Chapter 31: Heroes and Villains

Joey paused on top of Adamantine. He was holding her down by the throat with one hand, and he had his hard cock lined up to her, ready to plunge in. She quivered and shook under him, naked and broken, grasping at his hands on her throat and feebly trying to pull him off. Fiery black anger spilled from his hands, but a cold enlightenment filled his mind.

"I understand now," he said, a sense of his reason returning to him. "You really do want this."

She shot him a look. She had been terrified of him ever since he punched her, but the horror in this look dwarfed anything else.

He gazed down her body, past her big naked breasts and over the red marks from his punches, kicks, and rug burns that marred her once flawless skin. He cast his eyes further down, past her bush of pubic hair, and to her vagina.

And he thought about Sarah.

"Adamantine, the indestructible woman," he whispered. "Nothing breaks you, ever." He stared at her vagina, and then looked back into the woman's fearful eyes. "That's what this is all about. It's still intact, right?"

Tears flowed from her eyes.

"Every part of your body is unbreakable, including that one part of a woman that needs to be broken, your hymen." She shuddered and whimpered from his discovery. "You're still a virgin. That's why you couldn't get me in you. There's not a man on Earth hard enough and strong enough to break that cherry, is there?" She shook again, crying and tearing. "I bet you tried breaking it yourself a few times over the years. What have you tried? Knives? Jack-hammers? Power drill? Hammer and chisel? Dynamite? Lasers? Nothing got through that bad girl, did it? No, you needed me to drain your invulnerability first. Get mad at you, rape you, and turn you into a whole woman."

Adamantine shook and cried under him. She clawed at his hand on her throat, squirmed, and thrust her hips forward, trying to push his dick inside her. Joey simply lifted himself away from her, and squeezed her throat tighter.

" ... Please..." she gasped as she struggled for breath. " ... Help me..."

"Why should I? You lied about who you were to take me from my family. You chased me, shot me, tied me down and tried to rape me. Why should I help you?"

" ... Can't ... do it ... myself..." she sobbed, fighting his grip.

"Yeah, I know." He shoved her, and pushed himself off her. Adamantine shrieked from the pain of his shove and rolled on her side, crying pitifully. Joey limped across the room, found his pants, underwear, and shoes, and pulled his underwear back on.

Adamantine sobbed on the bed, and curled up in a fetal position, and Joey watched her. "Oh, shut up!" he yelled at the woman. "You're disgusting!"

She rolled and gave him a pleading look. "You have to help me," she cried.

"Why?"

She sniffed and wiped her eyes and mouth. She did a double-take as she saw her own blood from her lips. It surprised her for a moment, but she returned her eyes to Joey. "You're a hero. You help people."

"What makes you think I want to help you?" he cursed, pulling on his pants. "I don't help people like you. I STOP people like you."

She shrieked in frustration and jumped off the bed, ran to the nearby dressers, and started angrily pulling drawers out, dumping the contents onto the floor, crying and sobbing in hysterics the entire time. Joey watched her as she desperately grabbed a hairbrush, dropped to her knees, lined the handle to her groin, and tried shoving it inside.

He was far enough away from her that he wasn't affecting her, but pulled his power back anyways. Her abilities restored, Adamantine screamed and grunted, squatting on the hair brush, trying to use it to break her hymen. She bounced and grunted and sobbed in frustration, and then angrily tossed the useless hairbrush away. She glared at him in fury, breathing heavily, tears running down her ruined face, and she rushed him. "PLEASE! I NEED YOU TO..."

SLAP!

He summoned just enough black energy to darken his hand and slapped her hard in the face. She screamed and spun onto the bed. Adamantine howled and cried from the pain, clutched the bed in her uncontrollable sobs, and sank to the floor. Joey sat in a chair and watched her as he put his shoes back on.

"You want to know something interesting?" he asked the bawling women. "I can tell what people want sometimes. Comes as a telepathic shock. Some flash of insight. And you want to know what I got from you? 'Break me!' That was your secret desire." He slipped his second shoe on, and started tying the laces. "So you got what you wanted. How does it feel to be broken?"

