Spark the Runner

She let him.

* * * * *

"Was that sufficient for a first Run?"

Tonya's gentle voice woke him, and Spark realized he was in his bed, naked, with an equally naked Tonya curled up with him.

"I'm still spinning, Tonya," he told her as he tried to get oriented to his surroundings. Shifting into the datastream could be metaphysically disorienting. Shifting back into the "real world" was both disorienting and potentially painful on a very real level. Doing it while unconscious meant his normal shields would not help him. Gingerly, he tried moving various body parts, to see what was going to hurt. Surprisingly, besides his groin, lower back and thighs, everything was fine. He felt, in essence, well fucked.

And thirsty. As he struggled to sit up in bed, Tonya rolled away for a moment, then rolled back with a bottle of fortified water which she offered him. With a look of gratitude, he took it and drank deeply. Running always depleted him, and this had been one hell of a run.

"If you wish, Spark," she went on in a soothing voice, "I can give you a massage to ease your overtaut muscles."

"How did you know?..." he murmured as he set the bottle down on the nightstand next to him and rolled over onto his stomach.

"I know a lot about you, now," she explained conversationally. "The data sharing is bidirectional. And I find you a wonderfully complex man. And whether you intended it or not, a very good lover. It only stands to reason that the pain chi I am perceiving would be related to your recent sexual exercise."

"You can sense chi even when we're not jacked?" he asked as she began gently moving and stretching his back muscles, working her way towards his thighs.

"Yes," she acknowledged as relief flooded his tortured muscles wherever her fingers touched him. "It is one of many suprahuman abilities I have. Heightened physical senses and abilities, as in extended vision and hearing, faster reflexes, unnatural strength and so forth, along with heightened metaphysical abilities, are part of what makes me stand out from the usual human crowd. I must be careful to blend in. To not give myself away." She paused as she reached his buttocks and ran her hands gently over them.

"You are very fit for a Runner," she observed. "Not just cerebral in focus. Your training regime has worked well for you."

"How do you know about..." he started to ask, then stopped. "Never mind. I guess you've pretty much just downloaded me."

"Pretty much," she agreed with a smile, beginning to dig into the muscles and eliciting a moan. He was feeling a light tingling everywhere she touched him, as though some kind of static discharge was being run through his muscles, like a TENS unit without the unit. And the result was deep relaxation. She continued working on him until all of his back pain, from his shoulder blades to his knees, was gone. Or gone as much as it needed to be.

"If you would care to roll over, Spark," she told him as she sat back, "I will finish your other side."

He began to roll over before the sight of her perfect body, sitting back on her heels, expectantly, interrupted him. She was, simply, the most gorgeous creature he had ever known. Staying detached was going to be impossible. With an effort of will, he tore his eyes away from her loveliness and finished lying back so she could work her magic.

The bitch is, he thought as she started working on his thighs, that it isn't just her physical beauty that's getting to me. Beautiful women I can ignore. I've had to. But joining her like that? A lot more intimate than sex... and a lot more enticing...

"So are you doing the tingly energy thing that's rippling through my muscles?" Spark asked. He thought he knew the answer, but wanted to hear it.

"Yes," she confirmed as she moved onto his hips. "I can extend some of my meta energy directly into the physical plane of your muscles, to give targeted relief. I can also..." and she paused a moment as she slid a hand under his sacrum and cupped his testicles with the other, "cause intense, targeted pleasure."

He barely comprehended the feelings that coursed through him, forcing him erect and triggering his ejaculation, all in a matter of seconds.

"Holy shit!..." he moaned as the semen splattered on his chest. If his eyes hadn't been closed, he would have seen the slight smile on her face.

"The Onuf's nuclei are particularly susceptible to metaphysical manipulation. I can also clean up the messes I make," she commented, passing her hands over the pools of cum and somehow making them disappear. "Although I prefer using my mouth for this type of thing. Direct from the spigot, in a manner of speaking."

Spark lay catching his breath as it began to dawn on him that what he was dealing with was somewhere on the goddess level. It was if she were a new kind of life form. And he remembered that whoever created this life form was going to want it back.

