Descend- Going Deeper Read online

  Jay just shook his head and chose to ignore it. He loved these girls and if a little teasing made them feel like they had more control of their lives, who was he to stop that. They had all been fed a shit sandwich with this abduction, and none of them were lucky enough to be the singular object of desire for an entire cluster of people.

  He decided the best way past this was just to finish his instructions. “Otherwise, avoid the ruins, and try not to get hurt. If you do and your regeneration can’t handle it, then call for Huong or Kenzie. Now let’s get to training. Remember the harder you push yourself, the greater the benefits.”

  Jay appreciated the fact that he hadn’t needed to assign partners so he couldn’t be charged with bias. Honestly, there wasn’t a single one of the girls that he didn't want to work with. They all had powers that were interesting, and even the less obvious ones only made him want to figure out uses for them more. He did wonder though if Samantha had arranged it so she would be his last training partner.

  He waited a moment for everyone to start moving off. He made a mental note of who each of his core girls was training with. He could feel Amelia’s unease at training with Daphne. Likely because she still connected the buxom redhead as part of the problem that Jasmine caused.

  Mia on the other hand seemed excited to train with Sofia. At first Jay assumed the excitement that she felt was because they had worked together before on some gear with Huong. As he pressed into the fusion further though he realized it was something more. He couldn’t read Mia’s mind, but he sure could get a lot of detail from her feelings.

  What he felt was arousal, but not directed at Sofia, just somehow around her. He guessed it had something to do with whatever Mia had done last night and made a mental note to talk to her more about it. Then he laughed at himself and telepathically asked her, “So what has you so hot and bothered about Sofia?”

  A ripple of shock went through the connection between them before she responded, “Oh, so you are learning how to use the fusion. Good for you, life is gonna get interesting, I think for both of us. I promise to share all about it at the meeting, but I really need to train now. That’s what the leader said.”

  Chapter 4 – Taking Turns

  Jay was tempted to push it, but he felt her self-satisfaction oozing through their connection and oddly enough it made him feel satisfied, so he let it slide. Instead he turned to his first training partner, Hanna. She was a slender but muscular girl of Slavic heritage if he guessed correctly. Dirty blond hair and a few freckles did nothing to mar her beauty. “So you can summon stuff? What kind of stuff?”

  She looked at him for a moment, making sure that no one else was very close, then she said with that eastern European accent that he found so sexy, “Can we just fuck first? I think it would really help clear my head, and then our training time would be more productive. You don’t have to take it slow, you can just do it hard and fast.”

  Jay was taken back, even after everything that had happened. It still felt odd to be approached so wantonly. But this was the new Jay. He decided to be in control. “I wanna say yes, but that wasn’t the deal. We need to train now and then have the meeting. Take out your aggression on me while we train.”

  Hanna gave him a wolf-like grin and said, “Can’t blame a girl for trying.” Then she transitioned quickly enough that Jay assumed it meant there weren’t going to be any hard feelings about his rejection. “Yes, I can summon any object that I have touched and which is not currently being held by another person.”

  “That’s amazing. What’s your range? How big of an item can you summon?”

  Caught up in his praise of her, she started describing the experiments that she had done so far. It seemed that she was even able to summon an item from the original staging area to one of the dungeon floors. She proved it by closing her eyes briefly and then holding out her hand. A moment later, a sharpened stick about 3’ long appeared in her hand.

  “I hid this on the first floor of the dungeon in case I ever needed a weapon that I could call upon in an emergency.”

  “Very cool,” Jay said. He felt different this morning. Somehow more free to enjoy the wonder of the abilities that they all had. Yes, they were still trapped, but accepting the position he was in made it seem better. He could enjoy the parts that were good, and there were certainly plenty of those, while still fighting through the worst of it.

  Then an idea popped into his head. “Have you tried summoning anything from Earth?”

  Hanna looked dumbfounded. “Is that even possible?”

  “Think about all the other things that we can do that shouldn’t be possible. Heck, I can mess around with time.” Then to prove his point, he moved at maximum speed while using his Temporal Manipulation in an attempt to move himself forward in time.

  Hanna whipped her head around, looking in every direction. She quickly raised her hands into a defensive posture with her fists balled up loosely even as she shifted her weight to be better distributed as she rose up onto the balls of her feet. To Jay it appeared as though she was moving in slow motion for a second and then everything returned to normal.

  “What? Where’d you go?”

  “Back here,” Jay said from twenty feet behind her.

  “Whoa! They said you had accelerated speed, but that is beyond anything I imagined. Normally my fighting skill allows me to track movements really well. Even with the lizats and such, they could never move faster than I could track.”

  “That is because I wasn’t just moving faster, I accelerated myself through time for about 3 seconds. To me it was like you were moving frame by frame.”

  “Now, who’s the cool one. Time skipping sorta makes my summoning objects seem pretty lame,” Hanna said.

  “Hmm… time skipping. I like it. But you are wrong, summoning the right object at the right time could make all the difference in the world. So, willing to try summoning something from Earth?”

  “Sure, but what should I try to summon?”

