Sith Gothic 3 - Gotham
"But ask me the secrets of Sith alchemy, and I would ask you for three measures of blood: one from a person you love, one from a person you hate, and one from yourself" ―Naga Sadow.
Part 4
Art Gallery. Gotham.
Because I'd recently gone to a seemingly successful hospital benefit with Doctor Lee Thompkins were I'd made a generous donation I'd found myself receiving invites to a few similar events. Which could rapidly turn out to be expensive, but I had fun ways of making money if I needed it and presenting a charitable face to the public would only help to hide my true self.
"I can't believe you made me come to this stupid thing" complained Selina Kyle.
Back in the Star Wars galaxy, I doubted that there were many Masters of the Sith, a group that I included myself to be a part of, who tolerated such unruly apprentices, but most of them either died at the hands of a Jedi or their own apprentice were as I had not only survived I'd prospered, so perhaps my method of mentoring a young Force-Sensitive was the correct. To me, it made little sense to train some to replace you when your plan was to endure for as long as possible.
It also helped that in my view the emotions mostly focused on in Sith teaching, hate, fear and anger didn't have much of a place in my teachings outside of battle. In my view mastery of the Force required more than this, to truly tap into the power of the dark side you needed greed, envy, lust and even a simple desire to survive could be enough. There could even be a place for what some people would think of as more positive emotions, such as hope and compassion.
Granted in this case me showing charity by coming to an event meant to raise money for some needy group was only part of the reason why I was here. Sure I planned to transform Gotham to a bastion of dark side power, more so than it already is, but I had no desire to be thought of as the Dark Lord of Gotham even if I was that person.
Not it was better to let others perform evil deeds as my proxies while I maintained a public face that made me seem harmless, perhaps even an ally to those who are good, if only because that made it easier for to keep an eye on them. It was a decent way to hide in plain sight as most people never look past the surface impression they get when they first met you.
This along with the idea that I planned to train a single apprentice might make it seem as if I was following Bane's idea of the Rule of Two, an ideology that normally didn't have my approval, but when you live a long life its good to try out different things and while having a group of dark side adepts at my command could be useful I had better things to do than train them.
"You need to learn to blend in with different levels of society," I said to Selina "If you want to become successful then you'll need people such as these as allies, at least for a time".
She didn't understand, not yet, and this was okay as her training had just begun.
"You'd be surprised by how much of what effects the city is decided upon during events like this" I went on to say "Business deals aren't always made in the boardroom, and it never hurts to make people think you enjoy helping others".
I sipped at the champagne and orange juice drink, buck fizz I think they called it, and while Kat was nowhere near old enough to drink I didn't care if she did or not. Besides given the way she was chowing down I didn't think she'd get drunk even if they gave her a bottle and there was no way for anyone to know that she wasn't simply drinking orange juice.
The hostess of this event, Barbara Kean, the current love interest of Detective Gordon, art gallery owner and future villain, was doing the rounds and had finally made her way over to me. My plan was to leave early since I only had an interest in making an appearance, but perhaps I would stay a little later if Miss Kean held my interest.
"Mr Stark, thank you for coming," she said.
I made some small talk before introducing Kat.
"This is my ward, Selina Kyle" I introduced.
Fostering or adopting the street thief would have taken some time and to do things legally Kat would have needed to go upstate with the other kids that had been taken in custody of Child Services after the incident with the Child Snatchers. It had been much easier to get her named my ward than it was to foster or adopt her and since this was Gotham I'd been able to smooth over all the legal issues with bribes more than mind tricks. The legal system in this city really didn't work and sometimes didn't even make any sense.
As for Barbara Kean, I found her to be quite attractive and while it was never a good idea to stick your dick in crazy, she was mostly stable at this point, so I started using my powers to influence her behaviour. I didn't mind control women when I wanted to fuck them, I had no need to and it wouldn't be satisfying to do so, it was much for fun to make them desire me so much that they'd make the first move. I was rather practised at this, and it worked rather well on this woman, because she was a little tipsy, as such before long Miss Kean ended up wanting me so much that for a time she'd forget all about a certain police officer. The idea of cuckolding Detective James Gordon, even if it was just a one-off thing, amused me greatly.
"Maybe we should discuss this further in my office" suggested Barbara.
