High Voltage Mittens

She offered the pistol to Nina.

Nina hesitated, then took it. It was cold, and heavy. She felt a dreadful sensation of power in its weight - power unwanted and unearned. She kept the muzzle pointed towards the floor, her finger well away from the trigger.

"Is it loaded?"

"Assume it is, and then look carefully, love."

Nina examined the machine. "I don't normally hang around with guns, Sam. What am I looking for?"

"See the little knobbly bit on the side? It's a lever. Rotate it downwards."

Nina did as instructed. Something heavy fell out of the handle, and clattered on the table. Nina looked down.

Then she looked up, into Samantha's wet eyes. "That's a battery, isn't it?"

Samantha nodded. "Nina, never do this with a real gun, but look in the muzzle."

For the briefest moment, Nina hesitated. Then, trusting Samantha, she did as she was told.

Something was shining, down there in the cold metal darkness.

"Something glass, or clear plastic," murmured Nina. "It's a lens, I think."

Oh God, thought Nina. It's a laser. She's made a no-shit, honest-to-goodness laser death ray.

Samantha spoke quietly. "It's a light gun, love. The battery's there because I decided I wanted a wireless one."

What?

Nina looked up at Samantha. "You mean... like... for computer games?"

Samantha nodded. "You remember I was a sucker for House of the Dead, back in the day. I made this after the Columbine massacre. Although I will admit, my tastes went more towards Point Blank and cutesy gun games after that. I put it in the box after I got that new TV. Light guns only work on CRT's, you see, unless you want to mess around with infrared."

Nina put the gun down on the table. "You made a videogame controller, Sam... out of a real handgun."

Samantha nodded. "Yes," she said, barely audible.

She's struggling, thought Nina. She's showing me a part of herself that's gone through her usual eccentricity and into... into something dark.

Nina stared at Samantha. She wants me to reassure her that I don't think she's crazy.

Can I do that? While I'm thinking of her blowing away videogame zombies with a controller made out of a real pistol?

Nina swallowed. "What else is in that shoebox, Sam?"

Samantha reached into the box, and took out a little green circuit board. It was star-shaped. When she pressed a button, colorful lights flashed in sequence at each point. "It's a Christmas ornament," she said. She handed it to Nina.

Nina took it, pressed the little button, watched the pretty lights.

"The chip in the middle sends voltage to the LED's in sequence," said Samantha. "It was originally part of the detonation circuit from a roadside bomb."

Nina felt something inside her lurch and turn over; something begging for release. A cough, or a sneeze, or a violent scream, or a full-body jerk. She settled on a shiver.

"It handled the timing of pulses sent to the..." Samantha trailed off. Nina saw, clear as day, Samantha realizing that she was about to get into a lengthy technical explanation that Nina would find tedious, and stopping herself. "Well, it doesn't really matter what it used to do. My old man pocketed the chip, back in the eighties. He picked up a lot of stuff, here and there. Souvenirs, you know." She dipped her hand into the box.

This gets better and better, thought Nina, her heart sinking, a terrible sick feeling in her gut. Ten years I've known her - and I knew she was a bit odd, but...

"This pendant," said Samantha, bringing out the chain that had tangled in the gun - "I made this from a nasty little knife that I took from a mugger a few years ago." It was heart-shaped, and sparkled in the afternoon sun. "See the little channel, here?" She pointed to a vertical indentation running down the left side of the heart shape. "They call that a fuller. In swords, it's there to reduce the weight. In little knives like this where weight doesn't make much difference, it's there to save metal and reduce costs to the manufacturer. The sort of people who buy these knives believe that the groove is there to let the blood out faster. Can you believe that?"

And now, just as I open my heart to her...

And she never told me about that!

"When were you mugged?"

Samantha looked down. "It was the same night you and Steve split up."

Nina stared. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Samantha shrugged. "You and Steve had just split up. You were hurting." She looked at the pendant. "Didn't think it was all that important, given the situation." She turned the heart over and over in her hands. "I mean, nobody really got hurt or anything. I took the knife and hurt his fingers and hit him a couple of times and he ran off. I was just going to throw the knife away, but when I got home I was coming down from the adrenaline, and I felt depressed. So I put it in the box, and then a few weeks later I took it out of the box, and turned it into this."

