The Journey

[daddybear54]

Chapter 12:  The Party

 

The emails duly went out on schedule, and the team stood by to receive and to process replies as they came in. It took a while. This wasn’t like a concert by an A-List superstar, so they didn’t all pour back in the instant the message landed in people’s mailboxes.

Over the next few months, and a reminder email sent in late August, they eventually built up a respectable guest list of nearly 500 names. Definitely better than they’d expected.

Throughout this time, they saw and heard nothing more of Alek Wolter or of any others like him at any time, but they had no doubt that they were being watched. Their own discussions about their roles continued, of course. Wade, the latest arrival into the group, was the one who asked a very interesting question one night.

“Has it struck any of you as odd that we’re just going right ahead and doing this on the say-so of some sort of a higher-intelligence being of which we know nothing beyond what it’s told us? I mean, we could easily have told that voice to “fuck off” and carried on with our lives, or just ignored it and walked away, but it never seems to have occurred to any of us that such possibilities even exist.”

One and all agreed that this was a very good question indeed and none of them really knew the answer to why they were all acting on the directives given by the voice. It was Dayna, the fiercely independent and strong-willed Dayna, who responded thoughtfully: “Maybe we’re already more a part of the voice and what it represents than we are of this world as it now stands.”

In due course, the first weekend of October rolled up, and the seven, with their strategy for the weekend all planned, set out for Chicago. Mindful of security in a way they had never been before, they’d had Joey arrange all the travel for the seven of them on a burner phone, and they’d spread themselves out across several different flights. Everyone managed the trip with no problems or hassles beyond the normal flying issues.

On Friday night, the four gay boys went down to a bar a few blocks away from the hotel and had themselves a great time meeting a whole crowd of visitors and local men. Just by asking questions, they managed to locate four who were here for the reunion, and said, “Hey, so are we,” following up with Jaysen’s invitation to his premium suite on one of the upper floors of the hotel at eleven. Soon after 10:30, they left to walk back, dress down, and settle in there with a drink, and at 11:00 sharp came the first knock on the door.

As soon as they arrived, each of the four guests was told, “Underwear or speedos only – or less.” Then they were shown to the second bedroom to get into more relaxed dress. All four of the visitors opted to be as relaxed as possible. Soon all eight of them were assembled in the living room, with drinks in hand and conversation flowing easily. As Dean had shrewdly pointed out, making them all dress down on arrival was a good way of making sure no one sported one of those pesky red-light implants winking at them.

Once they’d realized that everyone was good to go, the guys began mingling with more than just their words. As the hands began getting to work, the drinks went down while the cocks came up. In just a few minutes more, they’d all paired off, and four cocks were being sucked industriously. Adam, a husky guy with a linebacker build, was being licked and slurped by Peter, who always loved the challenge of a big cock. Darin, a cute little blond twink, was down on his knees and busily servicing Jaysen. Pat, a lanky athletic redhead, had Joey working over his big uncut tool. Zane, a dark-haired beauty with the firmest, roundest ass in the room, had won the race to the bottom, so to speak, by deep-throating Dean’s tool all the way while the others were still on the upper end.

It wasn’t long before Dean got Zane to stand up, and then lie down on his back on the sofa, so he could bend down and go right to town with his tongue in between those beautiful swelling ass cheeks. Zane moaned delightedly as Dean’s tongue began washing down his crack and stroking the magic little knot.

Jaysen wasn’t far behind in getting Darin to follow suit, and as he dug in he quickly discovered that Darin had a very experienced ass indeed, judging by the way it opened right up and began chewing on his tongue almost at once.

Meanwhile, Peter and Joey switched places, and it was only a minute later that Pat began running his hand down Peter’s back, bending over until his long arm could reach all the way to the target and begin stroking Peter’s hole, pressing against it.

Adam took an even more direct approach, picking Joey up under the arms like a rag doll and taking him through to the bedroom where he dropped Joey onto the bed, then rolled him over onto his face and dived right into his crack.

Not long after that, four cocks were buried inside four asses, three couplings on the bed while Dean was thrusting into Zane’s sweet, rounded butt on the sofa. He’d already made up his mind that this sexy ass was the one he most wanted to breed this night. Zane’s hole was nice and tight, so Dean actually didn’t last long. He was hot to go, he was horny as hell, and since he’d been saving up, he knew that he was good to go for at least three rounds tonight. Zane, for his part, was beating his meat so fast that Dean knew it was almost time for him too.

“You ready to cum?”

“Fuck, yeah. Give me that load, Dean, I’m just about to blow.”

Dean speeded up, always eager to oblige, and pounded deep and fast into Zane, both of them moaning as Zane’s dick erupted all over his abs. Moments later, Dean grunted out, “fucking cumming in your hole” and slam-fucked Zane repeatedly as his dick blasted off multiple squirts inside that tight butt.

Some cheers came from the bedroom as Dean scored the first breeding of the night, but the cheers quickly turned to more moans as some of the others weren’t far behind. Jaysen was driving hard into Darin’s hole, and soon erupted inside him. Darin at once proved himself to be the real slut of the group. As Jaysen pulled out of him, he promptly cried out, “More cock! I need more!”

That set Adam off, and he shot a big load inside Joey, then promptly pulled out and turned to Darin, pushing his big slimy tool into Darin’s dripping-wet ass. “Mmm, I love sloppy seconds,” Adam moaned as he started pumping Darin’s sexy boy pussy.

