Chapter 24

The rumor mill was grinding at full capacity by Tuesday morning -- and Cindy Simpson was LIVID! Tad held court in the lunchroom with Anita beside him and three tables worth of football players and their squeezes - and Cindy had no place to even get close! Given the situation, it was better to operate at a distance and pretend that there was no interest in the group - not that anyone watching would believe that. "Why Anita Shepherdson, for God's sake?" Beverly wondered aloud.

"She's fucking him," Cindy muttered. "That's clear - the slut! She can't be very good..."

"Well..." Beverly wilted under Cindy's glare, but the point was made; Anita was OBVIOUSLY better than anything Cindy had provided - and for anyone under the impression that Cindy and Tad had been having sex, that was a devastating blow to Cindy's reputation! Since all Cindy had going for her was her looks and her reputation, revenge was in the cards. Cindy lashed back at Beverly, "At least I wasn't replaced by that stick-figure Brenda McAllister!" Bev glared back, but the loss of Clint was old news.

Fallback positions for either of them were limited. Damian Carter was black - AND he had a girlfriend. Ben Ellis was a possibility for one of them. How Donna Travers had managed to collect Mac Thornton was beyond understanding - almost as insane as Misha Lezynski cuddling up to Chris Baxter! Something had to be done...

Things went south during the break between fifth and sixth periods. Anita and Misha and Bernice were discussing success and failure Friday night when they turned into the girl's bathroom on the second floor - just as Cindy and Beverly rounded the corner. "Got you, you little bitch!" Cindy hissed and waved Beverly to follow as she rushed toward the bathroom.

Inside, Cindy and Bev shouldered their way between Anita and Misha and Cindy shoved Anita into a stall. "What the Hell do you think you're doing, stealing my boyfriend?" Cindy hissed, shoving Anita backwards onto a toilet.

"Hey!" yelled Misha - but Bev glared at her and hissed, "Shut up, Squirt, or YOUR head goes in the toilet next!"

"Can't take a little competition, huh?" Bernice taunted - but Anita was clearly getting the worst of what was going on in the stall. Something needed doing - quickly!

Misha cast about for help just as Jasmine Fox came through the door. "Cindy's beating up Anita!"

"What?" Jasmine wasn't known for her quick wits.

"Help Anita! Cindy's got her pinned in there!" Misha pressed.

"What's that got to...?" Jasmine began.

"Jaz, do you want cheerleader bitches fucking YOU over?" Bernice pressed, adding, "worse than they already do?"

Jasmine eyed the two smaller girls, then turned on Beverly. "Out the way, Bitch!"

Beverly stood her ground - a BIG mistake. Jasmine was a big, baby-faced black chick with a 'D' cup rack and an ass to match - and heavy arms and legs to go with them. She weighed 200, and you didn't want her glaring truculently at you - and you CERTAINLY didn't want one of those arms impacting you much of anywhere! One of her bear-like arms swept Beverly out of the way as if she weighed nothing, backing her into the sinks, and then Jasmine collected Cindy by the nearest handle - her blonde ponytail - and hauled her back out of the stall. "What the fuck you doin'? You don't own the place, Bitch! Get the fuck outta here!" Jasmine reoriented Cindy by using her grip and then shoved her toward the door. "You don't get to beat up on people jus' because they beat you out! Get outta here! I'm gonna tell Miz Carmody on ya! Fuckin' cunt!"

Anita was crying and trying to fish her eyeglasses out of the toilet, where they had fallen when Cindy slapped them off her face. Her nose was bleeding and her face was red and her hair was a mess from Cindy's attack. Jasmine waved her out of the stall and she and the other two girls provided tissues and an escort for Anita while they headed for the assistant principal's office.

Ms. Carmody wasn't pleased - but Cindy and Beverly had come to their senses and gotten off campus before they could be collected and then enlisted their parents to bring political pressure to bear to sweep the incident under the rug.

