Rise of the Mental Mechanic

“Pat’s been asking around again. I got her diverted.”

“Handled then.”

“For the moment, yes. But she’s going to keep asking, and she’s getting suspicious. She’s not the only one, either.”

We were at work, and Crystal was technically my boss. Of course, that was only technically. The fact that she’d eagerly obey anything I said tended to modify that somewhat. However, it was her company, and she was smarter than me. I knew when to listen. “You sound like you have an idea for a solution.” Not a bad guess. She liked thinking up solutions for me. I’d made sure of that.

This time, however, she was a bit reluctant to present it. “Yes, master. Um. As I said, Patricia’s not the only one getting suspicious. She knows me, and knows something is up, but I can handle her, mostly. Besides, if it was just her, she wouldn’t be able to do much damage. The Association is a bigger problem. They are starting to worry about Green Star.”

“Ok.” Yep, she was definitely nervous. Usually she got straight to the point.

“We’ve tried undoing parts of what you did to the three of us, and we know that doesn’t work, really. Best you can do is counter with an opposite set. And with her, there’s a lot going on beyond what you did.”

Understatement time. I’d eventually settled her down by redirecting her arousal into service to me, but that just meant she stayed obedient. Oh, and she had a tendency to try to program herself in secret, given the chance.

“So, if they start looking there’s not much we can do to really advert suspicion. They will find something. And sooner or later they are going to start looking.”

The problem summary was almost done. She wasn’t going to avoid her solution much longer. I looked at her and waited.

She took a deep breath. “So… You are going to need to be able to defend yourself. The tech you’ve developed should be able to do that, if you can get yourself to use it correctly.”

“You’re still dancing.”

The supergenious technopath looked at her feet. “Youneedtoprogramyourselftobeasupervillian.”

“Try that again, half-speed this time, please.”

“You are going to need to be a supervillian. Able to stand up to the Association. And you are too nice a guy for that: You’ll have to use your device on yourself, to get the proper mindset.” She took another deep breath, and pulled something out from behind her. “I made you this.”

‘This’ was a silver helmet, slightly sculpted, with a weird semi-opaque faceplate. I took it carefully and turned it over in my hands. The inside was lined with some semi-mobile metallic stuff that I recognized as being part of Technia’s superhero outfit.

“It’s got most of the sensors mine does, plus the new mind wave receiver we’ve been working on. And a transmitter, tuned for males.” I looked up at her. “I programmed it with some ideas already, but you can change them of course.”

“What did you put in?”

“Here, I’ll show you.” She took the helmet back from me, and plugged a cord into the inside, and then to my computer, and brought up our new standard interface for my command-broadcast technology. Up popped a list.

‘I have the right to control people’s minds.’ ‘People under my control are objects to be used.’ ‘The world will be better under my control.’ ‘I enjoy using my technology to control others.’

I turned back to Crystal. “You really think this is the best list?”

She blushed. “I asked Chloe for some help. But yes, I think you should use that list, at least as a baseline. Just trying to cover your tracks won’t work, long term. You need to go out and take the offensive, or someone will eventually attack you, and you won’t have a way out. I don’t want to see you in jail. Or to have someone trying to deprogram me.” Not stated was the fact that I’d put those desires into her head, but that was irrelevant at the moment. “At the moment it’s set at power level 1, so the risk is minimal.”

‘Power Level 1’ was what we’d designated a setting just high enough to impose full control while under the field, but it faded quickly once the field was removed. In short bursts, it was actually less permanent then lower settings.

I unplugged the helmet. “Ok. I’ll try it on, and you can ask about what problems you see. We’ll make plans, but I’ll review them later — without the helmet — before we implement them. Got that?”

“You’ll try it on, and we can plan, but you’ll double check them later. Got it.”

Here goes nothing.

The helmet squirmed a moment as I put it on, and it worked it’s way into place. The visor shimmered a moment, then came clear, with an AR overlay. I looked around the room a moment, and it obviously was following where I was looking. I concentrated on a desk across the room, and it zoomed in, then wireframed it, so I could see inside and behind. “Not bad. I assume my face is obscured from the outside?”

“Yes. It’s actually digitally blurred and projected; your expression can be made out, but not your features. It’s also designed to look very different from my helmet.” A good plan. She’d done well. “Ok, so, what do you think is the most important issue?”

