Super Jaded 2 - Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Alicia

[“Oh, Miguellllll~”] Alicia cooed, her voice booming throughout her colosseum-like throne room even though it was still in the upper octaves of the vocal range.

[“Coming, dear!”] Her husband responded without missing a beat. 

Miguel descended one of the towering spiral staircases that adorned the throne room’s right wall. In tow were several men wearing identical butler suits to Miguel, each carrying a different enlarged, commonly-used household item on a silver platter. A cell phone, nail polish, a platter full of food and a wooden spoon—for disciplinary action if necessary.

All of these items could’ve been more efficiently obtained by Alicia, given that her speed could clear the sound barrier while still remaining as graceful and purposeful as a ballerina, but she didn’t feel like it. Plus, she liked being treated like a princess, even if said princess could lift her entire castle without breaking a sweat.

Alicia was adorned in a dress that would fit a roman gladiator, only far more regal in execution. There was more gold plating her 14-foot-tall body than Fort Knox. Her massive sandaled foot impatiently tapped, the floor shaking to a frantic tempo as her husband and his merry band of waiters made their way before her, posing in the A-formation she enjoyed so much. Of course, Miguel was in the middle, closest to her.

[“What would you like, my wonderful wife?”] Miguel asked, gesturing among the various platters as he did every single day, ritualistically, all with a smile on his perfect face.

Alicia, in jest, mulled over the options, but she already knew exactly what she wanted.

[“Hmm, I’ll haaaave… you!”]

She picked up the tinier Miguel like one would a doll, gently cradling him in her larger armspan. The couple shared a long, passionate kiss, breaking it only once Miguel needed to come up for air. His wife’s larger lips made it harder for him to breathe, her plump pinkness smothering both his mouth and his nose.

[“Thank you for letting me become God-Queen of the world, my love,”] she said with a smoldering gaze, batting fuck-me eyes at her husband.

[“You deserve it, Alicia,”] Miguel clarified. [“After all the work you’ve done for this family, it’s only natural you’d want to relax and laze around now that you’ve saved the world from those other wretched supergirls.”]

She cackled, reminiscing on her prior conquest. [“Yes, those two fools didn’t stand a chance against my might. They were lucky I was feeling merciful, merely choosing to depower them instead of outright murdering them.”]

[“Haha, yes, and that’s why you are not just any God-Queen, but a beloved one!”]

Without even being asked to, all of the other butlers bowed to her magnificence. They weren’t even getting paid to do this, but they wouldn’t accept money for their service. They knew that serving Alicia was one of the highest honors they could ever achieve in their short, mortal lives. Their legacies would be immortalized throughout the millenia as Alicia’s perfect memory—and a bit of her laser vision—etched them into history.

[“Oh you all, so kind! Now, someone go track down Anya and Diego. I think a family dinner between the four of us is in order, wouldn’t you agree?”]

[“Indeed I do, my love.”] 

[“Could you give them a warning, perhaps? The last time I shouted ‘dinner’ I had to invent a cure for deafness. Of course, now that my genius brain has invented it, I suppose I could justify calling them down one more time…”]

~

Alicia suddenly awoke with a start, blinking what little sleepiness remained from her eyes. She couldn’t remember the last time a dream had made her sit all the way upwards, but it was as if she had convinced her body that she had the strength to effortlessly do it. She also couldn’t remember the last time a dream had made her feel so… naughty. She was imagining herself as a super! Using the serum that had brought her city ruin to live a selfishly lavish life as a goddess amongst men! What was she thinking!? And why did it make her so hot and bothered to think about it further…?

[“Did you have a nightmare, baby?”] Miguel asked from beside her in the bed. His eyes were still closed, firmly in a semi-conscious state of being. [“Don’t worry, my love. The earthquake is over.”]

He lovingly massaged his wife’s arm with a mild groan, attempting to calm her.

[Thank goodness he can’t see me right now,] Alicia thought to herself. [Otherwise, he’d see the longing all over my face!]

[“Thank you, hon,”] she replied, playing along. [“I don’t think I can go back to sleep though, there’s only about thirty minutes left before I have to get up anyway. Would you like me to get a headstart on brewing coffee for you?”]

Miguel nodded with a quiet groan and Alicia smiled. Her and her husband might’ve been getting up in years, but the love they shared for each other in the quiet moments never went away.

