The Owl in the Abyss - Chapter 13 (Patreon)

I swiped my thumb and dismissed the window showing PHO and returned to idly browsing a few other social media sites.

As much as I had exiled myself from there over the last few years, now I was forced to return simply to keep my head in the game on the public perception of my cape persona, events that occurred in the city and in the wider cape world on a national and even international level. The amount of time that could be spent just looking at each cape, scrutinizing their costumes, their interactions with the public and their enemies was a deep rabbit hole to disappear down into. I even ended up having to use a translator app, in one example, just to understand just why a cape in Brazil called Erasmo had such an antagonistic attitude towards anyone from Mexico.

My phone gave a silent flashing warning that I had just reached 15% battery life.

I huffed quietly in annoyance and looked behind me at my current bedmate, who was snugly and warmly spooning against my back, with a muscular arm draped over my side.

Uber was deep in slumber and not getting up any time soon.

I misted and reappeared next to the bed stand, quickly plugging in the charger before putting the phone down.

I misted again, reoccupying my warm, comfy spot before grabbing the phone and resuming browsing. Uber hadn’t noticed my quick absence enough to wake up thankfully.

My mind again inwardly marveled at what I was doing or rather still doing here.

Replaying the sequence of events in my head didn’t help reduce my incredulity, yet each one was utterly logical on the face of it.

I had been flying home and the prospect of just stewing alone in my room with everything I had seen and done, was totally unappealing. I had been going to the Red Light for some action and getting some sustenance originally, but hunting for a client was just as unappealing at the thought of how potentially long it would take, never mind that the city’s alert level thanks to that stupid train meant everyone was off the streets.

So I contacted the duo.

Leet was already on his way to the PRT with Truce assurance in hand, to help with containing the SCP, leaving Uber as the only one who could really help me.

Finding a hotel room was also out of the question, so after much assurance from me that I had a vested interest in not ratting them out, I got an invitation to their secret lair.

This lair, was actually situated on of all places, a country club estate in the north-west of the city, just on the outskirts of Brockton. There were a number of high market homes on the estate and the duo occupied a near 3000 square feet double story home that should’ve belonged to a CEO of some company or upper-class family.

That Uber and Leet had their lair in one was just mind boggling - which was probably the entire point.

How they got their hands on it and kept things under wraps was something I still didn’t know, but I had come to a fair number of guesses.

Firstly, the place didn’t really have neighbors. The closest was a three hundred yard walk across meandering footpaths among the golf courses. The place was nicely surrounded by tall trees, with only bits of it sticking out to any passing golfer, who would always be on the other side of a small pond, which that course used as a water trap. The rules of the club neatly discouraged golfers from approaching the houses on the estate as well.

The true ‘lair’ of the duo, was also in the basement of the home, which had been expanded in size using a device of Leet’s invention, which turned any space set into it, to expand like a permanent version of Vista’s powers. They hadn’t let me down there obviously, but it was big enough for holding everything Leet and Uber needed and could be expanded on command. Uber couldn’t help but brag occasionally it seemed.

The rest of the massive home was kept to a generally neat appearance for ‘public’ consumption.

“We’re two straight guys sharing this house, it’d look suspicious if it was too clean,” Uber had explained with a shrug as he had taken me on a brief tour of the house.

It didn’t take long after the abbreviated tour for me to get a bit impatient and jump his bones.

We used his bedroom naturally.

Uber worked his natural magic, though thankfully didn’t try the pointless effort to seduce me, but he had clearly used his power to focus on the art and skill of mind blowing good sex.

It was amazing how much that involved that didn’t mean actual penetrative sex - which was why we could stretch it out for just over an hour, without me having to worry about fucking him to death.

It was an hour of bliss and pleasure wrapped up in each other in a seemingly never ending loop, which banished any thought of blood, guts and that SCP out of my head.

That he quickly fell asleep after our session concluded was not surprising, he had a whole day behind him and hadn’t counted on me coming out of the blue to fulfill our ongoing contract a day early.

He had surprised me initially with the spooning, but then the comfy, delicious and relaxing sensation of having a beefcake like Uber embracing me like this hit my brain.

Yeah, I didn’t want to get up.

It figured that something like this would be a way for me to mentally relax and unwind.

I spent the remaining hours until sunrise like this, watching videos on the sharing sites with subtitles on. Uber had thankfully given me access to the house Wi-Fi, so I hadn’t killed off all the data on my phone in the process.

A slight change in his breathing pattern and my ass getting poked with a steadily hardening cock meant he had a morning stiffy and was awake.

“Good morning,” I said idly, continuing to watch.

His answer took a while to come and he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with his right hand, lifting his arm off me in the process, something that my instincts definitely objected to. I was tempted to grab that arm and put it back where it belonged.

