They all looked at me with pity, but I’d show them. My dad sat on the log behind and to the left, gesturing me over. After another swig of beer, I joined him.

  “How’s it taste?” he asked, nodding to the drink.

  “Dad…”

  “Right. You and those friends you have over have not been shy about getting into the liquor cabinet. And yes, I’ve noticed.” He chuckled, likely remembering a time from his youth. “Tell you what, just… be smart.”

  There it was, a summary of his parenting technique in two words: “Be smart.” No actual advice, no guidance on what to do in practically any situation. Of course the universe needed him. Everyone needed my dad… but I was the only one who never seemed to get any actual time with him.

  Except for now. I looked over at him, wondering if this was all because Grandpa was dying. When it was done with, would he return to being the same absentee parent he always was?

  “Which of them do you…” I started, not sure how to phrase it, so simply nodded at the women he called his lovers.

  “It’s not like that,” he replied. “Your mom is special, because of you. But in all other ways, each are equal, including the amount of love they receive from me.”

  I shook my head, not buying it. He had been singing that song since I could remember, but it didn’t fit my idea of relationships and how they worked.

  “Whatever,” I said, annoyance heavy in my voice.

  “Kai, give me a break.” He chugged the rest of his beer, then set the bottle down next to the log. “I’m trying to save us all out there, doing my best. What do you want me to say?”

  Slumping, I realized it didn’t matter. Maybe I wanted him to take me on a camping trip like this with just the two of us. Except it was too late, wasn’t it? The time was gone and I was over it.

  “‘Scuse me, I gotta take a piss.” I stumbled off, heading for the flickering light that gave way to the darkness of the trees beyond.

  “He’ll be fine,” I heard Gale telling my dad.

  She didn’t know anything about me! What, because she was friendly and super cool, she thought she could see into my head? Nope! The only one of them who could do that was Laurel, and even then I didn’t think it worked exactly like that. Her power was more like reading thoughts.

  I glanced back at Drew and his team, trying to remember if any of them could read thoughts. Not that it mattered, I reminded myself, and continued to find a tree. Damn, it was dark. A branch scraped my arm, and I cursed, then nearly tripped on a stone or root – I couldn’t be sure which.

  Figuring I’d better not go too much farther, I stopped, turned to a tree, and commenced with piss time. The stream seemed to echo off the tree and dirt, and I imagined everyone back at the camp hearing me and stifling laughter. Of course, they probably didn’t, what with their talking and the crackling of flames.

  I remembered—it was one of Ezra’s teammates who read emotions. The somewhat crazy one with the blue pigtails. That’s who I’d been thinking of, not someone on Drew’s team, I thought. Ezra had been a bounty hunter back in his day and was kind of a badass.

  Finishing up, I started to shake and then grabbed my balls and adjusted, hoping to get any last drops out. Sometimes it works, trust me. On a camping trip, I certainly didn’t want any droplets of piss left over in my boxers.

  A cracking stick told me someone was approaching and already damn close.

  “Shit,” I said, shaking and trying to put myself away as I leaned out to see who it was.

  “Relax, ain’t nothing I haven’t seen before,” Charm said as she strolled over, her nine tails waving about behind her as if playing some sort of game back there. She stopped in front of me, folded her arms, and grinned before calling out, “He’s over here.”

  I frowned, glanced around, and saw Lamb approaching. She tucked her short, black hair behind her ear and gave me a smile, but then took something from behind her ear and held it out.

  “Here,” she said. “Not sure it’ll work, as my ability to grant powers only applies to supers who have something to begin with, but since you’re Breaker’s kid…”

  “And Andromida’s, your half-sister,” Charm pointed out.

  “Right, all good reasons for this to work.”

  “What is it, exactly?” I glanced at the object, but in the darkness all I saw was a black circle that made me think of old pirate stories and a curse.

  “Ah, right.” Lamb sighed, as if recalling a painful memory. “Back in the day, I was part of a group of people who were able to harness early powers, to manipulate them in a way that allowed us to gift them to others and establish rules for them. This is how we created the Elder system with the Citadel, allowing those who were worthy to level up.”