Tad heard about it fifteen minutes into sixth period and never got back to English class. He was camped outside Ms. Carmody's office when the girls came out and had Anita wrapped in his arms before the assistant principal could comment on the situation. Given the beneficial effect, Ms. Carmody held her peace. The Shepherdsons were telephoned and Leslie arrived to find Anita huddled into Tad while he rubbed her back. The description of the incident and its basis by Misha banished any lingering doubts in Leslie Shepherdson's mind about the seriousness of Anita's new boyfriend OR his intentions! Tad took Anita out to the car, his anger clear as he promised Anita, "We'll get them - BOTH of them! I promise!" Leslie found herself trying to calm the boy as much as her daughter!

The news went through the football team like wildfire, leaving several members out for blood. Jasmine and Bernice made brownie points - especially Jasmine, who wasn't particularly notorious the way Bernice was. Jasmine was suddenly the focus of lot of attention from the team and the girls - something unprecedented and a source of some pleasure for her.

Cindy and Beverly got suspended for three days - but pressure was brought to bear and they didn't lose their positions on the cheerleading squad. There were several discussions among the team members, but no immediate plan for revenge surfaced. That didn't mean that several people weren't on the lookout for an opportunity...

Tuesday afternoon, Toby and Amy collected their wrestlers and their 'trainer' and a wiser and more prepared Fred Carter sparred cautiously with his younger opponent. The blowjob fall went to Eddie Ray as before; Nicky anxiously sat it out, realizing that he wasn't allowed to play. But they were playing for keeps on the second fall and Eddie Ray was in trouble. In the first place, every time Eddie Ray deployed a new trick, Amy revealed it to Fred mentally, allowing him to absorb it much more fully than any other teaching method could even approach - and in the second, you don't do what Fred did for a living for two decades without developing superior endurance...

Time wasn't on Eddie Ray's side. Fred wouldn't let him rest; he kept challenging him, keeping him moving and avoiding attacks. Eddie Ray knew what was happening, but hadn't been able to come up with anything effective. It seemed like Fred pulled the counters for his moves from his mind - and then reversed things on him regularly!

Finally, desperate, Eddie Ray launched an attack in the hopes that his speed and agility would carry him - and Fred used his momentum against him in a classic manner - and it was over; Eddie Ray was pinned. Eddie Ray slapped the mat, "Okay! I give!"

Fred released him and glanced over his shoulder, roaring, "Lube!"

Nicky scrambled forward, a bottle in his fist. "Here!"

"You do it," Fred directed. "Let me know when he's ready. In the meantime..." Fred knelt over Eddie Ray's face, "You can warm me up..." He lowered his cock into Eddie Ray's mouth.

Nicky was so excited he thought he was going to faint! Two muscle hunks, hot, sweaty, musky - and one of them taking ownership of the other... SOOO HOT! He lubed Eddie Ray's ass lovingly, plunging one and then two fingers into him and distributing the lube, opening him up. "O-okay!"

Fred looked up from where Eddie Ray was lipping his cock. Eddie Ray wasn't able to back and fill, given their positions, he was just holding Fred's glans in his lips and washing it with his tongue. "You fuck him," he told Nicky gruffly, "I'm not done here yet. When you're done, he'll be ready for me."

Fred watched in amusement as Nicky tore out of his clothes. "Cute little bitch, ain't he?" Eddie Ray grinned around his cock. "Gimme your legs; I'll hold 'em up so he can get a decent shot at that hole of yours." Eddie Ray obliged him; Fred grabbed the young redhead behind the knees, cranking his ass into the air. "Get it!" he directed Nicky. "Lean into his thighs and poke that ass!"

Nicky gently introduced his cock into Eddie Ray's ass and then pounded him like a crazed jackrabbit - for all of maybe forty-five seconds. He gave a strained grunt and went red in the face and pulsed semen into the hot muscular ass he'd been given as a gift. He squirted inside Eddie Ray's clasping hole a half-dozen times before relaxing and emitting an additional series of pulses that were unproductive but no less pleasant. Finally, he settled back on his haunches, his shrinking cock sliding from its extremely temporary home. "Omigawd! That was..."

