March 7th 2016 Doomhallow Hall 8:00 PM EDT

We made our way back to the island later that night to talk to Jim about the plan. When I told him about it he just sat there for a minute, and then burst out laughing. "Work smarter not harder lad! I've never been so proud. Why do it yourself when you can get others to do it at almost no cost to yourself. That's how a gentleman thief operates. I can certainly put the word out once the contracts are drawn up, and I'd be happy to do so. Why, I may even take up the challenge myself. It sounds exciting."

Claire rolled her eyes and looked over at Reggie, who had shown up with Bette at our request. "I suppose you're planning to run off and try it too then? I swear you're more his son than mine at this point." Reggie's eyes widened in horror I was sure was mirrored on Jim's currently invisible face, and everyone else there just burst out laughing at the stunned silence from the two normally chatty men.

I chuckled. "As amusing as all this is, I need some advice on who exactly would be the best to approach first. Not just people you know who you can get in touch with mind you, but anyone in the merc community you think will be willing to help. Apparently Lex Luthor, Vandal Savage, and Ra'as Al Ghul are all involved with backing The Reach, and as much as I don't want to admit Nightwing is right about literally anything I'm pretty sure there are at least some people who won't want to cross the big dogs."

Jim sighed. "You aren't wrong. There will be a decent chunk of the mercenary community that won't accept. The "only looking out for myself" mentality cuts both ways after all. Pissing off people like Al Ghul and Savage is just asking for trouble. That said, there will still be plenty that will be willing to do it anyway. Some because they'll know and won't care, but most because this secret cabal is keeping their activities on the down low. The League might know but I doubt the group want the fact that they're essentially selling out humanity to go public."

I...hadn't thought of that. "And we're asking them to go after The Reach specifically, not after anyone connected in an obvious way to the group themselves. We can probably get a decent number of takers out of sheer ignorance. The issue is that big names will probably know, and small fry will get absolutely face murdered. That shitty green scarab kicked my ass, and B'arzz says that it's supposedly a scout model. The WARRIOR model is on Earth right now, and it's a fucking monster. I have a few ideas about how to beat it, but it'll take me some serious points so it won't be short term."

My build wasn't suited to fighting something that strong. I was going to push my current powers to the limit for sure, but I also had a very interesting idea about how to combine all my abilities into something absolutely terrifying. I just needed one more ingredient. Sadly that ingredient was going to cost me a hundred thousand points. Granted that was ten days of income for me now so it was feasible, but I'd still need to wait, and I had some more research to do on void magic before that time to make my plan work.

Jim's hat nodded slowly. "I see your point. I can think of a few who might be willing to engage such a foe. Teth-Adam rarely does as instructed by anyone, and he has been known to indulge in mercenary work now and then. He would be more bruiser than thief. My old friend The Shade may be willing to take a contract. He was impressed by your conduct during your only meeting, and he is exceptionally hard to kill, as well as being eminently capable of infiltration."

Both of those sounded like great options. Which meant I had to start building up my stockpile of cash to PAY these mercs when we got them on our side. Which meant it was time to bust out my phone. I slipped it from my pocket and started scrolling through my spam folder, looking for something that would give me a big pile of cash without requiring any kind serious point or resource investment. I scrolled for about fifteen minutes before I finally stumbled upon something I thought would work. A thousand points for...the fortune of a deceased crime lord.

According to the emailer the secret crime boss was one of the richest men on the planet, his fortune valued at ten billion dollars. The police were closing in on his hidden assets and all the sender needed to send it over was a bank account number and the social security number of the recipient "as insurance". The story was dramatic and gripping and pretty decent as far as lies go. Which was good for me because the more specific the lie was the better I could predict how it would be realized.

I hit the button. I didn't expect a knock on my door, because I didn't need one. This money was supposed to untraceably routed into my account from a dozen anonymous shell companies in a series of transfers designed to perfectly avoid any attention from any kid of authorities. I was pretty sure that insane claim was the reason the whole thing had cost so much compared to other money based wishes, but I wasn't going to complain.

I almost giggled in glee at the thought of Nightwing seeing all those deposits and trying to backtrack the damn things to my "other accounts" with all the resources at his disposal and failing spectacularly to find anything ever approaching a clue. I knew he was watching the main account I had, since he'd mentioned keeping an eye on my finances, and I was pretty sure he would be exhausted tomorrow from spending all night trying to find the source of my vast fortune in a sea of data that had no record of it.

I pulled up my account on my phone, which apparently was a thing I could do now. I bought a new phone after I got back because it made my email much easier to access, and the thing could launch mini programs on it called apps. My bank had one where I could log in and check my balance and when I did. I whistled. Reggie walked up behind me, looking over my shoulder.

His voice sounded slightly strangled. "Wow...that's a lot of zeroes." I grinned at him, but he just glared back. "Your power is absolute bullshit. I could steal high end art and jewelry for a year straight and not come close to that much money. I was worried about you being able to fund this operation but that's just...you realize you're only a billion short of being as rich as Bruce Wayne? Granted Luthor has more than seven times that much money but still, you got that with the push of a button. I'm seething."

I just grinned. I was probably the third richest person on the planet right now. It was going to make Nightwing dissolve into a puddle of suspicious paranoid goo. It was inexplicable, and since the email said untraceable even magic shouldn't be able to figure out where it came from. I loved my power. I was now richer than Maxwell Lord and Oliver Queen put together. I passed the phone to my mentor. "What do you think? That going to be enough?"

