Chapter 1

Sandy sat in the basement by himself.

He stared at the spot in the corner that he had dug up, still considering his options. At his feet was the Device. He knew he should simply melt it down into a solid chunk of plastic, silicon, and metal.

There was enough trouble in his life. A month ago, his sister Samantha, his Sammy, had revealed to their parents that she was pregnant. She hadn’t revealed the name of the father, and combined with the fact that she was three months passed her last period, abortion was out of the question. And if she told that Sandy, her own brother, was the father of her child, her parents might be able to push to have the child aborted anyway. There had been tears and demands to know who had done this to their cheerleader daughter, but Samantha hadn’t budged. Sandy had been by her side, emotions battling in his mind. Pride that his sexy sister was going to bear his child. Disgust that he had used his Device to take advantage of his own sister, that he had impregnated her. What if the child had horrible birth defects? What about Sam’s future - her gymnastic scholarship would be taken away from her, leaving her unable to pay for school on her own.

Last week, Sandy and his girlfriend Jennifer had sat both his and her parents down to reveal that Jennifer was pregnant as well. There were even more cries and tears and threats, and Sandy and Jennifer’s father had gotten into a shouting match as to who was at fault. Sandy’s protests that they were going to get married and raise the child themselves were met with scorn and derision by both sides.

Sandy, grounded from seeing Jennifer again, was alone while they took his sister to the hospital for an ultrasound. He had wanted to go with them, but had to hide his own eagerness at seeing his own child for the first time.

He thought about the other women in his life. Ms. French was also pregnant, as well as his teacher, Ms. Elgin. Both at least were old enough that people might comment about their unwed status, but society wouldn’t judge them as harshly as they would Sandy and his sister. Unless they discovered that Sandy, an underage teenager, was also the father of their children.

The Device. It had seemed like the perfect gift for a young teenage boy - a machine that emitted a radio wave with a frequency that put women into an uncontrollable urge to mate. With it, he had seduced first his sister, than his other victims. What he hadn’t known is that while it made women want to have sex with anyone present - male, female, it didn’t matter - that it was affecting Sandy’s brain as well. Soon he moved from simply wanting to have sex with women to actually impregnating them, the male nature to spread his seed and grow children in as many bellies as possible soon overriding his senses. Jennifer had discovered a way to reverse the process - or at least stop the effects by overloading Sandy’s brain to the point that his mind had to reroute the neural connections. Sadly, Jennifer had been caught in the path of the Device’s beam, and her lust combined with Sandy’s desire to impregnate her had landed them both in their current situation.

So now he sat, a father several times over, trying to decide what to do. The Device was too dangerous in the hands of any man - or woman for that matter. He should destroy it before it ruined the lives of other people. But he couldn’t. It was like destroying a child, this one a child of his own mind.

Instead, he wrapped it and the remote into a thick burlap sack, and placed it into the hole he had dug underneath the concrete slab. He refilled the hole with dirt, then set the piece of concrete over it. He looked at his work. It was impossible to tell that there was anything there or the ground had been disturbed.

That should be good enough. Nobody would ever find it, and even when they did, it would be so old it probably wouldn’t even work. With that, Sandy cleaned up the basement, and turned off the light.

Ryan turned on the light to the basement. “Well, this one works,” he called behind him. “I’m going to check it out.”

“OK,” his mother called back at him. “Do me a favor and make sure they turned the pilot light on the water heater, would you? I’d like to take a nice hot shower after all this moving.”

“Sure thing, Mom,” he called back. Ryan moved down the stairs, looking around.

The basement was mostly clear, except for a new furnace in one corner next to a small metal box that was the instant water heater. He looked into the small holes on either one, spotting the blue flame. “Looks good, Mom!” he shouted up.

He looked around the room. There were a set of fluorescent bulbs above, beaming through the dust. On a pair of long tables were a set of wires, bits of plastic and silicon scattered here and there. Various tools were set about, neatly resting in their holders.

“Wow,” Ryan said as he picked up an ancient circuit board. Man - this thing was old. He turned it over, spotting the Intel logo on the green plastic. He set it back down, looking around the room.

