Another Hypnosis Session

"I was thinking," Sue Storm said, carefully weighing each word. "That maybe we'd try hypnosis again."

Dr. Stone raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, I know I'm helping you, and we're friends, but we still have a professional relationship, too," Sue said. "I really appreciate all you've done for me, trying to get to the root of my stress, helping me find sexual relief. I know I was **** about the whole hypnosis thing at first, but perhaps we could give it a try. It will be something to occupy your mind, and...who knows? Maybe I'll benefit."

The blonde in the bed with the two broken legs nodded dumbly. With the anklet on, she didn't have access to her powers. There was no way to actually put Sue Storm in a suggestive state. And the anklet was under the cast. There was no way...

A dark thought crossed Moonstone's mind. There was one way.

"That sounds wonderful, Susan," Karla said with a smile. "I really appreciate all you do, and I'd like to continue to help you, even in my...diminished capacity."

"Until tomorrow then," Sue said, and she leaned down to hug the woman on the bed.

Karla waited until the door to her apartment closed. Then waited a half-hour longer. Alone in the dark, with her broken legs. Powerless, the pain of the knitting bones only slightly dulled by the **** she was on. She bit her teeth and dug her nails into her palm.

Her laptop was in the other room. With that, she could contact Doom. If he could turn off the anklet...

And what if he can't? Karla asked herself as she tossed the covers aside. Carefully, she tried to lower herself out of bed, using only her arms...

"What are you doing?"

Doctor Doom's sepulchral voice rang out inside Karla's skull. She looked up and saw a wisp of a hologram at the foot of her bed, so fine she could see through it. It was the cloaked and hooded figure of Doom.

"Microwave induction," Doom said, in answer to her next question. "Hidden speakers would be too obvious. I am transmitting directly to the implants in your skull. What are you doing?"

"I...I need to get the anklet off! Sue's coming back tomorrow for a hypnosis session, and..." Karla began.

"And you believe you need your powers," Doom said. "You do not. I have monitored your performance. You use your superhuman abilities as a crutch, when it is your natural beauty and manipulation that will seduce Sue Storm."

"But...I'm fucking crippled!" Karla said. "Look at me! I'm helpless! It's a fucking ordeal just to crawl to the bathroom to take a piss!"

"Indeed," Doom said. "And that helplessness has lowered the Invisible Woman's guard. Drawn her closer to you. The biometrics are very promising. So I would take care not to injure yourself further...or attempt to remove the anklet...unless you would like to suffer another 'accident.' Are we clear?"

"Crystal," Moonstone said, bitterly. She did understand, all to well, the shape of Doom's obsession. To him, she had never been a partner or an ally, but a potential tool. As long as she was useful, that would remain the case. Tools that were no longer useful were discarded.

Doom's hologram faded. Karla flopped back into her bed.

"Fuck me," she whispered, knowing as she did that she would somehow have to seduce one of the most powerful women in the world, without her powers and with two broken legs.