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From: J R D <jrdss@pobox.alaska.net>
Subject: {ASSM} My top ten (tg) #2 (8/14)
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 05:10:06 -0400
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-------------------------

DISCLAIMERS

-------------------------

This story contains scenes of an erotic and/or controversial nature, 
and is not intended for the perusal of minors.  Further if perusal of 
such material is considered illegal in your area or immoral by your 
religion or personal beliefs, you should likewise bypass this story.

This story remains the property of the author.  Permission is granted 
to download, photocopy, copy and repost so long as any such action 
contains these disclaimers, and no attempt is made to profit from 
this story.

All characters in this story are the creation of the author, and any 
resemblance to real persons, alive or dead, are purely coincidental.

This story may contain aspects of fantastic science or magic.  The 
parameters of what this science/magic can accomplish are completely 
at the discretion of me, the author, and, as such, I make no 
apologies for any rules of "real" physics, chemistry, biology, or 
magic that may be broken within the story.

-------------------------

Now onto the fun stuff

-------------------------

CHANGE OF POWER pt 8

Jacqui, now a member of the Virtual Adepts, was on break in the gym, 
watching one of the basics class for the Akashics.  The Euthanatos 
class was waiting in the wings, but between when one class would end 
and the next would begin, she had fifteen minutes to go through some 
prenatal exercises for the care of her body and child.

While she was doing some low-impact aerobics, she was paying far too 
much attention to Marcus who was in the class waiting for the gym, 
and she put her foot down on the edge of the mat.  Her ankle twisted 
and she fell to the ground with a slight cry.  With her healer's 
senses, she could tell that it was a minor sprain, and something she 
could heal with a minor effort, but she never got a chance.  Before 
she knew what was going on, she felt Marcus's left arm go around her 
and support her shoulders while his right hand touched her ankle. 
The skin was a little tender, and she flinched a bit, but she then 
felt the hurt and pain drain from her ankle.

Jacqui looked into Marcus's eyes and saw only concern.  But as soon 
as the healing was finished, she saw the hardness return to his face. 
He said, "You'll be okay," and started to disentangle from Jacqui.

Jacqui grasped his right wrist.  Marcus tugged a little, but not too 
hard.  "Marcus, tell me what you're feeling.  Whether you're angry, 
or confused, or even if you hate me.  But please, talk to me."

Marcus stared at her, tongue-tied for a few seconds.  The hardness 
slowly drained from his expression.  Finally, he said, "Jacqui, I 
could never hate you."

"But how do you feel?"

Marcus stumbled about for a few more seconds, the confusion in his 
heart plainly evident on his face.  Finally, the confusion resolved. 
He turned his hand over and took her hand in his.  "Jacqui, I do love 
you."

"But?"

Marcus shook his head.  "No, Jacqui, no buts.  I do love you. 
Period."  Marcus then leaned over and kissed Jacqui.  Their arms 
wrapped around each other, and they kissed with seven months of 
denied passion.  They broke only after the Euthanatos class and the 
remains of the Akashics started a round of applause.

They looked at each other with stupid, embarrassed, school-kid looks 
on their faces.  Marcus said, "I've got a... class."

"Meet me in the garden after classes tonight?"

Marcus nodded.  "I'll be there."

As Jacqui walked from the room, she had to use all her willpower not 
to jump for joy.

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

As the Sisters came into the room, Bronwyn came over to Laurie, and 
asked, "What's up, girlfriend?  You've had this sappy smile on your 
face since I walked in."

"I'm not sure, but I think it's coming from Jacqui!"

"Any idea why?"

Laurie shook her head as Jack walked into the room.  He walked up to 
them and said, loud enough for only them to hear, "Good news, ladies, 
preliminary reports say that Jacqui and Marcus have made up.  They 
haven't done anything yet, but they do have a date for later tonight. 
I just thought you should know."  Both ladies smiled.

Everybody except for Jack (and the now absent Julie) took a seat 
around the table.  Jack took a stand near the sink, leaning against 
the counter.  When everybody had settled in, he said, "Okay, ladies, 
fire away."

One of the ladies, Tara, Dana's mother, asked, "First off, how do we 
know we can trust you?"