  “Whoa…” I stared at the dark spot in her hand with newfound awe.

  “But like I said, my ability in that regard isn’t what it once was, and I don’t know what your starting point is. Don’t get your hopes up, but I figure if you at least have some of my essence, well… who knows?”

  “Thank you,” I said, and held out my hand.

  “No, no, like this.” She turned my hand over and placed the object on my wrist. It was warm and tingled as it attached itself to me. When I tried to touch it, I found the object was flush with my skin like a tattoo. I didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary, but when my chest tightened with panic, the object came loose.

  In my hand was a small disc, and my wrist was blank. I put it back, and it was part of me again. Why I’d gotten a wrist tattoo like a black bracelet would be hard to explain if it came up, but I had to admit it looked kind of cool.

  “Do you feel anything?” Charm asked, hopeful. “Can you see a floating screen or, I don’t know, shoot fireballs from your butt?”

  I couldn’t help but smile at her attempt at levity, but when I tried to see if anything was different, nothing happened.

  “Anyway…” Charm pouted, shrugging to Lamb.

  “Don’t worry—it might not activate until you’re ready for it.” Lamb gave me a force thumbs up, then headed off to join the others. “Good luck.”

  “Ready?” Charm asked.

  I nearly forgot that she was supposed to train me, but quickly recovered. “What, here?”

  She shrugged. “What better place? Nature as our obstacle course, no prying eyes to see… Just avoid that pool of piss and you’ll do fine.”

  Good thing it was dark so she couldn’t see me blushing. Then again, couldn’t she see in the dark? Damn, hanging out with a bunch of supers was confusing. Her question lingered, though. But if there was one thing I was sure of, it was that I wanted to become one of them.

  “Let’s do it,” I said.

  CHAPTER 8: BREAKER

  Earth, Campsite

  “So this is what you Earthers do for fun,” Gale said with a chuckle. “Pretend you’re homeless out in the woods and do… nothing.”

  “Hey, now.” I had my arms around her from behind, watching the flames. “We make a fire and cook stuff. Nothing wrong with that.”

  “Yeah, okay. But next time, how about we just have a super make a fire in the palm of their hand and have another make a marshmallow hover over it?”

  “You don’t get it.” I squeezed her tightly in a playful way. “Come on, we’ve done lots of fun Earth stuff. Mini-golf, ice skating, fucking.”

  “Somehow that last one does seem to be more fun on Earth. Maybe the gravity or air being slightly different?”

  “Or maybe it’s because we’re getting older—not physically, but… you know—and our love is growing?”

  She pinched my forearm so I had to let go of her.

  “Ouch,” I said, “what was that?”

  “Making sure you don’t get all soft on me, big guy.” She winked. “But really because I need another beer. Grab me one?”

  “Sure, sure.”

  I went over to the cooler and knelt, taking a second before grabbing the beer to see Lamb walking back over from where Charm was now pointing up at the trees and talking to Kai. Perhaps this training would be different and open a latent power this time. I had to hope.

  Grabbing a couple of extra beers, a newer brand labeled Kickbots Ultra, whatever the hell that was about, I headed back to Gale and waved Lamb over.

  “Did you give it to him?” I asked Lamb.

  “Yes, but I don’t know if it’ll do any good.” She leaned against the nearby picnic table next to Drew, where he sat preparing a Moka coffee pot for the next day. “The days of leveling up might be gone.”

  “What exactly is happening?” Gale asked.

  “Not happening. Happened.” Lamb took a deep breath, then looked at her hands as she added, “My planet was attacked and destroyed. Cursed, some say. I may have been rescued by Drew and our team, but my planet is long gone.”

  “And the powers that came with it,” I explained to Gale.

  “Oh, all that Essence stuff,” Gale caught on. “Wait, do you still…?”

  “It would have merged with him by this point,” Lamb said. “It no longer has any part of me related to it.”