“The two I already brought up. Short-term Patricia is the more likely to do something. She also knows my hero identity, and can probably find a way to contact the Association. The Association is a bigger long-term threat, but are unlikely to do anything in the short term, and so far are only worried about Green Star. As she has always kept her secret identity very secret, it’d take them some time to track her — and therefore you — down. Their worries are also very vague at this point.”

“So we need to prevent Patricia from contacting the Association, and we need to have a plan for how to deal with Association, whenever they do finally decide to track me down.”

“Exactly.”

“Have you created anything else for this supervillian identity?”

“Not yet, although I have some ideas, both variants of my gear, as well as some adaptations of your tech. I thought you should have design control.”

I let thoughts circulate for a moment. “Do we still have that programming chair? The one we were using for trying to unprogram you three?”

“I believe Chloe has been using it.”

“Get it back from her. And we’ll make some improvements. Once we have done that, start production of the improved model; low levels at first. We’ll use that as primary conversion devices. Is Pat the only one who’s saying anything here?”

“She’s the only one who matters, but I suspect there might be more.”

“And production of the chair will start more rumors. We will need a small device, with the feedback sensors installed, that can be programmed with one or two patterns, and then left for months. And it will need to be able to affect both women and men.” I thought a moment more. “That’s actually more important than starting the production of the chair. We’ll get the prototype fitted out, and use it on Pat, making her another of my slaves, and then get the smaller transmitters going. We’ll outfit both your company and the Association HQ with the transmitters.” Another thought, based on my technical knowledge. “We’ll try to get the office workers fully converted using them, but I’ll come up with something a bit less drastic for the Association. They won’t be under the fields as much. Anything else I should deal with?”

“One other thing, Master. Chloe… She is being under-used. It’s a big part of her that she needs to show her devotion to you, and you aren’t letting her do that.”

“I’ve got her living as our personal fetish toy/maid. What more can I ask her to do?”

Crystal shifted uncomfortably. “Her fantasy, as I understand it — and she’ll actually talk to me, as a fellow slave — has always been to be publicly humiliated as her master’s new toy. Basically, she wants to be your henchwoman.”

“For which I would need to actually start doing something. What, in your opinion, happens if I don’t use her?”

“Sooner or later she’ll find a way to interpret your instructions to require her too on her own.”

This I thought about for a while. Crystal was probably right about Chloe. After all, that was why Crystal was under my control now. Nor was trying to control Chloe to avoid this likely to be useful: The only way to be sure would lock Chloe down so far that it’d be annoying. She wouldn’t be able to do anything without explicit direction.

“Nothing we can do about that for the moment, but we’ll need that small device to be a high priority. Once it’s been in the Association HQ for a couple of weeks, then I’ll be able to do something with her. Before that it’s just too risky: We’ll have to just hope that she stays under control.”

“Yes sir.”

“Anything else?”

“Not that I can think of right now.” I nodded, and took off the helmet. “So, what do you think…” I held up my hand to stop her.

“Give it an hour, at least. To make sure any effects of the helmet have worn off.”

“Of course sir.” She looked around, semi-guiltily. “Um… I should get back to being CEO. Unless you need anything.”

“I’ll be fine, Crystal. And I’ll call you in an hour or so, so we can discuss plans.”

“Right. See you then.” She then bolted from the room.

However much she thought this was the right thing, she was still nervous about it. So was I for that matter. I looked down at the helmet, still in my hands.

There were a couple of safeguards I could put in. And maybe something just to make a couple of people happy.

---

We’d decided that the plans I’d made under the helmet were good ones, really. I’d been able to explain some of the logic, and further steps, and it all made sense. If you assumed me actually trying to take on the Association, and other related groups, (including the government) made sense.

Which led to two weeks later, I was in the lab. With Crystal, Chloe, and Tsubame. My helmet was on my head when Pat walked in. “You wanted to see me Ms. Nilsson?” She looked around at the four of us standing there, and took in the solid face of my helmet for a moment, and started to back away “Ah, I think I…”

Chloe closed the soundproofed door behind Pat, before Pat could get back through it. Then Crystal spoke. “Hi Pat. I know you’ve been wondering about some of my unusual behavior recently. I’m sorry I couldn’t explain myself, but you wouldn’t have understood. Just trust me, this won’t hurt. And Master doesn’t want to make you unhappy. The opposite in fact.”