"Please help me," she sobbed. "I'll do anything you want."

"You're already offering to fuck me. I'm not interested. No, I don't help your kind. It's pointless. You're a supervillain. You don't care about anyone other than yourself. You use your powers to brutalize people, control them, and get what you want, and to hell with respecting anyone. You just take what you want, and don't care who you hurt along the way."

"That's not true. I don't always..."

"How many people did you hurt coming after me?" Joey barked at her. "What about that guy who's motorcycle you stole? What about him? And whose house is this? Yours? No, it can't be. You would have known where the hair brushes were," he said, pointing to the scattered mess on the floor. "You just dragged me to the nearest house, kicked in the front door, and took me in, and you didn't care about the person who lives here." He stopped as he considered the possibility. "Was there someone here when you broke in?"

She shook her head. "No."

"And what if there were? What if the woman who lives here was home? What would you have done? Attack her, or move to the next house?"

Adamantine hesitated. "Please. You're my only chance to..."

"To do what? To fuck guys properly? You think I'm interested in giving you another tool to use?"

"That's not what I want!" she cried. "I'm not just a supervillain!"

"Yeah? Prove it!" he said, advancing on her. Adamantine shrunk back. "What is it you want? Either you want me to do this for your own pleasure, or you want it so you can have something else to manipulate men with."

"No, That's not it!" she bawled.

"Either way, it'll just be selfish. Your kind never changes!"

"I WANT BABIES!"

Joey stopped, and she collapsed into more sobbing, but he could tell this time it wasn't from pain. It was from the confession. He stood over her, and for the first moment saw her as something other than a supervillain. She was a woman, a real, whole woman in her mid-thirties, her biological clock ringing loud enough to drive her insane. And she was trapped, cursed by her own power which was out of her control. He glanced at his fingers for a moment. "I don't want to live like this anymore," she said, crying. "I'm tired of it. I don't want to be a supervillain anymore. I want a normal life. You know what's that like. I don't."

"A normal life," Joey repeated. He remembered saying those words to Tricia the night she found him. "I just want a normal life." He flexed his fingers, feeling the energy inside him, the energy that cursed him. "We're all controlled by our abilities. What is it like to live without pain your entire life? To fear nothing, and to feel nothing? What did that turn her into?"

He thought back to Tricia. She had taught him so many things that applied to this moment. "If you take pleasure in hurting someone, regardless of how much they deserve it, you are no better than a supervillain." Her bruises and rug burns were darkening her olive skin. He cast his eyes down in shame, for he realized he was really enjoying beating the hell out of Adamantine, and that was wrong.

"They are not just simple animals or comic-book villains," Tricia had said to him about bullies, and it applied to Adamantine too. "They are full, complex human beings, just like the rest of us, and they usually have a lot of pain and fear in their life that they don't know how to deal with, and the last thing they need is more from you!"

He considered it. "Maybe I should help her. That's what heroes do. I have no idea what her life is like. Sure, she can't feel physical pain, but she still goes through emotional pain. Powers separate us. She just wants to be included. We all do."

"Being nice to people is not always easy," Tricia had said to him. It was "the ultimate act of courage."

"Anything I want. You'll do anything I want for this, right?"

She nodded, and wiped her eyes. "Anything you want. Tie me down, do me in my ass first, whatever you want."

He shook his head. "I don't want that. I don't degrade women. I empower them. If I do this for you, will you give up being a supervillain?"

She took in a shaking breath, and nodded. Her eyes grew hopeful. He continued. "You go straight. Never break the law again. Never attack anyone. Never sell your powers. You find your man, you get married, you have your kids, and you don't join any group more dangerous than the PTA. You got that?"

She shuddered and nodded.

"You step out of line once, and I will find you. I am the only person on this planet that can hurt you, and WILL if you slip. Understand?"

She nodded again.

"Get on the bed," Joey growled.

Adamantine gasped at the order, and obediently stood up. The beautiful naked woman sat on the edge of the bed, scooted back, and lay back, her red and puffy eyes locked on him.

