The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air between my dad and I as the jet lifted off. Uncomfortable for both of us... me, for not knowing what to say or do, and dad for not know IF he should say or do anything. The fact that he was able to get here so quickly after I turned myself in only confirms it: he’s been keeping track of me all this time. I don’t know if I should be more upset at the fact that he’d butted in and interfered, pulling strings to arrange for my transport... or the fact that he hadn’t intervened earlier, forcing me to come back home instead of letting me run around on a rampage.

Not his fault, of course. I was an adult, and had gotten into this mess all on my own. Still, with the emotional rollercoaster of the last few hours, it was easier to place the blame on someone else for a change.

“Jimmy, lad,” Eugene Frasier spoke up, suddenly, drawing my attention. He started to speak, then frowned, closing his mouth. He let out a frustrated sigh, and stood up, walking over to the Marshall in the other seat. “Excuse me, Sir... but I’d like to have a word with my son in private. If ye wouldnae mind uncuffing him and moving up to the next compartment for a moment?”

“Sorry, Mr. Frasier,” the Marshall replied, shaking his head. “I’m afraid I can’t leave the prisoner unguarded.”

“He won’t be unguarded, I’ll be here,” Eugene countered, crossing his arms. “Or do you think I arranged all this to help him escape? Which seems a bit contrary, since he turned himself in to the police back in Midas.”

“That, and the fact that we’re in a jet flying a few thousand feet above the surface,” I added, standing up, walking over to the Marshall, handing him the broken remains of my wrist and ankle restraints. “And I can’t fly.” Staring for a moment at the broken reinforced titanium shackles, the Marshall stood up from his seat, and, muttering softly, moved up into the forward cabin.

“Impressive trick with the shackles, lad,” Gene said, chuckling. “You definitely take after your mother. That was what... reinforced titanium-aluminum-molybdenum blend? Tensile strength... around two hundred and forty-seven megaPascals?” He shook his head in wonder. “You just keep getting stronger and stronger...”

“Yah, me,” I snorted, derisively, tuning away. “Is that why you wanted to speak to me alone? To praise my physical prowess?” He turned to face me then. “Go ahead and say it, Dad. Just go ahead and get it off your chest. Tell me how disappointed you are in me!”

Eugene blinked in surprise, staring at me for a moment before reaching out and pulling me into a tight fierce embrace. “Are ye daft, boy?” he murmured softly, hugging me tighter. “I’m no the least bit disappointed in ye... a bit perturbed that ye chose to run rather than come to me for help... a bit angry that ye recklessness nearly got yerself and wee ’Rora killed, but... nae.. I’m no disappointed in ye.”

I stood there, a bit shell-shocked. He wasn’t disappointed in me? I was a criminal, a killer... a murderer... everything he’d spent his life fighting against. How could he simply overlook what I’d done just because I was his offspring? He pulled back for a moment, smiling sadly. “Ye dinnae understand, do ye?” he said softly. “I do. I understand why ye ran... not out of fear or anger, but concern for us.. ye didnae want to get us involved... but son, we’re your family... we were ALWAYS going to be involved no matter what. And, in this family, we face our problems head on, together... it’s what being a family is all about!”

“But.... but...” I sputtered, all my anger and angst evaporating in the face of this truth. “I killed those people, Dad. I didn’t mean to do it... I didn’t, but all the ‘I’m sorry’s’ in the world won’t make up for it. Nothing can undo what I did. I need to take responsibility for my actions...”

“Aye, ye do,” my father replied grimly. “And ye’ll have yer day in court... ye’ll stand trial. But, son...you must know this. You were not responsible for their deaths. You were set up.”

That got my attention. “Wait... what? Set up? How? What do you mean?”

Gene waved a hand. “Calm down, lad. Give me a moment to explain. Now... I know the kind of lad you are, boy... you’re quiet, reserved, gloomy and introspective... you always think about your actions, and how they will affect those around you. You’re careful. And I’ve trained with you, lad... you have great battlefield awareness... a sense of what’s going on around you. So you tell me... how was it that you didn’t notice a van full of people in your battle zone?”

“I... I don’t know!” I answered, frustrated. “I’ve been going over and over that moment a thousand times... trying to figure out why I acted the way I did...”

