The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

“Interesting place for a nap.”

Liss’ voice pulled Sam’s eyes open, but instead of seeing the oddly-familiar face of the beautiful manager, as she expected, her eyes were drawn to the monitor before her, the pretty swirl of color and shape and strangeness. She realized that there was music, soft music playing from the speakers in the headrest.

Sam had settled into a comfortable Alteration chair as dessert was being prepared, and had decided to rest her eyes, just for a moment.

And now, it wasn’t so much that she couldn’t look away from that monitor, and either close her eyes and go back to her nap, or focus on the two figures hovering just behind it, but that she really didn’t want to.

“Nothing to worry about, Miss Miller,” Liss’ voice continued as she moved to the side of the chair. Fingers fell on Sam’s bare calf. “You’re in good hands.”

The second figure moved to Sam’s other side. Sam’s eyes flicked away from the screen for an instant to recognize Tanya, their host, looking as dazed and as mesmerized as she felt herself. But Tanya soon stepped past Sam’s line of view, and the wash of color and shape and subliminal messaging on the screen was much more interesting to look at, even as Liss’ hand slid slowly up Sam’s leg, even as Tanya’s mouth placed a small, gentle kiss on Sam’s shoulder.

Sam was no stranger to Altered sex. If Mel wasn’t working late, it was rare that Sam didn’t wind up with their personal kit on her head, that she wasn’t swallowed up in light and color and music and whispers and touch and warmth and sensation...

Tanya’s hand gently pulled aside Sam’s bra as Tanya’s mouth kissed its way down her collar. Liss’ fingers gently slipped under her panties to find her slit, warm, wet, inviting.

“You’re in very, very good hands, Samantha,” Liss’ murmur echoed in her ears around the soft, seductive music, around the white noise that bloomed in her mind as Tanya’s lips found her nipple, around the gentle and insistent press of strong fingers on her clit, around the tongues of flame and waves of starlight that demanded her attention on the monitor.

“You’re in very, very good hands.“

Sam woke with a start. The waiting room was empty, and thank goodness, as she had fallen asleep in the Alteration chair and her hand was down her panties.

That could have been embarrassing.

But probably not all that unexpected. Surely at least one of them suspected something. Laine, likely, understood all too well how Sam felt in having her friends Altered, especially having them Altered as she’d done that night.

She couldn’t remember all of the conditions set out at the meeting, everyone’s concerns, everyone’s wishes. Vague impressions came to mind, impressions of requiring only to be women working there, of making sure no one was taking pictures, of allowing the girls to refuse some of the more risqué suggestions without consequence.

It was only then that they all agreed to strip play. And of course, at that point, Chere had called her out on it. “You just want to see us all hypnotized and naked,” she’d said.

Sam didn’t deny it. She justified it, in fact, with the point that it would be her one last big night of fun before she and Mel tied the knot. Not that that was going to stop the fun, far from it, but it was traditional. And anyway, she loved this place, she loved the games; turning up the sexy factor on them was hardly a stretch.

Added bonuses: it would be fun to see overly-reserved Laine get naked with the rest. To see tough-as-nails Annie have to be weak and vulnerable. To let Fatin indulge her exhibitionist side. To see just how different the twins were (surprisingly, they were very different).

She hadn’t counted on getting Scarlett laid. Especially not with Chere; Sam had been convinced that both of them were straight. It would have been as much a shock to see Fatin and Athena get together. Scarlett spent all her time around athletic women, and there wasn’t a hint of a relationship vibe from any of them, while Chere spent a lot of her time with enthusiastic men with a lot of relationship vibes. Sam had wondered if Chere was non-monogamous, or maybe just easily bored—a lot of the boys she went with weren’t exactly brain surgeons.

Of course, neither was Scarlett. A great friend, an awesome basketball player, but... Well, maybe Chere just had a type.

Then again, Sam loved Mel, but “Entrepreneur / amateur Alterist” didn’t always make for the most interesting conversation. Of course, conversation wasn’t always topmost in Sam’s mind, anyway.

It was about then that Sam noticed that, through all her thinking, she hadn’t actually removed her hand from her panties. And more than that, her fingers were working. Her hips lifted ever so slightly off the Alteration chair and she let out a soft moan. There were nine other people around, somewhere, anywhere, and any one of them might walk in at any time.

That danger made her hand work faster.

Sam gasped into the empty room, trying to decide between just stopping, going to find everyone else and continue the games, and finishing, risking discovery, further delaying the proceedings.

She imagined soft music in the speakers, imagined a flurry of color in the monitor, imagined a shadow in a green sari watching nearby with an encouraging smile on her face. Her free hand slid under her bra, massaging her breast, playing with her nipple.

It seemed to Sam that she’d made her decision. Although... she couldn’t help but imagine that someone else had made that decision for her.

That thought, too, made her moan and shiver, made her redouble her efforts.

She hoped no one would interrupt her.

And then, she hoped someone would.

Her back arched further, her hips bucked, and the warmth of climax spread through her. She clamped down on her cry, only letting out a hiss of pleasure as her toes curled inside her shoes. She let out a long, low sigh, relaxing into the chair, enjoying the moment.

Alone with her mind-controlled self. Sam grinned. If she had to be alone, that was the best way to be. Still, she had friends, and they were in the building. She didn’t have to be alone.

First, though, washing up.

Sam emerged from the washroom feeling refreshed and generally good about herself. Odd that no one was around; did they decide to run a game while she was napping? She pulled on the staff door to the arena. It was locked, which meant no one was inside (it was the emergency exit, after all). Could be that Tanya or Liss were resetting the maze for the final game, although Sam had assumed that that would already have been done.

Or maybe setting up dessert took up their time. Sam walked into the party room, to see how things were progressing there. The background music was... interesting. An uneven, attractive beat, difficult to follow, pulled attention away from the fun and lively melody. While she couldn’t place it, it still sounded very familiar, like she’d heard it somewhere before.

It gave her goosebumps. It made her think of wearing Mel’s headset. It made her think of dancing nude in the moonlight, of spinning and turning and dipping in a deserted courtyard with her lover. Memory? Fantasy? Didn’t matter, really. This is what the music gave her, as a gift.

She spun on her toes as she walked into the room. The music made her happy. And horny. Hornier, she supposed, given what she’d just done. For something that was so soft, it was a powerful feeling. A little misplaced drumbeat brought so much to mind.

“Hey Sam!” Chere said as she walked in. She was standing near to Scarlett, an empty bowl in one hand, a spoon in the other. “You made it to your own party.”

Eight other heads turned, and voices were raised in a small ad hoc cheer. Sam gave a small embarrassed wave. “Hi, uh, sorry. It’s been a long week.”

“We figured it was better to let you sleep, anyway,” Laine replied, making a circular gesture with a spoon. “We’ve got a lot of time left for our last game.”

Tanya nodded. She and Liss, Sam noticed, were the only ones not holding a bowl and spoon. Another quick glance told her that those bowls were empty, and those spoons clean. Which didn’t stop Sunny from scooping nothing on her spoon, putting nothing in her mouth, and smiling and nodding like there was nothing better on earth.

“Dessert?” Sam asked.

“It’s great,” Annie replied, lickling her silverware. “You should have some.”

“Er, thanks, but I’m watching my figure. Got to fit a dress soon.”

Tanya snorted. Sam turned to face her with a curiously raised eyebrow. Tanya gave her an wide-eyed innocent look and raised her hands as if in self-defense. Sam knew her disbelief showed in her expression.

“I’m sure we could find you the most delicious of flavors,” Liss said, standing near a well-appointed table. A large glass bowl sat at the center of the setting, with a serving spoon in it. Nearby was a single smaller bowl and spoon, apparently waiting for the last partygoer.

“I’m sure you could.” Sam looked around a bit suspiciously. “Was this... part of the package?”

“Of course,” Liss replied. “Dinner and dessert were included in the discussion.”

“And it’s a great dessert!” Sunny cut in, putting her bowl down on the table. “I’m thinking about thirds. Or... fourths? Can’t keep track.”

“You can finish mine, if you want,” Scarlett offered. “I’m surprised, something this sweet isn’t making my team programming freak out.”

“Maybe you burned off more calories than you thought,” Chere said with a grin. Scarlett turned red and gave the naked girl a playful shove.

Sunny laughed and shook her head. “Nah, I’m good for now, anyway.”

“I think,” Tanya said, taking the empty bowl from Scarlett’s hand, “that it’s time for Human Soccer.”

“I think,” Liss countered, “that it’s time to execute Order Seventeen.”

Tanya nodded, looking a bit vacant, put down the bowl she’d taken from Scarlett, picked up her tablet, and tapped the screen. The speakers in the room emitted an odd, electronic tone, cutting through the music. Bowls and spoons clattered to the floor. Seven women stopped movement and stood, straight and tall, hands at their sides. Sam stared at each of them in turn, before looking to Tanya.

“What did you do to them, Tanya?”

Tanya didn’t answer. She was standing in the same pose as the others, blank-eyed and breathing slow.

Sam turned to Liss, the only other possible source of information. “What’s going on?”

Liss chuckled, smiling and drifting closer to Sam. “I have simply put them in a trance.”

“All of them? Why?”

The two of them stood eye to eye. “Because I wished a moment alone with you.”

Sam took a sharp breath. Her dream from earlier came back to her. “Why?” she asked.

“Because I find you particularly beautiful, Samantha.”

Sam felt herself flushing a bit. “I’m getting...”