Joey unzipped his pants, reached into his underwear, and pulled his soft penis out through the Y-front. Then he crawled onto the bed, between her legs. He saw her vagina, pink and moist, and her dense tangle of blond pubic hair. "She should trim that," he found himself thinking, and then wondered how the hell an invulnerable woman would do that. "How does she shave her legs?" He cast his eyes higher, to her full, voluptuous breasts which sloshed on her chest. He eyed her light nipples, and licked his lips.

He lowered himself on top of her, pressing his cock to her pussy, his body on hers, and his chest into her breasts. He came face-to-face to her. Adamantine trembled under him, and watched him carefully.

"Don't kiss me!" she hissed at him.

He glared at her. "I have to get hard for you, so I'll kiss you if I want to." And he grabbed her head and pulled her in. He pressed his lips to hers. Her lips were strong and firm, and he kissed her hard. He could feel her squirm and try to fight him, and he knew she was stronger than him, and could easily overpower him, but she was playing submissive. He tilted her head back and licked her lips, coaxing her mouth to open, and was soon rewarded by her warm, sweet tongue gliding over his. Joey caressed Adamantine, kissing her, opening her, and bathing her in the power as the Omegaplasm released, trying to break into her.

Some part of his brain shrieked at him. This was wrong. He shouldn't be doing this. He barely knew this woman. How could he trust her? How could he do this, and cheat on his true love? Faces appeared in his mind; Annie, Tricia, Lynne, and he didn't know who he was hurting the most. His life had changed so much in the past couple hours that he didn't feel real at all. He just wasn't himself anymore. He was now some other person, some guy who had finally taken the advice from a demon he erased three months ago. "You really need to find some more durable people in your life, someone that can actually survive being near you for any length of time." Adamantine, the indestructible woman, certainly fit that bill.

He writhed on her body, rubbing his cock into her pussy, and he dropped one hand down. He cupped a magnificent breast, and squeezed it firmly. The woman under him grunted and shifted, and licked his tongue. He kneaded her flesh and pinched her nipple, and as his cock hardened for her, Joey wondered if he could love this woman.

He wondered if she could love in return.

The Omegaplasm spilled from his hand. White sparks bounced off her impervious skin and impenetrable psyche, and he slipped one arm under her back, lifting her chest. Adamantine arched her back, thrusting her breasts upward. She was breathing heavily, and Joey moved his head down and suckled her fat tit. She gasped as he latched on and swirled his tongue over her nipple, and he reached down and fingered her. Adamantine licked the fingers of her free hand, reached down, and lubed herself, forcing his fingers across her labia. She bucked and moaned from the stimulation as he stroked her clitoris.

He buried his face between her breasts, licking the salty skin of her cleavage, and up the full curve of her other breast. As he twisted his body, his hard cock rubbed against her leg. "Fuck me!" she hissed, and she spread her legs open for him. Joey rolled and repositioned himself, lining his erection against her labia.

Joey pulled himself off her body and stood up on his knees. Adamantine writhed and panted under him, her legs spread wide and open, and his cock was surging for her. He reached down with both hands and caressed her big breasts, relishing the silkyness of her smooth skin, the warm liquid weight of her heavy breasts, and the hardness of her nipples. White sparks flowed from his hands as he fondled her. "Got the erection ready," he said to himself. "Now I just need the black power. Need to get angry at her."

It was hard. Once empathy had started, it hard to get angry at her. As he looked down at this beautiful, voluptuous woman, he tried telling himself that she was a supervillain, that she hurt people. She kicked a man in the face and took his bike. She had lied to Joey to take him away from his family. She hunted and chased him, and shot him. She tried raping him. But were these acts of evil, or desperation? She was frightened, she was suffering, she was looking for a new life, new beginnings, and new love. She wouldn't have to do these again anymore. She wouldn't do them anymore.

Would she?

The white sparks bounced over her body. They were the white sparks of love and empowerment. Joey kneaded her flesh, feeling her hard nipples under his palms. "Empowerment," he said to himself. "I grant powers to others temporarily." He came to an important realization. "But in this case, this will be permanent."

It forced him to think.

