Super Born: Seduction of Being (42 page)

Jennifer continued her humming lava glow for a
long victorious moment; then, in a flash, the red light was gone,
leaving the rooftop in the silent dim of the emergency lights. She
turned to Rebecca and helped her stand. Rebecca looked horrible, as
if the effort to dissolve Toughy had drained the life out of
her.

I made my way over to Allie, reached out my
good arm, and helped her up. We leaned against each other and I
marveled at how the now quiet rooftop had been such a lethal,
frightening war zone seconds earlier. At that point, the adrenaline
was still working wonders, and I kept moving, unchecked by the
pain.

Jennifer and Rebecca approached, and the four
of us stood facing one another.

“
Maybe you’ll believe me next time I
tell you that your girlfriend is in danger,” Jennifer said to
me.

I nodded. “Maybe next time you could
just put your number on a business card and hand it to me.”
Bitch
.

“
Poor baby. Those numbers not as big
as you hoped?”

“
Wouldn’t you like to know.”
Bitch.

Rebecca was first to apologize. “Thank you guys
for coming to help me. It was all my fault. I was convinced you
were trying to kill me,” she said to Jennifer. “I’m sorry.” She
coughed, slowly regaining her color.

Jennifer shrugged. “That’s what they wanted you
to believe. Divide and conquer. They had us targeted, one by one…I
was really afraid for you when you left,” she said, giving Rebecca
a hug. Then she let her go and turned toward Allie. “I couldn’t let
them get you either. I’ve never had so much fun as I did watching
you play with them—the mayor, the Mob. It was hysterical.” Then she
turned to me. “And you? I couldn’t give two craps about
you.”

I probably had it coming, but even so, I knew
she was jealous of Allie and me—or if she wasn’t, she would
be.

Then she added, “But thanks for calling me and
helping us like you did. That took some balls. Where the hell did
you get those from?”

“
I think you already know the answer
to that question…Could we leave my balls out of this?”
Bitch
.

“
Yeah, Logan, you were amazing,”
said Allie coming over and giving me a careful hug. “You stood up
to them, took a beating to protect me, had the sense to call
Jennifer, disarmed Jones, then held off that nasty bitch long
enough for Jennifer to free Rebecca. I was almost useless, but
without you, we never could have stopped Jones’s little team. You
sure you’re not a superhero too?”

All that sounded like the kind of
bullshit I'd normally tell myself to make myself feel better. But
this was Allie talking, and I realized that this bullshit was
actually true. I had done all that
. (
What a
friggin idiot)

Allie seemed to be recovering quickly. “Did you
see the way those two worked together?” she said to the other
women. “One was no match for me, but when they combined powers,
they beat the crap out of me…maybe there’s a lesson in that. If I
had faced them alone, as they planned, Rebecca and I would be in
Jones’s lab right now.”

Rebecca nodded. “She’s right. Alone, we’ll
still live in fear; together, who can hurt us?”

Jennifer paced a little and said, almost to
herself, “Together, who can hurt us?” It was clear that she liked
being in charge, and that partners had never been her strong suit,
but their close scrape with Jones was enough to sell her on the
idea.

Rebecca added, “And who knows how many more
Joneses there are out there? It might not be over. We could be
being stalked even now!”

Like an idiot, I thought I saw an opening to be
useful. “Yeah, there were a lot of people following me. I saw
three, four, five cars at my place; could be anybody after
us.”

The three women simultaneously turned to me, as
if to say, who asked you? I held up my good arm and backed away
from the girls, leaving them to their bitch session, cosmetic
party, or whatever the hell it was.

They continued to chat and plan while I
staggered away. “Fine way to treat a hero wounded in action,” I
bitched and moaned to myself. “See if I bail your ass out again!”
Remembering Allie’s glowing eyes, though, I knew I would bail her
ass out again and again. And did I mention again, twice on Sundays?
What an ass to bail out…and those thighs in that skintight
jumpsuit…maybe three times on Sundays…What was I talking about?
Whatever.

Just then, Allie glanced up at me, smiled, and
flashed those blue-then-greens for me. I didn’t feel so bad
anymore.

Nearby, I saw the melting remains of Goldie. I
sat next to “her,” and without giving it much thought, as was my
method, I broke off a chunk of the cloudy blue ice from what had
once been her arm and pressed it against my aching shoulder. The
ice numbed my pain, but it also burned wherever it melted and hit
my broken skin. Moments later, it dawned on me what an irreverent
thing I had done. I looked at what was left of her and said, “My
arm, it’s really starting to hurt…sorry. This must be terribly
awkward and embarrassing for you, just sitting here melting. I
mean, I’m sure you had your good side too, before Jones made you
evil; parents and relatives that will miss you, maybe a dog or cat
or something…I had a turtle once, so I know how you feel. He was
afraid of water—or was it a newt? No, I remember now, it was a
gerbil. That would explain why he didn’t like the
water!”

Of course, Goldie didn’t seem the least bit
interested in this, so I went on.

“
I have to say, this blue ice thing
you have going on looks great.” I patted what remained of her arm.
“Not many women can pull off a look like that, but it works for
you,” I said, nodding. “What you’ve done has melted inches off your
waistline, it’s fabulous.…”

We continued our one-sided
conversation for a while. Before long, I had my aching arm and
shoulder wrapped around her pain-relieving form. It turned out that
Goldie was a really good listener. I was able to talk to her about
anything, without fear of being judged.
I
looked deeply into what was left of her face and thought,
hazel eyes, my ass
. “Well, it’s been great talking with you. Mind if I just get
one more chunk to go?” I said, breaking off another piece of her
arm.

