We reached the bridge, and I saw that Cheri saying we were close had been an understatement. In fact, we were coming in for docking already! Breaker’s ship had already docked, and the others were coming in close behind.

  “Pleasant sleep, lovebirds?” Erupa asked.

  “Dreamy,” I replied, suddenly remembering a dream that had involved me and Erupa charging through a swamp as a massive serpent tried to get us. Not a pleasant dream, and I frowned at the thought.

  “Right…” She watched Mer enter with a look that I didn’t know how to interpret, then indicated the space station and the other ships.

  “I’ll stay here,” Mer said. “Keep an eye out, be here for the rest of my kind, if that’s okay.”

  “Sure,” I replied. “Should be a simple mission. In and out, just long enough to take some R&R, I would think.”

  She nodded, watching wide-eyed as we finished docking. Judging by the look in her eyes, this wasn’t about sleep as much as she wasn’t ready to be around the others, yet. I could respect that.

  “I gotta say it…” Cheri leaned back, clasping her hands together. “We all know Breaker’s going to fuck that robot chick, right?”

  My reaction was to sit rigidly, while Erupa chuckled and Mer glanced over, unsure. Tink was smiling knowingly.

  “Robot?” Tink asked.

  “The new girl, Aegriss,” Cheri explained. Holding up Lilly, she added, “According to my little friend here, the chick was part of the Paradise Planet infrastructure, taken over by Breaker thanks to his coding. But… what do you think? Is fucking an android kind of like masturbating with the help of a robot, or…?”

  “I can confirm what I was there for, and yes, she is an android,” Erupa stated. “But I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

  “She’s… not real.” Cheri clucked her tongue. “It’s odd.”

  “It’d be like some strange form of masturbation, for sure,” Tink agreed.

  “Right. And what does he need that for when he has all those beautiful ladies?”

  Tink laughed again, holding up a finger. “Though, if you think about it—one is almost as much animal as person, so it’s not such a stretch that—”

  “Fuck you.” Erupa’s smile and laugh were suddenly gone.

  “What?”

  “Erupa…” I started, but immediately caught on to why she was offended. “Shit, she didn’t mean it.”

  “Mean what?” Tink asked. Cheri was staring at Erupa, baffled.

  “Where do you draw the line?” Erupa asked, done with the controls so that she was able to spin on her. “I mean, Charm’s part animal because her ears and tail resemble a fox? So, I’m what, demon? Animal, too? And you, what the fuck do your wings make you?”

  Tink frowned, no response coming.

  Cheri stood. “We didn’t mean it like that. Back the fuck up.”

  “No, fuck both of you if that’s how you think. I mean, for fuck’s sake… Let Breaker fuck the android—not robot, I should point out, as there is a difference. Who are you to judge, or to say she’s any less human or super than you? She’s flesh, and for all we know, fully cognizant and all that. All you are is a bunch of flesh and blood with some spark that keeps you going, and I personally don’t see the big difference.”

  Mer glanced my way, but I said, “Not getting involved, here.”

  “You don’t have an opinion on the matter?” Erupa asked.

  “Better to keep my mouth shut.”

  Judging by her frown, she didn’t like that, but I was sticking to my guns. Better to not say anything when I’d be offending or alienating some of my team either way. Then again, it wasn’t like I was a blank slate on this affair—I had sensed emotions from Aegriss, and that said something.

  “Sorry,” Tink said, and she truly looked apologetic.

  Erupa nodded, looking at Cheri, next.

  Cheri ran her thumb along her teddy bear, arched an eyebrow, and then scoffed. “What, you think I’m going to apologize for my views? Maybe if I get to chat with this Aegriss robot lady and she proves me wrong, sure. Until then, I say Breaker’s a damn robot fucker. All that other stuff about Charm… yeah, she’s my girl. Nothing bad should ever be said about her in my presence.”

  “Again, I didn’t mean anything by it,” Tink said.

  “It’s over,” I said.

