Flying Blind Ch. 02

This story is a bit wordy and fairly long, so if you are looking for immediate gratification, you might want to look elsewhere.

The following story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between these character and events and any real person or events is strictly coincidental . . . and pretty darn impressive seeing as it is a science fiction story. Do not reproduce or copy this story without the consent of the author.

This story is based in an alternative universe, where history took a different course than the one depicted in my other stories. It also takes place at a fictional town in Colorado called Crystal Pass and a fictional school called Four Corners University.

The following story contains lesbian sexual activity.

Proofread by "hkf999"

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"The blind cannot see. The proud will not."

~ Russian proverb

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"How long has she been like this?" Sasha asked. Her friend Madison was bouncing around her sound-proof booth like a woman possessed. She was smiling and dancing and looking far more energized than either she or her boyfriend had ever seen.

"Ever since I got here," Billy said, his voice betraying both his amazement and his amusement. "She was already gearing up a ton of playlists. Sasha . . . she's going to play some stuff that's actually kind of cheerful."

Sasha collapsed back in her chair, but she was grinning from ear to ear. "She got laid, didn't she?"

"I guess," Billy replied. "I've never, ever seen her like this. Maybe she was kidnapped by aliens?"

Madison turned on the external microphone. "Hey Billy, would you mind going and grabbing me a soda from the fridge? I'm thirsty, thirsty, thirsty --" she chanted cheerfully, letting the mike cut out as she continued her little dance.

"Aliens?" Sasha muttered, thinking the idea might not be so far fetched.

Madison was on Cloud Nine for the first time . . . well, ever. Last night, she had gone on a date with the most beautiful, amazing, athletic, sexy woman on the planet. She had shifted into her bat form while her date Heda had shifted into the form of an eagle, then they had flown across the night sky as a pair. Madison, an outcast in the world of lycanthropes, except for her friend Billy and his human sorceress girlfriend Sasha. Then Heda had come along and, despite all of Madison's unknowing attempts to screw things up, they had become friends. Last night, they had been lovers. Madison had lost her virginity to a member of the "In" crowd, and it had been amazing! For once, she did not care that the rest of the shifter community looked at her like a freak just for being blind.

She heard the door open. She did not have her echolocation on, since she did not need it in such a confined and familiar environment, so she assumed it was Billy with her drink. "What took you --" She was cut off when she was pulled up against a hard body with firm breasts and was kissed with definite vigor.

"Unless Sasha has changed teams," Madison said at last when her lips left those of the intruder, "or Billy shaved and changed genders --"

Heda was smiling as she watched the girl's face blush. "Still wondering who I am?" she whispered. She took Madison's hands and put them on Heda's ass. "Feel familiar."

Madison buried her face in the crook of Heda's neck. "Hmm, pleasantly firm . . . perfectly rounded --"

Outside, Billy and Sasha were both watching on with pure joy as their friend felt up Heda Adler in the sound room at the campus radio station. Heda had shown up to say hi just as Billy was returning with the soda, so she had taken it in instead. Admittedly, Diet Pepsi seemed to be the last thing on Madison's mind at this point.

'Yeah, they definitely had sex." For a moment, Sasha was vexed. She was Madison's best female friend. Female friends talked about this sort of stuff.

Madison blushed harder. "They . . . uhm . . . they're watching aren't they?"

Heda glance over her shoulder and saw that Billy and Sasha were giving two wild thumbs up. "Nope," she said.

"Liar."

Heda kissed the girl's nose. "Maybe. Hey, you available tomorrow night?"

Madison made an unflattering face. "No. I've got an early evening DJ gig for a private party, then I've got to be back here. Somewhere in there, I need to get started on my homework."

"Damn. I was going to see if you wanted to grab dinner or something." That "something" conveyed a certain promise that made Madison's face light up a bit.

"How about Tuesday?"

"Can't," Heda replied. "I've got practice, and my stick fighting class starts after that. Stupid combat classes," she growled. Four Corners University, which was built by and secretly catered to shifters, had a number of courses on the curriculum that normal humans did not know existed, including a number of weapons classes, magic manipulation courses (for those with the gift), and paranormal history classes. "I promised my mom I'd stick with some kind of training."

