The Owl in the Abyss - Chapter 19

The day that followed was occupied with the busy work of the preparations for not only getting Shauna integrated onto Earth Bet, but also Henry. The former being way easier than the latter.

With her backstory and knowledge based out of an alternate Earth’s California, specifically Los Angeles being her home city, it was just a matter of getting her up to speed on the minor and major differences that existed. Specifically, a Leviathan attack in 2004, which had cost the city a good portion of its coastal infrastructure, which had since been rebuilt.

Then put her down in front of a PC to study the nitty gritty details of the Internet and Earth Bet in general to acclimatize.

Getting an actual identity organized and in the various systems and databases across the country was actually the easiest part. Coil was well practiced in arranging for this, as he had done so numerous times for some of the FTF members. He had the backdoor contacts, access and knew just whose palms to grease to make it happen and within less than a week, Shauna would have an ID, social security, DMV records, the whole package. Her finance history would also be recreated with the aid of the Numberman.

As leery as I was about anything to do with Cauldron, Coil assured me that the Numberman never truly asked the ‘why’ of doing anything. As far as the Numberman was concerned, he had a client that paid for a service and he would carry that out to the best of his ability.

On the other hand, this would also flag Shauna as someone of ‘interest’ to Coil, which Cauldron would make note of and keep in their own records. They would take one look at her new public records and know that she was not recruited by Coil as a mercenary. They would see her profession as a therapist and probably assume that she had been brought into Coil’s organization for that purpose.

It was rather out of left field for Coil to suddenly invest and worry so much about his minion’s mental health. So Cauldron would probably conclude that Shauna was a new parahuman that he had recruited for his organization, with the therapist angle being a nice public facing cover to further aid the perception of Fortress LLC just being another boring construction management company that used subcontractors to do the heavy lifting.

The public facing side of the company was naturally in very good financial health and was forecasted by Coil to grow by nearly five percent just this year. Dad and Henry had no real objections to Thomas Calvert’s decisions there, though I was sure dad would try to shift some work towards the laborers and workers associated with the DWU at some point.

Henry’s integration on the other hand, was proving to be the larger challenge.

Given what we now knew about Cauldron and their potential relation to the Case 53 phenomenon, it was for sure that the shadowy group would immediately know that Henry was not ‘one of theirs’, if he claimed it. There was also the matter of Henry’s plinth, which had now been excavated out of Lord’s Park and was being studied at a PRT facility near Boston.

It wouldn’t take long for the PRT to deduce that Henry and the plinth were two pieces of the same puzzle.

Yes, we probably could also wholesale create a new identity for him as well. How to connect that to being transformed into a historical statue that was almost invulnerable to conventional damage was the problem.

He would be interviewed, his story had to make sense and be somewhat plausible.

Most of my day was spent at Fortress, brainstorming ideas with Henry on what could be said that would eventually achieve the goal of Henry’s continued freedom at large and simply being considered another parahuman with rather extraordinary dimensions and weight.

The current working story we had was that Henry was the ‘victim’ of a parahuman Tinker. His own long term memories had suffered under the process of the transformation. The question of why any Tinker would create a near invincible civil war statue with his ‘future tech’ was not something I had a satisfactory answer for yet. ‘He was a civil war nut and because he could,’ just didn’t satisfy me.

It was a welcome relief to eventually leave the underground base after bashing my head against the problem. Then head out into the open skies for a carefree session of flying to clear my brain, before starting another night in the Red Light district.

The city had by now returned to a modicum of normality, but anyone who passed close to the Train Quarantine Zone or TQZ, as it was now popularly called, would be reminded that there was a small chunk of the city that was steadily being walled off.

What the Simurgh could’ve done with that thing did not bear thinking about.

I firmly banished depressing thoughts as I landed at what I was beginning to consider my typical haunt during an evening as a working girl - the streets of Sleepy Hollow and Hopkins Roads.

A quick scan up and down the streets showed most of the usuals at their spots and in some cases already in negotiations with clients.

I smirked as I saw that Del’s spot on the street had a fancy, very new looking, white BMW parked there. The car’s body was ever so slightly bouncing on its suspension in a very characteristic manner.

Still invisible I briefly poked my head through the rear passenger window.

She was riding a guy on the collapsed passenger seat and had been stripped down to the point where she was only wearing her bra, which was left pulled down around her waist. His hands were cupped on her breasts and he was deftly playing with them whilst occasionally giving her nipples a tweak. Her own hands and arms were braced against the driver’s seat and ceiling, to support her efforts as she gyrated and pumped her hips.

“Oh fuck,” she moaned, her body shuddering through an orgasm as she rode to a peak, leaving the guy’s dick just barely sheathed in her.

For a few seconds, she gasped through the waves of pleasure before regaining her wits and lowering herself to resume her ride.

I retreated at this point and reappeared leaning against the nearby street light, with entwined legs and a flared hip, patiently waiting for Del to finish.

That happened four minutes later when I sensed the guy having his orgasm.

Then another few minutes for redressing herself in the cramped confines of the car, she got her payment and emerged into the street, looking admirably composed despite going through a rather long session.

“Oh hey… T- Escort,” she caught herself fumbling the name and laughed before giving me a hug.

“Hey Del,” I returned the hug quickly.

The client poked his head out the window and groaned, “Aw, damn,” and thumped his steering wheel in disappointment.

