Powers Ch. 02

"Nope." I put both my hands on her hips, pulling her closer, and our lips meet again.

A couple of bangs came from down the hall and minute later two guys come out from a room. That makes me look closer and, sure enough, one of the five pairs are two girls. The things your brain assumes.

I let my energy target specific areas on her body, mapping out her erogenous zones while she clamors on to me. Her loud panting breaks up all the couples in front of us and people are staring. "Oh, Fuck this! You've got experience, please tell me you've broken your locks."

"I might not have broken my third."

"Fuck!" She screamed while panting for breath. "I'll give all of you an hour personal training for the next room!" For some reason they jumped at the chance. Lucy was a big deal?

When there was a loud pop minutes later she dragged me towards the room. The two people watched us in shock when they opened the door. Lucy didn't care and pushed us in. Thankfully they left and closed the door behind them.

Lucy jumped on the bed, opened the nightstand and started to throw condoms as she screamed at me. "Don't stand there! Get naked, put a condom on and fuck me!" I had some trouble pulling off my t-shirt, and I wasn't getting naked fast enough for her. She jumped out of bed and tackled me. Her nimble hands opened my belt, pulled down my pants and my boxers. She then half pushed, half threw me into bed.

The mattress was hard, but Lucy had no empathy for my 'ouch.' She was on the floor grabbing a condom. She tore the package with her teeth, and with practiced ease, she rolled it on my erection. Her energy shot through my member as she did. It was a cold sensation, still full of pleasure, but not as hot as Jenny. There, I did it again. What's wrong with me? I have a lovely enthusiastic girl dying to have sex and I'm thinking about my not ex. She was never my girlfriend. I put her out of my mind as Lucy climbs up on me and burrows me down into her pussy.

My focus was on getting my pants and shoes off. That's really difficult when a girl is riding you hard. Her cool energy runs through me, sending pleasure through my whole body and, after my legs and arms are free, I let my hot love flow through her clit. A spasm runs through her whole body as the orgasm takes her. Her labored breath gets louder as she screams out her joy for the world to hear. She falls down on top of me and I turn her over, her tight body underneath me as I hump into her.

"Lucy, this feels so good, Lucy." I wasn't going to be one of those guys hung up on an ex. I focused on saying her name with every thrust and she moaned louder and louder. Our energies mixed into a sky blue river of pleasure. "Lucy, yes, you're so tight. I'm going to blow. Lucy, I'm cuming!"

"Yes, yes, fuck yes!" She shook as the energies peaked. I slammed into her for the last time and she held me tight as I blew my load hard in the condom. She kissed me deep. Her legs held me tight as her whole body shook. This was what heaven must feel like. I took a hold of the condom, snipped it closed, and I rolled off her. She cuddled into my side. "That clearly wasn't your first time."

"Nope."

"That girl you fought in the final?"

"Yep."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Nope." I said it with way too much strength and Lucy winked at me. "She dumped me on the plane here."

"Oh, wow, talk about the worst place ever for a break up."

"To quote her. 'I was never her boyfriend, and she couldn't live with herself if she stuck with one man for the rest of her life.'"

"That's ice cold, she probably got a good grasp on the blue." Her hand went down to my dick. "But about that third lock?"

"I broke two my first time with her and we have tried to break the third but it never worked. Alex, her dad thought I had already broken it in my grief."

"Oh, wait --- Alex, as in Alexander Klingerman?"

"Yeah."

"And you know him?" I nodded again. "Alexander the Great told you something and you doubted it?" I stared at her like she was the dumb one, I clearly was, but, --- it made me feel better to pretend she was. "The American five? You're lucky you're so pretty. Newbie's! Sigh."

I pushed her down and tickled her. Tickle fights are deadly serious in the world of Powers. We can shoot energy through people so we can send energy to anywhere by the smallest amount of skin contact. In one second it's below the foot, in the next it's the armpit.

She stopped me cold in my tracks by deploying full shields. I pushed down and her shield flexed. She was a lot better than me, my shield was rigid as steel. The irrational voice in my head told me to punch it, but I wasn't drunk enough to be that stupid.

