“That’s… confusing logic.”

  With a tilt to her head, she said, “I imagine much of my logic will be confusing to you, me being from another world and all.”

  “And yet, you speak my language without any problems.”

  “Only because you’re not the only people who speak your language, anymore.”

  Nodding at that, I indicated a turn and paused to help her over a stream.

  “Thank you,” she said, accepting my hand and jumping across. She clearly didn’t need the help, her energy now restored, but the look of affection she gave me showed she appreciated the effort. I didn’t care if she was a demon or alien or whatever, in my mind she was a lady first.

  “How much longer would you guess we have?” I asked.

  “Really, it’s hard to say.”

  “I know, but… best guess.”

  “Well,” she turned to the sky, “if my team’s coming before tomorrow night, you mean? Maybe a three or four of your hours?”

  Meaning we really didn’t have much time, because that was the deadline in my mind. While yes, we needed to be ready for the actual invasion, if we didn’t survive until then, we would be no help to anyone.

  “And if I’d simply refused to help you back there?” I asked. “I mean, if I’d ran away or whatever after the crash?”

  “I’d have found someone else to give powers to, to start a team.” The answer was so matter of fact, it kind of hurt. She noticed my pained expression, her golden eyes creasing with worry. “Oh, don’t take it personally. I’m glad it’s you, and some people where I come from would say it’s fate’s way of working out.”

  “What, fortune-telling supers?”

  “No,” she laughed, “just normal warriors who believe in that sort of thing.”

  I nodded. “I’d love to hear more about where you come from.”

  As before when I asked, her expression darkened. “Maybe you’ll see it someday.”

  “Why?”

  “Don’t be so eager,” she hit me, playfully, “or I might think you don’t want to come over. My parents won’t be home.” She winked, clearly knowing the joke there.

  “Is that so?”

  “Yeah, I mean…” Darkness again. “It’s kind of because they were eaten… by one of my old bosses. But yeah.”

  “Fuck…”

  “I tore his belly open while he was still alive, gave them a proper burial… and then let him choke on his own still beating heart. But yeah, fuck.” With a wave of her hand as if getting rid of a bad smell, her smile returned and she said, “But all that’s in the past. Now I have you, my new dear friend, and we’re going to do right by this world.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  She held her hand out, and I took it. Maybe she needed comfort, or maybe it was meant to be a sign of unity, a hand for me to slap in a sort of high five or something, I don’t know, but I took it and walked with her like that, hand in hand. She didn’t pull her it away, and by our second step like that it would’ve been more awkward to ask or let her hand go, so I kept on like that. After a minute of walking, she pulled me close and held my bicep with her other hand, then leaned in and kissed my cheek.

  We both stopped.

  “What was that for?” I asked.

  “For being sweet.” She pulled back, though her one hand was still in mine. “And for… agreeing to help save me, to help me fight.”

  “I mean… you were kinda naked, and hot.”

  She laughed and released my hand to hit me, but then crossed her arms, biting her upper lip with the corner of her mouth as she eyed me.

  I held out my hand for hers. She hesitated, then took it and said, “Almost there?”

  “Yes, actually just…” I turned, indicating the dim glow of yellow we could make out past a few more paces of trees and bushes. “There.”

  The diner wasn’t anything special, but sort of held that nostalgic feel of the days when movies had still been popular, when people read books and talked about them, and when CDs were a thing. We had images of all of these things up on the walls, my favorite being a large poster of Valerie from the Reclaiming Honor series—from the fourth movie, I think when she really started getting into the vampire lady with her. Hot, and we figured sex sold, so, while keeping it family friendly, we also weren’t afraid to play that angle up.

  I was straining my eyes for any sign of Barbie, but clearly she wasn’t there. Maybe we’d missed her shift?

  “She’s not there, huh?” Ria asked.

