XOXOX

They shot at her, first with tranquilizer darts and then with guns, but Azure's subconscious deflected bullets just as easily as hypodermic needles. Some of them ran up to her with blades or clubs, but a gentle tap with the metal gate sent them rebounding off the walls. They shouted things at her, possibly threats or ultimatums or clever things involving using the Prime Minister as a hostage, but Azure didn't speak Dutch so it was kind of moot if they were. What they didn't at any point do was offer her meaningful opposition. So Azure kept going, both to make her distraction as big and as obvious as possible and because they really hadn't come up with a strategy for what to do if she ran out of opposition.

Which, it appeared, she had. After the first ten or eleven guys got their asses handed to them, they started backing away hastily instead of fighting her. Azure could have caught up to them, of course; her telekinesis could propel her through the air faster than your average jumbo jet. But given that she was mainly there to keep all attention on her, she settled for walking slowly after them, slamming her improvised mace into the wall every so often, and shouting things like, "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!"

They didn't.

It was beginning to get a little frustrating. No matter how much she shouted and prodded and yelled, they just kept retreating further and further into the depths of the warehouse, past one storage bay after another after another. They shouted at her some more, and every once in a while someone took a potshot at her just to make sure her invulnerability hadn't worn off, but otherwise they seemed pretty content just to keep her attention on them the same way their attention was on her. Azure slowed down, just to see if they'd slow down too. Sure enough, they did. Crap.

Azure was pretty sure they were on to her by now, but she didn't have a Plan B. So she continued to saunter through the halls, her pace slowing as some of the urgency of the situation faded. After a while, she was barely even moving at a walk, and neither were her quarry. They plodded down the halls, taking a left, and then a right, and then another left and another right and Azure lost track of the corners and endlessly numbered bays after that. She was following them, that was all. They were backing away, and she was following. She just kept putting one foot in front of the other, waiting for something to change.

Then they split off in three different directions. Azure watched them go, suddenly unsure which group to follow. The decision seemed somehow too complex. No matter which group she pursued, two others would get away. Maybe she could...perhaps she should...Azure frowned. Strategy wasn't really her strong suit-it didn't need to be, when you could throw a car like a Major Leaguer's fastball-but it shouldn't be this hard to figure out which bunch of bad guys to hit first, should it?

"Something's wrong," Azure said, and the sound of her voice made her even more sure of it. She could hear herself slurring her words, and her tone was disturbingly vague. Like there was no force behind it, no intensity. The acid bite of the sarcasm she usually deployed as a defense mechanism was gone, replaced by an almost sedate bliss.

Sedate. Sedated. Azure took a deep breath through her nostrils, trying to pick up that telltale whiff she noticed at the crime scene...but it was a chemical warehouse. Everything smelled like chemicals. She could have been breathing in Sangria's chemicals the whole time, and not even noticed. Until they seeped into her lungs, slowing down her mind and her body. Until her sluggish thoughts got confused, muddled, chasing themselves in circles. Until she just stood there, staring vacantly into space in the middle of a hallway, unable to take any kind of real initiative of her own. Until she...until she...

"Something's...wrong," Azure said, wondering why the words sounded so familiar.

"No, my dear girl," came a voice from behind her. Before Azure could make herself turn, she felt warm lips caressing the base of her neck, and warm hands gently sliding around her waist. "Something is very, very right."

Azure tried to look around, to see who it was that was behind her, but those lips felt too good. They nuzzled her flesh, making every nerve ending light up with an electric thrill of pure pleasure. Her eyes rolled back in her head, involuntarily, and she let out a soft, euphoric sigh as the hands slipped under her sweater to tease her bare skin. "Doesn't that feel right to you, sweet girl? Don't you feel so much better enjoying my tender embrace?"

"I, um..." Azure tried to think of a reply, but words seemed to give her trouble, all of a sudden. Perhaps it was the way that those hands worked their way up Azure's body to tease and tickle her nipples on their way to pulling the sweater off altogether, or the way that those lips kissed their way down her spine until her legs wobbled and she sank down onto her knees. "Yes?" she hazarded at last, not remembering the question but feeling somehow like there was only one answer to give to the sensual figure behind her.

"Of course you do," the woman responded, tugging Azure's leggings down to expose her sex to the climate-controlled air. "You're simply beautiful, my sweet. Everything I hoped for. Oh, I love superheroes, darling. You're so brave, so noble, so dashing. Give you a crime to solve, and you leap into action without thinking twice. Because who wants to think when you can feel Sangria's kisses, instead?"

Sangria. The word sounded familiar, but Azure couldn't connect it to anything. Not when those lips were brushing against her shoulder blades, nibbling her earlobes, leaving Azure a shaking mess of sticky-sweet desire. Every word was punctuated by another of Sangria's kisses, and Azure's head lolled back against the other woman's shoulders so that she didn't have to support it anymore. She needed Sangria to hold her upright now. She felt too deliciously helpless to do anything but kneel.

