fics I read

April 3rd 2016 Gotham City 1:00 PM EDT

It usually only took a second or two for merges to complete, but I'd never merged anything on this scale before. I'd done a small town, but it had been like a few buildings. This was Gotham and Metropolis, two of the biggest cities on the east coast, and there were a lot of people in both. I'd concentrated on NOT merging all the people, since I didn't want to accidentally turn my women into random strangers, but there were going to be a LOT of changes.

I'd used Gotham itself as the primary, since I didn't want my house to move, and Metropolis was pouring into the city, rapidly changing so many things. Metropolis's powerful grounding effect on magic as the 'City of Tomorrow' was the key to this whole plan. Doctor Gotham was plugged into a magical generator and had nigh unlimited power within his territory, and there was no possible way to beat him as long as those two things remained true.

Contacting Doctor Fate had yielded surprising results when it came to allies, mostly because this whole city might as well have been cancer as far as he was concerned. Wild magic running amok in a place the size of Gotham was a huge win for Chaos, and Doctor Fate literally did not care what he had to do to fix that shit. I thought I was a sociopath, but that guy made me look like the world's huggiest puppy. As the light faded, I used appraisal on the slowly revealed city, and felt my breath catch in my throat.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Brightedge City -C rank. A sprawling magitech metropolis, Brightedge city contains both powerful mystical energies and advanced futuristic technology, sometimes in the places you would least expect them. Altars to lost machine gods, futuristic rituals of blood sacrifice, and treasures of a million kinds all lie within this city. Warning: this disruption in the lines of fate affects the plans of beings beyond your comprehension. Tread carefully.]

The light finally faded and I was...in awe. This new city was breathtaking. Massive skyscrapers of glass and stone stood beside towers of bone and magic. Some of the buildings were heavily enchanted in sections and hummed with futuristic energy shields in others. I'd felt the movements of the energies as they had happened, and I knew that many things had changed. Crypts and hidden places had been altered, had become more, and even powerful places beyond the reach of the upgrade were being affected by the environment.

I heard a small gasp from beside me, and looked over to see Leslie staring wide eyed at the new skyline. Metropolis was just...gone. Not destroyed, but part of Brightedge, and the place it had been was just empty fields of grass now. I knew everything that had been in Metropolis would be here now, in some way or another, but I could understand why she was so shaken. I put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, cool it, no need to freak. No one got hurt, I just combined the cities. Trust me, it was necessary."

She was shaking under my hand, too awestruck to speak. Not that I would have heard it over the booming howl of unbridled rage that shook the whole fucking city. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" The tide of palpable fury that washed from the city probably would have had me pissing myself if this wasn't part of the plan. Doctor Gotham was fucking PISSED, and he was coming this way. I barely recognized the urbane, amused voice of the condescending old warlock with the earthshattering power and simmering hate warping his bellow, but barely meant I still recognized it, even if I wish I hadn't.

I turned to Leslie. "Ok, this? This you can freak out about a little. I'd hide behind me if I were you. This next part is going to get a bit dicey." The tiny blue girl gave an eep, of fear and dove behind my larger form, and I turned back to watch the coming fireworks. Blue booty would still be there later, but this was a once in a lifetime shot at observing magic on a scale most people would never get to witness, as long as I survived.

Something that became much less certain when a literal COLUMN of black flame smashed down from above me, aiming right at my and the nearly naked cutie behind me. I considered defending myself, but I wasn't stupid enough to think that I could block that. Doctor Gotham was an A ranker even without access to an unlimited energy source. I might as well try to piss on the sun. I'd either survive this with outside intervention as expected, or I would die.

Luckily, it turned out to be the former. Before the flames impacted us, a golden flash of light bloomed in front of me. The spell coalesced into a golden Ankh that swallowed the entire burst in a single bottomless slurp, barely rippling at the prodigious might of the hellfire it had consumed. Doctor Gotham emerged from the clouds above me, glaring down at both me and the Ankh. His white ponytail whipped in the wind, as did his brown coat, and his blue eyes were alight with hate and rage.

He snarled at me soundlessly. "You! I remember you boy. I invited you to become part of this new world, to join with me, and this is how you repay me? You've ruined everything! Do you know how long it took to plan this? To execute the rituals, to arrange the necessary convergences of magical energies? Then you just do...THIS, and suddenly it's all gone. My careful webs of spellwork fractured into nothingness." His eyes snapped up to the clouds in the distance. "Nabu! You simpering little goody-goody. I know you're there. You did this didn't you? Gave him the spell to create this...abomination."

Huh, I hadn't expected him to just completely write me off and assume Doctor Fate did all this, but I honestly wasn't complaining. This asshole could smash me like a bug, the less of his attention I had the better. I reached out to the city, to see if I could gain control of it, but I felt no response. Shit. I'd been afraid of that. Possession was nine tenths of the law for the greed system. My Brands existed because owning a person is difficult to quantify, but for actual objects as far as it was concerned I had to be strong enough to take them and hold them. No convenient mental link to Brightedge.

I'd have to conquer the damn place the old fashioned way, and that was going to be a fucking mess. For now though, I was focused on the battle of magical titans going on above me. Doctor Fate coalesced from the dark, floating above the river in his shining golden helmet and ridiculous cape. "Sun King." The helmeted sorcerer intoned. "Your monstrosity has been quelled. You have unleashed chaos on this world, and must be brought to order. Surrender yourself now, and I will allow you to keep your li-"

Apparently Doctor Gotham was not a fan of surrender, because he unleashed a huge wave of power at the other magic user. A twisting flicker of his hands and he hurled forth a sort of jagged, shifting fractal made of black and green energies. The fractal expanded to fill the sky as it bore down on Doctor Fate. The helmeted sorcerer raised another Ankh, but Doctor Gotham flicked his hands again and the fractal shattered, reforming into a dozen smaller patterns that spate a strange black green lightning from every angle.

