Power Punch

<Levia's POV>

I called my parents so they would pick me up from here, I got Helia to go to the trunk, and yet I'm so nervous. These three can't have good intentions, not if they approach with weapons drawn. Sure, there is nothing visible on the surface, but the cameras and sensors on the hoverer easily spot that the two men and the woman are combat ready and fully armed, with their cybernetic enhancements made for combat and working in full force. They are weak, they are designed for sneaky missions as they don't have any more flashy weapons, but they are still made for combat.

I notice a small ball being flung by the woman and... holy shit! She isn't doing that! I furiously beat the panels with my four arms at the same time, attempting to prevent the grenade from going off, and I'm too late. The ship shuts down, or, more accurately, it's fried from inside out, as the ball touches the ship and I distinctly feel a pulse passing through my body. I also lose all the feed from cameras.

EPB, an indirect upgrade of an EMP grenade. Unleashes an chaotic magnetic wave that throws everything electronic in range into complete and utter disarray, permanently if it's close enough and the pulse strong enough to fry the circuits. My body included. I've no idea why would they use it, since with electromagnetic sensors this thing is about as noticeable as a nuclear explosion, but complaining won't help me here.

My body slumps down in the chair and the only reason I am still aware of this fact is that the radiolarian fluid inside my head doesn't have anything to do with electricity. In other words, my mind is still working, but the rest of the body, even including head, save for some crucial parts like sensors, is as good as scrap metal for now. Repairing it would take at least a day, maybe a few hours if it was my mom, though I should regain control of my head in a while with the self repair kicking in.

So, well, shit. I hope they don't find Helia.

I hear the door being kicked out of its frame, most likely cut beforehand, and then footsteps approaching. I don't turn around, I can't turn around, and I suddenly receive a hit to my head and my body whips into the armrest. Seriously, man? You trying to give me a concussion or something? That won't help with a machine.

I feel him grabbing my collar and lifing me up and he starts to drag my body over the ground. I keep my head upright, playing it stiff, to see what's in front of me, and I see the man going out to the corridor to another one waiting there.

"T'rget secur'd, we'rr getting outta heer." I hear a deformed voice of a... of a Psycho. That's the common term. The official is Post-human Sentient Collective of Halvar, PSCH for short. Halvar is the first planet they claimed. Crazy bastards. They'll really take a beating when I get the control of my body back and detach my head.

I think so, at least, before a person rushes out of of the storage room I call the trunk.

No! Helia! Why did you run out!? You stand no chance against them!

I want to shout, I want to cry as fear and terror take my mind. They'll kill her. They'll fucking kill her.

And then she swings her arm in an impossibly fast and precise attack that lands squarely on the first man's face, and my eyes would have popped out if they could as my Mechanical eyesight tells me how fast her hand is moving and how much force her punch brings with it. Ten thousand fucking newtons, thrice what a trained fighter can exert. It's like getting hit with a sledgehammer.

What? How? She's a normal human without any modifications past those extending her lifespan and improving bodily functions.

I don't have time to think too much on the topic as she rushes to the man holding me, again much faster than she should be able to, and swings her arm at his head. I think so, at least, cause I don't see well from this angle. I feel the man's posture shifting as Helia's punch arrives, then I see her leg flying before my eyes at his side, but it's also stopped.

Holy damn. She isn't overpowering him, but he definitely shouldn't defeat her quickly.

I see Helia attacking another time, this one a straight punch, and I see her staggering forward for some reason. Oh no. I see her being hit as her body shakes and she is forced back, but she still stands firmly on the ground.

I feel my world spinning and it takes me a moment to realize I've been thrown to the ground. How rude. Fortunately I land with my head to the side, so I have a good view on the fight, and the first thing I see is Helia's face twisted into a furious grimace. O- oooh. She got so furious for me.

After a small pause she steps forward again and launches another straight at the man. I see his posture almost breaking as Helia suddenly stops her fist before he catches it, and she extends her other arm forward. She grabs his upper arm, slams her hip into his waist, throwing him off balance, and... holy fuck. She lifts him up into the air and slams him down using the same momentum, and I distinctly hear the sound of spine breaking as he hits the ground headfirst.

