I woke up with a yawn. Squashed between Casey and Jenny… and the three of us squashed between Diane, our sex bot replica of Admin King, and Nanny, who was now a part of our family.
Hard to believe that was three months ago.
Also she's pregnant.
Den Mothers. Once is all it takes and we know the risks.
Still, having two den Mothers at home ment the kids were always spoiled and cared for. Hex was especially happy. Apparently Dire Wolf Pups naturally feel safer and happier in dens with more than one mother, as Nanny explained.
In the three months since Nanny became an official mate and Diane came into our lives, a fair amount has happened.
First, I've been practicing with Assimilation, making my base body even tankier than before. Second, taking all my loved ones into a single form at once leads to a form and body I like to call Hot Damn. Mainly for how hot we look but also how strong we are. Most of it admittedly comes from Nanny, but still it's amazing and unbelievably useful.
We only did that once though. Still, good to have in case.
I also learned Assimilation has what is described as a Sister Ability. Basically an ability that works unbelievably well with the other. That ability is called Symbiosis. Normally it lets one put bits of themselves into another, as a means to avoid respawning or to share things like MP, information, ECT.
When paired with Assimilation, it lets me share what I permanently augment myself with, with the others who have a piece of me with them. That was cool. Sadly I have no idea where and how to get it.
Much as I wanted to stay, I got up, crawling out the bed and pile of my loves and went to get the coffee started.
"This…is just wonderful…" I muttered with a warm smile, so happy for my new life even as I was tired as hell and wanted to go back to the cuddle pile.
After a while Nanny came down, dressed as she leaned down and kissed my cheek. "Good morning." She greeted me as she made her coffee. "Today Dexter has a field trip to the Monster Museum on Homeworld. Are you going to tag along as a guardian for the trip?"
"Might as well, would be nice to spend the day with the little guy and maybe even answer some of his questions because of personal experience." I said honestly.
"I figured." She said with a nod. "Would you like bacon and chocolate pancakes for breakfast?"
"Yes please." I said with a smile.
Nanny got to work cooking and soon Casey and Jenny came down, Diane following behind wearing a tight, short robe.
She went to help Nanny in the kitchen.
"So, Jenny and I have another date with Rebecca." Casey said.
I nodded. This makes date number seven. She was good, honestly. Bluntly honest and strong, and she got along with Dexter when they met.
Hopefully things continue to work out between her and us.
"I'm glad things are working out with Rebecca." I said honestly.
"She's definitely fun to hang out with." Jenny said.
The morning was normal. Routine and as it finished I left with Dexter to K-12, where he and his class all waited around for the teacher to show up.
"Hey Dexter." Said a humanoid pony girl with light blue hair, or mane, a blue coat, horn and wings
"Hey Luna." Dexter nodded.
"Hi there." I said politely to Luna.
"Hi. Is she your mom?" Luna asked.
"Yes. This is momma Heather." Dexter said, introducing me.
"Nice to meet you." Luna said.
She had the same… I don't know… not indifference… planeness? As Dexter.
"It's nice to meet you too." I said politely. "Have you and Dexter been getting along?"
"We're both children from Pods so, we have that in common." Luna said.
"Aside from that Luna and I mostly talk about school or some books we read." Dexter added.
There was something about the two I noticed. Both seem to have issues… portraying emotions. Which is weird.
I don't think it's a Pod thing, but these two definitely share the emotional… absence.
"So…now I see there…might be a minor problem…" I muttered.
"Okay class it's time to go. And thank you for joining today Mrs. Heather." The teacher, a talking, living being of what appeared to be water said.
In a flash we were all teleported and now stood outside the Monster Museum. I remember coming here on a date with Casey a long time ago.
The teacher walked the class through and I kept an eye on Dexter and Luna, who looked around with interest, if more restrained than the rest of their class.
Behind barriers of clear, invisible energy small areas sat where Shadow Creatures all ran around one another as they slammed into one another. "Class, these here are the Common Shadow Creatures. They are the most abundant and easily found of the Shadow Creature species. Hence the name. They can be found in almost any dungeon and all throughout the Hazard Zones."
Most of the kids were all against the barrier, looking at the creatures in awe.
I wasn't worried. Every monster in here was donated by the Beast Tamers guilds, so even if the barriers fail somehow they are safe.
Dexter and Luna didn't seem to share the same enthusiasm as their class looking at the monsters.
"Don't let the fact their Common fool you, even common monster's can overwhelm seasoned adventurer's with numbers…and they tend to be in big groups." I said, remembering how much of a pain that was when me and Casey accidentally found a swarm of these little mindless bastards out of nowhere.
"I've seen my dad fight them." Luna said.
"Oh, that's neat." I nodded. "Who's your dad?" I inquired, thinking I might have heard of them either through Katsuki or something else due to the guard at Candlelight.
"David. He killed a T-Rex one time. Their breath smells."
"Oh yeah, I think I remember being told about him." I nodded. "And yes, T-Rex breath is not very pleasant."
"What's it smell like?" Dexter asked.
"Bad breath and rotting meat." Luna said.
"Gross."
The class continued on, seeing all kinds of Shadow Creatures and monsters. All the while Dexter and Luna looked at them with that same blank expression.
We went to lunch at the indoor food court, it's a big place, and I got Dexter and Luna some food.
"Alright you two…" I said. "Mind if I ask why you uh…have such blank expressions?"
"What do you mean?" Luna asked.
"Let me ask you something before I try to explain, are the both of you happy to see all the monster exhibits? With some personal experience from myself being added in?" I inquired.
"It's fun." Luna said with a shrug. Dexter nodding.
"Alright…so you and Dexter seem to…be less 'reactive' out of the group." I answered carefully.
"We just don't show much emotion." Dexter shrugged.
"It's strange, and especially for you, I don't want this to be a medical condition." I said worriedly. "Cause a lack of emotions can have underlying causes and it could be bad medically."
"It's not that we can't. We just don't show it much. I've had fun and smiled when I'm out with my dad." Luna said.
"And I smile when I fish. You have pictures as proof." Dexter stated.
That I did. One of the few times I've seen him smile at all, and always so genuinely… kinda like an inner peace.
"And it's something I always love seeing." I said with a smile, gently ruffling his head.
"Part of why Dexter and I hang out at school is because we're just both like that." Luna said with a shrug. "We're both smart for our ages and we both have trouble showing emotions to people."
"I understand." I nodded. "Just…a little worrying for me is all, there are some illnesses that do hamper emotions and it can lead to other bad things."
"Like what?" Luna asked.
"Sadly I don't really know, I'm good with physical injuries, but…I suppose I'm just being a fussy worried mom thinking there's a bigger problem when there probably isn't." I said nervously, though I was still concerned for their mental health if they were emotionally stunted.
After lunch we went back to the tour.
It was fairly standard, ending with the gift shot where Luna got a toy butcher blade and Dexter got a Venus Flytrap.
"Why'd you get a toy sword?" Dexter asked.
"Thought it looked cool. Why'd you get a Venus Flytrap?" Luna asked.
"It looked neat." Dexter said. "Plus it eats bugs and meat."
"Cool."
"Sometimes getting something you think is cool can lead to many things." I said honestly. "It's why I like using Greatswords a whole bunch. I thought a giant sword was cool, and now I'm pretty much exclusively using them."
With that Dexter waved Luna goodbye and we teleported home.
While Dexter went to do his Homework I checked on Diane, who was sitting down reading through a book.
"Hey Diane, how you doing?" I asked with a warm smile.
"Heather." She said, closing the book and giving me a lewd smile. "Feeling in the mood~?"
"Oh the things you do…" I muttered, shuddering a little bit as I tried to suppress my horniness for the wonderful synth. "Well, currently cuddles would be nice, what book you reading?"
She picked me up, putting me on her lap and in a full body hug. Being smaller than her, this was awkward a few times but also really fun too. "Lord of the Flies." She said, giving my head a kiss. "It looked interesting and seemed a good way to pass the time until you returned home."
"Reading is a good pastime I will admit." I nodded with a smile, getting comfy in the floof. "Haven't read Lord of the Flies in a long time."
"It was a good read, but now I'm all yours now that you're back~" She said, nuzzling my neck.
"The thing's you do to my horny…" I nuzzled back. "But…well, I want to take you on a date, cause I want you to be more than just…well…all the sex." I said honestly. "Cause it's been three months and…well, I want to fix that."
"I was built for sex. It's not like I've gotten sore or tired from it." Diane said with a small laugh. "Have I not been satisfying you properly the past three months?"
