Radiant Reunion

By Czarzhan

Part Two

Deep in the HeroGuild Base, Auburnville

Henry Wood, head of facilities maintenance for the HeroGuild, was frustrated. The support staff supervisor, Mary Makepeace, had decided to go on vacation for the first time since starting here (although, weirdly, he couldn’t actually find her original start date) and left the various department heads in charge of there sections, with Laura up in Communications as Acting Supervisor.

He didn’t have a problem with Laura’s temporary promotion. She has always been great at coordinating people’s efforts, and she deserves to be recognized. No, the thing that frustrated Henry was filling in for Mary’s cleaning duties. Somehow, she managed to singlehandedly keep the whole base spotless. He needed to talk to Laura about bringing in a full cleaning crew to take up the slack.

Mary had also been a bit tight-lipped about certain areas of the base, so Henry decided it would be best to do a complete walk through to get a feel for how big a cleaning staff they would need to hire. And that’s what brought him to this corridor, deep in the center of the mountain. He frowned, his brow furrowing as he scrutinized the section of the wall that didn't quite match the rest. There was something off about this spot, something that nagged at him in a way he couldn’t ignore. He stepped closer, running his gloved hand over the surface. It was cool to the touch, like the rest of the walls, but the texture was subtly different—smoother, almost as if it had been machined separately from the rest of the corridor. Almost as if a door had been covered over and concealed.

But according to the base plans, there was nothing beyond this wall but stone and dirt. He pulled a hammer from his belt, intent on removing the covering material, but stopped himself. “No, Henry,” he muttered to himself. “There is a protocol for this sort of thing.” Pulling his phone out, he was gratified to see the base’s cell and wi-fi networks covered even this area. Tapping a number on his contacts, he put the device away, listening to the ring on his earpiece.

The call connected immediately. “Records,” a female voiced answered.

“Mia, it’s Henry,” he replied. “Can you come down to the east end of the living quarters level? There’s something here that’s not in the base plans.”

After a pause, she responded. “On my way. What did you find?”

“Not sure yet,” Henry said, eyes still fixed on the seam. “But I think it’s something old, something that predates our build.”

“I’ll be there is five,” she answered before breaking the connection.

The HeroGuild base quarters level had guest quarters to the south of the main elevator and stairwell, and more permanent apartments for heroes or staffers that needed such to the north. Although corridors to the east and west had been dug out and finished, there were no actual quarters installed, with the exception of Mary’s residence on the east side. Where Mia found Henry was well past Mary place, by an apparently unremarkable section of wall.

“What have you got,” she asked without preamble.

“Odd section of wall here,” Henry replied, showing her on his tablet what was supposed to be behind it. “Based on its size, I think there’s a door behind here. I want to break through and check it out. I thought you might want to document the find, if it’s not in the base plans.”

“You think we should ask Laura about it?”

Henry shrugged. “I doubt she can give us any insights. She was not pleased with how Mary dropped the whole thing in her lap when she took her ‘emergency leave.’ I say we take a closer look, so we can give her a better report than, ‘we found a weird section of wall.’”

“You just want to be the first one to see whatever’s behind that wall,” Mia smirked. When he said nothing, she rolled her eyes. “Fine. Crack it. But I’m uploading the video to the servers, just in case.”

“Good enough,” he replied, grabbing a hammer and pry bar.

Twenty minutes later, Henry had exposed an unpowered automatic door, as well as an access panel to the door’s manual controls. With a nod from Mia, he pulled the lever disengaging the gear locks securing the door. The door opened a crack, allowing the pair to pull it the rest of the way. It opened upon a stairwell, heading down.

Henry peered over the railing. “It looks like it only goes down one flight. Shall we?”

“Wait a minute,” Mia replied. “Do you smell that?”

Henry gave an experimental sniff. “I don’t smell anything.”

“Exactly. The air of a sealed off area should be stale at the very least.”

Henry stepped back into the hall and halfway back to the elevators before returning the door. “It’s not just not stale. It smells the same as the rest of the base. I think it’s hooked into the base ventilation.”

Mia blinked. “That’s weird.” She began to descend the stairs, her companion in tow.

The double doors at the bottom were hinged to push open, and a light shove revealed them to be unlocked. They emerged into an apartment with an open layout, living and dining areas, as well as a kitchen, with a couple corridors exiting. “Very 1960s Future aesthetic,” Henry observed, looking around. “Curves and white walls. Colorful upholstery on the furniture. Who lived here, George Jetson?”

“Doctor Cyber, most likely,” Mia replied, checking the kitchen. “The base was supposedly built on top of his old lair.” She opened cabinets and the fridge. “No food. Doesn’t look like anybody’s living here.”

“You wouldn’t know it by the lack of dust,” Henry observed. “This place was cleaned recently. Or at least dusted.”

“You think Mary knew about this place?”

“She would almost have to, for it to be in this condition,” he answered.

“If she were here, we could ask her.”

“If she were here, we would have never found it.” He scanned the room. “What is she hiding in here?” He moved toward one of the two corridors that exited the room, motion sensors triggering the lights as he went.

Mia followed. “I’m more interested in why she didn’t tell anybody about it, if she discovered it.”

“We can ask her that when she gets back.”

The first corridor led to a master bedroom, a servant’s room, an office, and what looked like a secured cell, complete with power dampers. Henry noticed the design looked like an early version of the holding cells in the base proper that were used to contain super criminals before being transferred to more permanent facilities. The corridor ended at elevator doors. Based on the plans for the main base, Mia noted these doors would open to the main shaft, apparently as a secret landing for the base lift. “That explains how Mary could come and go without tearing out a wall,” she mused.

“I’m going to check out that office, see if there are anything in the files,” Henry stated.

“First, let’s show this to Laura and Captain Lightning. They’re the two in charge.”

“Cap’s still in the Caribbean, assisting with storm clean up. He, Redshift, and Zephyr aren’t supposed to be back ‘til next week. Shadowpath is acting team leader, what with Sigil Seraph still on leave,” he replied.

“Shadowpath and Laura it is, then,” Mia concluded.

* * *

An hour later, Shadowpath and Laura accompanied Henry and Mia as they returned to “The Lair,” as Henry started calling it.

“And you’re saying Mary knew about this place?” Shadowpath asked.

“She had to have,” Mia replied. “But you tell us, ‘Path: What does that psychic tracking power of yours show?”

The heroine turned her head side to side slowly, as if scanning the area which, in fact, she was. “Whoa. Aside from you two an hour ago, the only paths I see in here are from Mary, and there are a lot of them. And they go back years.”

Laura inquired, “Can you tell what she was doing down here?”

She shrugged, still scanning the room. “Cleaning, mostly. Dusting. She never sat on the furniture, it looks like.” Her head pulled back suddenly. “And she came and went through there,” she pointed at a large vent in the ceiling near one wall.

Henry blinked. “That vent is fifteen feet high! What, did she use a ladder or--?”

“She flew.” Shadowpath looked stunned.

“She flew??” Laura gasped.

“Mary’s a super?” Henry boggled.

Mia grimaced. “I wish I could say I was surprised.” This drew the others’ attention. “I tried to look up Mary’s records. They’re sealed. Like, sealed sealed. I can’t get to them.”

“Who the hell is this girl?” said Henry.

