Aquantis’ soft snores against my shoulder and her delicately nude body pressed along mine, where we had both curled after falling asleep, were not helping. Sleeping naked with a beautiful woman, especially when you were having to fight the urge to wake her up and have your way with her, was a wonderful experience, but was not very conducive to a restful sleep.

The covers had fallen away, but considering the fact that I was almost sweating from her body heat and she was fairly immune to anything resembling a chill, it was still pretty comfortable. I examined her delightful body for a while with my eyes, enjoying every inch of the way her slender form was curled up on my side and shoulder. The lovely green locks of her hair were spread partially across my chest, and under her left arm, I could see the curve of her breast, with one dark jade nipple peeking out from around the pale green flesh of her forearm like a delicious berry nestled in the depths of a bush.

I still wanted to ask her for a favor, but it was a weird one. I had started trying to construct a new version of my freedom pill, one that was less uncontrollably destructive. Aquantis’ abilities, like my own, were tied into her physical adaptations, and I felt that it would be possible to adopt a form of that adaptation for my own use. It would require a drop of her blood as the power anchor, instead of adrenaline, and should allow me, temporarily at least, to adopt an aquatic form similar to her speed form, if I took the blood while she was adapted.

Of course, the idea of being able to join her underwater without drowning, and perhaps find out exactly how flexible that mermaid form she had claimed could be, had nothing whatsoever to do with my urge. Nope, not a bit. I could even pretend my member wasn’t stiffening at the idea, bloody traitor.

I am not a fan of meditation. I had learned how in fight training, but I am much better able to calm down and bring my thoughts under control while moving, exercising, and letting my body work out stress in its way. Yoga and Tai chi were far more useful for me, in general, and I didn’t particularly care if people thought that a muscular man doing Yoga was pansy. If Jean-Claude Van Damme could make it look cool, so could I.

But what else can you do when you are half-buried under naked sexy girl that you don’t want to wake up? This was, quite possibly, one of the best things to ever happen to me and the high point of my life, and I didn’t want to mess it up. I could state, without a doubt, that the woman who was unconsciously resting her inner thigh on top of my uncomfortably stiff cock was better than food.

I finally, though meditating and trying to pretend I wasn’t hard as a rock, managed to slip back into slumber.

I dreamed all the time, but usually, they were disjointed flashes of memories over which I had little control. This time, though, something was helping me feel the dream. I was in my cell, the translucent cube as familiar to me as the back of my hand, and didn’t resist when I felt someone step into the cell with me.

That was definitely Caelo. She was wearing the same outfit I had last seen her in, and I simultaneously had a hint of the naked dream, you know the one where you are naked in front of your whole class? Only in this case, I was naked in my cell, with mister happy pointed right at the exotically beautiful young woman.

She smiled a little and raised an eyebrow at my current state. “At the risk of sounding a bit too much like Morpheus, you must have spent a lot of time naked for this to be your residual self-image.”

“You are talking?” I asked, stepping forwards to give her a hug, mister happy be damned. She immediately hugged me back, with a huge smile, and it seemed a little less stressful to have her looking up at my face instead of elsewhere.

“Not really,” She replied in a surprisingly musical voice. “I still cannot stand the thought, but here, it’s not real. It’s only barely me, the part of my soul that is overlapping you. The environment, your nakedness, even my body here has been created by your own mind.” She giggled a little, “Although apparently, your mind is very descriptive. I can actually feel that.”

Huh, so fake environment. “So basically I can do anything here and it’s not real?” I asked, brushing my hand over her ear and down the side of her throat.

She nodded, shivering a little. “Yes, that’s true. But it will feel real, at least as long as…” She caught her breath as the backs of my fingertips drifted along the edge of her collarbone. “As long as I am here. And yes, you have managed to confirm that I want your body, a lot, but that’s not why I am here. You already knew that back on the boat.”

I nodded but still kept holding her, would messing with her in a dream count? I felt strangely free from restriction here, second thoughts barely capable of making themselves felt. She may have claimed I had a strong willpower, but the moment I thought of doing something, I just sort of did it, which I discovered as I slid my hand under her choli and started exploring the shape of her tiny breast.

Apparently, her ability to feel was quite complete, as she almost melted when the palm of my hand brushed over her surprisingly large nipple. It rose under my palm, like the eraser on a pencil, and I wondered if that was just my imagination, when a low moan came from her throat. I might not be able to analyze her right now, but my eyes and her body were certainly giving me information when she raised her leg and started rubbing her waist and inner thigh against me provocatively.

