Worm - Duellist 16 (Full)

Throwing it up on here for now. I'll post on QQ when I wake up.

It takes us no time at all to meet at the spot she highlighted, far from the prying eyes of the public.

It's a briefly pleasant surprise that she doesn't ambush me the instant I drop in. The version I was familiar with would have taken the opportunity for all that it was worth, but actions had consequences out here in the real world - and for once, that went in my favour. She doesn't stay still for long though. We're both here to get the measure of the other with our fists, and neither of us is keen to delay or tiptoe around that fact.

From the moment we first trade blows, there's one immediate, noticeable difference between the real Sophia and the version I had been fighting so far: This one hit harder.

It was obvious when you think about it. Somewhere between six months to an extra year to grow, gain muscle and practice fighting with and against other Capes under professional supervision - it would be more of a surprise if she wasn't noticeably better than her counterpart. The rough, brutal fighting style had become slightly more tempered and refined, taking full advantage of her power and relying less on her counterpart's more brutal methods of gaining an advantage.

But unlike against her younger self, I had my own powers available to me - I hadn't agreed to any restrictions this time as payment for luring her out to face me, nor would I expect the real Sophia to accept such an offer even if I did extend it for whatever reason. We split apart from the initial exchange of blows for a moment. She doesn't offer even a word of complaint at the shadowy pile of ash squaring up next to me, a stoic confidence in herself that I already knew was well-earned. From her perspective, she had little to fear from a melee 1v1 or even 2v1 - she couldn't know yet that my clone would disperse after a single, good hit but she wasn't concerned even if it stayed around.

Her mask turns slightly towards my clone. "I did hear that you clashed with Oni Lee the other day. You'll spook some of the paper-pushers, getting his power only off of a single fight like that." She settles into a fighting stance, not pulling out her crossbow yet.

"It's pretty inconsistent, I guess I haven't worked out the trick to it yet." I respond airily. "Oni Lee off of a single fight, sure - but I went and rubbed shoulders with some Wards at an event the other day. Ran around all afternoon, shaking hands and having conversations - I only get Vista and Clockblocker. What's up with that?"

"Should you be telling me this?" She challenges me.

"Are you going to tell me that what I did was wrong?" I throw the question back.

"Depends on your perspective of things." She closes the gap first, body leaning forward as if to tackle me. My body remembers faster than my mind, one arm coming up to guard my side on the same side as her trailing leg. The impact rocks my body only a moment later, as the kick almost seems to materialise next to my arm at full speed.

Not getting me with that one again. She'd gotten better at concealing it from the front, but the motions were the same - she used the rest of her body to shield her trailing leg from my line of sight, disguising the fact that a large portion of the lower half of her body had already dissolved into smoke. Which, naturally, enabled her to reposition that smoke faster than I was used to. It was one thing to see her disappear into smoke, and understand that an attack from any angle would soon be coming - but quite another to react to the faintest whisper of smoke from an attack that was already wound-up and rushing towards me, materialising into the physical plane as it went.

My clone attempts to tackle her while I attempt to trap the leg, both of which she avoids with contemptuous ease - only dipping into her power long enough to fix her awkward footing from the failed attack. Her knee smashes into, then through, my ash clone as it falls to the ground to a leg-sweep.

"Depends?" I prompt her again as she gives me a considering look.

She pauses, then seems to shrug. "From the perspective of someone who doesn't want to die to Lung within the week, probably a pretty smart move if you didn't want to just sign up with the Wards. From the perspective of someone that just wants to do all they can to do some good in the city, I get it. I'd do the same thing. Take what you can get, right?"

"I sense a 'but' coming." I phase through her next punch, my cloud rushing forward into her personal space - latching on to her armour as a grip to hurl her towards the floor. I skip away without looking to avoid retaliation, already knowing that she would never allow herself to hit the floor so early and easily in the fight.

By the time I turn around, she's already standing again looking completely unphased. "But the paper-pushers won't see it like that. Most of them aren't interested in being effective, just in looking good to the public. You might think that you're doing well and have people on your side, but they'll just drag you in front of a court and say 'This young, foolish boy deliberately and unlawfully utilised his power against unaware heroes doing charitable work. This power could have had any number of unknown effects...'" She stops talking only long enough to reform her face as my jab passes through it harmlessly, handing me a solid strike to the knee in return that glances off harmlessly. She drops the deliberately overdone nasal tone. "-and then they threaten you with jail for 'reckless power use' and tell you that vigilantism is illegal, effectively pressganging you into the Wards. They aren't looking to be understanding or reasonable. They think that they're doing the right thing by being sticklers for the exact letter of the law or skirting around at its edges, because they tell themselves that they might be saving your life by doing it."

She doesn't comment on her failed counterattack. Did she notice? I pull back for a moment to let Glory Girl's shield recharge. I didn't intend to keep it a secret, but I wanted to make a good impression here. And I knew her well enough to know that to make a good impression on her involved beating her black and blue. Every hit I landed would give me a bit more respect and legitimacy in her eyes, and spilling all of my skills right from the start would just result in her dodging everything and beating me down from a position of absolute safety rather than getting involved in a constant back and forth.

"I'm well aware of what the lawyers at the PRT would say." I smile behind my mask. "I asked what you think. You were pretty similar to me, once upon a time. Used to follow your sightings online when you were pinning Nazi's to walls and leaving them for the cops to find."

"I was way better than you." She seems annoyed by the comparison. "Giving people some bruises and leaving them in alleyways might sound like a fun time, but you didn't make a blind bit of difference in the long run. I went to the centre of the Empire's territory, terrorised them for weeks and had the entire gang roaming the streets in groups all scared of the nameless Cape in the shadows. There's a reason none of the gangs cared about you even weeks after you first appeared."

"Oni Lee is in prison now, I don't think I ever heard about any Cape fights between you and any villains until two months after you first became a Ward." I adopt an innocent tone, which only serves to bait her into attacking me again. This time, it isn't one powerful attack to attempt to end the fight from the perfect angle - it's a flurry of jabs and blows, individually weak but difficult to counter when so many simply passed through my guard in a rush of wispy darkness. Not materialising on the other side, thankfully - even though I knew she was capable of that in a pinch.

She snorts. "Blind luck, and you had a partner. I could have beaten most of the Empire Capes myself if they walked around alone and I had a good partner to work with." She dismisses my argument as my helmet finally absorbs a real hit, then another - I backpedal to safety, flailing against her ineffectively even as I condense air to the right side of me. The shrunken space never looks that strange in the heat of the moment, so Sophia doesn't notice the ploy until one of my waving arms nearly doubles in apparent size as it stretches through the tunnel of warped space to smash into her mask-protected chin. She stops chasing at that hit, passing her own hand through the space I swiftly vacated and watching her fingers seem to stretch. "And I can see this is going to be annoying."

"Wouldn't want you to get bored." I quip. "But anyway. Chalking all of my efforts down to luck is a bit much, isn't it? You're bruising my pride here." I circle to her left, keeping just out of her range. "And you didn't answer my question again."

"I did, you're just too dumb to read between the lines." Sophia matches my cautious circle. "It's obvious that you should be trying to get stronger any way that you can. Even before you picked a fight with the ABB. And if they're in their hero costumes, they're fair game - I'd say it's hard to blame you for how they decide to interact with the public on official business. Little different from a patrol, really." She steps back for a moment and drops her guard. "Stop for a moment, that reminds me. You're a new cape, so maybe you don't know. When it comes to secret identities, it would be a completely different story-"

"Unwritten rules, I'm familiar with them." I nod in understanding. But not acceptance. I was a bit past that point now. It was always doomed with this powerset. Well, perhaps I could have put some moral code on myself to only tag people in costume once I knew they were a Cape - but even if the thought had occurred to me back then, I think getting killed a few dozen times would have beaten that spirit of fair play out of me.

"Better be." She grunts, flexing her arm out to the side and back again. "Anyway, as I was saying, even if the PRT would disagree it's probably best for you to look out for yourself in this case. There have been two other vigilantes out of Winslow that I've known about, one of them died three weeks in and the other got crippled by Stormtiger and left town shortly afterwards."

First I've heard of them, which was rare - considering that I had my finger on the pulse of Cape news most of the time. "Friends of yours?"

She snorts. "Fuck no. Just stood out from the rest because most of the time, kids in the shit side of town go crawling to the gangs first chance they get. They didn't get far, but I can respect the attempt to do something. If they'd been smarter, or strong enough to back up their talk, Winslow would be practically crawling with heroes compared to most of everywhere else in the city."

Maybe that said something about what a cesspool Winslow was. Most schools, Arcadia excluded, would count themselves as among the truly special for having any sort of Cape hiding in their ranks. Capes were rare, on average. Perhaps the general low-budget state of affairs, combined with the overwhelming dominance of the gangs over the nearby areas, made the perfect conditions for a trigger?

Or, were they like me? Cauldron... I'd made the effort to root all the way to the bottom of the conspiracy hiding in the depths of the internet, but nothing said that they couldn't choose to reach out to people on their own. What use would a Cape be all on their own in the middle of the countryside? If they had to make one, best to put them into a target-rich environment and see how they fare. Was that the right logic? You wouldn't find the next Eidolon, or the next Butcher or Fairy Queen if all they did was rescue cats out of trees.

Just how prolific were Cauldron's operations? If it weren't for a few very public, very well-documented triggers I would be half-serious about asking if the idea of triggers was just a smoke-screen to disguise the fact that all Capes were in Cauldron's pocket. As it stood, what was the real ratio of Cauldron Capes to genuine triggers? One percent? Ten? Fifty?

I return to the subject at hand. "Too late for that now. If nothing else, I'd like to consider myself a bit smarter than them - and, without being too arrogant, my power has a lot more potential than the average D-lister that makes up the worst of the fatality statistics."

"You're really going to claim that you're smarter after prancing around your school like that, days after you ended up right at the top of Lung's shit list? They know you go to school here now. Don't go acting too surprised if you try taking the same route tomorrow and you find a group waiting for you on a rooftop with more guns than braincells between them." She's actually a little amused, you can tell by the slightly less scornful tone in her voice compared to normal. "To say nothing about why you would even think that's a good idea anyway. What were you even hoping to achieve? The only crime happening around here in this time of day is inside the school, all you're doing is acting like an attention-seeking clown." She gives me a suspicious look. "Or is that the point? You want to provoke a fight? Are you stupid?"

I wasn't stupid! I prided myself on my intelligence. At worst, I'd admit that the occasional poor decision might cause someone to say that Wisdom was my dump stat - but outside of roleplaying nobody would want any hypothetical points in that anyway. I was fine with that label. "I wouldn't quite go that far." I couldn't exactly deflect the accusation by saying that I was simply burning out my temporary insanity that had been induced by my power deliberately refusing to mitigate the effects of superpowered drugs flooding my system when I lost a fight in my head. "Although, I wouldn't be that opposed to a meeting if he decided to show up. It's the kind of thing I could benefit a lot from, and I'm-" Absolutely confident. "-fairly confident that I could get away from Lung safely if it ever came to it."

I can tell that she's rolling her eyes, even without seeing them. "Of course you want baby-Lung powers. Starting to see why you're so suicidal now. Your power rewards you for putting yourself in stupid situations-" Not quite correct, but it matches the story I'm going with. I nod. "-but even if you achieved that. What does it matter? Based on what you've shown me so far, what's shown up online about you-" So she has been searching me up. Knew it. "-you're just not cut out to be a serious combat Cape. All of this work that you've done, and you aren't even the strongest grab-bag in the Bay."

I furrow my brow. Not the strongest grab-bag? What was the alternative? Armsmaster? Did Tinkers count if they built the tech to qualify for a sub-power rating? No, surely not.

I furrow my brow more. Miss Militia? Noctis Capes wouldn't count either, surely.

