The shuttle ride up from the surface was probably one of the most uncomfortable things Joey had experienced in his 18 years. Having studied the history of mankind’s space travels, he was aware that astronauts had had to endure much worse in the years before contragrav technology.

The shuttle had been bad enough with the loud noises and violent jostling, leaving Joey with the feeling that his insides had been scrambled. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would have felt like to, essentially, be shot into the sky on the back of a glorified pyrotechnic.

Considering how contragrav trains and vehicles felt on the ground, it stood to reason that Xastra, the company that had built the "innovative" Park-Mollier contragrav launch system, would bill their platform as smooth and comfortable. It was a pile of bullshit from Joey’s perspective. It was one thing to suspend a train over a track and a car a few feet off the ground. It was another thing entirely to get a multi-tonne hunk of metal off the planet.

Regardless of his misgivings about Xastra, Joey had had no choice. A ticket on a Xastra shuttle was still the cheapest way to get off-planet, so he had to suck it up. Still, he did feel a bit of vindication at having his skepticism confirmed. Smooth and comfortable his ass. The launch had felt exactly like what he had imagined crawling into a tumble-dryer would.

Now that the shuttle was in space, though, the ride was much smoother. Joey unbuckled his seat harness and pushed off into the cabin. Despite it being his first time in zero gravity, he didn’t feel in the least bit queasy as he pulled himself along the cabin toward one of the viewing windows at the sides.

As the shuttle adjusted its course, the Earth came into view outside the viewing window. For all the conflicts and crises that the small blue planet down below had had to endure in the last few centuries, it still looked profoundly beautiful.

Seeing his home planet for the first time from so far away, bathed in the warm light of the sun, seemingly absent all the scars that humanity had left on the surface, filled Joey with a strange sense of hope. It was an optimism that he could only pray wasn’t misplaced.

Joey knew that humanity hadn’t quite grown out of its selfishness, its shortsightedness, but things could have turned out so much worse. The fact that the Earth was a beautiful blue-and-green still instead of being a gray wasteland was testament to the fact that at the very least, mankind had matured, somewhat, as a species.

The climate crisis had been reversed by an unprecedented level of cooperation between the nations of the world. Or at least, that was what the history books said. It had been proof that mankind could achieve so much if it put aside its differences.

Sure, the unity and prosperity that had followed the resolution of the crisis hadn’t lasted for very long, but the seed had been planted. People knew the potential of humanity now, had proven it. But old habits were hard to break, and it would take a lot more to get that little seed of good to grow.

Joey wanted to help nurture that seed. Maybe it would have been best to stay planet-side for that, but the education that he needed could only be found elsewhere. It wasn’t like he’d wanted to leave, but there had simply been no choice.

At the very least, once he was done in Selene City, Joey knew he could make the trip back and use what he had learned to help the people who really needed it. There was nothing certain, of course. But he had to hope.

As he turned away from the window, Joey saw something strange out of the corner of his vision. A bright blue reptilian eye with a slit for the pupil was staring right out of where his right eye should have been. He flinched in surprise, bringing his fingers up to his face. But when he blinked, his right eye had returned to normal.

The sight had been strange, but Joey was well aware that it wasn’t uncommon to see things on your first trip into space. He dismissed the eye as a brief hallucination. It was the only reasonable explanation. He was reasonably certain he wasn’t part-reptile.

Slowly, Joey maneuvered himself back to his seat. He strapped himself down and looked around the cabin. There weren’t many other passengers, and those that were there looked like business-types who had done this many times. Hardly anything was familiar about the situation, but Joey figured that was for the best.

Joey didn’t know what to expect of the Commonwealth or the people living in it. He had heard stories, read articles about them in the books, and seen them portrayed in the media, but he wasn’t naive enough to believe that it was all accurate. Whatever the case was, he looked forward to learning about them.

---

Supers. People endowed with preternatural powers either from technology, magic, or some strange quirk of genetics. Despite having lived on the freaking moon for well on two weeks now, the role of supers in every day life in Selene City was still the biggest culture shock for Joey.

It wasn’t that there were no supers planet-side. Joey had grown up knowing that there were people out there with powers and abilities he could only dream about. Gifts straight out of the comic books. But planet-side, governments were very wary about supers, do-gooders and ne’er-do-wells alike.

As such it was a major surprise for Joey to find that Selene City was protected by a squad of supers who had the support of the government. Joey had never seen more than a glimpse of the supers, themselves, but their influence was everywhere. Merchandise. Drinks named after them. Monuments immortalizing important moments of heroism.

More importantly was the intangible effect of the supers’ presence. Planet-side, even living in as enlightened a city as New Vancouver, Joey would have never deigned to stay out past midnight or walk past certain neighborhoods for fear of his life.

