chapter 10.2

"Bombshell! What is the meaning of this?!" Jasmine demanded, bounding off the podium and coming up on Oriana's position before her head had even stopped spinning. "You just told all these people you had Big Tech NEUTRALIZED!"

"I thought I did," Oriana replied, raising her eyes skyward towards the aerial battle taking place. She couldn't help but smirk. "I don't know how he pulled it off: I never fail. But apparently when I do, it's fucking spectacular!"

"Would you wipe that grin off your face, you absolute voyeur?" Jasmine began to pace the ground, eyes trained in horror on the fight overhead. "I've just been discredited in front of all of Blackwater City," she muttered, almost whimpering.

"Would you rather be assassinated?" snapped Oriana.

"What?"

"Yeah . That was the endgame here: Big Tech keeps me distracted so someone named Leo can put a hit on you, but that didn't go according to plan, and it's lucky for both of us Big Tech changed his mind, because I'm useless against Chimera!"

And every moment that passed made her feel more useless. Eddie was holding off Chimera, but he was taking damage…

Then, she overheard something from above that changed the whole game.

"Holy shit...that's it!"

"What's 'it?'"

"I need to borrow your laptop!" Oriana rushed to the back table, where Jasmine's computer was still hooked up to the projector behind the podium. She closed out Jasmine's slideshow and checked the list of available Wi-Fi networks. CHIMERA was near the top, but it was password protected. "I just need a password generator…"

"I don't have that," said Jasmine as she joined her at the table.

"I have mine saved in the cloud."

"In the clouds?" Jasmine pointed up, looking confused.

"There's no time to explain."

In under a minute, Oriana had her software installed. She ran an algorithm and waited for it to guess Chimera's password.

She winced as Eddie took a hit. This was taking too long. Password generators always did.

If she couldn't connect to Chimera, maybe she could get him to come to her.

She pulled out her phone--the work one, not the emergency line. Turned on her mobile hotspot. Connected as the network administrator on Jasmine's computer. "What's happening?" asked Jasmine.

"My default homepage on my hotspot network is a phish. I've used this trick at work before while I met with clients to test their security. I ever mention I was a professional computer hacker?"

"It's...a fish?"

"If he autoconnects to my network, I'll get an email with all his credentials." She just hoped he'd take the bait. "Just keep him on the ropes, honey," she murmured, praying Eddie could last just a minute longer.

With a blast of light, Chimera shot Eddie out of the sky.

"No!" she gasped.

Then…

Ping!

The email hit her phone without a moment to spare. Armed with the password, she logged onto Chimera's network with the power of network administrator. "Yessss! I'm in!"

Nothing could have prepared her for what she found inside of Chimera's brain.

A worldwide social network. He was connected to millions of strangers, spying on their activity, analyzing their data, mining them for any potential use...it was all sickening. She'd always known Mybrid was trouble--she stayed off the platform herself, even if she did have a bit of a Tweeting problem--but never could she have imagined it was all filtered through one guy, if Leo Caprisky could still call himself a guy. Whatever he had turned himself into, it wasn't human.

But more importantly in the moment, like any social network, Leo was full of openings: search bars, entry fields for users to comment on each others' content, share links, and post their every thought. Chimera may have been physically impenetrable to Bombshell, but onscreen, he had a million holes for Oriana to fuck him in.

Chimera had Eddie pinned now...but not for long.

Typing as fast as she could, Oriana started hashing code into the first entry field she could click on.

"Drop table: motor function," she muttered as she typed.

Chimera released Eddie and went stiff.

"Drop table: depth perception. Drop table: thruster ignition."

"What--?!" Chimera spluttered, helpless and spasming on the floor. Oriana rushed to Eddie and offered her hand.

"Here." Now past the cool down period that came with her power set, she offered her hand and helped him up to his feet, though not without some effort. Enhanced strength or not, he was heavy. Oh, she'd have a thrill feeling all that weight upon her…

But Jasmine was right. Now wasn't the time to be a horny little hobgoblin.

