In One Spirit Meet and Mingle

"Could you please stop insulting women, you asshole?" Poly asked. "I could make fun of your burn scars, but you don't see me insulting you based off your physical disadvantages." He stepped backwards hurriedly, jerking back to avoid a set of claws that would have ripped out his guts. Scary Terry stepped another step forward, growling as he grabbed for Poly's neck.

Poly felt his back bump into a street lamp.

He flicked a finger up. A polymer strand connected to the top of the post.

Scary Terry swung.

Poly jerked aside. The knife fingers slashed through concrete with a squeal and spray of sparks. The street-lamp tottered, starting to fall one way...and then Poly jerked hard, tugging it the other way with as much force as he could. Scary Terry opened his mouth, clearly about to quip -- but then the street lamp smashed onto his back, bowling him over. AS he sprawled, Poly kicked out and caught the mask on the chin, popping it off and returning Scary Terry into...

Penny?

She groaned as she sprawled on the ground.

"...what the fuck!?" Poly whispered.

Penny blinked. "W...What? Where am I?" She asked, looking around. "Why does it...feel like I let the whole football team run a train on me, but I got none of the upsides?" She blinked up at Poly. "Oh, hey...new...superhero. You're cute." She grinned.

"You don't strike me as being Mask Master's normal run of goon," Poly said, trying to pitch his voice to sound as 'not Felix' as possible. He grabbed onto Penny's arm, helping to haul her to her feet. She shook her head, her hair poofing outwards with a faint sprong sound effect. She put her hand on her back, popping it.

"Whaaat?" she asked. "Dude, no! He's not even a sexy villain like the Clown Prince of Crime or anything!" she said.

"Then why were you wearing this, citizen?" Poly asked, flicking his finger down and yanking the Scary Terry mask up with a polymer strand.

Penny frowned, thinking. "Well, I was at the Valentines Day party, gettin' laid, like you do," she said. "When...there was this huge explosion of pink light. And...like...I was just crazy in love with this mask..." She blinked. "Like I wanted to marry it and live with it until my old age..." She shook her head. "That's weird. I'm definitely not a bigot, but I don't think inanimate objects and people should get married."

Poly frowned, then turned around, to look at the back yard.

The glowing pink energy that had been filling the air was gone.

"That can't be good," he and Penny said at the same time.

Poly sprinted for the corner of the house. He slowed down when he heard a voice. A cackling, laughing, monologuing kind of voice.

"You see," the voice said. "The one thing that has kept my slave masks from working is that one rule. You cannot control minds. But I've discovered an exception, thanks to this little holiday. There is one force that has controlled and compelled human thoughts since the dawn of time. Eros. Love. Romantic love."

Poly's brow furrowed as he leaned around the corner. There were all his fellow students, kneeling, their faces concealed by masks. Penny squished up against his back and Poly almost fell around the corner in shock. He looked back, but Penny held up her finger, shushing him. Poly tried to not give in to the immediate and probably pretty logical reaction that seeing a civilian (let alone one he knew) in a superhero fight zone. His first reaction was to web her up into a thick bundle of oxygen with springs around the outside, then kick her as hard as he could down the street so she'd end up way out of the danger zone. But that would have made quite a lot of noise. Besides, he had no idea if it'd actually be safe.

Poly realized that he had missed a few words on the big speech. He leaned back around to see Mask Master -- at least, that was who he assumed the tall, gangly figure in black with the obsidian face mask was -- leaning down to whisper to Lady Justice, who was...glued to the ground by greenish goop. Again. Shit.

"Love is the key," Mask Master was saying, holding up a sleek, ornate looking opera mask. It glowed a pale pink, and as he watched, Lady Justice squirmed. She bit her lip, her face flushed...and then she did something that made Poly's eyes almost pop out of his mask.

"Putitonmerightnow!" She whimpered, sounding almost as desperate as she had for his cock. The mask was glowing brighter pink now, shining on her face. Poly was so shocked that he almost didn't start to move until it was nearly too late. He rolled around the corner, flicked out a cable, and jerked the mask out of Mask Master's hand. The opera mask flew through the air towards him, but Mask Master seemed more amused than infuriated.

"He's stealing your mask, Lady Injustice," Mask Master purred.