“We...don’t. We don’t have time for this, but maybe when you get here…” She gasped, and I slowly drew the base of my palm along the smooth underside of her breast, my own hips bucking a little as I felt the most indescribable sensation of gentle suction and caressing coming from my shaft. Now that was very odd since I was only rubbing against the outside of her skirt and her thigh, where it had slipped out of the skirt.

“Please come to the boat. We need you very badly.” She sighed again. I guess I wasn’t the only one having problems controlling myself. I was barely fighting off the urge to toss up her Sari and take her right now as the drawing, rubbing sensation in my cock only intensified.

I opened my eyes to see a green waterfall of hair on my lap, blissful sensations coming from my shaft as she swallowed it, sucking firmly while her head bobbed.

I groaned, accidentally yanking the fitted sheet below us off of a corner as my fist tightened and I came hard, pulsing into her slender throat and mouth. She didn’t do the deep-throat thing, I wasn’t sure if I really even wanted her to, but her delectable mouth was more than capable with her active little hands helping.

She smiled and lifted her head, licking her glistening lips. “Good morning.” She said and wiggled a little as I shifted. “Not really up for more, but you looked so excited there while you were asleep, I thought I might give you a nice wake-up. My sleep was wonderful.”

I nodded, “Mine was strange. I think… I am not sure, but I think Caelo’s ability to talk to me through my analysis extended to range, somehow. Last night she told me she needed help.”

Mariah nodded, “That sounds suspiciously close to a psychic ability.”

I chuckled, “Yeah. It does. Then again, I have heard of Meta twins that could communicate with touch. That’s the thing. She asked for help, and then I met her in my dreams. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. She was VERY much an active participant in my dream.”

She shook her head, “I am not sure if girls in your dreams really qualify for what we were talking about.”

I shrugged, “That’s the thing. It wasn’t my own mental image, I think it was her in my dream. The thing is, what you were doing while I was asleep was pushing things very much forward in the dream. I am not going to apologize, I was having a tough time controlling things, and it didn’t go very far, but she does need our help, or at least mine, and for that, I need your help.

Mariah quirked an eyebrow, “So let me get this straight, I was going down on you, and you were asleep, and that got you going so much that it made you try to jump a girl that may or may not have been in your dream with you?”

I nodded. “And then I was back awake with you, umm… doing that.”

“I am not sure if I should feel jealous that all of my efforts were getting transferred to another girl’s affections, or if I should feel triumphant that I ripped you out of another woman’s arms. Kind of a little of both, I think, I should probably meet her.”

“You might?” I mentioned, wrapping my arms around her and giving her a deep kiss. You know, some guys get weird about kissing a girl that just went down on them, but I knew exactly what both my and her bodies were made of, and if she was willing to let me come in her mouth, I was more than willing to kiss her afterward.

“That’s what I wanted to ask about last night. See, I am sort of a shifter like you. The thing is, my powers let me sometimes create new powers for myself, through pills.”

She squirmed into my lap, but not too far, as apparently, she was still feeling last night’s efforts. “Does that work for other people? Can you give them new powers?”

I shrugged, “I honestly have no idea, I haven’t researched it yet, but it would have to be pretty closely tied into their own aspects. I imagine something like strengthening your speed form’s scales or speed might be possible, but that will take a lot of research. The thing is, one of my formulas allows me to transform into a fighting form, but it’s not pretty, and rather too dangerous to use normally.”

She nodded, slowly, and rested her head against my shoulder. “And you think I can help you control it or something?”

I chuckled and shook my head. “Hell no. If you catch me swelling and growing into a giant, get as far away as you possibly can. I have zero self-control in that form, and I am a giant dick. I mean baseball-bat-sized dick, about twice as big as I am right now. I care very much about you and might just decide that instead of fighting, it’s time for sex, and you don’t want to be around that, I promise.”

She looked thoughtful. “My pride is telling me there’s nothing I cannot handle, my lust wants to see if it’s bigger than yours, and my brain is telling me I’d split like a watermelon on a railroad track because you are already almost too much to handle.”

I nodded, “Well, your speed form gave me an idea because all of your powers are tied to your physical form. I think maybe with some of your speed form’s blood, I could create a power for myself that would let me replicate, somewhat, that ability. Maybe not the Chromatophores, but I should at least gain some swimming speed and hopefully the ability to breathe underwater. I need to go down to the gulf and find Kjootoo’s ship, and it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to show up in one of Blackhawk’s speedboats, and I am not going to owe the DMA any favors.”