  “Wait, no…” Tink took a deep breath and went for a long coat she had found among the old uniforms and whatnot onboard the ship. As she draped it around herself to cover her wings, she gave us a pained look. “Maybe I talk shit because, in my mind, that’s what I am. Shit.”

  “Tink…” Cheri started.

  “No. I mean, I know I’m not, but those of us with different mutations, or whatever you want to call it,” she looked pointedly at Erupa with this, “we’ve been looked at differently our whole lives. Not by everyone, but by enough people to make a difference.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, not for myself, of course, but for all of the jackasses in the world who had made her feel like a lesser human being.

  “I’ll try not to let my insecurities come out in negative ways.” Tink gestured to the door.

  Cheri nodded, but Erupa was still annoyed and simply activated the doors for us to disembark. The team clearly still needed some work, but for now we could unwind and then figure all that out on the way to our next destination.

  On this space station, Trunk and his crew would go find their contact with his dad, while the rest of us would go to the bar for a drink and to relax. All I wanted was to charge in and take down the Orion Corp. fuckheads but couldn’t deny that the chance to relax for a minute or two sounded nice.

  We followed the others, walking through cobalt blue metal hallways, past flickering lights and various men and women in what I figured were mining outfits, then found the bar.

  In spite of having already had my confrontation with Gale, there was something about her that kept getting at me. As we found a table and took our seats, it hit me.

  “I know you,” I said to her.

  She glanced over with a frown. “Yeah, we go way back.”

  I laughed, trying to ease the tension from before. “No, I mean I knew the guy who brought you in. Your case was interesting… I mean, with the Citadel—what caused you to crack?”

  “The point is that she’s on the right path now,” Breaker interjected.

  Gale glanced his way, but then turned back to me. “Can the same be said for everyone here? My understanding is that you were taking in criminals for the other side.”

  “My mistake, yes,” I said with a nod. “I knew bounty hunters who took contracts for the Citadel, but I mostly did it for Orion Corp. and the like, fully ignorant—”

  “Yup—” Erupa interjected.

  “Fully ignorant,” I continued, “of the bullshit they were involved with.”

  “Sour milk?” Breaker asked Erupa.

  “Ezra here’s the one who captured us,” she explained. “Me, Tink, and Cheri. If not for him, we’d all be off in our own worlds, doing our thing instead of doing him.”

  “Hey now,” I said, blushing. “I mean, it’s true, but…”

  “So, what then? Stockholm Syndrome?” Breaker asked, pushing it.

  Everyone looked at him with confusion, except Letha, who laughed. “They wouldn’t know what that is.” Turning to the others, she explained, “It’s basically where you fall for your captor.”

  Cheri caressed her bear as she often did when thinking. “Hmm, yeah, that sounds about right. But, we’re having fun, you know? I’d rather be here than anywhere else in the universe.”

  “And the two of you?” Shimmer asked Erupa and Tink.

  “Honestly, what we’re doing now is for the best,” Erupa replied. “I was part of the good fight, but never on this level. I give him a hard time, but now that Ezra has his head out of his ass, he’s committed.”

  “And not in the Abaddon Asylum way,” Cheri noted. “But the good way. Like committed to—”

  “We get it,” Charm said with a laugh.

  Everyone turned to Tink, next.

  “Me, huh?” Tink took a drink, glanced around at our team members, then reached over to put a hand on mine. “We’ve been through a lot, and it pisses me off that Mer and the others felt it best to stay on the ship. It pisses me off that people are looking at Erupa’s horns, and also that I feel like I have to hide my wings.” She sighed, took another drink, and then continued. “So, did I have a life back home? Yeah, but it was falling apart. Here, I’m part of something. With you all. I might want to go back and visit, see if we can recruit some old friends, but this is the life for me, now.”

  “Yo ho,” Breaker said into his glass.

  I took a swig of my drink, thinking how much of a privileged life I had led before all of this. Not in the rich, Paradise Planet way, thank Oram, but I’d had it good. Handsome, strong by nature, and with powers that helped me understand those nearby. Fitting in had never been much of a problem and getting a gig as a bounty hunter had been a dream come true.

