FANTASTIC FOUR: EARTH GIRLS AIN'T EASY, THE DORREK ALTERNATIVE Updated 23/06/19 (Patreon)

FANTASTIC FOUR: EARTH GIRLS AIN'T EASY, THE DORREK ALTERNATIVE

by JR / ksennin

DISCLAIMER: The following story is an adult-themed parody of the Fantastic Four comic book, issues 204-217, by Marv Wolfman, John Byrne, and others.  The Fantastic Four and all related characters are property, copyright and trademark of Marvel Comics.  Go buy their comics.  No copyright infringement is intended.  The author received no payment for this story, and no money shall be earned by its distribution.

WARNING: The following story contains adult themes and explicit descriptions of extreme sexual events.  MINORS MUST NOT READ THIS.  Many so-called adults shouldn't, either.  If you are below your country's age of legal majority, kindly bugger off.

FANTASTIC FOUR: EARTH GIRLS AIN'T EASY, THE DORREK ALTERNATIVE

PROLOGUE:  THE UNBEARABLE HARDNESS OF BEING

Unaffected by the harshness of the desolate moonscape, the robed, bald human-like figure looked up from the surface of Earth's natural satellite at the vast, star-studded panorama, cosmic senses reaching far beyond his usual localized area of interest.

Uatu the Watcher had witnessed the multi-threaded unfolding of destiny linked to these Earth beings, the Fantastic Four, of whom he had grown so fond over these recent years of watching, and never been less than surprised at the uniqueness of their spirit and fortitude, at the wide-ranging breadth of their adventures, so extraordinary for beings of a species still barely out from the virtual infancy of its development.  

So many things could always go wrong, for their survival as individuals, and for that of their whole species and world.  

The possible timelines were open to the probing eyes of a Watcher, the colapse of probability into actuality of some paths always more likely than others, with some particular ones proving surprising even to one such as he, when, unlikely as they were in many ways, they still proved strangely compelling in their urgency and intense teleological necessity.

Sometimes could even a Watcher judge which path was truly right or wrong?

FANTASTIC FOUR: EARTH GIRLS AIN'T EASY, THE DORREK ALTERNATIVE

ALTERNATE PART ONE:  WHEN IN THE SKRULL THRONEWORLD, DO AS THE SKRULLS DO

CHAPTER ONE:  SHE'S GOT THE LOOK

The Super-Skrull had made Susan invisible and wrapped about her a tight band of invisible force, keeping her close to him while they walked through the many corridors and levels of the Skrull ThroneWorld's Imperial complex, passing unchallenged the multiple checkpoints, the authority of his high rank and reputation forestalling any elaborate scans.

The neutralizer band on her neck gave just the faintest tingling sensation.

Sue tracked their progress carefully, matching it as well as she could against the model of the place in her head, constructed painstakingly from the descriptions given by the servant girls who prepared her for the party.  She would need to find the way on her own if she managed to escape, unlikely as that seemed.

All around her milled scores of heavily armed Skrull warriors, the elite forces of the Empire, and she was held by its very greatest champion.

But she could not lose hope.

"What if she turns on you?"

"I told you to be silent."

"What if she decides to get rid of you, once you are no longer useful?"

"That will not happen."

"Really?  Seems like she isn't above betraying those close to her."

His invisible force seized her shoulders, applying pressure to her.

"You are just wasting our time.  You want to create doubt and discord.  But it will not work.  You know nothing about us, Earthling, about the powers and influences at play, about...  Nothing.  You know nothing."

"What about Dorrek?  What if he has leverage that you don't know about?  That even she doesn't know about?"

"There is nothing he can do."

"What if he makes her change her mind?  If they reach a new political compromise, a new arrangement?"

"You do not know her.  Or how it is between them."

Susan pursed her lips.  "I do know that Dorrek can be...  persuasive."

"No.  Not this time.  There is no turning back now."

"He may surprise you.  He can be more dangerous than you expected.  I know.  Much, much more.  How else did he get his position?  Get to be emperor?"

"Dirty politics got him the throne."

"What if that works out again for him?  Who would take the fall, then?"

"Nonsense."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because before Dorrek can work out anything he will be dead."

Her fair eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Dead?  Dorrek?"

"Yes.  Dead."

"I-I thought the plan was to overthrow him."

"That is how that is done here."

"Then she-?"

"Yes."

"His very own wife-?"

"He did the same to her father, many years ago."  He shrugged.  "I thought you'd be pleased."

She looked down, then to a side, still startled.

Should she?  Be pleased?

If it was true.  About him.  Dorrek.  Being dead.  Now.  Now that...

Could he really be dead?  Just like that?

Should that please her?  Make her feel better?  After what had happened?  After...  everything?

Hadn't she wished for it?  Didn't she have reasons enough?  Hadn't she thought of it?  Many times?  During the worst of it?   Even while he...  while he had...?

Her lips pressed tightly together.

Would it be wrong?   To have wanted him dead?  That hateful, cruel fiend?  To have wanted it?  Wanted it?  Wanted...?

She breathed deeply, and willed her fists to unclench.

He certainly deserved to be punished.  For everything.  Everything.

She should thankful.  Or at least, relieved.  If it was true, that meant one less threat to worry about.

Yet she found it uncomfortable to even think about it, to think that Dorrek's own wife could have killed him, and while looking just like her, too.

Yet it would not be her.  It would not be her doing.  Nor her choice.  She should not feel troubled, or guilty.

She should not feel guilty.  Even if she had wanted it.  Really wanted it.

Because she had.  Hadn't she?  Wanted it?  Really wanted...  it?

What if it had been her choice?  Would she have...  done it?  Really done it?

What if it still was?

What if it had not happened yet and she could still somehow...  stop it?  Warn him?

Could she?

Would she?

Or would she let him die?  Let him pay for everything he had done?  Let him be gone?  Gone.  Forever.

She pressed her head to the wall behind her.

Even if she could somehow warn him, or even help him, could that...  change things?  Made it different?  Really different?  Could she perhaps earn that their freedom and safety?  But could she have trusted him to be thankful?  Trusted his gratitude?  Trusted... him?  Him?  Afterwards?  Or ever?  Trust him to...?

She shook her head.

No.  Never.  Not with him.  Not Dorrek.  Not ever.

Even as a conjecture, she couldn't have.  It was too big a risk.  Too big to take.

She breathed in deeply.

If Dorrek was really dead, then she never would need to, or have to...  fear him again.  Or hate him.  Or even think about him.  Or about...  About what had happened, and all that...  that almost had.

Never.  Never again.  Right?

***************************************************

It had taken what felt like forever to be finished with all those fools, to finally get free, free to come back.

Dorrek IV, emperor of all Skrulls, entered the room and smiled at the unobstructed view of the blonde Earthling beauty stretched upright by the restrains, naked and helpless, just as he had left her.

Waiting.  For him.

So beautiful.  So mouth-watering beautiful.

Susan Storm, the Invisible Girl of the Fantastic Four of Earth, long-time enemies of the Skrulls, long-time thorn in his side.  She was the wife to their leader, Reed Richards, too, and as powerful as she was physically desirable, with her golden hair and fair-skinned voluptuous body.  A body he had already begun to explore and enjoy as such a body should be.

He would not tire easily of this one, not like with the others.

No, not with her.      

He had so much to catch up with.

He addressed his guards behind him, not looking at them, his eyes fixed on her.

"Stay outside.  This time, whoever interrupts me will be executed, along with all relatives, to the third degree.  No, fourth, the fourth degree.  Understood?"

The guards bowed and exited.  The door closed.

"That all took too long, far too long," he told his captive, out loud.  "You must have grown desperate, waiting for me.  Needing me."

He let his robes fall to the floor.  He was already hard and growing even harder, with anticipation.

"I will spare you any further waiting."

Naked, he went to inspect the displayed implements of his collection.  He needed something less benevolent than the whip, now.

"We have to get back to checking how that delicious tightness of yours holds up."

He ran his hand over the specially-crafted metal surfaces.

"I am sure it will take a long time to stretch you properly.  A long, happy, painful time."

He picked up a couple of exotic choices, setting others aside for later.

"I bet you cannot wait for it.  Wait for this."  He gestured at his oversized erection.  "All of this."

Turning to let her watch, he slipped on heavily studded cock-rings on his member, specially designed and made for him.

"You will grow to love every inch of this cock, my dear, just as much as you fear it."

He felt his flesh grow even harder under the rings' pressure.

"You will love having it stretch you, stretch your tight, wet, hot cunt, so, so much..."

His mouth spread in a twisted smile.

"So unlike that bitch of my wife who cannot appreciate a good thing."

He also studied various clamps and tweezers, verifying that their energy functions were in working order.

"She would... stretch around me, you see, but not the proper way.  Not letting my size do it.  No, she would not have it.  She would not let me, not ever.   She wasted this.  All of this.  Can you believe that?  She made herself looser and looser each time, always too loose by far, no matter how much I tried to catch up.  Always denying her husband and emperor the satisfaction of seeing her wince and moan and cry in pain, just as she should, denying me the rightful pleasure of making it hurt for her.  The fucking bitch."

He nodded.  These would do.

"But you will give me that pleasure, won't you?  You will hurt for me.  You will be so deliciously tight and will hurt, hurt so, so much for me."

He turned towards her, beaming broadly.

"And I may keep you, as my favorite, my official...  Uh?"

The restrains now hung open and empty.

She stood, blonde and beautiful, still naked as before, but unbound, her limbs free.  A weapon, a blaster, was in her hand.

"What are-?"

"What if I take the pleasure of hurting you, instead?"

He dropped everything to reach for his wrist-band, but the energy blast was there first, reducing his hand to fiery ashes, along with most of his lower forearm.

He screamed, staggering back.

"Will that be rightful enough for you?"

Another blast took his other arm off from the elbow down, and he fell to his knees.

"Will that be proper homage to your imperial privilege?"

He wanted to speak, to ask how, why, to demand an explanation of what was happening, but his voice failed him.  He could only let out a shrill whine of pain.

"Proper tribute to your great cock?"

The blast struck right between his legs.

He collapsed to the floor, crouching, his voice returning in a loud, primal scream, and squirmed on the floor, crouched around his charred crotch, flailing his useless, mutilated arms.  His eyes bulged, and his mouth struggled to form words.

She tossed aside the golden hair from her face with a mocking smile.  "Will it?"

Her eyes sparkled green, bright green, as she walked towards him, blonde and fair, slim yet voluptuous, her large round breasts bouncing with each step, so like the beautiful Earthling he had held at his mercy, but the weapon was in her hand, its muzzle smoking faintly.

"So, was it good for you, too?"

***************************************************

Weapons were strewn on the floor before her, but even if Susan could use them, there would be no difference.  Not against him.  Against the Super-Skrull.

Susan grimaced.  "You want to blame it on us.  That's what all this is about.  That's why she took my place, looking just like me, and why you rushed me out of there, invisible.  So you could blame Dorrek's death on us.  On me."

"Someone must always be responsible."

"That's why you had the symbol put back on my uniform, too, to make me more recognizable as one of the Fantastic Four, when you restore the media feeds.  After you have killed us."

"The emperor must be avenged."

***************************************************

Whimpering, he tried to crawl away but his limbs were too damaged to be of any use, and barely gained an inch at a time, as his flesh twisted and shifted down between his legs, trying desperately to mend the charred tissues, to fix his ruined anatomy.

"Oh, you're really trying to fix that thing?"

She aimed and fired again, and he screamed in agony, as the air filled with the cloying stench of burned meat.

"Maybe we should give it some encouraging stimulus, don't you think?"  She spread her arms out, turning about, flaunting her lush, nude body.  "Isn't she just gorgeous?  So lushly busty and firm and golden haired..."

She tapped at her control wristband and a life-sized holographic image filled the room before his sight, an image of the very same blond woman now aiming a blaster at the fallen Skrull emperor, or one just like her.  Then the holo split in two views, spreading to cover more of the space before them, each half picturing different locations but with the same participant, all images changing in fast succession, showing different angles and distances.  Each then split into two views, spread across the room into four scenarios now, always changing, yet always displaying her, gloriously blonde and nude, each instance in different positions and with different companions.

"You wanted her so much, didn't you?  Wanted her fucked?"

His eyes were clouded with pain, with tears, but he still stared up at the holo images surrounding him.

"You should at least get to see her done.  Or the best next thing."

All holo images stabilized into a single scenario, taken from different angles, showing the blonde woman entangled in an embrace with an exact copy of her very self, one just as beautiful, spread upright by heavy, restrains, their mirrored mouths joined in a deep, sensuous kiss.

"And see it done well."

The image changed in the holos, the two women again one, as she slid provocatively over the big, rock-skinned creature stretched face-up over a bare, metal floor, her fair, bare skin contrasting with his coarse earthly hide.

"Done well, and hard, and long.  So fucking well, and hard, and long."

Dorrek moaned with mixed pain and bafflement.

"I knew you would like it.  I know I certainly did.  Every second of it.  And I am going to share every single moment with you, my dear husband.  Every single moment as I fucked each of these Earthlings, like this, in her shape, mostly.  For our pleasure.  Yours and mine.  But mostly mine.  And you will watch all of it, until the very end.  Until your very end."

He muttered faint, almost inaudible curses.

"And why did you start that damn stupid war in the first place?  Oh, yes.  The Xandarian Suzerain.  Adora, right?"

In the holo the svelte brunette moaned and laughed, her blue-decorated eyes closed in delight as she rode furiously the young fair-haired human.

"You got us into that disastrous mess that cost us half our fleet and an absurd amount of resources all because you wanted to fuck this slut, this damned painted Xandarian harlot, and others like her.  Yes, look, look at her, look at her being fucked.  As you will never get to."

She leveled the weapon at him again.

***************************************************

With eyes closed and teeth gritted, Dorrek waited for it, for the next searing blast and the further escalation of the agony.  He knew K'Rlll would draw it out, making it slow, making it last as long as possible.  She had learned well, learned from him, the damn traitorous bitch.

He had always known it could happen; such was the way of his people.  But not like this.  Not so soon.  Not when he had been so close to owning the real Earthling woman's body as fully as he had planed to, as he had so long wanted to, so close to making her belong to him in every possible way.  That jealous bitch of his wife had not even allowed him that final satisfaction.

He heard the shrill noise of the blaster discharge and flinched, but there was no increase in his pain.

Had K'Rlll missed?

He looked up just as the sound of another discharge resonated in the room but its energies flared harmlessly in mid-air, mere handspans before him, unable to reach him somehow, blocked by something he could not see.

K'Rlll, still wearing the Earthling shape, cursed loudly before being thrown sideways through half the width of the room, the smoking blaster falling from her hand before she was slammed against a draped wall by an unseen force.