"American five. 27 years ago they came, they saw, they conquered the school. They formed a team in their first year and they spent that year climbing to the top. Once the second year came around they were on top and they never lost a match for two years straight. Their final year the principal made them split up. Alexander's team was the new permanent ranker and he never once lost a match. He was knocked out six times. All of them by Abigail or someone Powered up by the Mayfield sisters."

The grief hit me like a ton of bricks right in the stomach. Mom, of course, she never told me, but Sis had always said we had large shoes to fill once we got to college and apparently she hadn't meant dad's shoes. He was the one in the Anti-Rebel Taskforce.

She went on. Something about best batteries that had ever lived. "Tell me about the last two."

"That's Geoffrey and Abigail, great fighters, but nothing special. Both of them were pure white, not one speck of discoloration between them. They were the front line. Abigail still holds the record for most knockouts in a single year at 383 in her first year. She knocked out a whole team more often than not."

So two of the five had been my teachers for the last year. What would she would think of that?

Her hand brought me out of my thoughts. "Now how about we try to make sure that third lock actually is broken."

She got me to put on a new condom and fuck her from behind. This time she tried to overwhelm me with raw energy, but it wasn't happening. She wasn't even strong enough to force me to pop out, like Jenny and Em. Maybe a bit unfair to compare Lucy to two people, but she was a fourth year and one of most Powerful in school. If it was possible she should be able to break it.

There was something seriously wrong with me.

***

I woke up hung-over with someone hammering my door. The sound felt like it was causing pain in the bottom of my skull. "Slow your roll --- I'm coming." Em was on the other side of the door and she was furious as only her family could be. I opened the door fully and she stomped in.

"WHAT THE FUCK is wrong with you?" Her volume made me regret choices I made last night. "You fucker! Not enough that you humiliate her in the fight, no, you have to blab her story all over the internet, and, as if that wasn't low enough, you slept with Ms. Queen and told her about our parents!"

She slapped me with the college newspaper. The big headline was 'the American five are back.' Then below it stood, 'top three in last night's newbie brawl was taken by descendent of the American five.' The byline was Lucy Queen.

"Hello, nice to see you, congrats on getting third. How was your evening?"

She walked up close, way into my personal space, her nostrils were flaring, her teeth bared in a snarl. Her fists were in a white ball. How cute, she looked like an angry kitten.

"Oh mine was fine, thanks for asking. I drank some beers celebrated my win of the newbie brawl. This really hot Asian chick hit on me and brought me down to a sex cave in the basement. It was a nice distraction from when my girlfriend, that wasn't my girlfriend, tore out my heart, stomped on it, and my only friend, no, the number one person in this world that I care about, TOOK HER SIDE!"

It felt good to get out. She realized her mistake, her anger was nothing against mine, and she had the good grace to look guilty. Her face made me feel bad, she was my only friend and I was screaming at her. "I need to lay down. I would love it if you stayed for a bit." I walked over to the bed and fell into it.

Em came up and ran her fingers through my hair, like the old days.

The anger went away and the hopelessness came creeping in. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't yell at you. Jenny was your friend first, and she's your best friend. It's not fair to blame you since she's an asshole."

"Jenny's not an asshole. No, hear me out here. She told you, way in advance. You played with fire all on your own and that's the way it is." She paused, she was right, like always. It was my own dumb fault. That didn't make it hurt any less. "I'm sorry too. You're my friend, no matter what. I should have realized you'd be all alone and checked up on you."

"You're here now, that's all that matters. So --- I didn't tell Lucy anything about our parents." I lied. "I asked her about the American five. Something no one had told me about, by the way. She must have figured it out on her own. What were the other things you yelled at me about?"

"You said she broke up with you on a plane."

"No I didn't." I was getting good practice at this lying thing. "I said she left me in an airport."

"That's not what it says on the internet."

"You say that like I can control the internet."

"You can control it with the information you put out there."

***

"I understand writing this is punishment, but isn't that last part a little much? 'I was just lucky other people had a rougher road' makes it sound like I didn't deserve to win."

"No, it's perfect, it makes you sound humble?"

"Can we change 'just lucky' to 'fortunate'? It sounds better."

"Okay, fine, Mr. big words, it's the same thing."