“Married, yes,” Liss finished. “It is of little consequence.” She took Sam’s hands in her own. Her grip was firm, but gentle, and her hands were warm. Her expression was as composed as ever.

“Little consequence?” Sam said, more amused than upset. “Mel might disagree.” Mel would definitely disagree. Sam wondered briefly why she was considering this at all, let alone being seriously turned on by the warm grip of the older woman’s fingers.

“Mel is not here,” Liss replied, releasing Sam’s hand to gesture into the room. “I am. These girls are.”

“You’re not proposing an orgy, I hope.” Was this... part of the programming? A certain openness was expected, even encouraged, but this seemed... extreme.

“I am not suggesting that. Presently.” Liss chuckled again. “I was thinking something more... intimate.”

The offer was extremely tempting. Liss was alluring in her green sari, to be sure. Especially as pins came out and it started to hang more loosely.

“Any one of them,” Liss said. “I could have anyone in this room, including Tanya—it could become a workplace issue, but she would sleep with me as quick as any other here. Except Sunny, of course.”

“Of course,” Sam mumbled idly, watching Liss’ hands remove another concealed pin. “But... why me?”

“Because you are the one I want, Samantha Miller.”

The Sari fluttered to the floor, leaving Liss in a small white tank top and white biking shorts, and white sandals with a small heel, all of which contrasted with her lovely deep caramel skin.

Sam’s mouth went dry. “I’m... flattered, Liss, I really am...”

“I can tell.” Liss’ hand, soft and warm, went to Sam’s cheek. “And tempted, too.”

Sam nodded, pressing her face into that soft hand. “Very.” She thought about resisting, about pushing Liss away, about leaving, but... but she didn’t. Observing her own reaction as if from a distance, she found it interesting, curious. Not really disturbing, thankfully.

“All of this,” Liss continued, gently gesturing. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it, Samantha?”

Sam nodded. She couldn’t remember a time when just hearing someone’s voice was enough to make her heart flutter. There was something beautiful in the way Liss said her name, the hint of an accent suggesting a South Asian upbringing, the musical tone to her voice, the way it felt like poetry, like Liss thought it was poetry. Samantha. It was her own name and still the sound of it make her shiver.

Everything about the enigmatic Alterist seemed both familiar and mysterious. She wasn’t as physically wild and enthused as her subordinate, but there was nonetheless a sense of contained, otherworldly energy, something spiritual or magical, as though every gesture, every word were part of some dark enchantment. And a glance around the room, at her friends (and Tanya) standing still as statues, it wasn’t hard to think of Liss as a sorceress.

Funny, she often felt the same about Mel, when she looked at her partner through the visor they shared, feeling enchanted, feeling magical. The memory came to her, unbidden, not unwelcome, but... somehow different.

“Liss,” Sam whispered. “Why are you in my memories?”

Liss gave her a wide-eyed, innocent look that Sam didn’t buy for a second. “Whatever do you mean, Samantha?”

“When I try and picture Mel,” Sam replied, feeling the thrill of exhilaration just at the thought of it, “all I see if your face.”

“And you know what I’m going to tell you.”

“I agreed to this.”

“Of course you did,” Liss replied. “I’m a good woman of business. I wouldn’t overstep my bounds.”

“You wouldn’t overstep,” Sam agreed. “You... haven’t overstepped.” She swallowed, her mouth dry. There was something in that phrase that was more than mere affirmation.

“I haven’t overstepped.” Liss nodded and pressed closer. “Not one person in this room is upset at this, or will be.” Her fingers drifted up Sam’s arms.

Sam nodded along. She felt a bit disconnected, dreamy. It was a familiar feeling, for one who was Altered so often, but right now it was a little closer than that.

“While I was napping...” Sam began, but was cut off with a gentle finger on her lips.

“All will be revealed in its time, Samantha.”

Words stopped. Thought halted. Shivers.

“For now, though,” Liss continued, holding Sam’s gaze tightly, “you’re going to help me get my Sari back on. Your hands may wander a bit was you do.” Sam’s hands, she realized, were already wandering, slipping up under Liss’ shirt. “And then Tanya will explain how our grand finale will work, and we’ll all have a fine game of Human Soccer, and once everyone is... nnnn...”

Liss closed her eyes and moaned at that moment, and Sam realized that she could feel Liss’ bra under the palms of her hands.

“As I was, mmm, saying,” Liss continued, “once everyone is in a beautiful state of deep hypnosis, a blissful trance...”

“We could do anything,” someone said. Sam realized it was her.

“We could indeed. Anything at all,” Liss said, placing her hands on Sam’s arms, halting her movements. “But for now...”

Words, silver words, passed from Liss’ mouth, but Sam couldn’t understand them. The world whirled about her. She heard voices, other voices. Felt herself replying to them. Felt movement, motion, saw the same. Somehow the confusion she felt mingled with and augmented her arousal, until she felt they were one and the same.

She heard herself carrying on a perfectly ordinary conversation with Scarlett. But at the same time, her mind was flooded with sensation and pleasure and a thousand fantasies crashing together in a tide of sexual excitement.

This was what she had agreed to. More than that, this is what she had asked for. Begged for.

Sam allowed the conversation she was having to continue, and sunk into the warmth of the dream that was welling up within. She didn’t really know what was being said—by Scarlett, by her own voice—but it couldn’t have been as important as the bubbling bliss that called to her attention so seductively.

“Alright! Last game, girls. Human Soccer!”

Tanya’s jubilant tone and cheerful attention-grabbing clap brought Sam out of the euphoric fog. She was sitting at a table with the Collins twins and Scarlett; Laine and Annie stood nearby, hand-in-hand, while Fatin leaned against the wall near the Alter chairs and Athena sat in one of the comfortable seats. Everyone turned to face the Alterist.

Liss was nowhere to be seen.

“I was in there, working hard, before dessert,” Tanya said, and Sam suppressed a smile. Scarlett and Chere shared a look, Laine giggled, and Tanya cleared her throat. “Anyway! I set up seven spots in the maze, seven goals. One for each of you.”

“Uh,” Athena said, standing up from the Alter chair, “There are eight of us.”

“One of us,” Sunny said, raising her hand and waving, “is out of the game, remember?” She giggled.

“Right,” Tanya concurred. “Each of you has a goal in the maze, and you’ll be trying to guide Sunny into everyone else’s. She’s the ball in your soccer game.”

“So wait, we just kick her around?” Chere asked, a certain glee in her voice.

“Hey!” Sunny objected. “Before that, everyone take your shoes off!”

Tanya laughed aloud. “No one’s getting kicked, don’t worry.” She slipped a tagger on her hand. “Sunny, if you could put your visor on and come here?”

“Yeah, okay.” Sunny picked up her visor and stood up, walking to the front of the room and slipping the gear on. Athena and Fatin edged closer to see what would happen.

Tanya continued her explanation. “Your zapper has a stun effect, five seconds, and there’s a lot of powerups up there—sorry, Chere, mostly mind-control.”

“It’s fine,” Chere replied, rolling her eyes, but grinning all the same. “It’ll be fun, I’m sure.”

“It will. You ready, Sunny?”

“Yep!” the cheerful redhead replied, turning to face the other guests.

“In a bit, I’m going to run a few suggestions through Sunny’s visor which will program her properly for the game. The important part is this, though.” Tanya put her tagger on Sunny’s shoulder. There was a visible flash on Sunny’s visor, and her smile relaxed a little. “Hands on your head, Sunny.”

Without hesitation, Sunny smoothly put both hands on top of her head, her face coming back to life as she did go. “That’s it?” she asked, with her elbows stuck out to her sides. “Pretty simple for a...”

Tanya’s hand fell on Sunny’s shoulder again; her eyes went vacant behind the flash. Her hands moved back to her sides as easily as they had been placed on her head. As Tanya removed her hand, Sunny quickly reanimated.

“It’s just a demonstration,” Tanya said before Sunny could speak. “There will be more later. The point is, a short suggestion can be put in your mind when you get tagged, and it goes away the next time someone tags you. Or if you get bored of it, which will depend on how interesting the suggestion is to follow; about one to three minutes, anyway.”

“Is that for everyone?” Athena asked.

Tanya shook her head. “Just for players that are ‘out,’ like Sunny. And that’s the goal—to get all the other players ‘out.’”

“I’m guessing that that has something to do with getting Sunny into the other players’ goals?” Laine asked.

“Exactly, Laine. And that, too, has to do with how you’ve done so far. Thanks, Sunny.” Tanya took off the tagger, and Sunny took a bow and returned to her seat with a grin. “Every time Sunny, or someone else who’s ‘out,’ steps into your goal, you lose a piece of clothing. If you’re already naked,” she indicated Chere and Fatin, “then you’re ‘out,’ too.”

“Hey, I’ve got the advantage!” Scarlett said with a laugh.

Sam looked around. Scarlett would have to be scored on four times before she was out, Laine and Athena only twice, and Sam herself was in the middle with three, same as Annie.

“Looks like we’re in trouble, Chere,” Fatin piped up.

“Maybe you are,” Chere shot back over her shoulder.

Several of the girls, include Fatin, responded with ‘oooh’s, which made both twins laugh.

“Just one last thing,” Tanya said. “For Sunny, and for anyone else who’s ‘out.’ You won’t recognize any of the other players, other than the last person to tag you. So, telling Sunny to shoot, say, Laine, specifically, would just confuse her. She’ll know herself, she’ll know the last person to give her a suggestion, but the other six people on the map will all be anonymous mysteries. And I think that’s about it. It’s been a pleasure, girls, I’m looking forward to running your last game. A huge thank you to you all, for being such wonderful subjects this evening.”