“That’s it,” Laura declared. “We have an unknown super who infiltrated our base for God knows how long, keeping secret rooms and compromising our records.” She faced Shadowpath. “If the acting team leader agrees, I’m revoking Mary’s access to the base and all login credentials, effective immediately.”

“Laura?!” Mia asked/scolded. “Are you sure about this? This is Mary we’re talking about. She hired every member of the support staff. Not to mention…” she glanced at Shadowpath.

The heroine blushed and finished the thought, “Not to mention she’s seduced every super that’s ever been in the HeroGuild.”

“Okay, when you put it that way it sounds bad,” Mia conceded. “But still...”

Laura held up a placating hand. “We can reactivate her when she returns, assuming she has a reasonable explanation.”

“Assuming she returns,” Henry muttered. “She’s never left before. Why now?”

Shadowpath nodded, her expression stern. “Revoke her access.” She then seemed to notice something, and gestured to the other corridor. “Huh.”

“What is it?”

“I almost missed that whole section. There are no trails going into it. No one has gone down that corridor in years, maybe decades.”

“Can you see what’s in that section?” Laura asked, knowing Shadowpath’s psychic “radar” sight could see through walls if she focused.

“Four rooms,” the heroine replied after a few moments. “Three look like abandoned labs, and the fourth is… weird.”

“Let’s check it out,” Henry started down the hall.

* * *

After confirming the other three rooms were, indeed, stripped and abandoned labs, the quartet turned their attention to the door to the last room. Or lack thereof.

“Behind here,” Shadowpath tapped a section of wall.

“A hidden room in a hidden room,” Mia mused as Henry retrieved his tools from the apartment’s living space. “I think we might be getting closer to what Mary doesn’t want anybody to see.”

Shadowpath warned them before the paneling was pulled away that this door was different. “More like what you would see on a bank vault.” However, it didn’t take long to figure how to open it, almost as if it was designed to keep things in, rather than out.

“Are we sure we want to open it?” Laura asked. “Can you sense anything, ‘Path?”

“Like I said, it’s weird,” she replied. “It seems hollow, but solid. And there are recent trails in there, from someone I am not familiar with. The most recent looks to be five minutes old, and exited this very door. But it vanishes as it crosses the threshold.”

“You mean something was in there and teleported away just now?” Mia speculated.

“No, I mean I noticed the trail before Henry started removing the panel twenty minutes ago and it was five minutes old at that time. It still looks five minutes old. It’s like time isn’t passing in there.”

“It’s not,” Henry suddenly realized. The others looked at him. “It’s a stasis box. Think about it. Everything inside is suspended in the moment the last time the stasis field was activated. Even the trail you’re picking up.”

“That makes sense,” Shadowpath nodded. “The suspended air is what gave me that ‘solid’ sensation.”

“I’m going to assume that opening the door will shut down the stasis,” he reasoned, “kind of like the reverse of the light inside a refrigerator.” He grabbed the vault handle. “Shall we?” After getting nods from his companions, Henry pulled the door open.

The first thing the group saw was an odd wall of fog that, after a few seconds, receded quickly into the room, as if the stasis field were retreating from the normal flow of time. Shadowpath, Laura, and Mia had only started investigating the room’s contents when they heard a “shuk-BANG” from the doorway. They turned to see Henry had fired a short piece of rebar into the floor using one of his tools, leaving several inches above the surface, placed right by the open vault door to prevent closing.

Mia smiled. “Good idea.”

The de facto time capsule held a variety of objects, both strange and mundane. One bookcase held what looked like a number of magic tomes, while a large work table was covered by a cityscape constructed entirely of interlocking toy bricks. On another shelving unit sat odd specimens, presumably from various experiments.

Henry picked up one of the specimens, a clear lidded jar containing a greenish-blue goo. He shook it a little to watch it jiggle, then set it back down. As he drew his hand away, he noticed some of the stuff had gotten out and on his fingertips. Before he could say more than, “Ah, ick—”

“There’s a person under there!” Shadowpath suddenly yelled, running to a tarp in the far corner of the room. The others ran to assist as she pulled the tarp away to reveal the form beneath. It was a blonde woman in a silver-gray full body suit with a white starburst on the chest, white elbow-length fingerless gloves and white slippers. She was posed in a combat stance with one hand reaching forward, and a grim expression on her face.

Mary’s face.

As the shock began to wear off, Shadowpath explained, “This isn’t a realistic mannequin. She’s alive, just under some kind of paralysis effect.” She touched her brow. “She’s not conscious.”

Mia stated, “I recognize that uniform. That’s Radiant.”

“Wait, wait,” Laura protested. “Radiant, as in the hero the HeroGuild was created to find?”

“And she’s been in the basement the whole time,” Henry continued, “while her jailer’s been upstairs wearing her face.”

“Shortly before his death,” Mia mused, “Cyber claimed to have defeated Radiant.”

“And this is his lair,” Henry added. “So, what? Is Mary a clone?”

“Or a sophisticated android. Cyber occasionally used android henchmen in his schemes, but they were faceless soldiers. If Mary is one too, mimicking a real person, including superpowers, she would be several generations more advanced.”

“And if she can mimic Radiant’s full range of powers, a hero who has helped repel two alien invasion, one of which single-handed, then Mary is <i>incredibly</i> dangerous, exponentially more so if she knows we know,” Laura concluded.

“If that’s the case, we had better have someone in our corner who can take her,” Shadowpath responded. She telekinetically lifted the frozen heroine and headed out the door. “Let’s get her to the infirmary.”

* * *

After bringing the frozen Radiant to the infirmary, and the staffers departed to resume their duties, Henry caught up to the acting supervisor, tapping her lightly on the elbow. “Laura, got a minute?”

“Sure, Henry. What’s up?”

“I’ve just about completed my walk-through of the base. You want to grab a coffee with me? We can discuss hiring the cleaning crew.”

“Okay,” she smiled, touching her arm as the two made their way to the elevator.

Without either understanding why, or really caring, the elevator ride quickly evolved into a make out session. “We can’t do this here,” Henry mumbled into her neck.

“Uh-huh,” Laura replied intelligently.

“Anyone—” he interrupted himself with some very urgent kissing, “anyone can use the lift.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I know a supply closet we can use…”

“I got someplace better,” Laura giggled.

Moments later, on the Alaska King-size bed in Mary Makepeace’s quarters, Henry was doing his damnedest to make Laura squeal, and Laura was rewarding him for his efforts.

“Oh, gawd! I love that, Henry!” She held fistfuls of hair as his tongue tickled her clit. “Now, get up here and fuck me!”

He moved up and watched her gasp as he entered her. “You are amazing,” he managed between sucking her tits and biting her neck.

“You feel so good,” she gasped, enjoying the feel of him plunging into her again and again. “Oh, God! Oh, God! I’m cumming!” she screamed. As she did, she felt him filling her insides with his seed.

They lay together in the bed for a while. “That was good,” Henry panted.

“Yes. Yes it was,” Laura agreed.

“You wanna go again, <i>Miz</i> Hudson?”

“Sure, Mister AHAHAHAhahaha!” she laughed suddenly, seeing what he did there. Then, Laura Hudson pushed Henry Wood onto his back and climbed atop him.

* * *

On a shelf in the newly discovered stasis room, a jar of blue-green goo bubbled suddenly and pitched itself off the shelf to break on the floor. There was nobody present to witness this event, nor did anybody see the goo seem to collect itself and flow out of the room.