“Uncle Sandy’s old lab,” he breathed. He pushed a lock of blond hair out of his eyes. It was getting long, and he considered having it cut or leaving it long. He had been told he looked a lot like his uncle, having about his height, but was shaped more like his mother, with her blonde hair and bright blue eyes. His shoulders were slightly larger than other boys his age, his chest and arms filling his shirt easily. Where his mother had been into gymnastics as a teenager, Ryan had opted for swimming, one of the few nonviolent sports available to a man with an interest more along the lines of science than in pummeling his opponents. He blew some dust off of an old electronics sensor, sneezing once.

“Did you call me?” his mother Samantha said. He looked up at her as she came down the stairs. She was only 31, though it wasn’t until he had done the math one day that he understood why his mother was so young and still had a 14 year old son. She could easily pass for 20, though Ryan noted with some disquiet that his friends claims that his mother was a fox were true. She was blond like her son, and her eyes were still bright blue. Her body could make even Ryan react from time to time, though he tried to ignore the creepy feelings when he realized that his mom did have a great body for being over 30 years old. Her waist was still small, her legs were tight and muscular under her shorts, and the shirt she had tied under her breasts did little to hide the fact that her breasts were large and round.

She landed next to him, giving him an odd look. “What?” he asked her.

Sam shook her head. “Nothing - it’s just you look so much like - like your uncle, especially down here.” She looked over the tables, a strange smile on her face. “He would be down here all the time, working on his experiments with rats and things.” She crinkled her nose. “I never liked those things.”

“It’s pretty cool down here,” Sandy said. He pulled up a chip. “Wow! Mom - look at this. I’ve only seen one of these in a book. It’s got this really cool system of changing gates that was pretty cool for it’s time, but the company went out of business, so -”

Samantha tousled her son’s hair. “Just like your uncle,” she laughed. “Come help me unpack this stuff, and you can play down here later. This can be your area for - whatever you want to work on while I’m not home.” Her face seemed to fall a bit, and Ryan knew she was thinking of the divorce.

“Hey - do you want something to eat?” he asked her, trying to distract her thoughts. Ryan had never known his real father, but Gary Salone was as close to that as he ever knew. His mother had married him when Ryan was 9 years old. Ryan had been excited at the time. With Gary, he not only got a dad, but a new sister with Julie.

Only things hadn’t gone all that well. Julie had turned out to be an enormous bitch. Oh, she was pretty enough, and the same age as Ryan. Her hair was midnight black, and she had these bright blue eyes that gleamed like sapphires. As Ryan had gained height and muscle, she had grown curvy and svelte, and at the age of 14 already had a body that would make grown women envious.

But she was always snide to Ryan, no matter how nice he tried to be to him. She had always claimed loudly that swimming was a sport that only homosexuals played, and when he had tried to share his electronic discoveries with him she had derided them as simply “nerdish endeavors”.

Gary had been nice enough, but distant. He came from “old money”, and had met Samantha when she made a name for herself as a young assistant district attorney with a knack for winning cases. Between her good looks, her sharp legal mind, and ability to appear unassuming with a witness until they found themselves trapped in their own web of lies, she had put away a fair share of criminals. And for Gary, who’s had just become mayor, the combination of brains, talen, and sex appeal was like love at first site.

Ryan considered the last year with a bitter taste in his mouth as he walked his mother out of the basement. It seems that Gary, for all his pledges of faithfulness in public, had been screwing every intern and secretary he could get his hands on. Samantha had discovered this fact, and promptly divorced him. Publicly it was “irreconcilable differences”, but those directly in the family knew the truth even if they didn’t let on to the media.

So Samantha and Ryan found themselves in the house she had grown up in. His grandparents were retired and traveling, thanks to a major retirement fund sponsored by his Uncle Sandy. Sandy was a couple years younger than Samantha, and had a 14 year old son of his own. Ryan had met his cousin Steve several times, and thought he was a pretty cool kid. A bit more bookish than Ryan was, but still fun to hang around. It was like having a brother or something, though they lived a couple hours away.

