Gold Digger the Insertion Files chapter 17
By Agent Reptile
Werecheetahs of New York
The morning came way too fast for me, and for Britanny as well. We were cuddling together in our room in a pretty decent hotel. Not 5 star, but not too bad and sure not rented by the hour. Now when three guys (Genn being in male form) show up with a bunch of girls super early in the morning asking for a few rooms that is going to set off a few alarm bells, or at least gets a few stares. Thankfully money talks and Tirant's account had a lot of funds, or did till Genn gave me his information and we drained him dry.
I was exhausted and figured that Britanny and I could just sleep in and Britanny could do the whole "girl time" with Brianna, Dannie, and Barbra while they tried to pick out bride's maid colors and I tried to get an actual engagement ring for Brit. I had no idea what style she wanted and with no history in this realm it wouldn't have the whole family symbolism, but heck with it I would get my girl a ring that she could be proud of wearing. But that would be later as I wanted to just relax next to my lovely lady and get some down time between having just fought my first supervillain and trying to find a way to contact Jetta in Eden so that she can meet up in El Dorado in a about a month's time to make a formal peace.
Right now though, I was cuddling with the most adorable girl on earth curled up by my side. Tucked under my arm, Britanny was in human form with her tussle of spotted blonde hair and tucked under my chin and her ponytail occasionally tickling my nose. I kept kissing the top of her head as she snuggled close to me.
"Oh muffin.." Britanny giggled as she rubbed her head under my chin. "You are such a goofball." She then kissed my lips and laid across my chest and started booping my nose with her finger.
"Well you are just so adorable I can't not want to cuddle you excessively." I said as I wrapped my arms around her and join in her kissing.
"Even if I'm in human form babe?" She pouted slightly while putting her finger to her lips and wrapping herself in the sheets.
"Of course." I said in shock and honestly. "Your human form is just as wonderful as your hybrid form and think you are just so cute that it takes all my will not to cover you in kisses and wrap you in a great big hug."
At this point Britanny started to laugh and dropped down putting her head to mine.
"Babe I am teasing you." Britanny just kissed me again. "I know you like me no matter what form I am in." She then proceeded to smooch me a lot.
"I kind of take things in their literal context dear." I grin trying to keep her smiling.
"I already figured that out babe, but at least you are completely honest." Britanny then wrapped me tight as she held me close. "Thank you for letting me enjoy this moment babe."
I just wrapped her in the biggest hug I could and kissed her head. "Thank you for being the best girl any guy could ever ask for."
Britanny just started to giggle at this. "You are a lovable goof." Britanny said as she wrapped her arms around my head and chuckled. Britanny may have called her human form dinky in the movie, but she was anything but really. Yes she was a lot shorter in human form and her curves weren't as exaggerated, but darn she was tight. I mean seriously tight muscles just like her hybrid form. And even though she wasn't as exaggerated in hybrid form, a lot of the trope of her human form being unattractive were completely wrong as Britanny had the most adorable face I had ever seen on any woman and her eyes were this beautiful sparkly blue. While her skin did look a bit pale due to almost always having a fur coat on, she was just as feisty in appearance a mannerism in her smaller form as her larger one.
Britanny was purring up a storm as I appreciated her nuzzling on me.
"You are one in a million muffin." Britanny said smiling.
"I'm not nearly as special as you my love." I said covering her with kisses.
"You doll. Well I deeply appreciate how much you are pampering me, but I'm getting hungry so how about you put on some pants, grab some food, and I'll be waiting for you up here."
I kept kissing her a bit to say see you soon as she rolled off of me and pointed to the door with her toes.
"But don't leave too fast." Britanny said as I was making licking sounds looking at my backside.
"I'm getting a shower before I grab some grub." I told her.
"Awe but I love you having my scent all over you muffin." Britanny teased me. "Makes you more 'mine'."
"Well you are always welcome to join me and get your scent all over me." I joke back at her, only to get tackled by my stunning fiancée.
"Oh I love the way you think babe." Britanny said as she prolonged my time in the room with her.
When I finally was able to get some food back to the room, Britanny was dolling herself up in hybrid form in a tank top and a pair of shorts working on painting her toes.
"Having fun?" I asked Brit as she was taken back a bit not expecting me. I just raised the plate for her to see the food. Eggs, pancakes, sausage, and a glass of milk. "Sorry they didn't have tuna, but I tried."
I smiled at her as she purred as she looked over the meal before her.
"I'm sure that it will be delicious." Britanny said almost bouncing off of the bed and picking me up off the floor. It was now my turn to be slightly smothered by my love as she rubbed herself up and down my chest. I was getting very red as I could feel the fact that Brit wasn't wearing a bra as her chest pressed to mine. "Almost as delicious as you muffin." She then released me to get the small table ready.
"Well I think you are sweeter." I tried to playfully tease compliment her. It came off more awkward than endearing I thought. Britanny smirked at me and pursed her lips together and tried her best sultry look as she leaned down and teased me with a pretty impressive look at her cleavage, which was accentuated by the fact that she slowly dipped to give me a better look.
"You enjoy teasing me don't you?" I said, very red in the face.
"Babe you are such a gentleman and working so hard to pay off my bills that, not to mention you make me feel so loved and appreciated that…well I feel you are due some extra special flirting in private." Britanny said as she kissed my head. "Plus I want to make sure to get some practice for our wedding night."
"Well you are already perfect." I said kissing her. Before we could get any further, we had a knock on our door.
"Now who could that be?" I asked as Britanny turned towards the door and let me down on the floor.
"Hello?" I said as I opened the door to the bright smile of Brianna and the less pleasant face of Brian Savemore. "Oh hey what are you two doing?"
