Supers: Ex Heroes 6 - Ch 1

Charm on one side of me, three tails waving in anticipation, Shimmer on the other with her massive rifle ready for action, I stared at our ship’s display to see the massive number of enemy ships that we were flying up against. My focus was on the point where the Shadow Mystic—A.K.A. Sam—had just vanished. 

Having seen Sam take off like that from the Red Square, shooting up into the sky to take on the enemy gave me hope. She had a plan, I imagined, and we had our mission. We needed to take out Asterisk. Letha assured me she had a way to turn the tide on this invasion of Earth, and I had learned enough about her in our short time together to know she and her plan might just have a chance. 

Letha’s sister was up there somewhere, likely working for the enemy with aspirations of being put in charge after all this was over. Somehow that fit into the bigger picture, and we were going to find the missing connection or cram the pieces together until they fit, if necessary. 

“Got Muerta stowed away?” I asked, and Gale gave me a thumbs up as I’d shown her. 

“What’s the plan?” A.I. Lamb asked. Charm stood next to her, one of the three tails swishing right through her in a sort of creepy way. 

Everyone looked to me, and I glanced back at Letha. She frowned, stepped forward, and said, “Show me the largest private ship among the enemy.”

A.I. Lamb gave her a curious look, but the screen flickered, then changed to an image of a large destroyer, sitting back while other ships moved around in a protective formation, fighters emerging from a port in the side, and flying off into battle. 

“You think you’re sister’s there?” I asked. 

Letha stepped closer, then guffawed. She held up her hand and moved it apart, so that the screen zoomed in on the words printed in huge letters along the ship’s hull. “That’s one of my family’s ships. And if it’s the largest in play, I’d say she’s on it.”

“And Asterisk?” Andromida asked, always with her eye on the prize.

“We’ll need a new strategy to take her on.” Even as I spoke I hated to admit it, but we had gotten our asses handed to us. Now it was worse—we were about to ride up into her territory. 

“I won’t let her escape.” 

“Neither will we,” I indicated the large ship. “But first, we get Letha to that ship. While she’s having a sister bonding moment, we hunt down Asterisk.”

“Judging by the way she handled herself down there,” Twitch said, clicking her tongue, “I’d say she’ll be easy to find.”

“What makes you say that?” Charm asked. 

“Cocky. Hanging out, letting her guards take care of her. Right about now she’s probably hiding out on her ship with her guards or generals on full defensive.”

“Then we go up there and tear her fucking face off,” Charm spat out the words, but then clamped her hand over her mouth as if in an attempt to stop them escaping.. “Too much?”

“No,” Andromida said flatly. 

“Do whatever you ladies need to do to get the job done,” I said, kind of loving the aggressiveness of Charm. 

Andromida breathed heavily, sat down in her seat, impatiently. “As far as I’m concerned, this is the last piece of the puzzle. After this…”

“After this, what?” I asked. “You go into retirement?”

She arched an eyebrow. “Really? Me, sitting around on a beach fingering myself? I don’t think so. I figured I’d stay with you, let you fuck me all day and all night. You and the rest of this lot. I mean, some company excluded—no offense Letha and crew.”

“None taken,” Letha said, grinning and nodding at her two companions, the large dude who was relatively quiet, and her mutated monster guy. “Got myself handled right here already, thank you very much.”

I had to wonder if she still fucked the monster, and instantly felt bad about thinking of him as such. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one, because Charm said, “You all still fuck?” 

Letha arched an eyebrow. “Shit, the mutation made him bigger than Trunk, and that’s saying something. Hard to fit, but… I can give you a demonstration if you’d like.”

The green monster’s pants started to shift, his eyes darting across the room. I’d been thinking of him to myself as the ‘Green Monster’ for so long now that I really had to rack my brain before recalling that he was called Darnell, the other guy with Letha being Rand.

“No, no,” Charm said with a chuckle. “I’m good.”

Honestly, I didn’t want to see that either. As hot as Letha was, it seemed awkward, and we still had a fight to get to. 

Laurel and Harp both looked relieved at the decision, too, though Gale had a curious expression. 

“What?” I asked. “Don’t tell me—I mean, go ahead if you all want, just not in here. And only watching.”

“Oh, no, no, no,” Gale said, hands up and chuckling. “Just got me curious, is all. How big exactly we talking here with Trunk?”

I scowled, but couldn’t help looking when Letha held her hands up, going wider and wider. 

“Bullshit,” I said. “He’d fucking die every time he got a boner.”

“He doesn’t,” she said with a laugh, “but I nearly do.”

“Come on now,” her non-mutated man said.

“Yours is good too,” she said, giving him a cupping of the crotch and a kiss on the cheek. “I’m not saying one is better than the other, just stating facts.”

He still looked put out, to which Shimmer had to laugh. “You realize we all might die today, and on top of that, if we don’t, you’re the guy she’s sleeping with, right?”

“Yeah, sure,” the guy said. “Just don’t want her thinking about some other—”

“Don’t dare say it,” Letha countered, now squeezing him in a testing way. “Because that’s bullshit and you know I’d never.”

He bit his lip, then pulled her in close to him, the two suddenly kissing passionately, while their green friend looked on, grinning amiably. 

“Give me something to kill already,” Andromida said, pointedly looking the other way. 

“Awww, I think it’s sweet,” Charm said. “Now him, kiss the monster one.”

Big Green scowled at her, but to prove the words didn’t mean anything, Letha turned around and went down on the guy. Awkward, strange… but if I was ever mutated, I certainly hoped these ladies wouldn’t stop kissing me, and more. On that note, I had a thought to try making an illusion and pretending, to see how they acted, but decided that wasn’t playing nice. 

“I should let you all know,” A.I. Lamb said, gesturing to the display. “While we are cloaked, we’re moving in close, likely to the range where they will be able to scan us soon.”

“Muerta’s secured?” I asked, and got a nod from Shimmer. “And… Aegriss?”

“I have her secured, essentially in rest mode,” Twitch replied. 

With a nod, I turned back to the display, ready for what came next. I wanted so badly to go to Aegriss and hold her, to tell her it was all going to be okay. She was in bad shape, but the most I had been able to do was scan her with my troubleshooter skill, cutting off pain receptors and any issues that would cause her to suffer. She was so real to me at this point, even with her wires hanging out, that I had cradled her head, kissed her gently, and then told her to hold on. Maybe once that would have been weird, considering that I knew she had started out as an android, but by this point she was so much more. One of the team, without a doubt. 

So knowing we had to leave her back there in her incomplete state while we went off to fight and possibly never return was painful. 

And because of that, I swore to make this as fast as humanly possible. Or, not humanly, but super-humanly possible. 

“Ladies,” I paused, nodding to Letha’s companions, “gentlemen… Let’s kick some fucking ass.”

“YEAH!” Charm shouted, leaping up as if the enemy were right there. 

Andromida glanced over, skeptically.

“We have a plan, then?” Twitch asked. 

“I do,” I said, pretty much winging it. “That main ship will pick us up, right? I mean, be able to find us on radar or whatever.”

“Right,” A.I. Lamb said. 

“Great, then… we don’t board her via our ship—we board her via an enemy ship. One of her own.”

Shimmer grunted. “I like it.”

“Let’s take ourselves an enemy ship, then,” I said, heading for the rear of the ship, rotating my neck as I prepared for this. 

“How… exactly?” Twitch asked. 

I looked back, grinned, and said, “Trust me.” Yeah, I felt like a badass. It was great, but… would’ve been even better if I really had a plan.