The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

A second kick knocked out the window. The supervillain’s fist reached out. Her segmented bracers ran the rim of the pane to clear away the burrs and shards that had been left behind. She swung out of the warehouse before the glass had shattered on the concrete walkway below. She was a blur of cloud white, soulless black, and wine red. The glass shards crunched under her armored boots as she dropped the story and a half to the ground.

“Wrong exit, criminal,” came a loud, authoritative voice.

“Oh, fiddlesticks.” The supervillain pouted. She flipped backwards, landing on her left hand and twisting away from the shimmering bullet. A second pulse shot undulated toward her center of mass but she had drawn her Jian sword, Xie Zhi Ren, during her acrobatics. She slashed through the projectile backhanded. The pulse dissipated with her heavy grunt.

Crimefighter wasn’t much of a hero but he did look like one. He was dark skinned with immaculate black hair slicked back from his unmasked face. His eye color remained obscured behind his gold rimmd Blueyes visor. He had the strong jaw and the hard body. The supervillain saw a joke.

Gulf City, like every small city in America, had its own Crimefighter and Action Boy. The off-brand superheroes that operated primarily as a local PR arm of Great Justice and secondarily as heroes. The supervillain saw the gold trimmed red armor, the breastplate designed to show off broad shoulders and abdominal muscles, as a testament of mediocrity. Yet, he had still been outfitted by all of the resources of Great Justice.

His plate armor was worn over scaled under-armor that covered his arms and legs. He wore boots that put her armored greaves to shame. His forearms were covered in gauntlets to match. His cape fluttered pathetically, drooping in the stinking Gulf of Mexico breeze; he stood as if he wore a golden battle flag. His sigil was a bright gold C, like the captain’s emblem on a hockey jersey, burnished over his left breast. He held a fat-mouthed pulse-stunner in his right hand. The supervillain was ready.

“Wicked Sharp, identity unknown,” Crimefighter read from his Blueeyes HUD, “known associate of Jefferson Grant, alias Doctor Nightmares. Wanted for questioning in relation to countless grand thefts, massive vandalism, four disappearances,—

“Oh, the boy can read!” Wicked Sharp grinned smartly.

“—and two acts of domestic terrorism,” finished Crimefighter.

“Oh, shove it in next the stick! Les Belle blew up that ship and The Young Defenders burned down that campus!” she snarled. “Those were your acts of domestic terrorism.”

She whined and air quoted but she was smiling. Her identity was still a secret even after Doctor Nightmares’ wasn’t. She had expected the interference on behalf of her superiors. They really had given up on Jeff. She should have ditched much earlier. She hoped her three years of service was worth the sparkplug they had promised her. A little superspeed would go a long way. Until then, she had her sword, her wits, and her skills.

Wicked Sharp was an excellent swordswoman. Xie Zhi Ren moved with surgical precision. She aligned for Crimefighter’s center of mass. Her cheongsam was crafted from a highly protective fabric that didn’t cover her arms and legs. The cheongsam was white with a phoenix design in red. Its skirt barely hardly covered the tops of her thighs. A winding red sash rolled off her hips and had scabbarded her sword. Her raven hair was pulled up into a tail and was tied in a ribbon to match her sash. Both silken lengths rippled in the wind, mocking Crimefighter’s heavier cape. Segmented bracers protected the front half of her forearms. Enameled boots armored up and over her knees.

“Surrender and we can proceed without violence.”

Wicked Sharp’s eyes looked out from her eye mask with humor. She cocked her dark lips. “Some first date you are! You don’t even want to have a bit of fun before you try and take me home!”

“Criminal—” Crimefighter seemed shocked that the supervillain would rush him. He fired at her, but she swayed to one side. His thumb ratcheted the dial on the side of the gun.

Wicked Sharp wheeled through the undulating projectiles. Xie Zhi Ren squealed as it took in the oscillating kinetic energy. Pimples of dull red light blossomed down the white blade. The skirts of her cheongsam rose up over the muscles of her thighs. She stepped down hard, her foot landing sideways between Crimefighter’s greaves. Her right hand twisting aside his chromed stunner. Her left hand adjusting the grip on her sword. One quick strike, through the Dragonsilk and ceramic armor and in below the diaphragm would immobilize the hero.

She didn’t want him dead. Murdering supervillains didn’t fight K-Mart Crimefighters. Murderers fought Challengers. She had witnessed Meteor Man in Arizona. She’d seen footage of Daybreaker off the coast of Massachusetts. She had heard stories of the new kid, Titan, destroying a tank by smashing it with another tank. A Challenger dropping from the sky would end her.

“This is over,” Wicked Sharp declared and lunged. Her body wrenched forward. She slammed her shoulder into Crimefighter’s breastplate but her sword wouldn’t penetrate a millimeter.

Generally, if someone is carrying a pulse-stunner, they’re not quite capable in the closest of quarters. This Crimefighter failed to meet Wicked Sharp’s assumptions. His left hand slammed into her chest in an open palm strike. She was lifted off the ground. She slammed her shoulders back into the warehouse’s concrete wall.

Her vision blurred a moment under her mask. She had less than a second to react. She only managed to avoid Crimefighter’s next attack by a hair. Not even her hair. The pulse damaged the tip of her ponytail. She felt the tingles all the way into her scalp.

“Nice punch,” Wicked Sharp growled. Crimefighter was slowly walking towards her. Pulses rippled the air. The lighter the shots, the better the accuracy.

“Leave your weapon and strip off your armor and you will be brought in without further injury,” he announced. He projected confidence. Wicked Sharp had faced Crimefighters from Jacksonville to Juneau. She hadn’t even needed her sword in most of those fights. She had drawn steel today because circumstances demanded speed. She had gone for the brutal move because she had needed to get away.

“Dammit!” she hissed. A pulse grazed her shoulder as she tried to tumble into position for another lunge. Crimefighter was closing the distance. She was on his schedule. This was going to have to be a fight. Wicked Sharp wasn’t going to take out this Crimefighter alone. Losing to superhero knock-offs was unacceptable. She had to change the plan.

The first stagings of Doctor Nightmares’ mad science laboratory were built inside the warehouse. He hadn’t even taken the time to booby trap the complex or devise his patent pending, ridiculous, thrilling, but always effective, escape plan. The warehouse appeared abandoned from the street. It appeared abandoned from the fight. Blacked out windows hid everything but the hiss, gurgle, and stench of boiling chemicals.

Wicked Sharp made for bay doors. An unloaded truck waited at the dock. She twisted out and around the onslaught of pulse bubbles. Her sword was starting to sing with the energy it had absorbed. The dull red pimples grew livid and were linked by a spiderweb of hot metal. Crimefighter approached.

“My agent is taking out your compatriots inside.” Crimefighter ratcheted down the blaster as the distance closed. He did not relent, his shots grew heavier and flew in imperfect trajectories. Wicked Sharp weaved away from a blast that vibrated the massive truck. A center of mass hit and she’d be an erratic sponge on the asphalt.

“You sent an Action Boy into a faceoff against Doctor Nightmares!” she laughed, maybe she cackled. “How badly did you need the insurance money?”

“I’m more than confident—”

But Crimefighter hadn’t been confident. He stammered a moment. Wicked Sharp grabbed the back segment of her left arm bracer. It split away from her wrist into two half moons. The squeal of steel blades was shrill as they outfolded from all four ends. They were shurikens, boomerang shaped throwing stars, and they were arcing and airborne in a casual backhand throw. The first shrieked along the barrel of Crimefighter’s pulse gun. Metal, plastic, and fiberglass peeled back from the gash. The second shuriken sliced the arm off of Crimefighter’s Blueeyes. The breeze whisked his scored hair from his head. The optics fell down and the next pulse from his blaster expended more than a third of its energy out the side. Crimefighter cussed as the kick threw the gun across his body.

The blaster had been Wicked Sharp’s aim. She wanted that weapon out of commission. Its destruction wasn’t as complete as she had desired. She had sent her second blade for Crimefighter’s jugular. Risky! Stupid! A successful hit there would be very dangerous, very loud, very heard by super reinforcements. The tingle in her shoulder hand opened her fingers a couple milliseconds too early. The shuriken had gone sixteen centimeters too high. He had pulled his head aside in time to save his eye.

“Well, seems like there’s no more fun to be had out here,” Wicked Sharp laughed, and she landed a backflip onto the lip under the door. “Let’s see how our boys are doing.”

Xie Zhi Ren whistled as Wicked Sharp pirouetted. The hot sword sheared away a wide triangle of the rolling steel door. The ruined door crumpled behind her before she tried to backflip into the warehouse.

Her acrobatics were to dodge Crimefighter’s furious assault. He had ratcheted the pulse gun way down but even the lightest bullet erupted shimmering sparks out of the gash, destroyed his aim, and tried to paralyse his trigger finger. Still, his first shot was accurate. His first shot was a fluke. He hit Wicked Sharp mid backflip square in her achilles tendon. Her whole leg spasmed like she was trying to knee herself in the chin. Her mass contracted; her speed increased. Her planned three-sixty became a four-fifty. She hit the concrete floor with her shoulders and skidded wildly for four meters.

Evidence was clear that Action Boy had rocketed through the warehouse. Shark and Grizzly, two of Doctor Nightmares’ three henchmen, were gagged and hanging from overhead cranes. A forklift was overturned. There were black marks of soot crisscrossing the floor showing how the fight had moved into the laboratory at the back. There was a second structure inside the massive void of the warehouse: a concrete bunker with a sheet steel door. No sounds of the fight carried out into the warehouse. Just the gurgle from the brass reactor that poked out of its roof.

“I am through with you!” hollered Crimefighter tossing aside his blaster. He ripped a page from Wicked Sharp’s book. He barrelled at her full speed. He was a pace away before she could spin up onto her unsteady legs. She was better at this kind of combat.

His Dragonsilk and ceramic breastplate had combined to stop her sword. That wasn’t nothing. Xie Zhi Ren was a hundred and ten centimeter weapon from pommel to tip. The blade was flexible, strong and wickedly sharp. The material wasn’t some simple alloy; it was made of metal PR-75. Pearlsteel wasn’t steel or even some iron alloy; guinea pigs weren’t swine. Pearlsteel was incredibly flexible and strong. More importantly it held an incredible edge.

Even with Xie Zhi Ren, Wicked Sharp knew she couldn’t cut the Dragonsilk, but just because the weave caught her sword didn’t mean it stopped her momentum as she cleft through meat or bone beneath. That was what the plates and ceramic scales were for. They had the mass to stop the blows, but they cracked and crumbled with stress. Enough hits to the same spot and she’d slide her sword through Crimefighter like butter. Her knee wobbled out from under her. She had no idea how long that could take. She needed a better solution.

Crimefighter started with a haymaker. He wanted to turn her into a wet pink mist and move on. Even semi-crippled she easily dodged the overhand punch that threw Crimefighter with all the momentum of his run. Xie Zhi Ren shrieked as she crisscrossed her way around the breastplate. Her movements were as lightning. She overcommitted on her last slice down his back and tucked away in a quick roll. She couldn’t sprint away towards the laboratory. She hobbled with all of her might.

Outside, her actions with her bracelet blades had been hurried. That pulse cannon could have won the fight in a single lucky shot. She had taken a pathetic blow and it might have already turned the tide against her. Her leg was recovering but even if she was at her best in five minutes, Crimefighter wanted this fight done in five seconds. He was coming after her again. Wicked Sharp settled on the door.

“Huwaah!” bellowed Crimefighter.

“You were the second best Crimefighter I’d ever seen.” Wicked Sharp dove ahead of his charge. He had wanted his shoulder in the small of her back while he drove her into the floor. She didn’t perform a somersault, but a twist, rolling away to the left as her right hand snaked the sash from her hips. Crimefighter saw the red ripple and the white flash as in two motions, Wicked Sharp snapped the sash and looped it around Crimefighter’s neck. The snap ejected six ten centimeter tasseled spikes. Four were deflected by his armor but two matched her planned precision. Pearlsteel blades dug deep into weak points in his armpits Xie Zhi Ren had discovered. The lasso around his neck wasn’t a noose, it had just enough grip for Wicked Sharp to impart Crimefighter enough velocity to crash into the door.

