Mike & Karen Ch. 13

"Boom, headshot!" she whooped as she turned and sped across the terrain, chasing down another target.

"She sounds like your dad, Alex," Alexa quipped as she peppered an enemy mech with missiles and then a barrage of lasers, hopefully damaging it enough to slow it down so she could pull it apart.

"Very funny," he said dryly. "Watch your heat, I don't need you shutting down in the middle of the battle and becoming a target. Alternate your lasers on that heat gauge!"

"Yes, O captain, my captain," she replied, but wisely heeding his advice. He seemed a natural at this, and the thought gave her tingles. She loved it when he was in command.

Alex's cockpit shuddered and he cursed as he realized he'd been hit from behind by missiles. Too slow to effectively run away from an enemy that had a decent lock on him, Alex turned his mech about, already firing one of his arm-mounted particle cannons as he did so, coming to face his attacker. He began walking backwards, firing both arm-mounted weapons as his over-eager foe tried to come to grips. He then added his lasers to the barrage, and finally his short-range missile launcher, watching his heat gauge carefully as it edged into the red zone.

His foe's armour gave out before his reactor core, and the mech toppled over, out for the round.

"Remember, the teams are colour-coded on your radar!" he said into the comm. "If we take out members of each team, they can't coordinate, because they're enemies and they have to rely on themselves."

"I will try, but my Archer, it is getting low on the ammunition, and my left side armour, it is nearly gone," Freja called back. "Several lighter mechas, they are targeting me and wearing me down!"

"Fuckpumpkin?" Alex called out.

"On it!" the brunette called back, sprinting across the battlefield, escaping from her foes. She'd leave them to Alex and Alexa, who started to concentrate on them. "Get away from my wife, you bastards!"

Alex saw his wife charging in toward a foe, weathering a hail of medium laser fire. He slowed his movement and took careful aim, using both particle cannons from almost their maximum range, and pulled the triggers. The two coruscating beams of charged plasma struck the mech just below the hip joint, blowing off the leg. The machine pitched awkwardly and tipped over.

"Noice!" Alexa hissed as she ran up to the downed mech, unloading her medium lasers into it before stomping on its head. She almost fell over in the process, but clearly her bloodlust had taken over.

"Whoah, slow down there, Kali!" he laughed as he watched her. "And quit channeling my mother!"

"Don't tell me how to have fun, sir," she called back before turning around ponderously and stomping toward another target. "I am Death, the destroyer of nerds!"

Alex laughed again. They were doing a lot better than he expected.

***

Freja found herself in the awkward position of being stuck between two enemy mechs, both of whom were attempting to maul her. She cursed in Danish as the pod around her rumbled and shook, giving realism to the damage she was supposed to be taking. She was loath to use another round of her precious long-range ammunition, but her complement of lasers was seemingly not enough to down her foe in front. She swiped ponderously with her mech's fists, at the very least attempting to batter him away, but he somehow held on.

Behind her, a light mech, something called a Wasp, was dancing back and forth, shooting its laser into her rear armour. It had reached critical, paper-thin levels, and if it failed, they'd start hitting her engine next, or potentially what was left of her ammo. Neither option appealed, since it meant elimination, and Freja hated losing.

"Oh, I don't think so!" she heard Jeanie say before her mech landed on the shoulders of the mech in front of her. The enemy mech crashed to the ground, taking Jeanie with it, but she somehow scrambled to her feet quickly. Without hesitation, she pointed her gauss cannon at her foe's head and blasted it from the face of the earth. "Ha! Death from above! It's a pity we can't teabag these guys, isn't it?"

"But you are a woman, and I assumed your mecha would be a woman as well, ja?" Freja pointed out as she pivoted to try and get a lock on the Wasp behind her. "So I am thinking your mecha has no scrotum with which you may teabag!"

"Ugh, fine," Jeanie grumbled over the intercom while standing over where her foe's head had been and trying to make her mech bend its backwards-hinged legs squat. "Clam slam!"

"That as well might have been a good name for your mech, I am thinking!" Freja said as she began firing her laser suite at the panicking wasp. Her secondary weapons were as large as its primary weapon, but its agility was astonishing.