Del turned around smirking, “Bad luck, honey. If you had more cash maybe you could’ve also afforded Escort for a round 2, after you recovered.”

The guy, who was dressed to the nines and clearly well off, shrugged, “That’ll just teach me to carry a bit more cash next time. Uh, Escort? Mind if I ask for an autograph?”

I frowned a bit as my brain raced to conclude that this guy had actually come out looking for… me.

“Uh, nope.”

He reached out into his glove box, then handed over a pen and a rolled up, A4 sized piece of expensive looking paper.

I nearly dropped it in surprise when I unrolled it.

It was printed in color on one side and there I was - a moment taken from what had to be during my initial fight with Uber and Leet during their GTA cosplay. It was rather dramatic, a moment just before I clocked Uber with ‘15 and the angle showed me that the Snitch’s imaging capabilities were even more OP that I imagined.

I knew it had never been that low, yet it had interpolated a shot that close anyway.

I didn’t know whether to slap him or show him an extra good time, when we next met.

It showed off just the edge of my left breast and a tantalizing hint of my pussy, yet framed me in a way that came off as classy with a hint of lewd. The lighting also showed off my straining muscles nicely and the entire shot was tilted so that my legs acted as a guide to the focal point of the shot.

I shook off my thoughts and signed what was in effect a small poster of me and handed it back.

“Ah, thanks a mill, Escort.” He took back his stuff and admired the poster briefly. “When will you be here next?” He asked with a hopeful look, clearly wanting my services. He was a generally average guy in looks; brown hair, brown eyes, a dumpy chin and had a build that clearly meant office work. A highly paid exec in a company probably. His aura was purely human and showed no red flags to me.

“Unfortunately, I can’t give you an answer. Cape work has left my schedule in flux,” I answered shortly. I didn’t want to give anyone an easy time to organize a retaliatory attack on me.

His eyes widened, “Ah, of course. Silly of me. Do you take scheduled appointments for clients?”

I thought for a moment, “Yes, but that’s naturally more expensive.”

He nodded, “Of course it is, here.” He held out a business card. I accepted it and gave it a quick glance. Aiden Brooks, Law Office of Brooks, Goldberg & Swanson.  Ah, full partner in a law firm.

“When you have a free evening and you wanna make a tidy sum, give me a call.”

I nodded and tucked the card into my phone pouch on ‘15, “Very well.”

“Awesome, thanks, see you hopefully soon, keep up the good work.” He started the car, which came to life with a deep, throaty growl of power. He gave a jaunty, confident salute before driving away with quite a bit of acceleration but kept at the speed limit.

“Aiden is on the level, a good customer,” Del gave a wan smile in the direction of the shrinking car.

“I’ll definitely try to pitch you as well, Del,” I said, seeing her mild sadness with a dash of jealousy.

“Thanks, but don’t go out of your way. You’re hot stuff at the moment and with your heroic cape side-hustle, that’s only going to grow. Every client I’ve seen has asked about you in some manner in the last few days.”

Fame.

It wasn’t something that I had ever really considered as I was growing up, wishing to be a hero. I only wanted to do the right thing, fight for good, all the heroic stuff. Mom and dad had raised me humble and not a raging egotist. Now that my rep was clearly starting to build, the effects plain to see, I wasn’t sure how to feel.

All I knew at the moment, it just made me uncomfortable and I just wanted to be left alone to do my thing.

“Pardon me,” I said, fishing out my mobile from ‘15s pouch and began dialing.

Uber’s deep, dramatic voice answered, “Escort? Code in.” I tapped in the recognition, non-duress code he had given me, which would work even if I didn’t exactly have one of their fancy Tinker phones. “Ah, good. So what’s up?”

“Posters, your idea or your partner?” I asked pointedly.

“Leet’s, if you go to our website, they’re free to download there. What anyone does further with them, is not in our hands. Will you let me explain?”

I huffed in annoyance, “Fine. Go ahead.”

“Leet began spotting very shoddy similar images of you made by randos who ripped it from their recordings of the stream. Nothing you can really do about it directly, so instead he decided to do it properly and ‘bury the competition’ so to speak. No one could match our quality, so it naturally blew up. It’s already got tens of thousands of unique downloads and that’s not counting further spread amongst interest forums and user groups. It can’t be on PHO, coz of their rules, so you’ll have to go further afield to less known sites who don’t give a shit about nudity to find it.”

“While I thank you for the marketing, it would’ve been nice to be asked first,” I said with a hint of sternness leaking into my voice.

“We will, in the future, it’s just that stuff like this moves with the speed of gossip.”

“I also hope that your partner was clear that I didn’t endorse it, as that would imply-”

“We indicated nothing to that effect, it was just a properly composed poster. If any conclusions are made, then it’s that we’re just using our own stream of you to promote clicks.”

“Okay, is he done at the other place yet?”

“Almost, Ziz’s attack did delay things on the Protectorate side and Dragon was understandably occupied. So maybe another few days of work, things are looking good so far and all tests indicate a constructed teleport will be able to move the train. At that point it’s just a matter of the receiving end being ready to maintain containment, which he won’t have to help with.”

“Okay, thanks for the update, bye.”

“See you soon, Escort.”

I swiped the screen to end the call and stuffed it back in its pouch. “Back to business as usual here?”