The rush job hinges had been installed by Grizzly. They squealed and snapped as the superhero rammed through the threshold and slammed down onto the rubber matted floor. He howled, cloaked in anger and pain as he threw off the crumpled steel sheet. It clanked against a metal cabinet. Wicked Sharp climbed up onto one knee. Her back leg still responded poorly. She balanced on Xie Zhi Ren.

Crimefighter didn’t work with an Action Boy. Crimefighter worked with an Action Girl. She was young, with her blond ponytail whipping opposite her Blueeyes domino mask. Her green eyes seemed void black behind the sheen. Her uniform wasn’t armored like Crimefighter’s. She was dressed more like a cheerleader. Her gold sleeveless top bared some of her midriff before her red skirt continued from her hips. She had a short cape, red as her skirt, that fell just beyond her butt. Gold leather bracers and knee-high boots completed her outfit.

“Seriously, Doc?” Wicked Sharp stood next to the hero. “I didn’t even think you liked girls.”

Their final henchmen, Nighthawk, was propped up against a wall. The drool and ragdoll posture advertised that he was the first of Doctor Nightmares’ lab rats. In the center of the laboratory, before a steel table, Doctor Nightmares had captured Action Girl. He stood with a bright smug smile. He had pulled his goggles down around his neck, completely revealing his big-eared black face. His brown eyes with their gray polluted irises were opened bright and wide. He was an imposing figure in spite of his gleeful expression. He was a hundred and ninety centimeters tall and one hundred kilos. He was plumper than Crimefighter’s chiseled shape. He had no supervillain dress sense. His body armor, just a kevlar vest, was on an office chair across the room. The Cowls t-shirt he wore told the journey of their 2005 tour. It was faded and bleach pitted. He wore his lab coat all the way open. His laser gun was nowhere to be found. He seemed to be unarmed. Except, his green-brown cargo pants were bunched over the tops of his yellow galoshes. His weapon, turgid and long, glistened with saliva and delved into Action Girl’s smudged lips.

“Oh, Sharpie!” Doctor Nightmares slipped his fingers through Action Girl’s blonde hair. He was grinning like an idiot, “It works!”

The young heroine seemed to frown around the supervillain. She was using all the muscles her in stomach, chest, shoulders, throat and mouth to climb up Doctor Nightmares. Her throat bulged with his invasion. She grunted and shuddered. Determination filled her eyes. Mascara ran over her mask.

“Action Girl!” shrieked Crimefighter. He reached for his empty stunner holster, “Get your filthy hands off of her!”

Wicked Sharp responded quickly to Crimefighter’s outburst. Her sword scoured across the ground as she quickly but awkwardly moved herself between hero and fellatio.

“It’s OK,” Action Girl’s mouth left Doctor Nightmares with a pop. Her voice had an adorable local Texas twang, “I’ll just finish up here and we can get back to work.”

Crimefighter shuddered to a confused and uneasy stop. Wicked Sharp turned. Doctor Nightmares was well equipped and he only looked larger still for the petite heroine struggling to reach his base.

“This is what you used it for?” Wicked Sharp laughed, “I might have suspected this from someone else but from you, Jeff, I’m kind of shocked.”

He brushed aside Action Girl’s bangs. She was starting to push up with her knees from the rubber floor each time she filled her mouth. Each stroke had her croaking and sputtering. Doctor Nightmares was coated in a miasma of saliva strings. Drips pattered onto Action Girl’s uniform. The tops of her ample breasts were catching most of it.

“Oh no. She offered on her own volition,” shrugged Doctor Nightmares. “Said she was really good at it. Maybe oversold herself a little but I can forgive a bit of youthful enthusiasm.”

The kneeling heroine flashed angry eyes up at Doctor Nightmares but her ire soon faded into hurt. He murmured a wordless smiling apology. He kept his left hand in her hair, massaging her scalp and playing with her ponytail as she aspired to improve her performance. Eager and quick, she moved up and down him. He met her enthusiasm with short swings of hips. She pulled back breathless.

“Take your time,” Doctor Nightmares scratched his day old stubble. Wicked Sharp could age his laboratories based on the volume of Doctor Nightmares’ beard, “I could do this all day.”

“My throat’s getting sore,” Action Girl said. She had had her palms flat against the front of Doctor Nightmares’ thighs. Now they circled him and dragged towards his face. “It never hurts with anyone else.”

Crimefighter responded emotionally to Action Girl’s comments. She hadn’t sounded uncomfortable; her voice was awash in wonder. Wicked Sharp almost didn’t react to Crimefighter’s rush. Her sword didn’t penetrate but her other hand continued his forward momentum into a throw. Crimefighter slammed down on his back. Wicked Sharp’s leg collapsed under her and she fell on top of Crimefighter.

“Maybe her imprinting is a side effect of a vitamin Y overdose. I’ll need a larger sample size to be certain,” Doctor Nightmares nudged Action Girl back into motion. She was keen to try again. This time there was a lot more obvious tongue. She swirled and coddled the tip and pumped in superstrong pulls towards her face. Doctor Nightmares groaned at high spiking pitch.

“Oh, of course. What’s next? A brunette? Maybe a redhead?” Wicked Sharp tried not to scream as Doctor Nightmares threw her aside. She was still awkward, slow, far closer to the exit than to helping her partner. Doctor Nightmares looked down as Crimefighter tried to shake off his disbelief and stun.

“I was thinking someone more Latina,” Doctor Nightmares replied. His goofy smile grew more genuine. He met Wicked Sharp’s eyes and she felt his seriousness. “You don’t have to stay. I know where we stand and you have your career to think about.”

“You knew?” Wicked Sharp was gutshot with delayed guilt from when she had tried to abandon the operation and ran into Crimefighter. She looked down at the hero who was already up on his knees. She started quickly at him.

“I care, you’re my friend.” The sentiment was offset by a loud slurp from Action Girl. He patted her head fondly. “Go! Take care of yourself. I want you to reach your goals. I expect to see you conquering the world in no time.”

“Action Girl!” pleaded Crimefighter. Wicked Sharp was offended he was interrupting their conversation. Action Girl also flashed an offended look. She turned back to Doctor Nightmares. Her shiny eyes begged for his attention. Her flushed skin displayed excitement. Her rushed pace exposed her pride. The shape forced on her mouth could not show her glee.

“Nicole!” Crimefighter stepped forward. “Let that girl go! What kind of monster are you? She’s only 18!”

“Oh thank the irrational idea of an anthropomorphized dictator of the universe!” grumbled Doctor Nightmares. He relaxed with a big breath and his face twisted from idiotic smile to surprised chaos. His right hand returned to Action Girl’s skull and he wobbled. She flinched, revealing a crazed strength but she recovered, coughing and red-eyed as Doctor Nightmares unleashed into her mouth.

“Don’t you find that takes too long to say each time?” Wicked Sharp chuckled for a moment but stopped. Crimefighter was livid and was charging like a mad bull.

“I’m going to kill you ass—”

“No, precious, No you won’t.” Wicked Sharp twisted in front of the roaring superhero. Xie Zhi Ren was flat across barring him from going forward. “I’ll do what it takes to stop Crimefighter.”

“I’m sure we’ll be done here soon,” Doctor Nightmares sighed. “She is improving as we speak.”

Action Girl choked back the bulk of Doctor Nightmares but much fell over her slick jaw and sloughed onto her breasts and knees. She lovingly licked and nurtured him as Doctor Nightmares huffed and puffed. He leaned back gripping the work table. He was uneasy, shaking the apparatus he had built. A green filled round bottom flask’s neck broke in it’s clamp and crashed onto the table. “Oh, no!”

“He’s not stopping, Doc!” Wicked Sharp met the brunt of Crimefighter’s strikes by deflecting them but several times she had to block straight on the flat of Xie Zhi Ren. This wasn’t a fight she could control. She poked three holes in known weak points but Crimefighter only screamed and redoubled his berserk.

“Neither is she!” Doctor Nightmares giggled. Action Girl was all the way up on her knees. Doctor Nightmares was all the way up in her hands. She leaned against him, looking down from his torso where she stroked him double handed between the valley of her breasts. They looked bigger than ever to Doctor Nightmares.

“Don’t be gross.” Wicked Sharp wobbled on her heel. Damn! Feelings like electric bolts jumped from her ankle to her butt. She had thought she was getting better. He landed a second strike. Wicked Sharp winced as his fist landed in the same place as he had hit outside.

“Step aside! How can you let him do this to a woman!” Wicked Sharp had corkscrewed down in front of Crimefighter’s legs. She did not look up to him in any of the ways that Action Girl looked up to Doctor Nightmares. Crimefighter was saturated with confusion and rage at Action Girl. He tried to sweep aside Wicked Sharp with a kick so he could kill Doctor Nightmares. One look at Crimefighter’s face and the rules of engagement were obviously gone. Doctor Nightmares couldn’t bother to care.

“Stop! This isn’t how we do things.” Wicked Sharp managed to guide Crimefighter’s foot off balance and kick out his other heel. He slammed into the rubber matted floor. His scream was bloodthirsty. Wicked Sharp struggled to her feet. Crimefighter was gathering up quicker than she could. Wicked Sharp turned to the careless grin of Doctor Nightmares. “Exit stage left.”

“Oh, no, I need a few minutes yet.” He finally noticed the wobble of Wicked Sharp’s leg. “Do you need a hand? I’ve got a death ray around here somewhere.”

“Death Rays are illegal,” Action Girl whimpered. “They could take you away from me!”

“No one will take you from me,” Doctor Nightmares said sweetly. “We just have to stop Crimefighter first.”

“Brandon’s OK.” Action Girl looked over without rest as she pumped Doctor Nightmares. “He’ll do what’s right. I’ve got this under control, CF, can you take your fight with Wicked Sharp outside?”

“Nicole! He’s done something to you!”

“Nothing I didn’t have to ask for,” Action Girl said, between licks of the tip. “I had to beg actually, but I think he liked that.”

“Yeah, you were so cute,” Doctor Nightmares agreed. “There was no saying no to you.”

“Oh, gag me with a spoon.” Wicked Sharp rolled her eyes but smiled. She brought down a heavy two handed cleave between the scales between Crimefighter’s shoulder and breastplate. He slammed back to his knees.

“I won’t let you do this to her!” Crimefighter vowed.

“It’s even better than that!” Doctor Nightmares’ voice oscillated joyfully. “She’s doing it to herself!”

Wicked Sharp had to hop back from the attack once again. They were so close now. She bumped into Doctor Nightmares’ shoulder. He caught her around the waist as her leg gave out once again.

“Disruptor pulse?”

“Low caliber from a vented blaster. Right in the heel,” Wicked Sharp winced. “Where’s our Noxo?”

“Oh, I had to use it on Nighthawk. He was getting all twisted up about being afraid of needles. What a pussy.”

“I’m going to kill you, Jefferson Grant!” Crimefighter was just longer than Xie Zhi Ren’s reach away. “You run and I’ll hunt you. You stay and I’ll be quick.”

“That’s darker than the shit Arrogant God says,” Doctor Nightmares had an arm around both women and just looked pleased as punch, “Is he always like this Nikki?”

“Nikki?” Action Girl pouted as she looked over at Crimefighter. Her sophomoric smile dissolved into concern. “He’s never been like this before.”

“Maybe he’s jealous?” Wicked Sharp challenged Crimefighter eye to eye. His brown eyes were swimming with bloodshot red. “This might have to get messy.”

“Action Girl, can you give Wicked Sharp a hand in stopping Crimefighter?”

“I shouldn’t work with supervillains,” she said, as she climbed to her feet. She didn’t stop stroking Doctor Nightmares until the last possible second. “But for you, I’ll do anything.”

“I know,” Doctor Nightmares beamed.

“Action Girl! Stop this now!” Crimefighter growled.

“But—”

“We can get you the help you need,” he pleaded. “Let me take this monster in.”

“No.” The clear steel syllable left Action Girl’s messy mouth with bullet force. She flew at Crimefighter as her green eyes hardened with anger. She really flew, not a metaphoric lunge, her boots lifted off the ground and she rocketed forward. The air rippled back from her back mussing up Wicked Sharp’s bangs. She scored four rapid strikes. Crimefighter’s armor took the brunt and he edged back a half foot. He slammed a downward blow to the side of her head and she was completely unbraced while airborne. Action Girl hit shoulder first into the floor and bounced away in a roll.

“Brandon!” she said, aghast, “You really hit me?”