"Oh no, you've made me get adamantium bones just so I can walk after our rounds." I said, gently putting a hand on her cheek. "But I want to spend time with you, not with sex but as a person…"
"Can't we do both?" She asked, giving a playful kiss to my nose.
"I mean…yes, we can do both, but it goes 'date, then me turning you into a cum filled inflatable'." I chuckled. "I want to learn more about you, cause even if your a very sexy sex bot, your still a person behind all that circuitry."
"Technically I'm Biomechanical. No actual circuits just artificial cells that work like organic ones to form all the complex stuff." She stated. "But if it makes you happy, then we can go on these dates and maybe during or after I can make your knees give out."
"I'm sure you will." I chuckled. "So, what do you like to do besides reading?" I inquired, trying to think of a good place to go on a date.
"Well, reading, games, cartoons, porn and comics are my main built in interests."
"All thing's King normally likes…" I muttered. "Well, what genre do you like out of all of them?"
"Any 'Fictional' stories, mostly Fantasy, RPG's, the old 2000's era of Cartoon's, Yes, and Marvel for American Comics, Manga is just a general because there's so many good stories there." They answered readily.
"Anything specific?" I inquired.
"Well…the Percy Jackson series of books has always been a personal favorite, RPG would be…Tales of Symphonia, Courage the Cowardly Dog and Ed Edd n Eddy were my favorites, Porn is great but there are many fetishes that are still gross to this day, favorite Marvel Hero is Spider Man, and…favorite Manga is One Piece."
"Okay, good to know." I nodded.
"So, care for some cuddle spooning?"
"Yes please." I said with a warm smile.
Diane picked me and and we lay cuddle spooning in the bed til dinner.
"You actually bought one of those Sex Bots of King?" Katsuki asked.
It had been a while since I saw her in the dream realm but thankfully I finally found here and was catching up.
"Yes." I said. "Is that a problem?" I asked nervously.
"No I'm just shocked." She said. "Having been with the real deal I'm amazed people are that willing to get into a synthetic copies crotch. Chest. Rear. And mouth." She said with a chuckle.
"Well…I'm a massive fan of the giant fluff ball, what do you want?" I whined a little.
"I'm just surprised. Didn't take you to be into Sex Bots. Lot of people think they're controversial."
"Well…it was King and…well…I squeed a little too much at that…also the Sleeping Beauty bit?" I brought up. "But why are they controversial? Never really delved into the whole Sex Bot thing until…well, we got Diane."
"Well they're classified as a Bot, when in reality they're not that different from a Synthetic, so a lot of Synthetic beings with free will, souls and such take offense at people owning what can basically be their cousin or family members as obedient sex toys. While they can get free will, souls, ECT not everyone does that and prefers them that way. Lastly while normal sex bots can't reproduce, some people modify them to do that. That's illegal and basically makes the Sex Bot a Breeder and, well that's a whole pile of shit and a half so, lot of people avoid them or are very secretive about owning one."
"Oh god, I'd rather Diana not be a Breeder, barely know what it is, but it's illegal, and already thinking about what that entails is…sick…"
Katsuki nodded. "Breeders are… well, it varied but basically they exist for the same reasons Sex Bots due, to pleasure and satisfy their owners. Difference being they can breed, birth children. Most common Breeders are Den Mothers. Some were people who through Code Reprogramming were turned into objects after having everything they are and we're erased. Some are made in cloning labs. Some are born into it. Met a Breeder once… poor bitch. Her… 'master' had fallen to madness. He wasn't that way with her, treated her right, but with him gone she lost it. Went into a despair filled depression the likes of which makes them basically dead. They're only purpose in life after reprogramming is their owners and without them they fall apart. Mentally, then physically."
I could feel myself turning green as I had to swallow back acidic bile. "I…genuinely feel sick at that."
"Hence why sex bots are controversial. Most are built mentally not that different from some Breeders. But lack the ability to do just that, but once someone alters them to do that, then they're Classified as Breeders and will be… collected, and the owner imprisoned."
"We've been treating them right for three months…but what's weird is that the 'Sex Bot' said that they're fully biological, just that their 'breeding' is locked behind something and they don't have an Assistant…"
"Knowing King they probably built them with some motive or purpose. Unfortunately I'm not skilled enough with Code to see what they did let alone try. Last time I messed with one of Admin King's code based works I got turned into a bra for a week. And yes, they wore me." Katsuki huffed. "Didn't even know that was a kink until that day…"
"That's…strange." I said carefully.
She shrugged. "King is a strange person. You don't live through the shit they did or this long without becoming more than a little odd. On the bright side it was the second most relaxing week off I ever had."
"What was the most relaxing?" I inquired.
"Got paid leave after some investigation and spent it on planet 69. Best. Vacation. Ever."
"Yeah, that sounds about right." I chuckled. "So, King's got a motive going around for all the copies of themselves…well, gotta keep yourself entertained when you're retired and got nothing much else to do."
"I guess." Katsuki shrugged. "Well, my end nothing much is new. Work is still a bitch and my kid is still making trouble."
"What kids don't?" I chuckled. "Though I also met David's kid Luna…and when I saw she was about as unexpressive as Dexter I got a little concerned." I said nervously.
"How come?"
"Well…mostly just me being a concerned mom, thinking their lack of expressions was probably something medical…but Dexter brought up how he always gave me this…inner peace like smile whenever we're fishing."
"Know what that tells me?" She asked. "Tells me those two kids are instinctively on guard with their emotions. Now, both are from Pods right?" I nodded. "Well despite not knowing any kind of past or backstory Pod People still subconsciously and instinctively remember things even if they didn't happen. Like something traumatic that led to them feeling the need to repress their emotions in public."
"I guess you're right…just wish I knew what happened with Dexter cause it feels like there's…a whole lot more to him than just a Prize Pod…"
"Well, whatever the case it their lack of expressions in public but around you and Luna her dad tell me you have their trust and they feel safe around you, just gotta build it more. Takes time but I've raised kids like that and it's always worth it."
"Being a first time parent is…pretty difficult." I sighed. "Just glad to know he trusts me…"
"So, all that aside, mind if you do me a favor?"
"What up?"
"I need you to buy another sex bot."
I raised a brow.
"I mean, I get if you can't just openly buy one given your job." I said playfully.
"Ironically it actually involves my job." She said, gaining my attention. "Word in the underground is that some potential Chaos Guilds are selling Illegal Synthetic Breeder Modifications in Sex Bot shops."
"So you want me to go looking for some of these illegal breeder sellers?" I inquired.
"Basically. They can smell Time Walkers, Mother's Daughters and Sons a mile away. You, you just got yourself a limited edition Admin King replica Sex Bot. They'll be drooling at the chance to sell you their wears. Unfortunately this means bringing her with you as proof."
"Okay, so now my question would be, if King made this Bot, how strong is it and would it be able to help me get out of any…situations?" I asked carefully.
"Knowing King, they probably made them as strong as a level two dungeon adventurer. Not too sure personally though. You'd have to ask Diane what she's capable of combat wise. But don't worry, I'll be nearby eavesdropping with spells and ready to jump once things go south or they show you the illegal modifications."
"Alright, thanks." I nodded. "Oh! Uh…I also got Assimilate…three months ago just so you know…" I said, not sure if I told her that.
"Oh. Sweet. A useful one for sure. How'd you unlock it?"
"By…uh…falling asleep after we did some…vore things…" I blushed in embarrassment. "Nanny said it was a prereq for it…"
"I know I just wanted to hear you say it." Katsuki said before laughing.
"Oh shush you." I pouted.
"Hey it's alright. People have embarrassing stories like that all the time. Though I imagine you were not expecting to wake up to that in the morning."
"Yeah, I was not expecting to be a fusion of the three of us that morning." I nodded.
"Well, anyway, I'll meet up with you at noon tomorrow for the job. And of course I'll pay ya too."
"Thank you." I nodded. "Gonna need all the money I can get with Nanny being pregnant." I said honestly. "Just…hope this will go well…"
The next day I got ready. Casey and Jenny left to do stuff and I told Diane what we were gonna be doing.
I got my armor and Old Faithful on quick equip, and turns out Diane has some combat skills with Claymores and Shields. So I gave her some I had.
At exactly noon Katsuki showed up and we were teleported to someplace else. It was a large alley way and outside of it was your typical busy street.
"Alrighty remember you can't openly say you want a Breeder Mod. You'll have to let them offer it to you." Katsuki said.
"I would never want the damn thing to begin with." I frowned. "But…I'll try to play it cool and not rip someone's head off."
"Please do. We would rather catch these guys now than risk them getting away or selling them elsewhere."
"Alright…first job as an insider…this isn't going to be fun, I just know it…" I sighed.