* * *

The first thing she felt was pain. Not the sharp, intense pain like a burn, but a dull ache, that went from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. <i>God, what did he hit me with? I feel like I’ve been pressed like a Cuban sandwich!

Everything felt disjointed, disconnected. A part of her realized she was struggling back to consciousness. She could hear murmurs, conversations just outside of comprehensibility. Sight was limited as well, senseless shapes and blobs.

She realized she couldn’t move, and in doing so was able to bring herself closer to full consciousness. She slowly became aware of her surroundings. She was in a room with medical equipment, an infirmary of some sort, maybe an E.R..

Snippets of conversation filtered in: “… she been stored down there..?” “… thirty years…” “… mannequin ray…” “… look up cures…” “… her double is a problem…”

Struggling to reach consciousness, the world snapped into a funhouse mirror reality. Everything was distorted and wrong. Unfamiliar faces. Strange place. Surrounded. Escape!

She exploded from the infirmary, flying blindly through hallways and stairwells at superspeed. After what seemed like eternity in the maze of corridors, she found an exit, blowing through the doors and into the afternoon sky.

The chill air and warm sun were the first things that felt real since waking up. She closed her eyes and let the wind and sun wash over her for several seconds. When she opened them again, she found herself over a city. Not just any city, but her home town. How did I get all the way back to Auburnville? she wondered. Then she glanced back and realized she had just broken out of Cyber’s base, the base she had tried to sneak into (what felt like) just the night before.

But the city had changed. Some buildings she used as landmarks were gone, and new structures had sprung up. Apparently, a lot of time had passed. She needed information.

As she lowered herself to rooftop level, she considered just asking someone, then thought about the scene from Terminator where Reese, the soldier from the future, assaults a police officer to ask what year it is. Maybe I should just find a newspaper, Marty McFly style.

That was easier said than done, it seemed. She flew up and down several streets, but there wasn’t a newspaper box to be found. But everywhere she looked, just about everybody on the street had their eyes glued to glassy handheld devices. She remembered in one of her conflicts with Doctor Cyber, he envisioned a mechanism for controlling the population just like that. Had Cyber won while she was out? How long was she out?

And that brought her back to the question of the date. She spied a convenience store that she used to frequent, gratified that some things were still the same. She entered, the bell above the door ringing. She looked around, seeing only the girl sitting behind the register. Also, in front of the checkout, was a stack of newspapers. <i>Ah-HA! she cheered to herself.

As she approached, the girl, who couldn’t have been more than 25 and wore a name tag that read “Polly,” stood and moved to the counter. “May I help you?”

Val smiled. “Oh, no, thank you. I just wanted to check the date,” she replied, studying the top news sheet. Her smile vanished.

Over thirty years. That’s how much time had passed.

She looked at Polly again, who had returned to her seat. Then the girl reached for a handheld gadget on the counter and began tapping the screen. Val then noticed the security camera. Shit. If Cyber actually did control everything, then he had eyes everywhere. Am I just being paranoid? Or is this a valid fear?

Just then, the bell above the front door jingled and two uniformed police officers walked in. One moved to the island with the fresh coffee, while the other approached the register. Val took a step sideways, to move out of the way. “Hey, Polly.”

“Hi, Bill,” she replied, stepping back to the register.

“Two coffees--” he began when his partner called across the floor.

“Hey, they got blueberry muffins!”

“Do you want one?” Bill replied.

“Nope.”

“--and one blueberry muffin,” he concluded to Polly. He glanced at Val, who was paying careful attention to a lottery flyer. “Nice cosplay,” he said.

“Um, thanks,” she replied, having no idea what “cosplay” was. She then turned toward the door. “‘Scuse me.” She’d only taken a couple steps before the door opened again, admitting two women in ‘super’ attire.

The first wore a light blue full-length unitard with purple trim. Her head was uncovered, brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, and she wore dark, wraparound shades. The second was a giantess, easily seven feet tall, ducking her head as she passed through the door. She wore a one-piece form-fitting unitard covering head to toe, with the only apparent openings uncovering the lower half of her face and the top of her head to let her long black hair to flow free. It was black at the top, fading through shades of blue down the body to finally white at the feet. Both had a shield-shaped patch on their left shoulder, emblazoned with the letters “HG”.

Radiant hesitated. She remembered the first one from the disjointed memory of the base before she had escaped.

Shadowpath noticed her hesitation, and held her hands in front of her. “We mean you no harm. We just want to talk.”

“I’m not sure I want to talk to you,” Val replied, her expression hard.

“We can explain everything. I just need you to come back to base with us.”

“Not gonna happen.”

The officers noticed the increased tension in the store. Bill became very alert, hand reflexively moving to his taser. “Shadowpath, Apogee,” he addressed the duo, “is there a problem?”

“No problem, Officer,” Shadowpath replied. “We have everything well in hand.”

“Don’t bet on it,” Val replied.

Bill’s partner decided the best course of action was intimidation. He loomed over her. “Nobody needs to get hurt. Why don’t you be a good little girl and go with these nice ladies.”

Bill, knowing that this was a good way to get yourself killed, stage whispered, “Charlie!” and motioned him to step back.

Not taking her eyes off the other two supers, Val said, her tone low, “Charlie, go back to your coffee. And don’t forget Bill’s blueberry muffin.” His survival instincts finally kicking in, Charlie shrank back.

“Radiant,” Shadowpath began, “may I call you Ms. Dawson?”

“I think it’s safe to say we’re all on the clock, Shadowpath,” Val replied. “Let’s stick to Radiant, for now.”

“Okay. Radiant,” she acknowledged. “While you were still frozen we scanned you, and from the residual energy signature, we identified the weapon used on you. It’s called a Mannequin Ray and it puts the target in a state of catalytic stasis, pausing all chemical reactions in the body, as well as neurological activity in the brain. Doctor Cyber then placed your body in a vault in temporal stasis for--”

“—for thirty-one years, yeah, I figured that part out on my own.”

“But what you may not know,” she continued, “is that the Mannequin Ray’s effects are temporary. If it’s not refreshed every twenty hours or so, the effect starts to fade. But it fades unevenly in brain tissue. So part of your brain was working while other parts were still frozen. This can cause delirium, hallucinations, paranoia, among other things. Sound familiar?”

“...Yes,” Val conceded.

“That’s why we need you to come back to the base, so we can make sure you’re okay,” Shadowpath concluded.

On the face of it, it sounded reasonable. Still… “I’m sorry, but I just lost thirty years in that place. I’m not going back. And considering how fast you found me, I’m not convinced this isn’t some nightmare surveillance state controlled by Doctor Cyber.”

At this point, Apogee spoke up. “That wasn’t a surveillance state. That was Shadowpath. She can track anybody anywhere. She just followed your psychic trail here.” She then stepped forward. “This isn’t a request, sweetie.” Her seven-foot height towered over Val’s five feet three inches. “Come along peacefully, now.”

Radiant wasn’t impressed. “Officer Charlie over there already tried that. Didn’t work for him, either.”

“I have something he doesn’t,” she smirked.

“And what,” she said, peering up at her, “would that be?”

“You don’t want to find out. Let’s go.”