She looked thoughtful, “You said you think you do primarily physical, right?”

I nodded, “As far as I know. I haven’t experimented with energy powers yet at all, not really my specialty.”

She nodded slowly, “Then the speed form might not work for you. All the extra stuff, like the guidance fins and durability, are for surviving the speed I travel at. This,” and she gestured to the thin, nearly-invisible slots under her ribs and over her shoulder blades, “the jets, are mostly for oxygenating the water and helping keep me stable and speed me up in my normal form. The speed, though, is not from my jets, it’s from my aquatic control gift. I can only do about twenty knots with just my normal or speed form, without pushing against the water with my gift.”

I nodded, “Right. Although twenty knots is still way better than what I can do now, and the whole breathing water thing could make it a lot simpler.”

She nodded, “I still have my gills and jets in another form, but it might work much better for you. Remember how I talked about my mermaid form?”

I nodded, “How can I forget? Call my kinky, but I have been thinking about it nonstop since you told me about it. I think I have a monster girl kink or something because the idea of you wiggling around like a mermaid while I play with you is a massive turn-on.”

She beamed at me again, and then licked her lips. “It doesn’t work much on land, but if you could breathe the water we could have a lot of fun. But anyway, it kind of blends all of my muscles in my back and lower legs into a solid mass of muscle, and it has a very wide tail and guidance fins. I don’t usually run that way, since having legs is a huge asset, and can use my aquatic gift to move, but unlike my other forms, I can hit stupidly fast speeds in the water with it. I run out of endurance fast, and at the top speeds the water kind of kicks my ass, but you are already pretty tough and seem to have inexhaustible energy.” She bit her lower lip and looked down my body.

“I bet that if you go to a merman form because it uses a real tail for propulsion and still has gills and jets for stability and breathing, you could probably hit in the high sixty-knot range without getting hurt from the water pressure and without needing to use aquatic control. You are a lot stronger than I am, and might be able to push it even faster.”

I nodded, slowly, “Yes, but if I take that form, will I still be able to tease you mercilessly as a mermaid?”

She nodded, “Yep, fully mammalian. And honestly, I am a little worn, but the idea of you joining me for swimming, and then joining me while swimming, is kind of exciting. I mean, it’s a lot like flying, but from what I have heard a flier and a non-flier doing in the air is terrifying and doesn’t work very well, and in zero gravity people tend to just drift all over the place. But in the water, it’s like all the best parts of zero-gee and flying without the downsides.” She lowered her eyes and looked at me sexily through the lowered lashes, “I am very intrigued by the idea. There are very few aquatic metas, and it would be an experience we could share that no one could ever match.”

I almost growled, and then grinned, “That comes to the downside.”

She nodded, “Let me guess. It’s like your specialized elixirs. You are going to need some of my blood.”

I nodded, “Yes. And with any luck, it won’t turn me into a girl in that form. Although if it does, I promise all sorts of lesbian loving.”

She laughed! “To be honest, even if it did I’d probably want to play. I mean, it’s you, and it’s in the water, and it would be nice to abuse your boobs the way you abused mine.” She teased and then got to her feet. “We need to head to the bathtub and I will run some water. Mermaid form is not remotely comfortable on dry land unless you have like, a mound or rock or something to sit on that’s curved right for your tail. I could probably sit on your lap, but I have a lot on my plate for today, with the regatta and all and you have made it clear that you would consider that an invitation.” She giggled, “If it works, can you handle it without me?”

I nodded, “I should be able to. And if I have to use Hyde, I’d rather not have you within easy reach. I guess us supervillains or superheroes have stuff we have to do on our own, occasionally.” I let out a dramatic sigh, “Plus, you are a kind of known around here for doing heroic stuff. I am not sure Kjootoo would be cool with you showing up.”

“Kjootoo, the pirate? The witch doctor that controls Haiti?” She looked startled.

I nodded, “Umm… yeah? He’s a really nice guy if you get to know him, but I owe him a wish, and he said his daughter would collect it. Err… like I said to the Agents, I am happy to help and negotiate three times for a group or organization, which Kjootoo thought was awesome because it evoked Arabian nights, but I won’t get roped into being a long-term slave. Three wishes, that’s it. Unless I mean, it’s someone I am in a relationship with, and then the three wishes thing doesn’t take effect.”

She took a step back. “Wait, the girl you are boning in your dreams is Kjootoo’s daughter?” She asked, shocked.

