximity alarm. Wool-gathering again: even as her body was in the game, even as her senses were—watching down side-paths, listening for footfalls—her thoughts were always somewhere else.

It was probably going to get her shot, if she couldn’t keep her mind on things. Shot, and then tagged, and forced to walk back to the start.

Learn from mistakes, both mine and my opponents’.

Fatin had been distracted in that first game. It was easy enough to shoot her, and to catch Chere as she was trying to release her, and apparently Laine had managed to get them all in that same corner with a spread shot because they were busy chatting.

Which then led to Athena’s present state, walking around in her lacy bra. Scarlett looked down at her teammate, walking a short way in front of her. Athena hadn’t lost a match since the first, come to think of it. Would she follow Fatin and Chere and strip off that bra, if they lost this one?

More importantly, why do I care?

The question surprised Scarlett almost as much as Fatin popping out around a corner and shooting Athena.

Who didn’t just stand still. Scarlett watched, as though she’d been the one paralyzed, at Athena’s almost graceful, flowing stiffness; the rigid body and blank stare turning to face her and, with an outstretched arm, shooting her straight in the chest with a flash that took her breath away.

Fatin continued her movement around the corner, and with Scarlett momentarily stunned by her own ally, it was quite easy for the blue team’s best athlete to reach out and tag her.

The HUD blinked, leaving only an arrow on the screen and the message return to base, as she came out of the stun. Fatin stepped past her and tagged Athena as well, releasing her from her dazed state, before turning back and flashing Scarlett a grin.

“I’ll get you back,” Scarlett growled.

“Oh, believe me, it was tempting to just sit here with my drone and shoot you over and over...” Fatin laughed.

“Drone?” Athena gasped in mock-outrage, her hand falling on her chest. “You made a drone of me?”

Scarlett shook her head, smiling. “We ought to get back. Time’s wasting.”

Athena nodded. Fatin gave the two of them a wave. “Sorry, ladies, the queen’s calling me. See you around!” She turned and headed back around the corner she had emerged from.

Scarlett considered following, figuring out the best route to the throne, but...

I should go back to base, so I can keep playing.

Better on the court than on the bench.

Well, at least the two voices were in agreement this time.

“Sorry,” Athena apologized as they started walking back. “Fatin shot me and then I just had to...”

“’Salright,” Scarlett shrugged. “Just a game.” It’s fun to win. “Besides, where mind control is concerned, you’re not really to blame, right?“

Athena grinned. “Right. I guess that’s why friendly fire is on, yeah?”

“Must be, yeah.”

They continued in silence, Athena apparently lost in thought. Scarlett thought, or perhaps imagined, that Athena’s nipples were pressing against the flimsy lace.

Again, though, why do I care?

Her mouth was dry. They passed the place where they’d left Sunny, no longer frozen there, and her memory jumped back to the image of the small girl’s mostly-nude body.

Bodies are natural. Naked bodies are normal. Feeling no attraction to bodies is normal.

But minds?

It’s fun to win.

It was fun to win, yes, but not just because winning was fun. Winning meant toying with captive minds and captive bodies. Winning meant things like pinning Fatin with repeated blasts in Capture the Flag, or messing with memories at Red Rover, or even being able to do the things that Annie was doing when they were playing Abduction, which now sounded much more fun than it had during the game itself.

She needed to be back in the game. She needed a powerup. She needed... “’Theen, I think to avoid that again, we ought to split up,” Scarlett said, breaking the silence.

“Hm? Ah, yeah, sure,” Athena replied as they walked back into their base. Scarlett’s HUD rebooted; half their five-minute round timer had been used up. “Wonder how Chere and Laine are doing.”

“We’ll find out eventually.” Scarlett looked out from the entrance. “I’ll go right, you go left?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Not waiting any longer, Scarlett slipped from the safe zone and headed into the maze, deliberately moving away from the goal, eyes scanning the walls for powerups.

Ten seconds, and she found one, in a corner of the maze near the entrance. The HUD lit up with information. Powerup acquired: Power Beam. Continuous fire. No limits or other restrictions were listed.

Scarlett decided to try it out, and sure enough, her zapper provided a constant stream of light against the wall when she pulled and held the trigger. She could effortlessly pin down an enemy as long as she wanted.

Could be very handy in a group assault. Three people each hold a guard in place while the fourth attacks the undefended queen. Definitely something to keep in mind. As it was, it could be useful for getting past a lone guard, holding her in place and running past, ducking around a corner before she could turn.

A significant part of Scarlett was very much looking forward to doing just that. And a significant part of that part was very much looking forward to doing just that, specifically to Fatin. The friendly rivalry between them was... well, it was fun.

Nothing else, of course. Just fun.

Besides, she’d had rivalries on the court. They incentivized improvement, created a competitive environment, and...

And she was parroting her programming again. Rivalries are meant to be fun, not serious. Challenges push players to improve.

At least she had a goal to focus on. Hunting guards. More importantly, getting through the guards. Scarlett could, should, focus on getting to Sam, or failing that, on helping her team to do that.

And before you say a word, I know that my team is as close as family.

She had two-minutes-ten to go, a neat powerup, and a directional arrow pointing in the opposite direction from where she had been moving. “Go, Blaze, go,” Scarlett muttered, her tone steeped in irony, as she headed back into the maze at a good clip. She had to admit, she was itching to try her new beam, to watch one of her opponents held down for... for as long as she wanted, really.

That, she thought, could be worth more even than getting the point.

At just under two minutes, Scarlett’s proximity alarm signalled a nearby guard. And a moment later, coming around a corner, Scarlett proved herself a better, or at least faster, shot than Annie.

“Well, well,” the basketball player gloated, keeping her continuously-firing zapper pointed directly at the darker woman, the beam aimed squarely between her breasts. “Looks like you’re stuck.” Scarlett ambled casually closer. “I should probably hang out some distance away, so Sam can’t see me, but I just can’t pass this up. Mighty alien abductor isn’t so smart now, huh?” She laughed good-naturedly. “Besides, I’m not the one with my butt hangin’ out for everyone to see.

“You’re probably wondering what’s going on,” Scarlett continued, walking right up to her stunned opponent, careful not to let the beam stray from Annie’s core. “I found a continuous-fire powerup. There’s no ammo count on it, no time limit. So long as I hold the beam on you, you’re not going anywhere, no matter what Queen Samantha has to say about it.” She tapped Annie’s headset with a free finger.