  “It has to be something that you touched before and isn’t being held by another person, right?” Jay asked.

  “Those are the only limits I have found so far,” Hanna answered, then said, “Oh, I have an idea.”

  Jay could see the strain on her face. It was amazing how hot she could look even with her eyes squinting tightly and her nose wrinkled up. Jay felt guilty for a moment. He knew that the increased aphrodisiac was making it harder for him to think, but even still he had five girlfriends. Heck, one of them was his wife now. How greedy could one guy get?

  Just as quickly as that thought crossed his mind though, he realized he was trying to fall back into what he was starting to call Earth Thinking. That wouldn’t do. He had to apply the logic that worked in their situation and the truth was that it was far more likely than not that he was gonna end up naked with Hanna at some point, so why not enjoy the view?

  He found himself starting to hum under his breath as he did exactly that, taking in her toned figure. Then suddenly a rifle appeared in her hands. Well, maybe it had been a rifle at one point in time. The barrel was warped badly and the wooden stock was scorched and burnt. There was no way that this would be usable as a weapon, other than maybe to club someone over the head.

  Hanna dropped it almost as soon as it appeared in her hands. “Ouch, that’s hot.”

  Jay grabbed her hands to inspect them, but like all the other girls she had gained regeneration upon crossing the second threshold and already the red marks on her hands were fading. On instinct though, he blew lightly on her palms.

  She jerked her hands back right away. “God, you can’t be both hot and kind or I’m gonna lose my mind right here.”

  Jay was proud that he didn’t immediately apologize. That was old Jay, new Jay accepted the fact that all the women around him wanted him and was embracing his role as the proverbial Adam, so to speak. Or at least he was trying.

  “Has that ever happened to any of your other items when you summoned them?”


  “Never, they always appear in perfect condition. This took maybe a second longer to summon than normal, but the higher my skill level gets the faster things seem to appear. Just none of them have ever been damaged before.”

  “Wonder if it is because of how far it had to travel.”

  “I can summon something else if you want.”

  “Please, do.”

  Once again, she closed her eyes; this time it took maybe four or five seconds rather than the six or seven from before when suddenly a slagged piece of plastic that had been melted flat appeared in her hands. What it had been originally was impossible to tell.

  “At least this one isn’t hot, but it clearly still got melted. I’m sorry, Jay. Doesn’t look like I can summon stuff from Earth without destroying it,” Hanna said as she wistfully looked at whatever it was that she was holding.

  “The gun I get. That was a good call. But what was that before it got melted.”

  Hanna’s face got bright red when Jay asked her that. He couldn’t help but think it made her look even cuter and showed off her freckles. It was a stark contrast to the sexy accent she had, which somehow worked for him. “It was B.O.B.”

  “Bob?”

  “Yeah, you know, battery operated boyfriend. I figured it might help pass the time at night.”

  Jay wasn’t quite sure what to say to that. It was hard to imagine the slab of plastic as ever having been a vibrator, or for that matter, a girl as hot as Hanna ever having to take care of her own needs. He figured on Earth there would have been a line of guys waiting to take her out. As his mind went down that road, the irony was not lost on him.

  “So, your other skill that Samantha listed was melee combat, right?” Jay asked.

  “That and summoning are my two highest skills, although I also have Spatial Perception, Regeneration, Duplication, Enhanced Reflexes and I just got Hardened Body but it is still at level 1- 0%. The two that she listed are just my two highest, the others are all much lower. Speaking of which, why did she list all your skills?”

  “She didn’t, but it looks like she listed anything that is above level 20,” Jay answered.

  “God, no wonder you’re so powerful.”

  “Well do you want to spar? Do you know how to use your melee combat skill?”

  “Sure, but you should know that unlike most of you all who were college students, I worked in the family business and was a martial arts instructor so I knew how to fight even before getting that skill.”

  “Cool, I always wanted to study martial arts, but always ended up being more of a video game guy. Maybe you can be like my sensei or something. I’m pretty strong and fast now but it wouldn’t hurt to add some more skill,” Jay said.

  “Oh, not sure that would work,” she said with a wicked grin on her face.

  “What? Why not?” Jay asked.

  “Cause, if I’m your sensei then you have to do what I say, at least when we are training and I’m afraid we wouldn’t get very much martial arts in, although I can say for sure it would be very close-quarters training.”

  “Let’s just start with some sparring and see where things go from there,” Jay said.

  With no warning, Hanna came straight at him. Her speed and strength were probably already greater than any normal human by a good margin, but she still couldn’t get around Jay’s speed combined with his precognition. They danced back and forth in one of the two most primal ways a couple can interact.

  Once she realized that she wasn’t going to be able to beat him easily she began attacking harder. Jay had to assume this was her melee fighting skill coming into play because she was moving so precisely. If he hadn’t kept his precognition active, he would not have been able to respond quickly despite being faster than her. Fighting skill really did have a meaning, and he wanted that skill for himself. He owed it to everyone to improve as much as he could.

  The problem was that she could teach him techniques, but she was no match for him. Even with her new Hardened Body skill, if he truly hit her she would crumple. He wasn’t even boosting his speed and strength, let alone using his Temporal Manipulation. Just as he was beginning to think that she didn’t really have anything to offer him, she summoned a rock that dropped on his head.