I turned to my apprentice.
"Go take a look around" I instructed.
She did just that and I had a feeling that a few of the men here who were acting as if they gave a damn about art or whatever it was buying the art would support, would find their wallets missing very soon. I didn't care about this as long as she didn't get caught as that was a mess I'd have to clean up.
As for Miss Kean, I could see it in her eyes, she wanted my cock and no sooner we were alone than she expressed this desire through action. She dropped to her knees with a slutty smirk on her face as she got my manhood out of my trousers before firmly gripping my shaft, making it twitch in anticipation. She began to pump it slowly, her eyes trained on my face as she worked, she was studying my reactions.
Then Barbara brought her face closer to the tip of my manhood, sticking her wet, warm tongue out and resting my cock against it. Barbara was teasing me, she knew just how much I wanted her so she was going to draw things out. She started to softly smack my tip against her tongue while her eyes locked with mine. After several seconds, she stopped her movements and let her hand fall back to her side and laughed.
As I began to wonder why she stopped, Barbara wrapped her soft, plump lips around my shaft and swiftly took as much of my cock into her mouth as she could. I audibly gasped as she began to choke herself with my dick. Alas, this didn't last for long, she took her heavenly mouth off my cock, looked into my eyes with an incredibly attractive smile on her face and spoke in the most sultry, seductive voice, I'd for some time.
"Do you like that?" she asked.
The best I could do was nod affirmatively.
"So do I," Barbara said looking back down at my rod "Your cock is delicious".
Hearing Barbara's voice says that was pure music to my ears and soon her soft hand wrapped around my shaft and her tongue stuck back out to lick the tip. Then she started pumping my cock and she wrapped her incredible lips around my tip and swirled her wet tongue around it. Soon enough her head was bobbing back and forth, and she sucking my cock with admirable enthusiasm. The feeling was incredible and I knew that I wouldn't last much longer against her experienced mouth. Not that I would care as only my pleasure mattered at this time.
I could feel my release coming and apparently, Barbara could as well. She began choking herself only for me to grab hold of Barbara's head and began to thrust swiftly into her warm, wet mouth. She made incredibly sexy moans as I fucked her mouth, she definitely liked it hard, to be treated like this. Before long I proudly announced that I was coming and since I was still thrusting hard into Barbara's mouth there was only once place for my cum to go. She did a good job of swallowing it and once she was done I let her go.
"Mmm yummy, I love sucking cock" she said.
She smiled upon seeing my satisfied face
"How did you like that?" I was asked.
I responded appropriately.
"Well if you feel like coming back sometime," said as she Barbara stood up and walked over to her desk, slightly bent over it, and began looking over her back at me so to make sure that I was checking out her ass "You can have some of this, would you like that?".
I didn't think she'd feel that way the next time I saw her as right now her head was all full of lust as I'd stoaked that fire in her. Soon guilt for what she'd done would set in and she'd do her best to avoid me in the future unless her desires became too great to ignore, something I could encourage, but still, I promised to return before I left her office. She'd be in there for a while sorting herself out as her makeup was a bit of a mess.
Reaching out with The Force to locate Selina, who may have already left as she did as she pleased, was a bit of a chore as she was good at hiding her presence, however this time I found her without too much effort.
"Time to go," I said.
I saw a wallet go into the nice purse she'd either stolen from somewhere or bought with her new allowance. Despite the fact that she didn't need to steal anymore, and doing so could draw needless attention, I couldn't help smiling at her antics and she was keeping her skills in top form.
"You don't need to a pickpocket," I told her "I know much better ways to make money".
She didn't seem to care.
"I was just bored," she said.
Already I had some ideas about how I could work her stealing into her training and I figured that it might be time to start doing those activities because if nothing else a bored mini Catwoman could be a bother to me.
(Line Break)
Bryant Park Hotel. Gotham.
I didn't feel the need to involve myself in everything going on here in Gotham and the increasing tension between the two major crime factions here in the city suited me as such I'd stayed out the power plays that decided the fate of the Arkham District. It served me best if the asylum reopened as the old building was the very centre of the dark side nexus that would spread across this city making it even more so such a hive of scum and villainy. The only way to have removed it would have been to burn down the asylum and then flood the area with holy water while having an army of priests pray over the site, and even then it might not make a difference.
