Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Some Sort of a Hero 1: Origins, Dinah and Clay By Mannheim Knot

   >>>>>

   MC, superhero, bg, non-sexual violence

   >>>>>

   This is the first installment in a completed multi-part saga detailing
the complex relationship between a boy with tremendous mind control powers
and a young woman who is a genuine superhero.  This chapter details the
"origin story" of the traditionally heroic Dinah, and Clay's psionically
controlled first sexual encounter with a beautiful classmate.  We see
Clay's first reluctant steps into Dinah's world.

   PS--A few of you may have seen this written under my old pen name and
posted on another site.  I am the same author.

   >>>>>

   JULY 4th, 1990: The girl couldn't have been more than nine.  She was
beautiful and pure and perfect in the way so many girls that age seemed to
be.  Her long blonde hair almost outshone the glow of the mid-morning sun
which glinted off the golden Star of David necklace she wore.  She was the
type of child that made most grown-ups sigh and long for their youth.  But
in this moment, concern, even a trace of fear, clouded her angelic face. 
Her innocent eyes cast about hopefully searching for her daddy.  She could
not see him.  She was alone in the throng.

   She tried not to weep.  Her family had raised her to be strong.  She
came from a long line of heroic people.  She had an ancestor who had won
the Congressional Medal of Honor, one who had been arrested several times
during her Suffragette years, and several who had shown daring in the
circus life.  Tight rope walkers, trapeze artists and a string of strong
men and strong women colored her family tree.  But Dinah, for all she
showed signs of being the next brave Rosen, was only nine and lost.  She
had a big heart and worried most about how upset her father and sister must
be.  The tears began to flow.

   Such a treasure should be carefully guarded by parents, and normally
Dinah Rosen was watched closely.  But somehow, in the mass of people lining
the streets to watch the parade, Dinah had been swept away from her father
as he had turned to hoist her little sister from the stroller and place the
toddler on his shoulders.  Dinah eventually gave in to full-on weeping and
clutched a lamppost to avoid being swept further.  Daddy was only fifty
yards away, but he may as well have been a mile from her.  The man shouted
her name at the top of his lungs, but Dinah could not hear him over the
tumult of the marching band.  Another man, a man with a gentle face and a
heart of stone, heard Benjamin Rosen calling Dinah's name, took note of it
and began his own search.  He spotted the weeping child and approached her.
"Dinah?" he asked in a hopeful voice.

   "Yes," she said, turning in hopes of seeing someone she knew, someone
who could lead her back to her father.

   A man she did not know was smiling at her.  "There's a man looking for
you.  He has another little girl with him.  Your sister, I'm guessing?"

   "Yes!  Where are they?"

   "The pay phone wasn't working so he went to my van to use my CB radio to
call the police to help look for you.  The van's right over here," he said
and offered a hand.  "Hold on tight.  I wouldn't want you to get pulled
away again." She took the hand, and he led her down a sidestreet to a plain
white van.  The man winced slightly as she tightened her grip.  This little
one had more strength than the others.  Still, she was just a tiny bit of a
girl and he was more than three times her size.  Besides, she was the
paragon of young girls, the essence of the thing that tempted him, the
thing that drove him insane.  He had never seen a girl that made him feel
more powerful.  Possessing this spirited little beauty, doing as he pleased
with it, and then destroying it...  that would show them all that he was
master over these dangerous little creatures with their magically maddening
eyes and bodies made to make men sin.  No matter how strong she might be
for a little girl, she would be his greatest victory.  Things would go his
way.

   Dinah liked the look, but not the feeling she got from this man.  Still,
in a moment she would be with her daddy.  Daddy would keep her safe.  The
man opened the side door of the van.  "He's right in here," he said to her.
"I found her!" he called into the van and pulled her toward the door.  Just
as Dinah realized the van was empty, the man threw her in through the side
door and leapt in after her.

   Dinah saw him descending on her and brought her feet up in front of her
chest in a panic.  She shoved with every ounce of her strength, feeling for
the first time ever that she was fighting for her life.  She had always
been a gentle child, but every bit of violent force she could muster was in
that kick.  She heard a tremendous twisting sound of metal and the
sickening crack of bone after bone being shattered as her leg thrust hurled
the man upward and literally through the roof of the van.  He sailed across
the sidewalk and into the brick wall of a building.  He slid down and hit
the pavement like a sack of wet trash.  He would never rise again, never
rape or murder again, never tear another little girl from her family again.


   Dinah ran away from the van and back to the crowd.  She never told her
father what had happened.  Surely, she had broken his rule about talking to
strangers, even been lured to a vehicle like she had been warned so many
times to never let happen.  Some of her innocence died that day, but
something else was born, something that Lake City would come to cherish. 
For even as the evil man who had attacked Dinah Rosen left the world,
Dynamo the Girl Wonder entered it.

   +++ AUGUST, 1999 Clayton Teller had always been pretty good at getting
what he wanted.  It showed in almost everything he did, but perhaps nowhere
more clearly than in youth football.  He was a fast runner, faster than the
other little boys on the team, but not some wonder just on that account. 
The thing that made him special was his elusiveness.  Whenever he planted a
foot and leaned, it seemed as if the entire defense bought the fake and
dove in the direction he wanted them to go.  They would commit themselves
for just a heartbeat too long, and he would cut back and race up the middle
untouched.  "Shiftiest damned runner I ever saw," his coach would say over
and over.  Everyone agreed, but Clayton wondered if something else was
happening.

   By the time he was eleven and preparing for middle school football, he
hit the changes that come to all boys in due time.  Perhaps his came a
little more quickly than most.  He got a little taller.  He wasn't bigger
than all of the other boys, but tall-ish and a little wider in the shoulder
than most.  He began to get hair in places he'd never had it before. 
Perhaps the most wondrous change of all happened to his eyes, for they had
taken on the ability to see girls in an entirely new way.  He'd always
liked them more than the other boys did, but now he saw their beauty as an
entirely new form of allure.  Fortunately, this bit of magic seemed to
happen to the opposite gender too, because the girls began to see him in a
new way as well.

