Apparently, it wouldn’t be that easy though, as a shield of blue energy formed in front of him, absorbing the shots. He couldn’t fail to notice that the majority of those shots were aimed at his massive, dangling dick though, because I was sick of seeing that shit.

  His eyes moved to look directly at me, as he hissed, “My, aren’t we cocky?”

  I glared, preparing for the counterattack.

  “It doesn’t have to end like this,” Ria said at my side. “All of you can still abandon this attack, join in the defense.”

  “And why, my dear traitor, would we want to do that?” Ranthem stepped forward, releasing the shield and walking right through it, so close to us that he seemed very vulnerable. But I suspected that he knew exactly what he was doing. “Play time is over. You’ve banded together to form your little team of toys, but it’s time to grow up, cast them aside. Come home.”

  “Earth is my home now,” she replied.

  He held her gaze one moment longer before snarling and lifting his hand for an attack. In that moment, all hell broke loose. Gloria stepped forward to block the attack while I attempted to shoot at those around Ranthem and at the same time hit him with blood power (it didn’t work). Meher started freezing people’s feet or hands in place, while Bubblegum went to town on the goat and snake people.

  Snakes slithered and the winged creatures took to the sky, as other supers joined them in launching a barrage in our direction. Death Girl managed to pull me aside as the first attack that came almost took my nuts out with a chance shot, accompanied by a sly wink from Ranthem. Fucker.

  “Stay low, I’ll divert their attention,” Death Girl said, and she was charging out, metal shifting to make even more spikes on her as she ran.

  How she expected me to stay low was beyond my comprehension and interest, as I needed to be part of this fight. My blood was already calling for it. It hit me that maybe my blood was literally calling out for a fight, that it had something to do with my powers, and so I embraced it, letting my blood boil up so that it actually put me on edge, giving me a sort of sensory skill. When a goat man nearly kicked my head in or acid came from a snake, I was already moving out of the way fast, shooting and then taking the pain from an attack from a super with speed so fast I couldn’t avoid it.

  My vision took on the glow that told me I was charging, and I grinned.

  “Hit me again, I fucking dare you!” I shouted as I blasted toward him, shooting two other supers in the process. He did so, three times in rapid succession, so that I was fully charged. Trying something else, then, I reached out to all the blood around me, cooling it, slowing him down just enough to hit him with my super-fast, badass punch.

  It worked, and the fucker went sprawling in the grass, head caved in and blood seeping out. Good, more blood, I thought as I pulled on it to thrust out in spears at those nearby, hardening as ice would, so that it broke but was enough at first to pierce several of the snake ladies and one winged creature, dropping them dead and giving me more blood to work with. I was just about to create more of those elf-blood creatures when Meher called out.

  “Not more of those fucking gremlins,” she said as she ran up behind me, seeing what I was doing. “Those were creepy.”

  “They were elves,” I said, and then sighed. “Fine.” Instead, I pooled the blood to form a sort of gargoyle-like creature, that I then sent against Ranthem himself. The incubus was up against Ria and totally kicking her ass, but my blood gargoyle leaped and got ahold of him, blood seeping around him and striking, piercing.

  I didn’t have time to see what happened next, because one of the supers had thrust herself at Meher and me, a wave of air like water but full of spikes coming at us. Meher shouted and made a wall of ice, while I redirected the blood to form a second wall. Half the spikes fell at the ice, many more at the wall of hardened blood, but several made it through and tore through my arms, one landing in Meher’s thigh.

  She grunted, then hit the super with a blast of ice in the face. It actually formed in his mouth and eyes, exploding out through his body so that he fell, head expanding to twice its normal size.

  “Gross,” I said.

  “Coming from the guy whose new favorite plaything is blood?” she rolled her eyes, then cringed as she drew the spike from her leg. Blood spurted, and that gave me an idea.

  Focusing on the blood there, I made it crust over and although the wound had not yet healed, it was not bleeding anymore.

