Chapter 25

A couple of hours later I swung around the Moon and headed for Earth. I now knew that there was more to the universe than just the Earth. There were other planets, other worlds, other peoples. Every one of them just as important as the Earth and its people.

Every one of them just as deserving of being Protected from the Arion menace.

Just as I had helped Lillith Protect her world.

Just as Kara and Xara and Sharon were Protecting their Earth.

Just as I would Protect mine to the best of my ability from those Arion invaders.

Starting with that 'Dark Supergirl' bitch, if I could get my hands on her. She'd kicked enough of my ass. Now, it was my turn to kick her ass.

Kick it hard.

Kick it completely off of the planet and completely out of existence.

And then follow it up by kicking the rest of the Arions off of my world.

I was not going to let this world down. Not my world.

Yes, this Earth that was mine to Protect to the best of my ability.

Finally, Carlos felt the aircraft land. The man came back through the door he had disappeared through earlier. He and Sirren exchanged a few words in their strange language. He was followed by a woman, who looked at him briefly but didn't say a word. The two of them almost could have been brother and sister, or perhaps cousins, with their golden complexions, straight black hair, and bright blue eyes. Just like Sirren.

As Sirren unstrapped herself from her seat and then unstrapped him, the man opened the outer door. Knowing that he had no other choice, he accompanied Sirren off the aircraft. What he saw brought back his earlier sense of panic.

He immediately knew that he was no longer in Mexico. Nor in Texas, for that matter.

But he didn't know exactly where he was. All of his questions to Sirren had been met with a blank look and a stony silence, almost as if she hadn't understood a single word.

He didn't know where he was. However, he didn't think that he was on Earth at all.

Now, Sirren was talking with a man dressed in what appeared to be a green tee shirt and a matching pair of shorts. He was pretty sure that they were talking about him, she pointed at him and the two of them turned their heads in his direction before resuming their discussion. Actually, she was doing most of the talking, he wasn't doing much more than nodding his head in agreement.

He quickly followed Sirren as she beckoned to him and started to walk off. Then, she stopped at a window. It could have been a television screen or something similar to it, but he doubted it, why would anybody bother to put a screen here in the middle of a blank wall? Besides, there were no controls or switches that he could see.

Looking outside, the sight confirmed his worst fears. Hanging out there in the black nothingness was the blue globe of the Earth, with the swirling white of clouds covering much of it. The moon was partially hidden behind the Earth. The scene looked almost exactly like some of the pictures he had seen from the Space Shuttle.

"Where, where are we, Sirren? Why have you brought me here?" he asked again.

"It should be obvious, even to you, Carlos" she answered at last. "We are on my ship, in orbit around your world. The world that will now soon be ours."

"But why have you brought me here?"

"I couldn't leave you down there. You know too much about me." She took his arm and started leading him down the corridor again. "Come. We don't have too much time before I have to report in."

After turning a couple of corners, she opened a door and pulled him into a small room. The room was completely bare. Four featureless gray steel walls. Subdued lighting coming from somewhere. There was a bunk built into one of the walls.

Somehow, he thought, it looked like a jail cell. Sure, as if he was going to escape and hitchhike his way back down to the Earth.

"Hurry, strip," she said, interrupting any further thoughts, as she closed the door behind them and reached behind her neck to undo her bikini top.

Knowing that he had no choice but to obey her, he began to peel off his clothes.

She must really have been in a hurry; she didn't even bother with any foreplay. Nor did she bother with the bunk. As soon as he was naked, she took him in her arms. Spreading her legs, she leaned forward and lifted him up into her. This wasn't the first time that she'd taken him standing up, though they'd always had some foreplay first. Not that he needed any foreplay with her, one whiff of her wildflowers and honey scent was always enough to get him ready for her.

Even as he put his arms around her, he knew that she wasn't interested in having him make love to her. She seemed to be only interested in taking her own pleasure; she didn't seem to care about giving him any pleasure.

Nor did she seem to be interested in the pain that she was causing him. She had usually been rough with him, but she had never used him this roughly before. She had one hand behind his shoulders, pressing his chest painfully against her large firm breasts, driving most of the air out of his lungs, while her other hand was on his ass, stroking herself fast and hard with his body, using his body as a large dildo.

As she was climbing towards her climax, she pressed him even tighter against her breasts, driving the remaining air out of his lungs. "Please stop, Sirren. You're hurting me. I can't breathe," he managed to gasp out.

She didn't stop, but at least she eased the pressure on his chest a little, as she adjusted her grip to put both hands on his hips. His chest banged into her breasts on every stroke as she continued to use his body. He tightened his arms around her and held on.

He felt her body shudder as she reached a climax. But instead of slackening her pace, she increased it, stroking herself faster and harder with his body, shaking and tossing him around as if he was nothing more than a rag doll, his hardest grip making absolutely no difference. The pain increased as his chest hit her breasts faster and harder.

Finally, just after he had shot his load into her, she reached another climax. Then he felt her arms tighten about him again, driving the air out of his lungs as her breasts pressed quite painfully against his chest. His vision went black as he mercifully passed out.

It was a very quiet and somber staff meeting the next afternoon. It started out quiet and somber, and got even quieter and quieter as Joan presented her report to the department heads. She broke up in tears when she reached the conclusion, Steve immediately going to her and guiding her back to her seat.

There was stunned silence in the room, the only sound that of Joan's sobs and Steve's comforting. Then the reactions started as the conclusions started to sink in.

George had been invited, for obvious reasons, reasons that had nothing to do with his being a computer consultant. An apparent fight between Jule and the 'Dark Supergirl', a burst of gamma radiation, the 'Dark Supergirl' spotted afterwards, no contact from Jule. She had been missing for nearly two weeks now. It just wasn't like her to not keep in touch. The conclusions seemed inescapable. And they didn't look any better in the light of day than they had last night when his mother-in-law had visited.

Jule, dead! It can't be! It just can't be! She's Supergirl, nothing should be able to kill her! With all of the things he'd seen her do, and the stories she had told him about some of her battles, how could she be killed, even by somebody like the 'Dark Supergirl'?

No, it just can't be! His Jule can't be dead! It just can't be!

Linda was surprised. To a biologist, it was an axiom that anything, or anybody, that was living, hence not dead, could be killed. Unless you counted vampires, and she didn't. Just because she could never penetrate Julie's skin and draw blood didn't mean that there wasn't some weapon out there that could kill her. And Joan had told her that the Arions indeed did have such weapons.

But Julie! Julie was different. She had heard a lot of stories about her, mostly from her new husband, who had worked with Julie quite a bit. After everything else that Julie had survived, how could she now be dead?

Mark couldn't believe it. His best field agent, dead? He had seen her bounce machine guns bullets off of her chest, and even smother a hand grenade in the deep cleavage between her large full breasts. He had imagined that nothing short of a nuclear explosion could kill her. The gamma radiation apparently hadn't been an explosion of any kind, it was almost as if somebody had aimed a strong signal somewhere, almost like a radio beacon.