Lanky Pat was lying on his back, holding onto Peter’s hips as Peter bounced up and down on his cock. Pat’s long, thin shaft didn’t strain Peter’s hole too much, but it certainly kept on bumping into just about everything else inside – especially the one spot that mattered the most. Peter’s beautiful dark face was twisted into an ecstatic grimace as he came hard while riding Pat’s tool, and then kept experiencing more and more orgasmic convulsions long after the juices stopped running out of his tool. At last, the endless clutching of his hole on Pat’s tool brought Pat off too, and he spewed an epic load which was already running out of Peter around Pat’s cock even as Pat was still pumping more of it into him.

Joey meanwhile had turned his attention to Adam, and had started licking and sucking on his ass, then thrusting a finger into it, while Adam was busy plowing Darin. Getting no negative response, and plenty of what sounded like approving grunts and groans, Joey got up behind Adam, planted his well-lubed cock against Adam’s hole and let Adam impale himself on it as he was pulling back from Darin’s hole, then sliding forward off Joey’s shaft as he drove back into Darin.

Inspired by Joey’s example, Dean returned to Zane, this time to suck on his dick for a minute and then sit down on it. Zane had rarely had a chance to top because every guy he met was so swept away by his beautifully rounded ass, but he rose to the challenge in more ways than one and was soon slamming his way upwards into Dean’s ass with tremendous energy. In no time, he reached the point of no return, and let his load fly into Dean’s ready hole. After he pulled out, he turned his attention to Peter, wanting to feel Peter’s tool inside him. He grabbed Peter’s cock, sucked on it for a minute or so, and then rolled onto his back and lifted his legs, urging Peter to “Fuck me, Peter – give it to me all the way and fill me up.”

At the same time, Joey speeded up his rate of fucking, being super turned on by Adam’s husky, muscular body under him, and blew a generous load deep inside Adam’s ass, forcing Adam even deeper inside Darin. At that, Adam realized that he was ready to cum himself, and started slam-fucking Darin as hard as he could go the moment Joey pulled out of him. In only seconds, Adam reached the point of no return and started pumping his seed into Darin’s ass cunt.

Meanwhile, Darin had been inspecting every cock in the room, and realized that the biggest one there was Adam – and Adam was just breeding him now. But after Adam at last pulled out of him, he was by no means done, and when Jaysen approached him again, he offered himself once more. Lying back, he lifted his legs and let Jaysen slide into his now-dripping hole. Darin couldn’t help moaning that he wanted more, more.

Jaysen chuckled and said, “Well, you’ve come to the right place.”

Suddenly, Darin let out an actual cry of shock as his hole, without warning, was instantly stretched widely open. The attractive young-ish man fucking him had suddenly turned into a huge black muscle stud and his massive tool was giving Darin all the “more, more” that his hole could stand, and then some.

The other three visitors all stared in shock. “Shit, how did he do that?” Adam asked.

“It’s his ability. He’s a shape-shifter,” Dean replied.

“Damn, that’s impressive.”

Dean actually found his heart warming to these younger guys as they showed the same lack of concern that he and Joey had shared in their younger days. They were, he thought, far more accepting of their true selves than many of their elders might prove to be tomorrow, and he guessed that this was of a piece with the same self-acceptance that being gay demanded of you.

That was for tomorrow, though. Right now, as Errol plowed Darin’s ass to depths it had never experienced before, Darin slowly lapsed into an erotic trance where he lost track of everything except his ass and the incredible sensations Errol was giving it. Even Errol’s commands to “squeeze my tool, boy” and warnings that he was “going to give you my babies in your hot little boy pussy” hardly registered with him, as he felt his ass starting to go wild.

It was only a minute after Errol invaded him that he started cumming, and from then on he was having a non-stop chain of orgasms, his face contorting and his hole contracting over and over and over, on and on until he could barely draw breath. This was all old news to Errol, who’d had this effect on several of the younger men he’d fucked, including Peter, but it was a completely new sensation to Darin. This talented twenty-something had taken all kinds of dicks, singly and in pairs, and even tried a couple of super-size-me dildos, but he’d never had an endless orgasmic experience anything like this one.

By now, all the others had gathered around, watching in awe as Errol drove Darin completely around the bend and into next year with his magic fuck stick. At last, though, Errol felt his load rising and began telling Darin that he was “going to breed you, boy, I’m going to spurt my whole nut inside you, knock you up with my babies.” It’s doubtful if Darin even heard or took in what Errol was saying as he was so far gone.

Errol grunted and gave one last vicious slam into Darin’s gaping hole, then followed up with a series of quick rabbit-punch thrusts as his huge load pumped out, shot after shot, until he had saturated every inch of Darin’s colon. The others who were standing around cheered loudly while three or four of them went crazy with their hands, spewing their loads all over Darin’s twisting, sweating body. Errol pulled out, and they watched in awe – “Holy fuck, look at all that spooge!”, one of them said – as his massive load began to pour out of the gaping hole which Darin simply couldn’t close at all.

And then, just as suddenly, Jaysen was back, gasping for air and gently soothing the inflamed skin on his cock. It had taken quite a beating. Darin was slowly coming down and recovering his breath.

Zane stared in admiration. “That was un-fucking-believable! Can I take him home with me?”

Peter laid down on the bed next to Jaysen and cuddled him. “Sorry, Zane, he’s already taken.”

“Can’t blame a guy for asking.”

Jaysen chuckled. “And before you ask the next question, Zane, no, I don’t have enough steam left to go again tonight. Turning into Errol is a tiring business, especially in an orgy!”

Everyone laughed at that, and the party slowly broke up as the visiting team showered one by one, then dressed and left. At last, only four remained, and Dean and Joey were tidying themselves up to return to their room.

“Sure you don’t want to sleep here with us? This bed’s more than big enough!”

“No, thanks, Peter,” Dean replied. “We’ve got an even bigger day coming tomorrow, and I have my own wounds to lick.”