With a huff I took Diane by her hand and walked with her towards the location. It was a very well marketed Sex Bot Shop. The… products dancing behind glass windows mostly nude. Unlike Diane though, they looked more obviously synthetic than she did.
I walked in with her where even more all stood around in what was basically underwear. Males and females and all in between.
The person at the desk was human and honestly I was a little surprised they were female. "Welcome to Skin Deep, how can I help you today?" She asked.
"Just gonna be…looking around." I said carefully, gently squeezing Diane's hand in some vain attempt to keep my strength up here. "First time here, don't want to make any quick decisions ya know?"
"First time buyer?" She asked.
"Well…first time buying here." I clarified. "Cause my first purchase was…Diane here."
"Really? She's well built. Looks very organic."
"My synthetic cells act identical to organic ones." Diane said.
"Impressive. So you looking for a second toy or upgrades for her?" The clerk asked.
"Maybe." I said vaguely. "I want to keep my options open as we take a look around, maybe Diane here might also have an idea for what to get." I brought up, hating this so much but knowing it was for the best.
"Are there even upgrades or modifications for my model?" Diane asked.
"Maybe. What model are you?" The clerk asked.
"Limited Edition Replica King, model A3 Biomechanical, serial number 00000000024."
"Alright let me see…" The clerk types the info I to the computer. "Well you're new but the A3 model Biomechanicals have been around for a while. Not too sure how much is compatible with you. There are some augmented programming I can set up for you?"
"What do those do?"
"One makes you much more sensitive to touch, makes everything down there feel better both for your owner and you, increase wetness, lactation production, reprogram your anus to also get wet for quick self lubrication."
"Hmm…"
I was crimson red. While hot, this is so embarrassing…
"I…can't believe I'm doing this…" I muttered, shaking my head as I was trying to get these embarrassing lewd thoughts out of my head and to make sure my southern soldiers were staying at ease.
"Anything else?" Diane asked.
"Well the only mods in stock is one for nipple penetration and another for-"
I tuned out as that one mod shorted my brain out…
I came back to the conversation some time later. Possibly minutes or so later.
"-takes only half an hour for them all."
"It's tempting. Anything experimental?"
"No, well, maybe Gabe. He's always working on crap in the repair room." The clerk said with a shrug.
"And where would this Gabe be?" I asked.
"Repair room in the basement. I'll go grab him."
The clerk left and I took a deep breath.
"Would it be alright if I got the Program augmentations and mods Heather?" Diane asked me.
"Diane please…" I whined. "We're here to make sure you're not given any…'special' adjustments…while a lot of things could be nice, I suppose I'd have to get a second opinion on it…" I said carefully.
After a moment the clerk returned with this Gabe. He was also human, thin pale white with messy black hair and glasses. "You looking for something interesting and third party?" He asked.
"What do you got?" I asked.
"I got a few personal projects. Mostly all for the basic mechanicals but I do have some programs that allow your bot to customize the look, shape and color of their genitals and breasts."
"Anything else?" Diane asked. "I want to make sure I milk my owner here dry~"
"Well, I got this. Whatever it is." He said, pulling out a metal case. He opened it and inside were eight data slips. Special paper like stores of information synthetics can absorb to download the information. "Guy came down here and sold them to us. Haven't tested them yet but he talked a bit game. Swore up and down they were the next big mod or whatever."
"You don't know what they do?" Diane asked.
"Been busy on upkeep of the Mechanical Bots. I could run a diagnostic on it's see what these things are packing."
"I'd rather know what we're dealing with." I said carefully. "And who was the guy if I may ask? Sounds like either some hotshot that either think's he's struck gold on something he came up with or got stupid lucky and thought he could pawn off cool looking garbage on ya."
"He's a regular. Usually he sells us spare parts and sometimes buys a bot or two." Gabe shrugged.
He placed the data slip in the computer and began doing… whatever it is he needed to do. "Huh… well that's definitely different."
"What up?" I inquired.
"It looks to be a bunch of interchangeable personality programs for roleplay." I nearly face planted. "Got a lot in here too. Nurse, maid, milf, cougar, mother, sister, daughter, police officer, gangster chick, and a whole lot more."
"Sounds kinky~" Diane said with a smirk.
"Oh my god…" I muttered. "Is there anything…strange with it?" I asked carefully. "Cause there can't just be…a thousand and one different role play kinks…"
"I'm not seeing malware or viruses here. No obvious spam programs… wow there are a lot here." He said as I sighed. "Everything here looks fine. Really well constructed too, must have taken him years to program and organize all this."
"Well then." I said, trying to think of how to vaguely talk about the Breeder Mod. "Didn't think someone would basically just shovel their entire kink folder into a data slip…"
"Well, anything of interest?"
"May I have them all Heather? Please?" Diane asked me, actually pouting at me.
"We're going to get all this checked out first before putting it in you." I said carefully. "I don't want anything out of nowhere doing something very wrong or some jackass deciding to slip in something illegal because they thought it would be funny."
"We can probably get someone from her Manufacturing company here to check them for you." Gabe offered. "Many like yourself worry about their Sex Bots, treating them like Lovers and such."
"Because I'd rather not treat her like some…other deprived people." I huffed.
"We'll get them here as fast as possible." The clerk lady said.
About an hour later someone came to the store. I recognized them as the guy who was selling Diane's model.
"Hello, I remember you little lady." He said. "And you." He looked up at Diane. "Satisfied with her?"
"She is incredible." I said with a smile. "Now…I just want to make sure that the thing's I'm getting aren't either…illegal, or can fully work with her and not do anything bad." I said carefully to the the seller.
"I understand. If I may?" He asked, pulling out an odd device to Diane. She kneeled down and a flash of green went between her and the device. He did the same between all the mods, computer and the data slips. "Hmm… everything looks good. No comparability errors or glitches. Everything here seems fully integratable with your bot here."
"I…suppose thing's should be alright then…" I said, getting my good second opinion and feeling glad that it's going to work well. "Alright…just need to spend a lot of money to…oh boy…"
I paid for everything and they took Diane to the workroom.
I sat and waited for about two hours or so before she came back out. "I feel much more flexible~" She said with a smirk, picking me up and kissing me. "Oooh~ that sensitivity augment works perfectly~" I swear she purred that sentence…
"Well, glad to know your happy with all the new augments you wanted." I said with a smile.
"I can't wait to show them all off to you~"
With that we left the store and met back up with Katsuki in the alley. "So, no luck?"
"No illegal luck, but luck in everything that Diane got was legal and viable for her…just not lucky for my hips that I'm going to need to upgrade…again."
"Crap. If the Breeder Mods aren't being sold in the store then someone else must be installing them at a makeshift workshop. That's gonna be harder to locate…."
"Well, Gabe might know someone considering I was mostly cautious about the whole…eight data slip's filled with the guys favorite RP fetishes." I brought up.
"I'm looking forward to running 'Cheerleader' later~" Diane said.
"Hot but that is a good lead. They say anything about him aside the data slips?" Katsuki asked.
"He's a regular, having bought and sold some other stuff but the specific data slates were something he was weirdly proud of to sell, like 'hey, I just got the next big mod' or some crap like that." I said honestly.
"I see. One moment." She said, blinking as her eyes glowed blue. Small clocks covering her eyes that rotated backwards rapidly until she eventually blinked again and the blue lights and clocks in her eyes were gone. "Alright know his face and where he lives."
"Cool." I nodded. "Am I tagging along?"
"You can, or you can try out all the new kinky shit your bot can do."
Crap…. Both sound like so much fun…
"Both sound so much fun…hmm…" I hummed, trying to think if I would rather pound Diane or go off and continue this investigation.
In the end I sent Diane home. I followed Katsuki to an apartment building. Up the stairs to unit 104 and stood by as she knocked on the door.
Some noises of shuffling and such came from inside and eventually the door opened, revealing a a tall humanoid frog man. "Um… can I help you?"
"Hi, we have a few questions about some…Mod's." I said carefully.
"Oh, oh did you buy the personality pack mod I made?!" He said, smiling.
"Well she did." Katsuki said, pointing a thumb at me.
"Oh yes I knew they'd sell! So, you looking for other third party mods?"
"Well, that depends on where you got a lot of this third party stuff." I said carefully.
"Oh well come on in!" He said, keeping the door open for us. Walking in his apartment was also his lab. A large computer sat on a desk n what would be the living room as several bots of different types all walked around or sat.
A fabricator seemed to be making parts and such. All in all it was a pretty typical home workshop/lab.
"So, you make parts and mods to sell?" Katsuki asked.
