Even before he saw the crowd or the police barriers, David heard the amplified voice of the police officer: 

“Please remain calm and leave the area!” We have a supervillain attack in progress! Please move to a safe distance and allow the authorities to handle the situation! Please remain calm and move away from the area…”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” David groaned, trying to push his way through the gathered crowd. “Work at HomeTech Haven, David! It’s only a ten minute walk from your apartment, David!” He strained his neck to try and get a good look at the barriers. “Does anyone know what the fuck is going on this time?”

“Yeah, there’s some naked chick turning everyone into shadows!” a voice called back from the crowd.

“A naked chick doing what?” 

David jostled forward until he could finally make out a cluster of figures near the line. They looked like people, but only just — their bodies were nothing but inky silhouettes, their faces were smooth, blank, and featureless. They were moving, but in an oddly slow and fluid way, like they were underwater and not in the middle of a crowd in Downtown Oasis.

And there was the aforementioned naked chick. Her skin was bluish-black, her eyes glowed an eerie red, and her white hair swiveled around her as if it wasn’t quite solid. Tendrils that looked like they were made out of black ink surged around her. 

“Step right up!” she called in a voice that sounded like an annoyingly perky game show host. “I am Lady Shade, and I’ll be your puppeteer and Mistress today! Don’t be shy — come take your place in my army of shadow puppets!”

The tendrils swooped down on the nearest people in the crowd and wrapped around them. Their panicked screams quickly turned into muffled grunts as they were swallowed by darkness, literally melting away until they were nothing more than inky-black pools on the ground. 

“Please remain calm and leave the area!” Please — aghh! MMM! Mmmm…” The police officer’s voice cut off as he too was engulfed by shadow and melted into a pool. 

Moments later, the pools began to bubble and churn as the police officer and his fellow victims rose from the darkness, their bodies now blank, featureless silhouettes that swayed mindlessly as they slowly moved to join all the other silhouettes.

Oh. So that was what ‘turning people into shadows’ meant. Fucking fantastic. David groaned and checked the time on his phone… no way he’d get to work on time now. Maybe he should just —

“Don’t worry! Don’t worry! I’ve got it all under control!” another voice called from further ahead, this one even more annoyingly perky. “Heroine coming through!”

David looked up from his phone to see a pink-haired girl in a white and lavender leotard somersaulting above the crowd. Bright lights of pink, blue and white were flashing around her, and multicoloured crystals formed in the air to give her platforms to jump off of. 

The crowd — or at least the part of the crowd that hadn’t been turned into shadow puppets — jostled and moved to try and get out of the way, but Lady Shade didn’t seem too impressed. 

“Crystal Sprite?” she said. “You’re the first heroine that shows up? I’m almost insulted. Go home to your mother and play with your crystals there, little girl — this is for grown-ups!”

Crystal Sprite landed on a newly-formed crystal platform a couple of metres above Lady Shade, her pink ponytail whipping dramatically in the wind as she glared down at her. “Okay, rude much?” she said. “Haven’t you ever heard it’s not nice to turn people into shadows?”

Lady Shade tilted her head. The darkness at her feet surged upward in a wave. “I beg to differ, Crystal,” she said. “It’s extremely nice. Here, since you insist on sticking around, let me show you.”

“Hey, wait — AH!” Crystal Sprite yelped as liquid shadow wrapped around her wrists, ankles, and waist, smothering the light around her. She struggled, brightness flaring, but the glow dimmed as the blackness spread over her body and face. The crystal platform vanished as she was dragged down to the ground.  “No, stop – ah — MMMM! Mmmmmm… mmm…” Her voice silenced as she melted into a small black pool of shadow.

“Your light wasn’t bright enough, my pretty,” said Lady Shade. “Welcome to the shadow puppet army!”

A figure that might once have been Crystal Sprite rose from the pool… now as black, blank, and featureless as the other shadow puppets. Even David could tell she was no longer in control, and probably no longer conscious. She swayed in that same eerily fluid way as she moved to take her place among the other living shadows.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” David muttered. “Do we even know how long this shit’s gonna take? My supervisor’s going to kill me if I’m late again.”

“Aw, don’t worry!” A weirdly cheerful guy nearby shot him a grin that landed somewhere between optimistic and obnoxious. “It’ll be okay, this is covered under the supervillain attack clause! Just tell your supervisor what happened, and —”

“I know about the fucking supervillain attack clause,” David snapped. “But my supervisor happens to be my ex, Clara. Who’s a crazy bitch looking for any excuse to make my life miserable.”

“Ah.” The guy shifted, suddenly uncertain. “Sorry to hear that?”

“Whatever.” David turned away, brushing past him. No point admitting that he’d already played the ‘supervillain attack’ card twice this week. Or that Clara had given him a very suspicious look yesterday when he’d arrived two hours late and claimed it was because that Candykate chick had been throwing around explosive candy. He’d had a good reason for lying, of course: he had to beat that final boss in Cyber Shogun Rampage IV.

Still, three supervillain attacks in one week was probably stretching credibility a little, even in a city like Paragon Bay. Maybe if he got himself turned into a shadow puppet for a while, Clara would have to acknowledge that it wasn’t his fault… no, fuck that, why should he switch out one bitchy female boss for another?

A sharp whistle cut through the air overhead, and a beam of white light lanced down from the sky, striking Lady Shade square in the chest. The blast threw her backward in an explosion of steam and scattered darkness. David looked up to see another heroine flying above, this one in a billowing white cloak over a dark blue bodysuit. He recognized her from the news: she was the chunky one with the big fat ass — Evenstar, Mistress of Light and Shadow or some crap like that. 

“Everyone who isn’t currently a shadow, get out of here!” she called, thrusting both hands forward to fire another beam at Lady Shade, then sweeping them outward to form what looked like a wall of pure light between the villain and the crowd. “Don’t go towards the light!”

“Evenstar!” Lady Shade cheered, surprisingly upbeat despite having just been struck by a beam of light. “Finally, a heroine I want to fight! Come on down and join the shadow army, Dina!” 

“Seriously, Charlotta, why do you have to do this now?!” Evenstar sent out another beam of light, which was met by a wall of shadow. “I’ve got an art commission I need to finish!”

“Well, I hope for your client’s sake they didn’t pay you in advance!” Lady Shade cackled. “They won’t get that commission! You’ll be too busy being a mindless shadow puppet…”

David didn’t hear the rest of their inane banter. He managed to fight his way through the crowd until he reached a less crowded alleyway to retreat into. Leaning against the wall for a few seconds to catch his breath, he pulled out his phone again. With an annoyed sigh, he wrote a message to Clara.

You won’t believe this. Another supervillain attack. I got the worst luck. Be there when I can.

Almost immediately, the phone buzzed with a response:

You’re right, I don’t believe it.

David bit back a groan of frustration and typed again.

I swear. I’m at Downtown Oasis right now and that Evenstar chick and some shadow lady are duking it out. I’d send you pics, but the cops have sealed off the area and there’s this big wall of light. Don’t know how long it’ll go on. Gonna take me a long time to get to the store.

This time it took a little longer for Clara to respond. After a minute or so, the message appeared.

Fine. You’ve got 30 minutes. If it takes you even a SECOND longer than that to get here, I’m docking your pay. No more excuses, David.

Fucking slavedriver bitch, it’s not my fault those fucking supers decide to duke it out when I’m on my way to work —

David stared at the text he’d started composing, then quickly erased it. Not a good idea to antagonize her further. Customer service at Centerpoint Plaza HomeTech Haven wasn’t exactly a fun job, especially not when it meant working under his bitch of an ex-girlfriend, but that didn’t mean he should get himself fired.

Instead, he just wrote: I’m on my way. Then, he pocketed the phone.

Okay. No telling how long the fight would last, or how long the area would stay closed off afterward. It could be an hour or more, especially if there was collateral damage. No way he’d reach Centerpoint Plaza on foot within the allotted thirty minutes. The bus routes would probably be redirected too, so even if he caught one, it wouldn’t save him much time.

He’d have to blow money on a fucking cab.

 

 

Of course, actually getting a cab was easier said than done. David tried the Daily Commute app on his phone, but the little wheel spun around for far too long before the app unhelpfully informed him that, with Downtown Oasis closed off and the bus routes redirected, wait times were longer than usual and demand was high.

“No kidding,” he muttered, sliding the phone back into his pocket. Well, it looked like he would be docked that pay after all. His hopes were briefly raised when he spotted a cab, but those same hopes were crushed when half the crowd immediately stormed the vehicle, at least twenty voices shouting over each other:

“Hey! Hey, I was first!”

“No, you weren’t!”

“My kids need to get to daycare, asshole! — yes, sweetie, that was a naughty word, I’m sorry.”

No point even trying to compete. David was just beginning to speculate on whether stealing a bicycle would count as grand theft or just survival, when he spotted another cab turning the corner and slowing down. The crowd all turned, ready to pounce on it, but for some reason it rolled past them and came to a halt right next to him.

The backdoor opened and a young brunette leaned out. “Hey!” she said. “Need a cab?”

“Uh, yeah,” David said, thrown by the sudden stroke of luck.

“Here, you can take ours!” said the brunette in what sounded like a Westhaven accent. She jumped out, followed by another woman with long red hair. Both of them were dressed in tank tops and short shorts that showed off a lot of leg. The brunette gave him a fleeting smile before she hurried off with her friend. It struck David that she seemed familiar somehow… had he seen her before? He turned to look, but they were hurrying off into the crowd and all he could see was their backs… and damn, those shorts showed off their asses very nicely…

But, no time to think about asses. The crowd was closing in, and if he hesitated, he’d lose the golden opportunity. He slid into the back seat and closed the door behind him.

“Hi!” said the driver from the front seat. “Where to?”

“Oh, uh, Centerpoint Plaza,” said David. “HomeTech Haven. And step on it, I’m late for work.”

“You and everyone else,” said the driver. She was a young woman too, with pale skin, short black hair, and her voice was nearly as annoyingly perky as Crystal Sprite’s. “The whole district’s a mess right now..”

“Yeah, I know,” David grumbled. “Just get me to Centerpoint Plaza. If I’m not there in…” He checked the clock on his phone. “…twenty minutes, I’m in deep shit. So less talking and more driving.”

“Hey, relax,” the driver said cheerfully. “I said the district was a mess, not that I can’t get you there. Paragon Bay Taxi Service to the rescue!”

David bit back a groan. Cheerful cab drivers were the worst. Still, as the cab pulled away from the curb and merged into traffic, he had to admit maybe the universe wasn’t completely screwing him today. Really, it was almost like those two women had wanted him specifically to get this cab. If he could only remember where he’d seen that brunette before…

Then it hit him.

Jenna. Jenna Lee… something. Rosalyn Westwood’s personal assistant. 

And the other woman — he hadn’t gotten a good look at her face, but she had been a redhead with a nice ass. Could that have been Rosalyn?

He’d met Rosalyn and Jenna before. Well, sort of. The Westwoods loved their benevolent-billionaire act, and one of their favourite traditions was inviting employees of their Paragon Bay companies to a grand New Year’s party at Westwood Tower. Since HomeTech Haven was Westwood-owned, David had gone more than once.

The parties were held in the grand halls of the Halo, with its ridiculous panoramic view over the city and the New Year’s light shows. The whole event was designed to say, “See? We care about our employees. We think of you as family, even though we live in obscene luxury and you’ve got a crappy one-bedroom apartment in Steelhaven.” 

Still, he had to admit that the parties were awesome. The food was great, the music and entertainment was top-notch, the booze was plentiful, and there were always plenty of drunk chicks to fool around with whenever your bitch of a girlfriend wasn’t paying attention. And the Westwoods, always eager to be seen as pleasant and approachable, mingled with everyone. 

Rosalyn had spoken to him personally at least twice at those parties. The last time had been nearly two years ago, when she’d been introducing Jenna to people with that bright socialite smile of hers: “My new personal assistant, isn’t she pretty?” 

And Jenna had spoken with a Westhaven accent, just like the brunette from the cab. He remembered because he’d tried to make a joke about a girl from Westhaven working for the Westwood family… but nobody had laughed. . 

David shook his head. No, it had to be a coincidence. Couldn’t be them. Why the fuck would a Westwood and her assistant be taking an ordinary cab? The Westwoods had limos, chauffeurs, private cars, probably some ridiculous mini-helicopters or jetpacks or whatever rich people used when they wanted to feel quirky. And he was pretty sure Rosalyn could fly, or at least levitate, in that Dream Jewel persona of hers.

The cab moved down the streets. Things were much calmer now that they were away from the supervillain fight, but there was still more traffic than normal. David drummed his fingers impatiently against the seat. Would they make it? Damn that Lady Shade, and damn those vapid heroines. And damn that Clara! Where the hell did that bitch come from, threatening to dock his pay just because he was late again? He’d planned on being on time today. It wasn’t his fault that there was an actual supervillain attack this time…

Huh. He suddenly noticed something on the seat next to him. It was a ring… a wedding ring, maybe? He picked it up to examine it. A gold ring adorned with a very brilliant red gemstone, possibly a ruby. One of those two women must have lost it or left it behind in her hurry. 

“Uh, hey,” he said to the driver. “Who were those passengers before me? The two girls?”

She laughed, but didn’t take her eyes off the road. “You think I run a dating service or something? I don’t ask my passengers’ names!”

“I just thought they looked like… never mind.” 

Deciding to let it go, he casually slid the ring onto his finger. It fit him perfectly. It was a little too girly for him, but… well, rubies were worth a lot of money. And, hey, even if it wasn’t a real ruby, he could probably find some disreputable jeweler who’d give him a few hundred credits for it. Too bad for the girl who lost it, of course, but finders keepers. Maybe this day wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Hang on. There was an inscription on the metal. He squinted, focusing on the tiny engraved letters. Watch the stone shine… your will is now mine.

Okay, that didn’t seem like the kind of phrase you’d engrave on a wedding ring. It sounded oddly familiar, though. He must have heard it somewhere before.

Well… shouldn’t be too hard to find out. He took his phone and opened the browser to search for the phrase “watch the stone shine your will is now mine.”

He wasn’t too surprised when the first hit took him to a page on the SMPB (Supers and Metahumans of Paragon Bay) site. That was most people’s go-to site for news and information about the various capes and cowls that roamed around the city; it was usually reliable and decently up to date; it even had a handy “Who’s Who” section of most of the city’s supers. There were code names, pictures, and — in the cases where identities were publicly known — even civilian names.

And there it was.