  I looked at Charm, wondering about her past and the confusion rolling through her aura at the moment. She had secrets, some that even seemed to be from herself, as little sense as that made. Next, my eyes roamed over to Twitch, whose aura was completely different. Her emotions spoke of a life of ease, of family and friends. Judging by what I knew of her and her situation with the planet vanishing and then her ending up on that supervillain prison ship, that had likely been when it all ended. Now, we were starting over.

  “Careful, honey-dear,” Cheri said, noticing the way I was staring. “I might get jealous and have to cut you.”

  I laughed and waved the comment off. “Na, it’s not that. It’s… Twitch, I’ve heard your story, too. I’m familiar with the whole planet disappearing thing—”

  “Which we’ve fixed,” Shimmer interrupted. “I was on the planet at the time. It’s back now.”

  “No shit?” I couldn’t hide that I was impressed with that. “Well, point being I’ve pretty much memorized everyone’s sheets, you know? I either saw the contracts or talked to someone who was involved. It was my business to know the business, and… with my powers, it’s easy to remember the details. So… Charm…”

  “Yes?” She frowned.

  “Your story doesn’t add up.”

  Charm grinned. “Because I haven’t told you my story. I was at Supralines, and—”

  “I know the story.” I leaned forward, sensing her emotions. Unease, similar to Breaker, but his was accompanied by agitation. “Thing is,” I continued, “my power is that of an Empath. And nothing about you says you’re lying, but at the same time, I’m getting mixed signals from you, internally. I believe that you truly believe the official stories, that you think what you’ve told your friends here is true… But I don’t buy it for a second.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Gale pushed her glass aside, aggression oozing from her aura.

  “Better back the fuck up,” Erupa growled, fingernails cutting into the table.

  “Ezra’s trying to help, I think,” Breaker said, looking my way for confirmation.

  I nodded. “For sure. Charm, is there… any reason to think something else happened? Something your mind is blocking. Maybe a traumatic incident? Something so horrible, you just can’t allow yourself to accept it?”

  As Charm glared, her confusion almost turning to fear, her eyes seemed to change. They were no longer green but brown, almost black. She took a deep breath, put her hand to her mouth, and breathed out.

  Faint lines of white escaped into the air, and she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, her eyes were back to green. She even managed a smile. Interestingly, her aura no longer spoke of confusion but of peace. Maybe accepting ignorance?

  “I appreciate you trying to help, but no. My life has been fairly cut-and-dried.”

  I leaned back, not sure what to think of this, and put my free hand on top of Tink’s where it still rested on mine. “Hell, maybe my powers are wrong sometimes.”

  “Must be,” Gale muttered.

  “Holy fuck, you all are intense,” Letha said, downing her drink and laughing. “Should send you all to PK for a stint, see how much bullshit like a past matters after that.”

  “Oh, we’ve been through our share of shit,” Shimmer said. “Remember, planet vanishing and all that.”

  Letha laughed. “Oh, yeah, I’m not discounting your experiences. Hell, going up against supervillains like the ones we’re chasing now? Makes me kinda worried I won’t live long enough to have my revenge.”

  “And what exactly is that revenge?” Breaker asked.

  “Ah, yes.” Letha looked at the bar. “Quick version, before I need another drink… I was betrayed and sold out to PK, my family killed in the process. I’m going to kill the motherfuckers who sent me there... rip out their fucking balls and shove them down their throats and tape their mouths shut, so they drown on their own fucking nuts and vomit.”

  “Oooh, the good details,” Cheri said. “Keep ‘em coming.”

  Letha laughed in a way that made me wonder if she wouldn’t fit in well with the psychos. “I’ve done my fair share already but found out more people were involved than I originally thought. I’m going to get to the bottom of this and find every last one of them.”

  “Sure. Revenge. The noblest of plots.”

  “I think I’m going to like you,” Letha said to Cheri and then started to stand, but Cheri leaned over, hand on her arm.

  “I have to warn you,” Cheri deadpanned, “some people think I’m a little off my rocker. Out there, you know? Batshit crazy, screw loose, lost my marbles.”