Sure it was terrifying her, but I needed to know how well the ‘stay calm and obey’ transmitter built into the chair was. It was low-level, and didn’t have a lot of range, but it was crucial to some of the long-term plans. On the other hand, overdoing it would be just as bad, really.

Her eyes widened, and she looked around for a way out, but no more than expected. “What’s going on?”

“It’s ok, Miss Ortiz. Just come this way.” I motioned towards where the chair was hidden behind some equipment. The group moved slightly, and she followed the motion.

“Howard?” Obviously she was frightened enough to skip the usual formality. “What are you…?” She obviously didn’t know how to finish that question.

“Right now, it’s ‘The Mental Mechanic’. And I’m about to give you a tune-up.” She was about next to the chair at this point, though she still couldn’t actually see it. I stopped her there: She wasn’t likely to get any closer, and actually seeing it might get her nervous. Although my next command might do that on it’s own. “First though, I need you to take off your clothes.”

“My… clothes?” She looked down at herself, confused. “I, um. Sure, I guess… But you are going to have to explain all this.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you understand it all soon enough.”

She appeared to accept that, and finished taking off her pantsuit, placing it on a nearby table which she stared at with further confusion evident on her face. “So… Are you going to start explaining now?”

“All of your clothes please. It’s important.”

“If you say so. But I’m not really comfortable with this.” Her bra came off easily enough, but she hesitated a bit before doing more than loop her fingers in her underwear. “Are you sure this is necessary? Something seems off.”

“Absolutely necessary. You’ll understand why in a moment.”

“Ok, I guess.” The last piece of cloth was placed on the top of the pile. “Now, will you explain?”

“Just one more thing. I need you to take a seat in this chair.”

That must have sounded like a reasonable step, as she did so quickly and without complaint. Which meant she didn’t get a good look at the chair as she did so. Which I was glad for, aside from just the general bad connotations of the ‘dentist chair’: The helmet attached to the top was flipped back, so she might not have seen that, but the clamps on the arms and legs would have been visible at least. The dildo which was ready for her was a bit in shadow, but if she’d seen that she might have been less uncertain about the reason I wanted her unclothed.

Once she sat down, of course, it didn’t matter to much anymore. The clamps all closed automatically, and she found herself firmly bound into the chair. “Wait! What’s going on?”

I ignored her, and flipped the helmet down. It wasn’t tight fitting, but it’s screen gave her something to look at, and it’s speaker gave her something to listen too. And my device made sure she was thinking about the right things as she did so.

The dildo took a bit more adjustment; having it find it’s place on it’s own was something we were still working on. And the part that Patricia couldn’t have seen quickly folded out of the back, placing the low-voltage electrodes perfectly on her aureole on the first try.

At that point there really wasn’t much else to do. Pat was already talking to herself, repeating the words being fed to her, and her current situation had obviously slipped from what remained of her conscious mind, at least for the moment. Even with the improvements we’d made, it was going to take several hours to permanently write into her mind the new commands.

I turned back to the other girls. “Ok. Looks like everything works as planned here. Crystal, how is the production coming on the broadcast-bugs?”

“Not bad. It helps that this batch isn’t programmable. Give me another half an hour, and I’ll have enough for the Association’s HQ.” It had turned out that putting together a simple miniature version of my device wasn’t all that hard. And a well-funded technopath could turn out surprising quantities of them pretty quickly.

“Good. Once you do, I’ll want you and Sarika to go install them. Chloe will stay here in case I need her. Do we have an estimate on how long before they are in full effect?”

“I’ve been thinking about that. Unless we get unlucky, you should be able to move to the next stage within two weeks. The effects won’t have set in fully, but the Association will convene before action, and they will be under the direct effect at that point. Of course, that assumes there isn’t a super who can respond directly. Once you start, me and Tsu can keep them talking, which will keep those who don’t normally stay in the tower under the effect. If you wait until they get full effect otherwise, I’d expect it to take months, as most of the supers only sporadically visit the tower.”

