The sun gets lower, over the Centre of the Spectrum. Without luck, Edla isn't home yet. With even less luck, the Luo dementors killed her last night...and it's only a matter of time before the New Warriors, if not Ms. Rambeau, learns this for themselves. And with even less luck, Ms. Rambeau has stolen her maybe-stepdaughter's boyfriend...who's currently having some of the most extreme self-esteem issues on the planet.
A Pym, a Van Dyne, a Lang, or an O'Grady could probably help Reiner out with them... Alas, if only Reiner didn't need his Falconet harness to dial a phone.
For now, though, the Centre of the Spectrum plays host to a fight club, that Ms. Rambeau usually hosts...for herself, Wonder Man, Living Laser, and Radioactive Man. All four of them have something in common: if they don't glow, they're made of a glow.
For this, they all fight in a radiation-proof chamber. The three men are tempted to go easy on Ms. Rambeau...each and every time. To deter this, Ms. Rambeau goes berserk, unleashes many different kinds of radiation at once, screams, attacks all three of them, and motivates them to not cut her any slack just because she's a little black girl.
She WAS a little black girl...in New Orleans, a long time ago, back when she didn't know a mourning dove from an F-35 warplane... (SUCH a crying shame, BTW, that they discontinued the F-22...)
And so, Simon Williams/Wonder Man fights back, and attacks Ms. Rambeau with ions. She screams, and shines the shit out of him. By the time she's done with Simon, she's pretty sure that every ham on the East Coast will hear him sobbing like a girl through their shortwave radios... Alas, sometimes Ms. Rambeau STILL can't believe there are still hams, in an age of Bluetooth and live video chats...among many other larger-than-Sputnik concepts...
Next, Arthur Parks/Living Laser attacks her with his photons, by shining pure red light in her direction. It's not quite infrared...but it's hardly green...unlike Chen's, over here...
Ms. Rambeau screams, switches back and forth between pure light and IR light, and irradiates the shit out of Arthur. He'll regret the day he was born. He'll regret the day he crossed exosuits with Iron Man. He will rue the day he dared go up against the fabulous, universe-faring, and bright-shining Captain Marvel...
She puts the "E" in "Marvel." And that's the same "E" that's in e=mc(2)...as much as Ms. Rambeau sometimes wishes it was the same "E" that goes in ecstasy...
She irradiates Arthur's ass. And he does NOT like it...
It's Chen's turn. Like the Hulk, he glows green. Unlike Banner, he's Chinese. (But then, he shouldn't feel too bad about that. Amadeus Cho's a Korean.) Unlike the Hulk, he glows...albeit the same color as the Hulk.
For this, Ms. Rambeau turns green herself...with gamma radiation. Fuming, Chen blazes green, with the same gamma rays. Burning brightly in the chamber, they charge one another. He's strong, with the virility of a strong Han patriline backing him up. She's even stronger, with the ovulating bulbs of a bitchy and naughty African-New Orleans matriline mass-reproducing at the rate of a virus, and backing her up.
Moments pass. The chamber burns bright, with green light. Every now and then, this fight club should become a power station. Alas, if only any of them had dreams of becoming slaves to Roxxon's greed...greed that once could've prompted Howard Stark to commit suicide over...or, if he's anything like Peggy Carter and Hugh Jones, just zapping away his own memories, each time Roxxon's greed crosses his mind...
At last, Chen starts to fatigue. He's less green. He pants, and leans against a wall. It doesn't seem to bother him that the bulkhead's as hot as hot metal. It IS hot metal...
Ms. Rambeau takes a while...but she finally dims. Arthur and Simon rush to either side of Chen, attending to him.
Above, a vent opens. Excess vapors, from the fight, escape into the ducts.
From inside the vent, a glowing pair of yellow eyes peer, and watch what unfolds. And they are not yellow because they've been irradiated...
Panting, Ms. Rambeau hops on over to where the boys are moping. "Well," she says, "I'd hate to leave you boys in a low spot, but... I got a Centre of a Spectrum to run. I ain't got time for men."
At this, Simon scoffs. "We think you do."
"Think again. We're heroes, you morons! If we take time off to get what we want, the entire world is put in peril! Seriously; I'm starting to think those Thunderbolts didn't change you at all! They've made you soft!" With that, she flips them the bird, and leaves them. All three of them ogle her ass, as she leaves...
Chen shakes his head. "Don't bother to stare for too long," he advises them. "She may preach about not getting laid...but she is. I know that fighting. I've been bested by it before." He nods, slightly. "Ms. Rambeau's moved on. She's found a new man. Her new love for him codepended her, through her most recent victory over all three of us."
"You really are soft," Arthur mocks him. "Are you sure you didn't miss your calling when you trashed that brochure you got, in high school, inviting you to enroll in psychology school?"
At that, the three of them share a laugh.
Above, the yellow eyes keep staring...but not for much longer. They vanish...and something really big moves on, past the vent, from its other side...
At that, Arthur and Simon both freeze, and look around. "What was that?!" He looks around. "Did anyone hear that?"