Fate raised his hands and PULLED them apart. The Ankh he had conjured warped around him. Despite still being completely flat, it somehow expanded and thickened, drawing in the space around Fate without actually damaging anything and somehow creating a two dimensional bubble that it fucking hurt to look at. The lightning crashed harmlessly against the barrier, and Fate snapped his fingers.

The sparks of gold from the impact points turned to chains as the Ankh dissolved into links, climbing each individual stream of energy back to the original fractal and binding each one in halcyon restrictions until the whole area was a web of golden binding. Fate made a fist and YANKED it back, and I heard a sound of ripping and a scream from Doctor Gotham as the bound energy, still somehow connected to him, was torn right out of him.

The warlock shuddered and dropped a few feet, catching himself in midair. He hunched over, panting, for a minute, and when he looked up, the strong and masculine face under that silver hair had been replaced with a lined and wrinkled scowl. He looked like he had aged fifty years from that one attack. He'd been old before, but it had been a distinguished fifty or sixty. Now he looked a hundred and ten. Doctor Gotham coughed and a few times, hacking up a few traces of black energy before wiping his mouth.

He glared up at Fate. "That was MINE. The word of Daganoth took me centuries to properly refine, and I would like it back." He lashed out with a hand, and a sickly blue web flew out at Fate. The web was...wrong. Like I was looking at something a spider had made as it's magnum opus before it died of madness. It hurt to watch the shifting shapes, like trying to wrap my thoughts around them punctured and raked at parts of my mind.

Fate, however, wasn't even phased. A few flickering gestures conjured a swarm of golden hawks that swooped down on the net. Each hawk was a conglomeration of dozens of powerful spells, and the fell up on the weak points in the net ripping chunks from them as they did. The net had been seen through completely and the hawks tore into exactly the right spots to dissolve it.

As it collapsed the energy in it exploded outward, running amok and burning away at the air and the world itself like vitriol or poison, but Fate had taken it apart from a distance and remained untouched. It wasn't that there was a huge difference in their ability. Fate was A rank I was pretty sure, though I wasn't going to appraise him right now and risk distracting him somehow. No, the difference was that first attack.

That word thing had been incredibly powerful, and I got the impression it wasn't exactly a part of Doctor Gotham. Some kind of spell construct that he funneled his power through, and a borrowed one at that. Fate had taken advantage of the old warlock's hubris and the fifty thousand year gap in practice time to steal a huge chunk of his juice, and it had damaged the other wizard.

Doctor Gotham had also been cut off from his city, which probably hadn't been fun to start with. It explained why fate had arranged for me to do this the way I had, so he could intervene while his foe was weakened. Between those two factors, Doctor Gotham was officially too damaged to win this. Unless fate got cocky, which I didn't see happening. This was a foregone conclusion.

They still battled for an hour before it ended. The magic made what I'd seen from Zee look like a child finger painting, I memorized every second of the fight, but eventually, after a long battle, Fate managed to close and restrain The Sun King. The Ankh he used wrapped around the old man's neck, his hands locked in the two protrusions on the side like stockades. I expected fate to address me, but he just waved a hand and a second Ankh opened, a portal that he dragged the other wizard into, disappearing. I let out a long sigh of relief. Looked like the plan had worked. Time to deal with the fallout.

April 3rd 2016 Gotham City 4:00 PM EDT

"Huh." I said blankly. "Well...that escalated quickly." It hadn't, really. It was an hour fight. But it FELT like it had. Note to self: don't fuck with Doctor Fate. I turned to the scantily clad blue girl, watching everything with a dazed and slightly confused expression. "You can come home with me. Or you can go your own way, but I'm leaving." I saw her look around. Look up to the city, and look down at herself.

I could have been a dick about it. Tried to push, or manipulate her, but I didn't need to. She wasn't going to bounce that jiggly blue ass around a now merged Gotham and Metropolis after she'd just been freed from fairy kidnappers. She had also just seen me do some scary shit. She felt like I was safe for her. I'd protected her, and I could obviously have hurt her if I wanted and didn't. She pouted at me. "I'm not going to fuck you or anything. I'm not like that." She looked down at all the smooth blue flesh on display. "This was those assholes, I don't dress like this."

Snickering, I just turned away, using my bodily control to make sure I didn't get hard looking at her. "Please. I like my women a bit more mature. You're cute enough, kid, but you're not my type. Maybe you can find some boys your own age who want a taste of blue raspberry booty." I could practically hear the enraged record scratch as she processed the dismissal. Leslie was a pretty girl, and she knew it. She didn't want to fuck me right now, but she wanted me to WANT it.

She stalked around in front of me, hands on her hips as she glared. "I'm eighteen, asshole. And you would be LUCKY to fuck a girl like me." She flushed, her mind suddenly informing her that she was nearly bare ass in front of a man twice her size informing him of how good she would feel in bed. I just smirked and ruffled her hair, ignoring the sparks that tried to jump to me.

"Whatever your say sweetie." I said consolingly. "Come on, lets go home." If she was eighteen it was recent, but she still wasn't that much younger than me. Still, she was charmingly naive, and I was going to have fun tormenting her. I wasn't going to touch little Leslie until she was gagging for it. I'd take out the extra frustration on the rest of my girls, I was sure they missed me. The fact that they were all older would drive her nuts too. Maybe I could take bets on how long it would take her to throw herself at me. I bet Sally and Waylon would get in on that.

