Ultra Woman and Mega Girl

The day passed quickly but the pile of papers on Jackie's desk didn't seem to shrink any. She considered asking Jo to stay a while and help but then discarded the idea. A few personal drawings for the kids at City Hospital were more important than anything she was doing right now. Whatever she didn't finish tonight could wait until Monday. She'd work until the last minute and then just leave it all.

The clock read 06:40 when Jackie finally pushed the last pile of folders into her side drawer. Enough was enough. She had sent the last of the office staff home an hour ago, not wanting to keep them for trivial stuff. There was enough of that during crunch time.

Jackie rubbed the ridge of her nose. Right behind it was a slowly growing headache. Too much paperwork. She'd have to have Tim make another appointment with the optometrist and get her eyes checked again. She'd been told to take it a little easier on her last visit, but of course she hadn't.

"I need some aspirin." Jackie thought. The last thing she wanted to do was get on an airplane with a headache.

A quick search of her desk produced only an empty bottle. A further search of Tim's desk in the outer office likewise came up empty. She recalled Tim mentioning that she'd wiped out the bottle of Tylenol he usually kept in his desk and he'd pick up more when he went shopping over the weekend.

"Well I know Jo keeps all kinds of emergency supplies in her desk." Jackie thought. "She even came up with a needle and thread the other day when one of the guys split his pants. Of course she just handed it to him and told him to fix it himself."

"Let's see," Jackie said as she opened the large top drawer of Jo's combination desk and drawing table. "Batteries, pencils, oh here we are, extra strength Tylenol."

Downing the two gel caps with a glass of water from the cooler, Jackie noticed that Jo's bottom drawer was slightly open. That was unusual in that she was somewhat fanatical about locking up her storage drawers. Not that she thought anyone was going to steal anything, it was just that she hated anyone seeing works in progress.

"I guess she was in such a hurry to get to the hospital she forgot." Jackie said as she reached down to close the drawer.

After two tries it was obvious that something inside was jamming the drawer open. Jackie pulled the drawer all the way out and began to empty it to find the obstruction.

At the bottom of the drawer, Jackie came across a thick manila folder filled with so many drawings that it had to be held together with a couple of thick rubber bands. Curiosity got the better of her and she pulled off the bands and opened the folder on the large drawing table.

"Oh my God!" Jackie exclaimed to the empty room as she spread out a half dozen of the drawings she'd found.

The pictures were all of characters from the Ultra Woman comics, but not the type you'd ever find on the newsstands. She picked up the closest sketch, it was one of Mega Girl being held captive by their arch-enemy - the Black Cat. In this case, however, Mega Girl was stripped to the waist and had her face pressed between the legs of an equally semi-naked Black Cat. It was so detailed that you could even see the dark hairs of the Cat's pussy.

It suddenly occurred to Jackie that the picture was also familiar. She'd seen it a year ago when one of the editors had downloaded a half dozen erotic fan drawings off the Internet. He had attached them to a memorandum suggesting that they follow the lead of some of the larger companies and try to sue the artists for copyright infringement.

Jackie had tossed the memo into the trash. She looked at the pictures in the same light as fan-fiction. The artists weren't selling them, they were posting them to share with other fans. If anything, Jackie had said at the time, they should think about trying to hire a few of the amateur artists - some of the pictures had been quite good. In one case at least, the Editor In Chief now knew why.

The next picture showed the same two characters. Only this time, Mega Girl had on her full costume and was down on all fours, her skirt pushed up over her back - exposing her pussy. Buried deep inside it was a large strap on dildo, worn again by a semi-nude Black Cat. The look on Mega Girl's face was pure delight.

Ultra Woman appeared in the next three images. Twice with her younger sidekick in various stages of undress and then once by herself with her fingers buried deep within her pussy.

"Hmm, its a pity we can't publish these," Jackie laughed to herself. "Might give some of those self-righteous assholes who complained about the book a few heart attacks."

Totally captivated, Jackie began to go through the rest of the pile. She found two more images she recognized from the Internet. It wasn't until she looked at about twenty-five more of the drawings that Jackie abruptly realized that there was something conspicuously absent from the collection. There were no men in any of them.

