Renata Subdued Me with a Suit of Cables and Shocks

The light from outside had blinded me for an instant, and my eyes took a while to adjust. Little by little I began to recognize what surrounded me. The transport pod had been left behind me, lined up beside many others that ran along the side wall. The place was like a colossal hangar, full of doors and huge windows.

There were indicators everywhere and a crowd of people —and things that were not people— moving about, flying, or crawling. It was a parade of colors in which I could barely make out a familiar suit, and my eyes didn’t know where to look.

A constant murmur worked its way into my ears. Because of my recent experience with transport, I felt like I was going to faint again. And as my body gave way backward, a gust of air and two arms caught me from behind, stopping my fall halfway.

—Red Spark! How fantastic to see you again! —exclaimed Steel Titania, hands on her hips, turning to look at me held up by my unexpected savior.

When I focused my gaze, and after hearing his name, I recognized him. He was a boy of no more than twenty-five, in a bright crimson suit that outlined every tense muscle. He wore his hood down, so I could see his blond hair and deep green eyes, which looked at me with sparks in their pupils. Literally. He was the Legion of Dawn’s speedster, and the youngest of them all.

—Steeltitania! Marea! What a great encounter we have here! How have you been? Did you miss me? —Red Spark kept turning his head at top speed to address both of us, which made his figure blur and sent crackles through the air. In the blink of an eye he had me upright, smoothed my clothes, and fixed my hair with a smile—. Marea, whenever you want we can pick up that movie again.

—Red, you’re talking too fast again —Titania pointed out, and that was enough for him to pull his hand away from my face—. Did you two already know each other?

—N… no —I replied timidly, looking at his yellow boots decorated with lightning bolts on the sides.

—Oops —said Red Spark, not too embarrassed—. Sorry, heh, heh. I just got back from a mission in 2140 and I still have some temporal residue; I’m not quite oriented as to what era we’re in. Ah! So this is our first meeting. —He stepped back two paces and leaned forward—. My name is Teodoro Lansky and my favorite movies are from the sixties.

—RED! Do you think it’s okay to say your name like that, openly? —Titania snapped at him, arms crossed and with a clearly disapproving expression.

—Don’t worry, Titania. There’s no problem with her. —He winked at me and pulled up his hood, leaving his mouth and chin exposed—. I have to run, do a general sweep, and then calculate the exact time to head back. See you!

Before anyone could answer, his blur was already gone, followed by a gust of air that made everyone along its path uncomfortable. I stayed silent while my hair fell back over my forehead. Titania had a hand over her face and her eyes closed. I didn’t understand a thing that had just happened.

—Try not to pay it any mind. Red Spark is usually like that: he lives at a frantic pace and often in another timeline. —As if that explanation were enough, she wrapped her right arm around my shoulders and steered me forward with light nudges. My legs reacted on their own and began to follow her directions.

Along the way we passed a great many people: some greeted us energetically, others argued heatedly, others meditated, oblivious to their surroundings. Capes, shields, runes, automatons, and creatures that didn’t seem human moved through the wide corridors. Titania greeted people by lifting a hand, but nobody was there to socialize.

After a route I doubted I’d be able to remember, we reached some white corridors where colorful capes had disappeared and lab coats were everywhere. All the doors looked identical. Voices could barely be heard, and those we passed hardly noticed us: they hurried by, going in and out of those identical doors.

Titania finally stopped in front of one and gently pushed it open without knocking, motioning for me to follow her. Inside there was unfamiliar machinery that subjected materials to pressure, heat, and cold. It was a circular room with a dark corridor leading off to one side. I assumed Titania would be looking for someone, but she stayed still, saying nothing. And since she didn’t, neither did I. We stood there for what felt like an eternity, hearing only the machines repeat the same motions again and again.

Very slowly, I began to hear a murmur coming down the corridor. It was two voices arguing, and bit by bit I could make out more of what they were saying, though without context it didn’t make much sense.

—… insists on adding lead, but that would drastically increase the weight of the structure, no matter how effective it is —said a rough male voice.

—Doctor, we’re working with people who lift buildings. Do you really think that would make much difference? —replied a younger female voice.

—As with everything, it’s a matter of professional elegance. There is always a better way to optimize things.

—For elegance, there’s the design department.

Those were the last lines of their conversation, just as they noticed the imposing figure of the heroine beside whom I had been waiting. Both hurried over, nervous, until they were standing in front of us. The man with the rough voice was as tall as Titania and wore large round glasses that reflected outward; I couldn’t see his eyes. His white hair fell in an untidy mess to his shoulders, and his lab coat ran down his thin frame like a tube. He held a flask with a green liquid that smelled acidic, which he shook carelessly.

