Emily sat on the edge of the bed. Her feet were cold.

She let out a long, silent sigh, and laid out on her side, carefully pulling the blanket over her so as not to appropriate any of Gabrielle’s real estate. She was a perfect angel, silent, unmoving. Warm.

Emily squirmed, turning, facing Gabrielle. She reached out beneath the covers, fingertips dancing delicately, carefully above the skin of her back. Closer, and closer they got, and Emily’s breath quickened. Millimeters away, she stopped, and a spurt of air burst out her mouth through clenched teeth. Emily paused and tried to pace herself. She took the time to take in a full breath of air. She closed her eyes and opened them back into the opaque shadows. Gabrielle’s spine traced the horizon of Emily’s world.

Emily sucked in a breath, slowly this time. Steadily. And as she exhaled, she allowed her hand to magnetize to Gabrielle’s skin. Spread out, gentle, she rubbed across Gabrielle’s side, letting Gabrielle’s warmth seep into her.

Emily wanted to hug her close, pull her in, and never let go. She wanted to embrace her, to give her a gift commensurate with everything Emily had received from her. Even now, just touching her made Emily feel as though she were taking something that did not belong to her.

A low moan grumbled through Gabrielle’s body, the noise locking Emily’s touch in place. Emily waited, counting the beats of her heart, until:

“Your hands… cold.”

Emily at first barely understood, then suddenly she whipped up from her position, throwing the blanket off. She looked at her hands with concern. “Are they?”

“Mm… mm-hmm…” Gabrielle remained a mere lumpy mound beneath the blankets.

“S-sorry…” Emily tried rubbing her palms together rapidly, breathing on them.

“It’s fine…” At last, Gabrielle squirmed from her cocoon, her fuzzy head popping out of the blanket like a groundhog. “How long have you been up?”

“A few minutes,” Emily lied.

“Good,” said Gabrielle. “Are you going on patrol?”

“No,” Emily said truthfully.

“Great! You’ve been so hard to get ahold of lately. I was thinking we could visit the museum finally head downtown together. Get some Thai food for dinner, maybe visit the botanical – ”

Buzzzzz…

A corny chime warbled through the night’s gelatinous silence. Emily jittered, then reached underneath herself, searching for her phone.

"Oh, I think..." Gabrielle started, driving her hand underneath her disproportionately large pillow. She pulled it out, this time holding Emily’s phone. “It’s for you,” she said, smiling sadly as she handed the phone to Emily.

Emily took it, dreading what she hoped she wouldn’t see. Until her fears were realized.

A single text. From C:

Things brewing. Need you on standby.

Emily dialed, and the other line picked up not long after. “Chief, I –”

“Imperia, I’m–”

The Commissioner's voice was abruptly silenced.

“Commissioner? Chief?!” Emily yelled into the phone, then realized: the red blinking light at the top. Her battery was dead. She’d forgotten to put it on the charger the night before.

Emily scrounged around for her charging cord and came up short. She glanced pleadingly at Gabrielle. “I’m… I’ll be right back.”

Gabrielle nodded, thankful her weary eyes couldn’t betray her emotions in the early morning midlight.

Emily bounded to her feet and was immediately stricken by an urge to sit down. Each step felt as though the scaffolding which made up the tightly wound muscles of her thighs threatened to collapse, her soreness only exacerbated by the eagerness with which she’d approached performing her heroic duties this past several weeks. Emily shivered, then took one patient step after another, careful to avoid wobbling, as she made her way to the basement door.

Emily’s hand gripped the doorknob, stopping to catch her breath. She planted her phone in her pocket, and a wry smile came to her as she turned the handle.

Click.

She left herself behind.

That shy, unsure girl.

And crossed the threshold once more.

Catherine had no real clue how long she had been sitting there, in silence. But when the single bulb that lit the room activated, she felt a burning sensation as her retinas were violated. It was only after she covered her face with her arms did the primal fear of Imperia return. Sure enough, as she glared up, there she stood, a queen surveying her kingdom. She took slow, measured steps down the stairway, as if trying to drive into Catherine how much she intended to relish what she was about to do with her.

“S-stop…!” Catherine began pre-emptively as she made one leisurely step after another toward the desk. She reached out a hand, subconsciously guarding Penny as the silent villain sat on her butt, not comprehending the change in the world state. “Imperia, Imperia please! I don’t know why you’re doing this… but I…”

Catherine’s spiel paused as Imperia took a few steps past her, and the table entirely. As Catherine watched, she noticed that though Imperia’s gait was slow, it was anything but leisurely. She appeared to be trudging with difficulty.

