May 13th 2016, STAR Labs, Taos, New Mexico, 2:00 P.M EDT

"I hate the desert." Grumbled Barbie as we stood waiting near the STAR Labs building in New Mexico. "Sand gets everywhere. It's not even fun and splashy like the beach. It serves no purpose except being hot and uncomfortable and full of shitty venomous animals and hard scaly things."

Rolling my eyes, I snickered at my redhead. "You're a literal goddess now. You're supposed to be above petty nonsense like being annoyed about sand. Besides, the beach is not 'fun and splashy', it borders the ocean, which is a bottomless shithole full of horrible monsters that have nothing but hatred for the land and all its creatures."

"Well, as long as you can be objective about it." She said sarcastically. "There are a ton of fun things to do on the ocean, though. In the desert you can't do anything except suffer."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "We aren't having this argument again. If you go too deep into the ocean the pressure will crush you. I can't think of a clearer way for something to express how shitty it is than killing people just for existing."

She held up both hands. "Fine, I forgot how worked up you get about this. The ocean sucks more than the desert, whatever. I'd rather not be here anyway though. Why didn't we bring anyone else on this little errand?"

"Because I don't want to have to kill any Leaguers if they show up." I said honestly. "If one of your super puppet pals takes a shot at any of my girls I'll have to break my foot off in their ass. YOU on the other hand, were Batgirl. They're more likely to hear you out. It should cut down on any…misunderstandings."

I was of two minds about the whole 'Justice League' thing. Objectively, I knew that I could PROBABLY wipe them out, assuming my girls wouldn't be heartbroken, but I also knew they had an annoying tendency to pull a win out of their asses.

"Why not bring Dinah?" She asked nervously. "Or Zee?" I could tell the idea of seeing one of her old teammates was uncomfortable for her. She'd left that life behind, but she still cared what they thought about her.

I got that, but it wasn't going to change how I handled things. For several reasons I was willing to go to lengths to keep the JL's antipathy towards me…minimal, at least. But I'd do it my own way. "Because Dinah is heavily pregnant, and Zee worked with the League but wasn't really ever…inner circle. Not like you were."

"But can't we just go up and tell them the Reach is coming?" She said anxiously. "Waiting and stepping in last minute seems…wrong. Someone could get hurt."

Putting a hand on her shoulder, I smiled down at her. "Hey, just because the League is involved again doesn't mean things are different. Being back in your old wheelhouse is fine, but don't forget what we've been through. You've followed me through worse than this. Remember how you feel about me."

She seemed to deflate slightly. "You're right." She said with a relieved smile. "I love you, and I trust you. If you say you'll make sure everything is ok, then you will."

"You bet your cute little ass I will." I said with a wink. "Now just sit tight. We can step in as soon as whoever the Reach is sending comes for the robot parts. Also we can steal the robot parts if possible. I kind of want them." At her glare I put my hands up. "Or we can leave them. Whatever. I guess I don't need parts from a broken android anyway."

My need for points was less pressing at the current moment, since I was already at A rank and wasn't planning to hit S through the system. Though I did need to get in touch with someone special to help me improve my karmic magic. Besides, I could and would steal whatever tech the Reach used when they showed up, which since it was universe level had to be a ton.

As we watched, I was surprised to see a small group of people slip out of the place unnoticed. Teenagers like us, though much less powerful. A quick appraisal gave me names and abilities. They were metahumans the Reach had activated, the League had stashed them at STAR Labs for testing.

I caught Barbie up on the details, and she looked troubled. "Should we…get them back? They might need help."

"Not our problem." I said bluntly. "They'll be objectively safer running around than sitting in THERE when the dicks start swinging. The League can get them back later if they need them, but involving them in this mess is bound to make their situation worse."

She nodded slowly, begrudgingly letting them run off and we sat, still and waiting. I'd erected a bit of spellwork around us, using the threads to offset all traces of our presence to a distant location, effectively displacing our images and sounds and making us undetectable. "This is boring." I finally said after twenty minutes of silence.

Barbie giggled. "Steakouts are a skill that has to be cultivated over time. They're the worst possible blend of exciting and boring, and being keyed up the whole time will drive you crazy, while not paying attention means you miss things."

"You realize you just said nothing that affects my situation or mood at all?" I said acidly. "I KNOW how I'm feeling right now, I just don't know what to do about it. Can't you suck my dick or something?"

She gave me a naughty smirk, fluttering her lashes at me. "Any time daddy, all you have to do is ask." Her smile dropped and she shrugged. "But I don't think you want me to right now. Boring as this is, I doubt it'll help us fend off the reach to get caught with our literal pants down."

I sighed. "You're not wrong. I suppose we wait. You could at least entertain me. Maybe I can watch you twerk. Wanna shake that sweet little ass?"

"I think we both know where that would end up." She giggled. "But put a pin in that for later. I'd be happy to give you a show another time. Speaking of which, did you really Brand Jenny? What are you going to use her for?"

"I'm sure you can guess." I snickered. "But aside from the obvious, I think she'd make a good nurse maid. I like the coloring as well as the size. Green Eggs and Ham for babies. Green Bouncy Cans. I'm gonna upgrade her so they're extra delicious and full of nutrients. Might even have her for breakfast sometimes myself."

She grimaced. "Right, I think you mentioned that at some point. Your brain disturbs me at times." She glanced away, flushing slightly. "I might want to try that though. Just out of curiosity."

I was about to tease her a bit about that, but my head snapped up as I saw a shift in the karmic threads around us. "Incoming." I snapped, shifting into my hybrid form to prepare for…whatever was coming. My senses were picking up a threat, but nothing too specific.

Which made more sense as it approached, and I realized it was a fucking robot, which meant karmically it was a bit light on identifiers. More of an object than a person, though there was some element of both.

"Now?" Barbie asked worriedly, glancing at the incoming form. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. It was B rank, so she could take it, but it seemed so odd to only send one person to retrieve the robot parts.