Holy damn. I don't think she has ever killed anyone before.

Oh, no! Shit, turn around! He's behind you!

I see the other man, who has gotten up in the meantime, running up to Helia, but... no, she won't make it. This horrible fear grips my heart with double the strength as I see the man pulling his arm back.

Helia suddenly turns around and whips her arm into the man's jaw, breaking it off and into pieces with a spurt of blood, that's how powerful her hit is. And she receives a punch from the man straight into her chest, and I feel my metaphorical heart being torn apart as she is blown back amidst a loud explosion and heavily slams into the wall.

No, no, no, you can't die here, Helia. You won't die here, you hear me!?

I see her getting up from the ground with same furious, determined expression, and... and I've no idea if I should be happy she's still alive or terrified at the charred black hole in her chest. Holy fuck, it's her heart beating, visible on the fucking surface! With black flakes falling off with each movement! How the hell is she still alive!? Any normal human would have long been incapable of anything either due to shock, pain, blood loss, organ failure or god knows what else! And she's standing up!

I see her looking at me and starting to walk to my limp body, and she smiles. Her chest charcoal black, clothes burned, a trail of blood dripping from her mouth, knuckles red from blood of others, and she's smiling gently, lovingly, as she looks at my face. Helia, damn it. What? How? I look into her eyes and see them crimson with flames of fury burning within, and yet gentle when she gazes at me. Were they... always crimson? I look at her now with confusion, but I'm interrupted by a small, shining beam of plasma passing through her chest, just through her visible heart.

No, no, no! I refuse! You will not die here!

I see Helia looking up and rushing out of my sight, and a moment later I hear a wet slashing sound and two successive, dull thumps. No. No. No! A moment later I feel something touching my face, and my spineis severed as something sharp hits it. I see my vision rotating a bit, and I'm startled by a deep, furious, barely humane roar from behind me, followed by an absolutely terrified girly scream from above me.

The hands holding me jolt and my head is sent barrelling through the air, unfortunately in such way I can't properly see what's behind me.

Not a second later I hear a disgusting, sickening... something behind me. I've absolutely no idea what this sound is, but I'm suddenly thinking about the sound monsters make when Helia hits them too hard and they go splat. That was pretty similar, wasn't it?

I am once again startled for dear life when I see a spray of... something passing my line of sight. Meat pieces, bone shards, blood, small mechanical parts, innards, and who knows what else. What. The. Fuck? That can't have been my parents. They are home right now, and even then their methods of killing are much less... brutal.

Who is it, then?

I feel my head being caught abruptly in strangely large, sort of... sort of metallic hands, I think, and I'm slowly turned around to reveal the sight I will never, absolutely never forget.

First thing I see is an ear and a horn. The ear is kind of long and sharp as if carved from stone, and the huge horn is curled at the base, black, thick, long, appearing as if it was made from many segments separated by vibrant yellow ridges. Oh holy fuck, I recognize it.

Then I see a face of black, looking as if it had been melted and shaped into what it is now, looking kind of rough and yet delicately carved, and rounded by contrasting with it, wild, thick, white-yellow hair. Inside the ortifices of her face there is this yellow glow reminding me of Helia's flames, and her lips and sharp nose are made seemingly of molten stone shaped with claws. Despite that though, they are smooth, real and expressive. And those eyes... those eyes.

A pair of deeply crimson, large eyes with large irises and elongated slits, gazing at me from sharp, long cavities in the face and rounded by yellowish eyebrows and lashes. The same pair of eyes I've seen furious, the same pair I've seen gentle, loving, happy, and everything else. That same pair Helia has always had in VOW... that same pair she has now, the only difference being they are all red and literally burning now.

How? No, it's not important. It doesn't matter! Because... because she's alive. I don't even notice when I start crying and Helia presses me to her hard, warm chest. A burning star she is indeed.

Helia's True Demon form. She once mentioned it as something she will only be able to unlock emotionally and that would greatly increase her strength if used. But seeing her in True Demon form in my hoverer is truly something else, and it has crazy implications I'm not sure if I want to understand.