“Morning,” he grumped, his head thumping back onto his pillow. “You’re still here?”

“Should I not be?” I returned lightly.

“Uh, no, it’s just… a surprise. A nice one. Usually, you’re just… wham, bam, thank you, sir.”

“After the night I had…” I said hesitantly. There was no way I was talking about this with Uber, someone who was just technically a ‘business partner’ with extra benefits. “Leet will tell you details, I really don’t want to even think about that bloody train. I just… I guess I wanted to be comforted after that shit night and you’re also very good at that. Thank you.”

“Well,” his arm laid on my waist again and a large hand started to slowly caress my stomach. “It was a pleasure.”

I enjoyed the attention and the feelings of his chest and abs on my back as he talked. Even his now rock hard member that had now slipped between the cheeks of my butt wasn’t unwelcome. In fact, it felt… right. Though there really should be a few more to…

I firmly interrupted that line of thinking. Was I seriously longing for a bloody harem of men?

We kept the comfy and pleasurable thing going, whilst I switched on the audio to the phone and we both ended up watching and vegging out to my video sharing feed for another half an hour.

Uber groaned at one point though and untangled himself, “Sorry, nature’s call.”

I had to smother a giggle as he walked out of the bedroom with his erect dick sticking forward like a lance. I pondered the mechanics for a brief moment; either he was going to make a mess or he had some mental trick of ridding himself of an erection rather quickly.

The very characteristic tune of the Mario Brothers game interrupted me. It took me a moment of glancing around the room to find the source. A clearly Tinkertech phone that was on Uber’s side of the bed.

“Uber! Phone!” I shouted.

“Shit! Uh, fuck, answer it with the red button and typing in 439130 afterwards! That’ll be Leet!”

“And what am I supposed to say to him?!”

“Just explain the deal, he’s checking in from the Protectorate, ouch!”

I didn’t want to know why or how he caused himself pain, but I picked up the phone. It had all the modern amenities you’d expect, but was rather blocky and flashy, almost looking like something that you’d expect to see as a prop from an 80’s era sci-fi show. The moment that thought clicked in my head, I recognized just where this phone drew its inspiration.

I went through the procedure Uber outlined and placed it to my ear, “Hello, Leet?”

There was a long silence on the other end, “Escort?”

“Yes, Leet.”

“I thought… well, since you’re still there and Uber gave you the code, things are good?”

That was pretty clever. The duo had accounted for anyone getting hands on each other’s phones and the code was also a form of master-stranger signal or non-duress code.

“All fine here, Uber’s a bit stuck in the bathroom at the moment with a… morning problem.”

“Oh, yes. Well, I’ll wait on the line until he’s back. So you and he…” he trailed off uncomfortably.

“Of course, it’s not like our deal stated I have to wait for you both. This just means I owe you one.”

“Yes, okay, cool…”

We trailed off into an awkward silence.

“How are things going there with the train?” I asked a bit desperately.

“Frustrating and slow. If you fought this thing at full tilt, well, props to you.”

“How many train cars does it have now?”

“Fifteen.”

I looked up into the ceiling of the bedroom, resisting the urge to let out some rather colorful dockworker style invective. “That’s not as bad as it could’ve been.”

“Yeah, we figured out pretty quickly to treat this thing like a pressure cooker. They’re letting the train eject shit from the last car, whilst getting the rest steadily sealed up with a combo of lead and confoam. I also helped design something with Armsmaster and Dragon, which should nicely deal with scrubbing the radiation byproducts in the containment area. Biggest issue now is figuring out a way to safely move the thing when the dedicated containment is built.”

Uber, still naked, rushed into the bedroom, rubbing his wet hands together from a wash to help dry it off.

“Here’s Uber,” I said and handed over the phone.

He grabbed it, typed in another code, before putting it to his ear, “Yo bro, what’s up? You cool?” He sat down on the bed as he listened to his partner’s response. “Uh huh, good. Yeah… Dude, she hasn’t got out of bed yet… Yes, I’m sure…  No, I didn’t take her downstairs…  Yes, still wearing the domino mask, even slept with it…  Seriously dude, usually I’m the one who’s the security freak… Okay, when you’re coming back? Need a lift?” He listened for a bit. “Okay. See you soon then. Cheers bro.”

Uber tapped the phone, entering another code before dumping it on his bed stand.

“Is he coming back soon?” I asked curiously.

“He’s staying at the quarantine site, they’ve set up modular apartments with the basic stuff for all the people who need to be close in case of emergency. He pulled an all-nighter, so’s going to sleep there. Truce is holding so far, though they’ve only really needed to use it for Leet and Squealer.”

“She’s there?” I asked in surprise.