Karen was stunned. Stars! Cousin Julie, dead? Killed by a Warrior Prime? Julie, who had already killed over half a dozen Warriors Prime, killed by that Stars-forsaken 'Dark Supergirl'? Julie, who had saved her from Meelek, killed by that Stars-forsaken 'Dark Supergirl'? Even though Julie wasn't a real Protector, she should still be more than a match for a single Warrior Prime.

Now what were they supposed to do? Without a real Velorian Planetary Protector here, what was standing between the Arions and their conquest of the planet?

Not her. Stars! Aunt Joan couldn't expect her to fill Julie's shoes, could she? She was only a half Prime. She was stronger than anybody else here, but there was no way she could hope to defeat a Warrior Prime in combat. Certainly not one who could kill Julie.

In her training, before Alaska, she had fought against other Betas. Her Prime half had made her nearly unbeatable then. She'd had very little trouble fighting against Terrans, either here or in the past, when she had been with Erik. Unarmed, she had easily defeated more than a dozen Roman soldiers. Since then, she had worked with Julie, fighting against Terrans, and once, in New York, against other Betas.

But Stars! This was different. She couldn't go up against a Warrior Prime! Even though her strength had grown considerably since she had been here, it still was nowhere near that of a full Prime. And she hadn't received the training that a Warrior Prime got.

When Carlos woke up, it took him a moment to remember where he was. But the sight of the gray steel walls quickly brought everything back. The pain from the bruises on his chest also helped bring back his memory.

He was alone in that room that looked like a jail cell, where Sirren had all but raped him. He was lying on the bunk built into the wall. There was a thin blanket over him; apparently she had at least done that for him.

Looking around, he saw an open door in one of the walls. But he didn't think that it was the door they had entered through. Getting up somewhat stiffly and looking through it, he confirmed it. The door merely led to a small bathroom. The fixtures were different, but similar enough to make their function obvious. A fact for which he was grateful, as he used the facilities. The shower, once he figured out the temperature controls, helped to wash away some, though not nearly all, of the pain from Sirren's lovemaking.

Afterwards, he explored the room, such as it was. His clothes were nowhere in sight. He found the door from which he and Sirren had entered. There was a simple handle, whose function was obvious. But discerning its function and making it work were two different things. Try as he could, he couldn't turn the handle. But it didn't appear to be locked in any way. He decided that it probably would take someone with Sirren's incredible superhuman strength to open the door.

Since there was apparently no way he could leave the room on his own, he sat down on the bunk to wait. Hopefully, Sirren would come back for him before he starved to death. He hadn't had anything to eat since Sirren had taken him out into the desert.

Finally, he heard and saw the door open. Standing up, he saw a man in a green uniform step into the room. Seeing that the man appeared to be unarmed, and smaller than Carlos was, he charged at the man.

The man apparently wasn't expecting him to try anything. Carlos caught him with a punch right in the mouth, putting all of his strength and weight into it and knocking him down. He was bending down to try to finish him off when he felt his arms being pulled behind him.

He struggled to get his arms free. Unlike with one of Sirren's holds, he could move his arms somewhat, but he still couldn't get free. As he continued to struggle, his assailant pulled harder, all but threatening to pull his arms out of their sockets. At the same time, he felt something pressing against his back. Maybe two somethings. Almost like.... But no, it couldn't be, could it?

He saw the man rise to his feet, wiping the blood from his mouth. So at least, these people in the green could be hurt, and they bled like everyone else when they were. And their blood was red, just like his own was.

Though that was only a small consolation. While his arms were being pinned behind his back, the man looked ready to beat him to a pulp, if the look in his deep blue eyes was any indication. He raised his fists as he approached. Carlos tried to back away, but he was held immobile.

Suddenly, he heard a voice. Even though he couldn't understand the words, there was no mistaking the tone of command. Nor was there any mistaking the rich melodious sound of Sirren's voice. The man looked over Carlos' shoulder, and then back at Carlos. He slowly lowered his fists, and then bowed in the direction of the voice.

Then he heard Sirren speaking to him, in English. "Carlos, if you're going to go around trying to fight everybody on this ship, I can't keep protecting you. Either of these people could have killed you easily. Will you promise to stop fighting?"

He realized that he had no choice in the matter. Even if these people weren't as strong as Sirren was, they were still quite a bit stronger than he was. And he was alone and vastly outnumbered. He nodded.

At another command from Sirren, the assailant behind released his arms. Rubbing his arms, he turned around. He was surprised to see that it had been a woman who had all but torn his arms out of their sockets. She was dressed in green, just like the man was. Though she filled out her uniform in ways that the man didn't. So it really had been her breasts that he had felt against his back.

Sirren was standing right behind her. "Go with these two. They are with Security. They will make sure that you get something to eat, and then will show you to your quarters. You are to wait there for me. Understand?"

He nodded. "Yes, Sirren." Then, realizing that he was completely naked, he added, "Could I have my clothes back? Please, Sirren?" He didn't mind being naked in Sirren's presence, he was used to that, but he felt embarrassed in front of the other two.

"They will provide you with some clothes." She then barked out further orders to the two green-clad people, who bowed in response. Then the man walked up to one of the walls and somehow opened a panel in it, above the bunk. He pulled out some pieces of white cloth. Walking back, he held them out for Carlos. The look in his eyes showed that he hadn't forgotten about the punch in the mouth. Nor, apparently, had he forgiven Carlos.

Taking them, he saw that it was a tee shirt and a pair of shorts, the same style as what the man was wearing, just a different color. He quickly put them on.

He went with the two green-clad people to a messhall. They kept him apart from the other people, and sat him down on either side of him as they ate. The food was rather bland. The company was even blander, apparently these two people did not speak any English. Nor apparently did they speak Spanish, when he tried using that language.

After eating, they showed him to another room. This room wasn't much different from the previous one he had been in. The man showed him how to operate the latching mechanism on the panels above the bunk. When he started to show Carlos how to operate the facilities in the bathroom, Carlos nodded and signaled that he already had figured them out.

They did not show him how to operate the latch on the outside door, before they left.

Alone, he sat down on the bunk, wondering what he was going to do. And what Sirren was going to do with him.

It was obvious that he was not going to get back to Earth on his own, even if he could get out of this room. It was clear from the easy way that the woman in green had handled him that even if she wasn't as strong as Sirren was, she was still quite a bit stronger than he was. He didn't know how many people were on this spaceship, nor how many of them were even stronger, like Sirren was.

And why had she brought him here, in the first place? If he was going to be some kind of security risk that they had to keep under lock and key, then why bring him along in the first place? Or was he some kind of hostage? But he wasn't that important a person, what could she possibly hope to get in the way of a ransom?

I swung around the moon and approached the blue globe that was Earth, looking so different from the way Tetra did from space. I had already decided to first return home, instead of going to Mexico. Sharon had assured me that when I returned home that I wouldn't have been gone too long. Still, she didn't know exactly how long that would be. It could be seconds, or it could be days, even weeks. Karen had been about a month our time, but for her it had been about eight months. Isn't relativity wonderful?

I just didn't know just how long I've been gone. For all I knew, the 'Dark Supergirl' could be anywhere in Mexico or Central America by now. Or in Texas, or anywhere else in the States. Maybe anywhere in the world, for that matter. Isn't relativity just wonderful?

