"Here we are. Let's go!"
When Gwen Ingalls stopped the ambulance in front of the jewelry store, the flashing lights of the police cars were already there. Stopping in front, she and her partner quickly got the gurney out of the back and rushed inside. It was a simple matter to pick out the patient.
A policeman was talking to two men, salespeople to judge from their clothes. Another policeman was talking to a sobbing woman, apparently a customer. There was a blonde girl, lying on the floor amidst broken glass.
"What happened here?" she asked one of the policemen. He quickly filled her in on what had happened, as told by the salespeople.
Even as she listened to the explanation, she was already examining the patient. The broken glass scrunched underfoot as she carefully moved her feet. Still alive but unconscious, breath and pulse regular. She was surprised to find no traces of blood. Very unusual for somebody who had just been shot. Not even any cuts or lacerations from the glass, even though the girl's clothes had been cut to ribbons by the glass.
"Probable concussion," her partner said. "Look where her head hit."
"Nothing broken, and no blood," she replied. "She's one lucky woman. Look at all this glass, and not a single scratch."
"Okay, let's take her in, stat." They quickly but carefully put her on the gurney, strapped her in, and started wheeling her out towards the door and the ambulance beyond.
As she drove off, she didn't notice the man running after the ambulance waving his arms and shouting at her. The jewelry storeowner chased the ambulance until it was lost from sight around the corner. She had no way of knowing that the necklace she had seen around the girl's neck still belonged to the store, and not to the girl.
Once they reached Mercy Hospital, Gwen followed her patient into the emergency room to assist the doctor in any way she could. A nurse began cutting away the girl's shredded clothes while another was drawing a blood sample. The doctor immediately began his examination, talking into a microphone on a boom. "... young woman, early twenties, very fit, heart-beat steady, rate 20, unusual beat, probably valve defect, dangerously high blood pressure, 300 over 190. Patient is unconscious, alleged gunshot victim but no penetration wounds. Lead smear on right cheek and left breast, cause unknown. Initial treatment of IV with," Gwen didn't quite make out the name of the drug, it was one that she hadn't heard of before, "... for hypertensive disease indicated, probably due to heart irregularity."
He then turned to Gwen. "This isn't some kind of practical joke? She really was shot?"
"That's what the witnesses said. And she was lying in broken glass. You saw what happened to her clothes."
"But there isn't a mark on her, other than those two lead smears. Her skin's completely unbroken. No bullet wounds, no glass cuts."
"I can't explain it, Doctor."
The doctor then turned to one of the nurses. "You got a blood type yet?"
The nurse looked up from the girl's arm. "I... I can't seem to get the needle in, Doctor." She jabbed at the arm. Gwen saw the flesh dimple slightly, but the needle didn't go in. She tried again. Even from where she was, Gwen could hear the SNAP as the needle broke. "That's what happened with the first needle I tried," she said.
"This is no time for games, Nurse!"
"Doctor!"
"Oh, very well. I'm sorry. Get another needle and try again. Try the other arm if you have to."
"Yes, Doctor." She turned and walked to the table behind her for another hypodermic.
The doctor turned to the other nurse, who had finished removing the last of the girl's clothes. "Get that necklace off of her. Then you can prep her for the EEG."
"Yes, Doctor." She bent down and turned the necklace around to get to the clasp. As she unhooked it she jumped back and dropped it, as if it had bitten her.
Gwen saw a riot of blue sparks across the girl's front. They seemed to be arcing between her nipples. The shocked gasps she heard told her that she wasn't the only one seeing them.
"What the...?" the doctor started to say.
Suddenly, the girl's eyes snapped open and she slowly sat up. "Uh, what happened? Where am I?" She rubbed the back of her head with her right hand. "Uh, my head."
Kathy looked around. She had a sense of déjà vu as she recognized a hospital emergency room. A doctor, two nurses, and a paramedic, all staring at her. What am I doing waking up in a hospital, again? What happened to me this time? And why is everyone staring at me?
Looking down at herself, she saw that she was completely naked. She tried to cover herself with her hands.
"Take it easy. You've been shot," the doctor finally said. "And then you hit your head. You might have a concussion."
"Shot?" Suddenly, the memories came flooding back. The jewelry store. The necklace. The two gunmen. Being shot. Being hit. The pain. "I remember. I was hit. It hurt."
Funny, I don't feel any pain now, she thought to herself. Then, to the doctor, "How bad was I hurt?"
The doctor looked at her with a puzzled look on his face. "Hurt? You weren't hurt at all, as far as I can tell. There isn't a mark on your skin." After a pause, he added, "Though your heart does sound a little strange. And your blood pressure is way too high."
So, my skin is still bulletproof, she thought. But then, why the hell did it hurt so much? And why did I blackout like that? Did I get knocked out? But bullets never did that to me before. Why this time?
Unfortunately, there was no good way for her to ask the doctor any of those questions. He insisted on checking her into the hospital for observation, mentioning some technical stuff about her heart. He really did sound concerned about it. She really couldn't tell him that she felt fine, that she would be able to run around the block faster than an Indy racer could circle it.