Who else-? Oh. I crack my knuckles threateningly. "The fucking clown?" I pull myself up to my full height to demonstrate exactly how offended I am. "There's no way you just said Circus is stronger than me." Even Parian had better feats than Circus. Velocity had better feats than Circus. A skilled escape artist, true. But she was dead-last in the Brockton Bay power rankings for a good reason.

I can sense the smirk behind her mask. "Seems pretty close to me. She-" She hesitates on that. One of the great mysteries of the Bay. A cross-dressing boy, or a cross-dressing girl? I'd seen the curves in what little footage we had of her, but nothing that couldn't be attributed to a bit of padding. "They are pretty good when backed into a corner, and better at not getting into that situation in the first place."

"Half of their powers barely even qualify as superpowers." I protest. "You're just saying that to get under my skin. I'd easily win that." Eventually. My power might give me a shit scenario or three to start with, but I'd still win before long.

"I don't think you'd protest so much if you didn't know that it was true." She raises her fists again. "Look at all you've done already. You seem to have gathered yourself a nice group of powers already and you're still taking hits from me. Not exactly the next Eidolon, are you? I'm almost going to feel bad for you when you stumble into a cap on the number of powers you can hold, or run into a range limit away from the person you loaned them from."

"It's too early to say something like that." I protest. "You've met me for all of a few minutes, and you're already trying to write me off? I expected a bit of jealousy, don't get me wrong - but isn't that a bit much?"

She rears back. "Jealousy?" She shakes her head, now stepping forward into my range - easily avoiding my initial kick aimed to stop her advance. "Don't be ridiculous."

"What else am I supposed to think? I'm going to have to get used to that kind of reaction, that's the nature of a power-copier. Nobody wants to see themselves get one-upped." I catch her fist and shove her back, weaving backwards as she rushes me again - my ash clone practically disintegrating as she moves through it, dismantling it in several strikes emerging from her shadow state without revealing her full body. My interest sharpens as she pauses her advance for a moment as she tries to pass through it, stepping back and returning to her physical state for long enough to observe my clone dissipating. Interesting. I hadn't even considered that as a possible interaction - but perhaps the rapidly-fading traces of ash that my clone left behind were a weak counter to her power for similar reasons as pepper spray. It didn't seem painful, so perhaps not something I could rely on to take her out - but if it was enough just to force her to leave her shadow state, that would be a useful tool against her.

A high kick passes through me harmlessly as I shift to shadow. She leans into the spin, coming around a second time right as I phase back in. It rockets into me as I try, and fail, to duck under it. A heavy hit, and I'm grateful for the fact that this particular variant on the costume has some real head protection over the scarf/hoodie combo that I've been trying out recently. Nothing beats a proper, full-face helmet for head protection. More importantly, that was a new trick. Haven't seen her do that one before. Maybe another inch or two of height makes it more viable compared to her younger self, or maybe it's something she learned to do in the Wards. Doesn't matter.

"Don't talk about one-upping me when you get hit by a perfectly normal kick. That's just insulting to me." Sophia doesn't let up, but has to break up her next attack as she steps a little bit too close and allows me to get a grip on her costume and hurl her to the ground again.

Good. The progress I had made learning to fight her challenge-self still applied here. Some new tricks, but I could still catch her out. Still push her into defensive uses of her power. Maybe ninety percent of the time, she gets the shift in time - no damage. But that last ten percent was what was letting me push the challenge further and further every time. The times when she doesn't see the attack coming, or doesn't quite phase out before some part of her collides painfully with the floor.

Or, when she does phase out successfully, forgets that I have a constantly respawning clone nearby that she's forgotten about - one that respawns faster the quicker she kills it, an unintuitive quirk that she hasn't worked out yet. The best thing to do would be to leave it alive for a solid minute or more, then take it out and enjoy the next minute of pure 1v1. By being her usual blender of shadowy violence every time it drifts in between us, it becomes available again mere seconds afterwards. And now it's piecing itself together behind her, it's sole command already issues at the instant of creation.

I don't have it hit her head. Helmet or not, I wouldn't want to risk anything permanent on an unaware target. Instead, Sophia squares up in front of me only for a full-body, flying kick from behind crashes into her centre-mass. I don't hesitate to drive forward myself, fist burying itself into the surprised heroine's gut. It sinks in with a satisfying impact, even as the armoured padding makes my knuckles pay for the privilege - and then she disappears in a flurry of shadow once more. I can't stop the kick from behind to knock me off balance, but the immediate attempt at twisting my arm behind me is aborted as my clone lunges at her again - almost hitting me in its haste.

I dismiss the clone as Sophia backs off, apparently it had survived the impact of its own attack and was going for another attack based on my original command - but having the clone active too long would only mean more downtime when it was eventually destroyed. Quick bursts of usage were best. I let some of my grin seep into my voice as I regard the still form of my opponent, warily holding her guard across from me - slightly hunched over with more distance between us than usual. "Time for a break, perhaps?"

"In your dreams." The voice is a little strained. "Don't start thinking that one cheap shot like that is enough to keep me down."

Of course she would say that. Good to see that some things don't change. "Well, I hope you're happy to hit a defenceless guy while he's down then." I sit down deliberately. "It's nice to have some low-stakes sparring with someone, but it would be rude of me to just take advantage of you after a hit like that. It would cheapen the next hit I land if you were still winded. We can just talk for a bit, can't we? Civilised people that we are."

I get a begrudging grunt as she heads to the nearest unbroken wall, dropping down to lean her back against it. "Whatever."

I've lost track of the conversation. "What were we even talking about?"

"You were on some bullshit about being stronger than me, and then your face got kicked in." She chips in helpfully.

"And then you got folded, I remember now." Surprisingly, that doesn't send her raging back to her feet. "Anyway, I didn't mean it like that - believe it or not, I have an immense amount of respect for your capability in a fair melee and I don't expect to beat you without tricks anytime soon." She seems slightly mollified at that. "I mean, it might happen eventually - but I mean more in the case of... these powers, people generally went through some pretty traumatic stuff to get them, right? It feels like something they earned, a part of them that they put time and effort into training. Having someone just run up and take it, then maybe even do better with it - it's bound to be a tough swallow for some."

"Fuck them." Sophia is as eloquent as ever. "And don't include me in their number. If you're stronger, then that's it. You're stronger. Nobody is going to tell Alexandria to hold back a bit because Glory H- Girl looks bad in comparison. If Glaistig Uaine wasn't so fucked in the head and wanted to help at Endbringer fights, they'd probably have fed her everyone in the birdcage and cheered her on regardless of the optics or any concerns about 'permission' or the merits of the death penalty." She leans her head back against the wall. "Not that I'm saying that you're anywhere near that level, or ever going to be, but the attitude should be the same. If you're strong enough to take it, you take it. If you're too weak to handle any fallout, you deserve to get beaten down for trying. You can't let other people decide what you are."

I doubt that she'd be quite as agreeable if she realised exactly what my powers did right now, but I couldn't help but feel that this was the next-best thing to getting her approval of what I was doing. In an... ideological sense.

I peer at her challenge sheet. Three minutes and fifty two seconds to stall before I got another attempt. One here, two more in my following classes and then perhaps another attempt at the end of school? One period was usually two short to sneak in three attempts, but catching her a little earlier or later was enough to make the cooldown timings work out. At this level, at least. I didn't have a watch in this outfit, but this was... probably fairly close to the end of lunchtime already, but being a bit late to class never hurt anyone. Especially when the entirety of the class in question was 'continue working on your coursework'. Anyone could catch up on that whenever they liked. I was guessing Sophia felt the same way, based on her lack of urgency to leave.

I stretch my neck, sighing loudly. "An inspirational speech. Your time at the PRT has clearly paid off."

She flips me off. "Fuck you."

"And here I thought you were starting to warm up to me." I push myself to my feet, not making any immediate moves as she mirrors me - evidently recovered from my earlier hit.

"I like your attitude." She leans away from my punch, not bothering to shift as she continues to talk. "Maybe not the impression that you have about me enjoying my time with the PRT." Knew those comments would tick her off. An angry Sophia is a talkative Sophia. And a talkative, angry Sophia is the only type of Sophia willing to be genuine with a stranger. "And definitely not the word-vomit that comes out of your-"

She pauses.

"-mouth." She tries to continue her sentence, but something in her tone is off. She looks like she wants to say something, but cuts herself off. "Forget it, it's annoying."

"Problem?" I query.

"I said forget it." She scowls at me. "You're a much better conversation partner when you aren't talking."

"Doesn't quite sound right to me." I raise my fists into a guard. "But I get the sentiment."

Taking the lead to move first, she winds up a punch. A fake, Fake-Sophia telegraphs her feints like that too. But what was the trick this time? I keep my guard up, looking for the usual switch into a kick or leg sweep - only for her to actually follow through on the punch, shifting into her shadow state at the last second to adjust her hands around my guard into a steady grip on my arm - giving her leverage to pull me forward into her rising knee. My own shadow-state lets me slip free and right myself, but she's already back within my guard the moment I come back to the physical world. We flail into each other for a moment, my punches aimed not at actually damaging her - but forcing her to break off her own attacks or disincorporate for safety. Strikes at the head when she briefly reveals her upper body for leverage and vision, matching punch with punch - knowing that she would back out of a trade if our fists would collide.

She has the advantage in this exchange and she knows it, pressing forward ceaselessly - knowing that at any moment, I'll fail to respond properly and get sent sprawling across the floor.

And then my Echo rockets into her face at full force, point-blank range - drawing a shocked grunt of pain and forcing her back completely for the first time as she attempts to work out what just happened. I don't let up, following up with a flurry of punches and kicks - trying to capitalise on the moment while she is still off-balance. She's still reeling from the impact, but she manages to turn aside the incoming punch without resorting to her shadow state, only barely stepping out of range to avoid the next roundhouse kick. I continue chasing, but the moment is already gone - she regains her bearings and allows my blow to pass directly through her, while her still-solid arm rockets around into the side of my head.

I give an unphased grin as we both back away, Sophia clenching and unclenching her fist in pain. "Glory Girl?" Not a question. The only invisible forcefield in the Bay that could have stopped that last attack.

"Mmhm." I give a pleased hum in response. There was something to be said about the idea of hiding everything from the heroes, but the nature of my powers wasn't really something that could be hidden when pushed. They were too iconic, too limited to disguise them as something else the moment I got in a serious fight. I'd already settled on the path of distant cooperation, not least because of the fact that I genuinely did want to be on their team - or, perhaps, for them to be on mine. It's just that I was aware that such an ideal would probably only be possible when I was the undisputed 'leader' of the team. Until then, I was going to have to play the egotistical, overconfident vigilante.

"But not something you can have active all of the time, or you wouldn't need to pull your attacks for the sake of defending. A last resort." Sophia muses. "Weak versions of the power, you said? If it's still strong enough to turn aside a fist, then there aren't too many other ways to weaken it other than uptime."

"There's a lot of difference between blocking a fist and blocking a bullet the same way Glory Girl does." I counter, leaving the power active to bring the shield back up for next time. "Keep guessing."

"You're a terrible liar." She circles me. "No. It isn't always active. Your punches would feel different if they had a forcefield over them, they feel nothing like hers - and they'd be so much more effective if they were that you clearly can't do that."

"Not all of my powers are created equal." I match her circling pace. Quietly, delicately, I shrink the space between our lower legs using Vista's power. "Some of them are just better than others. Yours, for instance. I rely on it a lot, but someone like Clockblocker rarely has a real chance to shine. My version of your power is pretty strong, no obvious downsides-"

"One second." She interrupts.

Damn. "What?" I pretend to play dumb.

