fics I read

January 17th 2016 Gotham City 3:00 PM EDT

[warning minor blackmail sex at first.]

The gaping expression on that uppity bitch's face was...hilarious. She wasn't expecting me to blackmail her into fucking me. I didn't much care. She was a psycho and I couldn't have her running around free, so she was either going back to Arkham or she was going to throw that ass in a circle. Granted I probably should have just killed her if she turned me down. Despite my general lack of fucks or any willingness to give them "fuck me or die" left a bad taste in my mouth. Apparently even I had lines.

She just stared at me, so I reached down and unbuttoned my pants, letting my cock bounce free. Her eyes widened again. "Well? You can start with a blowjob." She just stared. "Or I can put this away, knock you out and then toss you back in Arkham. Your call." Not much of a choice maybe, in the grand scheme of things, but it WAS a choice. She licked her lips before crawling towards me on hands and knees. She reached for me and I smacked her hands away. "Oh, one more thing. If you bite me, I'm going to kick your ass and send you to prison. Turn me down if you want but that biting shit won't fly."

She blushed a bit and nodded. I felt for her desires, pushing up her need to submit by a decent chunk to get her nice and horny as she leaned forward to tentatively lick the head. Cherry had seen me catch that knife, she knew I was stronger and faster than she was, so she didn't try anything, just licked. She seemed almost to shy away from my cock, like IT might bite her. I rolled my eyes. "Ok, never mind let's just get you ready for Arkham, you clearly don't have any interest in this, and even if you did you suck at it."

Her eyes snapped up to me, sparking with anger. Her hands reached up, wrapping around my cock, and started jacking it. She glared at me. "Unlike your bat whore I'm not an expert at sucking dick. Redheaded slut probably subdues half the criminals she downs with her throat. SOME of us have standards." She sneered at me. "But then, I suppose if you did you wouldn't have to blackmail a woman into bed." She jerked me off harder, seemingly trying to punish me without overtly trying to hurt me.

She failed, because I was a superhuman and her soft little I rank hands couldn't do anything to my cock, but weirdly that malice made my balls tighten a bit. I rolled my eyes. Before she could react I grabbed a fistful of hair and shoved my cock into her throat. She gagged, choking, and tried to pull back, but I held her there. "Shush. Breathe through your nose. Fuck, keep gripping me like that with your throat and I'm going to cum right now." She froze, her breathing evening out. I petted her hair. "Good girl. Now play with my balls."

She reached up, wide eyes fixed on me and did so fondling them softly and inexpertly with her fingers. Then I pulled back and started dragging my cock from her throat, pausing partway out to slide it back in. It was agonizingly slow, but I was enjoying myself. I moaned. "Good girl, Cherry, you're being so good for me." I spiked a surge of lust through her when I said it. Reinforcing her reaction to pleasing me. I fucked her face for about fifteen minutes and I rammed mind melting spikes of pleasure into her brain every time I complimented her blowjob. She came six times before I finally nutted down her throat.

I pulled back and she stared up at me. She was...quiet. Stunned. I'd been in her head enjoying her desires the whole time I'd been using her. She was wet, needy, and very confused by how her body was reacting to this. Little Cherry was a virgin in her early twenties and I'd made her feel things her crime obsessed little mind hadn't known were even possible. I was feeling out her desires though, and the normal rough fucking wasn't what she needed. No I'd warmed her inner slut up good with the face fuck, but pretty Cherry needed something a bit more intimate before I could really own her.

I picked her up in a princess carry, walking her over to the bed. I laid her down and slid my hands up her body. I leaned in to whisper to her. "That was nice wasn't it Cherry? Did you enjoy yourself. Did you enjoy being a good girl for me?" She nodded, and I had a thought. Cherry was a knock off Barbie, which meant she might have the same fetishes. I dig deep down into her subconscious with Eros and Psych, and sure enough, there it was. A bit more twisted, but I knew that desire.

I slid my hand into her panties, rubbing her clit, and her eyes fluttered. "You're not a bad girl are you Cherry? I misunderstood you. You're just lonely, just sad. You don't need to go to prison, you just need to be loved. You need a daddy." Her cunt spasmed as I said the magic word, the same way Barbie's did. I was going to enjoy using them together sometime soon.

She stared at me, her eyes cloudy with lust and slight confusion. "D-daddy?" I pushed her back on the bed, sliding my fingers into her, two of them were a right fit, but her hips bucked up in reaction. "I-fuck, I'm a good girl daddy." I stummed her clit and her fetish at the same time as she whimpered on my hand. She and Barbie really were alike. Except Cherry didn't have a distant police commissioner father to keep her stable. Her father had been a sociopath and he was dead now.

I loomed over her, huge compared to her five foot eleven form. I set my cock head to her pussy and slid my hand up, rubbing my thumb in a circle halfway up her stomach. I felt her lust flare. She knew where I was touching. She could see how long my cock was, and where it would end up once I pushed. Her brain was fogged over with lust and need and I was helping with Eros and Psych. I started pushing forward working my tip between her tight little pussy lips. "You know...I might not be able to be your daddy. I'm Batgirl's daddy."

Her eyes snapped up to me, and I didn't even need to feel her lust to see the rage and jealousy. Wow, she had been seriously brainwashed to hate Barbie. Luckily that was a huge advantage to me. She sneered at me angrily. "That little bitch isn't half the woman I am. You don't want some easy little slut who bends over for any villain with a couple minions. This is fresh fucking pussy. Can she really call you daddy if she's had other men inside her?" She hooked her ankles behind me and jerked me forward.

