Chapter 14 - A Little Bit of X: Chapter 14


                                                    A Little Bit of X

                                                       by Volpone

                                                       Chapter 14

          The lovely Russian lady awoke to find herself alone in the bed. Indirect light reflected
off of foliage through the windows facing the bed, the sliding doors open fully and the sound of
bamboo flute and shamisen playing a free-floating melody over the sound of flowing water.
          Looking out to the patio outside, she saw her lover of the previous night... naked,
moving slowly, deliberately through a dance-like series of slow movements very reminiscent of
tai chi while subtly but shockingly alien to the ancient art. It was as if she were reading a
poem that she suddenly realized was in a different language than she had first thought, still
beautiful but in a way she had not expected.
          There was no doubt it was a martial art of some sort he was practicing, but certain turns
of his hand, shifts of his balance almost in a circular manner looked so fluid as to belie his
having bones like a normal person.
          And his eyes were closed as if he moved while still asleep, but he radiated such a
sense of contentment with his world it was clear he was alert and vibrant even while so calm
and relaxed.
          The bed made no sound as she shifted her position to allow herself to watch him
easier, and she heard a sound from the doorway, but she couldn't see out without leaving the
bed and Natalya didn't want to risk disturbing Quinn's “exercise”, though that seemed such an
inadequate term for what he was doing. Exercise indicated practice, and this felt to be a
performance rather than a rehearsal.
          It must have lasted another ten minutes... perhaps more, but Natalya stayed still on the
bed so she could watch.
          At least once more she was sure she heard slight movement from outside the doorway
to the bedroom, but no one entered.
          Then she was surprised to find Quinn folding his legs beneath him and settling down
into a seated position, cross legged on the patio outside.
          Then he took a deeper breath and seemed to come back from wherever he had been,
opening his eyes to smile at her in greeting.
          “Good morning, gorgeous,” he declared happily. “How are you feeling?”
          She stopped to think a moment and realized she felt surprisingly rested. They'd spent
at least two hours or more enjoying themselves sexually last night, yet she felt as if she had
awakened from being pampered by a salon or masseur rather than having worked out all their
sexual kinks quite thoroughly.
          “I feel wonderful, thank you. You look surprisingly rested as well, considering all the
activity you went through last night.”
          She recalled very distinctly at least once his standing and holding her off the ground,
supporting both of their weight as she stroked up and into her, much to their mutual delight.
He looked far too invigorated after a night of such calisthenics.
          “That kind of night only serves to make me glad to be alive and with the people I enjoy,”
he declared, and in spite of it sounding hokey in her mind, he sounded utterly sincere,
probably because he was.
          She enjoyed watching him as he walked back, not even bothering to close the doors
behind him.
          “What do you feel like?” he wanted to know. “Breakfast? Morning swim? Shower?
Massage? A morning of leisurely love-making? Guided tour of the rest of the facilities?”
Presented with such a delightful selection of choices, she replied with a charming smile,
          “Ooh, decisions... decisions... They all sound wonderful and I regret I can't do all at once.”
          “Then why don't we start out with a bite and a walk down to the beach for a dip before it
gets too hot, then I'll gather the rest and we can see to the rest of the tour before we pursue...
other options?”
          She nodded, but held out her hand and told him, “But I want a kiss first. I feel like a
fairy princess being awakened by her prince, and feel a kiss is in order.”
          He moved to the bed and the way he looked at her made her feel almost
uncomfortable. He didn't look at her as a casual lover, or at least she didn't see it that way.
          He looked like a man who was in love, but that wasn't possible. It must be just the afterglow
from their wonderful night making her see what she only wished were there.
          “A kiss is much less than you deserve,” he told her, but he still delivered on her request
well enough to make her toes curl.

