Chapter 4

"We're going where, exactly?" Magnum asked, arching an eyebrow as he looked across the cramped passenger drum of the Angel Grove and at my girlfriend. Ali sighed and then flipped her head to try and get some of her hair out of her face. But micro-gravity was a real bitch sometimes and kept her hair jangling and clattering about her face. She waved her hand more aggressively and got her bangs out of her eyes long enough to look properly haughty.

But the lead up had really cut the knees off of her expression. Which was a shame! Ali could haught like a...

I didn't know any good celebrities who were famous for being haughty.

Also, I didn't know if haught was a verb.

"A black hole known as the Abyss," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I thought you said it was an archive," Opal said, her brow furrowing.

"Yeah. Aren't archives usually not in the dead hearts of failed stars?" I asked. Then, slowly, I cocked my head. "Okay, now that I say it like that, why aren't more libraries in the dead hearts of failed stars?"

"Impracticality and gravity?" Tycho suggested as she pushed herself down from the piloting nook. There, she had been throwing a warp infront of the com-laser that was set on the very nose of our ship. Make a warp from here to HQ and you can beam all the information you'd gotten and get updates from high command. That included whether or not we had to go ahead on Ali's suggestion. But since we had come out of this mission knowing only slightly more than we had set out with, I had a pretty good guess that HQ would want us to keep poking.

"The Abyss is not like any other black hole," Ali said, sighing.

"Wait..." Magnum held up his hand. "The Doyen Empire is a six hundred light year sphereoid, whose very edge abuts the SOL system. The closest black hole is three thousand light years away."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"I studied space?" Magnum said, like I was the one asking weird questions. "We all live and work here, it seemed like a good idea."

I flushed.

"I was about to get to that," Ali said, brushing her hands through her hair to try and keep it out of her eyes again. "The Stygexians called out to Doyen Paladins who were exploring solar systems near the edge of the Empire. Those Paladins found themselves ... drawn to the Abyss, the space between folding as if it wasn't even there. Trying to move beyond the Abyss, trying to go anywhere but directly home..." She shook her head. "No one who tried that ever got home to say what they found."

I shivered. "So, the Stye-gex-ians," I said, pronouncing each bit of the word carefully. "They are able to both live inside a black hole and fold thousands of years of space as if it wasn't even there?"

"To be fair," Tycho said, rubbing her fingers along her temples. "One of the nice things about making a warp is that most of the space you are skipping over is empty."

I snorted.

Ali sighed slowly. "They trade secrets for truths. Every Doyen family has gone to them in their most direst of needs, to solve their most pressing of mysteries. But since the price is so high, and reaching them is so dangerous, the actual number of people who have visited is ... limited." She shrugged. "I've never been, but my grandfather went and returned with a blade that can cut a moon in half."

"What mystery did that solve?" I asked.

"The mystery of 'how to kill this motherfucker that pissed him off,'" Ali said, cheerfully. Okay, she was learning from me. I wasn't sure if I should be proud or scared. Ali shot me a grin and I decided on proud. And horny. Opal leaned over and smacked my thigh with her hand and I coughed and tried to catch Little Pirate underneath my thigh. That ended up being a slight mistake, since the pressure only got me harder. But the post-fight lassitude that each of us were sprawling in, it was hard to not get a little horny. We had survived a freaking mecha fight!

Ebony pursed her lips. She sounded as serious ever as she said: "What secrets can we possibly trade to them?"

"Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father," I said. "Snape kills Dumbledore-"

"He what!?" Magnum yelped.

We all gaped at the team leader. For the first time since I met him, Magnum actually flushed.

"Okay, firstly!" I said. "It's twenty eighteen, current year argument. Secondly-"

"While Harry Potter is as popular in China as you'd expect," Magnum said, his voice stiff. "I didn't have time to see the movies, and I was busy while the translations were coming out. Some of us had real jobs, Pirate."

"Hacking the Pentagon is totally a real job!" I said, scoffing.

"Uh, I think under every single possible criteria of a real job it is, in fact, not one," Opal said. I glared at her.