Through the daze of his pain, he heard a high gasp coming from the other direction, near the chamber's doors, and hesitant footsteps approaching.

"Oh, my God...  You-You really need help,"  said Susan Storm, becoming visible right before Dorrek, one hand moving to cover her mouth, her blue eyes wide open in shock.  

Despite the terrible pain, despite the horrible injuries crippling him, the Skrull emperor smiled.

CHAPTER TWO:  ALL WORKED UP AND NOWHERE TO GO

Invisible force exploded with such violence that the walls all around were visibly dented, particularly where the Super-Skrull hit, thrown with rocket-like speed.

The Super-Skrull collapsed to the floor, the wall he had struck dented in his wake as deeply as if a giant fist had punched it.  He shook momentarily and his body shifted hesitantly between orange-like cragginess and pliability in a late, ineffective reflex of self-defense.  Some flames burst weakly at scattered spots in his frame, and then went out as finally he lay completely still.

Sue gasped weakly for air and her whole body still trembled with the fading echoes of her having nearly reached the brink, the edge of no return.  But she had prevailed, there, at the very last moment, the very last gasp of her strength, of her will.

At her neck, the power-inhibiting band had snapped, the once-faint silvery circuit lines now blackened, overloaded.

Sue had noticed the tingling, the buzzing at her neck, whenever he used his invisible force power on her, the invisible force that her neckband had been calibrated to neutralize to keep her from using it.  The closer and stronger his invisible force worked, the more noticeable the distortion became, and the more convinced she became it was her only hope for escape.

Each time he had used it on her, she had focused her own power, too, fighting the power inhibition, at the very same time as it reacted to the overlap of the one wielded by the Super-Skrull.  All in order to overtax it, to push it beyond its parameter.  But it had not been enough when used as restrains, on her wrists, waist and ankles.  The joint effect had not been strong enough.

She had needed to goad him into using it on her, much more aggressively, asking him to choke her with it, to kill her with it.  Only then, when exerted directly against her neck, with power enough to choke her to death, and matched by her focused, maximum effort, had it finally been enough to overload the device's tolerances.

She had almost lost consciousness, almost failed to pull it together, to marshal enough strength, enough resistance, enough power to strike back at him.  Almost.

But she had done it.

Grimacing, she fought the conflicting obstacles of simultaneous numbness and soreness, to sit up, to rise off the console, and then faltered, stumbling down to her knees.

She covered her face with her hands and crouched down.

Her shoulders shook.

With a deliberate effort, she reached up and threw away the now useless neckband, feeling a soft sense of victory, misplaced as it was.  She had won, but had also lost.  Lost so much.

Warily, she approached where the Super-Skrull lay unconscious.

Her power lifted him up and slammed him hard against the metal ceiling, then brought him down with to strike the floor with equal violence.  She repeated it twice.  Just in case.

A faint groan rose weakly from the other side of the room.

"Rich?"

The young man was on his knees, or trying to stay there, unsteadily leaning against a wall and shaking his head.

She went to him, concerned.  "Are you alright?"

"Must be.  I hurt too much to be dead."  He glanced around him.  "Oh, damn...  What hit here?"

The guard room was in ruins, devastated by the invisible force blast.  All the equipment, including that which had not been damaged before, was now completely destroyed.  Several of the Skrull guards were now piled over each other near a corner in a bundle of bent limbs.

Sue grimaced.  "There was... a struggle."

***************************************************

"Reed, wake up.  WAKE UP."

The words called Reed Richards back from an immeasurably long distance, back from a vast structure of ideas, of complex interlocking theories still needing to be polished, debugged and cross-checked.

"WAKE!  UP!"

The slap on his face made the trip back much quicker.

"I'm up.  I'm up."

"Reed, this is important.  We're escaping."

"Escaping?"

"The Skrull throne world.  We're getting the hell out."

"Oh.  Yes.  Good idea."

"We need you sharp.  Thinking."

"Thinking, yes."  He rubbed at his eyes, sitting on the cot.  "I can do that.  I think."

"Good.  Why are you naked?"

"I am naked?"

"Yes.  Oh, forget it.  Here.  Put your clothes on."

"Why am I naked?"

"That's what I asked you.  Alright, give me.  Let me help."

"Thanks.  This is all very strange.  I had a very peculiar dream, too."

"A dream?"

"Yes.  Quite vivid, too.  And you were there."

"Oh, really?  I was?"

But then he was unconscious again.

***************************************************

"Ms. Richards!  Lights started to flash on that console over there!  May be bad news!"

"Wouldn't surprise me," she sighed.

Johnny stepped up, smiling broadly.  "Rich!  Dude, have I got something to tell you!  You won't believe what...  Ah, well, maybe later, but...  Hey, why are you dressed like that?"

"They took my Nova suit.  I got what I could."  He wore a loose purple and black bodysuit, several sizes too big.  "Everyone here's too big."

Sue nodded, wincing.  "Yes.  I know."

Johnny raised his hands.  "Oh, yes, wait."  He rushed back to the cells and returned with a grayish box.  "Got this from ah, a friendly local.  Couldn't manage to get it to work, though."

"My Nova suit!  Oh, man, thanks!"  Rich grabbed the box and began to undress.  "Only works for whom it's attuned to-"

"Hey, dude, my sister is right here."

Sue waved her hand, exasperated.  "Never mind that.  There's likely an army of Skrulls on the way down.  Get whatever weapons you can and stand near me-"

Ben muttered angrily, tugging weakly against the heavy metal restrains still binding his limbs, his oversized digits moving stiffly against their very own granite-like skin.  "Dis gots me all weak as a kitty, Suzie.  Won't be much use inna tussle."

"If only we could rouse Reed, maybe he could, I dunno, tinker with the neckbands or something,"  Johnny said.  "And get us back into full strength."

Sue grimaced, looking at her husband, still limp and unresponsive, then glanced back at the rest of the group.

"We can't risk to wait for that."

"Sue, you know I'm not selling short your girl-power or any of that, but I don't think you can take on the whole damn Skrull empire on your own.  Not even with Rich here helping.  No offense, dude."

"Uh, I don't know-"

"Really, Sis, if we can't get Reed to come to, we'll have to find another way to-"

"Yes."  She breathed deeply, closing her fists tightly.  "I know."

***************************************************

They walked quickly out the corridor, all them made invisible by Susan's power.  They managed to evade various heavily-armed patrols but their luck may run out at any moment.

"You all stay here,"  she said, after having found a secluded-enough hiding spot near the docks.  "Rich, keeping everyone safe is up to you, now.  If I'm not back in half an hour or so, or your invisibility is suddenly gone, just go that way and steal a ship somehow, alright?  And get away at any cost, understand?  All of you.  Any cost."

"Suzie, watcha talkin' 'bout?  We couldna leave you behind!"

"Sis, we're all in this together.  As always."

"You must get safely out of here!  You must!  Once Reed is better and you have your powers back, you can come back for me.  Or-"

"But why must we split up, anyway?"

"I think I can... get help."  She grimaced, behind her invisibility.  "But I-I must go alone."

CHAPTER THREE:  THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

"You damn meddling Earthling," Empress K'Rlll muttered, wincing, while stumbling up to her knees and reaching to tap at the control band on her wrist.

Invisible force encircled the silvery wristband to deny access to its activation, before expanding to seize all of the Empress and push her violently to the wall, keeping her body pinned against it, flattened out and immobile.

"Stay,"  Susan said, frowning at the other, glancing with discomfort at that body that looked like a virtually perfect copy of her own, the eerie resemblance no less obvious in its full nakedness, in any significant way, against the scant cover given now to Susan by the tattered remnants of her Fantastic Four outfit.

"You...  could not...  keep away,"  Dorrek rasped, his eyes narrowed, appreciating despite the nearly-overwhelming pain, how the real blonde Earthling's partial coverage proved far more titillating than her doppelganger's full exposure.

Sue turned back to again stare with unrestrained horror at the injuries of the maimed Skrull emperor, still shaken, unnerved at a deep-gut level, by the awful extent of his injuries.

How could he even speak, much less still posture and leer like that?

There was little blood, the charred flesh having been cauterized instantly, but it made the sight no less gruesome.  Much of both arms had been burned away down to the bone, nearly up to the elbows, but her eyes were instead drawn instantly to the even more obvious damage at Dorrek's groin, where so much of all that she knew should have been there was now missing, almost completely, leaving only a blackened fragment of all that had once been, of all that which she had known, and which had undeniably been such a... large part, literally, of her impression of him, of her perception fo him, of how she thought of him, or thought about him.  Thought and... felt?  About him?  It was a shock to try to even recognize Dorrek like that, to realize that all of that, all that which had been so undeniably...  characteristic...  could actually be gone.  Gone.

She hesitantly looked away from Dorrek's ruined anatomy, her stomach queasy, her mind troubled in most uneasy ways by her own deep-gut reaction to his very particular mutilation, reeling between lingering anger and many-layered feelings of guilt.

She truly would have wanted him punished.  Made to pay.  Pay dearly.  For all he had done.  For his abuse for her.  For how had threatened her loved ones.  For how he had...  How he had made her...

"I-I came...  back... to offer you a deal."

But not like this.  Certainly not like this.

R'Kll scoffed out loud.  "A deal?  Really?"

Susan ignored her.  "I just saved your life, Dorrek."

"So...  you did.  Your concern...  is quite touching, my dear."

She grimaced.  "But you need medical attention.  Urgently."

Dorrek gestured at an alcove between the drapes at his right.  "Medical...  drone...  there.  Just...  touch..."

She shook her head.  Why wasn't she surprised that a medical drone was kept at Dorrek's private sex rooms?

"No.  Not yet."  She felt uneasy about this, about bartering with someone's actual life, but it also meant the life of those she truly cared about.  "Not until we reach an agreement, Dorrek."

"We could reach any agreement you want, Susan,"  R'Klll cut in, her voice still an unnerving copy of Susan's own.  "Just let that hideous gnome die, as he well deserves to, and then I'll give you anything you want.  Anything!"

Susan glanced back at her, frowning for a moment at the now-static holographic image of two entangled lovers.  Was that Adora?  And Johnny?  When had that happened?  But that wasn't important now.

"You meant for us to be blamed, Empress, for your killing him.  And then we were to be killed, too."

Susan's mirrored face smiled mirthlessly.  "That was just politics, darling.  Nothing personal, really.  It was the most expedient plan, you must agree.  But that can change.  I can let you go, Susan, you and your companions.  Let you go free.  And the war with Xandar will be over, too."

"How can we trust you, Empress?  After you meant to use us like that?  Have us defamed and murdered?"

"You can't."  Dorrek lifted his head painstakingly, laboring for breath.  "She...  Always was a...  traitorous bitch..."

R'Klll laughed out loud.  "Didn't he use you, too?  He had you all judged and condemned to death!  You're alive only because he wanted to have your little tight Earthling cunt!"

Susan grimaced, looking away.  "Maybe.  But at least he was open and honest about it."

She knew well what Dorrek had wanted.  She knew what he would likely still want.  Could she say the same about his wife?

"He also started the war.  All to conquer yet another piece of non-Skrull ass."  She cocked her head at the stalled holo.    "That piece of ass."

"That...  was just an added bonus."  Dorrek coughed.

"I would end it,"  R'Klll continued.  "End the war, and have lasting peace instead.  For the good of all!"

"That's not that great a concession, Empress,"  Susan stated.  "Your invasion force was defeated, even as we were captured.  You lost the war already.  Suing for peace is your safest way out, now."

"You-You can have peace.  And more.  Much more."  Dorrek's voice was barely a whisper now.  "Just kill her...  Kill that traitorous bitch...  Then you...  You can take her place.  At my side.  To rule the Empire.  As my wife.  As my Empress."

Susan stepped back, face reddening with anger.  "You-You... dare to still-?"

"You Earthling slut,"  K'Rlll spat.  "Was that what you really wanted all along?"

"NO!  I never-NEVER-"

"Don't worry about...  this..."  Dorrek nodded weakly at his lower body.  "It...  It'll grow back.  Just as it was.  Just as you knew it.  Just as you came to-"

K'Rlll laughed loudly.  "That was it, then?  The big selling point?  But I can match that."

To Susan's surprise, something began to grow and grow between the legs of her apparent double, something thick and long and green, as inhumanly thick and long and green as had been what was now missing between Dorrek's legs, the monstrously big phallus seeming even more alien and inhumanly-sized than ever in its sharp, incongruous contrast with the otherwise still feminine body that so closely mirrored Susan's own.

"You really liked that big, fat cock of his, didn't you, you silly Earthling?  So big and thick and hard?"

"NO!"

"Maybe you did more than just like it.  Maybe you loved it.  Really loved it.  As it stretched so wide and deep your wet and hot and so previously-tight Earthling cunt.  Maybe you loved it so much that you can't help but wonder if you don't actually love him, too; actually love that ugly, selfish creep with his huge, bad bitch-tamer.  And love to be the bitch he tames long and hard with it?  Oh, I can't blame you.  That hateful bastard can really fuck a girl's brains out, with it, with all of it, and make her love it, and love him.  He really can.  I do know that.  I know that so, so well.  So I can't blame you.  For wanting it.  For really wanting it so badly.  For running back to him because of it-"

"I DIDN'T RUN BACK TO HIM BECAUSE OF-!"

"But he's still a hateful bastard!  No matter how well he can fuck.  How better than anyone else he can really, really fuck!  And you can do better, Susan.  A smart, powerful and gorgeous female like you deserves better.  And I can give you better."  The huge member between her legs rose up, rampant.  "Much, much better."

Susan stepped backward, shaking her head, color drained from her face.  "No.  No.  NO.  I NEVER-I'D NEVER-!"

"But if you're really sweet on him, on all of him, not just on his big cock, despite how truly ugly and disgusting he is...  or maybe precisely because of that...  because of how dirty and naughty you feel for falling so hard, so badly, for such an ugly and disgusting runt just because how utterly well he can fuck you with his huge cock, well, I can give you all that, every part of that, too."

Her face began to change, to turn green and lined and alien.  A male Skrull face.  His face.

"No!"

"I can fuck you just as he would, looking just as he would, while fucking your brains out with his huge, hard cock-"

"NO!"

Invisible force struck the Empress, slamming her against the hard wall behind the draperies.  Her body then fell, limp, to the floor, an unsettling combination still showing most of Susan's female bodily characteristics, her curved contours, her large round breasts and fair skin, combined with Dorrek's green Skrull facial features and the grotesquely oversized phallus protruding between her thighs.

Susan blanched, taken aback by her too-violent reaction.  Had she even struck so hard at the beefy Skrull guards right outside, when she had arrived, invisible, to sneak back into this chambers?