"Yeah. Started with a hobby and one thing lead to another and well, I started this. Keeps me in work. Even made a few bots that go into some local mines to get me the materials to fabricate new parts and such."
"Have you ever…met someone that wanted to offer something…weird?" I inquired.
"In this line of work, that's not a small pool." The frog man said.
"She means anything on the more illegal side." Katsuki spoke up.
"Oh… oh uh… well, kinda?" He said.
"Mind going in detail?" I asked carefully. "Because I'd rather not have a passionate frog that likes working with bots to have it all thrown away because of some illegal shit."
"Well, a while ago I was at this small get together of other bot makers and programers. This one guy, kinda shifty looking had on display a chimera monster incubator but it was modified to work like, well, a womb."
"Wait, so this guy literally was selling a device that makes your bot give birth to monsters?" Katsuki stated.
"Yeah. It was… unsettling." Frog man said. "I know a few people did buy it but I haven't seen that guy since."
"That's…creepy." I said carefully. "And the fact that no one's been talking about such a…strange mod is?"
"Well, legally it's not illegal…" Frog Man said. "Monster incubators are used all the time in the Beast Tamers Guilds, some are even put inside of synthetic monsters to let the newborn experience a healthy natural like birth and upbringing."
"It's not illegal but definitely fishy to be putting it inside bots ment for sex…" Katsuki said. "Know the people who bought those mods?"
"Yeah, one sec." He said, grabbing some paper and a pen and writing down two names and addresses.
"This is getting…more and more suspicious…" I muttered carefully.
Once we had the information we rushed to the nearest place. This person, Jax, was a minotaur. Tall, built.
"Yeah I bought that mod." He said flatly as we walked through a… collection of the various bots on display.
"Why did you if I may ask?" I inquired.,
"Morbid curiosity mostly." He said as we approached a larger room full of mods and such for the various bots. "I've made a few mother bots for Beast Tamers before and got curious as to why someone would put a monster incubator into a sex bot. Let alone a chimera incubator."
"Did you figure out why?" I inquired. "And do you remember who decided to…just randomly start selling it?"
"Didn't know the seller, he was new but based on it's design and programming it's some off brand Breeder Mod." Jax said as we reached the mod in question. It was in a glass case and it deaturbed me how much like an actual womb it looked like.
"Off brand?" Katsuki asked.
"Well it makes Chimeras, has lots of pre-stored monster DNA in it, thousands of samples, but it's built to only take and mix in people DNA."
"People DNA? Mixed with Monster? It's not unheard of but why?"
"My guess, someone trying to be clever."
"Well, seeing as it is built to take people DNA then that makes the Bots with it installed Breeders. I'll be taking this." Katsuki said, the glass opening so she could grab the part. "Other Time Walkers will be here later to reimburse and question you."
"I expected as much. Best check on that other guy though. He's only a fan of the bots for the sex and frankly I bet he already installed it."
"Oh goodie…that's going to be a fun time…" I grumbled.
We rushed over to the other guy's place, Nick, and arriving at their house it was clear this guy was a degenerate. House was a mess, grass as tall as me, and lots of litter.
"You wanna wait out here? I got a strong feeling I know what's going on in there." Katsuki said. The smell… was pungent from out here…
"Yeah…I don't think I could go in there without throwing up…" I coughed, trying to hold back bile at this degenerates awful behavior.
With a nod Katsuki put on several layers of protection spells and then a gas mask before quite literally blasting the door down.
It was quick and the pervert was arrested… at least they had a bathrobe on… some other Time Walkers showed up, taking him away and Katsuki walked out with what looked to be a harem of sex bots. One with a bulging stomach. Clearly the one with the mod installed.
That one in particular looked to be a Centaur. Horse half and an elf looking top half.
"This is…deplorable…" I shook my head in disgust.
"Yeah… so, you want them?" She asked, making me gawk.
"Excuse me what?" I asked in surprise. "You can't just throw that at me out of the blue, I mean, they need a good home I know…" I said, trying to immediately think if we can.
"Hey I only ask cause protocol usually states that the bots in question are to be destroyed." Katsuki said. I stopped. "As for the one carrying the… thing, depending on if it's going to develop intelligence or not the bot will give birth then be destroyed."
"I'd rather them not be destroyed…" I said carefully. "Fine…I'll take them and…we'll figure out whatever the hell to do with the kid when it's born…this is disgusting…"
"This is life." Katsuki said. "Oh, also I guess I best give you that pay."
I received a notification and… that's a lot of zeroes….
Turns out the chimera growing in the centaur bot was developing the foundations for sentience and growing a soul too so, it's a keeper. Apparently it will be half Shadow Creature, half pervert human.
The bots all did have to be reset before being given to me… and… washed. Thoroughly.
There were six in total. First, the centaur bot with an elf top half. Her horse half was brown and we named her Ella.
Second was a reptilian looking girl with blue and purple skin and yellow eyes. I called her Lilly.
Third was what I can best describe as a Loli Naga. She was much shorter than any naga I've seen or met but her proportions were… definitely adult sized. Her human half was a light brown skin tone with long slick black hair, red eyes, and her snake half was purple and white. I called her Silvia.
Fourth was a humanoid dragon that stood about as tall as Nanny and Diane. She had pitch black scales with almost glowing purple eyes… nipples and certain other organs. I called her Endi because she reminded me of that Ender Dragon from Minecraft.
Fifth was an all silver fox humanoid with blue fur and eyes. I called her Swift.
Last was an orc looking lady bot, standing seven feet tall and well built, your typical green skin but with a very human like face and hair. I called her Ana.
"So… you certainly made out…" Jenny said as all the new Sex Bots stood around awaiting orders.
Unlike Diane they don't have enough of a personality/AI to do things without being told… and they only did sex stuff.
"I mean…yes but…" I sighed. "I still find this wrong…" I shook my head. "They're still people…"
"Their programming says otherwise…" Casey said.
"It still sucks." I frowned. "Especially with…Ella's situation…"
"That's definitely new to me." Nanny stated. "So, are you going to rescue Sex Bots like this more often?"
"Currently I was trying to help stop some illegal shit from going on…at least caught a horrible person from doing horrible things…"
"Well, you can cross catching a bad guy off your list of achievements." Casey shrugged. "So, what are we going to do with the… others?"
"I…" I sighed. "I don't know, try to figure something out to maybe give them a personality so they can…have a life that isn't just sex?"
"We'll need a good programmer for that." Nanny stated.
"Thankfully I got the money to pay for a good programmer." I said honestly.
"Guess that just leaves finding one." Casey said.
"Yeah…I'm sure there should be one around, know anyone that can help or should I go looking for a guild?"
"I might know someone." Nanny said.
"Who?" I inquired.
"One of my son's works with synthetics. This is his area of expertise. Been a while since I last talked to Greg."
"How soon do you think Greg can get here?" I asked. "And uh…is this talk going to be okay?"
"It will be fine, we've both just been busy. It will be nice to see my little Moon Shadow again. I used to call him that when he was a pup."
Well that's adorable.
Nanny called her son and he arrived at around sundown. "Hey Mom." Greg said, giving his mother a hug. "Glad to see you have a real Den for once.
"It makes me happy too, and it's so good to see you again." Nanny replied.
Greg looked a lot like his mom. A slightly darker fur color, same eyes and was a bit shorter than her.
"So, these are the Sex Bots in question - Holy crap is that the Limited Edition King Bot?!" Greg yelped at seeing Diane.
Diane nodded. "I go by Diane."
"Yep, and she is wonderful." I said, wrapping an arm around the Dire Wolf the best I could.
"Wow. I honestly regret not getting one. I hear the OS is beyond anything any other bots or Synthetics have."
"And your lack of a love life has nothing to do with that regret either?" Nanny asked, making her son blush.
"M-mom…." Greg groaned.
"Lack of a love life you say?" I asked.
"Oh Greg here is not much for setting up dates. Always so shy and bashful." Nanny said.
"Kill me now…" Greg groaned. "So, you wanted me to implant personalities into these bots of yours?"
"Into the other six, yes." I nodded. "Diane here is…working on it." I said carefully.
"Right. Those six are thankfully not gonna be a problem. Their systems allow for very easy alterations and program installments."
"Thank you." I nodded. "How long will it take and…how much will it cost?'
"Should take maybe… twenty, thirty minutes each. My usual fee is five thousand a bot."
"Alright, good thing I have a lot of money." I said, giving him his pay considering I got…an extraordinary amount from Katsuki.
I paid Greg the thirty thousand rem up front and he got to work on the six. Making sure to put their names into their new programing and such.
After about three hours all the Sex Bots now had fully fleshed out personality programming with learning programing added to help them better develop and learn.
