"I just wanted to touch based to let you know I'm going to need to make some rather expensive purchases in very short order. The deadline for replacing all of the faulty and outdated equipment is extremely short. I need to know if this is going to present any issues for your department," he explained."Ms. Villamor spoke to me this morning to fill me in on the project. I have been authorized to support any and all purchase orders you submit to the department... as long as it pertains to technology and software for VRL," she finished with a coy grin.He smiled in return. "I guess I'd better cancel that beer fridge and foosball table order. I do have a more immediate requirement though. I have no computer of my own and I need to pick one up this morning. Is there a company credit card I can use for that?""Ah, yes. I can take care of that immediately." She placed her thumb against a desk drawer and there was an audible beep and click. She pulled the drawer open and looked inside to pull
Stanley signed his PC out and followed her out of his office. Siobhan smiled and gave him a wave as he left. He waved back then followed Sigrid out of the building.They took a subway and transferred to the path train to Jersey City. The building was apparently right on the Hudson and had a view of Manhattan. When they walked up to the building Stanley looked around at the neighborhood. He saw a lot of expensive looking cars and well-dressed people in them. He looked questioningly at Sigrid."What?""I might have lived in an old cottage with no electricity in a swamp but I'm not so sheltered that I can't recognize real estate which I can't afford," he said. He was puzzled why Sigrid was taking him here as she knew how much he made."Normally, that would be the case but I had a talk with Camila last night. In light of your special circumstances and nature, if you find the unit satisfactory VRL will purchase the property as an investment. You will then be able to live in it at a reasona
They walked out into the open living room and Sigrid looked at Stanley. "So, what do you think?"He blinked at her. "I think it's really nice and has everything I could need. But you know I don't need something this nice-"Sigrid held up her hand and turned to the property manager. "Let's go back to your office to work out the details." The man nodded with a smile.Stanley took a final look around at the condo he would need to furnish. It was so much nicer than his room in the attic and it made him feel like a grown up. Of course, he had no idea how to furnish a condo... or cook a meal... or wash his own clothes as these were things his Baba had insisted on taking care of. Something else to learn. So much for feeling like a grown up.The thought of the old woman also dimmed his spirits. He missed her, gruff as she was.As they made their way back downstairs to the main floor Stanley's mind went back to the myriad of things he had yet to do to replace VRL's sick network. How was he sup
Paloma nodded getting her bearings. She looked up suddenly. "Stanley!""-is fine. We took him home last night and met his Baba." Camila frowned as that encounter still haunted her."Baba? Is that a term for 'Grandmother'?" Paloma asked missing her mother's expression."Yes, she was... his grandmother. She was also Baba Yaga," Camila fixed her eyes on her daughter and saw the shock and fear there. Good. She was pleased Paloma recognized the danger."Stanley is related to Baba Yaga?" Paloma squeaked."I believe she... adopted him. For what purpose, I don't know. She mentioned he was somehow involved in a long-term plan that we disturbed." Paloma gasped in fear but Camila raised her hand to calm her daughter. "Stanley convinced her not to hurt us."Camila watched her daughter's eyes, pale blue since her transformation, begin to glow at the mention of Stanley's rescue. "Don't!" she barked.Paloma blinked back at her in confusion."He's part of something Baba Yaga is cooking up! I don't wa
"Take a deep breath and release it. Good. One more. Good. Alright, let's begin," the Fae sighed out a string of words that Paloma heard but as quickly as they touched her ears they were gone. The Fae reached out with her mind to gather up the wisps of binding. They proved to be difficult to grasp initially due to their frayed edges. She concentrated harder and finally managed to lock on to the damaged spell. She began to tug, expecting to follow the remnants down to their source in the core of Paloma's being. Instead they pulled up towards her with almost no effort at all. The shreds of magic came faster and faster as she pulled and she never once dipped into Paloma's core.Suddenly it was over and nothing of the original binding remained within the young woman. The tattered remains in Heriahn's grasp simply... melted away. She caught the briefest glimpse of the ends of the ethereal strands and saw... charring? She looked at Paloma who opened her eyes."Are we going to start?" she ask
Marisa hugged her and watched her leave.When she was alone she looked to the mirror at the new person she was to become. "Marisa." She liked the name. She'd even wondered what it might be like being a blond. She frowned. She hadn't expected it to be permanent.She reached inside and disabled the glamor. There was no transition. No glittering curtain of sparkles. The glamor just stopped and she was looking at the new coloring of her Succubus form. Frightened, she reached for the glamor again and it snapped back into place. It was so easy! Before there had been a momentary effort to switch and there was always a delay in the removal as the glamor dissipated. Now the change was instant and effortless! She looked inside again at the spell and discovered it wasn't alone. There was another dormant spell waiting for activation. She touched it with her mind and suddenly recognized it! It was the shield spell that Heriahn had tried to protect herself with. The Fae's shield had been useless ag