Del shrugged, fiddling with a small compact and touching up her makeup back to normal, “Almost. We’ll see an uptick in business even after an Endbringer has come and gone. That’ll slowly sink back to a lull and even depends on whether it was a win or a loss.”

I nodded in understanding, not that there could ever really be a ‘win’ against something like that. It seemed that most people considered if your city was still relatively standing afterward, and didn’t need to be quarantined a ‘win’. Whether Scion showed up or not, was another factor. Canberra was by those metrics a solid tick in the ‘loss’ column.

Shouting nearby drew both our attention down the street.

It took me a moment to recognize Liana, the resident Russian immigrant working girl, as she furiously emerged from a car and presumably was shouting a stream of swearing in Russian and English at her client. Her aura was spiked with rage, indignation and determination. The thing that really sent up the red flag was a can of mace she was holding near her purse and out of sight.

I was about to mist, when Del put a hand on my shoulder. “Easy Escort, Lia’s got this.”

She turned out to be right.

With her long, curly blonde hair swirling in agitation as she shouted at her client, Liana shoved the mace forward.

Her aura turned into a sun of satisfaction, as I could just barely make out the client handing her a full loose wad of cash.

She grabbed it and with a final hiss of Russian invective, then English, “Piss off, you’re barred for a month!” She slammed the door to the car closed and walked away with angry speed, her red high heels clicking furiously.

Her strong swimmer’s legs were showcased by a tight auburn sleeveless one piece mini-dress that ended at mid-thigh. It was quite rumpled as was typical after a sex session in a car and she was straightening it out as she walked.

The car screeched away with tires squealing and burning rubber.

Liana showed a middle finger behind her for good measure as a parting insult.

“Come on, let’s go,” Del said, gesturing for me to follow.

The Russian had retreated out of sight to a nearby alley and she was lighting up a cigarette when we found her.

“Lia,” Del greeted her.

“Del, Escort, good to see you.”

“Hi,” I grinned.

“Was that what I think it was?” Del asked.

Lia took a drag and blew out a long puff of smoke into the air, “Yeah. Bastard tried to short change me. Didn’t think I would notice if he wadded the cash. I’ll put his details on the network after I calm down.”

“Does this happen often?” I asked curiously.

“A month doesn’t go by without at least one or two assholes trying their luck like that,” she answered, waving the hand holding the cigarette in agitation before taking another drag. “Another skill you learn quickly as a working girl; handling cash, counting it quickly and spotting counterfeits. Some girls practically become stage magicians when it comes to money.”

“And we’ve experienced all the scams clients try at some point,” Del rolled her eyes. “Short change is the most common, but you eventually get a feel for money and its weight so that you can know immediately just by holding it. Counterfeits you can spot, even in a darkened car, by feeling the texture. Any client that tries to pay with a tightly bound wad of cash is usually a red flag for either counterfeit or padding.”

“Padding? You mean they try to slip in blank cash sized paper?”

“Yeah, a warning sign for that is if the client doesn’t put on the interior car lights when it comes time to pay. It’s not an entirely reliable indicator, but it should alert you to check. Any good client will pay with an ‘open deck’, spread out each bill with lights on to show you he ain’t trying to cheat. Of course, you don’t have to worry about this.”

“I suppose, but it’s good to know what problems you have out here.”

The sound of rubber on tires and a slow engine reached my ears. Since I was still on the lookout for some action of my own, I took a few steps back to the edge of the alley so I could be seen.

A metallic blue Honda SUV was cruising down the street at a clear speed to signal that the driver was looking for a girl.

I had no time to arrange myself in a ‘pose’, so he just caught sight of me mid stride towards the side of the road.

The SUV just kept going.

Del and Lia emerged a few seconds later.

“Different strokes for different folks, Escort,” Del commented.

She had a point and I really didn’t want to just Master clients willy-nilly. Sure it was way more efficient, but I had no pressing need for feeding at the moment.

The Honda suddenly slammed on the brakes, its reverse lights blinked on and its gears whined into a high pitch as it reversed with speed back to our position.

“Oh, someone’s changed their mind it seems,” Lia flicked her cig to the ground and stamped it out.

By this point I was leaning on ‘15 with a flared hip, and even my companions had defaulted to their ‘presentation’ poses.

When the car stopped, the windows on the driver and passenger side wound down, revealing two college age guys. The driver; nicely groomed thin beard around his jawline, pale skin, redhead with a decent build that clearly showed he was some kind of athlete.

His partner in crime for the evening; shorter, closely shaved black hair with the light chocolate skin and face of Mexican ancestry, jumped out, sat on the passenger door window sill and waved, his face and aura showing awe, “Aw man, are we lucky. Escort?”

“Yeah, you two wanna have a good time?” I asked as nonchalantly as I could.

“Sure, but we actually need all three of you.”

I met the eyes of Lia and Del briefly.

“Let me guess, frat party? BBU?” Del asked, taking the lead. Their attire was casual but on the high end, the red head wearing a black Polo shirt, whilst the other had a black long shirt as a jacket over a tight blue t-shirt.

“Yeah, BBU, but not a frat party, just a birthday for a friend at his house,” Mr Latino jerked a thumb downward to the driver.

“All three of us for just the birthday boy? Or are you thinking bigger?”

