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Outsiders Pt. 01

By: sycksycko



My D&D group has a tradition where the player with the lowest level character at the end of a successful game has to pay a forfeit to the player with the highest level character. It's to discourage people from missing out on sessions as that causes a delay in leveling up. Unfortunately, I missed a session and ended up with my friend handing me his character sheet and spell list and asking that I make a story where his D&D character, a sorcerer, walks in the real world of today. I liked the premise and turned it into this series.

I've done my best to write this story in such a way that knowledge or appreciation of Dungeons and Dragons is completely unnecessary to enjoy it. Also, the lead character is a wimp at the beginning, as a slight dig at my friend, but don't let that discourage you, he becomes a badbutt once the overarching plot catches up to him.

*************

Ben Kidder stood up and stretched with a loud groan. His friends and he had just finished a long and very entertaining D&D campaign. They had been playing it every other Saturday night for the past four months in sessions that would last the whole night long. Their characters went from mere peasants in a raided border village to saviors of their small kingdom, leveling up till just shy of epic. He took a deep breath of fresh air that was pouring in through the window he had just opened and carrying away the smell of beer, pizza and Cheetos. Considering all the crap he had gone through since February, this campaign had been a much needed distraction for him.

Ben took his smartphone out of its sleeve and took photos of his character sheet and spell list. He had been playing Dungeons & Dragons, the 3.5 edition, for almost two years now and he had never before managed to reach level 19 like he had with this character, a sorcerer. He had a terrific string of luck with his saving throw rolls during the whole game and he managed to not get killed during the many side quests their characters needed to undertake to save their kingdom.

His friends talked about how Jake had tried to get their adventuring party past a locked door guarded by an anti-magic field and a pair of paladins. He had walked up to the paladins and said, "Phew, what's that stench," and collapsed at their feet, feigning a seizure. It had been a truly ridiculous thing to do, even in the context of the game, and they couldn't stop laughing at it.

"What," Jake protested, sporting a smile. "That's how a stroke victim behaves! They were supposed to pick me up and rush me to a healer and leave the door unguarded! They're fantasy cops! Cops are supposed to help you!" Everyone laughed even harder at Jake's reasoning and Ben turned around to throw his five cents' worth in, holding his character sheet in one hand and his phone, with the photos of the same, in the other.

Ben blinked his eyes open and squinted at the bright, slightly flickering light. He was lying down. He tried to sit up and felt a bit dizzy and nauseated, so he quit. He groaned in misery and tried to see where he was. He saw an elderly woman standing next to him and looking at a beeping monitor. Ben cast his gaze about and realized he was lying in a bed in an emergency room somewhere. He had no idea how he got there, but his body felt like it was the right place for him to be at, right now. The disorientation, nausea and slight pains in his sides reminded him of when he had been a kid and tried to defend the honor of a girl from his class. His chivalry had gotten the shit kicked out of him and the girl later spat in his hair and let him know his efforts had been wholly unwanted.

"What," he croaked and cleared his throat, prompting the old woman in scrubs to look at him. Her eyes looked huge behind her thick glasses. "Where am I?"

"You're in the emergency room, sweetie," said the woman, sounding like a grandmother speaking to her favorite grandchild. She reached out and patted him gently on the shoulder. "You just lie back and rest, sweetie. I'll go tell the doctor that you're awake." The woman made a few notes on a clipboard and hung it on the end of his bed as she left the space around the bed that was enclosed by hanging, blue, plastic curtains.

Ben took a deep breath and felt the pain in his sides fade away. He took another look around, seeing nothing of note, and then tried to sit up again. He still felt a bit woozy, so he gave up and lay back to await the doctor. He had no idea what happened to him and his head started to fill up with various scenarios, each more terrible than the last. Since he couldn't remember what happened and how he got to be in an emergency room, he concluded that he must have suffered a blow to the head. He wiggled his toes and was delighted to feel them moving. Just as he was going to feel up his crotch and check if everything was still there, his friends showed up, crowding around his bed. "Hey," Kurt said, "are you alright, man?"

"I guess," Ben said, comforted by the sight of friendly faces. They looked concerned, but not very frightened or disturbed, so he took some comfort in that. He guessed that whatever happened to him, wasn't all that bad, or he could see it on their faces. "What happened?"

"A fucking bolt of lightning struck you, dude," Jake exclaimed.

"What," Ben asked, squinting at Jake and wondering if this was true or some more of his Jake-ness coming through.

"It's true," Kurt said. "It just struck you, man!" Ben gave his friends a look of disbelief as they repeatedly told him he had been struck by lightning while standing in Kurt's living room. They told him how loud the crack of thunder had been in the room and then started squabbling about the details of the story of how they had rushed him to the hospital.

"How long have I been out," Ben asked.

"I don't know," Kurt said, checking his cellphone, "it's been, like, fifty-five minutes since you got struck. When did you wake up?"

"Just now," Ben said.

The doctor, a young man that looked like he should be in college with them and not treating patients already, showed up and asked Ben's friends to go back to the waiting room while he examined his patient. They shuffled away, calling repeatedly for Ben to get better soon.

"Doc," Ben said, as soon as they were out of sight, "tell me what happened! My friends claim that I was struck by lightning."

"You were," the doctor simply said as he shined a light in Ben's eyes. "Your burns are consistent with a lightning strike. What's the last thing you remember?"

"I was standing in Kurt's living room and joking around with them," Ben said. He then snorted a brief laugh. "Those jackasses are claiming a lightning bolt struck me while I was indoors."

The doctor checked under the bandages on Ben's hands, making Ben notice them for the first time, and said, "It's not completely unheard of. There are certain types of positive lightning that can zip through openings and strike an object that is indoors." The doctor consulted Ben's chart and nodded to himself. "Well, as unlucky as you were to get hit by a rare kind of lightning while indoors, you were also lucky enough to get away without any significant damage. Your burns are minor and looked more severe when I first looked at them. Your arrhythmia has resolved itself and your neurological exam is clean." He hung the clipboard on the foot of Ben's bed. "A nurse will be right over and give you your discharge papers and a prescription for a burn cream." He turned to leave.

"My discharge papers," Ben asked, incredulously. He was starting to feel really scared. How could he be discharged less than an hour after being struck by lightning?

"Yes," the doctor said and paused. "It seems that you have no medical insurance and we can't keep you overnight for observation without it." He glanced guiltily at Ben. "Sorry, hospital policy." With that, he left the screened area around Ben's bed. Ben huffed and looked to the ceiling in frustration. He had been cheated out of his college tuition money by a con artist and, as a consequence, he had to re-route his medical insurance payments into saving up for next semester's tuition. He had even gotten a surprisingly well paid summer job to try and come up with the tuition fees himself.

Going back home to his parents and telling them that he had let the first girl to ever show him any affection swindle him out of their life savings was simply out of the question. They'd be gutted. He decided not to tell them that he got struck by lightning, either. He didn't want his mother to worry herself sick over him. Or come to nurse him back to health. If she did that, Ben felt certain she'd discover his shame.

He lay back and did his best to calm down and suppress his mounting panic. "I'm not going to die tonight," he thought to himself. "If there was a risk of that, they'd keep me here, with or without insurance. They can't afford to risk my family suing them for malpractice." When he calmed down, he took careful stock of himself and was relieved to see that he was basically ok. His aches were gone and he was no longer dizzy. He had bandages on his hands and another bandage over his right shoulder blade, but he didn't really feel any pain coming from the burns under those bandages. It felt more like the itch one feels when a wound is almost done healing. He cast the sheets off of himself.

As soon as he sat up in bed, however, he felt the consequences of his injury. He felt like there were things flowing under his skin. They were flowing from his head down his body until they reached a dead end and then flooded back into his head. The sensations were strange and unprecedented for Ben, but they were not painful. He didn't feel like there were creepy crawlies running around under his skin, this felt more like there were different types of fluids, that didn't mix between themselves, and they just gently sloshed throughout his body. Ben guessed it was a result of the damage the lightning had done to his nerves. As strange as the sensations were, they were much better than having all his nerves scream out in agony and make him addicted to painkillers.

A young nurse came over with a wheelchair and a small envelope. She wordlessly helped Ben transfer from the bed to the wheelchair. Only after his bare ass landed on the seat of the wheelchair did Ben realize he was completely naked under the hospital robe. "Where are my clothes," he asked her.

"We had to cut them off, Mr. Kidder," she said and handed him the envelope. "These are your discharge papers."

"Yeah," Ben said, taking the envelope, "but where are my clothes? And the prescription?"

The nurse heaved a great sigh and exaggeratedly rolled her eyes at the terrible imposition of Ben asking about his clothes. "Wait here," she said and left. Ben sat in the wheelchair, feeling like a dork. The young nurse had spread the blue curtains wider and he could now see out into the E.R. A pair of paramedics wheeled a person lying on a blood-soaked gurney into the E.R. A bunch of people in scrubs congregated around them and wheeled the gurney to a curtained area not too far from Ben's. Ben watched his doctor run over and start issuing orders. It was obviously a touch and go situation with a life hanging in the balance. He had never before in his life seen anything like that, not back home and not here, either. An orderly pulled the curtain shut and obscured Ben's view of the situation. Ben wished them luck. 

As impressive as the efforts to save a life just down the hall from him had been to see, Ben still felt angry at the hospital for throwing him out on his ass like this. The nurse came back with a large paper bag that she put in his lap. He opened it and looked in. "We had to cut your clothes off to determine the extent of your injuries. It's standard procedure," she said. Ben reached into the bag and pulled out a small piece of paper. "That's your prescription." She then undid the brakes on the wheelchair and began to wheel Ben out of the emergency room.

"I can walk," Ben said.

"Hospital policy," she said. Ben let out a loud snort of derision and shook his head in disapproval. He considered it very hypocritical of them to require that he not walk around while in their emergency room, but they were fine with kicking him to the curb less than an hour after he got hit by lightning. He couldn't see into the curtained area where the blood-soaked person was treated, but he could hear beeping alarms and barked orders. It made him feel very lucky in comparison. Sure, he was getting kicked out of a hospital, but he could have had it much worse.

The nurse wheeled him through the waiting room, where his friends were standing around the vending machine, joking about something. They stopped when they saw him and rushed over to ask him how he was. "Eh, I'm ok," he said and shrugged. He winced as the skin tightened over his shoulder blade. The nurse wheeled him out to the sidewalk and his friends followed. The summer night was warm and balmy. 

She put the brakes on the chair and said, "End of the line." Ben twisted his neck and looked up at her. She gestured impatiently for him to stand up. Ben shook his head in silent disapproval and stood up.

"Dude," Jake exclaimed, "your ass is bare!" Ben reached behind himself and managed, despite the bandages, to grab two ends of the hospital gown to keep it shut over his ass and try to protect some of his modesty. He heard soft thuds and urgent, whispered admonitions. "Ow! Ow! Stop it!" The nurse left, taking the wheelchair back inside with her. 

"Can someone, please, give me a ride to my place," Ben asked.

"Sure," Kurt said in response. He ran off towards the parking lot.

Ben turned around and faced his friends, awkwardly standing hunched over to be able to reach the flap he was holding closed over his ass. They stood in an awkward silence for a few moments. "That was a really good game," Sean said. Everyone nodded their heads and agreed.

"Worth getting fried for, too," Jake said. He grunted in pain as he received two elbows to the ribs for it. "Ow! Quit it!"

After they silenced Jake, Ben's friends reminisced at some of the game's highlight over the last few months, trying to cheer up Ben. He grinned. They did have a lot of fun. Ben hadn't been all that big on D&D, originally, but his friends were, and he played along cause he was so glad to have finally made friends when he had first come to the big city to attend college.

He had spent his childhood mostly alone. He never had much trouble making new friends. His parents had raised him to be always polite and friendly and that put his foot in the door with nearly everyone he ever met. He would make friends and then something would always go wrong. If they were girls, they'd get angry after a while, call his respectful behavior weird and start avoiding him, and if they were boys, they'd call the courteous way he talked about girls, even when they weren't around, weird and start avoiding him, too.

It seemed that no matter how well Ben behaved, he never managed to hold on to a friend for more than half a year. All during his childhood, he never had more than two people he counted as friends at the same time. By the time he was a senior in high school, he was his generation's only loner. Every single socially awkward kid managed to get into one clique or another, but none held a place open for Ben. He wasn't shunned by anyone, but no one considered him a close friend, either. He didn't mind it all that much. Most of the people in his home town were single-minded bores, as far as he was concerned.

When he came to college, he didn't know anyone and that made him nervous. He met Sean on his first day and they started running into each other that first week in various classes so they sat down for lunch one day and got to talking. Sean had been really into D&D since his high school days and, when he assembled his D&D group, Ben joined up, mostly out of curiosity. He got the hang of the game's rules in a jiffy and started to enjoy it. For the first time in his life, he found himself part of a group and not just half of a temporary duo. He loved it. Especially since there was no talk of "bitches" during their hangouts.

"I can't wait for the next game," Ben said. They all fell silent at that. The school year was over and everyone except Kurt, who lived in this city, was going home for the summer. Ben was going to miss them terribly. He was also staying in town to work and avoid facing his parents and letting them know of his shame, but just Kurt and him were not going to play D&D. One against the Dungeon Master made no sense. 

"As soon as classes start in the fall, we're meeting up at Kurt's place and doing a campaign I'm working on," Sean said. Everyone nodded and grinned. They talked a bit about what kind of enemies and challenges Sean was going to put in his game and stopped when Kurt drove up with his car.

"Well," Sean said, "looks like it's time to go! I'll take these assholes back to the dorms in my car. Kurt will take you home. What's left of your phone is in his car." Ben grimaced at hearing that. His phone had been expensive. He had only bought it last summer, when they were splitting up and going home, so he could keep in touch with them. His life up until then had been cellphone-free, despite the fact that he was very savvy with electronics. He simply hadn't had that many people he could call. Since he came to college, that changed completely and his phone had more than a hundred numbers in its memory.

The guys avoided shaking Ben's hand, as it was bandaged, and then changed their minds about patting him on the back, too. They waved, promising to stay in touch during the summer.

"Kurt," Jake said, "Ben's gonna put his bare ass on your seat! You better get that car fumigated!" Jake got a clout on the ear from Sean for that comment and the rest dragged him away, saying goodbye to their friends.

Ben rummaged around in the paper bag and found his shredded pants. He lay them over the seat and plopped his ass on it. "You didn't have to do that," Kurt protested.

"Oh, yes I did," Ben said, closing the door. "I'm not gonna sit my bare butt on your seat." Kurt laughed and started to drive Ben to the house he had rented for the summer. He knew where it was, since he and the rest of Ben's friends had helped Ben move there last week. It was a dilapidated shithole in a bad suburb of town, but it was the only thing Ben could afford if he was going to save up the money for tuition in the fall.

The drive was silent, for a few minutes, and then Kurt said, "That was a crazy ass accident tonight, bro." Ben looked at Kurt askance. His tone of voice was weird. At 25, Kurt was five years older than the rest of the group. He had not gone to college originally but, after he had spent a few years working lame jobs under the thumb of incompetent bosses, he realized that higher education was the way to go, so he saved up some money and enrolled. He rented an apartment in town and held down a part-time job and was invariably the host of their little D&D games as every other member of the group had a dorm mate that could not be easily persuaded to let them play the whole night long. Kurt didn't mind hosting. The guys would bring beer and snacks and never made a mess of things. Yet, the older boy now seemed nervous, somehow. "Weird shit. Unpredictable."

"Yeah," Ben said, noncommittally.

"No one could have seen it coming," Kurt said. Ben looked at him in confusion. "You know, it's not something you can plan for, or, or, or take measures against." Kurt took his eyes off the road, for a second, to give Ben a meaningful look. Ben had no idea where Kurt was going with this. "You know what I'm saying?"

"Actually, no," Ben said.

Kurt shook his head in displeasure and sighed. They drove on in silence for a few more minutes. "Your accident happened in my house, man," Kurt said. "Don't sue! I can't afford to pay you anything! I'm barely making ends meet as it is."


Outsiders Pt. 01



"Dude," Ben exclaimed, disturbed by Kurt's pleading tone of voice.

"I'm having trouble making next year's tuition fees," Kurt said. "I'm shopping around for loans, but people aren't impressed with my work history. I've changed too many jobs already. Everything I'm offered is pure crap."

"Yeah, Kurt, I'm," Ben said, trying to stop his friend from panicking.

"I need to get a loan and finish," Kurt said, pleadingly. "People are getting job offers even before graduation! I've gotten some good leads on last semester's job fair! I know I'll land a sweet job, dude! Just, please don't sue me and ruin my chances for a loan! Please! I don't want to wait another year to set my life on the right path."

"For goodness' sake, Kurt," Ben exclaimed, stopping the man from sobbing. "I'm not gonna sue you! It's not your fault I got hit by lightning!"

"Yeah, I know that," Kurt said, "but if you file a suit, they want me to put it on my application. If I don't, I'm disqualified, and if I do, I'm fucked, too! Please don't sue!"

"I won't sue you, Kurt," Ben said. "Seriously, I won't! Why would I?"

"People sue all the time," Kurt said. "They just see free money and go for it!"

"Kurt," Ben yelled, putting his hand on the distressed man's shoulder when he stopped at a red light. His hand hurt a little. "It's me, Ben! I'm not going to sue you!"

Kurt looked at Ben for a few moments before saying, "Promise?"

"Yes, I promise. I'm your friend, I'm not gonna sue. What happened to me was not your fault in any way. Don't sweat it. Besides, if I did sue, no one would rule in my favor and I'd be stuck with the cost of the trial and lose a good friend."

Kurt leaned over to give Ben a hug, but Ben winced as his hand landed on his shoulder blade. "Ow," Ben said, "that's still a little tender!"

Kurt pulled back and quickly said, in a panicked voice, "Sorry!"

"It's ok," Ben said, "I won't sue you for it." They both burst out in tension-draining laughter. "Provided you get me home in one piece." Ben gestured out the windscreen. "The light's green."

Kurt put the car in gear and drove on to Ben's suburb. They joked about some of the dumber things Jake had tried to do in the game and shared a few laughs at his expense. What passed for logic in his head was truly entertaining at times. About a mile away from his house, Ben started to feel a sensation of hunger and boredom in his head. He wasn't feeling hungry, or bored, but he did feel those sensations, as if he was gleaning them from someone else's mind. He sighed and his mood darkened. It was obviously some kind of consequence of the lightning strike. "Great," he thought to himself, "I've got brain damage and no insurance to get it fixed with."

Kurt drove up to Ben's place and parked. He looked around and sighed. "This fucking neighborhood looks even worse after dark," he said. "Man, I wish I had room for you back at my place."

"Don't sweat it," Ben said. He didn't entertain the idea of trying to guilt trip Kurt into letting him move in with him and split the rent because half of Kurt's rent would only be forty dollars a month less than what Ben was already paying and the cramped quarters would definitely cost them their friendship. Ben's house was much bigger than Kurt's place and, if it wasn't in such a bad neighborhood and so far out of his way as he went back and forth between his regular, part time workplace and his new summer job, Kurt would probably be the one to try and move in with Ben. As it was, Ben got out of Kurt's car, inadvertently mooning him, and they said their goodbyes. 

"Call me tomorrow and let me know you're alright," Kurt said.

"Bye," Ben called after Kurt's car. He looked out at the breaking dawn and sighed, stuffing the remains of his pants into the bag. "What a night." He unlocked his door and went in, noticing that his hand was feeling much better now. He locked the door behind himself.

"Hey, Boss, where ya been so long," a soft, purring voice asked of Ben, making him drop the bag of his shredded clothes and scream in surprise and fright. He crouched and looked around himself in alarm. "You all right there, Boss?" 

"Who's there," Ben asked. The voice wasn't coming from anywhere around him. It was simply materializing in his mind. His heart was beating like crazy, making him feel like he was going to have a heart attack.

His cat, Felix, stepped into the shaft of pale light coming from one of the windows and looked up at him with his amber eyes opened wide. "Just me, Boss," the voice said.

As Ben stared at his orange tabby looking up at him, the paragraphs of the Player's Handbook that pertained to familiars came to mind. It was as if he was subconsciously using some kind of sixth sense, or skill he didn't even know he had, and it told him that his cat was his familiar. "I think I'm going insane," Ben muttered to himself.

Felix's head tilted and the voice said, "Well, before you go all the way, Boss, could you pour me some kibble? Or, maybe, open one of those small cans of fish? I'm really hungry, Boss!"

"This is not happening," Ben yelled at his cat. "I am not hearing your voice and you are not my familiar!"

Felix looked away for a moment and then looked back up at Ben. "Is this a game we're playing, Boss," the voice asked. "Cause I prefer the game where you tie a piece of string to a piece of foil and then drag it across the floor for me to chase." Felix lifted a paw and swatted the air. "And swat at. I know it's silly, Boss, but-"

"Shut up," Ben yelled, pointing at his cat.

Felix sat back on his haunches. "Shutting up now, Boss," said the voice.

Ben's bandaged hands closed into fists, as best as they could, and he raised them to his head, pressing them against his temples. He let out a moan of pain that slowly turned into a whine of denial. "No," he said firmly. "No, this is not happening. I am not doing this. I am not going to speak with my cat. I mean, what's next? I start screaming at animals in the street? Get myself locked up in the loony bin?" Ben laughed giddily as he stood up straight. "Noooo, thank you! And no more talking to myself, either!"

Ben bent over to pick up the bag of shredded clothes when the voice purred, "Well said, Boss! You better keep quiet or they might haul you away. Particularly if you go out in that outfit." Ben ignored the voice and went into the kitchen to get his cat some food. "Whoah, I just saw the back of this thing! Your ass is hanging out, Boss! Why on Earth did you go out with your ass hanging out!? Is this part of some kind of weird human mating ritual?"

"I am not speaking to my cat," Ben began chanting. He was having a hard time hanging on to his composure.

"Well, it's not polite to just ignore me, Boss," the voice said.

"I am not speaking to my cat," Ben chanted as he set the paper bag on the counter. "I am not speaking to my cat," Ben chanted as he opened the refrigerator. "I am not speaking to my cat," Ben chanted as he took out a can of cat food. "I am not speaking to my cat," Ben chanted as he opened the can.

"Oooh, yes, please, Boss," said the voice. "Listen, could you, please, warm it up a little? I love the stuff, but it'd taste so much better if it was warm, you know? Like a fresh kill?" Ben stood still and looked at Felix excitedly raising first one paw and then another. It was the cat's version of skipping excitedly from one leg to another. "Oh, please, please, just stick it in the microwave for a few seconds, Boss!" Felix jumped up on the counter and put his paws on the microwave. "Just set it to defrost and run it for fifteen seconds, please!" Ben looked at Felix's pleading eyes. "Look, here! I'll even set it!" Ben's jaw dropped in shock as Felix used his front right paw to press the buttons on the microwave and program it to defrost for fifteen seconds. "Naw, let's make it half a minute to be sure." Felix again pressed the buttons needed to program the microwave to defrost for thirty seconds. "I just need you to open the door and put the food on one of those plates you have, that are microwave friendly, and then put it in the microwave. Please, Boss?"

Felix looked into Ben's eyes expectantly for a pregnant moment. Ben shook his head and told himself that what he was thinking was madness. His cat had jumped up on the counter and randomly pressed a few buttons on the microwave oven, that was all. And he was hallucinating voices. There was no way Felix was his familiar.

"Okay," the voice said, "look! I'll even open the oven." Felix stood on his hind legs and hooked his front paws in the door handle of the microwave. After a few seconds, the door popped open and Felix batted it wide open. "I'll even close the door and start the program." Felix put his paw on the start button. "All you gotta do is dump the food on the plate. Can't put the tin in the oven, Boss." Felix sat back on his haunches and looked up at Ben expectantly. "Please, it tastes so much better when it's warm. Please, heat it up for me!" Ben could only stare in shock. "Just put it on the plate, Boss." Felix walked across the counter. "They're in this cupboard, right?" Felix stood on his hind legs and put his front paws on the handle of the cupboard that Ben was indeed using to store his microwave friendly plates, among other things.

"This is all just coincidence," Ben feebly said.

"Ok, Boss," the voice said, "it's a happy coincidence that I'm very, very hungry and you've got a can of food in your hand. Let's make use of it!"

"Ok," Ben said to his cat, "if you're really my familiar, then you can understand what I'm saying, right?"

"Affirmative, Boss," the voice said, as Felix was sitting down on the countertop.

"Twitch your left ear," Ben said.

"Twitching my left ear, Boss," the voice said and Felix began twitching his left ear.

"Jump down to the floor and walk around me, counterclockwise for six laps," Ben said.

"Roger that, Boss," the voice said and Felix hopped off the counter. The purring voice counted off each counterclockwise lap the cat took around Ben. "One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six."

Ben was completely stumped. His cat was behaving in complete accord with the voice he was hearing. More worryingly than that, he could feel the hunger and excitement that the cat was feeling. Ben put the cat food on a plate he got from the cabinet and put the plate in the open microwave. "Yes," the voice hissed and Felix jumped up on the counter. The cat shut the microwave door with his head and pressed the start button with his front paw. He sat down in front of the oven, watching the transparent door with keen interest. "This is gonna be so fine."

Ben shook his head and again dismissed the ludicrous notion that his cat was his familiar, like in a game of D&D. "I've been up all night, I've had more than a few beers and I've been struck by lightning," he thought to himself. "And all that's on top of the stress of having been swindled out of my tuition fees and keeping it from my parents. No wonder I'm hallucinating. I just need some sleep, that's all. I'll feel so much better after I get some sleep."

He went to the bedroom and stripped off the hospital gown. He was already barely resisting the urge to sleep. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he fell asleep.

When Ben woke up, the Sun was just setting outside. He stretched in bed and groaned. His sleep had been very restful but he could still feel the strange, flowing feelings inside of him. He also felt the sensations of someone else's boredom and hunger like he had felt last night, when Kurt had been driving him home. 

He sat up in bed and ripped the restrictive wrappings from his hands. He reached around and ripped off the cloth that was taped to his shoulder blade. Right after he did that, he froze. Those were bandages. He was supposed to keep his burns bandaged. He looked at his unmarred hands in shock. There was no sign on them that anything untoward had happened the night before. He stood up and went to the mirror on the wall, craning his neck to examine the skin over his shoulder blade. It, too, was unblemished. Ben was stumped. Didn't he have burns there last night?

He heard voices faintly in the background and wiped his face in confusion. He had honestly been hoping that things would get better after a good night's sleep, but the way his burns had healed was a bit much. It was frightening. The voices he was hallucinating were very frightening. 

Ben didn't have the time to dwell on his situation as he heard the distinct "tsch" sound of changing channels. He realized he had not just hallucinated voices. He had heard the TV in the den. He felt no joy at the revelation since this meant that there was someone in his den, changing channels. He remembered that he had promised Kurt to call and let him know he was ok. He told himself that it was Kurt, who had come over, concerned that Ben hadn't called, and decided to stay and watch over him, but he feared it was burglars. There had been a string of burglaries on his street last month and the cops were doing fuck all about it. He wanted to call the cops, but remembered his phone had been fried in his hand that night, when he had been struck by lightning. His shitty place had no landline installed.

He stood in his bedroom, uncertain of how to proceed, for a long time. Finally, he couldn't stand not knowing who was changing the channels in the den, so he slowly crept out of the bedroom and down the hall. He asked himself, if it was burglars, why would they stay in his house with him just yards away, asleep? He decided to be extra quiet, just to be safe. He had never before in his life managed to be so quiet as he did now, creeping down the hall. He came to the door of the den and peered in. He saw no one but Felix, who was lying on the armrest of the couch and pressing the remote's buttons with his paw. "Stupid fucking cat," Ben said, angry that his pet caused him so much anguish and walked over to snatch up the remote.

"And a good morning to you too, Boss," Felix replied, making Ben jump away in fright and shriek. "You scream like a little girl, Boss."

"You can talk," Ben shouted.

"Well, yeah," Felix said, somewhat confused, "I'm your familiar. Familiars can talk to their masters, if the masters are experienced enough sorcerers or wizards. Didn't we go over this already, Boss? Like, early this morning?"

Ben grabbed his head and walked up and down his hallway, saying, "No, no, no, this can't be! You are not my familiar and I am not a witch!"

"Of course you're not a witch, Boss," Felix said, following him. "You're a sorcerer. And quite a powerful one at that!"

"Oh, yeah," Ben snarled at his cat. He was angry that he wasn't getting any better after sleeping. He was still hallucinating a voice for his cat. He was even angrier that he had been taken for his parents' savings earlier in the year. That wound had time to fester and was only getting worse as the deadline for the tuition check was getting closer. Some of that anger was now spilling out. "Let's see that, then!" He rushed over to the kitchen and retrieved the paper bag of torn clothing. He brought it back to the den and dumped out its contents on the floor. He knew he was acting crazy, trying to make a point to his cat, but he couldn't stop himself. All of his anger and frustrations were building up for months now, threatening to overwhelm him. Letting loose like this and screaming at his cat was much better than going nuts in public at a later date. "Let's see if the powerful sorcerer can cast something like a, like a simple Mending cantrip and fix his favorite T-shirt!"

Just as Ben had said those words and picked up the Superman T-shirt he had worn the night before, one of the flowing things under his skin singled itself out. Guided by a knowledge he didn't know he possessed, his hands dropped the T-shirt and wrung themselves while intertwining their fingers. He whispered out some strange syllables and felt the flowing thing burst forth from him. The T-shirt was made whole in an instant, prompting Ben to squeal in fright.

"That's cool, Boss," Felix said, not sounding very impressed.

Ben felt the things inside of him stop flowing. He picked up the T-shirt and gaped at it. It had been sliced open down the front, from collar to hem and down the sleeves, yet now it was whole. He couldn't believe it. He looked down at the rest of his cut clothes, his boxers and his pants. He felt the things flow through his body again and let his hands wring in the now familiar gesture while he intoned the syllables to again summon the particular flowing thing. It burst forth from him and his boxers were made whole. Ben again felt the things flowing through him stop for a few seconds and then resume. He repeated the procedure with his pants and then tossed his boxers in the dirty laundry hamper. He put on a clean pair of undies and the superman T-shirt and pants from last night.

"Say, Boss," Felix said, "I'm kinda hungry. I haven't eaten all day. Could you feed me again?"

Ben ignored his cat's demand and walked around the house, just staring down at the clothes on his body in disbelief. One of the things that he could feel flowing through his body since he had woken up in the hospital did this. It made absolutely no sense. 

His fears and worries started to fade into the background and he began to feel giddy with excitement for the first time in months. This was something else entirely. Something without precedent, but very, very good. He stood still and concentrated on the things flowing inside of him, intent on seeing what else was in him. He immediately felt that there were forty-two separate things flowing through him. He understood that those were magic spells. Forty-two different magic spells were inside his body, ready to be unleashed upon the world if he so chose. He couldn't believe it, but there it was. Magic was flowing through his body.

As soon as he thought about casting a fireball, one of the flowing things separated itself from the others and he immediately understood the gestures and intonations he'd need to cast it. He also knew he needed some bat guano and sulfur as a material focus for the spell. He put that spell on the back burner for the time being. Felix kept nagging him for food so he went to the kitchen and took another can of cat food out of the fridge. Just as he reached for the oven door to heat it up for his familiar, he had an idea that made him pause in thought.

Another of the flowing things answered his mental call and reared up. It was Prestidigitation, a zeroth level cantrip, just like Mending, but one that produced a ton of cool effects in his immediate vicinity and lasted for an hour. He made the gestures and sounds and the spell flowed out of him. He made the food in the can be body temperature and set it down on the floor in front of Felix. Felix murmured a thank you as he took his first bite of food. Ben had always thought of the spell as one that was severely underrated. He used it to make colored balls of light float around in the air in front of him. He grinned and then changed the effect of the spell into a small whirlwind that swept up all the dust and dirt it could find. He walked around the whole house, directing the small whirlwind until it had gathered up all the dirt and dust there was. He opened the door and directed the little whirlwind out to release the surprisingly large amount of dirt into the dumpster.

Going back into the house, Ben felt a bit hungry himself and he took out his jar of Graham crackers. He used the Prestidigitation spell to make each cracker taste differently and had a healthy feast tasting mostly of tropical fruit and chocolate fudge. By the time he was full, he still had twenty minutes of the spell duration left. He decided to use it on his dirty laundry and made it all clean with time to spare. After that, he shrugged and let it run its course by making tinkling, ethereal music.




Outsiders Pt. 01



He took stock of his situation. His clothes were all clean and his whole house was, too. He and his cat were both well fed. The magical spells flowing inside him made him as giddy as a schoolchild, but he was a man grown and questions were piling up in his mind, waiting for the rush of novelty to wear off so they could get their turn. He needed to know if his magical power came with a price and what that price was. No one ever got anything without giving up something in return.

Ben sat down at his desk and began to make a list of the spells that were coursing through his body. The knowledge of the spells just appeared in his mind, as if the spells themselves were instructing him. Every spell told him it had a vocal component, meaning they had to be cast by speaking magical words. Nearly all of them also had a somatic component, which meant that he'd have to make the appropriate gestures to release them. Some also had a material component to them and that meant he'd need something to use as a focus for casting them. The Fireball spell, for instance, required a ball of bat guano and sulfur. Ben sighed unhappily at the thought of waving his arms around and straining his voice box to cast a spell. Those weren't exactly discreet requirements.

He finished his list within minutes and looked at it in suspicion. The forty-two items on it made up a strangely familiar list of D&D spells. Ben's jaw dropped as he realized those forty-two spells were the exact same spells his sorcerer character had in the game he and his friends had finished last night, just minutes before he had been hit by lightning. In fact, he had been holding his character sheet and spell list in one hand and his phone with photos of the same in the other, when he had been struck by lightning.

Ben realized he had been transformed into his character by the lightning strike. There was no other possible explanation for it. "Well," he told himself, running his hand over his T-shirt, "I could just be suffering from an elaborate delusion, but I don't think so." The fact that his burns had magically healed up in hours was further proof of it. His character had the Regeneration feat, a house-ruled feat in his group of friends, that allowed for a character to spontaneously heal 5 hit points of physical damage per hour.

He knew he should be very worried about his transformation, but he couldn't quite let go of the wonder and joy his magic instilled in him. They kept bubbling up and taking over. "Real magic," he said aloud. "I've actually got actual, frakking magic. Wow!" Somehow, he had been chosen to receive this wonderful gift and that thought made him gloss over all the weirdness. Deep down inside, he started to feel special, for the very first time in his life.

His spirits soared in joy as he realized he could undo his current, financial predicament with a careful application of some of the spells he now knew. He probably didn't even need to work ever again in his whole life, not with actual magical power at his disposal. Ben's laugh and mirth settled down as he took a good look at his spell list. 

If he was really a sorcerer, then he was stuck with the spells he knew. He couldn't just pick up the spell section of the Player's Handbook and use it as a grimoire, casting spells at will. "Fudge," he whispered bitterly, noticing the first drawback of his newfound power. There were some very nifty and useful spells in the Handbook, but he couldn't cast them. His spells were mostly meant for destruction, with a large area of effect. His character's in-game nickname had been Air Force, cause he'd cast the Fly spell on himself and then rain destruction on their enemies from above.

He remembered his character could only cast one spell per turn. He had felt the spells stop flowing through him for a few seconds after each casting, so he concluded that was how that D&D restriction manifested itself in the real world. A three-second cool down period. He shrugged. In exchange for actual magical power, it was more than acceptable.

Ben took another look at the spell list. His spell list. The spells on it were divided into ten levels, ranging from zero to nine, according to their power. Zeroth level spells were small and quaint, like the ones he had already used, and Wish and Time Stop were the ninth level spells he knew. As a sorcerer, he didn't have to prepare spells, or pray for them, he'd just cast them at will.

His spells were flowing inside him and he merely had to use the magical words, and gestures and material foci where needed, to draw them out of him and into the real world. He had no idea how to make any other magic happen.

He was limited as to how many times he could cast spells of certain strength per day. For each spell level, he had an exact number of castings per day, but total freedom as to which of his known spells he could cast and how often. He could, for instance, cast ninth level spells only four times before he needed to get a full night's rest. That meant that he could cast four Wish spells, or four Time Stops, or any combination of the two. He couldn't cast five ninth level spells in a day.

The only way for him to cast a spell more often that his set limit was to use up his ability to cast a spell of a higher level. He had 64 castings of spells in a day, divided up between spell levels. He couldn't use more than 4 of the 64 castings he had in him to cast the ninth level spells, but he could use all 64 castings to cast a tiny spell like Mending, that he had used to fix his clothes this morning. He concentrated on that spell to see if he could use it to make money.

"Fudge," he muttered into his chin in disappointment. It was quite limited. He could only seamlessly fix one item per casting, provided the item weighed less than one pound. His thin, summer pants had barely squeezed in under the limit. He guessed he might be able to use the spell to fix women's clothes, or shoes, but he didn't really have the time to go and build up a repairs business from scratch. Not if he was going to make the fall semester tuition deadline.

Ben found himself asking the question of whether or not he was going to actually go on with his college education. He had magical power, there was no need for him to get an education and a career. He suspected he could have anything he ever wanted, he'd just have to think up a way to use his spells to achieve it. He pulled the plug on that line of thinking pretty quick. There were too many unknowns about his sudden transformation into an honest-to-goodness sorcerer. It came to him without warning, or provocation, and it might leave just as sudden. He'd be wise to actually finish college and get a degree and then find a job.

He found himself wishing he had his character's profession, a jeweler. As soon as he thought that, he realized he knew how to work with jewelry. His jaw dropped. He took the Player's Handbook off the shelf by the desk and looked up the chapter on skills. To the best of Ben's ability to recollect, he had put nineteen ranks into the Profession: jeweler skill of his character and that meant that, depending on how a twenty-sided die rolled, he could make between 10 and 20 gold pieces a week by working as a jeweler. He didn't know how to convert gold pieces to dollars. But he did know how to work with jewelry. He toyed with the idea of quitting his high paying but very stressful IT job and looking for work in a jeweler's, but he decided to first see everything else that he had at his disposal.

He reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a blank character sheet. He tried to recall the exact statistics, skills, feats and abilities his character had had and set them down in writing. It took him a while to be one hundred percent sure about the exact numbers in every category, but he took an extended trip through his memories of the game and finally felt sure he had listed everything. He smiled as he remembered his character had the Silent Spell and the Still Spell metamagic feats. They allowed for him to cast spells without chants or movements, but he had to use up a spell slot reserved for a higher level spell to cast them with and the casting would last longer than usually.

As far as ways to make money in the real world, his option were few. He had the Wish spell which allowed him to work miracles and even undo death. He could also use it to create something that's worth up to 25000 gold pieces, but it cost 5000 experience points to cast. Ben had no idea what experience points were in real life and he decided he'd never like to find out if they translated to memories. He didn't want to trade memories or knowledge for a thing. For the same reason he discounted his skills in crafting potions and magical items. They all cost experience points as well. Ben couldn't imagine any magic item or potion that was worth him becoming an amnesiac, or worse.

The rest of his skills made him very capable in recognizing magic at a mere glance, which was probably why he had immediately identified Felix as his familiar, keeping his cool under fire and bluffing. As in lying. He had 22 ranks in the Bluff skill. In the game, it had made him a very convincing liar. His hopes floundered. He didn't exactly know how to make money by just plain lying and he didn't particularly want to. That had been Krista's thing.

He had the spell Ethereal Jaunt on his spell list and it allowed for him to make himself invisible and intangible and able to pass through solid objects and living things. He could cast it on himself and float into a bank vault to help himself to as much cash as he wanted. He sighed and shook his head, disapprovingly. That would be stealing and Mr. and Mrs. Kidder didn't raise a thief.

Ben sighed in frustration. There were so many nice and useful spells in the manual and he was stuck with these. "Darn," Ben mumbled. If he had known he'd get struck by lightning, he would have picked different spells. "But if I had picked different spells, we wouldn't have gotten so far along in the game and we probably wouldn't have gotten together last night to play in the first place. Darn it!"

A well fed and happy Felix jumped up on Ben's desk and licked away at his own whiskers. "Now, this here is where things abandoned all semblance of logic and rules," Ben said, looking at his cat. "I can kind of get that I'm transformed into a sorcerer, lightning struck me, but how come you're transformed into my familiar? I didn't do what the book says I should do to get a familiar. I have to spend 100 gold pieces worth of magical materials and meditate for 24 hours to get a familiar. I didn't do that with you."

"Actually, you kinda did, Boss," Felix said, "if I've been able to piece together your story with Krista correctly."

"Wait, what do you mean," Ben asked.

"Well, Krista got you to give her access to your bank account," Felix said, "and she cleaned you out. Took twenty thousand dollars, right, Boss?"

"Twenty thousand seven hundred and two dollars and sixty-three cents," Ben replied.

"Right, that much," Felix said. "And after she took all that dough, she left you in your dorm room to spend the following day just daydreaming about the kitten you were going to get from the shelter - me - and how taking care of that kitten was finally going to get you into her pants, right, Boss? Seems to me that fulfilled the requirements. You meditated for a day and you got taken for at least 100 gold pieces."

Ben chewed on his lip in frustration. Felix's theory sounded plausible, but it hardly registered on his mental radar. Thoughts of Krista took up all his concentration. Krista had been the hottest chick to ever speak to him in person. Ben had rarely managed to gather up the nerve to ask girls out and, whenever he did, they'd laugh at him like he was some kind of freak for even thinking he was worthy of dating them. He could never understand their behavior. He had been nice, courteous, even chivalrous towards them and they'd act like he was a leper if he tried to be more than a friend.

Krista had been different. She had treated him like a human being. She had even laughed at his jokes and agreed to go out with him. He had been giddy whenever he was with her and anxious to see her whenever they had parted. He had been so sure she'd be his first girl that he had glossed over the fact that she had asked him for his social security number to put on a form to adopt a kitten. After she had left with his parents' money, he had spent days pining after her, not even suspecting for a moment that she might have robbed him. When he finally found out the truth, he was gutted.

Krista had toyed with him for weeks, expertly spinning him around her little finger. He hadn't even gotten to kiss her properly on the lips once in all that time. She had teased him to the point of madness, conned him out of his college tuition money and then vanished right before Valentine's Day, leaving him with a kitten that would grow up to become Felix, his talking familiar. She also used his social security number and personal information to take out a number of credit cards in his name and maxed them all out in record time.

As gutted as he had been at finding out that she had robbed him, he had immediately suspected that she might have done the credit card thing as well and reacted quickly. He had gotten in touch with a law office that did pro bono work with victims of credit card fraud and they wasted no time in confirming his suspicions. They also helped him clear his name, which was easy as he was the one that reported the abuse in the first place. He now had a clean credit history, but he had had to wait weeks for all the paperwork to go through and make it official.

That time had been pure hell for him as he kept envisioning the evil credit firms laughing in his face and demanding he pay for Krista's spending. He had had nightmares about them threatening to call his parents if he didn't pay and he had nothing to pay them with. Fortunately, all of those fears had been unfounded.

After he had gotten the all clear, he felt a sense of relief, but it was short-lived. He was still broke and his fears gave way to his self-recriminations. He felt like an idiot for having trusted her and for not realizing he was being played. He would reproach himself for thinking that he was someone a beautiful, young woman like Krista, if that was even her real name, would ever waste her time on. Then he would try to convince himself that it wasn't his fault that he had trusted a fellow human being and that the whole thing was entirely her fault for having robbed him. He'd never quite manage to sell himself that particular pitch, no matter how well reasoned he could make it.

Ben shook his head, as if to clear the dark thoughts that were gathering inside, and said, "Yeah, that's about right. Twenty thousand seven hundred and two dollars and sixty-three cents and a day of dreams." His anger was rising. "That's what she took from me. My money, my dreams and my future. That darn...!" He growled in frustration and wrath. He swept the knickknacks off his desk, sending them flying every which way about the room.

Felix crouched down on his corner of the desk in alarm. "Well, Boss, if that's how you feel," Felix said, "then I guess we'll talk about this a little later."

"Talk about what," Ben barked out, still in the grips of his impotent rage.

"Oh, nothing much, Boss, just the fact that I'm a girl cat," Felix said, "and not a tomcat."

"What?"

"Yeah," Felix drawled. "I was gonna say something this morning, but you looked so tired, Boss, and I was so hungry. Anyway, I'm not a boy cat, I'm a girl cat." Ben stared at his familiar. "Just thought you should know, Boss. You know? In case you wanna give me a girl's name, or something. Cause, I've recently discovered that Felix is a strictly boy name, not a unisex name." Ben shifted in his seat. "So, if you wanted to give me a female name, I'd be cool with it, but you don't have to, Boss! Felix is perfectly fine with me, Boss." Felix looked nervously at her stone-faced master. "I mean, why'd I want a stinking girl's name? Pfffft, girls! Heh, fucking bitches, amirite, Boss? Eh?"

Ben kept looking at his cat familiar in silence for a few more seconds, just sensing the growing fear in her. It made him feel profoundly uncomfortable. He never liked the idea of causing pain or suffering. He never wanted to scare people. A part of him did want to hurt a girl, he realized, but for all of his frustration and anger at the rejection he'd suffered at the hands of the females of his species, he only really wanted to hurt one girl. Krista. If he had her in his grasp right now, he'd punish her. He'd punish the living daylights out of her. And he'd get her to give him back the money she stole.

He looked down at his character sheet and saw the spell called Discern Location. It allowed for him to know the exact location of a person he had seen. The previous spell on the list was Greater Teleport, a spell that allowed him to instantly teleport himself and up to six other willing people to any location he could envision in enough detail. The two spells had been instrumental in finishing the campaign with his friends and now he realized he could use them to win in real life, too. He jumped in his seat and laughed out loud. He was going to go and get Krista and have his vengeance on her for robbing him and leaving him to stew in fear for weeks.

Felix crouched even lower at Ben's laughter and meekly chuckled. "Right," the cat said. "Let's just pretend I didn't say anything."

Ben got his laughter under control and waved at Felix. "Oh, relax, would you," he said. "I'm not angry at you." Felix sighed in relief. "There's only one person I'm angry with, Felix, and I'm gonna go and get her, right now!" Ben giggled gladly and rubbed his hands together.

"Oh, cool," Felix said.

"As for your name," Ben said, "what would you want it to be?"

"Um, I dunno," Felix said.

"How about... Felicia," Ben asked.

The cat cocked her head and said, "Yeah. I like it. Felicia. That'd be a great name!"

"Alright then," Ben said. "You're Felicia from now on!"

"Thanks, Boss," Felicia said. "So, what's the plan with this girl that took your money?" Ben tapped a spell on his spell list and smiled smugly. Felicia lowered her head towards the paper and then looked up at him. "Dominate Person. What's that do?"

"Exactly what it says," Ben said. "It allows me to dominate a person's mind for nineteen days through a telepathic link that it establishes. My character had used it a few times in our campaign. If I concentrate on the dominated person's mind, I can even know what they are doing and experiencing. It's not like I was right there with them, but I can get a good enough sense of what's going on and how they're reacting to it."

"Do you think you will be able to dominate Krista's mind," Felicia asked. "She's got to have a sharp wit, if she's so slick a con artist at her age."

Ben snorted dismissively. "Of course I can dominate her mind. The spell has a range of 70 feet, so I don't even have to be in the same room as her to do it. All she has to do is not have a strong enough willpower to defend against it. If the stats from the game are to be believed, then Krista would need to get real lucky to not fall prey to it. Like, top five percent lucky." Ben frowned and squinted in remembrance. "Or be really, really wise. The wisdom stat gives bonuses to willpower rolls. Hm, I don't think Krista is wise enough. Besides, even if she manages to resist the spell once, I can cast fifth level spells seven times a day and I can use the slots for the higher level spells to cast it, too. Unless she can slip out of my mental grasp some twenty-odd times, she's mine!" Ben laughed gleefully.

"Once you get her, she's yours for nineteen days," Felicia asked, "to do with her as you like, no limits?"




Outsiders Pt. 01



"Well, no," Ben said, "there are some small limitations. I can't give her an obviously self-destructive order, such as killing or maiming herself, but I can make her do pretty much anything else that I wish. The only way to break free of the domination is for me to give instructions that are against the person's strongest beliefs, but even then, they only get another roll of the dice with their odds being slightly better."

"Meh, sounds like she's done for either way, Boss," Felicia said.

"Oh, heck yes she is," Ben said. "First, I have to cast Discern Location and then Greater Teleport to get to her, but then she's toast!"

"This is exciting," Felicia said. "I've heard you talk about her so often, I'm glad to finally be able to meet her!"

"Hush now," Ben said. "I've got to cast this spell."

"Sorry, Boss," Felicia said and sat down on the desktop.

Ben went over the mental inventory of the spell and nodded to himself. "This takes ten minutes," he said.

"Roger that, Boss," Felicia said.

Ben began to cast. His hands moved through the air in intricate patterns and his voice hummed the magic words for ten whole minutes as he kept the memory of Krista's smiling face first and foremost in his mind. As he chanted, his anger faded away. His mind was clearing with each repetition of the chant and the smiling face he was concentrating on started to make him feel anxious to see her in person and finally touch her.

Why shouldn't he? She had stolen from him, it would only be right for him to steal a few gropes and kisses back from her, as interests for the stolen funds. Maybe he'd even use her to finally get rid of his virginity. He smiled and tried to guess what prostitutes charged so he could come up with a number of sexual services Krista would have to perform for him in the name of interests on his parents' stolen money. The image of her, naked and on her knees before him as she looked up at him with her eyes open wide in awe, gave him a boner and threatened to ruin his concentration.

He focused anew on the chanting and kept her face foremost in his mind. He didn't want to blow the casting halfway through. As he rearmed himself with resolve and cleared his mind of all thoughts of sexually exploiting Krista, his mother's voice echoed in his mind. She had raised him to always be respectful of women and to never even think of infringing on their rights. If she had any idea of what he was thinking about doing to Krista, her heart would break into a million pieces. Ben forced that line of thinking out of his mind and refocused on Krista's face. He kept the spell going, but the thought of how terribly his planned actions would disappoint his mother was bouncing around in his skull, unwilling to be extinguished.

By the time the casting was finished, he had fallen into a strange, trance-like state. The knowledge of where Krista was just came to him, as naturally as if he was reading it in a book. She was in room 6 of a motel just outside of Phoenix, Arizona. The spell gave him the exact address of the place.

Now, all he needed was to get a picture of the place in his mind and he'd be able to instantly teleport there with the spell of Greater Teleport. He flipped open his laptop and waited nervously for it to power up. "I am going to get her," he said. "I am so going to get her!" Even as he said those words, he felt like he was betraying every principle he was raised to hold dear and invalidating all the sacrifices his parents had made for him. Normally, he wouldn't have even considered such a thing, but Krista had that effect on him. The very thought of her overwhelmed his mind with so much raw emotion that holding on to reason and sanity became a challenge.

"Roger that, Boss," Felicia said.

The computer finished booting up and Ben went online to look up the name of the motel. He got a few hits and one of them was the place's official website. Ben clicked through the galleries to get a clear enough picture of the place for use in the Greater Teleport spell. Once he did that, he began to feel quite a bit nervous about seeing Krista again.

He decided to go through the spell descriptions in the Player's Handbook again, just to be sure there were no loopholes or details overlooked. If his spell failed, unlike the regular Teleport spell, which he had never even picked for his character, there were no consequences, he'd just be back in his chair. If it worked, he'd be at the motel to get Krista and then he'd just teleport back to his place. He was glad to have checked the spell description as it stated that he can only teleport willing persons that are touching either him directly, or touching someone else that is touching him and also willing to teleport. He needed to first dominate Krista and then order her to teleport with him.

As he focused on his Dominate Person spell, he realized the casting time for it was six seconds, not the standard three. He couldn't count on Krista standing still for that time and not leaving the spell's range. She'd probably come closer to him if she saw him waving his arms around and mumbling strange syllables. She'd flip her dark hair, fix those bright, green eyes of hers on him and her high cheekbones would get just a tad more prominent as the corners of her mouth curled upwards in her signature half grin, half smirk. His heart raced a bit as he envisioned coming face to face with her again.

He wiped his hands on his pant legs and did his best to calm down and plan for all contingencies. He decided he'd cast Greater Invisibility on himself before he teleported to the motel. That way, nobody would ever see him. Not even Krista as he would be attempting to seize her mind. Just as he thought about the Greater Invisibility spell, he learned that he needed an eyelash in a piece of gum arabic to cast it. He checked his mental inventory of spells and confirmed that casting the regular Invisibility spell required the same material focus.

Ben huffed in frustration. He had made a good plan, but he couldn't go through with it unless he had the material focus for the invisibility spells. He asked himself if he could just go to the motel and dominate her without turning himself invisible. The more he thought about things, the more he thought about the consequences of his actions. The thought that he would be breaking his mother's heart if she ever found out about what he was planning to do was making his vengeful anger subside. He had been raised to not see women as objects, no matter how they dressed, or what they did.

An errant though snuck into his deliberations and made them grind to a crashing halt. What if this was a test? What if he had been given magic by some preternatural entity just so it could see what he'd do with it and them judge him? What if there was someone, or something, just waiting for him to step out of line and then have the excuse to get medieval on him? He told himself that that kind of thinking was utterly insane, but he had magical spells flowing through his body. He was in no position to just dismiss such seemingly irrational fears.

"Fudge," he swore out loud when he finally realized he wasn't going to go get her that night. He had been briefly swayed by the daydream of dominating Krista and ordering her to be his loving girlfriend, but thinking things through made him abandon such a scheme. It wouldn't be love, it would be rape of the worst kind.

He had been raised to see sex as the most sacred act of love, only to be shared between two willing people who were in love with each other. While every other boy his age saw sex as a contest and women as targets, he saw it as a cooperative effort and women as equal partners. As a consequence of these views, he was a virgin that watched selfish assholes get laid over and over again, while women laughed at him and his beliefs. Nonetheless, those values were so deeply engrained into his person that he stuck by them, even now.

"Boss," Felicia asked.

"What?"

Felicia tilted her head a bit and said, "You said, 'fudge'?"

"Yeah," Ben said. He was feeling a tremendous feeling of guilt for even imagining Krista as his naked sex slave that woke him up each morning by orally worshipping his morning wood. He could only hope that if there was some kind of supernatural entity judging him, it couldn't read his mind. At the very least, he hoped he wouldn't be judged on the basis of his thoughts. "I'm... I don't think I'm gonna go get her tonight."

"Why not?"

"I, uh, I need this, um, material focus for a spell," Ben stammered out. He was feeling so ashamed at what had been going on in his head that he didn't even want his familiar to know about it.

"Is it something I can go and get for you," Felicia asked.

"Yeah, no," Ben said, trying to quash this topic of conversation quickly. "Uh, thanks for offering, but, uh, no, it's not."

"Too bad," Felicia said.

Ben nodded in agreement. He gathered his papers and D&D manuals and stowed them back in their drawer. "I think I'm gonna call it a night. I'm still kind of exhausted."

"Whatever you say, Boss!"

"Good night," Ben said and went back to bed.

"Good night, Boss," Felicia said and went back to the den to watch some more TV.

Ben took his pants off and lay back under the covers. He rolled over on his side and tried to push the thoughts of having Krista as a sex slave out of his mind. His cock was about three quarters hard and it refused to deflate. He was deathly embarrassed at having such a strong reaction to the image of Krista kneeling before him, naked. He lost track of time as he lay there waiting for his chub to subside so he could go to sleep.

Finally, he gave up and rolled over on his back. He grabbed hold of his cock and started to stroke it. As soon as he imagined her face level with his cock, he became rock hard in his grip. He started to stroke himself faster and harder. He imagined her mouth falling open in awe at his erection and her eyes staring up at him, desperate for any sign of approval. His whole body began to sway and jerk in sexual arousal as he imagined giving her orders she eagerly obeyed and having absolute freedom to use her sexually. His breath hitched in excitement. He came imagining himself her master.

He had rarely had such a strong orgasm before. After he caught his breath and the aftereffects of the orgasm faded away, he found himself feeling guilty again. "Why am I so aroused by the thought of dominating Krista," he asked himself. He had been raised to believe such a thing would be evil and would make him the worst kind of abuser possible. He asked himself if he was secretly a rapist. If he was the kind of monster that would prey on those weaker than himself and feel pleasure while doing so. He honestly didn't know the answer to those questions. 

He rolled over and decided to punish himself for his filthy fantasy by sleeping in his own cum. His mind kept running over the images of Krista's naked submission to him and his cock started responding again. He ignored the urge to pull on his dick again. He did his best to clear his mind of such images and get to sleep, but he was plagued by doubts concerning his newly discovered proclivity for the rest of the night.

Ben startled awake, groaned and rolled over. He didn't know what had woken him from his fitful rest. He had no intention of finding out what it was and every intention of falling back asleep, even with his radio alarm clock blaring the morning news. "Boss, you're running late," Felicia yelled in his ear again. Ben made some nonsensical but angry sounds of protest and glared at his familiar with one bleary eye. "I mean, are you still going to work, or not?" Ben's head whipped around and he checked the time on his alarm clock radio. "I get that you're a sorcerer now and all that, but I wanted to be sure that-"

Ben leaped out of bed and hurriedly put his pants back on. He lifted his arm and sniffed his armpit. His nose wrinkled. He took off his T-shirt and cast the Prestidigitation spell to make it clean. He went to the bathroom and quickly washed up. He dried himself and put his shirt back on. He grabbed some Graham crackers out of the jar and took the bag of kibble out of the cupboard. "Guard the house and feed yourself, Felicia, I'm late," he said to his following familiar.

"Bye, Boss," Felicia said in response. "Have a good day at the office!"

Ben ran to the bus stop, eating the cracker that he was making taste like his mother's peach cobbler and barely managed to catch the bus. He squeezed into one of the last available seats and ate the crackers with delight, making each bite taste of a different kind of pie with the Prestidigitation spell that was still in effect. The other passengers ignored him, minding their own business. Some of them smelled. When his transfer stop came along, he was glad to be rid of their pungent company. He waited a long time for the connecting bus that would take him to work. It showed up ten minutes late and Ben stood nervously by the door during the whole ride to his work. He ran from the stop to the call center and made it there only to find his boss, Susan, waiting for him.

"Mister Kidder," she said, crooking her finger at him, "to my office!"

Ben followed the severe looking woman, dressed as always in a tailored black suit, into her office. She sat behind her desk and gestured at the other chair. Ben sat down and finally found his voice. "Good morning," he said.

"What time is it, mister Kidder," she asked.

"Um, uh," Ben went rummaging through his pocket to drag his phone out and check, but then remembered his phone had been fried by lightning. "I don't know, exactly, but-"

"No buts, mister Kidder," she said. "It is six minutes after eight a.m. You are six minutes late for work."

"Well, yes, technically," Ben stammered, "but we have a-"

"The sales personnel are allowed to punch in between eight and nine," she said, cutting him off, "and punch out exactly eight hours later, between four and five p.m. You are not allowed, mister Kidder. You are the IT service and it is your responsibility to be here before eight a.m., start our systems, and then stay until after five p.m. to shut down the systems and secure our data. Is it not so?"

"Well... Yes."

The instant he conceded her point, her murderous expression softened into one of profound disappointment. "Honestly, mister Kidder, what were you thinking?"

"Um, I have been," Ben started to meekly say.

"Not only have we been forced to endure your utterly incompetent bungling in the IT department," she said, provoking Ben's ire, "but, now, we have been forced to waste precious time on waiting for you to come in and enable our personnel to earn their living." 

Ben couldn't stop his glare from showing up on his face. Susan Wright was the sole reason for all the ills that befell this call center on a regular basis. Her incompetence was only surpassed by her unstoppable drive to appear competent and professional. If she had spent but a tiny fraction of the time and effort she did in appearing to be professional and competent into an honest effort to actually gain some measure of competence, Ben was certain she'd be the first woman president of the Unites States.