She gave him an innocent look. "I did? I don't recall ever saying that." She gently tossed the garment in his direction and it opened and settled over his head like a parachute. He pulled it off but not before he picked up her delicate and pleasing scent from the garment. He blushed strongly and she looked at him questioningly again. "What?"He looked away, embarrassed. "You smell pretty too," he muttered.It was Sigrid's turn to blush as he caught her by surprise. She became flustered and shooed him towards the guest bathroom. "Go get changed and be careful with that! It's one of my favorites." She realized it really was and wondered why she'd loaned that particular one to him.Stanley went to the bathroom and took off his clothes. He set them on the toilet seat with the robe and took a deep breath. He calmed his mind and thought of the instructions. Twist one way then all the way back. He felt no difference but when he opened his eyes the stranger was looking back at him in the mirr
"Sigrid! I'm going to cum! We should st-""DO IT! I'M CUMMING! STANLEY! CUM! FUCK!" she wailed as she leaned forward over his chest, her hair flowing over him, covering his face, filling his senses with its sweet scent.His hips sped up on their own until the sound of their bodies brutally slapping together filled the room."FUCK! YES! OH FUCK YES! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Sigrid screamed as her orgasm took her just as Stanley's roared through him.He felt his cum firing up into Sigrid, stream after stream. Suddenly, her enormous white wings unfolded from her back, splashing their shining brilliance across the room. Each and every feather shone with crystal sharpness as he watched wide eyed, his body continuing to surge and pulse with his own release. Sigrid's body began to glow with the pure white light and her long blond strands began to slowly rise. The look on her face was transcendent.Stanley's orgasm finally ebbed and he rested back on the sofa looking up in awe at the beautiful
They stopped at the guardhouse where a startled looking soldier stared at them, then just waved them through. They returned to the building with the auditorium. The Colonel, the General, Hugh, and the lab coats were waiting for them. Corporal Dane handed the camera back to the technician, who accepted it excitedly. He immediately reviewed the recording and made excited sounds to his colleagues.The General was trying to school his expression but wasn't too successful."How... how are you feeling, son?" he asked softly from his tight throat.The big marine saluted him with a wide smile. "I feel really good, sir! So much better than I was after the explosion and maybe better than my best day."Hugh's expression was satisfied. "I know a lot of other soldiers who might appreciate the same chance."Mick stepped forward. "Sir, what we saw today was just short of a miracle. His body rejected the conversion, and we almost lost him. The injury he sustained created a break in the flow, and he a
Gordon took in the ribbons pinned to the marine's dress uniform. He'd done some pretty impressive things in his career. He stepped forward and returned the man's salute. "I'm Colonel Gordon Crane.""Gunnery Sergeant Christopher Endale."Gordon smiled and gestured to the soldiers, who were now all smiling at him. "I suppose your security clearance has been escalated to allow you to witness this, so let me introduce you to my squad. Up until yesterday, they were a group of highly trained human soldiers. We were charged with capturing a small group of Silver People. Instead, my people got turned into Silver People themselves. They're still the same soldiers, but you can't really call them human any longer. Not that they've complained.""We can run so fast!" Yablonski gushed.The squad burst into chuckles, and the marine's eyes widened at the odd sound."Maybe discipline has been affected," Crane grumbled, and his squad snapped to attention as the argument was over and the two men returne
"I'm not at my peak either. I had to use a fair amount to deal with Carl de Bellisle. But I don't intend to fight Nuru. I don't want her job!" she exclaimed.Sigrid snorted in amusement, and the phone chirped. Camila pressed the button. "Yes?""Your 9 AM is here," Felix said."Thank you. Please send them in."Sigrid stood to face the door as Camila joined her. "Remember our visit to Walter's cavern?" the blond asked quietly, and Camila nodded as she smiled at Nuru, who strode in with her bodyguards at her sides. They shut the door.The waves of energy radiating from the leader confirmed Camila's guess that she'd been overfeeding in preparation for this meeting. She sighed, as in contrast, Camila held back on her output the best she could. She forced a smile onto her lips."Greetings, Nuru Onwudiwe," Camila began and bowed her head to the other woman."Camila Villamor, you are not presenting the excess of power you did the other night," Nuru snapped.Camila looked up and nodded. "As I