Lady Justice growled, her eyes flaring with a mixture of jealousy and rage. Her fingers clenched and Mask Master flicked his fingers, sending a knife shooting from a hidden bracer on his wrist. The knife slashed open the goo and Lady Justice flew at Polymath like she had been fired from a cannon. Poly yelped and ducked, but the glancing impact of her body sent him flying backwards, smashing into the fence behind him. He went through with a shower of splinters, his uniform flexing to spread the impact out as much as it could.

Still fucking hurt.

He hit the lawn in the next house over, rolled, and came up to his feet. Lady Justice was floating above him, holding the mask. She panted. "This mask is mine," she crooned, her voice filled with...

Love.

"It's not real!" Poly shouted. But it was too late.

Lady Justice slipped the mask onto her face. Willingly.

The flare of energy that crackled along her body swept from head to toes. Her hair grew longer and the brilliant red became streaked with black lines, making her look almost tigerish. Her silver uniform became more taut, then started to tear. Whole swaths of it fell away, leaving her dressed in a dominatrix style mixture of straps and collars and buckles, revealing her thighs, her belly, the underside of her breasts. A spiked collar formed around her throat, and what had once been silver turned a dark black. Her cape fell away, pattering onto the ground, leaving her back entirely bare as she rolled her shoulders slowly, sighing with pure pleasure. The blindfold was gone -- in its place was the opera mask of Lady Injustice.

She grinned, wickedly, then dropped to the ground with a quiet grunt. "Hmm..." She said, looking at her hands -- which were glad in fingerless gloves. She flexed her fingers. "Different powerset."

"Lady Justice," Polymath said. "Your mind is being controlled."

"That's impossible," she said, crooning happily. "You're just jealous that I've found something better than you." She reached up, gently rubbing her mask with one finger, shivering happily.

Okay, Poly thought. I just need to get the mask off her and break her out of the spell. Easy. She's just the most powerful heroine currently in the city. I can do this. He clenched his hands.

And that was when the sledgehammer smashed into his chest. He went flying backwards and smashed into the side of a car. His back crunched and he groaned, then sprawled on the ground. He shook himself, trying to get his arms underneath him -- and then five legs seemed to kick into his side and he went rolling along the sidewalk, before catching up against a street light. He shook himself as he stood, watching as Lady Injustice casually walked towards him, rolling her shoulders. She was glowing with a pale silvery light -- her fingers crackled with a silver flame and she looked nearly...orgasmic.

"God this is so much easier," she purred.

She flicked a finger.

A right cross that felt like it had been thrown by a champion prize fighter smashed into Poly's jaw. He went staggering to his hands and knees, his palms going to the ground. He coughed and blood pattered onto the ground. Polymath's brain was buzzing -- crackling with pain and horror. But...he was still Polymath. And he hadn't just picked his name for the fact he could make polymerstrands. He had always been smart -- and he was looking at Lady Justice's original powerset. Kinetic redistribution? But she hadn't been given any kinetic energy to throw at him. But she had also become Injustice.

"Maybe I'll take you alive. Maybe I'll let the Master put a mask on you. Make you my little boy toy. Doesn't that sound nice?" Lady Injustice purred as she walked forward. Her high heels clicked ominously.

Poly flung himself to the side, kicking off the ground as hard as he could. The sidewalk he had stood on exploded into a shower of fragments, like he had just avoided a blow that might have cracked his spine. Poly kept running, sprinting as hard as he could towards the nearest house. The door he was running towards exploded into a shower of splinters, which shot towards him like a shotgun. Poly jerked his arms up, polymerizing every splinter into a huge net, then spun, flinging the mass at Lady Injustice. She held up her arm and the ground before her erupted into an explosion. Bits of stone and pavement flew upwards, deflecting the splinter barrage.

I was right, Poly thought. She went from kinetic redistribution to kinetic inversion. Anything that stands still, she can invert that lack of energy into an explosion.

He kept running, knowing that to stop was to die. But there was a tiny problem with his plan. He had just run into his house. But more importantly, he had just run into a tightly enclosed space that was full of completely stationary objects. He swore he could hear Lady Injustice's grin. He had a few seconds before-

The house exploded.