There was no shortage of male characters in the Ultra Woman series. In fact, at least half of those original Internet pictures that had been sent to her last year had been of Ultra Woman and Mega Girl being fucked or giving blow jobs to those characters. Of course none of those images had the quality of those she now knew had been drawn by Jo.

"Is Jo into women?" Jackie asked herself as she looked at another dozen images. "Is that why she broke it off with Bill Thomas?"

The surprise Jackie felt when she first found the drawings was nothing compared to that she felt when she unwrapped the last bunch. More detailed than any of the others, these had been both inked and colored. All of the pictures were of Ultra Woman and Mega Girl, either nude or semi-nude and mute testaments to a lesbian relationship between the two. What was different from the previous drawings were the features of the two comic characters.

That long ago day when Jackie had first read Jo's home made version of Ultra Woman, she's noticed a certain semblance between the depiction of Mega Girl and the real life Joanna Simon. It was a likeness that had increased as Jo lost some of that baby fat and paid more attention to how she looked. It had also come to Jackie's attention that the version of Ultra Woman that appeared in the first 'real' issue differed slightly from that of the 'homemade' one.

The new Ultra Woman bore a passing resemblance to Jackie herself. At the time, Jackie took it as a sort of thank you for the chance she'd given Jo. Remembering her Uncle once telling her that the original Captain Marvel in the 1940's had been made to look like the actor Fred McMurray, Jackie took it as a form of flattery. After all, it was only a passing resemblance, one that wasn't even that apparent to some people who worked there.

These pictures, however, gave no doubt. The Ultra Woman and Mega Girl captured in numerous sexual acts were clearly Jacqueline Kirby and Joanna Simon. The depictions were as detailed as photographs, Jackie noted, even down to the small scar she had on her left breast from a childhood accident. In fact there was even a picture of Mega Girl (Jo) kissing Ultra Woman - (Jackie) on that scar.

Jackie sat there for long minutes, not knowing what exactly to make of her discovery. As much as she wished she'd never found it, she knew she couldn't simply put it all back and pretend it didn't exist. She had to do something - but what?

The beeping of her watch alarm broke her train of thought. Knowing her tendency to loose track of time when she was working late, she'd set it to remind her when to leave for the airport. By now the car service she's called earlier would be waiting downstairs.

Quickly she replaced all the material she'd taken out of the bottom drawer in the same order in which she'd removed it. Jackie let out a sigh of relief when the drawer slid shut smoothly and she pushed in the lock.

Everything she needed for the weekend trip had been packing hours earlier and was waiting by the outer doors. Jackie just had to grab the case and the garment bag with the costumes and be on her way. As she watched the floors pass by on the elevator display, she again wondered what she should do about her discovery.

"I was beginning to worry you weren't going to make it." Jo said as Jackie stepped out of the car at the entrance to the shuttle terminal.

"I lost track of time." Jackie apologized as she paid the driver both the fair and a generous tip. He had gotten her to the airport in near record time, making up for her late start. A quick glance at her watch told her she was still a half hour late.

"We'd better run for it if we're going to make that flight," Jackie said as she picked up her bags. "What gate are we at?"

"No need to run, we've got plenty of time," Jo said as she picked up her own bag. "We're on the 09:30 shuttle."

"You said we were on the 09:00 flight." Jackie said.

"And if I said we were on the 09:30 you'd still be at the office." Jo smiled. "I know you too well."

"But how well do I know you?" Jackie thought as she followed her friend into the terminal. "Obviously not as well as I thought I did."

Jackie closed her eyes on the short flight to Washington. Jo didn't seem to mind and it gave her another chance to think about what she perceived as a change in their relationship.

That Jo might be a lesbian, or at least bisexual she corrected herself as she added the failed romance with Bill Thomas, didn't bother her. She had no problem with gay people. While she'd never actually had a relationship with another woman, she'd had a good friend who came out to her a few years back.

Susan Wong and she had been friends since they were in the junior year of high school. Along with Debbie Mazowiecki they'd been a female version of the Three Musketeers. When Susan revealed that she was a lesbian, it didn't shock her as much as the fact that she further confessed that she and Debbie had been imitate a few times over the years. The fact that she hadn't realized it shocked Jackie, not that they'd been intimate but that she hadn't realized the special connection between the two. She then understand why Debbie's decision to move to the west coast after college had hurt Susan so much harder than it had her.