She hoped she had not hurt the Empress too badly.

Why had her words gotten so much to her?  It was all nonsense, after all.  Nonsense.  How could she ever...?  Had she just taken out on her all the pent-up anger and frustration?  From all that had happened?  From the multiple ordeals she had gone through?  With Dorrek.  With Kl'rt.  From everything that had left her shaken, emotionally raw, ready to explode.  The Empress had just taken the brunt on it.

But that meant Sue had rather over-reacted into the choice of which Skrull royal figure to back.

She had to live with it.  Make the most of it.

She turned towards Dorrek, only to realize he was no longer breathing.

***************************************************

"Reed, wake up.  We need your brains, damn it."

"It's no use, Matchstick, Stretcho's really outta it."

"Um, what time is it?  Ms. Susan said that-"

Johnny frowned.  "Dude.  We wait for her."

"We wait till da cows come home and den we go look for her."

Rich did not argue.

***************************************************

>>IMPERIAL MEDICAL DRONE ZEPHA GATHA SEVEN FOUR SYSTEM STARTING<<

Sue cursed between her teeth.  What was taking the damn machine so long to get started?  Did Microsoft sell operating systems here, too?

He was definitely not breathing.

Maybe the Empress was right.  Maybe Dorrek was without doubt an evil, cruel monster.  Maybe he deserved to die.  A part of her certainly had wanted him punished, maybe even dead, at the worst parts of it, for what he had done, for what he had made her...  made her hate...  and fear and...  For everything.  Everything.

But he was now likely her best chance to get Reed and the others out of this hateful place.  Maybe her only chance.

How could she keep him alive long enough for that?

Breathing deeply, she quickly knelt by his side and began to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Her open mouth covered his broad, corrugated-lipped one, again and again, forcing air into him, again and again.

She had to do this.  Had to.  To keep him alive.  To keep them alive.

It was necessary.  Necessary.

It was nothing how it had been before.  Even if that had also been about keeping her loved ones alive, too.

But it was different.  Even if some called it "the kiss of life", it wasn't a kiss.  It really wasn't.  She may have her mouth against his, but it was not a kiss.  Not like before.  Not as it had been when they had kissed, really kissed, again and again.  No.  When he had kissed her, forcibly kissed her, violently kissed her against her will, roughly forcing his coarse lips against hers, his long, long tongue moving to tangle with hers, deep into her mouth, both their mouths mashed forcefully together in a violent struggle between denial and overbearing demand, between reluctance and assertive domination, her awareness filling with his taste and his heat and the pressure of his touch.

Then at some point he did breathe again, to her grateful relief, and his breath mixed with hers, halting, hesitant, warm and gradually rousing just like their lips and tongues and...

She pulled back abruptly, sitting back on her heels, her face flushed, feeling the heat run from her head to her toes.

She quickly wiped her mouth with a forearm, to wipe away the wetness, the taste, the echo of...

What had that been?  What had she been doing?  There, at the end?

Had she...?

How had...  that happened?

How had that ended being yet again a...?

>>NANOBOT-ENHANCED INFUSION COMPLETED<<

The drone withdrew an extended probe with a retracting syringe, which had pierced briefly Dorrek's upper arm.

"Why, were you taking advantage of me, my dear?"

Her face flushed with even greater heat.  "You-You were fading out.  I just gave you mouth to mouth-"

He coughed weakly.  "Ah, your mouth can certainly give me-"

"Stop that.  Stay still, will you?  Let the drone work."

"It warms me how much you care for-"

"STOP THAT!"

>>FIRST STAGE EMERGENCY RECOVERY EFFECTED.  BEGINNING MONITORING OF LOW THRESHOLD VITAL SIGNS.<<

"You're still dangerously weak.  And damn it, I-I do need you alive."

The broad, gleeful smile came back, as ugly and irritating as ever.  "Of course you need me, dear.  And once I'm back on my feet I'll take care of your need-"

"You damn bastard, won't you just fucking stop?  I just saved your life.  And your throne.  Not that you deserved it.  But I did.  And now you owe me.  YOU OWE ME."

"I'll gladly pay you back, my darling, every night at-"

"Will you cut that out, damn it?    

"You killed that bitch K'Rlll, right?"

"What?  NO!  She's just unconscious, I think."

"Why wait, then?   Get it done.  As the Skrull Empire's new ruling Empress, you'd-"

"NO!  I-I'd never-!  Look, you two work things out between yourselves.  Go to marriage therapy or whatever.  But all this stops NOW.  You give the order that we can go.  Free.  All of us.  And the girls, too.  The ones who...  bathed me.  Daanua, the Krylorian, and the other two, the Kree and the Shi'Ar.  They will come with us, too."

"Oh, those ones?  Ah, I'm sure they'd certainly-"

"You'll order to have them join us at the launch docks.  And a starship must be fueled up and ready to take us back to Xandar."

"Why would you want to go there?  Such a dump, really.  If you stay here-"

"You will give the orders.  That we are all free to go.   Without any hindrances.  Or any treachery.  Also, the war IS over.  For good.  You make peace.  And make it last."

"Fine, fine.  I'll let your companions go, and those concubines, too, while you and I can discuss at leisure the terms of a formal armistice-"

"WE ALL GO.  FREE.  UNHARMED.  RIGHT AWAY."

"We should first take care at last of the unfinished business between-"

"I SAID RIGHT AWAY."

"If you're in such a hurry, surely we can agree to a later-"

"NO.  No strings attached."  She blandished the Skrull wristband she had taken from Kl'tr.  "You give the orders NOW.  Carefully, too.   Or I'll just crush this medical drone right now and give your wife her weapon back."

"But surely Susan we can come together.  To a mutually satisfactory-"

"NO.  THIS ENDS NOW.  OR YOU END NOW."

>>WARNING.  UNKNOWN EXTERNAL PRESSURE INCREASE THREATENING UNIT FUNCTIONS<<

Still on his back, Dorrek narrowed his eyes.  "Why, seems there's more to you than I believed, Susan Storm of Earth.  So much, much more than the delectably self-evident."

"And there used to be a lot more of you before, Dorrek.  Quite a lot more.  And if you want to hang around long enough to get it back, GIVE THE ORDERS. NOW."

"Indeed I underestimated you, my dear, in my, ah, previous interactions.  You certainly deserved to be much more than a mere sex slave, or even a favored concubine."

She stood up, shaking her head in near-disbelief, incensed at the creep's lasting bravado.  Did he think he was flattering her?

"Ah....  Susan...  You would have made a truly magnificent wife and empress."

Sue scoffed.  "Please.  For you?  You couldn't have handled me as your wife."

***************************************************

"You waited."

"Aw, Suzie.  Ya know we ain't dat good at counting anyways, kiddo."

She sighed.  "I thought you would.  Come on, get Reed up.  A ship is there for us."

"And the Skrulls?"

"Their fight with us is over.  We can just go."

Johnny's eyebrows rose.  "You made peace?  With the Skrulls?"

Susan grimaced.  "Something like that."

***************************************************

With the assistance of the medical drone, Dorrek got up.  Leaning against the null-grav-supported metal body he moved closer to where R'Klll had begun stirring as well.

"You know, for all your pride in your shape-shifting skills, dear wife, you really did not get of all her quite right.  I should have noticed sooner.   I mean, such perfect teats as hers?  Such shape, such bouncy fullness...?  No comparison, really."

"Fuck you,"  K'Rlll spat bitterly.

"You had your chance, dear.  And blew it."  He knew the guards would arrive shortly, along with the full medical crews, so he muttered the override code for the medical drone and had it pick up the dropped blaster.  "She thinks I could not handle her.  As my wife.  Really!  I should get about proving her wrong, shouldn't I?"

He gave the order.

He would have Kl'rt blamed, of course.

FANTASTIC FOUR: EARTH GIRLS AIN'T EASY, THE DORREK ALTERNATIVE

ALTERNATE PART TWO:  BUT THEY CAN BE HAD

CHAPTER ONE:  SHOULD OLD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT

"Do we really have to do this?"

"We are here already.  Guests of honor, too.  It would not be polite to just leave now, would it?"

At his side on the luxurious vestibule, Susan Storm fidgeted.  "I just don't like it.  They were hardly transparent with us, Reed.  They were after you, to use you, to get the Nullifier."

"They were at war, Sue.  And it all worked out, no?"

Sue turned to stare at her husband, her lips tightening.  She reached to adjust his black tie.  "Wasn't that easy."

***************************************************

"Harder!  Harder, please!  And bigger!  Oh, please!  Just...  Just make it bigger!"

"Like this-?"

"More!  Like that, yes, but more!  Please!  Much more!"

"Sue, I don't-"

"Oh, Reed, please!  Make it bigger!  Much bigger!  So big I squeal!  So big it splits me in two!  PLEASE!"

Reed laughed.  "Oh, Sue.  That'd be too much, wouldn't it?"

"NO!  NO!  I WANT THAT!  JUST THAT!  PLEASE!"

"I'm... sorry,” he muttered, not much later, as he sat on the bed, by her side, running his hand over her hair while she hugged a pillow with her back to him.  “I'm just a bit...  uncomfortable with...  that..."

"I know.  It's alright."

"I know you want to... expand things a bit."

"Yes.  I do.  Expand."  She sighed.  More than a bit, really.  Much more.  "Why can't we-?  Is it wrong to-?"

"No, no, of course it is perfectly normal to experiment.  Try new things.  But we would not want to have it get out of hand, right?  Not too far, too quickly."

"We wouldn't?"

"I wouldn't want to risk-"

"A little more risk would be fine."

"I just would never want to hurt you, Susan."

She winced.  "Never?"

"We'll keep working at it.  Find the proper balance."

"Maybe I don't want it proper,” she whispered.  "Maybe I just want it big and hard and rough.  Maybe I want it to hurt."

"Excuse me?"

She stared at the ceiling.  "It's nothing."

"We should probably get started."  He stood up.  "They're waiting for us at Xandar at around eight."

***************************************************

The dress was on display when she walked into the dressing room of her guest quarters at the Xandarian palace.  Long and shimmery and exquisite, it was an amazing sight of flowing silver unlike anything she had ever seen.  Next to it, on an open case, were white gold earrings in the shape of the Fantastic Four symbol.

"Oh, Reed, it's gorgeous.  Just gorgeous.  I don't know what to say."

From the other room, Reed glanced in quickly.  "Uh?"

"Thank you, dear.  Really.  It's perfect."

"Oh.  Great."  He went back out.

She was amazed he even remembered her size.  Or close to it, at least.  It did look like a tight fit.  A very tight fit.  Sometimes having such large boobs was really annoying.

Could she even have anything on under that?  At all?

***************************************************

"Is it too tight?"

"Uh?"

"The dress.  Is it too tight?  Does it make my boobs look too big?  Or my behind?  It's just so-""

"Oh, no.  It looks great on you."

"I don't want to look slutty.  Does it show too much leg?"

"Susan, dear, you look beautiful."

"You always say that."

"Well, you always look like that."

"That's not helping."

The doors opened and they were ushered in with great ceremony into the Xandarian equivalent of a ballroom.  Polite applause welcomed them, while multiple media drones recorded their entrance.

The space was enormous, its size emphasized by the partially translucent dome overhead that afforded a dazzling view of the cluttered local star-cluster hosting the artificially-linked set of enclosed planetary fragments that comprised Xandar.  There were easily thousands of people assembled on the many layered terraces and expansive areas mixing foliage with luxurious lounging sections.  Water spouted up and sideways in many gravity-manipulated decorative arrangements all over, while carefully layered music from exotic instruments filled the air.

The crowd was made of members of multiple humanoid species and a handful of non-humanoid ones.  The majority were clearly Xandarians, Earth-like in physiology but not in dress code.  Plentiful skin was on display from males and females alike, wispy veils and tight ribbons combining flamboyantly with the distinctive makeup patterns surrounding their eyes.

But what made Susan pause were the many green faces present as well.  The pointed and elongated ears, wide mouths over deeply corrugated chins, and the various shades of green skin clearly identifying them as Skrulls, the long-time enemies of the Fantastic Four and recent would-be invaders of Xandar.  Despite the careful climate control she instantly felt cold, and drew closer to her husband, gripping his arm tightly.

"So many.  Of them."

"Uh?"

"Skrulls."

"Ah, yes.  It is a celebration of the Skrull peace treaty with Xandar, so of course there would be a sizable presence."

She did not loosen her hold.  "Can we leave as early as possible?"

It was an unusual inversion of roles.  Normally it was Reed who shunned social events and she the one making him attend and stay beyond the first few minutes.  Normally.

"I don't see why not.  We should just be visible for a reasonable while, to avoid offending them, and then-"

"Let's make it a short reasonable while, alright?"

He nodded, squeezing her hand reassuringly.

Susan avoided looking at anyone, anything in particular.  She could not wait to leave this place.

Everything about it, from the decadent decor to the strange, alien faces, brought back to her unpleasant memories of the much similar event recently held back at the Skrull Home-World, where she and the others had been held as prisoners, and which she had been forced to attend as unwilling companion, as party date, to the cruel and devious Skrull emperor himself.  She had to walk by him, and hold his arm, much as she now did with Reed, her husband.  How many of these Skrulls, the political and military elite of their kind, now present here had been there as well, watching her with merciless, antagonistic eyes, as she was exposed to them in that almost-nothing dress, flaunted by that disgusting creep as his escort, his date, his would-be future concubine.  How many of them had watched her family being threatened by certain death, and celebrated it?  How many had stared at her as she had been forced to dance and strip for them, for him?

How many remembered all that just now, while watching her?  

Her chill did not leave her.

***************************************************

With his Nova suit in full ceremonial configuration, Rich Rider almost tripped and dropped his helmet.

It was her, walking in with her husband.  Susan Storm Richards.  The Invisible Woman.  Looking very, very visible.

She had her blond hair gathered high, with just a few long strands deliberately loose at each side of her face to frame her flawless features.  She looked pale under the minimal makeup, her eye-shadow a soft pastel that did not compete with the catching blue of her eyes.  She was almost heart-breaking beautiful.

But undeniably lovely as her face was, her figure in that dress was what made him ache all the way to his private parts.

The long, body-hugging silvery sheath covered her fully from neck to just above her high-heels, but with a daring slit high along one side, showcasing a smooth, toned leg with each step.  The thin fabric fit like a second skin, with a minute, delicate texture that emphasized her generous curves, seeming to shimmer and shift as she moved, adjusting fluidly to her contours with the swaying motions of her walk, as if her body had been thinly coated with impossibly pure liquid silver, calling attention boldly to her hourglass-like shape, with the flat abdomen and narrow waist, the nicely curved hips and solid, rounded behind, and the tightly-packed, large, high-set breasts where the texture and surface sheen highlighted the subtly noticeable nubs of her nipples.