   Two words the boy had heard thousands of times began to mean something
entirely new when the girls said them now.  "Hi, Clay!" suddenly sounded
like a siren's call.  He knew he was well-liked.  Everyone had always kind
of wanted to play the games he chose.  The kids had gravitated toward him
and elected him to school council every year.  He even sometimes managed to
talk teachers into showing movies instead of teaching classes.  And of
course, he racked up touchdown after touchdown, and everyone loved it when
he did that.  So, the fact that the girls now purred or happily chirped his
name when they greeted him was welcome, but not a complete surprise.

   One afternoon at the pool things began to take on yet another dimension.
Becky James was there, along with the other popular girls.  When Clay
walked by they greeted him.  Clay smiled and returned the greeting.  When
he saw Becky, developing more rapidly than the others and wearing a shiny
bright green one-piece that proved it, his smile got even bigger. 
Certainly the sight of Becky always made him happy, but today the girl,
rather a talented artist, had added a special touch to her swimwear. 
Emblazoned on the smooth fabric of the suit was a symbol Clay recognized
and loved.

   Hell, everyone in Lake City recognized the Dynamo Rose.  It was
beautiful and mysterious.  The entire thing seemed to be bursting from a
royal blue Star of David, but the perfect red rose in bloom had a tiny hole
in the center.  Some said that it was the symbol of her own death, that
Dynamo knew that sooner or later she would take a bullet to the chest and
die.  But most believed, as did Clay, that the tiny hole over her heart
represented that the heart was accessible, that Dynamo was a romantic soul.

   Becky must have fashioned the Rose and applied it to the suit herself.
Dynamo never licensed her logo, even though everyone wanted it stamped on
their goods.  Somehow, the fact that a girl as seemingly perfect as Becky
still looked up to a heroine evidenced her humility and sweetness.  It made
Clay practically sigh out loud to see it.  He stared for a moment too long
and he knew she had caught him.  "Dynamo's awesome," he said quickly and
moved away, but not before he had noticed that her smile had grown bigger
as well.

   He wished with all his heart that Becky would follow him over to where
he was sitting with his friends.  He had rarely wished for anything as
badly as he wished for that now.  When he took his seat, he followed the
other boys' gazes and looked up.  Becky was standing at the foot of his
chaise.  She waited there, shyly twisting a lock of her shoulder-length
black hair around one finger and saying nothing.  She seemed happy enough,
but a little uncertain as to why she was there.  She looked nervously at
the group of boys ogling her shapely little form and then cast her eyes on
Clay in a way that seemed to ask for help.  "Why don't you guys go swim?"
Clay said firmly.  "I have to talk to Becky."

   The five other boys simultaneously hit the water like an offensive line
firing off the ball.  Hell, most of them were on his offensive line.  "Have
a seat, Becky," he said, trying to use a towel to conceal his excitement at
seeing her there.  "I wish she'd just sit on my knee," he thought.  Becky
sat on his knee.

   "I wanted to come over here," Becky said with a shy little laugh, "but
I'm not really sure why."

   "Maybe you want to be my girlfriend?" he asked hopefully.

   "I do," she said, seeming to realize it at the moment.  "I totally want
to be your girlfriend."

   "That's awesome!" he said.  "You're the sweetest girl in class." They
smiled at each other and then stared.  The two sixth graders had no clue
how to proceed with the relationship now that it had been established.  He
had liked her for some time, and he was sincere when he complimented her
sweet nature.  Not that being a pretty, sweet, artistic soul was all there
was to Becky James.  She had a lot of sides to her.  Clay remembered when
one of the other girls had blabbed to all the boys that Becky was having
her first period.  Jason Metzger had kept calling her the "rag-queen." She
ignored him twice, and then knocked him flat on his ass the third time. 
Clay had laughed to see Jason getting what he had coming, but he also felt
a bit more admiration for the girl who had let him have it.  Yes, ever
since then Becky had struck Clay as being everything a person ought to be.

   And Clayton had just managed to get this perfect girl to be his very
first girlfriend.  But he had no real experience to tell him where to go
from this point.  Clayton wished that she would just kiss him and then hold
his hand.  His spine tingled as she did exactly what he wished for one too
many times in a day.  Her warm, full lips pressed to his, and she cradled
his hand in hers.  "I just suddenly wanted to do that," she said, but then
her honest nature caught up to her.  "Suddenly, like since fourth grade,"
she said and blushed.

   Clayton thought seriously about what should come next.  He was beginning
to piece it all together.  He had always had a little too much influence on
his peers and teachers; even his mom was strangely cooperative when he
really wanted something.  And he had always known that faking people out in
sports had been just a little too easy to simply chalk up to "good moves."
And all those things had gotten easier and easier as the years had gone by.
Now that he was growing, hitting puberty, this thing that he had--a
superpower--was growing as well.  He was controlling the sweetest girl in
his class without even trying very hard.  Then again, she had just admitted
that she had always been pretty interested him.  Yes, there was the chance
that maybe, just maybe, he and Becky had been brewing for so long that all
this was happening naturally.  Clayton wished very hard that Becky would
say the phrase "hokey-pokey."

   Becky got an odd little look on her face.  She hadn't had that look when
he wished for the other things.  Then she looked at Clay as if she had
something tremendously important to tell him.  "Clay...  Hokey-pokey," she
whispered sincerely.

   "Say, Becky, let's go over to my house," he said, finally certain.  "You
are my girlfriend now.  It would be okay."

   "Sure.  It really would be okay.  I have to say goodbye to the girls,
though," she said.  Becky skipped away and began excitedly talking to her
friends.  They were astonished, and Clayton was even convinced that one or
two looked quite jealous.  Becky, in their minds, had engineered the whole
thing.  She had gone right up to the most popular boy in class, sat on his
knee, kissed him and immediately got to be his girlfriend.

   Clay, for his part, walked to the edge of the pool and waited for the
guys to notice him.  He smiled, raised his eyebrows and then walked toward
Becky, took her hand and strolled out of the pool with her.  The boys
imitated a girl crying, "Oh, Clay, I love you!" "Kiss me!  Kiss me!" and
the like.  Becky and Clay blushed, but they also smiled.  They were eleven
and holding hands with someone they liked.  Life was good.