But there was none of that in Selene City. Petty crime was pretty much non-existent. There were no alleyways to avoid, no neighborhoods to skirt around. People walked through parks and courtyards, even well past midnight, and had no reason to fear for their lives. It took some time to get used to, but Joey loved it.

It was more than just being able to walk around the city at any time feeling safe. It was being able to see and feel all the good that was being done. The experience was profound, and certainly more than Joey had expected when he had first made his mind up about coming to Selene City to study.

This was the kind of atmosphere that Joey wanted to help build planet-side. Cities that were virtually free of crime, where you could go anywhere, at any time of day, and not have to worry about being mugged, robbed, or shot.

But as much as Joey admired what the Hall of Heroes had been able to do in Selene City and, apparently, much of the commonwealth, he was also well aware that the prosperity came with a price. Sure, crime was at an all-time low, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t any crime.

The only criminals that prospered under the watchful eye of the Hall were the smart ones. The effective ones. The powerful ones. With supers guarding and enforcing the law, it culled the ranks of the criminal underground, leaving only the best of the best to carry on the dirty work.

Joey also knew that where super heroes went, super villains followed. Not even the most intelligent mafia boss could stand toe to toe against a hero that flung shards of ice from his fingertips, but a villain who could conjure fire could meet him blow for blow.

In his two weeks, Joey hadn’t experienced a super villain attack, but from what he understood it was only a matter of time. Apparently the attacks could range from relatively uneventful to downright catastrophic. It was the price, Joey supposed, that Selene City paid for being so safe most of the time.

---

The day of his adaptive botany midterm was the day that Joey saw and encountered his first super villain. The day had started out bad enough with him missing his first alarm and having to run toward the lecture hall without showering, brushing his teeth, or having breakfast.

Barely doding a razor-sharp wedge of ice that had been lobbed at him marked the point where Joey’s day went from bad to significantly worse. He was uninjured, but he hadn’t escaped the attack unscathed. The ice had caught on one of the straps of his backpack and had near-cleanly cut through. As it was, only a few tenuous threads kept the strap together.

"Get out of my way…" said the villain, in a quiet, hoarse voice that Joey somehow heard clearly despite standing a good distance away. "I don’t have any trouble with you… I don’t want Rime’s first victim to be an innocent."

It was an opening. Every instinct in Joey’s head told him to turn tail and run as fast as he could. He wasn’t a super. He had no powers. Hell, he had no combat skills or training whatsoever. The chances of him surviving the encounter if he didn’t do exactly as Rime said were slim to none.

And yet there was a small part of Joey, the part that had always liked to think he would be heroic and noble should the circumstances call for it, that kept him from running.

Joey didn’t know why he did it, but he stood his ground. Maybe it was the fact that there were other people in danger, other lives at stake. Or maybe it was because he saw something human in Rime. The "villain" looked like any other student at the academy, except maybe more haggard, more sleep-deprived. Rime looked more lost and angry than evil.

The damaged backpack fell to the ground with a quiet thump as Joey shrugged it off. He could feel a nervous energy tingling under his skin. He felt tense. Apprehensive. But his mind was calm. Tranquil, even. It was strange.

Joey was so used to overthinking everything, to his thoughts going a mile a minute, making it hard to concentrate on anything. It usually took a lot of effort to keep his attention on any one thing, but right now the world felt like it was in crystal clear focus.

There was a moment of silence as Joey and Rime faced each other. Neither of them moved and Joey used that time to really take a good look at the guy standing opposite him.

Rime was handsome in an unconventional way. Pretty, rather than rugged. His short blond hair was mussed up in a way that would have framed his sharp, intense features nicely, were his eyes not red and his cheeks puffy.

Frozen tracks of tears went from the corners of Rime’s eyes to his chin. Mist, condensing from the air, dripped from Rime’s frost-covered fingers.

Rime looked sad. So sad. Tired, too. But his eyes also burned with anger. Beyond that. Fury. It was the look of someone who had snapped. Someone who had been pushed to the breaking point and had had no choice but to change dramatically. Somehow, Joey knew that there wouldn’t be much of a point to talking.

Despite his lack of skill and training, Joey felt his body settle into a defensive stance. Even though he really had no idea what he was doing, it felt like something that he had done a thousand times before. It was muscle memory, almost. The only thing was that Joey had no idea where or how he would have developed it.

Out of the corner of his eye, Joey spotted movement on Rime. There was a ripple of motion down Rime’s arm as Rime slung his hand forward, a sharp spear of ice coalescing from thin air as he did so.

Joey felt a prickle of something in the back of his mind and a heartbeat later he felt his body launch into a maneuver that he could have never even dreamed of accomplishing. He took a step forward and spun to the right, doding the spear of ice that had been lobbed with superhuman speed, right before ducking under a cleaver-blade of ice that whirled through the air where his head had been.