Randall arrived at the hospital only minutes after Kathy settled into her bed. The Chronicle had already been notified that she would not be coming in for the rest of the day. Now he waited until the nurse had left. "You know, we really do have to stop meeting like this," he said, lightening the mood. "Every time you wake up in a hospital, I have to come see you."
"Better me than someone else. I don't want you marrying some other girl you meet in a hospital." She laughed with him.
"What were you thinking of?"
"There was a robbery, and I tried to stop it."
"Kathy, you can't stop every crime in this city."
"I know, but I couldn't just stand there and watch."
"What happened?"
"I don't know. When I put the necklace on, I felt dizzy. And when those robbers came in, I tried to act. But it just didn't work. I should have been able to jump over that display case with ease. But I tripped over it. And then one of them started shooting."
"And he hit you?"
"It hurt! I haven't felt anything like that since my changes. It knocked me down. I must have hit my head when I went down, because the next thing I knew, I was in the emergency room."
"But it didn't hurt you. The doctor said the paramedics told him you had some bruises, but they all seemed to have faded."
"But how could it have hurt so bad? And then to be knocked unconscious?"
"Do you think your powers are wearing off, or something like that? If you just hit the floor with your head, you would have shattered the floor, not your head."
"I hope not. If the bullets didn't break my skin, then my powers haven't completely disappeared."
"How do you feel now?"
"Fine." She really did feel fine. Whatever had happened to her in the jewelry store, it apparently had passed. "You got a quarter?"
He fished in his pocket and came up with a quarter, which he handed to her. She took it between her thumb and forefinger, and squeezed. She saw him staring intently as the coin began to bend, and she could hear both his breathing and his heartbeat speed up, he'd always loved her little displays of her casual strength.
She didn't have to exert too much effort in bending it in half. "Whatever it was, I think it's over. That wasn't any harder than usual." She tossed it back to him, and he caught it in mid-air, putting it back in his pocket.
"So what was it? Was it something you ate, or something like that?"
"I don't think so. It's the same stuff I usually eat. Maybe it was the necklace."
"The necklace? How can that do anything to you? It's gold, not Kryptonite."
"Does SuperFemme have any weaknesses? An allergy to gold?"
"I haven't read anything about it in the tabloids. But then, she doesn't exactly make a habit of going around telling people about herself, especially about her weaknesses."
"What happened at the store? Was anybody else hurt?"
"No. Apparently, the two thugs freaked out after the shooting. They ran out with just what they'd already grabbed. We're looking for them, but I doubt we'll catch them."
"I'm sorry, Randall. I don't know what was wrong with me. I should have been able to capture them easily."
"Hey, hey. Nobody expects you to catch every crook in the city. I'm just glad that you're okay. Anybody else that's been shot would be in much worse shape than you are." He reached forward and took her hand and squeezed it firmly. "How long do you have to stay here?"
"The doctor wants to keep me under observation overnight, even though I feel fine now. It's just a precaution, he said." She squeezed his hand back, being careful not to squeeze too hard. "I guess that means I have to break our date tonight."
"Hey, don't worry about that. You just take it easy, and I'll pick you up in the morning. I'll see you this evening, and I'll bring you some clothes." He leaned over and gave her a kiss before getting up to his feet. At the door, he turned around to face her again. "Besides, I could use the rest tonight," he smiled at her before walking out of the room.
Otis Jackson had resisted almost the entire way, after these two men had come into his office and 'requested' that he meet with their boss. Those two men had easily overpowered his four men and had all but kidnapped him. Now he was being driven up into the mountains.
Finally, he quit struggling. "Just who the fuck are you guys? Who do you work for?" he asked the man holding him.
"We represent your new suppliers," was the only answer he received.
Jackson thought about that. Earlier in the year, his supplier had retired, turning his business over to a new group. Since then, he had never met the people in charge of the new group. Now, it looked like he finally would meet them. But why did they have to kidnap him? And just where the fuck were they taking him, anyway?
And just who the fuck were these people, anyway? Two of them had easily beaten up four of his best men, and he would have put his men up against anybody. His opinion of the new group went up a notch. Whoever was bossing them around had to be good. He wondered whether he could get any of them as his own bodyguards.
Finally, the car stopped in front of a cabin besides a mountain lake. He didn't require much urging to go inside.
Once inside, he was greeted by a large man in a tee shirt and a pair of jeans. Large, and broad. The type of man he wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. A man who looked worthy of bossing men such as those who had kidnapped him.
"Ah, Mr. Jackson. We've been expecting you. The boss will see you now."
The boss? This man wasn't the boss? Jackson's opinion of this group went up another couple of notches.
"Welcome, Mr. Jackson. It's a pleasure to have you here with us. Won't you sit down?"
Jackson whirled at the new voice. A sweet, melodic voice. A feminine voice.
His jaw dropped as he saw the owner of the voice. The voice belonged to a young woman, hardly more than a girl. A beautiful girl, in a one-piece blue dress. Her feet were bare. The skirt covered very little of her long shapely legs. The front was dished low to display the ample cleavage between her breasts.
"Uh, it's my pleasure, uh, Ms, uh..."
"You may call me Veren." She gestured towards the others. "You may leave us now." Then she waved him towards some chairs besides the crackling fire. "A drink, perhaps, Mr. Jackson?"