“Yeah, the Protectorate approached her. She’s a vehicle specialized Tinker after all. I’d imagine if they can’t pull off some form of teleportation and they’re forced to move that train conventionally, that she’d be just the Tinker you want to build something that can carry it.”

“Makes sense I suppose,” I mused staring into my phone.

“So, I’m curious, given the whole succubus-lite thing-”

“I’m not a succubus,” I snapped in irritation.

“Okay, fair enough, but how long between… would be safe?” he trailed off uncomfortably.

I rolled my eyes in exasperation and looked at him with true sight. It was actually a good question in retrospect. I’d given them a two day period between visits just to give me some time off from them and figured it was enough for them to regain strength and vitality. Actually making heads or tails of what I was seeing in his aura with regards to his essence and vitality was very iffy.

“You need to get some breakfast in you, then maybe a few hours after that. It’s not like my powers and problems came with a user manual. It’d actually be a good experiment to run.”

“You got somewhere to be today?” he asked pointedly.

“Not specifically,” I shrugged. There was some GED work I wanted to finish off and further research on Leet’s power, but it could be postponed given what we were going to test.

“Okay, house is open to you, except the basement. If you wanna go outside, keep it in that direction,” he pointed north-east. “That way the house shields you from passing golfers.”

“Sure, thanks.”

He nodded, hopped out of bed, and vanished out the door.

My phone buzzed with an incoming message from dad. I had kept him updated on everything via text and a quick phone call last night. It was more than likely that he did not have a good night’s rest behind him, knowing that I had been not only involved in an A-class incident, but had also spent the night at a villain’s lair, however justified and logical it was.

I spent nearly ten minutes coming up with a text that could get across my intentions but would be vague enough that it wouldn’t really raise any alarm bells should the text be read by a third party.

Armsmaster had hacked the thing in moments last night, so I had to at minimum assume that he would continue to have access to the phone, the number and any device that used the SIM chip associated with it.

Would he share that with the Protectorate or keep it to himself? It was probably prudent to get a second burner phone for clandestine calls and just keep the current one as my unsecured public facing phone.

I got up and left the phone to continue its charge and grabbed ‘15 automatically. I’d definitely have to talk to the sentient pipe about its opinions and observations on the SCP train, to check if I missed something.

My eye next caught the mess we’d left on the queen sized bed and I winced. I did tend to leave a bit of mess in the wake of my orgasms. I grabbed a corner of the soiled sheets and pulled them off, bunching them up and headed off to dump it at a downstairs laundry room that I vaguely remembered seeing.

I took a bit of a roundabout route, but eventually found the kitchen where a still naked Uber was grabbing eggs from their large silver fridge.

“Don’t need to do that,” he gestured to the sheets under my arm with a fork.

“I know I’m technically a guest, but it’s just… my mom raised me as a bit of a neat freak.”

He gestured to the laundry room, “Go ahead then.”

I dumped the sheets in a slightly overflowing basket of clothes, before heading back and passed Uber starting off what had to be an omelet.

“Gotta ask, what’s the deal with the pipe? You’ve always got that thing in sight.” He began to beat the eggs with a dexterity that wouldn’t be out of place in a professional chef, then throwing a pinch of fine salt into it.

I took a seat on a tall barstool at the marble kitchen top where he was working, more out of fascination with the clear skill on display. All the while, my mind was working on how best to answer in a way that would be believable, yet not betray its nature as an SCP, not that Uber had any inkling of what that was.

“The best way to describe this thing, is an improvised Tinkertech weapon that dropped in my lap so to speak. It can fire aerokinetic blasts at varying strengths.”

He nodded as he began heating up a pan, “Escort, you’re completely safe here, you could so kick my ass if I-”

“It’s not that,” I assured him with a smile, waving off his concern. “It has a quirk you could say. It keeps growing in length, unless it’s being observed.”

Uber’s eyes widened behind his small mask and briefly stared at ‘15 with a wary look, before focusing on his task, spreading butter on the pan. “I’ve seen Tinkertech do crazy bullshit things, but that’s a new one. So that’s why you keep it with you at all times, it’s not out of paranoia.”

“Yeah, it’s already grown an inch from its original length due to circumstances where I was unable to arrange for it,” I explained, as he was now using a basting brush to ensure perfect coverage of the steadily melting butter. “It was probably intended as an experiment, trying to make a pipe that could adjust itself as needed to changing conditions.”

“Any chance the Tinker that made it will come looking?” he asked, as he pulled down a cook’s apron and put it on. This hid the beefcake eye candy and yet also made it more titillating somehow.

I looked out the expansive windows towards the rolling plains of perfectly manicured grass and trees to distract myself.

“Anything is possible in this world, but I doubt it,” I answered.