“I’m going,” Radiant replied, “just not with you,” and she <i>pushed</i> Apogee away. As she pushed, she realized she put more force into it than she meant to. It was enough to throw a normal human back twenty feet. She felt regret even as her arms pistoned out. Or, at least, she did for half a second.

Apogee didn’t budge. Radiant was surprised, and gave a grin. She tried again, pushing a bit harder, watching her arms as she did so. Same result. Radiant met Apogee’s eyes and said, “Kinetic control, huh?”

Apogee blinked, nonplussed. “How’d you guess?”

“My friend Newton had a similar power. With enough force, you can feel the difference in the upper and lower forearms from the drained kinetic energy.”

“Interesting.”

“I know, right?” Radiant replied. “You wanna see something really cool, check this out.”

“Wait—” Shadowpath started to yell, too late.

The boom surprised Polly and the cops as, one moment Apogee was standing there, and the next, there was a hole in the front of the store and Apogee was falling limp out of the dent she made in the building across the street.

Before Shadowpath could react, Radiant was across the street crouching over the fallen super. As she approached, Radiant stood and faced her.

“She’s unconscious, but otherwise fine,” she told her. “If I’m wrong about this, tell I said sorry.” She jumped into the air.

Shadowpath followed, calling, “She wasn’t lying, you know. I really can track you anywhere.”

Radiant paused and regarded the other super. “Cool. I’m going to the Moon. Track me there,” and disappeared into the sky.

* * *

HeroGuild Base

Sophie Martinez carried the ray gun back down to Doctor Cyber’s lair where she found it. She had showed it to Shadowpath just before the heroine flew off with Apogee to intercept Radiant. Had she reached the infirmary ten minutes earlier, she would have been able to use the Mannequin Ray’s “Reverse” setting to clear the stasis effect from the frozen hero without the deleterious effects she ended up suffering. As it was, a delirious Radiant fled the base, nobody being able to stop her.

Passing through the apartment area, she saw what looked like someone had dragged a mop from the corridor she was headed toward back to the stairwell doors. She crouched down and touched the trail. <i>Oily. What is this?

Just then, she heard something coming from the office. She poked her in the open door and spied Max, the head Information Technology guy, hunched over the workstation.

He saw her and smiled. “Hi, Sophie. What are you doing down here?”

She held the ray gun up by the chunky tube that passed for a barrel. “Putting this back. What are you up to?”

He tapped a bit more on the keyboard as he replied, “Trying to figure if Cyber hid some malware on this terminal, or if this has deeper access than what we thought was the <i>root</i> login.”

“Find anything?” she set the ray down and slid behind the desk.

“Yeah. I’m running a worm to get rid of the bad code.” He turned to her. “You smell <i>really</i> good.”

Sophie’s nostrils flared. “Oh, wow, so do you!”

The two became fascinated with each other, ignoring the alert that the base comm system was going into lockdown.

* * *

Auburnville

Apogee regained consciousness shortly after Radiant’s departure. Except for what felt like a bruise on her sternum, she was none the worse for wear. While Spadowpath waited as her colleague made sure she was good to fly, she attempted to contact the base to report the situation, but got no response.

“That’s weird,” Shadowpath muttered.

“What?” Apogee inquired.

“The base isn’t answering.”

Apogee tapped the handsfree set in her mask. “The comms are down.”

“It’s probably nothing, but we should get back all the same,” Shadowpath stated. Apogee agreed, and the two rose into the air.

* * *

The edge of space

Radiant rocketed upward, her body a streak of silver against the thinning atmosphere. Below her, the world shrank, clouds curling over continents like soft blankets covering a restless sleeper. Her lungs burned—not from effort, but from frustration and confusion. How had everything spiraled so far out of control? And how could she fix it when the enemy was invisible, insidious, hiding in the devices clutched so eagerly in every hand?

She pushed harder, the roar of wind around her vanishing as she pierced the exosphere and entered the silence of space. No friction, no gravity—just her and the stars. Freedom, for a moment. But the weight she carried was internal, heavier than anything she could lift with her hands. I was only asleep. How could they let this happen while I was gone?

She thought back Polly, to the people on the streets of Auburnville, their eyes were glued to strange devices glowing in their palms.

Her heart had clenched with dread as she stared at the sleek, glassy objects. The very kind of technology Cyber had always dreamed of using to control the world. Were they enslaved already, unaware of the chains around their minds? The thought of Doctor Cyber pulling the strings from the shadows made her stomach churn.

That was when she knew she needed more than her strength. Punching through walls wouldn't free these people. They didn’t even know they were captives. She needed something that could cut away the lies, a tool sharp enough to sever the illusions wrapped around every mind on Earth. Her Guardian Gear, that she so often depended on in times like these, was God knows where.

And that’s why she was here—hurtling toward the Moon, toward a weapon she had left behind decades ago.

The lunar sphere loomed larger in her vision. She narrowed her gaze and adjusted her trajectory, angling toward the far side, hidden forever from Earth's gaze. In this place lay the remnants of a not-so-ancient battlefield.

Her heart pounded as memories of that fateful day in 1975 resurfaced. She had fought Vek-Shal, the champion of the DarVek, on that vast plain of dust and silence, battling not just for her life but for the future of her planet. The contest had been brutal, a clash of strength and will that left both combatants bloodied and exhausted. When she finally stood over Vek-Shal’s fallen body, victory hers to claim, the laws of his people stated his life was hers.

But she had spared him. Killing a defeated opponent had never been her way, and she would not bend, even to alien customs. Her mercy had enraged the DarVek empress, Vek-Mara, who had hoped the duel would rid her of a rival. The empress had demanded Radiant strike the killing blow, but Radiant had stood her ground—and in doing so, toppled an empire.

The fallout had been swift. Vek-Mara’s supporters turned against her, and the battlefield erupted into chaos. When the dust settled, Vek-Shal had risen to claim the throne, pledging his gratitude to the Earth’s protector, bestowing upon her a rare and precious gift: a weapon crafted by the DarVek’s finest artisans—a <i>Bardiche</i> scaled to fit her smaller, human form. More than just a token of appreciation, the weapon had been bonded to her essence, just as her Guardian Gear was. It had been her first and only gift from the DarVek, and she had left it here, on this very battlefield, all those years ago, waiting for a day when she might need it.

For better or worse, that day had come.

Radiant slowed her approach, the vast plain of smooth lunar regolith stretching out beneath her. She scanned the horizon, her sharp eyes searching for the weapon she had hidden so long ago. There—just as she had left it—floated the Bardiche, a sliver of blue-white light hovering a foot above the dust.

It gleamed like a forgotten shard of moonlight, its blade smooth and featureless, more like an oversized knife than a traditional axe. The weapon seemed weightless, untethered by gravity or time, anchored in place and waiting patiently for its rightful wielder.

Radiant landed softly, her boots stirring small clouds of dust in the moon’s low gravity. She approached the Bardiche slowly, her heart thrumming with anticipation. When her fingers brushed the hilt, a surge of energy shot through her—a familiar, electric connection that resonated deep within her core.

It was like reuniting with a long-lost part of herself.

“Greetings, Val Dawson”, a voice rang in her head. “Has the time come to claim your prize?”

Radiant blinked. “You can think??”

“In a sense,” it responded. “I have awareness, after a fashion. However, my will is merely a reflection of your own. My purpose is to provide an interface between yourself and the functions of the Bardiche. Your last command, before returning to your birth world, was to Stand Watch. As such, I have observed movement of space-based entities within the system, as well as monitoring communications and other signals from the Earth.”