Despite my dismissal, or maybe because of it, Leslie sidled up next to me and clutched onto my coat sleeve. Following behind me with a cute little pout on her face. I might have hurt her feelings, but I was still her big strong hero. Telling her she wasn't hot enough for me didn't make her any less attached. Hell it probably made it worse. I put the little blue bombshell out of my mind though and headed for the palace.

I didn't walk or fly her there. I wanted to scope out Brightedge at ground level before I started flying around so obviously. I just stole some asshole's car. It was a Porsche Carrerra, though it was a bit dinged. He'd hit something or other during the merge and was sitting dazed in the street. The thing he hit was gone, and the streets were clear, because my image of the city hadn't had blocked off streets.

There were a lot of confused people around, and more then a few cars parked or idling, but the roads weren't blocked. I was guessing both cities had the majority of people avoiding road travel due to the circumstances. I gave Leslie a friendly pat on the ass, pushing her toward the car. I didn't grope or anything, just tapped the cheek lightly. It was thick and springy. I'd be enjoying that later no doubt. She scowled at me, seeming torn on how to react, but when I didn't even acknowledge it her scowl turned into a pout.

We headed off into the street, and despite having to turn around and reroute a few times, I made it back to the Palace easily enough. I'd gone out of my way to keep the location consistent in the merge, so finding it was no problem. As I climbed out of the car though, I noticed that there was a crowd waiting for me. Whisper, Dinah, Jade, Artemis, Ingrid, Barbie, Strega, Roy, Waylon, Sally, a guy I suspected was Barbie's dad, a redhead who looked like Roy's older brother holding a baby, Amy, Emerald, and a few people I didn't even recognize were all clustered together.

My two baby mama's hit me first, burying their faces in my chest as my arms went around them. I felt a surge of possessive joy as I pulled them against me. MINE. My women. My mates. Carrying my children. They smelled like sex and candy and fucking liquid ecstasy. I was hard almost immediately. Huh. Dragon instincts LOVED women I'd impregnated. That was neat. I had a feeling I'd enjoy sex with them even more than normal.

I also felt...good. Holding them. Knowing my kids weren't gonna get killed or whatever. It felt awkward, and the weird relaxing feeling in my chest made me a bit annoyed. It didn't matter. It was nice to see them, and they needed some reassurance. Of course I needed some things too. I groped a handfull of Whisper's divine bowling ball booty and reached up to yank Dinah's mouth to mine, feeling my milf moan into my lips.

I scoured her fucking mouth with my tongue, my other hand dropping to one fat tit and toying with her nipple as she whimpered and wriggled against me. Whisper bit down on my neck in a way I think wouldn't have felt as good before I was a dragon, but now made my cock surge like crazy. My grip on her ass tightened and Dinah pulled away, panting. She licked her lips eyes still cloudy, and then hauled back and slapped me across the fucking face. I turned with the blow so she didn't hurt her hand, couldn't break the baby mama by accident.

Turning back to her I went to raise an eyebrow, but was stopped by the sight of her face streaked with tears. "You fucking asshole." Her voice was hoarse and raw, with concern, need, and hurt. "You just left us. Left me. Left our baby." She put a hand on her stomach. I actually felt...bad? For leaving. Well, no. It had been a good call. But I kind of felt bad for not having her with me. I'd have liked Dinah with me. I'd missed fucking her, and she was fun to talk to. It took me a second to figure out what to say.

"I'm...sorry." And fucking weirdly...I was. I was sorry. It was an odd thing to feel. I was unhappy she was unhappy. Maybe I was worrying about the stress hurting the baby? My confusion must have shown on my face because she rolled her eyes, seemingly willing to let it go. I cleared my throat. "It wasn't intentional, and I had some stuff to take care of. It was dangerous, probably not good for the baby. It's done now, mostly, and I'm back." I thought back to the conversation we had outside the shower.

My eyebrows furrowed. "I didn't abandon you." That thought offended me. That I would give up what was mine. Leave behind what belonged to me. That she felt my possessions could ever have so little value. That emotion I was completely comfortable with. "I'm back now, and I even kept in touch with you. Where is this coming from? You've seemed fine recently. Haven't you been talking to Ingrid?" I looked to the doctor who just smiled and waved cheerfully.

She was too far away to hear us, but her ever present smile made the unfamiliar emotions worse so I looked away.

Fucking godspawn. Dinah just rolled her eyes. "I'm pregnant Nicky, I'm allowed to change my mind about things. But I've been compartmentalizing. I'm still angry, even if I understand your reasons. You have a lot of explaining to do. Including why this pretty blonde girl has informed me that she is your WIFE." She stabbed a finger accusingly at Amy, who was pouting prettily at the grope show, though more in jealousy than anger.

I winced. Shit. I'd been planning to manage that introduction. Oh well, I'd deal with it as it came. Damn it, why did I juggle so many girls. I stopped and ran my eyes over all my women, drinking in their bodies. Ok, that was why. I turned to Whisper, raising an eyebrow. "And you? Is the other mother of my child planning to express her disappointment?" I was curious to see if Whisper had changed much in the time I was gone. Slapping me in a fit of rage wasn't outside the realm of possibility for Dinah, but Whisper would have had to go insane before she would touch me in anger.

My redheaded serpent girl cooed and nuzzled against me. "No my lord. Never. I'm so happy you've returned. I've missed your touch, your gaze, your cock. I've been so long without partaking of my lord's affections. All that matters is that you've come back to me." I shot Dinah a challenging eyebrow, gesturing down to Whisper as if to say 'see? this is how a good baby mama greets her man'.

Dinah just rolled her eyes. "Whisper is a fanatical lunatic. She isn't a proper gauge of anyone's mentality." She glared for a minute, but then huffed in annoyance. "But yes. I've obviously missed you Nicky." She approached gingerly, leaning against me, ear pressed to my chest as if to hear my heartbeat. "Please don't leave me again? Just...don't. I can forgive the rest, but I couldn't raise this baby on my own. Whisper would have helped of course, but she isn't the father. She isn't you."