She wore no other adornments than matching earrings shaped like the Fantastic Four logo.  There was no need for anything else.

And there was no way she had anything under that.  No way.

***************************************************

"You guys!  You finally showed up!"

"Hello, Johnny."

"What took so long?"  His face was flushed and he held a glass full of a reddish liquid.  "Alright, I can see now why you're late.  Wow.  They had to sew that thing around you?  Can you actually breathe?"

"Very funny.  I can breathe, yes.  Reed just had to check some things at the lab before leaving."

"Ah, nothing new there.  So where's Ben?"

"Begged off at the last moment.  He didn't feel like bringing Alicia here and did not want to come without her."

"Bummer.  The party is awesome.  Lots of gorgeous-looking babes and the most amazing stuff to eat and drink."

"Careful with the booze, Johnny."

"Aye, Aye, Mommy."  He bowed with an exaggerated gesture.  "Rich?  Buddy!  What're you doing over there staring like that?  Come here!  I need a wingman!"

"Ah, yes.  Hello.  Mr. Richards.  Ms. Richards.  How-How are you doing?"

"It's nice to see you again, Rich."

"Rich, my man, where are those three babes Sue left with you the last time?"

"Oh, we kinda lost contact these days.  They opened a business.  Doing quite well, I hear."

"Oh, great for them."  Sue smiled wistfully.  She would have liked to see her friends again.  It may have made this night bearable.  "What kind of business?"

"Er, a service one."   Rich looked away; his face turning red.  “Specialized service.  Er...  Seems the Skrull Empire abolished slavery all over their dominions and started offering financial backing for start-ups of... um, specially trained individuals.  Looks like they will make it a franchise and all."

"Really?  What sort of franchise?  Fast food?  Beauty parlors?"

Sue raised her eyebrows.   "Johnny."

"What?"

Sue sighed.  Her brother could be dense sometimes.  "Just forget it.  You don't need to know."

"Why?"

Reed cut in, trying to be helpful.  "I think Rich means it is some kind of...  brothel?  Would that be the correct term?"

Sue covered her face.  "Could we move on?"

"Alright, Rich, come with me, let's get away from the old folks and get some drinks."

He dragged Rich away, who glanced back at Sue nervously.

"Er, I kinda don't-"

"Come on, you gotta get me connected there.  Those were really hot babes."

Sue shook her head, watching them go.  "We have to help Johnny get a steady girlfriend.  He's going to end up with some alien STD or something."

"Interesting concept.  Sexually transmitted diseases tend to be those so hard to contract that they require intimate exchange of fluids.  However, the index of actual compatibility among humanoid species which should be null, is instead unusually high, which hints at common origins, so maybe-"

"Alright, now I regret having mentioned it.  Maybe we could get some drinks, too."

"Really?"  He stretched his midsection an extra foot to peer over the crowd around them.  "I'll get you one, dear.  Just wait."

"No, no.  Don't you leave me here -REED!"

But he had already moved away.  Fuming, she tried to follow, but his pliability gave him a great advantage in navigating through the multitude of party-goers.

"Oh, great.  Just great."

"He did not just leave you, did he?  So that anyone could just come and take you away?"

Susan froze in place at those words, at that particular, distinctive voice, coming from right behind her, unmistakable even with the loud multiple overlapping conversations and background music.

Her dress felt too tight, all over, so that she could hardly take a breath.  And a chill filled her to the bone, far colder than anything she had felt before.

She turned around, and stared at the short, ungainly figure clad in a long, ornate purple robe, struck by a deep, surreal lightheaded feeling of unsteadiness, of lack of rightful balance permeating her and everything al around, making all her previous apprehension seem like mild, casual unease.

"I-I didn't expect you to be here."

***************************************************

"Here, have this.  Drink up."

"Uh, I dunno if I should-"

"Rich, loosen up, grow some balls.  So about those alien babes-"

"Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four.  I am happy to find you."

Both young men turned at the soft, musical voice, towards the slender, young girl in the lush, ornate robes flowing over her graceful frame, her long shiny black hair arranged in a complex pattern under the elaborate headdress, its green highlights shining in the indirect lighting.  Her bright green eyes shone, large in her young, lovely pale green face.

At her smile, both instantly stood up straighter.

"Princess...  Analle?"

"Anelle."

"Right, Anelle!

Rich stared.  "She's a-?  But she's so-"

Johnny hushed him quickly.  "Great to see you again, Princess.  You look lovely tonight."

Rich nodded.  "Lovely.  Yes."

"Thank you.  Johnny Storm, about our recent meeting..."

"Oh, yes!  It was you, who came to my cell!  Back when I was held prisoner."

"Please.  Be more discreet."  She glanced nervously at the two beefy Skrull warriors standing a couple of paces behind her.  "But yes, I did see you there."

"But it wasn't you the second time, right?  Not while looking just like my-"

"I did go a second time."  She pointed at Rich.  "I gave you back his warrior suit.  To help you escape."

"Oh, yes.  That.  Right.  It was all a bit confusing.  Not that all hot green babes look alike or anything, but-"

"I was glad to know that you got away safe."

"Was kinda glad myself, too."

"So, what did he say?  Did he give you any reply for me?"

"Um, come again?"

"When you delivered my message, did you get any reply meant for me?"

"Oh!  THAT message?"

***************************************************

"Ah, but I did expect you to be here.  And looked forward to seeing you again."  The deep-set green eyes unabashedly moved over her silvery-sheathed figure, calmly taking his time to appreciate the view.   "And, ah, you most certainly prove to be worth each minute instant of anticipation."

Standing almost a head taller in her high heels, Sue had to stare down at him, Dorrek VII, Emperor of All Skrulls, as he faced her, barely a mere step away, dressed in long, flowing ceremonial Skrull robes over which her eyes also drifted downward, from the ugly, deeply-lined green face whose eyes she felt loath to meet.

"You-You recovered from your injuries," she stated, rather than asked, her voice somehow distant, disconnected.

How could this be happening?  Coming face to face, again, with him?  Him?  Here?  Like this?

How could she have known?

Or should she have perhaps anticipated it?  Steeled herself for it?

Just...  how?

"Oh, I did, indeed.  Recovered in full, I assure you, from that...  unfortunate event.  All thanks to you, of course."

She grimaced, not replying.  She did not need to be reminded of that.  Or of anything regarding what had happened.

"It did mean a lengthy stay in a regeneration pod."  he continued.  "But as you now see, I am again as whole as I ever was.  In every part.  Including any that you may... wonder about."

Sue quickly looked up from the area at which which Dorrek had nodded suggestively, where her sight may have lingered for longer than necessary.  Sudden warmth came unexpectedly to her face, and pooled as well elsewhere.

His mouth had spread in that wide, mischievous grin she had come to despise before.

"Still, I am quite touched by your concern, my dear."

She frowned.  Concern?  And had he just called her his 'dear'?

The grin in the face grew even wider.  "I'm sure that hard as it was, it must have been quite hard for you, too."

Hard?  For her?  What was he talking about?

"I mean, how it must have pained you, too, to think that I may have been injured beyond repair, so you'd never be able to meet me again at my full prowess, or ever again be-"

"What?"  She had meant to ignore him, refuse as much as possible to engage with him verbally, or in any way, but she was startled yet again by his words, by his shameless, bare-faced bravado.  "I wasn't-"

"I know, I know.  I surely should have tried to get back in touch sooner.  Much sooner.  To let you know.  To keep you from worrying for longer than-"

"Worrying?  I was NOT-"

"But even after I finished recuperating, I had a peace treaty to work out in extensive, crucial detail with the Xandarians.  And as I understand, you and your companions were busy defeating yet another threat to your planet.  The Sphynx, was he called, right?  And Galactus, too!  The World-Devourer itself!  So impressive.  Almost as impressive as you, now, in that dress."

She could not believe it.  Was he actually... flirting?  Trying to flatter her?  Actually coming on to her?

She glanced quickly around.  Was anyone listening to this?  Where was Reed?

Yet all around the party continued with full apparent obliviousness to their exchange, to what was happening.  A half-dozen burly Skrull warriors in full ceremonial regalia, clearly Dorrek's bodyguards, stood discreetly several paces away, watching with inert, business-like eyes, too far to hear them through the loud party din.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Why, chatting amiably, of course.  That is why we are all here, aren't we?  Catching up with each other."

She shook her head.  She couldn't take this.  She just couldn't.  She should just walk away.  Let Reed join her later.  Just walk away.  Away from this awful evil monster who she had certainly never wanted to see again.

"We don't have anything to chat about, Dorrek.  At all.  Now I-"

"But we do.  We have so much with which we can finally catch up.  Catch up with where we were before.  With how we were before.  You and I.  Before we were so rudely interrupted."

"HOW-HOW DARE YOU?"  She clenched her fists, her resolution to just walk away overwhelmed by her anger.  "How dare you bring THAT up?  NOW?"

She had wanted to just leave.  Not make a scene.  But she could not take it anymore.  She couldn't.

"How dare you ever SHOW UP here, AT ALL?  Before me?  Like this?  After all that you-?

"Ah.  But I could not be here without you, could I?  The least I can do is personally reassure you of my well-being after your touching efforts on my behalf-"

"My efforts-?  My touching-?"  How could he twist everything like that?  "Damn it, we only made a deal in order to save my team, my family from you and your kind.  To get away from your world.  From you.  And what you had done.  And meant to do.  To go free and NEVER have to see you again, anywhere!"

"But surely we can find a way to start anew?  Start fresh.  To better enjoy a mutually satisfying relationship-"

"Relationship?  RELATIONSHIP?  After how-how you...  abused me!  And used me!  How you had me bound and tortured me!  And forced me...  Made me...  After EVERYTHING?"  

"Yes, that may have been a bit too much, too soon, for our first time together-"

"Our first-?  OUR FIRST?"

"I understand your being still distraught at how that came to end.  Or rather how it didn't.  Yet despite that, ah, rough start, you must surely remember-"

"I must remember?  You think I could EVER forget-?"

"Of course not.  You must think of it all the time.  And remember.  About me and you.  And me, in you.  And how there remained so, so much to be done.  To be finished.  Properly.  Between us.  But now, we can catch up.  And afterwards-"

"You bastard.  You damn hateful bastard.  You think you can insult me?  Toy with me?  Just like that?"  She had to fight the urge to scream out her rage.  "There's no power inhibitor on me anymore, Dorrek.  I could really finish things.  Properly.  Between us.  For good.  I could give you just what you deserve.  Right now.  Right here."

"Here?  Before everyone?  How daring."

"I could-And really should...  make you pay.  Really pay.  For everything."

"But now, it'd be a shame to cause a political incident at this juncture, wouldn't it?"  He gestured at their surroundings, at the party that went on, loudly, indifferent to their rising words.  "We are at a joint celebration of peace, after all.  Would you risk jeopardizing all that?  After all the hard work put into it?"

"You think that protects you?  Gives you a free pass to stand here, before me, and remind me of everything you did?  To us?  To me?  You think that you can just get away with everything you've done?  With everything you-?"

"Actually, yes.  Diplomatic immunity, see?  Part of the treaty between the Skrull Empire and Xandar.  I am visiting royalty, my dear, as you well know.  And as you could be, too.  If-"

"No.  No.  This isn't about your empire and Xandar.  This is us.  Just us."

"Oh, I do agree with that."

"I could.  I could do just what your wife failed to do.  What I could not afford to do, back there, at your world, when unfortunately I needed you alive.  When unfortunately I had to help you-"

"Oh, I am sure you could do for me a lot that my deceased wife failed to properly do.  Quite a lot."

That struck her.  "Deceased-?"

"Oh, yes.  R'Klll passed away.  Under tragic circumstances.  Leaving the Empire without a proper Empress.  Leaving me without a proper-"

"You killed her?  You killed your own wife?"

"Of course I did not.  I just had it done."

"How-How could you?  How-?"

"Please, she tried to do the same to me.  And also to you and your companions, remember?  She also backed me when I killed her father.  This time, however, she was on the failing side.  And betrayal is unforgivable, when you fail.  As she did.  Thanks to you.  It was fitting, her punishment.  Quite fitting.  How do your people say?  Do onto others what-?"

"You monster.  You awful monster!"  She stepped back, appalled at his casual demeanor during his flagrant confession of murder, and at her implied implication on the event.  Because she bore guilty, as well.  She had made it possible, by helping him, against her.

"But that now left a... vacancy.  At my side.  The Empire does need a new Empress."

Sue stared, at loss for words.  Surely he couldn't...

"Sue, I got your drink.  Sorry for the delay."

Pale-faced, Sue turned towards her husband.  "Reed?"

"All dispensers were quite crowded."  Reed calmly handed her an elaborately arranged beverage. "Ah, good evening...  Emperor Dorrek VII, if I am not mistaken."

***************************************************

"You lost it?  The message?"

"Look, it was quite a messy time, the escape, what with the fighting and all that-"

She covered her trembling mouth.  "I trusted the words of my heart to you and you-you-?"

Before Johnny could speak up Anelle turned about and rushed away.  Her towering bodyguards glowered at both of them before following her hurriedly.

***************************************************

"We meet again, Earthman Richards."

Reed extended his hand.  "It has been a while since the Morrat incident, Emperor."

Susan stared as they shook hands.

"Oh, my place within the Empire has changed since you were last my guests."

"Guests?"  Her beverage crashed to the floor.  "GUESTS?"

Those around them barely glanced and quickly returned to their affairs.  Drones hurried to clean up.

"Sue-?"

"It's Dorrek!  DORREK!  He held us captive!  He had us sentenced to death!  Had the aging ray used on you and Ben and Johnny!  And he...   He's the one who-who-"

"The lovely lady is correct.  Such were my orders while we were at war.  Hard decisions are the throne's unfortunate burden.  My most sincere apologies for all that."

"Apologies?  APOLOGIES?"

Reed moved closer, lowering his voice.  "Sue, it was wartime.  We were helping Xandar, so we were their enemies at the time.  But now it’s over.  There is peace.  All this is to celebrate just that."

"You just don't know, Reed.  What he did.  What he-"

"I understand you are still upset.  I was not fully conscious at the time, so it was easier for me, but I know that you had it much harder-"

Dorrek sighed.  "Oh, I'm afraid she did.  Much harder, indeed."

Sue's eyes grew wide open.  "Reed-!"

