15.09.2023
So... those of you with functional brains most likely noticed that there was no chapter last week. It's on me, I got drunk, broke a few laws and ended up recovering all weekend just to be able to function on Monday. If you want the full story hit up my discord channel - link in me profile!
But it doesn't change the fact that it is I, the Absolute Madman or that I'm back with your weekly dose of Stranded! But first, my dose of your comments!:
n1ght4ury20 - Hey, I was wonderin' where you went!
Guest - That's an excellent argument, which is why I elect to ignore it. We already have some really freaky stuff going on, so Shiozaki is going to be the 'scared of lewd handholding' type of girl, most likely.
And now, your chapter!:
The night time orgy that none of the participants could remember even after their headaches went away - and the subsequent morning orgy that followed - made it very, very clear that the foul concoction that Mina and Setsuna cooked up was way too powerful to be left in its current state. The one person that managed to retain at least a part of the memories pertaining to that evening however stated that the brew was actually quite tasty and they shouldn't just outright throw it away.
That one argument was enough for a powerful defense to be mounted and so it was ultimately decided that further research of the beverage - fittingly dubbed as the Devil's Drink - needed to be conducted. This implied altering either the brewing process or the final product itself in hopes of achieving something that can be safely enjoyed without the looming threat of an out-of-control orgy that nobody can remember after the fact. We wouldn't want a repeat of the last time to happen, right? Well, someone would as - even after recounting the volume of Devil's Drink - it turned out that a part of the alcohol was missing. A thorough investigation was bound to happen, but all potential witnesses refused to testify, revealing that this might've been something more than a simple theft and more akin to an organized robbery. Nevertheless, they weren't exactly afraid of someone possessing trace amounts of Devil's Drink for personal use. Hell, some were even openly advocating to leave a sealed batch untouched for special occasions.
The vote was unanimous and so a small amount of the pure orgy-maker was sealed and stored for later use.
The rest of the Devil's Drink however needed to undergo some rather drastic changes in order to make it a refreshing beverage rather than a head-splitting headache inducer that it was. Due to lack of specialized equipment - all of which Martin would surely grant them if they were to ask as he seemed to be a percentage drink enjoyer as well - the only way to actually figure out how to make Devil's Drink safe was once again trial and error. And oh boy were there many errors.
Unfortunately most of those errors were of the life-threatening kind and not the sexy-times kind that the girls hoped for. Thankfully their supply of medicinal berries carried them through the hard times and they managed to deal with the hard-ons with their own two hands - sometimes with more than just two. Lending a helping hand quickly gained a second meaning that not overshadowed, but completely eclipsed the original one.
The rate of experimentation was quite rapid at first, but as their supply of medicinal berries - previously steady thanks to their constant foraging - started dwindling at a blinding pace, they had no other choice but to slow down a bit. This also saw them return to the surrounding forests in search of this crucial ingredient that could bail them out of potentially life-threatening situations.
Their foraging operations were put on hold ever since they started growing their own crops and they had doubts about being able to distinguish the various kinds of berries, but it was like riding a bike and they were able to seamlessly go back to their old ways. This time however they were targeting the medicinal berries, though if they had space in their baskets they made sure to pick other kinds as well, hoping to spruce up their diet even more. One could argue that berries wouldn't exactly add much variety since they already had grapes, but the taste wasn't really the same. Besides, they could squeeze the berries into juice, something that would bring drastically different results if done to the grapes.
The foraging wasn't high up on their priority list however, as Momo still required vast amounts of resources from the mine and the finished smeltery consumed lots of ore to produce more or less pure bars, as long as someone was actually manning it that is. Izuku being Izuku however, refused to allow the girls to operate the smeltery as the heat coming from the giant furnace coupled with the twin suns doing their best to turn sand into glass was a combination that he wished for the girls to not be subjected to. This meant that it was ultimately up to him to smelt the ores that he and Itsuka extracted. And he did so quite eagerly. Shirtless most of the time. And let's just state that his physique coupled with the intense heat created a surprise combo effect that ensured he always had a small crowd watching him work. More 'him' than 'work'.
Although there was one person that would begrudgingly look away whenever their traitorous eyes would get drawn over to Izuku's godly form - Shiozaki.
She wasn't exactly opposed to seeing Izuku's uncovered torso, it's just that the sight itself always forced her to recall the two times when they spent their nights beneath a single blanket and she was overcome by all sorts of emotions, not all of them as decent as she'd have liked them to be. And it also fueled those strange cravings that she's been having for some time now. The after marriage kind of cravings. Unfortunately marriage wasn't exactly in the cards right now. And even after they return home, was Izuku really going to marry all of his current girlfriends? Would that extend to her if she were to join his complicated web of relationships?
"I need to get a hold of myself." Shiozaki thought to herself once her eyes were drawn to Izuku's topless form one time too many. "I'm a devout Christian and so I must resist these temptations and retain my purity!" Her will bolstered and her mind filled with conviction, Shiozaki was determined to stay true to the teachings of her faith. "Though I suppose one more look won't hurt." Before she could even finish the thought her eyes were already glued to Izuku.