"Because you can trust them," he said nodding to Laurie and Bronwyn. 
"And whether or not they may or may not like me, they do know I have 
no reason to lie to you."

Another, Elaine, asked, "How do we know you haven't manipulated them 
magically to believe you?  No offense, Bron, Laurie."

Clearly Bronwyn and Laurie were a little annoyed at the implication, 
but contained it.  Jack said, "Because the power of the Goddess is 
notoriously fragile within a closed mind.  If I had the power to 
manipulate them on the level you're talking about, while still 
allowing them to retain their power, I'd have enough power to make me 
sound so believable, you'd all have no choice but to believe me."

They milled about a bit discussing it before Tara asked, "How do you 
know so much about us?"

"Noyb."

"Noyb?  What's that?"

"N. O. Y. B.  None of your business."  The women grew annoyed. 
"Look, I'm doing you a favor by standing here answering your 
questions.  But questions about who I really am, where I come from, 
where my knowledge comes from, et cetera, are off-limits.  I'm not 
going to answer them, and there's no way you can make me."

Patricia, a fiery tempered redhead from Ireland, asked, "Care to test that?"

Bronwyn said, "Patty, no!"

"It's okay, Bronwyn.  Let her try.  We'll get a lot further once 
she's gotten this out of her system.  I promise I won't hurt her."

Bronwyn sat back, and waved her hand.  As Patty marshaled her 
energies, Jack seemed to notice something on his nails.  Patty 
launched into a series of attempted intrusions and attacks into and 
upon his mind, but he just bit at his nail, then spit it into the 
sink.  She exhausted herself against him quickly, whereupon he turned 
back to her and said, "Oh, you can start anytime you want," 
apparently not having noticed even one attack.

When the girls got their shocked looks, he smiled and said, "I kid." 
He looked to Patty and said, "But we both know you succeeded in 
accomplishing nothing.  So now that we have once again done the 'Test 
the Limits' battle, can we get on with this?  I've got a date later."

Bronwyn smiled inwardly.  Jack and Nita were planning a date tonight, 
and he just revealed that he was still unaware of her dual nature.

For the next two hours, the women grilled him on various aspects of 
information about the Brotherhood, what he knew of the Sisterhood 
(surprisingly much), and the various groups of magic users who had 
attacked them.

Tara was right in the middle of asking him a question when she 
suddenly froze.  Bronwyn asked, "Tara, what is it?"

"It's Dana.  I got a flash of where she was.  She's in a building 
across town.  Some kind of medical building.  She's in pain!  We have 
to save her!"

Tara was about to bolt from the room, but Bronwyn stopped her.  "And 
we will, but we can't go rushing off half-cocked.  We need to 
prepare."

Jack asked, "Do you want my help?"

Bronwyn seemed stunned he was asking.  "No, this is Sisterhood 
business.  We'll handle it."

He just nodded and left.  He went upstairs, reached between the 
mattress and the box springs and pulled out The Soul Blade.  He used 
his magic to transform his clothes into a blue karate gi.  The fabric 
was as flexible as cotton, but as strong as steel.  He belted the 
sword around his torso, so it was on his back.  Somewhat to Bronwyn, 
but really to no one in particular, he said, "You may not want my 
help, but you do need it," and faded from view.

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

Jacqui sat alone in the garden, waiting for Marcus.  She was 
beginning to wonder if he was going to show up when a voice from 
right behind her said, "Boo," causing her to nearly jump out of her 
skin.

She turned and saw Marcus sitting beside her.  She slapped him on his 
arm.  "Bum, you scared me."

Marcus said, "Sorry," with a big grin on his face revealing that he 
wasn't really sincere in his apology.  The two leaned together and 
kissed.

When their lips separated, Jacqui asked, "What's wrong?  You're still 
holding back.  Do you still harbor resentment over what my mom and 
friend did to you?"

"No.  I'm over that.  I now realize they were doing only what they 
felt they had to to protect you.  In their position I might've done 
the same thing."

"Then what?"

Marcus was silent for a few seconds before he said, "Jacqui, when the 
Brotherhood severed my brake line, running me off the road, I died. 
I've been to the other side of the Veil, and seen the Wheel of Life 
up close and personal.  That... changed me.  And now that I know and 
have refound my love for you, I can't help but wonder if you still 
love me."