"It makes me feel better. Thanks Em, you can post that wherever you want. Now I have a bad hangover and I need to shower. Are you staying for brunch?"

"No can do, Partner, I've got another asshole to yell at. She needs to get her butt out of bed and stop feeling sorry for herself if she's going to carry me to the doubles win. Who are you partnering up with?"

"No one. I'm not really into the team thing."

"Suit yourself, but you're making a mistake."

***

After a shower and some bacon I almost felt alive again. All the people sharing a kitchen with me kept coming by. Most of them said "good work yesterday" but, as time went on, more and more came to ask me about the message. Wherever Em put it, that was the right place. It spread like wildfire. It might have helped that it didn't paint me in the best of light. People love gossip.

The Canadian lumberjack came and introduced himself. His name was actually Jack. It was perfect. "So, about the doubles --- I heard the girls are teaming up. Who are you partnering up with?"

"No one. I'm sitting it out."

"You know the prize pool, eh?" People need to stop assuming I know stuff. I shook my head. "An hour of practice with the principal. It's worth its weight in gold. People get a lot better after a single teaching fight with him. Think what will happen in an hour. It's frightening eh?"

How good could it be? Alex was 'the great', and an hour with him wasn't worth much. "I don't have anyone to partner with and the girls are too good for a quick team up."

"It never hurts to try, and second place is still worth some points." Points were apparently everything in school. You got points when your Rating increased. A higher Rating gave you more free wins in the monthly competition. When you graduated your Rating and any leftover points became cash. It was all built on an ELO system, so beating someone rated higher gave a lot of points.

Anything you wanted you could buy for points.

So Jack and I became a team. I fought us through the first eight rounds alone. Abigail's record was something to set my sight on at least. 400 didn't seem like much when I could get 30 the first two days.

The top four was a rematch from the top eight yesterday. We got Em's and my opponent (Karateka and Small Girl) from yesterday. Their strength and coordination was impressive, they worked as a team and we didn't.

We split up so at least we wouldn't be in each other's way. They focused on me and I was doing all right parrying their attacks. It was eating my strength though. When Jack rushed in to save me he slipped and went down. They took him out and I conceded.

Part of the game in best of ones. Jack was beating himself up though. He felt a lot better after he crushed our last opponent alone and secured third spot for us. Em and Jenny were a beauty to watch. Their teamwork had come a long way since that first day. They still fought the same way, but they communicated better and weren't caught out by their opponents.

In the final both teams tested each other out, danced around a bit. Em had a bit of a reach advantage but not enough to build a strategy on. So they kept dancing until Em got a chance to distract them both with a beautiful butterfly kick, pushing Small Girl into Karateka.

Then Jenny charged in and, without their balance, they were on the ground. Moments later she had pounded them both into submission.

***

Jack and I sat down in my room with a couple of beers, enjoying our points and talking shit after the ceremony. After two beers Jack confessed that Em was the mastermind behind our duo. That little meddling minx had set a price on my head. A date was the lure for anyone getting me to fight in the doubles.

I wished him best of luck when he went out into the cold hard night to find her. I stayed in my room and took an early nap. I say nap since at three in the morning it was interrupted by bangs on my door.

Lucy stood leaning against the wall and she was shit faced, in the stage of self-denial where she felt irresistible, and I slammed the door in her face. After a couple of minutes of her screaming, someone came and escorted her to her room.

Early the next morning there was another person at my door. For the first Sunday in almost a year I was going to sleep in on a Sunday, but, no. Em was at the door, dressed in her Sunday finest. "Come in -- Hum -- you're not yelling at me, is something wrong?"

"You should check your BookFace."

"Why? You clearly have, just tell me."

"Lucy wrote some mean things about you."

"She showed up drunk out of her mind, wanting sex. One drink or two, fine, but shit faced? No thanks. You know how I feel about people that can't control themselves. They'll end up driving drunk eventually and should go die in a fire."

"Want me to write that up for you?" She joked.

"If you wouldn't mind." I answered with the same sarcastic tone. "Now, 'friend', how was your date with Jack?"

"He told you?"

"He felt guilty. I could have gotten third without him. Now spill."