"For you, and Ben and Johnny.  But the war is over.  There is a treaty now between Xandar and the Skrull Empire, arranging for joint cooperation, for trade, for cultural exchange.  Slavery is outlawed at last.  There is widespread peace in this galaxy for the first time in untold cycles.  We can't put that at risk because of our past personal conflicts-"

"So everything must be forgiven?"  She glanced furiously at the alien smarmy visage before facing Reed again.  "Everything?  Just like that?"

"The only way to have peace is to let go of grievances.  It is long overdue to end this enmity between us."  Reed turned towards the Skrull.  "There must be so much we could offer each other.  Much to share, to exchange, if we are both willing."

"Indeed.  So much!  To offer.  To share.  To exchange.  If willing.  Why, if the dear lady-"

"Enough.  That's enough."  How could Reed not be getting any of that?  "I won't-I just-"

"Reed!  Susan!  Dorrek!  You've already gotten together!"

Followed at a polite distance by an escort of burly Nova Corpsmen, Adora, Suzerain of Xandar, strode towards them, all smiles and heavy perfume and exotic makeup and almost nothing else.  

"That was so, indeed, Suzerain," replied the Skrull, smiling broadly.

"How lovely!"

The Xandarian's walk was a deliberate provocation, her young, lean body flaunting the graceful long curves of a supermodel.  Long brown hair was arranged in multiple braided layers, strung with gleaming jewels, and more jewels shone stuck to multiple key points of her mostly bare flesh, sporting less clothing than make-up.  The traditional cosmetic blue hues were patterned not just around her eyes but also drawn suggestively on her exposed flesh, like graphic instructions of where to look or caress: over her abdomen and hips, her long neck, and in concentric whorls on her perky, out-thrust breasts, peaking on her blue-coated compact nipples.  White strips of soft leather were stacked in succession on her long shapely legs and arms, and a handful of lengths of gauzy, insubstantial fabric flowed at key spots, careful to not really cover much of anything.

Sue had thought that the outfit she was forced to wear at the Skrull world had been slutty, yet Adora made that one seem tasteful.  In her present skin-tight, body-hugging dress, Sue felt positively nun-like in comparison.

"Reed! Susan!"

Adora rushed enthusiastically to kiss each of them.  Sue received a quick, playful peck on her lips, while Reed got it on his cheek, after he  pointedly turned his head to a side under Sue's careful gaze.

"We owe all this to you!  Couldn't wait to have you both here."

Reed fidgeted nervously.  "Ah, no need to-"

"Yes, no need at all," Sue added, holding on to her husband's arm assertively.

The brunette Xandarian ruler then leaned aggressively against her Skrull counterpart.  "And where had you been?"

Her mouth met his for a long, deep kiss, her lean body pressing sensuously against his short robed figure, their embrace lasting for so long that Reed began to shift uncomfortably on his feet, even as Sue stared fixedly, her blue eyes opened wide in surprise.

Adora finally broke the kiss, and turned back towards Reed and Sue with a pleased smiled.  "Of course, you already know Emperor Dorrek VII."  Her eyes fixed on Susan.  "Quite well, too, I understand."  

Sue frowned.  She did?  Just what did she...?

Dorrek waved a hand.  "Ah, the Suzerain and I have recently spent some considerable time together, in extensive...  negotiations."

"Very extensive negotiations,"  Adora agreed.

"To work out the multiple details of the peace treaty, of course.  Going on at, ah, quite some length on many, many things."

"Quite some length, indeed."

"The better to get to know... and understand each other's...  respective positions."

"Really get to know, oh, yes-"

"For the good of our respective peoples, of course."

"Of course,"  Adora echoed, smiling with mouth and eyes alike.  "We have also discussed exploring further strategies to better ensure the continued success of our new, close alliance, maybe even  including giving a much more committed public example of just how closely we can all...  come together."

"A public acknowledgment of the benefit of such a close union.  For the good of our peoples."

"Or rather, a newly joined people."

Dorrek nodded, sedately.  "The proper ceremonial gesture could help cement much stronger ties between The Empire and Xandar."

"Giving the right message of unity.  Of togetherness.  Particularly now that dear Dorrek here has become recently...  single."

Reed nodded.  "I see.  A kind of politically-motivated public public ceremony of interpersonal cooperative arrangement-"

"A marriage?"  Susan stared at both with disbelief.   "You can't mean a marriage, can you?"

Adora laughed.  "Oh, you Earthlings could call it that, yes.  Of course, it is just wild speculation at this time-"

"You can't be serious.  You were just at war.  Adora...  He-He tried to-"

"Actually, that could be an interesting way to dispel resentment and encourage the healing of wartime wounds," Reed stated.  "It has extensive historical precedents on Earth, too.  Making such an important open commitment to peaceful co-existence by the respective leadership figures could really help-"

"But you...  you..."  Sue floundered for words.  "You are even...  different species."

Adora's smile was nearly feral now.  "Oh, of course.  That is what makes it more challenging, and more... fitting, quite more fitting.  For the good of our peoples.  Our joint people."

Reed nodded.  "That does make it a bigger statement of unselfish commitment and support for the integration of pan-species diversity-"

Sue frowned.  "Reed, are you really-?"

"Of course, it is well known that Skrull physiology can prove compatible with most of the full range of known humanoid species, for such, ah, matters.  More than quite compatible, actually."  

"What?"

It was Dorrek's turn to ramp up his smile.   "It is a known, well-documented fact."

"Really?"  Reed sparked up with intellectual interest.  "You mean only in terms of basic copulatory anatomical mechanisms or also in actual effective miscegenation?"

"With some minimal metabolic aids, effective miscegenation has been well-recorded involving many anatomical variations close to the baseline structures of Xandarians.  And Earthlings, too."

"Earthlings-?"  Sue grew pale, realizing the full implications.  What that could have meant, if it was true.  About what that could have happened.  Potentially.  Effectively.  To her.  To them.

"That's really quite fascinating,"  Reed mused.  "The known metamorphic attributes of the Skrull genetic-structures must somehow be capable of-"

Sue stared at Adora, still reeling from what she had heard.  "Adora, you'd actually be...  willing?  To really-?"

The younger brunette pressed herself tighter to the Skrull, eyes shinning bright.  "Well, we have just...  discussed it.   But it could be something quite interesting with which to... experiment.  Wouldn't you agree, too?"

"Me?  Agree-?"

"About how interesting it would be to do just that?  To experiment?  Like that?"

"Why, yes,"  Reed cut in.  "If fully-functional hybridization can produce viable second generation offspring, maybe it could even lead to identifying an unifying transpecies genotype factor that could help bridge the-"

"Reed, please."  She could have punched him right there.  "I-I'm sure it's all so abstractly...  interesting.  But in practice-"

"Oh, certainly enough practical experimental evidence would need to be collected.  I'd been quite interested in take a look at any such scientific records of-"

"Of course."  Dorrek cut in pointedly.  "Maybe even your lovely wife here could agree to help.  With the gathering of such evidence.  For science, of course."

Reed frowned.  "Well, I don't if Sue would be personally-"

Adora laughed out loud.  "Oh, you're too much, Dorrek."  She playfully slapped at his shoulder.  "Isn't he, Susan?  Too much?  In every, every way?"

Sue's had shifted from paleness to a full blush.  "Too much?"

"Really, all that was just something we have chatted about.  After all, we are barely beginning to enjoy...  the peace... between us.  Who wants to become so dramatically committed to any long, stiff kind of thing?  Even for science?  When there is so much more to do first?  So much more!"

Reed looked at all sheepishly.  "Well, science does require very a serious commitment to scientific rigor-"

Dorrek bowed his head.  "Of course, tonight we could commit to admiring some of the most extraordinary beauty of the universe, such as that of the ladies now before me."

"Oh, you flatterer!  The treaty and all those new agreements are so time-demanding I could barely get anything on in such a hurry!"

She certainly barely did, Sue agreed in her mind, uneasy at the sudden shift in the conversation, but again aware of just how lacking in coverage the younger woman was.  More likely she just put clothes off, instead.

"I mean, I barely even had my breasts suitably decorated."  She reached towards Reed and placed a hand on his chest, arching her back to better display her painted, pert chest.  "Go on, tell me.   Don't I look just dreadful?"

He had the presence of mind not to glance down.  "No!  You, um, look lovely, of course, Suzerain.  Er, doesn't she, Sue?"

Maybe he would not sleep on the couch today.  "You're indeed quite a sight, Adora.  Very... striking."

"Please!  I must look like a hag next to you!  Really, darling, no one here can come close to you.  That dress!  On a body like yours?  Amazing.  Just amazing!  Interactive, inertia-responsive fabric, right?  It must have cost a fortune, a whole world's bounty!  Please, let us know the maker.  I MUST know."

"I-I don't know.  It-It was a gift."  She turned to Reed, frowning.

"Really?  A gift?  Why, how generous!  Doesn't she look just ravishing in it, Your Majesty?"

Dorrek nodded.  "Absolutely.  It's absolutely perfect for her.  Although how could such beauteous lady look less than... fantastic?  In anything?"

"Oh, I tell her that, more or less, all the time," Reed added, smiling.  "But she doesn't believe me."

"Oh, of course, it's not the same, coming from your partner, is it?"  Adora leaned closer to Reed, her hand still on him.  "Never quite the same.  Isn't that right, Susan?"

Sue pulled Reed back, closer to her, feigning a smile.  "Coming from your partner is how it should matter the most."

"Really?  How...  sweet.  Oh, Sue, Reed...  we must have you more often.  Here.  With us.  In Xandar.  Both of you."

Reed glanced nervously at his wife.  "Well, there's much work to do on Earth, Suzerain.  It's not-"

"But the transporter makes it so easy!  You could be here every night.  Every night!"  She seized Reed's arm.  "To enjoy some much deserved relaxation.   And some much deserved...  variety."

Susan's eyebrows rose.  "Variety?"

"Exactly."  Her hand moved to his shoulder.  "Surely you can see that Xandar can offer so many more...  exotic pleasantries than Earth."

"Perhaps Earth offers him more than you think."  She stared at Reed with annoyance.  Why hadn't he brushed off this hussy already?

"A mind of extraordinary intellect and sensibilities like Reed must not be restricted in expanding his... perspectives, Susan."

"I'm sure he'd tell me if he finds himself...  restricted,"  Sue replied with an icy edge, which Reed did not miss.

"Ah, we appreciate your generous offer of hospitality, Suzerain, but while I'll certainly keep up the scheduled work with Master Xar, I must otherwise decline-"

"Oh, wait.  Do you hear that?"  Adora closed her eyes, gesturing for others to pay attention to the music growing even louder in the background.  "That is my favorite!  I must dance to it, now, or the night shall be ruined for me.  Oh, please, Susan, can you be so kind?"

"Excuse me?"

"Can I have your husband?"  Her eyes sparkled mischievously.  "Just for a quick one?"

Reed's eyebrows rose.  "Uh, I don't think I can dance with this sort of music.  I'd better not-"

Adora laughed.  "Oh, I will gladly show you how, silly.  You must come with me!  You must!"

Open-mouthed, Susan stared as a flustered Reed was dragged away by the mostly-naked Suzerain through a dense throng of wildly gyrating Xandarians.

***************************************************

Rich turned to Johnny.  "You-You really lost it?"

"I was under stress, ok?  We were facing death there!"

"I know!  I was there, too!  But that was a lady trusting you to-"

"Oh, yeah, shinning knight, you would've done much better.  Just because she's a drop-dead gorgeous princess begging for your help you would have risked your life for her sake without any doubt!"

"Yes.  Yes!  Why wouldn't you?"

"Well, I was rather worn out at the time, 'cause... reasons!  And she kept going on about this other guy, so it was sorta off-putting.  All about this Mar-Vell fellow who-"

"So what was the message about?"

"What the hell do I know?  Why would I read it?  I can't even remember if I got it out of the cell or not!"

***************************************************

"That damn slut.  I never said he could.  Or she could."  She stared in rising anger, hands at her hips, while Adora guided Reed into closer and closer contortions several paces away.  "What is she-?  Is that even dancing?  She's just rubbing against him now!"

Dorrek chuckled at her obvious jealous anger.

"Perhaps we should join them."  With casual ease he reached for Sue's arm.  "To show them how it's done"

Sue instantly pulled away, violently, even, grimacing with anger and disgust, her arm's skin rising in goosebumps under the dress sleeve  at the briefest contact with his long, knobby-jointed green fingers.

"How-How dare you try to-to touch me?   Don't you EVER dare try to touch me again!"

"But that would make the dancing so much less interesting."

"Dancing-?"

"Yes.  You know, the male leads, the female follows.  Yielding, accepting.  Isn't that how it's done on Earth as well?

She winced in disbelief at the odious little creature's blatant presumption.  

"Look, I don't know what kind of game you are playing here, Dorrek.  And you can put up whatever front you want before little Miss Hot Naked Ass there, but do you seriously believe that we, that YOU AND I, could ever...  make nice?  That I could somehow pretend that nothing ever happened and just play along?  That I'd be alright with having you anywhere close to me again?  Hitting on me?  Actually trying to TOUCH me?  After ALL that did?  To us?  To ME?"

"Of course there is a history between us already.  That is precisely how I know how well we can be together.  Moving, against each other.  How well you respond to my lead, to my touch.  When you were quite more welcoming of it.  When you-"

"I-I don't have to take this.  To be here, or listen to any of this, or see you.  I don't.  EVER."  She backed away, grimacing with disgust and outrage.  "I'm going.  Now.  I won't-"

"You will leave your husband with the Suzerain, then?"

"With-?"

Smiling at Sue's obvious hesitation, the Skrull turned towards the dance platform.  "She does seem quite... interested, doesn't she?  But of course you're right.  That's not proper dancing.  Now, what you did for me, back there on my world, at my party.  How you moved before me, against me, swaying, twisting...  Making your body speak, speak loudly.  That?  That was dancing."

"You made me do that.  You forced me to.  I was just-"

"You got wet, didn't you?  Back then, dancing for me?  Grinding against me?  Against my bulge, against my-"

"Don't go there.  I'm warning you.  Don't you dare-"

"Of course you did.  I could feel it, feel how wet you were just from rubbing yourself against my lap.

"SHUT UP!"

"Were you about to come, too, right there?  Right before everyone?  Before your companions?  Come hard and long-?"

The sharp sound of the slap was lost amidst the loud music and talk and laughter.

***************************************************

Rich shook his head with disapproval.  "You know, as a hero, you kinda suck."

"Hey, at least I'm not the one pinning for another guy's wife."

***************************************************

She stormed off, seething with fury, away from that odious monster, away from the party, away from them all.

Where was the exit?