Sam, still grinning, stood. “Before we get underway,” she said, “I think we all remember—well, all except Laine, who wasn’t there—we all remember Gina Tomlinson’s bachelorette last year, and just how boring that was, pardon me.” Several heads nodded. “I am never, never, as long as I live, going to forget this night. Special thanks to Sunny and ‘Theen for all their organizing—“

“Whoo!” Fatin shouted, echoed by Chere, Laine, Annie and Scarlett. Sunny jumped up, ran across the room and grabbed Athena’s hand, and led her in another dramatic bow to the applause of the everyone else.

Sam waited politely for the applause to die down. “And of course, to Tanya and Liss for facilitating this brilliant party, and that amazing dessert.”

Everyone turned to Tanya and applauded. She mimed a pleased curtsey and gave Sam a broad wink.

“Now, unless anyone has any questions,” Sam continued, picking up her visor, “it’s time to kick all your butts and get you all naked.”

Laughter, light teasing, and competitive statements followed as everyone moved to grab their gear.

Tanya opened the staff door into the arena. “Everyone, your visors will lead you to your goals. You’ll have a minute or two to get acclimatized to your HUDs while I program Sunny.”

Sam headed into the maze, and her visor lit up. A list of names appeared on the left-hand side, with Scarlett at the top, her own name just below, all the way down to Chere and Fatin at the bottom. A number beside each name showed how many goals could be scored against them before they lost—three for Scarlett, two for her and Annie, one for Athena and Laine, zero for Chere and Fatin. On the right side, Sunny’s name was displayed, with ”{none}” underneath it. At the bottom of the display was a blank space for powerups she acquired.

And centred on the screen was the map. The entire map. She’d played games with this sort of a HUD map before, and had learned how to control it; with a flick of her eyes, she could zoom in, focus on certain areas, slide it about, and recenter and zoom out. She suspected the others who were less accustomed to this style of interface would need a couple moments to adjust.

Sam studied the map as she moved through the maze. The pathway nearest to the wall was a completely open circuit running the perimeter, and there was a small open courtyard in the middle, and connecting those were twisting spider webs of two-person-wide hallways. The seven goals were shown on the map, roughly equidistant from one another in a ring, each a small room with three walls and an opening facing the middle of the maze. Her own goal was highlighted with a golden glow; she angled her path towards it.

A quick glance told Sam that her goal to defend was between Scarlett’s and Annie’s. They would be her top priority, then, to try and separate herself from the others. Become an inconvenience, make sure there are more accessible goals to take than her own.

Of course, Scarlett was only down her shirt, and Annie still had her shirt and bra on. They wouldn’t be easy marks, not compared to the nude Chere and Fatin. Maybe it’d be easier to take them out, and use them to make a stronger assault on her nearest opponents. Of course, that would also give them more ammunition to fire at her, too.

And then there was the reality that Sunny, and anyone else who ‘went out,’ couldn’t be directed towards a specific person. That complicated any attempts to target a specific opponent. It meant that suggestions had to be carefully worded.

Part of the strategy. The best part of the strategy.

Sam sat in her little goal, thinking, taking a moment to plan. Before she could think her way through a solid tactic, though, the map vanished from her screen, and a familiar text appeared.

Sam’s Bachelorette Party! Final Match!

Human Soccer

No time limit

Powerups are ON—V. STRONG MENTAL set

Sudden Death is OFF

The game will begin in 15 seconds

Sam got back to her feet as the time ticked down to twelve seconds. She closed her eyes, stretched her fingers, put her zapper in her hand, cricked her neck, bent her knees. Ridiculously, she felt like her twenty-four years had been building to this moment, which was crazy (and probably a part of the programming that had been put in her mind a few hours ago), especially when she considered that she was getting married in a week.

She opened her eyes, ready for action.

Liss stood there in front of her.

“Ah!” Sam jumped. A quick glance told her that the time still said that there were twelve seconds before the start of the game, and that that wasn’t changing.

Liss laughed and bent ever so slightly at the waist. “A kiss for luck, Samantha.”

Sam moved without thinking, pulled forward by something other than consciousness, and pressed her lips against those of the dark-skinned Alterist. Their tongues danced around one another. Sam felt her hands slip around Liss’ ribs, felt the thin fabric of Liss’ green sari, felt her fingers pulling Liss closer to her, and felt Liss doing the same.

Sam started. The game had begun. Liss was nowhere to be seen. The map had come alive with indicators for powerups. Sunny was visible, near the entrance; the other girls were not.

She shoved aside the—vision? experience? dream? Whatever it was—and shifted her thinking to strategy. In a team game, someone would be left to guard the goal, someone else would go out and get powerups, someone would be angling for control of the ball. But alone, Sam had to consider all three of those tasks at once. Every move was taking a chance. Stay back to guard the goal? Risk getting shot and stunned, and having a dazzled Sunny walk right past her. Run off to collect augmentations? Leave the goal undefended, and if discovered, she’d get scored on. Go after Sunny and try to score on someone else? There was a chance that whoever she attacks will have prepared, and she knew from experience that those powerups were tough to beat without powerups of your own.

And those powerups. The Very Strong Mental set. There were all kinds of great powers in there: full on mind control, shifting loyalties, freezes, amnesia... So much fun to use on her friends, or to have used on her.

Sam made a choice, a decision, to find a little strength from a powerup. She could see Sunny on the map, she could see her own goal, she would know if Sunny was getting close. She moved through the maze quickly, aiming for the nearest sigil, against the outside wall.

As she approached the sigil, there was a flicker on her visor. Under Sunny’s name, where it had said “{none},” now it read “{Laine}.”

Laine would know—did know—how to give a solid, effective suggestion. Sam was instantly on her guard, even as she reached out to the wall to claim her powerup. A powerup she adored.

Flashtag, the display read. Name a target, they’ll be hit.

She could stun anyone, anywhere, at any time. Only once, sure, but still a potent weapon. It also meant that Sam could relatively safely look for another powerup, watching the map to stun Sunny from anywhere if she came near Sam’s goal area. It bought five seconds, easy, whenever it was needed.

There was another sigil nearby, according to the map. Definitely worth chancing, especially since Sunny was clearly across the arena. Sam’s visor flickered. Her teammate Chere was present. She’d just come around a corner and was pointing her laser pistol straight at Sam; she must have mistaken Sam for an opponent.

Sam gave the nude woman a friendly wave. “Hey, everything going good?”

Chere giggled. “Yeah, going great. Could you block my goal for a bit?”

Sam nodded. “Sure thing, I was just looking for some weapons.”

“All good. I’ll see if I can get anything else going. Don’t let Sunny into my goal, alright?”

“Sure, I got it.” That made sense, Chere wouldn’t want Sunny to put her out of the game, especially so quickly. Besides, Sam herself didn’t want her teammate to be put out so quickly. Sam could absorb the hit, Chere couldn’t. It made sense to protect Chere’s goal, even if it meant leaving Sam’s unguarded.

Sam moved at a light jog through the maze, using her glance to pick Chere’s goal out of the seven. Sunny seemed to be taking a different path entirely, but that hardly mattered. Chere’s goal would be safe. That was Sam’s top priority.

Sam’s visor flickered again.

Wait... why is that my top priority?

She looked at her map. She was across the arena from her goal, and Sunny was fast approaching that same goal. Funny, she was still marked as controlled by Laine; maybe Laine and Chere had an arrangement? An alliance? Or maybe Chere had tagged Laine with the same mind affecting power that she’d used on Sam.

Either way, it didn’t matter, Sam had to move. She broke into a run. She’d never reach there in time without a little help.

“Flashtag,” she muttered, seeing the text light up on her visor. “Sunny.” She pulled the trigger of her zapper and watched as Sunny’s map indicator stopped its apparently inexorable advance.

It bought five seconds. And hopefully bought her some confusion, too.

What her clever plan didn’t count on, though, was Chere cutting her off in the center of the maze, stunning her with a quick shot.

“Way too late, Sam,” Chere said with a grin. “Sunny will recover before you, and Laine will guide her home. And you get to be the first victim of your own last game.”

Sam hoped someone else would step in to save the day. But no one was there,and Chere simply shot her again as soon as she started to move, and by then it was too late. She watched as Sunny’s indicator moved right into her goal. Her body unlocked, and her map vanished, replaced with a 120-second countdown.

“So which is it, Sam?” Chere taunted. “Are you taking off the bra, or the panties?”

“Bra,” Sam replied, shaking her head and turning towards the entrance. “You’ll have to hit me again if you want to see the grooming.”

Chere giggled. “Ooh, grooming, fancy. Can’t go out Saturday, Chere, I’m having grooming done.“

“Jesus.” Sam rolled her eyes, but laughed. “You’re a lot like your sister, you know?”

Chere snorted. “Speaking of my dear sister, she’s on the move. I’d better go see if I can get some clothes off Scarlett.”

“I don’t think it’ll be that difficult,” Sam joked. Her feet were moving, but she hadn’t made a conscious decision to make them go anywhere.

Chere snorted. “Have fun getting naked!” she said to the retreating woman. Sam imagined that she was being given a cheerful ‘bon voyage’ wave to her back, but she couldn’t bring herself to turn around and see it. Instead she just raised her right hand and gave a single wave over her shoulder in reply.