As usual, his parents' lessons on patience and understanding were the only things that let him keep his cool in his dealing with Susan Wright. They had taught him to always be civil and respectful and find a middle ground for a productive compromise with the other party. He took a deep, relaxing breath and bottled up all of the frustrations she was causing.

"Even as we speak, our workers are sitting idly out there, unable to do the work they're paid for, because you didn't come in on time to start the computers," she said.

"Well, then, I'd better get out there and," Ben said, but was cut off again.

"It is beginning to seem to me as if you are the reason our system has so many kinks," she said. "If you weren't, then we wouldn't be disconnected during one in every eight calls we make." 

Ben gave her a sardonic look that she failed to interpret properly. Her lips curled into a grin as she thought his expression contrite. Her own insistence on installing every piece of crap software that anyone came along to sell to her was the reason the call center's computerized telecommunication system was failing so often. 

"I have made a commitment to make this call center the best there is," she said. "I have spent much time and effort into improving the efficacy and output of this outfit and it has finally dawned on me that you have been stabbing me in the back this whole time."

Ben's eyes rolled a little at her melodramatic tone. Every time a software salesperson came along and started spouting nonsensical phrases at her, she'd get all taken by the flashy phrases and buy their product, insisting it be installed as soon as possible. The fact that none of those programmes had been meant to ever find themselves on a call center mainframe didn't deter her in the least.

The one time the software had come on a physical disk, without an install team, Ben had just tucked it away and saved the firm a headache, but he couldn't undo the damage the install teams were doing. In his six weeks at the firm, there had been four different teams, coming to install completely useless software packs, one of which had been outright harmful. Ben had given it his all to curb the unnecessary software installations, but Susan had called him into her office after each one of his well-reasoned complaints and given him a half-hour lecture on professionalism. The irony of those lectures had been completely lost on her.

Ben would have wiped those programs from the servers and put up a nice, little Unix that made things run impeccably smooth, but the firms that managed to hoodwink Susan into buying their crap were charging the company licensing fees and kept sending techs over to install upgrades that they then charged more money for. He couldn't simply wipe the stuff off the servers with them coming around at random times to check up on it. Their upgrade packs made it nearly impossible for Ben to even boot up the servers properly. As a result of Susan's irrational insistence on all those various programs being installed and run on the call center's servers, the sales personnel got disconnected randomly during one in every eight calls they made.

"Do you know how much money your incompetence is costing our firm? I simply cannot understand why you have so much trouble with the systems but, I do see now that you are not the computer savvy person you had advertised as, originally. I should have never taken pity on you and given you this job in the first place." Ben was stunned by the sheer amount of blatant lies she had managed to squeeze into so few words.

She had begged him to come rescue her when one of her brilliant installs, that had been meant to "streamline synergetic data co-efficiency", had crashed the servers and the last IT guy had finally had enough and quit. She had called Ben after seeing his ad in the local paper about offering IT support services. In hindsight, Ben realized he should have suspected something was hinky with the job when she hired an unknown IT guy out of a want add and not from a reputable agency, but the money was good and he had been desperate. When he got here, he saw that Susan's brief reign had already made a mess with the computer system.

"Now, even the head office has noticed that we are falling behind in our numbers," Susan said. "They have asked me why that is. Do you know what I am going to tell them? I am going to tell them the truth." 

Ben barely suppressed a mocking grunt. His efforts to keep a straight face were getting more and more futile by the minute. The truth was that her management style had driven away nearly the entire sales staff that had been in place before she got there. Even the shoddy replacements she hand-picked were eager to get away from her as quickly as they could. She was a horrible boss who kept coming up with one ludicrous idea after another and, when they turned out to be as stupid as everyone thought they'd be when they had first been introduced, she'd lay the blame squarely on someone else and fire them. Then she'd come up with an even worse idea to compensate for the damage she had already done. And she would give insipid speeches and hold "exercises" during work hours, attendance mandatory. Since the sales staff only made any real money on commission, they hated her guts with a vengeance for making them waste precious time they could be using to earn much-needed money on listening to her self-aggrandizing drivel.




Outsiders Pt. 01



She was the type of boss that made Michael Scott look like a poster boy for reason and restraint. She was living proof that people didn't quit their jobs, they quit their bosses. The call center would run so much more smoothly if she just came in, sat down at her desk and did nothing until she went home.

She glared at Ben pointedly. "I am done with taking the heat for things and am laying the blame squarely where it belongs. With you."

Ben took a deep breath to calm down. Susan had been so very thankful to him for saving her ass on the first day that she had offered him a contract on the spot and he had signed it. However, as soon as he had started complaining about all the programs and service packs, he had been put on the top of her shit list and she has been trying to find a replacement for him ever since. Ben's predecessor had posted about her in professional forums and few people answered her repeated advertisement for IT professionals. The ones that did quickly realized she was both computer-illiterate and desperate to appear all-knowing, so they declined her offers and she was stuck with Ben.

Susan pushed a piece of paper towards Ben. "However, I might be inclined to not throw you under the bus with the head office. You don't even have to thank me. All you have to do is sign this."

Ben glanced at the paper. It was a dissolution of contract agreement and it would, in essence, leave him free to get his salary cut and withheld at her whim. And fired without a severance package as soon as she found a sucker that could replace him. There was no way he was giving up his best hope of making the tuition money. Despite the fact that he was now a level 19 sorcerer, he wanted to stay an IT guy at a call center until he came up with a concrete plan on how to use his magic to make money. Enduring Susan's lunacy was much more acceptable than telling his folks about Krista and the tuition. In fact, since he was protected from the worst she could do by the contract, he even found her antics a bit amusing. He decided he'd remain the IT guy in this place until after he made money using his magic. Then he'd quit. Possibly in a spectacular fashion that would make him a legend in the local IT forums. It was something to look forward to.

"No, thank you," Ben said. The way she was trying to portray her bending him over with the agreement as doing him a favor with the head office was making his blood boil.

"Listen, Ben," Susan said, her tone of voice reasonable and soft, "I'm doing you a favor. If you sign this, then this whole unpleasantness goes away. It's a chance at a clean slate and I really think you should take it."

"No," Ben said.

Susan's face twitched at the refusal and her mouth tightened into a grin of displeasure. "If you don't sign it," she said, "then you'll leave me no choice. I will have to report this matter to the head office and that will not be good for you."

"I think that might be best," Ben said, calmly. Everyone in the center suspected Susan was fucking someone in the head office. No one could come up with any other reasonable explanation for how someone as deranged and incompetent as her could ever get a managerial position. Ben was pretty certain her threat was an empty one. As she had already let slip, the head office was asking around and that meant that her head was, if not already on the block, then at least chopping block adjacent. If she made a loud enough ruckus, her benefactor in the head office might just cut her loose.

"If I go to the head office with my complaints, the matter will go on your permanent record," she said, threateningly. "You will never be able to find another job. Not anywhere. Not ever again."

Ben couldn't help but snort a laugh of derision at her. He was completely blameless in the matter at hand. He should even be rewarded for his efforts. He and two of the senior sales people had consistently worked to undo the damage she had been doing and he was the only one still here. When Susan had kept nixing their sales' strategies and replacing them with her own, ignorant versions of the same, and tearing up their leads and insisting on random cold calling, the two experienced sales directors had quit.

Ben knew they were working in better jobs, having been talented staff that was snatched up as quickly as they cut loose from Susan's tyranny. They had kept in touch with him, but there were no job openings in IT in their new firms. He had asked already. He was fairly certain that he could get a new job if Susan tried to make trouble for him, but he couldn't afford to lose the current one at this point. Not if he was going to get a check together for the tuition in the fall. His parents had always taught him to play it safe. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," they'd say to him.

His derisive snort had an effect on Susan. She sat there and glared at him for a few seconds, before her eyes went deathly cold. "Sign it or you're fired," she said, in a clipped tone of voice.

"You can't fire me," Ben said, "I have a contract." As boneheaded a move as giving him a contract was, since he had been a complete unknown she found in a want add, it was the only move she had made as head of the center that was a net benefit to it.

"You are in breach of your contract," she said. "It is null and void and you are terminated."

"I am not in breach of my contract," Ben insisted.

"Yes you are," she calmly said. "You have not shown up for work today and you have not excused your absence."

Ben spread his hands in a gesture of annoyance and said, "I'm right here!"

"You were not at your post at eight o'clock," she said, "and that means you were not here at the start of the day. Therefore, you were not here today."

"I'm sitting right here!" His ability to reach a compromise with the other party was rapidly dwindling. Susan was again descending into lunacy, seemingly eager to see what new low she could achieve.

"Your casual disregard for punctuality and standards of professional conduct in this office," she said, "are not the basis for your contract being made null and void."

Ben rolled his eyes. His patience gauge was showing empty. "Then what is?!"

"You have actively sabotaged our means of production, mister Kidder, and thus voided your contract. As a matter of fact, we shall be bringing legal action against you to the tune of lost revenue."

"Sabotage," Ben asked. "Lost revenue? What on Earth are you talking about?!"

"Are you going to play that game," she asked, her tone of voice surprised. "Very well, then. I am, of course, referring to the fact that, according to the statistics you have yourself recognized as legitimate in this memo you had sent me," she held up a piece of paper, "that state that we are getting randomly disconnected during one in eight calls we are making and that we are more likely to be disconnected during a successful sales call than an unsuccessful one, due to the fact that successful calls last longer than unsuccessful ones."

Ben had brought up that complaint with her numerous times before, as it was the fault of all the crap software she had crammed into the servers against his recommendations. After each install, the odds got even worse, but Ben's efforts had curbed it down to losing only one in eight calls. Which was still catastrophic for the firm's reputation. She had coolly rebuffed his input and said that he must give it all to her in writing in the future. So he had sent her a memo every other day, citing the numerous problems with the servers and asking for her permission to fix them. She had, of course, just responded with irritation and a direct order to not interfere with her "sophistication and streamlining program".

"You know very well that's entirely your fault," Ben said. He wasn't going to sit there and take any more of her idiocy and wild fabrications. Not today.

"Oh, really, my fault," she asked with exaggerated surprise in her voice. "Whose job is it to maintain the computers? Mine, or yours?"

"You know darn well," Ben started saying before she cut him off.

"I have recently come to believe that these system-wide failures are not random," she said, "but rather the deliberate product of your malicious influence. We shall be pressing charges against you for those wrongdoings."

Ben stared at her in utter disbelief. No matter how many times he had seen her lay the blame for her failings on someone in her power, she had always managed to surprise him, again and again, with the depths to which she would sink to.

"Your contract is void, as of right now," she said. "However, if you sign this agreement and take a thirty percent pay cut, we can avoid all the unpleasantness of legal proceedings."

"Fuck you, you crazy cunt," Ben whispered, surprising himself and Susan at the same time. They stared stunned at one another for a few seconds. The genuine shock on her customarily smug face was such a pleasant sight that Ben impulsively decided to throw all caution to the wind and plow ahead, even if he was using swear words. "I'm not signing anything. You better get your head out of your ass and put it on straight, cause, let me tell you-"

"How dare you," she exclaimed in a profoundly vicious tone of voice. "You are nothing! How dare you speak to me like that!?"

Her tone of voice instantly harshed Ben's glad buzz at having shocked the unflappably smarmy snake. With the wind gone out of his sails, Ben raised his hands in a gesture of reconciliation and said, "Ok, I think we should both calm down for a second here, and-"

"No," she hissed at him. "There will be no calming down. Your contract is terminated. We are going to press charges against you and get restitution in a court of law and I shall personally see to it that you never work again! Now, get out! You're fired!"

"Ok, if I'm fired, then who's going to start your servers and make them work despite being lobotomized by your insane shopping sprees?" She paused for a second and glared at him. Ben would have loved to just get out and file a suit against the company for wrongful termination and breach of contract and get a big bunch of money awarded to him as damages, but that could take a lot of time, years, even. He had to come up with the tuition fee this summer. He reluctantly decided to contritely backtrack and try to be the voice of reason.

"Look, you don't want to take me to court. I think that despite your insanity, you are still aware of the fact that you don't have a case. Not even a teeny, tiny one. I can file a suit against you and the company and get a huge amount of money awarded to me as damages, but I don't want to make this any-"

"Get out," she hissed at him. "Or I'm calling the police!"

Ben rolled his eyes. "To tell them what?!"

To Ben's shock, Susan pushed her chair a bit backwards and then slammed her forehead down on her desk. He jumped in his chair. "Holy... Are you all right?"

She smiled a wicked smile at him and said, "I'm going to tell them you assaulted me." Ben instantly panicked. He knew what a convincing liar she was. She could totally get the cops to arrest him. Especially if she had a big bruise on her forehead. The news of his arrest would get back to his parents and break their hearts. He needed to do something and fast. Susan smiled a truly evil smile at him. Her hand reached for the phone and her eyes flicked over to it.

In the grips of pure panic, Ben cast the Dominate Person spell, waving his arms around and intoning the syllables for six seconds. During that time, she dialed 911, derisively snorted at him and said, "Save the insanity plea for court, mister Kidder."

The spell slammed into her mind and completely took it over. Ben sensed a link establish itself between their minds. He instinctively used it to send her the order to hang up the phone. The 911 operator didn't even have time to pick up, before Susan hung up. His next order was for her to tell anyone that asked that she had slipped and fallen and hit her head by accident. He ordered her to also say that he had dialed 911, but hung up when she insisted she was perfectly fine. He could sense her obeying each and every command of his. He let out a big breath of relief. The immediate crisis was averted. However, he was now stuck with a dominated slave.

As he looked at her blank face, the true extent of his deed started to dawn on him. He had voided her will and replaced it with his own. It was the ultimate violation of a sentient person and he was the one that did it. He was worse than a rapist. He felt nauseated. He didn't mean for it to happen, but he did it, all the same. If his parents ever learned of this, they'd die on the spot, he was sure of it. He wiped his face in frustration. He had no idea what to do, but he knew he had to do something to fix this.

No one in the call center would ever dare enter Susan's office uninvited, so he had some small measure of privacy, for the time being. He immediately decided he would not exploit or abuse Susan in any way. He wasn't a monster, despite what he had inadvertently done half a minute ago. He forced himself to calm down and stop recriminating himself. He asked himself what the ideal outcome of this situation was. His answer was that she should be released from his domination and that she should not tell anyone about it afterwards.

Ben huffed in frustration. The spell didn't allow for him to wipe her mind or order her to forget things, so the second part of his ideal outcome was impossible. As for the first part, he could just order her to act like her usual self and not tell anyone about his domination. As long as he didn't focus on the spell for a whole day, she would get a feeble chance to break loose of his domination. It probably wouldn't work but, in nineteen days, she'd be free of it, anyway. And then he'd be fucked.

Ben tried to imagine what Susan Wright would do to him once the nineteen days of domination were up. His head popped up in pleasant surprise as he realized there was very little she could do to him. The nutjob could always break bad and go for a gun, or something, but she couldn't expose him as a magician or mind controller. Who would ever believe her? She'd probably never even mention it to anyone in the first place. After his control was up, she'd probably break down in tears, have a very good cry and then pick herself up and get on with her life, making triple sure to avoid ever again coming into any kind of contact with him. He nodded to himself. He was going to remove himself from her vicinity and let the spell play itself out. It was the best thing to do. He was feeling too bad for having dominated her once already to even think about dominating her every nineteenth day for the rest of their lives.

He considered Susan sitting before him. He certainly wasn't going to miss her, or this place. He had gotten to know, and even like, some of the people that were trying to eke out a living in this place. As he thought back on all the crazy shit she had been doing since he got there, he ever so slightly amended his decision. He decided to undo the worst of what she did at the center on a daily basis. It was only right. He reminded himself that any order he gave her that went against her core beliefs gave her a chance to break free of his domination. He needed to play it carefully. The spell allowed for him to receive her full sensory input if he concentrated on it, but it didn't allow for him to freely read her mind, so he ordered her to tell him how much money she was spending on all those software service packets and upgrades.

"Eighty-three thousand dollars, and change, by the end of the year," she said. He ordered her to tell him how much it would cost the firm if she were to cancel all those contracts right this instant. "I don't know. I'd have to look it up."

He ordered her to do so and she pulled out all the contracts out of the filing cabinets and perused them. She crunched the numbers and said, "Sixteen thousand three hundred and eighteen dollars, even."

Ben ordered her to go outside and tell everyone work starts at ten that morning and that the system errors would be completely fixed by then. She was also to tell them that they'd be free to punch out eight hours after they came in originally, despite the free time. Then she was to cancel all the contracts and check the numbers again and pay Ben half the money that the cancellations saved the company in this year alone.

He sensed her trying to break free of his domination and failing. He chuckled and went to the server room where he uninstalled all the malware and put in a simple, free Unix and compiled an ideal system for their needs. It wouldn't even need anyone to be there the whole time. The system would be operational 24/7 and would only need a reboot if the building lost power, or a mechanical fault made the cooling system fail. He printed out simple, but detailed instructions on how to reset it if something happened and left copies in a binder marked, "Resetting the server for dummies".

He had no intention of hanging around Susan's tyranny for a minute longer than he had to. The whole time he was doing his thing, he could sense her hard at work, making calls and crunching numbers. He finished first and went to the break room. He announced, to the few employees that hadn't scattered as soon as they had heard Susan's announcement, that the boss had seen the light under recent pressure from the head office and that the system wasn't going to cost them clients and sales' commissions anymore.

They were skeptical, but also guardedly optimistic, about their chances of earning rent that month. Ben chatted with them for a few minutes more and then pointed out to them that they could start making calls right away and not wait for ten o'clock. They hurried to their desks and got to work.

He went back into Susan's office and sat down, putting his feet on her desk. She ignored his smug grin and kept making calls to cancel the harmful contracts. When she finished and triple checked the final numbers, she said, "You are to be paid thirty-six thousand, five hundred and nineteen dollars and eighty one cent."

"Good," he said. He gave her the order to draw up a contract in which he is paid exactly that much to overhaul their system. He ordered her to make a separate agreement that actually terminates their contract in an amicable manner and thus removes the need for the two of them to see each other anymore. They signed both pieces of paper and he ordered her to pay him the money and file those contracts.

He issued an order for her to never tell anyone the truth about the events of the morning and to stop interfering with the people working at the center. She failed to resist either order. His domination of her mind held fast. He decided not to issue any more orders and risk her breaking free. She had obviously hated the one where she had to go tell the staff they were free until ten. He gave her the order to behave as close to what was normal for her, without violating his previous orders, and left. 

As he walked out of the call center, he felt a huge sense of relief. The city air seemed to smell a bit better to him. Though they looked wrong on the surface of the matter, he felt justified in his actions. He had dominated Susan's mind, but that had been done in pure self-defense. She would have lied about him to the authorities and committed a great injustice. The injustice would not only be done against him, but also against all the people she would have lied to and manipulated into punishing him. Making them hurt an innocent was hurting them, too, in a way. No one went into law and law enforcement to help commit acts of injustice.

He walked to an ATM and withdrew some walking around money. He was feeling very pleased at his new account balance. He came from a humble background and had only ever eaten at a fancy restaurant when his parents had taken him to one, on his eighteenth birthday. Today, he decided to treat himself with brunch. After he had eaten his fill at a nice restaurant, he began to think about the future. He now had the money for the tuition fee and even enough to buy a used car to be able to get around town from now on and not have to squeeze himself into the smelly busses anymore.




Outsiders Pt. 02



This installment ends on a dark note, worthy of my screen name. This note will be revisited a few- more times during this series. Reader discretion is advised.

****************

Ben Kidder woke up in his bed with a smile. He wasn't sure what he had dreamed that night but, as the memories of losing his virginity the night before came flooding back, he guessed it couldn't have held a candle to that. With wakefulness came the awareness of the other minds linked to his. Felicia, his orange tabby familiar, was in the den, feeling worried and anxious. Susan was on her way to work at the call center and Krista was in the bathroom, washing her hands.

Ben stretched out in his bed and groaned in delight. He could still feel the memory of Krista's warm body as it had writhed under him. He wanted a reprise of last night as soon as possible, but he needed to take a leak before that. He rolled out of his bed when he felt Krista leave the bathroom. He pulled his boxers and pants up and zipped up. He left the bedroom and smiled at seeing her. Standing in his hallway, she was a vision of beauty and sexiness, wearing one of his T-shirts that barely came down to cover her ass.

He sighed in appreciation of the sight, prompting her to turn around and see him. "Ben," she said, "you're up." The small smile she gave him made him not so sure if he could speak coherently so he just smiled back at her. "We need to talk."

Ben pointed to the bathroom door and then reached for the doorknob. "Uh, as soon as I, uh," he stammered and nodded towards the door.

"Yeah, sure," she said, "I'll wait in the bedroom."

Ben couldn't help smiling as he went into the bathroom. The thought of having a hot girl, his hot girl, waiting for him in his bedroom, made him have to concentrate on not getting a boner, so he could pee. She was his magically dominated slave, but she had leaped into his embrace and started kissing him last night, which led to them making sweet love. He hadn't given her any orders other than to relax, accept the fact that he had magic and be herself. Her actions had been her own and that fact filled his heart with hope. He has finally found a girl that loved him and all was right with the world. After he finished peeing, he washed his hands and checked his reflection in the mirror. His face was the same as it had always been, but his grin and the glint in his eye were unmistakable signs of how changed he was feeling on the inside.

He went to the bedroom and leaned against the doorjamb. Krista was sitting on the edge of his bed, facing him. His eyes immediately locked onto her thighs that were pressed together so as to not reveal her bare pussy to his hungry gaze. He felt a blush creep up on his face, but couldn't look away.

"Ben," she said, getting him to flick his eyes upwards and meet hers. "I don't think I could ever tell you just how glad I am that you had used your magic to save me. I simply don't know how to properly express my gratitude for you saving my life."

"Boss," Felicia said, prompting Ben to turn his full attention to her. He had nearly flinched at hearing her voice, but he remembered he was the only one that could hear her speak. Her worry was coming to a head and he wondered why she was worried. "I don't know how to say this, cause I suspect it will make you really, really mad, but... This bitch slid out from under you after you fell asleep and then discreetly rifled through all your possessions."

Ben's mouth dropped open. He glanced back at Krista, who was telling him something about how she was always running scared in this big, cold world and how she would love to have someone like him to depend upon.

"After she went through all your stuff," Felicia continued, "she took your computer and went through that, too." Ben gulped at the thought of Krista having seen his porn collection. It served strictly as his one release for all of his base impulses. He wanted to tell her it meant nothing to him and that those pictures and videos were just audio-visual aids, but he felt too embarrassed to broach the subject, especially as he didn't know if Krista had seen it in the first place.

"She saw your porn," Felicia said, making Ben close his eyes and wince, "but she didn't make any comment about it. She was more interested in your banking information and account balance."

Ben's eyes flicked repeatedly between his familiar on the floor by the bed and the hot girl sitting on the bed. Krista noticed and gave the cat a puzzled glance, but then continued with her talk. She was saying something about trust, but Ben hardly heard her as he was focused on what Felicia had to say.

"She took out a bunch of credit cards in your name," Felicia said, making Ben gasp in betrayal. "The physical cards will arrive by mail by the end of the week, but she also managed to take out a few virtual ones and those will be activated by end of business today." 

Ben felt sick to his stomach. His whole world seemed to turn upside down. He knew his familiar wasn't lying to him. Felicia was simply incapable of doing that to him. She couldn't even embellish the truth.

Krista didn't love him. She was going to try and rob him blind for the second time.

He couldn't reconcile this revelation with her feverish thanks of last night and the fact that she had seduced him, or the passionate way she had responded to his lovemaking. All the bad thoughts and doubts he had endured in the spring, when she had conned him out of his parents' money, came back strong and threatened to overwhelm him. She had kicked him in the heart all over again and he held on to his sanity by the thinnest of threads.

Krista couldn't help but notice the shocked expression on his face and she leaned over to bring her smiling face into his field of vision. She waved a hand at him and said, "Earth to Ben, are you even listening to me?"

Ben wiped the tears that were forming in his eyes and sent her the order to shut up. Krista resisted the order unsuccessfully and looked shocked at her inability to speak. "I'm so sorry, Boss," Felicia said. "I know you loved her despite what she did to you and I know you wanted her so badly, but... I'm sorry."

Ben cleared his throat and nodded at the soft words of sympathy. He looked at Krista and sent her the order to say the word "yes" if she loved him and the word "no" if she didn't. He held his breath and waited for the answer, hoping against hope that it will be "yes". He felt her trying to resist the order, but she said, "No," in the end.

A strangled sob escaped his throat as he doubled over in such an intense heartache that it nearly made him feel physical agony. He moaned, wordlessly. Krista got up from the bed and rushed to give him a hug. He pushed her back with an extended arm and said, "Stay away from me!" 

He sent her the order to tell him whether or not she took out credit cards in his name. When she confirmed doing so, he shut his eyes, clenched up his fist and punched the doorjamb, making Krista jump back in fright. His fist started to throb in the most disconcerting way, but he ignored it. He knew it would quickly heal under the effects of his Regeneration feat. He preferred having physical agony to focus on as it made it possible for him to fight the twisting knife of betrayal in his gut.

He couldn't fathom why she would do what she did. If she wanted to go gambling again, despite what the bikers had nearly done to her, and take money from him, whom she knows to be a magician, then she was beyond salvation. He could send her the telepathic order to tell him the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, about her motives, but he didn't want to do that. Not knowing why she had tried to rob him blind for the second time was one of the things that was stopping him from wailing on her. He strongly suspected that if he knew for a fact that she had done the terrible things she had done just to feed her addiction, then he'd lose his cool and even his upbringing wouldn't be enough to hold back his more violent impulses.

"Is your hand going to be ok, Boss," Felicia softly asked.

"Yes," Ben snarled in response. Tears were flowing freely out of his eyes and he couldn't stop them. He felt like a wuss for crying in front of Krista and Felicia. He sent Krista the order to go sit in the den and not move until he came and got her. She fearfully squeezed past him and went down the hall to the den. "Felicia, guard her!"

The cat wordlessly went to follow the girl, leaving him alone to slam the bedroom door shut and fall prostrate on the bed. Left alone, he cried. He let it all out. He cried for his lonely adolescence and all the put-downs the girls he liked had aimed at him. He cried for all the dreams Krista had inspired in him, twice now, and then burned in betrayal. He cried for his future, in which he seemed to be condemned to eternal loneliness.

Ben lost track of time as he cried out all of his many frustrations. When he finally calmed down a bit, his stomach grumbled painfully and he realized he was very hungry. He sent Krista the order to make breakfast for them and to open and warm up a can of cat food for Felicia. As he felt the girl follow his order, under Felicia's close scrutiny, he debated himself over what to do with her.

Now that she had revealed her proclaimed feelings for him as false, he felt that any further sexual activity would be tantamount to rape. No matter how tempted he was by her body, he wasn't going to stoop so low. Keeping her as his sex slave was simply not an option. That only left him with two options he could think of: letting her go free, or turning her in to the authorities. Turning her over to that gangster the bikers had mentioned was simply beneath him. He was leaning towards sending her to jail, as letting her loose doubtlessly meant that she would continue with her criminal activities and he would feel responsible for the hurt that befell her future victims. He didn't want anyone to ever feel like she made him feel.

Calling the police on her seemed like his only option, but he didn't particularly like it. It was so impersonal. The idea of having her hauled off in handcuffs just felt like he was getting robbed of what was rightfully his. He supposed he could use his spells to teleport into the jail invisible and see what her days were like, but that just didn't hold much appeal to him. He wanted to do something else to her. Something more immediate and satisfying. He needed it. He needed to avenge the wrongs she had done to him, before sending her off to be punished for her other misdeeds. He wanted to punish her himself. He wanted to make her suffer and witness it firsthand. 

He sensed she was finishing up their breakfast so he reluctantly put on a T-shirt and went to the kitchen. The food smelled good and was arranged on his small dining table against the kitchen's external wall. Krista pulled out a chair for him. He pointedly ignored it and pulled out the other chair to sit on. They sat and ate the breakfast she made in silence. His hand was feeling much better.

Despite the delicious food, his thoughts were running in circles, centered on how to deal with her. He was halfway though his breakfast when he decided he was simply too devoid of information to make an informed decision. He sent her the order to tell him the truth about what she had done with the money she had conned him out of in February. He felt her try to resist the order and fail. She hesitated in fulfilling his order as she had to concentrate hard on remembering what she had done with the money. Ben's brow drew down in anger. She had taken all the money his parents had managed to set aside after eighteen years of hard work and sacrifice and for her it had, apparently, been a day like any other.

She finally remembered and told him how she went to an Indian casino a few days after she had taken his cash and used it to gamble there, along with the money she had taken from her other marks. She had blown it all in just a few hours.

Her short tale made Ben livid. All the efforts of his parents throughout the years were wasted for half an hour's excitement at the craps table. He wanted to give her the order to stand up and hold still while he made a fist with his right hand, stepped forward with his left foot, pivoted on it and slammed his fist into her face with the full weight of his body behind it. He wanted to see her head bounce off the wall.

The realization that she had turned him into the lowest kind of bottom-dweller, a loser that liked to beat up girls, made his vengeful wrath subside a little. His rational side called and let him know that he was thinking about things all wrong. No one could make him do anything, or turn him into anyone. He was the only one with that kind of power, as far as he knew. All of his urges and thoughts were his and the responsibility for them rested solely with him. Her presence and actions were no excuse for him to abandon his morals and act like an animal. 

"I was going to go all Amelié on this bitch and gaslight her and find out where my parents' money got to and now it's all ruined," he thought to himself. His parents' money was lost to never be recovered again and she had almost managed to play him again, despite him having a magical tether to her brain. Such was the effect she had on him. "It's like she's playing with loaded dice."

As soon as Ben complained to himself about her uncanny ability to make him sweaty and/or compliant, an idea popped into his head, offering him a compromise between his burning desire for vengeance and his aspirations to not be a bad guy. He smiled as he worked out a way to punish her, inspired by her gambling addiction. They finished breakfast and he sent her the order to cancel all the credit cards she had taken out in his name and ordered her to never, ever try to take his money from him again. Much to his surprise, she didn't try to resist either order. She went to the den to use his computer to cancel the cards. He remained seated in the kitchen, working out his idea.

When he sensed she had finished, he sent her the order to make two lists. On one list, she would put ten things she would hate doing, experiencing or having done to her and rank them from worst to least objectionable. On the other list, she would do the same, but list ten things she would love doing, or experiencing and then rank them. He got up, cast the Prestidigitation spell and used it to clean all the dishes and their dirty clothes from last night. He cast a Mending spell on her torn, red thong. It had looked pretty on her last night.

He then joined her in the den and waited a few minutes for her to finish her lists. He took them and looked them over. He sent her the order to redo the bad list without the entries that included her going to jail, or getting maimed and paralyzed in accidents. He frowned at what she had put on the good list. All the entries on it included either gambling, sex with Hollywood celebrities, or gambling for sex with Hollywood celebrities. He sent her the order to redo the good list entirely and to not include any more gambling or sex with celebrities. He did note that one of the celebrities she had listed was Charlize Theron. He forced himself to not be distracted by a daydream of Krista and the statuesque blonde making out.

When she finished, he had her explain a few entries on each list that he wasn't familiar with. He blushed at learning that those were slang terms for kinky sexual activities. He sent her the order to unite the two lists in order, placing the thing she would hate experiencing the most on number one and the thing she would love experiencing the most on number twenty.

Ben then took out a twenty-sided die from his desk drawer and held it up before her eyes. "This is the d20," he said. "It's the basis for my favorite game, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. Take it!" She took the black dice in her hand and looked at the golden numbers etched into it. "Since you love gambling so much, you are now going to roll this dice and then you are going to do whatever you've listed under the number that comes up. Got it?"

Her eyes flicked between the dice and the list. He could sense her apprehension and excitement at the prospect of what he was going to make her do. She was dreading the idea of doing the things from one to ten and looking forward to doing the things from eleven to twenty, both at the same time. He felt her oscillate between dread and elation until the dice weighed over. It was the gambling that excited her, even if the stakes were unusual for her.

"Cradle that dice, Krista," he told her. "Caress it, blow on it, talk to it. Do whatever it is that you gambling addicts do to make it roll your way, cause you are about to gamble with it. And the stakes are the ones you've made up for yourself."

He felt her shudder in excitement and sent her the order to roll the dice across the table. She held it loosely in her fist and blew over it before rolling it around in her fist and letting it go. The dice clattered noisily on the wooden desktop and rolled almost all the way to its opposite edge before stopping. The number on the top side was four. It was a low number and it meant something she would really not like to experience. Ben sent her the order to read aloud the entry and explain it.

"Number four," she said and cleared her throat, nervously, "suck clean a dick that was just in my ass. It's pretty self-explanatory. I don't particularly enjoy anal sex and I don't want to have a cock with some of my own filth on it stuck into my mouth for cleaning. It's demeaning and unhygienic."

"And it's exactly what we're going to do," Ben said. He sent her the order to do as the list item read. He sensed her dread and apprehension and found himself enjoying those sensations. They felt like revenge.

"Lube," she asked. He smiled and shook his head no. "Butter, lard, Crisco?" Ben just smiled his evil smile. He was starting to really like his idea. He told himself this wasn't anal rape, since she was the one that put the item on the list and rolled the dice. He didn't care that he made her do both of those things.

Krista nodded to herself and took off the T-shirt she was wearing. She stood before him naked as the day she was born and he couldn't help his eyes taking in her curves yet again. Her small, pink nipples were erect. She soon knelt before him and undid the zipper on his pants. She pushed his pants and shorts down, freeing his dick and put her lips over it. He was about to remind her that he was supposed to fuck her ass first, but she started to suck on his cock as it was filling up with blood and he found himself temporarily unable to speak, or send telepathic orders, for that matter.

She slid her lips up and down his shaft, using her tongue to caress it. Her mouth was very wet and, when she pulled her face off his cock, he could see his cock was glistening with her saliva. He smiled. She was improvising a lubricant out of her own spit. She took a deep breath and swallowed all of his shaft, making the head of it slip into her throat. She retched and produced more spit to coat his cock with. Pretty soon, his cock was covered in thick, sticky streamers of her spittle. Her tongue was tickling the sensitive underside of his glans and he realized she was trying to make him as excited as possible to make her anal experience as short as possible.

He stepped back and reluctantly parted from her mouth's caress. He said, "Stand up and bend over!"

Krista slowly stood up and turned around. She bent over and put her hands atop the desk for support. Ben focused on the link between their minds, making it expand and providing him with her sensory input and responses. He wanted to know exactly how he was making her feel. He grasped the base of his cock with two fingers and aimed it at her brown pucker. He felt her disgust when the slimy head of his cock touched her asshole. He made his cock slide around her anus and saw her all but shudder in anticipation of the penetration.




Outsiders Pt. 02



He leaned over her and gave a slight stab with his hips. Her pucker was assaulted, but the force was insufficient for it to give in and admit the intruder. Ben experienced, second-hand, the emotions warring inside her head at his action. She both wanted and didn't want to get sodomized. She wanted to be over and done with it as quickly as possible and she wanted to postpone the cleaning that will follow it for as much as she could, both at the same time. She wanted him to go gentle with her and slowly, ever so slowly put his meat into her, and yet a small part of her wanted it to be quick and forceful, making her ass burn.

Ben kept on with his small, short stabs that kept putting increasing pressure on her sphincter. With each stab, he was getting closer to overwhelming the resisting ring of muscle and slipping inside and he could sense Krista both dreading the moment her forfeit started in earnest and looking forward to the relief her sphincter would transmit to her brain after it relaxed. Finally, her ass caved under the pressure and the head of Ben's cock slipped inside. She tensed up and groaned in discomfort. Ben halted all progress and stood still. He could feel her agony as her sphincter instinctively tried to expel the intruder.

When she relaxed and he felt her pain fade away, he pushed further in, adding almost an inch of penetration. She groaned again and he sensed the pain he was causing. He could feel the whoosh of blood in her ears as his erection was displacing the contents of her abdomen. He halted and pulled slightly out. He felt the relief that gave her and the pleasure she experienced from his cock sliding through the ring of her sphincter. He smiled and put his hands on her hips for leverage as he began to slowly slide his cock in and out of her ass, going slightly deeper with each penetration, but stopping at the point of discomfort.

Pretty soon, he was sliding his cock all the way in and out of her ass, making her groan in pleasure. Now that he made the sodomy pleasurable for her, he decided to take his pleasure, too. He started to pick up the pace and produce more friction on his cock. His hands slid lower on her hips to envelop them and give him a better grip on her body. His hips were soon slapping loudly against her smooth asscheeks and his swinging balls were getting wet from smacking against the damp lips of her pussy.

He could feel her rushing towards an orgasm faster than he was. Her previous excitement about gambling had lent expediency to her pleasure. He slid one hand higher and fondled her tits, while the other snaked lower to part her labia and find her clit. Krista began to buck back into him as he played her erogenous zones to what he could feel was maximum effect upon her. Her bucking soon turned into writhing as she exploded in a ferocious orgasm. Ben slammed his cock all the way into her and pinned her body to the desk with his. Her pussy leaked more juices on his balls and her sphincter tightened up around his cock as her whole body shivered with ecstasy.

As Ben felt her orgasm through their link, he came himself and shot his load into her ass. The two of them were leaning over the desk and sharing a timeless moment of pleasure while their bodies shook as one. He could feel a warm, fuzzy feeling his hands were inspiring in her mind, so he hugged her to him as they were catching their breaths. He could feel her relax and enjoy his hug. His cock was still hard and they stayed that way, for a short while, before his earlier order asserted itself.

Krista stood up on tiptoes and pushed against the desk with all her might. Her body lifted and his cock slid out of her ass. He could feel how awkward that was for her and how much she had to clench up to stop herself from having the contents of her bowels follow him through the gaping hole that was her asshole. She stepped to the side and slid out of his loose embrace to kneel next to him. He felt her shudder in relief as her asshole closed shut. He realized she was about to clean his cock and quickly pulled out of the link.

She put two fingers around the base of his cock, which was the only place without visible filth on it, and gently tugged on it to turn him to face her. He complied, but was tempted to stop her and spare her the humiliation. Once again, he found himself entertaining feelings towards the hot, young con artist. Before he could remind himself of all the hurt she had caused him, her tongue reached out and gently flicked at his most sensitive flesh. He groaned and his knees nearly buckled. He put a hand on the table for support. She started licking at his glans and all he could think of were the overwhelming sensations she was inflicting upon him in his post orgasmic sensitivity.

When she put her lips around the head of his cock and started to suck, while running her tongue all over his underside, he realized he was about to cum for the second time in as many minutes. His hips started to buck and drive his cock deeper into her mouth, straining for her throat. She had kept up with her cleaning efforts, in accordance with his order, and tried to ignore all that was happening in her mouth. The taste, the smell and the texture. She also completely missed the effect her efforts were having on him. When she tried to slide her mouth off his dick to clean the base of it, he grabbed her hair and used it to slam his shaft all the way down her throat and spill his seed straight into her stomach.

She retched and gulped incessantly as she strove to not get any of his shooting cum into her lungs. He was acting on baser instincts and no thoughts of her discomfort could penetrate the haze of pleasure in his mind. His whole awareness had shrunk to just the blood filled cock that was being massaged by her grasping throat. When he came down from his high, he became aware of the fistfuls of hair and the saliva spilling out of her mouth and over his balls. He quickly let go and pulled his finally softening cock out. She fell forward and coughed and retched to get her breath back. He felt guilty for having done that to her, but he couldn't have helped himself. Pure instinct had been directing his actions.

Seeing her coughing and gasping for breath at his feet was making him feel bad so he sent her the order to go to the bathroom and clean her mouth as best as she could. She jumped up and dashed across the hallway. He heard the tap running and her gargling. He was starting to feel ashamed at his actions. He had been raised to do right by women and he was pretty sure that choking a girl with a cock covered in her own excrement was not the right thing to do. He lowered his gaze in shame and saw that her cleaning job was not complete. He sighed and took off his clothes. He went to the bathroom.

Krista was wetting his spare toothbrush and putting paste on it to brush her teeth. He slipped past her and went to the shower to wash his privates. He watched her breasts ever so slightly jiggle in the mirror as she brushed her teeth with a vengeance. He could just hear his parents' voices reproach him for treating a woman in such a way. He told the imaginary voices of his conscience that she had been the one to put ass to mouth on the list and roll the dice, but his conscience replied that he was the one that ordered her to make the list and roll the dice and that all of it was his doing. It was making him feel really bad about it.

He finished washing up and dried off. He went to his bedroom to get dressed. The sight of the bed, still disturbed from their lovemaking, renewed the hurt of betrayal. He grimaced and got dressed. He told himself that he was just getting started with her punishment.

Krista took ten more minutes to brush her teeth twice more and then spent another fifteen gargling away with all of his mouthwash before she felt ready to exit the bathroom. She wore a grimace that just said, "I know what feces taste like."

He smiled, pointed towards the list and dice atop the table and sent her the order to do another roll.

Krista gulped and took up the dice in a shivering hand. Even without focusing on their link, he could see the excitement and dread running across her face. She closed her fist around the d20 and brought it up to her mouth. She gave her fist a small kiss and then gently tossed the dice on the table. It bounced twice before noisily clattering to rest with the number eleven on its topmost face.

Ben sent her the order to read that entry aloud and explain it.

"Number eleven," she said, "ride a Vespa on a cobbled street in an Italian city. I, uh, I was running out of ideas that didn't include gambling and I can vaguely remember seeing a happy couple in a movie do that and I only put it there cause you were looking impatient. It's nothing special. Can I put something else in its place, please?"

Ben smirked. "Heck, no," he said. "Ride a Vespa on a cobbled street in Italy is what you wrote and ride a Vespa on a cobbled street in Italy is what you'll do." He sent her the order to choose an Italian city for her scooter ride. She turned to his laptop. He grabbed his wallet and checked how much cash he had. He guessed it would be enough to rent a couple of scooters for an hour or so.

Krista picked a town called Siena and Ben sent her the order to go and get dressed while he took the laptop and found out where they could rent scooters. He also looked up some online galleries of houses that were for sale, so he could envision an empty place to teleport into. He checked and saw that the local time was four p.m. The scooter rental place closed at eight.

"Oh, please, can we do other stuff there, too, like window shopping," she asked. "It's such a lame prize I've put on my list, riding a scooter and you should throw in a two hour walk around town into the deal cause I only put it down cause I could feel your impatience."

Ben considered her argument and shrugged. He had always wanted to travel, but never thought he'd get a chance to. Now that he could teleport, the world was his oyster. Siena was as good a place to start as any. "Ok," he said, making her jump up and pump a fist in the air. "But I'm not buying you anything!" Krista wilted a bit at hearing that. He said to Felicia, "Guard the place, we'll be right back!"

"Roger that, Boss," his familiar said.

He grabbed the list and dice, put on his belt with the pouches containing his material foci and sent Krista the order to put a hand on his shoulder and accept his teleportation spell. He spoke the magic word of the Greater Teleport spell and his den was suddenly replaced by the walk-in closet of the mansion he had picked out as their teleport spot. He could feel Krista's amazement.

Ben grinned. If he hadn't given her the order to accept the fact that he has magic, she'd probably pull her own hair off as she freaked out at instantly appearing on the other side of the planet. "Come on," he said and opened the door that led from the walk-in closet to the bedroom. He suddenly heard the gentle slapping of skin against skin and the unmistakable moans of feminine pleasure. He froze. Someone was having sex in the bedroom, not ten feet away from him. Much to his relief, they continued, implying that they hadn't heard the closet door open. He peeked out and saw a blonde, young man fucking a dark haired woman that was writhing under him on the bed. Ben was to their side, so they hadn't noticed him. He stepped back and gently closed the door until it was ajar.

He felt Krista's hot breath against the back of his neck. She was standing on tiptoes and trying to look over his shoulder at the source of the noises. Ben glared at her. She covered her mouth with a hand and stifled a laugh. She gestured for him to move. He shook his head no. She steepled her hands together in a pleading gesture and mimed that she would like to watch the happy couple in the next room. Ben looked at her in surprise, before glaring and shaking his head no.

He sent her the order to be quiet and stop tying to push out of the closet. He pulled out his eyelash and piece of gum arabic and used his Silent Spell feat to cast the Invisibility spell on her. As she vanished from his sight and the magic stopped flowing through him, he focused on their link so he could keep track of her while she was invisible. After three seconds, he could feel where she was and his magic resumed flowing.

He silently cast the Invisibility spell on himself and then inched the door open. He took Krista's hand and sent her the order to follow him out of the mansion. The couple's coupling was reaching its crescendo as the two of them snuck through the bedroom. He could feel Krista's desire to stay and watch the end of it. He had no intention of spying on people in their intimate moments. The orgasmic noises she was making and the smell of sex in the air were starting to have an effect on him, but he was still drained from having fucked Krista in the ass and his cock's response to the stimuli was minimal.

He quietly led Krista through the mansion, watching out for any other intruders, but he soon found himself looking around at the edifice itself. It was a truly beautiful house and his shitty place with the peeling paint, mold and damp was beginning to really grate on him in comparison. He decided to find a new place for himself with all possible urgency, just as soon as he finished his gambling punishment game with Krista and handed her over to the authorities.

He found the front door and looked out through the large window next to it. The front garden was small and the street was immediately beyond it. The door was locked. He spoke the words for the Knock spell and the door popped open. After he checked again that there was no one in sight, he dismissed their invisibilities and they stepped out into the front garden and the city beyond.

They took a leisurely stroll through the city, starting with the affluent, residential area they had teleported into and moving towards the historic city center. The city was bustling with activity and no one paid them any attention. They were just two ordinary tourists, taking in the sights. He felt Krista's delight with what she saw and allowed her to express herself in words. She soon started to point out the pretty statues and reliefs on the houses and commented on them. Despite her profession, or maybe as a prerequisite of it, she had a keen eye for the aesthetic and she wasn't shy about sharing her opinions with him, now that she was permitted to.

Ben mostly listened to what she was saying and tried to see her point, but she soon started engaging him in conversation directly. He never had much interest in architecture. His only experience with it had been building a tree house with his dad when he was a kid. He steered the conversation to speculations about who might be living in the old houses they were passing. Krista jumped on the bandwagon and the two of them started making up stories about the residents. They regaled themselves and each other with preposterous stories of blood feuds, star-crossed lovers, ancient curses and bizarre accidents involving cutlery.

The time just flew by and, before they knew it, they found themselves in the city center, not far from the scooter rental place, surrounded by a teeming mass of people going about their way. Ben realized he was having a great time with her, just walking, looking around and talking. They appeared to share a great chemistry, just like they had shared back in February. He didn't know how much of it was for real and how much of it was a carefully constructed veil she was drawing over his eyes so she could rob him that much easier. He honestly didn't want to know. Whether it was all an act, or reality, he was having a good time. He told himself it didn't matter, anyway, since he was going to hand her over to the authorities as soon as he got bored with punishing her.

He sent her the order to wait for him next to a fountain and went to exchange his dollars for euros. Then they visited the rental place and got a pair of scooters for an hour.

Krista surprised him by knowing exactly how to start and operate a scooter. He sent her the order to teach him and she did, using a mostly hands on approach. She sat behind him and pressed her firm breasts into the back of his T-shirt, so he couldn't miss feeling her nipples poking him in the back. She gently stroked his hands as she showed him how to work the controls for the scooter. He grinned at her see-through ploy, but allowed himself to enjoy it, all the same.

In a matter of minutes, he managed to gain her approval as he maneuvered the scooter around the small street in front of the rental place and the two of them sped off to the many cobbled streets the old part of town had. They rode their scooters over the cobbles, feeling each one as they passed over them. Through the link, he felt Krista be annoyed with the cobbles as they irritated her behind, which was still sore from the anal sex they had earlier. Soon, though, she began to enjoy their jostling as it reminded her of it. He felt her become aroused and elated as the motion delicately stimulated her anus. She shifted on her seat, trying to be increase her stimulation and still be discreet, while she varied her speed erratically.

Ben smiled, knowing exactly what she was doing and decided to never, ever tell her that he could feel what she felt. It was just too much fun catching her doing something naughty like this.

They drove around the city for the rest of the hour, spinning a few more yarns about the more interesting museums and buildings they passed. They cut the locals off in traffic and exchanged rude gestures with them, laughing like a pair of giddy school kids on vacation. They spent some more time sharing hastily made up stories about the residents of eye-catching houses they passed and then slowly made their way back to return the scooters. When they finally dismounted, Krista had a smile plastered to her flushed face and was breathing deep.

"You ok," Ben innocently asked.

"Yes, yes," Krista said. "Perfectly fine. Just having fun, that's all."

They went to a bakery and bought some fresh biscotti to munch on. They sat on a bench in one of the town's squares and watched the people walking to and fro.

"Well, it's time for you to roll again," he said at long last and pulled out her folded up list from his belt, along with the d20.

"Ok," Krista said. "Can I borrow a quarter, please?"

Ben fished a coin out of his pocket and handed it to her. She walked over to the fountain, brought the coin to her lips, closed her eyes for a moment and then tossed it into the clear water to join the thousands of others already there. She turned around and said, "I'm ready!"

They walked to a nearby cafe and stood next to an empty table. Krista rolled the dice on the palm of her hand for almost a full minute before she tossed it down on the table. The dice rolled to the center of the round table and landed with the number one facing up.

"Oooooh, critical miss," Ben groaned with a smile. "So much for the lucky fountain! That's the worst you can get on a d20!" He sent her the order to read the relevant entry and explain it.

"Nu-number one," Krista stammered. Her hands were shaking. "Have a big, hairy tarantula slowly walk across my face. I, I don't want to do this! I can't! Please! Please, don't make me do this!"

Ben shrugged. "Sorry, sweetie," he said, "you're the one that put it there in the first place. You're the one that rolled a one and you're the one whose face is going to be a hairy tarantula's playground."

He felt her terror mounting at hearing his words and glossed over it. Surely, this was a prime opportunity for her to see that her phobia of big, hairy spiders was unfounded. Still, her fear was so visceral and primal that he decided he wouldn't expose her to a real tarantula. He ordered her to be silent again and took her by the arm. He guided her to the cafe's restroom and sent her the order to teleport with him. He checked that the restroom was empty and then spoke the magical word of the Greater Teleport spell. They found themselves back in his den. He felt her amazement with the teleportation be tempered by her impending doom. He sent her the order to lie down on the floor and not move. He felt Krista try to resist it and fail.




Outsiders Pt. 02



"Welcome back, Boss," Felicia said. She was sitting on the arm of the couch, watching some talent show rerun on TV.

"Turn that off and come with me," Ben said.

"Coming, Boss," the cat said as she stepped on the off button on the remote and jumped up to follow her master. They went into his bedroom. "What's up?"

Ben closed the bedroom door, crouched down low and whispered, "I'm going to turn you into a big, hairy spider and you're going to slowly creep all over Krista's face."

"Ooooh, yeah," the cat said, "count me in! This is part of her punishment for stealing your folks' money from you, right, Boss? And for the crap she tried to pull last night, too? Am I right?"

Ben nodded and began to cast the Baleful Polymorph spell. Three seconds later, Felicia turned into a large spider, covered in orange tabby fur. "Bleh, you're ugly," he said.

"So this is the thanks I get," Felicia grumbled, "for eating the spiders that crawl around your room while you sleep and stopping them from laying their eggs inside your ear?"

"What spiders," Ben asked.

"Exactly," Felicia replied, tapping one of her limbs to stress her point.

Ben rolled his eyes at his familiar, opened the door and nodded towards the den. "Go get her, tiger," he said.

Felicia laughed a giddy laugh and scurried off to the den, effortlessly coordinating her eight limbs. Ben felt Krista's anticipation turn into sheer dread when she spotted, out of the corner of her eye, the tarantula advancing towards her face. When Felicia put her two foremost limbs against Krista's cheek to climb it, Krista's dread turned into raw panic. Only Ben's orders prevented her from jumping up screaming and trying to rip the skin the spider has touched off her own face.

Ben felt Krista's torment and was very uncomfortable with it. He felt Krista's agony and anguish reach a crescendo as Felicia climbed atop her face and perched there. He felt Krista's mind all but shatter as she withdrew deep into herself to deny the utter terror that sat upon her nose. Ben rushed towards the den, yelling, "Get off her!"

Felicia scurried off of Krista's nose, but it had no effect. He couldn't feel any of Krista's relief. He entered the den to find Krista lying on the floor where he had ordered her to. Her eyes were shut tight. She wasn't moving and was barely breathing. "Krista," he called out to her. He couldn't feel her even perceive his voice, let alone respond to it. "Oh, crud! I broke her!" In desperation, he sent her the telepathic order to repair her mind and let go of the trauma she had just gone through.

Ben nearly collapsed with relief when her feeble efforts to resist the order failed and it took root in her mind. She calmed down, drew a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Oh, man," Ben moaned. That had been way too much. He had pushed her too far, too fast. He hated himself for doing it. He made her experience her absolute worst fear come to life while she was paralyzed on the floor, rendered helpless by his orders. He felt like he was a wet shit that had somehow learned to walk on two legs.

He decided he had enough of punishing Krista. He sent her the order to go outside and stay at least seventy feet away from the house for the next two minutes. He also sent her the order to stretch and relax and to regain her faculties and repair her calm. Krista quietly got up and walked out the front door, not meeting his concerned eyes once. He wiped his brow and shook his head, reproaching himself for tormenting her like that.

"Come on," he said to Felicia. He led her to the bedroom, the room furthest away from the front door and spent a minute casting the spell of Break Enchantment to turn her back into a cat.

When he finished, the cat tilted her head and said, "Boss, are you going to be alright? You don't look so good."

"Don't worry," he said, "I feel much worse."

"Is there anything I can do to help, Boss?"

Ben shook his head, sadly. "No," he said. "I don't know." He sat down on his bed, reached up and put his face in his hands. The humiliation and hurt of Krista trying to play him for the second time abated and the guilt at having raped and tortured her took over in his mind. "I don't even know why I sent her out of the range of the spell. I might have released her with it." He shook his head. "I've hurt her, Felicia. I've hurt her so badly... I just don't know..." His voice trailed off when he felt Krista's glad anticipation. She was walking back towards his house and feeling excited at what was going to happen inside. Ben frowned and looked up towards the front door, as if he could see it through the walls.

"Well, Boss," Felicia said, "let me remind you that the female dog in question had it coming to her, when all is said and done. She played you for a fool, took all your money and then thanked you for saving her life by playing you for a fool again. As far as I'm concerned, what she needs is for me to give her some cosmetic surgery." Felicia stood up on her rear paws and held up her front paws with claws extended. "And by cosmetic surgery, I mean me clawing her frickin' face off so she can't use it to play nice guys like you anymore, Boss."

"I'm not a nice guy," Ben said.

Krista walked into the house and Ben got up to meet her. They stood facing each other in the hallway. She looked down to his utility belt and the big pouch on his side where the d20 and her folded up list were kept. He felt her excitement as she looked at it. His jaw dropped. "You want to gamble on," he asked, incredulous.

Krista blushed a little before grinning and nodding her head emphatically. Ben exchanged a shocked look with Felicia. "You sure know how to pick 'em, Boss," the cat mumbled. "This one is Looney Tunes, through and through."

Krista extended her hand towards him, all but demanding the placement of the d20 into the palm of it. "Krista," Ben said her name, as if hoping the mention of it would bring her to her senses. "You just lost a dice roll and had a tarantula walk over your face because of it. Do you really think you should risk that happening again? Isn't it time you stopped rolling dice, once and for all?"

Krista gave a half-grunt, half sniff in response. It was a delicate, feminine sound, almost elegant in its execution. Ben felt the annoyance and exasperation his questions inspired in her and he heard the dismissive snort as her saying, "Mind your own beeswax, num-nuts, you don't have a clue what you're talking about!" 

His brow drew down. He couldn't believe he felt sorry for what he put her through just moments ago. "It was her own doing," he told himself. "She made the entries on the list, she rolled the dice and she's the one that wants to roll it again." He reached into the pouch and retrieved the dice. He slapped it into the palm of her hand and resolved to let Felicia the spider fall asleep on Krista's face if she rolled a one again.

Without receiving an order from him, she crouched down on the floor, rolled the dice around in her hand and then let it loose to roll across the floor. It rolled to a spot between the wall and Ben's foot. He stepped aside and bent over to see which number was on the topmost face. It was number thirteen, which meant something from the "yes, please" part of the list. He felt her giddiness and pulled out the list from the pouch. He sent her the order to read aloud the list item and explain it.

"Number thirteen," she said, "go swimming on a white, sandy beach. I want to go swimming in crystal clear waters where you can see the bottom like there wasn't even any sea there at all. I want to see all the fishes swimming around and then have the Sun dry me while I'm lying on a beach made of the whitest, softest sand there is. And I want no people to come around and disturb me. I don't want anyone around for miles and miles!"

Ben looked at her for a few pregnant moments. He couldn't believe that not even having her worst fear come to life could damage her love affair with the dice. He had only introduced her to the d20 that morning and she was already hooked on rolling it. He sent her the order to go to the den and find a beach that would match her wishes.

Felicia sat at his side and looked up at him, saying, "Seriously, Boss, she is cuckoo for cocoa-puffs."

"Don't I know it," Ben said.

"Ah, well, at least you can take comfort in one thing, Boss."

"What would that be?"

"The crazies are supposed to be really good in bed."

Ben rolled his eyes in annoyance and said, "Guard the house until we get back from our beach vacation!"

Felicia stood up and walked off towards the back door. "Always with the 'guard the house' routine," she softly grumbled. "Can't wait for him to come up with something original."

Krista soon found an island in the south Pacific. It was uninhabited, but frequently visited by people that lived on the sea, or took long pleasure cruises on their own sailboats, partly because of its beauty, but also because it had fresh water. The beaches were white sand and there were many beautiful, natural sights to see on the island itself.

She was all but skipping in her excitement to see the island and experience its wonders. Ben leaned over the laptop and scrolled the many amateur pictures depicting the island's attractions. Krista was distracting him so he sent her the order to put together some provisions for their stay on the island. She went to gather towels and put together a picnic basket.

Left alone to concentrate, Ben picked a spot on a beach and made a mental image of it. Krista came back with the towels and his small cooler and put her hand on his shoulder. Ben sent her the order to accept his teleport, as a precaution against her staying put to make mischief. He couldn't just discount the possibility that her eagerness to keep rolling the dice was yet another nefarious ruse of hers.

He recited the word for the Greater Teleport spell and they found themselves on the beach. Once again, the teleportation left a deep impression on Krista. The sand was white and the rising Sun was making the water appear dark in contrast. Krista sighed happily and stripped off her T-shirt. Her perky breasts bounced free, drawing Ben's eyes to them. He paid special attention at their jostling while Krista skipped on either leg to shed her boots and socks. "Last one in is a rotten egg," she called out when she was done rolling her tights down her legs. She stood up, faced him, smiled and took her red panties off. She tossed them at his face and ran into the surf.

Ben stood still and watched her jiggling ass as she ran. It was a pleasurable sight to see. Krista walked through the water, laughing in delight. When she walked out far enough, she dove in. Ben watched her swim along the beach. Her strokes were sure and graceful. The waves kept pushing her back towards the sand and she responded by trying to swim farther out to sea. The waves were stronger and she jumped up, took a deep breath and then dived under them. Ben gathered her clothes, shook out the sand and patiently waited for her to surface. He could feel her delight at spotting a brightly colored fish and chasing it under the surface.

He spread a towel on the sand and set the rest of their things down on it. He sat down, took a look inside the cooler and retrieved a bottle of juice. He sipped on it while he felt her enjoyment of the simple pleasure of swimming in warm, clear water and diving after brightly colored fish. She was almost childlike in her wonder at the beauty of the nature around her.