"Uh, no thank you, Ms. Veren." He took one of the offered chairs.
"Please, it's just Veren." She waited until the others left before sitting down.
"Uh, please call me Otis, Veren."
"Very well. I have asked you here, Otis, because I am not very pleased with your distribution efforts of late. Too much of our product is not reaching the desired markets."
"Uh, yes. Neither am I. The police have stepped up their efforts recently. They have, uh, interfered with several of my big deals."
"I am not interested in your excuses, Otis. I am interested in results. And I believe that in order to obtain the results I would like, it would be best if I were to join your operations as a partner."
He sprang to his feet. "Now, look here, Veren. I don't know how you took over the importing end of the business, but I know this territory. Nobody muscles in on my territory."
Veren smiled at his phrasing. As if these pathetic Terran weaklings could 'muscle' in on anything. No, it wouldn't take much of her muscles to take over his operations. No, not much at all. "I have no intentions of 'muscling' in, as you put it, Otis, on your territory." She rose to her feet and sat down on the plush carpet in front of the fire. She slipped her dress down over her shoulder and smiled at him. "Would you like to discuss this some more, Otis? In full detail?"
Now this was more to Jackson's taste. This was his kind of negotiation. No woman had ever gotten the better of him, in any kind of a negotiation, and he wasn't about to let this girl do it. Especially in this kind of 'negotiation'. He was beside her immediately, helping her undress. He was surprised to discover that she had on an unusual blue bikini under her clothes. He also noticed her unusual perfume, it reminded him of wildflowers and honey.
Veren had to suppress a laugh as the man almost tripped over his own feet in his haste to get to her. She let him remove her outer garments, revealing her Alpha uniform underneath. Remembering to be very, very, gentle with his fragile Terran body, she then undressed him.
Jackson still couldn't get over the girl. He couldn't believe that somebody this young could be in charge of the group. And a young girl, at that.
And what a girl! Her body was absolutely flawless, her breasts standing proudly on her chest. He fondled them through her bikini, marveling at their firmness.
This was her first experience with a Terran. Even after all of her experiences with Betas, it was a novel experience for her. Veren couldn't believe how pathetically weak he was, his feathery caresses even lighter than those of her Betas were. She also discovered that she enjoyed the light caresses.
Jackson fumbled with her bikini. For some reason, he couldn't get it off of her. He couldn't even slide his fingers under it --- it was almost like it was glued to her skin.
Veren gently rolled him off of her, onto his back. Then she rolled over onto him, quickly kissing him before ravishing him, lightly running her tongue over his broad muscular chest.
Jackson felt himself being slammed onto his back. Then she was on top of him, her large breasts digging almost painfully into his chest. He tried to push her away from himself, but she simply worked her way down to his chest.
He'd never had a girl do anything like this to him before. It was almost painful, as each flick of her tongue jabbed into his chest.
Veren quickly realized that she was hurting him, even though she thought that she was being very gentle with him. Gentler than she had been with her Betas, and certainly much gentler than she'd ever had to be with Bedek. She rolled over onto her back, pulling him on top of her.
She savored his deliciously light caresses as he struggled to remove her uniform. If three Betas couldn't get it off of her, then this Terran certainly wasn't going to. She decided to tease him some more, by not doing a thing.
Jackson found himself on top of her again. Again he tried to remove her bikini top, and again he failed. He squeezed her breasts with all of his strength, but he just couldn't scoop her breasts out; that sheer material really was acting like it was glued on to her body.
Veren finally decided to let him have one breast, scooping it out of her top. He certainly can't handle both of them, she smugly thought to herself as he began to suckle ever so lightly. She cupped her other breast with her hand, holding herself very lightly, not much more than about ten times as hard as he was holding her other breast.
Jackson felt one of her hands brush his hands away. He watched in amazement as she slid her fingers under the fabric and scooped out one of her breasts. How can she do that? he thought to himself. I couldn't get my hands under it.
Then he felt her other hand on the back of his head, pulling his face down to the exposed mound and the large nipple at its center. He eagerly opened his mouth and began to suckle. He would teach this bitch! He'd have her begging for mercy. He bit down on her nipple as hard as he could.
He was amazed as she showed no signs of discomfort, let alone any signs of pain, even though he was squeezing her breast and biting her nipple as hard as he could. She was so firm; his fingers could barely dimple her smooth skin. He was amazed even further when he saw her hand caressing her other breast. She looked as if she was only stroking it lightly, yet her fingers were dimpling it much deeper than he was the other breast.
So, she's got great boobs, he thought to himself. No bitch can handle what I can dish out down there. He began working his way lower, to remove the bottom half of her bikini. He quickly discovered that he had no more success with the bottom half than he had had with the top half.
Veren felt his hands work their way down her body, until they were trying to remove the bottom half of her uniform. She amused herself by letting him struggle with that for a while. "So, Otis, I see you're as incompetent at undressing a girl as you are at running your business."
Jackson wasn't going to let any bitch talk to him like that. He slapped her breast as hard as he could with the open palm of his hand. It stung, almost like hitting a brick wall, as he felt the pain shooting up his arm.
"Mmm, I like that. Do it again," she purred at him, grinning.