She tilted her head to the side. “This location faces away from Earth. How many signals could you pick up?”

The blade began to glow, and Radiant felt a gentle wind as she and it were surrounded by an envelope of air. She filled her lungs with a smile. Her power could sustain her without the need to breathe, but it was a relief to do so all the same

”My sensors transcend the standard electromagnetic spectrum. The mass of the Moon does not impede monitoring such transmissions.” The Bardiche replied

”Good,” Radiant nodded, speaking aloud. “Then you can fill me in as to what happened over the past three decades. And give me a location on Doctor Cyber.” She rose into the black sky. She had already cleared the Lunar horizon, seeing the Earth in the distance, when the Bardiche responded.

“Doctor Vincent Partnell, a.k.a. Doctor Cyber, was reported deceased approximately two years after your capture.”

”That’s not possible. Everybody seemed to be enslaved to those… mini handheld TVs.”

The Bardiche paused, as if considering, then provided a synopsis on how technology had advanced in the last few decades, detailing the rise of the personal computer, the internet, and smartphones. ”The increased interconnectivity allowed me to vastly expand my monitoring of the planet and its inhabitants. Before that, my targeted scanning only allowed me to follow you and a few individuals that you seemed to have an attachment to.”

“Did that small number include Doctor Cyber?”

“Unfortunately, no,” it sounded almost embarrassed. “Dr. Partnell proved elusive to my scans. I was only able to acquire his position when he was in your presence, and when he left it I lost him almost immediately.”

”That explains why my sister was unable to find me.”

“On the contrary, she discerned your location almost immediately. She and your protege Omega Girl attempted a rescue the same night, resulting in their capture as well.”

Oh, god. Lacie… Val was afraid to ask, but had to know. “What did he do to Omega Girl?”

”Omega Girl was released immediately. However, her memory of the rescue attempt was either suppressed or erased, making her unable to aid in the search for you or your sister in any meaningful fashion. Further, I calculate a 98% chance Doctor Cyber installed as-yet-to-be-activated hypnotic triggers within her mind. Whether or not those triggers were cleared or modified by the subsequent, and frequent, mind control and brainwashing events she has fallen prey to in the following years is unknown.”

That last sentence caught Radiant’s attention. “How many… events are we talking about?”

“The exact number is uncertain, as approximately twenty-four years ago Omega Girl experienced a transformation event of unknown origin and became substantially more difficult to directly monitor. However, I have observed at least twenty incidents that can be categorized as ‘mind control’ with 96% confidence, and another seventeen in which her actions or behavior would indicate possible outside influence.”

Poor kid, she fretted. “Is she-- Is she still mentally functional?” She found it hard to imagine being bounced around between one controller and the next that many times and not ending up a basket case.

“Yes. Omega Girl has continued her career into the present day, and I have observed no credible signs of mental degradation at this point.”

Now the other question she had dreaded. “And what happened to my sister? Did he place her in stasis, too?”

“No. Your separation from the other Valorine was evidently the implementation of a larger design to disable your apparent immunity to mind control and the lock on the Guardian Gear that keyed it only to your use. Doctor Cyber used the Guardian Gear to rewrite your sister’s personality and identity. He named her Mary, and programmed her to be his slave. Specifically, to be his assistant, housekeeper, cook and sexual partner.”

Eww… Radiant shuddered. Then, “Wait a minute. If he died two years later, what happened to her?”

The Bardiche reported that a search was organized approximately one year after their disappearance, but did not bear fruit until shortly after Doctor Cyber’s apparent death. A group of supers located the base in which they were captured, and found Mary within. While she initially resisted their intrusion, the group managed to restrain her, and Sigil Seraph was able to contact her original personality. For reasons unknown, Mary elected to keep her new name and used the Guardian Gear to subvert her would-be rescuers into expanding the base to be used as the headquarters for a supers team called the HeroGuild. The searchers based in Auburnville had their efforts refocused to more standard superteam duties. “To the public at large, Radiant’s fate is unknown. It is uncertain why Sigil Seraph did not continue the search, to try to find you.”

Radiant had a pretty good idea why: When she and her sister were first separated, they convinced Sigil Seraph to help locate the various emergency workers who had witnessed the split and removed their memories of the event. She then surprised Seraph and similarly edited her memory of it. Since Seraph only remembered one Radiant, and found her, she didn’t continue the search. But if she knew she found her, why did Mary stay Mary?

She watched the world of her birth grow as she continued to approach it. What was she missing? She couldn’t sense her sister through the link they’d shared after separation, but she somehow knew it would return when they returned to each other’s presence. Cyber probably suppressed the memory of the separation from Mary’s and Lacie’s minds. “How did Lacie handle what Mary did, or is she one of the members of the Auburnville HeroGuild?”

“Omega Girl remained a fixture in River City, and did not contact Mary until recently.”

What? That didn’t sound right to Val. Why would she hide from Lacie? Why would she hide from--

Oh, God. “What-- what happened to Lacie’s father James?”

“Doctor James Gilbertson was killed in a home invasion eighteen months after your capture. Evidence suggests he was targeted due to his connection to Omega Girl.”

Sorrow gripped Val’s heart. Oh, James. I wasn’t there to protect you. Her vision blurred as tears filled her eyes. One drawback of zero-g was that there was no “down” for tears to flow to, and she been “coasting” for a while while the Bardiche filled her in. She curled in on herself, weeping for her lost love.

* * *

HeroGuild base

The duo flew to the top observation deck, one of the few pieces of the HeroGuild base that was above ground, high up on the mountain. They entered and went to the Operations Room, where coordination with city emergency services took place.

It was unmanned.

“Where is everybody?” Shadowpath asked as she checked the workstations. Two of the five were still logged in, although they showed a message that base communications were in lockdown. No communication could be transmitted in or out.

“Maybe they went outside, to call for help?” Apogee ventured.

“Then why didn’t we hear it?” Shadowpath returned. She straightened up and tried to extend her senses into the base, then grunted.

“What’s wrong?”

“The psi-scramblers have been turned on. I can still see normally, but I can’t track for crap, nor can I see through walls,” she explained.

“What does being able to see have to do with your powers?” Apogee asked, confused.

Shadowpath lightly tapped her wraparound shades. “I don’t have eyes. These are for keeping others from seeing what’s under them.” She sighed. “This feels like a trap.”

“Yeah,” Apogee agreed. “I thi—”

hmmmm--

* * *

Space

After a time, she got a grip on herself and rocketed toward Earth, the acceleration allowing the tears to flow down her cheeks. The Bardiche caused the air pocket to circulate such that it felt as she were flying into the wind. She would mourn James properly later.

Right now, she needed to figure out what was going on with her sister. And she knew where to get the answers: from someone who was there at the time. “Okay. Do you have the location of Sigil Seraph?”

* * *

HeroGuild base

--mmmmm

Shadowpath turned to Apogee, only to find she was no longer there. Then she noticed she wasn’t in Ops any more. She was standing in a hallway outside the cafeteria. She could hear general movement beyond the door. Finally she noticed there was something weird on the side of her neck, greasy, like some kind of oil. Determined to find out what was going on, she stepped through the door.