She swam for the better part of an hour, until her arms were starting to feel tired. She slowly walked out of the surf, reminding Ben of Bond girls doing the same in movies. The difference here was that Krista was buck naked and flailing her arms around for balance as her inner ear was struggling to adjust to dry land again. She fell over twice, helped along by the strong waves, and Ben laughed heartily at her ineptitude.

Finally, Krista managed to recover her balance and step out to terra firma. She walked over to him and said, "That wasn't funny, mister rotten egg."

"Looked hilarious from where I was sitting," he said.

She grunted softly, but made no comment. She wrung the water out of her soaked hair and said, "I need to wash this salt off. Teleport us home?"

"There's no rush," he said. "According to your internet research, there is a waterfall over that-a-way," he nodded westwards, "and I thought we might go and wash the salt off your skin there."

Krista smiled and said, "Lead the way." He picked up their things and started to walk towards the stone-rimmed pond and the waterfall that fed it. It was less than a quarter of a mile away. Krista followed him, naked under the early morning, Pacific Sun. He felt her wonder and delight when she caught her first glimpse of it. The low resolution pictures hadn't done the place any justice. It was beautiful. The water was clear and surrounded by rocks that were neither smooth, nor rough. They were just about right for a wet foot to step over them and neither slip nor injure itself. A small, quiet waterfall on the north side fed the pool with fresh water. On the east side, the water drained over the low lip to dribble down into a creek that wound its way to the sea, not far from the beach she had been swimming on.

Krista sat down on the edge of one of the rocks and dipped her toes in the water. He could feel her shiver. "Ooh, it's cool," she said. She drew a deep breath and slid off the rock to dive into the pool.

As he watched her glide through the waters like a nymph, he suddenly realized she had said, "Teleport us home," earlier. It had completely slipped under his notice that she had appropriated his home. He found himself admiring her perseverance. He had seen Krista keep her cool with the bikers and he had heard her seamlessly go from one seduction attempt to the next while they had her at their mercy. And now, despite being his magically dominated slave, she was in complete command of her faculties and using them to try and subtly manipulate him to her ends.

He found himself wondering if she really was that cool and collected, or if there was some deep, dark pathology at work inside her head. "Either way, she got game," he thought. If it hadn't been for Felicia catching her sneaking around his house at night, she would have successfully played him again, he was sure of it.

She surfaced and said, "Join me?"

Ben grinned and said, "I'll just watch, thanks. No salt in my hair, remember?"

"Your loss," she said and dived into the water again.

Her form cut through the water gracefully, under his admiring gaze. She swam to him and stood up next to the rock he was standing on. The water only came up to her navel. His eyes lingered over her perky breasts as the water ran off them in big beads. He tracked the drops as they went around her erect nipples in their travels downwards.

"So, do I roll again now," she asked, smirking at having captured his attention so thoroughly.

"Huh," Ben said.

Krista smiled and said, "The salt is out of my hair now. Do I roll the dice?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, sure," Ben stammered. He couldn't believe her beauty made him lose focus yet again. "It's like she's the one with magic," he told himself, "and not I." He held up a towel and said, "Come out and dry yourself before you roll!"

Krista climbed up on the rock and stood naked before him. She looked him in the eyes, smiling a smug smile and not saying a single word. She made no move to dry herself, as if she was expecting him to do it for her. Ben felt his face flush. He could feel sweat rolling down the side of his face, much like the water ran down her smooth skin. He recognized that he was locked into a tiny contest of wills with her. She was pushing back at his domination and pitting her beauty and charms against his magic and she was winning. She wanted to have him do something for her, even something as insignificant as drying her skin after a swim. He didn't know what such a small victory would mean to her. He wondered if it would give her hope that she could manipulate him, somehow?

The only reason that he was considering actually drying her off was to grope her. "You could have been doing that the whole time, Ben," he told himself. He blinked his musings away and decided it would be best to crush any hopes Krista still had of playing him. He sent her the order to towel herself dry. Krista bent down and took the smallest of the towels and began to slowly dab at the water clinging to her skin. Her movements were delicate and sensual and her body was all but writhing from one sexy pose to the next as she "dried" herself. Ben stepped back to enjoy the show.

After a few moments, he realized she was perverting his order and testing its limits. Instead of a functional toweling, she was putting on a show worthy of any strip club, which only removed the water from her skin as a side effect. Ben's brow drew down and he sent her the order to quickly dry her hair. Krista stood up straight, took a dry towel in hand and wrung out her hair with all due haste. "That's better," Ben thought to himself.

Once her hair was as dry as it could get with a towel, he sent her the order to roll the dice. Krista held out her hand and he fished the item from his belt pouch and put it in her palm. The pair of them then looked around themselves to find a flat surface on which she could roll the dice. Krista spotted a large, flat rock behind Ben and pointed it out. They walked over to it and she rolled again. The dice showed fifteen this time. Ben fished out the list and sent her the order to read aloud the entry and explain it.

"Number fifteen," she said, excitedly skipping from foot to foot and making her breasts jiggle, "go skydiving. I love skydiving. I love, love, love, looooove skydiving. I go skydiving whenever I get a chance to do it and I just love it! I love everything about it! The pure adrenaline rush of seeing the earth rising up to meet you and knowing there's nothing you can do to stop it, except pulling your cord. The danger of your chute failing, the whoosh of air as you whiz through it, everything!" She sighed and looked off into the distance. "Nothing made me feel so alive as when I first stepped out of that airplane and went falling through the air..." She looked to Ben as if she was reliving a fond memory. She snapped out of it and cleared her throat.

"The only thing I don't like about skydiving," she said, her voice no longer nostalgic, "is that I've done it too many times. It's gotten to the point of being almost boring. What I wouldn't do to get that primal, will-I-live-or-will-I-die rush of uncertainty again! Oh, man, oh man..."

The way she was talking about skydiving made Ben want to try it himself. Taken by her enthusiasm, he decided he would definitely go skydiving with her. Thinking about her desire to get that live or die rush gave him a naughty idea. He grinned and said, "Put your clothes back on, we're going skydiving!"

Krista gave an excited whoop and kissed him on the cheek as she walked past him to get back to her clothes. Ben watched her hurriedly get dressed. He was a bit disappointed that she wasn't putting on another show for him, but he guessed she was in a hurry to get to the rush of free fall. When she got fully dressed, she looked at the cooler and towels in confusion.

"Leave them," Ben said. "We'll come back for them later."

"Ok," she said. She walked to him and breathed deep. A big, goofy smile was plastered across her face.

Ben sent her the order to grab a hold of his wrist and not let go. When she did that, he sent her the order to accept his teleportation. He spoke the word for the spell of Greater Teleport and they instantly found themselves in mid-air. Gravity immediately took hold of them and pulled them downwards. In the initial second of free fall, Ben felt like his organs were trading places. All of his ticklish spots were tingling like razor blades were being drawn across them. As the pull of gravity increased, so did his pulse.




Outsiders Pt. 02



Cold air whooshed passed them as they both fell back towards the ground and it oriented them to be falling belly first. Krista's grasp on Ben's wrist only increased when she spotted the island they had just been standing on. It was far below them. Ben felt her fear and excitement. He knew he had done well. She was completely surprised and definitely unsure if she was going to survive the experience.

As the seconds passed, the air whooshed passed them louder and faster, making it impossible to speak, or hear one another. He saw her open her mouth and try to scream out a question at him, but the rush of air inflated her cheeks to a balloon and she soon had to close her mouth. He could feel the desperation she felt at being unable to verify that they were actually going to survive their fall. Her heart was beating almost as wildly as his was.

His bright idea had sounded so great in his head: teleport them two miles straight up in the air and let them fall almost all the way down before speaking the word for the Feather Fall spell and allowing the two of them to land softly and safely in the surf. Now that he was plummeting from the sky, looking at the ground awaiting him far below, his primal instincts were taking over, making his heart beat so fast he was afraid it'd give out at any moment. His lower brain parts didn't care one little bit about the fact that the Feather Fall spell is activated instantly and can lower the two of them to safety, all they could see was imminent death and they responded by flooding his bloodstream with enough adrenaline to give a heart attack to a grown elephant. If he passed out, the two of them were going to go splat.

The rushing air was making it impossible to look anymore, so he put his free hand in front of his eyes and shut them firmly. As the fight or flight response was overwhelming his mind, he reached out to Krista's. He could feel her rush of adrenaline was almost as great as his, but her reaction to it was almost the exact opposite. Whereas he was regretting his impulsive and reckless teleportation, the visceral experience of imminent death was making her feel more alive than ever. She was experiencing overwhelming feelings of being alive and of awe and wonder. He let himself get lost in them and they painted his own, debut experience with free fall.

The world, and everything in it, faded away from their awareness. There was nothing except the two of them and the cool air rushing past them. Their free hands found each other and the two of them grabbed hold of each other. Without thinking about it, they drew each other closer and enjoyed the warmth of the other's body as it covered them from the cold. Their bodies defied aerodynamic forces, of their own accord, and their lips touched. Their kiss was feverish. Their spittle dribbled out of their mouths to fly up their noses, but they hardly noticed it. Their tongues braved the cold, rushing air to reach the warm embrace of their counterparts. For Ben, time lost all meaning as he shared the life or death kiss with her.

Finally, he felt a genuine sense of panic well up in Krista's mind. She was keeping track of how long they were falling and she was starting to fear that they would really fall to their deaths because she was distracting him from casting a spell. She broke their kiss and reluctantly allowed the rushing air to break up their hug. Her hand remained locked around his wrist, though, making his hand fall asleep.

He managed to shield his eyes with his spare hand again and took a quick peek at the ground. He was surprised to see them fallen so low already. The details of the ground were plainly visible beneath them. His adrenaline spiked again, threatening to make him pass out. He spoke the word for the Feather Fall spell and their rate of descent instantly dwindled to just ten feet per second, without subjecting them to any deceleration forces.

Krista laughed next to him as the air stopped whooshing past them. He felt her relief. "You had me there, Ben," she said. "You really had me going." She drew him into another embrace and planted her lips against his. Her kiss was wild and uninhibited. Her tongue was a writhing snake that wanted to feel everything and didn't care if it knocked out teeth in its probing. Emboldened by the adrenaline flooding his veins, Ben responded in kind. Their hands started groping one another and he sent her the order to let go of his wrist so they could grope better.

Heedless of any and all inhibitions, they mashed their bodies closer together as if they were trying to become one. Her nipples felt like bullets against his skin and he could feel his hard, hot cock was making her wet just by being pressed against her thigh. They were both completely surprised when they landed softly in the sand. They toppled over and laughed heartily with relief at finally being on firm ground.

Lying on their sides in the sand, they looked into each other's eyes. Ben felt Krista feel the exact same way as he did. He could see in her eyes that she knew he was sharing her feelings. They were both drained by the adrenaline rush of the fall, glad to be alive, and horny as hell. Their hands ripped each other's clothes off, tearing them up like wild animals. He bit her lips and then laid a line of hickeys down her throat towards her heaving tits. She dug her fingernails into his scalp and pushed his face harder into her skin. They both wanted a hard, no nonsense fucking at that moment.

As soon as they were naked enough for it, he stuck his throbbing dick into her pussy. There was no preamble needed, she was wetter than ever before in her life and he had felt it. He bit at her lips and hilted himself all the way into her in one move. He didn't give her time to adjust as he began a frenzied, jackhammering, in-and-out motion of his hips. He was pounding her into the sand and she screamed her delight as best she could with her mouth full of his tongue. To a casual observer, their wild coupling would look and sound like rape, but Ben felt how much Krista was enjoying herself.

Ben felt the sand was starting to grate her ass and back, but he also felt it make her want to cum all the more, so he increased his already insane pace. His balls were tightening and the heat of his impending orgasm was gathering in his stomach, turning it into a furnace of ecstasy. He knew he wasn't going to last much longer and felt an overwhelming need for her to come with him at the same time. He lowered his head to her collarbone and bit down hard.

Krista screamed and her whole body tightened up in an explosive release of orgasmic pleasure. Her pussy clamped down on his dick and he yelled out as he came inside of her. His whole body flexed as he pumped her full of his seed. Her juices were gushing out of her as she squirmed in the sand under him. Ben felt her bliss atop his own and his whole body went slack. He passed out in sheer pleasure and exhaustion.

He dreamed of sirens and orange fish dancing under the ocean.

He came to and blinked his eyes open. He was lying on his back in the sand. He squinted at the Sun and saw that it had barely risen from the horizon. He checked his cellphone and saw that he had had a half hour nap. He stretched his protesting limbs. Even though he had just had his cherry popped last night, he felt like the frenzied fucking of half an hour ago would never be topped for the rest of his life. Even now, his body was tingling with post-orgasmic warmth.

He felt Krista's impatience and looked around for her. He couldn't see her, so he focused on the spell linking her mind to his again. He soon learned she was back at the pool, finishing up with removing the sand from her ass.

He grinned and got up to go to her. His torn pants fell down his thighs, so he paused long enough to pull them up and cast the Mending cantrip to repair them. He joined Krista at the pool and used a couple more Mending cantrips to fix her clothes as well. He felt her gratitude and awe, which made him grin proudly.

As soon as she dried off and got dressed, she returned to feeling anticipation of rolling the dice again. Ben fished out the d20 and handed it to her. She muttered under her breath as she rolled the dice in her fist for a long time. Finally, she let it roll over the flat rock she had rolled the skydiving on. The dice settled with the face bearing the number twenty facing upwards.

"Holy crud," Ben said, "a critical hit! You're rolling all the extremes today. You'd be really fun to play with in a real game of D&D. You'd chop a bad guy's head off on one turn and then fumble and drop your weapon on the next." He chuckled.

"Number twenty on my list," Krista said, without bothering to wait for it to be pulled out and consulted, "is to experience a massive, extended orgasm. I've read about that stuff in Cosmo, or somewhere, and I want to know if it's for real. You are to make me writhe in utter ecstasy for the better part of an hour."

Ben's eyebrow rose while he fished out her list and consulted it. It really did read, "Experience an extended, massive orgasm," next to the number twenty. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and said, "Well, I guess you'd better take your clothes off, then."

Krista gave an exaggerated sigh as she started to strip. "Put them on," she mock-complained, "take them off, put them on, take them off... I wish you'd make up your mind." She stripped naked and waited for his instructions.

Ben gestured at one of the larger rocks rimming the freshwater pool and said, "Make a comfortable bed for yourself out of the towels."

Krista arranged the towels, lay down on them and bent her legs at the knees. She then let her thighs fall slowly open to reveal her bare pussy. Ben gulped nervously at the thought of eating her out for more than an hour. Even with being able to feel exactly how each of his touches felt upon her skin, that was a challenge. He decided to try something else, first. He sent Krista the order to orgasm.

Krista's mouth went slack as she gasped in a breath and then started to let out a shuddering squeal. Her skin flushed and her whole body writhed as she came by his order alone. Ben was disappointed to not be able to feel her orgasm. The telepathic link was limited to sending him her sensory input and how she reacted to them. His telepathic order wasn't perceived by her senses so he was denied the sensations of the resulting orgasm. Nonetheless, she was orgasming on the towel before him and the sight was having its effect on him. He pulled his hardening dick out and sent Krista the order to keep cumming and experience the fabled extended massive orgasm.

For the next forty minutes, Krista was flailing helplessly on the towels as her body wouldn't stop convulsing in ecstasy. Ben was unable to tear his eyes from watching her writhe and squirm in helpless ecstasy. Her mouth worked to both suck in desperately needed air and scream out her pleasure. Her voice broke but kept announcing her pleasure. Her limbs flailed about impotently as her mind gave up all pretense of control.

He smelled her juices as they kept trickling out of her. Her body was covered in a sheen of sweat. Watching her cum before him made him toss off a few quick wanks of his own. Her broken voice squealing out her surrender was pure audio sex.

Finally, Krista passed out in exhaustion and her orgasm ended. Ben relaxed and heaved a big breath of relief. He had started to worry that he might have driven her too far. He was covered in sweat himself and he could feel the flush on his own skin. He stumbled over to the edge of the pool and lay down to let the wet rocks cool him. He splashed clear water on his face until he cooled down.

After he recovered from witnessing her intense pleasure, he looked over at Krista. She was still passed out. Her entire body was glistening with sweat. Her legs lay splayed open and her pussy and thighs were soaked with her juices. He could smell them from seven feet away. She needed a cooling and a cleaning.

He stood up, stretched and took his clothes off. He bent over and scooped up her limp form in his arms. He walked around the edge of the pool until he spotted some rocks he could use as a stairway down into the water itself. He carefully stepped down into the water, shivering a bit as his feet came in contact with the cool water. When the water reached Krista's behind in his arms, he felt her stir.

The cool sensations were penetrating the fog of exhaustion around her mind and forcing her back to the here and now. She squinted at Ben with one eye and let out a pitiful moan. He could feel she didn't even have the energy to protest her treatment. He shushed at her, as if she was a child, and walked into the pool until the water was up to his ribs. He could feel her cooling off and wanting to cling to the heat of his body, but not having the strength to do so.

He set her down to sit on a rock next to the bank, so that only her head and shoulders were above the surface of the water. He let go of her, feeling a sensation of loss in her mind, and stepped off the rock, into deeper water, to be at eye level with her. He felt her need for him and reached out to take her foot in his hands. He kneaded her foot with strong fingers, feeling her enjoy the contact. He massaged her feet, before moving on to her legs and rubbing out the kinks the forty minutes of writhing had worked up in her thighs and calves.

He lifted her from the rock and set her to float gently just under the surface of the water. Only her face broke the surface. He worked over her arms, massaging the soreness out of them. All during the massage he could feel a deep and intense feeling of helpless surrender grow inside her mind, inspired by his gentle ministrations. He found it a bit confusing and didn't know what to think of it. As he tried to focus on that feeling to investigate it, he felt a slight cramp in her abdomen, so he decided to finish his ministrations by giving her a deep tissue massage of her abdomen. 

He put one hand under the small of her back, to hold her afloat and pressed and rubbed gently with his other hand until he could feel in her mind that she was in complete bliss. He gently floated her back to the edge of the pool and carried her out of the water. He felt a warmth suffuse her mind, inspired by the gentle way he was carrying her. He set her down on the towels and did his best to find dry patches of them to dry her with.

He let her lie on the towels to be dried by the Sun while he rummaged through the cooler and pulled out a fresh bottle of juice. He propped her up and gently poured some of it into her mouth, feeling her barely have the energy to even swallow it down. After she had managed to sip away the bottle of juice with his help, he felt her stomach grumble.

She was very hungry and he realized her blood sugar was probably too low for her to recover on her own. He took a bag of store bought cookies out of the cooler and ripped it open. He took a cookie out and held it up to her lips. She tried to bite into it, but her jaw was simply too weak to exert any pressure. Without thinking, he took the cookie out of her mouth, bit into it and started to chew it. She let out a small noise of protest at what she saw as cruel teasing, but it ended when he lowered his face to hers and gave her a kiss. He opened her lips with his tongue and then spread them wide, allowing him to slip the chewed and soggy cookie into her own mouth.

He could feel the weirdness of being bird-fed by a guy cause a rush of adrenaline in her system which brought her closer to wakefulness. Her mouth recovered first and she chewed the pre-chewed cookie and swallowed it down on her own. He could feel her mind regaining control of her body and the strength returning to her limbs. He could also feel her like being fed, so he stuffed another cookie in his mouth to chew. She looked up at him through lidded eyes as he bird fed her the entire bag of cookies, only eating a few himself. Though she could by then easily have fed and clothed herself, she smiled as she allowed him to hold her naked body and slip chewed food into her mouth.

After the cookies were all eaten, she asked him for a sip of juice. He took the last bottle of it out of the cooler and held it up to her lips. They were curled into a grin as she shook her head no. He caught her meaning and took a big draught from the bottle. He lowered his lips to hers and kissed her, trickling the juice down past their wrestling tongues. He kissed her like that a few more times, feeling her delight with it, before licking down her chin and neck to catch the drops of juice that had dribbled out of the corner of her mouth. She gave a throaty laugh of appreciation, but he could feel that she just didn't have the energy for anything else sexual today.

He reluctantly kissed his way back up her throat and planted a soft kiss upon her lips. She finally moved her arms and draped them around his shoulders to give him a hug.

He felt her worry about getting sunburn as she opened her eyes and glanced at the Sun, which had risen from the horizon. "Let's get dressed," he said and she nodded eagerly. He checked his phone and saw that it was past two p.m. back home. It was about time for them to get back there. They got dressed and she picked up the dice to give it another roll. The number eight came up.

Ben handed her the list. She unfolded it and read, "Number eight: wear a pink, frilly dress out in public."

Ben looked at her expectantly, for a pregnant moment, and then sent her the order to explain the entry.

Krista sighed and said, "The foster parents that had me when I was eleven, twelve and thirteen insisted I wear such shit. It was the only kind of clothes they'd buy for me. Pink and frilly. Everyone in my middle school picked on me because of my wardrobe. I fucking hate pink and frills. I'd rather wear fur, or nothing at all, than something like that. Please don't make me walk among people while wearing something that's only fit for a five-year old girl's tea party! I don't want to wear anything like that. I would feel beyond ridiculous in such a getup."

Ben was surprised to hear her say she had foster parents. It reminded him of the fact that he knew next to nothing about her. He shrugged and said, "One order of ridiculousness coming right up!"

He could feel her frustration and disappointment and ordered her to gather up their stuff and accept his teleportation spell. They showed up in his den. He again felt her amazement with his power. It was starting to really stroke his ego. The comfortable warmth of a south Pacific morning was instantly replaced by the stifling heat of early afternoon on the eastern seaboard, snapping them both out of their reveries.

He turned to Krista and said, "Set the towels out to dry and stow the cooler, we're going shopping for pink, frilly outfits." Krista left to do as he said. His familiar walked into the den and he turned to face her. He said, "Felicia-"

"Guard the house," the cat finished his statement. Ben looked at her in surprise. "Wow, I must be psychic, or something." The cat yawned, jumped up on the couch, where a shaft of light was hitting it, and spun in a circle. She lay down and said, "Off you go, Boss, I'll hold down the fort."

"I wish I had a rat, or a raven for a familiar," Ben said. Felicia responded by closing her eyes, sighing and starting her nap.

Ben and Krista left the house and he gave her the keys to his car. They got in and drove into town, looking for a clothing store that would provide them with her forfeit. After that, he was planning on taking her downtown to have as many people as possible gaze upon her.

Krista quickly found a store and parked in front of it. They went in and he could feel her desire to buy some new clothes. She was getting sick and tired of her tights and T-shirt combo. He sent her the order to find a pink, frilly dress and to be very cheerful and energetic about it when she asked the shop girl for assistance. He plainly saw on her face the annoyance his order caused her and grinned in satisfaction.




Outsiders Pt. 02



They were less than a mile from his house so he felt Felicia's mood suddenly turn dark as she was consumed by fear. He rushed into one of the dressing rooms and sat down to scry on Felicia. As her master, he was able to scry on her once a day. He closed his eyes, concentrated and soon gained a sharp, mental picture of Felicia. She was scurrying under his wardrobe, trying to escape the grasping hands of some stranger.

Ben heard a female voice call out and say, "Leave the cat, Simon! If you hurt it, how does that let us get closer to this Kidder guy?"

Ben gasped aloud and cleared his mind. He needed to get home on the double. He reached into his belt, retrieved his eyelash in gum arabic and cast the spell of Greater Invisibility upon himself. Krista came into the stall after him and he stuffed his debit card into the waistband of her tights so she could buy the pink dress. He also sent her the order to cover for his disappearance in case anyone was paying attention to how many people were going in and out of the dressing rooms. He pictured his den and spoke the word for the spell of Greater Teleport as soon as he felt his magic flow again.

He appeared in his den, standing face to face with a girl that was the embodiment of female beauty. Her golden hair cascaded down her shoulders in natural-looking waves and her round face was perfectly beautiful, unmarred even by her bored expression. Ben's eyes lowered to take in her spectacular body. She had a huge pair of tits, pushed up by the black corset she was wearing. Her waist was tiny and her hips and ass looked spectacular. She stood taller than him. He looked down and saw that she was wearing shoes with very high heels.

She stepped towards him and he panicked before stepping aside to let her move to the couch. She bent over to lift the cushions and search them. Ben didn't know what she was looking for there, but he was ogling her tight ass as she stood bent over. He had to concede that she was hotter than Krista in every respect, though he had a hard time believing his own eyes.

"Find anything," asked the gruff voice of the man that popped his head in the door. Ben recognized him as the one that was chasing Felicia in his vision. The girl had called him Simon. Ben's fists tightened. He was very protective of Felicia, not just because she was his belowed pet and companion with a human intelligence, but also because he'd lose experience points if she died.

"Not since you asked me half a minute ago, no," replied the blonde.

"Well, keep looking," Simon said and turned to go to Ben's bathroom. Ben followed him, more curious to see what he was doing than to keep ogling the blonde's perfect ass. Simon went through his medicine cabinet and saw nothing that peaked his interest, so he huffed in frustration and punched his fist into his palm. He took both the toothbrushes from the cabinet and dipped them in Ben's toilet before replacing them.

Ben's temples throbbed with rage. This asshole had broken into his home, scared his familiar, ransacked his place and now stuck his toothbrush into his toilet for no apparent reason. Ben decided that Simon would soon suffer a series of misfortunate accidents. The only thing stopping him from wailing on the intruder right away was not wanting to have to clean his blood from his floor afterwards.

"Ok, so there is absolutely no sign of that hot chick we saw drive away with him actually living here," the blonde said from the den.

"Hot chick," Simon asked and left the bathroom. Ben wanted to clothesline the asshole, but reluctantly stepped aside to let him continue his conversation with the blonde. "So, what, are you into girls now, as well?"

Ben glanced over the asshole's shoulder at the statuesque blonde and found himself eagerly awaiting her answer. She shrugged her bare, creamy shoulders and said, "I don't know. I might be. Never had the chance to find out before."

Simon snorted and went to Ben's bedroom. He opened the wardrobe and gave Ben's clothing a critical eye. "This is getting us nowhere," he muttered into his chin.

The blonde left Ben's den and walked up behind him, standing in the entrance to his bedroom. He stepped into the room and stood aside. She leaned against his doorjamb and said, "Do you think he might have use of his magic, after all?"

Ben's jaw dropped at hearing that. These two somehow suspected things about his magic. Maybe they even knew why it happened. They were his first clue as to why and how his miraculous transformation had happened.

He was tempted to silently cast the Dominate Person spell twice in rapid succession and take over the minds of these two and find out exactly what they knew about his magic. He quickly decided against that course of action. Aside from the morality of it, he was worried that the two of them might have magic of their own. If he dominated one of them, the other would surely notice it on the spot and fight back. Besides, if they did have magic of their own, they might be able to shrug off his spell in the first place. He shouldn't assume his superiority over them, just because they didn't see through his invisibility. There was simply too much unknown about them for him to commit to a course of action. Casting against them would be a blind leap. He might land on the jackpot and he might land butt naked in a field of stinging nettles. He needed more info.

He decided to spy on them day and night, if need be, until he found out what he could. He sent Krista the order to buy some clothes for herself and three toothbrushes, one for her, one for him and a spare. He was done playing games with her and he suspected he would need her experience at being a sneaky bitch in order to investigate these two. He sent her the order to come back here as quickly as she could and throw away the filthy toothbrushes.

Simon stood up straight and said, "No fucking way, Raven. No fucking way. Look at this place! I mean, just look at it. This is the dwelling of a loser. A guy that wouldn't know power if it literally hit him with a bolt of lightning from the sky. Look at the shit he's got!" He gestured at Ben's open desk drawers. "He's got Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks." He laughed out loud. "If he had any clue my bolt gave him power, he'd have turned himself into a freaking elf by now. He'd be going around speaking Klingon, or whatever."

Ben bristled at the belittling comments but did nothing. He needed to first get a clear picture of their powers and knowledge and then he'd dominate this asshole and make him eat dirt, literally. He found himself earnestly hoping they wouldn't turn out to be resistant to his magic. He didn't have a clear plan of how he was going to find out their strengths and weaknesses but he felt confident that simply following them around would tell him everything he wanted to know, eventually. It couldn't happen fast enough as far as he was concerned.

"That's kind of my point, Simon," the blonde said. "This guy should not be able to get with a girl like the one we saw him drive away with. Guys who have the balls to ask out girls like her, don't live in shitholes like this. It would actually make more sense if he had somehow compelled her to come spend the night with him. Plus, the neighbors I talked to? The only one that knew about him at all said that he didn't have a car and we saw him drive off in one."

"That old clunker must belong to the girl," Simon said. "And we don't know that he 'got with' that redhead."

The blonde made a face and shook her head, making her golden, wavy hair catch the afternoon light streaming in through the windows. "I'm pretty sure the two of them are an item," she said. "The way she ran out of this place, only to come back in, two minutes later? The way she was looking at him when they went out to the car? All signs point to a relationship. I could see it all over her face."

Ben was surprised to hear a third party speak that way about him and Krista.

"Yeah," Simon said, sarcastically, "you're a fucking mind-reader. Read me this house then, Sherlock. What does it tell you about our guy?"

Raven sighed and said, "Nothing. I don't know why you wanted to sneak in and rifle through the place, anyway. Now we need to put everything back where it was."

"Oh, don't get your panties in a bunch," Simon said. "We hardly moved anything. He'll never notice. Just close all the drawers and we're done here!" A soft beep was heard from the den and Simon went there and retrieved a USB device that was attached to Ben's computer. "This is why we came here. We've got his browser history and a copy of his hard drive."

The two of them made a half-assed effort in concealing the signs of their trespassing and stood by the front door. "What is our next move, glorious leader," Raven asked.

"We're going home," Simon said. "We need to sleep in a proper bed and eat some food that hasn't been bought at a gas station. We need to go through this data and find out his secrets. Maybe I'll hire a private investigator tomorrow and have him put together a file on this guy. Dig up some dirt to blackmail him with, or something."

"I told you already," Raven said, "to get to a guy, any guy, even a loner geek like this one, you need to get to his friends. If we find his friends and I slip into their circle, he's mine! Lock, stock and both barrels."

"For someone who just popped her cherry on Sunday morning," Simon said, "you're awful sure about how to seduce a guy."

Raven shrugged and said, "I spent years coming up with a perfect seduction strategy. You should reap the benefits of my research."

"Whatever," Simon huffed. "Let's go!"

The two of them left Ben's house and he heard them scratching away at his lock in order to lock it again. Ben went to his bedroom and whispered, "Felicia, are you all right?"

"Peachy, Boss," his familiar said, poking her head out from under the wardrobe.

"How come you didn't scratch their eyes out as soon as they came in?"

"I heard them say that you were definitely the one, Boss," Felicia said, "cause you had miraculously recovered from the lightning strike. I guessed that you would like to interrogate them and that wouldn't work so well if I slit their throats."

"Good job," he said. He cast the Ethereal Jaunt spell on himself to make himself both invisible and intangible. His vision turned gray and was limited to only sixty feet. He glided down his hallway and through his door as quickly as he could. Once he was outside, he heard the clacking of heels on the sidewalk and he looked that way to see an ephemeral outline of the blonde's perfect, hourglass shape. He rushed her way, passing straight through the cars on the road and caught up with her as she was waiting for her accomplice to open the car door for her.

She got in the passenger seat and Ben glided through the back door to settle into the back seat. He silently cast the Invisibility spell on himself and ended the Ethereal Jaunt spell to make himself materialize on the back seat invisible. Neither Simon nor Raven noticed the back seat become slightly indented in one spot as Simon started the engine and drove them all away from Ben's house.

Ben patiently sat in the back seat, invisible, and waited for them to drive him to their home. He was going to show them how to spy on someone. He checked the time on his cellphone to know exactly when his spell would end. He had nineteen minutes of invisibility per casting. He also took the chance to mute his phone, lest it reveal him by accident.

"How the fuck are we going to get to this guy," Simon asked.

"Slowly and patiently," Raven said.

"Fuck you, Raven! Fuck you and your slowly and patiently approach! I don't have the fucking time for the slow and steady shit! And, let me remind you, neither do you! If it starts to look like my time is running out, then I'll make your time run out first. You just remember that!"

"Of course! Simon, seriously, man, I'm on your side. Ok? I'm on your side. Relax."

"Relax? Relax?! Are you fucking kidding me!? You want me to relax?!" Simon punched the steering wheel in anger, making the horn sound briefly. "I'll relax when it's done and not a minute sooner!"

"Simon," Raven softly said, "I want your bargain completed as much as you do. You know that. But we'll only have one shot at this and we need to make it perfect. If Kidder suspects us, we're fucked. We need to make it perfect. We have a whole year ahead of us to research and plan and-"

Simon backhanded Raven and snarled, "We're not going to sit on our asses for a whole fucking year, Raven! We're going in as quickly as possible and fixing this shit with all due haste. If you think I'll even wait for this year to be out before we get Kidder to summon the Avatar for me, then you're sorely mistaken. Then you'll be the one that won't live to see another year."

Ben had nearly jumped up to defend the blonde when the asshole struck her. It took all of his willpower to sit still and allow for such behavior to continue. He took slow, deliberate, deep breaths to keep his rage in check. He forced himself to focus on what they were saying. They said they needed him to summon an avatar. He didn't know what the hell that meant but he was fairly certain that he couldn't summon anything. He hadn't even picked any of the Summon Monster spells for his character.

Simon and Raven kept quiet for the rest of the drive and he silently cast another spell of Invisibility upon himself just before the first one expired. He felt that Krista had driven back to his house and was disposing of the toilet-dunked toothbrushes. Simon pulled up in front of a nice house in a suburb that was on almost the opposite side of town from his neighborhood. Ben silently cast the Ethereal Jaunt spell on himself as the pair got out of the car to walk inside their house. He glided, ethereal and intangible, out of the car and into their house.

"Let me just check on my website," he heard Raven say. Simon grunted in response and went into the kitchen to get a cold beer from the fridge. Raven sat in the living room and flipped open her laptop. Ben glided after her to see what website she was talking about.

"Oh, my God," she said in astonishment. "Simon! Get in here! Someone has taken down my website!"

Simon swaggered jauntily into the living room and said, "Did you fuck up posting a simple webpage online, Blondie?" Ben wanted to wipe the ugly smirk from the asshole's face. Even in his gray, ethereal vision, it was an ugly sight.

"No, she didn't," said a calm, strangely accented, male voice from behind Ben. He spun around and saw a figure descending the stairs connecting the living room with the upstairs. Ben ended his Ethereal Jaunt spell to better see the new arrival. As he did that, he noticed a second man in a black suit, tall and sturdily built, enter the living room from a side door.

Before Ben could make any sense of the new arrivals, Simon yelped in pain and went down like a sack of potatoes. A third, equally brutish looking man stood over the asshole, holding an aluminium baseball bat.

"I'm afraid we did that," the first man finished his statement.

Raven had jumped up from her seat and stood frozen in panic. A big, hostile looking man was blocking every exit from the room. "Who are you," she stammered.

The third man pointed his bat down at Simon's face and said, "Repent for your sins!"

"Fuck you, asshole," Simon snarled in response. "I'm gonna break your limbs and skullfuck you!"

The third man stepped forward and whacked Simon on the floor with his bat, making Raven scream. Simon cried out in agony and convulsed. The second man went to the stereo and turned it on, playing some electropop tune, loudly. He and the first man then stepped closer to Raven, hemming her in whilst blocking off any possible escape route.

Shocked by the sudden outburst of violence, Ben crept, as quietly as he could, into an unoccupied corner of the room. He noticed a holstered gun under the first man's shoulder and quickly spotted the concealed guns the other two were also carrying. Ben realized that neither Raven nor Simon had any magical powers. If they had them, they'd surely have used them by now.

The third man kept on whacking Simon on the floor with the bat. His strikes were fast and strong, yielding dull thuds. Ben's hands were shaking and his whole body was flinching with each thud. After the fifth strike, Simon stopped trying to crawl away. "Stop that," Raven yelled. "Stop hitting him, please!" None of the men reacted to her pleas. "Who are you? What are you doing here? Please, stop hitting him!" 

The third man swung the bat overhead and brought it down on Simon's head with a sickening thwack. The bat remained there, lodged in Simon's skull. Raven shrieked at seeing that. She withdrew into her corner of the living room and slowly slid down the wall as her long legs gave out in panic.

Tears were flowing freely down her cheeks. She shook her head and mumbled entreaties for mercy. The third man stepped on the back of Simon's neck and gained the leverage to pull his bat out of the skull. He set that bat down on the floor and grabbed Simon with one hand on the back of his shirt. He dragged Simon's body over to a chair and lifted it to pose it in a sitting position. Blood was still seeping and gushing out of the head wound, making Ben gag in disgust.

The third man pulled a small vial out of his pocket and applied a drop of its contents on the thumb of his hand. He ran his thumb over Simon's forehead, making a sign of the cross. He replaced the vial in his pocket and pulled out a rosary. He held it in his hand as he murmured what Ben guessed to be prayers in Latin over Simon's body.

Raven cried hysterically in her corner, begging the men for mercy, promising them that she wouldn't say anything to anyone if they just let her live. Her desperate tone of voice broke through Ben's shock and he realized the men would kill her too if he didn't do something about it. Ben didn't feel much sorrow for the dead asshole Simon, but he didn't want to see Raven's skull bashed in as well. As he gathered his faculties for an intervention, he realized that these three assholes had just killed fifty percent of his leads on the provenance of his magical power. 

He wasn't going to stand for them getting to hundred percent efficiency. He wanted to intervene, but he didn't know how, exactly. The only time he had picked a fight in his life before today, he had done it to defend a girl's honor and had gotten seriously beaten up. As much as he wanted to step in, his fear of getting hurt himself was holding him back.

His cowardice made him reach into his pocket to get his phone and try and dial the police. He saw on his phone that his Invisibility spell would soon run out. He grasped his eyelash in gum arabic and silently cast the Greater Invisibility spell on himself. It would last less than two minutes but, unlike the regular Invisibility spell, it would make him stay invisible even after he attacked someone.

"Why are you doing this," Raven shrieked at the stone-faced men. The third man finished with his prayer, kissed the rosary and made the sign of the cross before himself. He picked up the baseball bat and stood in the center of the living room. 

The first man gestured with a hand and said, "Step forward and receive your salvation, child!" Ben finally placed his accent as Italian.

Raven's wild eyes flickered between the two stone-faced men inviting her to join the third and his bat in the middle of the room. She shook her head no and hugged her knees to her chest.

The second man suddenly dashed towards her and seized her by the shoulders. Raven lifted her legs to try and kick him away but he was too fast and too strong. He grabbed her ankles and dragged her to the third man. Raven was shrieking and clawing at the carpet in a vain effort to get some purchase and get away from her execution. The men made Raven kneel on the floor of the room and the third one stood over her, holding his bat like an executioner's axe.




Outsiders Pt. 03



Ben Kidder's wake up on Thursday morning was an unprecedented event for him. He was in his own bed, but he was sandwiched between two gorgeous girls and all of them were wearing just their underwear, allowing for a lot of skin to skin contact. Krista was in his arms, facing him, and Raven was sleeping with her back to his. There was barely enough room in his queen size bed for all three of them.

At first, he thought that he was still dreaming, but then he felt the tired mind of his familiar, Felicia. She was sitting on his bedstand, watching over Raven, as per his orders, lest the blonde try to do something in the night. Raven had cried hysterically last night, deeply affected by both witnessing Simon's execution and narrowly escaping her own demise, all the way until she passed out in exhaustion. Nonetheless, Ben had given the order for her to be watched.

He had been just as tired and shook up as her, so he laid her out in his bed and fell asleep right next to her. His last memory before sleep claimed him was of Krista worming her way into his arms.

Susan, his first slave, was at work, demanding attention from the employees at the call center so she could illuminate them about the dangers of alien abduction. He ignored her and focused on the mind of his second slave, Krista. He could feel she was still asleep. He opened his eyes and looked upon the face of his cute, little con artist and gambling addict. There was a bit of dry drool in the corner of her mouth, which made him grin. She looked so soft and inviting while she slept. It was a shame she had tried to rob him blind while she was awake. He was disappointed to feel her breasts encased in a bra that she had bought yesterday. It was a sexy, black, lacy thing, but he had preferred her braless.

"Oh, good," Felicia said, in a tired voice that only he could hear in his mind, "you're up. Does that mean I can finally get some sleep around here?"

Ben squinted at his familiar and then nodded yes. She stood up, stretched and then walked off the nightstand to climb into bed, waking Krista as she walked over her face to slide under the sheets. Krista moaned in protest at the rude awakening.

"What are you doing," Ben whispered at Felicia.

Felicia wedged herself between him and Krista and closed her eyes. He heard her say, "I need my cutie sleep," before he felt her doze off.

He felt Krista's discomfort as she grimaced and squinted at him. He was feeling tempted to dismiss Felicia and get himself a raven familiar instead. Those could at least stay awake for more than six hours a day. He settled for merely shaking his head in displeasure. Aside from the experience point cost, he really liked his cat and could never give her up, though she was far from perfect. Krista yawned and slid her arms out from under Felicia. She propped herself up on one elbow and gave his bedroom a bleary-eyed once over. He felt her disbelief at the dilapidated state of it.

He understood how she felt. The place was a dump that he only got because it had literally been the cheapest place on the market, back when he had been desperately scrounging for his tuition fee. Now, though, he was a level nineteen sorcerer with more than thirty thousand dollars to his name. An upgrade to his living quarters was definitely due.

He felt Krista needing to go to the toilet and she clambered out of bed to go relieve herself. As she did that, she roused Raven and Felicia both. Ben felt his familar's annoyance and ignored it. He rolled over to lie on his back and watched Krista leave. After that, he took a look at Raven. She rolled over on her back, too. After a night of nearly getting bludgeoned to death and then bawling her eyes out, she looked like a broken angel, ready to fall into the deepest, darkest pit of despair at the wrong word or gesture. He swallowed nervously. He never quite knew what to say, or do, when girls cried, and he always felt the need to help them.

His current situation was a little bit different, since he had been in the room with her when the crazy christian trio had beaten Simon to death. He had flinched at the dull thuds of the baseball bat, right alongside her. When he looked into her huge, bright blue eyes, rimmed with red, he saw pretty much the same as what he felt: the desire to not think about last night. He didn't even want to remember it at all.

She rolled towards him and put her hand over his stomach. "Thank you for saving me," she softly said.

Ben nodded. They shared a quiet look of understanding and she looked like she was going to cry again. The toilet flushed in the bathroom and they heard Krista start the water in the sink. They both grinned at the interruption and Ben said, "How about some breakfast?"

Raven bit her lower lip and nodded. "Yes, please," she said.

Ben smiled and sent Krista the order to make breakfast for the three of them. He felt her resist the order unsuccessfully and leave the bathroom for the kitchen, where she got busy with cooking. He raised his hand and put it over Raven's on his stomach. "Listen," he said, "I know that last night was a bit intense for you, what with... the attack... and all that... but, you're welcome to stay here until you get your bearings. Ok?"

Raven nodded, sniffing back a tear. "Thank you," she said. "May I go to the bathroom, please?"

"Of course," Ben said. "It's the white door in the hallway." He pointed out the bedroom door and Raven smiled.

"Thank you," she said and slid out of his bed. For the second time that morning, Ben was treated to the sight of an underwear clad girl walking away from him. He let his eyes wander from her strapless, demicup bra, down her smooth back, to her firm buttocks, covered by boyshorts. He sighed in quiet appreciation.

"Boss," Felicia spoke up, "are you forgetting about her breaking in here and going through your stuff?"

"Of course not," Ben whispered at her. "Do you take me for a complete backbirth?" In lieu of an answer, the cat kept silently staring at him. "Look, I know she's up to no good. She knows about magic. My magic, to be specific. She and that dead guy knew something about it. Plus, the only thing to disturb her last night was the killing. She hadn't even blinked twice at being teleported across town, or me appearing next to her, out of thin air. I need to find out exactly what she knows. She's my first and only lead to answers. I need to know how I got my power. Why I got my power."

"Why don't you just dominate her like Krista and order her to tell you the truth?"

Ben answered her with a reproachful glare. "Because that would be wrong," he whispered.

"You did it twice before!"

"With Susan it had been self-defense," he whispered, "and I had to dominate Krista or she'd be raped and murdered. I'm not going to just violate the mind of everyone I come across. I'm not a monster."

"I though you needed answers, Boss," the cat said.

"I do," he said, "and I'll get them. But not that way."

"So, what, you're gonna wait for her to just volunteer all the information she's got? And I guess you're going to believe her word that it's the truth?" The toilet flushed again and the sink started running. Ben put his finger across his lips and shushed at Felicia. "Yeah, that's a real brilliant plan you got there, Boss. Let me know how it works out for you." The cat yawned, revealing her long fangs, and then closed her eyes and curled up under the sheet to go to sleep.

Ben's lips twisted up in a sour grin. He suspected Felicia to be right about dominating Raven. He needed answers and he needed them way back on Sunday morning. Dominating Raven and simply ordering her to tell him everything was the smart way to go about getting them. He sighed unhappily. He had seen the girl get backhanded by Simon. He had seen the look on her face when Simon had threatened her life. He had heard her beg miserably for her life just last night. He just couldn't bring himself to violate her mind after all that misery.

Raven exited the bathroom and returned to the bedroom, drawing his eyes to her figure again. He couldn't stop himself from feasting upon her beauty. She bent over the chair as she retrieved her clothes from last night. She looked a bit hesitant to put them back on.

"Listen," he said, after forcing himself to look up at her eyes as she turned them towards him, "if you'd like, you can wear something of mine." He pointed to his wardrobe.

She looked where he pointed and asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," he said. "You're the same height as I, without your heels, and I think my stuff would fit you comfortably. Please, help yourself to some sweats, or something. It's all clean."

Raven smiled a radiant smile at him and it nearly made his heart skip a beat. "Thanks! I will!" She reached behind herself and undid the clasp on her bra.

Before Ben could react, her breasts were exposed to his gaze. They hardly sagged at all once their support was removed. With his wide eyes locked on her pale pink areolas, he didn't notice that she barely suppressed a satisfied grin. She walked over to his wardrobe, making her big bosom sway in a most delightful way, and opened it. She rummaged through the contents, making her breasts jiggle. He swallowed against the dryness in his throat.

"Boss," Felicia said, "could you please point your throbbing boner someplace else? I don't want your semen in my fur."

Ben looked away from the gorgeous girl and noticed his erection for the first time. He had become rock hard at the mere sight of her bare breasts and knew it wasn't going to go down anytime soon. His face turned beet red in his embarrassment. He didn't know if she had noticed his boner and he prayed that she hadn't as he bent his leg at the knee and drew it up to conceal his hardness.

"Do you think these would fit me," Raven asked. He looked up to see her big breasts staring at him again. Raven was holding tracksuit bottoms in front of her legs and posing for him. 

He swallowed twice before managing to tear his gaze from her tits and angling it up at her face. Her expression was that of someone innocently waiting for an answer. For all her nudity and his embarrassment, she was acting like there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary going on. "Um, yeah," he managed to get out at long last.

"Cool," she said and smiled. She immediately began to step into the garment to put it on. Her breasts jiggled and jostled with her every move, making Ben's arousal heighten and his dick begin to leak clear fluid from its tip. He realized he was sweating under the thin sheet and it was barely nine a.m. He closed his eyes to try and banish the sight of that perfect, ample bosom from his mind. It wasn't working.

When he opened them again, she was standing in front of the wardrobe and lightly hopping in place. Ben's mouth fell wide open as he watched her big tits bounce up and down her chest, completely unrestrained. They were even softly slapping against one another as she tossed her long hair back and went back to looking down her body.

Felicia poked her head out of the sheet and looked to the source of the soft, slapping noise. "The fuck is she doing, Boss? Is this some kind of weird, human, mating ritual?"

"No," Ben said. He stopped himself too late and winced as he realized he was heard by Raven.

She stopped bouncing, looked up at him in surprise and then nodded. "Yeah, you're right," she said. "These just don't work. I'll find another pair." She stripped out of the tracksuit and rummaged through his wardrobe, looking for another pair. While she was doing that, Ben restrained himself from admiring her smooth flesh and focused on not cumming in his bed. Her tits had gotten him aroused to the point of madness. He needed to cum badly. He knew he'd spray his seed as soon as he ran a single finger over his glans. He just needed her to leave the room already, so he could take care of business.

"Seriously, Boss," Felicia said, "why the fuck was she jumping just now?"

"Why were you skipping," Ben asked Raven.

Raven turned around and seemed surprised by the question. "Oh, I just wanted to make sure they wouldn't slide down my legs if I moved around in them," she innocently said.

"Sure she did," Felicia said. She chuckled and pulled her head back under the covers. "Boss, could you get her out so I could sleep, please? She's very disturbing."

Ben struggled for words as Raven kept looking at him like she was waiting for some sign of approval from him. He also struggled to not look down at her immense knockers while she was facing him and looking him right in the eye. "Right," he finally said. "Carry on. Uh, all the tracksuits have, um, elastic in the waistband, so, uh, they won't slide down... if you, you know, uh, move around in them."

Raven looked positively delighted by that piece of information and smiled. "Thanks," she said and turned back to the wardrobe.

Ben let out a tense breath and wiped his face in frustration. He didn't want to blow his load right then and there and make her think he was some kind of desperate weirdo. He tried to get his cock to slide back into his boxers so he would be covered if he left the bed to go to the bathroom, but all he succeeded in doing was bringing himself to the very brink of orgasm.

In desperation, he sent Krista the order to come and get Raven out of the bedroom in a way that didn't make her suspect anything. Almost instantly, he saw Krista jogging down the hallway towards him. She was dressed in some new clothes she had bought yesterday. They looked good on her, a classical white blouse and black skirt combo. She dashed into the room, paused at the door and put on a fake smile. "Raven," she said, startling the tall blonde, "won't you come and help me with breakfast? It's the least you could do to thank Ben for saving you last night!"

Raven turned around in surprise and gave Krista a good once over with the type of gaze women use whenever they meet a new woman. It was meant to notice a thousand miniature details of Krista's appearance and bearing, correlate them with everything recently seen in fashion and beauty magazines, and instantly come up with a complete socio-economic profile of the subject before her, along with all of her preferences, ambitions and a pretty good idea of their relative positions in the pecking order.

Ben gleaned his realization of this from Krista's mind. Since Krista had only had yesterday to shop for herself, the picture she presented her rival, Raven, with, was woefully inadequate in her own mind. She blustered through the inequality and stood her ground. "Come along, you can play dress up later!"

"Wait," Raven said, "I need to first put some clothes on. I don't want to get the kind of hot grease that you probably do all your cooking in on my bare skin."

Ben felt Krista's rage at the last statement and struggled to understand which part of it was so insulting that it made her want to kill Raven and throw her body in the river. Krista showed no outward sign of any displeasure. She smiled and said, "Nonsense! I have an apron for you to put on! Now, come along! There's work to be done."

Raven stood still and cocked her head. She scrunched up her cute face in a doubtful grimace and said, "Are you sure you have an apron that could cover all of this?" She pushed her bosom up with her hands, nearly making Ben groan at the sight of it. "My breasts are so delicate and sensitive... I'd hate to be forced to endure scars for the rest of my life, just because you were clumsy and dropped something."

Ben nearly panicked as he felt Krista overflow with murderous rage at hearing Raven's words. Krista, for her part, chuckled and said, "You're so funny! And vain! I had no idea that you were one of those girls that has to dress up just to trim her own nails." She gave an exaggerated eye-roll. "I mean, that kind of stuff must get really old with your boyfriends, like, real quick."

Raven smiled and said, "I've never had a boyfriend complain about anything I ever did. Not a single one of them. Not even once."

Once he saw all the hatred he could feel inside of Krista wasn't going to result in bloodshed any time soon, Ben rolled his eyes at the cat fight in front of him. It was so silly and stupid that it almost made his wood lose strength. He sent Krista the order to turn Raven around and away from him and keep her occupied while he got out of bed and went to the bathroom.

Krista gently put her hands on Raven's shoulders and turned her around to face the wardrobe. "Well, then, let's focus on finding something you can cover yourself up with," she said.

Ben seized his chance and slid out of bed to do the awkward, three legged shuffle to the bathroom. Once there, he pulled out of his mental link with Krista, sick and tired of her petty cattiness, and slid his boxers off his cock. He stood up straight, locked the door and seized his shaft. He used a finger to spread the pre-cum all over his glans and lubricate the way for his foreskin. He tugged it back and forth across the head of his cock and was almost instantly on the verge of cumming. He shut his eyes and played the image of Raven bouncing her huge boobs in his mind. He groaned and shot his load into the mirror over the sink.

He gasped for breath for a few moments, before he managed to recover. He wiped his cum from the mirror and tossed his boxers into the dirty clothes hamper. They were the only thing there. He shrugged and decided he'd just Prestidigitate them clean after his shower. He got in his tub and turned on the water. He set it to lukewarm and let it soak him from head to toe. He quickly and efficiently lathered himself up before rinsing it all away.

In less than twenty minutes, he was clean, shaven and wearing clean boxers. He left the bathroom and was delighted by the smell of food. He grinned and went to the bedroom to get dressed. When he came to the kitchen, he was pleasantly surprised to see the girls were both alive and well. There were no bloodstains to be seen and they both appeared to have all of their appendages present. Both girls smiled at him warmly as they finished setting the small, kitchen table.

Each girl pulled out a chair for him and then gave the other one a look as if suddenly realizing that there were only two chairs set at the table. Raven and Krista both sat down in their chair at the same time and shot the other one a look of animosity. They both looked over to Ben at the same time and realized their mistake. They jumped out of their seats and gestured for him to sit down instead.

Ben raised his hand to preempt their sales pitch over which seat was better for him and said, "Sit down, both of you!" He turned on his heel and went to the den. He picked up the chair from his writing desk and brought it to the kitchen. The girls scooted their seats a bit back to let him sit down with them. Each now occupied one side of the table, while the forth was against the wall.

The three of them enjoyed their breakfast in relative silence. The girls flanked him and flashed warm, inviting smiles at him. Krista pointed out that she made it all and Raven retorted that she helped serve it. Ben ignored them and shoveled scrambled eggs into his mouth. They were really soft and really tasty. He moaned in appreciation, making Krista smirk at Raven. Raven responded by quirking an eyebrow and then stretching her arms above her head and yawning, making her ample bosom stretch the red cardigan she was wearing. When she lowered her arms to continue eating, she shot Krista a smug grin.

The rest of the food was consumed without open warfare breaking out. Ben looked at the two beautiful girls smiling at one another. Despite looking perfectly civil, he felt like they were going to start a fight at any moment. It was one of the most disorienting sights of his life. He sighed and decided to break them up. He sent Krista the order to clear the table and wash everything the old fashioned way.




Outsiders Pt. 03



"You just relax and put your feet up, Ben," Krista said, stroking a finger across his cheek, "I'm going to clean up!" She got up and got to work.

Ben got out of his chair, picked it up and nodded for Raven to follow him into the den. He replaced the chair at the desk and sat on it sideways, facing the couch. He held his hand out towards the couch and said, "Please, have a seat!" He bit back a grimace as he gave the shabby, old piece of furniture a new look. When he had first seen it, weeks ago, it had looked to him to be just fine, but now that an angel of sex was going to sit on it, it suddenly appeared to be an unworthy piece of crap. "I've got to get a proper place for myself," he thought.

Raven walked over to the couch and sat down. She looked at him with a smile, but he thought he could tell she was in an expectant mood. His eyes wandered lower and he saw that the buttons on her cardigan were only done halfway up. She was wearing nothing underneath it and he could see she was still braless. He looked away and tried to remember if the cardigan had been unbuttoned like that at the breakfast table. To the best of his ability to recall, it hadn't. "She must have done it just now," he thought to himself.

"So," she said in a small voice, drawing his eyes back to her, "what do you intend to do with me?" She angled her forehead towards him, making herself appear more juvenile and weak. Her bright blue eyes were open wide and her expression was all but fearful as she waited for his response with bated breath. Her whole posture was submissive and scared and he recognized that it was deliberate on her part. She was trying to inspire him to feel protective towards her.

"I hadn't always looked like this, you know," she said. Ben paused with what he was going to say and looked at her expectantly. "I used to be disfigured. I used to be terribly disfigured. It was the result of an accident I had when I was a little girl. I wasn't just ugly, I was also in constant pain that no physical therapy could fix. When I was a teenager, I got hooked on painkillers. I'd need them just to function like a normal human being, but they'd stop working after a while and they'd just make things worse for me.

"Then I'd have to go to rehab and that would be torture. I don't even want to talk about that part. The pain of kicking the habit, compounded by the sheer agony of my injuries... It was simply horrible." Raven sniffed and wiped her eyes. Ben nearly wept in sympathy with her plight. As she moved, her body seemed to draw his attention to her half-exposed bosom. He let his eyes go there, but he didn't let them linger for long. He kept flicking them up to her face. She was making an intimate confession, sharing something that was very personal and layered with emotion and it wouldn't do to be caught ogling her breasts. He waited patiently for her to continue with her tale.

"So I met Simon one day," she said. "He, uh, he offered me a life without pain, without disfigurement. I was really desperate by then, so I took him up on his offer." She sniffed again. "By the time I realized he was dabbling in black magic, it was too late for me to escape his clutches." She gave a brief sob. "I hadn't even realized he had entraped me until I told him I wanted out. He had taken some of my blood and used it in a ritual. He had but to speak a word of Sumerian and I'd die on the spot.

"It was awful. Just awful. He used his ritual to make me his slave. I had no choice but to do as he said. He performed a ritual that rid me of my disfigurement and then he forced me to be his sex slave. I had to let him paw at me and rape me repeatedly, or he'd kill me with his magic!"

She lowered her head and leaned forward. Her action all but exposed her right breast. She put a hand to her brow and sniffed back her tears. Ben was struggling to remember what she was saying. He needed to keep it straight in his head if he was to get to the truth about his magic. He knew the part about him threatening her life was true, he had witnessed it himself in their car yesterday. He remembered how casually Simon had backhanded her at the first sign of dissent and he decided that the poor, gorgeous girl was most likely telling the truth about her ordeal. His heart went out to her.

"He used me for months," she said, setting off alarm bells in Ben's mind. "I spent every day in fear, wondering if it was going to be my last. Never knowing what might set him off."

Ben remembered Simon had said that she'd only popped her cherry on Sunday morning. It had stuck in his memory both because that was around the time he had gotten his power and because he couldn't quite believe a girl that looked like Raven would be a virgin. He didn't know her exact age. Her skin was as smooth as a baby's, but her body was that of an adult. From her behavior and speech, he guessed she was in her early twenties, just like he and Krista.

His brow drew down as he realized she was lying to him about how long she had been violated. He wondered how much of her story was also exaggerated, or simply made up. He settled back in his seat and allowed himself to watch her all but naked tits rise and fall with her breath.

"On Sunday night," she said, "he was performing a ritual that would grant him magical power. Real life sorcery." She shook her head. "I couldn't let him do that. I simply couldn't. If he had succeeded in his ritual, he would have been able to enslave anyone. He'd be able to do what he had done to me to everyone he ever met. I didn't care if I lived or died anymore, so I stood in his line of sight and posed provocatively to distract him." She gave Ben a small, sad smile. "It worked. He leered at me and flubbed his ritual. His power manifested itself as a bolt of lightning and went astray."

She leaned over towards him, making her breast all but pop out of her cardigan. "It went to you, didn't it," she said. "You got it instead of him." He looked up and they locked eyes for a while. He felt like he could lose himself in the adoration he could see in her blue orbs. "You can protect me, can't you? You can protect me from those baseball bat lunatics and others like Simon. Can't you? Please?" Her voice was so small and almost plaintive in tone. It successfully resonated with something his upbringing had instilled in him and made him feel the desire to protect her.