“Aye... that’s my point. Even at your most angry, you are always reserved. Always calm and composed. You have to be... else your little ‘gremlins’ tend to run amok, destroying everything within a ten yard radius.” He crossed his arms again. “As I recall from the footage, the only damage to that area was caused by Nitro’s bombs. If you were really as angry with the lass as ye appeared to be, something unnatural would have occurred, don’t ye think?”

I blinked. He had a point. I’d been focused entirely on trying to ascertain the reason for my outburst that I completely failed to notice the obvious. If I’d truly been as angry as I’d felt, the building she was leaning against should have crumbled down around her! “But... what does this mean, Dad?”

“It means you were manipulated. Controlled. My guess would be either psychic or empathic manipulation,” he concluded, nodding. “There are any number of Supers around with the ability to make it happen... and had ye stayed behind long enough, yer Aunt Eva could have scanned you and found proof of the mental tampering!”

At last, a bit of a edge from the old man. He was more than a bit ‘perturbed’ that I’d run away after all. “Unfortunately,” he continued, a bit calmer, “there’s no proof as of yet. Even if Eva testified in court that you were being manipulated, its not enough to explain away your actions.” He sighed deeply. “I know he’s behind it all... I just need time to find the proof... ye bloody bastard... should have known you weren’t completely gone out of our lives...“

“Um... who are you talking about? Who did this? Who set me up?”

“A specter,” Gene replied cryptically. “A shadow from my past. He always did enjoy a good game of chess, and he always favored the ‘long game’. He’s maneuvered me into choosing between losing my Castle or my Knight,” he murmured softly, deep in thought. “I was tool late to see it coming... too late to stop it... but damned if I’ll let him take you from me!”

Okay... I had absolutely no idea what my dad was talking about. “Um, yeah.. so... where does this leave us then? You think I was set up, manipulated into all this, and you think you know by whom...but we have no proof. And still, a bigger question is... why? Why me? Why do through all the trouble to make me into a wanted criminal?”

“The answer to that is two-fold, son,” Eugene replied wearily. Walking back to his seat, he sat down, brushing a lock of grey hair from his brow. “He wants my company... or rather, he needs some bit of technology that I’ve created, something ‘off the books’ that he can’t simply steal. Doing this to you is nothing more than a distraction, keeping me from focusing my time and resources into saving Frasier Industries from being dissolved by that blasted congressional committee. He’s forcing me to choose...”

“Between your ‘castle’ and your ‘knight’,” I answered, finally getting the reference. “Dad... I can’t let you lose your company over me! You worked your entire life building it from scratch! You can’t just let this mysterious ‘Him’ break up what you worked your whole life for!”

“Nae, lad,” he replied gently, ruffling my hair. “It’s not worth it. He’s made his play, and it’s a good one... so I’ll concede and give up F.I. in order to keep you. But taking one piece does not win you the game, lad. By making his move, he’s showed me his game plan... and now that I’m aware, I can come up with a strategy of my own. It’s not over, not by a long shot. And anyway... his little scheme will cost him in the end. He tried to use family bonds as a tool, a weapon, to hurt me... to get what he wanted. He tried to use our family to weaken my resolve.... but instead he’s strengthened it.”

The Marshall returned a few minutes later, quietly taking his seat. the rest of the trip passed quietly, and I sat, absorbing all of what I’d just learned, trying to make sense of it all. My dad was being overly cryptic about the identity of the person behind all of this. From the way he’d talked, it was obvious that he knew the guy... and knew him well. There was an obvious history there. I was still kind of doubtful that someone else had actually caused me to go postal the way I had... but, it made a strange kind of sense. Mom and Dad both had a long list of enemies, both the mundane and power wielding kind. Was it too far fetched to believe that some of them might choose to strike back at them through their kids?

The knowledge that Katie and Luminaire were one and the same wasn’t common knowledge; she’d taken the precaution of wearing a mask when she’d first put on the costume. And while certain key people in the government knew mom and dad’s alter egos, their identities were still secret as well. Me, on the other hand? I’d never really given the hero thing much thought until just recently... never wanted to follow the family tradition, as it were. And I’d never really given a lot of consideration to hiding my identity once I’d taken the plunge to try my hand as saving people. Was it possible that someone had put two and two together, and figured out the family secret?