Fred rumbled a chuckle. "Well, back off, Sweetcakes. Now that you're done, it's time for the main event!" Nicky scrambled back and Eddie Ray grabbed his knees until Fred had settled himself and pressed his cock into Eddie Ray's opening, at which point Fred leaned into his knees and Eddie Ray draped his legs over the big black man's shoulders. Once he was fully penetrated and pumping, Fred crooked a finger at Nicky, "Come here and make him happy; I want to shoot because his ass is clenching while he shoots down your throat!"

"Yes, SIR!" Nicky crawled in and started bobbing over Eddie Ray's cock with great relish. Eddie Ray seldom maintained an erection while taking a cock anally - but then he seldom had someone sucking him while he did it, either; after a minute or two, Nicky had him firm and sensitive and enjoying himself.

Toby and Amy were sitting on the couch, pretending to watch TV; Amy was damping any distraction caused by their presence in the trio on the mat. "Sometimes, I think Nicky is more female than gay," Amy mused.

Toby chuckled. "If he was female, I could detect him."

"Are you sure?" Amy retorted. "What if the male physical parts damp him, but his mind is really feminine?"

"I don't know how we would tell..."

Amy sighed. "Let's go upstairs. I feel like a voyeur - because I am one. Somehow, the three of them are making me hot..."

"Okay." The pair drifted like ghosts past the trio tangled on the mats, pumping and moaning.

Fred's plan worked; in about ten minutes, Eddie Ray tensed up and went, "UUUUGGGHHH!!!" and sprayed jizz into Nicky's amazingly talented mouth - and his pulsing anus triggered Fred to flood his colon. The trio surged against one another and collapsed, panting, until Fred backed off, grinning. "Good shit..." There wasn't any, really, though; all three of them had taken enemas before the session. Eddie Ray dropped his legs and stretched to get the kinks out while Fred dropped onto the mat on his back to rest. "Got any left?" he asked Eddie Ray.

"Maybe." Eddie Ray had pulsed out a big load, but he was still randy.

"Come here, Sweet Meat, and kneel up - Eddie Ray wants some pussy!" Fred directed.

"Yessir!" Nicky scrambled over and knelt up. Eddie Ray seated his cock at the slight boy's sphincter ad drizzled some lube down the crack of his ass; Nicky let out a breath and relaxed and Eddie Ray sank inside as it flowered open - not completely, but enough to wedge the tip and make further penetration easy. In a moment, the slight boy was making soft grunts as the brawnier male behind him held his shoulders and pumped his colon.

Fred watched, chuckling. The kid was deep into having his ass punched - that was certain. His little pecker was stone-hard and pulsing. "Diddle yourself, Sweet Meat! Let's see you cum!"

Fred jacked himself slowly while he watched the show; Nicky was fun to watch, in particular, what with the faces he made while he was getting into it. 'This is fun and all, but I could use some pussy,' Fred mused. He was reaching the point where his exploration of gay sex was reaching the limits of his interest. Oh, he enjoyed it, all right - he enjoyed it a lot. But he liked pussy, too. Since the simplest thing was to fuck club pussy, maybe he'd better let Louise get her fucking revenge out of her system... How bad could it be?

Wednesday, Eddie Ray lowered the boom. "So, who have you been training with?" he asked Vince casually.

"Nobody." Vince wasn't that happy - not only had he not been training, he hadn't been fucking anything, either. Shitting on Eddie Ray had its drawbacks...

"Too bad. I've got a new sparring partner - AND a trainer," Eddie Ray announced.

"Yeah? Who?"

"You don't know him. He's quick, though - and hard. He can take you, I bet," Eddie Ray baited the hook.

"Taking YOU isn't the same as taking ME!" Vince boasted.

"You didn't win ALL the time!" Eddie Ray retorted jovially, "And don't give me any shit about taking a fall, because we both know better!"

"Yeah, right!" Vince blustered.

"Okay, tell you what," Eddie Ray pressed. "You wrestle my new sparring partner, three falls - the usual penalties. If you win, you get to fuck both of us AND Little Nicky - but if you lose, we both fuck YOU while Little Nicky dumps as many loads in your mouth as he can work up!"

"You're doing the usual?" Vince chuckled. "Blow jobs for the first fall and a fuck for the winner?"