I entered the atmosphere over the South Pacific, just east of New Zealand. I headed northeast, towards the Pacific coast of Mexico. I started slowing down before I crossed Baja. About an hour later I descended through the clear cloudless Colorado sky and landed on the balcony outside our bedroom.

There was nobody home. Looking at the clock, it was just after noon. Probably a workday, judging from the cars not parked on the driveways around here. I was too lazy to turn on the TV or a computer to get the latest news. Instead, I stripped off my uniform and headed for the bathroom for a quick shower. It really was good to be back home.

Well, I had intended to take a quick shower. But I ended up by using up all of the hot water, staying in there until the water turned cold. It felt so good! It really was good to be back home.

I used the two mirrors in the bathroom and dried myself off with my heat vision and then dressed, putting on a dark blue blouse and a denim miniskirt. Then I remembered that I had left my car at the office. Unless my darling husband had had enough time to bring it home for me. No, a quick peek into the garage showed that my car was not there.

That meant that I had to take another way there. I opted for the fast way. Going out onto the balcony, I flew out to the labs, quick enough so as not be easily visible, but slow enough to not damage my clothes in the process. I landed behind some trees to the side of the building. Turning the corner, I walked in. Everything looked normal.

Almost.

The receptionist's jaw dropped open and she almost dropped the phone as I walked in. She tried to say something, but no words came out.

"Where's Joan?" I asked her. I didn't ask for Mom, that doesn't sound very professional.

"In, in the m-main c-conference room, J-j-ulie," she managed to stammer out, not taking her eyes off of me for a second.

"Thanks." I went down the hall to the main conference room, somewhat puzzled at the receptionist's reactions. She'd been with us long enough, she's seen me show up for work at odd hours before, this wasn't anything new.

Even without using my Velorian hearing, I could hear the murmur of voices from within even before I opened the door.

I saw all of the department heads there. As I walked in, heads turned in my direction and all of the talking stopped. "Don't let me stop your discussion. Unless you were discussing me behind my back, that is."

Mom jumped out of her chair and all but leaped across the room, throwing herself into my arms and wrapping her arms around me. "Oh, my little one. We were all so worried about you." She gave me what might have been the hardest hug she'd ever given me.

Karen was right behind her, putting her arms around both of us. "Don't you ever do that to us again, Julie."

Huh? Do what? What did I do?

The slower Terrans weren't too far behind her as they all stood up and gathered around me. Everybody was talking at once. Finally Mom made herself heard over the noise. "This meeting is adjourned." That announcement was met with a chorus of enthusiastic cheers. More than usual at the end of a meeting, no matter how long and boring the meeting had been.

I managed to untangle myself from the crowd without hurting anyone. People began filing out, shaking my hand or giving me a hug on the way out. "I'm glad you're back," Karen said, giving me a hard hug of her own. "Now I don't have to face the 'Dark Supergirl' by myself." She kissed me before letting me go.

Her mention of the 'Dark Supergirl' immediately brought my mind back to the business at hand. When Mom and Steve were the only ones left in the room, I turned to them and asked, "So, what did I miss? What did I do wrong?"

"Why don't you tell us where you've been for the past two weeks?" Steve asked.

"Two weeks?" Had it been that long? "Have I really been gone for two weeks?"

"Yes, where have you been, my little one?" Mom asked. "You had us all worried."

I was outvoted. I had to tell my story first. But first things first. "What was that meeting all about?"

"Oh, nothing important, now," Steve said, taking me in his arms and smothering me against his broad chest. "We were discussing contingency plans. We thought that you were dead."

"What? Me, dead?" I disengaged myself from Steve's hug. Mom immediately hugged me again. Even harder than she had the first time.

"We really thought that you were dead." Tears began flowing from her eyes. But they were tears of joy. "When Nancy called in, and said that you hadn't reported in, we all feared the worst."

"Nancy! How is she? And Ted? Are they still out there? Is the 'Dark Supergirl' still out there?"

I got to hear their story first anyway. We walked over to Mom's office, my arms around each of my parents as they each also had an arm around me. The first thing Mom did when we got there, after wiping away the tears with her handkerchief, was to call someone to tell them to call Nancy and Ted to tell them to come home. Then she placed another call, and handed me the phone. "I think there's somebody else that needs to hear that you're home."

I heard my darling husband answer the phone. I had just started talking when he asked me where I was. When I told him that I was in Mom's office, he told me to stay right here and that he would be right over.

Steve made sure that we had plenty of hot chocolate for all three of us. Then he sat down in the big chair and practically took both of us into his lap. Mom and Steve then took turns telling me what had happened here on Earth while I was gone.

No wonder Karen had been afraid of having to face the 'Dark Supergirl' by herself. When I had failed to check in, they had given me another twenty-four hours. When I still hadn't checked in, they had started fearing the worst.

When an ATM near Veracruz was broken into, the same way as all those ATMs in Texas, they really feared the worst. The 'Dark Supergirl' was still on the loose, and I still hadn't reported in. In short, they were afraid that I had found and fought the 'Dark Supergirl' and that she had somehow killed me. If that Warrior Prime could kill a Velorian, what chance did a half Prime stand against her?

But fortunately, that ATM was the only sign they had seen that there was an Arion Warrior Prime on the loose. She hadn't done anything else. No other ATMs. No battles with any army. No cars thrown at buses.

Though the Mexican government had tried to keep quiet the defeat suffered by their battalion against the 'Dark Supergirl', the word had begun to get out. So far it was all vague unconfirmed rumors. But we knew that the media would go into a feeding frenzy once the Mexican government officially admitted the defeat.

No sooner had Mom and Steve finished the story than George displayed his impeccable timing and burst into the room. He immediately ran over to me. Even before I could stand up he picked me up in his arms and covered my mouth with his. For perhaps the first time in our relationship, he had to let me up for air instead of the other way around.

Since we weren't sure whether Steve's lap could take the three of us, we decided to go elsewhere. We called it a day and picked up Karen and went to Mom and Steve's. Mom started trying to prepare dinner with some help from Karen, but they weren't in the mood for cooking. And I couldn't blame them. We ended up by calling out for pizza.

While we waited for the pizza to arrive my darling husband filled me in on what he had been doing the past two weeks. Mom made up a pot of hot chocolate just for me. Then we all sat down to eat.

After my first bite, I realized just how hungry I was. All I had while I was on Tetra only amounted to a snack. And there had been no food at all on that dark planetoid. I recalled that the blouse had felt a little loose when I had put it on after showering. Nothing like coming home on an empty stomach. Or rather in my case, on empty breasts. Though they weren't THAT empty, my darling husband was concentrating more on them than on the food.

My first meal back from the dead, and we had pepperoni pizza. With extra cheese. From cardboard boxes. And I don't think I ever enjoyed a meal more in my life than those slices out of those cardboard boxes. It really was good to be back home.

Now it was my turn to tell my story. But only after I fought off Karen for the last slice of the pizza.