He hit her again, this time with his fist, putting all of his strength into it. That only made her breast bounce a little.
"Mmm, yes. Do it some more," she purred again.
He pounded away at her breasts and her stomach. He had killed a man once with his bare fists, and he was hitting her harder than that now. Yet she was still smiling at him.
"Mmm, yes. You're beginning to get me interested," she purred again, her grin widening.
He'd wipe that grin off of her face. He punched her in the face, first with the right, and then with the left. Damn, she was still grinning up at him. He swung again.
Veren caught his fist in her hand as he swung --- he was so slow --- at her face again. She remembered to be careful not to crush his fragile hand. As his other fist came towards her face, she caught that one as well. Then she pulled him down on top of her.
She released him with her left hand, putting her arm around him as she held him on top of her. "Otis, there's only one thing I can do with someone as incompetent as you. I'm going to have to take over your business. All of it. What's that quaint phrase? Oh yes, 'lock, stock and barrel'. You're officially retired, as of now." She released his fist with her right hand, running it through her hair.
"No way, bitch! Nobody muscles in on my territory." Jackson tried to push himself off of her, and discovered that he couldn't. She was only holding him with one arm --- he could see her running her other hand through her hair --- yet that one arm felt like a steel band around him.
Indeed, that one arm was actually pulling him closer to her, despite his best efforts. He felt her breasts pressing almost painfully against his chest, making it difficult to breathe.
"So, are you ready to retire, Otis?" she asked him.
"No. Way. Bitch!" he gasped out. He pushed against her with all of his strength, but could feel no difference in her tight embrace or in the pressure against his chest.
"Ready or not, you are retiring, Otis," she told him.
As he continued to struggle, he felt the pressure increasing against his chest, driving the air out of his lungs. Finally, he could stand it no longer. "Okay," he gasped out. "What do you want? It's yours. Just let me breathe."
This is too easy, Veren thought to herself, as she relaxed her hold a little to let the man breathe. "Okay, who's your second-in-command?" When he told her, she stood up, still keeping one arm around him, and marched him over to the phone. She forced him to call his second and arrange the details for Veren's takeover of Jackson's operations. The second would keep his job, but he would now be taking his orders from Veren, not from Jackson.
"Okay, now where were we?" she smiled sweetly at him after he hung up the phone. Without waiting for his answer, she picked him up and carried him back to the rug in front of the fireplace. She could see the fear and anger in his eyes as she laid him down. He struck her again. "Mmm, yes. I like your gentle love taps."
When he tried to sit up, she put her hand in the middle of his chest and pushed him back down to the rug. As he continued to struggle, she amused herself by curling her fingers into a fist, using just one finger to hold him down. "Oh, what a man you are," she taunted him. "So big, and so strong."
Jackson put both of his hands on her arm and tried to push it aside. Yet, even using all of his strength, he discovered that he couldn't budge her arm a single inch. How could this bitch have more strength in one slender arm than he had in both of his combined?
Looking down, he realized that she was actually holding him down with a single finger. She had more strength in one finger than he had in his entire body? How was that possible? Nobody could be that strong.
Except, maybe... He tried to think. Yes, at a party. At Jasper Palomar's estate. There had been a girl there, hadn't there? Yes, but she was a blonde, wasn't she? This girl had jet-black hair.
She suddenly released him. He tried to sit up and struck his head against something. Even as he realized that he had hit her breasts with his head, she leaned forward, forcing him back down to the rug.
He felt himself suffocating, as she smothered him in the deep valley between her breasts. He tried to push her off of him, to no avail. If anything, the pressure against his face increased.
Just as he thought that he was going to black out from the lack of air, she got up off of him. But the relief was short-lived, as she rolled over onto her back. He barely had time to gulp down a lungful of air before it was driven out again as she pulled him on top of her, his chest landing on her breasts.
He had no more success trying to push himself off of her than he'd had trying to push her off of him, as she held him tighter and tighter. "We were discussing your retirement, weren't we, Otis?" she said sweetly. "I believe it should be a permanent retirement, don't you?" She increased the pressure, until he was convinced that his ribs were beginning to bend inwards from the pressure exerted by her incredibly firm breasts.
How can a girl's breasts be that hard? he asked himself. Again, he remembered the blonde at Palomar's party. At the time, he hadn't actually believed his own eyes. But that girl had apparently bounced bullets off of her almost naked chest.
That was the last coherent thought he had, as his fragile calcium ribs finally succumbed to the pressure exerted by the girl's softest flesh, breaking with audible SNAPs. His spine and shoulder blades quickly followed, driven by her powerful arms against her twin battering rams.
Not hearing anything, Kathy opened the door and went into the cabin. She checked the other rooms. There didn't seem to be anybody here. The remains of the fire in the fireplace were still warm.
Randall saw Kathy go inside. Then she stuck her head out of a low window, her long golden hair actually brushing the ground. He saw that she had removed her shirt, revealing the stars-and-stripes bikini top she had on underneath. "Nobody in here, Randall. Come on in."
The two of them were working point. Henry Miller, Randall's partner, was back further down the valley with the rest of the team, as they were checking out the suspected hideout of a group of drug dealers.