Uber continued to make his omelet, which I observed and learned quite a few cooking tricks and techniques from. Sure I couldn’t eat the stuff, but I still did my turn in the kitchen to cook food for dad. There was no way I could quickly replicate the skill Uber was showing here, as the omelet looked heavenly and would be easily accepted as a dish from a Michelin rated restaurant.

Another little problem that I quickly became aware of, was that watching Uber work in the kitchen only wearing that apron was probably a mistake, in retrospect. It had steadily been heating me up and I could feel wetness between my legs.

“Want a bite?” he offered, holding out a piece of omelet speared on his fork. He probably misinterpreted my look and intense interest.

I flinched backward automatically and held up my hands, “No, uh, sorry. It looks delicious I’m sure, but in this respect, when it comes to food, the succubus thing applies to me.”

“You can’t eat this… human food?”

“Well, I can technically eat it, but it’s just super bad tasting to me and I’ll throw it up if I try.”

Uber looked at the piece of omelet and ate it quickly before it could fall off the fork, “That… must be frustrating. I can’t imagine what that must’ve been like.”

“But I do cook, explaining further goes beyond cape life,” I gave him a pointed look. He nodded in understanding. “Anyway, thanks for the pointers, I’m gonna take a walk outside.”

He waved and continued to eat.

I quickly ran upstairs to grab my phone, then emerged from the house and into the cool refreshing morning air. In front of me was perfect grass for a dozen feet before it became a line of pine trees that led into a small forest of sorts on this side of the estate property. There was a patio here with deck chairs, but with the sun at this low angle in the early morning, everything was in shadow. So I decided to go for a relaxing walk through the little forest. It would be just what the doctor ordered to help further soothe my mental state.

It wouldn’t be much of a walk in terms of distance, but I extended it considerably by just walking a circle around each tree and tracing a looping lap through the small forest.

When I reached the end of my haphazard lap and was back at the tree line I realized I didn’t need to worry about being seen actually, except by the estate residents themselves. There wasn’t a soul on the golf course at the moment. It was early morning on a Wednesday and the city residents were still reeling from the declared emergency. A quick check on my phone also confirmed that a general non-essential travel restriction had been announced by the Mayor’s office. That effectively gave everyone a day off from work or school.

I emerged from the little forest and strode out onto the perfectly manicured grass of a fairway.

A slight thrill shot down my spine.

Nudity was a state of being for me at this point, but always in the back of my mind was the worry about the roll of the dice when someone inevitably encountered me.

Would they be accepting? Indifferent? Fascinated? Shocked? Angry? Would they recognize me as Escort?

I made it to the other side of the fairway and into the tree line there and continued onward, just exploring and walking.

It was nice.

It couldn’t compare to the feeling of freedom that unfettered flight gave me, but this was a more normal freedom that I only now realized I had been missing. To just pick a direction and walk. Something I couldn’t do from home without risking Escort being linked to that address. Dad couldn’t drive me anywhere without me having to hide myself for a similar reason. I couldn’t appear in public with him anywhere.

My musings were interrupted though by my nose.

It was a familiar smell, though there was a tangy nuance to it that confused me. The slight breeze that tickled my skin was coming from my right. I gave another sniff of the air, yes, definitely coming from the boundary tree line between the two fairways.

I misted and with no hurry at all moved through the trees as I imagined a ghost would. It was a few hundred yards of such relaxed movement until I spotted the origin of this scent.

A young guy sat against a tree, wearing a partially unzipped blue overall with the logo of the estate emblazoned on the back. He had well tanned skin and short, bleach blonde hair, with blue eyes that stared out into the distance. With that expression he was either thinking heavy thoughts or trying to not think at all. Given that he was currently busy smoking a hand rolled joint of weed, I was leaning towards the latter.

I hovered about him, inspecting him from multiple angles. The calloused hands, the smell of earth and grass clinging to him, yep, he was a ‘landscaping engineer’. His overalls also had a visible name tag sewn on its chest - S. Miller.

My mind debated about how I was going to approach this for a few moments before I settled on a plan.

I demisted on the other side of the tree and leaned my back against it casually, then pulled my left leg up so my foot also rested against it.

“Beautiful morning for a smoke,” I commented idly.

Miller jumped onto his feet so fast in fright, that it was almost like I had tased him on the ass. He barely kept a hold of his joint and whirled around, trying to find where my voice had come from. It didn’t take him long to walk around the tree in search and he froze when he spotted me.

“Hello,” I gave him a friendly, almost flirty wave of my hand and fingers.

He visibly swallowed and just stared at me with wide eyes, drinking in the image of me. He stayed stupefied this way for a long few seconds before shaking himself and some intelligence crept back into his eyes.

“Uh… miss, you really shouldn’t be out here… like that.”