“And while my teammates run around, gunning for your fearless leader, I’m just going to make it three against two. Team players put the team first.” Team players put the team first, her mind echoed. “Makes that advantage of numbers that much stronger, don’t you think? I bet you do. I’m sure you’d tell me, but...“

Scarlett shrugged and laughed. “Guess I could take a little break.” Careful to keep the zapper properly trained and her finger on the trigger, the basketball player leaned against the wall and slid down to a sitting position, which gave her a clear view of everything below the hem of Annie’s shirt. “Being well-rested is important, you know.” Proper rest is important for good performance. “And in about ninety seconds or so, I’m going to have to do your job, and do whatever I can to avoid exactly this situation.“

Scarlett looked up at Annie’s face behind the flickering visor, the determined half-smile still locked in place, her expression as frozen as the rest of her. “I have to wonder how you’re feeling in there, Annie,” Scarlett continued. “Oh, I might find out myself, at some point. I mean, I’ve already been frozen this match, been tapped out a couple times today, had my memory and mind fucked with—of course, that was all of us in that Red Rover thing. But I wonder if this is pissing you off. You’re a competitive bitch sometimes, sweetie—oh, don’t get me wrong, I love you, Annie Grace, and I’m grateful for everything you do as our mama-bear, especially for Laine, but there’s a side of you that must find this absolutely infuriating.” She giggled. Empathy brings people closer. “I know I’d be fucking pissed at this. Ask Fatin about what I did to her when she kept getting the better of me in the Capture the Flag match. I’m honestly a little disappointed that it wasn’t her I caught. Doesn’t matter now, though, really, and it’ll matter even less in a minute or so, I guess.“

She gestured casually with her free hand. “Doesn’t this feel a bit like some cliché scene out of some garbage movie or something? The villain monologuing to the captive hero, mere moments before she gets taken out by some avenging angel or some shit.” Scarlett laughed. “If Sunny or Fatin want to come get me, I’m basically helpless, but they’ve only got about thirty seconds to do it. But who knows, maybe they have better things to do. Maybe they’re happy to have me tied up here with you, to take on Laine, Chere and ’Theen with just the two of ’em.”

Her tone became thoughtful. “I hope you’re not getting stiff and sore there, holding your pose. Although I guess you’d move a bit if you were. That’s what Tanya said, anyway. And I guess neither of us would notice. That’s the fun of all this, isn’t it? I mean, certainly Sunny and ’Theen seem to think so. Not sure where you’re at, or Laine. Or really me, I guess.” She shrugged. “All I know is that I’m really enjoying having you stuck here. But don’t worry, we just have ten seconds left. So maybe I’ll just keep quiet until the timer runs out.”

She had hopes that Athena, Laine or Sunny might make some sort of final push, or might already be at their goal, as the timer ticked down the last few seconds, but unfortunately, the timer went to zero, and the HUD reported a successful defense. The continuous firing of Scarlett’s laser pistol ended and Annie lurched sideways, her arm finally completing its arrested motion to point down a hallway where Scarlett had been standing nearly two minutes before.

“Shit, girl, you’re vicious!” Annie laughed, offering a hand out to help Scarlett back to her feet. “What do they teach you on that basketball team?“

“Oh, I learned that in calc-three,” Scarlett deadpanned, taking Annie’s hand and getting to her feet, where she towered over her stocky friend. “Mostly on the team we just do dribbling drills.”

“Well, you know, if Fatin’s got it in for you, too, that means there’s now two of us who need a little revenge.”

“Chere told me earlier that everyone had it in for me already, on account of me having been on every winning team.”

“Wouldn’t mind seeing you wear a little less...” Annie winked. Scarlett felt herself going a touch red. “’Sides, I think we got you this time. We’re ahead already, and we’ve got three of us who know what we’re doing.”

“Don’t count out Laine and Chere yet,” Scarlett retorted as her HUD directed her towards the Queen’s throne.

“What about you and ’Theen?”

Scarlett paused. “Don’t count out Laine and Chere yet,” she said with a smirk. “See you soon.”

Annie laughed. “See you soon.” She jogged off towards the invaders’ home base. Scarlett watched her go until she turned the corner, then headed away herself, pretending that she hadn’t been watching Annie’s ass.

“Hey Scar,” Athena said as the athlete ran up, following the simple directions of the HUD. She was seated in what Scarlett presumed was her throne, a simple oversized wooden chair. Chere and Laine were already there, waiting. “Guess you were somewhere else.”

“I was keeping Annie off your butts, thanks,” Scarlett replied with a grin. “Not my fault if you three didn’t do anything about it.”

“Oh yeah?” Chere asked, curious. “What did you do?”

“Found a continuous-fire powerup, sat there and held her down for two minutes.”

“Nice,” Athena replied. Again, tough to read from a single word, but there was some warmth in that statement.

Laine nodded, a thoughtful look on her face; when Scarlett met her eyes, all she did was mouthe the word, ‘Later.’

“Whoops,” Athena said, settling into the chair. “Here we go.” Her visor was visibly growing darker, obscuring the office clerk’s face.

“What’s happening?” Chere asked, her voice betraying concern.

“Can’t see. Or, can’t see you guys, but the map is showing up. And the fifteen-second timer.”

“Okay, we need a plan, guys, and better than the last one,” Chere said. The other three nodded.

Laine spoke up first. “You’re supposed to distribute the powerups, I think, ’Theen, so why don’t I go out and find some?”

“Okay, sure, I’ll stick close to home and guard the throne,” Chere replied. “Scar, you want to do some hunting?”

Scarlett grinned. “I’ll do my best to keep a lid on ’em.”

“Good ideas, everyone,” Athena nodded. “Uh, keep in touch, so I know what you’re all doing.”

“Right.”

“Aye aye.”

“Of course.” My team needs my support.

The counter ticked to zero, starting the second round, and the three of them were off. Scarlett assessed her HUD, and saw that she had even less information than before; no proximity alarm, no round timer. Athena was the one with all the details.

This round felt... different, Scarlett decided as she moved through the maze in roughly the direction of the invader base. Where last time she had been running with Athena, now she was off on her own, but more than just knowing and understanding that her fellow guards and her queen could communicate with her, she felt connected to them, like no matter the distance in the maze they were close, tethered. It was a feeling she’d often had on the court, a deep understanding of where her teammates would be at any given moment, knowing where and how she could find them without looking.

It wasn’t the same, obviously, she didn’t actually know where Chere and Laine were, but that feeling was there, that camaraderie that she hadn’t known she was missing from the previous round.

“So I guess that makes you my knight, Scar,” Athena was saying, “hunting down my distant enemies.”

“Huh? Yeah, I guess,” Scar replied into the headset. The others had been chatting, but it hadn’t been anything important, so she had let it slide.

“Take a left, someone’s heading your way.”

Take a left. Athena’s voice, her Queen’s voice, echoed in her mind. Scarlett moved without thinking, ducking down the corridor on her left. “Got it. What from here?“

“Hmm. Someone’s just coming your way down the hall, I want you to send her home. Here, Laine found this.”

Send her home.

Scarlett’s HUD showed a powerup. Distance tag. 3 shots. Zapper doubles as tagger.