“So do I,” Joey replied. “Dean, how about we lick each other until we fall asleep?”

“That’s the best offer I’ve heard all night.”

“Okay, you two, get a room,” Jaysen growled – but with a twinkle in his eye.

“Oddly enough, that is exactly what we were going to do. See you in the morning, guys!”

After they’d left, Peter snuggled in closer to Jaysen, purring contentedly as he settled into his favourite position, with his head resting on Jaysen’s chest. His fingers traced idly through Jaysen’s light coating of hair as he thought his thoughts. Then he murmured, “I just love watching those two together. So much love that it comes out of them in strong waves.”

“And we don’t?”

“We do, but they’re kind of on another level altogether when they get absorbed in each other.”

Jaysen nodded, smiling. “I know what you mean, Peter. They’re the best role models I’ve ever seen for how we want to be with each other. And we’re catching up with them.”

As he gently stroked Peter’s hair, the two of them drifted off to sleep with smiling faces.

In the morning, the seven all assembled for an 11:00 brunch in the hotel’s restaurant, securing a small private alcove where they could put the finishing touches on their strategy for the day, and the script for the big meeting. Several of them took the waiter’s advice and ordered the hotel’s signature cinnamon-raisin-almond French toast, and it was incredible, especially with their house-made raspberry syrup. The private blend coffee which was another hotel exclusive was equally captivating.

During this discussion, Peter asked, “Aren’t you afraid that Wolter and his henchmen may turn up and try to disrupt the day?”

Dean grinned. “I’m not afraid. In fact, I’m counting on it. And we’re ready.”

Peter looked like he was ready to question further, but Jaysen laid a hand on his and shook his head, pointing over Dean’s shoulder at a blonde woman standing across the restaurant and watching them. Sure enough, a red light flashed under her white blouse.

“You’re right, Dean. They’re here. Blonde woman across the room, looking at us.”

Dean swivelled around and the others stared coldly at the woman as well. She turned and quickly walked away.

They headed down to the area outside the hotel ballroom at 1:00pm. With the event set to start at 3:00 pm, that gave them ample time to sign in and check ID for all of the participants as they arrived. Dean and Joey worked the registration table, with Wade and Deidra doing the ID checks. Inside the ballroom, Jaysen and Peter were working on last minute details on the set-up and conferring with the sound tech Jaysen had hired – who was himself a member of the clan. Over to the side of the stage, Dayna was busily talking in an intense undertone with several people, two men and two women, also clan members, whom she had met over cocktails the previous night in the hotel restaurant.

By 2:00, the big room was starting to fill up nicely, and by 2:45 there were people seated at every table, with more still arriving. It actually took until about 3:10 to finish registering the last of the guests, and then the doors were closed -- and it was time to start.

Dean and Dayna walked out onto the stage together.

“Good afternoon, everyone. I’m Dean Coultridge.”

“And I’m his smarter twin, Dayna.” That brought a laugh. “Welcome to the first-ever family reunion for all living descendants of Nora Ludlow. For the record, there are 529 of us here today, and that’s almost exactly half of all the known living descendants we’ve managed to track. At some point during the day, please take some time to visit the family tree displayed on those boards… (she gestured towards the right-hand wall) …and let us know if there are any people you know of whose names are missing. We’d appreciate that help very much.”

Dean took up the thread again. “As many of you will certainly have guessed by now, this is not going to be just a normal family reunion because ours isn’t just a normal family. During the course of the weekend, we’re going to share some important things we’ve learned that we feel you have a right to know as well.”

As he was saying this, Dean glanced at the back of the room. Sure enough, there were Alek Wolter, the blonde woman, and three others. They had spread out across the back of the room and were standing by the wall like statues, not moving, not speaking. He kept an eye on them as the opening presentation continued with Dayna now speaking.

“Of course, the key to what makes this family so memorable is the aspect which all of us share, but which few of us have ever felt comfortable sharing with anyone else.” As she was saying this, she was walking down off the stage and out into the body of the hall. “Isn’t that right, Dean?”

“Absolutely.” As he said it, he suddenly stood there beside her.

“Dean, I told you to bring me a glass of water when you joined me.”

“Sorry, Dayna.”

She held out her hand and a glass of water appeared in it. By now the audience was definitely chuckling, seeing these two so casually and openly displaying what so many of them had so long struggled to keep hidden. Dayna took a sip of water, and then continued.

“We want you to meet the rest of our group of seven, as we call ourselves, because all seven of us have worked together to reach the point where we could call this reunion together. First of all, our mother, Deidra.”

Deidra walked graciously out on stage, acknowledged the applause, and then blinked – and Dean and Dayna were standing right beside her on the stage again.

Dean protested. “Mom, have I ever told you how annoying it is when you keep yanking me back to stand beside you as if I were still 5 years old?”

The chuckles had become roars of laughter.

“Next up,” Dayna went on, “our good friend Jaysen Macaleister and his partner, Maʻafu-ʻo-limuloa Limohi.” Peter’s face lit up with a broad smile as she pronounced his traditional ancestral name to perfection, leaving him free to step forward with his usual tag line, “But just call me Peter – everyone does, even my family.”

Dean went on. “This is my partner, Giuseppe Florenzi, known to one and all as….”

“Joey.” He waved and bestowed a broad, dazzling smile on the crowd.

Dayna finished off the introductions. “And here’s my partner, Wade Austed. Go, fellows!”

On that cue, the four who could do it suddenly reappeared in four quadrants of the room. Dayna, Deidra, and Jaysen remained on the stage.

Then Dayna added, “Oh, and before I forget, meet Errol.”