Joey’s eyes were wide as he took a moment to breathe. He had no idea what he was doing or how he was doing it. But he didn’t have time to think. He dodged left to evade another jagged spear of ice and had scarcely skidded to a halt before having to roll out of the way of a hail of ice shards that embedded themselves in the pavement where he had been half a second ago.

The intense action left Joey breathing a little hard as he came to a three-point stop. He had one knee, one foot, and one hand on the ground, every bit like the stereotypical super hero. He looked at his hand for a moment, amazed at what he had managed to do.

A moment was all that Joey got to recuperate. He lunged forward, propelling himself along the ground on all fours as he dodged left and right, ducking under and jumping over the frosty projectiles that were being flung at him as he tried to close the distance between him and Rime.

A strange sensation in his hands and feet forced Joey to stop. His hands dug into the paving stones, sharp talons sinking into the stone like it was butter. Glimmering blue scales covered the backs of his hands, while the underside of his fingers and his palm had grown a thick protective hide.

Joey’s socks and shoes were a ruined mess a few feet behind him, his feet having transformed into large reptilian hind feet with claws every bit as sharp as the talons on his fingers. The only reason that Joey had enough time to gawk at the changes in his body was because Rime had chosen to do the same thing.

The ceasefire didn’t last for very long. Soon enough, Joey was dodging projectiles again. But he was gaining ground. He was closing in on his quarry. But then Rime seemed to realize that it was possible to conjure more with ice than just projectile weapons.

A frozen wall, so cold that mist flowed down its sides, coalesced out of thin air in front of Joey. He skidded along the ground and banged his shoulder right into the thick wall, knocking loose a block of ice that fell to the ground and shattered with a loud crack.

The wall was too wide to go around without losing time, and much too thick to break through. But after only a moment’s indecision, Joey decided to let his new instincts guide him and he scrambled up the side of the wall.

The thick hide that protected the pads of his hands and feet protected him from the cold, and his sharp claws let him climb the slippery ice easily. He made it to the top in no time, and felt another wave of transformation wash over him.

Joey could feel the muscles in his legs getting bigger, getting denser. Still letting his instincts guide him, he braced himself against the top of the wall, his entire body coiling for action. With a loud, guttural grunt, he sprang off the ice.

Using the wall as a launching-off point allowed Joey to close a significant amount of the gap between him and Rime. Somehow, as he approached the pavement, his arms and legs knew just how to hit the pavement to launch him right back into a full sprint.

As he relished the feeling of the wind whipping past his face, Joey noticed the way that the world around him seemed to take on a bluish tint. He could suddenly see details that would have escaped him before. He could see the individual twigs hidden in the trees that lined the walkways of the academy, the finer patterns of the bark.

Everything seemed brighter and sharper, at least for a moment. Then, Joey felt that prickling sensation in the back of his mind yet again. The whole world seemed to darken. Time itself seemed to slow down. Lightning flashed across the suddenly-dark sky as an enormous reptilian form descended from on high.

The dragon, seemingly made out of lightning, incandescent with power, swooped down from the heavens and landed in front of Joey with a loud thud. "Thou art the heir of my power, youngling" said the creature, its loud voice booming like a clap of thunder in Joey’s ears. "Allow me to show thee a taste of what thou can do."

In that moment, Joey recognized that the prickling sensation in the back of his mind was this creature’s presence. Its consciousness. He let it into his mind, allowed the power to course through his veins. He growled, feeling stronger than ever before. He was mighty. Powerful. Nigh-invulnerable.

Joey growled as he felt the bones in his body crack and shift, aligning themselves to a new shape. His face grew long, his mouth and nose extending into a maw lined with vicious teeth. A hot, burning sensation under his skin preceded the scales bursting out as he grew.

From a meager five feet and eight inches, Joey soared to nearly twelve feet in height. At the very least, his head, perched on its sinuous neck, was held twelve feet up off the ground.

Joey’s entire body felt thick and corded with muscle, covered with nigh-impenetrable scales. He stomped first one large foreleg, and then the other, rearing his head back to let loose a long, low bellow that sounded like a rumbling storm.

The loud roar made Rime look back over his shoulder. The "villain" tripped over his own feet as his eyes widened in shock. Joey couldn’t blame the guy. He understood, instinctively, that the presence he had allowed to take control of his body had pulled him into a draconic form, but it hadn’t quite registered in his mind, yet.

But Joey didn’t have very long to dwell on his new form. He felt a ripple of energy flow through his body, followed by the very strange sensation of his cells vibrating. He could feel copious amounts of electric charge building up in his body, particularly in the frills at the base of his jaw and the crest over his spine.

Something intensely salty began to drip from glands at the corners of Joey’s mouth. He opened his maw and breathed out a fine mist of the salty fluid. The particles were so small that they remained suspended in the air, creating what appeared to be a bridge of fog that connected his mouth to the billowing cloud that he was breathing onto Rime.

