"Miles!"
The second I opened the door to the training room, an exuberant Stella was wrapping herself around me.
She picked me up, and I reached behind, closing the door as she pressed me up against it.
I had to wrap my power around myself to prevent any potential harm from the overexcited super, but I held myself back from doing anything else. Not being crushed could be explained away as me just being enhanced, and there were others in the room that didn’t know my secret.
"Calm down, Stella." I ran my fingers through her raven black hair as she kissed my neck and took a small slurp of ki from me.
Ki was what I called the energy that fueled superpowers, because my power to control all forms of energy extended even to that. Up until I had visited Liberator’s underground lab, I didn’t think anyone else had sensed it. But he had a sensor that could.
"No can do." She stared up at me, her electric blue eyes crackling with energy. "They brought us in here under false pretenses! They told me we were throwing a surprise party for you. I even picked up some extra donuts. But no, I show up and then they question us one by one.” She was nearly breathless as she rattled off her accusations.
“And one of the other agents…” She glared through the door, as though the agent would be able to feel her anger. “...ate one of your donuts.” She clearly wanted to kill him for that offense.
"It’s okay, Stella. Everything is fine. I just finished talking to Kim. They’re upset that we broke protocol when we went to rescue Melody, but I think we’ve all cleared the air." I tried to calm the stunning super down.
As she put me down, I turned to the three other occupants in the room, although Stella just responded by wrapping her arms around me from behind, staying snuggled tight.
Melody, Angelina, and Venus were all present. Venus was still wearing her mask of gold leaves. I was sure she was still after her augmenter. As someone who wanted to hunt down someone and pry out their secrets, she protected her own identity fiercely.
"Good morning to the rest of you."
Venus rolled her eyes. "It isn't as if I don't know that you are fucking all of them in your home."
I raised my eyebrows at her. "Interesting way to say good morning back."
Angelina cleared her throat. "Are we free to go? While it’s great to see you, I’m now behind on work. Being a felon on parole for good behavior only works if I keep doing my job."
Smiling, I nodded. "But maybe I could sneak a kiss first?"
She pretended to be put-upon, but her smile gave her away. Publicly, she was trying to be professional, but in private, she was my woman, through and through.
Angelina came up next to me, and her body stretched as she leaned up towards me. She pressed her lips to my own, and I let myself get lost in the moment.
Her lips were supernaturally sweet and molded against mine like chocolate warmed in the sun. Her tongue pushed apart my lips and tasted the inside of my mouth before I tasted a bitter secretion from her.
I frowned as she pulled away, but I didn't feel any different.
"You keep skipping your multivitamins, so I’ll help you remember," she replied casually.
"See you later, Jelly Bags." Stella waved the arm wrapped around my stomach before getting on her tiptoes to whisper in my ear. “Her tits are amazing. They feel like jelly.”
With that, Venus scoffed, standing to head out. "I'll see you when you are ready to get to work."
The door closed behind her, and Melody rushed into my arms, squeezing me and Stella. "I thought they might have punished you for saving me."
"I would have handled it. I made the choice knowingly."
"But—" she tried to argue, but I put a finger to her lips.
"No buts. I make my own choices, and there’s not much I wouldn’t endure to protect all of you." I squeezed her back and kissed the top of her head.
"Aww. Miles is getting all soft. Look how soft we've made him." Stella rubbed her head against my back.
Melody seemed less than impressed. "Soft to us. But I'm sure he killed at least one person on the way into the office today." She looked at me knowingly.
I snapped my fingers and created a field that would block anyone from listening to or recording what I said next.
"It was only three," I argued. "And it was their own fault. They kidnapped me and tried to videotape killing the Deputy Director of the BSH as a recruiting video."
Melody smashed her hand against her forehead. “Miles! You’re not supposed to use your powers. You’re supposed to call one of us to help you."
"Blame the BSH?" I suggested. "They pulled this clandestine questioning. You guys were out, and I needed to get to work."
She pursed her lips but seemed satisfied. "The villains tried to kill you?"
"Yup. Didn't work out well for them, though."
Stella giggled from behind me, still refusing to budge. "Idiots. No one kills my Miles. Think they had any friends that got away?"
"Nope. I'm late because I made sure to get the entire group. Now, if you wouldn't mind, we should probably get to work. There are more attempted villain groups popping up. We’re slotted to deal with a few of them."
Melody slapped Stella's arms and pried her off me. "We have training to do. Weightlifting today."
Stella let go of me and pouted; she hated weightlifting.
"Make sure she doesn't slack off," I warned Melody as she shuffled a sulking Stella away.
As they left the room, I let out a breath, glad that they were all unharmed. I headed back towards my office, figuring that I should start to go through all the pending messages and hit up the analyst team for details on the villain groups.
As I walked, I could feel the stares of more than a few of my coworkers. Some were hungry stares of lustful women; others seemed skeptical of my quick rise to the top of BSH.
Neither bothered me. I was used to the women, and I’d earned my place among the BSH, even if they didn’t know all the details.