  “You’re welcome,” I said, and turned back to see that, while my blood gargoyle was gone, Gloria was taking on three goat men and a snake woman and yet still managing to attack Ranthem with Ria. Death Girl was being pushed back by a super whose power seemed to be an ability to manifest light into creatures that would attack and then vanish to reappear moments later in another location. He was himself seeming to float in a pool of light, moving around her in a circle, avoiding attacks in blinding maneuvers, causing me to have to look away. A super who looked no older than fifteen tried to hit me with what looked like a frying pan, and at first I thought he was just a boy who’d gotten lost. The frying pan warped into a long sword at the last second, and would have taken off my head if I hadn’t used my blood cooling trick to slow him down, while at the same time speeding up myself long enough to dodge.

  I stumbled back, dizzy, and tried to get him with a blood spear, but he blocked it and then thrust out a hand that sent daggers my way. Gloria took them in the shoulder, but they clattered off her skin, and then she was up grabbing one and throwing it back. The kid smiled, reaching out to grab it out of the air which he was apparently very good at, but the moment he caught it, the dagger exploded and took off his hand and arm.

  He screamed while Gloria grabbed him, tossing him up at the light super who was giving Death Girl such a hard time. The light super frowned and moved aside, but the exploding boy still caught him off guard and knocked him to the ground with half his body torn to shreds. All the light was gone from him, it faded as his life left him.

  “I had it covered,” Death Girl shouted, but then growled a thank you and moved on to more of those winged creatures. She leaped and snatched one out of the sky, slamming it to the ground and ending it, while I shot at the one behind it. Another caught hold of her and lifted her into the air, easily carrying her weight, until she thrust up, pushing two metal points through its head, and then she was falling. She hit the ground with a roll and was up immediately to kill more.

  We were quickly chipping away at their forces, but Ranthem was still proving to be quite the challenge. Still, Ria was able to keep him at bay with the occasional help from us as we took down the rest of them, until finally—with yet another decapitation on the part of Death Girl, we were in the clear, all surrounding Ranthem.

  He cursed in a foreign tongue, then turned on me. “So what, you’re her new pet?”

  “I don’t think of it that way.”

  The corner of his lips turned up, and he lunged. Grabbing hold of me with more speed and power than I’d expected. “Well then, she’s taken away so much from me, if I’m going down, I’ll take you with me.”

  “The fuck you will,” Ria shouted, and she was on him before he could even make a move to snap my neck or whatever he’d had in mind. And when I say ‘on him,’ I mean I had yet to see her attack with such fervor, such malice. Claws were flying, ripping flesh, teeth in him, horns glowing as her blue light rippled over her body.

  At first I thought she stood a chance, but then noticed the look she gave me. The look that said she needed help, and I caught on. Blood was flying from him, and I helped it along. Pulling at the blood, letting out through those openings, now that he was weak. Now that I was able, I kept at it.

  He growled and tried throwing her off, put up a shield that stopped me, but then Death Girl was on him, hitting him over and over with her spikes, her batons cracking bones. Meher and Bubblegum, Gloria too, we all took turns at him, so that every timed he put up a shield or prepared a counter attack, another attack from one of us would hit him.

  Until finally, Ria was there again with her blue light, tearing through his throat. He clutched it, starting to heal, but it was my turn. I hardened the blood, forced it out in spikes so that his own blood was keeping the wound open and tearing through him.

  He fell to one knee, then his other and one hand, still clutching his throat, trying to heal it.

  “You went crazy on us,” Ranthem said, voice rasp, barely there. He was on hands and knees now crawling toward Ria. “Like the others.”

  “Not crazy,” she replied. “I saw the fucking light.”

  As she said the words, her horns glowed and she had her hand out, summoning the blue light that formed and swirled around it, so that when she finally knelt before her former team leader and reached toward him, her hand went through his chest. Energy flowed out of him in the form of multi-colored lights. Gold, green, blue, silver, they all flowed up into Ria, spiraling along her arm and then settled into her chest.