“And you shouldn’t be smoking something illegal,” I retorted with a half-grin. He looked down at the joint with a wince. “However, we’re both doing something we’re clearly enjoying and using it to relax. The only reason I interrupted you, is because I think someone has spiked your weed.”

He frowned for a moment, skepticism written clear on his face, “How can you know?”

I tapped my nose, “I have an excellent sense of smell and having gone to a high school in the seedier parts of town, I know. You should also have a more substantial breakfast than a bowl of Rice Krispies, considering your profession by the way.”

He kept frowning but now held up the joint to his own nose, sniffing the base. Then shook his head, “That was just a lucky guess on my breakfast. It’s possible though, I normally only smoke one, but this is my third already this morning. Fuck, I go to him because I want natural weed, now he goes and laces it to make me use more… the fucker.”

“Your dealer’s getting greedy.”

“Fuck man, he was one of the few good ones left,” he groused and stepped close to the tree to snuff the joint out. Then he spotted ‘15, which I was keeping somewhat concealed, by my side against the tree and he took in how my hair fell over my face. The light of recognition dawned and he gaped at me, “You’re… you’re Escort? That new cape?”

“In the flesh, I suppose,” I smiled.

“Wow, just… What are you doing here? You’re not seriously going to arrest me for smoking a joint?”

“No, on the scale of things that I worry about, that is very low on my priority list, I can assure you Mr Miller. As I said, I just wanted to relax after last night’s action and this is where my feet took me, so to speak.”

“To me? A guy who has to pay his way through college as a gardener?” he asked incredulously.

“My nose led me to you, as I said. I smelled your spiked weed and thought, ‘Might as well get my good deed for the day, out of the way.’ And what’s wrong with being a gardener?”

“It’s… a gardener? That’s not exactly something to write home about or brag to girls about.”

I nodded, “That is an unfortunate perception, though without people like you, places like this can’t exist, where I can walk and relax like this.”

He looked at me for a moment then shifted his gaze down the length of the fairway. “Yeah, I suppose not. It’s what I study, exterior landscaping and my official title is an exterior technician. Very fancy, but at the end of the day, still just a student and glorified gardener.”

“Is this what you enjoy doing?” I countered, still seeing how hard he was being on himself. His aura was burning with a mix of anger, embarrassment, determination and a slowly increasing arousal in the distant background.

“Yes,” he answered flatly.

“You’re pretty lucky in that respect,” I said, as something my mom had said to me long ago popped back to the surface. “Any girl who can’t bring themselves to look past your chosen profession, do you think they’re truly worthy of you?”

Miller kept just staring down the fairway and eventually nodded, seeing my point. “So I’ve got a built-in filter to find the good ones.”

“Indeed, if finding someone you can present to the family is what you’re looking for.”

His eyes locked onto mine. “So, is it true that you’re…” he visibly struggled to express the word.

“A prostitute, whore, working girl? The latter is the currently accepted polite term. Yes, I am.”

He frowned, staring into the ground at my feet now, his aura coloured with honest confusion, “Why? I mean, you’re a cape, you don’t have to… you can leave all that.”

My smile turned wan, “I can’t do that, nor can I really explain. No one is forcing me, leave it at that.”

Now his aura colored with nervousness and even fear, “Sorry, that ventured in the wrong direction.”

“Not a problem, now I probably should let you get back to work. It was a pleasure to meet you. Stay safe.”

I set off, intending to resume my relaxing walk, but he held up a hand, “Wait please. I just…” he swallowed reflexively, licking his lips from a case of dry mouth, nerves and even shyness dominated his psyche at this point. “Can… can I hire you?” he blurted out.

“Here? Now?” I gave him a raised eyebrow. He nodded and looked around the empty fairway and trees as if making doubly sure that there was no one around. “Aren’t you supposed to be on the clock?”

“Yeah, a green that needs adjustment today, but it’s not going anywhere, it’s not urgent and I’m the only tech on duty today, since I live in the staff housing here mostly.”

“You have 300 on you, cash?” His shoulders slumped and shook his head. “Tell you what, Miller, you know where the Red Light is?”

“Yes.” The poor dear was just short of shaking like a leaf, his aura just a bundle of excited anxiousness and fear. This could mean only one thing.

“Tomorrow evening, I’ll be there. You got wheels?”

“Yeah,” he coughed and cleared his throat.

“Type?”

“Just an old Ford pickup, blue.”

“Okay, drive through the Red Light at seven in the evening, I’ll find you.”

“Sure… I’ll be there.”

I gave him another flirty wave and wink before misting and flying into the air.

888888888888888888888888888

“What’s the verdict?”

It was now three hours after Uber had his breakfast and we were back in their large kitchen. It was time that he had mostly spent downstairs in their lair, but he came back up on the hour for me to evaluate how he was recovering with true sight.