"Of course I do!"

"Jacqui, I want to believe that, and I know you want to believe that, 
but let's face facts, you no longer know me."

"I find it hard to believe you have changed so much that I don't love 
you."  Marcus shrugged.  "If you're that concerned, let's find out."

"How?"

"How are your Mind magicks?"

"I can form a telepathic link with someone with a similar level of 
Mind magicks."

"Then link with me.  Open yourself entirely to me as I do the same 
for you.  Let's find out how well we mesh."

Marcus sat there for a few seconds, not sure if this was the right 
thing to do, afraid of what he might discover.  Finally, he lifted 
his hand, and Jacqui brought hers to his.  Their fingers intertwined, 
and they formed the link between their minds.  Jacqui touched his 
mind and almost instantly found the darkness in his soul that had not 
been there before.  She almost ran from it, but resolved to face it. 
She touched it, and found it to be nowhere near as scary as she 
thought.  It was dark, but it was a natural darkness, like the dark 
that comes when the sun goes down.

And Marcus touched her soul, finding the light that she was.  The 
beauty and joy that Jacqui had brought to him was still there, and 
always would be.  Her light brought a warmth to his soul that had 
been missing since he had run from the road and died.

Their arms encircled each other and they embraced.  They kissed, 
Jacqui's light naturally embracing and balancing Marcus's darkness. 
Their souls embraced and meshed as easily as their bodies.  They 
looked deep into each other's eyes and each smiled, knowing their 
love was true.  They got up and helped each other to remove their 
clothes.

Marcus took Jacqui in his arms, and slowly explored her body, his 
hands roaming her face, arms, breasts, and pregnant belly.  He smiled 
as he felt the baby kick inside her.  They kissed, and went to their 
knees on the soft earth.  Marcus slowly went to his back, and Jacqui 
took his dick in hand, stroking it from its semi-hard state to a 
condition of rock-hardness.  She then straddled his hips, and slowly 
lowered herself onto him.  As she rode him, he used his hands to 
stroke her body with a soft, gentle touch.  Linked as they were, 
mentally and physically, they moved together with an ease and 
precision that neither had experienced before.

They continued to move together for neither knew how long, but when 
they came, they came together in a phenomenal simultaneous orgasm. 
After they came down from their orgasmic high, they could only lay 
there, smiling stupidly.  Deeply in love.

A slight distance away, Granny smiled.  "Well, that worked out even 
better than I'd hoped."

A disembodied male voice replied, "That was easy because they, 
despite their power, are kids in love.  They just needed to be 
reminded of that.  The Akashic Master will not be so easy."

"Of course, my love."  Granny's form flowed and shifted into the 
essence of femininity, the Goddess.  "But even if I fail in my 
primary goal, there's still his budding relationship with Bronwyn. 
Who'd've seen that?"

"The hazards of dealing with humans, love.  They're just so unpredictable."

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

Bronwyn, Laurie, and the girls of the Sisterhood were preparing for 
battle.  They had one of their own, Jane, watching the building where 
Dana was being held.  They were about to launch their assault, when 
Jane, frantic, sent the message, "The building just blew up!"

Afraid, all the girls turned to Tara.  She was feeling out with her 
senses, but then shook her head.  "She's not in any worse shape than 
before, and she's no longer being blocked, but I can't pin her down. 
It's like she's never in the same place for more than a second."

Bronwyn was about to say something when they all felt it.  A magical 
twisting of space and time.  Laurie's kitchen seemed to ripple, and 
then, standing there, was Jack and a naked woman, the woman was 
carrying a man's body, and Jack was carrying Dana!

Before anyone could move, Jack fell to one knee.  The women rushed at 
him, but he said, "No!" and generated a force field keeping them from 
getting close.  They were about to protest when he said to the woman 
with him, "Up in my room.  Under my bed.  A silver bell.  Bring it to 
me."

The woman unceremoniously dropped the man on the floor, and ran 
towards the stairs.  Laurie said, "I'll show you where his room is."

The woman said, "No need," as her body shifted into the form of a 
large, black wolf.  Laurie stood there stunned as the wolf bounded up 
the stairs.  A few seconds later, the wolf came back down, carrying a 
silver bell in her mouth.  She shifted back to human form and held 
the bell up.

