A Scripta

Captain Degenerate settled his cape over his shoulders and tapped the top of his huge hat down. Gwinnett thought he looked stupid, but he didn’t dare express it. As a matter of fact, as soon as he thought it, he shoved it aside, knowing Cap would be able to read his mind. Cap gave him a look, and Gwinnett looked sheepish.

“I look like a ringmaster,” Cap said to Gwinnett. “It’s what’s expected.”

“Yes, sir,” Gwinnett said quietly. You still look stupid.

I haven’t heard any complaints yet, came Cap’s voice in his mind.

Because they know better—

Cap yanked on Gwinnett’s mind, hard, like a man pulling back on a dog’s leash. Gwinnett’s body jerked and he stumbled, quickly regaining his footing as a good mercenary could. Compared to other times, this was nothing but an assertion of Cap’s authority.

“I thought you would be better at guarding your thoughts, Gwin,” Cap said, walking by him nonchalantly. “You need to practice more.”

“Yes, sir.”

Cap pulled open the door to see his bodyguards at the ready. He continued on, and they fell into step behind him. Cap skimmed their thoughts, and they all thought he looked stupid too. He didn’t care – he was the one in control here, and if he wanted to prove to them who was boss, all he had to do was send a commanding thought to them, and they would go do the Chicken Dance naked in front of a hundred people.

He parted the curtain to his balcony, and the throng of people in the arena slowly hushed. His balcony looked out on a stage, and surrounding this stage was arena seating. He only passed out a hundred tickets at a time, and most of the time, the arena was full. This was no exception.

He raised his arms, the cape falling away from his shoulders. “Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Granny Mae, who will perform feats of amazement for a woman of her age.”

The curtain to the stage opened, and a woman was sitting on a chair, a cane beside her. She looked terrified. Cap sent soothing thoughts to her, and her face relaxed.

Stand.

The woman stood, and reached for her cane.

You don’t need that.

He pressed a button on his console, and a jazzy tune erupted from the speakers all around.

Dance.

He met resistance. I can’t dance, haven’t danced since—

He pushed it. DANCE.

She started moving slowly side to side, carefully picking her steps.

Faster.

He continually ordered her to move faster and faster, very much out of time with the music, to the roar of laughter from the audience. Finally, she collapsed, exhausted. He chuckled, and forced her again to stand up, defying the pain that her body sent to her, overriding her exhaustion.

This is fucking stupid…

He caught onto that thought, and grabbed onto the thinker. A man in the audience. Perfect.

Join her on stage.


Fuck you, I’m with this broad—

Do it, he commanded, and the man jerked up from his seat in the middle of the auditorium. Usually Cap didn’t do this to paying customers, but Cap thought his performance was going along fine. Now they would learn.

He was a squat, heavy-set man, balding and in a green suit – obviously Family. He half-stumbled, half-walked to the stage, and it took him a while to climb up on it, to the laughter of the audience. Cap didn’t tell him about the stairs to the side.

Finally, the man had gotten up on stage. He looked at the woman, who again had a terrified look on her face.

Cap smoothed her thoughts, and at the same time commanded the Family man, You find her unbelievably desirable. She is the most beautiful woman you have ever seen. She’s so hot, you can’t help yourself…

The Family man advanced, undoing his pants. He started toward her – and Cap again smoothed the thoughts of fear in the woman’s mind. Cheering started from somewhere in the audience, and was taken up quickly. He initially was gentle, then turned brutal, tearing the woman’s clothes away, and forcing her over the chair. When he finished, the beating started, until the woman wasn’t even recognizable as a human, but a mere lump of flesh.

Cap congratulated the man on a job well done, and released his mind. The man collapsed half-naked on the floor in a pool of blood, and Cap smiled at the look of horror on the man’s face. Skimming the minds of the audience, he found everything from revulsion to adoration to fear. He raised his hands in benediction, glorifying in the applause from the people below. Then he left the arena the same way he came, with the bodyguards following his every move.

There was an after-performance party which he was required to attend. He thoroughly enjoyed that, easily reading the minds of all and sometimes causing some distractions with other people in a corner. He could hold onto two minds, sometimes three if they were receptive, and still hold a conversation. The party usually ended with two or more women coming home with him.

He got out of his costume and into his suit. Gwinnett stood by, waiting.

“I believe next week I want a PPDer in full uniform,” Cap said, buttoning his shirt.

“Do you want that man we found for you?”

Cap waved his hand in dismissal. “No, too complicated. He’s a psi, and it would take too long to control him. Why go after the alpha when you can pick off the thetas and get just as much meat out of them? I need something that can stop his telekinesis. Some kind of psychic armor, perhaps.”

Cap finished buttoning up his jacket, and looked at himself in the mirror. He nodded, and walked out of his dressing room to be accosted immediately by fans.