I nodded slowly, “Well, we didn’t actually get to sex in the dream, but I guess Kjootoo is a friend. He was kind of talking around the idea of me marrying her, but I was not ready to do that. I mean, I like her, she’s nice and beautiful, but she cannot talk, and she was too young, and I am just not ready to raise kids yet. Not if I could die saving the world from whatever the eaters are in just a few years.”

I almost growled, “I will not leave children without a father.” I stated simply. “Never. That is a horrible thing to do. I would die protecting kids, but I would not just leave.”

She was shaking her head as she headed into the bathroom, and I could hear her filling the tub before she stepped out. “So, to put it all in a nutshell.” She said as I collected the semi-completed potion that should become a pill. “You want to get married, and want to have kids. You are quite good at leadership.” She held up a hand as she spoke to shut up my instinctive rejection. “Shush. You instantly organized people to survive the explosion, and they listened to you. You are humble, but not fake about it. You are a walking wet dream for men and women alike, and you could be rich in a heartbeat but care more about people than money.”

I shook my head, “No, I like money just fine, I just don’t ever seem to have any, and if I really need it I can get it.” She smiled and nodded, “Exactly.”

She continued. “You are a Genie that can grant 3 wishes. You will sacrifice almost anything in a heartbeat for others, including your own health, safety, and potentially your own life. You kind of live to work hard, and would instantly kill to protect anyone you care about.”

She smiled a little, “And now all you are asking from me is a little bit of blood to help you basically turn into my dream man, and you not only satisfy me beyond completely but even like snuggling afterward.”

She shook her head. “You are totally going to die soon, aren’t you?”

I peered at her in confusion, “Why would I die soon?”

She laughed a little, “You are too perfect. In the movies, you would come up with like the cure for cancer or something, and then die dramatically and heroically before you could pass it on.”

I shook my head, “Not even remotely perfect. I have you, and yet I am halfway to groping almost every meta girl I walk past, including the one I cannot touch because she is a nun and my boss at the same time.” I muttered under my breath, “And the cure for cancer is kind of a bitch to make.”

She looked surprised, “You cured cancer?”

I shook my head, “No, they came out with a pretty good cure for cancer a few years ago, at least most forms like breast and lung cancer. I was able to cure Jasper’s meta-enhanced cancer, but it was a nightmare, and I still am unsure about Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Myeloma, although I am pretty sure osteoporosis and osteoarthritis are workable.”

She nodded, “So I am dating and having mind-blowing sex with the guy that can cure cancer and make superheroes.”

I shrugged, “I have another argument against that too, but I figure you are going to blow that one off as well, right?”

She giggled, “And he can listen too. You are pretty much immune to disease. If you have sex with other women, would you get them pregnant?”

I reluctantly answered, “I can control my own fertility. I figured as a Catholic you wouldn’t particularly approve of most kinds of birth control, so I didn’t bring it up. It takes me about two days to turn it on or off.”

She nodded, smiling again, “I am on Meta pills, but I don’t like them. If you have sex with other metas, will you come back?”

I nodded, “Yep. Or I will be a saint if you prefer.”

She shook her head, “No you won’t. I know damned well how powerful pheromone urges are. It would be stupid and selfish for me to demand that you stay perfectly pristine when I am not around or you have worn my poor little weak female ass out.”

I grinned, “I don’t think of you as a weak female.”

“I know, that’s another plus. You trust me to be competent. So I am going to trust you. I want children someday, and when I do, I want you to be the father.”

I was almost choking. That was...unexpected, and welcome, but it kind of beat the hell out of my ‘talk’. “Of course, I would be honored.”

She nodded, “I am not going to get jealous if you have other encounters with other meta girls, as long as you promise to come back and give me babies and help me raise them someday. Oh, and I want to be your girlfriend too, so you keep coming back. Just… I cannot promise not to ever be jealous, since I am human and I want you very much, and if you care about another girl I want to meet them and make sure that they are not monstrous bitches that are going to take you away from me.”

I nodded, “I didn’t intend to sleep around…”

She shrugged, “I don’t expect you to. I trust you like you trust me. And I am going to get to parade you around and make all the other girls jealous when I call you my boyfriend.”

She stepped back into the bathroom and turned off the water, which had a layer of warm vapor above it as she slipped, still undressed, into it. “After that monologue, I wish I could spend the next couple of days in bed with you, but we both have the stuff to do. So come take my blood, my lovely vampire prince, and we will see what we can do.”