“I’ll deal with you shortly, Nicole,” Crimefighter was charging at Wicked Sharp now. Doctor Nightmares had turned to find the mess of his glassware and was complaining loudly. Crimefighter shouted: “I’m going to enjoy all the paperwork that confirms your deaths.”

“I think not,” Wicked Sharp said, grinning. “Nikki here broke up your ceramics. She’s quite the powerhouse.”

“What?” Crimefighter barked. He had no interest in the answer only in crushing her. Action Girl was floating back to her feet but she wouldn’t be there quickly enough. Wicked Sharp had even more opportunity than last time. A lunge, in just the right place would be agony but it would stop him and he would survive. If he had the right insurance he’d be back in costume in half a year.

“The intermediary’s all over the floor!” whined Doctor Nightmares, catching Action Girl’s attention. Wicked Sharp weaved backwards before changing sword hands. She slid down and forward, pushing off her good leg and balanced on her bad one. The spasm kicked her blade up inches. Xie Zhi Ren slipped in between the plates of Crimefighter’s breastplate and the crease of the scales underneath. The Dragonsilk coated sword impaled Crimefighter’s heart and came back out cleanly.

“Oh no!” Wicked Sharp shrieked as the body of Crimefighter fidgeted dead-eyed on the ground, “Jeff! We have to go now!”

“Oh, don’t be hasty, Mei,” Doctor Nightmares had his trousers knocked out of his hands by Nicole. He had pulled Action Girl against his chest, she was mesmerized and taking him in both her hands again. He held her head, shielding her from seeing the body on the ground,.“I just want to finish up here.”

Wicked Sharp looked over at the starstruck heroine. The Dragonsilk was catching the mess that Crimefighter now was: a balloon of blood growing on the center of his chest. “I’ll get him out of here. What’s our escape route.”

“It’ll have to be the truck,” he shrugged. “I wasn’t planning on getting the railgun pod ready until tomorrow.”

Wicked Sharp dragged Crimefighter out the broken doorway and pitched him to the right, stowing him out of sight of the lab. She could run now but the test was finally a success. Doctor Nightmares’ success was worth billions to her superiors. Yet, The King had claimed they were done with Doctor Nightmares. They didn’t need to be done with her. She looked back at the lab. Inside, the former heroine was in love and oblivious. Run now? Leave the two of them to Meteor Man turning the city block into molten slag? They should have time. This was Gulf City they’d have to come here from at least the nearest Front Line base. Was Dallas or Austin closer? She had time...unless it was Infinity Blue. She wasn’t already in prison so it probably wasn’t him.

“I’m going to stay with you.” Wicked Sharp announced as she stepped back through the door.

“I’m glad.” Doctor Nightmares flared a brilliant genuine smile. Wicked Sharp wasn’t even offput by the teenager giving him a superstrength handjob all the while, “This is so much more exciting with my friend with me.”

“Am I?” Nicole whimpered, “Am I going to have to share you with her?”

“No, Action Girl,” Wicked Sharp grinned. “He’s going to share you with me.”

“Ha!” Doctor Nightmares kissed Action Girl’s forehead. “Absolutely! Just don’t break her, she’s our patient 0.”

“She’s not infectious?” I couldn’t imagine being all goofy in love for Doctor Nightmares.

“No, of course not,” he said, shaking his head. “Did you want her first?”

“I’m not gay,” Action Girl pouted.

“You’re 18! You have no idea whether you’re gay or not.” Doctor Nightmares dismissed the comment out of hand.

“We don’t have time to take turns.” Wicked Sharp said stepping forward with a little extra swing in her hips. “Heads or tails?”

“I guess tails?” Doctor Nightmares scratched his stubble again and with his other hand grabbed Action Girl’s butt. “I mean what would you do with this end?”

“It’d be the best thing you’ve ever seen.” Wicked Sharp was with them again. She lifted Action Girl’s jaw, clumps of Doctor Nightmares still clung under the heroine’s lips. The blonde cringed as the Chinese girl collected the spending on her tongue. Action Girl refused to accept Wicked Sharp kissing her.

“Mei Ling... Are we? I mean we’re colleagues, friends. Is this OK?” Doctor Nightmares gulped as Wicked Sharp swallowed.

“Jeff...” Wicked Sharp shared a happy friendly sticky smile. “I want to humiliate this bitch. I want to spend all of the energy I ramped up fighting Crimefighter. I want my friend to get his rocks off. I want us both to get the hell out of here but if we need to burn a few minutes I really want to have the filthiest, dirtiest, sluttiest time while I wait. She’s a Southern cutie, you’ve got a big black cock, and I’m you’re really hot Asian girl. This will work. Please? Pretty please?”

“Of course.” He nodded and couldn’t help but smile. “Nikki this is Mei Ling, she’s going to be your mistress.”

“Oh, I really like that,” Wicked Sharp purred.

“Oh, I really don’t,” Nikki blanched. Wicked Sharp laid her hand on the front of the heroine’s costume and marched her backwards into a desk. Action Girl grimaced and grabbed the edged with both hands. The blonde looked over at Doctor Nightmares.

“You don’t love him! Don’t take him from me!” She pleaded of Wicked Sharp.

“You’ve got it all wrong, sweetness,” Mei Ling whispered directly into Nicole’s ear.

“I don’t—I don’t get it,” The teenager whimpered.

“You’re about to get it good,” Mei Ling grinned. “But it’s not about me taking Jeff from you. We can fight like childish bitches over him and he’ll get a little bit excited, or...”

“I’m OK with the fight,” Nicole growled threateningly.

“But then you’ll miss out. Do you know what Doctor Nightmares really likes?” Wicked Sharp licked along Action Girl’s jaw and nibbled on her shuddering ear. “He doesn’t want his hot bitches to fight over him. That’s fun for a few minutes. He wants his sluts to team up on him. That’s fun until he passes out.”

“Are you sure?” Action Girl whimpered against her intentions. Wicked Sharp’s hands were rising up Action Girl’s waist. She arched her back as Wicked Sharp approached her breasts.

“Look at him! Does he like what he sees?”

“No. But he’s looking at a blue thing swirling in one of those triangle beakers.”

“Jefferson!” Wicked Sharp snarled and dropped the Action Girl onto her boneless legs. “We don’t have time to split her. If you want another go with the teenybopper, get over here and rail her guts out.”

“Just making sure I extracted the catalyst from the—”

“I don’t care! You’re erect. I’m soaked. This one’s on her knees and panting.”

“I need you Doctor Nightmares,” Action Girl blubbered.

“You girls are so bossy!” Doctor Nightmares poured a top colorless layer into a funnel and then tossed the beaker with the blue particles into a trash can labeled Broken Glass.

Doctor Nightmares was still partly naked. His cargo pants were bunched around the tops of his galoshes. He still managed a cocksure strut. Wicked Sharp scrolled her eyes up his dark legs, over his excitement, across his chest and up to his hungry grin. She understood why so many were terrified of him. She only felt her blood boil and her skin tingle. She hoisted Action Girl up onto her knees.

“Do you like that, little slut?” Villainess whispered to the heroine, “See those angry veins? See how hard he is? He’s going to break your slut throat.”

“I’m not a slut,” breathed Action Girl. Mei Ling lifted the gold top up and over Nicole’s breasts. Mei Ling’s fair Asian fingers looked dark against the titflesh in her hands. Her nails were sharp as her name, but Action Girl was resilient, barely turning red as her breasts were raked and pulled. Her young skin was rising in gooseflesh and few breaths seemed to make it out of her throat alive. Her bright green eyes looked up. “Please don’t let her talk about me like that.”

“Nikki, darling,” Jefferson smiled. “She’s your Mistress, she has to treat you harsh enough so you’ll learn. But look at me.” He gripped both sides of Action Girl’s jaw and adjusted her face to where he wanted it. “She’s just making sure you do your best for me.”

“I don’t like the name calling,” Nicole shook her head. “I don’t mind the rough touching.”

“Look at this cutie.” Mei Ling looked up as Jefferson towered over them. She let go of one breast and pulled her partner over Action Girl’s shoulder. “She’s not even smart enough to see what kind of slut she is. Nikki, lick his balls.”

Action Girl flinched and pushed back against Wicked Sharp’s chest. The supervillainess grabbed a fistful of blond and thrust Nicole’s face forward. Mei Ling engulfed Jefferson right next to Nicole’s ear. The teen’s lips sucked him from below. He grabbed her hair and he grabbed Mei Ling’s.

“Good God, Mei,” Doctor Nightmares pleaded. His friend had the front third inside her mouth. She swirled her tongue as she snaked her neck side to side. She licked against the bottom of him as she retreated off of him. Her eyes laughed as her lips opened with a pop. Action Girl flinched, her whole body shivered. She needed to pop.

“See, much quicker than the irrational idea of the dictator of the universe!” Wicked Sharp laughed upwards. Her wrist was pumping hard over Action Girl’s puffed out cheeks. The heroine was greedy. Her whole body tingled as she eagerly assaulted with her tongue and lips.

“Holy crap, Mei! She is a terrific slut!” The modifier forced Action Girl to smile and that was Jefferson’s point of no return.

“Yeah, lucky us,” Wicked Sharp beamed and grabbed a handful of Action Girl’s ass. She should have been looking up. Doctor Nightmares’ face contorted. He was looking down at the two women. Both beautiful, both giving for him. He cared for Mei Ling. He liked her. He hoped she continued to understand that his work required more Action Girls. More test subjects. More experiments. He needed to perfect his weapon. He wanted to see the look on her face when it was perfected. He wanted to see the look on her face when she used it on her first victim. He shuddered as she turned down. He wanted to see the look on her face as she came.

The heat hit her hair and startled Wicked Sharp. She looked up, face to climax. The lenses in her white bandit mask kept the next surge from the corner of her eye.

“Jeff!” Mei Ling dragged Nicole backward and used the teenager to shield herself from the final spurt. Nicole eagerly collected Jefferson in her mouth and hummed around his spasms until Mei Ling gripped the nearby table and pushed her back.

“I don’t know if I’m frustrated or relieved,” Wicked Sharp pulled soiled fingers from the side of her face and fed them to Nicole’s suckling lips. Jefferson collapsed but remained on his feet. He smiled down at the mess of the girls and his heart began to slow down. He smiled widely. Action Girl looked starstruck. He couldn’t waste that.

“Frustrated it is,” Mei Ling commented upon Jefferson’s vigorous resurrection. “I always knew you were durable but that was quick, Jeff.”

“Oh yeah!” He looked down at himself with a proud smile. “I gave myself that in Salt Lake City. I try not to masturbate too often; I have to make a day of it.”

“But—Salt Lake City was a failure! We lost! Big time! Crimefighter called that domestic terrorism.”

“What? I’ve never had a failure.” Doctor Nightmares shook his head and smiled. He reached to pull Nicole up from her knees but she just floated a couple of feet and extended her legs down, “Well, OK, East Water City with those two freelancers. But that’s it. Everything has gone as needed. Or at least wanted.”

“But...But...They were certain you were failing! They were prepared to leave you for the wolves.”

“The Wolves operate out of Portland,” he reminded Wicked Sharp, “and they weren’t much of a threat to us.”

The supervillainess clambered to her feet so she could roll her eyes from a position of strength.

“Where did Brandon go?” Action Girl looked around. “We were supposed to be done by now.”

“Is she serious?” Wicked Sharp looked down at the kneeling heroine.

“Might be a side effect?” Doctor Nightmares shrugged, “Do you mind me tagging out for a few minutes? I just want to get some vitamin Y growing so I’ll have a dose or two ready.”

“What? But!” Mei Ling grabbed Action Girl’s hand to keep her from floating out to where the body was ditched. Action Girl ripped her hand from Wicked Sharp’s.

“I need to seed a victim with it to control.”

“Do I have vitamin Y in me?” Wicked Sharp growled bits of Doctor Nightmares’ climax dripped into the corner of her mouth. She licked around her lips and was still marked clearly.

“Nah, it’s produced in supers, mostly as a waste product or fuel,” Doctor Nightmares shrugged. “You’re fine.”

Wicked Sharp growled and turned to face Action Girl. The blonde was waiting on her knees. Her cheeks were flushed and her nipples were spiked. Nikki looked up and Mei Ling looked way way down. The villainess was frustrated, impatient and excited. She grabbed two fistfuls of blonde hair. “Do you lick pussy good?”