Mentally she made a note to give Susan a call when she could. They hadn't talked in a few months. The last time they'd chatted, Susan had moved in with a new love. It was a pity she couldn't talk to her now, Jackie mused, her advice might be helpful.

No, the idea that Jo might be into women didn't bother her she decided. That part of the equation was easily settled. The hard part to consider now was the idea that if that were true - was she in love with Jackie? If so, how did she really feel about Jo?

After a quick cab ride to downtown Washington, Jo had another surprise for Jackie. She had called the people running the convention earlier in the day and told them that Creative was sending down a pair of actresses to play Ultra Woman and Mega Girl for the weekend. The organizers had been overjoyed at the news having had two of their 'stars' cancel at the last minute. They quickly arranged for the 'actresses' to appear as the finale to the Saturday afternoon panel groups.

At first, Jackie felt a little silly dressing up in the Ultra Woman costume Saturday morning. Jo on the other hand was full of enthusiasm. She couldn't wait to get downstairs and mix with the throngs of fans who had already filled the various exhibit rooms.

"Oh well," Jackie though as she adjusted the Ultra Woman mask on her face and combed back her hair. "At least no one's going to know it's me in this get-up."

"Time for action, Ultra Woman." Jo said as she tossed back her cape and assumed a heroic stance.

"Lead on, Mega Girl." Jackie laughed back, promise herself that she would make the best of it and have some fun.

With a sweep of her own cape, she followed the red and white crimefighter out the door.

It didn't take long for Jackie to genuinely find herself having a good time. It'd been a long time since she'd been to a Convention and been able to see it all from the perspective of the fans. There were so many people in costume that they drew few stares and even fewer comments. What few they got were usually restricted to 'nice costumes.' She found herself having so much fun that her concerns about Jo faded from her mind.

When Ultra Woman and Mega Girl appeared on the panel, the Convention organizers were horrified when the photo op turned into a question and answer session. Comic fans could be a funny bunch. If the 'actresses' couldn't answer questions about the characters they were playing, the fans would be more than insulted. One of the organizers remembered an incident a few years before when a costumed character proved so ignorant of his assumed identity that a near riot almost resulted.

Their worry turned to joy as Ultra Woman and Mega Girl fielded every question that was tossed at them. Even obscure references, the type that die-hard fans always seemed to come up with, proved no problem for the two masked marvels. The fans loved it. It was as if they really were the characters come to life.

Up on stage, Jackie and Jo were having the time of their life. It had become a kind of game between the two of them as they alternated answering questions, seeing who could come up with the best answers. It was a connection with the fans they had too long missed.

"I have a question for Mega Girl." the teenage girl said as she stepped up to the microphone, replacing the older man who had asked a question about the Black Cat.

Jackie could tell the girl was very nervous and smiled at her.

"Everyone knows that Ultra Woman has a crush on Sergeant Murphy in her civilian identify as Susan Warrington," the girl asked Jo as she took a deep breath. "What I want to know is ... doesn't Mega Girl love anyone? It seems such a shame that she's always alone."

Even from a few feet away, Jackie could hear Jo exhale loudly. She turned her head just enough to see a small look of panic on her friend's face. It lasted just a moment, then she seemed in control once more.

"Well of course, everyone wants to have somebody that they can love," Jo began, a slight hesitation in her voice. "And I assure you that Mega Girl is no different. In fact there is someone that I love, but at this point I'd rather not say who it is."

The fact that Jo answered the question in the first person wasn't lost on Jackie. Jo was answering for herself as much as Mega Girl.

"Will we ever find out who you love?" the girl at the microphone asked.

"I guess we'll all have to keep reading and see." Jo replied with a grin, her expression quickly changing from serious to jovial.

The next half dozen questions were easily enough answered and the master of ceremonies reluctantly drew the Q and A to a close. Much to the loud groans of still waiting fans. As they left the stage, the Terrific Two got a standing ovation. Jackie almost hated to leave. It had been an incredible high.