"Getting ready for a day of intense wedding planning and shopping." Brianna smiled. "What else would we be doing?" At this Brianna invited herself and Brian into our room. A bit invasive, but at least Britanny and I were clothed.
"Having breakfast?" I asked as I pointed to the plate at the table near where Britanny was busily removing every scrap of food from the plate. Not waiting any longer to get her meal.
"What I got hungry." Britanny said as she had just about inhaled the sausages on the plate. Not the most dignified of looks, but darn she was cute. Yes a seven foot tall werecat with razor-sharp teeth with her furry face covered in bits of breakfast looked absolutely adorable as her big green eyes with blue pupils just staring at me.
I smiled as big a smile as I could and hugged her. "You are too cute love." I kissed her forehead.
"Maybe we should have just waited at the dining room." Brian groaned. I wasn't sure if he was upset that I was getting attention, or if he had some sort of issue with me being with the princess of his people.
"Not if we wanted to actually get anything done today." Brianna smiled. "You two probably wouldn't get out of bed unless someone dragged you out."
"Bri I am not that bad." Britanny replied somewhat frustrated by her sister's teasing.
"Come on, what's wrong with admitting you have a very healthy sex life?" Brianna shrugged. "We are all adults here sis." Brianna's attitude was certainly on par. "Not like I'm asking to join or anything."
"Fine fine. Give me few moments to get dressed." Britanny said irritated at her sister's teasing. "Are Dannie and Barbra up too?" Britanny asked while preparing herself for the day.
"Oh they are. Just spending time catching up in their room drinking coffee last I saw them." Brianna smiled. "It was nice to talk with Dannie finally. You know since we were friends and all. She's done great with her life Brit; you will be really happy to talk with her."
"Thanks Bri." Britanny said as she smoothed her shirt down and took a look over herself. She looked stunning as always and bent backwards to test if any of her cloths pulled or felt tight as she looked like she was going to do a handstand. Granted with her the fact she was 7' tall meant she could drive her fist into the ceiling, and more than her forearm would stand above the floor of the room above.
"Wow you are super flexible." I said as I was in shock at how moveable my lady was. I didn't want to embarrass the woman I love, just she was a gifted athlete and I wanted to appreciate her hard work.
"I'm many thing babe." Britanny smiled as she stood there proudly before us and flexed her muscles a bit. "And I'm glad to show you every one of those to you."
"We could spend all day with you two just being silly, but really now Brit we do have to get going." Brianna smiled at her sister. "We have cloths shopping to do."
That got Britanny to move her tail with speed bordering on ludicrous as she zipped around the room causing a small whirlwind and was smugly smirking while adjusting the collar of her jacket. "Now you are speaking my language sis." Britanny asked as she checked to make sure that her tail was free of her pants. She then grabbed my shoulder and started trying to herd us out the door to the dining room.
"She is rather pushy at times." Brian noticed as I was being hugged while he was being pushed out the door by a rather rushed werekitty princess.
"Pal you interrupted some couple time between me and muffin for a non-emergency reason. The only acceptable example of this where I don't get upset at you is if we are spending more time with my best buddies or shopping. Now we are going to do both." Britanny just pushed Brian out of the room as Brianna giggled a bit at her sister's actions. I just worried about the credit card bills while smiling at how close Britanny was holding me.
"Of course my princess." Brian said, not sure how to deal with an irate Britanny, much less a righteously irate Britanny. Was this because she was his princess, was it because she is 7 feet tall to his no more than 6.5 feet? Was it because she was built like a tank while most of the other werecheetah females were more like Tanya? I have no idea but dang I was smirking as it was cathartic at this point.
"That's more like it." Britanny said, with a rather large smile on her face. This shift in her face also shifted her back to her more pleasant and sweet normal personality as she winked at me. The elevator ride to the dinning room was somewhat awkward with how close we had to be, but I didn't mind too much as Britanny was wrapping her arm around my shoulder and dong everything to tease me outside of the whole boob-hat maneuver and that wouldn't have worked with the space we had. Instead she wrapped her tail around my waist and hugged me close.
As we all exited the elevator car we found Genn sitting politely at the table with Dannie and Barbra as the two ladies were having a great time laughing together. I guessed that this was the first time that they had just been able to socialize as friends in a rather long time. Britanny smiled seeing her childhood friend happy again, and rushed towards the table where the other ladies were sitting.
"Hey Dannie girl." Britanny said with her tail up in the air and one of the biggest smiled still on her face. "How are you my buddy?" Britanny gave her old friend a huge hug as Dannie blushed being lifted off the ground.
"Hey Britanny. Great to see you too." Dannie said as my rather lovely lady let her friend back on the ground. "I was just telling Barbra here about us at school and our adventures in superheroing. I guess you are getting back into it now that you are marrying a superhero?" Dannie's eyes were big and bright at this.
"Well not really, but kind of." Britanny said taking a seat. "I mean I'm not fighting crime specifically but I have gotten pulled into it recently."
"Doesn't that seem familiar." Barbra chuckled. While it would not be unusual for her to be 10' tall and clothed in outfits that were close to ripping apart like Britanny, but currently she was an average height woman with an impressive build, but reasonable to that of an athlete rather than the minigiantess build of her exaggerated form. Probably made things a lot easier to get a seat in this place rather than possible damaging the seats never meant to hold the weight of her larger form.
"But I'm more of an adventurer than a crime fighter and muffin is currently trying to just help people where he can." She patted my shoulder with pride. "I mean sure we won't run from helping when needed, but I'm trying to make peace between the werewolves and my people more formal and maybe get into promoting muffin's custom clothing line he made for me for women who…" Britanny said indicating herself and Barbra. "Have special needs."
"Wait that outfit shifts with you?" Barbra asked, probably remembering what Britanny was wearing before.
