“What’re you doing?” I asked, noticing the nod of approval her nudity got from Harp and the sideways glance of pride Charm shot me for trying not to look.

  “Changing so I’m ready to go on this adventure with you,” Leticia replied. “After all, we have to both try to find your son and go after Ragnor for answers, no?”

  My gaze met Charm’s, and she shrugged. “Guess so.”

  “Guess so,” I repeated, though less chipper than Charm.

  “Okay, I’m ready.”

  I gave Charm a glance to make sure, and she nodded, so I turned around. Sure enough, Leticia was in a superhero outfit very different from what I’d first met her in. Back then she’d worn a hood much like many of the Nihilists, concealing her true nature. Now she must have received fashion advice from my team, because she wore a superhero one-piece that showed off her cleavage, mostly shiny black but with lines of pink that matched the pink of her glowing eyes.

  She went to the corner and opened a box that held armor, which she donned until she resembled a dragon warrior from a fantasy game. A black and pink dragon.

  “Let’s go find that scoundrel, shall we?”

  My ladies giggled, and I nodded. “All right, who picked out the armor and clothes?”

  “Guilty,” Charm said, raising a hand. “Thought it would go well with your space paladin look’.”

  “You don’t like?” Leticia asked, eyes flaring pink to add to the effect.

  “It’s very nice,” I said, but Laurel narrowed her eyes as she read the rest of what I thought—perhaps a bit too nice.

  CHAPTER 15: KAI

  Alien Planet

  Every ounce of my being screamed out for me to turn back, voices in my head saying that entering their fortress like this was idiotic, but I continued on. I’d set my eyes on a goal and damn sure meant to achieve it or die trying.

  What I had determined was that the underground opening led beneath the fortress, and since they had said they were taking that Destiny woman with the portal ability to a dungeon, it was entirely possible they connected. My chances were better going this route than charging in through the front door, what with the other two armored fox warriors there and who knows how many others watching.

  So this was my path, sneaking through an underground passage that occasionally gave me glimpses up and into their fortress. From what I could see, it was a primitive building. Nothing special about it, just stone walls and metal grates. I had no idea what was above, of course, so wasn’t sure if this was merely the underbelly of something much grander.

  More than once I stopped myself and listened, hearing shouting and the occasional yelp. That had to be them, right? The ones I had seen before.

  “We’ll have it out of her soon,” a voice said, giving me incentive to hurry my search.

  I reached a point where I had to go to my hands and knees, but it got even narrower until I was crawling, plagued by images of being stuck down here until my last breath.

  Then it opened up and I rolled to a line with pipes beneath that, judging by the scent, had to be plumbing. If I had to climb through those pipes, I was pretty sure I’d choose death.

  Lucky me, I didn’t have to make that choice.

  The voices were strongest from here. Cracks of light above told me this was my route up. Although I didn’t have superpowers, I knew my way around tools and could easily enough get screws undone, even if those screws were awkward with strange protrusions.

  Soon I had it undone and was pushing a toilet aside to come up beneath it. Gross, I know. But that did the job—I was in and alone, or so I thought. A face and fox ears caught my attention and I spun, ready to fight, only to see it was hung on a wall rack, armor next to it.

  Shuffling sounded, then a flush. I froze, realizing one of the fox people was about to step out from a stall next to me. There were four stalls, so I couldn’t be sure which one it was. Kneeling, I saw metal boots to my right.

  I had to act quickly, so I grabbed that fox helmet, turned back to the stall, and then threw myself at it. The lock on the door snapped under the pressure of my attack, and then I was in, slamming that helmet down on the person within as hard as I could.

  The woman collapsed, and I stared in shock. The ear of the helmet had lodged itself in her throat and she was convulsing, reaching for me with eyes full of anger and fear. Fuck! What had I done? I stepped back and heard another shout from nearby, then someone else saying, “Did you hear something?” and another, “Check it out.”