"Go." I said at last. "You can handle him. I'll wait back and step in if need be. It might buy some good will. Remember your powers though. We don't need you getting in trouble for murder death killing a robot, even if that shouldn't be possible."

Rolling her eyes at my Demolition Man reference, she strode purposefully out onto the sand ahead of us, leaving the range of my spell and becoming noticeable. Of course, she was still a tiny redhead, and the robot didn't have divinity sensors, so it took a minute for him to home in on her.

Raising a hand, Barbie pulled back hard arm and swung, shadowy claws manifesting from a batlike shadow behind her as they soared toward the machine.

The thing reached down, gesturing up toward the claws, and a pillar of fucking magma erupted from the ground, intercepting the attack. This 'Red Volcano' had been rebuilt better than ever according to the appraisal, and whatever upgrades it had gotten clearly helped. Barbie had the strength of a major deity.

Specifically, the thing was using Reach tech now, which was interesting. I could take it back to…I guess whoever knew tech in my place, to study. I hadn't recruited a wrench wench specifically. I might need to look into that.

Barbie screamed in rage, vanishing into darkness and appearing behind the robot silently, throwing herself on its back. The metal began to shift and warp in a strange way, allowing it to reshape itself as it turned its head all the way around and wrapped itself around my redhead like a boa constrictor.

She flickered and vanished, appearing on the ground again looking annoyed. I was worried it might be too much for her, when I realized she was also holding something. An arm, as it turned out. She hefted it up over her shoulder like a baseball bat and glared up at the monster.

To help with the whole 'ally' impression, she'd worn her batgirl outfit. I was enjoying the view of her tightly muscled ass in the dark spandex quite a bit, and I was having flashbacks to getting my dick sucked while she wore that mask. The arm really added to the formidability of the pose, as did her small but billowy cape.

"I heard you Reach guys were looking for something around here." She said snidely. "I don't think you're likely to find it. Why don't you try back another day."

The robot hovered in the air, impassive face aimed down at her. "Remove yourself human. Should you continue to impede my mission, your end will come swiftly and without mercy. Your attempts at heroism are pathetic."

Barbie clicked her teeth, shaking her head sadly. "Always the same old song. Nobody ever has anything original to say. Come on then soda can. Let's see what you've got." She took up a position with the arm held like a weapon, ready to attack.

There was a loud hum of approaching jets from STAR Labs, and I turned to see a blue armored form approaching.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Blue Beetle- B ranked superhero. Recipient of a powerful Reach Scarab, Blue Beetle, also known as Jaime Reyes, is a protector of earth. With his Reach Scarab 'off mode' and damaged, he doesn't wield the full power of one of the Reach's beetle warriors, though he is still formidable.]

Interesting. I hadn't realized Blue Beetle wasn't a proper representation of his kind. The Reach were universal threats, and all because of the Scarabs, so it made some sense. As he flew closer, he spotted Barbie and stopped, hovering in the air. "Holy shit, Batgirl?" He said in a stunned tone. "I didn't know you were active anymore, or that you were strong enough to do THAT." He pointed to the arm.

Barbie gave him a cheery wave. "Nice to see you Beetle. I'm a bit tougher than I used to be." Her smile fell as she glanced off into the distance. "Not that it'll help us much if those are what I think they are." She pointed off into the distance where a pair of other colorful forms approached. I grinned. Good. The Reach had taken the bait.

May 13th 2016, STAR Labs, Taos, New Mexico, 5:00 P.M EDT

I wasted no time appraising the incoming beetles. Black, red, and purple. Two Bs and an A. Apparently there were multiple types of scarab. The Black scarab was a warrior, while Blue was a scout and Red was a production unit. Purple was apparently a research type of some sort, but even the basic bitch scarabs had serious combat juice.

Barbie had been filling me in on the Reach as she got up to date, and I wasn't shocked the bastards had tech like this. The Reach was an intergalactic empire spanning whole sectors of space, a force the the entire Green Lantern corps considered a peer. Their firepower was more than enough to hang with several pantheons of gods.

The Scarab, in fact, was rumored to be something akin to the ultimate weapon, a device on par with green lantern rings, and a marvel of engineering that made the weak, buglike Reach an apex player in the galaxy.

I wanted to intercept, but I decided I should wait. These assholes looked talky, and I was betting they would spill some dirt on the Reach's plans. Too much information never hurt. Reaching into my pouch, I slipped out a small, carved figurine. It was an expansion on my simulacrum, but this one was carved into a bat shape. A lock of red hair was tied around it.

Winding the karmic threads from someone else around one of my scales would have been impossible before I hit A rank, but after I became a dragon god, I picked up some new tricks. Karmic consumption wasn't just eating and digesting, I could take bits of karma from people and preserve them now too.

My limits for that kind of thing were pretty strict, I had no real expertise with my new powers, but Barbie was mine, body and soul. My own threads were woven through her so thoroughly I'd been able to take a VERY small sliver of her karma. Enough to create a simulacrum link with the scale I stored it in after I removed it and carved it into a figurine.

This was my insurance for bringing Barbie. It would take one otherwise fatal attack, keeping her safe on the very slim chance I wasn't fast enough to react. My normal laissez-faire attitude about combat was much less tenable against a threat like the reach. I had to be careful with my girls.

Barbie circled over to Blue Beetle taking up a post next to the kid. I knew she'd worry about him more than herself. I was going to tan her ass when we got home. Dumb slut risking my things for some baby hero. Her pretty little head wasn't hers to lose. Still, it wasn't a shock, that was why I'd come with her.

"Meat." Boomed the Black Beetle in a voice so deep it was barely discernible. "Surrender the technology and leave with your life. Failure to comply will be met with…retaliation." He all but licked his lips as he stared down at her.