The nearest doors slid open behind opulent draperies at her touch, as she stepped out onto an empty large balcony, un-roofed and dimly-illuminated, that overlooked the Xandarian capitol city.  Between far-spaced low metal posts on its rim a translucent, energy-field-generated balustrade served as barrier before a drop of hundreds of feet.

She breathed deeply the clear air, eyes closed, leaning forward on the low barrier with arms spread out, taking in the silence and open space for a lengthy stretch of time, a welcome relief from the previous oppressive crowd and noise.  From everything.

She shivered, but not because of the cold air.

She should have never come here, she knew that.  She could not wait to get away from this horrible place, and its horrible people.  Away.  Away from...

"Ah.  Such nice view."

***************************************************

"What-What do you-?"

"Come on.  I can see it.  She can see it.  Everyone can!  Maybe not Reed, but he doesn't count.  He's like that.."

"See it?"

"See that you have a hard-on for Sue.  For fuck's sake, even Alicia would see it, and she's blind!"

Rich blushed.  "I do-I do think Ms. Richards is very pretty but-"

"Please.  Everyone this side of the Dragon-Man has a hard-on for Sue.  She's hot, alright?  Hot as hell.  I know.  Everyone knows.  That why everyone wants into her-"

"Jeez, man!  She's your sister!"

"Yeah, but I'm not blind.  Or stupid.  And it's always been like that.  Her, being so ridiculously hot, with the face and hair, the big, big tits, the long legs and tight butt...  And smart, too, for good measure.  Little Miss Perfect, basically.  Bossy as fuck, though.  It's just sheer luck that Reed doesn't-"

"You shouldn't talk about her like that!"

"And you shouldn't be drooling like that.  Get over it.  She's married.  Reed's like the smartest guy alive, and loaded, too.  Who the fuck are you?  Some punk kid not yet in college who got an alien super-powered suit through dumb luck?  She may hook up sooner with a Skrull or something than with-"

Rich just walked away.

Johnny shook his head.  Great.  He was really Mister Sensitive tonight.

***************************************************

She turned, furious, the instant of peaceful silence broken by the smarmy voice, his voice.

Had he been staring at her rear, too?

"You dared to follow me-?"

"You are quite deserving of being followed.  And you know that."  Dorrek walked onto the open terrace.  "Isn't that why you came here?  Knowing I'd Follow you?  Wanting me to?  So we'd have some privacy?  Just the two of us?"

"Stop."  There was suddenly a barrier between them, an invisible barrier, preventing him from taking any further step closer to her.  "I don't know why you're doing this, Dorrek.  Seeking me out.  Chasing me.  Taunting me.  Trying to provoke me.  But it stops.  Now."

"You talk about provoking?  You, with that body?  In that dress?"

"I'm warning you.  There's so...  much I could do, with my power.  I could just throw you off this balcony.  I could... end you, in a dozen different ways if I chose to."

"You could.  Yet you haven't."

"Not because you don't deserve it."  She breathed out slowly, struggling for self-control.  "Not because I wouldn't want to."

"There's so much you'd want to do. but won't allow yourself.  Maybe you're afraid?  Of what you could find out?"

"Afraid?"  She grimaced.  "I stood before Galactus.  I've faced threats you can't even imagine.  What could you-?"

"Yet you feel you need this."  Green hands flattened against the force-field's surface.  "This...  protection?"

She frowned, and after a moment of doubt, the invisible barrier was gone.  "I don't need that.  Not from you.  Not anymore."

He stepped forward, unimpeded, close to her.  "Having no protection makes it more interesting, doesn't it?  Being exposed?  At risk?"

"I won't play along with your games."  She strode past the shorter alien, towards the doors, high heels clicking on the polished floor.  "You want to stay here, stay, but I'm out of-"

"But you never answered my questions."

"I don't have to answer anything.  Not to you."  The door slid open at her touch.  "Don't even think of again following-"

"Did you come?  Back then, at my world, at my party, while you danced for me?  Or was it only later, in my rooms?  When I had you?  When I owned you?"

She stopped at the door, and her hand on its frame trembled, but she did not turn about.

"You did not own me.  You abused me.  You forced me.  It's not the same!"

"Please, it was war.  You were defeated.  Captured.  Vulnerable.  An exquisite, scorching-hot beauty such as you?  How could making the most of it not be expected?  From both of us?"

"Both of-?"

"How could you deserve anything less than being taken by the Emperor of All Skrulls? And what else could you do but yield to superior Skrull power?  But just give in and enjoy fully your surrender?"

She turned about, blue eyes blazing with fury.  "ENJOY?"

"Or at least started to.  Until we were so prematurely interrupted.  No wonder you're still so frustrated, and upset, and full of guilt and anger and need.  How can't you be?  After having given a taste of my hard cock stretching your tight, wet-"

"I did warn you."

A wedge of invisible force threw the Skrull to slam violently against the wall just by Susan and the balcony doors, to be left forcefully pinned in place.   The green visage twisted with discomfort.

"I don't know what you're after, Dorrek.  Maybe you want to break the peace.  Maybe you want to goad me into doing it for you.  But you...  You won't get to me.  You won't."

The invisible force vanished, releasing the short alien, who stumbled forward, grimacing, while she turned away, heading again for the open doorway, reaching for the draperies behind.

"I'd better never see you again."

"But I did get to you.  And you know it."

About to move aside the draperies, she heard the metallic noise of something dropped onto the floor, right behind her, between the two of them.

Despite herself, she glanced back.

***************************************************

Rich shouldered his way through the crowd, looking for her.  The noise and music and ever-shifting mass of party-goers, dancing and joking and flirting and what-not did not make it easy.  But she had just been here and could not have gone very far.

He had to find her.   He had to do what had to be done.

***************************************************

Her face was lighted by the glowing nimbus of the holographic playback, her eyes wide open with shock.

Within the subtly shimmering volume encompassed by the three-dimensional projection, she stood naked and bound, legs spread wide apart and arms stretched up above her head by the metal fastenings at her ankles and wrists, her back arched and her buttocks pushed backwards, against the short, gangly and equally-nude figure close, so close behind her, with over a full hand-span of the thickly-veined green shaft visible in the gap between his bony hips and her taut rear, a gap that gradually diminished with each successive forceful thrust.

"And you got quite a lot, too, didn't you?"

Susan's stomach tightened into a knot.  "How-?"

"Oh, such an exquisite event had to be preserved, for posterity."

Could this be seen from the inside?  With sudden anxiety, Sue quickly closed the glass-paneled door behind her, but Dorrek made a dismissive gesture.  

"Don't worry.  There is a privacy threshold set.  Only we, close enough, can watch.  For now, at least.  Quite fittingly, too."

The Dorrek in the holo recording stepped back, replying angrily at a voice from outside the focused viewing space, and moved away from his captive, whose trembling body grew limply, held up from collapsing by the chains keeping her in place.  Her tear-stained face stared back, her eyes full of disbelief, and bafflement, and fear, and much, much more, even as the Skrull's erect phallus dangled stiffly into full view, its engorged front-half glistening wetly, bouncing almost down almost to his knobby knees with each step, drawing the eyes of both her present and past selves, eyes filled with shock and disbelief, then and now.

"I think we both know that by then you already had-"

"Enough," she muttered, nervously.  She should not be staring.  Not now.  Not as she had done, back then.  As she did now.  Staring.  At him.  At it.  "That's enough."

"Was it?  Really?"

"Stop it!"

The holo images froze after a tap at the Skrull's wristband, immobility doing nothing to diminish the image's visual impact.

Even now, after everything she had gone through with Kl'rt and Terrax, she could not help but be unnerved by Dorrek's size.  Could the playback somehow make it look even larger than she remembered?  Even larger than she recalled in those few restless instances when the disturbing unwanted memories resurfaced to trouble her?

Perhaps it was just contrast.  Perhaps it stood out even more dramatically in its disproportionate size against his otherwise unimpressive physique, so weak and small compared to Terrax's thick frame or Kl'rt's muscular build, making that inhuman thing between Dorrek's legs look even more absurdly oversized, even more grotesquely, monstrously huge.

Maybe he was just that big.  That damned big.

She looked away, away from both the holographic image and the real individual's physical presence, here and now, in the terrace, mere steps away from her.  Her anger was now overlaid by a growing sense of dread.  She had underestimated how much of a threat he was.  Literally.  In every way.

"Turn it off."

"It does look like you-"

"TURN IT OFF!"

The holo images vanished, fading above the originating metal chip laying on the floor, returning the terrace to its previously dimly-lit state.

"So how hard did you come?  While my cock was just starting to push its way into you?  When I began to make you mine?  Really hard?  Harder than you ever had before?"

"I-I wasn't...  yours.  I wasn't.  You-You were barely a few seconds inside me.  Barely more than just the tip, the head.  That can hardly even be-"

"So I was.  Such a pity.  That you had to settle for so little, too.  For such a brief, partial sampling."

"So little-?"

"Because you looked quite ready.  And eager.  For more of it.  For all of it."

"You had me bent over and chained.  I could hardly walk away.  I-I wouldn't have had any of it.  Ever!  Or it or anything else of yours, if you had not forced me to!  If you hadn't-!"

"I did.  I forced you.  Forced you to surrender to me.  And you did.  It didn't take you long to stop protesting, did you?  To give in and give yourself to me, to your pleasure, to your need, your need for that big, thick cock.  You know you did.  YOU KNOW."  A couple of steps closed the distance between them.  "It was so clear on your face, on your body, on your moans and whimpers, how much you loved it, how much you loved that big cock making you-"

"I hated it!  Hated it and I hated you!  Hated every single part, every single instant!  Hated how much it hurt, how much it fucking hurt, every fucking inch of it, and hated how much it humiliated me, and how much it made me-!"

She could not go on anymore, her breathing coming too hard and fast, her fury about to explode.

"Oh, my.  How excited does it make you to hate all of that so much.  How excited, indeed."

His eyes were on her chest.  Through the delicately textured surface of her skin-tight dress her nipples poked out, the hard nubs and their respective slightly raised aureoles standing out in full detail through the silvery cloth, its specially-designed fabric actually adhering even tighter to their contours, squeezing and enhancing the showcase of how obviously visibly erect they were.

"How excited.  Just as you were, back then."  The green-skinned alien was now a mere step away from her.  "Dripping wet, too."

A finger reached for her chest, and brushed one of the stiffly protruding nubs, before she could step back, quickly crossing both arms before her chest.

"Don't-!  Don't you dare-!"

"How else could you even take any of it at all?  Even if only part-way?"

"Shut up, just shut up!"

"Can you honestly deny that you wanted it?  Really wanted it?  Needed it?  Needed it desperately?  All of it?  As you were bent there, before me, like that."  He gestured at the now-static holo.  "With your luscious body chained and spread out, dripping wet with need, while barely beginning to take me, as you should be taken, as you deserve to be taken, crying out in delicious pain yet desperate for more, for much more, for all-"

"I-I was tired, exhausted.  I was held fast for hours, and worked over, and teased and worn out...  I could hardly control what..."

"But now you are rested.  Free.  Unbound.  In full control of yourself, and of your powers.  Yet you're breathing fast.  Excited.  Aroused.  Just from standing before me again.  And your nipples are so, so hard."

His hand moved under her crossed-arms and grabbed roughly at her chest, his thumb rubbing forcefully against one of the hard nubs under the so-stretched-as-to-be-insubstantial cloth.

A gasp caught at her throat, her face flushed red, incensed with shock and embarrassment.

"We could now do it without the chains.  Unless you want them again, of course."

**************************************************

Johnny downed the last of his drink and leaned back to appreciate the view.

He wouldn't call that dancing, really, but Adora could certainly move that ass.  Quite an ass, too.  He should try hitting on her again.  One never knew.

Clearly Sue was nowhere around, or you she would have gone nuclear already.  If she happened to catch any of this, Reed would surely be sleeping on the couch tonight, or maybe forever.

So where was she?

He had forgotten that in these fancy clothes he did not have the usual communication nodules.  Probably neither did hers.  She surely could not carry anything while wearing that dress.  Anything at all.

***************************************************

"NO!"

She stepped backward yet again, slapping his hand away, wincing at the release of his painful grip, her nipple aching painfully from his thumb's touch.

She should have kept her force field up.  She should have.  And she should go, now.  Get away.  Away from here.  From him.  Before...

"I-I'm just upset.  Angry.  Disturbed.  By your harassing me.  Your baiting me.  Making me..."  Had it been the holo?  Having to watch herself, like that, with...  him?  Even if briefly?  Bringing back much of what she had been forced to experience?  Forced to...  feel?  "Maybe I...  I couldn't help but...  react...  Then...  Or now.."

"React?"

"But-But it doesn't matter.  Whatever happened.  Whatever I may have, or may still...  It-It just doesn't matter.  It doesn't.  And whatever you do, now, to try to use this, to blackmail me...  It's not going to work.  It isn't."

"Blackmail?  That's such a harsh word!"

She pursed her mouth.  "What else would you call it?  Why else show me that recording if not to threaten me?"

Thick corrugated brows rose in a mockery of innocent surprise.

"Why, I'd rather call it..  an incentive.  For moving forward our relationship-"

"Our-?"

"I just wanted to help you remember how it was, how it worked, between us."

"There is no 'us'.  Never was.  And will never be.  NEVER!"

"But indeed it could be inconvenient if this, ah, private data were to filter through the galactic public networks, for everyone to see, without understanding the particular... nuances.  And what would your husband think?  Or your teammates?  You have not told them, have you?"

She looked down, pale.  "I... would explain.  He'll understand.  They all know what was at stake."  

"And the general populace of Earth?  Or Xandar, here?  Would they all be so understanding?  Many may ponder your allegiances, your likely self-interest, once it's known that you've been involved quite intimately with the former Skrull emperor.  During the recent war, too."

She winced.  She could imagine the headlines.  The broadcasts.  Tabloids.  Social media.  All spreading the videos, the images.  Could she somehow shield Franklin?  Maybe if she quit the Fantastic Four?  Wouldn't that further distance her from Reed?  Would it break up her marriage?

"I'd deny everything.  Why would anyone even believe it?  Skrulls are known for their deceit, their trickery.  And Xandar can worry about keeping its own peace.  But you won't get me into your bed.  Not like this.  Not ever."

"Oh, please.  It wouldn't have to be a bed.  Any convenient place would do."

She stared hard at the hateful, hideous alien visage.

"So we fuck.  And then what?  Am I supposed to believe that you'd not keep making further demands?  That you'd not want more?  And more after that?  Would I then have to become your mistress, behind my husband's back?  Or even openly, as your formal concubine, to fuck and flaunt at your side before the entire galaxy?  Having to renounce my family and world to serve you,  as your obedient sex-toy?  As Kl'rt wanted?"

"Kl'rt?  Interesting."