Oh, God... she's so strange.

And this fascination with weapons...

Samantha set the heart down on the table, and looked at Nina. "When I despair of the world, I build things. It's not much, really - it doesn't really do any good in the grand scheme of things. I don't think I can do much good, on my own. I'm just one woman. But it feels like..." she looked into the box, shrugged. "It feels like something, you know? I have to do something, even if it accomplishes nothing big. It feels like putting my finger on the scales, a little bit. Taking a..." she hesitated, looked towards the ceiling - "a bit of *control,* over this one thing, when I know I really don't have any control over the world outside. Normally it's just some silly little electronics project, or a blog post, or something. It's only when I get really down that it's not enough to just make something, and I get the urge to turn weapons into toys."

Suddenly, Nina understood.

Turning weapons into toys.

Her fingers closed unconsciously around the ornament.

It's not a fascination with weapons. It's a fascination with changing them into things that aren't weapons anymore. Things that are the opposite of weapons.

"I'm doing a bad job of explaining my little box of crazy, aren't I?" asked Samantha, smiling nervously. "I've never, like..." she pushed her glasses further up her nose. "I've never put it into words, like this."

"I don't think you're crazy," said Nina, quietly.

Samantha looked into Nina's eyes. "Really?"

"Actually, no, I'm lying through my teeth. You're nuts, Sam." She smiled. "But you're the good kind of nuts. The kind of nuts that wants to take all the awful things in the world and make them good." She set the ornament down, stood up, leaned over the table so they were close. "I love you, Sam."

Their lips touched. Nina watched Samantha close her eyes before closing her own. They breathed together, lips sliding gently, tenderly against one another, warm in a cold world. Nina felt Samantha's glasses bump against her nose, and Samantha's hand run gently through her hair.

Samantha drew back. The kiss ended, as sooner or later all kisses must. "I love you too, Nina."

Nina smiled. "Thank you for showing me this."

Samantha said nothing, but looked relieved.

"I think I understand," said Nina, stroking Samantha's cheek, "that it's not enough to just destroy a thing, sometimes."

Samantha nodded. "Better to change its nature. Corrupt it into something joyful." She kissed Nina, tenderly, a brief touch of the lips. "Perverts gotta pervert the things that need perverting."

Nina smiled. She looked down, into the box.

Her eyes widened. Another familiar shape.

"Oho!" she said, grinning. "Tell me about that one."

Samantha laughed - a beautiful sound, so close to Nina's ears. "That one... well, that one's special." She took the item in question from the box.

"A big purple dildo," sang Nina, "With a black box on the bottom, and a big scary-looking button. What's the story with this one - did its batteries come from a tazer?"

Samantha smiled. "I made this just after I fixed your vibrator. It's the only one that I made when I wasn't in despair. Also, it doesn't run on batteries." She ran a finger along its length. "It contains an experimental projectile weapon."

Nina stared. "What."

Samantha nodded. "It's called a coilgun. It works by accelerating a ferrous projectile through several separate coils of wire, using optical sensors to turn the coils on and off with precise timing. In this case, the projectile is captive, so it's more like a beefed-up, super-powered solenoid." Nina felt Samantha's fingers on the back of her hand. "The army's investigating their feasibility as weapons right now. They want to make a silent, high-powered, low-recoil rifle. They want to use this technology to kill people." Samantha turned to Nina, and smiled. "So of course I couldn't let them do that without at least tweaking their noses a little bit. I want to use the same technology to make people come." She kissed Nina on the nose, her eyes narrowed. "Make people come hard."

Nina stared at the toy. "So... it doesn't just vibrate, then?"

Samantha smiled, looking down at the toy. "No, it's better than that. It stops the projectile against a reinforced bracket, transferring the momentum to the whole toy."

Suddenly, her eyes locked onto Nina's. In a low, firm voice and with an evil smile, she said "Now listen carefully, little rabbit."

Nina shivered. Immediately, she felt her nipples hardening.

I am your little rabbit, Sam. I am your little rabbit, cowering and terrified and obedient, and you are my predator.

"Anything, mistress," breathed Nina, her stomach turning over.