The psi-scramblers seemed to be a bit more intense here, so even her vision was a little fuzzy. As a result, she wasn’t sure she was seeing what she was actually seeing.

Was everybody… fucking? She couldn’t be sure because of how messed up her vision was at the moment, but surely it must be everyone in the base attending this little orgy. Various groups of twos and threes, licking, sucking, and fucking like there was no tomorrow. There was a tall woman to one side being penetrated front and back by two men, and she realized that must be Apogee. I know this is wrong, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it. Later. Fuck, why am I so horny??

Behind Shadowpath, standing to the side of the door she had just come through, Sophie set down the Mannequin Ray which she had used to reverse the effect she inflicted on the heroines up in Ops. Apogee had been restored first, luck of the draw really, and she was cumming her brains out nicely. Now it was Shadowpath’s turn.

Sophie slid up behind the heroine, placing her hands on the other’s hips. “Hello, Evelyn,” she used the hero’s first name. “How you doing?”

“Sophie. What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain later,” she nibbled on Evelyn’s ear lobe, began caressing her body. “Right now, we have better things to do.”

* * *

Barcelona, Spain

The sign on the place said La Vida Brillante. The Bright Life. The club was a converted mansion, the main grounds having reverted to the city for development years ago, which meant there were storefronts and boutiques across the street and right up the sides of the building.

Val approached the door, feeling naked in the slinky dress she wore. Her massive chest, which showed little sag despite lacking a bra, was barely contained and the skirt went a mere inch or two below her crotch. The metallic sequins looked like a waterfall of shimmering silver. The 5-inch heels would have killed her feet if she weren’t using her flight to keep her weight off them.

Not wishing to draw attention to herself (beyond the obvious sexpot vibe she was already projecting), she slipped into the line, exercising patience she didn’t really feel. She needed answers, and Sigil Seraph was the only one she trusted to give them. The Bardiche had reported the Seraph’s romantic partner had acquired this club and had her managing the dancers.

The bouncer at the door, who had been turning away as many people as he had been letting in, spent about a second appraising her before pulling the rope aside without a word. She strode in, across the foyer and into the main room without pause. The music was quite loud, but seemed to tamp down a bit as she sat at the bar.

The bartender approached but before he could say anything she began haltingly, “Estoy buscando a alguien…”

“You can speak English in here, sweetheart,” the bartender interrupted with a smile, his accent almost nonexistent, although she could tell the word “sweetheart” felt awkward in his mouth.

Val chuckled, a little relieved. Although she was fluent in French and Italian, along with Russian, Mandarin, and a number of other languages, Spanish always tripped her up for some reason. “Thanks. As I was saying, I’m looking for somebody. Her name’s Julia, and I believe she works with the club’s dancers?”

“Oh! Sure,” he picked up a phone. “Who should I say is looking for her?”

She considered for a second, then, “Tell her it’s Valorine.”

A few moments later, Val felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Sigil Seraph standing there. Although not wearing her mask, her signature platinum blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders, with the tiny glyphs and symbols floating within the strands. She wore an attractive black dress. “Mary?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”

She thinks I’m my sister, she realized, then responded aloud, “Julia, can we talk in private?”

She tilted her head, as if considering, for a second, then, “Of course. Come with me.”

Val followed the sorceress to a secured hallway and from there to an expansive office on the mansion’s third and top floor. The wall opposite the door was covered in monitors, showing every room in the mansion. Seated at the desk in front of it was a man with sandy hair. Standing beside him was a woman with pale skin and long dark hair wearing a sleeveless evening gown whose deep red color matched her lipstick. Her sharp hazel eyes showed a certain cunning and perhaps a malicious sense of humor.

“Ah! Come in, please,” he called to the pair as they entered.

Julia’s reaction to the woman was immediate. “What is she doing here?” she demanded.

“Hello, Seraph,” the other woman responded with a smirk. “How’s retirement treating you?”

“Why, you—” Julia began, eyes and hair starting to glow.

“Whoa! Julia,” the man jumped to his feet, “stand down. There is no need to throw magic around in here. Especially not without my permission.”

“Jack,” Julia protested, even a the glow faded, “that is La Bruja Reina, a sorceress as powerful as she is corrupt! You can’t trust her.”

Val’s brow furrowed. Who did this guy think he was?! She trusted Julia’s judgment in matters of magic. If she thought it was necessary to throw down as soon as she saw this woman, it definitely was!

“I know,” Jack replied. “In fact, she came here tonight to take over the club.”

“What?! No--!”

“Relax,” Jack smiled. “We had a nice long discussion, and Reina has decided to give up her life of crime and come work for me, now. Isn’t that right, my dear?”

“Mmmm, yes, Master,” she purred, moving to rub against his arm. “I would never betray you or work against your interests.” She then smirked at Julia, who fumed at the display. “We were just talking about what my new job should be.”

“I would think ‘whore’ would be the most appropriate,” Julia sneered, “you being a succubus and all.”

Reina glared at her. “I am NOT a succubus. My mother was human. And while my father was an incubus, true succubi and incubi can only be borne from the womb of another succubus.

“But actually, the job Jack was offering was that of his personal assistant. I will attend to his needs and offer what help and advice I can.”

“This is not acceptable,” Julia protested.

“And yet you accept it,” Jack countered. “Reina is my assistant. That’s how it is. Right?”

Julia blinked a few times, then replied, rather blankly, “Right. Reina is your assistant. I accept that.”

That’s it, Val had seen enough. It was clear to her Reina was influencing Jack and, by extension, Julia. She launched herself forward, intent on removing Reina from the room.

She had almost reached her when Jack threw a hand up and yelled, “STOP!” causing Val to halt in midair.

Shit! Val noticed she hadn’t been stopped by an unseen force, but had stopped herself, entirely at Jack’s command. I’ve obviously misjudged the situation. I better summon the Bar--

“Put your feet on the ground,” Jack interrupted her thoughts. “Stand and think of nothing but staying right there until I say otherwise.”

Although Val had been informed by the Bardiche that her separation into two people had canceled her immunity to mind control, she didn’t truly know what that meant. All her life, her dual conscious nature and her Guardian Gear had provided such a complete shield, she never learned any other way to resist such influence. Now, she had neither, and all she could do was stand there and think of nothing but staying there and standing there and staying there and standing there and stayingthereandstandingthereandstayingthereandstandingthereand…

“Julia,” Jack inquired, watching the look of quiet consternation on Val’s face as she focused completely on her task of utter inaction, “why can the HeroGuild maid fly? And why is she even here?”

Julia sighed. “She can fly because she was a hero before she retired. And she’s more than just the maid. She heads the unpowered staff, she basically keeps the place running. As for why she’s here, if I had to guess, since she was looking for me I’d say she came to bring me back to the Guild. No idea why they sent her and not someone else, though.”

Reina had moved close to Val, touching and prodding her face to watch the lack of reaction. “I suppose you could make her a dancer,” she mused, then touched an eye to watch the lid twitch and blink. “Although with this body, it might be more profitable to put her on OnlyFans.”

“That would be a great way to get the Guild to come crashing down on the club,” Julia replied. “She is well liked by the team, sort of like a mascot, and seeing her publicly subjected to that sort of thing is bound to get a reaction, and not a good one.”