  “Doesn’t look that way, but…” Looking at the two guys on shift, two jerks I only kept around because our lady customers loved them, I shook my head. “We can try downtown? Sometimes I see her hanging around. It’s possible we’ll run into her.”

  “We’re going off of that?”

  I laughed. “It’s not much, but worst case scenario, I think she has an apartment over there.”

  “Do you have this word here, too? Stalker?” She winked.

  “Shut it,” I said, leading the way. “For your information, I had to bring her some soup when she was home, sick, once. Her request, and I remember the directions well-ish. Nothing more.”

  “Uh-huh.” She winked, but when I took her arm in mine again, she gave it a rest.

  5

  “Shit, it’s her,” I said, pulling Ria aside, the two of us up against a pillar. Only when we’d stopped did I realize she was pressed against me, her soft breasts against my upper arm. With a gulp, I glanced down, getting the full view of her cleavage—even a bit of nipple from this angle, and then my eyes met hers.

  She was grinning, but said, “The waitress? Are we hiding, or do you have an ulterior motive here?”

  “What? No. It’s Meher, walking right this way.”

  “Oh, the dildo girl?” Ria grinned.

  “She’s not…” No time to correct her, I glanced around and saw the pillar we were against was adjacent to the local movie theater. It was the small sort that served beer and food, with the ticket window and the concession stand acting as one. Perfect for getting off of the street long enough to go unseen.

  We ducked into the doorway, moving to the concession stand where the guy was selling tickets. A glance back showed Meher pausing on the sidewalk, looking at her phone. If she glanced this way, she’d see me. I had no idea if that would result in her calling the cops or what, but after the incident earlier, I wasn’t ready for whatever sort of confrontation that might result in.

  “Two please,” I said.

  The guy pushed up his glasses and eyed us. “You know it’s twenty minutes in? And I mean after previews.”

  “Yeah, no problem. I’ve seen it already three times.”

  “Have you…” He didn’t care, and it wasn’t a question. After ringing us up and asking if we wanted popcorn—which I would’ve actually loved but was busy pulling Ria out of view and into the theater, the guy shrugged.

  It was only then that I saw the movie poster and realized we were walking right into some romantic comedy about a man and woman who got body swapped while she was pregnant. I had seen the trailers and wasn’t interested, and groaned at the idea that this guy at the counter now thought I had seen it three times. Not that his opinion mattered, but still.

  We found two seats near the back, of the almost-empty theater, and as soon as we sat, Ria leaned over, mouth next to my ear. “What is this place?”

  I guffawed, indicating the screen as I whispered, “Movie. Theater. Movie theater. What’s confusing?”

  Her eyes took on a bit of a glow, and I held up my hands in surrender. “Right, sorry. No movies where you’re from?”

  She shook her head.

  “Ah, well… These are super retro. Actually died off a while back, but made a resurgence after most of the rich people abandoned Earth.”

  “For the Paradise Planets,” she said, nodding.

  “Right. So yeah, for a few credits, you get to sit here and watch actors perform on the screen. Act out a story.”

  “Ah, and,” she nodded to my left, where I turned to see a guy a couple of rows back and in the next isle over. At first I thought he was alone, then noticed a head bobbing up and down on his crotch. “And that?”

  “Damn,” I said, quickly looking away. “No, I mean, you’re not supposed to do that.”

  “Ever?”

  I chuckled. “In the movie theater.”

  She nodded, turning to the movie and taking my hand. We’d held hands on the way here in the woods, thanks to me being presumptuous, but for her to again take my hand so nonchalantly right after seeing someone getting head filled my mind with thoughts.

  “What’s happening now?” she asked, eyes glued to the screen while it looked like the guy’s best friend was giving the main actor some advice.

  I grunted, watching to see.

  “And if you were to take her on a date, any date,” the guy on the movie said, “where would you go?”

  “I’m not taking her on a date, dick,” was the response, but my attention was suddenly not on the movie at all.