“I know you’re supposed to be my mistress and everything but I’m fed up with this!” She yanked out of Mei Ling’s grip, “Jeff! I’m taking this cunt to prison. Can you text me soon? Do you have my number?”

Wicked Sharp replied by ripping Xie Zhi Ren off of the work bench.

“Calm down, Nikki,” Doctor Nightmares said, picking the beaker he had filtered into a few minutes ago, “Look, I’ll take you out in a few minutes but I need some time. Mei, do you like girls?”

“I’m about to like ending one,” Mei Ling stared down Nicole. Action Girl floated into a boxing pose. It was easy to duck and weave when gravity was your bitch.

“Cool it both of you. Mei’s not going to jail, Nikki. Not if you care about me,” he explained and Action Girl floated down, only then remembering that her breasts were on display. She moved to tuck herself back into uniform. “Do what Wicked Sharp tells you for the next few minutes. Mei?”

“Yeah?” she laid her sword down on her left.

“Leave enough for me.”

“Well hurry up.” Mei Ling grabbed Action Girl’s wrists. “Do you eat pussy like you suck dick?”

“Nearly as well.” Nicole puffed up.

“I thought you weren’t gay?” Mei Ling said, on a smirk.

“I let myself get bullied a few times at cheerleader camp,” Nicole said, frowning.

“Music to my ears!” It was easier for Wicked Sharp to rip down her own panties and slice them away than it would have been to take her greaves off. Action Girl was a bit taller than Wicked Sharp, the mistress pushed the girl down until Nicole was sitting on her ankles. Wicked Sharp lunged over one of Action Girl’s shoulders.

The contact was needed. Mei Ling had been up aware of just how needful the whole scene had made her. Nicole’s hands were soft and cool, gliding along the outside of the thigh on her shoulder and under the skirt of Mei Ling’s cheongsam to take a grip of ass flesh. Mei Ling flinched and fluttered as her skin shivered with each greedy lick from Nicole’s face. The villainess snapped forward and snaked her fingers through Action Girl’s blonde ponytail until they took a tight grip of the back collar of the Action Girl top.

“Oh, wow, oh my,” Mei Ling rolled out praise through a lopsided smile. Her eyes drifted shut. The sensation was impressive. Mei Ling had little attraction to the girl beneath her. Nicole was nothing. Action Girl was everything. Nicole’s energy and glee bloomed from Doctor Nightmares’ success. His weapon worked and it turned this bright eyed stupid cunt into moldable jelly. Guilt for trying to abandon her friend was evaporating off Mei Ling’s shoulders. She was left with an elation that Nicole compelled into ecstasy. The little slut’s finger discovered her mistress’s rear. Mei Ling had title, power and victory. Action Girl had to do what she was told. It was like lightning under Mei Ling’s skin.

Eating a pussy was always more work than sucking a dick. Nicole had started slow for how quickly she had been shoved into Mei Ling. The woman over her was hot. Nicole’s world was tight tan flesh and livid red demand. Her tongue essed through the inner lips, collecting the sharp tasting liquor as her lips rolled Mei Ling’s hooded clitoris in soft circles. The leg over Nicole’s shoulder dragged the heroine tighter to her task. She hoped Doctor Nightmares appreciated her hard work. Mei Ling was responding the right ways and Nicole could only imagine. She imagined not doing well enough, or worse doing excellently and Mei Ling reporting her efforts as lackluster anyway. And where was Brandon? He could be dealing with Wicked Sharp and she could be better focused on Jeff.

“Shit! Slut you’re getting there!” Mei Ling responded to the spike in Action Girl’s anger. The finger at Mei Ling’s back was now inside of her. She was twisted and flexed. This felt better than any sex she had ever had. She had never known how it felt to just have a hero to take as a prize. Mei Ling’s body was kicking and bucking. She screamed, excitedly, when Doctor Nightmares ran his hand over from the base of her spine to atop her shoulder.

“Oh, Jeff! This is so good! You’re amazing!” She hoped he would kiss her, close the circuit and drive her over the edge she could feel herself looking over. Her stomach seized and her body flushed and every breath came in too small and left too shrill.

“Looks like your leg is all better.” He noticed dragging his other hand up her straight leg and pulling the back of her skirt up. She had a tight round ass. Jeff hadn’t drank in just how beautiful Mei Ling was before now but he couldn’t stop.

“It is! Shit! It is!” She was rocking backwards humping upward against Nicole’s tongue and nose. Wicked Sharp pulled with two fists tight in Action Girl’s cape. “I feel incredible!”

“I bet,” Jefferson grinned and only hesitated for a moment. Nicole squealed in joy as the oral sex she was plying was interrupted. She rolled her wrist up against Mei Ling’s ass making room for his insertion. Mei Ling screamed again. Hyperventilated giggling cemented their connection. Doctor Nightmares shouted in triumph as he felt the searing interior of his friend.

Mei Ling could see light through her eyelids. Her jaw locked and her only noises were guttural and loud. Nicole’s finger delved deeper as Jeff fully seated inside of Mei Ling’s ass. Action Girl’s tongue danced from the seam of Jeff’s sac and across the apex of Mei Ling’s pleasure. She erupted. Nicole’s face was awash with Mei Ling’s climax. Nicole didn’t relent and Jefferson didn’t hold back.

Mei Ling’s body was tight when release hit. She expelled a keening gasp. She rocked and flinched with every violent thrust. Jeff’s hands looped around her belly and kept her tight against his chest. She lost her grip on Action Girl’s cape. Her hands grabbed Jeff’s and her nails dug in.

“Careful...” He whispered through the fog in her mind. She wasn’t and neither was he. Her pleasure was up Action Girl and Doctor Nightmares drove her on like a ratchet. One orgasm stronger than any she had never had and twenty-nine more like it piled up like a massive car wreck. She couldn’t comprehend. She could only shout and thank and wonder.

“You’re pulling on me harder than Nikki could,” Jeff whispered in her ear. “I won’t last long.”

“I won’t survive.” Mei Ling couldn’t be certain she was understood. She felt the man behind her tighten her against himself. She felt the girl beneath her worrying Mei Ling’s clit against the tip of her nose. Nicole had the bulk of Doctor Nightmares’ balls inside her mouth. A final push and Mei Ling dropped. She and Jeff collapsed down onto an unprepared Nicole. Mei Ling’s ass was flooding. Jeff’s ejaculation seemed unending inside her. Mei Ling shrieked her joy. Jefferson bellowed his release. Nicole moaned her need.

Slowly, Mei Ling shook off her haze. They were all on their knees. She felt empty and fulfilled. She had her arms wrenched tightly around Nicole and Jefferson was moulded against her back. The noise of sloppy kissing alerted her to the pair against her ear. She snaked a little to the side. Nicole’s bare breasts were tight against Mei Ling’s cheongsam. She wanted to drag herself from between the others but her moving disrupted Nicole’s connection to Jeff. Superstrength overmatched sexual exhaustion. Mei Ling was thrust from Doctor Nightmares’ arms as Action Girl climbed onto the back of Wicked Sharp.

“Fuck me! Please! You’re not out yet!” pleaded Nicole as she pinned her mistress and turned her weeping sex to Doctor Nightmares. Her bloomers were ripped open and her panties were gone. Doctor Nightmares wasted little time and penetrated the blonde.

“You’re tighter, Mei Ling, but Action Girl’s hotter.”

“Hey! You’re in her pussy, that was my ass, jerk!” Mei Ling was face to the rubber matted floor and the rocking violence atop of her was getting worse. Action Girl grabbed cheongsam and black hair. Mei Ling’s ponytail became undone. Her bandit mask untied. Jeff was pulling Nicole up. Nicole could fly. Firs the weight lessened on Mei Ling’s back. Nicole still had Mei Ling by the hair and dress. Mei Ling screamed as she was dragged airborne by Action Girl. Every impacted thrust met nothing but air resistance. The sex was brutal and powerful.

“I meant she feels hotter. Talking about temperature, Sharpie,” Doctor Nightmares corrected himself but he used Nicole with fury. Superstrength applied to a diaphragm made the screaming teenager a dangerous loudspeaker.

“Let go, slut!” Mei Ling pleaded but the sex above her was explosive and quick. Mei Ling recalled her own fucking and denied that she had been used as hard as Action Girl. She felt jealous but more pissed off to be dragged around by her hair than improperly used. Mei Ling twisted and struggled but couldn’t escape.

Nicole was ebullient. Her love was inside her. She was face down, her ankles locked behind his ass. She came like she had never cum before. She came so hard she wasn’t even certain she had ever felt a real cum before. Doctor Nightmares bellowed another epithet at her and it just made her hotter. Nicole found it so hot being called slut, whore, and fuckhole! His third ejaculation triggered a primal feeling inside her. This was right! This was needed! This was her!

“Let go, you squirrelly bitch!” Mei Ling finally extricated Nicole’s fingers from her hair. Mei Ling twisted out from the knot of legs and arms they had made. Action Girl dropped Wicked Sharp’s cheongsam. Mei Ling face-flopped onto the rubber floor with a string of cuss words.

“It’s! Wow! It’s so good!” Nicole panted as she rolled up her butt and then extended her legs downward. Jefferson staggered a step back from her creaming sex.

“Then say ‘Thank you’ you worthless slut,” snarled Wicked Sharp. She climbed up to her feet and pulled off her crooked bandit mask hoping to fix her hair.

“Thank you, Jeff!” Action Girl floated up to kiss his cheek and he laughed.

“Your chemistry homework done?” Mei Ling saw the beaker had stopped fulminating. The sweat prevented her hair from being as neat as she’d have liked. She tied her mask tight under her ponytail. Xie Zhi Ren settled into her sash. She was missing most of her throwing spikes but they were replaceable.

“Once a dose of Vitamin Y separates we’ll be able to move on.” Doctor Nightmares stuck a crystal stirring rod into his solution. He poured a thick liquid down the rod.

“How long will that take?” Wicked Sharp pleaded. She tossed her slashed underwear in the waste bin.

“No more than twenty hours.” He shrugged.

“There’s probably a Challenger on the way right now!” Mei Ling almost couldn’t settle her quaking fear. “I blew some time because we could safely spare at the most an hour, but we’re not waiting around for—”

That’s when the tremors started.

Teenaged celebrations overcame the escape pod’s soundproofing. Another month, another lair. Wicked Sharp and Doctor Nightmares worried about very different things. Wicked Sharp feared their henchmen budget would get slashed even further, stretching their abilities to get any work done before they were chased out of their next laboratory. Doctor Nightmares worried that his pancreas had become sapient and was rallying his kidneys in revolt.

The pair had suffered embarrassing defeats throughout their career. Today was worse than all of those. They had been flushed out of their secondary structure by a trio of barely legal nitwits. Wicked Sharp had even retreated from their swordswoman. That disgusted her. Their loss wasn’t because Wicked Sharp had been bested. She did not lose sword fights. She had repelled Silent Knight in Montreal. She had put down Outlaw Blade in Eastwater City. She had stalemated The Paladin in Chicago, even if, admittedly, the octogenarian might have been passed his prime. This strumpet was so unprepared for a real fight that Wicked Sharp had to bend over backwards, literally once, to keep from killing her. She wasn’t facing a Challenger for Doctor Nightmares! She wasn’t being stuffed into The System and forgotten! It had taken all of her energy not to end the fight in a murder. This took all of her focus allowing Venus Sabre’s partners to take out the henchmen. The blonde in the green, dancing like a lunatic, had twirled a flag around taking out their a dozen henchmen. While the latina in the glasses flailed around a cartoon sized sledgehammer, ostensibly fighting for justice.

Doctor Nightmares had hunkered down at the fume hood for the entirety of the melee. The ribbiting slough of a henchmen at his feet defined the upper limit he could dose himself with. He had turned and was surprised to see how the fight had gone. Doctor Nightmares called his henchmen incompetents but couldn’t muster the effort to be angry about it.

“Sharpie, exit stage left,” Doctor Nightmares announced while aiming the syringe into the steel mounted port in the back of his neck. What do you say about a man who installs himself with a permanent injection input between his second and third vertebrae?

“Not again, you moron!” Wicked Sharp had called but he had depressed the plunger. Her combatant overreached and was left on her face as the supervillain rushed past the Jupiter Hammer and Mercury Lance to Doctor Nightmares.