                                       **********

          Back in New York, Logan was chewing on a stub of a cigar as he watched the store
front of the pawn shop. The man he'd tracked down had gone inside some twenty minutes
earlier.
          As he watched, the man walked out and looked around as if to see if he were being
followed, and Logan stayed back in the shadow of the alley doorway. The man now had a
large manilla envelope he'd not had earlier, telling Logan that this was likely where the
payment was being made.
          The man got a call on his cell phone, and as he listened, he waved down the street and
a typical yellow cab pulled up as he continued to talk while climbing inside. Logan noted the
company and number, but this was only in case his next tail proved unsatisfactory. He now
needed to figure who was the one who'd given him the envelope.
          Each step was one closer to the answers he wanted.

                                                     **********

          “...And this is what we call the Interact,” Quinn explained to four of his guests as his fifth
guest, Tabitha, was still in bed with a serious hangover. “It's a great deal like a kind of Danger
Room but is actually more closely related to the holo-deck aboard Columbina or back at
Phoenix headquarters in the technology used to create the simulations. We use them for
training, but it's not as powerful in terms of programming or in energy requirements. Even this
one needs us to start up the converter to meet the energy needs, and as you can see, the
ceiling's only ten feet high so there are serious limits on the size of simulation we can run.”
          “So no basketball games,” Scott observed.
          Quinn nodded. “No team sports of most natures though you could set up for hockey
and shoot some practice goals if you like. This is only capable of a basic version of our holoprograms,
but it works fine for some things, mainly to give operatives a chance to learn how to
think on their feet when interacting in a training environment. You can also take lessons in
most subjects including arts such as painting, sculpting, ceramics, glassblowing... most
anything where there's enough information available online and you give the system time to
download. We're on the Phoenix Microsystem satellite, so we've got a better bandwidth than
comparable setups.
          “Single person combat training simulations are easy. It's also great for target practice...
just don't go knocking out any walls and things work fine.”
          He demonstrated how to do verbal programming, walked them through making an
original character, then even showed how the system could be instructed to go and find
images online and compile a file based on a certain individual so long as there was enough
content. He demonstrated by having the Interact go out, find footage of the Queen of
England, then gave it a couple of minutes to locate additional video and audio samples and
coordinate it all. Then he had her inserted into a training program where she was jumping and
kicking like a kung fu champion, though it was rather humorous to hear the computer's idea of
what Her Majesty sounded like performing a kiai (the shout given during a strike to generate
chi).
          “And you're welcome to make use of the Interact whenever you feel like it,” he informed
them. “Just remember... you need to give the converter unit a chance to power up before
running any program more complex than a game of darts.”
          He was leading them on to show them the replicator, and might have been interested to
note how a couple of his guests lingered a bit at the doorway with thoughtful looks on their
faces before going on to join the rest.

                                                     **********



                                     "AFRICAN CROWN JEWELS STOLEN

          "UPI--Muruldi, Dakenia

          “At approximately 7:25pm local time, the small nation of Dakenia was the target of the

latest in a string of daring raids by the Blue-and-Gold Mutants, so-called for the distinctive

uniforms they wear to perpetrate their spectacular thefts. The Royal Bank of Muruldi, the nation's

largest financial institution and repository for the nation's magnificent regalia...

          “Taken were over a century of the finest diamonds gleaned from the nation's primary source

of income, namely the Taranji Mine, renowned for the exceptional percentage of fine, fancy

colored diamonds, among them the king's prized possession, the Star of Dakenia, a 47.06 ct.

cushion-cut gem of deep azure blue perfection. It was rumored that King Jamal recently turned

down an offer of 33 million euros...

          “Among the items taken were seven magnificent crowns including the Crown of State, the

Royal Sceptre, the Queen Mowala Tiara, and over a thousand fine cut diamonds over 10 cts in

weight including six gems over 100cts, all serving as backing for the currency of the occasionally

turbulent...”



