Red Moon Rising
Chapter 12: Misted Upgrade
An eternity of washing all the oil out of me later, I feel like a used up rag. Someone dipped me in oil and ink, waited for me to dry, then did it again. Then I was wrung out, and goddess has it left me with a headache. My body is throbbing and my back hurts like I’ve been jabbed by a quill about a thousand times per square inch.
Oh, that’s right – it was.
“There we go, one polished up Silver Girl ready to—“ When I frown, Sarah winces and lightly closes her teeth around her bottom lip. “Oops. Sorry, I sort of . . . forgot about that. It feels like another life.”
“Sorry, recent events and all things considered, I’d just all the same appreciate no humor that reminds me of your attempt to have me twisted into subservience thank you very much.” Groaning, I slide my fingers through my hair and then hold my forehead in my hands. “My head is pounding. I know that I can look into a halogen light for hours and not even feel the slightest burn, but I’m not sure if what felt like a year of our light is quite the same. Goddess, they did a number on me. They even used me to melt Yunru and Yonva . . . The two witches that were there when Yacawa made the deal with our mother.”
Sarah looks thoughtful and kisses the top of my head before hugging me close. “I’m sorry. Really, I am. I should have insisted that I go with you. Now Olivia, Yana, and Lida are all slaves of the Nesatealia. Plus we have two women who’ll need a little bit of deprogramming before we do anything else . . .”
I shake my head before letting my hands fall, wrapping them around her. Pressing close to her is still soothing even when we’re not in my headspace. Damn it feels so good to feel again. They had me locked up so tightly. Parts of me kept starting to break free, but then I would dutifully lock them back up again. I thought with my new light I would be immune to things like that. Looks like I overestimated myself again.
When will I learn the full extent of my powers? From now on I have to keep one thought on that light at all times. If I had grabbed onto it before Yanuka had started to work her magic on me then I would have had a chance. I could have saved Alice. Fuck! Alice is probably still dangling from the ceiling like a mind-melted piñata.
This crisis is either going to finally teach me how to deal with these situations, or it’s going to leave me broken over Red’s knee just like I was over Yanta’s. Poor Yana is trapped back there with her mother and her alter ego. I can’t imagine Olivia is happy, and Olivia has history with the Nesatealia . . .
“No, Sarah . . . Don’t be sorry. If you’d gone then who would have stopped me here? I would have still messed up, and we would have come here together and captured our lovers before they could react. As it was, we have a chance.” I look into her eyes and smile at the familiarity. There’s something different about seeing them on another woman instead of the mirror. It’s exotic but soothing in the same glance. “We have to just put the failures behind us, and fix up those two. After that, we can come up with a game plan.”
“You’ve gotten a lot better at this than me. I was able to stay calm when I was fixing you up, but now I just . . . I feel about ready to break down. I fixed you, but I don’t know if I can do anything else. I didn’t know I could ride our light to melt into you. I don’t know what to do. When I was being evil, it was a lot easier. You just make the plan, they have to stop you . . .” She clings to me, and I hold her tighter.
Having to make myself feel better feels, well, strange. “Hun, I’m scared shitless too. I don’t know what they’re doing to my girl. I just know it ain’t good, and it’s gonna get worse. Focusing on what to do next is the only way I can keep from screaming, so let’s. Who fixes up Alyssa and who fixes Val?”
To be fair, even while focusing on what I need to do and what’s coming next I’m still on the edge of screaming. She doesn’t need to know that. When situations get this bad a certain level of omission is simply necessary. Complete honesty is cruel. Telling her that part of the reason I’m finding it easy to focus is because I keep thinking of Jesse pointing a gun at my head won’t help her either. It’s the most sobering sight I’ve ever seen.
I took her last name as my alias, and she tried to shoot me. Isn’t there some universal law that no one deserves that? Fuck, I’m letting myself focus on the past again. Bad Lucia. Focus on the now.
As in, now.