"The time limit. One second at a time. Consistently. Every time you use it, that's how long it lasts. Even in cases where you would obviously want it to last longer or shorter, you don't get to choose." She sounds smug at my sour silence, calling out to me as I scrounge around on the floor nearby for a suitable response. "Don't tell me you didn't think you could hide something that basic from me, about my own power - no less?"

I throw a pebble at her, it passes through her harmlessly - but serves as a valid excuse for me to dodge the question and resume fighting. My leg sweep into thin-air, already pinched together by my discretely distorted space, sweeps her off of her feet - the graceful eruption into a black cloud as she hits the floor is expected, my ash clone forming and diving into her cloud to force her out of it. Not to try and work her into a compromising position, she was too agile for that from this position - but simply to force her to react and focus on something that wasn't me as she turns solid.

Plink.

The second rock ricochets off of her mask, my ash clone dissipating into nothing as Sophia quietly executes it with a crossbow bolt clenched in her fist. The first true weapon of the fight, though she makes no effort to take her crossbow out alongside it.

"That's never going to beat me, you know." She calls out. "A rock? Really? What are you even trying to achieve?"

I glance up slightly, to the timer by her head. A few more minutes to get another attempt. "I mean, it's just a friendly little spar to get to know each other. It's a statement. If I can predict you and hit you with something as slow as a thrown rock, I could have shot you with something as well."

"My power is pretty good about kicking in on its own when bullets get involved." And knives too, whether she knew it or not. Some kind of damage threshold to activate automatically - something to test more once I get past her current challenge. She crosses her arms. "And don't go thinking that you actually got the better of me, you're not the only one holding back. I could have nailed you to the wall before you even noticed I was here if this was a real fight."

"I didn't doubt it for a second." My laconic admission doesn't appear to improve her mood. "And I appreciate the information on your power. Hope my version does that too, but I'm not really keen to test it." Not my current version at least, but perhaps at some point I could count on it as a backup to Glory Girl's powerset as a passive defence against ambushes and surprise attacks. "I'll let you know if I ever have the bad luck to find out."

She grunts wordlessly. "Do that. It would mean that you fucked up badly enough that you need help desperately."

"Oh?" I tilt my head. "Careful, it almost sounded like you were offering to help me out there. Anyone would think you're going for a rebrand of some sort. Edgy, brooding goth chick turned to a tsundere, genki-girl sort."

"Tsoo- what?" If looks could kill, I'd be reincarnating as a termite right now. "I don't get it, but drop dead. If you get yourself killed with my power, it just makes me look bad. That's all there is to it."

"So you say, so you say." I earn a scowl for my obviously-fake, appeasing tone. "But if that's the concern, me just using your power badly and having any defeats recorded for the world to see would look bad for you too - wouldn't it?"

The reply is blunt. "Your point?"

I wiggle my eyebrows. A pointless gesture, but it felt right even if the expression was hidden. "I wouldn't be such a terrible embarrassment of a Cape if I had a veteran Cape showing me the ropes. The occasional sparring session, maybe a patrol or two at night."

"...is this your way of angling for a date? Not interested." She tries to shut me down.

"Not a single romantic thought crossed my mind." I tell her. A half-truth, perhaps. While I was genuine, the additional chances to challenge her and closer proximity might lead to something happening a bit faster than it would otherwise. "To be honest, I have a similar arrangement with another Cape right now - but we don't exactly go out every day. The PRT knows about Oni Lee, but we've been pretty active even before then. Thing is, I'm the one teaching her the ropes - so far all I know, I'm just passing on bad habits."

"If you want a mentor, why not go to the PRT? They'd fall over themselves to have you. And your friend." Not an outright refusal. Good.

"Help from the PRT comes with strings attached. My friend doesn't want to join the Wards, and I, well - we've already touched on what my intentions are. I think I'm better off without my every movement being monitored to make sure I don't stir anything up." I smile. "On our own, roaming the shit side of the Bay - it offers a certain degree of freedom away from prying eyes. You're obviously sneaking out to pound some heads every now and then anyway-"

"Wards don't perform any patrols outside of those scheduled." There's an undercurrent of tension in her words there. Oddly stiff choice of words. Very un-Sophia-like.

I roll my eyes. "Maybe not officially. But getting caught for doing unsanctioned patrols or vigilantism is the leading cause of all disciplinary actions for Wards nationwide. I've seen the stats - and those are just the ones dumb enough to get caught. They give you a slap on the wrist and move on. You're going to tell me that you're nothing like those guys, you're actually a goody-two-shoes following the law to the exact letter? You don't want to get your boots dirty?"

She's slowly getting more irritated by my prodding. "Getting pulled over the coals for breaking some random regulation is annoying for me." She replies shortly. "It doesn't really matter what I want to do."

"That's not an answer. That's just saying it's a pain if you get caught. I'm saying, you don't have to show up as Shadow Stalker and start announcing your presence on every front page the next day." I cross my arms. "I mean, I get it. Everyone knows that Armsmaster chases you into an alleyway one night, you disappear off the face of the planet for a week and then debut as a Ward. I guess he threw the rulebook at you and he kind of counters your powers. But they can't make it illegal for you to just be around the city. You don't have a tracker on you, it would interfere with your powers-"

"Why do you think that?" She plays dumb.

"Tried to walk into a few walls that I shouldn't have walked into." Not even a lie. It wasn't how I found out, but I can chalk a serious number of defeats down to my shadow-self walking into the mains electricity where I had hoped to just find concrete and plaster.

She winces. "Hm." At least she doesn't try to deny that weakness any further. "My sympathies for the way you had to find out." That sounded genuine. To be fair, the memory of shared pain would do a lot to establish a bit of empathy. I imagine that Sophia's first discovery of the issue was a lot more painful than mine. At least I had known in advance what getting unlucky with the wiring would mean.

"I got better." I cough. "Anyway. No tracker, except in your phone or perhaps your actual costume. There's no reason that you can't don another disguise, or venture out in your civilian identity and mess around a certain location with friends." Trump card time. If all she needs is an excuse... I had one lined up. "Especially because of the deniability you get. After all, in the poorer parts of town there isn't much solid surveillance footage to worry about. And if you're hanging around the same kinds of areas as me, then any momentary sightings of a shadowy figure turning to smoke mid-battle can be blamed on the other person with that powerset." I tap myself on the chest proudly.

She pauses at that. She hadn't considered that aspect yet, clearly. "I'm listening."

I grin. "There's not that much to it. Think of it as a trade. You get to show me-" I pause. Was this a good idea? The potential for it to blow up did exist, but maybe laying some groundwork for an amicable relationship was what they needed before the truth came out? "-and my other partner the ropes, a bit of sparring practice. Especially for her, she doesn't really know how to fight - and I don't really enjoy fighting girls."

"Could have fooled me." Her dry voice reaches me as my mind catches up with my mouth.

"You don't count." I wave a hand in the air. "You know. You're... strong." That was the best way to diffuse this. "I wouldn't like fighting you if I had five Brute powers and lightning rushing through my limbs either. As it is, I'm not going to feel sorry for someone likely to beat me in a fair fight with all our cards on the table. But my partner can't throw much of a punch at all. Kind of- scrawny isn't the right word, but not exactly a wall of muscle. And her power is to drop enough bugs on you to fill this entire room - so a with-powers fight is deeply unpleasant, and a no-powers fight is completely unfair."

"Sounds like a liability." Sophia grunts.

"It's easy to say that unit you see the bugs in action. It's a bit hard to describe how effective they are properly." I bite my lip in thought. Probably best not to leave that first impression to fester, wouldn't want Sophia to act in her usual way and cause Taylor to blow up. "And regardless of her personal skills in a fight, it's been good enough to send the ABB crying and she had a big role in taking down Oni Lee. Even if she's not at her peak potential right out the gate, I think it's even more admirable that she's trying with what she has. The attitude matters, right?"

She mulls it over. "Right. That doesn't mean that I won't run into the same issue as you. I'm not holding back even if I don't use any powers. Every fight's going to go the same way for her, just as it would if you did it. Wouldn't call myself a great teacher either. If she runs off crying, I'm not chasing after her."

Halfway to acceptance already. "I don't think that will be an issue. She's stubborn when she wants to be. And she's better off learning from you than me. I win half my fights because my powers are good in melee, and the other half because I'm a guy that had a big safety blanket in place when I started getting real experience in fights." She'd assume that I was referring to her power, but I wasn't lying. The challenge system couldn't have made it much safer, once I realised what was happening. "I can't teach either of those things. You can say the same for the first part, but for you - the other part is that you put effort and practice into training and becoming skilled."

"Flattery will get you nowhere." Lies. You're a sucker for compliments, you'll just never admit to it. "But I'll admit, I'm interested. Maybe I'll check you guys out, maybe I won't."

"If nothing else, we'd love to have someone else around to crack heads with." That was the part that she was probably interested in the most, after all. "You'd have to lose the crossbow, because otherwise it would be obvious that it's you-" I tap my body, indicating the lack of obvious weapons. "-but I figure you might enjoy the workout. Even if you like the solo-gig, when was the last time the PRT let you bust a drug den? I don't mean to brag, but we're pretty good at finding them."

"I said, I'll consider it." Yep. Definitely got her hooked. How different would this conversation have gone if I hadn't already known what a combat-junkie she was via her challenge-self? Probably terribly. I'd have tried to put on a PR-friendly face, tried my best at sucking up to her and gotten shut down immediately. Maybe a threat or two about setting the rest of the PRT on me before she left. True, I knew she was a bit of a bitch - not entirely in a bad sense - via her real-life actions, but I don't know if I would have been able to translate that into something positive here on the first try. The irreverence, the casual disregard for the effectiveness of her current organisation, the chafing against the rules holding us both back from doing something about the gangs, and, of course, the universal love language of struggle, violence and strength.

Our impromptu meeting lasting this long wasn't an accident. I had her interest. And, along with it, some semblance of respect.

"You can grab me on PHO if you're interested. I'm guessing you won't be using your official account, but I'll try and spot your message in between the waves of fanmail." She gives a snort of disbelief at that. What was so unbelievable about that? Sure, most of my notifications were people flaming me for my awesome takes on some random thread or another - but it was obvious that I had real fans out there. Every moderately famous person had them, even if they were openly terrible people. My fans, clearly, were simply the type to mind their own business.

Sophia glances out of a crack in the building towards the school. "Another round." She decides.

"We'll be late for classes if we don't wrap up soon." I hum.

"As if you and I are ever going to need anything they have to teach us." She flexes her arms to the side. "We'll be Capes until we die. One way or another, our jobs are already decided for us. Nobody ever really manages to step away from the scene without dragging their powers into their lives somehow. Just a question of who it will be that ends up doing us in. My money's on an Endbringer myself."

"That's a dour outlook on life. Perhaps not entirely wrong in sentiment, but I have no intention of going down easily to anyone." I eye her challenge cooldown again. Fifty-four. Fifty-three. Fifty-two.

"Who said anything about going down easy?" She scoffs. "Just being realistic. I'd like to think that I'm too difficult for any run-of-the-mill villain to take down, but I'm not arrogant enough to think that I can outrun Behemoth when he decides to put a lightning bolt through my chest."

"You're still being a downer. I'll take out all three of them, and you can just start planning out which retirement home you want to be put in. Deal?" I wiggle my eyebrows through the helmet.

"...you have no idea how much I want to pull my crossbow out and shoot you right now." She groans. "Maybe you would actually get fanmail if you turned into the strong, silent type. Tape your mouth shut, stop posting on PHO and people might actually start to like you."

I think of all the times that her other-self has ended a conversation by pinning me to a wall, the ground or just executing me from afar. And then the times where I said or did something that annoyed her enough to maintain the grudge into the next challenge, and assassinate me from almost the moment I spawned in across the street. "I think I can guess. Best leave it though, or I'd have to go all-out as well."