Meanwhile, Allie had put her hand out in the
air in front of her—Rebecca placed hers on top, then came
Jennifer’s. “From now on, we work together, protect each other,
learn from each other. Together, we can accomplish anything,”
chimed in the B.I.B.

“
We are in charge!” added
Rebecca.

“
I like the sound of that,” Jennifer
stated firmly, smiling.

That was when we heard Jones beginning to stir.
All four of us moved over and stood in a circle around him. Just a
tip—you do not ever want to confront the searing anger that burned
on each of these women’s faces. One woman with that look would be
challenge enough, but three? And these women had both superpowers
and super hormones, I suspected. Good luck, Jonesy. Nice knowing
ya.

For me, that was the way of war. Jones and I
had had our moments. I couldn’t hate him. Sure, he’d threatened
Allie and Rebecca, and apparently killed some super women I didn’t
know, but who was I to judge? Then again he had lied to me,
kidnapped women, tried to take over the world, but still he’d been
my friend… sort of. Come to think of it, he had that freak Toughy
pummel my ass…and there were those beers he never paid me
for…Freakin little bastard! Maybe I’ll give him a kick, just one
kick right in the ribs.

But tell me, Jonesy, who was still standing and
who was laying on the ground about to become
pummeled-vaporized-energy-less ice…after having been kicked once in
the ribs? When Jones’s eyes opened and could focus on us, they
widened to full-moon size, and he let out a horrifying little-girl
scream.

* * *

The golden early morning sun was so comfortable
it betrayed the scorching heat it would deliver later in the day.
As I bounded my way along the sidewalk back to the apartment with
my usual bag of donuts and coffee, it left me in a whistling,
happy-to-be-alive mood. Don’t you hate people like that? I know I
do.

Contemptibly, I smiled and
said
Good Morning
to every asshole that passed. I was like some dipstick escaped
from a happy-happy TV commercial who had just saved a bunch of
money on his car insurance or tasted the world greatest frozen
waffle.

I couldn’t help but spread the
happy.
I saw a couple of kids sitting at a
lemonade stand by the side of the street and paid them a hundred
bucks for the most horrible cup of yellow water I’d ever tasted.
You should have seen how their mouths hung open—they must have
thought I was Bill Gates.

I passed a homeless man with a long
gray beard and a long gray coat, despite the heat. I greeted him as
Gandalf the Gray, stuffed a few crumbled bills into the breast
pocket of his coat and continued on my merry way.

Finally I reached the apartment, feeling way
too alive for this early in the day. Heck, it wasn’t even noon! I
opened the door to be greeted by the usual. The living room and
kitchen table were littered with Miner’s Lite bottles; empty ones,
I thank you very much. I stopped at the dining room table, set down
the donut bag next to the five empty pizza boxes, and headed into
the bedroom .I felt my heart leave its state of afterglow and begin
to race with anticipation as I scanned the room for her.

“
I don’t know if the ceilings are
high enough in here for me,” Allie said. She slowly drifted down
from the ceiling onto the bed and lay there naked on her side
amongst my rumbled sheets.

I drank in the sight of the curving hip of the
most wanted woman in the city lying in my bed. Who’d believe it? “I
guess we’ll just have to do something about that,” I said, joining
her on the bed. We entered into an embrace and long
kiss.

Our hands began to wander, but then she
stopped, as if a sudden thought had occurred to her. “Donuts. Did
you get the donuts? That pizza last night just wasn’t enough… Why
do they bother with crust anyway? I mean like what’s the
purpose?”

I stared in awe at her as if I had just heard
the echoing voice of God in the genius of her words. Until that
every moment I had struggled to know if I was obsessed with Allie
or truly in love. Now I realized she was the perfect match for me,
and it released all the love I felt for her like a damn that had
stood for years suddenly breaking. “I’ve often wondered the exact
same thing,” I said pulling away until my face was few inches from
her’s, a tear welling up in the corner of my eye.

“
I didn’t know you got so emotional
about pizza,” she joked noticing my state.

“
It’s not the pizza,” I said before
giving her a long soft kiss.

“
Umm… It’s the donuts, isn’t it…
Wait, you didn’t eat my cream filled one again, did
you?”

“
Maybe later.”

“
There had better be two cream
filled in that bag.”

“
Fuck the donuts,” I said returning
for a longer more passionate kiss.

“
Yeah, fuck the donuts,” she panted
softly the moment the kiss ended and before the next one
started.

Allie wrapped her arms around me, lifting us
up to float horizontally over the bed. She began a slow lateral
axis rotation. I gazed into her glowing eyes, feeling totally
connected with her as and the room spun around us.

“
I think I left off here,” I said,
lightly kissing her shoulder. “Or maybe it was here,” I said moving
up to her neck. I could tell the tease was working by her low moan
and the tingle that raised goose bumps on her arms. “Or maybe it
was here,” I said, and pressed her lips. She moaned a reply of
agreement and we began to spin faster over the bed. The glow of our
bodies merging grew more and more intense until, an hour later, it
flashed with a blinding flare.