Imperia was aiming for one of the many cabinets and shelves that lined the perimeter of the room. This one was a small latch-box constructed of a dark-brown material. Propping herself against the wall, Imperia grabbed the capsule with one hand, just a bit too small. The box slipped and slid out of her grasp, bouncing with a decidedly non-metallic rubbery rebound.

Catherine watched in morbid fascination as Imperia swore, reaching down with great discomfort to pick it up again. She ferried the box back to Catherine’s table, making space by moving the figurines one by one behind the monitor. Catherine braced herself as the massive cubic shape was deposited on the tabletop. Catherine stared at it, at least the size of a garden-shed to one at her scale. Imperia murmured swears under her breath as she fiddled with the latch until the hinged top popped open.

As it unlocked, a warm, yellow light leaked out and coated Imperia’s face as she smiled lovingly, sinisterly. Catherine’s confusion would grow until Imperia reached her hand into the box and winced.

“Ouch!” Imperia exclaimed, then steeled herself. She clutched something and pulled it out into the air proper, where Catherine could finally see for herself what was inside.

Shortfuse.

“I told you to keep your hands off me! Stay away from me! Get off! Get off!!” Shortfuse dangled between Imperia’s fingernails, held from the scruff of her costume. The dirty-blonde electromancer was still wearing her flashy skin-tight suit emblazoned with her lightning-bolt emblem. If Catherine recalled correctly, the suit was a restraining device designed to limit and control the outburst of her powers, while focusing them in a direction of her choosing. With each flail, yellow-white electrical energy would blast out, dissipating only a few meters from its origin.

Once a street-level criminal, content to steal from ATM machines for quick cash, Shortfuse soon set her sights on amassing more and more power, seeking to siphon the energy from the entirety of Aster City’s electrical grid. It was an explosive battle, and by her own admission, one of the most life-threatening Imperia had ever managed to endure. When the dust cleared, Shortfuse was gone. Nobody had any idea where she’d went.

“You know I’ve been letting you off easy?” Imperia said, slumping into her rolling chair with a rapturous exhale. “Ahhhhh, that’s better,” she murmured. She cast a short glance down at Catherine and Penny, each of them paralyzed in fear as Imperia now towered above them again.

Fortunately, she seemed to have other concerns at the moment. Imperia reached for the toolbox with her free hand, careful to keep the screaming Shortfuse out of the range of her face as she rummaged. “You know why? Honestly… you’re kind of a bitch. Not worth the time it took to wrangle you in.”

“Say that to my face! Grow me back and let’s have a rematch!” Shortfuse unleashed a short-range burst of energy out in a sphere as her anger mounted, enough to make the hairs on Imperia’s arm stand on end. But at her size, there was simply nothing she could do to truly harm her.

“Right. No thanks. Anyway…” Imperia clutched something, pulling it out. A… cell-phone charger? Catherine watched as the wiry device was unfurled. The tip certainly looked like a cell-phone charger, and the other end would’ve appeared to be an adaptor at first glance, but upon her second, Catherine noticed something was off. Then with a bit of a surprise, she noticed it wasn’t an adapter at all. It was a tiny motor, suitable for RC cars. And connected to it was… something else.

Catherine looked at Shortfuse, hanging up there helplessly, putting two and two together. And her heart dropped. It couldn’t be, thought Catherine.

Could it?

Shortfuse was about to find out. Imperia placed the wire device a few paces from where Catherine stood. Then she clutched the villain’s chest between her thumb and forefinger.

“Now, I could’ve just stomped you out of existence, right? You are aware of that, right? That your continued existence is by my fiat?”

Shortfuse chagrined, and she only redoubled her protests. “I couldn’t give less of a shit what kind of car you drive! If you even think about putting me in your boot or your bra or your panties or whatever, I swear to God I will make your heart stop faster than you can blink!”

“I’m well aware, Shorty.” And Imperia clutched the rubbery fabric that composed the rear of Shortfuse’s suit. With a well-timed slice of her trimmed nails, she managed to break open a hole in the minuscule outfit. The tension of the latex was compromised, leaving her posterior and genitalia exposed.