Eight. Seven. "You think that would make a difference?" She sounds doubtful.

"I know it would. I'm a tricky sort of guy right now. We didn't get to beat Oni Lee by being stronger than him or anything. I'm absolutely confident that I've got more than enough tricks to beat you a single time - even if you did have that crossbow to hand."

"I-"

Zero. "Challenge." I whisper the addition as she starts to respond, and the building disappears in a flash of light.

"Back already?" The other-Sophia doesn't take long to come and find me.

"You know me. Don't know what's good for me." I wave. "Though I'll admit, not sure I should really have bothered. Maybe there's a certain amount of Sophia I can handle in one day. I mean, this is my third, fourth separate conversation with some version of Sophia today? Maybe two more yet to come? I'm thinking I should branch out, look for some variety."

"Shame about your personality, or you'd be falling over yourself for all the people wanting to talk to you." She smirks at me. The helmet left behind already.

"This is what I mean. That abrasive personality isn't doing you any favours. Madison is a fun conversation partner and is only slightly condescending the entire time. I can say one nice thing about Taylor in front of Emma and she'll have her knees halfway to the floor before I'm done talking. But you? It's always violence and barbed comments. Don't get me wrong, that's hot as well, but it wears on a guy over time - you know? I need a break from it now and then."

"I guess you're still talking with her now then. You've been restraining yourself from saying anything crude this entire time, haven't you?" She sounds amused. "And now you're here to blow it all on me instead. Kind of pathetic to be honest. Talking shit behind someone's back is one thing, but flirting with someone behind their back? Grow some balls."

"With your tendency to make a target out of them, that sounds like a dangerous idea." I shrug. "And I wouldn't say I'm doing it behind her back, I'm flirting with a different version of her. It's different."

"It's weird. And I'm not the sort that can be seduced from my objective. I'm a simulation. A memory. Not a person. My sole objective will always remain unchanged, just like every other challenge you've faced so far." She crosses her arms, an unconscious mirror of the other Sophia's typical talking pose.

"Preventing me from winning?" The silence I get in return is unexpected. "No?" She says nothing. "No. Huh. Really? What is it then?" Silence. "Not allowed to answer that? Or not going to?"

She shrugs. "It would usually be to do my absolute best to stop you from winning. Without the presence of a REAL modifier, nothing would be more important to me than stopping you from completing the challenge." She taps her crossbow idly. "Here though? A duel to the death isn't the point of the challenge. An indirect route isn't out of the question in any challenge, nothing wrong with a bit of pre-battle banter if the simulation allows for it - but words matter here. Personality matters here. Sometimes, all that's being tested is a raw matchup of powers in certain situations. But not here."

"The rules seemed pretty clear to me. Restrain you. Don't let anyone die." I drum my fingers against my leg. "And unless you're willing to let me slap some handcuffs around you-" A shake of the head. "-then it seems to me that you're in opposition to that."

"Indirectly. Shouldn't it be a safe assumption that I wouldn't just blindly agree with what your objectives are? This isn't supposed to be easy." I scowl at the answer. "That's just the part I have to play. The only one failing their part is you."

"The EVNT modifier." I conclude. "I know how this night is supposed to go. Armsmaster comes in, zaps you once or twice and carts you off to the Wards."

"Is that what you think?" I pause at the non-answer.

"It was, until you said that." I admit. "There wasn't any footage of the fight, but the result is public knowledge."

Sophia sighs. "If only you had a witness around you could ask about it."

"Like you?" I point out.

"It's not supposed to have happened to me yet. You already know whose place you've taken this time, you should know what night this is for me." She dismisses me. "At the very least, I haven't lied to you. Even if your assumption about 'why' is wrong, the solution is just about strength in the end."

"Strength you won't get to see if I don't get to use my powers in our fights." I phase out myself to prove the point.

"An agreement I only agreed to, because that's what I would have done. A fun distraction on a boring night, beating the shit out of another Cape that needs an ego check - thinking that they can handle me without any powers? What a joke. The nature of the challenge might have swayed my decision-making towards trusting you and weakened the consequences of it going badly, but the real Sophia would have felt the same way I do." She leans in. "Equally, if said Cape decided that they wanted to change their minds and use their full powerset... then I would have ditched the arrangement on the spot. Eager for a fight, but not stupid or arrogant."

I breathe out heavily. "So I need to break our arrangement to win?"

"You could, theoretically, win without powers." She admits. "Might even help, unless you've lucked into the perfect anti-Sophia powerset. But not as you are now, you're not strong enough for that."

I don't mention my discovery about the ash-clone fucking with her phasing. "We're talking in circles here-"

"I agree. Let's stop doing that." She shoots me in the leg. It bounces off harmlessly as Glory Girl's shield winks out. She gives me a wary stare.

I raise my hands into the air. "I've gotten into the habit of leaving that on. Forgot to deselect it." I admit. "What's with the cheap shot anyway? We had a perfectly good conversation going!"

"And I already told you where to go for answers if you really want to get inside my head. I'm a copy. Go talk to the original if you want a big speech. Or do you expect me to hold your hand while you learn to put two and two together, like a stupid baby playing with blocks? There's nothing special about this challenge. It was all laid out for you right at the start." She shoots me again. This time, I manage to dodge away before her finger has fully tightened on the trigger. "I don't know where you got the impression I was interested in helping you defeat me and drag me off to the Wards, but I'm rather opposed to the idea."

I raise my hands in surrender. "And I'm just saying, nobody said you had to join the Wards. All I have to do is put you in cuffs. You could leave again afterwards if you wanted?"

"All you're actually saying is that you didn't understand the assignment. It's pissing me off." She jabs a finger at me. "I'm not talking about this for another second until you've had that conversation, and you actually understand what you need to do to win here. Now. Hands up. You promised to make up for that disaster of a round last time when you decided that I was here to provide a free detox service. Only one way to settle that debt."

"I still have yet to hear a credible reason why you can't just tell me yourself." I argue. Silence. I sigh, bringing my hands up into a guard. "And here I was hoping for a break from you trying to beat me to a pulp."

"Tough shit." The first fist floats through my guard, and our battle begins once more.

FAILURE

One day, all of my efforts in there will pay off. I'll beat her senseless in her own arena. Give her a taste of humility that she so desperately needs.

"-would like to see you try. In fact, I'm all for it. I won't use my weapon, but you can use whatever you like. You win, I'll come and beat up your new girlfriend, show you how to actually be a pain in the ass for the gangs. You lose, I'm out of here. Not interested."

In truth, the challenge version of Sophia wasn't a massive mystery to me that I needed to solve now. An idle curiosity, one that might need to be solved before I could move on to a later challenge. But I was still getting value out of our sparring sessions, although, if I could get the real, improved version as a sparring partner that value would rapidly decrease.

And I couldn't ask her now. Now was not the time to ask about her humiliating, crushing defeat a year or so ago. After we'd gotten more comfortable with the other. Had a session or two to get to know each other, I'd bring it up then.

For now... best make good on my earlier promise. "Dirty trick incoming then. Don't start getting angry or say I didn't warn you." I pause. "And, for the record, I'm going straight to get changed and get to class after this. I'm not hanging around."

"Get on with it." She makes a rude gesture at me. "Go on, what is it? Clockblocker?"

"Worse." I reach into my belt pocket with both hands. A slight tearing sound is the only giveaway as a prepare my attack. She tenses, ready to dodge. What was she expecting, a grenade? I had nothing so fancy, where would I even find one of those?

I check my weapons as best I can without revealing them, then drop into my speed-state. Sophia seems content to allow me to come to her, making no move to rush me - curiosity outweighing her desire to win.

I rush towards her with Velocity's power. She phases through my lunging attack, but I simply maintain my flurry into the cloud - waiting for her to decide to reform. She'd recognise Velocity's power, remember that it was largely useless in his hands and then... I easily dodge her counterstrike, returning to my ineffective rush of punches that fail to land on anything meaningful. Careful, so careful, never to make contact with the tips of my outstretched fingers.

Her head finally reforms. My fingers lunge at the slits at eye-level, the tape squares easily separating from my fingers as it finds a new surface to latch onto - one rapidly smoothed over and pressed into with my full weight behind it. Not as impressive as it sounds when I'm in my speed-state, but how much strength do you really need to smooth down some tape over a flat surface?

An old trick. Good enough to win a challenge for me, good enough to work in real life. It was hardly my fault she didn't use some kind of visored helmet with more visibility. A basic eye-hole like that was easily covered, and that tape wasn't some dollar-store knockoff that would come off in just a swipe or two of her fingernails. I step back, leaving my speed state as the effectively blinded heroine flails to try and catch my hands or counter my 'attack'.

About a third of the way through the paralysis brought from deactivating Velocity's power, Sophia seems to realise what I just did. Her fingers come up to try and peel the tape away, then nails try to penetrate through it. It's not effective, and before she can try anything else - I'm already on top of her. She phases out of my grasp, but my ash clone rushes into the cloud and starts to dissipate. She reforms again, and this time, my tackle takes her to the floor - each of my arms used to pin down hers, and my full body weight pressed down on her torso.

I take the opportunity to admire the excellent things our brief moment of exertion was doing to her chest. Sometimes armour could really ruin a sight like this, but the costume department had definitely managed to keep the female element in the design. I'd rather be in this position without the costume in the way, but I still seemed to be a way off from achieving that. Simply being appreciative in the meantime was the best I could do.

Sophia, for her part, almost seemed frozen. Not even straining against my arms or trying to break free. Guess I caught her by surprise, or that losing has just sent her mind into a soft reboot.

"Yield?" I prompt.

That seems to start something. "I-" She swallows drily, before the slightly high-pitched tone shifts to something annoyed. "This doesn't mean anything. That wouldn't work twice. And not in a real fight."

"Why wouldn't that work in a real fight?" I challenge. "Do you have a different mask for those?"

"It's ridiculous!" She snaps.

"It's preparation. No shame in losing to that. Plenty of Capes in the Bay that can be blinded like that." She doesn't seem to get any less angry. Or, is humiliated the right word to describe her? "I did warn you I was going to use a dirty trick. And if you're confident that it won't even work again, and you want to prove that to me..." I stand up. "Then you know where to find me, don't you? See you around, Shadow Stalker."

"Wait, get this-" I don't wait. I'm out of the nearest window before she can even finish her sentence.

Goddamn. I'm so fucking cool. I wish I had recorded that.

She'd be able to get back to class if I left her like that, right? I'm moderately sure that tape wasn't coming off without a suitable tool, I hadn't left any corners to pull it off - and I doubted that she had something to cut around the eye holes that easily. She'd have to take the helmet off to try and put her bolts to work, but she wouldn't do that unless she was one-hundred percent sure that I had left the area - which she couldn't easily verify now.

Well. She'd be fine. It wasn't a serious setback. At least the delay meant that I'd be back well before her. Us arriving late to class at the same time might look a little strange in the eyes of the other person.

In the end, Sophia arrives a full twenty-minutes after me with an absolutely thunderous expression on her face that has the teacher pause in their automatic recrimination of her tardiness and instead murmur for her to take her seat at the back of the class quietly.

And, to my slight consternation, I spend the remainder of the class with the unshakeable feeling that a pair of eyes were digging into my back.

It's probably nothing.

---

"Greg!" I pause in my retreat from the classroom. Taylor rarely had a good reason to call out to me, especially at school.

"Taylor?" I echo in response. "What's up?"

"Yeah, Taylor. What's the matter?" Out of nowhere, Emma appears at my side - snaking her arm around my waist possessively with an unholy light in her eyes as she eyes up Taylor with a knowing grin. "Something I can help you with? Because we're best friends again now?"

"We're not best friends." Taylor grinds out. "And I wasn't looking to talk with you, for any reason. Get lost."