Leaning down I kissed the top of her head, then whispered in her ear. "I still want you. Just as bad as that first day we met. You aren't going to get away from me." She was mine. Carrying my child. If I could promise anything it was that I wasn't going to let her go. She leaned up for another kiss, this one slower and more tender. I had other shit to deal with now unfortunately, or I would have dicked my pregnant girls into a coma. Sadly that would have to wait.

I turned to the others. "Alright. As you can see, the city has undergone some...changes. Things are going to be in flux for a while, which means things will be crazy." I glanced to Commissioner Gordon, who looked extremely unhappy, and avoided mentioning my plan to take advantage of the chaos to claim parts of the city. Instead I said. "We need to help things stabilize...so people don't get hurt." That should keep Barbie, Zee, and Gordon happy while we expanded.

Everyone nodded sharply at the urgent mention of our priorities, some because of the territory up for grabs, and some because of the civilians in danger. Of course, that was all derailed by Barbie, who raised a hand insolently, a single eyebrow raised in challenge. I sighed in annoyance, knowing what she was going to ask, and sure enough she pointed over my shoulder. "That's all great and we can get to the details in a minute, but mind telling me how, the few hours since we last saw you, you picked up a mostly naked blue girl." I felt all the eyes of my women lock on me in various states of irritation that I'd been off scoring girls when they'd been worried about me dying. Joy.

April 3rd 2016 Brightedge City 6:00 PM EDT

Of course, once they figured out poor Leslie was a kidnapping victim I'd rescued and that her nudity was because of the terrible fairies I'd saved her from, all the looks became sympathetic. My girls were mostly big softies, and they were immediately won over by the blue girl's bravery. Leslie, for her part, seemed to be trying to stick close to me without actually acknowledging she wanted to do so, and the other girls were down to let her. Though more than one of them seemed surprised I wasn't using the opportunity to paw some fat blue ass.

I just ignored her aside from the occasional encouraging smile and slightly patronizing supportive comment. It was an active effort not to get stiff at the feeling of her slowly simmering rage that I wasn't taking her seriously, and ignoring her increasingly obvious ploys for attention only made it worse. She was like a fucking cat, bumping into me while looking away so I'd know she didn't care but had no choice but to pet her.

Sadly she was now clothed, Cherry had snagged her some clothes, and the tight molded on shorts were practically painted on her ass, while the midriff baring halter outlined her cute little tits perfectly. None of this was super relevant right now though, because we had business to take care of. I looked at Barbie, who was sitting across from me at the kitchen table, poring over a local map.

For the moment we were nominally aimed in the same direction, even if I was only paying lip service. Expansion. She wanted to save people and I wanted to dig in a bit. To do either though, we needed info, and with the massive changes we couldn't predict that meant one thing. We needed forces. I pointed to a spot where I was still pretty sure we could find the Iceberg Lounge. "My first move is obvious." I said solemnly. "I need to get in touch with Penguin. He knows me well enough to be willing to work with us, and we could use his goon squad to track down people in trouble."

Also to start taking and holding territory, but that was an argument for another time. Barbie looked furious. "Penguin? Cobblepot is NOT someone you can trust, Nicky. I know he seems like he's reasonable most of the time, but he's DEEPLY unbalanced. Any perceived slight will be paid back ten times over, and I do mean perceived. He's killed people for offenses they didn't even know they had committed." Her voice was almost pleading as she laid out the danger she felt I was putting myself in. It was actually kind of cute.

I held up both hands placatingly. "I'm not saying we trust him. I'm saying we need him. Once the emergency is over we can sever ties. As long as I treat him respectfully and deal with him fairly a short term alliance won't be a problem right? Hell, of any of the current power players in Brightedge I'd say he's the one most likely to honor a deal. We aren't exactly spoiled for choice here, love." I added that last bit as a sop to her ego, softening my voice so it seemed like I was the one pleading now. I wasn't but she'd get all swoony and fold if she thought I was being affectionate.

To my shock, Amy nodded. "He's right, Barbara. I don't know much about the political situation in the area, but this city is too large for us to attempt to manage this crisis alone, even with the power gathered here." She gestured to Gordon. "Your father has been attempting to reach out to his police compatriots, by months in a city ruled by monsters seems to have destroyed any cohesion they might have. If this Cobblepot is the least of our bad options, I don't think we have another choice."

We all just blinked at her. It was easy to forget she was a princess sometimes when she was playing the giddy new bride. Hearing my sweet submissive little Amy speaking so forcefully was kind of a mind fuck, and I had to admit it was a bit hot. Barbie sighed, but to my surprise she didn't refute the point, only nodding. I slipped out the lightning phone, giving it a quick charge (much less than I'd needed in gemworld thankfully) and placed a call to Penguin, waiting for his image to appear in front of me.

When it did, his eyes widened as he jerked back in surprise, staring at me cautiously. I was wearing my mask, because he knew me by that face. "Well." Penguin said, his beady eyes fixed on me. "If it isn't my old friend Mammon. Haven't seen you in a while kid. We all thought you had kicked it. You're awfully late on your last several shipments. I trust you have a good reason for that?" His voice was casual, but there was a core of steel to the question, letting me know that he wouldn't accept anything but a good answer.

Penguin looked like shit. His normally pale flesh was waxy and sallow, his eyes were sunken and ringed with dark circles, and his normally immaculate clothes were wrinkled and worn, though still perfectly clean. He looked like someone had run him through a meat grinder and stuck him back together again after. I chuckled lightly. "Well I haven't really been around. I was at that damn party same as you. My escape protocols were a bit...too effective. Glad to see you made it out alive though. Be a shame to lose my only real business partner."