Ben cleared his throat a couple of times. "I, uh," he stammered, "of course, I'll protect you. You can count on that."

She smiled a radiant smile and put her hand over her bare chest in a gesture of relief. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you so much!" She threw herself into his arms, pressing her tits against his chest.

He blushed furiously as he felt his dick rise up in response. He put his arms around her shoulders and did his best to angle his body away from hers, so she wouldn't try to sit in his lap and discover his impropriety.

She gave him one more squeeze before breaking their hug and setting her behind back down on the couch. She still sat and leaned so close to him that he could feel her breath on his chin. She sniffed and said, "Oh, I'm being such an imposition on you, aren't I?"

"No, no, no," Ben said, shaking his head, "it's no problem."

"I want to appologize if your life got twisted or turned upside down by the power," she said. "I didn't know that it would go someplace else. To someone else. I thought that it would just dissipate into nothingness. I'm sorry for my part in changing your life." 

She hooked a lock of her golden hair behind her ear. Ben noted that even her ears seemed beautifully proportioned. Her voice was a throaty whisper as she said, "If there's anything I can do to make it better, please, don't hesitate to ask. I owe you my life." He licked his lips as she breathed the words, "I would like to do everything I can to make your transition period as smooth and effortless as possible."

"My transition period," Ben asked, worried at the phrasing.

"Yes," she said. "Your transition from regular guy into a magician. If there's anything I can do to help you with that," she shook her head, "you just have to say it and I'll do it."

Ben nodded. "Thank you for saying that," he said.

"I mean it," she said. She smiled gratefully and put a hand on his knee. 

Suddenly, Ben realized that his erection must be plainly visible as it tented his pants. He hadn't seen her look down, but he feared she could see it in the corner of her vision. He blushed even harder and pivoted out of his chair to hide it. He stood with his back to her and felt his boner straining against the soft fabric of his summer pants. "I, uh," he said and gulped. "I do apologize for the accomodations. They are a bit... uh, spartan, and, um, shabby."

"Oh, I don't mind," she said behind him. "As long as you're near me, it may as well be the Taj Mahal. I just feel so safe and sound around you."

Ben felt incredibly rude to speak to someone he turned his back on, so he turned around and sat down at his desk. He crossed his legs and felt confident that his erection was no longer visible. He turned his head to face Raven and said, "But the quarters are close."

Raven smiled another angelic smile at him and said, "A home is only as small as the patience of its residents."

Ben's brow rose. He had never heard such a proverb before. "That's a nice saying," he said.

"It's true," she said, shrugging. "As long as the people living in a household like and tolerate one another, there can never be too little space for them to share." Ben nodded politely. He liked that Raven was cool about his current living arangement. Raven's glad expression faded away to be replaced by sorrow. "Of course, I know that I can't stay here for long."

"What," Ben asked. "Why not?"

Raven looked uncomfortable for a moment and then nodded across the hall towards the kitchen where plates and cutlery were heard clinking in the sink. "I don't want to make trouble for you two," she whispered.

"Oh, no, no, no," Ben said, "we're not..." He paused and asked himself what Krista was still doing in his house. He needed to keep Raven near so she could tell him about his power and Simon and the lunatics that had killed him. He had had his fun with Krista and avenged the wrongs she had wrought against him. Wasn't it time for him to send her away? Wasn't she supposed to go to jail for scamming so many people out of their money?

"You mean to say that you're not together," Raven said, expectantly.

"Well, uh," Ben said, "it's complicated."

Raven seemed to wait for him to continue, but he honestly didn't know what to say about Krista. He had felt towards her what no other girl had given him a chance to feel. She had been the first woman to inspire him with her smile, way back in February. She had also been the first woman to rip his heart out and make him wish he was dead. The rejections from the other girls in his life had stung, but nowhere near as much as what she had done to him. "Aren't those the trademarks of a man's first love," he asked himself. 

On top of all that, the wild ride he had with her, yesterday, on the island, was something truly spectacular. Something that he suspected he'd never experience again, not in the same intensity, for as long as he lived.

He had done her wrong, this was true, but he had also felt her feel protected, safe and looked after while they had been on the island. He had fed and bathed her and she had responded with such tender acceptance that it had felt like true love to him. If it hadn't been for her taking out credit cards in his name and trying to steal his money, yet again, he would think the two of them actually were in love. He didn't know if he hated Krista's guts, or if he loved her to pieces, but he did know that he had feelings for her. Feelings he needed to explore before committing to a course of action regarding her.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Raven said, bringing him out of his head.

"What?"

Raven looked uncomfortable and hesitantly said, "It's just that... I hate it when pretty girls make good guys jump through hoops to prove themselves. It's just so fake, you know? Love should be freely given, not earned in an audition process."

She reached under the desk to put her hand on his lap and he jumped away, lest she touch his still semi-hard cock. "Yeah, it's, uh, it's not like that," he said, standing with his back turned to her.

"I'm sorry," she said, in a small voice. "I didn't mean to speak out of turn, or insult you. It's just that I'm so very grateful to you for saving my life and I want... only the best for you in return."

Ben felt overwhelmed by the many questions and doubts that were running around in his head. He had a cute con artist gambling addict doing his dishes in the kitchen and he had no idea what he was going to do with her. He had the most beautiful woman in the world sitting in his den, proclaiming her gratitude to him and he wasn't sure if what she was telling him was the truth. He had been transformed into a real life Sorcerer from Dungeons and Dragons and he still didn't know why that had happened to him, of all people. He was done with asking himself pointless questions. He needed to start getting answers from others.

"Where did Simon perform his magic gaining ritual," he asked, suddenly rounding back towards Raven.

She looked at his crotch for a moment before looking up at his eyes and saying, "What?"

"Where exactly were the two of you when he performed his ritual?"

Raven looked surprised by his question. She gave another glance at his shrinking crotch tent and said, "We were in this park on Third Street. It's just a big piece of green that no one ever visits after dark. You can't even find a junkie there after midnight."

Ben finally understood. Third Street ran behind Kurt's apartment building. It was separated from the building by a park. The window he had opened on early Sunday morning looked out at that park. It appeared to Ben that the most miraculous thing that had ever happened to him was just a coincidence.

"Were you somewhere along the east side of the park," he asked.

Raven nodded and said, "Yeah. There's this big, slanted patch of grass there that's surrounded on nearly every side by trees and brush. You can be there, out in the open and still have all the privacy you want. No one can see you from the street, or the surrounding buildings."

Ben knew the place she was talking about. It was right outside Kurt's window, but the view of it was blocked by an overhanging spruce tree. He just needed to confirm his suspicions. "It's just behind the lamp and the wooden bench with the pink graffiti on it," Ben said, questioningly.

"Yes," Raven said, "that bench is right next to the..." She paused and her shapely lips quirked into a smile. She cocked her head at him. "How do you know that?"

Ben swallowed heavily. There was no higher purpose to his transformation. There had been no higher powers at work. He had been struck by the magical bolt of lightning for the sole reason of proximity to the originally intended target.

He had feared what Raven would tell him about the source of his magic, because he had feared that there would be some price he would have to pay, or a quest he'd have to fulfill, lest he incur the wrath of the powers that be. Now that he found out that there was no higher power at work, just a deceased, deranged cultist, he felt strangely disappointed. He supposed that he should feel elated at the fact that his transformation came without a price, but he just didn't. He felt lost, of all things.

"Ben," Raven asked. "Ben, are you ok?"

He looked at the concerned expression on her face and forced a grin onto his. "Yes," he said. "Yes, I'm perfectly fine." He took a good, long look at the leggy blonde sitting before him. She needed his help. He needed a distraction from his worries. He felt it wise to delay making any big decisions until he could process the sheer randomness of the most important and miraculous thing to have ever happened to him. "You need your things. We should go back to your house so you can pack your clothes and we can call the police to come collect Simon's body."

Raven looked suddenly haunted. She closed her eyes and shivered. Her fingers began to work on buttoning up her cardigan. "I, I don't think I can," she said. "Not today." She opened her eyes and looked pleadingly at Ben. "I can't face that yet."

Ben nodded and said, "It's ok. We don't have to go there today." Raven nodded gratefully and blinked back some tears. "But what we do need to do is go shopping!" Ben smiled at Raven, knowing that she would probably appreciate a distraction. "We need to get you some clothes of your own. What do you say?"

Raven smiled and held out her hand in acceptance. Ben helped her stand up and they collected Krista from the kitchen, where she had just finished doing the dishes. He sent her the telepathic order to act like she was his girlfriend and to be civil and friendly towards Raven. She didn't resist his first order, but he did feel her try to resist the second. "I've got to start watching my orders to her, or she'll break loose of my hold on her," he thought to himself.

The three of them got in his car and drove into town to hit the malls and buy some clothes for the girls. Krista, according to the order he had given her, engaged Raven in friendly conversation about style and fashion. Pretty soon, the two of them began sounding like they had been the very best of friends since the beginning of time. Krista suggested they start with underwear and Raven enthusiastically agreed. Ben had absolutely no intention of dissenting.

Everywhere they went, eyes were drawn to them. Krista looked very attractive in her business casual attire and Raven was Raven. Her red cardigan was left back at his house and replaced by a simple, old, gray T-shirt of his. Even wearing a shirt and sweatpants combo, she was a knockout. Especially as her breasts stretched the T-shirt taut. 

Ben was uncomfortable at all the attention they were getting. Some of the younger men they walked past in the mall lobby would even peel away from their groups to greet the girls, completely ignoring him. The girls weren't paying them any mind, so the boys didn't do anything else, but Ben got the distinct impression that they would latch on to the girls like barnacles if they so much as looked at them once. Ben was decidedly uncomfortable at the attention the girls were drawing to them. He was beginning to fear he might have to fight off some brash asshole and his buddies.

He wondered if he wasn't a hypocrite for glaring at the young men. His body had strongly reacted to Raven's beauty, time and again, and he asked himself if he could truly fault the boys their behavior. As a gangly youth walked beside them all, talking about this awesome party his friends were throwing that night, Ben realized that he could. He squeezed in between the dude and Raven and glared at him. No matter how hot Ben found a girl, he would never pester her when she obviously didn't want to be bothered. He glared calmly at the dude and the dude smiled and said, "Hey, it's all good, brother!" He smiled and raised his hand to give Ben a high five. Ben left him hanging and he drifted away from them, giving Ben the stink eye.

The unpleasantry lasted only a short while longer, until they ascended to the floor which housed most of the mall's lingerie stores. Raven spotted one and drew them towards it. The two girls made a lightning quick pass through the store and then sat Ben on a bench in front of some mirrors, just next to the dressing rooms. They took turns coming out of their cabins, wearing some skimpy, lacy, see through piece of clothing that only accentuated their beauty and nudity. Ben sat there and shamelessly ogled both the hotties as they twirled right in front of his eyes. 




Outsiders Pt. 03



Ben, being male, noticed all of their curves and none of their quiet contest for his affections. He sat cross-legged to hide his erection and contemplated ordering Krista to the nearest bathroom so he could fuck the stuffing out of her tight, teasing behind. Or maybe inviting Raven to follow him into a stall so he could make her kneel in front of him...

Ben snapped out of his reverie and frowned. "Raven almost got killed last night and I want to drag her to a bathroom and violate her," he asked himself. "What is wrong with me?" He felt ashamed for his thoughts and concentrated on making his hard-on go away. It was an impossible task and he sat there, watching the girls model lingerie for another half hour, until they ran out of ideas.

He sighed in relief when the girls finally exited the stalls clothed and brought their selections to the cash register. His erection subsided and he was able to walk around without being painfully obvious. He was shocked at the almost-four-digit price the cashier stated after ringing up their stuff, but he paid it all the same.

They split up after that. The girls did some window shopping and Ben took the bulky bags out to the car. They met up at the food court, where they indulged in some chocolate éclairs. The girls talked fashion and were developing a friendly rapport that was a bit weird for Ben to see. Sure, he had ordered Krista to be friendly with Raven, but he hadn't expected the blonde to respond in kind.

"Maybe she's just glad to have someone to talk to," he thought. "A friendly face. She'd need one after last night." Ben realized that Raven hadn't made a single attempt to contact anyone for any comfort. He, himself had been on the verge of calling his parents after seeing Simon get wasted and she had settled on just the two of them. "Either she literally doesn't have anyone in the whole, wide world, or we're just that good at comforting distraught people."

As Ben recalled the fake smiles the girls had been exchanging earlier this morning, he decided the latter simply couldn't be true. "Maybe she's afraid of calling anyone and letting them know where she is," he thought. "Maybe she's scared of the trio coming back to kill her?"

Ben's face took on an unhappy expression. It was long past time for him to pay the murderers a visit. He was going to find them and interrogate them. He took a long look at Raven. She acted calm and happy, but he thought he could see fear in her eyes. A well hidden, yet burning fear of being found and murdered by the three madmen. The more he watched her, the more he saw that he was right. Her eyes were darting to all the people coming into the food court. It was discrete, but he could see that she was making an effort to spot any would-be assailants first.

The girl was counting on him to protect her. He wasn't going to fail her in that regard. "You girls are going to go ahead with your shopping trip without me," he said. Raven's eyes nearly jumped out of her face at that. He could now plainly see that she was scared beyond belief to be out in public without him and he felt stupid for not noticing it earlier.

"No, no," she said, "you're right. We've done enough shopping for one day. It's best if we all go home and-"

"Raven," Ben said, cutting her off, "Krista will look out for you. You're under my protection. Don't worry, I'm only a thought away at all times. Besides, I won't be long and I'm going to end this threat to you."

"What do you mean," Raven asked.

"I'm off to find the three men that killed Simon," he said. "And I'm going to stop them, once and for all."

Raven didn't look to be very comforted by his words. "No, I've had enough shopping for one day," she said. "I'd like to go home, now. Your home!"

Ben put a hand on her shoulder and softly said, "It's okay, Raven. You'll be safe with Krista and, by the time I return, you'll be safe from those men forever. Trust me!" Raven looked decidedly nervous. "Don't you trust me?" Raven swallowed nervously and reluctantly nodded yes.

Ben leaned down and planted a soft kiss on her forehead. He gave Krista the car keys and his debit card and sent her an order to not spend more than two thousand dollars on clothes and everything else the two of them would need. She nodded, stood up and kissed him on the lips. It was a gentle, but passionate kiss, the kind that Ben had always imagined women gave their men before they went off to war to inspire them and give them comfort during their fight.

He turned around to leave and Krista grabbed his ass and gave his buttock a good, long squeeze. He jumped in surprise and spun around to see her wicked smile. She sat back down to finish her sweet and he looked at Raven. She still looked scared to him, so he composed himself and gave her a self-assured nod before walking to the nearest men's room.

He checked that he was all alone before envisioning his den and speaking the word of the Greater Teleport spell.

He sat down at his table and started to cast the spell of Discern Location. He held the image of the baseball bat wielding Piotr in his mind. His arms made the gestures which drew the knowledge of the location into him as his chant prepared him to receive it. Ten minutes later, he drew a complete blank.

He quickly recovered from his shock and checked what he knew of his spell. It couldn't have gone awry, he had cast it perfectly. He consulted his Player's Handbook and verified that he should have been able to learn Piotr's location, no matter where in the world he was. He thought about things for a moment and then decided to cast Discern Location again, only this time, he focused on the big Irishman's face.

Ten minutes of chanting and gesticulation later, he drew another blank. He started to fear that his magic was failing him. He drank a glass of water and calmed down. The spells were still flowing through his body, like they have been since Sunday morning. He read the spell description in the manual again. It distinctly read that the spell was the most powerful means of locating creatures or objects. It could only be thwarted by a spell of Mind Blank, or the direct intervention of a deity. The three killers had been christian zealots and Ben wondered if he was defying God by searching for them. He wondered if he had stumbled across definitive proof that there really was a God and that it was the particular one that the christians worshipped.

He sat down and managed to remain surprisingly calm in the wake of such a thought. He resolved to critically evaluate the matter. As he thought about it and examined his suppositions for falsifiability, he spotted the spell description's distinction of creature versus object. He could discern the location of each and every person he has seen, but he needed to have touched an object he wanted to find. He had touched Piotr's body when he had knocked him down to stop him from executing Raven. 

Ben cracked his knuckles and cast the Discern Location spell to find out where Piotr's body was. Ten minutes of chanting and gesturing drew the spell out of him and he suddenly learned that Piotr's body was in drawer sixteen of the city morgue's cold storage unit. He also learned the exact address of the city morgue.

As shocked as Ben was to find out that the man was dead, he was more relieved at finding out that no deity was impeding his efforts. He would have hated to be burdened with the factual knowledge that a religion, any religion, was true. If he had proof that there really was a God, he would have felt obligated to spread that knowledge to the rest of humanity, even going so far as to explicitly demonstrate his magic to the public. Fortunately for him, he had merely been stymied by the fact that Piotr and his Irish comrade were deceased.

He had hoped to get some answers from the Pole, but if he was really lying dead in that drawer, then there could only be more questions for him to tackle. He used his laptop to look up what the city morgue looked like on the inside and made a mental map of it. Ben pulled out his eyelash in gum arabic and cast the Invisibility spell on himself. He then spoke the word of the spell of Greater Teleport and found himself in the cold storage unit of the city morgue.

He looked around and saw that he was all alone. He crept over to the wall of drawers and pulled open the one that had the number sixteen on it. He reached in and undid the zipper on the plastic body bag. He lifted the flap and looked in. His angle was all wrong, so he took another look around before pulling the heavy drawer partly out of its compartment. Now he saw that Piotr really was dead. He had already been autopsied, his forehead was stitched back together and Ben could see the top of the Y-shaped cut on his chest, also stitched closed. He noticed a gunshot wound on Piotr's chest and realized the man had been killed.

He grimaced unhappily. "First Simon," he mumbled to himself, "now his killer, too." Everyone that could give him answers about the mess that was brewing around him was dying. He focused on what Krista was doing. She and Raven were in a shoe store, trying on shoes. He needed Raven to stay alive and tell him all she knew about Simon's rituals. He recognized the fact that he should have asked her more questions this morning. 

He heard a noise and startled. He quickly zipped up the body bag and closed the drawer as quietly as he could. There were voices in the hallway outside. Ben looked around for a hiding place, before reminding himself that he was invisible for eighteen more minutes. He rolled his eyes at his own stupidity and calmly walked over to the door. He stood to the side of it as two men in scrubs opened it and walked through. He stepped out as soon as they passed and looked around for an office. He needed to find out exactly how Piotr had met his fate.

He searched the morgue until he found the autopsy report. Piotr had been listed as John Doe #2 on it. Ben frowned and found two more John Doe files, with the numbers one and three next to their names. He immediately recognized the Irish and Italian assailants from Simon and Raven's place. The three of them had been found dead at that very same address. All of their bodies were here, in the cold storage unit. Ben read the conclusions of the medical examiner and was just as baffled as the pathologist. Each man had been shot, but died before they could bleed out because of heart failure due to idiopathic cardiac tamponade, whatever that meant. Each man's airway had been torn inside their own chests, right over their hearts, by an unknown method.

Ben took out his phone and took photos of the relevant pieces of the reports. He rifled through the rest of the paperwork and found documents that said that tomorrow the bodies would be released to the local catholic church for burial. He squinted in remembrance. Piotr had been giving Simon what was probably last rites, and Italy, Ireland and Poland were the most catholic countries in Europe, from what he knew of such matters. He read that they had each worn a rosary, a cross and a medallion. Each had also carried a gun and no identification. 

He pulled out his phone and went online, looking for pictures of the police station which housed the robbery/homicide division. He teleported there and snuck into the evidence locker using a spell of Ethereal Jaunt. He checked the logs and found that the guns were in the ballistics lab, but the rest of their possessions were there.

He went to the evidence drawers and looked through a bunch of clear, plastic bags until he found the ones containing the belongings of the three deceased he was investigating. He looked at their medallions. Each was round and an inch across. They looked to be gold, but Ben's jewelry skill told him they were probably only gold-plated. Each medallion bore an identical engraving of Jesus on the cross, flanked by two massive, upright hammers. Ben took a photo of the medallions before replacing everything.

He spoke the word of the spell of Greater Teleport and found himself at his house. He sat down at his laptop and went online to research the pathology reports. As near as he could figure it out, something had been shoved down their airways and then used to squeeze their hearts until they couldn't beat any more. Just like the pathologist and Ben, the internet at large had no clue as to what it could have been. 

An image search identified the medallions quite quickly. According to more than one site he found online, they were carried by the members of The Order of the Hammer, a long forbidden and almost forgotten order of the Catholic Church. Each site Ben found claimed The Order did something different. One site claimed they persecuted witches, another claimed they were the Inquisition's modern day equivalent, others mentioned the Illuminati. Some claimed it was all just a legend and that the Order had never actually existed. Ben knew this Order was real, at least in the heads of the three dead men.

He searched for images of the local catholic church and found some galleries online. He cast the Invisibility spell on himself again and then spoke the word of the Greater Teleport spell. He searched the whole church, looking for any clue to the identity of the three assailants, but all he found was a young priest in an office, writing up a sermon and eulogy for their funeral.

Ben leaned over the priest's shoulder to read his writing. It read as fairly generic. He found no clues in it, but he did manage to give the priest the willies. The priest felt a slight, periodic breeze upon his skin and looked up to search the air Ben occupied. Ben stopped breathing down the man's neck and the priest shook his head before reaching for a bottle of whiskey in his desk. He poured himself a few shots and knocked them back before resuming his writing.

Ben grimaced in frustration. The priest looked like a dead end that would yield no info on the dead threesome. He decided he'd visit the funeral of the three dead men, eavesdrop and photograph everyone who attended. Maybe that would lead to a clue. He felt suddenly annoyed by a distraction. He explored the minds linked to his. Felicia was out of range for him to sense her mood, so she wasn't the source of the distraction. Susan was throwing hints about the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence at a business lunch and Krista was annoyed by a bunch of guys at the mall.

Ben crept out of the priest's office as he concentrated on his link with Krista. She was annoyed by the four idiots accosting her and Raven, right inside the mall. Each of the white gangsta hip-hoppers was wearing a wifebeater, baseball cap turned backwards and sweatpants with waistbands around their thighs, exposing their name brand boxer shorts. 

Ben checked his distance from the priest, lest he overhear him speak the word of the Greater Teleport spell and then envisioned the mall toilet he had been in, earlier. Ben cast the spell, appeared there and used his link with Krista to know where to go find the girls. He dropped his invisibility and jogged off towards them. He felt through the link with Krista's mind that the youngsters were trying to get them to come with them and "have some fun", while completely ignoring the blatant fact that neither of the girls wanted anything to do with them. Krista was all but enjoying herself putting them down verbally, though most of her clever retorts and biting remarks went well above the guys' heads. 

Ben would have smiled at Krista's spirit and sharp wit, but he could feel that Krista saw that the boys were making Raven profoundly uncomfortable, especially as they were caressing her hair, despite her repeatedly asking them to stop. Ben's brow drew down as one of the boys responded to Raven's request by yanking her by the hair and telling her that she is to play nice and not be a cock tease. Ben could plainly see in Krista's mind that neither girl did a single thing to provoke such a reaction from the boys, beyond walking while female.

He became enraged in an instant and broke into a sprint across the mall. His heart beat as fast as a hummingbird's wings. These four neanderthals obviously subscribed to the belief that beautiful women weren't worthy of the kind of basic politeness and consideration one would extend to a stranger in the street, particularly if they grew big breasts. They might try to drag the girls away and force themselves upon them. He couldn't allow that. Even if he hadn't promised Raven to protect her and if Krista hadn't been the first and only girl he had ever been with, he would have been pissed off at the behavior of these ruffians.

Since he had promised Raven his protection and Krista was his, after a fashion, he was utterly consumed by fury. The people seemed to part before him of their own accord and he spotted the six of them huddled in a corner in the distance. He felt Krista was just about to run out of patience when she saw him approaching like a blur of rage and fury. He felt her excitement and delight.

Despite the heady rush of violent urges threatening to consume his awareness, the main, rational part of his mind remained in control of things. He reminded himself not to knock the white hip-hoppers over as that could lead to them cracking their skulls on the floor and dying. He also reminded himself not to go socking them in the mouth with a closed fist, lest he skin his knuckles to no effect. He ignored the memories of his first attempt to help a girl put upon by an almost violent male. He felt confident that such a failure wasn't going to happen again, though he couldn't tell himself why, exactly.

Krista raised her hand, waved it and cheerfully exclaimed, "Yoo-hoo, Ben! We're over here!"

Raven and the boys looked his way and simultaneously reacted at his rapid approach. She reacted with delight and relief, while the idiots reacted with alarm. The idiot nearest to him pivoted towards him, assumed a standard hip-hop video bravado stance, complete with jutting chin and index fingers pointing at his crotch, and said, "Yo!"

Ben ignored the challenging posture of the asshole, cocked his arm back while still on the run and let it loose with the full weight and momentum of his body behind it. The heel of his hand impacted with the side of the asshole's jaw and sent him tumbling into his friend behind him. That asshole fell over as well and nearly toppled the third asshole that barely managed to stay upright as he reflexively caught his falling friend.

Ben felt Krista become instantly wet and aroused at seeing his punch. It all but stopped him on a dime and he had to remind himself to face the remaining asshole, the one that had tugged at Raven's hair. "Hey," the asshole exclaimed as he raised his arms to fight. Running on pure instinct, Ben stepped towards him and sent out a quick jab to the base of his throat. It connected and the would-be assailant's eyes went as wide as silver dollars. He bent over and wheezed for breath, looking like he might vomit at any moment, as well.

Ban faced the fourth asshole, that had managed to extricate himself from his fallen comrades, and drew a deep breath. Now that it had come to violence, he was wrath personified. His blood was throbbing in his temples with a seductive rhythm that urged him to fight on. He glared at the standing asshole and, despite the rage he was feeling at the moment, he could plainly see that the guy was scared shitless. This cooled him down a little and allowed his rational side to regain full control, but he was still pissed off at the behavior of the four miscreants.

He put all of his wrath into his voice as he bellowed, "Get lost!"

The mall itself reverberated with the sound of his fury and all fell silent in the wake of his shout. The standing asshole broke and ran instantly. The wheezing asshole started to shuffle after him, as well. As he passed by the fallen assholes, he helped asshole number two to get their almost insensate comrade in assholishness on his feet and the three of them scurried off as best they could.




Outsiders Pt. 03



Ben glared after them with his lips pressed tight and fists clenched. He noticed that everyone around them was standing still, stunned and a little intimidated by his sudden display of violence. He looked around at the startled faces of children and the concerned faces of the adults and felt the tension in the air. It was enough to make him feel ashamed at what he had done. He put a contrite grin on his face and spread his hands, palms up, in an apologetic gesture. He gave a friendly shrug that was meant to convey how sorry he was about the disruption to their day, but that it couldn't have been helped. He broke into a sincere smile.

Everyone seemed to relax at his simple and charming gesture and the mall went back to its usual hustle and bustle, as if it had been a paused tape that was suddenly unpaused. He paid his surroundings no more mind as both the girls rushed to hug him tight. Raven's large breasts pressed into him on one side and Krista's smaller, but equally perky ones, did the same from the other side.

He felt Krista's jealousy at Raven's participation in the hug. He heard Raven sniff away a tear and whisper, "Thank you," in his ear. She buried her face in his shoulder and he felt her start to sob. He didn't know if it was in relief, or from her distress catching up to her, but it made him uncomfortable, all the same.

"Hey, girls," he softly said, "let's leave this mall before security comes along to ask questions. We can go to the other one and finish your little shopping trip. What do you say?" Raven looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "I'll be with you all the way." He felt Krista's jealousy reach near homicidal intensity as she witnessed the gaze he shared with Raven so he looked over into her green eyes and said, "Both of you."

Her jealous rage abated some and the three of them proceeded to the nearest exit, with Ben holding a comforting arm around each girl's shoulders. They got to Ben's car, deposited their shopping in the trunk and then he had to insist that both girls sit in the back seat. He feared their barely civil discussion, over which one had grabbed the passenger side door handle first, might erupt into violence.

He drove across town with the girls sitting in the back seat and telling him just how brave he had been inside. They thanked him for saving them, though Ben thought that they were exaggerating the danger they had felt. He suspected that Krista could have been able to handle the four dweebs all on her own. They might have been big and brash, but she was wily and resourceful. The girls started a competition to see which one could pay him the biggest compliment.

Ben tuned out the girls as he focused on his driving. He had only been in one fight in his whole life, before today, and he had been beaten up so badly that time that it had made him actively avoid physical confrontations ever since. Back then, he had missed with nearly each and every punch he had thrown, but today he had landed a pair of blows without even concentrating on them. He wondered how that happened. The closest he ever came to combat training was watching "Burn Notice" on TV. He should not have been able to hit those guys. It must have been simple chance.

Ben connected the words "hit" and "chance" into "hit chance", a D&D term. His jaw dropped as he remembered that being a level nineteen sorcerer also carried with it a +9 modifier to hit chance in melee combat. And his strength modifier added another two to that. He put his hand to his brow as he realized that he was literally fifty-five percent more likely to connect with a punch than he had been before his transformation. He had been so focused on the exotic skills and magic spells his transformation had bestowed upon him that he completely forgot about the basic ability scores and the effects those would have on him.

His character's constitution score had been ten, he remembered, so he hadn't been made any hardier by the transformation than he had been before. That was why he hadn't noticed. In D&D, an average human was rated to have an ability score of ten or eleven. Ben stopped at a red light, still ignoring what the girls were saying in the back seat, and recollected his exact ability scores and bonuses they gave him. His strength was fourteen and his dexterity was fifteen, which also meant that he had a combined plus six modifier to his ability to score a hit with any ranged weapon.

He had also been made much wiser by his transformation and he finally acknowledged that he was acting far calmer than he should have been this week. His old self would have freaked out completely at most of the things that have happened to him, but he was able to keep his cool and roll with the changes, as stupendous as they were.

His biggest ability scores were intelligence and charisma. He had been very intelligent before, so the bump to nineteen wasn't that big a deal for him. But his charisma was literally double that of the average human being. He couldn't believe that he had missed it.

He had smooth-talked the used car salesman into practically giving away the car he was driving. The other day, he had chalked it up to having done the research online and he now snorted a soft laugh of derision at how silly his assumption had been. There couldn't be any doubt that he was a master of mesmerism, whether his subject was a lone smooth-talker, or a concerned crowd. The nonchalant reaction of an entire mall to seeing him assault four people was proof positive of his ability to charm people into compliance with but a smile. He shook his head to himself in amused disbelief. With his maxed out ranks in the Bluff skill, he could probably make people believe any kind of lie he wanted them to believe.

A soft, feminine voice caught his attention. "Uh, Ben," Raven asked.

"Yeah?"

"Wasn't that the turn we had to take to get to the mall," she asked, pointing with her thumb over her shoulder at the retreating intersection.

"Oh," Ben exclaimed in surprise. He had spaced out and missed his turn. "Yes, yes it is. Don't worry, I'll take the next turn and get us there safely. Sorry."

"No biggie," Raven said, sitting back to smile at him in the rearview mirror. She appeared to have completely gotten over her unpleasant encounter with the assholes.

"I'm sorry for leaving you all alone back there," he said.

He felt annoyance pop up in Krista's mind. "Are you kidding me," she said. "Sorry for leaving us all alone, in broad daylight, in a public place that has its own security? Geez, I dread to even think about what it would take for you to commit seppuku. Leaving us to stand in line for movie tickets while you went to the bathroom for a minute?"

Ben sighed in annoyance and said, "I meant to say that I'm sorry for those four gangsta wannabes troubling you."

"Did you send them to, uh, how did you put it, trouble us," Krista asked.

"Well, obviously, no," he said.

"Then what have you got to be sorry for," she asked.

Ben made the turn that brought them back on the right track to get to the mall and said, "I'm sorry that it happened, that's all. I said that I'd be there and I wasn't. I'm sorry for that." He looked at Raven in his rearview mirror. She was smiling radiantly at him.

"Oh, that's perfectly ok," she said to him. "You came and you saved us before things could get ugly."

Ben felt Krista's annoyance as she rolled her eyes at Raven's flirty tone of voice. "So, did you get those three killers you went after," Krista asked.

Ben grimaced. He hadn't been particularly eager to start in on that subject with Raven. Not after the upset she had just had in the mall. He had to, now that Krista had brought it up. "Raven," he said, "have you ever heard of The Order of the Hammer?"

Raven shook her head and said, "No. What is that?"

"It's the people that killed Simon and nearly killed you last night," he said.

Raven looked uncomfortable and shot meaningful glances at Krista. Krista leaned forward, in between the front seats and rubbed Ben's chest with one arm. She said, "Don't worry, Raven, I know all about my man Ben having magic. You can speak freely."

Ben ignored Krista's possessive claim. She gave him a quick, tickling peck behind his ear and then sat back down. He looked up into his mirror and saw a ghost of an expression leaving Raven's face. He didn't know what it meant, but he thought it was provoked by Krista's hug. Raven said, "No, I've never heard of this order before. Why did they attack Simon and me? Why did they kill him?"

Her question made Ben wonder. He had assumed that they had come to her house because of the website she had published and they had mentioned taking down. He had assumed that they had tracked the IP address back to her house.

"I was going to ask you that exact same question," Ben said. Raven shrugged with a fake-looking expression of bewilderment on her face. Ben realized Raven didn't know he had been inside her house for the whole duration of the attack. She was trying to fiddle with the truth and hide this website. Something about the website was important and he was going to find out what. "Raven, what exactly do you remember about the attack at your house?"

Raven gulped nervously and looked down. Ben could feel that Krista was staring at her intently, and he allowed himself to be informed by what she could glean off the blonde's facial expressions. Raven drew a deep breath and slowly let it out. She looked to be concentrating and summoning her mental strength. At last, she nodded to herself and said, "I remember them suddenly appearing in the living room and beating Simon to death. I remember them holding me down and standing over me to kill me, too. Then I remember your touch, teleporting me to safety. That's it. That's all I can remember."

Ben felt Krista's displeasure at Raven mentioning his touch and ignored it. He himself felt that he had a spotty recollection of the events of last night. He knew, from his Psych 101 class, that the memories of a traumatic event were strongly recorded in a person's mind, but also deeply burried, so the person that experienced them could function without being haunted by them. It was a basic survival mechanism and he couldn't fault her for it. Even with his enhanced wisdom, he still felt the negative effects of witnessing a violent crime firsthand.

He decided to give her some small measure of comfort. "The three men that came to kill you are dead," he said. He was interrupted by a wave of emotions his words inspired in Krista. He felt her fear, exiliration, envy, desire and jealousy warring inside of her for supremacy. He couldn't make sense of her emotions because Raven threw herself forward and hugged him and his seat with both of her arms.

"Thank you," she whispered into his ear, again and again.

Her hot, moist breath in his ear had a profound effect on him and he found himself sporting yet another raging erection. He was starting to feel like he was a hormonal teenager again and it was not a pleasant feeling. He felt Krista's emotions settle down to allow for one to take point. Her jealousy. 

He gently patted Raven on the arm and she sat back down. There were tears in her eyes and she said, "I'm sorry, I just don't know how to thank you for all that you've done for me. First you save my life, then you take me into your home and now you remove the threat to my life. I just don't have the words for it."

"No, you misunderstood," Ben said. "I didn't kill them. Someone else did, last night." Ben felt Krista's relief and disappointment at his words. 

"If not you, then who," Raven asked him.

"I don't know," he said. "Do you have any idea who it might have been?"

Raven shook her head no. "I don't even have a clue as to why those three men had killed Simon."

Ben nodded his head. This was twice that she denied having heard the Italian assailant mention her website. He realized he couldn't categorically state that she was lying about the website. She might have simply forgotten about it. "Did you post any websites," he asked Raven.

"Websites," she asked. "What kind of websites?"

Ben felt like he had just revealed his tell at a poker table. "Any kind," he said and shrugged. He acted disinterested and hoped his Charisma and Bluff skill were still on the clock.

"No," Raven said, smiling. "I didn't. Like, never. I wouldn't know how. I suck at computers."

Ben could feel Krista's delight at having caught Raven in a lie. Once again, he found himself tempted to simply dominate Raven and order the truth out of her. It would be the fastest and surest way to find out what everything was all about. After he got the real story out of her, he could try to set her free with a spell of Break Enchantment, or by giving her orders she really didn't want to do and granting her additional chances to break free of his domination on her own. Both methods were long shots, but the game mechanics allowed for them to work. It would just take time.

Time she'd spend as his utterly obedient slave, void of her own free will. Ben grimaced unhappily. He wasn't prepared to do such a thing to her, just because he had caught her in two lies. From what he knew of her, she told him just as many true things. He decided to try and relax her and gently coax her to trust him enough to tell him the unedited truth. He forced a smile to his face.

"What makes you ask me about websites," Raven asked him.

"Never mind," he said, "it's all just nonsense, anyway. Listen! I don't want you to worry, you're still welcome to stay with me and enjoy my protection." He felt Krista seethe in anger at his statement and ignored it, but made a mental note to finally get the girl to tell him the truth about how she felt towards him.

"For how long," Krista asked. "I think Raven would like to be able to strike out on her own and not have to endure being the third wheel in our house."

Raven looked suddenly unsure of herself and Ben said, "Raven, you're staying with me until we find out why those men attacked you and until you feel secure enough to not need my protection anymore." Ben left it unsaid that she'd be asked to stay longer and longer until he felt that he got the truth about his magic out of her.

"Well, they're dead," Krista said. "How much more protection does she need against them?"

"And who killed the killers," Ben asked her. Both the girls looked genuinely concerned by that question. "Like I said, you're welcome to stay under my protection until we find that out and then some."

"How are you going to find that out," Raven asked.

"I have a few ideas," Ben said.

"Like what," Krista asked.

"Well, for one thing," Ben said, "their funeral is tomorrow, so I thought I'd pop by and discreetly see who's attending it. Follow them around with my magic, see what they're up to. I imagine that would reveal a lot about the three dead assassins." The girls nodded at the idea. "Now, on to more pleasant topics! Did you girls find everything you wanted?"

Their shopping trip continued in the second mall with lunch. After that, they spent a few hours hitting store after store and buying things the girls thought they'd need during their stay at Ben's house. Most of it was clothes. In the afternoon, they went to the movies at the multiplex and then had dinner at a pizza place in the city before driving back to his place. They spent their evening just chatting, watching funny clips on the internet and playing charades until it was time to go to sleep. During the evening, Ben casually took another pass at Raven's story, but she stuck to it. He was tired so he had Krista make a bed for Raven on the couch in the den.

Raven saw it and said, "Am I to be all alone tonight?"

"Of course not," Ben said. "Felicia! Come here, girl! Felicia!" His familiar woke up and lazily stretched her limbs before strolling out of his bedroom. "Felicia will keep you company tonight."

The cat yawned and then said, "Is that your way of saying that I need to guard her yet another night, Boss?"

Ben squatted down by her and stroked her fur. "That's right," he said. "She'll keep you company all night long."

"I need to talk to my union rep about these wonky business hours," Felicia grumbled.

"Good night, Raven," Krista said, sporting a huge smile. "Don't let the bed bugs bite!"

She grabbed Ben's hand and all but dragged him to his bedroom.

"Good night," Raven said, sounding disappointed.

As soon as the bedroom door was firmly shut, Krista put her arms around Ben's shoulders and planted a wet kiss across his lips. He felt her lust and arousal and returned her kiss, allowing himself to get lost in it. He felt his reaction give strength to her desire to give a very loud performance for Raven tonight and vocally mark him as her territory and that brought him out of his amorous mood. As much as he wanted to have sex with her again, he first wanted to finally know where the two of them really stood. He sent her the order to quietly tell him the truth of how she really felt towards him.

He felt her try to resist the order and fail. "I don't know how I feel about you," she said. Ben was surprised to hear her say that. She had always seemed very calculated and on top of things to him. To hear her say she didn't know something so intimate and personal, was just weird.

She looked him dead in the eye with an intense gaze and said, "I think that I'm in love with you, Ben, but I just don't know for sure.

"I've never felt this way before. I feel like I can trust you with anything. I've never had anyone in my life to feel like this about. Every man I've ever had in my life... They let me down, or used me for their own ends. It hurt to be used like that and I promised myself that I would be strong. That I would be the user, not the used. I made myself believe that love was just this great, big lie that the media perpetuate so smart people could toss that word around when it suited them and take advantage of the gullibility of the less smart. I'm not so sure about that, anymore.

"I do know for sure that you scare me." Ben frowned. "Not with your magic, though that shit is scary as all fuck, it's you, yourself. I'm afraid of what you would do if you knew the real me. I'm afraid that you wouldn't love me and I'm afraid that if I don't take a chance with you, I'll miss my one and only chance at happiness." She barked out a soft laugh and shook her head to herself as she sniffed. "I know. A gambler afraid to take a chance. Ironic." She wiped the tears from her eyes and took a big breath. "Yesterday, on the island, you made me feel things. Scary things. Intense things. Confusing things. I'm still trying to make sense of it all."

Ben was about to speak up when she said, "I do know that seeing you hug that big-breasted cunt and doing things for her makes me want to brutally murder her." She looked a bit sheepish at having said that and added, "If that helps clear things up."

He could feel how nervous her little confession made her. She was dreading his response. He gazed deep into her wet, green eyes and smiled warmly. Her mask was off and he was finally looking at the real her. He decided it wasn't a bad sight. "I think it might," he said. "I think it just might. There's just one thing that bothers me. Why did you try and take my money from me again?"

"I panicked," she said. "I was teleported and telepathically enslaved and had just been rescued from certain rape and probable death. I was feeling a little overwhelmed. I defaulted to my standard operating procedure and found comfort in it."

He felt her shame at her words and he reached out and put his hands on her cheeks, making her close her eyes and softly sigh. He kissed her forehead, bent forward and put his lips against hers. The kiss was slow and tender, meant to soothe the choking feelings that were threatening to drown her heart. He felt her slowly respond to it and give more and more of her attention to the feeling of his tickling tongue. He decided to give her sexual pleasure and thus break the circle of dark thoughts spinning around in her head.




Outsiders Pt. 03



He probed her mouth with his tongue, intent on stimulating all of her ticklish spots and distracting her from her intimate confession and its attendant fears. As he kept at it, he felt her respond positively. She put her hands on the sides of his neck and massaged his tongue with hers. He kissed her until he felt her arousal flare up. It was his cue to start wandering lower with his hands, caressing her throat and the sensitive skin over where her neck meets her shoulder.

She moaned in encouragement. He felt how his touches felt on her skin and used those sensations to guide him. His fingers found the buttons on her blouse and began to work them loose. Her hands left the sides of his face and pulled the tails of her blouse out of her skirt. She worked the buttons loose from the bottom and their hands met at a button in the middle. They both giggled as they clumsily fumbled with the last button that was keeping her blouse together over her midriff. There were just too many hands getting at it for it to be undone.

When he felt her impatience, he grabbed both sides of her blouse and tugged, ripping off the stubborn button. He sensed her like the forceful approach so he pushed the sleeves down her arms, effectively tying them together behind her back since the buttons on the sleeves weren't undone. He seized her by the waist and lifted her onto his bed. She let out a throaty laugh and lay back to squirm playfully on the bed. He watched her bare midriff and the muscles rippling underneath the taut skin. He let a hand wander over it possessively.

Her laughter died on her lips and she met his eyes. Each saw the fire of their desire mirrored in the eyes of the other. Ben grasped her bra and ripped it off her tits, setting them loose to gently jiggle. Her nipples were erect, looking like pencil tip erasers. He bent down and closed his lips around one, sucking it in. He licked and nibbled at the little nub, eliciting her gasps of delight. When he changed breasts, she began to moan like a cat in heat.

He kept on worshipping her breasts as his hands slid lower to undo the button and zipper on her skirt and divest her of the garment. She began to yell out, "Yes," repeatedly and Ben realized that Raven could hear her.

"Heck, the neighbors can probably hear her," he thought to himself. He straightened up and planted a kiss on her mouth to silence her. He felt her annoyance and was confused for a moment before he remembered her desire to be very vocal and clearly mark him as her territory in Raven's eyes and ears. He broke their kiss and raised himself above her.

"Oh, yes, Ben," Krista moaned, passionately, but also loudly enough to be heard for half a block, "take me! Take me now, stud! Do it!"

He could feel her arousal was genuine so he wasn't insulted by her exaggerated tone of voice. Ben grinned and waited for her to open her eyes. When she did, he sent her the order to not make another sound for the rest of their lovemaking. She resisted the order unsuccessfully and he barked out a soft laugh before he spread her legs and slid in between them to rub the fabric of his pants against her thong-covered pussy.

Her eyes went wide as her mouth opened and no sound came out, not even a squeak. She looked up at him with an expression of fear on her face. He smiled down at her. He felt her helplessness. Her arms were bound and her voice taken away from her. His body pinned her down and all she could do was endure whatever he wanted to do to her. He felt a huge release of nervous energy in her mind as she realized, for the first time in the forty-eight hours of being his slave, just what all that entailed and how utter his defeat of her had been.

For a timeless moment, her consciousness teetered on a knife's edge. The mass of nervous energy could become either sheer panic or unbridled, uncontrollable lust. He looked deep into her eyes, letting his smile fall and his face show his honest emotions. The trust he inspired in her tipped the scales in lust's favor. Her panic vanished. Ben felt the overwhelming cauldron of emotions in her mind fuel her lust and he knew the time for rational thought was over.

He ripped the thong off her pussy and then undid his zipper. He fished out his rock hard erection in one impossibly smooth action. He set it against her moist opening and held himself up with both hands. He didn't pause for a moment longer than neccessary before he began to thrust into her. Her whole body writhed in pleasure as he shoved his meat into her, again and again. He quickly bottomed out in her wet, hot cavern. Her silken inner walls gripped him like a vice and he groaned in appreciation.

He let her lusty need dictate the pace of their fucking. His hips slammed into hers, making his balls slap against her ass. He nearly faltered when he felt her climax rapidly approaching. The floodgates in her mind had been shattered and she was rushing towards a massive release of ecstasy. His actions had sent her on her way, but once she started, his input was all but irrelevant. For an instant, he was fascinated by her silent grimace of red-faced pleasure. Then she climaxed upon his thrusting shaft and her pussy began to clench as if to expel him. He felt her orgasm through the link and it sped him on his own way to pleasure.

He pressed on, thrusting through her orgasm, and felt her utter submission as the underside of her supersensitive clit was being seesawed by his cock. As he used her body for his own pleasure, she climaxed silently twice more, each time harder than the last, each time pushing him closer to his own peak. When she came for the fourth time, he shoved himself all the way inside her and released his seed in a twitching spasm. Her shuddering pussy made him gasp and groan in ecstasy until he softened and slipped out. Spent, he collapsed to lie down beside her on the bed. The two of them gulped air in rhythm and grinned feebly when they noticed it. 

She rolled towards him and put a leg over him. Ben felt the quiet call of sleep. He put an arm around her shoulders and relaxed. As soon as he caught his breath, the afterglow of orgasm was going to send him to dreamland.

"Hey," she quietly said. "Would you mind?"

She rolled away from him and he peeked through one eye to see that her arms were still trapped by the sleeves of her blouse. He groaned tiredly and reached in to undo the buttons on the sleeves and release her. He felt her relief as she ripped the garment off herself and tossed it away. She rolled back towards him and he relaxed, feeling sleep creep up on him.

Just as he was to cross over into dreamland, he felt her anxiety rise. He tried to ignore it, but the girl was starting to feel bad. He examined their link. She was looking at his peaceful face and the sight of it was making her feel worried and scared. He had no idea why this was, but he couldn't just go to sleep knowing that someone was scared of him being calm.

"Do I need to order you to speak," he quietly said. He felt her fear flash over in her mind at hearing his words.

"No," she whispered.

"Well, then?" He peeked with one eye at her. "What is it?"

She looked nervous and gulped visibly. "Please don't do that again," she said.

"Do what," Ben asked, opening his eyes in confusion. "Have sex with you? You practically begged me to."

She slowly said, "No, not that. Turning me into a piece of meat to fuck and then acting like it wasn't a big deal. Please don't do that again."

He frowned and sat up in bed. "What do you mean?"

"You made it impossible for me to move or speak and you used my body for your pleasure, like I was a... a fleshlight, or something," she said. She shook her head and looked at him with pleading eyes. "Please, don't ever do that to me again. Please."

"I thought you enjoyed yourself." He knew for a fact that she had.

"I did," she said, "but only because I was overwhelmed. I didn't have a chance to think beyond the fact that I trust you and that... allowed me to make it enjoyable. Now that I've thought it through, now that I've felt what it was like to be reduced to a mere hole for another's use, I can tell you that I wouldn't survive the experience if it was with anyone but you. Hell, if we hadn't spent time together on that island yesterday and forged a bond of trust, I'd be a goner right now."

She got out of bed and stood to face him. "Actually, Ben," she said, pointing a finger at him, "you need to release me from this magic spell you have over me."

Ben's eyebrows quirked. "I do?"

"Yes," she said, nodding. "You really do. Your hold on me is far too great. Look! You've used me for sex and home cleaning and fashion advice for your blonde in the next room and I think we're done with me being your enchanted slave, ok? I know that you're a good guy and it's just not fair for you to keep using me like this, especially now that I see there are no limits to what you can make me do."

Ben gaped at her in disbelief.

She nervously licked her lips and said, "You get what I'm saying, right? Given that I've only taken a little cash from you, what you've been making me do is a grossly disproportionate retribution."

"Unfair," Ben yelled. "Disproportionate?! Are you..." He reminded himself that Raven was in the next room and forced himself to continue in his indoor voice. "Tell me this is your idea of a joke, Krista!" He held up a hand and sent her the order to be quiet until morning. She tried and failed to resist it. "Actually, you know what? It's best for you if you stopped speaking for the rest of this night cause you might talk me into showing you the exact limits of this spell I've got over you."

He shook his head in disbelief. "Only a little cash," he asked. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Yeah, you're right. It was just a little cash. Twenty thousand seven hundred and two dollars and sixty-three cents, to be exact. Not really a figure to get mad over, if you don't think about what that money really was. It was my future. It was the cost of my education. It was the faith my parents had in me. It was the product of years of their sacrifices, scrimping and saving."

Ben glared at her and said, "You took that away from me. You took my future. My chance at getting a degree and a good job. A career. You took my self-respect and made me feel so ashamed that I..." He shut up and clenched his fists. He took a few deep breaths to calm down. As he calmed down, he felt his calm cause a rising panic in her mind. He liked that feeling so he adopted a blank face and sent her the order to not disturb him any more tonight, or tomorrow morning.

He lay back down and rolled away from her. He could feel the raw panic he was making her feel by ignoring her and he grinned in satisfaction. Apparently, his indiference was her worst nightmare. He pulled out of the telepathic link. The soft call of sleep returned and he let it take him, this time.

He woke up alone in his bedroom and rolled over to check the radio alarm clock. It was almost eleven a.m. Felicia was asleep, Susan was at work, firing someone and Krista was watching TV in his den. He groaned and stretched in bed, before getting up to stretch some more.

Krista was sitting on the den couch and looked fearful when he entered the room. Raven was sitting at his desk, doing something on his laptop. "Good morning, Ben," she said, smiling. "Did you sleep well?"

"Too well," he said. "I overslept. I need to shave real quick and then have breakfast before I teleport to the three men's funeral."

Raven closed his laptop and smiled as she stood up from his desk. "You shave and I'll have some food ready for you by the time you finish," she said.

Ben said, "Thanks," and went into the bathroom to shave. After Raven served him breakfast, he thanked her and reminded her that she was safe in his home. "Just, please, don't go anywhere without me, ok?" Raven nodded emphatically and he gently kissed her forehead. He gave her a comforting smile. "I'll be back as soon as I can." He bent down and picked up his familiar, who was sleeping on the floor, in a shaft of sunlight. "In the meantime, Felicia will look after you."

Felicia opened her eyes and said, "No. No, Boss! I need to get some sleep, please!"

"Yes, she will," Ben said, cooing in an almost baby-voice. "She'll take good care of you." He handed Felicia over to Raven, who took hold of the cat like it might pee on her at any moment.

"Oh, goddamn it all to hell," Felicia said, dejectedly.

He stepped away from Raven and sent Krista the order to not let Raven out of her sight while he was away. He took his eyelash out of his belt and cast Invisibility on himself. He imagined the church's altar and spoke the word of the spell of Greater Teleport.

Ben couldn't believe what he saw at the funeral of the three men. The entire church was empty, save for the young priest giving the sermon over the three coffins and the two altar boys assisting him. Ben took the liberty of casting the spell of See Invisibility upon himself, sprinkling a pinch of talk and powedered silver in the air before his eyes. There were exactly no invisible beings or things in the church.

Ben sat in one of the pews, after casting another spell of Invisibility on himself, and dejectedly listened to the young priest as he preached, chanted and prayed over the corpses of the three men. The ritual sounded almost beautiful, especially when the priest would chant out a verse in Latin and the two altar boys would sing it back at him. Ben hadn't been raised religious, though his parents had done their best to instill him with values that even the most stringently religious people would approve of, so he didn't know if the priest was doing it all by the book, or not, but it certainly sounded like he was. Ben admired the man for his persistence.

After some time, the priest finished reading from The Bible and pulled on a rope behind the altar. The bells in the steeple began to ring. Shortly thereafter, a group of men in olive coveralls entered the church and closed the coffins before carrying them out. They loaded the coffins into two waiting hearses and one unmarked, white van. Ben snuck into the back of the van while a coffin was being loaded into it and sat down quietly to see where this third coffin would be taken. He had no doubt that the hearses were going to the cemetery. He craned his neck to see out the windshield where the van was going.

Much to Ben's confusion and disappointment, the white van followed the black hearses to the cemetery and parked right behind them to allow the graveyard workers to unload all three coffins for burial.

Ben cast another Invisibility on himself and circled the burial site. It was in Potter's field, a section reserved for burying the poor and anonymous. All the grave markers bore only numbers. There was still no one in attendance. His spell of See Invisibility still lasted, yet he found no one watching under cover of magic, like he was. The priest did his prayers over the graves and the workers lowered the coffins before using a small digger to cover them with dirt.

Everyone went their way, leaving Ben to stand there in stupefied shock until his invisibility expired. He spread his arms and twirled to take in his surroundings. There was no one there to react to his sudden appearance. "Unbelieveable," he exclaimed as he let his arms fall down to his sides.

He envisioned his den and spoke the word of Greater Teleport. He appeared in his den, startling the women playing cards on the couch. "Ben," Raven said, "you're back! How did it go?"

Ben was tempted to tell her a fib about how he managed to get some leads that would need more work, but he couldn't come up with any on the spot so he opted for the simple truth. "Terribly," he said. "Absolutely terribly. No one was there. Just the priest and I. And a pair of altar boys."

"Oh," Raven dejectedly said.

"Oh, indeed," Ben said. He was plum out of leads on these guys, except for the mysterious website they had mentioned. "Listen, I need to go to your house and investigate things further. The police should be out of there by now."

"What," Raven nervously asked. "Why would you need to go to my house to investigate?"

"Well, that's where they had lain in wait for you and Simon and that's where they had been found dead last night," he said. "I'm going to go see what I can find out there before I go to the police and see what they know. If you would like me to get something of yours while I'm in your house, just say the word."

"No, I don't need anything from there. You don't need to go there, either! I mean, what could you find out? You're not a forensic specialist." She let out a small, nervous laugh. "Right?"

Ben gave her a small grin of pity as she wrung her hands nervously. He was fishing for her to ask to come along with him so he could see her reactions to the place. After she saw the remains of the four murders that had happened there, she was bound to be distracted. He felt confident that his heightened wisdom stat would allow him to spot what made her nervous and that would give him a good idea of where to resume his investigation. He didn't want to have to literally tear the whole place apart in his search.

"I have magic, Raven," he said. "I'll scour the place from top to bottom. I'm certain that something will pop out and catch my eye."

Raven licked her lips nervously and said, "Then I'm coming with you!"

"Are you sure," Ben said.

"Yes," Raven said, "I'm sure." She held out her hand. "I'm ready for teleportation."

"Oh, well," Ben said, "since it's daytime and the police might still be doing the CSI thing over there, I thought we'd go by car and scout the place out, first. You know, do a drive-by before I teleport the two of us in there. Krista will drive."

Neither girl found a fault with his proposal, though they were both nervous, and the three of them filed out of the den towards the front door. "I'm not guarding the place, Boss," Felicia yelled out after him, "I'm catching up on my sleep!"

Krista drove Ben's car, according to the directions Raven gave her, while Ben rode shotgun. They weaved their way across town for half an hour until they finally turned onto Raven's street. As they drove closer to her house, they noticed people standing on the sidewalk in clumps. Uniformed police was keeping them back behind tape and barriers. Not long after, the remains of the house came into view, revealing cops in coveralls sifting through the wreckage. Raven let out a squeal of distress. Ben turned around to look at her. Her eyes were misting up and her lower lip was trembling. When she started to rock in her seat, Ben got really worried.

He glanced out the window at the crater as they passed it by. "What do I do," Krista asked. "Do I just drive on by?"

"Yeah," Ben said. "No. Park down the street!" Ben couldn't believe that the house was blown to pieces. It was like someone was going around and actively destroying each and every lead he could possibly find. He found it very frustrating.

His mounting frustration subsided when he remembered what the Italian man had said when the Irishman had suggested shooting Raven. He had said that she must look like she had been killed by the blast. Ben could hardly believe that he had forgotten such an important piece of information, but he had been focused on getting Raven out of there at the time and he had just seen Simon's head bashed in. He now understood that the three men had blown up the house, but it made him wonder how their corpses came to be found in its remains. They hadn't been blown up, so he knew they hadn't messed up the explosion. Someone killed them after it happened.

Krista parked the car and he gave Raven another look. The girl was hugging her sides and shaking her head. Losing a home was a terrible thing, but Ben found her reaction to be a bit excessive. "Try and keep her calm," he said to Krista.




Outsiders Pt. 04



Ben Kidder woke up on the floor of his den, in front of his couch. It was Saturday morning and his back was sore from sleeping on the floor for half the night. The many minds connected to his let themselves be known. Felicia was impatient and hungry. Susan was telling her lover in Corporate that she was going to get taken by aliens and the other three girls were still asleep.

Krista was draped over him and Lisa was sleeping on top of Raven on the couch. Her head was pillowed by the blonde's big tits and there looked to be a small line of drool across them, originating from her mouth. All four of them were naked. Ben groaned at the memory of last night. He had tried to set the girls free but they had resisted his efforts in a way that he hadn't quite been able to overcome.

The four of them had spent the night fucking. He had passed out in ecstasy again and again, only to be woken up by a soft pressure on his hardening dick a few hours later. The girls would stroke and suck him to hardness and then one of them would ride him, while another would sit on his face. The third would kneel next to them all and exchange kisses and spanks with the girls while allowing him to fingerbang her. The combined orgasms he felt through the telepathic links to their minds would overwhelm him and send him off to dreamland after he shot his load into a girl's pussy and he'd sleep for a few hours before they'd wake him up again.

He gently rolled Krista off himself and got up, stifling a groan as he stood up and his neck stiffened painfully. He grimaced. Between his stiff back and neck, he was starting to feel like an old man. He didn't worry too much about it, though. He knew that his Regeneration feat was going to rid him of the pains very soon. It was the sole reason he had spent half the night balls deep in pussy and didn't have a sore crotch in the morning. He yawned and shuffled off to the kitchen.