Emma lets out a fake gasp. "So cruel! And after everything dear, sweet Greg here did to convince me that I was wrong about you. All that effort he put in to encourage us to take a momentary bit of pity towards you and offer our hands in friendship, wasted because you just couldn't help but hold a grudge over some schoolyard squabbles."

"Funny way of characterising it. Even if I was crazy enough to trust you were genuine, which you clearly aren't, I would hardly call shoving me into a locker full of diseased trash something as simple as a petty squabble." She sneers back at Emma. "You've made it pretty clear that all he is to you, is a way to get back at me. I hope you feel so accomplished right now." Taylor turns to me. "I want to talk. Without her around." For some reason, the anger in her voice was directed at me as well. By Emma's utterly gleeful demeanour, I'm entirely sure that this is somehow her fault - but if nobody was going to volunteer the information, then I suspected that I wouldn't get any results if I asked.

I open my mouth, only for Emma to beat me to the punch. "So egotistical of you, Taylor. The world doesn't revolve around you, you know. My relationship-" She drags out the word deliberately. "-with Greg has nothing to do with you. I'll admit, he's been very, very passionate about trying to convince me that you aren't just a complete waste of oxygen - and we've had plenty of long, hard conversations about the best way to go forward with you in our project group." She smiles. "You aren't exactly known for your reliable contributions to those, so we're both well aware that we've got some long, sleepless nights ahead of us."

Taylor's expression darkens with every sentence. "Are you even listening to yourself? Just throwing yourself at him purely to spite me? You aren't fooling anyone, not even your own friends. And why? Because I've spoken to him myself a few times? There's nothing between us. You're whoring yourself out over nothing."

Emma smirks. "That's right. There's nothing between the two of you. Nothing at all. Glad you realise that." The smirk widens. "And let me tell you. It's so lovely to see how little it bothers you. Maybe I accidentally leaked a few private details, but I didn't think that you would take it so maturely! It's unexpected, I really thought you would throw a tantrum knowing your utter lack of maturity in basically all aspects of the word."

This might escalate to murder if I don't interrupt. "Girls! Please. There's no need to make a scene in the middle of the hallway."

"That's right, Taylor." Emma sneers. "Why don't you just run along-" I check both sides of the corridor. No witnesses. My hand comes down on her ass. Hard. Emma turns ramrod-straight, eyeing me with a faint expression of shocked disbelief that I just did that.

Not quite sure why. If anything, it was a step down from blowing my load all over her face after school. Maybe it was the fact that there was a witness this time, but what was she really going to say? After talking the way she had been?

"That applies to you too, Emma." I fight to keep the smile off my face as Taylor's face wars between a smirk at Emma's disbelieving expression and a darker expression that was aimed at me. I wouldn't call it jealousy, I was only on her fifth challenge out of eight - she shouldn't be aiming to throw herself at me until I had beaten six or so. A good friendship, some flirting here or there in the right situation. Maybe it would be right to call it jealousy, but not entirely of the romantic sort? She clearly considered me as a friend of sorts, and saw Emma as a threat to that. "Didn't you say just the other day something about how you had no reason to be insecure about me talking to Taylor? Time to back that up. A short conversation alone isn't going to do any harm."

She gives a dismissive huff. "Fine. But you had better make it up to me later."

Taylor watches her go with a faintly murderous expression, before turning to me. "I wanted to talk with you-" She checks that Emma is gone. "-about her, partially. Greg. You know that she's using you. You know that, right? I refuse to believe that you're dumb enough to not realise what's going on." She takes on a tone that almost sounds like pleading.

I shrug. "Obviously. But does it really matter? I'm using her as well. It's not like I'm about to declare her my lawful wife. I went into that little deal to keep them away from you for a good reason, and even if they don't really care about keeping me away from you anymore - we're still getting the benefits out of it. I don't want to see you getting bullied, I'm sure you don't want that either. I've been watching, they've barely touched you since this started. A few snide words, but isn't it an improvement over before?"

She looks like she wants to say something else, but cuts herself off. "You don't need to do that for me. I never asked for that. If it really is about me, then think about how I feel? One of my only friends-" Just 'friend', will do no need to dress your social life up Taylor. I accept you as you are. "-is running around with the person that hates me the most in the entire school. I don't care if you say it's for my sake, I don't want that! If it's really about sparing my feelings, then break up with her already!"

"I'm not her boyfriend. We aren't like that." I wave her off. "Don't read too much into it."

Now she looks hurt. "You're really going to sit there and lie to me? I'm not stupid. I can only look the other way so much, especially with Emma flaunting it as much as she does." She crosses her arms. "There's only so many times you can run off into an art closet and not come out for twenty minutes before it starts getting suspicious."

Sounds like I'm missing some context here, but I'm getting the impression that she's aware of our little trysts around the dark corners of the school. Which is... fine. It's private, but not a huge secret or anything. The bigger question is how she knows that. She can frame it as simple observation all she likes, but those rooms were abandoned. I'm always pretty careful about that. Her power, presumably. Could she sense through her bugs yet, like the later versions of her challenge-self could? No, surely she would have mentioned that on our patrols. Perhaps she was just tracking both of our positions with a bug like she usually did on patrols, then noticed that we were getting a bit too close together at certain times. Even if she couldn't use their eyes and ears- antenna? How did bugs even sense things? Whatever. Even if she couldn't use those yet, if she had some tiny bug hidden in Emma's hair, there would be no disguising the motions the girl was getting up to relative to me.

This kind of insight into our activities, even in areas of the school she would never usually visit, was a bit of a giveaway that she had powers. She clearly wasn't thinking rationally enough to disguise that, I should probably be flattered that she already cared enough about me to try and rescue me from Emma's insidious, feminine wiles.

"I don't really know what Emma is saying or doing, but I'm serious. I'm not saying that we've never fooled around here and there in a... physical way-" The stricken look that crosses her face at the confirmation makes me feel a little bit bad for her. Nobody wanted to see their only friend and worst enemy get close like that. But if I could work through one of her challenges or two, I was pretty sure I could restore their friendship by uniting them over the things they had in common. Me. That wasn't that far off, so this was just a bit of temporary pain for her. "-but she isn't my girlfriend. I could go and try to score with, you know, Madison, or someone - wouldn't be an issue. Because we aren't together." I let a smile touch my face. "There's an idea. Maybe I could go three for three on the Trio, I bet I could get them to fully back off of you then. Wouldn't that be a trick?"

Somehow, she only gets angrier at the idea and my added context. "And there's what it is really about. Sex. What do years and years of friendship and trust mean if you can get your dick wet with some sluts that are willing to put out? If they're hotter, why even pretend to keep Taylor around - give yourself the tiniest excuse possible to leave her behind and move on to someone new?" Bitterness creeps into her voice. "Is it too much to ask for you to just be honest? You prefer Emma now. I get it. I'm not bothered by it."

"You're not being fair here." I protest. "I've-"

"I think I've been more than fair, trying to look the other way. Trying to think of any possible explanation other than you choosing to side with them." She interrupts, talking over me with a raised voice. "I just can't stand the fact that you're doing it behind my back! I wouldn't even be angry if you had just admitted it up front, but you just keep claiming that it's temporary or that you're being practically forced into it for my benefit. I genuinely wonder what you might have said if I'd just walked in on you two. 'Oh, it's so terrible - Taylor! Emma just tripped and fell onto my erect cock! How could this happen?'" Her scornful tone drops. "And the worst part? It's that I actually believed you for so long. I was ready to believe you again just now! I wanted to believe you! I didn't want to think that you would somehow think it's okay to betray me as well, or that you thought I was too stupid to notice."

I blink. She's really angry about this. Seething. Furious. Just what did Emma even do? I had no doubt that she'd been stoking this fire for things to get to this point, but wasn't this a bit much?

I rub my forehead, thinking of the best way to explain this to her without making her completely lose her mind. She's taking this personally, in the worst possible interpretation possible. She was thinking that I had permanently decided to hitch up with Emma - which, in fairness, was true - but she didn't really know that! I intended to include Taylor as well! If anything it was Taylor's fault for having such a difficult set of challenges to clear. Facefucking Emma wasn't a betrayal of Taylor, it was just that she was a natural part of my Winslow harem! I genuinely wanted the two of them to be the best of friends again, and what I was doing was actually an important step on that path.

The reality of the situation is that with the facts that Taylor has, namely, our solid friendship and my solemn word of promise - she should be giving me the benefit of the doubt here. It didn't matter if she was correct about me lying, because she thought I was lying about something entirely different - which indicated a lack of trust in me more than anything else. A blind assumption that I couldn't be trusted, that I'd happily choose the worst possible outcome for her if it meant I could get with Emma. I could try to sympathise, a normal guy might be tempted down that route. It wasn't like Taylor could know about my plans for the biggest, most unreasonably-sized harem that the world had ever seen - nor that my power near-assured me that I would get it so long as I lived long enough. With her self-esteem the way it was, could I blame her for her assumptions?

Maybe not. But that didn't mean that I couldn't blame her for taking it out on me. Without being too humble or egotistical, I'm undoubtedly the only good thing in Taylor's life right now. A real saviour figure. If I hadn't stepped in, she'd be utterly alone and still cowering in the toilets hoping that she could make it through lunch without being found. The reason she had the time and safety to spend her lunch break stalking Emma and I around school was because of me. The reason she had both a friend and a Cape partner, me. The reason she didn't look like some villainous goon from a cartoon on her first night out, me. Training and showing her the ropes of heroism, me - especially with the potentially prophetic visions of where her future might have gone via the bank challenge. Improved grades? Again, that was me - stopping the bullying and sabotage. Even the group project, as much as Emma would love to ruin her contribution in front of the teacher - at least, whenever we get around to completing it - I'd be there, protecting her again and making the two work together.

Hadn't I extended my hand of friendship dozens of times, only to get rudely refused when she was too stubborn to take it - even at her lowest point? I'd never once been deterred by that attitude. I'd never, ever given up on Taylor - and here she was, at the very first sign of doubt, ready to give up on me. Even if I could understand it, could understand that I didn't know what had led to this outburst - and could understand that she had a very incomplete picture of what was really going on...

...it kind of pissed me off to hear.

Calm. Try and be rational about this. "Taylor, stop." I reach out and take her hands, bringing them firmly to my chest. "Listen to me. I know you hate Emma. I know you find it hard to trust me. Hell, I'd find it hard to trust me. I'm a guy, guys make bad decisions while horny - everyone knows that. So I know where you're coming from and why you're doubting me, and I'm not mad or angry at you-"

"Oh, you're not angry at me. That's good." I wince. Sarcasm on point. "Everything's just fine in that case."

"Stop that." I scowl. "I was really trying to be diplomatic there. Why don't you just tell me what the issue is? Okay. I'm fucking Emma. It's not a committed relationship, but it's happening. That doesn't mean I lied to you. That doesn't mean I don't care about what happens to you. We're still friends-"

"Are we?" The two words cut me off. "Because I think that someone who really called themselves my friend, should know that there are some lines you can't cross. That you can only push my suspension of disbelief so far before it snaps."

"Why do you even care?" I hiss. "Listen to yourself! A few months ago you were flinching at every shadow. Every day you would get tripped in the hallways. Your schoolwork would get torn up. Your clothes would be ruined. Your reputation was in tatters. Your textbooks would get stolen. I tried going to the teachers about it, and they did nothing. So I went in and fixed it myself. And you know what? It wasn't all negatives. I don't mind the positive attention, but don't start pretending that I went into this just because I had a crush that I couldn't let go of." I jab my finger forward at her. "You're sitting there screaming at me, your one problem - the only problem you have, apparently the worst thing that has happened to you in literal months, is that your friend happens to be getting laid while he saves your school life. And you know what? I never heard a 'Thank you' for it. Never got a 'Wow, thanks for caring'. Not once. And you know what? I didn't mind. Because I know that kind of thing is hard for you. I didn't expect you to praise me, but I didn't expect for you to start calling me a traitor for it either. So, compared to a few months ago - just what is so bad about the way things are?"