Since when is getting naked under the influence of Alteration anything but fun? Sam asked herself as she walked to the entry door. Already her bra felt ... itchy. Uncomfortable. But she demurred. The countdown timer was just ticking down to eighty as she made her way into the waiting room, and only then did her hands start to drift up behind her back.

“Why don’t you let me help you,” came a familiar voice. Liss’ voice.

“No, I...” Sam began, turning towards the voice. Liss was holding... something. Something was in her hands. Something interesting. Something fascinating.

“Let me help you,” Liss repeated, putting the tablet down. Sam felt herself nodding, felt dark hands on her stomach, felt her own hands drift back down to her sides.

Liss’ fingers slowly walked around Sam’s waist to her spine. Sam shivered as Liss pressed closer, her hands slowly making their way up Sam’s back. Every sensation was so intense, so powerful, it almost made her forget about...

About...

Fingers slipped under the clasp of Sam’s bra as she tried to remember what it was she had to remember. Liss was talking, her voice like honey in Sam’s ears and mind, sweet and thick and all-encompassing, but the words were never apparent, never clear. Especially as Liss’ hands made their way around to Sam’s chest, removing her bra entirely, lingering over her sensitive breasts.

“Why are you here?” Liss asked. Sam heard the question, and hearing it surprised her.

“A... a game?” There was something else. A party. Something about a party. But Liss’ mouth pressed to hers, and the taste was so familiar, and so wonderful, that nothing else was important.

“A game,” Liss repeated as she broke the kiss. “You have about fifteen seconds to get back before you’re vulnerable again, Samantha.”

Sam nodded. The door opened back to the arena, and Scarlett walked in to the waiting room. Liss stepped away. “Go.”

Sam nodded again, turning to head back into the game. Scarlett gave her a smile and an approving nod as she passed, and might have even said something, but she couldn’t pay it any attention; her mind was on that kiss, on those hands, on what was missing, and on returning to the game, and there just wasn’t any room in it for anything else.

Back in the arena with five seconds to spare, Sam started to make her way across the maze. She would have to get back to defend her goal; Scarlett had just been scored on, which meant that Sunny was already close. A glance at the information bar on the right showed that Chere was currently in control of her sister, and Chere knew how to play the game.

Sam’s worry was proven right when the timer clicked to zero and the map returned. Sunny was already very close to her goal, and anyone nearby might notice Sam coming back online and...

Her visor flickered. Sam couldn’t move. She felt the cold press of a tagger on her bare back. Her limbs felt heavy. She stood still, arms dropping to her side.

“Hey Sam.” She heard Fatin’s voice from behind her. “Just downloading a little program into your brain. Enjoy!”

A little program for what? Sam asked herself, before her visor blinked and the map changed.

Goals were no longer on the map. Instead, she saw eight indicators for the eight players. Herself, of course, in green, as was Fatin, her Mistress, and Sunny, harmless. The other five were red, and they weren’t named, but it didn’t matter. They were something else.

Targets.

The Agent chose the closest one, and started moving through the maze, quickly and quietly. She was focused, intent. Whoever owned that indicator would feel the consequences of opposing Mistress Fatin.

And then they would oppose no longer.

It was a young woman. Small. Nude but for socks and runners. Red-haired. From behind, the Agent judged her to be athletic, strong, probably fast. She took a second to admire the target’s long hair and well-toned body, but even as her mind was assessing, the Agent’s hand was moving, lining up the shot, stunning the target. It was only a moment’s pause before her tagger was placed between the girl’s shoulder blades, and her indicator on the map turned green. Without a word, the Agent turned aside, looking for her next target.

Green and red indicators were moving through the maze. The Agent picked another red one and moved quickly. It took her a bit of time; the twisting passages weren’t easy to navigate, and her target kept moving. Finally, though, the Agent found the target, at the same time that the target saw her.

The short, stocky, shaved, dark-skinned women, wearing nothing below the waist, was a bit faster on the draw than the Agent was, and the Agent found herself stunned, unable to defend herself, unable to shoot the target, and unable to convert the target to the worship of her Mistress.

But the Agent wasn’t the only Agent. The target stopped moving, and the Agent could see the nude redhead she had converted a few moments before placing her hand on the shoulder of the target. As the Agent came out of the stun, she saw the red indicator for this target change to green.

Another victory, another Agent for Mistress Fatin.

As the Agent was selecting a new target, her first convert suddenly vanished from the map.

“Huh?” the small redhead said, looking around, and then, “Oh. Sorry, ladies, I’m going to have to stop the assimilation plan. I’m ‘out.’” She gave the two remaining Agents a wave and headed off. They ignored her as they chose new targets; she was no longer to be considered.

The Agent was moving through the maze, about halfway to her next target, when her visor reset. The Agent—Sam, she realized; I’m Sam—assessed the situation quickly. She was near her goal, and Sunny wasn’t, that was good. One of the goals was missing, though.

The little red-headed target. Chere. Her goal was gone.

She needed to get her head back in the game, or she’d end up like Chere—out of the match, a piece of game equipment, a toy for the others to play with.

Not that that thought was entirely unwelcome. In fact, it almost sounded preferable to playing the game.

But playing the game was what she was here for. She scanned the map quickly, assessing the state of the match, moving towards a powerup. She had time; Sunny was being controlled by Annie at the moment, but they at least weren’t going for her goal just yet.

Sam also knew that Chere would be coming back into the arena, naked and entranced and ready to be a second weapon in the fight, and she wanted to be at the door when that happened.

She collected the powerup in front of her. Full Stasis, it read; she could take someone out of the game entirely for two minutes with a tag. It was a solid tap-out—no moving, no thinking, no experience at all—with the added protection that they couldn’t be affected by anyone else, or scored on, for that time.

Still, she wouldn’t mind a little revenge on Fatin. Or, at this point... well, anyone, really. Even if it wasn’t revenge, in the strictest sense. They’d all done so much to each other that anything could be justified.

Which was also kind of the point. It was a party. Anything goes.

Sam blinked. It was a party. It was her party. Her bachelorette party. She was getting married next week.

Why was that so hard to keep track of?

Sam thought of Liss. Of how she looked in her sari, the beautiful shade of her skin, the shape of her body, the touch of her skin, the taste of her lips, the delicate yet insistent feel of her hands on Sam’s chest. The thoughts made Sam shiver with pleasure, and she leaned her back into the wall, her fingers tracing the lines that Liss had drawn on her breasts.

A gasp, a little moan, and a reluctant end to the touching. Sam caught her breath. This had to stop, whether she had agreed to it or not, whether any of them had. She was getting married. She had to confront Liss.

There’s a way you can do that without raising suspicion, she thought to herself. You can let them score on you.

Which would mean heading back to the waiting room, and taking off her red panties, and not letting Liss get the better of her. And holding tight to her love for... for...

For whoever it was she was marrying.

Names weren’t important, right? What mattered was love. And she loved someone, and Liss was messing with that, and there was no way she would have actually agreed to that, was there.

Was there?

Chere’s name appeared on the right-hand side of the HUD, with that label “{none}” underneath it. A glowing dot, the ball that was Chere, appeared on the arena map. Sam ran for the door. There was a game to play. Questions would wait, no matter how wet they made her.

She got all the way to the entrance of the maze, just in time to see Scarlett put her tagger on Chere. The perfect use for that powerup. Sam fired twice, quickly, stunning both women, then jogged up.

“Full Stasis,” she said, activating the powerup, before placing her hand on Scarlett’s bare back. “Sorry, Scarlett, but you need a little breather.” The golden glow of Scarlett’s goal on the map winked out.

Sam turned her attention to Chere, gently moving her out from under Scarlett’s hand placing her tagger on the young woman’s hip as she did. “Follow the right hand wall closely, and shoot anyone you meet who isn’t me.” Sam’s name appeared under Chere’s in the display, confirming that Chere would be following her suggestion, and the redhead wordlessly marched off, keeping her right shoulder near the wall.

If Chere wasn’t interrupted, following that wall would get her to Athena’s goal in pretty short order, but Sam didn’t really expect that to be a successful line of attack. If it worked, great, but she was mostly trying to position herself to pick up Chere after she got tagged by someone else. Send her away, keep a close eye on the map, get a couple powerups, aim to get ahold of Sunny, and start making a serious play to eliminate opponents. The game changed with two people to use to score points, and Sam had a good handle on the strategy.

To control Sunny meant taking her from Annie. That meant figuring out if Annie was still hanging around with her, whether it was better to get more powerups to fight with or to just rush in and gain control of Sunny. Having both twins mindlessly flanking her, stunning all opposition, could be all sorts of fun. Not to mention a pretty sexy image; that’s the sort of thing you could make a decent erotic picture out of. Or a comic book, although you might have to put some clothes on people for that, if you wanted to sell it in...

I’m getting distracted. Sam was moving on autopilot, towards a powerup between where she’d left Scarlett and where she hoped to intercept Sunny. Never could keep on top of things...

Which was how she was surprised to see that her suggestion to Chere actually bore fruit. Athena must have been otherwise occupied, because no one stopped Chere from just walking into Athena’s goal. Not that she was in any way disappointed by the outcome, or by the idea of her gorgeous Greek friend running around in the nude.

Meanwhile, there was a powerup to grab. Defender, her display said. A tag would send someone to their own base and keep them there for three minutes. Not all that great for scoring on them, but takes someone out of the picture for a long while.