***

God. Being evil felt amazing. Lady Injustice rolled her shoulders, sighing happily as she walked slowly towards the smoldering ruins of her house. She knew it was her house. But she didn't...really care. So what if she blew it up, it wasn't like her son was in there. Oh her son. She'd need to make sure he understood her new relationship with her mask. The mask was everything. She loved her mask. It confined her. It held her. It was like being bound, but deeper and more perfect than any handcuff, any spreader bar. It bound her mind.

And she loved it.

Her shoes crunched on the rubble as she stepped up onto the small landing leading up to the front porch. Bits of wood, chunks of stone, shards of glittering glass, all of it was strewn outwards around the blast sight. As she looked down, trying to find the shredded body of Polymath -- shame about killing him. She felt a tiny pang at the thought of losing that cock. But there was no way the tiny flicker of love she had felt for him could even stand up next to the glorious adoration she felt for her mask.

Mmm.

She caressed her mask lovingly -- and then saw that the floor of her house had collapsed down into her old secret hideout. She shook her head.

Rubble shifted.

Lady Injustice beamed and she stepped off the side of the porch, dropping down the hole to land in her own secret hideout. "Well, well, Polymath. I wasn't expecting to bring you here, but..." She reached down, grabbing some rubble. She might not be able to redistribute kinetic energy anymore, but she was still physically strong. She tossed the long, flat piece of wood that had fallen atop Polymath aside. Then blinked.

She was looking at a sphere of shimmering black fiber, which looked like it had completely cocooned Polymath's body. The surface was roughly textured, like it was covered in thousands of tiny springs. The cocoon exploded outwards, stored kinetic energy smashing her into the wall. She staggered and then brought her arms up as Polymath came up fighting. He dragged himself towards her with a pair of strands connected to the walls of her old hideout, legs flung up. She jerked to the side and those feet smashed into the wall rather than her head. Polymath flipped off the wall -- but she saw where he was going to land.

She blew up the floor. He was flung against the wall, then skidded down, groaning.

Lady Injustice slammed her arm down, grabbing his throat. She lifted him up, pinning him against the wall.

"So, what do you think of my hideout?" she purred.

"Huh?" Polymath whispered, his eyes narrowing behind his mask, his teeth gritted as he tried to keep himself from crying out in pain.

"Oh, yeah. For years, people tried to find it. But no one ever thought that Lady Justice lived in suburbia," she crooned, happily.

Polymath's eyes widened.

Lady Injustice expected pleading. Begging. Reminders of the time they had shared on the roof. Hell, part of her was even ready to accept him switching sides and becoming a villain. It was rare, but it happened.

Nothing in her was ready for what she heard instead.

"...Mom?"

Lady Injustice blinked. "W...What?"

Some people theorized that the mask, the costume, the secret name? They were all part of a deeper superpower. An ability that helped to maintain the status quo. They pointed out how some disguises that had been revealed by history and deaths were just so fucking flimsy. Hyperion, before his death in 1989, had simply put a pair of glasses on, for gods sake. That theory hadn't been fully tested. But if it was true, then that power, like all powers, could be overcome. And in that one instance, that one word, Lady Injustice could see through Polymath's disguise and see the familiar face of her son. Her own lovely, intelligent, gentle son, Felix.

Oh god, she thought. I'm killing him.

I love the mask, the mask wants him to die.

No Felix-

I love the mask, the mask wants him to die.

He's. My.

SON

Lady Injustice let Felix drop through nerveless fingers, stepping backwards, her hands going to her face. As she looked down at Felix, who was gasping quietly, she could hear footsteps. Turning, she saw Mask Master walking up to the house. He looked down into the basement, and his voice crooned in her ear, in her mind. "Finish it, Lady Injustice. We have a world to conquer."

Lady Injustice's hands shook.

I love the mask. The mask wants. Him. To. Die.

Her hands clenched.

Energy gathered as she felt all the places where her new power of kinetic inversion could be applied. Felix was completely still. She could snap his neck with a single blast, focused at his jaw. Mask Master chuckled, quietly. His voice was gloating. "Come on. I want to take you home, you fucking cougar, and ride you..." he sounded so very pleased with himself.

Lady Injustice licked her lips. "Master..." she said, quietly. "I'm a MILF."

She focused.

There was something else that was perfectly still.