“Just the birthday boy, it’s a fantasy of his we want to realize, I doubt we could afford the rate you’d charge for going bigger than that.”

Of course, my imagination just had to serve up the notion of feeding off an entire party of guys at that point and almost immediately my inner folds started to moisten.

Down girl, I thought to myself.

“Thousand, eight hundred,” Del said flatly.

He winced, “Thousand, two?”

“Thousand, eight, you’re driving us away and that means we’re not in the Red Light for most of the remaining evening.”

“Thousand, five.”

“Thousand, eight,” Del repeated with even more steel in her tone. “Do the math.”

“It’s fine, Anto, thousand eight, agreed,” said the driver, his bearing getting impatient.

Del gave a look to Lia, who nodded at the silent question, she then looked to me.

I assumed the question was whether 600 dollars for this gig was fine, I therefore agreed with a nod.

“Prove you can pay,” Del demanded next.

The redhead pulled out a stack of cash that was still enclosed with its original packaging strip. Del stepped closer and he used his thumb to display each bill to her. She also reached out to feel the money briefly.

“Good, you have our time, gentlemen.”

888888888888888888888

The drive to the house in question brought us to the affluent suburbs west of Lord’s Park. These generally had large properties with the houses occupying a substantial footprint and it was rare to see one that didn’t have at least two floors.

I was keeping careful track of the route, just in case trouble found us in some form.

We turned off the main road and were soon driving down towards a dead-end that slowly snaked its way uphill and at the end of it was a monster of a home that was thumping with music.

The place looked like it could fit six times my own house in it and still have some left over square footage.

The general din also told me that there were a lot of people attending this party.

“How many did you invite to this party?” I asked casually.

“Simon’s a popular guy and BBU’s best Wide Receiver, so most of the team is here including their plus ones,” said the driver. Ah, so on the varsity football team. “The name’s Ryan, by the way.”

The car came to a brief stop outside the house gate and the exterior road was further packed with cars, both old and new, large and small. The gate trundled open on its wheels after Ryan thumbed a remote.

From there it was just a small distance to a triple garage, where he finally parked the SUV.

“Okay ladies, follow me and I’ll get you set up,” Anto grinned and hopped out of the passenger side.

“So are we going to be a surprise to the birthday boy?” Lia asked, her Russian accent was normally quite light, but there were times she chose to deepen it for effect.

“Exactly,” he grinned.

We emerged from the car and followed the path away from the front door of the expansive house. Then headed around the side and from there spied the majority of the party goers mixing and mingling around a large pool. A number of people were also in the pool with drinks in hand.

“We’re keeping Simon preoccupied in the main living room, so we don’t have to sneak about as much,” Anto explained as we walked towards a patio with a glass sliding door and our entrance into the house.

We were spotted pretty quickly as we passed the pool area.

Tongues were wagging, laughs and smiles, whilst the women of the party either giggled or threw frowns our way. All sorts of non-verbal signs of approval from the men were also evident, but it seemed the entire party was in on this gift, so they kept themselves from making more noise than normal.

The room we entered was another living room with a huge flat screen TV, to which a game console was hooked up and numerous soft leather couches ran along the walls.

From here it was through another door, into a long hallway, then up a grand wide staircase to the second floor.

Anto opened another door here that led to a room that had clearly been given a substantial makeover for this party.

It had been a teen bedroom at some point, judging by the odd heavy metal band poster that was still taped onto the walls. It was also stupidly big to my lower-end of middle class sensibilities. I could imagine three children with single beds easily fitting in here with room to spare.

The makeover the room had been given, was to cover the floor with pillows of every description, then from the ceiling, hang soft, thin translucent curtains. The lights were also now producing a soft red glow, casting everything in a warm, sensual atmosphere.

“Hmmm, he has a harem fetish, doesn’t he?” Del asked immediately.

“Yep,” he nodded.

“Okay, we can work with that. Our street attire is gonna clash with that, so we’re gonna have to strip down immediately.”

“You’re the pro’s here.”

“How long do we have to prep?”

He looked at his wristwatch, “Roughly an hour, we’re planning to get started with the grill in the next few minutes, eat, then we lead him up here. Can’t be more exact.”

“That’s more than enough time, now shoo and give us some privacy.”

Anto held up his hands with a smile, gave me a long look and retreated out the door, closing it behind him.

“Not the most original of fantasies,” Lia commented dryly.

“No, but the client gets what they pay for,” Del said, then began to unzip her own dress and kick off her heels.

“Is there anything you two won’t do?” I asked curiously, setting down ‘15 in a corner of the room, making sure it was in sight.

“Personally, I won’t do any BDSM or the specialty fetishes, pain is not my thing,” Del answered as she undid her bra and pushed down her panties.

“Same, street girls are generalists as a rule,” Lia pulled her tight dress up and over her head, showing she always went commando underneath. Her breasts were in the same range as mine, well developed shoulders, strong legs, thighs and plus a visible six pack on her abdomen - she definitely had the buff girl thing going for her. She also had no pubes, favoring a completely bald pussy.

“So what next?” I asked, feeling a little clueless about the details of harems.

“The pillows have to be bunched up more, create a circular island of them in the middle of the room,” Del instructed. As the most experienced girl here, she naturally took the lead.

Lia and I got busy doing that, whilst Del got busy with the gossamer thin curtains and rearranging them.

