Tasting Honey

The fog on the bay was thick, rolling over the water like a heavy, wet blanket. We took Wasabi’s van to the docks, then switched to Hiro’s stealth boat to approach Akuma Island. The facility loomed out of the mist, a massive, rusting skeleton of pipes and quarantine zones. It smelled of salt, rust, and the unmistakable scent of dark magic.

"Cut the engines," I ordered, standing at the bow. "We drift in. If they have sensors, your noisy toy boat will light us up like a Christmas tree."

"It's not a toy," Hiro whispered defensively, but he killed the power.

We drifted into the drainage tunnel. The silence was heavy. The team was tense. Fred was vibrating in his monster suit, Wasabi was checking his laser blades every three seconds, and Go Go was chewing her gum so hard I could hear the jaw muscles working.

Honey Lemon stood next to me. She was in her armor now, a pink and purple exosuit with her chem-purse slung over her shoulder. She looked ridiculous and incredibly appealing.

"It's quiet," Honey whispered, her voice trembling slightly. "Too quiet. The atmospheric pressure is dropping."

"That's not weather," I said, stepping onto the concrete walkway. "That's presence."

I led them deeper into the facility. We passed massive containment birds, remnants of a failed experiment. The shadows seemed to stretch and grasp at our ankles.

Suddenly, a red light flared overhead.

SCREECH.

The silence shattered.

From the vents, the ceiling, and the floor, the Microbots poured out. But they weren't just forming shapes this time. They were coating Shadow Heartless, little twitching ant-like creatures made of pure darkness, wearing the Microbots like armor.

"Ambush!" Go Go yelled. She didn't wait for a plan. She revved her mag-lev discs and shot forward, a blur of yellow light. "Eat this!"

She threw a disc. It sliced through a Heartless, but the Microbots just reformed around the wound.

"It didn't work!" she shouted, banking off a wall.

"They're adapting!" Hiro yelled. "Baymax, Rocket Fist!"

The fight turned into a brawl. Wasabi was slicing, Fred was breathing fire, but the swarm was endless. They were being overrun by the sheer volume of the corruption.

I stood in the center, watching them struggle.

"Sloppy," I muttered.

A large Armored Heartless lunged at Honey Lemon. She threw a chem-ball, but the Heartless ripped through it, its claws swiping at her helmet.

"Ah!" She stumbled back, tripping over a pipe.

I moved.

Light Step.

I appeared between Honey and the monster.

I didn't use my Keyblade. I used brute ****.

I grabbed the Heartless by its armored face.

"Sit down."

I slammed it into the concrete floor. The impact cracked the foundation. The creature dissolved into black smoke instantly.

Honey looked up at me from the ground, her eyes wide behind her visor. "You... you just crushed it."

"Get up, chemist," I said, offering a hand. "We're getting separated."

As if on cue, a massive wall of Microbots rose up between us and the rest of the team. I heard Go Go shouting on the other side, the sound of lasers and explosions muffled by the black tide.

We were cut off. Just me and the tall, terrified genius in a dark corridor.

"Ray!" Honey gasped, scrambling to her feet. "The others! We have to-"

"They need the practice," I said calmly. "We need to find the source."

I grabbed her arm and pulled her down a side hallway. "Move."

We ran, or rather, I strode and she jogged to keep up with her long legs. We reached a dead end. A heavy security door.

"Can you open it?" I asked.

Honey fumbled with her purse. "I... I can synthesize an acid! Or a liquid nitrogen charge to shatter the lock! I just need to calculate the molarity..."

She was shaking. Her hands were fumbling with the periodic table on her purse. She kept looking back at the darkness, terrified the swarm was coming.

"I can't... I can't think! My heart rate is 160!"

"Honey."

I stepped in. I grabbed her waist and spun her around, pinning her against the metal door.

"Focus."

"I... I..." She looked up at me. The red emergency lights bathed us in a sinister glow. "I'm scared, Ray. The variables... there are too many variables!"

"Then stop thinking," I growled. "You're a genius, Honey. But right now, you're just a girl in a cage."