My hands flexed, claws digging into my scaled palms. This motherfucker. I waited though. Barbie was a genius, and more than smart enough to know that if I hadn't made a move, I had a reason. She would draw the information out of him, and then I would draw his fucking spine out of him and whip him to death with it.

"Who are you?" She called fearlessly. "This is sovereign US territory. We don't recognize any authority but the US government and in some cases the United Nations. Identify yourselves."

They probably wouldn't. The Reach was playing friendly aliens with Lex Luthor still. These guys would give their bosses plausible deniability.

The big warrior boomed. "You dare to question us meat? We've come for the technology. Surrendering it is your only chance to survive. We don't fear your United Nation. Without the Justice League they're harmless."

Blue Beetle sneered at him. "Hey, I'm right here asshole. The Justice League is right in front of you."

For a beetle warrior with no eyebrows, the Black Beetle conveyed contempt really well. "An off mode scout model. Damaged at that. Not even operating at peak capacity. Ever were there ten of you I would render you into scrap with no effort. Even the workers I brought as witness could destroy you."

"Why do you need this thing?" Asked Barbie, trying to get his attention back on her. "And why now?"

"Because." Snickered the dark warrior. "Soon there will be no planet left to scavenge."

Barbie's eyes narrowed at that, and to my surprise, she didn't wait and ask more. She vanished, appearing behind him wielding a dagger coated in pure darkness. I'd been rubbing off on her. I was so proud. No wheeling, no dealing, see the threat and take it out. My girl didn't fuck around.

To my shock, a pair of arms burst from the back of the Black Beetle, one grabbing her wrist and the other slamming through the center of her chest.

I was across the desert and smashing the black scarab user from the air almost before the punch even landed. Almost. Not quite fast enough though, not at that range. The simulacrum I'd dropped as I moved shattered in midair, and I was left floating in midair in front of Barbie, holding the disembodied arm I'd ripped off at the shoulder when I linebacked the bastard away from her, its hand still clutching her dagger wielding wrist.

Squeezing the arm, I heard the dark material of the scarab creak before the hand released her wrist. I swung the arm, releasing the limb and letting it smash into the red scarab, smashing it into the mesa a few miles behind it.

"Oh get up." I growled down at the dark warrior, who was lying motionless on the ground. "If it were that easy to kill you your body wouldn't have survived my tackle."

A low chuckle rang out as the massive creature rose to its feet from the end of the long furrow its descent had left along the ground. Its armor was cracked in several places where my scales had shattered the material, obviously harder the the advanced weapon system. As I watched though, the armor knitted back together, extending from the shoulder to form a new arm as it did so.

"That." Said the monster gleefully. "Was almost adequate. To think this pitiful world has a champion such as you. With the male kryptonian lured away, I assumed none could match my power."

"Yeah well, you know what they say about assuming. It makes me rip your ass off." I paused. "Or something like that. I don't really listen to cutest colloquialisms. Regardless, I'm going to pull your head off and bring it along next taco tuesday to use as a portable toilet. How fucking DARE you put your hands on my girl?"

I was ANGRY. Not annoyed, not irritated. I was fucking livid. That punch would have killed my Barbie if I hadn't taken precautions. He'd put his disgusting alien bug hand on her WRIST. No one touched a dragon's treasure and lived to tell the tale.

"Your attack was amusing." He snickered. "But you'll need to do better than that to-" He was cut off as I opened my mouth and unleashed a horrible beam of karmic darkness at him. A torrent of disgusting corrupted fortune congealed into a pillar of the darkest curses imaginable smashed into him head on.

The alien's eyes widened as he was driven back through the sand, shoved away for a fucking mile before he managed to endure the attack.

When the smoke cleared, his armor had been corroded, ripped away leaving raw pulsing meat across his front. He looked dazed even as the thing repaired itself, staring up at me in undisguised shock.

I was the Dragon God of Karmic Consumption. My powers over Karma had advanced tremendously. My breath didn't just expel pure karmic energy, I could invert it too. I could unleash horrifying storms of bad karma that would massively increase the karmic burden on anything it struck, not to mention do serious damage in the process.

The Black Beetle already had plenty of bad karma hanging around him. This asshole had killed entire fucking PLANETS. When my karmic breath hit him, it had ignited some of his own accumulation of bad karma, augmenting the destructive power of my cursed breath.

"You…you DARE?" He roared. Along his whole body, a series of cannons, large small, and everywhere inbetween rose up, turning him into a walking armory, every single one of the weapons warped and flowed together, and when he was done I saw him wielding a massive cannon as wide around as he was tall, the inside glowing with blue white light.

He launched his attack, and I blurred forward, my body morphing into my hundred foot dragon form as I opened my mouth and swallowed the whole fucking blast.

I closed my jaws, glaring down at him with smoke curling off the sides of my mouth, and then DOVE right at him. My massive draconic body hit him full force, bearing him down to the ground, and my clawed feet dug into his arms, pinning him down.

My head snapped down, jaws clamping onto him, and I felt the armor morph, sharp spikes trying to drive away my jaws, but I ignored them. I BIT, crunching down hard, squeezing with as much force as I could manage. I felt the armor groan and the spiked increase in frequency and sharpness.

I bit harder. The groan of the material got louder. Beyond it I could hear screaming, Barbie had hit the purple one while it was distracted and her conceptual death powers had actually KILLED its scarab. The red one was fighting Blue Beetle, but I didn't care. They were fine so I didn't need to worry about that.

With a snarling tear I RIPPED the front of Black Beetle's chestplate right off his body, my head snapping right back down and my teeth crunching down on his torse, ripping out organs and crushing his squishy alien meat body. I savaged him. Ripped and tore and snapped and shredded his fucking flush with my jaws until he was so dead even the scarab realized it was pointless to keep trying to fix him.

"Nicky!" I heard a scream from next to me, and my head snapped up, jaws wet with alien blood as I glared down at the intruder. She looked back cautiously. "I think he's dead." She said gently. "You can stop."

