Chapter 7

I was amazed at how tightly two people could bond when they could merge their minds. Jack felt the same way, and was as thrilled as I was by the experience. We experimented with keeping a permanent bond, and that took some practice. Jack reported, “Blast it, Liz. I actually walked into a wall just then because I was looking out of your eyes instead of mine. I’m going to have to be more careful.” We both got a laugh out of that, and it was a good warning for me not to make that same kind of mistake.

It was obvious to everybody that Jack and I were to be married as soon as the mothers could make the necessary arrangements. Of course, I was going to have to wear conventional clothes for the wedding or both mothers would catch on as to how Jack and I had changed. What made this significant was that conventional clothes sure were uncomfortable after going for so long with the clothes I fabricated from frozen air. The wedding was the last time for several years that I wore conventional clothes. Jack adopted the same habit.

We were so intimately attached through our mind melding that we had not even considered having sex. However, after the wedding, we moved into a small apartment near the clinic while Jack went through the teleportation training. He could already do all of the things that I could do, including mining gold. Our first experience with sex was absolutely earthshaking as far as we were concerned. We were able to share our orgasms, and you will never believe what that was like. It certainly is something that I can never describe in mere words.

Yes, I was sore the next morning, but with TK to help me, I was able to get around well enough. Not having to eat or to piss was sure a big help. I think that the soreness in my pussy was a Godsend because it forced us to break away from what was becoming addicting. Those mutual orgasms were something that we were going to experience as often as possible. I was now able to control my body to the point that I no longer had periods. I planned to return to them when I was ready to become pregnant.

Now that I was out of school, I spent most of my time mentally with Jack and the rest of the time patrolling the city in my Avenger persona. Jack and I spent a lot of time mulling over what he was to call himself. We finally settled on Protector and a bright blue uniform for him. Our uniforms were very similar, except for the color. He wore a kind of Speedo crotch cover in yellow (that was my idea) and a large stylized P on his back. We did find that we needed to carry a few items with us, so we started wearing a pouch at our waist.

Officially, Jack and I were employed by Dr. Anson’s institute so that we could stay under the radar of the IRS, etc. Our actual money came from the gold we found in that area of Montana that I had first explored. If that area were ever exhausted, there were hundreds of places around the planet where we could get more.

We continued to work through Mr. Aaron, and he paid us whatever he could get for the gold, minus $200 per Troy ounce as his profit. It made no difference to us, and it made him happy. We also supplied a regular stipend to our parents from the same source. The whole thing took a maximum of 10-15 minutes a month, and it was kind of fun. By the way, we never told Mr. Aaron the source of our gold.

Protector’s introduction to the city was rather dramatic because it resulted from a massive fire. An ancient brick building nearly 200 years old had been converted into a plant to manufacture large pleasure boats, defined as not less than 35 feet long, from polyester resin and glass fiber mat—the stuff commonly known as fiberglass plastic.

The process used vast quantities of styrene, a very volatile and flammable liquid. A woman had come to work with new steel taps on her shoes, and she struck a spark against the concrete floor. The next thing anybody knew, the whole mass of styrene was covered in flames and 37 workers were trapped in the building. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) had been after the company to improve its safety, but there were always excuses to put off the work. Well, the Devil was now calling to collect his due.

So far, when we found out about the problem, no one had been injured beyond some minor bruises and burns, and they were all collected in the center of the building completely surrounded by flames and choking fumes. We teleported in and saw the problem and the solution. We were well ahead of the Fire Department, so it was up to Protector and Avenger to save these people. Actually, there was not much the Fire Department could have done, so it was always up to us.

I was more experienced at teleporting people than Protector was, so that was the way we split up the job. He installed a frozen air shell around the people shutting them off from the flames and fumes while I teleported them, one at a time, to safety. I could have moved them all at once except that there was no empty place nearby to move them as a group. Therefore, I moved them one at a time. Truthfully, I think that the teleportation frightened some of them more than the fire did, because they could understand the fire, but they had no idea of what to expect from teleportation.

Protector had extended the walls of his shield to the ceiling and was bringing in fresh air steadily through a hole he punched in the roof. He had made his shield a pale blue color so that all of the people could see it, and that went a long way toward eliminating the incipient panic.

Once the people were all safe, he put in another shield on the outside of the ring of flame and sealed the fire from receiving any new oxygen. That extinguished the fire in short order and saved a fair amount of the building and its contents from damage. We received the thanks of the fire chief, and, since it was a slow day for emergencies, we hung around to watch the firefighters go around checking to make sure that the fire was fully extinguished.

The fire was just out when the first TV crew showed up, and the Fire Chief asked us to hang around while he gave a short press conference. The Fire Department was always on the watch for chances to get favorable public attention, and we supported that aim, so we agreed to stay.

Well, as soon as the TV reporters saw our colorful uniforms, they knew that this had been a big deal. The Fire Chief started his press conference before things could get out of hand, and he answered the standard questions. However, he did something that surprised us: he gave us full credit for stopping the fire from harming the workers and for preventing more property damage. This was because the Fire Department did not have enough money to buy the equipment and materials needed to fight this kind of fire.

Oops, that really shifted attention to us, and we were suddenly on stage. Each of us described what we had done to fight the fire, and had reached the point of answering the same questions as every reporter wanted some face-time. Protector came up with the way to save us from death by boredom. He announced that we had to leave because we had to check on another possible emergency. That was not exactly true, but it did give us a good excuse to leave. We made good TV when we flew straight up to 500 feet before leaving the area.

The next day, OSHA closed down the factory until the necessary changes were made to provide a safer work environment. A few days later, we heard over TV that the boat building company wanted to sue us for the expense of recovering from the fire. We laughed at that, and so did the court when the suit was actually brought. The company wound up paying a lot more to fix their problems than they would have if they had originally done what OSHA had requested. The local OSHA manager also caught hell from the press for not forcing compliance way back when. A new OSHA manager was appointed.

We had nine days of little to do until there was something that almost never happened: there was a bank robbery in the middle of the day. I can’t imagine what the robbers had in mind—they must have seen too many Western movies. They walked in with shotguns, and one of them shouted, “THIS IS A HOLDUP!” The shotguns were pointed at various people, but one of the tellers kept her cool and stepped on the silent alarm.