Of course, it would be all too easy to figure it out soon enough, I thought glumly. If I’m convicted, my identity will become a matter of public record. As it is, my face is being splashed all over the news 24/7... and it’s only by Dad’s connections in the media that my name hasn’t been broadcast as well!

It was a bad situation... a real dark cloud. But... even then, I couldn’t help but focus on the silver lining. Helping Aurora had given me a new sense of purpose. My powers... could be used to help people. To heal, instead of destroy. Yeah, it hurt like blazes... but maybe that would get easier in time, if I practiced it a bit more. Even if I was convicted, and sentenced... I would simply deal with the consequences and serve my time. And afterwards? Maybe I’d give this hero thing another try. Heck, if my cousin’s new partner, Counter Spell, could turn over a new leaf, then it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility for me as well...

“Uh huh. I see. Very well then... I’ll inform him immediately.”

The Doctor walked quickly down the hallway, a clever little smirk creasing his wrinkled weathered face. It was regrettable that he’d had to come to River City personally to oversee this latest project, but the end results more than outweighed the inconvenience. The new prototype genetic modulators worked just as expected. His Master would be pleased. And yet, the phone call he’d just received from one of their operatives was just as important, if not moreso, to his Master’s ‘Master’ Plan.

Making his way to his office, he entered, the locked and secured the door. Moving to the far wall, he slid open a hidden compartment, and, placing his hand against a palm print reader, activated the computer view screen.

Duncan Frasier’s visage sprang to life on screen, glancing up from his papers at his desk. “You have good news to report, I take it?” he said without preamble.

“Yes, Sir, I do. Two items that will interest you greatly. First of all, the latest tests all came back positive. The new genetic modulators are one hundred percent effective. It took a bit of doing, but we managed to obtain back the technology you ‘leaked’ to the good Doctor Lys. As expected, her modifications were just what we needed to ensure stability in the multiform matrix. Best of all, we managed to obtain some of the data from her ‘other’ projects as well... a few upgrades that might be useful in ‘Project Gil’.”

“Excellent. Well done,” Duncan nodded with a slight smile. “Be sure to reward your people, Doctor. Success breeds great rewards, just as failure reaps terrible punishments.” He drank from a small mug at his side before continuing. “Now then... you said there were two bits of important news?“

“Ah, yes Sir. It seems the situation with your nephew has come to fruition. Several hours ago, he turned himself in to the Midas City Police, no doubt seeking to put and end to the nightmare and face justice. Your new... ahem... ‘hiree’, Brainstorm, managed to whip the situation into a frenzy, using people’s mistrust and anger to cause a riot.” He frowned. “My operatives tell me that he overstepped his bounds, Sir... he took control of a young college student and tried to use her to assassinate the boy. She nearly succeeded.”

“Hmmm.. yes,” Duncan replied with a frown. “Unfortunate, but not completely unforeseen. His stake in working for us was revenge against the boy’s mother after all. If you can hurt Omega Girl herself, what better way to cause her pain that killing her beloved child?” His expression darkened. “Still.. despite all we’ve done to both siblings, I do not want them killed. In defying my wishes in this matter, Chang has shown himself to be a liability. Once this matter is solved, we will have to eliminate him.”

“I’m pleased to hear you say that, Sir,” the Doctor replied, grinning, “because our other operative reported that as soon as your brother heard the news of his son’s surrender, he walked out of the Senate Committee Hearing and flew straight to Midas. The Committee took a vote and passed the dissolution of Frasier Industries! You’ve done it, Sir! You’ve won!”

Duncan chuckled gleefully, allowing himself a show of the great pleasure he felt. Won? No, not yet... not completely... but yes, dear brother, I shall savor your pain at your loss! I’ve hurt you... and I shall go on hurting you. It will never make up for your betrayal of me all those years ago, but I shall relish every bit of pain and suffering you endure until you leave this mortal coil!

Turning to his waiting minion, he resumed a serious expression. “Very good, Doctor. Proceed as we have discussed. I want you to finish up the details there, then return as soon as possible. It’s almost time, Doctor... just a few more pieces to the puzzle, and I can finally step out of the shadows. Project Gilgamesh is nearly complete!”