I considered that a moment. Not a bad plan, although it was a bit risky. “We’ll have to discuss a backup plan before that, but it sounds feasible. Anything else?” No one had anything. “Good. Sarika, you head to the Tower now. Technia will join you when she’s finished here. Crystal, change back into businesswear and go make sure there’s no problems with production. Chloe… Stay out of sight, and try to warn me if anyone’s approaching the door.”

I had a new device of my own to work on in the meantime. If I could ignore the distraction.

Public Perception

“Ok, Technia, Sarika, you wait until something comes in over the Association channel before heading to the Tower. Chloe: it’s time for the new version of Green Star to appear. She mumbled something: It was incomprehensible through the upgraded ‘hood’ me and Technia had come up for her. It was more helmet than anything else, but it did the job. She took what I’d come to think of as the ‘transformation pose’ and a moment later was Green Star, the porn version.

I decided a kiss for luck wouldn’t be a bad idea, and took it from the only girl with a visible mouth at the moment. Sarika was more than willing to reciprocate.

You’d think I was in charge here, wouldn’t you? This whole scene was for Chloe’s benefit. We’d actually caught her about to head out of the house as my ‘henchwoman’. I needed to get ahead of her obsessions, and this should allow me to do so.

I put my own helmet on, and felt a lot better about the whole idea. Technia and I had worked out a high-end ‘battlesuit’ for me, and I had my new mind-screwer. (It looked like a ray-gun, but I felt it should have some relation to the ‘mechanic’ gimmick.)

A nod to Technia, and we were teleported over the bank in some tiny little nothing of a town in the middle of nowhere. We had timed it to be just after they got a new delivery of cash, but even so this little expedition would cost more than it would gain us. Of course, I could just call it a test-run, as most of the costs were in the initial build and setup.

I sent Green Star in first, with myself right on her heels. Everyone was gawking at her as I came in, not without reason. She was, for all intents and purposes, nude, after all. But it meant they didn’t see me pull out out my new little toy and pan it around the room.

Range was limited, just a few hundred feet. As was power: It wasn’t going to be doing anything major or permanent without a lot of time. But it was plenty to make everyone very agreeable to my commands. I decided a bit of flare was in order though: There were two guards in the building, who had just started to react when I walked in the door. A mental command, and the mind-screwer reset. “Down boys.” Zap, and they were on their hands and knees. I whistled, and they crawled over, wagging imaginary tales. “Stay, guard.” I pointed to the front door, and they took positions beside it, perfect guard-dogs.

“Ok everyone, my name’s the Mental Mechanic. I’m not here for much. You,” I indicated one of the tellers, “get me a bag, and start having everyone empty their valuables into it. You and you,” two more tellers, “empty everything in the tills into another bag. No ink packs. Who’s the manager?” A hand went up. “You take Green Star here into the back, and help her empty the vault, plus anything that might be interesting in the deposit boxes.”

Everyone nodded, and set to work. Which meant I had nothing to do.

Things would have been different if I hadn’t seen her right then.

‘She’ was a vision in a tight shirt and jean shorts. I was looking for something to do, and I was face-to-face with the most stunning example of womanhood I’d ever seen. Yes, better than Green Star. I motioned to her, and she separated out from the rest. I took a moment to just circle and admire her. “Take off that dress.”

“Yes, Master.” She managed to look even better without it.

“And the rest.”

“As you wish, Master.” There was a bit of huskiness in her voice, and the dropping bra disclosed fully-erect nipples.

“Are you getting off on this?”

She managed to blush. “A bit, Master.” She moved slightly, towards me.

“Hmm.” I reset my magic wand, and pointed it at her. “How about now?”

“Oh! Yes, please Master.” This time her movement wasn’t quite so subtle.

“Lie on the table.” She obviously got the idea, lying back and spreading her legs wide. “Please, Master, fuck me. Use your toy.”

“I plan to.” Technia had planned easy access into the suit — never know when you need to use the bathroom, she said. It was about to get an entirely different use. I reset the mind-screwer again, this time setting it to make this the best fuck in this woman’s life, and to make sure she didn’t cum until I did. I kept it pointing at her head as I had my way with her.