In the blink of an eye I was human again, stepping forward to grab her, yanking her body against mine as I buried my still bloody face in her neck. I was growling, but I didn't care. A long, deep breath of her scent helped me calm down.

I pulled back, grinning at her "Huh, apparently seeing some alien fuck try to murder you is a bit of a trigger for me." Something about him being an A ranker made this more…real than most people who fucked with me. This was a fight at the top of the universe. I COULD lose one of them.

She winced, looking back at Blue Beetle, who was thankfully distracted trying to subdue the red one. The purple was alive but useless without its scarab. Speaking of which, I walked over to the dark warrior's savaged corpse, reached down, and grabbed the scarab. With my other hand I wrapped its karmic ties around my hand and tore them out of the body, consuming them on the spot.

The scarab didn't immediately start up, but I was confident I could jailbreak it. Fucking alien nerds, magic always beats tech. I stuffed it in my pouch, enjoying the fucking BILLION points I felt flooding into me. "Now." I said calmly. "Let's go question yours. Mine doesn't seem so talky anymore." I grimaced as we walked over, extending a claw as I reached into my mouth. Fucking beetle stuck in my teeth. Next time I'd bring floss.

May 13th 2016, STAR Labs, Taos, New Mexico, 6:00 P.M EDT

Once I'd taken the Black Scarab from the corpse of the warrior beetle, the rest of the body decomposed pretty quickly. I may or may not have helped slightly with my magic, but by the time Barbie finished helping Blue Beetle out with the red one and I pried off its scarab (one billion one hundred ninety one million points, my trip had been a huge success) the corpse was long gone.

As we finished up, we were joined by another Scarab warrior, this one green. He landed frantically, looking around in worry, but when he saw Blue he seemed to calm down. "My friend." He said in relief. "I feared The Reach had taken you once again, are you injured?"

Raising an eyebrow, I appraised him. Barzz'oom, martian and…B rank infiltrator. Interesting. I didn't say anything yet, knowing about a spy was always more useful when the spy thought they were safe. I'd tell Barbie about it after we left, assuming the asshole didn't try anything in front of us.

He glanced down at the shuddering body of purple, who seemed a bit traumatized by the death of its partner while they were still connected. Barbie's conceptual death powers were apparently far less gentle than my own when it came to stealing connections.

The green one looked a little sick at what was left of the purple, and I smiled at him toothily. "We'll take care of that one. We can make sure he gets proper treatment." It wasn't even entirely a lie. I figured I'd let Ingrid have a crack at this guy, see if she could repair his shattered psyche after we questioned him.

He looked unhappy with the idea, which made sense since he was a fucking spy and we were taking an information source, but he was ALSO smart enough not to start a fight, having seen us take the others down and probably having seen me eat the black beetle.

Blue seemed oblivious to the whole thing. To my surprise, he didn't look excited or pleased. He looked troubled. He was staring at his hands in concern. Glancing up at the green one, he swallowed hard. "Can you…help me turn it off? The scarab just won't work with me. He resists me all the time. It almost got me killed out there."

The green one smiled kindly. "Of course, my friend. I'd be glad to help. Once our friends here leave, we can retire somewhere private for the reboot."

Glancing at Barbie, I frowned, unable to communicate while the beetle was here. I wanted to warn her without spoiling our advantage. Internally I shrugged. Blue wouldn't be tough for me to subdue, and if I could take the scarab from the black and red ones, it wouldn't be hard to fix whatever green did.

One of the downsides to the machines and their absurd modularity seemed to be that they were more easily affected by my kind of magic. I wasn't sure it was even possible to reprogram a normal device with karma, but the beetles could be anything and everything. Their consciousness was so advanced it might as well be a soul.

We talked to them for a while, making nice as Barbie proudly checked on the android parts and made sure they were ok. Once we made sure they weren't sending any more beetles, we headed out. I said my goodbyes to both, patting Green on the shoulder and squeezing as I gave him a meaningful look.

"That guy is a plant." I said as we left. "The green guy. He's with The Reach." I expected Barbie to snap and get mad at me for keeping it secret, but she just nodded.

"I kind of got a vibe. One of my new powers is to sense killing intent, and I could tell he wanted to kill you." She smirked at me. "Of course, he couldn't have come close, and I think he saw what you did to the black beetle, so he swallowed it, but the bloodlust was there."

I chuckled at that. "And you didn't feel the need to warn him? Who knows what they could do to poor Blue."

"It's too soon to tip them." She said sadly. "Green could lead us to the main Reach force. I assume you have some method of tracking him, and that you aren't just letting the kid run off on his own for nothing?"

Reaching into my pouch, I pulled out a scale. This one had been filed down to a smooth mirror finish, and I held it up with a grin. Waving a hand over it, an image appeared on the surface, of an excited Blue Beetle. "Karmic scrying. Got the idea from our little hide and seek trick while we were waiting. Just needed a target to test it out."

My shoulder squeeze on Green hadn't just been a threat. I'd been using my karmic consumption abilities to sever one of his ties to the scarab and affix it to the scale.

Barbie picked it up, looking solemnly at Blue through the scale. "Well, like I said. We need to know what the reach has planned. We can question this idiot." She smacked the whimpering prisoner. "But I think I broke him when I killed the scarab, and we don't have time for brain fixing."

"We'll head home." I said firmly. "Maybe one of the girls can fix him. Just keep an eye on the scale, I can fly us back to Brightedge."

With that, I shifted into my smallest dragon form, letting her climb aboard and tie down the prisoner before taking off, heading home. I had a bad feeling about all this. Something about the way the Reach was acting. That warrior beetle had seemed much too smug when he began, and while when I was killing him he was terrified, I'd sensed a kind of…acceptance.

Being the Dragon God of Karmic Consumption gave me an insight into the patterns of fate. My instincts for important events were enhanced greatly, and I had a pit in my stomach that something bad was coming. Something even I was going to have trouble dealing with. The scarab had been a godsend honestly, because it gave me the option of ranking up one of my girls to A, providing me a new ally to deal with…whatever was bothering me.