He narrowed his eyes at me for a moment, but then just sighed. "I'm too tired for this shit, kid. Tell me what you want. But be aware my patience is limited these days. If you have gear to sell I might be interested in buying. If you're calling for a favor I would suggest hanging up...whatever this is. It'll only piss me off."

"I'm calling for business." I assured him seriously. "I'm sure you've seen the changes? Hell, everyone has. We just got back to town, and dragging our asses through the mess was harder than expected. Still, risk comes with reward. Everyone is off balance here. We want to use the opportunity to establish some territory, but my crew is about eight very strong members. Good for holding what we find, but not great for covering a large amount of ground. I'm proposing you send some of your henchmen along to support, and we can all split up."

Barbie looked unhappy, but she knew that I had to approach Penguin with an offer he would actually care about. Cobblepot wasn't a philanthropist, if we'd asked him to help save the city he'd have laughed us out of the call at best, tried to have us all murdered for wasting his time at worst. Since my people were almost all E-rankers now, I wasn't worried his goons might turn on them. Hell, I didn't think they would be capable of killing most of my people if they laid down in front of them and took a nap.

It was a testament to how stretched thing Penguin was that he seemed to be considering the course of action. Finally he sighed. "That's too vague, and not nearly a good enough deal for me, but I'm not UNinterested. Make it to the lounge with your crew, prove they're strong enough to matter, and I'm not opposed to discussing terms. If we do this we're sharing the territory, mind you. I'm not helping you dig in just to toss it all away, but I'll at least discuss it with you."

I wasn't going to quibble. Given how chaotic this city was going to be, I didn't particularly want full territorial control. Micromanaging all this would be a pain in the ass. Supplying raw muscle with Cobblepot played boss was a win win. I got control and he got to flex on everyone else. Barbie wasn't wrong about his nature, but she'd neglected the most important part of it. While Oswald Cobblepot had a hair trigger about his pride, he was also pragmatic as hell. He would do whatever was needed to benefit himself, even if he had to swallow some anger. Penguin's most useful trait was survival.

Disconnecting the call, I had to give the man credit. He hadn't seemed more than passingly freaked by the method of communication. I was sure he had been of course, but he had a hell of a poker face. I turned to Barbie. "Alright, I'm pretty sure I can get us each a posse of Penguin goons, with the extra manpower we can prioritize saving civilians. Just have anyone you come across brought here. This place is huge and we have the room. Once we have some territory cleaned out and held we can start moving people to where they'll live. That work for you?"

After a short discussion, we all headed out to the garage attached to this place. There were several dozen cars out there, most of which were H or even G rank depending on how powerful or high end they were. I considered upgrading one, but honestly we didn't need some kind of over the top super car right now. That seemed like more of a project for when I had some downtime to really experiment, so we just snagged the Hummer in the back corner and peeled out, heading for the iceberg lounge.

The trip there was...odd. I'd expected to see more of the same, congested streets and worried people, but it seemed like everyone was retreating back into their homes or businesses to try to get their bearings. The buildings had all either merged or been sort of superimposed on each other, some condensing space so they took up less room than they should. Merged buildings seemed to have spaces for both sets of inhabitants, but it was tough to see any reasoning behind what got put where and why.

Some of them made sense of course. The Daily Planet seemed to have merged with GNN building into a massive towering edifice called the Brightedge Daily News. Wayne Enterprises had combined with LuthorCorp in an absolutely massive chrome and glass monstrosity labeled WayneCorp, though it was just the building that had been combined. I was pretty sure merging the actual companies would require WAY more points, if I could even DO that.

For all that though, the drive was mostly uneventful, no one was sure what was happening and as such no one wanted to start some shit when it could go so wrong for them. I could feel the eyes on us as we traveled though. People might not be making moves but they were all watching...waiting. This was the calm before the storm without a doubt, and I completely understood.

I knew before the day was over some of the power players would be dead, killed by necessity by competing factions that had been lumped together close to them. Some new alliances would be formed too. Luckily, while things had changed, it wasn't too crazy. Gotham had been the base I used in the merge, so the street layouts were similar. It didn't take more than a half hour for us to reach the Iceberg Lounge.

The place was surrounded by weapon emplacements, which I didn't remember being there before, but it had been a few months in a magic city invasion so it wasn't that strange to see some firepower. We pulled up outside and climbed from the car, heading up to the doors to knock as the guns tracked our movements. They wouldn't hurt me anyway, not at E rank, so I wasn't worried. We'd only brought E-rankers or higher with us for this trip, so all of my people were covered. As I knocked on the door, I settled in to wait. I was curious what kind of madness tonight would bring.

April 3rd 2016 Brightedge City 7:00 PM EDT

Apart from the whole fortress thing, the Iceberg Lounge was mostly unchanged to my surprise. The iceberg that was its namesake was still there, the bars were all still open, and the floors were still clean and mostly uncrowded as people spread out along the different levels. As usual, as soon as I entered, one of Penguin's three assistants was there in a flash. Jay, the pretty blonde who always went gaga over my money, was the first to reach me. Favoring me with a wide smile. "Mr. Mammon! I'm so happy to see you! We were worried something had happened to our favorite customer." She pouted at me. "You were supposed to come visit us."

I grinned at her and dipped a hand into my pouch, slipping out a diamond the size of an easter egg and holding it out with a shrug. "Sorry about that, Jay. Glad to know I was missed at least. I come bearing gifts at least? Does that earn me some forgiveness from my favorite little birdie?" Jay's pupils dilated as she stared at the rock, reaching out slowly to take it from me. She slipped the diamond into a pocket before leaning down to kiss her way down my hand to my fingers, one of which she began to literally suck on slowly.