  “And good riddance,” Drew chimed in as he finished up. He turned to face the fire. “Never did like the idea of the two of us sharing…”

  He’d had her Essence, too, before rescuing her and having her join his team. Not that them fooling around had any relation to the aspect of her power that was referred to as her Essence, but I understood where he was coming from so just grunted in agreement and ignored the frown from Lamb.

  Others were returning from a dip in the river. The water must have been freezing, but supers have a way of dealing with cold.

  “Come on,” I said to Gale, taking her by the hand and watching her take a big swig of her beer.

  “I’m not going in the river,” she said.

  “No, no, I was thinking one of those other fun Earth things we’d discussed.”

  She set her beer aside and followed. “Minigolf?”

  “Something like that.”

  We crawled into our tent and she was already clawing at my clothes as I pulled the tent’s zipper shut behind us.

  “Hmmm?” a voice said, and we both turned to see Muerta rousing from sleep.

  Her tall, tan body nearly blended into the darkness of the tent, but now that I was looking, I could see the slender curve of her lower back where it met her rising ass. The woman was sleeping naked, out here for the world to see! Or anyone who looked into our tent, anyway.

  With her head turned our way, she opened her eyes a slit to reveal those lovely gold irises, then closed them and turned away.

  “Just… try to not be too loud if you’re gonna fuck,” she mumbled.

  Gale gave me a look that said, “Oh, we’re going to have some fun,” then inched close to Muerta and held a hand out to create a gust of cold wind.

  That shot Muerta right up, eyes wide and breasts bouncing. She looked first to Gale and then me, then back to Gale as her eyes narrowed with annoyance.

  “What in Oram was that for?” she demanded. “I was sleeping soundly, I’ll have you know. Well, almost soundly—stupid nightmares of the old days came back to haunt me once or twice, but… What the fuck?”

  “What.” Gale scooted close, undoing her top so her large breasts were exposed—darker than Muerta’s, meaning I could barely see either of them, but that only made it more alluring. “The.” Now Gale removed the rest of her outfit and pushed Muerta back to straddle her, pressing flesh to flesh. “Fuck.”

  Gale moved down the woman’s body, kissing first her neck, then just below the collar bone, then down to one of her breasts.

  Muerta seemed about to protest, but moaned instead and reached a hand out for me as she said, “I think I’ll need both of you to warm me up after that.”

  She arched her back as Gale’s head moved to her navel, then gripped the woman by the head as I could only imagine tongue met pussy. “That was cruel, but I think I can forgive you if you keep that up.”

  Gale’s answer was a slurping sound, and I had to wonder what she was doing down there. Whatever it was, it worked, because Muerta bit her lip and moaned again, hand gesturing for me to hurry up.

  I scooted closer, a smile on my face. While I hadn’t camped much growing up, my handful of experiences had never been anything like this. Every time I had sat there with my comics and imagined making out in a tent—now it was happening with not one but two women, and both superheroes at that! Both former supervillains too, you could say, so I had all bases covered.

  Taking Muerta’s hand in mine, I kissed the back of it, only to be pulled in so fast I nearly fell on top of her. She caught me and took me in a passionate kiss, that hand quickly darting to my crotch.

  After a quick caress downstairs as our tongues danced, she pulled back and said, “Get those fucking clothes off.”

  I was glad to oblige, and both women turned to watch me as I returned to the fray, cock erect and throbbing with anticipation.

  “Mmm,” Gale said, starting to move toward me with a lick of her lips.

  “Not yet,” Muerta said, pushing her head back to her pussy. “You owe me. This one, I’ll get started with.”

  I gulped with anticipation, suddenly feeling as nervous as my teenaged self. She sensed this and grinned, motioning for me to straddle her face while she bunched up a sleeping bag behind her head to get a better position. Her moans accompanied her longing look as she first ran her hands along my inner thighs, then moved one hand down to my balls as her other traced my shaft with a single finger. At my head, she stroked the smooth skin pulled taut by my massive erection, then finally gripped my shaft and started stroking, bringing me to her mouth.