Jack rang the bell four times.  He said out loud, "Verbena, I need you."

After a few seconds, space and time warped again, and a woman, her 
body covered in a simple black robe, appeared.  As soon as she saw 
Jack, she went towards him, but he held up his hand.  "The woman 
first."

"But-"

Jack was adamant.  "The woman first!  Progenitor toxins in her system."

She stared at him, deciding whether to argue or not, but then said, 
"As you wish."

She then reached her hand out and Dana hovered into the air.  She 
waved her hand over Dana's body, then suddenly inverted her hand and 
clenched it into a fist.  Dana tensed up, and cried out in pain.  A 
cry echoed by her mother who moved forward, only to be repulsed by 
the field Jack was generating.  Dana shook, and a purple fluid flowed 
from her body, flowing upwards into a ball in mid-air.  After the 
flow stopped, forming a ball about a foot across, Dana visibly 
relaxed, followed by her mother, Tara.  Dana levitated over into 
Tara's arms, and the Verbena Mistress said, "I need a pot or a bucket 
for this."  Laurie quickly got a pot large enough to contain the 
toxin and held it under the floating ball.  The Verbena Mistress 
lowered the ball into the pot and then walked over to Jack.

As soon as she said, "Your turn," Jack collapsed into her arms.  She 
got a concerned look, and ripped the clothes from his body.  "Damn! 
It's worse than I thought!"  Laurie and Bronwyn were shocked when 
they saw his body.  It was covered in bruises and open wounds of 
various types.  The Verbena lay him out, then pressed her hands to 
his body.  His body was surrounded by a bright glow, and when the 
glow faded, the wounds were gone.

The Verbena let out a sigh of relief.  "He'll be okay.  He lost a lot 
of blood, but I managed to replace it.  He'll be up and around after 
a good night's sleep."

Patty said, "What do we do about him?" pointing to the man.

"Leave him for now."

The shape-shifting woman said, "Leave the Wyrm spawn to die."  The 
Verbena Mistress gave her a dirty look.

Laurie and Bronwyn carried Jack upstairs.  As they put him into his 
bed, Bronwyn asked, "Laurie, were my senses deceiving me or was that 
man already dead?"

"At first, I thought so, but the more time I looked at him, the more 
I sensed a strange life feeling about him.  But there's another 
question.  When you saw Jack, all bloody and dying, how did you feel?"

"Laurie, I... I wanted to cry.  I felt his life force start to leave 
him, and almost lost it."

Laurie wrapped her arm around her friend's shoulders.  "Sounds 
serious.  Why don't you tell him who you really are?"

"And what if he rejects me for having manipulated him?  I don't think 
I could handle that, Laurie."

"But-"

"Laurie, please, you made me stick with this when I wanted to run 
away, and you were right, but please don't force the issue.  Promise?"

Laurie wrestled with the idea, then said, "Only if you promise to 
make an effort to tell him."

"Okay."

As they went downstairs, Laurie said, "Y'know, I've never seen you 
this flustered and tongue-tied.  It's kind of cute."

In the kitchen, the Verbena Mistress was sitting at the table staring 
at the pot of toxin.  The shape-shifting woman was standing behind 
her, and the body was still on the floor.  Only two of the other 
Sisters, Patty and Elaine, were still there.  Patty told them, "Tara 
took Dana home, and the others went with her."

Bronwyn nodded, then asked the Verbena, "What do we do with him?"

"Leave him until nightfall."

The woman said, "Feh.  Let me remove his heart and remove the trouble 
of dealing with him."

The Verbena sighed.  Laurie asked, "What is your problem with him?"

The Verbena said, "The Garou and the Kindred are natural enemies."

"Garou?  Kindred?"

"Werewolves and vampires."

Laurie just stared at the Verbena for a while.  Then she just turned 
her head away and said, "The world just got a whole lot stranger." 
The Verbena smiled.  "What are you doing with that stuff?"

"Trying to figure it out."

"Nasty stuff?"