"Between human and hybrid form I fits like a glove." Britanny said as she rolled up her sleeve and showed off her underlying bracer. "See, stretches and doesn't feel tight in hybrid form." It was a black sleeve with green out ovals and blue bands at the ends. "Better than having to buy an entire wardrobe at least once a month."
"I remember how much of a fashion fan you were Brit." Danny smiled. The memory of them as kids probably came into her mind. It was probably a very special time for both girls having "lost" a parent each and it Britanny not only being the last known werecheetah, but also unable to control her transformation at tough time in all our lives. A bond like that I would never interfere with and smiled seeing them so happy.
"How much do you charge for a whole outfit?" Barbra asked as Britanny took off her bracer and let Crush try it on. "And how tough is this stuff?"
"It is very resilient thankfully, and offers a light weight protection option on top of being exceptionally malleable. Almost as strong as Kevlar armor in fact, but far less weight and for ladies like yourself it probably would work great if you wanted to use it more often." I went on. How in the world do I know this? Well it's the same stuff that makes up Mr. Fantastic's costume.
"You some sort of fashion designer too?" Barbra asked trying on the bracer and then removing it and seeing how stretchy it was. "And what is with this shape shifting thing you did? I get that Britanny here is a werecheetah and I shift my mass to a minigiantess, but you were doing something completely different from either one of us and you look absolutely nothing like that Captain America guy and there is no way you are a World War 2 vet."
"Fashion designer? No. I'm actually a geologist and paleontologist. I just become other people that I know can help others." I try to answer.
"So what exactly do these characters have in common?" Dannie asked smiling at me.
"You know babe that's something I would love to know too." Britanny asked. "I guess with all we have done asking how your powers worked weren't as important as what we were doing."
"Well no one asked…but I'm guessing that they were all videogame characters I've played. Okay some were from comic characters but the medium was the games I played them in."
"Wait wait wait…you got these powers from playing videogames?" Britanny giggled. "You mean you are a gaming nerd too." Britanny started chuckled.
"You didn't know?" Dannie chuckled at her childhood friend. "So how much do you really know about each other?"
"Enough to know that I'm making the right choice and look forward to finding out more." Britanny smirked back at gal pal.
"Well I'm asking again, how much would you charge for a suit made from this?" Barbra smiled with joy at the prospect and handed back the bracer. "I know that things aren't stable right now, but maybe we could finance or something?" Barbra smiled hopefully.
"Well that would be up to the head designer and what she says." I answered.
"Head designer? Muffin what are you talking about?" Britanny asked as she was confused at this point.
"You of course." I smiled at her with the biggest grin I could. "With your connections in the fashion world surely you could corner the market on metahuman clothing as well as better PPE."
"Are you trying to force me to have a job muffin?" Britanny smirked at me. "I thought I was going to be a stay at home mother?"
"I just make the material dear; I have zero fashion sense and none of the connections you do." I point out. "Plus a beautiful woman like yourself is more than likely going to sell as the face of the company a heck of a lot more than my ugly mugg."
"Oh quite you." Britanny tapped my head at this. "Between my physical work-out schedule, me being the princess of the werecheetahs, and trying to keep our future house in order, how on earth am I supposed to run my own company?"
"Could just automate the orders so that a computer could run it." I pointed out. "Brianna back me up here, if you have the measurements and a completely automated system then it would be a breeze to make."
Brianna, who now was enjoying her own breakfast at this point when not trying to hit on Brian a bit, wasn't interested in getting into my problems, but still seemed to be paying some attention.
"Yeah sure could work. Plus it's how I make all my snazzy suits under my armored bits." Brianna pointed out. "What I want to know is why are you starting up yet another business when we haven't yet even started working on the city powering sized arc reactor."
Brianna had a point and with so many metaphorical balls in the air, their was a great likelihood of something falling on the ground, and hard.
"Arc reactor?" Dannie asked. "What is an arc reactor?"
I turned to the lady and tried to explain it as best I could in a way that wouldn't get too much attention from the growing number of dinners who were showing up.
"Okay keep this to yourselves." I started, and everyone leaned in close. "You know how huge a powerplant is and how much fuel it costs in nuclear or fossil fuels?" I got a few nods. "Imagine if you will a powerplant less than a quarter the size of the one on Nine Mile island but could power the entire eastern United States."
This caused everyone outside of Brianna to drop their jaws in shock.
"You serious about this?" Dannie asked in shock.
"And no danger of meltdown." I added, very quietly.
"Why aren't you building it right now?" Barbra said in awe. "There has to be more here that you aren't saying."
I nodded and looked at Britanny and Brianna. "Well the main reason is that there is no way the EPA would just green light a project like this without proving everything is true and with how much money would be involved due to the lobbying from oil, nuclear, coal, and the green movement you figure out how likely it is to submit a go ahead for construction on an unpublished energy system. Ever hear about how many millions have been dumped into the scammers talking about cold fusion?"
A few nodded, and a few had no idea what I was talking about.
"So you figure out how likely the EPA is going to be greenlighting a completely unproven technology while most government officials are probably being lobbied by organizations with deep pockets?" I ask everyone at the table.
"Sheesh so what are you planning?" Dannie asked, deeply interested in what was going on.
"We plan on trying to prove the reactor in Japan within the next couple of months and hope that will allow us to not only demonstrate the success of arc reactors, but also have the leverage to promote them around the world." Brianna said, getting her serious face on.
"Why Japan?" Dannie asked. "Is it because those sailor suit wearing girls and the power outages?"
"Honestly I didn't know they even existed." I shrugged my shoulders. "I did know that Japan has a huge energy requirement with the huge population density, but also is on the ring of fire so they need nuclear power to keep everything running."