Compared to super-pussy, she wasn’t all that special, but she was very enthusiastic, and when I looked up a moment to see the entire bank staring at us as she screamed her need to be filled with my cum, well, aquesing to her request wasn’t all that hard. The very opposite in fact.

I pulled out and zipped up as she was still recovering, and saw Green Star waiting. “Got everything?”

The answer only came over the com-link: “Yes, Master.”

“Good, gather it up.” I picked up one small bag, and let her take the rest. “Thank you all, it’s been an entertaining afternoon.” I waved to the assembled group, and walked past my ‘guard dogs’ to the door. As we went through, the return teleport activated, and we were back home.

I had Chloe change, then take the cash over to Nilsson Tech; Pat could figure out something to do with it. She could burn it for all I cared, really; this wasn’t about the money.

For myself, I plopped down in front of the TV, and switched to news channel, to see if I’d gotten noticed.

I’d had hopes for no: New supervillain wannabies were a dime a dozen, and generally didn’t attract much attention. I was sure the local news in the area would have it — tomorrow, if not this evening, at least — but really I didn’t figure the major news sites would be covering it yet.

“We are live on the scene where a new supervillain - calling himself ‘The Mental Mechanic’ just robbed a bank, apparently with the aid of none other than Green Star herself. Diana?”

“Thank you, Brad. Reports are still confused, but it appears that the new villain, the so-called ‘Mental Mechanic’ appeared in the sky above the bank not more than an hour ago, accompanied by what appears to be Green Star - in a highly modified uniform. They immediately entered the bank, and proceeded to subdue everyone in it, using what appears to be a mind-ray gun of unknown origin. The contents of the bank were apparently handed over without a fight, as we can see in this video, obtained from the remote surveillance department of the bank. Be advised: this video contains graphic sexual imagery, and may not be suitable for all viewers.”

The image of Green Star entering the bank came on, with some probably legally-mandated blurring. It wasn’t a bad shot: Obviously from the opposite side of the bank, but a good quality camera, and in full color. “Diana, is that Green Star?”

“It is impossible to be certain, Brad, given the fact that her face is covered. However, it does appear to be her; the costume material appears to be her energy-aura, and she can be seen to float instead of walking here. Later in the video, she appears to use her super-strength.”

“And following her…”

“Is the Mental Mechanic. Note that he doesn’t approach anyone within ten feet, but everyone immediately starts obeying his orders.”

“What are the guards doing here?”

“It appears the Mental Mechanic convinced them they were actual guard dogs: So far they are still preventing anyone from entering or leaving the bank.”

“Preventing them?”

“Several police officers have been bitten.”

“Ah.” You could hear Brad’s gulp for air. “So, here…”

“At this point the Mental Mechanic apparently decides to take more than just money. You can see the woman offers no resistance, and in fact appears eager to comply with the orders given her. We can skip the next several minutes, except to note that we can see Green Star bringing the contents of the vault out into the lobby. Once the Mental Mechanic finishes with the woman, he has Green Star take as much as she can pick up, and the two of them walk out the door, where they are apparently teleported out before the police who were waiting outside can do anything. Note that they actually leave nearly half of the contents of the bank vault there in the lobby.”

“And what’s the situation now?”

“The bank has been feeding us reports, and it appears some of the victims have recovered themselves, but so far have been prevented from leaving by the guards. Some have been using phones to contact the outside, presumably friends and family, but we haven’t been able to get into contact with any of them yet.” Someone stepped into the side of the frame, and spoke to the reporter. “It appears the guards are coming out of whatever state the Mental Mechanic had put them in. The police are going to enter the bank, and escort everyone out.”

The camera switched, and we got to watch the police double-time it into the bank. A few moments later, a single file of the occupants were being led out. It looked like there was going to be a press conference with the bank manager off to the side, but Diana knew what her viewers really wanted to know: She managed to spot my recent sex partner in the middle of the line, and got through the line of guards. “Miss! Miss! Can we ask you what it was like in there?”

“I, um. It just felt calm; every order he gave felt like the most obvious and right thing in the world. It just seemed like the right thing to do.”

“Even having sex with him?”

The woman flushed completely scarlet. “How? Um. Yes. Even that. Excuse me.” She ducked back into the protection of the waiting police.

“Miss! How did it feel?”