   Clay only lived a block away from the public pool, but dozens of
possibilities had danced through his mind by the time he had walked his
beautiful new girlfriend over to his house.  He had only one more obstacle
between him and paradise, but it was an obstacle he adored with all his
heart.  He was going to try and do what he had done with Becky, and if it
worked...  well life was going to get even better.

   "Mom, you know, Becky, right?" Clayton said to Rae Teller as the pretty
woman spun her desk chair to face the door and see why her son had come
home early.

   "Yes, of course!" Rae said brightly.  "I also know that Becky is holding
your hand." A fond tear trickled down the pretty mother's face.  "So, my
little man has his first girlfriend." She wiped the tear away.  "Sorry, I
get silly about him growing up so fast," she said to Becky.  "Can I get you
kids a glass of lemonade or something?  The stock market won't go away if I
take a break for a minute or two."

   "Actually, Mom, we were thinking about going up to my room and listening
to music or something."

   "Well, Clay, I don't really think that's a good idea.  And I'm pretty
sure Mrs.  James wouldn't want Becky in a bedroom alone with a boy."

   "We're old enough, Mom.  Time to let go a little bit," Clay said
somewhat firmly.  There was a strained look on Rae's face.  She was a
strong woman, and she was being asked to go against her conscience.  This
was very different than getting Becky to do things she'd almost certainly
wanted to do in the first place.  Clay tried to slide around his mom's
defenses rather than just bulling through them.  "Mom, you don't want to be
overprotective, do you?  You've always been so cool about everything.  I'll
bet you're the coolest mom in town."

   Rae blinked a few times.  "I guess I was just being overly cautious. 
It's hard to know when to let the reins slip a little when you're raising a
boy on your own, Becky.  Clay needs to remind me sometimes," Rae said, and
suddenly her internal struggle seemed to pass.  She had been given the
option to be a cool mom, something she had always striven to be.  "You two
enjoy yourselves.  Still want me to bring you that lemonade?"

   "Privacy, Mom," Clay said.  "Becky is kind of shy."

   "I was that way myself at her age," Rae said, wiping away another fond
tear.  "I guess I grew up almost as fast as you kids are," she said. 
"Almost," she repeated quietly.

   Clay led Becky up to the door of his room.  She smiled her shy smile all
the way, but she stopped at the door.  "This is going really fast," she
said.

   "It's going to be okay, sweetie.  You're my girlfriend, now.  I would
never hurt you.  You should trust me completely." Becky smiled happily
again.  The notion of trusting him was something that struck her in just
the right way.  She was genuinely taken with him.  All the girls were to
some degree, but Becky had probably liked him the longest.  She had hit
puberty a little earlier, and her feelings had intensified sooner than the
other girls'.  She wanted to be able to place complete faith in Clay.  It
made life easier.  She came with him when he pulled slightly.

   "I can't believe I'm going into a boy's room to make out with him!" she
said brightly.  "I never even kissed a boy before today at the pool--except
in Truth or Dare, but that doesn't count." Her eyes were filled with
happiness.

   Clayton was beginning to realize something else.  The control was easier
to exert over people if he phrased things in a way that offered something
the person wanted or tapped into something they had doubts about.  Mom had
been resistant until he made her worry about being overprotective.  He knew
she always questioned herself on that score.  Becky hadn't wanted to enter
the room when it seemed she was making a decision about "going too far,"
but she had happily come in when it was presented as a matter of trusting
Clay.  In both cases, there had been a distinct change in the way it felt
in his mind.  At first it had been like he was trying to slice a block of
cheese with a butterknife.  Then, it suddenly felt like he was just trying
to cut a stick of warm butter.  With enough force a butterknife will cut
either, but it makes the cheese crumble a little bit.  He didn't want to
make Mom or Becky crumble that way.

   He smiled and kissed his beautiful new girlfriend.  She smelled a little
like sunscreen, and that was a good smell on her.  Clay led her to the edge
of the bed.  In theory, he knew what was supposed to happen now.  He
understood what all of the parts were, and he knew some things that were
supposed to feel good.  Older boys, even older girls, had always talked
freely in front of him because they considered him a cool kid.  Besides, he
had been interested in girls early, so he had done a bit of internet
research on his own.  Even though it was almost the new millennium, those
videos still took a long time load up, but they had been worth it.  He was
glad his mom had the house wired for internet because of work.  It had
turned out to really help with his "education." Becky, on the other hand,
seemed to be a complete innocent.  She was unsure of where to put her hands
or exactly why he had begun to part his lips.  Well, only at the very first
with that part.  She seemed to understand it after a moment, and she let
him slip his tongue into her mouth without any additional pushing or
coaxing on his end.

   It was when he began to slide the strap of her one-piece down off of her
shoulder that she began to protest slightly.  "Let's not go quite that
fast," she said gently and tapped the tip of his nose with a playful
fingertip.

   He didn't want to have to push her very hard, so he backed off that a
little bit.  He kissed her on her bare shoulders.  She liked that very
much, but he could sense that she was still a little leery.  He realized
that he had already given himself a foothold.  "You trust me, don't you?"
That suggestion had already taken root in her.

   "I trust you completely," she said in a voice that seemed happy.  She
liked trusting him.  He was steering her in a direction she was comfortable
with.

   "Then believe me when I tell you that if I pull that strap down and kiss
you underneath the suit, it's going to feel really good."

   "O-Okay," she said with only a moment's hesitation.  He hadn't really
gone into her mind any deeper than before but he was still able to move
forward.  He slid the suit down over her orange sized breasts.  She was
definitely fuller and rounder there than most of the girls in his sixth
grade class.  And it turned out that she was very sensitive on her nipples.
"Oh, wow!  That feels so hot, Clay," she whispered and continued to gasp as
he kissed and sucked at her nipples.  One of the older boys had said his
girlfriend liked it when he flipped his tongue over her nipples, so Clay
did that.  Becky squirmed and breathed heavily, clutching at his hair and
pulling him closer to her.

   "You like the way this feels, don't you?" he asked gently.

   "Yes," she gasped and groaned slightly.  Her little bottom bounced on
the bed a bit.

   "Then you're going to like it even more when I get to your really
sensitive places.  Trust me."