"No.  That's the thing.  It's designed to be extremely painful, but 
it's not really all that toxic.  A second-rate healer would be able 
to easily neutralize it."  Laurie got a little annoyed until she 
continued with, "This wouldn't even be a decent annoyance to one of 
your Sisterhood.  Hardly something I'd expect from one of the 
Technocracy's Progenitors.  It doesn't make sense.  Unless...  How do 
you heal?"

"How do I heal?"

"Yeah, the process you undergo when you heal.  What is it?"

"We shield, form a link, absorb the injuries into us and neutralize it."

"Empathic healing."  The Verbena considered it.  "That moves this 
into a whole new category of insidious."

"How so?"

"There's a hidden component in this.  It'd be absorbed into your body 
through the empathic link, and you'd never notice due to the pain of 
the toxic part.  Then anybody you healed would get the hidden part. 
Then anybody who healed them would get it and so on."

"Eventually it would spread throughout the Sisterhood."

"Exactly."

Bronwyn asked, "What does it do?"

"Tags you."

"Tags us?"

"Like what scientists do with wild animals when they want to track 
their migratory patterns.  This stuff would let them find you no 
matter where you were on the planet.  You're lucky the Akashic Master 
decided to intervene.  My guess is the Progenitors would've let you 
rescue her with only a token resistance, so that you could heal her." 
The Verbena Mistress waved her hand and disintegrated the toxin.

"The Akashic Master?"

"The man impersonating your son.  We're one of the more active combat 
realms.  As such we try not to refer to our upper ranks by name so as 
to not endanger their loved ones."

Bronwyn said, "It seems we owe you both a debt.  How can we repay you?"

The Verbena said, "Tell me about yourselves."

"That's it?"

"Not just technical details, personal stuff, too."

"Why?"

"A little more than a decade back we made a mistake and betrayed him. 
Since then, if we needed his personal involvement in something, we 
had to pay through the nose for it.  He's become rather mercenary in 
his attitude.  Even when the Goddess herself asked him to retrieve 
your daughter-"

Laurie was shocked.  "What?  The Goddess?  Asked him personally?  For 
my daughter?!"

"Didn't you know?  No big surprise there.  Both the Goddess and the 
Dark One love their followers.  But anyways, he wouldn't even do Her 
a favor.  He demanded payment even from Her.  But your daughter makes 
a simple request, and with no request for compensation, he does it. 
Now, he's nearly killing himself to keep you from risking yourselves? 
To be honest, I'd like to know why."

For the next two hours, Laurie, Bronwyn, and the other Sisters 
answered questions from the Verbena.  After they were done, Laurie 
asked, "Did that help any?"

"Unfortunately, no.  I can see plenty of reason why he might lash out 
at you.  He hates those who manipulate others without good reason, 
but I can see no reason why he would put his life on the line for 
you."

"Sorry we couldn't help."

"No problem.  Can I borrow your sink?"

"Yes, but why?"

The Verbena just said, "It's almost nightfall," and stood up.  She 
reached into her robe, pulled out a dagger, and slashed her hand. 
The Verbena plugged up the sink, and let the blood flow until both 
sink basins were filled.  Laurie assumed she was using magic, since 
the blood was far greater than any human could lose without losing 
consciousness.  She closed and opened her hand, and the slash was 
gone.

The man then bolted up.  His face was contorted in rage, his canines 
having grown considerably.  The Verbena grabbed his head, and plunged 
him face first into the sink.  The vampire consumed all the blood in 
each sink, and when he was finished, he was much more controlled. 
The Verbena gave him a towel she conjured, and, while he wiped his 
face, he said, "My apologies, ladies, but when I am that depleted I'm 
not always under control."

The girls just stared stunned, as the vampire turned to the Verbena 
and said, "I owe you a debt."

"You owe the Akashic Master, not me."

"I owe you both."  He then turned, said, "Ladies," and walked out of 
the house.  As soon as he was out the door, he just disappeared.

The Verbena said, "I need to go, too.  Ladies," and with no further 
word, she and the werewolf disappeared from view.

Laurie turned to the others and said, "That was..."

All the other girls just said, "Yeah."
-- 
"This is reality, not T.V.  Can't you tell the difference?"
"Sure, I just like T.V. better."

jrdss@alaska.net
ICQ#37222294
J R D

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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