Uncle Sandy was a famous inventor - at least famous in scientific circles. Just before he had graduated from MIT, he had demonstrated an invention that would allow for “holographic surgery” - scalpels that could operate on people without cutting into their skin. The technology was still revolutionizing medical science, even though it was only in the last few years that it had gained FDA approval. Still, it was Sandy’s contributions that had helped Ryan’s former step-father’s political career - contributions that had dried up the second Gary’s infidelity had been discovered. And with a major election coming up that might make Gary the next governor of the state, feelings between the two families were a little strained.

Ryan helped his mother put away various wrapped dishes, and together they placed the furniture in the room and unrolled the monitor screen onto one of the walls. He knew she was worried about the divorce. While Uncle Sandy would probably help them with whatever they needed, Ryan knew his mom would rather make it on her own.

He knew that the next few weeks might be a bit rough. There was his new school to go to, and trying to fit in while being the kid of the would-be governor with a now single mother. But he knew he could do it, and would try as hard as he could to make his mother’s life easier.

That night, they ate popcorn and watched a holo remake of some old movie starring Jim Carry, back before he won his two Oscars a few years ago. Ryan had used his watch to pull up his virtual desktop, replying to some of the emails, and talking to a few of his old friends.

In the morning, Ryan went downstairs to check out his new work area. His mother had gone to work, but trusted him to behave himself while she was gone. He had never had a place like this to really build stuff before - just a corner of his old room in Gary’s house, and he couldn’t do anything really interesting or else the maid would complain about the smell or something.

He spent a few hours just cleaning, moving instruments into one pile, throwing away the broken stuff he couldn’t use. Then he swept the floor, and even set about to mopping it.

That’s when he discovered the odd spot in the basement. When he had swept the mop back and forth, enjoying the pull in his muscles and back as he worked, he noticed that the water was vanishing over one of the pieces of cement.

Ryan sat back, watching the water seep between the spot where the concrete block met. It looks like it hadn’t been sealed or something. “Ah, crap,” he muttered. It would be just his luck if the water got underneath the house and something rotted down there. He knew there was some Quik-Crete in the garage. He’d just pull up the block with a crowbar, make sure there wasn’t any damage, and reseal it. Shouldn’t take more than an hour.

But when he pulled up the block, he noticed that the mop water had cleared away a depression of dirt. Barely visible was a piece of burlap, wet and mouldy from its time under the ground.

Curiosity filled him as he pulled the sack out of the ground. It ripped and tore, but remained hole enough to leave its grave fairly intact. Ryan gently placed it onto the table, eager to see what was inside.

He was kind of disappointed. Inside was a small remote control with 3 buttons on it, though the battery inside had leaked acid all over the back. With it was an old looking computer, only Ryan couldn’t find any kind of terminal. Just a dirty processor hooked to a circuit board with plenty of solder, an old hard drive, and what looked like a radio transmitter/receiver. Some of the wires were broken or rusted over, but it was still fairly intact.

Ryan looked over it, trying to puzzle out just what it was. There was an old battery in it as well, though it was pretty much dead, and a small on/off switch to one side that clicked uselessly.

“Hm,” Ryan said to himself. This was a mystery. The whole thing was a pile of old junk - but why bury it then? Was it stolen or something?

By the end of the day, the concrete block was placed back where it was before and sealed up, and the Device was cleaned off, though Ryan was no closer to understanding how it worked, or what it was. It seemed to be some sort of radio transmitter, and was made to receive basic commands from the remote control.

He didn’t tell his mother about his find, since she looked worried about something. Instead they went to the back yard to break out the pool shed. His grandparents had installed it before they moved just for him so that he would have a place to practice.

The shed had several large bamboo curtains and a skylight, so you could either have privacy, or fully enjoy the light and air. For now, they left it open.

Ryan was pulling the plastic off the water when he heard a voice behind you. “You must be the new people.”

He turned around, and noticed a face looking at him over the wooden fence. It was a girl - a rather pretty girl in some ways, but perhaps the oddest one Ryan had ever seen. She was very pale, her skin like snow, the iris of her eyes almost red in color. Her hair was cut short, and was light, nearly blue in its color. Her expression was the oddest thing of all about her. She looked at Ryan with an almost empty expression, as if the fact that he was standing in just a pair of swimming trunks in his own back yard was hardly a reason for interest. It was a delicate face, with a small nose and mouth.

