Galatea 2 - Chapter 31

The final chapter! There will also be an epilogue shortly, so look out for that!

CHAPTER 31: INVOICE

Brian awoke to the sound of his phone ringing. He took a deep breath, drinking in the decadent musk of Audrey’s hair products. There was another scent accompanying it, what could only be described as some sort of natural addition that Brian had to make a conscious effort not to grow addicted to. Even as she remained deep in slumber, her unconscious body affected his conscious mind more than she could ever know. He almost let the ringtone reach its final repeat without even realizing, but managed to salvage it just in the knick of time.

“H-hello?” spoke the frazzled Brian, still fighting off sleepiness and a brand new fatigue exclusive to his girlfriend.

“Oh Briiiiiiiaaaaannnn~” came a playful, sing-songy voice from the other side of the phone, one that was unmistakably Vanessa’s. “You have been summoned today for an exclusive chance of being at the forefront of scientific progress as we know it.”

The raven haired stunner hadn’t acted this aloof in a while, her playing up a goofy telemarketer voice. Perhaps Giles and the military no longer being present in their lives finally allowed her to open up again? Brian was prepared to respond with an equal level of eagerness, but upon noticing that Audrey was stirring uncomfortably in her sleep, he quickly slipped some sandals on and exited the dorm room. It was only to ensure that his loving girlfriend’s slumber wouldn’t be interrupted. At least, that’s what he told himself. Perhaps it was also for the best that Audrey didn’t know how her ex best friend was speaking to him.

“Give me a time and I’ll be right over. Oh, er, and I suppose a place too. I’m not actually sure where you’re planning on doing this but if it means staying in your good graces I’ll go!”

“So, you’re doing this out of fear…” was all Vanessa replied with. “Interesting.”

“Er, well, not fear and moreso opportunity!” Brian clarified, nervously wiping his brow. “I mean, I would’ve done it anyway if you had remained friends with Audrey, but now I see it as a chance to keep in touch with the most powerful being on the planet, look out for my own ass. That kind of stuff.” He threw a bit of cheeky shade her way, but wanted to remain within the realm of plausible deniability.

“It’s a good thing I like you, Brian,” Vanessa responded cryptically. “I’ll be sure to carve your name on the moon once I’m done unlocking the potential of the stars.”

“What does that—?” he attempted to ask.

“Your email will have the address shortly.”

Without another word spoken, she hung up.

Brian raised a confused eyebrow, one tinged with worry. Had he just invoked the ire of Vanessa? Opening the door back to his dorm, only for Audrey to be directly on the other side of it sporting a less-than-pleasant expression, made him wonder if he had invoked the ire of the other most powerful being on earth.

“O-oh! Babe! You’re up!” Brian remarked, quickly attempting to divert attention from the call, which only seemed to increase his suspiciousness.

“What was that call with Vanessa all about?” she asked, crossing her sinuous arms underneath her sizable breasts. Even with what little arm Brian could see from beyond the curvature of her bosom, he could tell that the feminine musculature was brought into an exaggerated flex on her part to show she meant business.

“Just… Y’know, work stuff.”

“Oh really? What kind of work stuff? An intimate diagram of her naked body, perhaps?” Audrey responded with grumpy snark, unimpressed with Brian’s response.

“N-no! It’s…” he then paused, realizing that they were talking in circles. “Look, Vanessa’s already told both of us that she’s not interested in a romantic relationship with me. She just seems interested in power or freedom or something.”

“Just… go,” Audrey said, her posture softening as she realized hers was a losing argument halfway through the confrontation. Her eyes fell to the floor. “I’ve been through too much with you to believe you’d betray me, Brian.” Then she looked back up to meet her boyfriend’s eyes. “Be careful, that’s all I ask.”

Brian assuaged all of her fears with a kiss, standing slightly on his tiptoes to meet her height. “I will.”

***

Brian wasn’t sure what to expect when he arrived at what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse five miles off from campus, but the inside certainly reminded him why the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” existed. In just three days, Vanessa had put together quite the replica, most of the tech looking to be straight out of Giles’ own lab.

“Such is the beauty of possessing both photographic memory and X-ray vision,” Vanessa, skipping all the conventions of human conversation, responded. Her spiel was not responding to anything Brian had said, as he had said nothing, but more a general summation of what he had been thinking. She was getting better at reading minds, not only that, it seemed as if she had developed X-ray vision, both mere footnotes in the grand entrance that her replicated lab warranted.

“Wow.” That was all Brian could bring himself to say. He was beginning to wonder if Vanessa even needed him around anymore.

“Now, while I’ve taken great care to replicate these devices, I am still woefully unprepared to actually use them,” Vanessa replied, already compiling his scattered thoughts into a coherent question with which she could answer. “While I possess an enhanced propensity for learning, I’ve calculated it would be quicker for you to simply continue experiments Giles had already planned, discounting his Galatea fetish, to ensure that my further ascension goes smoothly,” she said—once again, a reply to something five seconds before Brian could actually bring the syllables to his lips.

“Wow.” That was still all Brian could muster.

Continuing the conversation, which had evolved into a monologue at this point, Vanessa began explaining that Brian would be paid handsomely for his endeavors, he would be able to set his own hours, hell, he’d even have a worker's comp. He wasn’t sure exactly where Vanessa was obtaining all of this funding, but she also wasn’t answering it before he could ask so he was beginning to assume she would never answer that question. Vanessa then nodded wordlessly to answer that his cognitive assumption was correct.