Dream Jewel, AKA Rosalyn Ysabel Westwood, of the Westwood family. Sorceress, illusionist, and semi-active superheroine with a publicly known identity. Generally operates in Central Heights and Emerald Hills. Usually accompanied by Sleeping Spectre.
Powers: Mostly known as an illusionist, but in later years has been observed performing various magical spells, most prominently transformation and mind control. There has been speculation that these extra powers are tied to the various pieces of jewelry she wears in her guise as Dream Jewel, especially since she has been heard using the phrase “Watch the stone shine, your will is now mine” to gain control over her enemies.
Threat level: Estimated C. Seldom seen in her superheroine identity, and when she is, is usually busy stopping some form of supervillain and doesn’t pay much attention to civilians. Her magic is, however, extremely potent and could have far-reaching effects.

David was stunned. It had been Rosalyn and Jenna! What the fuck were women like them doing, taking a normal cab?! And how had the driver not recognized Rosalyn? Something really weird was going on here. And now he  — David Greyfield — was sitting here, in a cab, with a ring that belonged to a fucking Westwood.

Hmmm… rich people liked it if you returned stuff they’d lost, didn’t they? If he returned the ring to her, there could be a reward in it for him. 

He glanced at the driver, who was humming a cheerful tune to herself. Had she seen him pick the ring up? No… surely she would have said something if she had. Unless… he frowned. Unless she was biding her time, just waiting until they were almost at the Plaza. And then she’d refuse to let him go unless he handed over the ring.

Yeah, that would be it. No woman could be that cheerful unless she was planning something. He’d known this bitch for five minutes and already she was planning on cheating him out of a potential fortune. Well, fuck that.

“Driver!” he said. “I changed my mind! Just stop here, I’ll get off!”

“What?” She turned her head briefly, looking confused. “We’re only two minutes away from Centerpoint Plaza! Wouldn’t it be easier to just —”

“Um… watch the stone shine, your will is now mine!”  He held out his hand to show her the ring. “Drive out to the side and stop the car!”

For a brief moment, her eyes flashed red, and then her expression turned blank. Wordlessly, she turned the wheel and up to the sidewalk. The cab stopped. 

David breathed heavily, his heart pounding in his chest. He hadn’t planned on doing that. Call it panic, or maybe a flash of inspiration, but in the moment he’d acted without thinking. He hadn’t even had any reason to think that the ring would work for him. But here he was; the car had stopped and the driver was sitting there, completely silent and staring blankly ahead.

He took another few deep breaths to calm himself. “Driver?” he said.

No response.

“Driver, can you hear me?” he tried.

“Yes, I can hear you,” she answered. Her voice was flat and emotionless.

“Are you…” he hesitated. “Are you awake?”

“No, I’m not awake,” she said, still in that flat voice.

David looked around. A few other cars drove past, without paying them any particular attention. “Driver,” he said. “Um, wait, no. What’s your name?”

“Lucy.”

“All right, Lucy…” he took another deep breath and steadied his voice the best he could. “You are aware that I just hypnotized you, right? That you’re in a deep trance?”

“Yes,” she replied. “You hypnotized me. I’m in a deep trance.”

“Will you do whatever I tell you?”

“Yes.”

“Even if I tell you to…” he hesitated again, but only briefly. “…show me your tits?”

“Yes.”

This was too good to be true. He had to test it out. “Go on, then. Show me your tits.”

Without hesitation, she pulled up her shirt, revealing her cream-coloured bra.

He felt his heart skip a beat. She really was hypnotized. Or maybe she was just playing along? He had to find out.  “No,” he said, trying to sound authoritative. “I want to see your bare tits. Take your bra off, Lucy. Take your shirt off, then take your bra off, and give the bra to me.”

She immediately pulled her shirt up over her head and placed it down on the seat beside her. Then, still without any sign of shame or hesitation, she unhooked her bra, took it off, and handed it to him. Now, she was sitting there only in her jeans, twisting her body to give him a good look at her naked tits. 

They weren’t huge, but they were nicely round and firm, with puffy brown nipples. She didn’t react at all as he reached out to touch one. It was a little awkward; he was still in the back seat of the cab and she in the driver’s seat, but he got a good squeeze in and she did nothing to stop him. 

“Okay,” he said. “I’m convinced. You’re really hypnotized.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “I’m really hypnotized.”

“Put your shirt back on, but not your bra. Um, and from now on, call me Master.”

“Yes, Master.” Lucy picked her shirt up and began putting it back on.

This was surreal. She was completely in his power. The annoyingly perky personality had been switched off, and in its place was a flat and emotionless woman who did everything he told her. Well… that was definitely an improvement. 

She’d finished dressing now and sat motionless, staring blankly.

“All right,” said David. “I’m going to ask you a few questions, and you’re going to answer them truthfully. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Master. You’re going to ask me a few questions, and I’m going to answer them truthfully.”

“Good,” he said. “Here’s the first question: Did you know that this ring was lying in the back seat?”

“No, Master,” said Lucy. “I didn’t know that this ring was lying in the back seat.”

“Really? You really had no idea?”

“No, Master. I really had no idea.”

David had to pause. Had he been a little too hasty when he assumed she’d been a lying bitch who was plotting against him? “But you did know that the two passengers before me were Rosalyn Westwood and that personal assistant of hers, didn’t you?” 

“Yes, Master. I did know that the passengers before you were Rosalyn Westwood and that personal assistant of hers.”

“And yet you told me you had no idea who they were.”

“Yes, Master. I did tell you I had no idea who they were.”

“So you lied.” 

“Yes, Master. I lied.”

David felt a sting of anger. “Why did you lie, Lucy?”

“Company policy, Master,” she said tonelessly. “I lied because we’re not supposed to talk about our passengers to anyone. Unless you are with the company, or the police, or in some cases a city sanctioned superhero, it’s none of your business who takes one of our cabs.”

Oh. That explained it. David felt a brief pang of guilt, but it quickly drowned in righteous annoyance: His gut feeling had been right and she had lied to him. 

“Well, no matter what you thought your reasons were, you still lied,” he said. “You’re a lying bitch, Lucy!”

“Yes, Master. I’m a lying bitch.”

Hearing her admit it did make him feel a little better. Still… he had to think about this. 

For some reason, Rosalyn Westwood had been taking a normal cab today… it was weird, but maybe it was another Westwood attempt at connecting with the commoners. ‘Look at me, taking a normal cab like a normal person.’ It was stupid, but rich people did stupid things sometimes.  

And then somehow she’d lost and left behind one of her magic rings, and neither she nor Jenna had realized it? That didn’t seem very likely… but then again, she was a multi-billionaire and she had tons of jewelry, some of it definitely magic. He at least knew that the Circlet of Westwood, which she wore when she dressed up as Dream Jewel, was extremely magical. Compared to that, this ring was probably just a minor trinket.

But sooner or later she’d realize she no longer had it. If he took it to Westwood Tower and gave it back to her, she’d probably be grateful… 

… but then again, why should he? 

With this ring, he had power. More power than he’d ever had before. Just a glance at the ring and a spoken phrase had been enough to turn Lucy into an obedient slave. It was enough to make him wonder…how far could he take this control? It’d be a shame not to test it out. Nobody except Lucy knew that he had the ring, and she was in his power. So maybe if he was a little smart…

“Lucy,” he said. “How long will your deep trance last?”

“I don’t know, Master,” she droned.

“Will you stay like this until someone wakes you up, or will you wake up on your own when some time has passed?”

“I don’t know, Master.”

“Right. Okay. We’ll do it like this. I’m going to leave this cab, and you’re going to drive away. And then…” 

He hesitated for a moment. Should he really do this? Aw, fuck it — she was a lying bitch; she deserved a bit of retribution.

“Then,” he continued, “you’re going to drive to Rainbow Lake, and when you’re there you’ll lose control of the car and drive right into the lake. You won’t panic when the car sinks, you’ll just open the door, get out of the car, and swim to safety. You do know how to swim, right?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Good. Once you’re back on dry land, you’ll wake up from your trance, and you won’t remember anything that happened since this morning. You won’t remember meeting me, you won’t remember that I hypnotized you, you won’t remember driving the car into the lake, and you most definitely won’t remember anything about a ring. Understood?”

“Yes, Master.” 

“Tell me what’s going to happen.”

“You’re going to leave this cab, and I’m going to drive to Rainbow Lake. I’ll lose control of the car and drive into the lake, but I won’t panic, I’ll just open the door, get out of the car and swim to safety. Once I’m on dry land I’ll wake up from my trance and I won’t remember anything that happened since this morning. I won’t remember you, or that you hypnotized me, or that I drove the car into a lake, and I most definitely won’t remember anything about a ring.”

“Good. I’m leaving now.” 

“Yes, Master.”

David stepped out of the cab and hurried down the street, not even turning around to watch Lucy drive away. 

With any luck, this would take care of the problem. Lucy, though she was a lying bitch, wouldn’t suffer any serious harm other than a quick dip — and her amnesia would be attributed to shock. And Rosalyn would assume that the ring went down into the lake along with the car. She might try to search the lake for the ring, but Rainbow Lake was huge and the ring was small. She could search for ages and never realize it wasn’t there.

And it wasn’t like she needed the ring anyway. She was one of the most powerful people in this city… even without one single magical trinket she still had plenty of superpowers and more money than he’d see in ten lifetimes. But a normal bloke like him could put the ring to good use. Yeah… it was only fair for him to have it. This was the universe’s way of paying him back for having to deal with annoying bitches all the time. 

He’d just need to test it out first; find out exactly what he could and couldn’t do with it… He felt a smile creep across his face. 

Oh yes. He knew the perfect test subject. 

 

 

HomeTech Haven — your one stop for high-tech home tech!

The sign greeted David with its usual cheery letters as he strolled into HomeTech Haven a few minutes later. 

There didn’t seem to be very many customers around, which suited him just fine. He walked past the displays of smartphones and tablets, nodding to the two people behind the counter: one tall and rather fat white guy, and one smaller, nicely-shaped black girl; both wearing the trademark blue employee vests.

“Hey, Mike. Liana,” he greeted. 

“Hi, David,” said Mike. “Late again, huh?”

“You know,” said Liana, “there’s this marvelous new invention you might be interested in. It’s called a clock.”

David snorted. “You’re so hilarious I forgot to laugh. Yeah, I know I’m late, but there was a supervillain attack at Downtown Oasis. Nothing I could do. I already texted the tyrant and told her I’d be late. Where is she, anyway?”

“The tyrant’s right here.” Clara’s voice emerged from the back room, immediately followed by Clara herself. “Honestly, David. Are you trying to make me regret sticking up for you to the manager?”

David looked at her as she approached him. Damn, she still looked hot. Not all store supervisors could pull off the combination of an employee vest and purple dreadlocks, but Clara did. It was almost enough to remind him why they had been together for so long.

“David?” said Clara, waving a hand in front of him. “Hello? I’m talking to you.”

“Oh… sorry, babe,” said David, letting his thumb brush against the ring, just to make absolutely certain he was still wearing it. “It was just a joke. You’ve got a sense of humour, don’t you?”

“Babe?” Clara repeated, eyebrows raising. 

“Yeah. I don’t know what you’re so worked up about. Not like we have that many customers this time of day, and Mike and Liana have everything covered. So what’s the big deal, babe?”

“Wha —” Clara seemed taken aback, but quickly recovered. “The big deal is that you’re late for work again and I’m getting tired of making excuses for you! And you don’t get to call me ‘babe.’ Come on, I want a word with you.”

Mike and Liana watched as Clara practically dragged him towards the back rooms. He didn’t need to be a mind reader to know what they were thinking: Oooh, David’s in trouble now.

If they only knew.

The manager’s office was empty, but that wasn’t much of a surprise; the manager only came to the store on special occasions these days. Clara ushered David in and closed the door behind them. She looked up at him as if she was ready to start ranting…

…but then she sagged, sighing heavily.

“David,” she said. “What am I going to do with you? I promised myself I wasn’t going to let our breakup affect our work relationship. But you’re impossible. You come in late, you lie about supervillain attacks, and when I tell you that you’ve got to get it together, you first call me a tyrant and then call me ‘babe.’”

“I didn’t lie about the supervillain attack!” said David indignantly. “There really was one!”

“Three days in a row, David.” Clara leaned against the desk, hiding her face in her hands. ”I know there are a lot of supervillains out there, but — three days in a row this week. And last week you were late two days in a row, and the week before that you managed to be late every single day, except for Friday, when you didn’t show up at all.” 

“Supervillain attacks,” said David. (No point in telling her he’d been hung over after a late night on the town.)

”Yes, you keep saying,” she sighed. “I’m so tired of this. It’s like you want to get in trouble. Do you even know how many excuses I’ve had to make to the management for why you’re never on time? It’s not just your ass on the line anymore, it’s mine too.”

David bit back the sarcastic remark that threatened to escape. The manipulative bitch was trying to guilt-trip him, was she? Time to see if the ring could deliver.

 “Your ass, huh…?” he said. “Yeah, that would be a shame. Your ass is by far the best part of you. In fact… why don’t you turn around and let me have a good look at it?”

“Excuse me?!” She laughed, though it seemed more out of shock than amusement. “This isn’t some weird kind of foreplay, David! It’s me telling you that you have to pull yourself together! The management —”

“Fuck the management.” David was impressed at how confident he felt. “Or better yet…” He raised his hand, showing her his ring. “Watch the stone shine… your will is now mine.”

She drew a breath, no doubt to launch into another tirade… then her eyes flashed red and her expression went blank. Her arms dropped and hung limply at her sides. It was like he’d hit her off-switch.

“Hah!” he punched the air in triumph. “It still works! This ring is amazing!” 

Clara didn’t respond. She just stood there, staring blankly at him, eyes wide and mouth half-open. 

David could feel his cock twitch in his pants. Damn… she was just as out of it as Lucy had been. But this time, it was a much bigger turn-on. His bitch of an ex, always so demanding and overbearing, now completely and utterly in his control. 

He moved his hand back and forth in front of her face. Her eyes followed the ring. “Clara…” he said. “You are deeply hypnotized. You’re my obedient slave.”

“Yes, I am deeply hypnotized,” Clara answered, her voice just as dull and droning as Lucy’s had been. “I’m your obedient slave.”

“Then do as I said. Turn around and present your ass to me!”

“Yes, David.” She turned around and thrust her ass out towards him.

He reached out and gave it a smack. She didn’t so much as flinch. Encouraged, he grabbed her pants and pulled them down along with her panties. She still didn’t react; just remained standing in the same position with her naked ass on full display.

He stepped back slightly, just to get a good look at her ass. It looked just as hot as he remembered it. “Much better,” he said. “Heh,  maybe I could market this ring as a cure for bitchiness. Now you’re completely in my power… no longer an obnoxious bitch, just an obedient whore. Right?”

“Yes,” she answered. “I’m completely in your power. I’m no longer an obnoxious bitch, I’m just an obedient whore.”

“No, no. Say it with feeling. Turn around, look me in the eyes and tell me what an obedient horny slut you are.”