After my walk around the estate, I had contented myself by passing the time by reading a book I’d uploaded onto my phone, whilst laying down on a couch in the house’s entertainment room. Not my preferred way to read anything but it would do in a pinch.

I looked Uber’s form up and down, taking in his aura. Amusingly he had still not put on any clothes and naturally I wasn’t complaining.

“Well, I wasn’t sure at one hour, but now, there’s a definite improvement here,” I stared at the barbs and motes radiating outward, which then curled back into his aura. It was almost as if he was a sun in that respect, and the strength and ‘brightness’ of it was almost back to ‘normal’.

“Should I eat something again, just a snack?”

“If you want, but I think this is pretty conclusive.”

“Okay, maybe an apple- oof!”

I grinned into his face, as my legs locked around his waist and my arms circled around his neck and shoulders. Uber rolled with it, catching me and chuckled at my eagerness.

He caught my lips with his and I spent a decent amount of time trying to wrestle his tongue with my own, before we fell into a back and forth of various kissing techniques. If there was one benefit I got out of my arrangement with the duo, then it was getting taught and experiencing sexual techniques from someone who could use his power to become very good at it.

His rising erection poked my butt at this point and I broke the kiss.

I secured myself with my left arm around his back and reached down between us with my right hand, grabbing his dick to align it properly.

Then I used my knees to relax down and spear myself on him.

The pleasure of the act radiated outward through my body and I hissed as he used his waist to finish pushing himself completely into me.

He let me have a few seconds of just experiencing the bliss I got from this. If I could, I’d just happily sit like this for hours.

Then he started rolling his hips, combined with a slight in and out thrust.

“Fuuuhhhh…” I strained and managed to cut my expletive off as the pleasure hit my brain.

He smiled and pulled the embrace deeper, my breasts mushing against his pecs. The sensation of that hit something deep and primal. Then his lips began trailing kisses up my neck until he reached just under my ear and both kissed and licked there. He began the journey down, using suction this time, leaving me with clear hickies. All this combined whilst he was ramming into me was assaulting my senses deliciously.

I let this go on for a bit, riding the waves, then joined in the efforts.

Using my legs I met his thrusts and flexed with my vaginal muscles. He groaned, gasped and hissed as I tested his brinkmanship.

In response he shifted his head and locked his lips on mine again, plunging his tongue into my mouth.

The slaps of flesh on flesh echoed through the kitchen and we both groaned throatily as we found ourselves fighting against the current that was threatening to carry us away into our climaxes.

I tried every mental trick I had, short of imagining disgusting things that would totally kill my mood.

Finally, Uber lost the battle.

He broke the kiss and gasped, his hips surging forward and penetrating me as far he could, twitching and shooting his cum into me. I sensed the energy of his climax and his seed also blossomed into my awareness as it was taken.

I let this sensation carry me forward as well and I moaned throatily as I reached the summit, drenching his lower stomach and legs with my own juices.

Uber visibly winced and walked us a bit backwards so he could lean against the kitchen counter.

“Sorry, but only normal human stamina here,” he said, still breathing hard.

It took me a few more moments to get my voice back as well, “No problem.”

I opened my true sight fully and focused inwards. There it was again. I was keeping him hard and erect in me, but with a net energy coming towards my side. Could it be possible to equalize this? Taper it off so that it wouldn’t drain so quickly.

I threw my will into the effort, trying to throw off any conception that it wouldn’t be possible. I was a being of thaumaturgy incarnate. I could do this.

My phone began ringing.

“Fuck!” I swore as my concentration broke just as I felt something happen.

I glared at the phone where it was perched inside its pouch on ‘15, just to my left and leaning on the kitchen counter.

Uber chuckled at my venomous expression.

I gave him my best grumpy face in response and reached over, but of course, it wasn’t close enough.

“You really like just staying like this, don’t you?” he grinned widely.

“Please?” I asked him in my best cutesy voice, even trying a mock pout.

That drew a full laugh and he briefly took up my full weight again to move me closer to ‘15 and my phone. I kept a close eye on the energy transfer. I had been too startled last time to really do this, but it wasn’t as bad as I had feared. I wasn’t going to drain him dry in less than a minute. I tried to pinch off the flow again…

There! Oh yes! I almost wanted to cum again just from that little victory. At this rate… fifteen, twenty minutes maybe? Before I’d have to remove his dick from within me. I’d have to keep a close eye on it.

Now with phone in hand, I glanced at the screen and frowned at the display giving me ‘Unknown Number’ as it continued to ring.

Even Armsmaster’s hacked call to this phone had delivered a long string of numbers. Then there was the fact that the number of people who had this number was very few as yet and none of them would use a means of calling that caused this. Did my number get grabbed by those annoying spam callers somehow?