In an instant, Joey understood what was about to happen. It wasn’t what he wanted. Not at all. The voltage that had built up in his body was lethal.

Joey seized control of his body back from the presence. He had only a few moments to figure out what to do. He grunted from the pain as he tried to dissipate the energy that he had gathered. But he didn’t do enough in time.

A heartbeat later, there was a flash of bright light and a loud crack. The column of mist connecting his mouth to the fog cloud around Rime evaporated from the intense heat. As Joey blinked the bright after-image from his eyes, he saw Rime, face-down and twitching on the pavement.

Joey felt profound discomfort as his body shrank back down to his human form. He gritted his teeth. It wasn’t painful, but it was unpleasant to say the least.

Once his bones had reconfigured themselves into his human form, Joey looked off into the distance to see the damage that he had wrought. Students had already come out of the nearby buildings and were running toward Rime. A few had their phones out already and somehow Joey could hear them calling for emergency services.

More importantly, Joey could also hear a few people reporting a dragon chasing down a student on campus. Naked because his transformation had shredded his clothes to pieces, afraid of being apprehended by the authorities, and ashamed of what he had done, Joey ducked out.

Joey ran away as fast as he could, moving along paths that he knew few people took. A few people saw him on the way back to his dorm, but none of them eyed him with any suspicion. He figured that they probably thought he was just pledging for one of the more adult organizations on campus.

---

This was one of those times that Joey was grateful to have a biometric lock on his dorm room. Technology was great and all, but it was prone to bugs. He didn’t want to be locked out of his room on account of faulty software. Even worse, he didn’t want the door to suddenly unlock due to a power outage.

As it happened, though, thanks to his earlier transformation, Joey didn’t have his keys. Despite being naked as the day he was born, he was able to get into his room without much trouble. His thumbprint was all that it had taken, though he couldn’t quite imagine how much worse it would have been if he had been locked out of his room.

As he lamented his keys, it occurred to Joey that he had left his backpack behind. The day had been bad enough. Now it was that much worse.

Joey’s bag had contained pretty much everything that was important to his life as a student. His notes were in there, along with his laptop and his textbooks. The study guide he’d printed out for the midterm, he could afford to lose, but not the rest of it.

Even worse, Joey’s phone and wallet had been on his person during the chase. If they hadn’t fallen out of his pockets during the chase, they certainly would have been tossed aside by his transformation into a dragon.

Joey wasn’t so much worried about the monetary value of those things, but rather the fact that they were easily identifiable. His possessions could be traced back to him. Even if he had managed to successfully get away from the scene, there was a high chance that he was still in trouble.

The thought of going to jail on the back of turning into a dragon was so horrifying that Joey didn’t notice the sound of his door unlatching. The door was already half open when he realized someone was coming into the room. He looked up and all the words he had been thinking of blurting out died in his throat.

Joey entered the room. Or at least, his doppelganger did. More surprising was the fact that the doppelganger had Joey’s damaged backpack slung over his shoulder. Not only that, but the doppelganger was holding a cracked polyglass phone and a wallet that had certainly seen better days as he pulled off his shoes.

"Sorry I couldn’t salvage these," said the doppelganger. His voice matched Joey’s pitch for pitch. Sure, the doppelganger didn’t speak like he did, but it was still incredibly strange. "You kind of stepped on the phone… And one of your claws went through the wallet when you, you know… Turned into a dragon."

Joey couldn’t do much more than gawk at the stranger wearing his body. "Oh," said his double, with a quiet laugh that made his eyes light up. "Where are my manners? Hi! Hello! Nice to meet you. I’m sure this must be weird as fuck, but my name’s Castor."

Joey’s double held out a hand. Joey stared at it for a good ten seconds before he extended his own hand to shake it. "I’m actually a student here. Just like you. Transfered about a year ago. I, uh… I… Well, actually. You know what? It would be better to just show you."

Almost like he was staring at a time lapse, Joey watched as his doppelganger’s face began to change. The angular jaw that he was used to seeing in the mirror gave way to something softer and more boyish, as the familiar blue eyes faded into a mellow amber colour.

The short tufts of blond hair that were an exact replica of Joey’s current hairstyle shifted into sleek black hair swept up in an impeccable coiff.

Feeling somewhat stupid as he uttered the words, Joey breathlessly said, "You’re… You’re a super."

Joey stumbled over to his bed. His head was spinning. Not only had he faced off with an actual super, he had discovered he was super, himself. And now a shapeshifter had brought his things back to him. This was not the kind of bad day that he had been expecting when he woke up late.

It only occured to Joey that he was still naked once he finally sat down on the edge of his mattress. And the only reason he realized was because he noticed Castor looking down and followed the shapeshifter’s line of sight. Making a strangled noise of embarrassment, Joey grabbed one of his pillows and shoved it between his legs.