He barked out a laugh. "Oh, I believe it shall be plenty. Dear boy, I do believe that even accounting for inflation, that may be more money than I've stolen in my entire life." He cocked his head. "Though admittedly I steal more for amusement and challenge than profit still, I would be careful about just hand waving that much money into existence. The world economy will have some serious problems if you keep doing that. I never worried about it before because you used the financial aspect of your abilities so infrequently, but I would appreciate it if you make that last."

I winced. "Yeah, ten billion dollars out of nowhere would be a problem. I don't...think, that happened? I paid enough for this little cash influx for it to be a reality warping sort of deal, and the email DID it came from an existing guy. I think it handwaved the background as well as the money so hopefully it doesn't damage the economy since it was technically always there." I shook my head, trying not to get a migraine thinking about retroactive accounting. "Anyway, this should be enough for more than just those two. You have any other contractors in mind you think will get the job done?"

He gave a quit hum of contemplation. "A few. Hard to think of any with the kind of skills you need who can still take care of threats. Dr. Alchemy probably. The Folded Man can't fight his way out of a paper sack but his space warping abilities make him night uncatchable. The Silver Fog is another low end superhuman who is excellent at infiltration despite ebing fairly weak. I doubt even an alien security system could do much to impede him." He paused. "He's also highly unpleasant to deal with so if he does die it's no big loss."

Claire smacked him in the chest with the back of her hand. "James Craddock! What kind of nonsense are you spouting in front of my boy." She turned to Reggie with a glare. "If I find out you're sending people to their deaths because you don't like them I'll put you over my knee, no matter what kind of reputation you've got." She turned her glare back on Jim. "And WE are going to be having a long conversation later tonight about how to be a good influence. Your apprentices are back now and you need to watch your mouth. Imagine if Stephanie heard you say that?"

It took literally everything I had in me not to burst out laughing at seeing my terrifying master thief mentor being dressed down by his completely mundane girlfriend, but I managed. "Alright. I'll leave you guys to it, I'm headed to bed, I have to be up early tomorrow so I can show up ahead of schedule and watch Nightwing have a nervous breakdown trying to figure out if my money is stolen or not." Even Claire laughed at that one, and I turned and headed out of the room.

When I was out I noticed Artemis waiting for me. I raised an eyebrow. "Huh, didn't know you were here Arty. What's up? you look tense?" She seemed...upset. And confused. Like she didn't know what to do. That wasn't like my friend at all. She smiled tensely at me, clearly trying to decide what to say.

Finally she nodded to herself. "I don't know if this is a good idea. We're trying not to tip off the Shadows and Luthor's cronies about the plan, but...I need your help. I can't find my mom Morgan, and I'm getting worried. Jade is missing too, I've been searching all over for them but they seem to have gone to ground. I need you to help me track them down. Your detective mode has helped before. Can you please help me look for them?"

I blinked. "Well, yeah. Obviously. What are you new here? We help each other. I'm a master thief ninja ghost, the fuck you say that Luthor's nerd squad will notice me tracking ANYBODY. We have to find a place to start from, but yeah, I'll obviously help. I take it you have somewhere in mind?" She nodded, a relieved smile on her face and I rolled my eyes and gestured to the direction of the teleported. "Well, go on then. Sleep is for the weak anyway." Guess I got to spend the night herding cats.

March 17th 2016 Doomhallow Hall 8:00 PM EDT

Ten days. Ten days since we'd set up the fund, since we'd mobilized the underworld against The Reach, and it was finally time. Time for a purchase that I was pretty sure I couldn't possibly afford without all my shadow and darkness themed abilities. I remembered this particular email costing up in the millions the first time I saw it, though I hadn't paid much attention because of that. Now though, it was only one hundred thousand points. Void, darkness, and who knew what else had seriously discounted the email, and combined with the heavy research I'd been doing I was about to see that pay off.

Before that though I decided to call and check in with the League. Specifically, calling Nightwing, which was my new favorite pastime. He picked up within two rings. "What?" His voice was ragged and bitterly pissed off, and I couldn't help my grin. Nightwing had decided early on that me pulling out more money than most of the richest men on Earth had been a clear indication of criminal activity, and was absolutely determined to "catch me" getting back up to my old tricks.

I'd seen him in person once or twice over the last week and a half and his aura was absolutely glaring with seething impotent rage as he drove himself near into a coma from the absolute obsession with catching me. It was pretty on brand with what I heard about Batman, but it was still hilarious to watch. I didn't even know what he was doing to try to trace the money, because I had no real connection to it and didn't need to bother checking, since he literally couldn't find anything.

I managed to keep that out of my voice when I spoke, maintaining a tone of pure innocence. "Oh I just wanted to check on our little project. See how things are coming with the fund. I did leave you in charge of the money." Which was my favorite part of the whole thing. Nightwing couldn't prove it was stolen, so he couldn't justify taking it away, and he was too much of a boy scout to embezzle from me, especially with the whole League watching. He just had to hold the cash and use it to pay criminals (my excuse being that he was better at this sort of transaction than a mere sixteen year old like me).

It also gave him in depth access to my accounts, through which he could comb through records and potentially "catch" me doing something wrong...except he couldn't and it was killing him. Honestly even if he stole the damn money I could just make more, so it wasn't an issue, but watching him torture himself paying criminals with what he was sure but couldn't prove was a stolen fortune was high comedy to me.

His voice was spat through gritted teeth when he responded. "It's fine. We've been collecting the data they've sent in, and we've managed to cross reference enough disparate pieces of information to uncover a reach base in the Himmalayas. It's a peripheral research base, but still an in. We were just discussing staging an op there, but we need more info. For the moment all the contractors have been reassigned to that location to try to get us as much intel as possible before we go in. There. You're up to speed." There was a click and the line went dead.

