"Next, girl number three," Lucy said, Sammi once again translating for the brunette.
"Yvette," Ryan nodded. "Hated her."
13 Years Ago//////
"Hey Lucy," Naomi said excitedly, adjusting her glasses up her nose as she spoke, "guess who has a date tomorrow night!"
"I guess Naomi," Lucy replied dully.
"Spoilsport," Naomi pouted.
"You make it easy, sorry," Lucy replied, still wary of anyone who even approached Naomi to date her. The six-inch girl might have been willing to accept a role as Naomi's pet and sex toy, but she was getting rather possessive of her owner- and with good reason in her mind, given the dark-skinned titaness and her record with dating.
"What's her name?" Ryan asked, ignoring Lucy.
"Yvette Isaacs," Naomi said brightly, a grin plastered on the seventeen-year-old girl's face. "She's a tall, blonde Unbound Studies major. I'm thinking of letting her analyze me for her thesis."
Alarm bells went off in Lucy's head. "That sounds like Bad Idea Central."
"It's alright," Naomi soothed, "she's cool. Mind control powers."
"That's even worse," Lucy mumbled.
"Wait, how do you know?" Ryan asked, confused. "Aren't Unbound powers a really down-low deal?"
"I caught her using them to get a free coffee," Naomi giggled. "She showed up, and I felt an . . . urge to go somewhere else, but I stuck around. She was hot, and I hadn't finished my donut yet, so I watched her walk up, and basically . . . stare at the cashier, and he handed her a cup."
"Be careful," Lucy warned, running her hands over Naomi's index finger nervously, "for me, at least."
Naomi nodded. "Don't worry, Luce. You'll always be my favorite girl," she said, stroking Lucy's spine.
((((((Now))))))
Lorelei cleared her throat, and raised an eyebrow at Lucy.
"Her words, not mine," Lucy said defensively, throwing her hands up in surrender.
Lorelei raised a hand to the cage, and everyone inside froze- that is, until Lorelei lightly flicked Lucy across the ass, grinning. "Well, Naomi never thought she'd meet me."
"It'd be hard for any teenage girl to predict you," Sammi snarked.
"Outside her wet dreams, of course," Lorelei responded with a sultry smirk and a purr.
Blushes lit up every face in the cage. "Moving on, then," Lucy said, trying to avoid both this conversation and the stinging pain in her backside.
13 Years Ago//////
Naomi returned after that date lit up in joy. "Oh, I could just die of happiness right now," she said, throwing herself into her mattress.
"Kittens in racecars," Ryan said flatly.
"Huh?" Naomi went from joyful to confused in a second flat.
"You don't notice that every time you say that, we say something a little depressing, as a kind of 'we don't want you to die' thing?" Lucy asked, grabbing a particular favorite doll dress of Naomi's and heading closer to the sink.
"And why are kittens in racecars depressing?" Naomi asked, laughing.
"Because scared kittens? I dunno, I didn't have any ideas," Ryan shrugged.
Naomi laughed. "So, apparently there's a ranking system with Unbound," she said, feeling the need to spout the new information she had gained.
When Naomi didn't immediately elaborate, Lucy piped up. "Care to explain?" She asked from her bath.
Naomi nodded. "So, as Yvette explained it, people are divided into four ranks. Rank 4 is humans- no powers, and no immunities."
"Interesting place to start," Lucy said.
"Rank 3 is the weakest Unbound- their powers are usually either really weak, or really limited- like, for example, a Rank 3 with my powers might be limited to only shrinking something by half, or inanimate objects only, or maybe no ability to return stuff to normal," Naomi continued. "Rank 3 are also immune to the abilities of other Rank 3 Unbound."
"Oh, a hierarchy system, okay," Ryan nodded. "That makes sense, actually."
"Yvette thinks I'm a Rank 2, the middle-of-the-road Unbound. Decent powers, a few limitations, but generally cool stuff. That means I'm immune to the abilities of Rank 2 and 3 Unbound, and I might be able to do limited stuff to Rank 3 people," Naomi said proudly.
"I think I know where this is going, and I don't like it," Lucy said worriedly.
"Last," Naomi paused for effect, "are Rank 1 Unbound. The alphas, the top dogs, the best of the best. No real limits on their powers, and they're at crazy levels. Yvette is a Rank 1, and most non-Unbound in this city are under her control, either passively or actively. She says she's felt what it's like to have sex as a guy, by controlling him."
"Eww," Ryan interrupted, and Lucy was inclined to agree.
"Rank 1 Unbound are completely immune to Unbound powers of any variety, can do very limited stuff to Rank 2s, and can abuse Rank 3s almost as badly as if they were regular people," Naomi finished.
"Abuse?" Lucy asked, confused.
"I don't know, what should I call it?" Naomi said, frustrated suddenly. "I mean, I shrank the both of you, and you'll never get to go back to being normal people, all because my powers weren't . . . strong enough."
((((((Now))))))
Lorelei frowned. "Yvette doesn't really sound that bad," she said quietly, interrupting. "What happened?"
Lucy shrugged. "You know, to be honest, I don't know."
Ryan nodded. "Same here. Naomi introduced Yvette to us after like a year, and she began freaking out, and Naomi followed her out of the house."
"And, about three hours later, Naomi comes back crying, and packs her bags and says we can't stay in town," Lucy continues angrily.
Ryan paused in thought. "Then there was the apartment, right? And the stress eating?"
"Yeah," Lucy confirmed. "She couldn't handle supporting herself, no family or full-sized friends, and taking care of us, so . . . she ate. A lot. She went from being a pretty skinny girl to . . . what . . . she said 218?"
"And we're believing her there," Ryan replied with finality.
Lorelei grew frustrated listening to this, and rocked the cage to get everyone's attention. "So, Yvette did something to make her leave home, which made her nervous, so she ate, so when Dipshit over here meets her she has body issues so she was easy to dump?" She summarized.
"There's more to it than that," Sammi whined.