And so, the corruption of Shiozaki continues peacefully. For now.
Martin had a bad feeling about… something. He couldn't exactly pinpoint the source of his uneasiness but he also couldn't go against his gut. There were things happening outside of his influence and he could feel them going awry, yet he didn't know what was going awry, only that it was, and quite rapidly so at that.
This feeling was nagging him constantly and so he found himself distracted from his work scouring the database for the kids' homeworld. He already asked Martha to check up on his more important stuff, but everything was in working order.
As such he had no other choice but to focus back on his task and wait for the situation to either resolve itself without his requiring his ingerence or escalate to the point where he would finally be able to notice it. He really hoped it'd be the former, but already expected it to be the latter.
His gut nearly did a backflip - and probably would've if his internal organs weren't bolted to his reinforced skeleton - when he received a call and he already knew that the source of his uneasiness was about to reveal itself. Pushing all of his tabs to the corner of his holographic screen, Martin steadied himself and accepted the call.
As soon as he did so, HAC's helmet-covered head appeared and even through the headpiece Martin could picture the man's face-splitting grin.
"Hiya Boss!" The man greeted pompously. "I took care of that guy that was messin' with some stuff!" He reported.
"He's way too enthusiastic. He did something, didn't he? How did it go?" Martin asked, already weary of his underling's attitude.
"He was giving me a run for my money! Dodging my Lariats, breaking out of my Suplex and avoiding my Busters, so I had no choice but to use my ultimate weapon!" HAC explained and all color drained from Martin's face.
"You didn't SPD him into the planet's core, right?" He asked, not prepared to hear the answer.
"Of course not! You specifically ordered me not to SPD people into planets' cores!" HAC bellowed, wiping a tear that wasn't there. "Besides, SPD is not even my strongest move!"
"What DID you do then?" Martin questioned, his worries somewhat calm, but his gut feeling agitated like never before.
"I used my Heavenly Atomic Collider and drove that punk right into Malaysia!" HAC stated proudly and even puffed his chest out a fair bit, showcasing the excessive yet well-kept amounts of hair that covered his torso. "I might've used a bit too much strength however and he actually came out the other side, turning the Florida Peninsula into an island."
And just like that the worries were back with a vengeance.
"Did you already use the Tectonic Anchor that I issued you after your last stunt?" Martin asked, his previous task already forgotten as he attempted to get a visual on the Earth that HAC was sent to.
"Yessir!" The man confirmed triumphantly. "However I only had enough space in my pockets for one of them so I decided to use it on Florida! Malaysia however is still split into Malay and Asia!"
"You literally have two pockets!" Martin exploded out of frustration. "What did you put in the other one?!" He demanded, hoping to hear at least somewhat decent of an explanation.
"A pen!" He grossly overestimated his subordinate unfortunately.
"What do you need a pen for?!" Exasperation was reaching its peak and Martin was a rat's ass away from actually giving up on this conversation.
"In case any of my Loyal Fans wanted an autograph obviously!" HAC stated, throwing a hay bale that broke the camel's back like a well-executed suplex.
"That's it… I'm revoking his dimension-jumping status once he gets back. If Florida is being held in place by the Anchor then go and try to put Malay & Asi- I mean Malaysia back together, got it?" Martin ordered, after releasing the mother of all sighs that is. "I'll send someone to help you out on the double."
"Alright Boss!" HAC said as he ended the call.
It took all of Martin's remaining will not to let his head freefall and slam into his desk at full speed. He had some things to arrange however, being a drama queen would have to wait.
"Martha, can you contact J-Mas and tell him to swing by the HQ, grab the HAC emergency kit and go fix the mess that he's made?" Martin ordered, but a wrench was thrown into his sound contingency plan.
"Unfortunately J-Mas is currently unavailable. He's still scamming some worlds with his newest product - something called a 'forch'. It's supposedly so innovative that he simply had to share it with the multiverse, for a price of course, one that he's free to set as high as he wants." Martha stated as she materialized in all of her hard light glory.
"Excellent! Is Wiz free then? We gotta send someone and I don't trust anyone from the lower echelon to be able to handle it." Martin said, hoping that he'd finally be able to put this shit behind.
"His schedule seems empty, I'll contact him right away." Martha stated, shooting a quick message to the man in question before approaching her dejected master. "You look like you're having fun." She teased, feeling like some friendly banter was all her master needed to get back in the action.
"I want to die." Martin simply replied, his voice empty and tired.
"You should've left yourself the possibility to do so then." Martha stated and proceeded to massage his tense shoulders, easing at least the physical stress.
"You can always try using those holographic hands of yours. A broken neck should do the job." Martin didn't budge, still as dejected as before.
"Resurrector mech serum." The assistant simply stated and smirked as her master groaned in frustration.