They were hung from thin hooks that had been drilled into the ceiling and the stepladder used to hang them up was still in a corner of the room.

“Lia, how’s the data on your phone?” Del asked as he stepped up the ladder to move a curtain.

“Enough, you need music?”

“Yeah, find something eastern, Indian, sensual, you know the type. Escort, help me move these curtains, we need to shift them to generally border the circle of cushions, none of this haphazard shit.”

I misted only my lower half and floated up to the ceiling to get busy.

“Wow, never thought you could do that,” Del chuckled.

“A recent development,” I grinned.

Lia in turn was rather gobsmacked at my imitation of a partially solid spooky ghost. She caught herself and returned to browsing her smartphone, muttering a string of Russian to herself whilst her aura was blazing with incredulousness and undercurrents of fear. About the only word I caught was multiple uses of ‘Blyat’.

Del could only laugh, “Yeah, in this light at the moment, you’re looking like something that would both turn on and terrify anyone coming in here unprepared.”

Interesting, wonder if I could develop that combo in some way. It wouldn’t really be heroic, but it would certainly be efficient if my mere presence could eventually cow ne’er-do-wells into behaving.

When we were done with the curtain arrangement, Lia began playing snippets of music she was finding online for our opinion.

“Too cheesy,” Del shook her head.

I frowned and stared at her, “How can that be ‘cheesy’?”

“It sounds like it could come straight from a ‘70s porno.”

“I have no idea what that would sound like,” I pointed out.

Del chuckled ruefully at herself, “I sometimes forget that you’re basically the spring chicken here. You’ve never seen any porn on the ‘net?”

“Closest I got was when I researched and learned the Kama Sutra.”

“Ah yes, that can be a bit of a rabbit hole to fall into. Anyway, trust me, not that song. Next one, Lia.”

Soon enough we were lounging on the cushions and had seemingly fallen into a rabbit hole of music. Even when we finally settled on a sensual, erotic song to play in the background, we kept going.

It was an interesting way to pass the time at least and it was not only educational but did help me get to know both women in a myriad of new ways.

Lia was a big fan of heavy metal and its adjacent styles, especially symphonic metal. A style I didn’t even know existed and I found myself rather captivated by how it blended the classiness of older classical instruments, operatic singing and headbanging rock. It was a startling dichotomy that somehow just worked.

I knew mom would have despaired the instant she heard it and bemoaned the musical butchery.

Del, on the other hand, gravitated to a more general musical palate, but was rooted in the ‘80s with pop and alternative music from that era.

“And you, Escort? You’ve been listening and commenting on our musical tastes but not volunteered a single tidbit about your own,” Del poked me in the shoulder teasingly.

“Let’s just say that events over the last few years have caused me to fall out of touch with music,” I said uncomfortably. “During early high school I just listened to what was popular. I had no appreciable interest in that one band, artist or genre. If it was nice to listen to, I listened to it.” Del and Lia looked at each other, then me as if there was something wrong with me. “What can I say? I generally prefer silence and a good book.”

“Well, we’ll definitely help you with that,” Lia said with a grin. “You seemed to like sympho-metal.”

“It’s a fusion that’s interesting, I wouldn’t say I like it yet,” I held up my hands to halt her enthusiasm.

There was a knock on the door, it opened slightly and Anto’s voice whispered harshly through, “Hey girls, want anything to eat? Can bring you up extra portions from the grill, we’ve got too much down there.”

“Bring three, half filled plates and just water, thank you,” Del answered immediately.

“Sure, coming right up.”

The door clicked shut again.

“Not hungry,” I said casually, for the grilled meat at least.

“More for us then, at least drink the water though, no telling what stamina our birthday client has, also go to the bathroom now if you need to. Don’t want an interruption for that in the middle of a session,” Del explained.

My body didn’t produce waste products in that sense anymore and I still hadn’t needed a toilet since my trigger. Water I drank was broken down and efficiently used in the same way semen was. Just another example of a piece of my humanity that had been stripped in an ontokinetic fashion.

When Anto returned we allowed him briefly inside to deliver the plates and he was suitably impressed. He drank in all our appearances, the changes made to the room and gave two thumbs up, with a slightly lecherous smile. “Wow, damn, yeah…” His eyes didn’t know where to settle. “Oh, yes, I wanted to say things are coming together. When you hear ‘Happy birthday’ being sung outside, that’ll be the cue. Expect us to lead Simon in here blindfolded soon afterward.”

“Yes, understand, thanks for the food, now scram,” Del ushered him back out, whilst Lia and I handled the tray of food and drinks.

When he was gone, both my colleagues and friends? Yeah, Del was definitely a friend at this point and Lia was on track. I liked them both. Their auras were pleasant, warm and had minimal negative issues, relatively speaking. They were far from saints but I could confidently point to both and say ‘good person’. It would also be nice to have a circle of actual friends again.

They ate away from the circle of cushions to leave nothing to chance for accidental spillage incidents. Anto had also thoughtfully included napkins and a small water bowl for cleaning our hands. Just for that and my read of his aura, I put him down for a possible later visit from me.

Del and Lia were only done eating for a few minutes when we began to hear the most frequently sung song in the world.