Their sex bot programming was still there, but it was just part of the whole data they now had rather than being the only data they had.
"So, will that be all?" Greg asked.
"I don't know, you need dating advice?" I asked him with a cheeky grin with a slight tease.
"Please don't." Greg huffed.
With that he left, giving one last hug to Nanny before leaving.
I stretched as I had Hex on my lap and the pup was chewing on a teething bone. Now that his teeth are coming in, transitioning him to soft foods has been thankfully easy. He's not a picky eater at all.
"Growing so fast…" I muttered with a smile, gently patting Hex even as he teethed as he was still just so adorable.
Nanny was big now. Doc said she has twelve. And I thought my pregnancy was a pain…
"Hey." Jenny said as she sat next to me. "How's Hex doing?"
"He's doing well, just teething and being adorable." I said with a smile.
"Good. He's gonna be a year soon." I nodded. It's almost a year since he came into my and Casey's life… and so much has happened. "Hope he'll do great in school when he gets there."
"I'm sure he will." I said with a smile. "Yeesh…it's only been a year huh…feels longer."
"It does huh?" Jenny said in thought. "Surprised he hasn't spoken words yet."
"I'm sure he will in his own time." I said softly. "Because Hex is a good boy, and I know he'll speak when he wants to."
"How are the others? I spoke with Ella, she seems to be doing alright. Having her own thoughts is new to her but at least she's not panicking or anything."
"Well, thankfully the others are doing well…I was really worried something would have gone wrong…"
"Thankfully it didn't." Jenny nodded. "Family sure is getting bigger. Rebecca is even considering staying over or moving in."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah. She liked Casey, me, you, she figures she'll give this a shot properly."
I smiled. Heh. Hard to believe a year ago the idea of adding anyone to our family like that was alien and strange.
"We're gonna need to make the house bigger though…getting a lot of kids and people in here…" I said. "So much has happened in so little time…four hundred years of vanilla cutesy love it would give people type two diabetes…then all of a sudden this in just a year."
"Went from cute and sweet to living your porn library in real life." Jenny said, making me blush but laugh and nod.
"Yeah, you got a point there." I admitted.
"Kinda looking forward to all the craziness to come. You?"
"Honestly? Yeah…I can't wait to see what more joyful nonsense we get into." I chuckled.
"Uh, hey girls?" Casey said, walking into the living room. "So… outside is… on fire…"
What?!
I carefully put Hex down on the couch and ran. It was all fine when I woke up this morning!
Exiting the ship I skidded to a halt. Ash covered the grass as in the distance, buildings were collapsed, burning and in ruins.
In my shock I almost didn't notice but… the ruined city before me… wasn't Candlelight.
"Where are we!?" I snapped in panic.
"Woah…" Jenny said as she ran out next to me. "This is… concerning."
"Jenny! Heather!" Looking back we saw Nanny run out. "Oh good to two are here. I sensed we got teleported. Second we arrived I knew where we were."
"Where are we and how the hell did this happen?" I asked.
"Someone sent out a mass teleport spell over our area. I don't know who but given where we are I can take a guess… " Nanny said. She looked… concerned. "We're on Armageddon…"
My eyes widened, absolute panic and dread washing over me. "No…no we can't be here…not this place…"
"Afraid we are…" Nanny said, almost snarling. "Been here enough on tactical recon and Rapid Attack missions to recognize the aura of this place anywhere…"
"Well… on a scale of one to ten-" Jenny started.
"Scales broken." Nanny finished for her.
"I know what your trying to do Jenny…and no, we're all…basically stuck here…" I said sadly. "I…this can't be happening…"
"Seems like it is… damn. And I was enjoying my retirement…"
"Uh, you're pregnant still." Jenny commented.
"Doesn't mean I can't cast a barrier." Nanny said, pulling out a staff from her Assistant. She placed it into the ground and immediately a barrier of magic flowed over the ship and- mom and dad!
My parents and Casey's house were both next to one another behind ours.
Thank the Mother!
"Alright…so a lot of shit's going on, I hate everything about this…but at least we're all close together and safely in the bubble." I said, before pulling out Ol'Reliable. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some pent up panic and rage to throw at whatever the hell is stuck in this place was us."
"Woah, easy there." Nanny said, picking me up. "This planet is worse than you think and dying here has much grander consequences than on any other planet or hazard zone."
"And…what nonsense will that be?" I asked carefully, cause I really want to stab a bitch, especially the bitch that teleported us to this Mother forsaken hellhole.
"Firstly, respawns are random. Die and in two hours you'll be elsewhere randomly on this planet." Nanny stated. "Second, the more you fight the more Monsters will be thrown at you. Third, if the Monsters don't get you, you might run into a Slave Hunter for Lust or one of the other major Chaos Guilds here and end up a Breeder or Slave or Serf of test subjects."
"Oh come on…" I grumbled.
"So no going alone and no running off half cocked on anger and thinking you're tuff shit."
I legit froze… I've never heard Nanny swear before…
"Well…" I muttered, trying to find some argument here. "Can we at least look to see where the hell we are?"
"After we check on your parents and the others, let them all know what's happened."
"Alright." I nodded. "Let's make sure they're all alright." I said, heading off to see if our parents and the other's are alright.
It took a while but Nanny explained to everyone the situation. We then count our supplies. Weapons, thanks to my collection and Jenny's stockpiling of bullets were good, food, not so much. Water, thanks to my houses Water Gem wouldn't be an issue but food was only a few weeks worth. Diane and the other bots don't need to eat, but with Nanny pregnant and the babies growing…
"Currently the only ones fit to explore are Heather and Jenny." Nanny said. "I don't like it, but there is one thing I know about this shit hole it's that is does provide if you follow it's rules."
"And what are the rules?" I asked carefully.
"Fight. Survive. And…" She rubbed her belly. "Populate."
I frowned. "I don't want the 'populate' part in this horrid place." I said bluntly.
"Look I know it's weird and bad but it's strange. Every time I came here and came across a settlement of sorts, the ones that had children, Infants, they were thriving. More food. More supplies. And the few times the settlements were attacked by heavy hoards of monsters, the children and pregnant were left untouched." Nanny said. "This world… favors those who help grow the non monster population."
"So… Armageddon is what? Alive?" Casey asked.
"I don't know. Whatever it is, I know those are the three main things it like a in people who are stuck here. Fighters. Survivors. And population growth."
"Cause of course…" I grumbled. "I still have to wonder who teleported us here and why?"
"I don't know but I can guess whoever did it was part of a Chaos Guild and they're extremely strong. To pull off a teleport like this on buildings and people in them. That's around my strength. Maybe more on the magic side."
"Yeah, I don't like that at all…" I said worriedly. "So, we just need to check where we are specifically, and do some scouting to see if there's any other points of interest."
"And collect resources. Trust me, some places will have more than others depending on the monsters in the area."
"And currently, all we have to go on is that outside is on fire." I said honestly. "So we could be…basically anywhere at this point."
"More or less."
"Well, let's get scouting Heather." Jenny said, equipping her handgun holsters and slinging one of her shotguns around her back.
"Alright." I nodded, grabbing Ol'Reliable and ready for anything. "And hey, depending on the monsters, Assimilate is gonna be oh so fun."
Jenny and I went outside, passed through the barrier and off towards the flaming ruins.
Apparently we were in some mountains so that was good, and rushing down the road Jenny and I came across the enemies of this area. I recognized them instantly. I love that game… Demons… from Doom…
"This is both going to be fun as hell…and annoying as hell…" I said carefully. "Doom Demons…my favorite."
"Well, let's see if they're just as durable." Jenny said, raising her handguns and began shooting.
They were.
Limbs, chunks and holes filled them and still they charged. Slicing them in half was the easiest way to kill them but some still moved and tried to attack.
They were fast.
They did damage.
And they had numbers.
By the time this road was clear I was caked in Demon Blood and Jenny had the ground littered in bullet casings.
"Well, that was a fight." She said, breathing heavy.
"Fucking god…" I panted heavily, leaning on Ol'Reliable to keep myself steady. "Those bastards are…a lot tankier than I thought…"
"No wonder those Doom Marines are so buff. You gotta have huge ass muscles as a byproduct of all that." Jenny looked around, picking up a box of ammo. One of many the demons dropped. "Bright side. Return rate on spent ammo seems about even."
"Which is good." I said, moving over and checking all the loot these things dropped. "Also a good thing that these thing's are walking loot pinata's and that they drop healing nanites." I said, cause everytime I cleaved one in half or managed to get a melee kill those game healing canisters came out and healed you the moment they picked them up. "Saved my ass a few times when you were busy."