"He was a perfect gentleman. We grabbed a drink, we danced and he had me home by ten."

"How about the good night kiss? Was he any good?"

"I, unlike some people I know, don't kiss and tell, but he scored a second date, if that answers your question. Now chop, chop or we'll be late for church."

"I'm not going. I'm," I lowered my voice and looked around me conspicuously, "an atheist."

"Oh my!" She gave me her best fake shock. "Not even for your best friend? I don't want to go alone."

"Ask Jenny?"

"This atheism fly is going around."

"Fine, but we're watching a movie of my choosing on Tuesday."

Em reached out her hand and, with a sober face, went, "Deal." It was like she signed a death warrant. My taste in movies wasn't that bad.

***

Church was different, smaller, no dress code, and a lot less 'you shall not sin'. More understanding and be nice to your neighbor. I liked it much more. That most of the crowd was hot college girls certainly helped. Hot college girls that were impressed with me and Em's words, she made me seem humble and virtuous. The little minx had planned it all, now I had to go to church with her or miss the chance of hot dates.

We held arms as she led me to a brunch place, we had points to spend. "Did you see anyone you liked?"

"The blonde fourth year in the second row seemed strong."

"Out of fifteen girls you pick the one that plays for the wrong team."

"It just came to my attention that I have terrible taste in women. Which one would you like for me?"

"Did you see the little Vietnamese first year? She's a Battery and would do great on our team."

"Our team?"

"Yeah, our team. I don't know what you think, but we've got a reputation to uphold. A reputation my mom is very proud of. We're the new American three, no matter how much you hate Jenny's guts right now, you got no choice. I'm your only friend, remember?"

"You set me up with Jack and we're besties now. I can't be on Jenny's team, sorry."

"First, get over yourself. You'll be teammates, not friends and you'll get to see her get hit in the face, up close. Second sometimes I forget how adorable you are. If me, you and Jen are three and we need one more. Who's the fourth?"

"Jack. He would never betray me, we're besties."

"Umhum." She also knew how to do the doubting, condescending sound.

I was out of options. "Fine, give me the number and I'll call the Vietnamese girl. She might want to join me for brunch. Clearly all my friends are backstabbers, and I need new ones."

***

Her name was unpronounceable, I tried, she laughed and told me to call her Lisa. She was honored to come to brunch with me and we had a lovely time. Sadly she could not join our team. She was already on a team. The team I would call our only opponents --- Team Asia.

I informed Em of this tragedy via text and then spent the rest of the time enjoying Lisa's company for the hour I had it. She really liked to talk about herself and her town. It was apparently a land mine with the simple question, "Where are you from?" That was enough to keep her talking for twenty minutes, telling me in excruciating detail about her town.

Contrasting how I explained it, it was actually nice. I had no wish to ever visit after her description but I could picture a little town on the other side of the earth. I nodded and smiled, there was no pressure for me to say anything. She could and did talk for the both of us until she had to go to team practice.

The newbie team fight was tonight after all. Lisa let slip that Team Asia had practiced all summer and was expected to win the tournaments. Losing the individual and duo was bad, but the team event was what people really cared about.

***

We found a French girl, or more like Jack did. She was very tall and spoke with an accent that made it hard to understand her. She was a Battery though. A really weak one, but it was better than nothing. Before the first round they all agreed to let me knock everyone out. The first team was easy pickings, the second team were most of the Europeans from top sixteen.

Playtime was over.

Em, Jenny and I walked up together while Jack stayed with the French girl. Our strategy was simple. Throw people in front of Jenny. It was like having a bulldozer on the team and the other team figured it out.

Em and I shoulder to shoulder could out box against an entire team. It was like our fights against Alex, except it wasn't hopeless. We traded blows, but eventually one of them fucked up. I caught his arm and sank down, throwing him to the bull. Em was in a bad spot for a moment, taking some hits, but I was up on my feet and covering for her before it went bad.

The psychological strain kicked in and the opponents made another mistake, resulting in another pop for Jenny.

When they were three people left we just split them up and each of us took one. Em and I boxed out a small girl each while Jenny brought down a tall guy in seconds. Then we sailed through until the finals, letting me knock out every single member for four rounds straight.