Clara shifted and then spun around, her pants and panties falling down around her ankles. Her expression had gone from blank and staring to… almost hungry. “Yes!” she exclaimed, her voice dripping with desire. “I’m a whore! An obedient horny slut! Please command me! Fuck me until I pass out! Make me strip in public and suck off random guys! Make me get on all fours and ram my ass with your big, hard cock!” 

“Wow,” he laughed in surprise. “From dull and emotionless to needy and begging in two seconds. I’m playing you like an instrument, aren’t I?“

“Like an instrument,” she agreed, leaning against him with a sensual purr. “Pluck on all my strings, David… make me sing.” She stepped out of her pants, leaving her lower half completely bare.

He watched her in fascination. What an attitude improvement. Even back when they were dating, she hadn’t been this horny. His cock was pressing against the fabric of his pants. 

“Get on your knees,” he ordered.

She obeyed, dropping on her knees with a soft little grunt. 

He placed his hand on her head.  “Listen here,” he said. ”You’re not only a horny and obedient slut, you’re a stupid one too. You’re so stupid you can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. All you know is that you want my cock.”

“Yes, I’m stupid…” Her voice turned dopey. “I want your cock… I… uuuuuh… duuu-uuuh…” As he let her go, she swayed back and forth on her knees. Her expression was still lustful, but had become oddly vacant.

He unzipped his pants and pulled out his erection, making sure it was right in her face.  “You never wanted to suck me off when we were dating,” he said. “But now… now I want you to take a good look at my cock and tell me what you want to do with it. Like the stupid whore you are.”

“I…” She paused, as if forming words took all her brainpower.  “I want…ummm… I want to…”

“Say it.”

“Ummmm… I want to…I want too-ooooo… uuh…” 

Amazing, he thought. She really had become stupid. “You want toooo…?” he prompted.

“…I want to take it in my mouth… and… annnnd…” 

“Annnnd…?” 

“…and suck it,.” she said with a dopey smile.

“Beg me to let you suck my cock,” he demanded.

“Pleeeeease,” she whined. “Please let me suck your cock!”

He grinned. Just seeing her like this was almost enough to make him grab her head and fuck her stupid mouth… but he couldn’t resist tormenting her just a little more first. “No, you may not.”

She whimpered in frustration. “But I waaaaaaaaant toooo…” 

He felt a wicked little thrill. Now this was retribution. All the nagging, all the demands, the prudishness whenever he wanted to do anything beyond vanilla sex, the way she thought she could give him orders just because she was his supervisor… all of it gone. This was a Clara he could tolerate.

 “I’ll let you suck it if you can answer me one question,” he taunted.

“…question?” she repeated, frowning slightly as if she had to think about what that word meant.

“Yes, question. And here it is. What is two and two?”

“Two and two… ah… two and two is…uuuuhhh…”

“Take your time.”

“…seven? No… fifty. No… ummm… what was the question again?” 

Oh, fuck it, he couldn’t wait anymore. “Close enough, “ he said, grabbing her head and pulling her towards him.

“Mmm,” she said as her warm, wet mouth wrapped around the head of his cock. 

 

 

He drew a sharp breath. This was the same bitch who hated giving blowjobs, going down on him like it was all she had ever wanted to do. He didn’t even have to push her anymore; she went deeper and deeper until she was deepthroating him. 

“Gllk… gllmmm… ggghlll… ugggggllk…” the noises escaping from her throat were half moans, half gagging sounds, and made his balls tighten almost painfully. 

No way he’d last for long like this. Fuck, her mouth was so soft… and her half-choked sounds so fucking hot… but he wanted to savour the moment, enjoy it for as long as he could… as long as he could… as long as he…

“Nnnghhhh!” he grunted, steadying himself against the desk as he came hard in her mouth. She gulped and swallowed down as his cock kept spurting, every blast feeling more intense, more powerful…

Panting, he pulled away. Clara made a cute little “ah!” sound as his still-hard cock popped out of her mouth… and she sat there on her knees, breathing almost as hard as him. 

“Fuck…” he panted. “We finally found a good use for that mouth of yours.”

“Mouth…” she breathed. Her expression was still vacant and brainless. God, he was already ready for another… no. He forced himself to focus. This wasn’t the time or place. Not in the manager’s office with all the hard surfaces and sharp edges, not to mention the possibility that Mike or Liana might decide to check what was taking them so long. 

Sure, he could probably hypnotize them into forgetting what they’d seen. Maybe he could even get Liana to join in, while fatass Mike watched the store… David’s cock twitched again as a vision appeared for his mind’s eye, of Clara and Liana both fucking and sucking him… 

But no. He couldn’t move too fast. He’d only had the ring for a short while and didn’t know enough about its limits yet. He’d need to do a few more tests.

Luckily he had the perfect guinea pig.

Clara was still on her knees, naked from the waist and down, staring stupidly at him.

“Well, Clara…” he said. “I think the next few days are going to be very fun for us both. Don’t you think?”

“Uuuuuuh…”

“Exactly.”

 

“Yes!” Clara cried in ecstasy as she bounced up and down on David’s cock. “I’m nothing but a whore! A fucktoy! …ah, ah, ooooh… Oh my fucking gods, it’s so good… ooooh yes…! Mmph… more, Master! Master! Oh… oh…”

David grabbed her hips and squeezed lightly. He could feel his cock throbbing; this was the best part. “Victim mode,” he commanded.

A shudder went through Clara, and her expression went from horny bliss to mortified terror. “No… noooo…” she squeaked, still moving her hips and grinding on his cock even more forcefully.. “David, what are you doing to me…? I-I can’t stop myself… no, I don’t want to… ah… ah-hah…” She started to sob. “Please don’t make me do this, please stop me… ah-hah…aaah-hah… I’ll do anything you want, I’ll never yell at you again… haaah…“

David once more grabbed her hips and squeezed. “Robot mode.”

Clara immediately stopped sobbing. Her body turned stiff and rigid, her face devoid of emotion or thought, her movements machine-like. “Clara-bot obeys,” she said in a robotic, emotionless voice. “Resuming fucking.” She thrust down on him with a steady, mechanical rhythm. “Fucking… fucking…”

David leaned back on the bed, moving his own hips in tandem with her thrusts while looking up at her blank expressionless face. Fuck, she was so hot like this… mindless and obedient and fucking like a machine…  

“Fucking… fucking… fucking…” she droned robotically. 

“Cumming,” he grunted. The trigger word made her stiffen, her mouth opening in a silent scream. He could feel her pussy clench around him. This was the moment. He let out a sharp cry as he came deep inside her.  

Her eyes drooped and she flopped down on top of him, panting almost as loudly as him.

He allowed himself to just lie there for a moment, basking in the afterglow with her soft, warm body on top of him. Then, he pushed her off him. “That’s enough. Go to sleep.”

Clara just grunted and rolled over onto her side. “…zzzz…”

Perfect… no attempts at pillow talk or cuddling, just fuck, cum and then sink into a deep sleep. 

“Damn,” he said. “If I’d had this ring back when we were first together, we’d never have broken up.” 

The only answer he got was a light snore.

It was amazing. It had been two days since he’d first hypnotized her, and his hold on her had only strengthened. He’d had her call in sick from work just so he could spend a few days testing out his new ring… as well as his new fucktoy. 

The SMPB site had listed Dream Jewel’s powers as mind control, illusion and transformation, but either this ring didn’t have the illusion or transformation powers, or he just didn’t know how to work them… his attempt at giving Clara bigger tits hadn’t worked at all. Probably those powers were tied to the Circlet of Westwood or some other piece of jewellery, or maybe they were part of Rosalyn’s natural superpowers. He didn’t know.

But when it came to the “mind control” part? That was total. He could make Clara say or do anything; he could change her mind or personality however he pleased. A horny slut, a dumb bimbo, a crying and begging victim, even an emotionless robot. And if he didn’t want to deal with her for a while, he just put her to sleep, and she would stay asleep like a good girl until he gave her permission to wake up. 

He smacked her ass to make sure she was completely out, and then raised himself. He needed a shower.

 

 

He’d just stepped out of the shower and put on a bathrobe when the doorbell rang.

A little annoyed, he made sure he was wearing the ring before going to answer. If this was one of those sour-faced neighbours, or some annoying door-to-door salesman…

But it wasn’t. Two women he didn’t know were standing at the door — one tall and athletic-looking, smartly dressed in a gray pants suit over a salmon-coloured blouse, and long blonde hair tied up in a tight ponytail, the other one shorter and more casually dressed in a black shirt and slacks, with curly dark hair and tan skin. His mood improved drastically when he realized that they were both pretty hot. Not supermodel good looks or anything, but they were easy enough on the eyes… he thought the blonde looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on where he’d seen her before. (This time he was pretty sure it hadn’t been at a Westwood New Years’ Party.)

“Yes?” he said, putting on his most charming smile. “Sorry, I just came out of the shower.”

“Sorry for disturbing you,” said the blonde. And then ruined it all by holding up what was unmistakably a police badge. “Detective Susan Greene, Metahuman Crimes Division. This is my partner, Officer Henrietta Hart. Are you David Greyfield?”

David’s blood froze. A pair of Sweepers? Had the police found out about his ring? Was Detective Susan Greene and Officer Henrietta Hart here to arrest him?

Forcing himself to maintain his smile, he managed to say. “Um… before I answer that, mind if I ask what this is about? There aren’t any supervillains in this apartment, I swear.”

“Oh, no, it’s nothing like that,” Detective Susan Greene said. “We were just hoping you could help shed some light on a case. The day before yesterday, about eight‐thirty in the morning, you took a cab from Downtown Oasis to Centerpoint Plaza, right?””

“Um.” He tried to think of something to say. How had they found out about that? What else did they know? “So what if I did? I was late for work because of a supervillain attack! Is it a crime to take a cab?”

“Of course not.” Detective Susan Greene was still smiling, but he thought he could detect a slight hint of irritation in her voice. “But the cab driver was in an accident that same morning, only a few minutes after she had dropped you off.”

“Oh. Uh. Really. Is she all right? It… it was a she, right?” he hurried to add. Did this cop suspect something? She had to suspect something. Damn, why did these cops have to be so nosey?

“Yes, she’s fine,” said Detective Susan Greene in what she probably intended to be a reassuring voice. “Drove the cab straight into Rainbow Lake, but nobody was seriously hurt. She has no memory of anything that happened that day, though. We suspect some kind of supervillain activity.”

He tried to laugh and hoped it sounded less nervous than he felt. “Heh… like I said, no supervillains in here. I mean, come on, does this look like a supervillain’s lair to you?”

Officer Henrietta Hart peeked over his shoulder to look inside. “It really doesn’t,” she said, speaking for the first time. “Supervillain lairs are usually more dramatic.”

“Nobody’s saying you’re a supervillain, Mister Greyfield,” said Detective Susan Greene. “But as far as we have been able to find out, you were the last person to talk to that cab driver before her accident… and when we talked to her, she displayed all the signs of someone who had been hypnotized or otherwise mind-controlled.”

“I… see.” He swallowed. They were suspecting him. Of course they were. They were probably here to arrest him. Maybe they had a team of cops ready to storm the apartment. Or maybe they were trying to trick him into some sort of confession. Should he demand a lawyer before he said anything else? No, that would just make him look guilty. Damn it, if he only knew what they really wanted…! 

“So we were hoping you could tell us if you noticed anything odd about her behaviour,” said Officer Henrietta Hart. “Anything that might have suggested that the driver wasn’t in control of herself.” 

“Um, not that I remember,” he said. “You think… you think a supervillain hypnotized her into driving her cab into a lake or something? Heh… what would be the point of that?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” said Officer Henrietta Hart. “So you really didn’t notice anything odd about her behaviour?”

“Not really… uh… she was a cab driver, you know? Who pays attention to cab drivers?” Damn it, he wasn’t prepared for these questions. What if he was being lured into a trap? You couldn’t trust cops, much less female cops. He needed time to think. He needed… 

He was still wearing the ring.

“Mr Greyfield?” said Detective Susan Greene. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” said David. “In fact, I just thought of something that could help your investigation.”

“Do tell.”

“Watch the stone shine, your will is now mine!”

Detective Susan Greene and Officer Henrietta Hart both stiffened as David held the ring up in front of their faces. Their eyes flashed red; then, just like Lucy and Clara before them, their expressions went blank and their arms fell limply to their sides.

David let out a huge sigh of relief. He hadn’t been certain it would work on them… hypnotizing a pair of cops wasn’t like hypnotizing your bitch of an ex. Who knew, maybe cops had special mental training or something? But thankfully, these two had gone under just as quickly and easily as Lucy and Clara had.

“Get in here,” he ordered, moving out of the way so they could enter his apartment. 

They walked stiffly, like marionettes. Once they were inside, they stopped in the middle of the room and stood still, side by side, as if waiting for further instructions.

He closed the door. “Stay there,” he told her. “Stay perfectly still. Don’t talk or scream, or even think. Just stand there until I talk to you again.”

Leaving them behind, he walked to the kitchen, opened the fridge and got the last can of beer. He wasn’t really a big drinker, but after that shock he really needed something to calm his nerves. Closing the fridge door, he opened the can and downed half the content in one gulp. 

Okay. He was calm. It was going to be fine. He just needed to find out what the cops knew, and what they just suspected. 

Beer still in hand, he moved back to the living room. The two women hadn’t moved an inch; standing in the middle of the room and staring blankly at nothing like a couple of lifeless and emotionless dolls.

“This was your own fault, you know,” he told them as he walked closer to them. “If you’d just left me alone, I wouldn’t have had to do this. You had it coming. You shouldn’t be such snooping bitches!”

“Yes,” they both chorused in dull voices. “We had it coming. We shouldn’t be such snooping bitches.”

“Good. Now, Detective…” David paused. What if they were just faking? Maybe they were playing along and waiting until one of them could shoot him, or worse. Or maybe they were genuinely hypnotized, but it was a trap and they were bugged or something. Fuck, maybe someone was listening to all this right now! They’d heard him call these two women snooping bitches! Even if they didn’t get anything else on him, they could probably bust him for insulting public servants or something!

“So,” he said, as casually as he could. “You two got any cop friends I should know about waiting for you? Any partners or backup squad ready to burst in? You did come here to arrest me, right?”

“No,” they both answered in unison, as if they had been programmed or were reading off a script. “We came here to ask you about the accident. There are no squads or cop friends waiting for us.”

Oh… they really hadn’t suspected anything. For a moment, he wondered if he might have overreacted a little… but of course, they could be lying. “Nobody’s waiting for you at all?” he pressed. “Nobody’s listening in? Detective Susan Greene… tell me the truth. Are there any other cops out there?”

“No,” the blonde answered dully. “Just my sister.”

“And is your sister a cop too? Is she… listening in on us?”