"Should I change my name next round?" Jeanie asked, checking to make sure no foes were nearby.

"Ingen, I think 'Fuckpumpkin' suits it very well, yndling!" laughed the Danish girl. "Ugh! Hold still, you little ... these lighter mechas, they are so hard to track! Yndling! See the naughty Wasp? Well, I do not want to!"

"Buh-bye!" Jeanie said in an eager voice as her mech held still and tracked the Wasp through the path of its jump. She shot her gauss cannon, the giant slug punching through her target's chest armour, hitting the reactor and causing it to explode.

"Three!" she exulted, leaping into the air. "I've taken out three!"

"Eyes on the prize, people!" they both heard Alex say over the comm. "We're not out of the woods yet! Regroup!"

With shouts of confirmation, Freja and Jeanie ran to join their teammates.

***

The final minutes of combat had left the four of them as the only intact team. Alexa and Freja had both run out of long-range ammo, meaning they only had their laser suites and their physical attacks left to work with. And if the enemy didn't get in close range, they were little more than sponges meant to soak up attacks while Alex and Jeanie did all the fighting.

Alex wasn't about to allow that and instructed Jeanie to harry the enemy as only she seemingly could. Meanwhile, Alex began targeting the enemy's long-range weaponry when at all possible, stripping it off them and forcing them to come close to engage. No other team was whole, and two had been eliminated entirely.

One enemy mech tried to chase down Alexa as she moved to hide behind hilly terrain, only to run afoul of Alex in his Warhammer, who unloaded his particle cannons and short-range missiles into it at close range. Practically flensed of armour, the mech was easily dispatched by a punch from Alexa's fist, before she stomped off to support Freja.

Alex's radar indicated a Shadowhawk moving up behind him, and he felt his mech judder from the hit of its autocannon. Even his heavy armour wouldn't take many more hits in the rear or legs. He was slowly turning around to face his foe, when its head disappeared, shot clean off by a gauss slug from above. Even as the Shadowhawk collapsed, Jeanie landed nearby, squealing giddily. Alex was pretty sure that if her mech could do a happy dance, it would.

"Hee! I'm good at this!" she giggled.

"You really are," Alex agreed, impressed. "You've got a permanent place on my team, just so you know."

"That sounds great, but now I'm outta ammo," she grunted, looking at her display. "Talk about a design flaw!"

"Don't sweat it for now, just run around like a lunatic and draw their fire without getting hit," Alex said in a firm voice. "Keep them distracted, but don't be a hero, you're no good to our score if you're dead!"

"You got it, captain!" Jeanie chirped as she launched herself into the sky. While he would keep tabs on her, looking for targets of opportunity she created by annoying and distracting the enemy, he thought it best to go and check on his wife and her best friend. The HUD indicated they were both still active, although their mechs were in sorry shape by now, having borne the brunt of the heavy fighting.

Sure enough, they were fighting-side-by-side, using their laser suites to pummel the enemy. Alexa had the only remaining ranged weapon, her Thunderbolt's large laser, and she was using it to strip weapons from her targets and try to force them in close, where Freja's suite of smaller support lasers could be brought into play.

Both girls audibly gasped over the comm system as Alex stomped right between them, thundering toward the enemy, his massive particle cannons crackling and blazing. He blew the arm off an enemy Crusader, staggering it, but not before he became the general target for any foe in the area.

Alex bit his lip as his cockpit shook, but his front armour was holding. He distracted the enemy long enough for the incensed Alexa and Freja to charge by, firing madly into the enemy. Without the heat considerations of her long-range missile launchers, Freja could use her laser suites continuously and with impunity. Alexa's empty missile bin meant that her laser usage was much more free as well, and she unloaded on a badly damaged Wolverine, which suffered too many gyroscope hits, and toppled over, out of action.

The three stood in a small knot, facing in different directions, firing at whatever was available. Alex could picture this final stand in his mind, and it was glorious. He wished he had music to play over the comm. Maybe next time ...

