Heroes Wanted

The test subjects had been volunteers from the armed forces at first, but the early versions of the Sentinel treatment had been a disaster. Although Jordan never interacted with the subjects directly, there was no place in the base that was safe from his superhuman hearing. As a result, he heard the pained death cries of the volunteers as their muscles expanded uncontrollably until their skin burst, and every final choking breath of lungs filling with liquefying tissue. Realizing that they were losing too many of their best soldiers, airmen, and sailors, Black ordered the next generation of subjects to be drawn instead from the military's worst - servicemen and women facing punishment and dishonorable discharge for murder, rape, and brutal human rights violations. The vast majority of them didn't survive or were left completely disabled, which Jordan found preferable to them actually successfully becoming superhumans - they didn't seem the type that should be running around with enhanced powers.

After the new administration had taken the project public - in what Malcolm Black had referred to as part of their "hope-y, change-y agenda" - there had been an influx of scientists and doctors looking to contribute their talents. The President had also forced a change in recruiting practices for test subjects, which Black had grudgingly accepted, requiring recruits to only be those in the most desperate of situations on the verge of death - critically injured servicemen and women, terminally ill civilians, and the like. As the project's scientists gradually began improving the treatment formulations, the base was slowly filling up with recruits who had developed various levels of powers, from some who were simply a little bit stronger but still within human limits, to those who had "officially" achieved superhuman levels of speed or strength. None of them, however, had yet reached anything near Jordan's power levels - a fact that Malcolm Black had made very clear was quite bothersome to him.

As he entered the exam room in Medical, Jordan was immediately greeted by Dr. Janice Cho, who had been treating him ever since she joined the project shortly after it went public. Although the project had later adopted policies requiring recruits to be attended by medical staff of the same sex, Janice had been allowed to remain as Jordan's primary physician because of their longstanding doctor-patient relationship.

"Hi Jordan," she said with a smile. "I heard you got shot at tonight."

"Just a 9mm handgun," he said, as he hopped up on the exam bed and sat on the edge. "Nothing to sweat over. How are you, Janice?"

"I'm doing well. The latest recruits are coming along quite quickly. I think we may have a new class for you to work with soon."

They made small talk as Janice examined him, confirming that the night's events didn't have any adverse impact on his well-being. It was a standard part of his debrief procedure, which the two of them had done so many times it was almost second nature. Once the exam was over, however, Janice pulled a metal cup from one of her supply drawers.

"I think you know what this is for," she said with a smirk.

"Sperm sample? Is it that time already?"

She set the receptacle on the counter with a soft clink, then teasingly unbuttoned her white lab coat to reveal her completely nude body underneath.

"Oh come on, Jordan," she said, shedding the coat and climbed onto his lap, putting her arms around his neck and leaning her face in toward his. "I think you knew I was going to extract a sample from you whether the project needed one or not."

Janice rubbed her bare pussy against his groin, feeling him begin to swell and rise underneath the layer of his form-fitting suit. A soft growl rumbled from deep within his chest as he ran his hands over her body. With a seductive smile, she reached behind him and found the hidden closure for his suit, pulling it downward and exposing his broad shoulders and back. She caught the sight of his eyes flicking back and forth around the room as she undressed him.

"Don't worry, honey, they know better than to try to put you in a monitored exam room," she reassured him.

Jordan had insisted years ago that he no longer receive medical examinations in monitored rooms, and also that his personal residence in the facility be unsurveilled. He was well aware that the project kept most areas of the facility under 24-hour surveillance, and had laid down an ultimatum: either he be allowed privacy, or he was done. Perhaps realizing that they were powerless to try to keep him if he was dissatisfied with their answer, the leadership had agreed.

Janice tugged at his form-fitting suit until it reached mid-thigh, exposing his manhood. She took the shaft in her hand, thick and pulsing even though it was only partially erect. His lustful gaze bored into her as she started to stroke him up and down, pumping his rapidly growing member in her small fist. When she was satisfied with his hardness, she eagerly engulfed the swollen tip in her mouth.