“Hey, neat, thanks,” Scarlett replied.

“She’s just coming around the corner...”

Scarlett ducked out and fired. Send her home. The ammo counter rolled from 3 to 2, and Sunny jumped, surprised. “Aah! Hey, wait, you didn’t... oh.“

“Nope, didn’t stun you.” Scarlett grinned. “Just sending you home.”

“Hey neat,” Athena’s voice came over the comms. “You stole her powerup.”

Sunny, meanwhile, stuck her tongue out at Scarlett. “I’ll just come back stronger, you know.”

Scarlett laughed. “Go do it, then.”

“Maybe I will!” Sunny turned, laughing, and started heading back the way she’d come.

Athena’s voice was coming in again. “She had an aimbot, apparently. Six shots.”

“Sounds handy,” Chere replied over the headset.

“Why didn’t she use it?” Laine’s voice asked.

“I surprised her. Thanks for that, ’Theen, by the way.”

“That’s my job, and yours is to help out, right?” The pleasure was evident in Athena’s voice.

An aimbot. Scarlett had used one on a previous visit. It was an interesting experience, having her pistol hand snap into position whenever an enemy came into view, knowing all she had to do was pull the trigger to score a hit. She had asked Laine after that if it was a possibility for the team Alters, thinking it might make for better shooting skills, only to be told that adjusting aim in three dimensions and dealing with factors like muscle power, tiredness, and other defenders was a lot harder than just pulling an instantly-firing laser into alignment. Given the way the system worked, too, it was also easy enough to fudge some of that aim; if the computer knew who you were shooting at, it could confirm a hit even if you were a mile off.

Laine also pointed out, after mentioning that it was unfeasible, that such an Alteration would violate league rules, otherwise everyone would be doing it. Wouldn’t be a lot to the game, at that point, just a bunch of girls tossing three pointers as soon as they got their hands on the ball.

“Laine, watch out, there’s someone just over that wall,” Athena’s voice came in. “Scarlett, you wanna go give her an assist?”

Go give her an assist. “Sure thing, just guide me.“

“Uh, right. Keep heading that way.”

Keep heading that way. Scarlett didn’t even look down a side corridor. She just briskly followed the path she was walking.

“Anything over here, ’Theen?” Chere’s voice floated in.

“No, I...”

Scarlett pulled up short. “I’m at a dead-end, ’Theen,”

“Hey, is it safe to collect that powerup over there?” Laine asked.

“Shit, I think I saw someone.” That was Chere.

“I don’t... uh... Scarlett, back up, first right, um...”

“I’m going to investigate.”

“No, Chere, you wait where you...”

“Anyone nearby, can I get the...”

“Can you all just be quiet a moment?” Athena said, exasperated.

Following the echo in her mind, Scarlett backed up, turned right, followed the wall around. Another intersection loomed, and an unforced turn to the right meant that she was once more travelling in the same direction she had been earlier, like Athena had originally wanted.

“Okay, Chere, here, you take the aimbot, and just hang out here, keep me safe. And Laine, there’s two right near you. Scar’s on her way—quick right, Scar, and be ready, there’s two right there.”

Scarlett turned right as she was directed, pistol at the ready, on her guard. She still had two shots left on the distance tag, so all she had to do was shoot them and they would have to go back to base.

The aimbot would be handy in combination with that, but these things couldn’t be helped. Second-guessing can waste time. What is beyond control is to be accepted.

Two shots fired. One hit, one not. Sunny, struck a second time by Scarlett’s long-distance tag, hung her head and heaved a sigh, while Fatin turned quickly and pointed her zapper straight at Scarlett.

Be still now. And Scarlett didn’t move, her feet spread to shoulder width, her pistol chest-high and pointed down the hall. Fatin kept her own beam trained, while Sunny just shook her head, said something quick to Fatin, and jogged off in the other direction, grinning.

“Tables have turned, haven’t they?” Fatin said, walking closer. “Annie told me about what you did to her. Thought I’d try it out myself. You know, given what you did to me a couple rounds ago.”

Simply stay still. You’re caught, the day’s Alteration said to her, and she couldn’t help but agree.

“Scar? Hey, report in.” Athena sounded concerned

She wanted to answer, to obey her Queen. And her regular programming (...as close as any family) was not helping. But she also wanted to play fair—both sets of programming insisted on fair play—and playing fair meant keeping as still as she could for so long as that beam was pointed at her, so long as that pattern was flickering across her HUD almost too fast for her to consciously process.

“Laine?” Scarlett heard Athena’s voice. “Head out from your corner and turn left.”

That would be the rescue party on its way.

“Oh my, Scarlett,” Fatin said, swaying her hips as she stepped slowly closer. “Are you staring?”

Well, it wasn’t like she could look away. And Fatin’s breasts weren’t objectionable at all. If she hadn’t been so heavily programmed to

Bodies are natural. Naked bodies are normal. Feeling no attraction to bodies is normal.

... she would probably be finding them arousing. If she found women’s bodies arousing, she wasn’t really certain any

Your friends are attractive.

That certainly wasn’t part of her standard programming. It didn’t feel alien, although...

“No, shit, sorry, Laine, turn around, I should have sent you to the right.”

And the voice was odd; it wasn’t her own, which is how she usually heard her programming. It sounded more like

It’s fun to mess with them.

Well, sure it was that. And fun to see them messed with. But whose voice was it? Familiar, somehow, but...

“Chere, could you go help them? Uhh, head forward, left at the second turn.”

Fun to see them, or hear them, being messed with, even if others were messing and not her. Still, it

And there’s no need for this to be remembered.

“...’pose you don’t really have a choice.” Fatin was saying, keeping her pistol trained on Scarlett and her chest directly in the basketball player’s eyeline, now within arm’s reach.

It was true, she didn’t, and the combination of staring at Fatin’s breasts and hearing Athena frantically try to direct her two teammates to her location seemed to have kept her train of thought from quite following its tracks.

Scarlett wondered briefly why it was that neither Laine nor Chere were warning Athena that she was leaving herself undefended. She knew why she wasn’t, and the reason centred around the half-naked woman with the continuously-firing stun blaster pointed at her.

Or, wait, was that the reason? It was a reason, sure, but Scarlett realized that a short while ago, Athena had told them all to be quiet. Athena had deprived herself, probably accidentally, of the advice of the two best strategic minds on their team, and was now blindly directing them to try and rescue Scarlett, despite the fact that Scarlett’s imprisonment relied on keeping the other team’s best athlete pinned down with her.

This was the sort of thing that could be a very costly mistake.

“Annie told me how much you were enjoying looking,” Fatin was saying, pulling Scarlett’s attention away from Athena’s garbled directions. She saw Laine finally come around the corner behind Fatin. “Of course, the view’s a little different, isn’t it?”