Blinking at the sudden but not unwelcome come on, I decided to let her have her fun, but it was interrupted by a loud throat clearing from off to my side. I looked over to see both Barbie and Amy glaring at me accusingly. I pulled my hand from Jay's mouth, enjoying the sight of the single strand of drool hanging from her mouth. I cleared my throat. "Any way sweetness, we're here to talk to the big man can you take us up to see him?" She pouted but gave me a sad nod, turning to head up to Penguin's office with a sway in her hips. I popped her on one of her cute little ass cheeks as she walked away earning a pleased squeak as she sped up.

Looking at my girls I just shrugged. "What? I need to stay in character." Barbie rolled her eyes while Amy walked over and practically molded herself to my side, glaring at all the women we passed. I chuckled at my jealous little wifey. I leaned down to murmur in her ear. "Someone is feeling a bit insecure huh? What has you so upset love? It breaks my heart to see my pretty new bride so unhappy." I knew of course, but I wanted her to say it, because once she put it into words I could talk her around it.

She pouted, leaning her head into my shoulder. "Oh, you remember we're married? The way you drool over all these other women I thought you might have forgotten."

I clapped one of her own soft jiggly cheeks in one hand with a sly grin in my voice. "I'm supposed to be drooling over you all the time then baby?" I gave a firm squeeze. "Because even my pretty princess doesn't have the energy to handle that much of my attention. I didn't want to scare you off. Besides, are you the only one allowed to have fun with some sweet little thing? I let you and Emerald have your best friend fun time don't I? I just assumed we were at a place in our marriage where you didn't mind sharing with other girls."

Her cheeks went bright red and her expression became conflicted. It was hilarious to me that I'd manipulated her into fucking her little friend in the first place, and now she was feeling guilty for expecting monogamy from me when she wasn't doing the same. My sweet little Amy was too trusting for this world. Luckily I was the only man who would ever twist her pretty little head in knots like this. No other guy would ever take advantage of her when I was around. It was the least I could do.

She gnawed on her lip. Her expression looking a little lost. "I...that's not really the same though. Emerald loves me. What we have is special, and I thought you were happy with that? But...I guess when you put it like that it does seem a bit wrong. Especially since I know you and some of the other girls are clearly involved already." Her expression became hard. "You've even impregnated two of them. Something we WILL be discussing by the way."

I squeezed her ass a bit harder, earning a squeak and a mutinous glare from my wife. I just chuckled and waved it off. "Dragons are notoriously prolific breeders my love. You had to have expected me to have more than just a few kids. Don't worry though, I have every intention of making sure my prettiest princess bears me plenty of beautiful babies. Don't you want our children to grow up in a big family? I know you regretted never having siblings. Our little ones will have plenty of playmates."

There was no way this argument would work under literally any circumstances or with literally any other woman on the planet. Amy's weird royal upbringing combined with my nature and some of the tweaks I'd made to her desires made this vaguely plausible, and the rest was just open manipulation on my part. Luckily my pretty bride was still in her honeymoon afterglow, and somehow found this absurd justification compelling, yanking my mask up slightly to mash her lips to mine in a frantic excited kiss.

My wife, for those of you out there not in on the secret. Is NOT a normal person. This was literally so easy for me I almost felt bad about it. ME. Despite that though, I thanked whatever gods were listening for making sure I got my Amy. She might be a little naive, but she was also basically custom built for someone like me. If I was capable of falling in love with someone, I'd probably be head over heels for my pretty princess.

She pulled back with an adoring smile, cooing up at me. "That's so sweet I'm almost willing to ignore what a bullshit reason that is." Huh. Guess she notices SOME things. She giggled and hugged me tight. "I can't stay mad at you. I guess a few practice babies won't hurt anything. But I'd better be the next woman you breed, or we're going to have a serious talk." She gave me a stern pout and poked me in the chest, and it was so cute I had to strangle a laugh.

"Yes dear. I promise. The next baby is yours, but not right away alright? The ones we have are already going to be a handful." I neglected to mention the wedding bastard I'd pounded into her aunt, obviously, but hey, I didn't specify there were only two kids. I was willing to keep my promise and make her my next baby mama. If something urgent came up I'd just pound one into her quick and take care of whichever other girl needed it. It wasn't like it was hard to do.

She shook off her adoring wife face, which was a shame because it looked cute on her, and turned serious, ignoring my groping of her soft little ass to look after Jay. "So, this Penguin is some sort of local crime baron, yes? Barbara wasn't wrong about the danger of trusting such men. I know it's a necessity in this instance, but I trust you'll at least lay some counter measures?" Her voice was low enough to seem like more private talk, and I grinned down at her in pride.

It was so hot how she could go from my dopey, naive little Amy to princess Amaya the competent leader so quickly. I kind of wanted to fuck her right here. It wouldn't really be a valid use of time though, even if it might be in character, so I just pulled her against me. "Of course, my love. I'd never take any risks with your safety, or any of my other girls." I nuzzled into her neck with a playful growl. "I'm a jealous dragon, and I always protect whats mine."

The giggles were as genuine and sincere as the serious worry. "Good. I like most of them. I had some time to talk to them all. Barbara and I are a bit concerned about your tendency to collect more women, but that can be managed. They seem like lovely ladies. Dinah is a lovely person, we spoke at length about how I was settling in. She's going to be an exceptional mother." She smiled sadly. "She reminds me of my own mother quite a bit. I find myself actually excited for the baby to be born." She gave me a wide smile. "Like I said, practice babies." Then, almost casually. "Plus she can nurse the babies for us so I don't lose my figure. Might as well put those tremendous jugs to use." I almost tripped at that. Note to self. Spend more time with Amy. Aside from being adorable, I needed a better handle on this bitch. She was just spinning me in circles. Not that I could say I wasn't enjoying it.