The teenaged twits seemed ecstatic to have forced Wicked Sharp and Doctor Nightmares into their planned escape route. He coughed foam onto his galoshes. She picked the steel rimmed goggles out of his chalk dusted hair and pulled them over her eyes. She pulled the strap until they were uncomfortable against the bridge of her nose. He was worse than usual but better than the popped meat balloon that had answered to the callsign Scorpion. Their defeats were almost a comedic routine by this point. The value of his theories had steadily dwindled in the eyes of Wicked Sharp’s employers for the greater part of three years.

Jupiter Hammer rocked the escape pod. She was taking a third swing, determined to extract the criminals inside. Wicked Sharp kicked Doctor Nightmares in the shin. He wailed and she wiped the spittle off of her chin and neck. Thank goodness for goggles.

“Let’s go, Jeff!” She growled and he lurched to the right and yanked down his lever. She yanked down hers. She smiled, he had never made a getaway that would work without her as well. Not after that first mission together. The girl with the hammer shrieked as the rockets fired.

“Graagh!” Doctor Nightmares heaved, thankfully dryly. Wicked Sharp had no idea what he had jabbed into his neck. It had killed one henchman and yet, with the number of self-guinea-pigging he had done to himself over the last three years, he was suffering nothing more than shivers and nausea.

The acceleration tested the strength of their seat belts. Jupiter Hammer panicked in a shower of sparks. Wicked Sharp couldn’t laugh at her for all the air had been pumped out of her lungs. The pod lurched and clanged as it raced down its roller coaster track. It never was easy with Doctor Nightmares. There was no easy way out. The pod looped around the reacting tanks that were buried deep in the floor. Twice. The escape pod had been built first. Doctor Nightmares madly grinned at Wicked Sharp who grimaced and white-knuckled her armrests. An air cushion built up before them. They were decelerating, dropping imperceptibly back from 77 miles per hour. The cushion exploded outward letting the escape pod tear through the filmy cap of the tunnel. The escape pod hit the water of the Mississippi delta like a collision in speeding traffic.

Foam sprays, crash belts, a blast of Noxophene and a crumpling outer shell protected the pair of villains from anything worse that seat belt burns. Propelling tubes were ripped open and the escape pod began it’s submerged swim out into the ocean water.

Wicked Sharp came to first. Her hair was plastered to the side of her head where the foam had dried. It did keep her hair from falling to the ceiling. She was fighting with her straps. Her hair tie spikes were stuck in foam cement. She tugged her sash jiggling what could come free. Xie Zhi Ren came from her scabbard on the sixth tug. The foam crumbled once its outer shell managed to crack. Wicked Sharp let herself hit the roof when she fell from her seat. Much of the foam broke away as powder from her skull. The exit hatch opened into the ocean so Wicked Sharp cut a hole in the floor overhead.

She found herself floating on open sea and the horizon was nothing but. There was one thing in sight: an orange painted box boat flying Danish flags. Wicked Sharp knew the flags were false. The Starry Eve first sailed out of Baltimore.

“Sharpie! How’s the family!” It had taken another forty five minutes for the ship to sail up alongside and drag up the pod with its on board crane. The ship had been designed for a skeleton crew of eight sailors and should have held a crew of twenty four. So far as Wicked Sharp could tell, there were only ever three people on board. Captain Cutter, who had been instrumental in perfecting Wicked Sharp’s swordswomanship, Soren. the first mate she knew as Gatekeeper, and Leash, who’s leather dress wasn’t quite seaworthy.

“Good but dear ol’ deadbeat Doctor Nightmares’ out for the count,” She wanted a shower. She wanted a shower on the opposite end of the ship than Leash. She looked to Gatekeeper, “I should check in with the ’rents.”

Captain Cutter went off to collect Doctor Nightmares and Leash stood by and watched. Wicked Sharp followed Gatekeeper to the aft tower. He was a bigger man, with a graying beard but otherwise thick blond hair. They arrived at a spartan cabin, on the left hand side was a blindfold and headphones, an aged rope rug was spread out on the floor and an empty metal rectangle hung on the stern wall. Gatekeeper had picked up a steel folding chair and settled himself on the port side. He first shoved in earplugs before settling the blindfold on his forehead. The headphones were big muffs that would look right on a helicopter and went over top his earplugs and blindfold. Wicked Sharp knelt on the carpet.

Gatekeeper concentrated until a rift in space opened in the black rectangle. Through it, Wicked Sharp saw seven other rectangles. Arranged four over three, each one opened its own rift. The rifts were not clear windows, sound and light could be shared but matter would be stretched, split, squashed or severed. The images were distorted losing most of their blue and a little of their green. Sound refracted low. Wicked Sharp waited, offended and embarrassed that she looked like she’d been through a fight and a car collision. She knew that her value lay in her information and they’re patience for her comfort was extremely finite.

Slowly, silhouettes filled three of them. Three members of the Chosen Few. Seven close knit visionaries with a united goal. They were Doctor Nightmares’ patrons. They were Wicked Sharp’s opportunity. From their positions, Wicked Sharp recognized The Angel, The Taxman and The Ghost.

“Failure again?” The Taxman assumed. Wicked Sharp believed her accusation was out of habit but suspected it was out of espionage, “This is most troublesome.”

“Yes,” Wicked Sharp answered clearly. Pussyfooting and excuses were of no point, “Doctor Nightmares’ first guinea pig reacted violently and lethally. His second lab rat was himself.”

“His recklessness is something of a wonder,” The Angel chimed. Great, an Angel of Death today.

“His survival is ludicrous,” The Ghost replied, “How many times has he tested our product on himself?”

“16?” Wicked Sharp estimated. Every one of his finalized doses had ended up in his spine. Wicked Sharp had deadened inside to the surprise and fear Doctor Nightmares elicited.

“I vote we reclaim Wicked Sharp and put her somewhere useful,” The Taxman declared. The news was not unexpected. However, the swordswoman had hoped to move from this assignment upward not laterally. She had excelled as a henchwoman becoming Wicked Sharp under Gladiatrix. That had been a spectacular defeat. Wicked Sharp had worried that she would have been shoved into the system along with Gladiatrix. The Chosen Few had taken care of her. It wasn’t out of loyalty alone that Wicked Sharp still served. Her position now was only the first step in her ambitions. Frustratingly, Doctor Nightmares’ consistent and spectacular failures had left her years behind schedule.

“I vote against,” The Ghost spoke, “Unless she’s going to deal with Nightmares first.”

Wicked Sharp would accept that order but she really didn’t want to hurt Jefferson. The mad scientist was many infuriating things, not the least of which was a true friend.

“No,” The Angel declared, “There’s no use in burning bridges. You’ve read his research,” Wicked Sharp almost didn’t follow that she was talking to The Taxman, “Do you believe he’s proved it nonviable?”

“We’ve sunk nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in resources, manpower, and time into Doctor Nightmares,” The Taxman announced. “There’s no hint of any chance of success in these three years.”

“We’ve sunk considerably more into Operation Chrysalis and Project Third Day,” Ghost rebutted, “None of which paid has off.”

“Not in intent,” The Angel agreed, “but we have produced derivative results.”

“That cannot be said for Doctor Nightmares,” Retorted The Ghost. “We do not want another Victor on our hands.”

“Victor remains a special case,” The Angel said guardedly, “And—”

Two silhouettes slipped into position, the leftmost in the top row and the middle of the bottom. These were The King and The Soldier. The King’s absence had surprised Wicked Sharp, it had been him who had taken interest in her after The Beast had stopped appearing in the fifth window, six months ago. The Soldier spoke Wicked Sharp’s language; he was the only one she ever seemed to understand clearly. The others, The Angel had mood swings that left corpses, The Taxman was perverted, and The Ghost a proud utopian. The Ghost worried Wicked Sharp the most. He seemed too rigid, too idealistic to be among the rest of The Chosen Few.

“Agent Hu,” The Soldier named Mei Ling as his shadow coalesced, “Good news?”

“Never,” snarked The Angel.

“Nightmare has stumbled again,” The King scoffed, “No matter. He is considerably less valuable as of today. Doctor Horne,” He named The Taxman. “Operation Chrysalis has produced a viable operative.”

“Incredible,” The Taxman burbled with previously unseen eagerness. “I had hoped LALA would win out.”

“Should I be privy to this?” Wicked Sharp asked, protecting myself from possible retribution.

“No, perhaps not,” The Ghost declared. “Are we abandoning our other avenues?”

“No,” The King decreed, “however, we do need to move resources to Phase 2.”

“Yes,” The Soldier declared, “and Sharp here would be an asset—”

“If we are to move her,” The Angel interrupted, “Let’s elaborate her new plan then and only then.”

“I do not appreciate being interrupted,” The Soldier growled.

“Not even when the words are wise?” The King rebuked. “I expect better from you, from all of us.”

The Soldier had nothing to add. For a few moments, the five Chosen Few studied their agent. Wicked Sharp shifted, for the first time she worried that she didn’t have the same anonymity that they had. She knew she didn’t. They knew things about her she didn’t, she just wanted her face obscured by Gatekeepers portal array.

“What do you say Agent Hu?” The Taxman eventually asked. “Do you believe Doctor Nightmares will ever be viable?”

No. Wicked Sharp withheld the unvarnished truth. “He works best with his back to the wall. We could push him harder.”

“Yes,” The Ghost nodded, “I know the type.”

“I approve of the—” The Ghost disappeared. I heard Gatekeeper grunt as The Ghost’s portal snap closed. The Angel restarted, “I agree, one last trial by fire.”

“I believe the hastily departed Mr Winters has decided for us,” Wicked Sharp blanched at that. She assumed The King had referred to The Ghost. Horne and Winters, was he so callous as to be using their real names? He had named her Agent Hu and not Wicked Sharp. She tried her best to forget names. The only Winters she knew of with these kinds of resources was Walsh Winters, CEO of Winterpharm, formerly the White Wizard of The Golden 5.

Nothing Wicked Sharp had done could’ve been sanctioned by a hero.

“The Starry Eve will take you to Gulf City. There’s a facility on the west end of the harbor. We’ll have a team of local henchmen join you. Agent Hu, if you don’t believe in Nightmare’s success get him set up and then fall back to Dallas. Our agent, Wellington, will be waiting for you. Now go, No more of this concerns you.”

“Yes sir,” Wicked Sharp nodded and crossed the mat to Gatekeeper. A light hand on his shoulder was all it took to shut down communications. Unlike Winters’s... Unlike The Ghost’s window, the local portal shut like slow jaws. Gatekeeper accepted Wicked Sharp’s offered hand and rose to his feet. From here, she would follow Gatekeeper to an armory. The information on their henchmen and the laboratory would be reiterated on the smart phone she would be given. Wicked Sharp let herself smile. If she was going to join Wellington she was going to be on a strike team not a defensive squad. She was sick and tired of coddling greenhorn heroes until she had to run away. She noted that she would miss Doctor Nightmares. She assured her stomach that she would not miss lunch.

Windows cracked all around them. Fissures puffed open in the concrete. Wicked Sharp stepped forward. Her heart fought against the confining nature of her chest. She half expected the roof to be torn off revealing a thirty story giant. She prayed it wasn’t The Titan. Her prayers were answered. It was worse.

The rivets holding in the north side wall sheared loudly. The huge doors fell forward and crashed. She walked in, rippling vines rushing in around her feet as fat leaves grew and swept the dust away from her.

They called her Heartwood. Wicked Sharp expended her complete vocabulary of swear words. The Challenger didn’t have the size to intimidate; her record and history managed that just fine. She was tall, for a woman, with wild ginger hair and imperious poise. She was dressed in a beautiful gown, dark scarlet leaves and roses framed her figure and curves over a gauzy red base that hung daintily from her shoulders and swished along the floor. She looked upset for being roused. Her lips turned into disgust. Her dark green eyes burned with rage. She was beautiful like a thunderstorm.

“Nightmares?”

“Yeah, Sharpie?” The mad scientist turned to his companion.

“Permission to run myself on my sword and save us all the afternoon?”

“Oh, don’t be silly, Wicked Sharp,” Doctor Nightmares tightened his utility belt and zipped his fly, “you’ve never needed my permission for anything.”

“You are Jefferson Grant?” Heartwood’s voice was cold and crisp. Vines and roots were stabbing into the warehouse, bricks and mortar tore and crumbled. The flowers blooming around Heartwood’s feet disturbed Wicked Sharp the most.