"Hey, Boss," Felicia greeted him. "Why are we back to the keeping the cat food in the cabinets thing again? You do remember that I don't have opposable thumbs, right? I mean, I preffered it when we kept my food out in the open, Boss."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ben quietly said.

Felicia jumped up on the counter and sat down to give him a good look while he opened up a cabinet and took out a can of cat food. "You dog," she said.

"What was that?"

"I said, 'you dog', Boss. You spent half the night fucking the hotties in your den. Though, you don't look too pleased about it."

"It's just 'cause my back is sore," he said and opened the can of her food.

The cat snorted a laugh and said, "I bet you wish you were a cleric with a bushel of healing spells right about now, Boss!"

"Yeah, I do," Ben said. "At least then I wouldn't have a familiar nagging at me all the time." He cast the Prestidigitation spell to heat up her food and make it taste like steak.

"Pfffft, you know you love me, Boss." 

Ben set the can down on the counter and Felicia dug into it with gusto. "Not even a 'thank you'," he asked.

"Thanks, Boss!"

"Much better. Now, tell me what the girls were doing while I slept."

Felicia chewed on a big piece of food and said, "Oh, they were mostly whispering amongst themselves and talking and occasionally groping and kissing, too."

"Whispering," Ben asked. His brow drew down. "I don't like the sound of that. What were they talking about?"

"Well, I spent half the night asleep myself, Boss, but, from what I gathered, they wwere mostly getting to know one another."

"Getting to know one another?"

"Yeah, like where they grew up and what kind of music they liked and stuff like that, Boss. Then they did a little dress-up and fondled one another. It all looked like one big sleepover party, except that they rode you like a bronco, every couple of hours. I gotta tell you, Boss, you've got impressive stamina!"

Ben grunted and said, "Thanks." He poured himself a mug of water, made it steaming hot with the Prestidigitation spell and put in a tea bag. "So, they didn't, you know, plot, or anything like that?"

"Plot?"

"Yeah, like, you know," Ben said, "like, how to play me and manipulate me to their own ends. Stuff like that?"

"Yes and no, Boss. While they were playing dress up with Lisa, they talked her into being the lowest on the totem pole and submitting to the other two, sexually, and Krista told Raven that she knows a guy around here that can make a grade-A fake ID for her, complete with background and such."

"Way to bury the lead," Ben said. "Who is this guy? Where do I find him?"

"She didn't say, Boss. What she did say was that he owed her one and that he would probably do his best work for free. Raven was all peace, love and harmony after hearing that and the three of them seemed to start to really get along together before the last time they rode you."

"So, no plotting against me," Ben said.

"No, Boss. None whatsoever."

"Did they act suspicious around you?"

"Nope," Felicia said. "They even played with me a little, some time around midnight. What makes you think that they would be hatching a plot against you?" Ben just shrugged in response. "That's sad, Boss. You know, not every girl is a monster that is out to rob you blind, or contaminate your precious, bodily fluids. Besides, you can always just order them to tell you the truth, Boss."

"Don't be quoting Doctor Strangelove to me, cat," he said. "It's just that I don't want them to think that I'm some kind of lame, weirdo loser that only started to have meaningful experiences with girls four days ago, you know?"

The cat pulled her head out of the can and licked her whiskers. "But, Boss, you are a lame, weirdo loser that only started to have meaningful experiences with girls this week. How can you hope to hide that from them?"

Ben barked out a soft laugh and flicked his finger at the top of her head, playfully. "Shut up, you," he said.

"Look, all kidding aside, Boss, I think that they're good girls, deep down inside. Well, ok, Krista should never be left unsupervised. Like, not even for a second. But the other two seem nice. Well, Lisa does. Raven's a bit iffy, too, if I'm honest, Boss."

"See what I'm dealing with?"

The cat conceded his point with a soft grunt and put her head back into the can. "Could you make this taste like it had hollandaise sauce on it, Boss?" He did and she said, "Thank you!"

Ben stroked her head and left the kitchen to take a shower and shave. By the time he finished, the girls were still sound asleep. He got dressed and went to the kitchen. Felicia was licking her fur. "Hey, did the girls stay up the whole night," Ben asked her.

"Pretty much, yeah," she said. "They finally fell asleep the last time you did, Boss."

Ben nodded. That would mean that they only had three hours of sleep. He decided to let them sleep some more. He went to the den and gently picked up Krista to carry her to his bed. He laid her down and covered her with a sheet. He went back to the den and looked at Lisa sleeping atop Raven. Neither looked very comfortable so he gently picked up Lisa and put her in bed next to Krista. He brought a fresh sheet to cover Raven with.

After that, he quietly made breakfast for himself. A big bowl of oatmeal that he made taste like fillet mignon in gorgonzola sauce. By the time he ate half of it, he changed its taste to that of chocolate cake.

He spent the rest of the morning scouring the newspapers and online adds for a new place to live. He wanted a better place that was closer to the university campus. It also had to be affordable and bigger than the one he lived in. Even if he didn't keep the girls around, he would need the space to host his group's AD&D nights when school started up again. 

Nothing caught his eye, without violating his still limited budget, so he switched to rereading the spells of yesterday. He found that he no longer needed to cast Read Magic on himself. The spell had taught him how to read them on his own, without needing to cast it. He double checked his conclusions and sighed. The price of freeform magic was human life. He could tell that sacrificing animals to power it was not possible.

He set aside his frustrating work and paced the kitchen. The girls were still sleeping and softly snoring. He tried to come up with another way to use his limited spells to make money and was deep in thinking about the possible uses of his Stone Shape spell when he felt Raven wake up. She was slow to rouse fully and went to the bathroom to wash the grime of last night off herself. Krista and Lisa soon followed her lead. Ben couldn't help but wear a persistent, glad grin as three nubile, young women paraded around his house wearing nothing but their birthday suits.

The girls complained of being hungry and Ben told them he'd have breakfast ready by the time they got dressed. He made more oatmeal and cast another spell of Prestidigitation. Raven came into the kitchen first, wearing a white wifebeater T-shirt and her customary black boyshorts. She took her seat, wearing a glad grin at seeing Ben's expression and gestured at the door.

Krista walked in, wearing transparent harem pants and a red, silk scarf wrapped around her breasts and neck to serve as a halter top. Ben saw her lacy, red thong and knew that the day was going to be a scorcher, not only because of the air temperature outside. She sat down opposite Raven and Lisa came into the kitchen wearing a mockery of a French maid's uniform. The frilly, black "dress" with the white apron in front of it, was only a few inches long. It came down to the tops of her hips and left her pussy and ass exposed to everyone's eyes. Ben saw that she was freshly shaven. Above her waist, the uniform consisted of two wide strips of black fabric that went over her tits, covering just her nipples, and were then tied off around her throat to look like a choker with a bowtie in front. It took Ben a few moments to spot that she was wearing fishnet stockings, that only came up to mid-thigh, and a pair of black pumps.

Ben gaped at her obscene dress and she blushed visibly, while keeping her eyes down in a submissive posture. Before he could say or do anything, Krista harrumphed and Lisa knelt on the floor. She didn't look very comfortable and Ben focused on his link with her mind. Her knees really hurt her. "Stand up," he said.

Lisa reluctantly did so, keeping her eyes to the floor. "Ben," Krista said, "the servants should be made to kneel."

"Why do your knees hurt you so much," he asked Lisa.

Lisa hesitated before saying, "When I was eleven, some kids threw rocks at me while I was climbing a tree. They hit me and knocked me out of the tree and I landed on my knees. I ended up in splints for a month. I can walk and run and everything, but they really hurt while I'm kneeling."

"New rule in this house," Ben said. "If, and I do say if, we are going to do the whole sex slave harem thing, then all kneeling will be done on cushions. Ok? It is forbidden to kneel without a cushion!"

All three girls agreed. Lisa pulled out the third chair at his kitchen table for him to sit in. Ben smiled and gestured for her to sit down instead. She hesitated and he gestured again, this time with an accompanying nod. She sat down and Ben could feel the texture of the chair's seat against her freshly shaven and very sensitive pussy lips. It made him smile.

He served each girl with a bowl of oatmeal. They all affected insencere smiles and thanked him. "What would you like your breakfast to taste like," he asked them. They raised their eyebrows in confusion and hesitated answering.

"A hot fudge sundae," Krista said at last. Ben made it so and gestured for her to eat her food. She took a mouthful and immediately began to moan in delight. She pulled her spoon out of her mouth to wave around as she moaned some more.

"Ok," Raven said, smiling widely, "can I have mine taste like caviar?" Ben shrugged at her request and made it so.

"I'd like prosciutto and melon, please," Lisa said. Ben made it so and nodded at her.

Raven started making choked up, disgusted noises and looked to be on the verge of vomiting. She looked around and finally spat out her mouthful on the table, next to her own bowl. "Bleh," she said. "What the hell, Ben?! I asked for caviar! This tastes like salted fish shit!"

"Well, yeah," Ben said, confused, "that's pretty much what caviar tastes like. And I did make your food taste like caviar."

"Bullshit," Raven said.

"Have you ever had caviar before," Krista asked.

Raven looked put upon for a moment, but then said, "No."

Krista dipped her spoon into Raven's bowl and took a little bit of her oatmeal to taste. "Yup," she said, "that's caviar."

Raven looked unconvinced as her eyes darted from one face to another. "Oh, come on," she said. "You're pulling my leg! There's no way rich people pay lots of money for something that tastes like this!"

It took Ben, Lisa and Krista a minute to convince her that they weren't pulling a prank on her and she finally said, "Can I have another bowl of oatmeal, please?"

"Sure," Ben said, slightly confused. "Or I can just change the taste of the one you've already got."

"You can do that," Raven asked.

"Yeah," Ben said. "No problem."

"Listen," Raven said, "can you make it taste like strawberries? Just taste like them, nothing else. No actual strawberries, or essence of strawberry in it. Can you do that?"

"Sure," Ben said, smiling. He made it so. "I already did."

Raven tentatively spooned a little bit of oatmeal into her mouth and started to moan ecstatically. "Lemme guess," Krista said. "You're allergic to strawberries?" Raven nodded yes and began to shovel spoonfuls into her mouth, looking incredibly delighted. "And yet you love the taste of those little, red murderberries." Raven shrugged and kept eating. "Ben, could you change mine into Peking duck?"

Ben spent the next ten minutes changing the taste of Krista and Lisa's food, while Raven stuck with the taste of strawberries. By the time Krista was scooping up the last of her oatmeal she said, "You know, this reminds me of a very important issue that we haven't addressed yet." She put her spoon in her mouth. It tasted of millefeuille.

"And what's that," Ben asked while Krista savored her dessert.

"Your magic," she said. "If you're going to go on a quest to hunt down cultists, or whomever, we need to know what you can actually do with your magic."

Ben's brow drew down. "Why would you need to know that," he asked.

"So we can help you with your tactical planning and stuff like that," Krista said. She started counting on her fingers "We need to know if you can heal us if we get hurt, if you can heal yourself, if there are things that can make people immune to your magic, what kinds of spells you can cast, what are their limitations... Any number of things that enter into a tactical equation." Ben looked at her dubiously. "I mean, come on, Ben! You're a badass, but no one makes it big by working all on their own. You need someone to help you, even if it's only with the little things. You can sound off your plans on us and we can give you our honest opinions... Four heads are better than one, you know! Besides, who can you trust if not your slave girls? Am I right, gals?"

Ben sent Krista the order to tell the truth about why she wanted to know the details of his magical ability. She resisted the order unsuccessfully.

"I want to know so I can protect myself against this kind of thing ever happening to me again," she said. " I want to know exactly what kinds of miraculous things you can do for me. I know you can teleport and make me orgasm on command," the other two girls perked up in interest at hearing that, "and I tingle with excitement whenever I wonder what else you've got up your sleeve." She paused, saw Ben's frown and held up her hands. "But I would never use that information against you, Ben! I swear it!"

He sent her the order to tell him the truth about when and how she would use any weakness he told her about. She resisted his order and looked like she was going to bite her tongue before she said, "If you pushed me too far, I'd sidle up next to you, all smiles and sultry stares, and strike hard and fast while you were distracted."

Raven and Lisa gasped in shock. Ben just glared at Krista. She stood up and put her hands on her head in a blind panic. "It would never come to that, Ben," she pleadingly said, "you've got to believe me! You're a good guy and it would never come to that, I swear! I mean, I'm just trying to look out for myself, you know? Shit! This is all coming out wrong! Ben, listen to me, I'm not looking for a way to hurt you. I swear that I'm not looking for any kind of vengeance!"

"Yeah, that," Ben said, "that's enough, Krista."

"Look," Krista said, "you can order me to tell you the truth! Order me now! I'll tell you that I only don't want to feel utterly helpless. That's it. That's all that I want. An illusion of control, of being able to fight back if things went to shit. Or, or to fight for you, if we came across another one like you! You know? I have zero, I repeat, zero intention of ever-" She fell silent when Ben sent her the order to stop talking. Tears were glistening in the corners of her eyes and her lower lip was trembling.

Raven and Lisa looked anxious and worried, too. "See," Ben said, "this is why I hate the idea of keeping you as my slaves. Look at you! All three of you are scared of me. I hate that. I can't imagine ever growing to like that. I just... I think it might be best if we part ways after all."

"No," all three girls exclaimed at the same time. Krista sat back down.

"I'm not leaving your side," Lisa firmly said.

"Ben," Raven said, "I'm not scared of you, I'm scared of what others might do to me if you send me away from you! I swear! Order me to tell you the truth! I know you wouldn't hurt me! You had me over the barrel already and you proved what you're made of. You could have used the spell that was meant to turn me back to blackmail me into obedience and you didn't. You just wiped it off me. I trust you, Ben. You can only scare me by sending me away from you."

She stood up and took his hand. She brought it up to her mouth and kissed it. "And for the record," she said, "I don't want to know any more about your magic than what you are willing to share or you decide that I should know. I mean it. If you don't want me to know anything, I'm perfectly fine with that. I trust you and your judgement."

"Me, too," Lisa said. 

Ben could feel that she was not afraid of him and that gave him comfort. He looked over at Krista and concentrated on his link to her mind. He felt that she was afraid of him sending her away. His calm expression was again praying upon her nerves. He knew that she couldn't actually find anything to fight his magic with, only another caster that was able to cast antimagic field would be capable of doing that, but the matter-of-fact way she said she'd sidle up to him, smile and strike still unnerved him. He imagined that there were very few underhanded moves under the Sun that she didn't have experience with.

"Ok," he said. "I'll tell you about my magic when it becomes neccessary. If it becomes neccessary. Not before." The three girls relaxed and he pulled out of his links to Lisa and Krista's minds. "I will, however, reveal one thing to you right now." He used his Prestidigitation spell to clean up all the dishes in a flash. "There is no need to clean while I'm around." He stood next to Krista. "If that fact can sway your mind over whether or not to strike."

Krista choked back a sob and he went into his den. Raven and Lisa put their hands on her shoulders and whispered comforting words.

He sat down at his desk and put all the spell drawings he had into a drawer. The girls slowly shuffled into the den to sit on the couch. Raven sat closest to him, while Krista sat farthest away. "So," Ben said, "now that we've had that awkward confession, shall we talk about this arrangement of ours?" All three girls looked hesitant. "I'll start. I'm not comfortable with the idea of keeping sex slaves, as I've already told you. However, I am inclined towards letting the three of you stay with me for some time. At least until the spells of domination end. Now, what were you girls talking about last night, while I was asleep?"




Outsiders Pt. 04



Raven told him that the three of them had a nice chat and got to know one another better. She also told him that they came to an understanding about how they were to share his affections and not get into any more pissing matches over him. She blushed when she told him that Krista and she talked Lisa into being everyone's sex slave, including theirs.

"Would you like a demonstration," she asked.

"What," Ben said.

"Lisa," Raven said and slid down in her seat to spread her thighs, "take off my panties and eat my pussy for me!"

Lisa got up, took her couch cushion and set it down on the floor, between Raven's long, shapely legs. She knelt on it and nuzzled the blonde's crotch. Raven squirmed in her seat and gasped in delight. Ben couldn't tear his eyes away from the sight of Lisa slowly rolling Raven's undies down her thighs and legs until Raven lifted her legs high and Lisa pulled the garment off to toss it aside. She dove back down into the pussy that was presented to her. Raven threw her head back and began to gasp out encouragements to the girl.

"You're turned on by this," Krista said to Ben. "Admit it." He shot her a look. His erection was straining at his pants, making his arousal already obvious. "We make you hard. On our own," she gestured to herself, "or combined." She gestured at Lisa eating Raven's pussy. "So why the hesitation?"

Ben cleared his throat and looked away from the box munching to shoot Krista another look. "It makes me feel like I'm exploiting you. Like I was an abuser."

"Order Lisa to tell you what she wants most in the world in this moment," Krista said. "Go on! Order her!"

He sent Lisa the order to do so. She gave Raven's pussy a long lick before lifting her head just long enough to say, "I want a hard dick to plow my defenseless pussy, please!" Raven tangled her fingers in the brunette's hair and pulled her face back down into her pussy.

"Well," Krista asked of Ben, while Raven resumed her moaning.

Ben got up, took off his utility belt and undid his pants. He knelt behind Lisa and put his hands on her hips. He could plainly see that her pussy lips were engorged as they peeked out from under her "dress". He could smell pussy juice and he was sure it wasn't from Raven. Hers looked to be very quickly gathered up by Lisa. The angle was wrong so he sent Krista the order to give him her seat cushion. She did and he sent Lisa the order to stand up for a moment. She stood with her face still pressed into Raven's pussy and he placed the second cushion atop the first.

When Lisa knelt again, her pussy was perfectly aligned with his hard cock. He grabbed her hips to hold them steady and hilted himself inside her in one hard thrust. He focused on his links to Raven and Lisa's minds and allowed their pleasure to guide him. He plowed Lisa, stoking her orgasm and she moaned into Raven's pussy. This was enough to send the blonde over the edge and she came, screaming out her ecstasy.

Ben barely managed to stop himself from cumming as well while he experienced her pleasure and pounded Lisa's wet, hot pussy. He felt Lisa's delight at being so mercilessly used and was surprised with how strong her arousal was. When a finger penetrated her ass, she started to soar towards a massive orgasm. Ben peeked with one eye and saw Krista's finger playing with Lisa's asshole. Lisa climaxed and the rush of ecstasy he felt in her mind, combined with the clenching of her pussy, fired him into the stratosphere. He barely even perceived Raven's second orgasm as all thought was pushed out of his awareness and replaced with pleasure.

When he came to, he was gulping air and lying atop Lisa with his softening cock slowly slipping out of her. When it did, they both shivered as one. He summoned the strength to lift himself off her and, feeling her desire for it, gave her a commendatory spank on her ass. She giggled and shot him a smile.

He got up to sit in his chair and Krista helped Lisa sit back on the couch after replacing the cushions.

"I think I know how to solve your problem, Ben," Krista said. "We shall have orgies directed by rolling your dice. We will roll dice to determine who does what to whom and everyone shall have an equal chance of getting eaten out, reamed or licking someone's ass. It'll be just like when I rolled your die on Wednesday, only this time, it'll be a long list of pleasurable things."

"Why does it always have to be about sex with you," Ben said, still gasping for air.

"I only started having sex six days ago," Raven said. "I spent twenty-two years wishing for it and, now that I'm hot, I intend to have sex as often as I can. Particularly with you!"

"Me, too," Lisa said. "I mean, I've only started having orgasms in the past few days and I want so many more. Orgasms are great!"

"Passion is what makes life worth living, Ben," Krista said. "And we won't be all about sex, naturally. We'll do other stuff together, too. Just having sex all the time would get pretty boring, pretty quickly. Not to mention sore! But these two girls have a passion for it at this point in their lives and... Well, let's face it! You love giving it to them. Don't you?" Ben nodded. "Passion comes first."

After Ben caught his breath, he came to a decision, influenced by the sight of two climax-flushed young hotties before him. "Alright," he said, "this is how it's going to work. All three of you are welcome to stay with me for as long as you like and we'll have sex whenever we wish. Krista, you'll get your friend to make a new identity for Raven and we're all going to find a lawyer and psychiatrist to get Lisa off the hook as far as mental hospitals are concerned. And we need to get her some proper clothes." The girls' jaws dropped at hearing him know about Krista's friend.

He looked away and did some mental math. He had only ten thousand dollars of disposable income, the rest was earmarked for his college tuitions. He'd dip into that, if he needed to, but he would prefer having a plan to make more money on hand before going that far. "Though the shark and shrink would have to be cheap," he said. "I'm not exactly loaded right now."

"I have more than sixteen thousand dollars in the bank," Lisa said. 

"Yeah, but your account is most likely monitored," Krista said, "what with you being both a fugitive and an escaped loony. It's best if you don't even check your balance in the near future."

Ben suddenly had a brainwave. "I got it! I know how to make money fast! Express air freight!" The girls looked at him blankly. "I can cast a spell of teleportation and instantaneously appear anywhere in the world. But it's not limited to just me! I can bring up to six other people and as much as they can carry. I can carry a hundred and seventy five pounds before being overencumbered and I'm guessing each of you could carry at least seventy more."

The girls shot each other dubious glances. "All right," Ben said, "let's round it down to three hundred and fifty pounds of cargo we can bring with us when we teleport. I can cast that spell sixteen times a day, if I use up all my high level slots. We can transport more than two and a half tons a day between us."

The girls just looked at him expectantly. "Don't you get it? We advertise that we're an express air freight service and pick up the goods and take them to a warehouse. Then I teleport them to a quiet place near their destination and then we wait a few hours and deliver the goods as if they've been flown there. We can charge thousands of dollars while incurring only the expense of renting the trucks to make the initial pickup and final delivery."

The girls all opened their mouth and ooohed at the same time.

"That's such a good con," Krista said.

"But we'd actually deliver the goods, Krista," Ben said.

"No, no, no, I get that," Krista said. "I get it, I'm on board. I'm just saying... Great idea!" Lisa and Raven nodded along with her. "However..." Krista held up a finger. "We will only go along with your venture and double your payload under one condition."

Lisa and Raven both looked at her like she was mad. Their eyes darted between her on one end of the couch and Ben sitting by the other end, like there was going to be trouble.

"And what would that condition be," Ben asked.

Krista smiled, winked at the worried girls and said, "The conditio sine qua non is... After we make our delivery, we spend each day in the destination, taking in the sights and enjoying the local culture."

Everyone's eyebrows rose in surprise. At last, Ben spread his arms and said, "I'm down with that. You girls down with that?"

"Yes, please," Raven and Lisa cried out in one voice.

"Alright, then," he said. "It's settled! We're starting an air freight delivery service! First order of business is coming up with a name."

"Already got it," Krista said. "Get ready!" She put her hands up and slowly spread them like she was revealing a marquee in mid air. "Fearsome Foursome Flying Freight!"

The others wrinkled their noses at her suggestion. "Can't have fear and flying in the same breath," Ben said. Lisa and Raven nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, whatever," Krista said. "Sounded way better in my head, anyway. Hey! Why's everyone so glum? We've just embarked on an adventure! A business venture! We need to celebrate! Break out the booze, Ben!" Ben got up and then stopped.

"What's wrong," Krista asked.

"I don't have any booze in the house, actually," he said.

"Never mind," she said, "let's go out and get some, then!" Lisa and Raven cheered and got up. "And we'll first stop by my friend's place so he can whip up Raven an ID that says she's twenty two." Everyone paused and gave her a look. "So she can buy the booze for us all." Everyone nodded and smiled.

"And we'll get our little slave girl a couple more cute outfits," Raven said, hugging Lisa close to her. Ben rolled his eyes. He was definitely going to go broke if he didn't do the air freight thing. As soon as the girls changed into street clothes and dressed Lisa in some of Krista's clothes, that hung unstylishly on her petite frame, they all got in Ben's car and drove off.

Krista's friend had professional gear and worked quickly to make Raven's new ID. He chatted a little with Krista, but made it clear right at the beginning that he had someplace to be and little time to waste. Ben didn't mind the rush. From the tone of their voices, he could tell that they were very close friends. As he watched Krista smile at her pal and play with her hair, he imagined that he could see that the two of them had also been lovers. That thought made him feel jealous and then surprised at his jealousy. He made no comment and took no action, just quietly explored the small studio until the ID was finished. He sent Krista the order to not tell her friend where they were staying and she told him that she was between locations at the moment and that they'd talk soon.

After the liquor store and the mall, where they bought a cellphone for each of the girls, they stopped off for some more groceries at Raven's request. "I'm going to make a late lunch for us all," she said.

"You can cook," Krista asked.

"Yeah," Raven sadly said. "No one ever took me out for a meal, so I got a lot of practice."

"What, no one ever," Ben asked. "Not even I? The day before yesterday?"

"Oh, well," Raven said with a smile, "I didn't count that."

Ben made a small, insulted noise. "You wound me, madam," he said in his best melodramatic voice. The girls laughed and he said, "Seriously, never mind the groceries. I'm taking you out to lunch, all three of you. And dinner after that! Sound good?"

After lunch at a fancy restaurant, they retired to Ben's place to stow their latest shopping. Krista and Lisa went to the bedroom to force some order into the piles of boxes containing clothes that were taking up almost half the room. Raven put away all the groceries and other purchases and Ben settled in the den to see if there was anything on TV. There wasn't so he switched it to the local news to wait for the weather forecast, hoping to hear about the heat wave ending soon.

He went online to check up on his friends and how their summers were going. Just as he was commenting on a photo of Jake getting hit in the face by a soccer ball, the girls cleared their throats in the doorway. He looked up and gasped.

Lisa was wearing her slutty, French maid's "outfit". Krista was wearing some transparent shawls, tied off to make her look like a slutty jinn. Raven was wearing orange shorts, pantyhose and a white, sleeveless shirt, which made her look like a Hooters waitress. Ben usualy considered the Hooters uniform to be far more ridiculous than sexy, but Raven changed his mind at first glance.

"Master," Krista said, "how may your servants serve you today?" Ben was too busy eating up their costumes to answer her. "Perhaps you would like a drink? Something to nibble on?"

Ben nodded, absentmindedly, and Lisa and Raven left the room. Krista walked to stand in front of the TV and said, "Master, what is thy bidding?" 

Ben smiled, opened his mouth and then noticed Raven's face on the screen behind her. "Move to the side," he said and picked up the remote. He turned the sound back on as Krista turned around to face the screen and stepped back. "Raven, get in here, now!" On the screen were DMV photos of Simon and a very ugly person of indeterminate gender and right next to them was a still of Raven, obviously pulled from a store surveillance camera. Simon's name was listed as Simon Eustace Thorpe and the third person's name was listed as Clarice Morrow.

"...still wanted for questioning by the police in relation to the explosion at their address and the three unknown men that were murdered at the location," the news anchor said. "The once quiet suburb of-"

"Oh my God," Raven exclaimed, seeing what was on the screen.

"Who's Clarice Morrow," Ben asked.

"I am," Raven said. "I was. Before my transformation. I mean... Just call me Raven!"

"Seriously," Krista barked out in disbelief. "You looked like that?! I've seen prettier chimpanzees!" Ben could plainly see the effect her comment had on Raven. "Damn, you were ugly! If I had been born-" She shut up when Ben sent her the order to apologize to Raven. "I'm sorry, Raven. I didn't mean to hurt, or insult you. Please, accept my sincere apology."

Before Raven could say anything, the news anchor said, "We go back now live to the army base where our very own Marty Feldman reported from, just minutes ago. Marty, what is happening?"

The picture switched to a scared, middle aged man, crouching behind a short, brick wall. Everyone in the den turned to look at the screen, drawn by the obvious panic on the man's face. "Something's gone wrong," he said. "There are bullets flying everywhere! It's a war zone out here!" He flinched and ducked lower as an explosion was heard in the background. The camera dared to peek out over the wall, showing uniformed men sprinting across the base green from left to right. The sound of machine gun fire was heard and the soldiers all fell down as one, their bodies nearly ripped apart by the automatic fire.

Everyone in Ben's den gasped in shock, but Lisa continued into a scream. "It's them," she yelled. "It's the symbols! There's a spell there, on the lawn!"

"What," Ben asked. "Are you sure?!"

"Yes," Lisa said, "It's right there, swirling behind them! They're all gonna die!"

"Duck," a voice close to the camera yelled out on the TV. The beginning of a loud noise was heard and then the picture froze and became a pixellated mess of static and misaligned frames. Within a second, they cut back to the shocked news anchor who stared off screen with his mouth hanging wide open.

"You have to go there, Ben," Lisa said. "You have to save those people!"

Ben was way ahead of her as he pulled out his eyelash in gum arabic. "Did you see the whole spell," he asked her.

"No," Lisa said, "it was on the lawn, in the distance. I couldn't make out the individual symbols from the low angle."

He cast the spell of Greater Invisibility on himself and said, "Then you're staying here! Put some clothes on! I'll come back to get you to take a look as soon as I've neutralized the enemy." He replaced his material focus and pulled out another, his piece of turtle shell. He cast the Protection from Arrows spell on himself. It negated a hundred hit points of damage from any ranged weapon, but the effect was limited to only ten points of damage being negated per shot. He knew, from the Dungeon Master's Guide's section on modern and futuristic weapons, that a machine gun's bullets did either 2d6 or 2d8 of damage, depending on caliber. A consistent barrage of concentrated fire could wind up killing him despite his preparation. He set his jaw and decided to proceed, anyway.

"You have to hurry," Lisa said.

"Wait a minute," Krista said. "That's a war zone! You can't go in there with nothing but invisibility to protect you! There's bullets flying everywhere!"

"Don't worry," Ben said. "I know what I'm doing." Despite his words, he had to concede her point. Teleporting into the base was likely going to get him shot. He replaced his piece of turtle shell and pulled out his feather. As soon as he felt his magic flow again, he cast the Fly spell on himself.

"Ben, what are you doing," Krista asked.

"What are you going to do," Lisa asked.

Ben sent Raven the order to tell him truthfully if she knew anything about what was going on at that army base. "I don't know anything except what they just showed on the TV," she said.

"Be careful," Lisa said.

"I don't think this is a good idea," Raven said.

"Ben, talk to us," Krista said. "Don't just rush off all willy-nilly, ok? Tell us how we can help!"

Ben pictured the base's lawn in his mind. When his magic flowed again, he spoke the word of Greater Teleport and materialized, invisible, two hundred feet in the air above the lawn. The first thing he felt was the acrid smoke filling up his nostrils. There were wisps of it rising up from half the buildings of the base. He looked down at the base green and saw that there were dozens of uniformed bodies strewn across it. A burning tank was tipped over on its side in the distance.

A blast shook one of the buildings and Ben saw a tracked vehicle emerge from behind the building. It was smaller than a shopping cart and it carried machine guns and cameras on it. Ben looked around it and soon spotted ten other robotic vehicles driving around the base in a tight formation. The biggest was smaller than a golf cart. He was still trying to figure out where this attack had come from and who was responsible when he saw one of the vehicles train its rocket launcher on a building and fire at it. A group of dazed soldiers stumbled out of the smoking hole and two other vehicles mercilessly gunned them down before they could either look for cover or run away. 

Ben heard a rumbling noise and a tank exited a hangar, ripping through its doors effortlessly. It trained its main gun on the cluster of robotic vehicles. Before it could fire, the robots trained their barrels at it and fired themselves. The tank's armor sparked with bouncing bullets. Three small rockets hit it in the exact same spot on its turret in quick succession. The first explosion was big, the second small and the third made the armored behemoth disappear in a massive explosion as its ammunition store was detonated.

The blast snapped Ben out of his shock at seeing all the carnage. He drew his patch of fur and piece of amber from his utility belt and began rubbing them together. The robotic vehicles were grouped together and he judged that they were all within thirty feet of the rocket launching robot. He touched eleven of the nineteen silver pins on the back of his utility belt and cast the spell of Chain Lightning down upon the robots.




Outsiders Pt. 04



The first bolt struck the rocket-launching vehicle in the center of the group and smashed it into smithereens. From the remains leapt a secondary bolt of lightning and struck the target of Ben's choice with half the force of the original bolt, which was still enough to fry all of its electric and electronic parts. From each struck vehicle a bolt leapt up to strike the next one Ben targeted until all eleven vehicles were struck. All the strikes happened in the same second. The robots were destroyed and the smell of burning metal, with a hint of ozone, rose up to invade Ben's nostrils.

He cast a spell of Invisibility on himself and flew above the base, doing two passes while surveying it for any sign of hostile activity. All that he saw were fires and dead men. Some soldiers were crawling out of their hiding places and staring shell-shocked at the carnage. NCOs began barking out orders, trying to assemble the survivors into rescue teams. The soldiers slowly responded to the barked orders and began gathering first aid kits and examining bodies. The looks on their faces told Ben all that he needed to know. The robots had killed all who were out in the open, or could be flushed out.

Ben flew back to where he recognized the reporter had been. The entire building was leveled and a lot of casualties in civilian clothes were strewn about. He saw cameras and microphones and guessed they had been journalists. He focused on his link with Lisa's mind and let himself see his den through her eyes. He quietly spoke the word of Greater Teleport and appeared there, invisible.

"Lisa," he softly said, making all three girls jump and scream. "Sorry." The girls, who had changed into everyday outfits during his absence, waved their outstretched arms around, trying to feel where he was. "You two, stay here!"

"Which two," Raven asked. 

Ben pulled out his eyelash in gum arabic and touched Lisa's shoulder as he cast the spell of Invisibility on her.

"Oh," Krista said in response to Lisa vanishing before her very eyes. "Us two."

Ben sent Lisa the order to close her eyes and accept his teleportation. When his magic resumed flowing, he grasped her firmly and spoke the word of Greater Teleport while envisioning the place where she said the spell was.

They appeared twenty feet in the air above that part of the base's green. Ben had a hard time keeping them aloft with his Fly spell, but he managed. Lisa weighed less than his maximum carrying capacity was. He looked around and confirmed the placement of the bodies in the vicinity before sending Lisa the order to face straight down. He sent her the order to cover her eyes with her fingers so her field of vision was extremely limited. He sent her the order to peek at the grass under them.

He felt that she was only seeing the green of the grass under them, without any symbols, or anything else. He flew them slowly around, being careful not to fly near any bodies that she might see. When he felt her finally see a symbol, he flew them over the round spell until he felt that she had seen all of it. He focused on his den and spoke the word of Greater Teleport. The two of them found themselves in the den.

He sent Lisa the order to perfectly recall the spell she saw on the lawn and draw it exactly. Raven and Krista both yelled in fright when the desk chair moved back on its own. "We're back," Ben calmly said. He ended his spell of Invisibility and appeared in the den.

"Where's Lisa," Raven asked.

Ben pointed at the drawers on his desk opening. "She's drawing for me," he said.

"What happened," Raven asked.

"I don't know, exactly," Ben said. "A bunch of remotely controlled combat robots were used to shoot up the whole base."

"Who could have done that," Krista asked.

"I don't know," Ben said. "That's for the army, or the FBI, or whoever to find out. What I need to know is what this spell has to do with anything."

He ended Lisa's invisibility and went into the kitchen to pour himself a stiff drink. He picked Scotch and downed it to steady his nerves. He had only seen real blood and gore once before, when Simon had been killed before his eyes. The base massacre was much worse than that. He felt glad that he had managed to keep Lisa from seeing it. He poured himself another shot of Scotch and let the smoky aroma hang on his tongue this time, to distract him from what he had seen.

He stifled his sobs and blinked away his tears when Lisa finished the drawing. He took out his small prism and cast the Read Magic spell on himself to examine this new calamity. He sat down to read while the girls hugged Lisa and tried to offer her comfort. Lisa insisted that she hadn't seen anything and the girls believed her after a while. They all looked at Ben with worry on their faces and waited for him to finish.

The central symbol of the spell told Ben where to start reading it and he quickly realized the spell itself was meant to draw the power of nearby human sacrifices and focus it into constructing something. Something that was a very small part of a very great whole and it wasn't the final part. Ben bit his lip in frustration. He was in possession of too small a piece of the puzzle to be able to figure out anything more than the rough scale of what was going on.

As he read on, he was reminded of Schrödinger's psi equation that described the behavior of electrons in their clouds. He had once seen how the equation was solved and the symbols inscribed along the inner edge of the spell reminded him of that. He sighed and shook his head as he cleared his mind of all thoughts of quantum mechanics. "I'm dealing with deranged cultists, here," he reminded himself, "not post grad physicists."

As he skipped that part and read on, he saw that the spell had a runoff valve. If the energy reaped by the sacrifices around the spell exceeded the amount required for the construction of its product, it would keep gathering the energy and funnel it towards the caster.

"Lisa," he called out to the girl that was standing over his shoulder. They both flinched. "Sorry. Can you remember how the symbols were swirling along the outer rim, just inside the circle?"

"Yeah," Lisa said. "They were swirling counterclockwise, unlike the rest of them." She indicated the runoff lines of the spell with a finger. "It was these lines, I think."

Ben's fists tightened. The spell was a success and whatever it was meant to build had been built. The excess loss of life was funneled to the caster. It looked like the bad guys had won. He stood up, pulled out his eyelash in gum arabic and cast the spell of Greater Invisibility on himself.

"What are you doing," Krista asked.

"I'm going back to the base to find whoever cast the spell and I'm going to go medieval on their behinds," Ben calmly said. He felt his magic resume flowing and cast the spell of Greater Teleport while envisioning the base's lawn. 

Simon stood by the base's outer wall and grimly watched the useless, little insects running around like chickens with their heads cut off. His spell had been a success and the element of Air had been constructed, bringing his work on the portal one quarter of the way to being finished. The excess power reaped was inside him, awaiting his disposal, yet he was not happy.

Someone, or something, had destroyed the murder machines with lightning that came out of nowhere and then jumped around from robot to robot. The robots had been supposed to kill everyone on the base, right in front of the news cameras that had been invited there to the presentation of the future of warfare, before leaving the base and going into the city to reap its inhabitants. The distance of the robots from the spell's original location didn't matter, they were consecrated by it and all souls they reaped would be drawn to him.

He forced himself to not dwell on the loss of all that power. He had power inside of himself and it was enough for him to continue his work. He was tempted to reenter the base and use some of it to kill more people as his spell was still there to reap them and draw their energy to him.

He looked at the armed, angry soldiers the base was lousy with and decided against it. Fighting them would likely cost him all the power he had reaped today and there was also that unknown that fried the robots to consider. He guessed it was probably the work of Ben Kidder and he was impressed by the young man's magical prowess. His decision to stay away from him was proving to be a smart one, regardless of how much it bruised his ego. "Besides," he told himself, "he'll fall alongside everyone else as soon as I complete and activate the portal."

He ended the spell and used some of his power to draw a veil of unnoticeability around himself. He changed into Daniel's civilian clothing to better blend in. He decided he would continue his work someplace else. Someplace far away from here. 

Ben materialized forty feet above the ground and looked around. There was no sign of any bad guys twirling their mustaches. He cast the Dispel Magic spell on the lawn where Lisa had seen the sacrificial spell. He didn't want the energy of any soldiers that were dying to be drawn to its caster.

He took a photo of the lawn with his cellphone and sent it to Lisa's phone, asking her to confirm that he had dispelled it. She texted him back that the photo was clear, with no symbols on it.

Ben put away his phone and used his still lasting Fly spell to scour the whole base, looking for any kind of clue. He sprinkled his silver powder and talc mixture in the air and cast the spell of See Invisibility on himself, but he saw no one and nothing invisible on the base.

Down on the ground, paramedics, firemen and soldiers were running around, desperate to find survivors or a clue as to what had happened. Ben overflew them, recasting his spells of invisibility and flight until he had methodically scoured the entire base. He did a single sweep of the base's surroundings before running out of spell slots above level one. He stopped by everyone who was talking on the phone to eavesdrop, but no one was reporting on the success of their mission, or saying anything suspicious. He used his very last ninth level spell slot to cast Greater Teleport and go back home.

Ben materialized at home and poured himself another Scotch. He had seen so much death and it was getting to him. When his invisibility ended, the girls heard him weeping and went into the kitchen to see him bent over the bottle. They quickly intervened and dragged him to the bedroom. Raven hugged his head to her bosom and the girls rubbed his back and shushed him like a baby while he cried.

He stopped crying only when he was utterly exhausted so the girls fed him some fruit and got him to drink some water before putting him to bed. Numb from all the death he had seen, he lay in his bed for half the night, listening to the girls' worried whispers in the hall outside his bedroom. He only truly fell asleep when Felicia came to his bed and asked him if he wanted to talk about it. He wordlessly declined her offer and she curled up on his chest and purred. The soft purring finally sent him to dreamland.

On Sunday, every TV station in the country was reporting on the robotic rampage. The Secretary of Defence gave a press conference in which he expressed his condolences to the families of the slain soldiers and announced that the government was cancelling all research into the military use of robots. Journalists asked about airborne drones, but the secretary deflected their questions and the conference ended quickly after that.

Ben got what he needed from the conference. Army Criminal Investigations Division was going to take lead in investigating what happened at the base. He planned to observe their efforts and find out who really killed all those people. Whoever they were, they were still human and left human traces behind for forensic investigators to discover.

The girls gently probed him for answers about what happened at the base and he told them that someone had killed all those soldiers, but he let them believe that was the sole purpose of the spell Lisa had seen. He didn't trust them to have the strength to handle the truth. He asked the girls to keep one eye on the twenty-four hour news cycle at all times and look for anything else suspicious.

"I want to catch those crazy bastards," he said, "and end their threat to humanity, once and for all."

The girls agreed and at least one of them was awake at any time, surfing the web and news stations, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Ben used his magic to teleport into the Army CID headquarters invisible and spy on their investigation. He knew they were hopelessly in the dark going in, but he was surprised to see them actively avoiding doing any actual investigative work. They were careful about meticulously gathering up all possible evidence and then boxing it up for storage without even giving it a cursory glance. He had hoped their approach to things would change on Monday, with the start of a proper work week, but it didn't. It only got worse.

Their efforts were concentrated on hounding the friends and relatives of the only ROV operator that hadn't been shot or blown up. His autopsy report showed that he had died of idiopathic cardiac tamponade and that he had a tear in his airway, near his heart. Ben knew the same person that had killed the three zealots was responsible for the massacre. He wrote on the lead investigator's own notepad that he needed to read the autopsy reports of the three men, but the investigator just ripped that piece of paper off after reading it and threw it away in the trash. He had already decided, or been ordered to decide, that the operator was at fault and that he had been a domestic, lone wolf terrorist.

Ben snuck orders into Army CID's internal lines of communication for lower ranking officer to go and dig up those autopsy reports, but his efforts resulted solely in those records being seized and hidden away under the authority of the Patriot Act.

Ben teleported invisibly to the local robbery/homicide division of the police department and was shocked to learn that they had been ordered to stop investigating the three dead zealots and that the cops gladly obeyed that order. He couldn't believe that all those people who were paid to investigate crimes were so glad to just clean up the immediate mess, do the paperwork on it and then ignore all the evidence that would likely lead them to the actual perpetrator. He hadn't expected to find Team Gibbs working the case, but the level of incompetence, disinterest and outright sabotage he encountered while spying on the investigations genuinely disturbed him.

On Tuesday, after his girls made love to him to cheer him up, Ben invisibly teleported photos of the autopsy reports and some select Army CID orders to one respected journalist in each of the city's three premier newspapers. On Wednesday, after the girls finished fucking Ben's brains out and he recovered from it, he saw that not a single one of those newspapers reported anything about it and one of the three journalists announced quitting his job with the publication to join the Army's public relations office.

Consumed with wrath, Ben teleported invisibly into that man's house and used his home computer to publish the photos of the autopsy reports and select memos online.

On Thursday, the journalist was quietly arrested and no major news outlet picked up on the truth of the story, even though they were all still reporting on the base massacre. Instead of telling the public about the investigative coverup, they were all pumping the airwaves with a carefully coordinated character assasination of the ROV operator that had actually been an innocent victim and probably the first to be killed on Sunday. Only crackpot conspiracy sites picked up on the photos and republished them, thus rendering their credibility null and void.

Ben punched a hole in the den wall out of frustration.

"Calm down, Ben," Krista quietly said.

"Calm down?! How!? How do I calm down!? The whole world has conspired to hide the truth about what's happened and they're all enabling the bad guys to get away with it! And I know that they'll strike again! I've told you that already."

"Ben, they don't know the real truth," Krista said.

"They're all spreading lies that they know are lies," Ben yelled at her. He stopped himself and took a deep breath to try and calm down. Even his enhanced wisdom was being tested by recent events.

"The authorities have to project the illusion of being in control," Krista said, "regardless of whether they are on top of things, or not."

"Do you need ice for that," Raven asked, indicating Ben's hand. The skin over his knucles was broken.

"No, it'll be fine," he said. "I just need to pour some rubbing alcohol on it. But get me a bandage, would you?" Raven nodded and went to the bathroom.

Krista took his chin in her hands and gently urged him to meet her concerned eyes. "Ben, there's nothing you can do about the media," she said. "Now, is there?" Ben reluctantly shook his head in agreement with her statement. "So why don't you concentrate on what you can do, hm?"

"Like what," Ben asked. "What can I do?"

"Well," Krista said and nodded around them, "the quarters are close. Not that any of us girls are complaining! We like being so close to you, but the morning wait to use the toilet is a little annoying, don't you think?"

Raven came into the room and handed Ben the bottle of rubbing alcohol. He opened it and said, "And what do you want me to do about it, Krista? I don't have the cash to afford anything bigger right now."

"We were going to start an air freight business," Krista said.

Ben poured the disinfectant over his cuts and grimaced at the burning pain. He held his hand out for Raven to bandage it up. "I can't spare the spell slots," he said. "At any moment, we might spot a new massacre brewing," he nodded at Lisa surfing the news channels, "and I need to be able to get in there at a moment's notice and intervene. Bring these bastards to justice."

Krista looked to have something to say, but she bit it back. She smiled instead and said, "You have all the answers, Ben. I know you do. You just need to relax so they can come to you. And I know how to relax you." She winked at him and smiled as she pulled a cushion off the couch and knelt on it, right in front of him. She worked his zipper open and reached in to squeeze his flaccid cock. "Raven, darling, show him your tits!"

Raven set aside the medical supplies and pulled her shirt off. Ben's dick started to harden as soon as her pale pink areolas were revealed. Krista pulled it out and gently stroked it to full hardness before she started to lick at his glans. Ben lifted his hands and grabbed Raven's tits. He massaged them just the way he knew she liked and the blonde soon had to hold on to the back of a chair, lest she lose her balance in her arousal.

Krista's wet mouth engulfed the head of his cock while her hand pumped his shaft. Her other hand reached out to gently tickle his balls and he started to gasp out loud. He groaned as he climaxed into Krista's eager mouth. Krista swallowed his load and licked him clean. She stood up and looked him in the eye as she said, "Raven and Lisa need a lover, Ben. Why don't you take them into your bed and give them what they need, hm?" She gave his still hard cock a gentle tug to illustrate her point. "I'll man the post."

Raven took him by the hand and led him to his bed. Lisa followed. He had Raven take off her panties, sit on his bed and spread her legs. He resumed worshipping her tits and sent Lisa the order to eat her out. He concentrated on his link to her mind and enjoyed the pleasure he and Lisa were giving her. Raven squirmed under the onslaught of their mouths and soon came, wailing and thrashing about.




Outsiders Pt. 04



Her orgasm reinvigorated Ben and he focused on his link with Lisa. He grinned and shook his head to himself. Very rare were the occasions when he couldn't feel himself inspire her desire to be bent over and roughly fucked and this wasn't one of them. Lisa kept on licking at Raven's folds while he positioned himself behind her. He slid her thong off and probed her pussy with a finger. She was wet and started squirming at the contact.

He aimed his dick with one hand and steadied her hips with the other. He slid into her, feeling her delight at being filled up and used. Consumed by the pleasure he felt in both their minds, he pumped her like a maniac until he blew his wad and came, setting off her orgasm. Raven came as well when Lisa screamed out her pleasure with her mouth pressed hard against the blonde's pussy. 

Ben barely had the strength to climb up on his bed. He passed out and had a relaxing nap. He woke up half an hour later and smelled something delicious. He got up and dressed before making his way to the kitchen. Raven was running all four burners on the stove and had every available surface in the kitchen covered with chopped up ingredients. "You go and sit in the den, Ben," Raven said. "Dinner will be ready in five minutes."

He went to the den and saw that the kitchen table had been moved there, in front of the couch, and set for three people. Lisa smiled, wearing her extremely brief French maid's "uniform", and curtsied at Ben.

"Lisa, I need your help," Raven said loudly from the kitchen. Lisa went to aid her.

Ben sat down next to Krista on the couch. She was keeping one eye on his laptop in her lap and the other on the news channels she was surfing. "Hey," she said. "Had a nice fuck and nap?"

"Yeah, it was ok," he said.

"Good," she said, "you're up just in time for dinner."

Raven came and sat down at the table and urged Krista and Ben to sit at the table as well. Lisa served their food for them and Ben finally recognized the fact that Raven's boasts of culinary prowess were in no way exaggerated. 

"Aren't you going to eat," Ben asked of Lisa.

"She will," Raven said and took off her shirt, revealing her massive mammaries. She cut a piece of meat, stabbed it with her fork and dipped it into a lot of sauce. She then held the fork up until the sauce dripped down on her tits. Then she put her fork in her mouth and chewed her food, moaning at the taste. After she swallowed, she said, "Lisa, clean up my spill!" Lisa bent over and slowly licked the sauce off Raven's tit, making her moan. "Good girl! You get a treat. Open wide!" She stabbed another piece of meat with her fork, dipped it in sauce and held it up for Lisa to bite off.

Lisa's brief costume left her pussy exposed and Ben could see and smell that the humiliating treatment was arousing her. Her inner lips were peeking through her outer ones and he twice caught sight of small beads of moisture that were sliding down the insides of her thighs. He focused on his telepathic link to her mind and found himself envying the single-minded arousal her submission and humiliation were making her experience. Her arousal would make her embarrassed and the embarrassment would increase her arousal, locking her into a vicious cycle that threatened to consume her sanity.

Lisa continued to serve them, clearing away their plates and bringing new ones and they fed her small bites of food as rewards for every service they asked of her. Krista asked for a shoulder rub during the second course. Raven asked for her to hold her breasts up in lieu of a bra during the third course. The dinner consisted of seven courses, each a novel taste experience for Ben. On the fourth course, he joined in on the action, asking for Lisa to put her head in his lap for her fanned out hair to act as a napkin.

He smiled an evil smile as he felt the frustration his order gave her. She had hoped she would be ordered to blow him, but his cock was denied to her lips by his pants and boxers. He could feel her drooling with desire and swallowing her saliva repeatedly, lest she leave a wet mark on the front of her master's pants. Ben found himself admiring and envying her rich imagination. It seemed that no matter what they ordered her to do, she would find a way to make it sexually arousing for her.

When they were finished with the fourth course, he had her stand up and purse her lips. He stabbed the last piece of his beef on his fork and slowly ran it in and out of her mouth, dragging the soft meat across her lips. She closed her eyes and swayed in place. He saw in her mind that his repeated penetration of her mouth was making her go mad with the desire to suck on his cock. She imagined it was his cock being driven in and out, ever so slowly tickling her lips, and she started licking at the piece of meat, tasting the rich sauce.

"Bite it," Ben said.

Lisa bit into the meat and it came off his fork to stay in her mouth. She chewed on it slowly, feeling it yield to her teeth. In her mind, eating the piece of meat became the equivalent of sex and she lovingly formed a solid mass with her tongue before swallowing it down as if it were her master's seed. She nearly came as she swallowed it down.

"You may serve the next course," Ben said.

Lisa opened her eyes and looked at him uncomprehending for a moment. "Oh, right! Right, right!" She looked lost and confused, as if she had forgotten where she was, but then cleared the table and served the fifth course.

"What's this," Ben asked of Raven.

"Sushi," she said. "Don't worry, no exotic fish in it, just fowl."

Ben considered his roll and said, "Sushi should taste of fish. Lisa, turn your back to me and bend over to grab your ankles with your legs straight!"

Lisa looked confused for a moment and then slowly, hesitantly, did exactly what he asked. Her pussy and ass were now mere inches from the table at about the same height. Ben took his roll and slowly rubbed it across her pussy lips. He felt Lisa shudder in anticipation as her arousal mounted. Her pussy lips seemed to throb and part as he teased on. Raven and Krista watched with rapt attention. Lisa was just getting to enjoy the strange touch on her genitals when Ben pushed his roll inside of her and used it to gather up her juices. As soon as he felt her shock subside and give way to pleasure, he pulled his roll out of her pussy and bit into it.

He moaned in delight and said, "Now, that's more like it! You girls should try it, too!"

Raven and Krista took their rolls and stood by Lisa. Krista went first and smiled at Lisa's embarrasment and pleasure that she could see on her upturned face. Ben enjoyed those emotions consuming her awareness. When Krista bit into her roll and moaned in appreciation, Lisa's knees nearly buckled. They could all see her juices slowly welling up out of her engorged pussy. Raven gathered them up without penetrating the maid and bit into her roll, moaning appreciatively.

Each took another stab at tormenting Lisa by sticking the other end of their rolls inside her for juicing and Ben could feel her losing grip on reality. Her face was red from both the blushing and the blood rushing into her head. Ben had her slowly stand up straight and caught her as she lost her balance. Her limbs shook and shuddered. He held her up and pressed her close to himself. The powerful swirl of emotions in her mind was getting to him, as well.

He took two cushions of the couch and put then down on the floor. He lowered Lisa to kneel on them and bent her over. He released his hard cock and knelt behind her. Lisa's head picked up when she felt his glans teasing her pussy and she screamed in ecstasy when he hilted himself in one swift thrust. He let her pussy milk his cock as he enjoyed her orgasm. He was on the very verge of cumming himself.

Lisa's orgasm went on for more than a minute and she lost all strength in its wake. Ben started pumping her and she gasped and grunted in rhythm with his thrusts. He could feel that she was very sensitive and that his cock was making her experience pleasure and pain in equal amounts. Crazed by the teasing and the draining orgasm, she had no ability to complain to the treatment. He could feel her thoroughly enjoying her helplessness and his rough treatment.

Her renewed arousal fired Ben's lust to maddening levels. He let his basest instincts take over and he slammed into her with an increasing rhythm, making their hips slap loudly with each contact. Their mutual pleasure was coming up slowly, but steadily, and the two of them crested that final peak in lockstep, screaming out their ecstasy.

His limbs lost all strength and he collapsed on top of her. His lungs heaved for breath, but sleep was calling him. He passed out atop the ragged doll that was Lisa.

He was woken by Raven and Krista not half an hour later. "Ben," Krista said, "Lisa needs to go to the toilet. Wake up, Ben!"

He backed off Lisa and the girls helped her to the bathroom. He got up and saw a delicious looking, half-eaten cake on the table. A clean plate and dessert fork were next to it. He took the bandage off his unmarked hand and cut a big slice of cake for himself. He ate it with gusto. A little sugar rush seemed to be just what the doctor ordered as it brought quiet into his trembling muscles.

The girls were taking their time in the bathroom so he concentrated on the links to their minds. Lisa was evacuating her bowels, sitting down and bending forward on the toilet, while Krista and Raven were rubbing her back and holding her hands. They were praising her for "making boom-boom like a big girl," and Ben could feel that the humiliation of two people witnessing her taking a dump and praising her for it with the most childishly inane words was sending her deeper into a strange state of mind. He wondered if it was the fabled subspace he had heard about that submissives enjoyed. Lisa certainly enjoyed it and even he found himself appreciating the way it cleared her mind of all self doubts and worries and left her open to receive and experience everything in its purest form.

"She's definitely a tweaked one, that Lisa," he thought. Now that he had seen the effect submission and humiliation had on Lisa's mind, he was beginning to like the idea of being her master and providing her with a safe environment in which she could enjoy it as much as she wanted to.

When Lisa said she was finished, Krista and Raven bent her over even further, took some toilet paper each and wiped her bottom for her. Lisa nearly exploded in orgasm as they roughly rubbed her anus. Her legs lost all their strength all over again and the girls had to flush the toilet for her and help her stand up. Once her pleasure subsided, Ben could feel the bad feelings linger and gain strength in her mind. She was feeling humiliated and weak. He sent Krista and then Raven the order to comfort Lisa and assure her that she was brave for allowing herself to have that experience. He felt their tender words of praise disperse the clouds of doubt in Lisa's mind.

The girls helped her walk out of the bathroom. "Ben, I think she's had enough," Krista said. Lisa turned her head towards her and bent it down to kiss the hand she was using to prop her up with. Ben could feel her relief and gratitude.

"Yeah," he said, "I also think she's done for the day. As a matter of fact, I'm beat, too. Come over here, girls! Let's talk about tomorrow!"

Raven and Krista walked Lisa over to the couch and replaced the cushions for the three of them to sit on. Ben bowed low to take Lisa's hand and kiss the back of it, like a gentleman. He said, "Thank you for allowing us to play with you like that." She blushed and nodded. He winked at her and then sat at the table.

"What's tomorrow," Raven asked.

"You mean, besides the Fourth of July," Krista asked.

"Oh, right," Raven said.

"Tomorrow is the day that I go home and visit my folks," Ben said. The girls gasped at his words. "I know it seems like a last minute announcement-"

"Cause it is," Krista said.

"I was actually going to tell you all about it back on Sunday, when we were having the discussion about our arrangement," he said. "I just got interrupted by the massacre happening and then I got caught up in the mess that followed it. Anyway, I'm telling you now."

"So you're going home," Raven said.

"Yes," he said, "I will be teleporting to my home town around seven thirty in the morning so it will appear as if I've made it there by mundane means. I will meet my father at the bus station not long after that."

"You're leaving us all alone," Lisa asked.

"Not for long," he said. "I'll be back before you know it. Plus, I'm only a phonecall away at all times. You each have a phone with my number on speed dial. One push of a button and I'm here in under a minute."

"But," Krista said, "the search for the crazy cultist or cultists?"

"I trust the three of you to continue it with all due attention," he said. "I'll rejoin the hunt as soon as I spend some quality time with my folks back home."

"I don't understand," Raven said. "If you want to spend time with your folks, why wait until morning? You can be there at any moment you want. You could be there right now."

"It's complicated," he said.

"Your parents don't know that you have magic," Krista said. Ben nodded. "And you don't want them to know, either."

"That's right," he said.

"It's not uncommon for college students to spend their whole summers with their parents," Raven said. "How come you're not doing that?"

"Well," he said and paused. "It's a long story. It starts with Krista stealing my family's money from me this winter and me having to get a job to make up for the loss in time to pay next semester's tuition. My parents wanted me to come spend the summer with them but I needed to stay here and work if I was to scrounge up the cash. Just two weeks ago, I finally managed to get them to accept that we'll only spend three weekends together this summer and if I go back on that now, my mother will start asking questions.

"And none of you know what my mother is like when she starts asking questions. She is relentless. I don't want her to find out about the theft, the magic, or you girls. So, in the interest of keeping the peace on the home front, I will only be making short visits there this summer. I'll make it up after classes start. Somehow."

He could feel Lisa be touched by his tone of voice as he spoke about his home. "You miss your family," she said, "don't you?" Ben nodded. "I know what that's like."

"Anyway," Ben said, "I'll only be gone for the weekend. I'll be teleporting back here late on Sunday afternoon and I'll expect the three of you to have found me a lead by then. Understood?"

"Understood," the girls said in one voice.

"Good," he said. "I'm feeling a little tired and I've got an early start tomorrow so I'll just magic the dishes clean and turn in. You girls will sleep in the sleeping bags, here in the den tonight!"

The girls nodded yes and he cast the Prestidigitation spell to clean the dishes in the kitchen before going to bed. He set his alarm clock, whispered to Felicia to make sure he was up before seven and fell asleep in less than a minute of lying down.