"Ring of fire?" Barbra asked. "What is that?"
"It's the boundary at the edge of the Pacific plate and several land plates where there is a great increase in geologic activity from volcanoes to earthquakes from Japan through Russian up around Alaska and down past California" I went on to explain. "It is why California has so many earthquakes and why nuclear power is such a danger in Japan."
"You mean like Chernobyl?" Dannie asked somewhat horrified.
"I mean something worse than Chernobyl can happen." I said holding back the images of Fukashima plant's meltdown.
"You saw it happen, didn't you?" Britanny said as she hugged me. "What went down muffin?"
I took a moment to collect my thoughts to explain something that had not only not happened yet, but may not even happen.
"Okay not to tell too much that may not happen, a few years ago in my world there was a record breaking earthquake which no human building could be designed for."
"It destroyed one of the reactors?" Britanny asked, knowing a bit about the nuclear meltdown in the former Soviet Union.
"Worst my love." I said keeping my voice down. "It didn't just destroy the reactor with the earthquake, the city was wrecked with massive building collapses, fires, and other Hollywood level destruction. The quake caused a massive Tsunami which smashed right into the building and the already damage cooling system didn't just fail, the radioactive waste was washed out with the rest of the rubble into the ocean and all over the place."
"Oh my god…" Barbra said covering her face.
"That would have been an absolute disaster." Brianna said in terror. "I mean….oh my god that would have been aweful."
"What are you all so scared about?" Brian asked. "What even is a reactor?"
"Have you been living under a rock your whole life?" Barbra asked the male werecheetah.
That got Brianna and Britanny to chuckle.
"My people's sanctuary is a subterranean home yes." Brian answered. "But I don't see how that is much different than your buildings with basements or skyscrapers."
"Uh moving on…" Dannie said as she got back to the topic at hand. "So are you from the future or a parallel world or some other crazy notion?"
"Kind of both. I mean in my world you are characters in a comic, or at least most of you are, but that doesn't mean I know everything or that everything from the comics is the same." I said. "I mean I had no idea that there were other werecheetahs were even alive."
"No one did muffin." Britanny pointed out. "We all thought I was the last on earth till last week."
"As weird as this is, I'm beginning to understand a bit better. And it makes complete sense why you talked me out of killing Tirant like you did." Barbra smiled as she looked me dead in the eyes. "You little stinker you knew something was going to happen didn't you?" She smiled. "So that whole speech was to get me to not kill him for some reason wasn't it?"
I went back in shock at this sudden revelation. Britanny smirked while looking down at me knowing how this kind of unnerved me a bit.
"So answer me pal, that whole Captain America thing, was it real or did you lie to my face about him or you just to stop me from ending Tirant's worthless life?"
I smiled a bit and relaxed as I looked back into her eyes. "Barbra that was 100% Captain Steve Roger's backstory and I was honest about his history. I kind of become the character I choose with full access to their knowledge and abilities. But as I have to have played the character, it makes sense that I know them."
Barbra took this in for a moment. "Okay I can accept that. So was it Tirant I killed or someone else?"
"Barbra please I don't want to think about that." Dannie pleaded.
"Yeah knowing your future can be dangerous girl. You really don't want to go messing with that." Brianna warned. "Heck it's one of sci-fi's worst can of worms and that's including the whole grandfather paradox." Brianna being the smartest of us all did have a fantastic point, and really was flustered at this situation.
"It is my life, and I trusted you to not break Tirant's disgusting neck." Barbra pointed out. "So now you are going to tell me why I didn't do it. And I don't mean the whole dark pit hypotheticals as I know that you knew something and it wasn't a what-if." Barbra made it clear at this point she was not taking no for an answer and I was worried she was going to shape-shift there and then to be even more clear one this.
"Well I don't think it would be too bad babe, after all you told me a few things about my choices and I still choose you. And Barbra here has a point."
I nodded in agreement to Britanny's observation.
"Very well. It wasn't Tirant you killed Barbra, and this would be several years in the future." I started. "After having your family threatened too many times by Crime Syndicate X, and having a number of their henchman just get out of jail, you took matters into your own hands." I paused a minute letting this sink in.
"And what did I, or would I, do then?" Barbra asked, with great fixation to my answer.
"You successfully ambushed one of their lookouts and held him over your head by his throat with one hand." I answered back. "But while you thought he was going for his gun you snapped his neck like a twig…only to find out he wasn't going for a gun but his concealed badge."
"I killed….I would have killed a cop?" Barbra said, looking as if her world had just collapsed. "But I, I mean I…."
"Not a cop, an undercover FBI agent with a wife and kids." I said calmly placing my hand on her hands.
"Then you did lie, I did murder someone, I…" I placed my hand on hers that instant and gripped it.
"No you didn't." I retort, getting her full attention. "You are not the same Barbra Crush Duncan that choose that path. You decided not to kill, you let Tirant go and let him live to serve time for his crimes. Now you may have broken Razor's back because you were forced to do so, but you haven't taken a life yet."
"Yet being the operative word." Barbra said. "And what about that? How can I make it up to a guy for ruining his life?"
"For starters, I happen to know a few characters who could restore his walking ability. And second you now have the knowledge of what you could have done, and a bit of what happened doing so. Now before you get worried your friend Dannie never gave up on you and you eventually got a second chance to build a life for yourself by joining Agency Zero and being one of their best field agents." I point out.
"But that death haunts me doesn't it?" Barbra asked with tears in her eyes.
"Well you could be haunted from what you could have done, or you could realize that your hands aren't stained with blood. And while you could spend your whole life wondering what could have been, you can instead take that moment to realize the future is only in your hands and your choices always have consequences. Be they good or bad." I answer trying to not get too philosophical.