Randall followed her inside, looking around cautiously. Then he saw the body behind the couch. He walked around the couch and looked down at the body. Holstering his gun, he turned it over. "God! What happened to him?" It was the body of a tall black man, naked. His chest was completely crushed, broken ribs poking up out of his chest. His blood stained the carpet.
He looked at the face. Even though it was contorted in pain, there was no mistaking it. "Jackson! This is Otis Jackson, the drug dealer we've been after for a long time. We've never been able to pin anything on him. And it's still pretty fresh. I'd say in the last twenty-four hours."
"What did this to him? Did a bear break in here or something?"
"No, it can't be a bear. A bear wouldn't have been this neat." He pointed to the undisturbed furniture. He took a good look at the crushed chest. From the location of the damage, could it have been...? "Uh, Kathy, do you know of anybody else like you?"
"Huh? You mean, with my muscles and all that?"
"Exactly."
"Well, there's SuperFemme, but I've never really met her. I'm sure I saw her in that fight in the Physics building, fighting those two men. I don't know of anybody else like me, but I don't go around advertising it, so there could be others. But why? What does that have to do with anything?"
"Look at how his chest is crushed. What would happen if you took a man in your arms and hugged him. Real hard, I mean?"
Kathy looked at the body on the floor again. Yes, if she hugged somebody hard, her breasts would be right about there. And her breasts could cause that kind of damage to a man, with her powerful arms driving his body against them.
She stepped back. "No! You're not saying I did it, are you? I didn't do it. You know I didn't."
He put out his hands. "Calm down. I didn't say you did. But a woman like you could."
"But who? SuperFemme?"
"No, I don't think so. She tries to avoid killing, even scum like Jackson. Except for the Arions, she shows them no mercy. This doesn't look like SuperFemme's style. But an Arion woman..."
"You think an Arion did this?"
Just then, they heard an explosion outside. Randall instinctively hit the deck, whipping his gun around. Kathy jumped, banging her head on the ceiling and cracking a wooden beam. "What the hell was that?" he asked, as she landed practically on top of him.
Regaining her balance, she ran to the door and looked out. Down towards the lake, there was a column of oily black smoke rising towards the sky. She quickly ran in that direction. After a second of hesitation, he followed after her. But even with all of his superhuman speed, he quickly lost sight of her in the trees.
As she emerged from the trees, Kathy noticed that the car was not where Randall had parked it. Instead, it was on the rocks by the lake. It was turned over on its top. And it was burning.
As she was wondering how the car got that way, she saw a blur coming at her. She was just able to brace herself, flexing her legs to generate her stay-put power. Even though she was fully braced, the impact sent her flying backward into a tree. The tree trunk snapped as she hit, not doing much to cushion her impact against the ground.
She was surprised to find herself flat on her butt, with most of a pine tree on top of her. She couldn't recall ever having been hit that hard. Randall's best hits were nothing compared to what she had just received. She had stopped cars and bullets with her body, and they'd never sent her flying like that.
Grasping the tree trunk with her left hand, she flung it aside and got back up to her feet.
"You're tougher than you look, Terran," a deep bass voice called out.
Looking through the foliage, she saw a large man standing over her, dressed in a tee shirt and a pair of jeans. He wasn't as tall as Randall was, but he was much broader. Like Randall, he had jet-black hair and deep blue eyes. Oh, hell! she thought to herself. This must be one of those Arions SuperFemme keeps tangling with. What the hell am I doing with one? And what the hell is he going to do with me?
As she got back up to her feet, he ripped another tree out of the ground and hurled it at her. The tree struck her and knocked her back down to the ground. She hurled the tree aside and sprang up to her feet and charged straight at the man.
That probably wasn't the smartest thing she'd ever done. He cocked a fist and drove it at her head. She managed to raise a hand just in time to block it. All that did was to cause the back of her hand, instead of his fist, to hit her head. The blow stopped her dead in her tracks.
She managed to strike back. But she was too used to fighting against ordinary people --- she pulled her early punches. While they were still harder than anything a heavyweight boxer could throw, they had absolutely no effect on the man.
She quickly realized that she didn't need to hold back a thing. In fact, it was going to take everything she had if she was just going to survive this fight.
Randall came out of the trees just in time to see Kathy toss a pine tree off of her and get up to her feet. She charged the man, and grappled with him. He saw the man who must have thrown the tree at her, and immediately realized that he must be one of those Arions that SuperFemme often fought.
As he watched the fight, he knew that as much as he wanted to help, there was absolutely nothing he could do. The man was in Kathy's strength class. Any one of the blows that the two of them exchanged --- shrugging them off as if they were nothing more than love taps --- would have crushed his body completely. Even from where he stood, he could still hear the impacts of their fists on each other's bodies.
"So, what do we have here? A Beta?" This was a new voice, soft and feminine, yet at the same time somehow sounding harsh, coming from the direction of the lake.
He whirled and crouched, bringing his gun up. He saw the girl. She was standing between two of the large boulders along the lakeshore. She was wearing a thin blue g-string and nothing else, her lustrous black hair and her hands not quite covering her breasts.
"Hold it right there!" he managed after a brief hesitation. "You're under arrest!"
She was laughing as she walked towards him. "Oh, really, little Beta. Arrest? What a delightful little joke. What are you going to do, shoot me with that little toy of yours?"