Castor looked up at Joey and smirked. "Oh, I’m definitely super," said Castor, with a laugh. "But you’re right. I am a super. If that wasn’t obvious. You know, with the shapeshifting and all." Castor stuck his tongue out at Joey. "But, I mean… Clearly you’re one, too."

"Oh. That. Yeah… That…" Joey scratched the back of his head. It still hadn’t quite sunk in yet, but with Castor pointing it out, it was impossible to ignore. He was a freaking super. He had turned into a goddamn dragon! He had breathed lightning!

Though, technically, now that Joey thought about it, he hadn’t so much breathed lightning as he had breathed a conductive aerosol mist that provided a path for lightning to jump from his mouth to Rime. But still. That didn’t change the fact that it was absolutely fucking amazing. And terrifying. Completely and utterly terrifying.

"Honestly," said Joey, "I had no idea I was…" He looked down, worried all over again that he might get into major trouble with the government. He wasn’t familiar with any laws or regulations surrounding supers. He had never had any reason to look into them, having never imagined that they would apply to him. "Do you… Do you think I’ll get in trouble?"

Castor seemed to think about it for a moment. "Well, generally they’re pretty lenient with new supers, especially the ones that have just discovered their powers…"

That was at least a little reassuring. "Come to think of it," Castor added, "there were some people talking about a maniac slinging ice around, so at least you have some witnesses on your side. Besides, I honestly wouldn’t peg you as the type to be plotting world domination."

Joey shook his head. No. Never. Even if he did have the ability to do any of those things, the mere notion of it was unconscionable. He wanted to help people, not rule them. "Then I don’t think you have anything to worry about," said Castor.

Castor walked over to the bed and sat down beside Joey. He clapped a hand on Joey’s shoulder. The touch made Joey’s skin tingle. "Of course, you’re going to have to register with the government as a super. Even if you don’t join the Hall of Heroes, they just want to keep track of who’s got powers and everything."

Joey gulped. That sounded daunting. Though he could understand why the government would want to keep tabs on the inactive supers, the thought of being on some government registry made him profoundly uncomfortable. Although, from what he could gather, it didn’t seem like he had a choice if he wanted to remain a free man. "What happens if I don’t?"

Castor’s expression was grim, his lips pressed into a thin line. "Well, they’re going to find you one way or another. Since you’re new, they’re probably just going to make you leave when they do, assuming you refuse to register" said Castor. "The alternative isn’t something that you want to think about."

Joey shuddered. "But… But I can keep living my life… Without having to worry about the government coming after me, right? I wouldn’t have to be a hero?"

Castor nodded. "Yeah. Absolutely. If you want to study and get on with your life without doing anything with your powers, that’s absolutely an option. I know a few people who did that. When they do use their gifts, they use them to help out in little ways rather than to take down supervillains or to avert crises."

A deep breath helped to calm Joey’s nerves. "Mind you, though," said Castor, "there are a lot of supers who just can’t resist it. On both sides of the aisle. When you have powers that can help people—or can help yourself, for that matter—sometimes it’s hard to do nothing when you know you can do something to change things."

Joey sighed. He already had a strong desire to help others. He wasn’t sure if he could just set aside his newfound powers knowing that he could use them to benefit society—even if it was in a way far different from how he had imagined he would help people in the past.

"Speaking of… hard things…" said Castor, leaning in toward Joey. The shapeshifter’s voice was suddenly low and breathy. It sent chills down Joey’s spine, chills that went right to his cock. "It looks like you could use a hand… or a mouth… with that."

Joey had been so occupied with thoughts about his situation that he had completely tuned out his own body. He glanced down and realized that he was hard. So hard, in fact, that his erection had successfully pushed the pillow up.

The feeling of the fabric rubbing against Joey’s sensitive cock head was almost too much. It certainly made him shiver. When he realized that he was not only naked but also erect in the presence of a stranger, heat rushed to his cheeks out of sheer embarrassment and shame.

At 18, Joey had every bit as powerful a libido as the next guy. He wanted to have sex. He fantasized about fucking a guys every night. But he had never been this aroused before. And he certainly had never had a super coming onto him before.

But this wasn’t normal. Not this arousal. Not how hard Joey was. He had no idea what was happening to him. If not for the intense throbbing need nestled between his legs he would have been freaking out, but right now the only thing that he could think about was potentially taking Castor up on his offer.

"This is a part of the power that thou hast inherited, youngling" said a voice like rolling thunder. As the immense presence washed over Joey’s mind, he bit back a moan at the throb of pleasure that surged up his cock.

The voice was similar to the voice of the draconic creature that had transformed Joey. But it was different. Distinct. Somehow the voice sounded somewhat gentler. Kinder. "Thou shalt find that most creatures are gentler than old Arrataz," said the voice. "But to continue what I remarked earlier, those blest with the power of the Dragon Force are endowed with a great virility not unlike that of dragons."