"And my family?" Barbra asked. "My parents, my brother?" You could almost taste the fear in Barbra's voice as she mentioned her family members.
"They are fine." I said comforting her as best I could. "Heck they loved you even though you made a mistake and didn't give up on you either."
"That…that's good to know. So what now?" Barbra asked, seeing that just about everyone at the table of the female gender was about to start crying for her.
"I say you don't worry about it too much and adopt a no-kill policy to superheroing." Britanny said, being most familiar to this whole alternative future bit. "Hey Muffin said that I was supposed to marry that Prince Stripe guy and I would have been happy with him having a kid and all, and yet I still wanted to give this goof my heart."
"Wait you and Stripe? Dang girl you do know how to choose them." Brianna smirked with the special way she does when something arouses her sexual interests. "Honestly though I am happy things are working things are the way they are. Also isn't he engaged anyway?"
"Who is Stripe?" Dannie asked taking the breather to munch on her meal.
"Oh he is the prince of a race of alien cat-like people from the legendary city of gold El Dorado and a really nice guy." Britanny said turning towards her friend.
"Really nice in many ways." Brianna drooled a bit. "And currently engaged to one of my best friends Tanya who is their people's head sorceress or something. But wasn't he engaged to her before his people were turned to stone? Explain why how Brit would have married Stripe if he was already going to marry another please."
"From what I remember he didn't mention the engagement and it was more of a 'if you don't find someone before you are x number of years old you automatically marry this person rule'. Stripe kind of forgot to mention it when he first met you and well…."
"Well I for one like the choice I made and if I ever meet that comic book me I won't let her choose my life any more than I would get to choose hers. Still though Tanya's good people right?" Britanny asked as she started tapping the table with her clawed finger tips.
"She helped find my people and I have found her to be dedicated to her people and to her mission of establishing cultural ties with the werecheetahs. I see no reason not to trust her and her engagement has no bearing on our peace accords at this point." Brian said with a sense of earnest honesty.
"I may be a bit out of my element with this whole alternate reality thing, but honestly thanks for saving me." Barbra said smiling at us. "I have to check in with my family, but if you still have time, I would love to still hang out while you are in town."
"Sure girl, any friend of Dannie is a friend of mine." Britanny said shaking Barbra's hand. Barbra got up and wrapped Dannie in the biggest hug she could give.
"Thank you so much." Barbra started crying as she held Dannie close. "Can we all hang out later?"
"Sure. I mean we can all have dinner together right?" Dannie asked us.
"Sounds fun to me." I said looking at Brit.
"Heck invite the family with you as far as I'm concerned." Britanny answered. "I don't think that they want to hang out while Dannie, Brianna, and I do wedding and bridesmaid dress shopping, but definitely we can share dinner together."
"Oh how exciting." Barbra smiled. "See you all tonight." Barbra gave us each a hug and headed to the phones to call home to be picked up.
"I've got to check in at work." Dannie said as she stood up. "After my apartment was wrecked, they'll understand me needing a few days to get things back in order."
"We probably should check in with Mom, Dad, and Gina." Brianna said leaving the table. "Want to chat with the folks back home Brit?"
Britanny hugged Dannie ignoring Brianna for a moment. "See you in a bit Dannie. We'll be in the parking lot when you are ready." Britanny then got up and walked over to Brianna. "Okay sis let's update everyone. I'm guessing what we did made the news."
I figured that it was probably considered nothing but a power outage, but hey may as well let them know everything is okay and the mission was a success. Brian and Genn followed Britanny and Brianna leaving me by myself at the table with a cup of tea and nothing much to do. Probably a good time to just enjoy the peace that was probably going to be short-lived as Britanny was going to splurge on bridal stuff and what likely would be several outfits for family and friends. She was free to dress how she wanted but I was going to be in my boots and black jeans. High quality jeans and the like and get my boots polished, but I was far less pricey in my tastes for clothing.
Though if Britanny did decide and start her own fashion line for metahumans like Barbra or other lycans like Jetta I'm sure that the cost would probably go down per unit as more uniquely sized people got cloths perfectly fitted for them. But that was another subject for another time and I just wanted to enjoy time not having to save the day for a moment. It was all too short a moment.
"Is this seat taken?" I heard someone ask, in a confusingly familiar voice that I couldn't figure out. It was a male voice, kind and somewhat soft sounding. But I didn't remember how I recognized it.
"Not currently so if you need it go ahead." I answered while not moving my head from being fixated at the table where I had been staring collecting my thoughts.
"Actually we were wondering if we could talk with you." He said, as I heard him sit down next to me at the other end of the table. "About something that happened last night specifically."
I was pulled from my thoughts and wondering if I was going to have another fight on my hands, till I look at the guy and saw an extremely familiar face. Absolutely impossible to see this guy in this universe but I blurted out
"Clark Kent?" Honestly he looked for all the world like the reporter for the Daily Planet right down to the glasses and suit. Okay maybe not as big as Clark muscle wise but dang he looked like he was Christopher Reeves's version with straight hair rather than curly. Then it hit me, the guy's voice was almost one for one to Tim Daly of the 90s Superman cartoon.
"Uh no, sorry I don't know anyone by that name." He smiled back at me almost exactly as I expected Clark would do. At that point I saw that he wasn't alone as a petite woman with her hair in long protrusions on the side and of either a raven color or dark blue. It was hard to tell with the artificial lighting. "I actually go by the name M, and this is my associate Debra." He indicated to the woman.
"A pleasure to meet you, but what is this about if I may ask?" I was a bit confused at this point, but then remembered it was the Gold Digger universe and Fred Perry used references more often than Family Guy did and made the references work for the comic. Now who was this guy again?