"Ahhhh... fuck, Janice," he groaned. His fingers gripped the edge of the exam table, causing the structure to creak and groan slightly under his strength.

"Mmmmm," she hummed as she sucked and slurped, swallowing him down until her nose was pressed into his thick patch of hair.

She inhaled deeply, breathing in his manly scent. Jordan had a unique muskiness, unlike anything she had ever experienced with a non-powered man, that drove her wild.

The two of them had been tangled up in a somewhat unusual affair since the early days of Janice's involvement with the project. She was the first woman he had been consistently sexually involved with, which was odd in that they'd never actually had intercourse, primarily at his insistence. But their relationship was also unusual because she never allowed him to get her off; although she had imparted on him much of her medical knowledge, as well as personal experience, on how to please a woman, by letting him watch her as she brought herself to countless orgasms, he had never practiced that knowledge on her. Jordan wasn't sure why that was. Perhaps she had given him a blowjob the first time out of curiosity, or sympathy for his oftentimes solitary existence. Perhaps their affair had continued simply as a way for her to cope with the strange and often disturbing things she was forced to witness day in and day out as part of the project's medical staff.

He watched as she withdrew his cock from her lips, his member now fully erect and glistening with her saliva. Janice had larger breasts for an Asian woman - a shapely pair of 34Cs, of which she was quite proud - and she now took her fleshy orbs in her hands, pressing them around either side of his cock. They weren't quite large enough to fully enclose his throbbing member, but they were more than enough to get the job done. She moaned excitedly as he jerked his hips up and down, sliding his member up and down the cleft between her tits, excited both by the physical sensations and the thrill of having her breasts fucked by the most powerful being on the face of the planet.

"Give me your cum, baby," she teased, her tongue darting out to steal licks of the head of his cock as it protruded from her cleavage. "I want it..."

She felt his hands take hold of the sides of her breasts, and she relinquished her body to his grasp. Her own hands slid down between her naked thighs, seeking the wetness of her pussy, which was already dripping down her legs and onto the floor beneath her. After coating her fingertips with a thick layer of her juices, she pressed them to her clitoris, crying out at the jolts of pleasure that surged through her as she began to finger and flick sensitive nub.

Janice forgot completely about the need to collect a sperm sample as she relinquished herself to her own enjoyment, panting and gasping as the constant stimulus on both her sex and her breasts brought her closer and closer to the edge. Her pussy was soaked with her juices, sloshing noisily and wetly as she fingered herself. She felt Jordan release his grip on her tits, and as her mounds slipped away from his cock she quickly replaced them with her free hand, encircling his shaft once more and pumping up and down furiously. His hand on the back of her head tugged her nearer to his erection, and she was more than willing to take him in her mouth once more, bobbing her mouth up and down his cock.

"Gugh... ugh... nugh..." she half-moaned, half-gagged as she devoted her mouth and throat to his pleasure.

When her orgasm struck her, she sealed her lips around his shaft as tightly as she could and screamed into his dick, channeling her pleasure into her efforts at fellating him. She even bit down on him with her teeth, raking his flesh; one of the advantages of pleasuring a superhuman was that even the most ferocious love bite to his cock was a source of pleasure, rather than pain.

Her head was still reeling from her release when she began to sense his impending orgasm. She sometimes joked that it was her one superpower; after pleasuring Jordan for so many years, she could read all of his tells. She continued to suck and lick him, fondling his balls with one hand. Maybe just once, she would be able to feel his cum shooting down her throat, direct from the source...

But Jordan made clear that it was not to be.

"Janice, stop..." he ordered gruffly, his breathing shallow. "I'm going to... fuck..."