Something, some instinct was telling me that I couldn’t afford to miss this call…

I thumbed the answer button before it could go to voicemail.

“Hello?”

“Escort.”

The voice was unfamiliar and the tone of it sent shivers down my spine. It was flat, almost emotionless, yet had an undercurrent of anger.

“Yes, who is this?”

“That is not important or any concern of yours. All that you need to know is that you will be at 235 Thatcher Street in twenty minutes. Failure will result in unpleasant and irrevocable consequences for a certain Daniel Hebert.”

The world seemed to stop making sense at that point and my head was spinning. It also felt like my stomach had turned to a black hole. I also had to consciously relax the hand that was holding the phone, lest I crush it in my grip. My mouth was suddenly dry and I had to consciously focus and work my tongue to remedy that annoyance so I could speak. My brain also suddenly felt like its gearbox had jammed.

Uber flinching and jostling me as he also reacted to what the voice was saying managed to jolt my thoughts in some semblance of order and intelligence. We were so close that there was no hiding what the speaker was saying.

His eyes burned and his jaw worked in anger and he mouthed the word ‘Proof’ silently.

“How- how do I know you’ve really got him?”

My phone dinged with a message. I turned it around and tapped on the notification.

The picture that downloaded agonizingly slowly through the MMS service was unmistakable.

Dad, without his glasses, bound, gagged, tied to a chair, clear bruising on his face from punches and he glared at the cameraman. The clothes he was wearing… nothing seemed wrong or out of place, except for the entire fucked up situation. The flash of the camera and the focus used made everything in the background of the shot an unrecognizable blur.

Uber next mouthed, ‘speak’.

It took me a moment to click what he meant. “You can fake a photo, let me speak to him.”

“One moment,” said the cold voice. There was rustling, as if the phone was passing through hands or being jostled. “Speak to your daughter,” the voice was distant now.

There was only silence.

Then the meaty slap of a fist on flesh, a grunt of pain.

“This is so unnecessary, Mr Hebert. You endure for nothing.” More slaps, punches and grunts. I even heard the woosh of someone getting the wind knocked out of their lungs. A moan of pain. “Speak! Mr Hebert!”

Then there was the sound of someone spitting the mother of all wet loogies at someone.

There was a deathly silence.

The phone was jostled again and the abductor's voice came through clear, “He is being very obstinate. It seems he is truly willing to die. Perhaps that will convince you of the situation, given that I am also aiming a silenced pistol directly at this head. Can you truly take the chance that I am lying?”

Then the line went dead.

I could barely keep a hold of the phone and Uber thankfully snatched it out of my nerveless hands.

“Escort, listen to me… Escort! Focus.”

It was very difficult. It was like I was hovering outside my body at the moment, looking down, still latched onto Uber like a limpet.

“Escort!”

I blinked and snapped, “What?”

“Don’t you think you should… umm, I can’t exactly pull out of you at the moment.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” I relaxed my vaginal muscles and pulled myself off him, before getting my feet under me and on the floor again, but I made no move to really pull out of his embrace.

“I need you to listen to me very carefully. This is nightmare scenario number one for every cape with a family. It’s happening to you. That’s shit. The worst thing you can do now is play right into this bastard’s hands. You hear me?”

I glared at him, but my emotions made rational thought the furthest thing from my mind now.

I was going to lose dad as well.

What he said next managed to return more of my brain back to me.

“I also have a good idea who this is.”

“Who?” My eyes snapped to him and he visibly flinched.

“It’s most likely, Coil, mistress,” he said with a bowed head.

I had pulled him into the mind web in my fury.

I took a deep breath in and out, mastered myself, then pushed Uber’s mind out.

“Sorry, Uber.”

He shook his head to clear it of the cobwebs. “Fuck, easy with that. I’m definitely on your side here and now, Escort. Coil has pissed on the Unwritten Rules, and it's essentially the duty of every cape in town to come down on him like a ton of bricks.”

“How do you know it’s him? As far as I know, Coil is just a low level Thinker who has a spattering of territory in the south-west of the city.”

“That’s the image he cultivates. The villains of the Bay know better. No one’s really sure what his power is. Just that he’s a powerful enough Thinker that allows him to fight off the entire Empire roster with a large force of mercenaries that he employs and outfits with the best equipment money can buy. As for why it’s him? No one else fits in terms of MO.”

I stepped out of his embrace and thought furiously… getting precisely nowhere.

“Why me? Why do this?”

“That’s not a question you can worry about now,” he shook his head. “Think instead on how we’re getting your old man back in one piece. Stay here. Don’t leave yet. You need intel and to try and phone him.”

He rushed out of the kitchen and his feet thumped on the stairs.

I tried my best to dump my emotions, and not crumble into a pile of uselessness that wanted to just cry and waste time. It wasn’t easy. I picked up the phone and with shaking hands managed to navigate to dad’s number and dial.