“I really do prefer Doctor Nightmares, Marisa.” Jefferson straightened the lapels of his lab coat. Wicked Sharp feared where Doctor Nightmares plucked that name from. She felt better to see he had picked up his death ray. He still wasn’t wearing his flak jacket.

“Cute, I suppose your sense of humor will serve you well in The System.” Heartwood took one step forward and glass cracked bursting inwards. All of the windows lining the roof of the warehouse had thick branches poking through them. Wicked Sharp had to drag Doctor Nightmares into the laboratory and Action Girl had to help.

“Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” The teen burbled like she was meeting her favorite rock star. Which wasn’t probably that far off. “That’s Heartwood! I’ve always wanted to meet her! Well, personally I wanted to meet Falcon-Ra and Infinity Blue but Heartwood is totally in my top 10 favorite Challengers!”

“There are only eleven Challengers,” Doctor Nightmares laughed.

“Oh right, I always think of Paladin as a Golden 5 hero.” Action Girl refused to lose her excitement.

“It’s a day all dreams come true.” Wicked Sharp ignored the other two. Heartwood’s face had grown pale, marble-like. The ground rippled again and Wicked Sharp steadied herself on Doctor Nightmares’ bicep. “I just wish my dreams didn’t have this thing for nightmares.”

“Ah, you do care,” Doctor Nightmares smiled broadly.

“What do you think she’s like? She always seems so queenly, don’t you think?” Action Girl floated, her fists tightening in glee.

“Sharpie, can you keep her busy for me?” Nightmare asked, reaching into his belt.

“Oh, I don’t need to be kept busy! I can stay out of your hair!” Action Girl shook her head and floated in front of Wicked Sharp and Doctor Nightmares.

“Not you, cunt!” Wicked Sharp seethed, but primarily at Doctor Nightmares, “Are you fucking mental? You want me to keep a Challenger busy?”

“You did it once with Paladin,” he said.

“I had a hundred pieces of henchmen fodder and had to use them all!”

“Action Girl will help you.” He started moving off into the sweet smelling battlefield.

‘I will,” Action Girl nodded. “What do I have to do? Talk to her?”

“Yes, if Heartwood gets in here she’s going to take me away from you,” Doctor Nightmares said as he seemingly disappeared.

“She can’t!” Action Girl turned to Wicked Sharp. Like this was the swordswoman’s fault. Stupid cunt.

“She quite easily can,” Wicked Sharp was sliding Xie Zhi Ren back into its sheath.

“Look, give me four minutes and then we’ll know if we’re screwed or not,” Doctor Nightmares returned with a writhing piece of bramble.

“Listen here you nutbar—Did Nikki just fly out the door?” Wicked Sharp saw the dust open like a tunnel straight at Heartwood’s lazy posture.

“She’ll need a hand.” Doctor Nightmares picked a few electronics from a toolbox under the desk.

“She’ll need a miracle,” Wicked Sharp said.

“You’ve got this.”

“I hate you more than anyone sometimes.” Wicked Sharp stepped out into the battlescape with a nervous shiver. The warehouse had been mostly empty but for the lab against the west wall and four cranes. Two of which held her panicked henchmen. Cutting them down would be of no help and would take Wicked Sharp’s eyes off of the Challenger. No way in hell was she doing that.

“You’re Action Girl? Where’s your Crimef—”

Heartwood had not been prepared for a girl in heroic garb to slug her hard across the jaw. Heartwood twisted before both feet left the ground. She flew a half dozen feet. Action Girl shrieked, diving in for another punch. Wicked Sharp’s skeleton shivered at the sheer power Doctor Nightmares had over this girl. Wicked Sharp was terrified that he might be able to have that power over anyone. Over Mei Ling herself. Wicked Sharp ran forward.

“What is wrong with you?” Heartwood wasn’t struck twice. Action Girl was whipped by a fast growing thorn vine. Her momentum twisted and she slammed into the corrugated roof. The walls and roof were twisting, holes cracked opened, sunlight cut into the dust. Action Girl was in a perfect spotlight when three separate branches grew and slammed her into the floor.

“How did this happen? What did you do?” Wicked Sharp froze when Heartwood’s green glowing eyes cut through the warehouse to hers.

“Nothing she didn’t beg for,” Wicked Sharp replied with terrified braggadocio.

“Where is her partner?”

“Wait? That’s not why you came here?” Wicked Sharp looked to where she had stashed the body. Heartwood followed the gaze.

“You killed him!”

“Goddammit! I knew we should’ve had some time!” Xie Zhi Ren sang as it whipped through the encroaching attacks. Every kink in a bramble, every bump in a root, were the barrels of Heartwood’s artillery. She had only to reach out and the forest would strike for Wicked Sharp. Every missed attack littered the battlefield with more weapons. The stink of pollen and sap permeated the warehouse. Wicked Sharp’s lips itched. She was thankful her eyes were behind lenses in her bandit mask.

“You have run out of not just time, murderer!” Heartwood growled viciously. She swung her hands, clawing and gripping invisible enemies. Her body was commanding the symphony of plants. Their violent aggression raged for Wicked Sharp. Xie Zhi Ren was severing branches with every swing, but what had first felt like warm butter was slowly getting heavier and harder.

“You won’t take him from me!” Action Girl erupted out of a mess of the brambles and roots that had tried to drag her to the ground. Once her boots had touched down and she had the resistance to kick off, she was free. Heartwood and Wicked Sharp stumbled as the ground shook from Action Girl’s violence.

“You’re partner’s dead!” Heartwood pleaded to her. “She killed him!”

“I kept Doctor Nightmares alive!” Wicked Sharp shouted back. The messages twisted and tumbled in Action Girl’s scrambled brains. Heartwood didn’t take risks, with both hands she reached, The warehouse rumbled as the limbs, brambles and vines that whipped out at Action Girl. Wicked Sharp started to close the distance. Action Girl retaliated, Heartwood’s actions and Wicked Sharp’s words solidified her focus. She flew up the crane and launched herself full bore at Heartwood. The first crane fell into another and Wicked Sharp watched horrified.

“No! There are two—” Wicked Sharp twisted as she was punched by a knobbly root. Her wind and warning disappeared. Shark and Grizzly fell with the collapsing machinery. Wicked Sharp heard the metallic shrieks and stone thuds but she imagined the wet smushes.

“You won’t lay another finger on me!” Heartwood slapped Action Girl from the sky and she careened towards Wicked Sharp.

“C’mon, girl, get on your feet.” Wicked Sharp growled as she jumped over the teenagers rolling body.

“Stay out of my way,” Action Girl sneered, “I’m a professional.”

Wicked Sharp opened a pathway towards Heartwood with Xie Zhi Ren. Action Girl grabbed Wicked Sharp by the shoulder and threw the swordswoman down onto her back. A razor sharp bramble clawed through where Wicked Sharp had been. Action Girl rocketed through the closing path. She swerved from the first attack and shattered through the second. The knuckles of her fist reached Heartwood’s face, but Action Girl had been robbed of all momentum. Vines and brambles had caught her. She had wrenched dozens from their roots but Heartwood fought with hundreds.

“What are you doing on the floor?” Doctor Nightmares lifted Wicked Sharp onto her feet.

“Did you tell her to save me?” She wiped the concrete dust, soil and pollen from her cheongsam. She missed her underwear. Her legs felt clammy but the air was growing warm and dry.

“Of course,” Doctor Nightmares wasn’t holding a death ray. He drove a needle into a nearby writhing root.

“Are you about ready to call it quits?” Wicked Sharp danced around them holding back the onslaught. With every attack Heartwood closed the little space in the warehouse tighter.

“Actually things are looking great.”

“You’re a psycho!” Xie Zhi Ren sheared away three attacks at Doctor Nightmares.

“A bit obsessive compulsive and lacking in empathy but no, I’m not a psycho,” he said, like it was a grade school lesson. “Just one more minute.”

“How did I manage the first three?” Wicked Sharp panted. The air tasted thick with pollen. Her lips burned. Her gums itched.

“You didn’t, it’s been less than two, duck.”

“Two ducks?” Wicked Sharp rolled backwards and hacked apart a rushing green bramble. She had never been so angry as when she spat: “I was this close to falling for that old gag!”

“What old gag?” Doctor Nightmares pulled out his probe and smiled at his device, “I need you in there. Action Girl is doing a shit job at keeping Heartwood busy.”

“I hate you,” Wicked Sharp had to grin as she leapt over the next attack. She coughed in the air. The few scratches she had taken stung. The air trapped yellowish clouds and she was glad she had fixed her mask properly or she’d be seeing nothing but tears. A writhing vine fell away from Xie Zhi Ren. She sneezed.

“Be careful with all the dust, Sharpie,” Doctor Nightmares cheered. “Too much pollen in the air’s going to be bad for us.”

“What the hell does that mean?” She turned but somehow Doctor Nightmares had disappeared. It was like he could travel through the chaos without effort. She couldn’t walk a step. She moved in leaps and landed in rolls. Everything was punctuated by sword slashes. The air was getting warm. The stinging got worse. Wicked Sharp managed to rush past a hurried attack. If she could get within thirty feet she could cut free most of Action Girl. Something grabbed her ankle. It couldn’t hold her. White metal sheared away the vegetation.

“Your little garden isn’t enough to stop us,” she shouted at the Challenger. Wicked Sharp couldn’t always see Heartwood, there was too much growth, too much movement, but the heroine wasn’t hiding. Heartwood pulled back her right hand like a scorpion’s tail and reached for Wicked Sharp in one snap movement.

“Time is over for you,” Heartwood declared. She had lost the emotion and disgust she had unleashed when she had seen Crimefighter. She was cold now, certain.

“I only needed a minute,” pleaded Wicked Sharp to herself. She was horribly slowed but she wasn’t yet caught. She was still getting closer. Xie Zhi Ren cut a group of roots from the floor and Action Girl’s vigorous struggling started showing results. “And now I have her again.”

“It wasn’t enough.” There was a finality to things. The air was thick with pollen and stifling with warmth. The light particles aerated throughout the warehouse. Xie Zhi Ren kicked up sparks as Wicked Sharp freed Action Girl further. Ignition, air, and dust. The warehouse became a fireball.

Wicked Sharp screamed. She hadn’t screamed in fear since she had been thirteen. She felt weaker than she had even back then. The noise was nearly worse than the heat. She was dead. This was over. She was flying. Action Girl had her in the arms and whipped through wood, flame and smoke to crash down behind the laboratory.

“We’re dead! We’re dead!” Wicked Sharp slowly retreated from her shock. She looked up, Action Girl’s uniform was tattered and burnt. She was stained and sooty. She was smiling.

“Nikki?”

“It’s OK, Mei Ling,” The girl was ebullient. “Doctor Nightmares stepped in.”

“We should run.”

Doctor Nightmares regrew the skin on his face and hands in a matter of moments. He walked past the ragged wreck of roots and thorns that protected the Challenger. He was right in her space. His grin was even more arrogant after he had lips again, “Heartwood, do you know what vitamin Y is?”

“You’ve made a mistake to think I’m less defended up close.” Heartwood raised her left hand and bladed thorns slashed and climbed his calves. He didn’t even flinch. He just held a small black device with a thin clear tube near her violet tinted lips. She smirked, “What are you doing?”

“Detecting vitamin Y,” He grinned happily. He ripped his leg from the fattened wooden roots over his feet. The rubber of his galoshes were left behind in ragged strips. He had to regrow the meat he had left behind.

She moved, her body more than ready to keep him moving. She was a force of nature but if she had to, she could fight. There was a bed of thick weeping spikes growing behind her and Doctor Nightmares would keep moving as she directed him. It was a routine judo throw. He’d roll and land on his back, perforated by dozens of stingers. It was a bit much but she figured if he could regrow his face, a little overkill might not be enough. She grabbed the lapel of his lab coat. He drove a hypodermic into the vein of her wrist.

“What did you inject me with?” She flinched and failed to throw him. Vines twisted out of the haze and wrapped around Nightmare’s legs. Laughing, he was ripped backwards from her, pulled right into the chaos again.

“I didn’t inject you with anything, Heartwood. I needed to extract a sample.” He looked at the blood sample in his left hand. He pulled a metal flask from his pants. Vines and roots were tightening him to the floor. His arms tightened against his side. He cursed. Dust, sparks and white metal flashed around him.

“Did you get her?”