We finally arrived at the Penguin's office, and there was a short wait before we were let in. It was clearly a power move, but after spending so much time around the nobility, it came across as heavy handed and gauche. People in Gemworld had to be a bit more subtle about dick measuring (in some ways) regardless, after a bit of a wait he finally let us in, and I left most of the others outside, only taking Amy and Barbie inside. The two of them were the most likely to be useful in a meeting, and the others could handle themselves.

When Penguin saw me entering in my fancy noble clothes and mask he raised an eyebrow. "Interesting outfit." He said dryly. "I can't say it doesn't work for you. Now. I believe you were interested in cooperating with each other. I'm not against the idea, but what exactly do you bring to the table here? Gear is fine and dandy kid, but you only brought six or seven people from what I was told. I fail to see how that's going to be useful to me in the grand scheme of things. What's to stop me and my boys from just locking you all up and forcing you to make weapons for us en masse. The old rules of hospitality aren't necessarily still in place."

He didn't say it like it was a threat. It was an actual question. He wanted to know what my insurance was for being here, because he trusted that I wasn't stupid enough to show up with only a handful of people and put myself at his mercy without a valid backup plan. It was actually kind of flattering.

I considered telling him. Just laying out how strong we were verbally to inform him of what a mistake it would be. Instead, I decided to just show him. I walked forward into the office, ignoring the tensing of the two guards behind him. Their boss didn't tell them to attack, and I wasn't getting too close, so they were tense but watching for now. I placed a hand on the desk in front of penguin. I considered converting it to a claw, raking my nails over the wood or something, but that would have been pretty pedestrian.

Instead, I reached down into myself and called on the storm. Specifically, the lightning in the Vital Tempest. I pulled on it, as much as I could yank out in one tug, and shoved it all into the desk, making sure to shape it properly. I poured my power into the destructive aspect of the lightning. There was a crack as electricity split the air, and then it faded, and took the desk with it. One second there was a big hardwood desk in between us, the next there was a drifting cloud of ash. I kept my voice as cheerful as possible as I responded. "I'm stopping you, Oswald." His eyes were wide as he stared at where his desk had just been. Being back home was already turning out more fun than I had expected.

April 3rd 2016 Brightedge City 8:00 PM EDT

Despite my amazing and decisive show of force to Penguin to make sure he took us all seriously, I found myself betrayed at the last minute by my own women. My damned wife and her redheaded accomplice railroaded me into taking a group of all male minions. Apparently they were concerned I'd get distracted or show off if there was any fuckable girls around. Which was complete bullshit. I was the picture of self control. I could probably rush my patrol route to get back and fuck Jay before they got back from theirs. That would show them.

Ignoring the irony of that particular thought decisively, I turned to look over the crowd of goons following behind me. I'd been given a squad of twenty. They were basically glorified scouts. I'd send them out to recon and then if one of them was about to get murdered I'd step in and stop it. Throw a bunch of minions at the wall and see what stuck. It was a completely valid strategy, and it made good use of my speed and power, but it was also excruciatingly boring to deal with.

"Hey boss." Said goon 1, who I was only able to distinguish from goons 2 through 20 by virtue of my perfect recall. "Herbert and Jackson are heading down the right fork to check in on some suspicious noises. You told us to let you know where everyone was being sent before they separated from the group."

I pinched the bridge of my nose with a sigh. "We've been over this, goon 1. I'm not taking even the minimal effort necessary to learn your names. You'd better get with the program or I'm going to demote you to goon 2. Now, once more with designations I understand, who is going where with whom?" Having seen me vaporize a desk, none of them were willing to stand up to me, and the only entertainment I really had on this annoying patrol was being as demeaning to them as possible to see if one would snap. These weren't MY goons, after all, they were Penguins. Besides, if I did get control of them later I could just make it up to them with an upgrade.

Goon 1 sighed in a way that, had I been an actual tyrannical asshole instead of just fucking with him, I'd probably have killed him for. "Sorry boss. I meant to say that goon 7 and goon 9 are going to check out the right fork to do some recon on a few noises we heard. Did you want us to send anyone with them? We almost lost Jer- I mean goon 16, at that last intersection. You were barely able to get there in time." I glanced at him archly and his eyes widened in fear. "Not that it was your fault or anything boss! It was our bad for not thinking to suggest sending more support."

I bit back a snort of amusement. I didn't think he got that I could have taken that as equally insulting, but I decided to cut the guy a break. "Good work goon 1, send goon 13 with them this time, just in case. Also, tell goon 11 if he takes another bump of coke when he thinks my back is turned I'm going to cave his skull in with a rusty pipe. He's pretty much at the edge of useful as it is, and I'm not carting around a useless druggie."

His eyes went a bit wide. He knew I could do it. I'd already stepped in to save the aforementioned goon 16 and demonstrated that I could do more than just murder desks. Seeing me tear apart a few assholes in clown makeup had done wonders for the obedience of my group. Which was useful, because I really didn't feel like having to pay Penguin weregild for one of his goons because they got mouthy. As strong as I was, allies were still important, which gave that asshat just enough leverage to extort me if I got one of his meatshields ganked by being sloppy.

He headed out to let them know, and I turned my attention back to the street. We hadn't really run into much resistance yet, which just meant the actual power players were elsewhere. As positive as that might sound in the abstract, it was actually terrible. We could claim anywhere we wanted, but in order to demonstrate our authority we had to make an example of someone. Otherwise it was just empty words, and we were liable to get attacked later on, potentially when me and the other E-rankers weren't around.