Arriving home, I had Barbie take Purple to see Ingrid. I'd considered trying some karmic shit to view memories or something, but I'd never done that before, or anything much like it, and practicing on a mentally damaged trauma survivor who just had part of his personality killed (or something) seemed like a bad place to start.

Barbie was keeping eyes on Green, so I decided to take a break while the others handled things and check in on my girls.

I found Dinah sitting with Whisper and Amy in the kitchen, sipping hot chocolate from the smell of it, and filling my bright eyed wifey in on what to expect when she was expecting. "Sleeping through the night is out." Said Dinah sadly. "You'll be up needing to pee at least once an hour. Your back will hurt, your joints will swell, and morning sickness should be against the geneva convention."

"You know." I said as I pulled out a chair to sit down. "If you were in pain you could have asked me to whip up something to help with that stuff. I can create things from thin air, AND make sure they're baby safe."

Dinah blinked at me as I sat down. "Nicky. You're back. That's good. We were just…well you heard what we were doing."

Whisper smiled sweetly at me. "We're just venting. It's not too bad. The girls have been helping us out, Leslie and I have gotten so very close. She made me this hot chocolate actually." She held it up happily.

Dinah seemed pleased. "Yes, Whisper has been taking an interest in them. She's been much more…coherent lately. I heard she talked to you, and I was glad she was doing so well." She gave the redhead a teasing smile. "Though she's still my little garden snake where it counts."

Seeing the former crime cult recruiter blush was a treat, but I had other things on my mind. "Seriously though. Why not ask me for some meds or something?"

Sighing heavily, Dinah gave me a soft smile. "This…being here for us. It doesn't come naturally for you. We see how hard you're trying to be affectionate, to work on that kind of thing with Ingrid. Expecting you to process all that AND deal with us being bloated and hormonal seemed like too much." She shrugged. "We didn't want to spook you."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not a horse, Dinah. I don't spook. You're carrying my kids. I want to be there and help. I want to make sure the babies grow safe and sound." Then I shrugged. "Plus if it gets too gross I can always just bail for a while. It's not an all or nothing thing. I'll try to help with the symptoms, though I'll probably leave the tits like they are. I'm loving the mommy milkers."

She looked down at her particularly abundant cleavage, rolling her eyes. "I'm sure. But it's sweet you want to help. I'll make a list of things that might help, you can look it over. Not that I'm sure Amy will even have any of it."

My wife shrugged. "Our baby is a dragon whelp, so who knows how it'll be born. I'm pretty excited to meet him though." She smiled softly, putting a hand on her stomach. "Our little guy is going to be so special."

"It's…" I blanked for a minute. "He's a boy?" I said nervously. My throat felt weirdly dry. "You can already tell?"

She beamed. "A mother just knows." I decided not to point out that she'd been a mother for all of two days, and that my other two baby mamas were five months deep into pregnancy and had no clue what the sex of their babies was, partly because I tried to humor my wife when it didn't inconvenience me, and partly because it sounded like exactly the kind of fate thread bullshit she might be able to pull out of her ass because of her draconic powers.

Looking at the three of them, I felt that same protective rage from earlier kindle in my gut. These were MINE. They belonged to me. Whatever was coming might be a threat to the earth, but it was also a threat to my girls, and I wasn't letting anything touch them.

If The Reach was planning something that might hurt my women or any of my future kids, I'd do the same fucking thing to the rest of them I'd done to Black Beetle. I'd crack open their bullshit armor shell and much their fucking alien flesh down like I was munching peanuts.

Amy seemed to notice my mood, and she reached out to take my hand, squeezing it and smiling at me warmly. "Hey, don't worry. I'm here, and I can keep them safe if anything happens. I'm pretty strong, you know." She winked at me, and it was hard not to be charmed.

I leaned in, stealing a kiss from her, and then planted one on Whisper and Dinah just to be fair (and if my hand ended up on Whisper's magnificent rump or Dinah's fat tits then it was only reasonable). Sadly I had other things to do, so I couldn't drag them all up to bed and fuck them senseless.

I headed for Ingrid's office to check in on what condition Purple was in. If it was too bad I'd wait for Barbie to get something from the scale, but either way, I wanted a lead as soon as possible. I didn't want to play defense here. Something was coming, and I wanted to find out what as soon as possible.

May 23rd 2016 , Philippine Sea, Earth, 6:00 P.M EDT

Stepping out onto the slick rocks of the shoreline, I grimaced in annoyance as I was forced to let my wings spread behind me to stop myself from sliding into the water. "I fucking hate the ocean." I growled in annoyance.

Raven chuckled lightly. "I know, but this place is where all the clues we've managed to gather have led us. My read of the prisoner, Barbara's surveillance. All leads point to the Reach's beachhead being here, so to speak. I was surprised you asked me along, one of the others might have been better suited to a mission like this."

I shook my head, tearing my gaze away from my goth's hard nipples. That hadn't been my main reason for bringing her, but the view didn't hurt. "Barbie and Donna need to stay back to guard the girls, Waylon is watching his own kid and playing backup, Amy is pregnant and I'm not risking her, and I've got Zee digging for traces of the Reach having been here before. She recognized some of the symbols on the Black Scarab and thinks she might be able to find some way to neutralize them."

Which seemed important. I could kill one of those fuckers, but the Reach was a HUGE empire. I wasn't earth's only A ranker, granted, but that didn't mean we had them by the dozens.

She noticed my gaze and rolled her eyes. "I'm sure that was your entire reasoning." I reached out in a blur and slapped a meaty ass cheek, earning an undignified squeak from my demoness as she floated out of reach rubbing her reddening rump.

"Don't run your mouth when we're on a mission." I said sternly. "Or I might put it to better use relieving my irritation. Those fat tits of yours are mine, and if I want to stare you'll thank and pop them out of your top."