“I got what I needed.” He jabbed the needle into the mouth of the flask and pulled back on the plunger. The liquid he had separated earlier swirled with Heartwood’s blood.

“Does this help us! Can we escape?” Mei Ling flashed her blade holding back the roots again. She could feel the air filling with pollen again. She could hear Nikki screaming as Heartwood put her down once more.

“Don’t be silly. We’re not leaving without our Patient 0.”

“Seppuku still seems like the way to go.” Wicked Sharp looked down at Xie Zhi Ren. She knew there were worse ways to live than suicide. Another dust explosion for instance.

“Don’t be racist, Mei Ling, you’re Chinese.” Doctor Nightmares reached behind himself with the mixture.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Jeff! Not again!” Wicked Sharp lunged to take the needle from him but he stepped aside and inserted point between his vertebrae. For the first time in three years, Doctor Nightmares tossed aside the spent needle and marched ahead without immediate consequences. There was no other hope. She expected him to collapse and erupt in rabid foam. She had wanted him to win but she didn’t believe he could for a second. She had spent nearly everything and she had little left to fight off a Challenger who barely seemed to have started. Wicked Sharp had performed her diligence. She had tried to save her friend. He couldn’t be saved. She could be saved. There were worse things than running with your fingers crossed. Wicked Sharp took off perpendicular to Doctor Nightmares.

“I’m not so stupid, Mei Ling,” Heartwood singsonged Wicked Sharp’s civilian name. Heartwood had fought the whole battle from her podium, but the moment Wicked Sharp had sought to run, she was somewhere new, materializing in the smoke and pollen. “Our Mr Grant is pretty confident. Using your real name. Walking right up to a Challenger. He’s even calling himself a doctor, but everyone knows that he’s just another dropout.”

“He’s Doctor Nightmares.” Wicked Sharp raised her sword. She rushed, was even prepared for the swats from left and right by Heartwood’s plants. Each dodge wasn’t enough though, her greaves tangled in roots that burst through the concrete floor. The third strike wrenched Xie Zhi Ren from her fingers. She was dragged down to her knees.

“Two down, now where’s our guest of honor?” Wicked Sharp shed tears of joy to see that Jefferson was right behind Heartwood and she hadn’t seen him yet. Wicked Sharp had run but Doctor Nightmares had come for her. Mei Ling hated herself for just a moment.

Heartwood tried to twist the moment she felt his hand grab her by the back of the neck. She couldn’t react beyond a shiver. He pulled her back against his chest. He picked out his detector again. She pulled her head away as he jabbed it to her lips. “Open your mouth!”

She did. She did. Wicked Sharp couldn’t believe her eyes. The Challenger drove her heel onto Doctor Nightmares’ toes. He did flinch but he kept his voice steady and grip tight.

“Bite down, now,” He stroked the back of The Challenger’s neck. His fingers tangled in her sooty red hair. Her teeth closed down on the clear tube coming out of his device, “You’re doing great. Big breaths now, in through the nose and out through your mouth. Good girl.”

“What the holy hell are you doing!” Wicked Sharp demanded.

“I’m broadcasting pretty hard and she’s receiving,” he explained.

“Make her let me out!” I begged. Heartwood growled at me.

“Quiet, calm down, the fight’s over.”

“Jeff!” Nicole’s voice shouted panicked from across the warehouse.

“Over here, Nikki!” He called back. The roots and thorns retreated from Wicked Sharp. She stood up and gaped at Heartwood.

“We beat a Challenger.” Wicked Sharp couldn’t stop giggling. She wasn’t a giggler, “How did we beat a Challenger?”

“All supers produce shusterins. Vitamin Y. The more power they use, the easier it is to take them,” He smiled, “Of course, I’d still rather build a way to inject a target than to let them go wild for a few minutes when I want to control someone.”

“You don’t control me,” Heartwood defended herself, but he wasn’t subduing her anymore, just touching her. She wasn’t getting up or fighting back.

“What are we going to do with her?” Wicked Sharp grinned, even the air was clearing up. Humid air sifted in through the swiss cheese walls. She licked her lips as she swaggered up to Heartwood.

“Oh? Her too? Are we sharing every girl? I know it’s a bit late at this point but I’m still a little iffy about risking our friendship over sex. How about I give you Action Girl and I’ll have Heartwood?”

“You did beat her,” Wicked Sharp pouted but then she beamed. “You beat her! No one thought it was that powerful!”

“It hadn’t been, I had to blow practically three liters of Vitamin Y to get Nikki tamed,” Action Girl crashed through the rest of the vines to arrive. The pair of villains turned to look at the puppy dog crush painted on Action Girl’s face. “Which was clearly at least a liter too much. She’s never recovering from that.”

“But for Heartwood, it’ll wear off?”

“Probably not, but the damage isn’t as extreme,” he stroked Heartwood’s cheek, “but you’re still eager to obey me.”

“I—yes,” Heartwood shook. She scowled at Action Girl, “I won’t be like her.”

“I’m such a huge fan! I saw you in Austin three years ago and you signed a comic book for me!”

“Great, thank you...” Heartwood turned her eyes to me.

“We need to celebrate!” Action Girl grabbed Doctor Nightmares’ arm and floated with ecstatic vibrations. She gave him the biggest puppy dog eyes.

“Do we have to worry about the place exploding again?” Wicked Sharp licked her lips. The air was considerably clearer. She smelled wildflowers and ash. The tingle and itching she had felt throughout the fight had quickly relented.

“No, she won’t hurt any of us,” Doctor Nightmares beamed. “And Nikki, have you ever wanted to fuck your idol?”

“Yeah! But I was thinking Infinity Blue.” Action Girl twisted the smile she was directing at Heartwood.

“He’s just as fast out of costume,” Heartwood muttered.

“I’m not laying you down on the concrete.” Doctor Nightmares combed his fingers through Heartwood’s hair. “Do something.”

“Ugh,” Heartwood looked at both women in turn. The fair redhead was flushed. Her cheeks were peppered with a few freckles. Her light blush was offset by her dark red lips. Her gown was still somehow pristine. The light dusting of soot on her fingers and cheeks didn’t touch a centimeter of the fabric. Slowly, a giddy smile flickered between her cheeks. Her fingers danced. The roots and vines around the four rippled. The air tasted lightly of pollen for a moment as fat giant leaves crisscrossed over each other. Wicked Sharp grinned with Doctor Nightmares. Action Girl pirouetted upwards as she watched.

“It’s like the bed of a fairy queen!” Nicole bubbled, “And it’s big enough for you, me and Doctor Nightmares!

“Thank you,” Heartwood blushed. Her eyes tried to be angry but she couldn’t. That made her angry. Action Girl floated down onto the leaves stretching out on her back. Her golden hair haloed her bright smile.

“This isn’t as comfy as it looks,” she laughed after pouting. “But it’s nice.”

“Well done, Marisa,” Doctor Nightmares knelt and Heartwood followed suit as they climbed onto the mattress. Wicked Sharp laughed.

“Marisa?” The swordswoman asked.

“Yes?” Heartwood looked up as if she was being prompted.

“How’d you know, Jeff?”

“I started keeping tabs on a favorites list once I knew my weapon would be a success,” he grinned. Heartwood laid out next to Action Girl. Wicked Sharp stepped forward from Action Girl’s side.

“Hey no swords on the bed!” Action Girl growled as Wicked Sharp approached.

“Crack!” Mei Ling slapped Nicole hard across the face. The heroine went white in shock and nearly purple in anger. “That’s no swords on the bed, mistress.”

“I’ll—”

“Nikki, play nice,” Doctor Nightmares said, beaming. “Are you going to have fun with her, Mei Ling?”

“No, I think I have to taste Challenger,” Xie Zhi Ren clattered. Her shuriken bracers came apart and were thrown behind. She slipped off her sash and it scraped across the uneven concrete. She pulled her ribbon from hair dropping the last of her weapons behind her.

“Mistress?” Nicole looked up as Wicked Sharp picked open her cheongsam. The dress lifted off her body and was thrown behind her. Her waifish figure was deceptive, filling out better as Mei Ling opened and tossed aside her sports bra. The backs of her boots opened when she kicked them inside her heels. She crawled over Nikki with only her bandit mask left on her body.

“You, little slut, are over dressed,” She grabbed the hem of Nikki’s skirt and dragged it down Nicole’s creamy legs and over her knee high boots. The shredded mess of her underwear was left, a belt around her hips that represented the teen’s eagerness to be used.

Nicole had listened to Mei Ling’s comment and pulled her top and cape off of her large breasts. Mei Ling ripped away the domino mask from Nicole’s bright green eyes. The villainess leaned in and growled. Her left hand had caught Nicole by the chin.

“The cape and the boots stay!”

“Oh, excellent choice, Sharpie!” laughed Jefferson. He had mounted himself over Heartwood’s left leg. The Challenger cooed as he failed to rip open her bodice.

“It’s Dragonsilk and Jetsteel wire,” she apologized. “You’d need a blowtorch.”

“I have a blowtorch,” he said, and she twisted her features in fear. He reached for his utility belt but threw it away. She sighed in relief as something burst as it landed. He yanked down the shoulders of her dress and she wiggled her arms free. She just had to lift herself up to be unzipped. The gown came off easily. She was wearing little underneath it. A pair of plain cotton panties and a pair of ancient running shoes. She felt embarrassed, her plain clothes bothered her as much as being revealed to villains and a stranger.

“You are so beautiful...” Nicole rolled towards Heartwood and reached for Heartwood’s face. “And Marisa is a beautiful name...”

The pair of heroines kissed forcing the villains off of their thighs as they leaned in towards each other. Mei Ling looked to Doctor Nightmares. He was the only one dressed. His cargo pants were shredded by the ankles and without his utility belt they were falling down.

“Look at you, you’re a mess,” laughed Mei Ling. She leaned in and ripped the lab coat off his shoulders. He laughed and reached down and popped the fly of his pants. Mei Ling gleefully ripped apart his battered Cowls t-shirt.

“Hey, that was a collector’s item!”

“And it was the only piece of clothing I could rip off of anyone.” Mei Ling forced a fake pout. Her little girl act didn’t fly with her toned naked body over the wet excited heroines making out under her knees. She nodded towards Doctor Nightmares’ cock and then nodded towards the locked lips of Marisa and Nicole. Doctor Nightmares hurried to the heads of the girls and Wicked Sharp reached down and pulled the gusset of Heartwood’s panties away from her lightly furred pussy.

The heroines howled as Mei Ling drove her fingers into each of them. She laughed, happy to go hard and quick. They both turned from each other and on her. She grinned as Jefferson laid his cock between their faces. They couldn’t stay angry with Mei Ling. They couldn’t take their attention from Doctor Nightmares when he wanted it. They couldn’t. Mei Ling could.

“You wouldn’t believe how much wetter they got when they saw you, Jeff.” Mei Ling started moving her hands in unison. She split their sodden sexes and dragged her thumb over and against their clits. Heartwood cooed, her lips slowly approaching the cock before her. Action Girl grinned and glomped her lips over the top of him. Jefferson exulted with a bright smile. He grabbed a handfuls of blonde hair and of red hair. He demanded more from Heartwood and couldn’t demand more from Nicole. He dragged the Challenger towards his balls and rocked the local heroine up and down his shaft.

“This is the second best double blowjob I’ve ever had.” He beamed at Mei Ling and Mei Ling set her arms moving harder and faster.

“You’re sweet,” she laughed. Nicole was excited. Her skin burnished red and her toes were curling and she held onto Heartwood by either arm with every ounce of her strength. Marisa was building much more slowly. She dragged her tongue around and tried to slow down the fingers inside her by directing Mei Ling with a slower swing of her hips.

Marisa was wreathed in need, terror, anger and joy. She couldn’t trust herself. Looking up into the back end of a supervillain was not how she ever imagined spending her afternoon. She hated herself and demanded the best. She was proud that he let her apply her sexuality to him with very little tugging of her hair. She had never been a bottom. She had never been in need like she was. She pulled back with a ball in her lips and Doctor Nightmares groaned like a starting lawnmower.

Nicole exploded. She was a panting, chaotic mess. She wanted to kick Mei Ling in the head but Doctor Nightmares wouldn’t like it. She didn’t hold herself back because the fingers inside her were feeling nearly as good as Doctor Nightmares pressing against the back of her throat. She erupted a mist of saliva around his head as he pulled out her before pushing back in. She let go of Heartwood and grabbed her own jaw. She pulled her teeth all the way open as she kicked and thrashed in orgasm. And is she hit Wicked Sharp in the head once or twice, it was worth it.