Without any further follow-up thoughts that related to the current conversation, Brian began to wonder if Vanessa’s roboticism was caused by his throwing of shade earlier on the phone. Vanessa blessed his pupils with a smoldering side-eye, shrouding her response in mystery. While it would’ve been simple to deduce her motives since a playful maybe often meant a yes, it was as if the devious verdant of her pupil hypnotized his brain from thinking beyond the initial two answer question, removing all nuance until his question could only be guessed in a fifty/fifty split chance.

A sexy swiss army knife of prowess and her devilishly good looks was weaponized as effectively as everything else. With Vanessa’s own free will taken out of the picture, she was everything Giles could’ve hoped she’d become. A woman of his creation, blessed by the gods. But while she was his creation she was not his. And once she got her way, he would be hers.

But that was in the future, and this moment was now. Vanessa was going to take back what was rightfully hers.

***

“So, another semester for the books, how do you feel, sweetheart?” came the canned voice of Audrey’s father from her phone. “Smarter, I hope!”

“Yep! Another success, I’d say!” she replied, knowing it would be best not to mention the insane past week she had just endured. As far as her parents were concerned, she was still a normal girl going to a normal school.

“And how about that roommate of yours?” her mother added from the other side of the call. Audrey instinctively swallowed.

“Wh-what about her, mom?” she replied, betraying her hidden feelings with a brief stutter.

“Well, she seems like quite the magician! Definitely big enough to rival the likes of Copperfield and Houdini!”

Now the stunning blonde was more confused than ever.

“Yeah, we both saw that one viral video of her flying without any explanation,” her father said. Now everything was beginning to fall into place. “Crazy what VFX can do these days, huh?”

Well, that explains why the world didn’t collapse into chaos at the sight of Vanessa’s otherworldly feats. Audrey thought. Everyone’s so desensitized by Internet hoaxes it just gets drowned in the tsunami of conspiracy nonsense. Vanessa was right, the heat around us died with that military offshoot.

“You alright, dear?” Her mother asked after Audrey didn’t respond in a socially acceptable amount of time. “Is the phone connection being weird again?”

“Yeah, must be, can you hear me now?” Audrey replied, playing into the lie she was just offered. If her life got any more insane, she didn’t think she’d be able to keep it a secret from her parents anymore. She was already sending them photoshopped pictures of herself that toned down her bosom, how in the hell was she supposed to hide a power adjacent to psammokinesis from them if it became too potent?

Audrey imagined the virus blessing her with powers beyond her comprehension, unsatisfied with mere superhood as a stopping point. If Vanessa could push the boundaries of what should have been physically impossible, why would the ever-improving virus with unexpected side effects stop enhancing her?

“We can hear you alright, sweetie!” her mother responded, but at that point the blonde was ready for the call to be over.

“Hey, I’m going to prepare for lunch, which is probably going to take all of my focus so maybe we should end it here?”

“Alrighty, sweetheart. Enjoy your break! Love you lots!”

“Love you too, mom.”

“And hey, how about some love for dad?” her father interjected in a semiserious fashion.

Audrey giggled adorably. “Love you too, dad.”

With the call ended, it was time for Audrey to address the elephant in the dorm room—Vanessa’s present. With Brian’s words from last night still swirling about in her head, hesitation came far less naturally to her. It didn’t matter what the actual contents of the box were, she wasn’t going to spend any more time waiting to see what it was. Her powerful fingers parted the thin wrapping paper like it was a liquid, damaging the cardboard underneath it in the process. Included was a note, but her less-than-dexterous method of entry spoiled the contents of the package before she even had a chance to read it.

The present was a grayish-white, lustrous hairbrush, one that caught the light of the room in a way she had never seen before. She held up the note, reading through the paragraph in mere milliseconds due to her supernatural comprehension yet needing a prolonged moment to process exactly what she had just read.

“Dear Audrey,

It was unprofessional of me to look within your thoughts as frequently as I did. However, when I gazed into your mind and discovered that your hair had become so thick and durable that a regular hairbrush could no longer adequately serve its purpose, I decided to help remedy such a problem. Inside the box is a brush made of solid tungsten, a metal which possesses a density and tensile strength that will surely be comparable to your own hair.

Sincerely, Vanessa.

Audrey continued to cradle the brush in her hands like a tender child. She was unsure if it was worth cherishing such a clear labor of love from someone whose heart seemed incapable of it.

Well, I suppose I’m overdue for a shower anyways. She reasoned with herself, beginning to disrobe while never taking her eyes off of the hairbrush if possible. It was as if she expected it to erupt into flames at any moment, or some other caveat she couldn’t have possibly anticipated. But as she took a shower, moaning with sensual pleasure as the streams of water cascaded down her curves and ridges, she began to realize just how badly she was craving a good brush.

With the current tensile strength of her hair, each individual strand felt like separating metal wires when it came to the dreaded untangling process. While the sand had worked swimmingly at the beach, there wasn’t exactly an abundance of the granular material on a college campus for her to utilize.

Needless to say, the tungsten brush worked like a charm, Audrey couldn’t remember the last time her hair felt so straight. This was a better gift than those she had received for Christmas most years—and yet… such a thoughtful present had originated from Vanessa of all people.

Why can’t you make this easy for me, Vanessa? Audrey thought, silently hoping that Vanessa was reading her mind. Why can’t you make me just hate you? Is that so much to ask? Why must there be this gray area in what was once such a simple friendship?

But another look at the glistening metal hairbrush calmed the voice in her head. Perhaps while they were no longer friends in the traditional sense, the way that Vanessa approached this gift showed that she still understood Audrey’s wants and needs to a T. While Vanessa had moved on to a higher plane of existence like the goddess she appeared to be becoming.

At least, despite everything, Audrey was on her good side.

All she could hope was that it would stay that way.