I looked up at Zee, who was standing nearby, leaning against a wall. "He hung up on me. Rude." She rolled her eyes at that. I turned to Dreamer. "So, first time seeing me do my thing, these can be a bit dramatic and horrifying to watch depending. Knowing how my power works...well as much as I do anyway, are you sure you're up for this. This next purchase isn't a transformation, but it's a fundamental shift in ways I don't understand. What is this thing anyway, since you seem to have heard of it?"

She frowned. "It's called a keyblade. How it ended up being offered as a false advertisement on Earth i have no idea, because they are real, if rare and hard to come by. I suppose you mentioned other examples of real abilities however. The serum to make one a Kryptonian for instance." That particular email still cost millions and wouldn't be affordable soon even with my current income. I considered trying my whole lying to reality trick again, but I had a gut instinct I couldn't handle that kind of change as I was.

Still she wasn't wrong. "Yeah, the email has to be a lie, but the thing in it doesn't have to be imaginary. Like the rare painting emails, or even the ones that pay out cash. Based on what you said this is a dark keyblade right? Lots of crossover with the void? The email mentions summons, which is what I'm getting this for. I have a plan for integrating all my powers into something really impressive to help fight the reach, but it only works if the summons work like they think I do." The mention in the email was vague, which meant it would probably work pretty close to reality.

She nodded seriously. "The keyblade is something of an unknown even to us. The bearer is usually fairly independent and I've never heard of a New God being chosen. I do know that the keyblades of darkness can summon and control creatures known as the heartless. That's what you want from it right?" The heartless sounded like exactly what I needed to put my plans in action, and the keyblade itself was apparently incredibly durable and an amazing magic focus. This was a perfect pick for me given how out of date my sword was getting.

I read over the email. [Wield the powers of darkness as the chosen of the darkside keyblade! Summon creatures of darkness, traverse the worlds and the space between, use powerful magic and learn to use a blade the likes of which the world has never seen! For only ten thousand dollars you too can use this ancient weapon of legend and become a keyblade wielder like the warriors of old.] Pretty standard stuff for spam, though clearly the writer had heard some story or other and based their scam on it.

I exhaled slowly, looking to the girls, who both nodded, before pressing the order now button. One hundred thousand points evaporated as the world shifted, and knowing what to look for I could hear the words of the email being whispered into the ether, convincing reality to shift. The emails were a crutch, a buffer that combined with the points insulated me from my own power, but as I grew they became less and less necessary. There was a knock on the door to my room, and I nodded at the girls as I walked over and opened up the door.

One the other side was, as expected, a box. The box wasn't big and fancy and impressive like usual. It was small. Well crafted but simple, laquered black with a gold trim around the edges. I opened the box to find a chain. I raised an eyebrow at dreamer, who just shrugged, and then I picked the thing up. As soon as I did I felt my bloodline boil in my veins. This thing was...void. Or at least connected to it. It belonged to the space between worlds, and my connection to the void through my Hole bloodline and my void form was resonating it with me.

I felt it deep down inside, not just in my body, but in my soul. I was changing, connecting to something bigger, and without my knowledge my ectoplasm, my shadow, the void, my demonic power, and every other ability I had began to writhe inside me. I held out my hands as a flickering green black fire began to erupt in front of me collecting together into...a key. Obviously. I had been expecting a key based on the description sure, but I hadn't figured it would be so literal.

The key was black. Or at least the shaft of it was. The black of the void, and veined with glowing green the pulsed with the eerie glow of ectoplasm, down to the teeth, cast like a dark crown. The guard around the hilt was a straightforward pair of metal pieces that joined into a sort of box to protect the hand, made of the same green ectoplasm, but somehow more...solid. More like metal than the translucent glass like constructs I normally formed. More importantly though I could FEEL it.

There was no pain, no dramatic shift, I didn't get given a keyblade. I INHERITED it. It was mine, was a part of me, and nothing could take it from me. I could feel that. I let go of the weapon and it dissolved into those same green black flames. With an effort of will it was back in my hand. I could feel that any skill focused through this would require substantially fewer points. To the extent that this might make my demonic power actually viable to use in combat, as opposed to being a useless framework I occasionally blew points on to close gaps in my spells and techniques.

I didn't get stronger exactly, not physically. I could tell that my keyblade wasn't meant for that. I'd gotten it to bolster one fundamental aspect of my being, to amplify an ability and bind together disparate powers to create something I could field against The Reach. I'd been studying for days to learn more about the void, to understand the structure of the magic and how it interacted with other things so I could advance to the next stage.

I'd managed it last night, Hollow Armor, easily one of the lowest level void spells, but I had figured a humanoid form would be a good baseline, and I was right. I reached into the darkness between worlds through my keyblade to try to find something similar, and as soon as I did...it clicked. Guard Armor, an entity created from the darkness in the human heart. I was a bit short, but I had something even better. An entity of conceptual darkness whose life essence was imbued into my gun. I stood up and bolted outside, the girls followed, not interrupting but curious to see what I was doing.

I ran out the front of the hall, into the woods a bit, and out into a courtyard before I found the place I felt would work. I had so many different things churning in my head, in my gut, so many abilities and so much knowledge that I knew would fit together. I drew my gun, tapping it with the keyblade, and a wisp of deepest black was pulled free. The metal of the gun lightened slightly, but I knew it would recover, so I just holstered it and got back to what I was doing. I used the darkness, funneled it through the keyblade, and shaped it into the Guard Armor.