   "I trust you, Clay.  I'll like it even more," she said with only a trace
of nerves in her voice.  Even as she said it, he was steering her to her
back and removing her Dynamo logo swimsuit the rest of the way.  She
glanced at it as it lay on the floor.  It was like she hadn't quite
realized how naked she was until she saw her clothing on the floor next to
a boy's bed.  Clay followed her eyes for a second.  The sight of the suit
had the same effect on him.  If that beautiful piece of green fabric was on
the floor, then the girl on his bed really was naked.  He looked at her and
then knelt, gently parting her knees.  She trembled from head to toe but
she didn't protest.

   He began to kiss her on the black hair above her opening.  As eager as
he was to keep going, he was a little scared to actually kiss a girl on her
slit.  What if it tasted funny or weird juices came out?  Girls bled down
there sometimes.  What if he got a mouthful of that?  He steeled his nerves
and leaned in and tasted her.  What the hell had he been nervous about?  It
was a little tangy, stronger than skin tasted, but it sure wasn't foul. 
And the smell was, well it didn't smell like anything else exactly, but it
was a sexy smell to him.  He began to kiss and lick faster and faster. 
Becky moaned and squealed slightly, and she squirmed away and then back. 
After a few more seconds she slid her hips closer, giving implied
encouragement.

   Clay brought his thin fingers up and began to stroke and explore.  He
found a little nub.  "Is this your clit?" he asked.

   "No, sweetie."

   He trailed his finger up until he found a little hood and touched that
gently.  After a few more strokes, he found a little had begun to rise.  He
softly rolled it between his fingertips and Becky slammed her hand to the
mattress.  "Found it!" he said to himself.  He kissed it and sucked on it.
He ran his tongue up the length of her slit and touched her clit at the end
of each lick.  Becky grabbed his hair and pulled it, but she didn't rip his
head away.  She just wanted to grab him, it seemed.

   "Oh, Clay, I think I'm gonna have an O!" she exclaimed.  "Yes!  A little
more!  Yes!" She didn't have a porno movie orgasm with wailing and
screaming.  She just whimpered slightly and gasped several times.  Her legs
clamped over his ears.  He wasn't sure whether or not to stop; he kept
going for a bit, and she seemed to be okay with it.  He thought he had
probably made it last a little longer, given her more of a chance to really
finish it.  Her hips sagged down and she let go of his head.  She took a
moment to catch her breath.  "Oh, my god," she whispered.  "That really
just happened."

   Clay looked up at her and grinned.  "Told you, you'd like it."

   "Scared the hell out of me," she said with a little laugh.  "You look so
pleased with yourself," she said.  "Was making me cum really that much of
an accomplishment?"

   "Well, first time I ever did that with a girl.  It was really fucking
cool, Becky."

   "It kind of was, wasn't it?" she said and smiled.  She rolled her eyes
when she saw that he was still grinning.  She smiled too.  "Yes, Clay, I
really did like it.  You could do that again sometime if you wanted.  I
just...  I always thought I'd be like sixteen before anything like that
happened." She smiled at Clay and saw that he looked a little guilty.  The
expression on her face grew more serious.  "I'm glad it was you that did
it," she added gently.  "I kind of...  when I pictured me being sixteen and
doing this...  you were always the boy I was with.  You're the nicest guy,
Clay."

   His grin returned.  He'd made her cum.  That was a hell of a thing in
his book.  It was all so wonderful it almost didn't seem real.  But he'd
pleased her and even made her get a little wild, grabbing his hair and
slamming her hand down on the bed.  But afterwards she was as sweet and
gentle as ever, and she'd liked it and said he could do it again.  "I think
I'm just sweet with you because of how I feel," he said.  "You've always
been the coolest girl in class, and so pretty.  I always liked you.  Maybe
I love you."

   "Maybe I love you, too," she said.  Pushing that idea into her was so
easy that Clay wasn't even sure he'd pushed at all.  Sometimes it was hard
to tell when he was pushing and when he was just wishing like any normal
boy would.

   Part of Clay knew that this was all happening so fast that they were
just talking crazy.  They hadn't even really confessed to liking each other
until a little while ago.  But he felt something for her; that much was
certain.  "Yep," he said after thinking for a moment.  "We're definitely in
love."

   "I love you, Clay.  Forever and ever," she said and smiled.  Everything
he'd asked from her had come so easily.  It wasn't like he was making her
do things she didn't want to do.  He was just sort of managing to scoot
past all the things that would have kept her from actually doing them.

   Clay decided he was fine with that.  He wasn't enslaving her mind to
make her feel something that was unnatural.  She was definitely inclined to
feel that way.  Now that they were in love, well, there was no telling what
they might do together.  Well, there was telling.  He could tell her and
she would do it.  But he didn't want to do that directly.  Somehow, that
wasn't his nature.  That was when it dawned on him that he had just
inadvertently given himself a way to see this through to the end without
having to push her much harder at all.  His feelings of affection were
genuine, maybe they even were love.  And her feelings seemed to be real,
too.  And so were their desires.  Love and desire certainly meshed very
nicely.

   "Well, were pretty much teenagers now, and in love, so it's okay to go
all the way," he announced.

   He felt a barrier snap into place.  "I don't think so," she said,
suddenly alarmed.

   "Don't you trust me?"

   "You know I do, Clay."

   "And we're in love."

   "Totally in love, but that doesn't mean I'm ready for sex."

   "Ready?" he thought.  That wasn't something boys ever really considered.
There was no being ready.  You took it when you could get it and were
damned grateful to have it.  He pondered for a moment.  He still wanted to
do this in a way where he didn't force an idea into her brain.  He wanted
to come at it sideways again and slip it gently into her mind.  "I'm
sorry," he said.  "I just wanted to give you the ultimate sign that you
were special to me.  I mean, you know the other girls kind of like me, but
have I tried anything with them?"

   "No, not that they told me," Becky said cautiously.

   "I haven't.  And you know I haven't.  You girls tell each other
everything, don't you?"

   "Pretty much," she admitted.

   "I have been saving myself for the moment I finally got the courage to
tell you how I feel.  It has to be you, Becky.  You're the only special
girl in my life.  I couldn't waste my first time on just any girl.  It has
to be you."

   "Oh, Clay!" she said, tears starting to form in her eyes.  "I never knew
it ran so deep inside of you."