Ali scoffed. "I've seen some hints of what you people call real jobs. Endless drudgery for masters you will never meet, for fiat currency. No times for naps or leisure. Chained to desks and clothes." She shuddered slightly. "I'm shocked that the Empire hasn't detected your planet from the sheer misery alone."

"Don't Doyen normally wear clothes?" Opal asked – her eyes flicking to my girlfriend's exposed, dark purple breasts.

Ali scoffed. "They won't when I'm in charge."

"You know that we're going to try and replace the current Doyen government with something a bit more ... representational?" I asked.

"And I will be in charge of that," Ali said, then showed a huge, toothy grin at me. This reminded me just how sharp some of her teeth were, even as her ears perked upwards in excitement. Her palm pressed to my thigh and I felt a faint tingle in my brain as she peeked at my surface thoughts. Her eyes gleamed happily. "George Washington was nearly unanimously elected, wasn't he?"

"I think we're getting ahead of ourselves," Magnum said. He looked at Tycho. "You ready for a warp? We'll be heading across the Empire ... it'll be quite a trip."

Tycho sighed. "That's just it. I'll burn out before we're a quarter of the way there. I need at least one break." She looked at the rest of us. "And I don't know how you all feel about spending a day in..." She looked at me, then back down at her thighs. "A ten foot wide drum."

"I've played Anachronox, I know how that turns out," I said. Blank expressions from everyone. "Okay, here's where I'd normally look aghast at the lack of culture onboard, but lets be serious. No one fucking played Anachronox."

"I know a pit stop," Ali said, cheerfully.

"If you know a pit stop, won't every single other Doyen in the galaxy also know it?" Tycho asked.

"No," Ali said, scoffing.

Magnum nodded slowly. "She didn't tell any of them."

The Doyen Empire did not expand like how an Empire would in, say, Stellaris. If you haven't played Stellaris, get your ass to Steam and buy Stellaris. You are at home, on Earth, presumably on or near a computer, and you can get to Steam and buy Stellaris. I'm the one stuck in a tin can flying through space surrounded by psychotic psychic aliens who want to put a lightsaber through my head. Anywho, unlike the rational, systematic, unified expansion of a rational interstellar state run by reasonable people, the Doyen explored in piecemeal and in secret.

Each household wanted to be the first to claim a new world. Each household wanted to be the first to exploit a new race of "mindless" chattel, or to be the first to attain honor by wiping out a potential rival. So, each one sent out scouts. And none of them mentioned where said scouts were going!

Picture, if you will, a Doyen Paladin sent out by Tzali. She brags to all her Doyen buddies while playing ... croquet or whatever it was Doyen nobiltiy did between subjecting planets: "Oh, I sent so and so to such and such planet."

So, said Paladin arrives and five other Paladins jump him. But secrecy meant that sometimes, solar systems were "discovered" multiple times, or they were discovered then lost when the Paladin in question got killed somewhere between finding the system and getting home, or they weren't scouted at all but someone claimed it was scouted and full of ... space dragons or something. In the end, it produced a map that gave any fan of Tolkien palpatations. No nice, neat drawings of the Shire for you buddy! We had to deal with an incoherent psychic map of 'maybes' and 'uhs' and 'question marks' and 'confusions' and 'well, kinda sortas'.

Upside, though?

Not a single Doyen knew about this place. What place?

"Holy shit!" I laughed as I stepped through the warp I had opened and onto the pure emerald green sand that sprawled from here to the horizon. The ocean was the most beautiful shade of pure pink that I had ever seen. I'm talking 'pink as Pinkie Pie' levels of pure pink. The frothing caps of the waves that crashed against the green beach didn't turn white – they actually started to glow with a searing luminescent blue, which flared out into a haze of smokey light that hung in the air for a heart-achingly beautiful second before drifting down and being swept out again by the waves.

The beach was banded by trees that looked almost exactly like palm trees, save for all the differences. But who cared about leaf shapes and bark consistency and colors and such when they were doing the God given work of providing shade from the bright pinkish sunlight that blazed across this beach. The sun felt great. Doubly so after what felt like a million years in the Angel Grove. You will not believe how fast being crammed into a closet with five other people could get. Being sexy naked teenagers did not extend the length of that time by much.