“What are you doing?! And don’t call me that!” Shortfuse groaned, twisting her legs together. “I-If you really want me pissing on your floor, be my guest. Just know it’s on you!”

Imperia simply smiled, further probing her crotch and opening the gap in clothing between her legs. “S-stop it!” Shortfuse pleaded. “Seriously, can you chill the hell out?”

Imperia then reached for the motor end of the wire. There, laying only a few feet away from where Catherine stood, she was able to see firsthand precisely what that object was. A slim object that protruded into a knob at the end. Coated in silicone. As a certified loner who had yet to form a real romantic relationship with any humans, Catherine was embarrassingly familiar with that shape.

Imperia carefully maneuvered the item between her fingertips, manipulating Shortfuse into position. From where she hung, Shortfuse had a wide-open view of Imperia’s massive, grinning face.

“W-what are you going to –”

Shortfuse squealed as Imperia rammed the dildo into her vagina, from below. She lost her breath, catching it again to say something but was cut off as the motor’s circuit was completed, sending the vibrating rod into action ramming it repeatedly into Shortfuse’s cervix and back. Her word became a jumbled mess as liquid began to spew and leak out of her snatch, dribbling down her legs as they kicked and curled, while Imperia used her other hand to insert the charging piece into her phone’s port. A muted “ding” sounded, indicating the charger was working as intended.

Catherine put her hand to her mouth, cursing herself for being right. Even Penny’s eyes widened at the sight of the invasive procedure.

“I knew I could find a use for you, Shorty!” She laid Shortfuse gingerly on the ground, where the mortified villain finally laid eyes on her new sister in captivity. But they were unable to work on salutations as a ferocious orgasm shuddered through Shortfuse’s body, sending a potent jolt of electricity into the ambient surroundings.

“Good Lord, it’s at 20 percent already…” Imperia peered at the phone-screen, amazed. “It’s working better than I ever would’ve thought…! Do you know how lucky you are?” she said, glaring down at Shortfuse’s drooling frame as it twitched and spasmed. “If this didn’t work, I was just going to stomp you outright! I only hope you’re content with this compromise.”

Shortfuse shook her head, twisted her neck, banged her chin against the table, curled her back, twisted her arms. Her body was no longer her own. Even the slightest attempt to try to remove the rotating dildo was interrupted by a spasm of pain or pleasure or both, cruelly wrenching any semblance of volition from Shortfuse’s nerves.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about the two of you, mind you,” Imperia said, turning her cruel, terrifying gaze onto Catherine and Penny.

Like a Pavlovian response, Penny shot up, gaze down, but attentive enough to respond. Catherine glanced at her, surprised, then forced herself to look up at the colossus that was Imperia standing above them.

“I hope our quality time yesterday was instructive in what happens when you shirk your responsibilities.”

Penny nodded emphatically.

Imperia made a funny face, then she jerked a thumb at Penny. “Do what you do. C’mon, chop chop.”

On command, Penny focused, twisting her face in effort. Catherine backed away from Penny’s naked body as the outer layer of her skin rippled like a pool of disturbed water. The pain she wore became more pronounced, the ripples more and more turbulent… then they stopped. Nothing had happened. Penny doubled over and heaved.

Imperia rested her elbow on the table and leaned down, boring two holes into Penny with her eyes. At this, Penny redoubled her efforts.

Catherine watched as Penny’s fists curled tight, her legs buckled even as they locked in position. She began to wheeze out an excruciating, haggard groan that seemed to skip every other quarter-second. The ripples on her body were stronger now, such that Catherine could almost see the ghostly form of the duplication that she threatened to make as the cycle of mitosis was nearly complete. Until…

Penny collapsed.

She fell in a heap, and Catherine yelped, dashing to her side. A faint bit of clear slime dripped out the side of her left nostril, but Catherine could tell she was still alive.

“I’m sorry, I’m not sure I understand. Are you disobeying my orders again?” Imperia put on a sarcastically confused tone. “Did you not learn the lesson I taught you last time? Do you even want to hold onto all your limbs?”

Catherine ground her teeth together, getting in a protective stance as she shook Penny. She whispered. “C’mon, c’mon. Wake up…!”

Penny shook her head slightly, side to side. This was the extent of her muscle ability.

“Well… if you can’t even do the one thing I brought you along for, I really don’t have a reason to keep you around.” And her hand came in, a prowling UFO. Catherine had no idea what to do, but simply remained where she stood, hunching atop Penny’s limp body.