Every time he put powers into someone, he paused to think about the consequences. People had been hurt and killed by his powers before, and the responsibility was his. What was she going to do with this permanent new ability to have children?

He found himself thinking about Tricia. He remembered her yelling at him, scolding him, and teaching him. He remembered the fight they had in the storeroom of the shelter. She had confessed that she wanted to slap him. But she never did. "I. Never. Touched. You," she had said to him. "All of that pain you are going through right now, you did to yourself."

And in a heartbeat, he knew exactly what Adamantine would do with this power.

Joey released her breasts. He didn't feel right to fondle her like that. He pulled back, and fumbled with his erection, stretching the underwear back over it, and pulling his clothes back on. Adamantine watched with a dawning realization that he was rejecting her. "What are you doing?" she hissed at him.

"Thinking things through," Joey said, and he zipped up.

She grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him down on her. "You're not going anywhere!" she yelled at him. "You're..." But Joey summoned the dark energy and violently yanked her wrists off him. She shrieked in pain, and he pinned her down on the bed. He squeezed her wrists tightly, and she screamed and squirmed and writhed in agony from the simple pressure on her wrists.

"Listen to me!" Joey yelled at the tortured woman. "I give people powers! That's my thing. And when I do that I have to think about what they'll do with it, because if they do something wrong with the power, that's MY fault! If I do this to you, I'm giving you a power, the power to have kids. You don't just want to have babies, you want to become a MOTHER!" He dropped his head down towards her, getting inches from her face. Adamantine cried and whimpered and she twisted and fought his grip. "And you're going to be the worst fucking mother on the planet."

She stopped squirming enough to look into his eyes. They were obsidian, and she shuddered in fear. He continued. "A good mother knows about pain. A good mother know how to empathize, and how to teach her kids right. And you don't know either of these things. If I break you open, even if I'm not the father, your kids are MY responsibility, because I was the one who let you do it. And you're going to raise the most vicious, selfish, violent hellspawn, and they are going to hurt people, just as their mother taught them to do, and I am not going to let that happen. No. You stay a virgin."

He pushed himself off her, and glared at her. "All you had to do was knock on the front door. All you had to do was tell me who you are, tell me your problem, and ask me for my help. I would have talked it over with my family, and with EarthGuard, and then I probably would have done it because you were being respectable and nothing like a supervillain. But no, you didn't. Your first instinct was to lie to me, to attack me, and to take what you wanted. Your first instinct was to be a supervillain, not a mom."

He stormed off. "Call the police," he said. "Turn yourself and your partner in. I'm going home." He didn't stick around to see her reaction; he simply left the room, went down the stairs, and into the living room of the strange house. He could see the damage to the front door from it being kicked in, and he could hear the sobbing from upstairs. He found some paper and a pen, wrote a quick note to the homeowner explaining the damage, warning about the potential supervillain in the house, apologizing for the mess, and recommending that she call the police and throw out that hairbrush. He left the note on the front doorstep stuffed in the screen door handle, and whistled for his dog.

Scrappy came eagerly running from a nearby yard. He scooped up his dog and started the long walk home.

It was many hours later when he got home.

All along the long walk back, Joey wondered what the hell was wrong with him. He realized he kept making stupid mistakes. Why did he leave his family without explaining himself to them? He should have said something. Why did he believe his brand new uncle and aunt were real? He should have asked for some confirmation, or tested them somehow. Why did he almost have sex with Adamantine, and why did he just leave her naked on a bed in someone's house? He should have called the police and EarthGuard. He tried to console himself. A crisis was not an easy thing to deal with, and his brain still felt like it was in a fog. But the long walk cleared his mind a bit, and he resolved to talk to Tricia and Annie about everything as soon as he got back to them.

But as soon as he saw his apartment building, he knew something was wrong. Police cars and an ambulance were parked out front. Joey glanced up at the balcony of their apartment high above him, and thought he saw damage. Clutching onto Scrappy, he ran into the building, and into the elevator.

The hallway of the fifteenth floor was busy with people. Neighbors and police and rescue workers crowded the hall, and Joey pushed his way through. "Joey? You're okay?" asked one of his neighbors.