"Yeah," Simon nods. "Yeah, I think I did..."
Still exhausted, Chen shakes his head, and fans himself. "I didn't hear shit."
Even so, Arthur and Simon both leave early. Ms. Rambeau often says she runs a safety hub...although Arthur and Simon aren't the only two people she knows who question the wisdom of keeping so many members of the Serpent Society under lock and key in the same prison...and at that, a prison that doubles as the lair of Captain Marvel. They're also a bit paranoid, that Ms. Rambeau isn't acting too eager to report the escapes of Squid, Rock Python, Rattler, Death Adder, Cottonmouth, Constrictor, or Bushmaster. Hell, Hive's gone too, and he's more dangerous than all of them combined. There's even evidence in his aquarium that suggests that whoever broke him out might've killed him...if that's even possible.
Even Arthur and Simon both have to admit that the world is better off with Hive dead. But then, if only they had any way of knowing if the thing that killed Hive is a friend or foe of the Avengers...or either, even...
Back in Ms. Rambeau's vast quarters, an hourglass sits. It's long run out of its last hour's worth of sand...
Ms. Rambeau comes in, keeping herself dry with a towel. She passes the hourglass...slows, stops, and looks down upon it. She lowers her towel, and smiles. Her breasts enlarge. Her nipples elongate...
She's tempted... She is SO tempted to do it right now... Alas, she stinks...and she can't say that sweat has always been her favorite body fluid...if she even has one of those. So, she leaves the hourglass for a bit, and showers.
Under a hot waterfall, she basks. In the background, her personal R&B love song playlist is on at full-blast. It plays Alicia Keys's "Fallin'," Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love," Shontelle's "Stuck with Each Other," Nicki Minaj's "Right Thru Me," and Rihanna's and Shakira's "Can't Remember to Forget You."
Ms. Rambeau's really feeling it. Never, in her life, has any man made her feel like she does now...
All clean, she steps out. She's still dripping. She's still nude. She comes outside, into her chambers. NOW she can address the hourglass...
She holds the lower bulb up to her other hand. She imbues her hand with some of her inner cosmic energy, and pokes her fingers right into that bulb, as if it were nothing.
She reaches around in the bulb, as if the sand weren't there...and as if glass didn't surround it. With her fingers, she chases something around inside of it. He can't crawl very far. He's literally up to his hair in sand...
Ah, and he's got such gorgeous hair. Ms. Rambeau can SO see why her daughter...ahem, her ex's daughter...loves him...
At last, she's got him by the briefs...and the ass. And she SO loves that ass of his. She can't believe she's holding it.
She pulls him out, and holds him over her face. It's Reiner, of course. She's discovered him...and keeps him in this hourglass, by day. Needless to say, he's up to his hair in sand.
Ordinarily, he'd see the gorgeous giantess's face looking up at him as a big breath of fresh air to end his day of being cooped up in sand... And if not for his commitment to Edla, he SO would...
Ms. Rambeau's SO much bigger than him...and not to mention old enough to be his mother. And she's black; he's white. He's always hoped that black women love white boys. He just...didn't expect to become the white boy in such a tale...
"Welcome to your new domina's love life," she says, flapping her hair, "Falconet." She giggles, and looks down at her un-clad rack. "I'm not wearing a balconette...but if I was, you'd fit perfectly into it!"
"I think," he stammers, "that we should talk to Edla about this, before we..."
"Oh, that girl! Don't worry about her! I only get to have you for a short while, before she comes back. Don't think I'm not going to make the most of it!"
With her powers, she makes a balconette bra appear around her rack. Once this is done, she stuffs little Reiner into her boob-crack.
Now, Reiner isn't just at home...he's in heaven. He just...never knew that African heaven had room for white admittance...
"Thanks for helping me kick the asses of Wonder Man, Living Laser, and Radioactive Man, BTW." She moves her breasts around inside her balconette, getting little Reiner worked up. "I now feel more like a man than the air force couldn't make me! But then, what do I expect? I'm shocked that the air force ever has physical examinations, considering how often the nerdiest of their personnel don't get any exercise..."
Still nude, Ms. Rambeau lies on a metal table. She sticks little Reiner between her thighs. If he was scared before, he's terrified now...
"Alright," she says. "Fight club gave me my aerobic exercise, for tonight. And you, my new love, are going to help me with the anaerobic shit! We'll start off with something relatively mundane, like," she turns herself into a being of electricity, "that shit that makes Electro and Supercharger both go zap-zap..."
Between his domina's electrified thighs, Reiner feels weightless. And yet, he's just as powerless to move as he would be if his domina wasn't made of electricity. He can feel the currents moving all around him. They've got him polarized. If not for her thighs, he'd be flying off into space...like one of Graviton's victims...
"All fun," she says. "And now," she imitates a cajun John Cleese, "for something completely different. It's..."
She turns herself into microwaves. Now, Reiner feels warm. He starts to smell bacon. He thinks it might be him...