Is VOW an another, equally real world? Who has created VOW? Are there other worlds like that as it was shown in the intro? Who let us enter that world? How do the pods work? What about souls in VOW? Are they reflections of our actual souls? Are souls even real? What about random character generation? Why do our bodies in VOW look as they do?

So many questions, so few answers. I shake my head, forcing myself not to think about the topic for now and brininging my emotions into order. I focus on Helia who is staying motionless for a while now, holding me and gazing at me with those strangely... raw, primal eyes. I don't really see intelligence in them, and I hope it's just something temporary.

My line of sight suddenly shifts and I see Helia trying to stand up, one foot before her, but she suddenly stumbles and collapses to the side, her eyes unfocusing. I half expect to be thrown once again, but she brings her arms close to her chest and curls up as she flops down, and I would have squeaked lovingly in suprise if I could as she lies on her side unmoving. First thing she pays attention to as she collapses, most likely from exhaustion, is to curl around me and hide me in her safe embrace. How... endearing.

And speaking of her embrace, it's big. It's so big and makes you feel so safe I could stay like that forever. Her hand is right now much larger than even in her previous male human body, and that is not to say it's rough and clumsy, it's still slim and smooth even, just that its size is scaled up. Honestly, it might be close to one foot long all in all.

I need to do something though and I can't keep sitting there. The problem is... I can't yet activate the engine in my head and try to move, but even if it worked, I wouldn't get out of Helia's arms. She's holding me so tightly I can't move even an inch, and yet she somehow isn't squeezing me at all, just... wrapping around me. Damn. In any other circumstances I would love that, but I need to do a lot... or do I really? I mean... my parents will come here, so...

Damn. My parents. They are very tolerant and they wouldn't even ask questions if I turned up with a trans girlfriend from other side of the galaxy, but this might be a bit too much. She's from another universe, heh.

I do trust my parents, but coming to the hoverer with three... well, two corpses inside and walls splattered in gore from the third and seeing me disabled in some monster's embrace, because that's how Helia would look like to just about everyone, is something that could very easily lead to grave misunderstandings.

So... I need to call my parents. Or at least text them so they won't freak out. Hm, that should be doable without going out of Helia's embrace. I bring out a mental interface in my mind and start writing a message letter by letter through the chat. It's annoying to need to press mentally each and every letter, and I could do it much faster and easier in other circumstances, but that's the emergency comunicator built into my head, purposefully separated from the main systems, and I don't have anything else available right now. Hm, I'll really need to update that part of me.

Anyway, I need to write the message in such way they won't freak out when they come here to retrieve the hoverer, but also won't be too suspicious and wary. It would be good if Helia reverted to her... oh shit. Which form will she revert to? Damn. If she will revert to... that male body, it will be bad to say the least.

No, focus, finish that message.

Violet: We were attacked, but we're alright now. Come as soon as the lift opens, it's sector D port 113. The hoverer is a mess and I got hit by MPB, but Helia saved me.

Good, that's one sent, wait for the response and I'll start the next one.

Draga: Got it, we'll be there as soon as we can. Is the hoverer down?

Violet: Reactor not working. Probably needs repairs.

Draga: Alright, I'll get Vela to haul it. I assume Helia is your girlfriend?

I suddenly feel this funny, fuzzy happiness sprouting in my mind and I need to control myself not to squeak happily and start bragging to mom who I got myself as a girlfriend and what is now confirmed. She's a Demoness, god damn it, and I don't think I could have scored better. I'm a little bit jealous of her abilities, but, honestly, it's only because I can't really help her as she fights. Otherwise she's all I could hope to get and so~ much more.

And mom recognizes her as my girlfriend! We've been only together in VOW, but even then no one really called us that, and out of VOW it was a secret. It's a little thing, seemingly completely not important, and yet I'm somehow so happy because of that I could jump in joy.

Oh, ooops, gotta reply to mom. I got a little bit derailed, hehe.

Violet: Yeah, but she is kind of unique.

Draga: Yeah? How so?