As Laine took quick aim, suddenly Scarlett’s HUD went blank, and she found herself able to move her feet. She lurched into position to shoot Fatin, but it was far too late for that.

Fatin’s face fell a little. “Darn, looks like the round’s over. I was having fun there.” She laughed. “I see why you do that. Gloating is great.”

“It does pass the time when you’re stuck with someone,” Scarlett replied, grinning, no longer held back by her programming. “Whose turn is it in the chair?”

“Annie’s up.” Fatin turned away, pausing to wave to Laine as they passed one another. “I hope the chair’s warm...”

Scarlett laughed. “I’d hope it’s soft!” she said to Fatin’s back. She heard both Laine and Fatin chuckle in reply, and turned to face her approaching teammate. “Can you imagine, Laine, if it was just a wooden bench? The splinters?”

Laine snorted. “You kinda hope they’d only be in her ass...”

“Heh, would serve her right, after the alien thing.”

Laine grinned, but went quiet, and reddened some. So, something happened during the last game, Scarlett reasoned. But... Laine was out right away, in the first round... so...

Scarlett put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Hey, Laine...” They stopped their walk through the maze.

“Huh? What is it?”

“Is it Tanya?”

Laine went bright red.

“Later?”

“P-please. Just... just later.”

Scarlett nodded, and the two of them resumed their march towards their start point in thoughtful silence.

The other two were already there when Scarlett and Laine arrived, Chere with her arms crossed over her breasts looking grim, Athena staring sheepishly at her feet. “Sorry guys,” she muttered.

“Just a game,” Scarlett and Laine said in unison. “We’re here for Sam, and we’re here for fun,” Scarlett continued.

“I know,” Athena replied, “but I still feel dumb, leaving myself open like that, and...”

“... and telling us all to shut up?” Chere concluded.

Scarlett snickered. “Probably the only thing that could keep some of us from constantly nattering. I bet it was a relief, right ’Theen?”

Athena tried to look embarrassed, but couldn’t manage it, and the four of them shared a laugh.

Laine shook her head. “It’s alright. We all make mistakes. Let’s just get them back.”

“Right,” Chere replied, uncrossing her arms. “Do we have an actual plan this time?“

The fifteen-second countdown had begun. “Uh, I think I do,” Laine said. “Got five minutes, right? We stay on this end of the maze and collect powerups until there’s two minutes left, then gather up here and go in all together.”

“Hey, sounds like a great idea,” Chere said. Athena nodded along.

“Alright then,” Scarlett agreed. “Stay away from the other team, don’t engage if you can avoid it, and remember you can always come back here to be safe.”

“Yeah, when you guys tagged the others you swiped their powerups,” Athena pointed out.

Laine nodded. “I think Liss forgot to mention that. Don’t let them steal anything good.”

“Game’s starting,” Chere cut in. “Stick together again? I’ll go with Scar.”

“Great,” Athena said. “Laine, c’mon. Let’s go grab some weapons.”

“Okay, I’m looking for that continuous beam I had last...” Scarlett began, but something about Chere’s body language made her stop. “Everything okay?” If something bothers...

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I mean...” Chere shook her head, her smile fading a little. “No. But whatever. I’m just mad at ’Theen, and worried about Laine, and sick of my sister, and this whole afternoon is just... Ugh, you know, right?”

Scarlett nodded. My team needs my support. “I’m having a good time, but I can understand. I wouldn’t worry too much about Laine, anyway, she and I had a chat, and she’s doing alright. Not perfect, but...“

“I’m here for Sam,” Chere replied, “And it’s not like I’m miserable. It’s fun. And I shouldn’t be upset with ’Theen, it’s just a game, she made some mistakes, it’s fine.”

“Here’s a powerup, you grab it,” Scarlett said with a wave of her hand. Chere moved to arm herself. “What’s wrong with Sunny?”

“Do I have to spell it out?” the older twin said with a touch of bitterness as she put her hand to the wall. “Ooh, ‘Dronify.’ I can make one of the others into a turret for our team for a few seconds.”

“Yeah, Fatin did that with ’Theen in the first round. Got us both caught.”

“Cool. But yeah, Sunny. She just acts like such a kid all the time, and this...” Chere sighed. “Like, it brings out all the things I hate about her, you know?”

Scarlett shook her head as they kept moving, her eyes open for more powerups wherever they might be hiding. “I don’t, really, sorry. Maybe it’s because I’m an only child?”

“Yeah, maybe. I mean, doesn’t help that I look at Fatin or Annie and start to think about how nice it might be if they took the rest of their clothes off...“

“Yeah, that I understand, definitely.” Scarlett felt herself grow warm, thinking about Sunny. “But it’s weird, you know? All this programming in my head from the team that’s meant to downplay all that...“

Chere nodded. “So it’s not my boobs, it’s why they’re out?”

Scarlett swallowed. Interesting way to put that. “Yeah. I think they might’ve put something special in our Alters.”

“That sounds like Sam, for sure,” Chere laughed. “There’s one, you want it?”

“Yeah.” Scarlett turned the corner where Chere was indicating, and put her hand on the wall. If it was something from today, that would mean that it was something they’d all agreed to. Sam was very clear on that. That agreement was important to Sam, she knew, and to just about everyone else, too. In fact, they had all agreed that afterwards...

“What’d you get?” Chere asked.

Scarlett shook herself from her reverie, not entirely sure what she had been remembering. “Aimbot,” she replied. “Six shots of not-missing, which is kinda fun, but needs something more useful to go on top of it or it’s just a short-lived version of the continuous shot.”

“Wonder how the other two are doing.”

“Find out in about ninety seconds, I guess.”

A few more moment of searching in silence, before Chere, two steps ahead, stiffened and raised a hand. “Someone’s close.”

“My alarm didn’t go off; let’s turn back, avoid...” Scarlett began quietly, before her own enemy presence alert went off. “Heading this way. Thoughts?”

“I could drone ’em, whoever it is. Leave a little turret hanging out for whoever follows behind.”

“What about sticking to the plan?”

“Still got a minute to find some better stuff.”

Blueprints exist for a reason. “Haven’t really been getting great drops, though,” Scarlett replied.

Chere shrugged. “Got a point. Alright, something something run away, live to fight another day, or whatever.” She turned on her heel and started heading back the way they’d come.

Scarlett followed. “Huh, either someone’s following us, or there’s more than one of the ar—”

Her eyes registered a flash to her right, red and green—Sam’s bra and skirt, she realized—then a second flash, a laser shot, and then a third, a subliminal direction from her visor. Instant, fleeting.

And once the programming stopped echoing in her head, Scarlett saw Chere respond with her zapper, and Sam’s eyes went glassy behind her visor. She slowly turned in place, head swivelling this way and that.

Scarlett recovered from her momentary stun and gave Chere a thumbs-up. “Great shot.”