I didn't let her bottom me out, I'd have torn her in two, but I let her slide me in slowly. She cringed, her face contorting, but she breathed deep as she slowly shoved me into her guts. She grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked me down to stare into her wild blue eyes. "This is yours now daddy! No other man has ever been in here! You came and took it and now it belongs to you, but you better take care of it. Will you give me what I want daddy?"

I groaned, she felt...wild. Fuck, crazy pussy I'd had, but crazy VIRGIN pussy? Crazy virgin pussy that spent every day training her body to be a lethal weapon? This cunt was a special kind of fantastic. "What do you want? No hurting Batgirl, she's mine." I shoved another inch in and she grunted, eyes crossing. "My girl's get along. But I don't mind giving my ladies presents. So tell me what you want."

She moaned in joy. "Oh FUCK yes, daddy always gives me what I ask for. Fuck, I'm daddy's girl. Spoil me daddy!" It took her a second to work through what I only belatedly realized was an orgasm at my agreement to give her something, before she calmed down. "Revenge. That cocksucker Trevor, I can't find him. He killed my parents. Give me Trevor and I belong to you, heart, soul, and pussy." She shuddered. "Fuck I missed this, I can feel daddy's love stuffed up inside me. I'm such a good girl."

I may have opened a slightly larger jar of crazy than expected, but honestly I didn't care. I slide out and then back in, starting to fuck, and she squealed in joy, wiggling her hips. "Fine. Trevor is dead, or turned into a cactus or whatever the fuck. But this cunt is mine. You need to surrender completely. To belong to me, and I'll know." I leaned in and started moving my hips, the wet sloppy hole that was trying to squeeze the life out of me squelching with every shove. I leaned down to growl. "So tell me bitch. Whose your daddy?"

I'd kind of always wanted to say that, and it was weirdly hot, and clearly Cherry agreed because her eyes rolled up and she started fucking furiously. "YES, YOU'RE MY DADDY! YOU'RE MY DADDY! I'M SUCH A GOOD GIRL!" She was staring up at me with wild blue eyes. "DO YOU FEEL IT DADDY! DO YOU FEEL ME LOVE FOR YOU! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH MORE THAN BATGIRL! LOVE ME BACK LOVE ME HARDER, GIVE ME EVERY INCH OF THAT FUCKING SWEET DIRTY LOVE!"

I admit the dirty talk was doing it for me. I couldn't get enough of the hot sucking virgin pussy that was swallowing me wetly like a pro hole with every shove. I felt the fucking Brand form, and I made it appear right over her womb. I wanted her to see it, to know it was there, and once it connected I pulled off my mask. She squealed with delight, cooing at me. "You're so handsome daddy! You're showing me your face because you love me aren't you!" She grabbed me by the hair, yanking me down into a kiss.

She bit my lip when we were kissing, drawing blood and pulled back with wide shining eyes. "Tell me I'm your favorite daddy! Tell me I have the sweetest pussy out of all your girls! Tell me you love this cunt better than Batgirl! "She gave a wailing giggle."Tell me I'm your best girl!" My balls churned at the insanity in her eyes. Barbie got like this too, got just as crazy, and suddenly I wanted to make them fight over me. To make them debase themselves for my cock, I promised myself I'd do it.

I grinned, leaning down to kiss her hard. "That depends baby, what will you do to make daddy happy?" I could feel the desperate sucking heat of her cunt in my fucking toes. No matter how many girls I fucked they were always different. Cherry had a desperation none of the other girls could match, that daddy kink had been wrapped up tight and it EXPLODED when I released it. Eros and Psyche made it impossible for her to hurt me, and combined with the play and pleasure she was completely fucking psychotically convinced I was her new daddy.

She was shaking from lust and need as she hurled herself down my cock, shoving her head against my chest and nuzzling me. "Anything daddy! I'll kill for you! I'll die for you! Just don't leave me again daddy, don't leave me all alone. It was so dark in Arkham, so cold, but this is better, I feel warm again daddy, your life is setting me on fire." I felt mildly bad about that last part, but it quickly faded.

I would take care of this broken little slut, so I had no reason to be guilty. But I didn't want to hear her talk any more. I triggered her brand in a cascade of orgasms and let myself explode inside her as she passed out. Then I relaxed. Man, sometimes I needed a break from crazy bitches. I looked down at her tight little body. Well...a break from their talking. That hole was good for a few more rounds. Cherry wouldn't mind.

January 17th 2016 Palace of Debauchery 5:00 PM EDT

Cherry had Katharsis and Bleak Michael under control with whatever her relation to them was, so dismissing them was easy enough once she was mine. I didn't keep them, because they were associated with Knightfall. I handed them both a wad of cash and told them to get the hell out of Gotham, my mask preventing them from learning my identity of course. Then Cherry disposed of her costume and I took her back to the palace.

Once we got there I sat her down to hash out details. "Ok, a few things Cherry, first off, you'll be transferring all your assets to me. I'll also need to know anything you can tell me about the various political mechanisms you have in place and what I can use them for. Your search for Trevor you can leave to me." I'd contacted The Calculator about tracking the guy down, using the email he'd reached me with before, and I'd gotten lucky since apparently I could hire him without going to see him in person now. I guess he believed I was good for it.

She nodded happily. "Of course daddy, I trust you to find him. My assets are easily transferred, I own most of Cherry Hill at this point, and with the massive majority of the land and the money I have on hand you're as good as in charge of this place now!" She sat down at the computer I'd brought her to and started emptying back accounts. In just a few short minutes I went from barely a millionaire to have fifteen million in the bank, and with a quick check I noted my points jump from twenty to thirty thousand.