The actual building would have made a fine Sith Temple if I could have taken control of the place, but the tower I'd moved into would do well enough and down in the basement I was free to work in my lab so that I could further my plans to control this city and perhaps more. The lab looked somewhat high tech, but parts of it gave the impression that I was some sort of wizard, this was because what I practised down here in the basement was both science and magic in some sense.
While the Sith species practised the art of alchemy long before the Dark Jedi Exiles arrived on Korriban, after their war with the Jedi Order, it was the Exiles who perfected it once they had become the Dark Lords of the Sith. Sith alchemy was primarily used to enhance the strength of weapons and armour, and that was mostly what I used it for. It could also be used to genetically engineer and enhance animals, making them more dangerous and easier to control by the Sith Lords. But what mattered to me right now was that one of the many applications of Sith Alchemy was the art of creating nefarious toxins, as the effects of certain chemicals could be enhanced.
As to why this mattered now, this was because a new drug called Viper (which was a sort of prototype for a super solider drug known as Venom) had started hitting the street. This Viper substance tapped into the body's unused DNA and gave the user super-strength and a euphoric sense of power for a few hours, while all the time it drained calcium from the skeleton to use as fuel. The side effects of Viper is a craving for dairy products to compensate for the drug's consumption of calcium in the body. Since it wasn't possible for enough calcium to be introduced to the body to meet the demand the user's bones would crumble causing the death of the user.
It had taken some time but I'd been able to hunt down Stan Potolsky, a brilliant and crazy man who had once been a biochemist for WellZyn. He'd created Viper, and its successor, Venom or at least played a major role in their creation. After witnessing the side effects and gaining some sort of clarity over his actions, I assumed he was still sane at the point in his left, Stan went directly to Thomas and Martha Wayne to get the biochemical warfare program shut down.
After the Waynes' abrupt murders, it was re-opened. This led him to take matters into his own hands to get the program shut down once more. Using vials of the original prototype Viper drug, Stan Potolsky distributed the drug to poor folks on the streets, thinking that if enough people died, WellZyn would shut the program down. Of course, this didn't work because in Gotham only the wealthy and in the show he would later try to kill several Wayne Enterprises and WellZyn employees at the Wayne Enterprises Charity Ball, although he failed to do so after being caught by Detectives Gordon and Bullock. He would have died before being captured by the police.
In this timeline, I hadn't allowed things to progress that far. I'd found Stan wandering the streets handing out vials of his drug and then I'd brought him here. No one cared much if someone got grabbed here on the mean streets of Gotham. Then I'd worked long into the night to rewire the man's mind so that he became my loyal slave, he lived and toiled down here in my basement lab making Viper which I then enhanced using Sith alchemy into a red coloured drug I called Carnage, after the symbiote Venom's spawn over in the Marvel universe.
This substance was well made because it mostly did the same as Viper to a person only the effects were somewhat watered down so as the user would live more than a few hours. It also increased aggression and weakened a person's will so as to make them open to my influence. The idea being that if I was able to get a group of thugs to take the drug, which could be inhaled I'd quickly get my hands on some cannon fodder.
The drug called Toxin, which was black in colour, was a faster acting version of Venom that killed quickly, but not before the user went on a rampage with what seemed to be superpowers. This drug I would send out into the world in small amounts and I would use it stir up more chaos and fed the power of the dark side in this city. Unlike my new slave Stan, I would not deliver it to the masses in large amounts as I didn't want the police tracking me down, but it small amounts it would kill enough people to suit my needs, keeping some of them scared while removing some of the surplus population of this overcrowded city.
Taking longer to make was my enhanced version of Venom, even if I got it working the way I wanted I knew that no one who took it could expect to live more than a few years if my estimates were anything to go on, but if it worked as hoped it turn anyone strong enough to suffer it into my own Bane while keeping them weak-willed enough to serve me. I might need an army of loyal warriors one day and the drug that I was calling Knull, was the key to that.
The sound of screaming from another part of the lab lead to me where some petty thug was strapped to a metal frame. I'd infused him with an early version of Knull a few hours ago and now it looked as if he was going into cardiac arrest. His heart would soon give out and then I'd have yet another dead body to deal with.