Two security guards quickly guided them to a house elevator and up to their room. The door barely closed behind them when Jackie made a sudden decision. She was going to ask Jo.

"I was surprised at the answer you gave that girl," Jackie said as she lifted the face mask over her head. "The one who asked about Mega Girl having a secret love. I don't remember ever discussing an idea like that."

"It's something that I've been thinking about for a long, long time." Jo replied. "Almost, I guess, from the beginning."

"And am I suppose to guess who this secret love is?" Jackie said, stepping a little closer.

"I think you already know." Jo said.

"And if I do?" came the reply.

"I guess I'm wondering what you want to do about it?" Jo said.

Jackie seemed loss in thought for a few moments, then reached out and lifted the small mask off Joanna's face. She dropped it to the floor and placed her gloved fingers on each side of Jo's now exposed face.

"I guess, I should do something like this." Jackie said as she bent forward and kissed Jo on her lips.

It took Jo a moment to realize what was happening, but only a moment. She threw her arms around Jackie and responded to the kiss with all the passion she felt inside herself. As she knew they would be, she found Jackie's soft lips warm, inviting, and oh so responsive. It was a forbidden dream become reality, one that she had wanted for so long.

"Oh God, Jackie," she said with tears in her eyes as they broke the kiss. "You don't know how long I've wanted you to do that."

Wiping away some of the wetness on the shorter woman's cheek, Jackie smiled. Until just a minute ago, she couldn't have imagined her kissing another woman the way she had just done.

"Jo, I've never done anything like that before." she said as she pulled off her red gloves to caress Jo's face with her bare hands. "And part of me still can't believe I did it."

That was the honest truth. Back when Susan Wong had first come out to her, Jackie had wondered for a while what it might be like having sex with another woman. The question didn't stay with her long because she couldn't imagine herself ever being sexually involved with someone without there being an emotional attachment as well. Something she didn't think likely to happen. At least until this moment.

"I hope you meant it." Jo said as she finally finished crying.

"I meant it," Jackie replied as she traced the outline of Jo's lips with her outstretched finger. "I don't think I've ever meant a kiss more."

"And is there going to be anything more than a kiss?" Jo asked.

"I'm totally in the dark here," Jackie said as she smiled. "You're going to have to help me along."

"Jackie, I've never done it with a woman before either." Jo confessed. "I just know it wasn't right with Bill - that I didn't feel quite complete."

"Well, I guess it's too late for us to send out for an instruction manual?" Jackie laughed as she took Jo in her arms.

"I'm sure we'll figure it out." Jo giggled as she returned Jackie's embrace and buried her head against the taller woman's red covered breast.

Jackie took Jo's hand and led her into the bedroom. It was your typical hotel fare, two double beds and the mass-produced painting hanging overhead. Not exactly a romantic love nest, but she quickly reminded herself it was the company, not the location that mattered.

Seating Jo on the bottom edge of the bed, Jackie reached up and started to undo her Ultra Woman costume. She had just undone the first of the six golden buttons on her tunic when Jo reached up and stopped her.

"Please," she said. "Let me."

Jackie paused and saw the look of desire in her friend's eyes.

"Of course." Jackie smiled.

Jo stood up and kissed Jackie. It was a brief, light kiss. Just enough to say thank you. Then her smaller hands reached for the clip that held together the edges of Ultra Woman's cape and undid it, sending the white cloak to the carpeted floor.

"I think I've been in love with you since that first day in your office." Jo said as she undid two more of the red tunic's buttons. "I've thought about this day so often that it almost doesn't seem real. I'm afraid that any moment I'm going to wake up and discover that it's just another dream."

"Trust me, " Jackie said as she felt the folds of her tunic fall open. "This is no dream."

In response, Jo kissed the top of Jackie's now exposed breasts, placing her left hand against the simple white bra that held them in place. The action sent a warmth across Jackie's chest.

"You have such beautiful breasts," Jo said as she felt the nipples harden through the thin material. "I wish I had breasts like yours."

"At the moment, I think you do." Jackie laughed as she felt Jo's hand slip beneath the white material and make contact with the warm flesh beneath. "Oh yes." she gasped as she felt Jo's fingertips brush against her nipple.