Chere gave her a confused look. “Ample tenuous pictographs?” she replied.

“What was that?” Scarlett asked, brow furrowing.

Chere pointed down the hall, the direction they were headed. “Numb neck tumble vaudeville praxis.” She started to turn away.

Scarlett held her place. “Chere, is everything okay? Are you alright?”

Chere stopped and turned back. “Skull boxing turpentine paddle?”

Good communication is key to good teamwork

Oh that’s just fucking fantastic, thank you.

“Chere, she’s done something to my...”

Chere held up her hand and shook her head. “Impressionable, cat finder portal Steve.”

“Okay, this is only going to get frustrating.”

Chere rolled her eyes, shook her head, and put a finger to her lips.

“Right. Of course.”

Chere’s eyes went wide and she blushed a bright red. She turned without a word and headed off, although Scarlett thought she saw a faint smile on the small woman’s face.

So I can’t hear right, and apparently I can’t talk right, if that look’s any indication.

If something bothers, ask, her programming suggested unhelpfully.

Definitely not the time, thanks. At least not until I can understand the answer.

Chere needed a new powerup after using hers against Sam. Scarlett needed something to go with her aimbot. They had about a minute left before the planned reunion, and Scarlett had no idea how long the language center of her brain was going to keep on being mixed up.

Being unable to talk to her teammate made things both trickier and much more boring. Chere tried for a moment to communicate something with hand gestures and directions, but once things went beyond simple pointing communication became impossible, although whether that was because of Sam’s attack or because neither of them were any good at charades, she couldn’t be sure.

Mostly, though, Scarlett missed the conversation, even its temporary lack. She had been enjoying getting to know Chere better. Although, watching her go through bizarre and frantic motions to try and tell Scarlett that there was a powerup on the wall, that she could clearly see, was rather amusing.

Scarlett put her hand to the wall, and her HUD lit up. Tender Palaces! Fund unpopular North in grids!

Shit, is that the visor doing that itself, or can I not read, too? The rest of her display looked normal, so she assumed that the garbled text was actually what was being shown. Just an additional, deliberate piece of linguistic confusion.

“Clue in a jar?” Chere asked.

Scarlett shrugged, assuming Chere was asking about the power she’d picked up. “I’ll let you know when I know.”

Chere giggled and spun on her toes like a dancer. It occurred to Scarlett that there was another way she could find out what power she had, as she watched Chere’s bare back heading down the corridor, then shook off that thought. She didn’t need to be a traitor, not without encouragement from the blue team and her Alterations. Her usual programming would probably have a conniption if she even thought too hard about it.

A good team player doesn’t shoot at her own net.

Yep. There it was.

Chere was roaming ahead, looking for powerups, always sure to keep in sight. She spouted back the occasional meaningless word or two. Scarlett began thinking through what they had been discussing before Sam had messed up her communications. “So it’s not my boobs, it’s why they’re out?” Chere had said then.

“So the question is,” Scarlett said, aloud but to herself, contemplative, “do I actually want to sleep with you?” She could picture the lithe, small-boned twin pressed against her in any number of different configurations. “In high school, thoughts like that would have been, I dunno, exciting, but now...” There was at best a passing interest. She shrugged.

Chere ignored her babble, checking a powerup on the wall. She gave a little cheer when she saw what it was.

“Now, like you said, the reason that your boobs are out, that’s different,” Scarlett continued, giving her teammate a smile and a thumbs up. “Turns out, I kinda like seeing my friends Altered.“

“Selfie the purple flag up the next corridor?” Chere replied with a waving gesture.

“Sure, we can see what’s down there.” Scarlett followed Chere, turning to the left. “When it comes to the idea of being the one doing the Altering, I’m really starting to see the appeal.“

“Uh, stand three trees away and um, the wall shines.” Chere pointed at a powerup sigil near them.

“Got it, yeah.” Scarlett reached for the new power. “I think I would like to be the one making the...” she blinked. Euphoria, her HUD read. The target will become blissful and relaxed. Thirty seconds. (2 shots)

Her HUD was displaying plain English.

“Chere?” she said, turning to the smaller girl.

... who was wearing a fake-innocent grin. “Pancakes?”

“Chere, how long have you known what I’ve been saying?”

“Oh, look at the clock, Scar, we should get back to...”

Scarlett lunged. Chere danced back, laughing and took off down the hall. “Just a little while, I swear!”

Scarlett couldn’t help but laugh herself as she sprinted after her red-haired teammate. “You better keep quiet!”

“I won’t say a word!” Chere giggled, rounding another corner, Scarlett hot on her heels, both of them pulling up short moments before crashing in to their teammates.

“About what?” Athena asked as the chase skidded to a halt.

“About Scarlett wanting to mmmmph!”

Scarlett had clapped her hand over Chere’s mouth and held her close with an arm around her midriff as she struggled to get away. “You want to find out what my powerup does?”

“What’s wrong?” Laine asked, jogging into view to see Chere and Scarlett struggling together.

“Nothing!” Scarlett replied, releasing her prisoner and making sure her pistol was out of the way as Chere stumbled forward.

Laine trained her zapper on Scarlett. “Has she been messed with or something?”

Chere laughed, sounding a lot like her sister. “Could say that...”

Scarlett blushed. “Sam hit me with something that screwed up my language, and it wore off before I realized it. So I said stuff that I thought she couldn’t understand.”

“And she could,” Athena concluded, to which both Scarlett and Chere nodded.

“And you’d prefer she not tell us,” Laine added. Both Scarlett and Chere nodded again.

“Could I suggest,” Laine continued evenly, clearly trying not to laugh, “that instead we stick to the plan, go back to our safe corner, and worry about it there? Time’s getting tight, and I don’t like standing in the open.”

“We could just make a run in now, instead,” Scarlett suggested. “It’s that time. I’ve got two shots of Euphoria and an Aimbot, what about the rest of you?”

Athena raised her hand. “Three Freezes. Enough to take down the whole red team.”

“Or all of us if you get droned again,” Scarlett pointed out.

“Gonna let me live that down sometime?”

“Nah.” Scarlett smiled and shook her head. “What about you, Laine?”

Their youngest friend shrugged. “Aimbot, Cut the Wires, and Leg Irons.”

“’Leg Irons,’ Laine?” Chere asked.

“My HUD says it’ll keep someone from moving one of their feet for twenty seconds.”

Scarlett turned to her former prisoner. “Chere, you seemed pretty happy when you got your powerup.”

“I am!” Chere replied. “I have that continuous shot thing you like, Scar. Power beam.“

“Hey, great! At least one of us has it, after all that. Alright, how do we want to go in?”

“I want to find my sister and pin her with this thing.”

Scarlett grinned. “It is fun to do.“

“Any way we can get ’Theen’s weapons to take out the other two?” Laine asked.

