She had been someone, once.

There had been a name, a life, a history.

Then she arrived... here...

And had met him.

He wasn't tall, they were close to the same height, but there was something commanding about him. He could light his hands on fire. He had the name of a hero. Vaguely she remembered Reggie, but that name became Flamehammer when she thought of him.

Similarly, Athena came to her own mind when she bothered to think about herself at all. She was looking in a full-length mirror. Athletic, she judged herself. Young. Olive complexion. Long curls. Nice breasts. Well-groomed, clean. She couldn't bring herself to dig deeper than that into herself.

Flamehammer never did, anyway.

He had showed her the device, once. Early on. Had offered her the chance to walk away. Subsonic inducer, he'd named it. Makes someone more suggestible. Easier to influence.

She had tried not to let on how much she wanted to be suggestible, easy to influence, when she'd nodded acceptance, but it might have come out later, when they were...

She thought about that a moment as her fingers danced between her legs.

Vaguely she realized that nudity wasn't wholly normal, that she couldn't go outside as she was, so why should she be near the door?

Because, she answered herself, the moment Flamehammer walks in you'll be kneeling at his side and thinking only about how best to please him.

Which was exactly what she wanted.

He had used the inducer. He had showed her what it might do to her. But she had used her experience with Alterations, her memories of talks with her friends, and she had seized the opportunity. She had written the program. It was her own voice, she realized, that she could hear vaguely over the speaker system in the household. She looked at the small object in her hand, her free hand, about the size of a roll of quarters, felt its pulse and throb, and realized that it was on now, at that moment, weakening her resolve, changing her, remaking her.

She had given up her strength, her self, willingly. Gone far further than even he had imagined she would. Gone far further than he knew she would.

She had gone further than he knew she had.

Laine would be impressed at how she'd managed to program herself, she thought, but she didn't remember who Laine was. Her fingers brushed her clit. She trembled, shook, shivered, but didn't move, and didn't come.

She heard his car drive up. She knew it was his, she could tell by the sound. She turned off the speaker system, placed the inducer in its hidden spot where he didn't know she kept it, knelt by the door, and waited for her superhero to come in.

She wanted to be his, completely, and to her that meant being nothing else. He certainly didn't seem to mind.