But while I did that I channeled the void spell for Hollow Armor, and I pushed in ectoplasm and demonic power to create my void armor. I used my bloodline to to imbue it with the true void, and, using the guidance of the keyblade to weave them together I created something...new. I still had a few thousand points, and even with the almost ninety percent reduction from this being what the keyblade was MADE for it still cost me two thousand points. I channeled in the power, the skill, the magic and points and the key shaped them. There was billow of that same black green flame, and I smiled widely as my very first true creation was manifested into this world. This, I could work with.

March 17th 2016 Doomhallow Hall 9:00 PM EDT

The creature before me was...intimidating. It was about ten feet tall, with ghostly green fire illuminating the eyes. It's body was a massive suit of void black armor swirled with purple, with the ghostly green of ectoplasm shining eerily from the joints and the symbol I knew denoted the heartless on it's chest. From it's back rose a pair or wide jagged devil wings, adding a demonic cast to the being, and as it started down at me I could only gape in awe.

It's aura was...massive. Absolutely huge, and I knew without a doubt that THIS could hang with that damn scarab. I wasn't sure if it could take on the warrior class bug, but then again, there was no rule saying I could only summon one of these. I grinned at it, looking to the girls. "What do you think? It's a fusion of every ability and power I could manage. It isn't a heartless anymore, and it isn't a void summon. It's unique to me, my own personal creation. I think I'll call them...Soulless. This one is a Soulless Knight."

A bit edgy, but the combination of ghost and heartless with some void thrown in was perfect for the name. The towering behemoth didn't seem to dislike it in any case. Zee was staring in awe at the creature. Which made sense, because my girl loved her some magic, and this was a completely new branch that only someone with my abilities could use. Creating a brand new magical creature for her to study was without a doubt, a sure fire way to catch her interest. She wheeled on me. "I want one!"

I burst out laughing. "I can only make Knights right now. I need to do some more void research before I can make anything more advanced. But I'll let you study this one while I work on that. In the meantime I can summon a few new ones every day. I don't want to name all of them, but I think being my first this one deserves a name." I bit my lip, looking at the towering beast of metal and green ghostfire. "I think I'll call him...Sigfried. That work for you Sig?" I raised en eyebrow at the armored behemoth, who nodded once in agreement. Sapient then, neat.

I smiled broadly. "Excellent, then I suppose when I can I'll just have to build you a regiment. Huh I wonder if you inherited my sword skills?" I hoped so, but regardless, his presence was going to be a huge benefit to me, not to mention all the other similarly powerful Knights I could make, or any future Soulless. I'd made the right call getting this keyblade. Speaking of which...I looked down at the thing.

It was just as powerful in it's own way as any weapon I'd ever had. The ninety percent discount to summoning was absolutely broken, and it would give me a solid chunk of points off using other magic too. It came at the cost of any physical enhancement, but my magic was hands down my biggest asset, and this thing was made for it. I stroked the green veined metal slowly, enjoying the black void material's feel against my skin. It whispered to me. Gave me it's name. "Tartarus." The girls looked at me, confused. "The name of the keyblade. It's Tartarus, it just told me."

It was telling me lots of things actually. About heartless, about the dark, about my abilities and what they could do. My powers had grown in ways other than just an exponential increase. My shadow porting cost nothing now, and more than that it could take me places it never could have before. To other worlds even. Nothing I really needed at the moment, but it was damn interesting. Corridors of Darkness, it called them. Though anyone who wasn't void blooded like I was would have some issues traveling through them.

I released my grip and let the blade dissolve again. I looked to Dreamer, who was staring at Sigfried in awe. Her voice was hushed as she spoke up about my new trick. "This being...he is powerful. I would put him on par with one of the weaker New Gods, at least in their corporeal forms. To make something such as he with only your own strength, to create a brand new breed of creature with simply you abilities and intelligence...you have outdone yourself Morgan." She frowned worriedly. "I simply hope it will be enough. Remember that we are facing a universal power, with millions of planets at their disposal."

I nodded. "Yeah, but based on what we've heard from B'arzz they aren't exactly free to act. This particular empire is at odds with the Lanterns, and this is their turf. That's why the cloak and dagger bullshit with Luthor and co. These assholes need an invite to turn up here, and if we push them hard enough to make them genuinely decide we're a threat the Lantern Corps isn't going to sit idly by while they stomp all over their territory. They can't afford to commit too much to the fight here, which means we don't need an endless stream of warriors. Just a decent sized force."

I hoped. If we did get caught in the middle of a war between the Lanterns and The Reach we would be pretty screwed. Still, with a few hundred Knights we should be able to stop the force they had here in their tracks, or at least pose enough of a threat for the heroes and villains of earth to weigh in and tip the balance. I turned to the girls. "But that all depends on them being enough to hang with a scarab. And that means we need a field test. Granted we could use B'arzz, but I'm thinking we kill two birds with one stone. I want to pit him against Blue Beetle, and show the team why I'm not to be dismissed."

If we were going to be working with them it would be best they knew to take me seriously, but I also didn't want to give away my best tricks. This served multiple purposes. Plus it would let me know how much of my skills Sigfried got and how much I had to personally teach him. I had the Warlord's style which would suit a massive armored figure, but if I had to manually instruct him it would really slow down my production of soldiers to combat The Reach.

I supposed if necessary I could do some research on easy to train formation tactics. Maybe something like a shield wall. Spears and shields would do a lot of damage, though the wings kind of complicated matters. Trying to work on formation tactics in three dimensions made them way more complicated I imagined. Regardless it was childs play to open a corridor of darkness to the cave for Sigfried and I though Dreamer and Zee had to take the long way. We vanished into the dark in a writhing cloud of shadows, ending up in the middle of the cave when we came out the other side.