"You aren't even listening to me. Those petty, tiny little things didn't bother me. What does a juice box or two even matter the next day? I get tripped, so what? I was handling it. What's changed now, is that my best friend has been stolen away and doesn't even see what's wrong with that." Is she crying? She's crying. I look away, suddenly somewhat uncomfortable. "You don't appreciate it. You don't even understand how much you mean to me. The one, sole person is this school that I actually like. The one conversation I look forward to every day. The one thing I have to get me through the day, that's what I lost. And you don't even see that! I keep telling you that you're worth more than the rest of it to me, and you just can't stop yourself. You go chasing after her anyway, no matter what I say. And now it's over. You've taken her side, even if you didn't fully intend to. This-" She furiously wipes her eyes and continues. "This is exactly what Emma wanted. She's gloating to herself right now, just around the corner. That coldhearted bitch calculated the absolute worst way that the two of you could hurt me. And succeeded. She really did." She smiles, an empty little thing surrounded on each side by tear tracks.  "Congratulations. You did it. You made me cry. I hope it was everything you dreamed."

"You're making me feel bad here." I scratch the back of my head. "Listen, I'm no good with emotional speeches-"

"Making you feel bad." She echoes. "Sure. Don't worry. I'll try to avoid that in the future. Because you know what? I'm still here. I don't need you, you've shown me that now. You can go to Emma, guilt-free - knowing that I can take whatever she dishes out. And whatever you dish out as well. I can handle it. No need to juggle excuses or claim how self-sacrificing you are, just... drop it. There's no need for us to talk anymore." She turns on her heel and paces away from me.

"You can't just toss away your only friend like that Taylor!" I call after her. "This is a stupid thing to argue over, and you know it!"

"Stupid to you, clearly." She shakes her head. "But if you think it's stupid to me, then you haven't been listening." A glimmer of a smile as she looks over her shoulder at me. "Besides, who said you were my only friend?"

I watch her go, still in a state of disbelief at the sheer scale of her temper tantrum. I was already well aware that she wasn't particularly good at handling her emotions. The lack of social life would do that to anyone. But this? Way too far, over way too little. The facts were on my side here, and that would only become more apparent to her over time as she dwells on the conversation.

I'm happy to admit, I hadn't had the best phrasing there. Some bad arguments, true. Some good arguments, that she had interrupted because I said something that infuriated her right at the start of it - she had never really given me a chance to argue my case. I'd put some real effort into being as suave, smooth and devil-may-care as possible - an attitude helped by the endless simulations and repeated deaths - but as much as that helped with sounding cool and in control, as much as it helped put on a flirty attitude and a brave face in any scenario... none of that helped in the face of a genuine emotional outburst. That whole breakdown... made me feel a little bad. I didn't even know I still had that much empathy. I guess gore, violence, torture and murderous tendencies is one thing, but making someone that I like cry is another.

But that didn't matter. Ultimately, it's up to me to be the bigger man here. Even if she had assumed the worst of me, I could at least accept that I was perhaps twenty-percent to blame. Perhaps even up to a third of the blame could be laid at my feet, if I was to be honest. I could have navigated the conversation better, kept a tighter leash on Emma or just progressed Taylor's challenges faster to the point where a childish argument like this was impossible. I could have been straight with Taylor, pressured Emma a bit more and show her proof of our flings on my own terms. It was one thing to learn that Emma and I had been spending time together in private, but it would have a very different spin on it if I had broken the news by sharing the photo's of a submissive, obedient Emma worshipping my cock. The humiliation and increasing degradation of a bully, rather than seeming to join them. But I hadn't been confident on her reaction. Not at the time. If she had been past the fourth challenge when I had considered it, I might have gone down that route - but too late to think about it now.

So, I'd forgive her. Once she came around and apologised, we'd go back to the way things were without a second thought. It might take a while. Taylor was stubborn, and never the type to admit that she was in the wrong - but she would come around eventually.

Two slender arms wrap around my waist. "I'll admit-" Emma purrs from behind me, apparently choosing now as the time to return from wherever she had hidden herself. "-I wasn't expecting such dramatics from her. She's usually the type to just bottle it all up and cry in a corner. I wonder what brought this on?"

I turn to face her with a bemused expression. "Playing innocent doesn't work when you have a smile like that on your face." I sigh. The damage here was... ultimately meaningless. I had been well aware that Emma had been trying to get to Taylor through me, but in truth - I just hadn't expected it to actually work. Maybe my memories were tainted by Taylor's previous standoffish attitude towards me and everyone else, but I had figured she wouldn't consider the threat of me being lured away a terrible loss until I cleared the remaining half of her challenges. It might have been a mistake to assume that, but she would come around. I couldn't just throw my hands into the air and accept the blame, that would encourage Taylor's hysterics as legitimate and just result in another blow-up down the road when my plans for a harem get revealed.

And with that in mind... where did that leave my approach to Emma? She clearly had no intention of spilling whatever she'd been telling Taylor to rile her up in the last period, or perhaps even longer - but did I really mind? It was annoying, but it wasn't like I could say that I wasn't aware that the nasty part of her personality was fixated on putting Taylor down. This wasn't an accident, but an inevitability. The fact that Taylor had taken the bait so hard was unexpected, but it was hard to say that I blamed Emma. It felt like getting mad at a dog for biting something that had been placed in its mouth.

"You owe me." I decide.

"Hm?" She blinks up at me.

"You owe me." I repeat.

She continues to play dumb. "What for?"

"I'm sure that I mentioned at some point that I didn't want to get involved in your catfight." I don't let her step back out of my range right away. "And yet you've dragged me into them anyway. How are you going to make that up to me?"

"Owe you? As if you're actually believing what she just said? If I was just using you this entire time, I'd be moments away from dropping you to the curb now that I've had my fun. Is that what you want?" She challenges. "She's just the jealous, hysteric sort. There's a reason that she has no friends after all this time at school. You're better off without her if you ask me."

Emma was a single challenge away from being fully completed. I'd held off for one reason, and that was her proximity to Sophia and the possibility that going too far, too fast might trigger the suspicions of the Ward. But just because I hadn't completed everything, didn't mean that I wasn't most of the way there. She was a civilian as well, her 'upgrades' weren't gated by power rewards. Every successive challenge had, regardless of the spin she put on our relationship, resulted in her becoming more and more attached to me.

Which meant that I felt pretty confident in pushing. "I'll leave it up to you. You can make it up to me on your own terms, or I'll just... go and apologise to Taylor." I say it with the same finality I use to tell someone I've decided to kill them.

She blinks. "What."

"I said, I'll go and apologise." I reaffirm. "I'll tell her I won't be seeing you anymore, and that I want to go back to being her friend."

"Apologise for what?" She sounds incensed at the idea of it. "You didn't do anything wrong. It's her that blew up out of nowhere just because you have aspirations of losing your V-card without her express permission."

"So you were listening." She has the decency to look a little guilty. "And maybe that's true, but it doesn't change anything. We might not have anything official going on between us, but a relationship is still a two-way street. You can't pull without being prepared to push in return. So I'll ask again. How do you intend to make this up to me?"

"We could- we could find one of those abandoned storage cupboards she seemed to know so much about." She shuffles from one foot to the next, a flush of red in her cheeks at the suggestion. "Not as payment. I'm not a whore, but, if you insist that much - I'll concede that this... did put me in the right sort of mood to be adventurous." She tilts her head at me. "Satisfied?"

"What do you think?" I counter with my own question.

She makes a thinking expression. "You know, it might get shot down by the others..." Emma meets my eyes. "But you know how this weekend is a long weekend? No school on Monday? Julia, Madison, Sophia and I usually hang out on the Monday. Show up at lunchtime, hit the town, throw a sleepover, play board games. Stuff like that. Julia dropped out this week because she's camping in the countryside. We could use a fourth person, even if they are a guy. Just to fill out the players."

An entire afternoon around Sophia, with no reason to rouse her suspicions? I was going to absolutely pummel her challenge-self to a pulp in the space of a day. "And your parents won't mind?"

"They won't be around." She shakes her head. "They're taking my sister halfway across the country to check out what universities she wants to go to. It will just be us." Her tongue dabs against her lower lip. "I know where my parents keep the stash of drinks and Madison's been a font of some pretty specific questions lately. Sophia probably won't be interested, but you might be able to sneak a handful of something if things escalate during one game or another. Our last session of truth or dare got a little spicy, who knows what would happen with a boy around?" She leaves the unspoken idea in the air. Three girls, one guy. At least two of them already in my strike range.

Well. Emma might be trying to dangle the possibility of an alcohol-assisted threesome under my nose - which makes sense, Madison has also had a fair number of civilian challenges cleared off. Some curiosity is natural, even if we haven't had as many chances to interact compared to Emma and I. But what's far more important is the number of attempts I could get on Sophia over the course of a full afternoon, night and the following morning. Not limited by Cape appearances. Not limited by happening to catch her at lunch, or the few shared classes that we had. I could challenge her on cooldown, three, four, five times an hour, for the best part of eighteen to twenty-four hours if I could stay awake. I'd happily skip sleep for a chance like that, sleeping in class would be a fine alternative.

The numbers we were talking here... weeks of my current progress, compressed into a single day. One absolutely, exhausting-to-the-bone day given the toll repeated challenges could take, but I didn't mind that. And unlike the last time I exhausted myself doing every challenge I possibly could, I wouldn't be dying repeatedly, which might ease the mental burden enough for it to not be a serious issue.

"Alright." I decide, still trying to play it cool and uninterested. "I'll come."

She looks genuinely pleased at that statement. "Good. I'll text you the details. Don't you dare forget." As if I would ever forget. This promised to be more successful than my original plans of wandering the city aimlessly hoping for that one-in-a-hundred chance that I just happen to cross paths with a patrol at the right time, or stumble across a villainous Cape. Not even my earlier success in dragging Sophia out to join Taylor and I on our Cape outings would contribute as much in the way of potential attempts.

A light tug on my shirt draws my attention back to her as I half-step away. "What now?"

"What do you mean 'What now?'. Don't you wanna, you know-" She nods her head at the wall. "-do the thing?" I give her a blank look that somehow seems to irritate her. "You know? What I mentioned earlier?" A dark flush on her cheeks causes a flash of realisation in me. Right.

"Maybe if we're quick." I hum in thought. "I expect the janitors will be coming around to lock up, so our usual spots might not be as safe as they usually are."

"If you don't want to be quick, they're leaving the gym building open all day so that the sports clubs can still run and get changed. Nobody goes up to the second floor, let alone the third. The cameras only catch people hanging around the equipment downstairs." She ticks the points off on her hand. "The keys are always left on the inside of the door from the stairs, so we could just lock it ourselves. Plenty of places to hide if someone managed to come in anyway. Good lighting, lots of space, showers just two flights of stairs down from us... sound good?"

"Sounds like you've been thinking about this a lot." I let a smile settle on my face.

She opens her mouth to object, then pauses. "Yes." The sheepish admission catches me off guard. "I mean, finding some time in a cramped closet or toilet cubicle was fun - but there's no space to really... branch out in what we do."

"If you've put this much effort into finding a place, it would almost be rude of me to shoot you down now. Lead the way." I acquiesce to her light tugging as she half-drags me down the corridor and across the school.

It's a short trip, taking us past the field where a few separate teams were clearly doing tryouts of some kind. It's not until we've made it into the building, up the stairs and once Emma has firmly locked the door behind us that she starts talking again. "She made me angry, you know."