His companion, by contrast, was only slightly taller than me. She had rectangular glasses and a constantly disapproving expression. Her hair was short, shaved on the right side and falling over the left, in an orange color that stood out in that environment. She also wore a white lab coat, but it was so short it barely covered her hips and left her thighs exposed before a pair of long black boots covered them.

—Ah, Steel Titania! What a pleasure to see you. I received your visit notice, but I had forgotten it. Luckily Renata, here, reminds me of everything very meticulously. —The man spoke quickly, without much expression. He leaned toward me and I saw my own face reflected in his glasses—. So this is the new heroine you mentioned, right? —He kept shaking that flask, now very close to me.

—Calm down, Dr. Kessler, she’s still a person —Titania told him calmly.

—Tsk. Another rookie —Renata huffed dismissively. I wasn’t sure whether she wanted me to hear her or not.

—Ah, yes, yes. —The doctor straightened up—. And what are her abilities? —I thought he was asking me, but Titania took the floor.

—Liquid manipulation.

—Ooooh, an elemental? It’s been a while since I worked with one. —The doctor seemed enthusiastic, and he shook the acidic liquid more forcefully.

—Cough, cough. Rookie. Cough —Renata pretended to cough, and managed to irritate me. At the same time, I felt a certain embarrassment at the doctor’s emphasis.

—That’s right. She’s been practicing with her powers, but she still doesn’t know her limits. She also needs a suit —Titania replied over the fake coughing.

—Yes, yes. The testing phase. It’s been a long time since an element manipulator showed up. Let’s begin as soon as possible. Will you be staying too?

—Yes. I’d like to be present and observe the process.

—Excellent. Follow me to testing room 17. —Kessler kept talking, but his feet were already taking him back down the corridor, his back to us.

—Tsk… yes, doctor. —Renata turned on her heel and followed his steps. I noticed she tugged the lab coat downward, as if it were a skirt that was too short. I was beginning to understand that her disapproval was something natural to her, toward everything.

Titania extended her right arm toward the corridor while with her left she wrapped my shoulders and gently pushed me along. I felt very uncomfortable. Since I’d reunited with my heroine, I hadn’t managed to put together a single complete sentence: everything I had lived through had flooded over me all at once. I must have been coming off as an idiot. I started walking and decided to let things run their course; when it was all over, I’d have time to think it through.

***

We moved down the corridor until we reached some kind of exit. There, the doctor said something to his assistant, who left through a door. He told me to go in through a second one and then went up some stairs alongside Titania. They were going to place me in a testing chamber to study my abilities. As I crossed the doorway I saw some lockers and long benches; at the back, the last door before the testing area. The place was lit in yellow tones and there was no one there.

Renata appeared behind me. She had tucked the pen into her pocket and still held the notepad in her hand. She was carrying a plastic packet, which she held out to me with her arm extended.

—This suit is reading-enabled. It conforms to your body and sends direct bodily readings to the computers for processing.

I took the bag with both hands. It was stiff and it took me a while to find the opening. Renata was writing at top speed. Was she evaluating every movement I made? I heard her mutter under her breath and gathered my courage to ask her:

—Is there something about me that bothers you? —Without stopping her writing, she replied:

—Tsk… truthfully, yes, but that’s not what concerns us today. Maybe you superheroes have time to chat and drink coffee, but here we dedicate ourselves body and soul to research.

—Steel Titania and so many others give their lives to fighting for all of us —I replied as politely as I could, without showing how much her contempt bothered me.

—Yes. The Five Standards may have some merit; they took on a responsibility and treated it seriously. And yet, here is one of them, leaving us a rookie as if this were a daycare center. —I was about to answer, but when I pulled the suit out of the wrapper I was so confused that I lost the thread of the conversation.

What could, with luck, be called a “suit” was more cables than fabric. Like a complicated piece of gothic lingerie, but not black, rather skin-colored, with countless open straps to fasten around different parts of the body. I had the faintest idea where I was supposed to put it on.

—Tsk… —Renata complained again, shaking her bangs with the air she expelled through her mouth—. First you have to take your clothes off. —She wasn’t writing anymore. Now she had a hand on her hip and was looking at me with annoyance and disdain. Since I had no intention of provoking her for the moment, I left the suit on a bench and began undressing. This time I had put on black boxer briefs and a sports bra, so I wouldn’t end up caught in another embarrassing situation. I left my T-shirt and leggings in the nearest locker and was about to lift the suit from the bench when another grumble distracted me.

—Rookie… the body has to be in total contact with the suit. —I stared at her with wide eyes—. Tsk… that means you have to take off your underwear too.

I felt uncomfortable, and I think she noticed, because she told me to hurry and turned her back. I quickly stripped off the few garments I had left. My breasts bounced, relieved to be freed from the pressure of the bra, and a tingle ran through me when the air passed between my legs without the boxer briefs. I took the strange suit and began turning it around helplessly, unable to figure out how it went on. I turned to Renata, who was still facing away, and asked for instructions.