She moved in on Chimera, chuckling under her breath. "You think you can target MY politician? My goddamn sister?! And get away with it? Buddy. You might have the 411 on Bombshell, but I don't use my personal computer for work. And you done fucked with the wrong damn hacker."

She kicked him hard in the skull. Her foot throbbed. Bad idea. "Ow, ow, ow!"

"Here, how about you let me finish him off?" Eddie suggested. Smiling, he scooped up his belly in arm, shuffling on his feet as he struggled to get a grip on all that lard. Once he’d steadied himself, he leaned back, accentuating his gut, and a concentrated blast of blue conclusive force fired forth from the reactor over Eddie's belly button. It collided with Chimera, sending him flying into the wall of the Westpark Hotel.

"We did it!" Oriana jumped in place and threw up a fist. "Holy shit! We--"

"Yeah," said Eddie. "Yeah, we did." He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze.

Her hands settled on Eddie's squishy upper arms. Through the cool metal of his armor, he felt so soft. Malleable in her hands. Delectable. Close as they were, his plush, drooping belly brushed against her front, and she wished in her euphoria that she could jump his bones then and there.

But they were still at a crime scene.

"Sorry." She took a step back and folded her arms behind her.

But Chimera wasn't done.

***

Flailing, the mechanical menace struggled for purchase, glaring at Eddie, crawling on elbows and knees on the ground, infuriated. "Are...you...fucking...KIDDING ME?" he spat. "I INVENTED YOU! YOU OWE ME EVERYTHING! AND NOW YOU BETRAY ME?" Clambering, with sparking wires flailing, he forced himself forward. "I guess it only figures: letting people down is your specialty, isn't it?" Smirking now, he recited from the record: "Tegan, you're the only one that loves me! Tegan, you're my only friend! Tegan, would you miss me if I killed myself?"

Oh God.

His text messages.

Chimera's mouth opened, and a recording of one of her last voicemails played: "You talk like this, and you do all this stuff, and then you wonder why everyone leaves!"

"Jazz, type something in the box for me," said Bombshell.

"What?"

"Drop table: English."

With that, Chimera was silenced.

"You talk too much, asshole."

Eddie shook his head clear and prepared to end this once and for all. Then…

With a grand honk, a moving truck bearing the logo for Go Fork Yourself Forklift, Machine and Truck, LLC, came careening onto the scene. The nose of the truck collided with Chimera, sending him sailing into the fence.

The front plating of his armor--along with his face--remained embedded in the brick while the rest of him succumbed to gravity and hit the ground, circuitry exposed.

"And stay down, ***er!" Oriana cried.

The driver of the moving truck exited the vehicle, looking nervous. It was this mid-twenties, pudgy ginger guy way out of his element. As he stared at the pieces of Chimera, he let slip a terrified, "Is this gonna be a problem?"

"Is he dead?" asked Eddie.

"Was he alive anymore in the first place?" countered Oriana. "By the way, you look well, Louie. Nice to see ya! And don't worry about Dr. Franken-Cyborg over there. Ya done good."

"Aww, shucks," said the driver.

"Did the cops call?"

"Dad saw Bombshell activity was lighting up on Twitter, so he decided to just send a truck. We'll bill it to the city. Anyway, you need me to take this guy to jail like usual?" he asked, with a glance at Eddie.

"I'm thinking I'll take my own prisoner today. Corner of Hillcroft and Westheimer, if you will? We can walk to my place from there."

Louie opened the back of the truck and gave Eddie a stunned look. "Lucky fucker."

***

"We really don't need the truck. I don't know if you noticed, but I can fly," said Eddie. Oriana's response was to simply pull off his helmet and press her lips to his. She kissed him fiercely, aggressively, expertly parting his lips with her tongue before biting down gently on his bottom lip, and then…

Then he was reciprocating.