“Sort of,” Ryan said. “I’ve actually been around for 14 years, so I’m not sure I’d consider myself new.” He gave her a grin to show she was kidding.

The girl cocked her head at him. “Oh,” she said. “That was a joke.” If she found it at all humorous, Ryan couldn’t tell.

“I’m Ryan,” he said, stepping forward to hold up his hand to her.

“We know,” another voice said. This one was loud and brash, and was also female. Ryan looked to one side as a bright orange mesh of hair appeared next to the light girl, and a moment later, another face appeared. This face was also pretty, with light blue eyes under her red hair, but where the other girl was expressionless, this girl gave him a look of haughty superiority. Her skin was also fair - not as pale as the other girl’s, but it was evident that she did not tan easily. Her nose was slightly upturned, but this did little to reduce her attractive looks. She looked vaguely like the girl next to her, though how these two could be related looking so different Ryan didn’t know.

“How did you know that?” Ryan asked.

The orange-haired girl clicked her tongue. “It was obvious,” she said as if she was talking to a child. She lifted herself up. She was wearing a yellow sun dress with spaghetti straps. He could tell her breasts were on the small size, and from her looks, she was about Ryan’s age. She sat perched on top of the fence, easily balancing herself while she ticked off her fingers. “First, the mailbox had the former occupants name taken off, and the names of two people were on - I assumed you and your mother. Second, we did some research, and I Googled your name and read about your mother. Third, there was a picture of the two of you taken a few weeks ago about Governor Elect Gary what’s-his-face and the scandal about the divorce - though I don’t see why people should care anyway, it’s none of their business -” She fixed him with a gaze. “Or - should it be their business?”

The other girl spoke, her voice as expressionless as her face. “My sister thinks that there must be some conspiracy behind the divorce to get more publicity, and that your mother will announce she’s coming back to him.”

“You’re not suppose to tell him that!” the other girl said, rounding on her sister. If her sister was worried about the sudden outburst, she didn’t show it.

“What’s going on out there - Alice, what have I told you about sitting up on the fence?” This new voice came from behind the girl’s, but Ryan couldn’t see who was talking. The redhead gave Ryan a dirty look as if he was the cause of her getting caught, and leapt down. For the briefest moment, he saw her dress fly up so he noticed her thighs.

“I wasn’t hurting anything,” he heard Alice complain to her mother. “I was trying to get the details from the new boy, but I’m not sure that he knows anything useful.” She sniffed at this latter part of information. The pale girl looked down at Ryan, uninterested in the conversation behind her.

The next face appeared so suddenly Ryan nearly stepped backwards. This time, it was an older woman, maybe over 24. Her hair was black, so intense that when she moved, it looked nearly violet. She was even prettier than the other two girls, with dancing blue eyes and a wide, expressive mouth. “Oh - hey there.” She leaned over, and Ryan could see she was wearing a loose tank top. Her breasts looked to be nearly as large as his mother’s, the cleavage appeared at the low collar. She extended a hand. “I’m Karen, Karen Sato - I know you met my nieces Rain and Alice already.”

“I hadn’t told him my name yet, so he hadn’t finished meeting me.” the pale girl said. Karen rolled her eyes at Ryan as he stepped forward. She had a strong grip, her skin smooth and warm against his.

“Oh - hey, the new pool! I wanted to see how it turned out.” Karen placed both hands on the fence, wiggling upwards.

“Oh sure, I get in trouble for sitting on the fence,” Alice complained from behind.

“I’m not sitting, I’m climbing” Karen said. She was already up to her waist, and her struggles made her braless tits bob in a manner that was making Ryan’s cock stir. She slid over the top, and he noticed she was wearing a pair of short cut-off jeans. Her legs were very long and smooth, ending in a pair of bare feet as she landed on Ryan’s side of the yard. She slapped her hands together to wipe them off. “Hope you don’t mind me checking it out,” she told Ryan.