"I'm warning you. Hold it right there."
She continued walking towards him, a smile on her lips, as he tried to keep his gun steady. His aim wasn't as steady as her jiggling breasts, however.
He looked over towards Kathy. He could expect no help from her --- she was still fighting the man. He looked back at the girl. She had stopped about ten feet from him, with her hands on her hips. Her hair was thrown back over one shoulder, exposing one creamy breast.
He knew that she had to be an Arion, just like the man Kathy was fighting. He knew that she was dangerous. But he could not bring himself to shoot a woman --- he had never shot at a woman before. And, if what he had read in the tabloids was true, bullets probably wouldn't bother this girl any more than they bothered Kathy.
As he tried force himself to squeeze the trigger, she started walking towards him again. She reached out for his gun, grasping it between her thumb and a finger. He felt the pain in his hands as she casually ripped it out of his two-handed grasp.
"You didn't really expect to hurt me with this little toy, did you, little Beta?" She was examining the gun, turning it over in her hands. "Even a Beta like you should know that you can't hurt me with this."
Puzzled by her words, he was expecting her to shoot him on the spot. Much to his amazement, she turned the gun on herself. Even as he stared at her nearly naked body, she pointed the gun at her nipple and pulled the trigger. Twice. Each impact sent a huge ripple through the softest flesh of her body. Yet her skin was unmarked, except for a bit of gunpowder and a smudge of lead. Lowering the gun so that he could stare at her unobstructedly again, she stepped forward and grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled, yanking him up to his feet. She held the gun to his head. "I'm sure this would have quite a different effect on you, little Beta."
He struggled to get free, but his efforts had no more effect on the girl than they ever had on Kathy. Even though she was only holding him with one hand, she didn't seem to be exerting herself at all.
Then she held the gun in front of his face. "But I don't need to use this on you, do I?" she smiled sweetly at him. He saw the tendons pop out on the back of her hand as she squeezed, crushing the gun into so much scrap metal. She handed it back to him. He let the useless chunk of warm metal fall from his fingers down to the ground at his feet.
"Come with me," she said with a tone of voice that told him that she was used to being obeyed. She released him, turned around, and started heading towards the cabin.
He leaped onto her back, getting an arm around her neck. He tightened his grip as hard as he could, enough to break any ordinary person's neck. She continued walking on --- acting as if he wasn't there at all --- as he wrapped his legs around her waist to stay on.
"You're pretty strong for a Beta, aren't you?" Then she reached behind herself and got an arm around him. She pulled him forward until they were looking at each other. "So, what am I going to do with you, little Beta?"
She lowered his head until his face was just inches from one of her breasts. Then she guided his face closer, forcing a large hard nipple into his mouth. Still holding him with one arm around his waist, her free hand quickly shredded his clothes, leaving him completely naked.
He realized that she was all but raping him, even as she continued to walk, carrying him with her. They soon reached the cabin. She carried him in and set him down on the thick plush rug. But she didn't let go of him. Instead, she lifted his body up to hers, as she rubbed her breasts with his chest.
He'd experienced Kathy doing this to him many times, but this wasn't the same. Kathy always made sure that he enjoyed the experience, giving him as much pleasure as she took from him. This girl was apparently in it only for her own pleasure --- there was absolutely no pleasure in it for him.
Her breasts were pressing painfully against his chest. He was on the verge of blacking out when she finally released him.
But the relief was short-lived, as she only let him go to remove her g-string. He tried to fight her off, but his struggles had no more effect on her than they had on Kathy when she was determined to have him. He was just as helpless against her as he was against Kathy. And she wasn't intending to give him any pleasure in the process, as she took her pleasure from him.
He finally passed out from the pain of her lovemaking.
Veren tied up the unconscious Beta and went back out to see how Bedek was doing. As she exited the cabin and walked down towards the lake, Veren was suddenly startled to hear a very distinctive triple BOOM. There was only one thing in the universe that sounds like that. Her heart filling with trepidation, she looked around. She saw a blur streak across the sky, dipping down in the valley between two mountains on the other side of the lake. Even as she watched, she saw it coming over the lake, its supersonic flight pulling up roostertails from the lake. She saw the long blonde hair and the distinctive red-and-blue uniform of a Velorian Planetary Protector, as the Protector came straight at her, beckoning to her with a hand.
Veren saw all of that within a second, as she was too stunned to move. A Planetary Protector? What's she doing here? That was the very last thought that crossed her mind. That second was the very last second of her life.
SuperFemme hit the female Arion Alpha as she walked towards the lake. The impact practically took her head from her shoulders as the body went flying for a quarter of a mile before hitting against the mountainside beyond the cabin. Her body immediately burst into flames, not even an Arion Alpha's recuperative powers able to sustain that much damage.
Then she looked around. It wasn't like the craven Arions to operate alone. Circling around above the cabin, she spotted the other Alpha down by the lake.
This one, a male, was already involved in a battle. In a battle with a young blonde woman. Another Velorian? Here? she thought to herself, echoing the last thoughts of the Arion she had just killed, as she flew over.