Her back immediately punished her dream-induced hubris as she made her way out of bed, spikes of pain shooting up her spine. Alicia didn’t mind aging, it was a facet of life she had accepted as an inevitability long ago, and her good looks hadn’t faded away either—she had Mimi to thank for that. But the pain. The pain was something she could do without.

She hobbled into the kitchen, her mind replaying how effortless her dream had made existing seem once she had been reintroduced to the real thing. Both Iris and Diego were already up, with Iris floating above the chair she was sitting on so she didn’t weigh it down. Alicia’s son, meanwhile, was on the prowl in the kitchen, putting together a makeshift meal that seemed more dinner than breakfast.

Iris wasn’t much better. She was hunched over the too-small counter, humbly chowing away at a burger stacked so high it probably couldn’t be eaten by an average person.

[“Good morning, Iris.”] the mother said, showing politeness to her guest no matter how permanent her stay might’ve been. She could drop the hospitable act when it came to her son, however. [“Diego, where’s your sister?”]

[“She’s out grabbing groceries with Mimi,”] Diego answered, reaching into the back of the top cupboard for something he knew was there, but was struggling to grasp. [“Grandma will probably make it an all-day affair, even with Anya’s superspeed.”] 

Even while standing on his tippy toes, the elusive item remained out of his grasp. [“Grr… why do we… let the salsa… slide so far back… in the cabinet.”]

Diego was so focused on trying to get what he couldn’t see that the brief flash of Iris appearing beside him had already relieved his goal from his obstacle. Iris silently shook the jar in front of his face to get his attention, before putting it down on the counter below for him.

[“Oh, uh, t-thanks, Iris.”] Diego prattled awkwardly as he picked up the jar. Iris nodded cheerfully before returning to her meal. As an optimist who had never had a partner before, she was blissfully unaware of the tension slowly permeating the room. What she did notice, however, was that her services would likely be needed once more.

Diego had exhausted the hot water trick, the knife trick, everything. Despite Diego’s best efforts, he just couldn’t open the jar of salsa. Of course, Iris had been watching him the whole time, knowing she could solve it at any point. Diego felt embarrassed when he locked eyes with the towering green-tipped Amazon, the question he was going to ask her already laid bare on his face.

[“Here Diego, let me help you with that,”] Iris said. Diego watched as the supergirl grabbed the jar, only to gasp as the container cracked and broke into pieces, spilling the salsa onto the ground.

[“Fuck! I’m sorry!”] Iris yelped, noticing the sharp glass pieces sprinkled throughout the floor. She was silently grateful that Mimi wasn’t around to hear that. [“Don’t move, Diego!”]

Diego was caught off guard by how quickly the superwoman picked him up and placed him away from the spill. Iris quickly got a broom and walked over to the spilled area, not worried about her bare feet being cut by the glass, much to Diego’s impulsive shock. In no time at all, the ground looked as if a mess had never befallen it. Diego, however, was a different story.

[“Oop, looks like you’ve still got a glob of the stuff on your cheek. Here, lemme just…”] Iris then gently gripped Diego’s head, her hand engulfing the entire side of his face as her thumb swiped off all of the salsa in one fell swoop. [“There, all better.”]

Diego silently thanked whatever god was listening that Iris’ hand was warmer than his face by a significant margin. Otherwise she probably would’ve noticed his cheeks heating up from the mere act of her touching him. She was so focused on keeping his face clean that she didn’t notice, but Diego wasn’t out of dodge yet.

One look over at his mother’s smiling face revealed all. Alicia held back a laugh at her son’s head-over-heels infatuation with the supergirl. Diego flashed a peeved look at his mother, which only made the situation more awkward as Iris noticed the young man’s expression.

[“Hmm, is something else wrong, Diego?”]

His face immediately faltered, much to the continued amusement of Alicia.

[“Oh don’t worry about him too much,”] the mother added with a knowing chuckle, walking in a semi-circle around Iris and Diego so she could get to the coffeemaker. [“He’s got a head in the clouds, and a—“]

Before she could finish her thought, Alicia slipped on the kitchen tile, but wasn’t allowed to timber over for more than a second before she found herself cradled in Iris’ embrace.