Felicia woke him up at half past six in the morning and he got up and paid the bathroom a visit. He could feel the girls were still asleep so he took pains to be as quiet as possible. After he dressed, he packed a small bag with three changes of clothes and said to Felicia, "You keep an eye on the girls for me, ok?"

"You got it, Boss," the cat said.

He pulled out his eyelash in gum arabic and cast Invisibility upon himself. He imagined the bus depot in his home town and spoke the word of Greater Teleport.

He materialized there and looked around until he found a spot where no one would see him. He ended his spell of Invisibility and walked out of the terminal. He bought a pastry at the bakery and was munching on it when he saw the family car, an old, blue Ford Fiesta station wagon, pull up next to him. His father got out of the car and the two of them hugged tightly.

"Oh, Ben, my boy," his dad said, "I've missed you so much."

"I missed you, too, Dad," Ben said.

They patted each other on the back a few times before breaking their hug. His dad pushed him away at arm's length and said, "Let me look at you! You look good, Son. You look good."

Ben smiled and said, "Thanks, Dad! You look good, too."

"Come on! Your mom's waiting for you at home! This all your luggage?"

"Yeah, I'm only here for the weekend," Ben said.

"Ah! We were hoping you'd change your mind."

Ben grimaced and said, "It's not up to me."

The two of them got into the car and Ben's dad drove them home. His mom's eyes watered when she saw him and their hug lasted longer than Ben was comfortable with, but the family reunion was a pleasant affair, all in all. They talked about a million little things and Ben kept asking about their lives and local news to keep from having to lie to their faces about his job. His mom served him his favorite pie that she had baked in anticipation of his arrival and the morning just flew by.

His parents revealed that they were all invited to a barbecue at a neighbor's house that afternoon and they skipped lunch in anticipation of it. The couple that hosted the barbecue was almost a decade older than Ben's parents and were close to retirement age, but that didn't stop them from being very cheerful. Aside from Ben's family, they also invited a few other couples, none of whom were more than acquaintances to Ben's parents.

The conversation was pleasant, the music old and the food great as they spent the day there. After dark fell, drinks flowed more liberally, though Ben was not served anything with alcohol in it, and they all enjoyed a great view of the town's fireworks from the back yard. Ben and his parents offered to help with the cleanup but were shooed away with the other guests when it was time to leave. They walked back home, played a board game together, watched some TV and went to bed. 

Ben got in bed and took a long look at his childhood room. It had been his home for almost all his life, yet now those happy, childhood days seemed like distant memories to him. He closed his eyes and let himself enjoy the illusion that he was still a child in his parental home and that there were no crazy magicians running around, planning to slaughter people. 

A faint noise outside his window caught his attention. He opened his eyes and looked out at the night sky. The stars were twinkling and the big oak tree behind the house was suddenly illuminated from behind as another rocket was launched to ignite in the sky. The multicolored explosion outlined the tree house his father and he had built. 

Just the sight of his childhood fortress made him smile, even though the lights behind it clearly shined through it in too many places. That shoddy, wooden box had been the bridge of his space ship, the throne room of his castle, the captain's cabin of his pirate ship and the secret gambling club where no one was allowed without the right password. He had enjoyed many adventures in it, though most had been solo endeavours. He sighed as he reminisced about some of them. He fell asleep to dream of being a knight that rescued princesses.

He woke up in his bed and the sight of the dilapidated treehouse outside his window made him smile. Felicia was way out of range for him to feel, but the rest of the minds linked to his made themselves known. Susan was at home, having a fight with her husband. He was angry that she had lost her job and she was even angrier that he hadn't alien-proofed their home per her requests. Ben felt a little bad for her current situation. It was his doing, after all.

Krista, Lisa and Raven were all in their rental car, feeling annoyed that they were driving down Cedar Lane instead of Cedar Avenue. Their annoyance was greatly enhanced by the incessantly chattering young man that they had picked up because he had told them he knew the way to Ben's house on Cedar Avenue.




Outsiders Pt. 04



Ben shot up in his bed and inhaled his own spit, making himself choke and cough. The girls were in his home town, driving around, looking for his house. He struggled to catch his breath and contain his panic. A million scenarios ran through his mind, each more grim than the last. He paced his bedroom nervously, still unsure if he was awake or having a really bad dream, until he focused on his links with the three girls.

Just as he finished waking up and engaging all his mental faculties, he realized, listening to the man's incessant speech through the link, that the girls must have picked up none other than Buddy Pierson. He sent Raven the order to not say another word to the man. He then sent that order to Lisa and Krista, too.

He sent Krista the order to pull over and get Buddy to leave the car. She did and Ben spied on her futile attempts to get the man to leave the car. He sent the order to get Buddy out of their car to Raven and then Lisa. Even after they opened the door and started pushing him out, Buddy wouldn't take a hint and kept commenting on their actions.

Krista finally pulled a candy bar out of her purse and gave it to Lisa who was standing by the car and trying to pull Buddy out. When Lisa held the candy bar in her hand, away from the car, and offered it to Buddy, he finally got out of the car to take it. Lisa let him take it while she slammed the door shut behind him. Raven locked it and Lisa ran around the car to get in the front seat.

The girls drove away and Ben saw through Krista's eyes in the rearview mirror that Buddy got on the sidewalk and walked after them, talking and unwrapping his candy bar at the same time.

Ben sent Raven the order to tell him exactly who the man in the car had been. He heard her say, "Buddy Pierson," through all their ears and winced. He had earnestly hoped it had been someone, anyone else. He sent Raven the order to say out loud everything the three of them had told Buddy. He listened to her say that they told him their names and that they were his friends who were looking for his house to come and pay him a visit. After that, Buddy took over the talking and they only managed to say that they all lived in the same city where Ben was attending college.

Ben sighed in relief. Anything anyone told Buddy and everything he overheard was quickly repeated by him in front of everyone he came across for the next few days. If the girls had told him that any one of them had so much as hugged him, his mother would learn of it before the weekend was over.

He sent Raven the order to say aloud what the three of them were doing there. He overheard her say that they were on their way to his house to surprise him, meet his parents and see where he grew up. He huffed in frustration. The last thing he needed was for his three slave girls to show up on his parents' doorstep.

He wanted to send them the order to turn around and go back, but realized that he couldn't. They had already told Buddy that they were here to visit him. He had no doubt that his mom was going to hear about that, most likely before the day was over. If the girls didn't show up, she'd call the sheriff's department to look for them. If she didn't get to meet them, she'd pester him about hiding them from her until the day he died.

He growled low and clenched his fists. The girls turned onto Cedar Avenue and he sent Raven the order to say, "Ben said to tell you that all three of us are in great, big trouble. We will all be punished for this." He felt the girls dismiss those words and punched a fist against his palm in anger. Lisa spotted his house number and pointed it out to Krista, who drove up to his house and parked right in front of it.

Ben put on a T-shirt and sweatpants and rushed out of his room to intercept them at the front door.

"Where's the fire," his dad said when he whizzed by him in the hallway.

"Nowhere," Ben said. "Where's Mom?"

"Went out earlier to buy you those rolls from Weston's that you like so much. She's gonna be here at any moment with them. Fresh from the oven. Mm-hm-mm!"

Ben turned towards the front door and his hopes were dashed when he felt that the girls were intercepted by a woman carrying big, paper bags right in front of his house. He swallowed against the dryness in his throat and walked down the stairs like a convict on death row. He winced when he felt the girls realize that him mom was unimpressed by their cover story. She had identified their car as a rental from the airport where her friend worked in the TSA and asked them why they would fly there, rent a car and then drive here for more than two hours if their destination was someplace else. She asked them why they wouldn't simply fly to their destination in the first place.

He felt the girls flounder as they tried to come up with a way to uphold his order to pretend they were just passing through. He sent Krista the order to disregard that order and tell his mom a story that would deflect all of her suspicions. While he was sending first Raven and then Lisa the order to go along with Krista's new story, he overheard her spin a yarn to his mother about how they came here on purpose to get his help on a very important work project. She then started to appologize profusely for intruding on their family time and he was floored when he felt them hear his mom say that she was ok with it. 

"I'll brew some tea, Son," his dad said, startling him as he passed behing him on his way to the kitchen.

"Yeah," Ben mumbled, "thanks, Dad."

He heard his mother invite the girls in with his own ears and sudenly felt like he was five years old again, caught climbing on top of the kitchen cabinets to get to the cookie jar. His mom unlocked the door and stepped inside. "Speak of the devil," she said. "We were just talking about you!"

"Who's we, Mom," Ben said, feigning ignorance.

"Oh, I believe you know these young ladies, Ben," she said and threw the door wide open to invite his girls in. 

"Hello, Lisa, Raven, Krista," he said while glaring daggers at each girl in turn.

"Who's Raven," his mom asked.

"What," Ben asked.

"I am, Mrs. Kidder," Raven said. "Raven is just a nickname the folks at work gave me."

"Oh, I see," Ben's mom said. She sounded unconvinced as she gave Raven's golden hair and creamy skin a critical eye. "Please, come on in! Don't be shy!" She waved them in. "Ben will get you settled in, won't you dear? How long will you be staying here?"

"Just today and tomorrow," Krista said, before Ben could answer the question. He pressed his lips together and promised himself to make her suffer for the insolence.

Ben's mother bade the girls to sit down and relax and started asking them questions. 

He observed her interrogation procedure through his link with Krista's mind and it told him a lot. He felt Krista recognize and admire patterns in his mom's questioning. She would alternate between asking individual girls a question and posing a question to them all to avoid any one of them feeling singled out or probed. The nature of her questions varied, as well. One question would be a polite inquiry as to what she could offer them, befitting an attentive hostess relaxing her guests, then she'd bring them their beverage, ask a personal question to throw them off balance, and follow it up with a seemingly innocuous question about Ben's habits, inspiring the girls to gladly give up the info.

When he felt Krista's certainty that his mom's circumspect questions were intended to paint a clear picture of his behavior in the big city and anything he might be hiding, he sent Krista the order to intervene and put an end to the interrogation.

"Thank you so much for your hospitality, Mrs. Kidder," she said, consulting her wristwatch, "but I'm afraid that we must steal Ben away from you at this time for a consultation. We must submit a rough project draft before noon."

"Oh, alright," his mom said. "I wouldn't want to keep you from anything important." The girls got up to follow Ben. "Where are you all going?"

"To my room," Ben said. "To work on the project."

"The four of you squeezing into that tiny room upstairs," his mom asked. "Nonsense! You'll stay right here and use the table for your work! I'll be in the kitchen and Ben's dad won't trouble you at all. Now, you just sit down and I'll get you some more refreshments!"

Reluctantly, Ben sat back down and the girls followed his lead. "Now what," Krista whispered.

Ben shrugged and whispered, "I have no idea. I guess we pretend to do some work." He snapped his fingers and made a face as if he had had a sudden brainwave. "Or you could tell me how the search for the cultists is going. You know, since it's the thing I told you to be doing in my absence."

They all sat up straight and smiled as his mom brought a tray with glasses and a pitcher of orange juice. Ben sent each girl in turn the order to whip out a prop to make it look like they were doing some work. Krista pulled out his laptop and turned it on. Lisa produced his sketch pad and a pencil. Raven looked to be on the verge of panic. She began rummaging through her bag, looking for anything that might help her. Ben rolled his eyes and sent her the order to join him in looking over Krista's shoulder.

As soon as his mom went back into the kitchen, he whispered to Krista, "What did you tell my mom to make her ok with you taking up our precious time together?"

"I just played on her maternal pride," she whispered. "Mothers will buy any BS, so long as it makes them feel like their sons are important and needed. Trust me, the cash I've conned out of dozens of women whose sons had been shipped off to the Middle East would make a..." She trailed off when she noticed the angry look in Ben's eyes.

"We'll talk about those poor women later," he whispered. "First, I want to know where do the three of you get off barging in here, intruding on my family time and risking my mom finding out that her little boy is keeping sex slaves."

"We didn't mean to intrude," Raven whispered. "We just wanted to find out more about you."

"And how did you get here," he whispered.

Raven and Lisa shot Krista a look. She shrugged and smiled, self-consciously. Ben closed his eyes in frustration and whispered, "How much did the redeye tickets and rent-a-car set me back?" He growled at the price and said, "I'm teleporting you back."

"Did you say something, dear," his mom said from the kitchen door.

"Nothing, Mom," he said.

"I'm very sorry, Mrs. Kidder," Krista said, "but the matters we're discussing are business secrets and if any of this got out, we'd all be fired, including Ben. We should really retire to a more private setting. You mentioned you had a room," she asked Ben.

Ben gestured upstairs, but his mom beat him to the punch saying, "I'm afraid that I can't allow three strange women cloistering themselves up in my son's bedroom with him. I'm sure you can understand that. I must ask you to remain here to do your work and refrain from implying in the future that I, or Ben's father, might be engaging in corporate espionage to our own son's detriment, thank you very much!"

She glared at them with teary eyes for almost a full, uncomfortable minute more. When it became painfully clear that no one was going to contradict her demand, she turned around and went back into the kitchen.

"So, she can be quite determined," Lisa said.

"Why is she so dead set against us being alone with you," Raven asked. "Does she think we'll hold an orgy upstairs?"

"Look," Ben heatedly whispered. The doorbell rang before he could continue his sentence. There was continuous knocking on the door and the bell kept on ringing. Ben grimaced. Buddy must have ran all the way over. 

Ben's mom came out of the kitchen with a despondent look on her face. "Buddy followed the girls here," Ben said.

"Oh, dear," his mom said and wilted. "Well, there's nothing for it, then. I'll call his mother and keep him here until she comes for him. You'll just have to take your colleagues someplace else where you can do your work project. Do you have your phone with you?" Ben nodded. "I'll call you when the coast is clear." Ben and the girls started packing. "Get dressed, Ben! You can't go out in public like that!"

"It'll be fine, Mom," he said. "I'm not going to the opera."

"Where will you be," his mother asked.

"In the park," Ben said.

"You most certainly will not," his mother sternly said, making him stop dead in his tracks. "You will take these young ladies to the diner and work on your project there." She gave the girls a determined look. "No one will spy on you." She shooed them away with a wave of her hand as Ben's dad was heard talking to Buddy outside the front door. "Go now!"

Ben nodded and led the girls out the back door. They followed him as he jogged away from the house and through the back yards of the fenceless neighborhood. He led them to a long plank, laid down over a creek, and ordered each one to follow him across, one at a time. After feeling their disgust with the creek's water and the idea of falling into it, he pulled out of his links to their minds. Once on the other bank, they walked through an empty soccer field.

"What's going on," Krista finally asked.

"We are going to the diner to sit there and wait for my mom to call us back home," he said.

"Yes, I gathered that much already," Krista said, "but why?"

"Because Buddy Pierson is," Ben said and paused, searching for the right words.

"Crazy," Raven offered.

"Different," Ben corrected her. "And annoying. He has a very low IQ and absolutely no filter between his head and his big mouth. Everything that he sees, hears, or thinks, he speaks out loud."

"Yeah, we noticed," Krista said.

"It's not his fault," Ben said. "He was born that way."

"But why are we running away," Lisa asked. "Isn't his mother coming to get him?"

"Whenever Buddy sees someone new, he fixates on them," Ben said. "We'd never be able to get him to stop following you around. So long as he has a clue where you are, he will keep finding you until he tells you his entire life story and then some. As for his mother... The poor woman is exhausted from taking care of him. She will drag her feet coming to get him. That is, if she doesn't blow my mom off completely and go run errands, or something." They crossed the field and walked down the street. "The diner is this way. Just a block away."

"Why do you hate him," Krista asked.

"I don't hate him," Ben said. When Krista kept looking at him expectantly, he drew a big breath and slowly let it out. "There was a girl in my class that got pregnant and had an abortion in her senior year. No one knew about it, of course. She was eighteen and took care of things on her own. One day, she confided to her friend, who was Buddy's cousin. Somehow, Buddy overheard this and the entire town knew in less than a day."

"She was ostracized and shamed by the whole town, wasn't she," Lisa said.

Ben nodded and quietly said, "But not for long."

"What happened," Raven asked. She smiled and gave him a shoulder bump. "Did you stand up for her and make the whole town back down?"

"No," Ben said. "She had herself a nice, little suicide the day after her parents threw her out." The girls gave small gasps at hearing that. "Anyway, it wasn't Buddy's fault. He was the only one blameless in the whole mess." Ben opened the diner's door for the girls to file in. "Cause he was born the way he is."

The girls went into the diner, which was decorated in the style of the fifties, and picked a booth by the front window. Ben walked to a corner booth in the back, behind the counter. He sent each girl the order to follow him and they did.

When they sat down, Raven said, "Aw, but I wanted to look out at your town."

"Well, tough," Ben said. The waitress, a fresh-looking teen that couldn't be out of high school yet, slowly walked over to their booth. She stood there and loudly smacked her lips as she slowly chewed her gum. Ben and the girls gave her their orders and she turned around without even verbally acknowledging them once.

"Someone's not gonna get a tip," Krista said.

"So, how's about we get back to the heart of this matter," Ben said. "What are you doing here and why aren't you looking for the next cultist attack?"

"How would we even know if it was a cultist attack," Raven asked.

"Yeah," Krista said. "I mean, it's not like we've got anything to go on, really. Either Lisa spots strange, shadowy symbols somewhere on the news, or we're completely in the dark about things. Seriously, Ben, we have no way of telling whether it's cultists, someone who has gone postal, or even if terrorists are involved. We were just wasting our time watching the news. And, frankly, that shit is so fucking depressing that we could do with some therapy, right about now."

"Oh," Ben said, with an exaggerated nod of his head. "I get it now! You girls wanted to be the kinds of slaves that only play at being slave girls when it suited them and blew off all of the master's orders that they didn't like. I'm glad we cleared that up now."

"That's not what's going on here," Krista said.

"Really," Ben asked. "Then what is? I mean, you practically begged me to keep you as slaves and the first time I give you orders, you blow them off."

"We have no way of fulfilling your orders," Krista said.

"Well you certainly don't if you quit trying the moment I take my eye off you," he said.

They stopped talking while the waitress brought them their drinks. She transferred them from her tray to the middle of the table and left. Ben and the girls took their drinks and sipped them until she was out of earshot.

"Look, Ben," Krista said, "we want to help you with this quest of yours, but we have to acknowledge the fact that you don't actually have a quest. You don't have a single clue as to who is behind the attack on the base or if, when and where they would strike next. You don't even know what their motives are. We're stumbling around in the dark, here."

The waitress screamed out an ecstatic, "Ritchie," and ran into the arms of the gargantuan, young man that just entered the diner.

They all looked that way for a moment and Ben said, "Oh, no," in exasperated annoyance. He slid down in his seat and held his hand to his face to hide it from the front of the diner.

"What," Raven asked. "What is it?"

"That's Ritchie Falco," Ben said. "He's a local tough guy and petty criminal."

"So what," Krista said. "If you don't slump down like that in your seat, he won't notice you. Sit up straight!"

"No, you don't understand," Ben said. "He's the last guy I ever fought with and I'm the last guy to ever have the courage to fight him. He's had a hard-on for picking on me ever since that day."

"You fought that," Lisa asked, with utter disbelief. Ritchie at the front of the diner picked up the waitress and effortlessly spun her around with such speed that she was level with the floor as she squealed and hung on to him for dear life.

"We were about the same size back in the seventh grade," Ben said. "And he still wound up beating the living crud out of me."

"Why," Lisa asked.

Ben's eyebrows rose and he said, "Well, mainly 'cause he's utterly relentless once the actual fighting starts and I wasn't really all that good at throwing a punch and-"

"No," Lisa said, interrupting him, "I meant why did you fight him?"

Ben shrugged. "We had a school dance and he was very rudely forcing himself on this girl that looked like she would rather kiss a Wookie."

"Was the girl grateful to you afterwards," Raven asked. "Did she tend to your wounds? Kiss them better?"

"No," Ben said. "She spat in my hair and called me a freak right in front of everyone else."

The girls looked at him in disbelief. "You tell us where she is," Krista said, "and we'll casually pass by her home, or work, hanging on your arms like the tastiest of eye candy and show her what a huge mistake she made that day!"




Outsiders Pt. 05



Ben Kidder sat on his bed, swarmed by a host of questions that arose in his mind after advancing from level nineteen to level twenty. The biggest was how it could have happened at all. He could feel two extra slots for ninth level spells and room for a forty third spell inside himself so he knew it was just as real as him being a sorcerer in the first place.

He got up and waded through the piles of boxes until he got to his bedroom desk. He moved some boxes around and opened the desk drawer. He pulled out his rulebooks and sat back down on the bed to consult them. 

He remembered that his character in the game campaign had lacked just six hundred experience points to reach level twenty and he guessed that destroying the robots and unintentionally frying the climbing psychos must have provided him with the experience points he lacked. He found the idea of gaining experience points and leveling up in real life to be very freaky, or he would have, if his freakiness gauge hadn't already been broken when he became a real life sorcerer.

Reaching level twenty one would require a further twenty thousand experience points, which was a tall order considering that as a twentieth level character he would get five hundred experience points for defeating characters that were at least level thirteen themselves. Characters of lover levels could net him some measly ad-hoc points, just like finishing quests could, but awarding those would be up to the Game Master's discretion. Ben wondered how those awards would be adjudicated in real life. He imagined an archangel sitting on a fluffy cloud and consulting D&D rulebooks. He laughed out loud. 

"I can't start thinking of real people as game characters," he admonished himself after he stopped laughing. "That way leads to insanity."

As he read on, he learned that gaining more levels brought no new spells and no additional spell slots. Level twenty one would give him a new feat and so would every third level he attained after that. His choice of feats would be augmented by two epic feats; the Familiar Spell feat that would enable Felicia to cast one spell a day, or the Spell Knowledge feat that would grant him two new spells of his choosing. He smiled.

"So, there is a way to learn new spells, after all," he thought.

As he read on, he learned that the Familiar Spell feat required his charisma to be 25 for Felicia to cast spells, thus making it impossible. If he ever advanced to level twenty one, his best choice would be the Spell Knowledge feat. He returned his efforts to figuring out what level twenty brought.

Becoming level twenty wasn't that big a change after all, he realized. It brought him one point to an ability of his choosing, increased his will save by one, increased his secondary attack bonus by one, gave him some more skill points to keep his skills maxed and that was pretty much that for the non-magical parts of his character sheet.

The real changes were the ones to his spell list. Aside from the two additional ninth level spell slots, he could choose his newest ninth level spell and, since this was an even numbered level he had advanced to, he could replace one spell he had in his repertoire with another spell of the same level. More than half his spells had their effects subtly increased from now on. Some would last longer, some would affect more targets, cause more damage and so on. To his regret, Greater Teleport still brought only six additional passengers.

Ben chose to put his point of ability score to dexterity, bringing it up to sixteen, which would increase both his bonus to hit with a ranged weapon and his armor class by one, making him more likely to shoot straight and less likely to get hit, all at the same time.

He wondered if he could research new spells and add them to his repertoire. Picking a spell from the Handbook required just a thought; he didn't know what creating a new one from scratch would require. The section of the Dungeon Master's Guide on creating new spells was quite tight-lipped on the subject. It clearly allowed for new spells to be created, given enough research, materials and time, but it only warned against those spells being too powerful for their assigned level and offered ways to make the spells too costly to be used all the time. Since, to the best of his knowledge, there weren't any magical libraries in the real world, his only chance of researching magical spells was to meditate on the ones he already knew. He felt that those spells were too few and too similar to one another to give him any proper insight into creating spells he'd like to be able to cast.

As titillated as he was by the possibilities that creating custom spells presented, he decided to shelve them, for the time being. He had more pressing matters to attend to, so he decided to choose a new spell from the handbook.

The choice of spells was easy. He replaced Cone of Cold with Fabricate, a spell which allowed him to transform 200 cubic feet of some raw material into a finished product made exclusively from that material. The volume of material dropped by a factor of ten if he worked with raw minerals, and he couldn't make things made from more than one material, but even so, his chances of getting stinking rich by repeatedly casting this spell were pretty much exactly 100%.

His new ninth level spell was Shapechange, which was the most powerful spell in the whole book, as far as he was concerned. With this spell he could assume the form and abilities of every kind of creature he was familiar with, including all the magical ones from the Monster Manual. By transforming into a dragon, he would gain the ability to cast all the arcane and clerical spells from the Handbook and that would doubtlessly allow him to craft new spells to his liking and learn them, if he ever gained another level and took the Spell Knowledge feat.

He couldn't use the Shapechange spell to imitate other people, but that was pretty much the only limitation the spell had. That, and him needing a jade circlet worth 1500 gold pieces as a material focus to cast it with. He was going to cast Fabricate to make the circlet after acquiring the necessary amount of jade.

The spell lasted for 200 minutes after casting and he could change form every six seconds. If he felt like it, he could turn himself into a flea and then a giraffe and back again repeatedly, just for the sake of looking at something from two wildly different perspectives.

The two spells turned his frown upside down and lifted his spirits all the way to low earth orbit. The mere thought of using them made him as giddy as a little boy in a candy shop.

He felt Lisa complete the spell drawing in the den, so he set aside his rulebooks and went there to read it. He cast Read Magic and glanced at the mineral prism he pulled out of his belt. He picked up the drawing and silenced the chatting girls with a raised hand so he could study the spell in peace.

It was similar to the one that had been cast at the army base but, unlike that one, this one was still running, still gathering energy for its caster and he needed to know why. He was particularly concerned with the fact that he had dispelled the spell at the army base with a regular Dispel Magic spell, but even a maximized Greater Dispel Magic spell failed to undo this one. The spell had constructed another piece of a larger whole and Ben compared its most relevant parts to the first one.

He held both drawings next to one another, comparing and contrasting them. As he started with the central symbols, his Spellcraft and Knowledge Arcana skills made him realize that those two also spoke of how the spells in sequence related to one another. Ben then mentally rotated and overlaid the spells according to the central symbols. His blood ran cold as the pieces started fitting right before his mind's eye.

"Holy crud," he whispered.

"What's the matter, Ben," Lisa said with a concerned tone.

"I know what they're making," he said.

"Well, what is it," Raven asked. The other two girls were eagerly waiting, as well.

"It's a portal," he said. "They're trying to summon The Outsiders to this dimension!" 

The girls gasped in shock. "Can we stop them," Lisa asked.

"In theory, yes," he said.

"And in practice," Krista asked.

"In practice," Ben said and faltered. He found the scale of the portal's construction staggering. "In practice, not so much."

The girls exchanged worried looks. "Why not," Krista asked

"This portal has been assembled with more than five hundred spells like these two," Ben said. "This here, what I'm holding? These are among the last pieces of the portal's functioning frame to be assembled. If I'm reading this correctly, and the central symbols say that I am, then there are only two more spells to be cast and that's that. The portal's completed."

"Fuck me," a shocked Raven whispered.

"Two more freaking spells and that's it," Krista yelled. "Two more spells and it's game over!? These Outsiders, these death-worshipping, unknowable beings of power come here, to Earth!?"

"No," Ben said as he realized he was missing something. "No, wait! In two more spells, the portal is completed, but it will still need to be activated. Turned on, so to speak."

"And what does that entail," Krista asked.

"Well, I'm not too sure," Ben mumbled as he rotated the spells in both his hands and his mind's eye. He was trying to extrapolate what they would look like with two more spells placed over them. After a few moments of concentration, he got a clear mental picture of how power would flow through the finished portal. "Well, in order to start up the portal, they'd need to demonstrate power over human life at a time when the natural flow of power to our realm is disrupted."

"The fuck does that mean," Raven said.

Ben shook his head in dismay and said, "I don't know."

The girls began to debate his words while he stared at the spell drawings, trying to decipher what they meant. Felicia jumped up on his desk and said, "Boss, if I may?" He glanced at her and nodded. "Demonstrating power over human life is magic speak for human sacrifice, our realm is Earth and the natural flow of power to it is sunlight, so what you said means that-"

"They need to sacrifice an innocent person during a full eclipse over hard ground," Ben finished her sentence for her in an astonished tone as he realized she was right. The girls stared silently at him, for a few seconds, and then accepted his conclusion as true.

"When's the next full eclipse over land," Krista asked, voicing everyone's thoughts.

A brief scuffle ensued as all four of them reached for the laptop. Felicia jumped off the desk to get out of their way. "Stop," Ben yelled. "My computer, my quest, my house, my web search!"

The girls backed off to sit on the couch while he sat at his desk and went online. "Ok," he said, "according to Wikipedia, the next full eclipse visible from land is next year, March the twentieth, and it only hits the ground in the Faroe Islands and Svalbard.

"Where are those," Raven asked.

"North of Europe," Ben said. "At each location, the eclipse will only last a little over two minutes."

"How big are those islands," Krista asked.

"Too big," Ben said. These cultists would need just a few minutes to draw their spell, giving him only that much time to find them and stop them. As soon as the sacrifice's blood landed on the drawing, it would be game over for Earth.

"Are the last two spells going to be cast there," Lisa asked.

"I don't know," Ben said, "but I sincerely doubt it. It makes more sense to do those two spells anywhere else in the world and not there. Why draw attention to the one place where you gotta be before you have to be there? I'm certain that whoever is behind all this mess will be there, come March, waiting for the Moon to obscure the Sun before killing someone and activating the portal. And they'll orchestrate two more massacres before then."

"Giving us two more chances to stop them before the big showdown," Krista said.

Ben's eyebrows rose up in response. "Look who's completely on board all of a sudden," he said. "Didn't you quit and lead a walk-out the other day?"

"That was before I knew the world was about to end," she said, "along with everyone in it." She looked at Ben questioningly. "Right? I mean, that's what happens if this portal gets opened and these Outsiders come through? End of the world?"

"Pretty much," Ben said. He sent Raven the order to tell him everything she knew about what would happen once The Outsiders came to Earth.

"I don't know anything about that," she said. "Simon had agreed to summon an avatar of the Outsiders to Earth in exchange for his magic, the magic that you now have, and he told me that The Avatar would end all wars and strife on Earth. We would also be elevated to positions of power."

Krista snorted and said, "Yeah, can't wage war if we're all dead."

"There will be no reasoning with these cultists," Ben said, disappointed. "They're probably dead certain that they'll be made rulers of the Earth if they succeed."

"No, no, no, no," Krista said, wagging a reproachful finger at Ben. "Get all ideas of talking sense into them out of your head, Ben! These people have spilled so much blood already that it's just impossible for them to stop. Whatever conscience they have, it's been silenced by the screams of the dying long ago. Playing to their humanity won't net us anything."

A pall fell over the room at her chilling words.

"So, we're all in agreement, then," Lisa said. "This portal must never be completed and the cultists must be caught and dealt with most severely!"

Everyone solemnly nodded. 

"Yeah, but we're hardly equipped to deal with them on our own," Krista said. "I mean, we've got one girl that can see active Outsider spells and one sorcerer. We can't tell anyone about this, can't call on anyone for help and we're not exactly rich in resources at our disposal."

"Well," Ben said and cracked a grin, "that's about to change!"

"What do you mean," Krista asked.

Ben was about to tell them what his new spells did, when the runoff valve of the spell caught his eye. It was ever so slightly different than the one the previous spell had. He read the two, side by side, and barely stopped himself from swearing out loud. 

"Oh, dear," he finally said. "I think I know why the spell is still running."

"Why," Lisa asked.

"It's left on to take the life force of anyone the escaped lunatics kill and reroute it to the caster," he said.

"But, you stopped them all," Lisa said. "Only one got out and you caught him! You tossed him back inside!"

"What if there were more," Ben asked. "Quick! Turn on the TV! This has to be on the news by now."

Simon was sitting in a café, drinking coffee, and barely suppressing his scorn for the meaningless insects sitting around and blowing empty air out of their mouths. "If they had an inkling of how insignificant they all are," he thought, "they'd all march off a cliff like a bunch of lemmings."

He supposed that there was a benefit to their delusions of importance and meaning. Those kept them alive and well for the day of reaping, which was soon to come. 

"Oh, my God," a girl at the next table exclaimed to her friends as she looked up from her computer screen. "Plainview is somewhere nearby, right?"

"The mental hospital," one of her friends asked. "Sure. It's seven miles away, deep in the woods. We used to go there as kids and-"

"They've had a breakout," the woman exclaimed, interrupting him. Many others in the café also turned their heads her way for a moment, before sticking their faces into their own computer screens and typing the same words into the same search engine.

Simon couldn't help but grin. His consecrated warriors were loose in the countryside. Their murderous impulses were maximized by his spell and each innocent life they took was going to add to his power. More than that, the panic their rampage was going to cause will degrade humans' belief in their society, just as the robotic rampage at the base made them give up on the use of robots in war zones. By the time of the eclipse, he was going to both complete the portal and crumble the barrier further. "The title of Prime is mine," he thought to himself.

"No, no, it's ok," a man loudly said. "They caught them all! It's all over the news. They were stopped before they could get away."

Simon's grin froze into a grimace of disbelief. "How could that have happened," he asked himself. "I gave those stupid idiots every advantage possible! I gave them all they needed to get away! What a bunch of fuckheaded, shit-for-brains, backwards, fuckwad idiots!"

The big screen plasma TV in the coffee shop was switched to a local news channel and the volume was turned up significantly. The local police chief and a representative of the FBI were answering questions at a press conference and they assured the public that no one escaped from the criminally insane ward, despite the heavy loss of life in the facility itself.

Simon stood up and left in an angry huff. He couldn't believe his luck. He had thought that he had staked his power on the worst of the worst, and it turned out that he had squandered it all on the dumbest of the dumb, instead. Their inability to simply exit an undefended gate was so infuriating that he would have burned the whole town down to the ground, if only he had the power for it. He had poured all that he had into casting the spell that consecrated them and used the deaths of the staff and non-violent patients to construct the element of Fire.

Just as he was about to end the useless spell, he was unexpectedly hit by a surge of power. He smiled in relief. At least one of his consecrated warriors had escaped law enforcement notice and had just finished killing someone, sending him their life force. He decided to leave the spell running. He needed all the power he could get and there was no harm in leaving it spinning at the base of the tower. It wasn't like anyone could see it.

He went to the car he had appropriated when he had killed the former owner and got in. He was going to need to gather up a lot of power for the next spell in the sequence and that meant killing a lot of people on his own. His safest bet was to drive to a major city and kill hookers. Human society paid no sympathy or attention to murdered hookers. There would probably be no investigations. He started the engine and drove towards the interstate. 

The girls and Ben were relieved when the news said that no one had escaped from the institution. There would be no more death. His spell of Greater Dispel Magic was stronger, now that he was a level higher, and he decided to go back to the institution and see if it could get the job done this time.

"I'm going back there to try and end this spell once again," he said. "You're coming with me, Lisa!"

Lisa stood up and waited for him to cast Invisibility on them and then teleport them to the gate. She confirmed that the spell was still in place and Ben cast a maximized Greater Dispel Magic against it. Just as before, it made absolutely no difference. He teleported them back to his den and ended their invisibilities.

"Well," Krista asked.

"No joy," Ben sadly said. "The frakking thing is still spinning."

"Is there nothing you can do," Raven asked.

Ben shook his head and sat down at his desk. He took another look at the spell drawing, but knew he would find nothing new in it.

"Maybe whoever cast it died in the asylum," Raven offered.

"Nah," Ben said and indicated a line of symbols on the spell drawing. "Without a recipient, this component of the siphon part of the spell wouldn't be active anymore. It's still spinning, so the caster is alive and well."

An uncomfortable silence ensued as he reread the spells. Krista interrupted it by saying, "You said, before, that our resources are going to change. How so?"




Outsiders Pt. 05



"Ah, yes," Ben said. "I've mastered two new spells, perhaps the last two I'll ever learn, and one of them lets me transform raw materials into finished products. I'm guessing that will make me rich, but I don't know exactly what I should make with it."

He explained the power and limitations of the Fabricate spell to the girls and they spitballed a bunch of ideas, most of which Ben shot down on the basis of the final products being made from more than one material.

"It's got to be something like... titanium aircraft parts," Ben told the girls. "Those are milled from solid blocks of titanium in an expensive process after which the leftover titanium dust is recycled in a complicated and expensive process that radically increases the price of titanium parts for airplanes."

"Well, why don't you just make those," Raven asked.

Ben shot her a look. "Two reasons. The first is that, as I've just said, titanium costs. A lot. The second reason is that I can't just drive over to Boeing and offer to sell them spare parts on the cheap. There are rules and federal regulations in place for these things. No self-respecting aircraft manufacturer is going to even think about buying anything without first vetting me, inspecting my manufacturing plant and quality assurance process, checking out my official registrations... You know, the things I don't have and can't get."

Krista looked thoughtful and opened her mouth to say something, but Ben pointed a finger at her and said, "Don't even! I don't wanna hear it!"

She spread her hands and said, "You don't even know what I was going to say."

"You were going to suggest a way to fake all that I need to be able to get in bed with airplane manufacturers," he said, "and I'm not interested."

"Spoilsport," she muttered into her chin as she wilted in her seat.

Conversation died out at that point and the four of them sat in the den saying nothing. Ben gave his girls a good look. Krista was looking out the window and up at the sky. Lisa was surfing news channels and Raven was sitting and idly twirling a lock of her hair as she stared at the wall.

He focused on his links to their minds. He could feel how the sight of all that open, blue sky was making Krista aware of how boring and uneventful her life under Ben's heel had become. He could feel her desire to run free and see something new. She was sick and tired of being stuck in his shitty, little house.

Surfing the channels was making Lisa agitated. She was hoping to come across another spell drawn somewhere and give them another chance to catch the cultists and, at the same time, she was dreading the thought of coming across it. He thought that he could plainly see on her face that there was much more brewing behind her eyes, but the constant flipping of channels didn't resonate with those emotions and thus didn't give him insight into them.

Raven was eyeing the peeling paint in the corner and the sight of it was making her feel nauseous. She wanted better. She felt that she deserved better. The close quarters were making her reconsider how okay she was with sharing Ben with two other girls.

Ben rubbed his temples and sighed. He hadn't really used his telepathic link to their minds since the incident in his home town and it hadn't been just because he wanted to preserve their mental privacy. The real reason had been taking them for granted ever since Lisa saw the spell drawing at the base massacre. He was so focused on this terrible conspiracy that he let the girls fade from his mind. 

He wasn't feeling at all sure that he would be able to defeat whoever was behind this apocalyptic plot. In eight months and two weeks, the world might literally end and he suddenly realized he didn't want to spend the last of his days on Earth sitting in a dingy house with three frustrated girls. He wanted them all to live life to the fullest, whether they survived March the twentieth, or not. He softly grunted to himself.

"You say something," Raven asked him.

Ben cleared his throat and said, "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for, uh, ignoring you since the whole thing at the army base." The girls looked at him. "I feel like a jackass. You girls deserve better than this." He gestured at the sad state of the walls around them. "I'll see to it that you get it." He shut his laptop and stood up.

"Where are you going," Raven asked.

"To make money," he said and left.

The girls followed him to the front door and watched him drive off in his car. "He could have left the car," Krista said. Lisa shot her a look. "What? The man can teleport! Why does he get the car?" Lisa shook her head and went back inside to continue her TV vigil. "What?" Krista followed her in.

Raven took another look around and saw some young men ogling her from the front stoop of a house up the street. She shuddered in disgust and went back inside, shutting and locking the door behind herself.

Ben drove into town, to go sit in a coffee shop and use their free wifi to research a way to use the Fabricate spell to make money. He turned on the radio to pass the time. "Brown Sugar" came on.

Ben sang along with Ryan Adams. "Gold Coast slave ship, bound for cotton fields. Sold in the market down in New Orleans." He gasped as he finally figured it out. Clothes were the answer. No one bothered with any checks when it came to fabrics. All that mattered was price and quality and he could deliver on both. He smiled and sang along with the radio when Beth Orton joined in.

"Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good? Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should!"

He drove to a café and quickly found everything he wanted online. He hired an empty warehouse and ordered five tons of raw cotton. In under an hour, he managed to find people willing to pay good money for denim, lacy dresses, underwear, sheets, towels, T-shirts, bandages and other things made from cotton.

He drove to his warehouse and got the keys and security codes from a sweaty, fat man with a beard. He waited for the cotton delivery and cast a dozen Fabricate spells as soon as he was left alone with it.

The buyers soon started rolling in, complete with workers to pack up and move the finished products. Ben wore a wide smile the whole afternoon. Even selling everything at half price or less, he still made a ridiculous amount of money. He locked up after the work was done and drove back home. He told the girls to get dressed, which they did in short order, and took them out to dinner. After dessert, he said, "What do you girls want to do next?"

"Go dancing," Krista said.

"Yeah," Raven said. "Hit some clubs, strut our stuff... that'd be great!"

Lisa shrugged and Ben asked for the check. He slipped fifty bucks to a cabbie that was parked outside the restaurant and learned of an exclusive club on the north side of town. They took Ben's car to the club and were admitted right in. 

Once inside, Ben couldn't help but grin. As soon as his girls started dancing around him, the floor spontaneously cleared a space for them and the rest of the club just bopped along with the loud music and watched the three hotties undulating around him. Ben mostly stood still, or swayed his shoulders to the beat, while the girls busted move after move. Even Lisa cut loose after a few songs.

They had just gotten in the groove when the rest of the club stopped watching. The crowd slowly started dancing again and coming closer to them. Before they knew it, they were surrounded by writhing flesh on all sides. Men took advantage of this and hands started accidentaly slipping to brush up against the girls' curves.

With the girls' mood thus ruined, Ben lead them towards the exit, glaring at grope-happy assholes along the way. They left the club and drove to the riverbank to have a nice walk along the levy. The night was warm and the four of them just talked and walked until they were tired. Then they drove back home and made out. Pretty fast, the four way petting session led to Ben doing Krista doggy style on his bed.

As soon as he finished, Lisa rolled Krista over and put her mouth down to her pussy to suck his cum right out of it. Ben got hard watching Krista writhe next to him and Raven took the chance to ride his erection. She slammed her hips down on his, again and again, driving his cock deeper into herself. He lay back exhausted and barely summoned the strength to reach up and fondle her huge, heaving breasts. Raven came twice on his shaft before he joined her in her third orgasm.

He started to doze off pretty soon after that. The last thing he saw before he fell asleep was Lisa sliding over to suck his cum out of Raven's pussy.

He woke up with his face burried in Raven's cleavage. Felicia was napping in a shaft of light in the kitchen, Susan was telling a random stranger in the checkout line about aliens and the girls were still asleep. He glanced at the clock. It was almost ten a.m. 

After a quick stop at the bathroom, he woke the girls up. He answered their protests with, "I'm meeting my business associate at one at this fancy restaurant uptown and I need style and fashion assistance."

"Who's this associate," Raven asked.

Ben squeezed through the piles of boxes and went to his wardrobe. "It's one of the guys I sold the clothes to," he said. "It's the guy I sold most of the clothes to, actually."

"Why are you meeting him today," Krista asked with suspicion as she got up to peer over his shoulder. "Didn't he pay you already? Please, Ben, tell me you didn't just give him the mountain of clothes without getting paid! Oh, God, please don't tell me you let a honey-tongued devil dupe you when you had me on call!"

"Geez, of course not," Ben said. "Lighten up, will ya? The man paid me the full amount in advance, cause I only charged him half the price for top quality merchandise." He rifled his wardrobe, looking for clothes. "He's gonna hook me up with some lace and fabric dealers that I'm gonna supply in exchange for ridiculous amounts of money in the very near future."

"Are these dealers going to be at the lunch meeting, as well," Krista asked.

"Yes," he absentmindedly said. He stood still in front of his wardrobe.

"What's wrong," Lisa asked.

Ben sighed and said, "At the risk of sounding like a girl... I have nothing to wear!" The girls giggled. "No, I'm being serious, girls. This guy yesterday... He came to the warehouse, he shook my hand, we talked, he bought my stuff, he paid me my money... everything polite and above board... but the way he was looking at me? At my khakis and shirt?" He shook his head. "I may as well have been a dung covered peasant."

Krista nodded sagely and said, "The clothes make the man, Ben."

"What does that even mean," he asked, rolling his eyes.

"It means that appearances matter, Ben," Krista said. "They matter a lot. One might even say they're everything, particularly in the business world. If you don't look successful, why would people think you're successful? And if they don't think you're a successful guy, a closer with killer instincts who can get the job done and deliver the goods, then why would they ever get in business with you?"

Ben was about to retort on how it's what's really inside that counts, but he could see merit in her words. If he looked like a winner, people would hitch their wagons to his winning train. He took another look at his wardrobe. It was a collection of comfortable, budget clothing with two nice suits he had bought for himself when he quit his job at the call center. And one of those suits had been given a clear and loud look of disapproval.

"I need new clothes," he dejectedly said.

"And arm candy," Krista added. "That also needs new clothes. What's our budget for today?"

Ben looked at the three girls and saw the excitement in their eyes. He pulled out his newly acquired black credit card and said, "We are on a time budget today. We need to be at the restaurant at one. Do you girls think you could make this shopping trip a very quick one? I promise to make it all up to you later today!" He would have cast Fabricate to make clothes for them all, but he couldn't dye the clothing he made.

The girls stared at his credit card for a few seconds and he could see their eyes glaze over as one. His brow quirked as they snapped out of their fantasies, one by one, and nodded in answer to his question.

"Ok," he said and pointed at himself with both thumbs, "so we need a killer power suit for me and," he pointed his index fingers at the girls, "an eye candy outfit for..."

"Each of us," Krista said, smiling. "Nothing says success like having a hot chick on your arm, except having three hot chicks on your arm."

"Fine," he said, rolling his eyes. "But I mean it when I say that we have to be at the restaurant by one!"

Just as he suspected he would, he needed to issue the girls telepathic orders to hurry up in order to get to the restaurant on time. He only learned that the restaurant was on the top floor of the city's most prestigious hotel after googling it. He teleported the four of them invisibly to the sidewalk in front of the hotel. They walked to the park opposite and found a spot in which no one would see them appear and Ben ended their invisibilities.

They crossed the street, found the hotel's penthouse elevator and it took them to the top. Ben exited the elevator with Raven on one arm and Krista on the other. Lisa followed them. They walked up to the hostess and Ben said, "Davis."

The elegant woman gave them each an appreciative, but quick look and said, "Of course, Sir. Follow me, please!" She extended a hand and led them through the restaurant.

The place was tastefully decorated in the Art Deco style, with giant windows looking out at the bright, sunny skies all around. Only the tops of the city's tallest skyscrapers intruded on the wonderful vista. A string quartet, dressed in white, played Vivaldi in the corner. The whole restaurant made Ben feel like he was walking into the dining hall of a luxurious, transatlantic Zeppelin and he smiled at the thought. "Why did humanity ever give up on airships," he asked himself.

The hostess was leading them to the far side of the restaurant, past many other tables. The patrons would glance up at their passage and then do a take and stare outright. Ben felt a bit uncomfortable at such scrutiny but, when he saw the looks of envy on everyone's face, he started to feel more comfortable.

He was wearing a black suit that had a sheen to it like it could never get dirty, no matter what. He wore a blood red shirt under it, with no tie and the collar popped. He had felt silly without a necktie, but Krista insisted he ditch the tie and pop the collar to project power. He shrugged and deferred to her fashion judgement. The suit was truly remarkable, he had to admit. Even he could see the difference between it and the leisure suits he had bought for himself.

As sharp as his attire was, he knew it was his girls that elicited everyone's reactions. Raven wore a strapless, red dress that only came down to above her knees. It hugged her hourglass shape tightly, revealing no lines that would denote underwear, and it was being held up solely by the perkiness of her ample bust.

Krista wore a turquoise, off the shoulder dress that went well with her red hair and brought out her green eyes. She drew almost as many gazes as Raven. Lisa walked behind them with her eyes cast down in submission. Her outfit consisted of a little, black dress and narrow, black choker. Each girl wore an assortment of jewelry and stiletto heels. The jewelry stop had almost made them late and Ben had to cut it short with telepathic orders. He didn't even have time to haggle down the ridiculous prices.

He spotted the back of Clarence Davis, his contact, at a table packed with young, Asian men. The hostess led them over and leaned in to whisper briefly in Davis' ear. Davis turned around and his eyes went wide as he took in the sight of Ben and his suit. His jaw dropped when he saw the girls on his arms. The rest of the men at the table had similar reactions.

Ben kept his self satisfied smirk in check and extended a hand to Clarence as the man got up and said, "Kidder! You're here! Welcome! Welcome." The two of them shook hands and Clarence smiled a wide smile.

After gazing at Raven and Krista for a few long seconds, Clarence shook his head to himself and introduced Ben to the other men at the table. They all had oriental names, and Ben feared he might need an interpreter, but each spoke English fluently with an American accent.

Ben was seated with Krista and Raven at his sides and Lisa remained standing behind him, keeping her eyes trained on his back. Ben didn't introduce her to anyone and acted like she wasn't even there. Whenever Ben, or the girls, wanted anything, she would do it. She poured their water for them and ran to find their waiting staff to relay their orders. She gave the impression of being Ben's servant, or slave. Her behavior confused the other men and put them on tilt. It was all Krista's idea and Ben had to admit that Lisa played her part magnificently. Between Raven's looks, Lisa's subservity, Krista's wit and Ben's honeyed, silver tongue, the men stood no chance. All the questions that they'd otherwise ask of a potential business partner were simply forgotten.

It helped that they had been expecting some kind of rube, based on what Clarence had told them. Ben's show of force overwhelmed them and they quickly agreed to get in business with him for a decent price. He was going to make millions in no time, just by occasionally making clothes that they would then distribute to retailers in the US, Mexico, Canada and the Orient. The men all turned out to be second, or third generation Americans with strong family ties to the countries of their ancestors.

After lunch, they happily toasted their future business arrangements and exchanged contact information before parting ways.

As soon as they exited the hotel, Krista jumped into his arms and kissed him, plunging deep into his mouth with her tongue. When she finally ended the kiss and let go of him, Ben breathlessly said, "What was that for?" Krista just smiled and shrugged. 

"Cause you made money," Lisa muttered from behind them.

Krista gave her a glare and said, "No!" She smiled up at Ben and said, "It was for starting to live up to your potential."

"Oh," Raven said excitedly, "does this mean that we're gonna move someplace nice?"

"Yes," Ben said, making them squeal in excitement. "Finding a place suitable for our needs is our first priority. I make only one condition! It has to be a penthouse with its very own roof. Everything else, I leave up to you."

The girls skipped in place happily and gave him a group hug. They started chatting away, discussing which neighborhood to start looking in. Ben hailed a cab and they quickly found themselves in the tastefully appointed offices of a reputable real estate agency.

The realtor, an older gentleman, received them gladly and managed to keep himself from ogling the girls too much, which endeared him to Ben. Ben stated his demand to the man and he showed him a set of photographs that depicted the only property the agency had listed that had its own, large roof. Ben liked them and the girls all ooohed at them, so he asked the realtor to show it to them as soon as possible.

The realtor smiled and offered to drive them over there at once. They got in his Mercedes and were soon there, looking over the property. It was a two storied loft with a large, open space lower floor and six luxurious bedrooms upstairs. There were five bathrooms in the apartment and it also had all the amenities one could want.

The girls, however, looked unimpressed and started commenting on the furnishings in a negative manner. They began to complain about every single aspect of the place and Ben focused on his links to their minds. He nearly laughed out loud when he felt that they were actually in love with the place and were only acting dissatisfied at Krista's quiet suggestion. Ben jumped on board with the redhead's hasty plan and began using his charisma on the realtor.




Outsiders Pt. 05



Ten minutes later, the man presented Ben with a very affordable two year lease agreement. Ben signed it and had him charge the security deposit and three months' rent to his account. The realtor then gave Ben the keys and security codes and announced that Ben could move in immediately, if he wished. The paperwork was going to be properly filed first thing in the morning.

Ben thanked him and saw him out. As soon as he shut the door, the girls exploded in joy, bouncing up and down and shrieking. "I take it you like this place," he wryly asked. After they spent a few minutes hugging and kissing him, Ben managed to get them to calm down a bit.

"Alright," he said, "gather around! I'm going to teleport us to the old place so we can get our stuff together and then I'll teleport us back here. Ok? Everyone, take my hand!"

It took two trips to haul all of their possessions to the penthouse. Ben left his car parked in front of the old place, with the keys in the ignition. He was going to get some proper wheels, anyway. The girls wasted no time in claiming a bedroom each and unpacking. While they were doing that, Ben went up to the roof and watched the sunset. The breeze was cool and pleasant and he spent half an hour just watching the pink and purple clouds floating by.

Whne he returned downstairs, the girls greeted him with big smiles and boxes of chinese takeout. They had dinner and then went to the hot tub. To Ben's delight, all four of them fit comfortably in it. They quickly relaxed and started to fondle one another. The fondling turned to making out and that quickly led to the four of them moving to one of the bedrooms and making love for the rest of the evening.

In the morning, they breakfasted oatmeal that Ben made taste like anything they wanted. Felicia ate kibble, the taste of which Ben also changed according to her desires. After that, Ben had the girls get dressed up and took them out shopping. They did the rounds of the city's car dealerships and leased a Rolls Royce Phantom, an Aston Martin DB7 and a Range Rover. They had lunch and then went shopping for clothes, completing their new, flashy wardrobes.

"Alright, girls," Ben said, "where to for dinner? Hm?"

The girls looked deep in thought and then Raven said, "The food court of the nearest mall. I want a cheeseburger!" Lisa and Krista quickly agreed to her suggestion.

"A cheeseburger," Ben asked. "You want a cheeseburger when you could go anywhere and have anything?"

Raven nodded, smiling. "And tonight, I want a cheeseburger at a food court," she said. Lisa and Krista nodded along with her.

Ben shrugged and said, "As you wish!"

After cheeseburgers, they retired to their penthouse. They watched a movie on cable and then made love. Each of the girls rode him to orgasm while the other two sat next to him and made out with one another to keep him hard. He fell asleep in ecstatic exhaustion.

On Thursday morning, he was the last to wake up. The minds connected to his announced themselves as always. Felicia was on the roof, enjoying the Sun. Raven and Krista were having breakfast downstairs. Susan was smooth talking an old acquaintance into giving her a job. Lisa wore her French maid's outfit and served him breakfast in bed.

Ben enjoyed the breakfast Raven had made for him while Lisa, of her own volition, stroked his hard cock. She frequently bent over to spit on his dick for lubrication. When she saw that Ben was close to finishing his breakfast, she lay down between his legs and swallowed his cock. She blew him with zeal until he shot his jizz into her mouth. She swallowed his seed, licked him clean and then got up to take the breakfast tray downstairs while he caught his breath.

After a quick shower and shave, Ben checked his email. There was a bunch of orders waiting. He grinned and ordered deliveries of raw silk and cotton, before getting dressed for the day. On his way out the door, he said, "Girls, I'm going to be at work most of the day! Find something to do to amuse yourselves while I'm gone!"

He took the Aston Martin and drove to his warehouse. His shipments were going to arrive pretty quickly and he was going to fulfill his buyers' orders by casting ten Fabricate spells, after which he was going to wait for the buyers to send workers to pick the stuff up. He frowned. Waiting and overseeing a bunch of laborers was a waste of his time. He had more important things to do. He resolved to hire himself a guard. He dialed Kurt's number.

"Hello," Kurt said.

"Hey, Kurt, it's me, Ben!"

"Oh, hey, Ben! How ya doin'?"

"Just great," Ben said, smiling. "Listen! I've got a new job. I'm working for this import export company and I've been authorized to hire a new security guard for one of our warehouses. It's part time work and it pays two thousand bucks a week. You interested?"

After a brief pause, Ben heard Kurt say, "Ok, first of all, I'm very, very sad that you left Susan's employ. I mean, where the hell are we gonna get more of those stories of supervillany you told about her? The guys will be heartbroken."

"Susan doesn't work at the call center anymore, either," Ben said.

"She finally run the place into the ground?"

"No," Ben said, "she just... Look! She's unimportant. Forget her! I'm offering you a job. A well paid job. Do you want it, or not?"

Kurt laughed on his end of the line before saying, "What have you been smoking, man? There's no way a second year engineering student like you can have, like, a middle management job at an import export firm, ok? And even if you did, you wouldn't hire a part time security guard for two bricks a week. So, seriously, man, what are you on?"

Ben grimaced and rolled his eyes. "Look, doofus," he said, "I'm offering you a surefire way to come up with your tuition and finish school. You want it or not?"

"Are you legit," Kurt asked.

"Tell you what," Ben said, "why don't you come here and see for yourself? I've got a delivery to receive." 

Ben hung up and waved the truck delivering raw silk into the warehouse. He texted Kurt the address while he waited for his shipment to be offloaded. The raw cotton quickly followed and Ben shut himself in with it all.

He cast Fabricate repeatedly to make the things his contacts had ordered. After that, he contacted them and finalized the sales. He could now afford to spend three hundred thousand dollars on jade for the circlet he needed. One of his buyers had recommended a jade dealer to him at lunch the other day and he called to set up an appointment for later today.

Ben heard a car pull up in front of the warehouse. He walked out through the side door and saw Kurt crouching by the passenger side window of his Aston Martin and gaping at the interior.

"If you're a good boy," Ben said, startling Kurt, "I'll take you for a ride in it, later!"

"What the," Kurt said, putting a hand to his chest. "You scared me!" 

The two of them hugged and Kurt held Ben out at arm's length. His eyes flicked repeatedly between his cutoff jeans and striped T-shirt and Ben's pristine, powder blue, silk suit. "The fuck," he asked, at length.

Ben took a step backwards and spread his arms before taking a twirl. "You like," he asked.

"Yeah," Kurt said, distractedly nodding, "it's, uh, it's... Wait! You'd take me for a ride in this?!" He jabbed a finger at the Aston Martin. "The fuck's going on here, man? I haven't heard from you since... and now you're all..." Kurt gestured at Ben with both his hands. "Rich and whatever. Seriously, man, what the fuck gives?"

"Well, it's a long story, Kurt," Ben said, "so I'll cut straight to the-"

Kurt's face suddenly went from surprised confusion to delighted realization. He snapped his fingers, interrupting Ben, and said, "Ha! I gotcha! You're trying to pull one over on ol' Kurt, ain'tcha? But I'm not Jake to fall for a cheap stunt like this. I mean, you having a nice suit, I'll buy, but a James Bond car?" Kurt shook his head, affected a Russian accent, and said, "Nyet, comrade."

Ben rolled his eyes in exasperation and pulled out his car key from his pocket. He depressed the key fob and the car's alarm disconnected.

"Bwah," Kurt exclaimed, startled. He looked at the luxury car and Ben like either one was going to turn into a mythical beast at any moment and eat him. Ben grinned. "The fuck? Are, are you, like, car sitting for someone, or something?"

"It's just a lease," Ben said. "Try not to be scared of it. Things have changed, Kurt. Like I said, I'm running an import export firm and I'm making tons and tons of money. I don't live in that shithole you drove me to from the hospital anymore, either. As a matter of fact, the guys and you are going to loooove it when I host our D&D games, come September! But, there's one thing I need to know, right away. Are you up for the job of security guard in this warehouse, or not? It pays two large for just one afternoon."

Kurt leaned in and conspiratorially whispered, "Is this illegal?"

Ben said, "Not at all, Kurt! Not at all!"

Kurt raised his hands and said, "Ok, if you say the job's legit, I'll take it and I'll take the money, too, but I gotta know. What exactly is going on with you?" 

Ben opened his mouth to answer, but Kurt suddenly gasped and pointed both index fingers at him. "You got paranormal powers when that lightning bolt struck you, didn't you!?"

Ben laughed. Kurt's face wore an expression of earnest suspicion, so he subdued his laughter and clapped the man on the shoulder. "Yeah, I became a Sith lord overnight," he sarcastically said.