Jaysen instantly changed into the taller, heavier, older, more muscular, and definitely blacker Errol -- to loud gasps from the audience. It was definitely the rarest of the shifting abilities, and Jaysen had found a most dramatic way of drawing attention to himself. Dean was keeping an eye on Wolter the entire time and noticed precisely the moment when he moved slowly towards the doors of the hall.

At that, Dean popped back onto the stage, and said, “Okay, now you’ve met all of us, and seen the special shifting abilities each of us got. It’s time for all of you to get up and mingle, get around, meet your distant cousins, and share notes and experiences with each other. We want this to be a fun time, because what’s a family reunion without some fun time for social interactions? Just one thing: we’re going to give you about half an hour, maybe a bit more, because we have some more serious information to share with you after this. So when you hear this sound….” Dean held up a compressed-air foghorn and the raucous blare filled the hall. “When you hear that, please return to your present seats by absolutely the quickest method possible – if you know what I mean.” He winked broadly, and the audience responded with a roar of laughter.

It was working perfectly. Alek Wolter had his hand on the door handle. He was playing right into the trap which they had set for him.

“And on the count of three, it’s social time! One… two… three… GO!”

All over the hall, people leaped to their feet, vanished, reappeared, vanished again. Drinks and snacks were disappearing off tables and reappearing who knew where. A hubbub of excited voices and laughter filled the air, and the reunion was off to a roaring start.

Alek Wolter yanked the door open, and the half-dozen news videographers he had summoned poured into the hall, capturing the incredible spectacle on video. Wolter and his associates waited until the crowd and the videographers alike were preoccupied with the eye-popping activity all around them. Then they began moving in slow sinister fashion towards the edges of the crowd. Wolter was flexing his hands like a bandit getting ready to swipe a diamond necklace. That’s when Dean quickly sent out a high-energy thought: Dayna! NOW!

Dean watched from the stage as Wolter’s grim face suddenly dissolved into an expression of confusion. A plastic-wrapped steel cable had appeared out of nowhere, wrapping itself over and over with lightning-fast speed around his arms and body, then around his thighs, and then around his calves and ankles. At the same time, a thick cloth stuffed itself into his mouth, and then wrapped and tied itself around the back of his head. A pair of heavy-duty clamps then materialized, securing the loose ends to other parts of the cable – and in far less time than it takes to tell it, Wolter was pinioned. The red light behind his shirt was flashing frantically on and off, but there was nothing he could do.

Around the perimeter of the hall, his four associates were likewise trapped, wrapped, and gagged. No one in the hall paid any attention to them except for Dean, Dayna, and four other key people. Suddenly, with no warning, the five emissaries vanished. Nobody apart from the six people watching had even seen them. The videographers may have looked around for them afterwards, but that search was pointless. Wolter-and-company had been but now they were gone – to some other place altogether.

After another twenty minutes, Dean checked his watch and raised the foghorn. All the media cameras were still running, so the timing was perfect. He blasted the foghorn and, in the space of five seconds, three-quarters of the people in the hall were sitting down once again, with the rest making their way back to their tables briskly as their movement was not now blocked by the hundreds of others already seated.

“I hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did,” Dean said without a hint of irony. “We’ll have other opportunities for you to meet each other through the rest of the weekend. For now, though, we need to have a slightly more serious talk with you. At this point, I’m asking the videographers to kindly leave the hall. You’ve gotten some splendid footage, I’m sure, but we have other and more private matters which we need to discuss now.” He waited for the journalists to leave, and then went on. “I’m going to get Joey to join me for this part, since the story really begins with him.”

Joey took up the thread, talking briefly about his unhappy earlier life, his first meeting with Dean where he sensed a kind of connection, their subsequent second meeting and his realization that there was indeed a connection, and that he wasn’t the only person in the whole crazy world who shared this kind of weird ability – and how that discovery transformed his own view of life. “All of you who shared a similar kind of liberated feeling on making the same discovery, please raise your hands.” Easily four-fifths of the hands went up.

Dean then narrated how they had first heard the voice and went on to retell the subsequent occasions when the voice had spoken to them. He paused briefly, to ask how many other people had heard a similar voice in their bodies. This time, the number of hands raised was smaller, but still scattered widely throughout the huge crowd.

Dayna now described the research they had done, and the discoveries they had made, step by step, ending with the most startling one of all – that Peter might share their abilities, but he was not a descendant of Nora Ludlow. That brought a number of gasps. As Dean and Dayna had both rightly guessed, they weren’t the only family researchers in the crowd – but all had fallen into the same error of assuming that Nora had been the only progenitor of the “shifters,” as they now routinely thought of themselves.

It was time. Dean now explained in detail what the voice had said to them on the last occasion they had heard it, and how they now knew that there were seven forebears. “We weren’t told, but we assume that the seven were geographically spread around the globe – perhaps one each for North and South America, one for Europe, one for north and west Asia, one for south and east Asia, one for Africa, and one for Australia and Oceania – or something of that sort.

“We know this much for certain, at least, that Peter’s ancestor was born in Tonga the same year as Nora was born here in Chicago, and we guess that whatever happened to them occurred at birth, or at least at some point before they reached puberty – that would be somewhere in between 1890 and, say, 1912 – give or take a bit. We’re also quite sure that the voice we have heard must also have spoken to our seven forebears, since Nora herself told her granddaughter, when she was asked about the special abilities, ‘You’ll have to ask the Starman.’ Since then, the abilities to shift appear to have spread entirely by the blood line. If that’s true in our case, it would seem logical that it should also be true in the lines of the other six originals.”

Dayna picked up the thread. “The voice appears to represent some kind of overarching intelligence, so advanced as to be free of the need for a physical self, whose mission is to shepherd the growth of intelligence throughout the universe. We here, all of us, are the product of an experiment by which this intelligence hopes that humanity may become ready to move to the next and higher stage of its development.