"Tonya," he managed to mumble, "I'm going to have to refund your money..."

"Why is that?" she asked as she resumed massaging his hips.

"Because whoever is on the other end of your leash is going to be fatal for me. If I do what you want me to do, I probably won't survive. And it's my strict policy not to take suicide missions."

He could feel the crushing weight of her disappointment. There wasn't anything subtle about it.

"I was hoping that of all the Runners in the world, you might be the one to find my origins," she told him, pointedly keeping the disappointment out of her voice. "I thought perhaps the challenge would appeal to your professional ego. The unsolvable puzzle, solved by you."

Spark turned that over in his mind. Put like that, it did appeal to his self-image as one of the best. And it would pretty much be the capstone to the arc of his career. But it wouldn't do him bloody much good if he were dead.

"Tonya," he started hesitantly. "I wish..."

"Knowing that it is dangerous, Spark," she interrupted him, "is the reason we brought the Professor on board. He has assured me that he has developed shields which can make a Runner virtually invisible in the dataplex. A constantly monitoring, constantly changing interference generator which can make the Runner's pattern undetectable. At least, most of the time. Would you at least consider that?"

Spark did consider it. There was no one in the world better at psychodata integration than the Professor. And he would be able to detect ICE -- Intrusion Countermeasures Electronic -- long before Spark ran into them. Red Ice might be a problem. Unlike the standard lethal Black Ice, Red Ice was constantly mutating, much like the Professor's shields would be. Red Ice was complicated beyond measure, but if he didn't encounter any, he could do the Run. And even running into it, from what Tonya described, he had a fifty-fifty chance of avoiding getting zapped. He'd have to talk to the Professor about that.

"Tonya, if the Professor says he can beat Red Ice, I'll change my decision. But not unless I know I can survive."

"That is more than fair, Spark," she sighed, cuddling up beside him. "Would you like to fuck? The old-fashioned way? No jacking?"

"Whatever my Lady wishes," he told her softly.

"What I wish, more than anything else, is to find my creators and eliminate their threat to me," she told him. "After that, I am very interested in whether I can become pregnant and give birth."

"That's a hell of a combination," Spark actually chuckled. "How about we take care of the first issue, then find out about the second?"

"I am fine with that," she agreed. "You do know, by the way, that you are amply endowed? I have not had a lover fill me up like that with anything other than a fist. You feel, in the vernacular, fucking awesome."

Spark smiled. Straight to the ego. The most perfect creature in the world liked his cock. Awesome was right.

There was a knock at the door and then the Professor entered.

"Sorry to intrude," he told them. "However, if our Runner is sufficiently recovered, we need to review the results of the first run, make our second to isolate our search criteria and then take a shot at the dataplex."

"Fifteen minutes, Professor," Tonya answered for them both. "We will meet you in the lounge." The Professor nodded and backed out, closing the door behind him.

"Let us shower and get into comfortable clothes," Tonya told Spark, turning to him and running her hand sensuously down his chest. "The Professor is right. We need to keep moving on this project."

* * * * *

An hour later, they sat in the lounge, going over the results of the first Run, with Spark identifying the markers he'd found that he wanted to go after. Further consensus indicated that a second Run to further refine the markers and to test the Professors shielding processes would be a good idea. Two hours later, Spark and Tonya were standing in the insertion lab, naked. Spark already had the remote plugged into his perineum port and they were waiting to start the link calibration.

Fuck! Spark thought as the tsunami that was Tonya hit him again. She is going to own me, body, mind and spirit. I've really got to be careful...

They'd prepared better this time. There was a mattress on the floor, in addition to the benches along the walls. There was no preparing for the crushing tsunami of the sync, though. At least this time, Spark knew what was going to be hitting him and found it easier to get outside the main flow, to reach his vantage point, than the first time.

Are you comfortable, Spark? Tonya asked, again directly to his mind.

"One libido dive, cumming up," he punned. "Whenever you're ready."

Shall we lie down, so that we do not fall down? she asked, and he could feel the smile.

They moved to the mattress and knelt.

I would prefer to be on top, Tonya told him. So that I may do all of the work and you may do all of the observation.