                                                    **********

          The news of yet another successful robbery was disappointing to Quinn and the X-Men
until Columbina informed them she had discovered a unique energy spike that occurred when
Locus used her talent to teleport her teammates to and from their latest job.
          “It's no mystery why no one has ever spotted it before,” Columbina informed them. “It
gives off a notable pulse in the magneto-gravitic band, but since no one else on the planet is
familiar with unified field radiation of that nature, there's no reason it would be detected.”
          Quinn observed, “Which means we now can tell where they are popping up.”
          Hank felt it necessary to point out, “But unfortunately, unless they teleport to meet up
with our mystery colonel, there is still nothing to link them.”
          “But we're still one step closer,” Quinn replied, refusing to see this as anything but a
good result.

          Not long after that, with everyone else out of the house, Natalya decided it was time for
her to go ahead and see what was happening online. She'd been out of contact for over a
week now and though she didn't have many friends, she had told Maria she'd check her email
daily to keep in contact.
          Sitting down in the library at the monitor, she got an outside connection through Jeeves
(the computer acted as major domo and cyber-security far beyond what would be available for
another century in this continuum) before going to check her email account.
          After logging in, she was looking over her messages, most of which were useless drivel
from various groups that had figured out a way around her spam filter, but as she started to
automatically click off most of them and send them to her trash, she spotted a name she
hadn't seen for over a year just as it disappeared and she quickly went out to retrieve it from
the trash.
          It was indeed from her friend, Fawn, who was in the same line of work, namely being an
professional sex worker.
          Fawn had vanished soon after she lost her job out at the Ranch, the desert bordello
half-an-hour outside Vegas. Natalya had worried a bit, but as she had no clue about how to
reach her friend, she'd reluctantly accepted her disappearance as something she could do
nothing about.
          Yet here she was, contacting Natalya with a story that... well, if it had been someone
else telling her, she'd have assumed it was a prank.
          But this was something she needed to talk to someone about, and there was only one
person she trusted with this information.
          Quinn.

                                                       **********

          The two friends were walking up the palm-lined path from the western beach, heading
for Quinn's hide-away.
          That morning, Jean had been up earlier than Scott, and she had happened past
Quinn's room during his exercise and, glancing through the open door, become mesmerized
by his movement. It reminded her of the time she'd been watching the jellyfish at the public
aquarium she'd visited. The motion of them had been so hypnotic she'd stood there for over
an hour before she realized she'd missed meeting up with her friend and had to phone to
apologize. She'd watched Quinn for probably ten minutes before she realized he'd been nude,
his movements had been so incredibly graceful. It had been compelling in an entirely nonsexual
manner, and only after she had torn herself away had she realized how horny she was.
          As a result, she'd gone straight back to their room and ambushed Scott for some wake-up sex.
          Back in the present...
          “Are you sure that Scott will not object?” Storm wondered. “Up until now, your...
flirtations have been limited to those who were affected by Renegade's pheromone."
          Jean seemed confident.
          "I brought it up after our mission to rescue Natalya. After it was over, I kept thinking
back and, despite my feeling miserable for much of it, I realized that I was very attracted to
Quinn. Oh, not that I'd consider leaving Scott for him. Scotty and I talked it out, and he had to
agree that my sleeping with Quinn was no different from Scott sleeping with you. So..."
          "That hardly makes it right. You have known Logan and I much longer. We have faced
death many times together. There is a bond."
          Jean smiled at Storm. "Are you trying to talk me out of this? I thought we were
planning this together."
          "I merely wish to make sure that it will not create future problems between you and
Scott, or between Harlequin and Scott."
          "What about problems between you and Scott? With the amount of time he's been
sneaking off with you, he might as easily be jealous of you two."
          "It is not the same and you know that."
          Jean refused to worry. "It's okay. He still has a little jealousy left over that I have to
wear away, but he promised he's good with it."
          A thought occurred to Storm.
          "If things should work out well, there is a possibility which might make Scott more
receptive to Quinn's involvement." She gave Jean a look that asked her to fill in what wasn't
being said.
          It took Jean several seconds before she got Storm's drift.
          "You mean Scott... and Quinn... together? At the same time?" She stopped walking for
a moment, considering. Then a smile bloomed over her pretty face. "Oh. That's just... Oh,
that's just plain wicked. Storm, you are such a trollop! Suddenly, I want to find Quinn... very
fast."
          She grabbed her friend by the hand and began pulling her towards the house.