"Well, ammo, meds, so far that's good but we do need food. Some trucks up ahead. Best check them and maybe go a bit further. We're gonna need all the food and stuff we can get."
"Yeah…" I took a deep breath and straightened myself out. "Let's get going, let's hope that they don't get much worse at night."
The trucks nearby had some stuff. A pallet of rice. A few boxes of canned fruit. Some Toilet Paper which was nice.
We ran down the road and to a small road stop. Clearing the demons here took two hours.
"Crap, didn't think I'd ever get a cramp in my trigger fingers…" Jenny huffed as she stretched her fingers.
"Yeah…" I agreed, rolling my shoulders as my arms were starting to get stiff. "Didn't think my arm's could get stiff from this…there are way too many of these rat bastards…"
"Ironic since that's the whole appeal in the games." Jenny shrugged as she looked around. There were five buildings. A gas station. A semi truck stop, with several trucks parked there. A small hotel. A Waffle House. Lastly, a mechanics shop. "So, which of these should we hit first?"
"Is it weird that I'm immediately thinking that Waffle House might actually be open and staffed?" I asked nervously, still finding it hilarious how Waffle House, a place for overpriced waffles, is a good meter for how dangerous situations are.
"Would be funny. If anything It might have some stuff. Wanna go together or split up?"
"We need to stick together, cause even your having a tough time even with how stupid strong you are." I said honestly.
"Fair. So, check the waffle house first then?"
"Waffle House." I nodded, heading off to the Waffle House to see how screwed this Doom world really is.
Walking up to the place, the glass windows were all completely shattered. A torso was rotting on the flat top grill and at a table sat a pile of bones and gore.
Jenny walked past it all, jumping the counter and heading to the freezer. Inside was more death, a box full of breakfast sausage rolls, and frozen bacon.
The fridge had several gallons of milk, orange juice, pre blended eggs in cartons, and waffle batter.
"Even in a Demon Apocalypse, fully stocked and tried to work at least a little bit." I shook my head. "Not sure if that's this damned planet doing it…or Waffle House is run by insane people."
"Both." Jenny shrugged. "Think the stove is good to take? Some bleach and we can use it. Gonna need to extra cooking space if what Nanny said about population growth is true."
"I'm sure it should be fine." I shrugged. "We're…gonna need to stock up hard for all this crap…and that's not to mention if we randomly stumble upon Prize Pods…"
"True. Welp, time to get to work." She said, pulling the grill out and unhooking it from the wall and storing it into her Assistant.
We then hit the Mechanic Shop, grabbing tools, oil and such. We then went to the Gas Station, taking all the snack, liquor and ECT it had. Surprisingly, it did have gas. We left it though. No need for it honestly. At least not now.
We then hit the truck stop. They had some stuff, Canned food mostly.
We then began heading towards the hotel. It was small, maybe twenty rooms, nothing impressive. There were a few stragglers hiding in the rooms that were taken care of quickly and we took all the beds, sheets, towels, toilet paper and anything else that could or might be of use of value.
"Well, guess that's this place cleared." Jenny said. "Let's head back."
"Good first day." I nodded.
We rushed back home, getting back inside and letting everyone know what's up.
"Well, to be honest it could have been worse." Nanny sighed. "This is actually one of the safer zones."
"This is safe?" Casey asked.
"By comparison." Nanny said. "Trust me. There is always worse here."
"Everything can always get worse." I sighed, rubbing my temple a bit. "So, I suppose this all respawns tomorrow?"
"More or less. Some stuff will be different or not be there. It's weird but yeah check again tomorrow." Nanny sighed. "We'll have to mark any and all notable areas at some point. Hospitals. Military locations and such. Places more likely to spawn in highly useful loot in large quantities."
"Alright." I nodded. "So, what should we be avoiding? Cause all I've heard about this hellhole is that it's extremely dangerous, and Chaos Guilds are here…anything else we should be worried about?"
"If you're gonna fly don't go too high. The 'Welcoming Committee' will shoot you down. Blood Moon Nights are… not going to be fun. And unfortunately our best odds to survive will be to work with some of the Chaos Guilds."
"I don't like that…" I frowned. "Any other…hidden secret that might get us stuck here forever besides the Welcoming Committee having too much fire power?"
"Well, part of why we should work with them is because it keeps us off the Lust Guilds Free Range Hunters. Basically Lust makes all the Breeders on this planet, and anyone alone out there not in some way associated with one of the other Chaos Guilds, either through paying protections or working directly for them are free game to take and… yeah."
"Sweet Mother…" I rubbed my temples. "Ugh…this blows…"
"So, how do we manage that?" Diane asked.
"Money is one. If we can't pay in Rem then labor, or food, or whatever else they might ask in exchange for the protections. It depends on which Guild we contact or contacts us. Basically, whoever we end up with will make life easier or not." Nanny informed.
"Let's just hope we find one of the more…sensible one's here…" I sighed.
"Well, their might be some hope…" Nanny spoke up. "There are groups that work against the Chaos Guilds, and one of them thrives in this particular zone."
"What? A guild of Doom Slayers?" Casey asked.
Nanny nodded. "They're pretty secretive and selective of recruits, but they do help people and if they take a liking to you can offer you a chance to join their ranks."
"Well…that sounds both cool and worrying." I said honestly. "Suppose it's just gonna be random chance to find them if they're this secretive…"
"Being one of the few groups that fight against the Chaos Guilds, they have to be."
"Alright…" I sighed. "Just gotta last long enough to get settled and hopefully to find a…landlord…" I groaned.
"Have you ever met one?" Casey asked.
"Well, I did meet one. Not a Doom Marine but a member of the the SCP New Foundation."
"New Foundation?" I inquired.
"Back when this reality was made, organizations and groups had to either disband or rebuild how they operate. The SCP Foundation, having all their monsters and shit lost to the Mother of Monsters and such, they rebuilt what they could to try and recapture them. When Armageddon first appeared they willingly went and set up Headquarters in the majority of their SK-Class scenario zones. At first they focused solely on recapture and containment of their SCP monsters, but ended up also helping people who were stuck here, and after the Morgan Incident, began operations to fight against the Chaos Guilds with programs for trying to counteract or rehabilitate victims of the Breeder, Slave and Serf programming from the Chaos Guilds. They still capture and contain but aside from their Monsters they also capture and contain Chaos Guild Members. Thus the SCP New Foundation was born."
"That's fair…" I nodded. "At least we'll be getting a little more help if possible…but how have the kids been while we were gone?" I asked, wanting to know if they've all been okay while me and Jenny were out scavenging.
"They've been sleeping soundly thankfully." Diane said. "Warm blankets, warm milk and a soothing lullaby track and they've been napping all day. We'll have to fortify the nursery."
"We best also upgrade the ship. A mobile base is good and if we upgrade the engine to allow more room, water and an indoor farm we'll definitely survive better. It would best if we were able to move around but that also leads to trouble. Flying enemies, giant ones, or even risks of running across a chaos Guild… of course, staying parked also has issues, but if we upgrade the ship, make it much bigger on the inside and keep people inside we can better hide from enemies and chaos guilds."
"Both have there ups and downs, but hiding is a good thing at the moment." I said simply.
O
"Well, in that case best option is to use the area here to our advantage." Mom spoke up. "Find or dig a tunnel. Park the ship in there. Fortify the tunnel entrance. Ship has the ground around it, Nanny's barrier, and our fortifications."
"That is a good idea." Nanny said. "It will hide us better and make the ship much more fortified."
"Sounds like a plan." I nodded.
"Guess tomorrow Heather and I can search for that tunnel. If we can't find one we'll find a spot to make one." Jenny said.
"Alright, and hopefully if we do find one, it's not a monster spawner or at least if we do have to fight things in there they won't respawn…" I said carefully.
With a collective nod we all turned in early.
The next morning Jenny and I left to explore the mountains and Nanny and the rest stayed to see if they could merge my parents and Casey's parents home engines and such to boost the ships.
Every house has a special engine built in that give it the water, electricity, heating, and pocket dimension space technology among other things all in one.
Jenny and I rushed through the roads, taking out Demons as they came and looking around. Almost all the roads seemed to wrap around the side of the mountains. We did find a small dirt road that lead to the side of one of these mountains.
"Hm, well, it's hidden. Just gotta dig the tunnel." Jenny said. "Don't suppose you own any drill based weapons do you?"
"Well…" I hummed, looking through all my collected Greatswords and wondering if at least one of them was drill based cause there are a lot of weapons out there.