Doctor Nightmares laughed as Mei Ling dodged several spasmodic attacks from the blonde heroine. He wasn’t lasting long. He growled and he pulled Marisa tighter against himself. Nicole howled as cum spattered against her tongue and teeth. She coughed and sputtered and pulled off and smiled upwards. Jefferson couldn’t begin to imagine a sexier image than the flush of her face and the thick slough of spending rolling out of her lips and chin. Heartwood started struggling; Jeff let go of her hair.

Breathing seemed new and spectacular to Heartwood. She reached down to her sex, pulling away Mei Ling’s fingers. The Challenger was horny, unsatisfied and Doctor Nightmares’ erection came up once again right in front of her eyes.

“Give me a second, Marisa,” puffed Jefferson.

“No!” Heartwood howled and climbed up Jefferson with vigor. Nicole was horrified that Marisa wouldn’t listen. Mei Ling looked on with a sharp smirk. This was the difference. Both heroines needed Doctor Nightmares but Heartwood wasn’t nearly the puppet that Action Girl was.

“Heh, you’re strong.” Jefferson had let himself be bowled over but he grinned up at Marisa as her weeping sex connected all the way down to his base. She let out a garbled sigh of pleasure. Her need to mount Jefferson wasn’t matched in her sexual energy. Jefferson had to grab her by the hips and lift and pull her to accelerate into something needy and pleasurable.

“Oh my god...” Marisa squeaked as she reached down to her sex. Her fingers massaged her clit with much less velocity than Mei Ling had done. Wicked Sharp turned to Action Girl.

The hard panting and cross-eyed look was deceiving. Nicole was furiously jealous but it was impossible to tell what bothered her more, the slut riding the man she loved or the villain with his dick deep in a Challenger. The blonde struggled but was still slightly spent, but she was recovering, she wouldn’t be out for long and Mei Ling wanted something more than anything. She scrambled over Nicole to get it.

“Mei?” Jefferson got the word out before his partner straddled his face and pressed her sour asshole to his tongue. She grabbed Heartwood by the hair. The heroine resisted but not well. Her face was brought to Mei Ling’s sex.

“Holy shit!” drawled Mei Ling. The cooperating tongues weaved shudders from the soles of her toes to the roots of her hair. She was a little off balance, forced to roll and buck between mouths. Her eyes fluttered shut. She held the back of Marisa’s head with both hands. This was heavenly. This was filthy. She thanked Jefferson and told Marisa to stop being such a tentative pussy.

“This is crazy!” Nicole floated up a half foot before she could push herself into a crawl. She had a pristine view of Heartwood’s open backside as she rose and descended Doctor Nightmares. She felt drawn, magnetized to that big cock. She slunk forward, looking up at Mei Ling. The bitchy villainess was in ecstasy. Nicole remembered how tightly her finger had been clasped within Mei Ling’s ass. Nicole knew Mei Ling loved the feeling. Nicole leaned in, taking Jefferson’s balls in both of her hands. She leaned in and pressed her tongue into Marisa’s bottom. Heartwood screamed.

“Fuck! Whatever you’re doing slut! Do more of that!” Mei Ling pleaded bucking harder against Marisa’s mouth.

“No, stop! Not there!” The words were said with too much in her mouth. Marisa freaked out again as Nicole pressed her tongue in and around. Marisa’s body was close and she needed a finish but each touch set her off in the wrong way. No one touches her asshole! She screamed again, begging to stop. She needed more stimulation on her clit, this wasn’t the way for her. She begged as deeply into Mei Ling as she could. She was rewarded with a stream of hot climax. The jet pushed her back and the hands in her hair kept her forwards. She thrashed and fought.

Wicked Sharp was in delicious agony. Her body and need was so overstrung that each moment of climax was torturous. She loved it. She had lost control. Her body ached and after the panic, the fear and the pain of the fight with Heartwood, she only felt the peak and power of beating one of the best. She rode her climax with all the needful chaos she could muster.

“Oh thank the irrash-Oh Christ Almighty!” Doctor Nightmares lifted Mei Ling’s asshole from his tongue to celebrate his own climax. His balls roiled in Nicole’s fingers. He felt the pulse rising up his dick and he shouted as he sprayed his cum inside Heartwood. Mei Ling fell back from his hands, finally freeing Marisa’s mouth.

“Get-Get-Get-Get out of my ass!” Heartwood pleaded in the midst of her body twitching. It’s not what she needed. She needed to cum. She couldn’t. She yelled a crazed roar. Jefferson was slowing to a stop. “No! Don’t let anyone pull Action Girl back! She’s almost got me!”

“He’s gone off so much again!” wondered Nicole. She let go of Heartwood and Doctor Nightmares and grabbed The Challenger by the thigh and rolled her off. Doctor Nightmares’ flagging staff was speckled in white froth. Mostly from a near panicked Marisa but also from his own goofy grinned smile. Nicole dived forward to take him in her mouth again. He grabbed her hair as she lifted off the first time and swung Nicole over to Marisa’s messy sex.

“Finish her off!” He growled and thrust her face down into Marisa. Heartwood bucked and closed her eyes. She thrust her hands into Action Girl’s hair alongside Jefferson’s hair and pulled away tightly holding his ring and middle fingers.

There was a snap that shocked Mei Ling. Marisa’s panties had been onlyswept aside of her sex, for access. Nicole had grabbed them. They were ripped and torn as badly as those wrapping Nicole’s hips. The swordswoman smiled, her body shivering in excitement. This was insane!

“Just a little! Just a little! Doctor! Doctor please!” Marisa panted. Mei Ling crawled over and watched as Nicole dove deep inside her idol. She seemed unconcerned with finishing off Marisa. Nicole just wanted results of Jefferson’s sex for herself. There was too much of him and not enough left of her. Marisa howled. Her body wrenching side to side. She flushed red from the tip of her nose to the bottoms of her breasts. Soon she wasn’t moaning but cursing. The word “No!” Outpaced stop by large margin. She still managed to always beg please.

“Do you feel that, little slut?” Mei Ling leaned in over Marisa’s head to whisper into the heroine’s ear. Marisa’s lips and teeth clamped onto the earlobe. Mei Ling purred happily, “You and your little club of sluts are nothing but toys for Doctor Nightmares. Nothing! Not heroes. Not protectors of anything. All of you little cunts are just waiting for Doctor Nightmares to find you. I’m going to be there to watch him tear down each and every one of you.”

“Ah! Please! No!” Marisa thrashed. She was more at odds with what Nicole was doing than what Mei Ling was saying. Marisa wanted the other heroines to give in. She wanted Doctor Nightmares to have Falcon-Ra and Omniscientist. There were only three women in The Challengers. Finally, she reached her foot onto Nicole’s shoulder and kicked Action Girl away. Marisa trembled as she could finally scramble away. She turned face to face with Mei Ling. Marisa whimpered as she was rolled onto her knees by the hair.

“How long before someone comes looking for you!” Wicked Sharp growled at the fallen Challenger.

“Not for hours,” Marisa eye makeup had stopped running a while ago but it still made her look panicked. She didn’t sound anything but excited. Wicked Sharp touched Heartwood’s sex and the heroine flinched, panting and panicking.

“Did you just cum, little slut?”

“I—I did, this feels better than I could imagine.” Marisa locked eyes with Mei Ling. She reached tentatively forward. Wicked Sharp’s fingers at her need were taunting and reproachful. Swallowing, Marisa reached into Mei Ling’s hair and pulled away the bandit mask.

“You are beautiful, Mei Ling.” Heartwood found herself slapped. She was hard knocked over to her side as Mei Ling taunted.

“You’re to call me Mistress as Action Girl does.”

“I try not to when Doctor Nightmares isn’t looking,” Nicole admitted, “Oh!” She squealed as Doctor Nightmares seated himself into the blonde teenager and grabbed her by both breasts. She was dragged up, flying, her ankles on the far sides of each of Jeff’s knees. Mei Ling grabbed both heroines by the hair and dragged them up to each other. Nikki flinched. Marisa attacked. Their kiss erupted with one clear aggressor. Marisa’s hands looked small against each of Nicole’s large breasts. Mei Ling just smiled towards Jefferson.

“I love your weapon,” she said, vibrating with excitement.

“She is right about how beautiful you are, Mei Ling,” Doctor Nightmares said, grinning. He grappled Nicole’s hips and lifted her off of himself. He threw her off and she landed astride Heartwood.

“Of course she is,” Mei Ling moved face to face with Jefferson. She let herself be reclined against Nicole’s back.

“I wasn’t done with that!” Pouted Nicole. Mei Ling sighed as she felt Jefferson push inside her. Nicole oohed as Heartwood continued her kiss against Nicole’s throat. The other’s fingers slid inside either hero. Marisa wailed and came rapidly again.

“I’m glad your weapon works so well.” Mei Ling moaned as Jefferson started a slow but aggressive tempo in and out of her. The heat between them was palpable. All skin shimmered in sweat. Everywhere that could be flushing red was. Mei Ling chewed the inside of her lip. She and Jefferson didn’t kiss. Their eye contact was fleeting, just long enough for both of them to smile. Mei Ling pressed tightly against Jefferson’s chest. If she wrapped her arms tightly around him, bit down into his collarbone and rode the energy between them, it was just sex. Their bodies continually bumped violently with the heroes.

She didn’t know what happened first, that the bodies beneath her escaped with the last bit of air in her lungs. Whatever Mei Ling’s lips were saying nothing escaped. Warm bodies crawled up tight on either side of her. This felt like victory. She was at the center. The heroes were downed and filthy as she was. She had her friend. She had The Chosen Few’s weapon.

She. Came.

Jefferson put more of himself into every thrust. He had to, needed it. He saw the girl beneath him as the only friend he had made since grade school. She was sex, a fireball. She tightened spasmodically around him and he gave him. Whatever he had made himself, he let all of that out inside her. Her teeth tightened discovering the coppery taste of his blood. His face reddened and his throat tightened as he roared. The heroines erupted in sympathetic pleasure. It was anyone’s guess who stopped trembling first. Doctor Nightmares rose up and bellowed his victory, his enhanced anatomy finally worn out. The women at his feet all grinned eagerly up at him. Mei Ling was a hunting she-wolf. Marisa was a sultry goddess. Nicole was more in love than any woman had ever been.

Nicole’s orgasm had caused her to twitch and float and after her body finally calmed. She dropped and rolled off of Wicked Sharp’s shoulder. The villain flashed open her brown eyes. She reached for Doctor Nightmares’ hand.

Mei Ling was dragged up to her feet, she was totally stripped of Wicked Sharp. Xie Zhi Ren lay nearly twenty feet away discarded haphazardly for the first time since it was forged. Her body was streaked in red where Nicole had gripped too hard and the lobes of her ears were smudged with Marisa’s lipstick. The mark from Jefferson spilled along the insides of her thighs. Nicole bucked one last time at Mei Ling’s feet. Jefferson reached for her and she took his hand.

“She doesn’t have too much stamina,” Jeff laughed at Marisa’s snoring body.

“She’s never needed it, I don’t think,” Mei Ling said, considering. “We really should go.”

“Nikki, are you ready to go?”

“I’m ready for anything,” she boasted ineffectually. All she did was roll over on the sweat spotted leaves.

“Are we taking Heartwood with us?” Mei Ling toed Marisa. The redhead woke just long enough to roll onto her belly and start snoring again.

“That’d be suicide.” Jeff was morose. “Yet it is tempting. I want an army of Heartwoods.”

“Should we kill her?”

“No, just leave her. She’s not expired for our use and such wastefulness would leave a bad taste in my mouth.” Jeff looked around. Most of his clothes were ripped, shredded or burned. Mei Ling’s had been body armor. They endured better, but still needed to be replaced. “You’re right, we should move on.”

“What’s next?” Mei Ling asked. She had been told to leave if Doctor Nightmares was nonviable. She could stay and be loyal to The Chosen Few. She could stay and be loyal to Jeff. She had no idea what she was choosing.

“Well, I still have a list of names,” Jefferson said, his grin was incredibly goofy.

“No fair, I haven’t had time to come up with my own list!” Wicked Sharp pouted until she grinned like even more of an idiot.