"It sounds cool. I was . . . discouraged . . . from taking stuff like that," Madison said, her voice becoming bitter and a bit fragile. Heda did not like her voice like that. She liked Madison's voice when it was low and sultry and sexy-as-hell, which is the way it usually was when Madison was in this booth. It had been the voice Madison had been encouraged to use when they had made love the night before.

"I'm sorry. That sucks. Hey, I think we might be able to voice your complaint against Alvin this Friday."

Madison looked cautiously optimistic. "Really? I didn't think the Council convened until the third week of school."

"Yeah, but Reichert is back for classes, so I called his office and --"

"I'll wait," Madison said, her optimism dissipating.

Heda was confused. "But Reichert seems to like me, or at least he respects my mom. The Reptile King's word would carry a lot of weight."

"Yeah, but . . . just never mind, okay?"

"Just tell me what's wrong."

Madison actually pulled away and started pulled out more CDs. She looked agitated. "Reichert doesn't like me, okay? He's this great and powerful macho alpha, and I'm --" She stopped and tapped her temple, drawing attention to her non-functioning eyes. "I'm a DM, remember?"

Heda hated that phrase. DM stood for "Darwin's Mistake," and it was about as nasty of a thing you could say about a shifter. Back in the day, shifters with the kind of disability that Madison suffered would have been left to die in the wild, similar to the behavior exhibited by their wild brethren. The human side of shifters had eventually caused them to ban such practices but even hundreds of years after the fact, not all shifters agreed with what they considered "charity." To many, it should still be survival of the fittest. Never mind that shifters like Madison could still live perfectly normal lives as part of the human community. Shifter purists thought that leaving them in the gene pool was dangerous. What was really stupid, particularly in Madison's case by Heda's way of thinking, was that she was Gifted. A Gift was a special ability or abilities that manifested itself in only a small percentage of the shape-changing community, and these Gifts were generally looked on with great pride and awe. Heda was Gifted, and her Gift allowed her to become stronger, faster, and see farther than normal.

Madison also had a Gift, though only the four people in the radio station at that moment actually knew about it. Madison actually was able to use her souped-up bat ability of echolocation in her human form. She used sound waves to "see" the world around her, in many ways more accurately than someone would with normal sight. When it was on, it was impossible to sneak up on the young woman. But Madison still could not see things like "color" as far as most people understood the concept, and she could not see the auras given off by other shifters. She had hid her special ability from everyone by hiding her eyes behind her "blind girl" sunglasses. A shifter's eyes glowed the color of his or her aura when a gift was being used.

"Hey, he seemed like a pretty stand up guy to me," Heda said. The Kings and Queens of the animal families held a special reverence in the minds of the rest of the community, so having someone be so openly distrustful of one struck a nerve with Heda.

Madison sighed. "He . . . let's just say I took his anthropology course a year ago as an elective, and he made his disdain pretty obvious."

That stung Heda a bit. She, like many others, tended to put the monarchies up on pedestals, though each shifter had different reasons for doing so. She liked to think that Kings and Queens were wiser than your average person, though part of her realized that was an irrational assumption. "What did he do?"

"He . . . listen, let's just forget it. You still have a future in the community. No need to screw with that by getting you in trouble with the All Mighty Reichert."

"Please, just tell me."

Madison was looking very uncomfortable. "He told me the class would probably be too hard for 'someone like me,' and kept encouraging me to drop out until the due date was passed. I aced all the homework and the first test, but he kept after me until he realized I wasn't leaving. Then it seemed I had to work twice as hard as anyone else. I decided I was going to get the best grade in the class, just to show him up, but I almost lost out due to a bullshit point deduction on the final."

"What did he deduct for?" Heda asked.

"Penmanship. I took it before the department head, who was pure human, and challenged it. I managed to get the point back, though I wound up tying for the high score. With, of all people, Alvin Hannity."

Heda was feeling a bit uncomfortable herself. The pedestal she had already put Reichert on was showing some cracks, if what Madison had said was true. Madison seemed to sense that discomfort.