"Wow! I had a hard time believing Karen's story. But this takes the cake!" Steve's response was the first, when I had finished. He was the one with the most experience hearing stories like this, having known about Mom's extraterrestrial origin even before I did. Both he and my darling husband had seemed more than slightly interested in my accounts of four thousand tall beautiful blonde women. Karen hadn't seemed too disinterested in those parts of the story either, as she squirmed a bit in her chair. And I had seen Mom's eyes misting over during parts of the story, thinking about my mother, I was sure. She really got misty eyed when I got to the part about Sharon and our nonverbal communication. Even I felt some of the warmth of that encounter returning as I told the story.

Everyone gave me a big hug, telling me how happy he or she was that I was okay and back home. The family hug began to turn into a family grope session. Soon we were all on the living room carpet with our clothes off. I sure hope somebody remembered to close the shades, I certainly didn't. I would hate to think that the neighbors could see what we were doing. As it was, they could probably hear what we were doing.

We've never had a family orgy like this. This was SO cool! They all showed me just how happy they were to have me back home. And I showed them just how happy I was to be back home. By morning our living room almost looked like a war zone. The couch and easy chair had been knocked over and shoved against the walls. But nothing was broken, which was amazing. Really amazing, considering that we had a Velorian, a Prime, an enhanced Beta, and two enhanced Terrans. All of whom enjoyed very athletic and physical, almost rough, sex. And we all had good reason to be very physical.

As cool as my adventure on Tetra had been, I was really happy to be back home. Home with the people whom I loved, people who loved me. Home, back on Earth.

Yes, this Earth that was mine to Protect to the best of my ability. Just as Xara and Sharon and Kara were Protecting their Earth.

In the morning, I went in to the office. I walked around shaking hands and exchanging hugs with everyone. Having saved it for the last, I walked over to the electronics labs.

Mike and Rob double-teamed me, as usual. "We heard you were back." "I never believed that you were dead." I hugged them back, putting my arms around their waists and lifting them both completely off of their feet as I spun them around.

"You think Karen would let you guys have a few hours off?" I asked, whispering.

"I'm sure she would, if you asked her," Mike whispered back. Rob nodded.

I did. She did. I carried the two guys to one of the sleeping rooms. Not that we were planning on doing any sleeping. I let them undress me before I undressed them. Tossing them onto the bed, I leaped on top of them, forcing a nipple into each mouth. As they eagerly suckled, I slid an arm under each of them and floated up into the air, holding them to me as they continued to suckle.

I then rolled over in midair, spinning them completely around, before lowering myself back down to the bed, on my back, with them on top of me. Their mouths and their hands never left my breasts during the entire maneuver.

Then I let them welcome me home in the best way. It really was good to be back home.

During the day I even spoke on the phone with Nancy and Ted, who were wrapping things up in Mexico and preparing to fly home. Everyone was so glad to see that I was okay and that I was back home. It made me so happy to know that these people cared for me. I was home, back on Earth.

Yes, this Earth that was mine to Protect to the best of my ability.

Karen pretended to be a little jealous of the homecoming that I got. "I was gone a lot longer than Julie was," she complained that evening as we all got together for dinner.

"You're only a half Prime," I said, smiling at her as I saw through her act.

"You're only an adopted cousin, not a daughter," Steve said, before Mom shushed him. After all, I'm only adopted too; Mom's not my real mother, and we all knew that.

Then Mom joined in on the fray herself. "I've only known you for a couple of years. I've known Julie all of her life." My darling husband was the only one who didn't join in.

"Well, if that's the way you all feel about me," she stood up, trying to sniff.

I flew out of my chair and caught her before she could take two steps. We had to convince her that we really did care about her, that she was just as big a part of our family as anybody else was. Fortunately, a second and a third helping of chocolate ice cream went a long way towards convincing her of that, even if it had all been an act on her part in the first place.

I thought about threatening to spank her, but I decided that it wouldn't be a very good threat. It just might encourage her to do more stuff like that.

The next day Nancy and Ted came back. They were really glad to see me. I was glad to see them as well; they had practically been in the middle of that situation down near Veracruz. They told us what they had discovered about the battle down there with the Mexican army, and what they had seen of the site of my battle with the 'Dark Supergirl'.

Strangely, there was no further sign of any Arion activity. Mom thought that if the Arions believed that I was dead, then they'd just step up their activities. Instead, there was nothing.

I thought that that worried Mom more than if the Arions had just carried on as they had. She was afraid that now with their Velorian opposition out of the way, they would just simply try to walk in and take over. It was as if they were pausing to catch their breath before the big effort.

It wasn't that I was actually looking forward to going up against more Warriors Prime; the 'Dark Supergirl' had kicked my ass pretty well the last time that we had met. But I wasn't about to let the Arions have free rein on this world.

Not on my world.

Word of Sirren's accomplishment had quickly spread throughout the crew of the ship.

She had not only survived two encounters with the Velorian Planetary Protector, three if one counted that first one in the drop shuttle, but she had actually done more than merely survive. Stars! She had done much more than merely survived the encounters.

In fact, it had been the Velorian bitch who hadn't survived the last encounter.

Yes, she had done it. Yes, she had accomplished the near impossible.

She had done it! Sirren had killed the Velorian Planetary Protector! She, Senior Lieutenant Sirren, had done it! With her bare hands!

However, she was glad to be back on the ship, and off of the planet. She liked it better here; it was more comfortable. She also liked the treatment she had been receiving since her return. She had received a true hero's welcome. Or rather, a heroine's welcome. She had received another commendation from the Colonel, this one complete with a medal. She'd received a place at the Colonel's table in the mess hall, next to the second-in-command, the beautiful but coldly emotionless Ice Queen.

The Betas treated her with respect. With even more respect than they had usually shown her and the other Primes before. Almost with awe.

The other Primes also treated her with more respect. Not as one of the youngest Primes, but as a veteran Warrior Prime. After all, none of the others could boast of having done what she had done. Most of them hadn't even encountered a Velorian Planetary Protector.

She knew that she could have had any man she wanted. The male Primes were all but lining up for her. Any of them would be more than happy to bed the woman who had killed the Velorian bitch. All she would have to do would be to request his presence in her quarters, and he would be there. Even the Colonel wouldn't have refused her. But she was perfectly happy with the one man she invited.

She also knew that any of the male Betas were hers for the asking. Or for the taking, without bothering to ask. It was clear in their eyes, they would be more than happy to be the bedmate of the woman who had killed the Velorian bitch. Though it was also clear that they hoped that she would be gentler with them than she had been with the Velorian. Much, much, gentler.

She especially liked the way the captain had been treating her. Even though she didn't match him in rank, he was willing to do anything that she asked of him. And she did ask quite a bit of him.

It felt so good to be able to hold somebody tight, much tighter than she'd held anybody while she was down on the planet. And it felt so good to have somebody hold her tight, much tighter than anybody had held her while she was down there. To do things to her that Carlos never could.

And as for Carlos. Well, he had been a nice change of pace. She had gotten quite accustomed to his light feathery caresses in the time she had been down on the planet. But he was just a mere Terran. He wasn't a real man, not like the captain. She'd had to hold herself back so much to avoid killing him, so much so that it just wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been.

Maybe one of the Beta women would like to have him. Perhaps the drop shuttle pilot. She just might have to ask around.

And even if nobody wanted him, nobody would refuse the gift, if she chose to make one out of him. People wouldn't be refusing her much of anything right now, not after what she had done.