By the time we reached here – which was roughly the midway point between Beta-3 and the entry to the Abyss – Tycho had been so tired that I had to be the one who opened the warp. And now, she stood beside me, her hands sliding through her frizzy hair, her eyes closed as she soaked in the sun. "God," she groaned. "This is amazing."

"It is!" Ali said, cheerfully as she stepped through the warp.

Magnum shaded his forehead, frowning. "Any dangerous wildlife here?"

"Nothing that I noticed," Ali said, grinning as she started to run forward towards the ocean. Her feet sent up tiny, glittering showers of emeralds as she rushed towards the water. The movement of her long, athletic legs added the most delectable jiggle to her ass as she skirted to the side, swinging out into an arc, letting herself run along the water-front. A wave splashed around her thighs, throwing frothing pink and blue water around her body. It was a technicolor porno, like the set of a 1970s sci-fi show who had decided on body paint rather than costumes or facial prosthesis. She laughed as the water flowed back, leaving her glistening as if she had been freshly oiled.

I glanced at Magnum. He glanced at me.

Fine, he sent, telepathically. Your girlfriend is hot.

I grinned at him.

Opal set her butt on the sand and she wiggled her hips, settling herself in the sand. "Warm!" she said, cheerfully.

"Question: How do we keep sand from getting in uncomfortable places?" I asked, starting forward past Opal – walking casually towards my girlfriend, who was enjoying the spray.

"Telekensis, Kyle!" Opal called to me. But before I had gotten more than five feet away, Ebony was trying to get Opal back on her feet, tugging at the other girl's arm.

I came to the water, opening my mouth to speak to my girlfriend. And that was when the water slammed into my body and I staggered backwards. My arms flailed and I stepped backwards to try and get myself rooted properly. I blinked, then blinked again. Cause I was looking at a shock of black hair – short and dripping. I laughed. "Hey, uh, get out of the way..." I trailed slowly off as the other man stepped forward and I realized that it was not Magnum. And Magnum was the only other dude on the team. I was still blinking in confusion when the other dude swept Ali into a deep, long, kiss.

The other dude was me.

Me!

Abby Hatem, aka, Pirate Mask, aka, what the absolute fuck!?

I looked down at myself and saw a shimmering bluish shape that looked a bit like my warform, albeit a lot smaller. I put my hands on my chest, and tried to shout, but no sound came out of my mouth. Ali didn't seem to notice that anything was weird and I felt that kind of confusing combination of pure outrage and utter arousal that came from seeing my girlfriend getting felt up by another man. Since, it wasn't another man. It was me! My body! Doing what I wanted it to do, which was squeeze and cup and tease Ali's titties.

Opal and Ebony started towards the waves. Ebony was moving more casually, but Opal bounded along cheerfully. I tried to run forward and managed to float like a ghost. I spread my arms, waving desperately. Don't get near the water, you fools! But, as I had halfway expected, the two of them walked through me as if I weren't there. Ugh! Fucking astral projection spirit realm bullshit! I swung around and actually saw Opal looking back over her shoulder.

She and Ebony were fucking psychics. Opal was an empathy. Ebony was telepathic. Ebony hadn't noticed me, but Opal looked faintly disconcerted. Meanwhile, in the beach, Ali was rolling her head back as my jerkass autopilot body slid his palm between her thighs and started to fingerfuck her like ... well, like I would. I clenched my fists, scowling fiercely and tried to feel as outraged and cuckolded as possible! Opal actually did pause and Ebony went ahead. Then a wave smashed into Ebony from behind ... and...

Pop!

There was Ebony's astral form, staggering slightly. She looked around, her lips forming words, but no sound reaching my ears. She was confused just long enough to miss her former body reaching through her to grab Opal by the breasts and drag her backwards. The surf slapped her, and once more, an astral body came out. Opal and Ebony's real bodies both started to chat cheerfully – but quietly. I swore that Opal said: "Well, you see, of course, that is, uh, that is..."

Astral Opal threw up her arms, glaring at Astral Ebony. Astral Ebony pointed at herself, as if to say: What? Me?