“One thing we feel quite certain to be true: the owner of the voice has been watching and supervising us all our lives, and we are sure that this greater intelligence is thoroughly aware and knowledgeable about every single person in this room, and all the others who are not here.

“One other important point which we have clearly noted: the voice informs us, advises us, suggests our course of action, but never threatens or compels us to do anything. We all remain free agents, with complete liberty to choose our own direction. We have also heard the voice state, more than once, that the highest value we should seek for ourselves is the value of compassion. And to us it seems completely clear that compassion necessarily must be the polar opposite of compulsion.”

Dean spoke again. “In that spirit, I must pass on to you a warning which the voice gave us, a warning about the emissaries of a spirit of negation and evil which will seek to disrupt our progression by any means possible. Since this evil intelligence cannot, like the one which speaks to us, directly intervene in the actions of humanity, it has to send emissaries in the shape of humans. You can recognize them by the tiny flashing red light which appears here,” as he gestured to his heart. “It is their communication link with the power which has sent them. They are strong, but they have no other powers beyond those shared by every human. That gives us an advantage in avoiding them – for avoid them we must. If one of those emissaries touches us, we will lose our special powers and be deleted from the experiment. But we will also be deleted if we use force to injure or kill them, since the use of dangerous force is also the negation of compassion.”

Deidra now spoke. “We’re going to give you some time now to discuss these matters amongst yourselves, and to sort out your feelings about what we have told you. We have shared with you what we know. We’re acutely aware that there is still far more that we do not know. We’ll be moving around the hall as you talk. Feel free to flag us down for any advice or questions.”

The meeting now moved into a kind of more serious, seminar-like mode -- a world removed from the earlier joyous free-for-all. All of the seven were moving around in different areas of the hall, giving people a chance to seek clarification from them. The more open-ended format gave Dean a chance to talk to Dayna for a minute.

“So, what happened to Wolter and company?”

“They’re fine. We dropped them off, safe and sound.”

“Dropped them off? Dayna?” It was the same penetrating tone in which their mother had once addressed them when trying to find out which of her two mischievous toddlers had gotten into the cookie jar.

“After Lex, Theo, Andrea, and I got them all neatly trussed up, Julie shifted them off to Pitcairn Island.”

“Dayna! Seriously?”

“Yup. Nice remote location. Very quiet and peaceful. Should take them quite a while to make their way back to civilization from there.”

“I always knew you had a dangerous, devious mind, dear sister! Anyway, neat work, getting all those cables and clamps ready for them and then finding several other people who could shift those things and wrap them up so quickly.”

After another hour, the foghorn called everyone back to order. This time, it was Jaysen and Peter  who rose to speak, Peter going first.

“The most significant thing that has happened to the seven of us has been the discovery of a new ability, the ability to speak to each other in our thoughts. For most of us, it arrived after a moment of major shock, or major emotional upheaval. At first, we were hearing each other’s voices speaking in clear words, inside our heads, but now we have found that even our thought processes fly between us at lightning-fast speeds. Some of you may well find yourselves developing such an ability after the events of this weekend, and if you do, we’d certainly be happy to discuss it with you. The important thing to remember if you do is that it’s a kind of secure channel – since our enemies, the evil emissaries, lack this ability.”

Then Jaysen took up the challenge of wrapping the afternoon session. “You may not have noticed earlier on that we were being filmed, but by now – if you check your phones or tablets – you will see that we are front-page news all over the planet. You may very well want to discuss during dinner how you may consider dealing with this when you return home, as there’s a very good chance that one or more people you know will see you in the news videos.

“This is undoubtedly more than you bargained for, and for that we apologize. We did not summon the news media here – that was the work of the enemy emissaries which Dean described for you earlier – but in actual fact it squares exactly with the mission which the voice laid out for us the last time it spoke: that it was time to reveal our presence to the world.

“In the end, we feel certain that the mere fact that there are so many of us – many thousands more than are here, remember – makes it even more essential than ever before for us not to cower or hide in shadow any longer. We are who we are, and it’s time for us to stop hiding and live our lives openly. We owe that equally to our ancestors and to our children!”

There was loud applause and enthusiastic cheering, but also some noises of disagreement. Then everyone was asked to vacate the room for an hour so the hotel staff could set the tables for dinner.

The seven got together for a quick moment before dinner was served. Dayna had a chance then to update the others on how Wolter and the other emissaries had been neutralized and removed from the scene without any harm. Everyone congratulated her on the neatness of her plan.

During the meal, there were no more speeches, but there were many animated conversations, and those continued long past dinner around the bar in the anteroom. It was plain that the clan were – for the most part – ready and willing to deal with the fallout from the very public revelation of their abilities which was even now roaring all around the world’s media. Time would tell how well that readiness would hold once the ensuing firestorm burst upon them.

 

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by daddybear54

[daddybear54]

Chapter 13:  The Explosion

 

Sunday morning dawned bright and early, but the boys regained consciousness somewhat later, after what had undoubtedly been a tiring and emotionally intense day.

It was Joey who slowly recovered consciousness first, becoming aware of a continuous dull roar of noise which had certainly not been there before. Then came sirens, and those woke him up all the way. He got out of bed and staggered slowly over to the window, parting the curtains slightly to look out.

What he saw sent him racing back to the bed to shake Dean wide awake.

“Whaa… wha the….”

“Dean, get up now!”

“Wha the big rush?”

“I’m telling you, get out of bed and come over here!”

Dean staggered over to the window in much the same fashion as Joey had done a few moments earlier. He looked out, shook his head, looked again.

“Oh, shit.”