"Taylor?" I raise my eyebrows as I enter the classroom, turning on the weaker lights and scanning around. No security cameras indeed. To be fair, there was nothing of value here to protect. A textbook 'extra' classroom that would only really get used once or twice a week when others were unexpectedly closed. I peer out the window between the blinds at the sports teams milling around outside. "I kind of worked that out already."

"Not in general. When she was talking to you. When she's been arguing with me. This insistence that she has that all I care about is her. That you're nothing to me." Something rustles behind me. "I don't want to be like her, so I need to be a bit more honest. Even if it's awkward. I do like you. Genuinely. You're still a nerd. A terrible pervert and everything, but she's wrong to say I only kept you around to hurt her. I'll admit, that was part of my starting motivation - but that changed. I like being with you." The unmistakable noise of fabric hitting the floor draws my attention. "And I want to show you that."

"Wasn't expecting a confession from-" I turn around, doing a momentary double-take at the sight of an utterly-nude Emma kicking her clothes into a pile next to her. "That's a new look for you." I manage. Not my first time seeing a naked girl, but when it was actually someone I spent time around and had gotten to know well - it just hit a little differently.

She flushes. "Y-yeah." The redhead makes a very visible effort to stop herself from covering up with her hands, leaving her body fully on display for my viewing. "Do... do you like it?"

"What kind of silly question is that? One of the most beautiful girls in school is standing in front of me, utterly naked - do I think she looks good?" I shake my head. "Do I even need to answer? You obviously look fantastic. I'm more worried about how you expect me to hold back, looking like that."

She liked that response, clearly. "You don't have to." She steps closer. "I'm ready for whatever you want to do. I'm on the pill too, so no worries about-" She can't even complete the sentence. "You know." She finishes lamely.

What am I supposed to do with an invitation like that? I start stripping my own clothes off. A bit earlier than I had expected from Emma, but perhaps this was just the consequence of actually establishing a relationship and interacting with someone. I didn't have to wait for all of the challenges to be complete to push things into the next stage. They were still people, capable of developing and making decisions on their own without my power deciding for them. "I didn't react the way I did just to get in your panties, you know that right? It wasn't out of any special loyalty to you." Arguably, it was the wrong thing to say in this scenario - most guys would probably just keep their mouths shut and enjoy the show.

But I knew the outcome already. Even if I bottled it here, Emma was already mine. My question was serious, because it told me exactly what our relationship was for the immediate future.

"I know. And I said I wasn't just doing it as payment for that. It's complicated. I want to reward you for playing your part, however accidentally. I want to make it up to you, because I'm at least a little to blame for you losing your friend. I want to go further with you, because you make me feel-" She tilts her head. "-safe. Complete." She takes one final step towards me, into range of my arms. "I just have this feeling... I want to follow you. Trust you. Like, we just get each other. I know the way you look at me, and I'm completely fine with that. I mentioned it earlier, Madison started asking me questions about you the other day, I thought that I would be jealous - but I thought about the looks you've been given her and all I could think about was how hot it would be if you made us both your girls."

I'm sure she just cut herself off from saying 'instead of Taylor' at the end of that or something along those lines - but I didn't need to call her out on it. If she was able to learn a bit of tact, so much the better.

She giggles to herself, momentarily forgetting her appearance. "Maybe that sounds a little crazy. But, I don't know. I felt like you could do it? I know you were just a nobody a few weeks ago, kind of at the bottom of the social ladder. I know that. But look at you now!" One hand traces along my torso as she drinks in the sight of my naked body. "I feel like you were born to be in this kind of position. You look fit. Confident. You look like you belong in this kind of group. You've had one of the hottest girls in the school draining your balls every other day and you act like it's the most natural thing in the world, like it's what you just deserve. And the funny thing is, I can't even say that I feel like you're wrong."

What do you even say to that? "I'll take the compliments, but I wouldn't entirely dismiss your own contribution. It's easy to climb up the social ladder when you have someone at the top helping you up." I slide my hands down her back and pull her closer, grabbing a handful of each asscheek and kneading it between my fingers.

"It's not that. I barely did anything. It's just like Sophia says. Predator and prey. The strong and the weak. But, just to more of an extreme. It makes perfect sense, the guys at the top of the food chain - they'd just naturally dominate the girls around them. They wouldn't be satisfied with any one person, like how you refused to settle down with just me." She sounds excited. "And, you know - I think you could do it. I know I was kind of hinting that things might get a little interesting at the sleepover, but I feel like if you pushed the issue - Madison would just fold over. Sophia wouldn't join in, but she'd approve of the attempt. You could really prove yourself. I know it's a bit much to ask of you when you've already stepped so far out of your comfort zone, but it's not like you have anything to lose from trying. And doesn't every guy dream of a threesome anyway?"

"I honestly just assumed that's what you were hinting at the first time." I admit.

She glances up at me, evidently feeling vindicated. "See! That's the attitude I mean. The attitude you need! Maybe-"

I silence her by capturing her lips in my own. "Emma." I interrupt any response as I pull away. "As fascinating as this is..." I pull her forward, pressing her body into mine. "I'm naked. You're naked. I'm going to fuck you, here and now." Emma gives the tinest of silent, wide-eyed nods in response. "You have sixty seconds to get me ready for that. You've always been pretty good at using that mouth of yours, so put it to work."

I lean back against the wall, idly thanking whoever had the foresight to install blinds in these rooms to stop others from seeing in, and watch Emma get to work. She wastes no time, dropping to her knees beside my feet and reaching down to cup my balls in her hand. With a firm grip, she begins working her hand up and down my length, slowly pumping with an oddly soft smile on her face. I can feel my member growing larger with each passing second, the semi-erection I had gained from the mere anticipation and appreciation of her body paling in comparison to actually being touched and teased to full mast.

The redhead girl takes her given time-limit seriously, taking the briefest moment to lick my cock from tip, to base and then back again - before unceremoniously taking my length into my throat. No signs of gagging this time. I'd give her credit, she'd turned from a complete amateur to a budding professional in short order - though I would have to take no small amount of credit for providing her with the opportunity to learn.

A groan escapes my lips as Emma bobs back and forth on my cock, her mouth a near-vacuum and apparently taking it as a challenge to make me cum before our self-imposed time limit is up. If I'd been the inexperienced guy I was a few weeks ago, it might even have worked. But this time, I could hold it in. I had my eyes on the prize, Emma had offered up all of her body - and I was going to finalise my claim on it before she had a chance to get cold feet.

Emma looks up at me with half-lidded eyes as she continues her work. Jesus fuck she was hot. Not for the first time, I'm grateful to my power for this opportunity. If it was anything else, even if I was a Blaster or Brute on part with the Triumvirate - the odds were good that I would never have seen this sight. The obedient, almost worshipful cocksucking expression gazing up at me from the Queen Bee of the school. And this was just one person, out of what would very likely be a great many indeed. The warm wetness of her mouth washes over me in waves, leaving me tingling with sensation. Her fingers continue working at the base of my shaft, massaging me and adding friction to the ongoing pleasure. My hands reach down and grab her head. "Take it easy." I warn her softly.

"Mmhm." She hums around my dick, continuing to suck me off despite the hand on her head. "I don't mind. Wherever you want is fine with me."

Completely on autopilot. I shake my head and pull her off of me, the slight noise of complaint oddly cute for the sheer eroticism of her actions just a few moments prior. "I already know where. Which is precisely why you need to stop."

"Ah." She accepts my preferred hand pulling her upwards, then lets out a surprised 'eep' as I practically lift her off of her feet and carry her onto the nearest table.

The way I place her leaves neither of us with much need to move. My cock, almost painfully swollen and enraged, presses against her dripping, bare slit - the only thing holding me back from an immediate, clean insertion is one, final look at Emma's face.

She's hiding part of her face behind her hands, giving the impression of a certain amount of embarrassment that clearly didn't extend to trying to cover her other womanly assets. At my pause, and a moment of eye-contact, she seems to momentarily freeze - before her legs widen almost imperceptibly. "G-go on. I'm all yours."

That's all I need. I thrust forward, bursting past her inner walls and lodging myself inside her. Emma stifles a cry and tries to keep her voice down, but fails miserably. I hold myself inside her for a moment, partly to allow her some time to adjust and partly to just relish the feeling of splitting apart the closest thing the school had to an untouchable idol. Oh, sure. The school's opinion of her might not be quite so high if everyone realised that she had a few screws loose, particularly when it came to Taylor and Sophia. The mental gymnastics she came out with sometimes could be pretty special, but that didn't change the fact that she was popular, hot and charismatic - at least, when the topic didn't touch on Taylor or her chosen life philosophy.

I slide my length back, playing her body like a musical instrument as she subconsciously tries to press back against me. Not quite the motion I needed from her yet, but it was good to see that her body was so enthusiastic to learn. I shift her legs up and to the side again, taking a bit more control to allow myself the leverage I needed. Then, I ram back inside, matching my previous thrust and more. Hilting myself inside her, only stopping when my balls slap against her skin. Emma clenches down on me the entire way down, a vice-grip tighter than anything she had managed yet with just her mouth alone. This time, I don't stop. This was my new point to reach with every thrust, powering in and out of her eager, responsive body until I felt myself nearing completion once more - a fact I would blame entirely on her all-too-eager blowjob just a short moment prior. I was all but ready to blow from the start.

"Emma, you're mine." I hiss out the fact, turning my head to the ceiling and gasping with relief as I shoot load after load into the willing body beneath me. Hot, sticky seed spilling into her core. I sincerely hoped that she wasn't lying about her contraceptive measures, because they were now being put to the test.

Well. Did I really care if she had lied? Would it really make that much difference? In nine months time, I would be dead, in the birdcage or a living god spoken in the same breath as the Triumvirate and Scion. I didn't exactly have to worry about my future prospects being damaged, or the danger of child support. Not when I still had another challenge to clear whenever I felt like it, which I could only assume would finalise Emma's transformation into my personal onahole. It would be ahead of schedule, but could I really say that I didn't intend to knock up all of the members of my one-day harem eventually? What was the harm?

Well. It could be inconvenient. Let's slow down there, Greg. Even if I don't have as many reasons to care about the downsides as a normal guy, it could still make her - and the baby - a target. It could still distract me and take time away from what was really important. No deliberately impregnating people for me, yet, at least. But at the same time, I'll take any opportunity I'm given to pass on the condom. If only because carrying them around and keeping them protected is a bit of a pain given my activities.

I start moving inside her again. I'm not done. Most girls would guess that a guy can only really cum once. But as a guy that on more than one occasion has found an absolute godly adult game to play on a lonely weekend, there's always more to be found for those with the willpower and strength. And that was before my power had started doing... whatever it was that had actually given me serious muscle even before I had started patrolling. A guy getting his dick sucked at school at least once a day, then going on patrol at night and finding some grateful citizens that were happy to reward their saviour, maybe a few would-be muggers that felt like negotiating their way out of trouble... a guy like that should not be cumming as prodigiously as I am.

And I say that as someone with a great deal of experience in the effects that time in between porn sessions has on volume produced. An expert on the art. A master, should I say.

Long story short... I'm not even slightly soft. Emma clearly doesn't have any objections when I return to the task of stirring up her insides, the simple act of pounding her again and again causing more and more of our mixed, intertwining juices to escape from her abused, oozing slit in between each thrust. I bring my hands up, roaming from her legs up to her hips, only for my hands to be captured by her own - used to give her leverage to slam back into me with equal force, driving my cock into her harder and deeper under her own power this time. If I were to suddenly stop, I'm confident that she'd still be able to fuck herself to orgasm on my rod without a second thought.

"Greg~" Emma's voice finally returns to coherent words, having drifted off into unintelligible moans for the last few minutes. "That feels so, so good. Please, just keep fucking me. Use me up, as hard as you like. Take anything you want-"

"Damn right." I grunt. "You're mine, Emma. I'm gonna do this to Madison too. And you're going to watch." I increase the pace. "And you know what? Why stop there?"