The thing that was bugging me was the fact that we were astral, right? So you'd think that would mean we'd only have psychic powers. But the only psychic powers I seemed to have was being outside of my body and not being fucking dead. But before I could say anything, Ebony's body called out: "Hey, Fang, get over here!"

Magnum looked up, his brow furrowing slightly. He looked faintly confused as he looked at the four of us in the water. Then he, reacting on some instinct or sound, flung himself to the left. His shoulder hit dirt as a long tentacle of flesh shot past where he had stood, tipped with a crystalline, glittering dart. Emerging from the jungles was a beast of muscle and bone and brain. Four of them, extruding from its four shoulders. It was quadrupedal, low to the ground, and had a pair of long tentacle-tongues emerging from a disgustingly toothy maw set onto the front. The brains pulsated as it focused both tentacles on Magnum, who leaped backwards as nimbly as if he had been born doing this kind of shit. Meanwhile, Tycho was getting to her feet. But she had sat down near enough to the water that the waves slapped her body and...

Pop.

Astral Tycho fell flat on her face as her body waved one hand, a warp scooping both Magnum and the tentacle-brain-beast up. As they both vanished, Ali jerked her head away from my body's mouth, gasping: "D-Did you guys hear something?"

"No," every single other person on the beach said.

Well.

And here I had been hoping for a fucking beach episode.

Do you know how freaking distracting it is to try and figure out how to communicate when you have no psychic powers and no vocal cords while your girlfriend is getting railed about five meters away from you? By your own possessed body!?

Cause...

Okay.

This is going to sound weird ... but it's kind of fucking hot.

Ali was on her hands and knees and had lifted her rump up and had dug her fingers into the emerald sand and was just getting fucking destroyed by my body's dick. And being without me didn't seem to be slowing my body down, either in the stamina department, nor in the raw fucking skill department. His hand had cupped Ali's sex, reaching around her belly as he kept himself upright with his other hand. He worked her clitty as his cock pounded her sex. His balls bumped against her belly and his knuckles and every single loud slap brought a new whimpering gaps of pleasure from Ali. Her face had gone completely slack – her ears drooping, her eyes half lidded, her jaw hanging open as she shuddered in climax after climax after climax.

It was a damn good way of distracting her from the fact that Ebony, Opal and Tycho were simply sitting in the water, with their eyes closed, their legs crossed. What they were doing remained something to be deeply suspicious of.

But while Ali was getting demolished, the astral company of disembodied crusaders (or AC/DC) were all trying to remember what we had learned in sign language class. The upsides to being trained by psychics were that they could implant knowledge into your brain. The downside was that this knowledge had to be reinforced by actual physical practice before the short term memory structures broke down and were overwritten, and none of us had been that good about practicing our hand gestures. I mean, we usually used radio in battle and telepathy out of battle for secret signals. Why fucking bother with hand signals?

Well, why learn to throw a knife in a nuke fight?

For situations where you got your soul sucked out of your body by weird psychic water! That's why!

Fortunately, I had gone through basic training fairly recently. This meant I remembered more of the hand signals and, by practicing them, I could feel the knowledge settling into my brain more definitely. And me doing it helped spark the memories of the others. Soon, we were all chatting away with very angry hand gestures.

W. T. F. Opal signed.

I second this question, Ebony shot, glaring at me.

Whoa, it's not my fault, I sighed, then slapped my astral chest. I signed quickly, tapping wrist and palms and making circular gestures with my fingers. Ali said this place was safe!

For Doyen maybe! Tycho signed, then scowled. I don't know where my body sent Magnum. He could already be dead.

How did your body do that? I signed.

Ebony stepped in. Her hands flashed as she signed a long, complicated sentence. It actually started to make my brain hurt ... but I followed it. Okay, psychic powers? They're physical. Rooted in the brain. That was emphasized by a tap on her forehead. The mind is a biological computer. Our computers just have some bonus apps. We are currently not running on those platforms. Ergo, we do not have any of our psychic apps.

I feel cheated, I signed.

Behind us, Ali screamed. "Oh Abby!"

... more cheated, I signed, scowling, and hoping none of them glanced down. All of them glanced down.