“No, she’s just outside. She’s my twin sister. She’s very protective.”

Twin sister, huh? David thought. “Is she going to call the cops… I mean any other cops… if you stay in here for too long?”

“Maybe.”

Fuck. Okay. He could work with this. “Okay. You got a phone, right? If you texted her and told her to come up here, would she?”

“Yes.” 

“Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to text your sister, and… wait, no.” he interrupted himself. The bitch clearly was hypnotized, otherwise she wouldn’t have mentioned her sister. So he might as well test things out a little.. “Detective… No, wait. Why should I call you ‘Detective’ anything? You’re not a detective, you’re just… you’re just a slut. An obedient slut. And you’re going to talk and act like one.” 

“Yes,” she said. Her voice turned sultry and a naughty grin spread on her lips.. “I’m an obedient slut.”

He grinned. It was so easy. “That’s right… so I’m just going to call you Susan. No… Susie. Susie’s a much better name for an obedient slut. Your name is Susie. Susie the Slut. And you’re going to call me ‘Master’ from now on.”

“Yes, Master,” she purred. “My name is Susie the Slut, and I’m a slut.”

“And Officer Henrietta… you are an equally obedient whore. From now on, your name is Henny the Whore, and you’ll call me Master as well.”

Henrietta’s blank expression shifted to a lustful smile. She cocked her hips and began fondling her breasts through her shirt. “Yes, Master,” she panted. “My name is Henny the Whore and I am a good little whore.”

“And you’d do anything for Master, wouldn’t you?” he went on. “No matter how perverted, no matter how depraved or illegal, you’d do it… and you’d love it. Cause you’re depraved obedient sluts and whores!”

“Anything, Master,” Susie ran her hands up and down her sides in a most sensual way.

“Henny the Whore loves doing depraved and perverted things for her Master.” Henny arched her back and continued to play with her tits.

“Even if it’s against the law?” he pressed. “Would you forget whatever oaths they had you swear when you became cops? Tell me everything I wanted to know, even if it was against the law for you to do so?”

“We only obey our Master,” said Henny. “Fuck the law and fuck the oaths.” 

Susie licked her lips.  “Literally, if Master wanted. We would get the original Constitution scrolls… roll them up tight… and fuck our cunts with them.”

Fuck, that was hot. His cock was rock-hard again. These bitches were hornier than Clara. Only a few words had turned them from professional law-abiding cops into depraved sluts. But maybe they were just faking… He had to find out.

“Listen, Susie the Slut… Henny the Whore…” he said. “In my bedroom, right now, there’s a sleeping woman. Her name is Clara, she’s hypnotized as well, and she won’t wake up until I tell her to. If I asked you to go and fuck her in her sleep, right now, would you do it?”

“Fuck yeah,” said Susie. Her hand had moved to her crotch, and she was stroking herself through her pants. “We’ll fuck that snoring bitch until she’s in a coma.”

“Good,” said David, managing to keep his voice straight. “And your twin sister, Susie? Will you call her in here so I can hypnotize her and… and turn her into a depraved slut like you?”

“Yes, Master,” Susie said gleefully. “I’ll call her whenever you want. I want my sister to become a depraved slut like me. Then I’ll fuck her while she licks Henny’s pussy.”

“Oooh, fuck, yes…” Henny moaned. “And then all three of us are gonna fuck the sleeping slut in your bedroom and make her cum her comatose brains out.”

“We’ve got a plan, then,” he said. This was going to work out. He’d never had multiple chicks at the same time before… and he could plant some suggestions in their minds that would keep them from starting an investigation. This ring was amazing.

“Before we do that, though,” he said, revelling in the moment, “I want you both to do a striptease for me. Slow and sexy, until you’re all naked.  And while you’re stripping, I’m going to ask you a few questions. Got it?”

“Yes, Master.” Susie and Henny chorused. They ran their hands down their bodies, gyrating their hips as if dancing to some music only they could hear, teasingly starting to unbutton their pants.

“Good,” he repeated. He had to swallow a couple of times before he was able to continue: “So, now tell me the truth, Susie. Why are you really here? Did you suspect me of having anything to do with that cab accident?”

“Not really, Master.” Susie spun around as she slowly pulled her pants down her legs to reveal a pair of black panties of a round little ass.. “We were just hoping to get some evidence against that billionaire bitch… Rosalyn Westwood. Dream Jewel.” 

David had to let this sink in, taking the opportunity to watch Susie’s panty-clad ass rotate. “Dream Jewel?” he said. “Isn’t she one of the good guys?”

“That’s what she wants everyone to think, Master,” Henny stepped out of her pants, leaving them on the floor.  “She officially became a super two years ago, but she hasn’t done that much superheroing… a few official team-ups with other superheroes, and she was there with her sidekick Sleeping Spectre to stop the coordinated supervillain attack on that movie premiere last year…” She turned around in a circle as she started peeling off her shirt.

“But the department suspects that Rosalyn is behind several kidnappings and disappearances these last two years…sex trafficking, hypno-slavery, strange transformations. The Westwoods deny it, of course… and they have a lot of money and a lot of lawyers.” Susie peeled off her jacket, twirling it around her arm before tossing it aside, leaving her only in her blouse, shoes and panties. 

“We’ve had a few reports on minor disturbances, but nothing they couldn’t talk their way out of or throw money at… Most of the things we’ve managed to pin on Rosalyn, it was proved she was acting in self-defense.” Henny pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it aside. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and her naked tits were on full display, swaying as she twirled around.

They were speaking in perfect tandem. Once one woman had finished her sentence, the other continued. Their trance seemed to have synced them up somehow. Was this always how things went down when two people were hypnotized by the ring at the same time? He’d have to check that later.

Susie unbuttoned her blouse, one button at a time. “But there’s been incidents…always involving business competitors or enemies of the Westwoods. Two years ago, Evelyn Beaumont, CEO of SweetSpot Foods, was kidnapped just before attempting a merger with Davidson Jelly Empire, where Rosalyn’s father is one of the major stockholders. She reappeared later, having been turned into an energy monster. She’s still under heavy sedation in an energy draining tank, and the merger never happened.” The blouse joined the jacket and pants on the floor, leaving Susie in her black bra and panties.

Henny was only in her white panties, and she was swaying back and forth, playing with her panties, teasing a buttock, giving a brief glimpse of the tight triangle of black curls between her legs. She wasn’t as toned as Susie, but she was pleasantly shapely… and not a tan line to be seen. “Then there was Julian Sinclair, head of the Sinclair Cooperation… a few months ago, he was in talks to snatch a major business deal from the Westwoods, and ended up in a car accident. His driver didn’t remember anything afterwards… just like the case was with Lucy Davenport.”

Davenport? Huh, he hadn’t even thought about what Lucy’s full name might be.

Susie unhooked her bra and threw it to the floor..She cupped her tits for a moment, stroking her body up and down before her hands came to rest by her panties. “And only last month, all the higher-ups at Starling Enterprises woke up with total amnesia. None of them remembers who they are… Starling Enterprises went into chaos, and Westwood Inc swooped in and bought up the entire company.”

Once more, she spun slowly around as she pulled down her panties. Unlike Clara and Henny, her cunt was all smooth and clean-shaven. 

“We just need proof of one incident,” Henny said, breathing heavily as she finally stopped playing with her panties and tore them off, standing naked in front of him. “If we can prove that Rosalyn was behind Lucy Davenport’s accident… that gives us the excuse we need to open further investigations…  get the White Coven involved ..”  She pulled off her socks and threw them away. Naked, she stopped dancing, and just stood there panting lustfully.

“I see,” said David weakly. He had to let this sink in. So Rosalyn was a bad guy, huh? And the cops suspected it? He really didn’t know why it should come as a surprise… she was a billionaire. No such thing as a good billionaire, right? Really, he was doing everyone a favour by keeping the ring. 

The problem was, Rosalyn probably wouldn’t see it like that. 

He needed to think. 

“Please, Master,” Susie panted. “Susie and Henny are so horny… “

“We did a striptease for you…” Henny agreed. “We told Master everything he wanted to know… we wanna fuck…” 

“Not yet,” David forced himself to say. He needed to take care of all the loose threads here before he did anything else. “Text your sister, Susie. Tell her… tell her that everything’s fine, but you need her to, um, help identify something, and that she should come up here right away.”

Susie whimpered, but obeyed. She fished her jacket up off the floor and pulled a cell phone out of one of the pockets, quickly typing out a message. 

“Wait,” said David, grabbing the phone. “Let me send it.”

He wrinkled his nose as he read: plz join henriett n me in the aprt. everythin fine, but need ur hlp identifing sumthin. Apparently the police academy didn’t care if their officers mangled the language when texting. Still, there didn’t seem to be any sort of hidden message or call for help, so he pressed “send.”

“And sent,” he said. 

“Please let us go fuck the sleeping slut,” said Susie. “Please, Master, please… Susie wanna fuck… Susie wanna fuck…”

“Henny wanna fuck too… Henny wanna fuck too… Please, oh please, Henny wanna fuck…”

“What the hell are you doing to those two women?!”

David jumped at the sudden voice. In the doorway stood a tall, athletic blonde. She looked almost identical to Susie, but wore what resembled a blue two-piece swimsuit, golden bracelets, and a logo like a drop of water on her chest. She was snarling in a most unladylike manner..

Too late, David realized why Susie had seemed familiar: She was a dead ringer for the superheroine Naiad.  That idiot Susie hadn’t thought to tell him her sister was a fucking superheroine. 

“Uh… this isn’t what it looks like!” said David. 

“Really,” said Naiad, raising her hands and thrusting them out at him. Jets of water shot toward him, hitting him square in the chest with such force that he was knocked over onto his back. His bathrobe flew open and exposed his naked body… as well as his hard-on, though he was rapidly losing that.

“Ack,” said David. It wasn’t the wittiest thing to say, but it was all he could manage.

“Because what it looks like,” Naiad said, waving her arms as long, watery tendrils wrapped around him and lifted him into the air, “is that you’ve hypnotized and stripped two cops!”

David found himself suspended in mid-air, held up by tendrils of water. He tried struggling against his watery bonds, but somehow they were as impossible to escape as if they’d been made of iron… and they were fucking cold against his bare skin. He couldn’t escape.

Quick… what did he know about Naiad? She usually hung out at Crystal Seas, but wasn’t an uncommon sight here in Steelhaven either. Her main power was hydrokinetics, but she was also freakishly strong and durable. He was pretty sure she could shrug off having cars thrown at her, so any punch or kick he could deliver wouldn’t even register. He had some vague idea that her water powers made her vulnerable to electricity, but unless he managed to trick her into sticking her finger into one of the wall plugs, that wasn’t going to help. 

His only chance was the ring. But he needed his hand free in order to show it to her — 

Idea.

“Susie!” he sputtered. “Obey your Master — fuck your sister!”

“Yes, Master!” With a roar of lust, Susie pounced on Naiad. 

She clearly didn’t share her sister’s superstrength or endurance, but she didn’t need to. Naiad’s concentration faltered momentarily, and the water tendrils weakened just enough for David to wrangle his hand free.. 

“Susie wanna fuck… Susie wanna fuck…’ Susie growled as she tore at Naiad’s clothes. 

“Snap out of it, Sue!” Naiad held her struggling sister at arm’s length, turning her head to glare at David. “I don’t know how you got her in your power like this, but you’re going to release her now, or —”

“Watch the stone shine… your will is now mine!” David shouted, forcing the words out.

Naiad’s eyes flashed red, and she went slack. The watery tentacles lost their shape, sending both water and David crashing to the floor.

For a long moment, all he could do was lie there in the middle of a large puddle, drenched and half-naked, and try to catch his breath. 

It had fucking worked. It had been close, but he’d fucking done it. He’d been attacked by a fucking superheroine, and he’d come out on top. 

Slowly, heart still pounding in his chest, he sat up and looked towards Naiad and Susie. 

They too were lying on the floor, utterly soaked, but neither of them seemed to care. Susie hadn’t wasted any time stripping her suddenly docile and passive sister naked… not that she’d had a big job, since all Naiad wore was that two-piece swimsuit… and now she was on top of her, kissing and caressing; panting and moaning as she rubbed her crotch against Naiad’s thigh.

Naiad for her part was lying on her back, limp and unresisting, staring blankly up at the ceiling with her mouth half-open. She was totally out. 

Henny was sitting on her knees beside them, totally unconcerned about all the water, and furiously stroking her pussy. “…fuck, so hot…” she moaned. “Fuck her, Susie, fuck her…”

“Susie, hold it,” David commanded. “Get off her. I want to ask her a few questions.”. 

Susie let out a grunt of frustration, but obediently rolled off her sister. “Susie’s so horny… nnn… Susie’s so horny…” she murmured, flopping over on her back to lie in the puddle. Within seconds, she’d started to masturbate, stroking her glistening pussy with feverish need.

“Henny… fuck Susie while I talk to Naiad!”

“Yes, Master!” Henny cheered. Within moments she was embracing Susie, and the two were in full liplock. That ought to keep them busy for a bit.

Naiad didn’t react at all. She still lay there blankly staring, oblivious to how she was lying naked in a puddle of water. 

David got to his feet, The bathrobe clung uncomfortably to him, so he took it off and let it fall to the floor, while looking down on Naiad. She really looked almost completely identical to her twin… probably people who knew them well could tell them apart, but to him the only thing that distinguished them was that Naiad was still wearing those bracelets. Hah, even their cunts were identical, all smooth and hairless.

“Naiad…” he said. “Wait… what’s your real name?”

“Samantha,” she answered, her tone just as dull and emotionless as Susie’s had been. “Samantha Greene.”

“Samantha,” he repeated. “Sam. Heh, Sam and Susie. That fits. All right, Sam. Let’s not have a repeat of this scene. How many more people are in on this investigation? Who else is out there, ready to charge in?” 

“Nobody.”

“Nobody at all? No police, no supers, no other metahumans, no regular people… uh, no super-intelligent police dogs that can sense when someone’s hypnotized?”

“No. I was the only one. There is nobody else out there. Just me. I like to keep an eye on Susan.”

He allowed himself a brief sigh of relief, but he wasn’t about to relax just yet. He had the situation under control… it would be a shame if he lost it again just because he’d ignored some obvious detail or failed to ask the obvious questions. “All right then. Did you know about this ring?” He held it up to show her. “Did you, or any of the cops, know I had it… or otherwise suspect I had some way of hypnotizing the cab driver?”

“We didn’t know about the ring,” Sam said. “According to Susan, the department discussed the possibility that you had hypnotized Lucy Davenport, but they found it unlikely… they thought it was far more likely that  Rosalyn Westwood was behind it.”

“All right,” he said slowly. “But if you really didn’t suspect me, why did you charge in immediately after getting that text? You looked like you knew your sister was in trouble.”