Going through a listing she'd written up I saw that aside from twenty H rank manors, I also got dozens of I rank houses and several G rank estates. Combined with some valuables in the houses Cherry had liberated from previous tenants, I ended up with ten thousand more points. That was...easier than expected. Cherry had severed all connection to Knightfall, the minions were gone, Barbie would have to let things go and I could nudge her a bit if she didn't, now I needed to get in touch with dad and tell him my mission was a success.

But the victory rang...hollow. It was just so easy. Granted I'd done a ton of prep work, but it was still just a matter of fucking some girl and branding her. It rang false. In fact, the whole Checkmate keys to the kingdom deal sounded...boring. It was all boring. It always had been, I'd gotten excited about the system and had forgotten how banal I found everything, but that sense of ennui was coming back...and I hated it. I didn't want to go back, didn't want to become some empty loser scrabbling for power.

If I went to Checkmate I'd only ever be Maxwell Lord's son. I'd be following in his footsteps, living in his shadow, and I would be pointless. Just a knock off, a second rate copy. I didn't want to be Maxwell Lord's son. I wanted HIM to be Nick Lord's father. I wanted people to know my name, BOTH my names. My mind cleared, and for the first time since I got the system I found a purpose. I'd wanted to build my power before, to conquer and get points, but I hadn't had a direction. Now I did.

I grinned down at Cherry. "I've come to a decision. I'm done with this nonsense. Done with playing in other people's game. The Shadows, Checkmate, The League, forget them. I wanted to build and army of super criminals to combat them, and I still can, but I was missing the obvious. I'm not just Mammon. I'm Nick too. This identity is an asset. I'm going to create my own company. I'm going to surpass Lord Consolidated, LuthorCorp, and Wayne Enterprises. I was going to take over the fucking world TWICE, and none of those assholes would be able to stop me.

For the first time since I'd started all this I felt like I was moving forward, like I was genuinely beginning to see my path forward. Money was nothing to me, sure, but it let me BUY things that were. It gave me options and access and status. All of those things I could use. Cherry's eyes were shining happily as she hurled herself into my arms. "Oh daddy that's amazing! I'll help! We can get all your permits on order through back channels and take care of any management issues too. My father's graft mechanisms will make it a snap to smooth over legal hurdles."

I grinned and pulled her into my lap, palming one of those perky tits as I kissed her, enjoying her moaning and wiggling against me before I pulled away. She gave me a pout but I ignored it. I'd been going down the wrong path all this time. The system even told me as much at the start. It had straight up stated that things other people get me aren't mine and don't count. The resources from Checkmate would have been worthless to me.

I emailed my old man, telling him about my decision. I got the weird impression he would be proud of me for this, but

that didn't really matter. I had a direction, now I just needed to figure out where to go with it. I needed something for my new company to do. I had cash and connections, I could go into smuggling or transport, but in the end if I wanted to compete with the giants I needed a claim to fame. I needed something specific to me that no one else could make.

I needed the system. I had to find a way to use it to make something really unique that couldn't be copied, or rather, couldn't be copied feasibly. I could do that. A pair of J rank items made an I rank item that was high quality, if not world class. Buying a pair of trash quality things and turning them into something good quality would be a business plan no one would be able to keep up with. I could even offset most of the cost of the merges with mass acquisition of J rank shit to start with.

I had a business plan that would essentially make money out of nothing, but I needed to figure out what I was going to actually sell. It had to be something I could get plenty of, but that would still be useful to sell at bargain basement prices to get my name out. Since I would be buying cheap or broken materials to use to start with even selling for next to nothing would be valid for most items.

I pulled up the internet and started a search for the flagship items for Lexcorp and Wayne Enterprises. Laptops were out. Too big and complex, and much to variable. I needed consistent products which meant a consistent base, but then I froze. I was thinking if this wrong. I needed a consistent base, but I could merge two items with one as the primary. If I merged any J rank cell phone with, say a plain steel ring, using the ring as the primary, it would come out the same way every time even if the phone was different.

But a ring with a phone in it wouldn't be feasible. It was a cute gimmick, but without some kind of projection technology (which would NOT be I ranked) I had zero chance of making that commercially viable because no one would want a phone with a shitty ring sized screen. Still, it was enough of a direction to brainstorm and that was all I needed. I started looking for company locations in Metropolis (more money over there, though we would incorporate in Gotham because of all the political tricks we had) as I considered what I could do.

I could do a restaurant, but I wouldn't make much, and couldn't compete with good cooks anyway, at least not without spending more points than was practical. I could do jewelry, but volume made that unfeasible. Tech seemed like a great spot to make me entrance, but I would need to come up with some combination of items using something I could get lots of, which would be touch to manage. I'd also need something everyone needed or wanted.

I blinked. I liked the tech idea, and the ring thing wasn't viable, but the phone combination would work with a bit of tweaking. Not a screen, but something pretty much the opposite. Rather than make the screen bigger, I would just make the field of view smaller. Computer glasses. I could make a basic I ranked model, and then a flagship H rank by meging them together to make something more powerful. A variety of cell phones combined with a consistent make and model of glasses would produce consistent results if the glasses were the primary focus.

I ran to the room where I kept all my materials. The hardest part was finding a J ranked phone to begin with, anything that was even remotely viable was I ranked already which defeated the purpose. Finally I found a shitty barely functional phone and a pair of wire rimmed glasses and I activated my the merge, chipping ten points off my thirty thousand plus total there was a flash of light, and Cherry gasped when she saw the objects combine, causing me to briefly remember she didn't know about my powers but I didn't care that much right now. I appraised the result.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Smart Glasses- I rank. A pair of glasses with all the capabilities of cell phone. Voice commands can be keyed to the user and will allow for internet access, phone connection with the insertion of a sim card, and storeable media on micro SD cards that can be slotted into the frame. Charges via micro usb.]