You, uh, sure about that, big guy? Opal signed, grinning as she looked at my achingly hard astral-cock.

Hey! I signed.

Lets discuss Pirate's cuckolding fetish later, Ebony signed. We need to find out what happened and how to get back into our bodies.

Dude! I signed.

Here's my idea, Tycho signed. We follow that beast.

How? It warped away? Ebony signed.

The tracks! I floated forward, actually managing to get a pretty good clip. I soared to the part of the jungle that it had emerged from, gesturing with one glowing blue arm down at the thick, heavy claw-marks it had left in the sand loam of the jungle floor. The others floated over. I looked back at the bodies and my girlfriend. I bit my lip, hard. Do we just leave them here?

Do we have any choice? Ebony pointed out. We can't do anything. We've tried everything – putting our arms through her, shouting, feeling stuff at her. She's either not listening, or our bodies are blocking her.

I frowned. But what if-

Tycho reached across the empty space between us and squeezed my shoulder gently, stopping me. She flashed a quick: The best way we can help is to figure out what the fuck is going on. K?

I nodded, then gave her a thumbs up. Then I stopped dead. Pitcher plant, I signed. Okay, follow along with me. The water is full of something. Plankton or something. It has psychic powers – maybe like a bunch of tiny psychic things, that combine to one big ass psychic thing. Everyone follow along?

They nodded.

What if it formed some kind of symbiosis with the tentacle beast? It attached only once we were weakened. What if there are other things in this jungle with the same symbiosis? Like how a pitcher plant lures bugs and shit and then eats the fuck out of them?

The others nodded.

Opal floated forward, her face firm. We all remain in physical contact. None of us can cry out if we're grabbed. So, the only chance we have is if we literally stick together. She reached out, grabbing onto my hand. Ebony took her other hand. Tycho took Ebony's hand. And thus, we chained together into the jungle. Despite being intangible and floating above the grass and the brushes and through the vines and thorns, I felt distinctly nervous. Every single second I spent hovering along was another second where I was sure something horrible would leap out and devour me.

Fortunately, there was one thing to distract me.

"Abbbbyyyyyyyyy!"

The distant, echoing squeal of my girlfriend's latest orgasmic blast of purest pleasure echoed off trees.

Okay, there were two things to distract me. The other was the tracks we were following. They wound forward in their own odd, animalistic way. There were lots of pausing to sniff at things, disturbed bits of earth that glistened with still damp moisture that I couldn't actually smell. But my imagination filled in the acrid scent of urine. I glanced back to make sure the rest of the group was still intact and not being eaten. Then, looking forward, I saw that we had come to an outcropping of rock that was so sudden it drew me up short. I wondered what geological event had forced rock up and out here ... and...

Realized it wasn't possibly a natural geological event.

The rock had been powdered while it had been smashed upwards. Powdered, then fused back together with a fine glassy gloss. Almost like, say, someone had telekinetically yanked earth up, then pyrokinetically melted it back together again, to make a little hollow. I looked back at the others, then signed: I think this is the place.

Opal ducked forward, her body smoothly phasing through the dirt. She craned her head forward, then signed: I don't see shit.

Then, with horror movie perfect timing, a bloody claw burst from the cave and grabbed onto the dirt. Smeared with bits of brain and chunks of gore, it dug into the earth, and an arm bulged with muscle as Opal let out a silent scream and flung herself backwards. Her cushy rump slapped against my thighs – my astral cock slotting between her perfect cheeks as if it had been made to settle there. My hands grabbed onto her shoulders and my own astral-heart pounded at a million million miles an hour...

And then I laughed with silent, joyful relief as a blood soaked Magnum dragged himself out of the cave, rolled onto his back, and panted heavily. In his left hand, he held a chunk of obsidian glass that had been sharpened into a knife. It dripped with blood as well.

He muttered something in Chinese. Which kind of Chinese? I don't fucking know! One of them!