It was a better call to find some thoroughly entrenched force that had already cowed the locals pre merge and then crush them, establishing ourself as the new bosses. We could theoretically just claim everything, but that would be stupid with only the few E-rankers I had. I didn't have enough competent help to cover everywhere near the lounge, and overextending was just asking to get chipped away at by roving assholes. Losing ground, even temporarily, was bound to erode our authority and force us to murder a bunch of people to reestablish it, which Barbie and Zee would probably bitch about.

So my orders to my people had been clear. Stick close to the Lounge, keep their masks on, look for enemy action, and fucking crush it. Strega, Sally, and Sindy had all been given strict warnings about wanton carnage. My Living Lich wasn't a former supervillain, but she HAD been the daughter of a brutal gang leader, and the last thing I needed was my vibrating fuck doll coming to the attention of the Justice League, whichever of their members were still on earth at least.

That at least, had been the one saving grace of this mess. The fucking Justice League were still in space. Apparently they were undergoing some kind of space trial for the mind control bullshit a few years ago. Dinah still had a few friends among the league who would talk to her, so I had a tiny bit of information trickling in. They wouldn't tell her anything confidential since her asshole ex was still a member in good standing and was kind of high up in the organization, but at the very least we got the common knowledge stuff.

Luckily Doctor Fate was kind of a douchebag. He didn't much care what was happening if it didn't affect the balance, and none of the other leaguers were on a level to deal with the current mess that was Brightedge. Supergirl was obviously out given all the magic, so they were basically stuck waiting on their mommies and daddies to come home and fix everything. Especially with The Reach still kidnapping metas all over the world. They had other shit to deal with. I just had to make sure to have my claws in deep by the time they got back.

Which begged the question where WERE all the fucking supervillains? I needed teeth to stomp in. If I did this whole patrol and only managed to save a few worthless townies I was going to lose my shit. I'd saved a couple civilians along with goon 16, just to be able to tell Barbie I'd 'helped' but it hadn't really been time well spent. Just some old guy and his granddaughter. She was way too young to be hot, though I guessed having a rep for being decent to kids and old people would keep the heroes off my ass, so there was that.

My thoughts were broken off by the sound of an inhuman roar from off in the direction of the three goon squad I'd sent out. My head perked up, that sounded mildly interesting. I let the transformation roll over me, wings sprouting from my back, and with a single flap I was catapulted up into the air so fast that I broke the fucking sound barrier. I hit the apex of my ascent, reoriented with my wings a bit, and then used air pressure to hurl myself down just as fast, smashing into the concrete in between the roaring form and my three rental minions.

The street cratered under my impact, chips of cement and blacktop spraying up harmlessly (to me anyway) as I rose from my crouch landing to glare over at the hulking orange...woman? I mean, it was probably a woman. I could see tits, though they weren't big for her gargantuan size, and while she had some thick thighs, there were far too toned for my taste. Donna was pretty much right on the edge of too muscular for me, and this chick was well past that. Plus she was taller than me, which I didn't love, and she had stupid hair.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Rampage- G rank metahuman. Doctor Kitty Lou Falkner was a scientist at STAR labs who accidentally got caught in an experiment gone wrong. After she awoke she realized she had been transformed into an eight foot tall creature with superhuman physical abilities. Rampage grows more powerful through a photosynthetic process that resets when she resumes human form. Ambient sunlight reflected off the moon CAN help her grow, but the process is much slower.]

Huh. So she was like a giant oompa loompa supergirl? Weird. Not really relevant though. She was G ranked right now, and the chances of her managing to jump two full ranks on diluted sunlight reflected from the moon weren't high. Of course, I wasn't letting this bitch live to see the sunrise. The last thing I needed was a pissed off solar battery that I was pretty sure from reports I'd heard of 'Rampage' could get up to Superman levels of strong. I really needed to make the jump to D rank soon, just to be safe.

For now though, I blurred across the intervening space and backhanded the roid rage stripper in the chainmail leotard with one draconic hand. I'd gone full hybrid, since my mask hid my features anyway, and the strength flowing through me was, in a word, monstrous. There was a satisfying snap as the bones in her face shattered, and the angry roar cut off abruptly as she was sent smashing into the street, skidding through the blacktop and leaving behind a furrow in the ground.

I strolled casually toward her, ready to finish things off, when she crawled to her feet slowly. Her face was already healing, which was impressive, but her eyes shone with terror at the overwhelming force I'd subjected her to. Rampage was a heavy hitter, even without sunlight. She was probably used to manhandling everyone who didn't have an S on their chest. I was a complete unknown, and I had FUCKED her up. As I approached she threw both hands up in surrender. "Wait! Please. I'm sorry. I... I didn't know they were yours. I don't know whats going on at all. Things are confusing. I didn't mean to interfere with your plans."

I stopped. I...had kind of fucked up. I forgot supervillains weren't nobles. Killing a random G ranker wouldn't be a big thing back in Gemworld, but offing a supervillain might cause problems in Gotham. Then again, a noble would have probably sworn vengeance on me or something, they were arrogant pricks like that. Even they could be left alive in certain situations though. I was pretty sure Rampage needed a literal kryptonian to suck on to reach that level of power. Kryptonians were all about sunshine. Chances were without one around she would be manageable.

It would also establish me as willing to let villains live, which could bring some to my side later. Figuring I could at least run fast enough to lose her until she shifted back if it came to a real problem I decided to back down. She couldn't recognize me in this mask anyway. "Alright. Get lost." She stood and turned, scrambling away and giving me a nice view of an admittedly pleasant giant orange ass. Huh. At least she was decent eye candy from the back. Time to move on. I had to find my next target. Hopefully someone with some territory to grab.