          Once Jean and Storm were out of the house, Scott decided he wanted to go back and
check out the Interact.
          That just has some really interesting possibilities.
          Checking around, he spotted Natalya surfing the Internet, and Tabitha was still in bed
and moaning in misery, an ice pack on her head and looking like she wanted to tell the
sunlight outside to stop being so loud.
          They don't look likely to interrupt.
          Inside the room, he told the Interact to close the door, and then ordered the door locked
so it wouldn't open except in an emergency. Knowing that Jean likely had some plans, he felt
now was a good time to explore something that had popped into his head when Quinn had
demonstrated how the room could be verbally programmed.
          Thinking back, he said to the room, “Interact program monitor, please.”
          A computer console appeared and he was gratified he'd remembered the proper
phrase.
          Let's see... character files... females... Asian... there! That one looks right.
          “Interact character file Asami-Delta-Two, please.”
          The lovely woman appeared, and Scott smiled. She was a gorgeous as he'd
envisioned, but a bit too reserved in how she was dressed.
          He gave the frozen simulation a quick once over, then said, “How do you... uh... change
clothing options?”
          The female computer voice responded, “Clothing options may be specified during
character editing.”
          “Okay. Begin character editing mode, please.” He'd spotted how Quinn used the word
please instead of execute or something similar most of the time.
          “Edit clothing for a... thong bikini.”
          The Asian woman was immediately wearing a white thong bikini.
          “Edit clothing color to black.”
          Again the change was instant.
          Pleased with the results, he decided to get more adventurous.
          “Edit hair length twelve inches longer.
          “Edit hair length another six inches longer.
          “Edit eye color to green.”
          The result was too vivid so he began adjusting until she had the tone he was after.
          She was getting to the image he'd pictured, but now came the part he was glad no one
else was around for.
          “Edit chest measurement four inches larger.”
          Her entire ribcage increased making her look disturbing.
          “Cancel last edit. Edit chest measurement... to DD cup.”
          Suddenly she was much bustier and Scott could feel his cock beginning to stir.
          Oh, what the hell...
          “Edit chest measurement to E cup.”
          Damn!
          Remembering how he'd made a mistake in phrasing last time, he asked, “How do I
increase the size of the gluteus muscles without increasing hip measurement?”
          The computer performed the alteration without having him repeat any command.
          Holy shit, she looked hot! Jean was gorgeous, but so was this little number.
          He remembered his basic programming and said, “Interact save character in new folder
Scott, character name... Fujiko.”
          Then we began adding behavioral characteristics.
          In less than five minutes he was done. He was also stiff as a life sentence.
          “Interact character program Fujiko. Begin.”
          The Asian porn queen of his dreams smiled at him and said, “Greetings, master.
Please let me make you more comfortable.”
          She reached out and undid the tie to his trunks and slid them off him. Once his tool
was free, she instantly took hold of it and began stroking lovingly.
          For a computer program, it had a hell of a touch.
          Going down to her knees, the Asian fantasy looked up at him and asked with a smile,
          “My master has a wonderful cock. May I please suck your cock, master?”
          Scott smiled and thought, This is going to be one hell of a vacation.

