Supervillains

"We live in a world of supermen and batmen, demigods and aliens," Maria whispered. "But I never believed in it, not until I started working here." She shivered, and Lois moved off of her leg to awkwardly wrap her arm around the young woman in a kind of hug, and hold her hand. Maria grabbed onto her.

"The girls...they just came here looking for a good time, y'know? Same as everyone. Same as you." Maria stood up, and hand still clasped with Lois, guided her over a pair of crates and a small table. She let go just long enough to reach down two shot glasses and a grey bottle marked "XXX."

With shaky hands, she poured the oozing grey-white shot. Thick and viscous, not as runny as Kahlua. Wordlessly, the barmaid knocked her shot back. Lois, determined not to lose the moment of rapport, followed suit.

Undiluted by ****, the off-white goo was salty and disturbingly familiar. Her whole mouth felt alive as she swallowed, and it was like a hunger she didn't know she had was temporarily sated. Lois eyed the bottle again, almost relieved as Maria started to pour another shot.

"I thought it was just tricks, y'know. For a party. A bit of eye-candy, some companionship in the VIP room. The dancers in the cages—they take their turns, but the owner sometimes like something a little more unspoiled. That's how she puts it. They have to come to her, of their own free will." She downed another shot, and Lois quickly followed.

Maria poured another shot into her glass, but didn't touch it. Lois fingered her empty glass, but her eyes focused on the barmaid's face, the quiver in her lips.

"Curiosity got them, at first. They wanted to know what goes on behind the Black Door. Then when they found out, it was too late..."

Lois licked her lips. She could smell the white juice sitting there in that glass. Just a hint of ammonia. "What happened to them Maria?"

"The clients... They have appetites. Need a place to unwind, relax. When you're a cyborg or a crocodile-man, an alien stranded after a failed invasion, some freak with powers...where do you go to get your cock sucked, or your ass eaten out? Criminals on the run can't just put an ad on Craigslist. Need somewhere quiet, away from prying eyes..." Lois felt her heart beat faster. Pulitzer, here I come.

"They like the girls. Boys too, some of them. But if you try to leave, to escape—you get punished." The red-and-purple haired woman couldn't look the black-haired reporter in the eye. "You'd have to see it for yourself." Maria shivered again, and this time Lois knew it was more than just fear that warred within her.

The reporter laid her right hand on Maria's bare knee. Then she let it slide up the leg, under the tight black skirt, until her thumb found the little nub of flesh and the soft fur of a landing strip. She could practically feel the beat of Maria's heart through her palm, as it pulsed through the barmaid's bare skin. Lois herself felt more feverish than drunk.

With her left hand, Lois picked up Maria's shot glass and downed it. She gave her a sticky smile, then pressed gently against that nub with her thumb. Slow circles. Maria responded, nipples rock-hard as they poked through her mesh shirt. Lois didn't have to look down to know her own were sticking out as well.

"Maria," she said. She licked her teeth, savored the goo that seemed to cling to her mouth and throat. "Can you get me down there? I want to see it."