The way her hands settled at his sides and squeezed, pulling him close, even as she kept him pinned to the wall...this feeling was electric. She handled him like she was a long-starved animal, he her craved, all-sustaining prey. She had to spread her arms as far as they would go just to span his wide waist and get a grip on both his squidgy love handles. It was all so undeniably hot. He felt desired in a way he'd never dared to imagine. Her knees buckled from what could only be sheer, overwhelming lust, and he wrapped an arm around her lower back to hold her steady…

There was a rush, a warmth and euphoria that overcame him in waves…

As soon as it had started, it was over.

She broke the embrace and handed him back his helmet. "Sorry," she said. Ask him, she had nothing to apologize for. She had great technique. "I don't usually go mackin' on random coworkers, but you did save my life. You came back for me, and after I already whacked you…"

Were... Were those tears pooling in her goggles?

"That can't be comfortable." He helped her work the goggles off and she tucked them into a back pocket.

Her head came to a rest against his chest. "You feel so good...don't get me wrong though. We need to talk."

"Yeah, we do. Like, what was that...that rush just now?"

She pulled back and glanced at the floor, clicking her nails together nervously, fiddling. Who'd have thought Bombshell had a shy side? "When I get a huge rush of brain chemicals...like, adrenaline, or serotonin...sometimes it leaks into other people. It's part of the biomanipulator experience."

"So that's what it's called when you...you know."

"I thought I'd learned to control it...but maybe it's just that I've spent so much time as a zombie behind a desk that it just didn't matter. The truth is, I've been miserable for years."

"You?" Eddie was incredulous. "But you're Bombshell!"

"Exactly!" she said. "I'm a local celebrity. I'm revered, I'm reviled, and I'm bulletproof. I get shot at. A lot. And not just by bad guys. Can you imagine what it's like, knowing you can never maintain real friendships or relationships on the chance that those people might become collateral damage? Do you know who my best friend is? Scarlet Flame! And we don't even know each others' first names! Jesus, not even my parents know about this!"

Taking it all in, Eddie had to concede, that was a lot. "So why do you do it?"

"To save lives...duh," she said. "Speaking of which…"

Oh no. Here it came.

"Let me see if I've got this straight. You wanted my attention. You created this whole supervillain identity, and for good measure you teamed up with an evil cyborg. Before you knew it, you were all wrapped up in an assassination plot. Is that where all this KYS stuff came from? I mean I get it goes back further. I kinda overheard there was a girl…"

He paused for a moment, contemplating how much he wanted to confess. He could trust her, couldn't he? After all, they'd been through so much together: had they not just tag-teamed a supervillain?

Still, it felt wrong talking about it, like he was making his burdens her problem. But as she held his gaze, he knew she would persist until he gave her an answer.

"It, uh, it does," he admitted. "Guilty as charged...there was a girl. And Chimera...he was manipulating me. I think he was manipulating both of us. Tons of other stuff...this dead-end job...and besides, don't you ever feel…" He trailed off.

"What?"

"Don&apo s;t you ever feel bad for...wanting what you want?"

"Actually, no," said Oriana. "I mean, I seen it a lot in the community. People worried being into this shit makes them inherently bad. But wanting is natural, Eddie. It's human. We don't control what we like. We control what we do about it. I'm allowed to appreciate a cute baby grand eating Taco Shack on his way back to the office, long as I don't pull up and honk my car horn at him. As for the powers, I only use 'em in hostage situations. Figure if I'm saving a life, I'm justified." She sighed. "And that's where I fucked up. You was never gonna kill Craig."

"It was never about Craig, or Councilor Freeman, or...or even Chimera. At least, not at first."

"I know. It was about me."

His heart dropped with shame. "Now I feel like I've violated you."

"Well, you saved my life, so let's call it even. And hey: at least you're into it." She took his hand, and he gave hers a squeeze.

"He really sent you flowers on my behalf?"

"Uh-huh. They were damn pretty, too."

The truck came to an abrupt halt, causing a ripple of movement through his new fat that incited every bit of guilty glee he imagined it would, when he dared imagine he would make it to this point. "Looks like we've arrived."