I grinned. They. Were. Perfect. Ten points to make, and the materials were worth maybe twenty bucks, but the upgrade to I rank raised the quality of both aspects, and I could sell something like this for two hundred dollars easily. The best part was that I could use that money to get all the points back and then some, have enough to buy more materials, and still be selling the things for a tenth of what a normal lab would have to spend to actually produce them.

I passed them to Cherry, instructing her on how to activate them, and then enjoyed watching her geek out over the capabilities of the glasses for a while. This was it. This was what I needed to get started, to establish my foothold. I had the cash to spend on advertising too. I could do this, could get started the right way, and I had the skills and power to keep any corporate sharks from pushing me too hard early on. My competitors would find themselves getting a visit from Waylon of Bonebreaker if they pushed me.

Still, I wasn't a business guru. I know some things, but I needed someone a bit more versed in that kind of thing. I'd need to find a girl who could be trusted to run my company. I could shop around. It would take a while but I was ready to put in the work to do this. I was finally excited about something. By the time I was done Lex Luthor would be a nobody, as for The Reach. I'd leave them to League and only slip in to profit a bit as Mammon.

I finally found a small building in Metropolis that I was pretty sure would work, and I put in a bid, winning the auction easily and quickly and arranging a showing. Once that was done I mulled over my next move. Advertising was key, and I knew just the place where I could get some. I supposed I'd better get started. I had so much to do.

January 20th 2016 Metropolis 5:00 PM EDT

Cherry managed to get my paperwork in order pretty easily. She had everything backdated and then pushed through the proper channels to pretend we had met all the requirements for both Gotham and Metropolis business licenses. Much like some companies would incorporate in specific tax havens, we set ours up in Gotham despite the Metropolis aimed structure of the company. Any business decisions or court cases would be handled in Gotham, with all of Cherry's contacts able to weigh in on our side.

Still we needed to check the company location out, and I'd shelled out the cash for a massive shipment of cheap glasses and cleaned out a major tech liquidation firm for cell phones. All of this took a few days so we weren't able to start immediately as I'd hoped. The glasses being the same had produced the same product when used as the focus, and I'd had everything delivered to the premises. I hadn't bought a factory, but rather a store front, right in the heart of Metropolis, and with some greased palms I was good to sell right away. I just needed to combine all the goods together. I was at thirty thousand, but after buy ten thousand pairs of glasses and ten thousand junked phones I was sitting at fifty thousand.

Of course I could only afford four thousand or so pairs of glasses with the points I had, but that wasn't relevant at the moment with such a small shop. I threw together a hundred pairs of the base model for a thousand, then ten pairs of H ranked glasses for the same to tout as our flagship model. H was world class tech but just beyond peak normal, not yet into the crazy xenotech that would get me noticed even out here in Metro.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Elite Smart Glasses- H rank. A pair of glasses with all the capabilities of cell phone. Voice commands can be keyed to the user and will allow for internet access, phone connection with the insertion of a sim card, and storeable media on one terabyte solid state architecture built into the frame. Solar charging.]

The flagship glasses were sleeker, sturdier, and much less reliant on external hardware. The shining silver frames were comfortable and functional, and the rectangular lenses were scratch resistant and held an absolutely breathtaking image at a resolution I really couldn't describe as anything other than just looking like real life. I set up the counter, setting everything out, with the normal I rank glasses lined up in neat rows, and the flagship model in well made cases on top of the glass displays.

Waylon sat in one corner of the store, looking incredibly bored but somehow still threatening, his massive size and impassive glare conveying the danger of trying to steal anything, and Cherry was busying herself tidying up. Whisper and Bonebreaker had stayed back at the Palace. I turned to Cherry. "Are you sure that storefront was the best way to go with this? I mean, I get the basic concept, and your old man did basically create all the movers and shakers in Gotham. Even if you don't know business well enough to run things I trust your gut here...I just don't know why."

She smiled brightly. "Simple daddy, what we're doing is creating underground buzz. If you announced yourself in the paper and did a big sale and advertisement then you're openly competing with LexCorp and Wane Tech. They have a ton of credibility, and you just look like another pretender to the throne. Those up and comers come and go, but rarely make a splash. But if you do this, things are different. You get buzz on the ground from word of mouth, and suddenly you're not the young buck trying to make a name for himself, you're the shadowy purveyor of elite technology. The mysterious shop no one has heard of that sells glasses that you can't get anywhere else."

That made sense. People loved doing shit they weren't supposed to do. Tell them this place was a shadowy underground tech dealer and they would be lining up, then word of mouth would get our name out and we could pivot into a more respectable rep. I raised an eyebrow at her. "The main issue with that is that we don't have a way to get word out. We just opened this place. How the hell do we get people to show up and try the things out to spread that word of mouth? We need at least SOME rep for the plan to work."

She smiled slightly. "While we don't have a sign with a name on it, our location is pretty fantastic. We got a place pretty close to the Daily Planet, and I made sure that the delivery guys were really obvious about coming in here. Reporters are all incredibly nosy, and even if none come in, someone is bound to check it out. If we don't get anyone we can always hire a few local thugs to spread some rumors in places civilians will hear, but given Metropolis is a haven for crazy, I'm expecting someone any minute. Don't worry, we're still well on track with the plan."

It took about two hours, but someone finally came into the store. I made a mental note to have Whisper reach out to some of the cultists to speed this shit up, I wanted to start a business, not be a goddamn shopkeeper. Still, I could hardly complain about my first customer, she was a knockout. Long golden hair pulled up into a ponytail, an off the shoulder, midriff baring blue top and a long wavy red skirt. Bright blue eyes that gleamed with friendly exuberance and a cute little button nose. She was fucking adorable.