"Fine with me," Spark told her and sat back, preparing to lie down. She touched him and he was hard before he made it. "Wow!..." he muttered, mostly to himself he thought. "Just... wow!..."

She eased over him and without ceremony, inserted his rock hard cock in her very wet pussy, then eased all the way down. She gave him several moments to stabilize his perceptions, then asked, can you get at what you need now?

Spark was experiencing a lot more than getting fucked. She might be physically sheathing him, but she was metaphysically drowning him.

He managed to pull free from the intense energy flow and get to his "higher ground"... a place where the patterns flowed around him, not through him. And immediately discovered that filtering for the first Run's known events, he could isolate Tonya's libido from the rest of her massive, concentrated datamesh. That was a huge relief.

Now we go looking for the anomalies, he thought as he turned his attention to her sexual patterns, stimulated by his stimulation of her. Time tended to mean nothing while immersed in the datastream, but in this case he had a marginal awareness because of the physical aspect of his coupling with the construct... with Tonya. And he was marginally aware that his body was reacting to her without any direct involvement of his consciousness. A truly weird dichotomy.

Forcing himself off those kinds of musings, he bent his mind to the task. It seemed to take some time, and several orgasms on her part and apparently one on his, before he had the Ah-ha! he'd been hoping for. A dark eddy. A flaw in her datamesh, hidden well below the flow, but anchored to her nonetheless.

Concentrating on it, he "swam" to it, piercing her stream as if swimming through water. As he approached, however, he got that tingling warning feeling Runners get when approaching something potentially harmful.

Professor? he thought. We might have a problem...

I see it, Spark, he heard the Professor's voice in his head. Analyzing now.

Some indeterminate time later, the Professor's voice came back. Black Ice shielded. Nasty. I believe I have compensated your shielding for it. However, I wouldn't try simply breaching it. I suggest you extend a cirrus first.

One sensor coming up, Spark thought back. I hope you can save my ass if this thing goes Boom!...

Working on it, the Professor answered.

Spark eased his meta being forward, close to but not contacting the throbbing black ovoid. Slowly, he extended a tendril of his meta towards the dark eddy. Nervous would be a mild adjective to describe his state of existence and even the wave of another of Tonya's orgasms didn't distract him.

Ready, Professor? Spark thought.

As we will ever be, he responded.

Spark touched the egg.

I am going to buy that man anything he wants, Spark thought as his tendril penetrated the mass of dark energy with no ill effects. Then just as suddenly, Holy fuck!!! Spark was rocked by the contents of the cyst.

What have you got, Spark? the Professor asked, concerned.

Just keep the shields up, Prof, he thought back. There's a lot of crap to digest here. We can discuss it later.

To Spark's mind, he had stumbled into the dragon's den... the nest where all the nasty, witchy, repressive, horrible boogey-man thoughts, feelings, threats and sicknesses lived. This part of her libido was worse than one of those fundamentalist schools where kids are punished for even thinking wrong. This piece of programming wasn't Tonya's. It didn't belong in her construct. It wasn't part of her mesh. It was like a turd someone had forgotten to flush.

Not wanting to stay any longer than necessary, he gathered as many of the patterns, the messages, the programming as he could, then began to withdraw. He realized on the way out that without the Professor's shielding, he would have been massively infected by this cancer of self-destructive beliefs... enough guilt to drive one to suicide.

We need to end the Run, people, he thought as he fought his way clear of the stream.

Your wish is my command, Tonya's soothing voice flooded his mind. Shortly thereafter, he felt the same overpowering sensations that drove him to cum his brains out the first time and slowly drifted into unconsciousness.

* * * * *

"That cancerous little PoS in there is a leftover from one of her creators," Spark told the others. "One that got missed when they swept their tracks. And it's a doozy."

He had woken up in Tonya's arms again, in his bed, with a hard-on that wouldn't go down. At least, not around her it wouldn't. She had given him water and cuddled him, and made him relax by whatever special power it was that she had. She had then slowly fucked his brains out to two huge orgasms. Of his. Who knew how many for her? She then pronounced him officially back in the land of the living and insisted he get something to eat. Which is how the three of them ended up sitting at the table while he related what he'd found.