   "Becky, I am so ready for this, but if you're not, I understand.  I
guess I thought you just had emotions that ran a little deeper than the
other girls, that you understood what it feels like to burn inside."

   Becky liked the notion of being deeper, more mature than the other
girls. And when Clay suggested that she was burning inside it began to feel
to her that maybe she was.  Becky did have feelings for him, and she had
really loved the way that she felt when he kissed her most intimate parts.
She had just had a real climax with a lover; none of the other girls had
done that yet.  She could look at it as her being slutty, or she could look
at it as her simply being ready before they were.  The latter notion was
easier to swallow.  When Clay talked about making love as being a sign of
maturity and deep feelings, it made sense to her now.  "Clay, I think maybe
I am ready.  It couldn't happen with any other boy, but you and I have
something really special, don't we?"

   Clay wondered if he should have felt a little guilty.  He was
manipulating her more than just a bit.  But beneath everything he said was
the truth, and not just a little truth.  His powers may have kicked in very
recently, but it was only his affection and desire for this particular girl
that had set them loose.  Only Becky had brought forth enough willpower in
him to turn wish into command.  "We have something very, very special,
Becky," he said and believed it with all his heart.  "And we're going to be
one another's first." The last was said with a certainty he hadn't used all
day.  The effect was profound.

   Becky kissed him passionately and then leaned back until she had pulled
him on top of her naked body.  She ran her trembling hands through his hair
and then kissed him again.  She was scared, he could tell, but she had no
more thoughts of stopping this.  His voice, and the force of will behind
it, had left no room for doubt.  The discussion was over, and the two of
them were going to become lovers.

   Clay steered her hand to the waistband of his swim trunks, and then
urged it down inside.  Becky gasped as she touched hair and then found a
rock hard shaft sprouting up beneath it.  She understood enough to know how
this was going to work, and it scared her.  To an adult woman, the thing
she held in her hand wouldn't have been very intimidating.  It might have
even been a little disappointing.  But to a petite eleven-year-old virgin,
it was more than enough to cause a little fright.  "I've--I've never seen
one," she whispered, "not on a boy older than five or six."

   "Take my trunks off, Becky." His voice was not stern, but it was
definitely the voice of someone who knew he would be obeyed.  Boys have an
aggressive side; that's no secret.  And when they find themselves in a
situation where they are certain their amorous instructions are going to be
obeyed, few pass up the opportunity to exercise their advantage.  It's only
the fear that they might give the instruction and have it refused that
sometimes holds most boys back.  Becky took his trunks off.  He had to
stand to help her out.  They froze there for an instant, her sitting on the
edge of the bed, him standing in front of her, his engorged member staring
her in the face.  "Take it in your hands and pump it a little," he
suggested.

   Becky's hands wrapped around his shaft and she gently pumped it.  He
reached down and squeezed them, letting her know she needed to apply more
pressure.  She was shaking, but she was also fascinated by the way the skin
moved over the stiff center and the way he groaned in pleasure as she made
it happen.  Clay had started this with the notion that he would then
command her to suck it, but he never got around to giving that order.  He
was too aroused now, too close to wait.

   He pushed her back onto the bed, not bothering to turn her lengthwise.
He had seen a video or two, or maybe two hundred, and suddenly he flashed
on one in which the man had been taking a woman sideways across the bed. 
He copied it exactly because it was what struck him as the hottest way to
do it in the moment, and because he could.  The look of shock on her face
when he grabbed her legs and brought them back so far that her knees were
by her ears didn't give him pause.  He knew it worked this way, even if she
didn't.  Clay brought his shaft to her opening and lined it up.  "I love
you, Clay," she whispered.

   He paused for a moment when he heard that.  He leaned his face down
close to her and they both reached so that they could kiss.  "Next time, it
will be the way you expected it," he said.  "I just have to do it this way
right now.  Even if I seem a little wild, I still love you.  Becky, I
really, really do." She nodded and then closed her eyes and turned her head
to the side.  He pushed into her.  His shaft turned aside for a moment.  He
had been lined up, but he had not expected her to be so tight that it would
deflect him like that.  "Steer me in."

   Becky took the thing that frightened her into her hand and found that
holding it somehow helped stop her from shaking.  She even pulled it toward
her and helped him open her up by sliding it up and down the length of her
slit a few times.  Still nothing bigger than her finger had ever been
inside of her, and Clay was definitely bigger than that.  She groaned as
she felt herself stretch, but then the cap on the end finally started to
slip between her lips, and it felt good.

   "Wow!" he whispered.  The guys he had heard talk about it only ever
talked about tightness.  They had never mentioned the warmth and the
wetness.  But Becky was only a few minutes removed from her climax, and she
was slick and hot inside.  It felt good on the bit of him that was inside
of her, but he felt such a strong urge to go deeper that he couldn't just
stay in this spot.  He drove hard and suddenly, and he felt something give
way.

   "OWIE!" she cried.

   "Oh god, Becky, did I hurt you?" Had he manipulated her only to end up
injuring her?

   "Just hold still for a second.  You popped my cherry." She took deep
breaths for a long moment and then nodded.  Clay slowly began to saw in and
out, getting deeper with each thrust, and becoming more and more aroused as
he realized she was going to be just fine.  "Oh, Clay," she whispered
dreamily.

   He knew it felt good for her then.  It released the frenzy he had been
feeling build up inside of him.  Time and time again he drove as deeply
into her as he could go.  They were just the right size for one another. 
She could take him in, but she felt tight to him.  He could go at her hard,
but he wasn't so massive that he caused her pain.  She moaned softly. 
"That's so sexy!" he said.  There must have been some wish or command in
his exclamation, because Becky immediately began to moan louder and more
frequently.  It sent him even further down the road to wildness.  His feet
nearly came off the floor as he drove into her with all his weight, barely
over a hundred pounds.  He was pinning her legs to the mattress by her
ears, but she was eleven and flexible.  She was actually one of those girls
who could put her heels behind her head when she was showing off at slumber
parties.  This wasn't what Becky had imagined her first time would be like,
but she wasn't about to let that stop her from enjoying it now.

   "Go fast, Clay!  Nothing hurts anymore!" she said.  He buried himself
deep in her and clutched her hips.  He picked her bottom up off of the bed
and drove straight into her as her legs flopped down.  Soon, she wrapped
them around his bottom and helped support her weight.