"Yup."

"Been fucked lately?"

"Last night."

"You're a wuss!"

"Prove it!" Eddie Ray challenged, grinning.

"You're on! Got a place?" Vince asked.

"Sure. Friday night, after the game. I'll get Toby to pick you and Little Nicky up, like last time - only this time, we'll go to the place I went..."

"Deal!" Vince grinned from ear to ear. What was the worst that could happen?

Wednesday afternoon, Tyrone Baker waylaid Bernice as she headed home from school. "Hey, Bernice. I see you doin' big things with the football crowd - but I don't see nobody callin' you his squeeze."

"That's because of YOU, more than anything else!" Bernice snapped. "Since I'm everybody's gangbang girl, who is gonna want me?"

"Now, Bernice," Tyrone chided, "you was hot and bothered, and you know it." He stepped in close. "Besides, I asked, and you said yes. You remember that?"

"I'd have got my ass kicked if I hadn't," Bernice retorted. "I was naked and you and Big Otis and Marcel were right there - once things started heading that way it wouldn't have mattered WHAT I said..."

"No, Baby, you SAID yes - and THAT started the ball rolling!" Tyrone said quietly, placing a big hand on Bernice's bare back just above her shorts and locking eyes with her.

"You were playing with my pussy..." Looking up into Tyrone's eyes, Bernice suddenly found it hard to breathe.

"And you was hot and wet and spicy and you needed a man - not that shithead Marcel," Tyrone breathed, pulling her crotch against his. He ground the iron bar of his cock against her clit.

"Well, maybe..." Why was she letting him do this? What was there about Tyrone that crushed her defenses? Was it the confidence?

"Fuck maybe, Baby!" Tyrone chuckled in her ear, leaning down to breathe softly on her neck. "You like dick - and lots of it! You know it, and I DAMN sure know it! Who's takin' care of you now that you're open for business? Them football dudes? I don't THINK so..." He pressed his lips to Bernice's neck.

Bernice stood there, her eyes closed, waving her arms in a futile gesture. Her brain was telling her that this was a little too wild and crazy and couldn't understand how Tyrone thought he could get away with this shit - but her neck LOVED it - and so did her little bubble butt, where Tyrone had defeated the waistband of her shorts and panties and slid his hand underneath to grope a handful. Part of her wanted to push him away - and part of her wanted to clutch him to her - and she could bring herself to do neither, so her arms waved. "Tyrone..." she gasped in an attempt at protest - but her tone made that unclear, too...

It was her choice in blouses that undid her; a tube top and no bra made access to her more than 'A' but less than 'B' cup titties simple - and once Tyrone had three points of contact including two fingers gently twisting her erect nipple like he was tuning a radio, her arms decided that clutching was the proper reaction. Melting against him followed. Her pussy leaked into the crotch of her panties and her clit started itching and begging to be touched and any plan she might have had to push Tyrone away went out the window.

Tyrone pawed her some more, right there on the sidewalk, then stepped away, tugging her hand. "Come on, Baby, let me give you a ride..." Bernice, aroused and committed, trotted behind him on her wedgie sandals and let him help her off with her backpack and toss it into the back seat of his junker Nissan, then climbed in and sat while he went around and got in on the driver's side and settled in. Sometime during this hiatus, the question, 'What am I doing?' flickered through her consciousness, but it was fleeting - and was washed away when Tyrone leaned across the seat to lock his lips on hers and slide a hand under her tube top again. At some point, he tugged it below her tits; Bernice didn't notice until he settled back in his seat, chuckling. When she made to raise it back up, Tyrone forestalled her with his right hand while taking her left and placing it on the tent in his pants, "Don't worry about that, Baby - worry about this."

Why wasn't clear to her, but the heat radiating up into her palm from the hard rod in Tyrone's pants took precedence over her exposure; a part of her mind rationalized that when she bent over across the seat to open Tyrone's pants, nobody could see her titties, anyway. Tyrone lifted his ass so she could push his baggy jeans and jockey shorts off his ass, but left the mess bunched below the steering wheel so he could drive. "I'm gonna get us out of here to somewhere less public," he told Bernice, pushing her nose against his standing erection. "While you're down there hiding you can give this a suck..." Bernice, inhaling his musk, didn't give the idea a second thought; the rationalization made perfect sense to her...