Chere shrugged. “Worth a shot, wanna go as a group, then?”

“Sure, let’s cluster up,” Scarlett replied. “Let’s go, anyway, we’re down to a minute forty.”

“Charge!” Athena laughed, heading down the corridor. Laine gave an apologetic shrug to the other two and followed after.

“After you,” Scarlett said to Chere with a little wave. Chere gave a dramatic curtsey, the propriety of which was somewhat undercut by the bounce in her chest, and chased Laine up the hall.

The four of them did spread out a bit, but Scarlett worked to keep Chere in sight at all times, and often could see Laine. She thought that maybe Athena shouldn’t have been leading them, since she had the freeze shots; Laine might have been a better choice, given her arsenal. When time is tight, take action, though, so she didn’t bother trying to get everyone’s attention, but filed it away in case she had a moment later to discuss it with them.

Besides, there had been enough talk. Voicing her thoughts was starting to get awkward and embarrassing. Especially since those thoughts were going places which were... well, not unusual, not really, just unexplored. And it wasn’t that she wasn’t enjoying exploring them, it just felt like it wasn’t the time.

She thought about Laine, then, and what might have been bothering her. How Athena was really enjoying being Altered. How Sam had arranged and orchestrated the whole evening. Maybe it was the right time to be—

Scarlett’s proximity alert grabbed her attention, and she pressed herself against the wall. She called out quietly, but Chere didn’t hear her and continued around the corner.

Must be behind us, then, or off to the side, she reasoned. She made a quick decision to break off from the group and investigate, heading down a side passage; the alert didn’t turn off, so she assumed she was heading in the right direction. She couldn’t freeze or continually pin someone down, but half a minute of euphoria might be enough to keep whoever it was off the rest of the group. At the very least, she might be able to disguise the plan and keep her teammates off the radar for a few more precious seconds.

Second-guessing can waste time; when time is tight, take action.

Scarlett ducked around a corner, zapper at the ready, waiting for whoever was triggering her proximity alarm, hoping none of her teammates decided to turn back for her. There was a flicker in her visor; her arm jerked over an inch and her finger touched the trigger. Her count on the Euphoria powerup ticked from two to one, and on the aimbot from six to five.

Around the corner, down the hall, and at another turn, Scarlett could see an arm. Fatin’s, given the darker skin tone and the lack of shirt covering it. Scarlett stepped out into the corridor at the same time Fatin did.

“Hey,” the topless muslima said, her eyes half-closed and a wide smile on her face. “Great shot.”

“Thanks,” Scarlett replied, turning to rejoin her team.

“Hey, wait,” Fatin drawled. “You should join me.”

Scarlett tried to ignore her and head down the hall, but...

Fatin giggled. “Zap!” she shouted out.

Scarlett’s visor glimmered.

Relax. Take a load off.

“H-huh?” Scarlett muttered.

“I got a euphoria shot!” Fatin giggled.

You’re feeling good. So very good. Scarlett turned back, hand on the wall, and laughed. “I did too!“

“Haha, yeah, I figured that!”

My team needs m... Relax. Take it easy. They can handle it. You need a break.

“I need a break. Phew!” Scarlett plopped down on the floor and giggled.

Fatin walked over. “I’m gonna sit next to you, okay?” Which she did without waiting for an answer.

“I even have another shot for when yours wears off!” Scarlett laughed. “Just.... jus lemme know and I’ll shoot you again.”

“Ohhh, just like in the flag game!”

My team needs me to be.... here... relaxed... calm

“Yeah! Just like that! That was...” It’s fun to mess with them. “... it was fun messing with you, Fatin.” Scarlett’s voice sounded suddenly very sincere.

“Aww! It was fun messing with you!” Fatin put an arm around Scarlett’s shoulder. “Like I could just shoot you allllll day!” She tapped Scarlett’s arm with her zapper.

Scarlett leaned over, her head falling lazily in front of Fatin’s chest, looking up at her opponent. “You know if you lose,” she said, “Sunny’s gonna be completely naked.“

Something about this statement struck both of them as hilarious and they broke into loud laughter.

A moment later, Fatin’s laugh cut off short. “Shit,” she said, trying to scramble to her feet without hurting Scarlett or shoving her to the ground.

Scarlett snorted. “Nooope,” she said, shooting Fatin again, and enjoying the feeling of her own euphoria gently letting her down as Fatin’s smile once more spread across her face.

As she sat up straight, almost without thinking about it, Scarlett gave her friendly rival a peck on the cheek. “Sorry, Fatin, but I’m not sticking around with you for this trip.”

“Aww, well...” Fatin giggled as she tapped Scarlett’s foot almost accidentally with her tagger. “Guess I should send you home then?” A laughing fit came over her at that, enough for Fatin to collapse on her side in uncontrollable giggles.

Scarlett had to laugh as her HUD shut down and instructed her to return to base. “Shit, Fatin, you got me. Alright, I’ll head back.”

“Good!” Fatin snickered. “And stay out!” She tittered, stretching out on the floor.

The sound of soft giggles chased Scarlett through the maze as she followed the arrow back, wondering just where the rest of the team was. She’d spent over half a minute with Fatin, there was no way there would be more than thirty seconds left by the time she was able to reboot her system.

Good thing I’m fast, then. Scarlett started jogging, turning the last corner, then immediately pivoting as her visor came back online, picking up speed, relying on muscle memory and training drills to make the quick change in direction, and moving from a jog to a sprint.

Twenty-five seconds to get to Annie.

At a dead run, now, barely slowing to take the corners, Scarlett followed her guiding arrow, hoping to simply fly past any defenders in her way.

Defenders like Sunny. Who was braced and waiting for her as she turned a corner. Who fired as soon as she saw Scarlett. Whose shot combined with the laws of physics caused the basketball player to pitch forward and land roughly on the soft floor.

“Need a Freeze or something here, quick!” Sunny said, taking a second shot.

Tanya’s programming had itself a loud argument with the basketball team’s training immediately following that, which lasted until the timer expired, but Scarlett didn’t remember a word of it.

An overlay of the map appeared in front of Scarlett’s eyes, as the rest of her vision started to go dark. “Alright girls, this is it. Fifteen seconds. Report for duty.”

“Yes ma’am,” Athena replied. “Private Vasilakis signing in!”

Scarlett swore that she could hear Chere rolling her eyes. “I’m here, Scar.“

“Me too,” Laine said softly.

“Okay, team, here’s the plan.” Leaders step up when it’s time. “Laine, I want you here protecting me. Chere, ’Theen, the two of you stick together and look for powerups. Don’t engage unless you have to. And don’t keep anything from me you think I ought to know!“

On the headset, she heard Athena blowing a raspberry.