“Well, if I take Valerie . . . We sort of . . .” Sarah’s cheeks turn a dark silver and her eyes faintly pulse. Do my eyes do that? I probably don’t even notice it. “We had this thing we used to do, where we would use our powers to make an endless loop . . . It was hard to resist and we even sort of accidentally uhm . . . looped while you were gone. It was part of why she was on The Project. Her powers stopped mine from needing to recharge, and it made them surge. The same could happen to you, but uhm . . . if you were careful, you’d have a better shot of not well, winding up covered in purple mist on the floor.”
At least she can admit that she has an impulse control problem. I only grit my teeth a little knowing that instead of protecting Sylvia and Aurora they were busy playing sparksie, because I’m sure if Olivia and I were in their place it would have ended up the same. It might have ended up worse.
It’s only now, pulling back from the embrace, that I realize Sarah is dressed up as The Domina Argenti. While I appreciate her not trying to steal my place as Silver Girl, it is a little unsettling. Then again, I still like being called Silver time to time partially because of who first insisted that was my only name. Her uniform is definitely a little bit more revealing than mine, but it’s not as if I went with the old humble Silver Girl look.
Having so many powerful women control me and use me for my body must have finally built up some confidence in my looks. Being Patina and having my way with however many women whose names escape me without too much effort had to help. Having a wife as sexy as Olivia and not feeling unimpressive when standing next to her . . . definitely helped.
Lovely as these thoughts are, I’m still focusing on something other than the goal here. That is not a good thing. Being with myself, working with myself, must be making my head all wonky.
“Good idea. Plus, well I didn’t hear all of your argument but if you can help Alyssa she might believe you’re genuine a little more. Plus I’m not sure she’s quite forgiven my own transgressions and well . . . I did sort of backstab her with Olivia. It wasn’t intentional, but I had about a year where well . . .” I shrug, and it’s easy to imagine my cheeks and eyes matching hers.
If I look as cute as she does when she blushes then I can see why people always loved embarrassing me. “Yeah . . . We don’t really have very good of a track record between the two of us, do we? Oh if only you knew some of the things that ended up happening in Chronos . . .”
“After all of this is over? You are telling me every sordid detail. We can be like gossiping sisters. I always wanted . . . we always wanted that. It would be fun to trade stories. Well . . . most of mine you know, but I have some you don’t. It’ll be fun.” We both grin, and her eyes flash again. Yeah, mine must do it too. With our ability to see in bright light we must tune it out. “For now, you take Alyssa. I’ll take Valerie. Remember that bad as it sounds, well, I’m working to help her. For you.”
Her eyes lock on mine, so much is said without words. She has to know how I feel about her. I love Olivia, but there will always be a part of me that feels for Valerie. She saved my life when I was dying. She was there when I needed someone. Then she wound up with . . .
It’s not betraying Olivia to be honest about how I feel. I’ve been loyal to her almost to a fault if such a thing is possible. We’ve talked about it. She knows. I know.
Admittedly, that doesn’t make me feel great about it . . .
Sarah nods and steps past me to kneel beside Alyssa. She’s writhing on the floor, a hand at her chest and a hand between her legs. I wonder if she’s wearing white. I’m sure that I made white a far more devious color than it ever was before. Hell, I can barely wear that pair of panties anymore without tingling at least a little. I told Olivia, worried that she would be upset, and she just grinned and pulled them on tighter.
“Be gentle with Valerie. She’s . . . hell, you probably know her better than I do by now.” Sarah sounds so sad as she slowly pulls Alyssa’s hands away from her body. The blonde information specialist cries out in pain and nearly thrashes in response, but Sarah doesn’t let go. “Well? Quit being the voyeur I know we can be, and straighten out my Raine Drop’s head.”
A warm smile forces itself onto my face. Hearing how much she cares about Valerie really makes me feel better. I can really hear it in her voice and see it in her eyes. The longer I spend with her, the better I feel about myself.
Maybe I’m still being too trusting, but she did not have to let me go. I know that even as Patina I would have done more than she did. She’s earned my trust.