Violet: It's inconvenient to talk about it here, I'll explain later. Just don't be too surprised when you come.

Draga: Okay. The lift will be up there in half an hour, so sit tight.

Ufff, problem avoided for now. Just... I hope Helia will turn to her demoness form from VOW, and it better be soon. I'm not keen on explaining whatever she went through to get her looking like she is looking now. You know... saying off the bat that there are other worlds out there and Helia just got her body transformed into what she has in the other would be, at best, a stupid move. I trust my parents very much, but not blindly to accept everytying I throw at them, not to mention it's about Helia, not me, so she might have qualms about what is alright to tell my parents.

But, well, not like I can do anything about it. Now we wait till my parents come and get us out of this mess.

...

Helia, has, thankfully, transformed into her normal demones form soon after she collapsed. It was, frankly, quite possibly the most stimulating moment for me I've ever experienced, maybe only beaten by some of our kisses. Or Helia's kisses.

The point is, her clothes were torn and she's naked. When she turned back, her body lost all the stiffness it had and her bare body was suddenly all over me. That is not to say I wasn't aware she's been pressing me into her chest all this while, but being unable to do anything while touching smooth, but still hard stone-like surface is a completely different experience from having my head in her, um, juicy boobs, and her limp arms in my hair. Her boobs are strange. But nice.

I wiggled out of her embrace and took a good look at the surroundings, which were in god damn ruined state. The structure of the hoverer fortunately wasn't damaged, but inside a barely three meters long corridor there were two bloodied bodies laying sprawled, what remained of the door cut with most likely plasma knife, and most importantly it was strewn with... everything you expect to become of a person hit by a grenade. In the chest, because there are two mechanical legs, two fleshy arms, and half of a magled head remaining on the floor. God damn, that was a punch Helia did there.

Right now the floor has been mostly cleaned up. I took the bodies... and limbs plus head to another small storage room, which was designed to contain dangerous things, and right now it, in fact, does, and cleaned the corridor of everything I could easily with both my previous and spare bodies not functional. I haven't cleaned blood, that is, and that's unfortunately the most problematic. I also secured the door and put a makeshift rubber seal where it was before.

And all that after taking care of Helia, obviously. I don't think there is anything ailing her right now, but putting her someplace safe was a must.

And that's exactly why I'm now floating by the stack of pillows with Helia lying there, covered with a warm blanket, as I'm waiting for the lift to go up and my parents to arrive. I would be waiting in the cockpit, but, well, with the hoverer's electronics fried, the control room is as good as storage space. Actually the only reason I'm still working, or rather my head is still working, is because there is no electronics there and it is powered by a small independent reactor and runs on radiolarian fluid. Good stuff.

I wonder how Helia would react to seeing only my head floating in the air.

On the topic of looks, it is also very... relieving to see Helia in her demoness form. That is not to say I didn't like her... previous one, it was kinda handsome even, but I know very well how much she hated being in it. I was the one to see her pained emotions when she was logging out of VOW the first time, and later when she logged back in. And her current form... it's beautiful. The way she's laying defenseless on this stack of pillows and how cute her sleeping face looks, because I now see she has simply fallen asleep at some point, stirs something within me that wants to hold her close and never let go.

The way I saw her almost die by the hands of Psychos... it was so heartbreaking and nervewracking I just... never wish to experience it again. This moment made me realize that if she died, I wouldn't be able to live like I used to, and made me realize how precious and how important she is for me.

Our love, sure, it made me look after her and enjoy every single moment I spent in her arms, holding her, or simply being with her, but there are things you don't even think about until you are threatened to lose something dear to you. Some beliefs need to be challenged to make us realize what they really mean to us.

Our love was totally irrational at the beginning, more like infatuation than actually something more, and part of me feared I wouldn't be able to feel the same way about her after some time passed. Another part was concerned that it isn't my own emotion and that something was influencing me, but after I talked with mum at Monday, she convinced me that it's all my own.

Now... I just don't care. Now, I just want to make her happy, to hold her close, to take care of her and to spend time with her. And... and touch her. In many places.

Is that infatuation? Obsession? Blind love?

I don't care.

I love her.