It was an odd sensation, watching the dots depart, hearing them speak almost as though they were right in her mind, but being unable to see beyond the display on the visor. She knew Laine was nearby—she could see the indicative dot on the visor saying so, and she’d told her to stick close—but there was no actual physical indication of her presence, even when she spoke. It was as though she couldn’t process, or perhaps even receive, any information that didn’t come directly from the headset.

“Hey Laine, can you just make a little patrol back and forth, just to keep an eye on the corridors?”

“Will do,” Laine said, and Scarlett knew, just knew, that she would, to the best of her ability. That thought gave her a little shiver.

Scarlett ignored her growing arousal. “Any news out there, ’Theen, Chere?”

“Got a powerup coming your way in a sec,” Chere replied.

Scarlett’s HUD responded. Athena acquired: Fade Out. Target becomes undetectable to their own team, thirty seconds. A little box for ‘inventory’ appeared in the lower left of the display, and the words ‘Fade Out’ appeared in the box.

“Okay, that’s neat. Find me more.” Scarlett guessed that that was the equivalent to ‘Cut the Wires’ for the defense team.

“Yes ma’am!” Athena replied with faux-military crispness.

Another shiver.

“Chere, ’Theen, do you feel safe to split up?”

“Sure.”

“Yep!”

“Do it. Fill the inventory, I’ll keep a watch.”

“Sure.”

“Got it!”

Another shiver. She wondered if Athena had felt this. Or Annie. Or Sam... no, Sam probably felt exactly this. This whole afternoon was Sam’s idea, and Scarlett imagined that this feeling was probably why.

“Chere, take your next right, be ready to shoot.”

“Check.”

“I got another powerup,” Athena chimed in.

With a flick of her hand, Scarlett moved the ‘Fade Out’ ability to Chere’s icon. “Whoever it is, hit her and move on, Chere. Keep clear.”

“Got it.”

Athena acquired: Euphoria. The target will be too happy to care about anything. Thirty seconds. ‘Euphoria’ appeared in the inventory box.

Excellent. “Good work, ’Theen, get me another.“

“Will do!”

“Mission accomplished, boss,” Chere said. “Sam looked pretty surprised.”

A warning dot blinked. “Laine, the other side of that wall. Follow the left-hand side around, and use this.” Scarlett send Laine the ‘Euphoria’ power.

“Nice, yeah, I got it.”

“Need some support there?” Chere asked.

“Don’t come straight home, but do head in this direction just in case, and keep looking for boosts.”

“Right.”

Shiver.

“Got Fatin, coming back,” Laine’s voice floated over the comm.

“Great.”

“Here’s another!” Athena’s call was cheerful.

A good leader puts her resources to their best use.

“Great work, ’Theen,’ keep ’em coming!”

Athena acquired: Power Beam. Continuous fire.

“That’s perfect, ’Theen, let’s see if we can make that work.”

The warning dot that was Fatin persisted, staying close to the wall, no doubt giggling in euphoric bliss again, as Laine made her way back around. “Keep ready, Laine, we’ll have to send Fatin home at some point, but it’s better to keep her, ah, disabled for a bit.” Scarlett grinned.

“Okay, I’ll do that. Should I go back to my little patrol?”

“Please.”

A warning light near Chere, and another near Athena. “Hold up, guys, I’m getting alarms. Laine, keep doing what you do.” Two dots stopped moving. “Chere, whoever it is is on the second left. Pin her down with this,” Scarlett sent the Power Beam to Chere with a flick of her wrist, “and keep her down until I can get a better read on things. ’Theen, wait in ambush right where you are, and if you can, tag whoever it is and send them home.”

Scarlett got two soft “Uh huh” replies, and the thrill of command rushed through her again. She started to wonder if it was a deliberate part of the programming. Or maybe it was just something hard-wired in her. Both were plausible.

The blip in front of Athena paused a moment and vanished. “Gave Annie a good spanking!” Athena’s voice came over the headset speaker.

“Great job!” Be generous, but honest, with praise. “Back to the grind, ’Theen.“

“Oh, hah!” Chere chuckled loudly. “I. Got. Sunny.”

“Good, keep her locked down, at least for now.”

“With pleasure,” Chere replied, a gleeful edge in her voice. “Oh, little sister, you have no idea how much fun this is for me.“

Scarlett felt herself getting into a groove, processing the information on the tracker and the map, responding to her teammates and their actions, giving orders easily and clearly. Even with Chere taunting and teasing her twin in the background, it was simple enough to keep directing the other two. Directions and plans started to blur together, and details were assessed and either kept or tossed aside as needed.

Laine provided another Distance Tag powerup that appeared near the throne, and put it to use turning back both Fatin once she recovered from the euphoria, and Sam when she tried to sneak up. Eventually, Chere tagged Sunny to send her home, stealing a Freeze power, and shortly after that sent Scarlett a Communication Disjoiner—the power that Sam had used to break Scarlett’s language ability. Athena wound up droned again, although it was easy enough to keep the other two away from her.

It all felt comfortable. Natural. As Athena recovers, send her after Annie, use the Disjoiner. Have Laine take care of another approaching blue-team member by freezing her, then tagging her. Keep Chere finding powerups, and casually staying near the blue base to have a good idea of who’s where. Send Athena to rescue a frozen Chere. One act, one order blurred into another, and the seconds ticked by, the programming in her mind offering encouragement, support, advice, two additional voices working in tandem with the three from her team and the one from herself.

Which is why it came as a surprise when Laine’s indicator vanished from her HUD. “Laine?” she called. No response. “Chere, ’Theen, come back. I can’t reach Laine, and that means someone...”

Scarlett felt a hand on her knee. “That means someone is here,” Fatin’s voice answered, finishing Scarlett’s sentence for her as her visor came clear and she found herself once more staring straight at her friend’s breasts.

Scarlett smiled and shook her head. “So was this revenge, or do I owe you one now?”

Fatin laughed. “Don’t really care. I’ll just kick your ass whatever the game, whatever the score.”

“Thirty more seconds...”

“Yeah, but I still beat the buzzer.”

Scarlett stood, rose up on her tiptoes and reached for the roof. “You in the chair next?”

“Nah, it’s Sunny next. I’m up last. If we even need to go that far,” Fatin teased. “If we can hold the line for this game it’ll be three-zip. No need for the last three rounds.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t remind me.” Scarlett finished her stretch as the other blue team members were starting to gather. “Guess I ought to get to home base.”

“You better run,” Sunny taunted. “Let me at ’em, we’ll wipe the floor with ’em!” She giggled, pantomiming the hooks and jabs of a boxer before climbing into the chair.

Scarlett shook her head again and smiled as she walked away. “See you on the battlefield,” she said without looking back.

“Seeya Scar!” Sam chirped.