“She didn’t use the code phrase,” said Sam. “We have a system. If she texts me and doesn’t use one of our agreed-upon code phrases, I know she’s in trouble.”

“Code phrase?” David turned angrily on Susie, who had moved into a sixty-nine with Henny and was lying underneath her… but he let the question die unasked on his lips. He already knew the answer. She hadn’t used the code phrase because he hadn’t told her to. It was starting to dawn on him that having a slave that was completely and utterly obedient, and did only what she was told, might be somewhat of a mixed blessing.

No matter. He’d made a mistake. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. And besides… He looked down at the three women. Susie and Henny were moaning against each other’s pussies, Sam was staring blankly up at the ceiling. 

This entire situation had been a win for him, hadn’t it? Now he knew just how powerful the ring was… two cops and a superheroine, all reduced to mindless, obedient thralls just from a brief flash of light and a spoken phrase. There was no limit to what he could do. 

Fucking hell, if even superheroines went down this easily, he could become a fucking supervillain or something. Well, obviously not a villain villain… he wouldn’t try to take over the world or start a new war or anything like that. But, well, he could be someone who kept the bitches on their toes, couldn’t he? Keep them humble, like he was doing with Clara, Pleasant images filled his head of all those hot women in skintight outfits, standing there with blank stares and calling him Master…

His cock, which had been limp ever since Naiad’s watery attack, immediately sprang to life and hardened again. 

Okay, okay. He needed to calm down. It obviously wouldn’t be that easy.  He had to admit, at least to himself, that he wouldn’t have been able to hypnotize Naiad if it hadn’t been for a solid dose of luck. If she’d decided to punch his lights out instead of using the water tendrils… or if Susie hadn’t managed to distract her sister enough for her to lose concentration… he’d probably have been screwed. If any of those heroines got the first strike, he wouldn’t have much of a chance.

Besides, even with how powerful this ring seemed to be, there’d be no way he’d get them all. Naiad had instantly fallen into trance, but he couldn’t assume that every single super out there would be as easily dealt with as her. Some would have greater willpower… some might even be immune. Not to mention, if he just went around and hypnotized heroines all randomly, Rosalyn would almost certainly find out and put two and two together. She wasn’t a complete idiot.

He tried to push the image of all the heroines of Paragon Bay as his mindless slaves out of his head. It wouldn’t happen. No matter how much of a power rush it would be, it wouldn’t happen. 

Still… he looked at the ring. If he just was a little smart about this…He needed a plan. 

Better yet, he needed a scapegoat. The police suspected Rosalyn, did they…?

 

 

Magikitty, AKA Kitty Gwyn. Member of the Familiar Four. a team of animal-themed shapeshifters affiliated with the White Coven. Lives and usually operates in the Mystic Grove district, but thanks to her teleportation ability, she can be encountered pretty much everywhere in the city.
Powers: Like the rest of the Familiar Four (see Witchcrow, Enchantmouse and Viper), Magikitty is a spirit of magic given a body and a humanoid shape by the late White Sorceress. A shapeshifter by nature, she can take on the form of any feline or felinoid creature in existence, from small housecats to giant tigers. She also has vast knowledge of magic, and notable magical powers — her speciality being anything based around stealth, invisibility and teleportation. Like the feline she is, Magikitty can go pretty much anywhere she wants without getting noticed.
Threat level: B. Like the rest of her team, Magikitty is dedicated to helping, rather than harming, civilians, but her teleportation and ability to enter pretty much anywhere without being noticed, as well as her knowledge and command of magic, still puts her at a potential Citywide level.

David read the last paragraph again and sighed. Why couldn’t these SMPB shitheads use language regular people understood? Threat level B?

He looked at the picture of Magikitty. She didn’t look like someone who could be a citywide threat. Apart from the kitty ears and tail, she looked like a normal young woman with brown skin and inexplicably pink hair — like a ridiculously cute catgirl from some cartoon porn website or other. And she was supposed to be some sort of citywide menace? Fucking nonsense. It had to mean something else.

Luckily, he had someone he could ask.

David looked up from the laptop and toward the couch, where Sam was still sleeping, stark naked except for the silver bracelets around her wrists.

He’d had to let Susie and Henny go, so they could head back to the police station and report that they hadn’t found anything suspicious about David Greyfield, and that Rosalyn Westwood was still the top suspect in Lucy’s car accident. But he’d decided to keep Sam around a little longer. There was something exhilarating about having a fucking superheroine in his apartment, all naked and obedient and completely in his power. And now, apparently, useful.

“Sam,” he said, snapping his fingers. “Your Master commands you. Open your eyes and sit up. Remain in your deep trance, but sit up and answer my questions as if you were awake.”

Sam opened her eyes and slowly sat up on the couch, her expression still completely blank. “I’m ready to answer your questions, Master.”

He couldn’t pretend that wasn’t immensely satisfying to hear.

“You’re a super,” he said. “You know what this whole ‘threat level’ thing the SMPB keeps going on about actually means?”

“Yes, Master,” said Sam tonelessly. “It’s a way of classifying supers. Their powers and abilities.”

“I get that part,” said David, a little annoyed. “But what does it mean? What’s level B?”

Sam paused for a moment, as if thinking over how to explain it. “Supers and metahumans are extremely varied. Very few of us have the exact same powers. I can control water, Goldstreak has flight and energy fields, the Brute is impossibly strong, Miss Metamorph can turn into—”

“I get it. Lots of different powers. So what?”

“So they’re difficult to classify. Some powers cancel each other out, or have advantages against others. If I had to fight someone with fire powers, that would be easy for me. But if I went up against someone with electricity-based powers, even if they were technically weaker than me—”

“They’d fry you,” said David. “All right, but where do the threat levels come in?”

“They measure how big a threat a super would be to the world around them if they were allowed to rampage freely and unchecked for fifteen minutes,” said Sam. “Like how big an area their powers could affect in that time, if there were nobody around to counter them. They decided that was more useful for classification than trying to rank who could hit the hardest. It gives us an idea of how to respond and where to focus rescue efforts.”

David thought that over. He could already see some weaknesses in the system; it didn’t say anything about how hard someone might be to take down, for instance… still, he could sort of see the logic. If Magikitty was classified as citywide because of her teleportation abilities, that probably meant she could potentially use her powers all over the city.

That left one obvious question.

“So what level are you, Sam?”

“D-level,” said Sam without hesitation. “Most supers are either D-level or E-level, really. It means our powers have a limited range. In fifteen minutes I could probably flood a few buildings, maybe a couple of neighbourhoods if I was really amped up, but not much beyond that. Still very dangerous if you happen to be in one of those buildings, but not a threat on a city-wide scale.”

David smirked and held up the ring. “And what would I be, considering I have this?”

She paused again, but only briefly. “E-level,” she said. “The ring can only affect people who are looking at it and who hear the trigger phrase, so your range is extremely limited. In fifteen minutes, you couldn’t get more than a few dozen people. Probably less.”

“Oh.” David felt his glee vanish and turn into suspicion. “And what’s the lowest level?”

“F,” said Sam. “That’s the baseline. Normal humans, or supers whose powers aren’t considered a threat. Healers, for example.”

“Damn.” Even with a ring that could enslave anyone, he was still only at the second-lowest level? That was just insulting.

Oh well. No matter. He’d still managed to enslave a super who ranked above him. That had to say something about how misleading those classifications could be. In the end, it all came down to how he used the power he’d been given. And if he could just get Magikitty, she’d be the perfect pawn. That ability to go anywhere and remain undetected was exactly what he needed.

“All right, Sam,” he said. “You’re going to tell me everything you know about Magikitty. If she’s a B-level threat, we’re going to plan this thoroughly.”

 

 

“Do you think trees get bored?” said Kitty.

“Do I think trees get bored?” Viper turned her head to look at Kitty. “Well. All things taken into consideration, I’d say…that’s the stupidest question I’ve heard.” 

“They look like they get bored.“ Kitty tilted her head, her large feline ears twitching. “Just standing there all year round, doing nothing. Do they ever get a vacation? Don’t they ever want to travel and see the world?”

“They’re trees, Kitty,” said Viper. “Standing around doing nothing is what they’re made for. Is this your way of telling me you’re bored?”

“No. Yes. Maybe.” Kitty’s tail flicked back and forth in frustration. “Why can’t I just patrol with Crow and Mouse? We’ve been here on this stupid rooftop for ages and nothing’s happened!”

Viper bit back a sigh. Somewhere, she thought, there had to be someone with a more infuriating sister than Kitty. She couldn’t imagine what that sister might be like, but she had to exist. “For the eleventy-sixth time,” she said. “You get to go on patrol when you can prove to us that you’ll actually do the patrolling.”

“I do do the patrolling,” Kitty protested.

“Teleporting across the city and calling it a day is not patrolling…oh, why do I bother?” Viper sighed. “You’re on stakeout duty with me and that’s that. Count Ravenwood’s orders.” 

Kitty paused, but only for a brief moment. Then she gave Viper her sweetest smile. “Count Ravenwood wouldn’t have to know it if I…”

“We’re not having this discussion again.” Viper cupped Kitty’s chin and tilted her head upwards to look her straight in the eyes. “Kitty… obey me.”

A brief flash of the hypnotic gaze was enough. Kitty’s arms and tail went limp, and her eyes drooped. “Yes, Viper,” she said in a distant, dreamy voice.

“Now we’re going to keep an eye on the street below, and you’re going to be quiet until we spot the target.”

“Yes, Viper.”

Viper let her go, and watched her settle down to watch the street. She knew Count Ravenwood would frown on her using her power on Kitty like that, but at least now her sister would be docile and quiet until the target showed up.

The sun had set now. Above them the sky was dark, and below them the street below them was lit by scattered lampposts. A few late-night walkers meandered along the sidewalk, presumably heading home after long shifts, but otherwise everything was quiet. 

Compared to districts like Central Heights, Starlight Views or even Aurora, Mystic Grove didn’t have the most thriving nightlife. Sure, it had bars and nightclubs and all-night diners and coffee shops where students or occultists could feed their caffeine addiction, and occasionally you’d get some visitors from Tir’Galdur or Oceandra who insisted on partying in the streets all night… but for the most part, when the sun went down the people of Mystic Grove tended towards quieter pursuits. Such as ritual stargazing, spell research, partaking in mystical sex rites, or… 

Viper’s eyes fastened on the trenchcoat-clad woman down below. She was leaning casually against a lamppost while clutching a briefcase.

Bingo.

“Kitty, wake up,” Viper hissed, nudging her sister. “Target’s arrived.”

“Huh? What? Oh!” Kitty blinked, snapping out of her trance. “Is it Nina?”

Viper nodded, placing a finger to her lips. “Now, we wait for her buyer,” she whispered, before adding, as sternly as she could without raising her voice: “Remember — no jumping in until we catch them in the act. We don’t want a repeat of last time.”

“Okay, okay.” Kitty huffed. “You don’t have to hypnotize me every time. I can follow plans.”

After a few minutes, a man came sauntering down the street. He had his hands stuffed in his pockets, whistling a jaunty tune, and radiated an air of casual indifference —  the sort of casual indifference people only radiate when they’re up to something dodgy. He approached the woman with the briefcase, the two of them exchanging furtive glances under the flickering streetlight.

The pair stood there for a moment, sizing each other up. Then, the man spoke: “You got the goods?”

“Depends,” said the woman casually. “What’s the password?”

The man groaned in frustration. “Come on. It’s me. I’ve been buying from you for months. Can’t we skip the passwords, just this once?”

“No password, no deal.”

With a resigned sigh, the man muttered, “Elbow macaroni fits on my dick.”

The woman smirked. “Never give a hedgehog a lap dance. See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” She handed him the briefcase. “Careful with this one. It’s a little unstable.”

Viper cursed under her breath, leaping from the rooftop. Mid-air, her legs shifted, melding together into the thick coils of a serpent. By the time she hit the ground, her transformation into a lamia was complete. She slithered toward the two humans with the smooth, predatory grace of a serpent.

The woman gasped, stumbling back as Viper closed in, wrapping her long, snake-like body around her in one swift motion, pinning her firmly against the lamppost.

“You!” the woman gasped.

“Hello, Nina. Or, since you’re on the job, should I say Carrot Noir?” said Viper. “No, please, don’t try to struggle. We’re not having you run away on us again — hey!”

That last part wasn’t part of the speech she’d rehearsed, but it felt like a natural thing to say when the man suddenly turned and bolted down the street.

He only got a few metres before Kitty appeared beside him. With one fluid motion, she snatched the briefcase from his hand.

“Thanks!” she chirped, and vanished.

The man blinked in confusion, staring down at his now empty hand.

Before Viper could do anything else, there was a huge flash of light. She looked up and saw, in the distance, a brilliant beam of light shoot up into the night sky, crackling with unstable magical energy. It flickered violently, and then dissipated. 

Carrot Noir, still trapped in her coils, had stopped struggling and now stared in shock at the fading light. “Wait… was that from Coven’s Refuge?” she asked, her voice a mix of awe and disbelief. “Did… did that idiot just teleport to Coven’s Refuge?”

“Yes,” said Viper coldly. “And you’d better hope no one was hurt.”

“Me?” Carrot Noir retorted. “I’m not the one teleporting into the most magical place in the city with a volatile Mana Surge Stone!”

“No, you’re just the one selling volatile Mana Surge Stones to amateurs like —” Viper glanced around. The man had vanished. “Where did he go now?”

“Looking for this guy?”

A melodic voice cut through the street as a shimmering wave of water glided down, carrying the fleeing man in its current, only his head sticking out. His limbs flailed within the watery cocoon, but to no avail. A tall, blonde woman in a blue swimsuit strolled behind the wave, her smile triumphant as she approached Viper.

“Naiad?” said Viper, blinking in surprise. The hydromancer rarely ventured into Mystic Grove.

“Viper,” Naiad greeted with a nod. “I saw the light show and caught this one trying to make a break for it.” With a flick of her wrist, the water deposited the man at Viper’s feet. “He wouldn’t be yours, would he?”

“Yes, he would!” said Viper, tightening her coils around the Carrot Noir and trying to shake the embarrassing feeling that she and Kitty weren’t actually doing a very good job tonight. “Can you help me get him to Coven’s Refuge? I need to check that Kitty —”

“Here’s Kitty!” Kitty’s voice rang out from above. She stood on the rooftop, looking immensely pleased with herself, holding a now-dim Mana Surge Stone in her hand. With a graceful leap, she landed beside Viper, her tail swishing with satisfaction. “Miss me?”

Viper glared at her. “Kitty! That was incredibly reckless!”

Kitty, unfazed, tossed the Mana Surge Stone into the air and caught it again, flashing a grin. “No, it wasn’t. I had everything under control! Took the briefcase to Coven’s Refuge, opened it, took the Mana Stone out, and safely released all the unstable magic. Everything handled!”