Yay! Opal cheered, thrusting her hands up into the air. I don't think that was actual ASL, but I was extrapolating. This movement ground her ass against my cock and sent a new tingle of lust through me. I grabbed onto her hips and the urge to just ... slip myself back, then forward, was really really really really intense. But instead, I pushed her back, flushing slightly as Magnum rolled and came to his feet. He looked around himself, his brow furrowing. We were far enough from the sea that he couldn't hear the waves, and even Ali couldn't orgasm that loudly. For all he knew, he was on a different hemisphere. Fuck!

How do we help him? Tycho signed.

I scowled, then shouted as loudly as I could at Magnum. Nothing happened.

Instead, he stood ... and started going in the wrong freaking direction!

God-flapjacking-damn it!

Okay ... I signed. This is going to sound stupid, but I think we should split up.

You're right! That does sound stupid! Ebony flashed.

No, wait, he's right, Opal said. That creature was clearly exhibiting psi powers. For all we know, our bodies are now out cold. Ali might be reaching around with her talent! If we're nearby, she might detect us. Hell, maybe she can help us. But we also need to stay near Magnum, in case he starts scanning too!

Dibs on Ali! I signed.

Fuck no! Opal signed. Tycho and I go after Ali. I'm an empath, I will have the best shot at being picked up by her. YOU are the most powerful raw psychic talent. If Magnum scans for you, he'll have a better shot picking you up than any of us.

But none of us have psychic talents in our astral form, Ebony sent.

We all floated in silence. As we discussed, though, Magnum was moving further and further away, carefully stepping his way through the jungle as he ducked underneath hanging vines and stepped over brush.

Fuck it! We'll do Opal's plans! I signed, then started floating after Magnum. Opal floated after me, while Ebony and Tycho started back towards the beach.

I floated in the air near Magnum's camp sight and glanced at Opal. Opal glanced at me.

Should ... we look away?

Uh ... She signed back. Yes, there's an ASL for "uh..." It was kind of like an exaggerated version of what your hands would be doing if you were speaking 'uhh' aloud. Complete with tapping the chin. But neither of us could look away. Cause Magnum had finished setting up a lean too, making traps via a combination of telekinetic manipulation of vines and some clever bits of knot-work, and was finally settled down before a tiny fire he had made by rubbing wood against wood. And ... well ... now he was rubbing wood against wood.

He was jerking it.

That's what I mean to say.

And in case you forgot, Magnum Caliber – like many men in PsiCom – had a tiny bit of biokinesis. Like those many men, he had given himself subtle enhancements. I have little shame left, so I'm not ashamed to say that I was one of them. But, hey, when you had to compare with Sergeant Barry "I'm Part Horse" I Forgot His Last Name, adding an inch or two or three wasn't anything to be ashamed of. Right? And so, Opal and I were both floating in the air, watching our squad-leader spit on his palm and then start to slowly jerk his hand up and down his massive cock. His golden brown skin glistened slightly in the faint light of the fire, adding an exotic edge to the scene as he sprawled back against his lean-too's wall. His eyes closed to thin slits as he hissed softly. His hand moved lazily at first, but as he worked at it, he started to move faster and faster. Each time his hand went down, his foreskin retracted slightly.

Yeah, he was uncut. He was Chinese, what do you expect?

His hips started to work as he pumped his cock. I jerked my eyes away from him, feeling like a pervert at least five times over. But looking aside meant that I was now looking at Opal. And Opal was unable to tear her eyes from her squad leader. Her hand had dipped down below her thighs and ... and ... my eyes widened as I realized that she was sliding her fingers gingerly along her glowing blue slit. Her thumb teased her clit and her breasts heaved as she drew in an almost silent breath. She didn't notice me looking at her, because she slid two of her fingers into her pussy.

I was kind of half hard in a sort of semi-aroused no homo sorta way.

Well.

Now I was extremely incredibly hard in a definitely no homo sorta way.

Opal glanced at me.

I glanced at her.

We both hung in the noisy creeking and squaaing of the jungle. Her eyes were on my achingly hard cock. My eyes were on her hand, buried between her cushy thighs. Just about the moment I was ready to fucking combust from a combination of arousal, embarrassment, guilt and arousal ... Magnum ruined it all by springing to his feet, knife in hand. He glared at the two of us. "Whose there!?" He snarled. The jungle quieted down at the sudden movement. I looked at him. Then I looked at Opal. Opal gaped as well.