Chere was still making her way along the wall, and would eventually make it to Laine’s goal. Sam didn’t expect she’d get anywhere near there, but then, she hadn’t expected to score on Athena, either. But Laine had to be somewhere other than her goal; she had just taken over control of Sunny. Sam wondered what suggestion Laine would be giving, and who would be the target; she didn’t doubt that the quick-witted and sharp-minded geek would have a plan.

Sam shifted her movement, heading back towards her goal instead of trying to intercept Sunny. Another powerup appeared near there, anyway, and collecting powerups was a good idea in general.

Perhaps Laine was guiding Sunny’s movements, as the human soccer ball was moving the direction of Sam’s goal. Or, perhaps, towards Annie’s goal, which was on the way to Sam’s, from where Sunny was. That would make some sense, that Laine would be trying to strip Annie. Or maybe Annie just made a convenient target.

Sam pressed her hand into the wall to claim the powerup. Stolen Suggestions. Interesting. She scanned it for more information. Without letting anyone know, overwrite all directions to all human soccer balls with your own suggestion.

That was a new one to Sam, maybe an entirely new program, and it fit in well with the other powerful mental effects in the game.

Sure enough, Sunny took a turn towards Annie’s goal. Sam watched both twins’ indicators moving across the map as she made her way to intercept Sunny. It struck her as a bit odd that no one had taken control of Chere yet, but the action was apparently over here, not over there. Scarlett was still frozen, Laine had obviously bested Annie somehow and was with Sunny, Athena was still stripping; that only left Fatin unaccounted for.

Sam no sooner had the thought than Fatin’s name appeared under Chere’s. That answers that question, anyway. Not a big deal. She scanned her map for other powerups as Sunny moved into Annie’s goal. Another step closer to the win. She grinned. Didn’t have to do all the work herself, after all. In fact, it looked like Fatin was pushing Chere towards Laine’s goal anyway, which worked out fine for Sam. She wanted to get to Sunny, anyway, and kept moving in that direction.

Just a moment later, she felt her body freeze up. She’d been shot! And then she heard Laine’s voice nearby. “Full stasis.” She saw Laine stepping into her line of sight, reaching out with the tagger, and in that moment, saw all her planning fall apart.

Sam blinked. Laine was gone. It had to have been two minutes. She looked to the status screen to assess any changes. Then she realized that someone was standing in her goal. Her map blinked off, and that one-hundred-twenty second timer returned. Sam guessed that Laine had just left one of the hypnotized women in her goal while she was frozen in stasis.

There had been a few changes, other than that. Laine had been busy, it seemed. Scarlett was down an article of clothing, and Fatin was out entirely.

Sam’s feet started moving. That meant dealing with Liss again. And going back into the arena naked. She wasn’t surprised to find that neither of these things particularly bothered her.

“Hey Sam,” Laine said as Sam approached the entrance. She sounded a bit sheepish.

“Hey yourself,” Sam replied with a smile, still walking. “Been busy while I was out?”

Laine smirked. “Yeah, a bit. I’m just waiting for Fatin to come back into play.”

“Not worried someone might get your shirt off?”

“Ah, no, not right now. Sunny’s obediently standing in your goal, and Chere’s on the other side of the arena.”

“Sunny’d better not be there when I get back...” Sam grinned, reaching for the entry door.

“Well, suggestions only last so long...”

If Laine was still talking, Sam couldn’t hear it as she walked in to the waiting room.

Liss was there, as expected, and Scarlett was just heading for the door, without her track pants on, showing her practical white cotton panties. Fatin was a few steps further in, her visor flickering in wild patterns, programming her to be the next tool for the others’ use.

“Hey Sam. You got scored on, too?” Scarlett asked.

Sam nodded. “Laine parked Sunny in my goal after she tapped me out.”

“Sounds right,” Scarlett said with a grin. “She did the same to me when you tapped me out.“

“Sounds like someone needs a bit of punishment herself,” Sam replied. “Temporary team-up when I get back in?”

“Getting her as naked as you’re about to be? Fuck, yes,” Scarlett answered, moving to the door. “Anyway, I gotta get back in there. Defend myself before I get hit again, and all that.” She headed back into the maze.

As Sam was waving to Scarlett’s departing figure, she felt fingers in the small of her back, making her start. “Liss, I...”

She felt another hand touch the back of her neck before she could turn. The touch was electric, sending shockwaves through her entire body, tingles of energy that held her fast in place, that silenced her objections, that shut down her thoughts.

Liss’ fingers slid down Sam’s spine, sent more seismic shudders through her soul. There was a voice in her ear, soft and smooth, and tiny motions of her feet, and her shoes were gone. She stood statue-still, as Liss’ strong hands slipped down her body and stopped at her panties.

When did her hands start massaging her breasts? Liss was holding her up while nearby, Fatin stood staring in her direction, staring but not seeing. Sam looked over at her friend, naked, hypnotized, soon to be sent back into the game with no will of her own, and she shivered again, with her whole body.

“That’s what you want, isn’t it, Samantha?” Liss whispered, fingertips slipping under Sam’s panties to caress her tight ass. The force of the moan that escaped her lips was nearly enough to send her to her knees. She had come here intending to fight, but there simply wasn’t any way she could. She had no more will than Fatin, than the twins, when Liss’ hands were in contact, when the Alterist’s voice was in her mind.

She was a tool, to Liss. A toy. Sam would have thought herself even less, but she felt that Liss was handling her with great care, in both body and mind. She may have been an object, but she was a treasured object, well-kept and adored.

Liss’ hands slowly, carefully, moved down Sam’s legs, carrying her damp red panties with them, revealing—Sam couldn’t help a mental snicker, despite her state—’The Grooming,’ as she and Chere had joked earlier, a landing strip of brown hair done up just as Sam liked it. “Or maybe, " Liss continued as she slipped the panties further down Sam’s legs, “you would prefer that everyone else be like Fatin. Helpless, quiet, obedient. Seven women, doing everything you ask. Is that it, Samantha?“

Sam didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. She had no concept of what the answer was, being unable to form the necessary judgment to express a preference. Both options swam in her mind, circling one another.

“Because,” Liss said, giving her a little push on the bottom, making Sam step forward out of her underwear and leaving her in only her socks and her Alteration visor, “either of those things could happen. I can make them happen, Sam. If you want the latter, all you have to do is win the game.” Liss spun her subject around by the hips, and pressed close to Sam’s naked front. “And if you wish the former...”

Liss came close, impossibly close. Sam could smell her, feel her body through her sari, almost sense her telepathically. “If you wish the former, all you have to do is lose.”

Then came a kiss, intense, hot, powerful. The world fell away into that kiss, and Sam melted into memory and fantasy and sensation, helpless to the ministrations of the hypnotist before her. She felt, more than dreamed of, both scenes, warring in her mind, of being will-drained and of being leader of a group of enslaved women. She remembered, more than felt, the hand that pressed between her legs, the mouth that nibbled its way down her collar to her right breast. She dreamed of, more than remembered, the almost-magical sensation of putting a visor on for the first time, of having her heart plunge to the soles of her feet and her mind spin into the beautiful pattern of sound and light.

Sam’s eyes widened as Liss broke the kiss. A name, unbidden, came to Sam’s lips, a name from distant memory, so far away that she could barely understand it, a name hidden so deeply in a fog of Altering and sport and reverie and sex that she could hardly understand it when it did, a name that escaped her mind and travelled on her breath to the ears of her captor. Liss smiled, shook her head at first as if in disbelief, then nodded, then pressed closer for another kiss, another world-shattering connection, and—

Sam’s feet felt odd.

A door closed behind her. She was standing taller.

Shoes. A moment ago, she hadn’t...

Ten seconds on her countdown timer.

Annie, walking towards her, shaking her head and smiling.

She needed to get back in the...

Athena, following behind Annie. Sam found herself distracted by the sun-kissed and shapely nude form of her maid of honor.

Five seconds. No time to...

Sam stumbled. Right. Shoes. Walking felt strange. And not just because of the shoes. Her knees felt a bit weak, a bit jellied.

She had an agreement with Scarlett. But that meant that she had to find Scarlett to discuss strategy, and there wasn’t a good or easy way to do that.

Wait, Athena was just heading in to the waiting room, which meant...

Sam’s map came back online, showing only four goals, and only three women to put in them. Annie was down to her final hit (or would be, when she returned to the game), Athena was out, and both Laine and Scarlett still had some clothes on.

With some effort, Sam focused on the HUD and not her undressed friends, stepping out of Annie and Athena’s path. There were a pair of powerups not too far away, and none of Sunny, Chere, or Fatin were dangerously close to her goal, so Sam decided to get some ammunition for later. Given that she was already naked, she needed some sort of protection. She did still have her Defender and Stolen Suggestions power, but the former was only one shot and it did make someone more difficult to score against, and the latter was only situationally useful.

It was the endgame anyway. The strategy was changing again. Defense isn’t the best bet when you could be met by a cascade of women charging your goal. The plan had to be to start an attack and never let up, and that worked better with weapons.

The first was an aimbot. Very useful in conjunction with something else, but by itself... Sam was a good enough shot that she probably didn’t really need it. Still, a dozen guaranteed hits was a dozen guaranteed hits, and she really did enjoy the feeling of the programming pulling her arm into line and the almost unconscious twitch of her finger on the trigger. She imagined that must be how an assassin must feel when the training takes over, knowing that she was relying on an overly romanticized fictional version of spycraft for that idea and not caring one bit.

Moving on, Sam approached the second powerup sigil. Her tagger pressed into the wall. Time Stop.