The final enemy mech went down when Jeanie jumped on it from behind, knocking it to the ground. Alexa, Freja, and Alex all unloaded on it, and the mech was utterly obliterated. With its demise, the simulation ended, their screens declaring them the victors. They all whooped and hollered in triumph as the pods powered down, and the doors opened.

Alexa leaped into her husband's arms, kissing him giddily, while Jeanie and Freja did the same with one another. They then shared a big group hug, bouncing up and down in excitement at how well they'd done. Several staff members congratulated them, truly impressed with how their performance, especially since three of the four were apparently first-timers.

"Jeanie, you were incredible," Alex said, pulling her close into his side and grinning at her. She blushed and looked at the floor. "Really, you're a natural at this. You got as many kills as I did."

"It was kinda fun," she said quietly, revelling in the praise, but also embarrassed. "I ... does this make up for the paintball disaster, Fre?"

"No, yndling, it does not," Freja said, snuggling close into her wife and smiling at her. "It puts you much ahead of me, because you saved my ass many times tonight."

Freja leaned into their hug circle even closer, subtly cupping Jeanie's breast and giving it a squeeze.

"When I shot you in the breast at paintball, that made us even," she said in a quiet voice and now giving the breast a massage. "You are very far ahead now, and I look forward to making it up to you."

Jeanie's eyes sparkled and she bit her lip as her wife kept squeezing her breast while Alex and Alexa looked on. She finally spoke. "Fre ... we should totes go to the bathroom and make a video to put up on the cam site, y'know?"

"You have read my mind, yndling," the Danish girl purred, before taking Jeanie by the hand and pulling her off toward the washrooms. Jeanie giggled and waved back at Alex and Alexa before they disappeared.

Alexa shook her head. "I am both amazed, and not the least bit surprised, that those two are now porn cam girls. Not that I'm complaining, mind, because it's fun to watch."

"No argument there," Alex said cheerfully, pulling his aunt-wife close to his side and then walking her over to the waiting area, where large display screens indicated the final scores. His eyes widened as he took it all in. "Holy crizzap ..."

Of their twenty foes, the other five teams of four, his team had accounted for fourteen kills -- four for Alex, four for Jeanie, and three each for Alexa and Freja, although many were technically shared kills. With the exception of Jeanie, all his mechs had been heavily damaged, but none destroyed. To Alex's line of thinking, unused armour was wasted potential, because if it wasn't being hit, chances are you weren't trying hard enough to kill the enemy.

"That's my best score ever ..." he said in wonder as he looked at the numbers.

"And there you are, back at the top of the leaderboard," Alexa cooed, her arm threaded through his as she pointed at the large screen. "None of the other scores are even close. I'm proud of you, captain ..."

She gave him a kiss on the cheek and smiled. "I'll follow you into battle anywhere, husband."

He smiled back at her. He was so in love with this woman.

***

"Well, you're back relatively early," Karen said as her little sister and her son sauntered through the door. She and her titan husband were sitting in the opulent living room, listening to Bach and reading periodicals. It was dark out now, and a stiff chill had gripped the city. "I'm surprised that Flotsam and Jetsam aren't with you."

"Well, they scampered back home almost immediately after a tryst in the bathroom," Alexa replied as she removed her long pea jacket, which Alex took from her and put in the hall closet. "Something about their camgirl operation."

"Oh dear, what horripilation-inducing idea did those two have now?" the bronze-haired goddess mused, looking up from her magazine. "They'd have to work hard to get kicked out of porn, but I have faith in them."

Alexa giggled, since she knew intimately the depths of depravity that her best friend Freja could sink to. "Well, they seem to be on to something, because their first day, they made around three grand in just over an hour."

Karen blinked: "Three thousand actual dollars? Not yuan, rubles or pesos?"

"Nope," Alex answered as he returned and joined his wife in the living room, putting his arm around her waist. "Three thousand actual dollars, assuming my understanding of their cut is correct."

Karen looked at her lap for a moment, lost in thought. "Maybe I should do webcam porn ..."

This garnered her a look from her titan husband as he sat next to her, his eyebrow raised.

"What?" she replied, shrugging. "It would be far fewer hours than I put in now, and horny youngsters would be paying me directly to eye-hump me. I won't be a monetizing goddess forever."