Yes, she had done it. Yes, she had accomplished the near impossible.

She had done it! Sirren had killed the Velorian Planetary Protector! She, Senior Lieutenant Sirren, had done it! With her bare hands!

Now though, it was time to enjoy one of the benefits. She lay on her back on his bed, while the captain fondled and suckled her breasts. It was so unlike Carlos' light feathery caresses, as his fingers kneaded her soft breasts with enough force to crush steel.

Wanting more, she tried to roll him off of her, intending to get him on his back so that she could ride him. Suddenly, her wrists were pinned to the bed on each side of her head. Even with the lights off, she could see him grinning down at her. "You're not with the Protector now," he whispered. "Now, you have to deal with me."

She tried to escape from his hold. But he was too big, too strong, too experienced. Using his knees, he quickly forced her legs apart. She was unable to prevent his huge throbbing cock from separating her lower lips and penetrating her. Not that she really wanted to prevent it, she wanted it as much as he did.

As he began his powerful thrusting, he released her wrists. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight, much tighter than when she had crushed those Terran men, enjoying the feel of her breasts being flattened against his hard muscular chest. But even when she wrapped her legs around him, he continued his rhythmic thrusting.

After their mutual orgasms, she rolled him off of her and onto his back. This time, he didn't resist her. Not that he would have been able to; her strength had increased with her orgasm. She ravished his broad muscular chest, putting enough force into her tongue to have easily crushed Carlos' fragile Terran chest. The captain just moaned with pleasure. Then she mounted him and rode him, much harder than she had ever ridden Carlos.

Mom and I went through a lot of hot chocolate in the first week of my return. I had a lot to talk about, not the least of which was my first meeting with other Velorians. She made me go into more detail about my first intimate meeting with another Velorian.

Of course, sex wasn't the only thing we talked about; we still had an Arion problem on our hands. And, unlike on Tetra, it didn't look as if a few thousand Velorians were going to pop through a wormhole to come to our aid. I probably would have settled for just Sharon and Xara, but it didn't look as if they were coming, either.

As we had thought they would, the media went crazy when they finally broke the news about the battle down near Veracruz. Everyone had seen the 'Dark Supergirl' in Corpus Christi, but now she had tangled with a well-equipped army battalion.

So it wasn't a top-of-the-line US Army battalion. It wasn't even a top-of-the-line Mexican battalion, being only a second-line unit. But still, the Mexican army was nothing to sneer at. Unless you're an Arion Warrior Prime, apparently.

If there had been any doubt that the 'Dark Supergirl' was not a nice person, that battle had cleared that up completely. Nobody could believe that the Mexican army was the villain in this one, even if an entire infantry battalion had been facing a lone unarmed young woman.

The media again raised the subject of just who, or what, she was. They also dug up everything they already had on yours truly, the 'Blonde Supergirl'. All of the speculations started up again. Our identities, our origins, the reasons for our fight in Corpus Christi.

Of course, the media also asked why the 'Blonde Supergirl', the good one, hadn't been there at Veracruz. Of course, nobody bothered to point out that the 'Blonde Supergirl' had never been spotted outside of the good ole US of A.

"You know, I've never worked with a married man before," I told Mark as we got settled into our hotel suite. As usual, he had made me carry the heaviest of the suitcases.

"If you won't tell my wife, I won't tell your husband," he replied with a grin, the twinkle in his eyes telling me that he knew exactly what I meant by 'working'.

"You'd better not! Or I might have to get rough with you." Putting my little finger in the middle of his chest, I started pushing him across the room. I pushed him all the way out of the room and into the bedroom. Finally the backs of his legs hit the bed and I pushed him down the rest of the way, still not using anything more than my little finger. It didn't take me long to get his clothes off. Mine quickly joined the pile on the floor.

When I put my little finger back in the middle of his chest, he started struggling to get free. First, he put both of his hands on my arm and tried to push it aside. I kept my arm perfectly rigid and still as I sat on the bed, smiling down at him.

Then I increased the pressure a little, pushing down on his chest harder than I've ever done before. I was pushing hard enough to break an ordinary man's ribs, but he kept struggling, the twinkle in his eyes telling me that it was still part of our little game.

"You've gotten lazy, with that wimp of a wife of yours," I told him. Not that Linda is a wimp, by any usual standard. She has the strength of twenty men; she's only a wimp when compared with the other women in my family.

And Mark certainly is no wimp, either. Most certainly not after his enhancement, not that he was exactly a wimp before that, either.

I relaxed the pressure a little, as I began stroking his broad muscular chest with my fingertips. Not as hard as my darling husband's chest was, but certainly not bad. Maybe even harder than Steve's was.

I knew that I wanted more of him. I threw myself on top of him, seeking out his lips with mine. I slid my arms under his body, holding him tightly against mine. I was careful not to be too rough with him, but I still felt my soft breasts flattening more than they ever would against an ordinary man's chest. "Let me know if I'm hurting you," I whispered to him, just to make sure.

"That's no harder than Linda," he whispered back.

"Oh yeah? Does she ever do this to you?" I repositioned myself, straddling him. I slid a hand down under his ass and lifted him up into me. I put my other hand between his shoulder blades and pressed his chest against my breasts. "How's that?"

"She does this to me all the time," he replied.

"Oh yeah?" I smiled at him. "Look down."

He craned his neck and looked down. He immediately wrapped his arms around my body and held me tight.

That was just about exactly what I had expected. They usually react this way the first time I take them aloft. My long legs were extended straight down, but my feet didn't reach the bed, instead hanging about six inches above it. My head was less than a foot from the ceiling.

Continuing to hold him, I flew us over to the wall and the light switch. "Kill the lights," I whispered into his ear. It only took him a couple of seconds before he loosened his hold on my body enough to reach out and flick off the switch. I then flew us back over the bed, as I started stroking myself with him.

Oh, if it had been good having him inside of me before his enhancement, it was nothing compared to how good it felt now. He was bigger and oh so much harder than he had been before. I used him to stroke myself, harder and faster than I'd ever done before, tightening my inner muscles around him to delay his release until I could attain mine.

It wasn't the same as making love with Sharon as we took turns keeping each other aloft. It wasn't necessarily any better, or any worse, just different. After all, Mark isn't exactly shaped the same as Sharon was.

After we both climaxed, I gently laid him back down on the bed and lay down next to him. "There, can she do that?" I whispered in his ear.

"You, you know she can't," he gasped out.

"Don't worry, I won't tell her I did that to you."

Linda must have kept him from getting too lazy, it wasn't long before he rolled over and attacked my large full breasts with his hands and with his mouth. And it didn't take his feathery caresses long to get me ready for him again, not that it ever takes me very long any way.

Sliding a hand under him, I lifted him up on top of me and lowered him into position. Putting my hands on his hips, I used him again, this time lying on my back with him on top of me, with his hands and his mouth continuing to work over my breasts.

Not only was this the first time I was working with him after he had gotten married, but it was the first time I was working with him since his enhancement. If he had been an enjoyable partner before, he was something else now. Much more enjoyable. I spent much of that night getting much more physical with him than I've ever gotten with him before.