Keeping the destination drop zone in his mind, he opened the tear, and Henry fell through to drop three feet to the grass below. The back of his head landed on the small brass commemorative plate bolted to the stone next to the bushes. Xiong winced but quickly closed the tear as he saw the beam of a flashlight approaching.He hoped their friend was okay as they'd asked so much from him. He looked back to the pile of charred remains. Something shiny caught his attention. It was up where Henry's head had been. Xiong reached down and lifted the crystal ganglion from the ground. His body must have rejected it after he was healed.Xiong couldn't inform Henry that he no longer had their transplanted capacity to wield magic. He also had no idea how Henry got it out yet completed his spell.He looked to the others. "We will bury these remains in the forest glade to honor our friend, Henry."A feeling of joy and love washed through him from the others. The Glass People loved the idea, as they
He felt Xiong withdrawing, and through the magic in him, he picked up snippets of a conversation Xiong was having with all of the other Glass People. The volume was a bit overwhelming as there were so many voices, and they were upset. They seemed to be talking about making him a Glass Person because of his injuries. To save him. Xiong was trying to tell them it wouldn't work as he'd already been subjected to the same energies, and he wasn't glass now.Henry was beginning to get seriously worried. How badly was he hurt? He felt someone close by and reached out to the mind. It was one of the Silver People.It physically touched him, and he linked minds with the young female. Concepts and perceptions were flowing through their link. She was sad. She'd heard he was the hero who'd saved all of the people on this planet and many on Earth. He imagined looking through her eyes at him, and she allowed it.He saw his Human glamor, and he looked no worse for wear. That was a relief. He dropped t
Crane shrugged. "I might have gotten more information, but Palmer's team decided to make his attempt at capturing my team.""You informed your team to run. They're now on the loose," Palmer asserted."No, they've gone to ground and will contact me tomorrow. They're still my squad. They remain devoted to the mission, as do I," Gordon asserted."But they won't come in," Baines growled."Yes, they'll come in, but not if they're going to be experimented on. Fully human soldiers would behave the same way under this threat, and there's no need for it. They've already proven they'll tell us everything we need to know." He locked eyes with the General. "Having a squad of bulletproof soldiers able to move faster than we can register with our eyes gives us one hell of an advantage, wouldn't you say? And remember, we know how to make more."That got through to the man."I'd personally like to speak to one of these Silver People," said the man with the crooked smile.Crane nodded. "We saw a repor
"Status report, Mick," Crane commanded through his mic. Their radios were shielded, so they still worked.The sergeant was still a little overwhelmed by the shared emotions, but she pulled it together and answered. "Colonel. The pseudo-clouds appear to be dead. The strike zone of the last prolonged bolt is too energized for us to enter. In the center of this zone is a body. We can't get close enough to make a positive identification or to determine if the person is alive or not. It looks to be a male based on body shape and clothing. The area is sprouting new growth unnaturally fast. Grasses and flowers are actually growing before our eyes. The four Silver People we met in Tennessee were here before we arrived, and they showed us how lightning affects the plant life where it strikes."And how exactly did they do that?" Crane asked, weariness in his tone.Mick felt a little uneasy with what she was about to confess, but she pushed ahead. "Uh, it seems we can speak mind to mind if we ho
As he got closer, he could feel every hair on his body beginning to stand on end. Little sparks were jumping between the strands, and he could taste something metallic. The rain was picking up, as was the wind, and soon he was drenched. The closer Henry got, the brighter the sparks snapping across his body became. It felt like his entire body was being pricked by pins and needles. The woman suddenly looked up at him and stopped with a look of fear on her face, clutching her child to her side.Henry looked closely at her and realized her hair was as soaked as his, but hers wasn't attracting the sparks at all.He looked past the woman and saw the tiny sparks leaping through the gap between himself and the approaching storm. He was a lightning rod! FUCK! He had to get away from her and the children! He spotted two young men running by."STOP!" he roared, and they froze in fear. "Help her get her children to cover!" he ordered, and they rushed to her and got her moving, one pushing her ca
"Shit!" Crane exclaimed.Sam looked at his friends then back to the Colonel. "These things duking it out over a city would not be good. I don't know what effect the lightning would have on people, but I can't imagine it would be good." A sudden pang of guilt made him look to the new Silver People they'd made. "You should know, we get our energy from the lightning. I guess it's how we eat."Jake scowled at Sam, but he just shrugged. He wasn't about to let them starve to death.Brenda and Jeannie went back into the barn and returned with handfuls of the silver strips, handing them out to the soldiers. Brenda took the remaining strips back to the barn when they no longer melted into the soldier's skin."We have to leave," the Colonel said, looking at Sam."That's cool with us. It's up to you what happens to your people. We're just going to keep running as that's what feels best. We won't interfere with you. I'd like to ask that you do the same for us, but maybe you don't have that author