  Her tongue met my head and moved playfully around its underside. Then she grabbed my ass with both hands and pulled me forward to take the entire length of my cock.

  A glance back showed Gale having fun and going to town, and she looked up with smiling eyes, her tongue darting back and forth around Muerta’s clit. One of Gale’s hands reached down between my legs from behind to cup my balls while Muerta guided me in and out of her mouth until tingling warmth shot through my body and I thought for sure my orgasm was coming.

  Pulling out, I leaned back to kiss her, then moved my lips to the underside of her breasts and to her nipples. She pushed Gale back and moved to straddle me, telling Gale, “Get behind me and slap my ass.”

  Gale was completely into this, moving behind Muerta as she slid onto my cock. While Muerta started riding me, Gale took position behind her, one hand slipping down to finger my taint, the other gripping Muerta’s ass and from time to time giving it a playful slap.

  For my part, my hands moved from Muerta’s breasts to her hips and back, echoing Gale’s slaps on her ass with my own. Lying on my back and seeing both women kneeling over me like that, swaying and slapping and at times moving to kiss while I took over made me harder still and I was back on the verge of cumming too soon, so I slid out to change positions, having Muerta go down on Gale while I caught my breath and watched.

  Now this was fucking camping. Literally.

  After a few seconds of that, I took Muerta from behind, sliding in and slapping my hips against her ass while she brought Gale to climax. On Gale’s last muffled moan—pillow to her face to keep the others from hearing too much—I reached around to feel Muerta’s clit and massage it with my last couple of thrusts before she collapsed onto Gale and used her large breasts to stifle her own screams.

  “Better than pillows,” she mumbled, sliding off of my cock and gesturing to Gale. “Take over… I’m spent.”

  A shiver ran through Muerta, and she turned to watch as Gale met me, both on our knees as she lowered herself onto my cock. We kissed passionately and I caressed her large breasts, then she threw me onto my back to ride me and brought herself to a second climax.

  “You okay down there?” she asked.

  “Just… trying to last,” I replied.

  She pressed her breasts into my face and I took her nipple in my mouth, swirling my tongue around it and then sucking before she pulled back and said, “No more lasting, fuck me hard. I want all of your cum inside me.”

  I was happy to oblige, turning her onto her back and holding her legs up as I gave her my full length. As I grew closer to climax, she wrapped her legs around my ass and pulled me in deep, and Muerta was breathing heavily and up again, caressing my back and kissing my neck My gut finally clenched up and orgasmic waves racked my body, cock throbbing and cum shooting into Gale.

  “You’re so fucking huge right now,” Gale said, puling me closer and not letting me free until every last orgasmic spasm subsided.

  I turned to meet Muerta’s lips and kissed her passionately, then collapsed between the two of them and captured Gale’s lips in a soft, lingering final moment.

  “Okay, that’s enough,” Gale said, thrusting her hips into the air.

  “Wha—what’re you doing?” I asked with confusion.

  “Ya never know,” she said. “Maybe I’ll be next.”

  “Considering how long it’s been…”

  Muerta hit me in the shoulder and I shut my mouth. We’d been fucking for many years, and not one of these women besides Andromida had shown the slightest sign of pregnancy. The idea that any of them would conceive after all this time seemed a bit more than a stretch.

  “I didn’t think you even wanted kids,” I said, thinking back to the early days after Andromida had given birth to Kai, and how Gale had often made it sound like such an inconvenience.

  “We grow, we change.” Gale lowered her hips, kissed my hand, then lifted her hips again. “It’s not like we have much to worry about in terms of getting old and having bad backs or anything like that, so… why not?”

  “Not yet anyway,” I reminded her. Supers aged slower than humans, but we weren’t immortal. I also wondered if being on Earth versus in the Oram System would affect our aging, but so far it hadn’t seemed to.

  “Well, I think it’s great that you want to be a mother,” Muerta said, sitting up and running a hand along my back with her eyes on Gale. “Really, I’m hoping for you.”