Psychobitches 2 - Ch 2

While Breaker signed off, I stayed on the call with the green-haired Twitch to discuss logistics and answer a couple of questions to prove our loyalty. At the end of it, she had us send over a list of who we had on board and what our powers were. It felt a bit like an invasion of privacy, but made sense. They had to know what powers they had on their side to properly formulate an attack plan, I figured, so got right down to it. 

I signed off, finally, and turned to find the ladies talking with our new mermaid friend.

“You’re sure you don’t even remember your name?” Cheri said, scratching her chin. 

“Nothing,” the mermaid said. Although there wasn’t a doubt on my part, as my powers kicked in to show me her emotions, all of which spoke of her telling the truth. 

Cheri glanced my way and nodded. “Agreed.”

“Sorry?” I asked. 

“Just that I agree, she’s been nothing but honest with us. I’ve been hoping my voices would give me a name, but… nothing.”

“Mer,” Erupa said with a shrug. 

“For Meryl?” the woman asked, but shook her head. “I don’t think that fits.”

“No, for mermaid. Until we get your memory working again.” Erupa glanced down at the pistol at her side, and I sensed what was going on there—caution. A simple name to avoid becoming too attached, in case the mermaid didn’t last long. 

Up here, in the situations we were finding ourselves, such caution made sense, as cold as that was. Mer would do, though. 

“Comms,” Erupa said, pointing to the display. 

“Twitch again?” I asked, glancing back over. 

“Wishful thinking?” Cheri asked, an eyebrow raised. 

I ignored the comment and blew a kiss her way. She didn’t really think there could be wandering eyes on my part, not when I had these beauties at my side. Her eyes wandering though? I had to wonder, now that she had raised the topic. 

Regardless, this wasn’t the time. 

“Not her,” Letha said, appearing on the display. Trunk was on, too. 

“It’s good to see you both again, and clear of Abaddon,” I said. “What’s going on?” 

“Actually, this call is to fill you in on something, then I’ll check with Breaker and his team, see what they think. Cool?” Letha gave it a moment, then went on to tell us how we would need to track down a man who worked for the Orion Corp., but there was more than that. It was Trunk’s father. 

We all agreed it made sense, that we would need an inside man, so we signed off. 

“His dad?” Tink said, a humored expression dancing in her eyes. “Damn, if I had the slightest idea where my dad was, I certainly wouldn’t wrap him into something like this.”

“Wasn’t a super?” I asked.

“He was, actually. Quite high up there in the power grid, but… the guy was an asshole. Cared more about trying to help everyone else than ever being there for his family. 

“I know the type,” Erupa said, nodding. 

“Not all of our dads could be perfect.” I cringed at my own words, hoping they didn’t ask me about my dad, who actually had been quite the role model. 

“That’s not what I meant,” Erupa said. “For me, it was a fiancé.” 

If I had been drinking at the moment, I would’ve spat it out in surprise. “You were engaged? Were, I hope…”

“Correct. Ended it when the fucker showed me his true colors. I mean, he was volunteering for a second tour of duty that would take him off to the fringe planets to fight piracy, instead of being with me. But it was simpler, in his case—found out later he was banging some redhead twins.”

“Damn.” I shook my head, sensing the curiosity from Cheri, who clearly wanted to know more about those twins. 

“Your dad was the superhero type, too?” Mer asked Tink. 

Tink scrunched her nose in thought. “Complicated. Not so much a hero, but not a villain either. Like… more of an entertainer. Thought he could use his powers to bring joy to those without powers—but I always saw it as showing off.”

“Complicated one,” Mer admitted. 

“And you?” I asked her. 

She shrugged. 

“Ah, right. Sorry.” I bit my lip, wishing I hadn’t spoken, having momentarily forgotten that her memory wasn’t in great shape. 

“My dad is just a normal nobody,” Cheri said. “A bit of a fucker, but not a super.”

“For some reason, I figured your dad would be either a Tier One or maybe some supervillain,” I admitted with a chuckle. 

“Tried to beat my mom, once, the story goes. Missing half his face because of that, so always wears a mask, and it gives him a supervillain look, but nope. No powers. She left him after that, of course, but I’m not sure if it was the guilt over having done that to him or the hatred regarding what he tried to do to her. Maybe both.”

A long silence followed, and I took her hand, giving her a comforting squeeze. 

“Don’t pity me,” she said to the room. “In a world like ours, that seems to be fairly tame, if you ask me.”

Considering some of the horror stories I had heard when it comes to domestic issues and powers being involved, she had a point. They all turned to me, waiting, so I sighed and said, “My dad? Honestly, I’d rather tell you about my mom. A legend, in some parts of the galaxy. Ever heard of Trattoria?”

A gasp came from Erupa, excitement in Tink’s eyes. 

“Who?” Mer asked. 

“No shit,” Cheri interrupted as I was about to answer. “You’re telling me the Scourge of Redalia was your mom?”

“She had a bit of a reputation on both sides,” I admitted. “That specific title had to do with her darker days.” 