Let's see… chainsaw, cactus sword, pencil sword, Fire Gem Sword, Electronium Great sword, clown sword… why do I have that? Crap, come on, come on… ah, Drill Buster Great Sword. Perfect.
I put away Ol' Reliable and swapped to the Drill Buster. It was basically a giant long drill with a handle and small built in engine that ran on the wielders magic.
"Haven't used this puppy in a while, but it should be good for digging us a hole." I said, revving up the engine as the drill started to run smoothly.
I worked on making the tunnel. Not the first time I have used this to make a tunnel admittedly, but the first time in a long time.
A few demons appeared, being drawn by the noise and Jenny shot them down well enough. I stopped only to chug MP Potions before getting back to it.
"So far so good." I said, digging deeper into the ground. "It might take a few days depending on how big this cave needs to be…"
By sunset I managed to get the tunnel in the right shape and a food deep in. This is gonna take a while…
I sighed as I finally made the tunnel deep enough. It took two weeks but finally it was done. A hundred and twenty feet deep and a hundred feet around. Took forever and had a lot of large rocks to crush and move, but it's done.
We got the ship in and parked.
"Alright, good. We can recycle materials from vehicles, buildings, and we can make a small mine in here too. All that rock and dirt you dig out can help make a makeshift barricade for now." Nanny stated.
"Should someone still keep watch." Diane said.
"Right. Jenny, Heather, you two take a long rest. I'll keep watch tonight." Casey said.
"You sure hun?" I asked Casey worriedly, not wanting my trash panda to get hurt.
"You two spent two weeks working on this tunnel, and I want to help more. Nanny has been showing me how to shoot… a mounted gun…"
"It's not that hard." Nanny said.
I looked at Casey, my racoon/fox hybrid hubby…and hearing him use a gun in any capacity sounded wrong. "No…no that's wrong." I shook my head. "You holding a weapon in general is…is so foreign to me…" I said, trying to wrap my head around my pacifist lover, someone so innocent when it came to violence…
"We're in a foreign place sweetie… I'd rather learn to use a gun and use it than not and risk losing what we have left here, or any of you."
I sighed, knowing he had a point but…I didn't want my hubby to get involved in all the violence. "It's…gonna take some getting used to…"
"Don't worry Heather. I'm a good teacher, plus, it's mounted and there will be an alarm so should anyone or anything show up we'll all know." Nanny stated.
"And I'm always thankful that we found your Heartstone Nanny." I sighed.
"So, how's the map coming along?" Mom asked.
"Well, these mountains and that road stop and some of the roads are all we got now. How big are zones on this planet?"
"Could be several light-years… or several hundred. They vary." Nanny said with a sigh.
"Perfect…" I sighed. "So we're probably not going to be leaving this place anytime soon unless we magically find a portal system."
"Can we really live here?" Casey's mom asked.
"People do. It's not easy, but they manage." Nanny stated.
"I…really hope that we can manage." I sighed. "Things were going so well…"
"I think we'll make it." Casey said. "The house engine and such from our parents houses will let us make a large enough room for an indoor garden, we have a few seeds and plants we can prep for growing, water and power isn't a real issue. And once Nanny had her pups the three of you will be basically unstoppable out there when scavenging."
"Casey's right. And I do know some trustworthy people here that can give us a hand." Nanny said. "Contacting them might be an issue but if we find a decent enough Chaos Guild Member, it might be easier."
"So, we have a plan, we have the resources, and we thankfully have the time." I sighed. "Things…should be looking up."
"It's just gonna take some work." Diane nodded.
"A lot of it…" Dad sighed. "I do wonder what happened to the rest of Candlelight. Was it just us or were more people sent to this Mother forsaken place."
"I really hope Candlelight wasn't teleported here." I shook my head. "It's a nice simple town that doesn't deserve to be here."
"I guess time will tell. So, what's our plan for tomorrow?" Jenny asked.
"Map more of the area, mark locations down and loot more useful stuff. I have some communication equipment we can use so should you need it, you can contact me and I can see what's up." Nanny said.
"Well that will be useful. How far is the range?"
"Few thousand miles."
"Well, it's good to have something than nothing…" I said honestly.
"It will give us all a huge area of territory." Jenny stated.
"And hopefully we can find others through it." I said honestly. "Even if it's…unsavory for the most part…"
"Welp, let's get to work. Heather, Jenny, get some sleep, the rest of us will get to work." Nanny said.
Jenny and I did go to bed, but I wasn't sleeping well.
"Ugh…" I grumbled, tossing and turning as I couldn't help but think of everything that could go wrong here…if they could teleport all of us here out of the blue…what's to say they can't just kidnap one of us immediately? Or a powerful demon decides to bullrush us and get past Nanny's defenses? Or just the fact that Casey is using a gun!? My hubby with a gun does not compute! "Brain please, just let me sleep~..." I whined, flopping on my stomach and groaning loudly in the pillow.
I sat up, punching my pillow and looking over… only to see Jenny wasn't there. Hm?
Getting up I looked around and saw her in the armory, making bullets and loading magazines.
"Couldn't sleep?" She asked without looking back at me.
"No…" I shook my head. "I'm too anxious…thinking that so many thing's could go wrong…also my hubby is using a gun!" I whined. "That's the one thing…that I will never get over. There isn't a single violent bone in his body…"
"It's definitely gonna be different. I'll be amazed if Casey can shoot a gun." Jenny said, pressing another bullet and loading it into a magazine.
"Nanny said she's been teaching him how…" I said. "I'm still worried…if these bastards could teleport everything we have to this hell hole…then what's stopping them from kidnapping anyone of us?"
"Ideology maybe?" Jenny offered, pressing another bullet and loading it into the magazine. "But I know Nanny can teach him to shoot. Learning to shoot is easy. Having the will to pull the trigger, that's another thing entirely." She said, loading the magazine into a handgun and cocking it back. "That's something that no one can teach you but yourself."
"He's naturally a pacifist, he's the kindest person I know…if he thinks of a gun like a camera than maybe but…he wouldn't want to turn his passion, his dream, into just a cover up for the blood he has to spill for it…"
"... Is it wrong I'm thrilled?"
"About Casey using a gun or…being stuck in this hellhole?" I inquired.
"Both."
"I mean…that's fine I suppose." I said carefully. "I don't like either personally…everything was going so well…we were happy…"
"But I feel happy… here." Jenny said. "The long fights. The exhaustion. The constant sting and smell of gunsmoke on my hands. The blood staining my clothes. The sounds of the demons corpses hitting the ground with meaty thumps… it's all so… exciting for me." She admitted. "And seeing you, fighting, blood soaked and standing on the corpses of all those demons… I felt like I fell in love with you the same way I fell in love with Casey… and the idea of Casey being the same…" Jenny rubbed her temples. "I don't know why, but I feel so… excited to be here. Like I… belong here."
"Well…it might have something to do with you being a Ventral?" I inquired. "I don't know much about that but…I'm pretty sure it has something to do with it."
"I don't even know if that's what my last name is. Let alone if that has anything to do with my past. I remember nothing before getting out of that pod. But here I feel like it's more home than Candlelight did… and with you all here… I feel like it couldn't be better. I hate that that when I see you all, you're either terrified, concerned, miserable, or wishing you weren't here… I guess that makes me selfish. And probably crazy."
"I wouldn't call it selfish…crazy yes…but not selfish." I said carefully. "I'm sorry Jenny…I really wish things were better…"
"I know… and, honestly… I don't…" She admitted. "I enjoy this… more than I should. I look forward to waking up tomorrow and doing it all over again."
"Me waking up to my family is what keeps me going…" I said honestly. "The fight is fun and can be exciting, but…it was nice to be calm and happy with a simple life."
"... Yeah." Jenny sighed. "Get back to sleep. I'll be in bed in a bit."
I gave one last look to Jenny before leaving. Honestly I'm… not sure what to think. I thought the only people who could actually enjoy this place were people in the Chaos Guilds…
The next morning Jenny and I were heading out, hacking and shooting up Demons before reaching the road stop. We took a small break here to loot and Jenny wheeled out a motorcycle. It was sleek, a little dent, but looked good. "What do you think? Care for a ride on this classic baby?"
"That is a classic." I said, seeing the lightly dented chopper and thinking it would be fun. "Sure, let's have a ride, know how to drive a motorcycle?"
"Among other gas and petrol powered vehicles." She said, pulling out a small knife, jamming it into the key slot, then turning it. The bike roaring to life instantly. "Now that's the sound of a good engine." Jenny hopped on and I got on behind her, keeping my arms firmly around her as she drove.
We drove right past demons and road blocks.
"I'm keeping this thing!" Jenny said with glee.