Then she recognized the girl. She was the one who had been caught in the fire at the state university down in the city a couple of years back. But how can she be going toe-to-toe with a Alpha? I only enhanced her enough to save her life.
But now wasn't the time to puzzle over that. Not while there was an Arion Alpha to be taken care of. She swooped in.
Kathy felt her neck being twisted as the man was on top of her. With a supreme effort she managed to kick her opponent, throwing him off of her. She quickly scrambled up to her feet. Then she noticed that he wasn't coming down. Looking around, she was amazed to see that he was hovering about ten feet above the ground.
But he wasn't hovering under his own power. A young blonde woman was behind him, and she had him in a full nelson, with his arms pulled up over his head. Kathy instantly knew that this woman had to be SuperFemme, the woman who had somehow saved her from that fire in the Physics building two years ago.
Even from where she was, she could hear the loud SNAP as SuperFemme broke the man's neck. Kathy was startled to see the man's body burst in flames.
"Kathy, I believe?" SuperFemme floated down to land in front of Kathy, putting out her hand. "You probably don't remember, but we met in a burning building."
Kathy took the offered hand. "Um, yeah, I remember. Some of it, at least. And you're SuperFemme, I presume?"
Then she remembered Randall. "There's someone else. My partner." She turned and headed back towards the last place she had seen him, back in the cabin. She saw that SuperFemme was running beside her.
They quickly reached the cabin. Going inside, she saw Randall naked and tied up. As she went to him, SuperFemme looked around for some clothes. As Kathy quickly tore the ropes off of him, he stirred and opened his eyes.
The first thing that Randall saw when he opened his eyes was Kathy leaning over him. Standing behind her was another woman. He first thought that it was the girl who had just raped him. Then he saw the long golden hair.
As Kathy helped him to his feet, she introduced the other woman as SuperFemme. As if he needed to be told that. He had recognized her from her pictures in the tabloids.
As he took the clothes that she held out to him, he realized that SuperFemme was taller than he had expected. Quite a bit taller than Kathy was, SuperFemme was actually about an inch taller than his own six-one. She'd be absolutely incredible in heels, he thought to himself. Not that she's too shabby barefoot, he added.
When SuperFemme held some clothes out to her, Kathy realized that she was also naked, her clothes having been destroyed in the fight with the Arion. As she started dressing, Kathy also started to introduce Randall. "And this is my fian..."
SuperFemme cut her off after taking another look at him. "He's an Arion!"
"He's my fiancé!"
"What? Kathy, you're marrying an Arion?"
"No way! Randall's not an Arion."
SuperFemme felt as if she'd been hit by a ton of bricks. Or rather, as an ordinary woman would have had she been hit by a ton of bricks. "Ran-Randall?" she stammered out.
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the young Arion Beta in front of her. Yes, he was the right age. And those cheekbones...
She lowered her eyes as she focused her Tachyon vision on his thigh, looking through his jeans as if they weren't there at all. No, not that thigh, the other one. Right about there...
And there it was! That half-moon mole. The mole that she'd thought she'd never see again.
Her vision blurred as tears filled her eyes. "Randall! It really is you! I've been looking for you for so long. And to think, I threatened to kill you just now. Can you forgive me? I'd give my life for you, Randall."
Kathy was too stunned to do anything as SuperFemme swept Randall into her arms. And she saw that Randall was responding to the woman in his arms.
Finally, she managed to act. "Mr. Johnston! Let her go and get over here. You're supposed to be my fiancé!"
At her outburst, SuperFemme released Randall. Turning to Kathy, she gave her an embarrassed smile, and then started to laugh. "I'm sorry, Kathy. I'm not trying to take him away from you. He's been mine since he was born. He's... he's my son."
"Your... your son?" Kathy stammered out.
Randall was struck speechless, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to talk. Finally, he managed to get a word out. "Mo-mother?"
"But how can that be?" Kathy asked. "I mean, if he's an Arion, like you said. Unless you're an Arion, too."
SuperFemme laughed. "No, I'm not an Arion. We call ourselves Velorians. And Randall's not really my son. He's my former lover's son. She died giving him birth, and he's all I've got left of her. It's a long story, and this isn't the place or time for me to go into it." She looked at the other two. "What on Earth were you two doing fighting a pair of Alphas?"
"Alphas?" both Kathy and Randall echoed.
"I'll explain later. Is there someplace I can meet you two later? I assume you have some cleaning up to do here."
At her words, Randall found his radio where he had left it, next to Jackson's body. As he called his partner to report the situation, at least some of it, Kathy bombarded SuperFemme with questions.
"Are you responsible for what has happened to me? For the changes in my body?"
SuperFemme held up her hands. "Later. I don't want to be here when the police get here. Are you still at the address I sent your things after the fire?"
"No, I moved in with Randall." She gave SuperFemme the address.
SuperFemme didn't bother writing it down. "I'll see you there tonight. Is seven all right? And you don't have to bother fixing dinner for me."
When Kathy agreed, she walked to the door and stepped outside. Kathy followed and was just in time to see her leap up into the sky. Kathy followed her with her eyes until she disappeared from sight over the mountains. Wow! I wish I could get around like that. It'd save a bundle on cab fare.