  When it was over, the glow of her horns faded and Ranthem collapsed, dead. His body lay there for a moment before crumbling and blowing away as dust.

  “His powers are mine, now,” Ria said, then stood and turned to me.

  “I thought you couldn’t do that anymore,” I admitted. “That you weren’t able to take powers.”

  “Given what he was, the rules don’t apply. I have his powers… to doll out to you, to new members of the team, or however we see fit.”

  “New members?” I looked around at our little team, all the destruction we had caused. “I see how we need more on our side, but our team… this team—we’re badass as we are.”

  She nodded. “Still, you never know. We’ll want more, I assure you.”

  My head swam with the idea of more ladies joining, more of them climbing into my bed. That thought was overwhelming, but I couldn’t deny a bit of excitement there.

  “Right now, though,” Death Girl said, indicating the fighter ships they’d come down in—some of them at least, “it’s time we flew.”

  “Indeed.” Ria indicated one specific ship still circling above, and said, “I’ll bet that’s Trinnar’s ship, but lucky for us, all we have to do is make the ships return to where they last departed

  We walked over to the largest ship, one we could all fit in, while I pulled up the footage of the other Supers’ group at the Red Square. There was smoke, destruction everywhere, and new shots, shots of one of them flying up from the ground to the ships above, and then of fresh fighting between some of the enemy ships. What that was about, I’d love to have known. Not yet, however. At the moment we needed to move, and get our upgrades along the way.

  25

  Hurtling toward the enemy ship, I was filled with excitement. Not only because of the battle we were about to throw ourselves into, but also because Death Girl was walking among each of us, giving us her blessing. That basically meant she was giving us collected souls, which would manifest into the form of more spiritual energy.

  There was this daunting image of the ship as we approached, growing larger each second, but when Death Girl placed a hand on my brow—soft, tender, and not at all I what I expected, I was taken to a place of peace, filled with self-awareness and a drive to further dive into my spiritual awakening, a place I could spend an eternity contemplating life and its meaning.

  Her hand pulled back and I looked up to her skull, which nodded before she moved on to Gloria to impart souls onto her.

  “We’ll be there soon,” Ria shouted. “On the way, as discussed before, you need to get that internal core working, focus on taking your new spiritual energy and visualize the way you’ve used the powers. Focus on taking what you have now to the next level, or levels, depending on your capability.”

  “Kinda feels like we didn’t earn it,” Meher said, jokingly.

  Ria glanced back. “You did, because you’ll only be able to advance as far as your mental and emotional capacity allows, regardless of your spirit level. Try to think of it like this—you’ve been trying to build roads, but only had enough equipment to keep you going along at a certain pace. But now you have more resources available—so how fast can you build now? You can still only go as fast as your physical abilities will let you, but the new equipment will probably help to move you along faster than before.”

  “I think that’s a horrible analogy, or simile,” Bubblegum said.

  “Metaphor?” I offered, not really sure.

  “Regardless, who the fuck here knows how to build roads? Why not reference kitchens and cooking or—”

  “The point is, right now you need to shut up and focus,” Ria interrupted. “Got it.”

  “Sure, but—”

  “Got it?!”

  Bubblegum put a hand to her mouth, nodded, and closed her eyes. I chuckled and did the same, trying to figure out how I’d build more roads or throw more bacon on the frying pan… or whatever it was I was doing. In the last two days I’d learned more about spiritual energy and super powers than I could have ever dreamed existed in the universe, and now I was here with numerous souls trying to basically harvest them toward advancing my powers.

  At first when I tried focusing, it was like a river, coursing, ever changing… but with more concentration, I was able to gain control of the waters, turn it so that it flowed straight, carrying me on to my destination.

  In my mind’s eye it was like I could suddenly envision myself performing my skills, absorbing the pain, and using past pain to charge a strike. Changing my focus, I saw myself in a void, pulling at faceless bodies and watching as blood erupted from their flesh, flowing around me and doing my bidding.

  It was grotesque, it was overwhelming. It was beautiful.

  When I opened my eyes, the glow on my skin changed to green, telling me I’d advanced.