North Clark Street outside the hotel was clogged from side to side by protesters. Signs and banners waved in the air. Voices shouted through megaphones. Police cars stood at the fringes of the crowd, the officers trying to force their way through towards the doors of the hotel. More police arrived as they were watching.

They stepped back into the room, staring at each other.

“Did we do that?”

“I think we did.”

“I wasn’t expecting anything like this.”

“Dean, none of us were – but we probably should have been.”

With that, Joey sent out a thought at large: Anyone else seen what’s out there?

Dayna’s thought came in, with a forgivable edge of asperity. Finally, you’re here. We’ve been watching the show for the last hour or more, while we waited for you two and for Jaysen and Peter to clue in.

Where are you all?

Breakfast.

Give us half an hour and we’ll join you.

“Half an hour, princess? Seriously? You usually spend 3 times that pampering and primping every morning.”

“Very funny, Dean. High speed today. Shower and dress on the run.”

Half an hour later, they joined the other three in the restaurant. Jaysen and Peter arrived just moments after them.

Wade spoke first. “Well, everyone, we are definitely in for a rough ride. I took some pics of the protesters, then cropped and blew them up. Check out the signs.”

GAY CONSPIRACY

STOP TEMPTING OUR CHILDREN

SHIFTERS ARE Sarah Palin’S LEGION

KILL ALL SHIFTING FAGS

“Wow. Not much doubt about their feelings, is there?”

Dayna dared a question. “Are you fellows scared?”

Jaysen glanced at the others first, then replied. “This may seem scarier to you than it does to us because we’ve had this shit thrown at us all our lives. Sure, it’s scary – but it’s familiar turf.”

“I was thinking just that when I said to Dean a while ago that if we didn’t foresee this, we certainly should have,” Joey put in.

Jaysen went on. “And we have one huge advantage we didn’t have yesterday. Now that the whole world knows about us, there’s no need to keep cautioning ourselves not to use everything we have. Right?”

Everyone took a second to absorb that, and then nodded agreement. It was a pretty big adjustment to make after anything up to nearly fifty years (in Deidra’s case) of hiding an essential part of your life, your very self, from the wider world.

“A word of caution,” Joey put in. “We should maybe try to do a bit of simple experimenting before we make our move, because we have to plan on four of us moving three more who can’t move themselves around, plus bags.”

“And in case anyone’s thinking about it,” Deidra went on, “I’ve never moved more than two people at the same time – yesterday – and certainly not with additional personal belongings.”

“Okay, then,” Dayna said, “after we finish breakfast and I’ve gotten as much coffee as I want – and that will take a while -- we’ll go back to our rooms and try things out to see how it works.”

An hour later, packed and rehearsed, they were ready to leave for the airport. After checking out on the hotel’s app, they came downstairs and moved through the lobby towards the front door. The doorman moved to intercept them, plainly unwilling to unlock and open the entrance with the crowd still outside.

Just then a voice beyond the door screamed, “Here come those fucking faggot assholes now!”

The crowd surged towards the door. Each of the seven got a firm hand on the baggage. Wade grasped Dayna. Peter held Jaysen. Dean held Deidra, and Joey hung onto the extra bag with all the family tree information in it. The seven of them vanished….

…and promptly materialized in the living room of Dayna’s apartment in San Diego, where the sun was just tipping over the horizon.

There, they sat down and started studying the news apps on their phones. They’d hardly underestimated the danger they faced. There had been screaming crowds at both Chicago airports, and also at San Diego airport. Jaysen got a text message from a friend to tell him that his condo building, and the country club, were also besieged. The news apps were showing footage from various cities which indicated that the signs they’d seen in Chicago had been some of the milder ones.

A prominent political leader described the shifters as a “gay plague” that was going to take down the country, and angrily accused the president of being “soft on shifters.” His slogan was quickly picked up, repeated, and amplified by opposition leaders in a number of countries. Online preachers in various religions exhorted their followers to murder these satanic interlopers as quickly as possible, calling it a holy crusade to purify the world. Even the normally laconic Wade was stunned by the scorching, acidic outpouring of hate and venom directed at them, and at the larger gay community.

Before the day was out, several noted gay clubs were firebombed or otherwise attacked, resulting in seventy deaths. Two gays-only guest houses in Fort Lauderdale were torched. So was a gay-friendly hotel in Bangkok. More violence followed in the next few days, as the torrent of invective kept rising higher and higher. Official spokespeople of all sorts were unable to account for the vehemence and violence of the reaction. Even the representatives of various churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques gave statements, explaining that the angry behaviour and ferocious invective of their respective spiritual leaders was totally unexpected and uncharacteristic.

Then, on Thursday morning, the seven suddenly received a panicky thought from Deidra – the only one of them who lived alone.

 They’re here! In my apartment!!!

Dean immediately fired back. Where are you?

In the bathroom. The door’s locked but they’re breaking it down!

Coming, Mom!

Dean blinked, grabbed Deidra, and blinked again just as the door gave way.

Safely back in his home, he kept holding his terrified mother as she burst into hysterical tears, giving way to her terror. Dean and Joey both did their best to comfort and reassure her, but their efforts to calm her were less than effective as they were feeling far from serene themselves. As she was struggling to regain control, she had managed to sob out the words “…red…light…,” but neither Joey nor Dean picked up on it at that point.

That night the first demonstrators appeared outside their home in Carlsbad. They wasted no time, packing up and getting ready to move as the crowd grew and the chanting swiftly got uglier.

Dean couldn’t help feeling frustrated. They’d had that one brief afternoon of joy and freedom, one shining moment of openly being who they were in full, and now all of them, all the descendants of Nora Ludlow, were on the run and hiding out. He had no doubt that all the descendants of the other six originals were diving under cover as fast as they could go too. The sheer overpowering insanity of the reaction was eating away at all of them, reducing them to the instinctive flight-or-fight responses of hunted animals.