I kneel down beside Valerie. She’s still chanting and it shouldn’t make my eyes hood to hear her mantra. “Mist Bot . . . Obeys . . . Obeys her programming . . . Mist Bot is controlled by her robotic heart . . . Mist Bot is a machine . . . a toy . . . she does nothing she is not programmed to do. She is helpless. She is obedient. Mist Bot obeys! Obeys!” She sounds so excited and thrilled with each word that comes out of her lips. It’s almost hard to realize that she’s not doing this of her own volition. She just seems so . . . fulfilled.
“Then Mist Bot needs some new programming. We’re going to give her just a little bit of . . . maintenance. She needs an upgrade.” Valerie groans and grinds harder, so I guess that I must have chosen the right wording. “She’s running a very old version of her . . .” I can’t think of the word. What the hell is that thing that Alyssa fusses over? Something that makes systems . . . ah! “operating system. It lacks some very important . . . features.”
I’m really rusty on my computer jargon, and I get the feeling that saying her tachyons are experiencing a warp core breach due to anti-time particles colliding inside of her positronic net won’t work. All those years of sci-fi techno babble aren’t going to help me hit a techno fetishist’s buttons in the right way to help a smooth recovery. I don’t want to try sparking her yet, she’s misting quite a lot.
Her eyes are a solid shade of amethyst. Even her pupils are so thickly covered in a misted glaze that they’re unperceivable. It’s an oddly erotic look, and it does make her look incredibly robotic. I wonder if she ever got this look before Mind Bore went to work on her.
“That’s a good little Mist Bot . . . now to install this upgrade I’m going to need you to deactivate your mist generators. Then we can upload all of the files you’ll need right into your memory core.” Hopefully that’s not too silly to get her goi- oh, it appears not. She moans, nodding frantically. Her lips are half parted as she groans and a shudder wracks through her body from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. Her mist slowly dissipates, and her hands start to . . . remove her clothes. “Why are you . . .?!”
As much as I’ve absolutely adored every sight I’ve gotten of her body, Sarah is sitting right behind me working on Alyssa. I can only imagine how she’d feel seeing me in the act of “making” her lover undress.
“Mist Bot is preparing herself for her upgrade! Must expose dataport for upload . . . Must obey. Mist Bot obeys! Mist Bot will be upgraded . . . software and firmware have not been upgraded for over a year . . .” Her voice sounds so pleading as she peels out of her clothing, exposing her dark violet panties before dropping them frantically onto the carpet. There’s another stain that no one will know how to clean up. “Dataport is open and ready to receive upgrade!”
Valerie is on her back with her legs spread, her fingers holding herself open. I’ve already seen a fair amount of Sarah’s little Raine Drop, but now I think I’ve seen at least a little more than either of us intended. “Sarah . . . she’s uhm . . . her dataport . .. I can keep going but this might get a little . . . sticky.”
Sarah glances over, but I can see she has her hands full. Hanging on an outstretched finger is Alyssa’s bra. “You did quite a . . . oh my. Yeah. I see your point . . . Well . . . I trust you. Do your best.”
This has to be one of the weirdest situations I’ve ever been in. Here is a woman I spent months fantasizing about, and she’s in front of me legs spread begging for an upgrade that can only involve the lightly misted slit her fingers are holding parted . . . and her wife is behind me. It’s still me, the other me, and that makes it even stranger.
Like her nipples are a similar color to her eyes and her mist, her pussy is too. She almost looks like she’s misting, but not. If there’s ever a time I wish that I kept around a sex toy, that would be now. Although . . . that gives me an idea.
“All right little Mist Bot. Good little Mist Bot. We’re going to test your new wireless upgrading system. First linkup starting now.” I hold a finger in front of her drenched entrance and slowly let a spark stretch into her. She groans and her whole body shakes. This is going to get a lot wetter before it gets any drier. “Run diagnostic . . . is Mist Bot’s programming accepting the linkup?”
“Ye-eeeess! First linkup . . . successful! Mist Bot is r-ready!” Valerie’s voice shakes as much as her body and it does such horrible things to mine. Being a robot and all, I have to wonder if her lubrication is conductive. I can definitely understand how a woman could get a techno fetish.
Olivia is already metal. I’m sure that with a little bit of sparking I could turn her into a good little Gold Bot. After all this is over I’ll have to form some linkups, not all of them wireless.