   "Best ever!" he grunted.  "You are incredible!" He continued going as
fast as he could, and then the inevitable started to happen.  He was going
to cum, and he was going to cum soon.  He had no thought of pulling out or
of prolonging things.  He just continued to pump away as she moaned and
reached up to clutch at his arms.  "I love you," he groaned as the surge
overtook him and he began to fire long strings of semen into her.  Time and
again, he released until he was spent.  He lowered her to the bed and
collapsed on top of her.

   "Oh, Clay," she whispered.  "Oh, my one true love."

   "You are the most beautiful girl in the world, Becky.  I love you so
much," he panted.  He curled up beside her then, and they talked and kissed
for a long time.  She finally worked up the nerve to talk to him about the
fact that they were old enough to wind up with her pregnant.  He promised
her that he would go with her to talk to her mom about birth control.  She
wasn't sure it was a good idea at first, but he pointed out that he was
pretty good at convincing people of things.  She had to admit he had a
point.

   Clay walked her home that night, and they had the conversation with her
mom, and unfortunately her dad walked in during the middle of it.  Clay had
to push way harder with him, and even his sideways maneuver playing on her
father's protectiveness of her future didn't exactly go over easily.  Yes,
Clay had to push him pretty hard, but the boy got his way in the end. 
Becky was his then, and he was grateful to have her.  He had been right all
along.  They were in love.  But life has a way of complicating things, and
life gets even more complicated when you're an adolescent with a
superpower.

   SEPTEMBER, 2000 Clayton Teller had been in love for just over a year,
and he was ecstatically happy.  He could have easily wandered, but he
didn't.  That didn't mean he was without fantasies.  His were perhaps even
more vivid than those of the other boys, because Clay knew damned well he
could make them come true.  No classmate, no older girl, no pretty young
teacher could resist him if he decided to bend his will toward having them.
There was only one girl in Lake City that Clay was uncertain he could have
if he wanted her.  Her name--well he didn't really know her name--he called
her Dynamo the Girl Wonder just like everyone else did.

   Lake City had a superheroine.  She was young, too.  Most people figured
she was nineteen or twenty.  Clay wasn't any more certain about her age
than anyone else.  Clayton and the rest of the citizens of Lake City knew
just two things about her.  She was beautiful, and they treasured her. 
Every girl in the middle school could draw her Rose, and they often did. 
Clay's own girlfriend made little Dynamo logos and sewed them into her
clothes.

   Clay had a crush on Dynamo, like most boys did.  A few of the guys hated
any girl with that much power, but Clay had nothing but positive feelings
for her.  He counted his very detailed sexual fantasies as positive
feelings.  So, when Clay mused in the back of his mind on whether or not
his powers could overcome hers it was all just in fun.  If he ever met her,
he would just stand in awe like everyone else.  Or, so he thought.

   Clay's mom had surprised Clay and Becky with tickets to a fundraiser
where Dynamo was the guest of honor.  The Girl Wonder had decided to accept
the offer since it was going to raise thousands of dollars for a shelter
for sexually abused children.  She was always talking about how people
needed to help out kids like that, and Clay thought that was just one more
way that she was awesome.  After dinner in a college basketball arena
converted for the occasion, Dynamo was supposed to give a speech, but she
didn't.  "You guys would rather just see me do some tricks anyway," she
said with a laugh.

   Clay, Becky and Rae hardly found the things she did to be "tricks." They
were displays of pure power and grace.  She wasn't a flyer, but she could
leap.  She jumped from the stage and completely cleared the audience of two
thousand people.  She asked the entire head table of eleven dignitaries to
pile up onto one table and then hoisted it over her head.  She lifted the
mayor by having him stand on one of her fingers.  In the end, she then
walked him up and down her hand, switching the finger on which he perched
like a Harlem Globetrotter did with a spinning basketball.  In a cute
display, she used her other hand to cover her middle finger when she had
him perched on that one.  The audience was delighted.  Becky squealed,
"She's so cool!" and Clay was simply captivated by the blonde beauty. 
Becky could tell, but she understood.

   Then, the worst imaginable thing happened.  A hail of gunfire erupted
from the crowd.  Five men rose up from one of the front tables and opened
fire on Dynamo.  She managed to dodge most of the bullets, but they fired
about forty rounds and there was no doubt that several of them struck her.
She was strong and agile, and her skin could turn aside most weapons, but
she was not bulletproof.  She staggered and fell.  The men closed in on
her, two of them gunning down police officers who had tried to come to
Dynamo's aid.  The assassins raised their guns to finish her off, but they
never completed their mission.

   The five men suddenly grabbed their heads and shrieked in agony.  A boy,
no more than thirteen, stood behind them, his dinner napkin wrapped around
his face like an Old West train robber's bandana.  A pretty black-haired
girl had been clutching at his arm, but he had ordered her back to their
table and told her to keep his mother there.  The boy stepped up onto the
edge of the stage.  He had actually placed himself between the gunmen and
Dynamo!  The assailants began to raise their weapons again.  This time,
though, they pointed the guns at their own faces and took them in their
mouths.  The boy shook with rage, and tears streamed down his face.  He
loved Dynamo, and they had done this to her?  Before he could force them to
squeeze their triggers, he felt a strong hand clasp on his ankle.  He
looked down to see that Dynamo had crawled to him.  "Please, no," she
whispered and collapsed.

   Clayton saw her then, her mask had slipped away.  She was just a very
beautiful and rather tiny girl, a college girl at the oldest, maybe even a
high school girl.  But her face was showing, and that couldn't happen. 
Clay understood what a wreck his life would be if everyone knew what he
could do.  He couldn't let that happen to her.  He picked her up and
carried her backstage, clutching her exposed face to his chest as he gave
the gunmen the order to drop their weapons and lay on their faces until the
police came for them.  Cameras flashed, but he got Dynamo out of sight and
into the arms of two policemen who were just arriving on the scene.  "Who
are you?" one of them asked.