The reaction was immediate and dramatic, every single person in the cave whirled and either pointed weapons at me or took up a defensive posture. When they saw it was me they relaxed slightly, but when they saw Sig that momentary reprieve went right out the window. I waved to Nightwing, who was sitting on one of the couches. "Hey man. You hung up on me so I figured I'd just drop in. Want to meet my new friend?" I gestured to the behemoth in metal armor towering behind me.

Nightwing gritted his teeth. "Morgan. Maybe you can tell me how you got in here without a zeta tube, WHY you did so, and WHAT the fuck is behind you. Because I don't have time for your nonsense today." He paused. "Or frankly ever, but today especially since we're in the middle of planning out our raid on the Reach base. If you're just here to show off your...disturbing new toy, it'll have to wait." His aura was seething with frustration and rage, but he was in front of his team so he was trying to put on a calm front.

That was boring, so I ignored him. I turned to Blue Beetle, sitting on the couch next to Impulse gaming and out of his armor. "Hey, Beetle. I wanted to test out my new buddy Sigfried against a scarab, you think you have time for a tussle? I'll pay you ten grand." I glanced at Nightwing. "Unlike some cheapskates I don't mind compensating people for their work. Does the League even pay you guys?" Ten grand was literal pocket change to me, so it was worth throwing it out to make Nightwing seethe a bit more, plus it made it more likely Beetle would say yes.

Nightwing literally lost his ability to speak, clearly apoplectic from rage, but the scarab bearer hopped to his feet looking pumped. "Hell yeah I'll take ten grand for a fight! Thanks man that's awesome!" Within seconds he expanded his armor over his form. "So where do we do this? Outside? In the training room?" The kid's aura was practically vibrating from excitement. I noticed he hadn't mentioned if they got paid. Man were the JL really that cheap? Though they did seem like the "justice is it's own reward" type.

As a reformed master thief I at least was smart enough to shell out cash for my people. Still I was curious to see their training area, so I went ahead and suggested that. "I'd say the training area would be fine. I'm sure this place can handle it." I actually wasn't, but they had a half kryptonian banging around in here so it had to be at least sturdy enough to hang on for a few minutes. I mostly just wanted to see if Sigfried had my skills and could take a few hits from a scarab I wasn't planning for them to fight to the death or anything.

Nightwing looked like he was about to spit fire, probably mentally berating the kid for being greedy (despite being the adopted child of a literal fucking billionaire) and wanting to claim the money was stolen but unable to do so since I'd already said it wasn't from my thieving and he couldn't find any proof I was lying. I smirked at him, seeing his aura flare with rage, and then walked past him toward where Beetle was leading me, apparently the training room he had mentioned. I was pretty interested to see what the place was like.

We got there pretty quick and I was...underwhelmed. It was a big ass open stone cavern with a mat on the floor. There was some kind of display or computer system up top that kept track of combat. I took my place at the side of the ring, standing next to Nightwing, Impulse, Wonder Girl, who had followed us in, and Super Boy, who was in the corner lifting weights until he saw us and came to see what was going on. We filled him in and he seemed interested, and even called next bout with Sigfreid if he did ok.

Once we had everyone present I made sure to clarify the situation. "Just so we all know, this is to see if Sigfried, my new summon by the way, can hang with a scarab. The object isn't to hurt anyone, but to make sure he has any skills and see how much damage he can deal with. If anyone involved, even the bystanders, call the fight, everyone stops ok?" I didn't want there to be any accidents and I knew the scarab could hear us and had a tendency to overreact. Beetle nodded, clearly ready to get on with this and I smiled. "Ok then. Fight."

March 17th 2016 Mount Justice 10:00 PM EDT

Blue Beetle was actually a lot scarier than he looked. I hadn't really given B'arzz a chance to catch his breath when he was being scarab puppeted, but with time to actually try, Blue was a scary fucking guy. Not only could he morph literally any part of his body into a weapon, he could merge multiple parts together to make bigger scarier ones. He put his hands besides each other and they fucking merged to make a cannon the size of a damn watermelon. A pair of stabilizers lowered to the ground to form a tripod because the thing was so fucking huge the recoil would have bowled him over.

He took aim at Sigfreid and let off a massive blue cascade of energy at my summon, a torrent of cerulean force and light barreling toward the massive armored form of my Knight. Sigfreid reached out, closed his hand in midair, and a writhing cloud of black shadows and green flame blazed up, coalescing into the form of a massive and very familiar long sword. Sig swung the blade at the beam, and the massive construct forged from a combination of ghostly flame, powerful shadow, demonic energy, and void flashed down and split the attack in two, deflecting the beam off to two sides.

I'd started mentally calling the combination Abyssal Alloy, because describing the unique mixture the Soulless utilized got annoying and time consuming if I had to do it every time one of them used it. The Alloy in this case had assumed the shape of my King's Sword of Haste, and I recognized the form of that defensive counter as something I'd seen the Warlord use, and the exact one I'd have used myself. Being made by Tartarus and from parts of me and my bloodline the Soulless apparently had access to my combat abilities.

Beetle halted his attack as soon as he saw what happened, trying to prevent damage, but the split beam scored a pair of deep lines in the cavern walls. He miscalculated with that pause though, because as soon as he stopped firing Sigfried stepped through a corridor of darkness and appeared right behind the scarab warrior, bringing his blade down in a slash at the blue hero. The move was flawless, a mechanically perfect flowing strike executed by a machine created for the soul purpose of absolute destruction.