For a tense moment, Kurt looked like he was going to actually believe his confession, but then he laughed.

"Come on," Ben said and nodded towards the side door of his warehouse. "You're gonna sit on this warehouse and the goods inside until they're picked up, later today." 

Ben showed Kurt how to operate the doors and security system and then instructed him on who is coming to pick up which goods. They chatted for a half an hour more, with Kurt's jaw repeatedly dropping as Ben gently and gradually revealed that he lived in a luxurious penthouse and had girlfriends who made out with one another.

Workers started arriving and Ben clapped Kurt's back before leaving him there gaping while he drove off. Ben went to buy the jade and also made a stop at a leather dealership and bought a large amount of it. He drove home whistling a happy tune.

As soon as he came in, he started hearing soft yelps and slaps. He focused on his links with his girls and learned that the three of them were in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Lisa was kneeling on the bed with her ass in the air. Raven was pressing her face into the mattress and both she and Krista were spanking the swarthy girl's behind.

He pulled out of their mental links and concentrated on casting the Fabricate spell to finally make the jade circlet that would allow him to cast the Shapechange spell. He used his Profession: Jeweler skill to make the circlet extra pretty.

He went to the bedroom the girls were occupying and watched from the doorway as Krista fingered Lisa, whose face was burried in Raven's bust. "Motorboat it," Krista ordered. Lisa let out a small noise of protest. Krista pulled her hand out of the girl's snatch and spanked her bare ass. "You will motorboat on command, girl!"

Raven opened her eyes and spotted Ben in the doorway. "Ben," she gasped, "join us!"

Krista looked over her shoulder at him and gave him an inviting smile, even as she kept Lisa's head pinned to Raven's tits.

"Excellent idea," Ben said. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from smiling at what he was about to do. "Do you girls mind if I change, first?"

They shook their heads and he donned the jade circlet. He stepped into the room and gave the ceiling a squint. He judged there was room enough for what he wanted to do. He made the gestures and spoke the words of the Shapechange spell and drew it out of himself. The circlet vanished from his head with the faintest flash of light. The girls just looked at him for a pregnant moment and then Krista said, "Well? Go and change, already!"

Ben suppressed an evil smile and willed his shape to change into that of an ogre mage. Instantly, he grew into a ten foot tall monster with green skin. Krista and Raven both gasped in shock. Krista let go of Lisa's hair and the girl straightened up to look at Ben. She exclaimed in fright at the sight of him.

His massive bulk was covered in corded muscles. His face was still his, but it was now endowed with cruel, demonic features and topped with a pair of ivory horns. His eyes were black orbs with strikingly white pupils and regarded them as if they were prey he had caught in his daily hunt. He smiled and the girls gasped at the sight of his long, sharp, jet black teeth. His massive arms, which looked capable of uprooting ancient trees with ease, ended in sharp-looking claws that were also jet black in color.

"Holy fuck," Raven screamed. Krista and Lisa glanced at her and saw she was pointing at Ben's crotch. When they looked back at him, they finally recognized the fact that he was completely naked. He could have shapechanged into a clothed ogre mage, but he chose nudity for added shock value. Hanging between his legs were two flaccid dicks, one atop the other, and below them hung three testicles, each the size of a lemon. The dicks were shaped like regular, human dicks, but were quite large, despite being obviously in their flaccid state.

Ben laughed at the astonished looks on their faces. It was a deep, rumbling sound that denoted the raw, physical power of his new body and hearing it made the girls go weak in the knees. Their eyes latched on to his dicks and he focused on the links to their minds. He felt their desire to see how big they'd grow. He felt their arousal and his new body responded to it. 

The dicks quickly swelled up to their fully erect status. The top dick was ten inches long and more than two across. The lower dick was eight inches long and about an inch and three quarters across. Each had a flared, purple-hued head on its end. There was only an inch of room between them once they both stuck out from his crotch at a forty-five degree angle.

The girls were awestruck at the sight of his erections and made no sound, or move. Ben crossed the bedroom in just two steps and stood before the bed. He bent down and grabbed Raven's ankles. She made a noise of protest and tried to kick her legs free, but he drew her towards him without any effort. He sent her the order to be fully aroused. She started squirming and panting almost instantly. The smell of her arousal reached his nostrils and he forgot all about the niceties and nuances of lovemaking.

He knelt before the bed and picked up the blonde's hips. He raised them up and aligned her wet snatch with his top cock. She gasped at the touch and shuddered from head to toe in arousal. Krista and Lisa knelt on either side of her, watching with rapt attention as she was about to be impaled by the twin phalluses.

Ben pulled Raven down and his top cock slid between her silky lips to spread open her womanhood. Her pussy swallowed his whole head and he growled in pleasure at the tightness that surrounded him. He felt the girls shudder when the bass noise of his delight hit their naked bodies.

His lower dick pressed up against the pucker of Raven's anus and he felt her stabbed by fear. Her pucker was damp from the juices that had flowed freely from her pussy for the past few seconds, but it was not nearly enough for a smooth penetration. Raven finally found her voice and gasped out, "No, please! Not right now!"

The animal in Ben's soul howled in triumph. He laughed out loud and gripped her hips more firmly, scoring her skin in many places with his claws. He yanked her tense body down and his lower dick stuck up against her sphincter. For a split second, it felt like the sphincter might withstand the pressure, but it gave way and admitted his lower dick into her bowels.

Raven's head shot up and she screamed in agony at the brutal penetration. Ben howled with delighted laughter and pulled her hips down until he felt himself banging against her cervix and the pain that gave her. He decided to stop short of it. Raven planted her feet against the floor on either side of him, but her legs were unable to push her back up. 

Ben was lost in the sensations of heat pressing tightly against both of his dicks from all sides. Fucking Raven as a human had been spectacular, but stuffing her pussy and ass at the same time was beyond sublime. Receiving pleasure from two dicks at the same time was too much for him to handle. His powerful hips started thrusting of their own accord and he emptied his three balls into Raven through both his shafts at the same time.

Raven climaxed as soon as his cum left his shafts and her body went into a paroxysm of ecstasy. With each spurt of his cum, another climax detonated throughout her body, building on the previous one and they all joined into a seizure-inducing cacophony of pleasure in her mind. Raven disconnected from her own mind as every nerve in her body sang with ecstasy. She lost all track of time, space and self to exist as nothing but a vessel of ultimate pleasure. Ben roared out loud, making the furniture shudder as he felt the orgasm blank her mind through the telepathic link.

After he had finally emptied his balls into her, Raven slowly began to come down from the perfect high he had subjected her to. Ben's own body unclenched as well. As the pleasure left Raven's mind, so did her consciousness and she passed out to be a rag doll in Ben's lap. He blinked his eyes open and looked at her. To his mind, she had never been more beautiful than at that exact moment, with her golden hair plastered to her face with sweat.

He carefully got up to gently lay her out on the bed.

"The fuck was that, Ben," Krista asked. "What did you do to her?"

Ben smiled at her, making her flinch slightly at the sight of his obsidian-like teeth. "I didn't do anything," he said.

"Bullshit," Krista said. "Look at her!"

Ben chuckled, eliciting a twinge of arousal deep inside of her with the basso rumble. "I have become an ogre mage," he said, "A demonic being. And the cum of demonic beings makes mortals climax with each spurt that comes fresh from the tap." Krista and Lisa's jaws fell at hearing his words. "You'll now see what it's like for yourselves!" He lay down on the floor, not trusting the bed to withstand his six hundred pound bulk. "Suck my dicks, girls!"

Krista and Lisa gaped at his semi hard dicks for a few moments, before looking at Raven asleep between them on the bed. They shared a look of fearful anticipation.

"Don't worry, girls," Ben said, "You cum all the same if I cum in you, or on you! Now, get to work!"

His deep and commanding tone made them spring into action and they each took a pillow off the bed and set it down on the floor to kneel on either side of him. Their hands reached out and hesitantly poked at his flesh. His cocks felt like his old cock to the touch and they quickly relaxed and got in the spirit of things. Krista grasped the top cock, while Lisa gave the lower one a few exploratory squeezes.

Ben groaned and growled softly as the girls slowly coaxed him back to full mast with their hands. He lifted his head and looked down at his crotch. Each girl was using both of her hands on her dick of choice and their hands looked tiny on them.

Krista was the first to bend forward and bring her mouth down on the head of his top cock. She breathed on it before puckering her lips and slowly engulfing the head of his cock with her mouth. She was delighted that it tasted almost the same as Ben's own dick. Ben groaned at the sensations of her agile tongue flickering against his most sensitive flesh.




Outsiders Pt. 05



When Lisa joined in on the lower dick, he was once again overwhelmed by pleasure. His hands fell on the backs of their heads and pushed them down his shafts with just their weight. The girls seemed to struggle before his dicks slipped down into their throats. Krista beat her fists against his side and raw anger flashed over in his mind at her insolence. He was still connected to their minds, so he could feel their desperate needs for air, as well as how horribly their stomachs were clenching up to expel the intruders from their throats.

He cooled down almost instantly and lifted his hands off the girls' heads. They both popped up for air but quickly resumed their work on his shafts. He could feel their arousal hadn't been lessened by the choking and he put his hands under his head as he lay back to enjoy their ministrations. He recognized the fact that when he transformed into an ogre mage, he took on all of its characteristics, including its demonic temperament. He was going to have to work hard to keep it in check. 

When the girls slid their hands lower to stroke and grope his balls, he forgot all about the nature of ogre mages and his awareness shrunk just to the incredible sensations coming from his groin. The girls were stroking his shafts and balls and swallowing the heads of his cocks, driving him to orgasm, but it was only when they paused in their work to kiss one another that he became primed.

When they broke their passionate kiss and stuck their tongues out to lick at the heads of his cocks, he came with a roar of triumph. His seed shot out of his cocks and struck the girls in the face, making them come with each spurt. The orgasms snowballed and utterly overwhelmed them as his seed kept shooting out of him.

Finally, the girls stopped screaming in pleasure and collapsed to rest their heads against his muscular belly. The last shots of his load left his cocks to arc through the air and fall upon their cheeks, making the girls suffer another paroxysm of ecstasy, even as they nearly passed out in exhaustion.

Ben smiled and dozed off himself as he felt them fall asleep.

He woke up some time later. He was still an ogre mage, so he knew that his nap lasted less than three hours. The Sun was starting to set outside the window, painting the sky orange. Ben gently extricated himself out from under the girls. He stood up and picked up Lisa to lay her out on the bed, next to Raven. He frowned as he saw bloody gauge marks in the perfect skin of Raven's smooth hips. He had done that with his claws in a fit of passion. She probably hadn't even felt them from all the pleasure his demonic cum forced into her brain, and if she did, they only accentuated it.

He put Krista in the bed and then gently lifted Raven to carry her out of the room. The girl moaned but still slept, utterly spent from all the sensations he had forced her to endure. He set her down on the bottom of the stairs leading to the roof and changed back to his shape. He cast a spell of Invisibility on himself and changed into his ogre mage shape. He carried her up the stairs and gently set her down in one of the lawn chairs they put there to watch the sunsets.

He changed shape and became a golden dragon, though he was still invisible. The main reason he wanted a penthouse with its own roof was in case he needed to change into a dragon. His own spells were not available to him when he took on another shape but, as a gold dragon wyrm he was able to cast all the clerical spells from the Player's Handbook, as well as all the arcane spells, though only as a level seventeen caster. He didn't need to make the gestures, speak the words, or use the material foci, though he'd still need materials for some spells. This ability to cast literally all the mage and cleric spells listed in the Handbook had been a big factor in him choosing Shapechange as his latest spell.

He wasted no time in casting a spell of Cure Light Wounds on Raven. Her wounds vanished from her skin and Ben purred in relief. He changed shape back into that of an ogre mage and carried the still sleeping Raven downstairs. He laid her out in a clean bed and ended his spells of Invisibility and Shapechange to appear as himself again. He put his circlet away and fixed himself a light dinner. 

After that, he browsed the spell lists in his books while he patiently waited for the girls to rouse on their own. As a metallic dragon, he would be able to cast the True Resurrection spell. That spell allowed him to bring back to life any willing soul and restore their body to full health as it was on the day that they died. All that was required five million dollars' worth of diamonds, which he couldn't yet buy, but could easily steal as an intangible mage. He couldn't bring back people that had died of old age, or anyone that died more than a hundred and seventy years ago, but those were the only limitations to the spell. Each soul he tried to restore to life would be informed of his name and alignment and had the option of choosing not to be brought back.

He didn't like the idea of stealing diamonds for the spell, but with the fate of the world at stake and his contacts too busy selling the stuff he had fabricated for them to buy any more, for the time being, he was beginning to realize that he needed to steal the diamonds and resurrect Simon, or one of the Order of the Hammer zealots, and get some answers. He decided that he'd cast Dominate Person on them right off the bat.

With a sigh, he put away his rulebooks and went online to find a diamond dealer that wouldn't be instantly ruined if five million in diamonds went missing overnight. He teleported invisibly to their shop and used his spell of Ethereal Jaunt to obtain the necessary diamonds. He hoped that no one would get blamed for the disappearance and wind up with their career ended, or a prison sentence, but he knew how much they overcharged for their wares and that tempered his guilt and anxiety.

He teleported back, cast Shapechange on himself and walked out onto his roof, where he changed into a golden dragon. He spent ten minutes casting the spell of True Resurection and willed for Simon Eustace Thorpe to be recreated before him.

The spell cast itself out of Ben's dragon form and achieved nothing, leaving him utterly shocked. Either Simon was very happy to be dead, or resurrecting the dead was the one limit to his magic.

He changed back into himself and cast another spell of Invisibility upon himself. His gold dragon ninth level spell slot was spent until he cast another spell of Shapechange. It didn't matter, all metallic dragon wyrms he could change into had one ninth level slot for clerical spells. He changed into his silver dragon form and cast a spell of True Resurrection on Piotr, the dead zealot. If he couldn't get Simon, he was going to get some answers from Piotr. After ten minutes, the spell flew out of him without recreating Piotr before him. He got the distinct sense that Piotr refused the offer of resurrection.

Ben changed back into his human form, utterly puzzled. Why had the spell not worked on Simon, but was refused by Piotr? He cast another Invisibility on himself, lest his neighbors suddenly spot a colossal, mythical beast atop his building, and changed into a bronze dragon. 

He cast the spell of True Resurrection on Lisa's friend Cassie, who had been the first to die at her house. He knew her name, time of death and location of death and that was enough for the spell. Ten minutes of casting later, the spell again failed without an explanation. After casting another Invisibility, Ben took the shape of a brass dragon and tried again, with another of Lisa's friends, but got the same result.

He changed back into his own form and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He went online and looked up who had died in the base massacre. He picked a pretty, young, female journalist and cast another Invisibility before changing into a copper dragon and trying to resurrect her. When that spell failed, he was forced to recognize the fact that people whose souls were reaped to power Outsider magic were gone for good and resurrecting them was impossible.

Piotr's soul, on the other hand, had refused the offer of resurrection, suggesting that Ben could indeed resurrect people. He decided to properly test that theory. After casting another spell of Invisibility as himself, he ended his current spell of Shapechange and cast a new one. He became a golden dragon again and cast the True Resurrection spell with Ritchie Falco in mind.

After ten minutes, the diamonds coalesced and faintly glowed before emitting a bright flash. As soon as the flash cleared, Ritchie Falco was there, lying naked before Ben. Ben cast the Dominate Person spell as quickly as he could and Ritchie only had the chance to stand up and gape around himself before Ben took over his mind.

Ben sent Ritchie the order to tell him everything about the afterlife, but Ritchie shrugged and said, "I don't remember anything about that. I remember that cunt Pryzbylewski shooting me to death and I remember drowning to death in my own blood and then I felt you calling me and I answered. There was nothing in between."

Ben didn't know if that meant that there wasn't an afterlife, or if resurrection wiped a soul's memory of it. He shrugged his wings. It didn't matter to him, anyway.

Ritchie looked around and then put his hands to his hips. "You did good, Kidder," he said, his tone of voice cocky. "I'm inclined towards forgiving you for getting me killed in the first place." His eyes darted all around, trying to spot Ben. "Now, show yourself and let's talk about how you're gonna make it up to me! I'm thinking that-"

Ben rolled his eyes in annoyance and cast the Disintegrate spell on Ritchie. A thin, green ray sprang from his claw and hit Ritchie in the chest, instantly turning him into a sprinkling of fine dust. Ben gasped as he suddenly appeared visible on his roof. He quickly changed back into his own form and ran down the stairs. He sat down in his living room and feared having been seen. He paced from window to window, expecting to hear police sirens at any moment. 

After a few minutes, he calmed down and told himself he was being ridiculous. He was only a dragon for a second, on a rooftop which few buildings overlooked. Even if someone did see him turn back into himself, they probably didn't believe their own eyes. He laughed out loud and shook his head to himself. He was going to have to be more careful in the future.

He went upstairs to check on the girls. They were fast asleep so he consulted his rulebooks again, trying to dig up a divination spell that would allow him to learn more about who was behind creating the portal. All of them demanded experience points in exchange for vague answers and he dismissed that line of inquiry. His experience points were even more precious to him now that they had brought usable spells to him. He put the rulebooks away and amused himself by watching TV and surfing the web until he was sleepy.

On Friday morning, Lisa woke him up by sucking his dick. He lay back and enjoyed himself until he shot his load down her throat. She licked him clean and then stood up. "Not quite as good as yesterday," she said.

"Did you like that," he asked her.

She nodded vigorously. "I'd love it if you fucked me like you did Raven," she shyly said. "It looked so freaking hot."

He got out of bed and smiled at her. "Don't worry," he said, "you'll get your turn, too!" He spanked her bare ass and went to the bathroom.

During breakfast, he explained the Shapechange spell to the girls and they oohed and aahed in appreciation and excitement. They quickly agreed that his ogre mage shape would be a frequent visitor in the bedroom. Ben was feeling oddly happy that he had the ability to make the girls cum whenever he felt like it, without resorting to dominating their minds. The spells of domination were going to expire soon and he found himself regretting the day he would no longer be able to telepathically spy on their ecstasy.

As soon as he finished his breakfast, he went and got his circlet and put it on his brow. "Ok, girls," he said, "time for some payback, I think."

"What do you mean," Raven asked.

Ben smiled and closed his eyes to concentrate. He cast the spell of Shapechange and envisioned becoming a young, Asian girl. He heard the girls gasp in astonishment and opened his eyes. "Did it work," he asked. He rushed over to the bathroom and felt two weird weights bouncing around his chest. He smiled. He was a woman, but he wanted to see if he was the kind of woman he had envisioned.

He stood before the full length mirror and gasped in surprise. His reflection was that of a petite, but well endowed, Asian girl with long, straight, black hair. He turned this way and that, admiring his new form, particularly the pert ass. The girls crammed into the doorway and gave a few wolf whistles.

He laughed and held up his tits at them. He gasped at the pleasurable sensation of touching his own nipples. They had never been anywhere near that sensitive when he was a boy. The girls stepped into the bathroom and began fondling his firm, young flesh.

"Is this what you meant," Krista breathed into his ear. He shuddered in delight at the sensations. His ears were more sensitive, just as the rest of his skin was, too. He swallowed heavily and nodded yes in response to her question. Raven's hands felt so good against his tits and Lisa's hand on his ass was just sublime. "So, this is our chance to avenge all the orgasms and ecstasy you forced on us? Not just last night, but the past few weeks, too?"

Ben nodded again and the girls giggled. The grabbed him by the hands and dragged him to the tub. "First thing's first," Raven said. She patted the hair covering his crotch, "These need to go!"

The girls had him sit on the edge of the tub and teased his sensitive pussy under the pretext of working warm suds into his pubes. He was squirming under the onslaught of tactile sensations. Spying on these kinds of touches from the girls' minds was one thing, experiencing them firsthand was something else. He realized, as bolts of metaphoric lightning arced from his crotch to his brain, that the girls were quite used to such pleasure and that made it stick out less in their minds.

For him, it was unbelieveable. He couldn't keep still, so the girls pinned his upper body down in the tub and held his legs up. Krista and Raven kept him still while Lisa slowly shaved him bare. He giggled at her tickling touch, and marveled at the breathy sounds he made.

He was thankful when Lisa finally finished and washed him clean. He was thoroughly aroused and didn't want to thrash through an orgasm while a razor was being held to his crotch. Raven and Krista pulled him up and Lisa used a towel to dry his groin. The touch of the fabric on his outer lips was making his knees buckle and mewling noises escape his lips.

The girls laughed and led him upstairs to one of the bedrooms. They kissed and fondled him all the way up the stairs. Their lips were so soft against his own and their tongues tickled and aroused with each flicker, yet he was no closer to cumming that he had been when they had pulled him out of the tub. He tried to growl in frustration, but the sounds he made were girly and made the girls giggle in amusement.

They pulled him into a bedroom and made him lie down on the bed. They kept him pinned down with ease, since Raven and Krista were both bigger than him and Lisa was his equal in size, now. Raven loomed over him and bent down to kiss him. Her tits hung down and covered his own with their soft warmth in a way that made him writhe with desire.

After Raven ended their long, tender kiss, she straightened up and gave him a wicked smirk. He looked around at Krista and Lisa and saw that they were holding an assortment of sex toys. To his questioning look, Raven said, "We were going to show them to you this weekend and teach you how to use them on us, but this is so much better. Now, you get to know first hand how they work and what they can make you feel!"

The girls laughed and Ben swallowed nervously. For the next three hours, the girls put him through the paces, using everything in their arsenal on him. They started by kissing and fondling him, but they quickly progressed to fingering his pussy. Krista put first one, then two fingers in his pussy, making him brace his heels against the mattress and lift his hips up in the air. Raven pressed his hips back down while Lisa pinned his shoulders.

When Krista pressed her thumb against his clit and stuck a third finger into him, he screamed out loud in orgasm. His whole body shook and shuddered for half a minute, while his mind struggled to figure out what was going on. His orgasm had barely ended when Raven stuck a dildo inside of him. He shrieked at the pressure on the walls of his overly sensitised pussy.

"This is for fucking me last night," Raven said and started jackhammering the dildo in and out of his pussy. Ben fought it. He tried to scream out that she was hurting him, but the sensations that were coming to his brain were equal parts pleasure and pain. Krista and Lisa bent their heads down to kiss at his erect nipples and he climaxed again.

After he came down from his second high, the girls rolled him over and started to tease his asshole with spit covered fingers. He was tempted to change shape and end the torment, but a part of him was too exhausted to do it and very curious to feel what it would be like. 

Raven started pushing anal beads into his ass and he groaned with each bead slipping inside of him. When she started pulling them out, he yelped at the sensations. They reminded him of having a bowel movement and he strained to maintain control of himself. "And that's for reaming me last night," Raven said. She would continue to seesaw his asshole with the beads for the rest of the three hours he spent as a cute, Asian girl.

Lisa and Krista introduced his nipples to nipple clamps and had his clit make best friends with a rabbit vibe. Ben screamed, writhed and endured a procession of orgasms and new sensations for the whole three hours the Shapechange spell lasted. All the sex toys, apart from the anal beads popped out or off him as he turned back into himself. He passed out and Raven had to pull the beads out of him while he was asleep.

Ben regained consciousness late in the afternoon. It took him a minute to realize where he was. In the meanwhile, the minds linked to his let themselves be known. Susan was doing her gardener, Felicia was napping on the roof, and the girls were playing a video game in the media room.

He went to the bathroom to take a leak and was astonished to see that his pubes were still gone, despite him being himself again. His dick looked much bigger in his hand, so he just shrugged it off.

After washing his hands, Ben called a nearby restaurant and ordered a picnic basket to be made and delivered. He got dressed, drank some water and then joined the girls in the media room. The girls were concerned if they had taken him too far, earlier, but Ben waved off their concerns and apologies with a smile.

"I loved it," he said. "As a matter of fact, we're going to be doing that often."

The girls shared a look and Raven said, "Ok! Provided that Mister Ogre comes out to play just as often." She held out her hand.

Ben shook her hand and said, "Deal!"

They all hugged and kissed after that, but Ben was far too drained for anything more than that. The girls didn't mind. They all sat down and the girls showed him how to play the new game they had bought. In it, they were the children of a king who had passed away and they had to drag a wagon carrying his casket to his final resting place over a series of arcade levels using ropes and jumps. Normally, Ben would scoff at arcade games, but this one was exciting and different, so he played it with the girls. They laughed and screeched as the wagon kept falling off platforms despite them pulling on their ropes.




Outsiders Pt. 05



The doorman called soon to inform them they had a delivery and Ben buzzed the delivery man up. He tipped him generously and took the basket from him.

"What's that," Lisa asked.

"This is our picnic basket, filled with delightful goodies," Ben said. "Get dressed, girls! I'm taking you out!"

Ben took the leather he had bought when he had bought the jade and wrapped it up in a big blanket. After the girls put on some clothes, they held hands and Lisa put a hand on his shoulder. Ben took the bundle and basket, spoke the word of the Greater Teleport spell and they found themselves standing over the Grand Canyon.

The girls looked out at the massive wonder of nature and oohed as one. Ben grinned and tossed his leather aside. He spread the blanket on the ground and secured it with the picnic basket. He took a good, long look around. There were no people and no traces of humanity in sight. He smiled. He had picked a good spot.

"Ok, girls," he said, "what would you like to do first? Sample the delicacies in this basket, or go on an aerial tour of the Grand Canyon?"

The girls talked among themselves for a few moments and then Raven said, "We'd like the aerial tour, but... Where's the chopper? There's no one here, Ben."

"Yeah," Krista said, "when's the chopper coming?"

"No chopper," Ben said, smiling. "Aerial tour it is, then." He turned around and started walking away from them, parallel to the canyon, lest he startle them into stumbling backwards and off the edge.

The girls looked at his back in confusion. "What's going on," Raven called after his retreating form.

Ben stopped a hundred and fifty feet away from them and put his circlet on his brow. He cast the Shapechange spell.

The girls gasped as one when he turned into a giant dragon, right before their very eyes. His scales glistened in the Sun and looked like they were made of solid gold. He had four powerful limbs and his sail-like wings erupted from his back, starting from his shoulders and going on until they hit the tip of his tail. Ben spread them to their full span of over a hundred feet at the shoulders. His long, sinewy neck lowered his head down to look at the girls. They were delighted to find that he smelled of saffron and incense, not brimstone or anything nasty.

The girls grinned as they recognized Ben's features in this creature's face, despite the large horns sweeping back from his brow and the whiskers that hung from it. The whiskers reminded the girls of a catfish's barbels. The eyes looked like pools of molten gold, which was only slightly disconcerting to them. They laughed at the dragon and Lisa said, "Ben, is that you?"

"Yes, it's me, girls," Ben said. "Do you like?" He turned his long, sinewy body this way and that, as if to pose for them. The girls gaped at him in astonishment. He was almost two hundred feet from snout to tail. "I'll take that as a yes." He cast the Fabricate spell and made a three person saddle for the girls out of the soft leather he had brought. "Do you want to go flying?"

The girls nodded yes and Ben lay down on the ground so they could throw the saddle belt over him. They pulled the saddle into place by the belt and tied it off. The three of them climbed up, using the handholds Ben had put in the saddle belt as stirrups and sat in it. Lisa was at the front, Krista in the middle and Raven took up the rear seat.

"Tie yourselves to the saddle, girls," Ben instructed them. The girls were surprised to find actual leather ties on the saddle and they fastened them with a giggle. "Are you securely fastened to your seats, girls?"

"Yes," Raven said, laughing, "but why?" Ben stood back up, jostling them in their seats as his powerful muscles lifted his huge bulk. Their laughter ended when they felt the power of his body under them. "Ben! Why did we tie ourselves to the saddle?!"

In lieu of an answer, Ben hopped over the side of the Grand Canyon to fall in it. The girls screamed as one. Ben purred in delight as he picked up speed. He leaned into the air hurtling at them from below. He could feel that the air was cold against the girls' skin, despite the warmer clothing he had them wear, so he cast three spells of Endure Elements on them, touching each with his forelegs. The spell would make them comfortable at temperatures between -50 and 140 Fahrenheit.

Despite the protection from the cold, the girls kept on screaming. He waited for the girls' screams to rise in pitch before he spread his powerful wings and netted the air to stop his descent. He pulled up and began to climb again.

Flying was as natural to him as if he had been born a dragon and he did a barrel roll, just for the fun of it. The girls shrieked from atop his shoulders and he laughed out loud. He curled his body and did an outside loop, during which only the ties kept the girls from being catapulted out of their seats. They were actually quite safe as he had ample time to cast the Feather Fall spell and save them, should they fall, but he didn't feel like pointing that out to them at the moment. Ben paused inverted for a few moments, before completing his loop. He wanted the girls to see the ground coming up.

After completing the loop, he beat his wings, forcing the air to do his bidding and gained altitude until he climbed out of the canyon.

"Can you set us down, now, please," Raven screamed.

"What's that," Ben asked, as if he hadn't heard her clearly, "you want to go down? Ok, down we go!" He straightened his body out and dipped his wings to enter into a steep dive towards the bottom of the canyon. The girls screamed again and he laughed as the ground rushed up at them. At the last possible instant, he pulled up again and climbed along the canyon walls.

He flew with the girls atop his back for half an hour more, doing aerial acrobatics for the fun of it, and then landed softly next to their picnic blanket and basket. The girls slowly undid the knots holding them in place and climbed off him. Ben changed his shape back to his own and set the saddle aside.

"Well, did you like that," he asked.

Raven got down on all fours and kissed the ground. Ben's dick twitched at the sight, his energy restored by the flight, but he was also very hungry, so he ignored it for now. Lisa and Krista wore delighted smiles as they unpacked the basket and served the food. They both said it had been an amazing flight and thanked him for it, over and over. After a few minutes, Raven agreed that it was kinda-sorta fun and they all ate the delicacies the restaurant had prepared for them.

After they ate the last of the dessert, Ben changed into an ogre mage and said, "Take your clothes off and get down on all fours, girls! I'm gonna mount you like bitches!"

The girls gaped at him for a moment and then slowly undressed and assumed the ordered position. They kept looking at one another in wonder and excitement. They glanced back at him, but he barked out, "Eyes front," and they kept their eyes locked on the wonder that was the Grand Canyon.

Ben knelt between Raven's spread legs and lifted her hips until she stood bent over. He pulled her back towards him and the tip of his upper cock found her pucker. He pressed in ever so slightly and felt the resistance make her shudder in his grasp. He laughed and pushed her away. He bent down and spat a thick gob of ogre mage saliva upon her ass. It covered and slimed up her asshole and he quickly spat out two more gobs.

He pressed her asshole against his upper cock and stuck the head of it into her ass with a brief stab of his hips. Her head shot up and she cried out at the painful intrusion. He kept his base instincts in check and held her still until her sphincter relaxed. He focused on the telepathic link to her mind and used it to guide him so he wouldn't hurt her too much. He started to slowly push further in. 

When his lower cock touched her engorged pussy lips, he felt her arousal peak and she screamed out, "Fuck me, you bastard! Give it to me hard!"

Ben shrugged and said, "As you wish." He shoved himself all the way into her, feeling his lower dick bang against her cervix, and sighed in delight. He warned the other two girls to keep facing front and then started to plow Raven's holes in earnest. He reached around Raven with his claws and gently raked the smooth skin of her hanging breasts. Raven exploded in orgasm and collapsed in his arms.

After she came down from her high, Ben resumed fucking her. She yelped with each thrust of his mighty phalluses, a helpless fuckpuppet in his arms. Ben roared as he came and shot his demonic seed into her pussy and ass. Each spurt of his cum fired off a fresh orgasm in her body and mind and she twitched uncontrollably as the pleasure overwhelmed her mind.

Ben felt the noise metal concert of pleasure in her mind and nearly passed out himself. His ogre mage stamina kept him awake and alert. He laid a spent Raven out on the blanket and moved to kneel behind Krista.

After he had fucked Krista and Lisa in the same manner, he was feeling utterly spent himself. He changed back into himself and roused the girls enough for them to receive his telepathic order to accept his teleportation. He spoke the word of Greater Teleport and they all showed up back at home, where they promptly fell into an exhausted sleep.

On Saturday morning, Ben was, as usual, the last to wake up. He was on the living room couch, where he had fallen asleep the night before. With wakefulness came the minds linked to his. Felicia was napping on the windowsill of one of the upstairs bedrooms, Susan was asleep and the girls were in the kitchen, quietly preparing breakfast. He got up and stretched, groaning as his muscles protested such a treatment after yesterday's adventures.

"Aw," Krista said from the open plan kitchen, "and here we were trying to be extra quiet to not wake you up."

Ben grumbled out a cheerful, but unintelligible response and shuffled over to the nearest bathroom. When he finished washing up, he came to the kitchen and joined the girls sitting around the kitchen island for breakfast.

They were halfway done with eating Raven's delicious cooking when Lisa said, "You know what we should do?"

"What," Ben asked around a mouthful of his omelet.

"We should make a fantasy movie," she said with a gigantic smile.

"A fantasy movie," Krista asked in a dubious voice.

"Yeah," Lisa said. "All we need is a camera! We've already got an ogre mage and a dragon and who knows what else Ben can turn into. We'll be the envy of all Hollywood. Think about it! Our," she made air quotes with her fingers, "'CGI' will be the best there is. All we need is a good story. Ben can make the props and costumes."

Raven looked quite interested in the idea, but Krista frowned and looked to be choosing her words. "And who would be in this movie," Ben asked.

"Well, uh," Lisa said.

"Cause I don't think it would be a good idea for me to shapechange in front of a bunch of actors and extras."

"We could star in the movie," Raven said.

"Yes," Lisa said. "We could be three princesses, coming from different kingdoms that are united by the threat of an evil, shapeshifting dragon."

"No," Ben said. "Don't get me wrong, Lisa, I like the idea, love it, in fact, but we can't make a movie and show it to the public. The three of you can't show your faces on camera because the cops want to talk to Raven about the blown up house and those three corpses, Krista's face on a film screen would probably draw hundreds of con victims to come looking for revenge, or to simply call the cops on her, and let's not forget that the FBI might show up and ask why you hadn't been killed at Plainview."

Lisa's face went completely pale, which Ben found to be quite an achievement, considering her swarthy complexion. Her hands shook and she gaped at him like he had grown a second head. Just as he was about to ask her what was wrong, she jumped up and dashed over to the sink to repeat her breakfast into it.

The girls and he jumped up to help her and see if she was alright. She was shaking like a leaf on the wind. Ben finally used the telepathic link to her mind to see what was going on. He gained no information as she was in too big a shock for their words to register in her mind. He sent her the telepathic order to calm down and be at peace and she almost instantly cooled down.

"Lisa, honey," Krista said, squeezing her hand, "what's the matter? Tell us!"

"Oh, nothing much," Lisa said. "I just realized that if I hadn't escaped from that rapist's ambulance, I would have been brutally murdered at Plainview myself." The rest of them hugged her and led her over to the couch to sit down and drink some water. "I'll be alright, it's just... Hell of a thing to realize all of a sudden, you know? If a set of restraints had been tightened properly, I'd be dead right now."

They hushed her and rubbed her back and gave her as much comfort as they could. When Ben judged her to be ready, he sent her the order to be herself and she shed a few tears before hugging him. "Thank you," she whispered into his ear, "thank you for saving me."

"Don't thank me, Lisa," he said as he hugged her tighter, "you're the one that saved yourself, all on your own."

Lisa calmed down and the rest of the morning passed pleasantly enough, but Ben was feeling odd. Something was out of place, or overlooked, and he couldn't figure out what it was. He paced the apartment, climbed the stairs up and down and consulted his rulebooks and Lisa's spell drawings until Krista grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him to a sitting chair downstairs.

She sat opposite him and said, "What's wrong, Ben?"

Ben gave her a surprized look and said, "Nothing. Nothing's wrong."

"Cut the crap. You look distracted and you've been pacing the place all morning. What's going on?"

Ben sighed and relaxed in his seat. He looked at the ceiling for a long minute and then finally said, "I feel like I've forgotten something. It's like I'm driving a shopping cart around and it has nine things in it, but I can distinctly remember counting the things I need to buy on all ten of my fingers. For the life of me, I can't figure out what the tenth thing is, what I've overlooked. And a voice is whispering in the back of my mind that I did overlook something important."

"Maybe it's nothing," Krista offered. "Maybe it's just stress from having so much on your plate." She leaned forward and put her hands on his knees, gently massaging them. "Maybe I can do something for you to help you cope with the stress. Relieve some of the tension you've got pent up." 

Her hands went up the insides of his thighs, but he stood up abruptly and said, "No, thanks. I gotta figure this out. It'll bug me until I do."

He went to the corner of the apartment that was next to the large media room and surrounded by bookcases. It served as his office and he sat at the desk and availed himself of pen and paper. He started writing down things that have happened to him, or that he had done ever since he had become a sorcerer, and made a chart of them.

When he put them in chronological order, he realized that today was the day his domination over Susan's mind ended. He checked and, sure enough, Susan's mind was no longer connected to his. He rubbed his temples and sighed in frustration. The last thing he needed was for her to start making trouble for him.

He tried to imagine what her first move with her newfound freedom would be, but the nagging feeling of overlooking something returned. He crossed her name off his chart. She was irrelevant, after all. Something else that had happened was the matter and he finished fleshing out his chart.

He stared at it for a long time, without any revelations. He felt like the thing that he was missing would reach up from the paper and slap him on the nose to catch his attention and he found himself wishing it would, since he was drawing an absolute blank. Just as he was going to go get himself a drink of water, Felicia jumped into his lap, yawned and lay down to nap.

"Nothing better to do," Ben asked her. She twitched her tail in response and dozed off.

"Something to do," Ben thought to himself and had a brainwave. The thing that was bugging him was something he was supposed to do. That narrowed it down a little. He guessed it was something that he was able to do now that he could change into dragons and cast all but the druidic spells from the Handbook.

He narrowed it down to the True Resurrection spell, but still couldn't figure out whom he should try to bring back to life. The minister who knew the secret of his mother's violation had died of old age and Ben couldn't bring him back. 

He knew the back of his mind didn't bug him about not going out to resurrect dead children, or heal people's spines. He could do both of those things, but he asked himself how he would choose the particular people to heal, or resurrect. If he ever got found out, he would be torn apart by grieving relatives in their rush to have their loved ones restored to health, or life. He couldn't risk exposure at a time like this, not with the fate of everyone resting on his shoulders. He knew that. The death and dismemberment that happened on a daily basis all around the planet weren't the things that were bothering him.

He sat there, stroking Felicia's soft fur while she purred contentedly, for a while, and his thoughts strayed back to the event which changed things. The army base attack. Written on his chart, underlined twice and connected to several other entries by multiple lines was the name of the ROV operator that had been killed at the base in the same manner as the zealots at Raven and Simon's place. Ben finally realized that his soul must not have been reaped by the cultists. He could be resurrected to reveal who was really behind the attack. Ben would give his left nut for anything resembling a clue at this time and this man had probably seen who killed him.

He bitterly chuckled and muttered, "Oh, I've got sugar honey ice tea for brains, I have!" He gently picked up Felicia and set her down to sleep on his desk. He got up and got his jade circlet and utility belt. He wasted no time in making himself invisible and teleporting into the diamond dealer's vault. He took another five millions' worth, even though the insurance investigator was right there, in the vault with him.

Ben teleported silently out of there and to a forest outside the city. He didn't want to resurrect the ROV operator on his roof and have the man know who Ben was and run the risk of him revealing his identity to the world at large and the cultists in particular.

Ben donned the jade circlet and cast the Shapechange spell. He turned himself into a golden dragon and cast True Resurrection with the ROV operator in mind. Ten minutes later, the diamonds coalesced and flashed with a bright light. The light subsided to reveal a naked, young man on the ground.

While the man slowly looked around himself, Ben shapechanged into his Asian girl form, complete with a tasteful business outfit, and ended his invisibility.

"Hello," Ben said, startling the naked, young soldier.

"Where am I," the soldier asked. "Who are you? What happened? Is this Heaven?"

Ben raised his hands and said, "Please calm down! This is not the afterlife. This is a forest ten miles out of town. My name is not important." Ben crouched to come closer to the soldier, but he scurried away from him. "Please, don't be afraid! I mean you no harm. I just need you to answer some questions for me, please."

The young man kept looking around in a blind panic, but he quickly became aware of the fact that he was lying naked in front of a pretty, Asian girl and that thought slowly pushed all others out of his mind and made him focus on Ben. He covered his groin with his hands and curled up to sit on the ground with as little bare skin exposed to her gaze as he possibly could.




Outsiders Pt. 06



Ben Kidder sat on his parents' couch and rubbed his brow in a vain effort to curb the headache he was suffering as a result of sleep deprivation and the emotional turmoil he had gone through that night. His other hand held his phone to his ear. On the other end of the line was his former slave girl, Krista.

"Come again," he said.

"Sir," Krista said, in a deferential tone of voice, "there is an FBI agent in the lobby, waiting to speak with you."

Ben took his phone off his ear and looked at its screen. He put it back to his ear and said, "Now? It's not even nine a.m."

"I can only tell you what I know, Sir," Krista said. "The agent arrived a few minutes ago and the doorman described him as insistent."

Ben huffed in frustration. He didn't want to be interrogated by the FBI. He didn't want Krista to keep addressing him as 'Sir'. He wanted to apologize and atone for blowing up at the girls earlier. He wanted to get the full might of the federal government behind himself.

Before he could say anything, Krista said, "Sir, the doorman already confirmed to the FBI agent that you are here."

Ben's brow drew down in displeasure. "Well, that takes him off my Christmas list," he thought to himself. "And no more tips, either."

"Should I try to dissuade the agent?"

"No," Ben said. "No." He was about to say that he'll be right there, but his parents were sitting right next to him. He couldn't say that, excuse himself for a moment, and go teleporting to his apartment without provoking his mother's suspicions.

"Hold on a sec," he said to Krista. He covered the mouthpiece of his phone and said to his parents, "I need to take this call upstairs, in my room. I'll be back downstairs in, like, ten minutes, or so. Ok?"

His parents nodded, still shaken up from hearing the President speak of emergency measures to deal with the undead threat, and Ben got up to go to his childhood bedroom. As soon as he locked the door behind himself, he picked up his bag with the jade circlet and teleported to his apartment. He hung up the phone and said, "Krista, send the agent up and keep him occupied at the front door! Offer him refreshments and the like, ok?"

"Yes, Sir," Krista said, with a sharp salute. She marched over to the door and stood by it at attention. Ben didn't know if she was being sarcastic with her pseudo-military act, or if it was for real. He hoped she wouldn't go blabbing to the FBI agent. He walked up the stairs, to one of the bedrooms, and placed the circlet upon his brow. He cast Shapechange on himself and changed into a Djinni.

He took gaseous form and invisibly flew towards the front door. While he waited for the agent to arrive, he took the chance to read the girls' minds.

Krista's mind was focused on the task of distracting the agent, but Ben could tell that she was eager to fight the enemy in the manner he had described. She saw it as a new experience and an adventure beyond compare. She wanted to be the badass scrapper, for once, and not have to rely on her charms and quick wits to get out of trouble. She imagined herself wearing sexy, magically enhanced armor and chopping down waves of crazy cultists with a big machinegun. She didn't even think once about him screaming at her.

Raven was asleep in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Lisa was also lying in bed, but she wasn't asleep. Her mind was consumed with doubts. Ben focused on those and understood that her doubts were about herself and whether or not she had the guts to go fighting alongside him and the girls. Ben wasn't surprised to read from her mind that the girls had a serious tête-à-tête about his rant as soon as he had teleported out of here, but he was surprised to learn that Krista and Raven were completely on board with the idea of entering combat with the cultists.

They were somewhat less on board with the idea of adhering to strict, military discipline and the no-fun approach to preparations that he had angrily spat out earlier, but he guessed that that was to be expected. Krista was a hedonistic adrenaline junkie and Raven had only been deflowered last month. Lisa, too, had only started having orgasms the day before she wound up with Ben. She didn't think it fair in the least to be done with sex so soon.

Lisa seemed to think that a climactic battle with the evildoers was unavoidable, but she doubted if she would be of any use in it. She wanted to help, to contribute to the fight, but she didn't feel confident that she could. She was also frightened that she would come to a bad end if she left Ben's vicinity. Now that the evil side showed their ability to raise the dead, she was very scared of them. She didn't even have absolute faith in Ben's ability to win, anymore. 

"Join the club, sweetie," Ben thought.

Ben couldn't believe that neither girl was hung up on the fact that he had been yelling at them, hours ago, over things that weren't their fault. He didn't know if the sleeping Raven felt the same way, but neither Krista, nor Lisa were even thinking about him having suddenly turned into a rage monster and spouted profanity-riddled filth at them.

He was going to humbly apologize, nonetheless. He felt the mind of the FBI agent come into range and focused on it. 

The agent was thinking about his wife and her strange reaction to the undead disturbance. Ben felt a bit embarrassed to read in the man's mind the many arguments he had put together in favor of his wife having been cheating on him for quite some time, now. Ben wanted to tune out of the man's silent monologue, but couldn't afford to. He needed to keep listening in if he was to find out what the FBI was thinking about him.

The agent decided that he would just have to weather the coming apocalypse all alone. He imagined his military experience and FBI training would allow him to save quite a few nubile, female survivors that would be most grateful for his heroics. As horrible as the coming apocalypse would probably be, the agent was going to get rid of "the ol' ball and chain" and try to have some fun before the very end.

Finally, the man exited the elevator on the last floor. There were only two doors on offer to him, the stairs to the side and Ben's apartment dead ahead. He pushed the thoughts of his wife aside, for the moment, and reminded himself that the dead had risen, after all. The agent looked at Ben's door and turned his thoughts towards him. If Ben hadn't been an intangible being at the time, he would have sighed in profound relief. The agent opened his folder and skimmed the salient points of his small file on Ben.

The Bureau, Ben learned from the agent's mind, had been ordered by the Attorney General to investigate all reports of the supernatural, no matter how ridiculous they sounded. A scapegoat was needed. If there was a name attached to a report, they were to knock on that name's door and see what they could shake out.

The agent believed that the government was going to hold the modern equivalent of witch trials and that he was tasked with finding likely candidates for burning at the stake. He felt sure that the government would execute some people, if it felt like controlling the masses warranted it. And he might be the one to put someone in harm's way. That thought made him like his job again. After many years of incessant desk-riding drudgery, he felt like he was holding the power over life and death in his hands again. He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind and focused fully on the matter at hand.

Ben was surprised to learn that he had been reported by Susan, who had come to the Bureau's local offices on Monday morning and denounced him as a mind controller. She had been politely laughed out the door. When the Assistant Director passed down the Attorney General's order, everyone in the office remembered her at the same time and ran a quick background check on Ben. 

The check quickly revealed statements from the four young burglars that had broken into Ben's home, weeks ago. Statements in which they claimed Ben had transformed two of them into frogs. Ben could read in the agent's mind that he had felt ridiculous just reading those statements. The idea of a magician living in a shabby house and turning people into frogs was utterly ludicrous on so many levels, undead, or no undead. If one had magical power, why would they want to live in squalor?

When Ben's very large and very recent influx of cash was spotted, everyone's mind changed. The Bureau tagged Ben as a potential person of interest and sent the agent Ben's way. The agent closed his file folder and tugged on his tie. He cleared his throat, crossed the small lobby and knocked on the door.

Krista answered it very quickly and greeted the agent with a polite smile. Ben was a little incensed to read in the man's mind all the things he'd like to do to Krista, but he reminded himself that he had screamed at her and shoved her around, just a few hours earlier. The two of them may as well be broken up, for all intents and purposes. As he saw in the agent's mind the various poses he'd like to put Krista in, Ben had to repeatedly tell himself to not strike out at him in a jealous rage.

The agent smoothly deflected all of Krista's offers of refreshments and repeatedly asked for Ben. Krista bid him to take a seat and walked off to find Ben. Ben was amused to read fear in her mind. She considered the agent to be competent and she feared him figuring out her criminal past if she hung around him for too long.

Ben took one last look inside the agent's mind. He was trying to get a read on Ben from the things he had in his apartment. He was quickly drawing a general conclusion of Ben being nouveau riche. Ben was going to do nothing to dissuade him of such a notion. He flew back upstairs and turned into himself in one of the bedrooms. He checked in the mirror that he hadn't made his circlet appear and walked downstairs.

As he passed Krista, he gently caressed her wrist and whispered, "Thank you." She looked him in the eye and nodded.

Ben walked over to the FBI agent, who whipped out his credentials and said, "Mister Ben Kidder?" Ben nodded. "I'm special agent Daniel Thomas Fitzgerald of the Federal Bureau of Investigations."

Ben approached the agent and extended his hand to shake. The agent was momentarily taken aback, but then put his ID away, moved his folder into his left hand and shook Ben's hand.

"Nice to meet you, agent Fitzgerald," Ben said. "What would you like to talk about?"

"I'm just here to ask you a few questions," Fitzgerald said.

Ben thought that he could see in the agent's demeanor that he was a little angry that Ben wasn't at all intimidated by him and his three name introduction. "Questions about what," Ben asked, gesturing towards the sofa and taking a seat on the couch himself.

Fitzgerald remained standing and ominously said, "Questions about the accusations that have been brought up against you."

Ben had already decided to play the brash young brat that got rich by inventing something new, so he gave his new persona a twirl. He sat back and relaxed with a small sigh. He spread his arms in wordless question.

"As I'm sure you're well aware, mister Kidder," the agent said, with an air of authority, "this nation is under attack by supernatural forces."

Ben screwed up his face. "Nah," he drawled. "I think that was just CGI."

"What," Fitzgerald barked out in disbelief.

"Yeah," Ben said. "It was Computer Generated Imagery. CGI for short. You see, you can take images that-"

"I know what CGI is, Kidder! I'm telling you that that wasn't it! That was real people getting ripped apart by real undead!"

Ben scrunched up his nose and grinned. "Real undead," he asked, stressing the word real.

"Yes, real undead! Didn't you hear the President speak about it?"

Ben gave a small, embarrassed laugh. Fitzgerald looked at him like he was insane. "I don't know about that," Ben said. "This whole thing smells to me like another one of my friends' practical jokes."

"Practical jokes?"

"Yeah," Ben said, smiling. "We get bored, so we pull pranks on one another. Like this, now. My friends made some CGI of a zombie attack and the President giving a speech and..." Ben's mouth dropped as he faked having an epiphany. "And they hired an actor to come play the part of an FBI agent!" Ben laughed heartily. "Where are the cameras?" He looked around his apartment and then started searching Fitzgerald's lapels and buttons with his gaze.

Fitzgerald put on his best air of authority and kept a tight check on his voice as he clearly said, "Mister Kidder, I assure you that this is not a joke, practical, or otherwise. I am a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigations and you are under investigation for use of supernatural powers against citizens and interests of the United States of America."

"What supernatural powers," Ben asked, still chuckling in amusement.

Fitzgerald knew exactly how ludicrous his words were going to sound, even after the President had spoken about the undead on national television, but he said them, nonetheless. "You are suspected of using mind control."

Ben stared at the agent for a pregnant moment and then burst into renewed laughter.

"Very well, mister Kidder," Fitzgerald said, reaching for his handcuffs, "you're coming with me and we'll continue this conversation-"

Ben pulled out his phone, stopped laughing and adopted a dangerously serious voice as he said, "My legal team has instructed me in many things." Fitzgerald stood still. Whenever rich people mentioned lawyers, standing still was the wise thing to do. "One of them being that you have to positively identify yourself as a federal agent, or else my bodyguards have every legal right to make your kidneys have an out-of-body experience."

Fitzgerald's brow drew down and he growled, "Are you threatening an agent of the federal government?" He casually swept the tail of his jacket aside, revealing his service sidearm in a hip holster.

"No," Ben calmly said, "I'm pointing out to a two-bit actor that impersonating a federal agent is a felony. Just like concealed carry is in this jurisdiction." Ben drew Fitzgerald's attention to his hand in his pocket. "I'm holding my panic button alarm. If I press it, a group of former special forces operators will show up here in less than thirty seconds. And I pay them handsomely to show up armed and angry. Now, unless you want to be badly beaten and delivered to the actual FBI, I suggest you tell me which one of my friends put you up to this!"

Fitzgerald was a ball of barely suppressed anger as he said, "Mister Kidder, I've already shown you my credentials."

"And you completely blew it by talking about the undead and mind control and... whatever. Now, spill it! Is it Hurley? Chan? Huntzberger? Who put you up to this?"

Fitzgerald wanted to blow the annoying, little pipsqueak away, but he kept his anger in check. The world might be coming to an end, but the Bureau was still operating as usual and he didn't want to meet his end inside a prison, like a chump. He moved his hand from his hip and slowly pulled his credentials out to again show them to Ben. "I am special agent-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ben said, interrupting him. "I'm the guy that summons a bunch of mean motherfuckers by tapping a button." He held out his hand. "Gimme!"

Fitzgerald placed his credentials in the palm of Ben's hand, glaring the whole time. Ben silenced his phone and pretended to dial a number on it. He faked a conversation with a lawyer whom he asked to run the ID number on the agent's credentials. He pretended to look at a photo that was sent to his phone.

"Huh," Ben finally said. "I'll call you later," he said into the phone and pretended to hang it up. "My lawyer says you're real and that the undead are, too." Ben adopted a completely lost expression on his face. "Oh my gosh!" He looked at the agent with wild eyes. "The President was for real, wasn't he? Oh, dear!"

Fitzgerald relaxed at seeing the kid finally intimidated by him, like he should be. He snatched his ID from Ben's hand and put it away. He barely suppressed his eyeroll as the kid on the couch started to squirm in fear. His eyes were darting all over his apartment, as if he was desperately trying to spot a zombie in time to react.

Fitzgerald sighed. Even if the kid wasn't scared of him, he at least wasn't acting like a brash, young fuck he'd like to slap upside his fool head anymore. He decided to make the questioning short and to the point. He had four more suspects to visit and he was fairly sure those would turn out to be crazy cat ladies. If he did everything quick, he could squeeze in a visit to a divorce lawyer, right before lunch.

"Until recently, you were employed at a call center as an IT specialist. Is this true?"

Ben acted scared and confused. "Huh? Oh! Yeah. Yes. Yes, I was. What does this have to do with the dead rising from their graves?"

"What was the manner of your departure from the center's employ?"

"Huh? Oh, I uh... I quit."

"Why did you resign?"

"I, uh, I made this new design for a machine that turns raw filaments into clothes. It's a very efficient next generation loom. I made a lot of money with it. "

"We would like to see this machine of yours."

Ben focused all of his attention on the agent and firmly said, "Absolutely not! Not without a warrant! That's proprietary technology! You can't go inspecting it!" He picked up his phone again and pretended to dial a number. "I'm having my legal team get a federal injunction against any warrant."

Fitzgerald rolled his eyes. The world was coming to an end and the rich asshat sitting before him went from scared shitless to worried about his profit margin in five seconds flat. He decided to try a different approach.

"Can you tell me something about the events that transpired at your residence on the evening of the twenty third of June this year?"

"What," Ben said in genuine confusion. That wasn't the date that the cops had come to see if he was murdering one of his girls.

"A group of young men claims that they broke into your house on that night and that you turned two of them into frogs."

Ben's mouth opened and he almost said oh as he remembered the four burglars and their great big gun. He quickly recovered and adopted a confused expression. "Huh?!"

"Four men claim that," Fitzgerald said and trailed off. It didn't matter to him that the dead had risen from their graves, asking a man if he turned someone into a frog was still beyond ridiculous.

"What are you on about? Frogs? A break-in? What's going on?"

Fitzgerald's visit was meant to establish if there was a foundation for a public trial and there clearly wasn't. Kidder's income was explained by his invention and the people that made claims against him were far from trustworthy. A disgruntled, former boss, who had been since fired herself, and a bunch of criminals didn't make for great witnesses in a public trial. "Besides," he thought to himself, "the kid's lawyers would humiliate the Bureau and the government and then I'd be the one to suffer the consequences."

"Thank you for your time, mister Kidder."

"You can't go inspecting my machine! It's the basis for my entire business venture. Just by inspecting it, you'd be placing my enterprise at great risk. That can't be allowed!"

Fitzgerald started to move towards the door. "We will not be examining it, sir. There will be no need for legal action."

"Then why did you ask to see it?"

"I'm sorry for any imposition, sir, and I thank you for your cooperation."

Ben held up a finger at the agent as he pretended to speak with his legal team on the phone. Fitzgerald gave him a bland smile, said, "Have a nice day, sir," and slipped out the door, shutting it firmly behind himself. Once outside, he sighed in relief and crossed the small lobby to press the elevator call button. The elevator was still there and the doors opened to admit him inside.




Outsiders Pt. 06



Ben opened the door to his apartment and said, "Who put you up to this?"

Fitzgerald stopped himself from rolling his eyes and said, "Need I remind you again that this was official business?"

"I mean, who reported me?"

Fitzgerald started pressing the close doors button and said, "I'm afraid I can't divulge that information to you, sir."

The doors started closing and Ben said, "I'm filing a Freedom of Information Act request!"

Fitzgerald smiled and said, "You do that, sir," just before the doors closed.

Ben stepped back into his apartment and closed and locked the door. He turned into a Djinni and read the agent's mind.

The agent was feeling relief to be away from the asshat rich boy he wanted to strangle for daring to threaten him. He was tempted to go back and arrest him for threatening a federal agent and send him upriver for a long stretch, but he believed Ben's legal team would make mincemeat of the federal prosecutor in a trial. Especially since Ben had not, technically, threatened him. Ben had merely mentioned having bodyguards and asked to see his credentials again.

He opened his folder and crossed Ben's name off his list. He then thought back to the woman who had laid the accusations at Ben's feet and decided to add her name to his list. She might be a good candidate for a show trial. He was going to check out her background when he returned to the office.

Ben was relieved to read in the agent's mind that he was no longer considered a suspect.

Krista came back downstairs and said, "Is he gone? Ben? Are you still here?"

He changed back into himself and turned towards her. "Yes, I'm still here."

Krista smiled in relief. "Phew," she said, "that was a close one!"

"Meh," Ben said, making a face, "not really. They had no evidence that a crime had been committed in the first place. How would one prove that they were under mind control, anyway?"

Krista seemed to remember something and stood at attention. "Sir, I-"

"Stop," Ben said, interrupting her. He raised a hand towards her, palm out. "I'm sorry for all the shit I yelled at you girls earlier this morning. I didn't mean any of it." 

Krista opened her mouth to say something, but Ben cut her off with, "I have to go back to my parents' place now. I want you to tell the girls that I'm sorry and that they're more than welcome to stay here for as long as they like, ok?" Krista looked unsure for a moment and then nodded. "Just ask them politely to remain here until this afternoon, when I'll come back and apologize properly. We'll talk then. All of us. Ok?"

Krista nodded, after a moment's hesitation, and Ben gave her a small smile of gratitude.

He teleported to his childhood bedroom and went downstairs to once again try and calm his parents down. He failed, but he did manage to channel their panic into more productive things than sitting around and bemoaning their fate. His mother cleaned the house and got rid of everything she deemed unnecessary for survival. His dad set about tuning up the Challenger and seeing to it that the car had the right amount of oil, the right tire pressure, etc. 

Ben helped them as best he could. He hauled big items out of the house and loaded them in and on the Fiesta. He pressed the pedals of the Challenger when his dad told him to, so he could check the lights and brakes.

Finally, they finished what they were doing and reconvened for lunch in the dining room. Ben's mother doled out portions of a casserole and they all sat down to eat. Ben loved his mother's casserole. He tasted it and moaned in appreciation. "This is great, Mom."

"Thank you, dear," she said. She looked to be conflicted about something. She exchanged a long look with her husband; a look Ben didn't miss. He shoveled more food in his mouth and waited to see what would happen.