  Shit-shit-shit.

  I had to think fast. Quickly pulling that helmet back, I wiped it off on the lady’s pants, then turned and slid it onto my head along with the armor from the wall. Both were surprisingly too large, but they would do the trick.

  Sliding out through the main doorway, I was glad that this helmet covered my eyes and entire face, as opposed to the one Destiny had been wearing that left most of her face exposed aside from her forehead and around her eyes.

  The unfortunate part of that was my lack of peripheral vision. I didn’t know how to turn it on, either. The eyes were green and tinted everything I saw emerald, but they were probably screens that provided a nice Heads-up Display (HUD) when activated.

  Strolling through the hall and to the right where I hoped they had Destiny, I saw a woman approach from the left. She gave me a nod. I nodded back and continued on, very aware that she was heading for the bathroom and that I didn’t have much time before she found the dying (or now dead!) woman back there.

  I stopped at a stairway that led down to where a yelp came from. A thought hit me – I had taken a life! My first kill… and my first murder? That woman hadn’t been doing anything but finishing a trip to the toilet. Sure, she had been on the side that attacked us, but I don’t know, maybe she had been a prisoner of theirs as well? Or maybe the attack was a misunderstanding, or… I took a deep breath and told myself to stop it. Thoughts like that weren’t going to do anyone any good.

  I had the rest of my life, as short as that was likely to be given the circumstances, to grieve and feel guilty. But thinking about that woman and then the other I’d just seen… where the fuck were all the men around here? So far, these strange fox-armor wearing people all appeared to be women.

  “The process has begun,” a voice said, snapping me out of it.

  No more stalling. I charged down those steps three at a time and turned left to jump down the last of them and find myself in a strange room with Destiny—I assumed—nude and held in a glass tank with purple mist flowing into it. A woman stood nearby in purple robes as if she were leading a church service, and she turned to me with a look of confusion.

  Unlike the woman on the toilet, this one was standing in my way. As if to make my decision to attack easier, her hand went for a knife at her side.

  I didn’t waste time on thought, simply throwing myself at her head-first. The impact hurt like hell, but those pointy ears did the trick again and I had to pull myself free from the helmet to see that it had impaled her in the gut.

  The woman stumbled back, cursed, and then reached for an alarm. I was glad the alarm had her attention now instead of her knife, because that left the latter open for me. One hand went to push her away from the alarm, the other snatching at the handle of her knife. To my relief, she fell sideways and I had the blade.

  My second kill came with ease, slamming the knife into her throat and twisting, then pulling it free and nearly puking at the suction sound the action made. I stabbed her again, then again, and as she tried to come at me somehow, I kicked at the helmet still sticking into her gut. That sent her to the ground shuddering, and then her hands went to her neck as if she could somehow stop the bleeding. Not likely.

  Turning my attention to Destiny in that glass case, I found a switch next to it and slid that up. To my relief, the flow of purple mist stopped, and her eyes met mine. She gestured to a metal tab to the right, but I couldn’t figure it out.

  She held up a hand and shouted, “Her hand! It has to be her hand!”

  I glanced back, cringed at the woman now twitching, but grabbed her hand and pulled her over. An alarm sounded—they must have found the other woman in the bathroom!

  Placing the woman’s hand on the metal slab, I waited. Nothing happened. The blood had to be obscuring the scanning capability, so I wiped her hand clean and then tried again. This time, it worked.

  The glass case slid open and Destiny came stumbling out, right into my arms. Already tense and uneasy with the deaths and blood and now the alarm, I was completely frozen by this beautiful, nude woman suddenly in my arms, pressing herself against me.

  “Get me out of here,” she said, voice shaking and weak.

  “I…”

  My hands were on her back, feeling her warm, bare skin. Somehow, even amidst all the chaos, my cock found itself rising. She was clearly focused enough on getting out of here to either not notice or not care—which made sense!