Beetle caught it head on. A pair of bladed scimitar wings grew from his back, crossing to intercept that slash. The teen hero was forced down to a knee, cracking the ground below him, but he was definitely able to take it. He shoved an arm out behind him, turning it into a wickedly sharp lance, and Sigfried disengaged. Dancing away from the blow and letting the hero come to his feet.

Blue Beetle flashed forward, propelled by boosters from his back, and his limbs blurred as he lashed out with them. Punches, kicks, elbows, a combination a style very like Mui Thai was combined with the ability for his body to become any weapon instantly, and the mixture was deadly. Beetle wasn't fucking around, but Sigfried had come to play. That massive sword was like a hurricane, a shimmering black and green cloud of motion around the two, deflecting and intercepting attacks sometimes three or four at a time.

Sigfried was better, even with Beetle letting the scarab do the heavy lifting, but Beetle was raining down attacks like a cascade, hitting my armored minion from every angle possible. It was an amazing battle to see, and Jaime, the kid in the suit, was putting it all on the line. Rather than give up control completely Jaime had selected a specific combat task he was best at and dedicated himself to controlling it while the scarab moved the main body. A pair of thresher like arms had grown from the back of the scarab where the wings were and were launching attacks on whiplike tentacles.

The issue was that while thew scarab was an implacable mix of man and machine, Sigfreid was a walking engine of eldritch destruction. Despite the scarab offsetting it, scarab warriors apparently DID get fatigued, even if it happened slowly because the machine was picking up the slack. The bastards weren't infinite, and the void very much was. Beetle started to give ground. Not fast, or often, but attacks missed, or were turned away more easily. The blade intercepted every blow, biting back and drawing sparks off the blue armor.

Superboy, Nightwing, and Wonder Girl were gaping at what their teammate could do. They'd clearly never seen the scarab let it all hang out before. He was probably much more limited against living foes he would worry about hurting, but the armored behemoth was a construct, not a person, and Jaime had no problems letting the scarab bust some summoned ass. Once the physical attacks started missing the spare parts of Beetle's body started shifting into fucking cannons, mixing in blasts of energy with the torrent of physical blows my minion was barely countering already, and things started to slowly turn around.

The blasts were gouging holes in the body of Sig's armor, clearly being purposefully aimed at weak points and gap and firing...something that would allow them to damage the Abyssal Alloy the armor was made from. It took mutiple shots, but whatever was powering that fucking machine it was nothing that was running out anytime soon, and the damn thing managed to hammer the same places between exchanges with out of sight energy blasts until the armor began to fracture. Then the tiny pieces of cracked off armor that fell off Sigfreid started to morph into tiny armored copies of the giant and swarm the alien symbiote, and the battle turned on a dime again.

Jaime cursed inside the scarab. "Are you fucking kidding me?" I cackled in genuine joy as the horde of mini Sig's dog piled the scarab, who was able to counter them with his shapeshifting weapon suit, but was having trouble doing both that and deflecting the massing sweeping blows of full sized Sig, who was still more or less intact and slipping attacks through gaps Jaime probably didn't even notice he had until they were exploited. Poor little rookie.

As I watched, he started destroying the mini armors, and the void stuff from the constructs flowed back into Sig, repairing the damage to his armor bits at a time. Not just repairing, strengthening, I could see those ghostly green flames get brighter. Those fucking mini armors had been feeding on the energy from the scarab somehow, and when they returned they were making Sig bigger and stronger.

Beetle snarled at the increased power of his enemy, letting off another salvo of attacks to try to damage the armor again, but after the power increase the normal small shots didn't work anymore. He put his hands together, trying to make that massive buster cannon thing again, but Sig followed his motions into his guard, grabbing the cannon in one massive gauntlet and jerking it up to aim at the ceiling, letting off a huge blast that cracked the stone above, causing a rain of dust and debris.

Sigfried lifted beetle off the ground by the cannon, dropped the sword in his other hand to dissolve in a shower of black green flame, and then started punching the hero in the head. Beetle attacked at first. More cannons, arms, blades, hammers, chains, and basically every weapon you could imagine rained down on Sig. But after each punch the scarab warrior got groggier and less coherent, and finally he passed out. The scarab, probably unable to operate without it's holder being conscious, retracted.

Everyone tensed up, getting ready to attack Sig, but the armored giant just set Jaime down on the ground gently and walked back over to stand behind me. Nightwing walked over to kneel down and check on Jaime. He felt his pulse, opening his eyes and shining a light he pulled from his belt pouch into the kid's pupil before sighing in relief. "He's good. No concussion. I'm surprised he was able to knock Blue out through his scarab." He glared at me before grudgingly admitting. "Though I suppose that means he should be able to take on at least scout class scarabs."

As usual he'd missed the important part. Sig could grow. I wasn't sure what he'd actually done when he created and reabsorbed those mini armors but there was some kind of way to increase power, and it could work against scarabs. Granted I would need like hundreds of the damn Knights to even have a chance at chasing them off, not to mention I was guessing a warrior class would be way stronger, but I had a legit way to chase the bastards off, and it felt amazing.

I was glad I'd spent the points to get this keyblade. Personal power could only do so much against an occupying force like The Reach. I supposed I could have found some way to try to reinforce my clones, but I suspected that would have taken much more, and the keyblade was going to provide me with exponential benefits down the line. This was the best strategy I could have taken to prepare for this war.