"Ben," she said and then hesitated. "You will stay here with us, won't you?"

"So we can keep you safe, son," his dad quickly added.

Ben took a good, long look at his parents' eyes. He could see their concern for him was genuine. They weren't fishing for him to stay and protect them. He gave a sad smile and said, "No. I won't be staying here." They looked sad to hear him say those words. "You two should focus on protecting each other," he said, "not waste your time worrying about me."

"We're your parents," his mother said, putting her hand over his, "we're always worrying about you."

Ben blinked back a sudden rush of tears and put his hand over his mother's. He patted it gently and said, "Don't. I'll be fine. It's the two of you that I'm worried about."

"Oh, we'll be fine," his father said. "Besides, nothing bad ever happens around here."

Ben's mother swatted his dad on the shoulder. "Jinx," she reproached.

"Sorry," he muttered and lowered his face towards his plate.

Ben's eyes flickered from one parent to the other in confusion. They had never before displayed any superstitions, not even once. He had never before even heard his mother say the word "jinx", and here she was, worried that his dad had jinxed them.

"Will you at least come with us to church so you can receive a blessing," his mother asked.

Ben stared at her in shock. He honestly didn't know what to say. His mother, who had had the lowest possible opinion of all religions and churches for as long as he could remember, was now speaking of going to a church to receive a blessing. If George R.R. Martin finally finished "The Winds of Winter", Ben would be less amazed. His eyes flicked over to his father, but his face was earnestly awaiting Ben's answer, as well. Ben's mouth worked with no sound coming out as he fumbled for words.

"Of course you will," his father said, at length. "As soon as we dump all the garbage in the Fiesta at the nearest landfill, we'll swing by the church."

"Where can we buy crucifixes," Ben's mother asked his father. "And a Bible? Where are those sold?"

"What's going on," Ben finally managed to spit out. "What are you two talking about? You're going to church? You'll buy a Bible? You're atheists!"

"Well, it's never too late to repent, son," his father said.

"Yes," his mother added, "it's said that the church always welcomes lost sheep."

"Repent," Ben spat out. "Lost sheep? What are you two on about?"

"Ben, dear," Ben's mother said, in her best, patiently maternal voice, "this is no longer a matter of beliefs and faith. God and the devil are both real."

"The devil made the dead rise," Ben's father said, "and God smote them down to save the faithful. He even healed the wounded."

"And that awful business in Manhattan," Ben's mother asked before clucking her tongue in disapproval.

Ben's father nodded and said, "Yes. You must have heard it yourself, Son. Every expert agreed that that wasn't natural."

"The devil did it," Ben's mother proclaimed with certainty and finality.

Ben gaped at the two of them in utter disbelief. He hadn't given a flying fuck about not getting the credit for stopping the cultists, but now he was sorely tempted to reveal himself. He just couldn't allow his parents to make such big decisions on the basis of lies. He opened his mouth and tried to decide on whether to say he was a magician, or if he should lead with a demonstration of his power. He decided to first talk about it and then he remembered the many, many times he had walked past his mother and her friends, who had been sitting in this very living room, and overhearing one of them say, "Now, don't repeat this to anyone, this was said to me in the strictest of confidences..."

His mother and all her friends were horrible gossips and that gave him pause. He told himself that she would keep his secret, if he were to reveal it, and not gossip about it, since this was something entirely different. Yet, he remembered how his mother would not shut up about his every, little achievement, from winning spelling bees to getting into college. She was always nagging people about the latest brilliant thing her son had done.

Ben looked at his mother and found himself believing that she'd brag about him if he told her he had been the one that destroyed the rats and undead and healed the survivors. Her eyes betrayed the shellshock she was experiencing from hearing about the undead and Ben couldn't conceive her staying mum about the truth if he shared it with her. 

He wanted to tell her, but he couldn't afford to, he finally decided. If they so much as hinted to their friends that their son had intimate knowledge of what was really going on, they'd be hard pressed to divulge any information. They'd probably buckle under the pressure and share the truth with a trusted friend, who would then blab to the entire world in a heartbeat.

Telling them would paint a great, big target on them, Ben realized. They could be abducted by the cultists to draw him into a trap. Or they could be arrested by the government in an effort to control him. He couldn't see a chain of events that would unfold after he told his parents the truth without it ending badly for all involved. He came to a firm decision. He was going to leave his parents in the dark about things. He had to stay anonymous above all else, so he could ambush the enemy come March.

Just as he ended his internal deliberations, his mother firmly grasped his hand and said, "Ben, you need to have your soul saved. The devil has come calling." Ben blinked back another gush of moisture from his eyes and cleared his throat. "You must come with us and get baptized."

Ben cleared his throat again and said, "Yeah, about that... I'm already baptized." His mother and father gasped as one. "I joined a church, back at college, and I didn't tell you guys, cause I thought you'd disapprove."

His parents' expressions quickly changed from shocked to delighted. "Ben, that's wonderful," his mother exclaimed. 

His father patted him on the back and said, "'Atta boy, Son! 'Atta boy!"

"You're not mad," Ben asked, affecting surprise.

"No, of course not, Son," his father said.

"We're just glad that you're safe from the devil's clutches," his mother added.

His parents smiled at him and his mother stroked his cheek. His throat was feeling tight, so he cleared it. His father looked down at his plate and pointed at it. He said, "We forgot to give grace!"

"Oh, dear," Ben's mother said. "We have so much to learn! Ben! Can you lead us in giving grace?"

Ben nearly barked out an incredulous "what", but he managed to keep a lid on it. If he had indeed been baptized, then he should know how to give grace. He had seen it done on TV often enough. He gestured and the three of them joined hands around the small table, with him and his dad reaching across it. They bowed their heads.

"Lord," Ben said, "bless us and this bounty which we are about to receive in Your... uh, mercy, and, uh, protect us and our loved ones. Amen!"

"Amen," his parents echoed. They smiled at him and the three of them finished their meal in short order. His dad and he drove the Fiesta to the landfill, which was unattended, and they unloaded all the crap Ben had hauled out of the car. They drove back to the house and Ben's mother joined them on the front lawn.

"Ben, darling, are you really going to leave," she asked.

"Yes, I really should be going," Ben said.

"I just wish you would stay here, with us," she said. "The trouble is hitting the big cities. This is a small town. We'll be hit last, probably. You should stay with us!"

"I would love to, Mom, but I have to get back to the city."

"I'm so scared that this is the last time we'll ever see you," she said. Her lower lip trembled and her eyes moistened.

"It isn't," Ben said. He hugged her. "I promise you it isn't."

She hugged him back and softly sobbed. "Ben," his dad said, "I think I know why you want to go back to the city." Ben gave him a questioning look. "You've met someone, haven't you? Someone that convinced you to convert. You want to get back to her, don't you?"

Ben's mother gasped at the mention of the gendered pronoun and broke their hug. She held Ben out at arm's length and gaped at him in offended disbelief. "Oh, fuck me," Ben thought to himself.

"Ben," she said, "you mustn't! It's a sin!"

Ben rolled his eyes and extricated himself from his mother's grasp. "Yeah, ok," he said, "I'm not-"

"Promise me," his mother shouted at him, after grabbing his upper arm in a death grip. "Promise me you will not fornicate with this girl! It's a sin, Ben. A mortal sin. You will go to Hell for it!"

Ben affected a tight grin and pried his mother's hand off his arm. "Fine," he said, "I promise."

"You have to stay a good boy, Ben," she said. "It's the only path to the salvation of your immortal soul."

"Yes, mother, I promise I will."

"Promise me!"

"I already have!"

His father put his hand on his mother's shoulder and said, "He promised, dear. You know our Ben, if he makes a promise, he keeps it." His mother looked unconvinced, but she nodded and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Thanks, Dad."

His father nodded and said, "You just use protection and confess after each time and the two of you will be alright."

"Martin," Ben's mother exclaimed in shock. "How can you say such a thing!?"

"We need to be realistic, Judy," Ben's dad said. "He's young. She's young, too, no doubt. We can't expect them to not give in to temptation, every now and then. Particularly in such high strung times as these."

Ben covered his ears with his hands as his parents started arguing about him having sex with his imaginary, religious girlfriend. "I'm leaving now," he said, still pressing his palms to his ears. "You call me if you need anything at all! I have a friend that lives around here and she'll come over and help you with anything you need." Ben's original plan for taking care of his folks was to teleport here, whenever they needed him, in his guise of an Asian girl. "Anything at all!" 

His parents looked shocked that he was friends with a local girl. He turned around and started walking away. They followed him. "Wait, wait," Martin said, "who is this girl?"

"Surely, we know her," Judy said.

"She's a friend of mine and you don't know her," Ben said, "she has just moved here."

"Give us her phone number," Judy said.

"No." Ben shrugged at his mother. "She insists I not give it out to anyone. I already promised. But, don't worry. Whenever you call, she'll be here within minutes, ready to take care of anything."

"You can't expect a young girl to be able," Judy started saying.

Ben interrupted her with, "She will bring her cousins with her and they can deal with anything that crops up. I promise you that! Besides, I'll be stopping by to check up on you once, or twice a week. I promise!"

"That doesn't make sense, Ben," his mother said. "It would be better if you stayed here with us full time and not spent half your week on the road, going to and fro."

Ben stopped dead in his tracks and hugged his mother close. "Mother, I have to go." He let go of her and looked deep into her eyes. "We'll see each other soon." He turned around and resumed walking. 

"No," she yelled after him. She ran to catch up and grabbed his sleeve. "No, you're staying with us, here, where it's safe!"

Ben sighed. This goodbye was becoming impossible, especially since a big part of him wanted to stay with his parents and keep them safe. He knew he couldn't. He may have been crazed with anger when he had yelled about it, but he did have a big battle to prepare for. He thought for a moment and came up with a story that would get his parents off his back. He said, "Mother, I've volunteered for watch duty at a graveyard in the city. I have to go."

He gave her another hug. 

"At least let me drive you," Ben's dad said. Ben nodded and Martin ran off to the garage to start up the Challenger.

Judy stood still and rubbed Ben's back. He could see she was holding back tears. The car came roaring out of the garage and she said, "I'm proud of you, Ben."

"Stay safe," he said and got in the car.

Martin revved the engine a few times and called out to Judy, "Get back inside and lock the doors!" He gunned it and the Challenger burned rubber as it tore off down the street.

"Dad," Ben yelled out in surprise, "there aren't zombies chasing us! You can slow down a little!"

Martin lessened the pressure on the pedal only slightly. The muscle car roared down the empty streets of their small town, heading towards the bus depot. Ben braced himself through the corners as his dad took them at almost full speed, fishtailing out of them. He was quite a bit scared at seeing his father, who had always been the most sensible and calm of drivers, suddenly transform into a street racer, but he could see the gladness on his face. He looked like a kid in a candy store and Ben decided to disguise his unease. 

When the car came to a stop in front of the bus depot, Ben said, "Thanks," and jumped out with his bag in hand.

"Wait," Martin called out after him. He got out to follow his son. "It looks deserted."

"I'm not taking the bus," Ben said. He was getting sick and tired of lying to his parents the whole morning long. His mother's interrogator ways had seemingly vanished with the coming of the apocalypse, but he still feared they might stage a comeback and subject him to a thorough and very circuitous questioning. He had an imaginary, religious girlfriend in the city, duty shifts at a graveyard and now he had to come up with a mundane explanation for going away without a bus. "I'm meeting up with some other volunteers nearby. They're giving me a ride." He decided to start writing things down so he could keep track of it all.

Martin nodded, but then said, "Well, let me drive you there."

"Nope," Ben said. "I have to show up all alone, without anyone following me. It's kind of a final test for new recruits, you know?" He bit the inside of his cheek at the flimsy excuse of a lie he had just put out. A quick glance to his father's face revealed that it might be accepted, but he couldn't risk any more questions. He turned around and jogged behind the bus depot building.

"Wait," his father called out after him. "You didn't tell us who these people are. Which organization did you join?"

"Bye, Dad! Keep Mom safe! Call if you need anything!" 

It wasn't a proper goodbye, nor did he leave a convincing explanation for his imminent departure, but Ben couldn't stomach lying to his parents anymore. He turned the corner and did a quick check. No one was around to see him. He ducked behind a bush and made himself invisible before teleporting to his apartment.

He sighed in relief as he materialized at his place. "I need to become a better liar," he thought to himself. "That was pathetic."

He ended his invisibility and reached out to try and sense Lisa and Raven. The telepathic links to their minds had expired and he sighed. His heart started beating at the mere thought of walking downstairs. He feared that he would find the apartment empty, that the girls had changed their mind and left.

"Nonsense," he told himself. "I've read their minds. They want to stay at my side and help me fight. They want to fight." A grin crept up to his face and stayed there. He told it to go away, as he first had to contritely apologize for his outburst, but the grin just wouldn't listen.

He exited his bedroom and went looking for the girls. The other bedrooms were empty, so he lost the grin and descended the stairs. The girls weren't there, either. Ben's heart fluttered uncomfortably as he looked into every bathroom. He even dropped down to the carpeted floor and looked under each bed and behind the couch. The girls weren't there. He was all alone, except for a sleeping Felicia curled up behind the couch.

He shuffled over to the couch in the living room area, with all the energy of a man on death row, and sat down with a miserable grunt. His gaze was unfocused as he stared off into the distance. The empty, luxurious apartment seemed to be mocking him with the numerous, soft sounds an empty apartment filled with luxury electronics makes. 




Outsiders Pt. 06



He sat there for a long time, feeling numb inside. The girls had been three sexy rays of sunshine in his life and, with them gone, the dark clouds of doubts and worries gathered in his mind, obscuring the very idea of hope. He was all alone. He had no one he could turn to and the fate of the entire world rested on his shoulders and his shoulders alone.

Felicia was still with him, but a familiar was of limited tactical value and he had already decided not to take her into battle with him. Her loss would also bring him a loss of experience points and that could knock him back to level nineteen, costing him his Shapechange spell and all the power that came with it.

His head fell back as he slid lower in his seat. He couldn't see the point in fighting on, anymore. Even if he did, by some miracle of chance, win against the evil, what would that bring him? He could see no happiness for himself looming on the horizon. There would be no prizes, no parades, not even a passing, "thanks for saving the world."

His unfocused gaze lingered on the ceiling as images of the three beauties he had chased away occupied his mind's eye. He had had the key to happiness in his grasp. He had had happiness, genuine happiness and he had let it slip away.

"Because I was weak," he whispered to the empty apartment.

Ben wasn't sure how long he just sat there, staring past the ceiling tiles at a sky he couldn't see and doing no more than blinking occasionally. He was wallowing in misery, but he was also growing more and more bored by the minute. There was no point in continued wallowing. He most certainly wasn't going to spend the rest of his days just sitting around moping. He resolved to have as much fun before March as he could.

A yawn escaped him. He wiped his face and sighed as he sat up. Tomorrow, he was going to discern the girls' locations and teleport to them; not to win them back, but simply to apologize and make things right. Give them money and teleport them where they wanted to go. But that was tomorrow. Today he needed sleep.

He yawned and debated himself over whether to fall asleep right there, on the couch, or to make the effort to go upstairs and stretch himself out on a bed. He needed to finally catch his forty winks, both to clear up the persistent, dull throb in the back of his head and to restore his spent spell slots. His eyes closed and he drifted off to sleep.

He was startled awake by the sound of his door opening. He grumbled and moaned incoherently as he tried to wipe the fog of sleep from his eyes and make out the figures entering his apartment.

"Ben," Lisa called out cheerfully, "you're here!"

His head throbbed as he squinted at the three blurry figures at the door. "You look like shit," Krista said with compassion in her voice. "Did you get any sleep today?"

Ben finally managed to visually confirm that the girls had walked into the apartment. He shook his head no once and tried to say that he didn't, but the sounds that came out of his pursed lips were more like something a drunk dolphin would say.

"You need to get some sleep," Krista said. The girls set down their shopping bags and walked over to him.

Ben cleared his throat and said, "I thought you were left. Gone. I mean to say. Gone. Left."

"We just left to run some errands," Lisa said. "We didn't expect you until later."

Raven and Krista grabbed him under his arms and pulled him upright. "Come on," Krista said, "it's sleepy time."

Ben let himself be led towards the stairs and said, "Wait, I need to say I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"It's okay," Raven said, "you'll tell us tomorrow!"

The girls led him to the nearest bedroom and made him sit down on the bed. "I didn't mean to blow up at you girls like that," Ben said. "I'm so ashamed."

"It's ok," Raven said. "We get it. You were stressed, you hadn't had enough sleep, you had fought the undead and Krista slapped you. Shit happens. It was no biggie."

"No," Ben protested. "I mean, yes, but I-"

"What you need to do," Raven said and knelt before him, "is relax and get some sleep." She undid his belt and zipper. She smiled up at him. "And I know how to relax you." She squeezed his dick in his boxers, cutting off his second attempt at an apology and making him groan as his dick started to swell in response to her touch. She gently massaged his growing organ and then slipped it out of his underwear.

Ben lay back with a sigh when she lowered her face to his crotch. Her warm breath preceded her wet tongue on the head of his cock. She lathered up his glans with her spittle. She pumped his shaft with one hand and swept her golden hair off her face with the other. She looked him in the eye and smiled before bending down to swallow his cock. Her pursed lips pushed his foreskin down and allowed her flicking tongue to tickle his most sensitive flesh.

He groaned loudly and his hips started to pump of their own accord, driven by the rush of pleasure she was giving him. He closed his eyes and grabbed fistfuls of the sheets. Just as he was about to pop, she lifted her head. Ben shouted in wordless protest at the loss of stimulation. He opened his eyes and raised his head to see Krista and Lisa finish taking off Raven's underwear. She was naked from the waist down and she quickly scooted higher on the bed to stand on her knees. She reached down and held his cock steady as she lowered herself upon it.

Ben let out a long, heady sigh as she sank lower and lower until she was sitting on his hips. She leaned forward and propped herself up against his shoulders. Her golden hair fell down around their faces, isolating them from the rest of the world. She smiled at him and started to squeeze his cock with her pelvic muscles. He groaned and his hips flexed by reflex. She began to grind herself around, stimulating her own pleasure points with his shaft buried deep inside herself.

Lisa and Krista reached between the two and undid the buttons on Raven's blouse. She sat up and squeezed Ben's cock yet again, making him groan. The girls took off her blouse and bra and Ben reached up to squeeze her bountiful tits.

They laughed breathy laughs as they met each other squeeze for squeeze. When she started to grind again, he went from squeezing her mounds to massaging them. Raven's breathing quickened and she again leaned forward to lock eyes with Ben. She started bouncing up and down his cock and he growled as his need for release was finally being addressed. His fingers focused on fondling her nipples. He wanted to make her cum like never before. He needed to feel her writhe in ecstasy.

It took all of his willpower to stop himself from cumming too soon. Raven's bouncing sped up and became erratic as her yelps turned into short screams of ecstasy. She slammed her hips down on him one last time and came with a shriek. The fluttering of her cunt sent Ben over the edge and he emptied his balls into her quivering womb.

He passed out in pleasure.

His wakeup was a slow, protracted affair. His whole body seemed to be very hesitant to respond to his commands. He squinted one eye open and glanced around. Only after he saw he was in one of the bedrooms of his penthouse apartment did his brain finish booting up and grant him a clear memory of yesterday. He stretched in bed for a few minutes, to get his limbs to cooperate fully. He squinted at the window. The shades were drawn, but it was daylight outside. He rolled over and fumbled around for his phone. He found it on the floor, in the pocket of his pants.

It was seven a.m. and he realized that he had slept for almost fifteen straight hours. He stretched again and then rose from the bed. All his spell slots were replenished and he felt perfectly fine. He cast Prestidigitate and cleaned up his clothes from the day before. He laid them out on his bed, the sheets of which he also cleaned, and took a shower to finish waking up.

After a quick shave, he went downstairs to the kitchen, where the girls were busy with breakfast.

"Good morning," he said.

They turned around and smiled as one. "Good morning," they said in unison.

"Did you sleep well," Raven asked.

Ben chuckled and said, "More than well."

"I think I should put you to sleep in that manner every night from now on," Raven teased. "Might keep the crankiness away."

Ben made a sour grin. "About that," he said. "I'm truly sorry I yelled at you yesterday. It was nothing you girls did. I-"

"Ben," Krista said, cutting him off, "I'm the one that should apologize, not you. I had no call to slap you and yell at you like I did yesterday. I'm sorry for that."

"No," he said, "you had a point. I should have thought to use the domination spell to let you know what was going on."

"Oh, for frakk's sake, give it a rest, you two," Lisa said. "Tensions ran high and shit went down. We all reacted in a way we're not proud of. Let's just put it all behind us and work on our communication so it doesn't happen again. Ok?"

Everyone nodded. Ben said, "Well said."

"Food's up," Raven called and began doling out omelets and stacks of pancakes. They sat down and had a slow, leisurely breakfast. The only conversation they had was made up of compliments to Raven's culinary skills.

After breakfast was mostly consumed, Krista sat back in her chair and said, "Lisa made a good point just now. We need to work out some things. Our domination spells have all expired. Do you intend to cast them again?"

Ben shook his head no. "But you're cool with us staying with you," Raven asked. Lisa and Krista leaned slightly forward in their seats in anticipation of his answer.

"Yes," Ben said, "I'd love it if you girls stayed with me. Of your own free will." The three beauties smiled beaming smiles. "Will you?"

All three nodded earnestly. "Hell yeah," Raven added.

"We'll even fight with you," Lisa said. "I mean, alongside you. Against the evildoers."

"I got it," Ben said with a smile.

"However," Krista said and paused, "if you intend to allow us to fight, then you should really brief us on the full extent of your powers. For instance, you mentioned reading the minds of half of Philadelphia the other night?"

Ben nodded. "Yeah, it's an ability I've gained recently. I can shapechange into a Djinni and read minds while I'm invisible."

"A Djinni," Lisa asked, astounded. "Can you grant wishes?"

"Uh, sadly, no," Ben said. "Only noble Djinn can grant wishes when they're captured by someone. I had a one percent chance of turning into a noble Djinni, but it didn't come true. If it had, I would have given you girls the power to capture me and use me repeatedly for three wishes each. That would enable me to cast the Wish spell and deal with the evil cult, without expending a terrible amount of experience points for it."

"Experience points," Lisa asked. "Are you thinking of your magical power in D&D terms?"

"I am," he said. "But only because that is the magic I have." The girls looked at him in puzzlement. "I need my books." He went to his office space and retrieved his Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual.

The girls quickly cleared the dining table and moved to sit around the coffee table in the living room. Ben joined them and laid out his manuals before them. "These books detail my magical power," he said. "Particularly this one." He tapped the Player's Handbook. "And this is my character sheet and spell list." He put his recreations of the two on the table, beside the handbooks. 

"Back when Simon had flubbed his ritual, I had just finished playing a D&D campaign in which I was a level nineteen sorcerer. When the bolt struck me, I was holding the original character sheet and spell list in one hand and my phone with photos of the same in the other. Ever since I came to in the hospital that night, I had all the spells and abilities of my D&D character. And I've advanced to level twenty since then."

Despite all that they've experienced with him, the girls still seemed a bit surprised to hear his explanation of his magical powers.

"So," Krista said, "these books outline your powers?"

Ben nodded and said, "Explicitly."

"If you're a character from Dungeons and Dragons," Raven asked, "shouldn't you have, like, pointy ears, or something?"

Ben laughed and Lisa joined him. "No," he said, "I had played a human whose appearance was a copy of mine, thankfully. If I had played a dwarf, or a halfling, or something, in the campaign, I think my friends would have shat their pants at the transformation. As it was, my appearance had not been changed by the bolt."

Krista picked up his character sheet and spell list and perused them. "Thank you for sharing the truth about your powers, Ben, but I think I need some help with this," she said. "What do all these abbreviations and numbers mean?"

Ben sat down and patiently explained every segment of his character sheet, along with giving context for the numerical values given. The girls nodded along with his explanations, but he could see that the D&D mechanics went right over the heads of Raven and Krista.

"Lisa," Ben asked, "do you have any experience with D&D?"

"A little. My friends tried to get me to join their game once, but I wasn't really into it."

Ben nodded in appreciation of her honesty and then looked at Krista and Raven. "You two look disappointed," he said. 

They both raised their eyebrows in affected surprise. "What do you mean," Krista asked.

"I mean that you seem to be downright despondent at the fact that the sorcerer, who was your master, not only plays Dungeons and Dragons, but his powers also stem from the books. I can practically see it on your faces. Just by revealing these books to you, I went from the coolest guy on Earth to a dweeb that needs a lot of work to be made presentable." He raised his hand at their protests. "Don't bother denying it! Do me the fucking courtesy of being honest with me, at the very least."

"That's simply not true, Ben," Raven protested.

Ben shot her a look. She blushed and shut up. He shook his head to himself and said, "I can't fucking believe how big a social stigma is attached to so fun a game as Dungeons and Dragons."

"Look," Krista said, "what's done is done." She gestured at the books. "Is this the coolest kind of magic there is? No. But it's the only kind of magic we've got. So let's forget about these books and focus instead on how we are going to fight the... we seriously need a name for the bad guys. Or girls."

Ben crossed his arms and drew his brow down. On the one hand, he was pleased that the girls respected him enough to be honest about their feelings towards D&D. On the other, he was a little miffed that his glad hobby lessened him in their eyes.

"We shall call whoever is trying to activate the portal," Ben declared, "the enemy. That word covers just about every possibility." The girls nodded at his declaration, accepting the new designation. "And the way we shall prepare for the battle with the enemy is by playing D&D!"

The girls' mouths dropped open and they all drew breath at the same time to start complaining as one.

He raised his hand and voice as he said, "No! I don't wanna hear about it! These books detail my magical powers and spells and combat abilities. The three of you shall read them, cover to cover, and know all there is to know about my abilities before you can give me any advice on how to best fight the enemy. Actually, we'll all be playing D&D with my friends come September, when they come back to school."

The girls started another round of complaints, which Ben utterly ignored.

"We'll start with some light campaigning right away, so you don't embarrass me," he said, emphasizing the word "embarrass", "in front of my friends."

Krista and Raven gasped and looked offended at the mere suggestion that they might be the source of embarrassment. Lisa simply settled down and looked to be accepting Ben's decision.

"During play with my friends," Ben said, ignoring their almost red-faced rage, "I will pick their brains for ideas on how to fight best as a dragon. If you girls show enough common sense at the D&D table, you'll be allowed to advise me on those tactics, as well."

Krista bit back her comment and crossed her arms over her chest. "And if we don't," she asked. "What then? You go off and fight the enemy all alone? Like now? Forgive me, Ben, but that seems like a surefire way to lose." She flashed him a tight smile and held up a hand. "I mean no disrespect for you, or your D&D... friends. I only speak from past experience."

Ben gave her a sour grin and said, "No. I shall not be going in all alone, come March. Not if I can help it." He rose and went to the media center. He rummaged through his drawer of Blu-ray discs and returned to the table with four titles in his hands. "I'll be bringing some help with me. Help inspired by these films." He set the boxes down on the table.

Krista picked them up and read the movie titles as she shuffled them in her hands, "Iron Man. Iron Man Two. Iron Man Three, and, let me guess, Iron M-ah, no. This one is titled Avengers." Ben sighed and wondered if he would live long enough to see Age of Ultron. Krista set the boxes down on the table. "What the hell kind of help is in these movies?"

"Iron Man suits," Ben said. "I intend to make them with my magic and put some people I can trust inside them. Then I won't be all alone when I face the enemy. I'll have backup. Or at least some people that can sneak around back and rescue the would-be sacrifice while I duke it out with the enemy."

"Have you thought about bringing actual reinforcements," Krista asked.

"Of course I did," Ben said. "My wish is to bring the full might of the US military with me and surround those islands. I don't want to risk a single one of the enemy getting away during the fight and forcing us to dread at every single eclipse that happens over solid ground in the future. But how the hell am I supposed to do that? I don't think it would be a good idea for me to just teleport to the White House lawn and declare myself. I don't know how the government would react to that. To me."

"Can't you just read their minds," Raven asked.

"Not really," he said. "I can only read surface thoughts. I can't direct them. I can't make people think about what I want to know. If I could just read every mind as I wished, I'd be out doing it right now and I wouldn't stop until I found the enemy and destroyed them. But, I can't do that. It's not how the power works. On top of that, I'm really scared of the enemy learning of who I am and what I can do before we meet in open battle. If that happened, then the enemy would likely try to assassinate me to ensure their success. At the very least, they'd be able to make specific preparations against me."

"I figured as much," Krista said. She picked up the remote and turned on the TV, selecting a recording she made yesterday. "Luckily for you, I've thought up of a way around all that."

She played the recording. It was of a young, female journalist interviewing a general in the National Guard, mostly regarding the zombie outbreak and how the public is to help in dealing with the threat. Ben watched and listened for a few minutes, but then lost patience with the platitudes the officer was spouting and turned to Krista with a frown.

She smiled and said, "The order of the day seems to be to have all senior military personnel flood the airwaves. My guess is that the people in charge think it's the best way to stop a mass outbreak of panic. Raven and I disguise ourselves as journalists and go around interviewing people in charge. We ask them questions that would make them think about things, things like magic, and you read their minds to learn if they might be willing to join us."

Ben thought about it for a few seconds and said, "That's a brilliant idea!" Krista smiled a beaming smile. Raven joined in, but Lisa looked angry.




Outsiders Pt. 06



"What about the brown girl," she asked with a little venom in her voice, "or is the role of journalist just for the tall, white women?"

"Whoah, whoah, hold up," Krista said. "The FBI is doing background checks on all the journalists. I can get fake accreditations and face time with top brass for the two of us, but not for you!"

"Why not!?"

Krista looked at her like she was stupid. "Because you're wanted by the FBI," she slowly said. "Remember? They put you away in that asylum that got all... bloodbathy and stuff..."

Lisa looked to be cooling down, but then said, "The local police are looking for Raven and I'm sure your picture is on a wanted poster somewhere, too!"

"The Feds don't routinely check in with every single backwater police station in the country," Krista said. "They have their own databases and those are the ones they run press IDs against. You're in their database, probably flagged high priority, and you can't even come along with us as a camera operator."

Lisa seethed in her seat, but took no action and made no comment. Ben's eyes just darted between the two, expecting a fight to break out at any point. "Guys," he spoke to them softly, "chill out. I've got a way around all of this." He picked up the Player's Handbook and quickly flipped through it to open it on the page that contained the Seeming spell. "Read this!" He set the book down on the table and the three girls leaned forward to read the spell description.

The Seeming spell could change the girls' appearances and make them look like different people. The only way for anyone to see through the illusion was if they touched the girls and realized the discrepancy between what their eyes and hands were telling them. Even then, they'd still have to have the willpower to resist the spell.

"I can cast this on all three of you and you can go in to do the interviews without running the risk of being spotted," he said. He looked to each of the girls as they pondered the possibility. 

"You're not gonna make us look ugly," Raven asked.

"Of course not," Ben said, "that'd make it more likely for you to be found out. I'd cast the spell to make you look very similar to the way you look now, just different enough to not be recognized by the Feds." The girls thought about it for a little while longer. Finally, they nodded, one by one, in acceptance of the plan. 

"Sorry I yelled at you," Lisa said to Krista.

"It's ok," Krista said. Ben let out a quiet sigh of relief. "So, can I call my man and have him make us the press passes," Krista asked him. He nodded and she left the table to make the call. 

They spent the day watching the movies and vegging out on the couch, taking breaks only to have lunch and dinner. The heat outside was still unbearable. The girls warmed to the concept of Iron Man suits and asked Ben to make a suit for each of them. He promised to do his best and the four of them retired to a bedroom. The girls made out with each other and rode his cock until he sprayed his seed and fell into an exhausted sleep.

By the time Ben woke up the next day, Krista was already back from the meeting with her forger friend. She brought press passes for all three of them. Raven made breakfast and they sat down in front of their wall of screens and flipped on the news channels, intent on observing how real journalists conducted interviews, so the girls would be more convincing, when their turn came.

The screens showed a tableau of horror.

Muslims violently protested the new legislature that dictated the cremation of all human and animal remains. Imams were declaring a caliphate in North America and calling for all the people to convert to Islam and be protected by Allah. Their main argument was that the dead had risen from infidel graves.

Christians of all sects and denominations responded that it was their God who smote the undead and that that meant their religion was the only one that brought salvation. The more moderate ones called for the nation to be baptized as quickly as possible, the more extreme ones called for the outlawing and extermination of other religions, along with atheists, gays and undesirable scientists. Other religions mostly sat out the fierce media debate, but they didn't sit on their thumbs.

Jews gathered around their cemeteries and chained themselves to the gates, hoping to stop the National Guard from carrying out the President's order to exhume and incinerate all corpses buried in the last five years. Orthodox Jews went a few steps further than that. They took up arms and blew up crematoriums, wherever they could. 

A nationwide curfew was put in place and martial law was declared in several states and dozens of cities. The streets of half the cities in America were beginning to look like post-apocalyptic movie sets. Blood was spilled as the National Guard fired at crowds of protesters. The sovereign citizen movement popped up in full force and started gaining thousands of armed followers daily. 

"Fuck me," Ben whispered, taking it all in.

"The world is tearing itself to pieces," Lisa said. "The enemy doesn't even need to do anything about it."

They sat in stunned silence and watched and listened as the worst possible scenario unfolding before their very eyes. Their breakfasts lay cold on the table before them.

At length, Ben stood up and went to his desk. He retrieved pen and paper and came back to the shell-shocked girls. "Come on," he said, "this doesn't change anything. We still have a job to do."

"What do you mean, 'this doesn't change anything'," Raven asked. "There are people dying in the streets, right now!"

"Yes," Ben said, "and they'll all die in March if I don't save them. There's nothing we can do to stop all this bloodshed and we would risk losing everything by even trying. We need to focus on our plans and work out the wording of the questions we will ask the generals and officials in the interviews."

"Jesus Christ, Ben," Raven said, "how can you be so cold?"

Ben paused at her question, looking at the blank page on the table. "Because I have to," he said and started to write down the first question.

Simon peered around the corner and scanned the well lit street before him. It was past curfew and no cars, or pedestrians, were on the streets. All the humans were in their homes, huddled together for comfort against the things that went bump in the night. He smiled gladly. 

Americans reacted to his little exploit in Philadelphia even better than he had hoped they would. Their society was collapsing in on itself. Faced with the terrible fear he had sent their way, they forgot their greatest weapon was mutually beneficial cooperation. He imagined it wouldn't be long before every little splinter group abandoned the greater whole and decided to strike out on their own. They were all doomed to fail.

He was actually starting to get a little worried that America might become a deserted wasteland before the eclipse came along. "Oh, well," he thought, "that's only three hundred million souls less to reap." The rest of the world was reacting to the raising of the dead in almost the exact opposite way and would doubtlessly survive in great numbers until he activated the portal and brought his brethren through it. 

A faint sound brought him out of his ruminations and he focused on his immediate environment again. He stayed in the shadows and patiently listened. Before long, he heard the Humvee's engine thrumming closer. He stood still and waited for the National Guard patrol to pass. When the sound of their engine faded in the distance, he left his hiding place.

He crossed the street with haste and quickly made the turn around a dark corner on the other side. His eyes readapted to the darkness and he scanned the seemingly empty alleyway that ran parallel to the main street. Not everyone was indoors at this time of night. He listened for the telltale sounds of his quarry as he proceeded slowly down the alley. He passed less than sixty yards when he heard it.

He crept even closer and hid behind a dumpster.

"Oh, yeah, baby," spoke the woman's hoarse, but flat voice. "Give it to me. Yeah, that's it."

Simon peaked out from behind his shelter. Not thirty feet from him, a man was fucking a prostitute, doggy style. She was bent over at the waist and propping herself against the building's wall with her forearms to keep her face from being mashed into the plaster with every forceful thrust of her john. Simon smiled and looked down on the ground, checking it for any debris he might crunch underfoot and alert his quarry of his approach.

After picking out his footing, he slowly and silently snuck up to the rutting couple. The john was thrusting harder into the hooker. His grunting became louder than her flat encouragements so she changed them into a passionless, continuous moan.

Simon extruded his tentacles from beneath his skin and waited for the man to finish spurting his seed into the hooker's womb. As soon as the john finished blowing his wad, Simon's tentacles seized him and pulled him away from the girl, snapping his neck at the same time. Simon tossed the corpse aside. The thud drew the girl's attention and she spun around to see the man that had just fucked her lying on the ground with his head twisted the wrong way around.

Before she could react, her eyes were drawn to Simon standing behind her with his tentacles wriggling in the air. She froze in terror and incomprehension. Simon seized her with his tentacles around her limbs and throat. He gagged her mouth with a thick tentacle, to prevent her from screaming, and held her immobile in a spread-eagle position. He lifted her off the ground and pressed her against the wall behind her.

"Don't worry, little human," he said. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to rid you of your greatest problem." His assurances made the girl struggle as hard as she could, though it was all futile in his grip. He could see the mortal fear in her wide eyes. 

His tentacles spread her legs wider and drew them up to expose her hairless sex to his view. He used his human hands to undo his zipper. The girl's eyes followed his hands and her struggles lessened. Simon chuckled as he pulled his hardening cock out of his pants. The girl's wide eyes took in the sight of the seemingly ordinary cock. She couldn't be sure if it was ordinary, not in the dark of the alley, but the sight of something she was familiar with made her stop struggling and lift her gaze to Simon's eyes. Her face was trying to affect a flirty smile around the thick appendage in her mouth, but her eyes screamed the truth as Simon looked into them. She was scared to death. 

Simon felt her tongue start to move against the gagging tentacle in her mouth. Her body started to slowly, rhythmically grind her hips, as much as his grip on them allowed it. He shook his head, lifted a finger and pointed it downwards. She lowered her gaze until it hit his groin again.

Jutting from his groin was another tentacle, only this one had his hard cock on its end. Her futile struggles resumed as his tentacle cock came closer and closer to her defenseless pussy. He pressed it against her opening and found it to be squeezed shut. He pushed harder and forced his shaft inside of her.

Her whole body clenched up as her muffled scream of agony rose in pitch. Her jaw locked down on the hard tentacle in her mouth, but she only succeeded in driving her teeth deeper into her gums. He slowly pushed his tentacle deeper through her soft, hot cavern, enjoying the feel of it, until he felt another point of great resistance. Her eyes shut firmly in denial as he shoved his tentacle cock past her cervix and into her womb. Her muffled scream turned into a series of muffled sobs, punctuated by desperate gasps for air.

He lodged his tentacle cock deep inside of her and began squirting material into her. His first spurt delivered the seed pod from which his servant would grow. It was the size of a pea and trailed inch-long, silky tentacles. It immediately lodged itself into the womb's tissue with the tiny tentacles. The following spurts deposited the growth medium for the servant in long, gelatinous strings that clung to the inner lining of the girl's womb like glue. After a few minutes, he was done. The seed was planted.

He reached behind himself and withdrew plastic ties from his back pockets. He drew the girl's body to himself and clamped her limbs together and secured them with the ties. He ended hobbling her by replacing his tough tentacle in her mouth with a proper ball gag. He pulled her short skirt down past her ass and positioned her body atop his shoulder. He retracted his tentacles and walked back the way he came.

The girl made pathetic, whimpering noises all the way to his car, where he stuck her in the trunk. He slammed it shut and drove to his safe house, evading the National Guard patrols with ease. 

He spent the next few days minding the girl. He fed her four times a day, removing her gag only to shove more food in her mouth, and made her run on a treadmill twice a day. He didn't remove her gag for that. He took her skimpy clothing off when he first put her on the toilet to pee and didn't replace them. 

The girl spent the first day bawling quietly in the corner. On the second day, she stopped crying, but flinched violently whenever he approached her and avoided looking at him whenever possible. On the third day, she was completely catatonic and he had to threaten her life to get her to eat and drink. She didn't signal him when she needed to go to the bathroom and wound up sitting in a pool of her own urine for hours.

On the fourth day, it finally happened. Withdrawal hit her hard, punching through the adrenaline haze the fear of the tentacled human had placed in her brain. Her skin was clammy and cold and every muscle in her body was trembling, despite her bonds. She was mewling in agony the whole day long.

"That's it," Simon gently told her. "That's what we need." He used a little of the power he had, no more than it took to create the seed, and sent a signal into her womb. The creature inside it reacted to the power and, having already eaten the growth medium and grown to its full measure, it extended its soft tendrils into its host's flesh. They flowed through the soft tissues of her womb and followed the nerve bundles coming from her clit all the way to her spine.

Simon sensed the seed managed to attach itself to the girl's peripheral nervous system and smiled in satisfaction. "Ok, now to the fun part," he said. "Well, fun for you. Not so much fun for me. You see, I've placed a servant inside you. It is now attached to your spine. Whenever you do something that pleases the servant, it will..."

The woman's eyes shot wide open. She shook her head in denial, but she soon started to shake in a different manner than before. Her skin flushed from neck to navel as she experienced a massive climax. Her muted wail of horror turned into a scream of pleasure that slowly petered out when she started struggling for breath.

"Of course, life for you cattle isn't always honey and roses," he said to the girl, making her open her eyes and look at him. "Whenever my servant senses you're about to do something it doesn't want you to do, or reveal its existence to anyone, it will do this to you." 

Simon sent his servant another signal. The girl looked up at him with a questioning frown, for but an instant, before her agony of withdrawal came back. Only this time, it was greatly amplified. She squirmed in agony as her breath hitched. Her whole body felt like it was being frozen and burned at the same time. Her insides were being torn by dull knives and she couldn't even draw a deep breath to scream out her agony. All her muscles locked up, turning her into a flesh statue. She was trapped inside her own body, which had become a vessel for ultimate pain. She lost track of time and space. Nothing mattered in the face of the pervading agony. There was no escape. 

Simon coldly regarded the trembling human before him. He assessed her movements and judged that his servant had complete access to her nervous system. It couldn't overwrite her will and take direct control of her brain to operate her body like a puppet, but it could tap into her sensory inputs to know what she was doing and train her with strong positive and negative reinforcements. Simon could create a servant capable of rewiring a human's brain and install it inside women, but creating a creature with such fine capabilities would cost him a lot of power and require many humans to be reaped. He had already decided that he would lie low until the eclipse and not risk discovery by harvesting humans in big numbers.

Even if he had plenty of power, he doubted he'd be using it to make human puppets. Proper servants were installed into the brains of species like the Ay'hicans, who were behemoths capable of erecting and flattening mountains. Putting servants into humans seemed like a waste of time and effort, but he didn't know what to expect once he activated the portal. The first thing The Primes send through might just be an assassin to finish him off and make it look like he had sacrificed himself to activate the portal. It would be the ideal outcome for them, he knew, and it would give his supporters no cause to rise up in rebellion.. 

He couldn't defeat an Outsider assassin, no matter how many humans he reaped before activating the portal. He was a half human hybrid and that made him far too vulnerable to be compensated against. He couldn't stay here on Earth and try to rule it with magic, even if he wanted to. For all the power that he could gain by reaping them, the humans themselves could eliminate him, if they ever found out about him.

His best chance of surviving an encounter with a would-be assassin was to create servants and hide them among the humans. They were his insurance. If he was slain, they would activate and emit a faint, coded message. Once his supporters from the home world started arriving on Earth, they would pick up on the message and dig out its source, which would lead to them finding out the truth about him. Once The Outsider public learned of The Primes killing a hero and lying about it, they would rise up in open rebellion. He wouldn't live to become Prime, but most of the existing Primes would be deposed in the uprising and their places would be taken up by his supporters.

Of course, that was only plan B. Plan A was to blackmail The Primes with the existence of the servants and force them to not kill him in the first place. Then they would have to share power.

Both his plans for what came after activating the portal hinged on successfully creating a lesser servant construct. He was now happy to see it functioning properly. His happiness was slightly tempered by the fact that the servant couldn't communicate with the girl's mind in any other way, except with the massive doses of pleasure and pain. He was going to have to hang around her for a few more days and explain to her, in no uncertain terms, exactly what she was allowed and required to do from now on. After that, he was going to move to a different corner of the Earth and repeat the procedure with the first drug-addicted prostitute he found there.

Her face smoothed over as the servant stopped flooding her brain with agony, but she remained a whimpering mess on the floor for a while to come. At one point, she became faintly aware that the agony was gone, so she blinked her eyes open and looked up at the face of her captor.

"The servant is successfully installed," he said, more to himself than the girl. "Now that you've felt what my servant inside of you can do, it is time for you to begin your training! You are my slave, controlled by the creature implanted inside of you. You do not yet understand the meaning of those words, so let us being your training by enumerating your various duties and responsibilities!"




Outsiders Pt. 06



The girl cried softly on the floor. She shut her eyes and pretended she wasn't there. A sharp jolt of agony made her body clench up. The pain made her breath explode from her lungs. "Your first assignment," Simon deliberately said to her, "is to listen to me when I am speaking to you. Understand?" She forced herself to open her eyes and look up at the monster that was holding her captive. As soon as the servant in her womb saw its creator with her eyes, it stopped the agony and applied a little pleasure. Her pussy tingled. She nodded yes. The tingling encompassed her whole body.

Simon smirked and said, "Good."

By the time September rolled around, the nation had managed to return to normal. For the most part. The National Guard was still posted at cemeteries and crucial infrastructure, but the curfew was lifted and martial law was no longer in effect anywhere. The religious warfare that threatened to break out never came to pass, mostly because nobody really wanted it, except for a few hotheads that quickly found themselves turned out by the very communities they had claimed to be speaking for.

Life went on as usual. The exception to the norm was that zombies were everywhere. Not the actual undead, but rather their fictional counterparts. Every movie theatre was showing zombie movies, ranging from Romero's genre-building works to the latest blockbusters inspired by the event in Philadelphia. Zombieland was the number one show on TV, narrowly edging out The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead comics boomed and utterly dominated the market, followed by hundreds of similar works. Every superhero was facing down the undead.

Every single facet of daily, American life was adapted to the possibility of encountering zombies. FEMA had issued guidelines on how to deal with another zombie outbreak and now everyone had a grab bag by the door, or in the trunk of their car. Evacuation routes were as routinely discussed as the weather. 

Even fashion changed. Oprah did a special in which she completely ignored the fact that the undead in Philadelphia had been undead. She treated them as if they had been infected by a virus and were going to infect other humans with their bite. She brought on experts who recommended, among other things, wearing motorcycle suits to protect oneself from infection, since the suits were made to be untearable and waterproof and were thus bite-proof. Now everyone wore a motorcycle suit. Custom paintjobs for motorcycle suits were the biggest growing industry around.

Senior military and civilian officials were no longer needed to appear on TV daily to reassure the general public, so they stopped giving interviews to everyone who asked. Ben's girls had managed to interview almost a hundred of them during the summer. They even managed to get face time with a government undersecretary. Ben read all the officials' minds and was disappointed to learn that any kind of cooperation between them was out of the question. The military and the civilian leaders were surprisingly of the same mind on the subject of magicians. They would all consider a person like him to be a threat to their power and they'd act accordingly. 

If he revealed himself to them privately, they'd try to subdue and study him and his power, without any intention of listening to what he had to say. If he did so publicly, they'd arrange for him to be quickly and thoroughly discredited first and then subdue him for dissection and study. When the girls asked questions about how the government could possibly subdue or defeat a magician, the officials made no comment, but Ben could read in their minds that they'd find people the magician cared about and hurt them to get to him.

Ben was disappointed to learn that the government would not fight on his side, but he rolled with it. He taught the girls about his powers and magic and continued working on Iron Man suits, which turned out to be far more difficult to create than he had originally thought. 

He teleported to random, deserted places and shapechanged into dragons almost each and every day so he could cast spells, just for the sake of casting spells and learning what they feel like to flow out of him. By mid-August, he learned enough about the spells to be able to create his first new spell.

He called it Greater Fabricate. He created it as a level eight spell that did exactly what Fabricate did, except that it allowed him to make things out of up to three materials. If he made something out of two materials, the quantity he could make was cut in half. If he fabricated from three materials, the maximum quantity was only a quarter of the original volume. He made three source materials the upper limit of the spell, because casting it with four was too complicated for him to pull off, anyway. He couldn't add it to his personal spell list, but casting it was just a Shapechange spell away.

As soon as he revealed the spell to the girls and demonstrated its capability, the girls asked him if he could use it to make couture clothing. He replied yes and the girls grabbed drawing implements and started to design their own clothing line. Ben turned their drawings and ideas into reality that came in all sizes. He sold the clothes to his contacts for even more money than he made before. He used the cash to buy the raw materials for the suits of powered armor. He worked on the suits in his warehouse, though the quarters were quite close for a dragon.

He made the armors out of a supercomposite made out of titanium, nickel and carbon nanofibers. It was much harder than steel and ten times lighter so the girls would be protected from shrapnel and bullets. Even with the ultralight composite, the armor was far too thick and heavy for the girls to do more than stand still. Raven was the strongest of the three of them and even she could barely shuffle around in it. He needed to put the power in powered armor and he also needed to do something about the gaps in the armor that flexing the joints opened up.

His second attempt at creating the suits started by covering the girls in a thin layer of soft, impact-absorbing foam. He then covered the foam with filaments that generated electricity when mechanically contracted. He learned of the filaments from the minds of the military officials in charge of weapons development. He lay the filaments over the girls' limbs so they'd generate electricity with each flex of the girls' muscles. Each filament was connected to a colored LED light, for the testing phase, and they lit up with each motion. The girls laughed as they moved around in their form-fitting foam suits.

After the girls had had their fun, Ben removed the LEDs and replaced them with electrocontractive fibers which he fabricated over the electrogenerating ones. These fibers were activated by the charges generated by the filaments under them, but they could exert a lot of power, depending on the charge being run through them. Ben fabricated a dozen graphene batteries, each the size of an iPhone, and each battery could hold enough power to run the whole city for the better part of an hour. He hooked the batteries up to the power grid and waited for them to charge. It was slow going, but they would be fully charged before the end of the year.

In the meanwhile, he connected the suits to the main power grid so they could test the power amplification of the contractive fibers. This had the horrible consequence of ripping Raven's arm right out of the shoulder socket when she lifted it with all her strength. Ben, who was already in dragon form, immediately cast Cure Serious Wounds on her and she barely had the time to register the pain before her arm was fixed.

Following that little prototype test, they decided to take a break from creating the suits.

All of Ben's college friends returned to school in September and they gathered in his luxurious penthouse to play D&D every Saturday night. The first night was kind of awkward, as the guys clammed up in the presence of three hot chicks. Instead of quickly catching up on how they spent their summers and proceeding to playing the game, the guys spent more than a few hours exploring Ben's place, fucking around with his media center and repeatedly expressing their disbelief at his sudden influx of cash. By the time they relaxed around the girls, it was so late that they only had time to talk about their summers and the undead, before everyone got sleepy. Ben offered the guys the chance to sleep in his spare bedrooms, but they declined and shuffled off to their dorm rooms.

Next Saturday, the guys were much more relaxed around the girls, though none but Jake would ever go so far as to try and flirt with them, or ogle them too obviously in Ben's presence. Sean said it was just as well that they hadn't started his new campaign, since they now had three extra players. "I had the chance to adapt your encounters' challenge ratings this week," he said, "otherwise, the campaign would be all wonky. It'd be too easy for you at the beginning, because of your greater numbers, but it would become too hard for you as it progressed, since the new players would split up your experience point rewards and you'd all be too low level to defeat the challenges later in the game."

The girls didn't take to D&D with ease. Ben was frustrated with their flippant dismissal of the entire game, even now that they knew his magic followed those exact rules. All during September and October, they'd just sit there, look bored and watch the guys play. When their turns came, they'd ask what they could, or should, do. They made next to no effort to actually play, let alone immerse themselves into the game. While the guys went out of their way to explain things to the girls, over and over, Ben picked the guys' brains about combat as a dragon, under the pretext that he was going to make a campaign which featured a blood feud between dragons.

He was given a lot of great ideas, which he would debate with Felicia on the following Sundays. Some of the spells he was advised on he rejected, like Simulacrum, which cost experience points to cast, or Greater Magic Weapon, which would only enhance fifty bullets per casting and he intended to have much more ammo than that. The rest of the advice led him to adopt a sequence of spells he would cast on himself and his allies right before heading off into battle.

Aside from discussing magic with his familiar, Ben spent Sundays seeing the world with his girls. They would pick out a place to visit and he would teleport them there to do some sightseeing, sample exotic cuisine and meet interesting people. The girls absolutely adored their little Sunday trips. They also made sure to have sex in crazy places during them.

A professor called Ben aside in late October and pointed out to him that his essay was unsatisfactory and that he seemed distracted and inattentive in class. The professor further advised Ben to meet with his counselor and consider which classes to drop from his current load. The brief and polite conversation made Ben realize that he was really dropping the ball, academically speaking, so he resolved to make up for the lost time. It also made him put his foot down with the girls.

On the afternoon of the last Saturday in October, before the guys started arriving, he called the girls together.

"What's up," Lisa asked.

"I've run out of patience with you," Ben said. "I'm sick and tired of watching you squirm during the games, like you're being forced to eat live worms, or something. If you can't get over the uncoolness society associates with Dungeons and Dragons, then so be it. I'm not going to make you demean yourselves anymore. Not after tonight. Tonight, you're playing your last game. During the game, I am going to leave the room every now and then, leaving you alone with the guys. While I shapechange into a Djinni and read their minds, you are going to ask the guys questions about Iron Man and fighting evil and magical adventures and such.

"Before the Sun rises on Sunday morning, I need to know exactly who I can take with me to those European islands in March."

"Us," Raven said. "Obviously, you can take us!"

"I don't think so, girls," Ben said. "I have no idea what I'll find when I get there, but I am certain it won't be anything pleasant. You've already shown your inability to adapt to circumstances you find to be beneath you by refusing to play D&D and-"

"We're playing it," Krista protested.

"-and I can't count on you to adapt to the gruesome and deadly things that await me and those that come with me in March."

"Then why have we been playing all this time," Krista demanded.

"I've already told you Sean's campaign was your audition and you failed it," Ben said. "I'm not mad at you. You were presented with an obstacle and you failed to overcome it."

"I don't see what a silly, little game has to do with," Raven protested, but was cut off by Ben.

"Everything," he half yelled before checking his tone. "Everything. And you keep ignoring and dismissing it." He picked up his Player's Handbook and tossed it on the coffee table, where it landed with a loud thud. "That book explicitly explains and enumerates the spells I can cast." He tossed the Monster Manual next to it. "And that book explicitly details which creatures I can turn into and which abilities I can acquire. And you are ignoring them both! I've received no insight, or advice, from any one of you!"

The girls stood still and quiet, so he continued. "I've already made my battle plan for March, thanks to advice from Felicia and the guys. I'm going to shapechange into a dragon, cast a series of buff spells on myself and a fresh Shapechange spell and then I'm going to teleport invisibly and fight as a spellcasting dragon who will fucking die if an antimagic field is somehow cast, because that shit would turn me back into me.

"Now, I was under the impression that the three of you wanted to help me fight and even fight alongside me, but I don't see it like that anymore." The girls started protesting, but he cut them off with, "The sad thing is that my friends have helped me a hell of a lot more than you and that's without being read into the actual matter at hand. Hell, even Jake's advice was more help than your nigh-indignant lack of input, cause at least he tossed out a bunch of loony tactical ideas I now know not to even consider.

"That got me wondering. Maybe I'm relying on the wrong people to help me out. Maybe I should confide in my friends." The girls looked down at the floor in shame. "The three of you have your orders. You are to make my friends think about how they would behave if they found themselves in an adventure of might and magic in real life while I read their minds from the bathroom.

"Like I've said already, I'm resuming my efforts at making powered armor and I need to know exactly who I'm making and adapting it for. Time is running out. Tomorrow, I'm making up for my lack of studying but, starting next week, I'm going to be teleporting to the islands and reading the minds of the entire population to see if the enemy doesn't already have a presence there. It's long past time for me to get a lead on them."

The girls grumbled under their breaths and then retired to a bedroom to work out how they could best build upon each other's questions to get Ben's friends to think about what he wanted to read in their minds. Ben walked around the apartment, readying it for his guests and putting out an impressive assortment of snacks and finger foods. During all that time, he was becoming more and more nervous. He wiped his sweaty hands on his pants again and again, wondering what had gotten into him. When the phone rang, he nearly jumped in place. It was the doorman, informing him that the first three of his guests were on their way upstairs. Ben's heart almost skipped a beat and he realized he was feeling nervous about his friends' imminent arrival.

Ben thanked the doorman and hung up. He took a few deep breaths to try and calm down. He hadn't been nervous in the slightest when the guys had come over for the first time, but he was now. He didn't know which potential outcome of his little mind reading evening was making him more apprehensive, that they would be eager to join him and get in harm's way, or that they would be freaked out and disgusted by his secret. Whether his friends turned out to be brave, or weak, he felt like a snake for planning to invade their thoughts.

The doorbell rang, making him flinch. He let out a long sigh and mentally shook himself. "No backing out now," he told himself and answered the door.

When Ben excused himself for the first time, claiming he had to go video chat with an Asian business partner, the girls pounced at the boys with their questions. The guys expressed utter disinterest in the possibility of real magic and otherworldly evil. Ben read in their minds that they didn't want to appear nerdy in front of the girls, cause they deep down harbored the fantasy of the girls fixing them up with other pretty girls and they felt that would be impossible if they admitted they ever considered such nerdy things.

Ben rolled his eyes and came back downstairs, claiming he'd need to field another call in about an hour. He asked the girls to help him bring out more snacks and, as soon as they were out of earshot of the guys, he berated them for being so blunt with their questioning. He quickly advised them on how to be more circumspect and then they resumed play. 

He started the conversation ball rolling himself, during battles. It was quite easy to do. With nine players at the table, only Sean, the Dungeon Master, actively participated in every second of the game, either making sure the rest weren't cheating, adjudicating matters on which rules gave latitude, or playing as the enemy. The rest of the players decided and made their move, then watched what everyone else did while they waited for the next turn. The downtime was filled with arguing about the best tactics, heckling the player making their move, and cheering the dice to roll the way they wanted. Ben slowly filled the downtime up with talk of things he wanted them to consider. The girls joined in and the topic of talk around the table soon turned into an even mix of how best to clear the dungeon and how they'd use D&D powers to fight a modern-day opponent.

Ben soon excused himself to use the bathroom, placing the dungeoneering on a pause. The girls kept the other topic of conversation going, prodding the boys along with their questions. The guys still spoke dismissively about such nerdy things, not yet given up on the possibility that they might be introduced to a bunch of supermodels by Raven, but the topic had taken root in their minds and Ben read them.

Much to Ben's distress, the guys turned out to be wholly unsuited to wielding magic, or fighting evil. They still dismissed the idea of having magic, or an Iron Man suit, when the girls asked them, but Ben read in their minds that those words weren't entirely untrue. For Sean, D&D was an outlet for his creative talents and an escape from the world of engineering and its rigid rules. The undead had already damaged his reality matrix and he was depressed by the seeming futility of his efforts to master the laws of nature. If he saw that useful magic was real too, he'd consider himself and all his time spent learning about electronics an utter waste and he'd be too depressed to be of any use to anyone. 

Kurt had a schizophrenic aunt and her madness had left a deep impression on him. Now that the dead had risen from their graves, he was plagued with doubts about how much of what she said and did was truly insane and how much was real. Ben could see in his mind that he was on the verge of losing his own sanity, questioning everything he believed to be immutable and true. He was on the verge of slinking away to hide somewhere, curl up in a ball and cry himself to sleep every night. Putting him in a suit of powered armor would be a bad idea as he wouldn't feel confident enough in what he thought he knew to be able to act with lethal force against anyone.