[“Oh man, oh man, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make such a hectic morning for you all. I really should’ve put a wet floor sign up or something. I must’ve mopped the floor so fast you didn’t even notice.”]

All of Iris’ frantic apology fell on deaf ears, however, as Alicia’s brain was going haywire. Her head was resting against Iris’ bulging bicep, easily the softest, most impossibly perfect piece of musculature she had ever felt. If she could, she’d trade out her bed’s pillow for it in a heartbeat. Her guilty enjoyment of cheesy soap operas wasn’t doing her any favors either, as she’d long fantasized about being held in an embrace very similar to this one by a man possessing a build very similar to Iris. Of course, her romantically-addled gray matter couldn’t tell the difference. Enough conditions were met that she was left completely stunned, her breath becoming hot and heavy as the situation went from a close save to somewhat awkward.

The sight of Diego’s retaliatory smug mug sobered her up quickly, and she wrestled herself free of Iris’ arms—much as it pained her to do so.

Her eyes narrowed at her son as if to say: don’t you dare speak of what happened here to anyone.

Diego was more than happy to comply, mutually assured destruction was an effective motivator for a vow of silence on the matter.

Still, Alicia couldn’t believe what was happening to her. Her daughter had only arrived at the house with a superpowered body and a superpowered friend a mere three days ago, and already she had found her impulses finding the mystical allure of the serum enticing. Picking up her husband in her dream and Iris holding her in a saving embrace melted together in her mind, making her crave the sensation like the many addicts she helped at her job.

~

Later on in the afternoon, Alicia came home from work to find a competition brewing in the backyard. Anya and Iris were on one side, with Diego and a dozen or so of his male colleagues on the other side.

[“Hey! You all! I could hear you from down the block! What are you yelling about!?”] Alicia demanded. Even Iris and Anya, goddesses amongst men, immediately quieted down in her presence.

[“Diego’s sis and her friend think they can beat the entire Colegio Campoalegre Futbol team!”] one of the rowdy young men exclaimed.

[“And they’re not even futbol fans! They’ve never even played a game of it before! I’ve dedicated my entire life to this sport!”] another of Diego’s friends interjected.

[“Mom I swear this was going to be limited to one or two of my friends but you know how futbol is.”] Diego added nervously.

Alicia shook her head. [“You already know what I’m going to say! I don’t care who started it or what they said! Your yelling is too loud! If you want to settle this dispute, settle it in the field!”]

[“But mom! The field’s thirty minutes away, and traffic’s been a nightmare ever since the earthquake!”]

Iris and Anya smiled deviously at each other.

[“Yeah, but who said your cars would need to take the roads to get there?”] Anya said.

~

Diego and his nine friends stumbled out of Alicia’s minivan as Iris and Anya gently laid it down on the grass, with Alicia carefully climbing out after them. The cops knew better to interrupt the supergirl’s flagrant lawbreaking, after all, these girls had just saved their city from apocalyptic doom and had spent the last three days rebuilding damaged housing. Iris and Anya were Architects, plumbers, HVACs and contractors in everything but certification, able to rehouse people in mere minutes with their speed and precision. The massive ravine that had displaced so many people’s livelihoods was now looking more like a tourist destination as each day passed by.

[“Alright, boys, you know the drill. First to three goals wins.”] Iris said, balancing a black and white pentagonal-patterned ball on her finger.

[“Hey now, there’s more than just that! You have to respect that we’re just humans! No kicking the ball so hard that we break a foot or anything trying to intercept it!”] Diego shouted back, trying hard to be assertive even as he had the daunting task of looking up to two taller, beefier girls who were actively floating three meters above the ground. [“You two have to play by the rules of the field, and mom’s going to make sure you stick to them, isn’t that right?”]

Diego looked to Alicia for approval, who was sitting in the otherwise empty bleachers that surrounded the field. She gave a distant thumbs up.

The teams assembled, with Diego’s group sacrificing two of their defender’s positions, but otherwise matching the required team count perfectly. Iris and Anya, rather outnumbered, settled for Anya as the striker and Iris as the goalie.

Without a referee to flip a coin, the supergirls allowed Diego’s team to first kick the ball. It didn’t take long for the sphere to come into Anya’s possession.

[“Hey!”] The strikers all said in unison, protesting as soon as they saw Anya zip over at a MPH exceeding triple digits to steal the ball from them.