“You could’ve killed everyone there!” Viper snapped. “How many times?! You can’t just blink away with something that dangerous!”

“Relax, Viper. Everything went just fine! Nobody got hurt! And even if I had lost control — which I wouldn’t have — Count Ravenwood was right there. He’d have dealt with it.”

Viper’s eyes narrowed. “And what did he say about you teleporting an unstable Mana Surge Stone into the most magical place in Paragon Bay?”

Kitty avoided Viper’s gaze. “Well… after I released all the magic into the sky, he said… ‘Kitty’.”

“And?”

“And he might’ve started saying something else, but I didn’t have time to stick around and listen to his speeches. I had to come back here and help you!” Kitty glanced between Naiad and the prisoners. “Looks like you’ve got it under control, though. We’re both awesome!”

Before Viper could argue further, Naiad stepped forward. “Sorry to interrupt the discussion,” she said smoothly, “but I actually came here looking for you, Magikitty.”

Kitty perked up, ears twitching. “Me? What for?”

“I need your teleportation skills for something urgent,” said Naiad. “Over in Steelhaven. It can wait for a bit if you need to deliver these two over to the proper authorities first, but — ”

“No, that’s okay!” Kitty’s tail flicked with excitement, and she shot a sideways glance at Viper, and thrust the Mana Surge Stone into her hands. “Here, take this. You can handle it, right?” Without waiting for a response, she teleported to Naiad’s side.

“Kitty, wait—!” Viper began.

“Tell Count Ravenwood I’ll be back when I’ve helped with this really important problem!” And with that, both Kitty and Naiad vanished, leaving Viper standing alone with the prisoners.

Viper exhaled slowly, rubbing her temples. “One of these days…” she muttered, tightening her coils around Carrot Noir, who was watching the whole scene in stunned silence.

“Right,” she said, reaching out with her free hand to pick up the still dazed and drenched man from the ground. “You two are coming with me to Coven’s Refuge, and you can tell Count Ravenwood all about this.”

Carrot Noir gulped. “Any chance of just being turned over to the police instead?”

Viper snorted. “After you tried to sell an unstable Mana Surge Stone to an obvious amateur? You’ll be lucky if we decide not to call the Mystic Council down on you. Now are you coming willingly, or…” her eyes began glowing with a hypnotic light. “…do I have to persuade you?”

 

 

“Fucking died again. Damn dragon.” 

David glared at the screen, where the roaring red dragon stood triumphantly over the smoking remains of his character. Grumbling, he put the controller down and glanced at the clock… and blinked in surprise.

Huh? Just past midnight? Sam had only been gone thirty minutes?! He could have sworn that it had been at least a couple of hours.

He got up off the couch and began pacing around the room. What if something had gone wrong? He’d sent Sam out to Mystic Grove, where you couldn’t throw a brick without hitting some two-bit sorcerer. What if one of them sensed that she was under a mind control spell? What if Magikitty sensed it? If she was supposed to be some sort of magic spirit given form and flesh, wouldn’t it make sense if she could tell stuff like that?

Why did he never see the obvious flaws in his plans until after he’d set them in motion?

“Clara,” he called. “Get your ass out here.”

Clara, currently in ‘submissive housemaid’ mode, emerged from the kitchen, where she had been cleaning. She was wearing a frilly apron and nothing else. “Yes, Master,” she said.

“Clara… you’re pretty smart. Or at least you used to be before I made you my slave.” David toyed with the ring. “Was it a good idea to send Sam out to fetch Magikitty without taking precautions?”

“Of course it was a good idea, Master,” said Clara. “Precautions are for people whose plans suck.”

“Yeah…” David frowned. “You’re just saying that because you’re in my power and can’t even think any negative thoughts about me.”

“Yes, Master,” she replied simply.

“So you’re completely useless.”

“Yes, Master.“

David grumbled. “Get back into the kitchen, will you?”

“Yes, Master.” Clara turned and went back into the kitchen. 

David gave a customary glance at her naked ass as she walked away, but in truth he was too agitated to really appreciate the sight. 

Before he could spiral further, though, the doorbell rang. 

David felt a surge of relief mingled with tension. He quickly straightened and glanced at Clara, who was just about to enter the kitchen. “Forget the kitchen, head to the bedroom,” he ordered. “Lie down on the bed, go to sleep, and stay asleep until I come to wake you up.”

“Yes, Master,” Clara responded, turning and walking towards the bedroom.

David waited until she was out of sight before he hurried up to the front door. He took a deep breath and opened the door… 

…and there was Sam, looking as calm and collected as ever. And beside her stood Magikitty. 

She looked just like her SMPB picture: Skin as brown as a nut, hair pinker than cotton candy. Her costume consisted of a sleeveless unitard (or, heh, a “catsuit”) in two shades of pink, dark pink gloves, a shiny golden headpiece that looked kind of like a tiara, and a shiny golden belt around her waist.  Her pointy kitty ears moved and twisted like a real cat’s, and her furry pink tail flicked slowly behind her. 

She certainly didn’t look like someone who could be a potential threat to a whole city; in fact in person she reminded him even more of a sexy comedy relief character from some porn cartoon or other. This would be easy.

“Come in,” he said smoothly, ushering them both inside and quietly closing the door behind them.

Magikitty stepped inside, looking curiously around the apartment before setting her gaze on David. “Hi!” she said cheerfully. “I’m Magikitty! Naiad said it was really important that I come here! Who are you?”

“Well…” David looked over at Sam, who was.standing to one side and looking quite unconcerned about what was about to happen. He grinned and raised his hand to show her the ring. “You can call me ‘Master’.” 

“Master,” she repeated. “That’s a weird name. What were your parents thinking?” 

“Uh… what?” David hesitated.

“Oh, unless you’re a spirit of magic given physical form like me?” Magikitty brightened. “You don’t seem like you’re magic, but I’ve met magical creatures that could hide their magic really well —”

“What? No!” David cut her off before she started rambling. Magikitty seemed to be a talker. “I just… I have a magical artifact that I need you to look at.”

“Oh!” Magikitty nodded. “Sure, I can look at magic artifacts. Is it like one of those really dangerous ones that you can’t take out in the open because supervillains would try to steal it? And since I can teleport, you want me to take it to Mystic Grove for safekeeping? I can totally do that! I just did it with a Mana Surge Stone, and it was —”

He thrust his hand out and held the ring right in front of her face. “Watch the stone shine, your will is now mine!”

“Huh?! What does that… ah…” Magikitty’s voice trailed off as her eyes flashed the familiar red. Her arms dropped to her sides, and her tail drooped as her expression turned blank.

David let out a breath he wasn’t aware he’d been holding. Then he laughed — not really an evil laugh, more like a laugh of triumph and relief. Within seconds, the B-level threat was just as helplessly in his power as all the others had been.

“Can you hear me?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said flatly. “I can hear you.”

“You are mine now. You’ll obey my every command. You understand?”

“Yes. I am yours now. I’ll obey your every command.”

David lowered the ring, satisfied that once again, it had worked. Well, of course it had worked… nobody could resist the ring. A silly pink-haired catgirl, level B or not, stood absolutely no chance.

It was almost too easy, really… from a simple, annoyingly perky cab driver, to two trained cops, and now a B-level superheroine. None of them had resisted, all of them had become his mindless slaves the moment he showed them the ring. 

If things kept being this easy it’d almost get boring… already he noticed the thrill of seeing Magikitty all blank and helpless wasn’t quite as big as the thrill he’d felt when he’d enslaved Sam.

No matter. He hadn’t enslaved this pink haired cat-slut for fun; he had a job for her. Still… no point in letting the opportunity pass by… 

“Sam,” he said. “The kitty-slut here and I have a few things to discuss. Go to the bedroom, get into bed with Clara and go to sleep. You won’t wake up until I come to wake you up.”

“Yes, Master.” Without further comment, Sam turned and walked towards the bedroom. Good… now both Sam and Clara would be out of his hair while he focused on more important things.

David turned back to Magikitty, who still stood there staring blankly at the world. “Magikitty,” he said. “What’s your real name?”

“Kitty.” 

“Kitty?” he repeated, unable to hide his surprise. The SMPB had listed her name as ‘Kitty Gwyn’, but he’d thought that was an alias or something. “That’s really your real name?! Kitty?”

“Yes.”

“And you thought ‘Master’ was a weird name.”

“It is a weird name,” said Kitty tonelessly.

“No, it’s not,” said David.

“You don’t think it’s weird because you’re used to it.” 

“My name isn’t weird… I mean… my name isn’t Master!” David snapped. Was the cat-bitch cheeking him even while hypnotized? “My name is David! But I want you to call me Master! Get it?”

“Yes,” said Kitty. “Your name is David, but you want it to be Master, so you changed it.”

David gave up. “I… you know what, good enough. You’re not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are you?”

“I’m not a knife at all. I’m Kitty.”

“All right then… Kitty.” David decided to change tactics. Just straight orders from now on. “Starting now, you’ll only refer to yourself in third person. The word ‘I’ is no longer in your vocabulary. Do you understand?”

“Yes… Kitty… Kitty understands,” she echoed, her voice low and obedient. “Kitty is not a knife.”

“And you’ll call me ‘Master’!”

“Kitty is not a knife, Master.”

“Good. Glad we got that cleared up.” David looked at her. “You said you’re a spirit of magic given physical form,” said David. “What does that mean, exactly?”

“Many years ago, Kitty and her sisters, Crow, Viper and Mouse, were spirits of magic, without bodies or voices,” said Kitty. “Then, White Sorceress summoned us to the physical world to be her familiars and help her defeat the Dark Queen Vespara of Tir’Galdur. And she gave us bodies so we could help the people of Tir’Galdur better. Master.”

David paused at that. He vaguely remembered learning about the first fall of the Dark Queen and how the White Coven had traveled to Tir’Galdur to help dethrone her… but that had all happened long before he was born. If Kitty had been around for that long, she was much older than she looked. But maybe spirits of magic didn’t age the same way as humans did.

“I see,” he said. “And how complete are those bodies, Kitty?”

“Completely complete?” Even with her blank expression and dull tone, Kitty seemed vaguely confused at the question. “Master?”

“What I mean is,” he clarified, “Do you have a pussy? Can you fuck?”

It would be wrong to say that understanding dawned on her face, because her expression didn’t change. But the vague confusion was at least gone when she answered: “Yes, Master. Kitty has a pussy. Kitty can fuck.”

“Great.” But then, just in case there was any sort of misunderstanding, he decided to add: “Can you fuck humans? More specifically, human men?”

“Yes, Master. Kitty can fuck human men. And human women.”

Okay, let’s not fall into any traps here. “…in a way that’s pleasurable? Do human men and women like fucking you?”

“Yes, Master. Kitty can make human men cum. Kitty can fuck and cum and take it up her cunt and up her ass. Kitty can suck cock and lick pussy… Kitty can make men and women moan in pleasure and feel so good, so good… ”

Well, that sounded promising… “You’te quite the kitty-slut, aren’t you?” he said.

“Yes, Master. Kitty is quite the kitty-slut.”

He let his gaze run over her body, lingering on the contours of her tits. He reached out to cop a feel… she was just as soft to touch as any woman he’d ever felt up… and as he caressed her tits he could see the small bumps on her costume indicating that her nipples were hardening. Yes… magic spirit or not, kitty ears and tail or not, she was definitely human enough for him. At least she didn’t appear to have whiskers or six tits or anything weird like that. 

But… eh, probably best to make sure, and test her obedience at the same time. Luckily, he knew exactly how to do that.

“All right, Kitty… Now Master wants you to strip, right away,” he ordered, deciding to forego the slow and sexy striptease this time. “I want your slutty little body all bare.”

“Yes, Master.” Kitty’s hands moved immediately to unclasp the shiny belt around her waist. “Master wants Kitty’s slutty little body all bare…”

The belt fell to the floor. Kitty’s fingers hooking into the tight fabric of her unitard at the shoulders and, in one fluid motion, peeled it down, almost like she was shedding a second skin. Underneath, she was naked… no bra, no panties, nothing. Her nut-brown skin was smooth and soft, her tits were round and full, and her pussy was soft and bald, just like Sam’s… did all superheroines shave down there, or was it just these two?

Kitty stepped out of the unitard that now lay crumpled on the floor, kicking it aside with mechanical precision before tugging off her gloves and dropping them to the floor. Naked as a newborn baby, she let her hands fall to her sides again and stood still. 

“Kitty’s slutty body is bare,” she announced, her voice still dull and monotone but with perhaps a slight hint of childish pride over being such a good, obedient kitty,

David’s cock throbbed in his pants as he drank in the sight of her nude body. Funny how almost all superheroines were these insanely hot chicks, he thought. Even the ones with freakish tendencies, like Kitty’s cat-like traits, or Evenstar’s chunkiness, generally made up for it with cute faces or sexy bods. (Or, like in Evenstar’s case, big fat asses.) Really, women who were supposed to be fighting for justice or whatever had no business being this hot. Not that he was complaining, mind. 

“Turn around,” he commanded. “Show me your pretty little kitty butt.”

Without hesitation, she turned around to present her pretty little kitty butt to him. 

It wasn’t the biggest he’d seen, but it did have that long furry tail directly above it. It could have looked freaky, but somehow didn’t. He reached out and let his fingers run through the soft tail fur, before moving over to the smooth skin of her ass and marvelling at the contrast in sensations.

She didn’t even react to his touch… of course not, she was too deep in trance. Real cats tended to hate it when people touched their tails  —  but magic spirit catgirls who had been hypnotized into compliance? Clearly a different matter altogether. 

Grinning, he extended a finger, stroking her ass with it, before letting it slide in between her buttocks. He found that puckered little hole and thrust his finger inside, making her gasp.  “Kitty-slut likes it up her kitty butt,” he said mockingly.

“K-kitty slut… ah! Likes it up her kitty butt… nngh!” she grunted as he slid his finger deeper into her kitty butt.

He began fingerfucking her ass with one hand, while stroking her tail with the other. “Tell me… does the Kitty-slut ever fuck her own ass with her tail? Or her pussy?”

“…nnngh… no… Kitty’s tail is too soft…won’t stay straight or stiff…” she whimpered. “C-can’t… can’t fuck it properly…”

“Oh…” David’s disappointment was short-lived, because then he realized what exactly it was she was saying. “So what I’m hearing is that you’ve tried.” 

“Y-yes, Master… Kitty tried to fuck her tail…”

He pulled his finger out of her butt. “Turn around and show me what you did when you tried.”

“Yes, Master…” Kitty turned around to face him again. She moved her pink tail forward and grabbed it with her hand.