"Hi, Mrs. Keller. What's happening?" he asked, fear creeping into his voice.

A policeman approached him. "Mr. Harper?" he asked.

"What's going on?"

"You tell us." The officer lead him through the crowd, and what Joey saw made his heart freeze. His front door was open, and their apartment was destroyed. Furniture was smashed and broken, and burns scarred the walls. The balcony window was shattered, and a body of a woman lay on the floor. And in the doorway guarding the portal was their ward. The green crystal hovered menacingly, pulsing with energy.

"We can't get in," the policeman explained. "We don't know what that thing is, or where it came from, but it doesn't like anyone getting close."

"Oh no..." Joey pushed past the policeman and ran into his apartment. The policeman yelled at him, trying to warn him, but Joey just pushed the ward out of the way and entered his home. He stopped and stared at the destruction. The couch was ripped, TV smashed, walls scorched with burns. The curtains were shredded. Betty Collins lay still on the floor. He touched her cheek. She was still warm.

Annie's chair lay empty on its side. His heart froze.

"ANNIE! TRICIA!" he yelled in panic, and ran to the bedroom, searching the apartment. They weren't in there, and he checked the bathroom, and then the other bedroom and bathroom. Then he ran back and checked the dining room and kitchen. The girls were gone. The apartment was empty except for Betty, and the destruction seemed to be limited to just the living room. "They're gone! What happened?"

The policeman out in the hall answered. "We don't know. Neighbors just heard a fight, and found the place like this. How did you get in?" He tried approaching the door, but the ward pulsed at him, threatening him back.

Joey scanned the room, trying to piece things together. Tombspawn had said something to him, something about knowing when Joey was going through a trauma. He realized this was just part of a larger plan.

A faint buzzing sound caught his attention, and he centered on it. It came from Annie's purse. He opened the purse and pulled out her cell phone. The screen reported one missed call and a text message. He checked the number and the time it came in. The call came from Tricia's phone. "When did this happen?" he asked the policeman.

"About three hours ago."

Roughly the time I left with Tombspawn and Adamantine. They were taken right when I was gone. The call had come in half an hour ago. "So it's from her phone, but not from her. He's got them. Tombspawn left me a message." He checked the text message. It was a simple instruction.

"If you call the police or EarthGuard, I will kill them."

Chills ran through his body, and he glanced at the policeman and the rescue workers in the hallway. "You two with the stretcher, you can come in and take her," he said, pointing to Betty. "The rest of you stay out."

The policeman tried to argue, but Joey yelled at him. "Rescue only! The ward will let you two in," he said, pointing at the rescue workers. As the policeman stepped aside and let the two EMT in with their stretcher, Joey checked the locator app on Annie's phone. As he loaded the app, the EMTs brought in the stretcher, examined Betty, and lifted her onto the stretcher. Joey heard Betty moan softly as she was lifted. The app opened and showed Tricia's location somewhere in Rockville Maryland, and his own location back home.

His own cell phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and checked it. It was from Tricia's phone.

"Get her out of here!" Joey barked to the EMTs. The two technicians pushed her out the door, past the ward.

"Joey! Let us in!" the policeman said. "We need to examine the place!"

Joey glanced at the ringing phone in his hand. "Sorry," he said. "I can't." He pushed the ward out of the way and closed the door. The policeman pounded and shouted at him from the other side, but Joey ignored him, dropped his dog on the floor, and took the phone out onto the balcony. He took the call.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" he spat into the phone.

"Joseph. You disappoint me." Tombspawn's voice was cold and calm.

"Get used to it, freak! Let them go!"

"You are not in a position to negotiate."

"Yeah, will this isn't a negotiation. This me telling you to drop dead."

"You are quite the bold one. It is a pity that cannot be said for both of your guardians."

Joey could hear them screaming on the other side. Tricia was roaring and shouting, yelling at something, trying to threaten it, but Annie was just simply screaming in terror. He could heard metal banging and crashing, and he clenched his fists in horror. "What are you doing to them?!" he yelled into the phone.