  “You don’t say?”

  I let out a laugh. “Cheri, it’s why we love you!”

  Cheri actually blushed, to my surprise. “I just want to make sure everyone knows, so they aren’t caught off guard.”

  My laugh drew a couple of glances, but Charm was quick to change the topic, asking if everyone else had noticed Trunk getting head during the joint comms call.

  “I wanted to get in on the action with my man Ezra, here,” Cheri said, giving me a nod. “Guess he wasn’t in the mood. Party pooper.”

  Eyes turned my way, but when I simply shrugged, silence followed. On my part, it was purely because my mind had focused on how I’d love to see Cheri’s lips around my cock right now and wondered if there was a way to get away from the crowd.

  “Ladies,” Shimmer said, hand held up in apology. “Mind if I borrow Breaker, here, for a few minutes?”

  Charm bit her lip, clearly trying to hold back a laugh. “Get yours, girl. We’ll find you if there’s trouble.”

  Letha laughed. “That’ll be my cue to check in with the others at the ship,” she said, but headed for the bar. Gale followed a moment later, the rest splitting up, too.

  Cheri grinned, gave me a nod, and said, “I’ll hit up the bathroom,” but as she passed me she leaned in and whispered, “I’m going to suck your cock so hard you’ll pass out. Get your ass up.”

  No arguing with that. I stood, nodded to the remaining few as I noted the humored looks from my team who knew us all well enough to know what was going on, and followed.

  We moved along past random miners and pilots, and a couple of groups who wore clean uniforms and likely were part of some local army, and found our way to the bathroom. The first door, unfortunately, was locked. Same with the second.

  “Damn,” I said, turning and starting to wonder if this might not happen.

  Cheri, however, was trying to look nonchalant as she moved past one of the military folk, then turned to me with a sly look. In her fingers was a keycard!

  “We can’t go in their room,” I hissed as she stepped over, shushing me with her tongue in my mouth.

  “We can, and we will.”

  Her hand down my pants, she guided me as she checked the keycard and looked at the door numbers. How weak I was, that a hand on my cock shut up any argument I had regarding the morality of this.

  We were supposed to be the good guys, now! Yet, was this really hurting anyone?

  A moment later we found the room, were in, and she had pulled out my cock. Halfway there, the little guy rose to the occasion as soon as the warmth of her mouth and the swirling motion of her tongue came into play. I leaned back, watching her first, then took in the room. A rifle locked in place with a hook against the wall, a view of space through a round window. Otherwise, only a duffel bag. This soldier could be on his way to join a fight against us, or with us.

  I couldn’t care less, I was reminded as warm tingles ran up my sides, my abs clenched, and Cheri gripped me tight with both hands, tongue out to slap the tip of my cock.

  She winked, then said, “Cum. I want you to cum in my mouth before that guy comes back here.”

  No arguments there, so I leaned back, closed my eyes, and let the pleasure of the moment take its course.

  Soon, it was over and we were giggling as we ran out of the room and dropped the keycard nearby. We rounded the corner as the soldier appeared, eyes moving along the ground as if he was searching for the keycard.

  A pang of guilt hit but vanished with the thought that at least we hadn’t left any little surprises for him. He would never know the moment of joy that his room had brought us.

  We paused in the hall for another kiss, and then saw Breaker and Shimmer on their way back. My attention, however, was on the glowing device the rest of the group was looking at. Trunk was there with his father and their contact, everyone huddled over something glowing between them.

  Gale gave Breaker room to see what they were looking at, and we moved forward to get a look, too. Introductions were made, and the old man adjusted the glowing item. A three-dimensional holo-map of space shot up in our midst.

  “You’re mad, every one of you.” The old man said with a thick accent.

  “We’ll do what’s necessary,” Breaker replied.

  After a moment, the old man nodded and turned back to his map. “That’s the one, here. I’ve plotted the course for ya, per Trunk’s instructions. Just know that this,” he indicated a series of silver blips, “is new. My guess, reinforcements of some type.”