Mask Master's obsidian mask exploded. He went flying backwards, screaming, his face covered in thin lacerations. Green energy rippled outwards, and chunks of his mask -- flaring like green meteorites -- zipped outwards in every direction. Chunks smashed into the wall and the floor around Lady Injustice. She didn't flinch. Instead, she reached up and tore off her mask, gasping heavily as she felt her body shudder and her powers revert with a slow, easing feeling. It was like stretching out after being cramped for a while.

"Y...You okay?" Felix asked as he stood, shakily.

"W-What the fuck are we going to do?" Susan whispered, looking at him -- as confused sounds came from the next house over.

The other masks were coming off.

***

Felix lay on his bed in the apartment that Project Aegis had gotten him and his mom, at least until the house got rebuilt. Officially, she had gotten it herself. Project Aegis didn't know that Polymath was Felix Fong -- they didn't ask until they absolutely had to know what a secret identity was. Lady Justice...Susan...Mom...had gone decades before she had needed to reveal her ID during the Darkthornn Invasion.

His phone buzzed. Felix's heart leaped into his throat -- but he saw it was just from Penny.

I GOTTA SHOW YOU SOMETHING! She had sent.

Felix could not give two fucks about the new boytoy that Penny had found. He set the phone down and kept looking at the ceiling. Less than a room away was his mom. Was she in her bed too, thinking about the time on the roof? Was she thinking about how the first time Felix had ever made love, he had done it to his mother? Was she wearing...his face heated as he realized that his thoughts had shifted, almost without him realizing it, from thinking about what she was feeling to thinking about the curve of her breasts, the flatness of her belly, the soft, welcoming folds of her pussy.

That's. Your. Mom, he tried to tell himself.

But he was already hard as steel. His cock strained against his jeans, bulging. His face heated and he put his hands over his face. His stomach growled -- and when he peeked through his fingers, he saw that it was nearly midnight. He had school tomorrow, but his sleep schedule was completely fucked up, thanks to this long ass, crazy day. It was still Valentines Day, and his life had gone from exciting to totally fucked because he was sick.

But...

But...

Felix shook his head. He stood, adjusting his pants, trying to get them to hide his bulge as he headed for the kitchen in the little apartment. Opening the door from his room, he saw no sign of his Mom in the kitchen. Regret and relief warred in his belly as he walked to the fridge. Opening it up, he saw the Project had stocked it at least. He grabbed a stick of string cheese from the fridge, then turned and found himself looking at his Mom.

Mom had gotten out of her room, wearing her night-robe. The robes were drawn taut over her body and she looked faintly shocked to see him up and about. Quietly, she said: "Isn't it a school night?"

Felix closed the door to the fridge. "Uh..." he paused. "Couldn't sleep."

Mom nodded. She walked slowly to the counter in the kitchen, then sat down on one of the stools laid out before it. She put her elbows on the counter. Her mouth opened. Then closed. Felix continued to stand perfectly still. All he could see was her face, illuminated by the night lights in the kitchen. It left the rest of her body in shadow -- hints of curves and sleekness. He could almost imagine she was naked underneath the pool of light. Nude and waiting for his hands to discover how she felt. The longing to touch her, to hear her mewling moans filled him.

What was wrong with him?

"We should talk," Mom finally said.

Felix nodded, mutely.

Mom and he remained silent for what felt like an eternity.

"I'm sorry," Mom said.

"What for?" Felix asked.

"For..." Mom flushed. "For taking advantage of you."

"Uh, I'm pretty sure that I wasn't taken advantage of," Felix said, feeling a momentary flare of annoyance. "I was the one putting you in handcuffs."

Mom's entire face went red. She shifted and, for just a moment, the light spilled along the front of her night robes. The robes had shifted, revealing the delicious valley of her breasts. Felix's jeans nearly split. She glared at him, but there was a bit of playfulness in that glare. "But I was the adult there."

"I'm eighteen. And a superhero now, Mom," Felix said. His voice was slightly rough. Mom actually bit her lip.

Is she getting turned on too? Felix thought. Mom shifted, then drew her robes tighter around herself as if she wanted to conceal herself as much as she could. She looked away from him, her voice quiet. "We can't let anyone know," she said. "And never do it again."