Alas for me, the human body simply wasn't built for the strain the drug put on the body and even if perfected I didn't think I'd get more than a few years out of even the strongest of people to be found in this world, but it hardly mattered how many died as long as I became the master of this city and perhaps much beyond its borders.
(Line Break)
Rooftops. Gotham.
"Why do you care about gangs?" Selina asked me.
In truth, I didn't much care about them, it was just that there were gangs that existed outside of the two main factions, rather unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but since I wanted my proxy to rule the entire criminal underworld it would make things easier if there were no gangs outside of the crime families.
The more important reasons for targetting one of these gangs this night was that it would give me the chance to show my apprentice what a true Sith could do, giving her someone to envy as well as something to strive for. Also, it didn't hurt to keep me in fighting trim as it were by going out and getting some exercise. As an added bonus the gangs getting taken out by me would be discovered by others and spread a little fear among the other group of crooks in this city.
"Watch and learn, Kitten," I said.
She didn't like me calling her that, she'd tolerate it because I gave a nice place to live and a generous allowance. Still, she was smart enough to know when to pay attention so she watched from the rooftop as I silently dropped down to the street below.
This gang, who Kat knew to avoid, controlled an old warehouse that looked as if it was one stormy night from collapsing, and anyone coming into the tiny part of the city they controlled, not that anyone had any reason to, would have to pay a toil or take a beating. They sometimes went out and stole some booze, and since they didn't make much money, this meant none of the bigger gangs had taken them out or forced them to pay tribute to one of the crime families. They were small-time punks, more interested in drinking and defacing walls than true organised crime, and I didn't think anyone would even notice that they were gone, so all they were good for was showing off my powers to my student. Although the real estate prices around here might increase once the thugs were gone.
One of the loud crooks suddenly started choking, and when his mates realised that he was going to die right in front of them a couple of them tried to help him only for my first victim of the night to suffocate despite the lack of anything he swallowed blocking his airways. Before any of the drunken idiots realised that they were under attack the next thug dropped to the ground as a blast of Force Lightning shot from the fingertips of my left hand, the right hand was holding my sword. Force Lightning as I'd explained to my apprentice not long ago, was a purely offensive, energy-based attack that channelled Force energy down the user's limbs, hurling arcing bolts of electricity from the wielder's fingertips or palms. Since unlike Darth Vader, all my limbs were fully organic I could make full use of this power
The intensity of the lightening varied based on a number of factors. Those users skilled in controlling the intensity and force of their lightning such as myself could render a target unconscious with only a short burst, or kill a person instantly with a single, powerful blast. I was just trying to kill them all as in a way as showy as possible so there was no need to hold back. The fact that it caused not only severe physical damage but also unbearable agony to the victim led to it being widely used as a form of torture, but again there were easier ways to hurt or kill someone than with Force Lightning. With my ability to manipulate the minds of others I could torture some with far less effort.
One of the thugs had taken out a small pistol by now, and I let him fire off a few shots knowing that my sword, which was forged from advanced alloys and embued with power by my use of Sith Alchemy, could handle the kinetic energy. I waved my sword as the thug pulled the trigger and a few sparks would be visible to anyone watching as I protected myself. Then with a gesture, I brought the pistol towards me and I batted it out of the air with my sword with enough strength to ensure it would never fire again. Once that was done I leapt forward with speed enhanced by the Force so that I could end the life of the shooter with another swing of my sword. His blood made a nice pattern on the wall of the old warehouse.
I didn't normally call upon the Force so much during a fight as the human body isn't meant to withstand the sheer power, and I'd been calling upon the dark side a lot recently while working on the drugs. While there were no signs of wear on the outside, I knew that I could do with some healing so I employed another power. Force abilities such as drain life and dark healing siphoned vitality from one person to another somewhat like Force healing, the difference being that the regenerative processes in the user were fueled by draining the targets of their life energy. I could even transfer this vitality from one person to another rather than just myself and had done in the past when I felt the need to.