Diana couldn’t have been expecting an answer, but she knew she had to ask. The woman though stopped short, and you could feel everyone hold their breath. “It was the best sex ever.” Then she disappeared behind an officer.

At that point Techina stepped out behind me, just as Awesome Man appeared on the screen. I turned off the TV: Techina would tell me anything he would. “So, how did it go?” I asked.

“About according to plan. A few minutes after you left, we got called into the Tower, with news that Green Star was apparently under the control of a new criminal. Everyone converged on the Tower, and then we argued. Some thought it was a trap, and wanted to stay away. Some were worried about Green Star; they wanted to wait and try to find where you are hiding. Others thought that even if it wasn’t a trap, us going in would only escalate the situation, especially as no one appeared to be getting hurt. Everyone was worried about your weapon, and were afraid to face it without more understanding of it’s limitations.” She grinned. “No one was arguing we should go in. To much risk. You’ve got time to work out how you want to face them. How was it on your end?”

“Did you see the video?”

“Not all of it, but the bank did feed it to us, why?”

I turned the TV back on, and flipped channels a moment. It didn’t take to long to find one showing me pounding the woman over the bank table.

“Oh.” She actually started to laugh. “That wasn’t in the plan, Master.”

“It just seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The video doesn’t near do her justice.”

“Well, if anything would offset that outfit Chloe wanted to wear, that would be it… The press is going to be all over her. I wonder how she’ll handle it.”

“The press already have started. She seemed handle herself ok. And she appears to be willing to enjoy the experience.”

“Well, that will be useful.”

I turned back to Crystal. “How so?”

She shrugged. “Just that if she doesn’t appear traumatized or hurt, the Association is less likely to consider you a danger that has to be faced. And if people know they will enjoy themselves, they are less likely to try to resist your device, which will make things easier for you.”

I turned to the news feed. They were blurring her face to give her some semblance of modesty, but I knew that was on the studio’s end. “The Association has the original bank feeds, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Think you can find out who she is?”

“Master?”

“I’d like to guarantee that she has good things to say, and that she’s willing to say them. Before the press find her.”

“Certainly.”

---

It didn’t take Technia more than half an hour to find my play-partner’s identity, and it only took a bit longer than that to rent a van, and have it filled with two disassembled training chairs, plus Crystal, Chloe, and myself.

Two chairs because either I was lucky beyond belief, or more daring than made any sense: The woman I’d fucked was a sorority sister at a local university, and had no relatives within 500 miles. I couldn’t be sure she’d be in the sorority house, but there was no place else obvious. So I decided to grab all of them. Two chairs were all we had fully completed so far.

At Technia’s suggestion, I made one last addition to the van’s contents: a teleport pad, also disassembled.

There were a couple of police cars; I sent them around the corner, with the thought to ‘be discrete’. Then Chloe (street clothes this time) went around the back, to make sure we weren’t surprised, and to make sure everyone was inside. I went to the door. “Hi, is Kanani Glass here?”

“Are you a reporter?” That was a confirmation.

“Definitely not. I’m just a friend, who was in the area, and thought she might like some help.” I didn’t want to get very obvious yet, but I did have small ‘trust me’ device going.

“Sure, I’m sure she’d love have a friend right now. Kani! A friend to see you!” And they let me in, Crystal at my heels, shutting the door behind her.

Kani appeared at the top of the stairs. “A friend? Who is it?” She saw me. “I don’t recognize you.”

“But you can’t say we aren’t very friendly.” My handheld unit had been behind my back; I raised it, sweeping everyone below Kani with the field as it got to her.

Her eyes opened in recognition as it came up, and she took one step. Forward. As the effect hit, she smiled. “Master, did you come back for seconds?” She was obviously very willing.

“Not first thing.” Crystal was sweeping the room, and I did the same, trying to make sure we both got everyone. “Chloe, anyone out back?”

“No, Master. Should I come in?”

“Stay outside for now; make sure no one bothers us for a while.” I looked around the room. The girls were trying to figure out what I would order next. Some obviously thought I was only after sex, and were trying to suripticially re-dress themselves to display their best assets best. Others had sunk to their knees. Most though were just standing where they had been, waiting. “Ok, everyone. Do you have a gym in here? Or a basement? Something without windows.”