On Friday morning, the crowd began pushing towards the house, throwing rocks and shoving aside the police who’d been sent to maintain order. Peering out between the curtains of an upstairs window which now held only jagged fragments of glass, Dean saw at least a dozen flashing red lights through the clothes of various members of the crowd. He ran back downstairs.

“The emissaries are here! Time to move!”

As they were gathering their things, a dull explosion blew in the door and the mob swarmed in. Three of the leaders had the red lights seen through their clothes, and those three made a beeline for Dean, Joey, and Deidra. The three of them grasped each other and vanished.

But not soon enough. As soon as they landed in Dayna’s apartment and released each other, Joey flopped onto the sofa.

“He got me.”

Dean’s blood ran chill at those words.

“Who, Joey?”

“One of the emissaries. He managed to grab my arm just as we were disappearing. Good thing you were holding both of us.”

Dean felt his eyes getting wet. “Joey, Can you move… you know, shift yourself?”

Joey closed his eyes for a minute, and then opened them with a sad smile. “Only by standing up and walking.”

“NOOOOO!!!!”

Dean flung himself, sobbing, into Joey’s arms, holding him close, kissing him, desperately hoping that maybe it wasn’t too late, that maybe….

“Come on, Joey. We’re in this together, just like we always have been – just like we’ve always loved each other. I’m not giving up! You have to try, Joey. You have to try. Please, Joey, please don’t give in to the haters!”

He held Joey closer, harder, hugging him fiercely.

Suddenly, Joey laughed. “Dean, don’t crack my ribs – please!”

With that, he vanished, and reappeared a split second later.

Dean stared for a second – and then got angry. “Joey, that was NOT FUNNY!”

Joey hugged Dean, gently, and said, “Dean, I wasn’t joking. That emissary touched me, and I lost the power to shift. And then I felt it flowing back into me.”

Deidra looked puzzled. “But didn’t the voice tell us that it couldn’t be reversed?”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Actually,” Joey said slowly, “I think the voice said that they couldn’t reverse it. But apparently we can.”

Dean thought for a moment. “Maybe the emissary didn’t get a big enough or long enough grip to really kill it off, because he only had a split second of contact before we vanished.”

But Deidra said, “No, Dean. That’s not what Joey is telling you. Joey’s power was as dead as a doornail until you began hugging and kissing him. Remember what Joey said: ‘I felt it flowing back into me.’ The love between you two is a sight to behold. It’s rare and uncommon, and now I think we’ve seen that it’s also powerful.”

While they were puzzling over that, and Dean was busily kissing Joey again, out of sheer relief, Dayna – who was studying her phone – suddenly whistled in surprise, and said, “Hey, everyone, listen to this,” as she cranked up the volume.

“…a number of the crowd invaded the house, and then the entire mob fell silent and began to disperse, for no apparent reason. Carlsbad Police and other observers were at an absolute loss to explain this sudden ending of the mob attack on the home.”

Dean smiled grimly. We’re not at a loss. We can see now exactly what happened. The mob was inflamed and agitated by the emissaries. There were at least a dozen of them outside the house when I looked outside. Once they’d broken in and missed their chance to catch us, that mob served no further purpose for them.

Immediately, Deidra confirmed it. There was a red light in the group that broke into my place.

Now other voices, which they didn’t recognize, began flooding in.

That’s right. There were plenty of those little red lights in the mob at O’Hare.

I saw some of them outside the Riverview Grande.

Red lights in the crowd outside Parliament in London.

We saw them in Singapore.

So this whole international hysteria is being stirred up by the enemy evil intelligence.

Then, recognizably, Jaysen’s voice: They can’t stir it up without anything to work on. We all know that the seeds of this kind of hysteria have lain in humanity for centuries, for millennia. It never takes too much to set them going. But this absolute insanity is far beyond anything else in history.

And then, suddenly, so suddenly that it caught them all unawares, the room around them vanished and they were standing in a bare, white space, full of light. And the voice addressed them.

Now you have understood it all. The experiment is concluded.

A few minutes later, out in the wider world, every television, computer, tablet, and mobile phone screen went black while the following message scrolled up from the bottom, three times in all:

YOU HAVE SURRENDERED YOUR FREE WILL TO EVIL FOR THE LAST TIME.

YOU HAVE LOST YOUR FINAL CHANCE TO BREAK THE CYCLE OF HATE.

NOW YOU WILL LIVE WITH YOUR PETTY HATREDS FOREVER.

THE EXPERIMENT IS CONCLUDED.

 

Epilogue:  Ten Years Later

 

Dean and Joey strolled calmly, happily, along the streets of the city in the brilliant sunshine. It never ceased amazing them to look around, seeing all the beautiful buildings, trees, lakes, and gardens, and to realize that none of it was any more than a decade old.

When they’d first arrived, there’d been nothing to see. But as their minds got to work on it, along with the ten thousand others, and with the considerable help of the owners of the voice, the city had quickly come into being. Everything was spacious, everything was new and lovely, and it was the most peaceful city they’d ever seen.

There was, after all, no need for vehicles. Upon arrival, all of the ten thousand had received all of the shifting powers which they hadn’t previously owned, as well as the full power of mental communication. Now, travelling anywhere was done, quite literally, in the blink of an eye. Peacefulness was a natural condition for other reasons too. Problems, which were rare, were sorted out faster than it takes to tell it, since their shared thought processes and shared experiences gave all of the population of the city a wonderful basis for unanimity of outlook and community of caring.