  Instead, I was focused on the fact that Ria’s other hand had just found my leg. I looked down first at it, then to her. Her gold eyes were staring at me, full of curiosity.

  “Is this a… date?” she asked.

  Another glance at her hand, my fingers starting to caress hers, my breaths starting to become heavier. “Do you want it to be?” I said at first, but then added, “No, scratch that. It is.”

  Her lip turned up, her hand squeezing me. She leaned in and whispered, “I’ve never been on a date. Not a real one, anyway.”

  “Oh?”

  “What happens next?”

  I chuckled, lowering my voice as a guy a few rows up turned to glare at us. “Ice cream?”

  “And then the…” She nodded back toward the guy getting head.

  There was a good chance I blushed, but she wouldn’t have been able to tell in that dark theater. “Not always, but it can happen.”

  “Would you… like it?”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “If I did that right now, in here?” Her hand moved along my leg, going to my inner thigh. “Would that make our date more fun?”

  “Are you,” I shifted as the edge of her pinky moved along the curve of my package, “messing with me?”

  Her smile widened, glow in her eyes intensified, and then the strangest thought came over me—at this angle, with her going down on me in the theater, was there a possible way to do it without being stabbed by her horns?

  She had, apparently not noticed though, because she was looking at my crotch she ran her hand along the length of what was now a clear boner. Her fingers moved to the zipper, starting to undo it.

  “Maybe I’m messing with you, maybe not?” She pulled down the zipper. “But you still haven’t answered me—would you like it?”

  “I…” A deep breath.

  My answer never came, because a flashlight was suddenly on her hand at my zipper, a man glaring at us.

  “All right, you two. Out.” He moved the flashlight toward the aisle. “Got a report of a woman going down on a guy in here. Caught you nearly red handed.”

  “We weren’t—” she started, but he held up a hand as others around tried to shush us.

  I turned to give away the real culprit, only to see him now with his arm around a much older woman, both staring straight ahead. He must’ve heard the guy or realized what was going on, and at this point would appear even more innocent than us. Son of a bitch.

  “Let’s go,” I said, taking Ria by the hand and leading her out. As I walked, I realized my zipper was down so used my other hand to fix it, right as we walked out to find the theater manager there, staring at me zipping up my fly. She shook her head in disgust.

  “Oh, come on,” I started, but realized it wasn’t going to do any good.

  “Don’t come back,” she said, and gestured to the doors. “Ever.”

  Ria looked very amused by the whole situation, and I started to very much doubt that she ever had plans on doing it at all. Now we were suffering the consequences, without any of the rewards. If I ever caught the guy really doing it, I thought at first, I’d punch him right in the nose. But no, he’d gotten away with it. Good for him. I would probably give him a high five instead.

  We exited, and saw that Meher was down the street buying a hot dog from a street vendor. I glanced around, looking for options, then pushed into the shadows as she turned.

  “Is all this necessary?” Ria asked.

  “Just… shhh.”

  Meher took a couple of steps toward us as she went to town on that hot dog, then leaned against a yellow car that wasn’t hovering at the moment. There she pulled out her phone—a small screen floating just off her wrist—and seemed to be reading as she finished the dog.

  “I can just illusion us,” Ria said. “Or…” She pulled me into the clothing store behind us, guiding me toward the back room. “We can continue where we left off.”

  “More teasing, you mean?”

  With a shake of her head, she led me toward the dressing room.

  “I thought,” I lowered my voice, “I thought you said you’re an ex-succubus.”

  She stopped, pinched my arm, and said, “Watch it, or I might change my mind. This has nothing to do with what I am or was. You helped fight that fucker back there, and I like you. At least, what I know of you. I want this… don’t you?”

  I nodded. “Very much.”

  “Then shut your mouth and let me use mine.” She pulled me along again, only a staff attendant in her teens emerged from the changing rooms, lingering to fold clothes. So instead of there, we quickly changed direction and went into the back room.