"Would I have to become pregnant?  Bred by your seed?  To bear your half-Skrull offspring?"

"Oh, my.  You're thinking this through more than-"

"Where would it stop?  Where?"

The short, ungainly figure drew closer than before.  "It would need go only as far as you wish it to go."

"It wouldn't stop.  Once I give in to you, give in to anything, you'd always hold power over me.  Always.  But I won't.  I won't.  I'd rather fight this all my life in the open than yield to you out of fear."

"Maybe what you fear is that once you're mine, you'd be the one who would not want it to stop."

She shook her head.  "Go ahead, Dorrek.  Make it public.  I'll just have to face it.  But I won't become your whore."

They stood, face to face, and after a moment of tense silence, the Skrull shrugged and knelt to pick up the metal chip from the floor, extending it towards her.

"Fine.  Here.  Have it."

She tensed at the gesture, ready to raise her force-field.  "What do you mean-?"

"The holo chip.  You can keep it.  It's yours."

She stared at the shinning metal piece in the green hand.  "You'll just give it to me?"

"Yes.  Call it...  a gesture of good faith."

"Good faith?  From you?"  She grimaced.  "You expect me to believe that?"

"Why not?  Here it is.  Go on.  Take it."

Grudgingly, she did, grabbing it from the extended hand with a grimace of distaste and distrust.

"You must have copies."

"Of course.  But the full code sequence is there, unencrypted.  With that, and access to the Living Computers, your husband can surely find how to automatically block them or wipe them from all systems across the galaxy, partially or in whole.  He IS Reed Richards, after all."

"So I could just walk away now, with it?"

"Of course, I'd expect you to be fair.  I gave you something.  You give me something.  Isn't that how it works?"

"Right.  Why am I not surprised?"  She shook her head and offered the chip back.  "Forget it.  I'm not falling for whatever this is."

"This, my dear, is being honest.  I don't want a mistress.  R'Klll was the Empire's hottest piece of ass when we married, and I tired of her.  A mistress is an even worse headache.  I do want to fuck your hot piece of Earthling ass.  Finish what we started.  But then we can part ways if you want to.  No strings attached.  We just enjoy some good, long, hard fucking and that's it.  It's over."

"That's never going to happen.  There's no way you can make me-"

"But I don't want to 'make you' do it.  I gave you the chip, didn't I?  I won't force you into anything you don't want.  I want YOU to want it."

"I-?  Want it?"

"It'll make the sex much better.  For both."

"How-How can you think I could ever...  want you?  An awful, hateful evil toad like you?  How can you do anything but disgust me!"

"Really?  Prove it, then.  Prove to me how disgusted you are.  And that you don't really want-"

"I don't need to prove anything to you!"

"And to yourself?"

"Why-Why would I ever need to-?"

"So you can stop wondering.  About how it would've been, and how it could still be.  Between us."

"And there's nothing to wonder about!  Nothing!"

"Then let's settle it.  Settle who is right. Let's have a test."

"A test-?"

"One kiss.  If you don't respond to it, to me, if you don't get excited and willing, that'll prove you're right and it's all over.  You walk away with the holo chip and never have to worry about any of it, again. All after just a kiss."

"Just a-?"

"But if you get as wet and horny and ready as I know you will, then we fuck.  Fuck long and hard and well.  One whole night.  Afterwards, you'll still have the chip and we never need to meet again.  Or we can get together and fuck again whenever we feel like it.  But not make much of it.  I hate clingy bitches."

"You-You're so full of yourself that you really believe that you'll get me to spread my legs for you, to fuck you, with just a kiss?  A kiss?"

"Yes.  I do."

She winced.  "No.  No way.  You're never getting to touch me like that again, Dorrek.  NEVER.  Or in any way at all."

"Why?  Are you afraid of what you may realize?  Or what you may be unable to deny?"

"What if I walk away now and to hell with you and your test?"

"Ah, but then you'd never know.  Never be sure. Of whether you'd have lost or not."

"I-I know I wouldn't-"

"Then show me.  With a kiss.  Just a kiss. Would that be so hard to take?  To risk?"

She frowned.  "Risk-?"

"Just one kiss."

One kiss.  Was that so...  much?

One kiss.  With...  him?

She could walk away.  Dorrek had given her the chip of his own volition.  She had no assurance that it was not fake, that it was not some kind of trick.  She was not morally obligated to do anything.  How could she owe HIM anything?

She took in that smug, lascivious expression, the ugly, repellent visage, so coarsely-featured, so deeply-lined with corrugations beyond the usual Skrull norm, so homely and unappealing compared even to others Skrull, much less to Kl'rt.  The more she looked, the more physically unnerved she felt by the idea of enduring again his touch, and the more disturbed she was by the shifty way he kept moving ever closer to her, crowding her, physically intruding into her personal space, so oppressively, so insistently.  How could such a scrawny creature seem so threatening just walking towards her?  One so weak and pathetic, compared to all those super-human foes she had faced over the years?  Compared to the others who had so recently imposed their will upon her?

Yet he was the first of their enemies to have actually spread her legs and forced his cock into her sex.  She was all too-conscious of how he had never even entered her fully, or finished in her.  How he had not filled her sex with his alien semen.  Claiming her as his, as he could have, as he would have, if there had been more time.  But if things had been...  different, just different enough, he would have been her first.  The first to fully, truly rape her.  The first enemy, not some version of her husband, to actually make her his.  To force her into sexual submission.  Because she would have.  She would have been forced to submit.  Submit to being raped.  To being owned, physically, sexually, this ugly, hateful alien fiend and his huge cock.  She knew it.

She had not been in any position to resist, to keep that from happening, and she knew it.  And he had known it, too.

Would that have been better or worse than what had happened instead?  To having been raped first by Dorrek?  Would that have made everything else...  different?

Would she have been able to escape the Skrull Throne World afterward?  Would she have...  wanted to?

And now she was asked to kiss him.

Willingly.

Could she even bring herself to let him kiss her?  Him?  The cruel, loathsome alien who had once condemned her loved ones to death?  Who had held her bound and helpless to torture and abuse?

Who had first put such troubling, disturbing feelings into her?

Could a kiss put an end to all of this?  Just a kiss?  One kiss.

And could she risk it?

Because there was risk.  A huge risk.  She had to recognize that, shameful as it was to face.  She had discovered parts of her own self that she had not known about before.  And she knew now that, hard as it could seem, there was a danger.  He was a danger.  A huge danger.  To her.  In every way.  She could not deny it.  She could not.

But surely she was strong enough.  To handle it.  To deal with it, deal with him, and how it could be, or would surely be, now that she knew just what to expect.  Strong enough to keep her self-control, at least, to do whatever had to be done, if determined enough, if she put her mind to it.  Even if she were to react in unwanted ways, as she had before, first with him, then with Kl'rt, and even with Terrax.

But it had to be easier, now.  Kl'rt and Terrax had been so strong and dominant and monstrously-hung, too.  How could this stunted toad compare, no matter how big and thick and hard his cock was and how well he had gotten to her with it and his hands and tongue and teeth and...?

She could.  She had to.  She had to believe so.   Because she would not let him believe she had been afraid.

She hated the idea of letting this arrogant, hateful creep think he could have won her over.  Hated leaving any doubt.  So maybe she did have to prove it.  To him.  And to herself.

Her blue eyes matched the green stare.

"Just one kiss?"

"Just one kiss."

She squared her shoulders.  "Alright.  Let's do it.  One kiss."

***************************************************

"Ah, I must beg you to forgive me.  I'm not really good at-"

"You're doing fine.  Just keep close to me."

"I must really go back.  My wife may-"

"Just one more.  Please?"

***************************************************

As Dorrek moved towards her, Sue took yet another step back, and suddenly ran out of terrace floor, her rear bumping the balcony's force field balustrade, with the multi-story drop behind it.  Startled, with her balance comprised, she flailed for the top railing, almost stumbling back, but her wrist and waist were suddenly seized by his hands, stopping her from toppling backwards, and holding her safely in place, with surprising strength.

"Careful, my dear."

The homely Skrull was right before her, holding her between him and the transparent barrier at her back.  Her torso was arched slightly, pulled slightly forward by his hand at the small of her back, just over the edge of the balustrade, where her rounded rear pressed against its translucent field surface.  Both her arms were spread to her sides, holding onto the railing, with one held firmly at the wrist.

 She tensed, shaken.  She had sworn to never be touched by Dorrek again, but now his hands were on her, at her wrist and waist, holding her, so much stronger than she would have expected, and large, so very large.  She should not be surprised at that, should she?

Her face reddened and she looked to a side, away from his face.  "It was just a misstep."  

She could not thank him.  Not him.  Her force-field would have saved her even if she had toppled over, anyway.

She tried to straighten up but was not released.  The holds on her wrist and waist grew tighter as she was pulled closer.  So strong.  How could this skinny, short, old bastard be so strong?  Holding her so firmly and tightly and assuredly.  So in control.  In control of her.

Despite knowing she could rely on her invisible force, she still felt on the verge of panic, pinned there, her back against the low barrier, with the long drop behind her, and him before her, pressing forward.

"Wait.  I-I'm not... comfortable."  How could she?  She shifted her footing.  "Could we-?"

"I'll help."

The hand at her back slid around her slender waist and down the side of her hip, reaching her outer thigh, just where the her dress was cut in daring slit to let one of her legs freedom of movement.  A green fingertip tapped lightly the very point where the slit started and then slid up.  Following this, the slit grew higher, the shimmering silver cloth parting effortless to expose more of the smooth, toned flesh of her upper thigh, reaching almost the top of her hip.

She gasped in surprise.  "How-?  How did you do that-?"

"It's a feature."  The fingertip moved back, brushing over her newly uncovered hip and then lower, encouraging her exposed leg to move away from the other.  "Better now?"

Her mouth opened in realization.  "It was you.  You sent me the dress.  And the earrings."

"Of course.  You didn't think it was your husband, did you?  Something so exquisite?"

She should have known.  She should have.  It was obvious in hindsight.  When had Reed done anything like that?  Had such foresight?  Or such taste?  "You-You had no right!"

"You look luscious in it.  What else matters?"

She felt furious.  At the deception.  At having played from the beginning into his hands, into his designs for her.  "I should just take it off."

"Go ahead.  I wouldn't complain.  Or I could do it for you."

"You-?"

"It was specially designed for you.  To fit you perfectly.  And to obey my touch.  As you should, too.  And I could just making it peel away, and fall off, just moving my fingertip."

She paled.  "You wouldn't dare-"

"Or I could tear it off, the old-fashioned way."  His hand gripped at the fabric, seizing a fistful just behind her back, and she felt it stretch and grow thinner over her skin, precariously.

"Stop!  Don't..."   How could she even begin to explain it?  Ending up naked, out here?  Just next to the party?  Next to him?  "Just...  leave it, as it is."

It did not matter, after all.  So she was wearing his gifts?  How could that be worse than having his hands again on her?  Than having his mouth again on hers?  As he would, shortly.

She just should get it all done as quickly as she could.

"Just get it over."

But even with her widened stance, with the two standing closer than ever, she still remained much taller, her face too high, and her bosom fit in the space between the Skrull furrowed chin and the sunken chest below.  Looking at the ugly, green-hued alien face and below, she self-consciously realized that her nipples remained achingly hard and were surely very noticeable, poking out, just there, in their tight proximity.

"Perhaps I should... remove my high heels.  So you can better reach-"

"I like you in high heels."

The hand on her side reached farther back and abruptly tugged her hips forward, pulling her lower body away from the balcony edge and against his lead leg placed between her own.  Her free leg stretched forward and out, allowed by the new higher cut on her tight dress, while the other became slightly bent, so she reclined at a steeper angle against the balustrade, lower on its surface, her upper body leaning further back precariously.  She was now just slightly higher, and her face was not beyond reach, while her breasts pressed hard and high on the bony upper body, so the alien chin seemed to rest just over their firm upper curved surface, and the green-lipped mouth moved towards hers.

She trembled all over.

She was now in his arms.  Dorrek's arms.  The arms of that evil, hateful monster who had used her and abused her.  Who had

And she was about to be kissed.  By him.  By Dorrek.

Kissed.

As he had kissed her before.  As she knew he could kiss her.  As she knew he would kiss her.  Really, really kiss her.

As it had to happen.  It had to.  Now.  Right now.

She felt like closing her eyes, to keep from seeing him, there, right before her, about to meet her mouth again with his own.

But she did not.  She could not.

She had to see him, see Dorrek, see him, with his ugly face and squinting, malicious eyes, peering hungrily into hers.  She had to remain fully aware of how much she hated him and how much she would hate being kissed by him.

Because she had to hate it.  How could she not?

She had to hate it and show it.  She had to show him.  Show him.

She had to show him how much she hated him and his kiss.  

Hated it, so, so much.

Because she did.  Didn't she?

***************************************************

"Master Xar!"

He was relieved to find a familiar face in the huge, teeming crowd, and rushed to join the aged scientist.

"Earthman Johnny Storm."  Xar nodded in greeting.  "Are you enjoying the party?"

"Well, booze's great, I give you that.  Music is weird but sorta funky."

"I see.  Well, now I must-"

"Wait, wait, I'm looking for my homies.  Like, Rich, the guy also from Earth who's in your Nova squad-"

"Nova Corps."

"That one.  Seen him?  He bolted just now and can't find him."

"I have not, I regret to say.  Now if you-"

"How about my sister?  You know, hot, pretty blonde with really big-"

"Earth-woman Susan Storm Richards?  The companion of the Great Mind Richards?"

He snorted at that Great Mind thing again.  "Yeah!  Her."

"I did see Susan Storm Richards near that area a while ago, walking rather in a hurry.  Towards the terrace there, maybe."

***************************************************

She reached up with her free hand to brush a loose lock of blond hair away from her flushed face, from her lips, now open and trembling lips, from between them.

One kiss, just one kiss, she reminded herself, nervously.  She had to.  She had to do it.  Let him kiss her.  Let Dorrek kiss her.

Let her feel again his mouth, his lips, his tongue...

His taste...

Let her feel him.

Him.  Dorrek.

The alien mouth moved forward, as did hers.

The green, roughly corrugated lips brushed hers.

PART TWO:   IT'S IN HIS KISS

"Hey, Sue-!"

Johnny strode out into the large open space of the terrace, glancing from side to side.

"Sue...?"

He could have sworn he had seen someone out here, even as he opened the doors, yet there was no one.

Maybe he should be more careful with unknown alien drinks.

He walked to the edge of the space, taking in the brightly lighted alien city under the equally glittering night sky.

There sure was an amazing view out here and no one inside seemed to notice or care.