"True enough, O wife of mine," Mike announced, standing up and then pulling Karen to her feet before lifting her and throwing her over his massive shoulder, making her squeak. "Let's go make some porn."

And with that, he strode out of the room, taking his giggling wife up the stairs and disappearing into their bedroom, the door closing with a pronounced 'click!'. Alex and Alexa just stared dumbly for several seconds in the direction their family members had exited from.

"They're ... they're joking, right?" Alexa asked somewhat uncertainly. "Tell me they're joking."

"One can only hope ..." Alex sighed, shaking his head.

***

November, 1986 ...

Karen sat inside the comfortable private box, watching intently as the drama played out onstage below. While just about anything by Verdi was close to her heart, Un ballo in maschera had always been a personal favourite, because it was so strikingly different from other Italian operas, based on the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden. She glanced subtly to her left, noticing her date for the evening was indeed paying attention.

Everett was a nice enough fellow, intelligent and cultured, with a promising future in law. His true appeal, though, was his relative lack of arrogance and insufferable classism that was so endemic to most of the scions in societal circles, people she could almost never get away with punching, no matter how much they deserved it.

He also was decent in bed, at the very least acknowledging that he had his own part of the work to do as well. Certainly a change from most of his peers, who considered their mere presence in an act of coitus to be a gift any woman should be thankful for. This led to most of them being very lazy and downright ineffective lovers. Not that they cared.

Granted, not every person, woman or otherwise, had her training in the matters of a courtesan -- come to think of it, she knew of no one else that did in her amorphous network of associates. But these skills she wielded did not make her a perfect Stepford wife or concubine, obedient to some male. It gave her an air of grace and radiance that meant others felt mean in her presence. Her training as a lover was intimidating for many, except the most vulgar and greedy of people. Thankfully, she was almost never in any sort of position of having to oblige them.

She smiled lightly, deciding that if Everett expressed any interest after the performance, she would indulge him. As she'd thought to herself already, he wasn't bad as a lover, he would make her climax.

This was a fun production, because the Canadian Opera Company had suggested that attendees should bring masks to wear to the performance, since Riccardo's death in the opera would happen during a masquerade. If one didn't have a mask, they were being sold prior to the performance. She was wearing an ornate black masque that she owned now, with gilded edges and studded in small, glittering stones. It was one of her favourites.

Everett, to her amusement, had bought one in the lobby, and now was wearing a white masque that looked rather like a cat. More than anything, it reminded her of the makeup on the drummer from KISS in the Seventies, but it fit his face because of the prominent bridge of his nose. So be it.

The young page Oscar had just finished singing the Volta la terrea aria, and the first act was ended. They applauded and stood, with Everett announcing he would meet her in the lounge with some refreshments. Karen asked for her usual gin martini; she would find him after she powdered her nose. She waited while he left, because she liked to use her view from the box to see if she could espy anyone in the crowd she either needed to talk to, or patently avoid.

One enormous figure near the back of the hall stood out. She smiled and shook her head. But of course he was here.

***

He gazed about the common area, ignoring the stares people gave him. He was the best part of a head taller than the tallest people in the room, and a lot broader. And yet, he didn't feel out of place, not directly, anyway. It was his size that attracted their gaze, nothing else about him.

Well, that and he wasn't wearing a mask, because nothing available fit his head.

"I should have known you would be in attendance," lilted a voice behind him. He allowed himself a tiny smile before turning around and looking at his conversation companion. Karen Gordon looked hauntingly beautiful, in a form-fitting but elegant black dress accented with gold, and delicate black gloves that reached past her elbows. Her lovely features were partially hidden behind a delicate porcelain masque of exquisite design, but her astonishing golden-amber eyes seemed all the more piercing for it.

"Milady," he said, feigning a small bow. Karen smirked and rolled her eyes at his jest before gesturing around. "Where is your date?" she asked. "Chasing someone else off with a stick?"

"I came alone," he said simply, shrugging his head slightly. A full shrug was unseemly in polite company, he guessed. "I wanted to watch the opera, not be paying attention to a date."