"Keeping them alive, for now. I will not say they are safe. Miss Sanchez is quite the fighter, but Miss Freidman on the other hand..."

"Let them go! I swear to god if you hurt them..."

"As you said, this is not a negotiation. I am merely explaining the situation to you. You have lost, and I require you. I have your guardians and I will not hesitate to kill them if you defy me. You will come to me. You will come alone. You will come now."

"You're not getting anything out of me!"

"I also have some control over EarthGuard. If you contact anyone from EarthGuard for help, I will know immediately, and will kill them instantly. If you do not believe me, check Miss Freidman's phone."

"What are you talking abou..." Annie's phone buzzed in his hand. He checked it. It was a priority message from EarthGuard. It simply said "It is true." Joey stared at it. "How did you..."

"Multiplex suffered a fatal wound, and is under my control. He has proven quite useful," Tombspawn replied dryly. "He is quite interesting. He has positions in every major branch of authority and service. He will know instantly if you contact the police, the Army, the National Guard, anyone really. One instant later I will be informed, and one instant after that, they will be dead."

"The police already know, you son of a bitch. They're standing outside my front door, trying to get in. Whoever your muscle is, they left the front door open."

"I am aware of what they know about. But if they suddenly appear on my doorstep, your guardians will suffer for it. You will have to find a way to avoid them."

"And how am I supposed to do that? They're right outside, waiting for me! There's only one door out of here!"

"You will find a way. I seem to recall there is a balcony, and you have a tendency to jump from great heights."

"I don't have a way to get over there."

Tombspawn paused. "You have until midnight tonight." The phone clicked, and the call ended.

Joey just stood on the balcony and shook in the cold wind. "Oh fuck..." he said to himself. "Oh fuck..." Scrappy whined, empathizing with him. Joey didn't know what to do. The only thing he could think of was to wake up, to find this was all a dream, some horrible nightmare. He wandered back into the living room looking for anything promising, but the more he looked at the apartment and the destruction in it, the more the reality crushed him. Tricia and Annie were gone. They were taken, and in danger.

The sight of Annie's chair broke his heart. He stood there and started crying.

"Oh fuck. What do I do?" The policeman was still banging and shouting at the door, and he couldn't talk to him. He glanced at the cell phone, bringing up the locator app. Tricia's icon sat in Rockville, waiting for him. He couldn't call EarthGuard. He couldn't call the police. He couldn't even open the front door. He just stood there and shook and teared.

His cell phone rang again.

He tried to ignore it. He let it ring several times, clenching his fist over it, letting the rage build inside him until it spilled out in black sparks. Finally he took the call without even looking at the number. "For god's sake, give me a moment you piece of shit!" he spat into the phone.

"Joey?" a woman's voice said. Her voice was oddly familiar.

He caught himself, and checked the number. He didn't recognize it. "Who is this?"

She hesitated. "It's Sophia."

"Sophia?" Joey stood and blinked, trying to place the name. She sounded familiar, like he knew her intimately but couldn't remember where he had met her before. Faint visions of a redhead in a blue dress appeared with the name, but there was no context. "Who is this? Do I know you?"

"We haven't met physically, but we've talked a lot. I've been riding your dreams."

"No, seriously, who is..." Joey started, and then he stopped. He remembered her now. He had been dreaming about her for weeks. Sophia, the beautiful redhead in the blue dress visited him a lot. He remembered her in a Salvation Army shelter, at his school, on a boardwalk, in the hole under the bridge, in his old home, in his bedroom. He remembered the dreams now, and he pieced it together. "Hold it! You're one of them, aren't you? You're with Tombspawn, and Adamantine, and that thing on the bridge! You've got my family! You're holding them hostage!"

"I'm not one of them. I'm one of you."

"You're some psychic, and you've been invading my mind!"

"Only to help you, and I have to admit occasionally you've kicked me out. You've quite a strong willpower. But that's not the issue at hand. I saw what happened to your roommates."

"Where are you? What happened? What did you see?"

"I didn't see it all, but I did see them being carried out by some awful creature. They looked unconscious. The thing that got them, it crawled up the side of the building and took them to the rooftop, and from there I lost sight of it."