"You know exactly what this is about." Debra said pointing her finger at me. "An explosion at an apartment complex not too far from here followed by a black-out at an abandoned chemical factory followed by the subsequent arrest of the entire Crime Syndicate X with witnesses indicating the gang was taken down by several masked vigilantes including two cheetah people, a man in red with a cape, and the infamous Avenger crimefighter." She looked like she was about to start a fight and the last thing I wanted was to cause harm to anyone here.
"Now Debra please." M said politely ending her tirade. "I am sure that there is more to this story than costume shenanigans." He stopped the lady from continuing. "Not to mention a certain rise in costumed heroics in other parts of the country."
M pulled out a few photos of the mall in Atlanta where months ago I had stopped a flash mob robbery with Britanny using Spider-Man to web the robbers up for the police to arrest. I was getting uncomfortable sensations going through my body similar to those Sarah Conner must of felt seeing the T-800 unit photos in Terminator 2.
"Also reports of a transforming robot and people calling Chevrolet about their new Corvette and Camaro models they saw that doesn't exist yet." M continued. "Which brings us to the events of last night and early this morning where a rather dangerous group of metahuman criminals assaulted an apartment complex and were subsequently repelled by an assorted group of individuals in variegated garments including as said two cheetah people and someone in a cape in a red outfit with golden boots."
"Who appeared right after I felt a massive amount of magic being unleashed. So much so that I could feel the release all the way back in Georgia. This right after two previous releases of magic on the same level in England around the same time as the defeat of Dreadwing." Debra added. "And strangely it always seems to happen around Britanny Diggers."
"Which is why you probably asked your old friend Dr. Theodore Diggers what was going on and decided to drop by and give me a visit? Am I correct in that assessment?" I tried to smile back.
"And what if we did?" Debra asked, trying to intimidate me a bit.
"Debra has a very strong sense of right and wrong, and takes deep pride in law and order, so people taking the law into their own hands upsets her more than her usually calm demeanor." M said slowing his friend's frustration a bit.
"Am I being investigated then?" I ask, seeing how far this was going. "Because if I am I would like to know."
"Not exactly." M said looking over the images on the table. "While technically yes we are questioning you, nothing you have done could be considered criminal that we know about. We are asking because there are those in this world who also will have noticed and we live in a world that is dangerously balanced between multiple factions and our agency, which is part of the FBI, is the only organization which tries to objectively hold the rule of law in place with humans, metahumans, lycans, dragons, and others who may not value the lives of others. As such I wanted to see who you are and explain your side of the situation as it is clear that somehow you are connected to this."
"Okay fair. I'm from a world that all of you are comic book characters, I got pulled through my videogame systems while watching a movie based on said comics, and somehow got entrusted with the ability to become any of said characters and have for the last several months been trying to use my gifts to help others including assisting the Digger's family in defeating Dreadwing, freeing the city of El Dorado, making peace with them and the City of Atlantis while helping to overthrow a despotic megalomaniac, make peace with the werewolves, discover a lost clan of werecheetahs, stopped a flash mob in Atlanta, and did assist in the defeat of Crime Syndicate X leading to their arrests recently." I said this as fast as possible just to see their reactions.
"WHAT!" Debra asked, while M was left blinking.
"That's quite a story." M admitted, trying to reclaim composure. "You said you found a lost tribe of werecheetahs and made peace with the werewolves?"
"Actually Britanny did the whole peace thing, I just took a bullet for the Alpha of the werewolves's son to save his life." I said taking a drink.
"And we should trust you because?" Debra asked, somewhat more composed at this following M's example.
"Okay, Gothwrain is actually Iceron." I said just plainly to see how they reacted to that bit of data. "That and he is responsible for the almost extinction of the werecheetahs and the sterilization of most of the werewolves."
"How do you even know about Iceron?" Debra asked, very concerned about this revelation to be honest.
"As I said comic book." I just answered honestly.
"And you are here on an adventure or something else?" M asked, still very polite about it.
"Actually I have no idea what brought me here, but I am not trying to take over the world or looking to violate any laws. Afterall the police thanked me for the help at the mall if you asked them."
"Actually I did, and I read the official report in which Britanny and you aided in the arrest and saved one of the bandit's lives who would have broken his neck jumping from as high a level as he did by…webbing him up?" M looked at me curiously.
"Spider-Man. Spider silk has a tensile strength at least ten times that of steel cable so great of absorbing stresses."
"So you are this Spider-Man?" Debra asked rather intently.
"I can become him, but I am not him…or at least not him exclusively." I try to answer her honestly. "Look I'm not trying to overthrow the government or abuse my abilities if that is what you are worried about. Heck I know how crazy this sounds and if you don't believe me I understand. I do know though what will happen if I don't try to help or if I do use my abilities for selfish reasons." I took a moment to see how they react.
"Because you become the character and learn from their mistakes as well as being a comic book nerd?" M smiled at me.
"With great power comes great responsibility." I quoted to him. I thought that right then and there I would be handed the Agency Zero card and asked to join, but instead M just smiled at me in the way a knowing parent or friend does.
"Alex is it?" I nodded wondering where this guy was going. "I used to do the whole costumed hero bit myself, till the badguys started making things too personal for the good guys, started attacking families, which is why Agency Zero tries to keep things hidden. If your agents all look the same then the villains don't often realize they are metahumans, and I did think about offering you membership, but after talking with an associate of mine, listening to your conversation with Crush and Avenger, looking over how you stopped Crime Syndicate X, and finally talking with you…I don't think either one of us would be happy with that option."
"M what are you getting at?" Debra asked her superior. "Surely you aren't going to look over how he is blatantly ignoring those entrusted with keeping law and order in our society?"