He pushed her away from him forcefully but not dangerously, clamping his fingers around the base of his cock. His face contorted in a mix of pleasure and exertion as he struggled to hold back his release a few moments more, while she staggered to her feet and retrieved the metal specimen cup from the counter. She rushed to his side and he took the cup from her, positioning it in front of the monstrous head of his swollen member, which was throbbing visually and about to burst. Her hand joined his, jerking his shaft, and with a loud roar, he unleashed jet after jet of his seed into the cup. Each spurt struck the base of the container with a loud metallic ping. The cup was made of a space age alloy specifically designed to resist high-velocity impacts - it was currently also in testing for armored vehicles and body armor plates - but even so, the force of Jordan's ejaculation left several dents in the sides as it collected his expended semen. Despite witnessing firsthand the power of his involuntary muscle contractions, Janice couldn't help but imagine that if she could feel him cumming inside of her just once, she could die a satisfied woman. As a doctor, though, she understood why he insisted on never finishing inside of her.

"Wow, I think that's more than enough," she remarked breathlessly, looking at the volume of off-white liquid that had accumulated in the specimen cup. She quickly sealed the container and pressed a label to it, before returning to Jordan and sliding herself onto his lap, facing him, wrapping her slender legs around his waist.

"I wish you'd let me take you inside of me," she sighed, feeling his cock, still semi-erect, rubbing against her delicate pussy lips. "It'd be so good..."

"Janice, you know..." he protested, but she silenced him with a kiss.

"Yes, I know. I still think you'd be able to pull out in time. You have very good control."

"It's too risky," he said, before kissing her again. "And you know better than anyone..."

"Yes, yes, the orgasm would rip my insides apart. And even if it didn't, the pregnancy would be... unpredictable."

"Maybe we should talk about when you're going to let me make you cum," he said.

"Hey, you have your lines, and I have mine," she said, with an enigmatic grin. Sliding off his lap, she did a small pirouette in the middle of the room before retrieving her lab coat and draping it over her shoulders, then opening up a nearby cabinet and pulling out the panties she had discarded earlier in anticipation of his arrival. "Until you bring something to the negotiating table..."

"I may never understand you," he said, shaking his head, giving her another kiss before pulling his suit back on. "If you'll excuse me, the Quartermaster is probably wondering where I am."

"Come see me to give another sample soon."

*****

After another week of observation and medical testing confirmed the extent of her new powers, Sam was informed that she was ready to be placed into the new class of recruits to begin training. She received instructions to report for training in a part of the facility she had not yet seen, and her wardrobe was refreshed with a large supply of standardized exercise clothing, consisting primarily of numerous pairs of black yoga-style pants and non-descript grey tank tops bearing a single digit - 2 - above the left breast.

When she reported in as instructed, she found herself in a large assembly area filled with tables and benches. There were other recruits waiting as well. Some, like her, wore shirts marked with the number 2. Others bore numbers ranging from 3 to 5. None, she noticed, had a number 1. On a hunch, she approached the small group of other recruits with the number 2 and introduced herself. Although they were a diverse group in terms of age and ethnicity, Sam quickly learned that they all shared a common thread, coming to the project on the heels of injuries and illnesses that should have been fatal. As they made small talk, Sam gradually noticed an increasing murmur in the room, and heads turning in the direction of a walkway to one side of the room, behind a clear Plexiglas window.

"Holy shit, it's him," one of the group muttered in disbelief.

Sam felt her heart jump in excitement as she saw the person at the center of everyone's attention: Jordan Connors.

Jordan could feel the eyes of the new recruits on him as he passed by the assembly area on his way to Ops. There were more direct paths on the base from his quarters to Ops, but Black insisted that he make a show of passing by each wave of new recruits on their first day of training, supposedly as a reminder of what they were training to become. Pausing briefly to acknowledge the group with a nod, Jordan quickly glanced over the latest crop of aspiring heroes. As in the past, the vast majority of them wore uniforms marked with a 5 or 4, indicating power levels above their natural abilities, but not significantly greater than the human body's overall potential. Few of them would ever advance beyond the early stages of training, although various military and government agencies would no doubt have places for them in their ranks. Then there was the handful of recruits who had been categorized into Tier 3; historically, their performance had been difficult to predict, often coming down to the ingenuity of the individual recruits. Those who were clever and found ways to balance the playing field against the more powerful Tier 2 recruits might have a future in the project; those who couldn't often joined their Tier 4 and Tier 5 colleagues.