She bent her head, exposing her exquisite throat to me like I was Dracula. I move forward to nibble it teasingly and half-splashed into the tub, leaving my kit on the side of the sink. Yep, I wasn’t going to give this one up, she was mine.

Aquatic Freedom Pill

This pill contains transformative components

Value: 0

Aspects: Body, metamorphic, aquatic

Power: 100

This version of the freedom pill will clarify your body and modifies your form specifically to allow you freedom of movement, strength, and speed in an aquatic environment. You will gain the ability to breathe and travel at speed underwater, but lose some of the freedom you possess on land.

This pill may only be used once, and has a singular effect, it cannot be improved.

This pill does not stack with other freedom pills, or remove their effects

You must choose a physical or emotional catalyst to activate this ability. Some examples of catalysts include sugar, rage, a feeling of being imprisoned, a special chemical formula or potion, a smell, or any other major state or sensation. If you receive the catalyst, you may fight to prevent its activation, but the longer and more powerfully you receive the catalyst, the more difficult the fight becomes.

Once the catalyst is removed, this state may be removed, either through natural sleep, or attempting to regain control. The stronger the catalyst remains, the more difficult the fight is.

This does not impose an alternate personality, it simply removes restrictions on your own personality including your own willpower and ignores things like maximum possible strength or speed.

Caution: If this pill’s power is stronger than the recipient’s power, you could die due to power shock.

I chose the catalyst of inhaling water. It would be unpleasant to change, but the water should purge itself out of my lungs afterward, based on the way Aquantis’ body works. I took a moment to examine my new Analysis.

Louis Albert McCarthy(Alchemyst)

Parahuman 36% Class D (S)

Aspects: body

Power: 182 (102)

Conditions: Extreme fitness

Projected Lifespan: ??? Current Age: 27

healthy, rewarded, pleased, social

Powers: concoct, analyze, improved endurance, Freedom, improved strength, improved durability, regeneration, mending, aquatic freedom

no current abnormal infections

I pushed through the water strongly with my new tail. I was wearing a waterproof knapsack containing my potions and clothes, and not much else.

If anything, Aquantis had understated my speed potential. I was pushing a good eighty knots and discovered, to my delight, that not only did I see better in the blue-green spectrum, but I got a sort of passive echolocation, which allowed me to build a mental picture of what was in the water outside of my improved underwater visual range. When I was in the water, a sort of second transparent eyelid, very tough, a nictating membrane, slid down over my eyes. The water was also comfortably warm no matter how deep I dove, and my bloodstream could shed nitrogen bubbles with ease through my gills if I ventured too deeply.

I wasn’t particularly scaly, my tail resembling that of a dolphin more than a fish, but when I broke the water I could leap up dozens of feet into the air at speed, flying for a moment before I hit the water again. I understood why dolphins did it, as it was utterly exhilarating.

For tools, I had a remarkable little device Technomancer had created for me. It was not particularly pretty, but he used my cellphone’s GPS and nav system and, according to him, could shed any kind of tracking short of a cyberkinetic. It was weird-looking, almost like a black vine growing around my wrist, but it would not require recharging, was darned near impossible to remove, would stretch up to 6 inches without breaking, and most importantly, was waterproof down to a far greater depth than I was comfortable with right now.

I had a general idea of where around Haiti to look for the ship, but Kjootoo very specifically kept it moving to prevent it from being easily ambushed. He had a lot of enemies, some of whom were known to possess heavy firepower, so movement and stealth were two of his greatest allies. Despite running Haiti, he seldom set foot for more than a few hours on its shore.

I finally spotted the ship. I had also found two of the bodies I had left behind last time, or at least what was left once the fish ate well, near the last place the ship had been. I hadn’t had any way to contact Caelo since she had contacted me this morning, and when I caught a flight down to the Florida panhandle I kept hoping she’d speak in the back of my mind again. It was nearly midnight by this time, but the lighting from the eating area on the main deck was distinctive enough for me to recognize it when I got close.

I leaped from the water as I got close, and landed on the back of the helo pad, shifting back into my naked, legged form as I landed. That was an interesting difference between male and female merfolks. The females had all of their equipment in the back, and the males had it in the front. It was partially concealed, but when you got interested it was very, very obvious.

I hadn’t noticed anyone back by the empty helo pad, although one or two men were walking the deck I had avoided as I popped out of the water. I was looking around, deciding what the best way to announce myself was, when I smelled a slightly familiar odor in the air, followed by the feeling of sharp, cold steel at my throat.

“Hello, Akiko.” I said, smiling, “May I put on my pants, or do you prefer me like this?”