“There’s a gym in the basement.”

“Perfect. There’s some gear in the van. Go get it, and carry it down there. Not you.” I stopped the girl who had been at the door. “You help me find everyone else in the building.”

We found a few; one hiding in a closet, but the rest were mostly oblivious until I came in. Most had obviously had some of the effect of my device hit them; walls didn’t stop it, generally, but I made sure they all had a full dose. None of this would be permanent, but it would hold for a few hours.

Meanwhile Crystal was having the girls do final assembly of the conversion chairs in the basement. By the time I got down there, one was finished, and the other was nearly so. I addressed the group: “Ok, these are training chairs. What’s going to happen is that each of you is going to spend five minutes in one of them, which will make your present state of servitude last for a couple of weeks. Once you’ve all been through the first pass, I’ll reset it for a full course. That will take several hours each, so you’ll have to take turns until you are all done. Understand?” Everyone nodded. “Any questions?”

They actually started babbling. I raised a hand for silence. “One at a time please.” I pointed to a hand.

“What are you going to do with us?”

“Personal sex-toys, henchwomen on future escapades. That sort of thing. Basically, whatever I feel like.”

“How long will it last?”

“Once you get the full dose, the rest of your lives.”

“What do we tell our families? Or are you going to make us disappear?”

“You aren’t going to disappear, and you won’t tell your families anything. On the outside, you act normal. You are not to draw attention to yourselves, or to me.”

“Do you really have Green Star under your control?”

“Yes; in fact, she’s outside, making sure we don’t get any surprises. You’ll all meet her eventually. I’m told she is very good with her tongue.” Most of the girls didn’t get that. The expressions on the few who did were priceless.

“Will you have us recruiting?”

“As much as you can without drawing attention. All your pledges, of course.”

“Who do you want us to recruit?”

“Attractive girls and people in positions of power are top priorities.”

“What will the machines train us with?”

“Complete devotion and obedience to me, of course. Willingness to do everything I’ve mentioned. Oh, and bisexuality and supercharged sex drive.” I shrugged. “The last is really a side-effect, but I don’t see any reason to remove it. I may have it do more to you in the future.”

“Can it help us with our grades?”

I had to pause on that one. “You know what, I think it can. Get me a list of everyone’s courses, and I’ll try to work something up. Now, Crystal looks like she’s finished, so do we have any volunteers to go first?”

Every hand went up, of course. Kani was in the front row, so I had her come forward and strip, then position herself in the chair. A few eyes went wide as the dildo and electrodes placed themselves, but Kani just moaned in approval. “Ok, everyone, form a line, and be patient. Everyone will get a turn.” Kani was obviously enjoying herself, and quite a few sets of eyes were making sure they took all the details of that in. I turned to Crystal. “Where’s a good place for the other device?”

“An upstairs closet would be ideal. Someplace small, and private.”

I pulled a girl out of the end of the forming line, and asked her if there was such a place. She led us to clothes closet in one of the upstairs bedrooms. “Perfect. There’s even an outlet close by.” I left her to set up the teleporter.

Back down in the basement, Kani was out of the chair already, looking flushed and happy. “Did you enjoy being brainwashed?”

“Yes master.” She wasn’t eager to get dressed. I wasn’t going to complain.

“Ok, I do have some specific orders for you. Has the press managed to find you yet?”

“Just the school paper, so far.”

“If they don’t find you tomorrow, you’ll start going to them. You are going to sell your story, wide and far. You are not going to let on that I’ve done more than what happened in the bank, but this is your fifteen minutes of fame, and you will milk it for all it’s worth. Including Playboy, if they ask. Everyone in the world has seen you naked anyway, so you don’t see the point of modesty about your body. Nothing further though: You aren’t going into the porn business.” I leaned in, for effect. “And you will rave about how it felt to have sex with me. You know that was because I was doing something with your mind, but regardless, the sex was <em>amazing</em>.”

“That won’t be hard; it was amazing. I was considering the rest already.”

“I figured you were. I just want to make sure you have good things to say. You weren’t hurt, you didn’t struggle, and you enjoyed yourself. Actually being happy I robbed you would be going overboard, but this was not a traumatic experience for you.”

