Epilogue: Problems

The ladies were early.

Wonder Woman had opted for a bottle of mineral water. Her outfit was a little more daring than normal, a kind of blue star-studded sarong that left her flat, hard-muscled midsection with its well-defined abs exposed, the sashes of cloth holding up her breasts without the aid of a bra, a long sweep of leg exposed, especially when she sat. The Amazon princess still wore her bracers, and the golden lasso looped around her waist as a belt.

Zatanna opted for an iced, tea, with three twists of lemon. Her black blouse and thigh-length skirt didn't look too revealing...unless you noticed that both shirt and skirt were see-through, with a minimalist bra and thong panties keeping her decent. She checked the silver watch on her left wrist.

Mary Marvel still had her Boba tea, now three-quarters empty. She looked all twenty-one of her years today, fresh-faced and brimming with energy. Unlike the other two, she seemed perfectly covered: Pink sweater, dungaree pans that ended at mid-thigh, white ankle socks and sensible tennis shoes. You could never tell, looking at her, what she wasn't wearing...underneath.

"Blaze is late," Zatanna said, to break the silence.

"She'll be here," Diana said. "She hasn't missed a meeting yet."

"Maybe something happened," Mary said. "We should go check! She could be in trouble!"

She stood up...and realized that her sweater had drifted up.

"Is that a belly button ring?" Diana asked. "When did you get that?"

Mary sat down quickly, pulling her shirt down. Her cheeks burned all the way to her ears.

"Um, two weeks ago," she said. "After, you know, Angie told us about Lois's appointment...I just though, it would be kind of...sexy."

Zatanna and Diana stared at the young heroine. The witch had done enough mentalist acts to be pretty good at reading people, even if they weren't as inept at lying as Mary was.

"Is that...all...you had pierced?" Zatanna asked.

Mary bit her lower lip. She looked down at her tea...and then closed her eyes, took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and looked at both of the women and said in a very clear, quiet, controlled voice:

"I had my nipples pierced."

A light breeze would have knocked the women over. Diana blinked, and as the awkward pause in the conversation got longer, she asked: "Did it hurt? I mean, I know it hurt, but..."

"It did. I...I shouldn't tell you this," the young woman swallowed again. "I went to the wizard, the one who gives us our powers, right? And I asked him about it...and he said that if I wanted it done, it would have to be a magical piercing, because otherwise whenever I transformed my body would revert back. I know he's like, ten thousand years old, but he was very kind and gentle about the whole thing, and he told me about how in older cultures piercing was common for many men and women, and it was often seen as a rite of passage...and he asked me again and again if I was sure, and I said yes, I was very sure."

She sipped her tea before going on.

"It's like...he's like the grandpa I never had, you know? But I didn't feel weird taking off my shirt in front of him. He just seemed so old, and kind. He had this needle that he passed over a mystic flame, and he took this potion and poured it on a ball of cotton and wiped my nipples and belly button. Brought forth this little tray on which there were these little thick rings, unbelievably ancient, and pure gold...and he whispered a prayer in a language I didn't recognize, but I heard the names of all the goddesses I draw power from, and then..."

The young woman breathed deep, and Diana and Zatanna's eyes went to her sweater, thinking now maybe they could just see the outline of the young woman's nipples through her sweater. There was something there.

"His hand was warm. I thought they would be cold, but they were warm, and it was like a little electric shock went through my body as he grabbed my left breast. He whispered a prayer as her gently squeezed, from my chest down toward my nipple, making it all puffy...and he squeezed harder, until it started to turn red, and he pressed the needle against the side, until his fingers were pinched together on either side of my ipple until it hurt. It was so sharp, I didn't even feel it penetrate at first...and then it was in and through, and I gasped, the point breaking through the other side before I even felt it. He had the needle out and the ring in place before I could even say 'ow.'"

Mary fidgeted on her seat.

"The right breast, I knew what was going to happen. That almost made it worse. Except the weight of the heavy gold ring was dragging at my left nipple, and it was bleeding a little, hot blood dripping down my underbreast, and he was whispering the prayer more intently now, and I felt...just this wave come over me, like...you know how sometimes you get hit in a fight, and it hurts and then it feels kind of...good?"

"Dopamine," the Amazon said. "In response to pain. I know it well."

"So then he'd done both of my nipples, and he asked me to lean back. There was no blood on his hands, he'd done it so swiftly, and his fingers were pinching at my navel, whispering his spells, trying to find the right place to press the needle...and that's when I saw it."

Zatanna leaned in. "Saw what?"

"His...his thing. It was tenting his robe. I thought he was too old for that kind of thing, but he had a...a..."

"Boner?" The witch said, with a smile on her lips. "Erection?Hard-on? All systems ready for launch?"

Mary's ears burned as she nodded.

"I couldn't...I couldn't stop looking at it. Even the little pain when the needle pierced me was like, almost a distraction. I just...it looked bigger. Than men are supposed to be. Like I've been through sex ed, I've taken human anatomy, but...he finishes, and he's putting the bloody needle away, and his thing is obviously sticking up and it's so stiff he almost knocks the tray down when he turns, and I..."

There was a pause. There was something more than the heat of the sun on them at the moment as the women leaned in.

"What did you do, Mary?" Diana said, in a whisper.

"I grabbed at his robe, I pulled it back. He had this white loincloth on underneath, but it had slipped down his thighs, and his thing..."

"Cock," Zatanna said.

"...his cock was standing out, and it was thin but maybe seven inches long, with this big bulbous purple tip that seemed too big for it. The skin on it was shrunken, and speckled with little brown dots like freckles, and the blue veins were really standing out underneath the skin, and it just...it looked like it hurt. So I...I leaned over and took it in my mouth."

Mary's shoulders sagged, like she had let out a great weight.

"It tasted...it tasted a bit like pee? But somehow not unpleasant? And it was warm, like his hands had been. At first, he said something like 'Oh no my child, don't...' and then...I mean, the skill of Artemis and the wisdom of Minerva doesn't cover fellatio, but I ...I moved my tongue all around that head, and there was something salty and kind of bitter on my tongue. I heard him start to hyperventilate and make these moans...and I though he was feeling good so I kept licking, more and more, and closed my lips around her head, and began to stroke his thi—cock—with my hand, and then..."

She looked from Zatanna to Diana, tears in her eyes. "He gave this long wail, and his thing seemed to sag a little, and then there was...all this stuff, pumping out, and it was so bitter, it was like drinking seawater, but thicker, like yogurt, and I...I swallowed it."

Mary fidgeted again. "The wizard was kind of out of it after that, so I tucked his cock back in and I sat him on his throne...and then I flew back down to Earth from the Rock of Eternity and, um, I haven't really been back since." She paused. "But he'd call me, right? I mean, he summons the others when he needs them, so if anything was wrong..."

Diana and Zatanna looked at each other...and that was when Blaze, finally, appeared.

The demon, in her human form, looked a little haggard.

"Sorry, I'm late. We had a little scare, Lois started bleeding...rush to the emergency room, because she's 32 weeks pregnant, but they tell us she's fine, the babies are fine, everything is normal, just a false alarm, but I have to tell you about this thing that happened this week. See, Lois had gotten this organic macadamia nut butter..."

It was a long story. The women listened intently.