She blinks uncomprehendingly at that. "Huh?"

"I think I know exactly how to dislodge the stick from Sophia's ass." I smile. "So don't go thinking that I'm giving up on her either. All three of you, all at once. She's so obsessed with strength, I think I'm looking forward to seeing what face she makes when she's ready to admit that I'm stronger."

Emma looks poleaxed at the thought. "That- that's ambitious. And hot. Really, really hot. She really would love it if a guy could just put her down in her place below him, so convincingly that all she could do is meekly spread her legs and beg to be bred." A perverse giggle as she continues to squeeze down on my cock, twisting her legs to apply even more pressure. "I won't hold my breath, but I won't lie - I'd love to see it happen. You know just what to say to a girl, you know that?"

"Most girls, perhaps." I drawl.

"Oh, Taylor?" Emma smiles. "You know, if she was at all capable of being honest - she'd be in my position right now. Wouldn't she?"

I give a grunt of agreement. No need to mention that her Cape-self was halfway to this kind of thing with my Cape-self. Taylor was... a lot more bold as Bug than she was at school. I was tempted to blame it on too many sketchy romance books. A lot more permissive, and far thirstier as well. I was half-surprised she hadn't jumped me already by now.

"I knew it." Emma's voice stutters for an instant as I slam home with a particularly fast rush. "I really did want her to become tough, you know. Like me, or Sophia. Or you. That never really happened, she's stayed as a leech no matter what we did - no matter what opportunities we gave her to showcase what she's made of."

I take great care not to roll my eyes where she can see. I'd heard this one, in various different retellings, before. Not in its entirety, that would have to wait for whenever I could fix this broken friendship myself. I didn't even want to hear it, I knew it would be something petty that had led to a blood feud somehow more hateful than any of the inter-gang rivalries in Winslow.

"But I don't know that it matters now. So, she's weak. What of it? Even if she never becomes strong-" It was probably a good idea to never tell Emma that Taylor is a Cape. I didn't want to deal with the mental breakdown. "-at least she can learn her place as a weakling. That little argument she had with you, that was needed - for both of you. You can't be in a partnership of equals. She'll always be beneath you - and you need to make sure she knows that."

The fact that I was already in partial agreement with Emma was perhaps a worrying sign. She was right, for the wrong reasons. Taylor's possessiveness of me did need to come to an end, eventually - although this wasn't the way I would have chosen to challenge that mindset. I couldn't have her seething at the sidelines every time I looked at a new girl, because I intended to do a lot more than merely look - to a lot more than one girl. If the pain of one argument, and the extraction of a single apology was enough to turn her budding love into a more docile, harem-suitable attitude? That was going to be more healthy for everyone.

That sounded all sorts of condescending and misogynistic now that I had thought of it in those words. But, hey! What other way was there to think about it? I liked her, sure. More than I probably should. I wanted her to have a long, happy life at my side being bred as one of my top girls. But it was never going to be a monogamous relationship. My power was a Master power, if not directly, then at least in the feelings they had towards me. It could never have been a relationship of equals. Emma had learned the reality with startling ease, shifting into the eager role of compliant cumslut with fluidity and grace. Taylor could learn a lot from that example.

"You could really drag it out. You know that she'll come crawling back no matter what. Make sure that she knows what she threw away with her rant. Let her know that you'll never consider her more than just another onahole to be used and tossed aside - and that she'll just have to be satisfied with that." Emma is panting now, her body practically undulating in the throes of passion as she talks faster and faster. "Have that be a condition of accepting her apology. We can get a collar, a leash. She can come crawling to you, naked and humiliated - just to beg you to forgive her for her mistakes." Emma abruptly stops her movements, back arching backwards and face twisting into rapturous bliss as her obvious orgasm wracks her body. "Oh- fuck-"

I pull out, frantically jerking myself to take myself the rest of the way. My previous load was still dribbling out of her well-fucked hole, so this one could just be blasted over the rest of her body. It doesn't take long for me to climax, thick ropes of seed latching across her nude, sweating frame. This time, I'm spent. My body is shaking and covered in sweat. I take a seat on the table next to Emma, sharing in a wordless silence only broken by heavy panting. We stay like that for several minutes, catching our breath and taking in the pleasant flush across the body of the other.

"We're going to have to clean all of this up, aren't we?" Emma mumbles sheepishly.

Sure enough, there's a sizable puddle spread across the table - my own seed managed to mostly land on her body, but some has already dripped down towards the solid, tiled floor. Thankfully, not carpeted.

"We?" I echo.

Emma considers me for a moment. "We." A firm nod, allowing no arguments. I smile. I didn't mind that. That was good, actually. Even if I had given her a new fetish or five and somehow slotted into her twisted worldview, it was good to know that she wasn't a complete doormat now.

I raise my hands in surrender. "I think I saw an abandoned towel by the door, hopefully they won't mind it being donated to the cause."

"I'll put it in the trash for them afterwards." She pushes herself up from the table. "And, we'll need to clean ourselves up as well. You know, there might be a lot of sports clubs around - but there are showers up on this floor as well. I'm no good with complex machinery, do you think you could help me work out how the hot water works?" Her doe eyes won't fool anyone, but I can take a hint.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh... needs a few minutes to recharge. At least. Just a few minutes though. "I'd love to donate my expertise." I slide my gaze to the table. "But, let's do this first. We have to at least be a little responsible, and it'll be a bit of a chore if we let all of this dry - plus the school might kick up a fuss if we leave enough obvious signs about what went down here."

"Someone got stabbed and died on school grounds last week, I think they have bigger concerns than a few consenting students fucking in a classroom." She shrugs. "But I take the point. Work before pleasure."

My phone buzzes, distracting me from my response. No words, just a notification. I unlock my phone, switch to the secondary browser - plug in my passkey and only then does it let me in to PHO on my main account. A recent precaution. No sense in taking pointless risks if someone asked for my civilian PHO or needed to use my phone, so I had an old account set up in the obvious place - in case anyone happened to snatch my phone and look around. No weird history to worry about, inbuilt VPN on the browser in case the Tinkers were out to get me. Were there ways around it? Sure. It wasn't perfect. But it was better than nothing, and easier to explain than just having two phones constantly.

I slide to my messaging tab.

I read.

I mentally assign the responsibility for handling this to future Greg. I've got a table to wipe down, and then a shower to inspect alongside a horny, eager and nubile young woman. I'm proud to say that I have my priorities straight here.

PHO Private Messaging: Mobile View:

Viewing: Conversations with new replies. (15) most recent messages.

Private message from theDARKESTshadow:

Notice from the moderators: This account has been recently created and has no posting history. Please use caution when interacting with new accounts, as the person behind the account may be attempting to scam, coerce, intimidate or abuse legitimate users for their own ends. If you think something is wrong, please report the user by clicking on their profile and selecting the appropriate reason.

theDARKESTshadow: Fucking asshole, where did you even get that crap? I had to shoot new eye-holes into the mask point-blank to get it off.

theDARKESTshadow: Bitch.

theDARKESTshadow: Are you ignoring me?

theDARKESTshadow: Fuck you.

theDARKESTshadow: But a deal is a deal. I'm free this coming weekend, unless I get called out for something.  If your friend is around then, I'll beat them up for you. See what they're made of. I'm not around on Monday, busy with other stuff.

theDARKESTshadow: If not, let's hit the town. I want to see you in action myself, not through some stupid camera that was already outdated before I was born.

theDARKESTshadow: Hello? Respond already.

theDARKESTshadow: Hello?

theDARKESTshadow: Fuck you, terminally online moron. I've seen your account. You post bullshit every waking hour of the day, seven days a week, three-hundred-and-sixty-five days a year. I know you saw my last messages.

theDARKESTshadow: I won't let you back out now. I'm going to beat you, and your girlfriend, black and blue until you begin to approach some semblance of 'passable'. You can't talk that much crap and just walk away. You've got to back it up.

theDARKESTshadow: And you know, the tape bullshit was lame... but it fucking worked. I'll give you that much. Better that I lost like that to you, than to some dumbass that's actually fighting me for real. No way I'm going out of this world just because someone did the equivalent of putting a paper bag over my head.

theDARKESTshadow: Maybe 'lost' wasn't really the right word there. It was just a demonstration of a trick you would have used in a fight. Proving a point, rather than any actual violence.

XxVoid_CowboyxX: Sorry about that, I had to scroll through my DMs quite a bit to find you.

XxVoid_CowboyxX: Yeah, this weekend should be good. I'll try to hammer out a time and place with my teammate and get back to you before tomorrow evening. If she can't make it, it will be just me. And btw, you totally lost. Like I said, no shame in that. I'm pretty fucking awesome so you can wear it as a badge of honour later. Like being the first random villain to turn around a street corner and find Eidolon just starting his first patrol.

theDARKESTshadow: <Message filtered by AutoModerator> Reason: Too much profanity. Be nice.

theDARKESTshadow: Fuck. You.

Private message from ABugInBrockton:

ABugInBrockton: I can make Wednesday? We can meet around the cinema at Lords. Same time as usual?

XxVoid_CowboyxX: Sounds good to me. I'll head to the roof, just poke me with your bugs and point me in the right direction. I'll come to you.

XxVoid_CowboyxX: Did you see the PRT press release? We're kind of a big-deal right now.

XxVoid_CowboyxX: One of Lung's henchmen also put a statement out, but it's not quite so complimentary about our bright future.

ABugInBrockton: I saw both of those.

ABugInBrockton: It's kind of weird, but somehow I feel better seeing the ABB one.

ABugInBrockton: Like, the PRT makes it sound like we're kids that just stumbled into a dangerous situation and need to be do the smart thing and go running to them for safety now.

ABugInBrockton: And the ABB treats us like we're as much of a team as New Wave or the Empire.

XxVoid_CowboyxX: Who says we aren't? Best team ever. Quality over quantity!

ABugInBrockton: That's true. We are pretty great. I'm so glad we're a team.

XxVoid_CowboyxX: Ran into a very bored Ward a little while ago. Got to talking about you. I mentioned you were kind of awesome at range, but didn't know much about actual fighting up close. I suggested that you might have better luck learning from her than me, because she's a bit of an expert at it - even compared to me. Keep it kinda hush-hush though, it's not illegal for her - but the PRT probably wouldn't want to see her running around talking to non-affiliated Capes.

XxVoid_CowboyxX: And don't start worrying that I think you're secretly terrible or anything, you're great. But I'd feel a lot happier if you could handle yourself if anyone ever managed to get close to you. I tend to cheat with my powers a lot in fights, and while she can do the same - she doesn't need to. Very skilled. Has a lot to teach.

XxVoid_CowboyxX: She's not the friendly sort, definitely the type to sneer at you and call you hopeless trash - but she'll be serious as long as you are. She secretly likes what we've been doing so far, and while she'd beat me up if I said that she was a fan in front of her face - that doesn't make it any less true. Not sure when she'll have time to join us and meet up, but I'll let you know and try to arrange something. Probably this weekend.

ABugInBrockton: I can handle it. I don't want you to worry about me, I can handle a few mean words. Just let me know when and where, I'll be there.

ABugInBrockton: Hey, I know this is really short notice - but can we do a patrol tonight? I've just had a really terrible day at school, and I need to blow off some steam. I was just going to solo patrol, but I'd feel a lot better if I was with you instead. You always cheer me up, and the things we do actually matter. I've been making some modifications to my costume that I'd like your advice on as well. It's not a big deal if you're too busy or something, we can arrange another time if you already have plans - or if you think I'm being a pain, just let me know and I'll back off. I don't want you to think of me as too pushy or anything, I'm just saying - I'm going out tonight, I'd really love it if you could make it. The dream team isn't complete without both of us