"No, not at all…but before we talked with Theo, I had another old friend come to me and flat out ask me for help. She too felt the powerful magics that Debra noticed and was worried how it would affect the future. This woman, who I am not going to tell you who she is, took one look at the photos I showed you and her concern turned to hope. She actually knew exactly who each of these beings were and a few not photographed." M smiled as he went into a bit more detail. "Now Agency Zero monitors metahuman activity around the world, looking for potential new agents, but we don't always interfere due to jurisdiction and the like. So when this friend of mine sat down with me and went over in detail the origin story of, let's see…Peter Parker, I was fascinated to say the least."
It was now my turn to be in shock as M explained. "But what really got me was the explanation as to how a wizard gave a young boy the power of the 'gods' because he protected his pure heart and how she and my associate reacted to the magic being summoned here last night."
"I take it you somehow already know the backstory to Captain Marvel then?" I smiled at him.
"And I wanted to meet with you in person; to see for myself who you are and why you were doing this. Plus that arc reactor and unstable molecular clothing was absolutely fascinating to say the least." M went on.
"M we still can't overlook that he took the law into his own hands and Crush still assaulted that man leaving him in the hospital." Debra countered.
"Debra I think that instead of looking to put a badge on this man's chest, perhaps allowing him to continue would be in both our interests." M replied as he looked at his companion. "Japan has those Sailor Scouts after all and trying to put you behind a desk would be a waste of the benefits of your…private sector investments shall we say. So if you are willing to help us when needed perhaps we can work together out of mutual respect?" M offered his hand in a handshake, and I accepted.
"Now before we go, this unstable fabric of yours sounds like something that a number of our agents would really find useful, would you be willing to accept a government contract for some uniforms of them in exchange for helping to fast tracking your arc reactors in Japan and domestically?" M suggested.
"Sure, give us the measurements and I'm sure we can work something out. I figure mailing it to the Digger's home in Atlanta would be best."
"Excellent. Now one thing before we go, who exactly is Clark Kent?" M said scratching the back of his head. "Setsuna called me the same name first time we met and it's been bugging me ever since, especially since you called me that too. Who exactly is that?"
I smile and decided to humor him and shifted into the disguised version of Superman and smiled. "Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet." I offered my hand to M at this.
"M..this man isn't human." Debra said looking at me in shock. "He's…he's an alien of some sort and I have never felt a power like this so close before."
M just seemed to take this in stride as I continued playing Clark's character a bit more. More Christopher Reeves or again the 90s version so trying to be as wholesome a person as possible.
"I'm sorry to frighten you miss, I'm really not looking to upset you." I said looking her over with kryptonian eyes. "And I hope you don't mind me mentioning that you aren't exactly human either, which is completely okay by me."
"Now I know that it feels to be on the receiving end of my usual treatment." It was almost looking at a carnival mirror at this point. "And honestly not exactly how I expected to spend my morning." He chuckled at the humor.
"And I honestly didn't expect my morning to be spend as a hour long exposition dump." I reply with equal levels of mirth and smirk.
"I will give you that, but still what makes you so…super?" M asked before gathering the photos and putting them in his suit. "Mutation, explosion at a lab, magically gifted powers by some sort of cosmic being? Just curious."
I removed my glasses and Superman's familiar curl popped into place. "Actually I'm the last surviving male member of an advanced race of aliens who was sent to Earth as a baby and crashed into a small town in Kansas where I was raised by a loving family only discovering my body is powered by solar radiation. I just use the whole reporter cover to get inside information on the underworld and global crime organizations so as to foil their attempts to harm people and hand them over to the authorities."
"So why tell us all this?" Debra asked as she and M were about to leave. "Why trust us with the is knowledge if you understand we are often diametrically opposed to costume forms of crime-fighting?" I just smiled at her in a typical Superman way. "I may be confused as possible with this, but you have to admit the dangers of people without the proper training unleashing city destroying force on the population. Not everyone is as resilient as we are."
"See that's one of the things about 'costumes', they kind of draw the attention of all those badguys so they focus on you and not on the civilians trying to escape." This caught Debra completely by surprise, and even M was left with a confused look on his face.
"I…I never actually thought of that." Debra said getting up. "Thank you for that interesting perspective. I look forward to working with you at some point. It should be...a rather different experience to be sure."
"A pleasure." I said as I shift back from the reporter and shook their hands. They seemed satisfied and took their leave, which I was thankful for.
"Oh muffin ready to finally get this shopping trip on the road, so to speak?" Britanny rushed up and hugged me.
"Oh hey Brit what's up? Have a nice chat with the folks?" I said, trying my best to not be embarrised as she tickled my sides. Britanny is a very affectionate woman and as she had made clear she wants her scent all over me.
"About as nice as your and my dad's old boss." She smiled as she wiggled her ears around pointing at them. "I heard every word by the way so if you want that cushy government contract, you are going to dang sure help me today splurging on clothing and having my kind of fun."
"What if I promise to automate the work almost completely?" I tried to tease back and save my slowly dwindling reserves.
"I thought that was going to be a given pal, try again." She kissed my head. "And when you are done with your drink we can get on with shopping." Britanny said teasing me further. Well if I was going to be chauffeur and car again then so be it. I shot back my drink and kissed her.
"Whatever makes you happy my dear." I said as we headed to the garage. My only hope was that Britanny kept the amount of clothing down to a point I could carry it in Bumblebee's trunk because Ironhide would be impossible to move around easily in the ninties New York. Boy did I completely miss-understand just how much money Britanny could go through in a short amount of time, especially when getting pre-wedding stuff.