'Silly bitch,' Tyrone thought as he pulled out into traffic. 'Another notch in the gunbelt. She wouldn't be worth it, but Otis wants to fuck her again.' Tyrone just didn't have any problems with some women; Otis laughed and called him Black Dracula. "You just throw your cape over 'em and bite 'em on the neck..." Otis would chuckle. Tyrone thought about it being more like Jedi using the Force in old Star Wars flicks - he just put ideas in chick's heads and they went with them. It only worked on maybe one chick in ten, but that was plenty to keep his dick wet - and Otis' and a couple of the other dudes, too, for that matter. Hell, they already had a couple of bitches in the stable full-time, pimping them out...

Bernice was drifting, sucking Tyrone's cock, weirdly happy about it. When he didn't need a hand to drive, he would play with her right nipple, which was a fine reason to keep her tube top around her midsection. Tyrone wasn't making any demands, so she was just... enjoying herself. Did that make sense?

Tyrone wasn't driving Bernice for three distinct reasons. First, he was driving, and pushing Bernice to maximize his enjoyment was likely to get them both killed. Besides, Bernice's current activity was VERY pleasant without putting him in a position where things were urgent. Second, sucking kept her head below the dashboard, which kept her from knowing where they were headed. And, last but not least, having her whiffing his crotch tended to increase his control over a girl substantially. Just manipulating a girl worked for about ten percent of the chicks he tried it on - but if he could get her to smell his musk, the percentage climbed to around thirty. Wiping his crotch with a T-shirt before putting it on was effective until the smell dropped off; even a handkerchief was effective for a few minutes. Tyrone wasn't sure whether he had one source of control or two, but the results were additive, if nothing else; having Bernice snort his pubes while sucking his dick was going to make her VERY biddable when he got her to Otis' crib...

Otis' place had an automatic garage door opener and Tyrone had taken the remote with him, so they were indoors already when Tyrone shut down the car; he would move it later so Otis' old man wouldn't shit when he came home, but first he needed to hand off Bernice and make sure she was entertained. "Come on Baby, let's go inside..."

"Mmmm? Okay..." Bernice reluctantly let go of Tyrone's wonderful cock and sat up to let herself out of the passenger door when Tyrone, still adjusting his clothing, circled around to open it. Then he led her through the door into the kitchen.

Otis was sitting with his feet propped up on the table watching a small TV in sweatpants and a muscle shirt, "Well, look what we have here! My favorite little hot mama! You got some sweet titties, there, Bernice..."

Surprise rattled Bernice's composure; she had basically been mindlessly following Tyrone wherever he led, waiting for him to take her to whatever destination he had in mind for plowing her pussy with that wonderful cock of his. Meeting Otis was a shock; she reflexively reached to raise her tube top into place while she recovered.

Once again, Tyrone forestalled her, placing a hand on her arm. "That's okay, Baby, you can let Otis see. Give him a little feel, why don't you? While you're at it, you might give him a little suck. You like Otis' cock, remember?"

Bernice was a bit perplexed; something was fucked up, but what it was wasn't exactly clear. But Tyrone had his hand on her arm and he was looking at her like he expected her to agree with whatever he wanted... Otis hopped up and shucked his sweatpants to his ankles and then resumed his seat. "C'mon, Babe - wrap those lips of yours around my meat and I'll play with your nipples - that'll be fun, won't it?"

Bernice froze in place. It sounded like fun, but something was bothering her...