I turned to Superboy with an apologetic smile. "Well. That was exciting, probably best to avoid any more fights with allies for the moment if you don't mind Superboy. At least until I can teach Sig to hold back. The scarab offset most of the damage in that fight but Sig is powered by magic, and I know kryptonians don't have a defense against that." I actually kind of liked the guy, and I didn't want him to get splattered.

Wonder Girl raised her hand excitedly. "Oh! Let me fight him! My defenses work fine against magic and I'm just as strong as Conner. That battle was awesome I really want to try!" I laughed at the enthusiasm. I could see how she was Wonder Woman's protege. She reminded of Myrina in some ways, the aura had some echoes of that warrior spirit the Amazon had held onto, even if it was balanced with youth and optimism.

I shrugged, turning to Sig. "Alright. Listen to Wonder Girl, unless she tells you to leave the cave or tells you not to defend yourself. Other than that I'll leave you to train with them, don't kill anyone, and make sure to analyze your opponents so you don't attack them too hard." I turned to Nightwing. "I'll leave Sigfried here, because I trust you all won't harm or abuse a helpless being who only recently came into the world." He grimaced but nodded, and I couldn't help but add with a smirk. "Also go ahead and pay Jaime his ten grand for me since I know you've been in my accounts anyway."

His aura flared with rage and I grinned to myself, nodding to the others. "Well, nice seeing you all, I'm going to go got working on finding some of Sig's friends for this mission and the battles ahead in general. Ta ta for now." I stepped into a corridor of darkness, becoming one with the void, and emerged back on the island. It was a nice feeling, being back and I let out a deep breath of relaxation.

I headed up to my room, opening the door and stopping in shock as I saw Dreamer perched on the bed, alone, and in very skimpy lingerie. She smiled seductively at me. "Hello Morgan. Please...come in." I did, intrigued at where this was going. She patted the bed next to her and I walked over to sit down. She leaned up to kiss me softly. "So I was talking to Zatanna, and we agree you and I needed some alone time together. So tonight I'm going to be handling your tantric ritual." She shoved me down on the bed, climbing up to straddle me. "Now, let's get you all worked up."

March 17th 2016 Doomhallow Hall 11:00 PM EDT

I couldn't help but stare at Dreamer's body. We'd had sex plenty, but it was usually her in civvies or her costume. I hadn't seen her in lingerie before, and she looked fucking spectacular. Long, smooth legs, tight, flat stomach, those huge tits still shockingly perky despite how big they were. The lingerie was a gauzy, lacy thing. Showed more that it covered, but still obscured enough to tease what was under it. She felt amazing on top of me.

She leaned down slowly, hair dragging across my body, to capture my lips in a kiss, and as she did she unbuttoned my shirt, sliding it off me slowly. I grinned up at her. "So. We're supposed to be getting some alone time huh?" I grabbed a handfull of her perky ass. "That sounds...intimate. Why don't you tell me what you were thinking we would do during this alone time." I squeezed her cheeks, drawing a happy sigh from her as she wiggled in my lap.

Her breathing was heavy and her eyes were lidded as she stared down at me, slowly rotating her hips. "I thought we could get...closer. Become more connected. You could get to know me better. Inside and out." She slid her hands down my chest to unbuckle my belt and unzip my pants, pulling my cock out and sliding her panties to the side as she lifted herself up and slide her pussy down the length of my dick smoothly with a cry of pleasure.

My hands slid from her ass to her hips, guiding her up and down me as she started to ride me slowly. That silken cunt worked it's way up to my tip and slide back down slowly, methodically, sucking and gripping every inch as we fucked, the wet smacks of me entering her and her grunts of impact as I filled her the only sound for a minute. That flat stomach bulged a bit with every shove, and seeing how stuffed I was making her had me salivating.

I reached up, cupping her tits, sliding off the lingerie to paw at them, enjoying thew bouncy perky softness and I toyed with her nipples. Unlike with Zee this wasn't frantic or rough, and it wasn't slow and loving, this was patient, methodical. Dreamer was pleasing me, slowly, thoroughly working my cock like it was her job and I fucking loved it. "So this time alone. Is this because of me? Because of you? Because of Zee? What brought this on exactly?" I knew of course, but I wanted her to say it.

Her head had drifted back, face up as she slowly climbed me like a tree. "Because I like you, and I want to know you better, because I enjoy our time together." Her voice was breathy and impatient and without any warning I shoved my hips up and her violet eyes flew open with a squeal. She took a deep shuddering breath before leaning down to kiss me hungrily before hissing in my ear. "And because nothing in existence has ever made me feel so full. Is that what you want to hear?"

She started bouncing her hips faster ass flying as she fucked me. "I admitted it, are you happy I'm what you humans call a size queen. No man had ever been this deep inside me, has ever split me in two like you. You make me feel like I'm about to explode, like I'm vacuum sealed to you and even an extra centimeter of flash would destroy me, and I love it. my other lovers were nothing to this, they couldn't compare, this is what being fucked feels like. So fuck me. Use me. Ruin me. And then when it's done we can cuddle and get to know each other better and you can claim the heart attached to the pussy that already belongs to you."

I grinned and rolled her over on her back, and shoved her legs up near her ears, bending her in half. "Hold these in place." She did, grabbing her ankles as I climbed up above her. With the way she was bent in two, her hips were basically over her guts, and as I set the head of my cock to her cunt lips she gazed up at me adoringly before I shoved myself straight down drawing a triumphant scream from her pretty purple lips. My dick shoved straight down into her with all the force of gravity behind it, and then I slowly slid it out of her suck cunt until the head was barely in before slamming my hips back down.