Time Stop. A twenty-second tap-out on everyone else, wherever they were in the maze, whatever they were doing at that moment. Kind of rendered the aimbot moot, but that was hardly the point. She could stop everyone, run around to all the players who were ‘out,’ and reprogram them all to do exactly what she needed them to. It also gave her a last-second way to protect her goal, if she saw someone approaching on her map, but she preferred offense to defence, especially with something so powerful.

Scarlett’s goal area was near to Sam’s, so Sam figured that if nothing else, she should head in that direction. She needed to confer with her temporary ally before using the nuclear option. Besides that, she also wanted to wait until Athena came back into the arena to give her another weapon. There was no real reason not to, anyway.

Sam headed in towards Scarlett’s goal, keeping her eyes open for Laine, her hand on her zapper. The map showed the three girls starting to move from separate areas of the map towards the entry door; perhaps a coincidence, or maybe Laine and Scarlett were moving in that direction for some reason.

“Hey Sam,” she heard Scarlett say, “still want to team up?” Sam looked to her left, and sure enough, there was Scarlett, zapper pointed. “Because if not, I have a couple neat powerups I’d like to try out.” The tall athlete grinned.

“Me too,” Sam replied, turning and leaving her zapper at her side. “So why don’t we just play nice?” She was having trouble focusing on the matter at hand, with Scarlett’s chest exposed to her view. Sam knew the basketball star was well-built, but hadn’t ever had a chance to enjoy the sight of Scarlett’s small, perky breasts or round pink nipples.

“That sounds like a great idea,” Scarlett replied, not lowering her zapper. “What do you propose.”

“A truce, if you don’t shoot me. Before Annie gets back into the game, we go after Laine. After Annie gets back in the game, we take her out.“

Scarlett put her zapper aside. “Deal. How do we do that?”

Sam shrugged. “Just seemed it’d be easier with two of us. Besides, neither of us want to lose, right?” ... right? Sam thought about that question, thought about Fatin standing in the waiting room, thought about how Athena would be going through that same process, thought about Liss’ hands wandering over her own body as she stood, helpless, being programmed to be a ball for the soccer game...

“Sam? Hello? Earth to Samantha Miller!” Scarlett was saying, waving her hands in front of Sam’s face. “You sure you don’t want to lose?“

“Honestly?” Sam looked up at Scarlett. “I...”

“Well, I don’t want to, so if you wanna help me, I’ll happily knock you out of the game later.” Scarlett walked past Sam. “Let’s go get Laine before Annie’s back.“

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” Sam scanned her map quickly, following her tall friend. “I’ll go get whoever’s in the corner near Laine’s goal.”

“Should be Fatin, since I used her to score on ’Theen.” Sam could hear Scarlett’s grin. “I’ll go get the twins, then. What should we tell them?“

“Hm. How about this,” Sam suggested. “Send them to me, I’ll send them to Laine. I’ll camp by the door and send ’Theen with them. You go back and keep both our goals safe.”

“Right, got it.”

Scarlett took a quick turn, leaving Sam alone to chase Fatin. The path took her back to the entrance, just as the door was opening and Annie was emerging. She wasn’t back in the game yet, she didn’t have that tell-tale glow around her indicating that she was a viable target. She was, however, basically naked—like most of the girls, only dressed in footwear and an Alter headset. Athena wouldn’t be too far behind.

“Hey Annie!” Sam gave the black girl a wave. “How long until you’re back in it?”

Annie waved back, smiled and shrugged. “A minute. I’m just gonna head back to my own goal.” She started walking. “See you in a bit, I guess,” she said, but her tone suggested something more like, and when I do, you’re dead.

“See you in a bit,” Sam replied, trying to capture the same tone. She briefly considered trying to recruit Annie, but then remembered just who she was sleeping with at the moment and decided against it. Although, who knows? Maybe she’d be all for the idea...

On the HUD, Sunny’s control switched from Laine to Scarlett, and Sam remembered that she had a job to do. The map said that Fatin was just around the corner, and...

“Defender.” Laine’s voice cut through Sam’s thoughts. Defender? Is she using a...

The visor flickered.

Sam started walking back towards her base. She couldn’t seem to make herself stop. She walked right past Fatin and she didn’t even think about putting her plan into action. A 180-second timer replaced her map, but she still followed the path through the maze that she knew, with absolute certainty, would take her to her goal to defend.

Once she was there, that counter would start. And all she would be able to do is try to keep Sunny, Chere, and Fatin from getting past her. She could use the time-stop power to run down twenty seconds of that clock, but that seemed like a waste, especially knowing that Scarlett was mainly after Laine.

Sam stepped into her own goal and sat cross-legged in the corner as her three minutes of waiting began. “Aimbot,” she said, activating that power. Might as well have it ready. She knew that she could step out as far as the corridor in front of her, in case she had to give new directions to one of the mesmerized women, but otherwise would have to stay in the goal.

At least she could get a little break. She was tired. It had been a long day, and trying to figure out what was going on behind the scenes was... was...

Well... she had to admit, it was fun. The strange gaps in her memory, the way Liss was messing with her and her friends... The games themselves were great and she’d been having a fantastic time, but between them, the mystery, the play, Liss’ growing boldness, Tanya’s odd behavior, all of that was just so much fun.

Her left hand found its way between her legs, playing idly with her lower lips, without real direction or thought, as her right hand kept the zapper trained at the entrance to the door. If someone came by, the aimbot would manage her gunplay easily.

All this nudity, all this mind play, all this Altering... Sam was horny, no two ways about it. Scarlett and Chere, Laine and Annie, they all got off (she assumed), well, why couldn’t she? ... Again? Not that the hundred-and-forty seconds remaining on her exile was in any way enough time, not really, and she did have to at least keep some awareness about herself. But a little, idle, mostly-unconscious touching never hurt anyone.

She shuddered with pleasure, thinking about Liss, about what was being kept from her. She knew that she had recognized the woman, somehow, from somewhere. There had been a flash of insight, even a name to go with it, but that was long gone. Even though she didn’t remember the details, she remembered that she had remembered at one point. She remembered the disbelieving look on Liss’ face and her own sense of triumph at having a piece of the puzzle.

Her finger slipped inside, brushed her clit. She moaned. Two minutes to go. She would have to get Laine back for this.

She saw Athena’s name pop up on the right, and saw Laine almost immediately take control of her. Both twins wound up under Annie’s hand, and then Scarlett and Laine both took a hit; they would be back in the game just a bit after she was.

Both would be naked when they did. Sam stroked her clit again, moaned again. Four players left, all of them nude, all of them one score away from mindless wandering and helpless obedience.

“If you wish the former, all you have to do is lose.”

Liss’ voice echoed in her mind as she bit her lip. The next goal scored would make someone like the twins, or Fatin, or Athena. Another mindless naked girl, aimlessly moving through the maze...

She gasped with pleasure as Annie seized control of Athena. Had to keep her mind on the game, or it could be her next. Annie had four weapons to send her way, and no other target in play, and she couldn’t leave her goal to power up.

The worst part was that she couldn’t see her map, couldn’t tell just where those weapons were. She could see that Annie now had control of all four of them, though.

She also looked at that time stopper. Hm.

Sam’s hand—her right hand—jerked upwards. Her trigger finger twitched. Sunny, coming around the corner to Sam’s goal, froze in place, stunned. The little counter beside the aimbot ticked down to eleven. Sam scrabbled to her feet, wiping her left hand on her hip, and was about to tag Sunny and send her back when she got an idea.

She had the aimbot. She had another ninety seconds. Why not see who else popped around the corner?

The moment Sunny started moving, Sam’s arm and finger jerked again, and Sunny stopped. Ten shots left on the aimbot. And then nine, as Chere arrived.

Eight. Seven. A little over a minute and ten seconds left. Six. Five.

The aimbot shots remaining clicked down to four as Athena approached. Sam had enough automatic shots for one more round; she hoped Fatin would show up to round out the set, but she didn’t really want to risk taking the shots without the benefit of the automatic fire. Four, three, two...

A fourth head came around the corner. Not Fatin; Annie, who was instantly stunned as well. Sam’s plan shifted instantly. “Defender,” she said, and used her last aimbot shot on Annie. “Stolen Suggestion,” she muttered. “Stand still.” That would make all four of the Annie’s controllees come to a halt, would keep her safe in case anything went wrong.

She put her tagger on Sunny. “Follow close to the one who walks away.” She managed to get the same order into Athena as Annie recovered from her stun and started heading back to her goal.

Annie would lead both Athena and Sunny straight into her own goal, and there wasn’t a thing that she or anyone else could do about it. Even Sam herself couldn’t interfere, since it would be a full minute before she could leave. Perhaps if she gave the right suggestion to Chere, that might have done the trick, but she had no idea what that suggestion would be, and even if she did, she wasn’t about to use it.

And just like that, Annie was out of the game. Which left just Scarlett and Laine.

Sam only had a single option at the moment, in Chere, and she had no idea how to turn that option into something more. She wished that she could go out and get some more ammunition, although that time-stop power felt like a big deal.

She imagined that Sunny and Athena were following Annie to the entrance; she hadn’t told them to stop at any particular time. That meant that two players were coming back into the game with two weapons right there for them. She also had no idea where Fatin was, and wouldn’t until her curse timer ran out.

The time-stop might be my only way to get an advantage back.