  Just in time, too, because we were pulling up next to one of the large ships. So far, they apparently hadn’t gotten word of the defeat on the ground or the fact that we’d hijacked a vessel, but when the screen flashed up an image of that gold and green bastard Trinnar, I knew we were in trouble.

  “What have you done?” he said, eyes narrowed with suspicion.

  “Only what needed to be done,” Ria replied, and cut off comms.

  We all shared a look, the euphoria of all that we’d been through carrying us through the moment, but I imagined they were all starting to realize just how ridiculously dangerous what we were doing was.

  “Are we about to die?” Meher asked, and glanced my way. “If we are, I just have to say—I fucking loved sucking your cock.” I laughed, then Bubblegum joined in. Soon we were all laughing, and Meher was saying, “What? What? I’m serious!”

  “I bet you are,” Gloria snorted.

  “Okay, more than that,” Meher said, shushing us all. “It’s the whole package…” More laughter, and she waved her hand to shush us again. “I didn’t mean that. I’m saying you all, this… friendship?”

  “Lovership,” Gloria said with a shrug.

  “Fighter ship,” Death Girl chimed in, staring straight ahead.

  Small chuckles to that.

  “Point is, I’m glad you all found me. Or I found you… or whatever.”

  “Ria found us all,” I said, and the ex-succubus glanced back, a gentle smile adding beauty to her already stunning face.

  “It’s a good note to die on, though,” Death Girl said, “Seriously. Damn, now I wish I’d sucked his dick, too.”

  The laughter returned, even a small chuckle from Death Girl, though I couldn’t be sure if she was joking or not.

  “Everyone feeling good?” Ria asked. “Keep it up, because we’re about to throw ourselves into the shit.”

  “Less good now that you said it like that,” Meher said, but then she laughed. “I’m game, though.”

  “Please don’t let that be a disgusting, kinky joke,” Gloria said. “Because that’s where I draw the line.”

  “Ah, yes,” I agreed.

  Death Girl groaned. “Do you all turn to sexual jokes as a way of breaking tension? Dealing with being terrified? Please, explain.”

  “Some people just like the smell of sex in the morning,” Bubblegum replied with a snort that caused the rest of us to laugh.

  “Coming in hot,” Ria said, swerving as enemy ships flew out to engage with us.

  Usually our powers could help us, but in this case, we all had to rely on Ria’s ability to fly the ship. Luckily, she was a badass, swerving in and out of shots, barreling down on Trinnar’s ship, our target. More fighters were coming out to meet us, but as it became clear we weren’t going to be touched, the doors of the mother ship started to slide shut.

  “Hold tight,” Ria said, and she gunned it, reaching the fast closing doors with just seconds to spare, as she shot through the diminishing gap, the two fighters in pursuit exploding, sending flames shooting out after us. The doors shut with a bang.

  We were inside the ship, the ramp lowering to let us out, and Gloria was leading the charge, taking shots and not giving a fuck. I came in right behind her, Bubblegum at my side shooting with her cyborg arm, making heads explode with her power. A few blasts of energy and ice hit me, but I absorbed the pain while using the blood power to attack. My blood powers felt like part of me now, and I reached out, playing the marionette, controlling the weakest of the enemy to attack the stronger. Now we had cannon fodder and distractions, so that the team took out the enemy in that room in no time.

  “Clear,” Gloria said.

  With Gloria leading the way again, and following Ria’s direction, we charged through the door and into the next passage.

  “Ghosts,” Death Girl said, and gestured to our left.

  Ria started to make a motion for the Per-Neter, but Death Girl put out a hand. “No need, right? Contra has one of their ghost guns, remember. I point, he shoots. Game over.”

  “Actually, that might work,” Ria admitted, and we charged in, setting up to do so. As soon as Ria pointed and I took out the first one—judging by the shimmer in the air and thump—a door behind us slid open and more supers entered. My team turned to take them on while Death Girl got up on my shoulder, indicating where to shoot.