I laughed every time I thought about where I’d ended up.
A month ago, I would have scoffed at the thought of one girlfriend, let alone three. While I created advertisements for BSH to promote harems and spur our population forward, I’d never intended to have one. But I couldn’t deny how much better my life was now with Stella, Melody, and Angelina.
And there was also my pseudo-stalker, Obsidian. Some clone would probably be on my doorstep again when I got home.
The door to The Spine opened as I waved my tablet over the scanner, striding into the large room. There were no lights on in The Spine; I wasn't even sure if there were any. Instead, it was lit by the blue light of a multitude of screens.
Analysts sat in small groups around the sloped room, staring at their own monitors. Three large screens up front projected the summary information for each debrief.
Right now, a map of the city spanned two of the screens, with little pings for active crimes showcased across the map. The third was a view of the nine cities that made up our little pseudo-nation.
Each city was independently governed, but we all worked in a loose cooperation to facilitate trade and to stop major catastrophes, such as titans.
The global economy had collapsed within a year of monsters emerging all over the world. The seas were uncrossable for any shipping vessel. Too many monsters lurked in the deep. Five of the world’s seven titans were aquatic, too.
"Kim done chewing you out?" Beatrix asked. Her desk was near the door, making her available to whoever needed her or wanted time with Kim.
"Wasn't too bad, just a slap on the wrist for running in ahead of everyone else." I shrugged. "We are on the same page, though. We need to hunt down and eliminate these groups trying to organize the villains. It needs to stop being so common."
Beatrix's fingers danced over her keyboard. Screens popped up and then were covered as she rapidly filtered through the information. She could move at a pace that I couldn’t even fathom, knowing all kinds of shortcuts to pull up information.
I let her go at it, stepping around her and descending the steps to my personal analyst team. Ben was playing some game on his computer while Mary, Kate, and Rachel worked.
I paused behind him, tapping my foot.
The most powerful server in the world sat under us, and Ben was using it to play games. Sensing my approach, the girls looked up, their smiles fading as they saw my face.
Ben was too glued to his game to notice me.
"Boss," Mary said loudly, helping give him a heads up.
Ben's mouse and keyboard actually flew into the air with how quickly he whipped around, one hand snagging the power button for his monitor and turning it off.
I stared at him for a long, hard second. "Please tell me you have everything done already?"
"Yes. Here." Mary shot information to my tablet. It pinged with a vast array of information. "We were just taking a moment of downtime after finishing early."
Ben was lucky to have Mary. The two of them had been going strong since they followed me to the BSH.
I turned my attention to the other two ladies. "Is that so?"
"Yep," they echoed. "I was even doing a little shopping." Rachel pointed to her own screen that had a bunch of frilly dresses on it. "We finished like fifteen minutes ago."
My eyes raked over them. Rachel was the suck-up of the group. If she was lying to me, then my instincts were wildly off.
"Fine. You should get back to work. I want to put you all on a special project."
Ben took that as a cue to turn his monitor back on and close his game. "You got it, Boss. What's the project?"
I pulled up Emma on my tablet and flicked her police records over to the team. "This woman is in Point City, and I need you all to track her down."
Rachel's fox ears cocked to the side as she read the report. "She was caught for tax evasion? That’s not our usual domain. What's her story?"
"How about you dig less into her past and more into her present?" I cautioned the team. "I want any recent information. Nothing from before her imprisonment."
Ben paused, eyeing me. "She's a muta, and you have a type. Old girlfriend?"
I sighed, knowing my team would dig if I didn’t give them a little nibble of the truth. "Something like that. Now she's out, and she's here. And I can tell you that she will be in trouble. I'd like to get a read on her and get her into Angelina's reform program."
My statement had been filled with partial truths, but it was true enough. I wanted Emma in the program, but the chances of her joining it willingly were exceedingly low. It was more likely that she’d kill me. Tracking her down and watching her were top priorities. The rest I’d figure out later.
"We can do that," Mary said quickly. "We'll also update the reports on the eight groups hourly."
"Do it every half an hour, and get rid of monitoring this group. I heard through the grapevine that they were already taken care of. The report will be in later, but it should save you some time." I tapped on the Giantesses on my tablet and deleted the report.
Rachel did the same, taking the report on them and deleting it right there in front of me. "One down, seven to go."
"Thanks, Rachel. You’re the best." I shot her a smile and felt a twinge of guilt as she melted before me.
I felt a little bad about encouraging her, but I also appreciated all she did for me. But Ben was right, I had a type. And Rachel wasn't exactly it.
I had my first therapy session with Angelina coming up, and I could already anticipate how it would go. I was finding that I had a thing for wounded women, supervillains who had more to them and could be saved.
Rachel’s voice brought me back to the moment. "Anything else?”
I shook my head, clearing it. “Continue the project of tracking Emma, and get me updates every half an hour on where these seven groups might be. If any of them make big waves, let me know. Did you prioritize them at all?"