I extend a second finger and stretch out another bright spark into her dripping dataport. She cries out sharply, shaking and arching so high as every perfect detail of her gorgeous sex is illuminated that much more. “Starting the second linkup, using the sweet little Mist Bot’s dataport to connect right to her brain . . . can you feel that, little Mist Bot?”
“Yes! Mist Bot obeys! Mist Bot feels the second . . . second . . . link . . . up! Obeys! Mist Bot . . . obeys . . .” Her panting and whining gets louder every moment, and her body can’t stay still. The fingers holding her open are rubbing as her hips start to roll.
She’s so helpless like this, with my lights and my current flowing into her. One more should be enough to barely be overkill. I did concentrate a lot of silver on her, and she had some time to reinforce herself. I have to make sure that no one will so easily take advantage of her cyborg status and robot fetish.
“And now, the third linkup . . . Feel it Mist Bot . . . feel it linking your dataport, your brain . . . and your sweet robotic heart. Feel the connection complete, the electronic in control of the flesh. Once your pretty body and pretty brain are in complete thrall to your heart, beating in perfect robotic rhythm, then we can install your little update . . . are you all ready for that, Mist Bot?” The chain of light and electric lust from my third finger to the tip of her clit slides into place. My voice is sounding huskier than I mean it to. My breath is coming in quick pants. This shouldn’t be getting me so worked up, but it is.
“Yess! Mist Bot feels her heart in control! Mist Bot obeys the electronic! In complete thrall, robotic rhythm overrides everything else! Can’t think over the rhythm, over the beats . . . Obey . . . Obey . . . Obey . . . Mist Bot obeys . . . Mist Bot obeys!” Valerie’s voice is helpless but enthusiastic. I would have thought a robot would sound monotone, but she sounds just as robotic without the cheap vocal effect.
In fact, she’s an even hotter robot for it. She’s a more sophisticated robot. She’s a more helpless robot for not being constrained within those limits. Goddess I think it’s bleeding off on me.
Then again, Mind Bore gave me quite the techno fetish, didn’t she? I must have actually fought it down enough, or this is that same fetish rearing its head again. If it is, then I’m taking ownership of it right now. I’m the one finding Valerie being turned into a helpless little Mist Bot with her pussy held open as she downloads obedience into her robotic mind.
The things you get to do when you’re in the business of saving the world . . .
“And now that we have these uplinks, little Mist Bot . . . With my silver uplinks connected directly to your hardware, we’re going to give you a very, very important firmware upgrade . . . This upgrade is going to make Mist Bot a fully autonomous unit. Only obeying her own programming, her own desires, the desires of Valerie Raine. The flesh obeys the machine, and the machine obeys Valerie . . .” It’s the best phrasing I can find, and it’s the only thing I can think of that doesn’t involve her jumping me.
As tempting as that is, it will only complicate matters, and I would love for them to be a little bit simpler. Simpler could of course include Sarah, Alyssa, and Valerie all obeying me in a pile of Sapphic sex, but I have the feeling that would get complex again really fast.
Valerie seems a little confused for a moment, but my words still make her moan. “Mist Bot upgrades . . . Mist Bot will obey . . . Valerie Raine . . . Obey Valerie . . . Will obey . . .”
“Only Valerie Raine herself has permission to alter Mist Bot’s programming. She will be the only one able to enter a diagnostic mode, an obedience mode, anything. Anything else will be blocked by . . . by . . .” I need some computer jargon, quickly. Something believable, something that doesn’t have her lapping at my own spark port . . . ah! “by your mist wall! That’s right, we had to lower your mist wall for this upgrade, but after, it’ll be protecting Mist Bot from unauthorized users . . . because Mist Bot belongs to Valerie.”
“Yesss! Mist Bot only belongs to V-Valerie . . . Mist wall will protect from any intrusions . . .” She’s clenching so hard and even through her socks it makes her toes look painfully curled in a delicious way. It shouldn’t be such a yummy sight, but it is.
Now, what is it that computers and thus robots always need to do after a major system upgrade? I can’t quite place it, but I know that I . . . oh yeah! A system reboot!