Some of the immigrants’ habits had caused a certain degree of puzzlement. The Tarkhulians had stared in blank astonishment at such activities as Dean, Jaysen, Joey, and Peter grinding out laps in the large swimming pool, really a sizable natural lake with a side area equipped with lane lines. This was not an activity the Tarkhulians had ever undertaken themselves, but some of them quickly found it to their liking.

On the other hand, since Tarkhulians reproduced by subdividing, they found the romantic and sexual habits of the newcomers both baffling and amusing. However, they did share the natural bent towards compassion with their new neighbours, so they politely concealed their bafflement and amusement.

It would never have stopped any of the six younger members of the group from expressing their feelings for each other in the natural, human way. Dean in particular was humbled by the love of his Joey. When he thought how nearly he’d come to losing Joey, he knew that he would never have been able to leave him behind and would have abandoned this Utopian future to stay on Earth with Joey, if it had come to that.

None of the thousands of incomers had ever forgotten that day of decision when they had suddenly found themselves all standing in that bare, white space, filled with light, while the voice explained to them that they had been removed temporarily, for their own safety, from normal space and time – and that the experiment was being concluded because the population of Earth was not ready to abandon its inherent tribalism and factionalism in favour of embracing truly the ideals of community.

The voice had gone on to offer them a choice, of your own free will, of course, to either remain on Earth for good or to make the great leap forward into the next stage of being, in which case they would be removed to a new home. Those who chose to stay behind would lose their shifting powers.

Tarkhuli is a planet of similar size, orbiting a similar sun, with near-identical gravity and a comparable atmosphere. The inhabitants are similar to you in many ways, and both compassionate and friendly, so you need have no fear of them. They have already advanced to the next stage successfully. We can help you in every way to adapt to this new environment, and to rebuild as much of your lives as you desire in a more welcoming society. You will never have to fear the emissaries again as they have no power to intervene in worlds where the next state of development has already been achieved.

We can also assure you that, should you choose to reach this stage, one and all of you will be part of us already, and you will be earmarked to become more fully a part of us when your natural physical lifespan draws to its close. This will also hold true for your children, and for their descendants. There is no falling back from this advancement.

Armed with that reassurance, the vast majority of Nora’s descendants, and the descendants of the other six originals, hadn’t hesitated for a second. The ones who stayed behind, predictably, were the few like Jaysen’s father and sisters who had used their abilities in malicious ways to increase their own sense of power. Those who were ready to make the transition could now see, more clearly than ever before, the futility and absurdity of thinking that their pathetic little attempts at manipulation of their fellows constituted any sort of true power at all.

Freed from the stresses of life on Earth, not least from its assorted diseases and biting critters, the descendants of the seven originals found that life on Tarkhuli was altogether easier, smoother, more healthful, and more fulfilling. The incomers, freed from the need to earn a living, were able to devote themselves to whatever activities or interests they found most interesting or absorbing.

The Seven from San Diego, as they still thought of themselves, had all remained close, a family still, even in their totally changed circumstances. Indeed, they’d planned and created a house in which there was adequate space for all of them to have their own private areas, but also a large common space where they could come together. That big common room saw some noisy celebrations at the birth of Dayna’s and Wade’s twin daughters, Nora and Nina. While all of the seven were enthralled by the new arrivals in the family, Deidra always claimed the lion’s share of cuddling time as their grandmother.

The love between Dean and Joey, in all its intensity, continued to amaze their fellow migrants. It was the voice, though, which got in the last word on that subject.

Although we are very powerful, we are certainly not all-powerful or all-knowing. When Dean pulled Joey back from the loss of his experimental powers, we became aware of their love as a force that was strong enough to upset all the rules as we then thought them to be. Even with our eons-old communal intelligence, we are constantly reminded of the most essential knowledge of all: that there are always new lessons to be learned.

 

 

[BoYGaSM]

What a great friggin story!!   Once in a while I stumble upon these amazing pieces of literature that truly  capture my attention and really gets my imagination going, this is one of them!  I'm blown away by the talent the creativity, and the willingness to share it with people freely...  such selflessness and generosity that I felt I needed to commend and say,

"THANK YOU, I SINCERELY MEAN IT AND THOUGH I FEEL THE SAME FOR MOST EVERYONE WHO HAS SHARED THEIR STORIES, I FEEL ESPECIALLY GRATFUL I AM PRIVIED TO YOURS AND THOSE FEW OTHERS WHO ARE ON ANOTHER LEVEL!"

I'll end with this interesting discovery with regard to my behavior (or maybe lack of lol) while reading the stories that fall into the category of which, in my eyes, warranted the writing of this post.  I noticed that I rarely, if at all, stroke a long with these specific stories (unless of course the heated parts are so crazy like other stories here where it's the main body of the entire thing), I think it's because I'm pulled into something much bigger, like it's the wHOLE story that tells so much more (dare I say, like a novel). And I think that says something!  CLEARLY, as it seems to have caused me to randomly take action and ramble in this post about this story which was the tipping point of reading enough of these pieces of literature to just keeeeeeeeep typing lol.  ok enough....  I may also be kinda high as well at the moment  HAHA

Like what it did there with "wHOLE"?  Being an insatiable hungry bottom I just couldn't help myself LOL

-- Peace Out Girl Scout --

BoYGaSM

[PG1961Canada]

Most excellent... start to finish.  Loved the various themes within and what a great concept.... we all still have a lot to learn.

Thanks @daddybear54 for a fine adventure!

[daddybear54]

4 hours ago, PG1961Canada said:

Most excellent... start to finish.  Loved the various themes within and what a great concept.... we all still have a lot to learn.

Thanks @daddybear54 for a fine adventure!

Thanks so much for the positive feedback!