Slowly, I started to move to the left.

Magnum shifted his feet – keeping his eyes roughly in the same place I was in.

Lust! I signed. He can feel our lust!

Slowly, Magnum turned away, shaking his head as he looked back over his shoulder. He shook his head, muttering to himself in Chinese.

We need more lust! Opal signed back.

We floated in silence. I didn't want to be the one to suggest it. Opal looked like she didn't want to be the one to suggest it either. Both of us remained in sheepish, mawkish silence while the jungle resumed its animal noises and Magum went back to slowly jerking himself back up to an eager hardness. Dude had to get off. I could respect that. Opal floated over towards me. Her thigh bumped against mine for a moment. My hand slid along her shoulder. Gah. My brain went into a million different circles. I felt guilty. Aroused. Guilt. Aroused. The feeling of Opal's skin as my hand slid from her shoulder to her back to t he small of her back was as silky as I had felt before, back in the dim times, before I had met Ali. I mean ... on the one hand ... this was definitely fucking cheating.

On the other hand...

It was definitely fucking cheating.

That should have been a huge turn off, right? It was wrong! A betrayal in every sense of the word! But holy fuck it was a huge turn on. The deliciously forbidden feel of Opal's rump as my hand cupped and squeezed her ass made my cock ache with a pure need. My breath came in shallow, silent pants as Opal slowly leaned towards me. Her mouth formed words. They might have said: Abby. They might have said we shouldn't. I couldn't have told, one way or the other.

The guilt slipped through my fingers, like sand in an hourglass, and in its place was a thundering urge. Every astral hormone in my blue balls begged to sink into Opal's willing pussy and fuck and fuck and fuck...

And that was when Magnum fucking saved my fucking soul because he sprang back to his feet, snarling: "Okay, I know someone is out there!" He focused and his mental voice boomed in my head: Show yourself or I will fry every synapse in your brain!

Please do! I thought, my eyes closed as Opal and I flew apart like she was a ferrous slug and I was a naval railgun.

Magnum's brow furrowed. "Pirate Mask?" he asked.

Holy shit, you heard me? I thought. I looked at Opal. Her eyes were wide.

"Barely," Magnum said, lowering the knife he held. "It's like I'm trying to communicate with a baseline. Where are you? Where am I?"

Okay, this is going to sound weird as balls. But Opal and I are here, can you sense her?

Magnum's brow furrowed. He focused and then slowly smiled. "Hey, Opal." he blinked. "The water pushed you out of your bodies?"

Something in the water! I thought. I'm theorizing its some kind of psychic plankton. Psychoplankton!

Magnum frowned slowly. "And Ali didn't tell us because..." He closed his eyes. "She's a natural psychic. We all got our powers from the Prometheus Chamber. We must lack some kind of innate defense. Damn."

I hadn't even considered that. But I guess that was why he got the big guy bucks. Magnum made his decision almost immediately. He picked up his knife, twirled it, then said: "The time for subtly is over. Follow me!" And with a flash, he started to expand and grow. Trees shuddered and crunched and fell aside as his warform took up the space he had stood in before. I blinked slightly, then smacked my forehead. Right! He could do that! We could all do that. When we had our psychic powers, at least. I flew upwards with Opal and the two of us hovered near the head of his warform. I pointed towards the ocean. That way! I thought.

And Magnum started to stride forward. His feet crashed through trees, and he ate up the miles at incredible speed. I actually had to strain my astral body to keep up. Opal trailed me every so slightly, but she didn't show any signs of tiring. Magnum kept up his pace and within an hour, we had reached the beach. Magnum shrank down to his human form and I flew down and saw that Tycho and Ebony's bodies were both standing beside Opal and my bodies. Like, their bodies! With no astrals! Or nothing!

I flew down towards the area as Magnum held up his hands in a combat stance. "Are you guys ... you?"

Ali, her face dark purple with a huge blush, scowled: "Yes!"

"How can-"

"Where is my freaking boyfriend!" she shouted.