Jack was aware of how the HeroGuild supers felt about Mary, and also why. The night before Jack and Julia started the trip that eventually landed them running La Vida Brillante, Julia’s best friend Mel (known as Apogee on the team, and Mindy to Jack) shared how Mary made herself sexually available to any super on the team any time they wished. There was even a joked adage among the team members, that Mary herself shared with Mel, “You haven’t completed your orientation as a HeroGuild team member until you’ve fucked Mary Makepeace.” Mel had actually shared this story shortly after “completing her orientation” earlier that day.

“Then I guess we send her back,” he ventured.

“Before you make a final decision,” Reina began as she turned away from Val, “I have an idea. But first, can we speak privately?” she glanced at Julia.

He followed her gaze, considered for a moment, then nodded. “Julia,” he addressed her, “deep trance.” As Julia’s eyes lost their focus, he turned back to Reina. “What’s up?”

“If we send her back empty handed, even with a plausible cover memory, there’s nothing to stop them from sending someone else.”

“What do you suggest?”

“We send Sigil Seraph back with her, with Seraph keeping her on a metaphorical leash.”

“I’m listening,” Jack said motioning her to continue.

“I can make her absolutely fixated and obedient to Julia.”

“Along with the obvious attitude change, that people would definitely notice, I doubt Julia would go along with it.”

“I think I have a way to convince her.” She paused for a moment to consider how to proceed. “Okay, little sidebar, Julia was partially right about my heritage. I <i>am</i> part demon. As a result, I have certain demonic attributes that I can manifest and dismiss at will.”

“What kind of attributes?” Jack was intrigued.

“Just what you would expect,” Reina replied dismissively, “horns, eyes, tail,” she trailed off before muttering, “...tongue.”

A grin started to form on his lips. “Show me.”

Reina rolled her eyes, not truly put out as she knew he would ask as soon as she revealed this to him. Without preamble, black horns sprouted from her forehead, curving delicately upward six inches before flaring out slightly at the ends. The tail was a long, thin affair with a flat arrowhead at the end and obviously prehensile. Her tongue, not forked surprisingly, snaked out and lightly stroked her eyebrows before retreating back into her mouth. Finally, the whites of her eyes became deepest black and the irises took on a violet glow.

“The point is,” she continued, “these are not different from my base form but rather… extensions, for lack of a better word. Pieces of myself that I can bring forth, or put away,” she suddenly turned back to normal, “with a thought.”

“And this has to do with Julia how?”

“By giving her something extra for the maid to focus her obedience on. Something that, when dismissed, the maid will still obey, believing the orders to be her own thoughts.

“I’ve always been an avid student of morphic auras and their manifestations, due to working to understand the mechanism behind my own attributes. If you can keep her docile like this, I can take a close look at her morphic base form to see if what I have in mind is possible. With your permission, of course.”

He thought about it for a second, then nodded. “Go ahead.”

Reina grinned and approached Julia. With her back to him, Jack didn’t see her eyes resume their demonic aspect. With these she could see deeper nuances of magic, which in turn allowed her to directly examine the weave of magical and natural energies that made up her base morphic aura. She began to check if it were possible to add the attribute she had in mind, and discovered something surprising. Sigil Seraph’s morphic base had a potential for enormous additional complexity, yet was entirely undeveloped. That is, her aura could not only support adding an attribute, but entire additional forms, that she could switch between at will.

This changed the equation, as far as Reina was concerned. Rather than just an attribute, she crafted an entire alternate form that had the planned attribute included. Tied into this form was a persona that was similar to Julia’s original personality, but with key differences. The previously untouched nature of the base aura told Reina that Julia, despite the vast range of magic knowledge in other areas she possessed, had never ventured into this field of study, and so would have no idea how or even what Reina did.

Reina stepped aside to give Jack a clear view, then effected the change. She watched the shock on his face with amusement as he realized the “attribute” she wanted to add to Julia was a twelve-inch penis that was about as thick as her forearm. He found himself unable to look away as Reina moved to whisper instructions into his ear. She the stepped to the middle distance between them and snapped her fingers, causing him to wake from the sudden trance.

Julia woke from her trance as well. She looked at the huge new appendage standing erect, and ran a hand along its length. The persona Reina created for this form was completely comfortable with it, and the hypnotic power she felt emanating from it. She watched the other sorceress position herself behind Val and turn her head to be looking directly at the cock.

“You can release her now,” Reina said to Jack.

Jack thought back to the exact wording he used earlier, chuckled and said, “Otherwise.”

Val’s eyes regained alertness and fell upon the penis. “Wha--?” she began, then glanced at Julia’s face. “Julia, what ha…” was all she managed before her focus was drawn inexorably back.

Julia smirked at the busty blonde. “Like what you see?”

Val nodded. She approached it slowly, never looking away, and lowered to her knees before it.

“Would you like to touch it?”

Val nodded again and lightly ran her fingers along the shaft.

“Kiss it,” she hissed.

Val leaned forward and gently caressed the head with her lips and tongue.

Julia, reveling in the sensations, grabbed Val’s hair and pushed further into her mouth. The girth of the member stretched Val’s lips to their limit. After a few thrusts, she pulled out of Val’s mouth. “And what will you do for it?”

“Anything!” Val gasped.

Reina had moved back to stand with Jack and the two watched Julia, tentatively at first then with more confidence, dominate Val. “So,” Reina addressed Jack, “what do you think?”

He shook his head. “I never would have thought I would want to see Julia with a cock, but it’s oddly… compelling.” They watched as Julia enthusiastically moved from titfucking to jamming her cock up Val’s backside. Val’s face seemed to be a mix of ecstasy and horror as she endured the full length being thrust up her ass again and again. Julia muttered instructions to Val while this was happening, cementing her control.

Reina smirked. “I have to say, it is rather satisfying to see the great Sigil Seraph reduced to this… carnal beast.” Jack frowned at her, and she shrugged. “What? I know we both work for you now, but we were bitter foes for a long time. Our current arrangement doesn’t erase our history. Although I think we may come to… an understanding now.” At least when she’s rockin’ her cock, that is, she added to herself.

Before Jack could respond, Julia threw back her head and screamed in orgasm. Val shuddered in her own climax then, unexpectedly, began to glow. Reina raised an eyebrow. “Hmm. I guess she hasn’t acclimated to the mana flow balance of this new form.”

“What does that mean?” Jack asked.

“It means she just blasted a good portion of her magical essence up her sextoy’s ass.”

Julia pulled her spent and flaccid member from Val’s rump, eliciting post-orgasmic shivers from the blonde, and rose to join the other two. Before going more than a couple steps, she glanced back at Val. “Heel.” The smaller woman followed, still glowing.

Julia grinned as she reached her lover and her rival. “That was amazing, but way more draining than I thought it would be.”

“So I see,” Jack replied. “Why don’t you put that thing away for now.”

She blinked and studied the limp appendage. “What do you-- Oh!” as it vanished, and she sensed the internal switch by which she could dismiss it and bring it back. She regarded Val, naked and glowing. “You okay, Mary?”

Val, her subservient persona vanishing with Julia’s cock, nodded. “Actually, I feel kinda supercharged.” She picked up her discarded dress and shoes and slipped them on. “But I’m not Mary. I’m Valorine.”

“I don’t understand,” Julia replied. She was aware Mary had originally been Valorine.

“I can help with that,” Val said. “About thirty-odd years ago, shortly before Doctor Cyber captured me, I used my Guardian Gear to suppress a memory of yours. With your permission, I’d like to help you recall it.”