Things were quiet enough on the Arion front that Mark and I were in San Diego, California, on the trail of some drug smugglers running stuff up from Tijuana, Mexico. We weren't really expecting any Arion trouble with this particular case, but after what the 'Dark Supergirl' had done in Mexico we decided that we couldn't be too careful. Besides, I needed to make up to Mark for letting him get captured by the Arions the last time that we had worked together.

Though we didn't like to talk about that one. That was the time that the Arions used an Orgone weapon on me. Under the influence of Orgone, I had attacked three Arion Warriors Prime. Not just attacked them, but I had raped them. Quite violently. More than twenty people had gotten killed as we destroyed a couple of buildings in the process. I had been caught on videotape, and the media had quickly named me 'Superbimbo' after that. It had taken me quite a while to live that one down.

Naturally, on this case we were coordinating things with the Mexican authorities. They were understandably nervous about having me around, remembering what the 'Dark Supergirl' had done to a battalion of their army. But they also realized that if they were going to run up against her again, that they'd rather have me nearby and on their side.

I can't say that I was exactly looking forward to meeting with the 'Dark Supergirl' again. I didn't have to try too hard to remember the pain that she had caused me the last time we had met. But on Tetra I had seen what the Arions were capable of doing, and I wasn't about to let them get away with that kind of shit here on my world. And besides, I had a score or two to settle with that bitch.

The case turned out to be pretty routine. Not a hint of an Arion. Just a completely homegrown operation. Including the drugs. Just some Mexican pot, not even any coke or heroin, not even crack.

I did get to have a little fun on the case, though. Outside of being in the bedroom with Mark, that is.

We caught up to the gang on a ranch outside of town. Since even with his recent enhancement, Mark wasn't bulletproof, I left him with the people from the DEA to watch the roads leading out, while I went on in alone.

And it was a good thing I did. These people were armed to the teeth. And they obviously hadn't heard about me, or about the 'Dark Supergirl'. They really thought that they could bring me down with their puny weapons.

I let them shoot at me for a while with their rifles and their machine guns. I just danced around in front of them, letting them completely shred my outer clothes and leaving me in just my little uniform. Then I started to move in on them.

I was really glad that I had left Mark behind when they brought out the rocket launchers. I had no idea where a bunch of two-bit thugs like these guys got their hands on stuff like that, but they had them, and they would have made a mess of Mark and the DEA guys.

The first anti-tank rocket caught me by surprise, hitting me in the side and knocking me down. But then, I turned the tables on them and caught them by surprise when I got up, dusting myself off and looking around to see what had just hit me.

I was thinking about taking out the launcher the easy way, with a blast of my heat vision, when I saw the second rocket. It was coming towards me from another launcher, about a hundred feet to the right of the first one.

Taking a step to my left, I reached out with my right hand and caught the rocket as it was going by. I was about to throw it right back at the launcher, when I realized that doing so would kill those men. So instead, I threw it at a spot right between the two groups of men. The geyser of dirt that erupted sent the members of both of the rocket teams diving for cover.

The rest was sort of anticlimactic. It wasn't much of a fight after that. Not that it had really been that much of a fight up until then, either. Certainly nothing like my last fight, back on Tetra. Here, I was facing mere Terrans, not Arion Primes.

In fact, the hardest part was remembering to keep my strength in check, not hurting these thugs any more than I absolutely had to in order to subdue and capture them, and not killing them outright. I was very careful to tap them very lightly on their heads as I waded into them, knocking them out instead of completely taking their heads off of their bodies or crushing their fragile skulls.

Using their belts and strips that I tore off of their clothes, I tied them all up. I then went back to get Mark and the others.

The men were suitably impressed with the results. They all knew of me, though Mark was the only one to have worked with me before. They were more than a little surprised at the amount of firepower these thugs had had. And they were more than impressed when I told them that one of the anti-tank rockets had actually hit me.

But they were also professional enough to go about their work, rounding up the thugs and hauling them off, instead of spending their time gawking at me in my tiny blue and red uniform. At least not too much.

"You caught the rocket? And you threw it back at them?"

Mark had driven us back to our hotel, while I was describing the rest of the action in more detail. "Well, not really. I threw it between them."

"That must have been something to see. That, and the rest of the fight. But I wonder where they got them from? That's not exactly the kind of stuff you can pick up at your local Army Surplus store."

He genuinely seemed interested in where the rocket launchers came from, sitting down at the table and spouting all sorts of ideas and jotting down names of people to call.

But I wasn't that interested in the subject. I had something much more interesting in mind. I got up and walked around, standing behind him. I cleared my throat. He finished his list and reached for the phone. "Mark?"

"Yes, Julie?" He didn't even bother to look up, as he started dialing.

"You still remember how I get after a good fight?"

He put the phone down, turned around, and looked up. "How can I forget?" His eyes were twinkling up a storm as he smiled. I guessed that there was something more interesting to him than rocket launchers.

I held my arms out towards him. "Then don't make me come get you." He immediately got up out of his chair and leaped into my arms. I didn't bother with taking a step back to cushion the impact, knowing that his enhanced body could take it. We stopped talking as I carried him to the bed, laying him down on it and quickly undressing him. Slipping out of my own clothes, I was immediately on the bed with him.

But I didn't bother to lower myself down on him. Instead, I lifted him up to me, rubbing his broad muscular chest across my soft breasts. Separating my legs, I slid his legs between them. I lifted him up into me, using his entire body as a huge dildo, as I began stroking myself with him.

I was probably rougher on his enhanced body than I had been on all of those thugs put together. I didn't let him get much sleep that night. But he was a good man, he never complained.

In the morning, I took him again. And again. Maybe the second time was a little too much, we missed breakfast in our hurry to catch our flight home. But Mark never complained about that, either.

We had hoped to keep the incident out of the public eye, but the authorities weren't able to keep the thugs from talking to the media. Taken by itself, their story might have been ignored. But following on the heels of the 'Battle of the Rio Grande' and everything else, there was enough interest to keep the story alive.

They were quite emphatic in claiming that it had nothing to do with the 'Dark Supergirl'. They were adamant in maintaining that the girl who had withstood their not inconsiderable firepower and overpowered them was blonde.

All of the old offers came flooding back, along with plenty of new ones. The magazine interviews. The talk shows.

The endorsement offers. For all sorts of stuff. Clothes, cosmetics, even cars and beer. Stuff for which I could see no possible connection with me.

A manufacturer of power tools wanted to build an entire marketing campaign around me. It was kind of cute, actually. He wanted to say that he had the second-most powerful line of power tools on the planet.

Playboy renewed their offer to have me pose for them. Penthouse wanted me to pose with the 'Dark Supergirl'. Yeah, right! As if I would ever pose with an Arion Warrior Prime who was trying to conquer my planet.

At least Sports Illustrated would have been satisfied to have the two of us dressed for their pictorial. They wanted to feature the two of us in their next swimsuit issue.

A boxing promoter wanted to get the two of us into the ring. Together. I didn't think that he quite understood the situation. If, or rather, when, the two of us fought again, the action would not be confined to someplace as small as a boxing ring. And any spectators would be much more likely to get hurt than either of us would be.