She saw me and waved brightly. "Oh, hi! I was visiting my cousins girlfriend nearby at the planet and I noticed this place had just opened. I was pretty curious what you guys had here." She looked around with interest. "Your sign was interesting. The Eye of Thoth. No words or anything. Very mysterious. I assume whatever you sell here has something to do with knowledge?" She looked quizzically around the inside of the shop, clearly intrigued but also confused about what the glasses on display did.

I tried not to drool at that gorgeous flat stomach as I stepped up to the much shorter girl and bowed deeply, making sure to keep eye contact as I did so. Looking up at someone like that can be pretty sexual if you do it right. The pretty little blonde just smirked a little as I stood back up. "Welcome to Pythia Solutions, purveyor's of the finest eye based communications and entertainment technology in the city. Would you like to try out one of the products?" I plucked a pair of glasses from the counter and passed them over to her to check out.

She raised a dainty eyebrow at me before taking the pair of glasses, scrutinizing them before finally slipping them on and looking at me through them in confusion. I grinned. "Voice activated. That's our flagship model. All you need to do is tell them what to do. For instance." I cleared my throat, enunciating clearly. "Search romantic candle lit dinner locations for younger diners in Metropolis." I winked at her, and that drew a giggle from the girl, which turned into a blink of surprise when a functional screen popped up on the lens.

Her eyes went wide as she slipped them off, staring at them much more thoroughly. "That...is interesting. I'm actually pretty interested in engineering. How did you make these? The data storage architecture here is pretty advanced, a lot of storage space in such a small area, not to mention a functional processor and the screen resolution is absurd." Her eyes were glued to the glasses as she excitedly barraged me with questions I had absolutely no fucking clue how to answer. Luckily, I didn't have to.

I just smiled mysteriously and gave her another wink. "Trade secret I'm afraid. But I can let you have that pair for two thousand. I know it's a tad pricey, but with the internal storage and the solar charging feature that set is completely self sufficient. Our lower end model is only two hundred, and it comes with a microusb and a micro sd card for storage and charging. It's much less sturdy though, and doesn't have the onboard storage."

Her face fell, bottom lip jutting out in adorable pout. "Oh. That's pretty expensive. I can certainly understand the value, but I'm not exactly flush." She blushed prettily. "I'm still in school, so I don't have a job or anything. I guess I can try to save up." She looked down sadly. Of course, I wasn't going to just give them to her, nor did I think she was aiming for that, but I was interested in having this little bombshell around more, so I had an idea to kill two birds with one stone.

I plucked the glasses from her fingers, folding them up neatly. With my enhanced perception I could see she had been entirely relaxed despite my speed, which was a bit odd, but I shrugged it off. "Well I wouldn't want to wipe the smile off that pretty face. How about this. You're a pretty and interesting girl, I bet you have lots of friends. If you can refer enough people in here that I can make a sizable amount of sales on my first day, I'll save one of the flagship models and you can come pick it up tonight." I winked at her. "We can even celebrate over dinner at one of those places from the search."

Her eyes lit up and she smiled back challengingly. "Using me for advertising huh? And here I thought you wanted me for my body and not my mind." She twisted her lips in thought. "Alright. I'll be your word of mouth marketer if you save me that pair of glasses. As for dinner." She looked me up and down in thought. "I might be available next week, if you're good. But you'll have to work for it. Do I get your name by the way, Mr. Handsome shopkeeper guy? Or would prefer I call you something more formal, like sir or boss."

I grinned widely at the little spitfire. "I'm Nick, though I don't mind you calling me sir in private. As for working for it I don't mind. Anything worth doing is worth doing right." I let the double entendre there hang without too much emphasis, but I saw the sparkle in her eye that told me she'd gotten it. "But that means you have me at a disadvantage do I get a name to put with that pretty face?" I could have just appraised her, but honestly I didn't want to appraise everyone all the time, it felt boring, especially a cutie like her. Chatting up a pretty girl was a skillset, and I didn't want to get rusty.

She giggled, turning to walk away, hips swaying enough for me to catch glimpses of her tight little ass through that wavy skirt. Not huge, but VERY toned. That was a sculpted little booty. She looked back over her shoulder, catching me staring and smirking at me teasingly. "Well, I suppose you've earned at least that much. My name is Kara. Kara Kent. I'm looking forward to seeing more of you Nick, so make sure to program your number into those glasses, because I'll be back for them later." With that, she sauntered out and I grinned at the exit.

Cherry stepped out from the back of the shop, eyebrow raised. "Is this going to be an all the time thing? Because it kind of seems like you're going to pick up girls everywhere we go." I chuckled at that, and made to answer when I got a text. I pulled out my phone, wondering who it would be, and smiled when I saw it was from Dinah. I opened it without much thought and then froze. It was a request for a meeting asap. I mentally counted the days and my face paled slightly. I was pretty sure Dinah just found out we were going to be parents.

January 20th 2016 Grant's Gym 8:00 PM EDT

Dinah asked me to meet her at a boxing gym. She said asap, but was fine with waiting a few hours to end my day, so I finished out the business day early at eight. We sold about fifty pairs of glasses, though I was a bit distracted to notice the details. Still, I handed over the pair of H ranks with my number to Kara and thanked her for the help, asking her to come back the next day to discuss a potential job. She was thrilled, though she mentioned again that she was in high school so it would have to be part time.