Henry, along with the rest of the team, quickly showed up. He didn't comment on the fact that both Kathy and Randall were now wearing different clothes than what they had been wearing earlier. He was the only person on the force to know about the two of them.
That evening, SuperFemme showed up their apartment, wearing a short one-piece dress. After everyone had sat down, she began telling her story.
"As I said, I'm a Velorian. We're descended from human stock, or Terran, as we call it. Randall is an Arion, who are also descended from Terran stock." She briefly explained about the two races of the Arions, the Alphas, like the two they had fought earlier that day, and the Betas, like Randall. She then went on to explain about the history of the Homo Supremis, and the reasons behind the split between the Velorians and the Arions.
She went on to explain about the Planetary Protectors, of which she was one. Then she went on to explain about Randall's mother. She was an Arion Beta who had defected from the Arion Empire, and become SuperFemme's lover. She had been recaptured by the Arions, and repeatedly raped. "I finally found her and rescued her, just as she was nearing term with you, Randall. Unfortunately, she had been battered so much in captivity, she died giving you birth. Ever since then I looked on you as my own son."
Unfortunately, the pressures of her 'job' as the Protector of Earth kept her too busy to take proper care of an infant boy. She explained that on Velor, where all children are 'created' as 'test-tube babies', many of them are brought up in state-run crèches. She had placed Randall in an orphanage, thinking that it was the same type of thing, planning on retrieving him when he was older. But then, he had been adopted, and then the records were destroyed in a fire. "Can you forgive me, Randall? I've been searching for you for all these years, but I never could find you. And then I almost killed you, because I didn't recognize you. Can you forgive me?" There were tears in her eyes.
Randall was stunned. The mysterious woman he had been infatuated with almost all of his life was his 'mother'. A mother who had been searching for her son all these years. And then to find him accidentally. And almost killed him when she finally did find him.
"Of course, I forgive you, Mother. If I had known the things you just told me about the Arions, I probably would have tried to kill myself too, if I ever met myself in a dark alley." He was relieved when the two women laughed at his attempt at humor.
"It's obvious, but I have to ask you anyway," Kathy said. "Those two men you were fighting with in the fire in the Physics building, they were Arions?"
"Yes, they were Alphas. They had taken over one of the labs and were producing components for advanced weapons. Weapons well beyond current Terran technology. I was able to destroy the lab, and the Arions, but I'm afraid I caused more damage than was necessary."
"And me? What did you to me?"
"By the time I had finished with the Arions, the roof had fallen in, trapping you. You were burnt badly, and both of your legs were broken, as were some of your ribs. There was only one thing I could do to save your life. There's a process we call Enhancement, which could heal your injuries." She went on to explain about that process, and about its results. "But I never suspected that I had enhanced you that much. I thought that I was doing just enough to save your life, that it would put you about par with a Beta, giving you strength to match Randall's. I never thought I would see you taking on an Arion Alpha."
"Well, I wasn't exactly taking him on. He was whipping my ass pretty good."
"He's been training his entire life as a fighter. Just holding your own against him was a pretty impressive feat."
"Yeah, I've been training you some, but there's no way I could teach you some of the things you need to know," Randall added. "You're so much faster and stronger than I am. Not that I'm complaining, mind you."
"So it's possible that you could do the same thing for him, too?"
SuperFemme blushed. "Well, if I didn't think of him as my son, maybe. I don't know how the Enhancement works on Arion Betas."
"But didn't you say that it was a one-time process?" Randall asked. "And I think Kathy's already Enhanced me." He described the increase in his strength the past year.
"Hmm, I've never heard of an Enhanced person Enhancing another. Certainly not of a Terran Enhancing an Arion. But what you've just described does sound like an Enhancement."
"And it's a permanent process? There was a time when I thought that it was wearing off. And right in the middle of an armed robbery, too."
"What? What happened?"
"I don't know. I was at a store just looking at necklaces when a couple of guys pulled out guns and tried to rob the place." Kathy went on to explain about that incident at the jewelry store and how she had regained consciousness in the hospital emergency room.
"By any chance, were you trying on a gold necklace?"
"Huh? Yes, that's what it was. But what does that have to do with it."
SuperFemme leaned forward and lowered her voice. "This is something you don't want to spread too widely." She then went on to explain about the dampening effects of gold.
"I'm glad you found out without actually getting hurt," SuperFemme concluded. "And I'm also glad that you weren't the one robbing the store. With your Enhanced abilities, you could have turned to a life of crime, and the police wouldn't have been able to do a thing about it."
The three of them continued to talk through most of the night. Finally, SuperFemme got up to leave. "I should let you kids get some rest tonight."
"You don't know Kathy. She never lets me get any rest at night," Randall laughed, as Kathy poked him --- gently --- in the ribs.
SuperFemme laughed. "I think I know exactly how that is. In one way, at least, she's my daughter now."
"Speaking of which," Kathy piped in, "how would you like to be my maid of honor at our wedding? I really don't have anybody in mind for the job. Of course, you'd probably want to be there incognito."
"Maid of honor at my son's wedding? I'd be honored, Kathy. And you'd be daughter in another way, as well."
The two women hugged each other. The hardest hug Kathy had felt since her changes, her Enhancement. Then they gently included Randall in the hug.
A family hug.