"Okay, you're you," Magnum said, then gestured. "Go and, uh ... go?" He gestured vaguely where I wasn't located. I blinked, then nodded and floated forward, hovering over my body curiously. Ali focused, then I felt her mind connect to mine. The feeling of her deep shame and chagrin filled us both, and I smiled slightly as she gestured with her hands. I tumbled forward, yelped, and then blinked as I was in my body again. My skin tingled and I sat up, gasping.

"Ow..." I groaned, wriggling my palms as I felt the pins and needless stabbing and jabbing me.

Ali hugged me, tightly, whispering. "I am so sorry!"

"It's okay!" I said, quickly, my cheeks flushed as I remembered by little ... grinding with Opal. Ali's arms tightened further and she squeezed me even tighter. "You had-" I grunted, then squeaked as she squeezed me harder still. "Had ... no ... idea!"

Ali eventually let go of me and a short time later, we had gotten Opal back into her body. The lot of us looked out at the sea, remaining quiet.

"Question," I said. "Should we try and get some water from the ocean? For future study?"

We remained silent as the waves crashed against the beach. Magnum sighed and rubbed his palms against his face. "Yes," he said. "As much as I hate to. But we're going to have Ali do it."

We all nodded.

"And we'll use the lead box," he said. "And we'll stow it near the reactor, on the far side of the ship, away from the living area."

We all nodded.

"With a thermite bomb strapped to it. Just in case," he added.

We all nodded again.

Then I started. "We have a thermite bomb!?"

"Of course we do," Magnum said, his voice serious as Ali stepped through a warp created by Tycho. When she returned, it was with the supplies – a thick lead box we normally used to hold radioactive supplies, a water bottle and a sharpie. Soon, she had a pinkish bottle that she had labeled EXTREMELY DANGEROUS with the sharpie, which did make sense and explained the sharpie. With the box loaded, she nodded.

"Shall we?" she paused. "Do we still need a break?"

"As unrestful as this reset has been," Tycho said, her voice dry. "I haven't actually used my talent for these hours. So, my talent is ready to go. And you know what? So am I. Lets get the fuck off this planet."

Aboard the ship, we all strapped in with a kind of mute, solemn air. Our vacation hadn't exactly been very 'cationy.' I settled in next to Ali, and she leaned her head against my shoulder, microgravity and the requirements of necks be damned. As she settled, Opal buckled herself in across from me, settling her straps against her large, deliciously brown breasts. As I looked at her, then looked away, Ali sighed. "So ... I need to get something off my chest," she said, her voice seriously. "I slept with your mind controlled body."

"I ... know?" I said, my brow furrowing.

"Well, I still feel like I need to make an apology," Ali said, nodding seriously.

"You don't! You didn't know it wasn't me," I said, quickly, holding up my hands quickly.

"Pff!" Ali waved her hand. "That doesn't change the fact I did it. And so..." She placed her palm on my thigh. "You can plow another girl. Any girl! Any time!" She nodded seriously, her voice solemn, her face solemn.

The rest of the squad blinked at her. Even Magnum, who had been programming in our upcoming burn, thrust his head down out of the piloting niche to blink at her.

" ... uh, I'll just take an apology," I said, my cheeks darkening.

"No, I insist!" Ali said, quickly. "It's only fair!"

My eyes narrowed. Ali's cheeks were darkening slightly – and with more than a guilty blush. She looked back into my eyes, trying to project an air of wounded, serious pride and noble intentions. My eyes narrowed further.

" ... you just want to watch me fuck someone else, don't you?" I asked.

"W-What? No!"

"That's it, burn in five seconds." Magnum pushed himself down towards his chair.

"I do not!" Ali exclaimed.

The rest of the squad studiously did not meet her eyes. Or mine.

"I don't!" Ali's cheeks flushed. "W-Who would want to watch my incredibly well hung boyfriend make love to a willing, beautiful woman? The whole idea is preposterous! Completely absurd!"

"Making that burn in one second."

"Totally preposterous!"

I bit my lip to keep from smiling.

And ended up nearly biting my lip off as the engines roared to life and we leaped through Tycho's warp and towards the Abyss.