Gently, softly (that tail was definitely soft and flexible!), she started to caress her bare skin with it, flicking the tail’s tip back and forth as she moved it over her breasts, belly, and thighs, before guiding it towards her pussy. The tailtip wiggled in her hand, soft fur tickling her slit, but it seemed like it really was too soft for her to properly penetrate herself. “Nnghh… hah, hahhhh…” she panted. “Tail… tail… ah…”

Damn… if he’d just had Dream Jewel’s powers of transformation, not just mind control. He could have made her tailtip as stiff as a cock and then watched as she fucked herself with it. 

He was starting to really feel the thrill again. His cock was painfully hard, pressing against the fabric of his pants. If it could talk it would probably have demanded to fuck the pink-haired kitty-slut right now… but no. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to focus. Later, he told himself, later he’d pound that catgirl’s cunt so hard that she lost what little wits she had. But this wasn’t the time. 

“Kitty, stop trying to fuck yourself with your tail and get dressed again,” he said. “Then I’m going to tell you about the job I have for you…” He paused. “First, though… you’re a shapeshifter, right? Do you have to stay in this form in order to teleport, or can you teleport in any shape?”

Kitty was still breathing heavily, but she obediently picked her unitard up from the floor and started pulling it back on. “Any shape… Master…”

“Good! That’ll make things easier.”

 

 

Night shifts at Steelhaven Memorial Hospital were usually quiet. Not peaceful, exactly — hospitals were never truly peaceful. There was always some emergency or other, or maybe some supervillain who attacked a neighbouring building, or someone’s magic spell that had gone wrong… and then the doctors and healers and nurses would be in full operation to handle it. 

But to a mere receptionist like Marisol Vega, things were seldom that dramatic.  

She sipped her third cup of lukewarm tea and returned to the stack of intake forms. She’d better finish entering them before the next wave of ambulance calls came in. The monitors hummed, the vents rattled, and somewhere down the hallway someone’s TV was playing… sounded like an old episode of The Adventures of Kaldor and the Spirits of Ecanria. 

The sound of doors sliding open made Marisol look up to see a man come walking in. He was wearing a hooded longcoat, and underneath the hood he seemed to be wearing sunglasses (in the middle of the night too!) and a scarf or something over his mouth and nose, making it impossible to see his face. 

Marisol bit back a sigh. If this was another damn cultist…! No, that was unfair. He might be some trainee mage who had suffered some spell damage and was too embarrassed to show his face. So she nodded politely as he approached the desk. “Good evening, sir,” she said. “How may I help you?”

“Uh… hi,” he said. “I need to visit someone. Lucy Davenport. She came in the other day… car accident.”

Marisol clicked through a few screens on her terminal. “Davenport… Davenport… yes, here she is. Car accident, light injuries, amnesia. She was admitted the day before yesterday.” She looked back towards the man. “But it’s after visiting hours. You’ll have to come back in the morning.”

The man didn’t move. He had one hand in his pocket, the other curled into a fist on the counter. “It’ll just take a second,” he said. “I really need to see her.”

“I’m sorry, but you can’t.” said Marisol, keeping her tone firmly polite. “Regular visiting hours are from two to eight in the afternoon. If you can’t make it then, we do allow visitors outside those hours. Just not at —” (she glanced at the clock on the monitor) “ — two in the morning.”

“I’m afraid I can’t wait.” He took his hand out of his pocket and held it out in front of her. There was a ring on his finger, she saw, with a red gemstone.

“Watch the stone shine…” he said, “…your will is now mine.”

Marisol felt her breath hitch. The entire room vanished in a flash of red light that flooded her brain and washed away all her thoughts. When the light faded, so had her mind and free will. She stared at the man… the man she had to obey… had to do everything he said… had to…

His voice reached her again, warm and calm and impossible to ignore. “Tell me where Lucy Davenport is,” he said.

“Room 417,” she answered, barely aware that she was speaking at all. “East wing.”

“Good girl. Now, I’m going to leave, and when I’m gone you’ll wake up. You won’t remember that I hypnotized you. All you’ll remember is that I came in, asked what the time was, and then left. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” she replied. There was no other possible answer. “All I’ll remember is that you came in here, asked what the time was, and then left.”

“All right. I’m leaving now.” He turned and calmly walked away, and then…

…Marisol blinked. She’d felt a little woozy for a moment there, like she’d just zoned out. She went back to her tea and took another sip before taking a deep breath. 

Well, that guy had been weird. Just entering, asking what time it was, and then leaving again? You saw some odd people when working the night shift. Still, this one seemed harmless enough. An amusing anecdote to tell the doctors later, nothing more.

She went back to her intake forms.

 

 

The man in the hooded longcoat crossed the parking lot and slipped into a narrow alley between two buildings. It was dim, only lit by a flickering security lamp, and most of him was hidden from view by the dark shadows… yet he took care to glance around and make absolutely certain he was alone and unobserved before he ducked behind a row of recycling bins.

David pulled off the scarf and sunglasses, and then unbuttoned the coat to let the small pink cat that had been hiding underneath jump out. The cat landed on the ground, looking up at him with blank, obedient eyes.

“That went well,” said David, who felt he’d earned the right to brag a little. “Cameras by the entrance will only see a weird guy in a longcoat, and if anyone asks the receptionist about it she’ll swear he just came in to ask the time. This is what you call tactics.”

He took the coat off and stuffed it in one of the bins along with the scarf and sunglasses. There, that should do it… even if someone found the disguise, they wouldn’t be able to trace it back to him. 

He looked down at the cat, who was still on the ground, awaiting orders. “You heard the room number,” he said. Room four-one-seven, east wing. That’s enough, right? You can teleport there now?”

“Yes, Master,” she meowed. “Kitty can teleport there.”

“Then teleport us both there straight away. Stay in your cat form, this won’t take long.”

“Yes, Master.” Kitty jumped up into his arms again.

And all at once the world around them vanished in a swirl of colours and shapes. 

David had teleported a few times before — the Halo around Westwood Tower was only accessible through the sky elevators or teleportation, and for the New Years’ parties the Westwoods had allowed guests to use the teleportation chambers in the Tower basement levels. But that teleportation was smooth and almost unnoticeable — you entered the chamber, someone pushed a button, and then you suddenly were in a different chamber. 

Teleporting with Kitty, however, was completely different; it felt kind of like being caught in a whirlwind while simultaneously standing rooted to the spot. It was such a confusing, paradoxical sensation that he probably would have puked if it had lasted more than a second… but almost before it registered, the trip was over. 

He was standing in a hospital room. 

It was dimly lit, but not dark… probably the hospital staff made sure to leave enough light to see by when they made their nightly inspection rounds. All the better for him; it meant he could see his target quite plainly without turning on any lights or fumbling around with the flashlight on his phone. And there she was, in a small hospital bed: Lucy the cab driver. Fast asleep with the hospital blanket tucked up to her chin. 

There were two more beds in the room, but he was really in luck: they were empty. No roommates who could wake up. Everything was going smoothly; he’d be out of here long before the next inspection round.

He let Kitty jump down onto the floor before he moved over to the bed to look down on the sleeping Lucy. She looked pretty much exactly like he remembered her from the cab drive… she didn’t appear to have any serious injuries or even any bruises, so she must have followed his instructions perfectly by driving the cab into the lake and then calmly swimming to safety. Good girl.

“Hey, Lucy…” he said, lightly touching her shoulder.

She stirred, her eyelids fluttering. “Huh… what…” she murmured as her eyes opened.

No time to waste. He held the ring up to her face. “Back into trance we go. Watch the stone shine… your will is now mine.”

“Hey — who — uuuuhh…” She jerked as if trying to sit up in bed, but then her eyes flashed the familiar red and she flopped back down… lying limp and unmoving, staring blankly up at the ceiling. 

David nodded in satisfaction. Perfect; the bitch was back under his power — time to set the plan into motion. “Lucy,” he said. “You are in a deep trance, and you’ll obey all my orders.”

“Yes,” she said blankly, without even lifting her head from the pillow. “I am in a deep trance, and I’ll obey all your —”

“Yes, of course you will,” he interrupted. “Now I need you to stop talking and listen carefully.”

He paused for a moment, but she obediently stayed silent.

“Good,” he said. “Now, in a few moments I’m going to tell you to go to sleep, and you’ll fall into a deep sleep and not wake up until the nurses or doctors or whoever wake you in the morning. And when you wake up, you’ll remember the day of your crash. You’ll remember driving Rosalyn Westwood and that assistant of hers in your cab. What’s more, you’ll remember Rosalyn Westwood using her weird metahuman powers to hypnotize you and make you drive your cab into Rainbow Lake. You won’t remember me at all — if the cops or anyone else asks you about a man that you dropped off at Centerpoint Plaza, you’ll just say that you were hypnotized and don’t remember anything else. Understand?”

She didn’t answer.

“All right, I get it,” he sighed. “You can answer that question.”

“Yes, I understand,” she droned. “In a few moments you will tell me to go to sleep, and I’ll fall into a deep sleep and I won’t wake up until the nurses or doctors or whoever wake me in the morning. When I wake up, I’ll remember that Rosalyn Westwood used her weird metahuman powers to hypnotize me and make me drive my cab into Rainbow Lake. I won’t remember you at all, and if the cops or anyone else asks me about a man I dropped off at Centerpoint Plaza I’ll say that I was hypnotized and don’t remember anything else.”

“Excellent. By the way, do you know who I am?”

“No,” she replied.

“Good… let’s keep it that way. Now, sleep.”

Her eyes closed. Moments later, she was breathing slowly and steadily.

“And that’s that,” said David, after having watched her for a few seconds to make sure she was really asleep. Tracks nicely covered — combined with Susie and Henny telling the rest of the cops to focus the investigation on Rosalyn, this should mean nobody would bother to glance his way ever again.

When he got back home he’d have Kitty turn back into her human form, and he’d give her the good fucking she deserved. Then he’d wipe her memories and let her go… or, wait, no. He’d have her lure her sisters to him, one by one. First Enchantmouse, then Witchcrow, then Viper. And then he’d have four magical spirits, all in the form of hot chicks, doing his bidding and being available to fuck whenever he wanted, when he was tired of Sam and Clara. 

He’d keep it low-key, let them go out to fight crime or whatever every so often… but he’d implant some trigger in their brains that made them return to him time and time again. And if any other superbitch got too uppity, well, he’d take care of them too. Life was definitely looking up.

“Come on, Kitty,” he said. “Time to get…” And then he paused.

A thought had struck him. Just an idle thought, really, but now that he’d thought it he knew it would bug him unless he checked.

He’d seen Lucy’s tits, but he hadn’t seen her pussy. He’d been able to see and explore Clara’s, Henny’s, Susie’s, Sam’s and Kitty’s cunts, but not Lucy’s. And now he couldn’t help but wonder — what was it like? Was she clean-shaven like Susie or the superheroines, or did she have a bush like Clara or Henny? How plump were her pussy lips? And did she have pussy ruffles that hung loose like pink curtains, or were they all neat and tucked in? He had to find out. 

Taking a glance at Kitty, who was still sitting on the floor in cat form and looking completely blank, he decided that he could spare half a minute. Besides, since he’d told Lucy not to wake up until morning, it wasn’t like she’d ever know anything had ever happened.

He pulled the blanket aside to reveal her body, clad in an almost insultingly flattering hospital gown. After only a very brief hesitation, he pulled the gown up to her bellybutton to reveal a pair of black panties.

She didn’t so much as stir.

Encouraged, he pulled the panties down as well.  And was rewarded with the sight of a tight, neatly-groomed triangle of curly black hair.

Oh, fuck. He felt his cock spring to life in his pants again. He’d thought that the thrill of controlling regular people was starting to fade now that he had two superheroines in his thrall, but seeing Lucy’s hairy cunt like this when she was all asleep and helpless…! Maybe he’d have time for a quick —

“Hello, David.”

The voice came from behind him, startling him so hard he nearly lost his balance. Heart racing, he spun around… and there she was.

Even in the dim hospital light he recognized her instantly. Calm and elegant, in her trademark skimpy red costume, long red hair cascading over her shoulders and the Circlet of Westwood gleaming on her forehead.

“Rosalyn?!” he blurted.

“How many times do I have to tell people this?” She took a few casual steps toward him. “When I’m in costume, it’s Dream Jewel.”

“I — you —” he began. Then instinct kicked in and he snapped his head toward Kitty, who was still sitting on the floor in cat form with that same blank, obedient stare, and didn’t even seem to have noticed that they weren’t alone anymore. (Of course — he hadn’t told her to stay on guard, so she hadn’t!)

“Kitty,” he barked, “turn into a tiger and attack her!”

The pink cat turned her head to look blankly at him. Then, to his horror, she trotted over to Rosalyn and utterly failed to turn into a tiger or attack. Instead, she raised her tail high and rubbed herself against the woman’s legs, purring like a pet cat greeting its owner.

“Hello there, Kitty,” said Rosalyn, crouching down to pick the cat up in her arms. “Such a pretty pink kitten… you wouldn’t hurt the true Mistress of the Ring, would you?”

“No, Mistress,” Kitty purred as Rosalyn scratched her ears.

“Really, David,” said Rosalyn, giving him a look that was somewhere between amusement and disdain. “Did you really think you could use my own ring against me? Now… do you want to give it back to me now, or would you like to tell me that this isn’t what it looks like first?”

“I… I.. “ In desperation, David thrust the ring toward her. “Watch the stone shine, your will is now mine!”

She didn’t even blink. For one long second everything was completely silent, and David found himself staring first at the ring, then at Rosalyn, then back at the ring again. All the while, she looked at him with the calm patience of someone watching a child fail to operate a machine. 

“Really,” she said. “What did you think would happen? I already told you that you can’t use my own ring against me. Kitty, be a good cat and turn back into your humanoid form for Mistress.”

“Yes, Mistress,” said Kitty. The little pink cat jumped out of her arms, transforming in mid-air and landing as the pink-haired catgirl. She straightened herself and stood beside Rosalyn… her eyes were still dull and blank, so she was clearly still in a deep trance. 

“Kitty…!” David felt his voice crack “I said attack her! That’s an order!” 

Kitty ignored him, just staring straight ahead as if he wasn’t even there.

Rosalyn extended one hand. “And now I’ll have my ring back, please,” she said, as casually as if she was asking him to return a borrowed pen. “You’ve had a lot of fun with it, but the time for fun and games is over. Your user permission is revoked.”

The ring pulsed once on his finger. His muscles locked up, and his arm moved toward Rosalyn’s waiting hand all on its own accord. 

“No,” he said. “No, no, no, don’t—” The ring pulsed again, and the protest died in his throat, half-formed and useless, as the ring slid off his finger and fell into her open hand.

Rosalyn’s fingers closed around it. “And there we go,” she said. “Back with its true Mistress..”

The world crumbled around David. The ring… his way of evening the score against the universe, the thing that had bent Clara and Lucy and Sam and the others into obedience… gone, just like that. And he still couldn’t move.