  Get yourself together, I told myself, and then grunted, took one of her arms in mine with my other arm still wrapped around her for support, and did my best not to look down at her stunning breasts as I said, “I got you. Do you know a way out?”

  “There,” she nodded to a tunnel behind us, away from the way I had entered. On the way, she muttered, “Wait, wait,” and nodded to bronze and black armor in the corner sitting atop a pile of clothes.

  I snatched them up and we ducked out of there and into the tunnel. There I paused to help her dress, but she waved me off.

  “My shame isn’t more important than our lives. Get me into hiding first.”

  This time my eyes glanced down at her and I bit my lip, wishing I hadn’t, and nodded. “Sorry,” I muttered.

  She had a hint of a smile on her lips, even though she shook her head and said, “Like I said—our lives are more important.” But as we started on again, she added, “Still, do try not to perv out on me.”

  “Again, sorry.”

  Cocking her head as she shimmied into her pants, she narrowed her eyes. “You’re really him, huh? Breaker’s son?”

  I shrugged, glanced at her tits accidentally, and then turned around. “Yup. My greatest accomplishment in life.”

  She scoffed. “Don’t start a pity party down here. You just saw me naked—I’d think that would make you at least kind of happy.”

  “I…” Was that an invitation for a compliment? Or better yet, to look again? Starting to turn my head, I caught myself and chuckled. “Yes, you’re right.”

  “I met her, you know. Charm.”

  “What?” This time I turned around out of surprise, but she had pulled her shirt on and was buckling into her armor, including that helmet I’d seen above. Not exactly a helmet, I saw now—more like headgear, with her forehead covered and a chinstrap and protective neck covering.

  She held her finger up for a second, listening to something, then said, “We’re in the clear for now—they’re checking the upper floor, figuring you tried to escape.”

  “Makes sense. You can hear them?”

  Gesturing to her headgear, she said, “This thing isn’t just to make me look badass.”

  “But it does that well enough.”

  That smile pulled at her lips again. “Just because you saw me nude doesn’t mean you have a chance, so how about you save the flirting until we’re out of here?”

  “We?”

  “Of course—you think I’m sticking around?”

  “I mean, you can get me home? Teleport me back?”

  Her smile vanished. “No… not likely. And it’s worse than what I was telling them about a cooldown. I think one of Breaker’s team blocked me—felt it as the fighting was ending. Something powerful…”

  “That’d be Andromida,” I replied. “My mom.”

  “Oh?” Her eyes went wide, moving over me as if seeing me in a different light. “So can’t you just open a portal then? I mean, I’ve heard all about her.”

  I scoffed, about to tell her that I didn’t have powers, but decided to keep that as my little secret for now. Instead, I said, “Not in my skillset, unfortunately.”

  “Well… damn.” Considering me, then glancing around, she motioned for me to follow and then led the way. “There’s a passage down here that Charm used when she escaped. We might be able to follow it and then get out of here.”

  “Go back a step,” I said, catching up to her. “Why was Charm here? When?”

  “She didn’t tell you?”

  “Charm and I don’t talk often, and no… she didn’t. Far as I know, nobody is aware of her coming here.”

  “She… she promised. Said she’d get the others and come back to help us.”

  That caught my attention. “Help you against what?”

  She hesitated. ““I’m not sure I should be telling you all my secrets. Not until we get to know each other a bit, you know?”

  “Well, you’re Destiny, I overheard that part. And I’m Kai.” Thrusting out my hand, I took hers and shook it. “Now we know each other.”

  “Right…” She glanced over, her eyes playful through the eyeholes of her mask. “And you have seen me naked, so maybe if you…”

  “You’re joking, right?” Had she been about to ask to see me naked, too? I wasn’t opposed to that if it would lead somewhere, but this was hardly the time and I didn’t fully get the vibe from her that it would regardless.