"That's good." I smiled. "Got one good bit of transportation that's not the ship."
"Should get some more too. Best to have extras we can swap out in case one needs repairs or one gets destroyed." She said.
We rode down the road til we reached an exit leading into the ruined city.
Blood. Gore. Demons. Fire. Rubble. And pits of more fire, magma, and blood.
"Yeah that checks." Jenny shrugged, turning the motorcycle off and putting it in her Assistant. "Well, on the bright side Demon Meat is edible."
"And this time I can use Assimilate cause…I've kinda been ignoring that part." I said nervously.
"To be fair, what would that do for you when absorbing demons?"
"I don't know, but I might as well try." I said honestly. "I absorbed that spider and absorbed all it's abilities and the proportionate strength of one…which reminds me," I said, going into my skill tree and reactivating the strength to make this a whole lot easier. "So, best I can assume for some of these demon's is heat resistance, claws, and probably a tougher hide."
"Fair." Jenny shrugged as we went into the first building. It looked like it was once an office and looking around there wasn't much aside from demons and ruined computers and office supplies.
Clearing out the demons was easy, and looting the place revealed, well, office supplies.
"Alright, simple office supplies can at least do some good." I said, grabbing an Imp's corpse and trying to use Assimilate on it just to see if it works.
It didn't give me much. Some heat resistant and stronger, sharper teeth and talons, but that's it.
"Hey! Heat Resistance!" I laughed happily. "Your days are numbered ya sun riding greek bastard."
"You and your everlasting rivalry with heat and or the sun." Jenny chuckled as she packed Desks, Large Printer, and ECT into her Assistant. "Well, not sure but maybe we can scrap and recycle the materials into something useful."
"Hey, gotta have some normalcy in this hellhole." I chuckled. "But I'm sure we could do something with all the materials, Assistant's do have a crafting table in them thankfully."
"Yeah. Well, so far so-"
Bang!
I ducked as Jenny shot off her guns, a splash of warm blood hitting me.
I turned to see a partly cloaked cyber Imp Demon collapse, a hole where it's face used to be.
"Cloaking?" I frowned, grabbing the Imp's corpse and trying to Assimilate the robo demon just to see if I could as I haven't tested it with inorganic material. "This is going to be even tougher if we're facing cyber demon's already…"
"Definitely different to see Imps with mechanical augments and such." Jenny said, picking up one of the bits of gore and electronics and looking it over. "Think these are naturally spawning or did someone make them?"
"No idea…" I frowned. "This is gonna get really complicated with all the cloaking…"
"It should only really be an issue at night. Or dark areas, otherwise we can see the shimmering crap just fine." Jenny shrugged.
"Yeah, that's fair." I said, seeing that I couldn't Assimilate the more robotic parts of the imp. "Well, good to know I can't Assimilate inorganic materials."
"Well, either way, the fact you can fuse with people with that ability had use all their abilities is impressive enough. Guess there has to be some limits even to Legendary Abilities."
"Yeah that's fair." I nodded. "But hey, what I could take, still means more Heat Resistance…the bane of my existence…"
We cleared out the office building fast and jumped from the roof to the next building. This one was also an office building but the roof here had some large helicopters and military looking stuff there.
Jenny and I found a wrecked, more modern helicopter running off an old Electronium Engine, and some old fashioned Energy Cannons also running off of old model Electronium Batteries. They seemed to work, or at least didn't look that bad aside the dust and a few dents. We put them all inside the Assistants and found something interesting. A portable broadcast set up.
"Hmm." Jenny hummed, pulling out the communicator Nanny gave us. "Hey Nanny, we found something. A portable broadcast set up among some older tech here."
"Does it look to be placed there or naturally spawned?"
I looked to where it was a little more closely. "It was put here…" I frowned. "Not sure how long ago as dust was just forming around it but…someone's here…"
"Alright, turn it on and speak into it. If it was placed there then that means someone wants to talk to whoever found it. Whether that's someone else or us, you're about to find out."
"Goodie…" I muttered, carefully turning on the thing. "Hello? Can you hear me?"
There was silence for a while before eventually a voice came through. "So, rumors were true." The voice that spoke was young, maybe… a young boy's voice. "How long have you been stuck here?"
"Little over Two Weeks." I said carefully. "Who are you?"
"Call me Carver. Two weeks, yeah, the timeline adds up. I'm assuming you all just appeared here, didn't come here looking to try and prove some ego or thinking you could freely loot and get rich quick?"
"Some jackass teleported me and my entire family, houses and all, to this Mother forsaken rock." I stated. "We were happy, we were doing fine…then all of a sudden, poof, mid way through the day and we're here."
"Yeah, shit means the rumors were true. Well, bad news is you weren't the only ones sent here. Rumors and word through the grape vines say a lot more folks have been waking up all over the planet, claiming they just were here. Means Nexus actually is sending people here now rather than having their Welcoming Committee keep them here."
"That's…that's not good at all." I said worriedly. "Great, now instead of just minding their own business, they're now harvesting people for their sick enjoyment…"
"I wouldn't think much about it. Trying to figure out what goes through those assholes heads is like hitting a brick wall with a pillow. Sorry to say that you're stuck here but the good news is you're in the Hell's Invasion Zone meaning you're in Doom Slayer Territory."
"Yes, and there's a lot of these bastards, and while it's fun…there's a little too many." I said honestly.
"Well that's not going to change so get used to it."
"Yeah…so where are you?" I inquired. "You seem to know plenty on where we are, you in some hiding place we shouldn't know about or just somewhere random?"
"I'm a quarter hundred thousand miles south of you dealing with shit here. Lucky for you I have caches all around the place so if you need stuff, take some just try not to take everything. I do need bullets and such myself too when I'm in the area."
"That's fair." I nodded. "And we'll try to resupply it when we have the time and resources if we do grab from the caches."
"That's all I ask. Now, I imagine you're gonna be focusing on building a safe place to keep your family from dealing with the demons and the hell raids and such. But I imagine your main priority right now is going to be food."
"Yes, we thankfully have a start with a garden and some seeds but…gonna be rough if we don't find more, daily raids to the city might get more difficult just for the supplies alone…"
"Well lucky for you I keep seeds and cloning pods for animals in a few of my cashes. Part of a little 'Settlement Starter Pack' should anyone try and make one here. Unfortunately I keep them in some naturally guarded locations. Rather not have a wandering Chaos asswipe take it easily."
"That's fair." I nodded. "Gonna have to do some searching for that…have you seen anyone else like us that's been either teleported or…held hostage here?"
"Not in this zone no. So far you're the only people in my stationed zone who have contacted me. My guess is Nexus wanted you all spread across the planet. Why, don't know and probably won't ever know. I'll try and meet up with you all at some point but that's gonna be a while from now."
"Best to take your time when getting here." I said simply. "Don't want ya rushing when in this place."
"What do you mean stationed zones?" Jenny asked.
"Isn't it obvious? You're in Doom Slayer Territory, and I'm the slayer stationed here." Carver replied.
"You sound… kind of young to be a slayer."
"Yeah…" I said carefully. "How old are you? And…how long have you been here?"
"Fourteen, and I've been here for four years."
I blinked. "That's…wow…" I muttered. "That's…impressive and…incredibly sad…"
"Maybe to you, but to me that's just part of being a Slayer when you're born to it. If you got kids in that family of yours you best teach them to fight young."
I shook my head. "That's not something I'd like to do…but sadly we'll have to…" I grumbled. "Is there any way for us to…contact any other Slayers? I'm sure some of them are…an acquaintance to one of my girlfriends." I said, not sure if I should say specific names due to the line being monitored by someone else.
"It's one slayer per zone. I can contact them but I'll have to meet whoever it is you're talking about before contacting the Brothers and Sisters."
"That's fair." I nodded. "Also sorry for being a bit vague on details, not sure if any undesirables are…listening in all things considered…"
"If they are I'll kill them. Take the equipment with you if you need to or want to contact me again. A chip under the mic is loaded with one of the Caches you'll need for setting up your settlement, and ten where some weapons, ammo and general supplies are kept. I'll contact you when I'm headed back to your area. Carver out." With that the signal was cut.
"Well… guess we have an ally. That's good."
"Yes, it's good." I nodded. "Though…it's depressing that someone so young is a Doom Slayer and having to deal with all this shit…"
"He said he was born to it, it's probably all he's ever known." Jenny said, putting the broadcast equipment into her Assistant. "Odds are… it's gonna be the same for the kids…"
I punched a whole through a wall. "Yes…I know…" I said carefully, pulling my hand out of it as I took a deep breath, trying to get myself under control.