“Yes sir. Is it an experience that’s likely to be repeated?” There was promise and hope in her voice, and her nude body leaned in to me suggestively.

I seriously considered it. “Not in the near future, unfortunately. You are a bit too high-profile; you are already being watched, and I’m taking a risk right now. You need to be where people can see you, and see that I haven’t contacted you. These” I pointed to the training chairs, “need to stay hidden, obviously. We’ve also installed a teleporter pad upstairs. We will show you how to use it, but I want you to avoid doing so until further notice. Expect a reporter to be watching you day or night - they might not be, but they might be as well, so I don’t want you to disappear or to have to explain where you went.”

She was disappointed. “Yes sir.”

I took pity on her. “Once the attention blows over, I’ll be sure to partake of your charms again.”

“Thank you master.” She gave me a peck on the cheek, and headed back into the crowd.

I grabbed a few of the already processed girls, and gave them a quick course in teleporter use and maintenance. By the time that was done, I could reprogram the chairs for ‘permanent’ conversions, and we set up the first two (Kani was one, of course) for treatment. Then it was a quick dash back to the van, a quick check to make sure the police hadn’t seen us, and we headed home in time to call it a night.

Yes, I did have a couple of the sorority sisters test out the teleport pad before I went to bed. They were very appreciative of the honor.

---

“…We’re all worried just how the Association will handle Siege Strike without his normal opponent, Green Star.” The announcer on the news channel was playing the story up, really. Siege Strike was a handful, yes, but Green Star wasn’t the only one who could take him. She was just the only one who didn’t have trouble doing so.

But I had just made a splash walking into a bank with Green Star, and everyone was still on the ‘Oh no, what will we do now?’ story. Sure the Association could handle this, and would even get a fair amount of people to watch the news as they did so, but a dramatic, tension-filled battle against a foe they couldn’t defeat without their big hitter? That was going to be good for ratings.

I wasn’t planning on letting them have that, though they’d get their ratings anyway.

“Wait, what’s that?” His hand went to his ear, although anyone watching could see what had happened; Green Star’s streak through the sky was fairly distinctive. “Green Star has arrived on the scene! Has she shaken herself free of the Mental Mechanic? Are he and Siege Strike working together?” And Siege Strike was down. Green hovered in the air a moment, then flew up to the newsman.

“Hi. I can’t stay long, but I can answer a few questions.” She managed to get a few seconds of silence out of the announcer, as he took in her new uniform.

We’d worked out a new ‘hero’ version of her uniform, as opposed to her ‘henchwoman’ uniform. It was a bit more conservative: The base was a high-cut, one-piece swimsuit, a pair of high heels, and some knee-high stockings. The shoes and stockings ended up looking like the aura itself was supplying the boots, and the suit became something near body-paint. We’d cut the bra-liner out of the swimsuit, and the result showed her nips quite clearly - cameltoe hadn’t taken any work at all. The result was technically family-friendly, in that she was fully clothed, but wouldn’t have looked out of place in a men’s magazine.

“Um, yes. Thank you. I assume from your save back there that you’ve freed yourself from the Mental Mechanic’s control?”

“Oh, no. But he doesn’t want to interfere with my superhero career. After all, he lives on the planet too.” She gave a grin to the audience.

“So, you are still under his control?”

“Yes. He doesn’t have to let it fade away. He’s got me for life.”

“I… see. Um. So, can you confirm that was you with him at the bank a few days ago?” If he was thinking a bit better, he’d probably been able to say exactly how long ago that was, but he appeared a bit flustered at the moment.

“Yep, that was me, in my ‘henchwoman’ uniform. You’ll see more of it in the future.”

“People have been wondering about the money left behind; you gathered quite a bit after all. Was there some meaning behind that, that you know of?”

“Oh, no: just bigger eyes than hands - he didn’t have a way to take it all. He’ll probably have something worked out next time, but he’s not doing it for the money. It’s just practice.” She looked over her shoulder - some of the rest of the Association were finally regrouping and converging on them. “Sorry, that’s all I have time for at the moment. Thanks! Talk to you soon!” And she was gone.

Just in time for the other heroes to run up and start pelting the announcer with questions, only a few of which he could answer.

“So, how’d this slave do?”

I turned to face her. “Not bad. Everything went about as planned.