Joey shivered. Dragon Force. He had no idea what the fuck it was, much less what it did. But it sounded right. It struck a clear note inside of him, like it had always been there, only hidden.

"As thou art yet young in years, it may prove difficult to manage thine newfound potency," said another voice, this one distinct as well from the other voices. It had a mischievous lilt to it, almost as though it were enjoying Joey’s humiliating arousal in front of a stranger. "If I might impart to thee a smidgen of my wisdom, learn to accept this part of thee and seek release as often and as powerful as thou canst find it."

The other voice, the gentler one, seemed to hum in agreement. "Seldom comes the moment that Vextril and I are in agreement. But in this matter we are united. Dragon seed demands to be filled often and if thou shouldst fail to follow Vextril’s advice, thou might find thy control slipping."

Joey felt small in the presence of these creatures. Sure, he was simply talking to them in his mind, but their minds were so vast and so ancient that he couldn’t help but feel rather insignificant compared to them. And yet he couldn’t get over the fact that they were talking about having sex. A lot. To control himself.

"‘Tis truth. The day is rare that Seladonious and I can come to an understanding. Know this, youngling. That is the day that you must heed our counsel," said the mischievous voice, Vextril. "And thou shouldst understand that old age does nothing to mellow the flames of dragonly passion save for the fact that experience tends to strengtehn restraint."

"Best chase after the pleasures of the flesh while thy skin is supple and thy joints are limber, youngling," said Seladonius, the gentle voice.

The first voice that Joey heard, the one that had guided him through the battle with Rime, decided to speak. "Thou shouldst make thine conquests many and frequent while thou art young. With this, I concur," it said. If Joey remembered correctly, this was Arrataz speaking.

"That is indeed my name, youngling," said Arrataz. "Now. Thy new acquaintance has made thee an offer for pleasures of the flesh. Thou shouldst not refuse. We are aware that thou desirest him."

"Thou needst not wory," said Seladonious, his voice strangely reassuring. "The only threat that the boy poses against thee is the kind of pleasant soreness that follows a good, rough joining."

Joey ducked his head. He could feel his cheeks burning. He felt like his face could catch fire at any moment; he wouldn’t have been surprised if it did.

Having dragon voices in his head was something that Joey would have found awesome if not for the fact that they were talking about sex. And so candidly! Not only that, but they were telling him to get his rocks off as often as he could. It would have been great if it wasn’t so embarrassing.

And yet, despite himself, Joey couldn’t really dispute anything that the dragons had said. He was horny. Almost unreasonably horny. If he didn’t get his cock in something, or at the very least get the cum fucked out of him, he was sure he was going to burn up. He was so hard that he wouldn’t have been surprised if his cock punched right through his pillow.

Unable to look Castor in the eye—especially not after what those voices in his head had said—Joey glanced in the shapeshifter’s direction. A sudden wave of self-consciousness served to mellow out the horniness thrumming through Joey’s veins. "You… You want to do it with me?" he whispered. "Me?"

Despite what his body was screaming for him to do, Joey couldn’t help but feel somewhat uneasy about the situation. He had always been somewhat conscious of hsi looks. He had never thought there was anything particularly attractive about him. And yet here Castor was, propositioning him.

"Why wouldn’t I want to help a cutie like you?" Castor purred, reaching up to trace the backs of his fingers along the side of Joey’s face. Joey leaned to the touch, biting back a moan.

"Besides…" said Castor, as he slid his shirt down along his arms. "I can tell that you’ve got a big one hiding under there…"

Truth be told, Joey had always thought that he was somewhat average in the size department. But now that he was thinking about it, something did feel different about his erection. Not just in the sense that it was harder and more sensitive than he ever remembered it being.

It was different in a more tangible way. It felt… thicker. Longer. Heftier. Castor pulling the pillow out of the space between Joey’s legs confirmed it for him.

Joey’s cock had grown. He was hung, now. At least compared to his previous size. He was at least seven and a half inches long and about half as thick around as his wrist. Sure, he wasn’t nearly as big as some of the guys he’d seen in porn, but his cock was more than ample now.

"Bear witness to the potency of dragons! ‘Tis truly the majestic endowment of a prize stud," said Seladonious, in his head.

"A beautiful sword fit for a king. A sword that yet yearns to be sheathed." said Vextril.

"It is the rod of a conqueror," said Arrataz, simply.

Joey flushed bright red at the three dragons’ comments and buried his face in his hands. "I-I’m sorry…" he mumbled. "I’ve never done this before," he said, as he tried to push the dragons out of his mind.

"Thou swouldst have better fortune teaching the steer to dance on its hind legs than to remove that which is an indelible part of thy Self," said Seladonius. "But if thou shouldst wish for privacy, thou needst only make thyself known and we shall retreat for the moment. Though thou shouldst not be surprised if thou noticest Vextril taking the occasional peek."