Sam’s mind drifted to the other scenario that Liss had posed. Seven women, naked, Altered, enslaved, at her beck and call. The thought made her knees weak. Weaker. Maybe Liss would include herself among them. And Tanya. That would be one hell of an evening, with eighteen hands devoted to her personal pleasure...

It was often tough to keep up when she only had two. A few more couldn’t hurt.

Her left hand had gone to her breast this time. Chere was blankly staring at Sam as she teased her nipple. There’s no way that Chere could miss it, the action was right at eye level for the shorter woman. Whether the redhead was processing what she was seeing, or would remember any of it, Sam didn’t really know, and she decided (even though she stopped herself from going further) that she didn’t really care. Nothing she could do about it, at this point.

Fifteen seconds left. Then Sam could leave her goal and Laine and Scarlett would be coming back in to the maze. She didn’t know what the others had for powerups, but she could bet it was something. And Scarlett might be upset that Sam wasn’t doing her part in the plan.

Maybe that meant betraying Scarlett, putting the athlete out of the game, and matching wits against Laine. Matching wits against Scarlett was an easier proposition, but she couldn’t compete physically. Really, either way, she would have some advantages and some disadvantages.

She could also just tag Chere and pull her in to her own goal, just give up and...

No, no, that’s not the spirit of the game. Play until the end. She put her hand on Chere’s shoulder. “Go as far away from this spot as you can, and shoot anyone in your way who isn’t me.” Chere nodded, turned, and walked off. Three... two...

Without even checking the map, Sam was off as a run. As she moved, she counted four powerups available, two that were between her and the entrance. She angled for the closer one.

As predicted, Sunny and Athena were standing near the entrance. Fatin was nearby. Chere was moving across the opposite side of the maze, getting as far away from Sam’s goal as she could.

Also as predicted, Sunny and Athena wound up under Laine’s control. Both started moving across the maze, although Sam couldn’t tell whether they were headed for her goal or for Scarlett’s.

The powerup she was heading for vanished from the map when she was just a turn away. Sam skidded to a halt. The room seemed to darken, her field of vision narrowed. A notice popped up on the HUD: Fog active, 120 seconds. Scarlett or Laine had used a power to restrict visibility.

Just as she had when playing Blind Queen’s Castle, Sam focused on her visor. She had to retreat, of course, she didn’t know who was around that corner, but there were other ways through the maze. Sam at least had her map to navigate with, so she picked a path and moved along it. She could still see about five feet in front of herself, so it wasn’t completely crippling, but it wasn’t pleasant.

The worst part was that whoever activated the power could see just fine in the darkness. And other players, the ones who weren’t ‘out,’ didn’t show up on the map.

Out of that darkness came a shot, and Sam froze up, struck. With nothing to do for five seconds, she made a quick assessment of the situation. Scarlett had control of Fatin, Athena and Sunny were following Laine’s orders, and Chere was still heading off into the corner thanks to her own suggestion. And then Chere came under Laine’s control, which meant that the shot had to come from Scarlett. The fact that there was no follow up suggested that Scarlett might have been firing blind, or maybe that she had heard something and shot, or perhaps that she was the one who had used the blinding power and could see and shoot Sam, but had nothing to follow it up with.

A stun was a stun, regardless, and the position of Sunny and Athena was starting to make Sam nervous. They were approaching both her goal and Scarlett’s as Sam started to move again. Another name appeared on the right side—Annie was back in the arena.

Blind or not... This was the moment.

“Time stop.”

Sam pulled the trigger.

A second timer appeared on the display, showing the twenty seconds in which everyone else was supposed to be tapped out. The markers on the map stopped moving.

Twenty seconds. Got to make the most of it.

She bolted, trying to find the best route to her targets in the short time she had. She estimated that she should be able to catch the two headed in the direction of her goal and reprogram them, and then probably double back and get Fatin and send her towards Laine.

She just had to figure out what to tell them all. Sam felt a bit like she’d used up all her genius with the Defender trick on Annie. Come on, Sam, you get Altered all the time. This should be second nature. I mean, just last night...

She blinked.

Last night. Who was Altering her last night?

“It was a good plan, Samantha” a voice said to her right. “A solid plan. Probably will work beautifully.”

The countdown timer on the time stop seemed to be frozen in place itself.

Sam turned to face the voice. It was a deep green whisper in the deeper darkness, standing just at the edge of what was left of her sight, a slow and gentle sway dodging in and out of the mental fog that limited her view.

“Use your time-stop to get ahead of them, then make sure they turn to Scarlett’s goal. Attack Laine quickly, hope that your speed wins over hers. It was a good plan, as good as you might have hoped for.”

“Liss, what...”

“No words,” the voice said, and Sam fell silent. Liss drifted closed, moving with a grace and sensuality that seemed simply utterly impossible. “There is a guarantee that I can offer you.” Her hand was on the outside of Sam’s thigh. “A little weight on the scales, if you like.”

Sam swallowed hard. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move.

“It would be easy for me,” Liss continued, her fingers dancing seductively on Sam’s thigh. “And fruitful. I’m sure that you’d be very appreciative.

Already aroused, Sam was getting shockingly wet.

“I could even keep your conscience clear.” Liss’ hand drifted up to Sam’s hip and traced the line down to her groin. “Just erase this little meeting from your memory, and you win, without even a little guilt. All you have to do...”

Fingers slipped into Sam’s wetness.

“... is say ‘yes.’”

Sam started. She was daydreaming at a crucial moment, just as her hand was coming down on Sunny’s shoulder.

But what a daydream.

It was the only idea she had. “Follow me closely.” Sam saw Sunny’s control indicator on her HUD switch from Laine to herself, and then Athena’s as she did the same to the Greek.

Then she waited. The time-stop was almost up. Only a minute left of the blindness. And a short walk from there to Scarlett’s goal.

And then there were two.

And that made her question the daydream. Or... the “daydream.” Had Liss made her an offer? Had she accepted it? Was Scarlett so easy to take down because Liss had put “a little weight on the scale”?

Athena and Sunny followed her as she walked through the maze, angling towards Laine’s goal. Maybe they could get there fast enough to finish this.

A quick glance over at the list of human soccer balls showed Athena and Sunny still under her control (seeing as there had been no sign of Laine to take them away from her, anything else would be a surprise), but that Laine had laid her hand on Chere, which gave her both the older twin and Fatin.

Two each. At least, two each until Annie came back into the arena. And wouldn’t it be fun to use Annie to press the attack against...

“Aimbot.”

Laine’s voice. Sam tried to spot her in the darkness, but she was either too far away or down a side corridor. Sam didn’t have enough time to find her, anyway, since three shots shone through the darkness and Sam and her two charges froze up.

Laine was talking to someone, no doubt giving instructions to Chere or Fatin, or maybe both. From this position, it would be difficult to get one of them into Sam’s goal, so there wasn’t a great danger yet—although if anyone could manage it, Laine could.

That apparently wasn’t Laine’s immediate goal. The chubby woman stepped out of the fog as Sam’s stun started to wear off, but one of Laine’s charges fired from the darkness and, once more, Sam was unable to move. Another shot stunned Sunny as Laine put her tagger on Athena.

“Follow me,” she said. Sam saw the indicator under Athena’s name switch to show Laine’s new control. She then stepped across to Sam’s other side and did the same to Sunny.

Another shot followed the moment Sam started to move. The sight-obscuring fog was beginning to lift, and Sam watched as Laine walked away with her stolen followers and Chere, and Fatin was left with her zapper pointing at Sam, firing the moment that Sam started to move.

Helplessly, Sam could only watch as those three dots on the map made their way towards her goal. It didn’t even matter that Annie’s name appeared on the right side of the display, or that a new indicator showed on the map. It hardly mattered. Even if Fatin tired of that suggestion and stopped shooting her, they had a definite head start. It was just a matter of time.

Fatin lowered her weapon, and Laine was no longer listed as controlling her. There was a powerup not far off. Maybe there was something there, another Time Stop or Stolen Suggestion. Leaving Fatin where she stood, Sam dashed off, grasping at one last straw, one final opportunity.

She placed her hand on the wall.

Full Stasis.

Well, Sam thought, that does me no good at all.

The HUD vanished, not just the map, but all the status screens as well. Patterns too fast for the eye to register flickered in front of her face. Sam felt herself moving towards the center of the maze, to the small open courtyard there. She wasn’t alone.

Seven of her best friends were there with her.

As were the women who had been running the game. Tanya, and the one they had been calling Liss.

The visor flickered.

The woman in the green sari. Melissa Madan. My Mel, Sam recalled. Various other gasps of recognition made their way around the group.

Sam looked to the other woman, the one in the grey shirt. Tanya was... Tanya. Someone she knew from her visits here. One of the best people on staff, one of the most sought-after Alterists to run games here. Melissa’s best employee.

Because Melissa had bought this place about a year ago. She was looking to expand the business. They had all agreed to be test subjects for her and Tanya’s ideas, in exchange for holding the bachelorette party here.

Liss—Melissa—stepped up to Sam, wrapped her arms around her naked lover, and pulled her into a scorching hot kiss, to the chorus of the cheers and applause of their friends. She leaned back from the kiss and smiled, not letting Sam go. “I do apologize for the mystery. It was necessary to get your unbiased play and opinions.”

“Sneaky, Mel...” Sam said, her fingers playing in her fiancée’s hair, loving the soft texture and feel. She had missed even the memory of it, when it had all been absent.

“Tanya is the real genius,” Melissa said with a wave of her hand. “I simply told her what needed to be done, who required what programming, and it was her that made the magic happen.”