Samantha pointed to a big black box on the kitchen table, festooned with meters and knobs. "Plug in that power supply."

Nina traced the cord through the piles, and looked around her for an outlet.

"Behind you, silly girl," purred Samantha.

Nina found the outlet, plugged in the cord. A high-pitched whine came from the power supply, and its meters lit up.

"Turn the left-hand knob slowly, Nina, clockwise, until the meter reads twenty-four volts."

Nina did as she was told; the whine changed, and the needle moved.

"Now, see..." said Samantha, doing something complicated to the toy. The black box at the base detached - a thick, coiled black wire hung between the jolly purple shaft of the toy and its...

Control unit? Power supply? No, this is the power supply. That must be the control unit, then?

"Take this end, Nina." Samantha passed the toy to Nina, holding onto the black box. Nina took the toy - its texture was pretty standard, a soft-hard squishiness, but it was bizarrely heavy. Samantha took a black wire with a power jack on the end, and plugged it into the black box.

"Now," said Samantha, "Hold on tight."

Nina gripped the toy, feeling a rolling in her belly, trepidation in her spine.

What's going to happen?

Samantha, smiling, did something to a knob or a slider or something that Nina couldn't see - the box she was holding onto began to whine, its pitch increasing until it was inaudible. Nina watched Samantha, her eyes obscured by the reflection of the lighted meters on her glasses.

She really does look like a mad scientist sometimes.

Samantha pressed the big scary-looking button.

There was a loud BANG from Nina's hand. The toy jumped upwards, jerking her arm. Her hand felt tingly.

"Jesus Christ!" exclaimed Nina, her rabbithood forgotten.

"No," said Samantha, cackling - "science!"

"Fucking hell, Sam, you put this in your vagina?"

Samantha laughed. "It's a unique sensation, I'll tell you that!" She pointed to a slider switch, on the control box. "It's a three-coil gun - that was with coils one and two. With all three operating in series, it's kinda hard to hold on to."

Nina stared at the toy in equal parts horror and fascination.

"Is it safe?" She swallowed. "...mistress?"

Samantha came closer, pointed to the tip of the toy in Nina's hand. "The material is a little translucent. If you look closely, you can see how much steel there is at the point the projectile impacts. I've reinforced it to tolerances far beyond any voltage you'd ever want to use. If you're worried about the projectile breaking through the toy, don't. The coils will burn out first, if we take it that far - and the inner sleeves are nylon, which will expand with heat, and stop the projectile if we overdrive them too much." She grinned. "I speak from experience."

Nina shivered. "Will it hurt, mistress?"

"I've designed this machine so that it's very stable and predictable, Nina. It does precisely what I tell it to, no more, no less. It will only hurt you if I want it to." Samantha kissed Nina gently on the forehead. "Go into my bedroom, and bring a condom and the lubricant from the drawer in my bedside table."

Nina's eyes widened. She looked at the toy in her hand, the thick wire leading to Samantha's control box.

That wire is thick because it carries lots of amps, thought Nina. I've picked up enough about this stuff to know that, just from watching Sam.

It's the amps that are dangerous.

"Yes, mistress," said Nina, and put the toy down on the table.

She shivered as she headed through the corridor to the foot of the stairs. Are we really doing this? Am I really going to let Sam put an experiment in my most sensitive, vulnerable place?

She mounted the staircase, feeling cold, excited, fearful.

The Special Toy...

No, this is different. This isn't the Special Toy that I love as a part of Sam. The Special Toy is just one of my old rabbits with a bit of extra oomph; this coil thingy is insane! She said herself that it was based on an experimental weapon!

She opened the door to Samantha's bedroom, smelling the incense and fresh laundry; and a very faint undercurrent of recently-expressed love. The smell calmed her, somewhat.

I trust her. More importantly, if the machine came from her hands, then I trust it, too. She wouldn't do this if there were any danger.

She opened the bedside table, retrieved a condom and a mostly-full bottle of lube, headed back downstairs.

Her calm lasted until she entered the kitchen and saw the cable, dangling from Samantha's hand.

That thick, black cable.

Thick for lots and lots of amps.

Nina felt the fear return, creeping up her lower back.