[“What? I didn’t bump any of you barging in to take the ball. That’s totally fair game!”] Anya argued.

[“No way!”] Diego disagreed. [“Mom, she’s moving too fast! Tell her to stop!”]

Alicia hid her giggle enough so that it couldn’t be seen from where Diego stood. [“You should’ve taken your sister’s speed into account before challenging her to a physical sport, honey.”] She could see Diego’s point, but her train of thought was infatuated with the idea of having that power for herself. She thought about how effortless it would be to overpower any creep on the street who was annoying her—even if that was something she usually hated about the serum on Nina and Fern.

Despite nine trained athletes closing in on her, Anya was able to drive through the entire team without tripping a single person up with her body. Her mind simply moved faster, able to make split-second decisions to keep a level head and psyche out anyone with millisecond mindgames. Within the first twenty seconds of the game starting, the “guest” team had already scored their first point.

Anya flew back to the goal where Iris was patiently waiting, high fiving her as if to tag her in. Sure enough, the two supergirls swapped positions, with Iris taking the lead. Instead of immediately jumping into the fray, Iris attempted to stoke the fire a little bit. She zipped around optimally as she weaved and bobbed around the players on the opposing team.

The result of drawing an eight-shaped area on the turf, beyond the thrill of doing it in general, was that it reinforced just how helplessly outclassed all of Diego’s friends were. Despite Iris literally running in circles, unchanging in her path, no one had the guts or the strength to actually break her dribble.

Still, they were able to get smart and trap Iris, somewhat. The green-tiped supergirl was surrounded on all sides, perfectly juggling the ball on her shin. She couldn’t easily pass it to Anya without injuring someone, and Anya herself was being blocked by the last two men.

[“Nowhere to go, Iris!”] one of Diego’s friends exclaimed confidently. A bit too confidently, as he’d soon find out. 

Iris did indeed have a ‘where’ to go to, and that was up. She didn’t even change her posture, simply rising up off of the ground while still juggling the ball as if she were within an invisible elevator.

Even the highest jumper on the team couldn’t headbutt to intercept the subsequent pass back to Anya, who flexed her goalie strats by literally throwing the ball across the court, outmaneuvering the opposing goalie in the process and scoring their second goal of the game on that shot alone.

[“Wha—? That’s total bullshit!”] The opposing goalie complained. [“You only tried something like that because you overheard our plan with your superhearing!”]

[“Yeah! Make it fair for us!”] another athletic school buddy on the team complained. [“If you can listen in on our plans, it’s only fair that we get to listen to yours!”]

[“Tell you what, we’ll speak loudly enough so you can hear us.”] Anya proposed, doing her best to hide the smugness on her face and in her voice. [“How’s that sound?”]

The other team agreed to the terms with a unanimous crowd of nods.

Anya then loudly made a plan with Iris, one that wasn’t in English or Spanish, but some unknown third language that neither Diego nor his friends spoke. Iris nodded with a self-satisfied smirk, knowing exactly what Anya’s intentions were.

[“Hey, no fair, sis!”] Diego complained. [“What language even is that!?”]

[“Latin,”] Anya replied, placing her big hands on her big hips. [“Me and Iris both started learning it yesterday as a hobby.”]

[“Mooooom!”] Diego complained to the sidelines. [“Tell Anya to stop cheating!”]

[“Sorry sweetie, um, that’s really not cheating in my book!”] Alicia responded unhelpfully. If there was anyone who would’ve usually been on Diego’s side of this ordeal, it would’ve been his own mother, but certain impulses that had been affecting her mind all day prevented her from siding with the anti-super underdogs. Fortunately, she could mask her true feelings under the mutually assured destruction from earlier, adding a bit of cheekiness to her voice.

It wasn’t too much longer before team supergirl scored the third and final goal, cementing a 3-0 victory against the pride of the Colegio Campoalegre.

Diego’s defeated look didn’t last long after his little sister swooped down and brought him into a big hug, one that pleased Alicia to see.

Not only did the serum grant otherworldly powers, it didn’t seem to do so at the cost of one’s love and empathy. Anya and Iris didn’t fall for the lies Nina and Fern had already embraced. If anything, Anya seemed to be more cautious about how her actions affected others.

Maybe this serum would be okay after all.

…Or maybe Alicia was just wondering when it was her turn.