I saw a flash of red in her eyes, the slutty demonkin under my repressed emotionless goth, but she buried it. "Of course, my master." She'd recently started calling me that, something she'd picked up from Lilith, and I found it absolutely fantastic, which she knew. Her tone was bland and uninterested though.

She loved this. Teasing me with her blank face, riling me up until I fucked her into a drooling squealing mess. The act of forcing her to abandon her mask of implacability never got old, and if we hadn't been doing something important, I'd have ripped that slutty leotard off her bubbly ass pounded her into mush.

Sadly, that wasn't to be. "We'll discuss your insolence later." I said, noticing the gleam intensify before I had to douse it. "For the moment, we need to figure out what exactly these fucks are doing out here. Do you sense anything under the sea?" I grinned at her. "I never do anything for one reason, and I didn't JUST bring you out here to stare at those fat goth jugs."

She rolled her eyes, but I saw a slight smirk twitching on her lips despite her attempt to hide it. Her eyes glowed with Darklight as she reached out to comb the ocean in front of us. After a moment, her brow furrowed. "I…do. Or rather I don't. Something down there is shielding a large portion of the ocean from my senses. The sea is filled with life. Plants, animals, even certain types of choral. These are all living things whose energy I can normally sense."

"And down there is…what?" I asked cautiously. "Just a big ass blank spot?"

She nodded. "Essentially. It's simply empty of all life. I would never have noticed if I hadn't come so close and checked manually. The ocean is so large I could have searched for months and never picked up on this."

"So what does that mean?" I said, staring down into the dark water. "What's down there worth shielding." I wasn't really asking her. She had know way of knowing, I was just speaking aloud to try to unknot the ball of unease in my gut.

Raven could sense my worry, and I wasn't surprised when she offered me her hand. "Why don't we go find out."

Wrapping my fingers around hers, I let her coat us both in her dark magic, and the shadow of a massive raven swept up to consume us. Rather than instant transport though, we became the darkness, sweeping down into the inky waters. We tore through the waves unencumbered and unhindered by things like depth and pressure, before coming to an eventual stop on the sea floor.

I gazed out at the colossal fleet of Reach ships, and my eyes went wide at the sheer firepower on display. The scarabs might be the Reach's claim to fame, but the ships were a lot bigger and a lot more capable of destruction.

"A rank." I croaked. "A hundred A rank battleships. Fuck me." My voice quivered slightly at the sight. Even I was a bit worried about something like this.

Raven, who was manifested as a shadow beside me, snapped her head around in shock. "But…A rank. You said major GODS are A rank. You're A rank. Superman is A rank. Are you saying these ships are as powerful as you are?"

I shook my head. "No. Nothing like that. The higher you go in the ranks, the wider the spectrum of creatures. H for instance, is above human normal, but below truly superhuman. B covers a wide variety of deities below a certain level. A rank is a big spectrum, and the ships are, very thankfully near the bottom of it."

"So you could destroy one of these?" She said with relief. "Could you destroy the whole fleet?"

"Possibly." I hedged. "But not easily. There's only one of me. I could probably take on ten or so if they focused on me, but that would leave the rest of the planet vulnerable. These are very low A rank. Edge of B basically. Two of you girls could probably take one of these things on, but that still leaves us massively outgunned."

Quantity was a quality all its own. I could smash this fleet head on given enough time, but I doubt they would let me have it. I could only be one place at once. Maybe with the League helping I could manage something but…I needed to upgrade one of the girls to A rank immediately.

Black Beetle had been a bit stronger than one of these things, which meant the scarabs had the potential to overpower even the ships. I was pretty sure there wasn't an unlimited number of the warrior caste here, if any, but that was just more stacked against us.

"Rae, I need transportation to Brightedge. Back to the house. We need to talk to Barbie." My pet bat goddess was still in good with the League. We were going to need help here.

I HATED that thought. That I would need THEM. I was an apex predator, a true monster on a universal stage. I could probably end a world if I put my back into it, but this was out of my depth, pun not intended.

Nodding, she waved a hand and we were consumed by the shadow, shifting from that between state to the teleportation that we'd been partway into. The world darkened, then lightened, and we were standing in the foyer of my hall of nevers. I didn't bother with niceties. "BARBIE!" I bellowed, my voice shaking the house.

There was a whisper and she stepped from the dark, appearing like a shadow. She must have been practicing that. "What's wrong?" Her voice was tense, no teasing, no calling me 'daddy'. As a rule I didn't bellow for my girls.

Walking over to her, I reached into a pocket and pulled out the scale, rethreading my own karmic ties through it in a bit of reverse fuckery that let me show her an image I'd just seen. I turned it around, letting her see what we'd just laid eyes on, and her face went pale. "Oh no." She whispered. "Are those…how strong are those?"

"A rank." I said bluntly. "All of them. Too much for me, or even for our whole group. I need you to get me in touch with the League. They're back right?"

She nodded slowly. "Just recently, yeah. They've been dealing with the fallout from their time away, Brightedge, the various villain uprisings. But this is…bigger. I'll contact them. They'll want to hear about this as soon as possible."

Turning on her heel, she dashed off, presumably to get some kind of communicator. I turned to Raven. "Get the girls ready. Tell Zee that if shit goes sideways here we're retreating to Gemworld. I'd rather not lose my city after making it, but if I have to choose between that and losing one of you it's no choice at all. And if Dinah or Barbie tries to argue, let them know that I WILL order them to go. I don't give a shit if they get sulky for a few centuries."

She nodded, and the darkness came back up and consumed her again. Grimacing, I tried to calm down. I needed to figure out my next move here.

A rank ships, even early A rank ships, were more than capable of killing my girls, provided they weren't teamed up. They were far from strong enough for me, but even one to ten, that left far too many for me to hold back.