   "I am...  the Mindwalker," Clayton said and turned to go.  He suddenly
turned back.  "Cover her face," he added.  "Make damned sure no one sees
her face." There was considerable command in that order.  Both cops
stripped off their shirts and placed them over her face even as the crowd
of reporters managed to muscle their way through to the backstage area. 
The cops whisked her out the back door and rushed her to the hospital.

   With no Dynamo to focus on, the throng of reporters turned to the masked
boy.  "Who are you?" they demanded and shot picture after picture.

   "Leave me alone," he hissed.  "Smash every one of those cameras.  Do it,
now.  Crush the memory cards or film or whatever you have.  There are no
pictures of me, and no pictures of Dynamo!" He had never given a command to
so many people at once, but it worked.  He was pissed, and he was scared,
and he didn't care how he got them to obey.  That lack of caution seemed to
increase his powers.  Every reporter began attacking their cameras as if
their very life depended on it.

   He went for broke.  He strode out into the arena which had been
converted to host the event.  He got on the microphone.  "Destroy any
camera, any device which has unmasked images of Dynamo or any pictures of
me on it!" he shouted.  "DO IT NOW!" The room was filled with the sound of
electronics being smashed, dunked in water pitchers, or even in one case,
set on fire by their owners.

   "Who are you?" someone shouted.

   "I'm Mindwalker.  Now leave me the fuck alone and nobody follow me. 
Mom, leave with the crowd.  I'll meet you guys at the car as soon as I
can."

   Dynamo remained conscious all the way to the hospital, and her amazing
body was already beginning to heal itself.  Still, she was in tremendous
pain, and knew that she had nearly died.  "Who was that boy?" one of the
cops asked her, trying to keep her occupied.

   "No idea," she groaned.

   "He called himself the Mindwalker," the other one said.  "Kind of crabby
for a superhero, though."

   "Can't all be me," Dynamo tried to say in a cheery voice.  It didn't
sound cheery given the pain racking her body, but her being who she was, it
sounded heroic.  She said little else on her way to the emergency room. 
Even through her pain, her mind was focused on one thing.  That kid had
saved her ass, but then damned near murdered five men as an act of revenge.
He was either the greatest potential ally she had ever known, or the
greatest danger Lake City had ever faced.  Either way, as soon as she was
back on her feet, Dynamo was going to find Mindwalker, and they were going
to have one hell of an interesting chat.

   + * +

   Mindwalker was just Clay again, hustling to his mom and Becky and mixing
in with the crowd.  They drove away from the arena in silence for a while,
everyone too horrified by what had just happened to speak.  Then, Rae and
Becky found their voices at once and began asking Clayton too many
questions for him to answer.

   "Stop!" he cried, and they both fell to silence in mid-question.  "Mom,
go ahead," he said calmly.

   "How long?" Rae asked.

   "Always, a little bit, but I didn't really see it until the day Becky
and I got together.  I fell in love, and my feelings for her were strong
enough to trigger it," he said.  He knew he was doing damage control even
as he answered questions that would lead to Becky and Mom being very angry
with him.  "I never had a feeling strong enough before that," he said,
trying to reassure his suddenly very alarmed girlfriend.

   Becky scooched a little bit away from him, but still held his hand.  She
was just getting a clear view of his face.  "That first time...  did you
make me?"

   "I just played up the feelings that made you want to do it.  I never
commanded you to do it."

   "But you used powers to make it happen?" she asked.

   "To help make it happen a little quicker," he said, as if that fine
distinction was going to make a difference.

   "Take me straight home, Rae, please," Becky said and slid all the way
away from him.  "You could make me forgive you, I suppose," she said. 
"Don't."

   "I won't," he said.  "I love you, Becks."

   "I love you, too.  I think.  I don't know what's real in the whole world
anymore."

   "You do," he said.  "I don't really read minds, but I can sense how a
person feels about something.  What we have is real, Becks.  It really is
real."

   "I need time to think," she said.

   "You won't tell anyone, will you?" he asked.

   "No, and please don't order me not to.  You have to trust me now, Clay.
I don't ever want you to control me again."

   "I understand," he said softly.  She was right.  He could make her do as
he wanted, but then again he couldn't.  He wanted her to forgive him
without being pushed.  He couldn't have it both ways.

   "Me too?" Rae asked when she had decided that Becky's icy silence wasn't
just a pause to think.

   "Yes, Ma'am," Clayton said.

   "We'll have our conversation when we're alone," Rae said and lapsed into
her own icy silence.  Streetlights flashed by the window.  No one spoke
until Becky got out of the car.  "Rebecca, I am so very sorry," Rae said.

   "Not your fault, Rae," she said.  "Thanks for everything.  You've been
great.  Hell, you've probably helped me through more things this past year
than my mom has.  Rae, I hope we're still friends even if...." She looked
sadly at Clay and didn't finish the sentence.  The door closed with a thud.
Clayton feared that there had been finality in Becky's last remark to his
mom.

   "Any other girls?" Rae asked as they pulled away from the curb.

   "No, Ma'am."

   "Nice to know my son's not a serial rapist.  Never had to consider the
possibility before."

   "MOM!"

   "Clayton Teller, you used power to take that girl's virginity.  It might
not have been physical strength, but it was still taking advantage of
someone in a situation that wasn't a fair fight."

   "It wasn't like that, Mom.  I love her!"

   "So?  If you pinned a girl down and took her, it would be rape whether
you thought you loved her or not.  This was...  I don't know what it was,
Clay." She drove on in silence.  Finally, she spoke to him in a soft voice,
choked with tears.  "I'm sorry, Clay.  I'm acting like you're some kind of
monster, and you were just a little by with a power no one should ever have
to deal with.  You were an honest-to-goodness hero tonight.  This whole
thing scares me, and I have no idea how to handle it."

   "Mom, I'm still me."

   "Yes, I think that you are still you.  But all I can do for you is love
you.  I can't even imagine what you're going through.  In a way, I should
be impressed.  All you've done is make love to a girl you genuinely care
for.  And if I understand what you said to Becky, you didn't even really
force her even though you could have.  I wonder how many other boys would
have been as faithful.  Hell, I can imagine most would have done some very
horrible things."

   "I do think about other girls all the time," he confessed.

   "Thinking isn't doing, son.  There's nothing wrong with fantasies."