"Doesn’t seem to make a lick of difference to this guy," said Castor, with a devilish grin. Having been distracted by the voices in his head, Joey slowly became aware of the feather-light touches moving up and down his shaft.

Joey gulped audibly, his grimace from having to deal with the three dragons fading as he bit back a moan. Castor chuckled. "I take it you do like this, though…" he murmured, in a soft, sultry tone that sent a shiver racing up Joey’s spine. "Do you, maybe, want me to do more…?"

The breaths came quick and shallow as Joey panted. His chest rose and fell rapidly. There was no helping it. Castor knew what he was doing; his touch was masterful. The sensation of his fingers playing along the delicate skin of Joey’s shaft was intensely pleasurable. So much so that Joey struggled to find the words to describe it.

The fact that Joey’s body was much more sensitive than he was used to didn’t help things one whit. There was no way he could say no to Castor without regretting it. Probably for the rest of his life. "Yes…" he said, almost breathless. "Please… More…"

"My pleasure," said Castor, with a grin. With a hand on his shoulder, Castor turned Joey around so that his back was to the head board. Then, insinuating himself between Joey’s legs, Castor crawled forward and put a hand on Joey’s naked chest.

Castor’s fingers were hot, making Joey’s skin tingle where they touched. With a gentle nudge, Castor eased Joey down onto the bed as he leaned in. He pressed a kiss to the ridge in the middle of Joey’s chest, pressing his lips to the cleft between Joey’s abs. The feeling of Castor’s hot lips against his skin made Joey’s cock twitch.

Joey sucked in a gulp of air as he felt the first touch of Castor’s hot, wet tongue on the crown of his cock head. Castor was teasing him, playing him masterfully. He felt his legs tense and release as Castor’s tongue traced the bottom of his cock head, leaving a trail of glistening saliva along the ridge of his glans.

The sensation of Castor’s tongue flicking at his frenulum not only made Joey’s fingers clutch at the sheets to either side of his hips, it also managed to tease a large glob of pre-cum out of his piss slit.

"Like that, big boy?" purred Castor. He pulled away from Joey’s cock and rubbed his soft, smooth cheek against the side of Joey’s cock. He looked so pretty. So slutty. Joey couldn’t think of a hotter thing he’d seen in his life.

Though he wasn’t very experienced, Joey couldn’t resist the urge to thread his fingers through Castor’s immaculate hairdo. His thoughts were somewhat slower, more primal. His body chased the pleasure and his instincts seemed to have a tighter grasp on him than usual.

Joey clutched at the sleek black locks of Castor’s hair for some leverage as he hissed, "God, yes…" His back arched off the bed as he felt Castor’s tongue swirling around the head of his cock. It felt good. So good. Especially when he felt the hot, wet tip digging into his piss slit, lapping up at the pre-cum that was dripping liberally from the end of his cock.

Though he was cogent enough to realize that this was just the beginning, that this was just foreplay, just teasing, Joey couldn’t help but feel like he was about to burst. It wasn’t like he hadn’t had release in a while, either. He had masturbated this morning, as was his routine. But he felt pent up all the same. "I… I think I’m gonna…" he breathed.

"Oh yeah?" said Castor, looking up at Joey with sensuous, smoldering eyes. Castor cradled Joey’s cock with his face, letting the thick, throbbing shaft rest against the bridge of his nose. The sight made Joey’s cock twitch, dripping a glob of pre-cum onto Castor’s adorable, boyish face.

"Do it, Joey…" Castor murmured. There was a glint of mischief in his eyes, a gentle flush of need pink against his cheeks. "Cum on me… It just means that you’ll last longer when we get to the main course."

The lascivious little grin and the delicate little lick that Castor did after delivering that filthy line was what finally pushed Joey over the edge. As his cheeks burned red with embarrassment at not lasting for very long, his cock swelled and throbbed and pulsed.

Joey felt the cum, hot and boiling, rushing up his urethra. It oozed out of the tip of his cock first, the pressure building and building and building in his navel before the first real blast happened. A spurt of cum shot out of him, sending a thick rope of sticky white seed arcing over the top of Castor’s head, landing in his sleek black hair.

As the orgasm thundered through him, Joey let go of Castor’s hair. He threw his head back, squeezing his eyes shut from the sheer pleasure of it. He was shooting so much. The pleasure was so intense. It was almost impossible to think. It was like the orgasm was overwriting his mind, making his neurons short-circuit.

It wasn’t until the orgasm started to tail off that Joey regained a modicum of control over himself. He glanced down between his legs at Castor and saw that the shapeshifter’s face was covered in hot sticky cum. Strands of jism were also tangled in Castor’s hair, which had been hopelessly mussed up by Joey’s hands.