Imperia’s fingers stopped.

“You know, if you’re worried about your chances, it is not a very good idea to make a bad impression on your first day. Now get out of the way.”

Catherine’s heart raced. She let go of Penny, only because she could feel the heat that threatened to burst through her fingertips. A nervous reaction, utterly unhelpful in this scenario, against something of that size. She bit her lip, turning her head a quarter of the way toward Imperia. Still trapped in her peripheral vision, Imperia was rendered as more of an unknowable blob of untold proportions. Somehow, that was still less scary than looking her in the eye. “She can’t do it. She’s tired.”

“I decide when she’s tired. Here, c’mon sweetie, step aside.” Imperia snapped her fingers then curled them around Catherine’s elbow. It was a shock being gripped by something so huge, and Catherine batted her fingers away out of instinct.

“Ow, God!” Imperia hissed, looking at the tiny red spot on her thumb. Catherine was mortified, hunching even closer to Penny as she looked at her flaming red hands.

Imperia sucked on her finger for a few moments before returning her attention to Catherine. “You stupid fucking fire ant. I took pity on your sorry ass out there, you know that? You worthless, subhuman speck?!”

Then her finger came in with renewed force, jamming Catherine down on top of Penny’s stirring body. Imperia’s pointer finger was buried in Catherine’s chest, restricting her movement and airflow. Caldera tried batting it away with her burning hands. Imperia grit her teeth but was steeled for this. Nothing but a few red marks; Imperia’s skin was too thick for Catherine to do real damage at her size.

But this didn’t stop Catherine from fighting. She punched and kicked, screaming and shouting all the while, as Imperia remained with her cheek resting in her palm, having to fight the urge to yawn. She waited as Caldera’s movements became slower, her blows less focused, her shouts less shrill, until all that was left was a chirpy, hiccupy sobbing.

“H-h-how could you be so… evil?”

Imperia’s sleepy eyes shot open. She lifted her head up and turned her gaze down to Catherine with a slow, robotic movement. Its dead seriousness stunned Catherine silent, and beneath her, even Penny was forced to shrink away from its dreadful energy.

“Evil? What would you know about evil? What would a two-bit street rat like you know about the meaning of evil?”

Imperia started to press her finger even harder into Catherine’s chest. Her heart worked overtime, and her lungs were struggling to get even a spoonful of air with each breath as Catherine winced.

“I have met truly evil people. Eldritch demons. Psychotic crime lords. Cyborg commandos. I have seen what they’ve done. The people they’ve hurt, maimed, killed. I’ve seen firsthand what evil is.”

With each passing breath, Catherine’s body was using up more oxygen than it was letting in. She tried to squirm free, but Imperia’s finger only tightened its pressure, a deterrent from her moving. Her fingers, once burning hot fleshy pads, had been cut off from their fuel source.

“And you know what? I did something about it. I do my part to rid this world of evil. Every day, I go out and fight. Put my life on the line for a better world. And you know what I get in return?” Imperia chuckled dryly. “A shitty apartment. A police commissioner that works me to the bone. Having to ransack couch cushions for rent money.”

Catherine was beginning to hiccup now. Her body was rejecting the situation it was currently in, and with each moment its choice of protest became more drastic.

“But what about you, huh? Or any of you scumbag ‘villains’? You were blessed with power. Unimaginable power! And yet… you decided to abuse others and harm our way of life? How many innocents do you think you wiped out in that bank heist of yours?”

Catherine was unable to answer on account of her vision being filled by multiple blotted dark spots. Her ears were beginning to ring. Her skin felt scratchy and tingly, and her limbs spasmed on their own.

“That’s what I thought. You don’t get to tell me what’s evil. So if I decide to have a little fun at the expense of you subhuman pieces of lowlife garbage… well, you’ll just have to deal. I already paid my dues, so I think I more than deserve this. M’kay?”

Imperia let go of her finger, and like a spring Catherine punched up into a fetal ball, sucking in as much life-giving oxygen as she could manage. Once her brain received the air it had been so desperately pleading for, she was finally able to take in and process the enormity of Imperia’s spiel.

“You’re not here to chat, network, or protest. You don’t deserve the right to complain. You don’t deserve to live. None of you. And when reach into my heart to show you mercy… you have the nerve to call me… evil.” Imperia glanced at Shortfuse, currently flopping on the table in a puddle of her own urine and vaginal ejaculate. “How dare you?”