The steady tone of ringing greeted my ear.

One ring, two, three…

A pause… four rings, five, six.

I gave it a full precious twenty seconds before the voicemail answered.

I closed the line, put the phone down and with all the will and focus I could muster, turned every feeling into energy that wouldn’t be wasted on pointless swearing.

Think!

Why would this seemingly minor villain ignore the unwritten rules to this extent? Why did he have such a personal beef with me that he would do this? Both were useless questions. Questions that only Coil could answer.

I wrenched my thoughts into the singular desire that I had right now.

How do I save dad?

Go to the address, kick ass, Master everyone, get dad out of there, then get them to take me to Coil and kick his ass!

Wait… would dad even be at the address?

If Coil had such a personal beef with me, why even give me the opportunity? No, dad would not be there.

Uber rushed back into the kitchen with an open laptop in hand. He breathed a sigh of relief at seeing me. “Good, you’re still here.”

“Why wouldn’t I be? I need that intel and I welcome the help.”

He shook his head, “You’re still a relative rookie, Escort. Most others would’ve already been flying off the handle and playing straight into this bastard’s hand.” He placed the laptop in front of me on the kitchen counter. It was displaying a top down public satellite image of the address in question.

“Okay, take a look. The address is for a bankrupt old car dealership, hasn’t been demolished yet.” He tapped the screen a few times and the image distorted and resolved to show a street level view. “See, the building is almost literally just glass to display and show off the cars to everyone passing by. That means anyone in there is literally sniper fodder. Which is exactly how you take out a Mover of your caliber, Escort. You lure them to a prepared position then nail them with a high velocity sniper rifle.” He tapped the screen again to return to the top down satellite view at a scale of about two miles. “Here, here, here and here. That’s where I’d put the sniper perches with interlocking fields of fire.”

“And my dad won’t even be there,” I pointed out.

Uber blinked in surprise and grinned, “That’s good. You’re thinking. Yes. Your dad is too valuable against you to just put him in the crossfire like that. They’ve probably got the best disguised body double they could find tied up there to pull you in. Your dad is still snug in Coil’s base… wherever that is. If the snipers fail, the entire place is also wired to blow as a failsafe as well.”

“How sure are you?”

Uber shrugged, “It’s what I’d do and I’ve been pulling on my power for hostage rescue and SWAT techniques as best I can. I’ve also seen this play out before in various ways.”

“What about if I just… don’t show? Nothing he’s shown me couldn’t have been faked or staged. He’s a Thinker.”

He shook his head. “That’s where he’s got you over a barrel. The chances that he’d fake this to get to you is very slim. You put the word out on the cape grapevine about this and he’s fucked. He’d unite the entire city’s cape community against him and no amount of Thinking or fancy mercs will help him with that much firepower and resources gunning for him. This is an all or nothing play, Escort. Something about you has gotten his panties in a bunch. To the point where he’s decided he can’t coexist with you in this city.”

I nodded, then pointed to the laptop, “Can I borrow that?”

“Nope, I’ll do better than that old thing.” He held out to me something that looked like a bit of a clunky white earpiece, which had a curved section that slid over your eye with a transparent green screen. It looked very familiar, but I couldn’t spare the thought to figure out from what pop media the duo had built this from. “Put that on your right ear, it’ll hold itself in place.”

I did as he asked and felt a mild suction effect the moment the edges of the earpiece touched my head. I let go and sure enough, it stayed there. Thankfully, my skin also didn’t rebel against it.

The screen over my right eye flashed then went through a boot-up sequence in blurring characters that flashed by.

It gave me a HUD of sorts and an aiming reticle that followed my eyes at first, but then zoomed down out of sight.

“It’s calibrating. If you had a gun, it would show you where you were aiming with it, but that isn’t how you roll. No, with this I can keep in touch with you securely, feed you intel, and you will be able to see through the Snitch.”

He handed over the famous piece of tech that they used to do their live streams.

“Leet’s going to kill you,” I predicted.

“Probably, but this is important, Escort. Such a flagrant violation of the Unwritten Rules hasn’t happened for years and years. Besides, I’m going to be controlling the Snitch from here, you’re just going to let it go when you get to where you’re going.”

I nodded and hurried over to ‘15, grabbing the sentient pipe and took a deep breath.

“Escort…”

“Yeah, Uber?”

“Don’t die.”

My teeth gnashed in anxiousness, “I won’t.”

I misted, phased myself through the intervening matter and soared into the air, turning south-east.

Stay strong, dad. I’m coming.

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A/N: Poor Taylor, barely got some peace and quiet and it all came crashing down. Tried for a bit of slice of life, but my muse demands plot/action :-)