A couple of NFL teams sent out feelers. After all, a team of ordinary Terran males wouldn't stand a chance against a team with even one Supremis female on it. There would be no way that a team could keep me from scoring at will, nor would there be any way that anybody could score on me.

If there hadn't been a war going on, albeit a war that most people still didn't believe existed, it would have been tempting. Steve and I could have been the first father-daughter combination in league history to win Super Bowl rings.

Karen joked about trying out for the Broncos. At least, I thought that she was just joking. I didn't think that she really wanted to advertise her whereabouts to the Arion invasion force.

In fact, Karen was a little jealous of all the attention that the 'Blonde Supergirl' and the 'Dark Supergirl' were getting. I told her that I was perfectly willing to trade places with her, if she wanted to go and take on the 'Dark Supergirl' herself. That got her to shut up, at least for a couple of days.

Of course, I didn't respond to any of the offers. I wasn't about to let the 'Dark Supergirl' know where I was if she wasn't going to let me know where she was.

We had absolutely no idea where she was. She could have been anywhere on Earth by now. Even worse, we didn't know whether there were more Warriors Prime on the loose out there somewhere.

But it was tough, ignoring all of the requests for personal appearances. Especially the ones from the charity organizations that wanted Supergirl to put in an appearance for their benefit.

We thought long and hard about going public. Mom had seriously considered going public with the information about the Arion invasion when she had feared that I was dead. Without any Velorians around, the only hope for stopping the threat was to get the governments involved, though it was doubtful whether they could do anything that a Velorian couldn't.

Now that I was back, it didn't seem to be quite as big an issue. Though there would be advantages to my going public, to make sure that everybody knew that I was the good girl, and that the 'Dark Supergirl' wasn't.

We finally decided against going public, more to prevent any public panic than anything else. We certainly didn't want to repeat what happened with the Orson Welles broadcast of the War of the Worlds back in the thirties.

There was one request for a personal appearance that I couldn't refuse. This one came from the boss. No, not Mom. The big boss.

The President wanted to meet me at the White House. The Secret Service sent over a couple of guys to talk with me, wanting to know where to send the limousine and the motorcycle escort.

"Are you kidding? I don't need a limo. Why don't I just show up in the Rose Garden?" I floated about six inches above the floor to remind them that I could fly on my own.

"You can't just show up at the White House. What about the security? How are you going to get in?"

"Guys, you've got to be kidding me. I'm Supergirl. Do you think you could keep me out if I wanted to get in?" I didn't want to break anything, so I just flexed an arm. As my biceps rose, I took a little peek and saw that each of them had something that was also rising.

But they were too professional to let that affect them. "You have a point there. Very well, we'll be expecting you in the Rose Garden at nine tomorrow morning."

The next morning at nine o'clock I flew in and landed in the Rose Garden. Two Secret Service men met me there, both of them dressed in gray suits, earphones plugged in their ears, their eyes glued to my body. "Don't I need to be searched or anything like that?" I couldn't help teasing them as they started leading me towards the door.

"Ah, I don't think you're carrying any concealed weapons," one of them said, looking me over from head to toe again. I was wearing the colored Arion uniform, which fit me like a second skin, for what little of my own skin it covered. From the way he was looking at me, it may as well have been invisible.

"If half of what they told us about you is true, you don't need to carry any weapons to destroy half of Washington," the other said. He was also undressing me with his eyes, which didn't take a lot of effort in that skimpy Arion uniform.

"Just half of Washington?" I smiled at him, pirouetting to let them see my backside as well, my hair and my cape swirling around me. I knew that I really shouldn't have teased them like that, but I just couldn't resist.

They escorted me into the Oval Office. Knowing his reputation, I didn't let the President do any more than shake my hand, squeezing his hand just hard enough to tell him not to try anything more with me.

I also made sure, in a little subtle way, with the gift I gave him. I showed him a solid stainless steel sphere about the size of a tennis ball. Taking it in my hand, I gave it a little squeeze, putting the impressions of my fingers deep into the hard metal. When I gave it to him, he told me that he was going to use it as a paperweight.

I needn't have worried; he was the perfect gentleman the entire time I was his guest. Of course, the fact that we never were alone together the entire time I was there might have had something to do with that.

Hearing the door open, I looked up to see the masked man entering the bedroom. "Who are you?" I asked as I stood up. "What are you doing here?"

He didn't say a word as he walked over to me. Roughly grabbing my arm, he pulled me to him. With his other hand, he yanked open my bathrobe, revealing the skimpy clothes I had on underneath. He then forced me down onto the bed.

"Who are you?" I asked again, trying to shake him off of me. But for some reason, I couldn't. I didn't feel as if I was restrained by gold, but somehow, my Velorian powers seemed to have deserted me.

He rolled me over onto my stomach as he pulled my bathrobe off. He then rolled me onto my back and trapped my legs with his. I tried to kick him off of me, but my powers still weren't with me. With his greater mass, he was able to keep me pinned down.

I flailed at him with my arms. He caught my wrists and pinned them to the bed. Adjusting his grip so that he was holding both of my arms with one of his, he slid his free hand along my side. I thrashed about as I felt his hand on my breast, fondling my mound and pinching the nipple at its center hard enough to make it hurt.

He brought his mouth to my other breast, suckling and biting the nipple through the thin fabric of my clothes. His hand left my breast, only to settle on my naked leg. It slid up my thigh, going under my short red skirt. I continued thrashing, but he had me trapped.

What was wrong with me? What had happened to my Velorian powers?

"Who are you?" I asked again. "What are you doing to me?"

He finally spoke. But not to answer my questions. "Shut up, bitch!" He slapped my face, hard enough to make it sting.

I was powerless to resist as he removed my clothes. The top came off first, the skin-tight blue top with the big red S on the chest, the flowing red cape coming off with it. The short red skirt came off next. He sat on my stomach as he removed my red boots, leaving me as naked as the day I was born.

He continued to sit on me as he removed his own clothes, leaving just the mask on his face. Then he was on me again, a mouth at a breast while fingers tangled in my pubic hairs, before plunging into my slit. Despite myself, I felt my body responding. The rest of my Velorian powers might have deserted me, but my Velorian libido apparently was still with me and as powerful as ever.

I was powerless to stop him from inserting his big cock into my now damp slit. Even as I continued to resist him, a part of me didn't want to stop him.

I couldn't resist him. Instead of trying to push him off of me, my arms went around his body, holding him tight. My legs wrapped around his, as he kept pounding away at me.

I had to give him credit; he definitely knew what he was doing. I could feel my body climbing towards its peak as he took his pleasure from my body.

A fraction of a second after he shot his load into me, my body exploded with its orgasm.

Some of my Velorian strength must have returned to me, for my bucking body would have thrown him from the bed if not for my arms and legs around him. Yet, when I tried to push him off of my, I discovered that I still couldn't.

He was ready for me again almost immediately, much to my dismay. Yet, a part of me was delighted, he really had been good. I felt myself climbing towards another peak as he again took his pleasure from my body.

I was still gasping for air when he tried to roll off of me. But this time, my arms held him in place. "How was it? Was it good for you, too?" I finally managed to ask, whispering in his ear.

"You were great. As you always are," he whispered back, as I finally let him roll off of me and he took off his mask to reveal the face of my darling husband.