Force Drain could be very dangerous to the user as well as victims if one relied on the technique too much or did not contain its full measure of power it would turn into something with a hunger for life that could never be satisfied. During the First Jedi Purge, in his hunger for power, the Sith Lord Darth Nihilus became a hollow thing that destroyed whole worlds. However, I knew that if the ability to drain life was used carefully it would allow a Sith Lord such as myself to extend their lives so they were measured in centuries rather than decades. I didn't really age anymore, but I knew that one-day entropy would catch up with and I would die, either in battle or I would wind down even while still feeding on the lives of others.
Once I was done showing off and all the gang members were dead I made my way back up the rooftops and I found my apprentice looking at me in a way that reminded me of a water-breathing creature trying to take in air.
"You killed them all," she managed to say.
She might have been hardened by life, alas Kat still had too much in the way of mortality to become a true Sith, not that this was a problem, but it would be best to ease her into the killing. In the future, I would send her on missions that might involve assassinating someone, yet there was no need to rush her into such things. I didn't mind doing my own dirty work and besides this was Gotham, here you could hire people to carry out hits.
Perhaps she'd remain a thief rather than an assassin or she might turn out to be unsuitable after all. I didn't think I'd need to get rid of her in any permanent sense as I wasn't without mercy. Perhaps I should start seeking out a possible replacement. Bruce Wayne would be no good, his mortality wasn't flexible enough, but there were bound to be others with enough connection to the Force to make a decent apprentice. I'd found two in this city just by looking for people I knew to be more skilled then a person should be. I figured this city drew them in.
"You've seen enough of this city to know that sometimes it's kill or be killed," I said.
Not that this had really been one of those times as we needed to be here, and we could have simply left without the gang ever knowing that we'd been here.
"Selina I will give you the tools you need to survive, but you must learn from me if you expect to prosper," I told her "You should be on top, and sometimes to get to the top you need to use the bodies of inferiors".
I hadn't explained myself at all well, but actions spoke louder than words, and she'd seen enough for me to get my message across.
(Line Break)
Bryant Park Hotel. Gotham.
Selina Kyle hadn't been doing much of anything since she'd seen her teacher kill some gang members just so he could show her what he was able to do and what he might be able to teach her to do. She'd been both horrified and impressed, and now that horror was starting to wear off she couldn't help wondering what she'd be able to accomplish with that kind of power.
Since she no longer needed to steal just to be able to stay alive the young thief found herself experiencing boredom. She wouldn't have gone to school even if her mentor, she wouldn't use the word master not matter if other Sith trainees did, told her to and they were sort of homeschooling and so no one from social services was kicking up a fuss.
Because of her lack of anything she wanted to do Selina found herself just hanging around Gothic's office, she knew not to call him that out loud, she only called him by his Sith name inside her own head, and she wondered what her Sith name would be. That was one of the many things she pondered as she sat around.
She considered going shopping, only she already had pretty much everything she could want. Plenty of clothes, shoes, jewellery, and so on, some of which she'd even paid for, and should things not work out around here she'd stashed away some of her very generous allowance so she wouldn't be broke for a while. Kat was just about to tell her guardian, he was at least that since she didn't need a parent, that she was going to out when someone in a suit arrived in Gothic's office. He dropped off some folders and then the Sith Lord paid the man before he quickly left.
While she should not have stuck her nose into his business the young thief couldn't help wondering who or what the files in the folder were about so she opened one. Gothic didn't seem to care if she looked at the files.
"Why do you care about a soldier called John Diggle?" she wondered.
He was just some guy fighting to control the oil supply on the other side of the planet.
"Mr Diggle might be important in about 5 or so years from now and maybe for the next couple of decades after that" he explained, "He and some other people on my list will help shape the future".
Kat looked over some of the other files and read the names of people such as Laurel Lance. Clark Kent. Kent Nelson. Felicity Smoak. Lois Lane. Barry Allen. Slade Wilson. Ray Palmer. James Olsen. The list of names kept growing and they seemed to have nothing in common. Some of the people were just kids.
"Is this like a hit list?" she dared to ask.
Gothic, who sat behind his dark while wearing an expensive-looking black suit, seemed amused by the idea.
"No I just want to keep an eye on the people who will be important later," he said, "It's not their time yet. For now the heroes and villains don't cover up with masks or wear capes".
Gotham had no heroes even Selina knew that. Yet she got the feeling that this would change.
"You're going to live through some interesting times" she was promised.
Somehow she didn't think it was going to be a good thing.