Scarlett didn’t dawdle, exactly, but she didn’t rush, either. She made her way back at a comfortable pace, thinking as she went. Had she been having fun? Of course. But she had to admit to herself that her turn as queen had been more fun than just about anything else she’d done so far, even if it hadn’t led to a win. It was fun to win, of course, but winning wasn’t the only fun to be had.

There was changing. Controlling. Directing. Restricting. Altering, in short, even if she wasn’t the one making the program.

It wasn’t a side of herself she’d had a chance to explore before this, not really. Everything for the past four years had been advanced mathematics and basketball, with occasional breaks for socializing. Everything. There was little time for a life outside the team, and little energy to spend thinking about Altering.

Or, waste, as the slogans in her head would probably argue.

And from talks with Laine, she imagined that was part of the night’s programming, too. Especially since the thought of Athena, Chere and Laine mindlessly obeying her every command filled her with a very pleasant warmth. Can’t have a couple members of the team going around and...

“Scar? You with us?” Chere asked.

“Huh?” Scarlett tooked around. The pre-round countdown had already begun. “Yeah, sorry, I just have a lot on my mind.”

Laine raised an eyebrow, an inquisitive look on her face.

Scarlett shook her head with a smile. “Later,” she said. “Definitely later.”

“Any plan for this time?” Chere asked.

The other girls shook their heads. “Planning hasn’t really done us any good,” Athena pointed out.

“Then let’s just go have fun!” Scarlett said as the round got underway.

Athena tossed her dark curls. “Uh, you know you’re not the boss anymore, right?”

“Very funny, ’Theen,” Chere mock-snapped as they headed out into the maze, an amused look on her face despite the sarcastic tone.

Laine put a hand on Scarlett’s upper arm after the other two had left. “This has been an interesting day.”

“It really has,” the basketball player replied. “C’mon, let’s go see if we can stop Sunny.”

Laine nodded and gripped her laser pistol, ducking down the corridor. Scarlett followed close behind.

It was an unmitigated disaster.

Scarlett just couldn’t keep her mind on the game. She could swear that Fatin was stalking her, but she couldn’t blame her rival for taking advantage of the easy, distracted target she was presenting. In the course of five minutes, Scarlett was droned, left standing at an intersection, slowly turning to see if any of her former allies were about; frozen twice, once by Annie, once by coming around a corner and startling Athena; had her left leg paralyzed, held in place with her foot stuck to the floor, only allowing her to pivot; and tagged and sent back to base four times, three of those by Fatin. Her other brief interactions with her team showed that they were in similar states: Laine was still preoccupied with whatever was weighing on her; Chere seemed confused, almost embarrassed, whenever they would talk; Athena was jumpy, excitable, silly... Well, she was Athena.

She didn’t even get close to the throne. Nor, it would seem, did anyone else; for all that their planning had failed them, the red team’s lack of planning was worse still.

At that point, the game’s mercy rule kicked in. With only two people left to play the queen, there was no way that the red team could score three successful defenses, and so the match was awarded to the blue team. And as much fun as she was having—and she was having fun—she was happy to see this game come to an end. It was becoming clear that the teams were pretty heavily unbalanced, if only because three quarters of the blue team were stuck inside their own heads, instead of out in the maze like the red team was.

And that, too, was beginning to feel like a problem. Got to take it easy. Just three games left. We’re here for Sam.

Still, for the first time this afternoon, she felt at peace with her programming. She could breathe, she could relax. The roiling in her mind wasn’t related to basketball, or school, or to the party, or even to the pair of programs vying for territory in her brain.

No, this was emotional. Self-reflective. Troubling, sure, but in the way that choosing to come to this city for school instead of following Anthony Tabrico had been troubling. She wasn’t at war with herself, not really; she was just figuring a few things out.

Scarlett was standing beside her teammates; everyone was chatting cheerfully. Like her, Chere, Athena and Laine had removed their equipment.

“Any order to this, or do we all wanna go just at the same time?” Chere asked.

Scarlett shrugged and peeled off her orange shirt, revealing her black sports bra beneath. “How about I go first?”

“Whoo!” Sunny cheered. “The undefeated champion takes her first hit!”

Even Scarlett grinned.

Laine pulled her shirt over her head. She was flushed, clearly a little uncomfortable, shifting a bit on her feet, but she was smiling. Scarlett could understand, somewhat; Laine was the only one in the room who wasn’t athletically inclined, and the only one with more than a little bit of a belly.

Athena’s short skirt was next to fall, revealing pink lacy panties to match the pink lacy bra, ornate and more than a little attractive. Brains or beauty, pick one, Scarlett thought, a little unkindly. Athena wasn’t dumb, and Laine wasn’t ugly. But Laine’s towering intellect did make Athena look a little foolish beside her, just as Athena’s gorgeous form served to overshadow Laine’s less-than-classically-beautiful shape.

And, to be fair, they both did the same to Scarlett, who felt decidedly average in that lineup.

Chere undid her jeans, revealing her grey underwear, taking a friendly bow. Scarlett felt a little twitch in her guts as the small woman stood back up. The reason she’s nearly naked, Scarlett thought to herself. She swallowed. The reason I don’t have my shirt on. The reason Fatin’s sitting there topless, and Annie bare-assed.

Eight people in that room had undergone some pretty deep Alterations. Scarlett suddenly felt weak in the knees at the thought of seven of those people being Altered.

Or, moreover, she felt shaky at the thought of six of them. But Chere...

That was a different feeling, a different sensation altogether.

I want to do that to you, she realized. I want to put a headset on you, to talk to you when you can’t hear me, to program you, to mess with you, to make you take off your shirt, and your pants, and your bra, and everything else. I want to make you freeze on command, to forget with a word, to change and bend you to my every whim. I want to make you shiver with pleasure at the lightest touch, to make you beg for me to put you under, to make you look at me with lust and desire and a hundred other things I can’t even name yet, and... and I sound like I’m reading lines out of a shitty late-night TV romance. Oh God, is this what I’m being reduced to? Is that really the best I can do? I can’t say that to her...

And Chere looked back at her, standing with her closed fists on her hips. She looked up at the woman who was over a foot taller than she, and met her eyes, and nodded, and her shy smile and slight blush made Scarlett hope, if only a little, that if she did dare to say something, it would be well-received. Even if it was as corny as she thought it sounded in her head.

It’s fun to win, her mind said, but it can be so much more fun to lose.

“... well then,” Liss was saying. She had been talking for a while now. “Sunny, Fatin, if you would move to the red team; Scarlett, Athena, to the blue.”

“Guess we’ll be on opposite sides this time,” Chere said with a wink. “We’ll see who... comes out on top.”

“Guess we will,” Scarlett replied, surprised at having to contain a nervous tremble in her voice. Finding out who comes out on top sounds like a fun time us both.

“And if you’ll give me a few minutes to get the throne put away and get the room set up,” Liss continued, “we’ll move right on to Lost And Found.”