Samantha gave her a hard stare, holding the toy and its frightening circuitry. "Are you scared, Nina?"

Nina nodded. "Yes, mistress," she whispered.

Samantha smiled. "Open the condom, and put the packet in the trash there."

Nina did so, her fingers shaking.

"Now pick up the toy, and dress it up in the condom."

Nina rolled the condom slowly down the length of the heavy toy. For its massive weight, it wasn't even particularly big; perhaps, even, a little shorter than Nina's favorite toys. A happy little clitoral-stimulation rabbit stood, ears erect, at the base. That would at least stop the toy from jumping all the way inside and hitting Nina's cervix.

But it's not the size that matters, thought Nina. It's how it moves.

It's how many amps that big wire can push into it.

"You're shaking," said Samantha, quietly. "Is it because it's occurring to you that I have a large supply of batteries of all shapes and sizes and chemistries, and yet this toy doesn't use any of them?"

Nina stared at Samantha.

"Did it cross your mind," said Samantha, idly leaning on the table, "that there would be a reason for that?"

Actually, it didn't. Oh God. Nina shook her head.

"Look at the size of that power supply," said Samantha. "That's what we call a bench supply, Nina. Batteries can't supply the power that this toy needs, as fast as it needs it, so it has to be plugged into the wall. And then," she said with a grin, "plugged into you. Doesn't that make you just a little bit nervous?"

"Yes, mistress," whimpered Nina. And it was true. Very, very true.

"We're ready, little rabbit."

What do you mean, we're ready? We're doing this now? Right now?

Samantha gently took the toy from Nina with her right hand, the control box in her left. She smiled down at Nina.

"Take off your jeans and underwear," she said slowly, "and bend over, with your hands on the table, and your legs apart."

Nina's breath caught as she found herself unbuttoning her jeans.

Wait, what am I doing?!

She hooked her thumbs into her panties and pushed them down with her jeans, feeling the wettened crotch stick underneath her for a moment.

Because she told me to?!

She glanced downwards, shocked at the glistening dampness she saw in her gusset. She looked at Samantha as she stepped out of her jeans. Samantha was spreading lube over the device, grinning, watching Nina.

Her thighs and hindquarters felt cold and bare. She didn't wait for Samantha's command; she leaned over the table, exposing herself.

The table smelt of voltage and solder and electrical heat. Her face was directly in front of the big black power supply, humming softly to itself - she wasn't sure whether she could feel a faint vibration through the table, or if she was just imagining that she could. She looked at the meter marked with a "V" - it glowed with a warm incandescent light, the needle pointing at 24.

She felt Samantha's hand on her rear. A squeeze - light and casual - just enough to let her know who she belonged to.

Nina felt the toy push between the wet lips of her labia and slide with shocking ease into her body.

I'm THAT wet? For THIS?!

The rabbit didn't touch Nina's clitoris - instead, it pushed firmly between her buttocks.

Oh God...

Samantha's hand, holding the control box, appeared in front of her. "Eyes forward, Nina," said Samantha from above. Nina watched as she set the controller down on the table, delicately pushed a slider switch with a click and an escalating high-pitched whine, and ran her finger around the button, stroking it, teasing it.

At the same time, she felt a stroking, teasing motion around her clitoris; a wet finger slid through her folds on either side, not yet touching the nubbin itself, merely saying hello.

Expertly dividing my attention between feeling pleasure and seeing fear.

What am I doing?!

The finger stroked delicately over Nina's clitoris - a hot, sparking pulse. She cried out.

The index finger of Samantha's other hand, circling the button, came to rest in its center. "You know," said Samantha, quietly, "this button doesn't actually energize the coilgun. It sends a signal to a tiny little transistor in line with a much bigger transistor attached to a great big huge heatsink, that provides a path for the current through the coils. It's this way because the current is so high -"

Nina cried out again, in terror and pleasure...

"...so high, little rabbit, that switching it with the button directly would make a spark big enough to weld -" she tapped lightly on the button, not yet triggering it - "the contacts -" another little tap - "closed."

"Oh, God!" moaned Nina, ripples of pleasure running up her spine, waves of fear running down, colliding in the center, tearing her in two. She felt sweat bead on her skin, cold and shivery.