I pressed my body against hers. The armor she wore was hard, plastic and metal, but I could feel the heat radiating off her skin underneath. Her chest was heaving against mine.

"You want to know how I do it? How I control the chaos?"

She nodded, mesmerized, her fear transmuting into something else entirely. "H-how?"

"I embrace it."

I reached up and unlatched her helmet.

Hiss.

I pulled it off and dropped it on the floor. Her blonde hair spilled out, messy and smelling of sweat and ozone.

"You're full of adrenaline," I whispered, trailing a finger down her exposed neck. "Dopamine. Norepinephrine. It's a chemical cocktail, Honey. Don't fight it. Use it."

She swallowed hard. "Use it... for what?"

"For this."

I kissed her.

It wasn't a hero's kiss. It was a transfer of dominance. I crushed her mouth, my tongue invading, tasting the panic and the sugar of her lip gloss.

Honey Lemon froze. Her hands hovered in the air, unsure of whether to push me away or grab me.

Then, the chemistry took over.

She dropped her purse.

She wrapped her long arms around my neck, pulling me down. She made a whimpering sound, opening her mouth to me, letting me deepen the kiss until we were devouring each other against the cold steel door.

I grabbed her leg, the one encased in the pink armor, and hiked it up around my waist.

I ground my hips against hers. Even through the suit, she felt the hardness of me.

"Oh god," she breathed against my lips. "Ray... the mission..."

"This is the mission," I lied, biting her lower lip. "Stabilizing the asset."

I reached for the clasps of her chest piece.

"You're overheating in this suit."

"I... yes," she agreed breathlessly, her head falling back as I kissed her throat. "Thermal regulation is... failing."

I popped the front plate of her armor. Underneath, she wore a thin, skin-tight undersuit. It left nothing to the imagination. Her breasts were heaving, her nipples hard against the fabric.

I didn't take the suit off. I just squeezed.

I cupped her breast through the spandex, kneading the soft flesh.

Honey gasped, her hips bucking against me. "Ray! We can't! Go Go is right there!"

"Go Go isn't here," I growled in her ear. "Just you. And the variable you can't solve."

I rubbed my thumb over her nipple. She cried out, her legs tightening around my waist. She was so tall, so lanky, but she felt incredibly feminine in my arms.

"Do you want me to stop?" I asked, my hand sliding down her stomach, heading for the juncture of her thighs.

"No!" The word burst out of her. "I mean... I... the data suggests..." She stopped, panting. "Please don't stop."

I smirked.

"Good girl."

I pressed my hand between her legs. Through the thin material of the undersuit, I could feel the heat. She was soaked.

I rubbed her clit through the fabric.

Honey Lemon threw her head back and screamed, a sound that echoed down the empty corridor.

"Ray!"

I kept the pressure up, grinding against her, kissing her neck, letting her fall apart in the middle of a war zone. She was shaking, crying, laughing, a total chemical meltdown.

She climaxed hard, digging her nails into the back of my coat, her long body shuddering against the metal door.

"That," I whispered, kissing her sweaty forehead as she came down, "is a reaction."

I stepped back, letting her slide down to her feet.

She leaned against the door, breathless, her hair wild, her armor half-undone, looking thoroughly compromised.

"I..." She adjusted her glasses, which were foggy. "I need to... recalibrate."

"Do it later," I said.

I turned to the door. I didn't need acid.

I kicked it.

BOOM.

The lock shattered. The heavy door swung open.

"Come on, Honey," I said, walking through. "Let's go save your friends."

She grabbed her helmet and her purse, stumbling after me. She looked at my back with a mix of scientific awe and absolute, crushing infatuation. She wasn't just curious anymore. She was hooked.

We emerged onto a catwalk overlooking the main manufacturing floor.

Below us, the rest of the team was cornered.

Go Go was shielding Hiro, her discs spinning.

Fred was out of breath.

Wasabi was panicking.

A massive, serpentine Heartless made of Microbots was rearing up to strike.

I looked at Honey Lemon. She was flushing, but her hands were steady now.

"Ready to apply some chemistry?" I asked.

She smiled, a wild, flushed grin.

"Variable identified," she said, loading a sphere into her purse. "Let's break some bonds."