I started flipping through my tablet for the answer as I asked it.
"Size was the simplest way. The bigger the groups get, the more momentum they might have." Mary was on point.
"Makes perfect sense to me. Sometimes the simple answer is the right one. Good job. And next time, put a sensor or something outside so people don't walk in on Ben playing games. That's how you get Kim to melt your station. As long as your work is done, I don't give a shit what you do." I gave them a look of warning before waving and heading back out of The Spine.
I almost made it out without being intercepted, but at the last moment, Beatrix spun around.
"Your analysts just deleted the shared file on one of the groups. Tell them to be more careful. I nearly didn't recover it."
I paused, realizing my mistake. Beatrix was savvy enough to dig harder. "They did that on my orders. I have it on good authority that they have been neutralized already." I gave my most charming smile. "Unless, of course, you don't trust me?"
Beatrix blushed and stammered, "But the data. There’s a process for these things."
"A waste of space. Come on." I reached around her and clicked on the file before hitting delete. "Focus your efforts on more valuable things. Your thoughts are more valuable than spending time recovering files.”
"You think so?" Beatrix blushed and looked up at me.
"Of course. I don’t know what we’d do here without you.” I gave her a winning smile, trying to keep her attention off the file being deleted.
She turned, looking out of the corner of her eye at me bashfully. "Thanks. Unfortunately, men don’t care much about brains.”
"I do,” I flirted. “But you’ve also got the looks, as well, and you know it.” I tried to compliment her without getting her hopes up too much.
Just then, my tablet pinged, and I thanked whatever luck existed in the world as I checked it.
"Sorry, I need to get going." I gave her a wink as I watched the file's deletion completed and the window closed down.
I headed out of The Spine, wanting to curse up a storm. That had been far too close for comfort. But I was pretty sure I had evaded a potential investigation.
And I hoped I’d managed to tread the line of being flirty without being forward. Beatrix wasn’t entirely my type, but she’d be a great ally if I ever needed one. She could help me keep my secret, covering up any of my slip-ups.
I paused for a moment, considering it before I shut down those thoughts. I didn’t enjoy using her in that way. She wasn’t some villain; Beatrix was one of the good ones. She deserved to be treated better than that.
Heading towards the gym, I reflected upon how complicated my life had become.
I’d been doing a great job easily keeping my secret under wraps when I was just working as a middle manager at the advertising agency.
Then Stella had come into my life and broken down all the walls I’d built up. And here I wound up in the heart of the very place I’d avoided all my life.
The sliding glass doors opened for the gym, and I got a good view of Stella doing squats while Melody watched. Melody was in her coach mode, arms crossed as she watched critically.
I took the moment to check out Stella’s fantastic rear in the tight-fitted workout clothes as she went up and down.
Melody noticed me and whispered something to Stella, whose eyes shifted in the mirror as she watched me checking her out. A bright smile stretched across her face, and her eyes churned with ki. Stella stuck her butt out a little more and wiggled it before she came out of the bottom of the squat, causing Melody to put her face in her hands.
Finally realizing that there were others in the room besides Stella, I noticed Venus over to the side. Her face was stoic, but I could see the slightest signs of a frown.
I knew she was a little jealous of what we had. She was still holding out for the augmenter who had helped her, believing that he was her soulmate.
And I hadn’t told her that the augmenter was really me; I just didn’t trust her enough with my secret.
Her BSH files were weirdly empty. All we got from Coast City was information on her as a superhero, nothing of her personal life.
"Come on, Stella, keep working out. I want to see you go to the bottom of the squat," I encouraged her as I approached.
"Sure, you do." Stella's eyes glowed as she sank back down on the lift.
"Of course, now that it's sexual, you have no problem doing it," Melody grumbled.
"I'll do anything for Miles." Stella kept her eyes locked on mine while she squatted down low.
I smiled, letting my eyes linger over her body before meeting her eyes once more. She racked the weights, her set done, and plopped down on my lap.
"Stella, you have another set," Melody groaned.
"I have a rest before the next one. Don't I, Miles?" Stella gave me her signature pout.
"Ninety seconds. We'll time it, and then you get back to work." I pinched her hip lightly, knowing she’d barely feel it. Her body was quite durable.
Stella blew a raspberry at Melody and settled into my lap, rubbing her rear against me and making me grow harder.
I knew I’d have to tuck it up soon, but I didn’t mind. I enjoyed Stella’s antics, and I knew she was sensitive to anything that even resembled rejection.
Leaning in, I inhaling the mix of her natural scent and her perfume. It came with a wealth of pleasant memories.
Even if my life would have been simpler without Stella and the BSH, if I’d known this was the outcome, I would have chosen to do it all over again. I may have saved her, but she was saving me in her own way.
"Okay. Time's up, Stella. Go do another set. Once you guys are done, you need to shower. We’ll do a little live practice in the city and then move on to eliminating these organizations."
I patted her butt, indicating for her to get up. She gave another little wiggle for good measure before heading back for more squats.