On earth's side, we had the kryptonians, who could probably take on five or ten each, the god-kings who were probably at about half that strength, and a shit load of B rankers that could maybe swing above their weight class if they grouped up.

It might be enough, but it might not, and I wasn't really a glass half full kind of dragon. Even with another A ranker onboard our heaviest hitters would only be able to account for maybe half. Not to mention that counted on the fucking ships coming at use in those numbers and not using any tactics to keep us busy, the chances of which were slim.

The Beetles added another element to that, probably one that could offset some of our B rank firepower at least.

I wanted to just leave. To bail like I had with the sun king, fuck off with all my women and go rule Gemworld and let the League figure out what to do about earth. If this had been the me from before my seal broke I would have but…now? I couldn't.

Not just because of pure possessiveness but because I fucking LIKED earth. My stuff was here. There were more girls I was fond of than the ones I owned. Plus I was pretty sure I'd need this place for my plan to defeat Ophidian, who I was sure wouldn't be the least effected by the loss of this planet and would still be a huge threat.

Barbie came barreling out into the room, panic on her face as I turned to watch her enter. My heart sunk, because that was a lot more urgency than I'd expected from just coming off a call with the league. Her eyes were frantic as she jerked to a stop. "Nicky!" She shrieked. "Get outside! Now!"

I turned, heading for the door, and she joined me out in the yard, pointing up at a massive looming shape in the atmosphere. "What the fuck is THAT?" I said, already appraising it to find out.

Not that I needed to bother, because she told me as soon as I asked. Her voice was laced with terror as we took in the monstrosity bearing down on earth. "The Warworld." She said in a whisper. "That's Mongol's Warworld."

My heart skipped a beat as my appraisal confirmed that, and informed me of something else. The Warworld wasn't just powerful. It was at the very peak of A rank, only a hair from S. It was stronger than I was, stronger than all those ships put together. And it was here for earth.

May 23rd 2016 , The Watchtower, Earth's orbit, 8:00 P.M EDT

"Wow." I said as I looked around in some small amount of grudging admiration. "I can't believe they have a secret satellite base. I wonder how far out from earth it is, no way we would have missed it in the sky if there wasn't at least some distance." I glanced at Barbie and Dinah, who were accompanying me. "Remind me to build a moon base."

Barbie rolled her eyes, a fond smile on her lips. "You don't need to be REMINDED to build a moon base. You have the moon as a reminder. Everytime you look at it from now on you'll think about building a moon base, and it's the MOON. It's always there."

I snickered, not contradicting her. Still. "I'm shocked they let me come. This is kind of a big deal isn't it?"

"It is." She agreed. "But THAT." She pointed out one of the nearby windows at the Warworld drawing closer. "Is a bigger one. Besides, I told them I wasn't coming if you didn't, and Blue already let them know how strong I've gotten." The pride and smugness in her voice did me proud. I was glad to know she felt so good about things.

Looking around, I took in the nearby faces. Heroes one and all. It made my skin crawl. I hated dealing with heroes, barring my girls. They were so irrational. It was like trying to talk to religious fanatics. No room for compromise.

Still, Barbie was right. This was a fucking mess, and we needed help. I refused to let The Reach or whoever fucking Mongol was ruin my shit. I was better than that. So I'd play nice for now. Mostly.

That particular decision was nearly immediately tested as a short wide blonde guy with a goatee came stalking up to us, eyes flashing behind his stupid green mask.

"What the fuck are YOU doing here?" Snapped Green Arrow at Dinah. "We need genuine heroes, not whores, esp-" He didn't get to finish that sentence, because he developed a sudden, violent case of my fucking hand around his throat.

"I'm sorry." I said pleasantly. "I didn't catch that. Want to try repeating it?" I turned my head toward him. "No? Nothing to say? Cool. How about you listen. I don't like you. I don't know you, but I don't like you. Dinah is MINE. You so much as look at her wrong again and I'm going to pry your fucking eyeballs out and make you chew them up and swallow them while they're still attached. Mkay?"

His eyes were wide with panic and he was nodding rapidly. Some people seemed to be looking at us, but I gave no fucks, despite quite a few of them seeming ready for violence. I let go of him and he dropped, scrambling to his feet and almost falling, wild eyed as he glared at me. "You're fucking crazy!"

"No asshole, this is called taking care of your woman." I said flatly. "Well, my woman. She hasn't been your woman for a while, obviously. Fun fact, did you know that in china, wearing a green hat is a symbol for getting cucked? You knocked it out of the park with that costume."

His face went red, and I think he might have tried to attack me, until a black gloved hand fell on his shoulder. "That's enough, Arrow." Said a deep, ominous voice everyone who had ever lived near Gotham recognized. "You've made a fool of yourself, and us. Go cool off."

Barbie nodded at him gratefully as the other man left. "Thanks Br-Batman. Really. And it's good to see you again. Nicky didn't mean anything by it. I'm sure if your pregnant girlfriend was being verbally assaulted you'd have done the same."

"Doubtful." Said the dark knight in a measured tone. "And it's good to see you too Barbara. You look…different."

"Wow." I said with a snort. "You really are the world's greatest detective." They both looked at me and I snickered. "What? We were all thinking it." I stuck out my hand. "Nicholas Lord, Dragon God extraordinaire." I felt no need to hide how strong I was if we were going to be working together on this. At least not in broad terms. I doubt he could comprehend my true abilities anyway. "Thanks for the invite."

He looked at me inscrutably. "Barbara vouched for you. That means a lot in my book, but don't make her a liar."

I considered mouthing off, but his concern for Barbie was actually kind of nice. I nodded. "We're all here to save the world, man. We've only got the one, and it's where I keep all my stuff."

For a moment, just a flicker of a second, I swear I saw a slight twitch in his cheek, almost a smile. Then it was gone and he nodded goodbye, turning to head back into the crowd while we waited for the meeting to start.