Then I fucked her. It wasn't slow and methodical, it wasn't soft and gentle, I rutted in to her like a fucking animal meted her like a beast and she squealed and laughed and grinned for my dick like a broken sex doll. I was in pushup position over her, slamming down into her pussy, and I grinned at her red shaking face as we fucked. "How about it Dreamer? You feel like we're connecting now?" I picked up the pace, slamming my hips every time she opened her mouth just because it was funny watching her lose her train of thought.

Finally she gasped out. "Inside! You're so deep inside! You're wearing me like a condom! I'm a fucking puppet on this cock!" I groaned as I felt her cunt get wetter, each sucking inch stroking and grasping me, and the absurd softness was even more noticeable like this her pussy was fucking paradise. It didn't work me like Zee's could but it felt like I was dicking down a fucking cloud of the tightest steam in the world, wet and hot and delicious as I pounded away at her, slamming her hips down into the bed with a groan of both goddess and bed frame.

Her eyelids were fluttering, toes curling, tits jiggling from their place trapped between the legs shoved behind her ears, and she looked fucking amazing. I grunted as I fucked her harder, her New God body taking every ounce of my strength and begging for more. Watching her tits jiggle with each thrust had my balls tightening, and the frantic was she stared up at me with those burning violet eyes made every thrust feel like I was entering nirvana.

I felt her pussy quake as I pounded her, and the squirts of wetness displace every time I stuffed her full got thicker and wetter as she came on my cock over and over again, but she just stared right into my eyes, never breaking contact as I rutted her, almost daring me to go harder. I reinforced the bed with shadows, trying to make sure the thing didn't collapse under the fucking as I pounded into her guts, and even my control started to falter as her divine pussy tried to milk out my cum.

I leaned down to kiss her, finally being unable to hold back as I unloaded and the feeling of me blowing my load in her set off her own screaming orgasm and she squirted around me as I emptied my balls as deep inside her as I could get. She was staring up at me in a daze with a huge smile on her face, and I pulled out with a chuckle, flopping down next to her. I grinned at her. "I'm good to go again, vitality and all that, but I'm guessing you need a second." She nodded silently, still too stunned to react to anything.

I helped her put her legs down and then pulled her against me, grinning at the squeak she made when I moved her. Then I settled in and gave her a minute. She groaned after a brief silence. "Ok. That slightly derailed my plans for the evening. I was going to use that slow sexual encounter to segue into a longer discussion about our relationship, but I feel that my point maybe have been undercut by my squeals of pleasure. So...I suppose since you're so good at taking charge you can tell me what I was thinking?" She raised an eyebrow at me challengingly.

I grinned at her. "Sure. You want us to get closer, but you aren't sure how. Our relationship has improved, we've become friends outside the bedroom but the romantic spark is still a bit dim. Not the sexual stuff, but the actual romance, you feel it more with Zee than me." She blinked at me in surprise, not sure how I had managed to peg her exactly, but with my aura sight it wasn't particularly difficult.

She chewed her lip. "I admit, I...have had such thoughts. I enjoy your company, and you are handsome, but our interactions have been more in line with therapy or an advisor than romantic partners, and I'm at a loss as to how to fix that. We have done things a bit backwards. Understandable given the circumstances but confusing and not conducive to furthering our relationship." Her voice got faster and higher as she talked, clearly feeling anxious about what all this meant.

I grinned at her and leaned down for a kiss, snapping her out of her spiral. "See. You don't have all the answers. In point of fact, we have a perfect remedy for this situation on earth. It's called dating. Sometimes people date first, but I seen relationships where a guy asks the girl to be his girlfriend and then they go out formally. It's doable, so that's what we're going to do. I'm going to take you on a date tomorrow, just the two of us. We're going to go out and have fun and spend time together and get closer without any of the god stuff or the power nonsense."

The door slammed open and Zee stalked in, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "FINALLY! Gods, how long does it take to ask someone out. You stopped railing her like five minutes ago." Ignoring our shock she waltzed over and flopped down on Dreamer's other side. "A date is a great idea, and I won't interfere, because I trust Morgan to know what he's doing and it would ruin it if I jumped in. I'm just glad you managed to get there on your own, I was afraid I'd have to print out pamphlets or something."

I grinned ruefully at my sorceress. "Well, it's good to know you're so comfortable leaving us to our own devices. Otherwise I might think you were controlling." She stuck out her tongue at me and Dreamer just laughed, cuddling up against her happily. I chuckled at her brazen attempts to be involved while respecting our space. "So how long were you on the other side of the door listening anyway."

She just snorted. "What? I was there the whole time. Nice job by the way, you fucked her into the ground. I thought the bed was going to give out, I could hear it squeaking." I uneasily checked on the supports I made mentally, just to be sure, but they were fine so I went back to listening to my girlfriend chatter on. She made other comments about the sex we'd been having, announced that she ALSO wanted another date after my date with Dreamer, and then promptly fell asleep.

I looked at Dreamer, the two of us smiling fondly over out shared girlfriend. I was looking forward to getting to know Dreamer on our own, but even before then, I was happy with my relationship. Good sex, good conversation, shared interests, I'd basically hit the trifecta with my girls, and I didn't have anything to complain about. Now all I had to do was decided on a date, but since our conversation in the OZ I knew what I wanted to do already. I wanted to do something she would love. I mentally categorized all the local theme parks, I had to look up which ones served Bubble Tea.

Bit of downtime before the chaos, of which there will be plenty. Really excited about some of the new power options available. To clarify btw, the Artemis looking for Jade thing wasn't ignored. They didn't find anything. It'll come up again next chapter. As usual the advance chapters are available on pat-reon at that site /malcolmtent.