Emily crouched, taking great pains to keep her face neutral, brutally business-like. Her massive eyes surveyed Catherine’s every nook. Her teeth shone. “Want to live? Wake up every morning and ask yourself, ‘What can I do with my life that’ll make Imperia choose not to reduce me to a stain today?’ If I give a pass to anyone who can’t abide by that simple dictum… what sort of precedent would I be setting?

Catherine slid off Penny’s body, defeated and morally crushed. The screams of everyone she killed were repeating in her mind over and over again. She could only hope that they’d stop once her ears stopped ringing.

“There we go… good girl,” said Imperia. She lifted Penny’s arm and let it flop to the ground. “Now you. Stand up for me.”

As Penny was getting to her feet, zombified expression burning with ghostly fear as Imperia prepared her punishment, Catherine wondered something.

“What do… you need her for?” Catherine asked.

“So chatty…” Imperia waited for a moment. When Catherine didn’t respond, Imperia sighed. “Well, ‘Caldera’, I am incredibly sore and like most days, nights, evenings, I am dying for a foot rub.” Imperia stretched her arms up high, and from her small stature Catherine could hear the pops and crackle of her joints. “Polymaiden here so graciously agreed to be my masseuse for these occasions, something I agreed to because she is very non-flammable, non-toxic, and will not try to electrocute me.”

Catherine’s own gears were turning as she listened to Imperia’s speech. “And you need two… One… for each foot.” Catherine was almost disgusted by herself for agreeing to Imperia’s premise with such a matter-of-fact complacency.

“Bingo,” Imperia clapped her hands. “Someone just won a gold star.”

Catherine took another look at Shortfuse, still not having moved from her spot, but had finally run out of steam for her continued grunts. Her body simply vibrated and twitched, silently humping the air.

If Catherine wanted to make herself useful…

“What if… I…” Catherine had to physically force herself to complete the sentence. “R-rubbed your feet?”

Imperia’s eyebrows furrowed, and she tapped her fingers on the table, each motion causing Catherine to jolt.

“Catherine… Catherine!”

Catherine managed to mask her surprise as merely another nervous jump from Imperia’s idiosyncratic finger tapping. She had completely forgotten that Penny was right next to her, considering Penny had by some metrics more than doubled her syllable count since the past 24 hours.

“Catherine, what are you doing…?!”

Catherine responded out the corner of her mouth. “I’m trying to protect you…!”

“You’ll get us killed if your fire –”

“You know what?” Imperia’s voice blasted their conversation apart. “That’s not a bad idea! The two of you can tag team it. But try to use your pretty little candle powers to hurt me in any way…”

Imperia leaned forward, her massive pale freckled face only inches away from Catherine’s.

“And I will kill you all.”

And Imperia rolled away from the desk, reclining the back of the seat as she pulled one long, muscled leg upward. Its heel landed on the table-top with a BUMP, followed quickly by the other foot.

Catherine stared up at the foot. From her size, it looked less like a foot, and more like a giant, pulsating cliff face, the toes wiggling dexterously. Even at proportional sizes, the foot was unexpectedly long. If she tried hard enough, Catherine could trace the ridges formed in the sole from the pattern of her footprint. She had only recently gotten up from bed so thankfully there was only the semblance of an odor drifting of the sole; if she trained her mind, it might’ve even felt pleasant to Catherine. In another life.

Catherine turned to her right, where Penny was already standing up. She gulped, glancing at Catherine with fear in her eyes as she took a walk toward Imperia’s left foot.

Catherine remembered the vision of Penny’s clone pasted on the sole of Imperia’s foot from the previous night, and she shuddered. She had no idea how many versions of Penny may have met their end at the hands (or, well, feet) of Imperia, or if any other down-on-their-luck villains had been snuffed out so unceremoniously.

Catherine raised her hands up to Imperia’s sole, slowly, cautiously, and realized there was a burning light reflected from her fingers on the wall of skin.

Not now… not now, not now! Catherine looked at her hands. They were flaming red. She looked at the foot, then turned to Penny, who was already deep in the ritual of kneading her hands on the bottom of Imperia’s sole. Catherine looked over her shoulder and considered running, realizing Imperia technically couldn’t see her at this range. But that would mean leaving Penny behind, even if she could get away. Something that was less and less likely as –

“Just breathe. Take a breath and let it out. On the exhale… do what you need to do. Calm down, and focus.”