I found myself surprised that I was even talking about my mom with them, but I supposed that was a sign of how much they truly meant to me. When Erupa asked if I had been close to the woman, I even told them about the time my mom had taken me to watch a famed group of supers perform cliff-diving off of the waterfalls of Mokal, a region known for the dangerous cliffs but also the even more dangerous wildlife in the area. We had been under protection, of course, but watching those thrill-seekers nearly lose their lives—one of them losing an arm—gave me a new perspective on life. Though that hadn’t been as life-changing as when she had walked out amid the thunderous applause and battled a squid-like creature for the cheering audience, then taken me out for tea afterwards. It had been the first time I had begun to understand her fame, the first time I had realized I could actually lose her. 

“She sat me down, looked at me with eyes full of a zeal for life, and asked me how school was,” I told them. “Which was another sign altogether, since I had dropped out of school two years prior, at ten, to start studying on my own. The teachers at the schools I could get into couldn’t keep up, and my empath abilities made puberty surrounded by all those adolescents too awkward.”

“Holy shit, I bet!” Cheri thought, and my empath ability was telling me that her mind had immediately gone into horn-dog mode. 

“Not so different from now, actually,” I added with a wink.

Erupa burst into laughter. Tink grinned, while Cheri punched me. Mer, however, had a very confused but interested aura about her, and simply smiled pleasantly. That one was going to be a tough nut to crack. 

“Of course, that was all before the fame sucked up so much of her time and life,” I added. “It’s always the same story, isn’t it? If we had a child, I mean…”

Everyone went silent, nobody making eye contact for the longest time. 

“Why is that an awkward conversation topic?” Mer asked. “Which of you all are romantic?”

I bit back a smile. 

“We all fuck him,” Cheri stated, never the type to be shy about such things. 

“All…?” She turned to each of the three ladies, then to me in turn. “With you? Wow, I mean… wow.”

“It’s not a bad situation,” I admitted. 

She stared, eyes actually moving to my crotch and her aura shifted for a moment before suddenly switching to amused. “You all are fucking with me. I get it. Jokes, haha.”

She actually said the “haha” part, too. I shook my head, and Cheri suddenly looked very serious. 

“Is that weird in your mind?” Erupa asked. “Because to us…” She shrugged. “I don’t see a problem. It’s not just him—”

“Oh, there are other men? Like a shared thing?”

“No,” Tink interjected. “But… we kind of have feelings for each other.”

“Or at least are sexually curious.” Cheri beamed as if that hadn’t been a sort of insult in some way, but the other two either didn’t notice or didn’t seem to care. “Other men would be… weird though.”

“Weird.” Mer grinned at me, gave me a ‘good job’ nod, and then jolted slightly, looking at the display. A series of shots went off nearby, nearly hitting Breaker’s ship, and a moment later we were being hailed. According to the screen, we had basically arrived at the Paradise Planet.

This time, Twitch called with Letha and Trunk on the comms. I had to laugh when Trunk’s image popped up and a head moving over his lap, clearly someone on his team going down on the guy.  

I didn’t say anything, but glanced around to see that Cheri was there, licking her lips, eyes darting to my crotch. 

“Not now,” I whispered, humored but not about to go to that level of unprofessionalism. If I wanted to really be a part of the Citadel, even a representative of the law as I hoped to be, that wasn’t the best way to start it. 

Far as I could tell, Trunk didn’t give a flying fuck about any of that. 

“Any ideas would be welcome,” Twitch said, indicating the display where she showed the many ships and defensive systems below. 

Letha, however, was apparently watching Trunk, as her eyes were moving up and down. After a second, she said, “Trunk, really?”

“It isn’t hurting anyone,” he replied. 

The lady there, one I had seen earlier on Abaddon I was pretty sure, lifted her head and said, “Hurting me a bit, but I love it.”

“Fucking hell,” I said, realizing his huge cock was now taking up the lower half of his screen. I hoped the proximity of the camera was adding size to that thing, because otherwise that was just… wrong. I’d seen it limp, but this was a whole other level. “We’re all gonna die.” 

“Exactly,” Trunk replied. “That’s why I’m going out in style!” 

“IDEAS!” Twitch interjected, clearly done with that topic.

“Retreat,” Erupa offered. 

“How’s that help us?” Breaker asked. 

“We don’t actually retreat,” she clarified. “Just make it look like we are. Turn the ships back, exit atmosphere, but not until several of us have made a break for it. We get down there, shut down their monitoring equipment, and the ships come back to join us.” 

“Us, meaning you’re in?” I asked.

“Best way to get in, I figure, is with my shadow strike. Me and Gale—Gale, you can use your wind power to let us fall and then swoop us up at the last minute so we don’t die… right?” 

“Well, shit,” Gale said. “Maybe?” 

“I’ll take maybe.” Erupa held my shoulder, giving me a ‘trust me, I’ll be fine,’ look. I nodded, but sighed with frustration. Any of my ladies going into danger without me would have me worried, even if they were badasses like… all of them. 

The others agreed and signed off as we prepared Erupa on our side. 

“You’re sure about this?” Cheri asked. “I don’t get why we’re not all going.”

“Strike force,” Erupa replied. 

“In and get it done without putting too much attention on us,” I added. “Makes sense, as much as I don’t like it.”

“Tell me not to, and I won’t.” Erupa turned my way, hands on her hips. “Right now. I’ll call them back up and say I changed my mind. But… we need to play our roles in this, ensure success, so keep that in mind.”

“No, I know you’re right.” I put my hand on hers. “Doesn’t mean I won’t worry.”

“Good.” She leaned over to kiss me. “And no offense, but I hardly need protecting. In case you didn’t hear, I’m a badass.”