"Sorry," she said, backing away as she felt the wind in her sails die down. "I keep forgetting that no one is supposed to question the monarchy."

"No, you should. Just . . . carefully," Heda said. "Listen, we can go after class on Friday and talk to him. He talked about not preying on other shifters as part of his welcome-to-the-neighborhood speech. He'd lose face if he didn't back that up."

Madison really did not want to go, but she nodded anyway. Heda would just have to see for herself. "Okay." She was saved by Billy poking his head in and telling her it was almost time to go on. "Gotta work."

"And I'm doing a late practice tonight," Heda replied. The environment had changed a lot from when she had walked in, with Madison going from hot to cool over the span of one conversation. She placed one hand on the girl's shoulder and the other on the back of her head, pulling Madison closer and upward and planting a slow, gentle kiss on those wonderful lips.

Madison felt that the kiss was just an attempt to buy off her affections after getting her upset. After about half a second, she did not care, melting into Heda's body like a human-sized tube of goo. Her skin was warm with desire and her brain was short-circuiting.

"Ten seconds," Sasha said, poking her head in the door and grinning.

"I'll talk to you later," Heda said, giving Madison's firm butt a quick squeeze before walking out of the booth. Upon the door closing, Billy turned up the speakers so that they could all hear the beginning of the show.

"Hello," Madison started, drawing out the "l" sound with that voice that made Heda's heart go pitter-patt. "This is Madison, your hostess for an evening of the sounds you love We'll be getting to the music straight away, since everyone knows that there's a time for talk, and then a time for using your mouth for other things," she purred.

The eyes of everyone outside the booth were wide open. Heda because she was impressed, while Sasha and Billy had never heard the girl be so openly naughty before.

"We've got blocks coming from Joan Jett, Ozzy Osbourne, and Alice Cooper, but I thought we might start with a little AC/DC. After all, that means the boys and the girls can get a little thrill out of it." She looked towards the door that Heda had left through and said, "We'll be starting things off with 'You Shook Me All Night Long,' and here's to life imitating art."

It took most of Heda's self control to not walk back into that booth and ravish Madison out of her mind right their on the spot, so she figured she might want to put some distance between them. For a little while. So she headed off to practice with dirty thoughts of what she wanted to do with her little were-bat running through her brain.

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The next day . . .

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Madison was humming a merry tune as she left her Understanding Mass Media class. She needed to get her dorm and get dressed for the party she was DJ'ing for. It was going to be a tedious company event where she was going to have to work her ass off to get people actually moving on the dance floor, but it was a paying gig. Books were weighing down on her this semester, so the extra cash would help. She used her cane, keeping up the illusion of total blindness though she had kicked in her Gift the moment she was at the bottom of the steps. Sometimes she liked navigating campus just by listening, but she was in a hurry.

She was almost to her building when she noticed that she had company waiting, and not the welcome kind. It was Alvin and a couple of his goons, and they had already spotted her. If she were to change course now, they would know that something was up. Three on one were not good odds, particularly since Alvin was a pretty good fighter by himself, or so she had heard. 'He can't really be planning on fucking with me with a complaint already against him. Of course he could,' she thought.

Madison grabbed her phone as she walked, just another young woman making a phone call. Nothing unusual about that. She just hoped someone was on the other end. She tried Billy's number, as it was still the first one on speed dial. Four rings and nothing but voice-mail.

"Hey Billy," she said, trying to keep her voice calm. "I'm almost back at the room. Just reminding you that you're supposed to be picking me up in a few minutes," she said, saying that last part loudly. Maybe they'd leave her alone if they though Billy was going to be by soon. Then some little part of her twinged. 'Why do I have to keep calling Billy? I can handle this one --'

Her thought was cut off as Alvin approached quickly and knocked the phone of her hand.

"Hey! Watch it asshole!" she said.

Alvin got up in her face. "You're the one who'd better watch out," he growled, pressing up against the front of her body. She tried to back up but one of Alvin's buddies had moved in behind her. She thought it was another were-bat named Bill, and he was big and dumber than a fucking box of fucking rocks. The third guy was playing lookout.