Once she was gone I got in the car and drove to Grant's Gym where Dinah was meeting me. When I showed up the whole parking lot was empty, and I pulled in slowly, turning off the car before freezing in place. I sat there in terror, hands gripping the steering wheel. This was...a big fucking deal. I had not thought this shit through. To be fair I wasn't big on thinking things through in general, but this was a new level of carelessness even for me.

I snarled and slapped myself across the face. Fuck that. Second guessing was for little bitches. I had a kid now, so what? My dad had managed to make someone as kickass as me and that guy was barely around. If I was going to create a company to rival LuthorCorp and Wayne Enterprises I was going to have to learn to take care of my shit, if I couldn't even handle a baby then I had no business plotting world domination.

I took a deep breath. I felt my pulse slow as I forced myself to relax. I was already responsible for the existence of like ten people. One small human who couldn't get out of a crib wasn't going to be much harder. Plus I had the girls and Waylon and even Roy to help. Hell Jade was already a mom, I could make her babysit if I wanted to. I relaxed my grip and climbed out of the car, heading into the gym. When I knocked on the door a burly older man opened it, glaring up at me.

He didn't speak. Just stared for a few seconds, sneered, and then nodded inside, moving out of my way. I stepped in, prepared to get ambushed or some shit. The guy was oozing hostility, but he just slammed the door and walked to the back office, slamming that entrance too, and leaving me alone in the middle of the empty gym. Or rather, leaving me nearly alone. I could see a figure sitting in the ring nearby, though I had trouble seeing specifics. I walked over, slipping through the ropes and approaching the slumped blonde on a stool in the middle of the boxing ring.

Her shoulders were shaking, and I could her her breath catch. My stomach twisted. I...wasn't good with this shit. Crying women. Especially ones I actually liked. Dinah was upset, was devastated, and it made me nervous. I didn't like seeing her upset like this. Dinah was mine. She was my girl, the mother of my child. I wasn't a sappy guy but belonging to me meant something, meant she should be protected. Treated well. I swallowed, stepping forward until I was right next to her, and she was staring down at my shoes.

I reached down and lifted her chin, raising it up so she had to look at me. Her makeup was running, and there was a cigarette dangling from her lips, but it wasn't lit. She looked...almost scared to see me. I knelt down. I didn't know how to do this, how to comfort someone, but I knew how to fake it pretty fucking convincingly. So I did that. I schooled my face into a worried expression and took her hand, gripping it tightly without squeezing too hard. I didn't speak, just waiting for her to be ready.

Finally after staring for a while she spoke, the unlit cig falling to the ground. "I...I fucked up Nicky. I made a mistake. I was stupid and reckless and impulsive. I took advantage of you, I betrayed Oliver, betrayed all my friends, and now because I was a stupid, careless ,desperate old slut I ruined everything." There was real pain in her voice, profound hurt and self disgust and it ate at me. I didn't like hearing her sound like that. It pissed me off.

She averted her eyes. "I should have turned you down. Dirty talk is one thing, but I knew better. You're a teenager and I'm in my thirties and should have said no. But I felt ignored and overlooked and I latched onto you because you're handsome and fun, and the way you look at me makes me feel beautiful. Now I...I ruined our lives. Both of them. I feel so stupid. I even asked for this. It was just dirty talk, just careless horny bullshit, but be careful what you wish for I guess. I..I'm so sorry Nicky."

Her voice choked with tears again, barely able to hold back the sobs I could see coming. So I cheated. I put a hand on her face, and I used the Brand. "Dinah, sweetie, you're scaring me. Calm down ok? I need you to tell me what's wrong. I'm sure whatever it is we can work it out." This was my fault. I did this shit lazy. I hooked her with a shallow fuck buddies type of attachment and then knocked her up and it slapped her out of her lust induced haze. Now she was blaming herself for all of it and I needed to handle this shit carefully.

She took a ragged breath, but the Brand forced her to obey. She HAD to calm down. She probably just assumed I was good at getting her to focus or something because she didn't seem to register the physical control, which was all for the best. She nodded slowly. "Right. I...I have to tell you. I'm pregnant Nicky. I know we were talked about it as a sort of role play thing during sex but...now I really am. You're going to be a dad at eighteen, and I am SO sorry I did this to you. I'm thirty. Having a kid at my age is no big deal. But you...this is such a huge thing to drop on you."

Ouch. Even I felt like an asshole about that. I feigned shock, painting an astonished expression on my face. I had to play this carefully. Me being excited would be the wrong vibe. I would come off as a nutcase. We'd only been fucking a few weeks. But if I came across angry or afraid she would feel worse. I decided to play it safe and go with a scared but determined vibe. I looked down, hiding my terrified face, and then painted a steely resolved glare on my face, looking up at her.

Her eyes widened at the look but I didn't give her time to talk. "Hey. Age difference or not I'm no idiot. I know what can happen when you have sex. I wasn't exactly expecting this, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't fucking terrified right now, but I'm not going to abandon you because I'm scared. I always wanted a kid eventually. Sure this is pretty fucking early but I'm not the first person to be a father young. You didn't ruin shit, I'm here, I'm fine, and you're safe and healthy and so is our baby I assume." She swallowed hard, nodding at me, eyes wide and fixed on my face.

She look absolutely crushed, and I took a stab in the dark. "I'm guessing you told your...probably ex now. Oliver?" She swallowed and nodded. I winced. Explained all the self loathing. I was guessing he hadn't been kind when he found out, and Dinah, despite the fetishes I planted and some of the budding ones she had herself, was a genuinely caring person. She felt trapped and unloved in her relationship, but she wouldn't want to actually hurt anyone. Not like this. I ran a thumb over her hand gently, and she looked up at me almost shyly.

I leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "Whatever he said to you isn't true. People grow apart. Sometimes they break up. This wasn't an...ideal way for that to happen, but time will mend. As shitty as you might feel I promise you this isn't some horrible crime or betrayal. Everyone is alive and healthy and safe. You weren't right for each other anymore and you made a mistake about how you went about ending things. I'm sure you have regrets but focusing on those won't help anyone. Ok?"

She stared at me uncertainly before taking a deep breath and nodding. "I...I know. I do regret how this went, but I made my choices. If you can be mature enough to stick by the thirty year old woman you knocked up as a teenager I can be mature enough not to cling to past mistakes." She smiled wryly. "You give a pretty decent pep talk for a teenager. I have formal psychological training and I couldn't have done much better." She smiled tiredly. "I was meaning to ask if I could crash with you. I lived with Oliver and he kicked me out, and my friends are...mostly pretty unhappy with me right now."

I nodded without hesitation. "Yeah of course." I'd have to text Whisper and Waylon and have them move all of my merging materials somewhere out of the way. The house itself was crazy high end, but I'd seen better in Gotham, at least from an external point of view. "You can stay with me for as long as you want." I'd have to do any Mammon shit outside the house, but I was mostly company focused right now anyway, so that wouldn't be too big an issue, though I had one burning question. "What about us? I mean I'm still seeing Barbie, assuming she doesn't dump my ass."

She wouldn't, though she would probably be a little pissy for a while. Joy. To be fair she was already going to be kind of a bitch about Cherry so this was a good excuse to keep her away from the house at least. Still I might be serious about taking care of my kid but I absolutely was not going to wife this bitch up. At least not at the expense of my other girls. Luckily that didn't seem to an issue given the hollow laugh Dinah let out when I mentioned it.

I raised an eyebrow and she shook her head. "Sorry, it's just that you're taking responsibility for the baby already and letting me move in. I have no say in your love life. I'm not going to try to baby trap a teenager. It means enough that you're standing by me. I won't pretend to be thrilled by the idea of you bringing Barbara or any other girls home, but I won't bitch about it or anything. As for us...we can take it slow. Feel things out. Sex isn't off the table. Not like we can unring that bell anyway."

I laughed a bit, apparently I hadn't been as subtle about my continued interest in her body as I could have been, but luckily she didn't seem to mind. If anything the question seemed to lighten the mood a bit and eat into her self loathing. I stood up and held out my hand. "Alright well I think that's enough heavy heartbreak-y stuff for tonight. Get your stuff and I'll drive you back to my place. I'm living on my own now, so you won't know the way, and I didn't see your car out there anyway." She smiled at me shyly and nodded and I breathed a sigh of relief as I slipped a hand in my pocket and texted Whisper. At the very least, that could have gone worse.

January 21st 2016 Metropolis 10:00 AM EDT

I got Dinah settled in and then headed back to Metro the next day. I was making some progress on word of mouth with Kara's help. She knew a lot of people, and watching her perky ass bounce around my shop was a good way to enjoy my day. Sadly it was Thursday, so she had to be in school. Technically so did I but I wired the principal a hundred grand and told him to take care of it. I would graduate with full honors even if the old bastard had to write my homework for me himself.

When I finally showed up at the store, I didn't stay to sell all day. I merged a few thousand worth of glasses, leaving me at twenty five thousand GP and then headed out to explore nearby. I told Cherry to text me when Kara showed up, but I was not a storekeeper and yesterday annoyed the shit out of me. Instead I was going to do some recon on my competitors, specifically, I was going to take over Galaxy Media.

If I wanted to bounce someone currently in the star lineup for Metropolis, Galaxy Media was my best bet. Wayne Enterprises was stupidly powerful even here, and this was LexCorp's home turf. It was absolutely insane to consider trying to topple one of those giants from a storefront even with magic powers and a nestegg like that. I needed to make a name for myself first, get myself off the bottom rung, and the best possible way to do that was to get a foot in the door somewhere like Galaxy.

Morgan Edge was a notorious scumbag, and it would be just like him to take a hopeful up and comer into his company to get his hands on the kind of tech I had. Once I was in, a bit of corporate espionage and maybe some strongarm tactics would help me work my way up, and then I could put myself in a position for a takeover. Edge knew me, and he would assume that I was striking out on my own to prove myself and that I had more money than sense to throw at the problem. He would meet with me because of my dad, and invest because of my product, and the whole time he would do his level best to fuck me over.

I strolled casually up to the front desk. Slipping out my ID. as I smiled charmingly at the receptionist. "Hi there, my name is Nick Lord. Can you tell Morgan Edge that his old friend Maxwell's son is here to see him?" Morgan Edge and my father were NOT friends. Their relationship could best be described as being one of malicious apathy. They did however act civil in public so most people didn't know that, even though dad had been doing his spy thing and had been out of the public eye, he WAS still the second richest man in Metropolis.

Her eyes widened in shock as she stared at the ID, swallowing hard. "Oh! Of course, Mr. Lord, I'll let Mr. Edge know you're here to see him." She sprang to her feet circling around the desk. Causing the massive tits in the low cut top she was wearing to jiggle. According to her name tag her name was Tiffany, and it wasn't exactly a mystery why Edge had hired her to work his desk. But then, I appreciated eye candy too, so I followed the harried receptionist to a waiting room and graciously accepted the offered organic cola while she ran this up the chain.

I considered as I waited how to play this. Manipulation was an artform, and people like Edge were proficient, if amateurish. I'd need more cunning than the superficial charm I'd used to get into Dinah's panties to get into a position to take advantage of Morgan Edge. That said, I COULD manipulate him, I just needed to make sure to take the right approach. Everything can be exploited, and Morgan Edge wasn't some master schemer. He was a slum lord with a TV company.