Tyrone frowned. He'd been cutting the corner a bit, but she HAD been sucking his musk into her lungs for ten minutes. Still, Otis was a shock... Fortunately, all he had to do was reinforce things with a little touching... He circled behind her and wrapped a hand around her front, sliding it under the displaced tube top so his hand pressed against her belly. Bernice immediately settled down - not that she'd been going wild or anything - the doubts went away visibly, that's all. Tyrone slid his left hand down the back of her shorts on the inside, cupping her ass and then pushing them down to pool at her feet. Bringing his hand back up the inside of her thigh, he ran a finger along the bottom end of her split and up the crack of her ass. "You don't need shoes, Baby." Bernice, thoroughly under control, stepped out of her wedgies. "Now go give Otis' dick a great big kiss for me..." Tyrone released her belly but left his hand on Bernice's ass, allowing it to drift upward as she drifted forward, knelt, and wrapped her lips around Otis' glans.

"Aaaahhhh! That's it, Babe! Wrap those cocksucker's lips around Otis' shank!" Otis rumbled, leaning up just a bit to collect Bernice's nipples. "See if you can swallow that motherfucker! I bet you can..."

Obedient to Otis' demands and Tyrone's control, Bernice - who had been practicing, and was therefore a better fellatrix than she had been that night at the campsite - obediently put forth her best effort at deep throat. Otis possessed a serious length of cock, so the immediate results weren't satisfactory from a depth perspective, but she continued to try - and Otis reaped the benefits.

'I dunno what the fuck Tyrone does to 'em, but they're sure fun to fuck with...' Otis mused to himself. He loved talking nasty to girls under Tyrone's spell; not only did they take it, but they tended to BELIEVE it, even afterward... "You be a helluva slut, Bernice - a natural born cocksucker! How would you like to make a living on your back? Come to work for me and Tyrone and have dicks stuck in ya at all hours of the day and night. Don't that sound like fun?" Otis chuckled evilly to himself - and, looking up, discovered an equally evil grin on Tyrone's features.

"I thought you wanted to keep Bernice?" Tyrone queried.

"Eh, you know how it is..." Otis replied. "Ya got to train them... Hey, Bernice! Anyone ever do up your ass?" Tyrone chuckled and fingered Bernice's sphincter.

For Bernice, some things were intense and some oddly distant. When they turned her around and Otis literally lifted her above his cock with his hands under her narrow thighs and settled her onto his throbbing meat, she felt every millimeter - but what she felt about what she was feeling was slippery, fleeting. All she had were the sensations, without the attendant emotion - except for a warm fuzzy feeling any time Tyrone touched her.

Otis fucked her for a while like that, then stood her up and bent her over and pounded her from behind while Tyrone poked his cock deep into her throat. Was it good? Oh, yeah - incredible! Even choking on Tyrone's wonderful cock was mind-numbing! She had the occasional problem breathing, but Tyrone seemed to know when she was blacking out... Otis pumped her pussy full, then that put her across the table on her back and Tyrone shoved his hot cock up her ass with a little butter for lube while Otis plowed her throat as her head hung over the table edge. Bernice blacked out twice...

Alas, they tired of her around six and Tyrone had her get dressed and dumped her out of his car about a block from home. Fortunately, no one commented on her state... She headed upstairs and drew a nice hot bubble bath, just as Tyrone recommended - and fell asleep in the damned thing, waking up at seven-thirty in cold water, sore in all three of her holes. Why she had done all those crazy things she couldn't understand for the life of her - and why she wasn't upset about it was even more perplexing...

Thursday morning, she wasn't any better off - in fact, Bernice had, well, concerns. Given that he'd been pretty tough with her, it seemed to make sense for Bernice to seek out Toby after second period. "Toby? Hey, you got a second?"

Toby eyed Bernice, perplexed - but Bernice seemed to have a jump on him when it came to perplexity, so... "Yeah, I guess..."

"Do I come off as, like, a total slut to you?"

"Do you mean from last Friday?"

"No..." Bernice looked away.

Intrigued, Toby dug a bit - and found a mess! Bernice's mind was a chaos of half-absorbed suggestions and blocks and compulsions - some of which she was worrying at mentally in an effort to unseat. There were big, muddy footprints on her mind - some going back a couple of weeks, and some fresh... "Why don't you tell me about it," Toby said quietly, pulling her into a corner near a stairwell. "What happened?"