And for a party full of booze and half-naked alien babes, it was proving ridiculously hard to score in there, too.  Looked like sadly there would be no cheap and meaningless interplanetary species-crossing hot fucking for this Earthling tonight.

Maybe his visit to the Skrull Throne-World had spoiled him.

Nope.  A wingman.  He just lacked a decent wingman.  Rich just sucked.  Even Ben would have been more useful.

Maybe Ben would have gotten lucky easier than him.  Somehow the hottest babes were going for the ugliest-looking guys these days.  Damned if he knew why.  Not that Ben would ever take advantage of it, the soft-hearted big lug with his schoolboy crush on Alicia.

Now, Alicia, there was a real cute, sweet babe.

He took a deep breath of cold, fresh air, to clear his mind, and looked up.

He could have a quick flight to let off some heat, work off the hornyness.  He did not know the city, but how hard could it be to find again the big palace building complex whatever?

He vaulted over the railing.

"FLAME ON!"

The fiery trail vanished in the distance.

***************************************************

A very short distance from where Johnny Storm had stood, the two joined yet disparate figures became slowly visible.

Both leaned against the translucent balustrade, the green-skinned short Skrull in the heavy, loose purples robes holding tight against the shapely blonde Earthling beauty in her long and skin-tight silvery dress.  Their lips remained just a couple of inches apart.

Nervously, she drew back, steadying herself on the railing behind.  "That was too close."

"Not close enough.  Not yet."

"He may come back at any moment."

"He's easy to see from a distance at night."

"I have my back to the city, and you'll be...  distracted."  She shifted, uneasy.  "Maybe we'd better not-"

"If you quit, you lose."

"I'm not quitting.  I just-"

"You're afraid."

"Of being found out.  It's really not a proper place or-"

"You wanted the test to be easy?  Why call it a test, then?"

She breathed in.  "Fine.  Let's... try again."

***************************************************

He thought it was her.  The long, black-green hair fooled him.  And the long robes.

He called to her, politely, but was greeted by a much different, harsher Skrull face, its chin furrows deeper and wider, eyes narrower and colder.

"Ah, sorry.  My mistake."

She sneered at him with disdain and spat something in a Skrull dialect that his suit could not translate.

***************************************************

The alien lips were dry and coarse all over their corrugated surface.

She opened her mouth slightly, letting them brush more easily against her own soft ones, the contact rough but fleeting, and after retreating, the motion was repeated at a slightly different angle, then repeated again, touching her lip briefly, at different spots each time, in slow, lingering brushes that soon made her grow impatient.

Between the breathy contacts, the soft, faint brushing of their mouths, she shifted, uncomfortable, uneasy, wanting him to finally get to it.  To get it over with.

"Why are-?"

"Ssh..."

His mouth's motions continued to tease, coming closer and closer to full contact, but not quite making it.

"Are you... stalling?"

"Why hurry?"

His hand moved about her hip and upper thigh, from its front to its back, moving too far in each direction each time.  She did not want to give him time enough to let him get too daring there.

She squirmed impatiently, and her body soon sent the message that her voice then followed.

"Go on.  Do it.  For real."

He whispered, his lips infinitesimally close to hers:  "You really want me to?"

She rasped a curse as she moved forward, trying to achieve the contact.  But he pulled back.

Red-faced, she nodded and rasped, almost imperceptibly:  "Just...  kiss me."

Complying, the dry Skrull mouth fastened onto her moist upper lip in a firmer, longer contact, tugging gently at it, then moved to her lower lip and did the same.  Then switched back, pecking and tugging, just harder each time, until each contact was deeper and more intense, more and more each time.

It was slow but insistent, simple but skillful, and it built into more and more insistent intensity.

Soon she was even more annoyed, even more irritated.

Why could he not get it over with?

Why did he need to play about so much?  Tease her so much?  Make it so...  slow?  So slow and...  mocking?  And... provoking?

But she did not move.  She did not close her eyes.  She did not open her mouth any further than she must.

She focused on staying calm, staying detached, using the kind of concentration she normally practiced for focusing her invisible force.

She had to focus on how much she hated him, how much she hated this, having to hide away here in this balcony, letting this disgusting bastard lock mouths with her.  She had to focus on her disgust, on the knowledge of her extensive past humiliation at his hands, on the danger he had posed for those she loved best, on how he was a slimy, abusive jerk.  So she could dismiss the touch and taste of his lips and tongue, the pecking and nibbling and sucking and licking and so much more.  So much more.

She would not let him get to her.  She would show him.

She would not let him make her give in, give in to the kiss as he expected to.  As she had done before, back then, when she thought there was nothing else left to do.  When she had been too tired and scared and weak.

But not she would not.

Even if the damn bastard really knew how to kiss a girl.

***************************************************

"Sue?  Susan?"

Reed Richards walked out into the wide platform of the balcony, brow furrowed deep in puzzlement.

"She's not here.  But I thought I'd seen-"

"So you found a place where we could be alone."  The svelte Suzerain of Xandar, walked sensuously after Reed, her unbound high breasts skipping up and down with each step, each perky nipple covered just in neon blue paint.  The cold air of the balcony clearly had an effect on her unclothed chest.  "You are indeed a genius."

"Master Xar said that Susan may have come here."

She smiled, tossing her length of braided hair back over a shoulder.  "Someone may still come here, however."

"Yes, but it may not feasible to wait."

"I don't think we'd have to wait long for someone to come."

***************************************************

Susan stared at them in surprise right through Dorrek's face, even as the emperor's lips and tongue worked on her more and more, with deliberate slowness and just the right hint of forcefulness.

Here?  They had to come here?

She wanted to pull away, to break away from the kiss, Dorrek's kiss, ashamed of what she was doing, of being right there next to Reed, so close to him, while held in the arms of another...  male, being kissed, kissed like this.  How could she keep at it?

But Dorrek would not let her go, his grip on her too firm and strong and assured.  As was the kiss.  The kiss itself would not let her break away.  Not that easily.  Demanding her attention.  Her full, undisturbed attention.

With Reed just there.

With Adora.

***************************************************

"She may have detoured or been detained on the way here."

"Right.  She is not here."  She moved closer to him.  "But we are."

***************************************************

Now Dorrek had to ramp up at last the intensity?  Make the kiss THAT deep and hard Now?

It was so strange to feel him like this, his body pressing hard against her, his hands all over her, even though she could not see him, both made invisible by her power.

She could stare with eyes full open at Reed and Adora, so close to them, right through the area where she could feel Dorrek, kissing her, but she could not tell where each caress or touch or lick or bite would come from or where he would touch her, stroke her or squeeze her, until it was actually happening, each caress becoming a surprise, a baffling distraction, an unpredictable barrage of sensations eroding away at her larger awareness, making her shift and squirm and shiver, making it hard for her to even catch her breath or pay attention to those others right there by them, her body and mind too busy, too ardently assailed by Dorrek's mouth and hands to keep track of just what the nearly-naked Xandarian was saying or doing, just as it was harder and harder to focus her power on keeping them invisible as the kiss went on and on.

But Adora would not dare, would she?  Not right here, not with Reed.  Her Reed.

He should better keep that skank in her proper place.

***************************************************

"I think I should go, ah, and keep looking for Sue."

Adora blocked his path and extended her arms over his shoulders.  "You don't need to keep looking for any other woman.  Not anymore."

He drew back.  "Adora, wait.  We have talked about this."

She scrunched her nose.  "Oh, you so talk too much."

She pulled his head down towards her as she lunged up, her mouth finding his.

***************************************************

Sue could not believe it.

Had all that so-called dancing had not been bad enough?  First the half-naked skank had slithered and rubbed like a cheap slut all over a man who was certainly not hers and now she sneaked away into an empty balcony to kiss him?  What kind of shameless whore was she?

She gasped and rasped ineffectively into her mouth-lock with Dorrek, trying to hesitantly beg Dorrek for a reprieve, for a chance to catch her breath and clear her mind, too tighly caught in the Skrull's embrace to escape or voice her righteous anger, which further inflamed each single part of her.

Anger at that slut.  That damn slut.

***************************************************

"Adora, no!  Please.  No.  Really.  I mean it.  No!"

He tried to push her off, gently, carefully, but she held on to him, kissing him hungrily, barely letting him catch her breath, while rubbing insistently against him, with even greater intensity than on the dance floor, making him even more aware of her serious lack of clothing.  A lack she soon started to make even more absolute, hurriedly throwing off what little she had worn from the start, before she began to tear at his clothes as well.

That could not be.

"Enough, Adora.  Enough."

The suit could not stretch along with him, as would the clothes he had custom made of unstable molecules, but he could still turn pliable enough to escape Adora's embrace.  When she could not hold on to his shifting limbs, she grabbed harder for handholds on his clothes.

That was too much.  Susan had given him this suit.  As a gift.  Hugo Chief or something similar.  She liked seeing him in it.  He could not let it get damaged.

He whipped his stretched limbs about to confuse her, and unceremoniously, dropped her on her backside.  He hoped it would not hurt much.  It did seem a nicely toned one.

"Adora.  No more.  You know I am married.  You cannot do this."

She crawled towards him on all fours.  "You know you belong here.  Your mind does.  You'd be First Mind, above the Living Computers themselves, using them and their stored knowledge to work out all the secrets of the cosmos.  I am offering you all that.  And I can have your body.  You can be my consort.  What does not work in that?"

***************************************************

Consort?  Trying to fuck her husband was not enough?  The slut wanted to steal him completely?

Sue would have walked up to grab the bitch by the hair, were she not entangled so tightly in Dorrek's arms, so tightly she could hardly breathe, or move, or do much but just let him do whatever he wished with her, while she stared at Reed and the slut, staring right through his currently invisible body.

The thieving slut had to be taught a lesson.  Had to.  She had it coming.  Coming from the very start.

Hadn't she already tried once to fuck Reed back there, in the infirmary, in the Baxter Building, in their very home?  And ended up spreading her legs for the Super-Skrull by mistake?

Served her right, too!  She hoped Kl'rt had really wrecked her cunt something fierce with his huge, fat Skrull cock.  To teach her.  Not that she ever even deserved it.

Skrull cock was too good for the damn slut.  Far too good.

The she remembered that Adora wanted Dorrek, too.  Wanted to be Dorrek's wife, Dorrek's Empress.

The same Dorrek now holding Sue and kissing her nearly into a faint.

The damn bitch wanted everything for herself!

In her anger, she gripped the railing behind her with furious strength, even while the still-invisible Skrull tongue pushed its way even deeper into her mouth and her body trembled with violently conflicting emotions, grinding all of her against the Skrull's bony, gangly frame.

She could not let her.  Would not let her.

Furiously, her tongue angrily wrestled the alien corrugated one in the air between the two of them, with only touch and taste to guide each other.

Who did she think she was?

***************************************************

He shook his head, backing away.  "Please, Adora.  I told you.  I'm married already.  I can't-"

"So?  Don't you have multiple marriages on Earth?  Group marriages?  Structured multi-tier options?  You both can be my consorts."

His eyebrows rose.  "Oh.  I see.  Well...  Well, that is not a commonly accepted practice in our particular Earth culture-"

She sat back on her heels, frowning.  "By the World-Mind, what kind of backwater mud-hole is that?"

"Adora, you're a beautiful woman and your offer is most generous, but-"

"Don't you keep thinking back to it?  To us?  Back there, surrounded by the Living Computers, you and I, together.  How the whole world shook about us!"

***************************************************

WHAT?

She would have to talk in greater depth with Reed about just what had happened back there, between him and Adora.  Living Computers and whatnot.

Much greater depth.

Then Dorrek's tongue went deeper into her throat and her legs almost gave out.

***************************************************

"Everything likely shook because there was a Skrull attack going on-"

"But there was so much more than that.  So much more!"

He rubbed his temples.  "Oh, yes.  I do remember.  All that knowledge.  All those ideas.  And data.  And connections.  So many connections.   So many possibilities.  I-I still get dizzy at times thinking-"

"Oh, yes."  Adora's eyes sparkled, looking up at him, still on her knees.  "The connection of your cock and my cunt.  Your huge cock.  So big inside me, and kept getting bigger and bigger.  Filling me so much, in so many ways!  Thinking of that makes me dizzy, too."

"Excuse me?"

***************************************************

Fuck that.  Fuck her.  Fuck the bitch.

To hell with worrying about diplomatic incidents.  She had to kill that brazen hussy.  She had to teach her to respect what belonged to others.

And Reed was toast, too.  Definitely toast.

Perhaps he had been out of it.  Perhaps this shameless slut had taken advantage of him with that whole mind-meld thing he had told Sue about.  But that would not leave him in the clear.

She was not going to let him off that easily, not after this.  Not after he had just let that slut climb all over him and suck his face.

Sure, she was sucking face with Dorrek, too.  And had just almost passed out, choking his thick tongue.  But that was different.  So different.

***************************************************

"Don't you remember how it was?  How great?  How amazing?"

"I actually was not fully conscious of everything that was-"

She grabbed at his waist and pulled his pants down.  "How big and hard you were for me?  Just how damn big?"

Despite his frantic attempts to break free, Adora pulled his underwear aside and seized his manhood.

***************************************************

He was hard?  Already?  Her husband?  Reed?  Hard for that bitch?

That was it.  He was a goner, too.  She would kill both of them.

Group marriage her ass.

Dorrek's hand then squeezed that very part of her, encompassing much of the firm roundness of her buttock, the long fingers proving so strong, knowing, and assured, working through the thin fabric of her dress.  It may have thinned by design under that finger, the damn traitorous piece of cloth.

***************************************************

"Make it grow, Reed.  Please!  Bigger!  Much bigger!  As you did then!  Making it so big!  SO FUCKING BIG!"

***************************************************

Sue could not believe what she had just heard.

Reed had done THAT?  THAT?  For Adora?  ADORA?  AND NOT HER?

He would not do it for her, his wife, but had done it for that Xandarian slut?

And she had felt guilty about enjoying Dorrek's kiss!  And for enjoying being raped?  Raped hard by thick monster cocks?  And so fucking guilty about all of it?

While her own husband was giving that slut the monster cock that she hadn't had?  The monster cock that she could have had, that she should have had, instead of having to be forced to orgasm while being nearly split asunder by evil, murderous alien villains and their huge monster cocks that she shouldn't ever come close to loving, loving nowhere as much as she could be forced to if her husband had not been giving it instead to some slutty alien bitch princess barely out of her teens?

Dorrek's finger then pressed firmly right behind her wet folds and her chest felt about to burst from lack of air and the rising tension she could no longer hold back.

***************************************************

"I'll help you,"  Adora rasped.  "Help you make it bigger."

She took him into her mouth.

TO BE CONTINUED