He would be wary, be careful of me trying to pull the wool over his eyes, but that was a vulnerability of its own. People like Edge were control freaks, they got off on setting people up like dominos and watching them fall. The main flaw in that kind of thinking is that by assuming you can plan around everything you have to trust your instinctive read on people. Edge liked to think he was observant, but what he really was, was biased. He had preconceived notions of how things would go and relied on them too much.

If you want to manipulate someone like Edge, you just give him what he's expecting. I would play the brat, the power hungry teen tired of living in my fathers shadow. I would show him someone impulsive, greedy, and heedless of consequences. Now I was some of those things, so it wouldn't be hard to fake, but the point was that by showing him someone with an obvious agenda he wouldn't bother to look for a more subtle one. Showing up here intending to use him to springboard my company to greatness in an obvious way would make him complacent.

Someone like me shouldn't have the ability or resources to take apart a media giant like Galaxy Media and steal it from him, so that wouldn't occur to him. And as long as he thought he had a handle on my real goals, I could let him "manage" me while I made my moves behind the scenes in peace. All I had to do was fail a few obvious embezzling schemes and engage in a bit of nepotism to try to get my own people hired in to sell the idea that my "plans" were progressing, even if not very successfully.

So when Edge came into the room, hard eyes scanning me with glee, I just smirked at him, raising an eyebrow and waiting for him to come over to initiate a handshake. I saw the subtle hint of annoyance on his tanned face that he smoothed over, and the bald, bearded man walked over with a big, friendly, and obviously fake smile. "Nicky! Look at you, all grown up! Haven't seen you in ages, and look how big you got. Plus I hear you've been making moves of your own, your old man must be proud. I'm surprised he didn't take you under his wing."

He held out a hand and I shook it casually. Giving a devil may care shrug. "I don't need his help. If I get him to hand me everything then everyone will just think I'm a useless layabout. No, this will be much more fun. Still, it's good to see you too Mr. Edge. I was in the area and I figured you might be interested in checking out my new business venture. It's going to be big, so I thought I'd give you a chance to get in on the ground floor."

Which was business talk for 'give me your money'. Still, from his point of view the timing would just be confirmation that I was a lazy brat. One day as store owner and I didn't do as well as I hoped, so I was getting bored and trying to pawn all the work off on him so I could rake in the cash. It had the added benefit of being kind of true so it was an east sell. Of course, at this point Edge probably assumed I was hocking some low level crap. I hadn't sold enough glasses for his investigation to have turned up a spare pair of the things.

I pulled out a pair of the flagship model H rank glasses and handed them over. "I have a private in with a particularly brilliant scientist. They make these for me special. They're cell phone specs full internet capabilities and super high resolution screens in the lenses. Voice activated, and the flagship model you have there is solar powered and has a massive internal storage. The cheaper model is only two hundred but those high end specs are two grand. Consider those a gift."

He would try to reverse engineer them. But it was functionally impossible with the technology he had access to to make a design that would be cheaper than what I was selling them for already, if he could recreate them at all. Luthor could probably manage, but again, I doubted even that asshole could put together a version cheaper to produce than mine. Two grand would barely be enough to pay for the storage architecture, and that wasn't even counting having to miniaturize it. Edge tested the things out, his eyes getting wider and wider.

Finally he smoothed over his features. "These aren't a bad product Nicky. I don't know if they're up to Galaxy Media standards, but you've always been like a nephew to me. I'm sure we could work something out. I could set you up with a nice oversight position for the department that makes them, give you a cushy salary and a nice office. How about you bring in your scientist friend and we can talk it over? I'm sure getting them supplies and production facilities has been a pain, I can take care of all that for you."

Ah yes, the old 'this isn't worth my time but I like you so I'll throw you a bone' strategy. Used to convince people their products were worth less than they were since the dawn of time. I put on skeptical expression, tinging my voice with worry. "I mean, I thought they were pretty great. This is definitely the kind of product that can help me make a name for myself on my own. The scientist I contract with will only deal with me, but...I guess I could work with Galaxy for distribution." I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. "I'll get you a list of materials that we need for large scale production."

I had absolutely no need for any materials, but if I could get him to start shipping me stuff I could use the points income to cover actual production and then resell his 'supplies' through back channels for additional profit. It was way more sustainable than the way I was doing it now, and if anything actually netted me a profit in both fields. It would also give me another avenue of commerce to work with Penguin on, and it was always nice to keep lines of communication open when possible.

He looked a bit annoyed but nodded, putting on a amiable smile to cover his irritation. "Of course Nicky. Like I said, they're a neat little gimmick, I'm sure they'll do ok. Once you see that they aren't selling as well as you expected we can talk over production. Maybe figure out a way to cut costs a bit. I'm sure your one scientist hasn't optimized the process yet. Not like my whole R and D department can do." He shook his head. "In any case, we can work out the details with the lawyers."

He walked over to the bar of the conference room I was waiting in and pulled out a decanter of what looked like cognac. "In the meantime we should be celebrating your first big business deal. I know Max isn't a drinker, and I'm sure you don't indulge much either." He winked at me. "We can just keep this between us though." He was clearly trying to get me drunk before we made the deal. Unlike my dad I DID drink, as well as do multiple drugs, or at least I had. Now they mostly didn't effect me anyway so it hardly mattered. He passed me over the glass of brandy and I took a sip, enjoying the smooth, sweet, liquid as it burned down my throat. Step one was one. Now onto to step two. This company was going to be mine.