—Tsk… didn’t I tell you? Rookies… they don’t even know how to put on a suit. —She set the notepad on the bench and snatched the garment from my hands—. Extend your arms. —I obeyed every instruction in silence. She kept clicking her tongue with every movement.

She passed two straps over my arms and up to my shoulders; then she crossed some cables behind my head and, with a click, secured them in some kind of collar around my neck. She took my right arm and put a fastener on my elbow and another on my wrist, followed by five connectors that branched out to each finger. Then she did the same with the other arm.

She positioned herself behind me and ordered me to raise my arms over my head. Her body pressed against mine while her hands crossed along the sides of my hips, connecting cables to each other. Suddenly she grabbed my left breast and squeezed it hard to pass more straps and connectors, like a harness. I couldn’t help jerking and assured her that if she just gave me the instructions, I could do it myself.

—Tsk. Sure. —She kept going as if she hadn’t heard me. Her hands kept kneading my body to arrange the apparatus, and I felt my nipples harden more and more with her rough caresses. When she finished with the torso cables, she tightened them behind my back and turned me around to face her. With a disapproving gesture, she said:

—It’s loose. It’s obvious the previous wearer had better assets than you. —Without waiting for a reply, she brought her hands back to my breasts, squeezing them at the same time. She shifted them from side to side and adjusted something under my armpit, lifted them upward and tightened something against my abdomen. She kept at it until she was satisfied. By the time the suit was “properly placed,” I looked down: my erect nipples were barely covered by two skin-colored triangles of fabric, and my breasts were surrounded by cables like a web that squeezed them until I felt they might burst.

—Let’s keep going downward. —She stretched more cables from my hips to my thighs and kept lowering them toward my ankles. She crouched in front of me and repeated on my feet and calves the same treatment as on my arms. From that angle I could see her crotch, which the lab coat no longer covered, as if she were showing it to me on purpose. She was wearing sheer purple lace underwear; the fabric disappeared between her buttocks and only left the front visible. Looking more closely, I noticed transparent cables, similar to those on my suit, running down from her waist and slipping in from both sides of her underwear, toward her sex. A squeeze on my calves brought me back to reality as she straightened up. All that remained was a set of cables hanging from my navel down to above my knees.

Renata stood behind me and, in a firm voice, ordered:

—Spread your legs.

I obeyed without thinking. Though I couldn’t see her, I knew she had crouched behind me, and I felt her breath on the skin of my ass. She crossed her hand between my open legs, took the bundle of cables hanging from me, and pulled it backward. Then, keeping the material taut, she began pressing it hard along my crotch and toward my buttocks. I started breathing hard. No matter how much I didn’t want it, my body had begun to react and lubricate since Renata started handling me however she pleased.

I felt her yank her hands away and exclaim:

—God, are you lubricating now? Seriously? —I was dying of embarrassment, I didn’t dare answer, and my face felt like it was burning—. I’m asking you to be more professional. My hands don’t matter, but if you keep getting wet like a bitch in heat, you could interrupt the readings. Tsk…

I thought I saw her suck her fingers and wipe them on her lab coat, but a harsh slap on my sex distracted me. There had been some intent behind it, and it hurt. Almost without my noticing, Renata had crossed all the remaining cables between my buttocks and fastened them at the sides with two rings at waist level. A tiny patch of fabric covered my wet sex again, threaded through with several cables that I could feel rubbing every time I moved. It was like a barely-there thong… except with several strings instead of one.

***

We were facing each other again. Renata took a communicator from her pocket and spoke loudly:

—Doctor, the suit is in position. Sending the first readings to check functionality.

The doctor’s voice came through a loudspeaker:

—All set. I sent the signal to corroborate the readings. —Renata put away the communicator and took out another device with a red button that she pressed firmly without hesitation.

At once I felt a slight electric shock course through my whole body. I jerked and covered myself with my arms on pure instinct. A second shock came, stronger, but this time concentrated on my sex, so that involuntarily I got even wetter. I bent forward while squeezing my legs together. With my eyes narrowed, I saw that Renata had taken up her notepad again and was watching me without a shred of expression. A third shock hit my folds with such force that I couldn’t stay on my feet and fell to my knees, gasping.

—Readings and signals analyzed correctly —the doctor’s voice sounded through the speaker.

—Correct. I’m heading to the control cabin —Renata replied, crouching with her legs apart in front of me—. The tests start now. Head through that door. —And, almost in a whisper, she added—: If you weren’t wet, it wouldn’t have hurt at all. Your own ill-placed arousal betrayed you, Drip.

As she dragged out the words, she pinched my face and gave me a gentle slap in the same spot. Maybe I was delirious, but it seemed to me that her underwear was showing more and darkening right over her sex. She stood up and, turning her back to me, walked out through the entrance door.