"Alvin, cut the --"

"Shut up you little bitch," he said, grabbing for her sunglasses so quickly that she was barely able to turn off her echolocation before her eyes were exposed. "Those fucking things are false advertising. They hide that you're a fucking freak."

This was the part where Madison got into trouble. She was outnumbered, blinded, and overpowered. So the worst thing she could do would be say something like,"Is that the same as using your hair to hide your mental retardation?"

"What'd you say to me bitch?"

'JUST STOP!' Madison's mind screamed at her. But her mouth had other ideas. "You didn't hear me? Great. You're deaf and dumb and I'm blind. Triple play." Instantly, she felt hard slap against her face. It was almost as shocking as it was painful.

"You'd better learn some fucking respect you little defect."

"Screw you! I'm going to nail your ass to the wall you --" Madison was shoved roughly to the ground, her knee coming down hard on the edge of the sidewalk. She wanted to scream out or cry, but she would not give him the satisfaction. In fact, she kicked out behind her with her uninjured leg, catching someone (she hoped it was Alvin) in the kneecap.

"Bitch!" Alvin shouted, just before he kicked her in the ribs. "Drop you charges against me to the Council, or things are going to get a hell of a lot worse." He put a foot on her ass and shoved her to the ground. "Things like you should be put down, not coddled. You're a disgrace."

Madison turned her face back toward him. "Says the guy who needs his buddies so he can go pick on a blind girl."

"Dude," one of said buddies muttered, "I hear someone coming. Let's get."

Alvin shoved her back to the ground with his foot one more time before he took off, and Madison heard a "crunch" as he left. Covering her eyes, she looked out with her echolocation and saw that he had stepped on her sunglasses before running off. She got back to her feet, ginger with her injured knee and holding her ribs. She let out a pained gasp as she touched her side, wondering if anything was broken. A few tears finally forced themselves out of her eyes as her mind replayed how things should have gone, with her kicking all their asses and them crawling away instead of her. She'd been training hard, and she had not been able to get off anything except a couple of one-liners. She found her cell phone and picked up her backpack, which was a struggle to walk with due to the pain in her knee. She had to get back to her room on memory, because she was afraid of using her Gift and getting caught.

She was fumbling with the keys, trying to get into her room when she heard footsteps behind her. She spun around and tried to put herself in an en guard position . "Leave me the fuck --"

"Madison?" came a familiar feminine voice. It was Sasha, probably coming to help her get ready. "Madison, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," was the reply, and Madison turned away and tried to get the key in the lock with shaking hands.

"Don't tell me nothing!" her friend said, trying to turn Madison back around to face her. She saw the girl wince when she touched her side, and her concern began to grow. "What happened?"

"I . . . What's the fucking point," Madison whimpered. "I've been training and I thought I was getting good but I still can't fucking defend myself."

"Was it Alvin again? God damn it, was it?!" Sasha pulled out her cell phone and started punching numbers. "No more. If the Council is going to drag their damn feet and do nothing, then the police --"

"We can't bypass the Council and got straight to human law," Madison said, activating her Gift so that she could see and grab her friend's cell phone. "You know the rules."

"Madison, this was an assault! And if the Council isn't going to do anything --"

"You think the campus cops are any more likely to help? The Council will make sure that the complaint gets routed back to them. Maybe I should just --"

"Don't you dare say quit! The Madison I know would never give in to someone like Alvin Hannity."

"Well YOU'RE not the one who has to go to work with fucked up ribs and a bad knee," Madison whispered, tears flowing freely now. "I tried being the tough chick and I've tried standing up for myself, and for what? I can't defend myself and I shouldn't have to keep calling you --"

"We're supposed to help you. That's what friends do. Hell, once Heda hears about this --"

"You can't tell her," Madison hissed. "I don't want her getting in trouble because of me. Promise me you won't tell her or Billy."

"I will promise no such thing. Billy would never forgive me, and you know he'll figure out what happened. He's smarter than both of us put together. And you think Heda won't notice you cringing in pain the next time you make out?"

"I probably won't see her until Friday --"

"She wanted to drive you to the job tonight," Sasha interrupted. "I was going to help you pack and then she was going to pick you up."