Sam started the applause, reaching around Melissa to accomplish even a modest show of appreciation. The other nude women followed suit quickly. Tanya took a quick, dramatic bow.

“There is still,” Melissa said as the applause died down, turning around so that she faced into the circle, Sam’s arms criss-crossed over her chest, “my gift of thanks to you all for helping to test-run our newest programming.”

Sam thought back to the infamous meeting, eight... wait, no, nine women sitting in Sunny’s small apartment, with Mel taking notes furiously, only chiming in, in her soft, melodious voice, when someone suggested something that would have been too complex or too difficult or just plain impossible.

“As promised,” Melissa continued, “each of you will be given a free year’s membership. And Laine if you are interested, there will be a job opening here this summer...”

“Yes please,” Laine said, almost too quickly. Sam couldn’t help but laugh at the enthusiasm, and she wasn’t alone. Everyone was all smiles. Everyone felt good. Even Scarlett and Chere, who’d both been having trouble with their Alterations, were grinning.

“It will be a delight to have you, I’m sure.” Melissa wiggled her bottom, a subtle gesture that no one could see, but that made the delightfully soft material of her sari breathe whispers across Sam’s increasingly needy sex.

I guess that one’s going in the laundry, Sam thought to herself, squeezing tighter, pressing herself against Mel.

“So is that it, then?” Sunny asked. “Just a bunch of naked women standing around, game over, waiting for their ride so that we can go home?”

Melissa put her hands on Sam’s forearms, and Sam’s heart leapt for joy at the touch. “Oh, something like that, I’m sure. Tanya, could you execute Order Eighteen?”

Tanya nodded, looking a bit vacant, and started tapping on the tablet.

“Wait,” Annie said, stepping forward, “what’s Ord...”

Seven visors glittered. Eight heads looked around. “Uh...” Laine started, “where did Sam and Mel go?”

Sam frowned. They were standing right there. She started to say something, but Melissa squeezed her arms in that way and her knees went weak and her mouth went dry and her nipples got hard—harder...

Tanya shook her head, looking straight at the happy couple. “No clue.” She looked down at the tablet in her hand. “No idea what might have happened.“

Sam did not believe that last statement. Still, she showed no sign of being able to see the two lovers.

Chere walked over to Scarlett, grabbed the taller woman’s hands, stood on tiptoe, pulled her close, pressed their naked bodies together and kissed her soundly on the lips. Scarlett seemed a bit surprised, but didn’t resist.

All eyes turned to the kiss. Sam felt a little grateful for the distraction, even if no one could apparently see her. She squeezed tighter, got another flicker of pressure on her arms, melted a bit more.

Chere broke the kiss and turned to the others. “We have a while yet before the limo gets here?”

“Yeah, let me check my phone, oh wait,” Sunny said, rolling her eyes. Everyone had a chuckle at that.

Tanya tapped the tablet. “You have the place booked for another forty minutes, then there’s the cool-down and de-Altering...”

“Great,” Chere said. “I’m about done for games.”

“Me too,” Scarlett agreed, “but I’ve got a couple ideas of what to do until then...”

Laine grabbed Annie’s hand. “Me too,” she said. Annie nodded.

“I wanna go see if I can break a million, so I’m going back to the lobby,” Sunny said, looking around. “Anyone with me?”

Athena raised her hand. “Yeah, sure, why not?”

Fatin nodded. “I’m in.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Tanya said. “I’ll get you all together in a bit and deprogram you.”

“Ah...” Annie cut in. “What if I... uh... we don’t want that deprogramming?“

“Yeah, like... can we just... keep our Alterations?” Chere asked. “I’m kinda liking mine.“

Tanya shrugged. “It’s not totally out of the question. Some of them have to come out, but I can keep a few changes in there if you want. I’ll have to clear it with Liss, of course, legal issues and liability and all that; there are probably waivers and things to deal with.“

“You’ll have to find the lovebirds first,” Athena said, standing right next to those lovebirds. “Who knows where they disappeared to.”

“They’ll turn up when it’s time,” Fatin said, starting to walk towards the arena entrance. “I’m sure of it.”

As the others followed Fatin, Melissa turned in Sam’s arms and place her hands on Sam’s thighs. Sam shivered, her stomach clenching in anticipation, her pussy practically dripping.

“You will not resist me, Samantha,” Mel said, a statement of pure fact.

Sam felt herself fall to her knees, felt soft hands undoing her visor, taking the gun from her wrist, slipped the tagger off her palm. Sam felt her body fall forward, slowly, safely, loosely, felt tender fingers slipping off her shoes and socks, tracing lines up to her heel.

That should have tickled. It should have sent Sam into paralytic paroxysms of laughter. But it didn’t. That was different.

Sam realized that she was being turned over, easily, lightly. Or that she was turning herself over. She was sitting up, and her hands were gliding through soft silk, her eyes and mind filling with green. She shuddered with pleasure as the sari came off in her hands, feeling the material whisper through her fingertips before settling on the floor. She focused with single-minded precision on unbuckling a pair of white sandals as a white tank top and a white bra fell to the floor beside her.

Melissa stepped out of her sandals, and stood radiant in her small white shorts. “You serve me, Samantha.”

“Yes,” Sam felt herself replying. Her hands went to Mel’s hips.

“You love me, Samantha.“

“Yes.” Fingers under the waistband, feeling that always-warm, always-soft skin.

“You want me. You need me.“

“Yes.” The shorts were around Mel’s knees. “Yes.” At her feet.

The dark-skinned goddess wore no panties.

“Since the moment we met,” Melissa said, her voice cracking with a familiar smile, a tone that was so ingrained in Sam’s memories that no Alteration could possibly mimic it.

“Since the moment we met.” Sam looked up from those feet, daintily stepping out of the shorts, her gaze sliding up long, beautiful legs that she had often felt pressing on her shoulders, lingering briefly on the dark hair outlining that beautiful, shapely mound, devouring those angular hips and that well-toned tummy, adoring those sides to which her hands had often clung, following the line of shoulder and collar to those beautiful, shapely breasts, drifting up that neck which so often received kiss after kiss after adoring kiss, and up to...

“Hey there, cutie.”

Eyes.

“Hi, Mel.” Sam smiled back.

Dark eyes.

“I am sorry for crashing your party.”

Dark eyes set in a dark face.

“It’s really alright.”

Dark eyes that seemed darker than darkness itself.

“Somehow,” Melissa allowed herself a giggle, “somehow I knew it would be.”

Dark eyes that spoke of warmth, of care, of want, need, love...

“Well, weird as it is to have your fiancée at your own bachelorette...” Sam began, still staring.

Dark eyes that spoke of absolute dominance.

“I think we can overlook this weirdness, this one time, Sam.” Melissa’s smile lit her whole face. “Don’t you?”

A nod. A nod in reply. The two lovers shared a laugh, brief, warm, wonderful.

“We overlook a lot of weirdness, Mel.”

Sam’s hands helped Melissa to the floor, onto her back. They brushed their way down her sides, to her hips, as Sam knelt over her lover, waiting.

“It’s time, Samantha.”

Shivers. Poetry.

Sam bent at the waist, her mouth falling lightly on Mel’s belly, kissing, caressing, tickling Mel with her lips, eliciting moans and gasps and giggles, before her tongue slid down the crevice where Mel’s left leg joined the hip, and she started nibbling and tasting at Mel’s thigh, dangerously close to those dark pink lips that shone with arousal.

Sam’s tongue tasted those lips. Mel’s body shook with pleasure, demanding more. Even if the Alterist couldn’t form words to make her desire plain, there was no questioning that desire, that want that Sam knew so, so well, so well that she could quite literally taste it.

And she knew that if she moved her tongue just so, if her lips fell there and there, if her fingers dug in in just that manner, if she let her breath out at that speed...

For all that she was a slave to her passions, and to her lover, Sam was completely in control. Melissa was putty in her hands. And there was no question where she would lead her mistress now, none at all, as every part of her body directed itself towards Melissa’s fast-approaching and seemingly-inevitable climax.

Sam drove her mistress on, encouraging Mel with her whole body, wanting, needing to bring her mistress to orgasm, feeling her own mounting arousal, the shockwaves of future quakes echoing back through time to bring her anticipated pleasure in the moment, even as Melissa pressed close and squeezed tight and screamed out to the empty arena, unleashing a torrent of pent-up sexual energy, body arching and twitching as Sam disentangled herself and pressed her nakedness down on her lover’s, holding Mel to the ground as her own little waves of excitement pulsed through her sex.

A long-standing program. Mel’s orgasm gives Sam pleasure, a small orgasm of her own. Not enough to satisfy, not enough to be a full release, but enough for enjoyment, for pleasure, for a taste of what was to come.

Melissa caught her breath, regained her composure. Her eyes fluttered. Sam watched them open, a hand gently brushing Mel’s cheek.

Those dark eyes opened. “Perfect, my love,” Mel said. Sam shivered with pleasure. “But we are not finished.”

Sam shook her head. “No. We’re not.”

Melissa pushed upwards slightly, pressing her breasts against Sam’s, sending more warmth and pleasure through her slave. Sam moaned lightly. “There is much to do, and little time to do it.”

Sam nodded. She intended to agree, but what emerged from her mouth was, “I will not resist you.”

Dark eyes.

Sam couldn’t look away. Didn’t want to look away. Her heart leapt.

“No, Samantha. You will not.”

The world slipped away as she sank into her lover’s grasp.