He had bought a Supergirl costume from a place he had found on the Internet. He'd told me about a fantasy he'd had back when he was still reading comic books, about somehow finding Supergirl powerless. Powerless to resist him as he used her body for his own pleasure.

"I hope I didn't make you work too hard." I had been careful not to resist too much, not even using the strength that an ordinary unenhanced Terran woman had.

"You were great," he repeated. "We may have to do this more often." His lopsided grin threatened to split his face in half.

"But not tomorrow night," I answered. I tried to make my voice sound as stern as possible. "Tomorrow, I have to teach somebody that it's not nice to go around raping defenseless girls. He's gotta be punished."

The grin on his face told me just exactly what he thought of my 'punishments'.

"We assume you have seen the recent Terran news reports. What do you make of all that, Senior Lieutenant?"

Sirren remained standing ramrod straight at attention despite the empty chair next to her; you did not sit down in the Colonel's office until he invited you to do so. Especially if you were in her current situation.

Yesterday, she might have been in a position to do so. Yesterday, she could have done just about anything she wanted to do. Yesterday, she was the hero. The victor. The slayer of the Velorian Planetary Protector.

Stars, but how things could change in just one day!

The early reports had been nice. She had gained a little notoriety, as the Terran media had named her the 'Dark Supergirl'. It had been nice, though she knew that any of the other Warriors Prime could have done just about as well. But it had been she, Senior Lieutenant Sirren, who had done it.

She was the one who had battled the Velorian bitch in Corpus Christi. She was the one who had defeated the army unit in Mexico.

And it had been she, Senior Lieutenant Sirren, who had defeated and killed the Velorian bitch in single combat.

As soon as she had seen the latest reports, she had known that she would be called in here. And she had known that this visit would not be like the previous one, when she had received a personal commendation from the Colonel for her service down on the planet. No, by the Stars, this would be a completely different kind of visit.

The latest reports from the planet had revealed that the Velorian bitch wasn't dead. Far from it.

"Well, Senior Lieutenant?"

Sirren looked over at the person who had asked the question. There was no trace of emotion. The face was completely unreadable. "No wonder we all call her the Ice Queen," Sirren thought to herself. "I am not certain, Major. I had believed that I had killed the Velorian."

"But she obviously is not dead, is she?" Her tone sounded as if she was asking a first year cadet whether she had cleaned her room that morning.

"No, Major. She is not dead. Unless...."

"Yes, Lieutenant?"

"I was just thinking, Major. What if this is an attempt to cover up her death? To make us believe that she is still alive? To keep us from changing our tactics?"

"Ah, what the Terrans call a 'publicity stunt'?"

"Exactly, Major."

"We had considered that possibility, knowing the deviousness of these Terrans. However, our agents have reported seeing her do things that only a Velorian can do. Actually doing them, not simulated with their 'special effects' as in their crude Hollywood movies."

She thought about another possibility. "Could there possibly have been two Planetary Protectors stationed here on this planet?" This possibility was even worse than the possibility that she had in fact not killed the bitch. "Major," she added the title belatedly.

"We had considered that possibility also, Lieutenant."

"At ease, Lieutenant." The Colonel spoke to her for the first time during this interview. Up until this time, he had been sitting motionless in his chair, his feet propped up on his desk. Now, he lowered his feet to the floor. Sirren relaxed her posture slightly. "We are not doubting the veracity of your report. From the evidence that we have seen, we all came to the same conclusion. We are not going to take away your medal, nor are we going to take away your promotion."

That was a relief. "Thank you, Sir."

"In fact, Senior Lieutenant, since you're the only one to have survived an encounter with the Velorian bitch, let alone twice, you are still very valuable to us. We have a special assignment for you."

She wasn't sure what kind of assignment this special assignment would be, but she knew that she was in no position to decline it. "Yes, Sir."

"We are sending down a combat team to take out that Velorian bitch, once and for all. All hand-picked Warriors Prime. As our most experienced and successful Warrior Prime, we would like you to take charge of the team."

Stars! Just because she'd already fought the bitch, twice, they were going to send her down to do it again. But, she thought, it was better than the alternative. Everyone else who had run across the bitch had been killed.

And this assignment was just going to put her next in line to be killed.

Though she wouldn't have to face the bitch alone this time. She'd have the rest of the squad to back her up. Let them do the fighting. And the dying. And if they succeeded in killing the bitch, as the squad leader, she would still get the credit.

Stars, this would be her first command! She hoped to the Stars that it wouldn't also be her last command.

She wouldn't let her face betray her doubts. She gave the only answer that she could give as a Warrior Prime. "Yes, Sir. I will do my best."

"Have a seat, Lieutenant." The Colonel waved a hand towards the empty chair.

"Thank you, Sir." She sat down. Not that it was much more comfortable, sitting with her back rigid, inches away from the hard straight back of the chair.

"Major, if you please." This time, the Colonel waved his hand towards the Major.

"Of course, Colonel." The Major stood up and walked over to the wall-mounted display screen. As she pushed a few buttons on the keypad beside it, the screen shimmered momentarily, before stabilizing and settling, displaying four faces. "These will be your squad members. Here are their files, along with everything else in this briefing." She handed Sirren a computer memory crystal.

Putting the crystal away in a pouch in her uniform, Sirren studied the images on the wall. Two men and two women. All four of them appeared to be older than she was. She didn't know any of them. Well, she had their files, and there would be time for her to get to know them a little better before going down to the planet.

The Major continued on with the briefing. "In addition, you will have four Betas attached to you." Four male faces came up on the screen. "They will handle communications, logistics, all of the incidental work, allowing you and the other Warriors Prime to concentrate on the primary mission, that of killing the Velorian bitch."

Or, of getting killed by the bitch, Sirren thought to herself. Of course, she didn't voice that thought to her superiors.

Pressing a few more keys, the Major brought up a map on the display screen. Sirren immediately recognized it as being that of the country she had been in, the one the natives called the United States. Another couple of key presses and the display zoomed in on the southeastern portion, on the peninsula known as Florida. "Now, this is where we want you and your squad to go. Once you are there, this is what you and your squad will be doing. This will be certain to attract the attention of the Protector."

Great! Just what she wanted to do, deliberately attract the Velorian bitch. However, as a Warrior Prime, she knew that it was her duty to fight the bitch if the opportunity presented itself. And it was not her place to determine how or where the opportunity would come.

She remained silent while the Major continued with the mission briefing.

"I find it curious that none of the Terran governments have mentioned us, besides acknowledging that somebody was involved in that battle near the place called Veracruz. This, despite the fact that the Velorian bitch certainly knew that you are a Warrior Prime from your earlier encounter with her. I am at a loss to explain this." If the Major was truly confused, she didn't show it on her face.

"It is almost as if the governments do not wish for the people to know the truth," the Colonel agreed with his second-in-command. "Not even the Velorian has stated anything publicly. It is almost as if she is trying to hide from us."

"I believe the Terran term is 'keeping a low profile'."

"Exactly, Lieutenant. That is why you will have to draw her out. Draw her out and engage her. And kill her. This plan should do exactly that."

Somebody was certain to die. Sirren hoped that it wouldn't be her.