   "Mom, you're the coolest parent ever," he said and reached up and placed
his hand on her shoulder.  He hadn't been trying to activate the thrall he
held over her, but telling her she was a cool parent had been the trigger
for over a year.  He sensed an immediate shift in her attitude.

   "You know what, Clay?  You haven't hurt anyone.  You've been incredibly
responsible with this.  Just do what you think is best.  I don't want to be
overly controlling." Her mood had brightened considerably.

   Clay thought about snapping her back to who she had been a minute ago,
but she had been in pain then.  Now, she just thought of her son as
wonderful.  Why should he wreck that for her?  He leaned up and kissed her
on top of her head.  "I love you, Mom."

   "Love you too, baby-boy," she said happily.  "Son, you probably saved
Dynamo's life.  God, she must be in so much pain, though."

   "Mom, take me to the hospital," he said.

   "Of course, honey."

   Ten minutes later they were at the hospital closest to the arena.  Clay
walked up to the reception desk.  "Blonde girl, with gunshot wounds?" Rae
asked.

   "Are you family?" she asked, looking at the shirt he hadn't realized was
covered with the heroine's blood.

   "Yes.  Her little brother," Clay said and pushed into the woman's mind.
Five minutes later he was in a room in the ICU.  Rae decided that since she
hadn't seen Dynamo's face she would keep it that way.  She waited outside
the door of the room.

   "Damn, she's waking up already," the doctor at the foot of the bed said
as she showed the chart to the nurse.  "How the hell is she doing that?"

   "Don't be curious about that," Clay said with command in his voice. 
"Don't be curious about me either.  Just tell me how she's doing."

   "She's going to be fine," the doctor said.  "The bullets seemed to work
their way to the surface on their own, and her internal organs are healing
themselves.  We never even did the surgery.  Not sure how well a scalpel
would have worked anyway."

   "Will these machines warn you if anything goes wrong?" Clay asked.

   "Yes."

   "Then get out of the room.  I want a meeting in ten minutes with
everyone here who saw this girl's face tonight." He watched the doctor
struggle with the command for a moment and then turn to go.  "Doc, thanks
for saving her," he said.  "You're a miracle worker." The doctor beamed
with pride, and she even touched Clay on the shoulder as she left.

   "Mindwalker?" the girl on the bed croaked.

   He got her a glass of ice water and brought the straw to her lips.  "I
just made that up in the instant.  I had to say something.  My name's Clay,
Clayton Teller." He saw her mask and costume had been folded up neatly and
placed on a table in the corner.  He handed her the mask.

   She looked at her mask, but didn't put it on.  "You're showing me your
face, Clay."

   "Seems fair.  I saw yours.  You're so beautiful, Dynamo."

   "Thanks.  And my name's Dinah," she said.  Clay grinned.  She must have
liked his smile because she gave him a little more info.  "Dinah Rosen."

   "Dinah Rosen?  Dynamo's Rose!  Cool.  It's your name, your alias and
your logo all in one."

   "I was never really all that creative," she said and gave one of her
incredibly charming shrugs.  This time it was a bad idea.  She cringed in
pain.  "It's going to take me a few more hours until I can start to move
like that," she said.  "First time I've ever been hit more than once, and
first time they hit anywhere but an arm or a leg."

   Clay sat by the edge of the bed and carefully took her hand.  "I was so
fucking scared, Dinah."

   "Me too.  I thought I was done." She was silent for a while.  "Would you
have killed them, Clay?"

   "I don't know.  Everything I was doing was just happening.  I never even
thought about the fact that I could kill someone that easily.  And they
attacked you.  You're the greatest treasure in this city, Dinah.  I was so
angry.  I've never felt that way before."

   "I understand.  In the very first moment I discovered my powers I killed
a man who was trying to hurt me." She seemed surprised for a moment. 
"Clayton, I never told anyone that before.  But it happened."

   "You never kill the bad guys!" he said.

   "I was nine.  He had me pinned in a van and was going to...  well, I
found out later he was wanted in the rape and murder of three other little
girls.  I kicked him as hard as I could.  It killed him."

   "Accident," Clay said, excusing her.  "And you probably saved other
girls' lives."

   "Yes, but it taught me that I needed to control my powers.  I'm worried
about you, Clay," she said and looked deeply into his eyes.  "Work with me
and let me teach you how to find the calm place that lets you do your job
without going too far."

   "My job?  I don't want to do this kind of thing anymore!  I just hope my
girlfriend takes me back.  She was there.  She freaked out.  Becky is the
sweetest girl in the world.  And she's almost as beautiful as you.  But I
think I lost her, Dinah." He got up and groaned.  "Oh, fuck!  I just want
things to go back to where they were yesterday."

   "Time doesn't work that way, sweetie," she said.  "Believe me, I know.
Let me help you.  You can be a real force for good in this world." In that
moment, she wished for nothing more.  There was something about this heroic
but frightened boy that moved her deeply, more perhaps than it should have.

   "You're not listening to me, Dinah.  I don't want to be a force.  I just
want to go back to being a guy with the sweetest girlfriend in the world
and a mom who loves him.  I won't hurt anyone.  It was an extreme
situation."

   "Extreme situations happen, Clay."

   "Not to me.  Not before tonight.  Look, I'm glad you're okay, and I
still adore you, but I just want to be left alone.  Can you do that?"

   Dynamo looked sad.  She seemed like she knew something but didn't want
to tell him.  She let go of his hand.  "Thanks for saving my ass tonight,
Mindwalker," she said.  "Maybe you aren't meant to be a superhero, but you
are some sort of a hero.  I hope you get your girl back.  She'd be a fool
not to forgive you.  You're a cutie, and I think you have a gentle soul."
Dinah blushed a little.  She'd meant a little more then she'd realized when
she called him a cutie.  The boy was strangely compelling.

   Clay looked down at the sad beauty.  An impulse overtook him, and he
kissed her quickly on the lips before he left the room to go to work on the
medical staff to ensure that they protected Dynamo's identity.  He had
never kissed a girl besides Becky, but he couldn't help himself.

   They were connected now, Dynamo and Mindwalker, Dinah and Clay.  Their
lives would eventually become more than merely connected by a single
dramatic event.  And the little kiss he had given her in the hospital would
definitely not be their last.