  “We can’t be here,” I hissed.

  She put a finger to my mouth, looked around to make sure we were alone, and said, “You just… I don’t know. This talk of a date, taking me for ice cream,” her hand was on my crotch, stroking, lips going to my neck. “It’s been fun, and you’re sweet. I want to give you something in return.”

  Maybe where she came from this made sense. I wanted to tell her it was too fast, that here people often went on a few dates first, got to know each other more. Stuff like that. But when her hand undid my belt and then made its way down, gripping me by the base of my stiffening cock, I found the words distant, like they didn’t belong. Then she pulled it out and was stroking me, lowering herself to her knees, and I watched as her horns gave off a slightly blue glow that highlighted my cock as she watched her hand moving up and down on it.

  “Such a pretty thing,” she said, pausing her stroke to flick the tip with her tongue.

  “Pretty…” I said between shivers of pleasure as she licked it again, this time slower, more sensual. “Not a word often associated with them.”

  “A strange world, then,” she said, and then took it fully in her mouth, golden eyes staring up at me playfully, horns glowing slightly more.

  I pulled back, pushing her off of me. “You’re going to suck my life force, going to—”

  “One, shut the fuck up.” She still knelt there, still looking humored. “If by life force, you mean cum, yes. But we’ve been over this—ex-succubus here. So no, nothing to worry about. Two…”

  Her eyes darted over to the holo-screen in the corner of a store window. It floated there with a sort of gladiator games show, at the moment highlighting the famed Gloria Gerkrin, a monster of a woman who’d been competing for over a year and telling everyone she’d soon be going to Planet Kill to compete for ascension to one of the Paradise Planets. She had her heart set on Paradise Planet 4, because of the images of beautiful beaches the likes of which had long ago become too polluted on Earth to enjoy.

  “Her,” Ria said.

  “What?” I asked.

  “We need her. On the team.”

  I watched as Gloria plowed into two men as large as her, knocking them over to reach a wall that she scaled like it was nothing. The drone cams followed her over to a battering ram that she had to leverage to tear down a large door, and I laughed.

  “You know there’s no way we’ll be able to get to her, right?”

  Ria frowned. “What, you don’t think you could… get it up?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You know, Mr. Happy. Don’t think he’d want to come out to play with her? Intimidated, or—”

  “What are you even talking about?” I asked, only then realizing—as she motioned to it—that my cock was still out. The moment was over anyway, so I tucked it away and zipped up. “I mean, I get that we’re talking about me and having a boner, but how does that relate?”

  “Oh, did I not make that part clear?” She frowned, then laughed. “See, we’re going to need intimacy to pass on the powers, right?”

  “Okay, got that.”

  “So you help get them there. But it’s more than that, too. Once we have a team, the best way to grow, to advance and find your inner self, is to reach a certain state of mental release, and… at least where I come from, many find that—”

  “With sex,” I said, catching on. “Holy, shit… this is for real?”

  “Yes.”

  “You want me to fan the flames, in order to help you gift them powers so that we can fight an alien invasion of alien and supervillains… and then to be sexually active as part of our leveling up?”

  “Again, not really leveling up but—”

  “Yeah, I got that.”

  “Good. Otherwise, you seem to have a handle on it all.”

  “Sure, yeah.” I laughed, louder now. “And you think these women will be into the idea?”

  She shrugged. “If not, we seduce them. Trust me.”

  “Right…”

  A thud sounded at the door, then jostling of keys.

  “Shit, was it my laugh?” I hissed.

  Her eyes lit up. “Meher!”

  “What?”

  “She had a car—she can get us to this woman.”

  “I…”

  Honestly, I had no idea where to go with this, but Ria was up, pulling me to the rear door. It opened into an alley and we were out of there before the guard or employee managed to get the other door open. Sure enough, Meher’s car was still there on the street, and as we ran back to the sidewalk, I saw her open her car door to get in.