From Tiffanies to Saks, Bloomingdales to Bergdorf…good grief Britanny could shop. Brianna thankfully was better at tempering some of the spending that I was, but with the excuse of "wedding" the cost of stuff shot up through the roof. And this is deliberate as stores, suppliers, etc. will automatically raise the price of everything. Heck we didn't even have a set wedding date due to other responsibilities and the wait time that any sort of religiously recognized ceremony, classes, and the whole werecheetah/werewolf peace on top of helping the Kryn people investigate their past. Now I was also going to help Agency Zero with their new uniforms and start building a reactor system decades ahead of anything even my time had back here in the 1990s of Gold Digger. I had a lot on my mind at this point and the girl-squad parading around in various outfits for partying to dancing, to Britanny giving me a private strip tease asking me in private what I thought about a few…more revealing outfits for her in both human and hybrid forms.
This last bit was probably the best part of my day.
"Awe muffin I just realized." Britanny said, as she boxed up another set of clothing probably worth more than my income for the last couple of months. "You don't have a suit do you?"
"Oh boy…"
"Come on babe, please?" Britanny said with those big eyes pleading me, and making sure her top slipped a bit over her rather pronounced bust line. "I promise not to ask you to wear something too embarrassing."
"Fine, but if any of it chaffes or pinches then we aren't keeping it." I joke at her.
"All the more reason to get out of it as soon as possible muffin." Britanny said rushing around looking for something for me.
"Oh she is having a great time." Dannie said watching her friend peruse the aisles with her tail in the air. "This is worth the loss of my apartment I say."
"Hope you didn't lose too much." I said to her as she giggled at Britanny's antics with the clerk, a very shocked clerk who was doing her best to not go in shock at the visage of a 7' tall cheetah girl asking if they had a certain clothing in such style and such size. Britanny was having an absolute ball of a time.
That was until someone snuck up and…
Yoink
"What the, my purse." Some stupid punk grabbed some shopper's purse and made a b-line for the door.
"Every dang time huh?" I shook my head as Britanny was trapped between a number of displays and the associate helping her and unable to give chase. Dannie was grabbing for her goop-gun thing, but I had a more immediate solution. I pulled off my boot and chucked it right at the guy. The hard rubber heal hit him right in the back of the head and he crashed like a sack of potatoes.
"What's going on here?" Someone asked as the splayed body of the purse-snatcher was just about laid out cold.
As Dannie and Britanny were looking on, I had to hop over to where my boot was and try to slide it back on while waiting for the police to show up.
Brian and Brianna also looked to see what was going on, but were on the other side of the store as Britanny had given Brianna clear "instructions" to "make sure my royal guard is dressed appropriately for the job".
"Stupid punks, why can't you get an honest job like everyone who wants to build a life for themselves?" I asked in a grumble as I was trying to get my boot back on without it getting stuck in my jeans. Tapping my boot down, it felt good enough. "I swear somehow we just attract this loonies."
"Nice shot." Dannie said as she was approaching the man to tie him up for the police. Sadly the guy wasn't completely unconscious and he started to turn over and..
"Move…" I yelled pushing Danni aside and out of the line of fire. Wasn't sure if she saw the gun or not, but wasn't going to risk her life.
"You son of a bitch, I'm going to kill you." The man said stumbling to his feet and trying to shoot at me.
"This happen often?" Dannie asked, trying to find her mask.
"Often enough." I replied, really not in the mood for this, but oh well.
"Come out you stupid…"
I really wasn't in the mood for this nonsense and figured heck with it.
"Want me, I'm right here." I yelled as I pressed my belt buckle and waved my arms in the air.
And then he shot me, or rather at me as I had activated a prototype Mass Effect shield unit and smiled as his paltry 9 mm round disintegrated upon impact. I let him waste his whole magazine and then pulled out my own piece and shot the gun out of his hand. This is usually impossible, but one this is a comic book universe and two, I was using a M-77 Paladin X with thermal round mod. Why didn't I use this before? Well because I really didn't want to kill any of the Crime Syndicate X, but I didn't have a problem shooting the gun of someone else.
"You got to ask yourself, do I feel lucky, well do yeah punk. This is the Paladin mark…."
Swoosh, smash, thunk.
"Never mind." I said as Britanny took the guy's shock to rush up and smack him in the head laying him out cold for real. I just collapsed my pistol and stuffed it into it's place and turned off the shield.
"So about those pants, do you have them in a 34 by 34 flat black? My fiancé hates pleated cloths." Britanny didn't even miss a beat as the clerk looked at her with a mix of shock and confusion.
About ten minutes later Britanny, Brianna, Brian, Genn, and myself were hauling a huge assortment of clothing boxes and bags.
"Princess if I may, why do we need this much stuff?" Brian asked, while trying to not trip as we headed to the garage and I was trying to find room to become Ironhide again as Bumblebee wouldn't have the room to carry all these packages.
"Your cloths, Dannie's new wardrobe to replace everything that burned up, assorted suits and such for the wedding and engagement parties, some stuff for muffin and me, and Brianna wanting some new stuff. So yes I say we earned it."
"Plus the manager was nice enough to give us a discount, so I figure we should use it." Dannie added
"And as soon as we get home we are starting that contract with Agency Zero and building that arch reactor plan." I said putting my load down.
"Okay muffin you talked me into it." Britanny smiled. "Just tell me where to sign and what to do." She wasn't teasing at this point and genuinely was thinking about a budget.
"You okay sis? You never take finances seriously." Brianna asked in wonder.
"I do too. Especially when I get to design the suits for an entire government agency and get to be the show model." Britanny said teasing her sister.
"That's my girl." I said getting ready to get the show on the road. "Now…where are we meeting Barbra again?"
To be continued.
Author's comments: Well not the most action packed episode, but one that needed to be done and I hope my fans will like it. Please leave a review and look forward to the next update when we finally actually get to the bass tacks of a peace between the werecheetahs and werewolves.