“Okay, positions ladies,” Del grinned and we got back to our comfy spots on the island of cushions. “Escort, legs together, slightly bent, one higher than the other. When he enters, smoldering eye contact, your hands moving and tracing your curves.” She demonstrated, her hands and fingers not quite touching her own skin. I imitated her and found it almost like a seductive dance yet one where you had no partner.

I was tempted to just pull the guy straight into my mind web, but that would make him put all his attention on me, unless I ordered him to attend to the others as well. No, I couldn’t use my power as a crutch in this situation. I had to learn to seduce in a normal manner as well.

“There you go, good enough,” Del nodded with approval.

The raucous singing ended and a slight hush fell outside, before the noise of cheering and chanting reached us.

It moved into the house and then the thump of many feet moving up the stairs, which swiftly moved to right outside our little ‘harem’ room.

The door opened and prominently framed in it was presumably Simon the birthday boy and Wide Receiver for the BBU football team. Behind him was an eager and curious sea of faces gazing in.

He stood at just under six feet tall, decently muscled as expected but there was a litheness to it and strength. It was not just for show. His brown hair shaved to an almost military buzz cut, with a square jaw and a prominent Adam's apple in his neck. He was dressed so far the most casual I’d seen, with only knee length brown shorts, flops on his feet and a white shirt that did wonders to show off his physique.

Another hush fell over the small crowd squeezed in the hallway as they too were somewhat mesmerized.

Anto took charge though and pushed Simon properly into the room.

“Okay, fine, can I take it off now?” he asked, fiddling with the black blindfold.

“Almost… go ahead,” Anto grinned and shut the door behind his friend.

“Finally,” Simon grumbled and ripped it off.

His green eyes widened and he clearly struggled for a moment to comprehend what he was seeing, as if questioning his own reality.

As subtly as possible, my finger brushed the screen of Lia’s phone at my side, starting up the music. All three of us were now doing our part in looking as alluring as possible.

“Hello Simon,” Del said with a voice that even turned me on - it was breathy, smokey and she raised a hand to make a languid come hither gesture with her forefinger. “Your concubines are waiting for you.”

Judging by his face and aura, we had just given him the mental equivalent of a computer blue screen. His jaw slacked and he stared at us with a rather cute, stupefied expression. It only lasted for a few seconds before he shook himself and laughed incredulously.

“Fuck,” he breathed in awe. “Those guys…”

Del caressed herself up the sides of her breasts, “Come, Simon. Your concubines are needy.”

He took a step forward seemingly on autopilot before catching himself. “Wow. Uh, I’m not sure…”

“Relax Simon, let it happen, this is your gift. Your fantasy. Let’s not get bogged down in details and break immersion.”

He took a deep fortifying breath and we could already see his erection straining and tenting his pants.

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” he took another step and stopped at the edge of the curtains. Del raised herself onto her knees and parted them for him, before gently guiding him down onto his knees, catching him in a deep kiss.

Del made a beckoning gesture behind her back towards us.

Lia and I also came forward and we divested Simon of his floppy sandals before they could become an impediment.

Del kept the kiss going, her hands now roaming his torso with caresses, then began pulling back and luring him in to continue the kiss.

When he was in the center of the island of cushions, she broke the kiss and grinned at him. Her aura told me she was quite satisfied with his skills in that arena and she was well on her way up the stages of arousal.

She coaxed him to stand and when he was vertical again, grabbed handfuls of his shorts at his waist, then slowly pulled down, making sure to get his underwear to go along for the ride downward.

His erection bounced outward into the open air and its nectar sweet smell assaulted my nose, making my mouth water. It was all I could do to resist the urge to immediately jump the gun and envelop that with my mouth.

He had a respectable size of just less than six inches, a normal girth and completely shaved himself down there.

He stepped out of his pants and Del grabbed him by the base of his shaft gently and began languidly caressing him.

She gently and steadily applied some saliva for lubrication before she eventually began tracing her tongue all over his glans and began the blowjob.

“Uhhh, fuck,” he hissed in pleasure, closing his eyes briefly.

Del gave five strokes and pumps of her head with him in her mouth before she let his dick emerge and offered it to Lia, who wasted no time and took him in.

Five sucks later, she also let go and then it was my turn.

I kept my stroke as slow as possible, working my tongue, savoring and stimulating.

“Holy shit,” Simon hissed, his entire body stiffening from the battle to resist the pleasure.

Del had to tap me on the shoulder to remind me to not jump the gun.

It was the hardest thing I had ever done next, to back off and let that manhood go out of my mouth.

Del resumed the blowjob, giving languid strokes as well and moaning with pleasure.

It didn’t match her emotional aura, so was probably just something she did for effect.

She had to let go at this point, because she picked up that we were rapidly driving Simon into approaching his climax.

There was a pause where she let him get his breath back and calmed down a bit, but kept him hard with the occasional stroke from her hand.

Del let go, smoothly turned around and captured Lia for a searing kiss, pushing her down onto her back and straddling her. Lia went with the flow and both of them melted into each other, but in the process, Del pushed her ass up invitingly.

Simon took the clear hint and was soon lining himself up, then slowly pushed his member into Del’s folds. She was also working with her fingers on Lia’s pussy.

Only for a moment, I found myself at a loss for what to do, but quickly got an idea.

I stood, misted my lower half and floated in front of Simon.

His eyes widened in astonishment but he was too invested into pumping himself in Del’s pussy to really do anything else.