“This is bullshit,” he managed to say, though the words came out weaker than he’d hoped. “You can’t just — you can’t just —”

“I can’t just what?” She held the ring up for a moment, before slipping it back on her own finger. “Take back my own property, which you stole? I beg to differ. You’ve had it long enough.” Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “You took something that wasn’t yours, and you used it to control and abuse people. You could have stopped at any time. You could have returned the ring whenever you wanted. But you didn’t, did you?”

“You…” And then ice filled David’s blood. Of course. How stupid he’d been who hadn’t seen it. “You knew all along! You left that ring on the cab on purpose! You planned all this!”

“Planned?” Rosalyn replied, her brow creasing slightly in puzzlement. “Why would I have planned for you to steal my ring and use it to play supervillain?”

“No!” he said, more sharply. “No, don’t give me that! You wanted — you made me —”

“What I wanted,” said Rosalyn, “was for this to stop before you hurt anyone else. And I didn’t make you do anything. You got a bit of power in your hands, and you chose to use it. I’m sure Susan and Henrietta can confirm it. And speaking of… hello, officers. He’s all yours now.”

David’s eyes darted over to the door, and the ice in his blood became even colder. From the doorway, Detective Susan Greene and Officer Henrietta Hart were glaring at him. Their eyes were clear and alert, and any submissiveness or affection for him was long gone. 

“Thank you, Miss Westw— sorry, Dream Jewel,” said Susan. She stepped into the room, her handcuffs already out. Henrietta followed, her hand resting on her holster. “David Greyfield, you’re under arrest for unlawful magical coercion, kidnapping, assault, and whatever else this supports once we recover the other victims.”

“Susan… Henny… wait,” David stammered, his mind racing for a lie, a trigger word, anything. “She’s lying! Don’t you see?! She set this all up! She’s the one who —”

“Save it, Master,” Susan spat. “We remember everything you did. You hypnotized us and turned us into slaves. You kept your supervisor as a sex slave in your apartment. You forced me to attack my own sister so you could get her under your control too. And you were just caught hypnotizing a woman and trying to frame Rosalyn Westwood for your crimes. I don’t care what you think you can explain — you’re going away for a long time.”

“No! Listen! She planned it all!” David repeated. “How’d she even know I’d be here if she didn’t set it up, huh?!” 

“David…” Rosalyn looked at him. “It wasn’t that hard to guess. After I broke the trances of these two officers and learned about the accident you arranged for poor Lucy here? It didn’t take a genius to work out that you’d come here and try to plant some more evidence against me. We didn’t know exactly when, but it turned out we didn’t have to wait for very long.”

“The department owes you an apology, Dream Jewel,” said Henrietta. “I think we can say our suspicions about you were wrong.”

“I get it… nobody trusts the billionaire,” Rosalyn sighed. “But David here really did make it difficult for a while. He stole the ring from me at one of our New Years’ parties. I didn’t realize it at first, but once the pattern became clear, I understood someone was trying to make these incidents point back to me…”

And then he heard her voice in his mind:  Oh, by the way, David… thank you for all that frantic scrambling to cover your tracks. You were just clever and paranoid enough to make it believable that you’d been meticulously building a frame job against me for two years. That really helped sell the story. With you taking the fall, the MCD and the White Coven won’t be breathing down my neck so closely for a while.

The room seemed to tilt under him. For one heartbeat he could do nothing except stand there and feel the full shape of it settling into place: the ring, the instructions, the victims, the suspicion circling Rosalyn, the way every frantic move he had made to protect himself had only made the trap cleaner and more convincing. Then rage exploded through him so violently that it drowned out everything else.

“YOU FUCKING CUNT!”

Suddenly free of his paralysis, David lunged at Rosalyn — or at least, he tried to. He’d barely cleared the floor before Kitty had leapt out of Rosalyn’s arms, changing into a tiger in mid-air, and slammed him down to pin him to the floor.

Henny moved in at once. With practiced efficiency, she wrenched his arms back and snapped handcuffs around his wrists. “That’s enough out of you,” she said. “Magikitty, let him go.”

Rosalyn placed a hand on the tiger’s’ back. “Do as she says, Kitty,” she said in a soft and soothing voice. 

Kitty immediately let go of David and raised herself, changing back into her human-like form before leaning against Roosalyn and starting to purr again. 

“Good Kitty,” said Rosalyn, stroking her hair. “Poor thing, you’re still hypnotized, aren’t you? Let me take you home to Westwood Tower and get rid of all the nasty influences he’s put you under… then we can deliver you back to the White Coven and your sisters in the morning, all safe and sound of mind. I hope that won’t be a problem, officers?”

“We’ll need a statement from her,” said Susan. “But it can wait until tomorrow. Go ahead.”

“Thank you,” said Rosalyn with a sweet smile. “And when you find his other victims, send them my way, I’ll remove any lingering effect on their minds. And of course, whatever else you need from me — testimonies, evidence, help locating anyone else who might have been under his power — just let me know. In a way, this is my fault… if I had kept a better eye on my ring he wouldn’t have stolen it and none of this would have happened.”

“You fucking bitch…” David groaned as Henrietta hauled him upright. 

Rosalyn didn’t even look at him anymore; she was busy stroking Kitty’s hair, with an expression of practiced, noble concern that made David’s stomach churn. She looked every bit the benevolent hero who had finally cleared her name, while he was the pathetic thief caught in the act.

“Walk,” Henrietta commanded, giving his arm a sharp jerk toward the door.

The last David saw before he was forced to move down the corridor was the faint smile on Rosalyn’s lips.

The elevator opened with a quiet chime, and Rosalyn stepped out into the familiar hallway on the seventy-eighth floor, walking toward the entrance to her suite. Kitty followed in perfect silence, eyes still blank and empty. 

Jenna was waiting for them in the lounge, stretched along the couch with a tablet in hand and dressed in the tight black sweaters and shorts Rosalyn liked on her. Though she had luxurious rooms of her own farther down the hall, she spent more time in Rosalyn’s suite, and most nights she slept in Rosalyn’s bed.

“You’re back.” She set the tablet aside and pushed herself upright. 

“And you’re still up,” said Rosalyn. “You didn’t need to wait up for me, babygirl. It’s nearly four in the morning. You need your beauty sleep.”

“I get plenty of sleep,” Jenna said with a yawn. “With all the sleep spells you put on me, I should be the prettiest girl in the world by now. I stayed up because I was worried about you.”

“You’re so sweet. But you didn’t have to worry.” Rosalyn moved over to the sideboard, where a small gold box was waiting for her. “I had everything under control.  In fact, things went even better than I’d hoped. Didn’t they, Kitty?” 

“Yes, Mistress,” Kitty meowed. 

Jenna looked at the hypnotized catgirl. “Why’d you bring her here?” she asked in a puzzled tone.

“Jealous, babygirl?” Rosalyn teased… even though she knew the answer would be no. After all, she’d used enough subtle mind control spells and hypnotic commands to make absolutely certain that Jenna had lost all ability to feel ugly emotions like jealousy.

“No, but… isn’t it a little risky? She’s from the White Coven. If they find out you’ve hypnotized and controlled one of the Familiar Four…”

“But I didn’t do that, did I?” said Rosalyn smoothly. “David did. I just brought her here to break the spell he placed on her, before sending her home to Coven’s Refuge.”

Jenna looked from Rosalyn to Kitty and back again. “You could have done that in two seconds. You didn’t need to bring her here.”

“I didn’t?” Rosalyn widened her eyes in mock astonishment. “You know, babygirl, you’re absolutely right. How forgetful of me. Funny how the Sweepers didn’t question that part, isn’t it?”  She began slipping all the rings off her fingers and placing them into the gold box. “Still, better safe than sorry. I want to make very sure that when Magikitty goes back to Coven’s Refuge, there’s no trace of any magic except the ring’s on her, and nothing in her head but praise for my concern and cooperation. We’ve managed to get the MCD off our backs. I don’t intend to replace them with Count Ravenwood.”

“And you want to fuck her,” said Jenna.

“If course I want to fuck her. I want to have a nice little threesome with the both of you, that she won’t remember any of. That’ll be a nice way to celebrate the end of the David project.”  

“Kitty obeys her Mistress,” Kitty purred.

“Of course you do,” Rosalyn cooed. “For now, at least. Tomorrow morning you’ll be back with your sisters.”

Jenna breathed a sigh of what could have been relief, or exasperation. “Are you sure we’re done with the David project now?”

“Tired of keeping an eye on him, are you, babygirl?” said Rosalyn. “Yes, I’m sure. Our days of driving around in common cabs in order to trap him are over.. We can go back to the good old limos, with chauffeurs that we don’t even need to hypnotize into not asking questions. Speaking of, remind me that I need to make sure Lucy Davenport is properly compensated for what she went through. Paying all her medical bills, making sure she gets a better paying job or at least a raise if she insists on continuing driving those cabs. Poor dear, I didn’t mean for her to get hurt.”

“You didn’t think David would use the ring on her?”

“Oh, of course I knew he’d use it on her. But I thought he’d use it to fuck her, not to make her have a car accident.” Rosalyn slipped the final ring — the one David had been using — off her finger, holding it up to look at it for a moment before placing it down into the box. “I guess that’s a lesson for me: Never underestimate the paranoia of small-minded people. But it all worked out for the best, didn’t it? That car accident more or less sealed the deal against him. I hope he enjoys Nightfall Penitentiary, because it’ll be a long while before he gets out.”

Jenna’s brow furrowed. “But he will get out. Sooner or later. Aren’t you worried he’ll want revenge? All the supervillains at Nightfall… he could learn a lot of nasty tricks from them, and —”

“You worry too much, my love.” Rosalyn paused for a moment before removing the Circlet of Westwood from her head and placing it down next to the box. “But that’s why I love you. “Besides, look on the bright side. After this we’ll have to scale down on the convenient kidnappings and dramatic accidents. They were useful for a while, but if they continue on the same level after David’s been put away it’ll look suspicious.”

“I… suppose,” Jenna murmured.

Rosalyn walked up to her, wrapped her arms around her and kissed her on the mouth. “I thought that news would make you happy. I know you never liked the kidnappings and accidents. What’s wrong, babygirl?”

Jenna briefly responded to the kiss, but then lowered her head. “Nothing, really. It’s just… spending all this time finding someone to frame for all the things we made happen…”

“You wouldn’t have wanted us to frame someone before we were certain they deserved it, would you?” Rosalyn.started to stroke Jenna’s hair. “David deserved it. I knew at once when I met him during those parties and saw how he treated that  girlfriend of his… she’s much too good for him. Now she won’t have to deal with him anymore. Relax… this is a happy ending.”

Jenna’s shoulders sank as she relaxed against Rosalyn. Her eyes half-closed, and if she’d been Kitty she would probably have purred. “I… yes…” she breathed.

“You’re a better woman than I am, babygirl,” Rosalyn cooed as she slowly massaged Jenna’s scalp with her fingers. “You always want to find another way, don’t you? But sometimes we have to do things that aren’t so pleasant… especially for the sake of family. You know the Westwoods don’t need a scandal because of some misguided investigation…and you know I do everything for my family. You understand that, don’t you?”

“Yes, Mistress…” Jenna murmured, her eyes fully closed now.

“Family’s the most important thing, isn’t it?”

“Yes, my love…”

“Good girl.” Rosalyn kissed her again, and let the kiss linger this time, enjoying the warm softness of Jenna’s body. Then she broke the kiss and pulled back slightly. “Speaking of family, I’ve been meaning to ask how your father is. I haven’t checked in on him since he started his new job.”

Jenna’s eyes opened. Her face lit up in a genuine smile. “He’s doing well. The therapy’s going great, and I think he really likes living in Sanctuary. He definitely likes working for Westwood Media. Plus…” Her smile turned a little shy. “He’s seeing someone. An accountant, I think. He hasn’t been this stable since Mom died.”

“I’m glad,” said Rosalyn, and meant it. “Give him my love the next time you speak to him, will you? And now I think it’s time for bed. We’ll need to prepare a press statement about David and the terrible things he did with the ring… offering our sympathy and our aid to Lucy and all the other victims… but that can wait until morning. Come on, Kitty… you’ll spend the rest of the night in my bed.”

“Yes, Mistress,” said Kitty.

“Are you sure she won’t remember any of this?” said Jenna softly. “We don’t want the White Coven to come here, right?”

“She won’t remember a single thing,” Rosalyn promised. “She’ll just remember that I removed the curse and then she fell asleep. And no wonder… the poor dear is exhausted. Mind-controlled by a wretched man, dragged across the city, used in an ugly little scheme..” Her smile turned wicked at the edges. “Besides, a magical catgirl has landed in my lap. It would be rude not to take some pleasure in her..”

“Well…” Jenna hesitated, but then gasped softly as Rosalyn cupped her breast through her shirt. “Ah…”

“Haven’t you ever wondered what catgirl pussy tastes like?” Rosalyn cooed in her ear. “I’ll let you have the first taste…”

“Ah… gods… yes…” Jenna panted. Her nipple was hard underneath the cloth. “Anything you want, Mistress… anything…” 

“Good girl. Now come along.” Rosalyn placed her hands on the two girls’ shoulders and led them towards the bedroom.

“Oh…” Jenna pulled herself together. “Just… just one thing.”

“Mmm?”

“You didn’t influence David’s mind. Not directly. You just spent a lot of time making sure he found the ring, and then you just counted on him to use it badly.”

Rosalyn kissed her on the forehead. “And he did. What’s your point, love?”

Jenna squeezed Rosalyn’s hand. “Well… what if he hadn’t? What if he’d returned the ring to you and never used it at all?”

“Then…” said Rosalyn, “then I would have been wrong, and he would have turned out to be a decent person after all. Lucky for me that he wasn’t, huh?” She reached up and softly started stroking the bridge of Jenna’s nose with one finger. “Now, enough dreary talk… Right now we just want to fuck…don’t we, babygirl?” 

Jenna’s eyes drooped. “…Yes, Rosalyn…” she murmured.

Rosalyn kept stroking. “Babygirl wants to fuck…” she crooned.

“…babygirl wants to fuck…” Jenna’s eyes were closed now, and her voice barely above a whisper.

“Good.” Rosalyn stopped stroking and instead placed a gentle hand on Jenna’s shoulder. Then she placed an equally gentle hand on Kitty’s shoulder. “Then let’s retreat to my bedroom. All three of us.” 

“Yes, Mistress…” Jenna and Kitty chorused.

“And I think,” Rosalyn added, glancing at Kitty’s tail as she led the two entranced girls down the hallway to her bedroom, “that before the night is over, I may teach our little catgirl a few temporary transfiguration spells. I can already think of several delightful uses for that tail of yours, Kitty…”