"As if I needed a Prime Minister," Sangria said, teasing Azure's soaking pussy while she spoke. "Politicians are so dreary, nothing but papers and signatures and checks and balances. Too much work, too many constraints. I need a strong woman like you, my pretty pet. A strong woman who needs a stronger woman to guide her. You've been lost for so long, haven't you?"

"Unh, uh-huh," Azure murmured, now beyond words into the realm of animal grunts and moans. She had never felt so much pleasure from her own body, not from any lover of any gender; Sangria's drugs seemed to augment every sensation into a pulsing wave of bliss, melting Azure's thoughts down into a sticky syrup that dripped out onto Sangria's amazing fingers with every teasing caress. Azure couldn't think about what Sangria was actually saying at all anymore. She could only accept it.

"And now you've been found. Now you have a purpose once more." Sangria thrust her fingers deep into Azure's clenching pussy, fucking her words into Azure's foggy mind. "Me. I will be your meaning, and you will give yourself to my will like the good girl you know you need to be. No need to waste your life away in an alcoholic haze anymore, no need to mourn those you cannot bring back. Your soul will find itself an anchor in my pleasure, and you will find joy in obeying my commands."

If Azure had been a real superhero, this would probably have been the point where mentioning the loss of her universe at the hands of the Paradox King would have ignited her resolve. She would have shaken off the effects of the drug, knocked out Sangria with a righteous speech about the importance of the healing process, and probably stopped drinking to boot. But Azure was no superhero. She knew that. The sense of purpose and freedom from survivor's guilt that Sangria promised felt even more addictive than her drugs. Azure couldn't resist, not when Sangria's touch felt so good, not when Sangria's words promised her a mindless bliss that she couldn't stop craving...Azure let out a low, shuddering grunt as she came, but Sangria didn't stop fingering her cunt.

"That's it," she said instead, relentlessly stimulating Azure's shuddering body. "You're such a good girl, you're surrendering so beautifully, and you've even brought me another hero to play with. I'm sure Doctor Phobos has found the Prime Minister by now, but he won't be expecting her to come with little kisses of her very own. That's another thing I love about you heroes-you're all so beautifully confident that you can walk right into a trap and never get caught."

Something about Sangria's words sounded wrong, but Azure was too dazed to process them. She struggled to think, but it felt like an impossible uphill battle-thinking was exactly what Sangria didn't want her to do, and Azure wanted to please Sangria so very much. Sangria wanted her to cum, to cum again and again, to collapse onto her hands and knees and gasp with desire as Sangria fucked her every last little thought away. How could Azure possibly think in the face of that? She squirmed, Sangria's fingers forcing another climax out of her needy pussy.

"He's going to be such a good boy," Sangria sighed. "Such a pleasant little helper. He's going to help me refine my formulas until there's no hero I can't ensnare, no champion I can't make mine. You and Doctor Phobos are going to be the first of many, my sweet. Of so very, very many."

Of course! That was what was wrong. Azure felt so proud of herself for realizing. Sangria wasn't ever wrong about anything, of course; that would be impossible. But Azure knew that she had a duty to make her new Mistress even more right. "Eris," she gasped, between whimpers of ecstasy. "N-not Phobos. Eris."

"What?" The fingers pulled away with almost painful haste. The lips ceased their exploration of Azure's body. There was the sudden sound of someone standing, and then the even more sudden sound of someone being punched very hard. And Azure's first sight of Sangria, her new owner, was of her skidding face first a good distance down the hallway before coming to rest, unconscious.

Azure wasn't sure what to do. She didn't know if she should protect Sangria, avenge her, rescue her...she decided to wait for further instructions. It seemed like the safest thing to do. She crouched on her hands and knees, blissfully vacant, as Eris said to her, "Nice distraction. Sangria never saw me coming."

Eris helped Azure to her feet, moving her body around like a child's doll. "I should probably have finished that long story," she said, quickly binding and gagging Sangria and hoisting her over her shoulder. "The lab accident I mentioned? It made me immune to all known poisons, toxins and drugs. Not the flashiest superpower in the world, but every once in a while..." She nodded meaningfully at Sangria.

Azure just stared blankly ahead, a plastic smile on her face. Eris sighed. "Come on, let's get you and the Prime Minister off to detox. And Sangria off to jail."

"Yes Mistress," Azure said, floating on a warm cloud of contented pride as well as chemical bliss. She didn't understand what she'd done right, exactly, but she'd somehow helped save the day even if it was only by accident. For someone who was no hero, that was definitely enough.

THE END