Jack noticed the personality shift in both heroines and was about to comment when Reina caught his eye and shook her head almost imperceptibly. She leaned in and whispered, “Part of the enchantment. Their ‘futa’ memories are glossed over when it is dismissed, so they don’t notice their altered behavior.”

Julia was saying, “So, if we’re recovering a memory, where’s your Guardian Gear?”

“I have something better,” Val answered. Then she held out her hand and proclaimed, “Bardiche!” The haft of the 6 foot long pole-arm immediately appeared in her hand. “Report,” she addressed it silently.

“Preliminary analysis complete,” it responded in Val’s mind. Dr. Jack Garrison’s method of mind control is an as yet undefined energy type. Further analysis is recommended. While I am not currently able to replicate or undo manipulations based on this power, I can shield against further manipulations.

“Analysis of the actions of La Bruja Reina show manipulations of Sigil Seraph’s base reality and personality. The effects appear to have subsided.

“Finally, previous analysis of the Guardian Gear’s energy signature will allow me to replicate the effect for purposes of restoring Sigil Seraph’s buried memory per your specifications.

“WARNING: your body has absorbed a massive amount of bio-orogon energy, colloquially referred to locally as mana. Your cells are currently at seventy-seven percent saturation. Although concentrations beyond forty percent are fatal in unpowered humans, your body’s extreme resilience and ability to metabolize the energy allows you to safely contain much higher levels. However, maintenance of that level of concentration for a prolonged period would be detrimental to someone of even your power level.”

Val blinked, then inquired silently, “How long do I have before I suffer damage?”

“Detrimental effects will begin to accumulate if saturation is still above fifty-eight percent in ninety-four hours, thirty-one minutes. Exertion beyond normal limits will cause quicker metabolization of the energy, lowering saturation faster.”

Okay, so I can deal with that later, Val mused. Aloud, she told Julia, “This can mimic the Guardian Gear light and restore that memory.”

“What is it?” Julia asked.

“A DarVek Bardiche, a little souvenir from when I stopped their invasion, back in 1975.”

“Do you trust it?”

“It’s attuned to me,” Val reassured her, “just like the Guardian Gear.”

Julia sighed. “Okay. Go ahead.” The Bardiche’s blade began to glow and a beam of light illuminated Julia’s head. She closed her eyes, her breath remaining steady. Presently, she opened her eyes and glanced at Val muttering, “You bitch,” without venom.

“What happened?” Jack asked.

“She was in some sort of accident that split her into two people,” Julia explained. “She and her newly created twin called me in to make sure they weren’t going to die. Then she convinced me it should be kept secret, so I helped her find the various emergency workers who witnessed the event so she could remove the memory of it. We had just dealt with the last one when she turns to me and wipes my memory, too!

“A week later, her sister got captured by Cyber and brainwashed into believing she was his maid and sex slave Mary. I don’t know where this one has been that whole time.”

“I was caught first, earlier that same night,” Val replied, “as bait for my sister, then stuck in a stasis room in Cyber’s lair. I just got out yesterday.”

Val’s expression changed. “I found out what happened to my sister. How Cyber had used her and your rescue of her, restoring her mind. But I don’t understand something. Why did she keep hiding? Why did she keep calling herself Mary? I would ask her myself, but I believe Cyber suppressed the memory of me from both her and Omega Girl. I want to understand what happened before I approach her.”

Julia gathered her thoughts, then, “When we found Mary in Cyber’s base, she was completely his slave. She hid from us, she fought us, even when we caught her, she refused to recognize us. I couldn’t even get past the surface thoughts in her mind.”

“Wait,” Val interrupted. “Who’s ‘us’?”

“BitTyrant, Structuresmith, and myself,” Julia replied. “Three people you’d had working relationships with in the past. Three people you trusted implicitly.” She gave Val a pointed look. “Or so I thought.”

Jack shook his head. “You just switched from referring to Mary to referring to Val.”

“Anything that happened in Mary’s life before the split also happened to Val, because up to that point they were the same person.”

“So, what happened?” Val asked, wanting the rest of the story.

“BitTyrant showed Mary proof of Doctor Cyber’s death, and she just emotionally… collapsed. I used that opening to dive into her mind and pull her original memories to the surface. I wasn’t able to dislodge the Mary persona from her, but I was able to put Val back in the driver’s seat

“Then I discovered she was pregnant. And her thoughts went to children she’d borne that were taken from her: Jamie, whom you’d given up to give her a normal childhood, and me.”

The color drained from Val’s face. “You found out…?”

“That you’re my birth mother, who had me as a teenager and had to give me up for adoption? Yeah.”

Jack’s mouth fell open. Reina’s hand flew to her mouth, whether in shock or to keep from laughing is uncertain...

“Julia…” Val began.

“Val,” Julia stopped her, “I know this is a shock to know that I know, but I literally found out thirty years ago. Anyway, Mary was pregnant, and couldn’t bear the thought of giving up another child.

“After that, somehow we decided to expand the base for use as a superteam headquarters, and invited other heroes searching for you to join. Mary stayed on working as a maid and morale officer.”

Jack was nonplussed. “What? And nobody recognized her? The very super they were looking for?”

“Oh, she definitely used the Guardian Gear on you guys. And probably every super who joined the team after,” Val surmised. “So she raised her child there in the HeroGuild base?”

“Children,” Julia corrected. “Twins. A boy and a girl. He grew up to be a speedster for the Guild. Goes by Redshift. And she became a doctor, got married and has a son.”

Val was starting to get misty-eyed. “Mary’s a grandmother. That’s amazing.”

* * *

Julia set down the phone. “No one is picking up at the HeroGuild base. I called Auburnville Emergency Services and they said the base and part of the town has been quarantined. A delivery driver reported seeing the staff involved in an orgy. He got out, but apparently he was affected by whatever it was, and now there are several buildings downtown that have been cordoned off for excessive, ahem, revelry.”

“You know,” Jack observed from where he had been talking privately with Reina, “growing up, the comic books never prepare you for how much sex supers have. I mean, specifically, superpowered work-related sex.”

“Not in kids’ comics, anyway,” Reina muttered.

“The other weird thing they reported was that those affected appeared to have synchronized orgasms. A while of nothing but low grunts and moans, then everybody screams at once.”

“We should check it out,” Val commented. She had managed to stop glowing. “I owe Apogee and Shadowpath an apology.”

The four talked for a bit longer, then stepped out to a balcony and said their goodbyes. As Radiant and Sigil Seraph, now in costume, prepared to depart, Reina draped an arm around Jack’s shoulders. “Don’t worry, Seraph,” she jabbed, “Jack will be just fine. I’ll make sure of that.”

Seraph addressed Jack. “Don’t trust her for a second. She is spiteful and cunning as hell. I suggest a muzzle.”

As the pair rose into the sky, Reina muttered to herself. “I wonder if I could make her next base form a handbag...”

* * *

HeroGuild Base

Next to the cafeteria, in the abandoned kitchen, the greenish-blue mass of goop had grown. It now filled the industrial-sized sink. As each person it had made a connection to orgasmed, sparks of light would flash deep within it, and it would grow a little more.

Soon, it would be large enough to send the signal. Soon it would fulfill its purpose.

Soon.

End Part Two