  Jay was able to respond quickly enough to knock it aside, but the momentary delay gave her enough time to close the gap with him. Rather than trying to uproot him, because of how much bigger he was, she simply grabbed his arm and went with the force that he applied to knock the rock out of the way to fling him onto his back.

  She was on top of him in an instant. “No fair that you are so strong, anyone else I could pin like this.”

  Even though they both knew that she couldn’t keep him pinned there, he didn’t make a move to get up. She was straddled over him with her thighs spread wide and wrapped around his waist. When he moved to help her off of him, she said, “Please.”

  The plaintive note in her voice was almost pathetic. Yet, there was no doubt that he was ready for her and if he gave even a fraction of an inch he would be giving her what she wanted.

  “Jay, you don’t get it. Most of us have been so pent up for almost three months now. I’ve never felt like this. You aren’t being fair,” she pleaded.

  Now, Jay stood up with her. “I want you. I wanted Madison earlier when she asked. Hell, there isn’t one of you that I don’t want. But we have an agreement. We will have a meeting in a few more hours. Surely you can wait for that.”

  “Fine, then let’s try to teach you how to properly punch at least. You have been getting by so far because you are the strongest one here, but what happens if you face something stronger than you.”

  “Thank you, Hanna. And don’t for one second think I wouldn’t rather be doing other things with you.”

  “If I can’t work off my energy one way then we will have to do it another way. For the next 20 minutes, no using your abilities other than regeneration. Agreed?”

  After that, sweet Hanna that he had been having such fun thoughts about turned into a monster. She summoned switches, clubs, and braided vines made into a whip. Each as a tool to strike him repeatedly as he practiced the stances, movements, and punches that she instructed him on.

  If it weren’t for his natural hardening then her full-power strokes would have broken multiple bones. Even as it was his regeneration had to be kept boosted to level four to keep up with the abuse. The worst part was knowing that a blow was coming as his technique was just a tick off and realizing he could stop it but standing still and accepting it.

  Jay did have to admit though that training was definitely making him not want to screw up his techniques. It was a fast, if brutal way to learn. Then almost as soon as it had started, their hour was up and Samantha signaled that partners were to change.

  Jay sipped down some water and just waited for his next partner. He had the most secluded spot along the cliff wall where they were mostly out of sight of the others.

  Chapter 5 - Learning the Options

  While Hanna’s abilities had not really offered up any good combos for Jay, they were informative. He wanted to learn more about the limits of her summoning ability. It would have been too easy, he supposed, if she could have summoned things from Earth. For whatever reason though that didn’t seem possible without burning up whatever she tried to summon.

  Still the time wasn’t a complete waste. He had gotten to know Hanna better and even if it was old fashioned he didn’t want to go for a quick tumble with girls that he didn’t know, no matter how beautiful they were. Beyond that the little training in actual fighting technique might pay dividends in the future. Jay also held out some hope that as mangled as it was, the rifle might help Huong with some of her inventions.

  Training with Olivia was a little more straightforward. Her primary power was an electrical one. She could project bolts of lightning, for lack of a better word. Probably charged plasma but he didn’t know the real science of it. He helped her by learning that she could discharge a
n area-of-effect burst all around her, as well as helping her use incremental levels of her power to range from hopefully what would be a stunning charge to a lethal charge.

  With practice she was able to create a sort of armor or shield around herself as a way of protection. When he told her about Meikiyo’s fire form she got excited. She said she would work on doing that with her power too.

  They also found a number of ways to combine their power. She could electrify things that he threw and accelerated. She could provide a charge to a metal item and likely would be able to help Huong with that. With some practice they got to where she could electrify his PSI blade. He had to open himself up to accepting her current and then learn to not let it go down as far as his hand.

  Taking a note from his time with Hanna, Jay used the last few minutes to let Olivia torture him. He maxed out his body hardening and regeneration and saw how long he could take her current being shot at him. It hurt like hell. Even his much stronger muscles tensed up and all the hardness in the world didn’t keep his teeth from clenching down so hard he was afraid he was going to bite off his tongue.

  Brutal as it might be, Jay knew that he would get the maximum growth for his metabolism and durability with this type of training. Something told him that his stamina was going to be tested over the next few days.

  The one thing that was relaxing about training with Olivia though was that even though she was constantly checking him out and never wasted an opportunity to put her very appreciable assets on display, she also never propositioned him. Sure she made some suggestive banter. Truthfully, by this point he would have felt out of place without it. It was just nice to get to focus on the training. Well the training and admiring the view without feeling like he was going to have to turn down another beautiful girl.

  Speaking of beautiful girls, Alexis was his next training partner. She was what he would have called your typical sorority queen. Gorgeous with light blond hair that trailed halfway down her back towards a toned ass. She had the fitness model build that he favored. It wasn’t that he was opposed to ample breasts at all, just that Jay really liked a toned tummy and legs. There was nothing quite like watching Meikiyo’s stomach ripple when he thrust fully into her.