Alyssa’s ramblings about her own setup have finally come in handy.
“Now I’m going to pull back the connections . . . and then I’m going to hit your reset button. Mist Bot’s core programming will bury itself deep inside of that robotic heart, and Valerie Raine will be in complete control. No need to acknowledge . . . I know a good little robot like you doesn’t really have a choice.” Valerie nods through her moans and I grin. Slowly, I pop the sparks inside of her and she gives a sharp cry with each. When the final link severs, she falls limp, unmoving sans light spasms.
With Valerie’s moans quieted, I finally realize that Alyssa is making more than her own share. I glance back, and sure enough Sarah is sparking her and well . . . her panties are coming off, but Alyssa is struggling against it. I’m sure it would make sense if I were the Sarah doing it.
I’m stalling. There’s no way I could make this work for Valerie without a reboot, I know that, and she’s not going to blame me later. I guess I could have specified the reset button on her forehead, but with the connections being between her thighs I don’t know how well that would have worked. Even with my silver, I’m still working with her mind, and I went this to provide a more permanent solution to attempts at using her robotic heart against her.
After all, her mist could really come in handy against the Nesatealia.
I take a deep breath before reaching between her legs to gently press my fingertip into her clit. Immediately she lets out a howl and I can feel her shudder more at that one touch than every preceding moment combined. A flush rises from my chest to my eyes at the sight and the feeling. The sound is enough to make me feel far beyond poked.
Valerie gasps once the cry subsides, starting to slowly blink her eyes. She looks as confused as she looks turned on. I imagine a robot would feel a little disoriented after a major system upgrade.
Finally, her eyes stay open as she sits up with an exhausted look on her face. She looks down to my hand, then up to my face. “Lucia . . . If you could . . . Sort of . . .” I blink, and she rolls her eyes. “If you could take your hand off my ‘reset’ button I would appreciate it.”
“Oh!” Blushing, I pull my hand back and stare at the wet glove. “Sorry. I’m just a little . . . this isn’t a very normal day. I’m still recovering from . . . why I sparked you and . . . sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it . . . and Lucia? I really hate to sound mean, but this is normal for you. Maybe not every day, but this is sort of normal for you. You’ve gotten a lot better at handling it than the rest of us. You must have recovered from it if I’m thinking again with that . . . upgrade . . .” Her blush brings the cutest purple flush to her cheeks. “So you’re recovered, so I assume that means that Sarah and . . . Alyssa!”
When someone’s eyes bulge and they’re looking behind you, that is the best sign that you need to turn around and look. Following her suggestion gives me a view of Sarah’s hand holding out both Alyssa’s bra and her panties. Alyssa is staring at them, skin pale but for a bright flush at her cheeks.
It goes without saying that she’s not even wearing a smile.
Sarah looks back to Valerie with the most pitifully embarrassed, horrified, and apologetic expression I’ve ever seen. How many times Olivia has seen me with that expression is anyone’s guess. I would assume it’s a fairly high number.
So here we are, Valerie and Alyssa exposed, and we silver-skinned women are actually the ones clothed. That shouldn’t be so much of a juxtaposition.
“Okay . . . So Sarah One and Sarah Two . . .” Alyssa’s voice is half obscured by nervous laughter. “I’m going to get my clothes back on, and then you two are going to make all of this make sense because there is obviously a lot more going on here than I’m privy to. A lot more. I have the feeling if I were privy to it all, my hard drive would have a nervous breakdown. Does that sound about right?”
Sarah and I share a look before turning to nod to her in unison. I don’t think either of us intended it, but it does have a certain feeling to it. “Wow. I’m in love with one of you, and that still spooked me a little.”
“That’s what you get when you date a Sarah LaSilvas!” Sarah grins and holds up a peace sign.
“Confusion, mesmerism, and the tendency to see double.” I grin and hold up the same sign with the opposite hand. When you get an opportunity to be this silly while you’re worried all to hell about your wife, you just have to take it.
Alyssa and Valerie both groan while us silver girls laugh. I’ll explain everything when the burning in our lungs goes away.
Until then, I’m going to savor the last bit of solace I’m likely to get before all of this is over.