          Tabitha staggered out to the kitchen to get a replacement for her ice pack.
          I'm never touching another fucking pina colada in my life.
          The hangover remedy Jeeves had provided made her feel human again. Unfortunately,
as a human, she also felt pain and she really wanted that to stop.
          “Jeeves, can I have another ice pack?” she asked in a whisper that hurt her own ears.
          “Certainly, miss.”
          Another ice pack appeared in the dispenser on the front of the refrigerator with a sound
to her just slightly louder than the crash of a commercial jet.
          The cool sensation of the pack easing her headache some, she was more charitable
towards the computer responsible.
          And most refrigerators can't even get ice cubes right.
          Placing the pack on the back of her head, she asked, “Where is everyone?”
          There was no answer and she remembered she was dealing with Columbina's much
dumber little brother. It was the damned British accent that made him sound so smart.
          “Jeeves, where are the other guests?”
          “Ms Jean and Miss Ororo are down by the beach, Miss Natalya is in the library on the
Internet, Mister Quentin is in his room seeing to personal correspondence, and Mister Scott is
in the Interact.”
          Interact? Oh, that thing Columbina said something about last night, she recalled.
          “Jeeves, where is the Interact?”
          “It's the sliding doorway on the right after passing the foyer cupboard, miss.”
          Tabitha found the door, but didn't see any way to open it.
          “Jeeves, can you open the door for me?” She was still a little bleary and didn't want to
knock as that would be too loud.
          “I'm sorry, miss, but the Interact is not part of my duties. You may inquire using the
terminal in the cabinet to the left of the doorway.”
          She opened up the cabinet door covering the terminal and pressed the big green
square in the lower right corner, the only thing that looked like an “on” button.
          “Hello? Can someone open the door for me?”
          A pleasant female voice replied, “Hello. I'm sorry but the Interact is currently in use and
the operator does not wish to be disturbed.”
          What the..?
          Tabitha wasn't in the mood to argue with a computer.
          “Computer... open the Interact door.”
          “I'm sorry but the Interact is currently in use and the operator does not wish to be
disturbed,” it repeated.
          “What's going on?” Tabitha was feeling very put upon, first by the hangover and now
by everyone hiding from her.
          The computer considered the question and confirmed the current operator had asked
for the door to be secured but had said nothing about privacy settings being engaged.
          The monitor screen came on and showed Tabitha what was going on inside.
          For a second, she thought she'd accidentally gotten the porn channel on the hotel's
pay-per-view, but then she recalled that it wasn't a hotel and she wasn't watching a TV. There
also wasn't a cheesy soundtrack in the background.
          Blinking a time or two, Tabby got a look at who was being shown. The gal was some
really top-heavy Japanese babe, and the guy...
          Holy shit! The guy was Cyclops and he was holding the gal by her hair and fucking her
mouth... really hard.
          And the strange gal seemed to not mind very much.
          Shit, if he did that to me right now, I'd probably puke.
          But Tabitha suddenly realized that her hangover seemed much better. She also
realized she had her hand down her shorts.
          Nice package, Summers.
          In spite of her assessment, Tabitha thought Jean would probably rip him a new asshole
if she caught him. And where'd the big boobed wet dream come from anyway? Did Quinn fly
some entertainment in for the guests?
          Now Cyclops had his cock out of her mouth and was slapping her face with it.
          Yep, she was definitely into it.
          As she watched, she had to admit that the gal entertaining Scott sure had the whole
Submissive Sally routine down. Looked like fun to her.
          She'd had no idea that Scott was into that whole scene. Not that she'd try to seduce
Scott or anything like that. That would be uncool since Jean was a friend and all.
          But fuck, that was sure hot! Now he had the Asian gal on her knees, face down and
ass up, pinned down to the floor with a hand on her neck and he looked like he was giving her
a real thorough fucking.
          Then she realized Scott was not where she thought he was.
          Holy crap! He was fucking her in the ass and she was looking like she wanted more. It
looked like it would hurt like hell, but Tabby was also thinking it looked like the most amazing
thing she'd ever seen.
          Tabitha watched as Scott was pulling the chippie's hair and pounding her ass, and the
Asian gal was coming all over the place.
          Her ice pack in one hand and her crotch in the other, Tabitha clicked off the monitor,
closed the cupboard door gently, looked around cautiously and then made a bee-line for her
room... and locked the door... and hoped very much the room was soundproof.