“Ah - no,” Ryan said. He found himself liking Karen already. She was open, friendly, and he could tell she didn’t give a damn about too many rules. “We were just about to swim when I met your nieces.”

It was at that moment that Sammy came into the back yard. She was wearing a wrap around her waist, and was in a black one piece that was modest, but couldn’t hide her fine body. Her hair was pulled back into a clip. Ryan felt another flush of disquiet arousal, though between Karen and his mother, it was hard to say which was causing it. He started running through mathematical tables in his head, worried his shorts would tent and embarrass him.

“Hi, I’m Karen - your next door neighbor,” the woman said. She shook Sammy’s hand. “Nice pool - I was talking to your parents when they were building it. Man - I’m actually a little jealous.”

“You can join us if you want,” Ryan said. And as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he nearly kicked himself. He probably sounded like a stupid kid, trying to get the good looking woman to stay.

“Really?” Karen asked, totally oblivious to Ryan’s embarrassment. “What do you say, neighbor? I could go get some beer, change into my bikini - do you mind?”

Sammy shook her head with a smile at Karen’s antics. A few hairs escaped from her clip, wisping against her face. “Not at all - I have to work in the morning so I probably won’t drink, but come on over.” She looked over at the girls who were both peeking over. “You too - it’s been a warm day, and I’d love to meet my new neighbors.”

A few minutes later, the five of them were splashing in the pool. Karen was dressed in a purple bikini - not terribly racy, but with her large breasts Ryan was glad for the cool water to hide his growing erection. She had a six pack in her other hand. With a practice pull, she took one can off the ring, opened it, and gulped it all down in one long drink. “Ah, yeah,” she said, setting the cool can against her neck. “Man - I needed that.” She lowered the can to the hollow of her throat, then against her chest.

Ryan had never felt jealous of a can before.

The other two girls were dressed like near opposites. Alice was wearing a bikini top that was almost like a tank top - it fully covered her B cup breasts, and had stripes like a candy cane and a zipper in front. Ryan was struck by the image of taking it between his teeth and pulling it down. Her bottoms were striped the same way, and Ryan could see her long, slender legs in full detail when she appeared. She seemed to know he was looking at her, and her eyes almost seemed to dare him to do so. Now that she was on the other side of the fence, he could tell she was shorter than him by almost a head, which wasn’t too unusual - Ryan was tall for his age.

Rain wore a white one piece, which against her pale skin almost made her look nude. Her breasts were larger - not as large as Karen’s, but they swelled very nicely inside her conservative outfit. Her legs looked more muscular than the other two girls, and she cut through the water like a fish. If she noticed Ryan giving her admiring looks from time to time, she didn’t seem to care.

The five of them chatted, swam, drank sodas (most everybody except Karen, who downed all but one of her beers, leaving the last one for Sammy), and generally had a good time.

“I’m in the gifted program,” Alice announced as Ryan verified they went to the same high school as himself. “A special program for geniuses and the like - nothing you’d know anything about,” she said. “I’ll be taking some college courses and the like so I can finish my degree before I leave high school, naturally.”

“That’s interesting,” Ryan replied. He felt like mentioning he was in the same program, but thought it would be more interesting to see her reaction come Monday. He found himself liking Alice in a way - she was confident, but snotty. Not as bad as his former step-sister Julie. Where Julie seemed to think everyone around her was a bug to be squashed, Alice acted like everyone and everything was a potential rival. She had immediately challenged Ryan to a race when she learned he was in the swimming program, and when she lost promptly announced that it wasn’t an important sport - but once she came over more often to practice, she would probably beat him.

Rain was content not to speak much. When she did, it was usually to reveal something surprising. In the middle of one of Alice’s long winded explanations about how well she expected to do, Rain said in that soft, patient voice “My sister thinks if she can do well, she can get her teacher Mr. Crenshaw to be her boyfriend.” She looked at Ryan, her red eyes flat. “I don’t think he’s interested in her, though he seems to like Aunt Karen.”

“Only because she has big breasts,” Alice sniffed. She squeezed her small breasts together, forming some cleavage. “Though I imagine in a few more years I’ll overtake her.”