Bernice tried, but she'd been inhibited - and Toby had seen enough to be able to tell that the whole thing wasn't simple. "Meet me and Amy at lunch," he told her, "but in the meantime, stay away from Tyrone and Otis!" Toby didn't have the full picture, but it was clear that whatever they discovered, the mess was going to lead back to THAT pair!

Toby collected Amy after third period. "Do you cross paths with Tyrone Baker during the day?" he asked her.

"Not usually..." Amy replied, "Why?"

"Something is up. Somehow, he's messed with Bernice. He's got something - some power. Can you eyeball him without getting caught?"

"I think so..."

"Don't take any chances - we don't know what we're dealing with," Toby cautioned. "It looks like he's hypnotized Bernice or something. I think we need to know what. If you can get a sense of it without raising his suspicions, it would be nice. Bernice is going to meet us for lunch and I'm going to try to clean up the mess and get her tale out of her. Oh, and watch out for Otis White - he's in on it."

"Okay, sounds good." Amy headed off to locate Tyrone.

She didn't find him before lunch, so they still had no idea what they were dealing with when Bernice showed up at their table, trailing Jasmine behind her. The pair had bonded a bit due to current notoriety, and Jasmine tended to float in Bernice's orbit. This made things a bit awkward, but Bernice seemed to draw strength from the big girl, so Toby let her stay.

Getting Bernice's tale was like cleaning up after a mine collapse; Toby had to remove debris and replace structures and open the paths so that Bernice could haltingly relate her 'adventure' of the previous evening.

What Jasmine heard was very confusing to her. It seemed that Bernice had done a lot of sex stuff with Tyrone and Otis - and had mixed feelings about it. Given the list, that wasn't a surprise, actually - it pretty much confirmed Bernice's reputation as a slut...

Toby could put some things back together - but he couldn't instill a sense of outrage in Bernice because there hadn't been one there before; she'd been conditioned to accept what was done to her and manufacturing something to replace it wouldn't be any more genuine than the original mess Tyrone and Otis left her with. Jasmine, however, was getting the wrong impression...

Toby looked over at Jasmine. "Um, Jasmine, what you're not getting is that Bernice wasn't herself. Bernice, would you have done any of this stuff normally?"

"Uh uh!" Bernice shook her head, wide-eyed. "That's what's so weird..." Released from the vast majority of the blocks and compulsions, she could think about it. "No, I don't get it. And I don't understand why I didn't have a fit."

"There was that other time..." Jasmine pointed out.

"Good point," Toby nodded. "But you know, there is a common denominator: Tyrone and Otis were THERE, too - and they started the wild stuff with Bernice - didn't they, Bernice?"

Bernice nodded. "Uh huh."

Toby turned to Jasmine. "I think Bernice was drugged - or hypnotized - or both. I think Tyrone has something he uses to get his way with girls." He eyed Jasmine. "Do you know of any other girls who hang out with Tyrone? Girls who might have bad reputations?"

Bernice frowned, thinking. "Not Tyrone, exactly - but Otis - there's rumors he's pimping out a couple of girls - and maybe a couple of older women, too."

"And Tyrone is ALWAYS around Otis..." Bernice pointed out.

Toby nodded. "Otis is a leader - but Tyrone is the guy with the tools, whatever they are; Otis isn't smart enough. Tyrone is slick - if this thing backfires, it'll fall on Otis - and Tyrone will walk."

"What's Tyrone usin'?" Jasmine asked.

Toby couldn't relate what he thought - Jasmine wouldn't find it believable. But what he came up with was closer to the truth than he knew. "Something that can be absorbed through the skin - or something you can breathe in without knowing it."

Bernice nodded, frowning. "Yeah. I was always... less worried about things... when he touched me."

Toby nodded. "There is a substance called DMSO that you absorb through the skin. It doesn't do this, but it can be a carrier for other things, I think." Toby hated to do it, but implanting inhibitions had become a standard security measure; he did it to Jasmine while imparting the injunction, "This is a secret - you can't talk about it. You can't even act like you know - we don't want Tyrone and Otis to be suspicious. We need evidence before we can do anything."

Jasmine nodded. "Okay." She turned to Bernice. "Look at the bright side - at least you got to do that stuff - and it isn't even your fault!"