Jordan let his attention linger a little longer on the Tier 2 recruits. In all likelihood, they would be the ones he saw most often as they progressed in their training. He took a few moments to try to memorize each face, but found himself pausing longer than usual on one of the recruits in particular, a young brunette woman with streaks of blonde. He wasn't sure what it was about her that caught his attention, but in addition to learning her face, he let his eyes drift downward, admiring her curvaceous breasts, prominent hips, and strong legs. She wasn't the model-thin standard of beauty that seemed to so mesmerize the world outside of the base, but something about the way the parts of her body came together had ensnared his attention. Still, he had to remain detached if he was going to train her, and grudgingly he forced his gaze away, turning and resuming his course to Ops.

Sam couldn't be certain, but would have sworn that she felt Jordan's eyes fall on her for just a little longer than everyone else. She felt a hot blush rise in her cheeks as she held her breath, wishing that she'd had the option of wearing pants that didn't emphasize her hips as much as they did. For a moment she felt as if she were back in high school, desperately wanting to be noticed by the star quarterback but having no idea what to do with herself when he actually looked. Thankfully, the other recruits were too focused on Jordan himself to notice where his attention was directed, and moments later, he turned and headed on his way, leaving the recruits to resume their small talk. Now, however, the room was abuzz with only one topic.

"Was that really him?"

"I thought he had his own fortress in the North Pole or something."

"That's Superman, dumbass."

"Mmmm, I usually like my men a little darker, but I'd let him take me for a ride."

"He didn't look so tough, I bet I can take him."

Sam kept silent for the most part, grappling with the way she'd reacted to Jordan's brief attention. Here she was, in training to become a superhero, and a momentary gaze from a man - admittedly, an extremely attractive man who had been her teenage dream - was enough to reduce her into a jumbled mess. She had no doubt that had she actually attempted to speak, she would have made a total fool of herself. That had to change.

*****

As the recruits' training began, Sam learned that the rest of the facility - to which she now had full access - resembled, more than anything, an expansive gym. The recruits had access 24 hours a day, seven days a week to an open training floor equipped with sparring mats, punching bags, training dummies, parkour-style obstacle courses and walls, and a diverse selection of weight training equipment. With supervision from project personnel, they also had access to a variety of specialized areas designed for testing the limits of their powers, including combustion chambers, firing ranges, and numerous other settings that reminded Sam a little too much of deathtraps one might find in the lair of a James Bond villain.

Much of their early training was directed to controlling their powers, in particular their enhanced strength, under the watchful eye of Damian Sleet, who was also their hand-to-hand combat instructor. The training served double-duty; the recruits practiced their martial arts techniques against one another, and were incentivized to control their strength by the knowledge that if they slipped, their training partners would undoubtedly repay the favor when the time came to switch roles. By the end of the first long session, despite her enhanced strength and rapid healing, Sam's body was covered in bruises and welts.

By the time the first full day ended, after another long sparring session in the afternoon and several hours of non-stop running on a treadmill while medical and scientific personnel took readings from an array of monitors, Sam was too exhausted to do anything but collapse into bed. The following days and weeks continued on the same grueling pace, though Sam was thankful to notice that her bruises generally healed completely by the time she woke in the morning, and over time she no longer bruised at all, despite the hits her training partners would deal out in sparring. She also found herself looking forward to the non-physical elements of her training, including science courses taught by Janice in which she learned more about the physiological origins of her new abilities.

As days and weeks turned to months, the initial group of recruits who had reported in with Sam began to dwindle. Most of the 4s and 5s had gone, failing to make the cut for the program or unable to recover from injuries they sustained during training. Many of the 3s had gone as well, though a few of them remained, battling to keep up with Sam and the 2s. Some of the 2s had dropped out as well, though for reasons that remained unclear. Most notable were two recruits whom Sam had walked in on having sex in one of the training rooms after hours. Although Sam hadn't reported the incident, neither returned to training the next day. When she asked Janice about them during one of her checkups, the doctor had ducked the question, emphasizing only that sexual relations between the recruits was strongly discouraged.