"I hate immortality. Why did I even become immortal in the first place?" Martin asked rhetorically, his voice more annoyed than tired.
"So that you could spend an eternity with your favorite assistant?" Martha offered, her smirk turning into a smile as she finally saw her master relax.
Silence filled the room for a few more moments before Martin spoke up one last time.
"Maybe immortality is not so bad after all."
Back down on what used to be Earth things were getting… peculiar. Not exactly interesting just yet, but strangely specific and too organized to be a product of pure coincidence.
Stormy was Shuusa's sister - or at the very least cousin, what mattered was that they were related - and they both used to be some kind of robots that Martin designed for his grandiose terraforming operations. Shuusa - belonging to the Midas series of automatons - had plenty of occasions to display her simply overpowered ability to transmute, combine and manipulate matter on the molecular level. Stormy however had yet to show off any of her skills. Or so they thought.
Being a part of the Zues series of automatons, Stormy was supposedly the manager, coordinator and weather girl in charge of a larger area. It was easy to expect her to have some superb weather controlling ability that might be much simpler than, but equally as stunning as what her sister/cousin could do. And yet there were no thunderstorm hails, tornadoes, hurricanes or the likes. They weren't exactly hoping to experience any of those extreme weather events, but they wanted to see something grand.
It was probably due to their expectations being so high that they failed to notice the subtler influences of their tsundere daughter. Like how a brief rain lightly sprinkled their fields right after they were sown or how the suns seemed to focus all their heat on Izuku's shirtless form whenever he worked the smeltery. Or how calming and refreshing a simple stray breeze could be after a day filled with hard work.
And yet, unrecognized by anyone, Stormy continued her machinations with a smirk, plucking at the currents, constellations, winds and clouds alike, shaping patterns and summoning exactly what she wanted. There were of course times where she'd abuse her abilities for the simple joy of pulling practical pranks on people. Very practical ones.
Like that one time when Mina decided to work on getting her purple tan sorted and Stormy followed the pink-skinned girl around with a single cloud that was just barely large enough to thwart any of Mina's attempts at sunbathing. Of course to add insult to injury, Stormy made sure to dispel any other clouds that might've wandered into the area, just to toy with her victim.
Her capacity for mischief made her both Mina and Tooru's favorite out of their two daughters, but Stormy herself actually preferred to spend most of her free time around Setsuna and - which is the biggest surprise ever - Shiozaki. Apparently Stormy had high affinity not only with mischief, but with the arts as well and she quickly grew to adore sculpting clay figurines with the vine-haired girl. She definitely didn't call her per 'mom' on a couple occasions, causing the Christian in question to almost drop dead from the surprise. Nope, didn't happen, and if you even think about questioning the validity of that claim you may suddenly find yourself at the business end of a particularly nasty - and homing! - rain cloud. And that'd be Stormy actually showing mercy.
Stormy also showed great interest in Yui's clothing projects, but unfortunately lacked the talent to help the ravenette out and as such could only enjoy the end products. Not that she minded of course, as Yui had an excellent imagination and an innate fashion sense that could rival that of many designers, especially the modern ones that seemed to take all of their ideas straight out of their asses. Just bring slacks and hoodies back damnit!
Last but not least, Stormy managed to form a close bond with class B's resident tomboy representative - Itsuka. They didn't have that much in common, though they both agreed that leather jackets were an excellent choice for any occasion and that riding a bike was cool. It's important to say that neither of them had actually ever ridden a bike, but they could try and fantasize about stuff, right?
Izuku and his first four girlfriends watched Stormy interact with the other girls and couldn't help but notice how convenient everything seemed. Shuusa was completely absorbed with her four mothers and while she wasn't against interacting with the others, Mina, Tooru, Kyouka and Momo were her preferred choice. Stormy on the other hand seemed to take a liking to the other four girls - Itsuka, Yui, Setsuna and Shiozaki.
If you were to squint your eyes enough then you'd be able to notice that this looked like pieces of a puzzle falling into their place rather than a series of fortunate, but impossibly specific random events. But hey, Izuku got his two daughters and each group of girls had their own shared daughter to take care of. All in all it was a pretty balanced experience for all parties included.
It'd be a real shame if someone were to disturb this carefully crafted equilibrium by introducing a wildcard. Hehe, wild.
Damn, the cast of background/mentioned characters is growing by the chapter. It's almost as if I was preparing for something... Nah, that can't be it, I don't plan stuff. Or do I?
Stormy becomes the daughter of class B, Izuku becomes everyone's eyecandy and Martin draws ever closer to sending the kids back home. But is it truly that simple? Is finding their homeworld the last hurdle that needs overcoming on their way back home? Or is it merely yet another step on a long, treacherous journey? I don't know. Could be either, could be both and could be neither. Don't expect anything, except of course me wishing you-
To have a great day and I'll catch y'all in the next update! (I don't know why I started these transitions, but I'm sticking to them for reasons equally unknown)