"Based on the belief system incorporated in that little fucker," he told them, "oh, say, like the only erogenous zones are the breasts and the penis; people should only have sex in the dark; premarital sex is wrong; doggy-style is indecent; oral sex is disgusting, both ways; anal is outrageous; and masturbation is the root of all evil, plus the male-dominant, homophobic, sadomasochistic restrictions on sexual relationships tells me it's Russian. Probably Bratva."

"Lovely," the Professor commented quietly. "The Russian Mafia. The 'Brotherhood' as they'd like to be known. They could have any number of reasons for wanting to build someone like Tonya. And they are persistent as hell. They'll want her back, if they ever find her."

"Not if I find them first," Tonya stated, with supreme self-confidence. Or arrogance, Spark thought.

"Well, there's pronounced memories of three women in there," Spark went on. "From the patterns, I think the one self-identified as Dunya is probably the guy's mother. Yeva is probably a wife or mistress. Not sure who Marya is, but she's heavily into punishment. Maybe a boss or something."

"Is that enough to find them on the global dataplex?" Tonya asked.

"Singularly, no," Spark told her, "but since I'm looking for the intersection of all three, that may make it easier. I only have the patterns from his memories, though, so it could be very off. The bigger question is, if they built her, how did they lose her? Or what did they intend for her? I'd be more afraid of some event-triggered programming... a sleeper agent sort of thing."

"We have both been through me," Tonya told him, indicating the Professor. "We believe we have eliminated all trigger-sensitive programming. And believe me, Spark, we have scoured every piece of programming we could reach. Some, which I could not, the Professor could."

"So," the Professor interrupted, "at this point, your next step is to take what you have learned and run the global dataplex. That does not need to be done from here, if you don't wish it."

"Actually, Professor, there are major advantages to you monitoring my run, not the least of which is your ability to shield me from Black Ice. Especially if I'm going up against the Russian Mob." Spark was seriously recalculating his usual desire to do his runs alone.

"Then let us plan on doing your next Run from here," the Professor suggested. "After a decent night's sleep."

"I will make sure he sleeps, Professor," Tonya told him, and Spark got an uneasy fluttering in his gut. Kind of like wondering exactly how she was going to do that.

He found out.

She fucked him to sleep.

Apparently, she was horny most of the time. Or all of it. And he was exactly what she wanted.

"You will sleep like a baby, I promise you," she had told Spark when they'd finished eating and retired to his bed. She'd insisted on cuddling up to him, with both of them naked, and the energy buzzing off her was already distracting, especially to a wirehead like Spark.

"And wake up again?" he'd asked, a bit of uncertainty in his voice.

"Yes," she'd smiled that dazzling smile. "And wake up again. I need you happy and healthy to finish the Runs. For the moment, Spark? Let me drive."

He was more than happy to... she was far and away the most intense, beautiful, fascinating woman he had ever known and despite his best efforts to the contrary, he was falling under her spell.

Maybe she has transcended to human, he thought as she drew him slowly into a kiss. The perfect Form of a woman. Plato's ideal.

Her kiss was soft and enticing and he found it easy to get lost in. Just as her datamesh threatened to overwhelm him, her purely physical side threatened to draw him in like the moth to the flame. He returned the wonderful sensations as best he could, the soft pressure of their lips, the darting, teasing of their tongues, the prolonged melting into each other. And when she broke the kiss, it was to move to his neck and his chest, while he lay back in exquisite ecstasy.

He ran his fingers through her hair and his hands across her shoulders and down her back, feeling the pure perfection of her skin, the contours of her body, the pressure of her breasts against his side and the turgid nipples pressing into him. He wanted to return her languorous touch as she slowly made her way down his torso. He wanted to kiss and nibble and suckle her as well, but... she was driving, and he couldn't, in their current position.

A position which had her descending on his very erect manhood, and only giving him access to her back and her ass. But oh, God, what an ass! Softly rounded and feminine, but incredibly toned just below the surface. Maybe, if he stretched a little, he could reach her...