"Gosh, I'm feeling positively welcome here." I said with a chuckle. "I'm surprised he didn't give me a hug."

"That was actually extremely polite for Batman." Said a familiar voice. I turned to grin at Nightwing, offering a hand, and he rolled his eyes, shaking it. "You were lying about knowing where Batgirl was then?" He said, seeming unsurprised.

I put and arm around Barbie's waist, pulling her against me. "Not Batgirl here bud, just my Barbie. Sorry you can't play with her. She's for girls only when she's not for me."

He burst out laughing. "Wow, you must have made a big impression. If I'd said something like that she'd have castrated me. No hard feelings man, if she's happy I'm happy. But you take care of her. I've never slayed a dragon before, but I'm down to give it a shot if you screw with her."

"I WILL castrate both of you." Hissed my bat goddess angrily. "If you keep talking about me like I'm not here."

I shrugged. "She's still got a temper." I said obliviously. "Redheads you know? But yeah, she's mine. I'm thinking after the babies are born she might be up next." I said nodding to Dinah. "I think she'd be a great mom."

Her rambunctiousness melted into embarrassed horror as her face turned bright red. "Daddy!" She hissed. "Don't say that in front of him!"

We both burst out laughing. I was glad to see my diet chad buddy wasn't holding that against me. It would have been a shame to kill him for trying to poach my Barbie. "So, how about you big man? Catch any tail lately?"

He grinned subconsciously. "Well, remember that vampire? She turned a girl recently, a psychic redhead. Supermodel actually. We've been kind of…involved. Emily is her name. She's…wow. Once you go fang, there's no one else to bang."

I snickered. "Yeah, I have a vamp of my own. Lilith is a handful but that ass doesn't quit. Try to pick your girl up a succubus, she'll appreciate the treat, and it really spices up things in the bedroom."

He grinned at me."So glad you're not evil, man." He held out a fist and I bumped it. "Catch you at the meeting man." I returned the gesture and we headed back into the crowd.

We were making our way to the table when ANOTHER person I knew stopped me. A tall willowy blonde with a tight ass and vietnamese features. "Hey. Are you Nick Lord?" She said forcefully. The redhead guy behind her looked distinctly uncomfortable, though he wasn't in costume, a quick appraisal showed me he was Wally West. Kid Flash.

"Last time I checked." I said easily. "You're Artemis right?" I'd never met her outside my mask, so I played dumb. "Jade talks about you a lot."

She glared at me, seemingly uncertain if she should be upset. "Yeah." She said finally. "You too. Apparently you fucked her into a coma, invited her family to move in, and use her baby daddy as live in childcare while you two sometimes fuck?" She said skeptically. "How does that work?"

I grinned at her. "Bold question in front of your boyfriend. But Jade and Roy weren't really together. She's mine, and he knows it. He gets room and board and a safe place for his kid to live and I get that sweet ninja ass without him getting any ideas. Win win for me. And for Jade. And honestly for Roy."

Thinking back I hadn't fucked my ninja kitty in months. I really should get all up in the pretty olive ass again. Jade could be so fiesty in bed.

Artemis grimaced. "Gross. Forget I asked that. Just…be nice to my sister. Ok? She's been…almost happy lately. It's weird but I don't hate it." Turning she grabbed the redheads hand. "Come on babe, let's go get a seat."

As they walked away, I turned to Dinah and Barbie. "Any other reunions you're expecting? Because if we're done we should really get to the table."

They shook their heads and the three of us managed to snag seats at the truly massive metal table, even as everyone else got a decent seat and the meeting finally started to come together. A paler, bustier version of Donna with a fat milfy ass wrapped in star spangled spanx stepped up to the front of the table, her corset doing wonderful things to her pale pillowy breasts. Wonder Woman, Diana Prince, B ranker apparently. Which made sense since she was a Demigod of Hades apparently. "Greetings, heroes of earth." She said in a strident husky voice. "I am Diana, of Themyscira, and I come with grave tidings."

Next to her, a tall guy in a costume any idiot would recognize cleared his throat. "We know this is…unusual. Some of you are retired. Some of you are new friends we've never met." Said Superman solemnly. "But all of you are here because you are strong, because you want to do the right thing, and because you're willing to do anything to protect earth."

Green Arrow snorted, but he got a bunch of glares from nearby heroes and shut up, settling for shooting quick glares at my pregnant Canary, before noticing me looking and jerking his head away as quick as possible.

Batman stepped up past them. "As of approximately four hours ago, our scanners began picking up a massive extraterrestrial object on a crash course with earth. A powerful planetary body made of machinery called the Warworld. The Dictator Mongol has declared his intent to conquer earth, preventing the Reach from doing so themselves."

I raised a hand. "Excuse me?" I said loudly. I felt ridiculous, but I hadn't had time to find out how meetings up here worked, so classroom style would have to do.

Batman nodded. "Mr. Lord, did you have something to add?" To his credit he didn't sound annoyed or impatient. Just vaguely threatening and ominous. He wasn't a bad guy, he just had serious resting bitch face. Or the male equivalent. Resting bastard face.

"Yeah, I have…" I paused. "Methods of discerning the karma of objects and using it to divine details about their abilities." Best to blame my appraisal on my karmic magic, that was the skillset I was going to be showing anyway. "I've used this ability on the Warworld, and I've learned some important things about it."

Batman nodded, gesturing to the space next to him. "Of course. Your information is appreciated." His eyes narrowed. "Of course, it will all need to be independently vetted before it's acted on. But please, share with us your insights."

I snickered to myself. There he was. The old paranoid Batman that Barbie warned me about, the guy who wouldn't trust his own mother. The world ending had suppressed him a bit, but he was still in there, questioning everything. Good to know. I stood up and walked to the front of the room, taking my place next to the big three. "So, what do any of you know about the old gods?"

As per usual pat-reon has the advanced chapters at that site /malcolmtent a minimum of 10k words advance content. Hope everyone enjoys!