  “I am,” she admitted, nudging me. “Okay, I’ll tell you, but…” She motioned me down and we crouched next to a wall that opened up to a hallway. Crouching and having a look around the corner, she nodded. “Okay, this way.”

  We crouch-ran forward to the next room, which looked to be a cellar with wine barrels.

  “This will lead down there, and then we can make a run for it,” she said.

  I hesitated. “To where?”

  “My powers were blocked from opening a portal to your world, but not all worlds. Once it’s recharged, I could get us somewhere, anywhere that you might have an object from.”

  “Umm, I’m human. Why would I have objects from anywhere else?”

  She frowned, gave me a once-over, and then her eyes filled with hopelessness. “Well… then we’re fucked.”

  I looked back the way we’d come. “Can we wait them out? Maybe my mom will open another portal, they’ll come for me, and I can vouch for you.”

  “Charm would too, I’d hope, but… not likely. We set up safeguards against that.”

  My hand went to my chin to scratch as I thought, but then I noticed the black circle around my wrist.

  “This!” I held it out for her to see. “It’s not from Earth! At least, I don’t think so.”

  “A tattoo won’t help.”

  “No, it’s…” Taking it and removing it, I showed her, then quickly put it back into place. “It’s something one of the supers with my uncle’s team gave me. I think… since she came from another world, it would have also. If we can go there…?”

  My heart was racing, not only because a plan was starting to form, but because if there was ever a chance of me gaining powers, it would be through visiting Lamb’s home planet and finding out if anyone there remained who could help me. It was a long shot but was also my only hope, as far as I knew.

  “Perfect,” Destiny said, then motioned for me to follow as she lowered herself down. “Do you know what type of world it is?”

  “I… er, no.”

  “Well then, we’ll have to ensure we’re supplied. Meaning, we can’t run—not quite yet.”

  She had been going to the right in this underground tunnel, but now turned back the other way, grabbing my shoulder and spinning me around.

  “Come on, we’re going to get you geared up.”

  I had no idea what that would entail, but it sounded awesome. I was all for it.

  CHAPTER 16: CHARM

  Earth

  We were preparing to go through the portal to the Citadel, and my nerves were on edge. No matter how much Breaker tried to assure me it wasn’t my fault that the enemy had taken Kai, I remembered what had happened and couldn’t help but replay the attack and his disappearance over and over in my mind’s eye.

  “You good?” Twitch asked, a hand going to my shoulder.

  “Same as last time you asked.”

  She arched a brow, gave my shoulder a squeeze, then suddenly went rigid.

  “What?” I asked, and spun to see that she had a screen up over my shoulder. “The hell? This is like looking at your phone while I’m pouring my heart out.”

  “An attack,” she replied, releasing me to pull up another screen. “I set the screen to pop up whenever an attack hits Earth, the Citadel, or any number of other key spots.”

  “And this one?”

  “Earth. Tokyo.”

  “No shit?”

  “Ladies?” Breaker asked, standing with the rest of Breaker’s Berserkers at the portal in the side hall just off from our main room at the mansion.

  “One sec.” I sat on the bed, gesturing to Twitch. “How bad is it?”

  “Reports are showing…” She adjusted the screen and then the holographic image of a news report appeared on the wall, showing an attack on Tokyo that looked like an assault by actual Oni—the Japanese demonic creatures, many of which had red or blue skin, all with some variations of horns growing from their heads.

  As we watched, two oni knelt and put their hands together, and when they pulled back there was a portal with a woman stepping out. She had several flowing tails. I gasped, but saw that her skin shimmered white, and before our eyes she shifted forms to look like one of the oni.

  “Shape shifters,” I said.

  “We need to figure out who the hell is behind this,” Twitch agreed.

  “Leave it to the others,” Breaker said, waving it off.

  “I know they took your son,” Twitch said, “but I’m not seeing the other groups here.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Ezra, Drew, even the Ex-Succubus group… None of them are on Earth.”

  Breaker ran a hand through his hair, pissed.