“You’ll have to outgrow me first, and, considering your body type, I find that unlikely,” Rain said. Ryan nearly laughed, but he couldn’t tell if she was making a joke or not.

“What’s this about breast size?” Karen said. She wasn’t drunk, but she looked a little high. She squeezed her own breasts together, the bikini top stretching to hold in her large orbs. “You’ll have to grow quite a bit more if you’re going to beat me, little girl.” She dropped down, putting an arm around Ryan’s shoulders. “Though, this little cutie here might be interested in you - I bet he thinks you’ve got great legs.”

“Karen!” Alice said in outrage, and Ryan blushed so hard he thought the water would turn to steam as his mother and Karen laughed. Karen pulled away, and Ryan had to admit he wished she had kept doing that.

“So you two are sisters?” Ryan asked Rain.

“We’re twins, actually,” Alice said. “Though if you couldn’t notice, not identical.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Ryan said dryly. “By the way - I love your hair and contacts. How did you get your hair like that - dye it, or take one of the genetic treatments?”

“I have a genetic disorder that causes a severe lack of pigmentation,” Rain said. “My skin is slightly more sensitive to the sun to my sister’s.”

“Oh,” Ryan said, feeling embarrassed. “Sorry - I didn’t mean to pry.”

Rain looked at him with that even gaze. “I do not feel embarrassed. You did not know.”

“I didn’t inherit any of my sister’s odd little problems,” Alice said in a loud voice as she tread water. “Perfect health.”

“So where are your parents?” Ryan asked.

“Dead,” Rain said flatly. “We have been living with our Aunt Karen since it happened. I am not sure she is fully qualified as a caregiver, but she has been very kind to us.”

“Ah - I’m sorry,” Ryan told her.

“Man - you just keep sticking your foot in your mouth, don’t you?” Alice said.

“I didn’t know!” Ryan protested. “Besides, I kind of know what it’s like, I guess. I never knew my father -”

“I know,” Alice said with that air of superiority. “Your mother was a single parent when she married Gary 5 years ago, father never has been established, though by your age it’s obvious you were a bastard. The marriage was uneventful, until the divorce one year ago. Rumors and speculation have abounded why the breakup occurred, but both parties have remained silent on the issue.” She acted like she was quoting from a newspaper article. “So why did they break up? Did she catch him cheating, or did she discover that she doesn’t like men like some of the articles have suggested? Or -”

“All right, reporter girl,” Karen said. “I think that’s enough for one night. The two of you are suppose to get up early if you want to make it to your school tryouts for cheerleading and band.” She reached over and mussed Ryan’s wet hair. “Sorry, I had to do that, cutie.”

The three girls gave their goodbyes, wrapping themselves in towels. “Come on over anytime,” Samantha called after them.

“I’ll bring more beer!” Karen shouted back. When they were gone, mother and son looked at each other.

“I like her,” Sammy said with a laugh. “Reminds me of a girlfriend I had in college.” She shook her head. “She’s pretty interesting, raising those two girls all by herself. She told me there’s a trust fund she can tap into, but still - I couldn’t imagine having two kids by myself.”

“I wasn’t so bad, was I?” Ryan asked with a grin.

“Before or after you nearly blew up the garage?” Samantha said, batting him with a towel.

“I told Gary not to touch the stuff,” Ryan said, picking up his towel to snap her back. The two of them chased each other around the pool for several minutes.

“You win, you win,” Samantha cried out several minutes later. Ryan gave her one more snap of his towel on her thighs as she tried another sneak attack after her claim of loss. She glanced at her watch. “And I’d better get inside and do some paperwork so I don’t spend all morning at it in the office. You coming in?”

“In a bit - I’m going to do a few laps, then go down to the basement. There’s something I’m working on that’s got my interest.”

“Well, there’s no school until Monday, but I don’t want you up past midnight - deal?”

“Ok, Mom,” he told her.

Ryan looked at his laptop screen, the holographic display resting in the air. He had jury-rigged a connection between the old Device’s system and this one, looking at a downloaded version of the computer code, decompiling it, and examining the code. Decoding was never a perfect operation, since the compiler usually had to guess as to what the names of variables were, but Ryan was able to piece it together.

Chapter 2 »