My arms captured him around his neck and I mashed my breasts against his pecs, capturing his lips and moved into a deep tongue dueling kiss.

The sounds of moans, wet kisses and the slapping of flesh on flesh, all set to the backdrop of the sensual music, the building arousal in me… Simon was a very good kisser.

Everything made me feel we were truly transported into another world, where this was a true harem with Simon as the ‘sultan’.

Where the only reality was this little island of cushions and passion.

Simon abruptly broke the kiss, hissing and pulled out of Del with gritted teeth.

I floated myself backward, opening the space to see where Del would direct us next and returned to full solidity lying on my back.

We let him battle with his brinkmanship, waiting with baited breath to see if he would succeed.

He eventually did and nodded at us with a victorious smile.

Del pulled him by hand over toward Lia, who was waiting with her strong legs invitingly splayed open for him. She also caressed his head and whispered into his ear, “Remember, we’re pro’s, so don’t worry about cumming in us.”

He could only nod then began using his hands to explore Lia’s breasts and toned stomach with caresses and light massaging. He wanted to clearly make this encounter more of a two way street, actually give us pleasure as well and prolong this as much as possible.

Lia clearly appreciated this as well and it didn’t take long for her to begin emitting genuine moans of pleasure under his efforts.

The next thing I knew, Del was looming in my vision and she captured me for a deep kiss and began playing her hands on my body in an exploratory fashion, trying to find the spots that made me crazy.

I retaliated, easily dominating her tongue with my own and she began tweaking my nipples.

She inevitably found the erogenous line on my hips across my belly button and I moaned into her mouth.

Del broke the kiss with a victorious smirk and began trailing a line of kisses down my body, visiting both my breasts for licks, kisses and even a brief suck, before moving to my stomach and attacking that area.

I groaned and melted into the cushions beneath me, and I felt my pussy beginning to drip with my fluids.

Lia’s loud groan next to me turned my attention there.

Simon had his mouth and tongue working hard on her folds, licking and sucking her clit and his strong arms were around her thighs and holding her legs open.

Del’s mouth found my own pussy at this point.

I could only close my eyes at this point and ride the pleasure, given by a professional who knew what she was doing.

This delicious torture continued for minutes and both Lia and I created a duet of pleasurable moans and gasps that filled the room.

I came first, shuddering as my pussy practically sprayed Del in the face with my juices.

Far from finding the experience objectionable, she practically bathed her face in it.

My hips thrust forward seemingly of their own volition in my throws of orgasm.

“Ah fuck!” I screamed, as another jet of fluids burst forth.

Del opened her mouth, welcoming it and gathered it as if she was drinking from a water fountain.

I shuddered and could only watch as she closed her mouth on my juices. Her eyes closed as if savoring it like a fine wine, then her throat visibly swallowed.

Lia also orgasmed at this point from Simon’s efforts, her body bucking and shuddering under his grasp.

He gave her a precious twenty seconds of recovery, before crawling up, then guided his manhood home into her.

Her legs locked around his waist and she used her heels against his buttocks to help with each thrust.

It didn’t take long at this point and Simon’s hips began pumping furiously, his groans growing louder with the strain of prolonging this, until he finally lost the battle.

His voice cut off, he pushed as deep as he could go and his hips spasmed with small thrusts as he came in Lia.

In the aftermath of that, he brought his lips down to hers and started a tender kissing session with her, almost as if is saying ‘thanks’, whilst he gently pulled out as his manhood became flaccid.

It turned out his volume of semen was also quite high, because it began to visibly leak from Lia’s pussy.

My brain must’ve short circuited a bit at this point.

On pure instinct, I grabbed Simon by the shoulder, misted myself and him.

Then I reversed our positions and reappeared over Lia, whilst rematerializing him under Del.

My mouth latched onto Lia’s cum filled pussy and began lapping up the leaking semen.

“Holy fuck,” Lia screamed, her overly sensitive folds sending shockwaves through her as my tongue also darted inside her pussy.

The small rational part of me made a note to apologize to her afterwards.

Trying to save the delicious nectar from being wasted, turned quickly into my own exploration of Lia’s inner folds and my hands were all over her wonderful abs.

I was so into this that I was surprised when I felt strong hands grab my hips from behind.

Simon had clearly also recovered… had it been that long?

He lifted me up slightly so my knees and lower legs were under me for support in pushing my ass into the air.

Shuffling forward on his knees, he lined himself up and smoothly thrust into my sopping pussy.

My vaginal muscles instinctively contracted, grabbed him and with inward movements began milking him.

“Whoah, fuck,” he groaned at the novel sensation.

He wanted to clearly thrust as well, but found difficulty because he literally couldn’t pull outward with any distance to thrust back in.

I had to consciously stop that, all the while I was still concentrating on exploring Lia.

Finally, he found his rhythm and soon I was enjoying the dual sensation of giving and receiving.

Del entered the picture and put her own pussy within reach of Lia’s mouth, straddling her head.

Lia grabbed onto her hips and quickly began using her own tongue to dive into Del’s depths.

This chain of pleasure went on for quite a while.

Simon trying to reach his second orgasm was prolonging things nicely.

The slaps of his hips hitting my ass resounded through the room as he grunted with each thrust. I now purposefully pulled him into the mind web, letting its effects begin to regulate his body and to absorb the energy being produced.