"Toasty," she admits. "And now,"
She switches to IR. All around Reiner, everything is black. He's white. He was white before, but... Between Ms. Rambeau's thighs now feels like a nighttime sequence in a nature show, shot with IR light and specialized cameras to film in them. Reiner just can't quite figure out what cameras are doing between Captain Marvel's thighs...
"Spooky," she admits. "But then...love IS a little crazy, with a spooky little boy like you. Or...am I the spooky one?" She giggles. "Next..."
She switches to radio waves. From all around, Reiner is blasted by them. They play an old Eli Young Band song. Ironically, the song's title is "Radio Waves..."
Once, Sam Wilson himself introduced Reiner to red dirt music. It seems that he, Cap, Bucky, and John Walker liked to spend a lot of summers around Wichita Falls. Skurge would sometimes join them... But then he stole a pair of M-16 rifles from the Oklahoma militia, and they banned him... "Des and Troy," Skurge named the two rifles...
"Ah," she moans, "that's SUCH a good song... A bit country...but still good. But of course, there's no need to get jealous, my sweet little Falconet. I would NEVER leave you for Eli Young OR one of his musical sidekicks...as hot as I must confess that bald one is..."
Reiner only sighs, and shakes his head.
"Next," she brings up, changing what kind of energy she's made of.
This time, she's made of X-rays. Reiner can see all in her. Way up there...he can see her heart throbbing. She's REALLY into him...
And from far away and between her own thighs, she can see what's inside him. She can't see his ass as well as she'd like...but at least she can see enough of him. She can especially see his heart. His beats faster than hers. At this, she giggles. It almost feels like he loves her...
In truth, Reiner isn't sure. He WANTS to love his domina...but what would Edla say, when and if she gets back?
Soon, Reiner's back in the bottom bulb of the hourglass. It's empty, except for him. He presses himself against the glass, and looks up and around.
High above, Ms. Rambeau kisses her hand, and pats the top of the hourglass. "Goodnight, my Falconet. I hope to do this again tomorrow!" With that, she scurries off to bed...like a little girl in love...
"MS. RAMBEAU," Reiner tries to shout. For now, the glass amplifies his shouts...or sounds like it does, anyhow. "WE NEED TO TALK TO EDLA ABOUT...!"
Before Reiner can say more, a waterfall of sand dumps itself atop him. He coughs, holds his hand up, and tries to shield himself. But that sand seems to like him even more than his new domina does...
The hours pass. Soon, the lights are out. Outside, the Gulf of Mexico beats, with its waves, against the Centre's hull. For Reiner, it won't be much longer now...
The bottom bulb of the hourglass is full...again. Reiner's trapped inside, and soaked in sand.
Where a hallway ends, there's a vent. Somehow, it lacks a cover...
Inside, something big moves around. It slithers, and hisses.
From inside, a snake emerges. He's green. He's got fangs. For now, he keeps his eyes closed. As he makes his exit, he raises his head, and looks around. It seems very quiet, now...
In an aquarium, a swarm of spiders is kept. The spider scream, with tiny noises, and struggle to try to bust out of where they're being held. They fear that basilisk more than anything...for some reason...
Down the halls, the basilisk creeps. He stops and check corners every now and then, just to keep from running into trouble...
Outside, Killer Shrike lands atop a topside. He's brought Edla back. She dismounts him, kisses him goodnight, and flees below. Blushing and proud, Killer Shrike leaps, and flies back to Roxxon, where he came from...
Inside, the basilisk hesitates, as he hears noises. He caches himself, to make himself less detectable.
He senses, as Edla scurries back down to her own quarters. She seems worried that Reiner and Ms. Rambeau have both missed her. Seems she'd only be half-correct. Alas, it's only a matter of hours before she finds out for herself...
She scurries inside her chambers, and closes the hatch, shutting herself inside. The basilisk waits...and continues.
From outside the room the hourglass is in, the doorknob turns. The hatch opens. The basilisk pushes it open with his nose, flicks his tongue, and turns his head towards the hourglass.
He creeps beneath it, and sniffs it out. He flicks his tongue again. It's like a whip. Even so, he knows he's found what he's come for. So, he takes it in his jaws, and slithers away with it.
Inside, the grains of sand shift all around Reiner, tossing him here and there. He's still covered in sand. At least he's so small he can't inhale most of it...
On a much lower level in the Centre, the basilisk stops, and drops the hourglass...from a height. It shatters, when it hits the nearest deck. Reiner is free...for however long.
Below, the giant snake joins him, and surrounds him in a wall of his coils. From up high, he looks down upon him.
Covered in sand and whimpering, little Reiner looks up at the snake, terrified. He prays against prayer that those eyes of his don't light up while he's looking at him. But of course, Reiner's too smart for that. He closes his eyes, and hides his face, to increase his own chances of survival...
But Reiner need not worry...yet. The basilisk's not here to hurt him. Alas, where the basilisk is about to send him, there's certainly no guarantee that there'll be nothing to hurt Reiner...especially not when he's this small...
Ms. Rambeau sure has a lot of snakes. Surely, her collection could use a crowning jewel... Mike Columbus sure couldn't do her better, even if Basil Elks could...