"S-So—Ahh!" The apology that Joey had tried to articulate was cut short by the sensation of something hot and wet wrapping around one of his balls. Castor had moved down between his legs and had started suckling on one of his testicles with a little smile.

Joey let his head fall back onto the bed as he moaned. Fruitlessly, he bucked his hips, enjoying the sensations as Castor’s tongue slurped and sucked and swirled around his sensitive nutsack.

It wasn’t long after that Castor’s masterful mouth took the other ball in. Joey moaned. It felt good. So good. But he had to see what Castor looked like with two sizable nuts in his mouth. He propped himself up by the elbows and looked down between his legs.

Castor glanced up at him, amber eyes sparkling. His cheeks were puffed out, only the corners turned up in a little smile. His tongue swirled and swiped at Joey’s balls, bathing them in a pleasant heat. He looked like he was enjoying himself. So much, too.

The sight of that only served to make Joey’s cock harder. Even though he had cum barely a minute ago, his cock was throbbing and ready to go again. He was leaking even more pre-cum now than he had been earlier. Only this time, the pre-cum was a bit cloudy from his earlier eruption.

Joey reached down to grab his cock, but as his fingers were about to close around his shaft, Castor slapped his hand away. "You let me take care of you," said Castor, with a small smirk. Naturally, he had let go of Joey’s balls to speak, and now the air felt cool against his sensitive skin.

Not that Joey had very long to complain about missing the warm heat around his balls as the next thing he knew, his entire cock was wrapped in a tight, wet heat. A long, low moan was drawn out from the very depths of his being, and when his vision stopped swimming with stars he saw that Castor had taken the entire formidable length of his cock all the way to the base.

Unable to help himself, Joey’s fingers crept up the sides of Castor’s face. He clutched at the tufts of sleek black hair that were now hopelessly mussed up. He moaned and bucked his hips, groaning as Castor’s tongue swept along the underside of his cock.

The sensation of Castor’s throat humming and vibrating around Joey’s shaft felt good. So good. Almost too good. If not for the fact that he had literally just come, Joey was sure that he would be blasting another load down Castor’s masterful gullet. The dragons hadn’t been kidding when they said that dragon seed demanded to be spilled often.

Joey was sure that the phrase "refractory period" was going to make a swift exit from his vocabulary.

As Castor’s head bobbed up and down on his cock, Joey met the movements with thrusts of his hips. At first he was gentle, not wanting to be too rough. He was aware that he was bigger than he was used to.

But as his newfound instincts egged him to be rougher, more assertive, Joey was helpless to resist. As Joey bucked his hips, Castor gradually gave control over to him. Castor stopped moving his head, letting Joey use his face as a glorified flesh light.

Castor gagged and choked on Joey’s newfound endowment, but he made no efforts to push off. In fact, Castor gripped Joey’s thighs tighter and looked at him with hooded, lustful eyes as though to ask for more.

At first, Joey was concerned about Castor. But the small smile that pulled at the corners of Castor’s lips hadn’t faded one bit. Joey moaned, realizing that Castor was enjoying the roughness, the aggression, and he gave in just a little bit more to the vicious instinct to rut.

Moaning, Joey helplessly bucked his hips, relishing the slick, velvety feeling of Castor’s throat wrapped around his cock. Castor seemed to love the roughness. Every choke, every gagging sound, was followed by a quiet little moan. Joey was more than happy to oblige his newfound friend.

With every thrust of his hips, Joey picked up the pace. He went faster and faster and faster, snapping his hips forward with more and more force each time he fucked his cock down the back of Castor’s eager throat. It felt good. So good. More importantly, it felt right. Like he was finally doing what he had always been destined to do.

As Castor groaned around his cock, the vibrations sent shocks of pleasure surging up his spine. Joey quickly approached the edge from there. A coil of tension settled into the pit of his stomach as he thrust his hips.

In and out. In and out. Bobbing Castor’s head up and down his shaft, relishing the sensation of those silky lips sucking at the sensitive skin of his cock. It was almost too much. And then, it was too much. "I’m gonna… I’m gonna come!" he cried out.

Gripping Castor’s hair tightly between his fingers, Joey pulled the shapeshifter’s head all the way down onto his cock. He mashed Castor’s nose into his crotch as his cock swelled and pulsed and throbbed, sending spurt after spurt after spurt of thick cum down Castor’s throat.

The orgasm was so intense that it had Joey seeing white. It was no less powerful than his first orgasm. In fact, he could contend that it was more powerful. It felt so good. Sex with the changes to his body was so wonderful. He was hooked. Already.

As Castor pulled off his cock with a loud, wet pop, Joey let his head fall back onto the bed. "Ready to go again so soon?" said Castor, crawling over to lie down beside Joey.

Sure enough, Joey was hard again.