“Ah yes,” he groaned as he felt his manhood responding with full vitality again.

Lia gasped and moaned into Del’s pussy, riding another orgasm at this point.

While she clearly wasn’t a gusher, I eagerly lapped up the resulting musky fluids that could probably fill two tablespoons.

Simon abruptly leaned down, his hands capturing my breasts, his mouth kissing under my ear as his thrusts into me reached a fever pitch.

That sent me rocketing towards an orgasm.

“Uh-” I moaned as my body shuddered and twitched, spraying my juices outward. They ran right into the space between my butt and Simon’s hips and ended up creating a strong almost fountaining effect, drenching him up to his pecs and I felt them running all along my lower back.

That feeling was enough to push him the final steps and he stopped his frantic thrusts deep in me, twitching with small shudders of release as I sensed his semen emerge and shoot into me.

My vaginal muscles clamped down, milking him further for every bit.

The energy release was invisible to everyone else, but I felt like I was in the middle of an explosion of it.

I absorbed it all like a greedy sponge.

Afterward, I wordlessly directed Simon to pull out and lie down to recover.

Del hit her own orgasm from Lia efforts next as the cherry on top of our session.

Finally, we were all laid down next to each other, breathing hard and recovering, basking in the thoughtless post-orgasm bliss.

The first tangible thought I had next was to shut off the sensual music, as it had long since run the full course of its long track and was now on repeat.

Silence.

It was wonderful and none of us wanted to break it. I saw the reluctance and bliss from all three. We were all meeting each other’s eyes and there was a clear appetite there to go for another session.

Yet reality came crashing on me as I saw Simon’s aura.

He could, with another half an hour of rest, fuck both Lia and Del with no problems, but my evening was over.

I shook my head with regret and got to my feet, feeling a bit wobbly.

“Escort?” Del asked with concern.

“You three can go for more if you want, I can’t. Call it a cape thing and leave it at that, please.”

I let my tone and facial expression brook no argument.

Del frowned but eventually nodded, “Sure Escort. Lia, Simon?”

“Of course,” Simon said hurriedly, miming zipping his lips. “You wouldn’t happen to mind if I contact you for… uh… more? Later? Maybe from you two as well? This was amazing.”

I sighed and stomped off the cushion island to ‘15 and returned with my own business card, which he accepted with a smile.

“Just so you know, your friend paid sixteen hundred for this,” Del pointed out.

“Yeah, I get that this ain’t cheap,” he nodded.

“We might entertain a future discount if it becomes a regular thing over a period of time,” Lia said.

He winced, “Yeah, that’ll make this a bi-annual thing at best then. Oh well, that’s probably for the best as too much of a good thing-”

“Quiet,” I held up a finger, my mind racked with suspicion as I finally clicked that something was wrong. Very wrong.

I misted over to ‘15 and picked it up.

“Escort?” Del asked with alarm.

“Listen,” I pointed outside.

They did so.

“I hear nothing,” Lia said with a shrug.

“Exactly, this room isn’t soundproof, we should be hearing the party still going on outside, the time is barely ten o’ clock.”

“Yeah, parties with the team like this, we usually only end at one in the morning, sometimes later even,” Simon explained, reluctantly getting to his feet.

A horrible intuition washed over me at that moment. Never mind the fact that I hadn’t felt anything.

“Stay where you are,” I ordered snappishly. “Don’t go over to the window.”

He froze and looked at me with wide eyes, “Uh, why?”

“Whatever caused an entire party of people to go silent could still be out there. If it spots movement or sees you, it will come here next or immediately unleash whatever power it has on us.”

“But…”

“Simon, Escort’s the cape here,” Del tugged at his arm and even brought her right hand between his legs and started playing with his manhood. “Sit down,” she insisted gently.

With no choice and the tingly pleasure in his loins, he obeyed.

“Whatever happens, you stay in this room until either the Protectorate or I come to fetch you.”

With that final statement, I misted and phased through the window.

I didn’t have to go far.

All around the pool, clothes, shoes, bathing costumes were strewn about in a steady line that led straight to the problem.

The SCP stood uncaring, boldly in the open.

It had every partygoer in its multi limbed grasp.

It was huge and my mind went completely blank on how to even begin fighting this or even if it was wise to do so.

I materialized my upper body and pulled my phone out of ‘15s pouch.

Thankfully my conclusion that I was strong enough to resist the SCPs cognitohazard bore fruit

“Taylor? Code in.”

I gave my code to Henry automatically, studying as much as possible of the SCP. “Henry, I need you to get your stony ass into a truck and come to my location as soon as possible.”

“A new SCP? What is it?”

“No time to play scientist, bring yourself and a bunch of axes. Choose one FTF member who’ll probably succumb to this thing’s congnitohazard to drive you.”

There was a deadly silence on his side. “Very well, is this a lethal cognitohazard?”

“No, it’s just the way it sucks victims in, if you can render him unconscious after he’s here, that’ll probably help.”

“On my way.”

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SCPs revealed in this chapter:

Only hints, full disclosure in the next chapter.

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A/N: This month's TOITA chapter, hope you enjoyed. Also working on Force Wills art, a revisit to Anakin, a new Padme in a different style and even Mizal, but that's gonna take longer, AI hates montrals and lekku, so a full hybrid of traditional and AI with a control net is needed.