Catherine at first couldn’t tell where that voice came from, only realizing it was Imperia when she noticed the shadow of her eyes peaking from above her monumental toes. She sounded… auspiciously reasonable.

“Do it. Don’t leave me waiting.”

Catherine returned to attention, looking at her hands. They were still fiery red.

Just breathe… Just breathe…

Catherine inhaled.

One.

She exhaled.

Two.

As the carbon dioxide left her body, she noticed a dimming.

Was it working?

She tried again. She inhaled, and exhaled. There was no doubt; her hands ignited in cycles. When she breathed in, they flared up. Breathing out? They dimmed. If she could lock her mindstate in the dimming, she could control it.

Breathe in.

Her hands flamed.

Out.

Catherine closed her eyes and placed her hand on the sole of Imperia’s foot.

“Oh ho, that’s warm… But keep going.” Imperia’s omnipresent voice scared the daylights out of her, but Imperia’s assent was a blessing. Her hands weren’t ignited, but their warmth from the previous seconds was retained. Bracing her legs, Catherine began to dig into the sole of Imperia’s feet, careful to avoid clenching too much. She remained cool and focused, kneading along the interior arch of the heroine’s dominating peds. They were smooth and dry, and Catherine couldn’t help but enjoy the sensation of battling against their dough-like mass. In any other situation, this might’ve even been fun or desirable.

“You’re getting hot. Breathing is just a focusing maneuver. If you can’t focus and control yourself, it’s useless.” Imperia chastised.

Catherine bristled and realized she couldn’t let her mind wander. Focus, that’s what Imperia said. She needed to latch on to that feeling of serenity when she breathed out and hold onto it for the duration of the massage. Her fingers curled together, knuckles guarding against the fire of her palms as she tried to restrain her own mind. In, out. In… out.

She continued.

“Oh yeah…” Imperia mused, her feet twirling as she got ever more relaxed in her chair. “That’s it… right there.”

Catherine could hear her, and realized she was not yet focused enough. She retreated deeper into her place of peace and invested the entirety of her mental RAM into this massage. No powers, no captivity, not even the violently gyrating form of Shortfuse a moment’s walk away.

Nothing but her and a colossal wall of dough that she had to knead. And she would do the best she could.

“Stop.”

Catherine kept going. Penny stopped and looked over at her friend. “Catherine,” she whispered. “Cath!”

Now Catherine stopped. Her slow mind reformed the pieces of her reality. She left her dream state. She was back in this gray, dull, terrifying world.

“I have to say, that wasn’t bad for a first outing.” Imperia removed her feet from the worktable. Catherine could almost detect a genuine smile on her face. “In fact, I may just say… good job.”

Somehow, even though Catherine was in the most horrifying situation of her life, taken prisoner by a demented size-shifter with a twisted sense of morality, only one accidental slight away from being turned into a living cell phone charger… Hearing her hero give her such earnest praise, even over something as degrading as a foot rub… It made Catherine’s heart melt. She couldn’t form her words in response, which wasn’t a problem to Imperia as she turned her attention back to Shortfuse and the phone to which she was combined. It vibrated, and a cheesy song travelled through the table and into Catherine’s bones.

“Oh, right,” said Imperia. “I’ve gotta take this. We’ll talk more, you two. Maybe make you two partners. I bet you’d like that huh, Poly…”

And she unplugged her phone from the charger, standing and trotting up the stairs.

Catherine fell to her knees, clutching her stomach.

Penny saw this, and she tried to run to Catherine but tripped and slid along the rough table. “Agh, shit!” Penny grunted and punched the ground. Then, still fatigued and unbalanced, she crawled the last few meters on all fours. She took Catherine’s shoulder. “Hey, hey! Are you okay?”

Catherine shook out of Penny’s grip and swayed. Left, right, front, and then she fell backward, reaching to the sky. Her smoldering fingertips burned into the air, before Catherine sighed. And they were extinguished.

Catherine turned her head to the side. Only a short distance away, Shortfuse remained, hooked up to her infernal sex machine. She was whimpering like a rabbit, her nails scratching the table vigorously as her hips continued to disobey her, the electric pulses in her body redirected into the cord, spurting out through the end of the charging tip.

Imperia… thought Catherine.

Who are you, truly?